I had gotten more excited that I should have done about the G.I. Joe sequel. (It has the Rock in it, u guyz! I can't help it!) And it's apparently just been delayed NINE FUCKING MONTHS.

Is this a joke? It's supposed to come out next month. I've never, ever heard of a movie being pulled, literally last second (haven't theaters already done their buys for showing this?) for any reason, let alone a motherfucking post-shot conversion to 3D. Because that's been notoriously successful of late and something people who are excited to see this movie in literally weeks are going to enjoy months from now. Fuckers.

ETA: I found this out on a site called "Coming Soon," too. Fucking no it's not!

Forgot to mention in my post about Once Upon a Time: Still not a Fables TV Show, but this show is like playing the "Hey, I know you from somewhere..." game every week. And, maddeningly for me, I cannot figure out where I know people from. Because they're even so obscure, I haven't seen them in much. One of the guys bugging me the most turns out to have played the boyfriend/ex of the lead on Covert Affairs, itself a show that I cannot figure out how come I've seen as much of it as I have. (Oh, wait, I remember now: the blind guy was hot.) That's on top of the LOST cast reunions and the random Bucky Barnes cameos.

Perhaps the one that blind-sided me the most, however, is the straight-laced nice-guy playing Jiminy Cricket is HOLY FUCKING GOD KAIDEN ALENKO!?!?! I knew I recognized that oddly gruff voice, but it weirds me right the fuck out to see him acting. At least he's more handsome than Kaiden?

I spent much of last week and weekend running around, playing with Mrs. Beans' brother's dog, Odin (he's a Jackaranian, and a total ham) and getting my little sister all graduated from college. I also, bizarrely, went on some cleaning kicks of the apartment, tidying up my room (which is looking more and more bare, which is good) and the apartment as a whole.

So this week is the first that I've really had time to sit and enjoy the apartment all to myself (while the roommates are still on vacation), and I have spent it thus far catching up on shows I meant to watch this year and didn't get to. I'm current on Game of Thrones and Mad Men, despite not really loving either, which seems to be a theme as the one show I just started is also of the not-great, can't turn off variety: Once Upon a Time.

Look, judge me, but I'm having an okay time of it. Season finale was ass-stupid, and I want to murder both of the two female hero leads and the villainess at times, but I'm managing. I have even, after this many hours, forgiven the show for not being what I really wanted out of it, which is Fables: the TV show. There were rumors of a Fables show getting a pilot that never really materialized, and the world got Once Upon a Time (and, I suppose, Grimm) instead. When I saw the promos for Once Upon a Time, I didn't bother watching it right away for two reasons: 1) I was sure it was going to be canceled, and 2) glvalentine's review of the pilot. Now that it has, I basically mainlined it for three days while working furiously on one of two cross-stitch baby announcements I need done by fall. (By summer, really, since I'll be in school when my future nephew and future almost-positive-it's-a-niece are born.)

Once Upon a Time is still not nearly as good as Fables, alas. I miss super-secret agent Cinderella. I miss Bigby. I miss any recognition that in order for all these people to have issues with being pregnant/having babies/having children who don't love them PEOPLE HAVE TO HAVE HAD SEX. No, seriously. It's all "true love!" then "suddenly pregnant somehow!" all the time up in this show. And everyone has issues with both. Without ever mentioning fucking. Ever. Two characters have an affair and the closest they get to sex is hints at the number of place settings in the sink after they've hooked up. No one musses anyone's clothes, that's how far from sex these people are. (Which makes it hilarious to go from Game of Thrones to this.)

Up next on my cross-stitching marathon: the last season of Chuck or this current season of Supernatural. Or maybe I'll give it all amiss and just watch movies. I haven't decided.

For the last fucking time: an antiviral is a compound that one takes to combat an infection of the physical body by an infectious agent known as a virus. An anti-virus is a SOFTWARE you use to remove malicious software from your computer.

Make a note of it.

Kidding! I'm just making sure to say a very Happy Birthday! to my roommate moonlightalice. Even though she's deep in the jungles of far-flung Asia (and/or on one of many, many plane rides she and wellgull will be taking back and forth), I thought it only right and proper to wish her all the bestest. I mean, right now, she's not at work or worrying over stupid law schools, so that's probably a pretty excellent birthday right there. It also highlights one of the things I admire most about her, and that's her determination to go places and have new experiences, which I, a desperate loner and a homebody, would know nothing about.

Happy Birthday to moonlightalice! Hope the mosquitos are leaving you alone! (Did you bring that bag of blood like I said?)

I caught this article on Tor.com about the renaissance of the comic book movie. Despite the $$$ made by The Avengers, I have a suspicion that comic book movies, specifically superhero comic book movies, are actually on the wane. Not necessarily in terms of quality, but I think the fad it going to start petering out.

Anyway, it will surprise no one that I disagree with a lot of points in that article. I have a long post as to why I disagree, but I summarize it up in an image for those not interested in the rant.

Because she never mentions this guy:

( I am Iron Man. )

So, this is adorable. And hilarious. Venom and his ice cream cone might be my favorite thing about this.

Disassembled from Junaid Chundrigar on Vimeo.

I'm lucky no one was around in the lab when I took a break to watch this because I admit to cracking the fuck up a lot. The juxtaposition of the cartoon style and the shit going on in it are priceless.

In other news, I was watching Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and I'm still loving it. Last night, I caught an episode that introduced Carol Danvers and she was voiced by Jennifer Hale (otherwise known as Commander Shepard also known as the one of two voice actresses whose work I can guarantee you've heard). I'm now suuuuuuper psyched for her to come back. It looks like A:EMH is doing what Justice League did in its second season and first season of Unlimited, which is bring in more heroes/villains from the fringes, and I am ALL about enjoying the shit out of that. Just so long as they bring Jennifer Hale back. I need more of her dulcet tones in my life.

( The call of the wild. )

Some of this is undoubtedly related to my anxiety/euphoria over leaving my job, too, I realize that. I'll soon be really free to do whatever the fuck I want, and I'm straining at the bit to get there. I have a bucket list for leaving New York. I keep adding to it, but 9 out of 10 additions are part of the Outside! All the time! mania. To whit:
1) Go to the Highline Park.
2) Ride bike over the Brooklyn Bridge (presumably to Brooklyn where there may be still more paths to take).
2A) If not a total chicken-shit, bike over the GWB, with its much scarier low rails and traffic.
3) Take the Staten Island Ferry.
4) Go to the Cloisters.
5) Walk the length and/or circumference of Manhattan (I did most of this one day with fairest and cagexxx, and we covered a good chunk from 116th to Canal Street).
6) Go to the Brooklyn flea (ew, so much Brooklyn stuff).

These are the additions that I made recently. The list includes going to the Guggenheim (never been) and a massive three-day-at-last binge where I tour the entire Metropolitan Museum of Art. I keep going to the Met for exhibits and then fucking around visiting this or that of my favorite places (arms and armor; the Egyptian Wing; the rooms of furniture). I want to spend like three-to-four hours a day, making sure to take my time and not to get too burnt out with museum fatigue, over a few days, to really take it all in. New York and DC are the places to go for museums, and I need to absorb some of that before I peace out of here for a substantial portion of the next four years (at least).

Anything else I should consider? Let me know!

I have, like, two weeks total of work left, and I want out so badly. (I'm officially out May 31st, but I'm taking vacation days between here and there that I'll only really be in the lab for two more weeks.) It's not helping that today is Friday and it's beautiful outside and I have anywhere else I could be. Here are things I'm looking at on the internet instead of working.

1) Listening to my buddy Dr. Liz M interview a PhD about about anti-EGFR treatments for cancer. She sounds like an NPR host--with bonus SCIENCE! Normally, she has a pretty strong Queens accent, but you wouldn't know it from this interview. The disconnect means I can recognize her voice but she sounds like she's been altered somewhat. Regardless, I think she's got a talent in this direction she should explore!

2) The Avengers in high school. Not a fanfic, mind you, just the actual pictures of the cast from their high school yearbooks. I go back and forth between who has always been the most attractive of the Chrises (Hemsworth is beefy-footie-player hot; Evans is best-friend/Ducky-esque adorable), but the hands-down loser is poor Jeremy Renner. Ruffalo brought the braces, but Renner shuts it down with a mullet. Surprising absolutely no one, given that women are always more self-conscious about bringing their A-game to professional picture-taking, Scarlett Johansson comes out by far the best.

3) Speaking of The Avengers, just how much time did each Avenger have onscreen? The answers may surprise you. I, for one, didn't remember that the Cap was around as much as he was. Joss Whedon stated that he wanted to tell a lot of the movie through Steve Rogers because he really liked the fish-out-of-water pov for a movie that's unlike anything that's come before. For all that though, the show was stolen from him, as character development-wise, others outshone him even if they didn't outlast him onscreen.

4) LEGO LORD OF THE RINGGGGGGSSSSSS I'm a little sad that they're looking to release it before they could include The Hobbit on there (meaning $20 extra for that when it does get made), but I'm too excited by the idea to really give a flying fuck that they're taking more money from me. THEY CAN HAVE ALL MY MONEY. I WOULD PLAY LEGO TWILIGHT (ESPECIALLY IF I CAN WALK ALL THE CHARACTERS INTO DEATH. CONSTANTLY.) After this, the only thing else I would ask of them is Lego Avengers. I saw an Avengers set in a store this past weekend, and I read an interview with the cast where they were talking about their Lego figures. THIS IS A THING THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN, TOO. I WOULD PLAY THE SHIT OUT OF ALL THE PRE-AVENGERS MOVIE LEGO GAMES AND THEN ALL THE AVENGERS LEGO GAMES.

So President Obama says he thinks gays should be able to get married. I'm going to choose not to be cynical and focus on how he then backed up to say "But, uh, states should do what they want," especially since North Carolina (state motto: "One day, we'll catch whatever venereal disease our power bottom state has and be twice as crazy!") just happened. I'm going to recognize the significance and urge people to continue putting the pressure on and the reinforcement coming. The POTUS said gays should marry. It's a big deal. We need to continue to work on tolerance issues (bullying, anti-gay hate crime, job discrimination) on the small scale to drive home the point that gay people ARE PEOPLE such that states will eventually catch up to the newly evolved Obama.

Speaking of the gays, you know what I saw five minutes of this weekend? Urban Legends: Final Cut. Which features a sexy lesbian (played by Eva Mendes, no less) who just happens to be a lesbian. ASTONISHING, RIGHT? I cannot believe I'm saying this about that shitty movie, but we could really do with more of those. Just, you know, to have around. And while I'm throwing out magical liberal wishlists for the motion picture industry, please employ more people of color and more women in roles other than "mother" or "girlfriend." K THNX BAI.

Okay, time for more fun Avengers stuffs. Check out the comments on this io9 post (careful, spoilers) for some truly awesome Hulk animated gifs. I could watch the top one alllllll day. And while we're on the subject of Hulks, why don't we let one tell us what makes an interesting one? (Again: SPOILERS) No spoilers here: a truly awesome Black Widow poster. It reminds me strongly of James Bond's credit sequences in the 1960s. Very mod, very chic, very sexy, still powerful. And there's a Hawkeye one, but it's got nowhere near the level of sophistication and class, I'm afraid.