kerikeri

DUDES. DUDES. What is THIS? Ianto as Watson? Malcolm Reed as SPRING-HEELED JACK? A Sherlock Holmes movie where the bad guy is SPRING-HEELED JACK??? And some dude as Holmes. (Srsly, said dude has NO other credits to his...credit.) I cannot WAIT to acquire this movie.

(I feel that I must explain my Spring-Heeled Jack obsession - my dad had a National Geographic book of Amazing Stories and soforth and my favorite story - Anastasia Romanov - was right before Jack the Ripper, which didn't scare me at all, and Spring-Heeled Jack. The story of Spring-Heeled Jack kept me awake for like, three years straight. I had to make ridiculous deals with myself about how he couldn't get me after midnight and he couldn't get me while I was awake so as long as I stayed awake until midnight, I'd be okay. The story did not support this supposition in the least but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?)

I did go see Sherlock Holmes again today and I continue to have much glee. However, is there no movie novelization? What is up with that? RDJ talks way too fast and the plot is way too sketchy for there not to be a novelization. Also, Carole Nelson Douglas's Irene Adler books are next to impossible to find. They've put the first up on the "New Mysteries" shelf as if it's not 20 years old and have stopped stocking the rest. I can't even find new copies of #5 and #7 on Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com. (I like used books just fine but a) gift card and b) principle of the thing.)

I hope I didn't have anything else to post about tonight because I have no idea what it would have been. :P

Evil Creatures, Part Five updated (pages 12-13).

1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, indigo419! I am so, so thrilled to have you as my internet BFF -- and wow, it's been three and a half years! That practically counts as "forever" in online terms. :) Here's hoping for many, many more.

2. I started to compile a list of unpopular opinions -- things that annoy me despite near-universal love from everyone I know, or vice-versa. But I think I'm too meek for that sort of thing; I avoid confrontation whenever possible. Maybe one of my new year's resolutions should be to be more bold and fearless!

3. Right now I'm wearing one of my Christmas presents: a fabulous shirt from Shirt.Woot that says "Grammar: Let's Take Back Our Internet". How utterly perfect for me! A huge thank-you to romanticalgirl for posting a heads-up when it was available last month. Wish it were still available so that we grammar fiends could indeed take over. Oh, and if you're new to Woot, check out the hilariously clever descriptions of each item.

4. While I laughed at "Three Universal Truths of Law & Order", I also got a bit peeved at how they spoiled my wow-the-crowds trick of knowing that the guest star is guilty 99% of the time! Seems like most people I know go through a summer in which they become addicted to L&O reruns. Sure, the show is uncool, but I still adore it. And I'm very, very excited to have more L&O:UK in January!

5. I'll close with a bit of sweetness: a marriage proposal on The Weather Channel. Aww! And while I'm at it, here's one of my favorite Daily Show videos, in which Stephen Colbert exposes their shocking stunts to boost ratings. ;)

"Victory is mine! Victory is mine. Great day in the morning, People, Victory is mine.... I drink from the keg of glory, Donna. Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land." - Josh Lyman

So this morning had a rocky start (the two places close to my house couldn't inspect my car and then my desktop just stopped working) but since then:

* Car has passed inspection!
* Car has been registered! Finally.
* I have put the new plates on.
* I have set up the internet at my house despite the lack of desktop and now have a wireless network again.
* I have found a replacement cord for the fussy external hard drive. It's not working again but I think that's a different problem.
* I have picked up boxes at the post office for packaging presents.
* I have requested the electricity/gas/whatever be changed into my name.
* I have made dinner reservations for New Year's Eve. (I know, I know, last minute...)
* I broke down about 10 boxes (I shelved trade paperbacks earlier this week) and dragged them out to be recycled.
* I bought a labelmaker for further organizational pursuits.

Speaking of organizational pursuits, I have been carting around a copy of Quicken '98 that an ex-boss gave me when he upgraded...so that's circa 2000-2001. I looked in the box today and there's an instruction manual and about a dozen 3.5 inch disks. Yeah. Glad I saved that. *eyeroll*

For Christmas, my mother gave me the box set of The Middleman, so I've spent the day rewatching it for the Nth time. Damn, I love that show to itty bitty pieces. Who's with me? Such a fabulous little show, with such an untimely death. Read a great description of it as "a screwball comic book crime caper". It's funny and wildly clever and has some great characters. If you haven't seen it, do get hold of the DVDs via Netflix or whatever! (And yeah, I keep meaning to read the comics, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.)

Since I'm in pimping mode, here's a fanvid of all the very creative cursing on the show!

Saw Avatar. Predictable as hell and a bit long but oh so very pretty. But really, with $500 million James Cameron could have bought his own rain forest to protect. THAT'S NUTS.

I'm almost finished Scribblenauts. Although I probably won't be able to start KH since I'm going to spend the next few days with Dana.

ETA: Game defeated. :( Oh well, I can still screw around and ride Cthulu.

I wake up to birthday wishes. Now to prepare for my celebratory trip to... Avatar?

Can't get car inspected at preferred inspection point until tomorrow btw. Sigh.

Computer people! Despite working fine when I set it up in this house, now that I want to activate internet, my desktop compr has decided not to work. It turns on and emits several beeps before settling into running loudly, but not with the kerthunking noise one gets when the hard drive goes. However, the monitor doesn't seem to recognize that it's on - the light doesn't turn from orange to green and nothing comes up. I also can't get the cd/dvd drives on the CPU to open.

Any ideas?

( Kpop, the lawsuits and cancelled concerts and everyone but me is stupid. )

SO my Christmas was good. I got a lot of awesome practical things that I now don't have to buy myself (HOT WATER BOTTLE♥) and an awesome plate set and really my whole Christmas was so adult I can hear my younger self's horror from here. I LOVED IT. ...I also got a whoopie cushion, but that's pretty standard stoking fare.

I saw Avatar also, which as I said to graymary was very fun to look at and not fun* at all to think about. I enjoyed the visuals a lot but got caught up somewhat not only on the racial/colonial issues but also on things like why, if this alien race is so incredibly different from us, does it express its affection with mouth kissing when there are a number of civilizations on this planet who thought that was weird until very recently or who still do, why pleasing events warrant laughter and smiling from these same aliens when again, this isn't even global on our own planet, and so on. I mean argument can be made for "the aliens had to be fuckablerelatable!" but after all the wankery about how much sensitive detail had gone into how OMG DIFFERENT they are, it was a little jarring for me. Other people are probsbly discussing the racial issues better than I would, but suffice to say, there are many, and they are unpleasant. Ah, well. Hollywood.

*Pretty obviously not meant in the "why are you ruining my fun with your over sensitivity" fashion, guys.

I'm finally back in Atlanta. It's nice to be in my own place with all my own stuff, though I already miss my family. (Hi, Sis!) Loved being able to experience a white Christmas for the first time, especially playing with my nephew in the snow. Yesterday we went to see The Princess and the Frog, which was quite a darling movie. The flight home was uneventful -- the only evidence of any new security measures at DFW was that I was chosen for a pat-down after going through the metal detector. I asked the TSA agent if this was a random thing or if I should expect it from now on; several years ago, my name was flagged and I had to go through the secondary check every time I flew. But she said it was just a random thing because I happened to be wearing a bulky sweater (even though I wouldn't consider it very bulky.) Both DFW and ATL were fairly empty, which was a surprise during the holidays. Then again, I guess that's because I was flying on Monday afternoon. And now here I am, though for some reason I'm feeling rather twitchy tonight.

Not much else to tell, but I do have a ton of links to clear out of my bookmarks and Google Reader....
-- I laughed at this parody of those GAP ads with the little girls.
-- Several from the NYT: why do people shoplift books?, the glories of marching bands (I played bass clarinet for three years), and a fun essay by Mindy Kaling about imaginary families.
-- AdWeek lists the 30 freakiest commercials of 2009, and Salon has the best viral video of the decade.
-- Sepinwall has a long non-spoilery interview with David Tennant, and Vanity Fair interviews the rather kickass Rashida Jones.
-- Check out a wacky video of an octopus snatching a coconut.
-- I'm a few weeks late with this one, but Jason Segel wants female fans to call him for a good time.
-- Another oldie-but-goodie: the English to TXT-speak Translator.
-- Broadsheet wonders when we started sounding just like our mothers. God, I use so many of her phrases that drove me crazy as a kid.
-- Boston.com has a very cool picspam of 2009 in photography.
-- Celebrity Baby Names Blog awards the top celeb baby names of the year. I hope Bandit isn't a hint of things to come.
-- Miller-McCune discusses the end of handwriting.
-- Oddee offers ten cool stories - or cautionary tales - of when Facebook and real life overlap.
-- And since I'm going retro tonight, I can't resist another viewing of Alec Baldwin's Schweddy Balls.

The title of this post was supposed to be, "Life, Conquered!" in which I fixed the car problem, set up my internet, bought a firewire and ended world hunger. But then what would I have to write about tomorrow? Gotta build some suspense right? So:

I did manage to get a duplicate title from the Delaware DMV, which, to be honest, was the point of today's whole adventure. So okay, maybe not completely abject. But then I decided I'd just go over the state line to Elkton and get the car registered so it would be done. Except I got the inspection done waaaay back when the registration was originally expiring, at the end of September. So while that was still (barely) good, it also indicated that I had been in Maryland longer than the 60 days I had to register (which I spent, I should add, chasing this damn title around so that the MVA would let me in the door) so they would have to assess a 6% excise tax. Which came out to $703. Yeah. So, I left there and went to see about getting my car reinspected somewhere nearby so the date on it would be within 60 days. (Don't judge me - $700 is a LOT OF MONEY.)

I was going to have to wait 2 hours for the inspection so I called my mom to pick me up (actually I called her in tears with my ethical dilemma and she told me to leave the car to get reinspected and that she'd come pick me up) and we went to the mall for the afternoon. On the way back to pick up the car, the Meineke guy called and said someone else had come in with bad brakes and they just weren't going to be able to do the inspection that day. At least I didn't spend those five hours sitting in the waiting room but maybe then I would have left and gone elsewhere.

So inspection and registration are put off 'til tomorrow.

There's a bunch of other stuff: my computer won't recognize my external hard drive (I can't tell if it's failed or the connecting cord is bad - I meant to buy a firewire today and didn't get a chance), two boxes of Christmas gifts have yet to be mailed, I never made it back to MY house to set up the internet that is supposed to be activated today (I'm housesitting for my sister), my cat is probably a) starving and b) plotting my demise, and the only thing I tried on today that fit was a hot pink satin strapless dress with a giant rose on the boobs. There's going to need to be some exercising come 2010.

There may be a lot of things I should be doing right now, but instead I going to read "Equal Rites" by Terry Pratchett. I have never read the Discwold books before and my sister thought I might enjoy that one more than the first two. Also, I'll need something to read while sitting in the DMV tomorrow. That series just might be long enough.

I saw this poll and I find it amazing if only because if makes me so direly want to respond with FORCE YOU TO SPIN STRAW INTO GOLD WHILST WHISTLING AND SINGING WALTZING MATILDA.: "If you had me alone, locked up in your house for twenty-four hours and I had to do whatever you wanted me to, what would you have me do?"

I have a bald spot on my hair from anxiety disorders. :(

ETA: My sister believes I need to see a psychiatrist and we got into a pretty vicious fight over it because I said I can handle my nervous disorders by myself. She went on about how I should be happy to have one person who gives a damn that I'm psychologically damaged. Ugh, I'm just going to go back to biting my nails. Either that or I isolate the cause of my stress and mitigate it immediately.

Also, Ahiru in sex-game = fucktarded. Is a duck. Don't care.

So for a weekend in which I was forcibly kept home when I was supposed to be away on vacation, the past couple of days were actually pretty good.

As a result of my home-boundness, I've had some time to reconnect with some folks I haven't talked to in a while. It always amazes me how after weeks or months of not talking to someone, you can slip right into talking and interacting with them the way you did the last time you talked.

Got a couple of cards/gifts in the mail (Thank you Liz, Kristen and Ben!). I need to get better with mailing stuff out. I know how much I like receiving mail and I'm sure the same applies on the other end. Really gotta work on that. ^^;

Also been playing games quite a bit; pretty much exclusively puzzlers. Finally got the last achievement in Tetris Evolution (Thanks again, Jon!) so now I can ship that off to Gamefly and hopefully get Borderlands or Left 4 Dead 2 before the weekend. Picked up the new Square-Enix/Pop Cap game Gyromancer. It's basically Puzzle Quest with darker graphics. I'm enjoying it, but then, well, before RPGs and Rhythm games, puzzlers (particularly Tetris) were my first love. Apparently that love extends to this day, hehe.

Went to a follow up appointment for my ankle today and everything's looking good. I almost didn't need the cane to get myself there and back, but stairs still have one up on me, heh. The Doctor recommended I get an air cast for better stability, but I don't think I'm going to bother. I'm just going to be more careful. The ankle's pretty much stopped hurting, now it's just sort of itchy which I assume is part of the healing process...?

The only bad thing is I'm still only sleeping 5 hours a night. I even tried to take a pain med with something in it to promote sleep, but no dice. I've been sitting around the last couple hours trying to nap, (I'm at a point where I'll deal with the headache- I just want more sleep), but no luck. *sigh* I'm thinking a visit to my regular doctor to inquire about this might be in order tomorrow.

I think I'm going to give up on napping (waaaah) and make something to eat.

David as the Ghost of Christmas Present

Heh, this was a nice giggle. David seems to be channeling Russel Brand here and his Scottish accent is through the roof.