kawherp: (Default)
I dragged myself to the gym tonight to do my physical therapy for my knees (Patellar femoral syndrome) and started with a brisk walk on the treadmill. I turned on the TV to distract myself, because I hate exercise with a passion. I don't get an endorphin rush. I don't feel better when I'm done. I start tired and grumpy; I end up tired, grumpy, and sweaty.

So there I am, trying to put my brain somewhere else, and Civil War is playing. I watch the scene where Tony tries to get Steve to sign by showing him the pens. All I felt was sad. Due to technical difficulties with the equipment, I had to move to a different treadmill, got myself set up, and watched Bucky respond to the trigger words. I was done. I changed the channel.

I adore Steve Rogers. I think Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, and the rest of the cast did a phenomenal job in their performances. I saw the movie in the theater and have not seen it since. I've put the first two cap movies on when I need a distraction from paperwork sorting or other Chores of Adulting. I've never done that with Civil War or the movies that followed.

I realized why. Civil War left us without hope. The team was broken. Bucky went back to cryo. Steve is floundering and lost. This is not a happy ending. I want happy endings. Infinity Wars continued this trend, and Endgame? Don't get me started.

I want my fiction to be better than real life. In the First Avenger, we see Steve lost and confused in this new world, but I don't see him without hope. At the end if Winter Solder, we see Bucky in the museum, starting to remember. Steve is going to search for him. He has a new friend (Sam). Steve has bonds with the team, including Natasha. There is hope that things are going to be better going forward.

Real life is damn hard. Bad things happen and we all die in the end. Happy endings are temporary at best, but special when we find them. My life is rich, and I'm content. But in my entertainment, I want more than a heavy dose of the same. I want to see my heroes go through hell, like I often do, and emerge triumphant, wiser, kinder, and stronger. I want them to emerge victorious and see them rewarded for doing the right thing because it often means doing the hard thing.

Civil War is a wet blanket of reality with flashy costumes. That's not entertaining to me. It's simply depressing. I can get that by reading the news.

In my head canon, these characters do better. I, the writer of their story, treat them better in the end. I put them though worse, but they emerge triumphant.

I'm not alone in this, based on so much of the fan fiction I read. Why can't the writers of canon understand that super hero movies come with this in the unwritten contract with fans? Put them though hell and show them overcoming the challenges.

Before today, I thought canon ended right before Infinity Wars. For me, I now realize it ends before that. This makes me sad.
kawherp: (Default)
Have you heard of the Be My Eyes App? Learn more here: https://www.bemyeyes.com

I got my first call tonight and burst into tears after I hung up. I don't cry. I don't get emotional. But the experience of helping a total stranger with a simple-with-sight task was incredible. I'll never know his name, his face, or even what country he lives in. Our paths crossed for less than 5 minutes, but he forever touched my life. All he wanted to know was what sort of chips were in the bag he was holding. Without eyesight, or a Braille label, he had no way to tell. It's a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but an inconvenience for him that I was able to resolve almost instantly. I was happy to do so. I'm not looking for thanks or recognition. I'm sharing this because I want others to feel this joy.

This is the true power of the internet. THIS is the sort of application I fully support. It's not about data mining (like Facebook) or manipulating my point of view. It's simply strangers making the world a better place, one call at a time. In person, we can hold a door open, smile a greeting, complement a young person on their superb manners, and pick up that random thing we noticed someone dropped. This application makes the same sort of positive interaction possible.

If you have the gift of good vision and clear speech, take a moment and download the application. Take a call. Spread the joy of making a stranger's day a little bit better.
kawherp: (Default)
This one is done. The second one is being a PITA as I try to get the back on and the ruffle to play nice on the corners. I am setting it aside for now as I'm sick of ripping out stitches.

I'm home alone today and enjoying the quiet immensely.  Does anyone know how to get rid of the Photoshop watermark? It never showed up on other images I've hosted there, so I don't know why this one has it.

AO3 Bingo

Jul. 29th, 2019 08:37 pm
kawherp: (Default)


Numbering the grid as such:
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20

This is what I have:
1. A fanworks challenge The Joy of Little Things by obsessivereader, Sealcat
2. A podfic under 30 minutes XXXXXXXX
3. A comment you left on a fanwork A Complicated Pact by SleepsWithCoyotes
4. A fan art based on another fanwork Left of Centaur by leveragehunters (Monkeygreen), littleblackfox (art)
5. A fanfic over 50,000 words long Roll On by jaxington


6. A meta work XXXXXXXX
7. A fanwork with one of your fav tropes On a Pale Horse by leveragehunters (Monkeygreen)
8. A creator with only one posted fanwork XXXXXXXX
9. A fanwork from a small fandom "Out Of The War Zone" by VJ Wurth and Narrelle Harris (not on AO3) and The Outrider Chronicles Book 1 by rayhne Which is. 
10. A canon-divergent fanwork The Settler by charlesdk

11. A photo manip XXXXXXXX
12. A character study fanwork The Station by krycekasks, Queerily_kai
13. FREE! A favorite fanwork Tales from the Tower anthology by NyxEtoile and OlivesAwl
14. A crossover fanwork Winter's Herald by leveragehunters (Monkeygreen)
15. A fanwork with a colour in the title Thin Blue Flame by jaxington


16. A podfic over 1 hour XXXXXXXX
17. A fanwork in progress The Howling Angels by sanctuary_for_all
18. A fanwork for when you're sad Sam and Steve's Infinite Playlist by debwalsh for OriginalCeenote
19. . A favorite additional tag What would I give by MostFacinorous.
20. A fan art comic XXXXXXXX

21. A fanwork for when you're happy Truth, Justice, and the Cheating Cheater Way by owlet
22. A fanvid XXXXXXXX
23. A 100-word drabble XXXXXXXX
24. A fanmix XXXXXXXX
25. A "classic" fanwork This, You Protect by owlet

What does this tell you? I'm a reader, first and foremost. I don't bother with drabbles much, and don't remember them when I do. I like fiction in written form that I can sink my teeth into. This is news to no one who knows me.
kawherp: (Default)
 Vacations are great. I just got back from a mini-vacation at my mom's house. From Friday afternoon until this afternoon (Monday) we were sewing. And talking. And laughing. Most of the projects are not done (her serger was acting up and much time was lost trying to get it to work properly). A lot of projects are still in progress, but I got one pillow finished before time ran out and I had to drive home to return to reality tomorrow. 
MCU character pillow with black ruffle
I had intended to only do one MCU pillow with the black ruffle but it looks so awesome, I might not use the planned red ruffle on them. Captain America will have the red ruffle, but those are only cut out... not finished. Since they are going to be on the couch together, I thought red for both would be best, but I'm not so sure any more! 
MCU character pillow with red ruffle laid around it.
The black was best for the-stand alone I plan to gift to a coworker who adores Groot. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. Even better was spending such a wonderful weekend with my Mom. I'm so thankful I had this time. The weekend was too short, but I feel recharged.
kawherp: (Default)
 The folks at JoAnn Fabrics saw me coming today. I am not sure what I’m going to do with the fabrics yet, but I’m leaning towards new Cap curtains and MCU character throw pillows for the ManCave downstairs. Bucky AND bearded Steve are on this fabric; how could I resist? Did I mention the fabric was 40% off? MCU fabrics
kawherp: (Default)
Despite Real Life doing her very best to stop me, I finally got another chapter to Roots and Anchors written, edited, and posted! https://archiveofourown.org/works/3641385 It's also on fanfic.net under the same username.

I had an outline for the last few scenes needed to finish this baby up. And then the Muse decided I was being silly. Sigh. The finish line just moved further away. Again.
 
kawherp: (Default)
 I have some thoughts on how to fix the biggest problems with Endgame, assuming we leave the Swiss cheese plot mostly intact.

Read more... )

Endgame

Apr. 27th, 2019 12:35 am
kawherp: (Default)

Just came from the theater and have finally quit crying.

 

The good: Excellent acting, especially when you consider people were being asked to act without context. Heaven forbid they see what a mess of a script they were working with. Music was solid, nice touch of Steve's theme. Special effects were amazing as always, though sometimes the camera jumped too much for me to follow what was happening. Hold the damn camera still so I can follow the action. The fight scenes in Winter Soldier suffered the same issues. We have tripods and the image stabilizer technology, people. Use them!



Spoilers below the cut.
 

 

Read more... )
kawherp: (Default)
SPOILER FREE POST There is an excellent post on Tumblr I think you should read. Don't worry. It doesn't have spoilers for Endgame. I'll wait. https://dontbeanassbutt.tumblr.com/post/184242375386/avengers-endgame-and-stakes-that-are-too-high

Welcome back. 

My reaction to that excellent post? This. So much this. I have read the plot line so I can decide if I want to even see this movie. I will NOT spoil it for others, as I respect your desire to be unspoiled. Two in my household are careful about avoiding spoilers, and two of us are finding out everything we can. We live in harmony because we respect each other’s spoiler choices. I will say that I hate having to seek out a plot in order to decide if i can bear to see the movie.

For realism, I can catch up on the news. All I have to do is log in to my computer and I can find out how many horrible things are happening to our planet and to human beings at the hands of other human beings. For my entertainment, I want to watch my heroes go through hell AND emerge triumphant. I want them to get happy endings. If I can’t have that in real life, than by God I will have it in my entertainment and in my imagination.

Because we are in an era of “heroes must be dark” and constantly “upping the stakes,” I have to do some research ahead of time to see if I can bear what’s coming to characters I have known and loved for ten years? I don’t like it.

I will say that I have some issues with the story telling aspects of this plot based on what I have read. The Russos say they put story first. I expect an air tight plot, not a Swiss cheese plot. If what I have read is accurate, I see some serious Swiss cheese happening. Is this rich fodder for fanfic to fix? Yes. Is this even remotely acceptable given the virtually unlimited funding this project had? No. I expect better. And I’m angry I have to even take these pre-movie-viewing measures to protect my heart.

I didn’t do that for the last How to Train your Dragon movie and while there were plenty of tears shed in the theater, it felt like a fitting, happy ending. I left satisfied that the story arc was complete, the main characters are in a good place, and all is right with the world. That’s what I want from Marvel, too. In the next few weeks, we’ll all be finding out if Marvel lived up to that potential… or fell short of the mark.
kawherp: (Default)
It's good to be back in proverbial writing saddle again. Real life interferes at times. That creates its own stress. I continue to work on stories in my head no matter what gets recorded in Scrivener. Even so, there are stages of life where that is the limit of my creative energy. I think of stirring a simmering pot of stew on the back burner of the stove. It's necessary, it takes time, and it's so hard to be patient when all I want to do is dive in and feast.

I finally posted a new chapter last night. I have actively been adding to what I have written down and have even outlined what I need to do to wrap up what I envisioned as a short story 3 years and 300,000+ words ago.

I have an entire sequel laid out, other plot bunnies to chase, an epic saga in another fandom I want to get back to.

Yet some days, I come home from work and binge read instead. It's all I can manage. Strange, how a hobby can product guilt.
kawherp: (Default)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/17428712

It's still in progress but is just lovely. The relationship between Steve and Bucky isn't the primary focus, but it's clearly present and solid. More, this is a story of two boys making friends with a woman and her son in an unexpected meeting. What comes from that friendship is the revelation that there are more forces at work in NYC than even Steve and Bucky are aware of. The original characters are three dimensional people I can easily envision living in an apartment building nearby.

I found it today on my lunch break and really fell in love with it. The author is a first time poster to AO3, so I'm hoping to send some readers her way and encourage her. We always need more good writers in fandom, so go give it some kudos if it agrees with your tastes.
kawherp: (Default)
The hand surgery is behind me and I'm pretty much back to normal function if not feeling. The dust of the holidays has mostly settled, though the tree still needs to be put back into storage. And all the totes of Christmas decorations need to be returned to the Scary Closet (real name) for another year. Elder Child is back at school, the Sibling doesn't need me hovering. The paperwork piles are looming and breeding in their box faster than dirty laundry in a closet. I have a to-do list a mile long and kilometers wide. Seriously, I could spend all weekend working like a dog and get a fourth of it done. Confession: that might be overly optimistic. The point remains that I have a crap ton of stuff do to and only 2 days of weekend for it all.

So I'm going to spend some time writing fanfic for me. I haven't written in ages and my Roots and Anchors story deserves my attention. I'm going to write some snail mail letters and send some emails.

I deserve to spend time feeding my soul and not just being a responsible adult.
kawherp: (Default)
I never posted much on tumblr, but read a lot of posts there. I am dismayed at recent corporate decisions there. So I'm slowly migrating over to a foreign land and struggling to figure things out here.
Page generated Jun. 10th, 2025 05:38 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios