.: so comes snow after fire :.

A lot of fandom news, because there's not much real life news going on.

First, damn Netflix for releasing new series just before the weekend. Every single time. This particular weekend was cannibalized by the third season of Orange Is the New Black. Did I learn my lesson last year, when I devoured two seasons in three days and then got sad because I had to wait a whole year for new episodes? Evidently not, because I didn't even try pacing myself, and I finished the third season on Sunday morning. Oh well. Spoiler-free review: I loved it, as expected, and even more than the second one. I truly hated Vee and what she had done to some of my favourite characters, and her absence meant those same characters went back to having proper stories and character development, instead of being henchmen. I loved all the back stories, and even the main theme of the season, Faith (as not-so-subtly hinted by all the promos and posters from the past few months). It was all beautifully done. Great acting all around, as usual. And a strong soundtrack again!

The worst flaw is, at least for me, the main character, Piper. I sort of liked her in the beginning, when she was the stand-in for the audience: as she learned, we learned. But it slowly became obvious she was a selfish, weak, manipulative character with the spine of a jellyfish. I find Alex to be a much stronger character on her own, but who gets sacrificed for the soap opera that is her relationship with Piper. And even if we're finally rid of the awful boyfriend storyline (I can't believe we spent so much time on that), now that Piper's backstory is over, there is absolutely nothing left for her character to do, except for being annoying, and making weird faces. They even introduced a new character, the Aussie girl, in the laziest way ever, just to give her something to do, and yet I was still oscillating between being bored to tears and wanting to smother our protagonist with a pillow. Considering she got significantly less screentime than before, and that most secondary characters had much more intriguing storylines than her, I still found myself scoffing everytime we went back to her. I just can't stand her.

Anyway, great cliffhanger there, wonderful ending, and now it's back to waiting (and hoping against hope they'll kill Piper off next year - yeah, as if that would ever happen).

Speaking of endings, yesterday they aired the final episode of the fifth season of Game of Thrones. Now, save for that awful thing they did back in episode 6, I have to say I really liked this season. It should be noted that the fourth season featured something that triggers me into awful panic attacks, over and over again. Not their fault, because it's not something that ever comes with a warning, and I'm used to being slapped in the face randomly with it, but it was so great to be rid of it, it finally felt safe to watch this show again, and it made me approach my weekly viewings with a clear heart and a happy mind, such a priceless feeling. I bit my nails, cried a bit, made wild theories, it was just like the first season all over again. And I cried out in shock at the ending, great job there. I didn't see that coming at all, holy shit.

They did a beautiful recap of the episode here on RollingStone, and it sums up my thoughts on the matter quite brilliantly. Speaking of, from what I read we have finally reached the books, so from now on it's uncharted waters. Well, at least I won't have to worry for book spoilers anymore (for those of you just tuning in, I read the first two books, didn't like the writing style at all, and dropped them there).

Oh, and Gravity Falls is coming back on July 13th, while Steven Universe has a new marathon week starting tonight. I'm so excited! \o/

Also, the new case and cover for my phone arrived:



Aren't they cute? I bought them both on Etsy! ^^

The summer is finally here! No weird pressure drops, just good old sun. My head is very grateful. I've been wearing shorts since the weekend, and the skin on my legs is finally crossing that crucial line between zombie pale and very pale. Yes! :D

Yesterday was a bank holiday here in Italy, when we celebrate the end of the monarchy in 1946, so this year we had a sort of long weekend. On monday I did two days worth of stuff, so I could have tuesday all to myself. And then I spent all of tuesday inside, wearing an old t-shirt, and watching the 1995 Pride And Prejudice tv series while eating popcorn. It was awesome. :D

And yes, I am indeed twenty years late to the party. Unsurprisingly, I loved it immensely. I was never a huge Austen fan, but since my mom was, I have read all the books multiple times. Jennifer Ehle is a gift to humanity. Her Lizzie is an absolute delight, and I loved how they portrayed her relationship with her sister Jane. Having six episodes they could be incredibly faithful to the novel, while adding a lot of details here and there that I enjoyed a lot. And as expected, I adored Colin Firth's Mr Darcy: I loved how they emphasized the fact that he's not very good at speaking to people, and he'd rather stare creepily at Lizzie from a distance like he's channelling the ghost of Heathcliff. :D There was a lot of shouting on my part at the screen ("talk to her, you dumbass!"), it was awesome. And the way the relationship progressed, it was so wonderfully done and never felt rushed. Loved it.

Plus the music, the costumes, the settings, I loved everything. And the casting! Apparently Anna Chancellor has always looked like a Greek Goddess, holy moley. And the actress playing Jane looks like she jumped out of a Pre-Raphaelite painting, I was in complete awe.

I also really, really appreciated how they kept drenching Mr Firth in water for no apparent reason: "in this scene he sees Lizzie from a window. Let's just put him in the bath first!" up until "let's just throw him in the lake and have him walk around in his wet clothes!". Thank you to everyone involved, it was MUCH appreciated. :D

And having seen St Trinian's last week, now on my post-Kingsman Colin Firth to-watch list I only have the depressing stuff left. Better stock up on chocolate. ^^

The picture of the day is my dad's old guitar, back from the music store. It had been in storage for fifteen years, but surprisingly it was all right, except obviously for the strings. I had them put new ones on, and it only cost me fifteen euros. They told me the little bone thing at the top (always at hand with the mot juste, aren't I?) will probably need replacing in the near future though. Me, I'm still shocked it wasn't eaten by termites or something like that.



I'll try and play a few chords on it later. Seeing as I've been learning the ukulele for more than a year now, I'll have to re-learn all chords and where my fingers are supposed to go. It's going to be fun. My therapist told me I need to learn to accept and let my anger free, so this is probably going to help with that. :D

In fandom news, we've had some great season finales: both Person of Interest and Once Upon A Time blew my mind, and I'm very excited to see where they're going next. I finally dropped The Vampire Diaries: it's not that I didn't like it anymore, but it was getting really boring, and I hadn't been looking forward to it for quite some time anyway. And with me having a Netflix subscription now there's a lot of shows I want to see and a very limited amount of time to do it, I have to cut my losses. That's why I decided to drop Sleepy Hollow as well: I loved the first season, but never got around to see the second one. I noticed how most reviewers didn't like this new season at all, and then I read an article that they're going to change the show even further next season, and give it a more procedural feel, with the monster of the week and all. That was the end of it for me.

Yesterday's Supernatural episode was kind of meh. Mostly just a bridge to the finale next week. I'm still cautiously trusting them to do the right thing and fix that horrible mess they wrote themselves into with the last episode, but if they don't, and they're actually planning on reversing to the same tired tropes from the first two seasons, well that's it for me, I won't be back for the next season. Again, lots of great shows, too little time to stick to the ones that've disappointed me. But still, there's one episode left, I would be very happy to be proven wrong.

And while I was typing this entry the mailman rang with this little package from Singapore:



It's Eggsy's necklace from Kingsman The Secret Service, and it's amazing. Way better than I dared hope. It's a perfect replica, sturdy, and it looks incredible. Plus it arrived just in time for the release of the movie in digital hd tomorrow. I only watched it once in the cinema two months ago, and ever since I've been dying to experience it in the original language. And now I have my necklace to wear while watching it too! Tomorrow can't come soon enough! ♥

Yesterday was a very "meh" day. My back started hurting again, probably because I slept funny. I had to go to the doctor, and when I came back home it was hurting so much I had to skip therapy and go to bed. Today I feel a lot better, and I had a good night of sleep, so there's that. Painkillers don't make me drowsy, so yesterday I was awake the whole time, stuck in bed with a hot water bottle, and I used that time to catch up on my reading. And to bitch and whine a lot to my cat, who was not impressed. :D



For the "A Book of Non-Fiction" square, I read What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe, the author of the xkcd webcomic.

First of all, thanks a lot to the lovely entangled_now for recommending it to me, because I loved it! You're the best! \o/

The actual review: this book is a collection of answers to weird hypothetical questions the author received to his website through the years. Things like "what would happen if the Sun disappeared?" or "how much energy could one Yoda provide?" or "what would happen if your DNA suddenly disappeared from your cells?". The questions might be stupid (or definitely weird), but the answers aren't. By using rigorous math, research, and consulting with experts from various scientific fields, Munroe answers them all. His trademark stick figures experiment all over the pages, and he often quotes pop culture to help the reader understand what he's talking about. It's a book for the uninitiated, but still perfect for the experts as well. And most of all, it's absolutely hilarious. I was sad to see it finished, and I instantly ran online to see if he was planning a sequel.

I haven't done any serious math ever since high school, and yet I felt I understood everything he was talking about. It is a bloody amazing science book. *_____*

In other news, I started watching Penny Dreadful, the supernatural Showtime tv show with Eva Green and Timothy Dalton that won a lot of Bafta Craft Awards the other day. First of all, it is indeed a really beautiful, masterfully written series. The actors are all incredibly good, and the whole story is fascinating. And I can see why the music won all those awards, because it is breathtaking.

The problem is, it is quite gory, and very, very dark. So on one hand I'm loving it and want to see more, and on the other hand it kinda feels like being punched in the stomach every five minutes. I just finished the episode at the asylum and holy shit, I spent most of it listening to it instead of actually watching it. It's not for the faint-hearted, at all.

News from the past week: I had a bit of a cold and ear infection in the weekend that greatly affected my balance. Luckly it went away quickly, and it was probably because of the sudden spring weather we've been having. I'm greatly enjoing having the floor back where it's supposed to be. ^^

The other day something special arrived by mail:



That's my front door, with a new shiny burglar-looking-for-a-job rune on it. It's a childhood dream come true! It came with very complicated instructions, but in the end it only took me a few seconds to apply it. I'm very proud of my wizarding skills, not gonna lie. :D

I haven't written about it on here not to jinx it, but my new laptop seems to be working fine. The old one sputtered and died last november, and then when the new one arrived a few weeks back the OS wasn't properly installed (either that or it was possessed by an angry lumberjack - yes, I'm still squeeing over that new Gravity Falls episode) and it collided on itself. Now it's been back for a couple of weeks, and it seems to be working perfectly fine. All my favourite programs are installed, and I'm back to watching downloaded tv shows on the tv screen through a HDMI connector. I missed that so much. *_______*

Speaking of which, I started watching The 100 on Netflix, but had to abandon it halfway through the second season. It's good, but it has every single one of my triggers, it was too stressful. But hey, if you're looking for a new sci-fi series that's aimed at a young audience but is still full of references to classics, you should check it out. The writing is good, and there's a lot of great female characters. It's not that refined, true, but it's full of promise and intriguing enough.

Gravity Falls came back with a fantastic, unexpectedly gory, and truly amazing episode. It was great! And yesterday The Big Bang Theory did their toast to actress Carol Ann Susi. I loved it, it was quiet and respectful and full of love. One of the best moments of the season. I haven't watched Better Call Saul yet, shame on me, but everybody tells me it's awesome. I'll probably wait until it's over and then marathon it like the crazy person I am. Also Moriarty seems to be coming back to Elementary, I'm still celebrating over that letter!

And last but not least yesterday the actual creator of Over The Garden Wall wrote me a personal message. On Etsy, about the shipping cost of a book I ordered from him the other day. But it still counts!!! Seriously, when I recieved it I screamed out loud, and had to breathe in a pillow for a while.

I'm still playing Lego The Hobbit: I'm about to meet the Necromancer, and then the dragon. I can't wait! This game keeps being awesome and hilarious, it's a fantastic experience. The puzzles are growing in complexity, but they're never frustrating. I encountered a couple of bugs, but I just had to reset the level and everything went back to normal.

I was supposed to go to therapy tomorrow afternoon, but my therapist had to cancel; I have a billion other things I should do, but I'll probably spend it sorting my unread books for the Reading Bingo. ;)

It's always weird to adjust to normal life after the holidays. Since I live alone, the hardest part is always adjusting to the silence, after days being surrounded by the sound of other voices. Sakura is taking the brunt of it, as I'm more or less constantly talking to her and describing her what I'm doing. Poor kitty. :D

Even if I haven't talked about it here for a while, I haven't neglected my ukulele. Today I finally accomplished something that was a just a dream back when I was 14 and my father bought me a guitar: I finally learned how to play Desperado by The Eagles! That was my favourite song, and favourite album, during a very dark period of my life, and it was one of the few things that actually helped. It holds a very special place in my heart. And now I can play it myself! \o/

I'm also working on (Nice Dream) by Radiohead. It's not hard per se, but it has a couple of very annoying chords that I still can't do without stopping to slowly rearrange my fingers. Well, can't win them all. :D

In fandom news, I have a couple of recs for you lovely peeps. The first is Agent Carter, the new tv series about Peggy Carter, set in the 40s. It's absolutely amazing. Agents of Shield left me completely cold, so I didn't have high hopes for this story, and I was so pleasantly surprised! The story is intriguing, with very few nods to the movies, not relying on the popularity of the characters from the comics, but building their own characters and stories. They are not afraid to show and tackle all the sexism Peggy has to fight through every single day of her life. We also get to see her mourning, kicking ass and taking names, and being an absolutely awesome and rounded character. And the late 40s look wonderful and realistic! At times it even reminded me of The Hour, incredible. So yep, check it out even if you're not a Marvel fan, I think there's something to love in it for everyone. ^^

There's also another little show that just started on ABC, in the slot left by Once Upon A Time. It's Gallavant, a musical comedy about a medieval knight who wants to get his beloved back from the clutches of an evil king. The story has a few interesting twists, and the fact that it's a musical is certainly its selling point, but I think they should have tried harder. The jokes are telegraphed, the characters two-dimensional. Still, the episodes are short and the songs are catching (it is, after all, Alan Menken), and maybe the plot'll get more interesting as the series proceeds. If not, it's still nice.

In other news, I just found out that Random House CA won't do a new Reading Bingo card this year. I still have to decide if I'll just re-use the old one, or make a new one from scratch myself. Obviously help and suggestions are very welcome. I know many of my friends enjoyed the last one a lot, maybe if we put our heads together we could come up with something even better! \o/