Which means I'm going to be ashamed of everything I didn't do this week. And even more ashamed of how much fan-fiction I read... Oh. I do a weekly Tumblr post that is just a list of fan-fiction I read. We're not going to talk about that here...
Wrote
Not much. Got some ideas for some fics written down.
Doing research for some of my original stuff right now. And hopefully I can continue the research and actually get the knowledge I need so I can get back to actually writing something.
Read
A lot of fan-fiction. I fell into a Jango Fett/Obi-Wan Kenobi hole and refused to dig myself out for three days.
Also changed up the Spooky/Thriller/Mystery book I was reading. Was not enjoying the one I was reading so I swapped it for Interview With the Vampire.
I also spent two days arguing with the Kindle app on my tablet cause when I went to read some of The Stand it was all "I'm silly and forgot this thing existed so you have to download it again". And then, for whatever reason, it took me two nights to actually get it downloaded again. For reasons that are actually my fault... But yeah. Getting back to that one tonight.
Watched
Percy Jackson & the Olympians - Just the first three episodes cause that's all they let me have right now. Oh. My. Gods. It is great.
They are beautiful, Isabelle. You did a great job.
Yay!
I... I can't remember what he sent me. There was a present... I wanna say it was an orange. Which I was happy to receive. We need oranges on Hades.
What the fuck, Rudy?
Let me love you, Sable.
A recipe for what now?
Jail bars... Okay.
Label!
Label gave me new shoes! I love them.
Thanks to me rewatching Luke Westaway's Animal Crossing videos I learned about this bug. Did not know there were bugs I had to dig for.
I put a manhole cover next to Rudy's house. Rudy lives next to a sewer. I don't regret this. I want a better cat villager. Me and the athletic ones never mesh well.
I bought a puppy plush. It is adorable. I should name it...
Wait. Did I make another perfect Snowboy? What is going on?!
This is weird. I think last time I made one perfect Snowboy all winter.
Woo! Second complete fossil!
It is beautiful. 😍
I made a shell bed and was going to customize it. I couldn't decide which color to go with, so I asked my kiddo for their advice. They asked what color the rest of the room was. And then gave me a judgey look when I said the room it would go in didn't exist yet. So, I left it alone and stashed it until I get a second room on my house.
So, these pictures are from about a year ago. Oh well, I had nothing else for this week. See y'all Saturday.
Very little. I did some research for a fic idea. Research was mostly reading articles on Wookiepedia... I got a couple ideas for some Star Wars fics, but they require more Star Wars knowledge.
Read
A bunch of fan-fiction. Fell down a Jango/Obi-Wan hole again. It's nice here...
Watched
How It's Made
Mostly watched some random true crime shows for background noise. Which, learned that I'm not a big fan of true crime stuff that isn't Casual Criminalist, Coffeehouse Crime or That Chapter on YouTube.
Played
Nothing. Maybe some games on my phone but that was it.
Posted
Round up of things I did that won't get their own blog posts.
Anything Else?
Hmm... I dunno.
Still trying to find a job.
Kid turns 18 soon, so that's sending me down a spiral.
This was a fun read and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys pointless Disney trivia. It's basically a collection of questions that people sent in to various Disney publications and Dave Smith, Chief Archivist Emeritus of The Walt Disney Archives, answered. Learned a few things. Forgot even more. 😂
How to Become a Mob Boss
Another satirical docu-series that goes along with How to Become a Cult Leader and How to Become a Tyrant. Enjoyed this one as well.
Godzilla (2014)
Ryan showed me the trailer for the new movie and I was like "Well, guess that's what I'll be watching today." Yes. I did watch all four Monsterverse movies in one day. Cause I love them.
This one still throws me for a loop cause I watched The Avengers: Age of Ultron before I watched this and my brain is like "Oh, Wanda and Pietro are being weirdly close again..."
Kong: Skull Island
I spent most of this movie wanting Conrad and Weaver to kiss cause I like watching extremely pretty people kiss. Huh. I wonder if there's any fan-fic for them. Either kissing or just having adventures together. I'll take both.
Also, I really like the designs of the various creatures on the island
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Mothra is sooooo pretty!
And I need more about all the other titans.
Godzilla vs. Kong
Why can't they just be friends?!
These movies were my introduction to Godzilla and all his friends (hush, in my head they are all friends and they have weekly tea parties). I honestly figured I would enjoy these movies, but not enough for constant rewatches. Now they are about 10% of my personality.
I'm about halfway through the first Percy Jackson book... Cause I refuse to focus on books I started months ago.
Watched
Miss Sherlock - This show was awesome. Working on a blog post about it.
Catching Killers - what is up with Netflix not putting shows in order on their page? Like, if you go to this show's page on Netflix, go down to the episodes and more section, they are listed as Season 3, Season 2, and Season 1. If you go to season one and start at episode one, you only watch one episode, then get kicked back to the episode menu screen. That is some stupid ass shit.
Stuff on YouTube. Lotta That Chapter stuff. I dunno. Dude has a calming voice?
Played
Games on my phone.
Posted
My ramblings about the Red, White, and Royal Blue movie.
Anything Else?
Nah. Mental health ain't great this time of the year so there's that.
Released in 2023 on Amazon Prime, this adaptation of the popular novel follows Prince Henry and First Son Alex as they navigate going from rivals to lovers. And deal with everything that comes with it.
Content/Trigger Warnings
There will be some slight spoilers here.
They're gay, your honor. So if that bothers you, don't watch this movie. And go away. Not sure why you're here if the idea of two consenting adult men kissing bothers you.
Sex - not super graphic in my opinion, but you know what those two are doing
Drinking
Partial nudity (you see a butt. You know what other movie you see a butt in? George of the Jungle. Wanna guess what George of the Jungle was rated? Fucking PG)
Forced coming out
Invasion of Privacy
Tropes
Here is the list of tropes. Ooooh boy we got some good ones this time.
Affectionate Nickname - I love this trope. I am a sucker for silly little nicknames.
First Kiss - That first kiss was fucking magnificent.
Love Epiphany - Oh, the look on Alex's face when he realizes he's in love. Perfection. Love this shit.
Running Gag - I love a good running gag in things, and this one was pretty good.
Alex and Henry are such great characters. So many of the characters are. A couple characters from the book do not appear in the movie. Some characters weren't in the book. So, heads up there.
But yeah, characters are great and I think the casting was fucking great. Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine were fantastic as Alex and Henry.
Oh, also, I hate Miguel. Just... hate him.
Plot
At
Prince Henry's brother's wedding, he and Alex (the son of the
President) get into a confrontation that results in them destroying the
wedding cake. They are forced to play nice and pretend to be friends.
While doing so, they fall in love. But that comes with its own problems.
The biggest one being, Henry is a prince. And Princes can't be gay.
I
think the plot is great. And the movie pulls it off wonderfully.The book had more politics in the plot, but the movie cut a lot of it. Which is fine.
Adaptation?
This is an adaptation. And after I watched the movie I re-read the book in a day... Cause I could not get enough of these two making heart eyes at each other. So, there were changes. The biggest change is that Alex no longer has a sister. I miss her, but I can understand the change. Also, no Raf. Or Leo. In the movie, Alex's parents are still married, but in the book they are divorced. There were a few other small changes, but those were the big non-spoiler ones. And honestly, the changes didn't really take anything from the story.
One thing I fucking loved was how they kept some of Henry and Alex's texts and phone calls in the movie, and how they were done. I wish you got to see/hear more of their emails since the emails were a big part of the book and movie, really. But bits from the emails still showed up in other ways.
There are a couple scenes that were new for the movie. And by far my favorite is when Alex gives Henry his key. I will not elaborate more than that, but I love the change they made in the scene from book to movie.
Romance
The main romance is between Henry and Alex (obviously, I keep saying it). And it is great. They have personalities that mesh well. Henry is very much the proper prince. Doing what is expected, hiding who he is because of duty and all of that. And Alex is not. I'm not saying he doesn't do his duty as the president's son (which is clearly outlined in the Constitution), or anything. No. Alex is a fighter. He fully believes in fighting for what he believes is right. And he believes him and Henry being together is right. And that does create some conflict.
Beautiful romance though. Just... the heart eyes those boys make at each other...
Costuming
Modern story with modern costumes. I do have to say, Alex looks damn good in those suits. I can see why Henry fell in love with him. Like, damn, boy.
How diverse is it?
Aside from the Royal Family, I think there was one white person. And the main focus was a queer relationship (Alex is bi, Henry is gay).
Overall Thoughts
First off, this did not deserve an R-rating. I have seen PG-13 movies that had sex scenes just as graphic. The only reason I can think of on why this got an R rating is because it is a romance between two men and they have sex. And it's not even that explicit, in my opinion. If my kid wanted to watch this when they were 13 I would have allowed it. Wouldn't have watched it with them cause no one needs to see how much I cried and called two grown men "babies" during this movie.
I was scared this movie would not meet my expectations because I fucking loved the book. But the movie was fantastic. It was funny at times. And the moments of seriousness were done so well.
There's an important part of Alex's speech towards the end of the movie:
The truth is every queer person has the right to come out on their own terms, and on their own timeline. They also have the right to choose not to come out at all. The forced conformity of the closet can not be answered with the forced conformity in coming out of it.
This is important. There have been a lot of actors accused of queer-baiting after playing a queer character. Writers have been harassed because they present as straight females and are writing stories about queer characters. And it's bullshit. First off, real people can't queer bait. It is not a thing. Stop saying it is. Second, stop saying every straight presenting female that writes about two dudes kissing are fetishizing them.I'm sure there are some writers out there that are doing this. Or writing queer stories in bad faith. But harassing everyone who writes queer romance is just a dick move. Don't do it.
Highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes a good rom-com.
Okay... That might be all. I mean, I could gush about this movie for days but I sadly don't have time right now.
Spoiler: Still didn't finish The fucking Stand. What the fuck is wrong with me?
Wrote
Not enough. I'm kind of pissy cause Google Drive took away the little section at the top of my Drive that had docs I had opened recently. I know I can go to the fucking Recent tab. I know. But the convenience is gone. I would open up whatever I wanted/needed to work on from there and then also go through other docs to see if there was anything else I could work on. So, I've mostly been glaring at Google Drive the entire time I'm on the computer and doing no writing.
I did do a little writing for some random fic ideas on my phone. Which is convenient, but I'm better at the computer sometimes.
Also, worked on a blog post for next week. Still not fully happy with what I've been working on...
Read
Funny story. I picked up my tablet to read The Stand. Got 20% left of the book. I can finish this shit in one night if I focus. I could finish it in a fucking hour if I focus. Tablet needed turned on. Takes a minute for it to load up completely, so I set it down to let it do that. Picked up Red, White & Royal Blue cause I have an idea for a fan-fiction but I needed a timeline of events for it so I had planned to skim through, putting a post-it on the major events. Ended up basically reading most of the book. I skipped parts, but I read a fucking lot of it. And then it was 2:30 in the morning. I didn't finish The Stand. And I didn't post-it a single thing.
Also read some fan-fiction... Mostly Red, White & Royal Blue fan-fiction. Because I am unhealthily obsessed with it right now.
Watched
Stuff on YouTube... And by "stuff on YouTube" I mean I watched possibly every available Red, White and Royal Blue fan-video I could find... Repeatedly.
Godzilla (2014)
Kong: Skull Island
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Godzilla vs. Kong
Young Indiana Jones
Played
Just games on my phone.
Posted
Ramblings about Young Jedi Knights: Darkest Knight
Anything Else?
Switched browsers from Chrome to Firefox. Which, shit, Firefox works a lot better. I still have an issue with bookmarks though. Okay, on Chrome my homepage (you know, what popped up when I opened the browser) was my bookmarks. And I have a lot of bookmarks cause I tend to just bookmark shit that I say I'll check out later and rarely do. But with Firefox I can either make them a sidebar (which I don't like because it takes up screen space) or open the bookmarks manager which is a whole new window and makes me forget it's there. So, I'm trying to get used to that right now.
And that's all for this one. I'm gonna go cook me and the kiddo some food and spend the rest of the day watching YouTube and trying to not read Red, White, and Royal Blue again. It's just so good...
First published in 1996 (which means I was 11 when I first read this book. I was a baby. A little bitty baby nerd), Darkest Knight is the fifth book in the Young Jedi Knights series. In this book, the Baby Jedi (Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca) are going to Kashyyyk with Chewbacca to visit Lowie's family. But, of course, the Second Imperium is going to cause some problems.
Content/Trigger Warnings
Minor character death
Tropes
Okay. So the tvtropes page is for the entire series. So... I'm gonna hold off on the trope talk until the last book. For reasons that barely make sense to me, so I will not be explaining.
Characters
Once again the main characters are Jacen and Jaina Solo, Tenel Ka and Lowbacca. Oh, and Em-Teedee. This time we get to meet Lowie's sister and parents.
We also got Brakiss (still think that is a stupid name...), Zekk, Tamith Kai and her Nightsister underlings.
Characters are good. Lowie's sister, Sirra, was fun.
Atmosphere/Setting
Main setting is Kashyyyk. The Kashyyyk I grew up with. Which means, the cities are built on treetops and wookiees rarely go into the lower levels that are full of predators and the like. I much prefer this version. Not a beach in sight.
Writing
This is a children's book. Yes, older children, but still for children. The writing is simple and easy to follow. Which is fine. It is a children's book.
Plot
The main plot is basically the Baby Jedi just chilling on Kashyyyk. Then there is the secondary plot of the Second Imperium stealing computer components from Kashyyyk (ya see, back in the times of the Expanded Universe, Wookiees are great with tech, so a lot of computer things that the New Republic used came from Kashyyyk). Secondary plot also includes Zekk "taking care of" the young Jedi. And then we have the third plot (or maybe the second subplot?) of Lowie's sister, Sirra, preparing to go through the rite of passage that all Wookiee youths go through. And finally, we have the last bit (not really even a plot really) where the Emperor shows up on the Shadow Academy but is acting a bit shady.
That seems like a lot, right? And it is. But things are very well done. And none of the subplots... side plots... Whatever... None were left unfinished. Aside from that Emperor one, but it's fine, it'll be resolved in the next book.
How diverse is it?
Well... It's just a bunch of white people causing problems for a bunch of furry people...
Overall Thoughts
I got some thoughts.
The Solo twins decided as of this book to learn the Wookiee language. They have known Chewbacca their entire life. He is a constant feature of their lives. And at age 14 they were like "huh. Maybe we should learn what that guy is actually saying to Dad..." I am disappointed in them. I have had this issue since book one by the way.
Second thought. There are banthas on Kashyyyk. Was that always a thing in the Expanded Universe that I blocked out? Why are there banthas on Kashyyyk? How did they get there? I have so many questions.
Third thought, why is Chewie not spending time with his wife and son? Which, yeah, he had a wife and son in the Expanded Universe, but he owed Han a life debt, which are super important in wookiee culture so his wife and son stayed on Kashyyyk while Chewie kept Han from dying. I don't remember them even being mentioned in this book. I hope Chewie was visiting them while the Baby Jedi were off doing things without him.
But overall, I enjoyed this one. Did take me a while to read it but I'm easily distracted.
I am thinking about altering the template I use for my movie/book/video game reviews. I'm thinking about combining the Warnings and Tropes section into something like "Tags This Would Have on AO3". Mostly cause I wanna let every one know how often I enjoy things that are summed up with things like "Idiots in Love", "Mutual Pining" and "Happy Ending". Seriously though, writers on AO3 have a great way of tagging things and I like it. I dunno. It's just a thought right now.
That's all for this one. Wednesday should either be a book review or a movie review. Whichever I actually finish first.
Apparently, it's December. Which, that's a surprise. Anyone else surprised?
Let's just jump into this one.
This month I'm gonna...
Write
Something. Just... Fucking something. I'm not picky at this point.
I do wanna sit down and focus on my original stuff.
Read
The fucking Stand. For fucks sake I keep getting distracted. I need to finish it. I'm at, like, 80% through it. Even I'm annoyed with how long it has taken me to read it.
Watch
Good Omens season 2.
Percy Jackson show when it comes out on Disney+
Red, White, and Royal Blue at least a few more times...
Oh, and I wanna catch up on Doctor Who.
Play
Maybe that Sherlock Holmes game I bought will finally be downloaded this month... Would love to play that. Wanna be a hot little twink detective...
Anything Else?
My kiddo turns 18 this month. So, between that, trying to find a job in this town, and Christmas I will be having low level panic attacks all month.
