sigelphoenix

I want to blather on about various things, including my horrendous chain of fuck-ups in the kitchen over the last two days, and my reactions to reading the (Cass) Batgirl series, but I don't really feel like I'd have much of a point. Not that you need a point to post on your own journal, I guess.

I am interested in doing this meme, though. I can do numbered lists even if I don't have a point.

Ask me my Top Five Whatevers. Fannish or literary or otherwise. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! Fandoms, ice cream flavours, cartoon moments, women in my fandoms, OTPs, ideal holiday destinations, goals for the future, celebrity crushes, books I wish would be made into movies, love songs. And I will answer them all in a new post (or in comments). Possibly with pictures.

Or ... I guess I could use one for the other.

My top 5 kitchen fuck-ups in the last two days:
1. Forgetting to put the zucchini in my zucchini bread. As in, not even getting it out of the fridge, let alone shredding it and mixing it into the batter.
2. After removing the zucchini-less zucchini bread from the oven (thankfully, only a few minutes into the cooking time), adding in the zucchini and putting the pan back in to bake, forgetting to turn the oven back on ... for about 40 minutes.
3. Having pots on two burners at once while I was attempting to make risotto, and turning the wrong burners on so that neither pot was heating at the correct time (empty burner heating instead of the broth getting to a boil; the pot of dry rice heating when I wanted to pause the heating process while the broth cooked).
4. Realizing, after the fact, that I had used the 1/3 measuring cup instead of the 1/4 cup.
5. Doubling the ingredients when I wanted to make a double batch recipe, but not getting a pot that was double the size.

My top 5 things that I like about Cass Cain/Batgirl:
1. She smiles. A lot. Cass could easily fall into the physically kickass/emotionally naive girl fetish (and she does, at times, depending on the writer), but the fact that she smiles so much instead of being wide-eyed and silent all the time makes it so much better. Her smiles aren't simpering for others' approval or giggling in shyness. She smiles for herself, as a person with agency.
2. Damion Scott's art. It took awhile to get used to, because it's not the style I grew up seeing in comic books (my formative years included Jim Lee and Andy Kubert, and later, Joe Madureira), but it's so dynamic. I get the physical impression of spiralling from it, in a way I can't really explain (note my lack of knowledge or training about art).
3. Her conversations with Onyx. Like when Onyx urges her to have an identity - and life - separate from Batgirl, and it's not about Bruce or David Cain or any other (white) man. Why, why, why couldn't we get more of them? This is the kind of Bechdel-Test-passing female interaction that I love in the Birds of Prey comic, but without the insular whiteness that keeps me at arms' length. Also, I have not seen enough of Onyx to satisfy me.
4. Her friendship with Steph. I finally see why the pairing is so popular (romantic or platonic). Steph's interaction with Cass also makes me see why Steph is such a likeable character.
5. The Batboys didn't really show up (Bruce interacted with Cass the most, and even then he disappeared for several issues at a time), and they didn't need to. I love Dick (hurr hurr), and Tim, in many ways, acts as the fulcrum for my love of the Batfamily, but they were barely there and I didn't miss them at all.