Cleolinda everywhere

Some very sad real-world news in the previous entry. I endeavor to bring you escapism and raptors.

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MORE DWARVES, YOU GUYS!

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Huzzah! My college roommate (Valkyrie) and her husband (Dr. Typo, for those of y'all who used to read the Daily Digest) had their baby today! Baby Typo is seven pounds or thereabouts and 21 inches long. Also, we all haunted Dr. Typo's Facebook this morning once word got out that they'd gone to the hospital--we sat there refreshing madly while he updated his status from his iPhone, and the Lovely Emily (my other college roommate) can't get Facebook at work, so I relayed all the news to her via email. Of course, he disappeared for long stretches of time, quite reasonably, as he needed to actually be with Valkyrie and not liveblog the whole thing. Ah, modernity.

(While we were waiting, Em and I discussed Breaking Dawn, which she had just read for the first time. Appropriate!)

Petty distress: my face is all red and dry and sensitive and itchy (like a sunburn, actually), and I'm not sure why, except that ( Read more... )

New York Comic Con in 90 Seconds; "Real Book" Writers Play a Part at Comic-Con, Too; 2009 NYCC: Tonner Doll Co. Speaking of NYCC (and dolls), here's foresthouse's recap of her own adventures (with photo gallery), including a pilgrimage to aforesaid Tonner booth. What I love is that three different people (including my sister) took pictures of the Dollens, but only in foresthouse's was The Hair on high alert (fangirls must have been imminent).

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And, once again: Death toll in Australian wildfires rises past 170. Please consider donating to the Red Cross.

Sick today. Not badly, just enough to feel dizzy and crummy and not make a lot of sense when I tried to talk to people. And it was only a little congestion at that--possibly I didn't notice it because (sorry, mild TMI) the crud was oozing down my throat, which was then sore, rather than staying in my head.

(Heather C.--thank you so much! The packing slip referred to two packages? The one today had books in it?)

(Also: omg.)

( Minispam about recent and not-so-recent deaths )

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New Awesomeness Initiative unresolution: Be less neurotic. I almost think I'm so neurotic (example: being too squeamish to check my own email for an important reply) because I'm accustomed to being neurotic. Like, because I'm used to it, this is a behavioral baseline in my mind. And, well--you know the saying "Fake it till you make it." I'm just going to have to pretend to be someone who has her shit together until maybe I actually do.

Anyway:

The Deathly Hallows of Online Community [LiveJournal], or, Valleywag's poison-pen letter to the "revolting," fanfic-writing LJ userbase and "relentness weirdness that infects the site."

( Quick Golden Globes spam )

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Did I mention that I just realized yesterday that the Golden Globes are this weekend? I mean, not that that's a huge problem, but I hadn't started strength-training mentally preparing myself for the liveblogging. (The goal, by the way, is to have something you can actually read a week later and have any clue what I was talking about.) They didn't even have the Globes last year, due to the writers' strike, so it'll be nice to have the Drinky Oscars back.

(Please bear in mind, also, that I'm still reformatting the PBWiki as we go, now that we're all having to upgrade to 2.0.)

( Linkspam! )

MOAR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING. I know it sounds like we do nothing but shop these days, but the thing is, we're going out a lot and to a lot of different places, but we're really not returning with all that much. Also, it's really hard to find the right gift for some of the people on our list. So there's that.

Meanwhile, on the way home from our last excursion of the day, we dropped by my grandmother's to bring her some more ornaments. On the way out, I stopped to play with a--I don't know, I guess you'd call it a banner? It kind of looks like a long flat bell pull? I don't know. She has it hanging on her front door, and it's this tan-colored strip of fabric with little decorated felt Christmas trees, edged with shiny gold rickrack. "I loved this when I was a kid," I told her, shaking it a little so the bells would jingle. "Ruth made that," my grandmother said warmly. "She really liked arts and crafts. She made all of this herself, every bit of it. Even the tassels. She sewed everything on it there--the sequins, the little ornaments, she even put the pearls on the trees. She's dead now."

I managed not to crack up until I got to the car. My mother couldn't understand why I was doubled up in the passenger seat crying with laughter. I'm not sure I understand it myself.

Let's have a little linkspam.

( OMFG HE CUT OFF HIS HAIR EVERYBODY KERMITFLAIL )

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT THAT IT IS ABOVE THE CUT:

From sabra_n: My Fair Lady: Thompson Wants Laurie as Higgins ("The only way that could be improved upon, as one genius on the Innerwebs pointed out, is if they cast Stephen Fry as Pickering").

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ETA: Oh, I forgot to mention--someone (I've lost the comment! Who was it?) suggested I claim my author profile on GoodReads, so I'm over there now as well. If you have any idea what I should put under "about this author," let me know.

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.

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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.

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A surprisingly good day. I think I definitely need to invest in a full bottle of BPAL's Siren for my oil diffuser when I have some moneys, because I felt very workative despite the joyless rainy gloom outside. Maybe it's the ginger? I have no idea.

(So... why are fireworks going off behind our house? I can't see them or anything; it just sounds like Bosnia out there. Either that, or the orcs are coming. Shelby is huddled up on the couch with this haunted look in her eyes.)

(DUDE I THINK THEY ARE GETTING CLOSER)

(Oh, it's stupid Samford's stupid homecoming. Thanks for terrifying my dog, asses.)

Today's journal flashback: a tale of Salt Lake City shenanigans. ( More linkspam )