everyone was wearing their halos
December 2014 recs update:
9 Avengers and 1 Avengers/Brooklyn Nine-Nine crossover
To read while you're waiting for Yuletide to open. *g*
*
I now have three treats in progress, but we'll see if any of them actually get finished before I leave for my sister's on Wednesday morning, since I'll only have my iPad and I don't find it conducive to writing and it's unlikely I'll have the time anyway. *hands*
At least I did all the wrapping and packing of my little wheely cart yesterday. Did you know they make bubble wrap in a very festive red? So all the bottles are cushioned in cute little Santa suit bags. I still have to bake a cake for my dad, though. I'm planning to make this crumb cake, but with apples instead of pears. (Which, they don't specify what KIND of pears to use! Bosc? Bartlett? Anjou? I suppose Uncle Google could tell me.) I have some gorgeous honeycrisps that will be great in a crumb cake.
And I also have to pack a bag since I'm staying over a couple of nights. I'm going to use the new Steve/Bucky tote bag
angelgazing sent me for Christmas. It's very roomy.
Regardless, with having to schlep all that stuff, getting to Penn Station on Wednesday will be interesting if I can't get a cab.
*
Today's December posting meme post:
December 22:
falena asked for my top 5 female characters.
That is so broad I can't even begin to think about it without qualifying it somehow, so how about top 5 female characters that greatly influenced me as a young girl/woman?
1. Princess Leia. It's not just my resurgent Star Wars feels talking here either. As I mentioned earlier in the month, I was 7 when Star Wars (A New Hope, if you must) came out, and it was mind-blowing. I could not stop thinking about it, quoting it, reading the tie-in novel etc. etc. and a large part of that was Princess Leia. She ran the show! She shot the bad guys! She had a ridiculous hairdo that was not even a little cool except that it was to a 7yo. Having rewatched the original trilogy last summer, I have to say, she still holds up as a great character, even if I wish she got more to do overall.
The thing is, though, watching her in that Death Star corridor in her cinnabon hairdo and her pristine white dress, only 18 and sharp as a razor (or lightsaber) - that was a REVELATION: taking over her own rescue because the two bumblers who came to get her had no idea what they were doing. They're good boys but not always good at plans. *hands* Leia, on the other hand, as both a Senator (even if the Imperial senate is basically a joke) and a leader in the Rebel Alliance, has had to be GREAT at plans and also great at improvising on the fly (seriously, she got the best of her parents, looking at it now; Luke got the whining and the seeing the best in people, some sweet farmboy-ness, and some rad piloting skills; Leia got the brains [strategic and tactical] and the ruthlessness and the charm). And also she's a princess, which was definitely a plus to 7 year old me.
2. Eowyn. Another princess, another lady with a sword. It wasn't until years later that I saw the downsides to Eowyn's behavior - I was 9 when I first read LotR - how she abandons her post and is basically on a suicide mission. I just loved that she was going out to fight because she didn't want to wait around for the fight to come to her, when all hope would be lost and it would be a million times worse.
I've mentioned it whenever I discuss the movies, but the Theoden/Eowyn storyline is to me the most brilliant and moving part of the trilogy, and I'm so glad that Jackson et al. decided to focus on it, because it humanizes both of them (and we have too few father-daughter stories in our epics - see above; I would pay cash money for Leia and Vader to meet with the full knowledge of their relationship, not least because the tongue-lashing she'd subject him to - if she deigned to speak to him at all - would be EPIC and BEAUTIFUL).
3. Tenar. Oh gosh, I love her so much. I also read Earthsea (well the first three books) when I was about 9, and while I enjoyed A Wizard of Earthsea quite a lot, it wasn't until I hit The Tombs of Atuan that I truly fell in love. I mean, some of it is LeGuin's amazingly clear and evocative prose, but most of it is Arha/Tenar, trying to find her place in her small world with her few friends, and having her entire worldview turned upside down when Ged shows up to banter with her in the dark. I love that she's brave enough to leave her entire world behind based on trust and friendship (and okay, yeah, I totally shipped it even then, though it took like thirty years for LeGuin to get back around to finally making them a couple in their middle-age).
4. Aravis. Man, I refuse to reread The Horse and His Boy because I know how racist it is, but it was always my favorite of the Narnia books, not just because of talking horses but because ARAVIS. And I guess Shasta, too. I enjoyed their relationship, but man, I loved her - escaping from her unwanted marriage! Going on the run with the stableboy! Being imperious and clever to hide how scared she was! So awesome! <333
5. Meg Murry O'Keefe. She was smart and awkward and she got into fights defending her weird little brother, and she also got to go on space adventures and save the universe, and date the cute popular boy who dug her just as she was, prickly and awkward and insecure and brilliant (I guess it helped that he was brilliant himself).
Honorable mentions to Jo March, Anne Shirley, Marion Ravenwood, and Sarah Connor. ♥♥♥♥♥
*
Sigh, I have two things I need to clear off my desk before the end of the year, and one I'm slowly working away at, but the other I can't do until someone else does their part, and of course, they haven't touched it yet. People! They are the worst!
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/715729.html.
people have commented there.
9 Avengers and 1 Avengers/Brooklyn Nine-Nine crossover
To read while you're waiting for Yuletide to open. *g*
*
I now have three treats in progress, but we'll see if any of them actually get finished before I leave for my sister's on Wednesday morning, since I'll only have my iPad and I don't find it conducive to writing and it's unlikely I'll have the time anyway. *hands*
At least I did all the wrapping and packing of my little wheely cart yesterday. Did you know they make bubble wrap in a very festive red? So all the bottles are cushioned in cute little Santa suit bags. I still have to bake a cake for my dad, though. I'm planning to make this crumb cake, but with apples instead of pears. (Which, they don't specify what KIND of pears to use! Bosc? Bartlett? Anjou? I suppose Uncle Google could tell me.) I have some gorgeous honeycrisps that will be great in a crumb cake.
And I also have to pack a bag since I'm staying over a couple of nights. I'm going to use the new Steve/Bucky tote bag
angelgazing sent me for Christmas. It's very roomy.
Regardless, with having to schlep all that stuff, getting to Penn Station on Wednesday will be interesting if I can't get a cab.
*
Today's December posting meme post:
December 22:
falena asked for my top 5 female characters.
That is so broad I can't even begin to think about it without qualifying it somehow, so how about top 5 female characters that greatly influenced me as a young girl/woman?
1. Princess Leia. It's not just my resurgent Star Wars feels talking here either. As I mentioned earlier in the month, I was 7 when Star Wars (A New Hope, if you must) came out, and it was mind-blowing. I could not stop thinking about it, quoting it, reading the tie-in novel etc. etc. and a large part of that was Princess Leia. She ran the show! She shot the bad guys! She had a ridiculous hairdo that was not even a little cool except that it was to a 7yo. Having rewatched the original trilogy last summer, I have to say, she still holds up as a great character, even if I wish she got more to do overall.
The thing is, though, watching her in that Death Star corridor in her cinnabon hairdo and her pristine white dress, only 18 and sharp as a razor (or lightsaber) - that was a REVELATION: taking over her own rescue because the two bumblers who came to get her had no idea what they were doing. They're good boys but not always good at plans. *hands* Leia, on the other hand, as both a Senator (even if the Imperial senate is basically a joke) and a leader in the Rebel Alliance, has had to be GREAT at plans and also great at improvising on the fly (seriously, she got the best of her parents, looking at it now; Luke got the whining and the seeing the best in people, some sweet farmboy-ness, and some rad piloting skills; Leia got the brains [strategic and tactical] and the ruthlessness and the charm). And also she's a princess, which was definitely a plus to 7 year old me.
2. Eowyn. Another princess, another lady with a sword. It wasn't until years later that I saw the downsides to Eowyn's behavior - I was 9 when I first read LotR - how she abandons her post and is basically on a suicide mission. I just loved that she was going out to fight because she didn't want to wait around for the fight to come to her, when all hope would be lost and it would be a million times worse.
I've mentioned it whenever I discuss the movies, but the Theoden/Eowyn storyline is to me the most brilliant and moving part of the trilogy, and I'm so glad that Jackson et al. decided to focus on it, because it humanizes both of them (and we have too few father-daughter stories in our epics - see above; I would pay cash money for Leia and Vader to meet with the full knowledge of their relationship, not least because the tongue-lashing she'd subject him to - if she deigned to speak to him at all - would be EPIC and BEAUTIFUL).
3. Tenar. Oh gosh, I love her so much. I also read Earthsea (well the first three books) when I was about 9, and while I enjoyed A Wizard of Earthsea quite a lot, it wasn't until I hit The Tombs of Atuan that I truly fell in love. I mean, some of it is LeGuin's amazingly clear and evocative prose, but most of it is Arha/Tenar, trying to find her place in her small world with her few friends, and having her entire worldview turned upside down when Ged shows up to banter with her in the dark. I love that she's brave enough to leave her entire world behind based on trust and friendship (and okay, yeah, I totally shipped it even then, though it took like thirty years for LeGuin to get back around to finally making them a couple in their middle-age).
4. Aravis. Man, I refuse to reread The Horse and His Boy because I know how racist it is, but it was always my favorite of the Narnia books, not just because of talking horses but because ARAVIS. And I guess Shasta, too. I enjoyed their relationship, but man, I loved her - escaping from her unwanted marriage! Going on the run with the stableboy! Being imperious and clever to hide how scared she was! So awesome! <333
5. Meg Murry O'Keefe. She was smart and awkward and she got into fights defending her weird little brother, and she also got to go on space adventures and save the universe, and date the cute popular boy who dug her just as she was, prickly and awkward and insecure and brilliant (I guess it helped that he was brilliant himself).
Honorable mentions to Jo March, Anne Shirley, Marion Ravenwood, and Sarah Connor. ♥♥♥♥♥
*
Sigh, I have two things I need to clear off my desk before the end of the year, and one I'm slowly working away at, but the other I can't do until someone else does their part, and of course, they haven't touched it yet. People! They are the worst!
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/715729.html.
people have commented there.