ifeelbetter

What gift says, "thanks for driving another hour to-and-back from the airport for me after you already had to do it in the asscrack of dawn for your boyfriend earlier"? I make killer bread....or a pumpkin pie? Or whiskey?

Yeeeeeah, I should be grading.... but this is awesome.

1. Think of up to 10 ships you support.
2. List them using descriptions of the characters involved rather than their names.
3. Have your f-list guess as many of the ships as they can.
4. Fandom hints will be given if asked in the comments.

A. angry little man + gun crazed Danny/Steve, guessed by penguinparity

B. rich genius asshole + the best and the brightest Tony/Steve, guessed by dancinbutterfly

C. same job, same problems, VERY different style Ryan/Esposito, guessed by penguinparity

D. two different routes to knowing everything [one in paisley, one in only-the-best suit that money can buy] Arthur/Eames, guessed by elanie99

E. genius asshole + beleaguered roommate Sherlock/John, guessed by ilovetakahana

F. womanizer with a secret heart-of-gold + the best wingman EVER (not to be confused with those who don't wear suits) Barney/Robin, guessed by dancinbutterfly

G. the epic bromance (fistbump) Gus/Shawn, guessed by penguinparity

H. flyboy + the guy who raises his eyebrow at the flyboy Kirk/Spock, guessed by jenna_marianne and guatre_k within seconds of each other. I am impressed.

I. the legs + the nose + the guy who is cool, he swears he is Amy/Rory/Eleven, guessed by dancinbutterfly

J. Has a secret + lost a huge portion of his life to a lie Remus/Sirius, guessed by elanie99

So: confession. I have had a beef with the Stargate franchise for ages. You're not going to understand the logic, frankly, because there is little-to-no logic involved, it was all based on feelings. But, to make a long story short, I sort of blamed them for the end of Farscape. And, yes, I have also always been aware that they subsequently gave Claudia Black and Ben Browder jobs and I usually let bygones-be-bygones when shows I have grudges against give my favorite actors roles. Somehow, my grudge against Stargate persisted.

But I always knew, like, in the back of my mind/heart, that I was gonna love Stargate: Atlantis. That's probably a goodly portion of why my grudge lasted so interminably. And then it turned up on Netflix instant and I was like, "Just watch it, B. You probably were wrong about how you were going to love it instantly and passionately. You'll probably be able to have an even stronger grudge after."

That was not the case. I started, like, two nights ago. I'm already well into Season 2. I have work to do, you know. It's like the revenge of the franchise, this whole absorbing-my-whole-life-and-leaving-no-time-for-real-life-BS stuff. I already said I was sorry, franchise. Can't we just let bygones be bygones?

But, yes. My life is full of Atlantis right now.

I have a question, though. I am pretty perplexed by the Ronan Dex--why didn't the Wraith eat him? I have tried googling this (my Google history was already a shitshow of crazypants, not the least of which is the frantic question "How yu stop flambe??" from that minor emergency in the kitchen a couple of months ago) and have come up with contradictory answers. Can anybody help me out here?

I feel pretty good about the fact that my renewed obsession interest in the Marvel movie franchises has led to two things today: (1) me buying an adorbs Captain America tokidoki shirt and (2) me nonchalantly watching Iron Man (king of films) while one of my roommates passed back and forth from the laundry room, moving from scoffing to unable to sleep till she had seen the end. Winning? Hells to the yeah.

( Meme in Threes (mostly )

Here's my thoughts on TV....

( Downton Abbey, Once Upon A Time, and Grimm spoiler warning )

Also.


I totally missed this movie while it was out in theaters. I will make up for it by watching it THOUSANDS OF TIMES now.

So I have this long-term fantasy about teaching. I imagine that one day---one beautiful, shining day--there's a student who, when unsatisfied with the grade given them, decides to come up with a logical argument for why they deserve the higher grade rather than just tell me how much they want to get a better grade. Everybody wants a better grade, fella. That's why they're better. Prove to me that you've absorbed my argumentation skills enough to warrant a grade change and I'll change the freaking grade. But no one gets better stuff just by wishing.

Basically, my dream is to have Cher as a student:

I'm not even joking, which is the sad part. I would completely dig having her in my classroom.

Also: I tend to post the more ridiculous quotes from students on facebook. And a girl I knew in college actually had the stones to comment that (and this is a direct quote), "my students' feelings might get hurt." (a) Every teacher knows you keep your privacy settings on par with the Pentagon, yeah? (b) I never say a name and (c) I am contractually obligated to read drivel. I am not contractually obligated to be tortured silently. The best teachers I have ever known are the ones with a sense of humor and the ability to blow off steam elsewhere. No one could read this much drek in a row without doing something vent-y and this is mine. It hurts no one and it helps me enormously.

So. That's my rage.

So I have these new roommates who make my life full of butterflies and rainbows all the time (it's very distracting...and awesome) and we were having wine on our mini-porch--it's wooden and we can all fit if we scrunch--when New Roomie #1 asks what's the big deal about Firefly.

I haven't had the new roomies so long and usually I keep the geekier geekiness under wraps for at least the first month of a new friendship. But, hey. We already watched all of The Matrix movies together (made better by the company) and were contemplating starting a Lord of the Rings marathon. So. I opened my mouth to give my explanation when New Roomie #2 (and perpetual Peter Pan, so much so that we call him "Boy") starts in with his instead.

It included zooooom noises and running around the driveway.

Conclusion: New roomies are magicsauce.

Also: I watched Panam. I have a strange urge to watch it regularly all season long. It's about planes. And going places. And featured a riDICulous segment about the Bay of Pigs. I think it's hilarious that it thinks it's empowering those women, though. Hot≠new Darwinianin evolution of women. Sorry.

Alsoalso: The New Girl. I see pearls of awesome in that hotmess, I swear I do. Give it some time to smooth out the kinks and it could evolve into a great sitcom. Don't we all agree that's what happened to How I Met Your Mother? First season was nowhere near as clever and awesome as it would later turn out to be. It looked like a Friends knockoff at first. I'm just sayin.

I have a meeting with my advisor in....two hours....about how she expects me to go from no dissertation to a whole chapter by the end of this term. Yeah. I'm freaking out in my head a lot:

So I have been swallowed whole by Dan Simmons's novel Drood this past weekend. I thought it would be a nice, easy read to return to during my (many) bouts of insomnia. Ha ha, I laugh at my naivete. That book is fricking addictive.

So I started downloading episode one of The Hour before Drood and then, now that I've finished aforementioned potboiler, I found it downloaded. I had no idea what it was, all non-Drood thoughts having been blasted hence by sheer awesome, so I was like, "Huh, what is this, maybe I should just put it on and knit this sock for a bit."

And let me tell you, I forgot about the sock within like a minute. Romola Garai. Ben Whishaw. Dominic West. Hell, there was even a History Boy alum in there. This cast is like....

( No, really, LOOK AT THIS CAST. )

I kid you not. Also...set in 1956. In London. In a newsroom.

See, my problem with Mad Men has always been the payoff. I mean, yes, that show does stuff aesthetically that makes me weak at the knees. There's no denying that. But what is it for, at the end of the day? Is it just a puff of smoke, just a beautiful garnish? So far--and I'm only one episode in so I will cry if it proves otherwise--The Hour has just as much of the aesthetic and the poise but it's also got something under it, something that means more than the simply accurate recreation of a historical moment.

But, to be honest, I love everything about journalism. My grandfather was a journalist (and covered a Hitler rally in Germany before he fought in the war itself). I just believe in it, you know, in a way I don't believe in many things. And so does this show. So I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I haven't written fic in months because I have been writing like mad for my actual professional, someone-pays-me-to-do-this-oh-shit-I'd-better-do-this life. (Well, that and vacation. That was awesome.) But I have been around. I will probably be writing soon though because of this:

Did you guys hear about the BLASPHEMEME
(SLASH) COMMENT FICATHON? I don't understand the premise so much...but do you need to? Do you need to know more than this: prompts are biblical passages and a slash (or femmeslash) pairing. And screamlet just left a Boy Meets World prompt. I kid you not.

But I have to get a draft in to my adviser by tonight. So someone else go fill! Shoo!

I have had a tumultuous week. That sort of week makes me make lists:

1. My laptop died. This is always a tragic occurrence but
2. it is made even worse when you are in the crunch time before your prospectus is due.
3. Which makes me twitchy with nerves.
4. Especially when I couldn't actually work on it till the new laptop arrived.
5. So I took up multiple short-lived and intense hobbies.
6. Like making cheese. And jam. And yogurt. And knishes.
7. Until the new laptop finally arrived and I could get back to panicking about the prospectus.
8. Which is a giant mess.
9. And Borders is closing. Which is tragic because I live in the town where the first Borders was from.
10. But it's awesome because they're having tremendous sales.
11. But it's awful. A true tragedy for the romance of buying and browsing books.
12. But I got a super cheap DVD of Anne of Green Gables.
13. And Fern Gully.
14. But it's suuuuper sad.
15. And the prospectus. Ohgodohgodohgod the prospectus.
16. So I got my hair dyed blonde.
17. And now I'm watching allll of Anne of Green Gables as a blonde.
18. It's mostly the same, it seems, for blondes as brunettes.
19. Ohgodohgodohgod prospectus.



The end.