Reading

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fandom: marvel

Just a thought...

Ben + Johnny + Sex Pollen = fic.

Which, surprisingly, I haven't seen in any version, though it's probably on LJ or something.

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everygary everywhere all at once

When V was making breakfast and I was wandering around the kitchen checking what groceries we needed, they told me "Well, the spirit of Gary is causing mischief." They pointed out that the sheepskin they use on their dining room chair was on the floor.

They initially bought themselves one but the first time Gary encountered it he claimed it, and they couldn't bear to take it back so just bought another one.

He ended up with three over time.

We got rid of (most of) his along with his other things, but V does still have theirs of course, on that chair.

It probably fell on the floor when I was putting the chairs back after they'd been on top of the table so the dining room could be cleaned yesterday. But regardless, Gary is such a big presence still.

I miss him so much. I think about him every day.

Entry tags:

tv:murderbot

Just Murderbot things

Check out this person's adorable manga-style art illustrating scenes from the first three Murderbot books. I love their art style!

I was thinking about how the adaptation for the next season might go.

( More about that )

Current Mood: anxious

Last day here

I got up at 10 for a change, and had breakfast and coffee, then showered and washed my hair, and dressed.

I called Airport taxi and arranged for them to pick me up at 11:00 tomorrow. I'll get up at 8:00 and finish getting ready. Then I went upstairs and packed my suitcase as well as I could. I still have to put the stuff I'm wearing, and my meds and toiletries in it.

I didn't do much else for awhile. Then eventually Linda came by and said she and Sue were going to the beach, so I got on my bathing suit which I hadn't packed yet because I figured we might be doiing the beach today, and met Linda at the stairs. WE made our way down, and were shortly joined by Sue and Otis, her dog.

Didn't do any floating. We sat and talked and watched the waves, and threw sticks for Otis, and eventually I did wade in above my knees, just to say I'd been in.

We came back up, and I sat on the porch and called the Kid, who didn't answer, so I texted her. No reply. I called Duane Reade again, ended up on hold again, and gave up.

At 7:00 I Teamed the FWiB. I won't be seeing much of him for the next few days as his sisters are coming to visit him and he'll be busy. We talked for a nice long time despite some technical difficulties.

After we finished I went down to Linda's and sat with her and Alan and Sue and watched episodes of Wednesday, which I had never seen. I like it, I may start watching it.

Then I came back here and had dinner, and popcorn, and did some sweeping and cleaning.

And then I started here.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Airport taxi remembered me from when I last used them, two years ago.

3. I've been here two weeks.

4. Interesting TV.

5. My cousins.

6. Popcorn.

Entry tags:

fandom: marvel

Mucca & The Marvel Cinematic Universe

As a follow up to bitching about this in the last post, I thought I'd look and see where I was with watching some of these. The movies are in order they came out. The TV shows are sorta just stuck in there for the year they started, rather than breaking them up by season. I'm too lazy to look up the details of exactly when they aired (especially as I don't even remember some of these existed). I'm only including live action films and tv shows. ( Long list is long )

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Superhero Summer of 2025

Going to the Movies!

(Success Rate: 1.5 out of 4)

In May, we tried to go to Sinners at Local Theatre #1, only to find none of their caption machines were working.

In June, we didn't bother trying.

In July, we tried to go to Superman at Local Theatre #2, only to find that they didn't have caption machines at all. In 2025.

Later in July, while visiting my parents, we went to their Local Theatre to see Superman, only to have multiple caption machines crap out part way through the movie, leaving Nenya to finish it on their speech to text app (an imperfect experience).

This week, I went back to Local Theatre #1 and asked in person if the caption machines were now working (they neither answer the phone, nor call people back if you leave a message). Being assured they were, we booked tickets to The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The first caption machine Nenya got didn't even turn on, but the next one made it through the whole entire movie! Diversity win! (Or something.)

Actual movie thoughts aren't that deep, but it's superhero films, so...

Superman (2025)

So I'm more of a Marvel Girl, though I did like the first Wonder Woman movie and Blue Beetle, but Nenya grew up on the Christopher Reeve movies, and this had been advertised as More Like That, so we decided to give it a go.

It was really fun! I thought the casting was great, and I'm really enjoying the "superheroes' lives are inherently ridiculous" vibe we're currently going with. Also: death to origin stories! It was really nice to see the Justice League International gang (lol), and have a Superman who was doing the Big Blue Boyscout thing in earnest. (I thought

Princess_Weekes' video Quentin Tarantino Accidentally Broke Superman had great insights about why people got on the wrong track with the character.) It was silly and had heart, and didn't have joyless desaturation, and I'm here for all of this.

Will happily come back for the Supergirl movie, and am even more invested in season two of Peacemaker.

The Fantastic Four: The First Steps (2025)

I really liked the retro-futurist aesthetic, and was happy they didn't combine them with 1960s inequalities. Also: space! I haven't seen any of the cast in a whole lot, but thought they were great for the roles. Pascal was fully on point as Reed, and managed to capture his pathos without diving head first into manpain, and I really liked Reed/Sue here. I just like his face, also. They toned down Johnny's womanising into a low-key romance that actually worked for me, though even putting Natasha Lyonne in it didn't make Ben's crush that interesting (mostly because we got 2.5 minutes of time with that plot). Given all the natalism in the air, I'm a bit twitchy about movies focused around babies, but I liked that they didn't even consider that Sue couldn't go on the mission while eight months pregnant. I will riot if we don't get Valeria, though.

Which kind of brings me to the mid-credits scene. ( Spoilers for where this fits in the MCU? )

(Looking at AO3, it seems like people are into ~~Eddie Munson~~ Johnny het, either with the Silver Surfer or with Y/N. Though there is also some team!fic with woobie!Johnny. There's like two Ben/Johnny fic, which is surprising as they had a nice vibe in this, and it used to be the big ship. I'd also like more Reed!whump than I found, but early days.)

Department of "But It's Still Weird that It Happened Twice"

( Mild spoilers for both films )

Entry tags:

montreal,
travel

I'm in Montreal

I'm visiting

rysmiel for a few days. The trip up was borin, which is good: anything exciting would probably be bad news, or at least make you late for dinner.

It is going to be hot over the weekend, so we went out for a relatively early brunch today, so we could sit almost-outdoors at Juliette et Chocolat and eat crepes. We then walked around Jean Talon market, where I bought plums, blackberries, and a cucumber.

I have np real plans for the next few days, which is fine.

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more new horror movies

I have been to the theater a bunch since I got back, and am going again tonight to see Weapons, so before I build up even more of a backlog, here are my latest watches.

28 Years Later (2025). 28 years after the original rage virus that turns people into mindless flesh-eating monsters, a twelve year old boy named Spike leaves his safely quarantined island community and ventures to the mainland in hopes of finding medical help for his mother.

I have heard very mixed reviews of this movie, things like "interesting but messy." I honestly find this a little confusing, because on the whole I found this movie beautifully executed (it's Danny Boyle, after), emotionally coherent, very well-acted, and with only as many unlikely bits as one gets in any zombie/post-apocalypse movie. It's very earnest; I saw someone call it "sentimental, in a good way," which feels about right. I liked the island community, I liked the complicated relationship between Spike, his mom, and his dad. The moments the movie wanted me to find beautiful and moving generally worked for me.

I didn't love it the way some of my friends did; I think it just didn't have enough of my own personal id-bait in it. I thought it was a perfectly competent post-apocalyptic coming of age story, though.

The one fly in the ointment is the ending/cliffhanger, which feels like a visit from the schlockiest era of Mad Max. It's easy enough to just ignore that scene, though, at least until the second movie in the trilogy comes out. IMO this movie works fine without it.

Together (2025). Real-life spouses Dave Franco and Alison Brie star as a longtime couple whose stagnated relationship gets more strained when they move to the countryside, and then things get really weird after they go hiking and fall into a weird hole in the ground.

I feel like this movie knows exactly what tone and mixture of horror, humor, metaphor, and relationship drama it wants and mostly succeeds. Unfortunately that tone didn't really work for me, and I found the main couple annoying, especially Franco's character. Meanwhile the movie is NOT interested in the mechanics or backstory of its horror, fair enough, but those are the parts that I would have been most interested in.

The deal with the third significant character is pretty fun, and I appreciate the foreshadowing. I also appreciate that this is yet another horror movie this year with a casual, unmarked queer relationship in it.

Overall, this felt like a perfectly fine movie that was just not for me.

Strange Harvest (2025). A true crime mockumentary about one man's series of ritualistic killings.

If "Lovecraftian serial killer mockumentary" sends tingles down your spine, then this movie is for you. I would not say it does a lot over and above that description, but the slow unspooling of events and the eventual reveals (which mean more to us horror aficionados than to the people being interviewed) are all very solidly written. It also manages to be quite gory, which I feel is impressive given it's literally all shown via photographs and video taken after the fact. There's one particularly grisly kill that is not like anything I've seen before. Plus, you have to be charmed by a movie so indie that the guy playing the serial killer is also the production designer.

Watching this, I wondered why there aren't more horror mockumentaries. They feel like probably just one step up from found footage in terms of budget and complexity (okay, maybe two steps), and they allow for a lot of the same kind of storytelling. I would absolutely watch more of this kind of thing. (Any recommendations? I've seen Lake Mungo, and that's about it.)

Anyway, this movie is a solid example of the kind of thing it is, which happens to be a thing I like. If you watch it, be sure to stick around through the end credits for the little stinger.

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Fic: I am the Male who will Fight for Your Honour

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

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film

(no subject)

Fantastic 4:First Steps

Jews do not dance in this movie. I have seen four Fantastic 4 movies and Ben Grimm does not dance in any of them.

Current Mood: cheerful

Several things

Slept til 11:45 again, finally got up and had breakfast and coffee. Was just finishing up when Linda came by and said she was going to Tops and did I want to come. I said yes, but needed to put on clothes cause I was still in my nightgown. She said OK, and I went and got dressed.

She met me at her cottage and we went in, I needed something to drink for the next two days as I finished my Vernor's yesterday. I got a bottle of Brisk iced tea, which I figure should be just about the the right amount. I also got some thing for

mashfanficchick, because it was there and I like to get zer something when I come up here, and I'm not saying what it is because ze reads this.

Anyway, we came back and I went back to the cottage and I forget what I did until I thought that I really should transplant those ferns if I was going to.

So I went back to Linda's and borrowed a trowel and dug up the little ferns that Betsy said I could have. I put them by the trillium where hopefully they'll root and be happy.

Then I sat on the porch and was reading. I finished Into the Water, which is a satisfying read, and I started something totally different, The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by Charles de Lint.

I was just starting it when who should appear but my cousin Janet. We sat on the porch and had a very nice visit. When she had to leave, it was just about 6:00ish.

I got a phone call from Duane Reade which as usual I didn't answer but now I wish I had. It was a real person, not an automated message saying it was about my prescriptions and I should call them back.

So I tried. But I was on hold for half an hour, and then I gave up. If they call back I'll answer, and I'll try again tomorrow.

Anyway, by then it was time to Team the FWiB, so I did. We had a nice talk. At 8:30 as usual I called Middle Brother. Nothing much to report on his end, all is well.

After that I decided to check out if there was any sort of sunset, and if anyone was watching it, but there wasn't, and no one was. So I decided to return Linda's trowel.

I went down, and they were just watching the end of something. Sue was there so I asked if I could join them and I did. We sat and talked for awhile, then Sue decided to go home to bed, and Linda said she'd walk the dog with her so I went too, and we walked Sue back to her cottage.

Then Linda and I walked back and I said good night, and had dinner. Then I made popcorn and had that, and then I read for awhile.

And now I'm starting here.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Got stuff at Tops.

3. My cousins.

4. Saw Janet.

5. Transplanted the ferns.

6. Middle Brother is doing well.

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Media Round Up: Making Progress on My Pile of Graphic Novels

As the title says I've actually read some of the pile of graphic novels that I got from the library! Things have been busy and I've been sick so progress has still been slow.

The Worst Ronin by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Faith Schaffer — A graphic novel about a teen girl who wants to be a samurai and an older jaded ronin. The tech level is handwavy feudal Japan but with cell phones, which I found distracting. I didn’t think the cell phones added enough to the book to be worth it. Content note: gore, grief and dying

Anzu and the Realm of Darkness by Mai K. Nguyen and Diana Tsai Santos— Graphic novel about a Japanese American girl named Anzu who has just moved to a new town and get accidentally swept into the underworld. I thought it was pushing a little hard on we can solve systematic problems like bullying with individual choices but it was mostly sweet. I liked the kind of cartoony art style and all the different mystical critters.

Dragon of the Lost Sea by Laurence Yep —I read this Chinese mythology inspired MG fantasy novel to the kid at bed time. I had read these books myself as a kid and I was a little worried that they wouldn’t hold up, but the suck fairy has not gotten them! It’s maybe a little weird that the dragons all have wings. Chinese inspired stuff written in English these days tends to be very strict about not mixing in more western elements like that but actually the mixing is fun. Anyways this is a fun adventure story with lots of characters with big personalities.

Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley,Casio Ribeiro, and Nikki Fox —A graphic novel about two girls who are both new at their high school. They decide to go on a quest to find all 7 volumes of an out of print manga they both never finished reading. I loved this! Both girls are charming and quirky in a geeky way, the manga story within the story was lovely. One of them does have a dead mom, something I generally avoid but by the time that was revealed I was hooked. It was super fun and charming!

Himawari House by Harmony Becker —A graphic novel about three young women from different places who move to Japan and end up living in the same house. It's a very slice of life with lots of food and friendship but also some sad moments. The author has a heartfelt note at the end explaining that she wrote on the accents because she wants to destigmatise having an accent. I have mixed feelings about it though because I find written accents way harder to parse than spoken accents.

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Not enough hours in the day and yet so many days in the week

Yesterday I had a nauseating headache all day. It kept me from getting anything done at work which was rough when this latest project is bearing down on me, deadlines looming. I knew it'd put me under more pressure today (which it did). I wanted to go lift weights after work. I realized I need a haircut but I didn't go do that. I was stressed about still not having booked my travel and accommodation for this conference I'm keynote-speaking at next week. I hadn't started the keynote speech of course (and should I be worried that I'm not more worried about that?).

There's just too many things I need to fit in to not-enough days this week. And the only one I managed yesterday was booking a hotel and train tickets (and finding out that an online pal who lives nearby will not even be around that day to get dinner with, boo!). Which is a pretty big deal because I find that so stressful, but it's so little for a whole day.

Today I did okay with the work project and have a little more time than I thought -- end of tomorrow instead of midday today makes a big difference. And I did go to the gym -- angelofthenorth was going swimming this evening so I did too. It was okay at first but people dicking around in the one lane that there was for swimming laps meant I had enough collisions and disruption that my lizard brain noped out before my body would have.

Cardio is so difficult -- not the activity itself, but everything else. It's much more anxiety-inducing to go swimming or cycling on my own, it's not always easy to line schedules up with other people's... (indeed today I almost regretted when helping D do garden chores at his girlfriend's house took longer than expected). There are Reasons that I have avoided it in recent years...

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fandom: other tv

Are all in the North. It's Grim Up North.

I've been knitting and watching shows, which has led me to try to find stuff that's good to watch while crafting, especially things on Kanopy.

I was going to do a bunch of these in a post, but the first got long, so stand by for further knitting show thoughts.

North and South (2004)

(I haven't read the book, though I keep meaning to get into Elizabeth Gaskell, who is recommended when you run out of George Eliot.)

A star crossed romance between Daniela Denby-Ashe as an impoverished daughter of an auto-defrocked churchman from Hampshire, and Richard Armitage as a self-made cotton mill owner in ~~Lancashire~~ "Darkshire"* (amazing name, thank you, Mrs Gaskell). He's in the middle of putting down a strike, and she's in the middle of being appalled by the violence of literally everything that's happening. The main attachment between them seems to be that they are both stunningly beautiful, and appear even more attractive when they are sad. Which they are a lot.

So... he's a strike-breaking mill owner in 1855, who sets the army on his workers? (Which they are careful not to show in detail because it might distract us from how very beautiful Richard Armitage is when he's sad.) Absolutely no one talks about where all the cotton's coming from, other than "America."† He does, later in the show, come to be more sympathetic to the workers, and start actually talking to them and shit, but the strikebreaking is a lot to get past. If you're likely to spend much of the show humming "The Internationale," then maybe give this a skip. If you don't mind/can ignore that, the pining is excellent, and the actors are very beautiful.

Quality as knitting show: 4/5, would knit to this again.

( End Notes )

Entry tags:

vaccines

I called RFK Jr about vaccine access

If anyone wants to call RFK Jr. to complain about him not funding vaccines, and specifically about mRNA vaccines, his office phone number is 202-690-7000. I called during office hours (8:30-5 Eastern time) and got voicemail. The message asked for a phone number, and claimed someone would call me back.

If anyone wants a script, my message was:

My name is Vicki Rosenzweig. I’m calling from Boston, to demand that the secretary restore funding for MRNA vaccines. He must make the fall covid and flu boosters available to everyone. I’m immune-compromised, and my safety depends on my family being vaccinated and not giving me a virus. My phone number is [your number here]

I got the idea and phone number from a comment by

threemeninaboat on

sonia's journal. (I also posted a version of this to

thisfinecrew)

Current Mood: chipper

Lunch out and D&D

Got up late, at 11:30. Had breakfast and coffee, showered and dressed. Was catching up on the computer when Betsy came over and suggested we go down to the beach for rocks to make a line around the trillium patch in the back yard so it doesn't get mowed over.

So we went to the beach with kids pails and each got about half a pail of rocks. Then we came back up, pulled some weeds out, and put a half circle of the rocks protectively around the trillium.

When we finished, I mentioned that I would like to transplant some ferns to our yard, we used to have beautiful lush beds of them but they have all died out. So we were looking over ferns when Linda came by and asked if we felt like going out to lunch.

We did, so the three of us and Alan (Sue was gong in to Caledonia to have dinner with one of her sons) started searching the net for a near by restaurant that was open at 2:00. We found a place in Olcott that's in the building of the old fire station.

The ambiance was poor... inside seating, and dark, though some of the decor was interesting. The food was quite good though. I had a beef on weck, and battered mushrooms.

Then we came back, and I started reading. I'm still reading Into the Water. It's very atmospheric.

At 7:00 I Teamed the FWiB, and at 8:00 I had my D&D game. We started to battle the boss monster, but after we fought for awhile it became obvious it was an illusion cast from somewhere else. We found the real monster and will start battling it for real next week.

After we finished, I had dinner, and finished the last small bit of mead. Then I started here, and when I finish will probably read some more.

I am considering bringing the hummingbird feeder in for the night so that whatever has been stealing the nectar is thwarted. I'll think about it, the problem would be storing a full feeder upright inside.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. My cousins.

3. My D&D group.

4. Good books.

5. The trillium is protected now.

6. Going to transplant some ferns.

Entry tags:

star trek: strange new worlds

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3

So I've been a SNW skeptic since it was first announced, and have never been impressed by the show. But I've gotta say, I've seen six episodes of the third season, thanks to screeners, and we are so far yet to hit a good episode. We have, however, hit several repetitive m/f relationships, multiple love triangles, weirdly a lot of antisemitic subtext, and the decidedly bad look of Pike trying to stop his girlfriend from consenting to life-saving medical treatment.

Mostly I think this is because Akiva Goldsman is a hack who doesn't understand Star Trek or subtext, but also I wonder how much is because the seasons are being filmed back-to-back, and so there's no opportunity to see and respond to criticism. Ironically I think part of Discovery's problem was that it was too responsive to fandom, but Goldsman can't be left alone to pursue his creative vision because he doesn't really have one.

Anyway, at this point I'm only watching because I have a podcast, and also out of a sick eagerness to see if Pike will have to murder his girlfriend and have manpain about it, or if she'll sacrifice her life to save him.

(I've seen people theorise that the problems this season are due to the show pivoting in a more conservative direction to appease Skydance, and I am sorry to say that these scripts predate the 2023 strikes. Like, there was time for the writers to go back and think, "Oh, there's some dodgy stuff here, we should fix that!")

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Henchmen

Looking out at the backyard, V said "Those lilac branches will need to be cut back some time." They added, "I may have to get one of you henchmen to do it."

And then "I'm just gonna call you two my henchmen now."

I looked over at D on the other end of the couch and said "That's a pretty nice name for us, coming from them!"

They continued: "When people ask me what our relationship is, I'm just gonna say 'They're my henchmen. What, you don't have any?' "

" 'Skill issue'," I said. They laughed.

Current Mood: mellow

Mostly reading day

I got up late, around 11:30, and had breakfast and coffee, then showered and dressed.

Then I read for most of the day. I finished The Bards of Bone Plain, and I have started Into the Water, by Paula Hawkins.

I took a few walks, one with Betsy during which we had a nice conversation with Gretchen.

mashfanficchick called, and we talked awhile

Then Betsy asked me if I wanted to watch a documentary on the Great Lakes fish with her and Piet and Alan, but it was just before I was to Team the FWiB, and I had my Al-anon meeting at 8:00 so I regretfully said no.

I Teamed the FWiB, until 8:00 and then had the Al-anon meeting. It was very nice.

Then I walked over to Linda's where Betsy was talking with her and Alan about the Outing Park Board meeting Linda was at tonight. We stayed til about 10:30 and then lleft, and I came back and had dinner, and a glass of my mead.

After I finish here I'll probably read on the couch for awhile, then go to bed.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. My meetings and the people there.

3. RK, who is setting up a new filter, at my expense of course, for the turtle tank.

4.

mashfanficchick

5. My cousins.

6. Good books.

Entry tags:

diary

One thing after another

Woke up this morning, did the usual chores and made tea, went with D to his dental hospital appointment, waited around a lot, came home long enough to eat lunch, went back (thankfully much less waiting this time!), actually tried to do a couple of hours' work, had counseling after that, made dinner after that (what if I made our usual carbonara but with broccoli and shallots added in because they needed using up? it was received well), actually made myself go swimming after all that (with the help of D giving me a lift; I just could not face getting myself there by any means), I walked home afterwards and now I'm exhausted and going to bed.