Finn and Rey's Cat Cantina and Pizza Parlor (The Fanfic Social Thread)

Anyone ready for tomorrow. I'm not.

 

I think I may have heard that first story before, but holy shavit!.

 

Nope. I've been on the verge of tears all day.

I used to play a similar game with my roommates and some other friends, but it was with premade cards. The first time we played none of us knew each other very well. I had a card that had a movie I'd seen, but under the timer, I completely blanked on the plot and it was the first round so no one had already used it.

The only thing I could think of was "black and white movie", to which my future roommate said, "Maltese Falcon". She was right, everyone just stared at us for quite some time. How she came to the correct answer from that clue, we will never know.

 

Maltese Falcon? Is that like the Millennium Falcon in a malt form?

 

No, it's a Humphrey Bogart film noir from 1941.
It's a good movie. A theater near where I used to live in Boston would do double features of old movies, I once saw that and The Big Sleep (I think).

While I love old movies, I learned I can't really do double features of them, I'm too much a product of my time. The slower pace of the movies means my attention span is pretty much gone by the end of one.

 

No. It's the stuff that dreams are made of.

 

I also hate having a short attention span.

 

I was just a baby when the first one went down, but the guy used to take my sister to the park (this was after the murder but before he got caught) and I think he may have babysat me a couple of times. He (and I think his brother or brothers) killed the guy that was abusing their sister and her kids - the police never found the body and all the brothers swore never to tell where it was so the family would never have closure. My parents had great sense when it came to babysitters.

The second story: the dude's mom died and a few days later his wife said he was going to divorce him. Cue mental breakdown that involved dousing the house with gas, police surrounding the house with guns, us being told to get ready to leave. It all worked out in the end - he ended up in a mental facility but his ex-wife still lives next door.

Haha! That is great. My roommate arranged it so that we would be on the same team due to my speech disability (I didn't know quite everyone). We ended up KILLING it (for "David Tennant" all she had to say was "SEXY!" -and this was the first round so we hadn't seen all the prompts yet, so we could use more than one word - and I got it). Our team won like 66 to 32.


Re: tomorrow: My roommates and I ordered sushi for dinner this evening and made "last supper" jokes (because we are still at the "fight it with comedy" stage).

I could go on a rant, but I won't. Just know you guys are not alone. I hope light will reign in these seemingly dark times and that hope will last the next four years.

 

You know that you really hate listening to singing when...

Spoiler

You are excitedly watching the Lego Batman trailer, Lego Joker says, "Stop him before he starts singing", and you immediately think, "Dammit, I cannot watch this movie."

PS. I'm not even on your side of the Atlantic, and I'm not ready for tomorrow.

I had a flashback earlier to when the US elected that actor from Breakfast With Bonzo - Ronald Reagan. He wasn't actually all that bad, from our viewpoint; but we didn't think, if the chimp didn't get a shot, that you guys could go any lower..

 

Sheesh whiskers, that's scary stuff!

Re: old movies, I love them. Every time I watch one I re-discover how much I like it when my brain doesn't have to process a gazillion things at a time and can take the time to appreciate the details. Which brings me to...

... in preparation for tomorrow (which is already today over here), Mr Chyn and I watched Doctor Strangelove last night. It made "tomorrow" much funnier and much more scary at the same time.

But seriously though, I think I'm ready or at least as ready as I can possibly be. My country elected a complete far-right loon in 2012. It was bad, very bad, but we survived it, despite us having zero checks on power here. The US has much stronger institutions and a more robust civil society than us, so you guys will survive it too Granted, Greece doesn't have nuclear weapons, but let's not think too much about that.

 

Yeah. Try sharing the longest land boarder with the country. The joke is over and dread has set in. Meanwhile we are currently dealing with our own version of Trump trying to gain leadership over our Conservative party. Look up Kevin O'Leary and you will want to cry (he makes Harper look good). People say he has no shot... but they also said that about Trump. If you hear millions Canadian of voices cry out in terror on May 27, you'll know why.

Canada, too, survived 10 years of a "far right" (at least by Canadian standards) prime minister, again, without the checks and balances that the US has. Again, granted Canada doesn't have the weight the US has on the world stage, but lets not think about that.

Overall, I think begrudging compliance with the march of time is what I'm feeling at this point. I feel like all the "oh he's probably going to be impeached"/"you know he will be (might as well put is at this hour) the oldest president" talk is just pie in the sky. Let's just get this over with.

 

According to our news, impeachment is a political process pushed through by Congress, not a law-related one. So with Republicans controlling the House(?), it is unlikely that Trump would be impeached.

If Democrats ever get control back, while he's in power, perhaps all bets will be off.

 

LOL! Love this.

I haven't seen the Maltese Falcon, I really need to put it on my Netflix list. What's that other one that is supposedly the height of filme noire? Double Indemnity? Thought it was a Phil Marlowe story. Casablanca though, yeah, got that memorized. Which reminds me, I've got to read that story of Raissa Baiard. Everyone talks about it, and today I could use a lift.

It depends. As long as he goes along with what they want and signs off on the bills they send him, I think he's safe no matter what he does. If he's caught doing something utterly egregious or obviously illegal (like Watergate), or if he starts kicking back against what the establishment wants, all bets are off (though that leaves us with Pence in charge).

I actually work in DC; it's all barricades right now. My office is closed today, mostly for crowd control issues. All the workers plus the tourists for the inauguration plus the protesters = gridlock and raised tempers. By closing the offices, things are little easier for the police & the National Guard. Really, anyone who wants to see the Inauguration is better off watching it on TV at home. It's warm, you can actually SEE something, there are snacks & clean bathrooms. I plan to take advantage of the extra day by tackling Mt. Laundry, since friends are coming in from out of town, & will be spending Sunday catching up with them. And cat time. His Majesty expects extra attention when I am home. Makes laundry-folding a little tricky, but one does not defy the King.

 

Emergency kitten (because some of us may need it right now):

 

Gosh, whiskers - that was scary. Glad your friend is OK!

And, Briannakin - I didn't hear that story, so do go on. As far as Proclaimers go, I like them, too, but when I can't get that song out of my head for three days in a row, it gets weird.

@Misstress_Renata - yes, you *should* absolutely read the whole Casablanca...IN SPACE! series. I recommend it.

Agi does not like Mike Pence's voice. He screamed and bleeted (yup, kakarikis bleet) all the way through his part of the ceremony. Once Pence was done, the screaming stopped. I...am not sure what's going on, but it was funny.

I finally made my pear cake. I made it rectangular and not quite even, because I couldn't bother with presentation. It's delicious and moist.

 

He's fine. Probably be telling us all about it tomorrow night at our weekly Pathfinder RPG game.

As for your bird's reaction to Pence, well, I think that describes a lot of us at the moment...

 

Chyntuck - Thanks for this.

I'm ... thinking it's too early to see exactly where things are going. I'm certainly not naive about the next 4 years; I think there are certain populations who should not be condemned for their concerns. Actions speak louder than words, and past actions, in certain cases, do not speak well of said actors.

But I want to have hope that, even if only out of cynical odds-playing for the future, people in power will put brakes on any egregious future actions. (I'd hope they'd act out of decency and compassion, but O. Kenobi's statement on greed and alliegances comes to mind.)

 

KITTAHS! SO ADORABLE!

DC simply sounds scary right now. My thoughts are with all you guys. Hopefully checks and balances will prevail. And, yeah, impeachment seems like a pretty far-fetched thing right now (but I think people should remember that he who shall not be named isn't exactly popular within his own party BUUUUT what do I know?).

Anyways. I have to start on some dreaded assignments. None of them I'm particularly looking forward to. I just have no motivation left. My roommate said she is going to look over my personal statement for my grad application later today, so after I do some revisions I'll be set to send it off. Which is scary.

Meanwhile, mother nature has decided that it's now April here.

 

I'd feel more hopeful if the entire Cabinet wasn't full of the same Wall Street CEOs who have been shutting down factories, sending jobs overseas, dodging taxes, cutting salaries, and doing everything they can to weaken the govt. so that they can make even more billions than they already have. I wish I could believe that a single one of them gave a darn about the average person. Potential Sec. of Education has no educational background, not a teacher & has never attended a public school, nor have her kids. Hard to have faith in that, or in the man who is appointing her.

There are still a few folks on the Hill who MIGHT hold the line. They are our only hope. For the next 2 years, anyway.

And the story about Ewok Poet's bird is a hoot!!

Enough. We need a new topic before I have to go back on Xanax: Woody Harrelson in the new Han Solo movie: good or bad? I'd have said NOOOOO, but I finally saw Hunger Games, and I think I could be on board. Depends what character he's playing.

Oh! And in the grocery store today I saw a magazine called Cosplay! What a different world this is in fandom! Back in the day, wearing a costume to a con made you an object of fun and pity. Now it's big business and even considered cool. I thought I put it in the cart to take home & read, but I grabbed the wrong one and by the time I got to the checkout stand I didn't feel like going back.

 

Mistress Renata: Agreed - let's look at happier topics.

I'm hopeful that Harrelson's performance will be good; I still wonder if he'll be Garris Shrike (which would be both a great callback to the EU, and possibly unsettling, given that Harrelson's a surprisingly good actor where villains are concerned, and that Shrike was a complete scumball).

 

I said this in a different situation last month, but my view on this has grown extreme since then: Xanax is bad, bad, bad. Can we not talk about it? I was given it as an anti-anxiotic and I had sleep paralysis from it, I saw swarms of bugs on the wall and I thought Agi opened his own cage and flew on my hand. Now it's listed next to penicillin in my file as something that I am absolutely and totally not allowed to take.

Seriously, if one really needs a benzo, some others have less risky side effects. Or none at all.

 

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It just turned me into a zombie. No interest in anything. I ended up on something different, and after a few years I was able to wean off of it altogether. I haven't had any panic attacks since then, which was the real reason I needed it. I do a lot of journaling and breathing exercises, which helps. I write the darkest thoughts in a journal, then after a few months I go back and re-read, then ritually burn them. Mostly, I've worked very hard to find other things to keep my mind busy (art, needlepoint, social activities and, oh yeah! Fanfiction!). The thing that helped the most was strengthening and broadening my circle of friends. They are able to bring me out of my own head.

 

Years....years? Eeek! I don't know how people do it, I begged to be taken off it after one week. On December 20th, I slept like a baby, by December 27th, I had almost persistent hallucinations and zombification. Fluoxetine every morning & bromazepam for a panic attack work like a charm for me. And my anxiety was/is of the "somebody sent me a message, they're going to tell me they will hate me forever" or "I'm one day late with work, so I will never get paid in my life and I will die in poverty and hunger" kind; and usually "solved" by sabotaging things so they don't happen and I can then lament over my failure.

Behavioral patterns are hard to change, but a good therapist is worth searching for and the patient needs to learn to trust them. I had people tell me that I was lying, that the thoughts, traits and ideas I describe sound like fiction, that "everything will be magically solved if I find somebody and marry them" and until I met somebody who listened and was quite intrigued by the idea of a highly intelligent person who is an underachiever, it was hell. I have a couple of symptoms that don't meet criteria for any PD (and I will ask to be tested for adult ADHD, because that's the only thing that could make some sense), and positive thinking as a phrase/idiom is kind of overrated...but everyone can benefit from relaxation exercises etc.

 

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