(no subject)

Waaaaaaargh too much going on at work. Am irked at people whose prior lateness results in multiple emergency projects on my end, because if prior lateness had not occurred, said person would not be in screaming panic and breathing down my neck and yelling at me.

Waaaaaaargh slept in too much on weekends and now body is unaccustomed to work schedule. Must remember to stop doing this to self.

Happier notes: got several inches of tank top done. Think I have the hang of the blanket crochet pattern.

To the crocheters on my FL: anyone have a good general crochet technique book rec? I am thinking that I will be needing it soon, since I can sc, dc, sl st and ch, but not increase or decrease or do anything that will mean clothes making. And I like clothes.

Also have a ton of errands to run.
- must get new pants hemmed, ergo, must either drive out of the way to old place or figure out hours of new place
- must pick up Fitz-rat's prescription tomorrow and try hard not to feel like a horrible rat mom when I listen to him wheeze tonight
- must drop off glasses for lens replacement tomorrow. Should have done this last week, but annoying glasses place decided to go on vacation for a week after I got my eyes tested without any mention of a "By the way, if you don't get your frames to us by Friday, we will be out for an entire week." That would have been nice. Switching glasses places. Hopefully new prescription will get rid of lingering eye aches.

Waaaaaaaaargh, I wargh the wargh of stress.

Fullmetal Alchemist, ep. 11-14

I spam LJ because I need a break.

At least having bright red toenails makes things somewhat easier to bear. And must remember, am watching Batman tonight. Batman pretty. Fire bad.

Note: I watch episodes in chunks, so I am not too good at differentiating between episodes.

( Spoilers )

Batman Begins

I would just like to preface this by saying something about me and Batman. I used to watch the old Batman TV show when I was a kid (this was even before moving to Taiwan, so this was a long time ago!). Me and my sister used to play -- she got to be Batgirl, and I was the Batcycle and give her piggy back rides. Then I got my hands on The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, by which I mean, I borrowed it from someone and kept it so long that they forgot I had it. I read it over and over. I had no idea that those stories were the really old Batman stories from when the series had started, that the newest ones in there were probably from the seventies. Somehow when you read these things while young enough, you don't notice small details like forties-style clothing or strange slang. Anyhow, there was one story about Robin and how he got away from a trap using a golf ball and a golf shoe, and some other stuff, Batman's first encounter with Catwoman, several Joker stories (of course), some Penguin ones, and a ton I don't remember. The one that I remember most was the last one, one where Catwoman had retired and the Scarecrow had gotten to Batman, making everything he loved disappear.

Anyhow, obviously, I have a Thing for Catwoman. I am sure anyone who reads this LJ could have figured this out, along with the fact that a miniscule part of my brain watched the obligatory Batman-save-damsel-in-distress scene (I hope I'm not spoiling anything, heh) and wished for a lonely vigilante female superhero (solitary!) with a clueless childhood male friend puzzled by her sudden withdrawal. Le sigh.

So, Batman has always lived in my subconscious somehow, mostly because of the fact that anyone could be Batman. Well, recently a friend has dashed this illusion by mentioning only someone incredibly wealthy with an inordinate amount of free time could be Batman, but I liked the fact that he had no superpowers, that all of it was deduction, nifty gadgetry and the like. Also, I imprinted early. And I think I liked that Batman was scary, that there wasn't quite as much of a line dividing him from the other criminals, that he fashioned his costume specifically to strike fear.

Of course, like pretty much everyone else, I ended up reading Dark Knight Returns, which was the first time I had ever encountered a superhero deconstruction, and while it seems rather blase nowadays (even Pixar does it!), it rather blew my mind back then. Plus, I liked that Batman got old, because I think I was at the age where I started wondering why all the babysitters in Babysitters' Club and the Wakefield Twins and all those people never got older. I'd read any graphic novels I could get my hands on, being in Taiwan and all. I still remember when I found out not only was Dick Grayson not Robin anymore, but that the current Robin was actually Robin number three. Shock and heart attack. Amazingly, things in the Batverse actually changed, who woulda thunk.

Anyhow, I went into all this just to say that I am really rather enamoured of Batman and was quite excited about the movie because it looks like Frank Miller's Year One! Yay!

( Spoilers )