They gave me a new monitor at work. The old monitor was fine. The new one is...gigantic. The screen resolution is more than twice as wide as the LJ text box. Who actually uses this much horizontal screen space?

Really? I only have one Kevin Smith related icon? Okay. (Not that I don't love the crap out of this one. It's awesome and mrgazpacho made it for me and it's great!)

So Kevin Smith came to Dallas on Saturday and the thing is, because I am entirely devoid of cash monies, I'd resigned myself to not being able to go. "I have all but one of the Evening Withs on DVD," I said to myself. "It can't be much different."

And then my friend Mike (who belongs to one gutterballjen) was like, "Oh hey, I can't go, you want my ticket? Also there's a meet and greet." And I was like, "................UM YES."

So I went with Mike's brothers, and here's the thing, I freaking love Kevin Smith and he was fantastic and wonderful and hilarious and he talked for three hours and if I wasn't dying of hunger I could have easily listened to him talk for another three hours. And I love him. And all I wanted to do at the meet and greet was giving him a big fucking hug for being so awesome.

SO I TOTALLY DID. I was like, "I HAVE NO CAMERA I JUST WANT TO HUG YOU." (Now I really wish I had brought my camera with me, but when I go to House of Blues, I don't really like carrying anything and I didn't have any pockets and the point is I totally suck.) And he was like, "OKAY" and he gave me a big huge bear hug and then apologized for sweating on me and I had to refrain from being like "THAT'S OKAY HERE LET ME WIPE YOUR SWEAT OFF ON MY SHIRT AND THEN I WILL JUST NEVER WASH IT EVER AGAIN" because I am sane like that.

And anyway, Kevin Smith is totally adorable and cuddly and he TOTALLY REMEMBERED OUR BRIEF TWITTER CONVERSATION. I was like, "I don't know if you remember but you asked on Twitter about the British Office and Tim's note to Dawn," and he was like, "Oh, man, that was you? You totally helped us out!" And then he OFFERED ME HIS HAND FOR A HIGH FIVE and I GRACIOUSLY HIGH-FIVED THE MAN. And then he said how crazy it was to meet people on the Internet and then meet them in real life and the point of this story is KEVIN SMITH AND I ARE BEST FRIENDS AND THAT IS JUST HOW IT IS NOW YOU GUYS.

In other news, I took a bye week on therealljidol even though the topic was really "easy" this week, and I'm really behind on NaNo, but I just bought some TimTams from the store I work at now and I'm TOTALLY HAVING A TIMTAM SLAM WHEN I HIT 10K.

Okay, I'm turning off capslock and going to bed.

Okay, when you're thinking, "Hmm, the toilet really needs cleaning, I can do that instead of cranking out another thousand NaNo words," it's time to roll it up for the day. I don't feel too guilty. 7000 words, I think, qualifies me for a nice little fanfic dessert. Then I'll probably try to get another 3000, to try to catch up for all my slacking, but hey.

Anyway, we last left our handsome hero in the North Sea, after escaping Azkaban a second time (though to be fair, this time, they weren't looking, since they didn't know he'd broken in). He spoke to Fiona, who's reasonably sure she'll be acquitted, and told her that either way, he's getting her out of Britain, and possibly into a half bathing suit in Brazil. He jumped down into the sea where he was just found by Remus, who went out looking for him in a magically controlled rowboat, which may or may not be more pleasant than swimming to Scotland in early February.

Table of Contents and Summary So Far

( Stray, Chapter Twenty-Three: The Conspiracy Sealed, pt. 1 )

This weekend, I saw a little movie called Precious. It's a tiny movie that cost about $10 million to make. It's star is a 350 pound black girl and it is dark and painful as all get out. Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry are executive producers, which is honestly not a selling point for me or really anyone I know, but they were not creatively involved at all - just lent their names to give it some industry power. It's an amazing film; I'm working on a review (no really, I am). It's on all the award prognoticators's lists as one of - if not THE - frontrunner for awards season. It only opened on 18 screens in the country this weekend, and it took in an estimated $1.8 million.

On 18 screens. That's $100,000 per screen.

Let me put that in perspective for you. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (remember all those sold out screenings?) opened on 4,325 screens and had a $77,835,727 opening weekend, giving it a per screen average of just shy of $18,000.

My favorite theater in NYC (but not the place where I saw it) has this movie in their biggest theater (besides the IMAX) - twice as big as the others, with a huge balcony. This makes me smile.

This movie is about to hit the rest of America (I can't imagine them waiting longer than a few weeks to take it wide) like a ton of bricks, and I can't wait to see the conversation it starts when it does.

Leading up to the HBP DVD release, the HBP official Facebook has been and will be updating with exclusive scenes from the film. The first is a two-minute Quidditch sequence from the film, starting from Ron taking the fake Felix Felicis to his victory party in the Gryffindor Common Room. It can be viewed below.

term 18;
sorting period #03
application links.

sorting information;
Ending Date: Sunday, November 15, 2009 @ 9:00PM CST (10:00PM EST)
Section: Application Links
Eligibility: All Hogwarts Elite Members

currently up for sorting;
01. secret_savior; here.
02. rattsu; here.
03. elise_the_great; here.
04. ohcarousel; here.
05. alephz; here.

I'm really frustrated with Apple's iPod service right now.

( Read more... )

I am so overwhelmed right now. It's the last week of the six weeks at work, so I have mountains of papers to grade and parents to call, and on top of all that, it's term paper time in both of my graduate classes. I have novels to read, textbooks to read, epic papers to write, forum discussions to post in, wikis to edit, and pointless worksheets to do. I also want to continue working on my novel idea (no, I'm not doing NaNoWriMo - I'd probably off myself if I had another deadline to chase).

Blar.

With these things in mind, flist, I come in search of music recs! There are a few things I could go for right now:

• Upbeat, peppy music to cheer my heart and get me motivated to do stuff. The kind of music that makes you want to get up and move.
  
• Badass, hard rockin' music to accompany my badass, hard rockin' novel. Think of zombie killing sprees, Spartans walking toward battle, and explosive Viper battles in space.
  
• Backgroundy music for working on papers and grading. I generally prefer instrumentals for this kind of thing; if there are lyrics I find myself focusing on them instead of what I'm doing.
  

Can anyone help me out? Much love and many kisses if so!

Title: Dualkey (After the Flaw: Oligarchy, Chapter 37)
Author: kanedax
Rating: PG13 for language and violence
Spoilers: Previous Chapters
Summary: The Ministry counters
Notes: Another chapter that, due to length, had to go over to Dreamwidth.
I own these characters. The others belong to JK Rowling.

Dualkey (After the Flaw: Oligarchy, Chapter 37)

Hallo,
I'm going to Den Haag to visit a festival for the weekend after next and am looking for some nice daytime activities now.
I'll be there from Friday noon until Sunday noon and will definitely have a look at the Scheveningen beach, the Binnenhof, the courts and government houses and maybe the Escher museum.
The wikitravel site and the flickr picture search have been some good resources so far but I'd like to know, if you have some recommendations and insider tips for me.

I'm particulary interessted in:
old and typical architecture, historical sites, street art, little independent shops (clothes, jewelry, stationery, crafts, interior design..) second hand shops, cute cafés & bakeries, places with free wifi, affordable vegetarian food, markets and other nice places.

I'm aware that most of these things are more likely be found in Amsterdam, but the more I'm happy about any suggestions.

hartelijk bedankt! :)

From her MySpace.

( Six Below the Cut - Slightly NSFW )

BRB, slitting my wrists.

I mean, seriously? SERIOUSLY? I know they're only trying to make a desperate bid for some cash, but fuck. So many talented, brilliant authors are never even published... and CC gets a movie deal?

If this is ever released in France, I'll need more than a couple of tequila shots to stomach this. I'm thinking a full-blown alcohol-induced coma would be the only way to sit through this garbage.

Today:

- Drove to the car donation site to get rid of my Ford Rustbucket.  (*sob*)
- Walked the 18 blocks to Dinkytown
- Had my first Burrito Loco
- Bused to Uptown
- Bought Almost Famous, Tombstone, and A History of Violence for about 18 bucks.
- Bused to downtown Hopkins
- Picked up Batman: RIP from the library
- Walked home from there
- FINISHED CHAPTER
- Played Super Swing Golf
- Saw Landscape of the Body (Weird.  Good, but weird).
- Oh, did I mention FINISHED CHAPTER?

Sunday I'm getting together with a guy from the show and his wife to bum around the MOA and see The Men Who Stare at Goats.  Chapter will be posted either before or after that, as I'm not getting together with them until sometime before 2.

Next chapter...  I can see just as much time before that one is posted.  There's not much for me to do in it, but what I need to do is stuff that I haven't structured out AT ALL.  So a little outlining's in the cards first.

So I did a video review of Almost Famous in my movie blog. Go check it out: It's me!

Only took me...how long have I been working on this one? Now that I've finally reached the end of DFW's copious footnotes, I can share my Deep Thoughts on it. This will be rather random.

Y'all please excuse me if there are some apostrophes missing in this. I'm using the Eee, whose keyboard is mostly fine but the ' key takes more elbow grease than others.

( Spoilage ahead! )

Well, I used a lot of the suggestions that came my way from that post the other day! I was pretty pleased with the turnout of readers for that question, I must admit. I guess it's because you hear a lot that people don't give a darn about history in this country, if depressing yearly polls from the Dominion Institute mean anything, but it's clearly not the case among my livejournal followers. You guys are great!

I had to do a general sweep that involved a good range of places, professions, backgrounds and time periods, so you know, not everyone's favorite author is going to be in there but I sure did like the range in suggestions. Looking at it now I wish I had someone from the NWT (not one! for shame) and New Brunswick. Stompin Tom is from New Brunswick but he's also sort of from everywhere.  I could have put the Irvings in there, I think they control history in NB as well as anything else.

I was all crazed out with strep throat while I did this, but listening to Radiolab shows and a burning passion for Canada I guess(?) kept me going.  You can find the image in today's National Post, along with an article about the Historica/Dominion merger! Interesting stuff.


( picture is under the cut because it's huge )


Here is the legend, the rows are sort of wonky but you'll figure it out:

Row One (bottom):
James Wolfe, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, David Suzuki, Louis-Joseph Papineau, John A. Macdonald, Terry Fox
Row Two
Emily Carr, Joseph Howe, Joey Smallwood, Robert Bartlett, Louis Riel, Joy Kogawa
Row Three
Marshall McLuhan, Samuel de Champlain, Marilyn Bell, Wayne Gretzky, Emily Murphy
Row Four
Rene Levesque, Sam Steele, Farley Mowat, L.M. Montgomery, Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Trail, John McCrae
Row Five
Pitikwahanapiwiyin (Poundmaker), Oscar Peterson, Rush, Pierre Berton
Row Six
Les Filles du Roi, Mary Pickford, Skookum Jim Mason
Row Seven
Charles Best, Frederick Banting, Pauline Johnson, Mordecai Richler, Tecumseh, Stompin’ Tom Connors
Row Eight
William Hall, Tommy Douglas, Marc Garneau, Roberta Bondar, Rosemary Brown, John Diefenbaker
Row Nine
Shanawdithit, Louis de Buade de Frontenac, David Thompson, William Shatner

( 14 New Photos )

Source.

Title: Auror Games
Characters: Ron, Pansy
Rating: PG-13 Possibly NSFW
Medium: Ink
Notes: My entry for this year's ronpansy_fest, a great little fest with some incredibly lovely, insightful (and hot) fic for a pairing that seems to tickle my fancy. (After all, Ron needs to mend his broken heart somehow when Hermione dumps him for Snape.) Major thanks to tjwritter for the beta!

Clicky for the picky...

Hey all!

I'm studying here in Paris for the semester, and next week my friends and I have a week off. We want to explore France--we've already been to Normandy and the Loire Valley, but we want to explore other areas.... Any suggestions?

Maybe even some other places in Europe, as long as it's cheap? Suggestions with cheap travel is a must, as we're all pretty much broke. BROKE, broke, since most of us are living off an allowance from our universities/personal savings. I would totally appreciate it!!

Thanks!

It's that time again! The cycle is winding down, and it's time for us to play ANTM judges and look back over the models' portfolios in deciding who should win. Normally, this would be done the week before the finale with the final three girls, but this is a special cycle, so we're doing it early!

( Massive Poll Below The Cut )

As always, no spoilers in this post. This post is for fun and for speculation, not for spoilers. Thanks!

Title: “Love?”
Author(s): natygry
Chapter(s): 1
Status: Completed
Word Count: 3428
Genre(s): Fluff, Friendship, General, PWP, Romance, Trio
Character(s): Hermione & Ron, Harry and the Weasleys
Pairing(s): Hermione & Ron
Rating: G
Time Period: Post-War, Pre-Epilogue
Warning(s): DH Spoilers
Summary: The war is over, but the Wizarding world and the Weasley family are thoroughly shaken in its wake.
Harry is looking for signs that things will be good again wherever he can.
Then Ron, suddenly, does something that shifts things and transforms the way they will be from now on.
Author’s Note: I am immensely proud and honoured to announce that this story was picked as one of the Quarterly Featured Stories at The Quidditch Pitch! *squeals*
Check out the other featured stories here at The Captains' Pitch and thesteppyone’s lovely banner bellow.

Thank you, Captains!



Love, NatyGry!

~So the KHRfest prompts were posted while I slept (I didn't wake up until this afternoon). All of my prompts but one have already been claimed (some even twice!) which makes me really happy, while also making me realize I'm probably the only shipper in the group of a specific pairing... (cookies and a fic of your choice to whoever can figure out which pairing that is - Aislynn, you already know since I told you, so no cheating, I'll make you a Christmas fic anyways). I'm going to have an awesome Christmas this year.

Since I felt bad about the way it looked like things turned out last time (200 prompts went unanswered), I decided to claim at least as many as I requested (5) and I managed to get suckered into an extra 2. I've claimed 7 in total (I'm probably going to fail... XD) including one art...
( The list of prompts I've claimed... )

Since this round is going to be over 2 weeks Dec 25th to Jan 7th, I figure the multiples in group 3 and 5 will end up being posted one in either week and the art one will be done when I get it finished. It could have been worse... I think my original list had 21-22 prompts on it that I wanted to do... luckily some of them were already completely taken so I didn't have to make a choice between them. I prefer to do ones that haven't been chosen so I can spread the love. <3

~So I'm looking at the people who claimed some of my prompts... oh god one of them was claimed by foxarashi . I think I'm just going to wibble in a corner. Such effort put into her (I'm assuming here) work. I can't wait to see what it will look like! Also, someone who might read this journal has claimed one of my prompts which just makes me ecstatic. Such talented people!

~I also started a fic of my own based on one of my own prompts... when I get it done, I'll probably post it here and reveal what prompt it was. (It was YamaGoku - cause for some reason, it's taken over my creative side).

EDIT: HAHAHAHAHAHA... all five of my prompts have been claimed, including my rare-pair. Whoo... this is definitely going to be an amazing Christmas break if they all get done too...

The news has not made me happy this week. But rather than rant against just about everything and everyone in the news, about the news, and telling me news* I drew this.





*John Stewart is exempt from this.

.....


In Happier news: My little sister is freaking awesome (She's the Violest)

More to come, later