#also getting into critical role is CRAZY there's like. 8 years of content. oh my GOD

[astrxealis]

watching neil newbon's stream rn and started watching critical role a bit earlier oh god

[beebleboosuwu]

I HAVE THOUGHTS

I mean everyone does but now that the Demo album has been out for quite some time now and everyone has at least listened to this thing probably more than fifty times, I wanna share some things!

Track One “The Whole Being Dead Thing 2014 Original Pitch Demo” - Obviously this one we are definitely familiar with, we have listened to the DC version of the opening number, over and over.. and over... and over again and this track does not disappoint. Lyrical cuts were made to the number yadda yadda to decrease the runtime yadda yadda we know... We can definitely tell which parts were cut due to the critics thinking Betelgeuse and this show was too crass. Which is insane might I add cause Betelgeuse is not sfw... It also combines both Part 1 and Part 2 of TWBDT. For the sake of musical themes, this number gives Betelgeuse one heck of a theme. We all know what his theme is, that guitar/synth in the background playing that ghostly, and for the musicians out there, off beat accentuation giving that Reggae feel to the piece and his catchy “lick” of “Hey Folks, beggin’ your pardon” to “Hey Guys, awesome séance” from his track. It’s his theme, it’s in your face and it works. From the lyrics of the demo, it seems to have taken place right after or around the Maitland’s fall hence why Betelgeuse implies that their death was, well... fucking boring. This piece holds nothing back when it comes to Betelgeuse breaking the fourth wall as well and it’s VERY noticeable when Betelgeuse thanks the audience for their applause then tells them to shut up. Fun fact about this song, the script writers had ideas for the opening number, and they definitely wanted Betelgeuse to sing it! After multiple submissions from different composers, they never found the right song for the Ghost with the most. Along came Eddie Perfect, after living in New York for quite some time, sent in TWBDT and Dead Mom (I think, I may be wrong) for free! The writers loved it so much, that Eddie was hired to write songs for the show. It captures Betelgeuse’s crazy and eccentric personality at full force. Back to the song, it is a perfect (pun intended) song that introduces Betelgeuse to the crowd and gives them expectations on what the show is going to be like cause the show is about death... duh.

Track Two - “Death’s Not Great 2015 Cut Original Opening Number” - Sung by Betelgeuse again, it has him as more in the role of a narrator rather than being a Guide in TWBDT, it is slower in tempo as well. Well its a ballad... could you imagine Betelgeuse calling out Eddie and the other writers that this song was hella slow to be an opening number then it just jumps into TWBDT? It would’ve been cool. Betelgeuse reiterates again that death sucks, also it’s very funny that it opens with a Church organ and bells ringing. Irony at its finest. In terms of musical theme, nothing really stuck and wasn’t really re-used again in a different way.  Honestly it’s not my favorite but it shows the creative mind of Eddie Perfect cause there is 4 GODDAMN OPENING NUMBERS THAT WERE WRITTEN... EXCLUDING INVISBLE. God damn this man worked on the opening number for basically 5 years! The musical writing process is hard people... Mad fucking props to him.

Track Three - “The Hole” 2015 Cut Opening Number” - It feels a lot more grim than the previous track. Again it has that ghostly reggae feel. Like TWBDT, Betelgeuse tells the audience that Death, well, fucking blows. He calls out multiple religions and points out that “The Hole” is the end of everything. Also it was a very funny touch to mention Prince. I loved that. MAY HE ROCK ON. It’s also repetitive but I don’t why there’s this thing that draws you in and it sounds very familiar. The guitar gives me “Fright of their Lives” but its much, MUCH, slower. I wonder what would the staging be like this for “Death’s Not Great” and “The Hole.” Also this song REALLY insinuates Betelgeuse’s lack of a musical genre, so far we got Reggae, Rock, Death Metal, Swing, Jazz and some type of.. elevator mush? I don’t have a word for it. I like what we have though and I’m very glad to hear the thinking process when it comes to finding an appropriate opening song for Betelgeuse.

Track Four - “Gotta Get Outta This House 2016 Opening Number” - GODDAMN IT’S ANOTHER OPENING NUMBER. EDDIE PERFECT YOURE INSANE MAN, HOW MANY SLEEPLESS NIGHTS DID YOU GO THROUGH WHEN YOU WERE WRITING THIS DAMN SHOW. Betelgeuse sings this again and it gave me that Defying Gravity climactic energy with the melodic tune of Barbara 2.0. Upon listening to the first 5 seconds, I really believed that I was listening to Barbara 2.0... Also the piano chords in the beginning sounded very much like Home. Obviously the musical theme was changed to fit other songs and it is SO GODDAMN AWESOME TO LISTEN HOW CUT CONTENT MIGRATED TO SOMETHING ELSE IN THE SHOW. Also that Chippewa line.... oh dear. May I say, Y I K E S. This song also implies that Betelgeuse has been haunting this area ever since the dawn of human civilization, like HE HAS BEEN THERE WHEN IT WAS STILL A GODDAMNED CAVE. Betelgeuse witnessed human history from a hill, this also implies that he had no “human” form.... Guess he was a blob or something? Or something that transformed into first humans’ deepest fears. Although the scariest thing on this Earth is actually humans... Anyway, there is this awkward break in the middle of the song.. Maybe it was for some dialogue or something? The ending also sounds eerily similar to the ending of Fright of Their Lives. 

Track Five - “Dead Mom Original Pitch Demo” - Our first Lydia song, it is very clear that this IS the demo. From the demo to the actual song in the show, the melodic line was kept and I’m very glad it was. LYDIA HAS A MAGIC 8 BALL, SOMEONE HAS TO DRAW THIS. There is not too much to say about this since most of its chords and lyrics were relatively kept the same.

PART 2 COMING SOON.

[grayintogreen]

I was not technically tagged, but at least two people on my dash were like DO WHAT YOU WANT NO ONE IS YOUR GOD, and you know what? They’re right and valid. 

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

96! And 90% of them are from just this year. Can’t wait to find out what the big 100 is gonna be. Any one of my WIPS could be Disney’s next 100th fic.

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

455,024 (also mostly from this year...)

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

In my entire life??? Since I was twelve??? I don’t even know, man. I wrote a lot of ooc crackfic and fic for cartoons when I was on FF.net, and then I was on LJ and wrote for a TON of different fandoms, but on AO3, I have written for Critical Role (so much CR), Yashahime/Inuyasha, Guardians of the Galaxy, His Dark Materials (TV), Steven Universe, Bleach, Alias, Supernatural, Dollhouse, Pushing Daisies (the last four were all transferred here from LJ, though)

4) What are your top five fics by kudos?

- turning wine back into water (Critical Role, de-aging fic with plot, 30457 words)

I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE HOW POPULAR THIS FIC IS. It beat out two of my super popular GotG fics that have been up since 2017 BY A LOT. Apparently, there was a market for the Mighty Nein being adorable cocktail brats and saving the world. Thanks, Liam’s Quest!

It is probably one of the most wholesome fics I will ever write too. I love it.

- Sunshine Came Softly (Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket and Mantis friendship, 3188 words)

THIS FIC STILL GETS HITS EVEN TODAY. It was written right after I saw the movie so it hit hard and fast on the hype train. 

- Mine Is Just a Slower Sacrifice (Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket-centric, 2248 words)

BOY YOU CAN TELL THESE FICS ARE ANCIENT BECAUSE I HADN’T DEVELOPED MY TITLE NICHE YET. where are the lower caps and Seanan McGuire lyrics!!

Anyway, this was written probably IMMEDIATELY after I saw the movie and had to process Rocket’s emotions during the last moments, because of who I am as a person. For what’s mostly a character study, it got some mileage on it.

- they drink dreamers up like brandy (Critical Role, 1625 words)

Back to Critical Role! I wrote this one when I was in a fucking blind post-finale haze and producing massive amounts of Kingsley content and I wanted to write a silly fic about Caleb being tiefling catnip. 

- if adversity breeds character (we’ve character enough for two) (Critical Role, Beau and Molly-centric, 1824 words)

I feel like most of my most kudos-ed CR fics are Beau-related, which is funny because I never really wrote her EVER. I guess I need to write her more often. ANYWAY, this one got jossed immediately after 141, but I needed to write Beau and Molly bantering and I couldn’t get her flipping him off after revealing her card is Rumor out of my head.

(Incidentally my sixth most kudos-ed fic is my Fjorester next gen fic, WHICH I WAS NOT EXPECTING AT ALL. IT’S A FIC BASED ON MY OC FANCHILDREN!! I’M VERY EMOTIONAL ABOUT THAT!!)

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Usually!! There are times when I forget and then it’s been so long that I never go back, but I like responding to comments. They make me so happy and I want to make sure the people who take the time to comment know that I see them and appreciate them. Especially if they give me long comments. You long commenters know who you are and I value you and also flail incoherently in your direction.

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

God, probably this church takes no conversions simply because, like, the whole ending scenes are MISERABLE AND FULL OF ANGST and then it has the hopeful ending that is actually a bullshit lie.

But second place probably goes to what couldn’t i offer, what couldn’t i give, which is just misery porn in disguise as a character study. Sorry, Cree.

7) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Okay, so back in the day when I was a tineh fanbrat I wrote a lot of self-indulgent crossovers featuring my friends and I in true Mary Sue format being ~saviors of the world~ alongside our favorite fictional characters and after I grew out of that, I very rarely did it again, because as someone who can only write AUs if they’re high concept and can only write crossovers if the canon welding is pristine, it’s difficult.

I have ideas for some! I just haven’t written them yet. Or they’re sitting in Google Docs partially written.

8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not to my recollection, which is insane, because I’ve written some things in my youth that deserved it, but also I was a kid, so maybe I definitely did not deserve it. Don’t send hate to kids!!

9) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

The first smut I ever posted on AO3 involved some fucking American Gods flesh horror shit, so that answers your second question.

Basically, yes, but I write smut to facilitate character development in a way that regular story beats can’t, mainly with characters who are in some way deeply fucked up and have unbalanced dynamics. 

So basically chances of me writing smut that isn’t Creecien or Lucigast? Very low. (I haven’t written Lucigast smut yet but I will. Inevitably.)

10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that anyone’s told me, but one time when I was a teenager someone ripped off an entire group messageboard RP I was in and tried to pass it off as a fic they wrote.

11) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that anyone’s told me!

12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I tried and it did not work out, because of (non-wanky) reasons, but it’s just not something I’d be very good at. I was the kid who wanted to work alone on group projects. I’m bad at group work.

13) What’s your all time favourite ship?

That I’ve WRITTEN??? Because that at least narrows it down significantly. Sesshoumaru/Rin hands down. It’s a good dynamic and they’re fun and sad at the same time. 

My self-indulgent ass does also enjoy writing Creecien though. I’m putting it out there because I want it.

14) What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

GOD POOR SUPERNOVAS OF ALL SOUND AND LIGHT. THAT FIC COULD’VE BEEN A CONTENDER, but I unfortunately posted it RIGHT BEFORE the White Diamond episodes aired and it became so jossed by canon so fast that I gave up on life with chapter two half finished. I need to delete it but I can’t bring myself to bury my shame.

15) What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and meta-narrative and character-specific stuff. I go into every story with CHARACTER FIRST mentality, which is how I end up writing so many damn character studies or why my word counts explode. I’m just out here naval gazing because I love character stuff SO MUCH.

I’ve been told I’m good at fight/action scenes too, which... Shocks me, but I think watching and playing a lot of D&D stuff has really improved how I write fighting and action sequences.

16) What are your writing weaknesses?

[whispers] too much naval gaze. dial it back, bitch. 

I get really caught up in character stuff and forget to do important things like ADVANCE THE SCENE OR DESCRIBE THE SCENE OR LITERALLY ANYTHING. I also don’t think my prose is all that great, but I’m pretty sure every writer feels that imposter syndrome bullshit, so /waves hands. All I’m saying is I have seen some writers on AO3 who are writing some fucking vivid imagery and stringing flawless sentences together and weaving introspection and description together like beautiful baskets and they are stronger than any US Marine and I salute them and wish to be them.

17) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Iiii try not to. There’s times where I want to throw in, like, a little Zemnian for Caleb flair, but I try to stick to things that are either untranslatable (like German compound words), common phrases (like please or come here), or insults/curses/ pet names. Things that I don’t think Google will fucking lie to me about.

18) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I think it was a Sailor Moon crackfic about Haruka being forced to enter a beauty pageant which was just a blatant rip-off of Ms Congeniality and oh my god was it awful. I don’t even wanna talk about it.

19) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

this church takes no conversions, probably BECAUSE it’s my little red-headed stepchild of a fic involving so many things that are just never going to make it popular (backstory fic, fic that is almost 85% headcanon, doesn’t involve popular characters, etc.), but godDAMMIT I love that fic so much. It was fun and I use every bit of that headcanon in almost everything like it’s my job.

shattered stage is a close second, because it was such a crazy concept for a fic that I PULLED OFF SOMEHOW and is this wonderful mix of crazy plot and character and lore and my three favorite tieflings having to work together. And also Jayne Merriweather as the main villain. 

A lot of love went into both of those fics and they are my babies. this time next year we’ll see if I add Creedemption and shoot at fate to this list- probably. All of my epic long fics resolve to be my babies because I spent so much time on them, and I have to love them and cherish them because I raised them into gigantic wordy attempts to write a doorstopper.

[rose-photoblog]

Thanks, Covid!

Well here we are. 8 months into a global health crisis, amidst incredibly heart wrenching yet deeply needed rounds of race uprising and a flittering version of our American democracy for all to argue about at dinner tonight! What a year to be grateful, isn’t it?? I mean, isn’t it, really!!

This year has been….hard, for all of us! No one has not been affected by some crazy, asteroid size feeling of life shift from the myriad of upsets this year; and we can likely also all agree that the word ‘upset’ is a vast understatement to the lives lost, jobs and homes uprooted.The unsettled, swirling and endless days, as the unmoored feeling of our worlds’ being turned upside down and inside out continues. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or even a poet to know it. The shit hit the fan this year and we are all part of the global clean up crew, if we like it or not. Thanks, Covid.

As a small business in the large event and wedding world, my little production company has been growing steadily into a world wide brand. No matter, 2020 had different growth plans for me and my team. Our books went from mostly full to mostly empty as so many around the world stayed home and postponed large gatherings. At first, I wasn’t worried. I was, in fact, relieved that the endless, burnout cycle we call capitalism had a forced time out. And I still do believe that our carrying capacity is being tested. This is just a test, albeit a long, drawn out and very unfunny test of patience, will and kindness, yea kindness. Bank accounts have grown small, resources meant for rainy days are put into action and the scarcity mindset tries to sneak in every day, even though I know there is plenty. I've had a solid sense of anxiety plaguing me since March 10 this year and I bet you have, too. As I sit to reflect on how grateful I am to have what I do have, I am actually a bit more worried for the long game of the world of events and yet, at the same time, more hopeful than ever for the future of my creative process, my business and thus, the world. Thanks, Covid.

Like so many of us in most any industry, my team and I had all but one project fully canceled and or postponed to 2021. I have to admit, I was reluctant at first to mask up and show up for the one, remaining project. Then I realized not only is it my job to show up and document, in this case a beautiful wedding day, but also that love always wins. This one micro wedding, in all its beautiful backyard glory with just the inner circle of family and close friends was exactly the very essence of what a wedding truly is. Strip away the ultra lux wedding venue, the over the top floral arrangements, a trolly or two overflowing of bubbly, wedding party participants to tour the most photographic locations and more spray tans than is ever ok in one holy place of worship, and you have just the couple and the people they hold dear. All the rest, as they say, is icing on the cake.

When G + E put their postponed, then canceled wedding date back on the calendar, I did choose to mask up and show up because what they ultimately chose to celebrate is the exact essence of why I started my wedding business in the very first place; because of love. And that aliveness of connection, Covid cannot take, break or destroy. In fact, if there was ever a time to show up and mask up, this is the time. I knew this in my gut before I arrived with my team to capture the day but, honestly, I sort of lost track of that feeling whilst directing my crew, doing math, being creative, playing customer service and oh, yea wearing that mask whilst slanging a few cameras!

Don’t get me wrong, the day was beautiful; the light exactly right with slightly overcast skies, perfectly popping fall hues of deep magenta and crispy gold, the year’s CUTEST flower girl and ring bearer crew and, of course, customized masks for the entire guest list. And then days later, when I sat in the editing room to cull in all our media, I recalled that gut feeling that made me show up and mask up, the essence of the wedding, the reason for the friggin' season people: LOVE. I am not over exaggerating or being dramatic when I tell you I had tears streaming down my face, big heart feels of gratitude and appreciation to know the work I do makes me feel my own humanity and therefore, it must make you feel. Humanity for humanity’s sake has a very incredible feeling to it and I’m so very glad I get to show up and be human, at least once this year! I even took off my yoga pants!! Thanks, Covid.

I opted for a career in the arts over one in politics because I wanted to make changes in smaller, concentric circles; true story, double major in Political Science and Photography. I took a hard left turn and haven’t had a chance to look back, until now. Thanks, Covid. Though here I sit studying the essence of my current business. Is it worth keeping, will it survive another 8 months like this and who cares anyway!!?? It’s more evident than ever that we have many bigger issues to tackle in our collective experience here on earth. With all this time to reflect, shift my focus and lead my remaining team onto other projects, I see that there are many more moments for us to feel our own humanity. There are projects calling for more air time and quality content; it's a space of endless possibility for a burgeoning producer like myself, having cut my own teeth in professional media production in the large event space, always keeping that back bone of political engagement through our shared humanity alive and well. I remain inspired by all my projects and it's not a coincidence that the one wedding we had this year served as a resounding reminder of why I do what I do. It's also not serendipitous that of the other few projects my team and I created this year, my lead role as director of photography feels very right. These few projects seemed to have dropped from the sky and that shows me not only do I have a lot of work yet to do, but the world also needs critical thinkers, visionaries and creatives now more than ever.

& I do have hope! I have hope that we as humans are resilient, we are adaptable and we ultimately know how to work with the essence of our own humanity. It’s the reason G + E kept their date and said “I do” in the most authentic way humanly possible, it’s why we are still meeting around tables that will have hard conversations today and it is why we keep trying to do better tomorrow. Thanks, Covid.

Whilst this may be my last blog entry for RP+ V, it most certainly is not the last Thank You note I will write. 2020 has been one helluva year and the lessons offered so far have been painful, scary, wild and incredibly sacred. Never before has a world so closely connected and intertwined shared an experience at the level of this global crisis. Each of our worlds' so small yet vast and then instantly world wide (Hello, Zoom. I love to hate you! ) If we look for more than the silver lining, if we look for the reason we do what we do, I think maybe, just maybe, we can see even more of our humanity and be ever so grateful for what we do have; shared experiences, community, fresh air, clean water and hope for our collective future. Thanks, Covid.

I look forward to tomorrow, to the days ahead to build a new world that works for us all and celebrates those who have come before us by cherishing the hard lessons we've learned through our shared humanity.

love,

Rose

[rannadylin]

Time for a questionnaire meme

Tagged by @fangmich and it’s been a while since I did one of these so…why not!

Also I was just starting to type up my answers to these last night when a crazy thunderstorm hit and the power went out for over four hours. :-( Then this morning the internet was still out for a couple of hours after I got up, more aftereffects of the storm no doubt. So I might be tempting fate by again attempting to answer these but here we go anyway!

Rules: Answer these 92 statements and tag 20 people.

LAST:

1. Drink: Durance’s tea blend, Magran’s Fire! (Yesterday it was Eder’s Sun God Cider and it would have also been Kana’s Rauatai Sweet Pie but I am almost out of that because it’s so good. I have a reorder of it coming today, if the tracking info is correct…) 2. Phone call: Frontier support to report my internet being out. :-( (Fortunately I got a very nice customer service lady who took care of everything more swiftly than expected, and hey, internet’s back now!)  3. Text message: to my mother telling her I might be visiting her today if the internet didn’t come back on… 4. Song you listened to: Technically the Pillars of Eternity soundtrack while playing the game yesterday, but if we’re not counting that…my local radio station does this thing they call Bluegrass Wednesday where they play I Saw the Light to wake us all up on Wednesday mornings and that was going on while I drove to the grocery store. This week they played two versions and asked callers to vote – David Crowder which they usually use, and the original Hank Williams Sr version. 5. Time you cried: Probably at church? I tear up a lot at certain songs. Although usually not when I’m one of the ones playing them, so it would be one of the Sundays that the youth group worship team led the songs instead of Team Pastor’s Family (i.e. my mom on piano, my sister on drums, me on flute, plus an organist and some singers unrelated to us, plus my dad, the pastor, usually singing also).

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: I have not really dated someone once unless we count going steady in junior high and when you’re too young to actually go out somewhere with the boyfriend, I’m not counting it… 7. Kissed someone and regretted it: I’ve kissed no one, so, nope 8. Been cheated on: This is also beyond my experience 9. Lost someone special: Oh certainly. Two grandparents so far, and a few years ago a very dear friend who wasn’t a teacher, yet was a sort of teaching mentor to me in our state JCL (Latin club!). Here we are getting ready for the annual trip to JCL convention in a week (!!!) and it still hits me once in a while, when I see the state t-shirt from the last convention trip he was here for and so on. 10. Been depressed: I am fortunate to have not had to deal with clinical depression. Life has its ups and downs (getting diagnosed with diabetes five years ago was one of the lows for sure…) but I’ve never felt hopeless, stuck in a low that would never improve. Honestly my faith is a big part of this – God is my hope and comfort when life is overwhelming. 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: Alcohol, like dating, is beyond my experience. This is what life is when you grow up as a pastor’s kid with a pretty much lawful good alignment in RL. :-D

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12-14: PURPLE AND GOLD! Well, that’s JCL colors, anyway. Purple is one of my favorites, also dark green, and…for a third…well I think I have more handknit socks in the blue range than anything? I am very mardi gras here.

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: Sure! Mind you, I don’t tend to form deep friendships very often but I do form firendly acquaintances pretty easily. I’ve made friends on tumblr and with some Latin teachers I met at the conference I went to last month. 16. Fallen out of love: Not really sure I’ve ever really fallen in; see above re: dating. Crushes and falling out of crushes, certainly. 17. Laughed until you cried: I’m sure I have? Probably at family gatherings. I have goofy relatives. 18. Found out someone was talking about you: Hello, I teach high schoolers? They are always talking about me. I usually assume there’s a base level of complaining about grades or discipline going on (some of which the offended student makes sure I can hear, yay), but I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by people (a fellow teacher as well as friends of current students) in the past year telling me they’ve heard good things about my teaching. (Current students’ friends who said so are taking my class next year, I think…Yay!) 19. Met someone who changed you: Sure. E.g. I’ve grown a lot more confident from hanging out with my very outgoing (and bossy :-D) best friend (and fellow teacher until we both left that school within the last few years… 20. Found out who your friends are: I am not at all sure what this is asking. 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: Nope, see above re: dating

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: I don’t generally make or accept friend requests unless I already know the person. Some are just acquaintances through work or the network of Latin teachers, or former students who were on trips to JCL convention with our group, etc. so I don’t often see them in person, but there’s only a handful I haven’t actually met at some point. 23. Do you have any pets: Alas, no, the apartment complex doesn’t allow pets. I had a cat at my last place but she went to live with my parents and she’s more my Dad’s pet than mine now. 24. Do you want to change your name: In true Anne Shirley fashion? :-) I used to be less content with my name than I am now. Now, I’m like whatever. 25. What did you do for your last Birthday: Taught? Probably? Was it even a weekday? 26. What time did you wake up: Around 7 today, eager to see if the power had come back on (it had!) and also the internet (it hadn’t!) 27. What were you doing at midnight last night: Finally asleep by then, I think, after hours of waiting for power to come back on. 28. Name something you can’t wait for: Deadfire (Gotta agree with you on this one, @fangmich!) 29. When was the last time you saw your mom: On the way home from family trip to see Grandma on Monday 30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: Not being diabetic would be swell! 31. What are you listening to right now: Silence 32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Had a great student by that name years ago. 33. Something that is getting on your nerves: It was the lack of internet but now we’re good. Students interrupting class will ALWAYS get on my nerves though… 34. Most visited website: Definitely tumblr these days.

RANDOM INFO:

35. Mole/s: Nope 36. Mark/s: A few stray freckles? 37. Childhood dream: Teacher. Or writer. Went with the first, now I don’t have time to professionally pursue the second! 38. Hair color: Brown and ridiculously curly. Yes, curly is a color. 39. Long or short hair: Long 41. What do you like about yourself: I might actually sound pretty arrogant if I seriously started listing things. I’m just a “look on the bright side” sort of person and I like a lot of things about myself as an active choice. *shrug* Most of the things I’d list have to do with creativity – writing, knitting, fluting. 42. Piercings: None 43. Blood type: You know I should actually know this by now, huh? I know my most recent A1C (6.4, not bad for diabetic) but have no idea my blood type. 44. Nickname: Besides forms of my actual name? Well, students call me Magistra��� (Latin for teacher) 45. Relationship status: Confirmed Old Maid :-) 46. Zodiac: Virgo  47. Pronouns: she/her (but actually I’m pretty fond of ipsa, and eadem gives me headaches as it does all Latin students…sorry sorry, I know this question is about gender but I see “pronouns” and I think of grammar and those chapters that throw all of the pronouns at the kids at once so we call it the Death By Pronouns unit...Look y’all, I’m female but also a grammarian. That’s right, my gender is Grammarian.) 48. Favorite TV Show: Don’t have an actual TV so I watch things on the Internet. Does Critical Role count? If not, I’ve also watched Doctor Who recently. 49. Tattoos: None 50. Right or left hand: Right 51. Surgery: Had a pilonidal cyst removed in my teens. 52. Hair dyed in different color: Never. I do not mess with my hair. The curls would take revenge. 53. Sport: Marching Band totally counts and apart from that I am the least sporty of humans. 55. Vacation: Would love to spend it in Italy more often (yay Latin teaching perks) if I can get enough students to go. Otherwise – JCL convention! And other school-related trips… 56. Pair of trainers: Skechers? Does that count? 

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: Like right now? I…had a muffin and yogurt and strawberries for breakfast? Lunch is TBD. 58. Drinking: I am a water drinker (so I guess I don’t write poetry) but also, lots of tea! And recently I have started drinking coffee (gasp!) because Mom has been providing coffee & breakfast for our Sunday School class and I enjoyed the coffee that first Sunday so I guess she has corrupted me now. 59. I’m about to: Catch up on everything I missed (tumblr, the Deadfire Q&A, etc.) while the internet was out.  61. Waiting for: My Adagio tea order with the rest of my Pillars of Eternity tea samples and a reorder of Kana’s and Iselmyr’s delicious blends! 62. Want: A teaching salary that makes it more likely I could afford to actually retire someday?  63. Get married: Used to assume I would, but see above re: Confirmed Old Maid – I’m content with being single, these days. A potential spouse would have to be pretty awesome to outweigh how fond I’ve grown of my solitude. 64. Career: I’m content with classroom teaching, most of the time. Not really interested in administration. Doubtful I could make a living as a writer, especially with my insurance needs nowadays. In my first teaching job, I was certain I’d be there till I retired. Then they had budget cuts and I had to switch schools if I wanted (I did!) to keep teaching Latin. Second job was burnout waiting to happen – after five years I switched to my current school, and once again I could see myself retiring here. If, of course, my deadbeat pancreas and I can afford that.

WHICH IS BETTER:

65. Hugs or kisses: Hugs have a wider appeal, but see above re: dating/kissing status, so I’m not really one to speak to this 66. Lips or eyes: Eyes 67. Shorter or taller: Shorter, I guess, for I am short and am not really as amused by height differences as most of tumblr appears to be? 68. Older or younger: At my age I’m not sure it matters so much 70. Nice arms or nice stomach: WELL you know that post celebrating Aloth’s arms… 71. Sensitive or loud:  Sensitive. Loud would totally fail to outweigh my fondness of solitude. Introvert here needs her quiet time, please. 72. Hook up or relationship: Relationship 73. Troublemaker or hesitant: Hesitant, I guess?

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a Stranger: No 75. Drank hard liquor: No 76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: In all my years of glasses…probably? Not that I recall? 77. Turned someone down: Yes 78. Sex on the first date: Wouldn’t if given the opportunity 79. Broken someone’s heart: Unlikely 80. Had your heart broken: My heart has generally avoided the risks that would lead to breaking, see above re: Old Maid 81. Been arrested: No 82. Cried when someone died: Of course 83. Fallen for a friend: …Temporarily? Never went anywhere

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84. Yourself: To an extent – I mean, I know my limits. 85. Miracles: Absolutely 86. Love at first sight: Not my style but I’m sure it happens 87. Santa Claus: I like stories but I know they’re stories… 88. Kiss on the first date: Probably not

OTHER:

90. Current best friend name: Amanda! (Which is Latin for She Who Must Be Loved and it’s true) 91. Eye color: I’d like to say Grey but I think they’re more of greyish Blue. 92. Favorite movie: Star Wars. Or The Princess Bride. Or Lord of the Rings.

I’m going to just leave this with an open tag instead of naming anyone. If you want to answer these, go for it and tag me so I can get to know you better too!

[daniellethamasa]

Hey all, Dani here.

Wow, it is April already. Actually, as this post goes live on my blog I will be at a Barnes & Noble in Columbus, Ohio, at a book release event for Emily A Duncan and Christine Lynn Herman. Damian and I took the day off of work to guarantee that I would not be late for this event, because Duncan’s debut, Wicked Saints, is definitely one of my favorite books and I need a signed copy of it in my life. Also I really wanted to read Herman’s debut as well, so this is definitely a good day for me.

But, today is about wrapping up the entire month of March and looking ahead at April plans. I have quite a few books to talk about, as well as some movies, TV shows, and all kinds of other updates, so let’s just go ahead and jump right into it, shall we?

As with previous months this year, let’s start with talking about where I am with my 2019 goals, and then I can talk about the books I’ve read,  the books I’ve purchased, and then the books I am hoping on reading in the month of April.

Reading: I am still supremely ahead of my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal for this year–something like 30 books ahead, according to Goodreads. But that definitely means that I can take a step back and work on longer reads as well as to give more focus to my writing. But obviously I’m hoping to keep up with my reading enough to keep having good bookish content here on the blog.

Blogging: So because of all of the packing and moving and everything in March, I ended up having to cut back on posting every single day and leaving my weekends free. This led to a fairly drastic drop in views, but the overall view count is still great compared to my previous years of blogging. Still, I did manage to write up 26 posts in the month of March, which I think is pretty impressive.

Writing: I did writing prep this month. I’m gearing up for Camp NaNoWriMo, so I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to write instead of actually writing. But that ended up working really well for me, considering that we were packing up everything and shoving all of the notebooks, and writing utensils, and all our gadgets and gizmos into boxes. Next month’s writing update should be a great deal more exciting than this one.

Conventions: Didn’t really do a lot in regards to convention planning…unless you count buying tickets to see Critical Role Live while we are at Gen Con. Oh, and set aside money from a couple of paychecks to pay for the hotel stay. Once the hotel is paid for, everything else saved is for food and spending.

All right, next up is the recap of all of the books I read in the month of March. As always, if I have a review up for the book, I will include the link in case you missed the post before.

Again, But Better by Christine Riccio — 5 stars (review coming in April)

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab — 4 stars

Story Thieves: The Stolen Chapters by James Riley — 4 stars

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee — 5 stars

The Missing: Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix — 3.5 stars

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull — 4 stars

The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes — 4.5 stars

Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend — 5 stars

The Gamer’s Guide to Getting the Girl by Kristine Scarrow – 3.5 stars (review to come in June)

Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez — 4 stars

Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte — 4.5 stars

After books, I guess it is time to talk about our watch list: Captain Marvel (5 stars), Up (???–the DVD from Family Video was scratched so it skipped a lot. I’ll need to watch it again to give it a rating), Robin Hood (4 stars), Oliver & Company (4.5 stars), Sword in the Stone (4 stars), Mulan (5 stars), Tarzan (4.5 stars), Coco (5 stars), Doctor Who – Season 8 (4.5 stars), Doctor Who – Season 9 (4 stars).

Current watches or continuing watches include Black Clover (season 2), Wynonna Earp (season 2), Doctor Who (season 10), and of course, Critical Role (campaign 2).

Next up is the book haul portion, and I think I did a pretty good job of not buying a lot of books, though I did have to get a few. And there’s actually three books that aren’t included in this haul, because of a mailing snafu due to our address changing. But they should be arriving to the house today, so I’ll go ahead and include them in my already large book haul for April. My book buying restriction almost went a whole two months; I’m actually somewhat impressed with myself.

  Finally, it is time to talk about my April TBR. So I’ve already talked about my TBR for Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon on April 6th, but other than that I’m not really going too crazy with my reading plans…because I hope to spend most of April writing. But I do have a couple upcoming releases that I want to read and get my reviews posted so I can keep improving my NetGalley review ratio.

  So here’s a few options in addition to the books on my Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon TBR. In the month of April I can definitely say that I want to check out Wonderbook, because Susan Dennard talks about it being a rather helpful writing book, and I actually enjoy studying the craft of writing to better inform my own writing and writing process.

That should be all for my wrap up. How was your March? Let me know in the comments, and I will be back soon with more bookish content.

March Wrap-Up and April TBR Hey all, Dani here. Wow, it is April already. Actually, as this post goes live on my blog I will be at a Barnes & Noble in Columbus, Ohio, at a book release event for Emily A Duncan and Christine Lynn Herman.

[theworstbob]

the thing journal, 5.14.2017-5.27.2017

the pop culture things i took in over the last week, and also the week before that this week because last week i couldn’t make a post. last week: american ultra, take this waltz, freddie gibbs, direct hit!, the wild reeds, jackie kashian, rory scovel, sam outlaw. this week: mary j. blige, diet cig, smino, shalewa sharpe, bad suns, room, groundhog day (the musical), brooklyn nine-nine s3, in transit, interstellar

1) American Ultra, dir. Nima Nourizadeh: This film wanted to be like five things all at once. It wanted to be a stoner comedy, it wanted to be a send-up of action thrillers, it wanted to be just a straight-up action thriller, it wanted to be an epic romance, it wanted to be an indictment of the surveillance state. I don't think it was any of those things. It was a largely enjoyable hodgepodge of ideas. There were moments it took seriously that could have been served with some comedy, there were moments it seemed like it was making fun of the stupid idiot characters when it needed to be there with them, like, I'm not gonna call it a failure because I never felt like it was wasting my time or like it was aggressively awful, but I couldn't get a handle on what I was supposed to be getting out of this film. It tried to be so many things and ended up feeling like nothing. If it had stuck with one idea -- if it were JUST a movie about this stoner idiot who suddenly sees everyday objects as instruments of death, and it was just about him and his idiot girlfriend running from the CIA and there wasn't this whole other plotline involving drama at the CIA, if it could have just been THAT, they might've had something, but they had this, which was fine, but it wasn't something.

2) Take This Waltz, dir. Sarah Polley: I discussed this on the Fall Out Boy blog, but that scene on the ride at the theme park is such a cool scene. I can see how an older Bob or a younger Bob might think this movie's kinda bullshit, it is very much a Pretty White People with Problems movie, but it's also a movie about being in your late 20s and only just realizing, oh shit, I HAVE to be an adult now, the things I do today might be the things I do forever, I need to figure out what I really want while it's still permissible for me to figure things out, and it really speaks to me. Sarah Polley's a rather dope director! Let's see if sh -- oh okay cool one more movie, wellllllllllp.

3) You Only Live 2wice, by Freddie Gibbs: Y'know what if this gets billed as an album, I'm gonna treat it like an album, length be damned. Eight songs is enough to be considered a thing IT WORKED FOR KENDRICK AND CARLY RAE DAMNIT. The opening track has maybe my favorite lyric ever: "No sleep, bags under my eyes are designer." I am going to remember that lyric for the rest of my life. It seems like a fine enough intro to Freddie Gibbs, who is a thing I am given to understand I would enjoy, and I'm excited to get into his meatier offerings.

4) Wasted Mind, by Direct Hit!: ...So remember how my computer got partially zapped last week and I lost Internet access and thus the motivation to do Internet-related things such as write my assigned blogs? Yeah so I completely forgot about this. I vaguely recall it being fine. I sort of recall it dealing with alcoholism, or lyrics relating to alcoholism, and wanting to structure this capsule around how this songwriter is recounting his pain and struggle through the thing he is best at doing, and my reaction to it is "You get a B!" but, like, I listened to this on a bus ride home ten days ago, and I wasn't too into it as I was listening to it. Only so much room, ya know? If I remembered every (pop/)punk album I ever listened to, I wouldn't remember all the tennis fun facts. And those are much more valuable. Tennis fun facts could conceivably be answers to bar trivia questions. No one was asking for this capsule.

5) The World We Built, by The Wild Reeds: The harmonies on this album are fucking nuts. This is an album I've listened to three times in the last couple weeks, and I liked it more with each listen, found new things to dig with each spin, some music thing I'm not smart enough to relay, some lyrical twist I was too preoccupied to notice. I'm sitting down with all these capsules on a Saturday night, trying to hammer a bunch of these out so I can get this sweet hot content to y'all as promised, but I kinda wanna shove this deep inside my wormholes again Sunday morning just so I have it fresh in my mind what makes this album so awesome. If you're reading these words, then of course I said "nah" and wrote my Saturday night post, which is "dope af country girl group plays songs that are hella good," and while I think the statement itself has merit, it could use a few more points of support.

6) I'm Not the Hero of This Story, by Jackie Kashian: Definitely my favorite unit of comedy released in 2017 so far. Like, the beginning, "I'm not a political comedian, but uh, I guess I have to be now?" is among the best opening bits I've ever heard. And the political comedy doesn’t feel forced, feels of a whole with the material prepared before we all went to hell. Like, the joke about being told by a minority friend trying to assuage her post-election fears, “Jesus, have you never been disappointed before?” is as much about her Midwestern emotional unavailability as the jokes about visiting her father in the hospital. (I might be over-analyzing this. Everything is either over-analyzed or under-analyzed here. ONE DAY I’LL ACHIEVE BALANCE.) It’s a strong album.

7) Dilation, by Rory Scovel: I think this was fine! As far as something I listened to because I recognized the name from Competitive Erotic Fan-Fiction goes, it was greatly enjoyable. I'm not sure how much value can be derived from a deep critical look at a six-year-old album by a dude who may or may not still be active, but if you need 40 minutes of comedy, and you've exhausted all the known brands and don't wanna revisit something you've already heard, this will provide adequate amusement.

8) Tenderheart, by Sam Outlaw: Definitely more Tender than Outlaw. I sort of shied away from Sam Outlaw for a little while because he has a stupid fucking name, but I always knew him as a dude I'd like if I gave him a chance, so I gave him a chance. My instinct was right. It's not a bad album? It's just, I dunno, soft. And that's OK. I can see it was intended to be soft, and it is not its fault I prefer to be hit with a sledgehammer than with a pillow. It did its thing, and it's a mostly good thing, and it's a thing better than 99% of the country music offerings. It just didn't do my thing.

9) Strength of a Woman, by Mary J. Blige: I think in YAS I mentioned that I appreciated Shakira's latest thing because it was specifically Shakira on the track; it was a Latin pop music veteran making a Latin pop song, and the floor on that sort of thing is insanely high. I got a similar sort of vibe from this album. I knew going in that this wouldn't get anything lower than a B+ from me, because the name attached to this album is such a strong name that it would have to take an extremely weird departure for me not to be into this, like a Metal Machine Music-level noise experiment for me to go "enh, I don't know." This kinda sounds backhanded, I think sometimes I use high floor when I mean low ceiling, but trust I loved every second I spent with this album, like this album is legit great, I listened to it twice over the Internetless weekend, I guess I just took 100 words or whatever to tell you that this thing you can tell is great from the artist turned out to be great.

10) Swear I'm Good at This, by Diet Cig: I thought this was nice? It's a nice indie/punk album about being young in 2017. I think, when I mention the floor of a Mary J. Blige album, I'm discussing the floor as it relates to the general population; there isn't a soul alive who'd come away from a Mary J. Blige album and not give it a B+. (Well, OK, there are, it's called Strength of a Woman for a reason.)  For me, the floor for this sort of album is a B+, and it rests comfortably on that floor, sprawled out under a sunbeam like an adorable kitty cat. I love this! I can understand for a lot of people this would be nothing. It's slight, a little wispy punk thing, not the statement of purpose provided by The Bombpops or Bad Cop/Bad Cop, but by gum, if Amazon is going to tell me I'll like something because I enjoyed Paramore, by gum, I'm going to enjoy it.

11) blkswn, by Smino: This dude can do some crazy things with his voice. I usually check my phone to see what the song title is when I listen to an album (I like to know where I am), but I had to turn the screen on multiple times during each of this dude's songs just to make sure there weren't any features. I don't know about his range, I'm not here to discuss the technical aspect of singing, but he has this wide array of voices he can channel, so you never know quite what you're gonna get from song to song apart from a surprise. This is a talented kid. I'm excited to see him harness that.

12) Stay Eating Cookies, Shalewa Sharpe: So, I was raised on Comedy Central Presents specials, right? So many of the big names in comedy, I became first acquainted with via their half hours on Comedy Central. Does this mean there was a time when I thought Mitch Hedberg and Dane Cook were equally funny? Of course. But it also means I forged a deep enough love for the medium that I could eventually suss out who was Good and who was Bad. And this is what I love about 2 Dope Queens: it's positioned to be Comedy Central for a generation that has little use for cable, to fill for dorky kids the same role Comedy Central filled for me, except better, because they're going to be a tad more diverse. There's so many cool comics I might not have heard about without 2 Dope Queens; I think I listened to the Michelle Buteau album after I started the thing journal and loved it, and I haven't been able to get Kevin Yee's "I Fucked Your Dad" out of my head since I heard it. But this. Holy shit. Shalewa Sharpe is the best comic so far I've come to by way of 2 Dope Queens. I'm legitimately angry this woman's outlook has only been in my life for six days. Like, she has one line, one throwaway line, that elicited a noise from me I legit have never made in fifteen+ years of being aware I enjoyed comedy. This is the best unit of stand-up I've taken in this year, and y'all need to get up on it.

13) Disappear Here, Bad Suns: It makes me happy to know there's always going to be dudes making music like this. This sounds like someone gave Jimmy Eat World a more adventurous rhythm section. So like, my usual mode of consumption when I listen to music on the bus is, I'll queue up an album, and when that album finishes, I'll look for something else. I try not to have anything queued up, because I don't want to spend time with the thing I'm currently listening to wondering what I'll listen to next. (I think this was something they discussed on my beloved, departed Nothing to Write Home About, how from the second you purchase/add an album online, your preferred streaming service is already telling you to move on and buy the next thing, and I try to catch myself in those moments where I'm a distracted listener. Everything deserves my attention, and for the most part, everything gets it, even if half these capsules are more about how I take in pop culture than about the actual item of pop culture.) I put this album on repeat, because I wanted to spend another 50 minutes with these songs. It's not the same reaction I had to The World We Built, where I wanted to catch all the things I missed. I knew what in this album worked for me, it was emo-tinged post/punk about depression that absolutely grooved, I just wanted to be with this album longer.

14) Room, dir. Lenny Abrahamson: I was a little uncomfortable with this movie, because while I think they coaxed a great performance out of the kid, I don't know how aware the kid was of what he was doing? Like, when a horse wins the Kentucky Derby, the horse has no fucking clue it won the Kentucky Derby, it's just a fucking horse standing there, and it makes me uncomfortable to watch an event where the principal players aren't aware of what they're doing. The kid is more aware of his surroundings than the average horse, I'm sure, but is he going to watch this movie in 11 years and be proud of what he did? I dunno, I think every film should be animated, I'm going to mention this again when we get to Interstellar, THIS MOVIE WAS GOOD NONETHELESS. As someone who didn't have the greatest childhood, this movie was dealing with parenthood in a way I thought was powerful: it was asking, "How does a parent justify to their child the decisions they made when raising them?" It's a question the mom is asking herself all throughout the movie, and she's so lost in looking for the answer that when other people ask her questions along those lines she hits her low point, but it also asks, "How do kids accept the decisions their parents made?" The kid is obviously five years old and isn't totally aware of his surroundings, but he does have some vague cognizance that his situation prior to the events of the film was pretty fucked up; the film never jumps forward in time to when the kid is an angtsy goth looking for pot outside the mall, so we don't see how he deals with the full realization of his parentage and his upbringing, but he has some clue, and the film shows that kid accepting his situation as best he can while learning earlier than most of us that his mom is a flawed person. I loved a ton about this film, though, real talk, if I had known my computer could stream movies in 1080p without ever buffering, I might have picked a more technically impressive feature. "Wow, first time watching a film in HD, let's see this indie drama about familial relationships! You can see every detail in the shed!" (Also, that scene where the best cop in the world figures out how to extricate Ma from the shed with like seven words from the kid was so well done.)

15) Groundhog Day, from Tim Minchin et a;: This didn't land for me. It's more than the fact they wrote out Ned Ryerson, though OBVIOUSLY that didn't help. I think Groundhog Day is just... Like, that's a hard film to write, and in film, you get the luxury of being able to cast a Bill Murray as an irascible gentleman. You can't be irascible on Broadway. It's hard to be sarcastic when you're projecting. I think they did an admirable job of trying to adapt the film, which truly does not lend itself to a musical, into a musical, but they shouldn't have been asked to do that very stupid job. Of all the films. There's barely music in it.

16) Brooklyn Nine-Nine s3, cr. Michael Schur & Dan Goor: For 3/4 or so of this season, I was having a chill time, if not a great one. I thought it had set their sights on "enjoyable cop hang-out sitcom," and I can get behind that, if not necessarily be stoked on a potential s4. And then they added the Jason Mantzoukas character, and the show found a gear I would never have guessed it had. The mob storyline is EXACTLY WHAT THIS SHOW SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING THIS WHOLE TIME, a Hot Fuzz-esque parody of cop movies/shows told with love for both the genre and the characters. It let the characters be good cops, like in the final two episodes where they have to foil the mafia and the FBI, but it allowed just enough room for them to be adorable dum-dums, like in "Cheddar," easily my favorite episode in the series to date. ("Cheddar" had so much, not the least of which was Boyle finding his home as an actual Mr. Magoo for 20 hot minutes.) Plus, at one point, Andre Braugher says "I can't even," and he manages to find the exact syllables in that phrase on which to put these subtle but undeniably incorrect inflections. Like, even when the show was settling for B-s, it was worth sticking with just for Andre Braugher (and Terry Crews and Stephanie Beatriz). The end to s3 was so strong, I'm psyched to see how they take s4.

17) In Transit, by Kristen Anderson-Lopez et al: So here's what's cool about In Transit, right? So like, I was never into Hamilton, but I do love the concept about a hip-hop musical about a Founding Father, because what better way to recount a nation's origin than through a genre of music which originated from the nation? The a capella musical takes a similar tack: it's a musical about a mass of people in New York, being sung by a mass of people. Like, none of the stories are really new: someone has anxiety about the future, other people have anxiety about relationships, this dude needs to come out of the closet but hasn't, it's all been done, but the a capella arrangements seem to indicate that the writers know these are things everyone goes through, so they have everyone sing them. It's not just the lead who's frustrated by the arc of her professional and creative careers, it's everyone in the office lamenting that they work in an office and not where they want to work, and the fact there's a chorus of people having these problems helps make this musical something more than "we're in New York and don't know what we're doing," which isn't my preferred thing to listen to. I don't know if that was the intent, it might not be given that I implied the stories being told were generic and unambitious (like I've said what I wanted about Hamilton, but that's a musical with chutzpah far beyond just the hip-hop influence)? But it feels bigger than it does.

18) Interstellar, dir. Christopher Nolan: I was always gonna watch this film, but no doubt the impetus behind adding this to the end of the week was, OK, NOW let's christen the new computer. Let's get this Christopher Nolan sci-fi epic, and let's see the true power of HD. (HD, surprisingly, looks a lot like regular TV but slightly fancier. I do wanna watch Kubo and the Three Strings again tho.) First of all, this did not need to be three hours long. I did not need to devote three hours of my life to this film. At the same time, though, I'm not sure what you cut from the film; it's over-long, but it never felt bloated, it at least felt like every scene had purpose. And while I'm never THAT into films where actors are acting at things that aren't there, I think there was enough of a human element established that I never felt unmoored from the film's world(s); there was always Matthew McConaughey's relationship with his daughter keeping this film grounded, even in the scenes where the characters recited science at each other. (I do wish the film hadn't asked me to believe Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain were the same age. The age gap is narrower than I would have expected from Hollywood, but eight years is STILL A FUCKING LONG TIME.) And, man, it is rough times watching a movie about the earth beind destroyed and science being devalued in 2017. It's kind of amazing that this dystopian society being imagined in 2014 is, like, today's society, we are ten years away from only eating corn and failing to find new planets because we stopped being curious and started hyper-farming.