Strange Girl in a Strange Place. Part 1

“Diana!”. She felt a stillness she hid in the strange room. Felt the anticipation of getting caught but she didn’t worry much. She had found a good hiding spot. He had been looking for her a while now. “Diana, it’s Dad. You can come out now.” She was tempted to come out until she remembered he rules: Find a good hiding spot and stay there until her said the safe word.

She hid on top of a shelf, high enough that you couldn’t see her for a certain angle. Only problem was she could barely see out from there. She heard feet shuffling, then a loud thud before the silence continued on. Then finally, she heard her father voice again. “Come on out, Little Bit.” Diana smiled to herself and climbed down. She peeked out to see her father in the middle of the empty room. “Good spot, huh?”

Her father helped her climbed down and hugged her tightly. “It was a great spot, sweetie. I didn’t think I would find you by myself.” Diana looked around the dark room. It didn’t look like anything for her house but it felt familiar. She looked into her father’s face. Even with his dark complexion, she saw that he was covered in dust and dirt and his large brown eyes seemed anxious instead of relaxed as they usually did.

“Now, remember, Di, you always have to-” She woke with a shock. It didn’t make a different. She’s never heard the end of the sentences before but it always stung when she woke up. Diana open her eyes and remembered where she really was. She was in her room, surrounded by pictures, books and massive heaps of clothes. Though the ceiling fan seemed closer than usual.; probably because it was. “Oh, crap, not again!” Without warning, She collapsed into her bed faster and harder than expected, causing the bed to groan in protest. “Ow!” She agreed loudly. To add insult to literal injury, her alarm clock stared the awful truth at her. “I had 15 minutes left. Jerk!”. She slammed it aside, rolling over to seize a few moments of peace when she heard a voice calling her to breakfast. “Be right there, Mom!” She rolled out of bed. “Well, the hits just keep on coming, don’t they?”

As Diana came down the hall towards the kitchen, she passed by the usual pictures: pictures of past recitals, old family and past vacations. None of these pictures were new but there was one that always caused her to linger. It was one of her and her parents at a someone’s wedding, she was 9 and wore a green sundress with her hair in braids, her mother likewise in a sundress but a blue one and her father dressed in blue to match. The faces all smiled back at her as if someone had mentioned a special joke only the three of them knew; she remembered the sun shining brightly and a warm breeze blowing. She smiled bittersweetly at the plaque directly below the picture, the one say “In memory of Robert Gallagher. Born May 9, 1964, Missing: August 17, 2006. Loving father, husband and friend.” She was 16 now and the pain reared it ugly head briefly and only occasionally. She sighed. “What was I supposed to remember, Dad?” she said, knowing the picture wouldn’t talk back. “What do you say, Kiddo?” Her mother yelled. “Nothing, Mom. Just talking to myself.”

Her mother was already sitting at the kitchen island with her breakfast made when she entered. “Coffee’s done.” “Aw, thank you! Had a rough night.” She turned her back toward her mother, getting her cup and bowl. “Really?” Her mother said, “What happened?”

Diana braced herself involuntarily. She had to figure out a story fast; one that wasn’t a lie but just didn’t highlight the whole truth. “Um, crazy dreams again. Nothing new.” Diana started to pour her coffee. “Nothing new? Not even screaming and crashing into your bed so hard that I thought that you’d fall into the basement? Hmm.” Diana turned to her mother, who was smiling at her from above her coffee cup.

There was a lot of things people loved about Mara Gallagher. Her clear eyes that saw through everything and everyone, the strength she exudes, her loyalty. Her lack of tact, however, was always a more acquired taste. Diana tried to laugh it off, putting on a wry smile and said “Crashing into the bed doesn’t count as something. I didn’t break the bed frame again so that’s gotta count for something.”

Mara gave her full attention to Diana. “What was the dream and how bad was it?” Diana sighed and decided to get settled in for the upcoming lecture. “It was the one with me hiding from Dad again and it wasn’t that bad. Honestly, I caught myself in time before I could have drifted into the ceiling fan and-”

“Whoa,” Mara interrupted with a start. “How close were you from the ceiling fan?”

“Um, not that close. Just about like a foot, foot and a half-

“Diana!”

“About 6 inches.” Diana blurted out, eyes closed with frustration. This wasn’t going as well as she‘d hoped.

She reopened her eyes to see Mara with the same expression, leaned forward on the countertop. “Di, your powers are progressing faster than we expected. 2 years ago, you couldn’t move a shoe more than 5 feet, now you’re floating in your sleep.” Mara stood up and walked over to Di. “Kiddo…I don’t have the training to teach you, not the way that you need it.” “What you’ve taught me has worked so far. Everything is fine.” They stood in the kitchen facing each other, silently mapping out their valid argument for the other. This wasn’t their first discussion about her gifts.

Before Diana started school, her parents sat her down and told her the truth: that instead of being immigrants from another country, they were actually from another planet named Einon. Her father always joked that they took the term “Illegal aliens” to a whole new level. They didn’t tell her a lot about the home world other than they left when Di was 3 to start a new life and that they met at an academy for gifted students.

They also warned her that as she got older, she would have an advance telekinesis, moving things with her mind and that they would help her control it. Di , however, was never sure when or where the “advance” part of her gift would kick in. In her experiences, it seemed like a misnomer, like the time when she broke 3 windows in the living (she has a cold) to accidentally lodging a toothbrush in a wall in the bathroom (she was aimed for the trashcan), to breaking her bed frame and a lava lamp (caused the same offending dream of she had that morning). Mara had shown Di some techniques to control the telekinesis but it didn’t as she truly needed. They both knew they would have to go back to Einon and it was only a matter of time.

Marvel Week!!!

Like some of you might know, I am a movie lover. Not quite a cinephile because a lot of movies that are called "Guilty Pleasures", I call "Household Classics" but a movie lover nonetheless. As my love of movies and love of sci-fi grew and prospered together, there was the great duo of movies and Stan Lee was present. As one of my past posts said, X-Men was the movie that turned me into a geek and with the recent influx of comic book movies (CBMs), Marvel has wormed even further into my good graces. On the darker side of that, they have taught me that no franchise is invulnerable to bad acting, directing and overall bad storytelling but I digress.

In the past 5 years, Marvel has decided to step up their game, in the past with the release of Iron Man movies and recently with the release of release of Thor, X-Men: First Class and the upcoming Captain America. My little heart could barely take all of the wonderful cornucopia and I decided to do a week where I would watch at least one Marvel movie all week and finish it with Captain America. I might post Sunday my thoughts and feelings about it all.

Movie stubs

Growing up, I didn't really go to the movie theater a lot. My famaily regularly raided the Blockbusters and just load up on movies or just randomly watch whatever was cable (which is why Hudson Hawk, Rock-A-Doodle and The Princess Bride are some of the most quoted movies in my family. Still, the movie theater just seemed like something to do on special occasions. Even now, I only go see the theaters if it's a movie I'm really excited about or if I'm going with a lot of friends.

I'm not sure if it because of the Special Level O' Fanciness or bragging rights of "I was there that night" , I started collecting my movie stubs over the year. A few are missing: My Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Star Trek 11 and Transformers 2 (though that possibility of me throwing out the last two are fairly high.) but it's okay. I have the memories and the studios still have my money.

Movies above: Men In Black 2, Return To Neverland, Wild Thornberries: The Movie, X-Men 2, Ocean's Twelve, Dodgeball, Serenity, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Longest Yard.

Movies above: Last Holiday, Mission Impossible 2 (Twice), Over The Hedge, Superman Returns, Casino Royale, Rocky Balboa, Iron Man (Twice in 24 hours because I missed the Nick Fury cameo)

Above: Spiderman 3, Fantastic Four, National Treasure 2, Transformers and Hairspray

Speed Racer (Twice. I love that movie), Iron Man again, Indiana Jones 4, The Dark Knight, Bolt, Bedtime Stories, TMNT

Above: Avatar, Iron Man 2, Jane Eyre, X-Men: First Class, Transformers 3, Jane Eyre again and Green Lantern.

As you see, I've saw a few movies more than once in the theater. I have an addictive personally at times. As for why I'm doing this, why not?

Period Dramas and Sci-fi - Not That Different

As I have stated before, I love period dramas. I'm not sure about the idea of people 300 years ago dealing with the same problems that we deal with now, the language or the costumes but I love it, have for years. Earlier this week, I had the idea that the line between period dramas and sci-fi movie and shows aren't that clear. I'm not saying that they're practially siblings, more like cousins. Here's the reasons why I feel this way:

1. Costumes.

Granted, the different between a 1840s dress and the Starfleet uniform are pretty vast but bear with me. They give us an idea of the times in which they lived, stark contrast between our lives and gives a feeling of another world, even if it is on Earth. It not only affect the audience but the actors as well. For example, Richard Armitage said that a darned button on his costume in the miniseries North & South helped him get into character by creating a backstory for it; Tom Hiddleston said the the hat he wore during Thor was uncomfortable and channeled his discomfort through out the movie and when Anthony Hopkins and Chris Hemworth saw each in their full armor onthe set of Thor, Hopkins said "God, there's no acting required here, is there?"
Sure, people might be able to talk the talk and walk the walk but can you do both in someone else's clothes? Very hard.

2. Same ole crap, different day.

 Once you take out the spaceships, alien planets and phasers, Star Trek is about ship full of explorers who depend on each to survive their expeditions to strange lands, Star Wars becomes a movie about a group of people who believe that they can change the world by one movement. Once you take away the horses and all the fanciful language, Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility becomes a coming of age tale for Elinor and Marianne, Wuthering Heights is now a simple story of the darker side of love, and A Midsummer Night's Dream is the last house party that 50% of the people there really can't remember. A genre is like a medium: no matter if it's animation, live action or victorian as long as the story is still preserved.

3. "Is that guy just in everything?!"
Mark Sheppard, Patrick Stewart, Harrison Ford, Clancy Brown, Hugh Jackman. One of the things that links these actors together is that they all have down at least 5 different sci-fi movies/tv show appearances about 15 different franchises (Warning: I merely glanced at their IMBD pages so please excuse me if I'm wrong). These aren't all the actor who could be called "Sci-Fi Actors"! There's tons more. On the other side, we've got Period Drama Actors: Alun Armstrong, Francesca Annis, Hayley Atwell, Helena Botham Carter. Between these 5, I counted about 35 different movies but I'm pretty sure that my math is off by a lot. After a while, it does kinda seem like they're recycling the same old actors for everything but they're really good actors.

So for those who just skimmed this whole thing and just want to the vague idea of it, here it is: Cool clothes,  plot lines that matters, great actors that are well known in the genres are not exclusive to only one genre and you should shouldn't look down on one if you prefer the other.

Who Scarf

I didn't start this with the idea of making a Dr. Who scarf  because, alas, I have never seen Dr. Who (I know, I know). I got the idea of hte scarf from a Korean drama where one of the lead characters had this ridiculously long scarf and I wanted one too. It wasn't until I was about 1/3 into it that I saw and accepted the Who-ness of it.

Jayne! The hat they call Jaaaaayyynnneee!!

I love a lot of things in the world: Baseball, BBC and Korean drama, chewing gum, kicking butt, etc. But it's always great combining 2 of your loves into an even awesomer package.

I fell in love with Firefly 8 years ago and later fell in love with knitting about a year and a half later but I didn't think about making my own Jayne hat until about 5 years ago when I rewatched Firefly. It took me FOREVER to finally make my own but it was worth it. It's one of my favorite hats and I wear it when I feel rebellious. Fly on, browncoat!!

A Eulogy Of Sorts

Today, we bid fairwell to a good friend of mine. As friend who worth has been more than I thought it would be, a friend whose great example would prove to be a guide post and introduced me to new people and new worlds. Yes, dear readers, we are here to say our final goodbye to...my 2000 X-Men VHS.

I was 8 when it was released. I had already loved Star Wars, dabbled in Batman, fudged my way through Star Trek (e.i. I know enough to have a conversation with true fans) but wasn't really into sci-fi. Then my older sisters saw it and told me and my mother about how good it was and how wonderfully they casted the characters and I was completely lost. "What's a mutant? Who's Magneto? Why are wolverines talk to a rogue?!" and other adorable clueless questions like those. The last superhero movie before 2000 was Batman And Robin but I was too young to remember what a colossal failure that it was.

Once X-Men was released on VHS, my family bought it and we all watched it together. I was hooked within the first 10 minutes and loved everything, including how fantastic Hugh Jackman looks in denim. I pretty much watched it everyday for about 2 months then my father gave me his X-Men trading cards he bought years earlier, thus leading me further on the path of Geekiness.

With the X-Men: First Class release fast-approaching, I decided that a reviewing of the 2000 classic was in order and was heartbrokened to find it not working. Despite my best efforts, it couldn't be revived

On May 8th, my VHS died at 10 years of age, leaving behind one ticked off geek (I really wanted to watch it!) and many friends.

We remember at this time that it is an older movie so it will be bit cheaper to upgrade it. Still, it doesn't take away the sting. Moment of silence! *Bowed head with fist in the air*

Reasons why I'm doing this

So I'm not really one for putting things out there on the internet, partially because I'm paranoid and don't trust poeple (no offense) and partially because I guess you all have better things to do than read what I have to say. Even in the age of Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, even as I type this, I'm coming up with other things I could do instead. That is until io9's observation deck.

For those who don't know, io9 is a website that posts all things sci-fi/fantasy with great geeky humor that isn't insulting and the Observation deck is one of the forums where people post tips, activites, random musings and where I'm known as geesejuggler. After the observation deck started (or as it's been christened, the O-Deck), some of the regular commenters decide to different things that other commenters could participate in together on different days of the week and hashtag them: #MusicMonday (where you upload songs that you've been listening to), #GameroomTuesday (to discuss video games), etc. Anyway, one of the hashtags is #ThursdayShortStory in which you write an original short story and post it either on the the itself or on your blog then post the link to the forum.

Still confused? Me too but just bear with me. I've been working on some story ideas and I decided to start a blog, post some of my stories on the forum so I can get some feedback on my writing skills (which level is about a -15) to improve in the future.

So that's it. Hopefully, you're a fast reader so as not to waste too much of your time.

Juggler out!