X Never Marks the Spot

In no particular order:

* Have finally seen White Collar! Every bit as cute and OT3-y as everyone says, I quite love it. USA is so very good at providing just the kind of lightweight fun I particularly like in my TV. And it's slightly more serious than Psych, which I like because it allows for bits of h/c. And the one thing I really want to see, (Peter getting hurt!), the show might actually be giving us, if the previews for next ep and this spoiler pic are anything to go on. If there were a little more to the show I might be actively fanning; as it is I've read through most of what's on AO3 (my favorites are bookmarked)...if anyone has any recs not on AO3, for either gen (Peter/El) or OT3, set me up? (I am fine with seeing Peter as entirely straight. Even if Tim DeKay apparently is not! :P)

* Speaking of the AO3, we've officially broken 100,000 fics! (If you want to join the fun, the invitation queue isn't that long a wait, or else ask and I can see about hooking you up with an invite ^^)

* Also watched Sherlock, as it came out, while I was visiting gnine in London, no less, which was a trip, with all these places popping up onscreen that I'd just seen. Sadly I seem to have missed the fannish boat on this one. I mean, I liked a lot of it, thought the updating was very clever and it was well-shot and Benedict Cumberbatch most closely matches my mental image of Holmes among all the actors I've seen in the role (and he does a fabulous job with the part, too). But there were things I didn't like about it, and overall I prefer last year's movie adaption. And then, too, there's still not enough for me to fan on - I'm slow to win over; it tends to take at least a full season for me to really fall for a series. Hence me having few movie fandoms.

* Speaking of London, oh man, that was such a fantastic trip. Didn't do everything I'd have liked to, will have to go back, but it was marvelous and I love the city, it's thrilling and alive and old, it's got that sense of history, the presence of the millions of people who have walked its streets over the centuries, that the Japanese cities do and American cities don't, really (even Boston, much as I love Boston.) Also we made it to Wales, went to Cardiff and ran across the Ianto Shrine, which was very special and hysterical and I love fans, I really do.

* Speaking of other stuff, I am still not writing. It's driving me slowly insane, and then when I'm depressed I have more trouble writing, which makes me more depressed, and fuck vicious cycles anyway. Argh. There's fic I want to finish, and fic I want to write, and then there's original ideas I've been poking at, and something better congeal soon...

* ...Or I could blame the not-writing on my brother for giving me his PSP with Disgaea. It's one of his favorite games of all time and he's been wanting me to play it forever but it was still mean, as he knows how obsessive I get about games, and Disgaea feeds on the collect 'em all/keep leveling up completion instincts to cruel and unusual degrees.

* I ought to do a music post, I've been listening to a bunch of my old anime OSTs and am inclined to inflict awesome* BGM on people. Until then have a lovely cover of "Fireflies" (this kid's got a gorgeous voice!) Found through this highly entertaining musical face-off: Recorder vs Glockenspiel, fight!
   * X-parrot's definition of "awesome" may not concur with anyone else's on the planet.

* No new Ben 10 until October, siiiigh. Apparently they couldn't resist delaying the hour-long special ep until 10/10/10 :P

* Ow ow ow. Kitty is kneading her claws into my bare leg. She could just be being affectionate but she might be hungry (Anna only really loves me for my opposable thumbs) so I better go make sure she has food.

Regarding Xena (which we're watching now, my first time, minus a couple random mid-season eps way back when they first aired, and "Been There, Done That" which I've seen a dozen times because it is one of the funniest Groundhog's Day time-loop eps I know of), about halfway through s2, and, putting aside the delicious, delicious cheese and camp (honestly, I wish more TV was willing to sacrifice "quality" for the sake of sheer absurd fun):

( not really spoilery squee )

Then, regarding new New Who, ( Mildly spoilery through ep 5, rather critical and un-squeeful. Sorry! :( )

I got into a discussion elsewhere about female characters, how they're often not as well-written as the guys. But that gets to be a depressing topic. So rather than talk about how female characters lose out, here's some winning female characters!

10 fandoms' worth of awesome women:

( pics below! )

PS. Yuletide nominations are open! I'm gonna be signing up for the first time...should be fun!

So the Quest for more David McCallum has lead us from Sapphire & Steel (worth watching - check out this non-spoilery picspam for more details. Now I'm trying out the radio plays, even if they are sadly McCallum-less - David Warner does a bang-up job as Steel, though, and I do like his voice) to Colditz and the '70s Invisible Man TV show.

Colditz is a '70s BBC two-series show about a WWII POW camp, mostly adapted from a true story--The Great Escape with much less action and much more Serious Talking. It took a bit to get going but now we're quite enjoying it, though it is terribly British, dour muted atmosphere and upper-lips so stiff one could hammer nails with them. (DMc's own upper lip is adorned with a mustache (sigh) as hot-headed young Flight Lieutenant Carter; it cracks us up that as far as we can tell the char's meant to be about thirty, when he was forty at the time - he doesn't have trouble pulling it off.)

The Invisible Man is in attitude like the otherwise unrelated SciFi Channel show of the same name, mostly comedy-action, though not as clever; it's pretty much a bad show across the board, if generally innocuous. It did, however, surprise us in the first episode. So DMc is the main character, the scientist who turns himself invisible. In the pilot he's happily married to a fellow scientist, and they're obnoxiously adorable together, calling each other "Doctor Westin" and snuggling and such. Naturally we spent the whole episode waiting for her to die - which she failed to do; instead of becoming the woman in the refrigerator, the wife becomes his partner, and for the rest of the series they run around doing missions together and having lots of happy marital sex (at least twice an episode, I'd say - she's married to David McCallum, who can blame her?) It's ridiculously cute - why isn't there more scifi with adorable married couples? Mmm, I love me some established relationshipping...

January is almost up. Ever had that feeling that time itself is whizzing by you like the steepest street of San Francisco after your trolley car's brakes were cut? Yeah, it's been like that. It's not even that I've been busy, particularly, it's just that I constantly am feeling like I have no time for anything, that I'm losing hours no matter how tightly I try to hold onto them.

This hasn't stopped my TV watching, however. Random thoughts in no order (mostly spoiler-free, cut when not)

Burn Notice: The only reason I can't slash Michael/Sam is that Michael is so Fiona-sexual that it hurts. So, obviously - threesome! (maybe the two of them together can make Fi eat something. I love her but her shoulder blades freak me out.)

Starsky & Hutch: I've had most of it on DVD for a while but gnine hasn't seen a lot of it, so we're sampling. It's easy to forget just how smarm-y this show is, in the best of ways. I mean, yes, slashy obviously, but it's so, hmm, innocent about it, that it's really more smarm, the ideal fraternal love. Oh, the touching! So much touching of faces and gripping shoulders and hugging and stuff. (That being said, really, yes, SLASHY with a capital OMG-SO-DOING-IT. Also, I'm not usually into order, I don't tend to care or spend much time contemplating who's topping who, but Hutch is such a classic bitchy uke, making jealous faces in the background whenever laidback bi seme Starsky is shmoozing the ladies.)(And what was with the episode with their murdered cop friend who turned out to have been having a gay affair, and Starsky was tweaked and Hutch was very, hmm, circumspectly understanding about the whole deal...)

Soul Eater: naye is dragging me back into animanga, and I have to admit I missed it. Loving a shounen means never having to say you're sorry that your favorite character is not only named Professor Stein (first name Franken) but also has a GIANT BOLT THROUGH HIS HEAD. No, seriously, A GIANT BOLT. Oh, anime!

Scrubs: I'm enjoying the new season. ( Just a bit of spoilers, through the most recent ep )

The Sentinel: S&H made us reminisce, so we went and got a few eps to watch. SO slashy. I wasn't into slash then and I'm still amazed that I missed it (seeing as I wasn't into slash when I was in the fandom, does anyone happen to have any good Jim/Blair fic recs lying around? Preferably h/c-laden, you know me!)

SGA: My fic mojo slipped its leash and ran away. :( If you happen to see a big ol' ball of fluff with adorably geeky OTP ears and a few angst-spots, please call 555-TEAM.