Cleolinda everywhere

(I'm pretty good with watching it all come in over the wire from my air-conditioned bedroom, though.)

This is by no means exhaustive, because if I wasn't around on Twitter at the time or wasn't interested, it would have slipped past me. At this point, I would just say go browse Social Nerd Art's archive or SDCC tag, or The Mary Sue's tag, if there's something you're interested in.

FIRST OF ALL:



( Then, UNEXPECTED LOKI )

I don't really know how to talk about this. I don't want to talk about--I don't have words for what this guy is, or what he did, to children. As a writer, I'm fascinated by the psychology of crime and why people do things--and how other people respond to that. However, I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to feed this guy's fire. As far as I'm concerned, his name is July 20-2012 and he deserves nothing. Nothing but due process, and then a dark hole somewhere, whether that hole is a hospital or a prison--the darkness of being forgotten by history. If you want to know about it, as I want to know about it and try to not want to know about it, there's Wikipedia and cnn.com and pretty much every other news source in the world.

If this were almost any other movie, I would just quietly not talk about the film itself at all, I guess. I mean, I see movies now and then that I like well enough, but get too busy to ever really comment on or post a discussion entry for. But I hate that this had to be the movie haunted by this awfulness. This is a movie where the hero explicitly says "NO GUNS," takes guns away from people and takes them apart and throws the pieces away. These are movies about fighting crime and corruption, about believing in the good in people, about fighting fear, about hoping to set an example for others and then inspire them to continue that example, about hope itself. I don't say that as a starry-eyed fangirl; you could actually criticize the movies for being a little too on-the-nose about that, with all the Significant Thematic Dialogue that gets repeated over and over, if you wanted to. Sitting here today, I'm kind of glad now that the movies are so explicit with those themes. This is not "edgy" controversial cinema trying to glamorize nihilism. If you came out of any of these movies thinking that the villains are the way forward, you were not paying attention. Whether you think the movies do these themes well or not, they are pretty much about the EXACT OPPOSITE of what happened early Friday morning, and I hate that pundits are on the "news" sitting around talking about the Curse of the Dark Knight Movies and whether they're part of a CULTURE OF GRIMDARKNESS OMG that is bringing down American society. Because The Dark Knight Rises is pretty much the direct opposite of that.

( Mild not-really spoilers )

As uncomfortable as some of the scenes might be now, I recommend it anyway, if you go in thinking about everything I just told you--both the overall themes and the hints that won't make sense until it's over. If you don't want to see The Dark Knight Rises because, as superhero movies go, it's too realistic or too grim (you might be surprised by the time you leave), go see The Avengers again or The Amazing Spider-Man or any of the many, many movies about anything else out there. Don't go if you don't feel safe, of course. But July 20 is probably in a holding cell somewhere gloating that he's got the entire country's attention and he's got their fear and that makes him ~powerful,~ this ignominious waste of oxygen who apparently was so smart, and had so many gifts, and yet couldn't think of anything better in the world to do with them than this. If I can work it out with our collective schedule this weekend, since I can't drive, I'm going to see the movie again tomorrow. Police are watching various movie theaters across the country, and I hear that we've got them at Birmingham theaters, too. I wanted to see the movie twice anyway, but I'll be damned if I'll let this absolute stain think he's achieved anything as far as I have anything to say about it. There is an achievement here, the achievement of people who used their gifts and worked hard to create a story that could mean something good to people, and it's not his.

I know that people who did see the movie want to discuss it and maybe don't have anywhere else to--if you're up to it, you can here, and there will be spoilers running wild and free in the comments.

If there is the LEAST WHIFF of anyone being awful, either regarding what happened Friday or the fanboy ridiculousness earlier this week, I will freeze and/or ban whoever I have to and we will move on with discussion like you never even existed. My longtimers will tell you, I am extremely tolerant of good-faith critical discussion and I do not trifle with anything else. This time, you get one "everyone play nice" warning. If you raise my blood pressure in any way, you get a one-week cool-your-heels ban. If you talk shit like you think you're a big bad flame warrior, I will send you straight to the cornfield. As y'all have recently seen, my patience is substantial but not infinite, and we are not having that Rotten Tomatoes bullshit here. Not this weekend.

I have a ton of catching up to do, but I slipped into a research/rewrite/productivity rabbit hole and didn't want to come out for a few days. So, here is several days' worth of linkspam, although I tried to stick to the essentials: ( Read more... )

I cut several news items for time (space?), but I'll see if I can't work them into the next spam, assuming one happens in a timely fashion.

A linkspam that has been THREE DAYS IN THE MAKING.


@bathbomb: Also, today I did a little sketch of @cleolinda. This is what she looks like in my head.

@cleolinda: @bathbomb Other than the fact that I'm about twice as wide, it's actually pretty good.

@foresthouse: @cleolinda You look like that in my head too. Except there is a Pallas cat grumping over your shoulder.

@cleolinda: @foresthouse Considering that you've seen me in person, the likeness must be impressive.

@foresthouse: @cleolinda Well, okay, actually I confess that in my head you have purple hair, and no amount of seeing you IRL can change that. :P


Linkspam! ( Read more... )

Before we get to movie news: a few updates on the Norway situation.

@BreakingNews: Norwegian police revise death toll in Utoya youth camp massacre down to 68 from 86; @REUTERSFLASH: Norwegian police say at least 100,000 people take part in Oslo march in support of attack victims; Norway killer claims he had help; manifesto outlined plans to attack writers & lit professors; @krazycat/krazycat: New blog post: Oslo - reflection and tears. And from gryster:

Just a small message from Norway:

There was a march of roses in Oslo today. It is the most beautiful reaction I have ever seen. The actual marching bit was cancelled because there was SO MANY PEOPLE. People were asked to leave their roses all over the city, and they really did. All of downtown Oslo was just covered with roses.

There's a link here. There's a slideslow at the top, with pictures from all over the country. I just wanted to show you this, (and ask you to share it) because I'm guessing it won't necessarily be shown on American TV. It was a beautiful thing to be a part of.

Movie news. ( Read more... )

MORE DWARVES, YOU GUYS!

( Read more... )

All right. Let's try to resume linkspam service. First:

@mellymell: A friend needs help raising money for a lifesaving surgery. Please help & [pass on] if you can.

magtwysera: "A friend of mine- she's coloriffic on deviantart- is taking NYOP commissions over at http://coloriffic.deviantart.com/journal/41311599/#comments to pay for her sister's hospital bills."

Movie news:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 review: 9.5/10; Rupert Grint dreaded kissing Emma Watson, and 8 other revelations about Harry Potter; Want to see the Dark Knight teaser? Consider seeing Harry Potter 7.2.

( I am looking to get into the grime rap scene )

Okay, more housekeeping.

The new layout: For those of you just joining us, the goal was to make the layout, particularly the comment posting boxes, more accessible to anyone with visual impairment. I threw "November Day" up here just to have something clean and legible for the Oscar liveblog, but... now I actually like it. I went through every single other layout LJ offers, tested more than a dozen of them full-size, and kept coming back to this one. In fact, I don't even think I want to go back to Component now; it looks cluttered and small in comparison. Problem: This layout does not have an option to change any of the colors. So we're staying with it in teal for this week, and then foresthouse and I are going to work on the CSS code over the weekend and shift all the hex codes to purple hues. I had a few people who said they liked the teal better (if it weren't an issue of persona, I'd actually be perfectly happy with it myself), but I also had people who were touchingly distraught at my non-purple existence. So we'll at least see what it looks like changed, live, so we can tweak it. Here's what a screencap of the current layout looks like with the hue shifted in Photoshop and lightened/desaturated a bit, both a warm purple and a cool purple:

( POLL TIME )


On the upside, my parents are both down for the count with a third iteration of Death Blarg, but somehow, I have managed to dodge it this time. I am hoping that better health and weather will lead to an improved awesomosity forecast.

That said, we had a freak hailstorm yesterday:



A quick linkspam: ( Read more... )

I am having a Not Good Day--not quite a Bad Day, but definitely Not Good--for no particular reason at all. I've spent the entire day feeling aimlessly pitiful and wanting to cry. Mostly, I stare at an open Word document for several minutes at a stretch, then check on my Godfinger All-Stars phone app.




Mostly, I like to grow flowers and watch my tiny pixel people catch fish. It's very soothing. They just fish and fish and fiiiiish. My followers are now building me a spooky mansion. It was very expensive and takes three hours to build. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

I... I need help.

Linkspam! ( Read more... )

So. As far as I know, both of my grandmothers are stable.

Marie Claire is a bunch of jackasses who apparently set their "provocative blogger" up to fail for the page views.

And lo, the internet rose up as one and smote them thus.

Pallas cats playing in jack-o'-lanterns make me feel better. (Thanks, @giishu.)

I was able to put up the third signed copy of Movies in Fifteen Minutes for auction, and I am considering doing 1) a Year of Postcards from me, 2) a year from The Littlest Edward, because (as we all know), he is craftsy, and 3) a year from Galadriel, who would be able to drop dark hints about future Secret Life developments.

New Made of Fail episode: It Gets Better. I've just started listening to it, but it seems to be partly about this month's national bullying dialogue, if you will, and the horror genre for Halloween. Note: their January episode just went for $500 at the foresthouseeyes auction. I don't even know.

Also, you need a plush Wizard of Oz monkey in your life.


HEY LET'S HAVE SOME ACTUAL LINKSPAM.

( Read more... )