kerikeri

THIS. This is the most true thing ever.

It's all brilliant, but #2 is so, so perfect. Finally some recognition of the thinking woman's heartthrobs. <3 <3 <3 <3

So sleepy, srsly. And there's a novel in my head that wants to be written but doesn't want to be bothered with pesky stuff like well-rounded characters and a coherent plot. Sigh. I wish I could shut off my self-criticism long enough to just write something and not worry about the quality...

I saw Star Trek today. To disclaim, I am not a Star Trek fan. I haven't seen much of the original series, but I've always found the spinoff series (especially Next Gen) kind of flat and boring and plastic-- the characters don't have enough personality and the world just doesn't feel real to me.

That said... THIS FILM IS INCREDIBLE. It's thrilling, it's moving, it's funny, it's got big splodey action and gorgeously nuanced characterization coexisting perfectly... it's probably the best time I've had at the movie theater in years.

( commentary with spoilers )

I highly recommend you all go see it ASAP, whether you're a Trek fan or not. I already can't wait for the next film, and I'm not sure anything else coming out this summer can possibly even come close to topping this one for me. (Though is it sad that I want to see the G.I. Joe movie because it looks big and dumb and shiny and it has Christopher Eccleston as a bad guy?)

New guilty pleasure! I just caught up on the first episode of Harper's Island, that new summer mystery series on CBS, in time to watch the second one tonight. It's pretty bad. Most of the acting is pretty laughable, the script's cheesy and it's full of horror/mystery/soap-opera cliches. And I looooove it. I think I'm enjoying it so much because it's basically a TV version of one of those terrible old R.L. Stine teen horror novels I used to love. A bunch of friends with overwrought secrets in a secluded setting being killed off one by one? So Fear Street.

Plus, it's full of minor-league TV actors I recognize! Christopher Gorham, who is always super adorable, and Ruby and Bobby from Supernatural, and the chef from Eureka, and the annoying boyfriend from The Best Years (speaking of terrible guilty pleasure TV >.>)... and, heh, Aaron Echolls, but yeah, about that. ...And I need a life. XD

Also, I need to share this video. Because it's adorable and amazing.



It will live in your head forever. I almost don't even think the actual game can live up to how cool this is.

It's here. April 12th, 2003. It was a lyrics meme, and the subject line was "Meh." Maybe I haven't really changed that much in six years. >.>

And I guess two days ago was my six-year LJ anniversary. I haven't posted constantly for all that time, but this journal has seen me through two degrees, several jobs, five or six romantic entanglements, and a lot of drama and turmoil. It's probably a bit self-centered, but I like having a chronicle of my life that I can look back on, and it's been good to have a place to work through emotions and vent and sometimes even get support/input from others. Here's to more years to come, though hopefully my good luck will continue and they'll be more stable ones. *knocks on wood*

On a totally different note, my faith in humanity has been utterly destroyed by TLC. Didn't that used to stand for The Learning Channel? Now it's full of terrifying shows about people with approximately seven zillion children. The Duggars scare the living shit out of me. I respect people's decisions and I try to be open-minded with regards to those who follow religious traditions I don't believe in or agree with, but... these people are really like aliens to me. How incredibly sheltered the kids are (they don't even seem to have any exposure to non-Christian popular culture or people who aren't just like them), and their practically sociopathic devotion to camera-whoring (the grandfather was dying of cancer and they were dragging him around and shoving cameras and lights in his face and talking quite calmly about how Grandpa's illness would really bring the family together... it was actually really disgusting). Also, they think Kirk Cameron is a "major Hollywood star." Um. Ha. I actually just feel sorry for most of the kids, and I really hope a few of them manage to rebel and learn to think for themselves someday.

The shows about people with weird medical conditions creep me out, too. It's just this very uncomfortable, awkward balance between "heartwarming story of courage against the odds" and "hey, look at the freak." I don't really know what the motivation for putting such things on TV is, or what the proper response is. Other than... changing the channel to something less bizarre and disquieting. Like Aqua Teen Hunger Force. >.>

Did get around to watching "Planet of the Dead." I... am not exactly sure if I liked it!

( spoilers for PotD and the preview for the next episode )

Well, this is about 45 kinds of bullshit. (Especially with this additional detail, because... yeah. Wow. Award-winning literary explorations of GLBT themes are apparently unacceptable pornography now. AWESOME. Never realized I was reading filthy smut unsuitable for the masses when I was assigned Winterson in one of my undergrad English classes! PROTECT THE CHILDREN.)

Amazon, stop failing at life plz. >.>

(at some point I need to get out of bed, and go visit my family, and maybe watch the Doctor Who special jfpbookworm so kindly acquired for us. But blaaaaargh. Am teh zmobie. I am so tired lately and it sucks. XP

weekend has been okay, not much to say about it really. went geocaching. saw Chris, but he's very stressed about school and his crazy overprotective family as usual. had to pay my taxes for the entire year... bank account has a sad. am getting addicted to the Dresden Files, finally, although... maybe it's just that I'm used to modern paranormal fantasy series being very female-driven, but he could do with a little less "I am a manly man full of masculinity" every three pages. and I still think Susan sucks and Murphy is way more awesome and should be the canon love interest, just like I did in the TV series. buuuuttt I've only read the first book so we'll see.)

The Tor.com blog is made of so much win today. Among the highlights: "PETA Unsure About Furries"; "Fox Cancels Joss Whedon"; and my personal favorite, "Fiction World Rocked as Woman Claims No Sexual Attraction to Neil Gaiman". (someone totally needs to write Britgeeksexgod: The Story of How Hot Neil Gaiman Is forrealz.)

Also, this morning the main page of TV Tropes was redirecting to this page. Which I encourage all of you to visit. Especially thegreyarcher. :)

Back from sectionals. It was... fairly average, as sectionals go. I had fun, bonded with people (in some cases by having them make fun of me nonstop, KATE AND LISA :P), learned an awesomely inappropriate new icebreaker game ("...it was the size of a small child!" rofl), did some geocaching... and drank waaaaaay too much on Saturday night. x.x I need my tolerance back, srsly. I had two relatively strong drinks and three shots, and that was enough to put me in spaced-out, can't close my eyes or the room will start spinning mode. And this morning I felt like death, and I never used to get hangovers no matter how much I drank or how little water I had with it. I don't think I like getting old. *pouts*

The conference itself was... ehhh, honestly not great. The meetings were scheduled way too late so we weren't able to get ready for banquet on time (though admittedly we would've been okay were it not for the most epic failure of an attempt to go to Walmart of all time, which I will explain in comments if anyone really wants to know... or just ask Kate and Lisa about how I almost had to kill them and was placated with hush puppies), and for the banquet itself we were squished into a tiny room that didn't even fit everyone... and once again the dance sucked. Is it so hard to get a DJ who plays dance music for a dance? Like, dance music that anyone who isn't into obscure house/techno/rap/whatever the hell he was playing has ever heard of? NOT THAT HARD, PEOPLE.

But really, the point was to see everyone and hang out and have fun, so... mission accomplished, pretty much. It's still a little weird for me, being in a relationship outside of APO and going to conferences, with all the flirting and tension and other people hooking up, but I know it's worth it (not gonna give up a happy steady relationship just to have fun a few times a year at conferences, obviously) so I'll deal. And it's not like hooking up with random people has ever gotten me anywhere good anyway, with my excessively romantic tendencies. x.x There are a few things I'm still... curious about, I suppose, but I have to remember it's basically a moot point anyway so I shouldn't worry about it much. It's just... weird, not bad weird, but weird. Eh.

Anyway... of course, there were many epic (or should I say feckic?) moments as usual. Lisa deciding that my boyfriend doesn't exist... the horrible, horrible conversation involving alligators that somehow resulted from me misquoting a Quiznos ad... playing the pickup truck game and the "figure out what the license plate stands for" game, fitting 7 people into my car to go geocaching, the aforementioned epic Walmart fail, Joe and "that's great!", Kate and Russ doing the maturity dance... probably lots of others I'm forgetting. Oh sectionals, were it not for you it would take us much longer to come up with new inside jokes :)

Now I will find some way to kill about 40 more minutes until Chris comes over (yes, at midnight... CS majors have weird homework schedules). Or doesn't come over, because apparently he's imaginary :P

Just got back from a free advance screening of Adventureland. It was pretty good, aside from the fact that the copy we watched had scenes out of order in the middle of the movie, which made it very confusing when a character who had already appeared repeatedly in several scenes suddenly made a grand entrance half an hour later. Nevertheless, I liked it. Great 80s soundtrack (and major major props for using "Don't Dream It's Over" in a romantic scene <33333), Ryan Reynolds in one of his now-patented sleazeball roles, and Kristen Stewart unsurprisingly much better-cast as an angry rebellious stoner type than as Stephenie Meyer's Mary Sue Bella Swan. And I kind of loved the protagonist-- he's an adorably innocent, hopelessly romantic lit major, so of course I approve.

Don't let the advertising fool you, though-- it's really not as much of a goofy comedy as the trailers have made it seem. It's more of a quirky romance that happens to have funny scenes, more akin to Juno than Anchorman or Dodgeball, and the relationship drama gets a lot more screentime than the "wacky antics at an amusement park" aspect (aside from a handful of scenes, working at the park could've been replaced by almost any other crappy min-wage job without changing the film much). Still, cute, and I wouldn't have regretted paying to see it.

I've been craving horrible fast food for the past two days. I think I finally got it out of my system by having McDonald's for dinner tonight. Not that what I normally eat is stupendously healthy, but at least I usually don't eat much fast food. Now I feel pretty disgusting, but at least I'm not having random urges to go get a cheeseburger in the middle of the night anymore.

...um, does anyone know who aidatu is? Seems to have friended a bunch of Fredonia and APO people, including me, but the journal appears to be some kind of really emo creative writing interspersed with random spam about some work-from-home thing. And it's friendslocked. *confused* Friending troll, or someone we know being weird?

Blah. Bored. Wish I knew for sure what my weekend plans will be, but I guess there's still time. Maybe I'll go read.

I really thought I was jaded to all that the internet had to offer. Terrible fanfiction, creepy pornography, bizarre subcultures... I've seen it all in my wanderings on this here series of tubes.

Okay, well, I thought I'd seen it all. Until ten minutes ago, though, I had not seen a French guy sitting on his couch doing some kind of disturbing interpretive dance to a Phil Collins song while smoking a cigarette.

Now I have. Thank you, Youtube. My mind is gone.

(that might not sound that weird compared to some of the Rule 34-fodder out there, yeah. but... think about how random that is, completely without context. and what really freaks me out is that the video had almost no views and no comments. I am now one of the few people on the planet who has seen said French guy's horrible tribute to the former lead singer of Genesis. there's something existentially frightening about that.

or maybe I just really need to go to bed.)

Yay.

Even though I am facing a pretty boring week (everyone is going to be busy or away for break D:), life is pretty good. I need to work up the energy to stop laying around and get ready to go to Hamburg and visit ithilimp, though.

Last night Chris and I watched Death at a Funeral, which... omg. For everyone who said we were weird for going to a zombie movie on a date, lol... this is probably worse. It's a really, really dark comedy of errors, mostly British, though for some reason Alan Tudyk is in it (and is fucking hilarious, seriously). And it has probably the best last line I've ever seen in a movie. (Annnd I just found out Chris Rock is remaking it. -.- I can't see that going well... why must Americans screw everything up?)

Oh, and I'm playing Persona 2. For no raison. I'm trying to get back into games (other than Rock Band or World of Goo or Peggle :P) and this one is really entertaining me. There are Lovecraft references, squee! And I like that it's a modern fantasy/horror RPG-- there totally needs to be more of those, given my boredom with traditional fantasy settings, and the fact that I suck at survival horror (curse you Silent Hill 5...).

...wow, the people upstairs are incredibly loud today. A few minutes ago they sounded like they were making zombie noises. >.>

I really want to see Watchmen. But everyone's leaaaaving meeeee. Maybe next weekend?

now I need a shower. :D

Ooooh... How did it take me so long to learn about Razia's Shadow: A Musical? It's basically a modern rock/"indie"/"emo" (hell, I don't even know what the proper term for my preferred genre of music is) rock opera, starring a billion of the major vocalists from that scene. It's a tragic mythological love story. It's... okay, it's cheesy, pretentious, kinda silly, and I love it so much. My only complaint is that the story's kind of rushed near the end and it totally could've been a lot longer. And I have no idea what the title means. I get the "shadow" part, but who the hell's Razia? Huh.

Also, I can't stop paging through The Mortasheen Project, even though it's creepy and squicky and completely fucked-up. It's like if H.P. Lovecraft, H.R. Giger and Junji Ito had created Pokemon. Don't look if you don't have a strong stomach, or if you have a problem with body horror and eldritch monstrosities drawn in a disturbingly cartoonish style. But I love all the references/homages to other horror works, and it really is clever, albeit kind of disturbing that one person spent all this time drawing/coming up with these things. >.>

Annnnnnd go here and read this if you never want to be able to see Animal Crossing the same way again. Hehehe. I love the internet.

Last night's Skype conversation was amusing. In case you were wondering, yes, Cyberman and Dalek porn exists. Apparently there is also Flying Spaghetti Monster porn. Rule 34 lives to see another day. Again, I love the internet.

This entry brought to you by me trying to kill time on a slow work day while I wait for later tonight when stuff will happen. <3333 Maybe I will go and get coffee, for coffee is delicious.

So apparently the comedy show tickets we have are for, uh, this Friday? Not April? lol. Yay, I have weekend plans now... and at least I don't have to worry about anything conflicting with sectionals. *bounces* can't wait!

Also, to anyone here who knows more about Rock Band than I do (matrarch?)... does anyone know why, when you sort your library by artist, certain songs are listed by album and others aren't? Does it just automatically do that when there's more than one song from the same album, or could it be a hint at later full album releases? Now that I think of it, it's probably the former, but I really hope it's the latter because Bleed American is one of the albums listed and it would be awesome to have a full Jimmy album on there. :D

I need some new music, though, in general. I'm pretty well burned out on my current mp3 library. Because apparently over 3 thousand songs isn't enough. I've got a bunch of new albums I haven't listened to yet, but... meh, they're mostly more of the same from artists I already know. Anybody want to point me in the direction of something new and spectacular? One of the handful of you who don't listen exclusively to power metal or country? :P

... *squirms* I want to go running. Or geocaching. Or just sitting outside with a book. WHY IS THERE STILL SNOW ON THE GROUND. It's really weird, my body thinks it should be warm outside and is going OMG LET'S GET OUT IN THE SUN but I still couldn't go out there without three layers on. Cognitive dissonance sucks. *sadface*

So tired, but this weekend was so worth it. I didn't get much sleep until today and then slept in until almost 2 pm, after having to get up this morning long enough to take raquhelnseaelf's guest to the airport while she was at work.

SLED was fun! I got to be the resident staff gofer, and discovered (Discover-ed, hahaha, I'm hilarious) that APO LEADS courses can actually be enjoyable and not boring and miserable like my Launch was (don't worry, it wasn't any of you who taught it, it was when I first pledged and I didn't know anyone there and it was in a scary brick room in the basement). And afterward we went to Friendly's and then a group of us ventured out to Niagara Falls to walk across the bridge into Canada. We spent most of our time in the arcade and I found out why raquhelnseaelf loves the quarter game so much. ;) And we went on a super lame haunted-house laser shooter ride and had a great time. I haven't done random stupid shit like that in a while (not since summer, sniffle, hurry up and get here summer... okay, well, warm weather, not actual end-of-the-school-year summer because I really really don't want to think about that).

Also, I'm joining thegreyarcher's Skype D&D campaign (along with mtcrunch23, I heard? yes, I totally copied you, because Joe always thinks he invites me to join campaigns but he never does :P). I haven't gamed in forever because everyone's so busy now, that or they're just being lame, so I'm looking forward to it. Need to get new dice and write up my backstory soon. My character's a thief illusionist and should be lots of fun to play.

ALSO, Chris got free tickets for us to see Wyatt Cenac and John Oliver at UB this spring! Great boyfriend, or greatest boyfriend? ;) I love both of them so I am super excited. I really, really hope none of the shows conflict with sectionals, though... I can't find any information at all about it online, and I did see it advertised on campus but no dates were listed. It's gonna really suck if I have to choose. But he said he thought they were in April, so I should be okay... *keeps fingers crossed*

Oh, and Jimmy Eat World songs for download on Rock Band next week!! This weekend's been full of good news. And I got to spend today just lying around resting and rewatching Torchwood, which I've been in the mood for lately, maybe because of silent_bunny's recent commentary on it or because the novels make good light coffeeshop reading. I notice I'm liking Ianto a lot more this time around-- throughout the first season I thought he was boring and had no personality, but now I can see that the awesome snarkiness he shows in the second season was subtly there all along. Also, Jack's hot, but we all knew that. :D

oh hai, paranoia...

I have this creeping suspicion that I'm being... kind of slowly forced out of my own life, I guess. no hard evidence, just a feeling I'm getting. but I can't really say anything about it, because I'll just get a condescending lecture about how I should go run along and play while the Real Adults deal with their busy Real Adult schedules. (because of course I just sit around and do nothing important all day, and somehow get paid for it! funny how that works.)

bleh. I don't know. I'm just annoyed with everyone. I'm annoyed with people who ignore me and I'm annoyed with people who won't leave me the hell alone-- there doesn't seem to be a happy medium at the moment. and maybe I'd be in a better mood if I was getting decent sleep, but apparently this fucking construction is nowhere near done, which means banging and men yelling and country music outside my window every single morning (EVEN SATURDAY) at promptly 9 am for the indefinite future. fucking awesome. (and no, I'm not gonna go to bed earlier just because of this bullshit. fuck that.)

whatever. the only thing cheering me up lately is coffee and books and so I'm gonna go indulge in that. (actually, right now I'm reading the manga monster which is really good. so far it seems to be another intricate cat-and-mouse mystery epic kind of like death note but without the supernatural elements so far. I dunno why this genre seems to only exist in Japan but it's awesome.)

also I damn well better still be seeing coraline this weekend. 'cause I'm not gonna be happy if it falls through after I changed my plans last weekend and waited. so yeah.

What the everloving fuck.

So I have a godawful headache and I decided to take a shower to see if it would help. AND GUESS WHAT. Apparently we don't have any water coming out of the tub faucets or the shower. The bathroom sink works fine. The kitchen sink works fine. Every other source of water in the entire apartment works fine. BUT NO, I CAN'T TAKE A SHOWER, THAT'S NOT ALLOWED.

I'm pretty sure this is yet another side effect of the fucking construction they've been doing on my building for a week and a half. Which has already inconvenienced me repeatedly by a) turning off my electricity for half a day on Monday and b) waking me up every goddamn morning at 8 or 9 am with pounding so loud it shakes my room and stereos blasting country music.

STAB STAB STAB STAB

my head hurts. and I feel disgusting. and I just want to take a shower goddammit. but I can't exactly call anyone up at nearly 11 pm and be like "oh hai, can I come over and get naked plz?" *cries*

does anyone, like... know what could cause this? I didn't even think it was possible. what the fuck, srsly.

( Nerd test )

( What Kind of Reader Are You? )

also, I have discovered the only thing worse than Twilight: god-awful Twilight fanfiction. (Not exactly safe for work/children/not having your eyes bleed, as the quoted excerpt is from a terrible terrible terrible smut scene.)

...UNICORNS, LOL.

So... I'm sick! And it's really, really annoying! I don't even know where it came from. I was fine Monday night, and woke up Tuesday morning feeling like shit. I'm hoping that with enough sleep and zinc and vitamin C I'll be okay by Friday, because... yeah. I need to be okay by Friday, pretty much. >.>

But I don't care that much right now, because LOST!!!! Oh god, crack show, I have missed you. <3333 I've got pizza, I've got coffee, and I'm ready to be good and mindfucked for two hours. I'll probably update this entry with various spoiler-tagged flailings if anything comes to mind.

(or I'll just make stuff up. HOLY SHIT THE ISLAND IS THE TARDIS!)

( And the WTFery begins (spoilers, of course) )

Okay, so, trip report.

New York was awesome. We didn't really do too much of the traditional touristy stuff (Statue of Liberty, etc)... we were mostly there for the shopping, dining and general wandering around. And we definitely did a lot of all of those things. I'm lucky that the wandering around was at least equal to the dining, or I'd have come back weighing 500 pounds... lol. But I love just walking around the city, especially at night, because I swear I have a big shiny buildings fetish. Some people find beauty in nature, but I honestly find few things more beautiful than the lights of a city at night.

Anyway, some of the highlights... ( More trip stuff. )

So yeah, in general it was a great trip, even though I got a little grumpy near the end thanks to lack of alone time, nausea from taking the subway so much, and... well, the bad news I'm trying not to think about. I'm glad that jadedguardgirl and homer2101 love me enough to put up with my whiny ass... lol. <3 I hope we can go back at some point, because I still feel like there's so much I haven't done, or would like to do again. I don't think I'd want to live there, because if I did it would become less exciting and novel than it is now, but it is probably my favorite place of all to visit at the moment.

(oh yeah, and we walked in on the mafia! and ate weird but delicious varieties of mac & cheese! and visited a coffeeshop I honestly thought was fictional! there's way too much to talk about in just one lj entry... lol.)

I'm back in Buffalo. Should be staying in one place for a while, hopefully.

I'm very tired, and very socially overwhelmed. I have basically been around people nonstop since before Christmas, with almost no time to myself. It's draining.

Couldn't find the one person I really did want to see. All I got for my effort to look for him was a bruised side from falling down the stairs outside the dorm. Considering the way I've been feeling the past few days, this seems disagreeably fitting, but I suppose I will wait until I'm in a better mood to pass any serious judgment.

I think I lost my DS charger. I think I'm probably lucky if that's all I lost, after all the running around I've done.

Today was disappointing. I only wanted a hug.

Not much else to say. I'll write more later.