this is no place for a priest
i saw bad times at the el royale tonight and it was a weird movie. i liked a lot of it - it did some neat things with pov and timelines and it was really stylish and noirish. the audience was pretty involved, and at one point it sounded like everyone went "whoa!" or some variation thereof, out loud. like we were all surprised at what just happened. i just couldn't be having with chris hemsworth's facial hair, but otherwise he was quite the hottest thing in the movie. i'm not 100% sure i buy him as a villain type but he definitely gave it his best shot. and manny jacinto was in it! but i don't think he got any lines.
we got previews for the girl in the spider's web and widows, trailers i've seen about a million times by now, but also outlaw king (in which chris pine has terrible but possibly historical hair) and something called the favourite, in which emma stone and rachel weisz vie for the favor of queen anne. it looked like something i'd like.
before that i went to a nano write-in at the mit scifi society - basically we sat in the sff library - and in slightly less than two hours i managed 2700 words, go me. being on the mit campus is like walking through harvard yard - i feel smarter just being there. plus i walked by a clover and they had the african peanut soup, which i highly recommend unless you're allergic to peanuts. i don't know if it's vegan but it's definitely vegetarian and it's delicious. ...i don't know if there are clovers outside of greater boston. but for the, uh, two? greater-bostonians who might be reading this, the african peanut soup at clover is soooo good.
and before that i went to the comic shop to get my comics, and ended up talking to one of the other customers about nano. i said i had to be somewhere at 3 and he asked where, so i told him. and then he asked what my story was about, so i told him. ("have you heard of the met ball?") (it's not about the met ball but that's where the dresses came from.) he thought it would be fun if none of my characters had names, which, well. there's a lot of women, and i'm not referring to the princesses as "the oldest princess", "the middle princess", and "the youngest princess".
him: describe them!
me: i've spent too much time in fanfic circles to do that - "the tall man", "the young man", "the blue-eyed girl" - that's shit writing. that's how you write when you don't know how.
him: yeah, that's terrible writing. but something like "the woman who's always wearing red".
me: what if there's more than one woman who wears red?
and on in that vein. he also didn't think writers should be allowed to do any planning ahead of time - no outlining, no nothing, so you're starting from zero on november 1. (because i mentioned
apiphile and his impressive amount of prep.) i've seen and chatted with this guy in the comic shop before - he was there last week when i went in and said i'd voted - and sometimes i think he has genuine opinions he wants to share, and sometimes i think he's just playing devil's advocate to be a pain. but he does come across as someone who wants to have a conversation, not just talk at you, and i generally like talking to people in the comic shop about things that aren't comics. and i never get to explain nano to anyone, because by now everyone i talk to with any regularity already knows what it is. but this guy isn't a writer (by his own admission) so i can't take his nano opinions seriously. and anyway i had to leave because, you know, write-in, and by that point i was STARVING and needed to stuff my face before i got to the write-in, because it was in a library and i didn't think they'd appreciate me bringing my lunch in and eating it around all the books.
basically today was a good day.
yesterday i got my care package from my nano swap buddy, and it was full of snacks (tim tams! chocolate!) and tea (chai! strong australian tea the way australians like it!) and random cute shit (pusheen pen and pencil!). seriously, the pusheen pen is so cute. also i got a little plush owl on a keychain and it's adorable. and a canister of milo, which i've only heard of because of becofoz, and which i like! it's like hot chocolate/chocolate milk mix but not quite. it tastes like breakfast. so that was a successful swap, at least for me as a recipient. i hope my swap buddy likes his box, whenever it finally gets to him.
yesterday i also spent some quality time trying to come up with a diplomatic way to impress upon the new tax partner that she really, really, really needs to keep the itemized receipts from her business meals, because i need to submit them with her expense reports, and having to call the restaurant (sometimes more than once) to get them is a pain in my ass and a waste of my time. seriously, lady, how hard is this? every other partner manages it, even the partner who gives me his expenses a month late. i have other shit do to besides hunt down your receipts. it's a little thing but come on, take the itemized receipt when the server brings it to you. you're a grown-ass woman, you're not the only person i support, you can help me out a little. hmph.
in entertaining kitty news, this guy filmed his cat watching psycho. kitty looks completely absorbed by the movie.
and in not necessarily entertaining but definitely boston-related news, whitey bulger (former boston gangster and fbi informant) was... killed in prison. he'd apparently just been transferred, and might have been done in by another gangster type who didn't like rats. whitey was eighty-nine, so the chances of him dying in jail anyway were quite high, but i wasn't expecting him to be killed, partly because i thought any criminals from the old days who might want him whacked were all dead. i just can't find it in my heart to be that upset.
i'm so far behind on reading my flist. i apologize to everyone.
we got previews for the girl in the spider's web and widows, trailers i've seen about a million times by now, but also outlaw king (in which chris pine has terrible but possibly historical hair) and something called the favourite, in which emma stone and rachel weisz vie for the favor of queen anne. it looked like something i'd like.
before that i went to a nano write-in at the mit scifi society - basically we sat in the sff library - and in slightly less than two hours i managed 2700 words, go me. being on the mit campus is like walking through harvard yard - i feel smarter just being there. plus i walked by a clover and they had the african peanut soup, which i highly recommend unless you're allergic to peanuts. i don't know if it's vegan but it's definitely vegetarian and it's delicious. ...i don't know if there are clovers outside of greater boston. but for the, uh, two? greater-bostonians who might be reading this, the african peanut soup at clover is soooo good.
and before that i went to the comic shop to get my comics, and ended up talking to one of the other customers about nano. i said i had to be somewhere at 3 and he asked where, so i told him. and then he asked what my story was about, so i told him. ("have you heard of the met ball?") (it's not about the met ball but that's where the dresses came from.) he thought it would be fun if none of my characters had names, which, well. there's a lot of women, and i'm not referring to the princesses as "the oldest princess", "the middle princess", and "the youngest princess".
him: describe them!
me: i've spent too much time in fanfic circles to do that - "the tall man", "the young man", "the blue-eyed girl" - that's shit writing. that's how you write when you don't know how.
him: yeah, that's terrible writing. but something like "the woman who's always wearing red".
me: what if there's more than one woman who wears red?
and on in that vein. he also didn't think writers should be allowed to do any planning ahead of time - no outlining, no nothing, so you're starting from zero on november 1. (because i mentioned
apiphile and his impressive amount of prep.) i've seen and chatted with this guy in the comic shop before - he was there last week when i went in and said i'd voted - and sometimes i think he has genuine opinions he wants to share, and sometimes i think he's just playing devil's advocate to be a pain. but he does come across as someone who wants to have a conversation, not just talk at you, and i generally like talking to people in the comic shop about things that aren't comics. and i never get to explain nano to anyone, because by now everyone i talk to with any regularity already knows what it is. but this guy isn't a writer (by his own admission) so i can't take his nano opinions seriously. and anyway i had to leave because, you know, write-in, and by that point i was STARVING and needed to stuff my face before i got to the write-in, because it was in a library and i didn't think they'd appreciate me bringing my lunch in and eating it around all the books.
basically today was a good day.
yesterday i got my care package from my nano swap buddy, and it was full of snacks (tim tams! chocolate!) and tea (chai! strong australian tea the way australians like it!) and random cute shit (pusheen pen and pencil!). seriously, the pusheen pen is so cute. also i got a little plush owl on a keychain and it's adorable. and a canister of milo, which i've only heard of because of becofoz, and which i like! it's like hot chocolate/chocolate milk mix but not quite. it tastes like breakfast. so that was a successful swap, at least for me as a recipient. i hope my swap buddy likes his box, whenever it finally gets to him.
yesterday i also spent some quality time trying to come up with a diplomatic way to impress upon the new tax partner that she really, really, really needs to keep the itemized receipts from her business meals, because i need to submit them with her expense reports, and having to call the restaurant (sometimes more than once) to get them is a pain in my ass and a waste of my time. seriously, lady, how hard is this? every other partner manages it, even the partner who gives me his expenses a month late. i have other shit do to besides hunt down your receipts. it's a little thing but come on, take the itemized receipt when the server brings it to you. you're a grown-ass woman, you're not the only person i support, you can help me out a little. hmph.
in entertaining kitty news, this guy filmed his cat watching psycho. kitty looks completely absorbed by the movie.
and in not necessarily entertaining but definitely boston-related news, whitey bulger (former boston gangster and fbi informant) was... killed in prison. he'd apparently just been transferred, and might have been done in by another gangster type who didn't like rats. whitey was eighty-nine, so the chances of him dying in jail anyway were quite high, but i wasn't expecting him to be killed, partly because i thought any criminals from the old days who might want him whacked were all dead. i just can't find it in my heart to be that upset.
i'm so far behind on reading my flist. i apologize to everyone.