Made an icon.

finabair hooked me on Psych and Myr and I have been mainlining the show. I'm one episode away from finishing season 4. Then half of season five and I will be able to watch real-time. YAY. Not that I need another show to watch, but it's such a good show I'll make it fit somehow. Soon I will only have to watch USA network. Well, maybe not for I like some shows on non-cable, but I adore all the USA shows.

The thing I really love about Psych is that the humor is the type of humor I love. It's not belittling, sarcastic or snide, not does it doesn't rely on insulting someone or something to generate the humor. This is a problem that I had with the first seasons of Chuck (as I detailed here). Chuck's humor always bothered me. Psych doesn't do that too me. Granted some of the humor on Psych does come from cliched character behavior, but it's rarely at the expense of the character. Or rather it's never to the detriment of the character. Myr thinks that the show has lost a little something because Shawn isn't as manic in the later seasons as he was in the first. She's not wrong about that, but I like that they are bringing in more dramatic character development. I'm not sure how the current season plays out, but I'm more than willing to keep watching and find out.

I can't explain why I love Lassiter, I just do. People who know me will understand. JennJenn rightly deduced that I would totally love this scene with Lassiter. It was harder than I thought to make it uploadable to LJ, but YAY it's done.

And I totally adore Lassie. This icon makes me happy when I watch it. *happy**happy**happy*

And just because I can, I'm sharing a larger version that I made:

Made an icon.

Myr has been listening to Broadway quite a lot lately and Wicked is much more iconable than Rent. And... well, I totally adore the song "I'm Not That Girl".

Yes. I am that predicable. *grin*

Don't wish, don't start
Wishing only wounds the heart
I wasn't born for the rose and the pearl

ETA: To have a GIP? You need to put on the new icon! *headdesk*

Another GIP. Murdock, this time. Another scene from "Trouble with Harry".

I think I may have to rewatch the ep after doing screen caps from it...

I made a new icon! Yay, me.

So after trying Graphic Converter on the advice of finabair, I broke down and downloaded Photoshop Elements on Myr’s computer. Elements wins, hands down. Granted it may be because I’ve been using Photoshop for years and years and know it inside out, whereas I’ve got no clue about Graphic Converter.

But then I really need to have layers and brushes and textures… and I don’t want to have to re-learn everything I know. So I’m going to pony up $80 and get the program. Right now I have a 30-day trial.

Myr’s computer has a much nicer monitor than mine, tho. This icon is a little dark on my machine but it looks terrific on hers. But then, there’s no compensating for monitors.

Anyhow, GIP. And, yes, I am stuck on Supernatural/Dean. Why do you ask?

Behold my new icon that I love with a mad passionate glee. No small amount of that glee is from the fact that I made it myself (from this image) and it looks all artsy and, yet, still is very me.

I'm actually replacing one of my old icons with this one and so wanted desperately to put the words "Something wicked this way comes" on it, but I couldn't get the words to look decent. Not sure it needs words, mind. I am, however, not a completely visual person and I find words give me comfort -- and the knowledge that my intent with the icon is fully understood.

I find that I don't care with this one, though.

I love my icons. Actually I love the concepts behind all my icons, but I feel the need to go back and tweak some of them now that I have a better grasp of how I can use photoshop and all the nifty things that photoshop can do.

So: GIP

Burn Notice.

This show owns me. Totally and completely owns me.

I love every single thing about this show. The look. The writing. The style. The characters. The voice-overs. The music. The actors. The cinematography. The acting. Every single thing about this show is good, except that parts that are completely awesome. And it has that magic gestalt that makes it come together in a rare brand of perfect for a television show.

For an indication of exactly how bad I have it for this show: I have a ship. That’s right. Me. The I don’t ship-champion.

Usually, I can take and leave ships… I take them as they are written in the show and I leave them there. If the show gets a ship together, good, if not – or if not forever – I can live with that, too. I may not always see it or I may wish that it ended up differently, but I’ve never been invested in a fictional relationship enough to care outside of the show.

Ah, but Michael and Fiona. Michael and Fiona. Michael and Fiona.

I’ve spent quite a while staring at this post trying to come up with reasons why this ship makes so much sense to me. In the end, it is more than the fact that the writing of the interaction is incredibly real and that the chemistry between the actors is off the charts. Although that helps. No. I like this ship because the characters are equal. They are equally smart and equally strong and they are equally passionate about each other. Don’t get me wrong, they are not the same, they are just equal.

That kind of makes them seem like perfect characters, but they’re not. They are wonderfully flawed and are given perfect, psychologically accurate histories to explain those flaws. While those character flaws cause problems, those same “flaws” are also strengths that allow those characters to save the day. There are no value judgments placed on these “flaws”, either by the characters or the writers. And that’s a trick most shows don’t manage.

What I like best about this relationship, though, is that neither character demands a change in the other. In fact, none of the characters in the show demand change from any other. There’s never that demand (spoken or unspoken) of “if you loved me you would… insert change to be exactly the fantasy I have”. Neither character makes an untenable sacrifice or character change in order to win the approval or love of the other.

And yet, these two characters are better people together than apart. In fact, that’s something I adore about the whole show – the four main characters are better people because of their friendships/relationships with each other. They bring out the best in one another.

And for a ship to work, that’s what's needed: The characters have to bring out the best in each other. When they are around one another the characters have to realize that they need to be better – to be the best them they can possibly be. Not because it's demanded of them, but because they understand that it's what they can be.

This ship does that. The characters challenge each other to be better and provide the strength and support needed to meet that challenge.

I don't ask much from a ship, do I?

ETA: GIP!

I've been wanting an icon like this for a while and finally figured out how to make one that didn't look hideous.

With the new TV season starting, I may be needing this.

Because I need more Tin Man icons.

Yay for icons!

I love fall, but I'm much more a Thanksgiving girl than a Halloween one. I've never gotten into the campy side of Halloween, so I tend to skip right on to Thanksgiving.

In honor of that, here's an icon.

Look! Partly can make icons using female characters! You will note that she has a gun and thus will not feel left out among all the other armed icons I have.

Other than this new icon, I have two Myria icons (she's not armed, btw) and the gal who swings my sledgehammer-of-IMNSHO. I'm not sure if I should count my "kiss" icon, as that is a couple icon, but it does have a woman in it.

That makes 4 "female" icons out of 73. It's a good thing I don't have to meet a equal-rights quota here.