sarea: (because natasha is a badass)
I've just found out something crazy. Lady Gaga is 5'1". :O I freaking love her "Bad Romance" video and I watched it again recently and was just noticing randomly to myself that she's super thin but not in a "I work out all the time" way, and it got me wondering if she was actually just a small person. And SHE IS. But I had no idea she was THAT small, she's even shorter than me! Weird. Talk about someone with a big personality.

The Avengers and Green Day's newest album are coming out on the same day. I feel like I should be taking a personal holiday or something. I already have the new album ("Oh Love" is still the best song from it), and I know my Avengers Blu-ray is on its way. With any luck I might even get it early (today)!

I. am. exhausted. 90% of that has to do with work, because of reasons. The other 10% is because I have recently read THREE awesome Avengers stories and must rec the snot out of them. Which isn't the best mental image but you should read them anyway. They're all so meaty and satisfying.

- White Blank Page by [personal profile] allisnow. For the last month or so I've been really hankering to read a long, satisfying, plotty fic with in-character Avengers and gorgeous Clint/Natasha, and that need has finally been met. You don't need the summary (it's not going to tell you much anyway), just go read it. To tell you the premise would be to give something away that I think is better to learn by reading. Just trust me, OK? I'm really glad I waited until it was fully done posting, though, because I'm a wallower, and boy did I enjoy being able to gorge myself on it in one long sitting, wallowing happily.

- Two for the Show by mousie tongue. Fuck. This story. Ohmygod. My heart was in my throat the ENTIRE TIME. I was like, "If this doesn't end well, I am going to destroy everything in my house." Clint. CLINT. He makes me want to stuff him in a little backpack and carry him around with me everywhere. I really enjoy stories where he's being abused and tortured, apparently. I don't know how other writers do it; I can't bear to do it myself, but I'll read the heck out of it. Anyway, this is a high school AU wherein Natasha ends up in the same group home that Clint's in. It's complete, but I'd give up my first-born child for one more chapter. This story blows my mind because Clint and Natasha are completely chaste. It's like an Asian drama, practically, because they don't fucking hold hands or kiss or outright state what they mean to each other... And yet. AND YET. YOU JUST KNOW. This could be like an instructional example of how to show and not tell, in storytelling.

- A Widow's Tale (series) by Mhalachai. OK, I reaaaallllly liked this series, but I don't rec it as qualm-lessly as I do the above two, because a) there's Clint/Natasha, but it's a very small part of the overall story (and you see/hear of Natasha with /Others, though not while she's with Clint); and b) it's a Stargate Atlantis crossover, which might not appeal to everyone, though it didn't make a single difference to me that I'd never seen a single Stargate show/movie/whatever. Also, I'm not sure that the series is actually done, though "Widow's Letters" totally has a satisfactory ending and could totally be seen as "the end" whether or not there are more stories forthcoming. The premise of this story is unique in that it keeps to Natasha's original comic book background -- she's a child in the 1940s and doesn't age due to the experiments that were performed on her (the vast majority of stories I've read simply bump her timeline up, so that she's the same age as Scarlett Johansson), a la Wolverine. Anyway, one of her deep cover assignments early on involved being married to Patrick Sheppard, with whom she had a son, John Sheppard (of Stargate Atlantis). The series is primarily about re-establishing their relationship after 30 years. The Clint/Natasha happens very, very gradually, and it's pretty fun to read a story where the tables are turned on the age difference between them, because even though Natasha LOOKS young, she literally has a son who is ONE YEAR OLDER than Clint. Sheppard actually refers to Clint as Natasha's 'boytoy' at one point. TEE.HEE. The best/meatiest story (and when C/N shows up) is the fourth story in the series, "Widow's Letters." I don't think you have to read the first three to understand it (as long as you know the premise), but it's nice to have the backstory, too.

All three stories above have very liberal doses of delicious angst. On the opposite end of that spectrum, I'm two scenes away from finishing a story, but it's a very silly AU that's going to need some significant pre-beta work. >.>

I'm rereading Wuthering Heights, because I absolutely loved it as a teenager and haven't read it since then. I don't know why, maybe I've been afraid that it wouldn't hold up or something. Anyway, of the Bronte sisters' works, it's my favorite, and it's always annoyed me that it doesn't get the same kind of accolades that Jane Eyre, which I've never cared for, has. I also find myself wondering about a chicken/egg situation -- do I love literary assholes because of Heathcliff, or did I love Heathcliff because I've always been attracted to literary assholes? *ponders deep thoughts*

And... I've also been watching a lot of TV. A lot. Don't be frightened. )

I've also been doing some minor exercise, which for me, is huge. I haaaaaaaaaate exercising. I used to go to the gym, and I dreaded it. DREADED IT. Renner apparently feels the same, which just makes him even more perfect. And obviously has way more discipline than I do, given his freaking body. -.-

GIFs. May not be safe for work, depending on how prudish your coworkers are. )

Went to a Seattle Sounders game this weekend. Unlike baseball, I enjoy watching soccer even when I'm not really following the team. I mean, you have agile guys in nylon shorts running up and down a field, what's not to like? I really didn't want to go (as [personal profile] adelagia can attest to, as I kept bitching about it), because it was with work people and I felt like it was cutting into MY weekend, but I ended up having fun. People have to fight tooth and nail to make me overcome my hermit tendencies. >.>
sarea: (troy and annie)
Oh my giddy god have all of you been busy. I swear I checked AO3 and the C/N comm before I left on my trip and approximately 8173298720 stories have posted since then. *head spins* Looks like I will not be doing much writing in the coming days, as I have too much reading to catch up on. >.>

Two more deleted scenes from The Avengers have posted, both involving Clint. One is Clint strategizing with Loki (or rather, Loki is asking Clint how to go about taking over the Earth, because he doesn't have any ideas of his own, and Clint is doing all the strategizing -- I swear, if Loki hadn't brainwashed Clint, he'd still be stomping around without a clue), the other is Nick Fury talking to the World Security Council. Both scenes reference the fact that Clint did not kill Fury when he had the chance, shooting him in the chest rather than the head. It's interesting because I've debated with Jade over whether or not he did that on purpose; it's always kind of bothered me that Selvig retained part of himself while brainwashed (by putting in a failsafe to the Tesseract portal), whereas Clint apparently didn't. These scenes prove (or at least suggest) otherwise, and I'm really annoyed that they were both cut. I'm giving up on embedding/linking to the videos, because they keep getting taken down. Instead, I will share transcripts of both scenes. )

I have been reading some pretty terrible teen lit. Actually it's generally all pretty terrible, which is why it's such a find when things like The Mortal Instruments or The Hunger Games or even Divergent come along. One of the things that's wrong with modern teen lit is that they have cheesy, guilty pleasure premises, but they don't go with it. They try to make them 'realistic,' thereby ruining any chance for pleasure you might've gotten out of it. If I wanted realistic, I wouldn't read teen lit, and certainly not one with such premises. Obviously people like me choose to read teen lit with cheesy summaries because they want the guilty pleasure of it!! Examples. There are spoilers. )

I'm also finally reading The Girl Who Played with Fire. I find the writing -- or maybe it's the translation -- kind of annoying, and Salander and Blomkvist are both such Mary Sue/Gary Stus, but it's just one of those series I've always meant to finish. (Of course, I said that about the Twilight series, and yet I've been on book 4 for like 2 years.)

And then there's Breaking Bad, which is like, the one shining beacon of quality in the media I've recently consumed. Breaking Bad 5x06 'The Buyout' spoilers! )

After I got back from Vancouver, K. wanted to see The Bourne Legacy, so I happily saw it again. I have now seen it FOUR TIMES. Heehee. I don't know if I can get tired of seeing it. They could turn the sound off and I'd still enjoy watching it. >.> Anyway, K. liked it a lot. I'd warned her ahead of time that there was no third act, so that might've helped. She was like, "I don't see what's wrong with the ending." She didn't understand any of the complaints people had, myself included, so maybe she's just easier to please. We also saw the new Spider-man movie, and while I thought Andrew Garfield made a more convincing high school student, and I liked his Spidey personality more than Tobey Maguire's earnest Spidey, I didn't much care for the movie. I didn't think it brought anything original or particularly interesting to the table, the villain was lame, there were too many scenes that lingered too long for no reason, and I wasn't into the romance with Gwen Stacy. I thought Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield had very little chemistry, which might be explained because aren't they involved IRL? Actors who are together IRL have no tension. I learned that from Joey on Friends and IT'S SO TRUE.

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