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grrgoylNothing big happened this week. However, lots of little things happened instead. Have some bite-sized updates, plus some movie reviews.
I was driving home from work this weekend at 5 am when suddenly I noticed my car sounded a lot worse than it did a second before. It was quite alarming, but seemed to be operating fine. I prayed for it to just get me home (I had about 2 miles to go at this point). I eventually pieced together the engine that now sounded like a motorcycle with a peculiar dragging noise: obviously my muffler had fallen/was falling off. Whew, at least not an engine malfunction.
When I arrived I looked closer: Got it in one. Unfortunately it wasn't the back part hanging down but the front, meaning it was scooping forward like a bulldozer rather than pulling behind.
Tery told me how a similar thing had happened to her first car. She had put off fixing it for about a week, and was told when she finally got it in that she was missing her oil cover and the muffler had been throwing up sparks like crazy -- she had essentially been driving around a Molotov cocktail. She shouldn't be alive.
I got a couple of hours of sleep and then called Firestone. It just figures I was literally a month from paying off my last maintenance visit with them and looking forward to having that extra money in my pocket again. Still cheaper than a car payment, I told myself yet again.
They took me in immediately, which is why I love them. I gingerly drove the two miles or so, my car in obvious distress. At a stop light a guy shouted out his window, "Hey, your tailpipe is dragging!" I toyed with an ultra-sarcastic response, "REALLY? Is THAT the godawful scraping noise I've been trying to drown out with my radio?" But he was only trying to be helpful, so I assured him I was on top of the situation.
At Firestone the guy offered to top off my fluids for free, making it sound like he was doing me a real favor. I was really more concerned about this huge metal thing hanging off my engine, but sure, why not. Tery wondered if "fluids" included gas (of course not).
$650 later and I was on my way. At least it happened after I bought my bike, or else I wouldn't have been nearly so impulsive to get Mamba.
~*~
Ah, Mamba. She has already brought me much pleasure, but I have had my first crash, a much more traumatic event than any damage to my car that doesn't even have a name.
I put pedals with toe clips on her this week. I had these once before and hated them, but that was actually on Rogue Leader and putting toe clips on a mountain bike is a symptom of insanity, even if I had the experience back then that I do now.
The maiden voyage went off without a hitch, and I loved the workout they gave my quads that was previously missing without them. Then on day two I was stopped at an intersection waiting for two cars to pass. A cool parlor trick I do on the bike is balance on the pedals while at almost a complete stop.
Well, as I learned this day, I can do this for one car but not two. I started wavering. I got my right foot out in time but not my left, and WHAM! I went straight down on my left side, exactly like I did that time with the poison ivy. It happened so quickly I actually banged my head on the pavement, so three cheers for wearing a helmet.
I blame the clips (and user error) about 40%; mostly I blame other bikers who ignore traffic rules and barrel through every intersection without a care, so now motorists act like every cyclist is a deer that might unexpectedly leap in front of them (so they drive too cautiously and slowly for my parlor trick).
I took a huge gouge out of the handlebar tape on that side -- this is why I hate buying new things. But fortunately my body bore the brunt of the rest of the fall and nothing else was damaged. Abrasions and bruises heal: a scratched paint job or bent component isn't so easily cured.
And I did have my eye on some awesome handlebar tape, black with tiny white spirals, for the mixte anyway. Maybe it was meant to be after all.
~*~
In not so good news, Tery's friend is dying of end-stage liver failure.
Kristy was Tery's best friend from the bar she used to go to. Kristy worked as a waitress, was more or less an alcoholic (she says less; Tery says more. It looks like Tery was right), and her life was a mess back before Tery had to stop hanging out with her because she simply couldn't socialize outside of the bar setting.
Tery heard she was in the hospital through a mutual friend on Facebook -- also through Kristy, but Kristy is one of those Facebookers who loves to post cryptic, tantalizing hints of news that force everyone to comment, "OMG What's wrong???" (so VERY EXTREMELY annoying and a pathetic attempt to trick people into giving you attention, BTW, any of you who happen to Facebook). Kristy posted things like "in the hospital, guess I'll have to call in sick to work haha" and then "in ICU, now I'm worried. sad face"
Tery went to visit her before her 2-week vacation back home, and reckons Kristy won't live to see her return. She says she's horrifically emaciated with a distended belly full of ascites, and her lungs are filling with fluid as well. They can't give her pain meds because with 20% liver function she can't metabolize them. It's said to be one of the most painful ways to die. She was so disoriented no one told her she's dying; she thinks she'll be going home, going back to the bar and waiting a few months for her liver transplant (so she can get back to her party lifestyle. Even if she did survive this week, they don't waste organ transplants on people who refuse to change their ways) -- hence her flippant, coy little Facebook posts.
Kristy is 32 years old.
Tery is taking it extremely well, considering how close they used to be. Tery desperately wanted her to escape the bar life when she got out, but Kristy was stuck fast. A small irony is Kristy's father died of liver cancer in his early 40's, refusing to quit drinking even at the end. She was so furious with him, and look at her now.
Me, I have even less sympathy. As the mutual friend said, you don't wake up one morning with 20% liver function and go to the ICU. Kristy has had problems for awhile now, vomiting blood, etc. but refused to heed the warnings. At the risk of sounding smug, one night in the ER was all it took for me to change my entire life, and my problem wasn't even that life-threatening. How many times would you vomit blood before suspecting maybe something wasn't right?
With all the uproar about whether or not to legalize pot, I ask why the hell is alcohol legal when it's just as, if not more, dangerous? I guarantee it's destroyed more lives, even without a death involved.
So, yeah, pre-emptive RIP Kristy.
~*~
Dammit, I guess I'm just incapable of keeping my news truly "bite-sized."
Movie reviews!
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Well as we all know, I have nothing but derision for this series, so we're both wondering why I keep renting them. Maybe I don't want to be like those anti-Harry Potter religious nutjobs who rant and rail against it without actually ever seeing a single movie (I draw the line at reading the books. My reading allowance is much more restricted).
When last we left the gang in Forks, WA, Bella was nagging Edward to turn her into a vampire; Jacob also fell in love with her, became a werewolf and promptly burned all his shirts; we met the Volturi, an ancient council (or something) of vamps whose purpose any of us have yet to figure out; and Bella's dad, despite being a policeman and we can only assume trained to be particularly observant, remains somehow completely oblivious to the extraordinarily high supernatural population of his town.
Even though in this chapter they apparently decided to abandon any attempt to make the Cullens pass as human -- they all have matching amber eyes, which looks awesomely fierce, but there's still no mistaking them for normal. And Edward still looks like he's got a dog turd glued to his upper lip.
This movie spends the first forty-five minutes focusing on whether or not Edward will turn Bella, with occasional reappearances by Jacob to remind us about that little triangle. I swear, if I were a school-age vamp the worst part of eternity wouldn't be the constant search for blood but rather being caught in an endless teenage angst drama. Ugh, stake me now.
Edward is lobbying hard for Bella to marry him before he'll turn her. The only reason I can think for him acting like such a chick is again Stephanie Meyer and her Mormon sensibilities showing through. Jacob is insisting just as hard that Bella really loves him, she just won't admit it. It was really not enjoyable at all watching Jacob puppy dog around behind her everywhere, it seems painfully obvious that she's going to pick Edward and I know/care nothing about the books.
For instance, later in the movie Jacob gives Bella a beautiful hand-carved wolf charm bracelet. Bella and Edward are doing their best not to flaunt their love in Jacob's face, and Jacob is doing everything short of peeing all over her to mark his territory. Still later, Edward gives her another charm -- "thought I should be represented too." I briefly wondered what kind of charm would symbolize a vamp. A set of plastic Halloween fangs? Maybe a tasteful little coffin? A tiny Count Chocula doll? No, it's just a tacky-looking crystal heart, bought at a cheap mall accessory store and made of fail. Jacob: 1 Edward: 0.
Jacob lost the final shred of my sympathy, however, when Edward makes some comment about not wanting him around and Jacob spits back the phrase that is most commonly screwed up by everyone and raises my hackles higher than any werewolf's: "I could care less what you want!" NOOOOOOOOOOO! COULDN'T. It's "COULDN'T care less." Bad werewolf!
Ahem. And Edward endeared himself to me just a little upon seeing Jacob in one scene and remarking, "Doesn't he own a shirt?" YES. Team Edward FTW!
I did LOL when Jacob insisted on dragging Bella to a super sekrit tribe meeting apparently for the sole reason for her to hear the legend of how the poor innocent werewolves were first attacked by "The Cold Ones." Nearly as subtle as all the Romeo and Juliet parallels in the last movie.
Then Jacob tries to kiss Bella and she responds by punching him in the face, resulting in her breaking her hand with zero damage to him, which kind of made no sense to me -- ignoring (reluctantly) the fact that these are really Animagi (changing shape at will) and not true werewolves, I remember nothing about werewolves being impervious to harm while in human form. Whatevs, Stephanie. Centuries of transcultural mythology nothing but a fun little plaything, huh?
But I LOL'ed again when Carlisle tends to her injury; remember he turns patients he can't save. I imagined Bella wheedling him, "This is it. I'm done for. Turn me now?"
The cool thing in this movie is we get to see two characters' backstories: Rosalie, who I don't remember at all from the previous movies, and Jasper, my favorite. SO much hotter than Edward, especially with his sassy new longer hair. He was apparently an officer in the Civil War when he was turned, cool except he takes on a Southern accent to tell the story that he never had before, and it vanishes again shortly after he finishes. Deliberate or lazy? Hard to tell. Doesn't matter, I'd still do him.
Actually the driving conflict (apart from Edward vs. Jacob, which reminds me there's a scene where they admit they'd like each other if they weren't battling over a girl and I totz wanted them to make out) is the approach of a vamp army of "Newborns" created by Victoria, the Natasha Lyonne-ish vamp from the first two films (actually Bryce Dallas Howard, I now know) FINALLY avenging the death of her lover James.
Newborns are supposedly stronger than full-grown vamps because they have no self-control (which I buy) and still have human blood flowing through their veins (which I don't. How does being part human make them stronger?) Jasper goes into great detail about their particulars, as well as stages a mock training session to prepare them for battle -- I say "mock" because they spend more time flirting with each other than fighting. Well, if they aren't going to take it seriously, why should I?
Before the army arrives, it's arranged for Bella and Edward to spend a night alone together in the Cullen mansion. Bella is determined to lose her virginity. Edward is just as determined to make her keep it. I went through a similar struggle with the guy I tried to have as my first, so I know firsthand what Bella was feeling (his reason was if he was my first, I would love him forever (he didn't use Jacob's word "imprint" but his meaning was very close). He certainly thought a lot of his skill in bed. Guess I'll never know if it was justified or not).
The battle, when it finally happens, is actually quite spectacular, if a little one-sided thanks to the wolves allying with the Cullens. (Didn't understand all the hand-wringing over how bad it would be, people might die! *gasp* From what I could tell not a single Cullen or werewolf dies). I liked how the Newborns' limbs just broke off like ice sculptures (actually so does Victoria's, so maybe this is just how Stephanie's vamps die. Except James in film one. Meh). This makes sense, actually -- without blood in their limbs they would just snap like brittle twigs. In fact the effects were a lot better in general. The wolves didn't look as much like videogame characters, at least.
Well, Jacob is seriously wounded and Carlisle treats him. I thought for a second he would turn him, making him half-and-half, but of course that was done in Underworld and Stephanie better keep her grubby, unoriginal little Mormon paws off of that franchise. We leave Jacob asking Bella to give him some space for awhile, using his healing bones as a heavyhanded metaphor for his heart. What is it with these two and heavyhanded metaphors? (see here for the very unsubtle uses in the last movie) Is it really so hard to say what they're actually feeling?
Unfortunately the Volturi turn up at the end, with Dakota Fanning, and she's STILL the worst possible casting choice of all these movies combined. Awful, awful, awful. Unbelievably, cringingly bad. I wondered if her fans lamented her (trust me, really, blessedly) brief screentime the way I curse when Rickman is criminally underused in a movie. Then I wondered if she had fans as passionate about her as Rickman's fans are about him. If she did, I doubt they could argue that she has absolutely no business playing a vampire, let alone an authoratative, exceptionally powerful one. Hell, maybe Rickman should have played her.
Unless Stephanie wrote the character as an immature silly bimbo in the body of an ancient universally feared bloodsucker. In which case my opinion of Stephanie has just dropped to unredeemable depths.
Dakota Fanning notwithstanding, I daresay of the three this might be my favorite -- it certainly had the least amount of eye-rolling, stilted dialogue. I'm afraid it all might be downhill from here, since it's pretty obvious the next one will have Bella and Edward's wedding. Ugh.
Did I say reviews? This one took far too long, I'm quitting while I'm ahead. But just you wait until next time....THEN you'll get it.
~*~
Last but absolutely not least: Got your package today,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
velmaneuwirth. You are the sweetest EVER. So much goodness crammed into such a tiny envelope! I can't wait to give Tery her medals, she's going to LOVE them. Andandand you gave me Rickman! (sort of) And BANKSY! LOVE LOVE LOVE that graphic! Thank you so much!! :D (also loved seeing your handwriting. More personal than words typed on a computer :)
I was driving home from work this weekend at 5 am when suddenly I noticed my car sounded a lot worse than it did a second before. It was quite alarming, but seemed to be operating fine. I prayed for it to just get me home (I had about 2 miles to go at this point). I eventually pieced together the engine that now sounded like a motorcycle with a peculiar dragging noise: obviously my muffler had fallen/was falling off. Whew, at least not an engine malfunction.
When I arrived I looked closer: Got it in one. Unfortunately it wasn't the back part hanging down but the front, meaning it was scooping forward like a bulldozer rather than pulling behind.
Tery told me how a similar thing had happened to her first car. She had put off fixing it for about a week, and was told when she finally got it in that she was missing her oil cover and the muffler had been throwing up sparks like crazy -- she had essentially been driving around a Molotov cocktail. She shouldn't be alive.
I got a couple of hours of sleep and then called Firestone. It just figures I was literally a month from paying off my last maintenance visit with them and looking forward to having that extra money in my pocket again. Still cheaper than a car payment, I told myself yet again.
They took me in immediately, which is why I love them. I gingerly drove the two miles or so, my car in obvious distress. At a stop light a guy shouted out his window, "Hey, your tailpipe is dragging!" I toyed with an ultra-sarcastic response, "REALLY? Is THAT the godawful scraping noise I've been trying to drown out with my radio?" But he was only trying to be helpful, so I assured him I was on top of the situation.
At Firestone the guy offered to top off my fluids for free, making it sound like he was doing me a real favor. I was really more concerned about this huge metal thing hanging off my engine, but sure, why not. Tery wondered if "fluids" included gas (of course not).
$650 later and I was on my way. At least it happened after I bought my bike, or else I wouldn't have been nearly so impulsive to get Mamba.
~*~
Ah, Mamba. She has already brought me much pleasure, but I have had my first crash, a much more traumatic event than any damage to my car that doesn't even have a name.
I put pedals with toe clips on her this week. I had these once before and hated them, but that was actually on Rogue Leader and putting toe clips on a mountain bike is a symptom of insanity, even if I had the experience back then that I do now.
The maiden voyage went off without a hitch, and I loved the workout they gave my quads that was previously missing without them. Then on day two I was stopped at an intersection waiting for two cars to pass. A cool parlor trick I do on the bike is balance on the pedals while at almost a complete stop.
Well, as I learned this day, I can do this for one car but not two. I started wavering. I got my right foot out in time but not my left, and WHAM! I went straight down on my left side, exactly like I did that time with the poison ivy. It happened so quickly I actually banged my head on the pavement, so three cheers for wearing a helmet.
I blame the clips (and user error) about 40%; mostly I blame other bikers who ignore traffic rules and barrel through every intersection without a care, so now motorists act like every cyclist is a deer that might unexpectedly leap in front of them (so they drive too cautiously and slowly for my parlor trick).
I took a huge gouge out of the handlebar tape on that side -- this is why I hate buying new things. But fortunately my body bore the brunt of the rest of the fall and nothing else was damaged. Abrasions and bruises heal: a scratched paint job or bent component isn't so easily cured.
And I did have my eye on some awesome handlebar tape, black with tiny white spirals, for the mixte anyway. Maybe it was meant to be after all.
~*~
In not so good news, Tery's friend is dying of end-stage liver failure.
Kristy was Tery's best friend from the bar she used to go to. Kristy worked as a waitress, was more or less an alcoholic (she says less; Tery says more. It looks like Tery was right), and her life was a mess back before Tery had to stop hanging out with her because she simply couldn't socialize outside of the bar setting.
Tery heard she was in the hospital through a mutual friend on Facebook -- also through Kristy, but Kristy is one of those Facebookers who loves to post cryptic, tantalizing hints of news that force everyone to comment, "OMG What's wrong???" (so VERY EXTREMELY annoying and a pathetic attempt to trick people into giving you attention, BTW, any of you who happen to Facebook). Kristy posted things like "in the hospital, guess I'll have to call in sick to work haha" and then "in ICU, now I'm worried. sad face"
Tery went to visit her before her 2-week vacation back home, and reckons Kristy won't live to see her return. She says she's horrifically emaciated with a distended belly full of ascites, and her lungs are filling with fluid as well. They can't give her pain meds because with 20% liver function she can't metabolize them. It's said to be one of the most painful ways to die. She was so disoriented no one told her she's dying; she thinks she'll be going home, going back to the bar and waiting a few months for her liver transplant (so she can get back to her party lifestyle. Even if she did survive this week, they don't waste organ transplants on people who refuse to change their ways) -- hence her flippant, coy little Facebook posts.
Kristy is 32 years old.
Tery is taking it extremely well, considering how close they used to be. Tery desperately wanted her to escape the bar life when she got out, but Kristy was stuck fast. A small irony is Kristy's father died of liver cancer in his early 40's, refusing to quit drinking even at the end. She was so furious with him, and look at her now.
Me, I have even less sympathy. As the mutual friend said, you don't wake up one morning with 20% liver function and go to the ICU. Kristy has had problems for awhile now, vomiting blood, etc. but refused to heed the warnings. At the risk of sounding smug, one night in the ER was all it took for me to change my entire life, and my problem wasn't even that life-threatening. How many times would you vomit blood before suspecting maybe something wasn't right?
With all the uproar about whether or not to legalize pot, I ask why the hell is alcohol legal when it's just as, if not more, dangerous? I guarantee it's destroyed more lives, even without a death involved.
So, yeah, pre-emptive RIP Kristy.
~*~
Dammit, I guess I'm just incapable of keeping my news truly "bite-sized."
Movie reviews!
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Well as we all know, I have nothing but derision for this series, so we're both wondering why I keep renting them. Maybe I don't want to be like those anti-Harry Potter religious nutjobs who rant and rail against it without actually ever seeing a single movie (I draw the line at reading the books. My reading allowance is much more restricted).
When last we left the gang in Forks, WA, Bella was nagging Edward to turn her into a vampire; Jacob also fell in love with her, became a werewolf and promptly burned all his shirts; we met the Volturi, an ancient council (or something) of vamps whose purpose any of us have yet to figure out; and Bella's dad, despite being a policeman and we can only assume trained to be particularly observant, remains somehow completely oblivious to the extraordinarily high supernatural population of his town.
Even though in this chapter they apparently decided to abandon any attempt to make the Cullens pass as human -- they all have matching amber eyes, which looks awesomely fierce, but there's still no mistaking them for normal. And Edward still looks like he's got a dog turd glued to his upper lip.
This movie spends the first forty-five minutes focusing on whether or not Edward will turn Bella, with occasional reappearances by Jacob to remind us about that little triangle. I swear, if I were a school-age vamp the worst part of eternity wouldn't be the constant search for blood but rather being caught in an endless teenage angst drama. Ugh, stake me now.
Edward is lobbying hard for Bella to marry him before he'll turn her. The only reason I can think for him acting like such a chick is again Stephanie Meyer and her Mormon sensibilities showing through. Jacob is insisting just as hard that Bella really loves him, she just won't admit it. It was really not enjoyable at all watching Jacob puppy dog around behind her everywhere, it seems painfully obvious that she's going to pick Edward and I know/care nothing about the books.
For instance, later in the movie Jacob gives Bella a beautiful hand-carved wolf charm bracelet. Bella and Edward are doing their best not to flaunt their love in Jacob's face, and Jacob is doing everything short of peeing all over her to mark his territory. Still later, Edward gives her another charm -- "thought I should be represented too." I briefly wondered what kind of charm would symbolize a vamp. A set of plastic Halloween fangs? Maybe a tasteful little coffin? A tiny Count Chocula doll? No, it's just a tacky-looking crystal heart, bought at a cheap mall accessory store and made of fail. Jacob: 1 Edward: 0.
Jacob lost the final shred of my sympathy, however, when Edward makes some comment about not wanting him around and Jacob spits back the phrase that is most commonly screwed up by everyone and raises my hackles higher than any werewolf's: "I could care less what you want!" NOOOOOOOOOOO! COULDN'T. It's "COULDN'T care less." Bad werewolf!
Ahem. And Edward endeared himself to me just a little upon seeing Jacob in one scene and remarking, "Doesn't he own a shirt?" YES. Team Edward FTW!
I did LOL when Jacob insisted on dragging Bella to a super sekrit tribe meeting apparently for the sole reason for her to hear the legend of how the poor innocent werewolves were first attacked by "The Cold Ones." Nearly as subtle as all the Romeo and Juliet parallels in the last movie.
Then Jacob tries to kiss Bella and she responds by punching him in the face, resulting in her breaking her hand with zero damage to him, which kind of made no sense to me -- ignoring (reluctantly) the fact that these are really Animagi (changing shape at will) and not true werewolves, I remember nothing about werewolves being impervious to harm while in human form. Whatevs, Stephanie. Centuries of transcultural mythology nothing but a fun little plaything, huh?
But I LOL'ed again when Carlisle tends to her injury; remember he turns patients he can't save. I imagined Bella wheedling him, "This is it. I'm done for. Turn me now?"
The cool thing in this movie is we get to see two characters' backstories: Rosalie, who I don't remember at all from the previous movies, and Jasper, my favorite. SO much hotter than Edward, especially with his sassy new longer hair. He was apparently an officer in the Civil War when he was turned, cool except he takes on a Southern accent to tell the story that he never had before, and it vanishes again shortly after he finishes. Deliberate or lazy? Hard to tell. Doesn't matter, I'd still do him.
Actually the driving conflict (apart from Edward vs. Jacob, which reminds me there's a scene where they admit they'd like each other if they weren't battling over a girl and I totz wanted them to make out) is the approach of a vamp army of "Newborns" created by Victoria, the Natasha Lyonne-ish vamp from the first two films (actually Bryce Dallas Howard, I now know) FINALLY avenging the death of her lover James.
Newborns are supposedly stronger than full-grown vamps because they have no self-control (which I buy) and still have human blood flowing through their veins (which I don't. How does being part human make them stronger?) Jasper goes into great detail about their particulars, as well as stages a mock training session to prepare them for battle -- I say "mock" because they spend more time flirting with each other than fighting. Well, if they aren't going to take it seriously, why should I?
Before the army arrives, it's arranged for Bella and Edward to spend a night alone together in the Cullen mansion. Bella is determined to lose her virginity. Edward is just as determined to make her keep it. I went through a similar struggle with the guy I tried to have as my first, so I know firsthand what Bella was feeling (his reason was if he was my first, I would love him forever (he didn't use Jacob's word "imprint" but his meaning was very close). He certainly thought a lot of his skill in bed. Guess I'll never know if it was justified or not).
The battle, when it finally happens, is actually quite spectacular, if a little one-sided thanks to the wolves allying with the Cullens. (Didn't understand all the hand-wringing over how bad it would be, people might die! *gasp* From what I could tell not a single Cullen or werewolf dies). I liked how the Newborns' limbs just broke off like ice sculptures (actually so does Victoria's, so maybe this is just how Stephanie's vamps die. Except James in film one. Meh). This makes sense, actually -- without blood in their limbs they would just snap like brittle twigs. In fact the effects were a lot better in general. The wolves didn't look as much like videogame characters, at least.
Well, Jacob is seriously wounded and Carlisle treats him. I thought for a second he would turn him, making him half-and-half, but of course that was done in Underworld and Stephanie better keep her grubby, unoriginal little Mormon paws off of that franchise. We leave Jacob asking Bella to give him some space for awhile, using his healing bones as a heavyhanded metaphor for his heart. What is it with these two and heavyhanded metaphors? (see here for the very unsubtle uses in the last movie) Is it really so hard to say what they're actually feeling?
Unfortunately the Volturi turn up at the end, with Dakota Fanning, and she's STILL the worst possible casting choice of all these movies combined. Awful, awful, awful. Unbelievably, cringingly bad. I wondered if her fans lamented her (trust me, really, blessedly) brief screentime the way I curse when Rickman is criminally underused in a movie. Then I wondered if she had fans as passionate about her as Rickman's fans are about him. If she did, I doubt they could argue that she has absolutely no business playing a vampire, let alone an authoratative, exceptionally powerful one. Hell, maybe Rickman should have played her.
Unless Stephanie wrote the character as an immature silly bimbo in the body of an ancient universally feared bloodsucker. In which case my opinion of Stephanie has just dropped to unredeemable depths.
Dakota Fanning notwithstanding, I daresay of the three this might be my favorite -- it certainly had the least amount of eye-rolling, stilted dialogue. I'm afraid it all might be downhill from here, since it's pretty obvious the next one will have Bella and Edward's wedding. Ugh.
Did I say reviews? This one took far too long, I'm quitting while I'm ahead. But just you wait until next time....THEN you'll get it.
~*~
Last but absolutely not least: Got your package today,
velmaneuwirth. You are the sweetest EVER. So much goodness crammed into such a tiny envelope! I can't wait to give Tery her medals, she's going to LOVE them. Andandand you gave me Rickman! (sort of) And BANKSY! LOVE LOVE LOVE that graphic! Thank you so much!! :D (also loved seeing your handwriting. More personal than words typed on a computer :)