Lilly

Bones got good again!

I've been skipping Bones for most of the year. Season 10 left me feeling singularly uninspired. But it's summer time now, and frankly there isn't much else to watch, so I thought ... Why not?

And guys ... it really did get good again. It's as if, when the writers finally spotted the the finish line they decided to put everything they had into the last hundred yards.

I don't know if they can keep this up for their truncated 12th season, but I'll be there to watch when it airs, and I haven't cared enough to do that in a while.

So. Anybody have any thoughts about the finale?
Placid Lake

Dr. Who 50th

Okay, now that's just not fair. It's still 10 days until the episode airs. I'm already on pins and needles, and now this comes shows up on YouTube. I knew it was coming, but I didn't expect it this early. Guh. Mind = blown.

I wish I had a Tardis. I'd absolutely jump forward to the 23rd.
Placid Lake

Bones 9.06

I was wary going into this. TPTB haven't been trustworthy for a long time when it comes to characterization, especially for Brennan, and I've wished repeatedly that somebody would please, please, point to early seasons Brennan and say, "See? See? That's who she is. That's how you write her character!" With few exceptions, last season was horrible for Brennan being all stiff and wooden and just ... wrong. And season 7 was worse. But last night's episode, though granted it did contain some cringe worthy elements, was delightful.

[Spoiler (click to open)]I'm generally not a big fan of self-written vows, even in real life, and when they turn up in one of my shows I usually want to cover my eyes and look away. It's all so personal and intimate and ... exposed, if that makes any sense. And I guess maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. The intimacy of it, I mean. But I could never be that open in front of a big group of people, no matter how much I loved them. That said, the way they did it for B&B felt ... right. I loved Brennan's, "I can be a duck" line, and while I'm a little bit skeptical that the letter she read as part of her vows was something she would've actually been able to articulate way back in season 2, I loved the sentiment of it and that it felt so very, very true to what Booth is and has always been in her life.

So overall, well done, Bones. And now, it's with a bit of a sigh of relief that I look forward to "everything that comes next."
Mountain Meadow

Karma. We hates it, Precioussssss

I spent my entire day yesterday scrubbing my front deck from top to bottom--siding, floor, windows railings, spindles, the whole shebang. Today's job was to get back out there and freshen the deck stain on both the porch floor (covered) and the half dozen steps leading up to it (not covered). I just finished this about a half hour ago and came inside, aching, tired, but generally satisfied.

You know what happens next, right? At least, you'd know if I told you that it takes 24-48 hours for deck stain to dry completely. That's right. It looks like it's going to rain. It isn't supposed to rain today. Really, it isn't.

But because I stained my deck, it's going to rain. Guaranteed.

Tired homeowner is displeased with Mother Nature at the moment.

You know what I think? I think that if she does make it rain she needs to get herself down here and fix the mess she will have made.

*shakes threatening fist at the sky*
Placid Lake

LJ being stupid

I got notice from LJ today that my paid account is due for renewal in a couple of days. I noticed that they're going to bill an expired credit card, so I figured I'd pop over and update the information so there wouldn't be any problems with the renewal. LJ, being ever helpful, had included a link in the email they sent me that supposedly would allow me to do just that, so I'm thinking no big deal, right?

Wrong.

I clicked the link and got a Page Not Found error.

And I can't get to my membership through their home page, either. Everything takes me to the same "Page Not Found" goat.

You wouldn't think they'd make it so hard to pay them, but there it is. Does anybody have any suggestions?


eta: Bah. Spoke too soon. Got to the main account setting page that you linked to, but as soon as I clicked "manage" I got page not found again. *grumble*.
Placid Lake

Things Wot Make Me Happy

I reconnected with an old friend today. She's a fannish friend whom I'd lost touch with and frankly had little hope of finding again. She was the one who introduced me to fandom, nudged me into writing my first fic, and then cheered me on all the way through that terrifying first publishing ordeal. I don't really know exactly why or how we lost touch. It probably had something to do with the confluence of real life and dying fandoms. At any rate, I had a dream the day before yesterday about finding her on MSN Messenger again, so when I woke up I went looking. I was disappointed to discover that Messenger no longer exists and that Skype (which apparently ate Messenger? I don't even know) doesn't recognize my old user IDs or passwords. I figured that was it, technology's way of telling me I should let the past sink quietly into darkness.

Still, on a whim I shot off a query to an old email address I managed to scrounge up. It was one I knew she rarely checked (she hates email almost as much as I hate the telephone - or at least she used to), but I couldn't just let it go.

And guys! She emailed me back!

I am, quite possibly, giddy beyond what might seem appropriate for my age.

There are many reasons why I don't trust technology, but right now? I could hug it.
Placid Lake

Account Rename

Just a heads up to anybody who has me friended or who visits my journal. LJ finally purged the user account I've been waiting on, so you'll see that the 2 has dropped from my id. You should redirect automatically to the renamed account, but if you've bookmarked the old ayiana2 account name you may want to update.
Placid Lake

Bones Fic: The Truth Between the Lies

As ridiculous as Pelant may be, the finale is the first episode in a long time that's made me at all interested in writing fic. It's been a long dry spell, and it feels good to be back at my keyboard, despite the raging (and mostly ignored) to-do lists howling at my shoulder.


Title: The Truth Between the Lies
Author: Ayiana
Rating: PG
Pairing: Booth/Brennan
Word Count: About 3,000
Spoilers: 8x24
Author's note: So. I'm super rusty, and free time isn't what it used to be, so it's taken me far longer to finish this than episode reaction pieces used to. My indomitable beta reader assures me it's readable, but the final decision on that point is yours, dear reader.
Author's Note 2: As ever, my continued and heartfelt thanks go out to TK, the aforementioned indomitable beta reader. Writing wouldn't be half so much fun if you weren't around to harass me every step of the way.
Summary: How close can Booth get to Pelant's line in the sand without crossing over? How do you balance five innocent lives against your entire world?

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Placid Lake

I am weak

Note: I'm not cutting this, because it doesn't have any significant spoilers in it. That said, if you've yet to watch the season finale of Bones and don't want to risk coloring your opinions, you should maybe not read on. That said, on to the post.

**********

Bones. *sigh* What am I going to do with you, Show? You break my heart, let me down, frustrate me, thwart me, bore me, and exasperate me. And what do I do? I come back for more, of course.

Pelant (one l, not two. Why is that so hard for reviewers to remember?) is hands-down the worst (and not in a good way) big bad that HH and company have ever concocted. He's more suited to a Batman movie, or even Iron Man, than to Bones. The man's positively invincible. He can go anywhere, do anything, see and hear everything ... He's so over the top it'd be laughable if it weren't so infuriating. It's as if with every villain HH and company create they have to one-up themselves in the lack-of-credibility department. The Gravedigger was awesome. Until "he" turned out to be a "she" and we were all left scratching our heads and trying to figure out how the heck she managed to get an unconscious Booth out of his apartment and onto a doomed military vessel without anybody being the wiser. Gormogon was creepy as hell ... until he somehow managed to recruit Zach to the dark side. So see, I've known, almost from the beginning, that HH/SN et al are simply incapable of writing believable bad guys. They just can't do it.

So why do I keep coming back? Because every time I deem myself ready to turn my back and walk away they throw me a tiny little sliver of perfect that reels me back in. I'm so hungry for those moments, which were scattered liberally throughout the early seasons, that seeing one, just one, in this entire season is enough to make me plan on tuning in for the start of season 9.

I am, as I said, weak.

It seems I will tolerate all manner of deeply flawed writing and horrific characterization for a single hug. But at least there's a catch. I have that much to my credit. It can't be just any old hug. It has to mean something. It has to have heart. We got one of those in the finale, and I think it may be the only one we got all season, though granted there are probably half a dozen episodes I've not gotten around to watching.

That one hug, and the way Booth says, "I'm okay," will have me tuning in to see what happens in at least the first episode or two of season 9.

But Pelant?

He has to go.
Country Roads

The stupidity. It burns.

Guys.

I just ...

*Insert muffled scream here.*

I work part time with a local after-school program. Part of our service includes picking kids up from school. Yesterday my employer got a telephone call. My co-worker, who drives one of the school vans, was seen texting while driving. He had 12 kids, ages 5-9, in his charge at the time.

Really, C? Really?!?

Needless to say, C got fired.

And now I have to take on more hours because my boss isn't keen on trying to find the right person for C's job when we're just a couple of months out from the end of the year.

I'm exhausted just thinking about the next two months. I was barely keeping up with everything (my kids, my studies, my private tutoring clients, my job ...) as it was. And as of now work means, not 2-3 adults for 60 kids, but 1-2. The extra money will come in handy. The extra stress? Not so much.

*Sigh*

Stupid people annoy me.