ReadingLirael, Measure for Measure, The English Patient, Heart of Darkness, Suikoden III, Candidate for Goddess
Watching House, Rick Mercer's Monday Report, Gilmore Girls, Scrubs, Corner Gas, Aishiteruze Baby, Prince of Tennis, Hikaru no Go
Playing The Bard's Tale, Katamari Damacy, Curse of Monkey Island, Final Fantasy VI, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Pretty Barbie Dressup Party Final Fantasy X-2(group gaming)
Back-burner Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance, Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast, Planescape: Torment, Final Fantasy VII
Obsessing Firefly, Erik and Ray, Impulse/Bart Allen, Ford Prefect, Monkey Island, Nostalgia.
Upcoming Things of Importance January 5 First day of classes January 14 Birthday party
layout
Is by Meimi, that wonderful Goddess who brings joy and happiness to the hearts of Ingrids.
This time, Meimi brought joy by doing a layout of Isumi Shinichirou and Waya Yoshitaka, of Hikaru no Go. It is full of wub.
.
A brief discourse on snow and zombies, which rapidly dissolves into Impulse gushing
1/21/2005 05:28:27 PM
"Awww, are you frightened, little chum? Don't be! Girls are wonderful creatures! Did you read that pamphlet I gave you about the bat-birds and the bat-bees?" - Kon-El, Superboy.
I had a lot of things I wanted to get done this week. Pay my tuition, buy groceries, buy new pants . . . I did none of these things, however, because I live in Saskatchewan and it's January, and in January, in Saskatchewan, the weather is like a deadly, slippery, and, above all, cold assassin. There was freezing rain and snow and nasty winds and I have trouble walking from my apartment to the university without faling on my ass. It didn't exactly inspire me to walk all the way downtown to use my gift certificate and Buy the Pants.
I'm reading Lirael, but I haven't finished that, either. I only just finished the first book, and I'm on to Sameth's book. I'm liking Sameth more than Lirael so far. Possibly because I got very sick, very quickly, of Lirael's whining about she doesn't have the Siiiiiiiiiight and how she's different and no one understands her and oh, her life is so hard.
On the other hand, Sameth is playing cricket when he's first introduced and, well, it's impossible for me to read about cricket and not think about The Lives of Christopher Chant.
In an ideal world, Sameth would be laying the smack down on the undead with a cricket bat à la Shaun of the Dead. Unfortunately, I don't think Garth Nix is much of a humourous writer.
I accomplished one thing, basically, and I put the blame squarely on Ven, who read Young Justice and now Impulse, which reminded me that I told Meia if I had a paid account, I was totally going to make a Bart Allen mood theme. And so this week, that was what I did. I made a livejournal mood theme with pictures of Bart from Impulse and Young Justice (and Sins of Youth, and World Without Grownups, and Superboy . . .). Ven's ramblings didn't rekindle my fondness for Bart, because it hasn't really been given time to subside. I'm still likely to wax lyrical about how fond I am of Impulse at the drop of a hat, and I investigated the comic book store back in Prince Albert over the holidays solely in the hopes of finding the Impulse trade . . .
But I still haven't really fallen into the grasp of any other comic books. I look kind of curiously at the Ultimate Spiderman and flip through the issues my friends buy, when they're lying out, because the art's pretty, but that's it. I still haven't read any Green Arrow at all, or Green Lantern (and there are Green Lantern trades at the local library for reasons I'm still not sure of), even though various internet acquaintances seem quite fond of them. I haven't picked up any Nightwing, even though Meia, and Noel, and Whitney, and Lynn have all told me to, repeatedly. Almost on a weekly basis, in Noel's case.
I haven't even thought about checking out Teen Titans, except maybe for a bit of weakness when Noel said Jenni had shown up, because I'm still busy pretending that the Teen Titans stuff hasn't actually happened and they didn't really do that to Bart and my fingers are in my ears and I'm humming. Loudly.
And despite the fact that the thought has crossed my mind from time to time, I haven't delved further into The Flash than the arc which introduces Bart, and the Dead Heat trade. Because, well, Impulse hasn't exactly given me the warm fuzzies toward Wally West.
Mostly, I tend to think he's a dork. Or an ass. Or has a stick up his butt. Or needs a smack. Or . . .
Maybe I'm just lazy, or maybe I'm just really reluctant to explore the medium further because I'm not sure I want to. I really, really liked Impulse, and I enjoyed Young Justice by extension, but that's because I really like Bart. I mean, I liked the other characters in Young Justice but . . . I read it for Bart. I don't really have any recollection of what happened in the issues after he quit the team.
I liked reading Impulse because it wasn't what I expected from a superhero comic book. It was funny. -Bart- was funny. Characters reactions to Bart were funny. It was a silly, kind of innocent combination of superheroes and sitcomness that didn't take itself very seriously a lot of the time, so even though Bart's backstory involves this whole complicated time travel thing with Barry and Iris Allen, I didn't feel quite as out of the loop as I think I would have felt with other titles. There were so many really fun stories about mundane things, like Bart's various antics at school, from his introductory trying to write a biography for English class, to socializing, to sports and dances, and even odder things, like the little story where Bart was sick, or the issue that just dealt with Bart trying to fall asleep and the cracked out dreams that ensued. The stories like that made me like Bart so much more than words can describe. He was so clueless and innocent. Not stupid. He's obviously very, very smart, but the fish out of water setup means he just doesn't get a lot of what he encounters in the 20th century.
It's a setup that could make Bart a very annoying character, but he's so sweet and so well meaning, and he just wants to do well and live up to his Grandpa's legend and make people happy that instead of making him annoying, it makes him really loveable. Which was why, when there were crossovers and even more time travel, and horrible things happening that practically crush Bart under unhappiness and despair, I kept reading, and I let myself be emotionally manipulated instead of becoming annoyed with the absurdity of it all, or the angst.
I went through all the issues again over this week, and I still don't really like the regular penciller who comes in between Ramos and, uh, that guy who was doing the art at the end of the series, and I still really, really don't like the way the series ended, but . . .
I still really like the series. And mostly I like it for reasons I don't think other comic books will give me, even though I'm sure they have their own charms, and a lot of them certainly have lasted longer than Impulse did.
Figuring it's as good an excuse as any, Almighty Ingrid, Signing Off
Cookie power!
1/16/2005 11:57:14 PM
"Let's not bicker, gentlemen. Remember, you can't hug with medieval arms." - Garland, 8-bit Theater.
I went to a birthday party on Friday night. The birthday boy broke a pinata with his face. It was a magical evening.
Other than that, I've mostly had a quiet weekend, although I think next weekend's going to be one of those chokers - the need to start doing research and writing papers and things is starting to rear it's ugly head (but I've already planned out my next Shakespeare paper - I just need some kind of source to use as a prop for all my brilliance). The major thing I did? I made a new kind of cookie. They're birthday cookies, though, for another friend, and so I don't really get to appreciate them (and I used up the last of my flour and sugar baking them today, so he better fucking appreciate them).
I'm not good at buying gifts, and I don't have the money for it anyway. And I don't really have a lot of skills or talents, either, so I'm not one of those people who can give someone something cool that they made as a present. Except for cookies. I can bake damn good cookies. Uh. Usually.
I had to buy cookie paint brushes for the recipie - there was a glaze involved in everything, although I'm still rather lost as to why. All the glaze seemed to do was make my counter top really sticky. I'm also not really sure how to handle glazed cookies. Because they were cool and at the point where I would usually put them in a tin (or, in this case, an ice cream pail) but the tops were sticky from glaze . . . they still are sticky and kind of mushy. Maybe that just means they're really, really fresh.
I also had to buy sour cream - I was rather suspicious of the recipie when it called for that, but aside from being the reason the dough was so sticky, it doesn't seem to have any negative effect on the cookie taste whatsoever. They're very nice, not too sweet, kind of fluffy . . .
I think I accidentally made some kind of sugar glazed lemon biscuit.
Oops.
Here's hoping the go down well, anyway. That'll teach me to use a friend's birthday as an excuse for experimentation.
Hoping they'll look better in the morning, Almighty Ingrid, Signing Off
