(no subject)

The good news?



The bad news?

I got eliminated from the challenge. After the same round! Haha. It's true, a couple of my earlier icons were not very pretty. Ah well. It was lots of fun while it lasted, I'm definitely gonne do more lims contests :)

This icon is so appropriate, haha.

(no subject)

A wonderful, thoughtful, intelligent and incisive article about Brokeback Mountain and the picture of Americana that it presents, along with the assertion that the movie is equating sex with love, which is actually a really good point. I highly recommend it, BUT, there are HUGE SPOILERS for the short story, so if you haven't read it, don't read the article, I beg you.

West of Eden

True love comes in quietly...

True love comes in quietly, without banners or flashing lights; without force or insanity.
She is the sanity in your world full of madness.
True love is not how grand you are or how simple you are, it's who you are when you're with her - and she loves you not in spite of it, but because of it.
She's the one who stands with you when the rest of the world falls down.
-Thomas Wild-Fontaine

This was the quotation used on the cover for a Harry/Hermione fanmix posted by leonhart_17.

All I can say is: exactly! No, wait, I can say a lot more than that, but that sums it up. This quotation is... SO beautiful, and SO perfect. It completely epitomizes Harry and Hermione to me. See, Harry and Hermione just work together. They're complementary. She's the only person who's always had complete confidence in him and been at his back for everything. That can't even be said about his other best friend, Ron, who completely abandoned him for a while in GoF. But SHE was with him. No matter what. She's the only one who can diffuse his temper. He may exasperate her sometimes, simply because he's a teenage boy, aka the most exasperating creature on earth, especially to a sensible girl like Hermione, but in the end they have a certain harmony - yes, Harmony... I've always thought it was an extremely apt nickname for the ship - that just works. There's no weaponized birds, no revenge snogging - but there is kindess, confidence, respect, and affection. Isn't THAT what a true relationship is about?

I've been thinking about why I love HHr so much, because I treat it very differently from my other ships. I almost never read HHr fic (although I read a great one last week) and yet they're definitely one of my OTPs. I tried to write a story for them, and just... couldn't. For Simon/River, for example, I can just start writing and something will come up. But for HHr, it's not so much about the specific interactions they have, or how their first kiss happens - but it is about that idea that your true love is first and foremost your best friend. I believe in that wholeheartedly, and I really think it's why I haven't ever had a boyfriend. I refuse to just start going out with a guy I barely know. I need that strong foundation there first, or else I won't be able to be intimate in any way, physically or otherwise. I think this might be why I sometimes despair of ever finding anyone, because my standards are SO high. I also have this conflicting thing where I really don't want to spend my whole life with the first guy I date - you only live once, and to only.. okay, let's be honest, kiss and be otherwise intimate with one person in your whole life seems kind of a waste. I obviously don't want one night stands, but I do want multiple relationships before I settle down. However, it doesn't seem like any relationship's going to happen any time soon!

Um. The point of all that was that I want something like Harry and Hermione have, or what I feel they have - a true friendship that can blossom into something more. (I'd mention Sean here, but those of you who know me well enough don't need me to. For those who don't... it's not worth getting into :P)