It's 60 degrees here. There are waves crashing outside. I can see the water from the bed. It's heaven.

Its fun!

The Rules:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button


So I got:

Opening Credits: Breathe - Melissa Etheridge
Waking Up: Wherever You Will Go - The Calling
First Day of School: Take a Chance on Me - ABBA
Falling In Love: Intuition - Jewel
Losing Virginity: In Love With a Girl - Gavin Degraw (well, that aint right, lol)
Fight Song: Incomplete - Dru Hill (not real sure what to make of this one)
Breaking Up: Tonight & The Rest Of My Life - Nina Gordon
Prom: Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - Jack Johnson (makes me sound pathetic, lol)
Life: Breathing - Lifehouse (well yeah, I guess living does imply breathing)
Mental Breakdown: Still On Your Side - BBMak (aww, well itd be nice to have someone on my side if I was breaking down)
Driving: Do It Anyway - Martina McBride
Flashback: Walkin on the Sun - Smashmouth
Getting Back Together: The Old Apartment - Barenaked Ladies (huh, kinda fitting, lol)
Wedding: Gone - Kelly Clarkson (haha, so very wrong)
Birth of Child: You'll Be In My Heart - Phil Collins (awwww!)
Final Battle: Intro - One More Shot - Kane (ahh, an intro for the final battle. Irony, is that you? lol)
Death Scene: It's Gonna Be Me - N*SYNC (hmm, well I suppose it is *my* death scene)
Funeral Song: You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC (hahaha!!! Awesome)
Ending Credits: Incomplete - Backstreet Boys (soo, I dont have an end? Or perhaps I have a sequel? lol)


-----------------
Anyway, thats that. Do this is you want! :)

140 summer themed icons
no fish, no cotton, but lots of fun

cross posted from my icon journal: "dakinicons"

steal freely, comment liberally, enjoy!

( and the living is easy )

This article makes some valid points, in my opinion and, yet, it saddens me...because...it clearly reflects that we have now lost some of the hard won respect New Who has built over the last four years. Under the cut we go...( Read more... )

Summer colds are no fun :/ I think I caught con crud from Shoreleave. I've been sneezing for the past two days and it's getting worse. No sore throat or fever or anything, just runny nose/eyes and repetitive sneezing. Fun times!

In between playing with my phone, I started in on the post-con unpacking and clearing out the fandom office. Executive decision made, I have too many zines, so all the Sentinel ones (aside from the very first zine I ever bought) have been relegated to the fandom closet for sale. Give me a bit of time and I'm sure there will be some Starsky and Hutch zines joining the sell pile, along with two random Star Trek zines I found I had (why?) and I'll probably be giving away the Seaquest zines once I read them.

I also had to laugh over the Star Trek novel collection. I had the bright idea of storing them in my hope chest since I won't be reading them, just trying to keep a few. Yeah, wanna know what I discovered when I opened it? I have half of the chest already filled with books! And comics (from when I first started collecting!) I seriously, seriously need to clean that out as well. Maybe tomorrow, we'll see. My new rule is if I haven't read a book/zine in a year, it doesn't need to be here anymore. Being muli-fandom means I have to partition out the allotted space ;)

Thanks for all the Twitter adds! So far, all the "send to my phone" updates have come through...though I didn't add Misha, Kate, or David before their last barrage of updates, so hopefully they'll come through fine as well :) And it was really fun to get a personal message from Amber Benson welcoming me to Twitter :D

Tonight's dilemma...do I load up the laptop and watch the Leverage eps (since the burned discs won't work in the DVD attached to the television) or do I save that marathon for tomorrow and instead make brownies and watch my new Season 1 and Season 3 Supernatural DVDs? I'm thinking...chocolate wins.

http://www.exoticfelinerescuecenter.org/

This is in my backyard, just south of being on my way to The Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And, in fact, apart from that, the greatest place in the entire world, the Exotic Feline Rescue Center has to be the coolest place in Indiana. They take in large cats that have been abused, injured, abandoned, illegally kept, or all of those. And more. Unfortunately. Currently have more than 190 cats, not all available to be seen.

So I left Maggie and the unnamed Baby Girl to go visit, and maybe get a name for the unnamed Baby Girl from the cats there. Totally in the middle of nowhere, I got a little bit lost and stopped to try to look up google maps, but couldn't get a signal. So, I turn around on the gravel road I turned off on and before pulling back out onto the main road saw the street sign that this was it. Unturned back around and headed in.

Eventually got the tour started, very cool, but you have to tune out the stories or you'll be sobbing. Any and every bad story you could think of has resulted in a cat living there: one's ears are too short as they were frostbitten when they got her, another walks like he's drunk due to nerve damage due to a poor declawing attempt, others were skin and bones from malnutrition when they were picked up from a USDA-approved facility that is still in business, two tigers came from a guy arrested when his meth lab was raided but he refused to give up the third white tiger (a white tiger was abandoned dying at the Purdue vet, and it's assumed that it was that one but they can't tell for sure), even the ones that are healthy don't have a good story: several well-fed and well-cared for tigers are there as their former owner is now serving over 100 years in prison for molesting 120 boys over the years he had hired to care for the tigers. It goes on...

The enclosures are relatively open and close. Well-fenced in, but you could easily lose your hand through the fence (and the guide repeatedly told people to stay on the gravel away from the fence, etc.) I have some video on my phone, I'll see if it's any good later. They get almost no federal money, their two primary sources of money are visitors (at only $10 per) and Tony Stewart. Everything cool in Indiana, he's associated with it. GO TONY!

No jaguars but did have a couple of black leopards, one out and she was quite happy prancing about. The cougars all seemed to be pissed off, guess no one was buying them drinks. But in general most cats were out, weather was perfect: mid 60s so they weren't all sleeping off the heat.

One tiger in particular was trying to spray everyone but I didn't see anyone get hit. Across the path from him was a family of three lions (the male was thought to be too young to breed when they paired him up with a female, wrong, they have a daughter and aren't going to have anymore now...). The daughter is quite devious and she works with the tiger across the way: she'll run up to the fence and get everyone to pay attention to her so that the tiger can spray the crowd from behind. They've done this enough times that the staff are sure they're colluding. Awesome. The male, named King, was bought by a woman who only wanted to raise him to be big enough to shoot and get stuffed. Her neighbors knew about it and got him rescued. He apparently gets annoyed with people and will ROAR right up at the fence. We were warned to only calmly walk away when he did, but he didn't.

Tigers are BIG. Two were strutting around showing off right next to the fence and we could all see how big they actually were when a third one charged in, batted one away and the other ran off. The much bigger tiger now properly strutted in His Territory. They are FAST. And big tiger wasn't even trying as hard as he could've run. If they want you dead, you're dead.

Our guide ranted about circuses from the small roadside atrocities to the big named ones, even those are on the road for 300+ days a year traveling in small cages. She, the animal lover, recommended Cirque de Soleil if you had to a circus. Funny, even I think French-Canadians are animals too. Maybe they don't mind the cages, who knows?

A big enclosure held six females which the guide warned us about being careful to not be close to the fence facing the other way as the only way you'll know that they're behind you is if they want you to know they're behind you. And that if there were any toddlers in our group they would've already targeted it and spread out, they hunt in packs.

Group member: "Why toddlers?"

Guide: "Because they're prey-sized and lions are fucking awesome!" (paraphrased)

Saw several name possibilities for the unnamed Baby Girl: Tinker, Squeaky, and Knickers (though they spelled it Nickers on the sign). But then there was an enclosure that included a lioness named Maggie. But she was no where to be seen and the guide said that was normal, Maggie hates people. Right next door to Maggie's enclosure was a lioness lying there being too cute named Baby. Baby Girl now has a name! It's "Baby"!

Awesome place, awesome day, will be back many times, maybe even to volunteer. Anybody with toddlers want to go along?

Would someone be willing to beta skim over a short (less than 1,000 words) Star Trek Reboot fic?

It turns out whoever installed the giant mirror in that came with my bathroom thought that two screws would be enough. They weren't. The entire bathroom is covered with broken glass shards. Woe.

On the other hand, the whole room is kind of glittery.

I have two very important announcements...

01 -- I'm back! Obviously! :D The modem I was waiting on didn't arrive until Thursday & then I had some technical problems that I just got resolved. But I'm back... with unlimited internet access. I'm laughing an evil laugh right now. XD

02 -- The technical problems? They stem from the NEW COMPUTER I'm coming to you from! Well, it's not officially new but rather new to me. It was purchased last year, has Windows XP on it, & it has over 200+ GB of free space. I am in heaven over here!

Honestly, I may not be around too much for a few days while I catch up on everything (plus I have to download a bunch of updates & programs for this computer). I'm here in spirit until I'm here in pixels again.

*hugs y'all tight* I don't think I could describe in words how happy I am to be back. ♥ ♥ ♥

As promised to the fellow HP fans in my friends list...here's my interview with Tom Felton (aka Draco Malfoy!)

Reposted from cineplex.com (original article with images here)

Potter villain rises to new heights in Half-Blood Prince

TORONTO, Canada — If they're not careful, the entire youthful cast of the Harry Potter films could shatter the party-hard young actor stereotype that currently feeds front page news around the world. You’ll be hard pressed to see any one of the talented, highly-sought after actors splashed across the front pages of a tabloid or caught unawares at a crazy Hollywood party. Read or watch any interview with the popular thespians and you'll find them to be incredibly articulate and surprisingly down-to-earth. Tom Felton, the actor behind Draco Malfoy – the Potter bully everyone loves to hate, is no exception to the refreshing trend.

The self-described massive Harry Potter fan is in Toronto for less than a day as part of a large-scale, whirlwind press tour in support of the highly anticipated release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Despite obvious jet-lag, Felton is relaxed and quick with a joke or a smile, a relaxed attitude made even more impressive considering he has barely had time to register what city he’s in, never mind the time.

( Read more... )

Also got some pics of his Meet & Greet with fans...

*external link for the rest*

Enjoy! (also posted at tomfelton_daily

I am feeling so tired and apathetic today, and I have a headache which is not helping. Just stuck the next SPN disk in and am staring at the menu screen. Can't even be bothered to concentrate on watching.

A couple of guys moved into our building last week and they're having a party tonight. Right outside my bedroom window. Meh! If I was feeling less crappy I'd go out and say hi but really I just want them to STFU and go away. This makes me feel old.

Speaking of old I totally did not know it was Jared's birthday tomorrow. More worryingly I didn't know he was only 26 (27 tomorrow). He is a youngling! I honestly thought he was about the same age as me. It's only 3 years difference but I'm used to my celeb crushes being older than me (apart from Colin and Bradley)

If I was feeling a bit more inspired I'd try and throw together a J2 birthday fic (with bonus!Misha because he has to be in everything now) but I'm struggling to describe a house in my BB fic today so I think anything more advanced than that is going to be beyond me. I will do an epic picspam post tomorrow though as my way of celebrating

In a lovely change of pace, I went to a party last night. I had a blast, but didn't get in until around 3, which I've not done in some considerable time and was exacerbated by the fact that I'd gone from the show to work to the party, so now I'm extra sleepy. Will I take a nap now that I'm home? Doubtful. I have a lunch/dinner to pack and get stuff together for tonight after work. At said party I got invited to a CD release party, so I'm going straight there after work now. I shall be quite sleepy come the morn, but I'm all right with that. :)

So my stepfather's family is having a 75th family reunion or something, I don't even know--they are very big on the reunions--and we're now hosting a dinner (more of a grill-out, really) the first week of August as part of the festivities. Originally about ten or twelve people were going to come, but now we're looking at thirty-one, and my mother is PANICKED. My parents are having to do a lot of stuff to the house, partly because our house is just a money pit like that,* but mostly because the dogs wrought hell on it the year they were puppies. So we're having to replace the den carpet (the dogs chewed it up), the kitchen wallpaper (the dogs chewed it up), the slatted door into the foyer (third verse, same as the first), and the ferns the squirrels ate (variety!). Also, we've already resodded the little backyard (again: dogs) and replaced the gardenia and camellia bushes they wrecked (the dogs used to run run run run runnnn around them in tight little circles, and then, when they were done, pass out and nap against them) with azaleas (MY PRETTY SCENTED FLOWERS NOOOOOOOOOOO). And, of course, the Angry Jasmine, which has been buzzcut twice and only come back wrathier, and the yellowjacket nest within that had to be zapped. Oh, and the countertop in the kitchen has a huge crack in it for some reason, and one of the burners on the stove died, so we're replacing both of those (hence the helpful delivery guy with the dishwasher advice). My stepfather's out back sanding out the claw scratches on that slatted door and repainting it, and my mother and I just got back from buying incidentals at Wal-mart--extra pans for the banana pudding, foil pans to keep fifty hamburgers warm in the oven, a few wooden folding table-trays, new towels for the hall bathroom...

* Did I ever tell you that we recently found wadded up newspaper instead of insulation in the house walls? Yeah. I remember when this street was being developed and the houses were being built--my best friend at the time moved here--and apparently our neighbor's ex-husband cut all damn kinds of corners. There's a reason he's her ex now, let's put it that way. God bless this house, I love it to death, but we've had to redo it by brick and stick over the last eight years.

And then... we went to Hobby Lobby. Mom needed to replace some of the raggedy silk flowers by the front door. My God. That is one of the most dangerous, terrifying places I have ever been. We wanted to buy everything. I wanted to start doing crafts I had previously not even known existed. All I needed was craft-safe sealant/varnish and some cheap paintbrushes to improve the sparkle* of a certain vampirus scintilla minimus; I was very good and only splurged additionally on some Glue Dots, but I had to be forcibly removed from the doll furniture aisle if we were ever going to get home. In theory, my mother only needed silk flowers and artificial moss for the artificial tree** (guess who tore up the old moss). That... is not what she left with. All I know is, I hope my stepfather likes $10 Murano glass giraffes, because we've got some now.

* As a point of ever-so-little interest, here's what the previous Secret Life installment looked like before our sparkle got rained out (I never actually tried to take the pictures described). Honestly, I think the version posted turned out better, but there's a nice mental image that got left behind.

** Every single time I pass the fake tree, I make sure to greet it à la Wahlberg. "Hey, tree... you're looking good. You been working out? Say hi to your mother for me."

Meanwhile, I tried the new full 200 mg Lamictal dose on Wednesday. Mid-afternoon, I suddenly felt like crying. Not a good sign. Sounds like it's time to start cutting the pills to get some approximation of a 175 mg compromise--which I hate, because you lose some of the dose what with the crumbling and all. Maybe I'll just cut a bit of the end off (it's a diamond-shaped pill) and call it a day. Right now, though, I've gone back to my normal 150, because I've got something that has to be finished ASAP and I don't have time for this crying shit. On the other hand, I've been feeling a bit manic, which can't be good either. Maybe it's just the panicked OMG REFURBISH energy in the house right now, I don't know.

This is my new phone...



The nice lady at the Sprint store transferred all my contacts over, same phone number I've had for the past 9 years, and David Hewlett (as Rodney McKay) is still on my voicemail. ROCK ON! Among other cool features, it has unlimited texting...as Kimberly and Bella have already figured out.

In light of that fact, I do now have a Twitter account (kimberlyFDR). I tried to add those who I could remember, but I'm missing like 80% of you I bet. SO! If you have a Twitter account, feel free to add me. Or if you're bored, feel free to text me through LJ or drop me a comment if you don't already have my cellphone number ;)

+53 Tall Tales icons

-Please comment if taking
-Please credit if using
-Blank icons are NOT bases. I will happily customise for you if you ask
-Enjoy :)



( You're too precious for this world )

What Was Told, That

What was said to the rose that made it open was said
to me here in my chest.

What was told the cypress that made it strong
and straight, what was

whispered the jasmine so it is what it is, whatever made
sugarcane sweet, whatever

was said to the inhabitants of the town of Chigil in
Turkestan that makes them

so handsome, whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush
like a human face, that is

being said to me now. I blush. Whatever put eloquence in
language, that's happening here.

The great warehouse doors open; I fill with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugarcane,

in love with the one to whom every that belongs!

Jalalu'l-din Rumi (1207 – 1273)

Hee! I just found an old backup disk that contained, amongst other things, all the SPN icons I saved from my first time in the fandom (back when S2 was airing). So of course, since I had space, I uploaded a bunch. Found this nice one of Jensen so Jared doesn't feel all left out ;)

Killed. Me. Dead.

I loved it. I think they did an amazing job with streamlining the material and of course I'm disappointed with some of the omissions, but still was just overwhelmed with how wonderful it was.

1. What Might Be (Merlin/Arthur, PG) - 4022
2. The Letter (Uther/Gaius, G) - 1017
3. Guiding Light (Merlin/Arthur, PG) - 1341
4. Shelter From The Storm (Clark/Lex, NC-17) - 8439
5. Have Your Cake (And Eat It) (Merlin/Arthur, NC-17) - 1461
6. What Dreams May Come (Merlin/Arthur, PG) - 4462
7. Hocus Pocus and Frisbee (Colin/Bradley, NC-17) - 1797
8. Threat Released (Merlin/Arthur, PG) - 5553
9. Food by the Fireside (Clark/Lex, NC-17) - 1400
10. Untitled - 743
11. Anonymous kinkme_merlin fic - 690
12. As it is Written (Dean/Castiel, PG-13) - 1471
13. Merlin badfic - 400
14. The Luck of the Irish (Sam & Dean gen, G) - 689
15. Saved Again (Dean/Castiel, G) - 748
16. Second Kiss, First Time (Colin/Bradley, PG) - 2391
17. Untitled Porn (Merlin/Arthur, NC-17) - 500
18. Unstoppable Force (Clark/Lex, NC-17) - 5259
19. What Once Was Lost (Dean/Castiel, PG) - 1081

43464 / 100000 words. 43% done!

I am home! I can't believe my week off is nearly over already. I can't complain in terms of what I wanted to get done (rpf_big_bang is now up to 10600 words) but I am not looking forward to going back to work on Monday.

Mind I'm only back for 2 weeks and then I'm off again to go and visit lou_angel

goth_clark has requested Tall Tales icons and since it's one of my favourite episodes I will be making those today. Also going to do some more BB and watch the next SPN disk. Anyone sensing a theme for how I spend my free time. Icons, writing, Supernatural. LOL!

Had a weird dream last night that I had to take extra driving lessons. It wasn't a mandatory thing but my dad thought it would do me some good. I had the same instructor that taught me to drive and within five minutes of getting behind the wheel I'd hit another car whilst attempting to reverse. Eek!

Rain, rain, very cold driving rain.

The session I wanted to attend got cancelled: 2nd time in a row. Worst organized conference ever.

Now that I've gotten my crabby out, my last couple of days have been good. The Slavery Museum was appropriately inspiring/sadness inducing. Half of the 3.5 Africans shipped to slavery were carried on Liverpool-owned ships. The Tate here, although small, was well curated. Port Sunlight... see above, false advertising city, but very interesting (early urban planning experiment by Lord Lever, soap billionaire). BTW, the planning department here, the oldest in the world, was set up by Lever after he won a lawsuit against the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail accused Lever of 'sharp practices' because he reduced a bar of soap from 16 to 15 oz and charged the same price. That seems sharp to me, but he won the equivalent of millions. It does appear that everything I like here is based on evil.

The conference dinner last night was in a huge glass Victorian green house. My Aussie academic buddy and I sat with a bunch of cute young Dutch PhD students and shamelessly chatted them up. I guess the Dutch empire was evil too, but I do love Dutch boys.

Notes: I posted this first at Fiction Friday, then I uploaded a slightly cleaner, edited version to FF.Net, and posted below. This is almost a fusion, but not quite a crossover.

Title: The Standoff At Fort Miranda
Genre: Humor
Spoilers: none
Challenge: couch, Sheldon & Penny
Rating: PG
FF.net link: here
Wordcount: 1,300

Summary: The very dramatic, no-holds-barred laser tag battle for the living room, by a bunch of people who watch too much Firefly.


( ''Your pal's dead!'' Sheldon shouted, with a dramatic space-monster growl that impressed Penny, aspiring actor. ''We shall violate his body, drink the marrow of his bones, and pillage his equipment!'' )


***

21.: aleababe; 22: temptation197 and birgitm; 23.incasink and calturner; 25: spikeshunny; 26: spuffy_baby_luv and aisalynn and amybnnyc and spuffyangst

• Update from news: There's a new Geo-Location feature if you want to use it (I don't, it's wrong anyway except saying Germany).



• The interesting thing (for paid accounts): You can take notes! For your own eyes only. When you add a Note for a user, you'll be able to see the Note whenever you hover your mouse over the username or look at the header of the user's Profile page.



• Torchwood: Nachlese zu «Children of Earth» Spoilers

But now a Happy Birthday for today to

* * * ~ * * * ~ * * * silverbirdflys ~ * * * * ~ and too to ~ * * * * ~ jamies_lady ~ * * * * ~ and for the 21th to: ~ * * * * ~ aleababe ~ * * * * ~ and for the 22nd to: ~ * * * * ~ temptation197 ~ * * * * ~ and for the 22nd to too ~ * * * * ~ birgitm ~ * * * * ~ and for the 23th to: ~ * * * * ~ incasink ~ * * * * ~ and for the 23th also to ~ * * * * ~ calturner ~ * * * * ~ and for the 25th to ~ * * * * ~ spikeshunny ~ * * * * ~ and for the 26th to ~ * * * * ~ aisalynn ~ * * * * ~ and for the 26th too to ~ * * * * ~ amybnnyc ~ * * * * ~ and for the 26th also to ~ * * * * ~ spuffyangst ~ * * * * ~

A good day to you all, if you see this too early, in time or not at all and wherever you are) :)

"courage is fear that has said it's prayers."  Dorothy Bernard

( More under the cut / mehr unter dem LJ Cut )

Chapter Five of Once a Vampire Groupie by slaymesoftly.

Chapter Eleven of Anticipation by 2writers4spike.

Chapter Twelve of La Femme Spander by lusciousspike and lusciousxander.

Chapter Eight of Automated Utopia by fenderlove.

Chapter Twelve of Closer and Closer by dampersnspoons.

The winners of the Kinda Gay Awards have been announced. Congratulations to all.

Take gabrielleabelle's Random BtVS poll .

"The Ring" icons by girly_scribbles.

OMWF will be shown in Houston , Saturday, September 19, 2009 Discovery Green Park, Downtown Houston.

DarkHorse previews the variant cover for Season Eight, Issue No. Twenty Nine .

Fear.Net previews Angel : After the Fall, Issue No. Twenty Four .

Screen Junkies lists Buffy as No. 1 of their "Top 15 Magic Babes". "Could there really be any other magical babe at number one? Joss Whedon created a timeless kickass character with Buffy – a high school girl who was worried about just a couple more things than finding a date on Friday or passing next week’s test. Nope, this girl killed demons and dispatched vampires to hellin her spare time, dodging death and actually biting it a couple of times. If that’s not both magical AND sexy, I don’t know what is".

Newsweek talks vampires with BtVS mention.

So, another poll that I took got me thinking...Or maybe it was the comments from a poll. Whatever--new poll.

What is kink to you?

And this is strictly in the Sunnydale/LA/Buffyverse/Angelverse context, and not RL, because there are just some things that are pretty impossible for us to do. Like have sex with a vampire.

Each scenario was either seen or talked about from one of the shows, and I think I covered them all...well I hope I did.

Now, the answer key--there are four options. "Kinky," which is self explanatory, "just not vanilla, but also not kinky," meaning that while you acknowledge it isn't vanilla, it still isn't kinky, "not kinky," meaning, there's no gray area there at all--it just isn't kinky period, and the also self explanatory/please explain in a comment "other."

ETA: Also, poll results are only viewable to me.
( Naughty, naughty... )

Ten shows that received three and only three 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations:

1. The Kennedy Center Honors
2. A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All
3. Survivor
4. Dexter
5. Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
6. The Librarian: Curse Of The Judas Chalice
7. The Colbert Report
8. True Blood
9. House
10. The Big Bang Theory

These ten shows neither infuriate nor excite me.

Melanie and Alayna tonight at an outdoor theater with Jean in the background and me taking the picture.