Clark, if there's one lesson I've learned from you ...

When the show went on its mid-season hiatus last year, I stopped watching. Despite the stellar, heartwrenching twist of a cliffhanger involving Sophia, I was aware of so much complaining about the pace and direction of the show that I just didn't have it in me to keep watching. I didn't have the same enthusiasm so I took a break.

Quicker than I realized S3 came around and of course being a Dish Network subscriber, that was during the time of the AMC kerfuffle and without the ease of access to the show I really didn't see a reason to catch back up. But seeing friends continue to watch and enjoy the show for the most part kept coming back to me and when S3 went on its mid-season break, I decided to start watching again to try to catch up. Now I know I'm not going fast enough to make it before the end of the season but I did finally finish S2 a few weekends ago and had some thoughts to share.

( S2 Second Half Spoilers )

 I've been slowly wading my way through my creative sludge in my spare time but I as of yet have nothing to show for it. As a result this journal has suffered in the wake of quicker less thought needed avenues like twitter/tumblr. Mostly twitter. That said, there is a lot of fan stuff that I don't share there that I would here but it's that extra step of having to come over to DW/LJ to post where honestly I haven't cultivated new friends on for awhile. There are a few holdouts but even those post infrequently. It's mostly become a comm place for me of late, and I enjoy that still but I do miss some of the friendships here that is hard to get some of the same interaction on the more distracting platforms of twitter/tumblr.

Anyway, as a way to restart the activity on this journal I wanted to mention that besides my main tumblr account (that is more reblogs than blog posts that I put here too) I've begun a more fanfic focused tumblr which will be what I'm reading, what I'm thinking, what I'm writing, fic recs, etc on the fandoms I follow (mostly Comics, Glee, Harry Potter, Mass Effect, Merlin, Smallville but I sometimes talk about other ones that I probably won't ever write for or older ones like Star Wars. Just depends. I never thought I'd find something to challenge HP/Smallville and then I found Glee last year.) With that outlet, it will increase what I write here and hopefully energize me enough to start writing again.

Sometimes I think too much, and that keeps my creativity from coming out. More writey, less thinking.

That business out of the way, I regret not producing anything for Porn Battle. I had about 500 words down but it was the last night, hours left on the deadline, I was dead tired and it was my first real attempt at writing fic for public consumption in over a year and I just wasn't feeling it. I came to the realization that really I should have the ideas ready before PB starts, it just creeps up on me every damn year. Especially now that it's only once a year.

Also I'm probably reading way too much, cuts into my writing time badly. I was able to shut it down during Nanowrimo but now not so much.  That brings me to a frustrating moment I had this weekend while reading a fic. That moment when you are reading a great fic that you are enjoying for being original and unique but then the latest chapter out comes all the tropes/cliches that the fandom is filled with.

In this case, Harry Potter. A soul bond resulting in mind speak, instant marriage, married rooms at Hogwarts, instant adulthood and the arrival of a huge inheritance/lordship for Harry via Gringotts.  All in one chapter. Sigh.

 I never know what to post here when I'm too busy to write for fun. I hate just reposting the few blog posts I do on tumblr nowadays but even though I lurk here daily, it's mostly comms these days. I think maybe 5% of my friends are still regularly active on here. It takes me forever to write even the littlest of messages but I will try harder.

That said I noticed I didn't copy over my November fitness update, but it's December, now over 5 months into my being fit goal, lost 7 lbs in the last 5 weeks and am in my best shape in 10 years. And I'm not done and really excited but it does wear on one's patience having such a long term vision.

In more interesting news.. I'm thinking about redoing my 12 Days of ficmas idea that I had thought about last year or the year before but came to my mind too late to start. To those still around, what would be a decent word count for something daily like this? I'm thinking at least 300, I'd love to do more maybe it won't be a fixed number but I want to have a realistic goal that is reachable. Basically a Christmas themed prompt for every story, and i don't know how multi fandom I can be but it would be nice to touch on all the ones I love.  If my counting is right, the first day would be Friday.. I might try to get ahead and set up, but here's hoping for a more active journal!

Comparing to previous years I am being much more conservative/realistic about my TV time. I fell behind on a lot of shows last year (including all the S2 shows I've listed with Maybes) and wasted time on freshman shows that were inevitably cancelled. That said, the maybe shows I've listed here I really enjoyed what I did see of them and would like to catch up on them if I can.

A few new shows made it. I enjoyed the pilot of NBC's Revolution but Mondays are a bad day for me so I will probably have to get the episodes and watch it later in the week. CBS's Vegas won me over when I didn't even want to give it a chance because of Dennis Quaid, such a great actor. I watched Elementary for curiosity and being a big Holmes fan and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the dynamic between Miller & Liu. I've also put the CW's Arrow & Beauty and the Beast on here more for supporting a) comic book property and b) Kristin Kreuk.

While I enjoyed Justin Hartley's portrayal of Green Arrow on Smallville for the most part, I really felt like the character got shackled especially after S8 so I'm looking forward to this next interpretation. And while I wish Kristin luck with the new show, the fact that CW put the show right against Glee which is probably the same demographic they're going for ... the future doesn't seem bright for B&B, a show that already has a unique premise that is hard to get over in a TV way.

 Is there anything more annoying than trying to make a good purchase when it comes to an item you aren't an expert in or really care about all that much? That's how I feel right now when I'm looking at buying a new printer.

My old printer (ancient HP DeskJet) died about a week ago and I'm making due without one right now but I know I have to buckle down and commit to a model sooner than later so I thought I'd reach out and see if someone can swing me one way or the other.

I'm looking at inkjets around the $100 range and have narrowed it down to Epson XP-400 AiO Wireless Printer or Canon PIXMA MG4220 Wireless Printer.  Anyone have experience with Epson or Canon printers or have a different suggestion/recommendation?

I've been looking at reviews on Amazon, Cnet & PC Mag and honestly it's frustrating how often the reviews are pretty much complete opposites with no consensus.

On the news that the Porn Battle is going annual and not having a summer session it got me realizing that I hadn't published a story since last August which is so sad.

Some of it was taking time to step away from Smallville to regain my love for the characters (after all I started the fic after S8 and had no idea how much damage could be done to characters).

Some of it was growing to love new fandoms at a high enough level to want to read and now write stories in them like Mass Effect, Merlin & Glee (which might happen if I'm ever satisfied with what I start creating).

Some of it was saying goodbye to fandoms I just don't see worth writing for anymore (Harry Potter) and then there is just being to busy writing not for pleasure that I did not have much energy to want to write in my free time.

That aside, my writing has picked up in recent weeks and while most might never get seen because it is more for me to rediscover my voice, it is encouraging to be getting back to what I love doing. (1500 words on a Merlin/Morgana story that needs reworking, 1100 words on a Mass Effect story that I'm probably shelving, 750 words on a Batman Begins Bruce/Rachel story that I don't know if it's worth continuing or not, 1500 words on a Smallville Chlark/Cless story that needs reworking, 150 words on an Avengers Epilogue story that ran out of steam).

I'm really trying not to stretch myself too thin like I did in the past so most of these are just for the purpose of getting back to writing and putting words down until I run out of steam so that I can pick up HGF and continue with it. Anything else will try to be kept to short stories/one shots. But i have little restraint when it comes to writing so who knows!

Anyway, when I'm ready to post something besides here I'm thinking of starting up a tumblr to post there too since it's fairly safe to say that is a very active place for fandoms, and eventually I hope to get into AO3, the waitlist says maybe November - so if anyone has an invite I'd love one! *puppy eyes*.

I'm also trying to get better and leaving feedback whenever I read something wherever it is, but right now I don't really understand how that works on AO3 so I just press the kudos button which is for the whole story I guess and not each chapter. I don't know.

Fin.

Can I just say how EXCITED I am for this movie? Disney is just hitting all cylinders for me right now - it almost feels like the 90's.

One of the video podcasts I subscribe to occasionally do a game involving the website Flickchart, where you basically rank the movies you've seen to create your own personal movie rankings according to your choices. I finally decided to join the site myself and am quickly finding myself addicted so I thought I would share the site here too.

Basically you are given two movies and options like if you haven't seen one, or both to replace them with new selections and then you choose which of the two you like more/think is better (however you make choices). Then over a period of time the top 20 bar fills up on the left side of the page and as you make more and more decisions you can use filters to focus your choices, either on the list have so far, or genres, by actor/date, etc.



You can see my top 20 so far after only about 100 random movies ranked. I'm sure a few of those will fall out over time after I do more and refine the list. Have fun! I know much of my spare time will be wasted here.

Something that came to my attention earlier in the week is the apparent move away from using two spaces after a period.  I guess I am not that surprised if that is true because of how fluid the rules of writing have been over the years.

Of course I have that double space press after the period so ingrained into my typing that it has been hard to try to break the habit. If I get onto a roll I usually have to go back over afterward to eliminate the extra space.

I guess that is something that just comes from having done it since I can remember typing. I don't even think it shows up in some documents that just auto eliminate the extra space so in the end it probably was redundant.

Being a gamer I know that this coming week is E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) time, but I can't say I'm that excited this year since it seems neither Microsoft or Sony are going to join Nintendo with a new console announcement yet.

Hoping for something to surprise me and Nintendo is first out the gate with some pre E3 videos on their new Wii U system. I'll admit I am intrigued by the concept.

(There is a skit about 15 or so minutes in that shows the system in use if you don't want to muddle through the entire video)