Cured, Done Packing (?)

At the moment, yes, I am done packing. Ha dee ha ha. Right. Possibly. If someone doesn't go down there and decide that I have too many boxes.

At the moment the count stands at 16; most are small but if they all fit into that car trunk it will be a miracle.

I'm busy clearing links off the home computer and dealing with a bunch of letters that just arrived. I'm going to be paying bills from a thousand miles away because they just won't listen to me.

Gotta go. Busy, busy.

Ta,

Bec

Getting Better, Still Moving

Saw the Christmas special for Doctor Who last night.

Woah. Like, it was awesome. There were sky fish and big cloud sharks and the Doctor married Marilyn Monroe and the dude who played Dumbledore and...

It was great, and the trailer made me all excited to see the eyes watching the Doctor. And those aliens. And River. And the Neil Gaiman written episode.

Basically I wish the next four months would fly by.

I have to go find cans and stuff to pack in boxes because I did the clothes yesterday.

Ta,
Bec

Still Down. Almost Moved Out.

Believe it or not, I am still coughing. I'm on medication to control my stuffed face but that doesn't stop the hacking.

This must be the two-week cold from hell, because I've never had one that strung me along like this and kept dropping me on my face.

I haven't watched the Doctor Who Christmas special yet because I haven't had five MINUTES to myself this week let alone an entire hour. I'm hoping to slink away somewhere today and watch it without interruptions...but I also have to pack clothes today and wash stuff and get some canned goods and...you see my dilemma.

Gotta go print a map of Vvardenfell.

Ta,
Bec

Colds Aplenty We Come To Spread

So far it's been a lovely Christmas. I had a wishlist that I handed my mother in November, and out of that list I received all but three of the things I asked for. Mostly DVD's and CD's. Some of the stuff I was surprised to get because they were sort of hard-to-find things and I wasn't expecting to get them at all. My Amazon wishlist has gotten much, much shorter and I will have to add things to it for my birthday in four months.

We're going over to Grandma's in a half-hour and my cough is like an oncoming train. Add to that Mom, Dad, Anna and Sara all hacking, sneezing, sniffing, and everything else all at the same time and we sound like a bunch of dying rhinos. Add to THAT the fact that we're walking into hypochondriac central in a few minutes and this is going to be a nightmare.

So, Merry Christmas. May yours not be full of everyone sounding like an ad for cold remedies around you!

Ta,
Bec

Christmas Eve 2010

Still coughing up a lung. Anna's gotten my bug and now she feels like I did about this time last week.

I am still packing - the real insanity is going to start day after Christmas when I start packing clothes and personal objects. I decided to start then because that gives me about four to five days to pack it all. Ha dee ha ha.

And Doctor Who Christmas special tomorrow! Yay yay yay!

Besides that, nothing going on. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a...hang on. I have to cough again...

Ta,
Bec

Still Down. Not Out.

Unfortunately had to sit out when the choir sang for the last time this year thanks to my voice being completely obliterated by this flu thing. It means I missed out on the last time I was to sing with the choir. I was upset but it really couldn't be helped.

Still sick. My chest hurts from coughing, but I feel better in general so maybe I'm on the upside of this.

People are getting eaten on TV (what on Earth are my mother and father watching?) and I predicted that the chick with the broken foot is easy pickings for the ghosties or whatever the heck is having lunch. They're arguing in a tunnel and if they keep arguing every damn one of them is going to be dead.

Plus, the dialogue and acting sucks big time. All the more reason to waste valuable cable TV time watching it, right?

Ta,
Bec

HACK

Head feels great. Now I'm coughing up a lung.

Why can't I have a cold next weekend so I can give it generously to all my relatives?

Or whatever this is. So far I've guessed flu and now it's colding out.

It appears that this virus has 1) a longing to take me out at the worst possible time that it can 2) a need to kick my ass while doing so.

I'm going to go take some medication and see if I can't get my voice back.

Ta,
Bec

Me Again

Doing better today; still can't sit up for too long. I missed choir practice last night thanks to my wobbliness.

As soon as I get five and a half minutes where I can sit up without my head aching, I will 1)post the damn Merlin review and 2) actually write a longer blog post than this.

Ta,
Bec

What Train Ran Me Over?

I would have posted the Merlin review, but I've been really busy. I had caroling on Monday, don't remember what Tuesday was like (I found an apartment and that's all I can remember,) Wednesday I had church (twice!) and now today I'm supposed to be at choir practice for Sunday's service.

That is, if I can work up the energy to actually GO to choir practice. Yesterday I came down with a sore throat. Today I have a planet-size headache and can't be up for more than ten minutes because my head throbs and I get chills (so this little entry is going to be short.)

Yes, I am sick, and the fact that I'm admitting to it means I've come down with a minor case of flu or something. It'll pass.

The only problem is: I have CHOIR practice tonight. I have to sing on Sunday. I can't BE sick right now.

I'm telling it to go away and bother someone else. I'm busy.

Gotta go lay down again; my poor heavy head is complaining.

Ta,
Bec

Here I Am To Bother You Again

Yes, I've been away. Here's a small update on the lunacy surrounding my life at the moment...

1. Thanks to my housing contract stuff not coming through till AUGUST, I have to look for a place to live in in two weeks (oh ha.) Apartment hunting. In Durham. And I'm still parked on my buttushka at home in freezing Wisconsin. I think I've got one, though, that I could be happy with. It looks good. I think I need a day to think about it, however.

2. I will get to the Merlin finale soon. I would have posted last week but there was final papers to turn in and I did a marathon 15 hour session to finish the one thing (something I will never, ever do again because I'll take the prof's advice next time when she says DON'T leave this till the last MINUTE.)

2.5 But we all know I'm lying to myself. Anyway, I took last week off to uncurdle my brain cells only to find that this week I don't have a place to live in January.

2.75. And so we come round to the apartment hunting fiasco again. So I searched. Like I said, think I've got a really nice one but we'll see...

Oh, AND...

3. I got all B's in my classes so I am awesome again. And here I thought I was stupid!




SPOILER LINE




MERLIN-Coming of Arthur Part 2

Will be here as soon as I finish making dinner!

She Walks the Earth and Her Hunger For Fries Will Know No Bounds

I believe that the dorm situation for me has been sorted (I'm reserving judgment where that's concerned. It's gone bonkers too many times already for me to think I'll actually have a place to live next month when I get down there.)

Both parents are home today. Mom wasn't well and Dad stayed home because he had to take her in for blood stuff this morning (fun!).

And...the announcement of the year: WE HAVE A DRYER. It's plugged in and everything. I heard it working today and was remarkably impressed with the sound (since we haven't heard it in this house for about a year and a half.)

I am having a salt craving. Again. I want french fries or potato chips. I usually don't ignore cravings because it means my body needs something that I'm not giving it enough of. Believe it or not, I have been told that I have too LOW of a salt intake and was told never to ignore my mind screaming "FRIES!"

I get other cravings as well; chocolate ones come at least once a month (don't get in my way when that hits me. I can go through 5 or 6 peanut butter cups or Almond Joys when I'm really needing cocoa.) I get the nacho craving about once every six months (I always go for the BIG plate of nachos and wolf them down like they're ambrosia from the heavens.)

I tried eating a couple of fun-size Pay Days to ease the salt craving but I still want fries. Likely I will either have to spend an hour cooking the stupid things or I will have to go into town and get them from some fast-food joint.

I'd better go start the oven and find a bag of fries. This ain't going away any time soon and I don't want to pay five bucks for a container of fast-food fries.

Ta,
Bec

PS: Forgot to mention the joyous news that Muse are nominated for 3 GRAMMIES! Congrats to the guys; you deserve them all!

And Steven Moffat mentioned to Russell T. Davies a bit ago that he wants Jack Harkness back on Doctor Who, which I was pretty certain of anyway because Moffat wrote Jack's first episodes...and really, Jack is an amazing character to have around anyway. But it's good news and I'm very happy to hear it, 'cause I've missed having Jack around the last couple of years.

Christmas Shopping Done!

As of today, I am finished Christmas shopping. I have wrapped all the presents and they are all parked in the bedroom waiting for Christmas morning.

I love being done early. No more worries.

I might still have to wrap more, though. Mom's been sick and thinks she won't be able to wrap all the presents so I'll probably wind up doing Anna's and Sara's and sticking all the packages with Post-It Notes identifying them for what they are so Mom can finish labeling them.

Not much going on here; we're just lying around doing not much at the moment. If Spritey didn't have white fur I wouldn't be able to see her at all.

Ta,
Bec

PS: I find this little stupid thing funny, but has anyone noticed that in DW's "Vampires in Venice" when Signora Rosanna Calvierri gets a drink that that cup looks ONE HELL of a lot like the Cup of Life from Merlin?

Here. I am insane and went and found you pictures of each cup.

Here's the DW one. You can't see the detailing underneath the bowl part of this goblet because of the actress' hands but there is something there in a later frame.



Okay, here's the Merlin cup for comparison:



They are of very similar design even if they aren't the same one, right down to the base and the triangular legs on the thing.

I mean, who raided the BBC props department that week and said, "Ooh, they won't need this. I'll just borrow it and hand it back for the end of Merlin series 3?" Or do the prop people just have no imagination when it comes to gobletature of the sort of Middle Ages?

It could be that I pay attention to the little details too much. I mean, I noticed Uther drinking out of one of Bayard's gift goblets this year (not the poisoned one) and had a good laugh at that. At least we know he bothers to use the gifts he's given.

Oi. I think too much.

Cup of Life Playoffs, Round One

Had a good Thanksgiving. Rather quiet. No extended family issues till Christmas (glory be.) I have potatoes baking in the oven and I must get going on homework, but before I do, here's my review of the latest Merlin episode (it was awesome!)





SPOILER LINE!








So, the obvious occurs. Morgana, SMIRKING AGAIN, takes the throne in front of Uther's disbelieving eyes (and Arthur's up there on the balcony, hiding.) Gwen is missing. Gaius was found in a closet. Elyan was in the lower town, hiding. Gwain turned up in jail. Arthur took a nasty wound to the leg and is limping despite Merlin's efforts (he's not good at healing spells and needs some help.)

Merlin's got the Water of Avalon on him now so that's going to be used in the next episode, obviously, on whatever lucky dying woman he'll bestow it upon.

It seemed like everything that could have gone wrong in this episode did, at least for the good guys. Merlin was given the cup and immediately dropped the damn thing over a cliff into the hands of Cenred's army (I was chanting stupid, stupid, stupid at this point.) Morgause, thanks to a good blood donation from each of the men in her crew, has got her immortal army and no Cenred to deal with anymore (She killed him with glee on her face. He was annoying anyway.) At the moment she has the upper hand...but there's gotta be something she didn't consider.

Since we didn't see Nimueh in the previews for next week she ain't coming back (didn't think so.) How the druids wound up with the cup is beyond me seeing as the last time WE saw it it was sitting on an altar at the Isle of the Blessed (it was. I watched the episode this morning and there it was.)

Percival and Lancelot didn't turn up (next week.) Leon had a near-death experience and was nicely treated by the Druids, which made Arthur deal fairly gently (gently meaning holding one of their children hostage and never sheathing his sword the whole time he was in their presence) with them, considering the last time he met them he was under orders to kill them all.

Next week, Morgana and Morgause get the comeuppance we've been waiting for. We meet Percival (yay!) and Lancelot (again.) Gwen turns up. More people die (Gaius?) Uther cries more than Colin Morgan last series. Someone gets it at the end of a round of arrows (Leon was yelling.) Arthur's Round Table is born. And some watery tart tosses a sword at Arthur (Freya, hand, lake, Excalibur for those who haven't seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail.)

I've kind of realized that Uther has got himself in a bit of a spot. He's in his own dungeons (THERE we go. Every cast member's been in them now) and has no power and no army at his command (because most of them are dead.) All he can do is sit and wait for Arthur (who he can only hope is still alive somewhere to save him) to bust him out of jail and take him away from Camelot and the immortal knights. Uther's much worse off in the dungeons than out of them; do you think Morgana and Morgause are going to leave him alive one SECOND longer than necessary? Uther has not made himself any friends with the magic people, no sirree bob.

And there we have The Coming of Arthur (A title I HAD to snicker at when I first heard it...really?) but here's what it means. Uther has fallen, has no power and no ability to save himself. It's up to Arthur and his six guys (Merlin included there) to do what seems impossible and take back the kingdom from Morgana and her crew of evil.

I had this idea while working on my paper that had nothing to do with Merlin at all: Recall that at the end of the second episode of this series where Merlin said that nothing could ever make him as angry and bitter as Morgana appears to be. And then Arthur shouted and told him he was lazy and it was all ha ha ha like it always is at the end of an episode.

But think about this: Merlin could NEVER get that angry. Really? Nothing could ever piss him off that much? Gaius' possibly imminent death, the Dragon getting hurt, Morgana doing something to Gwen or Arthur? I think we might see Merlin get that angry...and there might be some stuff destroyed. Last time he got mad, he called down lightning, thunder, and rain in a nonverbal spell and blew Nimueh to BITS, and then he wasn't even fully "charged" yet, so to speak. Now he's a Dragonlord, with abilities far beyond his first series self. I would be ducking if I were in the vicinity of Camelot next week.

Morgana doesn't even have to do magic if she doesn't want (she's already condemned and could go whole hog if she wanted to. Guess who just gained a whole lot of beans on the credibility pile now that she's no longer whispering in Uther's crinkled old ears. Think about it-Merlin can now TELL Arthur she's got magic and not be insulting anyone IMPORTANT 'cause by next week she's probably going to be running for her life from Arthur's patrols! She is SO done in Camelot after she gets her ass kicked by Merlin, Arthur, and his band of rogue warriors of the many muscles (see attached picture for the sexy.)



From left: Sir Leon the Not Dead, Percival the Holy HANNAH He's Tall, Merlin the Extremely Gorgeous but Secret Sorcerer, Arthur, the for-the-moment not Prince of Camelot, Lancelot the Noblest of All, Elyan, Gwen's Mysterious Brother, Gwain of the Shaggy Boots.

One more episode to go and then no more for almost a year.

Ta,
Bec

PS: I want to say RIP to Leslie Nielsen, who made me laugh every damned time I watched "Airplane." (I own the movie because my dad made me watch it a hundred times as a kid.) Nobody else could have said a line three times in a row and cracked me up so much. You will be missed.

Merlin Gets Mature!

Mom's making Dad's birthday pumpkin pie. Whisper's watching the game. Spritey's pissed because it's cold out and she is NOT going outside despite what she wants. Dad's downstairs building a fire. And I am here telling you about "Sorcerer's Shadow," the 11th episode of the third series of Merlin.






SPOILER LINE





Yes, little Merlin who declared in first series that without his magic he was a nobody had someone toss the same line at him...and he offered an explanation as to why he hasn't let Uther be offed yet (apparently if Uther dies by magic that would be a bad thing for Arthur, whose heart would harden against magic forever. OK. That's AN explanation...)

Despite my initial reservations concerning this episode, it was superbly done. Hats off to Colin Morgan for making Merlin the ultimate voice of reason here. Merlin was so mature and advisorly here I started checking Colin's handsome head for grey hairs.

Gilli needed to be told about the magic and it's nice that Merlin and he had no bad blood despite Merlin making him sort of lose the match with Uther.

Morgana unsubtly tried to get Uther or Arthur to at least wound the other, but no damn luck. I could barely stand the disappointed look on her face...until I remembered that she wants the both of them DEAD. Try again next week, Morgana dear...

No Gwen at all. I would have thought we'd at least have seen her giving smoochies to Arthur (again) because they've stuffed it in anywhere and everywhere this series, but nope. Guess this is the two of them "backing off."

I thought it was odd that Uther declared Arthur now ready to be king. Foreshadowing?

Also, Kilgarrah returns! YAY! Merlin has to apologize for the whole Morgana saving debacle (funny how that pops up in an episode where someone else is using their powers the wrong way.) Merlin agrees he was an idiot (thank God.) Merlin has a nice chat with his realio, trulio, little pet dragon and everything seems to be very nice between them.

I predict that we probably won't see Killy again this year, unless Merlin decides that the only way to get rid of Morgana is to get her toasted by his scaly reptilian kin.

So for a one-off, not bad. For ANOTHER tourney ep, not bad. For Merlin's wonderful and impassioned speeches to Gilli, well, I was declaring my undying love for Colin Morgan before the episode was over, so you know it was good.

One last thing: Merlin's plate of food at the end was hilarious only because Colin Morgan is A)lactose intolerant (so there goes the cheese), B)allergic to tomatoes (so get rid of those) and C)a vegetarian so Richard can have as much of that chicken as he likes. It's like the meat they keep putting down in front of the one who plays Uther and yet he always takes the bread off his plate first when he has to eat in a scene, thanks to him being a veggie, too. I got the joke and it's funny. Ha ha ha.

Next week, Cup of Life issues. Cenred, Morgause, and Morgana want the cup. Uther wants it too, and sends out Arthur and Merlin to fetch it before Evil, Inc. gets ahold of it. Merlin sends it off a cliff by accident. Arthur gets another arrow in the back. Morgause gets it and then her, Morgana, and Cenred take over Camelot and put Uther Pendragon on his knees before the throne of a magical sorcerer. You remember how Uther said Camelot wouldn't fall to a sorcerer while he was king? Well, guess he was wrong!

Questions abound: Are these Richard Wilson's last days as Gaius? Is Princess Evil Smirkana gonna get what's been coming to her all series? (One can ONLY hope.) Or is Uther going to die and let Arthur be king of all the land already?

These, and other burning questions (who's gonna drink the water, is Freya the now watery tart of legend, will she throw the sword at Merlin, why is Percival so damn much taller than Arthur, are Lancelot and Gwain gonna get along?) will be answered in the next two weeks.

Ta,
Bec

Forget Cleaning!

Sorry, I am going to whine...


So, Mum complained about me doing nothing around the house. She never asks for specific projects (I really wish that she would) but today I decided to clean some of the kitchen cupboards.

Shame. On. Me. I should never clean when she doesn't ask me to. Now I'm in trouble for hijacking the table for her planned dinner today. If I'd put it on the floor she'd have whined about that as well. If she hadn't had to run all the way back to town today we MIGHT have been able to finish cleaning before dinner was supposed to be started, but NOW I was in HER WAY when SHE wanted the table.

This is the second time she's done this to me. When she did this before (three or four years ago now,) I had cleaned cupboards all flippin' day and she came in, looked at the work in progress, and stated her floor was dirty.

We didn't speak for a week and her apology was wrapped in a "I was tired." I refused to live in the house with her full-time again for two years.

That's it. I will not clean for her again unless she requests it. I wouldn't want to be in her WAY...

Huff.

There. I'm done. Sorry about venting my spleen but I had to get this off what little chest I own.

Ta,
Bec

500TH POST!

YAY!

500 POSTS!

YAY!

BALLOONS! STREAMERS! CAKE! ICE CREAM!

(See, I didn't want to make my Merlin review the 500th post, but it appears I can't think of anything to say otherwise. So I guess it's going to be.)

Merlin review coming right up after the spoiler line.



SPOILER LINE!







Too Much Holding Back! Push The Envelope, Writers!

Yeah, they had a good premise but I gotta say, this one wasn't as good as the ads said it would be. I was mostly disappointed about poor, oblivious Arthur being poor and oblivious yet AGAIN.

The lighting in this one was tremendous, however, and Bradley and Angel did well in their little love scenes together. I may actually stop pairing Arthur and Merlin so much if they keep this up.

Yeah, Arthur didn't find out about Morgana (but end of series, guarantee that's going to change.) This episode played it safe-Arthur and Gwen's relationship is viewed by Uther as an enchantment, Morgana keeps her low-profile bad status intact, Gwen talks to Merlin about Morgana's badness, Merlin keeps himself from getting burned by the skin of his wrinkled old...well, you get the picture.

I wish this episode had risked more. I wish this had been the scenario: Gwen goes to Arthur and tells him about Morgana, and they decide to keep that between them and Merlin because it's a dangerous thing. BUT NO.

Arthur should have been able to suss out what was going on, and the fact that he didn't is disappointing. Morgana couldn't have been more obvious if she'd tried. She convinces him to go out there and she knows he's out there and then she convinces Uther to practically run him OVER with his horse as Arthur's lying on a blanket hooking up with Gwen? Come on. Arthur knew that Morgana knew and he AGAIN blatantly chose to ignore her evil. He won't be so damn stupid two episodes from now when she takes the whole effing kingdom out from under Uther's nose.

Arthur knew it wasn't Merlin, Gwen, or Gaius. Take a WILD guess who else it could be.

Also, Merlin should have been in much more danger (come on, you figured he was going to get out of it, you just didn't know when.) Why couldn't Merlin have said the sorcerer cast a spell on him as he ran by, affecting his voice or something? It was almost blatantly obvious Old!Merlin had been standing there not four seconds before Arthur came round the corner.

Oh, and one more thing-Colin Morgan was having too much damn fun under that old man makeup. He was practically wriggling with it. Then there was the fact that Merlin got to stand there and tell Uther exactly what he thought of him (and Arthur, who clearly didn't get the message about mistreating servants and made Merlin muck out the stables anyway.) I really wish there had been a scene between this version of Merlin and Morgana where he'd dressed her down for the bitch she is. Maybe there wasn't time, but there should have been.


On another note, there's a rumor floating about that one person from the main cast is going to permanently leave the show, and another be reduced to recurring. Here's my thoughts:

GAIUS-permanently gone. I've been saying it for at least a year already. He's the only member of the cast who ISN'T part of the legend. Richard Wilson was saying it was an exhausting schedule for someone who's in their 70's. They've already reduced him to half time. I would be willing to bet quite a bit of money that Gaius is going to go either be with Alice or he's going to be dead.

The two I would think would be reduced to half-time would be either Uther or Morgana. Seeing as the last two episodes show Morgana clearly wearing her evil stripes for all to see, wouldn't be surprised if it was her. She's going to have to make a run for it, and that means she won't be around as much to SMIRK.

I said Uther because he hasn't really been around that much this year, and I wouldn't be too terribly surprised to see him reduced to a lighter role. But that leaves Morgana to most likely die, and they're not going to do THAT so I'm sticking with Morgana on this one.

The next episode deals with some guy misusing his magic in Camelot and Merlin instructing him to use his powers for good. Maybe good ol' Merlin's going to get an ally who can do magic. Finally.

I do have to make one comment, though. This has been the year of the Harry Potter star lineup. We've had Flitwick, we've had Sprout, now we're getting Dudley (and he's magical! HA HA HA. Wonder what Uncle Vernon would say if he knew?)

EDIT: Talk about doof. Ha ha. Missed Mark Williams, who played Arthur Weasley and the Goblin from episode 3. Silly me.

The episode after that has Arthur and Merlin going to find the Cup of Life-which should be easy seeing as Merlin left it at the Isle of the Blessed, I believe, back in Series 1 when he killed Nimueh. Unless it's been moved, which is probably going to happen just to mess with our heads.

Question: How are they going to steer the boat to the Isle if Merlin can't use a spell in front of Arthur? Will there be scorch marks on the ground yet from Merlin's last trip there? How are they going to get there if Morgause has already arrived? Does the boat wait patiently or does it steer itself back or will there be a second boat with no oars waiting for them? AM I THINKING TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS?

The rumors about Nimueh's return are getting louder, especially with this whole Cup of Life business. I personally think Nimueh's going to be terrified of Merlin's powers because she got toasted by them the last time she saw him (and he's become more powerful since then.) I still think the whole thing is hogwash-aren't Morgause and Morgana ENOUGH to be dealing with, even if their followers are immortal? If Nimueh DOES show up, Merlin's worst kept secret is gonna get revealed to Morgause and Morgana, and boy oh boy is there going to be trouble when THAT happens. I call for a big magical battle where Merlin beats them up and chains them with magical chains in a forest full of big scorpions. And kills Nimueh. Again.

And the episode after that has Morgana on the throne with that UGLY crown on her head, causing havoc, mayhem, and trouble for all in Camelot..until Merlin and Arthur and the future Round Table turn up and kick. her. ass.

One last note: I wonder if Kilgarrah's going to put in an appearance here? He's only been in three episodes total this year and we're not likely to see him in the next one, so I suspect he'll turn up in at least one of the last two.

Ta,
Bec

Packages, Packages, Presents Galore!

Mom's present arrived today about ten minutes after she left the house and it's been wrapped because A) I want it done now and B) My mother is too sneaky for her own good. Wrapping paper slows her down.

One thing I can say: It was HUGE. I've never wrapped a bigger present. It's also fragile, so I want her to be careful with it.

The second set of presents arrived later. They were charity gifts, with each one funding something different according to the person who got them. Mom's was animal rescue, mine was literacy, Sara's was rainforest, Anna's was children in need. I'm wearing the bracelet I got myself right now. Mom already knows about her olive wood manger ornament because I wanted her to pick it this year. But Anna and Sara's will have to stay secret because they might be reading this.

All the other presents have been wrapped so far. Two more presents to be bought in town and then I'm done!

On another note, my leg is killing me thanks to the weather (first sticking snow of the year-yay.) And I'm still cleaning in the bedroom.

Gotta go do that, now, so ta,

Bec

Apple Cider Caramel Crisp

I have invented a new recipe. (You HEAR this, COOKSOURCE? It's MINE. You have to ask before you BORROW it...)

It's a mash-up conglomerate of two different recipes, one an apple pie with apple cider (I removed the pie bit and kept the cider reduction, adding my own stuff along the way), one an apple crisp (mostly removed the crisp.) Add a bit of inventionary spirit and you get the recipe below:

Apple Cider Caramel Crisp

Cider Caramel:
1/2 cup apple cider
1/2 cup white sugar
1 T. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
dash nutmeg (optional)
dash vanilla extract (optional)

Cook over low heat until bubbly, then stir it until it forms a thick sauce, about 6-7 minutes on a hard boil.

The Crisp:
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Walnuts or pecans (optional). Toasting them is also optional.

Mix the above ingredients.

The Apples:
6-7 apples, any kind
Lemon juice to prevent browning.

Cut the apples into thin slices and mix them with the oat mixture. Spoon them into a 9x13 pan, add small pats of butter or margarine on top. Drizzle the cider caramel mixture over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let it cool.

I forgot the nuts so the first one doesn't have any, but what would the harm be of a nut or two, unless one was allergic to them? I suppose you could also swap the white sugar for brown, but whatever tickles your fancy. Lord knows I just invented this one; why not variate?

Oh, and I would be willing to bet the cider caramel topping is a blast on ice cream. We haven't tried it yet. Also we're looking to try various extracts with the cider caramel next time around in the place of vanilla (maple, cinnamon, caramel...)

Ta,
Bec

Cleaning

I'm cleaning. I have to pack at some point here; this is the preliminaries.

In other words, I'm tearing apart everything I own and putting it back together, just in a different configuration and with less stuff that I don't want.

I have made more of a mess than anyone has a right to. The Goodwill pile is getting higher by the minute. The "You CAN take it with you" pile is getting larger as well.

This might take a couple of days; the clothes pile alone is going to take several hours.

It's definitely an insane way to do things, but if I go through it now I won't have to when I move out. (Cue laughter.)

Back to work,

Bec Koshak

Merlin Isn't Any Better At Sneaking...

Analysis of Episode 9 and a thought run on episode 10.









SPOILER LINE








Good episode, although it's going to get overshadowed by last week's amazing episode and next week's apparent slambanger.

One thing I must say: Merlin is the WORST sneak I've ever seen. That boy needs to learn something about concealment spells or silence his boots or learn how to duck BEFORE someone looks his way. How does he expect to stalk Morgana and everyone else if he's so terrible at sneakery?

On another note, I felt sorry for Gaius here, trying to believe that the girlfriend hadn't made a mistake and pushing Merlin away for it. But everything was back to normal in the end. I loved Merlin's little quip about the dungeons-who hasn't busted out of them at least once on this show before? Merlin does it once a year.

The sad thing was, Alice was a lovely, lovely woman who made a mistake, and because of that she did something evil and forbidden and had to leave Camelot or risk her own life. Hopefully she can come back when Arthur takes the throne. That would be nice, wouldn't it?

But I think they were giving us a nice, feel-good, fluffy sort of episode because all hell is about to break loose.


Next week, ooh boy. Here comes Morgana again. She's attempting to rip Gwen and Arthur apart. I don't know why-wouldn't it just be easier to KILL her and him in their sleep or something?

I have to wonder to myself (as I have been all week) why Morgana sees fit to go after Gwen when she's already gotten the girl banished. Does she find out Gwen's against her? Does Gwen tell Arthur? And Morgana better have decent and solid PROOF because Gwen's been accused of sorcery before (during the Avanc incidents of Series 1) and Morgana defended her then and told Uther there was absolutely no way she could be a sorceress. Damn, how times have changed, eh?

Of course, Uther doesn't need proof of sorcery-he only needs to hear it, but coming from Morgana he might question it after the last accusation was leveled three years previous.

And what about Arthur? If he finds out from Gwen about Morgana (why shouldn't he trust Gwen, who'll have the backing of Merlin and Gaius on this one,) or if he questions why exactly Morgana is telling Uther about his relationship with Gwen, everything between them is going to go boom. He'll never trust her again.

And Merlin pulls some sort of stunt and turns himself old. Inventing a sorcerer, especially one that looks like YOU, Merlin, in old man drag, seems kind of stupid right in the middle of Uther's courtyard, but if it works, Morgana will lose Arthur's faith forever. Was that last shot of old Merlin in the dungeons? Here we go again...

I predict someone may have to leave Camelot here. Uther's not gonna just forgive Gwen of sorcery, unless Morgana is proved wrong in that assumption. If Morgana's proved wrong then she'll be going thanks to her evil schemes being dug up (unlikely, as she takes over as Camelot's crown princess sometime this series.) Even if Morgana is proved wrong, Gwen's still gonna get banished for being with Arthur because Uther would rather be dead than see his son with a *shudder* servant! *shudder*. And if Merlin decides to play fake sorcerer he might have to leave town or risk his own very lovely neck (the disguise might help, however.) If Gwen goes, Arthur might go with her, which means Merlin would go, which means Morgana would have the run of the castle, the run of Uther, and she'll be wearing the ugly crown soon enough.

As soon as Morgana's evil is exposed, all but Gwen should be welcomed back into Camelot's borders. That roadtrip we heard tell about might be coming after next week thanks to everyone appearing to have left town on account of Gwen being banished. Three weeks to go after.

Ta,
Bec

Avanindra

I have reposted what was originally a story called "Saturama." Its name is now "Avanindra," and it's generally the same story with different names and an actual culture attached to it.

Here's the link if you want to listen to it; I'm trying to attach captioning so that one can read and see at the same time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ_1xPbtZok&feature=player_embedded#!

Ta,
Bec

PS: Hilarious article I found on the BBC News website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11692799

Electrical current to the brain? Maybe they could tie me to a metal pole in the middle of a field during a thunderstorm and I'd become at least functional in math.

No, actually, scratch that. If they used as much electricity as I think they'd need, I wouldn't have to worry about my math disability anymore...or anything else for that matter...

Halloween 2010

Episode 8 was amazing! There was good stuff all around.


Here you are, my comments on the whole thing...


Oh, and a Halloween poem for you all. Enjoy.

Skeletons dancing along the trip
Click the dry fingers then
Down for the dip
Spin with a creak
As the bonesaw squeaks
This is the dance of the dead.

Living things aren't found round there
Dancing in the mist of a
Crypted square
As ghosts sing a tune
To a cold Hallows moon
Wailing the dance of the dead.

Those passed things dance only for tonight
When the air is ghoulish and
The full moon is bright
When Death leads the band
With his scythe in his hand
There is the dance of the dead.







SPOILER LINE!





Okay, so there were three big important things to this episode that I want to address:

1. Gwen knows about Morgana being bad. It only seems fit that in two weeks Arthur may find out, because she may be forced to tell him when Morgana decides to play another card out of her evil deck (I won't go into further detail here-if you want to know go look up 3.10's episode description on Wikipedia. Really, I wouldn't want to spoil it for you because it sounds SO good...) However, Morgana does NOT know that Gwen knows, although she must think she suspects something's going on. Her friends become less, her enemies become more. Now only Arthur and Uther are oblivious to her evil, and I don't believe Arthur will be for very much longer.

2. Merlin receives the Water of Avalon. I would assume that it would save someone from death seeing as Avalon is the land of immortality and this water is out of the LAKE. It's meant to save HER. We have no idea who HER is save that there's a crazy rumor out there that Merlin's supposed to get a sibling (I would assume it's a twin seeing as Balinor didn't hang around that long in Ealdor.) It's not Freya as she's already dead. It might be Morgana (he'd certainly change their relationship if he gave her a nice drink instead of smacking her with ceilings or slamming doors in her face and sending her flying backwards down a flight of stairs.) I don't think it's Gwen-the water is awfully precious and he's already gonna have to save Gwen in two weeks.

3. Morgana didn't kill Arthur (the shock of him STILL being alive made her drop her drink!) and her powers have taken another step up. She's now voluntarily lighting wooden boxes on fire. And voodoo doll images of Arthur. I'd put a little face on it and write PRAT and CLOTPOLE on it, but that's just me. Being evil must mean she has no imagination. I mean, last week it was a tracking ring she used, and she tried to kill Arthur. This week it was a bracelet, and guess what? SHE TRIED TO KILL ARTHUR. Maybe Merlin should just confiscate all suspicious jewelry until it's been checked over.

Someone else noted that Morgana must be cracking under the strain, because she's starting to show her true colors far more often and far more blatantly than she should be. She's getting reckless with all the failures, she's getting careless, and that is going to cost her BIG.

This was a great episode, one of the best of Merlin I've seen. It had everything-jokes, deep awesome stuff going on, Merlin eating olives at top speed, Merlin getting hiccups (how do you fake hiccups without getting them? They must teach that in drama school...)Merlin using his Dragonlord powers to cow the wyverns, him getting a quest when we all thought it was Arthur's, Gwaine causing ruckuses everywhere he went, Gwaine laughing his ass off at Merlin and Arthur's married couple routine in the tower, Gwen suspecting Morgana had gone off the deep end and deciding it was no longer her job to hide Morgana's misbehavior. And Gaius finally, finally refusing to lie to Gwen about Morgana because it wasn't going to do any good anyway.

So I would say this is the end of Gwen and Morgana's friendship. I assumed it was coming and now it has. Now for the next little while, Gwen will be spotting Morgana's misbehavior and reporting to Gaius and Merlin, which can only mean good things for Team Arthur.

Next week, another relationship disaster occurs...this time for Gaius. This show continues to trash the concept of a normal relationship for anyone, doesn't it? Think about it-Arthur hooks up with an evil fairy chick who wants him drowned just so she can go home, some floozy stupid princess, and almost marries a clumsy princess with a fairy gestating inside her since birth.

Merlin falls in love with a girl who morphs into a winged carnivorous panther at night (aren't we glad this is family show and we didn't get any bedroom scenes? THAT would have been a disaster...) and who now is a spirit possessing a lake.

Lancelot falls in love with Gwen (you KNOW that ain't gonna work out).

Uther falls for a troll. Enough said.

Morgana falls for some dude who you KNOW never gave a damn about her.

Gaius is hooking up with an old girlfriend who has chimaera issues.

Gwen and Arthur, well, if they can get past the "you're of a completely different social strata than me," they'll be fine...if Gwen doesn't decide to run off with Lancelot first.

It makes you wonder if in the magical land of Camelot if ANYONE besides Arthur is gonna get married, because if it was me, I'd forget it unless they could prove they weren't associated with fairies, flying panthers, chimaeras, or trolls...

Ta,
Bec

NOTE: I will put this far south of the rest of the stuff so that if you don't want to look you don't have to. I want to kind of detail out the rest of the episodes (there ARE only four left.)




SPOILER LINE NUMERO DOS








9: Gaius gets hooked up with a chimaera-laden chick. Merlin and him have a temporary falling out.

10. Morgana decides to tell Uther about Arthur's relationship with Gwen. Uther decides to banish Gwen and Arthur's all set to go with her, but then Morgana tells Uther that Gwen's enchanted Arthur. I just want to see the look on Uther's face when he finds out that Arthur's got the hots for a serving girl...ooh, whee...

You gotta think that Arthur's gonna wonder who told Daddy, cause Merlin, Gaius, and of course Gwen wouldn't have done it. And when he questions Gwen, well, there goes Morgana's days of quiet, unsubtle evil in the Land of Camelot...

By the way, this episode was Colin and Bradley's favorite episode to shoot. They told someone in an interview.

11. Excalibur is in the next episode, and while I thought this was the Lady of the Lake episode, apparently it's not and Freya appears in the last episode. So I don't know HOW Merlin's gonna get that sword unless he does a big swim or has help with getting it out.

12. Lancelot turns up. I believe Gwen's brother Elyan and Gwaine also turn up for some reason. They end up in the woods. I would assume that this episode is when Morgana takes the throne, probably near the end.

13. I predict the dragon will show up (because he hasn't all YEAR, not like usual) and him and Merlin will kiss and make up (so to speak.) I predict Morgana will be exposed and be forced to flee Camelot. At some point Merlin will use the Water of Avalon to save Morgana's life.

I don't know when Merlin will be aged or if it's his older self turning up to smack his younger self around the head. I haven't found any confirming of the Merlin sibling rumor and so I can't place that, either, but logically I would put them in the same episode at this point. I can't place either detail in an episode and that's why they're here at the end.

One of the four is gonna be forced to leave Camelot, possibly forever. It's just a matter of who it's gonna be, and I'm sticking with Morgana here, although Arthur spending a bit of time as Robin Hood, Prince-not-a-Thief would teach him not to be such an arrogant ass. But remember this: if Gwen goes, Arthur goes, and if Arthur goes, Merlin goes. They'll all wind up in the woods as the Happy Outlaw Camelot Troupe if they're not careful...

Power to the People (At The End of the Electrical Line)

Thanks to the much-reported storms that hit the Midwest in the early part of the week, we've had wind, rain, and yes even the dreaded SNOW.

But with wind, rain and snow you get lovely things like power outages. And there we are.

All in all, it came to about 30 hours without it. Let me just say this: I would not do well in place without electricity to keep me sane.

I cannot begin to tell you the joy I felt when I saw the water care system in the basement had kicked in this morning. I cannot express how ridiculously happy I was flicking the light switch on and off and having it produce a result. And mind you, I did it several times in glee just to see the light go on and off.

Some fun stuff that happened:

*Whisper glaring at me for not turning the TV on

*Spritey being so black and short that when I tried to feed her last night I nearly tripped over her little fat self in the way (hard to see a small black dog in the dark, especially one so gluttonous she has to be underfoot and make sure her food is on time)

*Me eating my fast-food sandwich by the light of a single candle that was clear across the room last night (so much for watching what I eat.)

*Me lighting the burner on the gas stove with a MATCH!

*Mom and me constantly flicking the light switch when we went into the basement (it didn't work but it's such an unconscious movement we did it anyway.)

*Me waking up early this morning and while lying in bed, flicking the lamp switch above my head to see if the power had returned yet (I did this about twelve times and it didn't do anything, much to my chagrin.)

*And lastly, but not leastly, I FINISHED "THE SILMARILLION." This may mean nothing to you, but it took 5 years, a bunch of false starts, and a major power outage in the area to get me through it. Now I can read the other two books I couldn't read until I finished that one. And finish the two movies (I finished Fellowship for the fourth time last week. Extended edition at a length of 3 hours, 20 minutes. Even a Tolkien aficionado is drooling by that point. Don't know what I'll be like at the end of Return of the King, which is upwards of 4 hours with all the extra stuff thrown in.)

I have to go get Mom's bath ready-she hasn't been clean in three days and she'll probably sprout fangs if it isn't prepared. She made me promise I'd have it ready, so I'd better go.

Ta,
Bec

Hitting People With Ceilings Part 2

Sorry for the delay on reviewing-I had a paper due along with two questions and it consumed all my time yesterday.

Oh, I found out this morning that Merlin got an early renewal and we're getting a Series 4, but it's going to be 10 episodes and we won't see it till 2012. Less episodes and four extra months of waiting? Total bummer. But we're getting Doctor Who where it SHOULD be so I'm not complaining much.







SPOILER LINE!











So, the Castle of Fyrien was a damn good episode compared with some of the drivel we've been hit with as of late. Thanks to Merlin's increasing heap of secrets, Arthur couldn't be told that they were walking neatly into a trap and that Morgana was feeding the bad guys information. Gwen stood out here and was actually quite wonderful with Arthur and Merlin both-we haven't seen her do anything but smile all year so it was nice to see her actually do something.

Merlin and Morgana basically snarled at each other all episode and if Arthur and Gwen hadn't been so bloody busy making goo-goo eyes at each other they might have noticed the other two trying to kill each other with looks alone (and a snake. Don't forget the snake.)

We found out Morgana is completely flippin' evil and hates everyone, really. And she doesn't get along with Cenred so well, even when they're not pretending to hate each other.

I want to say it again, if Morgana keeps it up she is not going to be able to maintain her place at Camelot. She pushed it to its breaking point this week; Arthur did question where she'd been and Merlin showed a complete lack of trust when it came to her. It should be obvious to Arthur that something is going on between Merlin and Morgana; it won't take much to get Arthur to question it.

I said while this little head to head was going on that they're on a knife edge as far as trust goes, and if Morgana makes ONE mistake and shows her colors Merlin will get the opportunity to erode the trust everyone else has for her (and don't doubt he will exploit it to its utmost because it'd be to his advantage if Morgana was out of favor. She's a major nuisance to him and having to watch her all the time to make sure she doesn't kill anyone must be EXHAUSTING.)

I do want to say, though, that Merlin's really got a knack for hitting Morgana with convenient ceilings. And doors. And accidental staircases. In fact, Merlin seems to have a knack for hitting Morgana with various and sundry parts of buildings and at some point they're going to be outside trying to kill each other and all they'll have is sticks to hit each other with. (Or tree branches. He's done those a thousand times for Arthur when he was outnumbered...)

But really, how many ceilings can you knock people over with before they notice that YOU are the one causing the roof(s) to cave in?

And Gwen's brother is hot. Let's hope we see him again.

Next week, Arthur goes to see the Fisher King and get a golden trident. Morgana and Morgause try to kill him and probably will not succeed.

The week after is the Gaius in love episode. Then there's only three episodes left to go for a YEAR.


Ta,
Bec

Let's Hope It's The Cold

So lately a couple of fingers on my right hand have been seizing up. They're not working all that well and it makes tasks like giving the dog a neck massage or picking up an object a tad difficult. Also typing is getting slow.

Hopefully the colder weather is causing it and not the thing I won't say, because I'm not out to increase my bad luck.

Hopefully this improves. I'll let ya know.

Oh, and "The Hobbit" got the greenlight over the weekend. Can barely wait the two years till I see it in theaters. Then I'm gonna buy a new set of Lord of the Rings along with the Hobbit discs because mine are getting scratched up. I was bouncy all weekend because of it-we've been waiting a long time.

Ta,
Bec

Someone Hit The Bridge Again!

Someone from Canada smucked it this time. We just found out. I'm not rehashing this; go look under the entry here: http://becca-blog-bec.blogspot.com/2008/10/truck-idiot-and-bridge.html

This makes four since they fixed it over four years ago. Bravo for flashing lights and little signs and things that say CLEARANCE and how high the bridge is. They clearly work VERY well.

What makes it six times funnier, however, is when the local newspeople act oblivious to the goings-on in their own town...take this for example: "This is not the first time a truck has gotten stuck at this location."

Is it now? Really? Fourth time in four years and you guys type the understatement OF THE YEAR. I applaud your obvious knowledge of the town you're reporting news on. By now you should be laughing along with the rest of us.


And now onto the sixth episode, The Changeling...







SPOILER LINE





Well, Arthur ALMOST got married to the girl, but decided that he wanted to make up his own mind who he would marry (cough*Gwen*cough). I don't think he would have fought the marriage off if he hadn't had someone he wanted beforehand. Not that the girl wasn't nice...if Arthur wanted a socially inept girl who tripped over her own feet...

Which means I have about as much chance of getting myself a handsome prince as winning the lottery or being struck by lightning or having actual luck.

(For the record, however, I do not eat frogs and I cannot ride a horse and my hair does behave itself. Sometimes.)

Anyway, Morgana found out about Gwen and Arthur's smoochies, so that means everyone knows they're mad crazy about each other except for, you guessed it, Uther. It becomes the second worst-kept secret in Camelot (after Merlin's magic, of course.) It's gonna figure into next week's episode so they had to get it out on the lawn, so to speak.

Morgana had the creepiest look on her face, however, when she had sussed out their relationship and got Gwen to fess up to it. She has nothing against Gwen but I get the feeling this has something to do with kicking Arthur down a flight of stairs or stabbing him with the birthday dagger or getting a crown so she can take over Camelot. (Morgana needs Morgause for originality in offing people. Seriously, she couldn't come up with anything better than stabbing Uther with a knife?) You gotta give her credit, though- even when it's not her episode she's plotting away. She's won the Manipulative Bitch of the Year Award and the series isn't even half-over yet.

Merlin fighting the Mighty Sidhe Mugwump and sending him off to Avalon was my favorite scene. It's gotta be difficult pointing a stick at a little blue light and blowing it to hell (half-awake and in your jammies. You've got some Doctor in you!) but Merlin managed it beautifully (well, save for bashing up the potion jar, but give him a break. He DID kill the King Sidhe. That's gotta mean something.) Although, for next time, Merlin, here's a little advice from a chronic klutz: WRAP THE POTION IN COTTON AND STASH IT AWAY SOMEWHERE SAFE BEFORE YOU KILL EVIL SIDHE BEINGS IN THE LAB.

And I know I keep saying it, but here I go again: Colin Morgan gets cuter every single week this show is on.

And it appears that this week and the week after are going to be Morgana and Morgause desperately trying to off Arthur so Morgana gets the Big Chair. Now things get fun and dark and nasty.

Next week: Gwen's brother is kinda hot, but Cendred turns up AND Arthur's in this episode imprisoned and everything, so who WILL Gwennie choose now? And then there's Morgana and Morgause trying to kill someone (no change there then.) And where the hell is Merlin?

Wireless On!

Hi! Talking to you from a laundromat on the laptop. Got the Internet wireless up and running and functioning wonderfully-trying to get my settings on here, however, is gonna be a right bitch. Mom's reading a cookie book and hasn't come up for air in about ten minutes; I suspect she's too busy drooling.

Since we still don't have a dryer we wind up coming into this place about once a week and drying the clothes. It's okay sitting here except for the skeeter flying about and the little kids crying as they wait to get into dance class.

Mom found a cookie recipe that has deep-dark chocolate in it. She's committing-you can see it in her eyes.

Laundry's dry. Gotta shut the connection down,

Ta,
Bec

Laptop Arrives!

It's here! I will post pictures tomorrow-I have a paper due in three hours and the laptop is sitting in the bedroom charging itself.

My hip is killing me tonight and I am parked on a pillow trying to get some relief. We'll see how this goes.



Ta,
Bec

Five Days Becomes Six

My laptop is here, but there's a hitch. I wasn't here today to sign for it and so the delivery guy took it with him and will deliver it tomorrow.

The ONE day this week I'm not here and it comes. Darn it, darn it, darn it...

Gotta go-it's thundering outside and Mum will want the computer off.

Ta,
Bec


PS: Good luck to the horde of people trying to get the miners out in Chile. Not long now, people, not long now...

Well, Well, WELL...

The laptop's in Laredo (I think) but it's not anywhere near HERE yet...


Onward to a pivotal episode in the continuing awesome of Merlin...







SPOILER LINE


Well, I was wrong, folks. Here's the NEW family tree as it stands in canon, and since the bloody chart would take too long here's a quick rundown:

Gorlois and Vivian had Morgause. Vivian and Uther had Morgana. Uther and Igraine had Arthur.

I still don't know if Vivian and Igraine are sisters. One would assume as much given the evidence (Morgause knowing Igraine "very well" despite them not living in the same place.)

About the bit we saw at the beginning, with Merlin seeing a possible future before he sees the whole thing that he thinks is Morgana killing Uther, they gave us a couple of interesting scenes here: Morgana with a truly ugly crown on her head sitting in Uther's chair(meaning that she's gonna be in charge of Camelot at some point in this series,) NOTE: After the fourth watching I noticed a blonde in armor standing back behind the throne. I can assume that's Morgause back there. And we see an old man. It took two watchings for me to suss out exactly WHO had been made an old man for it, since it's a short glimpse and Gaius doesn't look like that. My assumption is that the old man is Merlin. The cheekbones and the eyes are right, meaning it's probably him. It certainly looks like Colin Morgan in old man makeup.

Questions raised: Where is Uther? Where is Arthur? Who made that horribly ugly crown and who can we shoot for it? Did Morgause or Morgana turn Merlin old?(I would assume so. I would also assume it's a reversible thing. They can't take away Merlin's gorgeousness or the fans will riot.)

I had an idea after I went to bed last night-what if an older version of Merlin has figured out time travel and has come back to slap his younger self around the head for being such a dummy? If Old!Merlin meets Young!Merlin, then at some point Merlin knows he's going to do it (here we go with the self-fulfilling prophecies and paradoxes again...)

Apparently they're sticking with legend and making Morgana Arthur's half-sis, but instead of Mom being the common parent they went with Dad. I'm pretty certain, however, that they're not gonna sleep together and produce a child that kills Arthur, simply because A) the kid's already here and B) Ew.

What we DO know is that Morgana is REALLY pretty mad at Uther for not officially giving her the claim to the throne (putting her second in line after Arthur) and for not telling her that she was his kid. As if she didn't hate him enough...

Merlin's going to find himself in a bit of a spot. Morgana is out to get Uther and Arthur BOTH, so he's got to watch both king and prince without letting them know about it (and not letting Morgana know he's got magic but that's completely another problem.)

And this episode marks Morgana's first visible on-purpose use of her magic (smacking Merlin against the wall.) And the second time in three years she's supposedly suffered a bleeding in the brain.

Merlin becomes part of the time stream and tries to "fix" what he thinks is broken, but actually he'd have had it easier if he'd NOT shut the door with his magic, thereby tripping Morgana down the stairs and breaking her head open, and then if Uther and Gaius hadn't had that little talk about happy families and who's whose kid, and THEN if Merlin hadn't felt overwhelming guilt, had a fight with Kilgarrah, and gone and saved her ass so she could toss him against the wall and give him another case of concussion when he was trying to stop her from killing Uther.

So it would have all been better if Merlin hadn't screwed with things in the first place. He's learned a valuable lesson, then...I hope. I bet he'll be regretting saving her when he has to keep Arthur and Uther in a forcefield because Arthur gave Morgana a dagger for her birthday. Stupid boy.

Next week: Arthur supposedly gets married to a bug-eating, trippy princess who can't get married to anyone else. And her nursemaid goes to the Sidhe (hey, it's the same dude we saw in the Sophia episode back in Series 1! Is he like the Supreme Sidhe Mugwump or something? Are we going to see the Blue Stony Sidhe Stick of Awesome Evil Monster Killing come out from the dusty confines under Merlin's bed???)

These, and other questions, will be answered next week.

Ta,
Bec

The Endless Wait of 5 Days Begins

I had to go for the cheap shipping on the laptop. (Free is the cheapest you can get, I guess...)

It says on the shipping thingumbob that it won't be here till TUESDAY.

WHAT?

TUESDAY!

WAAAAH!

What's the betting I will spend all of Tuesday looking out the window in a nonstop, obsessive sort of manner? Except for when I won't be here (bit of a problem as I have to sign for the package...)

But when I'm HERE, OH, will I be LOOKING out the window. And looking. And looking.

This is going to be a long, long weekend.

Hopefully the estimate is extra days and it'll be the happy surprise of Monday. But my luck is rotten so maybe not.

I also had to stay up late tonight to finish Mom's cinnamon rolls (if you leave them overnight to rise the results are impressive but unfortunately cinnamon rolls are quite hard to stuff back in the pan once they've grown out of it.) They're cooking now. When they're done I'm gonna plunk them on the table and go to bed. Mom can frost them in the morning. I also made really awesome chocolate brownies with nuts in them today so the sugar is flowing in this house today. Shame on us.

Gotta go check the rolls.

Ta,
Bec

Computer Switch and I Get Serious About Bullying.

So, my poor desktop is starting to die. It won't turn off on its own anymore. And it turns itself on when I move around it.

It did this once before and I had to rebuild it from the ground up the last time (it took months.) I just got moved back in, so to speak, and now it's starting to do it again.

So I decided that after three years, it's time to retire the faithful desktop computer and get me a laptop.

Moving out is always hard. There's the boxes to pack and the stuff to move and then the mover breaks your favorite vase...

I'm taking my files over to the parent's computer until my new tricked out laptop arrives next week. New toys to play with are always fun. I will take pictures for you all.

Now for something definitely serious:

I am hearing a lot about bullying this week thanks to the poor soul who committed suicide last week due to some truly immature little bastards.

I speak from experience- I was bullied. I was choked in the locker room in a Lutheran grade school, I was bashed into the walls by kids that were bigger than me (while most of the rest of the class laughed), I was poked with a sewing pin in the shoulder, I was told that I was a liar and that I was going to hell and wound up crying in the school bathrooms because of it.

I also had a mother who was bullied and she had had it worse than I did. She got me through those years.

I was a too smart, too skinny kid in a class that had a pack of idiots who had no one else to pick on. I had a principal in the school who didn't give a damn about the poor kid with no importance.

It makes me SICK inside to see people picked on like this, in college no less. College people aren't always very mature, but you would think by the time you reach adulthood you would have enough brains to know when something that you do, something that you put online is going to hurt someone. It's just the same as saying it out loud in the middle of campus. Grow a brain. It's ONLINE where all can see it. You may think it's funny to put your buddy's video online...but he might not.

People need to learn RESPECT for others, and they need to learn to respect other people's private lives. So WHAT if he was gay? He was HUMAN. He deserved your respect the same as if he was bi or straight or transgender or whatever he was. I don't care what you think about homosexuality, I don't care if you think that he was damned or whatever the hell you think, HE was a person. He had family and friends who are now never going to see his smile again or laugh again because he was driven to the edge by these people's bullying. And that, people, is unacceptable.

Yes, bullying ends at some point, but the truth is the damage stays with you forever. The scars heal but they are still scars, and it still makes me furious when people are bullied like this because it reminds me of the hell I went through as a kid. I don't talk about my being bullied out loud except in front of a therapist, mostly because I get too upset even over a decade later.

Very few people know about this, but I had a friend commit suicide because of depression. Suicide is not painless, not for those who are left behind to grieve for those who are gone. It fucking hurts those who are left behind. I still can barely speak about it to this day and it's been five years.

I don't have an answer for the bullying. I just want it to stop. I don't want another kid or teen or adult to be driven to the point of no return by this, PLEASE. Respect your friends, your classmates, your co-workers. You don't know how close to the edge they might be, and your shove might be the one that sends them over the cliff. Remember they have families and friends and lovers that would miss them, that don't want them to be cut off in the prime of life because of your bullying. You don't want that guilt on your conscience that you were the one that shoved them away when all they needed was someone to give a damn.

Ta,
Bec

Four!

The diet is a bust at the moment. I'll try to get back on the wagon tomorrow (ha ha ha.)


Episode 4 coming right up...





SPOILER LINE





Let me just say, this episode was very good compared to last week's. It was a mix of last year's jousting episode and the Lancelot episode from Series 1.

That said, Gwaine is an interesting fellow, completely reverse of Lance. Where Lance wanted so badly to be a knight, Gwaine is of noble blood and has no want of a knighthood. His refusal to admit it actually gets him banned from Camelot when he's caught attacking the two not-knights.

Gwaine is a player, living for the moment. He's independent, doesn't like to stay in one place long, likes his drink and his women and his blade. Where Lance was quiet and unwilling to cause any trouble for Arthur on his behalf, Gwaine ran up a bar tab that got him and Merlin shining the army's boots in repayment to Arthur. I found myself liking him more than I like Lance, and I really can't wait to see the two of them have to work together with such different and opposite personalities.

Gwaine hit on Gwen but Gwen refused his advances (unlike Lance *cough cough*). I think she likes him but has no romantic interest, and that's a good thing. We really don't need her torn between 3 GUYS...and how awesome was Arthur's jealousy? He didn't seem all that ticked when it was Lancelot hitting on his lady last year...

I would hope Galahad turns up and have the hots for Merlin, because I want to see Arthur get stinking jealous over it. That will be a sight to see.

This was another great Merlin/Arthur episode this week. Lots of good stuff there. My favorite bit of the whole episode was the barmaid saying "You're a handsome fellow," Arthur immediately trying to take the credit, and she corrected him saying it was Merlin she had the hots for. You should have seen Merlin's smug face...and Arthur's rather miffed one.

I gotta say, if it came down to a choice, it's Merlin every bloody time. The sword is nice, Arthur, and the body, and dear god the EYES, but really, I am FLATTENED by Merlin's dimples in this episode.

Next week is going to be a beauty, people. Merlin gets put in the Crystal Cave and sees some stuff he shouldn't (the future is a dangerous bit of business to muck with.) And Morgana falls down a flight of stairs backwards (whee!). And she tries to kill Uther with a shiny, shiny sword of death. And Taliesin, who was an actual honest-to-goodness Welsh poet but now for some reason has magical powers turns up (they got the actor who played the unintelligible police officer in Hot Fuzz to play him.) I can tell we're going to see lots of sweet evil smirks and Merlin doing time stuff and magic and some other awesome stuff.

Prediction of who dies and then comes back (at least this what I assume will happen. Watch me get it wrong AGAIN...) Probably Morgana. It'd certainly make the relationship between her and Merlin take on a whole new level of weird. And of course he'd spare her ass-that's the way he is.

Ta,
Bec

White Diet: Day 1

I went to see my mom's therapist yesterday and she suggested my constant stomach issues (I'm becoming lactose intolerant and I get heartburn when I eat a large meal) could be caused by my eating badly (sugar, heavy cream sauces, and lots of pasta.)

She referred me to the website of a nutritionist and suggested I try the diet entitled the White Diet. It's supposed to let my GI tract recover from all the abuse I've been tossing at it.

So I'm trying it. What can it hurt? Here's the gist of what I can't have for the next three days:

No fats, fiber, protein, dairy, artificial sweeteners, tea, coffee, fruit juices or flavored beverages.

What I can have has become a very small list: Plain rice with no pepper, Rice Krispies, Rice Chex, chicken Ramen, and Cream of Wheat (but I wouldn't touch that stuff normally.)

I'm sitting here munching Rice Krispies with no milk on them.

I also have to keep to a fairly strict diet for about two weeks after the three days of White Diet hell are over, just to get my system behaving again.

Just as a note: I HATE my Krispies without milk.

Here's a link to the page on her site: http://www.karenhurd.com/concern_bowel_disease.html


PS: The therapist also suggested that I might have Asperger's (I've heard this from three different experts now, so I've probably got it.) Someday I'll get this particular disability documented, too, but for now I'm just coping with having two papers due this weekend and being stuck on a rice diet.

PS: I failed already. Guess I'll start over tomorrow. What can I do when there's fast-food pizza being thrown at me from all directions?

Ta,
Bec

Wishing That the Plot Had Moved Some...

3.03, here we go!









SPOILER LINE





This episode had some funny moments, but had the distinct problem of not moving much ON. The only remotely plot-moving moment was when a goblin-possessed Gaius looked at Morgana and read her soul for exactly what she's become, right down to the cold heart and the evil.

Merlin had some cute expressions (oh, come on, he gets cuter every WEEK this show is on...) Gwen let one rip in front of Arthur (seriously, I have IBS. I'm probably sooner or later going to let one rip in front of a guy. Let it go, get it over it, if he really has the hots for you he'll laugh at you and you'll laugh with him and it'll all be good.) Merlin was a bit nasty and made Arthur bray for a couple of days after he got donkey ears (you know what? He thinks Arthur needs an ego slap, that's what that is.) Morgana got a couple of evil expressions in. Uther went bald.

That said, it was funny but not that funny. I hate to trash my favorite show, but this was the worst I've seen in a while. Next week we get Gwain, so things should improve from there.

Ta,
Bec

Two Steps Back, Four Steps Forward

So, here's my thoughts on the first two episodes of Merlin Series 3. Please be aware that there are spoilers in here and if you don't wanna know then don't look.







SPOILERS




First off, I believe that Uther's paranoia is going to increase merely because he isn't listening to anyone anymore, including Gaius. He says he doesn't have time for friends-that's a good indicator of how bad things have become.

As I stated before, Morgana is only back in Camelot to cause trouble, and she seems to get that Merlin doesn't trust her right from the off.

Merlin's main worry (and rightly so) is about Morgana telling Uther that Merlin poisoned her last year, and while Morgana SAYS she understands, note that she doesn't include herself when she says, "You were just protecting your friends." Merlin wants to believe she's still good but in this episode he finds out he can't trust her.

Morgana has also become great at bullshitting people. Just saying.

Arthur is showing far more affection for Morgana than before-possibly because she's been missing. Last series he wouldn't have hugged her the way he did here. It also may indicate that he's more comfortable with hugged and being hugged (proof that he's grown up a smidge.)

Arthur's swordwork has also improved.

It's interesting to see Arthur taking on the king duties, even temporarily. He's still got that deep underconfident streak we've seen before, and it hinders him a touch here when the kingdom needs a leader and he just can't step forward and do it. It's not because Arthur's afraid-it's because he doesn't believe he can.

Morgana being rotten to Gwen might get her in trouble with Arthur (or Gwen will go to Merlin and spy for him.)

Morgause is SO sleeping with Cenred.

Cenred's got a paid army here. Paid armies are A)expensive B)not entirely reliable-if you start to lose they might take off.

So, Uther's Sin Reveal Number One: He drowned magical people, including little kids.

The Bloodguard protect Morgana and Morgause. Betcha they're easy to plow through, though. Wonder if Merlin's gonna have to.

Merlin feels pity for Uther in his time of crazy and pulls the blankets up over him. What a sweetie, huh?

Either Morgana's hearing has gotten better or her weak magic can detect when someone's following her, because she LET Merlin trail her all the way out to her meeting with Morgause. His penchant for stalking her EVERYWHERE gets him in trouble this time. Guess he won't be doing that again.

Note that even in a panic and while running for the hills, Merlin realizes that using magic around Morgana and Morgause is a stupid idea. It's his ace in the hole-the longer that detail stays mum the better. It gives him an edge they don't know he has (yet.)

Morgause is already questioning Merlin's motives. Not that he's talking. She knows there's something going on but can't quite make the leap to superbly magical being. I say go look him up. She's gotta have access to one of the books written about the kid...

Well, they didn't put Merlin in the dungeon but the nasty silvery magical chains were close enough, I guess. Adding the circids into the mix really upped the ante, and once poisoned, Merlin's Dragonlord powers just kind of take over and make him call for Kilgarrah, who saves him.

By the way, has anyone made sense of where Morgause got her Rock of Seeing Muchly? I have a feeling that chunk of stone has a relationship to the Crystal of Neahtid we saw last year, save for hers can see the present and that one could see the future.


Episode 2

Of course, like Morgana's poisoning of last year, Merlin needs time to get over it.

Loved Arthur's bitching because Merlin was missing and he had no socks and no breeches.

Morgana causes smoke in a stone castle. So why are Leon and the others worried so much? Guess there might be wooden supports somewhere...

Uther must think she's one of his nightmares or something-he has to see Morgana tightening the noose on the mandrake...

Merlin and the dragon have a very mature, very adult conversation. And note how they're almost at eye level here. Merlin regrets his mistakes but the dragon's all "Well, that's who you are and it'll be your downfall and you're okay, you know?" This is the first scene where we see Merlin really HAS moved forward as far as character growth. He has matured big time.

I also might note that I said, "Go, Thwart, Be Awesome!" while watching him flying back to Camelot on his realio, trulio, little pet dragon...

Arthur is wearing his mother's ring. We saw it on Igraine's hand here and then we see it on Arthur's later.

Merlin does his usual handling of magical objects he doesn't understand and doesn't have time to assess by whipping the mandrake root in the fire and covering his ears when it screams. Subtle and effective, however.

Leon looks freaked (oh, you're a regular. They're not gonna kill YOU, Leon!)

Merlin yells at Arthur about the state of his room. I LOVED this scene to PIECES.

Morgana's WTF look when Merlin reappears unchained and alive is simply priceless.

She threatens Merlin with "I know what you did last year and I can go tell Uther, so keep your trap SHUT about my evil plot, MKAY?" I wouldn't be threatening him, however, seeing as the more powerful magical one here is him and he can kick your ass.

Arthur finally decides he has to make a decision despite his doubts. He looks very small in Uther's chair for some reason. When they walk out of the meeting, Merlin's all bouncy and gives him a pep talk, and tries to advisor-ize him. Arthur's having none of it, however, if his "God help me" is any indication to go by.

Morgana with her big stick thing. She's not real sure this will work, but Morgause is trusting her not to screw up.

Arthur likes pickled eggs. Huh.

I have to say I really loved Merlin and Arthur's conversation here. Last week was very far back from where we were last series. This conversation makes it four steps forward again. This is really the moment I have been waiting for since I started watching this series-it had Arthur needing a pep talk and Merlin giving him one and telling him how awesome he's going to be and them insulting each other like always. Keep it coming.

It's also interesting that this particular conversation comes not at the end of the series, but pretty near the beginning. Makes you wonder how far they'll be at the end of this round of episodes.

I am not going to say this is like Helm's Deep or Pirates of the Caribbean because everyone is saying that.

Morgana didn't clonk Gaius because it would have been too obvious if she'd knocked him senseless in her chambers, an area where none of the battle happened to be.

And she summons an army of the dead. Whoo!

Merlin, of course, goes off to beat Morgana up.

Merlin is VERY close to confessing his magical abilities here. It was on his tongue, you could SEE it. However, this is neither the time, place, or person to be having these confessions with, and I still think that if she knew, Morgana would have him turned in for sorcery in a heartbeat because he's always in her way (and she'd be mad that he didn't tell her before on top of that.)

This marks the third time that Merlin has stopped Morgause. And first time he's hit Morgana with a ceiling. Morgause is getting more suspicious all the time, here. Ceilings don't fall in by themselves, you know...

Cenred's army runs away cause he's a chicken. Guess Morgause will have to find someone else to sleep with now.

How many people believe that she is going to be pretty pissed that Morgana failed her? I wonder if there's a small crack forming in that sisterly bond now that she screwed up Morgause's big plan?

Poor Merlin doesn't get credit for stopping the skeletons-she does. And ooh, the look of hatred there is definitely an indicator that these two are going to have their little war right under Uther's paranoid nose.

Next week: Goblins and a bald Uther and Gaius spitting drink in Leon's handsome face.

Internet Has Been Down Here

I have no idea how long I'll have a signal today. The Internet has been down here, along with the phone, for the past three days and I am rushing to get things done in case the signal dies again.

I will update on Merlin hopefully before next week Monday. It was a two-parter so I'm going to do them both at once.

Gotta go do homework before I lose the 'Net.

Ta,
Bec

A Little Information Would Save Me So Much Pain

So, kids, when you're walking around in the pantry and your Dad broke the big upper pantry shelf last weekend, it would be extremely-nay-HORRIFICALLY stupid of him to remember that there's glass from said broken big upper pantry shelf in the way of you finding breakfast.

And of course, you'd have socks on and step right onto the glass like the idiot that you are. Of course you would.

And you'd run upstairs after not finding anything for breakfast down there, only to discover your sock is red and wet because, genius, you cut your foot open on the glass that was downstairs that Dad forgot about.

This is what happened to me this morning, and of course Mom was sick today. So she needed the bathroom right then and I was trying to find bandages to treat my poor toe with, and I wound up tracking blood from one end of the house to the other.

And because Mom was sick and Dad was busy worrying about her and Spritey and Whisper are no good for anything, I had to hop to the kitchen on my non-bleeding foot with a washcloth between the toes of the other foot, trying to wrap the wound and walk at the same time. Then I had to figure out the bandage for myself and keep pressure on the cut so I didn't get my O-negative all over the damn kitchen.

Thank goodness it's a clean cut and mostly shallow so I'm not too badly hurt, but the initial bleed was something to behold. I haven't bled that much by accident for years.

It's bound good and tight now and I think the worst is over as far as that goes. I don't even have a limp and it doesn't really hurt. And best of all, I didn't have to sit there and pick glass out of it, which would have made things much, much worse indeed.

Merlin premieres tomorrow. Joy! Rapture! Elation in spades!

Ta,
Bec

I Got A Little Angry...

And when someone leaves a handy broken pantry shelf lying around, what more can I do but smash the thing to bits?

We can walk through the basement again without worrying about our limbs. It isn't pretty and there's certainly work that needs to be done but I made some nice progress this morning.

And Dad made an accidental hole in his crap in the middle of the basement so I'm now peeling away at that. I hope to reach his shelf of stuff by tomorrow and clear it off.

Messing with me isn't a good idea...especially if he didn't want me tossing out more of his junk down there.

Ta,
bec

Going Backwards

Yesterday morning we were 99.9 percent done cleaning the basement. We could get through it. We could walk without tripping over anything at all.

The shop door neatly closed. The food cans were within easy reach. It was, for a few days, like gliding through a dream...

I knew this dream was too good to last. Sometime yesterday morning, Dad hammered on the already-unstable upper pantry shelf and sent it crashing into the shelves where our canned food supply is. He didn't damage any of the actual shelves save the one that was already bent to hell anyway.

All of our camping supplies, which were neatly up on the shelf and weren't bothering anyone, are now STACKED IN THE SHOP WE JUST FINISHED CLEANING. And in the doorway of the shop. And here. And there. So, to have room to WALK down there, we must now move them to the unworking van in the yard. The boards my dad had UP on the top shelf and just had to put EVERYWHERE now have to be taken out.

Oh, how I love it when he makes me do more work on purpose...

There's also one last stupid roll of insulation that came down with everything else. Just when I thought we were done with the horrid pink stuff, here comes MORE of it...

And wouldn't you know the guy's supposed to be coming to inspect our basement THIS WEEK and Dad has yet again made a mess down there.

When Mom gets home, we are going to attack that basement with the same ferocity that got the shop clean, and we're going to remove every single board he's stacked down there to the dump. If he keeps it up, we'll have every board he stacked within ten feet of this house taken care of.

My dad messed with the wrong women if he thinks we're giving up.

Ta,
Bec

Ow Doesn't Really Cut It In These Cases...(Or "What I Did With My Summer Vacation")

I've been telling you about the room we cleaned, that Shop in the basement that had all the epicness of epic trials and Norse sagas.

Here's a link to an entry I posted a few weeks ago when we were still working on it...http://becca-blog-bec.blogspot.com/2010/08/its-getting-there.html

Now you're gonna see pictures! We're 99.9 percent done with the whole freaking business and I want you to see it all, from beginning to end...

One of the first days...



Pool table next to the truck. Over by the shelf thing by the copper piping is where the other door is, where the first picture was taken from. For a long time we couldn't walk through one door and go out of the garage door unless we wanted to go up the front of the truck and climb around. We also couldn't get to the back of the room unless we climbed on the stuff. We had to go around by the basement door and go IN the other side if we wanted a safe route.



There's the back of the truck with the tank on it...



The OTHER side of the room.



After the truck had gone, there was still work to do. You can see the moldy sheetrock leaning on the one wall, and the saw against the other.



There's the sheetrock, broken down into more manageable pieces and thrown in a pile. For the record, I hate sheetrock. It's dusty, it's messy, it smears on cement, and this stuff STANK.



There's some more, but some of it was gone by this point. Look, there's a path!



After the sheetrock was gone, there was still some stuff to get rid of, but this is much better...



This is today with the garage door shut. I'll post a better one here when I get the camera back (I had to use the camcorder to get this.)



To get a general idea of what we had to put up with this summer, here's a tally of the numbers on this project...

HAZARDOUS WASTE: 342 LBS.
SCRAP METAL: 600 LBS.
OTHER: 5 LBS.
REGULAR STUFF: 8,257 LBS.

TOTAL OF STUFF REMOVED: 9,204.5 LBS

Now note that that wasn't JUST the room you're viewing here. We kind of went overboard and did a lot of things in the rest of the house, too. And this doesn't include the scrap on the trailer and the truck and the tank on top of that.

But between the four of us women in this house we removed over a ton and change EACH. Add the other stuff and it's probably a good ton and a half, maybe even two tons each.

And now my muscles are aching from yesterday's saw lifting/saw throwing fun so I'm going to go soak myself in epsom salts.

Ta,
Bec

Having Gotten Up to 8 Pages...

I decided it's high and mighty time I post those damn notes and just get them off my hands. I want to fix one more thing and then I'll be done.

I would have hung on to them till next week but I'd probably wind up with a novel and you wouldn't finish reading by the 11th. I had to turn my computer in the bedroom back ON after I turned it off last night thanks to a theory I had in the bathtub. Had to get it down right then.

So I'm getting them out to you so that you can see them, as soon as I watch one more scene and write out the exact wording of the line I want to see uttered.

Done. Here they are. Enjoy!


NOTE FROM THE 7TH OF SEPTEMBER, 2010: There are theories down in this section that required me to revamp the old Dubois-Pendragon-Gorlois family tree. Recall that this could all be bull and when I have the right information it'll get updated to fit canon, but for now this is as it stands.









SPOILER LINE










This is a list of predictions for Merlin Series 3. There are spoilers for that series and the previous two in here. I assume here that most people have seen some bits of info about the next series and I talk freely about them. I also assume that people have watched the previous two series.

If you don’t want to know anything about Series 3, stop reading now. If you haven’t seen the two previous series, stop reading now and go watch them because they are made of awesome.

That said, these predictions and theories are meant to be speculation on my part. I have no idea if these will be canon. I don’t have any more insight than any other fan. These are purely to get you thinking. I am probably, most likely, dead wrong.

So, on with the show…








Merlin: In the intervening year between Series 2 and 3, Merlin has settled into the powers he inherited from his father, Balinor. (So new magic stuff. Yay!) He also will have had time to grieve both Balinor’s death and the loss of Morgana (more on that in a minute.)

He may have lost his mother, or she will have moved to Camelot to be closer to him (I fully expect Ealdor to have been or be roasted at some point in here, since they were an outlying, insignificant little village to begin with and they’re right in the middle of Uther and Cenred’s little war.) Who knows? She may have been living in Ealdor so that Balinor would know where to find her should he decide to come back. Since he’s gone and Merlin wouldn’t keep that info from her, she has no reason to stay there. She’d be better off in Camelot, actually, because there are high walls and Merlin there. She could work at the castle or something- there’s probably plenty of jobs to do.

I don’t think we’ll get it, but I would love to know something of Hunith’s family as well. She’s originally from Camelot and only left because she and Balinor were running away. Being a Dragonlord, even the last in the line, certainly doesn’t explain powers as extreme as Merlin’s are- Mum’s gotta donate some magical ability, too.

And I predict Merlin will NOT wind up in the dungeons in the first episode of this series, because that’s happened in the first episode of both of the previous series already. Maybe there’ll be less people getting locked up this year, eh?

His relationship with Arthur will be stronger (more medieval noogies!), and Merlin will be taking on more of the advisor/constant lifesaving companion role that we’ve seen him testing out in the two previous series. (And they’re going on a roadtrip together, so hopefully lots of snarky banter to be had. Also a bar brawl, which should be very awesomely fun to watch.)

His friendship with Gwen will not have changed. As a matter of fact, I keep thinking Gwen’s going to find out about the magic stuff before Arthur does. Note how he refused to judge Gwen last year on the whole Lance/Arthur debacle-now that’s the mark of a decent buddy…

His relationship with Gaius will have deepened in the last year and will continue to be a pseudo father-son thing. Expect more hugs.

His relationship with Morgana is beyond repair (though I have heard tell of a “relationship” coming sometime in the next couple of series. How very interesting…) Merlin can’t trust her anymore and she certainly no longer trusts HIM. This year will see them taking sides against one another-Merlin on one side and Morgana on the other. Merlin won’t like it, but he’ll probably wind up in some big spell-throwing battle with Morgana at the end of this year…we’ll see who comes off worse in THAT fight…

Merlin’s in a bit of a spot with Morgana, however-she doesn’t trust him at all and yet she still has Uther’s ear. If Morgana chooses to reveal to Uther that Merlin poisoned her last year or if she finds out that Merlin has magic, Merlin puts his own life-and ultimately Arthur’s, Gaius’, and Camelot itself- at risk. More than keeping the secret from Arthur and Gwen, Merlin will definitely have to keep it quiet from Morgana or risk execution. He will also have to keep Morgana in his sights and make sure she has no reason to turn him into Uther, or his magic will get revealed by accident. And if Morgause finds out, well, I don’t want to know what will happen but it will be ugly.

And you have to wonder how many times Merlin can get away with stopping Morgause and Morgana’s plans before he begins to come under their scrutiny (absolutely the last thing he needs.) If his magic is revealed to them, it would be just as bad as if Uther found out. He’s already stopped Morgause twice, and if she puts two and Merlin together it could be disaster for everyone AND him.

It could also mean that if she knew, Morgana could box Merlin in and manhandle him into doing something he doesn’t want, especially if she gets put in charge of Camelot because she’s busy driving Uther out of his mind. Ultimately it could mean Merlin has to leave Camelot and Arthur’s side or risk revealing the truth.

Merlin and the Dragon: Well, since Merlin’s a Dragonlord now and Kilgarrah’s been gone a year or so, I think their relationship will be much more friendly and nice. Good ol’ Killy is basically bound to help Merlin anyway thanks to the whole “I control you, get down here and help me because I saved your scaly hide last series” thing Merlin’s got going. So hugs all round. Mind the flames.


Uther: Just when we thought all of Uther’s sins were out in the light, along comes the writers to throw a couple more logs on the fire. Apparently Uther did some MORE stuff back in the day that is coming back to, pardon my French, bite him in the ass. With Arthur finding out the real truth about what happened to his mum and possibly finding out more about his family, it appears we’re going to get a litany.

Uther is becoming paranoid, thanks to his advisors being constantly silenced and his old demons coming back to haunt his nightmares. I don’t see how he could go after the magic people more than he already HAS, but I’m sure he’ll find some poor Druid to beat the hell out of and make himself feel better.

I have had this theory sitting in my mind for awhile and I want to address it-that of the circumstances surrounding Gorlois, Morgana’s father’s death, approximately ten to twelve years before the series starts. So you don’t have to search the entire episode of “To Kill the King” for the lines that are important I have put them here.

MORGANA: I only meant…I know what it’s like to lose a father.
UTHER: That was a terrible day. Your father was a great friend. (Morgana sniffs and looks down) I played no part in his death.
MORGANA: You sent him into battle. You promised him reinforcements and then gave him none. You sent him to his death.
UTHER: That is not true. It was never my intention…
MORGANA: But it happened! And it keeps on happening…

LATER ON…
UTHER: Your father was the greatest man I’ve ever known. He stood for everything this…kingdom represents. Truth, justice, valor. A hundred times he saved my life on the battlefield. His courage and his honor were without equal. (Kneels down and kisses the grave.) When Gorlois died, I lost the truest friend I ever had, for he was as fearless in questioning my judgment as he was in defending my kingdom. That’s the mark of a true friend.

(Quotes borrowed from my Merlin Series 1 Discs are as exact as I could transcribe ‘em)

Something never sat right with me and it still doesn’t-why on Earth anyone, even Uther, would leave their best friend alone, without backup, out on the battlefield to die? Warriors are often closer than brothers, and it appears that Gorlois and Uther had a pretty good relationship back in the day, enough that Uther took Gorlois’ daughter into his care when her father died. So why would Uther apparently not come to Gorlois’ aid and help him when he needed him?

Though Uther has claimed to have had no part in it and even showed remorse for what happened, note how in front of Morgana he immediately defends himself like he has something to hide. I suspect that Gorlois was assassinated because he posed some sort of threat to Uther’s kingdom and Uther let it happen. Whether Uther found out some treason (possibly magic-related) of Gorlois’ and had him killed, or whether Uther feared Gorlois would find out about something terrible he’d done and turn against him, I don’t know. But that particular death, and the way Uther explained it, just never made sense to me.

Anyone who’s watched Uther the last two years knows he WOULD hand over his best buddy if it meant eliminating one more naughty magic user, or someone guarding one (Morgause, or Gorlois’ wife, even possibly Morgana.) One thing we’ve learned is nobody (save Arthur)-is safe from Uther. Uther would also hand them over out of fear they would find something out about him that could potentially ruin his public image-say that Uther had slept with Morgana’s mother or Gorlois found out that Uther had used magic to have Arthur created. Gorlois might have been ready to expose his misdeed to everyone…and Uther would have silenced him to save his own reputation.

If Morgana learns about this, the results of her anger might be enough to level Camelot (and bury Uther under it.)

NOTE FROM 9.9.10: Richard Wilson, the guy who plays Gaius, might want some lessons in spoilering. He said in an interview yesterday that there is a HUGE revelation concerning Uther and Morgana coming up...and not even Gaius knew about it.

It could be one of these things:

1. Morgana is his daughter (unlikely. Uther would have been trying to have a child with his own wife at the time and it would be really, really awful of him to have had one with what we assume is his sister-in-law while Igraine couldn't seem to conceive.) Plus, Uther has said Morgana's a lot like Gorlois, and that wouldn't be possible if she was Uther's own child.

2. Morgause is his daughter (but that wouldn't concern Morgana.)

3. Uther killed Gorlois (or at least is responsible for his death.)

4. Uther had Morgana's mother (I am still calling her Elaine) burnt at the stake for doing magical stuff. But then Gorlois wouldn't have been friends with the guy who killed his wife, now would he? Maybe Elaine did something nasty and Gorlois had to disown her or risk his own life and the life of a very young Morgana.

5. Uther killed both of Morgana's parents (this would a combo of 3 and 4.)

Uther and Morgana’s relationship wasn’t all that happy at the end of last year, and though Uther has spent the last year looking for her with an obsessive sort of air, Morgana will only be found when she WANTS to be found. And when she does she’s coming back with new powers and with new loyalties. My guess is that Uther (who cares for Morgana just enough to have put up with her big mouth all this time) will find out where she really stands and either banish her or try to have her killed. However it goes, Uther, like Arthur, can’t stay oblivious to her evil for very long (I say end of series) and I think we’re going to see them go off against each other in some way. Expect more lovely fights.

I am beginning to wonder if Morgana isn’t the one who’ll be whispering things in the king’s ear. She is manipulative-we’ve seen it before-and an Uther afraid and terrified of his past is a more easily moved one. Why wouldn’t she try to damage his mind, make his nightmares chase him, cause his paranoia to become worse and worse until her voice is the only one he listens to? (Think Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings.) Then she could get whatever she wanted from him, up to and including:

Merlin banished/killed (locking him in the dungeon has never done any good)
Laws passed that she wants going after people she doesn’t like
Power (why not name her queen of Camelot, right? Right…)
A useless war that drains Camelot’s resources and defenses
Magical artifacts that Uther would only believe need containment, while Morgana’s using them for her own ends

Uther and Gaius’s relationship took a blow last series and Gaius is clearly not getting through to Uther on the whole massive Morgana search issue. My guess is that Uther is barely listening to even Gaius these days (like he did before, right?) and is barely taking advice from anyone, including his own son.

Uther and Arthur: Arthur, busy shouldering more of his father’s duties, will have to hold his tongue if he knows about his father’s sins. When he found out last series about his mum he wasn’t too happy, but recall that a year has passed and he’s older and wiser and hopefully less angry about the whole thing. I think it will wind up being a sad realization that there’s no fixing what Uther has done until Uther kicks the bucket and lets Arthur begin to repair the damage.

Just when I thought I was done writing all of this out, I had a crazy, half-mad theory start up in my head. This is mostly speculation, who KNOWS if half of this is right but I’m just gonna toss this out there and see what you all think. Hold on tight…

Okay, so, we begin with Uther, of course, young, unmarried (or just married) possibly even still a prince or just barely a king. We have Gorlois, his best bud, who’s either just married or will be soon.

Enter Igraine’s sister. We’ll call her Elaine for lack of a better name.

Maybe Uther hasn’t met Igraine yet. Maybe he’s got the hots for her but can’t seem to get through. So Uther goes for the sister, who’s with his best friend at the time, and sleeps with her. Then the consequences come in-she’s pregnant. Either she’s a young woman just married to Gorlois or she’s engaged, but Gorlois carries on thinking that the child is his own. She gives birth to a daughter whom both men assume dies at birth. But she doesn’t-she’s secreted out of the castle to the High Priestesses of the Old Religion, who even at this point Uther fears.

The years pass. Elaine gives Gorlois a daughter named Morgana and dies soon afterward, before Morgana ever remembers her. Igraine marries Uther and bears him a son before dying herself. Uther starts killing magical people left and right. Gorlois dies when Morgana is ten under mysterious circumstances, maybe because he was about to find out that his dead wife had had a child with Uther.

If this whole stupid story I just told you holds water, then someone should have a legitimate claim to the throne AHEAD of Arthur…and that someone is Morgause. I kept wondering why she keeps bothering Camelot, of all the places. She keeps nagging at them like she’s got some unfinished business at the place. She’s after Uther like every villain on this show seems to be, but what baffles me is everyone else who’s been mad at Uther has stated their reasons already. She hasn’t. We have no CLUE why this small and fierce blonde woman is repeatedly attacking Camelot. If Uther Pendragon is out of the way, then Morgause can take over and bring magic back to Camelot. She doesn’t give a damn about Arthur-he’s no threat to her anyway (she has no quarrel with him.)

I thought it was odd that when confronted with who Morgause might really be, Uther’s first response is “I was led to believe that the child had died.” Why was he told anything? Did he play some part in Morgause’s birth? She may wear the bracelet of Gorlois but is Morgause really a Pendragon?

You still with me? Right. Onto Morgana…


Morgana: We’ll definitely find out where she’s been, what she’s been doing with her lovely half-sister Morgause (who’s been training her in All Things Evil) and finally get the family tree we’ve been waiting for (this I’m hoping for. Let’s get this whole family business aired out so we can get on with watching Morgana go badder.) I say her and Morgause’s mother is named…ELAINE. In the original legend, Igraine was their mother and Elaine was the third sister. From what I can see, she has gained some powers and it appears she attacks Merlin with some sort of staff thing.

Once again, I believe she’s going to have to leave Camelot at some point and never come back. She can only look neutral for so long and if Uther finds out what she’s really up to she will have to leave or risk her cause.

There’s this theory that’s been tossed about several times: Morgana killing Morgause. I want to put it out there because I really think this idea holds water. Morgause is manipulative and brilliant-she could be hiding something pretty fantastic and bad in that blonde head of hers and Morgana, well, Morgana has a quick temper. If she loses it accidentally, if she gets angry, even with all the training Morgause has given her she’s probably likely to go boom. And it’ll be far worse than the curtains going flamey and the windows blowing out. Morgause might even be controlling her. I suspect these evil witch people are like the Sith Lords in Star Wars-there can only be two of them around, one in a servant position and one in a master position. If there are two Sith Lords who want to be master, they have to kill each other because there’s just not a universe big enough for both their egos and their badness. Morgause might have been the servant to Nimueh. When Nimueh dies, she takes on the role of master. She takes Morgana as servant. When Morgause dies, Morgana becomes master. You see what I’m getting at here?

Speaking of Nimueh, there’s continued and stupid rumors she’s coming back from the dead. I don’t think so. We have enough on our hands with Morgause-let’s not toss another bad witchie on top of everything else.

But I do think someone’s gonna trap Merlin in a crystal cave this year related to the Crystal of Neahtid from last series (it’s either Morgana or Morgause that does it. Let’s say Morgana.)More than likely I am wrong again. Nimueh’s supposed to do it but unless she can get back from the thorough and complete toasting that Merlin gave her at the end of Series 1, she probably isn’t.

And no Mordred this year because the kid playing him was busy doing the Nanny McPhee movie.


Arthur: Arthur is going to have grown a mile since last year’s dragon hunting expedition. As Uther slips into madness Arthur’s going to have to take some responsibilities he hasn’t had before-maybe some admin duties and council meetings and some such stuff. There may be times when he can’t run off and deal with something outside of Camelot because someone has to stay home and maintain the kingdom while he’s away and there’s no one else to do the job. (Well, who’s he going to leave in charge-Leon?)

His love for Gwen hasn’t changed, but we will probably see some major bumps in the road as Lancelot pops in for an episode and supposedly Arthur gets married to some princess because they’re in the middle of a war with King Cenred (the same that rules over the ridge of Aesctir and Ealdor, Merlin’s home village.) I have a feeling the marriage won’t last very long, however, and Arthur and Gwen may find themselves in a better place at the end of the year. Gwen may become more of an advisor to Arthur as he takes on more king duties this series. Good relationships always gotta go through the fire to get better, especially in a high-concept drama series.

His relationship with Morgana can only get worse. Her loyalties will become crystal clear this series and Arthur can’t help but view that as an act of treason.

Arthur is taking on more of the kingly properties we’ve come to know him for, mostly because Old King Giles-Uther the Paranoid is beginning to lose his marbles.

Arthur also will learn the final, unadulterated truth about whatever the hell happened to get him born. And hopefully some family stuff will be going down. This could be interesting. Suffice it to say we don’t have all the details yet.


Gwen: Gwen herself is gaining a brother this year, who I suspect will become one of Arthur’s knights (Gawain’s taken. How about Kay? Or Percival?) We’ll learn more about her family. I expect she’s not just a blacksmith’s daughter but is something much more important-maybe a noblewoman? She also appears to travel a bit on her own this year so that’ll be fun to watch.

Gwen and Lancelot: Gwen will continue to be torn between Arthur and Lancelot, and this isn’t likely to change or get better since Arthur is supposedly getting hitched to some princess in an arranged marriage (this is a rumor, but seriously, there’s some blonde in a pretty dress sitting next to him at a banquet. What do you THINK is happening there? They obviously are in a war, they need allies, and Arthur getting married to someone of nobility is Uther’s best chance of getting those allies.) I suspect this will upset Gwen terribly.

Gwen and Morgana: As with all of Morgana’s relationships in Camelot, this relationship is destined to sink into the mire. Morgana snapped at Gwen last year-it’s only a hint, I believe, of what she was becoming at the time. Gwen might become a spy for Arthur, telling him what Morgana’s doing (or Morgana might suspect the very same and be all defensive.) Either way, Gwen will be pretty devastated by the detonating of their friendship.


Gaius: I really, really want to predict his death but since I did that last year (and it backfired) I really, really won’t predict it this series. (Now watch. He’ll snuff it in episode 13 and I’ll be kicking myself for years afterwards.) I think he’ll die at some point-maybe in Series 5 when Uther kicks it-but there’s a reduced role for Gaius this year, maybe a smidge of development character-wise (I hear tell of a love interest!) and not much else.

You came all the way to the end with me (bravo!), so what do you think? Am I just rambling or have I made you think? Let me know! Bec