Inking kinda went wonky,
by me
Spoilers
#

http://espanolbot.deviantart.com/art/Batgirl-1-Reaction-136210834
http://espanolbot.deviantart.com/art/Another-reaction-to-Batgirl-1-136211226
http://espanolbot.deviantart.com/art/My-Opinion-of-Batgirl-1-and-2-137565454
http://espanolbot.deviantart.com/art/Batgirl-3-Reaction-140463065
http://espanolbot.deviantart.com/art/Batgirl-4-Reaction-143754890

The Good News: A new writer is taking over Green Arrow/Black Canary and doing a whole epic storyline centering around Ollie and Roy.

The Bad News: The new writer is the same one who did Blackest Night: Titans and it's spinning out of Justice League: Cry For Justice. There's also precious little said about what role Dinah will play in all of this.

The Hopeful News: In listing what he thinks are the best Green Arrow stories of all time, Krul goes out of his way NOT to mention Judd Winick.

Original Story

Interview With J.T. Krul

( Spoilers and a Scan Behind The Cut! )

The Final Verdict: It is too early to tell if this can be skipped but given that this issue ends with Diana flying off to a battle we already know the result of (See Blackest Night #5, True Believer!), it's a little anti-climactic. Scott's artwork is strong as ever, though, so you Secret Six fans might give this a look-see for that reason alone.

( Spoilers and a Scan Behind The Cut! )

The Final Verdict: Despite a big whopping spoiler for the end of Flash: Rebirth, a must read for any and all fans of The Rogues and The Flash. Just wait for Flash:Rebirth #6 before you open this one up.

Despite my misgivings, I've gotten through this week pretty well.

The first training session wasn't great as I ended up forgetting my umbrella at the library (where I hang out after work) and turned up a bit late after rushing back for it. I hate being late for things, it makes me anxious. Anyway. So I was anxious about that, and nervous about training, and uncertain of the skating conditions (we were skating outside on a mostly wet day on a concrete surface I'd never seen before, out in public). I was literally shaking, and the first thing they started with was a weaving pace line (skaters travelling in a line an arm's length apart, and you have to weave between them) which was too much and I had to ask to not do it.

The rest of the session was manageable, but not fantastic. One exercise was skating in a pack - everyone close together with all wheels on the ground (so you don't risk tripping others or yourself) and just getting used to moving in and around each other. I grabbed at people a few times (big derby no-no), and did end up falling.

Surprisingly I was not dead after the strength exercises, but I do need to work on body bridges and leg lifts, etc.

Wednesday was better, I turned up early and knew what the surface was like and so on so I was in a better frame of mind. I completed a weaving pace line! I chose to fall to my knees when it looked like I was going to crash and didn't take anyone else down with me! Triumph! And we did another attempt of pack skating (not so close this time, but still had to weave through people and sprint around the track to break through them again) - and it was so great! Obviously, trying to get through a pack when they're deliberately trying to stop you will be a different thing, but I had fun and felt positively gleeful when I got to sneak through gaps or hop over skates.

We also skated around the park on the bike tracks, and that was pretty fun even if my wheels were unhappy about the twigs. We scared a couple of dogs, with our wheels rumbling as we went by - one started barking and pulling on its leash, and another one actually bit one of the league girls (as opposed to use freshies) before training started because she was just rolling back and forth on her wheels. It was one of those small Schnauzer type dogs and I'd actually held out my hand to it and it had given it a polite sniff and tail wag before walking on (I hadn't put my skates on yet), seeing the other girl and biting her (I didn't see it, but I heard the growl/bark and her yell) up above her knee pad. So that was a big jump for a little dog... Luckily I don't think it broke skin, but still.

So there are problems with skating outside. :P We also had lots and lots of people staring at us as they went by, and a few even took photos! (One young boy actually walked right up to the chalk track we'd marked and pulled out a phone while we skated by, remaining for quite a while.) I'm assuming the league skaters are used to it by now since they didn't really react.

The next session is tomorrow night at the competition rink, which will be the first time I've ever skated there. Hopefully it'll be better for me as it's meant to be a grippier surface (apparently I have harder wheels which are less grippy which equals more speed, but coupled with not being a decent weight to push myself into the ground means I'm a lot more likely to slide out on turns, so I need more grip from somewhere).

Work is up and down. There was a finance meeting the other day and we all had to talk about what we were working on and so forth in order to plan for next year. I had a quiet freakout while everyone else could talk at length about their various complex projects (even the other new girl who started with me) and then managed to pull something out from somewhere about reconciliations and some work on compliance issues that my manager had given to me in passing. Anyway. I keep getting told I need to ask more questions and get myself involved, and I know I should, but I get easily frustrated when there's no structure to learning and get intimidated about interrupting people at their work so I rarely get round to it.

I did discover there's a cupcake bakery a few doors down from my work, however, and not only that but they have an awesome barista who can create latte art! Hooray for working in the city!

Audz let me know about this one: When Mikeyway and the motts were talking on twitter (yes, the motts have a twitter, oh the internet) about disgusting gyro posters, I sent Mikey a link to the Copyranter post on just that topic, because I am a font of random. And now the circle is complete, with Copyranter posting about Mikey retweeting my tweet of the Copyranter post. WHAT AN AGE WE LIVE IN.

I was sad and Erinna bought me a hat. It is tiny and has sequins on it. Audrey is out buying me some orange juice. I have had worse Friday nights.

In much more important news than my self-indulgence, COASTERCHILD DREW ME VAMPIRE PUCK AND KURT and so now the world is a better place, yep yep.

My phone is broken and my computer is ill. I may be slow in responding to comments and emails, and I most likely won't be on chat. If there's something I've forgotten to get back to you about, drop me another email.

Sorry, dudes.

Alternate: http://schmevil.dreamwidth.org/204825.html.

Thank you to everyone who's responded to my last post. I'll try to do personal replies when I'm feeling less fragile, but please know I'm touched by so many people offering their take on the situation. Y'all rock.

Frankly, I'm still miserable about the whole thing, and don't know yet how I'm going to be able to stay in a couple of my fandoms in the same way I was -- so much of my involvement and experience relied on the person who deleted me (the original person, that is -- a few others have also deleted me since), and they're so central that I suspect a lot of my other fannish relationships will be harder because of the disconnect.

On a pettier note, as I've expressed in the past, I find it hard to read stories by a writer if I know the writer dislikes me. And I really liked this author's writing. I hate that those memories are tarnished now. Mope.

ANYWAY. Like the subject line says, I'VE GOT MY HAPPY FACE ON TODAY, LES!! And if you don't know where that's from then I am sorry about your life.

Here is a picture of some boys in hats, because I love hats.



(Puck and Kurt: Post-Crisis Jason and Pre-Crisis Jason, y/y?)

There's a bunch of new stuff at the store. Gonna play around and make a bunch more on the weekend, I think. Despite everything, making jewelry still makes me happy.

Dear gamer portions of my flist: Dissidia. Should I play it? I've heard they screwed up Terra's character, and that doesn't exactly fill me with excitement, but, there is also Zidane to be had.

And now I want to play FF9, but that would require digging my PS2 out and hooking it up. Maybe I could get some rom action going.

While I'm on the subject of gaming, two guys in my Spanish class were actually doing that complaining-about-the-Wii-thing. "I mean, the Wii is fun, but ..." Yes, heaven forbid anyone have any fun while gaming. That should be punishable with prison time, amirite.

Tweaks and enhancements

• As a number of you reported, a service interruption impaired sending and receiving notifications for a couple of days. This was due to an avalanche of snowflake cookies. We've removed the free snowflake cookie and unclogged the pipeline. Timely notifications should resume shortly. Please note that there's a backlog in our queues, so you'll be getting earlier notifications first. For more details, check out this post at lj_maintenance.
• In anticipation of the new year, we've embarked on a self-improvement kick to boost our backend (pun semi-intended). This will allow us to offer you a holiday promotion in the next few weeks (yes, we're listening and working very hard to make it happen). We sincerely appreciate your continued patience and support.

Holiday vgifts are here!

We've added some fantastic new vgifts to help you spread holiday cheer. We also hope you'll honor AIDS Awareness Month by purchasing virtual red ribbons. Priced at $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to support the development and global distribution of an affordable HIV vaccine.

Introducing: LJLimericks

We cordially here do invite you
To craft a fine limerick. Might you?
Each week, a new theme,
Then a poll, that's our dream
Winner posted on news to delight you!

In honor of all the brilliant writers on LiveJournal, we've created a brand new community: ljlimericks! Each week, we'll enter a handful of limericks into a poll (which we'll tuck snugly under an LJ-Cut). The winning poem will be published in the following newsletter. In addition, the author will receive a virtual blue ribbon! If you have the time, come drop us a rhyme. Please keep the "Nantucket" stuff on the downlow, since this is a youth-friendly community. Our first prompt is: Insomnia in winter.

Photos of the week

We're back with more incredible images from our global photography community. Congratulations to sempre_marseeya, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our second lj_photophile poll.

We hate to squelch your creativity, but, as a courtesy to other users, please post only one photo at a time and keep the main photo no larger than 350x350 (so images display properly via mobile and on friends pages). You can link to a larger image and/or post photos under a cut. Just so you know, we select photos for the poll blindly, based on user comments and staff feedback. Please continue to vote, comment, and, of course, enjoy. You can check out the week in pictures and view more awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. Stay warm and safe out there!

There's a Christian metalcore band called Gwen Stacy.

I find this a little creepy.

And also am vaguely annoyed with words like "metalcore" and "tweecore". I guess this is the feeling other people get about smushed ship names.

Meanwhile I have a craving for Gwen/MJ/Felicia.

Now with added Linkara! ^^


NOTE: You're probably gonna have to watch the previous 44 episodes to understand what the heck's going on.

1. I did get my comics last week.

2. I haven't written any reviews because I also got Batman: Arkham Asylum last week and I've been too busy solving The Riddler's clues to write about last week's Knights of the Dinner Table.

3. I will get ONE review posted later today, unless the stomach virus I think I have makes it completely impossible for me to get out of the bathroom.

Rocked my lit final today. Oh yes. And I am FREE. Freeeee. Can has vacation!

( Comics this week. )

( Comics not this week. )

I muuuust have the Collector’s Edition of Star Trek online. DS9 UNIFORMS. UHN. I must make it so. When I get my next check. :| Whenever that will be. /grumbles ANYWAY. Anyone else planning on playing? None of my IRL friends are, so. :| I don’t want to play alooonnne.

I needed some cheering up. Kijikun was like, I'll write something - what should I write for you, bb? And I was like, crack fic, my love. With ducks. Then she was like, O.o. I'll try? Then I was like, it'd go like this...

And then I 2500 words of a story where God is a duck, and the angels of Supernatural frolick naked, (albeit in a totally platonic fashion), in a pond, and Michael is a duckling.

Should I finish and post this story?

Alternate: http://schmevil.dreamwidth.org/204484.html.