so... we need to break up.

[krickets]

→ Is anybody else having issues with Firefox? I just upgraded to the newest version after holding out at 3.9 (I think it was 3.9) for the majority of the year. I haven't even had a chance to play with the new version really (I literally just updated it before making this post.) But I have been annoyed with all of the other updates I tried (and then abandoned) this year. We used to be so tight, but I feel like Firefox has had an identity crisis this year and it's almost time for us to just break up. (Our relationship is starting to resemble an abusive one.)

→ I am kind of POed at The Vampire Diaries right now. While I enjoy the episodes as individual nuggets of awesome, I do feel like episode per episode, this season is the weakest so far. I love Rebekah, actually, and that's my favorite "new thing" that I'm enjoying, but the two things that bug me the most are the overall direction of the show, and the fact that the two characters that I enjoy writing the most in fic have been lobotomized. I can appreciate angst/dark-times/twisty/distressing plotlines for my favorites. I am all about PAIN AND AGONY. But give them back their own fucking free will please? Because this? I am not down with it. (Especially when it feels like a super easy way to make certain characters look good in comparison.)

→ Watched and loved Attack the Block, for those of you playing along at home.

→ I don't know if I'm going to do cards this year. I'm feeling kind of scatterbrained lately and it's already later than I usually ask for sign ups. Some people have asked for exchanges and I'll do them, but I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to pull myself together to send a bunch of stuff out. I can barely keep up with stuff that's going on as it is. (And I still have fic to read, and holiday fic to get a head start on!) I'll probably make the decision by next week, no later.

→ Speaking of Christmas, I have started my shopping. So far I've purchased a kickass Lightsaber for a 4 year old girl who loves Darth Vader, a power rangers watch for one of my nephews, and a real legit FiOS remote control (from eBay) for a 1 year old with an irrepressible addiction to all electronics with buttons. (His parents will thank me.)

→ Finished Mindy Kaling's book this week. It was adorable and funny. I think it wasn't as good as Bossypants for me, although in some ways it was slightly better (if that makes sense). Definitely check it out if you have the slightest interest in it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

→ Everyone who hasn't needs to watch Shameless. Just saying. I sort of secretly revised my new shameless vid: fumbling through the gray and I'm burying this "announcement" in the middle of this post because this is something that I rarely (if ever) do. I just sneakily went in and replaced the source files. (Except on Tumblr which, as usual, hates me and won't let me edit the post at all - not even the tags!) This may be a dishonest and underhanded thing to do, but I had posted it in a sleep-deprived state at 5 in the morning and I just needed it to be more perfect, you know? [Guffaw.] Anyway, for those who care and who actually read this post, there is a new version up now.

→ I recently changed my ringtone from You Can Call Me Al, back to Twisted Nerve (the whistle from Kill Bill) which I have used for, literally, years. I can't really decided if this was a good move or not. I am kind of missing the Paul Simon.

→ I have 19 movies to watch before the end of the year to meet my standard goal of "100 new movies every year." Anybody have any suggestions for what to watch to fill in those last 19 slots? There are a couple of documentaries I've been planning on watching, but other than that and new stuff coming out in theaters I'm not sure. I may just end up binging on old noirs on Netflix streaming, if all else fails.
"New-to-Me" Films [Possibly 100 of Them]

001. - 035. 001. The Fighter 002. Monsters 003. The Ugly Truth 004. W&G: A Matter of Loaf and Death [short] 005. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 006. Chaos Theory 007. Life as we Know It 008. Shooter 009. The King's Speech 010. My Soul to Take 011. Love and Other Drugs 012. Breaking Upwards 013. It's Kind of a Funny Story 014. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 015. The Girl Who Played with Fire 016. The Freebie 017. Beneath the Dark 018. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 019. Capturing Reality [doc] 020. 127 Hours 021. The Parking Lot Movie [doc] 022. Due Date 023. Ballerina [doc] 024. Seven Things To Do Before I'm 30 025. My Girlfriend's Boyfriend 026. Dogs Decoded [doc] 027. The Bridge [doc] 028. Brother's Keeper [doc] 029. How Do You Know? 030. Repo: The Genetic Opera 031. Dead Like Me: Life After Death 032. One Week 033. Hanna 034. The Last Song 035. Scream 4

036. - .070 036. The Russell Girl 037. The Dive From Clausen's Pier 038. The Velveteen Rabbit [2009] 039. The Wormhole [short] 040. The High Cost of Living 041. Dogtooth 042. No Strings Attached 043. Ceremony 044. Bastard out of Carolina 045. Scooby Doo Abracadabra Doo 046. Not Since You 047. The Education of Shelby Knox [doc] 048. Gacy House 049. The Ward 050. The Face is Familiar [doc] 051. Alchemy 052. Let Me In 053. Rise of the Planet of the Apes 054. Animal Kingdom 055. Country Strong 056. The Help 057. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps 058. You Again 059. The Resident 060. Midnight in Paris 061. HappyThankYouMorePlease 062. How to Train Your Dragon 063. Brother's Justice 064. The Man from Earth 065. Tangled 066. The Darwin Awards 067. Fast Five 068. Season of the Witch 069. Red State 070. The Tree of Life

071. - 100. 071. Apollo 18 072. I Wake Up Screaming 073. Last Night 074. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark 075. The Caller 076. Footloose 077. Crazy Stupid Love 078. Rabbit Hole 079. Captain America 080. Another Earth 081. Attack the Block 082. 083. 084. 085. 086. 087. 088. 089. 090. 091. 092. 093. 094. 095. 096. 097. 098. 099. 100. BONUS BONUS BONUS BONUS BONUS

Comments

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

ITA about TVD. Stripping Tyler and Stefan of their free will was STUPID and needs to be fixed ASAP. Also, I HATEHATEHATE that this whole Ripper!Stefan arc was created to make Damon look ~better and give him a chance to play the ~hero. I knew that was the main reason behind the arc but those first few episodes gave me the hope that maybe the arc itself would still be okay. Then, that flipping the switch crap happened :(

These are not new movies but if you haven't seen them: the Resident Evil series, Imagine Me and You, Beyond Borders, Queen of the Damned, 30 Days of Night, Garden State, The Young Victoria, The Notebook, Serenity, anything with Laura Linney, The Jane Austen Book Club, Red, the recent Jane Eyre...IDEK, give me a genre and I'll give you plenty of recs, though they probably won't be from this year as I've seen next to nothing as of late.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

I didn't mind the compulsion because I knew that there was no way that Stefan would willingly hurt Elena without being forced. We witnessed this in that episode and Klaus was forced to handle that reality which made me happy. But it's going on way too long. Way too long. I have a hard time caring about characters when they're NOT the same characters I actually do care about. For me, annoying "evil" Stefan is growing old (and boring) rather quickly. And Tyler was old before it even started (basically because we're already seeing this with Stefan.)

I have always kind of wanted to see The Resident Evil films.

I'd be interested to hear some of your other recs but can't think of any genres. What are you specialties? LOL.

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

The whole thing is just old and has been for several episodes. I just want my boys back. And not dead. Not dying is very important, as I fear for Tyler, in particular.

I love that series. I just watched all 4 films for Halloween and they hold up really well, imo. Hot women kicking zombie ass? Doesn't get much better than that :)

A few recs for less-known films, since I kinda love things from several different genres -

Passengers (Anne Hathawy + Patrick Wilson)
The Illusionist (Edward Norton)
Chloe (Julianna Moore)
Legion (Paul Bentley)
Head in the Clouds (Charlize Theron)
The Mothman Prophecies (Laura Linney)
The Life of David Gale (Laura Linney + Kate Winslet)
The Underworld series (Kate Beckinsale)
Skinwalkers (Rhona Mitra)
Blood and Chocolate (Agnes Bruckner)
Ella Enchanted (Anne Hathaway)
Stardust (Claire Danes)
Murder by Numbers (Sandra Bullock)
Red Eye (Rachel McAdams)
The Constant Gardner (Ralph Fiennes)

[rabiya-al-basri.livejournal.com]

Given the show's history with 7-8 episode acts, we can safely assume that Klaus will cease to be the big bad on the 14th or 15th episode (if he hadn't already as of "Ghost World"), so that's the absolute latest that plotline will go.

I'm still holding out a little bit of hope that Stefan's "compulsion" is actually just deep cover. He looked a little disappointed to get bailed out by Damon; he looked like he was considering *not* going with him. If his emotions/humanity have really been 'shut off,' the switch is faulty.

[rabiya-al-basri.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking about the Stefan-compulsion / Tyler-siring thing, and a thought crossed my mind--that it really raises the stakes on actually killing Klaus. One of my big problems with last season's unkillable-Original-Klaus plotline was 'why bother killing him? With the power of 100 dead witches, surely Bonnie could a)trap him in the tomb, b)sink him down the Mariana Trench, or c)launch him into low-earth-orbit. Because of Stefan and Tyler, that doesn't work anymore.