Cleolinda everywhere

Okay, we have a lot to talk about. First of all, I have a question, since I do talk about mental health and the treatment thereof pretty openly: have any of y'all had any problems with Zoloft withdrawal? I'm moving from a fairly low dose to an even lower one, and I'll probably stop taking it entirely after my next med check. (This is my doctor's idea, and I am on board with it; I am very vocal when something does not work for me, so it's a whole process, and it's professionally guided.) I just want to know if there's something I should look out for. Because we tried to increase it a couple of years ago, before eventually moving to Lamictal (which, after a bumpy adjustment period, has worked out really well), the Zoloft increase was... bad. It was bad. So I want to know what to look out for, so I can recognize it and go back and say "This isn't working" if I have to. (ETA: It may affect your answer to know that I'm going to try to taper entirely off Zoloft after twelve years of being on it.)

Second: I have been sick the last two or three days. Not too badly, but a low fever, some sinus drainage, a sore throat, and I've had a cough for a while. So I've been dozing on the couch a lot. I would hate to think that I am such a ~delicate blossom~ that the anxiety of posting a new Fifteen Minutes--let's face it, I only do this 2-3 times a year, so there's kind of a psychological build-up to it--did me in, or smacked my immune system upside the head, or what. But it's possible. I'm usually a bit done in for a day or two after these things, after all. Because I am, apparently, a fragile little e-flower. Who knows.

Third: Let's have some linkspam. ( Read more... )


Meanwhile--bear with me, I'm going somewhere with this--this is my new favorite thing. Yes, it's actually a "mystical eye" design.

And there is a reason I am showing you this, because: ( Read more... )


Meanwhile-meanwhile, YA Highway has linked to me a couple of times this month---first to the "Twilight and the female gaze" entry, now to Eclipse in Fifteen Minutes--which is nice.

What I saw while I was over there was... not so nice. ( YOU GAVE YOUR BABY A PUNNY TWILIGHT TRAMP STAMP? )

I'm going to go lie down again.

Peoples of the Internet, I am an idiot. Let me tell you why:

( Read more... )

Today on Tumblr: Some really interesting stuff. I really liked the lovers' portrait brooches and My Cat's Locket.

Robert Culp, star of ‘I Spy,’ dead at 79.

'Iron Man 2' Poster, Starring These People -- AND AN EXPLOSION; About That Time Iron Man 2 Reshot All of Olivia Munn's Footage.

EXCLUSIVE: Liam Neeson Cast As LBJ In 'Selma,' Cedric The Entertainer To Play Ralph Abernathy.

Clint Eastwood Confirms to Movieline: Next Project is Dustin Lance Black-Penned J. Edgar Hoover Biopic.

Disney's 'Maleficent' Gets a Writer, Tim Burton Still Interested.

'The Lone Ranger' To Be An Origin Story, Jerry Bruckheimer Says. 

Paul W.S. Anderson to Direct 3D Buck Rogers.

Knightley in 'Emperor's Children,' 'True Grit' Moves to Texas and Foxx Pens 'Laverne & Shirley.'

Meet Michel Gondry's Family: 'Thorn in the Heart' Trailer.

trailer_spot: Adèle Blanc-Sec, Secret in Their Eyes, Good Bad Weird, Get Him to Greek, Harry Brown, White Stripes.

Famous Movie Quotes in Chart Form. 

Avatar Release Launches Initiative to Plant 1 Million Trees.

Twilight: New Moon Sells 4 Million DVDs First Weekend. Meanwhile, as previously noted, I have a mild fear of wax museums. This is not helping. (ETA: AND SO IT BEGINS.)

Hey! Hey! You know what I'm even more afraid of?

eruvadhril: "Cleo. Cleo. Cleo. Sparklepires exist AND THEY ARE A SQUID. The name of the squid is actually 'The Vampire Squid from Hell,' and its defense mechanism is not ink, but bioluminescent fluid with which it DAZZLES its attackers. One of the guys at that link actually says 'Their defense is to dazzle.'"

That. I'm more afraid of THAT. Put some elbows on it and I'll never sleep again.

Another photo safari! And this one is LJ-only because I couldn't actually stop and tweet it at the time!

( I figure if a girl wants to be a legend, she should go ahead and be one )


(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

Yesterday afternoon, Mom decided that she needed a new pair of black heels for work, so I decided that leaving the house was relevant to my interests and went with her. Here's what I posted to Twitter as we went:

http://twitpic.com/k9pd5 - Where I am right now
Shoe porn. Note the supercute plum-colored shoes in the middle.

http://twitpic.com/k9pdv - Boots
They remind me a little of Violet's boots in the Lemony Snicket movie, with the cutouts and all.

http://twitpic.com/k9pfz - Right half of top floor of my favorite bookstore
I couldn't even get the left half of the store into the frame. It has an ESCALATOR, y'all. That's just the floor with the kids' books and the magazines. The lower floor is the one with the adult books.

I also passed Sparklepires 'R' Us shortly thereafter, but I was on the other side of the corridor with a kiosk between me and the store, and I already felt too much like a tourist, what with the picture-taking, as it was. And you know, I knew that the merchandise would be 82% Twilight-related, but I didn't expect to be able to see it FROM TWENTY FEET AWAY. There were three-foot dueling Edward and Jacob portraits up IN THE ENTRANCE. It was kind of amazing, actually.

http://twitpic.com/k9piu - Mom's favorite store for purses
My mother has a serious weakness for purses. Really big ones, too. So we went and browsed, as she could not resist the Rabbit's Tale's siren song.

http://twitpic.com/k9ple - I stayed over at this wall
I am not so much with the purses, but I am very much into the huge funky earrings.

http://twitpic.com/k9pps - Bracelets
You can't see too well, but there are bangles with rhinestone tiaras on them. I... I kind of wanted one.

http://twitpic.com/k9tr5 - WTF, y'all
This is a genuine photo I took with my iThing in the women's department (you can see the shoe department in the background). Yes, I actually WENT BACK to get this picture, it was so amazing. Apparently The Artist Formerly Known as the Dread Pirate Lestat shops at Belk's now.


Still working, by the way. I'm at the really tedious "clicking links to make sure I didn't put the wrong ones in" and final proof-reading stage. I'm just anal enough that I have to do this myself. I'm also hearing that if I want to preserve all the formatting, I'm going to need to use some Adobe Acrobat program, so I'm looking into that. I spent most of the weekend in a foul black funk wanting to punch people in the head (everything that could go wrong did, basically), and it's only 9:30 and already today is 200% better. Also, I LEFT THE HOUSE yesterday (obviously), which did a lot of good. Also-also, I bought chocolate (Cadbury) and booze (Woodchuck Amber), either for future head-punching emergencies or to celebrate when I finish. Probably both.

So... Anna's been going a little crazy. I finally got Elizabeth to tell me what they'd been arguing about, and it was simply that Anna does not trust The Littlest Edward. At all. Ever. Period.

"It doesn’t matter what I say—nothing gets through to her. I mean, yeah, he creeps me out a little with his hunching and lurking and—smelling, but he’s not doing anything wrong, and he’s even going out of his way to stay away from people."

( I ain't makin' nobody put on nothin' )

Heartbreaking pictures of the Victoria fires and aftermath; Firefighter gives koala water, koala is recovering in shelter ("She has already got an admirer. A male koala keeps putting his arms around her"). Once again: the Australia Red Cross.

Remember the Etsy shop with proceeds going to the sick friend? She's restocked, and I particularly asked her to add some more lily earrings.

From dakiwiboid: "We are once again running our Cupid's Drop Box community at valentines_09. Could you mention it to your readers?" You can leave a message for any LJ user; the entries are divided up by first initial (D for dakiwiboid, for example).

Today's Snack Deathmatch: ice cream sandwich vs. fudgesicle, a contest dear to my heart.

( More linkspam )

I forgot to mention this earlier, but since a few people asked--you actually can get the Movies in Fifteen Minutes book in paperback off Amazon UK for a lot less than the hardback, which seems to mostly be in the hands of the Asshat Resellers now (God bless us, every one). What's £5.99 these days--$8.48? And you can get it used for £2.99 (even from a business perspective, I'm more concerned with people reading the book than whatever slim royalties I might lose from secondhand sales). Whereas the hardback now seems to only sell used from £31 and up. So, in conclusion: if you want to get the book cheap, the paperback has a different cover and a slightly different title, but it's the same thing.

Meanwhile, the Awesomeness Initiative is flagging somewhat, mostly because the cold weather is making me sluggish. One of my favorite things to do when it's cold--and the sheer amount of time I spend doing this is a major failing of mine--is curl up on the couch under a pile of blankets while the dogs argue over who gets to lie on my feet. As a means of jumpstarting my lazy ass, I've started asking myself what Barack Obama would do, and then I realized that's not going to work because he would just tell Rahm Emanuel to take care of it while he did something more presidential, like fix the economy with the power of his mind from his Fortress of Solitude. So then I started asking myself what Michelle Obama would do. Put on her Jimmy Choos and kick some ass, that's what Michelle Obama would do. I think this would look very good printed on a rubber bracelet, in fact.

(This is why I will never be a good role model. What would Cleolinda do? Curl up on her couch and... watch shitty movies on cable. POW!)

( Linkspam! )

Remember how tired I was? Yeah, I don't think I slept at all. If I did drop off, I don't remember it. I'm probably going to pass out in three or four hours, but I've got to get through the extended family lunch first. It's small and we're close, though, so it's not a huge ordeal or anything.

So, to repeat the question from Thanksgiving--if you are celebrating holiday(s) today, what foods are you nomming? And if presents were involved, what did you get that you really liked? Or, for that matter, what did you give that you really liked? I'm very pleased with the present I've put together for my cousin, for example (I can't say what yet, because she might actually read this before she gets here). As for me, I got that star locket (in gold tone) and the bracelet that I had really wanted from Sweet Romance. Oh, and Beedle the Bard! It's funny, I wasn't even interested in that until people started talking about it and I realized there was more to it than just a couple of fairy tales. (I mean, if nothing else, there's an epic burn.) So that's probably what I'll be doing today after I emerge from a short coma: reading.

I also got something else, probably my favorite present of all, that we will speak of later. (No, it is not male. Speaking of which--whom?--we haven't seen Purple Arwen since he arrived. No one is terribly surprised.)

Meanwhile, I wish you booze and joy. I just really wish I had some pomegranate juice now.

Had a good time at the baby shower; kind of tired. Just a few quick things, because I like the perfect attendance streak I have going here, as it were:

( Deaths )

( THEY FIRED CATHERINE HARDWICKE FROM TWILIGHT? )

( On TV tonight )

( Miscellaneous )

And finally: WHOA WHERE DID THIS COME FROM? ( I can but Keanu in response )

Okay, first of all, OUR LONG INTERNATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER: JKR/WB vs RDR Books Trial: RDR Books Withdraws Appeal.

Second of all: Holy shit, Edward Dollen really does look like David Boreanaz.

Third: For people wondering about what the hell's up with the Bella doll, this is the outfit she's wearing. You only see the peasant blouse in the hotel scene because she's got the jacket zipped up after that. And the doll's actually wearing the brown jacket from another scene (this one. Look at the cuffs). Look, I don't actually care what she's wearing--padawansguide and I just geek out over costumes like whoa on her site sometimes, so I'm used to scrutinizing tiny details like a nutbar. People were just asking, is all.

Fourth: An email conversation I just had with my mother, who is apparently way more invested in the situation than I had dreamed: ( Read more... )

And for folks a little lost with the whole Secret Life of Dolls thing, there's some background and a chronological list of entries over here (after a little housekeeping to get the list up to date).

( Linkspam! )