Melodramatic Fool

Still alive o/ Apologies for being kind of absent of late, but you know *hand wave*. Mood, hidey from holiday stress, then busy with family stuffs, same old. ♥ to those that left holiday wishes on my last post, and thanks to lady_eilthana for the v-gift :D ♥

Kept it really quiet Christmas Eve, for the most part. Had managed to finish all holiday prep (though the husband's idea of holiday prep seems to be toss things together at the last minute, rather than my stress about it for over a month, yet we both get stuff done about the same time. Hum.). Person in my guild continued to be the cause of ~issues~ so I played on unguilded alts that day to not have to deal with him (the situation is currently being dealt with), and thus finally got to see all the goblin and worgen starting areas and storylines. Won't be doing anything more with the one worgen alt, but I like my goblin priest (aiming to go shadow, of course), and she's kind of cute--named her Akathisia. I stumbled across the word recently on Wikipedia and it is strangely awesome.

Christmas we spent the afternoon with extended family at my cousin's place in Lincoln. Tons and tons of food--between that and our own holiday candy, have been overdosing on sugar for days now. Dad's still dealing with a lot of pain from his shoulder surgery awhile back (he was manic from the pain meds Christmas Eve evening when we were at his and my stepmother's place for gifts), and now it's worse because he took a fall on the ice while walking up the street to my cousin's place. He landed on the plastic cooler he was carrying under one arm and had to be taken to the ER where they found he'd cracked a rib. So he's on even more pain meds now, but still in a lot of pain. It really rattled my cousin (though her wife was just stellar at taking care of my Dad and getting him driven over to the Emergicare place, staying with them while they waited) and my aunt. Said aunt is doing well, all things considered (continuing chemo and such), and ended up weepy for another reason when her adopted daughter's longtime boyfriend called and asked my aunt permission to marry her. It sort of felt like some sort of Lifetime sitcom. :p (Though it's better than Mom's side of the family, who, while there's the "normal" ones, the "not normal" ones have become even more freakish and facepalmingly Jerry Springer recently).

Christmas evening was just Mom, the husband, and I back at home doing our gifts and decompressing from a day of omg-too-many-people. From friends I got a book and a 20-sided die that flashes when it rolls 20 (they gave the same to James, unfortunate since I'd gotten him the same thing :p ), got a couple of frames Mom did up with more cat photo collages to go with the ones she'd already hung up in the kitchen, some poetry compilations, holiday-themed socks, and a few cookbooks from another aunt. James gave me a gift card for the iTunes store and a new keyboard, which even though it's just another standard Apple keyboard is so YAY. Had been so frustrated at how bad some of the keys were sticking where that old drink spill had gotten worse again. Also got a little geeky card game, cocoa, and tons of candy. Another friend gave the husband and I both the WoW Li'l Ragnaros pet for in-game, though we still need to activate the codes for that. Got given the Sam & Max games off Steam as well as getting called Christmas Day by Aaron, too, which was way cool even if I eventually had to rush off, and I'm so going to have fun poking at the games (ty again :) ).

Sunday was D&D, the husband's alt game, in which my barbarian missed nearly every will save roll (he's got a mighty 1 in it currently), and the module's encounters demanded a freaking *ton* of said rolls. Lost count of the numbers of times he was stunned or feared (including the one where he ran away and then back for a total of six rounds :| ) The rest of the week should be quiet-ish, though several friends are coming over Friday evening for our gift exchange, and I'll do dinner for them (all easy stuff, though, just heat-up type things). Then Saturday another friend will have us over all afternoon/evening for a very-extended New Year's movie "night", followed by the other D&D game next Sunday.

Other than that, have tabs of fic open that I'm hoping to get to soon, and am still trying to decide if I'm ever going to get caught up on the comments I've procrastinated on since November. :B We shall see. Anyway, HI. Glad to see people have been having decent holidays ♥

Yeah, still sick. But improving, I promise. This thing seriously kicked my ass, and I'm unfortunately used to how colds treat me. Least I don't feel like I need a dr/antibiotics anymore, just normal-cold cruddy. No energy though, which really gets aggravating. A good night of sleep would help, but just can't seem to thanks to waking myself up contantly coughing--either getting up for cough syrup/drops keeps me up for awhile or if it's past 5am, I might as well just get up, you know? But a few hours a night is gettin' a mite old. ^^;

UGH, need a new keyboard. Long time ago, I'd had a spill that'd gummed up a few keys--they got kinda-sorta better, but then recently have out of the blue gummed up even *worse*, and my 6-7-8 are darned near non-functional. Guess I know what my Christmas money from Dad will go toward.

OMFG WOW: CATACLYSM TONIGHT \o/!!! Shows how out of it I am--I kept thinking when I heard midnight release 12-7, that meant midnight Tuesday. No, Beavis, you dumbass, that means Monday midnight. Oy. I seriously only realized this *last night*.

For some reason, realizing Cata comes out tonight instead of tomorrow night started me on some sort of anxiety-cascade, and thus massive insomnia before the coughing problem even factored in. >_< Aasfsdkjfk. I'm just so behind on basic house stuff, and thought I was okay on holiday things but now feel hugely behind. And I'd wanted to do cards for people, but honestly that's not going to happen. :/ So I really love all those that have posted entries saying to leave an address for a Christmas/holiday card, but I feel really weird taking and not giving. Bad enough I've left prompts for comment-fic when I'm not going to have anything to offer.

Was supposed to go to the husband's work holiday dinner tonight, but highly likely not doing so. And of course, had planned on waiting at Gamestop this evening for the midnight release, but that's probably not a good idea. :/ The husband is willing to do it, which is cool, since he's not one for standing out in crowds and usually I'm the weirdo that does that sort of thing. (Unfortunately it does mean standing out in the cold again >_< Which is why I definitely can't do it.)


PS REGARDING A CERTAIN TV GUIDE COVER WOOOOOO HELL YEAH FANDOM :D :D :D Holy cats, for the first time in like a decade I actually give a shit about buying a TV Guide. XD;

So tired... Not sleeping well, allergies, still that flu shot?, that time depleting my iron and will to live, who knows. The pumpkin spice instant coffee drink thing isn't helping terribly much.

I need to do my 10min/100 words. >_< Honestly, how hard is that. NOT AT ALL. Yet I'm failing at getting started, because tired. Wah. Dear self: quit being a wench and just write, you stupid bitch.

Must vote this evening. Trying to avoid politics and articles/discussions thereof, though. Hate politics, so so much. Just hate the whole...*handflail* everything about it, the attitudes people get toward each other, the way so many treat each other over differences of belief and opinion. And it always seems to highlight how much selfishness, self-centeredness, and greed there is in those of my city/state/country. Just gets me down/frustrated, makes me want to avoid it all.

RIGHT. Time to go write. And by write, I mean stare at a blank, white file and bitch and moan to myself. Woo.

Still fighting that cold. Isn't getting worse, just is being really, really slow to go away. Life's mostly about sleeping and being really tired. James'd taken a couple days off work and really wanted to go to the zoo, so I did that with he and Mom Tuesday for a few hours, but that kicked my ass hard. Good to get out in the sun a bit though (even if we kept to inside exhibits because it was so hot). But I haven't even done WoW much--even sat out of the raid last night so I could lay down early. Thanks to those that have sent 'get better' wishes. ♥ It's appreciated, truly. I've just been crap at answering my comments again, sorry. :(

Dad and my stepmother stopped over for awhile this morning to talk about my aunt (my dad's sister). This is...kind of the home stretch for her. She's been having another round of chemo (after they'd found how her cancer'd spread back during that surgery she'd had in February), but it's been going really horribly, and she's so incredibly ill and dehydrated. They're having to stop it because her kidneys are failing again. And it's one of those things that there's just no more chemo that can be done. When Dad took my aunt to her oncologist, she was compassionate and definitely is a good doctor, but was bluntly honest about how advanced the cancer is now. Obviously this is really rough for my aunt, and even just talking about it with us, Dad was alternating between being strong and starting to cry. The doctor had said my aunt will be able to see her granddaughter be baptized in early September, but beyond that... I wonder if we'll still have her with us come Christmas. Anyway. She's been a survivor for twelve years now, so she's done fucking well, and that's what really matters.

Followed a link from someone's Twitter, saw this website:
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/
So very striking. I'm particularly fascinated by photo 66, because even though these are just day-in-the-life sort of photos, that one in particular looks like art. It looks like it should be an oil painting.

So time to time I read the webcomic Boxer Hockey, which I've been tempted to link to in the past, but there was one story arc so freaking *weird* (which turned out to be a dream) that I didn't. But this latest story arc just has me all OH HEY HEARTSTRINGS I HAS THEM. Starting here: http://boxerhockey.fireball20xl.com/?id=134 The current strip that's a short animation has me all 'awwww'. Sort of reminds me of me as a kid.

One for the 'everything is about SPN' files:
http://threewordphrase.com/brofight.htm

And leaving this link for myself for rereading, since I'm sure everyone in fandom's read it already:
http://collegeau.livejournal.com/
Mildred: A College AU by causeways and walkawayslowly, J2, NC17, 62K+ words. Most adorable, sweet thing ever. Ever. I am so completely charmed by young, awkward, confused, discovering-himself Jared that it's not even funny. The background characters are delightful (And I think some are OCs, and I *never* like OCs usually).

Anyway, time for lunch, making myself shower, and most likely more sleeping. Wooooo, crazy times.

(P.S. This gif is my happy place: http://pics.livejournal.com/whitereflection/pic/000a8w71 Afdfksdfk.)

Crashed hard a couple hours this evening (last evening? Ah, the brilliance of middle of the night posting...)--right after having a Mountain Dew, not sure how I managed that. Got woken up by a phone call from Anj, dozed more, then was up again, which of course resulted in being awake until the stupid time of now, rather intelligent of me, yes.

This is the most awesome thing: acockalypse. This is another most awesome thing:
( spoilery Stonehenge Apocalypse gif of awesome )

The reason Anj had called, though, was that the husband and I were supposed to have gone to a movie night at Don's tonight, I guess. Don did his usual not emailing about it until middle of last week, but I didn't see because I don't check my cable ISP email much anymore--only by chance checked it tonight, saw the email at 6:22 when we would have had to leave at 6:30 (not to mention stop at the store for stuff to bring with, plus the whole neither of us were leaving-the-house ready so that would have required time). Sent him a reply that we weren't going to be there and gave him the Yahoo email I actually check. Honestly, if he wanted to do something with just a couple days notice, I wish he'd call, or if he insists on doing so by email, I wish he'd give more warning. That always drives me nuts about him.

Might have also raided ysi_leftovers like crazy. Someone had a post with a bunch of Cat Power and Bad Religion albums, and I might have picked up Adam Lambert's two (don't judge me), Kane's plus his EP (hush, I was curious), one of Jem just because, and one of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club since I heard them on a fanmix and wanted more. Also trying some Treetop Flyers, Sean Pinchin, and We Are The Fallen. I know there's a lot on my Amazon mp3 wishlist I need to actually buy, but with the furnance/ac and cat vet bills of late, I'm just, you know. : /

It's funny that the thing I was looking forward to doing most for spnland was writing, and ironically, what's the thing I haven't been able to do almost at all since it started? Yeah. Started out okay, but ever since.... Nearly nothing. Wouldn't even call it being blocked or locked up, because that implies there's something there to block or lock up. There's just really nothing in my head, writing-wise. And I'm gonna just laugh at myself for the whole "I wanna be a poet" thing, because yeah. To write as a career, you have to be able to, you know.... There's just no words, not for fan stuff, not for original projects.

Naturally, I actually had one idea for this one challenge due tomorrow (love letter from one character to another), and I was like yay and worked on it, and then realized the rules state it's got to be major, named characters and what I had won't work, not a bit. Sooo yeah. Awesomes. Least there's games there, because that's the only stuff I seem to be able to accomplish. That and voting on things.

I guess I could understand if I were just having trouble with character-focused things, because I'm a pretty lousy fan that just isn't as into secondary characters all that much, and some I'm outright *blah* on. I mean, yeah, I like Bobby and some others, but really if it isn't Sam or Dean (or okay, maybe the Impala), I just don't get too motivated. But there's been plenty of general writing challenges that don't demand certain characters, in which I could have written with Sam and Dean. Yet still no inspiration or success at motivating myself.

Then lately when I see everyone talking about their big bang projects, I get the little thought in my head of "Next year I'll try that!". Hey, self? Yeah. This is me pointing and laughing at you. LoooooooooOOOOOOOoooooooool. Pull the other one, it's got bells on. Dumbass.


At least I can accomplish things in WoW (Nin to 72, Sampala to 17), that's worth something right? Right? Yeah, didn't think so. :|

Someone sent me a sugary bunny virtual gift :D :D :D I don't know who it was, but whomever you are, ilu~! ♥ It's so cute X3 Thankyou!

I need to find the link of it, but one of my uncles on my mom's side (one of her younger brothers) pointed her at a Youtube video he and some friends did of them blowing up a junk van with dynamite. Mom's family is odd like this, yes. This is my genetics. :| And he's one of the *good* crazy ones. (Though at times he's somewhat of a lazy, forgetful doofus, but anyway.)

In WoW news, I used the AV weekend to finally accomplish two goals I've had for Ak for a very, very long time. One was to get exalted with the AV (Frostwolf) faction (38th exalted--need Timbermaw and...something else now, for the 40 exalteds achievement). The second, was finally FINALLY getting the 100 mount achievement.

( And the reward~! )

I have wanted the red dragonhawk for so very long--it's one of those in-my-own-head roleplay things. There are certain things important to him as a character, including the Wyrmrest Accord faction and his red drake mount, his black drake mount, anything to do with the Argent Crusade faction/Ashen Verdict faction and his standing as 'exalted champion' for such and title of Crusader. But most of all, his racial identity and loyalty to Silvermoon City (the rebuilt bloodelf capital). That red dragonhawk looks just like the ones in Eversong Forest in the bloodelf starting zones, and to me is iconic of the race. Thus it was something I wanted to really have a sense of him being "of Silvermoon City" (which is the title I've switched back to for the moment). Anyway. Yay ♥ (And getting the last 3 mounts I needed only took two grueling, grueling days of pvping in mostly AV with some Wintergrasp thrown in. Ohgod, all the losses, over and over and over and over, with so few wins, just to eek out the honor and the rep. Egads.) Also, yes I know it looks orange but is labeled red. Blizzard is colorblind (see 'violet' protodrake that is pink/fuschia).

Friends wandered over for the evening, spent more time playing the original God of War with Kelly spectating and Anj walking me through. Post title is something I said during the proceedings. :p Have gotten past the Cerberus fight, and left off in this godawful room where you're supposed to get into alcoves for chests before you get trapped in and impaled on spikes. The 'puzzles' or minigames or whatever you call it in GoW are designed by sadists, I think. I normally don't talk when I game, but this one has me going from "crapsticks" to "fucksticks" to "AUGHWTFWTFWTFshitshitshit!". But Anj says I'm picking up on it faster than she did her first run through, so go me or something. \o/ Random tangent--I love Kratos' Artemis blade. Love. After I first got that, I started cleaving mobs in two and decapitating things and it made me honest to god *giiiiiiiiiiggle* in glee. And it's pretty 8D (First sparking blue and now sparking purple X3 ♥) You can keep your dressy girl stuff--I want me a Big Ass Sword that's pretty and glowy and sparking/sparkling. 8D 8D (Or axe. Big Ass Axe also works. :3 )

P.S. also ysi_leftovers is my new best friend. :x Yes, I am very late to the party on this sort of thing I'M SLOW OKAY D: But omg muuuuuuusic music music music. I found so much yesterday >_> I will have to poke at it more soon. :3 (I do buy and will still buy, I promise \o/ This just...helps, with the whole not getting to do so often thing.)

Short jaunt over to B&N with Mom, and got the FFXIII guide like I'd planned, so at least I have that for whenever I get the game and PS3. Even if that's like 2011 or worse :p Also was a bit bad :< and got a CD, Music of Ireland - Welcome Home, which I guess is a selection of music from a PBS special (also has a DVD with it with part 1 of that special). Been really craving that style of music lately, for some reason. While there, read volumes 1 & 2 of the manga Fairy Tale (which I heard of when I heard the soundtrack for the anime, and the music is damned fine). I think I'm hooked. :x I can't help but be weak for a shounen manga series, even if the females are pretty damned boobular (seriously huge tracts of land)--but the art style, characters and story are cute and silly in that usual shounen sort of way, and it involves wizards and magic, so ♥

Forgot to post here the news article I did for the spnland_writing challenge 002 (News Reporting) from a weekish ago. The basic concept was to write an article of the sort that would attract Sam and Dean to a case. Got third place, which is not bad at all. :)

( Local Man Attacked By Giant Bird )

Basically it was all about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippogriff ^^ Sort of want to write the casefic that would result from it, heh. Anyway. Was lazy, didn't do the Mary drabbles challenge or the meta challenge, but there was one meta winner in particular that I was incredibly impressed by:
http://waterofthemoon.livejournal.com/430230.html
waterofthemoon's "Well, You Are Kind Of Butch": The Bisexuality Of Dean Winchester
Very well thought out and well written.

Insert WoW blather here, minor guild drahmaz blah blah, sloppy slacker people one side, officers being kind of brick wallish tards on the other side, guildmate friend getting his pants way too much in a bunch over it on yet another side, me and Kas sort of stuck in the middle of it all, yadda yadda. Whee. Also, Wynnchester-pally is already up to 30-nearly 31, woo! People *cough*verbranden*cough* are trying to make me a tank but It Will Not Happen No. Except that running with Alevva's hunter alt made me actually use my taunt/threat gen stuff but it goes no further than that. >:E

Egads, too much talking from me. Shutting up now.

Outside today for some reason reminds me of Seattle winter--cold, wet, a weird mix of drizzle and almost snow. Makes me crave/pine for Seattle like *freaking crazy*. I am not meant to live in the midwest, landlocked--I am *meant* to be up there. Never marry someone who is intent on never moving ever if you aren't sure where you're meant to be. And/or move to where you're truly meant to be before you develop ties like that. Yeah.

Aaaaaaanyway. At least we're above freezing, so more melting, even if all the thawing, rain/drizzle and such means the ground is truly a bog. Squishy mushy. I hear rumors of 50s next week o_o! Though I kinda like how it is now, actually--pff on snow and ice, but this is reminiscent of early November, that late fallishness I wish it still were.

Enough about weather! >:B

*geekery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FkH-_kh4ZM
Yeah, so I'm looking forward to Tron Legacy. >_> Hush. Also, why is it not May 7th for Iron Man 2 yet? *flailswants*

http://xkcd.com/712/
Ahahaha~ Though sadly, this comic made me finally go and find the Beyonce video on Youtube, because I've seen this song referenced all the hell over the place but was the last person on Earth who hadn't yet actually heard it. Not sure I'm better for finally having done so. (Esp. since it keeps getting stuck in my head AUGH D:)

http://www.pvponline.com/2010/03/10/your-weapons-you-will-not-need-them/
adfsdkf, so freaking true. T___T

*rec-ish stuff:
http://mistyzeo.livejournal.com/34670.html
Driver Picks, Sam/Dean, Adult (NC-17)
OMG AWESOME FUN PORN *glee*! Hothotadorablehot yessss X3 I like how one of the warnings is "unsafe driving"; that makes me griiiiiiiiiiin. >:D Ohh, I do so like this *lots*~!

http://beckaandzac.livejournal.com/414828.html
Faith that doesn't fade, Sam/Dean, NC-17, 3319 words
This. This is where I want them to be--coming back together in multiple ways. The ending just is a moment I want so much for them to have.

http://lassiterfics.livejournal.com/136393.html
Ars Bromantica, Cas/Sam, R, 1888 words.
SassyAU~ I went from 'cute cute!' to laughing myself *stupid* to 'eeee cute cute adorable!'. Made me so grin.


Also ffffff, daylight savings time hits this weekend D: D: D: DNW. I do not like the spring forward thing, no. D:

Really wincing at how manic I was yesterday. >_< Usually PMS sends me into a mood crash, but this time it was the exact opposite. Got so freaking manic that happy and excited became SO GODDAMN HAPPY and SO OMFG EXCITED at everything--and I swear my heart was racing all day. Being gleeful about stuff and the mocha while out with Mom just made it a bit worse. :< My apologies to any that got really hit with it yesterday--like those mile-long multiparagraph comments. I just couldn't stop *talking*, whether it was verbal or in text.

Anyway. Furnace got dealt with--something hadn't gotten tightened right when they put the blower back in the day before, thus rattling and rubbing metal sounds. Since it was a call-back from Monday, we didn't get charged again. The oven...the guy swears he can't find anything wrong. : / So we've got to call the utility company today to look the oven and the gas hookup over to see if they can find anything that would cause CO issues.

Wish the plumber would get here. Would practically pay money to have a chance to sleep just a little bit.