faketales

My grandfather's dying and I might be getting laid off so I've decided to be delusional and focus entirely on the Mets' season starting on Thursday. I'm doing pretty okay with that, having managed to work up one of my hyper fits at work today while babbling about Johan Santana (now playing the role of my Jesus). Basically: reality? What reality?

And oh yeah, the Rangers clinched first place in the Eastern Conference.

1. "Hanky."

2. I love the way Hank says all the names.

3. Ryan and Step get so into it before Brad's name is called.

4. Brad sleeping.

5. Damn does Henrik look good. (This should surprise no one.)

6. "It's the count that's thought."

STUART HOLDEN IS A FLAWLESS HUMAN BEING. (So is Jimmy Conrad. And Alex Morgan. ♥ ♥ ♥)

Stuart Holden's face is turning purple. Below the carefully cultivated dark-blond hair with trademark frosted tips, which often gets him mistaken for '90s teenybopper Aaron Carter, his small features crunch up.

SO PERFECT.

Assuming you ignore his injury history :(

He races 70-year-olds in the pool! His mother dressed up like him for Halloween! He speaks fluent French!

( some hilarious videos here )

How do I cope with depression? By watching a frantic, messy, violent sport, of course. I need something to get me through the two weeks until the MLS season starts and the 38 days until the MLB season starts.

I can't stop watching this goal:



It's totally hilarious to get into a sport using fandom, since I'm learning about players through slash and picspams of who's hot. And the Staal family is already my kryptonite, because there is nothing I love more than siblings who play the same sport. (See: Kljestans, Valentins, Holdens, Rapinoes.)

Also, the world clearly needs a Generation Kill hockey AU in which Brad is always chirping guys with his wit and the other guys are too flustered to even realize they're being insulted half the time except for Ray, who just laughs and chirps back, leaving Brad first amazed and then attracted and soon they're fucking in the hallways in arenas. Right?

I've been majorly depressed lately, the kind where I spend all of my free time curled up in a blanket and can't fathom why I would want to do anything else, and I was going to post about that and how unfortunate it is that my computer and phone have both decided it's a good time to abandon me, and how of course my grandfather is in the hospital (again), and how I've started exercising because I know that's good for depression and it is embarrassing how out of shape I am, and how I can spend forever thinking about whether cleaning up after my sister's breakfast is progress or a step back, but instead I'm going to focus on the positive things that I love.

-Adele
-Jay DeMerit and Carlos Bocanegra
-It's almost Spring Training
-Juan Agudelo with a baby tiger
-Hope fucking Solo
-Six days!
-fun. especially this
-Sandy Alderson
-Amobi Okugo
-The Head and the Heart
-no, seriously, pitchers and catchers for the Mets officially report in six days and I look forward to nothing more than planning my evening around the five minutes of video clips from Port St. Lucie that the Mets' station will air every night
-I haven't cried in two days, which is definitely progress
-the Red Bulls are occasionally awesome about providing their athletes with cameras
-Josh Thole and Ike Davis are such eager beavers that they're in PSL already


This list looks far more impressive with the html coding. I'm going to pretend that I'm actually getting out of bed.

Things that suck:

-73 Dead Following Riot After Egyptian Soccer Match

-Ella Massar on Dan Borislow


And something that sucks, but nowhere near as much as everything else:

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley (This is winning awards? I really wanted to throw it across the room.)


Of course, even with all of this shit going on, today was the first day in weeks that I didn't want to cry. Yay me.

When does baseball season start again?

I'd like to take some time to talk about BOOKS. I have been reading a lot recently (of the 75 books I read in 2011 25 of them were in the last two months of the year) mainly due to a job where I can sit and read for ten hours a week. But this sudden increase of reading time means I have been forced out of my book comfort zone a bit or else I will run out of books. Last year I read 39 young adult books, far and away the most I read of anything. I like YA because they tend to be quick reads, and even if I'm not 100% thrilled I can push myself to finish them in another hour. Plus, YA authors are more interconnected and their recommendations lead me to other YA books.

Things I like to read about (fiction and nonfiction): queer people, strong friendships, nontraditional families that are kind of fucked up but incredibly loyal to one another, awesome female characters, psychopaths, wars, musicians, funny people, epic fantasy, and anything that's confusing and frustrating but fantastic at the same time and then you only love it more on each subsequent reread.

Only two of those things are ever dealbreakers, though. I can read whole books that feature none of those things, but if they've got no women (or just poor ones) and no queer people then I'm probably going to give up. YA is usually pretty good about the strong women and slightly less so about the queerness, but that's where the quick read helps. It's harder to get pissed off about something that takes only three hours. (Except for John Green, who is on notice, because Tiny Cooper isn't enough, sir.) Conversely, a book that is otherwise not interesting to me might end up on my to-read list because I read that it features queer and/or awesome female characters.

Awesome things I have read recently: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Patricia Highsmith, Rebecca, and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

Moral of the story: I currently have a dozen books on the floor next to my bed and it should occupy me for about two weeks but book recommendations are always welcome. Thank you!


Last night I was going to post about trying to write original fiction for the first time since NaNoWriMo and discovering that I can't do it because I suck, but I was too busy yelling at crushing on Carli Lloyd and yelling at Pia Sundhage to get Hope Solo off the pitch.

I've started watching Revenge via Hulu* and it's simultaneously awful and fun. So far I ship (or at least would read fic about):
( Read more... )

*I'm trying to be more... legitimate.