The Winter Court of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

Been getting some nice writing done and stories completed. Can't remember if I ever talked about the desire to write one where Lector is a vigilante in town, but the urge to do that kept coming back and I finally figured out a way to write that story the way I wanted it and it ended up bringing in the manga-verse characters again. Right now I'm starting one about the Big Five having ancestors in Atlantis who ran from the final battle and have been considered cowards, but it's finally learned that they ran because they were getting Critias's younger brother to safety, and that the Kaiba family line comes through the brother they helped to escape.

I was able to start that RP on Tumblr I was talking about, and it's a lot of fun. I'm starting to get the urge and plan to do some hurt/comfort at some point in it. I'll have to run it past my RP partner.

I've been getting more Big Five commissions from ElfBean. Six now, and I have many more ideas. I'm just so in love with her work! It's torture having to wait to get more while I accumulate more money, lol.

We did our annual re-watch of creepy Wild Wild West episodes for Halloween time, including The Night of the Tottering Tontine. I like that episode, and yet I don't like its And Then There Were None plot set-up, because I don't like seeing so many characters get killed off left and right. A couple of the deaths particularly upset me, and for the last couple of years I've toyed with a fic that while they're all waiting to be freed from the house they're trapped in, they discover that those people are still alive but badly hurt and in need of medical attention. It would be a nice and suspenseful hurt/comfort fic. Problem is, if I bring back two of the characters, then I also feel bad for the other one who died needlessly while they were trapped. Yet if I revive all of them I imagine it would look ridiculous. Plus there was one other character who didn't deserve death who died at the very beginning of the episode. I feel bad for him too. So I don't know if I ever actually will write the fic.

Lots of the events last month that I was hoping would be awesome didn't really go the way I was hoping they would. I try to just focus on the good parts and move on, as they weren't total busts and some elements were really great and fun, but it is disheartening when things just don't work out the way one dreams of. October is my favorite month, and I feel like I just didn't get to enjoy it to the fullest extent. I'm really hoping Thanksgiving and the Rockapella concert and Christmas will work out nicely, but I'm rather skeptical at this point, especially since there's sickness traveling around the house and it can hang on for a long time when it comes. I'm desperately hoping I won't catch it, but who knows. I still don't have my ticket for the concert, and since they're non-refundable I don't even know whether to try getting one yet in case I might get sick and not be able to go anyway.

I did get an amazing $15 off coupon for Build-a-Bear, and even though they once again screwed me over for the birthday gift they promised to send, I doubted that would have been better than that coupon. (The gift has only been $5 in the past.) I decided to either get a Pokemon or a Pony, and with the series ending this year, I thought I should get a Pony since it might be the last time I could. The choice was between Rainbow Dash and Cheerilee, and although beforehand I had decided I would probably get Cheerilee, I ended up deciding I wanted Rainbow Dash at the store. It just felt like the right time. I got her and no regrets. She's certainly not my favorite character still, but she has her moments, and her design is gorgeous in any case.

I have mixed feelings about the series finale. I am so relieved that it ended with everyone still alive and friends, but I can't deny being annoyed that Twilight has to rule apart from her friends. The royal seat was moved at least once, when Celestia took it to Canterlot, so there's no real reason why Twilight couldn't have moved it again and ruled from her castle in Ponyville. As I see it, the only reason they did the ending the way they did was to show that friends can be friends even if they're apart. Which is certainly a good lesson and all, but it feels like everybody wants to teach that lesson these days, even if it doesn't fit the particular world for characters to leave (Ralph Breaks the Internet, I'm looking at you).

I made a Target order as my birthday gift to myself and finally got my Farrah Fawcett figure and Sailor Moon shirt. And a belated birthday present for JP. They were running a Buy 2, Get One Free DVD sale, so I also got the 1980s My Little Pony movie and was able to add the G3 Pony Christmas special as the free one. I have to admit, while I like the 1980s TV show, I didn't like the movie much. The TV show had villains and situations I could take seriously, but the villains were so goofy in the movie and some of their songs so ridiculous that I couldn't take the Smooze problem seriously even though one was supposed to. There were some scenes I liked, but overall, I have to say, the G4 Pony movie was way better.

The G3 special, on the other hand ... it was so sweet and felt very pure. One thing I love about most Christmas things is that even if they don't want to do anything overtly religious, most of them teach worthwhile lessons about kindness and unselfishness. The G3 special was full of those things. Minty accidentally broke the beacon that leads Santa to their town, so she was afraid she'd ruined Christmas for everyone. She didn't once think about herself, and instead tried to think what she could do to save it for everyone. She decided to give her treasured socks as gifts to them. Then, when she decided that wasn't good enough on its own, she determined to fly a balloon to the North Pole to give Santa directions to their town. A Pony afraid of clouds went after her when she realized, and then all the other Ponies went after them. They could have been mad, but they realized breaking the thing was an accident and they were just so worried to get Minty and Thistle Whistle home safe. There were some suspenseful bits, and things did get a little cheesy with the Ponies' love for each other creating a new beacon to guide Santa there, but I can totally deal with that kind of cheese. LOL. It was so very sweet. It reminded me of Lalaloopsy, which always seems to show the characters helping each other during day to day crises. I want to see more G3 things. People who don't like G3 because there aren't save the world level crises are missing out.

I've been interested in Scooby-Doo this autumn. The figures got re-released and I didn't want to miss out on them this time. I got them all and have seen some of the movies and assorted series' episodes here and there. I really enjoy the movies, honestly. As much as I loved What's New, Scooby-Doo? when I watched it in first-run, I think some of these movies have the characters more IC. Fred was portrayed as an idiot so often in What's New, sigh. And I'm not sure what to think of Velma fangirling so often, even though it's cute enough (and I of course can relate; I'm just not sure it works for that particular character). All of these recent things seem to make the characters livelier than in the old 1970s series, though. They often seemed more like one-note cookie-cutter characters back then, but the re-envisionings in recent years give some of them more personality. I also saw the trailer for the Scoob movie next year and it looks really cute. I love what it shows of how Shaggy and Scooby first met!

I also saw the new Sonic trailer. The redesign of Sonic is beautiful and Jim Carrey as Eggman looks like fun. I'm hopeful and anxious for the movie now. I wonder if it depicts their first encounter, since Tails doesn't seem to be in it and he wasn't in the first game.

Thanks to Netflix, I finally saw both of the theatrical Grinch movies. There were pros and cons for both, and maybe I'll elaborate in another post, but overall my feeling is that the movie from last year is the best and most magical. Both movies tried to humanize the Grinch, and I liked that, but I don't like how cartoony and shallow the Whos felt in the live-action film (nor did I like the Grinch's disgusting habits there). It's funny that they all felt more real in the animated film. I was surprised there wasn't a lot of crude humor in that, when Illumination made it. It was just lovely. And they weren't afraid to use religious Christmas carols, with lyrics!

I've been enjoying the next batch of Carmen Sandiego episodes on Netflix. I hope there will be more. I found both Zack and Ivy really annoying in this incarnation, but Ivy has started to develop more and I love that. I hope Zack will develop more too. One character I haven't been able to like is Graham. He seems nice enough with amnesia, but since he was ready to kill Carmen with his memories, despite their past as dear friends and surrogate siblings, to me he's a ticking timebomb. If he regains his memories and is horrified at what he was with V.I.L.E. and wants to be different, then I'll probably like him. But for the time being, when I don't know what he'll be like if his memories return, I just don't. I certainly feel for Carmen still remembering the good times they had, though. I can't get enough of this series.

I had a pretty awesomely weird dream the other day that would be really fun to make into a fic sometime. It was a Wild Wild West dream and had Jim and Arte investigating this saloon/casino place. They found that Lucrece Posey was running it, and that Snakes was serving as her right-hand man. It seemed to be an AU where Snakes and not Ascot Sam was the sole male survivor of the gang, and weirder, where he was the only one who had remained loyal to Miss Posey. When I woke up, I really wanted to do something with it, but AU usually feels so cheap to me and I wanted to figure out if I could make it work in my established canon-compliant timeline. I came up with the thought of a mad scientist, maybe Dr. Faustina, experimenting with brainwashing and amnesia drugs and managing to alter Posey and Snakes' memories so they think something different happened than what did. Jim and Arte stumble into this mess and are utterly baffled. Maybe they are also part of the experiment and Dr. Faustina has made them forget all about time-traveling to the future and Snakes turning over a new leaf, etc., and they only remember their initial encounter with the gang and are stunned by Snakes being alive, not to mention loyal to Miss Posey. Eventually they do remember and have to try to get Posey and Snakes to remember.

I had a lovely birthday. At first we weren't sure if we'd even be able to go out because the weather was supposed to be wonky, but it ended up being fine for most of the time we were out and it was a wonderful outing. I ended up being able to get some of the retro My Little Ponies from Target after all. I asked for a couple, and I received those, and I also bought a couple more. I also got the Kelly figure. Kris, of course, is not out yet. But she is on the website, and I'm seriously considering ordering her there since it could be months before stores get her.

Build-a-Bear once again didn't send a birthday coupon, and this year I'm wondering if they've stopped the birthday coupons in favor of that Count Your Candles thing, which isn't nearly as good since it's only for one specific plush and only benefits the kids. There are lots of adult shoppers too, and they should still be considered. I don't know if I want to call and ask about the coupon this year or not. Last year I got someone who thought I was a moron, sigh. She didn't even seem to know about the birthday coupons. It seemed like a problem for everyone born in October that they hadn't got their coupon and eventually they were sent out in the latter part of the month, and the coupons were good through November to make up for the mess.

Anyway, I didn't miss the coupon too much this year. I do kind of hope I can get another Lalaloopsy before she's gone, but meanwhile I found something actually exciting at The Disney Store. They haven't had a very interesting plushie section for years; it's so streamlined from what it used to be. But they had Oliver and Dodger as part of a 30th anniversary celebration of Oliver and Company, and they were running a plushie sale that made each of them $12. I had to get them both. I'm wondering now if I should have also got Lady, or at least seen whether she was part of the sale too. I was so excited about Dodger and then about Oliver too that I wasn't thinking at the time, but I only have a puppy Lady plush. I've always wanted an adult Lady too. Eh, maybe I'll get to go back soon and check. Anyway, they seem to run plushie sales a lot, interestingly. Most times I've gone, it seems like they're having one.

I also got this awesome Nancy Drew computer game with a haunted mansion and a ghost. It looks like maybe there really is something supernatural going on in addition to the probable fraud. I hope so. It's a really fun game so far. I love puzzle games, especially with mansions and ghosts! There's a cemetery on the grounds too. So creepy! And it's giving me some possible ideas for my YGO Bad End Night fic.

There were other fun things too: a lovely card and a fun blurb with Bakura and Yami Bakura from Crystal, Ladyamberjo sent the movie Coco, and other things from my parents included a card, the My Little Pony movie (the one from last year, not the 1980s one), the 90 Minutes in Heaven movie, a gorgeous autumn leaf necklace, and Roma Downey's Box Of Butterflies book (totally a surprise there, but a thrilling one!). An aunt sent a card plus a couple of DVDs and a couple of books, all romance, which isn't a surprise. I think she's trying to get me interested in romance. Everything looks interesting, though, and one of the DVDs is four Christmas movies, and there can never be too many Christmas movies. I actually saw one of them last year when I was with my friend and she had the Hallmark Channel on in the background. It was a very cheesy movie but kind of cute and sweet, and I actually had kind of wanted it, so I'm excited about that. One of the books also sounds like it has some friendship stuff going on in addition to the romance plot, so I'm anxious to see how that goes.

I really felt like a kid again this year. It was amusing, being surrounded by Ponies and Disney plushies, but it felt so good. For a little while it was kind of like I was ten again, when I was first longing for more Oliver and Company plushies.

I also figured out my Amazon order. It looks like the OS for the cheapest Fire tablet is an older one, based on Android's Lollipop. I'm not sure if Duel Links would even run on an OS that old, at least, not for very long. I think I'll wait on a tablet and maybe I can get a good deal on a more recent one over Black Friday weekend next month. For my order, I'm getting Charlie's Angels, It's a Miracle, and the Secret Agent set. Scrolling through my list of stuff, I suddenly felt like I really wanted to get that. We never did get to see all the episodes because Netflix lost one or two of the discs, and the ones we did see were mostly good. I remember there being very few duds in that series, and I was ecstatic when the boxset came out. I doubted I could ever get it, but I added it to my list anyway. Squee, the set even has all of both series, the thirty-minute one and the hour-long one! So excited to see those again, and to see the ones we missed. (And LOL, the actress who played Miss Posey is in the first episode of the thirty-minute series.)

I also located some good shirts on eBay and bid on one that looks about perfect. With any luck, maybe I can pull off a halfway decent Halloween costume after all.

October 28th, 1966 was when the world was introduced to Lucrece Posey and her bizarre gang of crooks in the Wild Wild West episode The Poisonous Posey. For the 50th anniversary last year, I made sure to watch the episode. For the 51st anniversary this year, I also wanted to watch the episode and was able to. I also got to see Count Manzeppi's second episode, The Feathered Fury, and ended up going to look over my Wild Wild West story that heavily involves both of those episodes as well as The Sudden Plague. And I just wrote a little bit for the next chapter. That felt pretty good too. It's always liberating coming back to a fic and finally feeling the time and inspiration are right to do a little more. Maybe I'll actually be able to get it finished. I really liked it.

I do need to see if I can get the current Turtles fic done by Halloween, since it's slated as the Halloween fic, but I have the feeling it won't be done by then, especially since it's a humor fic and those sometimes move slower. Also, I may still want to detail some of the Halloween preparations and this fic would be better for that, pushing the actual Halloween venture to still a later fic, and probably a post-Halloween one, if I do it at all.

Earlier in the week we watched the Emergency! episode where the lady keeps thinking her dead sister is haunting the house and wanting her husband out, since the sisters had a falling out over the now-dead one thinking the husband wasn't good enough for her sister. It ends where they think the lady set a fire in the house and honestly believes the sister did it, but actually, no one saw her set the fire. The husband just naturally assumed she did it, as did the paramedics, since none of them believe the place is haunted. I got a plunnie where Ginger and Lou are contacted by the husband, who discovers that while he's in the house alone as his wife is undergoing psychiatric observation, something else really is there with him. He's terrified, as well as horrified that he's sent his wife to the psychiatric ward when she doesn't belong. Ginger and Lou come to investigate and find that instead of the sister, something dark and evil was summoned at the seance that started the madness. That would be a nice Halloween fic too. I'm sure I wouldn't get it written in time, though, but I really want to give it a whirl.

I did a dry run of my costume Tuesday night, as I figured that would be better than putting it on for the first time right before the party the next day. It came out pretty good. I took a few selfies, which I posted here: https://cubeupload.com/codes/bff957 The thumbnails don't show the entire picture, though, so they have to be clicked on to see it all. Hopefully later I can get someone else to take a picture or two to get the whole costume in. It is a pity I couldn't find a brown wig, as I prefer Baxter with brown hair, but I'm glad I found a wild one, at least!

The Halloween party went alright, but there wasn't much of a turn-out and hardly anyone actually wore costumes. I was disappointed, especially compared to previous years. At least the girls weren't uncontrollably wild. And they had fun. And there were leftover cookies from the ones they were decorating to give people, so I got to bring some of those home. Yum.

I found out that the most one can earn at the book fair is indeed $10. I also discovered that working two shifts in a row is exhausting, just as I feared it would be. I only did it because that was the only possible point in the week when I could do the extra shifts. But they had dinner for everyone afterwards, both because of teacher conferences that night and the book fair. So many different delicious soups! I had a cheddar and potato one, along with a roll and ice water. Perfection! Then I brought home a combo of chili and taco soups and three dessert things: a pumpkin and chocolate chip cookie, a raspberry cheesecake cookie, and a brownie. I love copious leftovers so I can do that!

I also decided that for all the work I did, the meatiest book choices were the two Pokemon ones. As much as I wanted the Pony storybook, it is for episodes I've seen. And it's a short story picture book. The Pokemon storybook was a chapter book of episodes I haven't seen, and then the other was the guidebook to the original 151 Pokemon. I was a little surprised that some of the things firmly ingrained in my mind weren't introduced until Gen II or later, like Pichu. The books are fun and I feel like they were worth what I did.

Still, I'm not sure that I'll do the book fair again when it comes time. It really was a bad week to try to do it, so I guess I'll have to see what things are like on the week it comes back. Also, though, maybe next time they won't have anything I'd consider worth all the work. We'll have to see. I did end up finding one other thing there I thought was pretty cool, a book about gems with some raw samples of some. But getting that would have meant not getting anything else, so I stuck with what I'd already chosen. That looked pretty awesome, though. I love rocks, minerals, and gems. Always have.

And the fandom meme that's been going around. Since it's year-end I should have gotten to it sooner, but I've been busy getting up chapter 8 of The Case of the Broken Ties.


Year-End Fandom Meme
1. Your main fandom of the year:
I'm not sure what to say. I played in the Monkees, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and West Side Story fandoms around the first half of the year and Perry Mason for the rest of the year. Although I'm still writing for all of them. Chronologically speaking, however, I suppose I've been with Perry the longest. Also, I discovered The Wild Wild West, a show I've long wanted to watch and am nuts about. I'm not really involved in the fandom, however.

2. Your favorite Film this year:
... I didn't watch any films in the theatre, so I'm not sure what to put. My favorite film that I watched in the past year would be something old. But I'm honestly not sure which film gets the nod. Maybe it's a toss-up between The Persuader and One Minute to Zero. Both are intense dramas in which William Talman has starring roles. I love the man. I also greatly enjoyed Bullit. The police procedural plot highly intrigued me and Simon Oakland was just wonderful as the police captain.

3. Your favorite Book read this year:
I am so terrible at reading lately. I have many wonderful books that I still haven't finished or got to at all yet. Let's see ... my favorite was probably either Altered State by Gregg Luke (a thriller involving mind control) or Final Act by C. Paul Andersen (a thriller involving a big old house and a dark family secret; it reads like a Daphne Du Maurier novel and is every bit as amazing).

4. Your favorite Album or Song this year:
I probably played the heck out of the West Side Story soundtrack the most. The music is just so much fun. It's one of the only musicals I really like.

I'm also very thrilled with Evanescence's new, self-titled album and Jackie Evancho's Christmas album. Jackie is the latest in a line of young classical stars whose career I am eagerly following.

As for one specific song, I'm really not sure. I don't think I played one particular song more than any other. Except perhaps A New York Christmas by Matchbox 20, as I wrote my annual Christmas fic. And Gee, Officer Krupke from the West Side Story soundtrack. I love it. I even wrote a parody involving this conceited nut pleading for Mr. Burger, a judge, a psychiatrist, and Lieutenant Schrank to listen to him. (If anyone wants to see those screwy lyrics, let me know and I'll type them up.)

5. Your favorite TV Show this year:
Perry Mason.

6. Your favorite Community this year:
I'm not sure. Most of the fandoms I've been playing in this year don't have very active journal communities.

7. Your best new Fandom Discovery of the Year?
That Perry Mason season 2, 6, 7, and 8 have many, many wonderful friendship scenes between Perry and Hamilton. I've seen a lot of those episodes in the past, especially from 2 and 6, but I didn't know what seasons they were from. Nor did I know the overall ratio of episodes with those scenes.

Also, I would count The Wild Wild West as a runner-up discovery. It's just amazing! It has everything I want in a series: friendship, hurt/comfort, suspense, crime-fighting, good-looking men....

8. Your biggest Fandom Disappointment of the Year?

... Probably that I've had a very difficult time getting people to believe me when I talk about certain things in Perry Mason being out-of-character at particular points in the series' timeline. If that was all it was I wouldn't care so much, but I feel like some people think I'm an idiot for feeling that way. And that makes me quite unhappy.

9. Your favorite TV Boy of the year:

... Gosh, I don't know. "Boy" implies someone rather young, and I've mostly spent the past year crushing on guys in their forties.

I did have another Monkees phase near the beginning of the year, so I guess I'll put Micky. I just love him, especially in season 1 when he's intelligent, sarcastic, hilarious, and generally brave and unselfish. Season 2 Micky and his cowardice and stupidity just makes me cringe so bad.

10. Your favorite TV Girl of the year:

This one's even harder to pick. My favorites are really more women than girls.

Would the Monk women qualify under girls? Natalie's grown on me a lot, although I really don't know that I could ever say I like her more than Sharona. Natalie is a little too perky sometimes for my tastes.

11. Your biggest Squee moment of the year?

Just one? There were so many: When I saw Tony worried about Kolchak in The Energy Eater and The Trevi Collection, when I started watching Perry Mason again and realized just how many wonderful friendship scenes there are between Perry and Hamilton.... I have a big squee every time I find one. Each scene I find seems to top the previous one in its level of awesomeness.

12. Your most Missed Old Fandom?

I don't know. I miss getting the amount of reviews and interest I used to get on my old Yu-Gi-Oh! mysteries. Even when I return to the fandom again and again, I can't recapture that. The audiences are still there, but I can't seem to pack them in the way I used to do.

13. Your Fandom that you haven't Tried Yet, but want to?

That ... recent magical girls show whose name keeps escaping me.

14. Your Biggest Anticipations of the New Year?

Writing fanfiction for my favorite series and hopefully being able to record seasons 7 and 8 episodes of Perry Mason. (Our station is skipping most of those and starting over this month. Aurgh!)