Cleolinda everywhere

I kept hoping my mother would forget about The Day the Earth Stood Still, or be deterred by the bad reviews, but nope! She loves the original! LET'S GO SEE IT NOW! Moar shopping...? NO! NOW! And you know what? I went in with EXTREMELY low expectations ("So... grim, boring, and preachy, then?"), and those expectations were not disappointed ("Ah, three for three").

( Thorough spoilers )

The really sad part is that even my mother's asking now if I'm going to write Fifteen Minutes...es every time I see a movie. "NO! I JUST WANT TO WATCH SOMETHING FOR ONCE--YOU DON'T EVEN READ THEM, WHY DO YOU CARE?!" Yeah... I've been a little crankypants today, sorry. I think it's the headache.

More fun in the mail! I don't know who sent me the key pendant, but I LOVE IT.

(I always love things people send in the mail, and thank you so much--I just wanted to make it clear that I don't usually post about things unless I'm trying to figure out who sent it, not because I didn't like it. I just don't want it to turn into, you know, Send Cleo Presents and Buy a Shoutout on Her Journal.)

(Although I do want to mention a glittery Christmas card from Chesh: "Just pretend the snowmen are vampires sparkling in the sunlight. They feed on snowballs.")

Re: Official SKIN OF A KILLER Glitter: ( Pillowcases? Really? )

Oh, and I wanted to mention/recommend this--every year, I get a Kinuko Craft calendar because I love her artwork. (I have already secured 2009's, because apparently I am doomed to know every single thing I am getting for birthday and Christmas, to the point where my mother and aunt and grandmother sat around in my grandmother's kitchen and sorted out who would give me what when. While I was sitting there in front of them. "Would you rather have Prince Caspian for birthday or Christmas?" "OMG STOP IT!!") So... consider it rec'd.

Also, a link request: A write-in campaign to protest the whitewash casting of 'The Last Airbender.'

( More linkspam )

Late again today, because there was MOAR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING. Which was fun, so I had that going for me.

Important: I got an email the other day from someone who said that reading The Gift of Fear hours before she attended a seminar helped her realize that the seminar was Bad News; she was able to run away, literally, out of the building, before they got their hooks into her (they immediately started telling people to ignore gut instincts, interestingly enough). Turns out the seminar was the cult Lifespring under a new name--please be aware that variations operate under the names "Mastery In Transformational Training" and "Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness," according to Wikipedia. So basically, I wanted to alert everyone to that before anyone else got sucked in, and also, READ THE GIFT OF FEAR, SERIOUSLY, IT IS ON SALE RIGHT NOW, I AM NOT KIDDING.

Also: in the interest of slimming down the linkspam entries, I've looked into using FriendFeed for the less crucial stuff. Basically, anything I post on Livejournal or Twitter will show up there, and anything I "share" from Google Reader will as well. I won't hit share on anything I intend to use on the linkspam posts--the good and/or movie stuff--so at least that way you're not getting it twice, but if it's just something randomly kind of interesting, I'll throw it up there anyway. (And you'll also see the kind of stuff I initially flag and then don't use.) And you can then add the RSS feed of that to Google Reader if that's what you use. It's a whole recursive tangle of feeds, but you know, whatever. It gives people options. I'll try it for a while, see if it works for people.

Meanwhile, the Twilight sequel trainwreck has gotten EVEN WORSE. ( Hey, can you be in Vancouver on Monday? )

( More linkspam )

God, my jaw is killing me (left side). Tension, I guess. Anyway, Sister Girl came home from the podiatrist and now she has a "flayed Achilles tendon," so I'm pretty much just waiting for the other shoe to drop and fall on my head (so to speak). Mom's foot's doing reasonably okay, though.

Alabama Mayor Charged With Fraud; Mayor arrested on bribery, other charges; Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford enters not-guilty plea, is released. Given that this is the same mayor who wanted to spend a shitload of money nominating Birmingham FOR THE OLYMPICS (as if we even had enough hotels to deal with that) and moved a downtown dome-building project OUT TO THE DOG TRACK to benefit his cronies, I am pleased by these developments.

( More linkspam )

I feel kind of... weirdly relaxed. Would you know what I meant if I said I didn't have any good tension? Like--you know how you can't play a violin unless the strings are taut? That kind of tension. Right now I just feel kind of... boneless. I mean, it's nice. It's just not helping me get anything done.

(No I did not take any drugs.)

(No, not even legal ones.)

(NOT EVEN A DRINK, I AM SERIOUS.)

Repeat of important note: LJ's going out tomorrow for a physical server move. Just in case, you might want to back up your journals with ljArchive. If you need to get hold of me for some kind of OMG LOOK AT THIS! reason, I'm on Twitter and Facebook (see sidebar), and you can get me at my Yahoo email (dailydigest @). I'm not going to assume that the cleolinda at livejournal.com email will work.

Hmm. "Another Way to Die" is growing on me. My policy of not listening to a Bond theme song until I actually hear it over the credits in the theater seems to be working well for me. Although I was not terribly impressed by the sandy ladies. Of course, I ran off to Vegas and quickie-married "You Know My Name" when the other movie came out, so I'm probably unpleasable at this point, in terms of Bond songs.

(What is it with me? Lately it's like I don't like anything until I've heard it four or five times, and then suddenly I'm like, I MUST NEVER STOP LISTENING TO THIS. I mean, I tend to listen to things on repeat so this works out for me okay, but it used to not take me quite so long to realize I liked something.)

(I can't think of a segue to this, so I'll simply say that Sister Girl whipped out her iPhone the other day and said, "You know that song 'Personal Jesus'?" "Um, I'm a child of the '80s?" "Well, Hilary Duff..." "OH GOD!" Fortunately, it's more of an extended sample called "Reach Out," in which one is exhorted to reach out and touch her instead of faith. The video is... interesting. Kind of like a Vogue photoshoot gone horribly wrong. We both love that huge ring she's got on in the closeups, though.)

Anyway. Another Twi-spam may go up tonight, I'm not sure. Depends on whether we get riots and/or sparkling.

(Watch The Twilight Premiere Live! HEY YOU GUYS IT'S ANOTHER WIDGET! Of course, I just like saying "widget" over and over again. It's such a fun word to say. "Iiiiiiiit's a WIDGET!")

(I personally find this to be related: DiCaprio: 'Titanic Nearly Ruined Me.')

Re: Mad Hatter pic: I'm not the only one concerned it might be a fake. Also, since a number of people sent me this link--Alice in Wonderland set pics. These are the same or similar pictures to the ones I posted a while back, though--there's Baby Bonham-Burton in her red riding hood and everything.

( Moar linkspam )

From joannad: The Russian hackers got someone else. Whatever you do, do not click on the user journal or Shoebox Project links mentioned in the entry. And to secure your own journal, choose a secret question NOW. (ETA: Or not?) Here's what I would advise doing, in terms of setting your question/answer: since we're worried about hackers and not people in our daily lives stealing our journals, I would suggest writing the question and the answer down on a piece of paper, not storing it anywhere on your computer or online, and guarding that paper with your life. Here's why: choose a question, and for the answer, pick something completely unrelated. What was your first pet's name? Hardware store. You see what I'm saying? Something that no one would ever, ever guess, even by combing your journal for clues, because it's a non sequitur in the first place. And that's why you're going to want to write it down, in case you forget your randomly-chosen unrelated thing.

Okay, in less urgent news: If you didn't catch the ETA on the Twi-spam entry, Hot Topic has given up on trying to set line-up times and they're just giving out wristbands for Thursday and Friday in a first come/first serve free-for-all. People who don't hear about this until they show up "early" tomorrow night? Are going to be exquisitely pissed.

In even less urgent news: Sometimes people have to interview writers for school assignments (you know, "Interview a published author"), and because I'm not as scary as people who are actually important, sometimes they ask me. So if you'd like to hear (well, read) me answer questions I am spectacularly unqualified to answer, my most recent interviewer has let me archive some here.

In just really frustrating news: Our dishwasher has officially given up the ghost. Sigh.

Something fun: from t3andcrumpets, pretty, crazy-color eyeshadow that I have been drooling over all week. I'm not saying I'd go full-on rainbow with it (like on the front page), but you can shop by color, if you know what looks good with your eyes. I might just be crazy enough to try Hibiscus or Blaze in the distant future, I don't know.

(Purples are so preeeeettyyyyy.)

( The Alternate History Theme Park Where Dinosaurs Fought in the Civil War )

I started writing up a list of Specific "Fifteen Minutes" Footnotes That Still Need Work (links, research, a quick polish, whatever), and the Dracula one's kind of long, the Van Helsing one's okay, the POA one is really short, and then you to get to the King Arthur list, and it says, I am not kidding,

Total mess. Seriously, you have like 6 pages of unincorporated research. Get basic intro together.
HAVE YOU DONE ANY WORK ON THIS AT ALL?
Pelagius?

And then I just said to hell with it and took the dogs for a walk.

Today's journal flashback: a handful of shorter movie bits, Wicker Park ("A movie I haven't seen in five minutes, if you will"), the cracked-out Jurassic Park 4 script (really honestly truly, not making it up), and... hey, why not a discussion of Picnic at Hanging Rock? Can't think why not.

Earlier today, because I don't want y'all to overlook it: Where my synesthetes at?

From mercat: "There are several different movements in action to try to save Pushing Daisies, so I thought I'd link you to them: Help Bees Help Daisies, Pies for Poverty, Honey for the Homeless, and a mail-in (more info)." And I'll tell you truthfully, now is the time to act. You know, not several months later like the Moonlight fandom, bless them.

And from entropy_and_me: ( Doctor Who spoiler ) I'll just be in my scream-proof anti-fangirl bunker now if you need me.

More linkspam, now that I have crushed half my readership's souls: ( Han Solo Ain't Never Had No Sex With Princess Leia in a Star War! )

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 )

Aw, hell. I've been sneezing a lot lately, and then today I came down with these weird alternating hot and cold spells. I don't know that I'm running an actual fever, but it sucks either way. It's probably allergies. But still--I am determined to not go into the month of October without finishing the annotated Fifteen Minutes thing because I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON IT LONG ENOUGH NOW, GOD. I have got to move on with life at some point.

(That's frustration with myself talking there, by the way.)

("Are you feeling guilty? YEAH YOU ARE!")

By the way, I'm recording another--different--podcast on Saturday, which should be fun. General subject: vampires in the media. Doing speaky-speaky stuff like this seems to help my confidence, so I'm going with it. Someday, I may actually bring myself to be sociable in real life, my God!

Linkspam! ( Feast upon the Uwe Boll Slot )

Made some more Secret Life of Dolls icons. I'm to the point where I can't really imagine anyone wanting to use them (you're free to, obviously), but I still like making them. They're like tiny little movies! If movies had lots of text and still photographs! Uh. ( Read more... )

You know how many good movie trailers just came out? I'm putting them above the cut, that's how many.

Trailers and clips: 'Revolutionary Road' Trailer Online; New 'Day the Earth Stood Still' Footage Sunday; Witness Meryl Streep's Reign of Terror in 'Doubt' Trailer; Must Watch: Tom Tykwer's 'The International' Trailer With Clive Owen! ('International' Trailer Creates Little 'Interest' [See, Because It's About a Bank]; The 'International' Trailer Uses a Scene From 'Ghost Rider'!); Clint Eastwood's 'Changeling' Trailer With Angelina Jolie; First Look: Gilliam's 'Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' Featurette; 'Two Lover's trailer; Exclusive Clip: 'Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway'; Get Bloody Musical with the Trailer for 'Repo! The Genetic Opera'; 'Feast 2' Trailer Is A Pretty Little Massacre.

Okay, I didn't say that they were all good.

(Also, nerves_patterns says thanks for your help with her project--it seems to have gone really well.)

More linkspam: ( New James Bond theme, the dangers of hitting Brad Pitt in the face, Rupert Grint loses a bet )