cleolinda: (Default)
Remember that time I wrote Sleepy Hollow phone fic?




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Season premiere livetweeting will be over at @cleolindajones, once I figure out what time tonight and channel number it actually it is.


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cleolinda: (lolcat)
One of the more recent health issues I ever-so-vaguely mentioned is chronic back pain--I'm not sure if it's due to some stealth injury I don't remember or if it's related to PCOS--and it's just really hard to concentrate. For the last two or three weeks. (Not the best I've ever slept, either.) Basically I'm overdue on a deadline and I'm just going to have to put everything aside until I can get that finished. I can still take an hour to hang out on Twitter during the show tonight--I'm still keeping up with the show, for that matter--but I'm just going to have to remain cheerfully behind on the recaps for a while.

(Speaking of Twitter, I have been experimenting with Storify and Sleepy Hollow.)

I'm to a point where I go around saying "it is what it is" a lot. Like, if you're stuck in a traffic jam that you clearly can't do anything about, there's no point in rending your garments over it. You look at the time and the place that you're currently in and figure out what to do with that, the best way to move forward or the most productive way to pass the time, and that's the situation, and it is what it is. (I often say this to my mother during literal traffic jams, hence the example.) I've taken a good bit of Aleve and I'm rambling. (Man, you do not even want to know how much I took to drag my ass to Catching Fire last weekend.) My point is that I'm just trying to keep my priorities mellow, or something, and keep putting one foot in front of the other as best as I can. I am extremely, extremely lucky that my moods are pretty stable; my energy levels have taken a seasonal hit, but I don't feel "depressed," and I'm trying to hold on to that as long as I can.


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*confetti*

Oct. 31st, 2013 12:42 pm
cleolinda: (spooky03)
So! Today is the 10th anniversary of this LJ! And even though I am about to link you to a ton of stuff not actually on this LJ, I still consider it the mothership.

My second piece is up on The Toast! If you read it before, a Significant Correction has been made. It changes EVERYTHING. RUN, JULIE.

(The Toast is on fire generally today, btw.)

Over on my tumblr: a gorgeous new illustrated Hunger Games: Catching Fire poster, the Sleepy Hollow gang playing baseball (the follow-up), a few new Hannibal things (OMG), Old Maps of Paris, Kate Beaton's Halloween quiz, and Martha Stewart Halloween photography shut up.

Over on my new side tumblr: the lesser-known jacket of Anna Valerious, wonderful Dracula illustrations by Anne Yvonne Gilbert, and that POOF! gif I wanted.

And, in case you missed it, I finished the recap for the first episode of NBC's Dracula a couple of days ago (I need to go back and answer a lot of comments. ). I am SUPER, SUPER HOPING to make this November 1st deadline for my Black Ribbon story before the next episode that night, just in time to start the process all over again. Wish me luck!


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Tea time

Oct. 11th, 2013 12:19 pm
cleolinda: (Default)
I haven't been recapping Sleepy Hollow, mostly because I don't think I can manage that and Dracula at the same time. Would you find iPhone fic a suitable replacement?

(Spoilers through episode four. Text transcript over here.)




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Also, in case you missed it, my extremely weird piece at The Toast went up yesterday.


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Updates

Sep. 24th, 2013 11:27 am
cleolinda: (dire ravenstag gunmettle)
Okay, I have nearly posted this entry like four different times, then held back for some reason, then needed to update it again, and it's finally turned into this mulch pile of an entry that I keep turning over every couple of days. IT NEEDS TO BE POSTED.

So. Doing somewhat better. Blood pressure is still a little high but nearly normal, after an initial week of self-imposed semi-bed-rest. (I gave up on trying to answer the comments on the previous entry, but thanks for your good thoughts, guys.) The day after that med check that I mentioned, when hypertension came up as a possible cause of my constant headaches, I stayed in bed and the headaches vanished. I've only them on the few rainy days since (which is normal for me). It took a while, and I'm still having to keep a pretty sharp eye on it, but I don't think I'm going to have to go on medication for it. Honestly, I spent the whole week until the GP visit being really anxious, but rationally anxious, like, how bad off am I, exactly? So, scared and a little sad, even.

And now, I think I've gone into a manic upswing, which means that I'm calm and rational, sure, but I can't focus. I'm having a really hard time maintaining a coherent train of thought; my thoughts actively wander, if that makes any sense. Like, to the point where it's difficult to read, the way it's difficult to get through a really dry text at 11 pm when you're supposed to have read it for class the next day, you know? It's like a mental dizziness, not a physical one. I had good ideas on Saturday, then was super productive on Sunday, and then it just all fell apart on Monday. (I had such a good idea for the book on Sunday, almost something of a game-changer, that I'm concerned it's just the mania talking and I'm going to do all this work on it and then sit here next Monday and wonder what the hell I was thinking.) I know, too, that I'm more liable to be cranky or lose my temper when I'm manic, and... that's not good for my blood pressure. Like, maybe I just need to not talk to people, any of them, at all, until this passes. But I digress. Mostly I'm managing it with, like, lavender and lemongrass-based BPAL blends, chamomile tea, and a glass of wine at night. The combination of my actual antidepressants was so difficult--painful, even--to get to a comfortable balance that, if adding on simple things like tea and aromatherapy are enough to settle me down for the week or two I need it--well, screwing with that is not something I would do lightly.

Here. Have a corgi being vacuumed.

Podcasts and TV shows I did (and, uh, did not) catch up on: Read more... )
cleolinda: (froud)
So... the catfight that broke out on The Shelf last night was bad. Really, really bad. Ellowyne and "her sizeist assumptions" made the mistake of sassing Eowyn over the hypothetical--HYPOTHETICAL!--rights to Edward Dollen, they threw down, and then Eowyn pantsed her. See, this is why you don't ever pick a fight with someone who only comes up to your elbow. So Ellowyne and her gold lace capri pants take a dive and Eowyn immediately goes for the curls, which look way different from the ones in the picture--they're these tight, stiff sausage curls, a whole huge ponytail of them in the back, and Ellowyne is very proud of them. So Eowyn gets one good fistful and Ellowyne is immediately screaming bloody murder, not because it hurts but because she knows what every little girl finds out too late--once you fuck up doll hair, you never get it back the way it was. Yeah. So apparently Ellowyne talks a big talk, but her walk stops dead at weave-pulling.

I seriously don't know how I'm going to keep the peace over there now.

Meanwhile: Trying to get back to recapping True Blood, but for some reason I am just exhausted today. Well, maybe "some reason" is "I was up until three footnoting last night," I don't know. I didn't post any recaps this week just because I wanted to give my recap mojo a rest, and... now I'm just going to be even more behind. Ah, well. C'est la vie.

Today's Journal Birthmonth Flashback: "In times of old you stood beside us during the Day After Thanksgiving Sale," said TRISH soberly. "We will not let the Summit Carmike fall."

Also, in case you didn't read the last entry, I posted another minute-long snippet from the Poufwa podcast ("I think he did a lot of reading"). Yes, that is my crazy tropical bird laugh there at the beginning. (Man, I need to pull a couple of clips from the Made of Fail podcast just to keep things fair.)

Just a few links, since I've got them sitting around:

[livejournal.com profile] metaquotes: "Captain Credit! He's our hero! Gonna take stagnation down to zero!" Keep reading for the punchline, which is gold.

Wonderella has a book!

Headless Horseman costume for dogs: it just ain't right.

Sleeping Beauty May Be Safe, But Ariel Has Some Explaining To Do.

This is what the ring and the locket from Half-Blood Prince look like? Really?

Tweethearts: blogger proposes to nerd girlfriend over Twitter, she tweets back acceptance. My first reaction was, FUTURE HUSBAND I HAVEN'T MET, DON'T YOU DARE. And then I thought... Really, do you foresee this being a problem any time soon?

*woevolins*


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cleolinda: (key to the kingdom)

Hmm. I'm at the point in a new story where I've gotten in just deep enough to feel stupid about it. As in, "Why am I writing this? Why am I bothering? It's so dumb. Seriously, I can't believe I even tried this." It's something you've just got to push through--sort of an artistic queasiness. I highly recommend not talking about your project to anyone at this point, because it's at a very fragile point of development, by which I mean that it will sound like the dumbest thing ever if you try to describe it to someone. I like to think of it as still being in its gestation period--not ready to come out of the womb yet. Doesn't make me feel any less lame, though. But the mad writing binge I've been on for the last three or four days has made me feel better at a time when I was feeling really, really bad (which I think has been related to adjusting my medication), so I keep telling myself that it can't be all that worthless. If nothing else, I can keep writing it just for me and never show it to anyone else. So, you know, if you ever feel that way, you're not alone.

Heh, Sleepy Hollow's on TNT tonight. I watched the DVD a couple of days ago, and it is a strange feeling to look up in the middle of a scene and realize you've got Dumbledore (#2), Uncle Vernon, Rita Skeeter, Emperor Palpatine, Principal Rooney, and Alfred the butler (#1) all in one room, with an assist from Darth Saruman and... well, Christopher Walken. "Christopher Walken" pretty much is his greatest character. (Emperor Palpatine! I didn't even know they let the man do any other movies!) The extras are shit, though. They're not "Interactive menus! Chapter stops!" shit, but there's only one commentary--and that's Tim Burton saying over and over, " I just had such an incredible cast. Also, how much fake fog did we pipe in? So very much"--and a bombastic behind-the-scenes thing that I guarantee you originally aired on HBO. You know--it's got That Announcer Guy who narrates in capslock. The problem is that the DVD must have come out in--what, 2000?--and I actually remember 2001 as the year DVDs started to get really, really good. And this was before LOTR. I guess my problem is that I'm spoiled by even the non-LOTR stuff like the X-Men 1.5 and Matrix Revisisted DVDs, where they have these great, in-depth, unintrusive features. Nowadays, even a mild hit like this would come fully loaded. I've come to expect DVD extras to go through all the major elements--casting, rehearsals, action and stunts, costumes, effects (the one thing Sleepy Hollow actually bothers with), and outtakes if you got 'em--in a far more in-depth fashion. That, and one-person commentaries almost always suck, I'm finding. You really need at least two people to play off each other, unless the speaker is just really, really engaging. Martin Scorsese, for example, can get away with it. Still, the Sleepy Hollow DVD's worth at least a Netflix for the part where Burton gets to the scene where Miranda Richardson and Johnny Depp are essentially wrestling for the Horseman's skull, and deadpans, "Ah, the climactic girlfight." 

(Someone has an "Ichabod Crane: Girl Detective" icon that makes me laugh about as hard.)

Talladega Nights and Barnyard perform better than expected. Despite the fact that Barnyard involves cows voiced by men. I'm just saying, that's a logical dealbreaker for me.

The Descent: A far better movie than the poster would indicate. Seriously, I saw the trailer at Apple and just about wet myself.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden tries to interpret the video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

Viggo Mortensen, Pornstache Conquistador. (Between this and The Fountain, it looks like conquistadors are the new big thing.)

Satchel writes a blog. Poor Satchel.

Off to write some more. I feel a little better now.


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