Fangirling & Ranting & Such

the plot thickens

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:31:51 GMT

Life is being good to me.

Things just got a whole lot more interesting around here.

As you may or may not know, my parents are having the master bathroom remodeled. It’s about a month into renovation, and all we’re waiting on now is our cabinet guy to give us the finished product to install.

Mark (the cabinet guy) is a bit of a free spirit, you could say. The three times he’s been to our house he’s been hours late, and then he always stays longer to chat. Still, he’s a really nice guy, though I hadn’t personally met him before last night (I’d heard previous conversations). I was introduced, and my father mentioned that I was the ‘piano girl’. Apparently Mark had made a comment about how nice my piano was. Of course, he insisted on hearing me play (and, unlike certain other family friends I could speak of, he actually meant it). I played a piece decently—alright, so I forgot the very last chord, but it’s always funny when I do that—and he seemed genuinely impressed. Then he informed me that he’s also a recording artist, and that he’s been signed by two major labels and has an album that is (apparently) going to be released worldwide.

Eee. Meegee.

I assume he’s not kidding me. He’s not that kind of guy—I mean, he’s got a more innocent manner to him. He makes fun at himself. He’s a strong Christian, and he just doesn’t strike me as the sort of person to get amusement for fooling a teenage girl.

So anyway. I will continue with the assumption that what he says is true. He gave me a copy of the album he’s working on (which I haven’t listened to because…?) and asked me if I’d be interested in writing and performing a track with him.

I was, like, omg totally! (OK, so my actual response was, “Sure!”, but isn’t it fun to hear my thoughts before they hit the Immaturity Filter?) We’ll see if that happens or not. I warned him that I don’t write music, but he was cool with that—apparently he thinks I definitely could. Kinda funny, actually—pretty much every composer I’ve met has been utterly convinced that I will some day write music. I will be amused if that is indeed true one day…

Well, Mark’s fun-ness doesn’t stop there. We got to talking about music some more, and he asked me what I intend to do with my ‘talent’. I don’t plan on making a career of music, though I would like to keep it up, perhaps making some extra spending money by playing at weddings and other such events. He asked me what I want to do; I told him that it’s my dream to be a writer. He got intense. What sort of writer? Uhhh, fiction—science fiction, specifically, though I could see branching out.

Then he told me he’s a male model for the covers of romance novels (and yes, he does know Fabio—Mark’s the lower budget alternative, apparently) and knows many people connecting with huge publishing companies. Sure, he’d give me contacts if I wanted!

The male model thing I’ve been able to confirm on google. Yup, there’s Mark standing next to a female author and the book cover.

All hail the cabinet maker!

I'm in a blogging mood

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:43:39 GMT

Wahoo. Haven’t written in awhile. Not sure where to start…

Well, I guess shortly before Xmas would be a good time. I’ve got a lot to recap, so I’ll do it briefly.

The Kitten:

Two weeks before Xmas our Doberman got ill and had to be housed at the vet for four days. While there I noticed the sign outside advertised a kitten needing a good home. My mother’s cat died back in the summer and we’ve been looking to get a new one ever since, so I asked about the kitten. The woman said he was an orange tabby, which perked my mom’s interest (aforementioned deceased kitty was orange). She asked to have him brought out, and he was. Upon seeing that he was in face covered with a lot of white lost interest, but I didn’t. I can’t quite explain why I felt so drawn to the little guy, but I kept coming back to ask about him. Turns out that he was found in a dumpster on Thanksgiving [side author’s note: I just typed that out as Thrawnsgiving O_o]. The left side of his face is slightly deformed (one eye is always half shut). The vet suspects that he was kicked when he was a baby.

Awww. Long story short, somehow I ended up with him as an Xmas present. Wait—I didn’t want my own cat…how did that happen? Sigh.

He’s going to be a big boy, given the alarming rate at which he’s currently growing. o-o Eek. I foresee my future paychecks going toward a whole lot of cat food. He’s not officially named yet (the vet called him Peaches), but I’m leaning toward Rimsky (after the composer). Other choices were Amadeus (which later turned into Bramadeus, a combination of Amadeus and Bram, after Bram Stoker—this cat has fangs and he likes to use them on anything he possibly can), Riley/Reilly, and Nate (after Oprah’s interior designer, who she also calls Cutie Pie).

No, I am not the sort of person to name my cat Patches and be done with it, thank you very much.

Xmas:

As I already said, Bramadeusimskyateiley was my main Xmas present. Beyond that, I got some makeup and a shirt…

And a model sonic screwdriver from my completely wonderful grandparents. It even came with the slightly psychic paper.

Eemeegeesquee! Yes, I do carry it around in my purse, just in the hope that I can one day pull it out and proudly proclaim that I am ‘totally soniced up’!

It’s a whole load of fun. I got it from ThinkGeek.com (I recommend that site, by the way), and so far I’ve had no complaints. It comes with two pen nibs (UV ink and regular black), a UV light, and makes that classic sonic noise. It’s a bit bigger than I envisioned, but not uncomfortably so. It extends like the one on TV. Oh, and the UV ink writes ‘secret’ messages on the paper which show up under the sonic light—and then the paper can be wiped clean, which it quite nice (though I am particularly paranoid about marking on that surface, just in case one day it *doesn’t* want to come off).

More to come on that particular matter.

TSO:

Seeing them live was the best $60 I’ve ever spent. To sum it up, it was three hours (no intermission!) of frozen-in-your-seat awesomeness. It snowed, there were infernos blazing, and the bass guitar + drums caused my internal organs to vibrate for at least two hours afterward.

Oh, my gosh. I still don’t feel I can adequately describe just how cool it was. These guys (and women) make one of the best musical acts I’ve ever heard.

And they had a special performance from the starter of the band Bad Company (and Free. And he’s the current lead singer for Queen). Man, that guy can rock.

Paul O’Neill (the starter of TSO) made an appearance, too, playing guitar for a few songs. They previewed their special version of O Fortuna (classical piece—look it up and enjoy the kettle drum!), a song that will be on their upcoming album Nightcastle (which I was told it supposed to be released this spring).

I was screaming loud enough to draw looks from the other teenagers there. I guess they’re not used to someone who fangirls over a bunch of forty-year-old guys playing Mozart’s Figaro on electric guitars. ^^

If that wasn’t enough, the whole band set up tables afterward to sign autographs. In my rush to find where this was, I walked right past the line (which only had a few people in it, my mother observed later). By the time I came back around there were several hundred people ahead of me. Feeling depressed, I settled in for a long wait (kudos to my parental units for being willing to wait with me), and sort of belatedly realized that, save for the concert tickets, I had nothing for them to sign.

Oh well, I thought. I’ll just shake their hands and lather them with fangirly praise.

I got to talking to the guy behind me. Nice guy, though I do have to wonder if he has a life outside of being a TSO/Savatage fan. He goes to all of their Texas shows and went to a fanclub meeting in Vegas…among other things. Oh, well, he was interesting to talk to. Plus, upon noticing my desperate search for anything for the band to sign, he handed me a lovely, large ‘flat’ of the cover art to their album the Lost Christmas Eve. I thanked him until he started backing away slowly.

Something like two hours later I actually met the band, getting about fifteen guitar picks (one of which I used my old beading tools on to make into a necklace) and introducing myself (hey, they asked what my name was!).

I don’t think I’ve ever met a more gracious, sweet group of people. It actually stunned me to a point of near speechlessness (after all, the Fangirl is never completely speechless). It was sincere, and they actually bothered to look at me, not just giving me the wide smile they put on to greet the sea of fans. For example, more than half of them commented on the pin I had on my collar (a jeweled piano) and asked if I played, how long I had played, and what my favorite style was. Some of their manner simply can’t be put into words—just know that, yeah, they love their job and their fans and they wanted to be there to make someone’s day/year.

…And they’re supposed to come back in summer, too!

New Year’s Eve/Day:

My close friend Sarah invited me to welcome the new year at her house, sleeping over. They had a small party (game night) to count down until midnight. I played NBAopoly (Monopoly, except the properties are NBA teams) against my father, Sahra, and her younger brother, Jonah. I ended up owning half the board, with hotels on a fourth of it. I kept dragging the game out just so I could say I’d owned the Dallas Mavericks from 07 to 08. x) At the end of the game I was worth something like $15,000 (I had every single $500 bill that came with the game xD).

Best line of the night happened when I went to pay Jonah rent for having landed on Park Place, which he had a monopoly on.

“Here,” I said. “Have $100, ‘cause I’m feeling generous.”

He snatched it from me and promptly began to laugh diabolically. “What?” I asked.

“It’s mortgaged!” He told me, gleefully clinging to the money.

Oh well. I made him pay later, anyway, when he landed on one of my $1250 hotels.

Anyway. Sarah and I got to bed after staying up until 1:30 in the morning giggling about various things. She’s not as much of a fangirl as I am, but I’ve succeeded in corrupting her quite a bit. I am responsible for introducing her to both Thrawn and Doctor Who, two things she now loves. Yes, I am proud.

We woke up at seven and I climbed to the refuge of her bunk bed to finish up the discussion from a few hours earlier about what weird fandom-related dreams we’ve had. Jonah came in half an hour later to playfully mock our giggling and ask what we were doing with a ysalamir attached to the fan (Sarah’s the artist extraordinaire, and she used her incredible talents with the sewing machine to make a plushie that drapes around one’s neck in realistic fashion. For no particular reason, we had this day hung him over one her fan blades).

We got to talking about imitating Thrawn, then the conversation moved to Jonah’s amazing ability to imitate David Tennant’s facial expressions (even more amazing considering he’s never seen more than a picture of the Doctor). I mentioned that I had brought my sonic screwdriver in my purse, and we gave it to him to pose with. Giggling ensued, and I jokingly asked if he had a long brown coat. It turns out he had a long black coat and a swirly blue tie to boot. Getting more excited, we started to play dress-up with him, making him don a brown shirt, the blue tie and jacket, and borrow Sarah’s black Converse shoes. He’s twelve, to he pretends to be long-suffering, but one can tell he loves the attention. We started to make him do different poses in the hallway, both of us snapping pictures with our cameras and yelling things like, “Raise that eyebrow higher! C’mon, look amused! Give me some more of that sonic screwdriver! Oh, fantastic!”

Then I abruptly stopped, looked at Sarah, and got another idea. If her brother was the Doctor, then shouldn’t he have a companion?

It certainly helps that Sarah has gorgeously long blonde hair, a bit reminiscent of Rose’s. The next hour was spent putting her hair into braids, selecting a costume for her, and coating her face with too much makeup. Jonah got bored and wandered out to play the Xbox.

Posing the two of them was a bit of a challenge for moi, the camerawoman, given that Jonah’s already half a foot shorter than his sister and I had put her in high-heeled boots. A few well-placed stools solved that problem, and I got quite a few nice shots of the duo.

Little replicas? Hardly. He’s got blonde hair, not brown or even ‘ginger’, and she’s not blonde enough. Neither has terribly much resemblance around the face, even though Jonah can pull off the classic Tennant look of raised-eyebrow amusement. Did we care? Not really. It made for several hours of fun, and posing those two is probably the closest I’ll ever get to doing a photo shoot with the ‘real’ Doctor and his companion.

Assorted ramblings and thoughts that fit into no other category:

Back in early November I started writing a piece of Star Wars fanfiction for Sarah’s birthday in which we were both characters along side a stoic Chiss and the Doctor (though he’s the Doctor in name only, I might add). It was silly and horribly AU, but by the time I was done it was 41 pages long. I was pleased in the sense that my writing was good, but I could not have anticipated the reaction it got.

I figured Sarah would read it to herself and maybe Jonah, but no… It got read to her parents, grandmother, two uncles, and several other friends, all of whom immediately demanded copies from me. They raved about it, asking questions I hadn’t even thought of and pondering about little side plotlines that could be developed.

Therefore, since Christmas, I have been writing the sequel.

It’s over sixty pages long now, and while the total lack of canon-ness still bugs me, no one else terribly cares. It’s very flattering to hear even the adults praising my writing, and not just in a polite way. I mean, when her uncle (who I didn’t know had read the story and who I’ve met all of two times) emails me asking for a copy to read to his Star Wars inclined family… O_o

It’s, at most, PG-rated, so it’s not *quite* how I’d usually write, which does on occasion prove annoying to me (I’m not purposely edgy, but I would like to put a little more violence in, and I can see two of the characters developing a dating-style romance)… Oh, well. Until I have enough patience to write two versions, I’m just going to have to deal with it and cater to my audience.

It is encouraging in the sense that I’ve never written anything of comparable length before. Most things fizzle out a the ten page mark. Some don’t make it past two. I’ve always thought that my strong point would be with short stories, but this has given me the motivation to return to some of my old ideas and continue trying to get my thoughts down in an organized fashion.

Internet life has become boring/depressing for me. It seems like all my old friends have migrated to different websites. I suppose I’m a part of the new cliques around me, but I don’t quite fit in. It’s no fault of their own—we just don’t click (no pun intended).

Still, I can’t just decide to stop posting. I’ve taken on responsibilities, and I’ve got to act as a leader. It’s tough, though. I’m busy, and the little free time I have I spend mostly writing the aforementioned story. I actually dread those free moments I get because I know I have to go on the computer or give myself a huge guilt trip about not upholding my responsibilities.

Whatever happened to my boundless enthusiasm? I’m still not sure when I lost it.

Icons are still fun, though. My obsession with Christopher Eccleston’s face put into 100x100 boxes is as strong as ever. Speaking of which, I was watching the movie Gone in 60 Seconds last night with my mother, the Nicolas Cage fan. It was mildly interesting, until it got to the part where you first hear the bad guy’s voice. I was talking about that evening’s swim practice at the time, so my reaction was a little something like this: “—so because I couldn’t make the interval I swam basically an 800 with no breaks andOMGIT’STHEDOCTORCRITICIZINGBASEBALL!!!1!

Yes, I know his voice that well. That beautifully clumsy Northern accent, that particular tone…Mmm. Oh, and did I mention his hair is gorgeous in that movie?

Why do they always kill off the cute ones? I wanted to see him carve more wood. –pouts-

…Ooo, I ought to run off to Internet Movie Database and see if he’s working on any more films. o-o This is why I don’t memorize the list of movies he’s already been in—it’s really fun to be pleasantly surprised.

Ahem. So obviously, my fangirliness hasn’t changed one bit.

My love for musicals has grown. A highschool near us (Southlake Carroll—if you’re a highschool football fan, you know who they are) put on a production of The Phantom of the Opera that I would have enjoyed immensely had I not had a horrible sinus infection when I went. And the new movie Sweeny Todd has attracted my attention to that musical…Oh, why’d they have to put so much gore in that the movie got tacked with an R rating? I’m not a Johnny Depp fangirl, but that man can act. He’s absolutely brilliant at playing weirdos. And Mr. Todd is just the sort of character that appeals to me—psychotic, black-haired, and musical. x)

If I hadn’t written such a long post already I’d take some time here to write up a review of National Treasure II, which I saw the day it came out. To be short and sweet, it was clever, but too much a copy of the first one. And there wasn’t nearly enough Riley Poole.

School’s back in, and I’ve my work has been piling up over vacation (I prefer to go totally work-free and then frantically scramble to do all of my vacation homework in one day), so I suspect I won’t be doing another post like this for awhile. That’s alright, no one really reads this anyway, I suspect—it just makes me feel better to know that my thoughts for the moment have been immortalized in a folder on my laptop.

‘Til whenever,

-Lia the Fangirl

Stuff

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:56:07 GMT

busybusybusybusybiz-ZEHHHHHHH.

I've made it three episodes into season two of Doctor Who. I'm willing to admit that Ten is cute.

And someone really, really, REALLY needs to make me some Wes Bentley icons from that new
"P2" movie. Or at least link me to some. Or something.

But I NEEEEED his psychotic cuteness.

the fangirl's gonna disappear for awhile

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 22:29:27 GMT

Yes, that's right--my school year starts up tomorrow. In addition to the horrors that come with High School (even though I'm homeschooled), I still have to do two hours or more of piano a day--all for only one hour on the computer. Plus I've recently volunteered for a good many things over at theforce.net (Star Wars fansite, for all wondering).

So I'll poof for a bit. My updates aren't that wonderful, anyway. I'll still read my Friends Pages, and I'll still collect icons at an unhealthy rate.

Tata for now.

logic means nothing to a fangirl

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 22:40:38 GMT

Ooo look one shot of the Doctor with a funky hairdo! Squee.

'Blah movie trailer' much? It looks like it could quite possibly be a waste of $5. Is it worth bringing myself two hours closer to dying because I saw two seconds of Eccleston goodness in the trailer?

Blackheart says yes.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy--the movie

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:36:53 GMT

Note: This is my version of a movie review, and, as a result, does contain the basic plot for both the novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well as the movie version. If you intend to read the book without foreknowledge of anything in it, you'd better stop reading now.

So during the past three weeks I've fallen in love with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Adams had a truly lovely sense of humor, with witty plotlines, and a sort of delicious randomness which, written by someone else, would have merely come across as childish and unamusing.

I'm afraid that that is the impression I got when I viewed the movie based on his novels.

Oh, it followed the plot lines well enough, I suppose. Here's the basic premise: Arthur Dent is a normal English man, whose home planet is about to be destroyed by the lovely race known as the Vogons. Fortunately, his friend, Ford Prefect, happens to be an alien who knows how to hitch a ride and keep track of his towel at the same time. The two end up on a Vogon ship, where they are read some really awful poetry and then thrown out into space. Thanks to the Infinite Improbability Drive that this ship is equipped with, they get picked up one second before they would have died by a earth girl whom Arthur once knew, a woman who now goes by Trillian. She's the female companion to a certain Zaphod Beeblebrox, President of the Galaxy and general nutcase. Of course, Ford is actually semi-sortof-not really related to Zaphod, so Arther and Ford are free to stay on this ship, the Heart of Gold, which Zaphod has, as a matter of fact, just stolen. Zaphod wants to find a supposedly mythological planet where the supercomputer Deep Thought resides so that he may learn the Ultimate Question that goes with the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything (the answer is 42--they've got that much, at least xD).

I'm not even gonna try to explain what ensues after this. Let's just say that it has to do with fjords, mice, and...er...dolphins? Really, if you haven't read the book, it wouldn't make any sense to you. And if you HAVE read the book, then you really don't need me to explain it, do you?

But anyway, back to my critique: while the movie includes all of the necessary plotpoints, it leaves out many scenes that I found the most enjoyable part of the book! First to mind is a scene where Marvin actually talks to a computer, causing it to "commit suicide". Yes, at the end of the movie, he destroys the Vogons' outlook on life by replacing it with his own--but it couldn't compare to the sheer greatness of the original scene. And it's not just the stuff that was left out that bothered me, it was the junk that they put in. Trillian/Arthur? Excuse me? Trillian wasn't a large part in the book, and Arthur and her certainly never had any real attraction going. Did you really need to do a shower scene? [insert rolling of eyes here]

And then, that brings me to the horror that is my dear, dear Zaphod.

If that was following the book, then I really, really missed something. Missed something to the extent that I was reading with my eyes closed. O_o

Since when where his heads attatched like...that? And since when was he an absolute moron? Admittedly, he was never the brightest character, but I think he had something going on up there. The outfit was kinda nice, but his whole manner caused me many winces. IMO, he should have been slick, charming in a sleezy way, and generally easy-going--not acting like a crack head.

Ford was alright, though I'm still puzzled as to why a black guy played him. Wasn't he a blonde in the novel? There's nothing racist in my comment, it just confused me.

There was too much randomness (and not the forementioned delicious randomness), and too little with the actual characters.

Please tell me I'm not totally losing it. Am I the only one who though that the movie didn't begin to do the novel justice?

Masters of Science Fiction

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 22:47:24 GMT

So there's a new show on ABC: Masters of Science Fiction. It is to my understanding that every week they have an hour-long episode based on a different sci-fi short story every week.

Sounds like my sort of show!

I watched it last night (the 11th, for reference), and it was...

Boring. Sort of sappy, with a slow plot and an unsatisfying ending.

What went wrong? And yes, there's a SPOILER WARNING on this post.

I honestly can't say, as I haven't read the novel that the show was based on--but I'd like to blame it on that. Were the 'things' angels or aliens? Was the author trying to say that all the different forms of 'god' were, in fact, just one diety? Is that person then an alien, or just a spiritual, supernatural being? Was this a political commentary?

And why didn't the Chinese guy look Chinese?

The show was just a letdown. They could have done so much better!

I retain a bit of hope for the next episode--yes, I will watch it--but I kinda figure that ABC threw out what it considered its best for the pilot episode, to hook people.

...Do I want to see how much worse it can get?

Well, it does restate one thing in my mind:

Nobody does TV like the BBC!

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:54:10 GMT

I'm bored. And I really feel the need to post something. This blog looks so lonely and forelorn! =(

I must post in list form. Otherwise, it bothers me. Yes, I am slightly obsessive compulsive.

Real Life:

-Relatives: My mother's family has some serious issues. It would take hours for me to type up complete backstories and attempt explinations for their irrational behavior. And, for that matter, it would take hours to type up all the annoying/sickening things that they've done just in the past week. Yes, it's that bad. Let me just put it this way: whatever they can do to hurt my mother and her sister, they will. Which makes her an emotional wreck, which makes the house dysfunctional, which makes my life temporary hell.

-Shopping: It ain't fun when you're 5'0" with small bust and curvy hips. And very broad shoulders, and a long torso. O_o I rarely find anything at ALL to buy, and then when I do, I'm only buying it because it fits and I HAVE to wear SOMETHING--not because I like it much. Though I did find some lovely silver bracelets today, twelve for seven USDs. Not bad, not bad at all.

-School: Yeah, I'm homeschooled, and, while I like it most of the time, it's always frustrating when we try to transition from summer to fall. I want everything meticulously planned out. I need a schedule! My mother's much more of a free spirit, putting too much (IMO) responsibility on me. Yes, it's my education--but she agreed to be the teacher when she decided to school me at home. I feel like she's not taking on enough of that role.

-Friends: It's not all bad news. My friend Sarah and I continue to grow closer. And I've finally gotten her hooked on Doctor Who--I am insanely jealous of the fact that with a bit of makeup she'd make a nice Rose Tyler lookalike. My OTHER friend is currently writing (another) novel, this time with me as a character. It's great brainstorming together--I like his basic plotline, and he seems to love my suggestions. He's even going to ask me to do a bit of manuscript editing, something I'm sure that I'll love. Who knows? Maybe he'll be satisfied enough with this novel (he trashed his last one) to actually attempt to get it published. Miss Lia could be famous! xD

-OCD: As I said earlier, I've started to become a bit obsessive compulsive about certain things. Even my parents remark on it. Mostly having extreme order to scheduling. Oh, and dark pens. I've become obsessive about writing with nothing but an 'Expresso' pen. O_o It physically bothers me to do math homework with a pencil.

Internet Life:

-Role-playing: I am getting so totally overwhelmed by the demands on my time, that it's not even that fun anymore. Which sucks. I've got three big roleplays going on, and I've had to hand my character off to someone else in one of them--first I went to youth camp, then I thought I was immediately going to Florida, then I thought I was going to Florida the NEXT week, and now I'm just totally confused. I'm missing participating, but I'm not missing getting yelled at by the parential units because I'm taking too long finishing up a role-play post. Urg.

-Freewebs: So I signed up as fangirlesque--only I misspelled it then banged my head on the wall for an hour trying to figure out why the hell I kept getting error messages. I feel extraordinarily stupid. If I ever get a chance, I might set up a site there (currently I'm just joined for a certain forum), but I'm not sure if it'd be worth the time for the amount of traffic I'd receive--namely, close to none.

-LiveJournal: It's so fun, and it's so huge, and so complex!!! The amount of users overwhelms me a bit--all the details of lives, all the protocols, all the cliques--but I suppose I'll just learn to adjust. In time, with considerably more activity here. Again, time is such an issue--if I want to save icons, I can't read fanfiction. If I want to post to my journal, I can do NOTHING else. If I read my friends page, I can't search for more friends--etc.

Fangirling:

-Vampires: So I've got this lovely idea for a novel floating about in my head. I've been developing it over the past month or so, and it really seems like I may start writing this one. I've got so much planned out, and I know the characters so intimately, that it seems almost wrong not to write it. Yes, there are vampires. And yes, they will be love. In other vampirical news, I cannot freaking believe that Eclipse is out already. AHHHHH!!!!! Where have I been? Not at a bookstore, that's for certain! I haven't even read the latest Star Wars novel yet, and that's been out for some two months! Must...make...priorities...!

-Doctor Who: No Doctor Who in several weeks = Lia going though painful withdrawl. I recently made an...odd...Dalek cartoon thing. About how the Doctor would prefer extermination to...something. *evil laughter* I've scanned it, but I haven't digitally colored it yet. This is one thing that I will be posting. =D

-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: I just read the first book last week, and behold! New sci-fi obsession! Marvin the Paraniod Android = love. In a very odd way. I guess it just continues the trend of me picking the oddest fandoms. Oh, and I'm very ticked off at LJ for not allowing me to list the book as an interest. <_< I'll have to figure out what the hip, shorter slang is, and post that instead...

-Icons: They are officially a fandom now. I think they actually became a fandom when I realized I had over two hundred of the things, buuuuuuuut we can safely say that with over five hundred icons, I need rehab.

nine obsession test

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:01:08 GMT

Hehe. Found a quiz at the nine_love community. It's made by ladyherenya, and it's absolutely fantastic.

Take the Nine Obsession Quiz: http://www.freewebs.com/ninth-doctor/obsession.htm

My results:

You’re [98.49624%] obsessed with the Ninth Doctor and Doctor Who!
It’s official! You have no life. Or rather, your life revolves around the fandom of Doctor Who and the Ninth Doctor. Which is something to be proud about, not ashamed of. Congratulations!

Hah! I knew it!
But...Wait...
I can't be 98% obsessed with Nine--because I'm more then 2% obsessed with Blackheart...
And there's only so much of me to go around! xD

Ouch

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 23:26:27 GMT

So I'm currently taking on the daunting task of reorganizing and renaming pretty much every photo on my computer.
Files are being combined, deleted, and otherwise edited, and my Photobucket account is getting quite the makeover, too.

The first hour or so was fun. Organizing makes me feel accomplished and powerful. xD
Three hours into this, and I'm kicking myself for being lazy/stupid when first saving these files.

See, I had this period--I call it the Dark Ages--where I knew I liked icons but didn't know correct protocol when using them. I didn't credit, didn't comment, and was a general brat about it all. I obsessively saved and immediately forgot the source--though, to my credit, I never have claimed an icon as my own; I'm simply not dishonest like that.

So now I have literally hundreds of files that I love but cannot use. I don't know where they've come from. Sometimes I have an idea, but when I go to the suspected user's journal, I've found that they've edited their posts and keywords, making it impossible to find. Now I'm forced to search through other people's user icons, in hopes of finding that they have the same icons that I do, and that they've retained the needed credit. (So far, this has worked a bit. But there's still a long way to go.)

And I'm being driven crazy by it all. Beautiful icons are getting thrown out by the dozens because I'm utterly overwhelmed.

Sigh. At least I've learned by now.

Never again is an icon saved by any other name then USERNAMEOFMAKER! And never again is it saved in the wrong folder!

For I am determined not to put my brain through this again!

my love of NINE

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 16:11:45 GMT

Six months ago, I didn't really know that Doctor Who existed. Certainly, I had heard it mentioned among my British friends, but 'twasn't popular enough over here for me to have been made aware of it's glory.

Our PBS station happened to start airing Season One of the New Who the same week a certain English friend encouraged me to see if I could find an episode to watch, saying that, given my love of Star Wars, I'd adore Doctor Who. I missed the first episode, Rose, but was lucky enough to jump in at episode two, The End of the World. It was odd, with slightly psychic paper and a blue box of which I didn't know the purpose of. There were trees as aliens, something I found cheesy. But when the Doctor smiled, he won my heart over.

It is about three months later, I suppose, give or take a few weeks. I have diligently watched the next episode every Saturday night at eight, obsessively taping it when I was on vacation, then fretting because my VCR clock is fast, resulting in the last three minutes of Doctor Who Confidential being cut off on my tape (I actually set the VCR to tape an extra thirty minutes, which is a good thing, else that pesky clock would have caused me to miss most of the episode entirely!). I am going to ask for a Dalek figure and a sonic screwdriver model for my birthday. I mutter 'fantastic!' whenever possible. I am, true to my username, a fangirl of this show.

But it always lurked at the back of my mind: the knowledge that Nine would, eventually, be gone. Reading the Doctor Who wiki page that first night after I had seen The End of the World, I of course noticed that there was a Tenth Doctor, so I've never had the expectation to see Nine in more then thirteen episodes. I had a sort of mental countdown going, figuring out how much more new material there was left for me to see of my Doctor. I knew how he died, and I knew what his last line would be.

But somehow his death has hit me just as hard as if I hadn't known it was coming.

I watched it last night, The Parting of Ways. My father, as always, viewed it with me--he likes the Doctor as well, though I suspect in a slightly different way. He was even depressed after the episode ended, only commenting softly, "Ten doesn't have his accent."

Bashing Mr. Tennant in any way is not my intention. He's a fairly cute guy, with some nicely quirky habits. I think he's a good actor, and I really don't know anyone else who I would have had instead of him to play Ten.

But he wil never, EVER be able to compare to Nine for me. Mr. Chris Eccleston played the perfect Doctor--for me, at least. I realize that different things appeal to different people, and that Tennant may very well be a better Doctor--for those looking for something different from Nine.

Nine was created, it seems, to appeal directly to me. There was nothing about him that I can say I didn't fancy. And I'll miss him, I'll miss him dearly. I know that the episode aired some two years ago, but in my world, the Doctor just died. There is nothing new left for me to see of him. I'll never hear another new witty line, never see him grin at some other event.

This is my way of expressing my teenage girl angst, this little rambling that you are reading. It's my tribute to Nine, my attempt to fully explain all that he meant to me.

At my first viewing of him, Eccleston did not appear an attractive man to me. Middle-aged, with seemingly plain features, a large nose, and ears that stuck out, I didn't look at him with appreciation for what I know call beauty. If he were only a man on the street, I can't truthfully say that I think I'd give him a second glance. As the Doctor, though, he altered my perception of attractiveness. His intelligence and brilliant personality drew me to him, drew me past my own prejudices and really opened me up to love looking at someone who I wouldn't say is conventionally handsome. He moved his lanky body with immeasureable grace, using his delicately long fingers in a way that I, the pianist, envy. His ears gave him a sort of laid-back cuteness that I simply cannot discribe, and his eyes, not a striking color, conveyed such passionate emotion that I even cried at points.

I cannot speak of the Doctor without going into his grin, of course. Used in every situation, from glee, to anger, to depression, to horror, it was always perfect and always a joy to see light up his face. I've not yet encountered someone who can quite copy his facial expressions, and I really don't ever expect to. The grin was hilarious when used in Rose after he'd realized he was standing in front of the wheel he searched for. It was heartbreaking when he used it while addressing the Dalek in the episode by that name--the sadness in it, and the firey anger burning just behind that, getting ready to break though. And it was extraordinarily tender when he flashed it at his dear Rose, right before he left her forever, knowing that that was the last expression she'd ever see Nine wear.

Eccleston captured the perfect inner emotion for every shot, even when it wasn't expressed on his face. His supurb acting through it all makes it hard for me to understand why he would leave a part he seemed to love.

But he did, and I, the viewer, must respect that decision of his. I'm not angry at him in the slightest--disappointed, but not angry; confused, but not resentful. Nine was glorious while he lasted, and perhaps it was for the best that he left when he did. It would have saddened me to have watched a Doctor played by an actor who didn't enjoy his work. Even if Eccleston is of the quality I think he is, I believe such a thing would have shown, making his emotion as the Nine look nothing more then a mask, put on because it was in that morning's script.

And I applaud the writers for giving him a fantastic ending. I'm often disappointed when a character leaves a show/movie/book, for it seems to me that the authors have simply run out of good material, so they simply kill off the character without much thought and creativity put into his/her demise. Nine, on the other hand, got the best death I could have wished for him. He died saving the woman he loved, he had time to express to Rose what was going to happen, and his last words were dead-on--I cannot imagine my Doctor choosing his end any other way.

While I grieve, I always know that I loved him while he lasted, and that I can still love him through those lovely things called DVDs:

I can fangirl again, giggling over everything from his like of bananas to his large ears.

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:31:29 GMT

So I recently accepted a challenge from a roleplaying buddy of mine. She said that there was no such thing as a likeable Mary Sue (perfect character). I said I could make one if I tried. I did indeed try, writing up a quick one-page introduction for a Gary Stu character. My friend chose a normally n00b-dominated genre, School of the Gifted, just to make it a bit harder for me.

This is a simple, neopets roleplaying style introduction. Neopet users do not, you see, like list introductions of any sort, so you have to fit basic character details into a few short paragraphs.

Feedback is much appreciated on this, positive and negitive. I really need to know what folks think of this character.

***

IC:

He lay there, stretched out on his right side, the avatar of casual indifference. Lounging outside on the top of a stone wall, his posture almost suggesting laziness, Rhalin observed everything from behind half-closed eyes. They were dull green at the moment, and he was doing his best to erase the fierce intelligence that normally blazed through like a star going supernova. His head was supported by his right hand, having rested his elbow on the platform on which he lay. His thick, black, chin-length hair had been tied back—or, at least, been partially secured at the back of his head with a tie; more than half of his locks were currently too short to go back with their peers—, unusual for him. Clothing his torso was an open-necked black shirt, tight around the chest, with shortened sleeves that exposed the fair skin of his arms. His extended legs, the left of which was bent at the knee, were covered with blue jeans, weathered in that artful, $200 way. By means of decoration he had added this day several silver rings to adorn his hands, as well as a pair of highly reflective sunglasses—those hung from the neck of his shirt. Rhalin shifted slightly, causing his rather close-fitting clothing to tug in…interesting directions.

Italian model he was not. No, nature had decided to favor him with looks worth swooning over for a much more sinister reason. They were, to put it scientifically, bait.

He didn’t quite know how it worked, his gift. He was certainly not psychic; what your next word would be was a complete mystery to him.

However, he was fairly confident he could guess how to push your buttons to get a specific response. It was a very subtle talent; only slightly more accurate than your especially observant human being. Yet it was still more accurate, and this was not, you see, quite the end of the description of this unnatural gifting.

The looks, for instance. He was appealing, others wanted to do as he said, to please him. Retaining youthful features, Rhalin practically oozed of charm, favoring females with indulgent smiles and males with brotherly emotions. He was the ultimate deceiver with a truly sincere smile; he could stab you in the back while soothing you with elegant jargon.

And he knew it. He was at this ‘gifted’ school not because he intended to learn, but instead for the purpose making impressions on young, powerful teens; impressions that would stick with them and make them loyally devoted to him when they developed into their even more powerful adult selves.

He would do whatever it took to make these children into his soldiers.

***

OOC: Insult away. I'll need to know just how much this needs to be edited.

I want to win that bet. xD

Journal Layouts?

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:49:59 GMT

It's shameful for me to admit, but I know absolutely nothing about CSS/HTML coding on this site.

I have failed miserably in my attempts to create a custom layout for myself. Neopets I can do, but this confuzzles me. >_<

So, being the shameless little beggar that I am, I am going to put a request out there for some coding tutorials. *bats eyes* Or, possibly... A custom premade layout? *more eyelash batting*

I'm not lazy, I'm resourceful! xD

As well, links to any premade LJ sites would be much appreciated, as well. If I can read through the coding, I can get a feel for this system. ;D

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:14:15 GMT

Recently I ventured into the Outer Banks area of North Carolina on vacation. Overall it was a pleasant trip, but there were some interesting incidents I thought it might be nice to highlight in my journal.

The Christopher Eccleston Look-Alike:

The airplane trip started out as just another mundane venture in economy class. There were quite a few screaming children seated around me. I was doing my best to tune them out with Rivera, without turning up the volume so much as to cause a loss of hearing.

My mother is not a Doctor Who fan, on the contrary, she dislikes the show. Yet somehow she has seen enough of it to know roughly what Nine looks like. Being nice, and bored herself, she elbowed me on the flight and nodded towards a nearby passenger. At first I lacked understanding of what she was referring to.

Then I saw him. Fantastic! {/squee} The passenger clearly was not Eccleston, though he certainly could have passed for a relative. Had one put him in a leather jacket, I believe he would have gotten autograph requests. I got to enjoy this piece of eye candy for a bit, but then. with a look towards the screaming children that clearly said "I don't do domestic!", he rolled his eyes and reclined his seat, putting him out of my eyesight.

Aw.

The Bio-Engineered Cows:

OK, so I don't actually know if they were bioengineered.

But they sure were weird looking.

They all had white fur. Typical cow-ness.

They all had some brown fur. Typical cow-ness.

Said brown fur was shaped as one stripe stretching directly around their midsections.

Weird cowness.

Is this an actual breed or something? I'd love to be educated further on this... o_o

The Wedding:

As you may or may not know, I was in the Outer Banks for my cousin's wedding. It was to be an event of reasonable size, and his future wife had planned everything down to the minute. Oh, I'm not kidding at all about that--she had the thing scripted. I saw it myself. O_o

There was just one little problem: ten minutes after the ceremony was supposed to start we were still lacking a minister.

Twenty minutes.

Thirty minutes and, miraculously, one of the photographers managed to phone in a backup. The wedding was nothing but the "I do's", but at least that put the whole thing back on Miss Melissa's schedule. xD

We never did find out what happened to Minister #1.

Stuff I learned:

The "Lost Colony" really isn't very lost, four hours driving by nothing but trees is incredibly boring, and blue crabs eat their young. =3