A Mighty Fine Life

1) Saw Cobra with Jess and DK Friday night. It was the oldest crowd I've ever seen at at Cobra show, in that the majority of the audience was over the age of 15.

2) We have two conferences at work right now. This is a wee bit stressful, as you can imagine. But I'm surviving. This is particularly exciting (the surviving bit) because today I actually went to a conference for the first time. It turned out to be pretty anticlimactic, notable mostly because a) I am socially awkward, and being professionally perky is not my forte; and b) I actually had to dress like a grown up for it.

3) This necessitated buying clothing over the weekend.

4) I am not seeing OK Go right now. :(((((((

5) Apparently, I'm pissed off about the VMAs. I would not have predicted that.

6) Mmm... Bedtime?

Whew! The crazy bookathon weekend is over. If you didn't follow along as it happened, you can see all the various gathered bits and pieces with the Book Challenge tag at AV. My vital stats:

Books Read: 8
Pages Read: 2,306
Hours Read: 26:41

Not as overpowering as some folks', but not bad, if I do say so myself.

And now a meme from falco_conlon.

01. Anyone who looks at this entry is invited to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal.
02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper.
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this. The point is to see what you had on.

( Hint: he's curly-haired and super dreamy. )

In case you missed it on one of my three other blogs or on poisonivory 's journal, Jess and I are doing the 48 Hour Book Challenge. For charity! Specifically, this weekend we'll be reading as much YA as we can, and live-blogging over at AV; we are asking for people to sponsor us for a dollar or two per book. Proceeds will all go to Room to Read. It's gonna be awesome.

Of course, this necessitates books, and possibly I ran out and bought a couple, leaving me those PLUS what I've already got lying around. Ah ha ha... ha. Help me decide which to read (first)!

Poll #1410742 Help me pick books!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

Which book should I read (first?)

Reading-related, but sad: David Eddings died. I can't even say how formative his novels were to me, both as I became a fantasy fan and as I started writing. I'm not much for epic fantasy at this point, but those were some damn fun reading, and I think he will be greatly missed. :(((

And to cheer everyone up after that, have some pictures of Corbin looking like an adult (read: hot). Click to embiggen. There is stubble and chest hair.







*swoon* I think I need a mint julep and a lie down.

And on that lecherous note, I am off to bed.

Got bored. Changed my LJ layout. I was way too lazy to even customize the colors, so it's nothing fancy; but it's the first time I've had anything beyond plain boxes.

It's very pink. Thus changed my default icon to my very pinkest as well -- an oldy but goody. *g* I am, after all, coming up on my six year fandomversary.

Speaking of changes, recently I grabbed a new theme for the nerd blog, and (mostly to see if I could figure out how -- I could) created an LJ feed for it: nerdatpeace. To go with active_voice and tween_wasteland, I guess.

Via magickalmolly and idontdance, this morning I found this article, which includes (ahem):

And it’s not like the young audience to whom the HSM franchise is aimed doesn’t read between the lines. After AfterElton.com ran an interview with Simpatico and officially “outed” Ryan, one teen blogger linked to the story under the headline, “BREAKING NEWS! Ryan Evans is Gay! Also the Sun is Hot and the Sky is Blue!”

Oh hey, You think that means THIS blog entry? That I wrote? (Come on, no link love, AfterElton?) Uh, I'm 25, though.

Incidentally, if you don't read Tweenage (also: tween_wasteland, Jess and I are spending the week getting psyched up for Friday (tomorrow omg) by doing daily Top 10 lists. Writing them all has made me giggle, but my favorite so far has actually been Ryan's Top 10 Gayest Moments, so there you go, I guess.

Um, so, I bought most of a new wardrobe today. I spent an incredibly amount of money, but I swear none of it was frivolous -- anyone who has seen my wardrobe (such as it is; there should be quotation marks around the word, honestly) knows I needed some new clothing. And I found the absolute most adorable, cutest winter coat in the entire world. I'm pretty sure. (It's purple. It looks like something Kenley would design on Project Runway -- very early 60s. I look like a plucky girl reporter. It is SO CUTE FOR REAL.) So there's that.

Aside from that, I managed to somehow update all three of my non-LJ blogs this week. It's remarkable, really.

Feminist nerd blog: ABC Family's "Greek": Surprisingly, Really Good! (It is. I swear. You should all watch it: every episode is online at abcfamily.com. DO IT. Come on, the really attractive naked boy in the cowboy hat in my new icon is the male lead! You know you want to see that.)

Active Voice: Two Mini-Reviews: Bruce Coville’s “Alien Adventures” and “Unicorn Chronicles” . What it says in the title. Bruce Coville rulez!

Tweenage Wasteland: The Suite Life on Deck. You guys, it was bad. Even for the Disney Channel. Even for The Suite Life. Really, really bad.

OH! And I cooked dinner, specifically with plans to save the extra for lunch tomorrow. I never do that! (It's veggie fried rice, if you're curious. I expanded the list of "things I can cook" another meal. Now I can have spaghetti OR rice, thank you very much...)

ETA: YES, I CAN SPELL "COAT," SHUT UP RACHEL.

Writing-wise, this has been a crazy productive week for me. (Word count will be posted at temira as usual tonight.) Here's what I've written online of late:

- Another Situation at the feminist nerd blog, about what happened when poisonivory and I went to a baseball game and I got very angry at some ill-behaved fans.

- Old School Review: The Protector of the Small Quartet (First Test, Page, Squire, Lady Knight), because my dad (yeah, he has an LJ: loondave4824445) mailed them to me weeks ago and I felt I should actually read them. Too lazy to read they review? They scored four cupcakes.

I also just finished rereading the first two books in he Unicorn Chronicles, because second_batgirl gave me the third book for my birthday! Now that I remember what happened in the first two, I can read the new one. I also recently finished Eight Men Out, because I am still building up my nerdy baseball knowledge. It was pretty awesome.

ETA: I seem to be Twittering the VMAs. Here.

Watched. Dr. Horrible: Didn't like it.

Actually, that's not strictly true: I enjoyed acts I and II quite a bit. Especially the penis line. But Act III failed so spectacularly that the whole thing is soured for me and I'll never watch it again. SO ANNOYED.

Speaking of blog updates, last week I also wrote A Short Survival Guide to Dating Someone Who Doesn't Get It in response to a post called "Explaining Science Fiction to Women." You can guess who much I loved that article...

So much stupid so early in the morning.

I said last night that I really enjoyed Journey to the Center of the Earth. Here's the slightly more coherent reaction over at Hathor, though it only deals with Hannah and how awesome she was, and not the ludicrousness of the movie as a whole. (Because it is quite ludicrous. But I would watch Brendan Fraser punch semi-sentient plants in their kinda-faces all day.)

In other news, Rachel and I packed eleven boxes today. All of books. (We have other possessions, but that's probably about half of everything we own...) The liquor store was kind enough to provide us with free boxes. By way of thanks, we also bought a cheap bottle of wine, and, uh, drank it. Whoops?

I moved the feminist nerd blog and combined it with my portfolio, so now all that can be found here.

1) pepino21786 mailed us cookies!! Cookies!! ♥

2) Lots of things got posted at Tweenage this week. I wrote about New Kids on the Block reuniting, Zac Efron not showering (vote in the poll!), how Ryan Evans is totally gay (a category that now has its own tag), and about Disney's "music videos". Jess wrote about Tizz's Rick Astley cover (aka, OH TIZZ HONEY NO), and the greatest collaboration of all time ever made!

Basically, you all should subscribe to tween_wasteland, although I will probably continue to link to posts, assuming I remember to.

3) Hot Starbucks Guy wasn't at work at all this week. I fear he may have quit or been fired or changed his schedule so he's not opening. Perky Starbucks Girl is kind of adorable, but it's not the saaaaaame.

4) Meme! From everyone:
You know how sometimes people on your friend's list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you *should* already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy my response below, erase my answers putting yours in their place then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration! One-word answers seldom help anyone out. :)

( Me-me-me-me-me )

Oh, Johnny Damon, you sexy Geico caveman, you!

This week's bloggery (I was oddly productive):
- Silliness at the srs bznss blog: New York City Deathsport, or, the many ways I've almost died on my afternoon commute home
-Book review: Nobody's Princess by Esther Friesner. Spunky young Helen secretly trains to be a warrior. Four cupcakes.
-Exceedingly short: A stupid picture of Zac Efron at the stupid picture Zac Efron blog Tweenage.

First off, So You Think You Can...DANCE (dance dance) is back! HOORAY! It's my favorite reality-competition-type-show ever. And there was a Travis cameo! TRAVIS!

Bloggery: An article of interest at the nerdblog, regarding sexism in criticism of speculative fiction (sparked by an article sent to me by harmonyangel). Second, I've finally reviewed Magic Lessons and Magic's Child at Active Voice. The series was recced many months ago by gruyere, and it was indeed fantastic, though admitted the first first book was much better than the second and third.

And finally, as if I didn't have enough blogs in existence that I don't update, poisonivory convinced me that we should have a blog to make fun of tween stars. Especially the HSM cast. So that's here, though it may never actually be updated on my end.

As for me, I got 14 hours of sleep (went in to work 3 hours late today) and feel about 60% better. Hopefully, early bed tonight.

(ETA: GIP!)

Today was one of the more productive days I've had in awhile. I managed to run laundry, clean the living room, and do a fair amount of writing, including updating not one, but two blogs! (Yeah, I work on too many of those. With another on the way, potentially. Because I need something else to leave gathering dust on the internet.)

At Active Voice, I posted a review of Dragon's Egg by Sarah L. Thomson. Three and a half cupcakes; some high points without many problems; generally cute.

At the feminist nerd blog, A Princess Peach Post, which is thoughts on the female characters in Paper Mario, as it's the only game I've ever played.

In other news, I'm now reading a collection of short stories and realizing that, while I already knew I can't write them, I'm not that interested in reading them, either. Something about the short...thing really doesn't click for me. But I'm going to finish this collection regardless, because I'm reading it for the feminist SF book club I was invited to join. And how fucking cool is that?

For those who might be curious what it looks like when I really and truly get my hate on for a book, please see my review of Alcatraz Smedly Versus the Evil Librarian. A book I picked up expecting to enjoy, and ended up truly loathing. A lot.

Recent (and semi-recent) blogging I've done:
-Hannah Montana Part II (a follow-up to Part I, of course), about the serious problems with gender and sexuality in the show.

-Review: Among the Hidden, an interesting little dystopia, over at AV.

Hooray, the blogs! (...I volunteered to write about 30Rock for Hathor, too, didn't I? I should get on that.)

In other online, but not quite as, er...political, I finally have a due date for my Chad/Ryan manifesto, and a couple of plotbunnies for that pairing, too. And I'm almost done with the next chapter of G&D in the Newsies fandom; I just need to fix the build up at the end, because I'm not satisfied with it yet. (And I have Refuge secret slash to write.)

So hopefully I will be writing lots in the upcoming few weeks. And being super productive at work, but that's another entry for another day.

So my headphones had been slowly dying for a long time, and finally gave up entirely on Friday. I stopped at the CompUSA across from my job to pick up a new pair, and while I was there, a Miley Cyrus song came on. I'm used to hearing Miley Cyrus and of course began to lip synch and dance, as I generally do. It wasn't until I picked up a set of headphones that I realized it was actually coming from overhead speakers and not just my own music.

Unrelated things: I updated Active Voice.

Also, who all on the flist is doing Nano this year? Usually there is a huge amount of chatter about it by this point, but it seems like fewer people are into it this year. I, on the other hand, am actually doing it for the first time in three years (my fourth time total), and am very psyched. Mostly because I just figured out my whole plot. It just unraveled in front of me! Awesome! So of course, daily wordcounts and occasional excerpts will be posted over at temira.