I leave for New Zealand two weeks from tomorrow, and I just got my Australian work visa yesterday morning! Whoo! ....oh god so much left to do. Brb, panicking!

Still at my dad's house. It's supposed to get down to 20 below zero (F) Friday morning. WHY.

Eh, here's a meme I stole from flatbear and isilrandir. Go!

Ask me fandom-related questions in the comments. They can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc. in general. Questions can be as wacky as you want. Ask me about tv shows, characters, fanfic in general, fandom issues/meta, anything about any of my stories specifically. Whatever you want.

I am really minimalist and boring when it comes to fandom (I have, what, 3?) but go for it regardless. Fandoms include Star Trek (TOS and Reboot), Star Wars, Green Day, the Dark Tower, X-Files, and uhhhhhhhhh... yeah, that's pretty much it. If you think of something you're pretty sure I'd be able to answer though, go for it.

Man, I am so ready for this last workaholic phase to be over and done with. There's like 3 memes I want to do, I need to comment on thorne_scratch's livejournal post, I think I owe people mixes or something, I DON'T EVEN KNOW. But I have been working like a crazy woman as I countdown to the day I come home to Ohio.

What else has been going on? Well, I bought an iPhone 4. (SIGH) I justified it as being very useful for my trip, and it will be, but holy fuck iphone I am so gay for you. Also, Angry Birds is like crack, you guys. It's this stupid downloadable game and I CAN'T STOP PLAYING IT, AUGH.

I'm dating a guy who is six foot ten (THAT'S OVER TWO METERS TALL FOR THOSE OF YOU OUTSIDE THE STATES) and fucking covered in tattoos. It's amazing to walk around with him because I can wear my three inch heels, which makes me a monster at 6'4", and he'll still tower six inches over me. It's insane and he's wonderful. (It also does not hurt that the sex is the best I've ever had in my life, ahem, sorry for the minor TMI there.) And before you ask, "what about your trip?" he knows about it and it's fine. It's a very cavalier sort of thing, which is nice.

I already quit one job (huzzah!) leaving only leftover paperwork and filing to do there. I put in the 2-week's notice for the other one, and my last official day of work for anyone is December 20th. After that I am a FREE BITCH with no employers, no rent due, and nowhere to be except sitting around being fat and lazy with my friends and family over the holidays. HELL. YES. I so cannot wait. Too bad there's still a crap ton left to do. Pardon me while I make small wounded animal noises.

BUT THAT BRINGS ME TO MY REQUEST. Lovely friendslist! I have FIVE WHOLE WEEKS of lazing around to do, and I would like to use it to check out some fun stuff. Additionally I will totally shove my ereader and mp3 player full of books and music before I go on my trip, and thus, this is what I want from you.

GIVE ME YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS. They can be for anything at all—an author, a specific book, a book series, movies, TV series, a band, a song, a director, even a video game. I want to hear it!! Even if it's just one thing you totally love and are into right now, HIT ME UP.

I'm putting my loves/dislikes and what I'm currently into behind the cut, in case you're interested, but you can totally shout at me at random too. Whee!

( Opinions, I have themCollapse )

Brief Friday check-in. Am sitting down at a cafe near my apartment to write for the next 2.5-ish hours until I leave to go see "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" with a bunch of friends & coworkers. Hooray for not COMPLETELY missing out on current pop culture!

Mostly the reason I'm posting is because we're approaching San Francisco's Indian summer, and the weather is already trending in that direction. This afternoon we're having one of those ridiculous gorgeous golden California sunsets. I really have to actually explain this to people who've never watched the sun go down into the Pacific Ocean; as a Midwesterner, I was in shock the first time I saw the entire sky go gold and stay that way for a good several hours.

I'm not remotely kidding about this—facing west, towards the ocean, is.... okay, so there's this really great scene in the Danny Boyle movie "Sunshine" where one of the characters opens the screen in the viewing room to the face of the sun, and the light is just so overpowering and intense that it's more like a physical being, an actual presence than it is anything else. Obviously watching the sun go down in California doesn't result in instant retinal scarring and scalding of the outermost layer of dermis, but the light is still so much more tangible than it ever felt like living in other parts of the country.

I did figure out why, after awhile—it's because all that light is reflecting off the surface of the Pacific, so there's twice as much as there usually is—but it took me a hilariously long time, and has in no way changed my stupefied reaction to the quality of the light, which is that despite whatever else I might have planned on a given afternoon, when the sky goes like that, all gold and vivid and blinding, all I want to do is go running full-tilt down to the ocean and stand there at the edge, soaking it up. Those are the afternoons that I feel particularly antsy, too, like sooner or later I'll just keep going and swim right into the Pacific and climb aboard a boat and not come back.

Yeah, okay, I've had too much curry. Done rhapsodizing about the California coast for now! Off to work on my big bang. ♥

First, a HUGE thank-you to everyone who responded to my last post! Seriously, the pick-me-ups were soooo appreciated. I was a hateful, sniffling zombie for much of Monday, and ended up taking a 2-hour nap in order to teach class that night. I plan to finish responding to comments when I get home tonight.

Of course, I had a repeat of insomnia last night, but at least I managed 4 hours this time. I DON'T WANT TO KILL ANYONE TODAY. I'LL TAKE IT.

So, call me crazy, but I'm seeeeriously considering signing up for startrekbigbang. It sounds like a LOT of fun. To be honest, my main deterrent isn't that I can't come up with any story ideas that could surpass 20,000 words (I have PLENTY), but I'm still working on finishing Pretty Human... which is only on Chapter 2. (FML.) I would be worried about finishing up THAT first, and then if 3 months would be enough time to do justice to the story that's been lounging on the big couch in the corner of my brain since I found myself in this fandom. It's just... sitting there, drinking and taking up half the space in the room, waiting patiently, because it knows I'm going to have to write it sooner or later and it's going to haunt my nightmares till I do. Sigh.

OKAY! Forget all that musing, because it's either sit here and navel-gaze about all the fuckery going on in meta-fandom at the moment (published authors bitching about fanfiction and its "legitimacy", what else is new?). LET'S HAVE A POLL. I KNOW YOU ALL LIKE POLLS! It's a FANDOM-POLL, EVEN.

( LOOK OUT, IT'S A POLL! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!Collapse ) Aaaaand that's all, folks. Gotta get going. \o/

So, today I was told by a coworker that I'm "very masculine" and the fact that I have two brothers and no sisters "explains everything."

There's background to this comment (we were having a conversation about another coworker of ours, who is distinguished from the multiple Katies we work with by being known as "Dude-bro Katie" because she calls everyone "dude" and "bro" ) but it's not terrifically pertinent. I have been stewing about this all afternoon, and trying to figure out why the fuck I even care. Aforementioned coworker (at one of the gayest restaurants I have ever worked at, in San Francisco of all damn places) is a girl, and not particularly prudish; none of my coworkers are, for fairly obvious reasons—probably upwards of 60% of my coworkers are gay, and shamelessly so.

When I asked my coworker to explain what she meant by that comment, exactly, she floundered and made vague noises about my height and my voice (low for a woman, but then, most women aren't 6'1") and my... personality, I guess, because she wasn't being terribly specific? I chose not to pursue the conversation. At the time I was too baffled by the comment to even know how to react to it. And now I'm just annoyed.

( Brb, being too ~manly for your friendspage!Collapse )

So, February basically sucks so far, at least where I'm concerned. Ironically February is also the prettiest month to be living in San Francisco, because everything's green and vibrant from the January rains (though I'm sure we'll get more, soon) and all the colors seem super-saturated and unnaturally bright. It's gorgeous. Thanks, February. Take your break-ups and your bouts with coughing crud and the why-am-I-broke-itis and shove it, and don't try to charm me with flowers and sunshine, I CAN SEE THROUGH YOUR LIES.

I have been sitting in a cafe because I couldn't stand to be inside my apartment today for whatever reason, and naturally the 20-minute walk I took to pick up the zipcar wore me out so badly I almost passed out on the table-top, but the advil and the food are doing their job and I think I'll be capable of moving without wanting to cry here in a few. Which is good! Seeing as I have to go meet with 2 tutoring students of mine tonight.

In conclusion, have a Celine Dion video. It has Victorian nightgowns, antique hairbrushes, things on fire, and dudez on motorcycles, and is guaranteed to make you gape at its pure unadulterated cheeseball awesomeness.

Everyone remember the mobile phone salesman Paul Potts who blew everyone away with his rendition of Nessun Dorma? About two years ago? He went on to make an opera record and go on a world tour.

Now there's this:




Susan Boyle, 47, is a contestant on the 3rd series of Britain's Got Talent. She surprised the judges with a strong performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables in the competition's first round, eliciting the "biggest yes in three seasons" from Piers Morgan and a yes from Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden. Amanda claimed it was the biggest shock and wake up call ever, referencing the initially skeptical crowd; Amanda also said that it was "an absolute privilege to listen to that". At the crescendo of the first act, the judges joined in the standing ovation. Following the performance, Piers stated that it was "the most incredible act I have ever seen, ever". [1] Susan is the youngest of nine children and lives in Blackburn, West Lothian with her ten year old cat, Pebbles. She stopped her pursuit of singing to look after her sick mother who died in 2007 aged 91.


Video is here. I am unable to find an embeddable version, but I've just watched it three times in a row and I'm still flabbergasted. The audience reaction is especially gratifying. I honestly hate shows like "American Idol" and "Britain's Got Talent" because they seem more a den for mocking people who are trying their best than anything else, but once in awhile something incredible emerges.

WHAT.

*dead*

At this moment, I am craving exactly three things in life:

1) A working motorcycle or car: a vehicle that can transport me and perhaps some gear OUT of this lovely city
2) The money to take some time away from work and bills
3) The time to run away to the middle of fuck-off nowhere to research, write, and be out in nature.

It's doubly maddening because we're coming up on one of the most beautiful times of year for camping and whatnot. And gas is really cheap right now, PERFECT for a road-trip. Aaaaand I live in a state with some of the most gorgeous natural scenery in all of North America, a continent which is already busting at the seams with natural beauty.

*bangs head against desk*

A song for the New Year on a rainy Monday. I can find absolutely no information on this band and it is driving me crazy.

[Where My Fortune Lies // Auld Lang Syne]

I see the world through the rear-view mirror
With jaunty movements through my wind-swept tears
Everything that I see sings a farewell song
By the time I learn it, I'll be gone

Starting Duma Key today. I teach my first class this weekend. Hope everyone's returned to business as usual with no nasty glitches.