Hell's Half Acre

Hi everybody!

I'm still alive. Sorry I haven't posted in nearly a month. I've been taking a little break from a lot of things, mostly because I haven't been getting enough sleep to do anything productive with my downtime - and also because several things have happened this month that point out how horrible the world is, and it has made me retreat like a turtle into my shell.

HOWEVER... not everything is horrible. My sister, for instance, is a very talented singer-songwriter. She hardly ever records her stuff though, and mostly just performs live in various venues in and around Victoria BC. About a month ago, she manages to record a song and posted it on Soundcloud.

I put it up in a locked post then, because I constantly change my mind about sharing things concerning my personal life... but in anycase... those of you who inquired as to how you can buy the song are in luck! She now has it up on Bandcamp!

She's hoping to raise enough money through the sale of this one to help with recording another one. (Recording is expensive, you guys). Eventually, she wants to record an album, but that's a bit of a ways off financially.

ANYWAY... CHECK IT OUT:
It's really good! And I'm not just saying that because she's the Sammy to my Dean.

I survived the flu!

I'm nearly back to health now, I just have a slight issue with not being able to eat much of anything. I'm really really hoping this resolves itself in the next day or so... otherwise, I'm going to have to buy a blender and figure out how to make protein shakes or something, because there's no possible way I'm consuming enough calories in a day right now. It's not like I'm throwing up or anything, it's just that my stomach doesn't like food anymore. I have two bites of something and it triggers the same brain response as though I just ate an entire buffet table and will explode any minute.

ANYWAY... while I was sick, I had a rare night of insomnia and wrote (sady, only in my head) so much of the goddamn Merlin fic that I've been working on that my motivation is on that fic right now. I want to get all the dialogue and ideas that I thought of that night typed while they're still relatively fresh.

Originally, I wanted to have it done by Christmas day, which is going to be the one year anniversary of the Merlin finale (which I hated)... even if I work on it as much as I can between now and then though, I'm not sure I'll get it done in time.

There's also the fact that I MIGHT want to get it beta-ed, not necessarily for story, but for grammar, spelling, and using-too-many-words-when-fewer-would-do. That being said, I'm HORRIBLY impatient and since this story is already going to be "late", I highly doubt that I'd be willing to wait for a beta. So, yeah, conflict!

So, we'll see.

And yes, I still have a whole 11 more episodes to go through on S8's rewatch. This is the slowest rewatch I have ever done, and I apologize. I don't know if it's because I'm being way too wordy, if I just don't manage my time as well as I used to, or if I'm actually just busier than I've been before, but... yeah, I wish things were different. The slower the rewatch is, the longer it'll be before the S8 clothing catalog is updated. At this rate, it'll probably be up by the time S9 is over and then people will start asking me when S9 will be up. :P

But hey, could be worse, I never did finish my rewatch of Sherlock S2. :P

Anyway, I hope you are all well!!

Oh, and if you guys weren't aware already Mark Oshiro, who runs Mark Watches and Mark Reads, started watching Supernatural back in October. He just finished S1 (the last two episode reviews will be going up this coming week). I talked about Mark here way back when he was still reading Harry Potter, but he's a really nice guy. His shtick is that he basically comes into books and shows almost completely unspoiled and not knowing what to expect, and then you watch him slowly descend into madness as he discovers the beauty and/or horror of whatever he whatever he is watching/reading. Anyway, I'm having great fun watching him watch Supernatural. (You can download videos of him watching the show). It's all the fun of introducing a friend to Supernatural, with none of them yelling at you to stop looking at them while they try to watch. ;)

If you weren't aware of Mark, and head over there to check him out, please pay attention to his spoiler policy before you comment. Even something as vague as "you'll understand that later..." is considered a spoiler. I think, the only thing Mark is spoiled on when it comes to Supernatural is the existence of angels (he knows there will eventually be an angel character) and the fact that the show can sometimes be problematic and that the fandom can sometimes be absolutely horrible. (Because Mark is active in many fandoms, and not shy in calling out problematic aspects of shows, characters, and writing, I find he tends to come across the worst people more frequently then usual.)

Okay, so, there's an update from me. Alive, drinking orange juice, and still trying to eat a muffin that I bought 6 hours ago.

So, the other day, when pressed for time to write my ficlet. I came up with this quick idea that involved evil garden gnomes.

Apparently, myself and the marketing team over at IKEA have similar minds, because I stumbled upon this ad on tumblr today that is pretty much exactly what I was picturing (as far as the gnomes go anyway.)



Crazy! (and hilarious)

In other news, I'm not sure I'm going to get a ficlet up today. I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with something but nothing's really captured my imagination yet. We'll see... (for those that are curious, the prompt today is: "No, today I work." which is pretty amusing to me since I can't seem to get any work done today.)

(I've also fallen down the rabbit whole of reading fic from a new fandom - so, yeah, for a procrastinator like me, it's basically a paradise of hundred upon hundred of good new fics with which to not get anything else done.)

You can now also find me on Archive of Our Own @ hells_half_acre. Same username! Woo!

Did you know that when I first debated joining LJ and actively participating in the Supernatural fandom, I decided that I would ONLY join if I could get the username hells_half_acre? If it had been taken, all this may never have happened.*

I've uploaded only my favourite one-shots so far. I'm going to start on the Demented'verse tomorrow, but that's going to be a job and a half, so don't expect me to be too swift with it. I still have to work for a living too.

I was pretty amazed though, as soon as I uploaded my favourite Sherlock story, it basically got two hits a minute for the first ten minutes, and then one hit a minute after that! Crazyness.

Hopefully my Merlin/Sherlock piece will also get a bit more love. I'm not a member of any LJ Merlin communities, so I couldn't crosspost that one very much.

Anyway, I'll be doing another post when I get the demented'verse up, just in case any of you want to take advantage of the download feature - but I figured I'd at least direct you to site now that I have one-shots posted. 

Also, let me know if you think I should upload the one-shots that I haven't uploaded yet...I left some of my earlier ones out because I'm not as fond as them, but that might be silly of me.

*well, I doubt that. I had the demented'verse plot bunny right from the start, and that thing would have eaten my brain unless I did something with it. But still, you never know! It's a good thing that I didn't first try to join tumblr (hells_half_acre on tumblr is a pornsite, btw...and not even the type of porn I enjoy...sad times.)

It's time for another post about everyone's favourite can of worms...Misogyny. 

As you all know, I LOVED 7x08. But, there was that one little aspect (of perhaps many) that threw some people off ...mainly, the fact that Sam was "roofied" and tied to a bed. I thought it was a great send up of the film Misery, and since Becky didn't actually do anything to Sam without his permission (besides kiss him and marry him), I was fine with the scene in general...heck, since male sexual-assault is one of my favourite sub-themes on Supernatural (not in a kinky way), I thought the whole episode was really par for the course.

Now, both the SuperWiki and some other sites pointed out that it was also very similar to a scene in Wedding Crashers (which I have never seen), in which the female actually does rape the man tied to the bed. When I heard this, I thought "weird...I thought Wedding Crashers was a comedy..." 

Two days ago, katsheswims sent me an blog article -  In Bed With Sexism - about the scene in Wedding Crashers, because obviously, she's gotten to know me fairly well. I was thinking of saving it for a larger meta I'm planning, but then realized that it's sort of off topic, so I'm going to share it with you today.

Basically, it asks the question: How come a female raping a male can be considered comedy? How come rape isn't rape when it is done to a man by a woman? 

I've always wondered this - because there's virtually no support system or even acknowledgment in the world of female against male abuse/rape. One of my theories was that it was because men were supposed to be stronger and not have that sort of thing happen to them (which is ridiculous), but the article actually points the finger at...well, our favourite can of worms: The level of unperceived misogyny that exists in our culture that goes unnoticed.

I thought it was a very interesting take on the subject. And maybe helps to explain why I'm one of the very few people who seem to realize that male sexual-assault is a recurring theme on Supernatural (though, in recent years it's gotten more blatant and more people are noticing, which has been very interesting for me to watch as well.)

Also, I've learned that I should never watch Wedding Crashers, because it would send me into a rage.

I kind of like this example, because it shows that my misogyny test (as opposed to the Bechdel test, which I loathe), actually works! My test is simple: If I genderswapped everyone in the story, would my reaction to the story be the same? Would the characters still be believable? Would I be more outraged or less?  I'm not saying it's a perfect test, but it's better than goddamn Bechdel. I HATE that thing.

Anyway, uh, as usual...sensitive topic...so if you comment, please be respectful. I'm not asking to open up a debate about whether or not Supernatural is misogynistic or not. So, I won't be engaging in any arguments of that sort myself. If you argue amongst yourselves in my comments, that's fine, but again, just be respectful of one another and anyone who might be reading in passing.

No one makes me miss Newfoundland more than Hey Rosetta - and they seem to be doing it on purpose. Their latest video is like a tribute to St. John's: 



I only lived in St. John's for a year, but it was such a great city, with such fantastic people...and so very very beautiful. Newfoundland is like it's own secret country hidden inside of Canada. 

The fourth scene of this video is shot inside the university cafeteria, where I used to eat...and there are shots of the harbour, and the narrows, and the old forts that are cemented into older cliffs (one of which I don't think you allowed to go into, but obviously both me AND Hey Rosetta jumped that fence), and the SEALS!...and then the whole thing finishes up with a kitchen party. :)

There's another article about misogyny in Supernatural that had me all up in arms until it got to the end of the article. Well played author (who happens to be on my flist, I believe). 

Firstly, I still love Jay Baruchel...he's constantly cast as these nerdy types, but people don't realize that he grew up in a pretty bad neighbourhood in Montreal and is a bit of a bad-ass who just looks and sounds like a nerd. Anyway, in this interview with George Stroumboulopoulos (yes, that's his name...and yes, I've always had a small crush on him too), he talks about how he really just wants to use his Holllywood money to make low-budget controversial Canadian horror films. Seriously, what's not to love?

Every Monday I feel like I should be posting something on here, as though maintaining this LJ were my job instead of my actual job being my job. (Wouldn't the world rule if it were? Vile Violent Vacations would be done by now, for one.)

I spent yesterday driving up the Sea to Sky to Whistler and back, in order to experience the remnants of autumn in the mountains and enjoy what will no doubt be one of our last sunny days around here...which means I don't have a rewatch to post. After walking around lakes and down mountain streams all day (plus the 4 hours of driving), I was quite exhausted last night, and couldn't fathom taking the 2+ hours it takes me to go through an episode and type up my thoughts.

So, instead: Enjoy this song that my sister introduced me to on our trip - JOSH RITTER "Girl in the War":



It makes me wish Sam were a girl, because it'd make an awesome Supernatural vid if the dude was singing about a guy.

I guess I'll see you Wednesday...or whenever I can squeeze in another S5 rewatch episode.

Pictures For Sad Children summed up the weather in Vancouver really nicely without evening intending to:



My favorite is panel 4.