Kiba Rika in Firefly (nonspoilery):

There's a book you need to get, called "Latin Sexual Vocabulary." It will solve all these problems for you.

Or you could just get a basic Catullus reader with a glossary in the back.

The only good thing I can think of about a stopover in Detroit is that it means it's not your destination.

ita in natter.

Emily - in Natter:

So I got my first birthday present -- a shelf screw! No, seriously, I was buying one so I can finally put my bookcase back together, and I made some comment about that being a nice birthday present, and the guy gave me my 20 cents back. I was touched all out of proportion to the actual cash value.

Allyson in Firefly - on spam and the joys of a fandom campaign.

Oddly, checking my mail and a spam comes up with the title, "FIND SERENITY NOW!"

Do You Need A More Positive Outlook On Life?

Does Your Marriage Suffer from Unstable Emotions?

Do You Have Unwanted Mood Swings?

Do You Have regretful Outbursts?

WE CAN HELP!

Serenity is the first, highly effective and completely safe mood stabilizer that is 100% natural......

See, now, Serenity CAUSES those unwanted mood swings.

So I got my first birthday present -- a shelf screw!

Okay, now that's a lie. I bought Emily a skirt off the discount rack for her birthday before xmas. Fess up, missy!

Betsy, in Natter:

We went to Cirque du Soleil last night. It was (an overused word) magical.

However, there was one incredibly beautiful act with two mostly-naked men flying through the air and grabbing on to each other. My husband looked at me and said "The Buffistas have ruined me for life."

Kat:

I also think the Buffistas should have a white elephant. Wrap up the worst gift you got and send it on with lots of love to another Buffista. As my friend Benn wrote, "One person’s trash is another person’s ironic trash."

A couple of weeks ago, in Firefly 1, non-spoilery:

Betsy - Wash and Zoë were retiring to their bunks to play tiddlywinks.

shrift - Now I wanna see an episode that's All Wash, All Zoë, All Tiddlywinks.

Or maybe Tiddlywinks Death Match.

One Tiddly to Wink Them All.

This post brought to you by: Hello, cold medicine. How you doin'?

Betsy - You could probably sharpen tiddlywinks to a razor edge. Voilá, death match!

Steph - Note to self: never play board games of any kind with Betsy...

Nilly:

Be warned, a very babbly not-edited-enough post ahead, by one of the sappiest of all saps that ever sapped the earth. Continue at your own risk.

Nilly, in Dude, Where's My Precious:

My watching of TTT got a special meaning regarding the last terrorists' attack on Israel - my youngest brother was nearly late for the movie because he was comforting one of his best friends on the phone, because he (the friend) had been there where terrorist broke into his 'yeshiva' and killed four of his fellow students, one of them a dear friend. My brother is not even 20 yet. He is soon to enlist to the army, because he has to, and he is one of the sweetest pure-hearted people I know.

I think this is why Sam becomes the core of the story for me, at one point: most of us can't run for three days and three nights in pursuit of kidnapped friends, most of us can't jokingly count how many Evil Things we've killed, while still shooting bows or waving an ax. Most of us can't fight huge blackness and flame ancient monsters or volunteer to carry the world's fate on our shoulders in a minute's notice. One of the young men who were murdered last night made sure to lock a door which leads to the room where 100 people sat and ate their shabbat dinner, that's what had been his first priority. Not running and saving himself, not hiding - exposing himself to the bullets in order to save many others. I don't know about you, but I don't know whether I were able to do that. Then again, inserting myself to an illusion shatters it a bit, for me. But Sam is a different matter - he's loyal to his friend, he goes along with him, he cries, he breaks, he keeps believing that there's good in the world. He's not motivated by the power and glory, or by the 'big' fate of the world. He loves his home, his life and his friends, and wants to keep them as safe and as undamaged as possible. And I can identify with that. He sits there and he's crying and he's all alone with Frodo becoming more and more Gollum-like and ring-possessed, with the third party he can't trust and he is unwilling to connect to what is going over his beloved friend, and his heart is breaking, and he keeps on going. That's an amazing thing to do, don't get me wrong - that's probably the biggest thing someone can do for somebody else or for an idea. Especially when that's the only thing you can do, and you simply offer yourself up like that.

I'm sorry, I've got entangled in my words. I'll try to say it differently: it's very difficult for me to identify with heroic characters. I think one of the reasons that the early seasons of "Buffy" are so loved, for example, is because of this ability to identify with not-perfect-but-still-trying characters. Willow was not yet a dreadfully-powerful-witch downsiding her strength, she was the shy girl thrilled she was able to say the word 'date' to the cute guitarist. And they were afraid, failed and cried a lot. Now they're too far away from just 'people'. And I'm not saying it's a bad thing, because I'm glad the characters are developing, I'm just saying that it makes it harder for me to identify with them. Those are not struggles that I feel I am going through, the way I used to feel about a lot of what Willow went through, for example (and I can write an even longer post about that, I'm afraid). So I can't really identify with Aragorn or Legolas or Gandalf. I can think (and I do) that they're amazing heroic characters, portrayed really well, three-dimensionally, acted marvelously - I'd follow Aragorn as captain, I'd watch Legolas move in washing dishes without being bored, I'd adore the magnificence of Gandalf, and so forth - but I can't identify with them. I can identify with Sam, even though what he is doing is so much greater than anything the not-a-character-from-a-story me can ever do, because it's being built up on things I know and understand and see in me (or wish to) for some extent - love and friendship and loyalty, wanting to be there for a loved one, no matter the cost, missing all the things I know and love while protecting them. And maybe I'm more susceptible to this because of where I live and how so many people here have to lead their lives - practically every man I know has served in the army, has had to face dangers that most other people (including, of course, me) only saw on movies. You can watch "Band of Brothers" or the like - all I need to do is sit down and talk to my people I know IRL. And they have stories which are just as amazing. I TA people that movies could be produced about. And they have amazing courage, love and spirit. I'm not sure I'm expressing myself well here (not because of the English, because I'm not a good writer) but these things that we encounter in fiction, they exist in the real world. Not many Great Heroes who can lead everybody to victory, perhaps, or great old Wise Men who can drive out evil spirits from a lonely king's mind, but those people who walk step by step, don't leave their friends, keep believing there's good in the world that's worth all their cold and hunger and longings - they're real. I am lucky enough to know a few of them. I admire them. Their feet are less hairy, and their companions a little taller, perhaps, but their hearts are just as big and courageous.

I'm babbling so badly