( Thin Air (Weather Warden, Book 6) )

This entry was automatically crossposted from goodreads

ATTN: SEE THE DARK KNIGHT.


Or, a longer review:
In a way, this movie brought up a lot of thoughts about Heath Ledger's suicide for me, but they're only tangentially related to the film and his portrayal of the Joker.

Basically, Ledger took Alan Moore's Joker from The Killing Joke and then transcended all the inferior parts of it. I am a person given to hyperbole, so I don't want to try and put adjectives to it; this Joker not only met my high expectations, it came closer to finding the essence of the Joker than any version I've read yet. It wasn't perfect--I'm not sure a mercurial character like the Joker could ever be perfect in only one form--but individual scenes made his portrayal more than the sum of its parts, which, in a way, is perfect for the Joker.

I would recommend the whole thing for the Joker alone. PM, the movie isn't that gory--I half-covered my eyes at one part, but the camera thankfully cut away at the last second, which is about the standard for all the non-fist-fight violence. Even if it makes you a little sick, you should still watch it. Sometimes Ledger is so on that it's unbelievable.

( I'm not sure if this is borderline spoilerish or if everyone would know it from the trailers, but better safe than sorry! )

It is a long movie; the middle starts to get confusing as to who's doing what, and the very end has too much exposition. And I'm sure I'll notice some things about the theme that I disagree with when I rewatch it, especially that "heroes you need vs. heroes you deserve" bit. But overall I recommend it; like I said, I'd been waiting for the Joker since last May when they ran the first trailer, and I wasn't disappointed despite all that time for buildup.

(Also, the trailer for the The Watchmen movie looks pretty good, but too stylized--it goes to the excess of making the heroes look like they have superpowers, rather than being normal people. And the change to Silk Spectre's costume aggravates me. I'm glad the director decided to keep it set in the eighties, but that's kind of absurd if he's going to have them dress like it's now.)

I'm still in search of an apartment for 08-09. So...does anyone have/know of any openings for a roommate or rooms otherwise in need of an occupant?

Good morning, hostiles, and a happy Friday to you all.

http://www.friendlyhostility.com

Episode #599
( Click here to read the commentary. )

Hey. I was just doing some cleaning, and knocked off a bunch of inactive journals and names I didn't recognize. And some people I haven't spoken to in forever, so I don't think they'll mind. But if I've accidentally removed you and you'd still like to be here, let me know? I'll add you back. :)

Sam: SO HEY
Sam: NEW AVATAR EPISODE--YOU HAS IT?
Sam: ::download just finished::
me: Nooooo. ;_; I'm at work and I didn't check the computer yesterday.
Sam: aaaaw
me: ...And I still haven't seen the invasion or anything past it yet.
Sam: AAAAH WHAT
Sam: GO
Sam: GO WATCH IT TONIGHT
Sam: YOUR HOMEWORK
Sam: Boiling rock is sogood
me: I have heard tell of this!
Sam: A-AND THE FIREBENDING MASTERS
Sam: AAAAAAAH
me: BUT TONIGHT I'M WATCHING BATMAN.
Sam: WHAT
Sam: WHAT
Sam: WHAAAAAAAT
me: THE JOKER WINS OVER SOKKA I AM SORRY
Sam: s;jlfdfsjd
me: --not. Not literally.
me: I never needed that thought ever augh augh augh
Sam: --my brain is refusing to think on how one might literally--oh damn.
me: I WILL SHARE THIS PAIN

There are no words to describe just how excited I am about U-Kiss, despite the retarded name. Which apparently stands for You Korea International Super Star. Uh. Okay then.

Some general info on the boys, just because I'm spazzing -

The big news is that the group is going to debut on July 27th with a performance at Power of ATAMIX 08. We believe they will perform their title song '어리지 않아' (Not Young). Some other artists participating in the Power of ATAMIX 08 are Shin Seung Hoon, SS501, PARAN, and Wheesung.

There have also been some member info.
The members' ages range from 15-19. Between them, they master a total of 4 languages, including English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese. 2 members are Korean [Shin SuHyun (cousin of former Battle member KiHyun) & Kim KiBum], 2 members are Korean-American (Kevin and KyungJae) and 2 are Chinese [Alexander (Macau) & Shin DongHo].

( Some of the few pictures that are available as of yet )

They seem to have the potential to be awesome. I already know and love both Kevin and Kibum, and Dongho is adorableness (he's in the middle on the third last pic, the camwhoring one), and Alexander is highly interesting to me somehow (he's on the left on the last group picture). And, seeing as apparently several of them speak English (and Chinese and Japanese), the focus won't be so much on Kevin this time. At least that's what I'm hoping.

I mean, I adore Kevin to scary degrees, but... Xing pretty much became all about him with the rest of the members as back-up singers and dancers, and I don't think any of them were confortable with it, leaast of all Kevin. He honestly looks a lot happier now that he's just a part of a group instead of the focus of one.

High hopes for these boys. ♥ Mostly 'cause of the Kevin and Kibum love, of course (still so weird to call him Kibum instead of Marumir), but also because A'st1 fails and Shinee are a bit too young and a total money-making machine to boot. *crosses fingers for a good single and debut and more pictures, plz*

I never sleep when I should. I don't even have anything to post about, yet here I am. I'll take this time to say thanks to everyone for reading and all the comments. I'm glad you like the posts. :)

So.. Just finished watching Bounce That Ass for the 80 zillionth time. Still brings a tear to my eye. ♥

( other giggly things. rat, pig, benita. )

Well, I think I'll head off to bed now.

I don't know if you all have the same complaint I do, but dammit the 171 should run more often. Even though it says it runs every half hour, which is not enough, there are a lot of people on campus during the summer, it is still very, very slow, and pretty unreliable.

That said, does anyone know who to contact about this? Ombudsperson? SG? Are they available during the summer?

LJ is going to slap ads on basic accounts. So, if that affect existing accounts, I'm seriously going to move over to IJ with all of my ramblings and only use this as a fanfic journal. LJ, don't do this.

Square-Enix, Please please please please please DON'T RE-RELEASE FFVII ON PS3. Please? Pretty please? And if you're going to add new scenes to Advent Children Complete on Blu-ray, by all means do so! Just, price it fairly so when I finally get a Blu-ray player or PS3 around 2010, I can afford everything.

Fire Emblem is addicting the heck out of me.

I am re-playing Crisis Core by trying not to play and when I do, play very slowly. Why? Because apparently I still can't listen to the damn soundtrack without wanting to burst into tears, let alone actually watch the CG's. The theme song itself is enough to make me go "WAAAAAAAAHHHH NOOOOOOOOO!!!" This is worse than when I played FFX. (I still can't watch the Ending of that game either, and it's been quite a few years since I saw it last.) I gotta get over this damn game!

I'm really going to enter the yaoi-con fiction contest. Really. I even bought the money order today and will mail it tomorrow. That'll force me to chug out something decent before July 31st. Wish me luck.

( The Sharing Knife Volume Two: Legacy (Sharing Knife) )

This entry was automatically crossposted from goodreads

Or, as all Canadians secretly refer to themselves in their hearts, "godless communists."

I was looking at the banknotes of Canada in a friend's locked entry, and thinking how convenient it is to have a Queen: whenever someone on a banknote becomes historically embarrassing, and we have no ready substitute, we just stick Liz on it. Let's be frank, she has a great face for coinage.* (Unlike some I won't mention, wtf.)

But can we agree to secede from the Commonwealth before Chuck wears the pointy hat? There is no graven image of that man I want to carry around in my pants.

* I would link to the mint website, but they are winning this month's Accessibility-Shmaccessibility! award with an all-Flash website.

First, I really enjoyed lexicon's Brendon/Ryan manifesto over at bandom_ships. One day we'll all sit down and talk about how my single pairing OTP for Panic flip-flops pretty much day-to-day. But yesterday was definitely a Ryan/Brendon day.

Second, ficlets! I love all of the prompts. Yes, even including Howie's, the complete freak. I'll probably post a couple of these a day, so not to be too annoying. Saiyuki always confuses me because it's one of those near-perfect canon fandoms for me, but I want to read about Hakkai and Gojyo being domestic and awkwardly in love forever.

( Saiyuki, Hakkai/Gojyo, peace of mind for tehlils, 300 words )

I'm sorry that I put this off for so long. It's just that I am doing the entries in order and Yokoo uses SO. MANY. FREAKIN. EMOJI. It was daunting to look at - I didn't even want to think about encoding it all. And in the end it did take me a few hours to get it all in, although there are a few that I couldn't find online, so I did the closest representation I could find. Also, spacing may not be entirely accurate, but at this point I'm too fed up with it to bother. :P



Thanks to enshinge for the translations. Please credit her if you use this translation elsewhere, although I'd prefer if they weren't reposted.

( It's long. )

"The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little."
~Bird By Bird, p. 3

*Home bank FINALLY opened and was summarily dressed down. Visa is now operational, and tomorrow I will use it for something and if something else happens to it, I have informed them that I will punch somebody in the FACE.

*the powerbook as usual was being all crap about the internet signal, so I dug the new computer out again. Sitting right next to each other, Soubi has 0-1 bars, and Shoon has 4. OH POWERBOOK. HOW YOU TOY WITH ME.

*The new computer is named Shoon, by the way. I have a green tea icon, but i'm not entirely happy with it. Anybody seen an awesome tea/teacup/japanese tea icon set? I'll keep digging around a bit. Soubi was so easy cause I just needed an awesome butterfly, and there's plenty of those about.

*Hot rooftop onsen is REALLY FUCKING HOT. We nearly died. Trufax.

The scene: the scenic, mountainous stone steps of a tiny ryokan in a small town outside Tokyo.

The characters: A slightly hysterical gaijin, a visa employee, a borrowed cell phone, and various tourists of indeterminate European origin.

Act II, Scene 1:

INTRAT GAIJIN, clutching a phone with more than one ridiculous charm, reiterating a long credit card number in a futile and frustrated manner. From somewhere far away, PHONE GUY'S voice emanates.

Phone guy: "Aren't you the person who called before?"
Mousapelli: "YES because I am STILL STUCK IN JAPAN WITH A STOPPED VISA."
Phone guy: "Like I said earlier, if your financial institution is closed..."
Mousapelli: "OF COURSE IT'S CLOSED, IT'S TWO IN THE MORNING THERE."
Phone guy: "But they're the only ones who..."
Mousapelli: "ARE YOU TELLING ME THE ONLY PERSON I CAN TALK TO RIGHT NOW IN ALL OF VISA IS YOU?! BECAUSE I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT."

GAIJIN bursts into tears at this point, although continues to yell into the phone. INTRANT EUROPEAN TOURISTS, who pause on the steps to observe. One reaches for their camera, then seems to think better of it.

Mousapelli: "WHAT IS THE GOAL OF A 24 HOUR SERVICE IF ALL YOU CAN TELL ME IS THAT THE PEOPLE WHO CAN DO THINGS ARE NOT 24 HOUR?!"
Phone Guy: "We are 24 hours if your card has been lost, stolen, or compromised...
Mousapelli: "MY CARD HAS BEEN COMPROMISED, BUT THE ONES WHO COMPROMISED IT WERE YOU!"

EXEUNT EUROPEAN TOURISTS, looking over their shoulders. END SCENE as GAIJIN continues to sob angrily into the phone.