Why does George Lucas hate us?

We just got back from watching Revenge of the Sith.

Oh holy crap what a terrible movie.

I can't think of a thing, not one single thing about it that I found enjoyable or redeemable. The lightsaber battles lost my interest in the first five minutes, and there was bugger all going on after that. The acting was simply dreadful (with the noticable exceptions of Palpatine and Obi Wan ... even Samuel L Jackson sucked, which I didn't think was possible), what little I remember of canon was thoroughly and utterly raped, it was contrived almost from moment one, the writing – oh my god, the writing, and just ... just ... gah. GAH.

I think Phantom Menace was better. Yes, even with Jar Jar. Hell, I think Stormship Troopers was better, and that's saying something.

But you know, as Mike pointed out, we did learn one important thing: That there are some scenes that even James Earl Jones cannot save.

"Oh, Ani, hold me like you did at the lake on Naboo." FUCKING KILL ME.

The Face of Television

Apparently it is now Hulk Hogan. Behold, VH-1's new reality show: Hogan Knows Best.

I cry.

Harry who?

Yesterday, I succumbed to the villainous Amazon marketing that makes them send me e-mails for things that I want. Given that The Half-Blood Prince was being offered at almost $20 off, with guaranteed release-date shipping, I decided that now would be a good time to purchase. I actually didn't realize the book date was so close. It feels like Order of the Phoenix just came out the other day. I clearly have an odd concept of time.

Just to pad the order, I threw in Tori's new CD as well. I still find it pretty funny that I'm going to miss her in concert again. That'll make four, I do believe.

In Blog/LJ news, I've finished relocating all of the original Daily entries to LJ, and will begin working on those from the current Daily. Also, the main LJ page has been modified with a sidebar entry for my tags. In order to get them nested, I have to enter them with a ":" delimiter, but I prefer the sidebar list, so I'll suffer the slightly ugly and cluttered look in the entries.

One thing that reading through all the old entries has reminded me of is that I liked having a sort of day-to-day record. I've said it countless times already, but I shall, I think, make more of an effort to return to those days. Only with, I hope, considerably less bitching. Good god, Past Me! You're miserable – we get it! Shut the hell up already!

I always feel like somebody's watching me.

I just discovered this toy. It is so unspeakably addictive.

Tomorrow's resolution.

I'm going to sleep in tomorrow. No "maybe". No "if I don't have anything to do". I'm going to do it, dammit, because I've been feeling utterly wiped out for the past few days and it's just ruining everything anyway. What's the point of getting up at 7 or 8 (especially when you didn't go to bed until 3 or 4) because you're afraid of "wasting the day", if you just sit there and can't get going because you're so freaking tired? There isn't one. It's stupid. <taps head> Hear that? You're stupid. So stop it.

Tomorrow then, I declare sleep-in day. I shall sleep until I simply can't sleep any more. I think I may even actually unplug the clock. Maybe that'll get me caught up enough so that I can properly function again.

Trifecta of Brilliance

By the way, I don't know if anybody here ever goes to the deviantART account I have (and honestly, there's nothing there, so don't go tripping over yourselves to do so), but I have been meaning to share this.

I wanted a little card thingie like Amy has on her devArt, so of course, I made her do one for me. I loved it, and there's really no good reason I haven't shared. So here:

Squeeeee.

Serenity, Take Three

We saw Serenity for the third time last night. I actually enjoyed it this time around moreso than the second. First time, obviously you're taking everything in. I think the second time around, I was paying much more attention to the audience reaction than I was to the movie itself. I'm not 100% positive that's what I was doing, but looking back on it, what I remember most about it is how my fellow moviegoers reacted to certain things, so I think that must've been what I focused on. Third time though, I was all about the movie. I listened to all the words, I was watching the background and other goings on a lot more. It also sounded to me as though the audio was significantly improved, and I know that this was a much more polished version, visually speaking. That's actually pretty cool, that in a way I've now seen three different versions.

I didn't notice a whole lot changed, but I do think there were a couple of little things added in this time around, as there were last time. Very minor things, but significant in their own way.

Mostly though, I'm posting this as a reminder to my Serenity spoilers post. More people who read this may have seen the movie by now, so I look for any discussion, or simply invite you to read my impressions if you're so inclined and, of course, couldn't the first time around.

I post my original disclaimer to that message as, of course, it applies to the above link:

There are spoilers here.
(Oh, and it's really long.)

If you do not wish to be spoiled – and I would highly encourage you to not be spoiled – then read no further. Those spoilers are gonna come at you from every which way. This is your only warning.

Consolidation

In the reupload process, it really hit home the fact that I have three different blogs – LJ, the DD blog on HoF, and the original hand-created DD on HoF. Since I still can't make up my mind on the Blog or LJ (there are pros and cons to each), I'm probably just going to keep the copy and paste method for both until I just can't take it any more. The original Daily though ... that's a lot of files and space and it bothers me that in order to see any of that stuff, you have to dig deep to find them.

So, what I think I'm going to be working on today while I sit here and babysit the upload (it keeps choking on me) and wait for my brain to unfuzz (it's already almost 1? Holy crap.), I'm going to move those old entries to the Blog and LJ. Postdated, of course. It's just the sort of organizational thing that I absurdly love.

Remember to Breathe

You know, I think today may be the first day I've had in a month or two where I haven't felt the incessant weight of something that needs doing pressing down on me. These past few weeks in particular have felt extremely crazy, between finishing up the school term and wanting desperately to not have to put off the next episode. I was actually still doing a final, final edit (trying to catch any lingering mistakes) after "Many Happy Returns" posted last night, so as you can see, it's been pretty rushed.

But today, there's no school, and won't be for a good few months yet. I knew that I'd need the extra time for 9x07, so I have three weeks remaining to get it done, and thankfully the pressure's off for the moment. Even though I want to (and I do need to get the promo and poster done) I can't even really begin on 9x07 until I talk to Mike – I decided I wanted a different structure for the remaining 2/3rds of the season, due in no small part to our rather productive brainstorming sessions of late. As a result we've shuffled practically every episode around, scrapped some ideas and added new ones. Bit of a problem, though: I wasn't sure what to actually do for 9x07. We sort of settled on something before he went to work this morning, but I wasn't really happy with it. Then about an hour ago, in the shower (surprise surprise), I got a brainflash and I think I worked it out.

Problem is, he hasn't heard any of this yet, and I want to run it by him before I sink the next eight hours into breaking down the ep, writing a promo and doing a poster. So I sent him a text message and am waiting for him to get a free moment to call, but I'm probably looking at a good few hours before he can break away.

So with me unable to move in that direction for the moment, not having school or any other immediate responsibilities, I'm left sort of sitting there saying, "Huh." I'm actually not sure what I should do with myself today. There's plenty I could do ... none of which is what I really want at the moment, but it's neat to have the choice.

...I already know what I choose! Grr! <throttles phone> Ring, damn you!

Okay, fine. Be like that. I'll just get some lunch and go play City of Heroes. Hmph.

When did this become okay?

The Club Gitmo shirt.

I feel ill.

ETA: Other snazzy captions that you too can now own in shirt format?

I Got My Free Koran and Prayer Rug at G'itmo

Your Tropical Retreat from the Stress of Jihad

My Mullah went to Club G'itmo and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt

I am ... so very angry right now.

Yesterday's Epilogue.

Sometimes it's daunting, this virtual series thing. I think at the heart of it, I have a pretty hardcore fear of success. I mean, once you do good, once you're on a roll, you get all these expectations. Not just from others, but from yourself. Every time out, you feel like you have to make this episode even better than the last one. Or, if not better, at least as good. And if you get a string of 'em that don't go over so well, is it just because of the story you're currently telling, or because you've lost "it"? At least if you never have any success, one could argue you just never had "it". So do I mean it's better to never have it than to lose it? Sometimes, I think I do mean that. Then you can blame something nebulous on failure. "I'm just not good at that." "My genes suck." "The planets align against me." Whatever excuse you use, you can't prove it's not that, so it's valid. Maybe Jupiter and Neptune really do hate you.

But if you get something that could be considered a success – and in many ways, I do consider The Chosen a success – then the ambiguous excuses start to sound hollow. If stuff starts to go to shit, then it's pretty much just your fault.

I say I write for me, and I do. I tell the stories that I want to tell. But we're all human, and deep down, we have that need for acceptance. Approval. I think that's why I'm finding some of S9 harder than I did S8. When I wrote S8, it think I had an audience of like three. At least, at the beginning I did, but as it grew, I still sort of kept the mentality that I had from the beginning of the season. Now with S9 ... well, it's definitely expanded, so I can't keep track as well. But going from all the stats information I can find, I think I have something like 600-800 readers, give or take.

Depend on your perspective, that's either tremendous or it's nothing. For me, I break out into a cold sweat if I think about it too much. For the most part, it doesn't really affect me, at least in terms of the stories. I keep my eye on the ball, I write to please me, and I remind myself at least three times a week that for every person who loves something, there's probably three who don't, and I can never, ever make everybody happy.

Still though, there are those cold sweats sometimes.

I just really have a lazy, cowardly nature I think. I want excuses to fail so I don't have to try so hard. In this respect, The Chosen has probably been better for me than anything I've done in years. (Ever?) Sometimes it's easy, but sometimes it's so very hard. I push through the hard parts anyway though, because I'm determined to do this. Hell, I have those 600-800 people counting on me, and I don't want to let them down.

More than that, I made a vow to myself that I would see this through. Every time it gets hard, every time the voices of self-doubt go from whispers to screams, every time I wish I had no responsibilities at all, I just look at what I've done, look at what I want to do, and then keep doing it. I made a vow.

I'm not used to keeping promises to myself. This is pretty neat.

So last night, after I wrote that entry, I decided to just walk away. After three hours of nothing, I went upstairs and played CoH with Mike for about 45 minutes. Went downstairs after that (guilt! eating me alive!) and managed to bang out the next four to five page scene in about 20 minutes. Not only that, but afterward, we managed to iron out some stuff for the end of the season which I'm really jazzed about.

"I can't do this," I'd said to myself. Then I did it anyway. Plus some.

It's pretty daunting, this virtual series thing. And I've never done anything so rewarding.

ETA: You guys are awesome and I love you, but I'm really just talking because I have a big mouth. Nobody scramble for the peptalk bit, I'm good. :)

Le Sigh.

I have to write today. It's not really an option. I have an episode posting this Tuesday, and it's only half done.

I sat downstairs for three hours and wrote two words.

<beats self>

Oh, and in other news ...

I got all "A"s this term. Of course, this was after speaking with one of my instructors about how I felt my "B" was unfair and didn't accurately reflect my performance in the class.

"Oh, yeah. Oops."

So yay for "A"s. I have an appointment with McGrath's to celebrate.

I hate sneezing.

Remember a week or two ago when I was bitching about sneezing? Well it hasn't gotten better. In fact, I'd venture to say it's gotten worse. So I'm very reluctantly on the allergy train at the moment, because besides the odd moment here and there when I really feel like shit, it's a cold that's never kicking in. And whatever it is, Mike has it too.

So after an evening of complaining bitterly, Mum went and bought us one of those Sharper Image Ionic filter thingies for our anniversary. It arrived today. I have it plugged in and hope to be breathing (note: breathing. Not sneezing.) happy ionized allergen-free air shortly.

Which will be good, because I swear to god, I'm no longer a human being, I'm just one big sack of mucas loosely contained by skin.

Bulldogs

For no good reason, I just went poking on the web. I found the website for my old high school. Now I'm wondering if my memory holds up. <ahem>

For Baton Rough High
We raise our cry
For the school we all adore
We'll raise our standards high
'Till heard from shore to shore
Then we'll FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT
Will all our might
'Till victory's in sight
Then we'll raise our banners high
For dear old Baton Rouge High

Looking at the words, that's a really weak song. Plus what's up with that, raising a standard high to be heard? WTF? Plus, aren't there enough words in the English language that rhyme with "high"? You have to use it to anchor four lines? And using "'till" twice? Hmph.

<clicks through> Ahh, okay, "'till known from shore to shore". My other complaints stand.

Now I'm caught in 12-year old flashbacks. Help!

ETA: Always so much better: The LSU Fight Song (note: MP3 download). I'll be damned if I ever learned the words. Never dampened my enthusiasm though. (Dun dadada, dun dun dadada, dun dadada DA dundadadadaaaa ...)

Another story blip.

I had that musing about the Condit/Levy thing a little while back, and another seemingly dropped story has been blipping on my memory's rader screen. So anybody know what happened to Elian Gonzales?

As always, note that I don't care enough to actually find the answers for myself, but the curiosity lingers.

Google is my friend.

I love Google. I was checking the stats for The Chosen and saw this referral link:

www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=STORY OF BUFFY AND DAWN FINGERING EACH OTHER AND ENJOYING IT.

I'm not sure what trips me out more:

1) Someone actually seeking a story with such squick.

2) That they found my site through this search. (They came in on 8x18, for those curious, which wow – would that have been a very different episode.)

or 3) Their quantifier of "AND ENJOYING IT". It's like, "I want incestual lesbian porn, but it can't be forced or nothing, because dude – I got standards."

Oh, but I just followed the search link? Mine's the top hit. The preview part that Google quotes:

"I could make Dawn do it," Buffy concluded with a bright smile. ... "We won't
have so far to travel to see each other," she whispered, "and we've got the ..."

Roffle. "I could make Dawn do it!"

Can't Stop the Signal

Serenity preview screening, round three, coming (hopefully) to a town near some of you.

Tickets go onsale tomorrow, Thursday 9 June, for the next showing. That showing will be two weeks later on Thursday, 23 June.

Check Can't Stop the Signal for more details, but for those of you just dying to know, here's a rundown of the lucky 35 cities:

Albany, NY
Chamblee, GA
Austin, TX
Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Charlotte, NC
Newport, KY
Columbus, OH
Dallas, TX
Highlands Ranch, CO
Manchester, CT
Houston, TX
Indianapolis, IN
Kansas City, MO
Las Vegas, NV
Riverside, CA (looks like this one's actually sold out already)
Aventura, FL
Memphis, TN
Edina, MN
Elizabeth, NJ
Norfolk, VA
Bensalem, PA
Tempe, AZ
West Homestead, PA
Portland, OR
Providence, RI
Roseville, CA
Salt Lake City, UT
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
Creve Coeur, MO
Tampa, FL
West Toronto, ON
Vancouver, BC
Washington DC

Get ready to get clickin' tomorrow.

Go Jet Wolf! It's your birthday!

Aww yeah, who just scored a 100% on her networking final? That's right baby. Uh-huh. Go me. Go me.

Lords of Dogtown

We saw a promo for this at the movies a while ago. I actually can't remember what movie we were in, but we don't go to that many, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

I just wanted to say that I'm still irritated by it, and I swear I will never watch the movie for its stupid, STUPID trailer.

It's a movie about the beginning of skateboarding, right? Set in the 1970s. Fine. Not exactly my cup of tea, but okay.

But what set me off was the soundtrack they played. This movie, set in the '70s, about real people who lived in the '70s, complete with hair and clothing styles of the '70s, had freaking GREEN DAY in their promo. From the new album even! Yes, I get that "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" was practically written to be a smash hit for the disenfranchised in the nation today, but the keyword in there is today. As in, not the freaking 1970's.

I only saw the promo once, and I'm still pissed as hell about it. It makes no sense. It's insulting. And it's bloody irritating.

I hereby declare Lords of Dogtown the crappiest movie of the year. Even if it's not (and I'd never know), it is.

Hmph.

I need to go upstairs and do the poster/promo for 9x06, but if I'm doing that, I can't hover around, waiting to see if the third preview screening tickets for Serenity are going on sale today. So, so torn.

HEART!

Mike just walked in with flowers and muffins for breakfast. Aww. I loves me some dork.

ETA: That would be "muffins for breakfast and flowers", of course. Not that we're having flowers for breakfast.

Who rocks like Browncoats rock.

Whoops, forgot all about this. On our way to the theater last Thursday, we wound up behind this car. Followed it for a few blocks to the theater, which was helpful because then I didn't have to worry about winding through the extraordinarily confusing parking lot to get there.

Gotta love us some dedication. And my camera phone.

Hero Antics

"I own you, bitch."


All we need now is our own inspiring hero theme.