Christmas holidays

[schneefink]

Merry Christmas everyone, and/or Happy Holidays! I hope you're having a good time.

I'm still exhausted from my week of much too little sleep, but naps are wonderful things and it's getting better. Also coffee.

Yesterday I finished making and wrapping Christmas presents an hour before dinner - no pressure - and then instead of taking a nap I listened to another episode of Cabin Pressure. How is it this funny? I don't think I can listen to it on the bus, the other people would be annoyed.

Quotes from Little Brother during Christmas lunch:
"I always thought seals look like a combination of teddy bears and clubs."
"Austria looks like a club. But it's not in 3D. So it's more like a projection of a club on a spherical body." Me: "But not a smooth sphere. It was nibbled on by space mice." And then we both started humming one of our favorite Christmas songs that starts with "Es kommt ein Schiff geladen/A loaded ship is arriving."
LB currently has math disease: everything he sees reminds him of math. It's funny for me ;)

We sang about twenty songs, some of them in four voices, that's my favorite part of Christmas.

I got "Freebird" from layla! I read through it immediately on Christmas Eve and I loved it. I already knew that she's a fantastic story writer, and it translates very well into comics. I love the characters (all of them as characters and all except one as people), their relationships, the clear sense of the place they live in, and the everyday life absurdity humor. The art is also nice, and it's easy to read (which I was concerned about when I saw the pages online, but it's much easier on paper.) It's exactly the kind of story layla tells best, with people finding each other and about friends and family and with a lot of warmth. Even though there is snow everywhere. "Welcome to Alaska, here's your starter dog." I put it on my list of "fandoms to request if I ever get around to participating in Yuletide" (sadly unlikely, but still.)

And today I finally saw "The Hobbit"! It's fantastic. It was fantastic. I saw it in 48HFR 3D, I don't know if that made a different, it was sooo beautiful. The nature, the sets they build, just wow. Erebor! Rivendell! Just everything. The actors were just perfect, so was the music. They were several scenes that while watching I knew were over the top, with the lighting and the dramatic presentation, but I didn't care because I loved it so much. So many scenes that made me want to go "Fuck yeah!" or wibble in my seat. There were very few things I didn't like as much (the last words of the goblin king, and... there were one or two more, but I can't remember them) and several that were just perfect (the dwarves coming to poor Bilbo's house, the riddle scene...) I only know six of the dwarves by their looks -but all of the names!-, I remember how much I didn't want any of them to die, and yet some will :( It's very close to the book, I was (pleasantly) surprised. I'm looking forward to the next ones! One year...

Signal boost: kitakatzz lost her vids and is asking people to re-upload them for her if they have them here. She is the creator of such wonderful vids as "Welcome to the Black Parade", "Static", and "Fix You", and I hope she gets all of them back so I can watch the far too many I haven't seen yet.

Tomorrow I'll attempt to clean my room, phone everyone I didn't reach yet to wish Merry Christmas, do some homework, watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special, watch a DVD I got (The Great Debaters), visit friends for lunch, and read some Yuletide fics. I still want to do some sga_santa recs, but didn't have the time yet, and there's some OTW stuff to be done. Still a lot to do, but now I can sleep again, it feels great. And on Thursday I leave for the World Universities Debating Championship in Berlin! I think it'll be a lot of fun.

Comments

[astridv]

Merry Christmas to you too. :)

re Freebird, yes! *Really* enjoyed it, for all the reasons you mention. (the Starter Dog is my favorite line as well...) That book is on my must-rec list so it's good there's an online version to link to.

[schneefink]

One of my favorites strips was possibly Liz taking Rainbow Moon out for ice cream to talk because she thought Rainbow was trying to drive her away. And Liz being jealous of how well Karen gets on with her mother, and admitting her mother is her hero, and Liz and her family in general. And the log cabin. And Richard and Matt. And tiny adorable Malice. No, I can't choose.

I find the book easier to read than the online-version (and I can turn a page quicker than it loads on my computer) and I don't want people to give up on it. Otoh the first few pages are in color. :)

[astridv]

I don't like to read comics on the computer at all, myself. Definitely prefer the printed version. The online pages serve as a good teaser though. I read the first few pages and that got me curious enough to buy the book and read the entire story properly: lying on my bed cuddled to the heater.

[schneefink]

The bed or the couch (or the deck chair in the garden) are the only proper places to read books ;)

[layla]

I'm SO delighted you liked it! *hugs* Reading this post (and the comments!) really made my day - what a wonderful Christmas present to see this, and oh, if it ever did turn up as a Yuletide fandom, I would be SUCH a ball of squee and bounce, you can't even imagine. :D :D :D Thank you so much for the wonderful mood-boost!

[schneefink]

Thank you for giving it to me! :D

Are you planning to publish "Kismet" as a printed version too?

[layla]

Yes, I am! :D Especially now that I've found how easy it is to do it through Amazon. That's definitely on the agenda for 2013.

[schneefink]

Great, I'm looking forward to it :)