I don't know that a Thursday has ever been awesome before. I wasn't expecting it to be awesome. But it was. I was up at a decent time and...I showered. Dressed. Ate. Went down to the high school. I checked in at the front office instead of slinking in like a teenager, and as I watched the little high schoolers return from lunch, I was suddenly, inexplicably grateful that I was no longer a high schooler. I checked in at the office, because really, I couldn't afford me a trespassing charge so close to the bar. I honestly only intended to talk to Mrs. Abernathy's class for 15 minutes because I remember being a high schooler and not caring about returning students, but then one girl kept asking questions, and I think I was genuinely funny and there was some stand-up going on, and by the time everything was over...the class was over. Mrs. Abernathy told me that she was a bit nervous about having me come because it was her worst-behaved class and she was impressed that I kept them in line.

And then...then I went to visit my old debate coach, because I was a policy debater in high school and proud of it, and I wanted to talk to the kids again. And it was good times. I talked trial and old debate war stories...and then the door opened and Mrs. Abernathy brought in her old class. I had a lot more fun talking to the debaters, and then, on a spur of the moment, I ended up doing a spar round against the team president. I think we were evenly matched until clash, and then - then I unleashed some of my Melilli-earned cross-examination skills. Afterwards someone told me it was a slaughter. Near the end I went a little talking-to-the-jury on them, which was technically a fallacy ad misericordium, but hey, things change. Still...it was strange, going back to the high school and seeing the old teachers. I saw Mrs. Madden as well. Talked to a high school kid who had lots of questions about getting into law school, saw an old teammate who I knew by face if not by name. When I first stepped into Abernathy's classroom and she called the class to order, she was all,

"Everyone, calm down, this is -"

And someone called out from the back of the classroom, "A new student?"

I just laughed. When I went into Mrs. Nilson's classroom, one of the girls cried out, "She's shorter than me!" I'm me, so I took a bow. Then I ran home to meet my friends. We had dinner at Outback (apparently while they were waiting for me to arrive they scared away an entire table full of people, which is pretty much how we run - we once cleared a Wendy's), and then we went shopping. We broke the sanctity of the party bubble because BenTen needed clothes, and we went to Ross, and then we met up with people at the mall. I bought two books at the mall and nothing else even though we poked around Hot Topic. Then we went to get ice cream at Cold Stone creamery, which was full of awesome - I got pumpkin ice cream. We poked in at Old Navy where Marty bought a new coat, and then we went back to my place (after BenTen and I went through some shenanigans at the factory mall and at Starbucks - we were full of shenanigans that night). There we hung out, talked, took a ridiculous amount of pictures, and then, in a fit of inspiration, I broke out the Christmas easel. And the pens. And we wrote an awesome story about a squirrel, a ghost store, and marmalade brassiere. Because that's who we are. Then we demanded that Marty read it, and I recorded it and took pictures, so...so I can make a home movie. Because I am full of determined to make a home movie for us. And am crazy excited for it. I really wish I'd taken some video of us playing Rock Band, but I'd drummed the entire time, so that's that.

I had a great time with my friends. After they left, my mom came to hang out and talk as she couldn't sleep. It was good times. Midnight chats with mom.

And now - now I shall write. And then sleep.

27 x Bleak House
51 x Jason and the Argonauts
23 x Medea (1969)
73 x Nancy Drew Mysteries covers
45 x The Ring
17 x Twin Peaks
43 x V: The Series (2009)

      

( icons )

i just watched the movie the fall.



lee pace, i thought you were good in pushing daisies. i now realize you are GREAT.

this movie is so beautiful i don't even have words. but i found this amazing picspam which isn't too spoilery. see how gorgeous (and sad!) lee pace and this adorable little girl are.

this movie is kind of like a cross between big fish and princess bride with less happy and more suicidal stunt men. and adorable little girls.

poetry for your eyes

p.s. this movie was rated r, but there is NO reason for that. this could have easily been pg-13 imo.

p.s.s. cyx, you were so right about this movie. <3

I keep intending to to do “best of” posts for 2009, and then not. And so, here are my favorites in books, manga (favorites as far as what I read this year goes) movies, US and UK TV, and anime.

( clickie )

I am somewhat dubious about this whole affair¹, but it gives me the excuse to write shippy stuff. So far I've written Ingway/Mercedes, Luke/Tear, and Gwendolyn/Oswald. Go request more stuff in my fandoms. Or your fandoms. Or go fill some prompts yourself. Whichever!

¹ Especially considering some of the pairings being requested--look, if you want to ship creepy wrong pairings I'm not going to judge you (I mean, look at some of the stuff I've written), but some pairings are not meant to be requested in a fic-a-thon based around consensual relationships.

Just got my Logitech X-540 speakers today ^____^ Yay, 5.1 surround sound! Even if it's simulated in matrix mode, since I've yet to order my new PC. It took awhile to set up the rear speakers, and their placement is still not ideal (my desk sits in an alcove, so there's like nowhere to mount/place them), but nevertheless the sound quality is a hell of a lot better than my crappy laptop speakers. I was tempted to get the expensive Z-5500's, but figured I should start slow first, seeing as how I've never had surround for my computer before.

Totally procrastinating on work today to watch some shiny movies with these :D

I don't like to think I have a 'tude or anything, but sometimes I do greatly relish the opportunity to use my THIS DAY IS MORE THAN FIRED icon.

No one thing today has been especially bad, but apparently everyone at the office DID come in, they just came in late, and are thus trying to get more done in less time. At one point today both my phones were ringing and three interview candidates -- who weren't even supposed to see each other, let alone make casual conversation -- were standing at my desk.

WHY DID EVERYONE EVEN GET OUT OF BED. Can't they see it's snowing like balls out? The only reason I'm here is that someone had to sit by the unlocked front door and prevent thieves from robbing us! And you know why that's stupid? THE THIEVES STAYED HOME BECAUSE IT'S SNOWING LIKE BALLS OUT.

This is how I feel this morning. *

ANNOYED WALLABY. IN SNOW.

* Photo nicked without asking from ungulata, who makes the awesomest zoo posts.

The snow, actually, I'm perfectly fine with (unlike that poor cranky wallaby) though it is falling and did cause me to slip a few times on my way to work. The real problem is that I woke up this morning at 7:25, the time at which I am normally arriving at work.

GET THIS: I was showered, dressed, and out the door seven minutes later, which is one in the eye for people who ask me why I lay out my clothes and pack my lunch the night before. EFFICIENCY!

I did forget my lunch, though. Damn.

Anyhow, given that I work with a bunch of cowards who are afraid of a little snow, I'm one of the few people in the office today and thus I get to take a little time to stop and smell the internet flowers like Honey Never Spoils, a blog in which an intrepid young woman is going through her grandmother's recipe box and making food from it. (thanks ScrivenerCollider!)

I am also spending the morning writing a DC comics/Torchwood crossover, because I lost a bet with Jean and she's a sadist. :D

Here's a sketch I made of an idea that I want to turn into a painting at some point of time.

It's called "The Detonator".



I know, I need to seek help. BUT MOOOOM DRAWING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IS FUUUUUUUUN :/ :/ :/

This book begins with its Victorian heroine scolding a vampire for having the bad manners to attack her at a party, and then stabbing it through the heart with her parasol when it Did Not Get the Message. I demand that all books that insist on having vampires have them get killed with a parasol for having bad manners.

Alexia Tarabotti is half-Italian, a spinster, outspoken, and a preternatural. Which is to say, she was born without a soul, and so has the ability to negate the abilities of supernatural beings with a touch.* Supernatural beings are supposed to know about her, and keep their distance, but the vampire in question didn’t. What’s more, she soon learns, the vampire shouldn’t even exist, and no one knows where it came from. In this Victorian England, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and the works are a part of normal society, and a group of werewolves (and their associates) known as BUR perform investigations for Queen Victoria. The head of BUR, Lord Connall Maccon (a werewolf and a Scotsman, and so highly inappropriate, nobility or not) is sent to investigate. Never mind that Alexia is quite put out that her preternatural state prevents her from being an agent of BUR, which the two have clashed over in the past.

The book is ridiculously entertaining, and half the lines seem to have been written expressly to be quotable. It also has elements of every type of fiction associated with Victorian fiction associated with it, and I’m strongly reminded of the early Amelia Peabody mysteries. The inevitable romance between Alexia and Maccon is also much more fun than expected, and parts that would normally make me roll my eyes instead had me giggling madly. Maccon is also far more charming than a man that alpha should be. But then, a lot of the charm comes from the fact that he loves Alexia (pretty much before the book even starts) because she’s as alpha as he is on her off days, and more alpha than he is on most days.

All that said, Carriger’s writing does sometimes slip into “look how clever I am” and she’s very inconsistent in how characters are referred to, altering between referring to a character as “Title Surname” and “Personal Name” in consecutive paragraphs from the same narrative voice, which is often disjointing. And, despite the many alterations to and inclusions she’s added to Victorian London, one thing that doesn’t seem to have changed is that everyone is white.

All in all, however, this being my first full (non-reread) book of 2010 puts 2010 off to a pretty good start.

*This makes me wonder what would happen if she were to, say, touch a zombie. Like, vampires here don’t seem to be undead in the “resurrected corpse that stays ‘alive’ by drinking blood” sense, but presumably, zombies in this world are still animated corpses. So, if she touched one, would it reset itself, or would they stay down, in which case she could probably singlehandedly prevent a zombie apocalypse. As long as it wasn’t teatime.

Have you forgotten about this question? I had, until I started answering it.

( Where have you come from, or, Where are you going? )

I'm seeking evocative phrases to use as a fic challenge... I want to create a unique challenge list for myself similar to a 31 Days Exchange but would prefer they come from other people instead of dreaming it up myself.

I'm hoping people on watching this list will each by willing to provide one phrase so I can compile them. Snatches of from song lyrics, poetry and quotations work best, but some one-word prompts might also work. I need a lot of prompts, so I'm asking even lurkers to get involved.

No prompts on fandoms - I'll get there next. This will be the year I finish 100fandomhell!

Please prompt me here.

To self: look up 'she was too cute to fall into the trap' in context of British author in 1922 having an American say it. (New one for me.)

I really want to write a shounen manga.

Most of them get kind of boring and idiotic, but the beginning core group of friends always makes me so happy, no matter how cliche it is. I think it would be awesome if I could write something that had that effect.

I've spent the past two days hanging out at fandomsecrets, which has made me realize how not a part of fandom I am now. Which is weird to think about - I've been in fandom since fifth grade (yeah, you read that right) and I was always reading fic and writing really really bad fic (let me tell you about my brief stay in Inuyasha and my longer one in Yuugiou!). It got me through some major depressions in my life and I made some really good friends, and while we've all drifted apart with life, I really looked up to those people. And now I'm in college (holy shit, it took such a long time) and things are so different and, okay, I feel a little lost without fandom. I don't know why anyone would read my LJ without that fandom link because, uh, I am not interesting or funny, and, yes, I care about whether or not people read because I am a huge, huge attention whore. (Your faces, they seem less than surprised!)

Whatever, get over yourself, Melody. It's just fandom.

(I secretly believed that I would die when I was sixteen years old. The fact that I'm eighteen now is sometimes mind blowing to me. The fact that I only have a few age milestones left weirds me out something fierce. The fact that I wear makeup and dresses and root for the mean girls makes me feel like an alien to myself. I feel so different from how I used to, and that's a good thing.)

Hmm. I want to be more unashamed of myself. I always admire people who like the things that are uncool to like and don't even know that it's uncool, who seem fiercely and irreverently joyful (whether they actually are, I have no idea).

Pretentious post is pretentious.

tl;dr i'm not in fandom and it's weird. newsflash: eighteen-year old me isn't sixteen-year old me. i'm really uncool.

edit: okay, at some point I will write down everything that fandom meant to me. ...but not anytime soon.

Gaius Petrius Ruso is a doctor recently transferred from Africa to the Roman garrison in Britannia in the town of Deva (now Chester) in the 2nd century. He’s dirt poor and recently divorced, his quarters are downright depressing, his roommate is a playboy who doesn’t hesitate to use him as a cover, and his superior is a petty tyrant. Not only that, but local girls are turning up dead, and since they aren’t Roman, he’s the only one who seems to care. He also spends most of the last of his money buying an injured slave girl from an abusive master.

Ruso is cranky and rather desperate when it comes to money, but nice and a bit of a pushover. The slave girl, Tilla, is snippy and opinionated and clever and has secrets. It’s debatable who’s in charge at the end.

This was sold to me as “Roman Nick & Nora” and has the potential to be so, though Tilla doesn’t get the opportunity to do a lot with the central plot this time, and it reminded me of the few Lindsay Davis books I read in college (I rarely found them and gave up, but should look into that again). There’s a lot of detail regarding the nitty-gritty of the times and Roman bureaucracy and medicine, and the attitudes regarding the slaves and natives/invaders are kept as true for the times as they can be without making the reader hate characters s/he is supposed to like, though there are times I cringed at things characters said and thought, and the situations of the female characters aren’t pretty, but handled tastefully.