It Started with a Journal

jade_okelani reminded me that Outlander had started airing, so I checked it out. I knew 20 minutes into the first episode that I was going to love the series. I ended up mainlining 4 eps last night, I watched 3 more this afternoon, and then I have a final ep to watch tonight of the initial 8 eps that have aired. Seriously, I love it. It's a fantastic adaptation.

In general, I like the casting. Claire is a little taller than I'd imagined. Initially I wasn't too convinced of the Jamie they chose -- the actor is a little too pretty and not "enough" of a redhead -- but I actually love him, so hurrah. I even like Frank Randall, because I liked the actor from Rome, even though he's older than I'd pictured for both Frank and Black Jack Randall. As for the MacKenzies and others, I barely remember the characters, so none of them have bothered me.

( More general stuff about the show. )

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I read Gone Girl lightning fast, because I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie, and I didn't realize the movie was so close to coming out until the day it released and I still hadn't read a word. But! I read the book this last week, and saw the movie today. ( Spoilers for the book and movie. )

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I don't know what it is with my mom, but she reallllllllly loves the Seahawks now. Even though for 66+ years she's never given one single shit about football. It's bizarre! It really, really is. For a little while it seemed like she might start liking football in general -- I will watch any game that's on -- but her enthusiasm cooled and now she only cares about football when the Seahawks are playing. She was SO disappointed last Monday when they played Washington and it aired on ESPN, which I don't have, so we couldn't watch it. When she found out about tomorrow's game against Dallas, she got so excited and began planning the weekend around the game. (Only one TV in the house gets reception for Fox, my computer room, so we're going to cram uncomfortably in here. I don't know how that's going to work.) Just now, we had this conversation:

Mom: We get to watch the Seahawks tomorrow!
Me: Yeah. But you know, they might lose.
Mom: Tsk. Why do you have to say those things?
Me: Well, the other team is good!
Mom: It's the Cowboys, right?
Me: Yeah, and they're actually really good this season. They've won 4 games and lost only 1.
Mom: Well, I guess after tomorrow, they'll have lost 2.

Ha!!!!! That doesn't actually make me feel confident about the outcome, but I have to admit I am tickled by her sudden fervor.

I have a few videos to share with you guys!

adelagia, accordingtomel and I caught Catching Fire today, and ahead of the movie, we got a trailer for Divergent, the best one I've seen yet. It actually makes me really excited for the movie. Four and his tattoos, omg. When he takes off his shirt and shows her his tats I'm like fdsalfhaljdsh;shfds It is quite refreshing to actually find one of the guys they're casting in these types of movies actually attractive.



Have you guys read Divergent yet? This is what I'll say about it... I think it's good. Maybe not as good as The Hunger Games or Mortal Instruments, but it's solid. I read it over two years ago. My mom had been hospitalized for a ruptured aneurysm, and I was not in the best frame of mind. I went through a YA book phase (similar to the one I'm going through now), and must have read dozens of them. Divergent was basically the only book I liked well enough to recommend. So I suppose that's not too shabby a rec.

I feel like I might've shared this next video with y'all at some point, but can't find it because I just really suck at being consistent with my tagging. But it's awesome, so even if it's the second time I've shared it, it's worth watching again! It's a fan-made Game of Thrones S3 trailer. And yes, I know, S3 has come and gone. That doesn't make this any less awesome of a trailer.



Finally... I don't know a lot of people who watch Teen Wolf. It took until S3 for it to get into its groove, I think, because S3 was awesome. Anyway, even from the beginning, I found the show enjoyable for one reason -- Stiles (Dylan O'Brien). He's the best. akscully keeps getting Stiles mixed up with Derek, so I told her that Stiles was the one with the boyish charm, and to prove it to her, I sent her this YouTube vid, in which Stiles is sure to charm the pants off you in 3 minutes or less. So if you've kind of wondered what all the fuss is about wrt Stiles, or Teen Wolf, and you have 3 minutes, watch this vid and you might very well start adoring him yourself!



(And if you enjoyed that, here's another one you might like.)

You know those days when you set your alarm, but don't realize until you wake up that you set it for PM instead of AM? Yeah. Thank goodness for Jaime's automatic feeder. When it went off at 7:30 I was like, WTF???

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I don't often embed vids in my posts, but I hope you'll forgive this one... ahhhhhhhhh!!! 2011 cannot come fast enough. How awesome does GoT look? If they can make the trailers this sweet, I can only hope the show will be even more so. They are only raising my expectations at this point; a dangerous thing!



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Finished Tongues of Serpents. I've finally been able to friend naominovik without fear of spoilers, lol. I enjoyed ToS very much, even though not a whole lot happens. I just love this universe.

I also just read My Sister's Keeper, the first Jodi Picoult novel I've ever read. She's one of those prolific authors who I stayed away from because she was so prolific ... quantity usually does not equal quality. However, I was pleasantly surprised by MSK. I'm putting the movie (who knew there even was one?) in my library queue. I really disliked Sara Fitzgerald in the book, so we'll see if Cameron Diaz can make me like her any better. I'm excited about Alec Baldwin playing Campbell Alexander, partly because I think that means they're going to nix the whole romance subplot with him and Julia Romano, which I could not have been less interested in. I skipped all those parts. Otherwise a very engaging story, and I sobbed buckets at the end.

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My Citibank Mastercard account has been closed AGAIN due to fradulent activity. WTF. The first time, they closed it as a precautionary thing -- I guess some place where I used it had their records stolen or something. This time, they contacted me because someone was buying stuff online from another state with my card. HOW did they even get my card number??? I don't use this card to buy things online -- I could easily see how online transactions could open you up to greater potential for fraud. But this card, since my last statement I've only used it to pay for things locally (like at restaurants), and one time, to pay my electric bill. Argh! BTW, there were two fraudulent transactions, totaling about $100, for shoe/clothing stores. SURELY it's easy to catch people like this, since if they're buying merchandise they'd have to supply an address where it needs to be shipped?

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Nearly done with Dr. Who S2... it's kind of sad how I've barely missed Christopher Eccleston, though I did enjoy him in S1. I guess the universe's own mythology (can't think of the right word for it) makes that easy, since we're told that it's really the same guy.

Random comment -- the ep where it was Doctor/Companion-lite guest stars a dude who looked SO familiar to me, so I looked him up and it turns out he played Blythe in that one episode of Band of Brothers. Seriously, other than Ron Livingston, was there ANYONE on that miniseries playing an American soldier who was ACTUALLY AMERICAN? LOL.

Also am rewatching BSG in the background while doing other things. I'm totally enjoying Baltar so much more this time around; he's hilarious! Also -- ( spoilery comment... )

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For lunch I am planning to go to The Stone House, my new fave place. I was told the last time I was there, though, that they're going to stop serving lunch after Oct. 15 and only do dinner. :-( Since their dinner items cost like 3x as much as their lunch items, and since I usually leave the office well before dinner time, I don't see a whole lot of opportunity or reason to go there after they make the change. Alas! First El Greco, now this ... why am I not allowed to enjoy a favorite restaurant?!

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A few more X-Files episode 'reviews' to continue my archival project.

( The Jersey Devil )

( Ice )

( Young at Heart )

And that finishes off the 'reviews' I had for S1.