Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

It continues to exasperate me that there are only 15 icon slots. I wanted to try using a Simon Templar icon for a while, but I couldn't decide how to get it in.

Finally I decided to do the unthinkable: delete this Alister icon. That lasted for about five minutes. I wasn't happy at all and put it back. I've used it since ... I'm not sure when, but I suppose since 2004 or 2005, maybe. It was my default before I fell in love with Aubrie's Faye Valentine icon. And I've stubbornly hung onto it ever since. I don't use it a whole lot anymore, but apparently I still want it here pretty badly.

Finally I decided that since I have three H.M. icons, and two featuring Coley, I would try removing the one of Coley by himself and keep the one of him and Lafe together. I'm not entirely happy with that, either, but I really did want to try using a Simon Templar icon for a while, and at the moment I'm a lot more satisfied than I was when I tried removing the Alister icon.

So a few weeks ago I wrote H.M. Wynant a letter, rambling a bit about my favorites of his characters and asking for an autographed picture. (I included a self-addressed stamped envelope, naturally.) And this past day, I received two pictures from him! And he personalized them to me! Squeeeee! I already bounced off of Tumblr's walls about it earlier, but I wanted to write it in here, too.

I totally hadn't expected to hear back so soon; it took months, as I recall, when I wrote to Roy Stuart years and years ago. But I don't think it was even a month ago that I wrote to H.M. He also wrote "Photos" on the envelope, so I must keep the envelope too. Squeeee.

So I had a very interesting dream that may become the plot for my next WWW big fic, if I write another for FF.net. I discuss it on Tumblr, where I've posted some more fandom musings as of late. http://lucky-ladybugs-lovelies.tumblr.com/

I wish it was easier to give Snakes a unique speech pattern. He can be difficult to write for. I'd like to give his voice a Southern flair, as Christopher Cary tried to make him sound Southern, but a lot of what I might give him to say is also Western and I already gave it to Pinto, so I don't want them to talk the same. Canonically, both had few lines, but Pinto really does give an indication of speaking like that, while Snakes does not. Save for the accent itself, he didn't use any words or phrases in his speech that seemed to have originated in Southern vernacular.

Both Pinto and Coley are very easy to write for. Coley is my favorite; he's so fun, such a wild card, sometimes a bit grouchy, but honorable.

And I saw H.M.'s episode of Bearcats!, a fun steampunk Western-mystery-type show. He was one of the bad guys, but I was idly wondering if I could tinker with things so they're not entirely as they seem.

He was part of a plot to swindle people, setting fire to oil derricks and blaming it on the Native Americans (although one rebel Native American was working with him). One of them quite randomly killed the girl he was dating, but it's never actually said who. One of the main characters thinks H.M.'s character did it, but honestly, we don't know.

And I started pondering. What if H.M.'s character was orchestrating the swindle, alright, so he would still be a crook, but he hadn't ever actually wanted the girl to be killed? Maybe he wasn't the one who did that and then he was upset and wanted out ... and a lookalike who had been watching everything stepped in and decided to take over himself. The purpose of the whole thing, I think, was for H.M.'s character to buy up the burned oil dig sites and then be able to use them himself, since he had enough money to get them going again. Not a nice fellow even without framing and killing people.

But so everything would be supposedly settled, the culprits would be in custody, and the good guys would be leaving, but then something or another would make someone question the identity of H.M.'s character in custody. Maybe the real one would stagger down from the mountains, wounded after being left for dead by the lookalike. That would certainly throw a monkey wrench into everything.

I doubt I'd write this, but it's fun for me just to make up other possibilities in my mind. One of H.M.'s characters would still be guilty, and both would be criminals to some extent, but at least one would not be a murderer.

This is a two and a half minute parody of The Twilight Zone, and judging from the host, One Step Beyond as well. It is fun and silly and wacky. And slightly creepy, of course. And I'm swooning and squeeing all over it.

Seriously, our main guest-star is *80* in this clip.

EIGHTY.

And he still has the same beautifully deep, rich voice from when he was thirty.

He certainly doesn't look eighty, either. He looks at least twenty years younger.

This man is remarkably well-preserved.

**glomps him!**

I haven't been posting here a lot lately, both because I've been very occupied writing stuff and I haven't had the time to write the lengthy journal posts that I require, and because I do a lot of my fandom squealing/musing on Tumblr. I post a pic or two, often with a musing. (Or sometimes just with squeeing.) http://lucky-ladybugs-lovelies.tumblr.com/

Also, I'm starting a Nancy Drew mystery. If anyone here likes Nancy, I'd love your input. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8940274/1/

It's a pity there aren't any really active Nancy comms on LJ. The most active thing I've seen is a fanfic comm, but it's more like the Nancy/Ned comm rather than general fanfics. I don't think I'd feel comfortable posting my fic there, both because Ned isn't going to be in it and because there is a chance that Nancy may end up romantically involved with Peter Howard, a character from an episode of the 1970s TV series. Peter is played by H.M. Wynant.

It's really interesting that this keeps happening. With so many of the guys I'm adoring now, I've discovered that I first liked a character of theirs many years ago. There was Simon on Perry, Richard in The Student Prince, and now H.M. on Nancy Drew. I remember about fourteen, fifteen years ago when I first saw The Ghostwriter's Cruise episode, I liked H.M.'s character. And I liked that he wasn't the guilty party. I didn't know who that handsome guy was at the time, but I knew I liked him. A lot. If you scroll down a bit on my Tumblr, you'll find three sets of pictures I posted from the episode. Purrr.

Also, I have finally come to believe in the Napoleon and Illya friendship on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. I'm thrilled; I was starting to wonder if everyone else was delusional or if I was. But the fourth season opener, The Summit-Five Affair, is just glorious. Napoleon is set up to look like a traitor, and Illya never disbelieves in his integrity for a moment. And there's a scene where they communicate without really talking, which is something I hadn't seen from them before. I am very excited! Now I can look forward to the possible discovery of more friendship squee in addition to all the excitement of the series.

I had a Hawaii 5-O (original series) disc out earlier this week. There was one episode on it that I didn't feel comfortable even finishing, for several reasons. And that got me thinking on why I seem to prefer Kojak to Hawaii 5-O, even though I do like both shows.

Sometimes Hawaii 5-O does really quirky episodes. The one I didn't feel like finishing involved some dudes hanging out in a big mansion. One of them was a voyeur who would sit and watch people in bed (or at least, it was heavily implied). One of them seemed to like to take multiple girls to bed. **headdesk.** It didn't show anything, but the implications were more than enough. (And then there were fish dying in a tank, which wasn't sitting well with me. It had something to do with the mystery, and it made me too sad and upset to see dying fish.)

I don't think Hawaii 5-O does episodes like that too much, thankfully. But then they also do other oddball things sometimes. And sometimes, well ... some of the episode plots just bore me to death. I like when the plots are really intense, and when they do an episode that just doesn't seem to involve such serious crimes, I get bored.

My favorite thing about Hawaii 5-O, hands-down, is Steve McGarett. He is totally awesome, one of the best characters ever. And I like Jack Lord, from what I've heard about him. So what if he felt like no one else could play McGarett? I think with any really good character, it's extremely difficult for someone else to take over the role.

I remember that some people were worried that the depiction of Hawaii as being so crime-ridden would scare people away. That never happened to me while watching, but then again, I was never keen on living in Hawaii anyway. Tropical locations just aren't my idea of a paradise.

Actually, Kojak has more of that frightening effect on me. It portrays the ghetto-type areas of New York in a very gritty manner. Years and years ago I was fascinated by New York and wanted to live there. Not so much anymore (although I'd like to visit sometime), and then Kojak pretty much cemented that I would never want to live in New York.

Kojak is, in general, a more serious show than Hawaii 5-O. Whereas sometimes Hawaii 5-O has quirky, even whimsical plots, I think Kojak is almost always very serious. The humor mostly comes from Kojak himself, who has an awesome, wisecracking, sarcastic sense of humor.

Kojak is sometimes a rather depressing show. There are lots of oneshot character deaths. But there are also realistic depictions of police work, and the good guys do win most of the time (even if it proves a bittersweet victory some of that time). And I don't recall any really kinky stuff like in that Hawaii 5-O episode with the guys in the mansion and the girls. Maybe occasionally there's five seconds of a very shadowy, implied sexy scene on Kojak, but you can hardly see what's going on, and I'd honestly rather have that than seeing those Hawaii 5-O characters and the repeated implications of what they're up to. And I don't think there has ever been a boring Kojak episode. It always pulls me right in from the first few minutes on.

I don't necessarily always like the more depressing aspects of Kojak, but overall, I prefer a more serious show like Kojak to the sometimes quirky Hawaii 5-O. Kojak is more like my own stories, which are mostly very serious with the humor coming now and then from the characters' personalities and dialogue. I watch and read what I like to write, which explains a lot of my fascination with Kojak.

And that's not to say I don't like quirky shows. The Wild Wild West is my second favorite show (after Perry), and it's often very quirky. But I love steampunk and spy shows and the friendship between Jim and Arte, so it fits in perfectly with what I like. (I write all of those things, too.) It's quirky in a different way than Hawaii 5-O sometimes is. It makes an occasional misstep; I don't like the overly silly episode The Infernal Machine. And I don't care much for The Human Trigger. Those episodes are just off-the-wall and nothing can be taken seriously. But The Poisonous Posey, while also a little more humorous than some episodes, isn't outright silly like those others. (Plus, I love Posey's gang.) And I don't think there has ever been a boring WWW episode, either, save maybe one or two that dragged a bit.

So, long story, but I didn't end up getting much sleep on Halloween. And when I did, boy, did I have another dream doozy.

Before I slept, I discovered that H.M. Wynant's first Perry appearance was as the main guest star in The Daring Decoy. I remembered the episode, but not that it was him. So I watched it again, squealed, and renewed my interest in getting the season 1 DVDs. (Season 1 is not my favorite Perry season, mainly for characterization reasons. But there are some episodes I like. This is now one of my main ones for season 1.)

Daniel Conway is the first H.M. character I can officially bill as cute and adorable. Squeeee. He's a hapless businessman who ends up caught in a trap and accused of murder. He seems to be a loner, as unlike most Perry defendants, he has no family and no close friends to turn to, aside from Perry the company attorney. But he is quite sweet, friendly, and amiable. And he has a fedora. That is important. Yes.

So anyway, then I doze off to sleep a bit later, after a brief insomnia struggle concerning my excitement over future story ideas. I dream I'm at Home Base, which is a now-defunct superstore similar to Home Depot. Only the thing is Home Base in name only; inside it's a mixture of a book and a crafting store. That's getting pretty bizarre already.

I wander about and some strange things happen that I'm not sure I want to document here. Following that, I continue wandering the store and run across someone I quite like. In the dream I seem to be calling him "Pinto" or "the guy who played Pinto", and I seem to think the episode guest-starring him aired recently. Who knows; in this verse it seems to have. He confirms his identity and we stroll through Home Base. We seem to have some romantic attraction to each other.

... In reality, Pinto is not my favorite H.M. character, I would be utterly terrified to stroll with him anywhere, and of course, the episode aired long ago. If we're talking actor and not character, I'd love to meet H.M. sometime. He's still alive, 85, and must have married a younger woman, as I've heard he's currently raising a 12-year-old daughter. And he's still acting, too. Awesome.

I'm just puzzling over why in the world, of all of H.M.'s characters, my brain would pick Pinto. Possibly because he was the first Wild Wild West character to grab my interest before I watched The Sudden Plague for the first time in about a year?

Who knows. Good grief.

One of the few things I have in common with Rainbow Dash is that we fangirl. I have totally been sitting here going "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh" for the last few minutes. While trying to update my Perry mystery, my hands have been shaking in my excitement and glee.

I got a reply from Richard Anderson! I had just about given up on that. Ohmygosh. Squeee! Yes, contacting via private messaging pays off.

I also drew this, which I shall link to on the blog post tomorrow: http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com/art/Amory-Fallon-and-Lieutenant-Steve-Drumm-316919168

(No, I did not show this to Richard, if anyone's wondering; I think I'd feel a little embarrassed to do so. But I'm sure he'd be gracious.)

Squeeee!

Also, I like Sampson now, I learned I've been spelling Chamberlin's name wrong and have to start fixing that, and I got a really cracky idea for a group of crazy villains from The Wild Wild West to time-travel and for the sadistic cowboy played by H.M. Wynant to lasso Sampson right in his office. I'm not sure what would horrify and shock Sampson more: to be lassoed by an evil-doer from the 1870s, or for this evil-doer to look just like him. Oh the crack! What I have seen in my mind I cannot unsee!

I think I'll need to say that the Wild Wild West is a category readers will be seeing regularly at ladybug_tales, instead of occasionally as it currently reads. I have a plunnie for a story after the one I'm doing! (And of course, I have to finish my Man-Eating House fic too.) I wanna do a follow-up to The Night of the Poisonous Posey episode, the one with those nutty villains. Everyone except Posey and one guy bought the farm by the end, and I wanna write a fic where the others are starting to be mysteriously revived, one by one. Because they're just too nutty and fun to stay dead!

I don't think The Poisonous Posey is one of the most well-liked episodes, but I get a big kick out of it. I think it's because the gang reminds me of an 1870s version of V.I.L.E. Posey is so a Carmen Sandiego counterpart! And H.M.'s character is about the only other serious one. Everyone else is off-the-wall to varying degrees.

(I also think H.M.'s character has a crush on Posey. He's always getting up to politely pull out her chair for her. No one else does. Odd for such a sadist to have manners!)