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*

I'm going to Tampa to see a U2 gig with firstlightofeos and lu in two weeks! I'll spend the weekend there, and then I'm off to New York for a week.

But! I have a) no idea what I'll do there and b) no hotel booked. I fail at travel planning, apparently.

So, er. New Yorkers? I'd really appreciate a tip or two as to what I could do and the general area I should stick to, hotel-searching-wise. Help me, o lovely flist, you're my only hope! :D

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.

I spent the last few days judging Romance and NC-17 fics for the Hourglass Awards. Two things:

1) I'm astonished at how normal most of the sex in Harry Potter fanfiction is. Sure, there are plenty of squicky/strange/Squid-related fics out there, but for the most part it's just very, very normal sex, with the occasional contraceptive charm or conjured lube or simply misused motor oil. After spending the last few weeks immersed in pon farr/touch telepathy fic, it all just seems insanely straightforward. Not that it's a bad thing or anything, but I kept half-waiting for people to meld, or someone's eyes to turn golden and make shit explode.

2) I dislike most sappy NC-17 fics, but good God, overly sappy Sirius/Remus fics annoy me more than sap in pretty much any other ship. I don't mean the cute, clichéd, shit-we-had-inadvisable-drunken-sex-and-I-realised-I've-been-in-love-with-you-all-along kind; it's the "I wuv you, Siri-poo" ones that make me want to claw my fucking eyes out. Ugh.

But then again, maybe the excessive ~puppy love~ doesn't annoy other people as much as it does me. So: poll!

Poll #1427435 Marauder nicknames
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 56

Which of the following Marauder-era nicknames would you willingly use in a (non-parody) HP fic?

I'm ridiculously excited for U2's new tour—their first concert was full of hiccoughs (e.g. they failed spectacularly at One and With or Without You, which they've been playing for years), but they seem to have sorted themselves out, and things are looking good! They even played Electrical Storm twice! (Well, except for that godawful I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight remix. What are they thinking?)

I'm on holidays, which is totally brilliant :D I'm in São Paulo for the HBP release, and I've been hanging out with friends whom I rarely see, so yay!

Gah. I've been reading too much Harry Potter fic. I miss Star Trek and Merlin. *twitches* Withdrawal. Seriously. God, this is sad.

In other news, I'm completely in love with the icon I used to make this post.

ETA Guys, guys, Kali set out to explore Twilight-esque purple prose, and managed to come up with a true wonder of Doctor Who cheesefic, hosted here. It is without a doubt the worst piece of fanfiction she's even posted—and yes, I'm totally counting the find-replace "Harry Potter" one. ♥ It's a work of art. You're an amazing goddess, Kali. I...have no words. *snerk*

The new U2 album, No Line on the Horizon, was leaked two weeks early and I have it and oh my God it's AWESOME. I've been squeeing with firstlightofeos for a while now. I'm ridiculously happy right now. *dances*!

My poor roommates will have to live through two months of me listening to this on repeat every single day. Oh well. Sorry, guys. I feel bad for you, I do, but...yeah.

There's a verse in Unknown Caller that goes "Force-quit, and move to Trash." I'm so amused. ("Force quit" is Mac-speak for "control-alt-del.") *snerk*

Also, there's a track called Magnificent—a word that in and of itself reminds me of Donna Noble—and it starts something like this: I was born to be with you / In the space and time / After that, and ever after / I haven't had a clue. It cracked me up. Okay, so maybe it's 'this' space and time or whatever, maybe I misheard it, but it still made me laugh a great deal *grins*

afterthree gave me five topics to ramble about, so I'll get to that before I forget.

Comment on this post and I will give you five subjects/things I associate with you. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

( UR.org )

( Dumbledore & Albus/Gellert )

( Runi )

( *actions in asterisk* )

( Mac )

I've just watched U2 3D. Twice, but that's not the point. Although one of them was in an IMAX theatre, and that was just...all kinds of brilliant. And MAN. It's incredible. It took all of three minutes for me to remember all the reasons that this is my favourite band. And then a few seconds after that I was craving going to another of their shows—so badly. Gah.

But the movie is absolutely, mind-blowingly brilliant. It feels right. It captured the spirit of the Vertigo tour well enough; plus, Latin American audiences are always far more interesting than those in the North. *grins* It's awesome to see thousands and thousands of people punching the air and yelling "NO MORE!" several times. And singing along to every single song. Woot. I'm pretty sure they used the Brazilian audio in a few songs, but I can't really pinpoint which ones. Perhaps Sunday Bloody Sunday and/or Pride... I'm just not sure. Egh. The fact that the footage is totally mixed up (you get one take of the crowd in Buenos Aires, immediately followed by another of one in Brazil, that sort of thing) kind of threw me off. *sighs*

Sunday Bloody Sunday and The Fly are the best parts of the film, in my opinion. I missed City of Blinding Lights, but oh well, you can't have everything. And Bono totally screwed up a bit in Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own *laughs* But it's all good, it's all crazy!Bono. Especially when he does things like grabbing Adam's leg out of the blue while singing the bit in Bullet about Jacob wrestling the angel. *grins*

Just to top it off, they used the 2/21/06 Brazilian version of Where the Streets Have No Name! *smirks* I was probably the only one in the cinema who laughed when Bono went "Peru...wake up in a dream! [crowd: *cheers*] Nicaragua...wake up in a dream! [crowd: *cheers*] Chile...wake up in a dream! [crowd: *cheers*] Argentina! [crowd: *BOOS VERY LOUDLY*]" *snerk* I love my country. (No offence, latine, but picking on Argentineans is what we do best.)

I'm totally going to watch U23D again tomorrow.

Twice.

</u2>

I'm leaving London tomorrow! I'm not all really happy to leave—it feels like I've been away from home for ages, but at the same time it feels as though I'm going back way too soon. *sighs* And, of course, London is awesome, and I'd love to be back someday. Ah, well. After spending several days worrying about packing and shipping stuff home so that everything will fit in my suitcase, though, I'm glad I won't have to think about that again.

I'm bringing home a suitcase full of DVDs, and I'm dreading the thought of reorganising the collection once I get home, but oh well. (I bought a ton of Doctor Who-related things, including many classic Who DVDs... and a three-foot Dalek. I don't think I'll ever get any geekier, seriously.) I also bought two geeky gifts for firstlightofeos and keshi_t on a whim today—I'm pretty sure they'll like it. *grins*

...Also, I don't think I want to eat chips again for at least a few weeks. Or months. *groans* Oh God. I don't think I spent a single day here without eating potatoes in some form. Ugh.

On a random note, I saw four mice on random streets here today. *grimaces* We don't get those in Brazil, man. That's just very, very odd.

It was worth it. It was all worth it. God, it was the longest wait of my life. Those were the best two and a half hours I'll ever live, or so it seems right now. I'm a bit hoarse, my legs can barely move, I won't even consider listening to any other band... I've spent a lot of money, I waited for hours both to buy the ticket and to enter the stadium... I'd never felt that ecstatic. Honestly.

I've been squeeing about this show since, what, November? U2 has always been one of my favourite bands. Today, I can say, without a doubt, that they've beaten the Corrs and are firmly established in the #1 spot. The show was brilliant. It was wonderful, fantastic, superlative--perfect, just perfect.

dehds and queenofbabble have already summed it all up. I should list my personal highlights, but... it's everything just way too trivial. I know I won't forget--and that's what really matters, isn't it?

I could point out that the absence of Bad, Stay and Walk On, though expected, made the show a little less than absolutely flawless, but not even that would be true. It just... was the way the band wanted it to be, and it was memorable. The audience sang along every single song.

( Song by song /o/ )

*looks up* Yeah, I've certainly said more than I intended to. I didn't even mention Franz Ferdinand, who opened the show. I didn't mention the fourteen hours we spent there, waiting for the show to begin. I said too little, or so it seems to me. But it was, as I've said before, definitely unforgettable.


All the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you...