Only Words

Long time no see

2017-08-10T20:00:38Z

It's been two years since I last visited LJ. Today I felt like having a quick look around - only to be pounced upon by a new user agreement. So, the Russian Federation, huh? Well, they can kiss my hiney. Luckily I migrated my LJ years ago, I don't think I posted a lot that isn't also here on DW....

Now I have to find out how to delete my LJ - I hope I can do it without signing their stupid agreement. The Russian Federation is NOT among my top ten of favourite countries. Their treatment of the LGBT community is utterly disgraceful. *gnashes teeth*

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Sense8 - my thoughts on the show

2015-06-14T12:32:33Z

After watching the entire first Season of Sense8 I need to gush. So I sat down to write this little essay. It contains only very mild spoilers. Oh, and I haven't gone meta in a while, so my essay writing skills are a bit rusty, but I hope you'll enjoy my thoughts, anyway.

BTW, we took out a free Netflix test-account to watch this, but will continue to subscribe simply because I expect great things from a network that had the foresight to snatch this show up without much pondering.

<lj-cut>Sense8 isn’t just a story about 8 people who are suddenly telepathically connected. It is a story about all of us.

The internet has turned us all into sensates, we are all connected. Even the Syrian fugitives aboard the rusty old ships in the Mediterranean own smartphones and are connected to us via an electronic network that more and more resembles a biological nervous system. The internet has given us the whole world to walk in. If we want, we can take a google street view stroll through Bombay, Berlin, Mexico City … We can stream music and Jean-Claude van Damme-movies. If we wanted to, we could find out how to build a bomb, or how to disable a Porsche, anything we want – it merely takes us internet users longer than a sensate.

People on Facebook, tumbler, livejournal, Dreamweaver et al know this: The internet allows us to connect with people elsewhere, with people whose upbringing, education, religion or sexual orientation is not our own. Not just to connect. To bond with them, cry with them when they are sad, laugh with them when they are happy, to metaphorically hold their hand when they go through a hard time, or be angry on their behalf, when someone belittles them or tries to hurt them. The internet allows us to experience kinship with human beings on the other side of the planet, people whom we’ve never met face to face.

This connectivity is like a sociological mutation, an amazing gift that no one could have envisioned thirty years ago, not even Sci-fi-authors like Gibson. In many ways the grim Cyberpunk-future that these authors predicted has come to pass: high-tech is used not to make life better for the majority of mankind but perverted to remotely kill human targets with drones, to spy on friends and enemies, to send viruses to disable technology in other countries, to analyze and predict not just our shopping preferences but also our voting habits. There are those for whom we are just pawns, bugs they can step on, cannon fodder, voting cattle, consumers. People like Whispers.

Sense8 tells us that this connectivity is a double-edged sword. And that the war over who gets to control the internet is being fought right now.

But mostly, Sense8 makes us fall in love with 8 strangers. We don’t care whether they are black or white, gay or straight, believers or atheists. We just want them to be safe, all 8 of them, and, amazingly, we even have room in our hearts for their family and friends and loved ones. And that is a wonderful feeling!
</lj-cut>

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Person of Interest

2013-03-08T15:08:33Z

I love this show so much! Episode 2.17 did not disappoint. *beams*
I think I should go looking for a nice icon. Preferably of Howard, John and Bear in the rain. Oh yeah!

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My family free weekend - so far

2013-03-02T18:10:20Z

The familiy is off to Stuttgart to dance in a competition. Yay! I grabbed the opportunity to get my nails done, eat out at the steakhouse and spend a free movie ticket on Life of Pi.
Have to say the steak was expensive but not very good. When I order a large rumpsteak I don't expect about a third of the steak to consist of fat. I know, rumpsteaks come with fat on one side, but this one had fat on three. :( And I had been looking forward to my steak for weeks!
Luckily, Life of Pi was worth watching. I never knew what would happen next - which is a rare treat. Beautiful cinematography, very clever story with a neat twist that I honestly didn't see coming, but which made total sense with hindsight. Also, Depardieu's brief cameo was brilliant. Gee, he was revolting! I have a few issues with some of the dialogue which sometimes sounded pompous, but that may have been the synchronization.
We had a really mild day today, even some sunshine. The city was packed with people. Everybody seemed so happy that finally the snow is gone...

As for the rest of the weekend... well, some Fringe, some tidying up, and, hopefully some writing tomorrow. :)

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noooo!

2013-03-01T19:04:46Z

No Person of Interest, no Elementary. *wails*

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FIC REC: It Never Happened by Shadowscast - Giles/Spike

2013-02-15T14:22:51Z

I haven't recced fic in ages, because there was a time when I didn't read a lot of fanifc. I' missed a lot of good stories that way and am only now catching up.
This is an old hat for some of you, I know, but there are other drive-by lj-readers out there, and if only one or two of them catch this fabulous story, then it's worth my while pimping this story.

Title: It Never Happened
Author: Shadowscast
Fandom/Timeline: BtVS - Set during Buffy's death between S5 and S6. Fits very neatly into canon.
Genre: Slash-with-plot; hurt/comfort
Pairing: Giles/Spike; Giles/Ethan as past lovers
Rating: R - Mature
Summary: It's the summer of 2001. Buffy is buried under a stone that says "She saved the world. A lot."
Giles and the others are struggling to figure out how to live in a world without her, and how to continue to protect it. An encounter with a strange demon turns Spike into an ordinary human, which complicates matters. Meanwhile, a curious new camera shop has opened up in Sunnydale...

It Never Happened (LJ version at Summer_of_Giles)
It Never Happened (Archive of our Own)

Why I love this story: It's plotty, with a distinct gen-fic feel in that all the character voices ring true; also I can literally see all the characters; it's like watching an episode of the show - only with genuine slash. The sex scene are well-written but never gratuitous. Giles acts like a grown-up, and the hurt/comfort pushes all my buttons. Even Ethan has a cameo (I truly love his prank) and sounds as though Jane Espenson wrote him. A truly brilliant story!
If you haven't read it, do so now! If you have, well, maybe it's time to read it again.

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Utopia

2013-02-04T17:35:11Z

Holy crap! Is anyone else watching Utopia? What a truly creepy show. The music really adds to the atmosphere.
The composer is using the stranges instruments, apparently even human bones.
The last time I watched a British short series I couldn't finish it because it turned to horrible. I'm talking about Fades. It just got to creepy in the end. *shudders*, I think I stopped somewhere in epi 5 - I really really can't watch anything zombie. Can't watch The Walking Dead either. The pilot alone freaked me out.
Anyway, as long as there are no zombies in Utopia, I'm looking forward to seeing the rest. Only 3 more episodes to go.

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FIC: Broken English - Part 18 - (Giles/Ethan) - R - * COMPLETE*

2013-01-27T16:26:35Z

Drum roll. Here it is, the final part of my WIP of many years. Can't tell you how relieved I am. I think I may have had problems letting go (stories are so like children), because the chapter got longer and longer. Ordinarily, I'd say "murder your darlings", but I think in fanfic it's okay if there's a lot of angsty dialogue and not much else. ;) So, yeah, this could have been shorter, but I have to go with Mark Twain here: I honestly don't have the two years it would take to make this shorter. :D

Anyway, if you've been reading this from the beginning (and are still here): Thank you for your patience. If you're new to this: Fasten your seatbelt for a little roadtrip.

ENJOY!

TITLE: Broken English Part 18
PAIRING: Giles/Ethan
RATING: R (finally!)
SPOILERS: Set after 8x04 The Long Way Home (comics) - vaguely references the arc of the comics but goes AU; set in Germany
PROMPT: a vacation or roadtrip, magic, slash
WRITTEN FOR: spikendru
Sorry, unbeta'd.
PREVIOUS PARTS: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17

( Part 18 )

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This and that

2013-01-20T14:21:55Z

Vacation time, yay! December is always stressful because of 2 family birthdays, so this year I decided to take a week off in January where I can just putter about, maybe write, maybe go through my cupboards and throw stuff away, and generally recuperate. *bounces*
Hubby is currently in Ireland, where he got a first place and a second place at an Irish dance competion. Little Daughter is off skiing on a one-week school trip (double yay) and Daughter One has a boyfriend and is rarely around.
I worked on Broken English, made progress, too, but am still trying to iron out a few kinks. It's a bit like word-Tetris, trying to fit the right utterance into the right context.
I watched Utopia, which is ever so creepy. Brilliant acting.
No new Elementary and no Person of Interest last Friday. *sniffles*
Also, I just found out that Richard Armitage appears in Robin Hood. I gave RH a try a while back and found the hero and his servant so utterly annoying, that I didn't even finish the pilot. I did notice back then that Guy of Guisburne was not just eye candy but also a better actor, but I decided that watching a Robin Hood show just because I like the Guisburne character is not something I want to do - again. I was a great fan of the old Richard Carpenter show Robin of Sherwood - and I enjoyed Guisburne and the Sheriff most (favourite Sheriff quote: "I've got six hangings to attend to on Thursday and my mother is coming for the weekend...). Rooting for the bad guy is a strenuous enterprise. Rooting for the same bad guy when one is 25 years older gives you a sense that you haven't grown up....

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FIC: Broken English - Part 17 - (Giles/Ethan) - R

2013-01-14T12:58:02Z

This is the penultimate chapter. Yay!

TITLE: Broken English Part 17
PAIRING: Giles/Ethan
RATING: R (finally!)
SPOILERS: Set after 8x04 The Long Way Home (comics); set in Germany, btw
PROMPT: a vacation or roadtrip, magic, slash
WRITTEN FOR: spikendru
Sorry, unbeta'd.
PREVIOUS PARTS: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16

( Part 17 )

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