lillian13: (Default)
I was working at IkkiCon this past weekend and started to get that weird feeling in my throat. Great, another cold.

About every 2 years or so, I get these weird dry patches in my throat, which, if I don't catch them early enough, lead my body into Snot Production Overdrive. Sometimes it just hangs around for a few days, others (like this week), it decides to move into my lungs and have a party. So I've been a) hoarse, b) congested, and c) coughing, with side trips into d) sneezing, e)wheezing, and f) sore throat. Plus bonus tiredness and mental fog! No fever, no green stuff (so no infection). Just general crappiness. It's really annoying since I get sick so very rarely. My immune system is overclocked, I swear.

I did leave work a little early today; thank goodness it was quiet this week and I was able to work on some background projects that didn't require much brain power. Had to cancel my first session with the personal trainer (Jimmy). We met on Monday and I think this is a partnership that will work.

I have made my way through both seasons of Teen Wolf. What fun! And we have to wait until summer for new episodes?

Justified starts back up next week. I have missed Raylan and Art and Boyd and everyone very much.

American Horror Story continues to be an insane mess and I'm loving it.

Saw Django Unchained. Probably the best work Tarantino has done in years. Completely over the top but Jamie Foxx (of all people) and Christof Waltz (the only good thing about Inglorious Basterds) are great, and Tarantino's use of background music continues to amuse me greatly.

More stuff

Aug. 22nd, 2012 11:07 pm
lillian13: (Default)

The Austin Craft Riot show was nice. Load-in was easy, we had a lot of feet on the ground, and there was air conditioning! Sales were OK, nothing spectacular. I hope we do this again next year as it's nice to have an indoor show in August. They do need to redo the layout slightly to give us folks selling from tables some more room and a couple of escape corridors. I spoke to a couple of the committee members and they'll bring it up at the post-show meeting.
 
My neighbor was someone I vaguely remembered from my days running art shows at the Dallas Fantasy Fair/Fests. (We had a lot of fun making whispered comments, especially about the new trend in trashy clothing: Daisy Dukes--short-shorts--and cowboy boots.) And since she makes Tarot decks we did a trade for one of my necklaces and I scored a birthday present for a friend.

Got a lot of little things taken care of with the car and made an appointment to leave it with my mechanic while I'm at Dragon*Con to get the motor mounts replaced. Lucky I have that check for the pins, right?

When I was getting a ride to pick up my car at the shop we saw a police car pulled over but no other car. As we got closer the officer was talking to a guy. I turned and said "I bet he's walking around in his underwear and he's completely baked." Sure enough, as we got closer,. all he was wearing was a saggy sad pair of boxer-briefs and some Vans. And a really dazed expression. I now have another friend who thinks I'm a witch!

Only a couple more weeks until Knee Surgery #2. It can't come too soon. I can no longer extend my left leg all the way out, and now my lower back is giving me hell since I'm lurching again. Going through the airport for Dragon*Con is going to be So Much Fun.

I finally saw The Dark Knight Rises. It was interesting, when I could understand what the Hell Hardy was saying through the damned mask. It made me want two things: the Jonathan Gordon Levitt  Batman movie right now!, and to reread the Confessor arc in Astro City.

I also saw the Bourne Legacy.Bourne spoilers ahoy! )
lillian13: (Default)
....my goodness, I have been remiss in posting.

I am now walking much so better; only limping when I've sat too long and stiffened up (or when I'm tired). I finally have a halfway-decent-fitting swimsuit so I can start water aerobics next week at the Y in order to build up strength and flexibility in my left (non-surgeried) knee. It's still giving me fits, even though a cortisone shot to that knee a couple of weeks ago really helped.

I am working on a 115-piece commission for the World Science Fiction Convention--the committee for next year's show in San Antonio is providing my enameled pins to everyone nominated for a Hugo or a John W. Campbell award this year. So far I have 30 pieces finished and will get another 15 done on Sunday, and I hope to keep to the 15-per-week schedule so I can get them done in time to make new work for ArmadilloCon. And then the Austin Craft Riot has a show in August...and since I've already committed to run the Pegasus table at Anime Overload, I can't do the Austin Flea this time. Phooey.

My new workshop space is working out splendidly. My landlady has a portable AC unit in the garage and we've bonded over all sorts of things, including BBQ and pie. I'm still rearranging tools and I'm having some friends make me a smallish sturdy table that I can hammer and do chasing on. (And if anyone wants to get me an awesome birthday present, I could use 5-6 lbs of medium pitch from Northwest Pitchworks...)

Movies: I've seen The Avengers THREE TIMES (and would see it again!). Saw Prometheus. Still don't know if I liked it or not, but boy was that ever a Ridley Scott movie! MIB3 was pretty good; Brolin does an amazing Tommy Lee Jones. Cabin in the Woods was a great deconstruction of a horror movie. Waiting on Brave, Magic Mike, Savages, Spider-Man, The Bourne Legacy...Batman not so much.

Saturday: Went to the coin show today and came back with some doozies, including an Elvis coin from the Marshall Islands and a couple of amazing ones from Bulgaria and Russia and Greece. Got bread and peaches and tomatoes and mini pies at the farmers market and then I did the base coat of clear enamel onto 30 pin blanks. Hit Whole Foods for dinner and called it a day.
lillian13: (justified boss hmmm)

Got up kind of late and made my way to the workshop by about 1pm. Stayed until 7, cleaning and grinding metal, and laying on base coats of enamel so I can be all creative tomorrow. I'm filthy.

Anyone who thinks that making jewelry is this dainty, "nice" hobby had better not get downwind of me after a long day in the workshop. Phew.

Got the stitches out of my knee yesterday, and was told that the meniscus tear was really, really bad. As in a complete split bad. My knees have always been crappy, but a combination of lots of sports that work knees hard (fencing, martial arts, baseball) and my weight gain have done a number on the right one. I have the knee of a 70-year-old. Joy. So, unless I want the thrill of a total knee replacement in the next 5-10 years, I have to lose the weight.

The World's Best Niece and the OMG!Boyfriend saw Source Code last night:

spoilers hidden... )
tl;dr, go see it. worth the money.
lillian13: (Default)
http://io9.com/5478403/columbia-pictures-takes-the-bronze-in-new-pulp-revival


Oh pleeeease make this happen. I love Doc Savage.

Now if someone would make a real Modesty Blaise movie....
lillian13: (when you fall you fly)
I just spent an hour with the widow of a jeweler here in town, who is selling off his old equipment. Some of the stuff he had! I gave her a list of what I really wanted, and told her I hoped I could afford it. Her reply, "I'm sure you can..."

It's a bench. And a lapidary set up. And hand tools. *drools*

She's getting it all appraised next week, so hopefully I'll be hearing from her soon-ish after that.

*thoughtful* You know, if I'm able to cut and polish my own stones, I may never leave the workshop....

I saw District 9 on Sunday. A very good movie, one I'm still thinking about. Decent use of the shaky!cam, quite a bit of blood and gore (gratuitous use of Explode Person), and a lot to be thinky about. Two appendages up!

Going to see Inglorious Basterds tonight with the World's Best Niece. Then I have to bake a cake. :-)
lillian13: (Default)

My Big Nerdy Family and I saw Star Trek in IMAX today.

I was hoping to like it, but I looooooooved it, and now I want to see it again, immediately. I haven't loved a movie this much since Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Cut for HUGE spoilers )
lillian13: (lochness)

No, not email spam. Not even the kind that comes in a can. I'm talking Spamalot! This is the second time I've seen it, and I think it's two very different casts. The show I saw last night had Richard Chamberlain as Arthur. He was OK, but not as good as the actor I saw in San Antonio last year. I mean, I love Chamberlain, but he's just not...hammy enough to play the Monty Python version of Arthur. (It was Tim Curry's role originally, which might tell you something.)

However, that being said, it was a great time and I loved it just as much the second time as I did the first. The actor playing the main Knight who Says Ni! pulled a fast one on the cast--when he was making up the new name ("We're no longer the Knights who Say Ni!, we're...") he started singing "The Eyes of Texas" and making the Longhorns sign. The entire audience joined in, and the cast was just staring at us, probably thinking WTF? Is this a cult? I just about laughed myself sick. You could tell how comfortable they were with the show--there were a lot of little things like that. And the actor who played the main French guard was a hoot.

And now, Watchmen. Cut for spoilers, and this got long. )
I may write more later. This movie is still making me all thinky, several days on.
lillian13: (snail)

If I were cooler, I'd have my ticket to the midnight showing of Watchmen clutched in my hot little hand, and warning my boss that I'd be in late tomorrow.

But I have to drive to Dallas tomorrow afternoon (a boring drive at the best of times; purely annoying all other times), and help set up/run the booth at The Bataan Celtic Deathmarch NTIF and probably not collapse until 10 or 11 pm, and I would have done it without a thought when I was in college because man, seeing Watchmen up on the big screen first would have been totally worth it. *

But. Not in college. These days, when I'm an hour short of sleep, I'm cranky; I'd be worthless tomorrow. Probably run my car off the road and take out some road-texting hipster coming down early for SXSW. Not worth it, these days, just to say, "Nyah nyah, I saw it first!".

So I'll see it Monday, in a theater where you can eat dinner and not worry about little kids and talking patrons. It will be fun and amazing, but I'll still miss being able to say, "Nyah nyah, I saw it first!".


* God, I want to see this movie. I read the comic when it came out (when I was in college, heh) and was totally blown away by it. If only a fraction of that awesomeness makes it to the screen I'll be happy.
lillian13: (ronon-chibi)

I think Ronon would make a fine pirate, don't you?

Just for grins, my Favorite Pirate/Swashbuckling Movies of All Time (in no particular order):

Swashbuckler. Yes, cheesy, yes, silly, but come on, people. Rober Shaw! Genevieve Bujold! Peter Boyle! Geoffrey Holder! James Earl Jones! (Plus, Robert Shaw was in a TV series called The Buccaneers, which was released on DVD recently. Good stuff.)

The Adventures of Robin Hood. Remember,  I said Swashbuckling too. Errol Flynn, people! Technicolor! Swordfighting!

Captain Blood. Best Errol Flynn Pirate Movie Ever.

The Court Jester. Danny Kaye and Basil Rathbone, in one of the best send-ups of swashing and buckling ever done.

Pirate Movie. A pirate musical, with a lot stolen from Gilbert & Sullivan. Massive cheese factor, but the cast is amazing.

Muppet Treasure Island. Best pirate movie that year. Tim Curry and Billy Connelly in the same movie!

The Three Musketeers/The Four Musketeers. Hands down, my favorite Swashbuckling movies. The fight choreography is amazing, and the acting is excellent!

The Princess Bride. Best pirate movie with only one pirate (reluctant) in it. Plus, one of the best damn swordfighting scenes ever.

Any to add?

lillian13: (Default)

When you see this, post a Supernatural quote in your LJ.
Sam: Dean, there's ten times as much lore about angels as there is about anything else we've ever hunted.
Dean: You know what, there's a ton of lore on unicorns too. In fact, I hear that they ride on silver moonbeams, and that they shoot rainbows out of their ass!
Sam: Wait, there's no such thing as unicorns?

I love my show. :-)

Saw Burn Before Reading tonight, with the World's Best Niece and some of her friends for her 21st birthday. At the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, where I not only got fried pickles but the $5 Milkshake. At least I got the veggie burger, right?

Burn Before Reading was not the Cohen brothers' best, (hello, Fargo? No Country for Old Men?), but not their worst (Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty) either. I got the impression it was kind of hurried. It felt unfinished, somehow.  But everyone turned in amazing performances, especially Brad Pitt. Really!
 
I saw previews for W and Frost; both looked interesting, even though I'm not a fan of Oliver Stone at all. Milk looks amazing, even though I spent most of the preview explaining the history to WBN & friends. I almost didn't recognize Sean Penn.

Anybody in the market for a 4th Generation 20GB iPod? I'm going to sell my old one and thought I'd give my flist a try first.



lillian13: (Default)
 On a whim, I rented The Specials, because I love superhero movies. Kinda slow, then you realize it isn't about being a superhero, it's about being a person with superpowers. Plus, it has:

Thomas Hayden Church being pompous.

Rob Lowe with the best superhero name ever ("The Weevil").

Paget Brewster being Indestructible.

Blink-and-you'll miss them:

Michael Weatherly and Melissa Joan Hart.

It's pretty decent, despite being a bit off in pacing. Especially if you've ever played Champions. :-)
lillian13: (Default)

I saw The Incredible Hulk (with

[personal profile] dremiel) today.

Go see it! If you liked Iron Man, you will like this too. They whip past the origin in a really nice flashback in the opening credits, leaving us with Bruce Banner on the run. Man, Edward Norton is amazing in this. I cannot get over the fact that he can simultaneously be an Everyman and yet smoking hot. Liv Tyler is a wonderful Betty Ross--not a doormat (the previous Hulk movie) or a harridan, as they have been depicting her in the Ultimates comics. The in-jokes fly thick and fast, and there are a lot of shout-outs to the Old-Skool comics...that being said, even if you aren't a Hulk fan (and I'm not, particularly), you will still find it entertaining and enjoyable. The world-building that they started with Iron Man continues here--lots of references to SHIELD, Nick Fury, Dr. Samson, the Super-Soldier program--and I, for one, really like it. They are building a cohesive universe, and if they keep it up with Thor and Captain America, I will be a very happy little fangirl. The fact that Zack Penn is screenwriter for all of them bodes well.

We sat all the way through the credits, and saw no spiffy extra scene (though one close to the end might count...). However, I was told  by someone in Dallas that they got a teaser for Captain America at the end of their showing, so stay past the credits, preferably with your camera phone! I expect that footage to be up on Youtube very soon. (looks expectantly at the Internets)

We saw a preview for something I really want to see right now: Righteous Kill. Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Brian Dennehy, Donnie Wahlberg, Carla Gugino....man. [personal profile] dremiel and I decided that We. Are. There. (We're also There for the new X-Files movie, but that goes without saying.)

State of the Hand: Am now typing without the brace, partially because I'm getting a frakkin' rash on my forearm from sweating in the damn thing. Ahhh, summer in Texas, how I hate you. Grip strength still very low. Starting to bend the wrist just a leetle bit. Still no pain in the incision (the area seems a little numb, which worries me a tad), and I'm working the hand more, to get it used to getting back to work. I have a show in August (ArmadilloCon), and I need to start building stock for Christmas. 

Off-hand glass-blowing class starts tomorrow. Whee!

 

 

lillian13: (Default)
 I saw Cloverfield tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse, with the World's Best Niece. I definitely can see where those with motion sickness would have a problem. I have a slight headache, myself.


Also, my new toy catalog arrived today, aka the Rio Grande Tool & Equipment Catalog. I'll be in my bunk....

...and They Might Be Giants will be here March 5! We have tickets!

(I know, I know, link-happy much?)
lillian13: (ronon-chibi)
Have now seen two movies in the past week!

No Country For Old Men--this is the Cohen brothers in top, non-comedy form. This is not a kids movie, and frankly I don't think anyone under 17 or so should see it. It's extremely well done, and had me checking to make sure my Midland/Odessa area accent hadn't come back for days afterward. Very simple premise: Man finds money, others try to take it back--but handled by two masters. If this doesn't win multiple Oscars, I will be very disappointed.

The Mist--After seeing it, I can see why I got reviews from friends that said they loved it and friends who said they hated it. Very faithful to the novella (we are talking Frank Darabont here, who brought us The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption)--up until the end. Excellent, spot-on casting, and the damn movie had my legs tied up in that horrible "fight or flight" response that I had during Jurassic Park and Aliens

Looking forward to The Golden Compass and after seeing the preview for Cloverfield I admit I am intrigued. No desire to see The Poughkeepsie Tapes; as I said to my friend Trag during the preview, it looks like Blair Witch Project crossed with torture porn. Ew.

Then, tonight, less than a mile from my apartment, the car started overheating, with steam coming out from under the hood. I pulled into a spot at the complex just as the idiot meter hit the red; I couldn't see any obvious broken hoses or seals when I popped the hood. There was coolant everywhere in the engine compartment--it leaked out under pressure, that's for sure. On my brother's advice, I'm going to fill up the radiator in the morning and leave the cap off while I coax it to the garage. I really, really hope it's just a hose or a seal or something, but I never seem to get that lucky.

And I just paid the car off, of course. I guess I'm lucky it didn't burn up, as happened to a coworker last week (he and his son are fine, just scared!). 

ETA: It's a hose, and they also are replacing the thermostat. Getting the broken(!) hood latch fixed too. If there wasn't a major freeway between my home and work I'd just bike in--it's only 4 miles. (grumble)

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