I watched the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie last night and, wow, that was a terrible movie. It's like they flipped through the book and picked out a scene every twenty pages to film and strung them all together with no regard for narrative structure, then when they got to the last thirty minutes and finally realized what the story was supposed to be, they decided it needed to look exactly like Lord of the Rings in every possible cinematic sense. HBP is my least favorite HP book but I do at least remember it, and have nurtured an HP obsession for several years, and even I had no idea wtf was going on during most of the movie. I can't imagine how confusing it must be for somebody who hasn't read the books.

I swear my confusion had nothing to do with the five six seven glasses of wine and two cups of vodka hot chocolate I had during the course of the day.

[The writing of this post was interrupted by a three-hour game of Monopoly. I won.]

Anyway. I had a lovely Christmas. I firmly believe that Christmas - and every other holiday - is what you make of it and nothing more, nothing less. My family is not Christian and celebrates in a purely secular way. We have no traditions except food and wine and board games and stupid movies. Oh, and slippers. For some reason, we always give each other slippers for Christmas.

It works for us.

The only bad thing about this year is that my mom is pretty sick right now - sick enough that she's been off work for about a week, which she really cannot afford - but at least the holiday means that's one more day that doesn't count against her.

I hope everybody is having a good weekend. ♥

[The Time Of Your Death] by kahvi

Rimmer/Lister.

I've never found a Red Dwarf slashfic that actually works, but this is incredibly deftly characterised and short enough not to stretch my suspension of disbelief at all. Really, really well done.

Trying desperately to muster some sort of interest, Rimmer turned the pages of the brochure in his hands. The soft-light object meshed badly with his hard-light body, flickering in and out of existance at the edges. It felt almost like a tickle.

Felt. That was the problem. Barely two weeks had passed since he’d achieved corporeality, and Rimmer still hadn’t gotten used to what manifested itself, after years of muffled sensory imput, like an onslaught of sensation; a ruthless, neverending tidalwave of FEEL. It wasn’t just touch, though that was perhaps the worst offender. No, it was everything; sight, smell, hearing, even taste; it was, in a very real sense, like being born again.

Rimmer hated it.

[Lord Drake's Bequest] by pennyplainknits

Merlin/Arthur.

Cute AU.

"Then what's the problem?"

"The problem is that dear Uncle Drake was apparently LIVING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY," Arthur bellowed, clenching his fist.

Morgana tidied the pile of papers "There are conditions that must be met before Arthur can take control of the company. One condition in particular."

"What conditions?" asked Merlin, still confused. He couldn't think of much that would make Arthur lose his temper like that. Arthur gestured for Morgana to continue, and she read aloud from the will

"To my great-nephew Arthur I bequeath TintagelDistribution, wholly and without reserve, save for one condition. You must marry, and stay married, for a period of no less than six months. You're a wonderful businessman Arthur, but a full life needs love and companionship, not just a string of affairs. Settle down young Arthur, and your life will be the richer for it." Morgana was barely keeping a straight face by the time she finished.

busem! Have a great day, hon! *hugs*


And looks like I forgot a request, so here's one more icon, for faege. ;)


So, that's it for christmas - next up, new year's eve. I have no plans (yet), but will have to work anyway. Knowing myself I'll probably be tired enough to be completely content with crawling into bed early. We'll see. *g*
Decorated my wall with your christmas cards again:


And as it's SPN weekend - another picspam. ;)
( +60 )

01] Please comment!
02] Credit ponyboy or iconzicons if taking!
03] No hotlinking or altering, please!
04] Tonight, I won't let you go~♡



( 2NE1: 12 CL & Minzy Icons! )

I'm drinking cognac and watching "A Very Supernatural Christmas." I'm utterly exhausted and hoping to sleep until like one or so tomorrow (fat chance).

Despite not being a Christian I have cooked for two days straight, flat out. It's just convenient since everyone gets off for Christian holidays (I won't even get into this). Last night was rib roast, potatoes, peas, and desserts--but mostly last minute shopping at the Largest Gourmet Market In the Land, which was not enjoyable. Normally I love going there but I was stressed on the time line for dinner and the place is SO HUGE and I ran back and forth over the whole place and THEN stood on my feet to cook for hours. YAY! Luckily everyone is always so appreciative! [!]

Anyway, today was a lovely day. We had about 20 people over. We decided to do it buffet instead of sit-down "because it would be less work." ????????? Clearly that was not thought out well. I put Amber to work as sous chef and I made the kids do the dishes at the end of the night, and I was still in the kitchen easily 8 hours today. We had seared ahi tuna (why I was a the Largest Gourmet Market In the Land on Christmas Eve), roast beef, ham, smoked salmon canapes, about six kinds of dip/cheese balls, fruit salad, homemade bread, gumbo, cheese plates, and um more stuff I am spacing as I'm exhausted.

This isn't even our big holiday. OY! New Years is going to be berserk. We could easily have 30. I hope everyone gets drunk early and can't drive and we end up asleep before midnight. Main course of New Years: individual beef wellingtons. I guess I also have to make yorkshire pudding as I forgot to with all the other shit this week and have the fat in the fridge.

Pity Amber as she got the full dose of my SUPER LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS family as she tried to fix the television the kids had broken. Wii: seems like a good idea to occupy the kids during the holidays, in fact it is a source of serious strife and family in fighting. OY AGAIN!

I can't get the Yuletide site to work to read my stories. I got TWO! I assume these are people on my flist who pitied me. I will pay you back when I know who you are. XOXO.

[Drastically Redefining Protocol] by rageprufrock

Merlin/Arthur.

This is a nice AU. It would have benefited from much slower emotional development (the gap between first meeting and happily snarking at each other and being besotted and adoring is uncomfortably small), but it's still fun and shiny and has lovely characterisation.

"I don't know what you're talking about as I am perfectly excellent," Merlin said into his pillow. He knew his face would be swollen. He was tired and he felt like he was worn to the bone, all the skin and muscle flayed away so that everything and every touch hurt a little. He glared up at her. "And before you start—I absolutely do not want to talk about Prince Arthur."

She mimed zipping her lips, and said immediately, "The enormously strange thing is how despite how much you love the prince in a tragic, panting-hot-earth Coleridgian sort of way—"

"I do not love him," Merlin scoffed, flushing.

"—You found him immediately irritating," she concluded, thoughtful. "Do you think that means something?"

"Yeah," Merlin muttered. "It means he's a prat. I always knew he couldn't be that bloody good looking and athletic without there being something wrong with him."

Gwen beamed at Merlin, shoving him over on his tiny futon until her curls touched his face and her smile gleamed and filled up all the—limited—empty space in the tiny room, and Merlin thought suddenly that if love was wanting to make someone happy, then he always loved Gwen without reserve.

"And I bet you still think he's lovely," she purred. "I bet you wish you were his princess!"

Protestations of any kind, obviously, would be useless, and had been useless since Merlin had begun issuing them long ago, when they'd met up in college, but that didn't mean he couldn't make a good faith effort at it—even if it did conclude in Gwen smothering him with a pillow until he admited, gasping, "All right! All right! Fine! Fine! I wish I were his princess! I do! Gwen, let go!"

ripper_girl and zeraparker! Hope you had a great day, dolls! :D *hugs*


serenitysangel, thank you for the virtual gift! :D
Also, the last four icons for you - final count is 125. Not too shabby, eh? ;)
zed_pm, anaithis, egotists and xeyra. :D


Today was even better than yesterday, no drama and just food and talking. ;D Pityu, however, remains unimpressed with christmas.
And I am pretty tired, therefor looking forward to a relatively calm day tomorrow. For my extended family I already am the one who never shows up (even if I show up - I wasn't there), so I can just stop trying altogether. :P

Lastly, some pics - Sam Worthington, Viggo Mortensen, Robert Downey Jr, Neil Patrick Harris/How I Met Your Mother, Morena Baccarin, Sandra Bullock, Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Orlando Bloom, Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley.
( +78 )

Merry Christmas, to all who celebrate it! Happy Friday to everybody else. :D

I know I said I'd be in the land of no internet, but as it turns out, that is not the case. Apparently this year was the year to psych each other out. I was expecting my big Christmas gift this year to be rent money. That's what my folks and I had talked about, and I mentioned a DVR recorder (is that as redundant as ATM machine? I suck at acronyms...) as a wrapped gift.

When I opened the square, DVR shaped box this morning....

It was a Macbook Pro.

I have a Macbook Pro.

He's beautiful.

He's very shiny. Which means there's really no choice when it comes to names. I have christened him after the shiniest and sparkliest of them all. But of course will just call him Shinybottom. Now I just need to paint him gold. ;) Though he's clearly not themed, as my home folder/account is named Project Blue. I'm such a dork.

And my father is still speechless over the Retro-Duo Nintendo/Super Nintendo system I got him. The first thing he did after family gifts was go out to the garage and haul in his tub of SNES games. We'll be setting his system up shortly. :D

It's been a really nice Christmas. And not just because of awesome, unexpected gifts. Christmas has become something really special for me and my parents. Christmas Eve and Christmas morning it's just us. We can relax, we can indulge in those activities that are not grandchildren friendly, and just a bunch of things that have become personal traditions. We capped off Christmas Eve with Lemon Deisel and Jeff Dunham's Christmas Special. Hence the title of this post. :D

It's going to get insane when the rest of the family shows up soon, but that's fun too. And hey, I've got plenty of drugs to deal with any stress that comes along. :D

I'm clearly also still crazy. I was reading my little Macbook booklet, and when my eyes lit upon 'Garageband', all I could think of was 21 and 24's 'Wonderful Christmas' cover, and I swear I started to tear up. Oh, you awesome fictional characters, why do you make us love you so?

And finally, to my remaining RP buddies: I'll be back tomorrow!

PS: How do I use spellcheck on a Mac? *winces*

[You Can Sit Beside Me When The World Comes Down] by sunsetmog

Brendon/Spencer.

1. Hilarious, hilarious dialogue. 2. One of those high school AUs where the unpopular kid gets with the most popular kid in school, but through the most popular kid in school's eyes. And despite being the most popular kid in school he's a complete loser. 3. Some rugby action, which is awesomecakes.

"Come on," Spencer pleads, elbowing Ryan in the side, "It's just one extra kicking practice. How many times have I had to hang around and wait for you after school?"

"Never," Ryan says, shutting his locker with what Spencer thinks is undue force. "Like, once. Maybe."

Spencer rolls his eyes. "You're such a liar," he says. "You're deluded, and you're a liar." He pokes Ryan in the side. "It's your fault I play rugby in the first place, you could at least say you're going to wait for me after practice."

"Oh my god," Ryan says, shaking his head. "You're such a dick. I told you that you could hang around the arts magazine office with me. I gave you the lame emo poetry submissions to sort through. It is not my fault you went off and tried out for the stupid rugby team."

"I was bored," Spencer points out. "The arts magazine is boring."

"So is rugby," Ryan says, lamely, which is a lie. Rugby is awesome. Spencer thinks that Ryan just pretends he doesn't like it, to annoy Spencer.

[A Marriage Of Convenience] by jae_w

Tom/Jon.

Lovely Regency AU - light and enjoyable.

"You're not the first one to do it, my lord, and you won't be the last."

Jon wondered wearily how words that had been spoken so often and to so many with the best of intentions could carry so little comfort. "But I don't understand what happened to all the money," he said, and then sighed as his attorneys exchanged looks and remained politely silent. Of course Jon understood what happened to all the money: he might have escaped the family curse of gambling, but unfortunately neither his father nor his grandfather had. And perhaps Jon had inherited the family curses of carelessness with money and love of travel and at least mild luxury, but in his defense, no one had told him things were this bad. He knew they were bad, of course, but when he left for his Grand Tour he had thought things were bad the way they were bad for half of his friends. Everyone knew there was no money, really, but somehow there had always been money for what he needed.

That was why it was such an unpleasant surprise when he was summoned home after his father's death to hear how he was truly circumstanced. It seemed his father had even sold off some of the land that had been in their family for centuries, which Jon could hardly believe of his father and certainly would never consider himself. It was almost disgraceful, he thought but did not say. When he looked at his attorney and estate manager over his father's desk in his father's library, Jon's library, he saw that they felt the same. It was the shock of the situation as much as anything else that made Jon even consider the proposal they'd put forth.

Jon was not opposed to marrying to his advantage in principle. He'd always assumed it would come to that, though he'd hoped to wait a little longer and to have a little more choice in the matter. But he'd certainly never thought to wed himself to the season's scandal.

Merry Sparkly Space Jesusmus, you loveable rascals all.

HAN SHOT FIRST, DAMN IT.

We don't need your flimsy revisionist morality, Mr. Lucas. >:(

netty2412 and gealach_ros! Hope you had a great day! *hugs* :D


Today was nice, with the occasional slip into family drama, but that's to be expected. ;) Spent a good deal of my afternoon with piecing together my nephew's new Lego stuff. Was surprisingly fun. *g* Some things arrived too - domelom, thanks so much, luv! elanordh, loved the little elf, thank you sweetie! And thanks to poetic_self and utkari02 for the cards, hai_di for the virtual gift! ♥ pokecharm, now that I could unwrap it - thank you for the book! Something to accompany the movie experience. *g*

Some more icons - for wingedseraph7, wive, xtine005 and zeraparker. Last batch tomorrow, I think. ;D


And a Doctor Who cast picspam, with emphasis on David and Freema, but the others as well. ;D
( +92 )

I started watching Castle last night, because I've been in the mood for mysteries, and you are all completely right! IT'S TOTALLY ADORABLE.

The cases are kind of idiotic - I mean, they're okay, but also utterly predictable for someone who grew up in the Law & Order era of crime television - but the characters are darling, every single one of them. I would totally hang out at the Castle household with his awesome mom and even more awesome daughter all day long.

How cute is Alexis? She's my favorite TV teenager! I would totally plot to steal her away from her dad if they didn't adore each other so much. And Molly Quinn actually is a teenager, wonder of wonders, and not a twenty-something doing an appalling job of pretending to be one. I didn't know they let teenagers play teenagers on TV anymore.

♥ ♥ ♥

[Zombie!AU Series] by etherati

Rorschach/Nite Owl.

This is amazing, tense and interesting and beautifully written. Highly recommended.

"I thought you were a goddamned burglar, you know. You usually just kick the lock in."

Rorschach sways almost imperceptibly on his feet, trying to tuck the pick and tension wrench back into their case with badly shaking hands. Reaches up to lift the mask up over the bridge of his nose, and his breathing doesn't sound right. "The door wouldn’t have been very useful without a working lock. They can use doorkn-"

"Right. I know. I don't actually care." Dan interrupts in a rush of words, wired and aggressive from his own frenzied flight from the streets not an hour ago. He slams the deadbolt home before rounding on his partner, hands clamped firmly on either shoulder. Not in any mood to screw around. "Before you start, don't say you're fine; I can see the damn blood. What happened?"

"Nrrk. Was across the street from the… 'research' building when it…" he trails off, seemingly at a loss. That's remarkable in and of itself; Rorschach is never without a turn of phrase. He sways again, slightly more noticeable. Shifts his weight off of one leg.

"'Breached'?" The quotation marks are audible in Dan's tone. 'Breach' is what they’ve been calling it on the radio news for the last two hours, and it's a ridiculous euphemism when you consider the fact that what they've actually done is accidentally let loose thousands of top secret test subjects infected with only god knows what, 'people' only a touch shy of the living goddamned dead, and maybe they are people but they're still trying to eat you.