It's not a cry you can hear at night, it's not somebody who's seen the light...

It's my birthday, hurrah!

Izzy is over and we just watched two series of IT Crowd. I think it fried my brain a little, but hey it's all good! Now we are lying around and watching Easy A. I love Emma Stone soooo much.

It's been a while but I want to start posting here again more, even if LJ is such a bitch.

A while back my computer's LCD screen was broken, but it's finally getting fixed and I am so excited. I am so sick of using this tiny thing. It is unfun to type on! And I miss my Sims. It should be ready soon. And on Monday we are going to Drexel's for birthday breakfast and I am excited. Drexel's is amaaazing.

I cut out the glass pieces for a bat today :D I will foil him and solder him tomorrow. He is purplely red and I enjoy him. I searched everywhere for easy Egyptian stained glass patterns to make Leah something though, and came up with zip. Poos.

I have finally started to like Amy Pond in Doctor Who. It only took a series and a half. At first she bored me and then she annoyed me and now I think she's okay. Mostly because Rory is there <3. I have mostly accepted Matt Smith as the doctor too. Don't get me wrong, he's brilliant. But it is all a matter of preference and he's not one of my favourites. Three and Ten still get those spots. And for me Smith is just below Tom Baker and just above Christoper Eccleston. But I don't dislike him like Colin Baker (FFFffffugh). I think one of the reviewers summed it up best when he said Matt Smith is a delight to watch and he plays the Doctor well, he just brings nothing new to the part. I agree, though I know there are others who do not. I just miss the depth of emotion Tennant showed on his face. Smith is much more into underplaying it, which is fine! I just prefer the other way. Though under the direction of Moffat, the entire series is different than it was under Davies. I miss having a connection to London. I also kind of miss when...like...storylines made sense. I love Moffat and even when Davies was at the helm his episodes were some of my favourite, but...WHAT EVEN?! His arcs are AMAZING but halfway unintelligible at times.

Also? I really want to hate River Song, but I don't. There was a moment a few episodes ago where she kissed Eleven for the first last time and her reaction- I started crying and then cursed at her for making me love her. Dammit.

And no one should ever let Richard Curtis write an episode ever again. That bastard always makes me cry. Well, okay not always because Blackadder didn't make me cry until the end of the fourth series, but I'm a sucker and the last shot of Vincent and the Doctor, just...man. AND Neil Gaiman's awesome episode made me weepy too. I loved it.

It is almost time, once again, for the girls of the LFoD to gather together and share a night of terrifying movies and lots and lots of sugar. This is how we celebrate Halloween in NZ. Emphasis on WE since most people don't.

So today I pulled myself out of bed (at like 4 PM shhh) and went into Riccarton to fetch supplies. It's also my oldest original character's 23rd birthday today. She was 16 when I made her. I thought the situation called for cheesecake. Bailey's cheesecake. Cause, like...she's Irish. Anyway, then I went and purchased two bags of junk food that is necessary for Halloween.

I decided to catch a different bus home today simply because it got there before the normal Orbiter bus I get. We have a new central bus station and I haven't been in there yet. It's this temporary thing in the middle of town and seeing it made me burst with love for this city. It's trying so hard.

We turned out of the bus station and onto a street. We were tooling along and everyone went silent. I looked around at the gaping, empty spaces where buildings used to be and I had no idea where I was. I didn't recognise the street so I just figured it was one of the side-streets in town. And then I noticed the Dick Smith Ness used to work at and realised I was on Columbo Street. For non-locals, that's one of the main streets through town. And it's just...gone. When I realised where I was, I felt like I might vomit. This is real. It really happened. It's not going away. And it's happening other places and it's so much worse and blahblahblah yuck.

So I had burgers and Simpsons and then I ate cheesecake. Tomorrow there will be tea and then pumpkin soup and horror movies. Clinging to the nice things is better than vomiting in horror because the world seriously, absolutely sucks.

Happy birthday, Deirdre. No character has ever made me laugh and scream and cry and want to strangle and hug a fictional person at the same time as much as you have. Thank you for being part of my brain. You make it just that little bit nicer.

It seems the worst of the snowpocalypse might be over, which is good. I don't know when things will open again, but it will be nice not to feel stuck at home. Not that I go anywhere these days, but I like it to be an option. It does mean Alison will fly away from us tomorrow, waahhhh. Let's not focus on that, or the fact that a virus deleted the essay I had mostly finished so I had to write 2,100 words for it last night. I kicked it's arse though. Thanks to my own personal cheerleader. His name is Simon!

So here is a pictorial account of the last few days. It is awesome and features mostly cats, my bathrobe, Jen in an awesome costume, a lot of me (some upsidedown) and a photo that looks like I am choking Ariadne. I was not.

( Listen close to everybody's heart )

I have been so productive the last few days. I did my meeting, shopped, got my hair cut, contacted Petersgate for counselling, went with Alison to take Helios to the vet, finished over half of my essay BEFORE the day before it's due (I know, right?! and I am pleased with it, too!), did some work for my mom, did some dishes, and dyed my hair. I am about to go shopping again for other stuff we need. And wine glasses, since I broke one the other day and now we have only two (I think...) Then I will make chili and cupcakes. And the day before that I did a million errands as well. And not a single bit of it made me anxious.

Awesome.

Lewi sent me an email talking about the classes he is teaching this semester. The poor guy has to teach Twilight. In a literature course. I read the books, despite hating pretty much every second of it, because I was morbidly curious and I am also a completionist. I read lines out loud to Lewi and he cringed and once he told me he refused to read them or watch the movies because he didn't want to support SMeyer's career since she shouldn't have one, and I so agree.

I enjoy the movies. I enjoy them because the actors are basically aware the source material is largely bollocks so they get on getting on. And Jacob is yummy even though that makes me feel like a dirty old woman. Billy Burke's moustache, also. It is just amazing. The movies can whiz by in an hour and a half and it doesn't matter that they don't have much to them because it's trashy fun. The books though. They basically read like a how to guide to having no self-esteem and they go on FOREVER. Poor Lewis being forced to read them! It must be like exquisite torture. His own personal hell. I told him not to go into the light.

I should link him to the m15m review by Cleolinda when he's done. It will be his reward.

Speaking of good, trashy fun, I am now on season 5 of Grey's Anatomy. It is ridiculous, but JDM is in them again and his smiling face basically makes me feel better about the world at large.

...Helios just stole my sock, the ginger bitch!

I had a dream that I had this great idea and I was going to write a book with pages marked A, B, C, D or E. All the A pages were a novella for one character, and all the B pages a novella for another character and so on. Since novellas are novels with one main idea and novels have several main ideas coming together, the book could be read for any of the five novellas or as a whole. There were unmarked pages too, meant only to be read if the book was read all together, as the blank pages tied all the separate novellas together.

It sounds like an awesome idea but yeah, I'm not that clever.

I did, however, get to the bank today. This pleases me greatly. And I bought two more pairs of fingerless gloves because apparently I need enough to make a giant pile I can dive into. And I had dumplings at Riccarton.

I did worry that while I was eating, the shopping centre would fall in on me. But it did not. Which was kind of it.

One day I will be able to dye my hair again. I don't want to while we are still having water shortages, since my hair is so thick it takes about 45 minutes to wash out. But I miss my roots being red!

So, last night we went to see Black Swan and it was awesome and messed up. And then, just now, Alison said THIS.

Alison: "Last night I had this dream, and I don't remember all of it. It was like Black Swan and I woke up like :|. But all I remember is that Rupert Grint was the Red Swan."

And I just laughed so hard my lungs hurt. Again. :D Imagining that movie with Ron Weasley instead of Natalie Portman is just...hilarious.

I just recorded myself singing O Holy Night for the heck of it. I did it twice. One was pitch perfect and lovely and everything I wanted. The second one I did, Ariadne came meowing and tugged on my skirt, hoping I would help her catch moths (yes we do this, my life is so full) and I crack up in the middle of the song and then sing the rest terribly off-key because I'm laughing. My camera isn't great for operatic voices either, but...you know, cest la vie!

The one that all went wrong is SO the one I am uploading. I think it is more me. I AM sorry for the potentially busted speakers. Don't listen to the end too loud. My voice is kind of high-pitched and laughing and singing don't mix.

By the way, the reason I filmed the bookcases when I was singing, is because I look like I am in terrible pain when I sing. Just be glad I saved you.

ALSO I took a photo of my re-dyed hair, since the recordings are all yellow. Of course the colour still looks strange because I'm a pale (smarmy) ghost. Whatever, it's red. No regrowth any more finally.

( Blahblahblah get to the video, darnit. Okay, okay! )

I've been kicked out the living room as poor Leah is stretched out on the floor, sleeping. I think her room is too hot today. She looked so cute and I wanted to pet her head, but I think that is probably the opposite of helpful ;) SO now I get to try to eat dumplings in my bed. There is going to be soy sauce everywhere. Which is ignoring the main issue of dumplings in bed which might be my favourite thing ever!!

Saw Rhys Darby last night. And while he is not my favourite red-headed comedian, he was rather funny and I enjoyed his show. His support act was only funny about twice though, and terribly offensive and shouty at all other times. I never have been a fan of comedians who shout every single punchline. If you have to shout it, obviously the joke isn't funny on it's own. Let the material shout for itself! They all do it sometimes, which is fine. Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey do it with style. Rik Mayall annoys me (as clever as I think he is) because he shouts everything. This guy wasn't even funny when he was shouting. Augh.

Rhys Darby mentioned he had twittered a photo of Christchurch's Satan Parade. (Okay, it was a Santa Parade, but that typo is too amusing and I'm leaving it...) and I thought he was joking about the contents of said photo so I checked Twitter. He was not. Behold Rhys' Santa Parade photo from his Twitter feed. Oh, New Zealand. Really? Nothing like a sheep limo outside a cathedral.

Most of Rhys Darby's jokes were about Rhys Darby, but that was okay. I still left with sore lungs. From...laughing.

Also? Tim Minchin is all I ever listen to any more. My iPod is now a TimPod.