So, the boyfriend and I went to see Safe tonight. ( minor non-movie-breaking spoilers )

Even if it didn't have Jason Statham being blisteringly hot and scruffy while beating the fucking daylights out of a lot of people, I would have loved it for that.

It is so awesome to see the Avengers squee all over my flist. I saw it ten days ago and adored it, and have been waiting eagerly for ALL THE FIC and ALL THE REACTION POSTS ever since.

The only thing better than the Avengers movie is the fannish squee it engenders.

Just got back from seeing The Avengers. I'll post more detailed thoughts later, but the short version with no spoilers: it lived up to the hype. Did it EVER.

*glee*

Less than two dozen issues in, and I think I'm done with New Avengers. a) I really hate the "set up to look bad in the media through no fault of your own" trope, which this storyline is playing off, and b) Luke Cage is a colossal dick. Which is a shame, as I'm enjoying a lot of the rest of the characters (and I now finally get why Spidey is so many peoples' favouritest ever). Still, even if they get past the whole "the whole world hates the Avengers" shtick, I don't know that I can get past wanting to punch Luke Cage in the face multiple times every issue.

Avengers fandom made rarepairs great (hello, Clint/Darcy, I'm looking at you), so what I really want to know is: is anybody writing Tony Stark/Phil Coulson? Why not?

Think of it. This would be greatness. Honest.

Edit: Yes, yes, they are, and it IS greatness. I found this:

Pulling Pigtails (3835 words) by mdevile
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012), Marvel (Movies)
Rating: Explicit
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Phil Coulson/Tony Stark
Characters: Phil Coulson, Tony Stark
Summary:

Tony shouldn't know the new season of Supernanny starts this week, but he does. Because Coulson is an ass.

...and that just inevitably reminds me of last year's match (or the year before, I can't remember) when George R R Martin was being a dick about fanfic in support of Diana Gabaldon, while simultaneously writing Suvudu fight match-up stories and textually hypothesising about what would happen when one of his characters encountered, IDK, was it Hermione Granger?

Dude, that right there? That was fanfic. Any attempt to argue otherwise is wilful misunderstanding, or hypocrisy.

After multiple attempts at Tumblr, I gave up and decided it wasn't for me. However, enough people are taking to it that I feel that I'm rather missing out on the conversation without following Tumblr, so I'm trying again.

ejlh is me -- what about you lot?

So I'm in fairly heavy-duty task avoidance mode at the moment and thus I've been mainlining Chuck in all spare moments over the last few days. I'm about halfway through Season 4 at the moment; I've got 22 episodes left, and I'm really enjoying it. I did have to skip a few episodes here and there due to story ick buttons, and skim-watched chunks of a few more to avoid other story ick buttons, but by and large it's been consistently, well, Awesome. There have been huge numbers of moments, in every season, that have made me do the Flappy Hands of Squee. (And others that have made me cry. Like Castle, this show is good at switching effortlessly from banter to heartbreak.)

One thing that I'm really finding interesting is that for once, the character I find most appealing on the show is the main character -- normally the characters that appeal to me personally (in terms of people I'd be attracted to romantically or want to be friends with) are the sidekicks, token geeks and goofballs - best summarised as "I'd take McGee over DiNozzo any day of the week" - but one of the joys of Chuck is that Chuck himself is, you know, one of us. He's the kind of person I would actually want to be friends with, which is a rare thing in mainstream media.

It also doesn't hurt that he's played by Zachary Levi, who was adorably, geekily cute in Season 1, and somehow by Season 3 he'd morphed from cute into 'blisteringly hot'. Wow, seriously, just wow. (Which makes Chuck's continued insecurity about Sarah's feelings, based on his perception of her being out of his league, kind of ridiculous. Oh, Hollywood - I remember when you tried to convince us in Miss Congeniality that Sandra Bullock wasn't that hot, too. It didn't work then either.)

I've already seen this recced all over, but I should add my voice to the throng: Cat's in the Cradle by daasgrrl. It's House & BBC Sherlock & Fortysomething, and it's one of the best constructed-reality vids I've ever seen, up there with Killa's Closer and Laura Shapiro's Hurricane and various other greats, IMO. It plays on the fact that House and Sherlock are both derived from the same literary source, and Hugh Laurie (House) and Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) played father & son in Fortysomething. I loved it even though I only know one of the three sources. It is a slice of vidding perfection, truly.

Yesterday I was struck with the urge to watch Chuck, which I'd given up on originally for various reasons. I'm so far behind the storyline it's not funny, so I hauled out my old DVDs to watch from the start, and I'm actually really enjoying it this time around. Mostly by dint of skipping all the bits that make me cringe, but that's okay - it's not like the plot is the point. :)

Also, being partway through S2 now, I am really surprised that Chuck/Sarah/Bryce is not more of a thing in fic, because the dynamic is perfect for it.

Seen most recently via helens78.

( Answers behind the cut. )

The Avengers comes out April 25 here! I AM MADE OF SQUEE AND YAY.

On the other hand: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is apparently a real movie and I don't know whether to collapse into hysterical laughter or just stare at Hollywood in disbelief for a while.

Maybe both?

From Ars Technica:

Google has also added some new security functionality to Chrome. Every time that the user downloads a file, the browser will compare it against a whiltelist of known-good files and publishers. If the file isn't in the whitelist, its URL will be transmitted to Google's servers, which will perform an automatic analysis and attempt to guess if the file is malicious based on various factors like the trustworthiness of its source. If the file is deemed a potential risk, the user will receive a warning.

Google says that data collected by the browser for the malware detection feature is only used to flag malicious files and isn't used for any other purpose. The company will retain the IP address of the user and other metadata for a period of two weeks, at which point all of the data except the URL of the file will be purged from Google's databases.

No thankyou. Time to go back to Safari on the Mac, methinks; I'm already using FF on the PC.

(Crossposted to my other journal, apologies if you see it twice.)

...one thing I really, really like about NCIS - both Original Flavour and Hot and Spicy Los Angeles - is that it gets gender stuff pretty much right. There aren't as many female characters as I'd like, but those that exist are all unique individuals with as much interesting baggage, skills and camera time as the guys. There might not be many women, but those that are there are very much more than the "token chick", and it's a welcome relief from far too many other shows.

Also, apropos of nothing, we had our first SWTOR raid tonight. Surprisingly fun.

When in doubt, post a meme. (I have been very boring for the last few days, but I do have a shiny new bathroom, at least.)

Seen lots of places: the unpopular opinions meme.

( Saving flists since 2012! )

It is most frustrating when you read an awesome story in a fandom you're currently wallowing in, only to discover it's the only thing the author has written in the fandom. (This thought brought to you by devildoll's Semaphore.)

Oh! And I remembered the crossover idea I referenced in my last post. I've read a few crossovers lately (Avengers, naturally) riffing off the fact that one of the actors played X other role in Y other show or movie. And musesfool has been talking and writing about Push lately, a movie I enjoyed a surprising amount back at the time. Push stars Chris Evans as Nick Gant, a "Special" (someone with parapsychic gifts; in Nick's case he's a Mover, or telekinetic).

So, the premise was a bit sleep-fuddled but basically went:

The obvious temptation to cross over Push and the Marvel movieverse is just to make the Specials a batch of mutants that the government got their hands on early. But a) that's not interesting enough, b) it doesn't give you the fun Nick Gant/Steve Rogers doppelganger stuff, and c) it doesn't explain why Specials fall into a few pre-defined categories instead of displaying the wide range of mutations you see in the X-men. So let's rule it out.

What if, after Captain America disappeared, the government started experimenting with samples they'd taken from Steve during Erskine's treatment process? I'm sure they'd have taken blood and tissue samples from Steve, since he was all they had left of the serum. So they start using this to try and develop more serum - and they never quite manage to recreate Captain America, but they manage to create Specials. (One has to assume that it's mutagenic, i.e. changes your DNA, which is a) how Steve stays permanently beefed up, and b) how the kids of Specials are usually second-generation Specials.)

The researchers responsible go deeper and deeper underground as their practices get shadier and shadier, which is where Division comes from. Eventually, as medical technology improves, they create a clone from Steve's samples, and wind up with Nick Gant - his father did always tell him he was special. The "drug" they use to try and boost Specials is a bastardised and amped-up version of the serum that creates Specials in the first place, which is why so few of them survive it - imagine going through that process twice, the second time an order of magnitude worse than the first.

I think it all hangs together fairly well. The likelihood of me ever doing anything with it is fairly remote, though. ;)

(Edit: I still have no explanation for how Johnny Storm also looks like a clone of Captain America. *sigh*)

I have run out of Avengers stories to read. This makes me sadface, especially as I have to load my iPad up with stuff to read for the next couple of days.

I begged for recs a few weeks ago and I think I've read all of them already. ;) So if anyone's got more to share, please feel free.

Also, I had a brilliant idea for a genius crossover involving The Avengers last night as I was drifting off to sleep, but now I can't remember what it was.

(Edited to remove excessive begging for recs after realising my second-last post was a near-identical request. Oops :))

It seems my decision to skip Yuletide and Festivids this year was the right one - I still haven't *read* anything from Yuletide yet, let alone watched any vids. I fail at fandom, apparently. Well, actually, it's not that - it's the fact that my life is totally topsy-turvy right now with renovations, plus establishing a guild in SWTOR, plus Uni work... I'm just so behind with the fannish side of life.

Though not so behind that I've managed to avoid falling into Avengers movieverse fandom, it seems. It started with a few hints of Clint/Darcy written by people whose stuff I liked, and the addiction is full-blown now. It pushes a lot of the same buttons that Star Trek reboot fandom did: it seems I have a weakness for teams of people with affection and conflict, living cheek-by-jowl and being full of banter and snark and competence.

(Also, it's surprising how well fanon Tony Stark & Steve Rogers map to Kirk & Spock, if you ignore Spock's Vulcanness.)

I'm jonesing for Avengers movieverse fic at the moment - including Iron Man/Thor/Captain America movieverses too, of course. I'm less interested in Steve/Tony or Steve/Bucky than other pairings or gen shenanigans, but I'll basically read anything at the moment, especially if it's fun and lighthearted and features banter, snark, or generally adorable ridiculousness. (Bonus points for Darcy, Coulson, Clint, or any of the less common PoV characters.)

Rec me tasty tasty fic? Please? :)

One of my favourite LJ comms, where_no_woman, has just forked to DW. All content up to the end of 2011 has been imported over, and going forward the two comms will have separate content, although they share a moderation team.

where_no_woman was created on LJ in response to the erasure of women from the Star Trek reboot, and is dedicated to woman-centric Star Trek fanwork of all stripes. Definitely worth checking out if you're even remotely interested in Trek.

Man, it is a good thing I didn't do Yuletide. I don't even know where the last six weeks went, but there's less than zero chance I'd have got Yuletide done on time if I'd tried.

I'm back at Uni (doing postgrad Arts (Writing), probably aiming at a Masters) and it's a lot more of a struggle trying to fit the study time into my life than I'd expected. Ten hours a week per subject doesn't sound like much, but it is. Especially when you're a chronic procrastinator like me. I'm currently staring at some slightly overdue work, and it's staring back at me, and it's just not getting done. Thankfully my tutor is very relaxed about due dates, but the longer I leave things, the more work piles up and the pile gets more and more intimidating and insurmountable.

And then there's SWTOR, which is amazingly fun and terribly, terribly addictive; I'm currently trying to avoid it else there's no way I'll get my Uni work done, but it's tricky!

So, yeah. I'm about six weeks behind with my flist, and I'm going to try to catch up but it won't be easy. Did I miss anything important? :)

Still dealing with computer issues and the start of my postgrad studies (omg) and sick like a sick thing, but I just had to rec Talking Trash and Wasting Time which is hilarious and awesome Avengers movieverse fic from musesfool, wherein everyone treats Darcy like a bro, except Clint, who is adorably crap at flirting. Also, this fic will make you want Sif/Steve very, very much - everyone's jumped on the (awesome) Darcy/Clint bandwagon, so I'm really hoping Sif/Steve finds some traction, too.

Mmm, Sif/Steve traction.

Ahem.

Yes! It is awesome. Go read.

avengers trailer avengers trailer avengers trailer AVENGERS TRAILER

My latest project: CrewSkills.net, my SW:TOR blog focusing on - but not limited to - crew skills, crafting, and companions. I have really, really missed WoW-blogging at Banana Shoulders; it's only been my enthusiasm for WoW that has waned, not my enthusiasm for gaming and game blogging. I've been planning a SW:TOR blog for a while, was searching for a 'hook' to personalise it beyond 'come see what I did on Corellia this weekend!' and presto, CrewSkills is the result.

* My tag bundles are gone. All of them.
* I hate the new layout. Less data and more whitespace is good for reading; it's not useful for a complex environment where more data is better.
* My tag list has maybe 40 or 50 tags on it, out of my HUNDREDS of tags. Nowhere can I find a list of "all tags you have used".

And you can't even rename or delete tags. Way to improve functionality there guys, nice work.

Fucking hell, AVOS - it wasn't broke, so why did you 'fix' it?

I've been mainlining Saving Grace recently, because Jamie mentioned he'd been enjoying it (it's finally airing here, four years after it began and one year after it was cancelled in the US). Mostly I'm hearing everything as if it were said in Holly Hunter's gorgeous voice at the moment, but I also have thinky thoughts.

( all the thoughts! may be spoilery? )

Okay, that wasn't ALL THE THOUGHTS, but it was at least some of them.

So, back to working on my current vidding project, and it's not going well. That is, it's stalled around the point where it always stalls: I've got 20-30 seconds of finished-ish clip sequence, and I'm looking at the rest of the song going "...now what?" Other vidders make it look so eeeeeasy, saying what they want to say with their vids and having intelligent narratives and actually making *art* beyond a frenetic three minute string of quasi-related clips.

I think I need an expert to hold my hand and tell me what to do, but I'm beginning to suspect that - much though I love vidding, and though I'm overflowing with ideas for vids - I'm not actually cut out for it.

(It doesn't help that I'm learning a new program, either, although technical proficiency will come with practice and it's not where I'm having the obstacle anyway.)

such_heights gave me these icons to talk about.

( I could talk about icons alllll day. )So, that's them. Do post in the comments if you're offering up your own icons to talk about!

...and Natalie Portman, aka Dr Jane Foster, isn't listed as part of the cast for The Avengers.

I really hope Dr Foster at least gets a reference in the movie, as the means by which the Bifrost is reopened or some such. ( As it is, The Avengers is looking like a total sausage-fest... (cut for casting spoilers) )

Women Fighters in Reasonable Armor: a Tumblr.

It is kind of fantastic and I wish there was more of it.

I have this burning desire to vid the Harry Potter movies to "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance. Someone tell me that's been done so I don't have to do it? Please?

There are things I should be doing, but it's quiet and I just finished the book I was reading (the latest Janet Evanovich), and why not do a meme? No reason! Thus, meme:

(swiped from musesfool)

( books! )

Happy VVC to all of you attending! I have much envy. Hope it is fun and filled with viddy awesomeness. :)

So, o mighty internets, advice please?

I have loved the hell out of a lot of the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe stuff. I adored Iron Man, I loved Captain America, I really liked Iron Man 2, and I quite enjoyed Thor. (I didn't see The Incredible Hulk, after Ang Lee's previous Hulk adaptation left me rather meh, and I've never been a Hulk fan.)

I am keen to wallow in more Avengers-y goodness, but to date most of my Marvel reading and watching has been X-Men-centric. What should I be reading or watching, either current or finished? I'm not a fan of old comics; I find it hard to get past the dated art to appreciate the stories, but anything from the last fifteen years or so should be fine. Animation, comics, it's all good. Rec me!

(Crossposted; apologies if you see this twice. I'm trying to plumb the knowledge banks of all my groups of friends, here. :))

I know a lot of you are keen cooks and/or knowledgeable about food, so I'd like to ask for some advice and input. I'll put it behind a cut for the sake of those with eating/food issues.

( Onwards for my request for advice! )

Thankyou for any input you can offer!

(Cross-posted to a community and my own journal.)

Clint Barton and Darcy Lewis never even meet during Thor. And yet there's a selection of awesome writers doing their very best to make Darcy/Clint fanon. This is why I love fandom - because we take anything and run with it, dammit.

Also, Darcy/Clint is awesome. :D

(My small-but-growing bookmarks list is under this delicious tag. :))

( Read more... )

Also, Maddie continues to be awesome, and I have all the ♥ for her. Although ( what was up with... )

That was awesome. Can it be next week now please?

The Raven, the Rooks, and the Lantern by sharpestrose, aka mary. It's a lovely XMFC/Narnia crossover and thoroughly worth it.

...Lee Goldberg's brother, Tod, writes licensed Burn Notice tie-in novels.

Remember, Lee Goldberg is the guy who characterises fanfic writing as "Why toil on characters you don't own in a world that's not your own? It's not even literary masturbation. It's more like the literary equivalent of having sex with an inflatable woman who looks like Halle Berry."

(Apart from a couple of stylistic issues, the Burn Notice novels are actually not bad. Nearly as good as the Burn Notice fanfic I've read, in fact.)

I am sick like a sick sick thing. It's either a horrible cold or a mild flu and either way I'm absolutely wrecked. *deathrattle*

So, how about some TV to ease the pain...

( Thoughts on Burn Notice 5.03 )

Interesting stuff. I like the direction that the show is going in, I think, but it's still taking some adjustment. Still, from the teaser it looks like stuff changes next week, so... we shall see.

I should totally be doing dishes, so I'm watching Burn Notice. You know how it goes.

( Thoughts on 5.02. )

I never thought I'd be hoping for Michael Westen's life to suck again.

This pretty much sums up my attitude to Google+. I'm really rather keen to try it - if anyone can hook me up I'd be forever grateful.

Incidentally, this cnet article covers a way to get your friends in on Google+ even if you don't have invites to share.

Edit: I am all hookéd up, with thanks to generous friends. I'm not sure if there's an easy way to link to my profile; if you're there and wish to connect, PM me for my gmail addy if you don't know it already.

Ever since Final Cut Pro X was announced a few months ago, I'd been eagerly awaiting it - I wanted to get back into vidding, I needed decent NLE software, Final Cut Pro Studio was $1600, and all the editors who'd got a first look at FCPX thought it looked like the bee's knees. Awesome. Great.

It released this week, and I blew 2/3 of my little get-new-software savings fund on it, and I'm kind of sad. I like it, personally - a lot. I think it's great for what I want, it's a great price point, and the learning curve is pleasantly un-steep (although there are some quirks around media management that I don't like, but hey, nothing's perfect).

But it's been absolutely panned by the professional video editing community, and from the sounds of it, justifiably so. It's just fundamentally lacking a lot of features that professional post editors absolutely have to have - and further, there are design decisions that are antithetical to what pro editors need, which implies they're conscious choices and unlikely to be improved-on later. This piece by Jeffery Harrell sums it up nicely.

So I can't blame the pro editors for being pretty upset about the state of things right now. I'm just... sad, I guess, that this thing that made me happy is being criticised as being utterly useless. And sad that it probably means it'll go the way of the dinosaurs - being committed to and/or invested in a dead-end piece of software is frustrating, as you never get the third-party support bigger products enjoy.

Bleh. I can't work out why the negative reaction is bothering me so much - I'm not a pro editor, why should I care? But it is, and I do. Hmph.

-

Worth noting, though, that it may be weak for pro editors, but FCPX is a rather nice NLE for a vidder. And cheap. Cheap is good.

You know, I was really pretty excited about the upcoming DC reboot - I really like comics in general, but I don't follow anything enough to keep up with the storylines, and DC is just so intimidating to try and get into. (As is Marvel.) So I've mostly stuck to the other labels and other kinds of stories, but I like superheroes, and I was relishing the chance to get in at the ground floor with one of the big superhero universes, without having to try to learn years of legacy backstory.

And then we find out that actually, they're keeping around a bunch of the legacy backstory (ie Batman and Green Lantern stuff), and they actually don't care about fans like me - like us - anyway.

From Bleeding Cool:

The target audience are men age 18 to 34 though they do realize that they have readers in other demographics.

This from one of the monoliths in an industry that has been shrinking for years. I can only assume that, in the words of Yahtzee, they're allergic to money and success.

(Also, given the dearth of superheroes of colour in the reboot, I think it's safe to say that there's an unspoken "we mean white men" in their audience identification.)

Guess what, DC? I'm pretty sure that you've already got all the (white-)men-aged-18-to-34 you're going to get. This was a good chance to make fans like me feel welcome in non-token ways, and not only did you blow it, you didn't care in the first place.

Since you don't want me as a fan, I won't burden you with my icky girl money - I'll continue throwing it at Dark Horse, and maybe have yet another try at Marvel. At least neither of them have officially said they don't care about my interest.

Oh, Michael Westen, ILU. (In other words, I just watched Burn Notice 5.01.)

( thoughts! )

I am VIDDING, you guys. This is tremendously exciting. I have missed it so. *hugs Final Cut*

Of course, it's 7am and I have guests due today and work to do this afternoon and I totally have to sleep - somebody make me go to bed.


**

In other news, James McAvoy apparently ships Charles/Erik, which fills me with nearly as much :D :D :D as his suggestions for RPF pairing names.

I haaaaaaaaate having to defend my (informed) decisions not to consume media if other people like it, especially if it's nerdnip and it's the kind of thing people think I "ought" to like. Screw ought.

No, I will not read Game of Thrones; I realise you think it's the best stuff since whatever, but I do not want to read a series of books that will almost certainly depress and frustrate the hell out of me. Especially not since the author was a dick about fanfic and I do not wish to give him any of my brain space. Nor will I watch the TV series, for similar reasons.

No, I will not watch X Men First Class, because I find stories where relationships are inevitably doomed to be miserable and depressing. I wish I could love this Big New Fandom because so many of my friends and favourite writers are a) loving it and b) likely to be producing some amazing work. And I would love to want to watch the movie because I have had a massive raging crush on Michael Fassbender since 300 and I want moar. And I really like the X Men in general But I do not want to be sad or miserable, and this movie will make me both.

Argh, this just... it makes me rage. I get that fans proselytise and they (we) want other people to love what they (we) love. But I have good and valid reasons for not wanting to see or read these things, and I am perpetually enraged and frustrated both by the identity policing ("real geeks" read/watch these properties) and by the utter condescension (I know what's better for your tastes, mental state and happiness than you do).

This is BSG all over again.

(Edit: Ooh, I should clarify, this is not directed at anyone on my f'list/d'roll - just venting.)

Every time I read Television Without Pity recaps, I remind myself that there is nothing more depressing than watching someone rag on something you enjoy, for no apparent reason. And yet I keep going back. Sigh.

Not that I think one should automatically give all media a pass ever; there's plenty of crap out there, and nothing's good all the time. But I really wish that TWoP would engage recappers who at least somewhat like the shows they're recapping; fond snark or honest criticism would be a lot less unpleasant than constant sniping.

leupagus started a round of Recast Your Favourite Show, and it got me thinking. Now I want to recast ALL THE SHOWS.

( Burn Notice recast! )

That was fun! Now ( let's recast NCIS Los Angeles! )