Further Distractions

Musical musing

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:02:12 GMT

So I was thinking about songs you play at your wedding (because my wedding is, holy crap, TOMORROW and we've had a last-minute signing song change because we realised 1:46 was not long enough) and I wondered: do any of you have songs you especially want to play at your wedding? If you are or have been married, did you play them?

Because there are lots of songs which I secretly think are romantic and sweet, but would die before playing at my wedding. In fact, that applies to most of the songs I think are romantic. Which has made choosing wedding music extremely difficult. Every song I think of, I then think "No, wait. It's all emotional. And embarrassing. I couldn't possibly be emotional and embarrassing at my wedding. That would be wrong."

Which may or may not give you some insight into my personality.

(For posterity: the song we are no longer playing is Bic Runga's When I See You Smile. Sorry, Bic, you should write longer songs. Or less depressing ones.)

T -4 days

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:30:08 GMT

In a change of pace, I am not posting to report some new wedding drama. By this point, everything is pretty much as ready as it's going to be. I've got the dress, we've had our last meeting with the celebrant, we've been to the venue, people are arriving on Thursday...at this point, I mostly just want to get to it so we can do this. In good news, the dress thing and the best woman thing seem to have been resolved successfully (new dress, best woman is scheduled to arrive on Friday sans partner but plus baby) and the celebrant let us vent for half an hour about everything, so we felt much better afterwards.

However, if I ever marry Mike again? We are totally eloping.

I also started my summer studentship today, which I think will be pretty successful; I like the guy who's supervising it, everyone was very nice, and the atmosphere seemed friendly. It's scheduled so I should be done with the lab stuff well before Christmas, which just leaves analysis and write-up. Of course, I'll also be job-hunting through January, and God knows how that's going to go. But I've got to get through summer first...

...and, also, holy crap, I'm getting married on Saturday.

CURSE YOU, CUTE AND FUZZY MARAUDERS.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:20:33 GMT

We have borders along our driveway with a few straggling plants and lots of dead leaves from the overhanging trees. Regularly - and by this I mean pretty much every night - something has been digging around in them and getting leaves and dirt on the drive, which is annoying because then we have to sweep it off and it looks messy and it's just a hassle. I'd been blaming the neighbourhood cats, or hedgehogs, or something of this nature. Turns out I was wrong:

You can see the evidence of their marauding at the top of the photo. They were pretty fearless, too - came all the way up the back to the garden and door, until I scared them off my newly-planted vegetable patch. Mike just managed to catch Tia before she really put the fear of Cat into them. If they dig up the vegetables, I might be inclined to let her have her way....

ALSO, I am officially done with university - at least the University of Canterbury! Cleared out my office and handed in my keys today. The three bound copies of my Honours project + PDF on CD (srsly. An entire CD for one half-meg PDF. I DON'T KNOW EITHER.) I don't get my marks in until the fourth of December, but apart from that, and the last two American uni apps, that's it - until and unless I start my PhD next August. It's a weird feeling; I've been a university student for five years. I have no idea how I'm going to handle not being one. (Of course, since Mike's doing his master's, I'm sure I'll be into uni often enough to see him - and that's going to be strange, too, visiting the place but not being part of it.)

Hmph.

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:01:57 GMT

I am highly unimpressed that my body has decided to pack it in and succumb to infection now, i.e., three weeks before Honours is due, five weeks before the wedding, at the point I most need to retain forward momentum. It was probably inevitable given that my supervisor, officemate, and partner have all been sick for the last week, but I was hoping by this point I'd escaped. And it's not quite enough illness to be bedridden, just enough to make me build up endless piles of tissues, max out the recommended daily dose of panadol, and have far more difficulty than I'd like concentrating.

OTOH: had first wedding dress fitting yesterday. I'm not sure whether to be happy or terrified.

...

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:36:44 GMT

I know Obama is the magic bringer of change and joy and happiness (and, no, seriously, he's at least vaguely liberal if you squint which is streets ahead of most of the US, and I have a lot of re) but - this? Really? Don't they normally wait until, e.g., people have been President for more than nine months?

Although apparently this means the Nobel committee are just as star-struck as the rest of the known world, which is...hilarious. And terrifying. And hilarious. And really quite terrifying.

Fairly exactly as bad as I had anticipated

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:48:18 GMT

I finally watched GI Joe last night, and I have three things to say.

1) I hope Christopher Eccleston got a very, very big paycheck, because I'm actually surprised he could say some of those lines with a straight face. The fake Scottish-isms were appalling.

1a) I would totally choose Christopher Eccleston over Channing Tatum (icky mind-control consent issues aside, obvs. And they were extremely icky.)

2) The explosions were pretty, at least, but...

3) ...sinking ice. SINKING. ICE. PLZ TO BE EXAMINING BASIC PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FROZEN WATER. I'll give you a plane catching up with a missile and developing nanotechnology on significantly less than New Zealand's annual Government budget and needing nanotech when you have the kind of kinetic weapons displayed, but. SINKING. ICE.

Reason #3574943 to like Obama

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:40:40 GMT

I'm not sure if I'm more amused by the attempt at en garde or the lightsaber, but it's all so very geekily adorable.

Whatever a cultural ambassador is, I need to look like one

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:24:46 GMT

So: in about half an hour I am leaving to get on a plane to go to Wellington to have THE MOST IMPORTANT INTERVIEW OF MY LIFE TO DATE. In which I have to give a three minute speech that I have not yet managed to give coherently in under, oooh, three minutes twenty.

Oh, hey, and then I get to go to a funeral. (Not like a huge thing, since it's a cousin who's had cancer for quite a while, but still. Funeral.)

Please let this all go well.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:31:34 GMT

Good news: have been shortlisted for scholarship to go study in US, get to go to Wellington for interview (and see family). Officemate was also shortlisted, thus avoiding extreme office awkwardness. Other good news: have interview-type thing for summer studentship at hospital med school tomorrow. Would very much like to be gainfully employed over summer using my degree, so this is good.

Bad news: have to summarise in three minutes what I want to study, why I want to study in the US, and how it fits my broader career aspirations. Also, hopes of going to US in any sort of financial comfort depend on getting scholarship, so will be nervous wreck. Also, exams begin next Monday, so interview is smack bang in the middle of them. Stress.

*flails*

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:09:03 GMT

Because the National government hasn't done quite enough to annoy me lately, they're now talking about rezoning conservation land to allow mining.

Just - please tell me the public isn't going to roll over on this, as well. Not after the referendum. I don't think I could take it.

facepalm

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:34:01 GMT

Frustration is: finding out that the posters you thought you'd had printed off safely on Friday afternoon both have major printing errors that mean they need to be re-done, only you have class all afternoon and one of them is due tomorrow morning at 10am, and yes, you can get them fixed, but it requires leaving behind the flash drive which has your Powerpoint presentation for this afternoon's class.

(Fine, yes, I should have checked them when I got them, but it was 3pm on a Friday afternoon, I was nipping out on a class coffee break to do it, and I had assumed that the people who design and print posters for a living might have bothered to check whether all four quadrants were printed at the same resolution. My mistake.)

Don't remember the last one

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:19:30 GMT

Since he's already kissed Mike McRoberts and felt up Karl Urban, I have only one wish for this telethon: I want to see John Campbell pash an All Black. Too much to ask, you reckon?

Subject to wishful thinking

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:38:41 GMT

I'm going to take a leaf out of labellementeuse's book and post a recipe, because I'd forgotten this one entirely until my mother had me cook it when I was up visiting, and it is just such an incredibly good way to use cabbage, which is otherwise one of those difficult vegetables - or I find it so.

This recipe is called Chinese pork and cabbage, but I will be flabbergasted if it has even the most passing resemblance to any form of Chinese cooking, and the pork thing is pretty negotiable. Therefore, the name is pretty much wishful thinking and...something. Never mind; it is tasty.

You will need (for four-five serves):
A whole cabbage. No, really. Not an enormous one, but a whole one nevertheless.
Two large onions
Two-three slices of bacon; say 100g? Less, maybe?
4-500g mince (pork is in the original, but beef is fine too)
Two-three cloves garlic
A teaspoon of thyme
Salt and pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees (Celsius, obviously.) Chop the onion, cabbage, bacon, and garlic. Put the cabbage on to steam while you do everything else. Fry the onion and garlic on low heat; when it's soft, add the bacon and cook for a little longer, then the mince. Once the mince is brown, take it off the heat and add the thyme, salt, and pepper. Layer the semi-steamed cabbage and the mince mixture in a lidded casserole dish (cabbage, mince stuff, cabbage, etc, until it's all used.) Cover it with baking paper, then put the lid on and bake in the oven for 1-1 1/2 hours. Serve with rice. You have never had such delicious cabbage, I promise.

(And, yeah, the deliciousness has a lot to do with the mince and bacon fat permeating the cabbage, so this isn't precisely a diet dish - though it will do a fair portion of your daily fruit and vegie intake, with all that cabbage and onion. But it's excellent winter nosh.)

Perspective

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 08:52:05 GMT

Random actors keep appearing in really unexpected places tonight. First I noticed Christopher Eccleston (or his clone, possibly) in the GI Joe trailer. Because random green goo eating the Eiffel Tower wasn't enough of a draw already (major world monuments being destroyed = me watching a movie, basically. Sad but true.) And now I'm watching a dramatisation of the Apollo 11 mission, and James Masters is playing Buzz Aldrin. That would throw me out of the story enough if I'd just watched Buffy; as it is, I have always had a minor hero-worship thing for Buzz Aldrin (Only actual scientist on the mission! Punched a moon denialist in the face! Co-wrote a quite decent sci-fi novel! Generally awesome!) so seeing him being played by Marsters is severely screwing with my head. Weeeeeird.

I bet you're so pleased with yourself.

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:08:52 GMT

Okay, this? This is not a great way to get revenge on your bank. This is being a dick to people who haven't done anything to you. Does this guy actually think the people who turned down his loan were put to any major difficulty because of this? No. No they weren't. The tellers were. And all the other people who wanted to take out money at that bank were. A whole lot of people who were uninvolved were dicked around. And the bank, dude, the bank is still not going to give you a loan. Because it didn't change anything about your credit status. And now you're whining on national TV about the temerity of the bank not having $200,000 in cash just because you wanted it then and there.

I hope it takes that guy a really long time to get the loan he wanted. A really, really long time.

Be reassured!

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:42:25 GMT

This is quite possibly the best press release of all time. Because this is an issue we should all be very concerned about. Go and be amused. And reassured. Er, maybe.

If you need further persuasion, it includes the quote "We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission."

Yeah, no.

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:04:48 GMT

Went to see Transformers last night and was...I'd say disappointed, but all the reviews pretty much led me to expect what I got, so. Given that I really loved the first one, this was pretty much a total fail - too long, too many ~~new marketing opportunities~~ extraneous characters, too many dumb jokes. The actually *interesting* characters from the first movie, which actually had a pretty big cast (not that you'd know it from the marketing) were shoved aside in favour of stupid jokes. Given that the writers are the same people who did both the first Transformers and Star Trek, which were both exceptionally well-written, something obviously got very screwed up somewhere along the line. I'd love to know where.

Also, I'm pretty sure they broke an unwritten rule of present-day sci-fi by not only namechecking but showing the current President. Yeah, I was annoyed at the cheap straw-man shots at his policies, but also it just felt wrong; if you're going along with the idea that the current President is in office in your movie, then you imply, but you don't show (unless you're making something historical, in which case their identity is part of the point.) That, and it'll date the movie like nothing else. Not that the cheap swine-flu crack didn't do that.

So, in summary: lots of explosions, not enough to distract from the bad. The trailer for Sherlock Holmes, however, looked awesome. Robert Downey Jr! Jude Law! Vampires! Explosions! Sherlock Holmes! It's all terribly wrong, and I don't care!

Question For The Day

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:49:56 GMT

One of the very few TV shows I *have* been watching recently is Coupling, a British show written by Steven Moffat (yes, the Doctor Who writer/new showrunner) which basically consists of six people sitting in a bar talking about their romantic and sex lives (usually more of the latter than the former.) It is possibly the best sitcom I have ever watched. Forget the possibly. It is. It's witty, well-acted (one of the male leads was Norrington in Pirates of the Caribbean - hah, that got your attention) and I can't drink tea while watching it because the odds I will spill boiling hot liquid on myself laughing are around 99%. Because Moffat wrote it, it's also packed with sci-fi references, which is the icing on the cake. It's a very delicious cake. Definitely chocolate. R-rated chocolate.

Now here's the thing: there was an American re-make, which bombed. I have heard reliably that in this re-make, they took out all the dirty jokes.

I don't get it.

There is no way it can be anything resembling the same show if the dirty jokes are gone. Like I said: it's six people sitting in a bar drinking and talking about their sex lives (and, yes, romance, but...mostly the sex part.) Remove the dirty jokes and you'd have six people sitting in a bar not talking. I'm serious. That would be the entire show. In which case I can understand why it bombed, but...why would you bother? Why would you bother remaking it for an American audience in the first place? Why?

So, anyway, that's my question for the day. Now, if you haven't seen this show, run, do not walk. Just make sure the kids are out of the room (on second thoughts, they won't get it, so don't worry too much) and you're not drinking any dangerous beverages while you watch. It'll be worth it.

almost as good as Meredith McKay

Fri, 22 May 2009 06:32:17 GMT

So I was doing research for my vaccine biofarming poster today, and noticed that I will be citing Spok (2008) on regulatory frameworks and Kirk (2004) on risk assessment.

This amuses me unduly.

:)

Thu, 21 May 2009 03:13:04 GMT

Things that make my day just that tiny bit more awesome: I can now find myself on Scopus.*

(I've been waiting for my article from the summer research thingy to actually get indexed and it finally has and yay. And yes, I am somewhat shallow. BUT STILL.)

*Scientific article database. Think of it as the really neat version of Googling yourself.

:(

Tue, 19 May 2009 06:05:43 GMT

This makes me extremely sad. I've been in and out of that store for years, and it was always incredibly friendly and interesting. Every time I go back to Wellington stuff keeps changing on me, but this is going to be a real bummer. (I will make sure to go and buy something from Buzzy Bee next time I am up there, to spite Borders. They deserve it.)

Also, went to see the new Star Trek last Friday, fiiiiiinally - and it was every bit as fantastic as every single person on my f-list has said it was. The opening sequence made me sob like a baby, and then the rest of it was win. It makes me want to go back and watch old!Trek, as I've never seen any - but then, given that I barely find time to watch anything these days, I likely won't. Still. I'll think about it. (Oh, yeah, and Kirk/Spock is also FTW. Sorry, new canon shipping, but you can't compete.)

headdesk

Sat, 09 May 2009 09:43:39 GMT

Someone please tell this guy that suggesting that the top tax rate be raised by *raising GST* is as good as jumping up on a tabletop and saying "Hi, we would like to steal from the poor to give to the rich, how does that work for you?" and I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE LOGIC THERE IS NONE.

(Yes, I know, it's not like it's official government policy (though I wouldn't put it past them) but it is just SO VERY DEEPLY DUMB.

< / rant of politics >

In the interests of full disclosure

Fri, 01 May 2009 09:11:31 GMT

So I have been doing much book re-reading lately (including the full Vorkosigan series - I'd actually managed to not read The Warrior's Apprentice, through a series of accidents, and was glad to finally get my hands on it). Among that re-reading has been the Night World series by L.J. Smith. No, you probably haven't heard of it. No, it doesn't *really* deserve to have been heard of; it's trashy supernatural YA romance, emphasis on the trashy and the romance, and I probably shouldn't be admitting having read them in public, let along re-read them. A time. Or two. Er. Um.

But, the thing is? I kind of remembered why I liked them.

So, in a spirit of full disclosure, and because it's Friday night and I'm having a drink and chilling out, I am going to give you:

1. No sparkling. In fact, most of the male vampire leads (in the lead at six out of nine male leads, supported by two humans and one shape-shifter) would laugh very hard if you mentioned sparkling. At least three of them would probably do you minor violence if you insisted that vampires sparkled. Possibly one of them would feel bad about that. Possibly. The female vampire leads would laugh *even harder*. And not feel bad about the violence. (If you're interested, the count for women is: two vampires, one shapeshifter, two witches, and four humans.)

2. Plot. There are nine books, but they aren't boiler-plate copies of each other; each has their own storyline and individual protagonists. Okay, they're not the most original plots in the world, but while the romance tends to be straight-forward (ish; one book actually ends with the female lead tossing the male lead out to go do some serious atonement before she'll consider settling down with him) the plot usually has a couple of twists, and there always *is* a plot, aside from the romance. Okay, the first one doesn't have so much of one, but the rest usually involve conflict above and beyond the protagonists. That's cool. There are actual fight scenes. The female protagonists are involved in them. The female protagonists do stuff that is not about the male protagonists, and vice versa. There is PLOT. I cannot emphasise this enough.

3. Continuity Is Your Friend: Minor characters in the earlier books get their turn as protagonists in the later books; earlier protagonists have one-page appearances or get mentions in the later books. The system of magic and "soulmate principle" that drives most of the plots (yes, yes, I know, it's THAT trashy) maintains its inner logic. It makes me happy.

4. No sparkling. It bears repeating. It really, really does.

5. Career women: While all the protagonists are girls of seventeen or eighteen, as befits the age group the books are aimed at, they all have distinguishing hobbies, interests, and goals which they keep doing, being interested in, and wanting even after they meet the Loves of Their Lives. Sometimes in *spite* of meeting the loves of their lives. Two, who respectively want to be an astronomer and a palaeontologist, clearly articulate that they want to go to university and have a career in their chosen field regardless of their romantic status. Another is thrilled to get an opportunity to go to university and find out what she wants to do. In this world, cute vampire boyfriend = a plus, but your own interests and hobbies = just as important, possibly more. Awesome.

6. Kickass women: Like I said above, the female protagonists have a very wide range of characters and personalities, but even the ones who aren't kickass vampire slayers (two out of nine) don't let anyone push them around, or learn not to over the course of the book; again, this *includes* their love interests in the not-letting-themselves-be-pushed-around. If *any* of the Night World female leads found themselves in Bella's position in, oh, any of the Twilight books, they'd have a hand in the denouement regardless of broken limbs. Or die trying. Several would probably pick themselves up and stab James. Several times, just for emphasis. They rarely need rescuing, and when they do, the male lead tends to be in just as much trouble as they are. Oh, and every book passes the Bechdel test with flying colours; often, making female friends is as much part of the journey for the heroines as the romance is.

7. Supporting cast: Unlike Bella, the Night World women have brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, and parents who support them, argue with them, come along with them, criticise their love interests (often accurately) and refuse to be ignored in favour of the big love story. Not so much with the parents, truth be told, since it's a YA book and parents get in the way of the teenagers taking the lead, but the friends, siblings, and extended family play a big part. Most of them don't get a great deal of screen time, but are nevertheless distinct characters. In several books, the search for a friend or sibling drives the plot. It's not all about Our Heroes, and they remember that, too.

8. So vampires and magic aren't exactly scientific, but science does make some appearances in these books, even with a clumsy but genuine attempt to make up a scientific reason why vampires might need to drink blood. Fine, yes, mostly it's just all magic and telepathy and what-not, but science is not entirely forgotten. There's even real bacterial names, and real galaxies, and real chemicals. Someone has done some research! I could hug them.

9. Real Men: Mike wanted me to point out that the men in Twilight weren't all that well-served, either, and I will say in contrast that the men of the Night World get to experience the full gamut of human emotion. Yes, there's quite a lot of strong-and-silent stuff, but they're just as much real characters as the women are. They are not nearly as stupid as the Twilight male leads - by a very large degree - and they wouldn't cut the brake lines on their girlfriends' cars because they would actually try talking to them first. (They might try that *second*, mind, especially one or two of them, but you're meant to think they're being interfering assholes when they do that sort of thing, and they are called on it.)

10. NO. GODDAMN. SPARKLING. There may be a couple of rainbows, but they are generally a metaphor or a major inconvenience to clear thinking, depending on the female lead involved. This can be dealt with in several ways, depending on the female lead, including a) staying the fuck away from your inconvenient rainbow-inducing soulmate b) kicking your inconvenient rainbow-inducing soulmate in the shins, and, my favourite, c) knocking your inconvenient rainbow-inducing soulmate out, tying him up, and getting the fuck away, because you have people to rescue and your inconvenient soulmate is *just that inconvenient*.

In conclusion: I love these books, it's wrong, and I DON'T CARE.

(For any of you who have read them, my one burning and very spoilery if you care which you don't question is what happened the next time Quinn ran into Ash after book 5. Because, by that point, if I read the signals right:

1. Ash thinks Quinn still wants to kill anyone who breaks the Night World laws, like he has been for the last, oh, four centuries.
2. Ash is breaking them a lot, and, furthermore, has three little sisters and a human soulmate (and her brother) he really needs Quinn to not find.
3. Quinn thinks Ash staked his own aunt and burned a werewolf alive for breaking Night World laws.
4. Quinn has an inconvenient human soulmate he really needs Ash not to meet, because:
5. Quinn's inconvenient human soulmate has a vampire-slaying record second to none and is guaranteed to dislike Ash on sight.

I sense several misunderstandings of epic and hilarious proportions. I know I'll never find out, because the next time we see Quinn, Rashel, and Ash they're all in the same room and playing nice, but it amuses me to picture.)

Okay, fine I LOVE THEM AND I AM NOT ASHAMED.

More seriously? If you have to read trashy supernatural YA romance, you're much better off going here than Twilight. After all, the author's favourite book character is Sam Vimes. You gotta give her points for that.

Hmmm.

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:46:12 GMT

I'm finding the flu situation in Mexico quite fascinating right now. If "fascinating" is the right word - well, from the educational perspective it is, from pretty much every other perspective it isn't. There are a whole heap of unanswered questions right now - why are people dying in Mexico, but not the US? Exactly how far has it spread? How transmissible person-to-person is it? - but the general situation is worrying. There are a number of good blogs collating news reports and press releases - if you're interested, check out Effect Measure and H5N1.

The thing about being in New Zealand, of course, is that it gives you a false sense of isolation. If a pandemic did break out, we would inevitably get cases here, unless we shut down the borders, say, last week. Which won't happen. I don't know if this particular outbreak is worth seriously worrying about - yet - but it's sure as hell worth keeping an eye on.

ETA: Cases are being reported in Kansas and possibly New York as well as the original California, Texas, and Mexico outbreaks. No-one has been hospitalised, but it demonstrates the spread of this strain.

ETA 2: So you know what I said this morning about isolation being a hallucinatory defence? Er, well, there's a very good chance this particular strain is already in New Zealand. Like, they're waiting on test results on some people who returned from Mexico with flu symptoms.

Huh.

SPARKLES.

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 08:40:15 GMT

I'm watching Twilight with Mike (1. he made me 2. i stipulated that much alcohol had to be involved) and, uh, I'd say you didn't all warn me, but, you totally did. Just - wow. I thought Bella and Edward could not possibly be as self-absorbed and irritating as I'd heard. I WAS WRONG.

I'd try and find something nice to say, but...sorry, I got nothing. The alcohol is the only thing that's getting me through this. I'd praise the nice cinematography or something, but the persistent darkness is too annoying. The characters are flat, the story is boring and illogical, and did I mention that the main characters are annoying as fuck?

Mike would like me to add:
a) the words "self-absorbed bitch" have not been used enough in this review
b) Bella's only redeeming feature is that her stupidity hasn't harmed anyone else to date, and he's waiting on that one
c) her self-preservation skills are that of a horse in a dog-food factory
d) Edward has the emo of someone who's been listening to Evanescence since 1918
e) Edward is a creepy, creepy, abusive stalker. Who should invest in nose-plugs, since his problem appears to be smelling Bella too much. So make that a creepy, creepy, abusive, *stupid* stalker
and
f) someone should take the lipstick away from the make-up artist stat.

I would also add that this film fails the Bechdel Test LIEK WOAH (I was about to think it might not, when Bella was talking to her mom about Forks, but - oh, wait, we must discuss BOYS, so, NO.)

You know what? I kind of was thinking I should read and/or watch Twilight so I could slag it properly, but now I realise that I was slagging it just as effectively based on hearsay. Pity.