( This relates beautifully to something about which I've been meaning to rant. )

I already have my ticket for This Is It and I'm going tomorrow at 7:00. I am going to be dancing, singing and crying in my seat. I will be a delight to sit next to. But really, I wanted to see that tour so bad. :( Last night we were choosing our ten desert-island songs--this is what we do in mi casa at 1:00 AM, and it's the hardest thing ever; I'm still trying to finalize my list--and, agreeing that we'd probably be on the same island and shouldn't overlap, I chose "Billie Jean" and David chose "Thriller." Sometimes he has that as his wake-up ringtone, so I'm sitting here eating cereal and it's "DARKNESS FALLS THROUGHOUT THE LAND...THE MIDNIGHT HOUR IS CLOSE AT HAND!" Love it. (Halloween, yay!) ♥

First things first:

Happy birthday, la_belle_ange!
I hope you have a marvelous day! ♥♥♥♥

Second things second: The Romantic Comedy Meme

( As usual, I put far too much time into this. )

This is my new Facebook photo:



( Shall I explain why? )

AND YEAH, I'M LISTENING TO THE JOBRO. Whatever. I do what I want. I met Wolverine and Bond, bitches!

ETA: The ONTD post, with lots and lots of adorable, awesome comments. I ♥ that place SFM.

Oh, you know I have to.

( The Office 6x04 and Supernatural 5x05. )

David and I spent fifteen raucous minutes last night teaching one another to say obscene things in French and American Sign Language--he was lamenting his busy weekend at the same time that I stumbled across Vie de Merde (French FML), and I explained "ma vie c'est de la merde," and that devolved into "bitches ain't shit, son" ("les salopes ne sont que de la merde, mon mec"? Something like that) and other such useful phrases. At this point we actually make strangers on the street laugh with our banter. Really. And I wrote a story for my Creative Writing class that involved a mysterious, other-worldly figure, and one of my peer reviewers said she wasn't sure if it was supposed to be God, the Devil or Santa. I LOVE that they're interchangeable. (I may post it once it's been edited.) So it's been an entertaining week.

So remember how I said I was seeing Brief Interviews With Hideous Men this weekend?



( It would make me feel really good right now if you would just punch me in the face. )

EDIT: It's the win that just keeps giving. Read this epic shit. I command it.

Hmmph. I thought SVU was premiering last night. Apparently it's moved to Wednesdays. No one tells me these things. That means in conflicts with Glee, and I don't know, I think Glee is gonna win that one. The other has gotten very silly. I'll probably still download, but...eh. I've kinda lost interest in DH as well. And kinda Heroes. I'm losing my touch. (My mother's texting me that I need to watch Mercy, because apparently it's offensive. "YU MUST WATCH." Good grief.)

For one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six: a quote
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

DAY SIX:
"Learn how to love art in yourselves, not yourselves in art. If you undertake to exploit art, it will betray you; art is very vindictive. I repeat: love art in yourselves, not yourselves in art--that should be your guiding thread. The theatre does not exist for you, you exist for the theatre." -- Constantin Stanislavski

I just finished reading this book of his writings and speeches; I have a lot of high-minded ideas about the integrity of art in all forms; I think the ego of the creator (writer, actor, director, whatever) should come second to the work itself. If you're going to create art, you should do it because you want it to exist and be out there in the world, not because you yourself want the attention. (If you can get joy out of it as well, that's pretty good. But that's not the only reason to do it.) [/pretentious]

[Two other, less famous quotes I loved from this past week:
- "So much hotness. I need to see this movie again. Alone. Pee Wee Herman style." -- killervee, in reaction to an Inglourious Basterds cast picspam
- "This is why kids today are pansies. They didn't have terrifying movies with electro-shock therapy and screaming bodiless heads." -- inversed @ Snarkfest, on Return to Oz]

P.S.--My Halloween plans have changed, and I need ideas. Anything Disney. Thoughts?

Not a bad day. My French class was canceled and my short story was peer-reviewed in Creative Writing, and everyone said they really liked one of my characters and thought the whole thing was funny (which was sort of the point). Several people thought my unspecified narrator had a crush on the second character--I wrote them both as guys; I hadn't expected people to be slashing my fictional characters until at least 15 years from now when I'm rich and famous and published, but it's never too soon to start!

For one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six: a quote
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

DAY FIVE:


I was planning to post a particularly funny interview with Johnny or one of my favorite trailers or something, but then I came across this video from 2005 in which Obama, amongst others, roasts Rahm Emanuel, whom I totally love, and it is EXCELLENT. The best quote, if you don't have time to watch (starts around 5:02): "It hasn't been easy for Rahm, though. As a young man he had a serious accident. I think many of you are aware of this--he was working at a deli, [and had an] accident with a meat-slicing machine and he lost part of his middle finger. As a result of this, this rendered him practically mute." HEEEEE.

( The Big Bang Theory 3x01 )

Well, of course the Emmys pissed me off. Hugh and Steve are becoming Susan Luccis. GAH. But the Cheno won, which I reallyreally wanted but didn't necessarily expect, because no one appreciates PD, and her speech was completely adorable. She should be on TO! She can be Angela's sister! The one she hasn't talked to in 16 years or whatever! Come on, it's perfect, she's tiny and blond! And Michael Emerson was wonderful, as always. He absolutely deserved it. ♥ And "Lost" needs to SWEEP next year, LotR-style, or else. I spent the night AIM-chatting with the ONTD crowd, and it was, of course, priceless and shouty and faster than my brain processes language. But in a good way ("OK, THAT'S IT, I'M GOING TO PUNCH EVERYONE EVER").

For one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six: a quote
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

DAY FOUR: The Movie Spoiler: totally addictive website that basically spoils/recaps movies, both recent and older. They're user-submitted, so some are better than others, but it's useful if you're only semi-interested in a movie, or if you're weird like me and like to read recaps of things you've seen (like I do on TWoP as well).

( House 6x01 )

I didn't see TBBT or Heroes yet; I'm watching the premiere of the latter tomorrow and if it's not great, I think I'm just dropping it for good. Hotness can only carry it so long. The finale was just uber-fail and the scripts have gotten awful and...gah. ONE MORE CHANCE, SHOW.

(Points if you know the quote.)

Congratulations to go my girl la_belle_ange: today she broke her previous record and saw Inglourious Basterds for an eighth time. Yes, that's right. I am very impressed. As my record is four times, I am slightly abashed and need to catch up. I'm thinking maybe Alice...? Not sure.

For one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six: a quote
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

DAY THREE: Fanfic--Theories About Nuclear Winter by hollycomb. It's a Calvin & Hobbes fic, specifically Calvin/Susie--I know, I had doubts too, but someone linked me on Snarkfest and it's wonderful. So heartfelt and imaginative; it totally captures their voices and the spirit of the whole comic and...everything. Love it. (Also, there's going to be a C&H documentary?! Yay!)

( Pre-Emmy thoughts. )

Othello was good. It was a very modern interpretation--the set was really sparse and everyone was getting updates on the war on their BlackBerries, heh. Bianca and Montano were combined into one character, played by a woman, which really made it interesting. Now I'm thinking I might want to see Hamlet with Jude Law.

Also saw Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs last night, which was ridiculously cute. Bill Hader is adorable in all forms. The back two rows of adults (including David & myself) were laughing as uproariously as the kids down in front--there was lots of subtler humor for the adults, and it was just generally delightful. (In fact, I am now eating spaghetti and meatballs for dinner as a result. Chef Boyardee, but still.) Sony, coming out of nowhere with their new animation! Impressive! It was in 3D, of course, meaning we paid $16.50 each, which is the most I've ever paid for a movie, but we reasoned that we saw The Informant! for free, and it comes out to $8.25 per movie and that's actually not bad.

For one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six: a quote
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

DAY TWO:


Photo taken by me atop the cliffs at Tintagel Castle, which is in a little village on the coast near Cornwall. It took forever to get out there from where we were staying in Cornwall, and then we climbed up these slippery stone steps, and there was kinda no railing or anything, and it was quite nerve-wracking and adventurous. I don't like heights, but I climbed up as high as I could go anyway, and I'm glad I did. ;)

Reviews, as promised: Paris; The Informant!. Next week I don't think there'll be anything, but the week after that is Zombieland and Whip It, because yes, I scored advance passes to that too. Sometimes I am fabulous.

( Glee 1x03 & The Office 6x01. )

And I am finally getting on board, late, as ever:

For one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six: a quote
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

DAY ONE: Use Somebody - Paramore (Kings of Leon cover). Great song, great cover--I really love her voice. I was disinclined to like them because they're all Twilight-y, but once again, I've given in. (Incidentally: the latest New Moon trailer? Uh, wow. It looks like a legit movie this time. I will never stop being a lolfan, but at least there are, like, actual special effects and costumes and sets/locations and stuff this time. Shoot. I've already made plans to see it with a friend opening weekend. I am still wearing my "Support Cedric Diggory" t-shirt. You have to commit to these things.)

Tonight I went to a free screening of The Informant!, and it turned out to be the U.S. premiere. Matt Damon was there, sitting halfway back in the theatre behind me [we were in the second row, lolz] and he waved to us and we all cheered. Joel McHale was there, and I talked to him afterwards and shook his hand, and I said I was looking forward to seeing what "The Soup" was gonna say about the VMAs. He said it was gonna be "epic." I am seeing Othello with Philip Seymour Hoffman (as Iago) at my school on Saturday for free. Yesterday was David's birthday and today he found out that he got an internship he's been wanting--at the Jim Henson archive office. He met Grover last week. "The Office" premieres this week.

The new challenge at picspammy is kind of awesome, so click the banner for mine (WARNING: spoilers and blood). A few other of my favorites so far are this Watchmen one, this House one, this Into the Wild one (Emile Hirsch keeps impressing me and I think he has a shot at my Honorable Mention List...not sure yet) and this Disney one. Plus lots of others.

Computer is running well and I have everything all put back--some of my album art on iTunes is messed up, but that just gives me a chance to be OCD all over again, which is always fun. David's coming tomorrow and we're hitting Max Brenner (Chocolate by the Bald Man, of course) and then HBP. We're officially the oldest people on the second and third floors of this dorm, according to the survey at the floor meeting. Both in spirit and in technical age. Ho-ho.

ETA: OMFG YAY!

Finally! Took me long enough. 100 movies, 239 days. Tsk. Will have to do better next year. I copy-pasted the list so far; HERE is the main post, which I will continue to update & which also includes books.

( the list )

My laptop's totally finished, but Best Buy apparently has not yet received it for me to pick up. I'm leaving for NYC on Saturday morning. Awesome.

P.S.--hey, this is my 850th entry! Whee!

My laptop crashed on Thursday. I have no idea how it happened--I was just sitting there watching "Rome" on VLC Media Player, and the video froze and I thought it was just a bad file, and when I restarted it just did nothing. I ended up at Best Buy and the guy took my hard drive in the back and when he came back out he said it was corrupted and there was nothing they could do, and I literally starting hyperventilating and crying. All my photos from high school, from Europe, of my family, including weddings (not to mentions hundreds of icons); my NaNoWriMo '06 work; all my music; my resume...it's horrifying. I ended up getting a second opinion at the other Best Buy and they said they'd look at it, and that guy seemed a lot more competent and they charged me $99 and said they'd refund it if they couldn't get anything. If they can't, I can send it out to 'data recovery' and they can apparently get anything off of any computer even if it's been run over by a truck, but it'll cost a fortune which I do not have. And I don't even know if the first thing worked yet because they haven't called me, even though they were supposed to do so yesterday. And even if they do get everything off, I'll probably have to buy a new laptop, and I've only had mine a year and I don't have the money. And school starts in about five weeks.

So, yeah, it's bad. I'm on my mother's desktop and have no idea when I'll have mine back, so I'm quite sorry if I'm behind on my flist. :\ And ONTD. Let me know what excitement I miss on there.

Today was an epic fail. I went to work and had a massive, staggering allergy attack, and I also had to stand in a ridiculously overheated corner of the restaurant behind the counter to answer the phones with the result that by noon I actually thought I was going to pass out. Even the customers were like "dude, go home." One of the other waitresses force-fed me a ton of orange juice, and I staggered home and took Benadryl and fell into bed around 1:45, and didn't get up until after 5:00. :P Thank God I have off tomorrow, because I totes think I would die if I had to go in. I've never called out or left early before, ever, so I know they're not mad, but it was a bit embarrassing.

I broke down and bought a new iPod off of eBay last week (so much for waiting and saving up, ho ho), and it came today, and once I dragged myself back out of bed I loaded all my crap back onto it, and it looks pretty good. It's a 120GB and it's sort of black-silverish, and the display is really fancy and I dig it.

I also wrote an e-mail in response to an editorial in the paper (I KNOW, MY GOD, DO I DO ANYTHING ELSE EVER) because I was annoyed at a Watchmen DVD review--it basically said "the DVD sucks because the movie sucks and it's even LONGER, and the movie sucks because The Comedian beats up Silk Spectre." I wrote this semi-prissy e-mail about how violence can be used to prove a point and how the characters' lives are meant to point out how combining hypersexuality with vigilante violence is a bad thing and how the film was really geared towards fans of the novel and is meant to be shocking, etc., and the guy actually wrote back and said I had a point. (I then had a similar but unrelated conversation with my mother, for the thousandth time, and I said "just because it's got a bit of the old tolchocking doesn't mean it's not worth a good viddy, little sister!" She was less than convinced.) That was kinda fun. And I watched the Director's Cut with my dad; I really like that they put the Hollis Mason stuff back in, since I love Dan and it helps expand his character (and we fast-forwarded through the sex scene, because, come on). And now I have the 'digital copy' on my new iPod, yay.

And a meme, stolen from sexyjohnlennon:

Post a picture in my comments of what you think describes me when you think about what/who I am.
Give no written explanation. Just an image.
Post this in your journal and see what images you get.

Good Lord, today was supremely awful. Absolutely everything went wrong at work (actually, it started before I even got there) and I made the worst money I've made since I started there, I think. However, the end of the day was much better, as it included a viewing of Rear Window with scimmia_romanov and an actual REPLY from one of the paper editors to whom I sent the following review, saying they might publish part of it as a local-interest sort of thing--heavily edited and unpaid, of course, but with a byline. !!!!!! EPIC SCORE.

( First, the bullet-pointed shrieking fangirl thoughts, full of spoilers, of course. )

( And now the fancy-pants perfesshunal-like review that might be in a SUPER-FAMOUS NEWSPAPER read by like 50 whole people. )

Holy hell, longest post ever. I will close with this from an interview with Tom Felton: "The 21-year-old added that he has received digitally enhanced pictures of himself in provocative positions with other cast members, saying: 'Oh God, I saw this crude picture. All I'll say is that Daniel and I were never in that bed. Shame on whoever did that on Photoshop, it's caused me hell. My brother has it on his phone as a screensaver.'" I AM OPENLY CACKLING AT YOUR PAIN, BB, BECAUSE THAT'S FUCKING AWESOME. *dies and is ded* I love that manip. (And I still need to write this H/D one-shot I've had in mind for a while...heh.)

I sat out the last challenge at picspammy because I couldn't think of any good comparisons, but this one is "short form" and I realized I had to do this one (click the banner):



TOMORROW IS HBP YEY. I'm wearing the customized shirt I made right after DH; I'm going downtown straight after work, meaning everyone I work with and all of my customers will know just how nerdy I am. (And they should; they're gonna be around me a lot. I don't have more than one day off at a time--like, I don't have two off in a row--for the rest of the summer. D:) Reviews coming late tomorrow night, of course, of both the professional and shrieking fangirl varieties.
ETA: I just got an e-mail with a "friendly reminder" about the screening. YEAH, BECAUSE I ALMOST FORGOT. GODDAMN.

Finally broke down & took all of my movies out of their cases and put them into one huge CD case for easy transport to and from college. I've got a lot. I realized I was lacking my own personal copy of both the first X-Men and the regular 2-disc of LotR:FotR [I have the 6-disc extended one, but I have the 2-discs of the others, and everything has to match, of course], so I bought 'em both off Amazon, along with The Road to El Dorado, for a total of $16, including S&H. \o/ It's quite an enjoyable sickness.

Hat trick for Johnny-related posts! I saw Public Enemies last night, of course, with la_belle_ange and our honorary older brother (who applauded the ending of the movie because he likes to torment me). I wrote one of my professional-type reviews, so here it is, overlong and spoiler free:

( 'What keeps you up nights?' 'Coffee.' )

I sent it into our local paper because I was told they were interested in getting reviews within a week of the film's release, but I doubt they'll want it, since the paper comes out on Thursday and it is Thursday and, you know, if they put it in next week, it'll be pretty late. But I wrote a polite (read: sniveling) e-mail saying that I would appreciate any critique or comments and have lots of other work I can send and plz can we be frendz and blah-blah-blah, so fingers crossed. And in a lovely coincidence, I found out that a letter I wrote to the Philadelphia Inquirer was printed today; when I checked my e-mail at 10:45 this morning, I already had three letters from readers, as well as a Facebook wall post from scimmia_romanov. :D It was about Michael Jackson and the media and didn't say anything I didn't say in my post on here, but it's a good feeling, especially since it's, like, a legit paper and it'll look good on a resume.

And in a freakish twist, I also got an e-mail saying I WON free advanced tickets to HBP from another newspaper, this time Philadelphia Weekly, which I have taken to calling "the bitchy hipster paper," since they're very artsy and grumpy and hate everything mainstream. (I was absolutely floored upon seeing that they gave PE an A.) I guess I have to be nice to them now! I entered on a whim and didn't think anything would come of it, but there you are, and it's Monday the 13th at 7:00 PM. \o/

Also: the aforementioned honorary bro gave me my X-mas present last night (I KNOW, RIGHT?): a full-sized cardboard cutout of Captain Jack Sparrow. No, really. It's actually fairly terrifying; it's taller than I am and I had to turn it around to face the wall so I could sleep, and even so I almost jumped out of my skin when I woke up and there was a huge dark shape looming over my bed. It's kind of a huge win. I'm thinking new Facebook photo, y/y?

( I have to praise you like I should )

I have much to say about all the insane news going on in the world, both celebrity and otherwise, but I am so overwhelmed ATM (and in desperate need of a shower; standing in 80-degree weather for five-ish hours makes one sweaty) that I will have to do so in another post tomorrow or so. Man, I can't WAIT to brag at work. P.S., watch the show at 11:35!

ETA: AHHH, JESUS CHRIST, I was just on Letterman!!! They did a quick shot of Megan signing autographs and I was on the left of the screen, trying to take a picture. And making a bitchface. EPIC!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHNNY!

I am most aggrieved that we won't get to see each other this year, and I'm sure you've peeved too--WTF, Universal?! But I'll be there for The Rum Diary, or Imaginarium, or PotC 4 or 5 or 19 or whatever the hell we get to. And then we can go hang out on the island: that VF article was pure awesomeness incarnate. ("Oh shit, a barracuda! Come look! It's the only species more terrifying than a terrier dog.") We'll have a daiquiri (strawberry, please) and crank some tunes (naturally, since we are soulmates, the song mentioned in the article, "All I Have to Do is Dream," is one I grew up listening to--this shit doesn't even surprise me anymore, you know). Until then, have a wonderful 46th and many happy returns. I am now going to crank some Stones in your honor.

All my love,
the bestest fangirl ever xxx

I couldn't resist:

MIRANDA BAILEY IS THE ULTIMATE HBIC.

And don't you forget it.

Still not doing too well in the job department. My old pizza place offered me Saturdays, which isn't bad, but it's still not a lot. I admit I'm enjoying sleeping in and watching movies (and possibly having a standing date with scimmia_romanov for the $6 Wednesdays at the Ritz downtown), but making money would be nice too. :P

The good news, however, is that I am upgrading my phone (for free!) and my new one is the bomb diggity. I should have it tomorrow or Monday; it's been shipped to my dad's work and then I have to go into the store to have my numbers transferred and stuff. Holler!

New moodtheme as well. ♥ And my extra userpics is running out quite soon; maybe this will be the year I have the willpower to not renew it. (But I doubt it.)

And a meme, stolen from lots of people:
Name your 10 absolute favorite couples (het/slash/canon/fanon) and ask people to see what trends they notice about your couples. Try to pick different fandoms.

1. Sirius/Remus (Harry Potter)
2. Matt/Elektra (Marvel comics)
3. Brian/Justin ("Queer As Folk" US)
4. Jim/Pam ("The Office" US)
5. Sylar/Mohinder ("Heroes")
6. Des/Penny ("Lost")
7. House/Wilson ("House")
8. Luke/Lorelai ("Gilmore Girls" - S1-5 only)
9. Ned/Chuck ("Pushing Daisies")
10. Tulio/Miguel (The Road to El Dorado)

Boo, way too much canon. :( And maybe they're not my absolute favorites, but they're close.

1. Went to the pizza place from last summer to beg for my job back, and they gave me a succinct "we'll call you." They're just not that into me. Shockingly, I can't really find anything else, so far. I've been checking Craigslist obsessively, but as I'm not a welder nor someone willing to donate my eggs for money, my choices are slim. Sigh.

2. Have started watching "Rome" and am six episodes in. Atia of the Julii is rivaling both Vanessa Fisk and Eloise Hawking as the most appalling fictional mother of all time. I'm loving young!Octavian, though, as well as the Vorenus/Pullo bromance, of course. And the costumes are fabulous. And KMcK's little accent-slips make me squee.

3. Also watched the premiere of "Glee" and was glad to be home alone so I could cheerfully sing along to show tunes and REO Speedwagon and Journey. I SO wish it was a summer show, since I haven't got one of those since they canceled "Last Comic Standing" (NOOOO! WHY?!), and I have way too many fall shows. But it's got that great blend of corniness and political incorrectness that I love so much. Dare I say that Lea Michele is the Idina for the next generation? I think maybe.

4. Going to the beach this weekend, hooray! It's lovely to be back in a land where it gets above 60°F, ever.

5. 10 days until la_belle_ange and I are reunited for some Trekkian goodness! ♥