stunt_muppet

1. So today I filled out my first insurance claim form today! Filled in all the blanks and printed it out and mailed it in and everything! And then, and then, I made dinner. It was stir-fry. I cut up the vegetables and the chicken even though I'd never handled meat before, and then I cooked rice and fried the vegetables and meat and it was delicious! I AM SUCH AN ADULT UP IN HERE. :D 

Tomorrow? I'm gonna wake up early, and I'm gonna go get my work clothes tailored, and then I'm gonna send out more job applications, and then I'm gonna run some errands, and it's all gonna be AWESOME.

Actual Real Conversation while preparing dinner:

Muppet: Have you ever looked at raw meat and thought that that's what we look like inside?
Mom: ...you're so gross, honey.

2. In less mature news: I drew a thing for the first time in a while! It started out as another sketch of girl!human!Bulkhead but I can't seem to draw people who are bigger than a size 16 so I don't really know how that's going to work. But I like her face so she's going up here. Maybe I'll finally re-download GIMP and color her. 

( I don't know what she's looking at. )


3. And a random bit of cuteness: Paige O'Hara and Robby Benson, the voice actors of Belle and the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, head down to Disney World for the commemorative re-release of the BatB DVD/Blu-Ray. Or something like that, I don't really know because I still have it on VHS and that's all I need until they stop making VHS players, but it did allow me to see this picture:

( Back here. )

Is it bad if I still think Robby Benson's cute?

4. I haven't followed CSI faithfully for a while, but next week's episode looks to be the best thing on TV ever. At least, if the trailers are right and someone really is killing people with a mechanical dinosaur.

5. ( Dream log nonsense; seriously, like watchdog groups are even watching Rizzoli & Isles. )

At some point I'd like to make a post of all the fanart I've bookmarked so I can share it around. Maybe a fic rec post too. It'll be my splash of childishness once I'm done being an adult for the day.

I should go to bed so I can get up early and be an Adult tomorrow. Good night, flist.

I am a terrible friend that way.

Anyway, I wanted to check in and say that I'll be gone for about five days starting on Thursday; my family and I will be on vacation and I'm still dithering on whether to take my computer. I feel like I should take it so I can do more job-searching and see if any of the companies I contacted call or contact me back.

On the other hand, I'd really like to go on vacation and not be available. So leaning towards not taking it, then. Anyway.

Good news is I think my Springkink fics might finally have finished kicking my ass and started letting me actually write them! Hooray! Right now I'm doing a bit more on the Optimus/Ironhide fic than the TFA!Optimus/Blackarachnia one; I've finally figured out on a rough plot, but I 'm having all these issues with what the prompt is actually requesting. And I still have to actually write the thing.

( Writing blather. )


So. Hoping to at least have some time to work on that on vacation or on the drive down - even if I don't take my computer I'm going to be taking my notebook, and at least that way I won't have the internet to distract me.

A few more things: Do you like Psych? If you do, you might want to check this fic out. It's a WIP casefile, but it looks promising and gets the tone of the show quite well.

And second:


THIS MEME IS ON A HORSE.


Have to pack tomorrow, but hopefully that won't take too too long. Bummed that I won't be able to do much swimming because of my incision, but - vacation!

Good night, flist, and see you later.

The car in front of us on the way back from the hospital has a "Big McLarge Huge" MST3K bumper sticker. IMMD.

(Mom's driving, so don't worry, not posting while driving or anything.)

I know, right, I can actually sit down and put together a post instead of sneaking one in when I'm supposed to be working. Because I'm NOT SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING. Ha! I'm still getting used to that.

(Though technically I only have time because I'm staying up late because I spent all day packing and should really be doing my resume right now, but oh well.)

It occurs to me that I've never actually made a proper introduction post. So, a rather belated welcome, new folks from the friending meme, and a renewed welcome to old friends as well. Feel free to ask any questions if there's something you want to know (whether fannishly, Real Life-related, or logistically i.e. how long entries tend to be, spoilers, etc), but other than that...yeah. This is my journal. I write things in it.

1. So I was watching TV with my parents yesterday, and apparently the penultimate NCIS episode of the season was on. So I figured, sure, even if I really don't know what's been going on this season, surely I can figure things out from here.

And for the most part I could, but what also came to my attention was an ad for the season finale of The Mentalist. Now, for the most part I have mightily resisted the urge to pick up another show, particularly one that already uses the same gimmick as a show I already like, but this trailer reminded me why I still watch it when it's on: Simon Baker is really, desperately attractive.

This was particularly noticeable because near the end of the trailer Patrick Jane is tied to a chair with cling wrap, looking disheveled and scared. And his hair is doing wonderful things. 

And because I'm a slightly pathetic person, my first course of action was to track this trailer down on YouTube and start capping. And since I know there are at least a couple of Simon Baker fanciers on my flist, I thought I'd share the fruits of my efforts even if it's only four pictures.

( Pretty pretty hair... )

Mmm, curls. /shallowness

2. On the subject of said NCIS finale...well, predictably, as it was a tie-in to NCIS: LA, I wasn't all that aware of what was going on, other than that It's Personal This Time (true to season-finale form). However, there was one line in particular that I found interesting on a rather meta level: ( cut for mild spoilers )


3.a. Apparently Peter Cullen is returning to voice Optimus in the upcoming series Transformers: Prime. And The Fandom Rejoiced. (On a completely silly note, by the way, look at his mustache. That is the mustache of a MAN.) 

You know what would be amazing, though? If we could somehow have Peter Cullen, Gary Chalk, David Kaye, and Neil Kaplan all doing voices in Prime. I don't care if their respective agencies make that impossible, I want it. They could have themselves an Optimus-off and I would probably squee myself clean out of existence.

Of course, now that more announcements regarding Transformers: Prime are being made I must ask the obligatory question: Who do I have to bribe/threaten/offer sexual favors to to get Elita One in TF: Prime? How much more extravagant do those threats/favors have to be to get her in for more than one episode?

3.b. However, on the subject of robot ladies, TF: Prime is supposed to be somehow tied to the upcoming War for Cybertron, and not only is Arcee in that one (and looking badass, might I add) but there's the distinct possibility that Slipstream might be in it, and that means that she might be in Prime as well, and that means I have to go dance about and throw confetti now.

Sure, War for Cybertron does have a create-a-character mode, so it's distinctly possible that the Seeker at the end of the trailer is just a customizable body mold, and even if that is Slipstream they can't possibly include every character from the games in the animated series, and besides Slipstream's whole existence is based on the cloning plotline in Season 2 of Animated, so unless WfC Starscream is also into cloning himself (not impossible but somewhat convenient) I'm not sure how they'll justify her existence, but you know what? I don't even care. She can be his sister this go-round or something. There's a possibility that not only will Hasbro be acknowledging that Animated existed, but SLIPSTREAM. I cannot be unhappy about this.

3.c. And in a final bit of Transformers news, reportedly Alan Tudyk has been cast in Transformers 3. (How many people are even in this movie? I mean, there are going to be some robots in it too, right? Sheesh.)

...crap. Crap. Now I'm obligated to go see this thing, I have to go see everything Alan Tudyk's in in the hopes  that he'll start getting more substantial film roles and TV series that don't get canceled! Crap!

Fine, Bay, you win. This time.

4. Even though the only Supernatural episodes I've seen have been before the introduction of Castiel I seem to be well on my way to becoming a Misha Collins fan. No, I don't know why either. I think it's the fact that F!S seems to be abundant with amusing macros of him.

5. The Glee Cast version of Bad Romance is almost as addictive as the real thing, although it jolts me right out of the song every time they sing "freak" instead of "free bitch". I get that the FCC is hanging your head with a hammer, FOX, but that's a whole syllable that drops out of the line every time you make that replacement. It doesn't bloody scan, okay.

The version of "Dream On" with Neil Patrick Harris, however, is so gorgeous it darn near makes me weak in the knees. It helps that I love the song already, but their just both such forceful singers and they don't sound like they're rasping on the high notes and eeeee. :D Even if I don't watch the show, I'm so glad it exists so it can keep giving me lovely music.

6. And I still haven't watched all the new Doctor Who (though I might be rewatching the first two Eleven episodes with my Dad and that thought makes me warm and fuzzy inside) and now TGWTG is having their two-year-anniversary supercrossover fiesta and I can't watch either because I'm not supposed to spend too much time on the computer. Fandom is so stressful sometimes.

And on top of that I need to go to bed an hour ago. Good night, flist.

The only thing more ridiculous than the reality programming on SciFi Channel (I refuse to call it SyFy because it's a stupid name with a stupid rationale behind it) are the commercials for the reality programming on SciFi.

So I went on a bit of an adventure today! There was a comic book shop one exit down from my college, and since I'd never been to that part of town before I thought I would get directions and go, why not. I am normally quite apprehensive about driving anywhere by myself that I haven't already driven a dozen times, but the route was fairly simple and I managed it. And I haven't been to a comic book shop in ages, so it was a nice little excursion.

They were having what I think was a Warhammer tourney in the shop, which I'd never actually seen and looks complicated even by RPG standards. Overall the staff was helpful, but there was an awkward moment when I gave the Cute Checkout Guy my debit card and asked if I needed to sign the receipt. He answered "No, you don't have to sign it. 's the good thing about debit cards." And I don't know what it was about it, but I felt like I had to reassure him that I was in fact an adult and had used my debit card before. I don't think he meant to be condescending or anything, but I wanted to take my driver's license out and go "Look, see, I drove here on my own and everything".

But...um...well, while I was there, I...I bought the AllSpark Almanac. And I asked Cute Checkout Guy to order The Arrival trade paperback and it'll be here in two weeks, waiting for me when I get back from Spring Break like a lovely present. I...am a weak, weak woman.

That said, the AllSpark Almanac is exactly as geeky and wonderful as I've heard it was. It's a set of character profiles, concept art, episode recaps, et al - all written completely in-universe, with the character profiles written by other characters and the episode recaps as "Incident Reports" or personal logs. And it's full of in-jokes and just plain jokes and miscellaneous loveliness and it gave me many a giggle. There's a little bit on Halloween as related by Bumblebee and Bulkhead and Bumblebee keeps breaking in to tell human parents not to give away gum for Halloween because gum is pointless. 

"I mean, you just chew and chew and then you don't even eat it! What are you supposed to do with it anyway?"
"You spit it out, Bumblebee."
"Gross!"

Oh, and then there's Lockdown's profile of Ratchet, where he mentions that "I'm the one that made the old bot look so pretty." I mean, I'm assuming he's referring to the broken chevron and the battle wound, but agh Lockdown why does everything about you scream "sexual harrassment". And then you get Prowl's profile on Lockdown and wow, writers, apparently "A Fistful of Energon" just wasn't quite homoerotic enough. "Maybe one cycle I'll find out what's underneath the black sigil on his chest." Stop that right now I told you I don't ship it.

So, yes. I cannot bring myself to completely feel bad about buying it. And it might even serve as a drawing reference if I ever figure out how to draw robots.

---

So, other fannishness: New Doctor Who trailer! 

( talky talky under the cut for spoilers )

---

And now it is late and I should head to bed again so I can get work done tomorrow. I do things with my life besides fandom, I promise I do. But today was a productive day, all in all, so I can't complain.

You'd judge me if I told you I was taking study breaks by watching Transformers Animated, wouldn't you?

I knew you would. Good on you, I deserve judging for that.

I'll freely admit that I've been poking at Transformers fandom since the movies came out, mostly because the TF Wiki is inordinately amusing (they're the Trope Namers for Ruined FOREVER) and is full of loving mockery and frank acknowledgment that their show/franchise ultimately exists to sell toys and they're okay with that. But I hesitated, because between this and Batman I feel like as I grow older the maturity of the shows I watch has plunged, and I fear that a) that says disquieting things about me and b) by the time I'm thirty I'll think Teletubbies is really neat and will hole up in my room watching The Wiggles concerts, quietly drooling. I do still engage in intellectual activity and watch/read things that make me think, I really really do. You guys believe me, right?

Anyway, I'm kind of glad I finally leaped in, because TFA has robot ninjas. (I think Prowl might be my favorite character so far. He's a robot ninja. Who was trained by a robot ninja voiced by George Takei) I'm quite enjoying it so far, though it has the usual problems of not-very-thoughtful kids series (Jazz still talks jive; there are maybe two girl robots in the entire series, and one of them's a Tragic Villain and the other doesn't do anything); it presents Decepticons as credible threats instead of having their schemes foiled every week and it has human characters who don't grate on the nerves. It's not bad for what it is.

It does bring up something that's irked me since I started getting into comics and "boy stuff", and that's that there will, I'm quite certain, never be a Transformers series or a kid's superhero show that's inclusive of a young female audience. And that's because even female SF fans don't think girls like that kind of thing. Male SF fen don't think girls like it because they assume we're too busy talking about lipstick and shoes to appreciate robots beating each other up; even other women (at least that I've noticed) tend to write off action-driven shows (and the military SF or action-SF that tends to arise from people who grew up with them) as "boy stuff", inherently uninteresting to young girls or women.

I think SFF as a genre is definitely improving on the whole so far as representation of women and various racial, sexual, and gender identities goes, though of course it still has a long way to go. But, in the unlikely event that I ever manage to get anything published ever, I'd love to take some of those changes to the boy stuff. I'd like to write military SF with soldiers and generals who are black, Hispanic, Asian, female, genderqueer, trans, gay, bi, people of every variety, and have it not be a big deal. I'd like to write a girl robot who kicks just as much ass as the boys and doesn't have to be a villain or a medic to do it. Hell, I'd like to take on the idea of shape-shifting robots having a gender assignment.

It's a little discouraging knowing that such a project really wouldn't have much of an audience, although I'd also like to query the idea that young boys will lose interest if more than one character on their action-adventure shows is a girl, or that a straight male will see dialogue between two women and read nothing but "shoes shoes makeup boys shoes babies cooking dresses shoes".

tl;dr thanks TFA guys but next time have Arcee actually do something, kthanxbai.

Back to work.

[ETA] Although reading up on Arcee gives me fresh new reasons to hate Michael Bay, who apparently though Arcee wasn't cool enough for the second live-action Transformers movie and delighted in killing her off. Because, you know, Bay, it's not like you had the power as the director to make her more awesome or anything rather than gleefully slaughtering the only female robot in the entire movie franchise after about ten minutes of screentime, you fucking tool.

Not that I dislike Thanksgiving, mind you, but ChiTARDIS always sounds like so much fun and I am never there. Boo.

Anyway, finally finished my paper (though I ended up sleeping through class again, which is Not Good) and managed to make it home for Thanksgiving. Spent some time with family, watched far too much Mythbusters, kind of lounged around until today when I was forced to do homework. Little of interest to report, save that I actually took part in the cooking and baking this year and managed to make a not-unpleasant Nutella pumpkin pie. This gives me hope for an inevitable future in which I am forced to feed myself.

I would make a thoughtful post about Things I'm Thankful For, but I'm supposed to be researching how film and television have affected the narratology of trials, so I just wanted to wish my flist a happy belated Thanksgiving, or a happy Friday to those who don't/didn't celebrate.

Also, I wanted to point you towards this, which, as one YouTube commenter noted, justifies the entire existence of the internet: The Muppets singing "Bohemian Rhapsody".


This ranks very highly on the list of Best Things I've Ever Seen. Thanks for pointing it out to me. :D

Oh, and while I'm sharing videos, have another:


Optimus Prime loves the whole world.

At some point I will make a proper introduction post, but hopefully these two videos will serve for now.

And for some reason I felt obligated to finish it tonight, so now I'm up way too late again and I'm already all thrown off for this week and have missed stuff, this is just bad karma. I was doing so well. D: After this I'm done. I promise. I'll get back on track.

Ahem. The answers to the shipping meme, all 7 pages in Word of them. I talk a lot.

( I do wish Word could copy and paste into Rich Text posting so I wouldn't have to format this by hand. Bloody Vista. )


Ugh. SLEEPS. Needs it now. *collapses* Memes are so stressful sometimes.

For one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six: a quotation
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

So I recently installed the Firefox plugin "Bork Bork Bork!" which, in truth, was the primary reason I installed Firefox at all. Because this plugin can translate any text on your clipboard into Fake Swedish, and I am almost endlessly amused by it.

So, for sharing today: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", as read by Swedish Chef.

---

( In zee ruum zee vumee cume-a und gu/Telkeeng ooff Meechelungelu... )

---

And yet, in retrospect, the thought of Swedish Chef having existential Modernist angst is almost unbearably depressing. Here, have some real Swedish Chef to cheer you up:




And now I'm going to try writing hour!fic again. Ta.

[ETA} But before I do that, I've just read that apparently there's a bit in Supernatural where Castiel tells Dean (which one's he, again?) , in a completely serious voice, that "God was not on a tortilla in Mexico".

DAMMIT SHOW STOP TEMPTING ME TO WATCH YOU.

1. So I was going to formally boycott The Mentalist, on account of how it was clearly a rip-off of Psych only less awesome and with your typical Traumatized Hero With Dead Wife And/Or Child. Even the couple of times Mom's watched it, I have determinedly ignored it and focused on my typing.

And then we watched it last night in the hotel room, on account of how we were bored and couldn't move in yet and there was nothing else on.

And yeah, it's pretty much a serious version of Psych. And Thomas Jane is pretty well in the vein of the aforementioned Traumatized Hero, though he's a bit more visibly disfunctional. And...

...and...

...and Simon Baker is really pretty. I mean, damn, his hair. And his gorgeous eyes. And his business suits and his slim, nippable neck and his hair.

I have no principles at all.

2. I am in fact watching Psych right now and Gus just bruised his coccyx. I should not think of this as a Doctor Who reference, but I do. Also, really, go watch Psych, it's an amazing show and so sharply written.

3. So. So. Brig/Leela would be an excellent idea, y/y?

I am thinking that the Brig could summon the Doctor back for another mission sometime after The Face of Evil, so Leela comes along with him and gets somewhat informally introduced to UNIT. She is alternately intrigued by the Brig's gentlemanly solicitousness an unimpressed when he tries to give her orders. Tension happens.

Alternately I want them to wrestle.


And now I must go to bed, as move-in happens tomorrow morning.