The Screen Adaption Of My Life

Unrelated to the image above (but it's relevant to later), I've finally finished reading The Borrowers Avenged by Mary Norton, making me done with the series. It left shipping questions unanswered, as to eventual survival rates, but I liked it.

Of course, with the title 'Avenged', I was kind of expecting the Clock family to get their hands on a gun, a pulley, and some vengeance but apparently they chose not to take the lives of 'human beans'.

I liked reading the series, but it was kind of stressful at time! There was a lot of bickering and unhappiness in the books.

I can't remember the other books I've read since my last update, besides Little Myth Marker by Robert Asprin which also featured bickering but was overcome with the power of friendship. Not even kidding. I'm still enjoying his books, but am running out of Phule's Company to read. Still a lot of Myth, though.

I'm on a comics kick right now, mostly What If?s and Excalibur from the start. I've learned a few things:

One, apparently if Captain America and Sharon Carter had kids, they would be pretty ugly, and two, the difference between He-Thor and She-Thor is pants wearing (see above).

Sidenote about old comics: Skin colouring was pretty weird in the old stuff. Like purple/bright pink was white, green (sometimes just brown) was black, bright yellow was Asian, etc. But I'm not wholly sure what 'grey' was. Ann thinks that's Middle Eastern, but I think it might be Hispanic.

By Dogsdogs@deviantart

So I've had a recent renewal of my love of the X-Men of my past (you may have noticed when I posted headcanons yesterday) and I've been mainlining the cartoon. And plotting, thanks to the picture above.

Now a habit of mine lately is when I have a particularly large fic idea, is to write out outlines or a 'proposal' and submit it to my friends.

For fun, I thought I'd share the one I wrote for a Jubilee and Gambit road trip rescue.

( Here's the proposal, as written in my notebook with illustrations, notes, and wondering about Cyclops )

5 Headcanons of mine:

1. Rohirrim are mostly vegetarian. Basis: In the LotR movies, Jackson didn't include any real meat sources on the Rohan sets (easy to overlook, I know) and it gave me an Idea.

2. Rohirrim are mostly areligious. On the set there was no real religious structures. Plus they're busy with horses.

3. Theoden's unnamed sisters are Swanhild, Sexburg, and Noniel. I use this in my rp and fanfic. Swanhild died as a child, usually.

4. Due to a letter published in X-men asking how old Gambit and Rogue were (the answer was late teens/early twenties), my headcanon for Gambit is that he's actually quite young and was sixteen when he married Belladonna. This, I feel, explains a lot of his fuck ups.

5. Speaking of Gambit, going by the X-Men: The End alternate universe comic, I've decided to go with Gambit being the clone of Cyclops and Sinister for main canon.


Note: With the X-Men ones, I know I've probably been contradicted already because the comics universe is constantly adding onto itself, eating itself, and completely contradicting itself. Given I don't read the comics anymore (they literally put every character I liked on a bus and blew the bus up), I'm pretty comfortable going off into my own mental territory. What I'm saying is, 'because I want to' is the answer for any arguments about the X-Men ones. The Rohirrim ones, I'm open to info.

Debating running a two-shot RPG game this summer (think July or August) to once again taste happiness after my brush with higher education.

Cthulhu as always.


picture from here

From sorchar


1. Go to page 7 of your most recent WiP
2. Count seven lines down
3. Copy and paste the next seven lines of text


My current WIP doesn't have seven pages, so I chose the last seven sentences:

Winter holidays were always busy at Chrestomanci Castle. First was the Solstice celebration (which Janet had been surprised to discover had a much greater importance in this world than her own), then came the hustle and bustle that preceded the Christmas party that the Castle threw each year.

Every year there were complications and this hadn't been an exception. An unusually warm winter had kept snow off the ground and discussion had been made towards how to make the room look properly christmassy if the view out the windows not going to oblige. The prevailing vote had been towards an illusionary snow until Marianne Pinhoe (who was growing much more confident as she got older and fit her powers more) suggested her uncle the artist paint a backdrop.

The Pinhoe skill with dwimmer had proven this to be an excellent idea. The way [uncle pinhoe] had done the backdrops, you felt cozy inside to look at them and it seemed almost like snow was falling in the paintings.

I finished The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton and began Phule's Paradise by Robert Asprin, since apparently my whole reading life is these two authors now? I do not know.

A bit of advice, if you want to write a post about the wonders of reading and happiness, don't do something like read certain reaction tweets about Rue and Thresh in the Hunger Games first. People are vile and I unfortunately have nothing of value to contribute on this topic, but they're still vile.

I'm still on the racism topic because The Borrowers Afield was written in the 50s and guess what comes with that! Yes, featuring heavily in the book are the Romani (please re-advise me if I've used the wrong term and I apologize if so) people. That's not what they're called in the book, among other things. Also at one point Arrietty mentions the flower over her head gives a 'ku klux klan' effect. Oh lord. This has been your paragraph of warning to people considering reading or rereading. I enjoyed the book, but that's there and you can't really get around it.

It also introduces Spiller, the feral Borrower, who I liked. It also ends on a very satisfying note where I actually heard dramatic music in my head.

Quick request: Is there any place that has a timeline of the Borrowers or someone who I can discuss this with? Because there seems to be two missing years in it between Book 1 and 2, but I may just have misread something. And the case of two people finding Arrietty's diary.

Onto Phule's Paradise, which I remember liking a fair bit. Right now Phule and his crew have been assigned to guard a casino. Only what they're guarding it against is a hostile takeover from mobsters and it's an attempt from a member of high command to screw them over.

I will keep you updated on how it progresses and how anti-climatic the ending is this time.

Many bothans died to get this picture. Actually, my reader wouldn't connect to the computer so I could get it and... measures were taken

But when, next morning, they did walk there (Mrs. May in her long, slightly deer-stalker-looking coat and with her rubber-tipped walking stick made of cherry wood), Kate was disappointed. The house looked nothing at all like she had imagined it. A barrack of red brick, it appeared to her, with rows of shining windows staring blankly through her, as though they were blind.

-Kate and Mrs. May, tellers of the Borrowers tales, go to visit the house where the first adventure took place. Also I love Mrs. May's fashion sense. From The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton

Today I ran headlong through Myth Conceptions and Myth Direction, both by Robert Asprin. Also started the above book.

I felt I deserved it, after getting a b+ on my essay and going through a test where I knew all the answers. I hope this succeeding at school thing keeps up! However, my 'hilarious' typos in my notes/flash cards need to stop. First I called Isis a monster instead of a mother, I wrote that a ritual was 'oversoon' by a priest, and Andromeda became a man. Weirdly, all the section in my notes where I had to write about penii being chopped off were spelled and grammared eerily correct.

Anyway, back to the stories. I'm really liking how Skeeve's world is evolving and sort of confused whether I'm getting slash or parent/son vibes from him and Aahz and I am not comfortable about not being able to make the distinction.

But in any case, they remain light and easy fare, which is good when I need to let my brain wind down. The Asprin books have really been helping me study and do homework, actually. I do the work, take a reading break, resume. Then I pretend I can't see my friends trying to message me on the computer. Social life in general is really cutting into my reading/working time.

There's a lot more references in the Myth series than I remember. From a heist involving the alien cities 'Ta-Hoe' and 'Veygus', to the bad-food-serving 'Yellow Crescent Inn'. Admittedly, the last time I read the books I was around twelve and was way too busy being fascinatend by Tananda.

On the topic of Borrowers Afield, it's starting out a little rough like the last one with everyone arguing a lot, but already I'm starting to warm up to them again. I'm glad Arrietty shares my belief that a lot of bugs are right jerks. And it's wonderful seeing my favourite, Homily, grow into her bravery and get acknowledged for it.

OH. FUN FACT. It turns out I haven't read The Borrowers before! I'd read a different series called The Littles. This explains two things:

1. Why the Borrowers have no tails.
2. Why they don't give a fuck about helping humans.

I'm glad that mystery is solved. Like most things, it came to me while I was trying to wake up in bed, where a voice deep inside me went 'You idiot, it was The Littles' at which point I shot up and went to the computer to tell someone in a comment.

In personal news, I'm staying a my dad's to take care of Tiny Stepbrother, and I'm pretty sure the house is infested with murder ghosts.

I have mucho insomnia, so a book post!

I read three books in a huge row, unfortunately none of them were Little Women. I just kind of got this incredible craving for something cheap and easy (that would be Phule's Company and Another Fine Myth, both by Robert Asprin) and then could no longer ignore my deep urge to reread Mary Norton's The Borrowers. All three of these books have sequels and I'm already on Myth Conceptions.

I can't say I'd recommend the first two, but that doesn't mean I didn't thoroughly enjoy them. They were exactly what I was craving and both gave me different things.

Phule's Company had a lot of girl characters I liked, and was about people succeeding. There wasn't actually much conflict, but it made me very cheerful to read.

Synopsis is, Willard Phule (Space Legion name: Scaramouche, and then after his screw-up he becomes Jester) is assigned to an 'Omega company', all the dregs of the Space Legion, as his punishment for a major screw up. He proceeds to tell them they're awesome and stuff goes from there. Also there's a butler named Beeker who is the narrator.

Another Fine Myth had Skeeve and Aahz, who I rather liked. Especially Aahz. It turns into a success story too, if I remember how the sequels go properly. The ending was kind of anticlimactic (oh my god, spellcheck just revealed to me I'd been living a lie all this time about how you spelled that word), but I enjoyed the way there.

The book is about Skeeve, who is apprenticed himself as a magician to use those skills to become a master thief. But then his master summons a demon the same night he (the master) is assassinated. The demon then takes Skeeve on as his apprentice.

The Borrowers. Who here has seen Secret World of Arrietty? Because you totally should. It's a Ghibli movie and it is so beautiful. This is the book it's based off of. While it has some dated (this is code for racist) language at one point, it was overall pretty fun once Arrietty's mom Homily stopped being kind of jerky and started being awesome. By the end Homily was my favouritest.

Synopsis: "Borrowers" are little people who live in houses and 'borrow' (steal) what they want/need to survive. Arrietty and her parents are the last Borrowers in this house, when one day her father gets spotted. What happens next is a good lesson in why maids who drink your booze are jerks.

I may have gotten off track about that moral. But Mrs. Driver the maid was bone-chilling at some points.

So that's what I've read! All in all a satisfying binge. Two were read on my trip to Winnipeg to watch the ballet Giselle, which was amazing. The second act, with the Wilis (ghosts of women who died before their wedding) and them skittering around on the stage en pointe like they were floating was the bestest thing ever. I heard my uncle curse under his breath, though, when Count Albrecht survived. I cannot blame my uncle.

Does anyone have a spare ao3 invite code?


Please and thank you.

SOLVED! Thank you, apetslife!

"There is a lovelier country even than that, where we shall go, by-and-by, when we are good enough," answered Meg with her sweet voice.


-Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Meg brought out that little 'death is inevitable!' gem because they were talking about having personal fantasies. Thanks, Meg. You're charming.

And now for a Little Women status update


I'm back to reading! It's been a while. I'm sorry, self. I'm really sorry. I got two chapters of Little Women done while I was eating breakfast, and at least one important thing happened in them, besides Meg explaining that one day we shall all die because Meg is Meg.

Beth talked to a boy! A real boy! Laurie doesn't count. Laurie is like their brother which explains why he marries the twelve year ol--this is getting weird. Anyway, Beth talked to a boy! And had fun!

This was the chapter where they all went on a boating trip with some British people and Laurie's tutor Mr. Brooke, who I am hoping Meg ends up with because he takes care of little old ladies and I feel he would be compatible with Meg who is like a little old stuffy lady.

There was high drama in the chapter, what with cheating at croquet and... cheating at croquet. Look, that's high drama at this point.

The next chapter focuses on something that's bewildered me a little about the March sisters, which is their love of roleplaying 'Pilgrim's Progress', where if I would just wiki what that is I'm sure I'd be a lot less confused.

But as far as I can tell, it's a lot like when me and my sister used to play 'Power Rangers'* only with more Beth carrying bags on her back up stairs.

Meg's 'death death death' quote is from this chapter, and it really does come out of the blue.

I'm noticing that my favourite chapters for Little Women tend to be ones with a lot of sentimentalness. I don't know why. I guess that's just how I roll.

Debating starting reading the first book of 'How To Train Your Dragon', because I saw movie's Christmas special, 'Gift of the Night Fury'** last night and it reminded me how much I liked the property. Am aware, however, how incredibly different the books are. But they have drawings? I like drawings.


This has been your Little Women status update. You may now return to your lives.



*FUN FACT: I was the Chameleon Ranger and my dinosaur was the compsognathus, because I was nine and knew how to live. I think my sister was rainbow, maybe. Or clear.

**You know, Gift of the Magi never seemed that big a deal to me. I mean, hair grows back. Sucks for watch dude, though.