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| l Tuesday, December 31, 2002 |
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Warning: self-indulgent pity-post coming at'cha.
It's 30degrees and raining. We've had thunderstorms and it's so. bloody. humid. I can't sleep at night, and if I want to do anything during the day I'm finding that it helps if I get up early. This is the coolest it's been in some time. But when my alarm goes off, I'm finally so exhausted I'm just getting to sleep, and getting up and doing something doesn't appeal. I'm sleeping through the day. My energy levels are in the negative, and I can't be buggered eating. At least, not anything healthy. The thing is, I know that I'd feel better if I could be bothered doing something. Usually a bit of exercise and sun will get endorphins flowing, hopefully correcting the serotonin levels... or at least making me feel better. Unfortunately, the overcast day and rain doesn't help that. God, I'm going to be a barrel of laughs at the New Years Eve stuff tonight, aren't I. I guess this has been building for a number of days... stress at home, the weather, the humidity... intellectually I know I'm indulging in myself, that I should be doing meditative stuff to lift my mood, but then I just wanna sleep some more. "So take another pill, and tell another lie, and lie amongst your lies like tuna in the brine." But I'll go out tonight, put on that "happy face" for the world and maybe no one will know. My grandmother, if she were here, would be telling me that she "doesn't like seeing me this way" and "smile for me". Look happy and make everyone around you feel happy! Reassure everyone that you're doing fine and give them peace of mind. I'll get over this. I always do. But right now, as I type this, I feel like indulging in my blues. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 11:03 AM [x] :: |
| l Sunday, December 29, 2002 |
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There's a little meme circulating over on LJ at the moment on "How and why did you choose your screen-name?", and I though I'd lose my MeMe virginity and talk about myself.
I started in fandom at a wonderful little Star Trek board... although I think I came there because I linked from an Imzadi site which has been left to the raveges of time. I played around with some inconsequental names there before setting on Mrs. Homn. To non-Trekkies, Mr. Homn is the manservant of Lwaxana Troi, the mother of the chick in the purple catsuit with the big curly hair on Star Trek: The Next Generation. This eventually was shortened to MH, and I still go by the name on that board. When I moved over into BtVS, well... no-one really knew who Mr. Homn was and given that MH is also a medical term for malignant hypothermia (as I learnt due to a Google years back) I wasn't really keen on keeping with that one. When I spent a short amount of time on the old Bronze boards (the threaded one mostly) I used Maia, because I liked the name and Maia was the wife of the god Vulcan and... well... continuity, in a way. I also kept using the old homngirl email account and could say that the "M" stood for Maia. After my connection was cut by the university (long story) and I started using the newsgroups, the email addy I was using was the university one, and I didn't like people having my first two initials and my surname. To keep myself satified that people wouldn't know everything about me, I used Samantha, which eventually drifted into Smurfette, thus keeping with the blue men theme (Mr. Homn has blue skin... he's tall, silent and bald). I was offline from fandoms for a while longer, but kept a smurfette email addy for personal use. When I connected up to Bigpond, I wanted a smurf username, but thought Smurfette might have been taken, so I went with purple_smurf because purple's a favourite colour. There goes all the theories about the purple smurf episode which I've never seen. Connecting up for a Yahoo account for Yahoo Groups, purple_smurf had been taken, so searching around for something to go with it that wasn't a huge number, I went with funkypurplesmurf. And that's how I've signed up for everything since (unless it's a very small private board, when I might go with Smurfette). So there we have it. My history of usernames online. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 8:33 PM [x] :: |
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I'm slowly getting the hang of PSP. Obviously, I get animation shop -- or a bit of it. But every time I've changed a Smurfette image to my purple smurf with brown hair in the past, it's either been a solid blue and yellow or a black and white image I've simply coloured in.
But I spent a couple of hours playing with the program this morning, and I'm a little proud of what I managed so you're going to see the fruits of my labours whether you like it or not. I managed to turn this image  into this one  Yay me!! And I learnt that PSP does screen caps, so I've been going crazy with the novelty of that. I think I've capped every document on my computer!! I'm like a kid with a new toy on Christmas day... now all I have to do is sort out how to get images from my DVD player onto my computer. Either that or get a DVD drive installed on this hunk of junk, but I'd have to buy more memory then and that's a daunting expense. I need to put it into the computer shop anyway, given that it has problems turning itself on (get that ming outta the glutter, people) but I'm hoping to buy a digital camera... I have about AU$400 put aside, and most of that would be eaten away by a DVD drive and more RAM etc. I'm back at the stage of using the computer furtively whilst Mum and Dad are out... trying to appease them, trying now to get myself completely banned from touching their machine. I'm 21 but I feel 16 -- I guess it comes from living under the same roof as one's parents, unable to be independent, unable to function outside of the safe "home" environment. Although now working extra hard at appeasing them in the hopes of some Copper-time!! Did I mention that we now have a mobile phone each in my family? Or cell-phones, as the Americans call them. Brother H got a pre-paid for Christmas, so we have five in the house, which is a depressingly modern thing. Dad's replacing his, so I'll have the most outdated of them all... I still work with a Nokia 5110. But it's under my Dad's name as Telstra and Optus both have refused me unless I get a pre-paid, and I'm not paying the small fortune to convert a phone I've fully paid for. The screen was going funny, so I bought a new cover for it... a Sylvester one, with Tweety on the bottom. I loves Sylvester. And it's like having a new phone now, the different cover makes it a novelty all over again. I watched Farscape last night... it was Suns & Lovers/Self Inflicted pt 1 -- Could'a, Would'a, Should'a, and I couldn't follow jack shit of it, wound up giving up <cringes away from the Scapers> It's all channel 9's fault -- I keep missing episodes because they can't advertise it or tell us when they move it to 2am. I think I'm going into town tomorrow and I'll see CoS... I may join one of the larger video stores and hire out past episodes to try and catch up. I'd buy them on DVD, but I want to get BtVS season 5, not to mention IWRY on DVD. Myers has 15% off all DVD titles at the moment, so I'll get season 5, methinks... either that or part 2 of season 5 and part 1 of AtS season 1. Then all I have to do is figure out how to get the pictures onto my computer for capping, and I'm all set. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 8:49 AM [x] :: |
| l Saturday, December 28, 2002 |
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There are people out there who know that I try to reply to most entries on Blogs. Y'know, if the person happens to know that I'm reading it and don't take me as a stalker...<looks sheepishly at LJ dallies>
But at the moment Enetation doesn't want to appear for me. At all. Usually I at least get a "down for servicing"-type message, but at the moment... nothing. Zilch. Zip. Nada. So I'm not being a snob, and I have comments I want to make. But... they won't let me <sob> I've been surfin' the LotR slash again... love slashin' them. Love it, but something (again) so many people in RL don't get. But then, they see nothing slashy in the CLex, either, so... I think seeing the slash is a fandom-thing. It has to be. People who don't get fandoms never see it. I mean, no one in my RL saw anything slashy in the scene when Boromir dies in FotR and Aragorn kisses him and... God, the subtexts was screaming at me. And with Obi Wan and Qui Gon in The Phantom Menace? The only good thing about that film was watching the subtext scream at me. Sigh. Slash has me in it's grips, and I'm happy. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 2:43 PM [x] :: |
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Mum and Dad are sitting behind me in a foul mood, so I may not be around much today. They're complaining about how long I spend on the internet... again. This sounds familiar... and Mum needs the computer, so I may have to leave at short notice.
But Farscape is returning to TV tonight... two hours of Farscape!!!!!!!!!!!! Wheeeeeee!!!!!! We won't think of how soon channel 9 will move it to 11.30pm (like the last season of The X-Files is showing on channel 10... not only at 11.30pm, but on a Friday night. Die, 10, die) without warning... :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 12:04 PM [x] :: |
| l Friday, December 27, 2002 |
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Okay, everyone has to read The idiot's guide to continuity on Buffy the Vampire Slayer at my beloved Boils and Blinding Torment. Read, read, READ!!!
p.s. please notice the presence of a lovely Tag Board on the right, it's ready and available for use for anything you don't want to put into a comments thing (which also have a new colour scheme to match the layout). :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 8:46 PM [x] :: |
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 Did everyone enjoy their Christmas? I had a lovely one... and I expect certain people who don’t have a blog ::cough::LeeLee::cough:: to tell me in the comments how their respective Christmas-es went. In my family, we leave our decorations up for the 12 days of Christmas -- until Epiphany on the 6th January. But I wanna use this layout, so Christmas has ended at my blog. This lovely layout was designed by the fantastic Faithgirl, who has some lovely icons up at her Blog now. I had a lovely Christmas morning... despite brother N being lazy and not getting out of bed (“it’s too early!”). H and I got up by 7.30am, went into Mum and Dad’s room to do the prezzie thing. I got my BtVS season 4 and Paint Shop Pro 7, 10th Anniversary edition (YAY!!!!). And I get to skip all the Riley scenes so easily on DVD ;) My brothers gave me Daybreaker by Beth Orton, so I’m very happy with their choice... H took me through Sanity to try and find something, so I did to him what N did to me and told him that I wanted half the stock in the store. Alas, they only gave me the one CD. I got a very clock that keeps international time, so I should actually be able to tell what time it is over there with a little more ease. It has London, Paris, Cairo, Moscow, Karachi, Bankok, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney, Wellington, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, New York and Rio De Janeiro, although I don’t know if it takes in things like Daylight Savings. So me happy with that... Dad said that it should make it easier when I go away. Which was very strange, given I’ve never discussed Tour de Babble with them, I think they just assume that I’ll go overseas at some stage. They know that Lisa in Canada wants me to visit at some stage, so I guess it’s logical. If anyone gets snail mail from me on heart paper, I’m not coming on to you; I’m using lovely paper given to me for Christmas. We went to church, everyone complaining about the time. Dad gave the best sermon, I was sitting in the pews thinking how proud I was to be his daughter. He talked about the state of the world at the moment, how we live in terror and the looming shadow of war. He mentioned that an element of this seems to be Christianity vs. Islam, how fundamentalists in any religion are an insult to the faith -- how fundamentalists do not follow the religion, and how we all follow the same God in any case. He talked about Jesus as the Prince of Peace, how peace starts with us. I sat there and took pride in my father. Then in the prayers of intercession, some dickhead who the churches had been warned was travelling down the coast making a fuss during worship, stood up when we were listing joys and concerns and said that it was “lies” being spread by churches, the Uniting Church in particular, that we all worship the same God, a “lie put in our hearts by Satan” and we will answer to God if we believe this. Then he left. So brave. But I sat there and fumed. I can’t remember anything said beyond that point, and we sang some of my favourite carols and I couldn’t enjoy them. I had a black cloud over my head, and I think that sparks were coming off me. You know Evil!Willow? If I had special effects, I’d have looked like her. I’m lucky in that I have very liberal parents... I inherited my political views from my parents in a lot of ways, despite the fact that I’m a bit more radical than them (just a wee bit). Dad was a fitter and turner before he became a minister -- a real blue-collar guy, so it’s always amusing when people get up in arms because someone’s swearing in front of the minister!!! He worked in a factory, for crying out loud!! Anyway, he’s an old Union man, and so more on the left than the right of politics. The working-class man. But what Dad said in the sermon wasn’t even controversial. He said that we all (Muslim, Jewish and Christian) worship the same God -- and there can’t really be any disputing that fact. Yes, we all interpret that same God in a fairly different manner, but we all worship that God of Abraham. We all stem from that same faith. The Koran starts with the same books that the religious texts of the Jews and the Christians start with. Anyway. We ate Christmas brunch before we travelled to my grandparents, with our apple cider (tradition) and avocado and pancakes and croissants so on... I ate waaayy too much, as per usual. We packed the car and left for my Grandparents, where we would spend the next two nights. In the car as we travelled out of town, bitching about the guy who ruined the Christmas service, I got onto the subject of RAWA, which (believe it or not) Dad didn’t know I was involved with. So I’m preachin’ the RAWA love, and Dad asks me (out of the blue) why I want to be a librarian. A beat, as I try to figure out where this came from. “Because the career fits me like a glove?” I say, completely confused as to why this is being asked. “Did you ever think of journalism?” Dad asks. No, I’m not opinionated... ;) And I wouldn’t have any problems with towing the company line. At Nana and Grandads, my grandmother couldn’t figure out how to save a file on their computer. I swear, there’s a snark-fic in this, “Angel’s First Computer Lesson” or something. I changed their options so that there was a file it saved straight into, and then wrote out instructions so they could access that file through My Computer and C Drive. In small, easy-to-understand words. Then I had to do it all over again, because my grandfather was confused as to why it could save directly into that folder without going through the My Computer etc. like I wrote out for him. And he asked how to close a document, because they still hadn’t figured that out. <hits head against wall> I know they’re computer illiterate, but it was driving me craaaaazy. GJ’s Advanced Computing subject would have been three thousand miles beyond them -- really advanced. But they gave me a new overnight-bag, because the one I’ve been using has fallen apart completely, and a coffee maker, so I won’t have to get up every hour and make another plunger, because I’ll have a pot of coffee on a hotplate during babble chat. Will be a relief!! My mother’s brother and sister and their partners and children joined us at my grandparents -- my paternal grandparents, my mother’s father married a woman he’d been dating for a week and moved to Queensland two years after my grandmother’s death. My aunt finds Christmas at her house rather stressful, and my uncle and his fiancée don’t have enough room, so this time we experimented and had Boxing Day together with my father’s side, too. Although my father’s brother couldn’t make it. It was fun having us all together like that; we don’t often all see each other, so it’s a bit of a novelty. My grandmother went to town catering for it, there were about 16 people there, and enough food for thirty. Four different types of cold meat (ham, pickled lamb, chicken and turkey), about seven salads and that many again in desserts. We have big meals. Travelling back from my grandparents this afternoon, we had bumper-to-bumper traffic along wide country roads. ARGH!!! Drove us all crazy, but Dad worked hard at not getting frustrated, as that’s a good way to have an accident. Tourists have infiltrated my town; the 5000-person community has now expanded to 20,000, and the visitors have all left their brains at home. What is it about tourists, that you go on holiday and leave your brain at home?? These people seem to think that every inch of the road is a zebra-crossing, and will cross at any stage. We’ve seen people driving down the wrong side of the street, and it’s generally insane. Will be going insane until New Years; mostly people go home after that (we have massive fireworks etc here then), but I’ll be pulling my hair out until the end of January, when school goes back and people tend to leave again. They come back at Easter, but I’ll have a few months of sanity before then. I’m playing around with my Paint Shop Pro, but discovering this is something I won’t just pick up, like I do with most computer programs and HTML etc, but may have to read instructions to understand fully. But playing around with it, creating banners for Maudlin Poetry and I’m looking at actually getting that long-dreamed of Spoonless Clique up and running. Have to Google and see if I can find any extra instructions, and download some different brushes. Looking forward to learning this one!! Anyway, I want to post this, so I’ll leave it here. I should be online again tomorrow, I want to catch up and find out about people’s Christmas!! :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 5:33 PM [x] :: |
| l Tuesday, December 24, 2002 |
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This is going to be my last entry before Christmas.
I was hoping to have finished The Night Before Angel before I left for Christmas, but I've hit a block with it. I've rewritten 26 lines, and I have 30 more to go. I've been reading fluff (Starla's Every Shade of Rose especially) and I think my bitterness is waning in my little denial bubble... quick, someone tell me spoilers for AtS!! Anyway, I want to wish everyone a very happy Christmas. Remember to keep in the spirit, and don't kill any of your relatives (not that I'm looking at anyone in particular ::cough::Dawny::cough::GJ::cough::) One of my favourite stories at this time of the year is the tale of a Christmas during WWI. I can't seem to find the book it was written in, so bare with me (yes, I could Google for it, but I'm typing this up away on my computer and away from any connection to do so, okay?!). The story goes, that in the trenches "somewhere in France" (or the Western Front, I can't remember where exactly) on Christmas Eve, the Allied forces decided to sing some carols. I think they started with The First Noel. After the last notes had died away, in reply, they heard the Germans starting to sing Silent Night (either that or the Germans started the carols and the allies replied; like I said, years since I read this). After going back and forth a couple of times, they went up with a white flag. They sang carols together, exchanged helmets; you know the drill. They wound up declaring a truce for Christmas Day. On the 26th, the battles resumed. Nevertheless, for that one day, without the generals and the bureaucrats, the spirit of Christmas called a stop to the fighting. If a truce can be called in the middle of a war, even if it was just for one day, surely you can survive the same amount of time without getting a homicide charge up against you?! I'm going to be spending Christmas morning at home with my brothers and parents. We'll get up and do some of the presents (leave me be, I still put my decorated pillow case down the end of the bed for Father Christmas), have something to eat to starve off the hunger pains before Church. After that, we'll have brunch as a family before travelling for five and a half hours to get to my grandparents. We'll have Christmas dinner there; spend Boxing Day as a family (that's the main Christmas celebration, as Dad works Christmas morning) and travel back on the Friday, providing brother N doesn't have to work then. I don't know if we'll be seeing my mother's side of the family, which may or may not be a good thing. I take my mother's side in small doses, which is how they tend to take me. They find it hard when I go off on a tangent; I'll argue my opinions to the death, and it won't take me much to start on them. Politics is always an issue as they're conservative and I'm... well... not. My aunt and cousins are all Buffy, fans, too, and don't take it well when they start me off on the show by making an innocent comment on the TV guide. Well, come on. Like when I see them not long after the AtS season 3 finale and they start saying how fantastic this season was and how great it is that Cordelia was finally recognised as a "high power" I'm supposed to let it lie! I say it was their fault (even if I asked what they thought of it, can I help it if they say something like that?!). It's funny, I don't go off on a tangent with some people; but then, with some people, the subject of my TV shows never come up. I think my uncle just like baiting me, and he knows I'll bite. Hell, I know I'll bite. Although never as bad as N will... my uncle said that, due to water problems, they had to pee in the backyard... and so N did. When Alec Campbell (the last original Anzac) died, my uncle said "they're going to stuff him and put him at the front of the Anzac Day march each year". Brother N said "really?!" before he thought. Anyway. I hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas; if you need to travel, drive safely (and not drunk, Dawny). Don't eat too much, and like I said, don't kill relatives. It's not good. In recognition of where I'll be tomorrow...  Merry Christmas, everyone. Edited at 10.26pm because I said the last post, but I had to share the results of this quiz, because... walking orgasm, c'mon!  Who is your Ideal Lord of the Rings (male) Mate? brought to you by Quizilla Yummmmm!! Happy Christmas, everyone! :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 7:56 PM [x] :: |
| l Sunday, December 22, 2002 |
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Well, I did have this entry with cards/signs from Faithgirl and Emily, but I seem to be more popular than I realised and I've received more!! There's a very surprised Smurfy sitting at her computer as she types this, let me tell you! So I've got small pieces which I'll show here, and you can click on them to make them nice and purty and large!
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The other day I mentioned that there are carols on the TV over here every day until Christmas now.
Well, I didn't watch Carols in the Domain until 10.30pm on Saturday... we went out for dinner, and while we were out (it was a Christmas BBQ) we watched From Russia With Love. Well, the guys watched the Bond girls, I watched Sean Connery (and Aragorn in the ad breaks, as every single one had an ad for TTT). Just as I turned the TV on, they had a live cross to Melbourne and John Waters singing John Lennon's Merry Xmas (War Is Over), which was very ironic. At first I didn't think they were going to have the war is over part, but after the second chorus they did. Then John Waters (who's an Australian singer/actor institution... he was in the original Australian performances of Godspell, was in All the Rivers Run, is currently onstage in Oliver! and has toured America with his John Lennon stage show) said in the final chorus "are you listening George Dubya? We can end it right here". The live cross to John Farnham immediately after? In his Brisbane concerts with his classic When The War Is Over. How did they continue from there? Everyone who sang in the night onstage with the old hymn, let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me, which then merged at the end with Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas. If there's anytime we need the Christmas spirit, as I tried to indicate yesterday with the Boondocks comic strip, it's now. Did anyone ever doubt that Dubya was going to find issue with the Iraq report? I'm sure they were hiding it; I have no doubts that they still have weapons. But Dubya "they tried to kill my father" Bush is on a personal vendetta. I fear for the planet, I honestly do. Happy Christmas, world. Let's hope we all survive to see 2004. Random topic change. The other night The Robbie Williams Show was on the TV, and I've been on a Robbie kick ever since. <cringes> Please don't hit me!! <looks pleadingly at Spykester> He may be an arrogant arsehole, but he knows it. As the show opened, it occurred to me he has, with his charismatic arrogance and swagger, the same bad-boy appeal -- the same aura -- as Angelus. Of course, he makes Angelus look humble, but let's not go there, hmm? I can't help but fall for that arrogant strut. I'd hate him if I ever met him, he'd drive me bonkers... but on the telly or CD, he has definite appeal. And he's pure pop. I don't often listen to pure, unadulterated pop any more; despite this, I can't help but remain in love with Robbie. Better Man is pure Original!Angel, and as for Angels, well... do I need to wax lyrical on how utterly brilliant that song is; how it's the essence of perfection in a pop ballad? No Regrets is my theme for my own relationship with CtS (stuff Take That, it's TSFKAA!), Strong is, as so many things are, elements of Buffy. If I had the time or the skill (not to mention technology) to make a BtVS video, it would be to Let Me Entertain You. The cheesiness of Kids holds a definite appeal, Singing for the Lonely is just... sigh. And the singability of Rock DJ or the pop-goodness of Let Love Be Your Energy... I could go on. I tend to keep my Robbie-love in the closet (where it rightly belongs), but it's always there. Kind of how Ben Affleck feels about Matt Damon... :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 6:14 PM [x] :: |
| l Saturday, December 21, 2002 |
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Lots of entries today, and not much content at all...
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I just added a Bravenet Guest Map for the sake of it... go and show me where you're from.
 Yeah, I'm bored. Can't you tell? I'm waiting for Copper to show up. Copper, Copper, wherefore art thou, Copper? :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 1:18 PM [x] :: |
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Bwahahahahahaha!!! Matt Damon has stopped the wedding of J.Lo to Ben Affleck. Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!! This has made my day, I've got tears of laughter streaming down my face. Go read Miss Windy's LJ for more snark... she makes my snark so pathetic. I worship the snark of Miss Windy.
:: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 11:28 AM [x]
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I don’t actually have anything to say today, but Leelee (who needs to get herself a blog, hint hint) says she goes into withdrawals when I don’t make an entry, so I thought I’d share a cute Christmas card my grandfather (who lives in Queensland) sent to me. Very Australian, it is ;)
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| l Friday, December 20, 2002 |
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Okay, does anyone know how to change a website when the server won't let you access your account?? I *so* wanna update Maudlin Poetry but bloody Liquid2K is still down. I think I'm changing servers again <sigh> <kicks Liquid2K>
:: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 8:09 PM [x]
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Christmas Carols season starts on the TV soon.
In Australia, and the Southern Hemisphere in general, currently we're in the middle of summer. So we don't really have the "white Christmas" etc etc. What we do have, however, is massive outdoor carols. They're Carols by Candlelight, and everyone troops along, sitting on their rugs, lighting candles when it gets dark and singing carols. Local Carols by Candlelight events have been happening all this week, adding to my father's stress and workload; as local minister he is expected to turn up to them all, and he's actually at one as I post this. But Dad's not only incredibly stressed at the moment, he's sick. Yesterday he had a massive headache and was being physically ill (I think it was more "migraine" than "headache"). The problem is that his colleague -- there's two ministers to administer to the cluster of five churches with six to seven services each Sunday -- has been in hospital with viral pneumonia (thank God for spell checks) and is on sick-leave now at one of the two busiest times of the year (the other being Holy Week at Easter). The computer's still sick, too, but not as ill as it was. It's just because of the extra work-load it's been in use most of the day, thus relegating me to evening-access only, when Dad's using his 1995 Mac in his office instead of email etc. Mum also has to type the church notice sheet, so there goes some extra time for me. But anyway, from tomorrow night, every evening until Christmas will have a Carols service on TV at some stage. Tomorrow is the Carols in the Domain, Sydney's answer to them, screening on channel 7. As a result, it's got all the channel 7 people on it, and generally this isn't my favourite carols service. And no, that's not just because it's based in Sydney (although as a native Melbournian, it could have an ever-so-slight impact on my opinion). Sunday, channel 10 has Celebrate Christmas in the Capital, from Canberra. This new program is hyped as being more "funky" and youth-focused... Dylan Lewis is hosting, and for the first time Holly Valance is going to actually perform live (as opposed to her usual lip-sync) so it may be worth tuning in to see if she actually can sing. Monday is last year's Carols from Kings on the ABC. Last year's because it's British and by the time the Poms celebrate Christmas it's Boxing Day (and the Boxing Day cricket test) over here. There's something special about listing to the Kings College Choir singing the Carols... tradition and what-not. And I'm starting to think with a British accent as I type this, so moving on... Tuesday is Christmas Eve, and every show on TV has a Christmas theme. But at 8.30/9pm, I'll be tuning into the carols service, Carols by Candlelight live from Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowel. It's got the kid's section at 8.30pm until 9pm, so I may watch SBS's Christmas stuff between 7.30pm and 9pm... although I may be attending a church service instead. The Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve is such an Australian tradition... I think everyone has memories of sitting in front of the TV of Christmas Eve watching it, being sent to bed as a child as soon as Santa's finished (because he's coming to your house next and you have to be asleep when he gets here). When I was about three, and my brother N was just a couple of months old, my family went to Carols by Candlelight. We went into the city and had a picnic dinner in the botanic gardens with my mother's side of the family... it was A Big Event. When you watch the TV broadcast, they'll always show these cute little babies and kids asleep in Mum and Dad's arms, a glow of candlelight surrounding them as Marina Prior sings When A Child Is Born. Mum and Dad say that N and myself didn't sleep at all, until we hopped in the car in the traffic jam on the way home. Then proceeded to be cranky all Christmas Day. For some reason, after that, we only ever watched it on the TV... Mum and Dad generally describe the event as an "unmitigated disaster", and call the images of sleeping babes a hoax on the part of the TV networks. edited to add a link to the Melbourne Carols by Candlelight, so that people who are confused can have a look :) :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 5:42 PM [x] :: |
| l Thursday, December 19, 2002 |
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Oooohh... part 14 of Abused just came out!!!!
Anyway. I was about to post. What was I going to post again? Part 14 of Abused just came out!!!! Ahem. Jar Jar just doomed the Republic... I need to get less distractions here. I'm a snob. I'm a hypocrite. I can't stand Australian versions of websites. I hate Yahoo for Australia and New Zealand. I hate them with a vengeance. I refuse to go to them. They don't have any of the links I use on the main page, and it drives me batty. I hate Australian search engines in general. I always feel like they won't do a proper search or something... it's illogical, but it's how I feel. Whether it was the old AltaVista or Yahoo, I hated them. Now Google won't let me into google.com, but redirects me straight to google.com.au as soon as I go there because I'm using an Australian connection. Not happy, Jan... and feeling very snob-like and hypocritical. edited to make it official. Tango is Evil. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 9:13 PM [x] :: |
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BTW, is it wrong to cheer when Padme's body-double is killed at the start of Episode II because her name sounds (Corday) like "Cordy"?
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Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, when I counted the sleeps between Buffy episodes and AtS didn't suck (thus ruining BtVS for me), I was addicted to spoilers.
I was a self-confessed spoiler-whore, although living online it was hard to be anything else because anything to do with the shows in the USA was a spoiler for me. My version of spoilers was going and reading episode summaries. This, of course, was before Buffy Downunder etc had opened. I don't ask much nowadays of the show. I do, however, like to live in as much ignorance as possible and only have anything to do with the shows when there's a piece of good fanfiction involved. Which isn't very often, given how uninspiring the shows are in terms of fanfiction. But I seem to have fallen upon a heap of spoilers of late. I don't read anything at the Babble Board anymore as everything there is to do with the current seasons and thus... well... we'll agree to disagree. I'll curl up with my bitterness and leave anything else over thataway. First Jennem had the nerve to mention some of the spoilers, and ewwwwww!! Okay, I tell a lie, I read some on Nar's blog, but ewwwwwwww!! to the ones Jennem was talking about. Just... ewwwwwwww!!!! Then I fell upon another blog via the new Buffy Blogs webring I've joined. Which mentioned something she'd read on AICN, saying that Faith may not survive the end of the season. Which sucks ass in and of itself. Then she speculated that they better not have Faith killed so Dawn will be called, making way for Dawn the Vampire Slayer. The problem is, I can so see Marti doing that. And people wonder why I stay away from the shows post season 5/2. Oh!! Nearly forgot again. I didn't put in my account of my family Christmas the other day one of the more amusing moments... my grandmother had her usual Woman's Day trash-mag there (not talking to her still because she let brother N do the crossword) and on the front page it had these claims Nicole Kidman is dating Vin. My first reaction was to put aside my patriotic girl-power thang (don't like Tom Cruise anymore) and exclaim "But he's Dawny's!!" See, sweetie, someone thinks of you whenever they see Vin ;) :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 7:29 PM [x] :: |
| l Wednesday, December 18, 2002 |
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Okay. This is a bloody long entry, even by my standards. You may have noticed that I haven't been either online or blogging over the past couple of days. It's because the computer is sick. Very sick. And because I value my life, I haven't dared go near it, especially as Mum and Dad tend to blame me for everything that ever goes wrong with their computer. Dad, especially, is incredibly stressed and thus on a short fuse (normally it's Mum who explodes first) due to the six church services he's got between Friday and Christmas Day on Wednesday. Not to mention the funeral he had the other day, which he had around 36 hours to prepare for. However, I've still had my computer, so I'm still typing up Blog entries, as per normal. It's just they haven't been posted until today. So, to keep the confusion to the minimum, I've put in little headings in bold, which is very unusual for me. I mean, the topic jumps aren't <g> but I don't normally have so much bold, centred shit in my entries. Also, I've added some extra days to the Australian 12 Days of Christmas marquee-thing, because if I just added one day at a time, I'd still have a number of days to go when we reach Christmas Day. And, trust me, I know that it's for the 12 days after Christmas, signifying when the Magi came to visit the Christ Child, but I find it works better as a count-down. Deal. Sunday was the extended family Christmas get together on my father's side. I don't have a drop of Italian blood in me that we know of. I'm as pale as pale can be, and our ancestors are pretty much Irish, British, Scottish, Welsh... the mixture of Celts and general British Isles things, and most of them came over by the early 1800s (the first Europeans only arrived on boats and without invite from the Aboriginals -- note to John Howard there -- in 1788). On my father's side, when we have a family gathering, we're eating leftovers for a month. You never go hungry on a family gathering, and even with the abundance of cold meats and salads (it was mid-30s Celsius on Sunday) you could easily skip main course and fill up on desserts... there was a number of fridges filled with food, and that was before anyone arrived with their contribution to the meal. The family all trooped to my grandparents place in central Victoria. There was my uncle and cousin, my own family of five (including me), my grandparents, my grandfather's two sisters, who came with a husband and best friend, and my grandmother's sister and her husband. Usually two of my father's cousins (the two sons of my grandfather's sister) attend, too, but they couldn't make it this time. I love my family Christmas. Sometimes they all drive me batty (and my grandmother did a good job of that on Saturday evening) but I love them all. My grandfather's youngest sister is one of the nicest people I know, and his other sister had cause for celebration because she's had successful surgery on her back and can walk again. Anyway, we all arrived at my grandparent's house by midday on Sunday, and because my uncle and cousin had to leave by 1.30pm, we did the gift thing first (of course). Trying to read the cursive handwriting of the grandparent's generation, my grandfather being unable to find his glasses as usual (it's a family joke now), wrapping paper everywhere... I wouldn't swap it for the world. Sitting around the dinner table, joking and laughing. Complaining about the jokes in the Christmas crackers/bon-bons. Moaning about my father's uncle who refuses to wear the paper hat in the cracker, despite family rules clearly stating that in order to eat, you have to wear the silly thing. Eating more than is good for you, because there's so much food sitting there. Cheering when the dessert comes out, because there are the fresh blueberries and blackberries and raspberries and strawberries my grandparents grow, not to mention the old-family-recipe vanilla slices, and pavlovas, and cheesecakes, and trifles... Loving the little touches that make it a family Christmas, like the little chocolate Santa at every table setting. Laughing and reminiscing, saying how happy my great-grandmother would be that my mother has taken over the vanilla slice making duty. Complaining at the absence of chocolate ripple cake. Going out and sitting in the shade under the trees afterwards, relaxing in the sun as the cricket plays on the radio and TV set. It's not only a family Christmas, it's the quintessential Australian Christmas, and I wouldn't swap it for a white Christmas anywhere in the world. It's the family, and revelling in each other's company when we only really see each other once a year, that makes it so special. If you've checked out the layout I'm oh-so-proud of (even if it is Faithgirl's genius) with an 800x600 screen res (which the stats page says around 55% of people who read this blog are) you may have noticed that it's a wee bit overweight. It needs to slim down to get rid of the scroll-bar across the bottom (the table's 775px wide. Is it my fault if, despite being 25px less than the screen width, browsers won't show it?!). Why is this a situation only Smurfy could get herself into? You may know that I use two computers. Computer one is the computer I type this up on, the one in my own bedroom. My own computer, which I love even if it's a POS that won't hold an internet connection. Computer two is my parent's computer, which I primarily use to go online. I'll do all my HTML stuff, my BtVS stuff and everything other than what I need the actual connection for, on my own computer. So the layout was finalised on my computer, I'll type up fanfic on my own computer, I'll fiddle with Paint on my own computer... everything is planned on the POS in my room. On which I now use a 1024x678 screen res. So it's interesting transferring everything over. On the one hand, because I always test it on a 600x800 screen res as well, you can be guaranteed that whatever I plan out will work on either screen res. On the other hand, it never looks quite right because it's larger than what I was working with in the first place. I guess it makes me a perfectionist, though. I need to know that I'll be able to look at it in either res and think it looks okay. Now to just try and make that layout loose some weight... BTW, I'd like to apologise to anyone using Netscape Communicator 4.7 as I just looked at the layout with that and I forgot you can't use Marquees. It's been a while since I used Netscape, sorry!! I miss it, though <sigh> unfortunately, Mum and Dad would kill me if I downloaded it to their computer. Netscape users who can't view Marquees will have to live with it, though... I happen to love it way too much to ever give it up. Princess Bride quotes... like there could ever be anything wrong with that!!! I may be a Virgo, but I'm a very messy and disorganised one. All that stuff about Virgos being meticulous etc? Maybe it's because I'm on the cusp of Libra, but it so doesn't apply to me. Anyway, given that I can no longer see the floor, I decided to go through the mess and I found a piece of paper. Actually, there were a couple of hundred pieces of paper, but one in particular that interested me. You all familiar with the classic song, "Puff the Magic Dragon"? Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff Well, I remember writing this, but only vaguely... David the producer loved that bitchy seer Bitter? Me? It's never going to be a finished filk, so thought I'd play Generous Smurfy and share it with everyone. Now to just manage to finish The Night Before Angel... getting there, but open to collaboration at this point. I sent off Christmas cards etc. today... I'm afraid they may arrive a couple of days after Christmas, so I'm sorry about that. But you'll just have to deal. Anyway, not everyone got back to me re. where to send the stuff, so I wasn't sending as much as I thought I'd be. And given that I won't be getting any more money into my account until tomorrow, it's probably a Very Good Thing. It cost me AU$53.95 to send over the Christmas stuff, all up. I mean, I wasn't expecting it to be cheap, and yeah, I'd prepared myself in advance for expense (I thought it might be up to $70, so in a way it was a pleasant surprise), but damn I'm glad that you all don't have your birthdays on the same day!! I swear, something is going to have to be done. Either everyone moves over to Australia (we have Tim Tams over here!!), or I gird up my belt, try to remember that not all Americans are yokels, tone down my general anti-USA stance and move over there, no matter how painful all of the above would be. Anyone happen to have won the lottery of late so I can afford it, though? <g> :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 7:01 PM [x] :: |
| l Monday, December 16, 2002 |
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Should post something on my wonderful Christmas dinner on Sunday and the wonderful Christmas atmosphere, if only to make Dawny cry again, but can't be buggered right now... will have to type it up and post tomorrow sometime.
If anyone's interested, the layout I'll be putting up in January is being tested here... I figured out how to do an Archives page! Go me!! Faithgirl gets the credit for the wonderfulness that it is, BTW. What I wouldn't give for an iota of that girl's talent <sigh> Of course, I'd probably kill for Adobe Photoshop, too, but I think I'm getting Paint Shop Pro for Christmas so that's a start, at least. Boils and Blinding Torment have recapped Passion and it's worth a look, too. Eh. I'm tired. I need sleep. Will be posting tomorrow afternoon Australian time, hopefully... if not, eh. Just can't be buggered with much this evening. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 9:11 PM [x] :: |
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 Which Sesame Street Muppet's Dark Secret Are You? brought to you by Quizilla Snuffy's Suicide Attempts Poor baby, life is rough for you, huh? No one seems to see you, no one notices your pain--except for your friend Big Bird, but he's alway off hanging out with his other friends. You wish you were him, all happy and curious and popular and bright yellow. You feel like his shadow anymore, like the only reason you exist is to amuse him. It's hard being somebody's imaginary friend. But stop trying to kill yourself--imaginary people can't kill themselves. Sorry. And hey, maybe tomorrow you'll feel better! Someday people will see you, I promise. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 8:22 PM [x] :: |
| l Friday, December 13, 2002 |
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<glares at American citizens>
Hayden's watching The Fellowship of the Ring. I'm not speaking to people who get The Two Towers before me. I have to wait until Boxing Day. and you get it next week sometime. So not happy. p.s. Faithgirl, you wanna know what to put on a card for me? Aragorn and Arwen... if you want you can throw in Boromir, but I can live without it at the moment. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 1:36 PM [x] :: |
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I said to people yesterday that I would be around Friday evening U.S.A. time... but I'm not going to be. Sorry, people... I have a massive family Christmas gathering I forgot about all weekend -- extended family on my Dad's side all get together and exchange gifts etc., and it's at my grandparents so there's no internet access. Will have to chat next week!!
Have I mentioned how much I love and adore Molly in the past couple of days? Molly: If you get through Captain Cardboard, I promise you can get through ANYTHING. That's my theory about all TV shows. Smurfy: lol Smurfy: I couldn't get through Spuffy, though Molly: Well, that's okay. You didn't have mass quantities of hallucinogenic drugs available to you. It happens. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 12:05 PM [x] :: |
| l Thursday, December 12, 2002 |
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I just refound one of the old Christmas sites I used to frequent, and... well... it's so cute I'm going to link to it in an actual post. The link will go in the Christmas links section on the next layout (have a look at it here) but go look at The Elves In Black, commissioned at the beginning of Christmas to protect the Spirit of Christmas. Armed with their elfen intellect, tools, charm, and good looks they defend the Spirit of Christmas against naysayers, Grinches, Heat Mizers, Scrooges, and here lately pure commercialism. They are sworn to secrecy and must abide by the EIB code to be unseen and not abuse their elven gifts.
So cute!! :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 9:07 PM [x] :: |
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Brother H hired out We Were Soldiers last night.
I didn't watch it... much. I watched some of the deleted scenes, and was very happy I skipped it because even they had me in tears, even without the emotional charge of the film's background on the characters. I cry at anything. Anything. I spent my childhood... okay, childhood story here. Sit back and laugh at Smurfy. I always get involved in films, books, and so on. I think I've said before how I laugh loudly etc. When Lady and the Tramp was re-released in the mid-80s, my mother took me to see it. You know the part where Lady is exiled from the house? I stood on my seat and screamed at the cinema screen that "SHE DIDN'T DO IT!!!" I may have related that story before. Then there's how I hid under the seat in The Big Bird Movie. How I still haven't seen all of Return of the Jedi or The Empire Strikes Back despite watching them more times than I can count, because I hide under the couch in the lightsabre battles. It took until the re-release in the cinemas in 1997 for me to watch Obi Wan get cut down by Darth Vader; I may have seen all the films through once, but after that left so I didn't have to watch it. I fast-forward through the scene at the ball in Ever After when Danielle is discovered and Henry abandons her. Every Sunday as I was growing up, we would go to my maternal grandparents house for a roast dinner with my aunt and uncles and my cousins. This lasted until my grandmother died when I was 12; she went to the hospital the Sunday before due to asthma, insisted on coming home late that evening (she hated hospitals) and called us Monday morning -- my mother was in the shower and I answered the phone. That was the last time I talked to her, she collapsed later that day and went into a coma until she died late on Wednesday. Anyway, every Sunday we'd go for dinner. Every Sunday, we'd watch Dumbo on VHS. Every single time, I cried when Dumbo went to visit his mother. You know the one, the scene with the lullaby. She's rocking him in her trunk and there are all these maternal scenes... I have it on CD now, and I still cry when I hear it. Anyway, film and TV easily manipulate me. I've cried in way too many episodes on BtVS, although none as I did in Becoming. I don't think even IWRY matched that. But I've cried in one too many episodes of BtVS. Like I said, I'm easily manipulated, and you know those films with the farewells at the train-station? I'm a sucker for them. So often, the way a film is trying to manipulate the audience is obvious to the point of ridiculousness. Like when Spock dies in The Wrath of Khan, when Kirk realises just in time his seat's empty and runs through the corridor... I can't help but laugh. I've grown up with songs in Disney, too... like in Toy Story 2 as Sarah McLachlan starts to sing When She Loves Me. Usually now, it's the subtle pieces in the acting that will get to me in a scene. The look in the eye, or the bittersweet smile. What gets to me in Becoming is the look in SMG's eyes as she realises what she has to do -- the way you can actually see the horror and dismay in her eyes, the moment she suddenly remembers that this isn’t the sweet reunion she so hoped for. Sometimes, however, something will fall through. Sometimes I will fall for the clunky, overwritten scene. I don't even have to like the character. I can hate them like crazy, call them the worst character ever, a one-dimensional piece of cardboard, but give me a piece of emotive music, and I'll cry for them. I may have been screaming at them for being a bastard, for blaming the girl for their own failings and insecurities and DUH!, I may have been screaming at the best friend for being an absolute arsehole and what the fuck does he know about the price of tea in China and once in a lifetime?! PLEASE!! That's if you're lucky!!!!!! but I'll still cry, no matter how ashamed I am of the tears and how fucking happy I am for the character to be leaving because it's about bloody time. Are you thoroughly embarrassed at having had anything to do with me -- ever, at any time? So I'm glad that I didn't watch We Were Soldiers. I've already cried for Marc Blucas once, and I'm ashamed of that. Even if this case would have actually been deserving of the tears, we'll just say the cases cancel themselves out, okay? :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 1:37 PM [x] :: |
| l Wednesday, December 11, 2002 |
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Both in the same theme, but hey. Christmas pics ;)
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Okay... sudden disturbing images. Someone linked to this blog doing a Google search for "Christmas & Cards & Soft & Porn". Anyone else seeing very strange images of Santa? <shudder>
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| l Tuesday, December 10, 2002 |
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I'm sitting here watching the season finale of Smallville... Clark and Chloe are off to the formal. It's sooooo sweet... and he's going to go off and save Lana. Grrrrrrrrr.
But watched the wedding scene... lmao!! Talk about subtext and hoyay!! I've decided to worship FortuneCity instead of Liquid2K. Because they're MUCH nicer. So nyah! to Liquid2K. I'll leave these icons up for a couple of days, and then change over to the Christmas layout. Buffy fans tend to curse Joss Whedon. But I'm afraid that -- oh, God, he just... sigh. Chlark. Sigh. Anyway, where was I? Rick Berman Sucks Ass. Go read Wil Wheaton's entry on the Star Trek X premire and what's happening. Rick Berman has ruined Trek... yes, he was okay with DS9 -- bloody brilliant with DS9 -- but Voyager and Enterprise are CtS season 3 and 4, just longer. And now he's done this to Wil. There isn't a Trekkie who doesn't curse Berman's name, and now there's an 50,000 monkeys at 50,000 keyboards who wouldn't break if they saw him crossing the road. Shame, Berman, Shame. edited: he just fucking left her. Yeah, I would have been upset if her left Lana to die, but poor, poor, poor Chloe. Waaahh!! edited again to avoid three postings on the same day  What obscure band are you?  What Obscure Animal are you?  Take the Purrsonality Quiz!  Who are you? Mum's watching Ally McBeal (actually, she's watching Jon Bon Jovi, but to do that she has to watch Ally) and I'm bored. We finished one of the Advent Workshops today. No photos have been developed yet. I'm bored. I hate time-differences and even Kendra's gone to bed. I think I'll go and watch the Snow Falling on Ceders DVD I hired out. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 7:19 PM [x] :: |
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Leelee, sweetie, congratulations. You are the inspiration for this entry!!
Yesterday, in a comments section, Leelee responded with the following: contrary to the beliefs of many people, I would love Christmas without the presents. I love Christmas music and the snow and when the Charlie Brown kids sing and they all go "loolooloolooloolooloo..." and I want to take home every toy from the Island of Misfit Toys! I want to wear Grinchy slippers and figure out how to grin like he does! I love shopping for someone else and being so excited for them to open their gift, you forget to think about yours. *sigh* I love Christmas! See, Leelee and I have alike Mings when it comes to Christmas, unlike some ::cough::Jen::cough:: For me, Christmas is more than Santa. Yes, I come from a religious family, and a large element of Christmas for us is the Birth of Christ. We run children’s programs talking about the story of Christmas, my father writes songs that get used around the globe (a friend of a friend was in America one Christmas and heard a song from “Montrose in Australia”, and yes, it was one of my Dad’s), and Christmas, when I was growing up, was something we started to prepare for as soon as Easter was finished. When you run a children’s program like we did in Montrose for 400 or so kids, you need to start to prepare early!! For me, Christmas is about the spirit. This is going to be one hell of a clichéd entry!! Yes, I love the presents. On a fantastic album by children’s musician Peter Combe (Peter Combe’s Christmas Album, © 1990), there’s a song that goes: Christmas Ever is here again My family all know that’s my song. But you don’t just open up the Christmas gifts. I’m 21, and I still put a sack at the end of the bed for Santa Claus. Don’t laugh, it’s the truth. Mum and Dad don’t give us a present anymore, it’s all from Santa, but most of the fun is running into Mum and Dad’s room on Christmas Morning before Church and opening up the gifts in there. I just get upset that Mum and Dad won’t open their gifts from me then; I’m impatient, I want people to see what I’ve given them. I love going Christmas Shopping, trying to find the perfect gift. And I always spend more than I can afford, because I know this person will adore this gift. Christmas is about family and friends. Going to see family (it’s the one time of the year we get to see them, although we saw them at my birthday this year), and spending time with friends. Revelling in love and friendship. Yes, I’ll admit that even thought to me getting gifts isn’t important, my Christmas is still fairly materialistic. It’s sitting around the Christmas table with my family, reading the bad jokes in the bon-bons, my father giving me hell because I’m not eating the ham (we don’t really eat the turkey or goose) and pork, drinking apple-cider and spending quality time with each other. It’s sitting around the Christmas Tree laughing at the cat playing in the paper. It’s going to church and wishing everyone a happy Christmas, and watching Dad do a ridiculous Christmas sermon (we have tourists here then so he hams it up). Christmas is love so palpable you can pick it up and wrap it around you. When I was 11, we spent a summer in Tasmania, where Dad had what we call a “field placement”, learning ministry in practise with another, fully-trained and ordained minister. We spent the summer living in a guest cottage with about six rooms. The people who owned this cottage, where I shared a room with my two brothers, lived next door, and to get there we would squeeze through this tiny gap in the fence. They had a rooster that would wake us up in the mornings, and whenever I smell a certain scent that comes into bloom in summer, I’m transported back to that summer. On Christmas Evening, after us children were put to bed, Mum and Dad went next door for Christmas drinks. They tell the story that the husband there kept topping up their glasses without them realising, until at 2am they looked over and there were four or so empty bottles of champagne in the corner, finished between the four of them. They staggered back home, struggling through the gap in the fence and did the Santa thing. Mum and Dad had told me emphatically that we were not to get up until it was light outside. I didn’t have a watch, but you know that grey light that comes at about 3-4am in summer...? Oops. For me, Christmas is joy, love, and remembering my childhood. It is watching people open presents, and feeling the love glow around me. That’s why I love it so. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 1:02 PM [x] :: |
| l Monday, December 09, 2002 |
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Okay, one last thing... there's a fantastic interview with Wil Wheaton here that all geeks should read. It's got a lot of stuff on fandom wars... from Federation vs. Klingons, Star Wars vs. Star Trek, LotR vs. Star Wars... I think that anyone involved in fandom will understand a bit of what he's saying (Spykester especially). There's some fantastic humour in there, but I'm a massive Wil Wheaton fan, so nyah! My Wesley crush has gone a full circle.
Perhaps my favourite quote there is the following, although it's really hard to seperate them all... he's talking about Star Wars: Episode II, btw. While we were in line, there was this palpable sense of excitement. It was electric in the air, you know? I remember the total anticipation. We'd seen the Special Editions, and we were ready for this, you know? So we go inside, and the music starts, and we scream as the crawl goes by, everyone's going insane, and then the movie starts. About half an hour into it, it's like, this is going nowhere. I don't care about these characters, this isn't interesting to me, there's the whole Jar Jar Binks thing, which remains inexcusable to me. All of my friends agree on this fact; that you have to see Episode II to appreciate Episode I. Well, I call shenanigans on that; I think each movie should be able to stand up on their own. You don't have to see A New Hope to appreciate Empire, and you don't have to see Empire for A New Hope to be a great movie either. You don't have to see Two Towers for Fellowship of the Ring to be a great, GREAT movie. It is inexcusable to me with all the time, the money, with the power of the franchise, with the millions of hardcore fans, for Lucas to put out a sub-standard movie that requires viewing ANOTHER movie for it to be worth your time. I love this guy. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 9:08 PM [x] :: |
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Beware; Smallville entry ahead, as opposed to the usual Buffy-related one; although this is also about Buffy, the character. What? I'm a BuffyWhore and proud of it!!
Actually, I often wonder what the people that click through from the Blogger front page thing when they come across this Blog. Because if you hate Buffy, you're in trouble. Or if you hate Christmas. I've been reading Vatrixsta's Smallville fanfiction. All two pieces. I'll admit that I've avoided it, mostly (purely) because it's Lana-based. Love Lex, but when it comes to Lana, well... Let's just say I have issues with her. I'm trying to figure out why. Because reading through Vatrixsta's pieces (and they're amazing) I can also see why she likes the girl. I can see, because when she writes Lana, yes, there's a number of "my parents are dead" mentions (like you can escape them to keep her in character), but her issues... are very much like the same issues that Buffy has. I don't deny that Lana has issues. I don't deny that Buffy has issues. Some would say that they both whine on about them. So why do I identify with Buffy and not with Lana? Is it because I'm older now than when I started watching Buffy? I started watching BtVS in the Australian summer of 1997/1998, when season 1 started. When I was 16, the same age as Buffy. Is it because I could identify with Buffy then, at that age, and I've grown up now? (that last statement is open to debate, btw <g>) My dislike of Lana could lie in the old Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman obsessive fangirl who always lurks close to the surface as far as Smallville is concerned, and can only seem to be overlooked when it comes to Chloe. The fangirl who insists that Lana was evil etc. because of those old days drooling over Dean Cain and jumping up and down in agony and God, to just remember that Tempus Fugitive episode... ahem. Sorry. I've heard people all over complain that Buffy, as a character, is selfish and whiney and generally completely narcissistic... yet I don't see it. I feel that she doesn't complain enough, that people expect too much of her, and that she's entitled to have issues with everything she's been through. Yet I can't do that with Lana. Her whining annoys me to death, and if I hear one. more. time about her parents death (really? I didn't know that?! Fancy her parents having died!) I think I'll scream. I'm a BuffyWhore, but I despise Lana. And I can't figure out the differences between them, and this is starting to piss me off. In other news, saw a LotR advert again today. If anyone wants to call channel 9's 1902-number for tickets to the New Zealand premier before 11am E.S.T. tomorrow, the answer is Modor. But I saw Aragorn just go through those doors and... <drool> Seriously, I started salivating. Why is he so sexy in this film, with the unshaven, longish hair and all, and so... well... okay, he's still hot outside the film, but nowhere near as drool-worthy. I feel the need to go read more LotR slash now... 16 sleeps until Christmas, 17 sleeps until The Two Towers. And I still haven't managed to see Harry Potter yet. Buffy, Smallville and Lord of the Rings. What more can you ask for in a Blog entry?! edited because I'm hyper I sent the following email to Suck This and Searing Pain at Boils and Blinding Torment: You guys know I love you, right? You know how often I come via your website? You know I worship your icons, right? Well, it was agreed that not even they would ask me to suffer the funny syphilis (thank God) and you can see the results at http://www.boilsandblindingtorment.com/newicons.htm :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 7:28 PM [x] :: |
| l Sunday, December 08, 2002 |
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Today was just a lovely Sunday.
The weather sucked (I'm wishing the damp, cool air was in Sydney at the moment... although the sea-breeze wouldn't be any help to them, it couldn't be any worse than the hot, dry wind they've got fuelling the flames), but I spent it doing little things. Like writing Christmas cards. Watching the Edinburgh Tattoo on the ABC. Drinking coffee. Reading Indie fanfiction (I was going through files and came across A Cleansing Fire, and then had to reread all of Domestication... such a trial...). Writing The Night Before Angel (I'm parodying The Night Before Christmas). Yeah, I didn’t make it online, but I just had such a marvellous time doing nothing that you'll have to forgive me. Mum and Dad are at a Youth Service at the church, and now I'm off to finish taping what I'm calling "Smurfy's Christmas Guide to a Hyperactive Midget". I don't know if Dawny will like getting a Christmas card from me <weg> Speaking of which, I think there are still some people who need to give me somewhere to send them a card... You Know You've Had Too Much Coffee When...
And if I'm about there today, where are all you poor people coming up to finals...? :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 5:47 PM [x] :: |
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 Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You? brought to you by Quizilla Memo al-Qaeda: want to bring Australia to it's knees? Start another couple of bushfires. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 8:39 AM [x] :: |
| l Saturday, December 07, 2002 |
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I love the Saturday paper.
It's always amusing, it's got Baz Luhrmann interviews, it's got the fun-to-read columns... I wish we got The Age instead of The Herald Sun, but I must admit to enjoying the Saturday paper. I was reading the book reviews in the Saturday liftout, and the main one, the one that takes up half the page, I suddenly realised was a book called Once More, With Feeling. Now, as a Buffy addict (even if I hate Joss and all thing M.E.), this is pretty bloody cool. "Oh, my God!" I exclaim, "They're reviewing the script for Once More, With Feeling!!! They never review stuff like this!!!" That should have been my first clue. I started to read the review, and got the second clue (I would have clicked if I actually looked at the authors that it wasn't what I thought it was, but who can be bothered with that when they're going to read a review of the BtVS musical's script?!) "Victoria and Charlie are best friends who, together, review hard-core porn movies." Wha-wha-wha?!?! I mean, I know that season 6 can go under the category of soft-core porn, but what-wha-wha?? I look at the book's actual information, and register that it's "by Victoria Coren and Charlie Skelton". Not Joss Whedon, unless he's using strange pseudonyms. There's also a picture of a woman putting $100 notes in her bra, which kind of didn't make sense in terms of the Buffy musical. Perhaps it's something only a Buffy fan could find amusing. But nevertheless, I find it immensely funny (bordering on hysterical) that there's a book out on the porn industry and DIY films entitled Once More, With Feeling. To read the entire review, click here. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 12:38 PM [x] :: |
| l Friday, December 06, 2002 |
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I can't remember what I was planning to say today. I think it was something about a Christmas spent in Tasmania. However, I've kind of been completely and utterly sidetracked by the news of Glenn Quinn's death. Brother H (the 15 year old) is watching The Princess Bride and I can't seem to get interested in it; I've just been aimlessly surfing.
I had been contemplating whether to, after Christmas, buy AtS season 1 on DVD (yes, I can own IWRY on DVD and I don't) or BtVS season 5. IWRY or The Body, Forever and the magic of The Gift. I think I just decided that I need Doyle on DVD. (I know I'm getting BtVS season 4 on DVD from Mum and Dad... they're giving me Biley over IWRY?!?! Sheesh. Talk about not knowing me!! Although I will be able to skip over every scene with Riley...) But in any case... R.I.P, Glenn Quinn. You will be remembered... and missed. If Liquid2K was up, I'd post a picture, but guess what's still down <sigh> :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 8:25 PM [x] :: |
| l Thursday, December 05, 2002 |
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I just sent this to Jennem, but I wanted to share a favourite with everyone who's madly studying for finals :) Thinking of you!
Twas The Night Before Finals Twas the night before finals, And all through the college, The students were praying For last minute knowledge. Most were quite sleepy, But none touched their beds, While visions of essays Danced in their heads. Out in the taverns, A few were still drinking, And hoping that liquor Would loosen up their thinking. In my own apartment, I had been pacing, And dreading exams I soon would be facing. My roommate was speechless, His nose in his books, And my comments to him Drew unfriendly looks. I drained all the coffee, And brewed a new pot, No longer caring That my nerves were shot. I stared at my notes, But my thoughts were muddy, My eyes went ablur, I just couldn't study. "Some pizza might help," I said with a shiver, But each place I called Refused to deliver. I'd nearly concluded That life was too cruel, With futures depending On grades had in school. When all of a sudden, Our door opened wide, And Patron Saint Put It Off Ambled inside. His spirit was careless, His manner was mellow, He started to bellow: "What kind of student Would make such a fuss, To toss back at teachers What they tossed at us?" "On Cliff Notes! On Crib Notes! On last year's exams! On Wingit and Slingit, And last minute crams!" His message delivered, He vanished from sight, But we heard him laughing Outside in the night. "Your teachers have pegged you, So just do your best. Happy Finals to All, And to All, a good test." - Chad W. Sclove :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 3:56 PM [x] :: |
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Liquid2K is still down. I'm tempted to storm their offices <sigh>
You may notice there's some new features in the side-bar. Note that there's no cool little picture above it. Liquid2K is still down. See me rant on that. And I want to be able to show off the new pictures I wanted to go on there before I changed over to the Christmas layout :( But I don't know if I'll get to because I want to change over by the 13th December, Liquid2K willing. Yes, there's a reaon why I want it to be changed 12 days before Christmas <weg> I had a doctors appointment today which started late and finished even later... and was a little distressing. But good-distressing, so things should hopefully improve a little. I hope. We're all a little tense here at the moment, as things get stressful with Advent Workshop and all the services and our own Christmas preperations and family who don't understand... Mum was storming around the house on Tuesday, so the cat and I ducked for cover and hid in the bathroom. Murder or be murdered seems to be the theme, and stay out of harms way whenever possible. It's a miserable day here today. We've got rain, which in drought-stricken times I adore... but the rain is horizontal with the wind coming in straight off Bass Straight. I'm very happy to be inside, and I think I'll get myself some tomato soup and a toasted cheese sandwich in a moment... :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 12:53 PM [x] :: |
| l Wednesday, December 04, 2002 |
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Liquid2K is still down. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Next week is the season 1 Smallville finale. Last night Clark asked Chloe to the Spring formal... the look on her face was just so sweet. I just wanted to kill Clark because I know he's going to run out on her in the middle of it to rescue Lana "My Parents Are Dead" Lang. Did you know her parents are dead? I didn't!! But people thought I was having a fit as Clark asked Chloe to the formal, with the little squeaks I was making. It was sweet!! And the look on her face... <sigh> But next Tuesday evening, as soon as Smallville ends, I know I'll be at ff.net reading Molly's fanfiction for therapy purposes. :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 7:33 PM [x] :: |
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Jennem sent me to find my vampire name. VERY interesting ;)
If I use my RL name... The Great Archives determine you to have gone by the identity: Sorceress of The Ghastly Known in some parts of the world as: Scourge of Bats and Shadows The Great Archives Record: Slipping amongst the shadows, flitting between dark places, always quiet. If I use "Smurfette of the Purple"... The Great Archives determine you to have gone by the identity: Sorceress of Gomorrah Known in some parts of the world as: Semiramis of Bats and Shadows The Great Archives Record: Slipping amongst the shadows, flitting between dark places, always quiet. I'm sensing a theme here! Of course, I could have been Sorceress of Sodom, which would have been very amusing!! :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 6:39 PM [x] :: |
| l Tuesday, December 03, 2002 |
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My favourite band is no more.
Midnight Oil occupies a position that no silverchair, no george, no Something for Kate, no Waikiki, no Cold Chisel can ever knock them from. And now Peter Garrett has left, ending the band. :( :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 8:40 PM [x] :: |
| l Monday, December 02, 2002 |
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We've put up our Christmas tree.
We have to use a plastic tree in our household, as a real one tends to set off Mum's allergies. We used to have a Real One when I was little, but the pine tended to drive her sinuses crazy, so one year we just succumbed to the plastic fake. Which is a pity, because I love the smell of a Real Christmas Tree, but it drives Mum insane. Nowadays, I think the cat would eat it, too, so perhaps it's of the good to have the plastic monster. We also get to put it up on the first Sunday in Advent, too, when a Real Tree would have died by Christmas if we put it up then. The current Christmas tree is our second plastic one. The cat before Jasper, Sooty, killed the last one. Sooty was a farm-cat, and we got him as a kitten just a few months before Christmas. He nearly didn't survive that first one. We'd be out of the room, and suddenly we'd hear this jingling-noise (we have lost of bells on our Christmas tree). We'd go into the lounge area, and the tree would be shaking. He'd be in the middle if it, caught in the tinsel and lights, and in the most awkward position to drag him out of as he tried to hang himself. We wound up with an almost invisible Christmas tree as we built a barricaded with cardboard boxes to protect both the tree and the suicidal cat. The cat survived; the tree didn't. Because Jasper likes to climb a lot, and because he's not allowed outside to get this out of his system, for his first Christmas we decided to get a Real Tree, and Mum's sinuses would have to live with it. We knew he's very inquisitive, as he's got both Siamese and Burmese in him, and he loves heights. His scratching pole is over six feet in height. With all this in mind, we got the Real Live Christmas Tree, and left all the breakable decorations in their boxes for the move we were going to make at the start of January. The tree was higher than the roof (our Canadian friend Barney would have been proud -- he goes to buy a Christmas tree and they say "the tall ones are in the back, Mr. H"... he has a ceiling about 10ft high -- literally -- and usually the tree touches the roof) and it doubled over. Because we were leaving, there were a number of functions to attend so everyone could say goodbye to my parents. It was a country town, and Dad kind of cared to the pastoral needs of the entire town, as the local Anglican and Catholic churches didn't have a priest in residence. We'd send Dad off to get two litres of milk at the local supermarket, and it would take him three hours, with him counselling the local vineyard owners and the wheat farmers and everyone in between. He listened to the concerns of a country town that was dying as all the children left to go to the city. The pews in the church were always half-empty, and those that had people sitting in them were a blur of grey hair, yet when we left the entire town -- schools, community organisations, everyone -- mourned. Anyway, we got back from one of these functions, and found the tree lying across the living room floor, and all the presents. The fishing line attaching it to the roof had come down with it, and when we put it back up in was a sad looking tree indeed. It kind of died when the cat knocked it over and broke most of the presents we'd bought over the year for family and friends. He was not in the good books. He's tried to run off with half the decorations so far; he loves tinsel and the other materials in our crafty decorations and pipe cleaners (or chenille sticks as they're called now) are never safe around him. Thankfully, this house isn't as open-plan as the last and we can block off the rooms with the major decorations when we're not home. In other news, I think I owe everyone something along the lines of a Symposium Wrap-Up, don't I? I'm nearly finished typing it up, so it should be around soonish. It's taking a while because I've been avoiding it, I'm sorry. It's not easy and it's taking effort and I've been very busy. But it's being done. Should be soon. I hope. I was hoping to have it ready to post with this, but time has been an issue. As anyone I try to chat with will hopefully realise (won't be on tomorrow, either). Just as a warning of how I know you all will feel before long...  Oh! And editing coz Boils and Blinding Torment have got a Connor and Cordelia tribute in the form of their hilarious LJ icons. Go and see!! :: Smurfette blogged for peace @ 7:29 PM [x] :: |
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