Thisnthat

Jan. 21st, 2012 12:09 am
gwyn: (walken wonderland)
I owe many of you emails; I will respond, I promise, I've just been kind of hunkered down, trying to finish all the work that was giving me so much stress. I sent the last book off yesterday and spent the rest of the day screwing around. Wednesday was a month since Dad died, and it's starting to really feel bad; in the first few weeks, I didn't have time to feel the loss, but now it's really hitting me. It also doesn't help that Dad and I always checked in with each other when it snowed, and we've had major snow here in the Northwest, along with serious ice storm damage, and it was something we always talked about. I kept reaching for the phone, and I find myself doing that every day.

The service was really nice; thanks to everyone who provided me with music or ideas. I think it worked out really well. It was small and very few people said much, everyone was shy, I guess, but afterward we were there for a really long time talking to people. I saw some cousins I haven't seen in decades.

All I've really done, though, is start the balls rolling for all the paperwork and legal stuff, but with the somewhat paralyzing snow (I swear to god if I hear one more smug asshole transplant from some other part of the country go on about how stupid Seattleites are in snow I will cut a bitch; you cannot drive in half a foot of snow and ice up 16% grade hills and over frozen bridges, you dumbass hillbillies, and you should just go back where you came from) many people haven't been in offices. It feels like when he died -- the holidays then, with all the attendant excuses. It's just taking forever to get anything done. At least I finally got the death certificates so I could notify some people.

I'm glad that I'm finished with some of the work, so I can concentrate on other things. My house is a sty because of all the work not allowing me to clean, it's actually reached a (for me) gross stage. One of the nice things that happened was I had to get a new washer/dryer -- no, really, that was a good thing. When we did the remodel, they put in a utility closet room which they built to house my all in one unit, the little Euro combination washer/dryer in one.

I like them when I've used them in Europe, and I liked my friend's a lot, but the model I got, an Asko from Sweden, was one of the worst purchases I've ever made. At first it was plagued with problems from installation and bad information; then over time when it was settled, it just turned out to have so many problems, so many things going wrong, but I couldn't justify spending the money on something new and there were very, very limited options for what would fit in there. I was happy when it started really malfunctioning in the past year; well, not happy because it was burning my things in the drying cycle, but satisfied that I would have an excuse to get something new. I settled on the Bosch Axxis washer and condensing dryer (because they didn't put in a dryer duct when they put in the utility room), and they installed it ten days ago and all I want to do is laundry. I love it so, so much! It has changed my life. I can now put in heavy things without having to sit by the machine the whole hour or so to make sure it doesn't leap across the room! I don't have to worry that it's going to catch on fire! And I got the stacking kit that has a pullout shelf, so I can sort the things I want to line dry before I put something in the dryer.

The convenience of the all in one was lost on me, because I realized that as much as I often leave clothes in the washer till they mold, if I just stay on top of that more, it's better for me because I line dry most clothing, and only use the dryer for a few things. I'll save on everything, which means a lot to me. I'm always amazed at people who go to great lengths to live green, and will spend a lot of money to buy things that are ecological, but they won't update their appliances. Next up is a more efficient fridge, so I'm going to start saving for that.

So yeah, that's how sad my life is. I'm excited by a washer and dryer. There is seriously nothing else going on. Well, except Festivids. I'm really looking forward to the vids tomorrow. I'm especially hopeful for Southland and Justified vids -- with the series starting up this past week, I'm just more into them than ever and I really want to see some vids for them! Also, WHY is everything on AT THE SAME FRIGGIN' TIME? Justified, Southland, White Collar, and Tabatha Takes Over (which, with the new title, I almost missed because it wasn't on my season pass) are all on at the same time. My season passes are all fucked up and apparently the DirecTV tifaux doesn't know how to grab the second airing on cable shows, because they were all fucked up and weren't going to record Tabatha at all. I just don't get it. It used to be Thursdays, now apparently it's Tuesday night. I felt sad, too, because I dropped White Collar down on my priority list; I thought the new season started out with a whimper. There were some good moments, but it just fell flat, especially at the end. The bloom is off the rose, unfortunately, because of the plunder storyline, and I just want to punch Mozzie in the face instead of hug him, and don't care anymore. Bleh. Why did they do that? I hate them for making the show less appealing to me.

I spent a really nice day with Sandy's partner B last Saturday and we went to the eco home design place, and poked around at an antique mall. Man, I'm just missing Sandy so much. We have a Cannibals bash tomorrow, and they just feel so surreal to me now, without her there. B feels her presence, has visitation dreams and the like, and I never have had that with my sister or either of my parents, but I told her to please tell Snady to come visit me. I want to talk to her again, hear her hysterical laugh. The last email she sent me was about a story that she told me about in great shame; I told her to send me the link and she wrote in the subject line, "This is it: the most embarrassing fusion ever," and then the link, with the comment "I have to admit I adored it, but I don't think that speaks well of me..." I keep reading the email, but I don't want to read the story, because then it will be over and I won't have her to respond back to.

Augh. Nevermind me. I'm just a sad old worn out thing.

bleh

Jun. 8th, 2011 09:23 am
gwyn: (kirk iconziconz)
Well, shit. I just had to turn down work on a "hot cowboy romance." I'm so behind on planning my proofreading class that is exactly on the same timeframe (I would have had to start today) and I have a magazine proof, it's just not doable. I was tempted anyway, but finally my logical brain won out.

Anyway. I have been thinking about White Collar since the second season finale last... whenever it was. And I was all "My show's back!" this past week. But I kind of forgot that I was unhappy at the end till the beginning last night.

I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. )
gwyn: (white collar hearts)
Season finales of both Southland and White Collar tonight at the same time -- do not want! Even though I'm still mighty pissed at Southland for letting go of my beloved Kevin Alejandro (Nate Moretta) and then just practically ignoring his character's memory (outside of Sammy and Nate's wife, we pretty much never hear anything about him again at the precincts), it's still a favorite show and my weeks will definitely be a lot emptier than they have the past couple months.

Thank god for Justified and Fringe, although with Fringe, I'm in fear because it's on the bubble and I don't have a lot of faith in Fox and their treatment of the show. Since I have no social life to speak of, dammit, I need my stories!

While I haven't been completely thrilled with the last half of this White Collar season, they really got it back last week, and I've watched last week's ep now about... eight times? What. Like you haven't as well. And while I dislike Alex intensely, I'm interested to see where the story's going (and if my expectation that Kate is alive comes true).

Whiplashed

Jan. 19th, 2011 11:33 am
gwyn: (peter g-man)
Note to self: Now that White Collar and Southland are on again and at the same time, DO NOT WATCH them back to back. It will only make WC look more ridiculous when watched against the superb gritty realism of Southland.

Two great tastes that aren't actually great together )

Awesome, awesome TV. Just don't watch them close together.
gwyn: (mack daddy)
OMG, Max Martini was in tonight's White Collar! For the... two other people I know who love him, watch eeeet! Of course, he's spoilery spoiler and more WC discussion )
gwyn: (white collar hearts)
So, you know how I was saying that I have major issues with the whole Kate storyline in White Collar? (OK, most of you probably don't, but I have been grousing about this since the beginning.) One of my biggest issues is that the actress looks like she's about 15, so this long and storied romance Neal talks about has some holes in it.

Well, the new movie Percy Somethingorother and the Olympians is proof that she is, since she's playing a teenager in it. When I started seeing ads for it appear everywhere I was like "Vindication! She's 15!"

The actress is about 24 but it looks like she does play a lot of much younger women. If she's playing her real age in the series, she would have been a mere 20 when Neal went to prison, and it sounds like they were together for a long time before that. So, let's hope that she's playing older this time. I'd prefer not to think of Neal as a young twentysomething boffing a teenage girl.

(ETA: It's not the boffing a teenager thing that bothers me -- I was a teenage girl boffing a young twentysomething guy at one point in my life, so this statutory thing is kind of meaningless to me. It's just that I think it's not really very Nealish to be a young swinging con man having a relationship with a teenager like that. It seems rather far-fetched.)
gwyn: (boyfriend)
After White Collar was over, I kept the TV on USA to watch Psych, which I haven't watched since it started. Shawn unfortunately hits my squick buttons in a big way. But I was charmed by Gus wearing cowboy PJs.

I was rewarded with one of the best fans-as-characters-of-shows dialogs ever. Shawn has been kidnapped and shot by bad guys and is currently trapped in the bed of a speeding truck as Gus and the chick detective, and his dad and whassname, try to rescue him. When Gus and Chick come up next to him in their little car, he makes like he's going to jump, and he yells to Gus, "You're just like Vin Diesel!"

Gus yells back, "If I'm Vin Diesel, that makes [chick detective] Michelle Rodriguez and you Paul Walker!"

Shawn: "I really don't want to be Paul Walker. Even for one day."

Gus: "Then you can be Lucas Black from Tokyo Drift! Only we wouldn't be in the movie with you."

Shawn: "That's so weird. OK, I'll be Paul Walker."

AH HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Most of the moments in WC tonight I loved, but a lot of it hit my squick buttons. Still, I have a one word review: JUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNE. (and also, she loves the bad boys!!)
gwyn: (fiona fights like girl)
Why don't I have one yet? I do not know.

So, a little fact-check about Peter Burke and his money. We discussed this over the weekend at a bash, and I see this come up a lot on my friends list, so I feel the need to be fact-o-girl, as usual. My friends were of the belief that Elizabeth had to come from a little bit of money in order to be able to afford their house in NYC. I didn't necessarily believe that, because Peter's salary is better than they think -- a Fed gets paid a lot more than a regular cop, and I think they were equating Feds with underpaid police officers. I also didn't believe they lived in Manhattan proper.

For a just-starting-out GS-10, they're looking at a base salary of around $51,000. For a guy who's well above that with the experience Peter has, and who's running a white collar unit himself, in NYC, he's looking at well over $101K, and more probably at least $147K. I'd estimate that since he's still in the field, he's possibly a GS-14, because GS-13 is the higher end of field, non-supervisory roles, and he's clearly supervising at least a small team with Jones and Cruz, although that seems to be *very* fuzzy on the details.

This was confirmed in a piece in TV Guide this week by Jeff Eastin about where they live, who said, "Considering the salary he'd have -- around $150,000 a year --and the kind of guy he is, we thought a borough was more suited to him. I think he likes to stretch out his legs at the end of the day."

Eastin said the location of the Burke household is in a Federal style row house in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, which is kind of what I expected with my (admittedly limited) knowledge of NY area nabes, based on what my co-workers used to talk about. He said the locale hasn't been identified to viewers yet, but may come up in future episodes. And when you throw in what El would make as an event planner with the types of high-end clients it sounds like she deals with, you're looking at a fairly decent household income.

They then went on to discuss why Neal's anklet doesn't go off every time he's at their perfectly decorated crib, since there's an 8-mile difference. Eastin explained, "When it's during the workday and he's accounted for, he's allowed to go outside of the radius without getting into trouble... but we might stretch reality just a bit."

Feel free to link to this post if you want to -- checked facts make fact-checking editor girl very happy indeed.
gwyn: (yuletide newbie liviapenn)
OK, first things first: I was wrong, but most importantly, YOU were right. It's true that pinch-hits don't mean Christmas blues. I got not one, but FOUR freaking stories, and apparently there are more Madness stories still to come. I'M NOT WORTHY. And it sounds like possibly the person who defaulted still put the story up, and it sounds like something terrible happened (so of course now don't I feel like a shitheel). And they are all great.

My pressies, let me show you them!!!

So, I get these two wonderful Christmas cakes of Buckaroo Banzai.
Saddle Up is a wonderful post-movie depiction of Buckaroo's intentions of bringing Rawhide back to life. And just about anyone at the Institute in the movie makes an appearance, and there's this wonderful little pun of Johns who come to help.
and then
The Adventures of Rawhide: Navigating An End and a Beginning (With Bloody Feet) is a look at the post-Peggy Buckaroo, with glimpses back to how Rawhide met him and some adorable case-file names and nemeses. It's beautifully written and I'm thrilled.

And more cake! MORE CAKE, PEOPLE! White Collar cake, to be precise.
The Great God-Daughter Caper has Neal and Peter chasing around looking for Peter's missing 16-year-old god-daughter and being Neal and Peter together. Aaaaaaahhhh.

So there's the cake and then I get this SURPRISE FROSTING. My little fandom that there are hardly any others who have even seen it, the fandom where I was the only one who mentioned it this year (last year I bullied someone else into offering it, but this year it was just my lone request, no offers), MDs, and someone wrote me a Bruce/Robert story with smut! I AM SO HAPPY. Happy happy frosting. It's called What's Worth Keeping and you know what? THIS STORY is worth keeping!

And then there was a cherry! A little Chuck ficlet called Reverse Surveillance where Chuck might just turn the tables on Casey watching him all the time. EEEEEEEE. Chuck and Casey.

I am going to be sitting on that horrible plane and in the horrible airports just thinking about these stories and being happy, so watch out air travel, you can't get me down now! I dare you! I HAZ BUCKAROO, WHITE COLLAR, MDs, AND CHUCK STORIEZ!
gwyn: (yuletide newbie liviapenn)
Sorry for the lengthy delay, my dear Yuletide writer. Busy weekend!

In general, I will just be very happy to have a story to wake up to on the high holy day of the Winter Shopping Festival. It will be wonderful to see that someone else cares about my fandoms, too. I hope that you will write what you enjoy, and my details in the Yuletide signup are pretty much my main points of interest or concern. Everything else here is just the gravy -- makes something taste better and has lots of yummy fat, but it's not necessary to the enjoyment of the main items. I can be pretty sure you're not here for my fandom of one, MDs, so I won't spend too much time on that one.

Details about my fandom requests )
gwyn: (goofy michael westen littlespank)
Is there anything better than watching a new fandom spread out across your flist and hearing people pile on the love for someone you already love? I think not! I may have already watched the White Collar pilot four times now. Some of them were by accident! And I think it's still on the tifaux. Um. Don't judge me! It works for me way better in the caper department than some other things and so I think this one may become a true fandom. Though I have to wait to see -- I loved the Leverage pilot but it's been downhill ever since.

In the meantime, I enjoy the Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay love. When I first heard they were in a series together I about peed my pants. It's so rare that two guys I love that much get to be together headlining a show, and especially a journeyman actor like DeKay getting a show of his own... it made me deliriously happy. Over the weekend I think I told at least six different people where they'd seen him before, because they couldn't place him (or Matt, for that matter).

I know that before its demise this year in the subprime fiasco, Washington Mutual Bank, headquartered here in Seattle, was in a lot of different states, but I don't know how far and wide their commercials made it out. This one from a few years ago has always stuck with me, because it's a) HIGHlarious and b) has Tim DeKay, Jane Lynch (who people are discovering lately on Glee), and the actress who played Sukie on Gilmore Girls in it. I was so surprised, because all of them were working regularly at the time and it was so unusual to see them in an ad. And together! So new and old Tim fans, here's a crummy YouTube video of the ad.

gwyn: (goofy michael westen littlespank)
OMG, you guys, I totally <3 White Collar! But then I kinda knew I would. Anyone who's watched Chuck knows how H-O-T-T hot Matt Bomer is, and I adore Tim DeKay (especially because he will always be Dean from Big Eden to me). Loved the Rat Pack look on Neal, loved that for once an FBI agent is smart and literate and competent instead of stupid in comparison to the criminal, loved that there seems to be a nicely rounded cast backing them up (especially the "Um, she would wear the hat"). And how awesome is it to see Diahann Carroll on TV again? She is so, so wonderful.

I have only one bone to pick, and that's the reference to Neal being in supermax. That is so very not a supermax facility he was in, and a criminal like Neal would not even be in a supermax prison, anyway. He probably wouldn't even be a max security facility, but let's just say he was. At least the wife gets it right, I don't know where the supermax thing came from. There aren't even that many supermax prisons out there, anyway, and they're sure not filled with white collar criminals.

This will fill in nicely for my happy-making Burn Notice hiatuses. It's very much a USA type show right now, but they've found a winning formula for the channel and this is an excellent addition.

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