barbed_whispers

( tl;dr blah blah about why i don't hang out on lj much anymore. )

unrelatedly, there is no way i am going to complete my book goal for the year. 100 books was way too ambitious (although, to be fair, work was so slow that i hardly had any reading time this summer) and i feel like crap knowing i won't get there. i really dislike not meeting my goals, urgh. i read a decent amount of stuff that was both time-consuming and outside my comfort zone (several non-fiction books, for starters), and i should be able to hit at least 75, but still. unhappy. need to decide if i want to set a smaller goal next year or work harder.

i blew my shows goal (15) out of the water though. 22 so far, not including all the random sets i've caught at the community market. and i'm going to at least 4 more this year. (TAI, say anything, olp, the olp/patd/say anything/every other band ever show, and then maybe the mountain goats, maybe joshua radin, almost definitely damion suomi next week, and i might check out the anti*pop festival even though there aren't really any bands listed that i care that much about. and i'm still considering the cobras show haha. AND there's still a lot of unclaimed dates on the calendar. so at least i can feel good about this one.)

it makes me sad that i watch so much tv (for me. but srsly, i'm up to 5 shows!) and you people never post about my shows anymore. i only started watching most of these shows so i could read my flist! :(

so, i have been loaning my coworkers books. first i gave t. the anita blake series (loved it, and is now annoyed that she has to go to the library for the rest because i stopped buying when they stopped being good), then i gave her night world (thought the first few were kinda dorky but otherwise liked 'em), and now she's reading vampire diaries (had trouble getting into them at first, but can't put them down now). i think i am going to give her weather warden next. is this a good plan? she originally asked for violent/gory vamp books, but then i just started shoving this other stuff in her face, and now i'm afraid that morganville won't be dark enough for her :/

(speaking of vampire diaries: i've read the books more times than i should admit in public, so it's making me kind of sad that we're two eps in and i have no clue what is going on. i am especially unhappy with damon's characterization, although i suppose he seems like this big of a douche in the books early on too. urghhhhhhhh. i don't think i can watch a whole season of this show. it is not lulzy enough.)

OH BTW. i read the hunger games by suzanne collins today. i feel like i am way late on this, but WHOA AWESOME.

you guyssssssssssssss. dragon*con was awesome and i am once again sad to be back in the real world.

( ya lit, steampunk, and that time i fell in love. also knows as WELCOME TO TL;DR CITY! )

on the plus side: ONE MONTH TIL THE WHOMPING WILLOWS AND JFF AND FRED LIVES, ZOMG!

ON BOOKS:
read cape storm, the latest weather warden book by rachelcaine. YOU GUYS! so good. SO GOOD. so many declarations of love & kisses! a VENNACORN!! kevin being an awesome dickface! etc! i am going to be crazy sad when this 'verse finishes. i'm glad that she doesn't want to torture jo anymore (and really, what's left to do to her at this point?) but i will miss lewis like crazy.

also recently finished the second scott lynch book (red seas under red skies) and HOO-BOY, i love him. the first half was not that exciting, but once they became pirates the book turned awesome. both excited and nervous about the next one- i'm kind of afraid of how it will end D:

and i read a little more than a third of kushiel's dart before getting permission to give up. there were way too many characters, and i really don't care about the politics of a ridiculous and made-up world. i feel like i fail at being a fantasy fan now. (i may give it another try, cos the library finally let me renew it. hm.)

ON MUSIC:
the new olp album has mostly grown on me, but it is by no means their best work. some of the songs are just completely terrible, and a lot of them sound the same. raine's a decent producer, but he should probably not be producing his own albums. ("paper moon" is still amazing though.)

i went to see the cab, a rocket to the moon, eye alaska, and...two other bands? rocket are totally adorable and really good. i was digging eye alaska a lot, and their bassist is super-cute. i am still not a big fan of the cab. i want to awesome, super-friendly, and ridiculously adorable drummer from summer set (or whatever they are called) to find a band worthy of her awesomeness. all in all: MUCH FUN WAS HAD. also, much liquor was had. these things may be related.

the fall concert schedule is starting to get interesting. i need to un-poorify myself so i can see some fuckin' shows.

ON TV:
we mainlined being human today. it was pretty awesome! i love how watching things with vampires always leads to "but i thought vampires [x y z]" and then a largely ridiculous debate on different vamp mythologies and their pros and cons which then leads to shunning people who have never seen buffy. weeeeeeee, friends!

ON THE INTERNET:
momebie started this awesome project called Scattering Stars which you can learn more about here. it basically involves drawing on photos and making people smile though, so you have no excuses for not participating.

collabing with some friends (theemdash! marilla82! momebie! you!) to make an awesome wizard rock directory / calendar / general site thing. tomorrow is layout til i die day! woo! relearning html (and teaching myself php / div layers) is hard but fun. i'll never be a great designer or anything, but i like the actual work of coding stuff so i think this is gonna be a good project. i'm really glad i have friends who nudge me until i dive headfirst into this kind of thing :p

you guys, THIS BOOK. a book has not filled me with this much glee and rage since the lioness quartet. (or maybe tigana. the last line of that fills me with an awful lot of rage.)

the world lynch creates is gorgeously rich and complex, with such a thought-out and well-used history that i am shocked this is his first novel. his characters are all stunningly real, and the writing is superb.

it is set in camorr, a city made up of interconnected islands. in camorr, orphans have two possible fates: slaves, or thieves. this is a story about the latter, although they are not just any thieves. they are the ocean's 11 to the rest of the city's petty thieves. they are the gentlemen bastards.

Bug stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"I'm only doing this, he said, "because I really love hiding in haunted Eldren buildings on dark and creepy nights."

"You're a liar," said Jean, slowly. "I'm only doing this because I've always wanted to see Bug get eaten by an Eldren ghost."

"Liar," said Calo. "I'm only doing this because I fucking love hauling half a ton of bloody coins up out of a vault and packing them away on a cart."

"Liar!" Galdo chuckled. "I'm only doing this because while you're all busy elsewhere, I'm going to go pawn all the furniture in the burrow at No-Hope Harza's."

"You're all liars," said Locke as their eyes turned expectantly to him. "We're only doing this because nobody else in Camorr is good enough to pull this off, and nobody else is dumb enough to get stuck doing it in the first place."

"Bastard!" They shouted in unison, forgetting their surroundings for a bare moment.

-The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

with that said, there were some problems. ( spoilers. )

otherwise though, this was a really enjoyable read and i will not be surprised at all if it stays lodged in my brain for a good long while.

until i get my blog blog up and running again, i guess i should post my book reviews here:

our band could be your life: scenes from the american indie underground 1981-1991 by michael azerrad: THIS WAS SO GOOD. some of the chapters were a little boring (ian mckaye was such a tool when he was in minor threat, but he became pretty awesome by the time fugazi happened) and some chapters were not about what they were supposed to be about (the mudhoney chapter was actually all about subpop, which is fine because subpop is way more important/interesting than mudhoney, but it was not marked that way) and some bands are so ridiculous it is unreal (oh the replacements ♥), but all in all this was so good. well-researched and well-written and so informative without making me feel dumb. also, k records is apparently basically everything i have ever wanted in a label/scene/indie movement, so i need to find more on them.

carpe corpus by rachel caine: urgh. i felt like i skipped a book in this series. it wasn't bad, but it was really not nearly as good as the rest of her work, i think. ( spoilers. )

bermudez triangle by maureen johnson: this book made me feel incredibly lonely. like, it is unsettling how lonely this book made me feel. semi-unrelatedly, i think i need to add maureen to the list of authors i love as authors (and human beings) but who i do not love as writers. i bought suite scarlett when i bought this, so i'll try that one too before i make up my mind, but...yeah. at least she's in excellent company? (so far it's just neil gaiman in that club. YES I AM A HEATHEN WHATEVER.)

ps: saw up. yes, i cried. I AM AN EXCELLENT YET RUSTY AI MACHINE ONLY HUMAN. for what it's worth, it wasn't the opening montage (although that did make me pray for the first time in years), it was the scrapbook at the end. fucking scrapbooks.

-not only was the jenny concert fucking awesome, i have been talking to her other super-fans so much this week and it is so cool to be in this tiny awesome fandom. looooove. (AND they listen to pretty much all the other random shit i listen to, like julia nunes. SO FUCKING COOL.)

-the supernatural season finale was SO FUCKING BADASS YOU GUYS. omfg, best season of television ever Y/MOTHEREFFING Y?

-hanging out with the family last weekend was great. at one point nana yelled at me and my brothers and said "you haven't seen each other in six months! why can't you stop fighting and just have FUN?" uh, the fighting IS fun, lady. i actually got yelled at a lot, mostly because i called my uncle an asshole about 38484 times and also got my weather from thefuckingweather.com (which is an awesome site). if you want to know more about my retarded brothers, you will have to read my tumblr though.

-back to jenny super-fans (sorta): i might start using aim again, cos they told me to. should i make a new sn (probably weesaw), or should i assume that the people who made me not want to use aim anymore have forgotten i exist?

-those rick riordan books about the greek gods' kids or whatever are so damn entertaining. i just described them really stupidly, but i like them lots and lots. (finished the third one today!)

-one last thing about jenny! ok, so normally i love it when people take songs and strip them down and perform them with just a uke. like, it's one of my absolute favorite things in the world. well jenny has a song on her new album that is literally just her and her uke, and i love it! but when she plays it live it is full band and holy fucking god you guys, if it was legal to marry a song i would have gotten hitched in tennefuckingsee. check it!

ugh, i am way behind on lj again. i don't know why this keeps happening! (wait- yes i do. marilla82 calls me and says "come get dinner with me" and i think "yeesh, i am so exhausted i can barely stand up" but i say "okay!" and then we end up watching a zac efron movie. !!!)

also, last week was the fall out boy show and it was SO GOOD. UGH, THEIR STUPID FACES. massive amounts of fun were had, but i hardly slept for two days straight, and i had 15+ hours of overtime last week, and then stayed out way too late friday night. i am still somewhat zombie-like! good times!

also also, i was fucking pwning BEDA on my tumblr, and then last week happened (helped jessica make a video, fall out boy show, 12 hour shift, the insanity that was friday, etc) and i screwed it up. goddamn you, pete wentz!

anyway, the reason i am updating: BOOKS! just bought cathy's ring (usually i would take something like this out of the library, but it comes with ITEMS), salt & silver (by octette/lalejandra andddd someone else. idk. it doesn't matter, cos anna is one of my fave fic writers of all time ever and that's all that matters), and death's daughter (by amber benson. YEP!). i am almost excited for what i'm sure will be an excruciating work day tomorrow (12 hours at one of my least favorite hotels, probably with my least favorite electrician).

the other reason i am updating: now jenny, her mom, and several of her other crazy fans are encouraging me to drive all over creation (if by "creation" you mean "the southeast") to see her in may. they are starting to wear me down. anyone want to come on a roadtrip?

(and damion suomi, that local boy i love so much, will be playing in town three times in may and i can't go to any of the shows. URGH. the one at park ave on 05/16 is free, so if you are local you should go. he is totes adorable.)

1. jenny's new track is so fucking good it makes me want to not stab people. DO YOU KNOW HOW GOOD THAT IS? go listen to it on her myspace, and start mentally preparing yourselves for april 7th because i am going to be OB. NOX. IOUS. (well, more than usual.) (also, i will most likely need to bribe someone to buy the ep for me. it's a testament to how much i loathe itunes that i won't even put that shit on my computer for an exclusive jenny ep.)

2. do you love friendship bracelets? YES YOU DO. just start thinking about how much you love them, cos we are working on a secret project. (and it's being planned by someone is not me and therefore not completely useless, fyi.)

3. i have never read a book after seeing the movie (until today), but this is apparently the way to go. nick and norah's infinite playlist is excellent both ways and yet TOTALLY DIFFERENT! i think i liked the movie more but they can't even really compare. so amazing, all book movies should make me feel this way. ("this way" meaning "like there are two separate things in this world that i totally love and they are tangentially related")

4. the real reason i am writing this post: i have been trying different blogging software over the past few month and i have not settled yet (i think i like wordpress the best, but i don't love it). anyway, i'm currently using tumblr, which has some awesome features (automatic formatting in several styles depending on your content! encouragement of short random posts! all my favorite people are on tumblr!) but i hate some of its "features" a lot so we'll see. anyway, knock yourselves out.

4b. note: i am not losing the lj. i have just been sort of toying with the idea of a real blog, with reviews of books and movies and concerts and awesome shit i find online. and this will be more of a journal, as it generally is anyway. i am mostly holding out for dreamwidth before i make any real decisions though.

i started the learners by chip kidd today. nhnfcs MOAR CHIP KIDD PLS! i am really happy (hah) with how he dealt with the narrator's name, which is something i was kind of concerned about. (his narrator has no name, which is how it should be. but he goes by "happy" cos that's what winter called him ♥) i am also really happy that about two years before i start thinking i might want to do something, chip kidd writes a book about it that makes me realize i am insane. and i am happy that i can realistically pretend that the narrator is from nj, even though he is actually probably from pa.

anyway, this means that i finished abhorsen by garth nix. DOG♥! i always have a bit of trouble getting into this one, but then it has one of the best endings ever and i have to try really hard to not be an expressive reader cos i'm at work and it's embarassing.

(oh yay, library just got more books in for me! i almost wish the social was brighter so i could read between sets. also, they are giving away free tickets to the show i'm going to friday, so if anyone wants to see that local boy i love and some other bands i've never heard of, just email them! (hm, it sounds like he made some changes to his old songs that are on the new album and put the new versions on his myspace. interesting!))

-i got new glasses! they are super-cute! i am taking them back to the store tomorrow because they are making me insane! (the arms are pretty wide and completely cut off my peripheral vision and it is FREAKING ME OUT.) i am going to get the first pair that i liked, but i don't know if i want them in black or silver. (my life is VERY INTERESTING.)

-GMAIL IS MAKING ME VERY CRANKY MAKE IT STOP ARGH. i have comments and links and things i am supposed to be dealing with tonight and IT WON'T WORK. apparently it is something to do with the latest firefox release? idk, but i want it to stop :/

-this is going to come as a big surprise (especially if you know how much of a shallow freak i can be), but my favorite character on fringe is not peter. i mean, i love him, and not just cos he's played by an actor i used to have a creepy shrine to. but he's not my favorite. astrid is. she is made of pure win, you guys! and she is very pretty! and i just love her! and the girl who plays her is coming to d*c yay! i don't imagine that i will care enough about this show to attend any panels, but it still makes me excited haha.

-OH MY GOD VIXY IS NOT WORKING EITHER. internet, pls stop hating me D: i sacrificed (...hee) several hours this week watching videos so i could rip some stuff, and {s notwuhking! >:| >:| >:|

-i am reading this REALLY AWESOME book right now. it is a handbook to luck and it is by cristina garcia and i don't know how to describe it. it is regular fiction, and it follows the lives of three people (a boy from cuba, a girl from iran, and a girl from el salvador) as they grow up. and whatnot. i liked its cover ages ago, and i am finally getting around to reading everything on my list, so i took this out of the library and said "holy shit this sounds stupid" and i fully expected to hate it but HER WRITING. SO GOOD. bfewwbs i am really enjoying it. i was almost sad to spend my morning gossipping with my boys instead of reading. ("almost" only cos these two particular boys always bring me the best gossip.)

-speaking of gossip, it appears that someone at work has started a rumor about me wanting to date one of the boys. (someone came up to me and told me that he was very shy and i therefore need to be more assertive. !!! i should have assertively shoved my foot up his ass.) i don't really have a problem with the rumor, cos lord knows i start worse rumors all the time, but we can't figure out who started the rumor, so it is driving me crazy. starting rumors is MY job, dammit! (as a sidenote, i only start completely false and ridiculous rumors. i gossip about some true stuff, but it's always stuff that is basically common knowledge that just hasn't made the rounds yet. i never bring actual facts into my trufax rumors, unless they are completely taken out of context, such as "those two were both 'OUT SICK' yesterday. WHAT A COINCIDENCE! nudge nudge wink wink!")

-back to books: just finished everlost by neal shusterman. i can't tell if i read a lot of books about the afterlife, or if books about the afterlife are just really common. either way, this was a book about the afterlife. really interesting concept, mostly interesting characters, fairly uninteresting story. would probably read a sequel though.

-now some music: okay, besides the INSANE amount of patd i've been watching on youtube, i've been listening to a lot of mason jennings, jessie baylin, and meiko. and the usual stuff. and i'm waiting on pins and needles for matt nathanson to announce his tour. (if he doesn't come to orlando with jack's mannequin, i am going to death cab instead, assuming there are still tickets whenever this whole this gets sorted out.) allegedly (according to some random youtube user, YES THIS IS MY LIFE) jenny's album is coming out in may, which is mostly awesome, but means fulfilling my creeper quota for the year is gonna be hard cos there's no way i can fly up there in may for a cd release party. sadface! buttttt that means (a) summer tour! summer! the glorious time when i can take gratuitous days off of work to travel the southeast for shows! and (b) bess and allie will have released their eps and can maybe accompany her! oh! unrelatedly! my favorite music magazine is baaaaaack! at least on the internets! oh chart, i've missed you. (yeah, my favorite music magazine is canadian. what of it?) and wrock this weekend! which is extra good because i have basically done nothing the past three weekends besides sit on my couch and watch tv/movies.

-lately i have been filled with the almost irresistable urge to go to tom sawyer island and be a jackass. please tell me someone else has this urge and wants to accompany me.

my local b&n is pants at stocking shelves but aces at customer service! got the learners & undone after asking an employee, hurrah! also got city of bones & a planner & a george carlin calendar on discount. weeeee.

(ALSO YOU GUYS. in the newest reprint of the cheese monkeys it has a deleted scene where maybelle rushes tri delta. !!!!!!! WHERE WAS THIS WHEN I WAS IN COLLEGE? (my greek friends were all tri delts.) it also had the killer line "Where fools rushed in, I feared to tread." dude! i SO would have had that in my aim profile back in the day!)

sometimes my job is pretty douchetastic, but other times i get paid stupid money to hang out with some of my favorite boys & read tori spelling's book (stop judging me) & eat stolen coffee cake. yaaay work.

(this was almost cancelled out this morning when a customer was rude to me, and then his coworker full-stop yelled at me and treated me like shit, then called my office and yelled at my coworker, then hung up on her and was super-rude to me, then refused to unplug his lights, then was rude again, then had the AUDACITY to ask me why i wasn't smiling when he finally agreed to pay me after i had been to his booth no less than five times and was at the show an hour later than i was supposed to be. HM. I WONDER WHY I WAS NOT ALL SUNSHINE AND HAPPINESS. (no lie, i almost wrote "sunshine and puppycats") (I WANT A PUPPYCAT)

(and i mean, i know our prices ain't exactly cheap, but (a) too bad, that's the cost of doing business, and (b) that is still never a reason to ask someone who is basically a glorified cashier how she sleeps at night for doing her job. telling them that i sleep just fine in the apartment i pay for by having this job usually shuts them up AND gets an apology, but this guy was a real asshole and kept telling me what a horrible person i am for daring to charge him for using our service.)

(also, i don't know why people think treating me like shit will get me to cut them a deal, because treating me like shit is really the only way to guarantee i am going to make you pay me. at least if you're nice, there's a chance i won't charge you or will drop you to a lower rate.))

(as for sTORI telling, i would probably like it more if (a) i knew who any of these people were (the only thing i have ever seen her in is scream 2), or (b) she wasn't such a mary sue. i mean, i don't know, maybe she IS a great actress, writer, producer, human being, whatever. but the book basically says "i am so awesome and i know all these douchenozzles but i never told them they were douchnozzles because i am so sweet and non-confrontational! but TRUST ME, I AM AWESOME. AND THEY ALL SUCK!" and the writing's not that great.)

the goal is to read 100 books, 65 of which must be new. i will keep track of them here as i read them. (suggestions are welcome!)

(title, author, finished date. bolded books are new.)

01. dead girls’ dance by rachel caine (01.05.09)
02. midnight alley by rachel caine (01.06.09)
03. feast of fools by rachel caine (01.07.09)
04. lord of misrule by rachel caine (01.08.09)
05. story of a girl by sara zarr (01.14.09)
06. sTORI telling by tori spelling (01.16.09)
07. elsewhere by gabrielle zevin (01.18.09)
08. uglies by scott westerfeld (01.19.09)
09. pretties by scott westerfeld (01.21.09)
10. specials by scott westerfeld (01.21.09)
11. extras by scott westerfeld (01.25.09)
12. the fetch by chris humphreys (01.27.09)
13. sabriel by garth nix (01.28.09)
14. undone by rachel caine (02.07.09)
15. lirael by garth nix (02.11.09)
16. everlost by neal shusterman (02.17.09)
17. a handbook to luck by cristina garcia (02.21.09)
18. abhorsen by garth nix (02.25.09)
19. the learners by chip kidd (02.28.09)
20. jellicoe road by melina marchetta (03.01.09)
21. the lightning thief by rick riordan (03.05.09)
22. the shadow queen by anne bishop (03.11.09)
23. hairstyles of the damned by joe meno (03.16.09)
24. the naming by allison croggon (03.24.09)
25. nick & norah's infinite playlist by rachel cohn and david levithan (03.24.09)
26. the outsiders by s.e. hinton (03.25.09)
27. the sea of monsters by rick riordan (03.25.09)
28. city of bones by cassandra clare (03.30.09)
29. city of ashes by cassandra clare (04.03.09)
30. city of glass by cassandra clare (04.05.09)
31. the 27s: the greatest myth of rock & roll by eric segalstad and josh hunter (04.16.09)
32. tigana by guy gavriel kay (04.24.09)
33. drawing blood by poppy z. brite (04.29.09)
34. salt & silver by anna katherine (04.30.09)
35. death's daughter by amber benson (04.30.09)
36. cathy's ring by urgh can't read it from here (05.02.09)
37. glass houses by rachel caine (05.03.09)
38. dead girls dance by rachel caine (05.06.09)
39. midnight alley by rachel caine (05.06.09)
40. feast of fools by rachel caine (05.08.09)
41. lord of misrule by rachel caine (05.13.09)
42. the titan's curse by rick riordan (05.21.09)
43. our band could be your life by michael azerrad (06.06.09)
44. carpe corpus by rachel caine (06.07.09)
45. bermudez triangle by maureen johnson (06.07.09)
46. suite scarlett by maureen johnson (06.11.09)
47. dayhunter by jocelyn drake (06.16.09)
48. the lies of locke lamora by scott lynch (06.19.09)
49. the star group by christopher pike (06.25.09)
50. television without pity: 752 things we love to hate (and hate to love) about tv by tara ariano and sarah bunting (07.09.09)
51. red seas under red sky by scott lynch (07.19.09)
52. the key to the golden firebird by maureen johnson (07.20.09)
53. cape storm by rachel caine (07.28.09)
54. ill wind by rachel caine (07.30.09)
55. heat stroke by rachel caine (08.??.09)
56. chill factor by rachel caine (08.20.09)
57. windfall by rachel caine (08.28.09)
58. fire storm by rachel caine (09.??.09)
59. thin air by rachel caine (09.??.09)
60. gale force by rachel caine (09.??.09)
61. cape storm by rachel caine (09.23.09)
62. the hunger games by suzanne collins (09.23.09)
63. rampant by diana peterfeund (09.30.09)
64. the battle of the labrynth by rick riordan (10.01.09)
65. the boy in the striped pajamas by john boyne (10.04.09)
66. geektastic by holly black and cecil somebody (editors) (10.10.09)
67. the demigod files by rick riordan (10.16.09)
68. the pinball effect by james burke (10.21.09)
69. catching fire by suzanne collins (10.22.09)
70. devilish by maureen johnson (11.01.09)
71. shift by jennifer bradbury (11.09.09)
72. fade out by rachel caine (11.09.09)
73. king dork by frank portman (11.11.09)

49 new
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-i watched all of sports night last week. it was good, but not amazing or anything. dan and casey were totally adorably gay though.

-i am halfway through instant star now. even though i really don’t ship them, the jude/tommy s1 kiss is still incredibly awesome. “you are asking the wrong guy” nghghghggb! oh ridiculous canadian teenage soap operas, how do i live without you?

-i am on a vampire book kick for whatever reason. first was that really terrible hard-on-filled romp through victorian wherever, the brotherhood. then i read nightwalker by jocelynn drake, which was pretty good. the edward equivalent is named DAN! i liked him a lot. and the vampire girl grew on me. it’s an interesting take on vampires, anyway. now i’m reading the last vampire series by christopher pike. i’ve obviously read these before, but it’s been a while. i’m always afraid when i go a while without reading a pike book that the next time i pick one up i will realize that it’s poorly written and badly plotted and just plain old stupid, but i still love these insanely. i mean, a six-book series about vampires and jesus 2.0 and those creepy reptile guys that freak me the fuck out should not be this good, AND YET! there is even time travel! ridiculous, heartbreaking time travel! <3

-as of this moment, there is exactly one show in 2009 that i semi-want to go to (andrew bird). this is disappointing. people need to start announcing their spring schedules asap!

-i bought a couch! and a recliner thing! they are squishy and awesome, yaaay. also got a table and counter chairs cos ikea was out of the table chairs i wanted. the cave is pretty much furnished now, or will be when the couch gets delivered in january. i should plan a gathering of some sort. hm.

-i leave for jersey friday morning and will be gone for 9 days or whatever. yay! and then i am definitely getting internet as soon as i get back, because being unable to look shit up was driving me crazy this weekend.

-oh for realz, sky_was_green is totes awesome, and i have been listening to bandom music CONSTANTLY. also, there may or may not have been squealing last night when i noticed the photo file on the disc, hahaha.

yesterday i dragged my parents all over nj so we could shop for couches. i apparently have a way higher budget than i thought i had, but the places we looked weren't corporate so they wouldn't sell us anything for florida. so next week: furniture shopping. then we went to a b&n and somehow that ended with my parents saying "why are we spending $20 on a comic book?" and me saying "i do not know, but thanks!" which is how i read the umbrella academy today, haha. (trufax though: reading graphic novels is really hard. i thought it was just the abvh ones cos they suck, but i had a lot of trouble following this too. UGH MY BRAIN.) (i did like it though. i would just like it a fuckton more if it was a non-graphic novel.) (is there fic? i want fic.)

"Commentary! The Musical" is the most painstaking and exhausting piece of whimsey I have ever mistaken for a good idea.

♥ joss whedon!

OH the real reason i am updating: all of my 2008 goals are more than complete (the movie one is the funniest- it took me nine months to watch my first twenty movies, but i have watched almost that many in the past month or so. GO ME.) and so i am trying to figure out what i want to do for next year. i want to bump up the books goal (to maybe 75/50 instead of 50/30), and i like the shows goal but might move it to 15 (i like having an excuse to waste my money on all these awesome december shows), but i don't know what to do about the movies goal. i only enjoy watching new movies when i am really in the mood, and feeling obligated to do it definitely took the enjoyment out of it for me. but i don't want to say "fuck it, never watch a new movie again" either. urgh. i also want a guitar goal, but i don't know what yet.

(also, i hate you all. i can't stop singing patd songs under my breath and it is ALL YOUR FAULT.)

typing from bed is SO HARD. why haven't i moved my laptop back to my desk yet?

ANYWAY.

books: happy birthday or whatever by annie choi was pretty disappointing, especially since it has been on my to read list for ages. i am tearing through into thin air by jon krakauer though, even though it looked super-intimidating.

movies: watched robin hood: men in tights last night. nearly died laughing. why is there not more cary elwes in the world? watched wristcutters: a love story tonight. i had trouble watching the beginning, but i liked the rest and the end put a big dumb grin on my face. also: patrick fugit! ilu! (he was why i downloaded it, actually. i'm glad he was in it, cos otherwise i would not have touched this movie with a ten foot pole.) next up: ghost world!

music: i am so not linking from bed, but amazon has jessie baylin's album up for 99 cents today. they also have a free album called P IS FOR PANDA with a mix of artists, including one local boy that i love. and idek how this happened, but i downloaded the album for a brooklyn girl band whose name i can't even remember now because i couldn't get music/videos to stream and they sounded interesting. i am not allowed near amazon anymore because i will download too much music which will be bad because i already have too much music, for realz.

internet: i still hate the new lj profile pages. i have a twitter, but it's mostly for watching semi-famous people. (my username is weesaw.) y'all can count as semi-famous, so who's on twitter? i think i am ready to rename my lj. now i just need to get around to buying a rename token. eventually. uh.

1. looking for alaska made me cry at work today. one of my electricians semi-caught me (he came in before the waterworks really started, but i was sniffling and misty-eyed) and i definitely blamed my soup. UGH you guys! i love this book so much!

2. oh god twilight: whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

3. THERE IS A SEQUEL TO THE CHEESE MONKEYS!!!! i was already thinking longingly of this book because of alaska, but now i must reread it! nfuurbfv CHIP KIDD ILU.

4. the other night i dreamt in indian. my brain helpfully provided subtitles. !!! I AM GOING INSANE, YOU GUYS.

4a. i am so tired i cannot see straight. i am so tired the bags under my eyes make it look like i have not slept in a month. i am so tired that the thought of walking the two feet to my bed exhausts me. and yet i cannot fall asleep. DELIGHTFUL.

-i baked peanut butter cup brownies today. i have been craving brownies like you wouldn't believe, but we had no eggs or butter and so brownies had to wait. but now there are brownies! hooray!

-i'm reading a john grisham book because one of my electricians loaned it to me. um, really? is he really a bestselling author? the writing is pretty terrible, you guys. and the plot is pretty fucking stupid. and the book is sexist. i feel like this book is rotting my brain just as much as crappy tv does, but my electrician keeps asking me about the book so i need to finish it! i knocked a good chunk out at work yesterday, and i have a show tomorrow night, so hopefully it will be done this weekend so i can get back to children's books, haha.

-it turns out our library doesn't have as terrible of a ya section as i thought it did- it's just kind of hidden, along with the sci-fi section- behind the dvds. ::facepalms:: but they had a handful of pike books, which means it is an acceptable section. (to get a gold star you have to match my library from back home and contain every pike book ever. i really doubt this will ever happen.)

-i want to have a t-shirt making party before john green gets here! in his chat the other day, he was telling us that he did an event with stephanie meyer before she was famous, with about sixty people there. he said 52 of them were wearing fake fangs and shirts that said "I ♥ EDWARD" and that nobody had an "I ♥ ALASKA" shirt and it made him sad. so: t-shirt party! who's in?

"Almost everyone has a "Twilight" story: the teen who dropped his library card, only to discover Twilighters had found it and kept it; the cheerleader who has out-of-town mothers stop her on the street offering cash for her uniform; the Quileute native, who heads to LaPush to chop wood and sees giddy teenagers snatching up driftwood as souvenirs."

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26811199?GT1=43001