renate.nu

I’m just wondering, because your book series is being butchered.

What’s left of the Southern Vampire Mysteries in True Blood? Nothing, nothing except the barest of bare bones.

There are vampires living among humans. They feed on synthetic blood, mostly (speaking of though, have any of you noticed any True Blood at all so far in season 3?). Sookie Stackhouse is a blonde waitress. Eric used to be a Viking. Lafayette is gay. Sam is a shifter. There are werewolves.

That’s it, isn’t it? All the rest is just…what is that shit. I don’t… I don’t even know. I mean, sure, artistic freedom and all, but come ON. The vampire’s one major weakness being that they can’t be outside in the daylight, but then, ALAKAZAM, Beehll can. And wtf with the fae. What. The. And Russell being all “PUNY HUMAN WORMBABIES. I EAT YOU FOR BREAKFAST. NO, SERIOUSLY, I DO.”

I think my reactions to the latest episode (I know, I know, after the last one I should’ve just stopped, but it’s like a trainwreck, I can’t make myself look away) can best be summed up in this lovely little strip of images:

Pardon the craptacular quality, they’re taken with the webcam, in bad lighting. Still, I think they make my feelings clear.

Tumblr is much more fun than “regular” blogging these days.

Please be advised that this is an excerpt from an e-mail to Bre, and my e-mails to Bre tend to be disjointed and full of bad language, in more ways than one. They’re more like a stream of whatever thoughts hit me at the moment, broken up by links to images. Bre is very privileged to receive these e-mails from me. ;)

Also; newest True Blood ep? Wth? I don’t like what they’re doing to the characters. Sookie is all “FUCK YOU FUCKING BITCHES IMMA FUCK YOU UP WITH MY POWERRRRS” where she should be all “oh fiddlesticks, I done gone and got me some powers, ya’ll”, and Bill is all “oh I wish I could have known you when you were young and beautiful and liked butterflies and rainbows” where he should be all “IMMA FUCK YOU UP LORENA”. And of course, Eric, who has gotten his gay on like whoa. I do kinda like the sidestory on his family though.
And I don’t like Alcide, either. He’s such an asshole. And Debbie, whaaat. She’s obnoxious in the books, sure, but in the series she’s now all white trash redneck whore gone bad. In the previous episode (or the one before) where she was all “I WILL CUT YOU!!!!11″, I just… I just…what. What. Tell me they didn’t go there. It was just…what. See? I’m at a loss for words. True Blood has made me stupid. :(

And just to include at least one of the images I included in the e-mail:

(This isn’t another Harry Potter post.)

Alright, so. Young MC – Bust A Move.

Your best friend Harry has a brother Larry
In five days from now he’s gonna marry
He’s hopin you can make it there if you can
‘Cause in the ceremony you’ll be the best man

If Larry is getting married, and Harry is his brother, then why is ‘you’ the best man? Seriously, if I was Harry I’d be totally pissed off that my brother chose my best friend to be his best man instead of me.

Or is it a guy thing, like, Larry is so embarassed to ask Harry to be his best man, cause it would be one of those soppy moments where they’re all “dude, I love you the MOSTEST, brahs forevah!”, so he just asked Harry’s best friend instead? Doesn’t Larry have any friends of his own?

Or is it actually Harry who’s getting married, and Larry is just thrown in there as a bit of extra information? Because, if you know a pair of brothers called Harry and Larry, then you know that’s a family with no imagination at all, and then you’ll know what kind of wedding it’ll be. So really Harry is all “yeah, my brother’s name is Larry, but by a stroke of luck I’m getting married, will you be the best man? Please remember to rehearse the pink and yellow songs with clever rhymes in them.” Unless it’s planned by the bride and her family, but then, if she’s marrying boring Larry, then who knows, she might be a stick in the mud herself.

As the later lyrics clearly state that the reception was jumpin’ though, I suppose it was a rather fun wedding after all. Good for you, Harry or Larry.

I had this thought just as I was falling asleep last night, and lo and behold, I managed to type it down on my phone (thank you, AK Notepad). It made for some interesting reading this afternoon when I opened the notepad to write my grocery list, heh…

Ok.

So.

Harry Potter. They use owls to send messages.

The internet. We use Twitter to send messages.

Now, the internet is rarely (never?) mentioned in the Potterverse, but one has to assume that it exists in the Muggle world, at least. BUT. If there was a magical www (wizard world web? wonderful wizardly web? web (of) wizardly wonders?), and they had a Twitter-like service, it would, without a doubt, be called:

HOOTER.

Get it? Because birds tweet, and owls hoot! Oh gosh, late night brain, you did it again.

Seriously? The latest season of True Blood is just one continuous string of wtf.

WHY IS THE WORLD SO MEAN TO ME.

No, I’m not really going to whine. Not really.

Only, the thing is. When we got our preliminary tax return papers, we found out that we’re in for a whopping return this year, which is a nice change of pace, because usually I get money back, but Tor owes. So imagine our glee when not only do we both get money back, the amount is a LOT more than we’d dared hope for.

So we’re eagerly counting the days to June 24th. Well, sort of. We were looking forward to it, anyway. So we splurged and got a new home theater system, completely with Blu-Ray, which is awesome awesome awesome, and the new sound is OH SO GOOD and makes me jump all the time because it’s just so CRISP and CLEAR and WHOA DID YOU JUST MAKE A SQUEAKY NOISE?? NO, IT WAS THE MOVIE, BUT IT SOUNDED SO REAL.

Sorry about that. I really love good picture and sound when I watch movies. It warranted a bit of caps.

So yes, tax return money. We’ve already spent some of it before actually having it, sort of – I had the money in my bank account, because I’d just gotten my vacation pay, which was also insane and awesome all at once, so at least we didn’t have to use the credit card.

But then the 24th rolls around. I get home from work, there’s a letter for me. Tor tells me to not open it, throw it away, it’s not good news in there, I hate this stupid letter.

I open it. It tells me that I won’t be getting my tax return money until October. SO SORRY, SINCERELY, TAX DEPARTMENT.

Well, shit.

But here’s where I turn it into something positive:

• We have quite a bit of money right now anyway, because of vacation pay. And, because my boss is away on holiday and I fill her position while she’s away, I’ll get 5 weeks worth of HER salary level instead of my own.
• There are no huge bills coming up.
• We’ll have lots of money in October, a time where we usually have just a normal amount. We might be able to afford a long weekend in Krakow or Berlin or someplace like that!
• The state has to pay us the interest on the money, and their interest rates are better than the ones we’d get in our own bank.

So really? Unless they suddenly decide that we’re not getting any money after all (God forbid), this is a GOOD THING.

See? Not whining! GOOD THING.

The other exam that I was even more worried about?

ANOTHER A.

Also, thanks so much for all the comments on my previous awesome-post. :)

Because you know what? That first exam that I was so worried about?

I got an A.

:D :D :D :D :D

Or, well, I don’t have my vacation time until August, because I’m super nice and let everyone else take their pick before me. Also, I have to be present at work when my boss is not so that I can be the boss, but at least I’m compensated by getting the same level salary she does. Whoo!

Anyway, it feels like vacation time because when I come home from work now, I can do whatever I want. I don’t have to read anything unless I want to. There are no papers to write. Of course, I’ve written two long blog posts over at my Norwegian blog, one of which is about studying, and I have another one started about why the world needs historians/humanists in general. But there are no deadlines, and no one to pick on my choice of words and my at times ridiculously long sentences. HAH.

And also? It’s SUMMER. I’ve been out several times in short sleeves in the last couple of weeks. And I have popsicles in the freezer. It’s awesome. It’s summer.

Also also? We might go to Hawaii next fall. ALSO AWESOME.