I can't get over how shitty the attitude towards authors is. Seriously, like all this is funny to someone. I am starting to believe that editors and publicists truly hate authors out of sheer envy and frustration and take their tiny fart of power just to rub salt into wounds that they inflicted. This, as a last act they can possibly take.
      I asked my editor - who knows my company went bankrupt while I was waiting for them to remember we had a contract - to speed up paying my fee for the book. Considering nobody cared what we were doing or how we do it when they pushed the book for half a year and it had to be finished in a month, come rain or hail. She said sure thing. Then, a month later, I asked what the fuck? She said she said she'll TRY. Okay. Fine. Do that, then. Then she said it's not so easy with people being on vacations and whatnot. I asked - ALL of them? The whole department? She wrote back she has to ask her boss first and he is on vacation. It truly is hard, when your boss goes on vacation suddenly, five months BEFORE you say you'll try to ask for something. Oh, he didn't go five months earlier? He went recently? Why didn't you ask him then, then??
      And so on and so forth. OF COURSE this is just a flying fuck of naivete on my part. I KNOW that. The money will be there on the last fucking day of contract. Perhaps a day or two over that.

I am making a list of things I am going to buy with it. Slowly and carefully. Starting with the:

- Soraya
- Gorgi
- Adorable shit from all over Drej's market. I'll just ape shit on that.
- Shoes for mum and dad
- Take my whole family for diner on my birthday
- some other stuff I really want but can't think of right now... probably regarding books.
- possibly change a haircolor
- probably some clothes. G insists.
- Oh, and possibly a new watch for G, as I broke his last two   O.o

General's line of the week: running shoes

Drej asked if we should sign up for a micro marathon. I'm all game for it, as lately it feels really good and relaxing to run - except, as General put it well: I need better running shoes and a very tight bra (before I kill somebody).
      Regarding shoes, I said: Perhaps yes on the shoes - although I bought expensive ones, my ankles and shins really burn if I over-do it.
      He said: Of course they do. You bought expensive shoes based on the colour. 

Lovely peaceful day :D
It feels SOOOO good that General is allowed to walk around. Also, it takes 180 days to wait in turn for physicaltherapy and a friend got us in next Monday. This is from tears to grins situation. And a close cut. Fuck the health system in this land.
We spent the evening playing rep WoW, listening to Nina Simone and modern Charleston. I watched some Moomin episodes on YouTube. I love the scene in which Little My tells Snufkin they should date. It's not known whether he is aware of their relation or not, but his reaction is funny either way. Although he has been known to express affection, I suppose the thought of dating the worst little girl ever is beyond his stoic nature. Or he simply knows they're siblings.

I have to say I am not fond of the Tove Janssen documentary. It makes her out as a depressed dyke, hating the fact she was only famous for the Moomins and nothing else she did (as much). Another damn Alma. Why can't people who make such excellent fables be happy people IRL??

Finally something to watch a.k.a. Few very good (albeit at times damn depressing) procedurals

LUTHER (now on season 3)

Idris Elba is outstanding, but that's not why this show is so good. Much like Sherlock, it swirls wildly on the main character, but the disgusting reality of his work and his broken life are almost an art form of it's own. There's a moment in which a very old, very sick - and by sick I mean gruesome - serial killer/mentor talks about why Chinese bound the feet of girls. It wasn't because of the feet at all. It was because when forced to walk like that, they gained very muscular vaginas.
         Stuff like that makes this show incredibly good and incredibly hard to watch.

 

Still waiting to see the most alluring serial killer on BBC return :) Her presence is constantly highlighted.

THE BRIDGE

Too soon to talk of actual overall greatness, as I've only seen one episode, but I love to listen to the Spanish dialogues, repeating them out loud, Diane Kruger is lovely (like the review writer said - you should decide whether her performance is great or awful and stick to that.) and the contrast between the sides is so wonderfully illustrated it just might work.

THE KILLING (also on season 3 atm)

Same as Luther (only a lot slower and more to do with consequences than actual crimes), this show makes you feel that no matter what you find out, what you solve, things are only going to get darker and worse.

Pacific Rim

... By Gods, that was a lot of smashing. :D

Watching Luther (I'll get to that in a bit), I'm thinking, perhaps I fancy Idris Elba so much, because he is almost exactly like the General IRL. Same "haircut", mostly same shape of the nose and brow, same figure, same way of walking, same deep, warning voice, same calm but dangerous demeanour, even the same expression when they are in love. You'd think they are strangling a dolphin, but in fact they are being adorable. :)))

For the past few days, I haven't had the luxury of internet – a luxury that gets under your skin within minutes and makes you forget the ancient times when not every household had, say, three. Last night I had to get, literally, out of my chair TWICE: to look for information in BOOKS. Actual books. Made of paper. I had to get up and find my old school Latin dictionary, wipe the dust and dead spiders off it, FLIP the pages and discover the word I was after. And then, only moments later, I was lost at finding exactly how many lights years are in a kiloparsec. Again. Had to get up. Get the book. Wipe it. Flip it.

It is getting decadent around here. I cannot find out when the library is open, because I would have to actually walk to it and check. (Or call, but I don't have my phone with me either.) This blackout is causing me to panic. I haven't checked my email in a day! I have NO idea what that Barbra Streisand boxing movie was called! I don't know the word for female genitalia in Australian Aboriginal language!?? How can I ever know what I want for my Chinese delivery, if I can’t see the menu??

Okay, breathe. Just charge your paddie, go across the street to the cafe, connect to the real world there. See? No biggie. Aboriginal word for cunnie is gumirri.

Only politics I follow is in Warcraft...

For the record - I really don't fancy Vol'Jin as the next Warchief. That vindictive moron is like a parrot echo of Garrosh, with the word Darkspear put in instead of Orc. Same speeches, same passion, same pride, only far less charisma. I am still rooting for G to get a grip on himself, possibly after he's been thoroughly bitchslapped and his demonic ego boost depleted.

Populaire

It's been ages since I saw a non-American movie (okay, days, but I'm not counting Asian one in this post), but besides Russian stuff, I think I like French the best, because Russian and French are the two languages I understand enough to enjoy. Maja's choice of the week was Populaire, though Lone Ranger would have been the more obvious choice of a popcorn summer flick. I am very glad we agreed on Populaire, though. That movie was just ADORABLE!

     It's a very light romantic dramedy, with the lead heroine being the most cheerful person I've seen since .. Amelie. There were several situations in which my American-movies-trained-brain would have expected a completely different result, but the french are way too relaxed and at times really oddly passionate. There's a scene in which he slaps her and it's fine. Also, a scene in which he very explicitly fondles her breasts, and that's made so nicely, too. And of course my favourite scene - when he sneaks into her room to return a bra she left behind in a washer - indeed a really awkward setting to be found in, but instead of freaking out, assuming he's a perv, she just laughs. "I have a pair of matching panties, if you're looking for a set?" :D That was just so cute!!!

The story is about a small village girl, smart and lovely, but lonely, who secretly teachers herself to type to become an adventurous, modern woman secretary. Although she is ghastly bad as a secretary and really incredibly clumsy, she is a champion self-taught typist. Her alright, but emotionally troubled boss convinces her to enlist on a typing championship and after a year of tutoring, she starts to win national. But he still has issues and she learns the world isn't all that's cracked up to be when you're alone, even if on covers of magazines, so of course they get back together. It's not a depressing story at all. It's incredibly uplifting. Both actors - all of them, in fact even the horrid American-french Shaun Benson's Bob is adorable. The casting is fairly caricatured, but that's okay.

Also some of the best bits: When she mentions she might have ruined the shredder. When he paints her fingernails as a lesson. The fact that her dad never actually sells the typewriter. The fashion, oh my GOds! How I love that fashion! I somehow always see Carrie Ann-Moss in that, I have no idea why (Maybe Fido?), but I really like that period. The mid fifties. I would look awful in it, because I am shaped like a sheep, but my camera would be drooling every day. So would Sartorialists.