snowystingray | Entries tagged with work

Last night, I finally finished every episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series. I MISS STAR TREK SO MUCH, WORDS CANNOT EVEN CONVEY THE MAGNITUDE OF THE ENTERPRISE-SHAPED HOLE IN MY LIFE.

I made chocolate chip pancakes for dinner tonight. So glad that I am capable of making reasonable, adult decisions on my own. (BUT, OMG, I ACTUALLY KNOW HOW TO -- AND LIKE TO -- COOK THINGS ON MY OWN. For all who know me, this is a day that most thought would never come. Well, errr, better twenty-two years late than never? At least this justifies all of those conversations I used to have with my mom, where she would say, "Here, why don't you come learn how to cook something?" and I'd say, "Uggghhhhh, no, do I have to???" "Well, what are you going to do when you're all by yourself and nobody is there to make food for you?" "Whatever, I'll just learn how to do it then." "...CHILD...!!!" Pssht, Mom, whatever, I WAS TOTALLY RIGHT.)

I think I'm in the midst of another Merlin catch-up dump. I'm watching the one with Professor Sprout and showwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, I... just... how... REMEMBER WHEN YOU USED TO BE GOOD? REMEMBER THOSE DAYS? Actually, woo, I had cause to show Merlin to one of my classes this week (it's exam week, they had some free time at the end of the period), and we just watched the pilot together AND THAT IS SUCH A PERFECT HOUR OF TELEVISION (this is my "aloof and totally way too cool to like anything" middle school class, and they were so getting into it). Where did it all go wrong. Sigh. And yet somehow Bradley's Ridiculous Face of Ridiculousness is enough to bring joy to my life. I don't even know.

This is going to sound like the most obvious statement in the world, but, wow. Going to work suuuuuuucks. Not the work itself, even, just the routine of going there. Being a grown up is boring. I am slightly frightened by how quickly the days are slipping away through repetition.

Now that I am finally catching up on the internet at large from the past few weeks, it's time for some linkspam!

I'm still trying to get through all of the greatness that came out of various Robin Hood-related gift exchanges. Not to toot my own organizational horn or anything, but the

capslock_hood Secret Santa turned out AWESOME, even if the comments completely ate my inbox. LINK IN CASE YOU MISSED THE GREATNESS. (And actually, oh, I just realized -- there's still one gift missing, but hopefully we'll have it up soon enough.) My own contribution of a shameless Guy/Robin vid:

Guy/Robin - Shackled to Each Other from ForYourEdification on Vimeo.

Then

an_lagat_glas wrote me some Mazabella (!!!! I KNOW!!) for

isabella_giz: the red queen and the white

lalumena made made me a rockin' desktop for

robinxisabella.

And then I got two completely fabulous gifts for

gxm_secretsanta, which I guess you can't see if you aren't a member... but

hulamoth very kindly reposted her fic: (This is Not a) Dinner Date. AU Guy/Marian collegefic. YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT.

A few vid recs ( embedded behind the cut: )

Now that I have some free time to catch up on sewing projects, I'm going back to my old habit of browsing etsy for some handmade inspiration -- and, as usual, I have happened upon some true horrors. WHAT, PRAY TELL, IS THIS? NO, REALLY, WHAAAAAT??!!?! It's like that episode of Daria where Jane wants to become The Lady and The Tiger by bleaching streaks into her hair. Looking at embroidery pieces always depresses me, though, because on the one hand I deeply appreciate the sheer number of long tedious hours that go into making these things, but on the other hand... sorry. Why on Earth would somebody pay $40 for this? I really really love this store, though, and wish I had $30 to drop on a pincushion. LOOK AT HOW ADORABLE THIS ONE IS.

I also picked up my final paycheck from Retail Job today, and it was quite a bit more than I anticipated because I forgot that I was getting paid for two weeks instead of just one. Whee! Unexpected money! (Or, alternately -- whee! I have no handle on my personal finances and forget when my pay periods are!)

ETA: HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN TO INCLUDE THIS??! The whole series is awesome, but, I mean, COME ON OF COURSE THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE:

Brief things worth noting:

- AWESOME CHUCK CASTING SPOILERS ARE AWESOME.

- I volunteer in the membership department for a local tourist-y place, usually doing computer filing and such, and I always manage to find some nerdy joy in a name/address/etc. Today I worked on a file for one Mr. Robert Hood, and last week I handled a change of address form for a couple who were moving from Locksley Lane to Sherwood Lane (I actually had to get slightly stalkery over this one to find out where the streets were, because maybe we have a secret Robin Hood themed community nearby that I have never heard of...??!? But in fact the streets are in two different parts of the county about a thirty minute drive away from each other. Haaaa.)

- ...Okay, that's really all I have to write about. Oh my God my life is so pointless. Off to watch more episodes of The Prisoner so my brain can explode at least once before going to bed...

- I can't decide which one I love more, this Hornblower/Bush vid to "I Touch Myself" or this Sam/Gene vid that inspired it. Oh, internets, DON'T EVER CHANGE.

- There is quite a good deal of win to be found over at

trek_crack, but the intro post especially is not to be missed. Unsurprisingly, the Spock/McCoy bits are my favourite (ohhh man, Bones' little 'yay medicine/boo engineering' shout bubble? LOVE).

-I've started watching The Prisoner (been meaning to for ages, and now it's all up on AMCTV.com! How convenient!). After one episode I am confused as hell and will probably have nightmares for days, which means that I like it and plan to watch more.

- ETA: I almost forgot! If you haven't already joined in years past, you should all go check out the

lost_bookclub; how else are we to occupy the long, lonely Wednesday nights between now and February? Also, I'm leading the Philip K. Dick month so, y'know. Be there or be square and all that.

And now for the Robin Hood portion of our evening:

- ARMITAGE -- GOOD LORD -- THAT MAN SHOULD BE ILLEGAL. The show has been off for all of... three days, and already I miss having him in my weekly schedule.

- I think I may have unraveled a portion of my deep and abiding love for all things related to the Gisbornes (aside from the obvious bits where they are smouldering and lovely and act circles around the material they're given): namely, brother and sister both are so stuck in the 80s and totally should have ended the series by starting their own heavy metal/hair band.

( Image cut, but only because I am a nice person )

Don't lie. You know you want it. I am actually contemplating a "Gizzy is Stuck in the 80s" playlist, but I don't know if I'll ever get around to it. Plus, man would it be hard to narrow that down. Maybe it'd be better to just hand out an instruction manual. 1. Put on Aerosmith/Van Halen/Def Leppard/Billy Idol/whatev. 2. Mope about until your simmering woobiness comes to a boil. 3. Angst to death.

- My great Robin Hood Rewatch continues! This is making up for the fact that I never posted about these episodes when I saw them for the first time:

1.06 - All of the "sparring" between Vaysey and the abbess is just an unparalleled delight to watch, hee! And once again with Gisborne being surprisingly religious -- I think this is swiftly becoming my new show-related obsession and some day I will have to do a proper write-up of my feelings on that. For now I find it interesting that on the one hand he can be so solemn and venerative in his attitude toward most church practices, and yet so completely derisive of Marian going to a convent. I suppose here it's more kneejerk anger, whereas in 2.08 it's more outright mocking (although I have to admit that I always join him on that when I watch the episode. Marian: "Okay, well, now that we're done having a jaw-droppingly hot make-out session, I think I'll just pop back into the convent." Guy: "Ummm, I don't think that's how nuns work. ...Have you been talking to Allan?"). Essentially, Guy is such an odd inconsistent bumbling idiot when it comes to omg pretty girl!!! Yeah, like that's news, but still. I know Armitage said of the first series that he wanted to make people's skin crawl during the Guy/Marian scenes, but mostly in this episode they just make me laugh at Guy's expense for being a GIANT AWKWARD CREEPER.

1.07 - Aaaand so Guy's wooing dumbness continues. "Curses! I need to get Marian another present but I didn't have time to go to the store. Well, this one looks nice; pity somebody else is already wearing it. ... Wait, who am I kidding, I'm mothereffing Guy of Gisborne and I'll take what I please and shoot sexy glances at passerbys as I do it." For the most part, though, this episode is far less about the awkward and far more about the epic angst and twisted attraction and betrayal potential and, oh dear, is this not what sold me on Guy/Marian from the start (because, yes, this was indeed the first episode of the show I ever saw)? Far more than my purely shallow thoughts along the lines of "oh dear they are so terribly attractive and to hell with the storyline let's just have the Richard & Lucy hour of hotness all the time," I was just so blown away by how well they feed off of each other as actors, how Marian's utter distaste for Guy begins to be eclipsed by her need to use him, how Guy's foundations are crumbled and rebuilt and crumbled again every time he encounters Marian anew. It's such a watershed moment for the two of them, when suddenly their relationship shifts from that of a relatively pedestrian match dictated by gender roles and societal conventions to that of a charged, inextricable political and ethical entanglement. The full gamut of emotions that the two of them run through in the proposal -- well, it's just as impressive to me now as it was during that fateful first viewing two years ago, when by the power of their sheer awesome they conspired to TRAP ME FOREVER AUGH (the "Feel it, it is real" line SLAYS ME EVERY TIME). And, shockingly enough, the bits of the episode that don't have to do with Guy/Marian are still interesting, too! Ah, yes, the good old days when the gang actually had relevant plots. The Allan/Djaq! And Will/Allan! And in fact just general Allan-ness of it all! Also, once more the Sheriff is so hugely badass here. How could I have missed the fact that he gives Guy an ass slap??! And then when he's busy goading Guy into taking his revenge on Marian -- yeesh. (Possible but doubtful significance to the fact that Vaysey refers to Marian as a "leper," given Guy's family history? I still sincerely doubt that the writers had any of that backstory in mind at this point in time, but at the very least it is one of those happy accidents of show canon.) I love how Keith Allen can be so alternately thrilling and chilling, especially during the hanging.

- In conclusion, can you tell that I'm still unemployed? Geez. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with one of the ladies I used to work for over the past few summers, so we'll see if anything comes of that (except of course all of that was "unpaid non-profit community enrichment" and now I NEED MONEY, PEOPLE).

Once again I am delaying any sort of cohesive Robin Hood write up (horror of horrors, I have actual work to write up instead!) and, once again, I am instead summing up my feelings with a brief pictorial flail:

YOU WANT A REASON TO FINALLY WATCH ROBIN HOOD? OH LOOK, HERE IT IS. I MEAN NO DISRESPECT TO MY MOST BELOVED MARIAN, BUT -- HOT DAMN ISABELLA IS ONE SMOKIN' BAMF. THOSE GIZZY GENES ARE THE GOOD (ALBEIT SLIGHTLY PSYCHOTIC) ONES, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.

Generally speaking, I enjoy having my computer area in the more remote reaches of our home. A garage in its early days before being converted to a rec room back in, err, the 70s or so, this room is where I spend about 90% of my waking hours when I'm at home. In addition to playing host to my desk, it also has the laundry area, the only chore in which I take true delight (I actually had a lengthy conversation with my boss over lunch yesterday about the therapeutic qualities of folding bedsheets); the exercise equipment, which I not-so-secretly haaaate and resent but still try to utilize on a regular basis; the second TiVo, which I usually dominate as to not get reprimanded for recording oodles of ridiculous programming on the living room television. Because it's on the other side of the house from everyone else, I don't have to worry about waking anybody up when I stay up late watching TV/movies. I've managed to create quite a comfortable little niche for myself. Until... NOW! (Oh, come on, you knew this story couldn't have a happy ending!)

I came home from work yesterday to discover that the ancient relic of an air conditioner out here (separate from the rest of the house back from its garage period) has ceased to function. In the middle of summer. In the middle of Florida. In the middle of Swampy Sticky Humidity Land. Joy.

I mean, okay. I know life without air conditioning is possible. Theoretically, anyway. Maybe. So I've heard. Sigh.

I feel like this is some sort of karmic payback for my antisocial tendencies or something. "Oh ho, Bethany! So you think you can avoid all human contact? Even from your own family in your own home? I will soon have you crawling back for the sweet, sweet release of cool, refreshing air flow."

However, I am not so easily had. To compensate, I've got an area fan running full blast about a foot from my face (already have both ceiling fans on). It's been working pretty well, as long as I don't move to far away from my computer (which, ha, who am I kidding -- why would I ever be tempted to do that?); except because it's positioned around the side of my desk right next to the CPU, every time I walk back into the room I just hear this loud, whirring WHOOOOSHING sound coming from my computer and have a split second panic where I think my computer fan is going to explode before I remember that, oh yeah. It's coming from the fan that I want to be running on high.

Fandom stuff that I've been valiantly keeping up with despite the heat:
-New Middleman! My usual viewing buddy, my sister, is on vacation for the next few weeks, so I instead wrangled my mom and brother into watching with me. And, well, word to the wise: never watch TV with my family.
Mom: Ooh, look, it's Chrissy!
Brother: Who?
Me: You know... spawn of the Seavers!
Brother: Uhhh??
Me and Mom: *harmonizing* Show me that smile again [ooooh show me that smiiiile!!]... Don't waste another MIIIINUTE on your cryin'!
Also, gosh, I can't even measure how many warm fuzzies I got from this episode. Guuuys they make me so happy that it almost makes me sad (don't get canceled, show!). Also? Best line ever? "Muscle memory, BITCH!" (Mom: Is this show on ABC Family??! Me: Ohhh yeah. Can ya dig it?)
-SG-1! Which... I have somehow started watching. Er. Yeah, I know. I think I blame the fact that there's no new SGA this week, coupled with the S1 marathon of SG-1 on SciFi tomorrow. What better time to catch up, I ask myself? Really, though, I feel like this is the sort of show that I'd rather watch in random, out-of-order spurts because I think if I sat down and tried to watch it all straight through from start to finish I'd get too bogged down by 214 episodes sweet Mary mother of God. Plus, even from my smattering of episodes viewed over the past few months, I already lovelovelove Jonas Quinn and have adopted him as my Official Gay Boyfriend and I don't think I could sit through five whole seasons waiting for him to show up. That said, I feel like I need at least some foundation of show mythology so I can vaguely puzzle out what's happening in any given episode I happen to flip through. I've already gotten pretty good at properly placing them in the show's chronology based on opening credits, Amanda Tapping's hair, etc., but I still do a lot of bzzuhwuhhuh? over Goa'uld/Ori/Anubis/whaaat I have no idea. So backstory first, Jonas Quinn later!

ETA: Oh, and the beautiful irony about being stuck in the sweltering heat? I think I'm starting to get a cold. *cough cough*