Beta appreciation

So, I hear today is beta appreciation day (round here, where I'm from, we still call it editing, but what the hell, go with the flow).

Then I will give a shout-out to mlyn, sweet_ali, movies_michelle, and sherrold for their help on the stories/WIP parts I've eked out this year. Soon I will have a Mag 7 story done, so I will give a pre-shout-out to feochadn who always gives me a cowgirl's eye on those.

ETA: Why do I always only think about fic when it comes to this? I should also thank killabeez and feochadn again for the betaing of vids! 'Cause they did, and it helped!

Muchas gracias, all.

All this wasted time!

How did I not know that Reilly: Ace of Spies was on DVD in this country? How did this escape me? If any of my friends knew this and did not tell me, you are dead to me, do you hear? Dead! It popped up on Netflix suggestions and I nearly fell off my chair that it was around.

If you've never seen Reilly, you are missing some seriously good TV. This was one of the first British television productions that actually looked as gorgeous and rich as a movie -- no filming on videotape or crappy 16 mil stock here, no sir. Stunning soundtrack, too, and the sexiest performance evah by Sam Neill as Sidney Reilly, the early-20th century uberspy who nearly took over Russia at one point, and on whom Ian Fleming is said to have modeled James Bond. It's sumptuous and haunting and thrilling and actiony and intellectual and romantic all at the same time, and is also unique in terms of many historical dramas about characters like this: it's very accurate. It has politics and guns and intrigue and incest and torture and all kinds of good stuff! Everything about it is the best of the best -- the writing, acting, set design, direction, costuming, you name it.

I so added this to my Deep Discount DVD and Amazon wishlists, fast as my fingers would carry me. Normaly I'd buy it because -- all that wasted time! But it's that time of the year so I have to practice restraint. I can be restrained. See me being restrained and not getting out the credit card.