UNDER THLAYLI'S THRALL

I shouldn't be blogging. I should reading Order of the Pheonix which I did get and squealed over when the bookstore clerk put it in my hand, but my older sister asked me to watch "Sense and Sensibility" with her and Mumsy. That movie was a delight. I'm surprised at how much I love it. It reminded me a lot of "House of Mirth", except I didn't like "House of Mirth". I loved the story and the commentary which was an excellent chance to create something that would make the audience reflect and feel and wish things weren't so bloody unfair, but I didn't care for Gillian Anderson's character, as much as I love Gillian Anderson, and I felt the acting of everyone involved to be wooden and uninspiring, except for the wonderful Laura Linney. It didn't exactly ruin the film for me, but made it static and devoid of any energy or any reason to care.

At first I was afraid "Sense and Sensibility" would be the same thing, since it lacked the music, the festive cheerfulness that other Austen movies like "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma" had. It was very subtle, and much moodier, but it totally moved me. I was surprised at how touched I was, how involved I got into the characters that normally would be too reserved and wooden for my taste. Emma Thompson did an outstanding job. I was expecting Beatrice (the role that I first fell in love with her in), or another rendition of Elizabeth Bennet (who I adore), but I welcomed a chance to see her in a more restained, complex role. Even with the stiff-neckness and restraint, her emotions and love and heartache were clear, understated, but very real, and I have never wanted happiness for anyone so much since Meg in "Hercules." I actually cried for her at the end, I was so relieved. I can't begin to tell you how much I love this character.

Kate Winslet deserved her Oscar nomination. She played Marianne with great maturity and believability. You felt that this was a girl who went through a great heartache, and would never be the same again. She and Thompson played off each other so well. I would to see the two of them together again in a movie. And the younger sister was adorable, neither bratty or cute. The actor who played Willaby did a great job as well, coming off as neither slimy or unlikable, just a man who got himself into a bad situation. His regret is obvious. The layers and character developement is sublime.

And Alan Rickman, oh Alan Rickman, Alan freaking Rickman... *swoon* Like Thompson, he had a very controlled role, but you could see him falling in love, see his regret, his hope that things will work, his genorosity and his sincerity. I want to marry this man. I was so happy for him at the end. Hell, I was happy for everyone, but no jumping up and down and squealing. Just me smiling and thinking and reflecting and being content and close to tears.

I never thought such a subtle, quiet, what I would considered slow (I'm a John Woo girl of the thousand bullets and car chases and heads exploding - with romance of course) movie could be this moving, or this funny, or this delightful to watch. I'm just so happy I had a chance to see it.

Lika frolicked in the snow at Monday, June 23, 2003, 09:44 p.m.

To the adorable blonde who proved not only that going first didn't have to mean you were going home but have the fastest time, and who moved six electric eel in thirteen seconds, no screams or hesitation throughout, even if you didn't win the last challenge, you're still my hero.

Jeannie, we may have to postpone Drunken Kareoke Night. Grr. Stupid brother. It was agreed that he'd stay over my mom's house while you guys stayed over my/his place, but that depends on what mood he's in on Saturday. When he's nice, he's the most wonderful guy in the world and would even buy pizza for us at 2AM in the morning. When he's in a bad mood, he's a bully who won't let people stay over his place unless they go to church with him the next day. He was in a relatively amiable mood from December to May, but recently, he's been moodswinging worse than most women on PMS. Actually, it's my experience that guys are a LOT more moodswingy than girls are. My sister was the logical, calm, and calculating one in all her relationships. I hope he's a good mood, though, because I was really looking forward to this. And it was great seeing you again on Saturday.

Satsuki-chan, I'm going to trust you and buy the book on my way home today. Whew, what a relief! I guess my second question is, since Snape is alive and well, does he get any UST scenes with Sirius? ;) Unless she killed off Sirius, that wrench >_< She wouldn't! SHE WOULDN'T! Oh crap. Well, I'm going to read it anyhows, and hope for some sweet scenes between my boys.

Talk to you all after I finish the book.

Lika frolicked in the snow at Monday, June 23, 2003, 12:36 p.m.

*SNEEZES*

Stupid hayfever. I feel like shit.

Lika frolicked in the snow at Saturday, June 21, 2003, 12:24 p.m.

This rice pudding is fucking unbelievable. Yes, the expletive is necessary. I could live off this stuff.

Anyhows, black, strappy, high-heeled pair of girly shoes on sale for $6.99, marked down from $49.99. Problem: I trip wearing running shoes >_< But the shoes are so pretty and go so well with short skirts and jeans. Besides, if I break my ankle, there's OHIP ;)

Satsuki-chan: That's why I haven't pre-ordered Order of the Pheonix and will not buy it tomorrow. I'll wait for either Jeannie or Linh or Sue to read it first and tell me if Snape makes it and comes out in one piece. If he loses so much as a finger, I'm not reading it. The trauma of seeing him mained or killed will too much *whimpers* Rowling, be good to our boy T_T And Remus for Satsy.

Jeannie: $200!!!!?? Is the government on crack? Okay, fine, don't answer the question, we all know the answer. You'd think I'd learn by now to live with their stupidity. I better warn my cousin before he buys a plane ticket to Ottawa to spread the love and SARS here on Canada Day. I'm sure we'll figure something out. And here's hoping there's lots of extras and interviews and pretty pictures of Harrison Ford on the Indiana Jones DVDs :)

Ammie: Sounds like you want a Jonathan/Andrew sandwich with you in the middle ;) I'll see what I can do. Yes, they are cute, particularly when they argue about the Klingon language not long after their comrade died a gruesome and cruel death. And how we love the gruesome and cruel. "Lloyd has a sketch of it on his wall." *SNERK* It's so nice to see geeks who are geeks. It used to drive me nuts when they'd get a pretty girl to play a geek, and it's so obvious she's gorgeous and all she has to do is take off her glasses and put her hair down. A real geek would never shake off their awkwardness that easily.
-->Actually, it was Warren's geekiness that made his evilness all the more frightening. A smooth, cool killer is expected, but a very human, awkward, noncool boy who goes all wide-eyed over free cable porn is creepy to imagine as a killer. I can't explain why.
-->I'll catch "Storyteller" when it re-airs on the SPACE channel in a few months *sheds tears* But it's something to look forward too :) And "Bandcandy" was a riot! You couldn't leave Joyce and Old Ripper there alone for two seconds. HANDCUFFS! *giggles*
-->Regarding the Hinoto thing that I am *shuddering* starting to think less disgustingly of (find it appealing? I!? Methinkest Not!), what would happen if you got yourself pregnant and yourself had a child? What would your and yourself's child be like? Or if yourself went into your dreamscape's and further went into your conscioueness, how would yourself see the world through you? CLAMP needs to do a "Being Hinoto-Hime" ala "Being John Malchovich". It's very Bad!Hinoto-Good!Hinoto, particularly the puppet theme.
-->And GLOMPS! back at you, Babe *Huggles* You'd totally be up there on my list to take to a deserted island as well You're irreplacable, Ammie-Love *Huggles some more*

Lika frolicked in the snow at Friday, June 20, 2003, 12:26 p.m.

YOU'LL NEVER SHUT DOWN THE REAL NAPSTER.

No, they never will, and I'm going to marry that sucker, if it's the last thing I do. Either that or lick him all over like a lollypop :D And Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron as well. Brainless, purely-for-entertainment-and-fun kicked ass and put Lalonde and me in a happy place, especially for that price of admission. I love Rideau Center. May you $6.50 all your Friday nights for many years to come. Woo!

Hey, what are the chances of them bringing back reruns of MacGyver? 'Cuz I'll watch everyone of those episodes if they do. Richard Dean Anderson, oh baby.

Side Note: I'm viciously jealous. How did he lose so much weight by doing nothing and eating everything? Happy 25th anyways, you old lazy good-for-nothing you.

Lika frolicked in the snow at Sunday, June 15, 2003, 10:10 p.m.

The building where I work just had a firedrill, which is always fun unless you're at school during gym class in the bitter February Canadian winter. Speaking of Canadian winters, since I barely blogged this winter, I have to let the non-Ottawans know that the winter of '02-'03 was FREAKING FREEZING! Our pipes froze twice which lead to them bursting and flooding the basement, and our bills were over the roof. And yes, I slept with about five blankets and I still hardly slept due to overshivering. It would take a full ten minutes after getting indoor to feel my limbs again, and I had to wait until May to finally get the feeling back in my toes. The sky was always white, which is a phenenomen that I never get over. I love white skies. They're beautiful things.

It was a glorious winter. It was the winter I remembered in my childhood, before it all warm and mushy and the temperature stopped going below -25C. Nothing warms the cockles of my heart than seeing temperature that dips down to 40C. May the true Canadian winters return for many more years, but please leave after March. As much as I love the crystal air and the biting cold and the white, white skies, I want my sun and noise and bright colors and blue skies. Especially since post March is firedrill season. I don't want to be caught outside without my coat in our Canadian winters >_<

Don't listen to what Heather says, she wrote some great fics (A Day in a Life of a Well-Fed Man is classic, and High was one of those decent Diana Fowley fics), and she's a terrific beta reader. I think it's so cool that she has the Homicide: Life on the Street DVD set. That was a kickass show. Meldrake Lewis was my favorite of the bunch and I love his stuffed giraffe, and Kay Howard was one of the strongest, most well-developed female characters on TV. "Last of the Waterman" is one of my favorite episode of TV ever. Oh, my cousin got a DVD player on his computer, so I can finally watch Moulin Rogue and start collecting DVD boxsets. Midboggling credit debt here I come.

Lika frolicked in the snow at Thursday, June 12, 2003, 10:19 a.m.

Speaking of which, I am learning how to knit :D

OH ANDREW! I love Andrew! He was my favorite for S7. And of course I miss that episode whichI'mReallyMadAbout *fumes* It involved videocameras and storytelling, right? Wait, don't answer. I'll cry if you say "right" and I missed it. As for the "Oh Jonathan," the actor who plays him is going to be at the Comicon in Toronto *bounces* Do you want a personalized message? I must see about getting that swimsuit calender. I am SO excited about Toronto! As for the reason why Hinoto keeps herself young, one of us is going to have to stop before this couple (is you and yourself considered a couple?) passes S/S in disturbingness, though part of me thinks we crossed that line a LONG time ago ;D

SQUEALS! Linh, you darling, thank-you so much for those Bobby scans!! I love his carrot nose and pole-dancing and his general smart-aleck-but-not-rude comments. I read Children of the Atom and he was so adorable all cold and shivering. And him looking all Peter Parkerish in that Ultimate X-Men comic we got during X2 when he froze the sentinel was too cute. The world Needs. More. Bobby! And Cyclops. Of the SpecialPin-UpPage!Variety *giggles*

Malice, you know I love your opinions too :D If you weren't having six kids with Jenni and I wasn't trying to marry three people at the same time, we could just sit under a tree together and love each other opinions for the rest of eternity. Thanks for the link to the Mash Game. Alison must really love Singapore because no matter what number I use, we always end up in Singapore. Ammie and I are all over Ottawa, Christchurch, Singapore, Munster, and the Anarctic but Satsy has to come to ottawa for us to work out :) Bigwig, unfortunately, I will never get *shed tears* and I have to go to Anarctica to find that mysterious redhead O.o

Lika frolicked in the snow at Wednesday, June 11, 2003, 09:08 p.m.

Hugs Malice. Yeah, that's exactly what I meant. I can't separate writing fanfic from fanfic sociologies; haven't been able to after walking into atxc almost seven years ago when I realized people would do anything to make a name for themselves in the community and that there were people who couldn't write jack but had "big names" because they wax superficial poetry that sounded deep, or they put down other people's work so much that one figured their work must be good. But the good totally outweighed the bad, and I had a blast and met some awesome people (*waves to Heather*), particularly during that slashfest of 1997 :D In the last couple of years, though, the politics have been overshadowing the fics, and I'm introduced to more people through their sites of "criticism" than through feedback or beta reading.

You were so right when you said it was all about image, and frankly, I'd rather be knitting at age 40 than trying to perfect a image based on fanfic.

Lika frolicked in the snow at Wednesday, June 11, 2003, 08:19 p.m.

Maria: I hope you realize I wasn't talking about you. You know I love reading your fics and I hope you write them until you're ninety :) Your fics rock! Sorry if it came off as a slam to you. You know I don't mean it that way. I'm just really tired of people going postal because someone said the fic said Bob was a jerk when they should have shown Bob was a jerk, or getting disgruntled because the fic that beat theirs in a contest had misplaced one "their" for "there" and just general fanfic politics in general. I think from now on, I'm just going to read fics and stay the hell away from the fanfic discussions. Have fun at the wedding, Maria :) Bring back pictures.

Lika frolicked in the snow at Tuesday, June 10, 2003, 09:55 a.m.

I am an irresponsible, selfish, lazy bitch. I hope I can fix this in the one day I got >_< I ought to be taken out and shot. I've got to stop doing this, I really really have to. This is twice in one week.

Sue *hugs* So sorry about your cat. I wish I could take it, but our family has a history of pets dying soon after we buy them. Good luck with the vet.

Jeannie, I talked to my aunt and my cousin can pick us up from the airport. They live really near there, and he can drive us to the convention, since he's going too (bow to my art of persuasion). My aunt says we can crash in her basement too, which is practically an apartment in itself and would be much cheaper than a hotel.

Obligary Fanfic Rant: If I'm still writing fanfic or bitching about people who write it and mistaken their "vile" for "vials" when I'm 40, for goodness sake please take me out and eviscerate me. Yeah, I like well-written, original fic, but I'm not going to twist my panties in a wad because someone missed an apostrophe or said a guy was a jerk instead of "showing that he was a jerk." Comment on their characterization, on their MarySueness, on their cliches, but for Frith's sake leave the spelling and grammar and nitpicky technical detail of writing out. I like people who goes into pages of describing the food the character ate. The section I read the most in Anne of Green Gables was the description of the food Marilla and Anne made for Mr. and Mrs. Allan when they dropped in for dinner. I'm a glutton. Food descriptions make me happy, so to all you anal uptight retards who tells writers to say the characters ate breakfast instead of giving me the pleasure of imagine fluffy Belgium Waffles with Strawberries and Whipped Cream, FUCK YOU!

Man, I hope I'm not writing fanfic when I'm 25. I don't think I'm in any danger of turning into one of those people are 40 years, still writing overrated, pretentious fanfics based on their lives or the lives of people they know and putting up essays on what they contribute to the fandom and the deep meaning that can be found in their fics and telling people when they have a new dustjacket or fanart-based-on-their-fic up or how they're doing in a fanfic contest, but the idea of putting any effort into characters and universes that someone else create and not getting paid for it when I could be out collecting money for the blind strikes me as being very stupid.

Lika frolicked in the snow at Monday, June 9, 2003, 08:22 p.m.

Saturday rocked! I saw Sarah and Heather was with her (HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER!!). whom I haven't seen in almost four years. I had a great time. The sun was shining, downtown Toronto was pretty and active despite smog and SARS, the finger puppets were adorable, Silver Snail was kickass huge with more toys than I dared hope for, the Buffy/Angel/movies/anime/TorontoGuide/SARS/English sheeps discussion was fun and All Is Fine With The World ^__^ I'm going down to Toronto again on August for the convention and I hope I get a chance to see you two again. And if you ever come down to Ottawa and need a place to stay, let me know :)

Lika frolicked in the snow at Monday, June 9, 2003, 12:37 p.m.

Currently sitting at an internet cafe at Chapters in Toronto waiting for Sarah. Downtown Toronto is awesome! Jeannie, I am SO coming for that convention. I guess the zoo would be fun, but hey, if it's Toronto, it'll be cool.

I am so having so fun right now. My younger sister and I arrived late last night and my Good Brother picked us up and we went to his place. For a basement, his place is gorgeous. I would love to live in a place like that. We watched The Guru last night (not my choice - I wanted to see The Hot Chick) and it didn't sucked totally badly, but it did sucked and confirmed my belief that all romantic comedies are evil. That wasn't the fun thing. I was regretting my trip to Toronto, but things looked up this morning with an awesome meal at a Japanese restaurant. I always thought Japanese food was raw fish and ew, but it was absolutely delicious. and CHEAP! Shit, the places here are cheap and the food is good, not some fast food Mr. Edo crap. Jeannie, Linh, Sue, Audrey, etc. we so totally have to eat out when we get here.

Then we went swimming (also cheap) which was a lot of fun, especially since my brother got me prescription goggles. Pencil diving is fun when you have goggles. Bubbles! And now I'm just waiting for Sarah and Heather to get here and I'm going to commit a little adultery by going to Silver Snail (but the Comic Book Shoppe is still the *BEST* comic place ever.)

This is probably the best trip I took to Toronto... mainly because it doesn't suck like my other trips. But don't get me wrong. I still like Ottawa tons better. But I'm not against going to Toronto for visit and travel as I was before :)

Lika frolicked in the snow at Saturday, June 7, 2003, 02:59 p.m.

I'm leaving for SARS city to spend a weekend with my brother and see Sarah (YAY!) after work today, so I'll catch up on social blogging, emails and MB-ing when I get back - I know, famous words - but seriously, I want to answer the latest spats of posts on the Sakura Board. Ammie, I guess by now you have discovered the truth behind my dislike for Hinoto is that she let him die a virgin OH THE CRUELTY OF IT ALL! Expect more Hinoto-bashing when I return.

Just my luck, Satsuki-chan catches Remus' name before I switch it to Snape's TruLuv. You must have been doing some brainwashing/mindcontrol thing at the time. That's my only explanation :P BTW, have you seen the BAMF doll yet? :)

Again, my apologies to Remy/Rogue fans out there. Just as Linh said, it isn't a cave, it's a LOVE GROTTO. And yes, "First Do No Harm" made me all sniffy too. Must get more Bobby *swoon* Jeannie, totally love that fic! It's so cool seeing Jean as her own woman and some very candid perceptions on Xavier's "dream." And drunkness was pathetic, but oh so cute in "New X-Men." I love Logan :D

Malice, should I congratulate you on getting into Design School?

Okay, gotta run and pig out on rice pudding. See you all next week.

Lika frolicked in the snow at Friday, June 6, 2003, 12:03 p.m.