fictional representations of unbelievably attractive people in absurd situations
Chris just rang me from work to say she was working with an episode of SG1 where she thought Dr Jackson was about to get on the Daedalus. Possibly before dying for the umptybillionth time. Um. We win at dork? *g*
So, before all of your eyes glaze over, does anyone know how you actually rip dvds to a computer? Software suggestions? Technobabble in words of one syllable? Help? Because I can't download things myself at the moment (long story, involving glacial internet and paternal ire, do not ask) and Chris' computer is not talking to the software she needs to reencode video to play on her iPod so that she's got something to DO on her twenty four plus hour flight in a couple weeks. Help us obi wan flist, you're our only hope!
On a similar note, izzybeth? Can I bother you at some point in the near future to explain if/how to change one thing on my layout/lj setup? Because you are the zen master of awesome and I am just fucking confused. I swear I looked at what I have and tried to understand the FAQs and just... I failed, okay? So, yeah, if you don't mind me imposing on you, just poke at me whenever you're free/in the mood.
Ha! After nearly two and a half hours of whining I have cake. Excellent. Mum made chocolate cake (which is her Thing - she does the best chocolate cake ever. I insulted the hell out of a friend's mother in primary school by spitting out the chocolate cake she gave me and telling her it tasted bad because I was so used to my mum's) which she hasn't done for AGES (seriously, no one got birthday cakes last year, and don't think having been in Ireland has stopped me from complaining on my own behalf) and so I've been campaigning since it came out of the oven to find out whether I can have any yet. She finally gave in. Szo good. If Hawaii still pans out I am so bringing us one. Also, I totally got to lick the bowl. YAYE. /is thismany years old!
Am trying to get back into the habit of actually reading and responding to my flist, replying to emails and actually posting instead of going "argh. argh. behind! will post later." We'll see how we go with this. Er. Today doesn't actually so much count for that, though, because I've not been home most of the day. :D
Oh, score, Master and Commander is on telly sometime soon. I don't tend to like Russell Crowe much, but I did really like that movie. It was done very well (also, points for teh slashy, and teh Billeh) and just... mmm, age of sail. (Dear self, the world does NOT need an AOS!dS AU. It doesn't. Besides, you'd have to research it a lot in your nonexistent time.) And, wow. So, I'm watching The Princess Diaries because it's the Queen's Birthday Weekend movie of the night and it's just fun. I mean, the books are a lot better, but light and fluffy and actors I like. Besides, it gives me trippy flashbacks to November 2001 and how Gemma and I were awake the entire flight from Auckland to Los Angeles, playing cards and watching it as the movie they showed when everyone else was asleep and just... wow. That was nearly five years ago oh em gee. ...oh my GOD, Sandra Oh! Woman is in everything.
So, yesterday I went into town to meet up with Heidi, Foo and Jo for one of the Outtakes festival ("a reel queer movie festival!") things and just. It was One of Those Damn Days, all over again. Comedy of Errors almost in its entirety. We were meant to be seeing Loving Annabelle, had tickets and everything, it was on at half eight, and we were meeting at seven to have dinner first. So I get there, and it's dark and rainy and I just barely find a free park, though it's a "Loading Zone Mon - Fri" spot so I was a smidge worried when I saw the parking wardens ticketing people down on the main road although I was fairly sure I was safe being as it was Sunday - just, I'm always nervous in town, because the one parking ticket I've had in my life so far was on that street. (Short version: residents rang the council and tried to get me towed because OH NOES I was parked over about a centimetre of their DOUBLE WIDE driveway. Fuckers.) So, yeah, I get in on the squeak of seven, meet Jo, we walk to meet the other two, do the politesse fight over where to actually have dinner, pick a Japanese place that's apparently normally pretty good.
And they take forever to serve us. And then we finally get our meals - and it turns out that their idea of a sushi and tempura plate is tempura veggies (fine) and... rice in the seaweedy stuff with green beans and ONION as the filler. I. Um. Onion. What the fucking FUCK? I have never ever before seen onion in sushi, let alone have there be more onion than rice. And as anyone who even remotely knows me will be aware, I cannot stand onion. I might a little bit approach McKay level pessimism and paranoia on the subject. I mean. I'm just saying. So I had to be gross and pick out that and try to eat round it and just urk. So we finished up, high-tailed it back to the cinema and went in.
And the movie started and there were pretty people in it and the acting wasn't bad and we were starting to get intrigued and then ten minutes in the disc (or whatever they were playing it off) jammed up and stopped dead. So everyone sort of laughed and joked around waiting for them to fix it - and they restarted it from the beginning. So then we all groaned and saw the opening scenes again, and it got to the same bit and you could tell that everyone was holding their breath-- and of course, it jammed again in the exact same spot. And so the cinema announced that they couldn't get the film to play, apologies etc, and they'd queue up another film if people were interested, but otherwise they'd offer cash refunds to everyone. Unfortunately, this was pretty much the single most popular film in the festival, it seemed like, and it was playing in two theatres at once and since the other film they had on offer was one that Heidi actually owned already, we decided to take the refund and go to Heidi and Foo's to see that there. Except, like I said. Two theatres full of people. We took one look at the line forming for a refund and judiciously retired to the fair trade-having coffee shop down the other end of the building to fortify ourselves first.
Or so we thought.
Despite the fact it was only about nine pm by this point and the complex is supposed to be open a lot later, the people in the coffee shop were sort of looking very "we want to go now" and while one of them seemed quite nice, the guy that served us wasn't making the effort at all to even try to give us any sort of customer service and was about a hairsbreadth off surly, which put my back up a bit to start with (I mean, I get being tired/wornout, etc, but hey, I've done retail, I have fucking done retail, and he could've at least tried a little) and then he overcharged all three of us on different things - I was the only one who realised at the time and I felt so stupid questioning a thirty cents differential because, well, thirty cents is not the end of the world for me at the moment, but it was the principle of the thing. That and a desire to have not been charged nearly three dollars for a small gingerbread man. Heh. And when we questioned what Heidi's drink had cost, instead of explaining with even a cursory "Oh, sorry, we've had a bit of a miscommunication here" that what she'd ordered wasn't available and so they'd made her a similar but more expensive thing - he just stated that she'd got X, not Y, because they didn't do Y anymore (unspoken but heavily implied "you morons"). Which was... slightly unpleasant, and so with coffee in hand we wandered out of the coffee shop of the seventh dwarf, back to the line and about an hour later had our money (seriously. a lot of disappointed lesbians. all in one place. it was fabulous people watching, at least.)
So, then we headed back to our cars. We were at the bottom of the hill they were parked on, on the other side of the traffic lights, waiting for the crossing. And then the heavens opened. And, swear to god, in the space of less than five minutes and less than a hundred meters we got drenched. I was still clutching the dregs of my coffee and by the time I got to the car it was solidly filling with rainwater - just through the tiny sipper opening bit! Which was the point at which we realised that since I'd been away, Heidi and Foo have moved back to the Shore. And I have no idea where they live. So I had to follow them, and it turns out their new flat is a lot further away than their old one. Like... Albany. Like... twenty or so kilometers out of downtown in the opposite direction to my house. Heh. So by the time we get to their flat after all these shenanigans it's pretty much eleven pm, and that's when we start having multiple computer problems of new and different causes and eventually had to give up on watching the movie on the tv-connected-to-laptop and just huddled under blankets on the couch and squinted at the laptop. We win. So I totally didn't get home until nearly 2am, when I was planning to be home by, like, eleven. Urk. But it was fun, so.
And then we had round two today, for the last day of the festival. Caught this thing that was like two shorts and then a shorter length feature set in Vancouver. Can I take this opportunity to say how goram weird it is to see Canadian stuff without Paul Gross or Callum in it? Because, yeah. Hee. No recognisable Canadian actors! Too weird! And the younger son sounded exactly like Justin from Queer as Folk which basically just rubbed me the wrong way because, uh, really not that big a fan of Justin. But aside from some woefully wooden acting in a lot of it (honestly, it made me sort of spend the first part of the movie wondering when we'd get the reveal for why they were Acting with a capital A) it wasn't bad. Fluffy entertainment. And then home and cake and that, oh best beloved flist, was my weekend. Not enough sleep, too much junk food, plus additional gay-focused cinema. Whoot me. *g*
...and, what would a post from me be (of late) without Stargate: Atlantis content? Unusual, that's what you're thinking. Heh. I have three and a half new episodes yet to watch, three that will have to wait on downloading til the internet situation cools off (argh! must know now argh!), and so I've finally got to the canon moment of "I never see this coming." OH GOD SO WORTH IT. Except, okay, how the hell do other people use that comment against him because it was just him and Blonde Alien Chick of the Week there when he said it? I am suspicious of this. I also have spent the half of The Long Goodbye that I've watched so far yelling futilely at the screen and thus proving that I am, in fact, smarter than fictional people doing things for Plot Device Reasons. *g* Also, is there ANY canon for Rodney calling John by his first name? Because so far I haven't seen any and as far as I'm aware, I've been paying attention. This makes me wriggly. And The Tower and Grace Under Pressure pretty much only served to develop my Rodney-love to further extremes. Oh, and I seem to have developed a crush on Amanda Tapping, too, which I totally blame Kat for. Er. I'm not sure why, it just seems appropriate. *g* Rodney and Lt Colonels, huh? *szo amused*
AND I'M DONE. :D
Oh, and one last thing. It's probably a bit worrying that I can find (multiple) pictures on my harddrive that I don't actually recall ever seeing before, isn't it? One that note,
Okay, on reflection I think it may be a crop from something, but it's just pretty, so. *spams!*
Guh. Edge eyes. So, so lovely.
So, before all of your eyes glaze over, does anyone know how you actually rip dvds to a computer? Software suggestions? Technobabble in words of one syllable? Help? Because I can't download things myself at the moment (long story, involving glacial internet and paternal ire, do not ask) and Chris' computer is not talking to the software she needs to reencode video to play on her iPod so that she's got something to DO on her twenty four plus hour flight in a couple weeks. Help us obi wan flist, you're our only hope!
On a similar note, izzybeth? Can I bother you at some point in the near future to explain if/how to change one thing on my layout/lj setup? Because you are the zen master of awesome and I am just fucking confused. I swear I looked at what I have and tried to understand the FAQs and just... I failed, okay? So, yeah, if you don't mind me imposing on you, just poke at me whenever you're free/in the mood.
Ha! After nearly two and a half hours of whining I have cake. Excellent. Mum made chocolate cake (which is her Thing - she does the best chocolate cake ever. I insulted the hell out of a friend's mother in primary school by spitting out the chocolate cake she gave me and telling her it tasted bad because I was so used to my mum's) which she hasn't done for AGES (seriously, no one got birthday cakes last year, and don't think having been in Ireland has stopped me from complaining on my own behalf) and so I've been campaigning since it came out of the oven to find out whether I can have any yet. She finally gave in. Szo good. If Hawaii still pans out I am so bringing us one. Also, I totally got to lick the bowl. YAYE. /is thismany years old!
Am trying to get back into the habit of actually reading and responding to my flist, replying to emails and actually posting instead of going "argh. argh. behind! will post later." We'll see how we go with this. Er. Today doesn't actually so much count for that, though, because I've not been home most of the day. :D
Oh, score, Master and Commander is on telly sometime soon. I don't tend to like Russell Crowe much, but I did really like that movie. It was done very well (also, points for teh slashy, and teh Billeh) and just... mmm, age of sail. (Dear self, the world does NOT need an AOS!dS AU. It doesn't. Besides, you'd have to research it a lot in your nonexistent time.) And, wow. So, I'm watching The Princess Diaries because it's the Queen's Birthday Weekend movie of the night and it's just fun. I mean, the books are a lot better, but light and fluffy and actors I like. Besides, it gives me trippy flashbacks to November 2001 and how Gemma and I were awake the entire flight from Auckland to Los Angeles, playing cards and watching it as the movie they showed when everyone else was asleep and just... wow. That was nearly five years ago oh em gee. ...oh my GOD, Sandra Oh! Woman is in everything.
So, yesterday I went into town to meet up with Heidi, Foo and Jo for one of the Outtakes festival ("a reel queer movie festival!") things and just. It was One of Those Damn Days, all over again. Comedy of Errors almost in its entirety. We were meant to be seeing Loving Annabelle, had tickets and everything, it was on at half eight, and we were meeting at seven to have dinner first. So I get there, and it's dark and rainy and I just barely find a free park, though it's a "Loading Zone Mon - Fri" spot so I was a smidge worried when I saw the parking wardens ticketing people down on the main road although I was fairly sure I was safe being as it was Sunday - just, I'm always nervous in town, because the one parking ticket I've had in my life so far was on that street. (Short version: residents rang the council and tried to get me towed because OH NOES I was parked over about a centimetre of their DOUBLE WIDE driveway. Fuckers.) So, yeah, I get in on the squeak of seven, meet Jo, we walk to meet the other two, do the politesse fight over where to actually have dinner, pick a Japanese place that's apparently normally pretty good.
And they take forever to serve us. And then we finally get our meals - and it turns out that their idea of a sushi and tempura plate is tempura veggies (fine) and... rice in the seaweedy stuff with green beans and ONION as the filler. I. Um. Onion. What the fucking FUCK? I have never ever before seen onion in sushi, let alone have there be more onion than rice. And as anyone who even remotely knows me will be aware, I cannot stand onion. I might a little bit approach McKay level pessimism and paranoia on the subject. I mean. I'm just saying. So I had to be gross and pick out that and try to eat round it and just urk. So we finished up, high-tailed it back to the cinema and went in.
And the movie started and there were pretty people in it and the acting wasn't bad and we were starting to get intrigued and then ten minutes in the disc (or whatever they were playing it off) jammed up and stopped dead. So everyone sort of laughed and joked around waiting for them to fix it - and they restarted it from the beginning. So then we all groaned and saw the opening scenes again, and it got to the same bit and you could tell that everyone was holding their breath-- and of course, it jammed again in the exact same spot. And so the cinema announced that they couldn't get the film to play, apologies etc, and they'd queue up another film if people were interested, but otherwise they'd offer cash refunds to everyone. Unfortunately, this was pretty much the single most popular film in the festival, it seemed like, and it was playing in two theatres at once and since the other film they had on offer was one that Heidi actually owned already, we decided to take the refund and go to Heidi and Foo's to see that there. Except, like I said. Two theatres full of people. We took one look at the line forming for a refund and judiciously retired to the fair trade-having coffee shop down the other end of the building to fortify ourselves first.
Or so we thought.
Despite the fact it was only about nine pm by this point and the complex is supposed to be open a lot later, the people in the coffee shop were sort of looking very "we want to go now" and while one of them seemed quite nice, the guy that served us wasn't making the effort at all to even try to give us any sort of customer service and was about a hairsbreadth off surly, which put my back up a bit to start with (I mean, I get being tired/wornout, etc, but hey, I've done retail, I have fucking done retail, and he could've at least tried a little) and then he overcharged all three of us on different things - I was the only one who realised at the time and I felt so stupid questioning a thirty cents differential because, well, thirty cents is not the end of the world for me at the moment, but it was the principle of the thing. That and a desire to have not been charged nearly three dollars for a small gingerbread man. Heh. And when we questioned what Heidi's drink had cost, instead of explaining with even a cursory "Oh, sorry, we've had a bit of a miscommunication here" that what she'd ordered wasn't available and so they'd made her a similar but more expensive thing - he just stated that she'd got X, not Y, because they didn't do Y anymore (unspoken but heavily implied "you morons"). Which was... slightly unpleasant, and so with coffee in hand we wandered out of the coffee shop of the seventh dwarf, back to the line and about an hour later had our money (seriously. a lot of disappointed lesbians. all in one place. it was fabulous people watching, at least.)
So, then we headed back to our cars. We were at the bottom of the hill they were parked on, on the other side of the traffic lights, waiting for the crossing. And then the heavens opened. And, swear to god, in the space of less than five minutes and less than a hundred meters we got drenched. I was still clutching the dregs of my coffee and by the time I got to the car it was solidly filling with rainwater - just through the tiny sipper opening bit! Which was the point at which we realised that since I'd been away, Heidi and Foo have moved back to the Shore. And I have no idea where they live. So I had to follow them, and it turns out their new flat is a lot further away than their old one. Like... Albany. Like... twenty or so kilometers out of downtown in the opposite direction to my house. Heh. So by the time we get to their flat after all these shenanigans it's pretty much eleven pm, and that's when we start having multiple computer problems of new and different causes and eventually had to give up on watching the movie on the tv-connected-to-laptop and just huddled under blankets on the couch and squinted at the laptop. We win. So I totally didn't get home until nearly 2am, when I was planning to be home by, like, eleven. Urk. But it was fun, so.
And then we had round two today, for the last day of the festival. Caught this thing that was like two shorts and then a shorter length feature set in Vancouver. Can I take this opportunity to say how goram weird it is to see Canadian stuff without Paul Gross or Callum in it? Because, yeah. Hee. No recognisable Canadian actors! Too weird! And the younger son sounded exactly like Justin from Queer as Folk which basically just rubbed me the wrong way because, uh, really not that big a fan of Justin. But aside from some woefully wooden acting in a lot of it (honestly, it made me sort of spend the first part of the movie wondering when we'd get the reveal for why they were Acting with a capital A) it wasn't bad. Fluffy entertainment. And then home and cake and that, oh best beloved flist, was my weekend. Not enough sleep, too much junk food, plus additional gay-focused cinema. Whoot me. *g*
...and, what would a post from me be (of late) without Stargate: Atlantis content? Unusual, that's what you're thinking. Heh. I have three and a half new episodes yet to watch, three that will have to wait on downloading til the internet situation cools off (argh! must know now argh!), and so I've finally got to the canon moment of "I never see this coming." OH GOD SO WORTH IT. Except, okay, how the hell do other people use that comment against him because it was just him and Blonde Alien Chick of the Week there when he said it? I am suspicious of this. I also have spent the half of The Long Goodbye that I've watched so far yelling futilely at the screen and thus proving that I am, in fact, smarter than fictional people doing things for Plot Device Reasons. *g* Also, is there ANY canon for Rodney calling John by his first name? Because so far I haven't seen any and as far as I'm aware, I've been paying attention. This makes me wriggly. And The Tower and Grace Under Pressure pretty much only served to develop my Rodney-love to further extremes. Oh, and I seem to have developed a crush on Amanda Tapping, too, which I totally blame Kat for. Er. I'm not sure why, it just seems appropriate. *g* Rodney and Lt Colonels, huh? *szo amused*
AND I'M DONE. :D
Oh, and one last thing. It's probably a bit worrying that I can find (multiple) pictures on my harddrive that I don't actually recall ever seeing before, isn't it? One that note,
Okay, on reflection I think it may be a crop from something, but it's just pretty, so. *spams!*
Guh. Edge eyes. So, so lovely.