baby, be my mafia boss, I'll be your right-hand man

( so this was how this post started )

And then I realised that if I began that way the ENTIRE POST would be all about law and it was VERY VERY SCARY and there really, really is something else I would rather talk about.

Reborn Chapter 202
...oh, my God. Amano hasn't made me this happy since Chapter 187.

ohgod, world. You can keep your Hibari, I only have eyes for Spanner.

( no, wait, I have one 山本 comment )

so where was I - oh yes.
( YOU ARE MY UNFORGETTABLE FIRE )

also. while I'm on the topic.
Why did no one see fit to inform me that Graham Spectre (or Spektor) of Baccano
IS, BASICALLY, SPANNER -
AS A RAVING PSYCOPATH

Okay, fine: this is probably because not many people watched Baccano, to begin with, and Graham only turned up in Episodes 14 - 16, which were released on the DVDs, and therefore not part of the 1 - 13 arc that was Baccano proper. BUT STILL.
Listen, does this sound familiar?

wow image explosion in here, guys
( blond Mafia mechanic in a jumpsuit with a wrench )

( very very into the kidnapping of others )

Also when he really likes someone, he shows his love by telling them that THEY CAN USE HIS WAREHOUSE ANYTIME. He's like my visual Spanner until Spanner gets animated, but I don't know if Spanner will get animated as PRETTILY as Graham did.
( ... what the. )

This song goes out to my Opposing Counsel, because it perfectly describes one of the cases I've been on since last December:

First you say you won't, then you say you will.
You keep me hanging on, and we're not moving on
I"m standing still, Jenny, you got me on my knees
Jenny, it's killing me
The Click Five, Jenny

CAN WE GO TO TRIAL ALREADY

It's funny that I was talking to elvaron about just this situation, because today I had a major heart attack when the client called and wanted to talk to me because everyone else coincidentally wasn't in the country.

Also, today I recorded the most billable hours for any day I've worked so far, so this CALLS FOR A CELEBRATION!

Also the way I unwind after an entire day with law in my head is with a lot of pictures.

( altor discovery of capslock worthy proportions )

Incidentally, Altor is EVIL. EVIL. Just three hours with the Mukuro path and still uncompleted, mind you, and already taking the Gokudera path BREAKS MY HEART.

GOKUDERA MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER.

( SEE )

( plus random Hibari and other people )

( Giotto and his Mist Guardian )

( Tsuna + Mukuro )

Episode 78 (summary) of YGO is what I like to call the ultimate Jou-Yuugi moment of all time.

Here's why:

I could link you the HORRIFIC English dub of YGO Episode 78 (everything sounds better after you watch it, really), I'd rather link you: the much better-voiced and unedited sub.

Episode 78 1/3 | Episode 78 2/3 | Episode 78 3/3

( short summary of highlights )

And of course, would this be complete without the most frighteningly extensive YGO screencap post to ever hit this LJ?

WARNING: approximately 40 screencaps behind cut.
( the ultimate Jounouchi-Yuugi moment of all time )

( I can see forever )

( because little sisters kick ass. )

( you've protected what was important to us. )

( obviously no imagepost of this nature is complete without a BITCHSLAP!moment )

( you are my strength )

( wrapping it up ) for easy viewing

I wanted to make a Girls of Gurren Lagann post, but the truth is, I just wanted to make a post about Nia. And Nia and Simon. As someone who pretty much never has a main het pairing in any series, Simon/Nia took me completely by surprise, because I never expected to even care about it, and because of how much I came to love it.

When I see people going, "Nia is such a Mary Sue. Tragic past, falls in love with hero, etc." I just go, to quote Rossiu: "あなたは何もわかっていない".

It's not very nice, but I have a natural bias against female characters. The vast majority of them bore me to sleep. I probably put this down to me (a) not reading the right books, (b) being more interested in the guys, (c) female characters simply getting short shrift in terms of characterisation, most of the time.

But, Nia's different for me. Nia's special. And Simon/Nia is special because they meet each other at exactly the right time. Simon meets Nia exactly when he needs her the most, even if he doesn't realise it. She is exactly what he needs exactly when he needs it. She saves him, and then he saves her. And:
[for easy viewing]
( They look so perfect together. )
Spoilers for Gurren Lagann from Episode 8 to Episode 27
I left out the major ones, but there's still a fair bit here.

So Nia and Simon meet cute. "If you see a girl in a really big box, you've found your soulmate?" That's them.
(  'yami no hikari' really does work for this pairing. )

( you are my new beginning. )

( Nia = ADORABLE )

SEVEN YEARS LATER - POST TIMESKIP

( you're still you )

( the more things change, the more they stay the same )
Goodness, I have never made a post with so many screencaps of a female character and a straight pairing. I think I'm going to go and make sure I'm still me.

So! arrch and ultra_butterfly linked the Flash version of the new Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice game (alternative site). I must admit at this point that I keep very quiet whenever anyone gets extremely excited about Phoenix Wright, for, among other things, these reasons. But then I saw the links and I was, "Hey, Flash version! And it is true that I have never tried this game out, namely because I have never seen anything in it that would make me want to play it! But I really should give everything a try!" So!

WARNING:
1. Extensive screencapping (I make 26, guys)
2. Intrusive legal commentary and occasional YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG! SO WRONG!
3. Inappropriate interpretation :D :D :D
4. Completely gratuitious YGO parallels
(look, this time I didn't even have to try (again!)! They go on and on about a card game!)
5. Even MORE inappropriate Gurren Lagann references
(... I REALLY DID NOT HAVE TO TRY ON THIS ONE OKAY, the main character's name is JUSTICE, so if you believe in justice, you are believing in the Justice WHO BELIEVES IN YOU)

This is Ace Attorney: The Mock Trial version.

Fair warning: I did mock trials for the first two years I was in university, and in my third and last year, I judged them. You aren't quite going to get my usual sort of commentary here. I try to go easy on the law, and don't worry. I wasn't as negative about this game as I make myself out to be.
CUT FOR SPOILERS TOO
( justice isn't a game. )

( CUT FOR SPECTACULAR SPOILER (yeah, right, five minutes into a preview) )

( here come the YGO references )
And to be honest I got really bored around here. So that's all from me! But have fun playing!

Not only have I just discovered that all the letters necessary to spell the name "Bakura" exist in the word "Bankruptcy" (and that I can type the one while meaning to type the other), I have also recieved what possibly is the most HORRIFIC YGO-appropriate spam EVER (... oh, poor Malik). There is also a disturbingly appropriate icon for that in this post here. It also mentions Belgium, too! You are welcome to the original if you need it for nefarious purposes.

And did I mention that my exam papers are clearly all delayed-reaction Tales of the Abyss situations, because our Family Law papers set questions with litigants named Jade and Peony in two separate years, and then one of the papers I read today is about a Sync Inc. HA. Coincidentally one of our tutorials this year was about a company named Sinkproof.

Someone on playthedamncard linked me this MTV for Don Henley's "End of the Innocence". It's an absolutely beautiful black-and-white video that truly captures a moment in time. It was shot in 1989, but I still find it beautiful today. The lyrics, though, were eerily appropriate:

When "happily ever after" fails
And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers dwell on small details
Since daddy had to fly
[that's Family Law, obviously]

Armchair warriors often fail
And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers clean up all details
Since daddy had to lie
[That's corporate law and litigation]
And my instinctive reading of the chorus line, "Offer up your best defense" is obviously not what the songwriter intended, but it's still fun.

An extract from what I was reading today said, "Although arbitration as a method of settling disputes has been known and used for centuries" and made me think: ... what happened to wars? Trial by combat? (Speaking of which, champions used to be used for trial by combat. Now people use lawyers, and the fights are with words) How about card game battles, eh? They might generate more lively (though not necessarily more interesting, because really, arbitration can be very interesting!) reading!

Anyway, what next follows is chiefly for little_ribbon (but please help yourself to the songs!), because I happened to mention that Jesse Spencer (Chase from House) starred in a show named Uptown Girls, where he played a POP STAR named Neal Fox. He actually sang, too! jesse-spencer.org (I love this fansite) most delightfully has his songs up (lyrics here, should you like to sing along with the wombat). So as to save on their bandwidth (more Jesse pictures for everyone!), have Jesse Spencer's Uptown Girls songs! There are three of them:

1. Sheets of Egyptian Cotton
2. Night of Love
3. Molly Smiles

And because Sheets of Egyptian Cotton is perfect for YGO, have song lyrics!

Motionless raptures
Reveal the give and take
Become what's real
Leave only memories that we steal

Eyes passing glances for games
What time remembers seconds forget
XD Please bear in mind that Jesse Spencer is a professional actor, not a professional singer, so don't go expecting too much of his songs. They're deliberately written to be cheesy because he's meant to be a cheesy pop singer, so don't go expecting too much from the lyrics either. Just go in expecting them to be awful and you'll be gratified when they aren't actually that bad. *laughs* The chief attraction of these songs is that they're sung by Jesse Spencer in his POPSTAR ROLE. XD I like to imagine that this is what Chase did to earn his medical school fees when he was fighting with his Daddy. Also, have some pictures of Jesse in Uptown Girls! Or Chase the Pop Star!

( Ladies! Who is first! )

I've been meaning to make this post for over two weeks, so I really must do it now before the tidal wave of examinations takes me over and I never make it! M and I were talking about House during our dinner on the last day of course (because she watches it too! ♥) and we got onto the topic of House's date with Cameron, during Season 1. I emitted so many hearts and I meant to tell her which episode it was, and here it is!

I have totally mixed feelings for this episode: a lot of JOY, a lot of THIS IS ALL GONNA END IN TEARS, and the persistent feeling that I really have watched the wrong episodes, because this and the previous episodes totally made me a House/Cameron fan. Other than that I clearly ship House/Pretty People, I both think it wouldn't work out, and that she would be good for him if he would only let her in. But he's House, so that is never going to happen.

Cameron kind of makes me wince inside sometimes, because, as House says in this episode, she so badly wants to fix things that are broken. You'd think that by now she'd have realised that: (1) Some people don't want to be fixed, (2) Some people enjoy being broken.

Season 1 Episode 20: Love Hurts
( or, in other words, the episode that made me a TOTAL House/Cameron fan )

And because this post is so Cameron-centric, have this quote I really liked, about her:

People choose the paths that gain them the greatest rewards for the least amount of effort.
That's a law of nature, and you defied it. That's why I hired you.
You could've married rich, you could've been a model, you could've just shown up and people would've given you stuff - lots of stuff - but you didn't. You worked your stunning little ass off.

( would it upset you to think that you were hired for some genetic gift of beauty instead of some genetic gift of intelligence? )

Someone on the house_chase community is uploading H/C (hurt/comfort... no, of course it's House/Chase, what d'you think the community's for?) moments, and I saw the priceless moment in Season 1, Episode 15: Mob Rules where Chase gets bitch-slapped by the lawyer brother of a gay gangster patient. WAY to hit all the "Make aefallen Pay Attention" buttons all at once and in such a way as to give me whiplash from racing to see it happen.

I like to call it Chase's Wolfram Moment.

( in which slapping makes the world go 'round )

( The Difference Between Reality and That Other Sparkly Pretty Thing )

( On the Meaning of HOYAY )

I have discovered that if I really like a series, I tend to make a With Stupid icon out of it. This is probably because when I was young and impressionable, lacewood showed me a Hector -> Paris "I'm With Stupid" icon. And THAT WAS IT:



( and MORE STUPID! )

Hugh Laurie in Blackadder - as the Prince Regent, in Blackadder. I watched Blackadder long before House was a twinkle in Master Laurie's eye, and the Prince Regent always made me want to A) laugh hysterically, B) strangle him, C) wonder long and hard about how anyone could be that stupid, even on television. I really don't associate this character with House at all, but with Hugh Laurie.

And oh, was the Prince Regent fabulously gay, in every sense of the word.

Prince Regent (to Blackadder): "What can I do with a woman that I cannot do with you?"
Blackadder: "I cannot conceive."

Nathan: "What do you think you're doing, questioning a suspect in a hospital?
Any confession is coerced, she's sick -"

ILU NATHAN ♥
also. ( dear little brother, stop reading my mind, it freaks me out. )

See, I told little_ribbon a while ago that the reason I wasn't really following Heroes was that the plotlines are a little hard to follow. This, I now realise, wasn't completely true. It was simply that I didn't have a STRONG ENOUGH REASON to follow the plotlines FOR. I got into the show for Nathan and Peter, and I'm STILL in the show for Nathan and Peter.

I suppose I can totally blame this resurgence of Nathan/Peter love on my reading this post of manic_intent's, on Peter's Really Rather Curious Passport (Which also explains a lot). But because of that the old love for these two completely reawakened, and I ran off with GREAT JOY to discover EVERY Nathan and Peter moment that's been in Season 2 so far. WHICH IS AMAZING, CONSIDERING THAT:

SPOILERS FOR HEROES SEASON 2 BELOW
( Nathan's Shrine to Peter )

( where Peter is a girl and... really close... to Nathan. )

( Nathan and his boys )

( conquering Heroes, we GIVE YOU FLOWERS )

( Nathan and Peter fic recs )

Back when I was first introduced to House, my attention was drawn to this particular quote that still means a lot to me. I'd forgotten what it was but could remember the substance, and I've finally found it again here.

Wilson: You don't like yourself. But you do admire yourself. It's all you've got, so you cling to it. You're so afraid if you change, you'll lose what makes you special.
Being miserable doesn't make you better than anybody else, House.
It just makes you miserable.
Now it's here so that I'll always know where to find it when I want it again. If you need a dose of fluff after that, go here for a young!House and lost!baby!Chase comic and a fic along the same lines.

If you need visualisation help, here are ( baby!Chase and grown-up!Chase pictures. )

( small Jesse Spencer photospam )

While on the plane back from Shanghai, I watched Blades of Glory in English, French and Japanese. I obsess like a Jimmy MacElroy fanboy. ;)( Blissed-out Hector moment about the French and Japanese Blades dubs. )

Actual skating videos, because I am obsessed that way. The following videos show that ( What Real Skaters Do is sometimes Even Crazier than the stuff they make up in the movies. )

( Favourite Blades of Glory Interviews, Reviews and Links )

My favourite and most extensive Blades gallery is the outnow gallery (link is very un-dial-up friendly). Here are some of my favourite recently-discovered photographs (from there and elsewhere):

( We can do this, partner! )

If you've heard of the song The Bluest Eyes in Texas: with a little modification, I think this could be the song whose lyrics Chazz totally changed and sang drunkenly to Jimmy during the Night of A Thousand And One Messages. Probably just before his impassioned rendition of I miss you Jimmy, and I don't wanna miss a thing.

( The Bluest Eyes in Montreal )

( Not to mention the thousand and one songs titled 'Cold as Ice'. )

Skater RPS! Which goes to show that just when you think you've seen it all, fandom will never cease to surprise you.

Also, random link of the post: Jimmy in his Naruto outfit! ...Wait, does that make Chazz Sasuke?

Omi and julineci introduced me to this incredibly gorgeous fox-spirit series, which I fell in love with pretty much on sight, and upon being given permission to share this, decided I would waste no time in bringing this post to you.

The original text is Chinese, and the names absolutely refused to transliterate in a dignified manner. *wry smile* Though they are very beautiful in Chinese. My favourite is the fox-spirit, and his name is Snowball. Snowball, I ask you! How am I to translate such a name in any fashion which may be deemed dignified?! For the purposes of translation, Snowball is Yuki, and his seme his guardian spirit I named Seimei (with a nod to both Shounen Onmyouji and Loveless).

Series Title: 落雪成白 (Luo Xue Cheng Bai: literally translated, Falling Snow Turns White)
Author: 籽 兔 (the second word in there is "Rabbit"... it better be a pen name)
Characters: 雪球 (Snowball, "Yuki") ,洛之遥 [or is that 洛俗笙?]("Seimei"), 狐右 (the predatory redhead fox).
This appears to be the original novel, unless I'm very far wrong. Oh, it looks so badtouch.

( ... It's like Shounen Onmyoji meets Loveless, with gorgeous art! )

( and it has cute chibi art, too! )

( fairies, fox-spirits, and an introduction )

in which the main character switches between
( being an extremely cute fox and a very pretty boy )

caution: rough scanlation, shirtless moment:
( how do you effect a transformation of adorable fox to really hot guy? )

Man, it has been so long since I've done picspams with real human beings in them. ANYWAY! Today I'm going to do two: one for Justin Long, who plays Bruce Willis's uke sidekick in Die Hard 4.0: Live Free or Die Hard, and the next, for Avril Lavgine, for while I do loathe that girl and that intensely annoying and incredibly catchy Girlfriend song, she can look really, really good. And while I can discriminate on content, I am a sucker for people who look can look great.

And because I dislike Avril both personally and on principle, Justin Long goes first. I suppose it goes without saying, but:

THIS POST is VERY IMAGE-HEAVY and NOT DIAL-UP FRIENDLY.

If you take one lesson but one lesson away from Die Hard 4.0, it is this:

NO SPOILERS
( A good seme always protects his uke. NO MATTER WHAT. )

DIE HARD 4.0 SPOILERS START HERE
( Live Free Or DIE TRYING )

Justin Long: brief selection of photographs.
He's the guy who does the Mac VS PC ads. My heavens, now I see why people have been slashing those two.

NO SPOILERS

( When goofy, and geeky, is GREAT. )

This Avril picspam actually arose from my reading a newspaper recently and finding out that Avril Lavgine did fashion photoshoots. "Fashion photoshoots?" I repeated, not particularly politely. "What the hell kind of fashion house would hire her?" Obviously, the same kind of people who think that her music's "matured" in her latest album. Sorry, guys. I don't care how good the rest of her album is, the fact that a song like Girlfriend is on that damned album indicates that it isn't progress you're talking about, it's regression. But enough of my indignation, and on to her!

Avril, it turns out, can look amazingly good in photographs. This will come as a surprise to those of us who are used to her punk-rocker-chick/faux-goth look (this is a milder version of her normal look), but she looks fabulous in glamour photographs. This happened because the sibling was listening to one of her songs set to photographs of her, and I happened to see an utterly amazing photograph that made me go WAIT WAIT that is a BEAUTIFUL photograph WHERE CAN I SEE IT AGAIN? So, kicking it all off with the photograph that changed my mind:

( PRESENTING: Avril Lavigne as You've Never Seen Her Before! )

( gotta love wind machines. )

And for sheer WTF value and to break your brains maybe a little:
( every rocker grrrrl's gotta sell out sometime. )

Incidentally, sarah531 made a great Harry Osborn fanmix: I Will Make You Hurt.

Caught Pirates of the Caribbean 3 today with elvaron, lacewood, rukia, raynos, harajukufuuri, mushrooms, mainified, and the siblings. I haven't actually ever been in a movie where I had my ticket's worth guranteed before the movie started. The cinema screened this Balls of Fury (deathmatch Ping-Pong shtick) movie, and Masi Oka had a cameo. ♥ You could totally tell where the Heroes fans in the cinema were sitting because all of us went :D!!!!! simultaneously. SO GUYS I AM SORRY, Masi gets my love and gets posted uncut, because, man, way to get me hyped up before a movie, and also, his wide-eyed delirious enthusiasm is exactly the attitude I've got for Pirates! *grin*


Quick summary? All in all: GREAT STUFF: as anyasy says, leave common sense at the door and you'll enjoy this movie, STAY TIL AFTER THE CREDITS. Also, it's three hours long, so BE PREPARED.

SO. Was that long wait following the end of the second movie's WTF?! GIMME MY MONEY BACK ending worth it? I wasn't awaiting this movie with bated breath (every review I'd read panned it completely), and only people I knew who enjoyed it went in with absolutely no expectations. AND YET. I completely enjoyed this one.

Where do I start? *incredibly stupid grin* It isn't enough that I've been living in a city where every single Pirates poster's emblazoned with the words WELCOME TO SINGAPORE! (As rukia says, you'd half-expect a Singapore Tourism Promotion Board logo to pop up after Chow Yun Fat made that particular announcement). But man - this movie was so much fun, and I willingly and cheerfully ship every single pairing that this movie throws at me. ♥

Pirates' vision of Singapore is deeply hilarious, because they think Singapore's a combination of Louisanian bayou, imperial China, and incredibly criminally-developed fishing village. I LOVE YOU HOLLYWOOD! Also, desperately wanted Chow Yun Fat to attempt speaking Singlish to Keira Knightley after reading anyasy's review, however, went to theatre and discovered that Sao Feng actually quotes Cantonese love poetry to Elisabeth. If the translation was anything to go by it involved the spring wind, flowers, and other very Singaporean things.

WARNING: SPOILERS
( What I Wanted to Happen )

And what actually happened:
( Extensive Pirates of the Caribbean thoughts and lots of pictures. )

( Totally random things I loved about the movie. )

( totally random thing I wtf'ed over in the movie. all Beckett-related. )

Cannot contain self. Must spam Keanu Reeves photographs. Now. Apologies to everyone...

( so we all begin someplace )

( but you could not have been that young )

( photographs are the past in all its' unknowing )

( anything but the blatant proof was your lips touching mine in the photobooth )

( Johnny Goes to Law School )

( shirt. )

( talk to the hand )

( speak of the devil )

( and we let the present fall to past )

sidereal makes me ( happy like Keanu )

( where the ocean meets the sand )

( some kind of digital get down )

( you've got me helpless )

( I don't mind spending every day )

katherine_15, moonythestrals, and tinted_glass: Thank you. *hugs tightly* You've helped so much. *hugs again*

Have the Spider-man 2 DVD set. Also, can't stop screencapping.

( Got to love slow-motion. And different angles. )

( I can't remember seeing this in the movie )

( The way to go in RPS )

( the rest )

( I gave in. )

This means that when I get home, I'm going to threaten everyone with the Spider-man 2 DVD set.

ALSO. The particular HMV from which I bought this set was showing Spider-man 2 with subtitles on their wide-screen televisions. The screen was such that it displayed only the first line of dialogue for every shot. I stood there and almost died laughing when it showed me this:

( Every *night*, Harry? )

This is for nescienx:

Warning to all others: A great deal of James Franco and Tobey Maguire pictures follow.



( Can't Smile Without You )



( It's All About the Raindrops )

( Premiere Pictures. And some really OMG ones. )

( And what I meant to give you: )

( And icons. )