Amber's Continuing Adventures in Being an Adult, Kind Of

a german shepherd puppy, a thirteen-year-old chihauhau, and TWO golden retriever dogs

2014-11-29T04:15:12Z

i got to pet FOUR dogs today

the chihauhau was my favorite. she is blind but she is still cheery and she will let anyone pet her but she can recognize her human by smell and only gave kisses to her human and anyway she is only in town for the holidays so i gave her extra attention because florida is a billion miles from here

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i remember a time when "fuck" wasn't my favorite word

2014-09-01T19:54:10Z

Happy Labor Day, dudes, I am celebrating by spending my afternoon recapping the two-part Falling Skies season finale no matter how painful it gets. ( Let's save Earth! )

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falling skies 4x06

2014-07-29T22:44:43Z

I have a headache but let's do this, the show got picked up for its fifth and final season next summer, I guess I can see it through.

( Spoiler alert: there are aliens. )

I left so much out of that but I don't care today. My heart is not in anything, oops.

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a note to self re: rvb 12x02

2014-05-10T17:22:10Z

There's no post about this episode because it was frankly really upsetting and you're mad at Tucker and there's nothing substantial to say and you understand why he did what he did but you just wish he hadn't (to paraphrase York).

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what do you fight for?

2014-04-28T00:33:59Z

Season twelve of Red vs Blue starts tomorrow. I am actually sick with worry about a piece of fiction that doesn't actually matter in the slightest to anything real or important?? Ah, brain, I'm glad you've latched negatively to something that used to make me happy. :P

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in love, in need, in want, in miss / i taste your bite, i taste your kiss

2014-04-01T22:01:00Z

The Red vs Blue season twelve trailer.

I know it's just a dumb web series, but to say that I am emotionally unprepared for April 28 is an understatement.

Because what if?

What if?

And the tag line from the trailer and the poster is "What do you fight for?" and ugh.

Feelings fucking city on the planet of Chorus.

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other people are cleverer than i am

2014-03-02T17:31:33Z

Someone on tumblr summed up last night's Hannibal really well.

simonjadis:

Hannibal Lecter could play Ke$ha’s Cannibal while serving “long pork” and wearing an apron that reads “Mrs Lovett’s meat pies” and saying “I aspire to serve humanity”

and Jack Crawford would just be like “thanks Dr. Lecter can you consult on something because Will Graham’s a sicko”

ALSO. I generally only reblog really stupid but hilarious Hannibal shit at my tumblr, so. Go laugh. http://momentia.tumblr.com/tagged/hannibal

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"at least us ladies will be sticking together, right?" <--actual quote i didn't make that up ok

2014-01-22T01:55:21Z

Pilot Four-Seven-Niner and her co-pilot and platonic soul mate, Agent Carolina. (I got really upset today because someone on tumblr said that 479er is dead but we don't know that, they never show or tell or even bother to imply what has happened to her, and I'm still holding out hope that she'll show up in a future season.)

Lady Freelancers: CT, South, and Carolina.

~*Lady Freelancers*~, you guys, #1 best and also A++. Lady Freelancers are my current obsession. (There are three groups of Freelancers in my head: Lady Freelancers = Carolina, CT, South, 479er, Tex; Boy Freelancers = Wash, York, and North; Cockbite Freelancers = Wyoming and Maine.)

Here, have my two favorite lady Freelancers songs. The first song is for season nine when they are a mostly functional group of special ops soldiers and the second song is for season ten when you just want to cry the whole time about how to-shit everything's going. (Actual line from season 8's trailer, "I just don't understand how it's all gone so wrong," give or take a word, and hahahaha.)

Lorde - Team
Call all the ladies out
They’re in their finery
A hundred jewels on throats
A hundred jewels between teeth
Now bring my boys in
Their skin in craters like the moon
The moon we love like a brother, while he glows through the room

Lorde - Glory and Gore
Tired little laughs, gold-lie promises, we'll always win at this
I don't ever think about death
It's alright if you do, it's fine
We gladiate but I guess we're really fighting ourselves
Roughing up our minds so we're ready when the kill time comes
Wide awake in bed, words in my brain,
"Secretly you love this. Do you even wanna go free?"

This has been a multimedia post about lady Freelancers because, despite the death and betrayal and clusterfuckery of the whole story, Red vs Blue really does make me feel better.

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"i know, but... you just need to try."

2014-01-16T02:36:24Z

( RvB s11 and s12 spoilers. )

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when faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable

2013-12-05T18:46:37Z

brienze asked me to talk about a bit about Red vs Blue for the uninitiated, and I was like, man, I've been preparing for this day for ten years.

The first thing you need to know is that they are not robots. (Well, most of them aren't, but I am not a fan of Lopez or Lopez 2.0 or Freckles, so. The characters I care about are not robots.) They are people wearing futuristic (well, contemporary, for them) armor suits. Come season eight or nine, we even see some of their faces. Totes humans. Most of them.

The first five seasons focus pretty exclusively on the gang(s) at Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha. The Red Army and the Blue Army each have a base there -- two bases in a box canyon ♥ -- that they have been tasked with defending. For reasons. Reasons that are not clear to anyone, but you follow orders and you defend your flag and this is serious business.

Simmons: And the only reason that we set up a red base here, is because they have a blue base over there. And the only reason they have a blue base over there is because we have a red base here.
Grif: Yeah, that's because we're fighting each other.
Simmons: No no, but I mean, even if we were to pull out today, and they were to come take our base, they would have two bases in the middle of a box canyon. Whoop de fucking do!
Grif: What's up with that anyway? I mean, I signed on to fight some aliens. Next thing I know Master Chief blows up the whole Covenant armada, and I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, fighting a bunch of blue guys.

They don't find out the answer, by the way, until season six or seven. Aaaaaaaah.

But okay. These early seasons focus on these two small teams -- Sarge leading Grif, Simmons, and Donut on Red Team, and Church leading Tucker and Caboose on Blue Team, with Doc as the impartial, incompetent medic and Tex as the resident badass freelancer -- and their adventures and, more prominently, their bickering and characterization and running gags and aaaaah, I love it. The Blood Gulch Chronicles, as the first five seasons are collectively known, have very little visual going on and are almost as good as radio plays. For this reason, the characters and their relationships -- which are never very deep, but are always still present -- are the most important part of the story.

We have Sarge, the gruff and confident (though incompetent) leader of Red Team. We have Simmons the geeky, lonely kissass and Grif the lazy, apathetic asshole. Over at Blue base, we have Tucker, who tries to be a ladies' man in a canyon where the only lady is Tex, who could kill him in a heartbeat and who also happens to be Church's ex-girlfriend from back home. Caboose and Donut are the rookies and the lovable idiots on each team. Donut's armor, by the way, isn't pink; it's lightish red.

In these early seasons, they deal with evil AIs, unhelpful AIs, time travel, a talking bomb, alien pregnancy and, mostly, each other. Throughout all of this, we have Trocadero's great guitar-heavy soundtrack rocking in the background. So good.

The heavier stuff starts in season six, Reconstruction. As Reconstruction opens, the war (the war against the aliens, not the war between Red Army and Blue Army) has ended, our Blood Gulch boys have been split up and reassigned to other bases, and we are introduced to Recovery One, also known as Agent Washington.

(Hahaha, Amber, don't start crying about Wash.)

Agent Washington, who has suffered a very specific horror that makes him uniquely qualified for this job, has been tasked with hunting down the remaining assets -- human, AI, and technological -- of Project Freelancer. And he needs the former residents of Blood Gulch to help.

YOU GUYS IT GETS SO GOOD HERE.

I don't even want to tell you too much about seasons six through eight because Reconstruction, Recreation, and Revelation are this hugely epic trilogy, and the quality jump from 1-5 to 6-8 is just stunning. You need The Blood Gulch Chronicles to really understand the Recollection trilogy, especially to know and care about the characters, but they are almost like two different stories in tone. There is some stuff that happens at the end of each of these three seasons that makes me cry and scream and.

And. Another major part of season six is that each episode opens with a voiceover reading us the correspondence between the Director of Project Freelancer and the chairman of a governmental oversight agency that isn't very happy with PFL. See, the project has broken some laws, some ethics, some basic human rights, and there is a lot to talk about. The Director is an interesting figure, and I don't have the energy to argue about whether he's a bad man. I will say that I agree with him that the Chairman is more concerned with power than with really setting things right.

There are other people who will come along and try to set things right. (sob sob whatever)

Okay. Then we have seasons nine and ten! These are the seasons that alternate between present day and flashbacks to Project Freelancer, flashbacks that mostly take place before The Blood Gulch Chronicles even start. We see how PFL started out with a bunch of very talented young people who were, well, valuable but disposable. (Cough, commentary on war and the military, cough.) Bad people, good people, but all fully realized characters. I will say that these flashbacks go a long way toward making up for the totally male-dominated storytelling up to this point. Carolina, CT, South, 479er. Ah. <3 A lot of important fleshing out of the universe and the characters happens here in these flashbacks. And in the present day, we all learn some lessons about friendship and bravery and consequences, while hunting down the ultimate Big Bad of the series -- the one responsible for all the other smaller bads. These seasons -- and season eight, too -- were beautifully animated and full of action sequences and Jeff Williams's kickass rap/rock soundtrack. The action and fight sequences are so good, and you almost forget that the first seven seasons were just filmed by having characters walk around in a Halo game.

And season eleven, which ended earlier this fall. To watch the cast and crew talk about it, they had so much fun with this season. It goes back to the simple machinima animation of the beginning, with a lot of the same humor and simple storytelling. It serves as a bridge from the over-the-top, epic action of season ten and the pretty big story they're planning on telling in the year(s) to come. It sets up a new war, new factions, new characters, but it does it by having our guys dick around for a season, being obnoxious and lovable. It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger -- shit does get serious in the end -- and season twelve promises to be amazing.

My show, my babies. The entire series is available at the Rooster Teeth website, and I think it streams on amazon if you have Prime. Also, if anyone wants to drive to Pennsylvania, we can drink a lot of caffeine and watch all eleven seasons, I am willing to do that. :P

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but wait, separate post for a holiday song that is whatever the opposite of cynical is

2013-11-23T01:06:44Z

Brad Kavanagh featuring Tasie D - "We Shall Overcome" [mp3]

People come together now as one
Every race and colour, we're under one sun
Shelter, turn your back against the wind
Things'll change, you'll turn the page
It's time to begin

Watching people smiling in the rain
We're thankful for the gift of life today
Another year is coming to an end
Together we will make it through
Just turn to a friend
Although despair lingers on
Dry your tears, just keep on

We shall overcome
Tear it down, dry your eyes
Build it up and start again
Thy will be done
Tear it down, dry your eyes
Build it up and start again ( ... )

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not a comprehensive list, but some of my favorite cynical Christmas/holiday songs

2013-11-23T01:03:29Z

This first one is dedicated to my fellow lost and/or stuck adults.

Carbon Leaf - "What About Everything" [mp3]
Holiday quiet on these streets, except for some stubborn leaves
That didn't fall with the fall, and now they clatter in vain
Holiday sky, midnight clear
Wind is high, hard to steer
Old muffler rumbles like an old fighter plane
In search of some rest, in search of a break
From a life of tests where something's always at stake
[...]
Before time takes each year, like a knife cuts it clear
It's school, then work and then life that just sharpens the blade
I think about time for fun
I think about time for play
Then I think about being done, with no résumé
With no one left to blame
What about fortune and fame?
What about your love to obtain?
What about the ring?
What about everything?

No, really, though, it's a holiday song. It says so. It's just a holiday song about all the shitty things you feel when another year is ending with no progress made on any front, and everyone else seems to be celebrating their great lives.

Next we have a song for dysfunctional family holidays.

Something Corporate - "Forget December" [mp3]
New Years Eve came, but nothing had changed
All the problems just got worse
We sat in silence
No routine science could heal the sickness we rehearse
And if I'm talking, my words are mocking
the deaf ears they have fallen on
These words are tainted with years of jaded
innocence that's all but gone

"Jaded innocence that's all but gone." Jesus, ouch, how did I not remember that was in there?

I actually have soooooo many Christmas break-up songs, and that was super nice a few years in my life but none more than 2011, whoo. Here's a favorite.

Fall Out Boy - "Yule Shoot Your Eye Out" [mp3]
And I'm of good cheer 'cause I've been checking my list
The gifts you're receiving from me will be:
One awkward silence
Two hopes you cry yourself to sleep, staying up, waiting by the phone
And all I want this year is for you to dedicate your last breath to me before you bury yourself alive

I could actually do an entire playlist of these angry, spiteful Christmas songs for your ex, if anyone's in need. You just let me know, I've got this shit covered.

( It's all downhill from here. )

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genius

2013-11-19T20:55:55Z

I've eliminated about sixty dollars' worth of family Christmas purchases I can't afford by realizing that I can just give people my copies of things. I take care of my books and DVDs, so they're in near-new condition. I'm just making everyone's life easier by having already removed the shrink wrap. :P

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11x19

2013-11-11T23:17:40Z

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ( AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH )

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she must get the jaguar from her father

2013-11-07T01:17:05Z

Today on the way to and from therapy, I listened to the first season of Red vs Blue. There were two interesting passages to note in light of later seasons.

( Spoilers for seasons 1, 6, 8, and 10. Just give in and watch the show already. )

This show is physically painful. Fortunately, I have chocolate peanut butter no-bakes in the kitchen and all the time in the world to have emotional displays about Red vs Blue.

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why we're here

2013-11-04T23:33:05Z

RvB 11x18 "Fire"

( Most of these are not full sentences. )

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david

2013-10-28T23:07:43Z

( RvB 11x17 )

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one way or another, be it your own hands or the hand of God

2013-10-25T17:55:51Z

Just a random thought on Hannibal episodes 1 through 5: ( Blah blah. )

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burn everything you love then burn the ashes

2013-09-25T13:29:33Z

These two screencaps I smushed together for my 1.02 recap --

-- I was looking at it this morning and realized that the two POVs the camera switches between here have the same color scheme, the same green and red and blue, and it is so well done and provides such a nice visual cohesion to the scene, and I am not one to notice these things often because I am not visually oriented but I am always impressed when I do.

It's a very visually striking show, I do not know why I continue to be surprised by anything at all, but this pleases me.

(This evening: 1x03! Super excited.)

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rvb 11x13

2013-09-23T23:53:37Z

Tucker: "There are no friends in this canyon. Only forced acquaintances." Aw. :(

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open-mouthed and on your knees

2013-09-03T01:08:49Z

Red vs Blue 11.11. ( Must be the angel episode. )

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andy andy andy read this it's about that punkass foster kid we took in

2013-08-13T12:32:17Z

Major Crimes 2x10. ( fml )

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all is forgiven, listen, listen

2013-08-13T01:48:13Z

I haven't done this in a while. Overemotional Red vs Blue liveblog. 11x08 "The Grass is Greener. The Blues are Bluer." ( Waaaaaash (Is not even in this episode, it turns out, but I wrote my cut text before I watched.) )

jkkksjakdjakljkeajkleajkl

new favorite episode

until next week, that is

assuming next week is even one-tenth of what i hope

(i will settle for amusing shenanigans since my otp will not actually be hooking up ever)

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no white flag upon my door

2013-08-06T19:43:52Z

( Falling Skies 3x10 )

AND NOW I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL NEXT SUMMER FOR MORE ARRRRRGH THIS SHOW.

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espheni inception

2013-07-23T18:32:18Z

GUYS. ( Falling Skies 3x08 )

I have nothing to say about Copper other than man, Lee Tergesen, why so gross in every role?

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