RivkaT

( random grab-bag of spoilersCollapse )

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Happy Saturday, everyone! Two stories, one sad, one sweet - we recommend to reading them in the order given!

Sam/Dean

Hard to Come By
sevenfists | Sam/Dean | R.
There are some things it's just not worth talking about.
Ow ow ow! Vivid, realistic and kind of nasty, but beautifully written, with a keen ear for the internal voice of the POV character.

Reality Dosing
laurificus | Sam/Dean | R. | Spoilers for 714.
Dean's laughter has made him greedy, made him recklessly desperate for all the necessary, hidden parts of his brother he hasn't seen in so long.
The affection between Sam and Dean shines through here, warm and happy and ... sparkly. Very nicely done, understated and delightful.

Elementary: I got to watch the first hour before I had to leave for work, which turned out to be a TERRIBLE IDEA because CLIFFHANGER. And then I had to avoid the internet until after I'd seen the second hour. THE HARDSHIPS OF MY LIFE. SIGH. ( Spoilers!Collapse )

Excellent first season!

*~*~*

Doctor Who: ( In which Moffat's excesses prove to be his undoing.Collapse )

*~*~*

I really like how The Borgias features Lucrezia in political settings: it puts her into scenes with men, most often of the ruling class (a class she is also in, by virtue of her family), who interact with her just as you'd imagine they'd interact with anyone who shared their class--politely, even deferentially--but, simultaneously, with a specific brand of condescension and/or outright vitriol that's provoked entirely by the fact that she's a woman. (See: the King of Naples's toast to her and her new husband's marriage in 3.05, and her chess game with the aspiring King of Naples in 3.07.) Lucrezia can be smooth and charming and intellectually equal to these men (or, frequently, superior to them), yet you can see their dismissal of her skimming through every word they speak to her.

I tell you what, it does wonders for making us sympathise with her predilection for poisons.

In other news: oh, Micheletto, your love life is tragic. Which, granted, puts him in good company on this show, but still.

*~*~*

I rewatched DaVinci's Inquest's 'Banging on the Wall' this week. (Thank you, Canadian Bravo, for syndicating this show at exactly the right hour for me to catch an episode before I go to bed.)

I wish this ep were available on YouTube so I could share it. The scene where DaVinci lets the father of the dead 8-year-old with heroin in her system know what happened to her without spelling it out explicitly--followed by his scene with drunken, obsessive Mr Steadman--is pretty much the epitome of Selfless Humanity In The Face Of Hardship. Dominic absolutely had his failings, but even when he was caught in a fit of malaise, he found both the time and the emotional energy to be there for people who were going through the worst experiences of their lives.

Besides which, this was part of the buildup to the whole Mick's Emotional Crisis storyline, which was extremely well done for a storyline that essentially boiled down to Manpain.

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Okay, I had a huge, huge salad from the salad bar for lunch today. Tons of fresh greens, some smoked turkey, a tiny bit of ranch dressing, and hummus. Etc. Man, it was good, snarfed the whole thing down.

So now I am somewhat ill. I have really, really bad diarrhea. Like, yeah, enough that at this point I've got blood going on along with everything else.

Could be the greens, lettuce, etc. Sometimes those steamroller right through me. I confess I have not had this happen nearly to this degree. So I'm growing a little concerned that there was some form of contamination on those greens.

Not sure yet, and it sure would be fast for this to be cross-contamination. I have a feeling it's just that my gut doesn't do so well with raw greens. But I'm a little concerned here. Also feeling really not so great. Drinking a lot of water and hoping for the best here.

But I LIKE salad. Grrr.

Orphan Black, 'Entangled Bank': ( ALISON. :D :D :DCollapse )

Next week, please! NEXT WEEK, PLS.

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Savory. Oatmeal.

Mind is blown. Cannot wait to try.

( FLAILCollapse )


( ETA: I just thought of something. Pure speculation, not an official spoiler.Collapse )

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So, I wrote this poem this morning, in about 50 minutes. I made a few minor changes when I got back from Iron Man 3 (WHICH IS AWESOME, SO AWESOME) and now I'm tossing it out here. *shrugs* I really do love writing poetry.


( happily never afterCollapse )

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tl;dr: If you're interested in and able to contribute to a scholarship fund to help worthy undocumented H.S. students attend college, please click on the International Dreamers fund and make a donation!

Longer version: You guys will know that I don't post a lot of personal stuff here, but you see, I have this sister. (I know! I'm full of surprises!) Anyway, I am posting because my sister is a completely awesome person (much better than me in almost every way.) (Those of you who know me, picture my sister as me if I were, like, incredibly laid back and played bass guitar in a surf band. I know, you can't picture it, but I got all the nervous energy and she got all the musical talent.)

Anyway, my sister teaches at the International School, which is currently trying to raise money for college scholarships for undocumented students. The International School is an amazing place that exclusively serves recent immigrants to NYC from, literally, all over the world: my sister has students from Yemen, from Senegal, from Haiti, Gabon, Tibet--they are so amazing that the NYT did an article on them and Angelina Jolie was so moved by the article that she apparently was looking to tell their story in a movie. My fantastic and incredibly chilled out baby sister is always reading thick tomes about the culture and history of all these different parts of the world so she can literally understand who her students are and where they're coming from. It's incredibly incredibly challenging teaching because many of these students have absolutely no education from their own countries and aren't literate in their native languages, but here they are in New York City and they're 14 and so into school they go. These teachers are CRAZY HEROES.

And sometimes teachers and students working together manage to overcome these amazing challenges and these students get into college, sometimes really selective colleges-- but here's something they can't overcome: because of federal restrictions, undocumented students aren't eligible for any financial aid. So after all this work, some of them can get into college but can't pay for it!

So if you're in a place to donate to charity, please consider the International Dreamers fund! It's a worthy cause! End of PSA!

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