Oh, hey, it's March. How'd that happen?

I suck at posting on anything like a reliable schedule.

I think we should all embrace reality and accept this.

By 'we' I mostly mean me since I'm the one with delusions of responsibility.

I am assuming that you all don't want to listen to me talk about the gorgeous cinematography in Hannibal (or my fangirl squeeing about Mads Mikkelson and how I should probably not find a serial killing cannibal so fascinating even if he is a fictional character) or how Non-Stop (the movie I saw today) was basically a locked room murder mystery but how it was nice to see the one Muslim Arab character *not* be the bad guy or in any way connected.

So I'll be back when I have something interesting to say.

Hopefully soon.

2013 Meme

Usually I get this done before the end of 2013 but I've got a cold and I just didn't feel like it. But now here it is!

1. What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before?

Took my life into my hands and ate a slice (with the seeds in because I'm an idiot) of what may or may not be a Ghost Pepper. There's debate on it because they don't look like the pictures we've seen exactly but the peppers are super hot. So they might be a hybrid of some kind. Whatever. 

There was not enough milk in the house for that fire.

Also I took another job which I have literally never done before. I have had the same job my entire career.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don't usually make New Years resolutions, so I had none to keep. But this year I'm resolving to be a better blogger. :)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nope. Eve's due this year with Baby Bakin'.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Happily, no. 2014's meme will likely be very different on this question.

5. What countries did you visit?

Middle-Earth. *eyes you* It is totally a real place. Hush.

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?

A pony. :p

7. What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

 

*thinks* Nothing really stands out actually.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

As always, no murders. You're welcome.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I've been slacking on my blogging and my writing in general. I feel like that's a failure since I really enjoy them.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

*sniffles pathetically* I caught the cold that's going around my office. But over all nothing too bad.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

I don't know...I bought lots of books which were generally wonderful and some movies and hmmm...I helped buy the bikes for the Angel Tree again this year so I don't know. Cora's Duplo's for Christmas were also fun.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My parents are awesome.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Everyone else. All of you. Well, not my friends, but all the other people on the planet. I am ashamed of you. 

Yeah.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Pht. BABY. My dog Baby. I spent $500 in one month on his fuzzy butt because he got an eye infection that turned into an ulcer and just...*headdesks* I probably spent more money on my car (which is almost paid off! WHOOO!) and insurance, etc. of course but he was the most expensive non-normal cost.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Have you met me? So many things. Iron Man 3. Thor: The Dark World (LOKI IS BEST I WILL FIGHT YOU IF YOU DENY THIS EVEN THOUGH HE'S A MANIPULATIVE LITTLE JERK). The Hobbit.

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2013?

Anything by Imagine Dragons. I've been listening to them for the past couple of months.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. Happier or sadder?

ii. Happier.

iii. Thinner of fatter?

iv. Thinner. *Slightly* thinner but I will take it!

v. richer or poorer?

vi. Poorer. *looks at dog* I'm gonna make him get a job at this rate.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Everything. There are not enough hours in the day.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Sleeping. I went through a down phase with my thyroid where it was low and I slept more than I usually do, which is one of the symptoms.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

I watched Alien & Aliens and played with my Legos.

21. How many one-night stands?

Zero. I'm on a one-night stand diet.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

Ummm...again...have you met me? I like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Blacklist and Grimm and Once Upon a Time and Hannibal and Elementary (my God do I love Elementary) and Sherlock (NEW EPISODES SOON FEEL MY GLEE) and Sleepy Hollow and American Horror Story...

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I've got no hate.

24. What was the best book you read?

I read 218 books this year. As always, my favorite was Good Omens. It might not have been the best but it's my favorite.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

The extended version of Far Across Misty Mountains Cold.

26. What did you want and get?

Books, movies, etc.

27. What was your favorite film of this year?

ALL the movies. Okay, can't pin it to one so we're going with Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World (LOOOOKKKKKIIIIIII), Star Trek: Into Darkness and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

28. What did you do on your birthday?

I don't remember. I probably read.

29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?

Blue Jeans.

30. What kept you sane?

My sanity.

31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

*cackles* Such a terrible question to ask a fangirl. Lee Pace. Tom Hiddleston. Jeremy Renner. Orlando Bloom (he's Legolas and I dare you to judge me. I DARE YOU.) Idris Elba.

32. What political issue stirred you the most?

I did a lot of talking IRL about smaller political issues, I guess, but no one can ignore what's going on in the world. It just seems like there's so much going on, how do I pick which thing pissed me off the most?

33. Who did you miss?

*thinks* I don't think I *missed* anyone in the general sense. There were quite a few times I wished Heather lived close to me so we could fangirl in person.

34. Who was the best new person you met?

It might be the cold medicine but I can't remember meeting anyone new in 2013.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.

My sister is, in fact, Typhoid Mary reborn. Avoid her at all costs for she will get you sick.

*mad giggling*

Iron Man 3 spoilers ahoy!

Seriously, if you're the kind of person who doesn't like even the smallest thing spoiled, look away.

Though, to be honest, I don't understand how that works.

When it gets close to the time of the movie release, do you disconnect from the net?

Do you crawl into a spoiler proof bunker?

Because even the *toys* are full of spoilers lately.

Though we're not going to talk about the Halloween costume I've seen based on this, because UGH.

And here, a nice picture of a bunny so the vid isn't the first thing to show up on a reader:

Cute bunny doesn't understand how you live spoiler free either. She respects you, but she doesn't understand.

And now:




*cackles*

Pepper!!!!!!!!!!!!

Iron Pep!

*descends into squeaking noises of glee*

I'll just be...over here.

In my bunk.

And Then I Decided to Have This Conversation

Mostly in my head, but whatever.

So.

In The Avengers, there is a scene where Thor has just flown in and Loki-napped his brother out of the Quinjet. Iron Man has already flown off to try and get Loki back and Captain America is about to jump out of the plane (with a parachute) to get in on the fight as well. Black Widow tells him to stay about of it:

Black Widow: "You better sit this one out, Cap. They're from Norse legends! They're basically gods!"

Captain America: "There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that!" *and then he jumps*

So. a) There is nothing wrong with the way Loki and Thor dress. Let he who is not wearing a spangly outfit cast the first stone Steve. Yeah.

b) I know a lot of people (okay, fannish people so you non-fannish have no idea what I'm talking about) were surprised at this line because of Joss Whedon's public atheism. Well as the man himself said in the commentary (and trust me, Joss Whedon should make commentaries on every movie, ever. Even the ones he had nothing to do with.) *he's* an atheist but Cap isn't.

c) People take this as hey, proof that Captain America's a Christian!

What I'm addressing is point 'c'. Here's how this all happened: I commented to Heather, once upon a time, that I was considering writing a fanfic (for the uninitiated amongst you a fanfic is a story that is written by a fan of a certain movie/book/tv show/etc. about the characters and/or events/universe. No money is made and it's purely for the love of the characters. Please, for your sanity, do not go Googling fanfic. There's...it's a whole world that the non fen will not understand. I will not be responsible for any brains broken if you disregard my warning.) based on this quote and the idea that Captain America a/k/a Steve Rogers, rather than being a Christian was a Muslim. The fic has never materialised because um...I have been busy writing other things.

Then, Heather comments on a FB post with this meme:

And makes reference to the whole Steve Rogers as a Muslim idea. Of course it's been poohpoohed in a couple of the comments that he can't have been a Muslim. Once, which I totally don't understand, was that he can't have been Muslim because he was frozen in ice for a long time.

Um. Okay? Sure.

I maintain that it is entirely possible for MCU Steve Rogers to be a Muslim and I shall tell you why.

1. Arguments that comics-verse Steve Rogers in a Christian are not valid in my opinion because MCU is *not* 616 or Ultimates or any other comics canon that we've been presented. It is it's own universe with it's own history and canon. We already know that MCU's events are not the same as comics.

2. All we know from Cap's statement is that he is a monotheist. 'One God'. Period. Until such time as he is shown going to a church or a synagogue or a mosque and worshipping there, or he details his beliefs in some other way that's all the clue we have. He's a monotheist.

3. Steve Rogers grew up in Brooklyn in the 1920's and 30's. He was old enough to join the Army when America joined WWII but was rejected due to having every ailment and disease known to man. This would be in 1941.

4. The first mosque built in New York is believed to have been one belonging to the American Mohammedan Society. It was built on Powers Street in Brooklyn in 1907.

5. The Islamic Mission of America built their own mosque, in Brooklyn, in 1939. They purchased a brownstone in 1947 that remains the Masjid Daoud today. In Brooklyn.

6. But Amber, I can hear you saying, the Muslims in these mosques were all African American or Middle Eastern immigrants or...*waves hands* whatever. They weren't *white*. White people didn't start start converting to Islam until fairly recently. Unto you I say, well, bah. The first 'prominent' Anglo-American convert to Islam is (by many historians - they're not doubting his conversion, just whether he was the 'first' prominent individual or not) Alexander Russell Webb. Who converted in 1888. Now he encountered it in the Philippines where he was the American ambassador but my point remains: just because they weren't the majority of the population doesn't mean that there weren't white converts to Islam long before the rest of the country or the world decided to take notice of them.

7. Amber, Amber, what is your point again?

My point, if you want to call it that, is this: There is *nothing* that prevents me from imagining that Captain America is a Muslim. Nothing. It's even plausible from a historical standpoint. 

I've seen this portrait of what a 'good' Muslim looks like, as far as characteristics go - I believe it comes from Mohammed's final sermon, but I could be wrong about this. You know what it says?

They are known for doing only lawful and righteous deeds. They have good morals and treat other people with respect. They are pure of heart - they neither hate other people nor are hypocrites. They are charitable, whether that's monetarily or in time given or whatever each individual can do. They are offensive to no one, they do no harm to others and they respect other peoples' rights.

You know one person (fictional) that all reminds me of?

Captain America. That's who.

Day 29: So close. So close.

We're almost at the end and I literally am having too many thoughts and feelings about too many things to pick one to write about.

I'm in the middle of intense Cold Days fangirling feels (I'm totally renaming the Dresden Files to the Dresden Feels in my head, thank you very much).

Anticipating both Hobbit and Les Mis feels of intensity.

Writing out my The Dark Knight Rises feels.

Watching history shows that basically end like this: and then the Muslims came along and invented all the cool stuff. The end. Also algebra. So that kind of balances it all out.

No. Seriously. A Muslim physician came up with an idea for human flight before Da Vinci. You don't learn about that stuff in school, do you? Nope.

I want to start like a book club but I have no way to organize it and I think I'd read too fast for everyone.

I want to reread the Dresden Feels and plot everything out in a chart or something and See the Meaning of the Universe.

Somewhere outside my window something is making goat noises.

I'm not going to look. Nope nope nope.

Day 24.5: I will need to bring a box of tissues and hide in the theater until the red goes away

Director Tom Hooper on yesterday’s first screening of Les Mis: ”Towards the end of this film today this weird thing happened like a rustling kind of sound. For a minute I freaked out wondering what’s that odd sound on the soundtrack? I looked around and realized it’s the sound of people crying en masse.”

My feels: this movie will be right in them.

First The Hobbit and then Les Mis.

I'm not going to survive December.

I'm going to be dead of excessive fangirl feels.

FanFic Writer Problem # 376

That awkward moment when you have to admit that yes, you are in fact 27k words into that 10k word fic you've been writing.

I Need a Mature, Adult Opinion. Or Five.

The 'mature' clearly leaves my own opinion out of the running.

So, Avengers. I may be obsessed. You may have noticed.

It's being released on disc on September 25th. I already have it preordered.

Also coming out of September 25th is the Phase One set.

Which looks like this:

It's a Tesseract!!!!!!!!!!!! With EXTRA THINGS! *rolls around in nerdiness*

*takes deep, calming breaths*

So here's the thing. The Avengers bluray is like...$25.

The shiny collection of shininess and all things wonderful, my god, give it to me *noooowwwwwwwwwww* is $140. And I already own all the movies except for the Avengers, and whatever is on the extra disk.

The THING OF AWESOME is in my cart on Amazon. The bluray is already preordered.

I need someone to talk me down from buying the THING OF AWESOME that I don't really need.

There should be deep thoughts here

but there aren't. Because I've been distracted by the Avengers. Again. I swear, something like normal programming will resume...eventually. Like maybe next week. I make no promises though.

But here's a random thought:

Humanity invented the afterlife because we're afraid of the dark. Go.

And for more proof/evidence/excuses for why I can get nothing done?

MOAR HAWKEYE:

my excitement is palpable

I bought my ticket (and my friend Donna who's out of town right now but is totally coming) for the Avengers midnight premiere!

AND THE WORLD REJOICED BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE TO BEAT ANYONE WITH A STICK!

*cough*

Avengers people. Avengers.

Have some Loki in celebration.

It's a good thing I'm not in this movie, because I would totally just surrender to Loki.

This is the scenario: He appears, I drop to my knees. No lie. This movie is totally, absolutely going to kill me dead in the best way possible.

I May Need These Like I Need Oxygen

Lookit the little Hawkeye in the drivers seat!

And Black Widow's in the Quinjet! But where's the Captain America? I may have to purchase a third set.

All I can say is, Toys R Us better have these if I give in to my nerd brain and go there after work, or I'm gonna be pissed.

Now with 900% more fangirling than you may be used to

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BARTON'S BEEN COMPROMISED, COULSON? Do you mean he's a Skrull? Has his undercover mission been blown? Or has Tony compromised his virtue? These are IMPORTANT things that need to be known!

The Skrull theory could explain why Natasha appears to be trying to kick Clint in this still here from the trailer:

Because otherwise, BAD NATASHA! Do not kick Clint!

Undercover mission being blown is bad, because Hawkeye is so adorbs.

See?

So he needs to be rescued, of course.

And if it's Tony. Well. I can't blame you Clint!

Because the man is like a force of nature.

A delicious, delicious force of nature.

*cough*

And I have had the realization that I totally should have made Marcone be the undercover identity of Clint in that one fic where Marcone and Phil Coulson are exes. Because it would make perfect sense and then I wouldn't have to tell people that no, just because I made Marcone's real name be Tony I didn't mean TONY.

The Arc Reactor wouldn't survive close proximity to Harry for one thing.

In conclusion:

Natasha is made of all the things that are lovely and awesome.

Clint is adorable and I want to put him in my pocket.

Tony and Harry would have a torrid affair that would last all of maybe ten minutes until the excitement made Harry short out the Arc Reactor. Then Tony would have to be removed in a hurry. Clint, however, has the aim and the badassness to be John Marcone.

And Joss Whedon had best not kill anyone in this movie, OKAY?