1. Re: Batman: It is really kind of amazing how much prolonged fighting and close-ups of grimacing men I will put up with for five panels of a Moment between Bruce and Dick.

2. Tonight, for the second week in a row, my character in Game of Awesome (see icon) got to kill a character who's had it coming for like five years (the characters in question were twins). It made me so happy.

3. ( Eye stuff, not pleasantCollapse )

4. I got pulled over today for an expired tag. Got off with a warning, BUT STILL.

5. As a result of many things, my head is ready to implode, especially around my eyes. I want so badly just to go to sleep, but I'm wired like whoa. So here I sit, waiting for various meds to kick in. At least there will be a migraine treatment tomorrow.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1164834.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

Guys, I...I think I am getting sucked back into comics. Like, Batfamily comics. Blame the small fanperson and the DC animated universe.

Meep.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1162855.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

The President of the United States thinks our government needs a "good shutdown" this fall.

There are not enough "fuck yous" in the universe.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1162721.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I have been racing through The Librarians, which I always meant to watch and never got around to. I'm enjoying it, but I hit a small trivia snag. ( Spoilers for and through 2.3Collapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1161081.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

Forgive typos. Doing this on my kindle.

Surgery went well, but things were more advanced than they were expecting. Thus, there can be no halfway on the whole "stay face down"thing. And let me tell you:the massage chair that is blissfully comfortable for about ten minutes is a lot less so when you're in it all day.

So, distract Lucy time: your favorite characters recovering from illness/surgery/anything that restricts their mobility. Bonus of you get on of them into one of the #$%& chairs.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1160849.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I reread 'Salem's Lot this week, and found the latest (Kindle) version full of goodies, including deleted scenes and some updated authorial thoughts. ( spoilers for the book and the 2004 miniseries, and the first 3 Dark Tower booksCollapse )

Anyway, if you are a fan of the book, the new edition might be worth the...$7, $8, I think? for the goodies.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1159610.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

Been looking up a bunch of DC's animated movies (preparing things to watch/listen to during my recovery), and...okay, thing I don't get: why, after decades of casting George Newbern as Superman, would you suddenly cast him as Steve Trevor and cast...other guys as Superman? Lucy no get.

(I mean, there are any number of things I don't get about the general movie "continuity," but that one just seems utterly random.)

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1159113.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I don't know what's weirder: rewatching a BBC mini and seeing random!Peter Capaldi, or realizing that, since I last watched it, I have seen the actor and actress who are playing father and daughter playing husband and wife in another BBC production.

One does seem to get random!Peter Capaldi a lot.

(The mini in question is Fallen Angel,* and the actor and actress are Charles Dance and Emilia Fox, who appeared in a remake of Rebecca as Maxim and the narrator.)

(*I watched parts of it many times last summer when it was on youtube, and really like it despite it having at least two intense issues of mine, which just goes to show.)

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1157714.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I actually finished Magic for Nothing, Book Six of the Incryptid series, a week ago, but this is my first real chance to write up a review (read: I should be grading, but screw that). And actually, this is not so much a review as a discussion of the series overall plot arc. In fact, I talk more about the last book than this one.

Non-spoiler review: I enjoyed it, although it is thus far my least favorite of the series (insert line about least favorite Incryptid book still being better than blah blah here). I did have some problems with it, or perhaps more accurately, it caused problems I had with Chaos Choreography to intensify. And here is where I ( cut for spoilers for the whole series.Collapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1157461.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

In a complicated process of "people who watched this also watched this" on Amazon Prime, I stumbled across Granchester, a series about a (young, quite attractive) crime-solving vicar and his best friend the police detective. And dear God (npi), it could not be slashier if it were trying. ( Slight spoilers for the fist season and for the first short story of the stories the show is based on.Collapse )

I'm almost through what there is so far, which makes me sad (why so short, British series?), but it's been a good, if not always emotionally easy series.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1156675.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I don't really have all that much grading to do, but I'm down and could use some amusement. Distract a girl?

Imagine your favorite characters are doing lawn maintenance/poking around their usual spot/however this might happen, and they find a bag. Inside that bag is money; not a fortune, but what to that character is a significant sum, something that would let themu pay off a debt or do something they've wanted/needed to do but have not been able to. Whatever that amount might be, that's what's in the bag.

What do they do?

I shudder to think what to Bruce Wayne would be a "significant sum," but it doesn't really matter, because it would never get that far. That gardener who finds the bag containing $10K in neatly banded bills dutifully, and quite noticeably to anyone who might be watching, turns it in to Mr. Pennyworth, because she knows Mr. Wayne will reward her for her honesty, and because the thought of who that money might actually belong to gives her the shivers. This is Gotham, after all.

If the money is on Price property, Verity Price makes some discreet inquiries, but when they turn up nothing, she keeps the money and/or turns it over to the family. What's she going to do, turn it into the police? Please. And anyone who comes after her for it is going to get a nasty surprise. If it's just in an alley or something, she leaves it where it is.

Your turn!

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1156531.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

So. Much. Grading.

It's a little late for this one, but I like it, so we're doing it:

What New Year's Resolutions did your favorite characters make, and how are they doing with them?

Barbie Roberts doesn't make New Year's Resolutions; she just tries to be her best every day. Skipper Roberts, on the other hand, has resolved to stop making gagging gestures behind her big sister's back.

Every year, Jessica Fletcher resolves not to get involved in real life murders. She's solved three so far this year.

And for the required one that five of you will get: For her Ashdown Resolution, Anjesa Napoli-Beaumont is trying to be at least a little less nosy. Alonzar...is not making this easy on her.

Your turn!

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1155591.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

Alternative names for a Kindle welcome in the comments ;).

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1155373.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I got some really great ideas from my idea-solicitation post, so it may seem odd that I am starting with a re-run, but this one grabbed onto me about a week ago and won't let go. Plus, I have an answer involving the RPG I'm playing tonight, and could use it to get back into character.

So: What do your favorite characters have for breakfast?

Kara Danvers usually has cereal, but her favorite breakfast is cold pizza and potstickers. Alex has more than once pointed out that Kara could easily heat them up in seconds without even a microwave, but Kara somehow feels that cold pizza for breakfast is part of the Earth experience (or at least in the part of Earth she landed in). She does heat up the pot stickers when Alex isn't around to see.

One that about four of you will get (which is to say, from that RPG):
When Anjesa Napoli-Beaumont was growing up in Suryapur, breakfast was mostly whatever Mama had remembered to get enough of from the market that week, so usually some flatbread and maybe some fruit, and always some strong tea. During her years as a reporter, the flatbread got smeared with homemade chutney, and the tea was replaced with coffee, but she kept such weird hours that breakfast and dinner sort of melded into each other, anyway. Her hours are still pretty weird, but one morning, she found her wife, Rosemary, eating leftover potato and red pepper curry with her usual scrambled eggs, making clearly appreciative noises as she did so. Ever since then, she has made it a point to (a) make said curry at least once a week for dinner, and (b) make way more than the household (however many people happen to be living there at a time) can eat in one sitting. Rosemary has not remarked on it, but she has shown, well, clear appreciation.

Your turn!

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1153765.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

How long do you suppose Trump supporters will keep answering every criticism of him and his administration with, "But Hillary!"?

What I saying? It will pretty much be until the sun goes supernova.

/cranky.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1153396.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

With a number of people talking about re-engaging on DW, and with yet another semester fiilllled with grading starting, I would really like to resurrect Grading Hell Theater.


For those of you not familiar: Grading Hell theater is when I ask a question like "How do your favorite characters take their coffee," and people entertain me with amazing responses while I grade papers.

I will probably mine past entries, because, hey, it's been years since I asked how your favorite characters take their coffee, but I thought I could get some help - which is to say, you guys, because you're awesome ;). The general pattern is "your favorite characters" + {thing} (like coffee, being snowed in, going to Sesame Street, or anything large or small).

Anyone have an idea or two?

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1152947.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

There is something appropriate about Netflix making the kind of bizarre, badly written, badly acted, badly everythinged "psychological thriller" that used to go directly to Blockbuster back when video stores, you know, existed.

Which is to say, I just watched Clinical, and wow, that is an hour and a half of my life I will never get back.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1151990.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

1. 24-hour ph tests are the opposite of fun, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

2. We had a whopping inch or so of snow this morning, and I still wanted to stay home with my family all snuggled together. Of course, I pretty much want that every morning.

3. I haven't really posted about this much, but the parents at said sfp's school are...well, most of them knew each other for years before we enrolled her, and they haven't exactly been super-welcoming. Like, "squeeze eight people at a table for four and leave me at a table by myself" sort of thing. We get along with the parents of her two best friends, and otherwise smile politely a lot.

This is all background to: we received the announcement of the annual Trivia Night fundraiser the other day, and I have to say that the temptation to assemble a team of my wonderful nerd-friends and kick their collective asses is mighty and strong. But that would be work.

4. Four is a boring number.

5. I should really be working on my classes, but, see subject line. I think I deserve a day of tv and reading.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1151601.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I've been reading The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kil Johnson (whose Fudoki I loved). I am at that place where I simultaneously want to know how things turn out and don't want it to end. Longer review to be posted when I finish, but I want to post a quotation that makes be very happy.

( Some spoilers, not for any twistsCollapse )

More on the book probably tomorrow.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1151093.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

OMG, Carrie Fisher. I'm actually in tears, here, and so is the small fanperson. She keeps saying, "it just can't be."

RIP, your highness. There aren't words for what you meant to that little girl in the big theater all those years ago.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1150805.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

You know, I am not exactly thrilled that DC had to put out yet ANOTHER high school AU (must everything about girls be set in a high school?) in order to focus on the female characters, but given that the small fanperson is slowly acquiring both dolls and Lego figures/sets that she likes*, I am not going to complain too loudly.

*Although I am highly impressed with her skill in transforming Lego Elsa into White Canary.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1150570.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

Dear Fuller House,

You have officially given my daughter her first slash couple. Like, totally unprompted by me. Very much prompted by you. Thank you?

Lucy

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1150376.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

OMG, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is GONE!!!!

I never thought it would happen. I thought the man would still be in office when I died. I can't believe it actually happened!

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1147313.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I have a visual/atypical migraine, which means there is a glowy spot developing in my field of vision. Gee, I wonder what brought THAT on.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1146852.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

The following is an intellectual exercise that may be of interesting to no one but me, but I need distraction. Background: I watched Rizzoli and Isles pretty much from the beginning, but I have only just begun reading the books. I've been going through them pretty quickly, mostly because I really enjoy them, although I am also revisiting the series at the same time. Thus, the similarities and differences are very apparent.

( Spoilers for pretty much all seven seasons of Rizzoli and Isles, and for the books up through Mephisto ClubCollapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1147123.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

(Just a little grading to do, but why not?)

US Citizens/Residents/or anyone who wants to make a statement about the US election tomorrow: Are you wearing anything particularly symbolic?

I sadly lack a pantsuit that fits, so I will be wearing one of my (several) navy blue dresses with my usual black tights. Subtle enough that I won't get any "tch, abusing your authority" comments at work, definitive enough that I feel a sense of solidarity.

Anyone?

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1146007.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

The following logo appears at the end of the small fanperson's current favorite show, Kickin' It:



Am I loopy, or does that look like Dan Ackroyd? I mean, it could be any number of guys, and I can find no evidence of a connection, but that picture with a "soul" reference?

They're doing it just to send my curiosity into overdrive, aren't they?

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1145748.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

There is more grading, and therefore more need for distraction. One of the things fandom is best at is matching music to characters. So, today on Grading Hell Theater, what is your favorite character's (unofficial) theme song?

Barbie's ironic theme song is "Just a Girl" by No Doubt. She always gets a little satisfied smile when she hears it. She's a girl, all right, no "just" about it.

And that's all I have today, because so much to do. Your turn!

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1145482.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

Just negotiated a deal with my daughter wherein she can be a Cubs fan as long as she's a Reds fan first; if the Cubs are playing the Reds, she has to root for the Reds, but if the Cubs are playing someone else, she can root for the Cubs.

Two points:

1. I think she's seen, like, one baseball game ever.

2. I think I'm going to lose this battle. I need to get her to a Reds game next summer.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1145110.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I know: I haven't done this in a while. The inspiration well ran dry.

I have a crapload of grading to do, and need something fun to read in between papers. Help me out.

My students are brainstorming for topics, and one of the questions I ask them is, "What annoys you on a regular basis?" This led to a ten-minute "discussion" of driving habits, smoking, and similar things.

So, today on Grading Hell Theater, what irritates your favorite characters? We're talking small, everyday nuisances, not, you know, Satan (unless you're a Winchester, I suppose).

Mostly, Barbie Roberts loves living in Malibu. She does not, however, love trying to get sand out of every single crease and crevice.

Jillian Holtzmann hates how fast coffee gets cold, even in thermal containers. She's working on something for it, but it keeps sending the coffee...somewhere. Perhaps Jupiter. It's all that gravity.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1144577.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

As I've been going though Bloom County, I've seen a number of iconable frames. What I love about this one is that it could apply to so many fandoms.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1143955.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

So, I have dug just enough into the ao3 wank on tumblr (summary: at least a couple of fans are agitating to be able to report and have taken down fiction that is "abusive" - contains abuse or rape, I think - or contains child sex, along with a few other things) to have hit a wall of, "wait, what?" As I do not tumblr well enough to respond to the posts in question, I thought I would ask here. ( Discussion of such things,Collapse )

ETA: In case you are new here, I don't unscreen anonymous arguments. If you don't have a DW, put your tumblr name. Make an open ID. But if you aren't going to put a name to an argument/assertion, I'm not letting it into the conversation.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1142878.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I am having kind of a rotten few days, and I feel like indulging in a little grumpy. Enable me in this.

If there were one word* that you could, right now, make disappear from any language you choose, what would be?

Mine would be "sheeple." I hate the way it sounds, and I hate the way it's used, and I especially hate the fact that it is almost always used by people who think that They Alone See the Truth, when in reality, they're almost always a complete herd animal repeating something someone else has said.

Have at it!

*Word being defined as "discrete combination of sounds to which people attach meaning." It doesn't have to be in the dictionary or anything.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1142540.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

1. The only good thing about the hellacious experience that has been getting my bathroom repainted is that I finally have at least one room in the dark spice I always wanted somewhere in my house. We plan to use lots of purple and/or peacock blue to accent.

2. ( PoliticsCollapse )

3. I really need to check on my TV shows. They're sneaking back on me. This is a weird world, with no actual cable TV service.

4. ( WeightCollapse )

5. I really want a latte, pumpkin spice or otherwise.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1141472.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I'm feeling a tad anxious tonight and trying very hard not to think about what I'm a tad anxious about (followers of U.S. politics will know). Also, I just stumbles across one of my favorite Bloom County strips,

If you read this, please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL memory of you and me. It can be anything you want – good or bad – BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE.

If you feel like it, try it on your own journal/tumblr/wherever. If you do, hey, link me up so I can reply.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1141238.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

Well, I got my Ancestry DNA results last night at midnight. That was fast! Some factual stuff and pondering thereof:

( Making connectionsCollapse )

( EthnicityCollapse )

So, that was fun! And I mean that non-sarcastically.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1139740.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

Apparently, Luke Cage drew so many viewers that Netflix crashed.

But let's not forget, shows about black people won't draw a wide audience!

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1139655.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

If you haven't seen this 10-year-old parody of Donald Trump, you are missing something.

Apologies for the FB link, but it's all I got.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1139349.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

Have you ever cut off a trailer 30 seconds in because you realize you just can't stand to watch a schlubby white guy...do much of anything on screen for even a minute and a half more?

Yeah, it's that kind of day.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1138643.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio still maintains that Obama's birth certificate is forged, and still has a "posse"* investigating it. Some of his supporters are apparently saying that Obama maybe possibly was born in the US (and that this is what Trump has conceded, not that the document was real), but mostly, it's the same tired shit.

And yet? This abusive, racist, sexist, every other -ist you can imagine, corrupt FUCKER is going to get re-elected again this year. He just is. Because he abuses his position to harass and terrorize opponents, because he blatantly ignores laws he doesn't like, and because for some reason known only to God and the ghost of J.Edgar Hoover, the federal government will not enforce rulings against him.

*No lie, that's the real term.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1137777.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

The small fanperson has suggested that my annual birthday party/Cincinnati ChiliFest have a Ghostbusters theme*. She says her dad could be Kevin, I could be Abby, and she could by Holtzmann. She's already working her Lego figures into the main characters as she sings the theme.

I am so proud.

*There is, btw, no question which one she means.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1137471.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.

I'm not sure how we got on the subject, but last night, I was telling the small fan person about Shakespeare, and then specifically about how women weren't allowed to act in his day, so all the girl parts were played by boys.

Tonight, she asked me when that was, and how long ago it was. When I told her how long ago, she asked me if I was sure, because it seems like nobody wants movies about girls, only guys. And I quote, "Nancy Drew? Gone. Nobody wants girl Ghostbusters? Gone." And yes, some of this is stuff we've talked about, but not all of it. She also just notices stuff.

So how the fuck are we still here?

Forget all the world: Wonder Woman, one little girl is waiting for you. Please be awesome for her.

This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1136889.html. If you can, please speak there. have spoken there.