People suck balls.

I mean really.

Suck balls.

My brother went on a hike last night. He likes going on hikes.

They ditched him.

In the dark. In the middle of nowhere. He was on the trail, they were ahead of him and he called out to them -screamed- for them to wait and they kept on going.

So, there he was. Alone in the dark with no sense of direction.

He called my parents, but he had no idea where he was. He has terrible sense of direction. Non-existent. Which is of course even worse in the dark. Thankfully he was able to get to the trail head. But then he had no idea where he was so he couldn't call a cab and tell them where they should pick them up.

Thankfully he was able to get to the exit and get picked up.

But yeah.

People suck balls.

Despite not having posted about any of my recent writing stuffs, I am making preparations--as well as doing actions--to make 2010 a major writing year. For Christmas, my mom is giving me a book that contains 365 prompts, with prompts tailored to the specific day. I'm very excited about starting that up. In the mean time, since December 1st, I have been writing three pages a day, the Morning Pages that Julia Cameron talks about in her books, most notably The Artist's Way. I was reading The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right Size, but I have yet to finish it. I started quite a few other books that way, too. I am making January 1st be the day I start the bulk of these things. I have made some minor starts, but really throwing myself into it is going to come January 1st. After getting excited about reading The Writing Diet, I bought her The Artist's Way. I may start that up on January 1st too. I'm aiming to read 100 books through '10, like I planned a few years ago. I think I have 100 books already that I wanna read. Books that are hiding around under my bed, and in my cabinet, and a few bookshelves. I have books coming out of my ears over here.

My big plan for 2010 is taking part in the getyourwordsout comm. And they really want you to get your words out. There are multiple tiers of writing. I went for the moderate level of 250,000 words. I have a whole year to write that. 50k is strictly for NaNo, so I have 11 other months to write 200k. Doesn't seem impossible if I actually stick to writing on a daily, or near daily, basis. I've written 74 pages this month alone. At 250 words a page, that's 18,500 words for the month of December. That's well above the average number of words (18,181) I'll have to write a month in 2010. So if I were to focus and write more words a day, complete entries on a daily basis, work on new projects, I can achieve 250k without many difficulties. I'm really looking forward to attempting this project. I tried to sign at the start of 2009, but I had missed the cut-off date: Dec. 31st, 2008. If you wanna attempt it with me, you have until the 31st of this year to sign up. I hope some of you take this writing challenge up with me. I would love to compare notes with you.

I hope I'm doing sudoku right. Sometimes I mess up so much I have to look it up in the back to see where I went wrong. Sometimes I get it right and only have to erase 1 or 2 squares and change numbers. I hope I get better because I hate looking in the back I'd rather figure out where I went wrong on my own.

Was just looking at my Last.fm profile, in lieu of doing anything truly productive. This is what my chart looked like last time I checked, five weeks ago. My current top 6:

1. Metric
2. Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
3. Glee cast
4. Camera Obscura
5. Old 97's
6. Lady Gaga

I think half of the additional Glee play count is just from those two songs from "Ballads". And the Gaga was in anticipation of the concert last night, which was A.MA.ZING. She killed it, then brought it back to life and killed it again. I never go to pop concerts (Lily Allen is the only other one) or any BIG mainstream shows (Coldplay was the only other one of those) so it was definitely on a much grander scale than what I'm used to, but I think even by those standards it was pretty awesome. She does remind me a lot of old-school Madonna, which I think is a good thing; I think she speaks to people in the same way Madonna did back then, and this generation needs that type of pop star. Because fuck knows my generation didn't have that... we had Britney and "Genie in a Bottle"-era Christina and Mandy Moore and the boy bands. And I think Gaga will be around for the long haul because she has actual musical skills and could credibly reinvent herself in all kinds of ways. But let's set the cultural analysis aside for a moment: I danced my little monster* butt off, and she put on a FUCKING BADASS show, and her entrance for the encore was FUCKING AWESOME, and did I mention her belting it out to the cheap seats like Christina on "Speechless" and "Poker Face" (which she also did the regular dance version of), and just... *flail*

Ahem. Hi. I'm c0untmystars. I'm a grown-ass thirty-year-old woman and I just fangirl-flailed over Lady Gaga. Deal with it ;)

Anyway... it's four minutes off from being Christmas Eve in my time zone right now so I should probably be dragging myself off to bed...

* She calls her fans "little monsters"

Kiss Me Sweet


And yet another fruitless and pointless chapter. This time it's between Roran and Katrina. Normally they've been fairly good, but by this time, over half way through the book, I just want it to be over with now. I want it to be over with a long, long, long time ago. I want something interesting to happen, but nothing interesting happens here. It's a nice little quiet chapter. Which wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that the past two chapters have been quiet chapters with nothing exciting happening in them and now we have another chapter where nothing exciting is happening. I guess it could be called character development, but I don't think anything new has been shown.

Roran wakes up at the beginning of this chapter.

Saphira had just gone to sleep at the end of the previous chapter.

I wonder if I should do a count to see how many wakings and sleepings there are for chapter transitions. I know it's making me sleepy to read. Up and down and up and down and up and down. ZzznzNNnnnzzznn....

*snkk*

*yawn*

*blinks blearily* Wha-?

Eeeeeh... Right. Roran wakes up and is Thoughtful. Actually he is beyond Thoughtful and has moved into Brooding. Real Heroes Brood, after all. Thinking is for sissies. Katrina also wakes up. (Oh hey, that's two this chapter) and she wraps around him asking him what's wrong.

Roran Broods.

She wants to know if it's because of his getting a new captain or where Nasuada (she-who-doesn't-deserve-a-hyphen-name) will send him next.

Roran continues to Brood after saying no.

She was silent for a while. “Every time you leave, I feel as if less of you returns to me. You have become so grim and quiet. . . . If you want to tell me about what is troubling you, you can, you know, no matter how terrible it is. I am the daughter of a butcher, and I have seen my share of men fall in battle.”

Now, that's an interesting conjunction of two phrases. First of all they're shoved together like a pair of badly conjoined twins. The way they are put together seems to indicate that since she is a butcher's daughter she sees men fall in battle. This makes me wonder, what exactly is in Sloan's meat? Do we ever see what they are exactly? I mean they are sausages nice, fat, meaty and thick sausages, but what is those sausages? Are they really man-meat? I mean really real man-meat? As opposed to the other man-meat? Not that the other man-meat isn't real man-meat. But sometimes when you don't want a sausage, you want sausage, fat and grilled. Or steamed, or wet from a pot. There are a lot of ways you can have your sausage. Inside a bun, just plain. With some spicy flavor. Is the reason why there haven't been any trouble in Carvahall because of Sloan and his manly man-meat? Has he butchered and sausaged all potential trouble?

Could explain why Katrina is so blah about her father's supposed death. After all what worth is the life of man except for his potential for his sausage?

Second the first part has nothing to do with the second part. Except, perhaps, the fact that they're about blood spurting? Being a butcher's daughter doesn't mean that you're used to seeing the flat slaughter of people, of killing them yourself.

Roran complains that he's not a great and real warrior because he doesn't want to talk about it. Katrina reassures him that yes he is, because he does feel bad about it.

“A true warrior,” she said, “does not fight because he wishes to but because he has to. A man who yearns for war, a man who enjoys his killing, he is a brute and a monster. No matter how much glory he wins on the battlefield, that cannot erase the fact that he is no better than a rabid wolf who will turn on his
friends and family as soon as his foes.” She brushed his hair away from his brow and stroked the top of his head, light and slow. “You once told me that ‘The Song of Gerand’ was your favorite of Brom’s stories, that it was why you fight with a hammer instead of a blade. Remember how Gerand disliked killing and how reluctant he was to take up arms again?”

I thought he fought with a hammer because he didn't know how to use a blade? And that he didn't want to be a warrior. I could have sworn that's what it was. I have no issues with Roran taking up the hammer because of the story, but at least let it be the reason the first time and not retconing it so that Katrina can tell him that he's okay, and that he's not doing it wrong. Giving him the pep talk to prevent the Heroic BSOD He's doing the Right Thing. So he shouldn't Worry.

Roran continues on the line of But I'm no good and Katrina with the yes you are. And Eragon is a real warrior and no he's not because Roran goes in without magic and blah blah.

Then we get this: And he placed a hand over her rounding womb.

Rounding womb is a pair of words that should never be put together. Yes, Paolini I'm sure that you're going for rounding belly, but rounding womb? No. And No. and No. Womb is not a word that should be spoken unless you are discussing the health of a pregnancy or a woman.

Stop being clever.

You're not being clever.

So, just stop it.

Please.

We finally get a hint of what Katrina has gone through.

“Some troubles,” he said, “no one else should have to endure, especially not those you love.”

She withdrew an inch or two from him, and he saw her eyes become bleak and listless, as they did whenever she fell to brooding over the time she had spent imprisoned in Helgrind. “No,” she whispered, “some troubles no one else should have to endure.”

We haven't seen her fall to brooding before, she seems less broody than Roran. I think they should be a more troubled couple. Him having to deal with his feel of loosing of humanity and trying to be supportive and helpful with Katrina's post traumatic stress disorder. And she trying to help him and then dealing with the stress of being pregnant. That would be interesting.

The chapter title is given to us when Roran tells her stop worrying and "kiss me sweet". I have no idea what that means, but it sounds... nice?

Finally, when they go back to sleep.

Oh dear God. They woke up and then went back to sleep all in one chapter. ARGH. \~/

Um so, they go back to sleep and then Roran has a dream.

She laughed at him then, and kissed him most sweetly, and then they lay upon the cot as they had before, and outside the tent all was still and quiet except for the Jiet River, which flowed past the camp, never pausing, never stopping, and poured itself into Roran’s dreams, where he imagined himself standing
at the prow of a ship, Katrina by his side, and gazing into the maw of the giant whirlpool, the Boar’s Eye.

Now part of me wonders if this is supposed to be a prophecy dream or just a dream of the worries that's happening to Roran. It's an interesting image in my thoughts, at least.

oldschoolfic story posted - check!
Clothes packed - check!
Presents wrapped and ready to go - check!

I'm ready to head out tonight to my parents' house for Christmas. I probably won't be anywhere near a computer so I wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season! May you get the gift you always wanted.

I'll see you on Monday!

Today's recipe for disaster.

Take (4) people who have lived in Los Angeles for their entire lives (or most of them, the city where the last time it snowed the mother unit was eightish) and the last time they saw it falling snow was when the first Bush was in office.

(1) Friend of mother unit who lives in Dewy Arizona

(1) Planned car trip to visit said friend.

(1) Forecast of snow during the trip.


Mix all together and watch hilarity ensue.


We're going on a trip and the four of us are trying to figure out what to bring for this strange thing known as snow. Oh, sure we've been to the snow before. But the last time was like five years ago and that was only for the day. Now we are going somewhere where for about four days. We have invested in boots.

Today I've completed two new music videos which have been on my list of to dos for awhile!

Fandom Bones
Title Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Music By Tori Amos
Subject The three Christmas episodes
Download at Pink-martini.net
Stream at Youtube

Fandom All My Children
Title I Just Call You Mine
Music By Martina McBride
Subject Jake/Amanda
Download at Pink-martini.net
Stream at Youtube

Enjoy!

Patrons are driving me crazy today. I spent thirty minutes on the phone with one woman trying to explain to her that the numbers I gave her for the Social Security Office were the only ones I could find. There are no magic hidden numbers.

But in happier news, according to SCI-FI WIRE, you lucky Canadians are getting a second season of The Listener. I didn't even get to see the end of the first season. But if any of you could upload episodes or tell me where I can download them, I will be forever grateful.

And now, for the First Lines Year in Review Meme

( Dragonsinger's 2009 )

It's not reflected in those first lines, but the big major thing I did this year was go back to school. I started in January 2009 and have complete four classes towards getting my MLIS. I'm pretty stoked thus far.

I wasn't very fannish, nor did I write this year, but I think next year I'll be getting back on those trains.

Okay, bring on 2010!

Go to this post over here on yuletide_admin to get instructions on joining the backup pinch-hit list.

ETA: The irony of there being a backup list for backups? Kind of amuses me.

This entry has been cross-posted to Dreamwidth ( comments). Comments are welcome on either post.

I finished my reread of Alice in Wonderland last night, and it was just as wonderful as I remembered. I used to read that book and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There over and over when I was seven and eight (sometimes I'd alternate it with Pippi Longstocking and The Wizard of Oz).

But my memory must have mashed up the two Alice books because there was no Tweedledee and Tweedledum nor the story about the Walrus, the Carpenter, and the oysters.

So I went to Wikipedia to see what's going on. Apparently, those characters are in Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, and I did mash the two stories up. Silly memory. I suppose I'll have to find that book later as I don't own it.

Right now, though, I have The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor, and this one looks to be interesting...

How can you make a fanmix for Alice and not include Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit"? I've been looking through the fanmixes posted on the communities so far and not one of them features this song. I just...I don't understand it. Perhaps I need to make one to correct this problem.

Anyway, hetfic hasn't had a ficathon since the summer of 2008 so I've started asking for fandom suggestions over there. New and old are all invited, just as long as you submit them by January 3.

And congratulations to all the people who have finished their various ficathon stories and fandom_stocking stuffing. I should be right there with you shortly.

In the meantime, two more days of work, and then my four-day Christmas vacation can begin. I'm looking forward to the break. I'm getting a little tired of patrons asking me if we have a book rather than using the catalog to find it themselves. Dude, we're not Barnes and Noble. We are a reference desk. We're here to help with homework and research questions. The rest you should already know how to do.

But enough of me ranting, are you ready for Christmas yet?

One of the best things about visiting the dwarves was their meat. After having to listen to Arya forbid him meat on those plains as they ran, as he craved it. What she gave him was no longer satisfying. He'd remembered the sweet and juicy taste of meat and now he wanted, damn be her abstaining from meat. While as beautiful and knowledgeable as she was, she just didn't understand the simple pleasures of a bit of sausage or roasted meat on a stick.

On their journey to the dwarven lands Nar Garzhvog showed him how urgals use their meat. How they simmer and savor it. It was both savage and sublime in his almost animal way of eating it. His meat was large, bucks heavy and fat. Eragon barely could eat it all, though Garzhvog ate his with gusto. His was a strange and spicy meat, different than anything Eragon had tasted before. Uragls, Eragon decided, knew their meat and knew it well.

But the dwarves! Oh the dwarves! At every occasion they had meat, out in display of everyone. It was almost garish and overwhelming. Dwarf women and men would serve him, offering thick slabs of meat to eat. At the wedding celebration, Eragon didn't know how much meat he got or how many offered to give him meat.

All he knew was they gave him more meat than he could handle, but he took it all. He knew, in the back of his mind, that he would have to go back to the elves and their distaste of meat. So he wanted to engorge himself as much as possible until then.

He knew they wouldn't understand. But he was a man and a man needed meat to eat like he needed air to breathe.

It really is kind of awful that I've just gotten into the show (as in marathoned all 10 eps this weekend) and this week they're re-airing the pilot, presumably due to the holidays. Damn it. Ep ten ended on a really huge cliffhanger too.

First of all, seriously, there had better be good femslash out there, because Bonnie/Elena? I am so there. There's none listed on femslash_today, only an old 2005 story that's no longer online, and was from the books anyway. Which, of course, I haven't read since high school. I may have to re-purchase those, since I know my high school copies were last seen as I walked them into the used bookstore for credit.

( spoilers beyond the cut )

This entry has been cross-posted to Dreamwidth ( comments). Comments are welcome on either post.