I SAY THE LATTER.

*flomps onto the thread* I have completed my Valentine's sale shopping. I mostly bought baking pans at Target for 50% off. What I'll do with 6 mini heart shaped springform pans is anyone's guess. But hello, cheesecake!

@Ava -I did enjoy the movie. It was surprisingly good. Like Groundhog's Day with the time looping, but more scifi and action. Not a Tom Cruise fan, but the movie was interesting enough to rise above all that.

I love anime. I did not like Diabolik Lovers. Not a fan of that abusive asshole trope in romance animes and all the brothers seemed to be abusive assholes. I only watched two episodes, so maybe they changed? But who cares? D:<

Lol, Amane!!!

I should have done some V-day shopping! I wish I could have done some today or yesterday, but oh well. Maybe next year! Do you usually like to bake, Cookie. (I would hope so! You're name is Cookie after all!)

I'm glad you enjoyed the movie! Those groundhog's day movies really mess with my mind! Even books like that really mess me up!

I don't like abusive men in romance either, that's what turned me off so much about Fifty Shades of Grey.

There was no way I was going out the day after V-Day because of the whole blizzard thing. Though I did go out to return those movies, but not to shop. The Redbox is less than a mile away anyway.

I do bake fairly often. Cakes and cookies and whatever I feel like. I'm kind of mad though, because the cookie sheets I bought don't fit in our oven. We have a stupid tiny oven and the cookie sheets are so big that you juuuuuuust can't close the oven. Ugh! Gonna see if my cousin wants them or return them.

They did the time looping thing pretty well. It got a little repetitive, for obvious reasons, but they altered it here and there and more importantly, kept the plot moving.

Abusive men and women suck. Japan is a fan of the tsundere stereotype. Where a character is cold or hostile but supposedly warms up to a the romantic interest over time. But more often I find they just beat them for stupid reasons and it's played off for laughs and after all the abuse, who cares if they've warmed up to you?

I would never bother with Fifty Shades of Grey because it's an awful Twilight fanfic with the names changed. But also for the bad portrayal of bdsm. If I want to read bad porn, I'll read fanfiction that I didn't have to pay for. :P

Ah, I see.
I'm glad you're safe from that blizzard, though! It's scary when there's so much snow! I love it when I'm at home, but I hate being out in it!

Hopefully you can find someone who can use those cookie sheets! I hate it when I buy something that doesn't fit or something I just can't use. It's very frustrating!

That stood that you liked the movie. I find that the Groundhog's Day type movies (or movies that involve time looping) are pretty much hit or miss. I've only ever seen one movie like that and I can't recall if I liked it or not.

I've noticed the tsundere thing happening in a few anime. I used to watch. Lot of anime,but I could never really get into the ones where there an abusive character. One such anime that really comes to mind is Dokuro-Chan, where she's constantly beating this poor guy in different ways and it's supposed to be funny. Just doesn't sit right with me. I don't like movies or books with people in abusive relationships unless it's approached seriously and dealt with seriously as it should be. Abuse is no laughing matter.

When I was driving home tonight, I noticed that some of the snow piles in various parking lots are about as tall as the second story of some of the buildings around here! Some piles in larger parking lots are higher!

If my cousin doesn't want them, back to the store they go. It's just so lame that they don't fit. Why do we have a weirdly tiny oven? Why?

Playing with time is tricky. There was some story a while back that was essentially played backwards and out of order and stuff. Memento, that's what it was. It got a lot of praise, but it was a mess to watch!

Akane from Ranma 1/2 was one of the first I ever remember hating for that reason. Poor Ranma could breathe wrong and she'd beat the crap out of him. And I always thought "What happened if they didn't play that for laughs? What happens if he was seriously hurt? This is not funny!" But people defend her. As people defend other Tsunderes. It's an awful character type and I really dislike it. Like, oh wow, you have to get through a maze of thorns to find their squishy center, but you're still torn the heck up from the encounter!

Agreed. Abuse is not funny. It's just not. But I feel like there's a lot of it in various forms in anime and manga that just rubs me wrong. It might be cultural or ignorance, but sometimes I just have to put my hands up and walk away.

I can imagine that! It used to get like that here, but this year there was not that much snow. Do you usually get snow like that on the East Coast? I used to have fun when my elementary school used to pile up the snow (I was within walking distance to my elementary school) in the parking lot and me and my friends would climb it like a mountain. But it was hard because we often sank into it.

Did the oven come with the home? I hate weirdly shaped/sized things in the house. Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking when they build a house that has things that don't make sense in it.

That sounds like an interesting movie! Probably not for me, though. I get really confused really easily, and I need a more traditional way of being presented things when it comes to time. I even get confused when some books start off with one time frame then the next chapter switch to another time frame completely with no explanation! I felt that way when I was reading Wuthering Heights. I didn't know that Heathcliff was going to tell the man the story of what happened at Wuthering Heights so after the third chapter the time frame changed completely. It was so foreign!

Yes!! I remember Akane and Ranma. I used to love Ranma 1/2, but I never did like how Akane definitely abuses Ranma. Very controlling as well, too, which just points to more signs of abuse. Half the time it wasn't just physical abuse that Akane put on Ranma. You make a lot of sense, I definitely agree with you, Cookie.

Abuse is not funny, and it's not "sexy" either. I don't think I need to even explain. It's just... no. Abuse is very serious and it hurts so many people. It's so sad that it's not being taken seriously in portrayals in the media.

I haven't always lived on the East Coast. I'm from the South. But considering that we went from now snow to about three blizzards dumping snow on us, then I can say that this is unusual. Record levels of snow around here.

It's just that my grandparents built the house in an era where they didn't think they needed space. So the closets are closet sized. You can hang some clothes in there, but not much. The bathrooms are also closet sized. The downstairs shower is like stepping into a tiny glass prison cell. I refuse to shower in it anymore. The oven is just a funky shaped small oven inset into the wall.

Wuthering Heights is awful. It's full of awful people. Bleh.

Akane really bugged me. She just stands out to me as the best early example of that trope, though there's probably more out there.

Abuse can be such a rough subject to talk about. It's sensitive, embarrassing, and hurtful to those that were abused. It takes a lot to bring it up and then often when you do bring it up, it becomes the pity olympics. "Oh yeah? You think you had it bad, listen to what happened to me/my brother's mother's cousin/etc" As if that has any bearing on what you suffered. It's not about comparing to decide who had it worse, it's about helping the abused and stopping the cycle!

The real question is, why are oyster crackers so good?

Because they tear out the hearts of oysters and bake them in their own tears. That's why they taste good.

They're probably made from the ＳＯＵＬＳ　ＯＦ　ＭＹ　ＥＮＥＭＩＥＳ.

Exactly how many enemies that you have that you can go make crackers out of them?

One soul goes a longer way than you think.

I will take your word for it.

And now I'm off to see Kingsmen. I don't think I've seen so many movies in such a short span of time in, well, a long time.

I'm not a movie kind of squirrel.

@Cookie
Wow, that's crazy. If you don't mind me asking, where did you live before? It's so strange that this year the East Coast has been getting so much snow, and places like here where I live (Minnesota) haven't been getting much snow at all. It's barely even gotten to be that cold here. Usually it gets to -30s for weeks, sometimes even months but this year I think the lowest it got was like -10, if that!

Oh, I see, so the house is an older one. That is understandable. Older houses tend to have a lot of weird things going on.

I have yet to read all of Wuthering Heights, it sounded very interesting and I wanted to read it after hearing Kate Bush's song, "Wuthering Heights" and I thought it would be fun, easy read. It's not easy at all, I have hardly any clue what's going on in the story. I usually enjoy reading classic novels, but this one is one that I'm not sure I'm enjoying as much as I thought I would.

Yes! I completely agree with you on that when it comes to abuse. I find that the pity parties tend to happen more in online mental health communities more than any place else. I also find that in support groups it happens a lot as well, but it really depends on the people you're in the group with. Abuse is not something that can be compared because it affects everyone so differently. And there are different types of abuse that can cover a wide range of signs and can cause so many different problems for people. None of that can be compared to any other because everyone's different and what may not have affected someone, may trigger someone else. It's a very delicate thing to talk about.

Kingsmen, is that the movie with the man from The King's Speech? His name escapes me right now. Let me know how you like it!! I love hearing about new movies!

@Amane

Oyster crackers are so delicious... But why are they called oyster crackers?
Is it sort of like oyster sauce? Like, it's called oyster, but it doesn't actually have oysters in it?

I have no idea why they're called that. That's the closest I get to even TOUCHING seafood.

What! You don't like seafood?
Oh my goodness. Seafood is so yummy.

Seafood is good if it is cooked correctly. Bad shrimp or fish can ruin anyone's experience.

Seafood smells horrible and tends to not look too good, either.

That is very true, Nola
Thankfully I've yet to run into any bad seafood.

I was raised on seafood, so I find the smell to be amazing, but it really depends on what's being cooked.

But it doesn't even have to be cooked for me to love it. ;u; I love sushi and I don't care that it's not cooked, that just makes it taste so much better!

I love sushi too. My favorite. I wish there was a sushi place where I live though.

@Ava - I used to live in Louisiana. Wildly different weather from up here in Rhode Island. Down there it was all heat and humidity and mosquitoes and hurricanes. Up here it's these stupid blizzards. Nice mild summers and snow in the winter. I still suck at layering up properly.

This house has some very annoying features. The "eaves" are particularly annoying to me. Storage under the slope of the roof with little hobbit sized access doors that are packed full of ancient crap that my grandmother wants me to drag out every now and then. Ugh.

A while back, my friend went on a kick of trying to read all those "required reading" classic books. Wuthering Heights was one that she hated the most because it was full of detestable people being detestable. I remember it being pretty bleak and not too interesting. But you know, one had to judge for oneself.

It is a very delicate thing to talk about. Something that gives one person PTSD might not even phase another person. Humans are so wildly different. It's not comparing apples to apples or even apples to oranges. It's like comparing apples to zebras to hairbrushes to marbles. Everyone's different!

I really enjoyed Kingsman! It did have Colin Firth kicking ass. I read a little quote where he said he was the least likely person to be in an action movie, which is why they picked him up for the role. He had some seriously intense action sequences. As far as rather mindless action movies go, I really had a lot of fun with this one. There was some dumb stuff in it, some stuff people thought was questionable, but I just sat back and enjoyed the ass kicking and the over the topness of it all. If you like ridiculous action movies, I recommend it. The blade footed villainess had some really cool action sequences. Break dancing with her blade feet!


In other news, I love me some shrimp. I had shrimp yakisoba tonight at dinner. Om nom nom nom.

I don't like sushi though. I've tried it many times and I just can't deal with it. I don't like the raw fish. I don't like cucumbers or avacados or nori, all common fillings in sushi. I don't like roe. There's just nothing else there for me to like!

Sushi is a nope. I've heard horror stories.

But sushi is WONDERFUL!!! It's so goooood...

I just have to remember never to get miso from that one place ever again..