You Know What? TSTL. It Bugs Me.

Twitter just doesn't have enough damned characters!  I need to express my feelings and thoughts, dammit!  Is it a full moon?  *goes to check*    Nope, not a full moon, so just things pissing me off.  *LOL*

Here we go...

The term TSTL aka Too Stupid To Live.  You see this term all over the place in discussions about romance novels of all sub genres - fantasy, PNR, suspense, urban fantasy etc...  Writers, reviewers and readers all use it ad nauseum and it's always used to talk about the heroine of the novel.  I have seen others try and use it in fandoms, media fandoms in talking about TV shows, but not that often, yet always talking about women.  So, you say, what's the problem?  So many of these romance heroines are dumb and shame on the authors for writing them that way and yadda yadda yadda but, all you people standing up for the rights of women, and denouncing the rape culture in our society, and calling out all the things that denigrate and insult and belittle women....  TOO STUPID TO LIVE???  What is THAT?   You're agreeing that women, if they make the wrong choices should die??

NO ONE is TSTL.  Really.  And in this case it only adds to the misogyny and all these women complaining about how women are being written... it's kind of hypocritical.   It's like... YAY for the strong, multi-faceted, smart portrayal of women, but those ones here?  TSTL.   Do you see the problem?   The less than clever, brave, well-rounded are not worthy of life.

I know it's a clever, catchy, pithy little phrase/acronym, but isn't it really just feeding the misogyny?

DWTS Musings and Meanderings

I have been thinking thoughts.  I know, scary, right?  Well, sometimes that's what happens in my head.  *LOL*  And sometimes there are more thoughts that will fit in a little 140 character window on Twitter.  So, setting aside a hefty, hefty bag of skepticism...

First off, as I said on Twitter last night, I think that since Season 10 of DWTS, when we had Evan Lysacek and Nicole Scherzinger and Erin Andrews 'battling' it out for the Mirror Ball Trophy, the producers have been demanding more and more and more of their celebrities, leading to injuries all over the place.   Currently, we have Danica's fractured rib, Meryl's broken toe and something with her wrist, Amy's spasming back and Candace's crippling performance anxiety.  If I'm not mistaken, James had a shoulder issue earlier this season.  The only one who seems to have escaped unscathed so far is Charlie - but then he had to shave his chest (SHAME!  SHAME!).   These people are not professional dancers, why do they need to be pushed so hard to perform more and more difficult stuff and end up hurting themselves?  Good TV?  I don't enjoy it.  And while I do know that my opinion is not the only one that counts, surely I can't be alone in this?

Then there's the ongoing "Why is Charlie getting hosed" discussion.  Well... I don't think he's getting hosed, folks.  At the beginning of the season, there was talk about how both Charlie and Meryl were going to have to make the transition from ice to wood - and this is after 17 years of 'dancing' on ice.  At first, it looked as if Charlie was the one adapting more quickly than Meryl, but right now, I think he's hit that last stumbling block to get over so that moving on the dance floor becomes almost as second nature as moving on the ice.  Last night, he looked to me like he was still expecting his feet to slide as they do on ice and was a little surprised when they didn't.  Meryl seems to have overcome that last hurdle.  Is it easier for her because she's the female?  Possibly.  All that hold, leading and stuff might make things easier for the lady of the couple.

And has anyone noticed that many of the things coming out of Sharna's mouth sound rather familiar?  I know the Maks fans will find them so.  And I don't say they're not warranted.  I love Sharna.  She has become my favourite of the ladies now that Anna isn't around.  I love her honesty, her brashness, her outspokenness... many of the same things I like about Maks, BTW.  But sometimes Maks has been known to hyperbolize where his partner was concerned, I think that Sharna might be as well.  And that's FINE!!  It's how they should be supporting their partner, shoring up confidence, letting their partner know that they have their back.  So, what does Sharna have to do?  Get Charlie out of his technical head for one thing.  Maks has been able to get emotion out of Meryl (something I thought no one would ever be able to do after watching her skate) but Sharna hasn't been able to get the same out of Charlie.  Charlie also has to stop focusing on the darned 10s.  He wants them way too badly.  It's blocking him from accessing his emotions, I think, and it makes him sound whiney.   When it comes down to it, right now, Meryl has made the transition from ice to wood and is the better dancer of the two.  That doesn't mean that Charlie is BAD by any means, he's just not as complete, IMHO.  And I also think that Charlie is STELLAR in a rom-com type of dance, but the intense stuff?  Not so much.  Again, it's the emotion thing.   Donald O'Connor instead of Gene Kelly in "Singing in the Rain", y'know?

(So now, the skeptic in me says, that the script will now focus on Charlie rising from the latest ashes as has been predetermined from Day One, but I am trying to quell it.  *LOL*)

Now, I don't know what magic Meryl has woven to gift us with this Maks.  I have long suspected that this is what lurked behind much of what we saw on DWTS over the years, when he's not shoehorned into playing Mr. Crankyass.  I just hope that TPTB aren't grooming Sharna for that role in the future.

And while I'm at it.  Damn, Bruno... coming on to James like he did last night.  Dirty Old Man much???   Just let a 58-year old man come on to a 23 year old young woman like he did and everyone would be horrified.  And rightly so.  This was equally as distasteful.  Every season he's got to step over that line at least once.  *sigh*

And let it be noted that I am not a fan of these big production numbers for the couple dances.  Even all the crowdede mucking about at the beginnings.  I'm starting to sound like Len now.  *LOL*   It makes my DWTS look like my SYTYCD and I don't want, need or appreciate that.   And it's funny... I've agreed with Len pretty much all along so far with his comments and scores.  Sometimes it's like he's the lone sane voice crying out in the wilderness.  *g*  (And that scares the bejeesus out of me!)  Oh, and let's not forget, Len was the one that gave Charlie the 10 in Disney Week despite the wandering cane.

Look, I'm no expert, but I know what I enjoy and one does not need to be an expert to 'feel' a dance.

Now, come on, aren't these two adorable??  :)

Goodreads Does Indeed Suck

I had been debating buying Book Collector, a book database program that's full of lovely bells and whistles and the most important thing, provides me my own copy of my collection of over 2600 books on my computer as well as cloud storage etc.. etc...    So, I went ahead and bought it.  

Now, two months ago, I opened an account (link in the sidebar if you're interested) at Booklikes for my book blogging and imported my collection from Goodreads.  Now I love Booklikes, but it's newish and growing and it doesn't have an export function yet, so... I used my Goodreads export to load up my Book Collector.  I sure wasn't going to add all 2600+ books one by one AGAIN!   Once was enough.  :)  

Anyway, in doing this, I have realised how Goodreads has totally fucked my books and shelves.  I had taken the time when originally adding my books into Goodreads, to find the proper ISBN numbers, the correct covers and editions etc...   Then Goodreads was bought by Amazon.  They "cleaned up" their database because no one using it had books any older than 10 years old, right?  *eyeroll*  Now I have ISBN numbers that don't match the books I own, covers have gone missing all over the place, even books have disappeared from shelves.  Add in their censoring of reviews and peoples shelves and all the other bullshit from the past 6 months, and I'm CONVINCED I did the right thing in moving to Booklikes and buying Book Collector.  

I have sorted the author names (you wouldn't believe the mess of the import) and now I 'm about to dive in and do covers and series.  It's going to be FABULOUS once I'm done.  :)

But DAMN, Goodreads used to be the PRIME way to catalogue books, but then Big Business got involved and it went into the shitter.  And it's made me so very pleased I don't own a Kindle.  :)   Now, if only the Kobo Aura HD will go on sale....  I'm due for an upgrade. 

 

You know what? Olivia Pope pisses me off.

And Shonda Rhimes disappoints me.

I enjoy the TV show, Scandal.  Shonda Rhimes has created a world full of intriguing and amazing characters in the most extreme situations and I love watching it.  That is, until I have to put up with the 'romance' of Olivia Pope and the Worst President Ever, Fitzgerald Grant.  It puts the whole intriguing and STRONG character of Olivia in question.  And she's the Main Character.  See... she's a smart, strong, intelligent, daring woman, but every time she gets around that jerk, she gets all dewy-eyed and weak in the knees.  Her hormones and her Great Passionate Love for this weak, weak man drive her to behave like some teenage Gidget and that makes me SO angry.

Where's the outrage from the feminists and the Women of Colour?  Shonda Rhimes has given us a TERRIFIC character in Olivia Pope and I suppose... I guess this thing with Fitz, how she always takes him back, how she always gives in to him in the end, how she always turns her power over to him, how she loves him best of everyone... is supposed to show us that she's not a robot?  That she's has feelings?  That she's not a tough bitch?  Well, SORRY.... it just shows me that she gives up all her power to a man.  Shows me that even this woman of strong character, great intelligence, fiiery passion for right and wrong... it shows me that it all pales when her hormones get tickled.  That's not romance... that's not a grand passion... that's not a man respecting a woman for her strengths and putting her first.  That's a man waving his dick and a woman spreading her legs.  "Show me!" indeed.  *snort*

IT PISSES ME OFF and Shonda Rhimes should know better.

In Which I Rant about Reading

When did we become such a society of non-risk takers?  Even worse, when did we stop allowing ourselves the pleasure of being surprised by our entertainment?  When did it become de rigeur to know everything about a book, movie, TV show before reading or watching it?   And I'm not talking about spoilers, folks.

Just look at the fervour with which people tried to suss out the details of the latest Star Trek movie.  The world was going to end if we didn't know which villain Benedict Cumberbatch was going to be portraying.  And really, did the knowing make the pain of the let down of that movie any easier?  And really, if you're reading spoilers etc.. about Scandal, then you're missing a HUGE treat when you watch the week's episode.

I read a lot.  I follow a lot of reader blogs and author blogs.  I use Twitter a lot to follow these folks too, because they're interesting and funny people for the most part.  I have come to realise that these days, part of marketing a book is to put half of it out there, all over the internet, in sample chapters or previews or teasers.  There's also a big deal about cover reveals (more on that later) and authors are interviewing all over about books that aren't even going to be out for months!  I mean seriously!  There is one series I read that the 4th book is just going to be out this week and the authors are interviewing about the following book!  And this is the norm these days, not the exception.

Don't people want to be surprised any more?  I don't want to know about what I'm going to be reading, that's no fun!  I don't want to lay down $$ for something I already know all about.  I do my best to avoid all these things, I don't read the interviews, I don't read reviews that come out before the book is available to the general public, I don't read reviews of books I know I want to purchase until after I've read the book!  And as for tweeting those little snippets of your book that was published months ago, the same snippets over and over and over again?  Well, I won't be buying that book.  Sorry, you've turned me off any interest I may have had.

There's just too much pre-release information out there in my opinion.  The surprise is gone.  The delight of discovering what your favourite author has done with your favourite character while you eagerly turn page after page long after you should have been asleep, is gone.  The anticipation of what you're going to see up on the big screen that will make you gasp or cry or laugh is gone.  It's all so damned SAFE these days.  I suppose it's a result of the internet age and ebooks and the rise of indie, small and self publishing, but, call me old-fashioned, I don't like it.

And as for covers!  Let me tell you.  A favourite book that I (and many others) term as a psycho-sexual thriller, that has SO much deep and violent shit in it... should NOT have a damned cover that looks like it's a new Harry Potter book!

You Know What?

You know what word I'm sick of.  Feels.  Not the verb, the noun.  It seems that people don't have feelings any more, or emotional reactions, nor do things touch them.  They have FEELS.  *eyeroll*    It always sounds so tweeny to me.  I can excuse it in a 12-year old girl, but adults, women and men, educated women and men - it just sounds DUMB.

It annoys me.

On a different note, I'm trying out a feed for this blog.  It's a silly blog, full of pics of pretty men, rants, thoughts, things that strike my fancy, and my fancy can be a very silly place sometimes.   So if you've followed a link on Twitter, welcome!  :)