dorinda

( The most recent episode of American Gods, 1.04 - reactions )

I really, really liked that. I really did!

Another thing I liked: a meme from musesfool: Share the final line of five of your fics — your favorites, or the most recent ones. I'll go with most recent, but two come from drabble collections, so I just sort of scrolled until I found one I liked from those:

I’ll say it again until she hears me, until her breath catches, like the click of a dashboard dial. (Beekeeping for City Girls Without Roofs, Neko Case, "Prison Girls")

When Peggy felt herself open up simply for the joy of it, for her own sake, without flinching, her own excitement at the thought of a long life was a sudden downpour that she passed through and shivered in, after. (Drabble, Peggy, for the first time, after the war, MCU)

BE GENTLE WITH ME, Sebastian's hindbrain screams. (Meeting Redford, Part II, MCU RPF)

The passerby shook her head. Beneath the skin of her cheek, something shimmered, something gray and sick. The old witch drew in a breath, but it probably wasn’t anything. Nothing like that should ever happen here. (Wind Gets In (The Red Blood to the Bruise Remix), Little Red Riding Hood

"You feel things so deeply, and it makes you good, not weak." She kissed his temple once, in the dark. "Someone's got to tell you that." (Why Talk About Love, MCU, Peggy/Bucky)

Note to self: Do not get so predictably focused on breath, even if you're not releasing one you didn't know you were holding.

Today got to quite a late start, but I got myself to a coffee shop I actually like and can work in and I put together a resume I'm pleased with, and if I can get my cover letter together tomorrow (and hear back from folks I list as references), I will be in very good shape.

Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer—America's Deadliest Serial Murderer, Ann Rule: When I was a kid, I remember hearing about the Green River Killer. No details, just the name, but it was spooky enough that it stuck with me. And since my library doesn't have The Stranger Beside Me in ebook—I won't read it in paperback because I worked in a library; I know what those ratty true crime paperbacks look like and I'm not touching them—I chose this book as part of my exploration of the question: Do I really enjoy true crime or do I just love Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark's My Favorite Murder?

All I know for sure is that I love Karen and Georgia, and this book is long-winded, poorly organized, and filled with mind-numbing data. It'd be nerve wracking to read if you knew there was going to be a quiz later. Rule gives you dates, directions with cross streets, the full names of everyone you encounter, as well as their height, weight, age, occupation, birthday, and the names of their parents, siblings, and children. Surprisingly, none of that makes any of these people memorable. But without the threat of a test hanging over me, this was easy to read since I knew I would never need to remember a word of it, and I didn't, not even while I was reading.

The most satisfying part was when she mentioned an unrelated murder that happened near me when I was ten, and now I have context for a vague memory of a murder in a Denny's parking lot. Yes, you even get unrelated murders in this! Because the Pacific Northwest was fucking crawling with serial killers in the seventies and eighties, and Gary Ridgway was running around loose for twenty years while the cops searched for the Green River Killer. Every time someone was murdered, you had to wonder if it was him. They finally arrested him in 2001. I mean jesus. His first victims were found in 1982.

Anyway, this book isn't very good. It has chapters from Ridgway's perspective that are super gross and sourced from where, exactly, Ann? Also it has absolutely no bibliography. Just about three pages of people who assisted Rule in writing the book.

And it needs all the trigger warnings. Literally all of them.

You may have seen me yelling happily about it on Twitter last night, but I watched Captain America: Civil War again last night for the first time in about a year. There are a lot of things I miss about feeling like I was in fandom, but something I don't miss, particularly about Tumblr, is the endless avalanche of people ripping apart and shitting over every single frame of that movie because it didn't conform to the (amazing!) fanon they'd spent the past two years building. Turns out that removed from that context, it's definitely as fantastic as I remembered from my first time seeing it. (And way more pleasant than my second, which involved a seat-kicker and multiple assholes checking their phones in the audience throughout.) Given distance, I didn't even feel that there was too much Tony, which I felt strongly before, and not enough Bucky. Do I wish it had been a simpler, more intimate film? Yeah, but it was always going to be an overburdened ensemble. Ant-Man is a goddamn joy, Spider-Man is a delight, Sharon Carter is a made-of-competence Maria+Natasha BAMF, Clint Barton finally gets to be recognizably Clint Barton, T'Challa is [INDECIPHERABLE SCREAMING ABOUT HOW AMAZING HE IS] and I still respect the hell out of Bucky's choice at the end.

Not only that, but Sebastian Stan is posting dopey Winter Soldier gym-training selfies again, including with Scarlett Johansson, so you can bet I'm feeling a whole lot of stuff, including Winter Widow stuff, what a good ship. ("You could at least recognize me!" is. Doing things in my head, quite a lot.)

The downside of two nights in a row of amped-up fandom feels (Sunday night was a Winter Soldier rewatch, that movie is still so good!!!!) is that I am not able to wake up on time, not even remotely. Therapy last night was, ironically, "Don't get paralyzed by the things you can't control; focus on what you can do." So I'm waiting to hear back on some pitches I'm excited about and putting together job applications in the meantime. I really need money and good health insurance, not least because while clearing out my 1,000+ OneTab links (I'm now down to 200!), I remembered that LindyBop is a thing, and now I have to contend with cute+affordable shit like this dungaree swing skirt (in nutmeg, teal and navy, oh shoot!!) and this cute-as-hell tea dress with puffins on it.

I have one eggplant left over from this rousing success, so tonight I'm trying charred eggplant and walnut pesto pasta salad, assuming my hand cooperates. Having to keep my bestitched hand away from getting wet or dirty is really messing with my ability to, like, clean up my kitchen, which is frustrating. (I know, I know, get some gloves. I'll get there!) I can get the stitches out on Friday, which I'm really looking forward to. The eventual bill for the initial hospital visit, with my shitty insurance and its 50% ER visit co-pay, less so.

So, okay! Late start, but starting nonetheless. Happy Tuesday, gang. ♥

The Big Gay Fiction Giveaway is back! May 22-29, around 80 authors are giving away free books, short stories, chapters, and box sets.

It's run by Instafreebie, which means you give them an email address, they sign you up for a newsletter, and you get a DRM-free epub, mobi, or (sometimes) pdf sent to you. It's pretty painless except for all the newsletters you'll then belong to.

I see Among the Living: PsyCop 1, by Jordan Castillo Price, which I highly recommend, though for the psychic world-building rather than the romance and for the main character whom I love, and K.J. Charles's The Magpie Lord, which also has good world-building and a romance I don't care about, but if you love magic and little guy/big guy with the tall guy being the top, then the Magpie Lord might be for you.

If you have any recommendations off this list, please share them!

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2qNkzVt on May 22, 2017 at 09:42AM

Tags:not a reblog, money, finance, retirement, DWCrosspost

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Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways to Give:

rilee16 is still struggling to cover medical expenses after two head injuries last year, and hasn't been cleared to return to work, thus can't earn money to cover basic living costs, let alone the bills they've received, including a recent rent increase. They are frequently running out of money for gas to even do odd jobs for pay. You can read more and help out here.

Help For Free:

florentinequill linked to The PRIDE Study, the first large-scale, long-term health study of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or another sexual or gender minority. You can read more and sign up to participate here.

Housing:

darlingarmadillo's third roommate is moving out and she's seeking a new roommate for a three-bedroom condo, bedroom unfurnished, two cats, in-unit laundry, workout room, near the Howard stop in Chicago; $750/mo. You can read more and get in touch at her craigslist posting here.

News To Know:

zorilleerrant linked to the upcoming Static Shock Appreciation Week, to celebrate the television show Static Shock and the comics and other media the character appeared in. Appreciation week starts on May 29th, and you can share fanart, fanfic, meta, and other commentary on the character, including themed daily posts. You can read more and spread the word here.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form. If you're not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help (or ask for help!). If you're new to fundraising, you may want to check out my guide to fundraising here.

Remember at early Supernatural conventions when Jared Padalecki's spoiler filter adorably/annoyingly kept failing? It's happened again.

( Look away if you don't want spoilers for Supernatural Season 13. Like, seriously. )

I like convention panels, but I do miss the seemingly endless, excruciating wait between seasons to see what will happen. Those months were filled with fan-theories being written in LiveJournals and developed in the comments, or through fanfic set in possible futures for the series.

Then again, those were the days when Supernatural retained some textual intergrity. Things (some, not all) written in one season were often remembered and elaborated upon a couple seasons later. Now, the show is more like bingo, where a randomized writing-room machine generates a number that the writers mark, sometimes sloppily, on a pre-printed card. Some seasons string together enough of a storyline to call BINGO! Others, not so much.

A spoiler drop so soon after the season finale hedges the most fun fandom has had for a while. The Season 12 finale set up some exciting possibilities for Season 13 -- but we are reminded of the chances of inconclusive bingo.

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2rF9jI7 on May 20, 2017 at 11:20PM

Tags:not a reblog, activism, politics, PDWCrosspost2

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California has been lovely so far, the weather has been really nice and the seminars very entertaining. I am irked that the five seminars I wanted to see were all booked at the same time, but that's life. Endless suffering.

Why did I buy three more books. I ask you.

The third season start out funny and then becomes slyer and sneakily hilarious. Recommend, recommend, recommend.

Warning: If you watch it between episodes of A Handmaid's Tale, your brain will explode.

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2q7w0U2 on May 20, 2017 at 03:55PM

Tags:not a reblog, activism, PDWCrosspost2

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First off, I enjoyed it. It was formulaic, and the Alien formula is: one spunky heroine plus one questionable artificial person plus one HHGeiger alien. Shake well and pour over outer space.

The first two movies had personable actors and memorable characters. The next two at least had Sigourney Weaver. (I found the third movie abysmal to the point that it nearly tainted my fondness for the first two; the fourth was something of a curiosity, and Weaver's character was interesting. I value interesting highly.)

I fell asleep during Prometheus. That's not as meaningful when I say it; I used to fall asleep during movies a lot. I fell asleep during Gone Girl and I loved it. The difference is, I simply didn't care that I fell asleep during Prometheus; it seemed like a better use of my time. It was as though they thought, "What made 2001 a classic? Oh, I know, it was the boring stuff! Let's put in a lot of boring stuff, that'll give this movie what it needs to catch fire!"

(Catching fire wouldn't have been a bad idea, especially if it was sitting on the shelf next to Alien3.)

Covenant seems to be more along the lines of a reboot. Did you like the first two movies? Do you get annoyed when movies you liked are remade? If the answers to these questions are yes and no (in that order), you should like Covenant.

A ship full of colonists follow an SOS signal to the planet we saw in Prometheus. The movie has two! artificial persons of questionable trustworthiness, a spunky heroine, and a crew they want us to like so much, they had three! married couples in the mix. (One way to get the audience to like a character is having other characters like them. We have no vested interest in these people—which is one thing, but they're also replacing character we cared about, which is much harder. Having married couples—loving, happily married couples—makes us like them more, and ups the ante when one of them dies.)

If you saw Prometheus, David the artificial person is back and batshit crazy. The other artificial person is named Walter and I'm not going to tell you whether you can trust him or not. Both are played by Michael Fassbinder, and played well. And I very much enjoyed the meditations on creations and creating. I suspect we'll be hearing more of this.

The other characters are likable, though I could have lived without the captain feeling persecuted for being "a man of faith," especially since we saw no evidence this was true. It made him look paranoid—which might have been interesting if it had gone someplace.

Covenant started off slow, but I don't mind a slow burn. Action-wise, there was nothing we haven't seen before, but I didn't mind that, either; I think the movies are better when they aren't trying to be arty or smarter or whatever they were trying for with movies three and four. They can keep doing this every couple of years and I'll keep going.

(If you want real spoilers, contact me privately and I'll happily give them.)