[ sigrun ]

I shall make a note of that in my pad.

2011-08-29T17:45:02Z

Hit comedy Absolutely Fabulous is to return to BBC One later this year with three specials to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary, the BBC has said.

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley will return as Edina and Patsy along with other original cast members. Julia Sawalha will resume the role of put-upon daughter Saffy, June Whitfield as Edina's mother and Jane Horrocks as personal assistant Bubble.

pimping, musing, and reccing (oh my!)

2011-08-25T18:14:49Z

For what it's worth, if you have ever thought about playing WOW but weren't sure you wanted to make a commitment to paying without playing, WOW went somewhat free-to-play this summer. (The things you miss when you aren't paying attention!) *coughs* Just, you know, putting that out there.

I've been experimenting with new characters, trying to figure out what I want to commit to levelling. I was having second thoughts about playing a blood elf, mainly because that content wasn't updated for Cata. I levelled up an orc and a goblin but wasn't feeling either of them. (And the end of the goblin starting area has made me all frowny in Thrall's general direction. *sigh*) I think I'm going to just stick with my elves. (It'll also help me get a hand of the new mechanics in an area I know intimately; I died way too many times for my own self-esteem as a goblin. Damn goblin zombies!)

So when I get back from therapy in a couple of hours, that's what I plan to be doing. :D I'll research a name I like (that isn't used by too many people, I'm weird that way) and start fleshing out a backstory.

I need to look at a timeline so I don't fuck with canon too much but I think my new hunter is going to be Nohe's younger sister. They're complete opposites: Nohe is a loner, [new girl] is pretty friendly. Nohe always wanted to be a Blood Knight, [new girl] dreamed of being a Farstrider. About the only thing they have in common is their admiration for the Windrunner family. I'm just thinking that if I make them family, I can have a bit of IC RP when it comes to transferring stuff from one character to another. (Nohe can make a mechano-hog for [new girl] as a present, Nohe could potentially carry [new girl]'s friends/guildies through low-level dungeons as a favour. That sort of things.)

And to put all my WOW stuff into one post, have some vid recs. Parodies & machinima. (If you play WOW & listen to Girls' Generation, there is at least one video under the cut that you really should watch. :D)

The rest are all from/by taintedlore @ YouTube. I just found her channel earlier this morning & I think I favourited almost all her vids, she's that good. :D

And my little k-pop heart just loved this one! ♥ (The original Girls' Generation version.)

yeah, this might take a sec or two to load :D

2011-08-24T17:32:55Z

I came across this meme &, well, it just seemed pretty amusing. :P (None of the GIFs are mine by the way, snurched from friends and strangers alike.)

GIF Meme;
1. Open your .gif folder.
2. Use every third .gif as a reaction to the statement.

Your parents' reaction when you were born:

... *sigh*

How you felt on your first day of school:

Your reaction when you learned to ride a bike:

Oh-kay.

Your reaction to getting a birthday present from your best friend:

How you felt when you got your first crush:

I swear to Castiel that I didn't rig this, which makes it so much funnier. XD

How your first crush felt when you told them:

Your reaction when your parents sat you down to have 'the talk':

Yep, pretty accurate. :D

How you felt after your first kiss:

Your partner's reaction to that kiss:

How you felt after your very first hangover:

Not even close. :(

How you felt after having sex for the first time:

'What did I just do?!'

How you felt waiting for your exam results:

Your reaction to failing an exam:

Your reaction to passing an exam:

It's amusing how inappropriate these two are. XD

How you felt after getting into your chosen university:

Considering how my university stint turned out, this GIF is more accurate than one would initially think. :(

Your reaction to being dumped by your partner:

How you felt after smoking pot for an evening:

Everyone's reaction to a party you organised:

Your reaction to finding your true love:

Your reaction to graduating:

How you felt on your wedding day:

... I don't even know.

How you felt during your wedding night:

Your reaction when you find out you're pregnant:

The .gif that describes the rest of your life:

Your family's reaction when you pass away:

... my family sucks.

off to play wow ♥

2011-08-23T18:17:47Z

but you know i'm gonna be your favourite group mate

2011-08-23T01:03:10Z

I was sorting through my WOW stuff, updating addons & what-not, & pruned my screenshots folder. And since some of them are mildly amusing I thought I'd share. :D

This isn't why Hallow's End is my favourite holiday. It really isn't. XD

Engineering is awesome! The pay sucks & most items are only marginally useful but there are perks.

They aren't joking about the need for a parachute. :D

Vroom-vroom!

One of Nohe's more interesting transporter malfunctions. Ironic, I thought. :P

Nohe only rides epic mounts but... sometimes she makes exceptions.

Project Runway, coming to you live from a roof in Dalaran.

Nohe caught fish bare-handed & looked hot doing it.

I can't remember which outfits these are but so very pretty. :D

Kirin Tor represent! ♥

I so wanted the Vrykul to be a playable race. :( They're huge & wouldn't fit through doorways but they're just so pretty and badass.

I felt so bad for my hippogryph during these dailies. XP

And if we ever get another hero class, I'm stuffing the ballot box for demon hunter. ~~Okay, I kinda have a thing of Illidan. Just a little bitty thing.~~

Ryohe found that, ultimately, she couldn't shoot blindfolded. :| She never spoke of that unfortunate afternoon to anyone.

I am an overachiever or at least an obsessive one.

My favourite achievement! I worked my ass off to get that. Call me the Seeker. ♥

Ryohe stood in the fire. :(

Kael'thas, bastard prince (and not in the adorable Alistair kind of way).

Selfish bastard never did cough up the hawkstrider but the phoenix hatchling is pretty awesome.

Sometimes there are perma-deaths.

When I deleted Codex, I wanted her to go out in style. Stripped of all her gold and possessions, she jumped from Acherus to her death (and subsequent deletion).

Gnomes: can't live with 'em & punting 'em is frowned upon.

Excellent costumes... *giggles*

Blizzard takes great pride in quest mechanics.

A bush. A bush that moves. A bush that is in no way whatsoever a night elf hunter.

Just one of the ~~boys~~ dwarves.

NPCs are kinda awesome.

Stuff like this is why I love questing so much. :D :D

Baby murlocs! ♥

Pets that claw off faces!

Spiny rock crab; call him a girl & he'll pinch ya!

Probably overused but, heh, I thought it was clever.

I fucking loved her until they fixed the bug that made her so big. *sigh* She was a beauty in action during battlegrounds, striking fear into the hearts of the Horde.

Naked night elves for the Horde! Me & my old guildies were bored one night & decided to dance naked outside of Org. It was an interesting night for everyone, I believe. XD

In closing:

You maniacs! You blew it up!

And a moment of zen:

Darnassus will always be my favourite city. ♥_♥

this is a wow post. :p (jinx!)

2011-08-22T03:05:31Z

For probably the first time as a WOW player, I'm actually looking forward to a Tuesday-- 'cause I'm reactivating my account that afternoon. *dances* I've gotta finish moving tomorrow & then do my job counseling Tuesday morning and then back to Azeroth I'm heading.

I'm so excited. And overwhelmed. New patches to read/memorise/flail about, new characters to create, old characters to figure out what to do with. But *flails* I have really missed playing. ♥

I basically have two characters that I actively played on:
Nohe, death knight, Horde, Kirin Tor.
Ryohe, hunter, Alliance, Argent Dawn.

I'm keeping Nohe because she's awesome, a bit of an achievement junkie, & she knows how to make 'this sweet hog'. But I don't really want to play her anymore, except for achievements/holidays. :( I don't want to play Ryohe either. Guild drama from way-back-when has kinda tainted her. I'll definitely be g-quitting & I may or may not keep her long-term. I haven't decided yet.

[Until I played on Ryohe, I loved soloing everything. DKs are awesome that way but, once I started doing dungeons with other people, I found that I'm actually pretty decent at DPS. And, dear gods, hunters are fan-fuckin'-tastic in BGs, or at least they were when I was last playing one. XD And people aren't always that scary. Just sometimes.]

Horde-wise, I think I'm gonna stay on Kirin Tor & make a hopefully bad-ass blood elf hunter. Horde peeps, happen to play on Kirin Tor? Let me know. :D I'll probably ask on wow_ladies if there are any guilds recruiting there so I don't have to face the queues on my own.

But, Alliance-wise, I'm not really keen on sticking around on AD. I'd like to make a new hunter (either a draenei or night elf) on a new server. So, Alliance peeps, any servers you'd recommend? And, if you wouldn't be morally opposed to potentially running with me, please let me know. :D

Alright. Months of wow_ladies to skim through, patch notes to track down & read, and things to finish up before all my spare time, ahem, mysteriously disappears. XD

If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense.

2011-08-21T06:08:27Z

I'm all random & inquisitive tonight.

♦ Thanks to this fantastic Alice vid eating away at my brain, I've been wondering about other awesome Alice in Wonderland adaptations. Recs? I've seen & adored both Alice & Malice in Wonderland. I also have the Depp movie around here somewhere, just haven't gotten around to watching it yet.

[Considering that the other vid rattling around in my head is dualbunny's Lost in Austen one, it seems my brain is very 'self-insertion, yay' at the moment. That's all fine & dandy, as long as I don't end up waking up two weeks from now on a ship bound for Rivain in nothing but my smallclothes & a tattoo on my forehead. That would be bad. :D]

♦ ... oddly enough, that segues (at least in my mind) into this random thought I wanted to post about but couldn't find an excuse to. Are there phrases, simple innocuous phrases mind you, that you frequently hear in a specific voice? Since I'm asking the question, my answer is obviously yes. :P I was skimming through a movie review when I got to the phrase 'one to watch'. I don't think I will ever, ever not hear that in Tim Curry's voice. (LOL I think for the first time in his filmography, Tim Curry has achieved creeperdom for me. Legend, Clue, Alice (heh), RHPS, nada. DAO, off the charts.)

♦ I was in the mood for drama consumption a few days ago so I started watching Cinderella Unni over at Dramafever. *headdesk* I knew it was depressing but I'd either forgotten or mentally glossed over the mother who very slightly resembles my mother (behaviour-wise, and only very slightly &, like I told my therapist afterwards, at least I've never doubted my mother's love, just her actions). I'm downloading the whole shebang now, mainly so I can skip to the end & find out if it's gonna break my heart. Sometimes I like my feelings pre-crushed like that.

♦ And that leads nicely into this: anyone use mydramalist? I've been thinking about signing up/using it but I kinda wanted others' opinions first.

I'm also thinking about joining Tumblr but I have no idea if I'd use it, what I'd use it for, or even really what the heck it is. Maybe I should just sit back & look at the pretties.

\o/

2011-08-11T23:45:37Z

I'm completely caught up, woot woot. (Of course, I only realised/remembered I could use archive view to skim through communities when I only had one left. *facepalm*)

Good news: Korea loves me. When last I knew, Amber's status in f(x) was questionable. I'll be over here drooling over how amazing she looks now.

Bad news: Taiwan hates me. T_T Wu Chun... I mean, at least Fahrenheit didn't break up completely but I only really like(d) Wu Chun & Jiro. *sigh*

In other depressing news, I had to leave wow_ladies for the time being because the squee was just too... depressing? I haven't played WOW in months. With the new patches/Firelands/whatever else, I probably don't even remember how to. :P

Mediafire is my BFF right now. :D And I may break my rule about watching things as they air/are subbed-- Ouran & Hana-Kimi look totally adorable & I don't wanna wait.

Free stuff that isn't even slightly illegal, yay: Lollapalooza is giving away free subscriptions to Spin. I can't vouch for the link or anything but *shrugs*. Good timing for me, at least-- my current, also free, subscription was about to run out.

you have all the weapons you need

2011-08-10T22:38:10Z

Personal journals - check!
Alright, I may have skimmed a lot but I think I got the gist. Engagements, marriages, births, deaths, ~~reincarnations~~, you people were sure busy! Also, reading what y'all organised/did after the earthquake in Japan was inspiring but I didn't really expect anything less. ♥

♠ Everytime I see Downton Abbey, I immediately think someone's misspelled a word. Heh. Good thing I cottoned on before I pointed it out to anybody. *facepalm*

♠ So, Harry Potter is officially over, eh? I guess I can live a bit longer in denial. I don't think I've watched the movies past The Chamber of Secrets (or read the books past... maybe GoF, I'm not quite sure). My Weasley issues, let me show you. *sigh* I'll have to finish them sooner or later. (Why do all my favourite characters either die or marry people I really, really, really don't like?! Thank the gods for fanfiction, I guess.)

♠ There is a Hana-Kimi remake? An Ouran drama? A Japanese You're Beautiful? Plus Game of Thrones? ♥_♥

⋄ One of the crappiest things about spending your life in perpetual catch-up mode is that when you want to discuss things, everyone else has already moved on to other things. I shall play the world's tiniest violin for myself. :/

For instance, Repo! The Genetic Opera is fantastic and Graverobber/Shilo rocks my socks. Plus Blind Mag was just effin' fierce. Also Sucker Punch was a total mindfuck and I wish they'd left the final scene with the High Roller in the theatrical edition.

That is all.

taking two steps forward & one step back is still making progress

2011-08-10T02:14:21Z

Thanks to the judicious, and sometimes reckless, use of the archive and delete buttons, my inbox has 9 items in it. 1 important thing (a LJ comment), one coupon (mmm, curly fries), 1 advertisement (DAII DLC, how you tempt me), & some random other stuff. Woot. \o/

(We'll ignore the fact that my bookmarks are overflowing and I've barely scrapped LJ yet-- for my sanity, I'm ignoring it, at least. XD)

*sigh* I miss my mum. :/ She's... elsewhere at the moment & I feel like it's been forever since I heard her voice. And I wanna bitch about how she picks the worst times to have crises but-- I just miss her. (Deliberately vague because, wow, my life has too much drama in it. Details forthcoming at some point that isn't today. My current motto: ignore, ignore, ignore. Keeping busy is a good distraction.)

And, yeah, it's kinda silly just to go 'something's wrong but I'm not telling you what it is' but-- I just needed to get it out of my system. Sorry. :|

Moving on to a more pleasant topic:

Is anyone else getting seriously wee!Alan Tudyk vibes from Josh Hutcherson (promo image for The Hunger Games)? [Now I really want to finish that book-- which I just started yesterday, finally. Haven't even got to the Reaping yet.]

No one ever mentions Zathura in articles about him 'cause he had to go and star in an award-winning film a few years later. :P Maybe THG will have a Twilight effect, where the fangirls will dig up everything the actors ever did. I mean, The Bad Mother's Handbook got rereleased. Though nobody really watches/ed Zathura even though Kristen Stewart is in it. *sigh*

... I'm always gonna be sitting in a lonely corner, waving an Astronaut/Lisa flag by my lonesome.

time waits for no one (impatient son-on-a-...)

2011-08-08T03:42:14Z

I know I've probably missed a few things but I did some light housekeeping here at the ol' journal. New layout (which only consists of a new header & colours, because I'm lazy), a few tweaks to the userinfo, and a teeny purge of userpics.

Once I get back from seeing my endocrinologist tomorrow afternoon, I'll attack the friends list (in the nicest way possible, of course :D).

Begin with that most terrifying of all things: a clean slate.

2011-08-07T16:11:55Z

So, uh, hi. It's been awhile. (27 weeks?! I swear to most applicable deities, I didn't mean to be gone that long.) And, yeah, new name-- hopefully to go with the definitely not new but hopefully improved me. (It's Vik, the prodigal blogger previously known as maechi, by the way. Just in case the name change confuzzles you ~~or you've forgotten about me~~.)

It's probably been quite a year so far for everyone. It's definitely been a rollercoaster for me. I'm not sure how much I talked about it last year but this spring I completed my training & am now a certified Microsoft Office Specialist. Woot, woot. Though a lot of good it's done me. About four months ago I got really sick. I was sleeping all the time, too tired to do much of anything when I was awake, and just felt like crap. After ruling out a depression!related nosedive (which I flirted with earlier this year, hence the short absence that became... a long one), lupus (it's never lupus), & some other frightening alternatives, I finally got diagnosed. Fibromyalgia. So it's official: my brain hates me and my body joined the bandwagon.

I'm on some good meds now (that I'm actually taking). I really have them to thank for getting back on my feet, for being able to come back here. As I was starting to feel better, I finally realised that 'wow, Viktoria, you're a shitty shitty friend. I also could sit at the computer for an extended period of time without ending up a worn-out pincushion of pain. (When I logged on this past week, I got a cheerful little reminder that it had been 133 days since I'd updated my malwarebytes database. 19 weeks since I'd last turned on my computer. Time flies when you're certainly not having fun. :P)

Okay, I have to take that back. I did have a little bit of fun. There were weeks when the only thing I looked forward to, the only thing that could get me to even wake up, was Dragon Age. Maybe the FDA should look into the medicinal effects of Alistair and Anders (though the latter definitely has a use-by date, *shakes fist at DAII).

So, yes, in case you're wondering, that is where the name came from. :D But it ended up referencing more than just a sarcastic dwarf with an awesome sense of humour. Her namesake, the Norse Sigrún, has a story that clicked with me too: after dying of sadness, she is reborn as a Valkyrie, a mythical being I've always been fascinated by. I wanted a change and I think this fits as well with the newish me as maechi did with the old me.

I know after all the crap I pulled last year that I'm probably really trying your patience just showing up again & wanting to jump back in like this is a game of double dutch or something but-- *sigh* for the first time in a long, long time, I feel like I can jump in and not end up tangled up in the ropes.

I wish 07 August 2011 was a more auspicious day, a day that'd be easier to remember, but I feel like it'll be my own personal New Year's Day. 2010 was crap, 2011 started out that way, but I'm sure as heck not gonna let it end that way. There's a bunch more I want to say but it can wait. I'm not going anywhere. XD (So much to catch up, least for all an inbox with 23k unread messages. I'm not even joking. I also need to redo my layout. Let's hope my PS skills haven't gotten rusty either.)

And, you know, if you're reading this, I owe you both an apology for my behaviour and my heartfelt thanks for sticking with me through it all. ♥ It means a lot, more than you know.

This is a WOW post. :P

2011-01-27T06:21:01Z

\o/ *dances* I didn't play Nohe for nearly a month so I busted my butt this week. She dinged in the Plaguelands, digging up fossils. Kinda anti-climactic, but at least I had the time to take a cap.

I finally got the 'of the Shattered Sun' title this morning. I ran Magister's Terrace 5 times (4 normal, 1 Heroic) in a row because I just wanted the rep grind to be over. :P Unfortunately, there are more MT runs in my future. Kael only gives up the pet during normals & the mount during heroics. And he's a stingy SOB. :| (That's the nice thing about soloing. If I want to spend hours running dungeons, repeatedly, I can. XD)

And I'm only 146 quests away from 'the Seeker'! So, yeah, I'll enjoy the title that cost me 1K for a few days & then never use it again. *facepalm*

Now I just need to figure out my Alliance situation. What do I want to play & where do I want to play her. I'm leaning Wrymrest Accord server-wise because the RP is supposed to be fantastic but all my gold is on Argent Dawn. And I can't decide if I want to go paladin or druid. Argh. Why so indecisive? *headdesk*

But-- I'm oddly proud of myself. I think I finally found the balance I needed. I've kept up with LJ & my email even though most of my free time was wrapped up in WOW. For me, that's a big thing. No more tunnel vision!

[psa] re: youtube

2011-01-23T08:52:00Z

A long time ago, YouTube modified their embed coding (to be HTML5 compatible, I think; relevant blog post here). Fast forward & it appears that they're now making it the default way to embed. That's leading to big blank spaces on LJ.

There's an easy fix:

:D I have an account so mine is permanently checked, but I don't know if you have to do it repeatedly otherwise.

(I had ol' web-design flashbacks for a bit when my embeds wouldn't work all of a sudden. iframes! I hadn't seen 'em since I gave up coding.)

[movies] the silver loafers are magical

2011-01-22T09:38:47Z

I wanted to get at least one more movie in but, blegh, so tired. :(

[No trailer. :| The internet does not favour movies with generic titles.]

Thoughts: ultimately predictable but great; everyone was good, especially Masami

Robot Contest (Robokon) is yet another movie about a group of misfits working to overcome obstacles so, yeah, things go pretty much as you'd expect. That's not to detract from the film though, it was ultimately very enjoyable. And the plot is, well, what's written on the tin. :P Our four main characters are forced to work together to build a robot & enter it in a robot contest, going up against schools with better funding, better numbers, and better teamwork.

Shun Oguri, Takashi Tsukamoto, Atsushi Ito, & Masami Nagasawa did great, even if they were fairly 'safe' roles for all. The moody genius, the wannabe gangster, the awkward geek, & the troublesome girl. Well, Nagasawa-chan is at least the easiest to pick out. ;) (I have a soft spot for her, though honestly I can't remember exactly why. I think she was getting anti-fans for some role & I thought it was awfully mean. Maybe? *shrugs*)

Thoughts: like a Japanese 'Girl, Interrupted'; interesting & well-acted

To repeat myself, Welcome to the Quiet Room is basically G,I-in-Japan. We meet Asuka in the Quiet Room, in full restraints and traces of vomit in her hair. She is not in a good place. Did she try to kill herself or just accidentally OD? Is she genuinely disturbed or just unlucky? This movie doesn't bring quick or easy answers, but it brought good drama, character development, and Aoi Yuu in dreadlocks. (The last of which bears no impact on the plot, she just rocks 'em. ♥)

Thoughts: the good, the bad, & the great; 'Merde' was shit; what's so bad about being a hikikomori :P; seem to be developing a thing for Aoi Yuu (she's been showing up a lot!)

Tokyo! basically consists of three short(ish) films, each with a different director. Michel Gondry (ESotSM) directs the first, Interior Design. It's a trippy thing about finding your place in the world, whatever it might be. Merde-- ugh, I hated it, enough that I don't feel like wasting more space on it. :P Shaking Tokyo wraps up the film and it's a rather optimistic film about a hikikomori & the girl who delivers his weekly pizza. (Aoi Yuu plays the girl &, man, I want her button tattoos.) It was directed by Bong Joon-ho, who did The Host & Mother.

[movies] time machines, turtles, & cyborgs -- oh my!

2011-01-21T19:16:57Z

Ugh. I wonder if there will ever come a point when making uncomfortable phone calls won't make me physically ill. :( But it's done so I can now go about my business.

So, movies. \o/

Thoughts: another rewatch; makes a bit more sense or is at least easier to understand; Eita + Juri = ♥

Time travel can be confusing, not only for the travellers themselves but for those who are watching a movie about them. :P So watching Summer Time Machine Blues for the second time gave me the ability to appreciate the whole thing. Scenes at the beginning that didn't make sense until the end of the movie? They were now understood from the start.

But I didn't pick this movie to watch for any noble reason such as that. It's another Ueno Juri film, this time with my favourite of her partners-in-film&tv, Eita. They've got such fantastic chemistry together.

(I did a horrible job talking about the movie this time around. My original review from 09 is here, if funny Japanese movies are your thing. If it sounds interesting, you can also try clicking here.)

Thoughts: slow but funny; Suzume's life as a spy was rather life-affirming in a way; lol @ Kaname Jun

Turtles Swim Faster Than Expected is pretty weird, to put it bluntly. Ueno Juri plays Suzume, a housewife stuck in a rut who suddenly becomes a spy. Now her ordinary life is a dynamic one; instructed to live her life as normal, she wonders what 'normal' really is. Aoi Yuu & Kaname Jun co-star as her best friend and first love, respectively. (Jun fans, he's not in it very much but it's LOLtastic. XD)

Thoughts: so awesome - romantic, mind-blowing, & disasterific; love the ending so frickin' much

I just watched Cyborg She for the first time this morning but I am already putting it on the list as one of my favourite movies of all time. It's just so good. ♥ I don't even know how to describe it without being spoilery, because the movie is so much better than it sounds. Hmm.

Jiro meets a girl on his birthday & she makes it a memorable one. However she cannot stay. A year later, the girl returns & he finds out that the girl is in fact a cybernetic organism (she doesn't like being called a robot). Jiro wants to help her become more human, give her a soul. However her knowledge of things to come changes things &, in the end, nothing was what it appeared to be.

Ayase Haruka is up there with Ueno Juri in regards to actresses I'll watch pretty much anything of, because I love 'em so much. ♥ This will definitely be getting a rewatch later. :D

[movies] warau michael & swing girls

2011-01-20T19:19:15Z

I'm having a very Ueno Juri-kind of day. I watched two of her movies this morning, at least one more is my stack of things to watch immediately (or sometime today). I guess she's one of my favourite actresses for a reason. ♥

Thoughts: rewatch; adorable and ridiculous, especially the CGI; so much subtext; religious theme that doesn't bother me at all because it's genuine in a weird way

I've watched Warau Michael (Arch Angels) before but it'd been a few years. This movie is still as strangely awesome as it was back then. Three Japanese schoolgirls get superpowers, they introduce chicken ramen & other 'commoner' foods to their private school classmates, other schoolgirls crush adorably on our heroines, and then crime is fought.

While the sexuality subtext is clear, I did wonder if I've been so warped by other forms of media that I see incestuous subtext even when it's not there. IDK but I still ship Fumio & her brother. :/ (They were 'long-lost' siblings. At one point she comments on how attractive he is up close. He chooses to live with her rather than marry. *sigh*)

If you're interested in watching it, take a gander here. :)

Thoughts: like a realistic Nodame; fairly accurate portrayal of teenagers, if not music/musical talent

Given that Juri-chan is the lead, it's easy to make comparisons to Nodame but a group of misfit musicians works against the odds to make themselves be heard? Sound familiar? ;)

Swing Girls breaks away from Nodame Cantabile in the sense that the characters are much more real. They're teenagers! They can be bitchy, rude, sneaky - friendly, hopeful, close-knit.

And I guess I need to retract my comment about a possible inaccurate portrayal of musical talent. I was Googling to figure out where I knew one of the actresses from (she was in Love Shuffle) & I discovered that the 'Swing Girls (and one boy)' actually performed all their own music. The actresses (and actor) studied for months. o_O That's pretty amazing!

You can watch/hear them play in this clip; it's the last scene of the movie so, yeah, don't watch it unless you don't care about being spoiled. :P

Writer's Block: Almost like a song

2011-01-19T20:39:08Z

Nakatsu Shuichi as a real person?

I don't normally do these things but that was seriously the first thing I thought of when I saw this in someone else's journal. Aww, giant lovable dorkface. <3

sigrun @ 2011-01-13T13:17:00

2011-01-13T18:17:48Z

Usually I'm pretty much *eye-roll* when it comes to American remakes of, well, pretty much anything but... SyFy has a pilot for Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) in development. Commence bitching, right? Except it's being written by Jane & Drew from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It might actually be good!

From Blastr:

2011-01-11T20:20:33Z

(click for bigger)

Now I suddenly want to read DW/Bill & Ted crossovers. XD

may the lords of coding have mercy on this entry

2011-01-11T03:46:33Z

Let's talk about ~~sex~~ movies! (Alright, there might be a little sex in the movies-- but don't get your hopes up.) Trailers, notes from my film diary, and other stuff.

My thoughts at the time: A lesbian film that is probably considered mainstream in Canada. Some surprises but also fairly predictable. Incestuous Canadian casting! :D

Better Than Chocolate is great. It's like 50% social commentary, 25% hot lesbians, & 25% mushy fluff. Addressing the latter first, Karyn Dwyer is adorable, Christina Cox surprised me (in a positive way), and Peter Outerbridge ♥ -- well, his performance ties in to the first point.

For a movie about lesbians, most of the social commentary was to be expected. Gays and lesbians are often discriminated against by society as a whole and also by those close to them. Peter Outerbridge's performance as Judy takes it so much further than that. Judy finds acceptance by anyone hard to achieve: her parents reject her, her love interest (a lesbian woman) finds her advances uncomfortable, and a violent confrontation happens in what had been assumed to be a safe environment.

But there's always hope. This movie proves that when you follow your heart, sometimes it leads you to things that are 'better than chocolate'.

My thoughts at the time: Okay? 1/2 lesbian comedy & 1/4 quarterlife crisis = movie with no real identity

In retrospect, that might sound harsh. I did enjoy Big Dreams in Little Hope but I feel like I enjoyed it for what it was, not for what it was intended to be.

The tagline is 'An Odd Couple Lesbian Buddy Movie'. It's a very literal description. The main characters are complete opposites & it's a buddy movie with barely a hint of sexual tension between the main characters. I waver on the lesbian part though because, while Linda is out & proud, Kelly is so 'straight-laced' that I went through much of the movie assuming she was!

It's a funny movie though & there is something to be said about the power of platonic friendship. :D

My thoughts at the time: Pretty good; Michelle Ryan was great & I liked her character's obsession/storyline; and the gay guy from 'The Class' :D

Mister Eleven was an ITV drama from 2009 I happened to catch on Netflix one day. The power of Michelle Ryan compelled me? It's about a woman, Saz, who is obsessed with marrying her 11th boyfriend/sexual partner because she believes that he will be her Mr. Right. Upon marrying #11, she is thrown for a loop when one of her earlier partners says that they did not actually sleep together-- making her new husband only #10.

It might sound like an outrageous premise but, as someone who has obsessive tendencies, I was completely sympathetic to her. However, I wonder if Saz comes off badly to most other people. :/

And, yes, Sean Maguire will always be 'the gay guy from The Class' to me. (And, yes, I'm still bitter. *sigh*)

My thoughts at the time: Decent enough but fairly predictable

That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for In a Day, I guess. The synopsis says it's about a woman spending a curiously unpredictable day with a stranger-- but, while it might be unpredictable for her, the audience can pretty much assume they know how it's going to end. That said, it is a good movie that will leave you rooting for the characters (even at the predictable climax).

My thoughts at the time: * x 5; loved it, totally epitomes 'cult classic'; fantastic soundtrack; Jessica Paré & rock legend cameos

I don't know, I might have mentioned that I love Suck a few times in the past week or so. ;) It's hilarious, surprisingly meta, and, seriously, any movie that can get Moby to play 'Beef', the lead singer of 'The Secretaries of Steak'? That's a movie you've gotta watch.

My thoughts at the time: Funny & more than a little weird; needs more Kris Lemche

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead... well, it's not William's Hamlet, that's for certain. XD This is one of those movies that makes no reasonable amount of sense but in a way that doesn't really detract from the movie itself. (If that makes sense...) But it's not a total butchering of Shakespeare: I never felt like they were disrespecting the Bard at all & there's even shout-outs to Tom Stoppard.

(Alas, there will never be enough Kris Lemche to satisfy me. XD)

not even a migraine could stop me

2011-01-04T06:27:02Z

Huzzah. I can read my flist again. \o/

Notes:
. Going through your flist name-by-name can get really depressing. It's not just the sudden in-your-face remembrance of a friend who has died that sucks, it's realising just how long it's been since others have logged*. With my recently acquired new perspective, I wondered if something bad happened to them, if something bad happened in their life, or if they simply got bored, discovered new interests, or something equally mundane. *sigh*

There's also the pitiful 'they unfriended me ages ago but if I stick around, they might add me again' thing that came up a few times.

.*In that same thread of thought, that just reinforces how much of 2010 was a total blur for me. Realising that some people haven't posted since 2009 when I feel like I had talked to them 'recently'? A bit scary and unnerving. :\

I mean, 2010 was such a mixed-bag. I'm finally, finally in a good place emotionally (though stability is an ongoing battle). I've got a great support system in place. I'm taking baby steps towards independence (better late than never). Fandom-wise, it was the year I ~~lost my soul to~~ discovered World of Warcraft.

But it was a definite struggle to get to where I am. I lost entire months to depression. Got hit with some uncomfortable truths. Let a lot of people down. (... I kinda unvolunteered from the library and still have guilt about it, especially in how it all went down. But that's stuff better left for therapy.)

. For the past several years, I've made lists like 'everything I watch this year' and so on. And every year it lasts about a week. You know what they say about the definition of insanity... I've got a notebook I'm gonna use. It won't be as much a list as a simple record. Like 'Watched Suck again. Still awesome.' Or 'Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead is decent enough but totally worth it for Kris Lemche ♥'. And, if I forget, it won't be the end of the world. The key is to not assign numbers, any semblance of order will just create anxiety.

I realised that in therapy last week, as applied to my daily routine. My case manager has been on me to make a routine but I was fighting the artificial time constraints. As long as I get things done, I don't need to tell myself to do it at XX:XX when X0:11 would be fine.

. I hope this is the last of me being all retrospective and sappy. With the possible exception of a post where I talk about the movies I mainlined on Netflix when 'watching' was all I felt like doing. I might have to rewatch them though. ;) (Any excuse to praise Canada's progressive stance on nudity in media is a good one. :D)

So, to finish this entry on a relatively shallow note:

. Back in October, topazera posted about Katee Sackhoff & Tricia Helfer's activist project. I've been fangirling their motorcycling shenanigans for ages now but I only just put this together in my head: Katee & Tricia are totally the female answer to Ewan & Charlie. I just hope the girls are as profilic with the media as the boys. For humanitarian reasons, of course.

Yeah, yeah, months late to this bandwagon. :P

sigrun @ 2011-01-02T23:51:00

2011-01-03T04:51:52Z

Still catching up. *headdesk* At least a bout of insomnia picked a good time to show up. I'll sleep when I'm dead. :P (Or when the exhaustion finally kicks in, whichever comes first.) So I felt the need to post something, I'm trying to reinforce a good habit here. :D

Catching up with fandom stuff, I read what happened to Selina a few months back. :( That poor girl. The updates over @ aiya seem to be good news though, so that's something.

And in both new news and hopefully fantastic news, Amber's back in Korea. \o/

Two random things that are pretty important to me life-wise that probably wouldn't fit anywhere but their own entries (which I'm too lazy to write):

You know those earaches I've been having for-freakin'-ever? They should be a thing of the past. At the end of November, all but 6 of my teeth got yanked. :| My case manager finally managed to wrangle me to a dentist, my teeth were just as bad as I expected (years of self-neglect, a bad Mountain Dew habit, & bad genes finally caught up with me). Dealing with the fact that I'm going to have dentures before the age of 30 wasn't that big of a deal. At least I won't be ashamed to smile, I guess? Now we're just waiting on Medicaid to approve stuff.

The voc rehab thing I mentioned a long time ago is also in the 'good things are happening, but dear gods the waiting' stage. Once the quota is filled, I'll be taking a 'Computer Application Specialist' course. The plan is for me to get a few certifications to spice up my resume and find me a tech job where I can interact with as few people as possible. XD

Also? I'm in love-- with a movie. Suck is absolutely amazing. ♥ I streamed it @ Netflix a few days ago, then pushed the disc to the top of the family queue, then rented it from the local video store because Netflix was taking too long. XD Jessica Paré from Lost & Delirious is one of the main stars but Rob Stefaniuk is totally adorable/frickin' hot. It's hilarious, nostalgic, and the music is just rockin'.

[If you know me, you know what to expect. ;) Give me a day or so to get things sorted though.]

Feeds are done, communities are read (save the most time-consuming one), and now it's onto friends. What exactly have you all been up to in my absence, hmm? ;)

Since thoughts of thee doth banish grief--

2011-01-01T04:23:35Z

My only New Year's Resolution for 2011 is a simple one: I've resolved to go back to living my life. So-- hey. :)

I've been writing drafts of this post since Christmas Day but this has all been on my mind for the past few weeks. I disappeared, again, after I said I wouldn't, again. It was nothing personal. Heck, at the time it wasn't even a conscious decision. I stopped doing everything for a long time. I basically had a mental breakdown. (I went crazy and I didn't even get a lousy shirt. *pout*)

I haven't been able to figure out why things got so bad but I am doing better. My treatment team seems to finally be on the same wavelength and they're currently still tweaking my diagnosis. Still being the operative word. And I'm on some new medication, Pristiq & Geodon (my very first anti-psychotic :P). They've been helping, which is good because I've been dreading this day for weeks... ever since I realised exactly how long ago I went AWOL.

They have yet to develop a pharmaceutical cure for guilt. Unfortunately. I could use a huge dose of it right now.

I'd have started posting a few weeks ago if I wasn't so damned scared. I am still am but a new year seemed like a good enough reason to try again. It's not so much a fresh start or even a new beginning. But you know me, I like artificial things like that. The beginning of a new year, the beginning of a new month. It gives some semblance of order to my messed-up life.

I love you guys and I love the life I used to have. I want it back. I know I have a lot of things to work on and I don't expect y'all to welcome me back like I never left. You have every right to be mad & I have to take responsibility for that.

I'm sorry, guys. I can't begin to express how sorry I am. I let you guys down (again). I let myself down. And even when I started feeling better, I let the guilt about my behaviour turn me into a big reclusive idiot.

I'm going to ring in this new year hopeful. Stressed beyond belief* but hopeful. (*... 3 months of LJ isn't too overwhelming to catch up on but, when I wasn't on LJ/the internet, I also wasn't checking my email. I have 16941 unread messages in my inbox to sort through. *headdesk*)

So, yeah, I've got a lot of catching up to do. But I'm also going to work on not just going back to being the person, the friend I was-- I want to be better. I want to be able to write an email without obsessing over it for hours. I want to be able to have real-time conversations-- in IMs, comments, whatever. It's probably pathetic to admit this but for the past decade, you guys have been my only real friends. Even now, I don't have a single friend in the so-called real world. That's why I get so worried, so anxious, so stupid about what you guys think of me. You're all I've got. You're all I've ever wanted.

I am so unbelievably lucky to have friends like you. I have something in common with all of you, I mean that's probably how we met, but it's more than that. I've been talking about this day with my therapist and I told her about some of you, why you're so important to me. The best friend, who is always there for me-- even when I'm being melodramatic and stupid. The kindred spirit, a Canadian with a heart of gold. The intellectual whose generosity I'll never able to repay quite enough. The hipster who, in sharing her struggles, reminds me that I'm not alone. ... I could go on but this entry is already getting a bit long and I really need to go acquire some liquid courage. So-- it is what it is, I guess.

I'll write again tomorrow, once I make some progress in the backlog of doom. There is actually some stuff going on in my life that I want to share, but it can wait.

I hope you all are having fun and being safe. ♥

looks at timestamp :\

2010-09-11T07:46:15Z

Ugh. I'm glad this week is over with. It's been a rollercoaster. :/

The Bad
Okay, I hate taking pills that are larger than the average pill. We've always called them horse pills because they're so huge. Unfortunately, 875mg of Amoxicillin comes in a pretty large pill. D:

And I'm taking antibiotics because, surprise, I woke up Wednesday with an earache. Moderate infection in one, fluid in the other. (I'm supposed to call an ENT doctor next week & try to schedule an appointment. Getting that approved by Medicaid should be fun.)

The 'I'm not sure what to make of this yet'
In the past decade or so, I've seen a handful of different psychiatrists, therapists, & various other mental health professionals-- and, perhaps not surprisingly, my diagnosis has been changed every few years. The psychologist I saw during my brief stint in college said it was major depression, the psychiatrist I saw a few years later said it was bipolar disorder, and the people I'm seeing now all agree that it's an anxiety disorder and depression.

Anyways, I told my therapist pretty much exactly what I told you last weekend about how I have trouble focusing and staying on task-- how my brain is so full all the time that it's hard to really turn it off. And now she wants me to be evaluated for ADHD. :| That's kinda out of left field because no doctor has ever mentioned it before &, well, it's not something I ever thought I had. I don't expect it'll amount to anything but it was definitely a 'bzuh?' moment during my session this week.

The Good
This could also go in the category above but I'm trying to be optimistic. :P I'm on the long, long, long road to being employable again. I've got an interview with the Voc Rehab people later this month, to see if I can qualify for their assistance and what I might be able to do. And my case manager is also going to see this week if she can get me into a program doing piecework. At home!

That'd be like my ideal job right now. I'd get paid & not really ever have to leave the house. :P She was going to call the program director after we talked last week & I guess I'll find out more information either way this Thursday when we meet again. (I don't want to get too excited but 'work from home' has to be one of the greatest phrases in the English language. :P)

... now I have to wake the cat up so I can head to bed. It annoys me sometimes how he can be so comfortable in such awkward positions. And then I hate to wake him up. *snuggles Tigger*