Suddenly, a wild DW/LJ post appears!

I felt the need to commemorate the release of Kings Rising, and the end of the Captive Prince trilogy (yeah yeah, I know there are three more short stories coming, but let me be dramatic about this for a second) here as well.

We made if, you guys! Come flail with me in the comments or come find me on twitter (where we can also flail about One Direction, and Nick Grimshaw, my forever love, and also Hamilton, and how Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jonathan Groff are currently ruining my life); I'm aurora_84 there as well.

In conclusion: KINGS RISING! :DD

ps. My LJ name is in the acknowledgements and I couldn't be more pleased about it.

Oh hey, it's my 10-year LJ-anniversary (it was technically on October 2, but I had in my head it was October 4).

Anyway, *THROWS CONFETTI*!

Also, now that I've gone on a posting spree (hah), let me tell you that while my DW/LJ has been extremely quiet for the last year and a half, I've been tweeting up a storm at aurora_84. Feel free to follow me, I'm always super-happy when I see old fandom friends there.

Though I should maybe warn that most of my tweets are One Direction/The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw related. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. Yep, I managed to find myself an RPS fandom and it's sticking. The realization that I could be in it for years and years to come was quite terrifying, let me tell ya.

But yes, that's where I'm at fannishly. Questions? Thoughts? Hilarious laughter in my direction?

Also, finally, tell me what's happening with you guys! <3

La la la, it seems I am breaking my 18-month DW/LJ posting drought. This is a thing I am doing right now.

The occasion for it is quite special! You see, one of my favorite people in the world is celebrating her birthday today. So what better reason to dust off this journal (and holy shit, that's a lot of dust that's been gathering) and wish Ree reeface a very very happy birthday!

Reeface aka url_girl, I heart you so much and I always cheer when I see a post of yours on my flist (that I still read daily, oh yes). I hope you're having a fabulous and fantastic day and that your year will be even more spectacular.

*throws sparkles and fireworks and unicorns and glitter pens and nekkid dudes* You deserve them all! <3

As promised in the ETA to my last entry, I've re-uploaded my music mix (playlist). And just to be sure, I'm providing two links.

[link 1] via Mediafire
[link 2] via Mega aka the (still-in-beta) reincarnation of MegaUpload

The password to unpack the .rar file is mixtape.

If there are still problems, please let me know.

OH HAI. I guess I disappeared there for a while, at least updating-wise. I'm still checking my flist daily and leaving comments here and there, though! (Also I'm on twitter, being twitter-y, under the same handle as my LJ.)

So, what have I been up to? Not all that much. Work was really stressy for the last couple of months in that I had one all-consuming case that really knew how to spike my blood pressure on a daily basis. But that's (mostly) over now and tomorrow I'm off for a well-deserved vacation. My first one since April if you can believe it! Anyway, we're flying to Seville tomorrow, and from there we'll visit Cordoba, Granada (fdsjfqsjkfl the Alhambra! I've only been wanting to see it since I was eight years old and read about in an encyclopedia), Ronda and maybe Gibraltar. And then back to Belgium on the 13th.

Being on holiday on the 6 November will complicate my keeping up with the Presidential election but I'm sure we'll be able to find a teevee or wifi access somewhere in order to learn who won. Don't let me down, America!!

Aside from work I'm still going to the movies as often as I can, and I'm still downloading/watching a shitload of teevee. Homeland and Parks & Recreation are my favorites! Go On is a cool new show I picked up this fall season (mostly because John Cho is my kryptonite). And even though I'm bummed that Community got delayed (October 19 is just a state of mind, yo), at least we now have an actual (new) airing date --7 February 2013. Whooo!

I also attended quite a few gigs this fall. On 30 September, I kicked things off with fun., and since then I've seen Tyler Ward, The Gaslight Anthem, Glen Hansard, The Tallest Man on Earth, Patrick Wolf, and Bon Iver be brilliant on stage. Live music is awesome, you guys. And I still have Florence & The Machine, Rufus Wainwright, Ben Gibbard, Stars, and Yo La Tengo to look forward to. W-I-N.

What else? Oh, my laptop's hard drive died and had to be replaced. I finally got my beloved Silas-the-laptop back on Tuesday. After that, the idea was to install the system copy I had lying around on one of my external hard drives, but the computer gods did not favor me. I still don't know what was wrong with the system copy exactly, but once I had installed it, I was unable to get beyond the Windows start screen. Errors and blue screens was what I kept getting. I eventually gave up and just started from scratch. Luckily I had all my music and media saved on externals and the last time I'd done a documents/pics backup was three weeks ago, so I just had to re-install a shitload of programs and get my settings back as I had them before. I think I've managed to do that now, so let me officially welcome you, Silas The Fifth! (My laptop gets a new -th everytime I'm forced to re-install Windows.)

I'm gonna wrap things up for now, I think. Before I go, I want to thank wraithness, nel_ani, and popfly for the Halloween cookies. <3<3<3

And this post wouldn't feel complete without a bit of music. Enjoy these five tracks I've been digging a lot lately. (They're zipped cause Mediafire really loves suspending accounts for copyright infringement.)
- Ed Sheeran - Be My Husband (Nina Simone cover): Ed Sheeran, YOUR VOICE. There is nothing about this song that I don't love, nothing.
- Sarah Winters - Swim Good (Frank Ocean cover): The original was pretty brilliant but Sarah Winters succeeds in really making this song her own, all slow and full of emotion. (Ed Sheeran also covered it recently. Holler if you would like me to upload his version too.)
- The Lumineers - Ho Hey: a folksy tune that will definitely cheer you up.
- TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me: noisy and energetic and raw in the best possible way.
- Lord Huron - Time to Run: this one starts all slow and church-y but builds up to a quick-paced piece of awesomeness.

What. is. up, flist?

With me, not all that much. I'm swamped with work cause my colleague is on leave for a month, and aside from busting my ass off, I've been consuming a fuckton of media. Feel free to come talk to me about it in the comments.

Movie-wise, I've dragged my ass to the cinema several times in the last few weeks in order to see Madagascar 3 (nothing mindblowing, but decently funny), The Amazing Spider-Man (consider my crush on Andrew Garfield back in full swing, and oh yeah, the movie was pretty great too), Snow White & The Huntsman (visually quite amazing but the story left me somewhat unfulfilled), Weekend (equally charming and bittersweet), To Rome With Love (hilarious but also somewhat confusing and skeevy/sexist), and Brave (feeeeeeeeeeeelings!).

Teevee-wise, I've consumed every episode of Life (love it despite a weaker second season; and man, Sarah Shahi's pregnancy came at a very unfortunate moment -- I really missed her in the second half of season 2), two seasons of Happy Endings (loveloveLOVE this show, it's just adorable and I recommend it to everyone!), and three seasons of Cougar Town (the show greatly improved as it went along, and I love most of the characters but guys, I've grown to dislike Jules a bit; she's so smothering and disrespectful of personal boundaries that it sets off my embarrassment squick and makes my skin crawl /o\). Today I downloaded Flight of the Conchords so I guess I know what I'll be watching for the next week or two. Oh, and I'm also (still) tuning in to The Newsroom, because apparently I'm a glutton for punishment.


Before work got all hectic, at the beginning of July, me and a friend took a day trip to Ghent and it was all kinds of fun. ( Here are some pictures for your enjoyment: )


I'm gonna wrap up this semi-boring post with some music. Three songs from one of my favorite bands of all time, The National. I hadn't listened to them in a while but then my music player, set to play my entire music catalog on random, decided to unleash some A++ The National songs onto my ears and my adoration flooding back. So yes, three songs, one from each of their three most recent albums. Here's the zip, here are the YT previews: [Terrible Love] (I also really love this live version), [Slow Show], [All The Wine].

And now I'm gonna go get ready for bed. I have a dentist appointment in the morning. (My life. So wickedly exciting!!)

Um, not that I've been extremely (or at all) post-y recently, but I might be even less so for the next 10 days.

I'm off to Bulgaria for my yearly trip to visit the family, shop till I drop, and hopefully enjoy the nice weather. There is a possibility I'll have internet access at my hotel and perhaps I'll actually be more active on DW/LJ while I'm in Bulgaria. Wait and see!

In any case, I hope you're or will be having an excellent day-week-month. I heart you all! ♥

I can't believe this is my first LJ/DW entry of March. It's the 19th already, self, FFS. In other words: hi!

1) I have officially booked my first vacation of 2012. Ten days of Bulgaria at the end of April! YAY. I'm going to visit my grandmother and aunts and cousins and distant relatives and family friends. Also, I'm going to shop for cheap-ish shoes (I came back with four pair(s?) last year; I intend to do better now), cheap-ish earrings, and cheap-ish and cute clothes. Furthermore, I'm going to gorge myself on delicious Bulgarian food. Oh, and I'm planning to book myself a hot stone massage; I treated myself to one for my birthday a couple of year ago and it was a fantastic experience (no idea why I haven't looked into masseuses here in Belgium, hmmm).

In conclusion: April 19-29 = Bulgaria time! I'll probably have internet access at least some of the time but if I disappear for a while, that's the reason. (As apposed to the current three weeks of not posting to LJ/DW. I have no excuse for that.)

Fun fact: I ordered myself a copy of Good Omens to read on the train/bus/plane to and from Bulgaria because Gaiman is an excellent travel companion and because, for some reason, I only had the audiobook. Whut.


2) In teevee news, COMMUNITY IS BACK. *HAPPY FLAILING TILL THE END OF TIMES* AND LESLIE KNOPE WON FANDOM MARCH MADNESS 2012! I kept meaning to make a "omg vote for Leslie, please!"-post, but then she kept winning and I decided against it for fear of jinxing her amazing streak. Yes, I am weird. I also wanted to link you guys the PaleyFest panels of Community and Parks & Recreation, but YT seems to have taken them down in the meantime. Booo. So much boo! :(


3) Still in The Social Network fandom and unswayed by other fannish goodies/temptations. Can't wait for tsn_springfest!


4) In movie news, I can now add the following flicks to my "seen it"-list: This Means War -- admittedly somewhat skeevy, but surprisingly hilarious too. Also: gaaaayyyyy. Also also: Tom Hardy's lips/shoulders/tats/everything omg. Chronicle -- recced by my brother, turned out very decent. Watch out for shaky cam and child abuse, though. The Artist -- pretty wonderful, with bonus points for the hotness of the leads. Underworld 4 -- overwhelmingly bland and annoyingly cliffhangery. The overuse of CGI didn't help either. >:(

As for my movie-going future, The Hunger Games is looking more and more likely. I haven't read the books and don't really intend to, so I'm going to be the lazy person who goes to see the movie instead of reading the book. Take that, um, somebody!


5) Here are some tunes for you (yes, you).
a) Among Savages -- New York City [YT preview]. Sweeping and cheerfully sounding and fitting for springtime, somehow.
b) Doves -- Kingdom of Rust [YT preview]. Heard it during a recent rewatch of Zombieland. A tad gloomy and introspective but far from depressing.
c) The Big Pink -- Velvet [YT preview]. Noisy and dreamy, in a good way.


In conclusion: Come on, baby, light my fire. :D :D *covets*

OH HAI.

1) Winter finally came to Belgium! And of course no one was truly prepared, so the first snow caused a great many (traffic) clusterfucks. The snow started falling last Friday afternoon (I even snapped a picture from my phone to show the worl twitter) and instead of trying to rush back home, I stayed in Brussels after work and met up with a friend. Her bus had a significant delay but we found each other eventually and then we went out for pizza and a movie. The movie was A Dangerous Method and it pretty much sucked. :(


2) In (hopefully) non-sucky movie news, I'm thinking of checking out Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy tomorrow. Oh, and a friend is trying to drag me to see The Descendants on Saturday. I'll probably cave, even though I've heard less-than-favorable things about it. I'm addicted to movies, you guys. This A Softer World comic is pretty much my life philosophy.


3) I didn't intend to talk about movies for three items straight, but I gotta say that the cinematic future is looking bright: new Spider-Man trailer, new Avengers trailer, new Bourne trailer! Can I just live in the movie theater this summer? Pretty please?

4) ( Here are some funny/weird pictures I saved recently. )


5) Music? Music! In my last entry I mentioned that I was going to a Great Lake Swimmers concert, and url_girl asked for a sample of their music. I was more than happy to oblige. Here's a zip with three GLS songs. Feel free to preview them on YT: Moving Pictures Silent Films / Your Rocky Spine / I Will Never See The Sun.

And that's a wrap on this post, I guess. Tell me exciting stuff about you and your (fannish) live, flist! ♥

Um, hi. Apparently I haven't updated since 6 January. /o\

I'm mostly around (my shiny new phone even allows me to browse LJ and DW during the morning/evening commute) and I'm commenting here and there, but I haven't found the time or inspiration to write an actual entry. I do most of my thoughts-dumping on twitter now, it seems. (You're still free to add me there or to tell me your twitter handle, btw!)

Anyway, here's what's been going on with me.

- Work is fine albeit a tad hectic. I still have 13 vacation days left from 2011 that I need to take up before the end of May, but as things stand right now, I won't be using them anytime soon. *pouts* That's also the reason why I haven't made any holiday plans just yet. I'll probably visit my Bulgarian relatives in March/April, but other than that my holiday agenda is empty. Any suggestions on how to spend/waste vacation days (once work settles down a bit)?

- My kitty went missing for three long days; her absence made me and my entire family all antsy and nervous. But she came back!! We'd just finished making "waaah, we lost our kitty, please help us find her" posters when she oh-so-coolly appeared at the back porch. Oh, kitty!

- The power cord of my laptop broke for the very first time. A novel and weird experience! I scrambled to order a new one before my battery was depleted, and with success! Less than 12 hours later, the new power cord was in my possession. Tip for my fellow Belgians: www.replacedirect.be deserves all the kudos.

- ( Movie talk without any big spoilers: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, J. Edgar, Margin Call )

- In concert news, I'm seeing Snow Patrol on 29 February and Great Lake Swimmers on 16 April. Major, two-fold yay!

- ( Teevee talk: Parks & Recreation, Chuck, Glee, Gossip Girl, Fringe )

- I'm still not over MegaUpload being dead and gone. There's a big internet hole where MU used to be and I'm left both sad and grumpy (here's a graph illustrating my current state of mind). Surely legislators can keep themselves busy with more important and pressing matters instead of ruining our internet community? Shooo, internet regulators!

- Google's new privacy policy is another instance of internet fuckery. Why you gotta be that way, Google? UGH.

(Not that I didn't have a chuckle at the categories the Google Ad Preference Manager assigned to me: Arts & Entertainment/ Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio / Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio - Urban & Hip-Hop - Rap & Hip-Hop (This was mostly what I listened to in high school; no idea why Google is associating me with it now.) / Arts & Entertainment - TV & Video - Online Video / Computers & Electronics - Software - Operating Systems - Linux & Unix (I've never used Linux or Unix in my life.) / Finance - Currencies & Foreign Exchange / Law & Government - Government - Legislative Branch / Online Communities - File Sharing & Hosting (HEH.) Online Communities - Photo & Video Sharing - Photo & Image Sharing / Reference - Language Resources.)

- There is very little fannish content in this entry, my apologies. One thing, though: since AO3 now allows fandom tracking, I set up LJ RSS feeds for TSN (ao3_tsn) and TSN RPF (ao3_tsnrpf). Feel free to subscribe.

- I'm going to wrap things up with
a) three funny/nifty images: you sunk my liver!, brilliant advertising is brilliant, *insert immature giggling here*.
b) one song: Zee Avi - Concrete Wall [YT preview]. Heard it on Gossip Girl and was immediately charmed. A dreamy, quiet, gorgeous piece of music.

And that's it for now. I'll try not to wait another 24 days before updating again. In the meantime, flist, do tell me what's been going on with you. I'm all ears! ♥

1) MANY THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO SENT ME CHRISTMAS/WINTER/END-OF-THE-YEAR CARDS, namely elandrialore kaaatie raisintorte raven_lore kashmir1 lallyloo katienyc yellowwolf5 and wojelah. I heart you all a lot.


2) After LJ's horrible anti-improvement of the comments pages, people got cracking and came up with ways to fix (some of) the things LJ fucked up. This script, for instance, brings back subject lines, adds visual tweaks, and restores Verdana as the default font. Yay Verdana! I never knew I could find a font comforting or experience nostalgia for it, but there you go. LJ, take your Arial and shove it! (This script also helps with whipping the new comment pages in some kind of shape, but I haven't tried/installed it.) Oh, and here is a script that brings back preview buttons. Long live code-savvy LJ users!


3) Revenge is back! I don't have deep thoughts, I'm just glad it's back in full-on drama mode. The opening titles remain epically horrible, though. Who designed those and were they fired already? Grey's Anatomy is also returning tonight. Brb bracing myself for heartbreak.

Just in time for my shows' return from hiatus, I managed to watch all available episodes of Person of Interest. Not sure if I'm going to continue watching, through. The show's concept is interesting (and I like the music!) but crime/police serials are so really not my thing, even if JJ Abrams is involved. And while I like Michael Emerson, I'm not particularly charmed by Jim Cavizel. I also can't figure out if the show is building up a mytharc or if it'll stay case-of-the-week. (In my mind, PoI is set in the same universe as LOST. Maybe Hugo sent Ben off the Island for a few years and ordered him to ~do good~ in NYC. Ben then recruited someone who strongly reminded him of Jack, but with more skills and competence and less bawling and beard-horrors. ...Until JJ explicitly states otherwise, this is the story I'm sticking with.)


4) I'm so behind on TSN fandom, again, but I'm determined to catch up. I'm keeping an eye on the tsn-a-thon and I'll find time to read all the wonderful stories that tsnsecretsanta brought us for the holidays. I'm not done with you, TSN, not by a long shot!


5) And now I'm off to take a shower and sleep and dream and get up in six hours FML. Have a song: Avicii - Levels [YT preview]. No acoustic guitars, mellowness, or electronica this time. Swedish house all the way, baby! *bounces around*

HAPPY 2012, EVERYONE!

I'm about to go get ready to have dinner and fun with friends (we might go into town after midnight or just laze around, haven't decided yet). I hope you also had or will have a wonderful New Year's Eve and an even more splendid New Year.

2011 has been around long enough, I'm ready for a change.



See y'all on the flipside. ♥♥♥

1) Hello, flist! Last time we spoke LJ hadn't yet executed its plans to turn the default comment pages into wretched, aesthetically-unpleasing pieces of crap. There is seriously so much ugliness and non-functionality going on that I don't even know where to start. Long live custom pages and css-savvy folks!

Despite this clusterfuck, I don't have plans to permanently move off-LJ. My friends list is here, my communities are here and I still call LJ my fannish home. I'm going to continue to crosspost from DW, though, so if you rather read me there (I'm aurora), go ahead.

My re-acquaintance with twitter has also been going pretty well. \o/ Mostly I've been whining about delayed/cancelled trains and flailing about tv shows, but I guess that's as good a use of twitter as any? Plus, I get to abuse hashtags LIKE A BOSS. Yay! Feel free to add me (@aurora_84) or tell me your twitter handle or rec me (celebrity/news/current events) twitters to follow.

(Also, what's the deal with retweeting? I've done it exactly once (with a tweet that was several hours old) but I think I messed up something cause the retweet didn't show up in my timeline. Does a retweet normally appear in the timeline of the retweeter at the time of retweeting or at the time of the original tweet? ...The word (re)tweet has now officially lost all meaning.)


2) Teevee talk. First of all, thank you so much to everyone who voted in my what-to-watch-during-winter-hiatus poll. Revenge, Once Upon a Time, and Homeland won. Since the poll, I've managed to watch all three of them. (Yes, really.) Under the cut are some of my thoughts and general observations. You're more than welcome to share yours!

( Homeland )

( Revenge )

( Once Upon a Time )

Oh, I also went to the movies by myself last Friday! Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol is what I decided to see and I don't regret that choice one bit. The movie had spectacular visuals (lens flares, ahoy! :D), the plot was definitely okay, and the supporting cast kicked ass. Can Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg get their own spin-off now? Alternatively, can there be a movie about Jeremy Renner seducing the rich guy, as he wanted to do? (I appear to have somehow developed this weird fixation with Jeremy Renner. I know that objectively speaking he's not the hottest or best actor in the world, but I get distracted by him everytime he's on screen. I'm half-tempted to go through his entire oeuvre. Help.)


3) A song, a song to wrap things up. Savoir Adore - Dreamers [YT preview] is a lovely and, well, dreamy duet. You might like it!

Americans on my flist, please hear my pleas. /overdramatic (Seriously, though, I am in need of some assistance.)

Here's the thing: I want to buy a pair (or two) of headphones. I cannot find this particular model of headphones anywhere in Belgium or in Belgian/Dutch online stores or on eBay. Amazon.com has them, so do Amazon.fr and Amazon.de. Unfortunately, the entire Amazon collective apparently hates my Belgian guts and is not letting me buy the freaking headphones. *sob*

So, would anyone on my flist be willing to buy the headphones for me on Amazon and send them my way? I think it'll be around $30 + re-shipping to Belgium. I will pay you back immediately for any and all made costs. Hell, I'll pay you in advance. I'll even send you some Belgian chocolates if you want. Please?

If you're willing and able to help me out, please give me a holler and I'll fill you in on the specifics. Comments are screened.

Oh, and download this song while you're here.

I hadn't made a whiny DW-only post about LJ being down in quite a while, so here it is!

LJ, whyyyyyyyy? :(

Since I'm writing this entry anyway, let me tell you about my new/first smartphone. I ended up choosing for a Samsung Galaxy Mini, for which I got an excellent deal (100€, whaaat?). I haven't given it a name yet but I'm pretty smitten already. It has internet and my flist and my email and Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja. Love!

That being said, I'm sure there are plenty of wonderful things I could be doing with it that I perhaps don't even know about. So, rec me your favorite smartphone apps, flist! Pretty please?

I'll give you a song in return: Greg Laswell - How The Day Sounds [YT preview].

Oh hai. I keep thinking I should update but never actually get around to writing out the posts. I'm putting an end to that right now.

1) Last Saturday, tanisafan and I saw Foster The People in concert and it was pretty swell. They only played for an hour and a bit -- somewhat inevitable with a band that has just released its first album in May of this year -- but the songs we got were wonderful and fun and excellent to dance to. All in all, an excellent Saturday night activity. Well worth braving Brussels' red light district to get to the venue!


2) After a short hiatus, this week I was finally able to bring my back my movie-going on Friday tradition for In Time. I'd intended to catch the 16.30h screening but then a case at work exploded and I ended up working on it until 19h (and taking the file home with me). When I finally left work, I was pretty exhausted and seriously considering postponing the movies for a week, but eventually said "fuck it", decided I deserved a movie outing, and took myself to the 19.30 showing.

A good decision, it turned out, cause In Time was perfect for de-stressing and kicking off my weekend. Just the right amount of plot, intrigue and action, and pretty pretty cast (&MattBomer;) to boot. The only thing it could have used less of is teal and orange.


3) ANDREW AND EMMA WENT TO SEE JESSE'S PLAY LAST NIGHT. *FLAILING TILL THE END OF TIMES*


4) In teevee news, I'm caught up all the episodes I missed when I was in Tenerife. Still loving on Fringe, Parks & Recreation, Community (six seasons and a movie!! >:|), Misfits, Chuck and Castle. On the other hand, Dexter, How I Met Your Mother and Gossip Girl are bumming me out, as is Grey's Anatomy (not for sucking, far from it, but from doing you know what; fuck you, Grey's!). I'm also watching Glee, Bones, The Office US and Private Practice, but don't have deep thoughts or intense feelings about them.


5) My trusted cell phone, an old Nokia 6555 that I've had for over three years, decided to pretty much stop being functional (I can't hear anything when I make a call, even if the person on the other end of the line can sometimes hear me). I've currently fallen back on my previous cell phone, an even older Nokia 3200 that works just fine, but I'm intensely hunting for a new phone. Possibly my first smartphone!

Therefore, talk to me about your (smart)phone, flist! What do you like/love/hate about it? What should I pay attention to when shopping for (smart)phones? I don't want an iPhone and, since I really don't call/text all that much, I can't imagine dropping more than 150-200€ (200-260$) for a new cell phone. That being said, if you have just the best phone rec ever, I could possibly bump up that budget.


6) And finally, a song that I love: SafetySuit - Find A Way [YT preview]! Alternative rock with wistful undertones. You know I'm gonna find a way to let you have your way with me.


I think this post got long enough so I'm going to wrap it up. Don't worry, though, I'll be back. (I already have a list of things I want/need to tell/show/ask you guys and it contains, but is not limited to, the following topics: a poll about new teevee that I should try out during the upcoming winter hiatus; pictures from Tenerife/Corfu; Amazon's ridiculous shipping restrictions when I just want a pair of headphones, seriously, how is this so difficult?? (will perhaps feature my begging for your help); tumblr and how I'm considering getting one.) Later!

Flist, I'm home!

I'm also tanned, suffering from a cold, and desperately behind on all things teevee/internets/fandom/TSN. I just downloaded 5.5 gigabytes of media that I plan on watching sometime in the not-so-distant future. And don't think I've forgotten I owe you pics from Corfu and Tenerife. Will get to that! (Hopefully.)

Feel free to catch me up with what's going on with your lives. Or just share a bit of randomness. *waves at y'all*


(PS: because I hadn't been suffering from (extreme) train delays for the last couple of months, my train this morning decided to rack up a delay of a whopping 48 minutes, on the one day I had planned to be at work around 9am and not my usual 8.20-8.30am. I ended up coming in at 9.57am, cause the subway decided to be late too. Joy! Reason for the (train) delay: technical difficulties, possibly due to cold weather. This winter is going to be fun. /obligatory train story :D)

Oh hai. I've been horrible about updating lately and that's not going to change for at least one week because tomorrow I'm off to Tenerife! YAY. There will be much walking and enjoying of the sun (hopefully) and no internet access what so ever. YAY? But I promise to take pics and maybe post some of them when I get back (maybe along with the ones from Corfu, oops).

Aaaaanyway, have fun while I'm gone, don't break the internet and/or fandom, and I'll see you when I see you.


ps: I saw Drive last Friday and it was pretty excellent. Hyper-violent, too, which I absolutely didn't see coming. The first forty minutes are gorgeously lit scenes and artsy camera angles and secret subtle smiles right up until the shooting and the blood and violence starts. With a bang! If you're not squeamish about blood, go see this movie.

Okay, now I'm done. ♥!

1) Thank you brutalsong, lallyloo, jibrailis, and rane_ab for the spiders in my LJ profile! They are positively adorable; I almost expect them to start doing a merry tapdance or something. :D


2) Last Thursday I overslept for the first time since I became a working person. I'm still not sure how it happened cause I'm pretty positive I set my alarm (maybe it was too quiet?), but long story short: my dad woke me up at 8.15, which is nearly two hours past my normal getting-up time. Oops. However, I did not freak out, got dressed as calmly as I could, and then my dad was so nice to drive me to the train station where I caught my 8.52 train just on time. Was at work around 9.50 and my boss was very understanding about it. Still, not an experience I intend to repeat (often).


3) Last Friday I finally went to the cinema again. Saw The Ides of March, loved The Ides of March. Why didn't no one tell me it was based on Farragut North aka That Play Chris Fine Pine Starred In Last Year? They mentioned the name "Farragut" once or twice throughout the movie and and it rang bell, but it took me a while to remember why this sounded familiar. Anyway, if you like politics and dudes talking about politics (not so many ladies in the movie, unfortunately) -- check it out.


4) Teevee talk: last week's Parks & Recreation and Community didn't blow me away as usual but I still enjoyed them. The thought of Jean-Ralphio crying made me sad, though. :( :( Dexter, on the other hand, did make me gasp out loud. OMGWTFTHATENDING!? Oh, and Misfits is back! I'm still making up my mind about the season 3 premiere, but I'm glad to see those crazy kids on my screen again.


5) Flist question: does anyone know what happened to bea_nonymous, frantic_allonsy, and willowbell? Their journals aren't "simply" deleted, they're purged. :(


6) Yesterday was my one-year TSN anniversary!! It seems like only yesterday that I was reluctantly cancelling my plans to stay at home and watch The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in order to go to the cinema with a friend. We saw ~the facebook movie~ (only because Sorkin and Fincher were involved) and then somehow I wound up with a whole new, sparkly, shiny fandom. Well, shiny and occasionally soul-crushingly angsty -- but I like it that way. It's funny how I ended up loving that damn movie despite my wariness of the concept and my occasional mockery before its release (lol Justin Timberlake). ...Actually, now that I think of it, I had a similar experience with SGYAY: first the mocking, then the crazy-fun fandom times that lasted four years. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like TSN fandom will last four years (or even two :() but I still had/am having an excellent time. Thanks for making it such a fun place to be, TSN peeps and flisters! I had planned a TSN rewatch yesterday but got distracted by other stuff. It's still on my to-do list, though. Bring on the heartbreak and Andrew Garfield's faaaaaaaaaaace. ;_;


7) Speaking of anniversaries: I missed my seven-year LJversary at the beginning of October. You heard that right: seven. years. Still not sure how that happened, but it's been an absolute blast. Belated celebrations are still in order, I think, and what better way to do it than with music? So here's a song I hope you'll enjoy: Angus & Julia Stone -- Old Friend [YT preview] It's not particularly exuberant or extremely celebratory, but I love it to pieces anyway. ♥!


And a Happy Halloween to those who celebrate!!