redfiona99

Smackdown was mostly blah, despite the better efforts of Michael Cole. Apparently I missed Cody Rhodes.

About the only interesting thing (for values of interesting) is that with it being that time of year and Wrestlemania being in the air, it's normally when Kane's thoughts turn to doing horrible things to any passing cruiserweight. This year's cruiserweights are presently being protected by large, angry people so Kane has instead switched to muttering his creepy nothings to the Big Show. Kane being creepy always puts a smile on my face (that sentence sounds odder than intended).

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RL - I have another interview. I am v. excited.

I am slightly too excited for X-Men: First Class. I mean, I was excited when I heard who they cast as Xavier and Magneto, but I have just seen Beast's SFX and I am very, very excited indeed. Especially because they seem to have remembered the mutant politics. You can't do the X-men justice without the mutant politics.

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Knitting: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/redfiona99/img001.jpg A somewhat scaled down photo of my first quilt square as discussed previously. It's less lopsided in real life. Not included are the terribly written instructions, which have obviously been written by someone who knows how to knit without being checked by someone who doesn't know. The instructions for the design on top were absolutely unfollowable until I looked hard at the pictures and realised that they looked like a daisy stitch (have since been informed by Nan that the stitch is really called a chain stitch).

I shall see what next week's edition brings.

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Wrestling:

This week's 15 minutes of Smackdown saw me squeak over Drew McIntyre again. I can get behind evil with a heart of squish. And when I say that, if I were a cartoon, I'd get little red hearts for eyes every time he comes out.

Also, rather wierdly, I felt oddly protective of Cole when Booker T was yelling at him. Even while he's being evil, I want to yell 'stop picking on him, he's half your size.'

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Film Meme - Day 23 - Character You Relate To The Most

I am aware it says nothing good about me but hello, Geoffrey Plantagenet, count of Brittany from The Lion In Winter.

I felt it most strongly when I was a teenager (really, my horrible, suicidal teenage years, let us not do that again), but it's still there. I think it was that, almost uniquely in characters who feel alone and unloved in films, he doesn't act out by destroying himself, as normally happens, but by hurting everyone around him. Which makes far more sense (like I said, I am aware I do not come out of this looking good).

I think it was also the way he was, he'd channelled his hatred into being cleverer than everyone else, which was something I respected.

There was also the situation that he was in, where there were three people in his generation, all scrambling for the same thing, and the constant in-fighting and back-biting. My family, while fighting over less significant things than the crown of England and the Plantagenet lands, bears an uncanny resemblance to the dynamics in film, and trying to remember who'd told what lie to who and why took an awful lot of energy.

Even now, there's some of that fellow feeling still there, because you've got my eldest cousin, who is a far nicer person than anyone in the film, who fills in the roll of Richard, run away to escape the family, and then my boy cousin who, despite being older than me, often fills John's shoes to a T. And I'm just expected to be okay. Which I am normally, and now that I don't have raging hormones and school bullies to contend with I am relatively happy with life, but sometimes when I feel put upon, it's nice to have someone on screen who gets that, someone who responds the same way I do to the same kind of stimulus - the way you feel when you think that your feelings are being disregarded, not out of any extra malice, but because they're inconvenient to other people.

( The Other Days )

Featured a few of my favourite people, which is to say Jack Swagger and Vickie Guerrero. I could grow to liking Kofi Kingston very quickly though - due to the PhD I've missed most of his tenure in the WWE. I'm not sure about his SOS finisher though.

Remind me that in the whole Vickie 'n' Dolph Ziggler versus Edge thing, we're supposed to be cheering for Edge, because team cutesy evil are just more fun.

I'm kind of a bit bleh about how badly my wrestling fics are progressing, and how many of them are set in the way past. Part of the problem is that try as I might I cannot get back into wrestling.

I can't watch any WWE, not on a regular basis, and the one Smackdown I did see gave me something I would have enjoyed immensely back when I was a regular viewer (Kane, with a world title, yay!!) and yet it was causing almost zero response. I say almost zero, because it was Kane, with a title, and Paul Bearer and it's not my fault that that gives me a warm glow.

So, instead, I'm watching the occasional bit of TNA, which has decided that making sense is for other people. In the roughly 6 hours of TNA I have watched in the past two months, the only segment that caught my interest was the one with Angle and Jarrett where Tazz made the save, because you've got your good guy doing the right thing, despite no-one else coming out and doing anything about it (although, by the way, way to make your entire roster of good guys look like wimps twice in one show, TNA).

In many ways, that's part of the problem, of that trio, they were all world champions at least 10 years ago, where are all the shiny new people? I swear there used to be shiny new people in TNA. What happened to that?

~~~~

On to happier news, it pleases me that there is still one country in the world where, if you're the best swordsman in the country, you get shiny things. Like publicity shots. And, in the case of Aldo Montano, a deodorant ad campaign that verges on the obscene (in the good way).

However, since I can't find the ad, have a publicity still of Andrea Cassara



Why yes, my sport has the most attractive body shape ;)

And also swords, I recall giving extra points for swords before now.

I haven't been able to watch much wrestling while I've been at home. Mostly disjointed TNA which lends itself to thoughts such as Consequence Creed's music is exceptionally awesome, nothing in TNA makes any sense and why am I not inundated by Steiner/Williams fic? It has everything, cutesy nicknames and some fantastically kinky possibility. It's everything Nash/Shelley from last year was, only without the icky STDs. And then I realise I'm one of two people I know who even like Scott Steiner, and the other one doesn't do wrestle fic anymore.

I have stopped trying to have sensible thoughts when it comes to TNA. However, one sensible question re: the Motor City Machine Guns - why the masks?

I have, however, been able to see the following:

The Dirt Sheet on ECW. As I said before, I have no idea how or when, but the Miz and John Morrison have become the best thing on, quite regularly. The new year's resolutions in particular were amazing. I <3 them so much.

Smackdown - all of it ( Spoilers )

Raw - ( Only the bits they showed on Bottom Line )

Anyone who had 'she needs a refill' in the 'what's wrong with Red's mouth' sweepstake should go collect their money. A bloody deep refill that required antibiotics and if it goes again is going to require a root canal!

I appear to be losing weight. From all the wrong places. Damn you weight, will you shift from my stomach.

Appear to have lost a treasured pair of earrings. Must find replacements.

Watched Smackdown, and had two major complaints.

1) More an unevenness of the writing problem than anything, but we're supposed to believe that Michelle McCool is a good guy when she does nothing useful to help one of her friends out, while the uber-heel Vickie Guerrero (storyline-wise only, obvs) is willing to take a 619 for her 'snugglemuffin'. And yes, I'm sorry but the WWE just won with that one.

Also, if Hollywood is looking for a replacement for Nicholas Cage in Ghost Rider 2, may I suggest Chuck Palumbo? He does a fine line in insane.

The beat down did just go on for slightly too long.

2) Someone needs to either re-tool Coach's character, or change his patter, because the 'I'm cooler than you' lines to Cole do not work when coming from someone who is regularly shown to be even dweebier than Cole (I mock because I love in MC's case.)

Also, earrings!

First, a comment about TNA in general.

Dear people in charge, when WWE and their 3 second attention span have longer matches than you, and longer women's and cruiserweight matches at that, you have problems. And they are deep-rooted.

That being said, if you put more X-division matches on and actually start a decent women's division, I may forgive you.

( On to the spoilers )

On to non-spoilery TNA news 'The Voodoo Queen' Roxy Le Beau, long lost relative of Gambit or not, and is that a cross-over the world really needs never to see?

( Smackdown )

Smackdown was decent. Impact was a mess.

SD

- Some of the suplexes the Benoit did in his match were beautiful.
- Sylvain. Maybe not for long, but Sylvain.

ECW

- It disturbs me that when Dupree comes out and does his blatently heel spiel, that I know I'm supposed to boo and hiss at, I find myself nodding and agreeing. And that this nodding has nothing to do with it being Rene, heck even Cena could say it and I'd be nodding and agreeing.

- Long hair suits Dupree though, it makes him look slightly older and less fresh-faced.

- In following to that previous thought, damn me if Dupree isn't the only guy on any show that comes close to being as attractive as Sylvain.

- Interestingly, I think ECW had the best wrestling of the shows I've seen.

RAW

- Mickie James's punches are actually possibly worse than Lita's. This depresses me. Victoria getting a push, on the other hand, makes me very happy.

( spoilers )

This part is not a spoiler - King Booker is the best thing in the WWE. He's just so very good. It's the voice and everything.

I may have been put into a more receptive mood because I'd just been to Saints and saw them beat Hull to get through to the Grand Final.

Come on you Saints.

No real spoilers:

Cage match looked brutal, Jillian Hall jiggles in a pleasing manner.
I find the Gymini amusing as a concept even if I am annoyed at the result of their match against Super Crazy and Psicosis. Who's name I've probably mispelt, again.
The Great Kali seems awfully large, if completely unintelligible. One thing I don't get - Kali was a female Godess, the Great Kali is a very odd looking lady ;)

Angle v Orton was a good match.

Saw TNA Impact (timeline being 2 week before Lethal Lockdown 2006, and the last non-Thursday Impact) - again with the no major spoilers.

WTF has Alex Shelley done with his hair, and what is the purpose of his pre and post-match jiggling. He does not jiggle as pleasingly as Jillian Hall.

Scott Steiner is a big meanie, even if I find Simon Diamond's "late, got to be elsewhere" excuse to be out of there very, very funny. BTW - the random baseball thing, is there a reason?

I have no shame over marking out like woah over Sting. Especially not since Don West was doing it too. It was a good week for that kind of thing, because Red Hot Chilli Peppers were on Top of the Pops and one of the presenters looked so happy and glad to be able to see them play live. It warms the coccles of one's heart.

I probably had something else to say but it's mostly yay, Sting!