mercury is in retrograde

I should have been asleep half an hour ago, so this has gotta be short, but I wanted to post quickly before I get offline.  I just watched the first episode of Game of Thrones!  I am oscillating between fascinated and horrified, which I suspect is the desired reaction?  Does anyone want to give me vague, non-spoilery guidance?  Like how much more disturbing does it get?  Or recs.  Recs would also be good, with spoiler warnings, if you have any favorites laying around.

So I finally caved and bought a year of paid time last month, which means I have room for more icons again!  I have a couple things I'm looking for but can't find, though.  Does anyone have any good Eleven + Amy + Rory icons you don't mind sharing?  I have one, but I'm still on the lookout.  Also, remember back when there was that photoshoot of Karen Gillan, where she had her hands clasped under her chin and it was adorable?  I remember there being icons made of that shot, but I can't find any now.  Do any of you know where I could look, short of combing through the archives of dwicons ?  If you don't know what I'm talking about, the picture in question is here, and I suppose I could always crop it to icon size if all else fails.  

In other news, I finally uploaded all the gifs I ganked from LJ and Tumblr to Photobucket, and I am unreasonably amused by watching them all loop at once.   Here is a gif, just because.  

ETA: Thanks to promethia_tenk and elisi I have now found several versions of the Karen icon I was looking for!

 Dear Flist,

I keep hearing about Buffy.  A great many people I know both offline and online enjoy it.  I have steered away from it because I'm not really interested in vampires and the occult elements (spells, etc.) are off-putting to me.  What makes Buffy a good/bad show in your opinion?  Anything you have to offer would be much appreciated. :)

Also, do any of you watch Stargate?  Any series, I suppose.  I know Jewel Staite has been on it, and I do love sci fi.  Would you recommend it?  If so, why and which series?

...especially if they are library books.  So after all that about The Time Traveler's Wife, I thought I might give it another try, and then I forgot entirely and picked up Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  I really, really want to like it.  It's a very low-key novel with science fiction themes.  It's supposed to be atmospheric, page-turning, etc.  But I just can't get into it.  It's well-written, yeah--but it's so boring.  

The movie is coming out next week.  I feel like maybe slow and moody would work as a movie--it's got Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan, and I think it'll have some really pretty cinematography.  But I'll be back in the middle of nowhere for school, so I might not get to see it. 

Wow.  Three posts in one day.  It must be time for school to start.  I'm pretty bored. 

Anyone have any thoughts about Never Let Me Go?

1. Anybody have strong feelings one way or the other about Merlin?  I keep seeing posts about it on LJ, and I can watch Season 1 on Netflix Instant Play, but I'm so bad at making decisions.....

2. Open letter to the universe at large: When you spell "Greek" with the "squiggly e," yes, the first time, it is cute.  After that, it's more like, "Do they not know they're spelling it 'Grssk'?"  Because sigma is, after all, equivalent to s and not to e....

3. Finally finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  It takes a while to really get going, but it is really sweet, and the characters are most endearing.  Isola Pribby in particular is truly hilarious.  Definitely recommend it.  It's a little predictable but the characters are all so good-hearted that I could forgive it for that. 

4. I go back to college next week.  Stats and linear algebra--what was I thinking?  And Renaissance lit/culture on top of that!  But it should be fun, if filled with homework.  If I disappear, assume I've been eaten alive by Mathematica....

5. I started my first calufrax rec week today!  I'm very excited, since there are some stories I've been wanting to share.  But a lot of what I want to rec has been recced already....although, I suppose, in a sense, that is a good thing.

6. I think I've finally found a default pic I really like.  It's a crop of a piece of a wallpaper by summerdisregard, and it has space and Amy Pond and I love it!

7. Doctor Who, when are you coming baaaaaack?