swatkat

Last night I stayed up to watch the Champions League final. Having no stake in either team - unlike a lot of other people in my FB feed (so much cursing) - I opted to root for the more aesthetically pleasing side, which, of course, worked out very well for me. Messi is pretty and has magic feet. (They were also clearly the better side.)

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A little while ago, I finally picked up my copy of A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammad Hanif, after owning it for months but never quite getting around to reading it (Wolf Hall will have to wait, the Thomases were very confusing). Halfway through the book I told zorana84, 'This is the slashiest book I've read of late.'

'Oh, is it?' she said. 'Sounds interesting.'

( Do I have your attention? )

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While we're on the topic of recs, I also have a couple more - fan fiction, this time. My Opinions on Glee can be summed up by 'I like Kurt', 'some of the songs are nice', and 'Santana is the best'; my viewing is, at best, sporadic. That does not explain why I wasted days reading Five Stages by thememoriesfire, and its two epic sequels, The Lights That Stop Me and Blind With Casualties.

Five Stages is about Santana - to quote the summary, "Santana deals with the coming out process; set after 2x16, "Original Song", and abandoning canon forever after that" - and it is MAGNIFICENT. It's so easy for stories in this vein to become preachy issuefic, but this is just perfect - raw, messed-up and glorious.

Apart from the three Santana-POV stories, this 'verse also has interludes featuring the other characters, and they're all great (although my favourite is Quinn).

If you read fic in this fandom at all, chances are you have already read it - but in case you haven't, go now. The power of Santana's ~feelings compels you.

SPAIN! That has to be the ugliest final I've seen, and that includes the '06 headbutt. There were times I wished yesterday's (wonderful) Germany-Uruguay match was the final - it was prettier and more exciting, not to mention the lack of cards. I missed the replay of De Jong planting his foot on Alonso's chest, so I couldn't tell if it was intentional or not, but he was lucky to have escaped without a red card. (ETA: Scratch that, that was intentional!) Of course, Holland still got nine yellow cards, not to mention the red! I've heard people blame the referee, but I'm not sure what he was supposed to do here.

Now seems like a good time to share the Spanish version of Waving Flag featuring David Bisbal.

Also, I love Iker Casillas. He's so dreamy. *sigh*




I love that they changed into their trademark red jerseys for the ceremony. ♥


AND, go Mueller for the Golden Boot *and* the Best Young Player, and Forlan for the Golden Ball! ~\0/~

Until 2014! (No, you cannot make fun of my plans of saving up and watching it in Brazil, enough people have done that already.)

If I weren't so sad about Brazil losing, I'd be deeply amused by the fact that the Dutch fans broke Twitter with their 'Hup Holland Hup'. Oh, who am I kidding, I am deeply amused that the Dutch funs broke Twitter with their cheering. Go fans!

All the FB status updates of my friends currently sound infinitely more traumatised than they would have been if this was, say, our team knocked out of the cricket World Cup. Which is understandable, because there's nothing surprising about our cricket team snatching glorious defeat from the jaws of victory, but extremely surprising to witness the entire Brazilian football team fall apart after conceding one goal. I bet tomorrow's newspapers will have headlines like 'Brazil was "Robbed"'

I also find this more amusing than I should. And a little scary:
( image under cut )

Woah, that was Mick Jagger in the audience! Great match so far.

(England fans, you'll not stop talking about Lampard's unfortunate not-goal for the next hundred years, won't you?)

Tumblr sums up the Germany vs. Serbia game:




Cards for everyone! *\0/*

For the pretty.

Images are courtesy ontd_football (here, image heavy; check it out for some bonus Maradona hilarity) and various news websites. Not hotlinked.

( images under cut )



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( Birds of Prey #2 )

Okay, yellow card for taking off your shirt is just wrong. WTF, FIFA?

First, Batgirl #11 = ♥ ( brief spoilers )

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ETA: If you are in Seeker fandom and love Cara even a little bit, you will go and read this now: Don't Play With (Powerful) Magic by hibernate. Post-finale Cara/Dahlia fixit with ~Powerful Magic~, time travel, alternate realities and a Cara who will simultaneously make you smile and break you heart. Also, sneaky Cara/Kahlan-ness FTW.

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Meanwhile, TODAY IS THE DAY, flist. THE WORLD CUP IS HERE! I am jubilant, and also sad, because this is the first time in my life that I won't be able to follow it the way I should, being away from home and Education keeping me away from everything. And yes, it is kind of a big deal to me, nevermind that my country sucks at football - I was born in a world cup year, and my father will happily tell you stories about tiny me watching football with him. BUT ANYWAY. ARE YOU WATCHING? IS YOUR TEAM PLAYING? WHO ARE YOU SUPPORTING? HOW AWESOME IS THE THEME SONG? TELL MEEEE!



♥♥♥

Italy still the prettiest.

OMG Italy! I think I want them to win. I also don't want France not to win.

This is hard.

Mum: Who was that really pretty Italian again?
Swatkat: What are you talking about? *All* of them are pretty.
Dad: I think she means Roberto Baggio.