Only self-indulgent prats write blogs...oh, wait...

Sixteen Things Meme

2009-01-07T00:20:55Z

Oh, lord, I haven't posted in half a year and I choose to come back with a meme. Ah, well.

Tagged by the inimitable jlrpuck .

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 16 people to be tagged. (Except that I'm not tagging 16 people, because I don't know 16 people. You want in, go right ahead.)

1. I just ate an alarming amount of Cheetos. But Cheetos are not fast food, so I still consider New Year's resolution #2 unbroken.
2. I am running a marathon in 19 days and I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to *die* at the finish line.
3. I have to teach the rock cycle in two weeks. I loathe the rock cycle. If there is a field of science more boring than geology, please do not tell me of its existence.
4. Places I'm pretty sure I'm traveling to this year: Italy, France, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Boston.
5. If I don't go to Vegas, it will be entirely earlgreytea68 's fault.
6. At first, I was all, "Matt Smith who?", but now I am like a fierce mama bear with the kid. Give him a chance, dagnabit!
7. My assistant principal asked me to run our school's chapter of NJHS, and I'm really looking forward to it!
8. The last two weeks reminded me that there are few things in life that I love or am irritated by more than my extended family.
9. My favorite co-worker is working on getting ridiculous access to the Inauguration, and if she hits the jackpot, she's taking me with her. I mean, it's not going to happen, but it's so sweet that she's trying on my behalf.
10. I am ridiculously excited about Florida being added to Powerball. I probably still won't play, but it's nice knowing that it's there.
11. I am very happy I didn't have a boyfriend this year, so I didn't have to pretend to care about the Dolphins.
12. Today I found out that another teacher at my school graduated from the same tiny program that I did, two years before me. Actual exchange that occurred:
Me: OMG, Did you have Ms. Bez? I hated her. I had her the year she was pregnant with twins, and she was pure evil.
Her: Yeah, I, uh, actually helped paint all the little animals in her nursery.
Me: ...
13. As soon as I finish this meme, I plan to cook a real dinner to make up for #1.
14. This weekend I discovered "Merlin", and I do not understand how I considered my life complete before.
15. My procrastination abilities are reaching alarming levels.
16. I'm terrified of rollerskating and hate the taste of beer, but I had a blast going to a roller rink and knocking back some beers last week. Good company will do that for you.

Journey's End...ugh...

2008-07-06T18:17:23Z

Ok, I knew all season Donna's storyline was ending that way. I knew from the first report of the Doctor telling Wilf that "She must never know." I had months to come to terms with it. But I wasn't wildly in love with Donna months ago. I hadn't yet seen her grow and change and be generally awesome all over the place. Now that it's actually happened, guess what? I AM NOT OKAY WITH IT. Everything she learned and experienced is gone and I'm not sure it was necessary. I think the Doctor got scared at what he saw, and he decided to deal with it by sweeping everything under the rug.

Which leads me to my second point. Here's how I'm going to fix Bad Wolf Redux, in my head.

Rose: "How was that sentence going to end?"
Blue!Ten: *leans in and whispers...because RTD is a coward and doesn't want to deal with the "Doctor is asexual" brigade*
Rose: "Right. Ok, then." *grabs Brown!Ten and kisses him for approximately 90 seconds...there may be tongue involved*

They pull back, stare at each other with tears in their eyes. They nod slowly, but firmly. Rose steps back, and takes Blue!Ten hand. Brown!Ten drinks in the sight of Rose from the doorway of the TARDIS, one last time.

Aaaand ...scene.

Honestly, RTD tried to have his cake and eat it, too. I don't want to hear how shippers got their happy ending. It's going to take a lot of fic before I consider that anything like a happy ending. So, come on folks! Fix what RTD did. *pokes Who community* FIX IT!

Twenty Questions Meme

2008-07-05T03:57:36Z

Tagged by the inimitable jlrpuck.
Rules of the meme
A) People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

B) Tag 8 people to do this quiz. These people must state who they were tagged by & cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. How has LJ changed your life?
It got me entirely too obsessed with a TV show about an alien who is also a time traveler. No, seriously, before LJ, I was all, "Yeah, I like that Doctor Who. Rose and the Doctor are cute." After LJ, it was more, "DOCTOR WHO...eat...ROSE/TEN OTP FTW... breathe... DAVID TENNANT MMMM ...sleep..." I blame fanfic, picspams and fan vids, in that order.

2. What do you do before bedtime?
I unwind by reading (currently tackling "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe" )

3. What are you doing this weekend?
Going to a DW Series 4 finale party, with pretty awesome people. Alcohol will be drunk and RTD's name will be cursed to the heavens if the results are not satisfactory.

4. What is the city of your dreams and why?
Boston. It's everything that is awesome. Red Sox, all four seasons, the MFA, my favorite aunt and little cousins, and my best friend. Unfortunately, unless things drastically change, I'll be settling in Miami for the long haul.

5. Are you an introvert or extrovert?
Introvert, 100%. I can let loose when I'm in my element, like around friends or in front of a classroom full of students. But as soon as I get a wee bit uncomfortable, I clam up.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Loving someone. I think if you don't have the ability to do that, you're a bit dead inside.

7. Do you trust easily?
Yes--to the point of naivete in some respects.

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Please. Move on. Few things hurt the sisterhood more than going after a man that's already attached. It's just...tacky.

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Well, EGT's going to yell at me for this one. The fact that I couldn't get summer employment due to my weird vacation schedule this year. I enjoyed my first week of sitting around the house with nothing to do, but I got mighty restless after that. I haven't had this much free time off since college, and I think I just don't have the constitution for sitting around watching hours of soaps and reruns like I used to.

10. What is your best quality?
I'm a straight-talker. I will tell you exactly what I think of any situation, and what I think is the best way to improve it, if you ask me.

11. Is being tagged fun?
Yes!

12. How do you see yourself?
Oh, God, I hate this question, yet I'm too tired to think of another one. Um, happy with my career, friends and family, but exasperated with my love life. Anyone out there with significant other you can stand for several hours at a time, hug them extra hard tonight, because there are some fools out there, y'all.

13. Who are currently the most important people to you?
My family.

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
*whispers* A superspy.

15. What would you do if you won the lottery?
Pay off all of my debts, as well as my parents' and sisters'. Then I'd go to cooking schools in every country and learn their cuisine from scratch.

15A. Would you rather be in a happy marriage and poor or a bad marriage and rich?
Happy and poor. Money can't buy happiness.

16. How many children do you want to have, if any?
Three, but I suspect that's because I grew up in a family with three kids.

17. What question do you want to know the answer to?
Will my parents ever get their act together?

18. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?
I'm going to go with the one who loves me more.

19. Would you have 100% safe sex with a stranger for $10,000,000?
Uh, yeah. Is that whorish of me? Maybe, but I'm okay with it.

20. What were your parents going to name you if you'd been born the opposite gender?
You know, they never told me.

Now every person that I know's already been tagged, so if you see this and you like it, go ahead.

bouncy_castle79 @ 2008-06-25T00:14:00

2008-06-25T04:32:01Z

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte -- The first classic romance I swooned over.
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four- George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials- Phillip Pullman. Thanks to EGT's warnings, I stayed away.
10 Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott -- JO DID NOT LOVE LAURIE LIKE THAT! Get over it, people. Plus, I love Mr. Bhaer.
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare -- Do you have to have read all of them? Who's read all of them?! (Besides Shakespeare scholars.)
15 Rebecca- Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams --next in my queue, after I finish the new David Sedaris.
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne - The excerpts from the meme convinced me I should pick this up.
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez --to this day, the only book I haven't finished.
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery --my absolute favorite series of all time.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - the only Dickens I've read.
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert --nothing but hate for this book.
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams -- EGT made me read this book.
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole -- This book is hilarious.
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Not bad, but there are still some holes in my library I should fill up.

Personality Defects meme

2008-06-25T04:12:43Z

Your result for The Personality Defect Test...

Haughty Intellectual

You are the Haughty Intellectual. You are a very rational person, emphasizing logic over emotion, and you are also rather arrogant and self-aggrandizing. You probably think of yourself as an intellectual, and you would like everyone to know it. Not only that, but you also tend to look down on others, thinking yourself better than them. You could possibly have an unhealthy obsession with yourself as well, thus causing everyone to hate you for being such an elitist twat. On top of all that, you are also introverted and gentle. This means that you are just a quiet thinker who wants fame and recognition, in all likelihood. Like so many countless pseudo-intellectuals swarming around vacuous internet forums to discuss worthless political issues, your kind is a scourge upon humanity, blathering and blathering on and on about all kinds of boring crap. If your personality could be sculpted, the resulting piece would be Rodin's "The Thinker"--although I am absolutely positive that you are not nearly as muscular or naked as that statue. Rather lacking in emotion, introspective, gentle, and arrogant, you are most certainly a Haughty Intellectual! And, most likely, you will never achieve the recognition or fame you so desire! But no worries!

To put it less negatively:

1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive.

2. You are more INTROVERTED than extroverted.

3. You are more GENTLE than brutal.

4. You are more ARROGANT than humble.

Compatibility:

Your exact opposite is the Schoolyard Bully. (Bullies like to beat up nerds, after all.)

Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Braggart, the Hand-Raiser, and the Robot.

If you scored near fifty percent for a certain trait (42%-58%), you could very well go either way. For example, someone with 42% Extroversion is slightly leaning towards being an introvert, but is close enough to being an extrovert to be classified that way as well. Below is a list of the other personality types so that you can determine which other possible categories you may fill if you scored near fifty percent for certain traits.

The other personality types:

The Emo Kid: Intuitive, Introverted, Gentle, Humble.

The Starving Artist: Intuitive, Introverted, Gentle, Arrogant.

The Bitch-Slap: Intuitive, Introverted, Brutal, Humble.

The Brute: Intuitive, Introverted, Brutal, Arrogant.

The Hippie: Intuitive, Extroverted, Gentle, Humble.

The Televangelist: Intuitive, Extroverted, Gentle, Arrogant.

The Schoolyard Bully: Intuitive, Extroverted, Brutal, Humble.

The Class Clown: Intuitive, Extroverted, Brutal, Arrogant.

The Robot: Rational, Introverted, Gentle, Humble.

The Haughty Intellectual: Rational, Introverted, Gentle, Arrogant.

The Spiteful Loner: Rational, Introverted, Brutal, Humble.

The Sociopath: Rational, Introverted, Brutal, Arrogant.

The Hand-Raiser: Rational, Extroverted, Gentle, Humble.

The Braggart: Rational, Extroverted, Gentle, Arrogant.

The Capitalist Pig: Rational, Extroverted, Brutal, Humble.

The Smartass: Rational, Extroverted, Brutal, Arrogant.

Be sure to take my Sublime Philosophical Crap Test if you are interested in taking a slightly more intellectual test that has just as many insane ramblings as this one does!

About Saint_Gasoline

I am a self-proclaimed pseudo-intellectual who loves dashes. I enjoy science, philosophy, and fart jokes and water balloons, not necessarily in that order. I spend 95% of my time online, and the other 5% of my time in the bathroom, longing to get back on the computer. If, God forbid, you somehow find me amusing instead of crass and annoying, be sure to check out my blog and my webcomic at SaintGasoline.com.

Take The Personality Defect Test at HelloQuizzy

Ha! Awesome.

Which character are you?

2008-06-24T19:30:54Z

Your result for The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test...

Tigger

And as they went, Tigger told Roo (who wanted to know)
all about the things that Tiggers could do.

"Can they fly?" asked Roo.

"Yes," said Tigger, "they're very good flyers, Tiggers
are. Strornry good flyers."

"Oo!" said Roo. "Can they fly as well as Owl?"

"Yes," said Tigger. "Only they don't want to."

"Why don't they want to?" well, they just don't like it
somehow."

Roo couldn't understand this, because he thought it
would be lovely to be able to fly, but Tigger said it was
difficult to explain to anybody who wasn't a Tigger himself.

You scored as Tigger!

ABOUT TIGGER: Tigger is the newest addition to the Hundred Acre Wood, and he lives with Kanga and Roo, because Roo's strengthening medicine turned out to be the thing that Tiggers like best. Tigger is bouncy and confident -some of his friends think he is a little TOO bouncy and confident, but attempts to unbounce him tend to be fruitless.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are a positive and confident person. You feel capable of dealing with anything and everything, and funnily enough, you usually ARE. You don't worry about much, and you love to go out and find new adventures.

Your friends and family might sometimes be a little exasperated by your boundless enthusiasm. You don't like to admit your mistakes, and when you find yourself in over you head, you tend to bluff your way out of things. You would be surprised, however, at how happy the people around you would be if you would actually admit to a mistake. It would make you seem more human, somehow.

Take The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test at HelloQuizzy

WHAT? I call shenanigans! Tigger has always annoyed the crap out of me, and I refuse to think I'm like him. Give me Rabbit or Owl, anyday.

Sigh...I love this episode

2008-06-24T03:30:01Z

When you see this post, quote from Doctor Who on your LJ.

Cassandra (in the Doctor's body): Well... this is... different...
Rose: Cassandra?
Cassandra (in the Doctor's body): Goodness me, I'm a man. Yum. So many parts. And hardly used.
[starts jerking around]
Cassandra (in the Doctor's body): Ah, ah! Two hearts! Oh baby, I'm beating out a samba!
Rose: Get out of him!
Cassandra (in the Doctor's body): Ooh, he's slim... and a little bit foxy. You thought so too; I've been inside your head. You've been looking. You *like* it.

So...I'm watching the DW movie on YouTube.

2008-06-23T08:13:27Z

And I... liked it! Which is a very strange feeling. Perhaps it was a result of lowered expectations from all the whinging and moaning about it.

LOL at the Doctor reading The Time Machine for fun. So, the Master is "alive" in noncorporeal form, like Voldemort? Chinese gangbangers in San Francisco? WTF? Am I still watching DW? THE DOCTOR KILLED BY GUNFIRE? OMGWTF? Hee at "John Smith" on the identification forms Random Chinese gangbanger had to fill out. Ok, I'm sorry, but American nurses haven't worn those adorable hats for years. Unless the producers of the film thought they'd make a raging comeback in the oh-so-far-away and exotic future year of 1999, I'm calling foul. Two hearts! I'm clinging to anything familiar here.

Was Grace an *extra* in the opera she was crying so prettily at? Why is she in that ridiculous dress? So, the bullets do not kill the Doctor…Grace does. I found the Doctor floating in and out of consciousness very TCI-y. But why in the name of all that is holy would you cut into a guy when anesthesia is clearly not working? This makes no sense to me. Aww, Grace can’t catch up to the gangbanger! Well, perhaps if you were not wearing a corset for no discernible reason, you would have made it, dear.

So, the Master in silvery, slithery mode morphs into a cobra and slithers right on into Eric Roberts. Wouldn’t it have been fun if he’d gone into the wife, instead? I think the Master would enjoy at least one incarnation as a woman. It would make the fabulous outfits a bit less conspicuous.

Ew! Most gruesome regeneration ever! Was there a need for the gross flesh-twisting? Oh, Frankenstein clips. Subtlety, thy name is the DW Movie. Eight does not know who he is? What the…? I’m starting to think these DW showrunners just make this up as they go along. (AHAHAHA...I'm kidding, of course...I've known that for a long time)

Heh. Eight gets his clothes from the guy who’s going to the costume party. At least they’re explaining his ridiculous outfit this time around. Evil Master is evil. Blah blah blah. John Simm has ruined me for any other Master. Ruined me, I tell you! I like the portly intern! He’s got a sense of humor about the whole seeing someone rise from the dead thing.

Oh, nice close-up of Eight. He’s rather pretty, isn’t he? And he has no concept of personal space. Yay! I sense sexy times ahead.

OMG, the Master looks like the Terminator. Dear Lord.

Eight: “Ah, Da Vinci…he had a cold when he drew that.” *love*

Chinese Gangbanger does the classic walk into TARDIS…jaw drop…walk back out of TARDIS. Ah, it never gets old. Although I must say I’m not enjoying the TARDIS as furnished by the Bombay Company. Oh, Eight is adorable, twirling out there in the park…*huggles*.

The Cloister Room is kind of cool, though. Why do we never get to see the other rooms on New Who? Yay! Conversation through a door flap! Grace, like any human, denies what’s in front of her. The Doctor walks through a glass door and she’s all, La, la, la, oh you crazy, delusional man!

The conversation in the ambulance? Made of win. The Doctor has met Freud (take note, earlgreytea68!) And knew Madame Curie intimately! The Master corrects Grace’s grammar!

Oh, dear, I don’t like this business with using a gun against the motorcycle cop. It doesn’t feel like something the show would do. Was this the American influence, perhaps? I like seeing the Doctor doing things without the aid of psychic paper or sonic screwdriver. He’s roughing it and doing a fabulous job!

Grace: Why’d you do that? (after the Doctor hits the alarm)
Eight: To liven things up! (hee!)

Holding hands and running! Ohhh, the Cloister Bell. That sound automatically gives me the heebie-jeebies now. Ok, so Grace is chiming in about the physics of the TARDIS, but she balks at the idea of setting an alarm clock? Ouch! I did not see the sudden but inevitable betrayal by Grace coming. Yes! The Master in full, ridiculous regalia! Aw, poor Lee grows a backbone and is immediately killed by the Master.

Doctor: How will you open the Eye of Harmony now?
Master: (grabs Possessed!Grace)
Doctor: (Shit!) Unless I’m mistaken, that won’t work in her current state.
Master: (sucks the evil out of Grace…with his mouth)
Doctor: Noooooo! (Must really learn to keep my mouth shut)

Damn, The Master just shoved Grace right over that railing. He is effing hardcore. Master/Doctor struggle over the Eye of Harmony…omg…nailbiting…who will win? Aaand the TARDIS decided to bring Grace and Lee back to life, did she? Lovely.

Oh, that shot of Gallifrey through the TARDIS, uh, moonroof is heartbreaking. Poor Doctor! He has no idea what an evil man named Russell T Davies is about to do to him. The Doctor sends Lee off with a bag of gold dust. What does one do with a bag of gold dust these days?

Doctor: Come with me.
Grace: “Come with me?” No, you come with me!

Do you know, I like her. She’s strong, she’s independent, she doesn’t need the Doctor. I’ve missed companions like that. Romana and Leela come to mind. Not that she’s in their league, mind you, but it’s nice not to have to deal with the Doctor being worshiped by the Companion. And we end, just as we began, with the Doctor reading The Time Machine.

I must say, I think the movie’s gotten a bad rap. Yes, some of the actors were horrible, and the plot is threadbare at best, but I thought it was enjoyable. Paul McGann was excellent. He had a vulnerability and softness we’re not going to see in the Doctor ever again. And he was pretty. Which, of course, I care nothing about! *cough*

Chick lit done right

2008-06-20T21:53:11Z

I don't heap scorn on the chick-lit genre as a whole...just the books that treat their main character as if she has an IQ of a wet dishrag. One author that never disappoints is Marian Keyes.

I've been reading her books since junior year of college, and I look forward to her new novels every summer. It's very rare that i actually LOL while reading a book, but some of the passages from her novels have had me crying tears from laughing. Or from trying not to laugh, as happened on a particularly packed T in Boston one day. (Seriously, if you saw a girl collapsing in hysterical laughter at seemingly nothing, you'd think she was nuts, wouldn't you? You wouldn't think, "Oh, she's just enjoying the comedic prose of a lovely Irish author!")

"Anybody Out There?", though, offers a departure from her usual fare. It starts off on familiar territory, with one of the Walsh sisters in a terrible state. While it's filled with the absurd dialogue and descriptions I've come to love, this book is more serious, as Keyes injects some real tragedy into Anna Walsh's life. She's really good at it, as this novel pretty much ripped my heart out in places. Still, plenty of LOL moments, such as the following description of a New Yorker attempting to hit on Anna at a party.

"Well!" Deep breath before he launched into it. "I'm with blah bank, blah, blah...tons of money...I, me, myself, being fabulous, blah, promotion, blah, bonus, workhardplayhard, me, mine, belonging to me, my expensive apartment, my expensive car, my expensive vacations, my expensive skis, me, me, me, me, me, MEEEEEE...."

Which...yes, exactly! I have met these guys, and GOD are they tedious. Other highlights include transcription of emails between Anna and her absolutely insane mother, and her youngest sister's ill-fated career as the worst private eye in the whole of Ireland. All-in-all, a perfect summer read.

Because I completely forgot about this meme...

2008-06-20T20:18:44Z

...here it is, about a week later. Also, this picture is way too delicious not to share. And my desktop is about to change into something very spoilery.

Seriously, that man is holding onto more than his fair share of sexy. I can't believe I ever doubted he would make a fabulous Bond.

My choice in literature improves exponentially

2008-06-15T22:31:47Z

How do you get the taste of something like Twilight out of your mouth? Nothing better than to follow it up with a literary classic. Something that has remained cherished and beloved through decades and with good reason. So, I decided to pick up To Kill A Mockingbird again. I was in the middle of it when Edward Cullen decided to come barging rudely into my life, and I was glad to return to it.

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

Ok, that line, right there. That's where I fell in love with this book. I knew what TKaM was about, of course, mostly from seeing clips of the movie trotted out in film retrospectives. I didn't know how precise a picture Harper Lee painted or how much I would fall in love with the characters. Lee takes a long time to build up to the main event, the trial of a black man accused of assaulting a white woman in the 1930's Deep South. The first half of the book is spent introducing the readers to the inner workings of Maycomb County and its residents. It's time well-spent, because without the background, the trial wouldn't mean nearly as much to the reader.

For some reason, Dill had started crying and couldn't stop; quietly at first, then his sobs were heard by several people in the balcony...

"Because you're children and you can understand it." he said, "and because I heard that one-"

He jerked his head at Dill: "Things haven't caught up with that one's instincts yet. Let him get a little older and he won't get sick and cry. Maybe things'll strike him as being--not quite right, say, but he won't cry, not when he gets a few years on him."

"Cry about what, Mr. Raymond?" Dill's maleness was beginning to assert itself.

"Cry about the simple hell people give other people-- without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they're people, too."

This passage, as Dill breaks down during Tom Robinson's cross-examination, struck a nerve with me. It reminded me of all the times I would see something that upset the hell out of me as a child, and I would feel so helpless and frustrated that I couldn't help but cry. My mother tells me that my dad had a cousin with kids my age, and I used to love to play with them. One day, though, when my dad announced we were going over there, I burst into tears and begged my mom not to make me go. She said she knew why. The father of those girls used to beat them, mercilessly, for any little infraction. And he wasn't shy about doing it in front of company. My father was raised in the "Spare the rod, spoil the child" school, but he never used those methods when raising us. When you're a child, you don't have those socialization filters that tell you to look the other way and to mind your own business. Similarly, racism isn't something you're born with, it's something you're taught. Dill breaking down because he was so frightened at what people could do to each other, for absolutely no reason, served to highlight the injustices happening to Tom Robinson.

"That what I thought, too," Jem said at last, "when I was your age. If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they get out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time...it's because he wants to stay inside."

Jem's older than Dill and Scout, so he gets it. Luckily, he's got a perfect model of how to help change things as much as he can. Seriously, how perfect a father is Atticus Finch? Cinthia, when I told her I was reading this book, sighed and said when she was growing up, she always wanted a father like Atticus. Can't say I blame her. And, oh, returning to Scout's bright, inquisitive, fearless mind was such a relief after the tedium of being in Bella Swan's mind. I'm adding her to my list of Girls My Daughter Must Meet, before she subjects herself to the vast stupidity of many other female characters is other teen novels.

I loved this book, and I'm seriously considering making it my selection for our book club. (Not our Book Duo, EGT, which, by the way, is being sadly neglected. We must do something about that.)

All about me (how exciting!)

2008-06-15T15:38:49Z

The Big Post of Me

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 mine 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 :)

1. First Name: Stephanie.

2. Age: 28.

3. Location: Miami. Hot, steamy, sweaty Miami. (June, July, and August are pretty insufferable here)

4. Occupation: Middle-school science teacher. And I loooove it. Yes, the breaks are awesome, but even more awesome is the fact that I still enter my classroom on the first day of school bursting with ideas and raring to go.

5. Partner: Nope. And I'm fine with that.

6. Kids: None, yet. But I love kids, which seems to be a rarity amongst my friends. I'd like to have three or four.

7. Brothers/Sisters: Two younger sisters, who are 26 and 23. My sisters are the prototypical middle and youngest children. Nicole is prone to fits of melodrama and attention-hogging when she's in the room, and Nathalie goes around giving the impression that she is bewildered by life. That is, of course, as act, as she is perfectly competent at her schoolwork and work-work, but she plays the "baby" card shamelessly. Really can't blame her. I'm the idiot for being the typical Oldest Child.

8. Pets: None

9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life: Man, this is the wrong time to ask me this question, since I tend to drift through life during the summers. But, here we go.

a. Scotland!!: EGT and I are headed to the land of kilts and whiskey in July. This is already guaranteed to be the Best. Trip. Ever. This is because EGT and I could take a trip to the doctor's office, and we would still have tons o'fun. Because the planning of this trip is the only thing that has been keeping EGT from the therapist's couch, I have graciously allowed her to make all the arrangements for our journey. I know...I'm an awesome friend. The only thing I have demanded is a trip to Loch Ness, as I must visit Nessie.

b. Planning my Dad's 60th birthday party: This is the first major milestone where all of us girls are actually earning money, so we can actually throw a party for one of our parents. I've done it on a small scale, of course, but we're planning a major blowout, with centerpieces and DJs and catered food. I love planning a party, so I am attacking this with great zeal.

c. Dating: This is for Nathalie, who, when I told her I couldn't start lunch because I was doing this meme, said, "Pfft. I already know everything about you, anyway." HA! So, yes, even though I don't mind not having a ball and chain just yet (honestly, the idea of a guy always being there and never going away makes me hyperventilate a little), I have put myself out there. I've been pleasantly surprised by how much fun it is. What's not fun about free dinners, drinks and being told how beautiful you are? Of course, it's also hard work. You gotta kiss a lot of frogs, blah, bah, you know the rest.

10. Where and for what did you go to school?: I went to Boston College and graduated with a B.S. in Biology. This has truly served me well. You wouldn't believe how many science teachers don't have a background in science at all. My co-worker, who has one of my students in her homeroom, said "Juan told me the funniest thing the other day. He said, Ms. A___ must be the smartest lady in the world. Everytime I ask her a question, she knows the answer! She knows everything!" Obviously, I don't, but having a background in science does make me useful to my friends! (Ask, EGT how many times she emails me her symptoms and asks me to reassure her that she is not dying.)

11. Parents? My mom and my dad are both still with me, thank God. I have a strange relationship with them, in that sometimes I feel like I am the parent and I have to explain things to them. I think this is an oldest child thing, though.

12. Who are some of your friends?

I am one of those people who only has a few friends, much like EGT.

a. Stacey, aka EGT. She is my third sister. Everything she said is true. Except that I think she dialed it down a little, so as to make us seem less alarming. She has put up with my early onset dementia and my almost-psychotic levels of procrastination. I don't think I would have done nearly as well in our honors classes in college if she hadn't taken to reading the required essays and books and poems out loud. She has been my partner in countless obsessions (Red Sox, West Wing, Bradley Whitford, GWTW, romance novels, and of course, DW). Her writing, which she is finally sharing with a wider audience, is amazing. She writes banter like no one else. No one makes me laugh more than she does. Even though she's in Boston and I'm in Miami, I never feel like we're far apart.

b. Elia, my running buddy and my sounding board. She is the only one that did not give me a WTF? look when I sat at our usual table one fateful morning during a faculty meeting and said, "Hey, why don't we run a marathon?" She immediately said, "Let's do it." I don't think either of us knew what we were getting into, but we've pushed each other in ways we didn't even think were possible. More than that, she's become one of my best friends, because nobody listens like she does. She sees through all the bull in the situation and she tells you exactly how it is. She has kicked my butt on more than one occasion, especially when I have needed it. As an old married lady, I can vent to her about all my guy problems without fear of boring her, because she eats that shit up. And I miss her lots and lots, as she's currently away for a whole month.

c. Denise. My one and only party-animal friend. She is one of those people that everyone gravitates towards. She's just full of charisma and life. She's the one I worry about the most, as she's currently going through a rough patch, but I have no doubt she'll get though it and be even stronger in the end.

bouncy_castle79 @ 2008-06-14T17:19:00

2008-06-14T21:38:33Z

Y'all. I'm going to South Beach tonight to see Eddie Izzard, live, which is, of course, exciting in its own right. I get to be in the presence of the man that came up with this.

But what makes it extra exciting? According to my local news, JOHN KRASINSKI is in South Beach, filming scenes for a new movie with Maya Rudolph. John. Krasinski. So, if you never hear from me again, it's because I've bumped into him oh-so-casually and ~~tricked~~ convinced him that I am, in fact, the love of his life.

Twilight sucks. There, I said it.

2008-06-13T05:44:34Z

One of my favorite things about being a teacher is the long, luxurious summer breaks. I tend to devour books during this time, since I don't have to try and find a way to shove a chapter or two into my normal schedule. I'm pretty omnivorous when it comes to books. I like a lot of genres. This is just to let you know that I'm not some sort of snooty lit snob.

That being said, I was actively offended by the Twilight series, on several levels.

1. Purple prose. I read romance novels. I love romance novels. Stephenie Meyer's writing is amongst the worst offenders I've ever seen. And how many times does she describe Edward's beauty as being "indescribable"? Then stop describing it, you lunatic woman!

2. Poor character development. Who is Bella? Did she have a life before she met the Cullens? What kind of friends did she have back in Arizona? The answers to these questions seem to be "An empty cipher for Edward to love", "She sprang, fully-formed, into existence when she moved to Forks" and "Imaginary friends...I mean, would you be friends with her?"

3. Gender issues. Ohhh, boy, the gender issues. Look, I'm not a crazy feminazi or anything, but Stephenie Meyer's female characters are nothing short of horrifying. Bella's life revolves around Edward. Wait, Edward and Jacob. If Edward is not around, her life is not worth living. She is an empty shell. Now, grown women will read this,and sigh and roll their eyes at Bella's youthful mistakes, but teenage girls? I shudder to think the twisted ideas they may get from reading this book. Let me just say, that if I saw my younger cousins reading this, I'd plead with them to read Harry Potter instead. Because if teens look up to anyone, it should be kickass Hermione Granger, not the insipid Bella.

That being said, Edward Cullen is one of the most hypnotic characters I've ever seen. I have no idea how he came out of the same brain as Bella Swan. I've read a lot about Edward being controlling, but I don't see it. He backs off pretty quickly in Eclipse when he sees that his concern about leaving Bella alone with Jacob is more from jealousy than actual fear for her safety. Jacob is the creepy one in this equation. He forces himself on Bella, kissing her against her will, then manipulates her into kissing him again by threatening to die at the end of the book. A normal girl would be completely turned off by this behavior. Not Bella! Oh, no! This makes her realize that she loves them both! OH MY GOD I CANNOT EVEN DEAL WITH THIS BOOK'S STUPIDITY!

Fic pet peeves

2008-06-13T01:57:20Z

Tagged by jlrpuck and earlgreytea68. Like, a million years ago.

Is there something in fic that really, really bothers you when you read it? The sort of thing that can turn you off reading, even if the rest of the fic is brilliant? Label it here... then tag five others to do the same!

This one's easy.

Alien anatomy playing a prominent role in sex. Yes, I know the Doctor's an alien. Yes, I know there are things about him that are different (two hearts, cooler than normal body temperature). Blah, blah, blah. For me, nothing kills a steamy fic faster than a belaboured description of the Doctor's prehensile penis. Ew.

Happy Birthday to earlgreytea68!

2008-06-08T07:41:11Z

To the best friend a girl could ever have!

Here's a special message from David Tennant himself.

"What?...It's EGT's birthday?! Why didn't anyone say anything?"

"It's just...She's so tiny and cute and perfect...How could I ever get her anything good enough? I mean, does anybody know what she wants? Given any hints, clues, anything?...She has? Awesome...What did she say?"

"Ohhhhhh........."

"Wellll. It *is* her birthday. ~~And she *is* blonde.~~ Come and get it, you wee timorous beastie!"

Five Questions Meme

2008-05-27T01:44:31Z

Rules gakked from many, many journals

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

From the brilliant np_complete
1. What talent that you lack (other than singing) would you most like to have, and why?
Probably dancing. I experience major envy whenever I see a beautifully choreographed number on my screen. This, along with the singing, probably stems from a steady diet of movie musicals when I was growing up. That may seem hokey, but I defy you to watch Fred and Ginger glide across a sound stage and not sigh in appreciation.

2. Who is your favorite non-fictional non-human?
Tony the Bulldog. I've never met or even seen him, but EGT assures me that he is the ugliest bulldog in creation. Which automatically makes him the cutest thing ever.

3. We've been told that you've honed your critical and editorial skills on </a>earlgreytea68</b></a></span>'s fiction, and that you're quite good at it. If you could give Russell T. Davies constructive criticism, what would you tell him?
AHAHAHAHAHA! That was me laughing at the idea that EGT listens to a word I say. Yeah, she stopped that nonsense somewhere around senior year of college. Luckily, she writes brilliant things *in her sleep*, with very little editing needed. As far as RTD is concerned, you are asking the wrong person. I have unabashed, huge, embarrassing love for S4. I think Donna is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that the Doctor and Donna together are perfection. The only thing I'd tell Uncle Rusty is that he'd better not mess up Rose's return, or I will hunt him down and so something downright shocking to him. [/end empty threat]

4. Do you feel your college education prepared you for what you do for a living today? If not, do you wish you'd studied something else?
Absolutely. You'd be surprised how many science teachers didn't major in a science. Majoring in biology gave me a solid basis for answering all the questions those little buggers throw at me.

5. What can you not start the day without?
Music. I have to have it playing in the background as I putter around the house.

And, from the temporarily insane earlgreytea68

(1) Are you trying to gross me out to the maximum extent possible?
Yes, always. It's not my fault you do not have my fine, sophisticated palate. Anyway, if I was really trying to gross you out I would have mentioned the giant, man-eating ants that swarmed all over the Commies in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

(2) What do you cook me for a birthday dinner?
Field greens, blue cheese, pecan salad with apple cider vinaigrette, topped with apple chips.
Rosemary, lemon and garlic roast chicken
Parmesan smashed potatoes
Lemon berry trifle

(3) Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

(4) What's the last playlist you listened to on your iPod?
Lately, I've been stuck on a Fifties and Sixties playlist, mostly listening to the same 10 or so Sam Cooke songs over and over again.

(5) What are the odds I have a weird alien infection?
NONE, YOU RAVING LUNATIC! What, the combination of ebola and strep throat wasn't exotic enough for you?

Most time-consuming meme EVER

2008-04-23T01:40:33Z

Okay so here's what you do.. you just answer each of the following questions using lyrics to a song! Simple enough?

1.So what month is it? April! You're the Easter Bunny when you smile.

2. Where do you like to go? Yeah, down by the river, down by the banks of the river Charles. That's where you'll find me, along with lovers, fuggers, and thieves (aw, but they're cool people). Well I love that dirty water. Oh, Boston, you're my home

3.Describe yourself? Our aspirations are wrapped up in books. Our inclinations are hidden in looks.

4. Do you know who you will marry? He'll look at me and smile--I'll understand; And in a little while, he'll take my hand. And though it seems absurd, I know we both won't say a word. He'll build a little home just meant for two from which I'll never roam. Who would? Would you?

5. What do you feel like? Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT. I don't care about spots on my apples, leave me the birds and the bees – please.

6. What is your idea of the worst day ever? Some say a comet will fall from the sky, followed by meteor showers and tidal waves, followed by faultlines that cannot sit still, followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits.

7. Where would you go if you could go anywhere? Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars.

8. What would you tell a blind man? Oh, I see her face everywhere I go, on the street, and even at the picture show. Have you seen her?
Tell me, have you seen her?

9. What do you do when you’re bored? Be our guest! Be our guest! Put our service to the test. Tie your napkin 'round your neck, cherie, and we'll provide the rest. Soup du jour, hot hors d'oeuvres. Why, we only live to serve! Try the grey stuff, it's delicious. Beef ragout, cheese soufflé, pie and pudding "en flambe". We'll prepare and serve with flair a culinary cabaret!

10. Anything good happen this year? Just when it seems we're out of dreams and things have got us down, we don't despair! We don't go there! We hang our bonnets out of town! So there's no doubt we're well cut out to run life's marathon. We just move on...We just move on...

11. What do you say when you’re angry? Don't tell me not to live, just sit and putter. Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter. Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade. Don't tell me not to fly, I simply got to. If someone takes a spill, it's me and not you. Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade?

12. What is your favourite story? Now for ten years we've been on our own and moss grows fat on a rollin' stone, but that's not how it used to be. When the Jester sang for the King and Queen, in a coat he borrowed from James Dean, in a voice that came from you and me. Oh, and while the King was looking down, the Jester stole his thorny crown. The courtroom was adjourned, no verdict was returned. And while Lenin read a book on Marx, the quartet practiced in the park and we sang dirges in the dark the day the music died.

13. How do you say goodbye? Everytime we say goodbye, I wonder why a little. Why the gods above me who must be in the know, think so little of me they allow you to go?

14. Any words of advice? Cuando la vida me da golpes y me manda para el suelo, es cuando yo mas siento que tengo que levantarme.
Que dar la cara al miedo, es una forma de vencerlo. No voy a darme por vencido, no voy a darle mi vida el miedo. El miedo es un asesino que mata los sentimientos. Hoy voy a levantarme y no voy a resignar mi corazon, hacer lo que quice y no pude. No lo voy a aceptar hoy, voy a buscar estar major. La vida tiene solucion, aqui no hay nada imposible, no creo en el jamas.... no!

15. What is something you always wanted to see? See the pyramids along the Nile. See the sunrise on a tropic isle. See the market place in Old Algiers. Fly the ocean in a silver plane. See the jungle when it's wet with rain

16. What do you think about life? It takes a night to make it dawn and it takes a day to make you yawn brother, and it takes some old to make you young. It takes some cold to know the sun, it takes the one to have the other. La la la la la la, life is wonderful

17. What hurts really bad? Caught in my fears, blinking back the tears. I can't say you hurt me when you never let me near, and I never drew one response from you. All the while you fell all over girls you never knew. Cause I've done everything I know to try and make you mine, and I think it's gonna hurt me for a long, long time

18. What about sex? Sex is natural - sex is good. Not everybody does it, but everybody should. Sex is natural - sex is fun. Sex is best when it's one on one.

Poetry meme

2008-04-21T21:21:32Z

Stolen from EGT and jlrpuck,

It's National Poetry Month, and so I share my favorite poem of all time.

Marginalia

Sometimes the notes are ferocious,
skirmishes against the author
raging along the borders of every page
in tiny black script.
If I could just get my hands on you,
Kierkegaard, or Conor Cruise O'Brien,
they seem to say,
I would bolt the door and beat some logic into your head.

Other comments are more offhand, dismissive -
"Nonsense." "Please!" "HA!!" -
that kind of thing.
I remember once looking up from my reading,
my thumb as a bookmark,
trying to imagine what the person must look like
why wrote "Don't be a ninny"
alongside a paragraph in The Life of Emily Dickinson.

Students are more modest
needing to leave only their splayed footprints
along the shore of the page.
One scrawls "Metaphor" next to a stanza of Eliot's.
Another notes the presence of "Irony"
fifty times outside the paragraphs of A Modest Proposal.

Or they are fans who cheer from the empty bleachers,
Hands cupped around their mouths.
"Absolutely," they shout
to Duns Scotus and James Baldwin.
"Yes." "Bull's-eye." My man!"
Check marks, asterisks, and exclamation points
rain down along the sidelines.

And if you have manage to graduate from college
without ever having written "Man vs. Nature"
in a margin, perhaps now
is the time to take one step forward.

We have all seized the white perimeter as our own
and reached for a pen if only to show
we did not just laze in an armchair turning pages;
we pressed a thought into the wayside,
planted an impression along the verge.

Even Irish monks in their cold scriptoria
jotted along the borders of the Gospels
brief asides about the pains of copying,
a bird signing near their window,
or the sunlight that illuminated their page-
anonymous men catching a ride into the future
on a vessel more lasting than themselves.

And you have not read Joshua Reynolds,
they say, until you have read him
enwreathed with Blake's furious scribbling.

Yet the one I think of most often,
the one that dangles from me like a locket,
was written in the copy of Catcher in the Rye
I borrowed from the local library
one slow, hot summer.
I was just beginning high school then,
reading books on a davenport in my parents' living room,
and I cannot tell you
how vastly my loneliness was deepened,
how poignant and amplified the world before me seemed,
when I found on one page

A few greasy looking smears
and next to them, written in soft pencil-
by a beautiful girl, I could tell,
whom I would never meet-
"Pardon the egg salad stains, but I'm in love."

-- Billy Collins

bouncy_castle79 @ 2008-04-07T21:40:00

2008-04-08T02:13:28Z

Tagged by cutiedaydreamer.

Step 1: Open up whatever MP3 program you use and add every song in your collection.
Step 2: Put it on random.
Step 3: Pick random lyrics from the first 10 songs, no matter how embarassing the song.
Step 4: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 5: Cross out the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 6: DON'T HINT THEM!

#1. ~~Hey/ Wait/ I got a new complaint/ Forever in debt to your priceless advice~~ cutiedaydreamer
#2. ~~if you knew my story word for word / Had all of my history/ Would you go along with someone like me ?~~ cutiedaydreamer
#3. ~~My darling, dear/ Love you all the time/ I'm just a fool/ A fool in love with you.~~ ginamak
#4. ~~Is your man/ on the floor?/ If he ain't/ Let me know.~~ cutiedaydreamer
#5. ~~I lived my life in shadow/ Never the sun on my face/ It didn't seem so sad though/ I figured that was my place.~~ cutiedaydreamer
#6. ~~Of all the types I've ever met within our democracy/ I hate most the athlete with his manner bold and brassy/ He may have hair upon his chest but, sister, so has Lassie.~~ earlgreytea68
#7. I'm not a gangster tonight/ Don't want to be a bad guy/ I'm just a loner baby/ And now you're gotten in my way
#8. I need someone to take some joy in something I do / You need a man who’s either rich or losing a screw / You know I love you here’s the irony / You’re going to walk away intact / I think you never liked me anyway
#9. ~~Them that's got shall get/ Them that's not shall lose/ So the Bible said and it still is news/ Mama may have, papa may have~~ ginamak
#10. Well darkness has a hunger that's insatiable/ And lightness has a call that's hard to hear/ I wrap my fear around me like a blanket/ I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it, I'm crawling on your shore earlgreytea68

Meme of musicality

2008-04-07T02:23:07Z

Taken from EGT, obviously.
Go here http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1997.htm and change the number in the URL to reflect the year you graduated high school to get the top 100 songs of that year. Strike through the songs you hate(d). Bold the songs you love(d). Underline the songs you like(d). Leave blank those you don’t care about or don’t remember.

1. Candle In The Wind 1997, Elton John
2. Foolish Games/You Were Meant For Me, Jewel So, so much love for these songs. I was all about the Lillith Fair musicians in high school.
3. ~~I'll Be Missing You, Puff Daddy and Faith Evans~~. I hated Puff Daddy. Opportunistic bastard cannot rap, sing, or dance.
4. Un-Break My Heart, Toni Braxton
5. ~~Can't Nobody Hold Me Down, Puff Daddy~~
6. I Believe I Can Fly, R. Kelly
7. Don't Let Go (Love), En Vogue Amaaazing song. God, I miss En Vogue.
8. Return Of The Mack, Mark Morrison. Ok, what?! I've never heard of this song.
9. How Do I Live, LeAnn Rimes
10. ~~Wannabe, Spice Girls~~ I hated the Spice Girls. Yeah, I said it.
11. ~~Quit Playing Games (With My Heart), Backstreet Boys~~ Was not a Backstreet fan, either.
12. ~~MMMBop, Hanson~~ Or, really, any of the teenybopper stuff.
13. For You I Will, Monica
14. You Make Me Wanna..., Usher Mmm, yes. Anytime.
15. ~~Bitch, Meredith Brooks~~ This one annoyed the heck out of me.
16. Nobody Keith Sweat
17. Semi-Charmed Life, Third Eye Blind
18. Barely Breathing, Duncan Sheik Hearing this song now, the guy's a bit flat and monotone, but I wore this song out in high school.
19. ~~Hard To Say I'm Sorry, Az Yet Featuring Peter Cetera~~ What? I liked the original.
20. Mo Money Mo Problems, Notorious B.I.G. This song is good, because it's true.
21. The Freshmen, Verve Pipe Whose lyrics I had to explain to EGT.
22. I Want You, Savage Garden Chick-a cherry cola!
23. No Diggity, BLACKstreet Featuring Dr. Dre I like the way you work it.
24. I Belong To You (Every Time I See Your Face), Rome
25. Hypnotize, Notorious B.I.G.
26. Every Time I Close My Eyes, Babyface
27. In My Bed, Dru Hill
28. ~~Say You'll Be There, Spice Girls~~
29. Do You Know (What It Takes), Robyn
30. 4 Seasons Of Loneliness, Boyz II Men
31. G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T., Changing Faces
32. Honey, Mariah Carey Remember when Mariah Carey being sexy was a novelty? Yeah.
33. I Believe In You And Me, Whitney Houston
34. Da' Dip, Freaknasty Shut up! I thought this song was released waaay earlier.
35. ~~2 Become 1, Spice Girls~~
36. All For You, Sister Hazel
37. Cupid, 112
38. Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?, Paula Cole
39. Sunny Came Home, Shawn Colvin
40. It's Your Love, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
41. Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit, Gina G
42. Mouth, Merril Bainbridge
43. All Cried Out, Allure Featuring 112
44. I'm Still In Love With You, New Edition
45. Invisible Man, 98 Degrees
46. Not Tonight, Lil' Kim
47. Look Into My Eyes, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
48. Get It Together, 702
49. All By Myself, Celine Dion
50. It's All Coming Back To Me Now, Celine Dion
51. My Love Is The Shhh!, Somethin' For The People
52. Where Do You Go, No Mercy
53. I Finally Found Someon, Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams What? I love Barbra Streisand. Always have and always will.
54. I'll Be, Foxy Brown Featuring Jay-Z
55. If It Makes You Happy , Sheryl Crow *is shocked I don't have this song*
56. Never Make A Promise, Dru Hill
57. When You Love A Woman, Journey
58. Up Jumps Da Boogie, Magoo And Timbaland
59. I Don't Want To/I Love Me Some Him, Toni Braxton
60. Everyday Is A Winding Road, Sheryl Crow
61. Cold Rock A Party, Mc Lyte
62. Pony, Ginuwine Ride it!
63. Building A Mystery, Sarah McLachlan
64. I Love You Always Forever, Donna Lewis
65. Your Woman, White Town I still don't get this song (is it sung by a transsexual?... I don't know)
66. C U When U Get There, Coolio
67. ~~Change The World, Eric Clapton~~ Oh, ye gods, sooo boring.
68. My Baby Daddy, B-Rock and The Bizz I love my baby daddy!
69. Tubthumping, Chumbawamba Aw, fond college memories!
70. Gotham City, R. Kelly
71. Last Night, Az Yet
72. ESPN Presents The Jock Jam, Various Artists
73. Big Daddy, Heavy D
74. What About Us, Total
75. Smile, Scarface
76. What's On Tonight, Montell Jordan
77. Secret Garden, Bruce Springsteen
78. The One I Gave My Heart, w Aaliyah
79. Fly Like An Eagle, Seal
80. No Time, Lil' Kim
81. Naked Eye, Luscious Jackson
82. ~~Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix), Los Del Rio~~ Ew.
83. On and On, Erykah Badu
84. Don't Wanna Be A Player, Joe
85. I Shot The Sheriff, Warren G
86. You Should Be Mine (Don't Waste Your Time), Brian McKnight Featuring Mase
87. Don't Cry For Me Argentina, Madonna I had to watch this musical about three times before I liked it, but then I loved it fiercely.
88. Someone, SWV
89. Go The Distance, Michael Bolton
90. One More Time, Real McCoy
91. Butta Love, Next
92. Coco Jamboo, Mr. President
93. Twisted, Keith Sweat
94. Barbie Girl, Aqua
95. When You're Gone/Free To Decide, Cranberries
96. Let Me Clear My Throat, DJ Kool " Now all the ladies in the place/ If you got real hair, real fingernails/ If you got a job, you going to school/ And y'all need nobody to help you handle your business/ Make some noise." Woooooo!
97. I Like It, Blackout Allstars
98. You're Makin' Me High/Let It Flow, Toni Braxton
99. You Must Love Me, Madonna
100. Let It Go, Ray J

Which NKOTB was your favorite?

2008-04-07T01:30:03Z

Mutual squeeing with earlgreytea68 over THE BEST MUSIC NEWS OF THE PAST TEN YEARS led me to compile this post of utmost importance.

Think back to those halcyon days of New Kid fever. Silk-screened t-shirts worn over acid-washed jeans, tied in a knot to the side, of course. Dessert-plate-sized buttons propped up on your nightstand. Poster on the back of your bedroom door that you may or may not have kissed goodnight. Now, think of which Kid you favored the most.

Jordan? Congratulations. You are totally boring and predictable. Everyone and their mother liked Jordan the best! Way to follow the masses, you robot!

Joey? Aw, you are realistic. You knew that the 18-yr-old and up other Kids would go to prison if they touched your 11-yr-old self, but Joey? He was 12! Which was, like, only a year older than you are! It's, like, fate meant for you two to be together! Totally! Plus, his eyes were soooo dreamy.

Donny? You like the bad boys. No, seriously. You probably hitched a ride to the nearest biker bar when your mom dropped you off at the concert.

Jonathan? Hmm, you, my dear, are an enigma, shrouded in mystery. You were almost too cool to like NKOTB, but you felt you found a soulmate in shy, sweet Jonathan. There he was, shoved in the back, awkwardly trying to make his overly tall frame dance rhythmically, not really fitting in. Just like you.

Danny? You are blind. Also, possibly, deaf. Dude could not sing.

Dirty, dirty meme

2008-04-05T01:30:55Z

Tagged by earlgreytea68 and jlrpuck.

List ten fictional characters you would have sex with (in no particular order) and tag five people to do the same.

This is all a bit pervy, isn't it? I mean, I'm having fun compiling my list, but...still. Also, I did this before looking at EGT's list, so as not to let her opinion influence mine. (We share the same brain.)

1. Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Pride and Prejudice. Yeah, the instructions said no particular order, but he is my number one, forever and always.

2. Ten, Doctor Who. (shock and surprise!) You will notice I'm being specific here. All those excellent DW fans could say, "Oh, I'd do any of the incarnation," proving how hardcore they are, but Ten's the only one I'd like to do naughty things to. *is shallow*

3. Josh Lyman, The West Wing. I'd make him say, "Hey there, cats and kittens!" every time he crawled into bed.

4. Gilbert Blythe, Anne of Green Gables. Dear Lord, the pining thing is eversosexy. I'm a good fan and read the book before seeing the miniseries, but certainly Jonathan Crombie's portrayal of Gil helped my crush along. That scene where he's staring up at the bridge at Anne and Diane giggling over something, with the most intense longing on his face? Guh.

5. Batman. Best superhero ever. Do not even attempt to argue with me. He does all that supervillian-fighting on his own, people! He's not benefiting from any radioactive spider bite or home planet destruction. It is just his rippling muscles and vast, vast wealth against the forces of evil.

6. Aragorn, Lord of the Rings. (who I am lustily staring at as I type...it's hard work, but it's worth it). He made the act of opening doors sexy, so awesome is his power. ( and, omg, now he's taking on four Ring Wraiths all on his own...so...hot.)

7. James Bond, in the every incarnation, excepting Roger Moore (because, ew) and George Lazenby (does he even count?). Yes, he is a man whore. No, I don't care.

8. Peter Carlisle. Here's the twist, though. I don't want Blackpool Peter Carlisle, I want The Way of Things Peter Carlisle. B!PC is tainted by association with Natalie Holden, who I loathe. TWoT!PC, on the other hand, is in love with someone I can respect, and so is much, much sexier to me.

9. Jordan Catalano, My So-Called Life. It doesn't matter that he's dumb as a box of hair. I remember staring at my screen on Thursday nights, watching that insanely beautiful man and not being able to breathe. Seriously, his hotness literally took my breath away.

10. Every character Cary Grant ever played. *nods* *ignores cries of "Cheater!"*

Aaand, everyone I know's been tagged, because I know five people on LJ.

Yep, that's about right

2008-04-02T14:38:27Z

Stolen from...someone. I don't even remember who anymore. It all happened so fast!

Take the Quiz here!

She's not the most glamorous, but she is definitely made of awesome.

(Also, if anyone on my f-list takes this and comes out as Fanny Price, you are dead to me. Fair warning.)

Top five Shakira songs

2008-04-02T01:49:16Z

For earlgreytea68: Shakira songs

Ok, chronological order, because it just wouldn't be possible to rank them in any other order.

1. Pies Descalzos, Suenos Blancos.
This is the song that made me fall in love with Shakira. You have to understand what it was like growing up, listening to Spanish music. My options were infectious merengues about the shortness of a lady's skirt and sweeping ballads guaranteed to give you cavities. This Shakira chick was different. She was quirky, she was angry, and she was awesome. This song is about the expectations Latina women have thrust onto them from birth. The litany of things she DOES NOT WANT at the end? Yeah, it's like someone opened up my high school journal and put it into song. (Also, marvel at how gorgeous she is with her natural black hair...I miss it)

2. Antologia
Beautiful, bittersweet song about everything she gained and lost during a relationship. This performance is from a concert years after the song was released. You'll want to notice how the audience sings along to every word. Because it is awesome.

3. Inevitable
This song just explodes at the chorus, and I love it. She's listing all her faults, because she wants to be up front with her guy. It also has a special place in my heart, because it was the first song she translated into English. I remember very clearly, watching her perform it on the Rosie O'Donnell show, when Gloria Estefan was the guest host. And I was so excited that the Estefans had taken her under their wing and were unleashing her greatness onto the English-speaking world. Sigh. That, uh, didn't turn out as expected.

4. Que Me Quedes Tu
Ok, it hurts my soul to see her looking this blond. Why, Shakira?! I'll ignore that for now, and just say that the lyrics of this song are beautiful. By the time we get to Laundry Service, we get into that interesting contradiction, in that she is a brilliant song-writer in Spanish, but completely trite and WTF in English. Who is going to confuse your breasts with mountains? No one. Anyway, she hits notes in this song that make me cry if I'm feeling especially melancholic.

5. Tie! Look, the entire Fijacion Oral album was brilliant, and I'm allowed to cheat a bit. So, Lo Imprescindible, which she's never made a video for, apparently. So, bonus for you if you're a Dark Angel fan. This song is just gorgeously dark and desperate and yes, that is German at the beginning. Which totally fits the mood of the song, since it's slightly sinister. And, Las de la intuicion, which I loved so much that it was EGT's ringtone for over a year. Fun, flirty song about how you will love her because it is foreordained.