All right, so I fail at updating LJ! Damn you, Twitter. I went to a U2 concert in Tampa with firstlightofeos and nancydowns a couple of weeks ago, and it was brilliant. I went to New York right after that, where I bought far more DVDs and assorted geekeries than I ought to and ate really, really good Chinese takeout. I totally fell in love with the city. ♥ And I bought a new MacBook Pro! It is gorgeous. I've just finished setting her up to my satisfaction today. Her name is River. (After River Tam, obviously, not River Song. And damn you for even considering that possibility, oxys_kai_moros.)

TV-related rambling ahead! But first, tell me something.

Poll #1476009 What have you been watching, flist?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 37

Fantasy/sci-fi:

Drama:

Procedurals:

Comedy:

Which of these soon-to-be returning shows do you plan to continue/start watching?

Rec a TV show!

( vague spoilers for Glee, Dollhouse and Merlin )

Three TV shows I'm watching and enjoying—with download links, because everyone knows I'm a pimp at heart:

Castle: Nathan Fillion playing the part of a Fillion-y mystery writer who helps solve crimes; what's not to love? I'm enjoying season 2 even more than I did season 1, and I'm happily waiting for my copy of Richard Castle's Heat Wave to arrive. Here's a YouTube promo featuring Fillion being awesome and geeky. Download the Castle pilot in .avi format here.

FlashForward: the premise is interesting—the entire world blanked out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, causing massive casualties, and during that time everyone caught a glimpse of what their lives would be like six months from now. The main character saw himself investigating the blackouts, so he begins investigating; it's all very wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. Also: there's John Cho! And Jack Davenport! YouTube promo link. Download the FlashForward pilot in .avi format here. (Hulu link.)

White Collar: I was excited to see Chuck's Matthew Bomer (Bryce Larkin) in a new show; it just premiered two days ago, and it didn't disappoint. [Incidentally, if you aren't watching Chuck, why the hell aren't you watching Chuck?] Bomer plays a con artist who helps investigate white collar crimes to keep himself out of jail, à la Catch Me If You Can. It's entertaining! Check out the YouTube promo, and download the first episode here in .avi format (or watch on Hulu).

I'm also watching, with varying degrees of dedication, enthusiasm and caught-up-ness: Dexter, Fringe, Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, Lie to Me, Numb3rs, Criminal Minds, Stargate: Universe, Supernatural and The Mentalist. I have a terrible case of television ADD—I rarely remember/want to watch shows' new episodes every week—so everything always piles up. *pointed look at Heroes, Criminal Minds and Fringe* *headdesk*

The following links are some of the many, many reasons why I've been going, "Jesus, I'd kill to be at Comic-Con" for the past couple of days, thanks to Twitter and the (admittedly far too many) geeks Twitter users I happen to follow.

(On the very, very bright side, firstlightofeos, moon_dancing, afterthree, oxys_kai_moros, nancy_downs, inksplotched and I have made plans to attend next year's Comic-Con together, which will be all kinds of brilliant!)

I'm excited for Iron Man 2 and Avatar and Fringe and of course the next two (:D!) Star Trek movies and oh God, watching Comic-Con news from afar is short-circuiting my obsessive brain. There's way too much geekery out there I want to watch. Crap.

( Links: Comic-Con costumes, Russell T. Davies, Firefly, Dollhouse, The Cabin in the Woods, The Guild, V, Chuck, True Blood, Twilight, Twitter )

Star Trek: SEE 'Make Kirk/Spock Canon' petition. I pretty much fully agree with sunhawk's thoughts on the matter, so I'll just sit here in my quiet internet corner and headdesk away.

Star Trek: Reboot fic recs of the must-read variety: We Reach Our Apogee Slowly by kowaiyoukai (Spock/Uhura, Kirk/Spock pre-slash, WIP), You'll Get There in the End (It Just Takes a While) by seperis (Kirk/Spock), Don't Last Like the Feeling by anowlinsunshine (Spock/Uhura, Kirk/Spock), Common Bond by florahart (Sarek/Winona). Also, rageprufrock's D: (RPS, Chris/Zach). Yes. I know. It's RPS. Shut up. [For more ST:TOR recs, click here.]

Incidentally, I neglected to make a Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince reaction post, despite my promise to afterthree that I would, so here's the gist of what I would've said: the movie was hilarious; I still don't like Gambon's Dumbledore; I enjoyed a lot of the movie, but the last third of it or so were just plain painful. I wasn't a big fan of the cave scene or Dumbledore's death. This wasn't my favourite movie, but it wasn't the worst of the batch. In a word: meh. EDIT: cleolinda has said it best in her Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 15 Minutes, really. Heeee.

Ending on a random note, in case any of you somehow missed this link in the past few days, click to watch Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up, or: Rick-Rolling, Nirvana-style.

When you see this, post five seven unpopular fandom opinions in your journal.

1. [Doctor Who] I adore Steven Moffat and all his DW episodes (except for the fourth season two-parter, because no amount of fangirlism can get me to appreciate River), so I'm actually curious to see what he'll do with Eleven. I'll miss Tennant like hell, but I'll definitely give the next series a chance.

2. [Torchwood] I hate Torchwood. I've watched several episodes, and I should like it, really—I love Jack, and James Marsters was in it, even, I should've been all over that, but...no. The team fails, and even Jack fails, and Owen fails, and Gwen fails oh God, so hard, and the plotlines are ridiculous, and they're all amazingly inefficient and terrible at their jobs, and just, what the hell were you high on when you allowed this to happen, RTD?

( Harry Potter, Star Trek, Merlin, et al. )


I signed up to write two reel_merlin fics: Laws of Attraction and Imagine Me & You. *headdesk* I think it's a masochism thing. But hey, I have until September—I may actually finish them, who knows?

Oh, and just because it's being debated everywhere: Michael Jackson died. The rumour outbreak broke the internet—including, but not limited to, LJ, Twitter, E! and CNN. I'm pretty sure ohnotheydidnt did the LJ-breaking; the comm was inaccessible for a while before the whole site crashed down. Damn, I really wanted to read people's comments on the matter. Way to go, ONTD!

I feel sorry for the bazillion people who bought tickets for his 'This Is It' 2010 tour, anyhow. The man's musical talent was respect-worthy regardless of personal taste, even if his private life was a godawful mess.

I don't usually pimp fandom memes, but this one's awesome:

Fandom Superlatives!
SUMMER 2009 EDITION: GO VOTE

Among other categories, we have: Most Likely to Succeed in World Domination • Most Likely to Not Even Notice the Apocalypse (Donna!) • Most Likely to Bring New People to the Fandom • Basic Instinct Award (Most Likely to be Killed by a Jealous Lover) • Best Season Finale • Show Most Likely to Have a Musical Episode • Show You've Converted the Most Viewers To • Best Opening Sequence or Titles • Most Likely to Snap and Kill Everyone One Day • Best Mentor • Character Who Would Have the Best Blog (is there even any doubt? *grins*) • Character You Most Wanted to Die Who Didn't • Most Likely to Start an Orgy • Damsel in the Most Distress (*snerk* I love it that Arthur's nominated for this) • Best Monster • Most Promising New Series • Most Powerful/Well Done Death

They're in dire need of Harry Potter/Doctor Who/Merlin/Dr. Horrible/Star Trek love, you guys. Seriously, last time I checked Chris Pine wasn't even nominated for 'Most GQ,' which is just wrong. God, this meme is reminding me of several fandoms I didn't remember I liked! Go vote! :D

This meme is making me realise how little fandom-variety there is in my LJ icons. This is most distressing :|

( In which I ramble about Heroes seasons 1-3 )

The new Doctor Who spoilers made me happy. I wasn't all that pleased with the casting news we got a couple of weeks ago, but this makes it much better :D Also, several endings being filmed = awesome DVD extras next year. Yay!

Oh, I got a couple more Dreamwidth invites yesterday. I'm pretty sure everyone who wanted a code already got one, but if not, feel free to let me know, and I'll send it over. Gone now!

Every TV series I watch is now on hiatus—so weird. (Nevertheless: Chuck, Dollhouse, Castle and Lie to Me were renewed! Which made me very, very happy! Alas, Kings won't make it, but I never thought it would.) I will, of course, end up start watching a new show or two, and end up being forced to give up on half of these by the time the next season comes along. Because that's just how I roll. *headdesk*

Also, I think I've officially run out of time on the emailing Hourglass nominees thing. I can't seem to find emails for a bunch of them, and it's driving me nuts.

*sighs* Can any of you give me a hand? I have the list of email-less authors, and maybe they just require some more clicking around. I just—gah.

I'm a big fan of character-driven fiction. It's not that I think plot is unimportant, but it's secondary—a plot has to be truly dazzling to make me ignore severely underdeveloped characters. (Lord of the Rings anyone?)

So yeah, character-centric > plot-centric. This applies to movies, TV series, books, fanfiction, you name it. I'd take Closer over Catch Me If You Can (and Havemercy over City of Bones, and Dexter over Alias, and Drop Dead Gorgeous over Draco Sinister) any day. Shit, I just fandom-dated myself really badly by mentioning that fic, didn't I.

By 'character-centric,' I don't mean plotless—it's mostly that the plot exists to push along the character development, and not the other way around.

( Issues of the Week, BSG, genfic and Dollhouse )

Just to clarify, I don't consider 'plot-driven' an insult or anything. Nevertheless, I do believe bad writers don't try to write character-centric stories nearly as often as they do plot-driven ones (maybe it's easier to settle for the latter, because plot-driven fiction is the norm, and to part with that you need a firmer crafting hand, to have at least some idea of what you're doing? I'm not sure).

...And then Stephenie Meyer comes along with a primarily character-driven universe that has little to no plot or character development for at least 70% of any given book in the series, and I...I don't even know what to do with that.

Anyhow! I've rambled on for long enough. Do any of you guys have a preference? Is this a distinction that matters to you—in published fiction, fanfiction, or TV?

(Unrelated: Geek pride ftw!)

[11 reacts to his casting]

I was a bit relieved to read afterthree's post about the recently announced Eleventh Doctor. I thought I was the only one who had thought of Edward Cullen's haircut upon seeing this guy for the first time *grins* He also reminds me of what's-his-face, the so-called Dream Team Edward. Gaspard Something.

Anyway.

I'm not crazy about him or anything—he surely has a shitload of chin, his nose would put Nine's to shame, and his voice...eh—but I'm still looking forward to this. Moffat Can Do No Wrong, after all. *laughs* Except for River Song. Ahem. I'll miss Tennant, of course.

We'll see. *shrugs* Should be interesting, anyhow. And the wank's always fun to watch.

.

Also, something discreetly did caused UR to implode for some reason. We're hoping to get everything working again within a few hours.

Like bazcat89, I'm doing this TV shows meme so I can ramble about stuff. Also, it's 7 AM and I'm procrastinating on going to bed. *grins*

( TV meme )

Yay for rambling! Answering these questions made me feel like I watch too much TV—I don't, really. Honestly! *laughs* It's just that TV series are sort of a bonding experience in my circle of friends: we rarely watch things on our own, and the series we have in common are always a popular conversation starter. So I tend to give most of what they watch a try. (Except for Gossip Girl. Because just...no.)

inksplotched came to my house this week! She's been travelling around the country, and was in Rio for a couple of days. It was brilliant *grins*

...Aah. I'm having Pride and Prejudice cravings. Damn you, firstlightofeos!

*massages cheek* I got my last wisdom tooth removed last Thursday, and now I'm wondering over why it started aching out of the blue today. It can't be psychosomatic, come on! Oy, universe! I've had bloody enough of that, what with my wrists going wonky and everything.

Anyway. It's been one month today since my grandfather died. There will of course be a mass this morning—one of the perks of living in a ridiculously Catholic country—and I just...I don't know, I've stopped thinking about it, for the most part. I wish I didn't have to go to this mass today, relive everything, be hugged by a bazillion strangers, and listen to a priest ramble on about whatever religious nonsense comes to mind. I cannot bring myself to hate the empty rituals of Catholic religion—they are quite simply irrelevant to me, and I can never understand how they can affect anyone. At all.

(This of course probably has to do a lot with the highly emotional religious upbringing I had, which established that God should be felt at all times. Many of The Family's meetings are soul-cleansing tearjerkers—especially those directed at long-time members, and not easily-frightened new sheep—and it's all extremely cathartic in a Fight Club sort of way. I don't miss it; nevertheless, the freedom of wearing one's heart on one's sleeve, as it were, is undeniable.)

I swear I don't get our society's outlook on grief sometimes. I wish we could all sit tomorrow and exchange some of grandpa's amazing life stories instead of mourning the merciful (and welcome) end of an illness he loathed. ...No. I wish we could just stop talking about it altogether. I shouldn't even be writing this. It's not denial, see, it's just basic self-preservation.

There won't be another mass for months now, thankfully. After this afternoon, I can go back to caring for more interesting things, such as the upcoming renovations in my apartment and the last two weeks' episodes of Doctor Who. Which were all kinds of AWESOME, by the way. Can't wait for the season finale this Saturday! Also—not at all interesting, but unfortunately necessary—I go back to Law School in a month. German lessons start in two weeks, too.

...*realises* Oh, Christy, you're a genius. You've been off painkillers for all of twelve hours; that's why it's hurting! *headdesks repeatedly*

ETA I'm flisting, and all of a sudden there's Who iconage everywhere. Do. Not. Want! Stop reminding me of what happened last weekend, damn it, I want the finale! *pulls hair* Incidentally, there's new Doctor Who wank over at f_w. Not particularly amusing, but we're all just waiting for Whomageddon next week.

Posted mainly for _thirty2flavors' benefit—my thoughts about today's Doctor Who episode, Silence in the Library. (Because God knows I won't remember half of these comments by the time we discuss the episode. *grins*) And of course also for firstlightofeos, whenever she watches the episode. Which she should. ASAP. Oh, and cinephile88, who is not online at the moment despite his awesome timezone. *blows raspberry*

( SPOILERIFIC Doctor Who randomness. Also, beware: alarming and uncharacteristic total lack of coherence. )

For the past couple of days, I've been having terrible wrist pain. I have it immobilised and everything**. Gah, I know that typing is the main cause for this pain, whether it's tendinitis or RSI. Don't bother telling me off *laughs*

**In any case, I still couldn't help freeing my wrist to type quick notes. After all, we only get one Moffat storyline per season. *fangirls* *smiles guiltily*

It's so ridiculously annoying. (I totally sympathise with moon_dancing, who has been having wrist problems far worse than mine.) And I'm enough of a masochist that I still check my email, the UR forums and whatnot a few times a day. *rolls eyes* Typing only with my left hand is surely a skill I have yet to perfect. (As are brushing my teeth/hair, getting dressed and sweeping floors left-handedly.)

Gah, okay, I've been typing for a whole hour now. It's far more strain than my wrist can handle, and the pain is driving me insane, so I bid you all good night. See you around! :)