Clark, if there's one lesson I've learned from you ...

 For the last few years I’ve slowly developed a noticeable sleeping problem. Later and later I fall asleep, catching up for the short sleep on the weekends or free afternoons. I try to go to bed at a normal time, try not to workout late anymore, put on music to sooth, read in bed but lately it isn’t until light starts to breakthrough that I finally get some rest.--
On a lighter note. Finally saw Rise of the Guardians recently and it is so much more wonderful than I thought it would be. And instantly became enamored with the Jack Frost/Tooth(iana?) ship. So adorable and they even have an awesome shipping name: Frostbite (I've also seen rainbow snowcone but that is a bit wordy).

I was telling djtenku  that we might be in the golden age of animated feature films right now. Sure the early to mid 90's Disney was AMAZING, but with how Disney, Pixar & Dreamworks are all cranking out solid hits lately maybe this era can rival that one. When's the last time Dreamworks had a less than stellar animated release? Maybe Bee Movie in 2007?

Can I just say how EXCITED I am for this movie? Disney is just hitting all cylinders for me right now - it almost feels like the 90's.

I finally saw Red this week. Came out around this time last year, and I'd been wanting to see it since I'd first gotten a glimpse of it.  Starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich & Helen Mirren, it was adapted from a comic that I never read or knew about before the movie.  That said, this was pretty fun action movie with a dash of comedy sprinkled throughout it.  I think the characters I enjoyed the most were the two that I had no idea were in the film from the ads I'd seen of it, the damsel in distress played by Mary-Louise Parker and the agent put in charge of eliminating Bruce Willis' character played by Karl Urban. And Ernest Borgnine is 94!! Amazing to see him still so active of an actor at his age. 

Almost done with S1 of Glee, and upon the discovery that there's only been 2 seasons (thought there had been 3 for some reason) I am hoping to find S2 online so I can catch up completely before S3 starts and watch it on time with the rest of the world.  I have however found a ship that is greatly growing on me (a good sign that the show is becoming one of my favorites) and the ship even has a cute name: Quill! (Quinn+Will)  Of course I doubt there will ever be any actual movement on the show of that ship, I will begin to scour the fandom for fic.

The last two Saturday mornings I've put on the Nolan Batman movies and watched them again for the first time in a year or two.  AND THEY ARE STILL SO GOOD.  I think the most underrated parts of Batman Begins are the scenes with Thomas Wayne and I really like the evolution of that relationship that gets transferred to then Alfred & Bruce.  The Dark Knight gets you pumping a bit more and is nearly a perfect film but I do have some minor complaints. First the underrated part probably has to be the end scene between Dent, the Gordons & Batman. Dent's pain, then Batman's decision to take on the blame and then Gordon explaining to Jim Jr. why Batman's running.  Still gives me chills when Gordon says "the dark knight" and then it goes right to credits.  The negatives: feels slightly too fast paced and maybe a bit too focused on the Joker, that whole plot hole of Batman jumping out the window after Rachel and leaving a whole room of Gotham's elite alone with the Joker and his armed henchmen, and that Katie Holmes did not return to her role as Rachel Dawes.  I'm a big fan of continuity with sequels and having a different actor play the same role in a continued story just bugs me, although I've softened my stance against Maggie Gyllenhaal a bit since The Dark Knight first came out.  Still can't say the same for Don Cheadle in Iron Man 2.

I also watched Tangled again this week and I still love it. Think it ranks up there with Tarzan, Hercules, The Lion King and the other classic 90's Disney films, just missing catchy/memorable songs.  When Will My Life Begin, I Have a Dream, Mother Knows Best & I See the Light are great songs just not the easiest to remember the lines to unlike some of the 90s movies that you can at least say a line.  Although I think the opening number and Mother Knows Best are the closest to that point.   Also don't stream something you own on a big screen because about 30 minutes in to watching I stopped streaming on Netflix and just popped in the Blu-Ray to enjoy the visual beauty of the movie.  I can't wait for the animated short coming out next year.

Above was my mac's secondary monitor wallpaper, Atomic Betty. Always felt that show was underrated and under appreciated. And on my phone I had this batman wallpaper, another neat artwork I found on DeviantArt. Love that place.

Rededicated myself to writing and I got off to a good start in January. Restarted His Girl Friday and participated in Porn Battle XI which bleeded into February. Besides the Porn Battle entries that have been already posted, look forward to more HGF and maybe a completed one-shot or two this month. WRITING TOTAL: 8.308 words (5,098 posted - His Girl Friday CH 7; 3,210 unposted in JAN - H/HR PB XI Submission "Not According to Plan")

There are a few February birthday babies on my flist: autumnrae89 (3rd), htbthomas (17th) & whipsy (22nd). I hope you all have outstanding birthdays this year and make some memorable memories. ♥

With little fanfare, I finished season one of Avatar last month. Now with life easing up again I have the time to talk about it!

Aang is probably the most complicated character given he's like Captain America in that he was frozen and now in a time not of his own.  I enjoyed his reunion with his old friend, Bumi - now the King of Omashu and their trips down the chute mail delivery system. It's fun whenever Aang tries to impress Katara and how clueless she is of his intentions.  I like the aspect of being able to talk to his Avatar predecessor and I hope Roku has more advice for Aang in following seasons.  Seeing how much Aang cares is also a big theme, him telling Katara about his relationship with Monk Gyatsu or when they come across Bato of the Water Tribe and Aang keeps the message away from them for awhile as he was scared to lose their companionship. His fun attitude is addictive, and I loved the episode with the two feuding Earthbending tribes and crossing the great canyon and the story Aang created about the two characters at the center of the age old feud.

Katara is just as amusing as Aang when it comes to crushing on someone and while I'm heavy Kataang fan I didn't mind when she found herself investing in the cause of Haru and the imprisoned Earthbenders or the rogue Jet and his band of fighters. I also liked showing that despite her calm, thoughtful way to life at times she'll let her impatience and do rash things like steal the water scroll from those pirates or how she attacked the Northern Water Tribe's waterbending master when he refused to teach her because she was a girl.

Sokka is easiest the most shippable character.  When they crossed paths with the Warriors of Kyoshi I loved how his and Suki's perceptions of each other changed over the episode.  I hope there is a reunion in following seasons.  And even more I loved Sokka's time with Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe.  I really wish there hadn't been the need for that sacrifice because I instantly became a fan of those two together.  That was probably the most emotional moment of Book One.

Zuko has fallen into the character I don't like one bit category that I have with several series to differing degrees.  I'd probably relate him to Sasuke from Naruto with the amount of distaste I have for the character.  I don't know how I feel about his escapades as the Blue Spirit, feels like a way the creators are trying to create a thread of redemption for Zuko, but watching the Blue Spirit episode I don't think it's possible for him to be the Spirit given where you first see the Blue Spirit and then where Zuko is.  I was really confused by that.

Overall, I can't wait to start on the next season of the show, and I really wish that the movie had captured the spirit of the show.  Hopefully maybe in five to ten years Nickelodeon can give it another try and create a live-action version of Avatar the Last Airbender that everyone would be happy to see.  I'm excited about the news of the sequel series that they're working on and I can't wait to see the shorts with the chibi versions of the characters that I have seen and I guess are in the last two seasons because there wasn't anything on the Book one DVDs.

I usually take the opportunity when movies that come out that is full of widespread appeal to take my parents out every now and then to the movie theatres since they would never go by themselves. Surprisingly it is harder than you would think to arrange and as a result I sometimes don't get to see films as quickly as I'd like. Shrek 4 falls into this category but this morning I finally made it into a Real D 3D theatre to see 'The Final Chapter' of Shrek and luckily I was fortunate to miss USA's unspectacular World Cup Match.

( Okay, I know you don't remember me but we're married, and at the birthday party with some pigs and a puppet, the villagers and this boy kept saying 'do the roar! do the roar!' Then I punched the cake that the pigs ate, and the next thing I knew, my donkey fell in your waffle hole.  )

It's strange that the Olympics are over already.  The two week length has that ability of making it feel like a long event while its happening but also giving that feeling of being over too fast when it's done.  With how NBC covered the Winter Olympics this year, I definitely feel like I missed out more than saw.  I wish they'd shown more events outside of Hockey (and sometimes Curling) live without the benefit of being delayed and cut up so you only saw the top contenders and team USA because some of us would just like to watch the sport no matter who was participating.  Also, forcing us to stay watching close to midnight for unshown content from huge events like Figure Skating and others is INSANE.

DC's next direct-to-DVD animated film, Justice League Crisis on Two Earths recently just came out and because of that release the previous two DVD's (Green Lantern First Flight & Superman Batman Public Enemies) were on sale (less than $9 each) so I snapped those up.  I have yet to watch a DC DVD that I haven't enjoyed so I imagine I'll like these as well.  They were backordered so I'm just waiting them out right now. I also bought 17 Again for less than $9 too.  Don't judge, I liked the movie.

Something that has irritated to me over the years is when I notice that I'm missing content out of my control.  Every so often I'll notice several journals here on LJ that for whatever reason will not show up on my friendslist despite being mutual friends.  This has started to happen with me on Twitter too where there will be people who will tweet and I'll never see their updates but I'm a bit more lenient there because I follow so many that it's easy to fall behind on the timeline. LJ it's more of a convenience thing and I hate having to dig through all of my friends journals just to see if I missed something.

Alice in Wonderland comes out today and I can't wait to see it.  I haven't been a very good theatre watcher so far this year.  Outside of seeing Avatar, I missed The Princess and the Frog, Sherlock Holmes, and I'm still planning on seeing Percy Jackson.  But back to Alice, from what I devine from the trailers I've seen on TV, this looks like a quasi-sequel to the typical telling of Alice's original journey to Wonderland. With the proposal and going into the rabbit hole, I am thinking this movie is one of those returning to your childhood to put a close to it and be ready to move to adulthood.  Also, I think I'm developing an attraction to Helena Bonham Carter. She's a little odd, but I love it.

Happy New Year! It's going to be weird writing '10' from now on but I'm looking forward to keeping the momentum going from this Fall and continuing the progress towards my career.

It's crazy that it's January already but it's a new year and the one change on here at least will be that I won't be doing birthday drabbles. While a fun concept I started to falter the last few months of 2009 before I just completely halted producing any. It started to stunt my creativity being confined to specific stories that weren't the pressing stories I wanted to develop but I still enjoyed making the ones I did because for everyone I was writing them for. ♥

Instead this year I hope to get to writing my fics that have been on hold for awhile now, and an original story I'd like to develop into something real. I'll get more into that in my writing goals post next time. It is however a new month as well and with that brings my desktop link. Here's my macbook pro's december wallpaper. It's from Case Closed/Detective Conan. I enjoyed the show when it aired on Adult Swim a few years back, but it wasn't a show that really was worth rewatching (much like american procedural shows, once you know the case it ruins the atmosphere of the episode) and an annoyance that didn't come to pass because only 50 or so episodes were shown was how the show was stuck in the same spot of never evolving regarding the main character's youth/size problem or that his love interest was still kept in the dark. Those that know me, know that those points would drive me crazy, especially considering it is still that way in Japan after numerous manga chapters and anime episodes. It's a great looking wallpaper though, and I love the characters. ^_^

A new year also brings a new calendar to put on the wall. 2009 was Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince and for 2010 I went with an old favorite of mine that I haven't really paid much attention to lately thanks to the awkward storylines - Naruto. Went with the Shippouden version because I like the designs of the characters.

Before I go, I wanted to let you know if you missed it that I made a new icon post over at capes_and_cowls just a few days ago. Also I'll be doing another post there probably next weekend bringing a new members only feature that I'll reveal here first, I'll be making available a few wallpapers that I find from certain splash pages of the comics that are just asking to be turned into desktop covering space. They won't be as numerous as the icons, but there are definitely times in my iconing periods that I come across pages that would work for that, and now I'll be turning them into usable wallpapers. :)