Life + fangirling = hmm...
Aug. 3rd, 2011 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunasarielI'm typing this on my brand spankin' new MacBook Pro, tentatively named Sleekerton. The data transfer process from Lila, my trust old MacBook, which I began at around 8:00 Sunday night (this being Wednesday early afternoon), finally wrapped up in the wee hours of this morning. I was initially all O.o when it looked like, after more than 48 hours of near-complete loss of Internet (neither of my laptops could be used while transferring data), that just a few settings had actually made it over, but then I made the happy mistake of re-starting Sleekerton, and when he finished rebooting, everything was here, exactly like it is on Lila! So a big thank you to Mac! Your products may be nail-bitingly delicate, perhaps-more-than-slightly overpriced, and disgustingly trendy, but when they work, they *work*!
So it turns out that two days and some change of my only window to teh Intertubez being my iPhone 4G (Skippyjon III bore up beautifully, btw) means *a lot* of backlog. Going through LJ alone took me nearly three hours today! As usual, my sincerest apologies for not being as attentive to my flist as I should; it looks like my life is calming down a little, so I should have some time to work on it soon!
I mentioned C's and H's looming wedding in my last post, and I'm pleased to say that it went off without a hitch. Well, without a major hitch, at least. Garrett, the 18-month-old ringbearer, missed his nap that day, so was a little cranky going down the aisle, and due to the ...communal nature of the bride's/bridesmaids' dressing room, a lot of people ended up accidentally trading stuff. For example, I'm missing a bra, a pair of black sandals, and a flash drive, but I somehow ended up with somebody's hairspray and makeup bag.
I won't say that it wasn't nerve-wracking, both the prep and the actual event. The Best Man was, frankly, useless. Two out of five groomsmen didn't even know that we were having a rehearsal! They did show up eventually, albeit an hour and a half late. By that point, I had become the de facto co-wedding planner (my compatriots were H's mother and grandmother, but the bridesmaids [and, eventually, groomsmen] were strictly my responsibility), so it was my responsibility to make sure that the groomsmen knew that it wasn't their fault and that nobody was mad at them, and then to yell at the Best Man.
I've never really yelled at anybody before, so this was kind of a new experience for me. I always prefer negotiation to confrontation, and I have a hard time getting worked up enough to sound anything more than mildly admonishing, but K, the Best Man, had been nothing but trouble throughout the entire planning process, so I really let loose on him after the rehearsal dinner. I let him know that it was definitely not okay for him to just expect things to happen, that C and H were under enough stress already, that they shouldn't have to run after him and make sure that he's doing his job. It's the job of the regular groomsmen and bridesmaids to show up at the proper places and times with the proper clothes, and not under the influence of anything other than nerves. It's the job of the Best Man and Maid of Honor (or Deputy Maid of Honor, in my case) to provide support for both groom and groomsmen or bride and bridesmaids, depending. It's our duty to be in constant contact with the bride or groom, so that they don't have to hunt us down and tell us what's going on. K's excuse for not informing the groomsmen was that he didn't know the time of the rehearsal himself, but it's his job to know! The whole point of the Best Man or Maid of Honor is to take the pressure off the groom or bride by making sure that everything with the rest of the wedding party runs smoothly. I told K that I would really appreciate it if he would actually act like a Best Man and take some responsibility for once in his life, because this is something that really shouldn't be messed up.
Of course, laziness wasn't the only wedding-party related drama I had to untangle. Christine, the bridesmaid from out of town, was staying at my house, and she can be...dramatic. Throughout the entire planning process, Christine had been constantly pestering me, C, and H for updates on everything. I tried to reassure her that she wouldn't be left out of the loop, that everything would be ready on time, but her relentless niggling kinda got on my nerves. Apparently, it got on C's too, because the day before the wedding, she had texted him about one of the million little things that she was obsessing over, and C snapped and gave her a piece of his mind. Now, C is one of the gentlest, sweetest, most soft-spoken men I know, so I took this as an indicator of the enormous pressure he was under. But Christine FREAKED OUT. First, she declared, in high dudgeon, that she didn't want to be in the wedding anymore. I had to do a lot of smoothing over and sympathetic cooing before she would calm down enough to admit that C probably had a lot to deal with, between his UPCOMING WEDDING, constant fighting with his family over said wedding, and the EMT exam he'll be taking in a few weeks, and Christine's pestering was probably just the straw that broke the camel's back. Eventually he apologized and she felt vindicated, so that all came out in the wash.
But all personal drama aside, the wedding itself was wonderful. It was a nominally Christian ceremony, with a few Pagan elements (handfasting, jumping the broom) and some old-school rock thrown in for flavor. They also asked me to read a poem, Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, which was very sweet. The song that played when the wedding party left the church (outbound processional? idk the official term) was ZZ Top's "Gimme All Your Lovin'," which ROCKED, and we all sang a couple of traditional Camp Caz songs (Camp Caz is a summer camp that both C and H attended, and where many of their strongest memories come from), and I will freely admit to getting a bit weepy during "Lean On Me." At that point, it just kind of struck me that the little kid who threw snowballs at eighth-graders and kept on truckin' through literally dozens of hospital visits, who was brave when I couldn't be, had suddenly become this amazing, beautiful woman who had decided to share her life with an amazing, beautiful man. I haven't known C as long, but he made a big impression very quickly. I don't think it's possible to spend more than five minutes with him and not like him. Like I said, he's just about the sweetest-tempered, friendliest, most affable guy I know, always interested in finding compromises and working together. I honestly could not be happier for Chris and Heather Paxton, I'm proud to be their friend, and I wish them many, many years of happiness.
But now the wedding is over and I have Internet access again, so I can turn to my next big worry: UC! The problem with my IGETC has been cleared up, so now I only (*snerk*) have to worry about housing and AP scores. I was originally assigned to Unit 2, one of the big dorms, but I put in a transfer to Wada, a smaller dorm geared towards upper-division and grad students. I'd had enough of the wild, hard-partying crowd in London, so I was looking forward to a more mature environment. But then I did a bit of research, and living in Wada would cost substantially more than Unit 2, and my parents really can't afford to spend any more money, so that's all figured out.
The main reasons I was so worried about my IGETC and Registration Block was that it meant that I didn't have access to any of my financial aid, and that I couldn't move into my dorm. The dorm thing was worrying because I move in in...three weeks (yikes!), but now that's taken care of. Similarly, we definitely would not be able to afford Berkeley without the scholarships, student loans, and other assorted financial aid that I've received, so I'm really glad that I can access that again.
My last big worry of the moment is my AP scores. My AP scores prove that I've fulfilled IGETC, which means that I can skip right over lower-division classes and get right to the fun stuff. The problem is, I called the AP Board on July 6th to have my scores sent in, but they still aren't showing up on the Cal website, which is worrying. I'm in touch with my (terribly overworked, I get the feeling) admissions adviser, and hopefully she'll be able to sort me out. But until then, double, double, toil and trouble!
In other, much lighter, news, I am now officially 21! My birthday was only five days before C's and H's wedding, so I anticipated it being a very low-key affair (I certainly didn't have the energy to get anything together, nor did anyone else, at that point). On the 25th, my birthday, a bunch of us got together at J's house for a combination birthday party (for me)/bachelor party (for C)/bachelorette party (for H)/going-away party (for J, who went back up to Oregon yesterday), where my amazing friends surprised me with a cake! I didn't drink much, but I had a kickass time all the same.
In Nerd News, casting announcements for Game of Thrones season 2 continues apace (also, they started filming on my birthday! Yaaaayyy!). As a card-carying Rabid Purist, I'm not at all sure about changing Asha's name to Yara (although I can see why they did it) or about this Alton Lannister. I'm generally pleased with the other decisions, though, especially Stannis. I do have my reservations about Brienne, but as has been noted before, Nina Gold hasn't steered us wrong yet, so I'm hoping that the publicity headshot we have of her isn't indicative of how she's going to look on the show, because making her attractive would just make so many problems on so many levels. But again, this is Nina we're talking about. She cast The King's Speech, the most recent Jane Eyre (which was damn good, at least from a casting point of view), Bright Star, and freakin' Hot Fuzz. On the other hand, she did do the recent Chronicles of Narnia adaptations, but then again, I'm not entirely sure those movies fail from a purely casting standpoint.
In other Nerd News, I went to see Captain America: The First Avenger the other day, and rather liked it. I find that the trick to enjoying most superhero movies is to keep your expectations low. For example, X-Men: First Class, the last superhero movie I saw, actually surprised me with its depth and complexity, such as it is. Granted, it had its share of mindless action sequences too, but oddly enough for an action(-ish) movie, the focus was much more on politics than on how many explosions you can pack into five minutes. Of course, that's not to say that TFA was just some dumb action flick, but a greater portion of it was definitely taken up with laser guns, rocket-powered cars, rocket-powered motorcycles, and generally stuff blowing up than anything else.
But then again, that might just be because the X-Men and Captain America are such wildly different characters. The X-Men have always served as a pretty clear analogy for repressed minorities who struggle to gain acceptance from the powers that be, and as such, continue to have real-world relevance, even though they were created in the 60s. Cap, on the other hand, exists to embody the ideals that America sees itself as upholding, which is a pretty cheesy idea to begin with, but then gets even better when he embodies these ideals primarily by whacking people in the face with his shield (at least in this movie). So by now, he seems a bit dated. Of course, some writers have done a fantastic job bringing him into the modern era, but there's always that underlying element of...silliness, for lack of a better word, that I think TFA does an excellent job of embracing. Half of the movie is made up of tongue-in-cheek nods to both Golden Age Captain America canon (beyond what's necessary to set up the upcoming Avengers movie) and to 40s-50s war fiction in general, and half actual action movie, but it's so darned earnest about it that it's hard to get annoyed at it.
Two reasons I liked this adaptation so much were Peggy Carter and James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes. As frequent readers of this blog (providing there are any, of course) know, I'm a sucker for a well-done action heroine. The main reason I don't like the first Iron Man is that the female lead seemed to have only two settings: Nagging Shrew and Shrieking Damsel in Distress, which kind of set a bad precedent for other Avengers prequels. However, I'm happy to say that, here Peggy kicks ass and takes names like nobody's business. She does have a few Jealous Woman moments, but then Steve himself has a few stereotypically macho Ogg Smash moments, so that balances out. But in the end, she comes out as a physically, mentally, and emotionally competent SSR (forerunner of SHIELD, if memory serves) agent, so props to her for literally sticking it to the man in an era where women voting was a relatively new concept (at least in the U.S.).
The other reason, as I mentioned, was Bucky. One thing that I'm kinda super not okay with in fandom is shipping underage characters, especially with adults. Understand, I'm not railing against those who do. I know that we're all grown-ups, and (hopefully) have the ability to distinguish between fiction and reality, and would never condone a child or preteen in a sexual or romantic relationship with an adult in real life. I'm not here to tell other people what to think or who to ship; I'm just saying that this is something that I don't particularly care for. I was actually kind of worried about this, going into TFA, because ever since Batman put Robin in those tiny green shorts, hero/sidekick ships have skirted the fine line between squicky fanon and squickier canon. So I was rather pleased, in several different ways, when Bucky went from this:
to this:
Not bad, huh? First, I was pleased because they avoided the otherwise-inevitable Cap/wee!Bucky shipping. Second, because they gave the poor guy some dignity (and pants. Srsly, wtf is it with sidekicks not wearing pants? Are all superheroes secretly pedophiles? Or are pants something you have to earn in the superhero community?). And third, because damn. Man knows how to handle a gun, if you know what I mean. ;)
So after deciding that I shipped movieverse!Steve/movieverse!Bucky (I hear that Steve/Tony [Captain America/Iron Man] is the big thing in Avengers/Marvel-in-general fandom), I did the best I could, using only my phone, to scare up some fic. And holy shit, but did I kick a hornet's nest. Trolls! Flame wars! Competing memes! Sock puppets galore! Seriously, I don't think I've seen such a combative, angry fanbase since I left Phantom of the Opera. I saw the poor mod of a new kink meme get chewed out merely on suspicion of being a legendary troll. A flame war broke out over exactly what "common triggers" are and how warning for these triggers should be enforced. War is hell, kid. Sometimes I just want to reach through my screen, grab the collective fandom by the shoulders, and scream the MST3K mantra ("It's just a show, I should really just relax!") until they un-twist their panties and calm down. I just wanted to read some fanfic, but instead, I have to navigate a minefield of old arguments and hot-button issues. What makes it worse is that Steve/Bucky (all versions) is apparently the OTP of the aforementioned legendary troll, and so declaring yourself likewise inclined could be seen as support of this particular troll, or just in support of trollery in general. I've just been lurking so far, since I definitely do not want to get involved in this fanwankery, and I'll probably stay lurked until my interest in this fandom fades, since I'm more or less only in it for teh sexii anyway.
So it turns out that two days and some change of my only window to teh Intertubez being my iPhone 4G (Skippyjon III bore up beautifully, btw) means *a lot* of backlog. Going through LJ alone took me nearly three hours today! As usual, my sincerest apologies for not being as attentive to my flist as I should; it looks like my life is calming down a little, so I should have some time to work on it soon!
I mentioned C's and H's looming wedding in my last post, and I'm pleased to say that it went off without a hitch. Well, without a major hitch, at least. Garrett, the 18-month-old ringbearer, missed his nap that day, so was a little cranky going down the aisle, and due to the ...communal nature of the bride's/bridesmaids' dressing room, a lot of people ended up accidentally trading stuff. For example, I'm missing a bra, a pair of black sandals, and a flash drive, but I somehow ended up with somebody's hairspray and makeup bag.
I won't say that it wasn't nerve-wracking, both the prep and the actual event. The Best Man was, frankly, useless. Two out of five groomsmen didn't even know that we were having a rehearsal! They did show up eventually, albeit an hour and a half late. By that point, I had become the de facto co-wedding planner (my compatriots were H's mother and grandmother, but the bridesmaids [and, eventually, groomsmen] were strictly my responsibility), so it was my responsibility to make sure that the groomsmen knew that it wasn't their fault and that nobody was mad at them, and then to yell at the Best Man.
I've never really yelled at anybody before, so this was kind of a new experience for me. I always prefer negotiation to confrontation, and I have a hard time getting worked up enough to sound anything more than mildly admonishing, but K, the Best Man, had been nothing but trouble throughout the entire planning process, so I really let loose on him after the rehearsal dinner. I let him know that it was definitely not okay for him to just expect things to happen, that C and H were under enough stress already, that they shouldn't have to run after him and make sure that he's doing his job. It's the job of the regular groomsmen and bridesmaids to show up at the proper places and times with the proper clothes, and not under the influence of anything other than nerves. It's the job of the Best Man and Maid of Honor (or Deputy Maid of Honor, in my case) to provide support for both groom and groomsmen or bride and bridesmaids, depending. It's our duty to be in constant contact with the bride or groom, so that they don't have to hunt us down and tell us what's going on. K's excuse for not informing the groomsmen was that he didn't know the time of the rehearsal himself, but it's his job to know! The whole point of the Best Man or Maid of Honor is to take the pressure off the groom or bride by making sure that everything with the rest of the wedding party runs smoothly. I told K that I would really appreciate it if he would actually act like a Best Man and take some responsibility for once in his life, because this is something that really shouldn't be messed up.
Of course, laziness wasn't the only wedding-party related drama I had to untangle. Christine, the bridesmaid from out of town, was staying at my house, and she can be...dramatic. Throughout the entire planning process, Christine had been constantly pestering me, C, and H for updates on everything. I tried to reassure her that she wouldn't be left out of the loop, that everything would be ready on time, but her relentless niggling kinda got on my nerves. Apparently, it got on C's too, because the day before the wedding, she had texted him about one of the million little things that she was obsessing over, and C snapped and gave her a piece of his mind. Now, C is one of the gentlest, sweetest, most soft-spoken men I know, so I took this as an indicator of the enormous pressure he was under. But Christine FREAKED OUT. First, she declared, in high dudgeon, that she didn't want to be in the wedding anymore. I had to do a lot of smoothing over and sympathetic cooing before she would calm down enough to admit that C probably had a lot to deal with, between his UPCOMING WEDDING, constant fighting with his family over said wedding, and the EMT exam he'll be taking in a few weeks, and Christine's pestering was probably just the straw that broke the camel's back. Eventually he apologized and she felt vindicated, so that all came out in the wash.
But all personal drama aside, the wedding itself was wonderful. It was a nominally Christian ceremony, with a few Pagan elements (handfasting, jumping the broom) and some old-school rock thrown in for flavor. They also asked me to read a poem, Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, which was very sweet. The song that played when the wedding party left the church (outbound processional? idk the official term) was ZZ Top's "Gimme All Your Lovin'," which ROCKED, and we all sang a couple of traditional Camp Caz songs (Camp Caz is a summer camp that both C and H attended, and where many of their strongest memories come from), and I will freely admit to getting a bit weepy during "Lean On Me." At that point, it just kind of struck me that the little kid who threw snowballs at eighth-graders and kept on truckin' through literally dozens of hospital visits, who was brave when I couldn't be, had suddenly become this amazing, beautiful woman who had decided to share her life with an amazing, beautiful man. I haven't known C as long, but he made a big impression very quickly. I don't think it's possible to spend more than five minutes with him and not like him. Like I said, he's just about the sweetest-tempered, friendliest, most affable guy I know, always interested in finding compromises and working together. I honestly could not be happier for Chris and Heather Paxton, I'm proud to be their friend, and I wish them many, many years of happiness.
But now the wedding is over and I have Internet access again, so I can turn to my next big worry: UC! The problem with my IGETC has been cleared up, so now I only (*snerk*) have to worry about housing and AP scores. I was originally assigned to Unit 2, one of the big dorms, but I put in a transfer to Wada, a smaller dorm geared towards upper-division and grad students. I'd had enough of the wild, hard-partying crowd in London, so I was looking forward to a more mature environment. But then I did a bit of research, and living in Wada would cost substantially more than Unit 2, and my parents really can't afford to spend any more money, so that's all figured out.
The main reasons I was so worried about my IGETC and Registration Block was that it meant that I didn't have access to any of my financial aid, and that I couldn't move into my dorm. The dorm thing was worrying because I move in in...three weeks (yikes!), but now that's taken care of. Similarly, we definitely would not be able to afford Berkeley without the scholarships, student loans, and other assorted financial aid that I've received, so I'm really glad that I can access that again.
My last big worry of the moment is my AP scores. My AP scores prove that I've fulfilled IGETC, which means that I can skip right over lower-division classes and get right to the fun stuff. The problem is, I called the AP Board on July 6th to have my scores sent in, but they still aren't showing up on the Cal website, which is worrying. I'm in touch with my (terribly overworked, I get the feeling) admissions adviser, and hopefully she'll be able to sort me out. But until then, double, double, toil and trouble!
In other, much lighter, news, I am now officially 21! My birthday was only five days before C's and H's wedding, so I anticipated it being a very low-key affair (I certainly didn't have the energy to get anything together, nor did anyone else, at that point). On the 25th, my birthday, a bunch of us got together at J's house for a combination birthday party (for me)/bachelor party (for C)/bachelorette party (for H)/going-away party (for J, who went back up to Oregon yesterday), where my amazing friends surprised me with a cake! I didn't drink much, but I had a kickass time all the same.
In Nerd News, casting announcements for Game of Thrones season 2 continues apace (also, they started filming on my birthday! Yaaaayyy!). As a card-carying Rabid Purist, I'm not at all sure about changing Asha's name to Yara (although I can see why they did it) or about this Alton Lannister. I'm generally pleased with the other decisions, though, especially Stannis. I do have my reservations about Brienne, but as has been noted before, Nina Gold hasn't steered us wrong yet, so I'm hoping that the publicity headshot we have of her isn't indicative of how she's going to look on the show, because making her attractive would just make so many problems on so many levels. But again, this is Nina we're talking about. She cast The King's Speech, the most recent Jane Eyre (which was damn good, at least from a casting point of view), Bright Star, and freakin' Hot Fuzz. On the other hand, she did do the recent Chronicles of Narnia adaptations, but then again, I'm not entirely sure those movies fail from a purely casting standpoint.
In other Nerd News, I went to see Captain America: The First Avenger the other day, and rather liked it. I find that the trick to enjoying most superhero movies is to keep your expectations low. For example, X-Men: First Class, the last superhero movie I saw, actually surprised me with its depth and complexity, such as it is. Granted, it had its share of mindless action sequences too, but oddly enough for an action(-ish) movie, the focus was much more on politics than on how many explosions you can pack into five minutes. Of course, that's not to say that TFA was just some dumb action flick, but a greater portion of it was definitely taken up with laser guns, rocket-powered cars, rocket-powered motorcycles, and generally stuff blowing up than anything else.
But then again, that might just be because the X-Men and Captain America are such wildly different characters. The X-Men have always served as a pretty clear analogy for repressed minorities who struggle to gain acceptance from the powers that be, and as such, continue to have real-world relevance, even though they were created in the 60s. Cap, on the other hand, exists to embody the ideals that America sees itself as upholding, which is a pretty cheesy idea to begin with, but then gets even better when he embodies these ideals primarily by whacking people in the face with his shield (at least in this movie). So by now, he seems a bit dated. Of course, some writers have done a fantastic job bringing him into the modern era, but there's always that underlying element of...silliness, for lack of a better word, that I think TFA does an excellent job of embracing. Half of the movie is made up of tongue-in-cheek nods to both Golden Age Captain America canon (beyond what's necessary to set up the upcoming Avengers movie) and to 40s-50s war fiction in general, and half actual action movie, but it's so darned earnest about it that it's hard to get annoyed at it.
Two reasons I liked this adaptation so much were Peggy Carter and James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes. As frequent readers of this blog (providing there are any, of course) know, I'm a sucker for a well-done action heroine. The main reason I don't like the first Iron Man is that the female lead seemed to have only two settings: Nagging Shrew and Shrieking Damsel in Distress, which kind of set a bad precedent for other Avengers prequels. However, I'm happy to say that, here Peggy kicks ass and takes names like nobody's business. She does have a few Jealous Woman moments, but then Steve himself has a few stereotypically macho Ogg Smash moments, so that balances out. But in the end, she comes out as a physically, mentally, and emotionally competent SSR (forerunner of SHIELD, if memory serves) agent, so props to her for literally sticking it to the man in an era where women voting was a relatively new concept (at least in the U.S.).
The other reason, as I mentioned, was Bucky. One thing that I'm kinda super not okay with in fandom is shipping underage characters, especially with adults. Understand, I'm not railing against those who do. I know that we're all grown-ups, and (hopefully) have the ability to distinguish between fiction and reality, and would never condone a child or preteen in a sexual or romantic relationship with an adult in real life. I'm not here to tell other people what to think or who to ship; I'm just saying that this is something that I don't particularly care for. I was actually kind of worried about this, going into TFA, because ever since Batman put Robin in those tiny green shorts, hero/sidekick ships have skirted the fine line between squicky fanon and squickier canon. So I was rather pleased, in several different ways, when Bucky went from this:
to this:Not bad, huh? First, I was pleased because they avoided the otherwise-inevitable Cap/wee!Bucky shipping. Second, because they gave the poor guy some dignity (and pants. Srsly, wtf is it with sidekicks not wearing pants? Are all superheroes secretly pedophiles? Or are pants something you have to earn in the superhero community?). And third, because damn. Man knows how to handle a gun, if you know what I mean. ;)So after deciding that I shipped movieverse!Steve/movieverse!Bucky (I hear that Steve/Tony [Captain America/Iron Man] is the big thing in Avengers/Marvel-in-general fandom), I did the best I could, using only my phone, to scare up some fic. And holy shit, but did I kick a hornet's nest. Trolls! Flame wars! Competing memes! Sock puppets galore! Seriously, I don't think I've seen such a combative, angry fanbase since I left Phantom of the Opera. I saw the poor mod of a new kink meme get chewed out merely on suspicion of being a legendary troll. A flame war broke out over exactly what "common triggers" are and how warning for these triggers should be enforced. War is hell, kid. Sometimes I just want to reach through my screen, grab the collective fandom by the shoulders, and scream the MST3K mantra ("It's just a show, I should really just relax!") until they un-twist their panties and calm down. I just wanted to read some fanfic, but instead, I have to navigate a minefield of old arguments and hot-button issues. What makes it worse is that Steve/Bucky (all versions) is apparently the OTP of the aforementioned legendary troll, and so declaring yourself likewise inclined could be seen as support of this particular troll, or just in support of trollery in general. I've just been lurking so far, since I definitely do not want to get involved in this fanwankery, and I'll probably stay lurked until my interest in this fandom fades, since I'm more or less only in it for teh sexii anyway.
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 06:46 am (UTC)Wait, whaaaat? O.o (I can understand why Asha could be confusing... but still! Renaming characters is not on! Have we learned nothing from Ralph Bakshi's "Aruman" attempt?)
Happy belated birthday! And congratulations on being done with the wedding prep and execution and on having sorted most of the Berkeley-related hassles!
no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 05:12 pm (UTC)Wait, they actually changed his name to "Aruman"? I thought the actor just couldn't pronounce "Saruman" correctly! XP It doesn't surprise me at all, though, not after Boromir (whose name was initially changed to Borimor) the Hotpants Viking. Also, the first draft of the film was supposed to cut out all the travel time by having everybody fly everywhere on giant eagles. When asked about his experiences with the movie-making process, Tolkien wrote, "I begin to feel as though I am shut up in a madhouse." I'm beginning to see what he meant!
Happy belated birthday!
Thanks! And happy belated birthday to you, too! Hope y'all had a deservedly spectacular day!
no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 08:33 pm (UTC)LOL at Boromir the Hotpants Viking! Not that Aragorn the vaguely Native American was much better, heh.
Also, the first draft of the film was supposed to cut out all the travel time by having everybody fly everywhere on giant eagles.
That I either hadn't heard or didn't remember... but, yeah, it doesn't surprise me. XD
Tolkien wrote, "I begin to feel as though I am shut up in a madhouse."
Heh, I remember that. And, yeah, I can see why. XD
Thank you for the birthday wishes, too! :)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 12:13 am (UTC)Or Mullet!Buckteeth!Legolas, or whatever the hell Sam was supposed to be. Srsly, Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings is one of the banes of my existence!
no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 08:22 pm (UTC)I'm glad you enjoyed your friends' wedding. I think you went above and beyond the call of duty, but you did it out of love for your friends. They are very lucky to have you.
It sounds like you had to deal with quite a few difficult personalities. If you ever need to organize a trade show or a Yaoi-Con in the future, you will be able to draw on your experience with this wedding!
I personally dislike weddings and make myself scarce the minute I get wind that any of my friends is planning one. I didn't hate my own wedding as much as I hate everyone else's, mainly because we threw it all together in three and a half days, so there were limits to the ambitions that certain third-party individuals inevitably bring to other people's weddings. I also had the power to make it short. It was all over in four hours, and I was glad it was done because I had had just about enough of being a bride.
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Date: 2011-08-05 12:34 am (UTC)A kink meme is a quasi-vestigial term for a community, especially on LJ, where participants anonymously post prompts (usually just a pairing and a situation, but can get very elaborate, detailing plot twists, themes, etc.), and then other users anonymously write fic for them. After posting the fic anonymously, writers can de-anon and re-post the fic under their own username, either on the meme or on their own journals, but not all do. The "kink" part is because you used to only be able to post a pairing and a kink that you wanted to see written about, but now it's pretty much just a plot bunny clearinghouse. If there was a FAKE kink meme (I wish, I wish), prompts could range from "Dee/Ryo, handcuffs" to "Harry Potter AU where the CI are Aurors." Generally very silly and fantastic places!
A sock puppet is an alternate account maintained by a troll. When the troll's main account gets banned, as it invariably does, the troll switches to their sock puppet to continue their trollery, pretending to be a different user altogether. Alternately, before a troll gets banned, he/she could use his/her sock puppet to provide support for their unpopular comments/fic/ideas, on the theory that, if more people seem to agree with the troll, they'll eventually win. You can always tell a sock puppet account because they'll have few or no friends (other than the troll's main account) or posts, and will generally have been created pretty recently.
lol, I kinda wish I could have been planning a Yaoi-Con instead of this. Although some of the groomsmen did look pretty nice in their tuxes... ;)
Kudos to you for stealing a march on "certain third-party individuals"! I think all of us, the bride and groom included, were wishing that they had just eloped by the end of it. It's certainly easier (and cheaper!) to do things your way.
Thanks for the congrats. Sleekerton and I have been getting to know each other, and this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!
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Date: 2011-08-05 07:30 am (UTC)Ps, I love Sleekerton's name! It's so evocative. I can almost see his smug, confident, pleased-with-himself face, just waiting for an opportunity to show off.
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Date: 2011-08-05 06:36 pm (UTC)Ps, I love Sleekerton's name! Thanks! He is *very* self-satisfied and certainly does have a certain...swagger about him; confidence can be a very desirable trait!
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Date: 2011-08-04 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-20 07:43 pm (UTC)I don't really do mentor/sidekick pairings either, because it's a personal issue for me. So I was thrilled when the movie upped Buck's age and made him and Steve old friends. In that context, the pairing went from something I have a personal disinclination to write, to the type of couple I love.
I'm sorry that massive storm of wank and stupidity pushed you away. I couldn't believe it and I'm in the fandom and know it happens time to time. I hope you are enjoying lurking on both kink memes though. IMHO there have been some great Bucky/Steve fills and prompts and I keep hoping there will be more.
I'm actually a bit dissapointed movie Bucky/Steve isnt' bigger, like a few other movie ships from other Marvel movies have been. :/
Umm right anyway, as another person who also got to get the on the Bucky/Steve ship because of the movie, I wanted to say hi!
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Date: 2011-08-21 02:54 pm (UTC)IMHO there have been some great Bucky/Steve fills and prompts and I keep hoping there will be more. Yup! That's the saddest thing: there really is some teriffic fic out there, and I've been able to find some of it, but just leaving a quick "great fill, love your work!" seems fraught with peril, for lack of a better phrase. This must be really frustrating for the writers who get trolled, so I guess I can't complain, but whatevs.
And yes, Bucky/Steve from the movie definitely needs a bigger following. There's so much potential!
So anyway, hi back from another movieverse Bucky/Steve fan!