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Woo! The Powers That Be have made a second series of Dance Academy, the sometimes ridiculous but generally awesome show about teenagers studying ballet in Sydney. I've previously discussed it a little here and the new trailer is below:



Damn, that looks like some high-quality brain candy.

A lot of season 1 is available on YouTube and the episodes are uploaded in the usual places. Definitely give it a shot if you like dancing and well-handled teen issues (the gay storyline is particularly well done and actually kind of fresh).

1. I hate the new Firefox update. It's making a whole bunch of things not work properly.

2. Google Chrome is also being a jerk.

3. Internet Explorer is a thing and it exists on my computer because I bought it that way. I do not care to use it.

4. But I'm not downloading another browser because that just feels ridiculous.

5.
'The History of English in Ten Minutes' is funny and informative.

6. Since starting this entry and posting it I have gone shopping and bought a rug, eaten Chinese food, and watched several episodes of Parks and Rec with my mother (she's a fan!).

7. This is a recipe for home-made Churros that I might try tomorrow.

8. There was a kerfuffle on Tumblr and, apparently, Twitter this week when it appeared that the Oxford Style guide was dropping the Oxford comma, but this was just old and incomplete information making the rounds, so we can put down the pitchforks. It is reassuring to know that so many people care about correct punctuation, though.

Woah. Someone has uploaded The Baby-sitters Club TV show to YouTube so I've been indulging in a little late 80s/early 90s nostalgia. The acting! The theme song! And, best of all, the costumes! Kristy's turtle necks, Dawn's "California Casual" look, and Mary-Anne's frumpy duds are all as I remembered them, but Stacey isn't nearly stylish enough for her New York upbringing (stereotypes FTW!) and Claudia's outfits seem kind of restrained considering what she wore in the books. Check it:

Nobody, but nobody, dresses like Claudia. At least, nobody in our grade. (We used to have a friend, another member of the Baby-sitters Club, named Stacey McGill, who dressed kind of like Claudia. But Stacey moved back to New York, where she used to live. And anyway, trust me, Claudia is unique.) The best way to get this point across is to describe to you what Claudia was wearing at lunch that day. It was her vegetable blouse: an oversized white shirt with a green vegetable print all over it - cabbages and squashes and turnips and stuff. Under the blouse was a very short jean skirt, white stockings, green anklets over the stockings, and lavender sneakers, the kind boys usually wear, with a lot of rubber and big laces and the name of the manufacturer in huge letters on the sides. Wait, I'm not done. Claudia had pulled the hair on one side of her head back with a yellow clip that looked like a poodle. The hair on the other side of her head was hanging in her face. Attached to the one ear you could see was a plastic earring about the size of a jar lid. Awesome.

No joke, I would dress as Claudia Kishi for a costume party in a heartbeat. I kinda wish I hadn't sold my BSC books back in the day.

Since I last updated I have:

- Been in a car accident. I'm fine. My car is decidedly not. It is an ex-car. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. Don't have car accidents kids - the paperwork is a bitch.

- Watched 27 Dresses. What a crappy crappy movie. It made me want to punch every single woman who worked on it in the ovaries because crap like that does nothing to empower women.

Side note: how did Katherine Heigl not cut her hand on James Marsden's cheekbones when she slapped him? He could cut diamonds with those things.

- Enjoyed Rob Thomas' return to television. I quite like newCupid and I think it's got potential if they let Trevor and Claire spend more time together. So far they don't have anywhere near the chemistry of Piven and Marshall but I'm willing to give it time.

Party Down aka 'the great Veronica Mars reunion of '09' is pretty good too. It's not quite as funny as it could be but I like the characters a lot, especially Henry.

- Watched 17 episodes of Legend of the Seeker on YT in about three days. I am very charmed by this one. It's not great television by any means but it hits a lot of my buttons. One of the reasons I shy away from fantasy is the lack of self-determinism - it's all prophecy this, destiny that, and nobody ever has a choice and I think it's more interesting for someone to defeat evil not because they are supposed to but because they want to. Despite the prophecy stuff of Seeker Richard does choose to take on that role and he embraces it - he may want a normal life someday but he's not bitching about being the seeker 24/7 either. He seems to treat it more like an opportunity than a burden...

...Except when it comes to Kahlan. Whom I love. Lots. So awesome. Always fighting right by Richard's side in her impractical but pretty white dress and generally doing a better job of it (Richard is hamstrung by that trope of TV writing - the hero must take down the bad guy in a prolonged one-on-one fight. Kahlan, meanwhile, gets to take out the multitude of nameless minions). I love that she's complex without being dark and angsty (coughStarbuckcough).

( General shippy spoilers )

Does anyone else get massive Farscape vibes from this show? Partly, it's the plethora of Australian and New Zealand actors who give me whiplash, momentarily take me out of the story (Jay Laga'aia who plays Chace sometimes hosts Play School here in Australia. It's a kids show where they sing nursery rhymes, tell stories, and interact with a cast of plush toys). The armies of Darken Rahl (most obvious villain name ever y/y?), with their red/black colour scheme remind me of the Peacekeepers. The Mord'Sith look like they shop at Scorpius' House of Fashion and have read his book "Torturing your enemies: A guide to mind fuckery". And even Richard reminds me of Crichton, with their farm boy-iness and generally happy dispositions.

So yeah, Legend of the Seeker is Farscape + The Lord of the Rings.


Finally, below is the absolute best thing ever:






Participating in something like that would be awesome.