Alpha and Omega

Out of the blue, I strolled into work today humming a song from Jeeves & Wooster though I don't remember any of the words other than the "ho-dey, ho-dey, ho— ra-dey, ra-dey, ra—" bits. Made me wonder what the lyrics to the song was, though I did found this:

Man, I want to watch the rest of this series now (I've only got as far as first ep).

( The meme will come to you... if you click this )

And in the middle of researching people for question #10, I found out John Barrowman is actually gay, and not just in a 'Hahahaha, he's so gay!'-manner. It surprised me, but I thought it was kind of cool, that he is so 'out' and been together with his partner for so long.

...and Wiki taught me the word, pansexual which has very little relation with pants. Looks like there's another word for filogrrl's use of 'man-whore' to describe Jack Harkness :P

Coz I'm an Atlantis freak and I need to feel better for missing out on floor seating to Foo Fighters concert...

Which Stargate Atlantis character are you most like? Your Result: Col. John Sheppard   Spunky, witty, brave, and surprisingly intelligent--these are all adjectives that describe John Sheppard. By being simmilar in personality to him, it means that you can do pretty much anything you set your mind to. You love adventure, na dyou know how to make people laugh.
Dr. Radek Zelenka
Dr. Elizabeth Weir
Dr. Carson Beckett
Teyla Emmagen
Dr. Rodney McKay
Ronan Dex
Which Stargate Atlantis character are you most like? Take More Quizzes

Though really, it's not my fault!

I'm talking about NCIS season 5 episode 7: Requiem. How are you supposed to help it when DiNozzo said, "Don't make me kiss you, boss!" A few minutes (which probably really only ten seconds or so) before he said that I was just staring at the screen, wide-eyed and if I had a sheet nearby I'd probably clutching that tightly too, biting my lower lip anticipating DiNozzo doing CPR on Gibbs.

Then he said that and I started screaming, "Yes, damn you! Kiss him! Kiss hiiimmm!! Yes, go!" and then he did—the CPR, that is, covered from plain sight with his hand but you ignore that tiny detail for the time being—and I exploded and went, "Aaaaa!! Oh my God, oh my God, wow, etc." At this stage I was relieved I wasn't clutching a sheet or it would've ripped in two.

Then he gave CPR to the girl without the hand cover -.-; and I found myself screaming, "Hey! Not fair!" pretty... loudly. Luckily no one was home then.

But it was good... a few days later I had an NCIS dream which I had to wake up from, but that's another story. Will try and get a screencap up later (not that millions others hasn't done one already).

In the end though, I had stray thought that maybe I should kiss someone now so that if I have to help someone with CPR... I'm not going to get tunnel-vision and think, "My... first... *beep*".

Tagged by i_am_chi and mystic_plum, God I feel special :P

Rules
1. Post 10 things that recently made you happy!
2. Then tag 10 people and force them to post this meme on their LJs. Everyone needs a little happiness once in a while.

1. Got tagged! :P
2. Caught up with most of my favorite TV shows.
3. Shook hands with Joe Flanigan.
4. Made friends with a fellow fan who made me more confident about my priorities.
5. Still have a job.
6. Watched Transformers @ IMAX with friends.
7. Chuck Season 1 episode 3 Captain Awesome x Chuck tango lesson.
8. Survived a cocktail party.
9. Weaned mom off coffee after years of her insisting that it was not an addiction *rolls eyes*. Dad next.
10. Got to know my work colleagues better.

Me taggy druscilloskayne, dyxl, firelle, friezaess, grungypoo, gurumi_sunday, lcz128, nezuji, pfcblogshere and reedoo.

So it didn't went that bad, but it wasn't a big success either. I tried as much as I can, but long chats just aren't my thing. I've lived on my own since I was nine, in my own house, so pretty much I'm not used to say so much because there just aren't anyone to chat with.

I clicked with one of the girls there and that was pretty much it. Spoke briefly with Billy West, said 'hi' to Alan Tudyk (popular guy, he was practically surrounded by girls XD), and a couple of other guests (I forgot their names). There were a lot of Sydneysiders and dare I say most of them are kind of snobbish. Most of them came to get a glimpse of Joe, no surprise there. I'm kind of relieved he isn't there though I thought it would be amusing to see it, as it was pretty... I don't know... clichéd? to see Alan surrounded by the girls at the party. For me, it still feels kind of wrong fangirling Joe, but the heart and the brain are like a Mac and an IBM.

Cocktail parties are just not something I'd like to do often, celebs or no celebs. I would've preferred to stay at home and catch up on the DVDs I've yet to watch or bake some pie/cake/bread or figuring out what card design I am going to go for this year's Christmas and New Year. Anyhow, that was done, work tomorrow :) and I might try to trick my mom into coming to Armageddon :P

Two hours before the 'cocktail party', I Googled 'cocktail party' and found... I need to change my attire *shlump*.

I'm considering bailing out, but half of me was going, "Weren't you doing this thing, where you try to do things that scares the hell out of you but you should do it anyway because you think that fear should be conquered or you'll never grow as a person? Think of it a learning experience, 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'-thing."

Damn it, I hate that half right now!

1st half: Hey, hey, maybe I can just rock up, see what it looks like and leave! Yeah, yeah, I can do that.
2nd half: Not. The. Point. You're not supposed to be scared of it in the first place! Think of it... a 'social experiment'.
1st half: Whose experiment?
2nd half: Look, there's nothing to worry about. You'll meet new people, introduce yourself, have a short chat, it'll be like starting a new job or something! Except, you don't have to see them the next day if you really screw up.
1st half: ...operation 'This will most likely end badly' is a go.

I mean, I like John Sheppard (Stargate Atlantis), but I don't know much about Joe Flanigan except that:
- He's the type of person that won't be in my circle of friends IRL.
- He's married and has three sons who he loves very much.
- His hair is naturally that way.

so there shouldn't be any reason why I should be so excited/nervous/freaked out/hyperventilating about being in the same venue/room with him (and hundreds or thousands of other people). Then I gushed on the prospect of Michael Rosenbaum doing voice in Dragonlance.

This reminded me of the 10 Sexy Men list I compiled earlier this year. I think I will definitely freak if I meet any of the guys listed here (yes, including Rove), although not so much on Tom Welling or Matt Dallas (I don't generally freak out on guys younger than me). I think I'm going to edit that list again and add Lee Pace to it, 'coz GAAAH!! He's so cute clean-shaven with the James Dean hairdo!

In the end, I don't really get why I am so freaked out, it's probably something psychological *shrug* but I know what trips the trigger.

I really need to get Wonderfalls.

EDIT: Apparently my freaking out is a normal reaction for someone who is in the same room with a celebrity that they often see on TV. It is a psychological thing.

...I remembered about the cocktail party.

Anyone who knows me more than as a passing acquaintance knows that my comfort zone is out of the limelight. Not that I dislike it, but I'm not familiar enough with being under the limelight to know what to do in that situation. The limelight often includes social situations where I'm supposed to be interacting with strangers who doesn't need help in any way (I'm good at interacting with strangers who needs help getting off or on public transports, getting the doors or directions :P).

So even if I like Joe Flanigan as John Sheppard, I probably won't go spastic and glomped him to death. More like I'll be grinning like mad from afar, making him twitchy or something.

xris60 responded to my concerns about the proper con 'procedure' because I've never been one before. The last time I went to something like it was the Game Expo, but that one I just went to see the seminars (XBox Live, PS2 Developer Forum, etc.), saw the hoardes of people playing LAN games and went home. I wasn't meeting any celebrities. He gave me this link that gave a guide on How to Survive a Con.

I didn't realize until I read the guide that to get an autograph from a celebrity, you have to talk to them!!

D'oh! Of course!

I panicked, I panicked and shredded the piece of paper in my hand into confetti.

So it took me some time to get used to the idea. Every morning I try to imagine being face to face with The Flan and control my ever-widening grin. So far I found that when I'm sleepy, I'm less freaked out about it and smirked instead. Maybe I should get drunk? I tend to act the same, drunk or sleepy.

But I forgot about the cocktail party that was supposed to happen on the Friday before the event.

Ah God!

*Buries head under a pillow muttering "ImgonnadieImgonnadieOmygodImgonnadie"*

Edit: Just read the guest autograph schedule. I think I should count my blessings that I don't intend to get any autographs from the wrestling guests.

Part of 50bookchallenge, book #16 (2007).

( Back cover blurb )

heavenly_rain told me that she preferred the darker style CSI:NY in season 1 than the seasons after that, and I have to agree with her for this book. The next CSI:NY novel by Kaminsky after this one was Deluge that I reviewed earlier. This book was much better and I think I know why.

Most of it can be contributed to the backgrounds that Kaminsky wrote for our beloved characters. In this book we see Danny's pain and frustration with the horrors he sees everyday, Mac's reflection to his past and the burden that came with the job that he could see affecting Danny, and the many ironies in life Hawkes would come face to face in his line of work. Then there's the stalker who's trying to kill Stella and how Stella managed to outthink him (she's just amazing).

Then there's the crime cases themselves, one of them is pretty cool while the other one was sad, but predictable. This book doesn't have the elaborate weave of lives that Deluge has, but it certainly has drama and the few worrying seconds when the serial (professional) killer managed to take Flack down. Tension, tension, tension! Read all about it!

Related links:
Stuart Kaminsky's website

Part of 50bookchallenge, book #15 (2007).

( Back cover blurb )

If this book was a Supernatural episode, I would give it a 'good' score, something like 7/10 because it has a pretty decent story and the characters are relatively in-character, but it's not hitting all the notes that would make it a great or exceptional Supernatural episode.

A great Supernatural episode for me would involve some hair-raising enemy/supernatural creature that would put our two main characters in (constant) jeopardy, lots of tension and great lines, and sinister plots.

Both the plot lines introduced in this book are too easy for Dean and Sam, the female ghost is pretty unthreatening and although the serial killer was kind of creepy and dangerous, he's really more a nutcase than anything.

Introducing the 'network of law enforcements' is interesting, especially when one of them was on both the boys' tail and you were kept wondering which side was the cop on.

The interaction between Sam and Dean was pretty good, probably the part of the book I enjoyed most, along with Dean's struggle with the secret that he's keeping from Sam. It's a book to read if you're missing a Supernatural episode, but not a must read.

Related links:
Keith R.A. DeCandido's website | Keith on LJ | Keith on Wiki

After all the hype of me wanting to go for the City Romp, I just realized that it's going to be on the Sunday of Armaggedon Expo when Joe Flanigan is going to be (He's not coming on Saturday)! What am I to do?

Well, I thought about going to Army (Armaggedon Expo) in the morning (they start at 9 am, City Romp start at 10am-12pm) and then going for City Romp because it's only a 4-hour event and come back for Army (they finish up at 6pm). I don't know, does that sound like a pretty tight schedule?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

...and wasn't it sad the young guy in Ticketmaster booth doesn't know how to spell 'Armaggedon'. What's the world coming to?

EDIT: Just read that The Flan's Stargate Atlantis panel is going to be at 1pm on Sunday. Bye bye City Romp T_T.

Part of 50bookchallenge, book #14 (2007).

( Back cover blurb )

At one point, I thought it was going to take me forever to read this book. It wasn't the best time to be reading this book, to be honest. I was starting a new job and I can only read it on the tram to and from work, so most of the time I only managed to read a handful of pages before I started nodding off.

After reading Dead of Winter I realized that it was Kaminsky's style to write multiple storylines and sort of wrap them up neatly into the different cases. Sort of like he's trying to show how something innocuous can be significant in the greater scheme of things. This style is further emphasized in Deluge, which made me curious about the preceeding book, Blood In The Sun.

I'm not sure I can give this book a decent review because it took me so long to read it that I finished the book with a sense of relief that it was over. The story line didn't really compel me to find out what happens next, although I did roll my eyes a few times at the stupidity of one of the characters in the book.

Since the story is set not long after Flack's accident that happened in season 2 (the bomb that injured him) and on the TV, Flack pretty much got back to work looking none the worse, it was interesting to see how the injury actually affected Flack in this book. It wasn't much, but you can't help but think how hard it was for him and how significant that moment would have been for him.

I really quite enjoyed the various side stories in the book. They brought a lot of colours into the background story of life in New York city. This is an alright book, pity I was too tired to really get into it.

Related links:
Stuart Kaminsky's website

Part of 50bookchallenge, book #13 (2007).

( Back cover blurb )

This is what they call a harlequin romance where they replaced the female lead with a male lead. This book has a pretty simple plot, one that is a common staple among romance plotlines. The story telling is around 7 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Why have I recommended this book if it's not at all special, you may ask. Well, this book does not shine above other gay romance books out there, but it's a fun read nonetheless. This book won't leave a major impression on me but I was happy that I have read it and wouldn't mind reading a sequel should one became available. If books are food, some books are haute cuisine and some, like this one, is Kit Kat.

This book was the finalist for the 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Best Romance.

Related links:
Alien Perspective (publisher) website with excerpts in PDF

If I sprained my cheek muscles, I'll blame it on i_am_chi whoi told me about Joe Flanigan being a special guest of Armageddon Expo that will be happening in Melbourne in October.

I grinned so happily that I had to wipe tears from my eyes. I'm seriously contemplating forking $350 for the Gold Tickets, but a part of me also wants to experience the whole bustling, jostling and queueing (the whole original layman experience) part of the expo. Anyway, cocktail party? Not sure that's my thing. I'm not even sure I'll actually survive an experience meeting face-to-face with celebrity. I mean, I'd fumble, freeze and thoroughly humiliate myself.

*sigh* I don't know, any one wants to come with me to this thing? If someone else is coming on standard tickets, I'll go on standard tickets. Otherwise, I'll fork $350 and eat instant noodles or something.

Part of 50bookchallenge, book #12 (2007).

( Back cover blurb )

I put off reading this book because despite the glowing recommendations, the plot just sounded... Victorian romance to me, and I received this book not long after Pirates of The Caribbean: World's End was released in the cinemas so I didn't want to feel like I was guzzling everything remotely pirate-y. The first few chapters was alright, I would even say typical. Another review I read on this book recommended that I set aside a few days to finish this book because I would not be able to put it down. I smugly thought that it was over-rated. That is, until I got to the part mentioned on the third paragraph written on the back of the book: when our main character met Gaston. I honest to God, carried this 3 cm thick, slightly bigger than A5-sized book, everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. I lost sleep reading this book.

In his comments on my review of his book, The Syndicate 1 & 2, julesjones mentioned about gay romance classification for his book. I am so totally getting it now. This is a totally different genre from gay fiction, and it makes me wonder about the reader of this genre. julesjones mentioned in his comment that:

"The intended audience is slash fans, and romance fans who would like slashy romance if they were introduced to it."

Well, I don't think the audience will primarily be gay males. The same fact that yaoi fans are primarily female with a smattering of male (who aren't necessarily gay—or so they claim). I sort of can't imagine gay guys reading this book except for the fact that I know a gay friend of mine who's crazy about yaoi. So I think this is a definitely different generally with an entirely new (or at least, not traditional) group of audience.

This book is not at all hardcore. There's no graphic description of sexual act, even in the end of the book, Marsdale (the main character) and Gaston has not yet gone 'all the way' because of Gaston's traumatized psyche. The book told me a lot about British colonization, the reason behind it, and the mundane and precarious life at sea. Marsdale theory about the sheeps and the wolves is also quite interesting that sometimes I can just see his concept working in everyday life.

This book is a gem and a damn good read. I am still amazed that someone can write a 541-page book and it's only the first part of a trilogy. I really recommend people to buy it. Love it, love it, love it! I can't wait to buy the second book, but I have to decrease my current book pile first.

Brethren is currently nominated for 19th Annual Lambda Literary Awards.

Related links:
Alien Perspective (publisher) website with excerpts in PDF

Part of 50bookchallenge, book #11 (2007).

( Back cover blurb )

This book is a kind of disappointment to me, I think mainly because the sciencebabble in Exogenesis totally blew me away that this one pales in comparison. The Sheppard/Rodney factor is kind of diffused (replaced with what looks like Ronon/Sheppard and Rodney/Radek *slump* I mean, Ronon/Sheppard I'm ok, they're kinda cute together.), which was another disappointment. The twist with the Wraith was interesting, and the ( spoiler ) was a good toy to play with, but I don't know, I wondered if it would've been better if it was used earlier in the story rather than later.

On a positive note, there were moments in the book where I can't help but laugh (mostly Ronon/Sheppard, Sheppard/Rodney and a smattering of Radek moments). As much as I might not embrace the story entirely, I love SGA characters to bits. Read if you're an SGA fan, but this volume doesn't shine above the rest.

Related links:
Martha Wells' Entanglement page with Excerpt to chapter 1 | Martha Wells website | Martha Wells on LJ

Watched Supernatural gag reel again XD. Season 2 DVD set comes with gag reels too, YES! I'm torn between reading SGA: Entanglement and Supernatural: Evermore.

Yoinked from revenant_scribe (Whose "The Lost Son" series I adore)

Part of 50bookchallenge, book #10 (2007).

( Back cover blurb )

I am starting to think that when it comes to SGA books, it's not quite the authors I love, but the characters. However, I suppose good authors would write the characters in character as the characters that we knew and loved, so credits has to be given where it's due.

I'm pleasantly surprised that there's an Australian author who's writing for a UK publisher (Fandemonium) and surprised yet again to know that Sonny Whitelaw is a woman (I should have known). Both the authors of this book are well-learnt in science, one being a civilian engineer with the U.S. Air Force and the other educated in Geography and Anthropology.

( Minor plot spoilers )

Other the slashy satisfaction I get from this book, I really enjoyed all the science presented in the book. I love life sciences (eg. biology, geography, etc.) so the whole idea of terraforming a planet to create inhabitants that are stronger because of the conditions on that planet is a very exciting idea. It may not be possible, but this is science-fiction where you can find ideas and concepts that just blows your mind. I really love the science aspect in this book, makes me want to go back studying science again.

Related links:
Sonny Whitelaw's HP | Sonny Whitelaw on Wiki | Elizabeth Christensen's HP | Elizabeth Christensen on Wiki

Got to watching a few pre-airs and I'm so happy!! There's so many good series coming, or at the very least I love the preairs! My favorite has to be Pushing Daisies. I had big hopes for it since writer Brian Fuller (Dead Like Me) is involved in it (I love Dead Like Me even though I couldn't slash anyone).

( Pushing the Daisies... )

( There'll be a ninja in Chuck... )

The doubtful list:
Damages sounded really interesting, and it was. Glenn Close is an amazing actress, I have to say. The series reminds me a lot of The Devil Wears Prada but a movie with a career woman in the lead role would feel a lot like that, except Damages has a major, major twist. You can just see the whole concept about predicting your next three moves in chess. I'm amazed but not enough to really hook me in. Mom loves it though (when I try 'briefly' told her the plot), so might still follow this one.

Action shows aren't my thing, which was why it took me a while to take up 24 and I caved in only because there are many actors that I like made guest appearances in that show. So I don't know why I was watching Saving Grace, except perhaps to watch Holly Hunter act. Saving Grace is really in-your-face. It's really rough which makes it feel realistic. It's a good series with a good plot, but not my cup of tea. Might just follow it and see.

Bionic Woman was a bit weak. The female lead kept reminding me of someone and I kept thinking, "Wasn't she in Doctor Who? But where's the English accent?" But I was wrong, she was in Jekyll. The plot was alright, but the acting didn't quite hit the spots and the lines... hmmm... could be a lot less typical. heavenly_rain would squee knowing Kretschmann is playing a very good villain here. Here's for her:


Looking forward to spring.