Cleolinda everywhere

Re: Friday's Secret Life: People do this every time one of the characters refers to "Miss Cleo," so--I just want you to know that I'm not trying to hint that you have to call me that. I'm not a TV hotline psychic or the little old lady down the street or anything. Plain "Cleo" is just fine.

Also, if you feel creative in the comments or something, this is precisely what folks created slodfans for. I mean, fanfic of fanfic will probably destroy the universe, but that's what it's there for. (Newest post: Icons!)

(This afternoon: more guerilla photography, lest I get busted taking pictures of vintage toys again. "Is that--" "NO!" "--one of my forks?" "... Maybe." I did discover that the NECA action figures do have a bit more bendability than I had originally thought. I also put two characters close together in the same shot for the first time and it is TERRIFYING. Like something out of Gulliver's Travels, for real. Anyway. That'll probably go up tomorrow.)

I've rambled on too long already, so: remind me to tell you what I ended up doing to rescue my hair for the next chatty/linky post.

Meanwhile, I totally, deplorably forgot to link the big first-anniversary Made of Fail episode when it came out; there's also a poll up for you to weigh in as to whether you like the new intro better than the old one. (I'll be guesting on the next epsiode, which will be Harry Potter-themed.)

Also-also, from lightlack: "I was wondering if in one of your future linkspam posts, you might be able to post something about this story in the LA Times about a very young girl with severe schizophrenia. I don't know this family personally, but they're friends of a friend, and after I read the article I wanted to help spread the story, in case somebody out there with connections might know of some resources that could help this little girl out."

( Linkspam of major WTF )

A few things (omg so behind on answering email/comments):

From mercuryandrain: "I was wondering if you could do me a HUGE favor and plug the Support Stacie auction sometime this week in one of your linkspam posts? Stacie is fighting high stage III breast cancer without the help of health insurance. This coming weekend (April third through sixth) a multi-fandom fanfic auction is taking place - people will bid on their favorite authors, and the highest bidder gets a story tailor-made to their specifications. Over 100 authors are participating at last count, from Roswell, Twilight, Dr. Who, Gilmore Girls and Harry Potter among other fandoms. Her website is http://www.supportstacie.net, and the website where the auction will take place is http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb. There is also an LJ comm dedicated to the cause: supportstacie."

countessmary has put up (with my blessing) some "Twilight Means Never Having to Say You're Kidding" t-shirts to raise money for prizes for the YA Lit track at Dragon*Con.

The Littlest Edward is famous! And I mentioned this the other day somewhere--Twitter?--but while we're here: Biker Barbie with pink chaps. Ya rly.

Also, I have to show you this, because it brought light and joy into my life: VAMPIRE CLOAKS FOR DOLLS OMG. THE ALL-BLACK ONE HAS A COLLAR LIKE A BATWING OR A SPIDERWEB OR SOME SHIT, LOOK AT THAT! OMFG A BLACK POET SHIRT, I CAN'T STAND IT. It's like what Bella would make Edward wear if she felt kinky or something.

( More on that rock-awesome Joker doll )

( More linkspam )

And now, maybe I can get a bit more done before the power goes off tomorrow.

Re: LiveJournal: Here's the press release about the layoffs.

Back at the ranch, as it were, I got so sucked into this afternoon's rerun of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit when Sister Girl was over doing laundry this afternoon--it was one of those L&O specialties where they started off with one crime and midway through switched to another that they discovered in the course of investigating the first one, which was great and fantastic and all except that I kept screaming "BUT WHAT ABOUT BRIANNA????"

... maybe you had to be there.

Meanwhile, yesterday, I ran around doing housework (you know it's bad when I try to procrastinate by cleaning) until I ended up throwing up all over the bathroom. (Which then, of course, had to be... cleaned.) I have no idea what that was about, except that I'd had a heavy breakfast (well, you know: greasy fast-food biscuit) on a nervous stomach. And then I felt feverish and had chills all day (and a good bit of today as well), so maybe I'm legitimately sick, who knows.

I made Sister Girl take the rest of the Mountain Dews with her, though, so that temptation is at least removed. Also, I think the withdrawal headaches have eased up.

I'm also trying to remind myself that I may be in a hypomanic phase (what with the running around cleaning), so if I suddenly crash and don't feel magically energetic anymore, that's not a moral failing. It just means that if I feel good now, I need to make hay while the sun shines.

Apropos of nothing much, one more thing about Prince Caspian: ( Read more... )

Oh, by the way, I got an email newsletter/casting call from Universal Pictures, and when I tried to copypaste the info to pass it along, it turned out to be a series of image files. Huh. Therefore, I will present it to you as it was presented to me (click to enlarge): ( ARE YOU THE NEXT MCLOVIN????? )

Of course, I saw the name "Edward" and ran screaming, but there you are. (Oh, and the MySpace and Facebook links were clickable; at least you don't have to type those in. The latter demands to know whether you are THE NEXT MCLOVIN' OR MICHAEL CERA?!, which should give you an idea of what they're looking for.)

Speaking of Edward, mistress_gwen has started the comm sparklpires for lolfans. Enjoy.

( Catchup linkspam! )

Hmm... today's Journal Birthmonth Flashback? Let's go with Tiny Moist Hand.

Tried to record a Halloween story reading; made one tiny stumble--but at a key line, unfortunately--so I can't put that take out. But I haven't been able to get the right voice back on any subsequent takes. I tried to warm up by desk-dancing singing, but somehow, that just didn't do it. I'll just have to keep trying, I guess.

Didn't have the most productive day ever, but soldiered away at the Prestige footnotes until finally I just said, "This is as done as it's gonna get right now, even though there are a couple that aren't ready, but screw it, I need to move on to something else." The POTO footnotes are going to be a lot of work to finish, I think (I've been skipping around the whole time), but at least it'll be something different.

(Trying BPAL's Dorian--which has been in my little storage chest for far too long--as a room scent. Not really sure it's working for me in that capacity. Need a bottle of High John the Conqueror, actually--my sample vial of that got me through the last three months of writing the 15M book, to be honest.)

More True Blood recap icons!

More linkspam! ( Transgenic Jellyfish will be the name of my next band )

So, first order of business: True Blood recap #2 went up earlier today, if you missed that.

Second: today's Journal Birthday flashback might as well be about the time Sister Girl made beignets.

Third: If you think Days of Our Lives was crazy, feast your eyes on Passions. Also: how the DOOL Salem Stalker/Bizarro Salem storyline ended.

Linkspam! ( I gave you linkspam and a recap, y'all. That's love )

Okay, our dishwasher is now on its last legs. I mean, it'll still turn on, but it's been so spotty for so long that we're obviously going to have to replace it in the next few months. Yes, we can get by washing dishes by hand. It's not so much that the dishwasher's dying as it is that this will be the eleventy-thousandth appliance to die this year. And Shelby's going to have to have surgery for her hip dysplasia in the next year or so, and we're still paying off the Unexpected Pension Taxes, and somewhere in there we've got to buy Tiny Tim a new crutch. The really stressful part is that my mother is now looking to me to finish my writing projects and hopefully bring in enough extra income that we can get on top of the bills and pay more than just a tiny bit, the interest, and sneaky late fees (everyone wants payment just before the last paycheck of the month) on them. You know. No pressure or anything.

And then my computer crashed in the middle of the "King Arthur in Fifteen Minutes" notes, and I lost all yesterday afternoon's work. "Document recovery" my ass. This is why you didn't get a linkspam, because I was too pissed busy trying to redo my work to deal with it.

(Also, Semagic came thisclose to eating all of tonight's linkspam when my computer crashed. "Load automatically saved draft" only pulled up the earliest version, until I finally thought to try "Load Draft" and see what came up.)

Let's go to another happy jewelry place! Damn, I need one. It's an old favorite, but what the hell: Sweet Romance Online. Favorites (and man, is it hard to narrow it down): the rose pendant; the art nouveau "Futura" set; the morning glory suite; the lily of the valley suite.

Linkspam! ( Superman reboot, Lost in Austen, Marion Cotillard IS (not) Catwoman )

Hello, newcomers! Some of you are here because you were linked to the Breaking Dawn commentary/recap. Some of you are here because you saw the New York Magazine blog post; some of you are here to kill me. Welcome, one and all! Read, friend, have fun, try not to break the furniture! And thank you to Dan Kois (who, I just realized, is Dan Kwa from TWOP, he of the Lost recaps of yore) for the NYMag shoutout, by the way.

(And thanks for all the support, y'all--regulars and lurkers alike. Awww!)

In case you stayed to read more of my journal and you have no idea what it's for, I talk mostly about pop culture like 85%of the internet, specifically movies. I post Movies in Fifteen Minutes every few months at m15m (ZOMG I WROTE A BOOK OF THEM! YOU CAN GET IT AT AMAZON.CO.UK! EVEN THOUGH I'M FROM ALABAMA! I KNOW, IT'S REALLY WEIRD!). I generally do dailyish movies-and-misc linkspams; sometimes I tell stories about my family or my dogs or strange things that happened or weird dreams I had. Sporadically I recap or discuss random things (often books) because I just feel like it, and the Twilight series was one of those things. I also have a silly little PBWiki to organize my LJ content into more browsable categories; it will always be, by its nature, under construction, but feel free to poke around over there. (The "Best Of" section may be the most convenient.)

Also-also, anyone crazy enough to look for bloggers to hire: I will write for food. And also, I can actually string three words together without swearing, I promise. If I'd known the recaps would be this widely linked, I would have worked a little less blue. A little.

And finally: the thing to remember about internet fame is, you're still less famous than that Star Wars kid. So other than the security system I'm installing in my hair at my house, we're pretty much going to carry on as normal here.

( Linkspam! )

I'm going ahead and posting early this morning, because... well.

George Carlin, Irreverent Comedian, Dies at 71.

( Linkspam )

Not the best day I've ever had; not the worst, either. I seem to be cycling through moodswings at an astonishing rate--well, "cycling" implies a set pattern, and I don't know that there is one. And they're not terribly strong swings, either. All I know is, I spent a lot of the day feeling very sad, and then all of a sudden I'd be smiling to myself about something. Other than the sadness, which is really frickin' annoying in terms of trying to get anything done, the moods themselves are fairly mild; I don't feel manic or anything. I have a med check next week, though, and I'll be mentioning them then.

Also, it thundered all day long, despite the sun, and now it's finally pouring down.

Also-also, our dryer has died. Because we just hadn't added to our debt in a while.

Oh, and something that actually kind of made me laugh: the seriousness of the tomato-salmonella epidemic finally hit home when Qdoba refused to give me any pico de gallo.

( Linkspam )

Generally I put links or ramblings into Semagic as I find/think of them, and when I have enough, I hit post. The problem with this is that the entry you start may not be the entry you feel like posting when you finish. So I've got a blithe musing on Coldplay, of all things, right after this that I wrote last night, but today I found out that my frail, 84-year-old grandmother has fallen down and hurt herself (again), and while she hasn't broken anything, she can't put any weight down at all so my mom and my aunt are having to take her to the hospital, and the spectre of assisted living rears its head once more. And she had just gotten over shingles, y'all.

So... what I wrote last night:

I have a few of the songs off the new Coldplay album--I think it's coming out June 13? Fortunately there seem to be a few songs floating around already, and so far I like what I've heard. I really like "Viva la Vida," possibly because the line "I sweep the streets I used to own" really resonates with me for some reason. I mean, you know: there are times in your life when you felt like you were at the top of your game, and you end up looking back and wondering what the hell happened to you, and how you fell down to where you are now. I don't feel like anything was taken from me; I feel like I let something slip through my fingers, and sometimes I wonder if I can even remember what a good grip on the world feels like. Which is why I like the song, I guess, because the lyrics capture that feeling, but the music is actually really beautiful and almost hopeful-sounding. And the interesting thing is that, as the song goes on, it becomes about how hollow "being king" was in the first place. So it's both about nostalgia for something you had and being disillusioned with it at the same time. Huh.

I also really like "Violet Hill." My thoughts on that are less scintillating.

Linkspam (the more ebullient bits were compiled last night), because linkspam makes me feel better: ( Read more... )