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sarea
Very happy birthday wishes to jade_okelani. <3
I am very happy with my Tumblr queue at the moment. :D Bwahahaha
So suddenlyadelagia and I are terrible at Pandemic. We don't know what's happened. Possibly it is just the Pandemic gods punishing us for our hubris. We got really good at it, even trying Legendary mode after 5 and 6 epidemics seemed like child's play. But the last few times we've played, we have sucked. We must have played 20 games without A SINGLE WIN. We had various role combos, some good, some bad. They all resulted in us letting the world succumb to horrible disease. We always played with purple and 6 epidemics. We refuse to go back to 5 for an 'easy' win, but 6 is totally owning us. :/ I refuse to believe that all the times we won before was a fluke!!
Last weekend T.,slitherhither and I met up for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, then we went to see THE AVENGERS!!!! It was B.'s first time (and my seventh >.>), so that was awesome. Later we asked which of the guys she liked most, and she totally went against type (androgynous and thin) and picked Thor! Just goes to show, Chris Hemsworth is completely irresistible.
So I read this fanfic that started out very promising, but petered out by the middle for me. It was a Sherlock xover, and had John Watson taking over for Coulson in the Avengers handling department. I freaking love Watson/Martin Freeman, but I had several issues with the story as it progressed.
- The pairings were John/Sherlock, Clint/Natasha, some Tony/Bruce, and some subtle John/Bruce.
- I love Sherlock, the show, and I quite enjoy Sherlock, the character, but I have no interest in him beyond what's on the show. I don't care about his inner angst, I don't love him to pieces, and Benedict Cumberbatch does nothing for me. Thus, I have no interest in John/Sherlock.
- Even though the fic takes place after the events of the second season of the show, wherein Sherlock takes an apparently fatal dive off a roof after a confrontation with the utterly fabulous Moriarty (I love Moriarty, Watson, and Lestrade FAR more than Sherlock himself), I knew Sherlock was going to come back alive, because everyone knows that's what's going to happen on the show, and because the fic itself was some kind of Big Bang fill from the Sherlock fandom, which I guesstimate to be 99% John/Sherlock fans. So given my ambivalence to Sherlock, and John/Sherlock, the fic pretty much took a turn for the uninteresting at that point. I'd sort of gotten into the John/Bruce, but of course that was over as soon as Sherlock showed up. Sigh.
- I had issues with the Clint/Natasha. Even though nothing was really TERRIBLE, it was obvious that the writer didn't really care about the pairing or the characters, and putting them together was mostly due to convenience than anything else. The same could be said of Steve and others, I suppose, but I really felt it with C & N since, of course, they're my faves. I might've been able to even forgive that, however, because it was done satisfactorily enough, except for a couple of things that I just could. not. get past.
First was that everyone -- including the author -- referred to Natasha by a diminutive. No. Just no. Until it's movie canon that ANY OTHER CHARACTER calls Natasha by 'Nat' or 'Tasha,' that is CLINT'S THING. It is evidence of their closeness, which she does not share with any other character, even if she grows to like/respect them. It is also reference to Clint's personality, which is his and his alone. He's irreverent and cocky, and especially so with his partner, whether or not you believe they are romantically linked. Even worse is that the author also casually refers to her by a diminutive, because it's not like Natasha is a casual character. She is fierce, and strong, and isn't the type of person you'd go around giving a nickname to, unless you're Clint. Even Tony doesn't do it!! <--- That's the strongest evidence I have.
Second was that in the story, the author redeems Loki. Bleh. I have zero interest in redeeming Loki (despite the fact that I will admit he's not entirely unsympathetic -- just mostly so), and I do not understand fandom's fascination with him, but whatever. It's not a deal breaker. Being in fandom, I've pretty much resigned myself to it. (Same thing re: Coulson not really being dead. I think he's dead. But at least I can understand why people don't want to believe he actually is, and feel similarly.) The problem I had with it in this story is that at some point, some of the Avengers are starting to feel sympathy toward him while others are still skeptical. And the writer has NATASHA DEFENDING LOKI TO STEVE, WHO IS SKEPTICAL. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh NO. Natasha is the LAST PERSON, yes, LAST, even more so than Clint, who Loki ACTUALLY BRAINWASHED, who would ever come around to trusting Loki. Not after what he did (and yes, I mean everything, but most especially, what he did to Clint). And Steve is probably the first person, other than the perpetually hopeful Thor, who might come around on a redeemed Loki. So both of those things were just wildly out of character.
- Finally, some of how it was written, though for the most part done very well, was just not very clear. I had no idea what was being said/implied, or what the hell had actually happened, and I don't think the writer was trying to be oblique.
Celebrity quotes that have made me laugh recently:
- When asked if older sister Maggie ever beat him up, Jake Gyllenhaal responded, "Depends on what you call beating up. She performed the musical Cats for our parents, and she made me lick milk from a bowl while she sang, which was, in a way, abuse."
- Joshua Jackson on A Song of Ice and Fire: "I've got a slightly obsessive problem in that when I get into books, particularly a series of books, I cannot put the fucking things down. Nobody told me that the story is not done yet and that he takes, like, seven years between books. Last summer I plowed through something like 9,000 pages of A Game of Thrones and I finally started saying, 'Wow, that's weird. I don’t feel like there's an end coming.' I got to the end and my friend said, 'Oh no, it'll be like ten more years.' I grabbed him by the shirt, pulled him close and said, 'What?!! I will have kids in high school by the time these things are finished!'"
:)))))))))))))))))))))))))
jade_okelani. <3I am very happy with my Tumblr queue at the moment. :D Bwahahaha
So suddenly
adelagia and I are terrible at Pandemic. We don't know what's happened. Possibly it is just the Pandemic gods punishing us for our hubris. We got really good at it, even trying Legendary mode after 5 and 6 epidemics seemed like child's play. But the last few times we've played, we have sucked. We must have played 20 games without A SINGLE WIN. We had various role combos, some good, some bad. They all resulted in us letting the world succumb to horrible disease. We always played with purple and 6 epidemics. We refuse to go back to 5 for an 'easy' win, but 6 is totally owning us. :/ I refuse to believe that all the times we won before was a fluke!!Last weekend T.,
slitherhither and I met up for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, then we went to see THE AVENGERS!!!! It was B.'s first time (and my seventh >.>), so that was awesome. Later we asked which of the guys she liked most, and she totally went against type (androgynous and thin) and picked Thor! Just goes to show, Chris Hemsworth is completely irresistible.So I read this fanfic that started out very promising, but petered out by the middle for me. It was a Sherlock xover, and had John Watson taking over for Coulson in the Avengers handling department. I freaking love Watson/Martin Freeman, but I had several issues with the story as it progressed.
- The pairings were John/Sherlock, Clint/Natasha, some Tony/Bruce, and some subtle John/Bruce.
- I love Sherlock, the show, and I quite enjoy Sherlock, the character, but I have no interest in him beyond what's on the show. I don't care about his inner angst, I don't love him to pieces, and Benedict Cumberbatch does nothing for me. Thus, I have no interest in John/Sherlock.
- Even though the fic takes place after the events of the second season of the show, wherein Sherlock takes an apparently fatal dive off a roof after a confrontation with the utterly fabulous Moriarty (I love Moriarty, Watson, and Lestrade FAR more than Sherlock himself), I knew Sherlock was going to come back alive, because everyone knows that's what's going to happen on the show, and because the fic itself was some kind of Big Bang fill from the Sherlock fandom, which I guesstimate to be 99% John/Sherlock fans. So given my ambivalence to Sherlock, and John/Sherlock, the fic pretty much took a turn for the uninteresting at that point. I'd sort of gotten into the John/Bruce, but of course that was over as soon as Sherlock showed up. Sigh.
- I had issues with the Clint/Natasha. Even though nothing was really TERRIBLE, it was obvious that the writer didn't really care about the pairing or the characters, and putting them together was mostly due to convenience than anything else. The same could be said of Steve and others, I suppose, but I really felt it with C & N since, of course, they're my faves. I might've been able to even forgive that, however, because it was done satisfactorily enough, except for a couple of things that I just could. not. get past.
First was that everyone -- including the author -- referred to Natasha by a diminutive. No. Just no. Until it's movie canon that ANY OTHER CHARACTER calls Natasha by 'Nat' or 'Tasha,' that is CLINT'S THING. It is evidence of their closeness, which she does not share with any other character, even if she grows to like/respect them. It is also reference to Clint's personality, which is his and his alone. He's irreverent and cocky, and especially so with his partner, whether or not you believe they are romantically linked. Even worse is that the author also casually refers to her by a diminutive, because it's not like Natasha is a casual character. She is fierce, and strong, and isn't the type of person you'd go around giving a nickname to, unless you're Clint. Even Tony doesn't do it!! <--- That's the strongest evidence I have.
Second was that in the story, the author redeems Loki. Bleh. I have zero interest in redeeming Loki (despite the fact that I will admit he's not entirely unsympathetic -- just mostly so), and I do not understand fandom's fascination with him, but whatever. It's not a deal breaker. Being in fandom, I've pretty much resigned myself to it. (Same thing re: Coulson not really being dead. I think he's dead. But at least I can understand why people don't want to believe he actually is, and feel similarly.) The problem I had with it in this story is that at some point, some of the Avengers are starting to feel sympathy toward him while others are still skeptical. And the writer has NATASHA DEFENDING LOKI TO STEVE, WHO IS SKEPTICAL. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh NO. Natasha is the LAST PERSON, yes, LAST, even more so than Clint, who Loki ACTUALLY BRAINWASHED, who would ever come around to trusting Loki. Not after what he did (and yes, I mean everything, but most especially, what he did to Clint). And Steve is probably the first person, other than the perpetually hopeful Thor, who might come around on a redeemed Loki. So both of those things were just wildly out of character.
- Finally, some of how it was written, though for the most part done very well, was just not very clear. I had no idea what was being said/implied, or what the hell had actually happened, and I don't think the writer was trying to be oblique.
Celebrity quotes that have made me laugh recently:
- When asked if older sister Maggie ever beat him up, Jake Gyllenhaal responded, "Depends on what you call beating up. She performed the musical Cats for our parents, and she made me lick milk from a bowl while she sang, which was, in a way, abuse."
- Joshua Jackson on A Song of Ice and Fire: "I've got a slightly obsessive problem in that when I get into books, particularly a series of books, I cannot put the fucking things down. Nobody told me that the story is not done yet and that he takes, like, seven years between books. Last summer I plowed through something like 9,000 pages of A Game of Thrones and I finally started saying, 'Wow, that's weird. I don’t feel like there's an end coming.' I got to the end and my friend said, 'Oh no, it'll be like ten more years.' I grabbed him by the shirt, pulled him close and said, 'What?!! I will have kids in high school by the time these things are finished!'"
:)))))))))))))))))))))))))
