life is a single skip for joy

ozmissage gave me this meme after lengthy discussions about "what our shipping and character preference say about us." This one's just about characters, maybe I'll alter it and do a "pairings" one later.

List fifteen (or however many) of your favorite characters from different fandoms and ask people to spot patterns in your choices, if they're so inclined.

Not a comprehensive list, more of a sampling.
Duke Crocker, Haven
Gale Hawthorne, The Hunger Games (books)
Stephen Holder, The Killing
Chon McAlister, Savages & Kings of Cool (books)
Sawyer Ford, Lost (pre-season 5, sorry guys)
Kenzi, Lost Girl (picking only one from this fandom was hard... because Tamsin!)
Pacey Witter, Dawson's Creek
Felix, Orphan Black
Topher Brink, Dollhouse
Hanna Marin, Pretty Little Liars
Fiona Gallagher, Shameless US (also a hard choice! because Karen! And Lip! But mostly Karen.)
Clayton "Jonesy" Jones, Carnivale
Brad Colbert, Generation Kill
Buffy Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Veronica Mars, Veronica Mars
Kara Thrace, Battlestar Galactica
Katherine Pierce, The Vampire Diaries
Cristina Yang, Grey's Anatomy
Brian Kinney, Queer as Folk US
Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly

For the record, there were certain fandoms *cough*FridayNightLights*cough* that I just couldn't pick one favorite character. It was just too cruel.

Hi guys! I'm back for my bi-weekly visit!
(Is it wrong to have an OT3 for Singin' in the Rain?)

First of all, I need to say that I miss writing fic like you wouldn't believe. I think I might try and do that more often. Like tell myself I'll at least write a drabble a week if nothing else. I need to keep my hand in. I feel so out of it and it makes me sad. So yeah. No less than a drabble a week until the end of the year? I think I can commit to that completely achievable goal.

Second of all, here's a brief list of stuff I NEED IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOW (or maybe I just need to buckle down and write it myself, take note):

- Matt/Elena (TVD), feeding turns to *ahem* fic. (Because it needs to happen.)
- Duke/Audrey (Haven), basically anything with angst and shirts on the floor and stuff (and actually mollivanders wrote this amazing fic, so I suppose its my turn?)
- Alex/Arizona (Greys), I would write this myself but they make me too distressed. DISTRESSED. Cannot wait for next week's episode.
- Lemon/Wade or Lemon/Lavon, I'll take either. (Come to think of it Wade/Annabeth would be awesome.)
- Ruby/David (OUAT), I am preparing to dodge rotten tomatoes on this one.
- Um, these guys:

image by marylou on tumblr

I have been sick (with a cold!) these last two days which somewhat explains my extended time online. I ended up having a chance to finish marathoning season 1 of Once Upon a Time and catch up with the first three eps of season 2. I did not expect to like that show that much. I will admit that because of the nature of the show often focusing on one character's backstory during season 1 a handful of episodes did drag for me. But most of all I loved it to bits. Especially all of the powerful, female characters, despite the fact that some of them are based on helpless damsel-in-distress princesses. It's fantastic. And magical. /cheese.



Speaking of television, I still haven't been watching any sitcoms, and I did not pick up any of the new shows this season. Why? Well, I don't know. I told slybrunette that I'm probably subconsciously rejecting new TV because I am still pissed about The Killing. God, it still hurts. A lot.

Lately I keep thinking about how I'm excited for Shameless and The Newsroom to come back even though I know that won't happen until next year sometime for both shows. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I ever told you guys I marathoned The Newsroom a couple of months ago and loved it.

There are a lot of mirroring critics out there all saying kind of the same thing. But I watch a lot of television and movies and this show is no worse at writing women than at least 70% of what's out there, so I feel like a lot of the chorus is unfounded. Seems like the expectations are just so incredibly high because it's HBO and it's Aaron Sorkin at the same time. Coupled with the fact that Sorkin has said some not-so-awesome things publicly that have gotten him a lot of flack for the same issues so people are more eager to criticize his work. I also really love Sloan Sabbith played by Olivia Munn who apparently has her own critics... for being a girl, famous, and hot? (As far as I can tell!) Basically my reaction to both things can be illustrated by the following GIF:



Not to end on a sour note, here's a meme I stole from mollivanders, with some alterations.

Comment with one of my ships and I’ll tell you:

1) who cooks normally?:
2) how often do they fight?:
3) what do they do when they’re away from each other?:
4) nicknames for each other?:
5) who is more likely to pay for dinner?:
6) who steals the covers at night?:
7) what would they get each other for gifts?:
8) what crime would they commit together?:
9) who made the first move?:
10) who remembers things?:
11) who is the big spoon/little spoon?:
12) who swears more?:
13) what would they do if the other one was hurt?:
14) what are their bad couple habits?
15) what's their morning routine?

Geez, you guys. Why is this place so slow this week? I mean, it's been slow for a while but this is even worse. I know I'm not being helpful by driving everyone away with my constant fangirling over The Killing, but c'mon. Don't fail me now.

Here are a few things happening in my brain right now:

→ Vids. Vids. Vids. I told gigglemonster that I've got The Vids: Meaning, I have all the vid bunnies, but no actual vidding is ever accomplished. If someone walks past me whistling a tune, I am like "Oh! That would make a great vid for x, y or z fandom! *dreamy sigh*" I vid in my head and it is amazing, people. (All that being said, I have a The Killing, Generation Kill, and possibly a Shameless vid in the works.)



→ GENERATION KILL: Why had I not watched this before now? It was glorious and I love everyone. (Well, not everyone, Trombley.) I fully give slybrunette responsibility for this. And also, as I said on Tumblr (or somewhere) I think my ship goggles are broken. (Kaput!) Because of course I am going to totally latch onto Brad/Walt like some kind of weirdo who digs "mothering/care-taking" ships. (Who? ME? Holder/Linden, Stefan/Caroline, and speaking of shipping the wrong thing in war fandoms, Chuckler/Leckie, etc.) It's just not right. (Or fair.) Especially in a fandom that has a shit-ton of fic. It's like they're purposefully taunting me. At least slybrunette has said she'll try to write them for me. I might die of happiness. (Also, the fact that I am capable of finding Askars attractive is a complete shock to me. Just FYI. That is not a thing I was remotely interested in at all before now. No matter how many times True Blood showed us his ass.)



→ SHAMELESS: I'm catching up and I'm so glad. I missed the Gallaghers. (Except for Frank, of course.) And the Jacksons and the Fisher-Balls. Etc. I love this family so much that I will essentially take them any way that I can get them. Despite the gross Frank-drama in the first few episodes, and the fact that getting episodes is a pain in the ass sometimes, I pretty much love this show as if it were my own child. True story.

→ I think I promised to write some reactions to the deluge of season finales that happened. I... kind of never did that. I really should, but the further away from them I get the more detached I feel. I am sure there are one or two shows I haven't finished yet, so I'll come back to talk about those whenever I am done. But for now I think I'll just say that most of the finales this year (for me) were underwhelming. Finales usually fall into one of two categories. You've got "Really? That's it?" And then there's "Oh my god! Why isn't next season here right now!?!" There's no middle ground.

→ Right now I am mostly just looking forward to summer shows like Haven and the good parts of So You Think You Can Dance. (Auditions this year have been kinda meh - always my least favorite part of the show and they feel like they're taking forever this year.) And I really want to watch that Daniel Gillies pilot, even if it is potentially bad, just because Daniel Gillies could pretty much get me to do anything.

→ Speaking of things I'm going to be (potentially) watching later, I recently got access to HBOgo and I am like a kid in candy store. Seriously? BEST. After Generation Kill, I think I'll end up watching Game of Thrones, despite my better judgement. In fact, I may have already started on that front. Basically so far the only people who are not total creeps are the Starks. (I am not sure that is the reaction the producers intended.) And I also want to finally watch Six Feet Under, which I've always wanted to do. I was given season 1 on DVD and I have been avoiding watching it because I'm secretly afraid that I will love it so much and then I won't have any of the other seasons available. Problem solved!

→ I saw Snow White and the Huntsman and it was pretty much the best. I have been jonesing to see it ever since the trailers because that bit with the huntsman from the original Disney animation was, for me, literally the most interesting part of that movie. (Seriously? That thing is a snooze-fest. I always had a mini-panic attack any time one of the kids wanted to watch it. Please God, anything else!) I mean, he stalks her through the woods, raises the knife above her head, and then he just can't do it. And Neil reminded me this week about the deer heart that he brought to the queen instead. I was really interested to see that little side-plot explored in film. Plus, it just looked awesome? And it was. I mean, I'm sure there was room for improvement but I loved it a lot and generally that's my criteria for What Makes Something Good. My favorite thing about it was definitely the ambiguous love story. And the major, major OT3 vibes I got. (But I'm a weirdo, what do I know?)

→ Speaking of, why isn't Savages in my eyeballs right now? Same for Lola Versus. Dear Universe: GIVE IT ME.

→ I'm feeling really unproductive in the world of fic right now. Meaning there is so much fic that I want to write but I haven't had a chance to. I considered doing a fic meme but then there's always the guilt associated with the fact that I only end up writing a couple of the prompts that people took the time to leave. It's not fair to you guys. I have a lot of plans, always, but we'll see how that pans out. I definitely want this summer to be majorly productive. This is, by no means, a call for prompts, but if anyone wants to let me know what kind of pairings/fandoms they want to see me writing over the summer, I'll see what I can do!

→ In conclusion: Joel Kinnaman

So basically my feelings about the recent Vampire Diaries episodes can be summed up outside of a cut because nothing I feel right now is spoilery. Because I'm a delusional non-canon shipper.

Pretty much what you need to understand is that I am a gross person who ships everything in the universe that she shouldn't ship. Whatever you saw on your screens the past two weeks did not actually happen in my brain. What really happened (read: did not in any way happen) was this:

Jeremy/Matt! Caroline/Stefan! Klaus/Rebekah! Elena/Tyler! Stefan/Tyler! Klaus/Stefan! Elena/Jeremy! Jeremy/Tyler! Matt/Tyler! etc. (And I really do mean etc. - at this point I am just sparing you my crazy.)

I know.

I'm sick and I can't be helped.

You might as well leave me to it.

Lemme just jump right into this!

Paley fests were... umm.. interesting? I feel like the moderator for TVD and Revenge was just terrible. On the Revenge panel she didn't really talk about anything other than plot speculation/psuedo spoilers. Boring! Plus, the guy who kept saying "I'm talking too much" but everybody kept kissing his ass and telling him he wasn't? HE WAS. Absolutely, he was. The cast barely got to speak. (What? They're pretty! Let them talk!)

The best moment of that panel was the adorable Nick Wechsler mishearing a question and playing with his tie and just being cute. Also there was Joshua Bowman being gorgeous and English. And Gabriel shipping the hell out of Emily/Nolan! Oh. Em. Gee. You guys! Just... love. Ashley is so lovely. Emily is adorable. This whole cast. *stars in my eyes*

The TVD panel was a little bit random. Were they all on drugs? I could have done without mention of "Ernesto Riley" and his twitter-capades. Dude gives me the heebs. Truth. But but but! This reminded me how much I truly dig Ian as a person. I mean, okay, so he's kind of into himself a lot, but genuinely I like the dude. (And I approve of his new haircut. I was praying to the barbershop gods for forever that he would cut it.) Candice was adorable. And Paul and Ian were bromancing the hell out of that stage. It was pretty much glorious.

Shows I am currently behind on: Lost Girl, Shameless, Happy Endings, Awake (don't know if I'm going to watch the 2nd ep, convince me?), Modern Family
Shows I am current with/caught up on during vacation: Jane by Design, Switched at Birth, Parks and Rec, Suburgatory, Revenge, Grey's Anatomy, Hart of Dixie

To be perfectly honest with you? That list feels short. I'm looking at that going "Something's not right here. There's gotta be at least 20 more shows I'm forgetting."

Also, Jon Bernthal cast in L.A. Noir Pilot!! This makes me weirdly and stupidly happy. Not only for Bernthal, who I've taken quite a liking to, but because 1940s/50s noir! Now that is something I can see myself watching. Interested to hear more about who else is being cast and what it's all about. Hope it's not too heavily "mobster" and more "mystery" but we'll see.

Swiped from ozmissage:
Comment to this post letting me know you want to participate, and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random.

Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.
( ozmissage asked me about ot3s - tvd - broody vamps - vidding - etc )

→ For BSG fans, I found a (crappy quality) promo that has a couple of clips from Katee's new show Longmire which is going to be on A&E. (There are also shots for the newest season of The Glades, but I legitimately can't tell if the clips are new or not.)

I'm kind of intrigued by Longmire, especially seeing this promo. Katee looks fabulous. I remember reading about it originally and I think they called it a "western" so I was under the impression it would be a period drama. Whoops. Guess not!

→ I had been going through serious withdrawals this whole week waiting for Revenge. Once I realized last week was going to be yet another re-run, that's when the desperation set in. This episode did not disappoint and I am on pins and needles for next week's episode! No spoilers, but my new favorite word is revengenda. Nolan Ross, never fucking change. I might post a more detailed episode review tomorrow when I have more time.

→ Hart of Dixie was cute this week, but they could really use some tips on fast-forwarding the "action." I need more. And faster!

→ I want to write more for all the fic memes that were out about a week or so ago and/or the porn battle. I'm feeling the muse big time! (The first time since writing my big bang that I've really been inspired. Thank goodness!)

→ Tomorrow is Grey's and The Vampire Diaries, and I'm excited for both with a little bit of reservations regarding a few of the storylines. But even so, I honestly haven't had this much fun watching tv in a while. It's something of a revival for me. Thank goodness.

I have all of these conflicting feelings about this show. Because they did get a lot right in this episode. But they still got a few things wrong. ( let's talk about it )