So I finally watched The Hunger Games movie. Spoilers for the movie ahead!

( Thoughts on The Hunger Games movie... )

In other completely unrelated news, I’ve been reading 50 Shades of Grey. I know I shouldn’t have, but because I am weak and mostly out of morbid curiosity, I downloaded the first book and have been reading bits and pieces. The success of this “novel” baffles me. Someone please explain to me who is supposed to be reading and enjoying this?? Because I don’t get it. You know, I am no literature snob. I read, literally, anything. I kind of hate Twilight, but I think Meyer’s writing skills are decent enough. But this? This is just the most appallingly awful piece of fiction I've ever seen and can’t even remotely be considered literature. The writing is atrocious as a whole, but the thing that annoyed me the most was the repetitiveness of words and language: the flushes, blushes and non-stop lip biting. And I swear I wanted to punch the protagonist every time she talked about her “inner goddess”. Besides, the story is beyond terrible. I am not talking about the porn (which is also clumsy and boring and not very arousing frankly), but the characters and the plot? Ana is juvenile and unrealistic, and the kind of heroine who has no self-esteem until she meets the hero. But what really crushes me is that women around the world are falling for this kind of extremely possessive, egotistical, stalkerish but OMG-so-incredibly-hot male character. It’s devastating.

(Plus, I think of all my talented friends in fandom who, you know, have crazy writing skills and will never be as rich or as famous as the woman who wrote this thing that is getting all kinds of unwarranted attention, and I want to cry :/).

On a more personal note, a couple of days ago was Sant Jordi’s (Saint George) day, a very typical festivity in Catalonia, with similarities with Valentine’s day, but more picturesque and cooler. The main event of the day is the exchange of gifts between loved ones. Historically, men gave women roses, and women gave men a book to celebrate the occasion, but right now the mutual exchange of books is customary. It’s a lovely tradition and one of my favorite days to wander around the ancient winding streets of Barcelona’s gothic quarter, filled with thousands of stands of roses and makeshift bookstalls. I spent a wonderful day, and I even got a book! Well, two actually (it’s funny because since I purchased my e-reader I don’t read paper books anymore). The first one is the hardcover version of In the Woods because I am clearly obsessed and my BF knows that (more on this later), my copy is really battered and it's the UK version with an uglier cover, and I really wanted the creepy but beautiful one with the white background. The second book I received is Daniel Glattauer’s latest novel, Siempre Tuyo (Always Yours Forever Thine I suppose, even though it hasn’t been translated into English yet). I love this author’s style and one of his previous novels, Love Virtually (aka. Good Against the North Wind, the literal and more fitting translation from German) is probably one of the best reads I had last year. So good! I’ve heard that Always Yours is pretty different from Love Virtually and its sequel Every Seventh Wave –it’s also romance but it has a thriller vibe, which makes me curious (daybreak777, I’ll let you know what I think when I finish! :)).

And I know you are probably tired of hearing me gush about In the Woods and The Likeness and Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox and Tana French in general. Yes I know, I can’t help myself LOL. Those books give me all the feelings!! But I am thrilled because the lovely ninety6tears  just opened a comm, dublin_murder, for any discussion, meta or fanworks related to Tana’s novels. And maybe she will organize some kind of book club/reread! –which, I might add, it sounds like the perfect excuse to read them for the first time if you are curious and still haven’t. Seriously, they are SO WONDERFUL. Tana has a gorgeous, gorgeous voice.

Also, this weekend, The Avengers!!! Yes, I am pretty excited about that. And I can’t believe I am going to Paris next week! YAY!

Hey flist! Just checking in and letting you know that I am still alive and well. I have been busy! So, do you remember my plans A and B? It seems it’s going to be B, at least this year. It’s not that I am happy about it, but since I was half expecting this outcome, it’s OK. The problem is that plan B means RESIDENCY IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY and, consequently, hours and hours of endless studying until January. Which is scary and a bit depressing and, honestly, the prospect of having, literally, no life outside the books for months is not exactly appealing . But it goes like this: if I am going to do this, I need to ace that exam; there are only 140 positions and a much higher number of candidates (3500 last year). Ugh. It’s crazy, I know, but given the horrible economic situation in my country and the unlikelihood of finding a job worthy of my education/skills/experience, this feels like the only thing I can possibly do now.

Buuuuut, I am not writing this post to depress you all with my current RL concerns, so how about a list of little fandom-y things? These are fun!

( Some fandom-y things... )

I fail so miserably at updating this! It isn’t supposed to be that hard, but my mind has been elsewhere lately and I am the queen of procrastination, I guess. Anyway, I just wanted to keep you updated about the latest developments in both my RL/fannish life, so I’ll try to make this quick. If I remember well, my last entry was that slightly depressing RL post where I lamented over my failed 2011 life project. It’s been two months since then and things haven’t changed much. I am still in a weird mood… Definitely not sad, but a tad anxious and with random mood swings that are annoying the hell out of me.GAH. Winter/early spring usually does this to me and all this uncertainty does not help much. I still don’t know if that position I got and then lost in September will open up again later this year, and this circumstance is seriously messing with my head (I should know by now, but the economic/political situation in Spain is quite complicated and the job market is in a bleak condition). So I guess I’ll have to wait at least another month or so to know for certain what happens.

( Some RL stuff... )

( TV/fannish stuff... )

Hi flist! How are you doing? I am recovering from a truly awful weekend because I got sick, like, really sick, from (that’s my guess) eating too much (no, in case you wonder, I am pretty sure it’s not been food poisoning). I swear, not funny at all. I’ve been feeling feverish, nauseous, achey and well, all kinds of miserable. And it’s not that I actually ate that much… I know my stomach is kind of small (I’ve never been able to eat large amounts of food in one sitting), but still. Seriously. Never again. Thanks God, after almost three days being barely able to eat, my appetite is finally back and I am feeling much better. And, oh well, I am even in a playful mood today, so I am posting this ships meme that’s been going around lately…

(1) Think of up to 20 10 ships you support.
(2) List them using descriptions of the characters involved rather than their names.
(3) Have your flist guess as many of the ships (with the fandom) as they can.

First thing, I must say that I almost gave up because I’ve had so many problems to come up with 10 ships! And it’s really odd because, hello?, I am supposed to be a shipper. But maybe not. Thinking of pairings I’ve liked over the years, I realize that even though I am usually drawn to certain type of romantic relationships, ships come and go but very few actually, um, really stick. Of course there’s my OTP and a couple or three pairings I feel strongly attached to, for different reasons, but the rest are fleeting affections at most. For instance, I debated whether to include Will Tippin/Sydney from Alias, since I used to love them so much --before the show made crystal clear that Sydney and bland, incredibly boring but kind of hot Vaughn were the OTP and got rid of Bradley Cooper. HOW DID THEY DARE :(( (Sorry, I am digressing here lol). But I realize shipping is definitely too strong a word to define how I feel about them now: it’s just that I don’t have those intense feelings for them anymore. Or feelings at all. So I couldn't include them here. Finally, I've ended up with ships I am currently shipping (or supporting) or that I’ve shipped lately (let’s say… in the last two years or so). Of course, my OTP is here because it’s my OTP and I love them ABOVE ALL THINGS :D

Also, I’ve tried to be not too cryptic, but I am re-reading my little riddles and they are WAY TOO EASY, guys!! Especially if you know my preferences. But whatever. I bet you guess most of them in, like, 3 seconds. LOL.

( Can you guess? )

Also, I missed all Me as a Little Pony craziness on my flist, but they are so damn cute I couldn't resist. So I did mine (though I am not happy with it because I have NO PATIENCE FOR THESE THINGS! But I am loving these little horns, haha.)

( My pony! )

Ok, so I have been meaning to post an interesting book meme I saw at daybreak777's journal, but the thing is so long I’ve been procrastinating. And then I was challenged to do this one by taragel because, apparently, I don’t update my journal anymore :P I still intend to post the book meme, but meanwhile here we go...

( Meme! )

I have been wanting to write a TV post for a while, though I can’t say I am watching much TV right now: I haven’t tried any of the new shows yet (though I am really curious about Homeland!) and I am mostly sticking to my old ones, namely Sons of Anarchy, The Good Wife and Fringe.

( Sons of Anarchy (spoilers through 4x06) )


( The Good Wife (spoilers through 3x03) )


( Fringe (spoilers through 4x04) )

I’ve been meaning to post an update for a while, but couldn’t bring myself to write. There is so much stuff going on in my RL right now (and not exactly good, quite frankly). I just received some news and I am so sad and frustrated and not in my usual carefree self. This too shall pass, I know. But it doesn’t make it less painful. Sigh. Anyhow, I am determined not to wallow in self-pity and indulge in some whininess now –I leave that for an upcoming RL post! (yeah, the good-but-bad news are job-related. I won't know anything for certain until September 29th, then I will tell you all about it. But keep your fingers crossed for me!)

But anyway, moving on to happy-making things… I want to talk about some books I've read this summer!! Something I’ve realized lately is that since I stopped reading K/L fic obsessively (I have the feeling I’ve read everything worth-reading out there --FF.net included), I’ve kind of rediscovered my love of books. And how I have missed them! The funny thing is that I’ve always considered myself a pretty quick reader and it still strikes me as odd that I am not anymore… It makes me wonder if it’s because I am getting old or, more possibly, because I read almost exclusively English fiction at the moment and I am a bit slower when I read in a foreign language (I like to read books in the language they were written in, if I am able to do so. Translation ads a layer of interpretation that distorts the original and I often find that the translations are not very good in preserving the nuance of the originals).

( Books! )

Another post in a row? From me? Heee. Well, I guess I couldn’t resist to this very cool meme about fandoms as relationships I’ve stolen from sci_fi_shipper and ninety6tears.

( Fandoms as relationships... )

Hi flist! Again, it’s been ages since I last updated my journal, but now that RL is finally giving me a break (I’ll post about it when I know some results on Friday, but I might get really good news on the career change front!), I am determined to stick around LJ and keep posting on a regular basis.

First thing, I feel like I should write a TV post since I’ve been watching some stuff lately, namely…

+I lovedlovedloved The Good Wife season finale (Best drama on TV right now!).
+Fringe finale was pretty good: I can’t take the mythology seriously and character-wise the show falls flat to me sometimes (let's face it, Fringe sucks at characterization), but since they are promoting my beloved Lincoln Lee as a full-fledged series regular, I am more than happy!
+Of course, I am watching A Game of Thrones. I am not in the mood to elaborate further, but I am liking (though not loving) the whole thing (my primary interest has always been the books, though).
+I finally decided to catch up with Sons of Anarchy and I am halfway S2: this season is emotionally very heavy but I am quite enjoying it, especially the relationship between Gemma and Tara and the inner struggle within SAMCRO. And even though Jax is not my type (psychologically speaking, I mean), I am not blind to his hotness, hee.

On the other hand, thanks to my e-book (best Christmas present ever) I’ve been reading a lot lately, so it might be a good idea to make a couple of book posts (“a lot of reading” means three books per month –four if I am feeling obsessive--, I am not a fast reader at all). I just finished Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84, and although it keeps getting more and more surreal (literally; it’s Murakami we are talking about), the novel is really good and I can’t wait for the following (and last) installment. I just love Murakami's style (if I re-read it --which I mean to, at some point-- I should write about Norwegian Wood. That book is <3)

Also book-related, I feel compelled to warn you about one the worst crime novels I’ve ever read: Camilla Läckberg’s The Ice Princess. In all honestly, it amazes me that this woman is considered by some the current Swedish crime novel queen, because the whole thing (a dreadful combination of romance and mystery) is so awful that deserves a review just for the sake of its lameness. There was SO MUCH to dislike, I just want to keep bashing at it! LOL

And now I am about to start A Discovery of Witches. Has anyone heard about it? It’s a gift, so I don’t know much about the book, but I am a bit wary since someone labeled it as “Twilight for adults” (it was supposed to be a praise, heh) and I am not very fond of the Twilight series.

On a fannish note, it just struck me today that I really miss BSG. With all I’ve had going on in my RL lately I haven’t had much time to think about it, but now that things are slowing down a bit I realize how much I miss pilots and fandom in general . But. It’s odd, I am really happy to see new faces at no_takebacks, but at the same time, I was reading yesterday’s DPP and I felt completely out of place. It's not that I am feeling sad or anything, but it’s weird (sorry if this sounds a bit whiny, it’s not my intention at all, you know I love over-thinking fandom dynamics ;)).

Last but not least, some RL stuff. I went to a mini trip this weekend to Cadaqués. It’s a small town, formerly a fishing village, in the North-East of Catalonia where Dalí used to spend his summers. We had a lovely time and I even had my first beach day of the year!!! :D (And just because you know I love to share them, some pics!)

( Pretty pics! )I keep all of you in my thoughts. Always. Take care!

Hi guys! So much time without updating this journal… I am well aware that I have been neglecting my flist and I am sorry. I know it sounds like a lame excuse, but truth is real life has been hectic lately; I have so much stuff going on now, it’s kind of crazy. Remember this massive career change I was considering last year? (before I got that awful job and then got unfairly fired, that is). I am working (really hard, I’d say) on it. I promise I’ll tell you more once I have it all sorted out, but wish me luck because I am going to need it! ;)

Anyway, after the brief RL update, let me share some fannish stuff, since that’s the best remedy for stress :D So, I never expected to be posting about Fringe (I enjoy it, but don’t love it), but today I watched this week’s episode and I think I am in love ;P ( Spoilers for Fringe 3x18 "Bloodline"! )