Currently in "lockdown" at home and waiting for the OK to go to work (the town I work in is also in lockdown), and reading/watching all the news about the bombing suspects and the chase. The MIT police officer's death is just so horrible. The whole situation is just completely nuts.  The kid they're chasing went to school and Rindge & Latin down the street, and, from the reports, everyone who knew him is just completely confused by these events.  So many people using the words "senseless."  That seems to be the word of the week.  

Hi guys,

This is a bit nerdy, but the New York Times reported on a Supreme Court decision yesterday regarding whether a person who purchased media -- in this case, textbooks -- in another country, could resell those books in the U.S.. The Court decided that, yes, yes they could.  The reason I'm attaching the article is because I think the reporter did a great, great job of showing both sides of this argument and what it means for the future.  For example, while it's a win for people in the U.S., there's an equally strong argument that this could have a real detrimential effect on prices in poorer countries, where books and other media are priced lower. What's also interesting is what this could mean for other industries -- for example, this case could be used as the basis to prevent DVD and blu-ray producers from creating region specific players and discs. 

Anyway, it's not a long article and I thought it was neat, so I'm passing it along.  (I'm doing this at work, so sorry for the sloppy html)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/business/in-a-copyright-ruling-the-lingering-legacy-of-the-betamax.html?_r=0

I had to post this photo that someone took of a street in the Beacon Hill part of Boston today.  Besides the fact that it's a gorgeous photo, you could be looking at a scene from a 100 years ago.  Doesn't it look like a shot from 1900?  Well, other than the cars of course...but you can barely see them.

But I hate it when they end in such a way that it feels unfinished.  The showrunners have determined that Merlin, the show that I just got into and had reached that point where it was driving me a little crazy (which, frankly, is a sign of how much I loved it) no longer needs to continue on.  Fair enough. And I saw it coming (especially with how simultaneously rushed, erratic and achingly slow this season feels), but...still. So much left to see!  But I get it.  They had one big ass arc -- the rise and, I presume, fall of Morgana, and I'm guessing that's what we'll see in the finale (along with the much anticipated reveal).  If she's gone, then I can see the point of ending it. Still. Could have given us one more season. Just because.

Still, in the time honored tradition of all shows that end, seemingly, before their time, there's always fanfiction.  Thank God.  Even if 90% of it in this fandom is slash, the 10% that's not is still faboo (not slamming the slash, which is often great fun, just more of a canon lover, so tend to crave canon fics more). 

It's funny how "there's always fanfiction" becomes a sort of mantra.  Like Red Sox fans before 2004, when they used to say (for 86 loooooong years), well, there's always next year.

This just leaves me Once Upon a Time to look forward to every week, but I don't want to write for it. Blast n' all. I like Grimm too, hilariously bad use of foreign languages notwithstanding, but, again, no desire to write for it. Nuts, nuts, nuts.

Also, for the record? I hate tumblr. I do. Pretty pictures, no denying, but how the hell can anyone follow it?  Trying to follow the Merlin fandom on tumblr (which seems to be the only place I can find it) is like trying to find a word in the dictionary without knowing the spelling or meaning, just the context. Frustrating.

Anyhoo, that's all my whining for the day. :P 

So glad it's over! Four More YEARS!  And SO HAPPY for my new Senator, Elizabeth Warren! Whoo hoo!

I am dancing around my apartment!  YAY!

(Now, we just have to survive the Nor'easter coming in tomorrow...)

As the winds swirl and the rains pummel my house (seriously, it's like being in a washing machine), this is one of the first times in my life where I can say, I'm glad I don't have a lot of trees around my house.  The single large maple looming over my roof is scary enough. It's being bent almost in two...and its a big, big tree.

I love trees. I do. It's why I live in the northeast, but...woah.

I totally get a kick out of Once Upon a Time, it's easily one of the most fun shows to watch right now, despite the fact that they confuse the heck out of me with their insane cocktail mixer of fairy tales, legends, myths and even a real person or two (though usually one who has been legendized...mythifized....I know there's a word for it.  ANYHOO...).  But, last week, it did something so unbelievably cool that I was grinning like a loon.  Four women essentially went on a quest together. Just women. I mean, it was almost a trope, except...again, all women. I don't think I've ever seen that on a TV show before that wasn't a comedy.  Needless to say, while I love a lot of the male characters (and, lord knows, the guy playing the Mad Hatter/Jefferson can swing by my place anytime, just saying...), the way they're writing the women on this show is really just cool.

Anyway, while my favorite is undeniably the Evil Queen (though not because I want her to be redeemed, but because I think the actress is phenomenal--she steals every scene she's in), I saw this photo of Emma on EW.com tonight, and I loved it. It's just so damned heroic an image.  So, I had to share. 

( Picture Below Cut...Collapse )

And if anyone has any new ideas on who Dr. Whale is going to be, I'd love to read them!  (So far, I've heard Dr. Frankenstein, the whale (which just seems too literal), Casanova (or Don Juan), and the Tailor...Any other suggestions?)

This was such a lovely post script to the ending of the last series (which I liked, but left one big hole in my heart for Rory's Dad) and is such the perfect salve on the wound that I had to repost it. I'm sure you've all seen it by now, and I think there's even fanfic/fanart out there that's been done to complement it, but what the hey. If you haven't seen it, it's really just so sweet. The art is nice as well.

( Doctor Who: P.S. for Series 7Collapse )

Hi all,

Just a short note. I've completed my latest fic in the Merlin fandom (this is the one I kept having to rewrite and cut, cut, cut because I got infected with Shakespeare this summer, and it was making my already long-winded style even longer, bleh).

Anyway, in case you're interested, its posted in the usual places as follows:

The Water Witch and the Black Dogs at fanfiction.net
The Water Witch and the Black Dogs at AO3.

There's one very typical grammar error folks make that I find so jarring, I often stop reading the story.  I'm not sure why it hurts me so much, but...

I hate when someone doesn't put the "-ly" on an adverb.  I just stopped reading a short h/c fic, one that got lots of positive reviews, because the main character, who is someone very well spoken and only says things when he needs to, says, "we need you too bad" to someone dying in his arms. (it was Gibbs, in an NCIS fic).  And I cringed, winced, flinched...and stopped reading.   

In real life, I can ignore it, because it's not that common among the folks I work with or hang with, and, in certain speech patterns, it doesn't bother me at all (someone who is deliberately not following rules and has their own way of speaking. In fiction, an example might be Kaylee in Firefly, whose speech is stilted and neat), but when I read it in a story and it comes from someone I can't imagine making that sort of error...gah!

It might be my mother's fault, who always turned my "good" into "well," or perhaps it's just all the reading I've done in my life, but when I hear it on TV, or in a movie, I find myself correcting the screen even if it fits the character. But, lord, if it doesn't fit the character, I don't want to read it in a fic. It just makes the character sound stupid. BETA!  Do your job!  Add that -ly!  Please! 

Right. That's all. I'd like to say that, normally, I'm pretty easy going on the grammar thing, because I make mistakes all the time, but that...that drives me bonkers.  As said, apropos of nothing.  How are you guys?