Booties done

They're exactly the way I wanted them, I just love squishy booties. I'll be posting the pattern to my pattern blog once I clean it up and make sure it's easy to follow.

I used Bernat Baby Blanket yarn, which is a very thick, rope-like velour yarn. I used a K hook and the pair can be made in a day's time. They're actually a little snug, so I'll adjust it a bit when I make another pair. I don't think I'll need more than a couple more stitches added on to get them to fit right. They do fit, and will probably stretch to fit my feet. It's why I'm not ripping them out.

That's my granddaughter Kadi who's modeling them. She's only three, but she's a real cutie.

The creative tribble is nibbling

I've been sitting here making the knit booties and it occurred to me that a similar design could be done in crochet. It wouldn't look like the knit ones, of course, but the design would be basically the same-start at the sole, decrease in the instep to form the bootie and then crochet on a ribbed top. Best thing about it will be that, once done, it can be crocheted together using slip stitch.

Anyway, when I get yarn and hook together I'll write it down and put it in my pattern blog so it can be shared. I always like to have crochet versions of knit projects so that my friends who don't knit can have a pattern too.

Booties

I finished one, but it needs work. It looks real nice, but the foot is too small. The top ribbing is fine, so I think I'll have to adjust it by making the foot in the next size and decrease down to the first size for the top ribbing. I also think I want to make turned cuff, so the ribbing will have to be longer.

That's the way it is with knitting, adjusting the pattern to meet your needs, which means not always making it exactly as directed. I was right though, the k1p1 ribbing looks much better than the k2p2, though that's a matter of personal taste. Since I'll be wearing them I will make them the way I like them.

They do look like the photo in the pattern, so I'm doing good.

The changes I made were trivial-I sewed the extra sole on before sewing the bootie together, then I sewed from the top ribbing all the way around to the toe in one big seam, catching both thicknesses when I reached the sole. And, as I said before, I did k1p1 ribbing at the top.

The next changes will be making the large size foot and decreasing to the medium ankle ribbing. It will make the bootie itself slightly larger, unless I put some extra decreases into a few rows to make it come out right. I'll decide as I go on that.

More to come when I start the revised bootie.

ETA: I've decided on a two-color pair since I'm redoing them anyway. I'm going to make the main part in the same color as the previous one-pale purple, then do the outer sole and ribbing in black. I think that'll look really nice together.

Also, I think that sewing the outer sole together and the bottom of the bootie together separately is a bad idea-to me, that means the two won't be attached to each other and could be a cause for concern. My way seems better-sew the strip to the bootie where it's supposed to go on the outside, then fold in half with right sides together and sew the back of the bootie, sewing through both layers of the sole at the same time when you get to them makes better sense, then the two are joined, no slippage and you still have a double thick, comfy sole.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas

I know I did. No, I didn't get a ton of presents, but I didn't want a ton of presents. I did get a new-to-me laptop.

Someone gave my son a Dell Inspiron e1505 that still works, though it has a few bugs. Nothing to do with the way it works, though, let me be more specific:

It needs a battery. The battery is bad and isn't even being detected, easily replaced when I get the money.
The left shift key is missing. Not an insurmountable problem, just a matter of training my right hand to do the shifting.
The touchpad only partially works. I can move the cursor around, tap and right-click, but the left-click button doesn't work and it doesn't scroll. I can scroll using the arrow keys and if I need to click/drag something I can use the wireless mouse I installed on it until I can get a new touchpad.

See? No problem that isn't insurmountable, especially considering my other computer blinked at the slightest vibration. See, it has a loose plug-in connector so anytime it jiggled even a little, my screen would blink. Also, my touchpad on that one doesn't work at all, hence the wireless mouse.

The best thing about the new computer? It has a bigger screen. A smaller HDD, but I don't need a lot of space, and I'll get a case for the one out of my other computer and turn it into a backup since it's larger.

All in all, I like the Dell better.

Now, for something totally unrelated...

I found a free knitting pattern for a pair of adult booties. They look very comfy and I'm about halfway through completing the first one. However, I don't like purling two together through the back loop, nor knitting two together through the back loop, so I'm doing a ssk there. Gonna try a ssp on the flip side and see how that works, the ssk is certainly much easier to accomplish.

Also, I'm going to swap the k2p2 top ribbing and do k1p1 ribbing instead. I like the 1x1 ribbing, I think it looks neater and hugs the ankle better than 2x2 ribbing. other than that, I'm knitting them as instructed.

Booties

Click the link above to see them and I'll post pictures as soon as I get them done. I'm using pale purple yarn to do them with.

Merry Christmas Everybody

We spent Christmas Eve at my son's apartment and I had a really good time. Times are tough, so gifts weren't in abundance, but gifts are not what Christmas is all about, at least not getting a ton of gifts isn't, it's the thought behind what gifts you did get that counts.

Take the laptop that my son gave me. No, it isn't new, someone gave it to him because the battery doesn't work, the touchpad partially works and it's missing the left shift key. Despite all this, the computer itself looks pretty good, it's not beat up and it works. The screen is bigger than my other laptop and my other laptop screen blinked on and off at the slightest jar or jiggle.

Now, I can train my right hand to do the shifting, I can purchase a new battery (eventually), and I plugged in the wireless mouse from my other laptop to this one so I could scroll and click/drag things. All in all, despite having a smaller hard drive, this computer is better than my other one, so my son got a hug and a kiss from his very surprised mom.

My SIL got us a pair of Nerf guns that shoot small Nerf darts. His reasoning was that if we get mad enough at each other to want to shoot each other at least the Nerf darts won't kill us. Hubs will probably use his to get my attention when he's trying to say something to me.

Speaking of Hubs, he cooked the most delicious sirloin steak dinners for everyone.

So, all in all, it was a very good Christmas and I'm not complaining one bit.

Really Amused

Now that I've calmed down from the fracas that happened on the BBS, I'm really quite amused. Before I go any farther, I actually got an apology from the poster. An apology of sorts-he'd started an offbeat 'Merry Christmas' thread in the general/spam forum and I responded with a Merry Christmas to him. Anyway, nothing more need be said, things have calmed down and are back to normal-for a BBS, that is.

What am I amused about? He had not only accused me of lying (misunderstanding doesn't constitute lying, but that's semantics), baiting (none was intended, it was inferred) and 'throwing my weight around'. It's this last that has me so amused.

Why? Well, unlike a lot of people, my online persona is not much different from my RL persona. In fact, both are so close as to be indistinguishable from each other. I have many friends on that BBS who I only know through that BBS and have never met in RL, though if we did meet, they would know me, I'm just the same. Anyway, my RL friends, who are mostly members of the church I attend, would look at you like you were an alien if you were to ever tell them that the middle-aged lady sitting off by herself knitting socks likes to throw her weight around (all 200 lbs of it). It should be the same for the people who only know me online. Heck, I mostly read in the forum I'm moderating and usually let the other mod do most of the talking in there, so when, through all the swearing and general orders to 'f***k off', he said I liked throwing my weight around, I couldn't do much but sit there and chuckle. I even told him (and he probably didn't even bother reading it-at the time) that I could probably count on one hand the number of times I'd ever handed out a warning in that forum and that his accusation was BS.

Nevertheless, we've both pretty much let things slide, whether it's because of the holidays or what I really don't care. I don't like conflict and am a big fat chicken who will run and hide in the corner when it comes up. I'll sit in my corner and knit socks until things cool down, IOW.

Anyway, Merry Christmas again.

Merry Christmas

Why does such a simple phrase send many people into a complete rage? Why are corporations afraid to wish their customers a Merry Christmas and instead go for the generic and not very holidayish Happy Holidays? I know there are many holidays celebrated during this season such as

Christmas-the most widely celebrated, especially for Christians
Hanukkah-I hope I spelled that right. Jewish holiday
Kwanzaa-Not exactly sure what it's all about, but I've heard of it
Ramadan-Celebrated by Islam as a holy day of some kind.

Now, I don't pretend to even know what any of them are all about because I don't celebrate any of them. heck, I barely celebrate Christmas anymore, except we provide a steak dinner for the immediate family-us and the kids/grandkids and get one present each for each grandkid. This is fine, I don't need anything. Sure, I want lots of stuff, stuff I don't need and only want for want's sake and would probably tire of quickly like any kid with a new toy who puts it down and plays with the box it came in more than he does the toy.

So what is inherently wrong with wishing someone whatever holiday it is you celebrate and let them wish you whatever holiday they celebrate? I would not be offended if someone wished me Happy Hanukkah instead of Merry Christmas, I would just smile and say "Merry Christmas to you.".

Political Correctness needs to go out the window somewhere, and I say we start with holidays. Don't glare people down for wishing you a Merry Christmas, just smile and thank them, they aren't trying to be anything except nice people wanting to wish everyone Merry Christmas whether you celebrate it or not.

Christmas is not a swear word, I don't see why I should be looked at as if I just said one when I wish someone a Merry Christmas.

Continued

From my previous post.

When all is said and done, what someone else said on that BBS I mentioned makes perfect sense. It went something like this.

"At the end of the day, it's just not worth it. You can't argue with people on a BBS, you don't know them and they don't know you and it's just not worth the aggravation."

Those aren't his exact words, but more like a paraphrase. He's right though. Why that person decided to round on me like an angry tiger is beyond me, when a simple explanatory post would have sufficed. This particular person is known for over-the-top reactions. just about a week before, he'd had a video removed from the same BBS because it was posted with no warnings at all that it contained disturbing content and the mod of that forum felt that it was put there to inflame or bait people. Now taking the video down was probably a bit extreme, but not beyond his discretion as a mod and someone else likely would have edited the video out and put in a link with appropriate warnings instead, but that's not what happened. The person then went on a (non-warnable that time) tear about it, then came back later and apologized, stating that a RL problem had prompted the outburst. To come onto a BBS and take RL frustrations out on someone who had nothing to do with this person's problem is inexcusable and his outburst to me, for whatever reason, was also inexcusable. I did not once come back to him in kind and explained myself as respectfully as I knew how, given the circumstances, then backed off.

It helps that I have some members who are backing me, not necessarily agreeing with my decision for singling out his post, but agreeing that his reaction was inappropriate and the warning was deserved. For that I am appreciative.

Moderating and BBSs

Yeah, I'm a moderator and it's a thankless job. No, I'm not getting paid to do it, I volunteered when I was asked. I'm actually a type of floating mod who can go into any forum and moderate it if it needs be, which is something I do for other mods when they need a break from their own forums. I'm also an official moderator of a forum, along with someone else and that forum can get quite heated sometimes.

Like yesterday. A topic was getting heated, and an admin had posted a cool-it, meant to cool things down. Things were still getting a bit heated over something else, so another mod of a different forum posted a reminder that a cool-it was in effect. A little later on I posted to another poster who was concerned that what she posted might have violated the cool-it (it didn't). Another post further up the thread, in my opinion, skated close with some very distasteful, but not vulgar, euphemisms in it and I mentioned that one as being close and reminded people yet again that there was a cool-it. That poster then went on a tear against me with all sorts of vulgar language, accusing me of baiting him and saying he violated the cool-it, going so far as to report me after his vulgar attack post to me, btw (not that I'm complaining about that, it's his right to report me, even if I didn't do anything wrong). In his report he accused me of saying he violated the cool-it (which I did not, just that it was close).

Anyway, I warned him for that attack on me and the attacks continued, against me and another mod who was simply correcting him about what I'd said. He had accused me several times in the thread of saying he'd violated the cool-it (a warnable offense, btw), calling me a liar and generally telling me and the other mod off in very vulgar language. When she finally simply quoted the relevant passage to clarify, then he went off, changing his tune and still calling us liars, that he did not come 'close' to violating the guidelines.

Now, I'd be willing to admit that I misunderstood his post, which was probably trying to inject humor into the situation, even if there was no indication of such-such as some kind of smilie face or even the words "j/k, it's a joke, something, but there was not, so I erred on the side of caution. However, due to the tear he went on, ironic since the thread was about posters going on a tear, I'm not inclined to say anything else, in fact, I've stepped back and let the administrators and the other mod of the forum handle it.

If he had come back with another post that calmly explained "Hey, I was just injecting some humor into the situation." instead of telling me off in such vulgar language, none of that would have happened. I would have acknowledged it and explained that I found it offensive myself, but not in violation of the cool-it (again). There was no need to go off on me like an atom bomb and not once did I sink to his level when I was explaining his misunderstanding or even when I warned him, yet he continued and continues to berate both me and the mod who came to my defense.

What I'd like to say to him would have me sinking to his level, so I'm not, it's not worth it and he's not worth it. I'll just do the next best thing-create a bad guy character in a story and beat the crap out of him like he's verbally beating the crap out of me for doing my job-my unpaid, volunteer, thankless, but one I enjoy, job.

Let me get one thing straight

Any who may read this may think that I don't like Anna Torv or Olivia Dunham. They couldn't be more wrong.

The fact is, I like Olivia Dunham-the ORIGINAL Olivia Dunham, not that cheap imitation Torv seems so infatuated with to the point that the writers babied the character all through her undercover assignment.

I'll go so far as to say I love the original Dunham and I highly dislike (can you tell?) the alternate.

I really like Peter Bishop too, but the writers have written him so dumbassed during the undercover assignment that he missed every clue that screamed in his ear that he wasn't sleeping with HIS Olivia. He should have seen through her by the end of 6955kHz, when Red faltered in remembering that string of numbers he asked her about.

That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it. RedOlivia is a Mary Sue!

Yes, I do hope someone from the show sees this and tells Torv about it. I love Olivia Dunham, but as far as Red is concerned they can make her the sex slave of a band of Nietzscheans for all I care. At least then justice would have been done for all the murder victims she left behind who have no justice. As for what she did to Peter? Well, I blame Peter for thinking with his....well....peter and not listening to that voice screaming at him that this was not Olivia Dunham.

Playing with banners

In honor of my previous post I made a banner showing my feelings, then sent it to my best friend as a Christmas present. She told me that was the best gift she'll probably receive. We've even displayed them in our sigs at the BBS we both mod at to show our feelings and hope that one day someone from the staff of Fringe will actually see it.

Yes, I know not everyone will agree with me on that. Certainly not Anna Torv, who is infatuated with her, nor the writers, who have babied her throughout her whole undercover assignment, then sent her home unscathed, essentially letting her get away with mass murder and homewrecking.

Anyway, here it is, for any to see, in all it's simplistic glory. Click to see full size:

To illustrate how easy it was, I used the Paint program that came with my Windows7 Ultimate OS. A simple matter of opening the picture, resizing it, extending the drawing field to the size I wanted the banner, coloring it and choosing the font to write in. I'm not a fancy person, but I didn't need fancy to get my point across.

Speaking of photo manipulation, I do a lot of that, but not in Paint. I only use Paint when it will be a simple matter of resizing/cropping pictures, simple filled backgrounds with text, etc. For more involved manipulation such as changing skin color/tone, adding other details, etc, where I need to transparentize the colors I'm using a bit and use the lasso tool to lasso only what I want to change, then I use Paint.net, which is a free image editing tool that's not quite as extravagant as PSP, but is easier to use than the GIMP. Paint.net and GIMP are the two free ones I would recommend, depending on your skill level. I've never used PSP so I can only say buy it if you can afford it, I've heard good things about it. I don't do fancy stuff, just photo manips for my friend for her fanfiction so she can visualize who she's writing about.

Mary Sue

Any author knows who/what Mary Sue is: From Wiki

a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly. The author may seem to push how exceptional and wonderful the "Mary Sue" character is on his or her audience, sometimes leading the audience to dislike or even resent the character fairly quickly; such a character could be described as an "author's pet".

This is exactly what alt-Olivia is, otherwise known as Red in my other writings. Why do I say this? Well, in the first two seasons of Fringe, Olivia was constantly put into danger in one way or another in each case she worked. Red, on the other hand, was not. In the eight weeks that she replaced Olivia she was not once put into any kind of danger. What she did, however, was to thwart the team's efforts in any way she could, killed or ordered killed a large number of innocent people and even killed her own ally shapeshifters when they were in danger of being captured. When she was caught, she got taken back to her own universe and didn't even face consequences for any of her actions. The most telling Mary Sue trait was that she suffered absolutely no ill effects from crossing universes-twice. And she didn't have Olivia's cortexiphan protection either. When she got back to the control room at her HQ, she had the most smug, self-satisfied look on her face that I'd ever seen, a look that I still want to slap off her face. IOW, I am not one bit infatuated with that pretender and professional trelk (Farscapians know what I mean).

Olivia, while in Redverse, was drugged, brainwashed, put into all kinds of danger on her cases and ended up almost eviscerated when they wanted to study her brain before sending her empty body back in place of Red when they brought her home. Once home, she has to deal with the aftermath of Red's treachery, the way she stole her life and stole her love. More than likely, the rest of S3 will focus on the two of them as they deal with the treachery that was Red while they work cases and try to stop Redverse from destroying their Blueverse. Peter will have to deal with the fact that he was a complete dumbass who refused to see Red for who she was, even though there were several times before he received that enlightening phone call telling him Olivia was trapped in Redverse when Red just screamed that she wasn't Olivia. I mean, come on, when he asked her to repeat the numbers in 6955kHz, she first stalled by asking why he wanted them. Then, when she struggled to remember them and faltered a bit, where the real Olivia would have simply rattled them off like her driver's license, Peter totally didn't catch on. Please.....pass me the gag bucket.

Even the actress admitted to being infatuated with Red, so did some of the writers/producers.

So, unless the writers have some plan for Red to pay for what she did, I call Mary Sue!

Changing recipes

Sometimes it pays off to alter recipes, even ones you've used for years. I have a chicken/rice casserole dish that my mom has made for years that's very simple-line a rectangular baking dish with foil, butter it and sprinkle on a cup of rice. Mix together a can of cream/mushroom soup, a can of water and a dash of lemon juice. Cut up a chicken and dip the pieces in the soup mixture and lay on top of the raw rice, then pour the sauce over all. Sprinkle a packet of onion soup mix over all, cover with foil and bake at 325F for two hours.

Now, don't get me wrong, this dish is delicious, but I've altered it a bit over the years. For one, I'm the only one who eats chicken since Hubs and chicken don't get along, so while I still use nearly a cup of rice (love rice) I don't use a whole chicken. Also, it's hard to use just a part of a can of soup.

Anyway, I've tried different cream soups, from asparagus to broccoli to celery, and added in a can of mushrooms (can't get enough mushrooms). Each time, the dish comes out slightly different, but really good. I can't remember the last time I used lemon juice, but the dish doesn't seem to have missed it.

Today I'm using four split breast pieces and putting it all in a square glass dish. The pieces aren't terribly large either, so that's about right. I used about three-quarters of a cup of rice and celery soup with a can of mushrooms. This should make the dish more saucy, and I like that-saucy, but not too saucy will keep the rice from sticking together too much. I still cover it with foil, but don't line the dish, I just buttered it. And I only let it cook for about an hour, maybe a bit more, or I'll turn the oven off and let it sit for awhile. That way the chicken doesn't overcook and get dry.

All in all....nummy, nummy, nummy ;)

Was reading an article

http://www.fancast.com/blogs/2010/fringe/producers-fringe-wont-die-in-friday-night-graveyard/

This is a quote from one of the commentors:

I love Fringe but very happy to see the lame-assed romance between Peter and Olivia die. Really people – do you not learn from history? Anytime an infatuation comes to fruition, the series dies. Look at Moonlighting and The X-Files. Stick to the weird stuff and leave the romance to that other bastion of idiocy Twilight.

 I've never watched Twilight because it's never appealed to me, it seems to be aimed at teens, I think. Romance in a show does not always mean the show is going to die, neither does moving it to Friday nights. Why Fox has shot so many popular shows to death is really beyond me and if they shoot Fringe before the storyline of the conflict between the two universes can be resolved then I'm pretty sure Fox will be doomed. The only thing I watch on Fox, like many fan comments I've seen, is Fringe. And Saints football. After football season it'll be back to Fringe, if it's still around.

If they kill it before the overall arc is resolved then I hope the producers resolve it with either a miniseries or movie like Farscape did. However, I would much rather see it play out over several more seasons. I'm not so naive to think that the show will run forever, but I'd like to see it go for at least six or eight seasons before being canceled.

Why are there so many reality/idol-type shows on tv now? Are people really so brain-dead that the only thing they'll watch is that stuff that doesn't take any kind of thinking at all? Can't the networks let us people who like to think about things keep our one show? Can't one romantic relationship go on without constantly being broken up/delayed? I have nothing against co-stars getting together, in fact, I like it very much.

People who really think that Idol is such a 'great' show better think again. If I was to guess, I'd say the winner is decided long before the call-in portion of the show airs and the whole thing is fixed. I've seen too many genuinely good singers who didn't make it while someone with considerably less talent wins. I stopped watching Idol many, many years ago because it was so predictable.

In fact, while the tv is the very first thing Hubs turns on when we either get home or when he wakes on weekend mornings, I couldn't tell you from one hour to the next what's playing on it-except when it's time for Fringe to come on. I usually have my head stuck in my computer, talking to my evil friend and checking out EI. I never turn the blasted thing on if I'm home alone. I might leave it running on whatever station he puts it on when he turns it on and then leaves the room or house, but I don't turn it on unless the grandkids are there and want to watch it.

Oh, one other quote from a disgruntled viewer made me giggle:

If Fox stop the show, I will move my ass to the alternate universe and get my fix with Foxternate !

I think I'll join her ;)

Phelps, Phelps, Phelps

Why can they not let the dead rest in peace? Why must they picket funerals and write such filth-ridden missives in the name of God and say that God hates <Insert name here>?

If the Phelps bunch truly knew the God of my bible they would know that He does not hate anyone and if they supposedly say on the television that they will not pray to him for <whatever> then it's not their place to rise to indignation and 'protect' God. God does not need protection from anyone, He can take care of Himself. He spoke this world and everything in it into being and he doesn't need the hate-spewing Phelps bunch to defend Him in any way, shape or form.

Do they not even read their bible about what happens when people do things supposedly in the name of God and it isn't what He would do? That's called blasphemy and is punishable by death, if He so chooses, though I won't say that's what's going to happen to this bunch because they deserve the same right to repent as any other person on this earth.

Phelps bunch-listen-Jesus will one day come back for His children, if you really want to go with Him, then I suggest you repent of your evil doings before that happens or you'll see what happens once the influence of the Holy Spirit is taken from this world.

Blogging for the heck of it

I'm kinda glad no one reads this, I can post pretty much what's on my mind without someone getting their knickers in a twist about it. Though what I do post shouldn't have anyone getting their knickers anywhere, unless they happen to violently disagree with something I say about Fringe. Even my friend I MSN with all the time doesn't know where this blog is, all she knows is that I have several blogs around the interwebs that I post in from time to time.

Speaking of Fringe, she and I have pretty much waylaid Red pretty good. Now we have her on the mend from it (hey, we're not totally heartless, we'll let her mend, then waylay her again, it's what we do, even to characters we like).

What have we waylaid her with? Well....vampires. A Daywalker owner of a vampire brothel took a liking to her and kidnapped her for his toy. After he got inside her head and figured out what was going on, he had to change his plans for her a bit. I won't go into any details, but suffice to say what happened broke her pretty good, see, he kept her for five days and shared her too, she's now pregnant with a dhampir and can't abort it without fatal consequences for her. See, in our world, we get to decide the physiology of things, and the dhampir cannot be terminated unless it's terminated after birth, doubtful to happen, but also doubtful Red will want to keep and raise it, so we'll just figure out what to do with it.

Also in our version, turns out Red was brainwashed into doing what she did and Vaughn's telepathic manipulation of her over five days screwed all that up, so I guess he did a good thing. Now that they know, she'll probably have more sympathy from them. I'll have to wait and watch Red at home some more before I'll actually have any kind of liking for her myself, we're just making her more likable in our stories. Knowing that she's been manipulated by Walternate will have her getting very angry, because of it, she was now permanently scarred from her encounter with Vaughn and company.

For the moment, Vaughn has gotten away scot-free with what he did, because he cut a deal with Roxy-a vampire working with the FBI. He and his nest will stop their persecution of her in exchange for getting Red back, along with all the information he ripped from her mind. Once that was done, he moved his brothel. Roxy decided to torment Red some more (angel face) by arranging for the safe house to keep Red in so the shapeshifters couldn't find her. She chained her up in a room exactly like the room she'd been held captive in, along with a guard who looked exactly like Vaughn and regular visits from a male, hands-on doctor. Now, the doctor and guard had no idea what was going on and neither did Roxy's superiors, until five weeks later when Red was supposed to be sent home. Once it was discovered that Roxy flouted all protocol concerning prisoners and such, she was bawled out, but it probably didn't do any good-what kind of disciplinary action do you give a vampire? Anyway, Red is too weak from the pregnancy to be sent home and the news of it is highly classified while they hunt down Vaughn's new nest-which they just got quite good intel from Red about it as she told them how they operated-Vaughn thoughtfully boasted about it while he held her prisoner, thinking she'd be executed as a spy before she could impart that knowledge (or maybe hoping they wouldn't believe her if she did).

All in all, I think I've just about satisfied my discontent with the writers allowing Red to escape mass murder charges scot-free while Olivia has to deal with almost being dissected and then coming home to find out Peter unwittingly betrayed her with Red.

Alt-Brandon

Did he get tranquilized or shot dead? My first impression was that he was shot dead because he instantly collapsed and there was a blood drop on his surgical scrubs, but one site said that he had been shot with a tranq gun. I think I'll stick with my original impression because there is no tranq anywhere that works instantly. Broyles needed him incapacitated to be able to get Olivia out of there without interference and Brandon would have been able to slow him down until a tranq took affect. So he shot Brandon dead, he's a soldier, he'll shoot to kill first, not use a tranq gun.

Karma's a bitch, ain't it Brandon? You helped mess up Olivia and now you're dead. Wish Walternate could be made dead too.

But then the show would be without a kickass villain...

I really hate being hard of hearing

I miss a lot when I watch tv, not that I watch it that much, so I don't bother with CC.

Anyway, I decided to stream the last Fringe episode (Entrada) from Hulu and ran it with captions. I picked up a few things I missed when I watched it at first airing-like it was Brandon's idea to dissect Olivia and take out her brain, spine and internal organs for study. Walternate approved, so he still carries blame for it. So alt-Broyles kills him (or sedates him according to Fringepedia, you make the call)-oh well. Dissecting someone while they're still alive and watching is just the height of evilness. I really adore Brandon from the Blue side, but I'm really disliking alt-Brandon. If he's dead, good for him.

So, they were going to harvest Olivia down to a shell, replace the mass and trade her for Red to get her back before she could be interrogated. Well, it didn't work out quite like they wanted, however I'm very upset that they sacrificed alt-Broyles, who was the only one who knew the truth. His parting words to Olivia will likely be her anthem during the rest of the season...."Please, make this count for something."

I'm still highly upset that Red got away scot-free. I even have a couple of screens of her face as she repeated Lincoln's words back to him, giving them an entirely new meaning..."Just like it never happened."

Well, my evil friend and I are going to make her pay for that smug grin by wiping it right off her face, both before and after she gets home. No, the team will not be ignorant of her spying and they will know without a shadow of a doubt that she's been gone for eight weeks doing Walternate's dirty work for him.

Cue evil face and maniacal laughter.

I told you my friend was upset

Over Red getting to go home scot-free. See, I told you that we do fanfiction and she lets me help over MSN by running arcs. She'll then translate them to prose and if she isn't satisfied then we do it again a different way.

Last night we gave Red a nasty surprise after she so smugly got home (however, she isn't going home undamaged, by the time we're through with her she'll be running home to mommy ;)). See, we read on a Fringe board a theory that Red was possibly brainwashed for her undercover assignment and we went with that-only much farther than the show would ever possibly go. She had an obedience program embedded in her, she had a personality rewrite, and a hatred for Blueverse that rivals Walternate's. When she got home we had already taken Walternate from power, but he slipped through our grasp (naturally) and built himself a basement lab. When Red got back he emailed her to come to him (which she would because of the obedience program, no matter she knew what he was up to). When she did (which was a Friday, so she wasn't missed until that following Monday) he strapped her to a table standing up, kept her awake and dosed her on so much cortexiphan that she was violently ill. He had probes down her back, in her ears and up her nose, a feeding tube down her throat and he even dropped some of the stuff in her eyes, blinding her. She had sensor pads all over her, monitoring her and giving her electric shocks to try to force her to bond with the cortexiphan. By the time she was found she was a wreck, blind, deaf, very weak and very exhausted. As much as she wanted him to stop, she couldn't tell him due to the feeding tube for one thing and because she was programmed to obey him without question for another. Naturally, Lincoln and Astrid were so angry that they shot him when they found her (Broyles wouldn't lose it like that, I don't think, and I control him and Lincoln in these things.).

So, in our version that isn't following canon or the episodes, Walternate is now dead (no big loss). But he does have a daughter by another woman (he was obsessed with genetic perfection) and it was she who saved Olivia from being dissected (which saved Broyles' life as well :p I didn't like him dying one little bit)

Now Peter is helping his half-sister try to reprogram Red. Lucy (sister) is also working with Walter to reprogram the doomsday machine to actually fix the rifts safely instead of annihilating a universe and Peter too, so she's popping over to Blueverse now and then, which lets her and Peter also collaborate on deprogramming/reprogramming Red to her old self.

We're having a lot of fun with it since the writers are going one way with it-letting it look like she never left Redverse-so we're just offering up our version, where everyone has been made aware of the switch and she doesn't just slide back into her old life as if nothing ever happened.

Like I said, she'll be quite badly bent before she goes home too-we're talking vampire trelks (you Farscapians should know what that is) for starters, and maybe I'll think of something to do to her as well. You see, in this trio of people who play-my friend is usually the evil one, wanting to pick on someone till they break and I'm the voice of reason, not generally inclined to as much violence and her alter-ego generally sides with me, but now all three of us are gunning for Red because the the show just wasn't fair to Olivia or Peter.

Different theories

I've read some theories on a BBS dedicated to Fringe and someone put forth that Red could have been brainwashed by Walternate. Also, as to her so (apparently) easily committing murder, they put forth that she may come from a world that doesn't have the same morals that we have, or that she really believes she's in a war and is only acting as any soldier would do in the same situation. However, I go with the opinion that they have almost the same morals we do, since their universe is parallel and is (basically, with few differences) almost identical to ours.

With that in mind, that makes Red a murderer. Soldier or not, she chose to kill totally innocent people to get Peter on track with doing what Walternate wanted him to do. She could see for herself that Blueverse was not preparing for war, and while she expressed reluctance at killing innocent people, she still did it. She tried to tell Peter that while it started out as a mission that it ended up something more, but that didn't quite ring true, even if she was taking the photo booth pictures with her. She had a boyfriend on her side, why would she allow herself to fall for Peter? I'm more inclined to believe that she was taking home a trophy of her accomplishment at being able to fool the genius.

After all, the smug look on her face at the end of Entrada was more telling than anything. *Smug look.* "Like it never really happened."

Yeah, well, I guess the seduction never really happened either, did it Red? Are you even going to care if you find out that your boss was mutilated and sent over in your place to get you home?

The two Olivias

Yeah, sure, more rants about Fringe, but this time it's a real gripe. I'm really not very happy about how Olivia came back home damaged and Red got to go home scot-free without any kind of damage at all. I suppose it would have to be explained that she had to appear as normal as possible to facilitate the illusion that she never really left, but I'm really pissed off.

Olivia was brainwashed and nearly had her spine ripped out before Broyles freed her, that's going to take its toll on her. Peter isn't undamaged either, he's been raped-for all accounts and purposes-and has to deal with the fact that he hasn't been sleeping with his Olivia all this time and that she's been stuck over there having god-knows-what done to her. More or less, now we get to see Peter dealing with his crisis and guilt and Olivia dealing with all the traumatic things that happened to her at Walternate's hand while Red gets off scot-free. Not fair by a long shot.

I can say though-Thank you, God, for fanfiction writers. my best friend is one and she's just as upset as I am over the uneven treatment of both Olivias. In her stories, Red will not only leave Blueverse damaged, she'll also get even more damaged when she gets home.

Cue devil face and maniacal laughing.

New Fringe

I have to say, this was an excellent episode, even though it was quite dizzying when they kept swapping back and forth between universes. If they were trying to get me to see things from Walternate's PoV, or to sympathize with him, they did a piss-poor job of it, because I'd really like to mutilate him for what he's done over the last eight weeks. Although it's not clear how alt-Broyles got mutilated when he was swapped, I'm betting Walternate had something to do with it, rather than it happening during the swap, because his mass was greater than Red's and would have to be adjusted to match hers before swapping-which is a very sick thing to do, even if they actually were at war.

I certainly hope that Olivia is able to keep the promise she made to him when she begged for his help and that he didn't die in vain, it should count for something.

You know, if I was her, I'd have taken every bag with her name on it out of that lab and back across with me...I'd hate to leave all that Cortexiphan in that madman's hands.

Maybe now they'll revert Walter and Peter back to their former level of genius now that they're through dumbing them down so that Red could fool them for 8 weeks.