'The thought of thee waits hidden yet bright, but it must never, never come in sight...'

[marguerite_krux]

I don't really buy into the whole 'things happen for a reason' thing. I don't think we need to suffer in order to truly appreciate the value of life. I think people could manage just fine in a world without extremes like earthquakes and tsunamis, and still manage to appreciate everyday joys and pleasures. Death and destruction has no value to those it affects personally, and it leaves little impact on the rest of the world. I've heard about natural disasters befalling other countries and apart from a moment of sympathy and pity, it didn't linger with me. Not til Samoa.

I am so lucky that we're in little danger of earthquakes and such here [although my parents refused to buy a property in Torquay because they were concerned about being close to the sea- never know when the tectonic plates might decide to rebel on us and usher in an unexpected disaster]. It was so nerve-wracking turning up at Ma's and hearing about the tragedy that had befallen Samoa. With such a small population, it was inevitable that someone our family knew would be affected- and we found out that Ma's cousin died that day.

We were glued to CNN and other news networks the whole afternoon, and actually saw her nephew talking about how they were rushing to evacuate after the earthquake, with all these people crammed into the truck and others on the back, but the tsunami was too swift and ended up sweeping his mother and their housegirl off the back and carrying them away. That's just- that's literally one of my nightmares, I had recurring nightmares about being sucked into the sea when I was a kid, and hearing him describe the horror...*shudders*

I was totally freaked out on a personal level- which sounds horrible, considering all the people affected- because my cousin Lisa just came back from Samoa after doing some work experience with her father. The only loved one I've lost was Pa, and that was after a long battle with cancer, so his end wasn't unexpected, and thinking that Lisa could've been- ugh. I had a frantic moment of 'OMG, is Lisa back?!' and then a sigh of relief when I remembered she was. [Haven't seen her since she returned what with exam prep happening, gah]

So, the phone lines were down, I think, which meant there were some intense text-messaging sessions going on between here and there- in addition to my aunt's ex-husband and his family, there was also my uncle's ex-wife and their daughter to check up on. [Yeah out of four children, two are divorced and two are married, with a male-female sibling in each pair- very neat statistics, huh?]

Anyway, it turned out that the area they live in wasn't too badly affected- things got broken and such, but there wasn't too much damage, and Lee, my cousins' little half-brother, thought the whole thing was such an adventure, when they were evacuating the area. *eyeroll* Little boys, of course he'd find it exciting.

I don't want to be disrespectful or seem like I'm trivalizing the lives that were lost and others affected by what happened, but it was kind of funny when the news was showing images of Samoa, and Ma kept scoffing in the most disgusted tone imaginable, 'That's not Samoa, that's American Samoa!' The networks were American, I guess, so they weren't focusing on our Samoa, but the territory of the US, lol. The whole time, she kept going on and on about the images purporting to be of Samoa when it was American Samoan. It's the kind of distinction only natives would care about, lol, like Fiji-Indians and India-Indians.
---

I am so ashamed.

"Stephenie Meyer's vampire series has become Australian children's favorite book series, ending Harry Potter's two-year reign...[it] managed 15,400 votes compared with Meyer's 39,000."

My state recorded the second-highest total of votes with 22, 893 votes. *facepalm* I just- I cannot fathom what kids aged 5-17 are doing reading this! I mean, there are primary school kids wallowing in this- this abomination. *sputters* Learning how romantic it is to be stalked and emotionally abused...*head!splodes*

To cheer myself up from what would otherwise be a debilitating state of frustration, I quote you this:

Twilit

"Hey!" Hermione protested as Severus snatched her book away.

He flipped through it, his sneer growing progressively deeper.

"How can you read this? It's utter drivel. The writing is juvenile, the plot practically nonexistent, and this male lead..."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Right. A pale, sulky, guilt-ridden guy with a sketchy past who spends his days surrounded by idiotic schoolchildren until he falls in love with a brown-eyed brunette who's way too young for him. Who could ever find that attractive?"

Severus snapped the book shut. "I do not sulk. Nor am I, if you haven't noticed, a vampire."
---

I'm gonna be so behind all you guys on the new eps, damn it. Once the exams are over, I'm having a massive d/l session- Criminal Minds, Castle, House and omg, Merlin's back! Why did nobody tell me?! But on second thought...while reading the summaries, I'm kinda turned off. Evil!Morgana, Arthur/Gwen...gag. Methinks I'm going to cut my losses now, rather than truck on in the hopes it'll be kind to me.

Mentalist season 2 opener.

 

So, The Mentalist has returned! My love for it is as strong as ever but omg, I must say that Jane is a bit of a jackass in this ep. Ma was definitely feeling rather disenchanted.

I don’t watch for plot, so it didn’t really bother me that it was about as deep as a puddle, lol, I just sat back and enjoyed Jane’s shenanigans. Not to say that I condone them, because he is such a wretch to keep playing his games. I am on Lisbon’s side, I do feel so frustrated on her behalf because she’s ultimately accountable for him and she’s had people questioning her judgment in relation to him and it’s not fair that he keeps putting her on the spot even when he KNOWS that she’s between a rock and a hard place.

And then he goes and intimates that the team will get nowhere without him. That his genius is entirely responsible for their success. The really sucky thing? He’s right. The way the writers have constructed the foundation of this show, the CBI cannot actually solve a case without his spookily accurate skills of observation. The deck is stacked in his favor, so there isn’t any way that the rest of the team can succeed on their own because the writers won’t let them. It’s bloody annoying, because Lisbon is so intelligent and the rest of the team is capable as well, but the premise of the show is founded on Jane being the one to lead them by the hand, keeping them in the dark the whole time.

Still, the only redeeming point of him being an ass is that- SQUEE- we get an apology hug! ZOMG! I waited all last season for the little moments like the trust fall and the ‘I want to feel your face when you smile’ moment and then in the very first ep this season, we get a hug!

That- kinda scares me, actually. It suggests that this is to lull us into complacency before they spring something really nasty and hideous on us. I’m getting suspicious now, wondering what they’ve got planned that they had to write in the hug to keep us happy. HMM.

But lol. The look on her face when he grabbed her. My mind immediately assumed he was doing it for nefarious reasons, like picking her pocket or something, and I waited the whole episode to find out what his motive was behind that hug, but apparently there wasn’t an ulterior motive! Color me stunned!

It’s interesting how open he is with her- he apologizes for the earlier insult, admits he was in the wrong. They’re a lot more emotionally available with each other now, it’s squeeful [and concerning, because I have a lingering predisposition to assume the worst of writers, even when they’ve treated me well].

And they’re a lot more physically comfortable as well. Lisbon may not have responded to his hug with sheer joy and delight, but she didn’t threaten him. *nodnod* She didn't groan or pull back, just let him hold her! That says something!




Later on, he grabbed her arm to check her watch- while this action made her huffy and got him scolded last season, she was totally okay with it here.

Btw. Did he REALLY call her ‘Grumpy’? Like, ‘Let’s get back to Sacramento, Grumpy’? For serious?! Do mine ears deceive me? Is this like their form of affectionate nickname, because it reminds me of the ep with her birthday, when she was all stand-offish with him ‘coz she thought he didn’t care about her birthday and he was calling her grumpy all day long.

Also. There wasn’t any hint of a previous romantic relationship with the new jerk, I wonder if they scrapped that storyline?

---

So, Criminal Minds season 5 opener.




Emily's new hairstyle! The JOY!



Notice the lack of season's 4's heavy fringe!
I didn't exactly hate it- hate is a strong word- but it took a long time for it to grow on me, and I only accepted it because it was Emily's, and I love her. I forgive Hotch his hideous tie choices, so I can forgive her the unfortunate hairstyling choice, y/y?



See how the side-swept 'do opens up her face so much!
Her expressions are way more accessible, we can actually see cute forehead wrinkles without a meter of hair in the way!



Profile shot, just 'coz. How lovely is she?!

I'm so in love with her nose now. It's funny, I was totally with the general notion that large noses are unattractive [with all the self-loathing associated with having one myself] and now, with Snape and Emily, I've swung the other way.

Which is not to say I believe myself to be the epitome of beauty, I'm not that self-deluded, but I'm not contemplating nose surgery anymore, so that's a plus. Anything that makes me more content with myself is a good thing. *huggles fandoms*




Women wielding guns= UBER HOT. My logic is undeniable. [Heh, I need to watch I, Robot again sometime]



Subtle signs of ship. *shipper!heart explodes with joy*




She bails on the case to sit by Hotch's bedside. Aww! A tad unprofessional...



...but I don't blame her.

Asshole!father was an asshole. What kind of moron wastes precious minutes ranting at an agent about how much time he's wasting when if he'd kept his mouth shut, the call would've taken only a moment?

And besides, Hotch needs some love. I've been saying it forever, thank you, writers, for finally paying attention!




Eye!sex...*wriggles*

Hotch's last chance at a normal family life is shattered.



Oh, look, Hayley and Emily get on. Too bad for fanon, which has them at each other's throats. You know, I liked Hayley prior to the whole shrieking shrew episode, which was so badly contrived just to get rid of her. I thought divorce was enough, but apparently TPTB disagree.



Witness Protection? New names, new jobs, new lives? Wow. Drastic.
I'm rather impressed with how well she took it. No screaming at him for ruining her life. Just a few dignified tears, understandable given the circumstances, and even some concern for Hotch.

"What about you, are you going to be safe?"
"He wants to see me suffer. Knowing that my son is out there and that I can't see him is better than killing me."




This is the worst thing the show could've done to him. Even what he went through with Foyet was nothing compared to this. Seriously, are they trying to send Hotch into a spiralling depression, culminating in a psychotic break and possibly a shoot-out at the BAU? They took him  away from his wife and child, and now they're permanently removing them from his life. HARSH.

Damn show ships Hotch/Rossi. I hate you.





It's always Rossi that goes to straighten Hotch out and vice versa when one of them's foolishly and needlessly blaming themselves for someone's death. I've never seen so many self-flagellating, guilt-stricken perfectionists on one team before. I really don't like how the show constructs its interpersonal relationships- it's always Hotch/Rossi, Reid/Morgan...where's the love for the girls? Always the bromance, no time for chicks, ugh.

Also, their track record with ships stink. Reid/JJ was a go and then she ends up married with a kid. Then there was Morgan/Garcia, except the latter's now in a long-term relationship. *shakes head* It's like they deliberately set out to toy with shippers and then mess with the established dynamics.

The physically impossible gunshot wound.





So, the shooter's presumably aiming for the dude's heart, right? Or chest area in general.




HOW IN THE HELL DOES REID GET SHOT IN THE LEG?!

[Leaving aside the fact that this is HOTCH's ep and yet Reid still has to have his moment of woobie-ness. *eyeroll* I know, I know, MGG did his knee and they had to write it in, but it's so typical]

IS THE GUY FROM 'WANTED'? DID HE BEND GRAVITY TO HIS WILL? CURVE THE BULLET? WTF?!

Unless Reid flung his leg up in the air as he tackled the dude, there's just no way that wound ends up there. Come on. He'd have to be ballet dancing to get shot like that, okay? Not. Possible.

Shooter demonstrates his astounding lack of intelligence.




Only a person possessed of a colossal level of stupidity allows them to grab the gun! How hard is it to go, 'Don't move or I'll blow your head off'? FFS, control your targets, numbskull. You have the gun, the power's in your hands, what do you want to go letting them get a gun for?!




SEE, this is what monologue-ing gets you. An equal playing field. GOOD JOB.

I will quote the relevant parts from the Evil Overlord List.

* Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

 

 

* I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.

 

* When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say, "No." and shoot him. No, on second thought I'll shoot him then say "No."

* Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter [alter this to 'idiotic monologues' for this situation]. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly.

* I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.

If this were real life, this would have a tragic ending.





Reid demonstrates the sissy way to shoot. Yeah, he's a hotshot, lol. I love him like he's my little brother and I rag on him accordingly because dude, EYES CLOSED, FOR SERIOUS?! He's lucky he didn't wing an innocent civilian! What are they teaching at the Bureau these days? *snickers*
-

I'm torn between d/l ep 2 of Castle or CM later. I'm hearing good things about Em/Hotch interaction, so...HMM. *ponders* Well, when I say 'good things', I mean people are whingeing about how much attention this pairing's getting and praying it doesn't go down the romantic route. So I'm betting it'll make me happy. *smirks*
---

Vidspam.
'k, I know almost everyone on my flist is familiar with Xena.
I know about 90% of you have absolutely no idea what The Lost World is, but um, for the few of you who do, guess what I spent my weekend polishing up? I was inspired by a Teyla version of the Xena opening credits, and decided to create...Marguerite: Warrior Princess. Just for laughs. ;P

 

Comments

[mcgarrygirl78.livejournal.com]

Dude I'm telling you, forget Castle and d/l CM.....it is totally worth it. Phenomenal episode, as I was not overly impressed with the premiere, and subtext so off the chart its not even subtext anymore. Bernero made up for 3 years of Hotch treating Emily either like a piece of furniture or his Starsky in the field and then a piece of furniture.....I was losing my mind. You must see it.

I am glad your family is going to be OK and I agree with you that people dont need major disasters and general unpleasantness to realize the goodness in their lives. But often people are so busy just trying to make it from Monday to Tuesday and from work to home to bed, we dont even take a breath to even have 5 or 10 enjoyable moments of squee. We dont dance or sing too loud or kiss someone we like or have dirty thoughts or eat donuts. I mean, we do but we dont do it often enough.

And I am not saying plague and pestilence are going to suddenly make us not have to pay Visa or take our kids to soccer practice but I think people should start focusing on the little miracles. At the same time people use disasters like this to totally stop being responsible or to justify having never been that way in the first place. I hope I'm making sense. I guess what I am saying is there are things that need to be done everyday......the annoying grown-up stuff or school stuff and then there are things we need to make sure we take time for like fic, friends, and fun. Maybe everyday it wont be possible but we just need to find time.

Sorry for the tangent : )

[luisa-f.livejournal.com]

I think the disasters are a reminder of how pissed of mother nature is with with us for what we've done to the planet, a wake up call.

There is this legend that says that the city I live in was built over a lake and one day there will be a huge earth quake and earth will swallow us all. i don't know why I'm telling you this but since we're on the subject of natural disasters.

must say that Jane is a bit of a jackass in this ep

Only a bit? I would have shot him, what a jerk. But I won't deny I love the back and forth with him and Lisbon, and I love that she left him there after his little "you can't live without me" speech.

I lol'd at the HP thing, but I hate HP and to me it's crap, probably worst than Twilight because with Twilight people acknowledge its badness, but there are people who hold HP as if it were some kind of high standard to be met, the book series to end all book series, eh, no.

[carolune04.livejournal.com]

First off- Did I know you watched Castle?? No I don't think so..news to me..I knew you were awesome ;) But OMG when you get around to watching it, it's FAN_FUCKING TASTIC!! It's like I've forgotten all about my other shows except Castle & The Mentalist..they've taken over my life.

OMG The Mentalist! The Hug!! I saw a promo for it & posted in my lj & got all my J/L shippers in a tizzy over it & posted a clip pretty much afterit aired (I'm canadain so I got the premiere early)

Later on, he grabbed her arm to check her watch- while this action made her huffy and got him scolded last season, she was totally okay with it here.
LOL I thought this too when it happened. I am SO STOKED FOR NEXT THURS EP!! I will have clips up right after it airs I'm sure!!!
Will you be doing your picspams again? Oh how I've missed them

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear most of your family is safe. Sorry about your mom's cousin.

The Marguerite: Warrior Princess vid - Cute. :D

*hugglepounce*

[alyssa22.livejournal.com]

You need to see the second ep of CM. OMG. It's better than the first one. Seriously check it out.

Sorry to hear about your mum's cousin. It's just insanity over there right now.

Agree on Twilight. OMG. The horror. I'm not a Harry Potter fan, either. Too old for it, I guess, but from what I've heard, Twilight is badly written drivel!

[streetcatx.livejournal.com]

I so agree with you about The Mentalist.

The deck is stacked in his favor, so there isn’t any way that the rest of the team can succeed on their own because the writers won’t let them. It’s bloody annoying,

I think about it all the time when I'm watching the episodes. Sometimes I wonder how the hell Lisbon become a senior agent when she never understands who's the killer without Jane's help. It's more than annoying, it's hard to believe.

[woodchoc-magnum.livejournal.com]

It was terrible to hear about what happened in Samoa. Sorry to hear your friends/relatives were affected. *hugs*

Re CM, so all in all did you like the first episode, or were you expecting more?

I'm so glad the writers are finally throwing us Hotch/Prentiss shippers a teensy little crumb. Well it's not that teensy, it's like half a cookie, but still. :) It makes me happy.

And Reid's gunshot wound, THAT'S WHAT I SAID!!! How? How? Did he... Is he... HOW???

And you should TOTALLY download CM. It's so much more awesome than Castle! Do it. Do it. Hotch & Prentiss will thank you. :) :) :)

[spence-reid.livejournal.com]

Castle rules, but CM was REALLY good this week. Just sos you know.
I'm sorry about your family's loss. *hugs tight*
AND REID RULES. : )

[mere-dil.livejournal.com]

Hey Annie! long time... missed your post.. I was on my summer vacation..
how is it going with you?

I'm all squeeing for TM coming back .. *sigh* how I missed those two .. and what better thing to see is that they improved their writing style for the episodes.. I think they actually giving the cast a little more time and intelligent mind games too (Cho's and Rigsby's trick to Harlan's mother was a total joy to watch I was like "how proud Jane would be of those two bwahaha) but you know I'm still a bit bothered about NOT showing Lisbon's bright mind yet.. seriously! what made her that great agent, surely Minelli didn't just found her writing him a parking ticket and told her to come work for the CBI!

why do I get the impression that you didn't Sam Bosco? I liked the way he handled Jane .. remind of a bit of Lisbon in the pilot..

anyway, The Scarlet Letter was a really good episode.. action packed.. impatiently waiting for Red Badge and angsty Lisbon (ughhhh! 4 days left)

[kat-rowe.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about your Ma's cousin but at least you didn't lose anyone else *hug* The only thing worse than losing family is losing them unexpectedly in a disaster *hugs you more*

Twilight? *shudders* Just no comment. DUMB series and, even if reluctant vampires weren't done to death, do they all have to be maladjusted pedophiles as well? Cute fic exerpt, though :)

I like the Mentalist, but you're right about the writers. I hate it when good shows fall into those traps *sighs* But the hug was sweet and the physicality seems like less of a deal between them now. I'm a sucker for relationships (and not just romantic ones) where two parties just randomly don't bother with physical boundaries

Grumpy *pets them* too adorable :)

Prentis is lovely. I never noticed her nose until you mentioned it but I like it :) Snub "button" noses have never done it for me. They look too much like you just ran face-first into a sliding glass door or something

And her and Hotch do make a cute couple :) I never understood the ex-wife hate. For one thing, even regular FBI Agents have a hard time keeping their marriages intact. In a high-stress field like profiling, it's even worse from what I've read. I haven't seen all the eps by a long-shot but I remember one where he'd been working a child abduction and he shows up at her door in the middle of the night and is all "Please, I just need five minutes." And she lets him come inside and take comfort in the fact that their son is okay like it's the most natural thing in the world for an ex to show up like that. That says "good people" to me. Divorced or not, taking that away from him is like ripping his heart out

I don't mind the bromance, but there should be more sismance, too. Or at least more clubbing and humiliating posers ;p

"He'd have to be ballet dancing to get shot like that, okay?"

Depends. It was a long-enough barrelled gun that an inexperienced shooter might not notice the fact that it's dipping in his hand a little (i haven't actually seen this ep yet so i don't know if the shooter is experienced or not but in your cap he's making no attempt to line up his Sight). This is why i prefer my handguns short-barrelled and with a built-in laser sight, lol. That way you know you're aiming for the chest :)

I honestly think monolouging is the villain equivlent of natural selection. The ones who tend toward that behavior are obviously unfit baddies so nature selects against them *nods*

*hugs you*

[wickedandcruel.livejournal.com]

i still don't know wh ythe idiot put a tag right IN THE MIDDLE of the pic. It's not like it's super special or anything. It's the easiest thing to get. Go figure.

Also. There wasn’t any hint of a previous romantic relationship with the new jerk, I wonder if they scrapped that storyline?

I'm not sure exactly what they have in mind (maybe my prayers were answered and they actually read my discontentament with this crap), but it seems like it's going to be a light triangle. Bosco has feelings for Lisbon but she doesn't return them (according to the little article I read he's jealous of the attention Lisbon gives Jane and Jane's gonna be jealous of Bosco trying to get her attention or some other thing like that).

[lilsmiles86.livejournal.com]

ANNNNIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZ *tackles*

Okay, yes, season premier of Mentalist... Well said. I feel the calm before the storm happening.

*looks over at clock*

Holycaboodlesnitzerfud... I have class, I will continue my comment at a later time...

[dragonladyk.livejournal.com]

See, I was kind of proud of Reid. Because he got shot in the leg and not an ounce of "poor me" anywhere. If only his fangirls had as much perspective.

Oh, my ship, you are so almost canon. And "Haunted" only built on the almost-canon subtext. It's not even subtext. It's strikethrough text.

DragonLady

[odakota-rose.livejournal.com]

Firstly *hugs* I'm sorry to hear about your mom's cousin hun. We've been keeping everybody over there in our thoughts and prayers. The whole situation sucks, there's so much happening lately. *sadface*


The Mentalist is my brain candy lately, between that and Bones, I'm guaranteed to be a happy camper. Though, the one thing that does nag at me is just what you mentioned, that sometimes the whole thing seems a little too Jane-centric, and while he's brilliant and all, so's the rest of the team. Lisbon did have a career before him, including the McTeer case, a major one that she -gasp!- solved all on her own. Tonight's episode though? Once they got through the angsty omg-did-she-kill-somebody part? It was brilliant. You'll see what I mean at the very end, like the last couple minutes or so, it's awesome. One thing though? Me no likey Bosco. Hmph.
I still have to catch up on CM *fails*

Finally... Marguerite, Warrior Princess.
OMG. Seriously, OMG. You win at life. ♥
Those are awesome clips, and I love that you included some season one stuff, because it's awesome and where the magic started, etc, etc. Also, because I haven't got it on DVD yet, and I'll take whatever I can get ^^.