So, I’m a sucker for lost boys. You know the kind – tough on the outside, vulnerable inside. Often left to their own devices without assistance from parental types, me against the world sort of lives and oh yeah, fictional.

It is such a giant cliché, but it totally works on me (see the name of my URL). For example, some of my favourite characters are: Harry Potter, Ryan Atwood, Chris Chambers, Jack Mercer, Lee Adama, Severus Snape, Nu!Trek Jim Kirk, everyone in The Outsiders – I could go on. It’s pathetic really, how totally predictable I am and how quickly I prefer this archetype. But I’ve learned to accept my quirks for what they are and embrace them.

And now I’ve added a few more to my list. Sam and Dean Winchester from the TV show Supernatural. This is my latest obsession. The premise of the show is that Sam and Dean are two brothers who hunt demons and other Bad Things. Lots of monsters and ghosts abound. But this is not what drew me in. What got me was the relationship between the brothers, the I-Will-Do-Anything-To-Protect-You attitude, particularly from older brother Dean. And if I have a thing for lost boys, throw a bunch of them together and make them brothers? Well, I’m done for (see again: The Outsiders, Four Brothers).

I’ve been feeding my new Supernatural obsession with the DVDs The show is currently in season five and I recently purchased Seasons 1-4 from eBay. I am bound and determined to get caught up by March 25th when the show returns from hiatus.

This stuff is my crack.  It is an illness, I swear, lol.

I came across this cartoon rather randomly – a friend of a friend had brought it into work to watch at lunch. I was told how funny it was and looked it up on Youtube, only to be kind of “meh” about it. But my friend then left me with the DVD for season one, and I have to say, it’s fantastic.

The Venture Brothers is the story of Dean and Hank Venture, their father, Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture, and their bodyguard Brock Samson (the most awesome character EVER!) as they fight evil doers, aliens, ghosts and…The Monarch. While a cartoon, it is a cartoon for adults. Kids could watch it, but any of the fun stuff and humour would easily fly over their heads.

In fact, much of the humour would fly over the heads of many adults.

It’s incredibly hilarious, and definitely one of my new favourites.

Some examples:

The Monarch: Release the butterflies.

(Mass of dead butterflies fall on Brock)

The Monarch: Okay, whose job was it to feed the butterflies?

************

University Administrator: It is difficult to hold the student’s attention during Dia De Los Muertos.

Dr. Venture: Oh, right. The crazy dead people Christmas you people celebrate. What, is that suppose to be today?

University Administrator: Ah, si.

Dr. Venture: Oh great. Fantastic of you to tell me that before I came all the way down here.

<snip>

University Administrator: Ah, the monarch butterfly. They migrate here to Mexico this time of year. The Aztecs believe they were the spirits of the dead returning home.

Dean: Wow, but your full of helpful information, fella.

Hank: And how! Say, its not poisonous is it?

University Administrator: I… you’re kidding, right? No, it is not poisonous.

<snip>

Dr. Venture (squashing the butterfly): Horrible disease carrying thing.

Dean: But that might have been someone’s spirit, Pop.

Dr. Venture: All the more reason to get it the hell off me.

So I’ve discovered a new guilty pleasure. CBC premiered a new show about 3 weeks ago called The Border. The basic premise of the show is following around a group of “Immigration and Customs Security” employees. The show is focused on all of the decisions and consequences of national/border security.

So, this show is very fun for me to watch, based on working at CBSA. It’s really entertaining to watch a show that is based on your workplace, because you have an insider’s point of view. You know what they get right, what they get wrong, and when – like many times in The Border – things are clearly exaggerated to make them more exciting for TV.

I’ve got to admit that I’m not sure I’d be watching if I didn’t work for CBSA. That’s not a slight against the show, the fact is that TV has completely slipped off my radar in light of the Writer’s Strike. There were fabulous shows that I loved, that I honestly thought I’d be waiting on the edge of my seat for them to return. But it appears I have barely noticed. Heroes and House could be back on the air now and I would have *no* idea. So I doubt I’d be watching The Border if it wasn’t so patently aimed at me. I hope other people are watching though, because it really deserves to keep going. It’s an intelligent show, with good production values (rare for a Canadian show), and it just hits all the right notes.

I hate building webpages. So you’d think I’d stop changing my domain name, but yet that doesn’t seem to stop me.

But before I get into the whinging and complaining about code, the background/story behind the site and the domain. Because, of course, there is one.

In all the fic I write, most of the fic I read and a fair chunk of the tv and movies I love, there is a theme. I confess that I have a thing for the “little boy lost” story. See: Harry Potter, The OC, Stand by Me, Seaquest. The more orphaned the better, apparently. It’s wildly embarrassing for a 30 year old woman to get all emotional over themes like this, and I’m sure there’s some sort of psychological explanation for it, but I’d rather not think too hard about it. You love what you love. Embarrassing or not.

So. While I was reading Deathly Hallows I came across a line that just about killed me. It went like this:

Hogwarts was the first and best home he had known. He and Voldemort and Snape, the abandoned boys, had all found home here.

It kills me every time. Every. Time.

I was thinking about it after that, and it occured to me that that particular line “the abandoned boys” could so easily apply to all the characters I really love.

I thought about registering the domain for a while, but figured it would be taken. But yesterday I found a really good deal on hosting and registration AND the domain was available, so I grabbed it up.

But man the “site builder” that comes with the hosting package is pants. It’s completely useless. And I haven’t been able to find any free HTML editor yet. Well I did find one, used it, was happy and then discovered when it came time to publish that it could only be used to post to their company’s hosted sites. NOT something it says on the software download page at all.

Hours down the drain. Plus all the time it took to make the banner. I don’t know why I do this to myself. I’m distinctly not a techie. Ah well. Some skills you learn the hard way.

One of my most vivid memories in childhood was watching Little House on the Prairie every Sunday with my Mom and my sisters (for whatever reason I don’t remember my brother being there).

This episode (one of several) stuck with me. The girl who couldn’t walk like the others.

I don’t think they knew how much I noticed when I was little. I must have been less than 10. Maybe even less than 8. But this episode felt like home to me. When I was older I was sad to discover that children weren’t as accepting as Laura Ingalls and I couldn’t be fixed by adding wood to my boot.

It was a heavy blow.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEOoZlMTt0s]

CBC has played what may turn out to be a brilliant documentary this weekend in honour of Vimy Ridge.

The brilliant aspect of it is the fact that all the soldiers are played by their current day descendants.  I would give money to have the chance to fill my grandpa’s boots in WWII, so I can only image how cool this experience had to have been.

My birthday is the 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge.  They had a beautiful memorial last night where they projected the names of every Canadian who died at Vimy on the National War Memorial.

It was beautiful.

A new TV show I am watching as I post. I think I love it already based on this quote alone:

“There are a lot of negative stereotypes about the Irish. People think we’re a bunch of drunks and brawlers. Sometimes that makes you so mad that all you wanna do is get drunk and fight.”

Heh.

Battlestar Gallactica Season 3 gag reel. Way too great. Obviously the editors had fun with this one.

Fruits Basket

So upon reccomendation, and sight unseen, I ordered the full box set of an anime series called “Fruits Basket”. It’s weird, but awfully cool so far. The characters are pretty neat, although I’ve decided I love Shigure, hate Akito and haven’t yet decided about Yuki.

But what I can’t figure out why Akito is the head of the family when he’s only (16-19) and Shigure is 27? And why doesn’t Akito have an animal? Isn’t that the point? Beyond that, I love the fact that this website has the characters height, weight and blood type. BLOOD TYPE people.