loki_niflheim

So if y'all don't know yet, Imma bit of a Supernatural fan. They're having some Supernatural convention all over US at the moment and the one for Vancouver near the end of August 2010 was just announced. I thought, hey that'd be fun. I'll finally manage to travel the Northwest side of USA (and make my way across to Canada). Except... most of the Gold Weekend pass seats are gone! They only just announced the ticket sales around 10 hours ago! And first row seats? $1250.

Man, I'm not rich enough for that.

Oh well, I'll be at the Stargate SG-1/Stargate Atlantis/SGU/Firefly/Buffy/Angel/Doll'hse/Farscape convention in Los Angeles in November 2010. This'll be my first US con experience ever, so I suppose I should see how this one goes before deciding to splurge more.

Anyone going to the SGA con interested in sharing a hotel room @ Marriott?

Terminator Salvation was not as bad as I thought it would be. The preview they show when we watched Star Trek was barren and unexciting that many of our gang decided not to watch but I needed to kill time on Friday nights, so I went.

It was probably because I watched after working from 6am (woke up at 4am), stayed at work after work and watched it from 7pm to 9pm. My brain has by then switched off and I was happy I didn't fall asleep.

( Imminent Spoilers )

And vote for Survival of the Hottest 'Ship!

After a month of having two ten-day weeks, sleep-ins feels like heaven. Also managed to slip in a movie marathon before going back into end-of-financial-year madness at work, providing data for audits left and right on top of the job I'm hired for. Moving right along...

I'm back to watching movies lately, started from watching Star Trek, X-Men: Origins, Angels and Demons then the movies I missed: The Day The Earth Stood Still, He's Just Not Into You, Bride Wars, Marley & Me, Sunshine, The Curse of The Golden Flower, Bedtime Stories and P.S. I Love You.

Yeah, I've been watching more chick flicks than usual. The verdicts:

• He's Just Not Into You makes me think I really don't know anything about men and women because they're absolutely clinically insane.
• Bride Wars is heart-warming, funny and Anne Hathaway always makes me swoon. However the theme and plot was nothing new.
• Marley & Me made me cry, it's a story about building a family and about the things you do for family and I can relate to that.
• I fast-forward most of The Curse of The Golden Flower, the story gives me a headache.
• I liked The Day The Earth Stood Still, I think it's the shiny ball. The whole "US got whumped for treating the unknowns with 'shoot now ask questions later'" makes me feel strangely happy. Keanu's acting in this movie is really worrying me for his role in 'Cowboy Bebop'.
• Sunshine was really better than I thought, it's a bit (really, a smidgeon) trippy, but it feels real. I don't know why a lot of people gave it bad reviews. Oh, someone should really slash Mace and Capa. My brain was running its own 'production' all through the movie.
• Bedtime Stories is a typical Adam Sandler 'diamond in a rough character finally shines' comedy. Loved Russel Brand in this one.
• P.S. I Love You is a lovely love story. Hard to understand at first why Gerry seems to make it hard for Holly to let go, but I can understand how you treat a deep wound by curing it over time for it to heal completely than quickly and leaving a scar. My biggest surprise was seeing Jeffrey Dean Morgan (John Winchester, Supernatural) speaking in sexy Irish accent in this movie, so I finally looked up his filmography in IMDB. Wow, the dude is in Grey's Anatomy these days. Crap >.< I don't want to watch that show!
• Star Trek, love the meaningful looks between Spock and Kirk. Ah, budding love.
• X-Men: Origins suffers from either bad editing or directing. What with the different directors for different locations anyway? The scenes doesn't quite work so the messages they're trying to imply about Wolverine's character (yes, I feel that they were trying to imply Wolverine's character through the scenes they picked. Stop laughing.) feels weak.
• I haven't read the book, so I found Angels and Demon pretty good though I spotted the supposed 'twist' coming, I think they intended to though because Ewan's line, "It's him! Look, he has a gun!" is very revealing. Also, it was worth it to watch Ewan McGregor in priest collar.

I'm aiming to watch all the movies in The Movie Guide to Surviving The Apocalypse and Your Favorite Movie Badass. I find your lack of faith disturbing...

( Back Cover blurb )

( spoilers )

Related links:
Terry Pratchett's Website
A Hat Full of Sky in Wikipedia

( Back Cover blurb )

( spoilers )

Terry is probably one of few authors you can depend on to weave a good yarn on pretty much anything, this book has a similar tone to Wintersmith, the urgency to save herself and his brother from the Fairy Queen and her enchanting land, all rolled together with the antics from our Wee Free Men.

Related links:
Terry Pratchett's Website

( Back Cover Blurb )

I worship this writer, she writes tomes of volumes worth every dollar I spent on it. If you want pirate smex... well, you probably won't get it from this book, the book explores less about gay sex than love crossing gender and more into finding that other soul that forms a feedback loop with you.

( spoiler )

Great second book :)

( Back Cover Blurb )

It took me a while reading this book, it's definitely different and darkly funny, but it's really hard to root for a hero who blames everything on other people and quietly self-serving. It's darkly funny because everyone self-serving either wins or in that space where you neither win nor lose and everyone seemingly selfless or idealistic pretty much gets trampled. Also in this book, if something bad can happen, it will happen.

I am slightly reluctant to recommend this book. It's quite and interesting read, different, and well-written for sure, but I find it hard to get into it. Still trying to get through the second book, "The Woad to Wuin" which I should interest me since most of it is parody of 'Lord of the Rings'.

However, if you like plotlines like Fables: The Mean Seasons, you'll like this.

Related links:
Peter David's Website (You can read his Potato Moon 'gang-fang' on his site).

( Back Cover Blurb )

This was my first Terry Pratchett book and I didn't realize at that time—since I was buying by the back cover blurb—that it was the third in Tiffany Aching series, started from The Wee Free Men.

I've heard Terry Pratchett's name, watched Hogfather and The Colour of Magic (I like this one between the two), but that was the extent of it. This book made me realize just how one-of-a-kind author he is.

( spoilers )

Related links:
Terry Pratchett's website

Let me start off by outlining the shows I watch by priority and here is what will happen with the list next season:
1. Better Off Ted
2. Chuck
3. Eureka
4. Kyle XY
5. Psych
6. Fringe
7. Eleventh Hour
8. Pushing Daisies
9. Supernatural
10. Dollhouse
11. Dexter
12. NCIS
13. Life
14. Kings*
15. Knight Rider
16. Legend of The Seeker
17. Reaper
18. CSI NY
19. Lie To Me
20. Heroes

Italics 50% or less likely chance of a next season
Strike Officially cancelled
*Shifted to next season

I'm losing half of the shows I watch religiously and most of them in my Top 10. (Updated 19/05: They renewed Better Off Ted, Chuck and Dollhouse)

Kings, the only serious 'political' drama show that I watch because it's SO BRILLIANT, is moved to start again in June before they decide to keep it or axe it. Granted it's only on #14 because I have to build my guts to watch David despair/rejoice in his fight against all odds. It's one show that you're never quite sure the protagonist will come out the winner in the end and the twists always comes unexpectedly.

Stupid NBC and ABC. And why is TV.com showing 'Lost' as Top 10 Australian Show?

Reaction to: Which shows are coming back for ABC? and Downturn in economy could save faltering shows

Amused by The Presidential Election is third in top ten TV series, says Time.

Related links:
Veridian Dynamics ads (Fictional company in Better Off Ted)
Captain Awesome's Tips (Captain Awesome is a character in Chuck)
Brave New World (Various medical articles on topics covered in Eleventh Hour)
Create Your Own Dollhouse (Random Dollhouse DIY creative art?)
Billy's Blog (Billy is a character from Knight Rider)
Build Your Conspiracy Theory (...behind the plot in Life)

Sometimes you get a whack-up-call from life reminding you that you might be more than slightly off mainstream. Some people at work found out I read slash and they have this 'leer' when they caught me reading slash between work and I really can't figure out why. When I think about it though, I think I get it: Most people deem slash is pr0n. That, and I suppose I really shouldn't read slash at work.

theaffluentpino asked me once why I like slash and I really can't explain it. It's not the porn, I can read hetero porn or same sex (both gender) porn just the same, but I prefer gay romance and out of all gay romances, I like sci-fi ones. However, it doesn't explain why, so maybe I should explain it from why I don't like most hetero romances: the female half of the pair is generally a clingy, whiny, weak and spoiled girl. A good example is Fushigi Yuugi, which was a series I enjoyed in the first season and abhorred in the second season. Miaka was a capable priestess in the first season. She's a klutz, but she's trying hard. In the second season, whenever she's in trouble, she does the least that she could do: Scream "Tamahome!!"

Argh! Go and die already!

A lot of slash are also quite funny and smart, the likes of indybaggins's But I’m A Lieutenant Colonel (Just the summary is enough to crack you up) while others, can't be explained or put into words. When I read sheafrotherdon's Compass Points and its accompanying vid for example. I don't know about you, in the space of time when I read that fic, I smiled, my nose burned and my eyes tear up a bit, I laughed and in the end, there's this slow burn under my ribcage that could just be heartburn, except it wasn't there before.

After a week of this, I would go and read a fast-paced thriller or a totally off-the-wall humourous book, but that's another story...