Yeah, cutting the Portland weekend short and heading home tomorrow morning. I need to film my project and get it up on YouTube before Wednesday, so yeah. AND there's always research to be done, yay. At least it's research that interests me, since it involves how people practice religion on the Internet. :)

People sometimes look at me funny when I tell them I enjoy studying religion/spirituality. They're all, "But....but you're an ATHEIST!" As if not believing in God means I can't study how other people use faith and ritual in different contexts? It's rather silly, really. I find religion and spirituality and the ways people maintain and practice their beliefs fascinating.

ANYWAY...today we took a break to hit the mall. I never really go to shop, which I know is also odd for some. "If you're not going to shop, then why do you go?" To be honest, I'm not always sure. I mean, in general, crowds drive me nuts after awhile. This is why I have a hard time at most parties. Despite that, we do Black Friday every year. It doesn't necessarily get me into the holiday spirit, since Xmas music drives me nuts. I guess it's just a chance to get out and experience the relatively good feelings of everyone around me, before they get seriously cranky and annoying. I let my shield down just a bit, enough to feel whatever goodwill people are putting out as they buy crap for their kids or whatever. There is also some window shopping, but mostly it's just wandering around the mall, waving to Santa (which usually seems to weird him out), etc.

And in the interest of spending more time with hunny, we also went to the movies. Since The Road isn't in all theaters yet, we went to see, of all things, New Moon. I'm not going to review it in depth. I am not fan, and I have never read the books. Basically, I went because the character of Jacob is just fucking hot, and I wanted to see how the author manipulated the werewolves in general. As a bonus, during several scenes I got to snicker at the screen, surely pissing off the 13-year-old girls behind me and causing hunny to also laugh at my laughing (I think).

So, I feel good about my social time spent, and I'm ready to get some real work done this weekend.

Mel finally found a house to move into. Now We're in Exeter CA. We're moving this weekend with help from friends and family.

We're going to be having a "housewarming/christmas/potluck/partylite party" on dec 12th at 4:30 pm.
I'll be passing the address around, or you can call me once my phone is up and running and i'll give you the add, or you can e-mail or pm me.

Ricky Whittle arrested, supposedly for running over a photographer. Sounds like it was an accident, but he's still in custody. What next?!

I almost forgot about updating people on the Pumpkin Pound Cake recipe!

My first attempt was... slightly less than successful. XD It was my fault though, not the recipe's, I misread the label for the canned pumpkin I decided to use instead of a fresh one and used an entire can. I should have used half a cup of a 15 oz can of pumpkin (which 1.5 cups of pumpkin in it) and ended up with pumpkin pudding with a bit of pound cake mixed in. XD But it was really tasty and my family liked it so they didn't mind that I messed up!

Yesterday, I had to make 3 cakes so I figured out all the measurements and made them very carefully. They came out looking perfect! I'm sooo happy! I tasted one to make sure (even though the cakes are for my huge family dinner tonight) and it was om nom nom nom. I'm thinking of making fresh whipped cream to serve with it but I'm not sure when to make it.

Mmm~ I love Thanksgiving, food food food yay!

Many thanks to viva_lla_gloria for this beautiful graphic, and a very Happy Thanksgiving Day to all of you who celebrate! It's a warm and windy day here in Southern California, there'll be eleven of us at dinner this evening (we're not eating until 6:00 to give gingersnapps a chance to get home from work) and the menu is as follows...

Appetisers: Mexican Layer Dip & Tortilla Chips, Vegetable Dip with Crackers and Crudites, Bacon-Wrapped Dates

Dinner: Turkey, Dressing, Gravy, Cranberry Relish, Jelled Cranberry Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Yam & Apple Casserole, Peas & Pearl Onions with Cream Sauce, Braised Brussels Sprouts, Roasted Carrots, Pear Salad, Sliced Fresh Pineapple, Oatmeal Rolls and Butter, Relish Tray

Desserts: Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, Tangerine Cranberry Cheesecake, Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

May every one of you have a happy and blessed celebration!

Gotta scoot -- the Macy's Parade is starting in a half hour!

*hugs*

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY! Cross posted in my art journal bluejeanius. HEE~!

(also, the person off to the right side is never_ender. snaxident is also in the picture but she squeed herself off screen ;D)

Yesssss! At last!

Seriously, this has been the most difficult NaNo EVER. I have been behind practically the entire time. (I'm still behind.) Of course, I have never been in graduate school at the same time before either. This is also the first time I have worked with an idea that I just came up with and have no idea where it will go or how it will end. Plus it's all monologue. What a dumb idea that was. Seriously. Never have just one character talking the whole time. It gets old really fast. I don't know. Maybe it will wind up being interesting, or at least an interesting experiment.

If I can do this, term papers should be no problem, right? RIGHT?

Yeah, we'll see about that.

I LIIIIIIIIVE

[/Mushu]

Yeah, I've been home for about a day. Twenty-seven degrees outside and I am living in my fluffy faux-fur lined hoodie. This thing is fantastic. The other fantastic thing was getting sleep oh my goodness. Slept in until nearly noon. Yaaaaay :Db

I shall probably come off hiatus tonight. I do have some homework to get done over break (yay Lit Theory), but life's stopped attempting to eat me and I feel like I might be able to pull a small canon review for a few characters and really get back into things. Huzzah for actual excitement for my games :Db

I've been doing more tutoring for my brother these past few days than I have these past few weeks for the writing center. He's in the middle of college essay season, so we've been looking over his stuff. This is to say nothing of the essay he had me check for him over the phone. He dictated it to me while I was in the car on the way to New Moon. That was a very interesting night. ._.

I have no idea what's going on with Glee tonight. Things have gotten interesting and what the hell, Kurt. While we're at it, what the hell, Puck. Everyone's gone crazier than they normally are.

...oh screw coherency have a few videos.





Because the Muppets make everything better, obviously.

And finally, that meme that's been going around:

1) Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/bands that you've had an obsessive fannish love or interest in at some time in your life.
2) Have your f-list guess your favorite character/member from each item.
3) When someone guesses correctly, strike through the item and put the name of your favorite character next to it.
4) One Guess Per Fandom

( So it's a few less than 20 )

Stuck at work for a few more hours, which is a bit frustrating since everyone else I'd like to get in contact with is already off for the holiday break. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my boss will stop sometime soon and tell me I can go home early (my new job places a lot of importance on regular business hours). Until then, I thought I'd share some thoughts on adjusting to having a roommate again.

As nice as my previous roommates have been, of course I like living with Brandon a lot better than I ever liked living with any of them. With a platonic roommate (at least in my experience), there's a very clear sense of two separate lives coexisting in the same environment. With a husband (at least with my husband), it's very obviously a partnership. I think that's my favorite thing about the new living situation. If I'm unable to do something or run a certain errand, there's someone else for me to ask! This still seems weird to me and I am in the process of getting used to it. I really like the sense of depending on Brandon and sharing our lives. Since we never lived together before we got married or even had the same work schedule, it's a new experience for me.

Of course there are little annoying things, but that comes with the territory and nothing has been extraordinarily annoying as of yet. I do seem to be placing a higher priority on keeping the apartment clean than I ever did when I lived alone. Even though both Brandon and I were pretty slobby single people, I think I am channeling my mother with a desire to Keep! The! Kitchen! Counters! Clean! People who spent any amount of time in my old apartment will realize how ridiculous this newfound desire is, but I can't help it. I like the kitchen better when it is uncluttered and sparkly.

There are also lots of really nice things, like when dinner is on the table when I get home from work or when Brandon cleans the apartment on his own volition while I am out for a run. I also love planning out our meals for the week and like cooking for two a million times more than cooking for just myself.

I guess that is all my thoughts for now. I will let you know if in the future living with a boy becomes horrible and unbearable, but I'm afraid so far that we are sickeningly happy with each other.

And now, Ten Things I am Currently Thankful For (Random Edition) (No Specific Order)

1. Having a downtown parking pass so I don't have to take the trolley anymore. I like mass transit in theory far better than the practice that takes me 3 times longer to get to work.
2. The fact that Brandon agreed to wake up early on his day off to do a 5k with me on Thanksgiving Day.
3. Owning a DVR, finally. Being gone while my shows are on is so easy and pain-free now! Auxiliary thankfulness for the cable internet and wireless modem to feed my addiction.
4. Google Reader: Do you have any idea how much time I save not having to click on ten thousand different blogs every day? It's amazing!
5. Neil Patrick Harris's Twitter account: What can I say? He's very entertaining.
6. Having two sinks in our bathroom. It just makes life so much easier.
7. Running: It makes everything a little bit better.
8. Cupcakes: I got to eat one yesterday and it was very delicious.
9. The new way I figured out to blowdry my hair so it doesn't get as frizzy on the top.
10. Atlas Shrugged: This book is such trash, but I just can't help myself. I love it.

That's all from me. Have a great Thanksgiving!

If you wanted a Christmas card from me but forgot to ask, there's still time to do so, on this post!

And also, if you wanted a Heartless commission from me, you now have less than a week to ask for one! I at the very least need all requests in by November 30th, if not payment, too. Last chance, so if you wanted one of those, please don't forget to ask! You can see all the ones I've done thusfar on my DeviantART, and info on prices and how to ask for them is here.


And it's gaming geekery tiems yet again...

So I borrowed Okami from Kia before she went home, and OMG, this game is SOOOOOO PRETTY! The art and animation is just droolworthy, and best of all it's actually fun to play! Cute characters, beautiful music, and a really interactive way of playing that's a bit tricky with PS2 controller (using the brushes would be much more intuitive with a Wiimote or DS stylus) but still a lot of fun. I seriously can't wait to get off work tonight so I can play some more of this. How did I miss out on Okami for so long?!

And in BBS news, OOOOOMFG

SERIOUSLY IENZO, YOU ARE THE BITTIEST BITTY

LIKE EVEN TEENIER THAN VEN

IN HIS LITTLE SCIENCE CLOTHES

Are they going to explain this age difference I MEAN SERIOUSLY but aaaaaaaaaaa


Drawing: Storyboards, hopefully some of my own stuff, too

Writing: Cards

Ali's injured as well and can't walk! I really, really hope she doesn't have to pull out. Brian seemed very upset on ITT and didn't bring up the possibility of them getting a pass to next week, so perhaps there is a reason that can't happen now. After all their hard work. :-( She's not only my favourite, but also the only one left who I want to win. I wouldn't mind if Ricky won, as he is talented, but I don't enjoy his style of dancing much and none of the others are even finalist standard, imo.

Claudia said there would be a twist to this week's show. I hope it's going to be that there will be no elimination, otherwise there is going to be one couple in the final.

• 15:53 Hm. Whatev, ya know? Pays to be on the inside. #

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WELL I have arrived home safe back in CO, yay~

Traveling was pretty uneventful. Life is good. And I have an AIM convo of sorts:

LeSeptieme 2:16 am
Things I will never get over, in order of WTFery:
1. John Kahn
2. Spin playing the race card
3. Lessons in picking up floozies
4. The Divas not knowing each other
Just about everything else ties at 5.
universejuice 2:17 am
That's a pretty good lineup

Ah, the wonders of 3 a.m. badfic. It's a great excuse for the icon, if nothing else. |Db

Oh boy oh boy, my brother brought home the really nice camera he's been using to shoot photos for his school newspaper! I had some fun playing with it last night and he was nice enough to save the photos on his flash drive and bring them to me! And who else would I choose for my model but Atom? XD


( More kitteh under the cut! )

HEY HEY blue_sweetheart!!

Since I don't know when you'll be on AIM again...what day were you planning for Disneyland in December? I need to know so that I can arrange my work schedule for that month. SO PLEASE LET ME KNOOOOW



And while I'm here anyway, there's TWO new Lunargyros pages today, up here. End of the dream sequence! :O

Oyy, there need to be more hours in the day

Drawing: Some storyboard stuff

Writing: Stalled on that

• 16:00 has had, like, the longest day ever. #

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Found them at last! Saturday's Strictly was quite a downer because of Jade's withdrawing. She made the right decision, she has to think about her longjumping career, but I'm going to miss her. :-( Bruce came back - glad he's got over the flu, but the show did work better with Tess and Claudia presenting. There was more teamwork between them than with Bruce and Tess, Tess came into her own front of house, Claudia is always a great interviewer, and neither of them introduced Shirley Bassey as Dame Shirley Balley. *cringe*

Ali and Brian's foxtrot. She's visibly shaking here. She did so well to make it look so graceful and controlled when she was that nervous.

Ricky and Natalie's American Smooth. Um. Natalie seemed to have taken on board the comments about her routines lacking subtlety, and then ... well, I absolutely agree with Len. Kenny and Ola did the same thing two years ago, which was understandable because he wasn't a very good dancer and Ola had to cater to his other strengths in order to provide a wow moment. Ricky is talented enough to wow with his dancing. Also, Natalie's dress needed an underskirt. But it wasn't as bad as Erin's tango dress. Poor Erin, it seems to be becoming a tradition that she has a wardrobe disaster every time she's eliminated. A muppet with Klingon kleavage, though? Harsh.