the fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly

just read the x-men messiah complex trade paperback I borrowed from the library- and I really really like it. a lot of action and chasing around, and a few teams- it's a crossover after all- but somehow I still really like it. gg I think scott summers is really growing on me. it felt like half the graphic novel was focusing on his not-so-subtle leadership struggle with xavier- he won, by the way, cyclops is alpha dog now- and yeah he really is growing on me. I used to be extremely disinterested in bordering on disliking him, but not anymore. what's up with the whole hard choices thing for the x-men? there's never an everybody wins option. it makes for good stories, yes, but it seems a whole lot more stark when it comes to the x-men.

the killer part definitely was in the last few pages, when Scott was deciding whether or not to give the baby to Cable. the flashback page to when he himself had to give Cable up to Askani!Rachel, that was glorious: 1, 2, 3, 4. ♥ (Cable being Scott's son who went to the future to grow up because the present wasn't safe. And the mutant baby here being the first mutant baby born since 99% of the mutant population lost their powers, hence extremely important.)

oh, and the first 23 issues of astonishing x-men, which I'd never really sat down properly to read all at one shot before. this includes the danger arc and about half of the breakworld arc. I knew AXM was great, everyone (okay bangendedscoot and astonishing_xt) said so, but oh man nothing beats reading it myself. it's so great. there's impressive, massive character development which whedon specifically said he was focusing on, and there's also sufficient action going on. the art's really nice, but oh man possibly most impressive was how some parts were genuinely funny. I actually laughed out loud! the quips here and there scattered across the issues were nice touches, proper english-speaking kid!wolverine was hilarious, and the bit where everyone has a telepathic conversation to fool Ord was a killer.

here, have the six-page sequence in AXM 4 which more or less has no words but is totally a heartwrencher: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. (the backstory being, kitty and colossus were a couple before but then he sacrificed himself to save all of mutantkind. none of the x-men know he's alive, and they haven't seen him in a decade's worth of comics.)

man both these graphic novels are really good. I haven't actually bought any x-men graphic novels (which are the only ones I've ever bought) in a terribly long time- the last x-men comic I bought was Grant Morrison's Planet X and Here Comes Tomorrow arcs, issue by issue, because I was collecting every month and I couldn't wait for the trade paperback to come out. (this means I have that heartbreaking Jean death and gorgeous-White-Phoenix-fixing-things in paper! whoohoo.) I think it might be high time to get some ;)

I also want to read:
- UXM 475-486, ie the Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire. if only mostly for Havok :P I've read the first three issues of Kingbreaker, but still...want more Havok!

- The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, this one I want to read really really badly. I want to see Slym and Redd and young!Cable interaction! actually having a normal family life, as normal as X-Men go anyway.

Possibly chiefly I want to read more Scott and Jean interaction, now that we don't get it in canon anymore :P

this is a webcomic strip called The Abominable Charles Christopher. It "follows the adventures of a dim-witted yeti through a forest full of colourful animal characters".

it is the best (web)comic strip I have ever read.

this strip is incredible. phenomenal. awesome. you have to go and read it, from the start. the art for one thing is extremely good, but so is the general storyline, and all the characters. it sends chills down your spine, makes you laugh at times, kind of want to tear up (and actually do) at others. it's whimsical, and heartbreaking, and funny and oh my goodness just go read it! start at the first strip, though.

( :) )

from ambientlight, assuming you can't use your own drawings or photos-

- Post ten of any pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.
- NO CAPTIONS!!! It must be like we're speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.
- They must ALREADY be on your hard drive - no googling or flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you've saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.
- You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don't want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like.

( some of them have words, actually: )

this comic made me go OH NOOOOOOO and try not to cry:

there is something terrifying about the dam, how it seems to go down forever into an abyss:

having Jekyll & Hyde and Sweeney Todd songs playing in my head, right, makes me even more glad than usual that telepaths don't exist because then they'd think me a psychopath. I have listened to Confrontation so many times that I know it by heart (the fact that it rhymes helps).

this My Guests thing is a DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD. augh augh I can't decide which one I want more- to know who's visiting my livejournal, or for other people not to know when I visit their livejournals. this isn't fair!! if I could have my cake and eat it by getting a paid account I might actually do so lol.

I just got back from work not too long ago~ but for some reason I am feeling oddly happy. I suspect I actually do thrive on short deadlines and adrenaline rushes! two stories out tomorrow, whee.

also, this CRACKS ME UP:

YES. YES YES YES YES. I AGREE TOTALLY.

I suspect there may be subliminal messages in the Cookie Monster episode of Colbert, because I just watched it and am now sitting here at 245am, eating double-stuffed oreos and drinking chocolate milk. :D aaaah bliss and decadence. also, COOOOKIEEEE

I have one word to say, regarding the end of the A levels:


YATTA!

I found out something fantastic while out at Lido with Nyx yesterday- The Dark is Rising is being made into a movie and will be out this year.

and this is FANTASTIC NEWS because The Dark is Rising is possibly my favourite series of books EVER, and the poster looked gorgeous, and Disney and Walden are teaming up to do it again like they did Narnia, AND I LOVED NARNIA THE MOVIE TO BITS IT WAS PURE MAGIC, and I doubt they are going to screw this up because they did a great job of Narnia and the casting for this one looks FANTASTIC (characters on the poster looked like they do in my head, except maybe for Will but this movie!Will looks passible) and just right and aaaagh have I mentioned I LOVE THE DARK IS RISING?

Based on the acclaimed novel by Susan Cooper, THE DARK IS RISING is the first film adaptation of the author's acclaimed The Dark Is Rising Sequence. The film tells the story of Will Stanton, a young man who learns he is the last of a group of warriors who have dedicated their lives to fighting the forces of the Dark. Traveling back and forth through time, Will discovers a series of clues which lead him into a showdown with forces of unimaginable power. With the Dark once again rising, the future of the world rests in Will's hands.

aw come on doesn't that sound like my kind of thing? :D

( movie poster! )

please please please don't screw up my favourite books I will be devastated D: crosses fingers and hopes, hard.

(also, the golden compass looks cool too. :D but, y'know, pales in comparison due to my overwhelming interest in this one.)

emm and jenny!!! look look it's the pig cartoon we were watching during sec four chinese that I went absolutely crazy over!!!! omg so CUTE. haha I am so irrationally FOND OF THIS PIG. D: :D :D :D plus I saw it on the airport screens when we stopped over at hong kong during the vietnam trip last year and I went comPLETELY mad. jing yi and zhihong and sarah were all O____O at me because it was 1am and we were walking to the eating place in the airport and everyone (except for jing yi) was utterly deadbeat and so was I but I completely LIT UP and was way high at the sight of the pig. who is called McDull. YAY MCDULL

plus the CATBUS!!!!! in the previous entry, omg omg omg CATBUS. CAAAAAATBUS :D kekekeke.

I SWEAR this is all related to my childhood I know I have seen McDull around sometime in my distant past and as for catbus catbus CATBUS I saw it in P2 and I had no idea what was going on but I loved the catbus. YAY!

:D :D :D :D :D

so my internet's been down for two days but now it's back up, in the two days I went without it I headed to the library at night and borrowed six books and read two of them by afternoon the next day, time traveler's wife is absolute gorgeous love and I cried after I finished it, watched charlotte's web yesterday and blinked a lot because I felt really old but also it was nice reliving childhood (p4), I'm getting better. slightly.

class party later yay I am looking forward to it.

( books. :D )

"Hajime," she began, "the sad truth is that certain types of things can't go backward. Once they start going forward, no matter what you do, they can't go back the way they were. If even one little thing goes awry, then that's how it will stay forever."

South of the Border, West of the Sun, Haruki Murakami.