I finally watched the first episode of AtS after years of resisting. I didn't hate it.

According to the birthday list at the new job, there is a Dr. Who on staff.

That's all.

Um, hi guys! In this whole experiment of posting in my journal I have failed miserably. I just regressed to lurking for OVER A YEAR. I haven't posted since 2007 people!! The problem is that I love LJ and fandom to pieces but I have nothing to add to it! Zilch! Maybe if I haven't been completely defriended y'all could offer some advice? What the hell does one post about if one does not:
- write fic
- write meta
- make any art
- watch any current shows
- want to bore anyone with their RL

For now I'm making the resolution to at least comment more on fics I follow, all ye incredibly talented writers deserve that. And also gold doubloons, but that's a little out of my budget.

1) I can't remember the last time I saw a good movie in theaters. I only end up going for social reasons or because it's free. But, good god, I've seen some bad movies. I mean, September Dawn? This must end now.

2) Our "staff appreciation" party was last night, aka the "we are poor indie booksellers, maybe if we give you free beer you won't notice how crappy your pay is, and by the way please don't quit during the christmas rush" party. My boss kept making lots of references to the office, which just reminds me how much I need to start watching that show already. Maybe the writer's strike will at least give me a chance to catch up on some viewing... heh...

3) I never post anything worthwhile. Would that I could whip up some fabulous fic or an indulgent picspam or something. But, hey, at least I can cook. For various festivities today I made some kick ass muffins. Corn muffins with molasses and sage and a homemade cranberry sauce in the middle. Click the pretty picture for the recipe.


That's all, Happy Thanksgiving folks! I'm off to Chicago. My dad definitely called me... to remind me to bring warm clothes. Because apparently the memory of decades of subzero winters is no match for one year in california? Seriously, bring on the snow. Flight delays, sidewalk shoveling, frostbite... I want the whole package.

Enough time for another episode in my OC marathon? oh yes, I think so. Pointless season 2 drama coming up. Totally guilt free. How bout I wash it down with some pumpkin beer and leftover halloween candy while I'm at it. Don't mind if I do.

Whyyy did I never even finish the first season of the Heroes (I have like, 3 episodes left) before the premiere. I'm jealous of all my flisters and their current love affairs with new seasons and series. I'm even traveling, which = tv reception and/or cable! So theoretically I could be joining in. You'd think if I can't even be productive with my life I could at least watch some damn TV. Apparently not.

BUT, I will wholeheartedly embrace the postcard exchange that's been going around. I admit to a postcard fetish. In my younger years I may or may not have made several attempts to catalog my postcard collection in spreadsheet form. And I seem to recall that back in the days of dial up and BBSing I was all over the postcard exchange thing. Hence:

The Big Postcard Exchange! It goes like this: The first five people to comment will get a postcard from me. And then you offer to send postcards in your own journal.

Though like everyone else, I won't cap it at 5, nor should you feel pressured to offer your own cards.

So go on, leave your address (comments screened) and take your pick of a card from home in santa cruz (surfer statue!) or from my current trip to texas (my choices seem limited to bluebonnets, the alamo, or an armadillo). Or be daring and go for the WILDCARD option... something from the depths of my box o cards.

From unbridled_b, just because I NEVER POST. Seriously, I was all for branching out in my fandoms and actually following current shows, even though i don't have cable or tv reception. but i've had RL obligations, and then my computer threatened to implode, and until it gets expensive transplants downloading is out. So.... I'm back to my old ways of spuffy lurking. Sigh.

Really, I don't know how I haven't been defriended en masse.

However, I am just itching to do a serious rewatch of BtVS when I get back from traveling in October. So I'm sure to be full of insightful pointless commentary, and then you will yearn for my days of silence. Ha!

Back to the meme...

List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.

1) If I ever could be bothered to finish my 4 outstanding homework assignments, I would be a certified Natural Chef.

2) Of the 36 transactions on my credit card last month, 20 were for groceries. Yeah.

3) I've made 3 kinds of jam this week. (strawberry, fig, and blackberry/peach.)

4) I'm pretty low-key. But somehow my best friends tend to be overachievers / partiers / social butterflies / type Aers, with lives of Drama. So I have a well-worn shoulder to cry on. And more often than I might prefer, I get dragged away from a good book to, say, climb a mountain, or get arrested.

5) I have obsessive nostalgia. I tend to spend hours reading through old emails and blog posts. and somehow never have time to write new ones.

6) If I don't sing regularly, I get CRANKY. I've always been a big choir nerd, and I got to learn some amazing Ecuadorian music last year, but mostly my love affair is with crazy loud hymns... cut for video.

( Awake my soul )

7) I'll be 25 tomorrow.

You know, I can't really get fangirly about actors the same way I can about fictional characters. Plus I think Without a Trace sucks. But I do enjoy when my flist is all asquee and aflail over JM news. And especially how 90% of the commentary is about his hair. I'm convinced JM/his hair is the #1 OTP, with Hair Meta gaining in popularity every day.

I keep getting the urge to rewatch BtVS at the worst times. Like when I have excessive amounts of overdue homework, and a final presentation due in several days. Not to mention a backload of other shows I want to catch up on/discover (the last 3 eps of Heroes, BSG, SPN, Dr Who, just to start...), and stacks of books and magazines (sigh... I used to be a literate person before fanfic ate my life.) In the most productive use of my time possible, I was just reading through someone's reactions as they worked their way through the seasons, which is always strangely addicting in the same way as those VH1 best of shows. Or this blog. Or reading through my archived email. I think I suffer from obsessive nostalgia.

Hmm, perhaps in between finishing school, traveling, and going back to being a Real Person with a Real Job, I can find time for a massive Buffy retrospective... this is the year to do it, is it not? God knows seasonal_spuffy and the assorted anniversary ficathons are going to make me even more squishy for watching the show anyway. Now you might take me for a productive member of fandom, in which case these urges would translate into picspams or vids or meta or something else full of entertainment value for you, my flist. Well, you would be sorely mistaken. This hypothetical project is sure to provide me with hours of delight, and NONE FOR YOU. mwah ha ha!

Also... putting aside the technological rant of woe that ends in my poor laptop powering down repeatedly - Firefox and Word win my undying love and affection for happily restoring their full sessions each and every time. Seriously, where have you been all my life???

1. So beyond tired of charging people $30.30.

2. Despite being up to my ears in HP7 all day, no one spoiled it for me. The customers who came in and flipped immediately to the end were given the evil eye / shamed publicly depending on our mood.

3. Due to free tickets, I ran from work to what turned out to be the most kick ass version of Much Ado About Nothing. Sure didn't see that one coming. Just so funny and sexy and spot on. And in a redwood grove on a warm summer evening. Santa Cruz Shakespeare Festival for the win.

4. Ooh, I'm vaguely crushing on this cute little undergrad boy who shares my shift now... probably for lack of anyone else to crush on. And he liked my music! Seriously, most everyone there is content with our vast selection of soft jazz... blech.

5. Maybe someday I'll notice when we have an earthquake?

Judging from my flist, I lose at fandom if I don't post about the magical day at hand, whether it's to declare "death to spoilers" or just to ironically comment on everyone else declaring "death to spoilers". Um, consider this both?
I'm always a day late and a dollar short as far as harry potter fangirling. I put off reading the first book for years, in keeping with my general policy towards all things overhyped. I've actually been meaning to finish my copy of Harry Potter y el misterio del principe, which I picked up the day it was released in Ecuador, on my way to the beach for carnaval last year. I promptly devoured the first half while drinking my weight in fresh pineapple and rum, and then forgot about it until a few weeks ago. When I discovered I couldn't remember a blessed thing, except the ending. So I had to start anew and now I've regressed to only 1/3 of the way through, and am distracted by reading cookbooks and fic updates. And the midnight hour is almost upon us, at least in this timezone. 9.5 hours until I'm completely surrounded by all Harry, all the time. Ah yes, my regular Saturday shift at the bookstore. Why is this not a federal holiday? I deserve overtime. At least I work for an independent, and not Borders, which is doing the midnight thing and had crazy people camped out since this morning. *shudders* Remains to be seen if tomorrow will give me my fill of harry for the decade, or leave me excited enough to actually finish my reread, or just make me impatient enough to borrow a copy from the store and devour it tomorrow night.
/obligatory hp reflection

LOL, I just wanted to use my icon. Which apparently is a Canadian thing? Who knew. I just thought it was a Midwestern thing, growing up in Chicago.

Ahh, saw the cutest. picture. ever. flipping through EW at work, where of course everyone else was all "heroes? who now?" bah.

The cuteness, in form of George Takei & Masi Oka

Man, when you work at an independent bookstore people expect you to, well, know shit about books. The other day this lady made me choose between books on sailboat construction. wtf? I'm not exactly losing sleep over my lack of expertise on that one, but tonight I got all these customers asking me for scifi recs. Sweet, I thought, remind me to cover sat nite shifts more often, that's when the nerds come out. None of these tourists buying beach novels or locals stocking up on guidebooks to Costa Rica. But I actually came up surprisingly blank... If you're looking for fanfic, or cookbooks, or young adult audiobooks, or the random magazines I browse over my break, I'm your woman. Lately when it comes to real books that educated adults read, I'm all, ooh... shiny.... *pets the pretty rectangular objects and backs away slowly*

Any recommendations to kick off my foray into literacy?
So far tonight I got suggestions for Dan Simmons, and Tales of the City.

I just watched Rebel Without a Cause for the first time. Whoa. With the ripped-from-the-headlines juvenile delinquents and chicky races and the cheesy "headshrinker" talk. and the terrible dialogue and B-movie plot. And still LMAO that James Dean is supposed to be some kind of teenage icon at 24. But then with the existential angst and the daddy issues and poor puppy-killing gay Sal Mineo. And the everyone sleeping with everyone else especially the bisexual director and the underage stars backstage drama. God bless 1955.

So I finally remembered to start watch Heroes, after downloading the whole season a million years ago. I definitely approve, even if it ripped off half its premise from X-Men and half its style from LOST. And I totally appreciate that every time I dismiss a characterization or plot point as poor writing, they usually pay it off later in some intriguing way. BUT even after 13 episodes, I just cannot take DL seriously. Every time he comes on I'm all heee it's FORREST!!!! So very distracting.

I have a sudden urge for Mac/Dick. *Pets poor mistreated ship* Yet am woefully ignorant of VM ficdom in general. Recs, anyone? Pretty please?

Aww, VM finale, why you bringin up old shit?!
( Just sayin. )

Ah, the driving and the windy roads and the fog. why oh why did i think it would be a good idea to drive up to san francisco and back tonight, when I have to fly to chicago tomorrow. oh yeah, cuz i can't say no to the bff. got to see her new lady, the hot rap superstar, in action though. showed up to a soldout show and was immediately backstage drinking beer with the bff, lady, and posse, so not the worst night ever. but did i mention the 3 hours of driving? and the flight tomorrow? and I'm going to be separated from my security blanket trusty laptop for the next few days so I am EXTRA CRANKY. Hence the pointless RL bitching my flist is usually spared.

AND i still haven't watched the VM finale. what's with this school/work/life business all of a sudden. I'm TRYING to watch tv here.

Also, just a passing WTF to this latest from my dad. The senior citizen.

Last time rebecca said -- hmmm, cut those ugly things into one-inch cubes, then call me when you are done, and I will wreak (exercise/conjure/do) my magic on your poor examples of produce. the result will be etheril(sp?) and you will eat my elvish potion and believe that the taste is incomparable. And I did. and it was.

Bah, all you people with cable / tv reception who don't have to wait hours to download the VM finale. *glares at flist* Come on, I just want to share in the hate! *pouts unbecomingly* OK, I'm done now. I'll just be over here, drowning my sorrows in spuffyness and late night snacking.

Good lord, I just noticed today is Tuesday and there was ANOTHER new VM episode tonight, and I haven't even watched the one from last week yet.

What HAVE I been watching? Well I've been reading jdkitchen's awesome WIP Clocks of the Long Now, and it totally has shades of Sliders to it. Which reminded me that I never finished watching the 3rd season of Sliders that I picked up in Ecuador. GOD that show is cheesy and terribly written. But somehow also so very very awesome. BTW, looking for sliders icons I found lots of Wade shippy ones - am I the only one who just didn't give a shit if she had 4ever love with Quinn? Or Remy for that matter?