Since you're gone my empty arms have nothing left to hold

1. HI WORLD. Ugh, I'm totally sucking at updating lately but now that I've settled a couple of things I should be around more. Hopefully.

2. So, RL stuff, with updates on How Public University Works In This Country for anyone who's been hearing me bitching about it for the last six years - at least it's partially good news. ( here! )

3. Yesterday I went to a graduation party that was also held in a disco. I kind of ended up running after two hours even if I'm pretty sure everyone else stayed until five AM, but apparently disco music, more than five hundred people in the same space, inability to dance and inability to do conversation are too much. /o\ Meh. I'm not sure I'll ever get the appeal.

4. Our usual relatively spoiler-less TV roundup - one day I'll go back to full reviews posts...

a) H50: still not back at S1 glory, not as bad as it can get. And now also accepting former SPN and vampire porn people! Even if imo Julie McNiven was absolutely wasted in that episode she was in.

b) Boardwalk Empire: too little Chalky and not enough Richard for my tastes, but I liked the developments with Richard in the last episode aired. If the veteran's daughter is his supposed love interest this season I'll be totally fine with it - she looks cool. For some reason, Van Alden is apparently my third-favorite character now - what the hell, right? Also someone please tell me that what happened in the last episode I've seen him fucks him over because I just want him and Swedish Babysitter Now Turned Wife to be happy, k? Margaret is better than last season. Nucky needs to wake up and be more interesting again. Owen keeps on saying absolutely nothing to me. Gillian needs to go away. Okay, I suppose it's all.

c) Vampire porn, which I realize I haven't posted about in ages: it's back! YES! AND I LOVE IT! I love everything. I love how they're dealing with vampire!Elena, for some reason I apparently like Klaus a lot more this season - wtf. I'm extremely glad that Tyler didn't in fact die. Bonnie needs more appreciation. Not sure about the new people but I don't dislike them. Also the hunter makes this-season-Winchesters seem like humanitarians. Damon is *glorious* this season, period. I <3 Damon okay. Also as everyone imagined that scene with Damon on Ric's grave and ALARIC BEING THERE AND BEING LIKE 'I MISS YOU TOO' = I DIED. DIED. THE WHOLE THING WITH DAMON KEEPING RIC'S SEAT EMPTY WASN'T ENOUGH - THEY HAD TO DO THAT I CANNOT SJDHSAJDJH MY POOR SHIP. Just - ugh. It makes me cry in every possible way. THOSE TWO, WHY DID THEY NEED TO TAKE RIC FROM DAMON DAMMIT DDDDDD: *weepfest* anyway nothing is going to beat that scene this season for a long time I foresee. Also is it normal that I want Damon and Meredith to have 'I miss Alaric so much' sex? Yes? No? I give up. Also Caroline is still the best and seriously, this stupid vampire show is still the thing I enjoy most without reserve. Whatever. Go them. Oh, also, finally Matt has a storyline. More or less. We all appreciate.

d) SPN: 8x03 was mostly good, nothing to say about it either way except that Sam's behavior seems kind of odd to me. Or at least written oddly - I mean, I can't believe no one ever bought him a birthday cake. Or that he'd talk about having a normal life as if he *never* did try it in the first place - idk, probably it was some writing issue and they went about it wrong but it left me very perplexed. 8x04 was imo very good - it took a bit to get into the style of it and tbh seriously, do people ever STUDY when they're at campuses in these shows, but I really really like the outsider perspective and that they decided to give the monster a chance at the end - considering that lately they're all gung-ho about killing hosts and whatever it was a nice change. And that said, seriously, Sam and Dean appeared for probably like five minutes in the entire thing but when at the end Dean had that dejected face while he asked 'do I really say awesome that much?' I think someone punched my heart or something. Just - HOW DO YOU DO IT WITH ONE LINE SERIOUSLY. Other than that: Sam's hair keeps on being a mystery - I'm pretty sure that it's possessed since it CHANGES FROM FRAME TO FRAME, IT CAN'T BE POSSIBLE - and the office romance line was kind of hilarious. Lol. Unknowing wincest shippers much? Anyway, neither episode was on par with the first two, but they weren't bad whatsoever.

e) Kings, which I finished sometime last week: I'd just like to state that whoever canceled this after one season was a criminal. CRIMINAL. YOU DON'T CANCEL THIS KIND OF BRILLIANCE. I loved everything about it. The whole biblical retelling was overall genius, the acting was out of this world (seriously IAN MCSHANE SERIOUSLY WHY CAN'T THEY EVER MAKE A SHOW WITH THE GUY THAT ACTUALLY FINISHES ITS RUN) and Jack was totally my favorite (... considering that he was pretty much the Theon of the situation except with some more PR skills and more luck in taking horrible decisions that's probably not a surprise - also I mean, Sebastian Stan *dies*) and everything was done so well and clearly THEY DIDN'T EVEN GET TO THE POINT WHERE DAVID BECOMES KING UGH seriously *why*. The fact that my Bible reading was recent probably is influencing my opinions but seriously everything about that show was made of win. Except that it isn't longer. DDDDDD: why do networks always cancel smart shows/stuff I like? Meh.

f) I started Treme. I'm nowhere near far enough in it to do serious reviews, but it's *awesome*. And I appreciate all the music I'm discovering thanks to it. Also all the people from The Wire in the cast are automatically a win. (And Kim Dickens! I missed her face!). I'll probably have more in-depth reactions when I finish S1.

5) Telegraph Avenue is gorgeous. Even if Chabon needs to stop torturing me with bittersweet endings okay, I cannot. Anyway, I'm not going into spoilers here - if I manage to do a goodreads review I'll do it there - but while it still wasn't quite as good as Kavalier & Clay it still was a darned gorgeous book. Also: dear Michael, on behalf of poor ESL people who tend to write in run-on sentences and do-not-get why the English language hates them so much, THANK YOU. Because a guy who manages to publish a book where there's a 12 pages long POV of a parrot which is.. well, twelve-pages of one run-on sentence that actually makes sense, has all my admiration. Seriously, I think that when I was done with that part I spent about five minutes with my eyes like this -> O______O. And now I'll have to wait another five years before he puts out another novel, knowing his timing - sigh. I just want to marry that man's sentences.

6) Aaand for a last thing, completely OT from that: this is the best Robb/Theon meta you'll ever read. Actually I'd say also the best meta on Robb *and* Theon singularly since it says stuff about the characters not necessarily taking the relationship into consideration all the time. Seriously, I think finding the link to this has given meaning to the fact that I actually use tumblr at all and I feel obliged to link it around. It's some flawless meta. Period. And with this I'll go doing productive stuff, sort of.

1. ... very late happy new year world! ♥ Okay, this is way late but between LJ not letting me comment, a final I had to cram for and fic deadlines I totally managed to procrastinate even on posting here. *facepalm*

2. So, out of the way: thanks for the Christmas cards! :D I totally failed to do it before also because most of them arrived in January or end of the December when I wasn't at home (Italian postal service, how so failing), so.. thanks for the cards to:

tellshannon815 (let's hope for more Ian indeed!), blue_fjords, vella_amor_dm, itsjustc, gottalovev (omg that card is gorgeous! <3), cassiopeia7, hopelessfangirl, zelda_zee, jaydblu and invisiblelove!

If you sent me one and I didn't mention you... eeeh, the postal service this year has been crappy on the receiving end so it'll probably get to me soon. Hopefully. I have sent one to everyone who asked, hopefully all of them got there fine but since I sent them from the only postal office in this country where they make you attach four stamps on your own and some weren't even adhesive I just hope that they -do- get wherever you are at some point. Thanks again everyone! ♥ ♥ ♥

3. RL-wise, I'm drowning in notes and I have four finals to go out of five. Good news is that the first went good, bad news is that it wasn't the worst one out of the way and that I'll have exactly one free day before the new term starts. Someone remind me why I always end up cramming everything at the last moment.

4. TV-wise, I'm behind with a couple of things but I managed to catch up with most things currently airing, so have some mixed general reactions.

( spn 7x10 - 7x12 )

( vampire porn 7x10 - 7x12 )

( sherlock series two )

( chuck - entire season up until the last episode )

( boardwalk empire S2 - finale blathering as well )

5. Theeen, I need to rec fics that I got for Yuletide/exchanges AND another awesome one I read yesterday, so, have a small rec angle! (That said, NY's resolution: do the rec posts regularly. Let's try..)

First, I'm gonna put the bulk of it under a cut but since this one needs to be spread around, it's outside a cut so that the world can see it (or better: the Jon/Sam shippers on my FL can see it and go shower it with love and comments):

- Samwell Tarly’s Merciless Observations and their Ramifications, by restlesspuppy; Game of Thrones, Jon/Sam, NC17, no spoilers after the first season; Samwell Tarly is fascinated by Jon Snow. Samwell Tarly wants to know Jon Snow from the inside as well as the outside.

You know that I spend half of my time weeping because there's no Jon/Sam around this fandom? WELL. This fic has, not necessarily in this order: spot-on characterizations (seriously, her Sam voice is superb and Jon is totally perfect), lovely prose, scorching hot sex (which imo is made even better by who's topping), awesome execution altogether and it's just so good I could cry. Anyone around here who ships it, go and give it a try because it's awesomecakes and deserves hits.

( Yuletide & Christmas exchanges + random lone fic; Dark Tower, ASOIAF, SPN and a crossover )

This is all for now - I still need to go through the Lost HoHoHo stuff, so there'll be recs from that too as soon as I'm done with a) finishing stuff I'm supposed to have finished in a week, b) re-posting everything I haven't re-posted because of school or laziness since... November or so.

6. Aaaand, to get back into the swing of things and end this extra-long thing, meme stolen from... everyone.

❤ favorite female character:
❤ favorite male character:
✖ least favorite:
✔ who resembles me:
❤ most attractive:
❤ three more characters that i like:

... okay. Done. Hi again! *vows to get back into the loop*

1. Hiiii. I should have known that going to Paris would have meant spending the four days after being back moping like I rarely moped, but it was totally worth it. I have pictures which will be posted sometimes after I'm done with the three exchange fics I'm wrapping up. But damn if it wasn't so worth it.

2. That said, everyone who wanted a postcard should have gotten one - I'm saying -should- because for weight-of-my-bag reasons I couldn't bring my laptop and clearly I brought my address book, but I had the genius idea of not putting inside it the piece of paper I had written with the names of the people who wanted one. *facepalm* I think I remembered right enough, but if you wanted one and end up not getting it.. sorry. I owe you another at some point.

3. That stated, last call for Christmas cards! They'll so totally be late, I know that already, but since I know I'll be able to go to my usual store in a couple of days, I'll leave this here again.

4. Also, I'm so behind on TV it isn't even funny, but at some point after I'm done with the fics referenced in 1, expect a long and ranty post about how gloriously mindfuckingly GOOD was the Boardwalk Empire finale, all of this spiced with a good deal of virtual tears. If anyone wants to discuss in comments after a spoiler warning, I WANT TO DISCUSS IT.

5. I have two memes to do, but one would end up being too long since it implies that I rant about things I like. Therefore, I'm doing the second one for now, the first will happen later.

From pann_cake:

Reply to this entry and I will give you five prompts. Think of a song that fits each prompt, post the five songs to your journal, and explain your choices. Give prompts to the people who reply to you.

Mine were:

1. power trip
2. romantic evening
3. soundtrack to a fic
4. music to do homework to
5. bouncy

( all here )

6. Aaand that one is done. I'll now go crash. Maybe since it's before 2 AM I might succeed in not oversleeping. I'll be back with that other meme and Paris pictures as soon as I'm done with all the writing I need to be done with.

1. Hi! *waves* Gosh, I haven't posted in a while. Blame Misha and his scavenger hunting thing. If it doesn't get into the Guinness World Record I'll feel cheated. (I don't even care about winning - I just want it to make it into the record. XD) Also: thanks Misha for making me find out that there's a lot of pictures of Hillary Clinton looking kind of drunk all over the internet. I really needed to know that.

2. There are still three unguessed ships for the ship meme, so have some hints.

3 is from a uber-famous book that was a uber-famous movie, but the scene I was quoting is only in the book. it wasn't even in the extended edition of the movie...
12 is direct quoting. It's a book first (there's a movie, too). It's absolutely canon.
15 is a UK show in which 99% of the viewers ships one half of the pairing with another person.

3. ASOIAF/GOT peole, there's a comment fic meme going on here. If any of you is inclined to participate/leave some prompts go check it out. :D (beware: it's for books & show so there are spoilery prompts but the book is indicated in the subject header so it should be pretty safe. Still, thread with care.)

4. Music related, one: ME AND lasamy HAVE TICKETS FOR SPRINGSTEEN IN JUNE. But I'll probably also go visit pnr in July and see him again if it goes through. BRUCE TWICE IN A YEAR :DDDD 2012 you already shape up to be good.

5. Music related, two: so, Joe Pug, aka the guy who opened the last Steve Earle concert that I attended and who I really really like has a live record for sale on his site for five bucks which also is comprehensive of most of his stuff that I like so I figured I'd pimp it out. He has a very nice voice and he makes some lovely music, so if you're into (good) soft country rock I'll leave it here.

6. Betaing related, take two: I might have this covered at least for only the grammar aspect, but is there anyone around who's both into SPN and the vampire diaries who'd look over my crossover exchange fic aka a Cas/Rebekah fic of the NC17 variety? Has spoilers until SPN 7x02 and the latest vampire porn ep.

7. Quick spoiler free TV round-up: H50 is getting definitely a lot better, ridiculousness aside (and welcome back, John Locke School of Getting Shit Done!). Ringer: ...well, I didn't even understand that it was on hiatus, but I still think it's the bad kind of ridiculous up to this point. Hell on Wheels: getting a whole lot better. I'm really digging it. The only thing I don't dig is Colm Meaney's character. Whenever he's on, I miss Ian McShane. Boardwalk Empire: OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG WTF HAPPENED LAST EPISODE OMG. If anyone wants to discuss in comments, feel free to do so after a spoiler alert. Vampire porn: I MISS IT. SPN: I have to review the latest ep still but it was awesome except for the last two minutes. Ben Edlund never leave me and keep on making me forget the crap that was 7x08. Chuck: awww show I'll miss you when you're gone. Also JEFFSTER WHY YOU MAKE ME SUFFER SO.

And this stated, my uncle finally managed to give me my birthday present which was supposed to be the first two Sopranos season. Then I saw that he got me also third and fourth. Which means, at some point massive Sopranos catching up will happen.

8. My Yuletide assignment is GLORIOUS. I'm gleeing just at the thought.

9. I'm sure I had something else to say but it's past one AM and yesterday I went to bed at four thanks to Misha Collins and gishwhes and the likes, so I think this is it for now. Expect a christmas card post tomorrow or Thursday though. :)

1. Happy birthday to thespiansparkle and carmexgirl! :DDD i hope that you're both having awesome days and that the next year is nothing short of awesome. (And that possibly brings Misha Collins back on our screens, that damned new Dark Tower book and everything you shall wish for.) And if any of you has prompts I'll see what I can do. :)

2. Meeeh apart from episode reviews I haven't posted anything lately. Reason: I was supposed to have an exam on the 19th, then it was moved to the 24th, THEN it was moved to the 3rd (for me) and I've been angsting over it until now. And will angst over it until Thursday. Doesn't help that I don't care about any of it but hopefully the second time will go through...

3. Meanwhile I've been at least keeping up with shows.

Shortly: Ringer keeps on being ridiculous and at some point I'll just fast forward to the scenes with Nestor Carbonell and watch just him. Mostly because the characters seem to be in a race for who is the most dumb. ( like, just a couple of things ) H50 got better even if it's still not as shiny as last season and I still don't get if I want Lori gone or not. Then again just show me AOL without a shirt and we can talk. Sirens got canceled so there goes the only new show that I really liked this season. Meeeh.

3b. A couple longer things about Boardwalk Empire: ( mostly about 2x05 but also some 2x06 )

4. So, Misha Collins is apparently wanting to get into the world records guinness by making us go insane and opened a website for it. Out of all the things you were supposed to do until now I only managed to get someone to take a picture of yours truly while holding up a sign saying gishwishes takes Rome. You don't want to know how I explained the entire thing to the very nice woman taking the pic for me. If anyone has missed the collage on the site..



You can see yours truly's face for a split half of a second at 0.44. I'm the one with the trenchcoat in front of the Pantheon - you can't really read the sign but you COULD, if looked at the picture in the right size. XD

5. Throwing it here: anyone would be willing to beta for me 6000 words of Castiel & Amelia Novak fic for Novakfest? Posting starts on the 8th but I highly doubt I'll be posting early, so no hurries.

6. Aaand... happy Halloween to whoever seriously does it! Between it not being a huge thing here and the fact that I have to study physics stuff I absolutely don't give a damn about I'm doing.. absolutely anything, but here, have the Best Thing Ever For This Holiday that I know.



Don't tell me that it isn't awesome. ;)

7. And I think it shall be it for now. At some point I'll get back into the swing of things. Possibly after having passed this thing. The day I thought that the master's degree meant more laid back schedule I was so very wrong.

1. Happy late birthday to jaydblu! :D I hope you had an amazing day and that next year brings awesome/nice things all the way. ♥

2. So, classes have started which is why I've been scarce. Thankfully this round I actually give a shit about four classes on four rather than one on three, so maybe this semester won't be the complete drag that last semester was. Also none of my current teachers is an idiot, which is definitely a plus. Now I just need to get through a will-be-not-nice session at the university office if they have to bitch about what I need to put on my study plan. Hopefully I won't end up on the newspaper for strangling the employees. (Also, in my university the office supposed to deal with students is now open TWICE each week, three hours each, and none of these is in the afternoon. At times I think I should have done university abroad entirely.)

3. TV talking under the cut! Or well, what TV I've seen that isn't the vampire porn or SPN. Also: the bit about H50 isn't exactly flattering and there's talking of possibly triggering subjects.

( Ringer )

( H50 )

( Boardwalk Empire (or the one good point in here) )

4. Meanwhile, out of utter curiosity (and because it was short) I went and downloaded/watched New Amsterdam. What's sad: the eight episodes of that show are better than half of the new shows I checked out. *facepalm* It was lovely. And I obviously need to catch up with things either till airing or wrapped up, not things that were canceled without an ending ages ago.

5. I signed up for mini_nanowrimo again, in hopes that during November I manage to finish stuff. Last year it was awesome and being forced to write daily is a good thing, so I'll give it another go. One of these years I'll do the regular Nanowrimo again but it'll be when I'm done with classes forever.

6. Sadly, the exciting news are done for now. But hey, why not a meme? Stolen from elliotsmelliot and mollivanders: give me a book/show/movie and I'll answer with:

+ Favorite episode(s)
+ Favourite character(s)
+ Favorite villain(s)
+ Favorite Ship(s)
+ Favorite growth arcs
+ Best portrayal overall
+ Favorite quote

1. Happy birthday to valhalla37! I hope you're having a smashing time and that your next year is full of awesome things, job-wise and everything else-wise, and may it also be filled with Jeremy Davies getting a lead on a good show or appearing in as many places as possible. ♥ and if you have prompts or anything I'll see what I can do. :)

1b. Incidentally, also happy birthday to Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles and John Coltrane. Why wasn't -I- born on Sept. 23rd?

1c. Oh, and double incidentally, I hope Misha is having the time of his life at his kid's birthday party. Another one who picked a good day to be born, unlike myself.

2. In RL news: university is currently making me want to commit harakiri in ten different ways. (And I ended up refusing my grade at that stupid exam and ended this close to arguing with my professor but whaaatever. Next time.) In better news, my tooth is apparently fixed and also not sensitive anymore, and it's good that it's done with. In I-don't-even-know news, after the high school reunion I'm apparently facing a junior high reunion. I'm totally not convinced that it's a good idea, since it's the kind of thing where you should bring popcorn and munch while people strangle each other virtually, but we shall see. And yoga started again, and it's been glorious. At least that.

3. Also, I've seen a lot of TV in the last two days.

( Hawaii 5-0 2x01 )

( vampire porn 3x02 )

( Ringer )

( Person of Interest )

Also: BOARDWALK EMPIRE IS BACK THIS WEEK! :DDDDDDDDD aaand SPN is back today! Tomorrow for me! I'm feeling ridiculously giddy and happy and flailing about the first and... re the second, I'm totally unspoiled and just wanting to see what happens, and I'm glad that it's back altogether because by now I've been wrecking myself after it for five years, it'd feel wrong not angsting about it anymore. Tho please FSM let Castiel have a good story, thanks.

4. Also, I might not be the greatest Foo Fighters geek on this planet but when I see this kind of stuff I'm glad that they exist.



The best thing is that out of the Westboro people just one understood they were being made fun of by the people they were picketing.

5. PM is being disgusting beyond any limit. Germans on my FL: sorry regarding his comments re your PM, who's surely a lot more competent than him. (And way more attractive, all things considered.) basically: guy said in a wiretapping stuff that would make me say 'well let them be bankrupt' if I were her. thankfully for everyone I'm not. Also, my favorite Italian program got axed because he didn't appreciate that they did satire about him/invited people he didn't like. The second I know when we vote, since they're not lasting until the term is done, I'll mark days on a calendar.

6. Next post should have a bunch of recs. Which I didn't do this summer but I want to see if I can pick up the habit. Hopefully...

7. Aaand that's it for now. I'll go to bed crossing my fingers for good things to happen on SPN. Or better, to Castiel, who am I fooling..

Or, this be my huge tv talking post of the month, and since I need to talk about SPN and the vampire pornography too, let's have everything here. Premise: I watched a damn lot TV, so there'll be general talking about entire seasons, oh my. I'll try not to rant for ages though. ;) Therefore, there you get Janie's thoughts on:

1. ( Sherlock (BBC) S1 )

2. ( Boardwalk Empire S1 )

3. ( Leverage from S1 to S3 )

4. ( vampire pornography - 2x11 and 2x12 )

5. ( Supernatural 2x12 )

Okay, that's it. Phew. It was HARD. Now, plan for February: SFU S4 and S5, Justified and Treme. Let's see if I manage. Also because I'm sure I'll like both Treme and Justified when I manage to see them.