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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Suck my ectoplasmic Schwanstuker!" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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03:58 pm
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Aber on the brain
I knew there was a reason why I chose Aberystwyth for the place where Celeste and Snape end up.
This is just too cool.
Current Location: Work, unfortunately
Current Mood:  amused
Current Music: Snow Patrol; Open Your Eyes
Tags: aberystwyth, celeste, monty python, snape
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10:58 am
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Oy
Man, there are a lot of screamers in here today. Somebody needs to stop feeding these kids sugar....
Current Location: Work, unfortunately
Current Mood:  cranky
Current Music: Dark Knight soundtrack
Tags: kids, work
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03:26 pm
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Bliss
OK, I know there's a weird dichotomy between the icon I'm using and the subject of this post. Heck, there's a weird dichotomy between what's been going on in my life lately and the subject of this post. However...
This weekend has been marvelous. I'm sure part of it is not being at work, but the past few days have just flowed wonderfully. We went to a social gathering at our church on Friday night and then got home just in time to catch Dr. Who at eleven. Yesterday we bought our tickets to The Dark Knight online because we figured it would be crowded at the theater, which it was, except the nice guy taking tickets at the door let us in just as, at the other side of the theater, the people who'd been waiting outside were being allowed inside. So we got our favorite seats in the front row of the stadium section without having to stand in line. Seamless. And then last night after dinner we fired up the hookah Erik got as a birthday present and sat out on the deck and smoked and drank our shots of choice (vodka for him, real German apple schnapps for me) and had a generally wonderful time. I don't know if it was the tobacco we bought or what, but that was definitely the best-tasting hookah I've ever had.
Today was quiet, but I got a lot of things accomplished, and we finally got around to making salsa with tomatoes from the garden. The salsa was sublime. So is the weather. I don't know where it came from, but this weekend it's been unbelievably cool for mid-July -- out here it's usually somewhere in the mid-90s from the end of June right through the middle of September, but both yesterday and today have been about ten degrees below that. All the windows are open, and a sea breeze is blowing through the house. Just lovely.
Back to Dark Knight -- just blown away. I won't go into details because I don't want to spoil those of you who haven't seen it yet, but I thought it was amazing. Actually, the movies this summer have really been of consistently high quality. I'm impressed. I'm not sure what happy combination of circumstance brought about all these consecutive home runs, but as a movie-goer I just want to say, "Thank you, Hollywood."
Now of course I have a rabid DK-based plot bunny that won't leave me alone -- as if I don't have enough on my writing plate already. At least this one would be a one-shot, length probably around 10K or so. Heck, I've done that in three days during Nanowrimo. Guess I'll just have to see how the week pans out.
Still, it's been helpful to have such a lovely, relaxing weekend. Apparently things are moving (albeit slowly) to get me out of the Teen Center. And the new boss man is really impressed with my work -- I did a total cover redesign for him because he wanted the brochure to have a different look, and according to my manager the new boss was so excited about it he was practically doing the Snoopy dance. Fingers crossed that this goodwill results in a quieter and more mentally healthful work environment for me.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  relaxed
Current Music: Dark Knight soundtrack
Tags: dark knight, movies, summer, work, writing
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04:33 pm
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More meme-age
Mostly because while I have a bunch of crap going on, I just can't articulate it in writing right now. I'm hoping by the end of the week I have some stuff in my life straightened out, because if I don't, I'm either going to kill somebody, end up heavily medicated, or be jobless. Possibly all three.
Anyway.
MEME!
Give me one of my own stories, and a time stamp sometime in the future after the end of the story, or sometime in the past before the story started, and I'll write you at least a hundred words of what happened then, whether it's five minutes before the story started or ten years in the future.
All of my fanfic is here, in case you need a refresher. This also applies to my original stuff, for those of you who might have read any of that. :-)
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  bored
Current Music: Painted Veil soundtrack
Tags: fanfic, meme
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06:46 pm
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Dance like it's 1983!
Yeah, I'm old, but the music from when I was in high school and college kicked ass over the crap those whippersnappers are listening to today.
Meme stolen from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) little_oracle.
Go to www.musicoutfitters.com
- Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year.
- Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate and underline your favorites. Do nothing to the ones you don't remember/care about.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: bored
Tags: 1983, meme, music
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03:19 pm
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Beatrice is cool
Especially if I get to live in that yummy villa in Tuscany.
Your result for The Attachment Style Test... The Free Agent
You like to be independent, to play by your own rules. You're not terribly interested in finding a partner and settling down, and it makes you nervous to imagine that someone might depend on you for anything. Were you to find the right partner--someone as independent as you, probably--you'd not be too put out about sharing your adventures with him/her. Fictional characters with whom you might identify: Han Solo (Star Wars), Beatrice ("Much Ado About Nothing") Take The Attachment Style Test at HelloQuizzy
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Stage Beauty soundtrack
Tags: meme
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12:08 pm
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Bits and pieces
We are actually having Real Weather! (This doesn't happen all that often in Southern California.) Thunder and lightning last night and fairly heavy rain that lasted almost two hours. Of course, the downside is that it's now humid...like, really, really humid, which is atypical for SoCal. I feel like I'm back in New Orleans. It's overcast, which is helping keep the heat down, but it is muy sticky out there. We may get more thunder and lightning and rain tonight. (I'm glad I forgot to water the lawn yesterday morning.)
I've decided I really don't like this haircut. I always do this to myself -- I let it grow out, decide it's boring and needs an update, get it cut, like it for about three days, and then start hating it and hoping it will grow out quickly. The problem is that my hair isn't perfectly straight, and it isn't curly. It has just enough wave to be temperamental (and let's not even get into the frizz factor with the humidity we're having right now). With a layered cut like this, the only thing that seems to work is blow-drying the snot out of it and then beating it into submission with a flat iron. It looks halfway decent then, but I really don't have a half-hour every day to devote to the subjugation of my annoying locks. Meh. I'm about to go out and buy some clip-in extensions. At least that way it will be longer.
Work is still sucking ass. Met with the interim director of Community Services (the previous guy retired a few weeks ago). He sympathizes with my situation but has to "analyze all the ramifications" of moving me from the Pit of Hell before he makes a decision. Heck, if he drags it out long enough, the little darlings will be back in school and we won't have an issue anymore (well, it will still suck in the late afternoons, but two hours of hell is a lot easier to deal with than six or seven). Needless to say, this has me quite depressed, and the hormones aren't helping, either.
Thanks to aronwy, I came across this great explanation of point of view from Jeff Gerke (aka Jefferson Scott, who apparently is a Christian speculative fiction author). I would never have come across the link without her referencing it in one of her own posts, because the chances of me going out and reading or writing Christian literature are roughly the same as me dyeing my hair blonde, wearing a pink suit, and selling Mary Kay door to door. However, he does have a lot of good writing tips. For those of you who care, I have his ruminations on p.o.v. behind the cut.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  moody
Current Music: The Dark Knight soundtrack
Tags: hair, p.o.v., work, writing
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04:44 pm
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Painfully funny
Sounds like quite a few of us could use a laugh at the end of this sucktastic week.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: amused
Tags: bush, humor, the onion
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06:12 pm
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Ranty McRanterson
Woo, I haven't posted in a while, have I? Probably just Too. Damn. Tired. Work is seriously sucking my will to live. I hear rumors that I am going to be moved out of the Pit of Hell (aka the Teen Center), but frankly, until my manager comes up to me and tells me to pack my bags, I'm not getting my hopes up. I've been screwed over too many times in the past.
However, I've been plugging away at the writing -- I've kept going with the contemporary I'm working on (I'm about 40K in), did a bunch of editing on Sympathy (I'm about halfway through at this point), have been reading agents' and writers' blogs in an attempt to get more in touch with the insanity of the publishing world.
I also decided that since I'm trying to write romance, I should probably do a bit of research and actually, you know, read some.
Erik and I were at the mall this past weekend, and we went by a Borders outlet. I thought, Perfect opportunity! Discount books! I'd been schlepping around a few romance-oriented sites, so I'd gotten a little better acquainted with the names of several authors who seemed to be universally liked. I couldn't remember exact title recommendations, but I figured that should be OK. I got a Julie Garwood, a Julia Quinn, and a Nora Roberts (oh, and Cell by Stephen King, 'cause...post-apocalyptic zombies AND King? Count me in!).
Since I'm writing a contemporary, I figured I'd start with the Julie Garwood novel, Shadow Dance. It was actually contemporary romantic suspense, but still fine for my purposes. Or so I thought.
I should have done my research. Turns out the book was panned by quite a few people, and I could see why. A romance that felt perfunctory, huge plot holes, characters who seemed flat, implausible situations...oy. And the head-hopping! Jesus H. Christ, I thought I was going to get a whiplash from getting flung from one character's p.o.v. to another, almost paragraph by paragraph. But because I almost always finish everything I start, no matter how bad (the notable exception is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which is not the fault of bad writing but characters I so didn't give a crap about that I knew I couldn't plow through another 400 pages of it, no matter how lauded the book might be), somehow I managed to finish Shadow Dance. I set it aside and plan to donate it to the Friends of the Library. If they're lucky they might be able to get a buck out of it.
Bloodied but unbowed, I decided to move on to the Nora Roberts book, Honest Illusions, after I got home from work today. La Nora seems to be just about universally loved, so I figured this would be a healing experience.
Wrong.
Now, I will admit that her prose is lovely, much more the sort of thing that appeals to me than what I found in Ms. Garwood's book. But what did I find?
More head-hopping! Again, from paragraph to paragraph. And sometimes involving more than two characters in one scene!
I struggled through two chapters and then put the book down. I don't know whether I'll be able to get through it or not.
What's the deal here? I really haven't encountered this phenomenon in the F&SF I've read -- is complete disregard for the current (and preferred, as far as I can tell) convention of a tight (limited) third person p.o.v. just fine in the romance field? I've got no problems with using the p.o.v. of more than one character in a novel, but please, can we stick with one person in each scene at least (I know one p.o.v. per chapter is probably too much to ask, and heck, I haven't always done it, esp. in my Star Wars fics). Is this funky omniscient p.o.v. de rigueur for romance, and I just didn't get the memo?
Guess I'll try the Julia Quinn tomorrow -- and I have a sneaking suspicion that the first instance of head-hopping is going to make that book hit the wall even harder than Billy Budd did when I was forced to read that P.O.S. back in high school....
Good thing I didn't pay full retail for any of this stuff. :-(
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  irritated
Current Music: Aeon
Tags: p.o.v., romance, writing
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02:07 pm
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Lusting in my heart
Oh, God, do I want, want, WANT this! (Sorry for the link, but the site wouldn't let me steal the image.)
Never mind that I have no place to wear it. Or the fundage necessary to buy it. I just...want.... (And this from a girl who, although she loves clothes, usually isn't that much into couture because if I tried to wear most of it I'd end up looking like Edina from Ab Fab..."But dahrling, it's a LACROIX!!)
Anyway, this would be my Major Award dress. I do look good in purple.
Current Location: Work, unfortunately
Current Mood:  envious
Current Music: Era; Ocarina Dream Opera
Tags: couture, elie saab, fashion
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01:36 pm
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How cool is this?
This site lets you type in the name of an artist, song, or composer, and will put together a personalized streaming radio station just for you made up of songs from that artist and other artists or composers whose music is in the same vein. Really great, especially if you're feeling like your iTunes library is getting a bit stale.
I love technology.
Current Location: Work, unfortunately
Current Mood:  nerdy
Current Music: Lisa Gerrard
Tags: internet radio, music, pandora
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05:57 pm
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Fun internet toys
These have been sort of making the rounds, so I thought I'd see how one of the chapters from Sympathy for the Devil turned out, considering I'm editing it right now.
I kind of hoped "Devil" would be one of the main words. But "didn't"? I didn't know I used it that often. (Oops...there's another one!)
Unlike some of my other edits, this one's been kind of fun so far. I like writing Beelzebub and Asmodeus. ;-)
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  cheerful
Current Music: Red Hot Chili Peppers; Higher Ground
Tags: editing, meme, sympathy for the devil, writing
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03:50 pm
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Don't mess with the Grand Admiral
Reason #624 why I need to not be here in the afternoon:
Recreation leader storms in with petulant middle-school boy (is there any other kind?). He said/he said argument erupts as to whether boy in question was throwing balls at the other kids. I let this go on for about two minutes. No resolution in sight. Finally I turn around from my desk and say in my best Grand Admiral tones, "That's it -- I'm trying to work in here. Go yell at each other someplace else!" They both slink out.
I may catch hell for it on Monday, but damn, that felt good.
Current Location: Work, unfortunately
Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: Wanted soundtrack
Tags: annoying children, work
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08:17 am
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For the love of a Harley
So, because of the gas crunch and possibly because he's having a slight midlife crisis, Erik's thinking about getting a motorcycle. He actually rides his bike to work a few days a week (it's about 15 miles one way...he's hardcore), but he'd like to have a motorcycle for greater flexibility and mobility. At first we were thinking about just getting a scooter (either 150cc or 250cc model), but after he sat on a couple at a local dealer he decided they were really too small (Erik's a big guy -- 6'4" and probably around 250 lbs). After that he looked at some of the Japanese bikes -- cruiser styles, not sport bikes -- but the ergonomics just weren't that great for him because of his height. His knees would hit the gas tank, or the handlebars would brush against his knees if he turned them too far, that sort of thing. This dealership had mostly the Japanese bikes, but they did have a couple of used Harleys, so Erik decided to take a look at those.
Seriously, I wish I'd had a camera. The first one he tried was a Sportster, and it was OK. The second was another Sporty, but this one had taller handlebars and fit him a lot better. Erik got this little gleam in his eyes when he sat on that one, but the best was the Wide Glide with custom pipes -- man, he got on that thing, and all of a sudden he had this sort of glow, like a kid who's just unwrapped his bestest Christmas present ever. I thought, Uh-oh....
So I have a feeling we're going to end up with a Harley at some point. It's probably going to be a bit of a wait, because they're more expensive, and he just wants to save up and pay cash for one, but I think it's funny, considering the fact that he said he really didn't want a Harley because they're overpriced and you're just paying for the name, blah, blah, blah. But boy, get him actually sitting on one and getting the feel of it, and it's a whole other ball of wax.
Suz, if you see this, let the guys at HB know that Erik's drunk the Kool Aid and is looking for a good deal on a used Sporty or Wide Glide. ;-)
Current Location: Work, unfortunately
Current Mood: amused
Tags: erik, harley, motorcycle
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06:26 pm
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Kill me now
I really think this job is going to be the death of me. I'm only midway through the second week of those #$@!! kids being out of school, and I am just so, so tired that I just want to cry. You try dealing with seven hours of kids yelling and playing air hockey while miscellaneous people come slamming in and out of your office all day (seriously, I counted one hour, and someone was in and out of my office 20 times in a hour!). How the fuck am I supposed to work in that? How the hell can these people seriously believe that someone who does their graphic design and PR writing (oh, and let's not forget web design and multimedia projects) can possibly work in that sort of environment?
I've been trying to hang on, but I don't think it's working. :-(
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  exhausted
Tags: summer, work
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03:01 pm
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I weep for the future
OK, some people on ONTD not knowing who George Carlin was -- sad, annoying, but OK, whatever.
Someone on ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) stupid_free confusing Bill and Ted with Jay and Silent Bob? Priceless.
Current Location: Work, unfortunately
Current Mood:  cynical
Current Music: Snow Patrol; Open Your Eyes
Tags: george carlin, ontd, stupid_free
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05:57 am
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What????
George Carlin? George Fucking Carlin?
You know, so far I have to say that 2008 has pretty much sucked ass. There had better be some mind-bogglingly good shit going down in the second half of this year to make up for it....
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  angry
Tags: celebrity deaths, george carlin
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12:46 pm
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Change is good
So yesterday I decided I had had enough and whacked a bunch of my hair off. It was just so outgrown and bleh and had absolutely no style. It's still longish, but has a lot more layers. I also got my bangs back. I think I just have to make peace with the fact that I look like shite with no bangs. It's been this love/hate thing where I grow them out, hate it, cut them, get angsty over the fact that no one else seems to have bangs, grow them out again, hate how that looks...and so it goes. But I do like this haircut -- it's got more style than anything else I've had for years. If you've seen Torchwood, it's pretty much Gwen's haircut. Now I just have to hope that it will behave itself when I try to style it tomorrow.
Last night was the 29th birthday party for a gal I work with. The great part is that she lives close enough that we can just walk to her house, so no worries about the whole drinking and driving thing. Of course, the downside is that it was around 105 degrees here yesterday, and it didn't really cool down much even after sunset. I know I must've been feeling the heat, because I got way more plastered after only four (smallish) glasses of wine than I would have normally. She had a full-on karaoke setup because her sister's boyfriend's parents (got all that?) are karaoke nuts, and he brought the "portable" equipment over (I guess they this over-the-top karaoke studio in their garage). My beef was that he didn't really bring much that was in my range (for karaoke I tend to favor Pat Benatar, Madonna, or Heart...and of course Broadway stuff), but we still had fun. I love karaoke. I need to get the usual suspects together for another trip to Little Tokyo and karaoke. Ah, well, the summer is still young (all I can hope is that it won't be this hot the whole time, or my electric bill is going to be from hell, and I won't be able to afford to even go to the movies, let alone L.A. for an expensive night out).
In other news, my father is home from the hospital and doing fine. He keeps grousing about how long his recovery is taking, but come on -- he had two wedges taken out of his left lung. It's not as if you're going to go home from that and enter a marathon or something. But he sounds good and his energy level seems very good, too, so I'm sure he'll be back out on the golf course in the next few weeks.
I had some Musings on Writing that went through my head on Friday and was thinking about posting them here, but now I think the heat has effectively fried them right out of my brain cells. Oh, well.
For those of you on f-list who are reading Quality of Mercy, sorry about the delay. Work has been hell and life way too hectic, and although I've been writing it's all my original stuff. All I can say is that I hope to get back to it soon...I just have to wait for my HP muse to get back from the Bahamas or wherever else she seems to have disappeared.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  hot
Tags: dad, hair, karaoke, party, work, writing
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11:20 am
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Phooey
You know, I really don't understand why these kids can't just play in a park or at a friend's house the way I did when I was that age (or, God forbid, stay inside and read a book).
Annoying entitled brats. Annoying noisy entitled brats. We're not even in our official summer program yet, and already they've managed to pull a bulletin board off the wall and break the door handle to the computer lab.
Current Location: Work, unfortunately
Current Mood:  annoyed
Tags: kids, work
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08:00 pm
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Great news
Everything is progressing really well with my dad. The MRI showed that the cancer hasn't spread to his brain (I guess they were worried about that), the surgeon says he got all the tumor out of the left lung, and the polyp they removed from my father's throat turned out to be benign. He was also able to get the catheter out. So it looks like he's just going to stay in the hospital for a few more days of respiratory therapy, and then he'll get to go home.
Thank you to everyone for your wishes and prayers -- sounds like Someone was listening! :-)
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  grateful
Current Music: Queen
Tags: dad
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