* For all that it's trashy throw-away entertainment, X-Force had some damn good artists in the mid to late 90s - Terry Dodson, Jim Cheung, Tommy Lee Edwards.

* Cannot wait for the next issue of X-Factor as the preview indicates the plot will actually be moving forward. Yay.

* Am I the only person whose coming out as queer was not traumatic or dramatic or any kind of event at all? Because nobody, as I recall, was surprised or bothered and I've encountered very little actual biphobia in my time.

* Right now I am reading one book which talks about the fun of Ren and Stimpy and another that stated that people collect comics because they are, and I quote, 'awesome'. Media analysis is the funnest kind of non fiction.

Tags: marvel comics

Exhausted. Headache. Probably going to bed early.

The special before Merlin on Sunday was crap. Also, in episode 10 Colin Morgan sometimes looked kind of like my brother which is disturbing on so many levels.

Went to one of the comic stores in Chapel St after work but accidentally got off at South Yarra rather than Windsor, long walk, v hot and sweaty. Then I saw the girl who plays Bridget on Neighbours at Windsor station. She has skinny legs. My third crap semi-famous person sighting ever.

I told myself I wouldn't download enough to go over my limit this month and yet here I am, having tripped over the limit torrenting something last night, facing the prospect of being shaped to 64k for 11 days. Sigh.

♥ My hair has faded to a lighter reddish brown already but I think it suits me. Not too harsh for my ridiculously pale skin tone.

♦ Went out into the cold on Friday night to hang out with zanbam and reburta. As soon as we got into the first bar of the night we were hit on by a nigh incomprehensible drunk Irishman. There weren't many people out on the town, though. Must be because of the weather.

I met up with telcontar and geekinstinct today. We were going to go to the museum but, uh, stuff happened, so we went into the city to have lunch and look in nerd shops instead. Minotaur didn't have the volume of X-Factor I want in soft-cover, even though they have later volumes in TPB and the guy didn't even offer to order it for me (I mean, I could have asked but the people that work at that store generally act like they're not going to put effort into getting you to part with your money, so why should I bother when I can just go to a decent comics store in Chapel St instead?).

♠ I am sunburnt. Serves me right for thinking I could go without sunscreen for once.

♣ I was feeling nostalgic about bad 90's comics (because I grew up on those and I love them) so I downloaded a bunch. I had never read the X-Force '99 Annual before and it was going well enough until it got to them riding on logs and then I was just like 'what? what? how does that--? just what?' I was actually so confounded by the random cracktasticness of that that I actually voiced my confusion out loud.

Also, looking at early X-Force issues (why am I reading this? why can't I look away?) Liefeld was pretty fond of randomly giving the female characters O-face. Oh god, the pain, that on top of the anatomical wtf-ery.

Tags: marvel comics, ordinary life

- I have already lodged my tax return online. I wish I could say it was quick and painless, but I actually had to find last year's Notice of Assessment first... Note to self: Filing system would be good idea. I had four different jobs to enter into last year's tax return and this year I had only one! It was pretty nice.
- Have officially informed everyone relevant that as of September I will be a student again and finally finish the bloody degree. Pity it doesn't come with a travel discount.
- Feel almost organised, but for the fact that I still have to clean my room, do three loads of washing (and air dry them in this weather, ha!) and vacuum before Saturday.

- When I was at the aunt and uncle's place for dinner on Sunday night I commandeered the TV to put Merlin on: groans all round at how bad a show it is, etc. but then Bradley James came on screen and uncle Mick said that he could tell why I watch the show and that I was practically drooling hahaha.

- In spite of the craptacular cover, the preview of the first seven pages of Marvel Divas actually looks really good. I'm seriously tempted to read it.

• Minotaur didn't have Uncanny #511 so I had to download it and omg Land's art in his part of the book is ugly. Even beyond the annoyance of the extreme photo-referencing, a lot of the panels are flat out ugly. I do like the writing, though, especially the intro captions. I remember CBR forums hated this issue but I like the way Fraction is writing the team and just hate Land's art on UXM. The Dodson pages were nice, though, and I really love Beast in that last scene of the issue.

#512, though? Flat out awesome all round. Gorgeous art, awesome story, and omg steampunk sentinel! Best ever. I may have to dl it so I can make a desktop wallpaper out of the pretty.

• Panicking about flat inspection on Saturday. I suck at cleaning so it'll be a hard slog on Thursday & Friday nights getting it up to scratch. Understandably, they are pissed because the carpet in the hall had to be steam cleaned after the plumber came through on the weekend and that is expensive.

Tags: marvel comics

I finally found X-Factor #45. It pleases me greatly. You know, except for the boring and mildly confusing parts in the future mostly featuring characters I don't really care about, heh. ( I'd say this issue contains medium-level violence and gay themes... )

Oh, also I watched the unicorn episode of Merlin. That was so pretty. Oh, Arthur ♥

Tags: marvel comics

So I just watched episode 10 of Merlin because I can't help myself apparently and it outgayed the previous episode. Also, Arthur was even hotter than in previous episodes. It had dumb bits obviously but I feel that it was actually a good episode, even with the plot related conveniences and Bashir!!! I am going to watch the next episode straight away because unicorn!!!

My uncle and a plumber just spent all night fixing something in the bathroom, thank goodness. Was very nearly possible that I would not be able to use the toilet or shower all weekend if they hadn't managed to get the part and omg, have never been happier to have working plumbing in my life. Did make me think, though, that if I joined a gym at least I'd have some place to shower if my plumbing ever crapped up again. Pity I can't afford to join a gym.

It didn't seem to be on the morning news, or maybe it was on while I was watching Wolverine and the XMen instead, but at first when a guy at work told me Michael Jackson died I thought he was joking. See, and though I have often danced and sung to his terribly catchy music, all I can remember is piles of his CDs in the bargain bins after his reputation tanked. Strange and sad to think of it, though.

I did see the news about Farrah Fawcett on 10's morning news (or possibly Sunrise or Today? I channel flick) and, though we all knew it was coming, I still think it's really sad. She seemed so dignified and strong right to the end and she was such a sexy, amazing woman. Totally going to look up her Playboy shoot right now.

It's a few days old but TegoMass's album covers actually look really cute. This is amazing considering how atrocious NEWS's CD covers tend to be and how bloody boring the covers for Kiss ~Kaerimichi no Love Song~ were.

People are talking about X-Factor #45 and posting icons of it but I don't have it and haven't read it and I know it's picking up on the Rictor-Shatterstar-Guido part of the storyline and I want it now now now! If I can't get it by my usual means tomorrow I might actually have to - oh god the horror - buy the issue in floppy. Gotta say, this storyline is great issue by issue but is also going to rock the Trade hard.

Had dinner with the family at my cousin Kate's newish place with her boyfriend - because they finally finished getting the kitchen done. The place looks fantastic. Her TV is so big and has such good picture quality you can actually see the make up on the actors and how cheap the sets are (2 and a half men was on and they make up ducky like a clown, yo, so much blush), and when the rugby was on I felt like I was getting too much detail with every up the shorts shot.

And I realised that sunday dinner with the fam starts when Merlin is on on Sunday night, so I watched episode 9 on youtube. I've been preferring to watch it when channel 10 airs it but I felt like I didn't want to wait a week for the midday repeat, so. I've seen bits of this episode before, somehow. And now I want to watch episode 10 right now omg even though watching it on youtube is crappy.

Mighty gay episode, though. Seriously, Merlin, be a little more in love with Arthur, I don't think blind men on Mars noticed yet.

I'm trying not to read the current warnings thing in fandom, mostly, because I think reading posts about that would probably be a great way to make me hate people. But!

(a) Yes, I actually don't read published fiction any more pretty much ever, unless it is comics (though I don't know that Marvel uses the rating system any more?). I mostly read non-fiction which is not so likely to have surpraise! self-mutilation in it. Though European history always has some pretty nasty stuff. Though I will say a relatively recent issue of the comic X-Factor contained a plot element that is a sensitive issue for a lot of people, caused a lot of people to drop the book and other people to start reading it, caused a lot of discussion, wasn't warned for as it would spoil the story. Which was interesting.

(b) TV and movies actually do have warnings. Um, in case people arguing that they don't hadn't noticed the warnings before TV programs and movies and on movie posters. For example, Australian TV (at least I think all the free to air stations do now, and not just SBS and ABC) warns aboriginal viewers when the following program will contain images of dead people, which I think is very considerate of the audience. Sex scenes, violence of varying degrees, sexual violence, supernatural themes - all warned for on TV, at least in Australia (I can't speak for other countries obviously).

(c) When written by crap authors, stories with self-mutilation actually just make me roll my eyes and laugh, before mocking them on AIM. It's only when written by competent writers that SI in fic makes my hands shake. So, if your writing sucks, be comforted to know you are not the reason I have to keep all the knives in the house hidden.

Edited to add - I actually find adding warnings fun, even for silly stuff that doesn't really need to be warned to, like when I went to town with the warnings on this fic. (Warning: Don't read unless you like fanfiction that sucks.)

Today I got asked what my accent is, where I'm really from, am I American? Been a while since I got that one. Since I moved to Melbourne people mostly ask if I'm English but this lady is English so I guess to her my magically travelling accent sounds American.

Also, I'm a brunette again. Let's see if I get mistaken for a 17 yr old this year XD

Musique actuelle: Fergie - London Bridge (...yes)

* Merlin: I watched episode 4 on youtube. Ya, very slashy. I feel like, for the first four episodes to make any sense Arthur either has to be kind of gay for Merlin or there's a spell on him, because really. Fighting for no good reason to passionate declarations of trust to going out of his way to save Merlin's life in four episodes.

As for episode 8, that was actually pretty awesome. I kind of ship Merlin/Morgana for real now. It's fun to think how amazing Merlin, Morgana and Arthur could be if they didn't have to lie and keep secrets, but the tragedy that they have to is all part of the appeal. That and the pretty. And wow Merlin's epic devotion to Arthur. I thought the sense of fear pervading this episode was actually really well done. I have so much love for how good Anthony Stewart Head is in this. He really elevates his parts of the show to a higher level, makes it seem like a better show.

* I stayed in all weekend. It was kind of boring. I would say good for the bank balance, but actually I ordered pizza last night so I wouldn't have to leave the house.

* Bugger, I forgot sour cream and lettuce.

There's something so wonderful about being out and watching people moving, the slide of their hips on the footpath, the strange disjointed look of them under flashing lights as they abandon themselves to music. Of course, I'm not doing any of that tonight, or this weekend - I'm staying in and sleeping off the rest of this cold. I took yesterday off sick and was all the better for it - the headaches and the muscle pain are almost gone and I feel like a human being again when I breathe without being all snotty and gross. I'm still coughing up grossness on occasion but here's hoping I'll be all over it by Monday.

I've started to hit mediocre Merlin fic. I suppose it had to happen eventually, even going from recs. Plus, I'm really only in the mood for funny, romantic, sexy stuff that isn't AU and while there's a decent chunk of it I knew it couldn't go on forever. Not a shock, really, and I know that if I wrote Merlin fic it'd probably be all overwrought rain of blood and toads Merlin and Morgana have a wild hopeless affair while angsting about Arthur and Gwen disappears on a foggy night and bla bla pain and woe, knowing me. So it's a good thing I'm not writing Merlin fic, then.

Musique actuelle: Bjork - Visu Vatnsenda-Rosu

♥ So it turns out that I actually really love Merlin a whole bunch, apparently. Huh. Everyone telling me it was so gay omg that it practically reinvented slash was sure as hell not going to work on me (because I watched season one of Smallville, yo, and this is not half as slashy as that, plus people telling me to watch something just because it is slashy just makes me roll my eyes), but watching the show and it being funny and cute and the SFX being hilariously bad in the way they can only be on British programming and Morgana's breasts and dorky and awkward yet largely competent characters that bicker and love each other, plus the dark undertones with the frothy fun bits on top (so basically this show is like a cappucino?), well I'm hooked. Plus, Bradley James has really nice cheekbones, okay. There is so much fic omg I will never run out. Also, I love that people put word counts on their fic. It makes me flash back to how people used to note the size of their XF fic, which is the awesome kind of nostalgia.

♥ Issue 46 of Captain America had the most beautiful colours I have ever seen in comics. Guy Major used to be my favourite colourist but Frank D'Armata has definitely become my favourite now. I am slowly reading my way up to issue 50, still. How old is Bucky supposed to look in 47, though? Because unless he's supposed to look middle aged...

♥ I finally have my net back to normal speeds. Not being on 64k is the best thing ever.

♥ So, given Tegoshi thought he was fat circa My Boss, My Hero I don't think anyone's ever allowed to call me crazy for thinking I used to be chubby again, because at least my body image issues were more sensical than that.

It has been suggested by people at work that I should see a doctor about my cold, because I've had it for a month and now the cough is getting worse and I probably should. Probably. Actually, what I probably need is time off work to rest because I remember that my last holiday was the four non-consecutive days I took off over Christmas/New Year (ok three of them were public holidays), and I do tend to work even when I shouldn't, including those days in February where I was so sleep-deprived I could barely stand up, but I needs the moneys.

There's all this pressure on me right now to start looking for a new job that pays me more and doesn't make my brain dribble out of my ears so much and I probably should but I don't like the idea of going back to working 50 hr weeks and eating at my desk and coming home tired and stressed, because I'm a delicate flower rather than a superwoman (unlike everyone I know, it seems), plus I'd need to do something part-time anyway because I don't think I could handle the demands of study and a job that required brain power. I know, so weak, but whatever, I know my limits.

I watched the first two episodes of Merlin on youtube slowly over the last two days. The first, to see that half hour in the middle that I missed, and I still don't think it's that slashy (except that 'there's something about you' clearly means 'ps i am gay for you'). The second episode, however, hahaha I can only assume we're supposed to think they desperately want to pash for most of the episode. Arthur is so pretty! And so is Morgana and gosh, her eyebrows are intense and obviously everyone wants in her knickers, so people into incest-y ships must be all over this show. There's also something strangely attractive about Merlin even with that awkward chin. OMG the fanfic why so many AUs and all the same fanon cliches el oh el. Last night's episode (apparently episode 7?) seemed less slashy except for the whole part where the theme seems to be that heterosexuality is bad for Arthur.

Musique actuelle: Death Cab For Cutie and other precious twee indie shit

It was bloody cold this morning. I imagine somebody will tell me that Australia is not cold and I am a wimp but it is regularly 4C in the mornings when I get up and my breath comes out as a fog on the way to work. At the train station and all down the street to work there was an icy sludge over the footpaths, mixed with the last of the orange-y leaves, making the walk rather slippery. I didn't mind the weather today, though. It was a clean, biting cold (a sign, I think, that I have adjusted to the wintry weather finally) and watching the sudden showers of rain through the windows of the office between batches was pleasant.

Gordon Ramsay is a pig.

Also, Carl convinced me to try to watch The Chaser's War on Everything the other week and I turned on the tv just in time to catch a segment about how the KKK lynching black people is apparently funny (only it is really not), so I have no sympathy for them given the fuss over the segment where they made fun of dying children. Call me painfully old-fashioned but I think stirring controversy just for the sake of stirring shit is boring.

* The majority of Marvel fic saved on delicious is Tony/Steve or Tony/Pepper, neither of which I have any interest in. Also, all Xavier/Magneto fic seems to be movieverse, which is a shame. I have read a few awesome pieces of Scott/Jean and Scott/Emma, though, and some pretty shiny Captain America fic.

* I read Magneto: Testament on the weekend. It made me cry a bit, as all stories about the holocaust do. Really good art.

* I really need to get my old laptop fixed so I can update my websites and print out my digital photos.

* The whole beginning of the current Trek movie I kept wondering where I'd seen the actor who played George Kirk before so I looked it up on IMDB and... omg he was on Home and Away ahahahahaha! He's a looker, though.

* I do wonder why I am reading Merlin fic.

Good day!

I went to the Jewish Museum around midday for the Jews & Comic Art exhibition. It was pretty awesome, various prints of comics pages, video interviews, plenty of information. It really made me want to buy a bunch of books (though I managed to buy only one book in the gift shop). I definitely recommend it to anyone who thinks they might find it interesting. I also looked around the rest of the museum and the design of the hall with the timeline of Jewish history is just gorgeous.

I went to see Star Trek at IMAX with telcontar and geekinstinct tonight. It was enjoyable! About what I expected, really, didn't blow my mind, the action scenes are filmed in that annoying popular style where you can't see what's going on and there were some bits towards the start that I wanted to roll my eyes at for being so painfully now, but enjoyable enough. Bones was really well cast and I liked the bits with Leonard Nimoy. The sound and the gigantic screen gave me a huge headache, though. Also, the first third of the film Spock was so pissy that I felt like he was just Sylar with pointy ears until the film really got into the action and kept expecting him to slice open heads. Also, I didn't like Spock/Uhura.

I'm up to issue #38 of Captain America v5. The stuff after #25 is a bit of a let down but mostly because it suffers in comparison to the first issues of this run, which I still think are awesome, and Bucky is pretty neato.

* My diet has turned to crap lately. It's all fruit pies and bagels and cakes and chocolate bars. Hahaha, and yet I feel better than I have in weeks. Oh, the endless hilarity.

* Had nostalgic yearning for postboot legion fic. Oh, how annoying it is that there are multiple different losh continuities and half the time people don't mark which is which and I only ship certain pairings in one of them.

* I kind of want to read Fantastic Four now just for the novelty of Reed and Sue, a couple who have been married for a long time and have kids and are not about to divorce and neither is dead, existing in a Marvel book. Because Marvel Comics, it fails at marriages hardcore (I think all the death and divorce is them trying to say that heterosexuality is bad for you, yup).

• After constantly saying that I will not go to see new Star Trek movie I seem to have agreed to go see it in IMAX, hahaha. Truly I am weak to the promise of hanging out with geek friends and geeking it up. It will definitely be nice to once again hang with people who read comics now that I've fallen headlong back into comics fandom because we all know when I get really into something I can't shut up about it.

• The fic I'm sort of writing sounds so awesome in my head, such a cool idea that I keep thinking I am not qualified to write it, especially now that I'm back in the sort of fandom where the fic tends to be densely packed with tension and meaning (though sometimes to the point where it's all a bit overwritten and you don't really know what's going on). I keep having to tell myself to stop thinking about it and write the damn thing. ladhfaukyjh I may have to buy Magneto Testament to write this fic and I'd really wanted to wait until it came out in soft cover.

• WTF why do TegoMass have an album and a concert tour? I am seriously cracking up at this. Japan makes no sense to me but is hilarious. I would totally buy the album if I hadn't blown almost the entirety of my fortnight's pay by the end of the weekend, though.

So reading Captain America #26 after reading Fallen Son may have made me cry a little.

Going to be such a hassle trying to find the issues from #34 onwards, though.

Food Glorious food ( Read more... )

Gangsters and molls night last night was pretty fabulous. I sweated under my hat so much, though, it was pretty disgusting. Also? Some seriously terrible music played (that I danced to anyway). Usually when I'm gothing it up I'm wearing huge, heavy shoes so trying to dance to that kind of music in shoes I could actually walk in was surprisingly difficult.

My taxi driver on the way home said I looked like Bette Davis. Aw, how sweet.

Anita took me into a comic store today while we were in Chapel Street and I bought things and one of them I hadn't been looking for, it was just there and it jumped out at me and-- Anyway, when we got home to have pancakes I made her read both volumes of Young Avengers and the first TPB of X-Factor v3, and we talked about how Kate Bishop is super awesome, the horribleness of most fanfic in most fandoms and the difficulty of writing fic about a jewish gay nerd from NY and how would I even research what I need to know, etc. etc.

I just read Umbrella Academy #1-6. Well, that was interesting. Gerard Way's brain is obviously a very special place. I'm not sure if I liked it or not but it was sublimely wacky.

Gotta say, I am enjoying that comics fandom seems to have less misogyny, homophobia, immaturity and social conservatism than je fandom - and saying that has probably horrified various people on my flist for various reasons.

Great feelings - my job is giving me no stress beyond the physical and I have significantly reduced my credit card debt. In fact, I should have it all paid off within a month or two.

I worked for nine and a half hours today! I'm so impressed with the fact that my hands don't feel like they're going to drop off. They wanted me to work 11 hrs but by 4.30 I was just like haha no I'm going home.

And I dropped by the city and went to Minotaur and bought something. Again. Didn't I just spend four years telling people not to get into comics because a drug habit is cheaper and probably less antisocial? Sigh, my shopaholism, it returns.

Also, YA fandom needs to stop writing Teddy as if he's practically twice Billy's size, because he wouldn't be able to wear Billy's sweater without stretching it even a little in issue 9 if that were so.