☆❀☆

This movie was weird. It's not a drama, not a comedy, not a dark comedy. It's some weird combination of the three.

The premise: A family of con artists, who are really bad at being con artists, try to pull off a heist (and do it badly). Through a series of events, a relatively normal person gets swept up into it, and turns everything upside down. (And along the way Relatively Normal Gal falls for Con Artist Daughter.)

I don't know if I would say that I loved this movie, but there were a lot of individual parts of it that I found effective and interesting. So there is that. That scene where they're in the house of the guy who's just trying to die, and he asks them to make noise so it sounds like there's someone living a normal life there. So they do that, and everything is so normal, but so very fake, and it's such an inverse of their status quo - it's just so weird and very effective.

Old Dolio is such an interesting character. I'm so intrigued by her. It's hard to find an effective way to describe her; saying "she's a mess" doesn't really get at what's actually going on with her. She's been let down by the people who were supposed to be there for her, and it's completely left her out of joint. But that ending - holy shit. It's so crazy, but pretty hopeful.

Also. That scene where she dances for Melanie is really hot. Like. I don't even know. It's something about the contrast - Old Dolio is usually so awkward, even moving through the world like someone uncertain in their own skin. But in that dance scene, she's so different. Steady and assured. (And hot.)

And on another note, man, all through the movie something was poking my brain and it wasn't until it was done that I realized - Old Dolio looks a lot like how I imagine my OC, Vesa. (Well, 'cept Vesa's hair is probably nicer because he would take better care of it, at least to the best of his ability given the conditions he lives in. And the facial features are not quite the same. But anyway.) I looked up Evan Rachel Wood in other roles and she doesn't look like him in other contexts, so I guess it's just the way she's styled for this role. Anyway, that was. A revelation. I guess

No energy for writing, what with real life being as it is; definitely won't meet 100K by the end of the year. Ah, well. That's not the end of the world. I've written more individual things this year than I have any other, and while I'm sure a lot of it is very short, I'm still kind of impressed with that. So.

( SSSS OC blathering )

☆ Oil plant maintenance season is upon us, and that means overtime. Please expect an exhausted Yuu in your future. Drives me nuts that this will cut into my writing time, but on the upside, more cash is always nice. And keeping on top of the workload. That too. orz Today there was talk of putting some of us on night shift, which... hahaha, NO.

☆ I received my NoFM assignment. I'm delighted with it. Hopefully I'll be able to start writing tomorrow, or at least look over the letter again + do some canon review. I already have some ideas, sort of. And maybe consider treats... (though I suppose I should leave that until I have a draft of something, hm.) This exchange had some initial pinch hits, so if you like small fandoms and have some time to do writing/art, I might suggest checking over at nightonficmountain to see if there's anything you can pick up.

☆ There is going to be a YOI rarepair exchange starting up toward the end of the month. Check over at rareshipsonice for the preliminary info (IIRC the mod has mostly decided re: schedule etc, but some things might be subject to change). I think this might interest some of you. I haven't decided whether I want to take part myself, but it has a 500-word minimum, which is very doable, so maybe....

☆ Kiraly drew two of my characters and they are adorable* and I am delighted. <3 I should write more things with them. Yes. When I have the time.

☆ It snowed this morning. AGAIN. Insert giant frowny face here. >:( I am not pleased with this development.

Recently I've been listening to an audiobook of Stephen King's Firestarter, and it reminded me of how much I used to love stories of psychic and parapsychological phenomena. Yes please, give me alllll the telepathy and pyrokinesis and telekinesis and clairvoyance and that sort of stuff. *_* This book hits me just as well as it did the first time I read it, ages and ages ago. (Though actually, I can't remember which bit of fiction it was that got me interested in psychic powers first. Was it Stephen King's novels - both Firestarter and The Dead Zone? Or did I watch Weiss Kreuz first? Or is it just that R-- introduced me to the idea? Oh, well.)

Anyway, it's been a nice little walk down a road that I used to enjoy very much. For a while there, I kind of cut off my taste for that thing in fiction (along with many other things) due to associating it with someone that I'm not involved with any more. But, some time has passed, so... maybe it wouldn't hurt to explore that subgenre again.

Now that I think of it - if any of you have suggestions for books/movies/etc featuring psychic powers, I'd love to hear about them. Psychic, rather than magical, to be clear. In particular I like it best when these powers have to be kept hidden. My frame of reference is, like I mentioned, mainly Stephen King's novels and the Weiss Kreuz anime. And allll the trashy parapsychology books I used to check out of the library in the early '00s... but let's ignore that. ;p

And all this reminds me of the first version of Yuriy's character, which was very different from what it is now.

( A little more about that )

I posted 79 (!) individual works over at roesslyng over the course of 2016. This is a higher number of fics than I've ever finished in one year. The total wordcount was over 100k, which is also more than I've written in any given year. This year has been great, output-wise.

Final count: Stand Still Stay Silent (35), A Redtail's Dream (22), Hetalia (9), Yuri on Ice (4), Frozen (3), Original Work (3), Mad Max (1), Song of Achilles (1), and Rose of Versailles (1).

( List under cut )

☆ My feet still hurt from my terrible footwear decisions a few days ago. Pity me. Or maybe not, because it was my own fault, but. You know. :V

☆ Getting kind of antsy about Trick or Treat. I want my assignment already, fuuuu. I mean, I know that I'll get it tomorrow, or Tuesday at the latest, but - anticipation! There are so many things that I could write, and I feel kind of directionless. (Just watch, I'll get assigned to someone that I don't even know, and it'll be an adventure. :D )

☆ Jureeya finished the SSSS fanart I commissioned her to do, and wow, does it ever look amazing. ...I hadn't expected something like this to be what I'd finally get her to draw, considering that I like Aksel a lot, but I probably wouldn't name him as one of my favourites. But the fic it's based on, the one Kiraly wrote for me for Rarepair Fest, is Just That Good. So there we are. :D (Plus, well. Ju's always A+ when it comes to people covered in blood, I must say. This is like, the hottest thing I've seen all month.)

☆ I've thrown together a long poem with two of my SSSS OCs, and wow, is it ever - I have no idea how I'll manage to beat this thing into shape. It's going to take so much editing. Arrrrgh! Looks like I'll have to sit on it for a while. It's a similar thing to "White-Water Singer", except that rather than Niko and his family, this one involves Vesa and his mentor, Tarja. They're both kind of a hot mess, but in different ways. And this poem is also a hot mess. And it's very - well, I'm thinking of slapping Choose Not To Warn on it, just because I can't be assed to warn for all the stuff going on in this thing. [/rolls] Going to have to think about it, hm.

☆ Yiiikes, my feet hurt like hell. I think I overdid it today. I kind of hope that tomorrow it will rain, just so I won't be tempted to go out for a long walk again. Or... maybe I could just do a short one... (I don't know my limits.) x_x My knees hurt too. Yeah, I... yeah. Tomorrow, I'll just stay home.

☆ Think I almost have exchange fic #2 finished. I just need to figure out how to end it. After that, well, it's mainly just linework, you know, revising things. One of them is a different format than what I usually would write, so it might be a little bit more challenging, but I don't think it will be too much of a problem. ...I really need to get these done, though. Hopefully I'll have them in by the end of the week. That's the original due date; I know it was pushed back due to the delay in getting assignments out, but it's probably best if I adhere to it.

☆ Only a couple of weeks until I leave for Victoria! I'm so looking forward to it. <3 Hmm, I should probably see if there is anything in particular that I want to go to... I'm sure that Aki has lots of things that she wants to see, but it doesn't hurt to have extra ideas as well. Plus, I will be a few days by myself there, so it'll be useful to have some idea of how to spend that time. I remember that I really enjoyed those ghost walks; maybe I should do that again. The stories will probably be the same, but it's nice to have something to do in the evenings, because usually I don't have any idea how to spend that time.

☆ All I want to do is write stuff with my OCs from the Kajaani storyline, fuuuu. But I should finish some other projects first. Including the one story that I did write with Niko in it (In which he hears something unsettling in a spirit-clogged radio and gets pretty freaked out :D) And that one Suvi/Vesa thing that I started but didn't get very far with. Oh man, those two, I love their relationship so much. Anyway. /Throws up hands!! I have too many wips.

☆ Feeling very tired and asocial lately, and to be honest I've been in one of those moods where I want to backdate every single entry, so that people will only see them if they go looking. I don't know, occasionally I just have these FEELINGS like my daily blather showing up on someone's friends feed = me shoving myself in other people's faces. Even when those people are my friends. I dunno. It's dumb. I'm dumb. But that's okay. Sometimes we have to be a little ridiculous about little things.

☆ Note to self: Book flight and hotel either Friday or Saturday. And... might as well see about getting those passport photos on Saturday, possibly. Since I need to send it in for renewal pretty soon. Not that I'll need it for Victoria, but eh. It needs to get done. (SIGH) Anyway, work has said that it's fine for me to take that trip, so - it looks like Victoria will actually be happening. Nice! I'll have to ask Aki what she wants to do when we meet up, so that I can look things up and plan things out. But that can wait for a while.

☆ I keep staring at this pair of earrings on Etsy and ugh, I want them so bad. But I'm going to be spending so much money this weekend (see above, as well as getting myself a new Ereader) that - yeahhh, hard to justify it. Well. Maybe if I manage to clear off my to-do list, I'll reward myself with that. :D It isn't as if I've been doing much frivolous spending lately, anyway.

☆ I've said it before, but I'm so butthurt that I can't play Pokemon Go. SO BUTTHURT. Ahaha, I'll get over it in a week or two, probably. But I'm just so grumpy that all of my friends are having fun with something, and I can't join in. xD Maybe I should haul out my 3DS and play some actual Pokemon, though, considering I didn't finish Pokemon X. Not because I didn't like it, but well, it's a time-sink. A time-sink that makes my hands cramp up if I play it for too long. So.

☆ After throwing myself into writing last week and part of this week, I find that I'm completely out of juice, at least for the moment. x_x Wow, that was way too much. I'm never pushing myself quite that hard again. Still, I need to do my Rarepair Exchange stuff, but since there's quite a bit of time for that, I'll take a little break. It was just way too much all at once!

☆ ...There are some personal things that I want to write, but maybe on the weekend. It's all stuff with SSSS OCs, the ones that I was developing for those stories set in Kajaani. And there is one... there's a new character; his name is Vesa. And he's going to be a bit challenging to write - mind you, Niko is challenging too, and I guess they're both difficult in similar-but-different ways. (To be honest, I don't want to say too much about Vesa, at the risk of being spoilery, haha. The most important things to know are that he's a troll hunter, and he and Niko know each other very well.) Anyway, there are two stories that I want to write with him, so I'll probably be starting the shorter of the two this weekend. We'll see where it goes. I'm still trying to get used to writing original characters in fanfiction; it feels weird to give myself "permission" for it.