MILES to GO || before I sleep

Eek, big bad final exam tomorrow.

Still haven't finished my Shakespeare essay. Maybe once I get public relations stuff out of my brain, Shakespeare will come to me easier. And then when THAT'S out of my brain, I can finish my belated Fanswap assignment (I got an extension/excuse, so participants don't have to worry about me just being one of those evil non-submitters).

Mac OS X updated to 10.5.7 today. I guess I'm one of those folks who doesn't mind upgrading, because if it's from Apple, I typically trust that it's an update for a good reason. Of course, I read the "What's Changed in this Version" notes for any updates to ANY software I get, which might make me a bit unusual...anyway, I found this rather amusing tidbit:



They changed the Energy Saver icon in the System Preferences to a CFC bulb! HA! Cute, Apple, real cute.

Also, the plotbunny I've been tending to--the one that's the trans-dimensional offspring of the second daughter of WDKY (a.k.a. the spin-off of the third story in the WDKY series)--has gotten a lot larger. I suddenly thought of TWO FULL ARCS for it, meaning the story (which only exists in note-form) is now at least 16 chapters long. And I suddenly thought of a socio-politcal twist to it (that's been happening a lot with my fic ideas lately. I wonder why?). I wonder if this is what happened to JKR when she was writing "Harry Potter?" The idea sounds cool and you fiddle for it with a while and then of a sudden: IDEASPLOSION! Of course, "Harry Potter" was an original series and this is a fanfic that won't see the light of day for some time now, so it puts me in quite the pickle.

That's my new catchphrase as of late: "in a pickle." Hm. Pickles.

Still writing that "Dumbledore is gay" opinion piece for the Daily Sundial. But despite it being an opinion piece, I'd really like the opinions of other fans, whether you consider yourself a fan of Harry Potter or not.

If you're interested in participating, please comment to this post with your thoughts about what's going on, and PLEASE leave your:
* Real name (you can use your first initial and last name, or first name and last initial, or your full name, whatever you're comfortable with JUST NO ALIASES OR LJ USERNAMES)
* Where you're from (city, state if from the USA, country if from elsewhere)

Aside from the obvious "What do you think about J.K. Rowling revealing that Dumbledore is gay?" think about some of these questions:

* Do you think Rowling had any ulterior motive for revealing that Dumbledore was gay, e.g. for the attention, for the scandal, etc? If she did it to continue to "preach her message of tolerance," do you think she went about it the right way? Is there anything you think that helped or harmed her efforts? What could she have done differently, if anything?

* Do you think it matters whether or not Dumbledore's sexuality was stated in the books or not? Do you think something MUST be stated unequivocally (e.g. in the text, it would say "Dumbledore is gay" or similar?) for it to be considered canon?

* Do you think it makes a difference that we're talking about a fictional character? What about a character in what is widely considered to be a children's fantasy series?

Comments are screened!

I believe I've mentioned on a few occasions my disappointment with big-name anybodys or anythings. Many of my friends recall how I detested anything related to Harry Potter, until one day katiat325 invited me to a free screening of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The whole time, she and schmollieollie were chatting about the things different from the book, the scenes left out, the characterizations-- and they wouldn't repeat a word of it to me, the outsider who hadn't even read the books.

So I read the books-- actually borrowed from my mother. By the time I was leaving to go to CSUN, I was engrossed in the world, and Stephanie got me Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as a going-away present. Now that the final book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) is upon us (July 21, 2007), I'm looking back on a lot of books that have been hype or tripe. Some books deserve their hype; others (especially those from a famous author or in a long-standing series) don't really deserve the hype they get just because of the name attached.

For example, Harry Potter --both the books and the fandom as a whole-- has disappointed me over the years, because what I originally found fascinating or enchanting is now predictable or pathetic. But JKR is not a poor writer by any stretch of the imagination, and AS a writer myself, I hardly think that a writer SHOULD pander to her audience, even if said audience "pays the bills."

So then I wonder about another famous author: Danielle Steel. Before I left for Japan last year, I picked up her (then) newest book, Coming Out. It sounded different from the steamy romances I'd read from her in high school (I can't remember the exact title, but it was about a Japanese woman in an internment camp in America during World War 2). But then again, in high school, I had a lot lower standards. -_- I remember trying my hardest to read "Coming Out" but it just read like a flat, predictable piece of drivel. It's funny, because when I mentioned something similar to this (though I believe on another comm. or in another post somewhere), someone said that many of her stories have the same PLOT over and over, with the characters merely renamed. That wasn't the case with "Coming Out" at all, and in fact, had some very interesting characters and what I thought was a very interesting plot-- but it's like taking a bunch of baking ingredients and making something terrible tasting with them. There was SO much potential, but...

I ended up returning "Coming Out" and using the money I got in return to buy 3 Yu-Gi-Oh manga. Sure, I don't like what Viz does with the manga (namely their horrid design skills, and how they can't even position a rounded rectangle block of text into a bubble properly), but I still buy from them because I support them bringing Yu-Gi-Oh's original manga to English audiences in the first place. All the scanlation groups that have tried up to this point are sub-par, really. Companies like Viz have the time and money to create something truly incredible, but as with my previous analogy, I think they're taking something with potential and not doing the best they can with it. But rather than creating something "horrible tasting" with the "ingredient" that is the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga, I think they've just made something that's a bit bitter and a touch bit moldy in places. I would one day like to work for Viz, instead of writing them letters over and over ("Are you guys going to do a second edition of XYZ manga where page 10 ISN'T a duplicate of page 5?"), so I'm trying to keep that goal in mind.

Anyway, because of my disappointment with Steel, I have next to no interest in reading her NEWEST new novel, Sisters. It, too, sounds vaguely interesting, based on the description. And people always love to hype Danielle Steel for being such a "prolific" writer, for churning out as many novels as she has, for being best-selling. But what the hell does best-selling mean if not "robbed a bunch of people's wallets?" I mean, it says nothing for the actual quality of the book, only the fact that it sold. You might as well say that the In-Crowd back in high school were model students, representatives of the school or teenagers as a whole.

Yeah, right, and I'm Angelina Jolie. [/sarcasm]

I can't stand two forms of book summaries:
* the non-existent kind (i.e. you go to the back of a book, or the inside flap of a hardcover, and there is no summary-- only a photo of the author, or a short bio, or WORSE, a description of some OTHER book they wrote!)
* the obvious kind ("will so-and-so find true love amidst her family crumbling before her eyes!?")

Steel's fall into the second category, though I have seen a few of her books fall into the first, as well. And I'm sorry, but every time I see the cover art of "Toxic Bachelors" I want to cringe. WHO THE HELL DESIGNED THAT COVER!? My grandmother (Baba) has HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS of romance novels. I have seen every possible cover design out there, from the stereotypical (hot, Fabio-like man with his shirt half-torn open, groping or reaching for the woman with her bared shoulders and/or thighs and her hair flowing out behind her) to the tasteful (embossed, shiny text over a simple background, like a lace print, silk, jewels, etc). But the cover of that book just makes me want to cringe. I'm not even a well-versed student in the art of design (that's what my JOUR 331 - Graphics class is supposed to be about), but even I can see-- that's a stupid cover. And like the summary, the cover is what sells. If I see an interesting title or a cool-looking cover, I might just pick up that book! If the summary sounds interesting, I might just flip it open to check out the first page. If I like what I read, I MAY BUY IT!

I wish more people kept this in mind with their writing, even if it's not sold writing like Steel's drivel. I mean, is she like Anne Rice without vampires-- no one questions her authority anymore, she has no editor, no one stands against her? Or do you really have to hunt for the one gem amongst all her crap? I'm sure she has good stuff written somewhere. I hope, anyway.

Anyway, ( speaking of design... )

I had a series of weird dreams last night, but as soon as I woke up, I couldn't really remember many specifics, only a few impressions. I remembered dreaming that I'd found my PS2 memory card (*wail*), but I also remember dreaming about some BAD things, because I was feeling very freaked out and vaguely "sick in the head" when I woke up. But I think I've managed to recover okay, I just have to watch out and not get stressed. Even though Tuesday is my longest day, I don't have work on Tuesdays, and so far I've been able to handle the workload and even the teachers.

My Media Law teacher doesn't mind me taking notes on the laptop (which is great, because I can type faster than I can write!), and so far I've been able to keep up with my usual pace and style in Japanese class (by the way, Todd and I'm presuming Daniel and/or John returned from Japan today, and Todd stopped into my Japanese class to promote the Tokiwa program... that was kind of funny). Plus I got out of Media Law at 4:00 or so today, and my next class doesn't start until 6pm, so I have about an hour to chill and do whatever I like. :)

Notes:
* Need to get Death Notes vols. 6-10
* Need to watch Hana Yori Dango 2 episode 5 *AS SOON AS IT IS SUBBED* because dayum was Episode 4 good! And the teaser-trailer! :O!!!! Ah, HYD, how I MISSED you!

And to close, a rather random question: at what point did the Stormtroopers stop being clones of Jango Fett? I wonder, because a new Star Wars novel (Allegiance, taking place between episodes IV and V) features a Stormtrooper with his own unique name... though that doesn't necessarily mean he's NOT a clone, I wonder if the Empire would have kept up production of the clone troopers after the Clone Wars. Further, did they bother identifying the clones by name, as a part of their "conditioning," or were they just given numbers (TK-421, why aren't you at your post)? I wonder...

Happy Birthday Shelli!


"If you really want to have a sex scene and yet don’t feel comfortable writing about it from the POV of any of the parties involved, there’s always another solution: write it from the head of someone outside the action entirely. And no, you don’t have to use a voyeur, either. Use a completely neutral party. I like the idea of the evil wizard’s spy-raven watching the hero and heroine thrashing on the grass below, knowing what they’re doing, but not really caring about anything other than the fact that these people aren’t quite dead enough for it to eat yet."

(emphasis mine, for contextual purposes of the following...)

...I blame a_white_rain for inadvertently conjuring the image of Harry and Hermione doing the thrashing while a non-existent spy-raven belonging to Voldemort spies on them.

I'm not even a H/Hr shipper! I mean they're cute and all, but D/Hr all the way for me! AWR, what have you done to my brain????

(It seems to be working better, can I keep it?)

Oh, that snippet came from here, a rather useful resource on sex in fanfiction, especially for those of us that can't seem to bring ourselves to... well, "do it." DO EET! DO EET NOW!

Celebrate the Season fic request for Pezi

Title: Secret of the Shrieking Shack
Rating: PG (sorry, I couldn't find to make an R-rating with your requested things without being downright weird/gruesome... and I can't really write those things.)
Disclaimer: All I own are dreams.
Author's Notes: Ah, this is my first HP fic. Ever. ;_; But I've been a Dramione shipper since... er, Prisoner of Azkaban's movie came out (I ended up reading the whole series after that, and getting hooked!). BUT! I have been writing fics for over 10 years now, and I sincerely hope I do Pezi's request justice. I don't think I can necessarily kick the rating up to R without having my first DM/HG fic ever end up like a sad attempt at a Food Network flambé, but... well, you get the drift.
Spoilers? Spoilers up to Prisoner of Azkaban. This takes place during some unspecified time (either in 4th or 5th year), not exactly following canon continuity of those years.
Beta'd by:
Summary: An enchantment at the Shrieking Shack goes awry, and Draco Malfoy is turned into a helpless puppy. Hermione might be the only one who can help him change back-- if they can attempt to get along. Dogs might be a man's best friend, but not a witch's!

( Secret of the Shrieking Shack )

Thank-you for Celebrating the Season with Draco and Hermione!

Truthfully, I don't use my laptop much. As it turns out, I don't really need it. So I wasted over $1000 on something I don't need and pretty much can't use. Yes, it's nice having my own computer when relatives visit, or when I go to school and the Collaboratory comps are all being used, but it doesn't help me when I need to print, or other things. It was nice saying I had this cool piece of technology that was all my own, but... it doesn't work.

I've done a clean install about 3 times now. I've bought and downloaded the best of the best software, only to have it not work. I have tried calling three different customer support numbers, only to be told as I follow the menu options that the number I have reached is out-of-service. I have emailed the return form, only to have my order number (as it is listed on my account page) to be rejected. Remember when I kept calling Dell, and one week after the other, they said they'd send this CD to fix all my computer's ills? And then it turned out... they forgot to send it, they weren't authorized to send it, I had to call this department, and then I had to pay $250 for it!? WHAT. THE. FUCK!?

All that time I spent ended up "expiring" my 21-day return policy. What the hell is the point of having a 90-day warranty (expires in 12 days, shit shit shit) if the return policy doesn't last for the length of the warranty? Besides, in those 3 months, I've hardly used the damn thing, because I've spent so much time trying to FIX it! And now if I can't get ahold of Dell within the next two weeks, I don't know what I'll do. I hate calling tech support, but I hate thinking that I've spent $1300+ (that includes the leather case, the Windows XP Pro, the snap-on cover, and Office 2003 Pro) on a piece of shit. This happened with Dad and the Vaio-clone several years back, and that's still a piece of shit sitting in my closet back in SF.

I wonder if I can go to Fry's and assemble an all-new computer from the craptacular parts that Dell has... I mean, the CD+/-RW drive can't be bad, or the 40GB hard drive, right? And what about my 1GB Kingston Memory Card, and the rather nice monitor? I don't know, god_101, you've put comps together from scratch, is it possible to do that?

...Needless to say, this whole idea of being pressured for time and not having any options is stressing me out a bit. A review of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will come later. Right now, I'm exhausted... and by 7pm I have to be ready to go to King Tut. I still have to find time this weekend to do a smidgen of Japanese homework, BS at least part of my byline clip project, polish my study abroad essays and application(s), work on my VComm presentation for the 30th, AND work on Scott's birthday "present/card" for the 21st (MONDAY!!).

I feel like crying, but even my eyes are too tired.

Well, I had a great night's sleep. I went to bed much earlier than usual, and I slept straight through. I got dressed and ready pretty quick, and still had time to wolf down my breakfast and finish an analysis for Creative Writing class.

The weather's improved a bit; it's still wet outside, but at least it's not raining. I actually like this kind of weather, because it's not foggy enough to make my hair frizz, it's not cold enough to make me freeze, and it's not wet enough to get me soaked. It's also not windy, which is always a bonus. ^_^

Scott called last night and asked me if I could help him with a shoot tomorrow morning, which I'm more than glad to do on a free Friday. In the afternoon I have my first driver's ed lesson (I'm excited and scared), and then in the evening IF I FEEL LIKE IT, there's anime club. I have to do Japanese listening comprehension, write a short skit, and memorize a new dialogue all for Monday, because on Tuesday there's the JET Programme orientation in the USU during class time.

I'm zooming through GOF pretty fast, as I may have mentioned before, and it seems the eagerness to see the movie is spreading-- two girls in my Japanese class are pretty eager to see it, too! ^_^ I guess I better start making plans... though I'd love to see it in IMAX or at a big theatre (the ArcLight, maybe?), I'm leaning toward the cheaper and physically possible-- whichever of the PacTheatres in the area ends up having tickets for a midnight show. This assumes I don't go with Scott, because we might be able to go to a nicer theatre or to the PacTheatres in Sherman Oaks if he treats (I'd feel bad about it, but who am I to argue?).

Speaking of Scott though, he made this really weird suggestion last night. There was an ad in our campus paper about this "Campus Night Safety Walk", which Scott said he thought I'd be interested in. I took a look at the ad and wondered WHY in the seven hells he would have thought of me when looking at that. Hey, I'm never one to argue with free pizza and soda, but... come on? It's a night safety walk. It doesn't sound very exciting or even social. What is he trying to say here?

Meh, I think I'll catch up on some journals for the next hour or so before class.

Happy Birthday cyperian! Sorry I can't do the rainbow-colored font thing, I'm not at home where the font colorizer is... ;_;

So I'm a dweeb. I joined 4husorting and now I'm letting people dissect my character and determine if I'm a Ravendor, a Slytherpuff, or some other bizarre combination thereof of the houses. So far, people seem to think I'm a Gryffinpuff! Sad thing is, I thought each of the 6 house combinations would have one of the four main houses in the "first" position:
Huffle(puff)
Gryffin(dor)
Raven(claw)
Slyth(erin)

But the houses are as follows:
Ravendor (Ravenclaw + Gryffindor)
Gryffinpuff (Gryffindor + Hufflepuff)
Ravenpuff (Ravenclaw + Hufflepuff)
Slytherclaw (Slytherin + Ravenclaw)
Slytherpuff (Slytherin + Hufflepuff)
Slytheriffin (Slytherin + Gryffindor)

So as you can see, Ravenclaw has 2 houses (which is okay), Slytherin has 3 (hey!) Gryffindor has one (one shrot), and Hufflepuff has NONE! Not that I don't like the names or anything, but...

Slytheriffin should be changed to Gryfferin or something. And if you wanted to be fair, each house would get 1 name, and two major houses (for the sake of the HP verse, we'll say Gryffindor and Slytherin) would have an additional 2:
* Ravenpuff (Ravenclaw main - Ravenclaw + Hufflepuff)
* Gryffinpuff (Gryffindor main - Gryffindor + Hufflepuff)
* Slytherclaw (Slytherin main - Slytherin + Ravenclaw)
* Hufflerin (Hufflepuff main - Hufflepuff + Slytherin, though admittedly Slytherpuff sounds cooler)
* Slytheriffin (Slytherin main - Slytherin + Gryffindor)
* Gryffinclaw (Gryffindor main - Gryffindor + Ravenclaw)

Hee.

Anyway, so I manged to transfer almost ALL of my files to my laptop -teh yay! But alas, I still can't get LimeWire or iTunes to work, and I don't know why! I'm praying for the Device & Drivers CD, and maybe I can afford to splurge on a 1 GB Memory Card... the question is $159 from Dell Direct, or possibly more expensive for a name brand? BestBuy.com didn't even carry cards for my laptop!

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day! ARGH!

It be Joe's birthday! Happy birthday, matey! (I would do the giant text rainbow color thing, but I'm at school, so I don't have the prog. that does that.)

Also, I was thinking (completely randomly) to make some HBP banners that say (all sophisticated-like) "JKR sunk my 'ship. But I'm still writing. That's the power of my OTP/OT3/whatever." Anyone want?

And finally, because I love having an excuse OTHER than fanfiction to annoy rhapsody_dragon I propose this question to her and all of you on my FL, because I love getting opinions and arguing/debating, or just learning about fresh perspectives...

What do you think of shock advertising? By shock advertising, I mean things like the United Colors of Benetton using the picture of a man dying of AIDS on his deathbed, and sticking their logo in the corner. I mean the same company using the nude torso of a male model and stamping his forearm with a Holocaust-like tattoo reading "HIV positive." What do ads like these do to you, make you think about the company advertising, the magazine/newspaper they appear in, the photographer, or the models/people pictured? Why? Is anyone justified using shock advertising, and if so, for what reasons? (For example, does donating to a charity for AIDS relief justify using the image described above for an ad for clothing?)

See the first image here: http://webquiz.ilrn.com/books/levc04q/levc04.06.01.02.png

Time to go to mythology class (Mr. Adams calls it My-thologee)!

I saw "March of the Penguins" tonight with David and Erin. It was SOOOOO squee-worthy, and I love anything narrated by Morgan Freeman, because he has such an amazing voice. But what I really wanted to post was this: I saw the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire preview. And damn it looks good. :)

Ugh, I'm an idiot. The official Idiot, the Captain of the Idiots, the Mascot... ugh. See, I got all excited and hyped up about two measly things this week: one, the possibility of spending more time with Scott by going to Disneyland/Magic Mountain on the opening day. That idea fizzled out pretty quickly, seeing as Scott not only said he wasn't much of a Disney person on July 4th, but the closer we got to the date in question, the less likely I'd be able to switch shifts with anyone who got the day off. So I let it go. This does NOT imply that I wanted to work more than I wanted to be with him... rather, I'd spend more time with Scott if I could and he WOULD try... but like I said before, I'm past the point where I want to make all the efforts.

The other thing was the Harry Potter party. I've never been-- it sounded fun, if a little geeky, but a chance to meet new people. I guess Scott, Baba, and my own inner nag's voices have all got through to me,  because more often than not, I feel pretty lonely without someone to talk to in person about stuff. And my co-workers have proven to be less than companionable, for the most part: J (most likely in jest, but still, it kinda hurt that he said it) said of my reasons for wanting to get off work early today and go to the HP Party (which I stupidly did NOT realize was last night...) -- "Wow! You're a freak!" Maybe it was just a painful reminder of my school (mandatory) years.

Well yeah, so I'm pretty bummed about missing the premiere party (I have good reason for thinking it was supposed to be tonight/last night, and not FRIDAY night; all the Borders emails and such I got indicated July 16-17, not *ANYTHING* about July 15), especially when I had this whole opportunity to dress up/cosplay and maybe even look decently LIKE a character. Instead I came home with HPB (now about 1/4 of the way done) and read for a bit, and promptly passed out after I got upstairs (to read in a "more comfortable" place). There are some biggies-- but not like OMG!!! JKR, HOW COULD YOU!!??!? Not yet, anyway. But the book review in the Daily News said "I haven't cried this much since Charlotte the spider (of Charlotte's Web) died." So I'm steeling myself for all the possibilities.

I've got some banners done for ygo_verse #15's winners, but I missed my own challenge at ygo_awards and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to do the posting of the votes (I think I am, as I'm probably the only one who can see the screened comments, right?) or not. I've got to do some for ygo_offtopicon this week, just because I have some great ideas, and I refuse to come up with 2 fantastic ideas for challenges (last week was "Indiana Jones") and not participate.

Not sure how 'Net will be in SF, though-- 56K, if I'm lucky.

Anyway, I have work tomorrow (er, today) at 9:30, so I'm going to head off now.

I *just* woke up. Yeah, it's after 12 noon here, and yeah, it's lunchtime but I'm eating cereal... but already, today sucks. Why? Because five minutes after I woke up, someone from work called and asked me to come in. Sure, they had a very compelling reason (smashed up their finger, allergic to the Epsom salt they put it in, need to go to emergency room) but... ugh, this happens to me EVERY DAMN TIME I HAVE A DAY OFF! ;_; Why can't people just leave me alone? Worse, whenever they call the house phone, Baba and Grandpa never hesitate to give me the phone-- they don't ask who it is, where they're from, or what they want... and they don't care if I'm sleeping! -_- That ends NOW! If I don't recognize the phone number, I am NOT going to answer the phone. Pisses me off. Anyway, I took the shift, so I'm all rushing around trying to get everything done... and ow, my ankle is killing me. And it's a bloody 5 hour shift. Augh, why did I agree to this!?

On top of that, I had a weird dream. There was just me, Scott, and some other guy (maybe James? He's the son of an old friend of the family-- one of my dad's friend's sons) were in the house. Scott was down in the kitchen (topless, though I can't see why that's relevant) in front of the fridge, which for some reason, had an assortment of plastic card-holders (like the kinds you put pamphlets or postcards in) on the fridge door, instead of all these photos and magnets. Scott finished eating a banana, and just TOSSED the peel on the floor. For some reason, that really pissed me off, and I grabbed Scott by the arm and literally shoved him outside, and I slammed the door in his face. James (?) was in the den, fiddling with something that I thought was an X-Box, playing a game that looked like a mish-mash between two games, or half of a level from one game I'd played before (but not in the recent past). He said something about me being pretty vicious, but he was grinning, so I wasn't mad at him. Meanwhile, Scott seemed pretty upset and embarrassed to be outside, because some guys (one had a mustard yellow van with those old-school white gemtops) were unloading equipment and watching topless-Scott squirm outside... and I was under the impression they were filming something important. And then I woke up.

Gwuh? What does all that mean?

Well, work-wise... yesterday kind of stank. JF (the girl that C likes), C, J, and I were *all* working together. C and JF got off at the same time, and as far as I know, left together. I should be happy-- "good on them" and all that, because I told JF what I heard that night when C, J, and I closed. And I even went so far as to give C a small note saying I was sorry he took my words to heart (JF told me that C approached her and said "So, you think I'm a womanizer, do you?" K made me think that C wouldn't care, but apparently he did, especially if he brought it up 2 days later.) and that I had no right to say what I said, I was sorry and felt lousy, and if he really liked JF, he ought to go after her-- and me saying mean things because I was jealous for not getting his attention anymore (this all ends up tying back to Scott "not having enough time" to pay attention to me, otherwise I probably wouldn't even think about what C thinks of me). Well, I don't know if he even read the note, much less thought about it. So that kind of bummed me out, because he didn't even SAY anything to me. I was in a funk for the rest of the night-- I even agreed to do dishes. Sad thing is, I think I'm coming off as more and more of a bitch to my co-workers. What I think is me being enthusiastic, others might think is being too forthright or loud or something. *sigh* ;_;

The good news? I finished reading Order of the Phoenix, things that I forgot about make sense, and I'm all ready for the Half-Blood Prince. Plus I managed to switch shifts with Simon so I can get off in time to go home, throw together a Moaning Myrtle outfit (I lack robes-- too bad I didn't bring my old graduation gown with me- but then again, those are either red or white-- only the boys are black!) and head off to the Midnight Magic party. If Seattle's Best is open, I'll treat myself to a Chocolate Trio (and maybe some Fizzing Whizbees).

Ah, sometimes Scott has excellent ideas. After discovering that my precious rec room is infested with ants (going across all 14 or so feet of the entire ceiling, no less) and spiders (!!!!!!!!) Scott pulled me away and took me to Borders for an hour and a half or so. It was good. I grabbed the volumes of Boys Over Flowers/Hana Yori Dango that I was missing (8, 9, 11) -- but sadly, they're lacking in the Hot Gimmick (7, 9) department. Guess I'll have to order those online. I also looked for the Harry Potter books 1-4 boxed set... out-of-print! I was going to get 1-5 and just give Book 5 to Mom, since she OWNS 1-4, but not 5... but alas! It was not in store, despite the catalog saying it was. So anyway, I bought 4 differently-sized copies of 1-4, and I think I saved money.

I also caught sight of the new Entertainment Weekly and...
(1) "Superman Returns" looks like it's going to be terrible. Sorry, but Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane? I don't see it. That and, despite "not being a sequel," it takes place after the events of Chris Reeve's Superman 2, which means people that WERE NOT alive and part of the fandom when said movie came out will probably have to rewatch it for it to make any sense. This is NOT a good way to start out a franchise with so much possibility and weight on it. The guy playing Clark/Superman looks okay, but... Well, he's no Chris Reeves, and he sure as hell isn't Dean Cain. Tom Welling wasn't even asked to play the role, because they would have had to cancel "Smallville" for him to do it. Oh, and did you know that the 'S' on Superman's chest is really made out of thousands of little crystals with S's on them! Supe's a pimp loaded with bling-bling!

(2) CILLIAN MURPHY! Okay, it's just a one-paragraph blurb, but a pretty hot pic of him, and shadow_reality, I thought you'd wanna know. ^_~

(3) Ralph Fiennes = Voldemort!? o_O... Uh, yeah, this is the guy that went after J.Lo in "The Wedding Planner," right? And now he's the epitome of all evil? Hmm.....

Harry Potter die-hard fans have way too much time on their hands. I wish I had that kind of time on my hands. I mean, I looked at all these unofficial guides and things, and they bring up so many points I never even thought of! I mean, I might have thought of them once or twice while reading the books and making my usual faces, but these people turned them into full-fledged discussions. Once I re-read the series, I might be able to chat with the best of them.

Seattle's Best coffee really has the best... hot cocoa. This delish little thing called the Cocoa Trio. It was yummy last winter in Seattle, and it's yummy now in summer in Los Angeles. Really, I love it. It made my night.

I've gotten a lot of (mixed) reviews for all the oneshots I posted to FFnet, but because most of them were ficlets/drabbles, I used lots of ellipses (...) in them... and QuickEdit (the bane of my existence) liked to edit them out, and make me into some female e.e. cummings with my own sense of grammar. Sorry, no, I'm not that quite sure of myself just yet... I fixed "Silhouette" and "Miss Match," but I don't know if any of the others have screwed up the appearance of my fics royally. I'm going through all the reviews and trying to make sure. Let me know if I don't fix an error within the week!

Note: One of my loyal reviewers, Amazoness Archer, has requested I do a Yami x Anzu fic. Someone better hold me to it. Better yet, be more specific and write a theme/challenge element for me to follow. I seem to be good at doing those lately.

ChibiChib said (of "This Is All Your Fault") -- "I don't get it." o_O Well, she's not the only one making that face. What's not to get? *shrug* Do you really have to know about the Kaibaman card (the one created by Konami, and a legit Duel Monsters card) to understand the fic? I don't think so... Other people seemed to get it, and they said it was funny. Is there anything in there that doesn't make sense?

Any votes for lengthening "First Impression" into a miniseries? Yeah, one so far-- okay, two if you count atlantian_magic's original vote. Anyone else think so? But I need a direction to go-- obviously one of them (Seto or Anzu) would start to remember their REAL first meeting... but how, when, and why? Which one of them? Would the other person need a "push" to remember? If so, from who?

Re: "The Darkness Within" -- remember, it's a Kaiba introspective fic. He thinks if he got too close to Anzu, she'd become like him, dark and rotted and not the person he cares for. This might not be true, but it's what Kaiba thinks, and Kaiba never doubts himself.

Not so many reviews for "World Champion," even though that one is pure fluff (more so than "S'More" I think) -- and the one review I got for "One Of These Days" was someone demanding to know whether it was Kaiba. My answer: Sore wa hi-mi-tsu desu! (It is a sec-ret!) And for S'More-- one person thought Kaiba was being a "stuck-up jackass" ... eh!? He was!? ^^;

I got the wrong idea from this review: At first I thought it was Seto because he always has to be on the top but I guess Anzu is sort of like that too.

This reminds me of a line from Lois and Clark: "You like to be on top. Got it." *snickers* Though Kaiba = Clark Kent... NO WAY!

I've also been contemplating more of WDKY-- sadly, I had no time to work on it tonight, but I got an idea for a relatively plot-sized revision involing You-Know-Who and the rest of the You-Know-Whats. And if you don't know, sorry, I won't tell you until Chapter 22 or thereabouts-- you oughta know by now! ^_~ I don't foreshadow for nothing, you know!

Oh yeah, seeshellirun, I watched "Confessions of a White Collar Cop." It's... o_O <-- my face. It's funny but weird, sometimes shocking, but still acceptable (to watch-- I mean everyone's got lines they draw for various genres; this was never too stupid or too violent for me to click away). But which one were you? The ninja? The clown? Someone else? The confessions were pretty freakin' funny, though. *smirk*