wow, gung ho is right. talk about emotional investment.

You know how there are people who are fans of Twilight? I didn't really like the story once I thought about it, but it was catchy while I was reading it. I didn't want to put it down. Even though I was more than a little appalled by the characters and the behavior and the situation.

Harry Potter was catchy like that too. Even though when you thought about it, there were gigantic gaping problems. Like 70% of the characters are male, like 10% of the incoming class with Harry were muggleborn--- and no one even thought to put together an official orientation? (Not to mention that it must have felt like Arizona citizens feel.) And like there really doesn't seem to be much rationale for Harry wanting to save the kinds of people who abused him as a child. ---- But despite all that, the first book was this magical experience where there was a brand new world, a world that exists to rescue abused children from their torturers. I, and seemingly the entire world, wanted that to be real. By the fourth book, I'd lost that wishing. Of course if it's a series, they have to pull in a bunch of nasty garbage. No one can ever create something nice without it being torn down by people who can only see artistic vision in the diseased and poisoned ideas of the world.

I watched 20.75 episodes of Veronica Mars in a short span of time. Before this I knew only that it had inspired rabid fans who were outraged that there were people who weren't gung-ho. I knew it was a show on Fox and it was about a blonde teenager. That was it. But it showed up on Netflix streaming, so I added it to the queue. When I started watching, I was interested by the first episode. By the time I'd watched the fifth one, I was hooked. The episode where Logan saves her captured my heart. I wanted that, right there, when an angry guy who blames a girl for a huge tragedy, steps up and is her hero when she honestly needed him. That's what I wanted to believe could be true.

I was so disappointed when the end of the very next episode has Veronica taking the word of a sleezebag that Logan's actually evil. She'd known he wasn't exactly a good guy. We'd seen that. We'd all seen it. But somehow he stepped up and was a man when it counted. Even with all the drama between them. Even though Logan was still hurting over lots of things. Logan's definitely damaged goods, but he was the hero. And she didn't believe in him. For Logan to have saved her, that was not just teenage-guy apathy to overcome. He actually hated Veronica. He'd actively hurt her in the first episode we saw. She knew he was a jerk. He overcame all of that. She'd known he was damaged in fundamental ways and he'd overcome that. And she didn't believe in him enough to even call and say she needed a bit of time.

I'm having a really hard time watching any more now.

( --might have spoilers and goes on for a while-- )

Measuring inches in cork.

My landsend catalog apparently was misprinted. It claimed there was a sale on jeans but the price isn't actually available.

I learned this because... duhn duhn duhn... I went down another pants size!

(Though I shall call Lands End on Monday and see if they can sort it. I'm sure they're open tonight, but a catalog misprint won't be something the all-night operators can do anything about.)

I can also wear rings that had been put away as "never going to be able to get that off without removing the finger."

Celebrations tonight include a glass of 1999 Viognier (Cosentino), which despite the wikipedia warnings is actually excellent this far aged. I like it better than chardonnay because of viognier's intense bouquet which is absent from most low-price chardonnay wines. It's hardly fair to compare hand-selected-by-the-vintner bought-on-vacation wine with $8 supermarket grog, but you know, I have to say, the vacation wine is vastly superior.

I didn't drink it with dinner because dinner was pasta with parmesan cheese and honestly cheese and wine are terrible together. The dairy and fat in the cheese mask the subtle tastes of the wine and the wine is usually sharp enough to make the cheese taste flat in comparison. I don't mind drinking two-buck-chuck with food. And I like paired wines at fancy restaurants. But excellent wine with homemade pasta makes the pasta taste like spagetti-Os and makes the wine taste like pickles.