More Avatar casting news here, for those who are interested. It's uh. Mixed.

Karen Aich and I discuss it here, and I am incited to use regrettable language.

It occurs to me as interesting that the same technique is crucial to survival in both extremely cold and extremely hot climates; breathe through your nose. Noses: useful for more than just keeping bugs out of your sinuses!

I wanted to say on the topic of Merlin (Okay, first, re: 113, did anyone else find it hilarious that Gaius riding looks like an empty oil-drum in the back of a pickup truck going down a dirt road? (Technically a spoiler, I guess, sorry if knowing Gaius' butt touches a horse ruins the episode for anyone)) the rules of magic( spoiler )

ALSO on the subject of Merlin, I gather from third-hand reactions that someone somewhere has accused Merlin (either the fandom or the show, I'm really not clear) of something, and in case they were accusing the canon of being bad, I wish to immediately defend it by noting it is no more bad than the Pope is Catholic, and the accusation is similarly useless for defamatory purposes.

( super-serious Avatar icons, third season spoilers )

( Yuletide: Aladdin, XKCD, Avatar, Masqueraders, The Blue Sword, Discworld )

ALSO: have finished Avatar and my conclusion is that it could be better, if there were more of it. Tragically, the fanfiction as a whole appears to be ... not very good. I've found the yuletide stuff, which is lovely (see above), and am shaking down my friends and acquaintances trying to make them write more, but this is slow going, and they tend to resist. Does anyone have fic recs? kphoebe is asking for them here and please believe I am watching her comments with KEEN INTEREST.

re: Avatar also, yes, Toph is keen, but Sokka is still first in my heart. Or maybe Iroh. Or maybe Zukko. And if you're not mentally casting them as Robin, Nightwing, and Batman, then I bet you are now that I've put the idea in your head.

In our normal manner, stimulated to creativity by Fail, karen and I have been watching Avatar together, undeterred by the disparity of geography and timezones. We're only to the end of the first season, and could no longer contain our enthusiasm. The following is (Karen and Betty's Reasons You Should Watch Avatar, with Occasional Pictures (and Lies)).