cleolinda | Entries tagged with scifi

First: MOAR TWILIGHT. Yes, I did promise to do a 15M of the movie. I promised last May when I saw the first trailer, so y'all can relax. ( New greenhouse clip )

Today's Journal Birthmonth Flashback: Well, since we invoked Our Lady of Soundtrack Sorrow this morning, let's revisit Troy in Fifteen Minutes.

Regular linkspam! ( The pirates are getting testy )

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Def Leppard, "Love Bites"

You know how bad I didn't want to work today? I went and scrubbed the toilet instead. And then I went and worked on footnotes for The Prestige anyway.

(The bitchful part of it is having to go back through my books on stage magic--which, being print copies, don't have helpful search functions--to back up my vague claims that, uh, stage patter was... important, and... stuff. People died doing the bullet catch... somewhere. I mean, definitely. I'm pretty sure. The real attraction of a footnoted "Prestige in Fifteen Minutes," though, is that I've gone through it and theorized (spoiler) ( Read more... ) and I think I can make a pretty compelling case. I'm working on a discussion of the differences between the POTO musical/movie and the book, with key excerpts from the latter--it's public domain, after all--and I already have huge amounts of My Thoughts on Dracula, Let Me Show You Them for that 15M. With any luck, this will be something people would actually be willing to pay for.)

So hopefully I'll have my little e-book (zip folder, really) done soon and can try to raise some money to pay off the air conditioner we had to replace, since I've been working on the footnotes for months and the no-interest period ends as of this month, and if we can't pay the rest off, we start having to pay 23% interest as well. And also, I want to move on with my life and get back to working on Black Ribbon. Particularly since October is such a great gothy little month.

(Hey, randomness! You know that's a really fun snack? A slice of bread with peanut butter spread over it and then covered in mini-marshmallows. Kind of an open-faced fluffernutter sandwich. The sad thing is that I don't even have the excuse that I liked to eat this as a child or anything. I just went downstairs to make myself a sandwich and went, "Huh, you know what might be fun...?" I think the bleach fumes from the toilet are starting to get to me.)

Linkspam! ( This guy better hope he is dead or else he'll be going to jail for a long long time )

Current Mood: mellow

As promised, the linkspam. And now, to find a heating pad or something.

( Something of Boris is all Daniel Craig's fault; Russell Crowe assaults a chicken )

Current Mood: crampy

I had a couple of thoughts today while I was making breakfast after posting the True Blood recap:

1. Are sunlight-phobic vampires so angsty because they don't get enough vitamin D?

2. Could you kill a vampire with a full-spectrum lamp?

(Not sure when I'll post the second episode. Writing recaps needs to be contingent on my getting actual work done.)

Linkspam! ( I kissed a doll and I liked it )

Current Mood: no, I'm not on drugs

So my computer crashed in the middle of me footnoting "The Prestige in Fifteen Minutes" (and I had just spent like an hour discussing, uh, who I thought was in each scene--if you've seen the movie, you know what I mean) for the e-book project, which was a buzzkill. Meanwhile, my grandmother's sick (a sinus infection similar to mine, I think, only worse, since she's so frail), she's also worried about her money being with Merrill Lynch (yeah... I would too, right now), Shelby's having stomach problems, my stepfather is having a really, really hard time at work right now, my sister's having to do catering deliveries again and she inevitably ends up getting her car totaled by some nut loose on the street, we're going to have to have a plumber come out and look at the downstairs toilets, Tiny Tim needs a new crutch, and I'm just tired of it all, really. And feeling bad for everyone.

That said, I've already posted twice today and I was very productive (the computer crash aside), so I've got that going for me. Actually, I think I'm cycling back through a manic or hypomanic phase again. ( Who wants to make bets on what I'll be doing at the end of October? )

Oh, and apparently Let the Right One In is going to be playing at the Sidewalk Film Festival here in town on Saturday night (!!), although I don't know if I'll be able to go.

Speaking of which: Cloverfield's Matt Reeves Remaking 'Let the Right One In'; Countdown under way for 10th Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival in downtown Birmingham.

More linkspam! ( Hey, it's Alice! In Wonderland! Why is she on a ship? )

Current Mood: working

HEY YOU GUYS THEY ARE NOW SELLING BPAL AT THE WHOLE FOODS IN BIRMINGHAM!

This is the most exciting thing that has happened all day.

Linkspam! ( Prissy diamonds, Blackbeard, Alice in Wonderland )

Current Mood: working

Allegedly there is someone downstairs fixing the fridge (the wrong part came in last time), which sounds promising. But meanwhile! Famous people are out there being GAY and it is SO OUR BUSINESS, the media will have you know:

Clay Aiken: 'Yes, I'm Gay.' World: 'Yes, We Knew'; Clay Aiken is gay? Really? NO KIDDING (EPIC ONTD POST IS EPIC). And somewhere, the collective Claymate breakdown is in progress, I'm sure.

Lindsay Lohan FINALLY Confirms Relationship With Samantha Ronson. "Finally" kind of bugs me here--you know, because she so totally owes us an explanation of her life and needs to get right on that. But, you know. Apparently it's a good day to be gay, so good on them.

More linkspam! ( Movie musicals, Cookie Monster Slayer, Emmett takes candy from strangers )

Current Mood: sarcastic

Ahoy! Once again it be that time o' year when the Dread Cleolinda an' her crew o' salty dogs steer Good Ship Split Infinitive into port. And with us, we bring a fine haul o' linkspam from the four corners of the seven seas.

(Though with that mad wench Anna Dollerious bemoanin', "I can't believe she's doing this again. She never does Talk Like a Gypsy Princess Who Somehow Lives in a Manor Day" all the way.)

("Are we getting Captain Swann-Turner now?" BLAST YE, WOMAN, I'LL HEAR NO MORE OF THIS!)

Talk like a pirate! In German, Swedish, Chinese and French, to boot (arrrrr, le butin!).

Talk like a pirate some more!

What kind o' pirate be ye?

4. The single word that bests describes me is: Ruthless. I am without ruth in my pursuit of booty

Free Pirate Fic!; Shiver Me Whiskers!; Arrrr, avast all ye Facebook Pirates!; 5 Little-Known Pirate Stories (and a Quiz).

ETA: (From

odontomachus: Be a Pirate Troper! WARNING: 'Tis a site harder to escape from than Davy Jones' locker. HERE THERE BE TIMESUCK.)

Linkspam proper! ( Yer deadlights be more important than yer famewhorin', says I )

And now that we stand safely ashore, it be time to seek out some grub. And also, me crew needs to go for walkies. Fair winds, me hearties!

Current Mood: salty

Aw, hell. I've been sneezing a lot lately, and then today I came down with these weird alternating hot and cold spells. I don't know that I'm running an actual fever, but it sucks either way. It's probably allergies. But still--I am determined to not go into the month of October without finishing the annotated Fifteen Minutes thing because I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON IT LONG ENOUGH NOW, GOD. I have got to move on with life at some point.

(That's frustration with myself talking there, by the way.)

("Are you feeling guilty? YEAH YOU ARE!")

By the way, I'm recording another--different--podcast on Saturday, which should be fun. General subject: vampires in the media. Doing speaky-speaky stuff like this seems to help my confidence, so I'm going with it. Someday, I may actually bring myself to be sociable in real life, my God!

Linkspam! ( Feast upon the Uwe Boll Slot )

Current Mood: tired

I changed up the sidebar a little bit. Let's see if you can tell what I added. *cough*

(Memes aside, I have just felt so sluggish today. Fnarr.)

HEY WAIT I ALMOST FORGOT. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS, IT IS EPIC. Seriously, it is so awesome this entry can barely contain the awesomosity of it. SOMEONE ACTUALLY PUT THAT ON THE BACK OF THEIR TRUCK, YOU GUYS.

Linkspam! ( Billy Idol: Great Terminator, or greatest Terminator? )

Let's go ahead and get two days of linkspam out of the way, shall we? ( We need to cut a bitch on Roger Ebert's behalf )

Current Mood: cheerful

I got my hair did, I got my ha~air did! God, I feel human again. Also, I was up fairly late last night recording a podcast with some fine folks (I'll let you know more about that when it's available for download), so I did spend much of the afternoon asleep under a hairdryer.

Linkspam! ( what the hell is this Piccolo thing )

Current Mood: tired

Okay, our dishwasher is now on its last legs. I mean, it'll still turn on, but it's been so spotty for so long that we're obviously going to have to replace it in the next few months. Yes, we can get by washing dishes by hand. It's not so much that the dishwasher's dying as it is that this will be the eleventy-thousandth appliance to die this year. And Shelby's going to have to have surgery for her hip dysplasia in the next year or so, and we're still paying off the Unexpected Pension Taxes, and somewhere in there we've got to buy Tiny Tim a new crutch. The really stressful part is that my mother is now looking to me to finish my writing projects and hopefully bring in enough extra income that we can get on top of the bills and pay more than just a tiny bit, the interest, and sneaky late fees (everyone wants payment just before the last paycheck of the month) on them. You know. No pressure or anything.

And then my computer crashed in the middle of the "King Arthur in Fifteen Minutes" notes, and I lost all yesterday afternoon's work. "Document recovery" my ass. This is why you didn't get a linkspam, because I was too ~~pissed~~ busy trying to redo my work to deal with it.

(Also, Semagic came thisclose to eating all of tonight's linkspam when my computer crashed. "Load automatically saved draft" only pulled up the earliest version, until I finally thought to try "Load Draft" and see what came up.)

Let's go to another happy jewelry place! Damn, I need one. It's an old favorite, but what the hell: Sweet Romance Online. Favorites (and man, is it hard to narrow it down): the rose pendant; the art nouveau "Futura" set; the morning glory suite; the lily of the valley suite.

Linkspam! ( Superman reboot, Lost in Austen, Marion Cotillard IS (not) Catwoman )

Current Mood: irritated
Current Music: Kate Bush, "The Song of Solomon"

You know, it's really productive to have a gigantic head/jawache from stress right when you need to work on something that would earn some money and thereby alleviate the source of the stress.

So... let's go to another happy jewelry place! I bring you--via

elisa0984--georgianjewelry.com. (Favorite pieces: the man in the moon earrings; the moonstone double heart ring; the moonstone heart pendant; the scalloped piqué hoops; the pearl heart pendant; the French locket. But then, I think I'm a sucker for the sun/moon/stars motif in general. And also, moonstones.)

Linkspam! ( Twilight Tuesday, more petitions, Walt Disney's Sin City )

Current Mood: ouchy. again.

Not much to report today, except that I did get some interesting plot hinks hashed out on Black Ribbon. I also decided that a scene I really liked in the original three chapters is going to have to go (kill your darlings and all that), because it just doesn't make sense anymore in terms of who's supposed to know what when, and I need to stop working myself into pretzels trying to figure out how to make it work. Sadly, it just doesn't anymore.

Linkspam! ( Panda hipsters, Sir Penguin, the Pratchgan )

Current Mood: ouchy
Current Music: Paramore, "Decoy"

Via

quitesometime, holy shit: Two Blog Entries You Should Be Reading. "Just when you're ready to break up with the Internet, forever, and take back the lingerie you bought it, you stumble on things that remind you that it's sort of good for something." I made a Time magazine blogger believe in the internet again, y'all. What have I done?

Speaking of the Breaking Dawn recap, I got bored and fished out some digital scrapbooking background samples (mostly from Scrapgirls, I think), skimmed over the Twilight recaps, and started making text icons. They would be fancier, except that my broke-ass copy of Photoshop 6.0 has decided it doesn't want to load 90% of my fonts. Please, if you have moar skillz or more cooperative software, feel free to make your own. (And please use icons with profanity judiciously, y'all.) POW!

Speaking of speaking of Twilight--we gotta get this Harry Potter thing out of the way, because THE PLOT HAS THICKENED. ( Damn, it's like Single White Vampire up in here )

More linkspam! ( I have three words for you, and they are *Iron Man foursome* )

Current Mood: thirsty

I woke up with a horrific migraine and a weird stomachache this morning--the second time both have happened in a week, actually, which is a bit disconcerting. If it turns out to be a half-vampire baby, I'm going to name it Nellouise Baseball Jones--so I sacked out half-conscious on the couch and watched Olympic beach volleyball for an hour or two (apparently Gibb and Rosenthal are really good, because the announcer kept screaming "Rosenthal! ROSENTHAL!!" like he was in bed with them). At some point, there was swimming. It was all kind of a blur.

Linkspam! ( Voltron, El Chupacabra, Truman Capote’s Pleasure Palace )

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: moar Paramore

A Breaking Dawn followup: I have had no flames on the recaps at all, which has terrified me because I'm just assuming that I will get them eventually, and the hey-it-hurts is only going to multiply the longer it takes them to get here, so I keep trying to imagine what's holding the Hater Brigade up, and all I can think is that maybe they're taking a page from Aro's playbook and taking a month to mobilize or something. You know, let's make sure we organize this, stock up on the Haterade, get babysitters for the kids, alphabetize our sweater sets, whatever. And then I started browsing the comments at

shinga's Twilight recaps, just out of curiosity, and I think I've figured out what it is (because she got plenty of visits from the Brigade): I have anonymous commenting disabled. I've had it disabled for years, actually. (I can't believe I can say that I've done anything on this journal "for years." But there it is.) I guess only the most dedicated 1% of Twihards is willing to actually create a sockpuppet account, and even that is so exhausting that they can't muster anything more virulent than "Please do not ever mention Twilight again" once they get here, which is what happened before. Which I am perfectly cool with, by the way.

(Maybe I've also dodged the Hater Brigade because I can rarely bring myself to snark on something at length unless I have some kind of genuine enthusiasm for it? And that enthusiasm comes through even when I'm bagging on something? This is the reason I will not be doing a Brisingr recap later this year, by the way. [Also, because I keep wanting to pronounce it "Brisingr...uh?"] The only enthusiasm I have ever been able to muster for Eragon was "Hey! Let's look at the costumes in the movie, because I love costumes! AND ALSO, THEY MAKE NO SENSE.")

(If you go to the Eragon costume link, by the way, please be advised that the "I have not seen the movie" statement is now outdated. I have seen it--on cable--and let me tell you, it manages to be even worse than screencaps alone were able to indicate.)

Linkspam! ( Frog princess, Stinky the Hutt, unicorn shit )