I know my British friends will probably just look at me like I'm insane, and I in no way say this as any kind of approval or dismissal of his actual performance as PM, but y'know?

I frequently feel really sorry for Gordon Brown.

It's probably just that he looks so pathetic, and he does all these dumb things, and rather humiliating things happen to and around him (probably mostly of his own making), and he fumbles around, and everyone around him is falling apart, too, and it's just quite embarrassing. So I feel sorry for him.

Come on, you have to admit he does look like a very sad bloodhound.
 

About ten days into Knowing I'm Allergic To Cats, and I can really tell the various changes I've made are working. I am no longer going through kleenexes like there's no tomorrow. I can breathe with ease most of the time and don't feel like my entire head is stuffed. I don't have inner ear weirdness, nausea, dizziness, etc., from being totally stuffed-up. Keeping the cats out of the bedroom (except Nuala at night) has been, I think, the biggest game-changer, that and the Nasonex.

The weather is hovering on the edge of turning nice, and this evening we got a bit of sun and warm weather after a day of drizzle and gloom. Tomorrow is Wolverine at last, next week is Star Trek for which I've become very excited, and soon after, Up. May will be a great movie month. Yay!

Anime Central is also next week -- I'm hoping that even though it's just started, the new Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood series will have spawned tie-ins and costuming. There hasn't been a really big new anime in a few years -- nothing like FMA or even Naruto as far as being the big thing everyone knows about -- so even a resurgence of an old favorite would be good to get the enthusiasm going.

I finally dragged my butt back to the gym this week (rather literally, for when one sits more than one does anything else, it is la patootie that demonstrates this to the world) and have gone three days in a row. I'm trying to change up my routine in several ways, and though it's only a couple of days in, I can already tell its making a difference. For one, I have more energy: I ran errands after my workout and then, after I got home and had supper, I did the dishes, did some laundry, changed the bedding (something I've been lacksadaisical about but which will now become an at-least weekly thing to keep any dander that does accumulate to a minimum), cleaned the bathroom, and took out the trash.

I recently finished reading the arc version of lisamantchev's sparkly wonderful Eyes Like Stars. I've had the privilege of reading several versions of this book while it was in-progress, and I think it's turned out simply wonderfully. And I still think it has one of the best first lines in the history of ever. I hope you've all pre-ordered it. 

Now to finish my semi-annual reread of A College of Magics (so much love), and then I'll likely start Laurie R. King's new Mary Russell novel, The Language of Bees -- in which they FINALLY get back to England! YAY!

I'm cold, and they're predicting snow again this weekend. It snowed last weekend. It melted off the next day, but still.

I had a space heater in the kitchen during the really cold days of winter because there was no heater in there and all the cold air just froze this end of the apartment, but I gave that back to my landlord too soon, and now I'm using my little baby space heater at my desk. This is akin to sitting in front of the fireplace. You're too warm on one side and too cold on the other.

I got my hair trimmed up and more highlights done in prep for Norwescon next week and the eyebrows done this last weekend. Cat sitting is arranged. Laundry is done... why does it still have to be a week until vacation starts?

Sometimes typos are annoying; sometimes they're funny. For instance, I just typed:

"Until Anise appeared as if from thin hair..."

"That's because it's about fun. I always believe that if there are six people in a room it's more enjoyable than if there's a hundred."

Big parties can be a certain kind of fun, but small groups of people relating to each other, relaxing, hanging out, talking, laughing, discussing -- that's real fun.

There's this website called Crackle that's doing original TV programming, and yesterday, a ten-part daily series called "Angel of Death" started. It's written by comics great Ed Brubaker and stars stuntwoman extraordinare Zoe Bell as an assassin whose life suddenly and violently takes a sharp left turn. Contains language, adult situations, and respectable levels of blood and gore, but two 8-minute episodes in, and so far, it's very good. By the end, it'll add up to a shortish film if all the episodes stay around the same length.

It is Tarentino-esque in a lot of ways but also not (less self-aware and ironic; it has more of a... sincere, I guess you'd say, gritty old-school 70s vibe). There are also some nice comics-style presentation tricks that I haven't really seen before in this context. It's cool.

I'm an enthusiast. I love things. I can also fall out of love with things, and then in my Mr. Darcy mode, my good opinion, once lost, is lost forever, but even then I usually feel more betrayed than disdainful.

I fully concur with Mr. Ebert's take on the Oscar snark (and with Kenneth Turan's take, excerpted in Mr. Ebert's article). If all you're capable of doing is ridiculing things which probably aren't your cup of tea to begin with, then what good are you?

Not much, kids. Not much.

I have retired from most blog-commenting (a la io9.com and its ilk) and similar venues because it's a tiresome sea of unclever, reflexive snark (someday, I WILL shoot someone who uses the phrase "jumped the shark." And no jury will convict me). All the people out there taking the uncreative, undiscriminating snarking path? They're boring. They're all very, very boring.

But the worst offence I find online and really anywhere is the "I didn't like it, ergo it is bad" approach to critiquing. This stance presumes that the person providing this egocentric opinion is the baseline for all experience. It presumes everything is All About Them.

This is a fundamental thing for anyone presuming to be a critic, and if they do not understand the difference between "I didn't like" and "it was bad" then they need to get out of the business. Things can be wonderful and just not anything the person viewing/reading likes. There is a great deal of stuff out there I don't like but which I can see merit in. There is also a lot of stuff I think is bad (but another thing that will get someone shot by me is using the phrase, "it didn't live up to the hype" as a criticism), but I generally can give reasons having nothing to do with my enjoyment levels as to why I think the thing in question is bad.

In summary, most snark is boring and thoughtless. It should at least be clever; it should also be used against worthy targets and not as buckshot sprayed at anything that moves.

If you can't say something nice, come sit by me, but if you can't say something clever, please leave the internet.

Actual headline from actual news alert sent to me from the actual Chicago Tribune:

Joey 'the Clown' Lombardo sentenced to life

I spent a couple of hours tonight weeding out old and adding new icons. There will be a lot of old entries with my default smirk on them now. I love when that happens when there's some specific conversation about the icon in comments or even in the post itself. I also love old posts about new layouts of yore.

Oh, the odd little moments of the ephemeral world wide web.