LOVE IS POISON

I feel like I'm duty-bound to extend some form of seasonal greetings to my flist. I don't want to go with Merry Christmas though, because 1) it's too Christian-centric, despite the rampant secularization of this holiday, and 2) Merry Christmas is what I tell my mum to avoid getting into the whole atheist discussion.

So, I wish you all a happy end-of-December/early-January, including but not limited to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, Yule, Winter-een-mas, Winter Solstice, and all other winter festivals listed here. If your holiday of choice is not listed here, I apologize and I will make an effort to include it next time.
This greeting extends to your family, friends, significant others, pets and everyone else important in your life.
You're not required to accept or return this greeting if you don't celebrate any winter festivities or if I've pissed you off recently, but I sincerely hope I didn't piss you off and we can continue to be friends in the upcoming year too (or for the rest of the year if you don't follow the commonly used but sadly Christian-centric Gregorian calendar).

( As for me... )

So eurgh. I'm here with a mug of tea and a thesis that's advancing at snail's pace. The big accomplishments of the day are:
1) I remembered how to write integrals with Latex,
and
2) me and my sister got (almost) all of our Christmas shopping done.

Almost because obviously I couldn't get her a present while she was with me, and conversely she couldn't either. Though honestly neither of us care much since we agreed that presents are a bothersome social convention BUT IF I'M DOING THIS SILLY PRESENTS THING I'M DOING IT PROPERLY, DAMMIT.
So I'm hoping to find out that there's a shop here selling earmuffs, or possibly find her Alice on DVD if mum didn't get it for one of us already. Earmuffs. I'm not calling her weird only because I told her I wanted a life-size replica of Longclaw or a Tardis. (Or a plushie, or something striped like a scarf. But whyyy can't I have a Tardis?)

ETA: After a quick enquiry with mum I think I'm going with the DVD for my sister since it's easier than locating cute earmuffs.
Mum also wanted to know what my brother might want, to which I replied: I don't have the foggiest. There didn't seem to be any interesting books in the bookstore. (We checked.) His only other interest are games, so unless she wants to get him a new game... Me and my sister got him a game too, by the way, because otherwise I'd have no idea.

FFFF I DON'T WANNA GO SHOPPING ANY MORE! THIS IS HELL!

The fun part is actually finding the presents. Walking around for a couple of hours between the same three shops because we live in this sad little town... not so much.
At least with our combined powers we managed to get presents for five (5) different people. Three of which are friends of hers so I was all IDK dude don't ask me, I have problems with presents for my own friends. But we made it and I also got these awesome 30 rainbow-coloured scrunchies that are just I was looking for. I mean, I probably have a scrunchy-eating monster living under my bed, the rate these things disappear. Also while at the bookstore my sister got two new Neil Gaiman books. I approve of Neil Gaiman but we both have huge piles of unread books. Derp derp.

In unrelated news:
Yahoo says they're not shutting down Delicious after all.
But since my bookmarks got imported with Diigo, I'm going to keep both accounts in the meantime just in case. :|

My plans to write write write keep getting thwarted. Yesterday I missed my alarm, got up at 11am when my neighbours had a row that was even louder than usual, turned on my computer and ended up researching gay marriage law in the US. Then my muse deserted me and I ended up watching a couple of Castle episodes.

Then I had to leave for this Christmas dinner, which was... nice, I suppose, but not as memorable as the others (for better or worse). I was stuck at the far end of my group of friends, the two girls in front of me spent the evening locked in conversation with each other and I didn't know the girl next to me. Then I found out she was an Erasmus student from Germany and she clearly didn't know many people, so I thought it'd be nice to talk with her a bit. Except... I suck at making casual conversation with strangers. I spent most of the dinner staring at the ceiling and thinking of a good conversation opener. In the end I did manage to strike a conversation with her and we talked quite a lot, and after dinner was over we got up so I could talk to some people I hadn't seen in ages. But ugh, the awkwardness at the beginning.

Also, about awkwardness. While we were walking back (I slept at Irene's as usual) I accidentally hummed "Teenage Dream" and didn't know how to justify a sudden Katy Perry obsession. Then this morning I found out she watches Glee too. Which... unexpected, but cool.
On the train ride back I managed to write part of my thegameison_sh entry and was about to finish it after I caught up with my flist... but then...

THE CLIP OF BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE FROM 2X10 APPEARED AND I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO STOP SQUEEING EVER SINCE. SERIOUSLY, I CAN'T EVEN STOP SMILING. I'VE WATCHED IT LIKE 4 TIMES ALREADY AND IT MAKES ME SO RIDICULOUSLY HAPPY, JUST... HEE. BOYS. FLAIL. CUTENESS. PANDAS. POINSETTIAS. SENSE. AM I MAKING ANY. WHO CARES. LOOPING IT ONCE MORE.

Yeah, the return of the inane journal entries in which I talk about the shows I'm watching. Which is not the shows that are airing right now since I'm behind with a lot of shows, but bear with me. Or skip this entry entirely.

( Speaking of too many shows... )

♠ For the first time since I don't know how long, I laughed out loud at Supernatural. Even though Castiel wasn't in this episode. Even though I didn't think much of the plot. Is it just me or the dialogue was way more fun that usual? Or maybe it's because the big damn plot for S6 had been shelved for once. Though it seems like it'll be back with a vengeance next Friday, but you can't have everything. I kind of... have mixed feelings towards SPN. It was my happy creepy summer show, I burned through 5 seasons in a couple of months and I'm left with a show in its final season. Sad. I should just give up and force my sister to watch the first two seasons again with me.

♠ Speaking of creepy, supernatural jerks: The Vampire Diaries is awesome. And by The Vampire Diaries I mean Damon. But also everyone else. Who are also awesome. Damn, Stefan and Elena did take some levels in badass. I'm now hooked on the show and trying not to get spoiled about any more plot points. If they keep it up through S1's finale, I might have a new OT3.

♠ I still haven't watched episode 3x11 of Merlin. It's just... Morgana makes me a sad panda. And the Arthur/Merlin abuse. WTF, show writers. Hoping that watching the finale together will make up for a sub-par season, especially since I've heard good things about 3x12.

♠ OMGWTFBBQGLEE T-14 HOURS! Yeah, I know it airs in less than 3 hours but it'll be in the dead of the night here and I have to wait until my sister gets home from school to actually watch it. FFFF. MUST RESIST SPOILERS! MUST NOT DIE OF ANTICIPATION!

Fucking Real Life

Okay, I'm stressed over this fucking exam. So. Fucking. Much.
There just isn't enough time. And I've tried but I can't concentrate, and I know why. I'm just sick and tired of studying and I don't care about physics and I just want out. London needs to happen. Or something. I need to go somewhere, have a change of pace some time soon, or I'll lose my mind.

---

The fucking huge fandom

The only thing keeping me sane lately has been tea and Glee. Seriously. (It kind of rhymes but that wasn't the point.) There are no words to describe just how much I love that show and its cliché-riddled cast. I can just turn off my brain and hum along when I know the songs. And I kind of watched 5 episodes today with my sister because I knew stuff would happen on 1x12, and then 1x13 was Sectionals and we just needed to finish, and we were supposed to watch two episodes on Merlin tonight but after the failboat that was 3x09 (though I liked the punch-to-the-arm scene) I didn't really want to watch 3x10 so switching back to Glee seemed like a good alternative and then 1x15 was the Madonna episode... So yeah.

We're officially marathoning it. Late to the party and everything, but I don't really care. I just think I'll stay clear of the fandom because I don't really care for unnecessary drama and I miiight just have some unpopular opinions about characters/ships. (I also want to adopt Brittany, but that's beside the point.)
And I have a new favourite song. Lately I change favourite songs a bit too often. I have the attention span of a deranged rabbit. Unless it's time to watch another episode of Glee. Honestly I think this show might just have brainwashed me into some kind of mindless minion but I don't really care.

---

The small fandom that makes me happy

I've signed up for yuletide and I've got a feeling nobody else is offering or requesting Locke Lamora. Which makes me sad, because, seriously. The author is cool too, personal problems aside, he's got a livejournal and pulled his main character's name from a Final Fantasy game and said he was okay with fanfiction as long as he didn't have to read any of it. And he's got the full prologue from his first book online here, I don't remember if it's the part about little Locke or the start of their highly entertaining con, but either way it's a good read.

There are conmen and witty remarks and badassness and female pirate captains. There's also much use of the word "fuck" and similar, but if you read my entries I suppose it doesn't bother you too much. Oh, and he tends to create characters and make you love them and then kill them off brutally. But apart from this, the books are cool. So, uhm. Read them? Please?

First things first, this is so much relevant to my interests, it's ridiculous. My sister now hates me because I keep singing along to Lady Gaga, but it's okay. Even she had to admit that it was an awesome video.

Speaking of awesome, you know what's awesome? Castle. And by Castle I mean Beckett, because seriously. I might have a sliiight crush on Beckett. Okay, huge crush. And new OTP. I love this series, I'm so glad I decided I needed a police procedural in my life. I'm watching a lot of new shows lately since I still can't find my muse.

And we're almost caught up with both Doctor Who and Torchwood, and it depresses me to no end. I think I'll write an epic Torchwood AU starting from 2x13, because my canon is better than their canon. And has a pterodactyl. And I'm delusional. And I think whenever I get around to watching Children of Earth it's going to kill me.

Anyway, it's Saturday so here's another week's worth of recs from merlin_muses.

Serendipitous * Arthur/Merlin * PG-13 * 13,562 words
Loosely based on the movie Serendipity. If you've watched it, great! If you haven't, this fic is still adorable!
Arthur and Merlin meet for the first time just before Christmas in NYC. It's love at first sight (or almost), but Fate conspires to keep them apart. Will they be able to meet again before Arthur marries someone else? (Hint: the movie's a comedy so obviously there's a happy end.)
Leon is the best supporting character ever. Gwen is lovely and makes tea. And, in the end, it's all Morgana's fault.

Party of Four * Merlin/Morgana, Arthur/Gwen, slight Gwen/Morgana * NC-17 * 2,252 words
Proof can I can recommend things other than Arthur/Merlin. If there were more fics like this one, I think I'd be a much bigger Merlin/Morgana shipper. I didn't even mind the Arthur/Gwen bits, because it fit with the story. This is mostly PWP but their characters are just perfect.
Modern AU, starts with a drinking game. There's smut, some femslash, exhibitionism, and Arthur dares Morgana to masturbate in front of the others,. If I haven't squicked you away yet, this fic deserves a read.

All Things Are Ours * Arthur/Merlin * PG-13 * 24,436 words
Modern AU set in Carmarthen, which according to the legends was Merlin's birthplace. Arthur is Merlin's hot new boss, Merlin sometimes insults him in Welsh but Arthur doesn't understand, and they gaze longingly at each other for the best part of the fic before finally getting together.
It's probably better than my summary makes it sound and there are a lot of other secondary characters around, though they're sadly underdeveloped. There are some points where this fic is very much tell, don't show.

Inception

So, I FINALLY watched Inception. And I gotta say, that film's totally worth the hype. I'm used to getting disappointed after waiting too long for something (like with Deathly Hallows, or more recently the SPN premiere) but this time all I have to say is... awesome.

I kind of figured out halfway through that ( spoilery bit for the poor souls who haven't watched it yet but plan to ) but it was still awesome. Like, in some parts I blacked out and missed some seconds of film because I was busy thinking "crap this is really awesome".

Also, Arthur's fight scene. Just Arthur's fight scene. Zero gravity. Badass. Enough said.

I don't think I ship anyone, not really, which is kind of surprising coming from me. Well I might be shipping the couple sitting beside me, they seemed nice and laughed at the right moments and went "oh crap" at the right moment at the end. But that's just me confusing porn with real life as usual. Anyway. Not really that much shipping material, we only really got Cobb's backstory and personality. Everyone else is just an accessory. On the other hand, this means any pairing is free go should anyone be so inclined.

And apparently the fandom did, which is great, but honestly I'd be more interested in the possibilities of mindscrew gen fic. Because, seriously, I haven't seen such potential for world-building since The Matrix. This is, basically, The Matrix on more levels. Awesome. I'm saying "awesome" a lot today, aren't I? I kind of wish, dunno, there should be a TV series exploring the personalities of the other team members (especially Arthur) and about other jobs and stuff. But that's just wishful thinking. I'm afraid what we will get is Inception 2, which will be crap like most sequels and force me to discontinue it.

Meanwhile I'm all hyped up and I'm going to download it in English while I wait for the DVD to come out (needs moar wintermas presents) because I want to listen to everyone's original voices. And watch it again. And then write some fic. Gah, the world-building possibilities! Just think of the possibilities!


Now for something freakish and loosely related

We (me and my brother and my sister) went to a late afternoon showing and it finished late so we went to the McDonald's next to the cinema. They were redecorating or something, half of the restaurant had been walled off and it seemed all crammed despite it being emptier than usual. There was nobody at the counter when we arrived while usually there's a long wait.

The bathrooms were in the walled-off section so my brother and sister went to investigate while I placed our orders (3 McChicken menus with fries and cola - we're boring, boring people). And while I was there a couple of guys got in line behind me and they actually tried to hit on me. It was kind of unreal, considering that they seemed straight out of a bad comedy movie, including elbowing each other conspiratorially and offering to carry my tray. Dude. Seriously? Seriously. To which, having watched Gintama, I said "No, thank you!" - except I'm not a character from Gintama so I couldn't punch him. Instead I gave him my trademark creepy grin and hope he'll be as creeped out as I was.

I'd have thought it was some kind of joke, only afterwards I saw one of the guys hitting on another two girls. So, freaky stuff. The subject of today's dinner was, strange stuff is happening so maybe we're actually in a dream. Also awesome film. Also the fries are cold and taste awful. Also awesome film.
Also, the popcorns and/or the fries were way too salty and I think I had a cut on my lip or something because it's still itching. Damn junk food. Damn delicious junk food.


SPN 6x02

( Spoiler for the newest episode of SPN )


Merlin Gwaine

Just as planned, today's newsletter is full of shirtless gratuitous fanservice Gwaine. He's in about a dozen fics with different pairings. I've seen Merlin and Gwen (which kind of make sense), Morgana and Lancelot (which don't really make sense but should have been expected), Leon (which makes no sense at all and wtf fandom I know you love him and I do too but do you have any justification apart that Leon's pretty?)... but no Arthur.

Nobody has written Arthur/Gwaine yet, and somebody needs to rectify this mistake. Needs more pretty shirtless boys. Needs new OT3, maybe, since the old one kind of shriveled up and died when Morgana went dark side.
Speaking of Arthur. I feel oh so tempted to add Gwaine to my merlin_muses fic, and the only thing stopping me is that I set it before S3 because otherwise I'd have to remove Morgana. Sad, sad thing.

❧ I'm plagued by weird dreams. And when I'm asleep I get even weirder ideas. It just occurred to me that it would be an AWESOME idea to make a fanmix for Robot Unicorn Attack (just because) and even more AWESOME is the fact that there are already two entries tagged "robot unicorn attack" in fanmix. Clearly this needs to happen.

❧ Attempts to recruit my sister into the project have so far failed. I started off with "hypothetically speaking" and she said "this can't end well" and I thought of unicorns crashing into stars and got an attack of the giggles. Further attempts at explaining my idea were met with scepticism and a refusal to contribute any trashy and sparkly songs she might have lying around. Whatever. I'm so going to do this.

❧ ETA; my efforts are met with success! I have a semi-definitive list of songs and now I just need to slap together some cover art. I'm awesome. I'm also ditching study for this. Maybe I should put the unicorns on hold for a couple of hours.

It's 3am and I'm about to head to bed. At last. But I felt that finding one good, lengthy fanfic definitely makes up for the loss of sleep.

Now there's only to hope that tomorrow morning my sister doesn't turn on my computer before I get up. 'Cause I've got another dozen tabs open on slash fics and... yeah. I mean, she probably knows I read slash, and I know she probably reads slash, but it's better when we pretend that we don't. Ew, embarrassment.

Will probably make up for this crap/spam with a more substantial post later.