get me off this crazy thing

hi hi hello! Here are things to ponder:

1. for REASONS, I did complete rewatches of Star Trek Voyager, Highlander: The Series, and Justified, all at the same time, in a sort of juggling manner that defied logic. I don't know what was going on with me, but it took pretty much all 2023 till now haha. I actually did TWO rewatches of Justified because I love it that much, and I wanted it fresh for the new series. And I'm in love with both Tim and Raylan. It's true, and I am not ashamed. Also, Raylan has never done anything wrong ever and i WILL fight you on this. But, after all that, have I started the new Justified series yet? No, i haven't, because I'm a weirdo who needed the entire series available before I started for some reason. And then got distracted by Ahsoka. And then distracted by adventuring. But will start in on Silver Fox Raylan The Series next week.

2. THEN, i did a complete rewatch of Star Wars REBELS, because it continues to be the best dang Star Wars property and I WILL fight you on that. Also, I wanted to rewatch before the Ahsoka series, which I have now watched the first 2 episodes. (queue internal yelling over Sabine and Ahsoka and Hera and Chopper! aaaah) (also also I am very sad over Ray Stevenson who so far is great in the series ugh my heart) Why I can watch the Ahsoka series as it airs and not Justified as it aired is a mystery we all most live with. Me most of all.

3. Randomly and taking EVERYONE in my life by complete surprise, I booked 2 separate kayaking trips in the ocean and an overnight backpacking camping trip to Catalina Island. Sadly, kayaking aggravated my right hand RSI and then the second kayaking trip got canceled because of a hurricane or something, but the backpacking camping trip is a go for this weekend. Have y'all ever backpacked? That shit is hard core hello. I've been conditioning for the last 3 weeks treking all over my neighborhood and in through one of the local canyons with 30ish pounds strapped to my back. I'm not sure i'm ready to climb a mountain but i feel more in my body than I have since before the pandemic. Planning a second backpacking 3 day trip to the Pacific Crest Trail next year!

4. I LOVED rewatching Highlander. It's like hanging out with my immortal besties. <3

5. I LOVED rewatching Voyager. It's like hanging out with my space besties. <3

6. I LOVED rewatching Star Wars Rebels. But it's NOT like hanging out with my Jedi besties. It's like watching my loved ones be heroic and tragic and it makes me emotional. I'm never going to get over Kanan and Hera. *cries forever* Also this time around I'm even more of a Kallus/Zeb girl than I was before.

7. The strikes don't appear close to ending. :( I have no inside knowledge just that we stand firm. Personally, it's a bit wearying. Please to be ending soon now.

8. In other random tv and/or movie watching news, I loved the live action The Little Mermaid. I know, it's weird and off brand for me, and the animated movie is one of my least favorite, but the two leads were so pretty and sweet and earnest. I enjoyed Barbie, and had a blast watching The Meg 2. I also randomly started watching The Walking Dead and JAG (seriously, could I be more of a mixed bag of random things?? who even am I????) both of which have stalled while I become entirely obsessed with finding just the right sleeping bag for my adventures.

9. I was THIS CLOSE to going to Disney California Adventureland to see Rogers the Musical before it disappeared at the end of this month. THIS CLOSE. I was totally going to do it, but a) i felt weird going to Disney right now with the strikes and was like well if the strikes end before the end of August then I will go but CLEARLY that's not happening, and b) I'm spending so much money on camping stuff as it is.

Um, probably forgetting other things to list. Also, i'm in an abuse capitals sort of mood I guess. That's it for now. *waves!*

And all I have to ask is where are all the Longmire/Justified crossover stories? Please and thank you. You may resume your Sunday evening.

Hello kind friends. I have a rare Saturday morning off from horseback riding lesson so I am here to ramble on about a few of the TV shows I've watched recently. Sometimes I think I watch too much TV and sometimes I think I don't watch enough. Sometimes I talk to friends and I'm staggered with how much more media they consume and sometimes I feel like all I do is consume media myself.

What am I trying to say with that? I have no idea. Probably just a reaction to everything in an undefined way because life is in some weird existential limbo. I've come to just accept that nothing feels exactly right and that's okay. I laugh a lot most days -- like genuine laughter not hysterical laughter lol -- and so there are things in this world that are still hilarious and funny and wonderful and amusing and that's great.

I remind myself that I am actually not literally confined to my apartment. I go running, walking or horseback riding at least once a day, sometimes doing two or three of those things. I have picnics with friends. I drove out to hang out with my best friend recently and that is a blessing.

Yesterday, my mother got the first vaccine (Moderna) shot. We (meaning me, let's be clear) booked the appointment through LA county at Dodger Stadium. It made me REALLY REALLY want to go to a Dodger game. It was such a tease, to be there! To see the stadium. Ugh. It involved us in line in our car for about 3 or 4 hours driving in a very slow line that wound around in tangled circles all over the Dodger Stadium parking lot. It was not unlike that episode of Doctor Who where they're in traffic for eternity. Well, eventually we got to the part where they stuck my mom with a needle. She's had no significant reaction so far, though I haven't yet checked on her today.

Anyway, on to rambling about TV shows.

( The Undoing: )

( The Queen's Gambit )

( Bridgerton )

( Lovecraft Country: )

( Wandavision: )

Welp, and that's all I have for now. Still watching scary horror films. Much more TV yet to consume. Still driving my way through SPN in the back seat of the impala...more on that later, though true to my contrary nature I find that I like the later seasons of SPN much more than the early ones ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

hello kind friends, I suppose one should post before the big thing, eh?


1) I signed up for Highlander Shortcuts! I hope to actually write my story earlier this year. At least not a day before the deadline!

b) I scheduled a dentist appointment for Nov. 3 not realizing that Nov. 3rd was Nov 3rd. I almost canceled but then was like whatever. Might as well.

iii) due to that mandalorian dude, my tumblr dash is full of Timothy Olyphant and therefore I am feeling more favorable to the series than before lol. I liked this first season 2 episode a lot more than any of the eps from season 1, though the no remove helmet schtick still bothers the fuck out of me. i started rewatching both clone wars and rebels, and you know, EVERY MANDALORIAN REMOVES THEIR HELMET WTF I DON'T UNDERSTAND. And I'm going to be seriously annoyed by any retcon that makes it okay.

quatro) my phone overheated and died a couple of weeks ago while I was on a too hot walk around the hollywood reservoir while on this weird date with this dude. dating during covid is weird, ya'll. as a bad sign, when I returned to my car it was flashing the apple logo and wouldn't come back to life if you do the hard reset thingie, you know push the magic buttons at the same time thingie. spent the rest of the day googling what to do. did ALL the things the internet told me to do (which, in case you're wondering for when your phone gets stuck in recovery mode like mine did is to act like you're going to restore to factory settings but instead actually update it) , tried over and over again, called Apple and they instructed me to do the exact same things I had already been doing. Nothing would work. No genius bars open. It wouldn't recover or restore. Everything failed. My options were to mail it to Apple for at least a $600 repair bill if not more, try a third party mac place, or buy a new phone. And (don't yell at me) I didn't have a recent back up. So if I bought a new phone I'd be restoring from a back up from a year ago whoops. Anyway long story long, I spent all day after my weird date trying to fix the damn thing. Gave up. on a whim, I put the phone in the fridge while I went to shower. then I took it out 20 minutes later, I decided to try the restore one last time and... it worked. 8 hours I worked on that thing. I spent the next day in a coma. but I had my phone! And it's like nothing ever happened. the bastard.

5) I watched THE BOYS on Amazon Prime and ended up loving it even though it's kind of terrifying. It took a while for me to warm up to it though. I find the young lead in it super annoying (who turns out is Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan's kid wtf). But I loved Frenchie and MM. And each time I see Eomer in something (sorry I can't remember the actor's name right now) I always think, okay THIS time I'm going to like him, because normally I don't like how he acts, or maybe I just don't like the roles he takes or something? I don't know. I always try to like him because he's in everything! That man is in many a fannish show or movie. and each time I see him i'm like oh no that guy again, okay well maybe this time I'll like him and... I usually don't. But again, this time I was like, okay, we're going to really like him for sure and...well it took both seasons but I did sort of warm up to Billy Butcher by the end. at least I didn't hate him, which is pretty good all things considered. But I'm really just watching for Frenchie and MM. And I kind of like this dark twisted superhero AU reality that's TOO real. I enjoyed imagining the MCU heroes suddenly teleported to the Boys reality and wondering at their horror.

5a) I am very much still loving MCU. I often think...wow Endgame came out last year. LAST YEAR. It missed the pandemic by a year. Imagine what it would have been like if Endgame's release got nuked by the pandemic? Most MCU fans want to be whiney complainly about Endgame and the MCU in general but for me Endgame was a blast, especially the in theatre experience of it, I went *mumble* number of times and enjoyed the heck out if it each time, and it's sort of odd to think that it just might be a once in a lifetime thing.

VI) I have no sixth thing to talk about. okay I lied, maybe I do. I watched the Haunting of Bly Manor and I didn't like it nearly as much as the Haunting of Hill House. I'm not really a fan of The Turning of the Screw though, so it already had a mark against it. The best part of the season was Hannah Grose and Owen.

g) I have been listening to Georgette Heyer novels on audiobooks while I run. I'm running 3 or 4 times a week. I'm listening to the Nonesuch right now. Nothing quite like Sir Waldo <3. :D :D :D The reader for this one is particularly great. During October, my runs are populated by skeletons in people's yards. They all make me very happy.

ocho) I am mostly doing okay, as life continues to swing into surreality. some weeks are worse than others. Some days are funky and moody and strange. Some are just wtf. I'd really love to go to the movies again. I hope you all are doing okay and hanging in there too. work is never ending and surreal. don't let your phones overheat. I have no idea what's in store for us, whichever way the election goes tomorrow. But, either way, it's going to be historic.

Tomorrow I get on a plane and fly all the way to SPAIN!

This is the plan:

1. board the plane
2. fly to Madrid
3. take a train to Alicante
4. Hang out for 5 days. Eat. Drink. See things. Play on the beach or in the pool. Look fabulous.
5. Fly to Majorca.
6. Hang out for 3 days. Eat. Drink. See things. Play on the beach or in the pool. Look fabulous.
7. Fly back to Madrid.
8. Hang out for 3 days. Eat. Drink. See things. Look fabulous.
9. board the plane back home.
10. SLEEP

~~~

I saw that King Arthur Legend of the Sword movie the other day. What a goofy movie. But, despite it being as far from King Arthur as I've ever seen, I did love the more multicultural cast/knights of the round table thing, and then spent most of the movie marveling at Charlie Hunnum and Aiden Gillen together again on my screen looking even hotter than ever. Like way hotter than in QAF! Especially Charlie who was just barely an adult in QAF. And now Aiden is all charmingly crinkly and silver-foxish. ugh.

Love this bit of an interview I found online with CH.

How did it feel to be acting with Aidan Gillen for the first time since Queer As Folk?

He seemed exactly the same. He has still got a real magic to him and he’s every bit as eccentric and beautiful and weird as he always was. I’ve always been cognisant that I owed Aidan a huge debt of gratitude, being exposed to his level of craftsmanship and integrity at the start of my career. He was a very powerful guiding force to me.

Your scenes together in King Arthur have a lot of innuendo. Was that deliberate?

Ha! Not that I was aware of. What are you referring to?

You tell him: “I want to get my arse out of here.” He tells the others: “Leave him alone with me.” Then you say: “Put your ring back on, Honeytits.”

It hadn’t occurred to me, but you’re right. Maybe Russell (5) came in to do some secret script doctoring on that scene.

<3 <3 <3

~~~

Completely coincidently I swear I finally started watching Sons of Anarchy. Which.... I don't know. I expected to like a lot more than I do, tbh.

I'm hanging in though, muscling my way through. I like some of the characters -- Tara, Opie, Jax, and bizarrely Chibs for some reason. At least so far. I have found I don't tend like a show all the way through usually. Like, I started out loving White Collar and then kind of got annoyed with it well before it ended. It's the rare show that I love from beginning to end, usually because they torpedo the characters. I can count the tv shows I love unconditionally in one hand. (Highlander! Leverage! Star Trek Voyager/Next Gen!... MCU might count if we're counting films. But it's easy to pick and choose with the MCU, and it's not done yet so verdict is still out)

I thought the Shakespeare/Hamlet touches would be an automatic win for me, but really I just find Charming suffocating. And the physical and emotional abuse of women is exhausting to watch. Also, also, they kill like EVERY latina woman on this show I swear. They are always lying dead full of bullet holes.

~~~

Also continuing my habit of only watching TV shows long after they're off the air and everyone is no longer watching anymore and no one gives a damn, enjoying my Amazon subscription I started watching Justified with the every charming Timothy Olyphant. <3

Now, if I didn't already love Timothy for Deadwood and Seth Bullock, I absolutely loved him for his wacky yet devoted portrayal of Joel in The Santa Clarita Diet. One gets the sense that Timothy really loves doing comedy but got somewhat pigeon-holed as the broody western gunslinger type haha.

I'm liking Justified so far, and am amused that I started out hating Boyd but then kind of ended up mostly loving him! Walton Goggins man, who knew. Also I love Tim Gutterson. And Rachel. End of story.

But, this is another show where its possible they're going to make me hate everyone before it ends, or kill people, so we'll see.

~~~

Rebreaking/replotting second novel continues apace. I'm being all fancy and using color coded index cards!

~~~

In other other news, the sister drama continues.

I was planning on emailing her the very helpful suggestions I got from you all and from other friends, but then some even greater fall out occurred between her and my mom, and terrible emails were sent and sister girl seemed even more fragile and in a bad place than before. So, I didn't want to send her another email on top of all that pretending like I didn't know what was going on and also telling her I can't help her. Didn't seem like the time. Anyway, she's not speaking to my mom again. I'm not sure she's speaking to me either. I did email her to wish her a happy birthday and opted not to tell her I'm going to spain. :/

~~~

EEP. It's past 11 AM already. I still have sooooo much to do!

So much to type about, so little brain.

This is what I've been doing:

1. I watched all of season 1 of Westworld and have decided not to continue with it. As a friend of mine said when i mentioned I just watched it and that I didn't think I would bother with season 2, it's too "rapey." That, and I pretty much actively hate every human and I'm not that fond of the robots either, so when I'm rooting for everyone to die I'm pretty sure that's time for me to bail.

2. In my infinite wisdom I decided to pick up Friday Night Lights again. I'd only seen season 1 back when it aired, and never continued. This was because of reasons, some to do with the show but mostly because life was very life at that time and I can pretty much pin point my break up with appointment television to that period. Anyway, a friend had just watched it all on Netflix, and I had always intended to watch it anyway, and I heard it was good, so I was like, okay, I think I'm ready. And I started watching it again and all through rewatching season 1 I was like, OMG this show is soooo goood why did I ever stop watching it whhhyyyy I love everyone on this show so much. And then I started watching season 2 and I was like.... OH RIGHT THIS IS WHY. Hah. No no, not because season 2 was uneven or anything but because I love these characters so much that watching them hurt even a little bit, emotionally or physically, makes me very anxious. Let's just say when I roll my eyes at the MCU fandom for losing their collective heads over Bucky Barnes, just say Tim Riggins to me and I'll shut up.

3. The kittens over at The Librarians are all very kittenish and that show is too darn adorable.

4. Life got out of hand this month so I haven't seen Logan yet. Nor Iron Fist, which I do plan on watching even though everyone and their grandmother says it's terrible.

5. Even though I saw the movie The Martian in theatres, and I had a copy for ages and watched it at least a few times since then, I suddenly had a desire to read fan fiction for it the other day. Specifically, I wanted Watney/Mitch Henderson (don't ask me why) but there's NOTHING in that pairing. I am so disappointed in fandom right now. BUT I did read a bunch of lovely fic in various pairings and threesomes, and some group Ares fic. I've bookmarked a handful that I liked, and I'm still poking my way through the stories on AO3 (surprise surprise there's not a lot) but I have a fic rec for anyone even remotely interested.

All This Could Be Yours, by mardia (Lewis/Watney) -- Both Commander Lewis and Mark Watney are stranded on Mars together.

It's not even remotely a popular pairing, but I adored this story. In such a small fandom, one starts to read everything, and I was not sorry to give this one a try. It's the first in a series, but the other 2 stories are more companion pieces. Not sure I've read another story, fanfic or professional, that truly delves into real intimacy between 2 people as well as this one, imo.

I have now seen all the MCU to date. \o/!!! And now I have to wait forever for all the rest of them. Man, this is worse than a live TV show. lol.

While I have watched all the films more than once and enjoy rewatching the films (because they are comforting, yes) I doubt I will have any desire to rewatch M:AoS, but I did like it a lot more than I thought I would.

( A few thoughts on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: )

Anyway, I did very much enjoy M:AoS! It's a fun diversion. I want more of the same, with less manpain and boyangst, please.

On a related note, I have been watching How I Met Your Mother on Netflix, and, aside from mostly finding the show charming and amusing for a sitcom, I am further entertained by my head canon that Robin Scherbatsky is a cover for Maria Hill and no one is the wiser. hahaha.

Adam Scott and Paul Rudd recreate the opening scene from Bosom Buddies.

A friend of mine posted this on FB and it reminded me of several things:

~ The genius of Paul Rudd

~ The genius of Adam Scott

~ How young Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari were

~ How much I loved Bosom Buddies

~ Possibly this is the show that hard wired me for slash....


~~~

In other news, I bought a new car. Brand new. D'oh!

Hello good peoples! I am here, and doing well. Been meaning to post and thank everyone for the comments on my previous post. I read each one of them and they meant a lot, so thank you.

( quick update on the fam )

~~

I was very sorry to read about suzecarol. I got to know her a little bit in the Highlander fandom. She had a larger-than-life personality, a tad intimidating, always funny, and she was very kind and encouraging to me personally, and I remember her fondly and with much love.

~~

From just before my father's death, till now, I have been watching episodes of Clean House on netflix. For some reason, only a few seasons are available for streaming, but I suppose that's all right. I don't know what I'm going to do without it!! I've never been one for these sorts of reality televisions make-over shows, and I couldn't tell you a) how Clean House ended up on my netlfix queue, or b) what made me click on it and start watching. But let me tell you it was a God send during the more stressful weeks! And also, I feel like a paragon of housecleaning in comparison. haha. Anyway, I had fun tv crushes on almost everyone of the Clean House team. :D

~~

Clean House sort of took over there for a bit, and it was literally the only thing I could watch (well, that and Star Trek Voyager.) but I have recommenced my Xena: Warrior Princess watching and have finally arrived at season 6, most of the gods have been killed and I'm wondering how it's all going to end. I admit it was a bit of a push to get through those earlier seasons but I have liked most of seasons 4 and 5. Although, I was GREATLY DISAPPOINTED that netflix doesn't have "Lyre Lyre Hearts on Fire" for streaming. It skips right over it. WTF? Darned music rights. I was so looking forward to Jace! And I am a bit bummed about Joxer. :(

~~

There is a new Star Trek tv show filming. Star Trek: Renegades. I am both excited and terrified. /o\ Mostly terrified, I'm not gonna lie.

Incidentally, the actress who played Eve in Xena is a captain in Renegades, so that's cool. And Tuvok's in it, which is also cool.

~~

Everything else is pretty groovy over here. Still horseback riding. Editing and horseback riding, that's my life. Did my second jump show last weekend and did not disgrace myself, so yay. Video was taken but I haven't gotten it yet. Hopefully once I do get it I'll figure out how to share it.

I rode one of my favorite ponies today. His name is Sharky, but affectionately called Pigpen because he is a slob. He is an almost all white Pony of the Americas, who was probably cut late because he is studish and likes to mount other horses. He does not discriminate but mounts mares and geldings, big and small. Considering he's just barely 14 hands, seeing him go for the ass of an 18 hand gelding is both hilarious and ridiculous. He is also hung like an 18 hand horse. I mean, it's like a third leg back there. When he drops, it's kind of obscene, and HUGE. We had him tested to make sure he wasn't still a stallion, you know the kind that didn't drop their testicles, but no, he's fully cut, so we give him girly hormones to reduce the studishness and basically turn him into a mare, but it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference. So he's full of himself, cute, a good jumper, excellent western horse, a total brat, likes to stick out his tongue, is randy, and a slob. <3 <3

Good morning, friends. Today, I have to go back to work. :( It's been a lovely break. Although being stuck at my parents for 3 days, while nice being with them, I was seriously bouncing off the walls by the end. I guess I'm not used to quite that level of inactivity, because doing nothing (physical) for 3 days by the third day my entire body hurt. lol.

I resorted to running around the house and up and down stairs.

~~~

I did manage to finally (finally!!!!) upload all of my stories (as far as I know, I don't think I missed any) onto the AO3 archive. So, now, this has replaced my website. It's nice having them all in one place again. For the last few years they've been scattered among several different archives or LJ.

phew! That was hard work. I even backdated them all to when they were posted (or near to for a few that I have no idea haha). I had to go on to trekiverse.us to find some of my original ASCEM posts for the star trek stories! It was a bit like excavating or an archeological dig or something. hee.

~~~

Highlander Holiday Shortcuts reveal is today!! Get your last minute guesses in. :)

There have been some truly remarkable stories this year, not least of which is the story I received this year, a bittersweet story that reminded me strongly of old school D/M. Trefoil. It's D/M, M/A and it's lovely.

I'm so immensely proud of us, as a group. We done good.

~~~

We had a horse colic very badly Monday morning at the barn, and she had to be humanely euthanized. She was bleeding internally and any operation had little chance of working. Apparently she was in too much pain so they put her down. I wasn't there and only got word when I finally crossed the border midday on Monday. Her name was Delilah, although I usually thought of her as Louisiana, which is her state name (we give our horses state names; it makes it easier). She was a gray mare, and she puts me in mind of the horse in this story written for the hlh_shortcuts about Methos and his gray mare :D :D, both terrifying all the world. . She was really great mare, very willing over fences and dependable. You could put kids on her or adults. But, by God don't put her near another horse or she'd eat them up alive. She had to be a no tie horse (meaning you had to tack her up in her stall) because she would *literally* climb over the x-ties to attack another horse 2 cross ties over. Not kidding. And in lessons she had been known to cut across the arena and bite and kick other horses. It got pretty bad for a while there until we all had standing orders to keep her away and she chilled after a while.

She was the last horse I rode before the christmas break, and I was supposed to ride her yesterday.

I loved that horse. I'll miss her.

~~~

OMG there is so much TV to watch! I have yet to finish the most recent Doctor Who series and now there's a christmas special. And also I have yet to start series 2 of Downton Abbey and now there's a christmas special for that, too.

And what am I doing?? I'm rewatching Highlander. LOL. WELL WHAT DO YOU EXPECT AFTER HLH_SHORTCUTS?!?!

~~~

I've only dipped my toe into yuletide. Every year I intend to read the whole archive and every year I don't get very far. Although I did read a lovely Breakfast Club story.

~~~

Crap, I better get dressed and face the day.