I think we are going to go to this totally kick ass haunted house tour next Friday (the 29th). Awesome!!!

I am considering whether this coming weekend might be a good time to explore this awesome book store. Or perhaps attempt some geocaching?

I am ready to get some Summer Fun underway!

This weekend was so fantastic. Joss Whedon's talk on Friday was surprisingly illuminating and interesting. Saturday we threw a party that I hope was as much for everyone else as it was for me... despite the ill-advised drunken beer run in impractical shoes. Ow. Spilling a 30 pack of PBR on the street is embarrassing.

So the Kindle is making it really too easy to purchase crap books. I just tore through a fluffy chick lit mystery book (Janet Evanovich's One for the Money) and already bought the sequel because it was there and it took like a minute to download it. And now I think I've been sucked into a series that is going to turn my brain into mush. I need to figure out how to get Project Gutenberg books onto the Kindle so I can balance the candy books with actual literature.

Oh god. I so totally want to attend the Gilded Age Weekend this weekend in Lenox. Victorian reenactment! Port! Seriously!

I set the story I'm writing in 1872, so this would be like research. I think this is a good way to spend a Saturday.

I have discovered a new source of reading pleasure that combines my love of history with my love of gossip- old diaries. Currently reading the 1872-1874 journal of Alice Stone Blackwell, and it is way more absorbing than I thought it would be. She's 14, living in Dorchester, and so far has spent most of the journal mooning over a girl in her school (often taking one of her servants out on night-time horse rides to the girl's house to look try to catch a glimpse of the girl through her window), and going into Boston to get books from the library. She recounts an argument with a schoolmate of her who doesn't support the women's movement because she doesn't want to vote.

I also learned that in 1872, the Boston Public Library was the largest free circulating library in the entire world. Neat! OMG, history is so cool.

What's that you say? You want Metafilter meta-wankery about meta-wankery in fandom (with a big article that talks a lot about Supernatural, I only skimmed the article but believe it contains no spoilers, it's about a con). Well, then, here you go.

Along the lines of feminist ranting, I was reminded while re-tagging old entries earlier today of the time back in L-town that I tried to start a chapter of Riot Grrrl. I put up posters around town! I think it was in connection with my awesome thesis about punk girls and... psychology. The only person who ever called me wanting to join was a skinhead named Howard who had just gotten out of jail. Hee. Oh, memories.

Is it wrong that I really wish I had $750 laying around so I could go to PaleyFest to see a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion? NERD!

Also, for Wire fans: What Do Real Thugs Think of the Wire Part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4

Tenillypo found those, so credit to her. Spoilers for Season 5 of The Wire (for episodes that have already aired, not future spoilers).

I voted this morning, being a good civic-duty-er. Edwards was my horse in this race, and I'm disappointed he's out of the picture, though I hope for VP-dom for him. After waffling with strong amounts of indecision on my two remaining candidates, I took one last look at the "issues" on Clinton and Obama's web sites and went to fill in the blanks on a ballot. I went with Obama, because while I'm not convinced that he could govern right off the bat the way Hillary could, I do believe he will honestly try and that he'll put a really good-faith effort into sticking with the view/ideas he has expressed. A lot of my support for Hillary really stemmed from my reaction to her nay-sayers and critics, because I truly think a lot of the flak she's gotten has been misogynistic, and that really bothers me. But she's espoused views that are too centrist/conservative for my taste. I actually don't think she truly believes some of the middle of the road things she says she does, but all I have to go on is what she says and how she's acted in the Senate, and that doesn't warm the cockles of my commie lefty little heart. So that's that. Secret ballot my ass, I have a blog! My voting record, let me show you!

It smells like bacon in my building, and right now there is nothing I want more than a BLT. While I could walk down the street and get one, I'm being a good doobie and eating my homemade cooking light chili. No bacon for me.

So, another thing that I kinda want is to maybe go to King Richard's Fair. I've never been to a ren fair (fayre?) before, and it sounds rather amusing. Would anyone else be interested in the nerd fest?

I used to enjoy doing my taxes because I was poor enough and paying back enough student loans to get a sizable sum back. Now we are in just the right tax bracket to get screwed. Not even screwed by the feds, who will give us a tiny morsel back, but screwed by Taxachusetts, who just spent god knows how much public fundage today chasing through the city of Boston removing the menace of Aqua Teen Hunger Force advertising. Da Moon Rulez #1!

Bah. Massachusetts just dimmed my love of paperwork and filling in boxes on worksheets, those bastards.

Ugh. So this weekend I succumbed to cooties. What had been an unpleasant cold suddenly turned into an inferno of pain in my ear Saturday morning, so I trundled down to the doctor and got some antibiotics. I then comforted myself by using birthday funds to get a shiny new iPod. It plays videos and everything. It's name is Rumpletumskin.

There were a few parties in there, and, um, yesterday I played Magic for the first time ever. mrs_muffin, I'm no longer allowed to gently mock the WoW, for lo, I really enjoyed the card game.

Ok, so I may have gotten into the riesling. And I may be writing more fantastic Oz fanfic at the moment. But... Total Eclipse of the Heart is a totally majestic song.

I am such a nerd.

I did buy some good music this weekend... New Pornographers and an old Spinanes ep

So NaNoWriMo is closing, and while I wasn't actually participating in it, and I didn't really have any intention of writing anything, my MetaFic Oz/Buffy/Veronica Mars/OC crossover story is over 12,000 words at the moment. And I haven't even gotten to half of the damn crossovers yet. I am having way too much fun with this. Even though my writing abilities kind of suck (and those of who were, um, fortunate enough to ever read my crappy college poetry know I'm never going to be a Pinsky or a Heaney in this lifetime or the next), I've been enjoying it. Of course, c_m_i's delightful additions to the text when I'm not looking are things of wonder. My brain is kind of one-track focused on the damn story of late, so apologies to anyone who has had to listen to me blather about it, while you've been thinking how quickly can I gnaw my arm off to get away from here?. I think I need to read some smarty-pants books on the side to keep my poor brain from atrophying completely. Then I'll bore you by talking about Derrida!

So that's that. I'm already getting psyched for the Brian Regan show on Saturday. Comedy!

OMG, I have fallen into such extremes of dorkdom that there's just no hope for me now. Seriously. I have found Buffy/Oz crossover fanfic, and am so enamored with the idea that I'm going to have to write my own. I'm a pretty crappy creative writer, but I'm hoping the awesomeness of this concept can pull me into passably-good writerdom. So, yes, now I'm going to write fanfic. Dear god.

And...well... that segues into what my weekend was like. Friday night we headed to the Second Circle for the ressurection of cheap Friday nights with friends, food, booze, and HBO. Last night tenillypo came over to watch the rest of Oz season 5 with Drew & I. 5 hours of Oz. See? With the problem and the obsession and all? So now I guess we have to make some sort of blood sacrifice to get HBO to actually release season 6 on dvd, or at least on On Demand.

Today I made some Cooking Light cupcakes, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, did laundry, and did grocery shopping. Wow. I'm going to ignore the fact that I've become a stereotype domestic goddess. But I really like making cupcakes, and, well, the other stuff just needed to be done, and I like getting stuff done.

How did I just spend an hour customizing my silly LJ? The scarier thing is that I looked up at a clock that we haven't turned back yet, and thought I had wasted 2 hours doing this. I am such a nerd. Big thanks to tenillypo for my awesome banner, she's such a great Photoshop artist. =)

Oh lordy. I just caved and bought the 100 LJ icons. It's mildly irksome that we have to pay every year for these things, but my inner fan girl demands to express herself in teeny-tiny pictures.

Off to an indie rock show tonight with incandes_flower and company!

Last night I discovered Oz fanfic.


*squee*

Pardon me while I completely geek out for a moment: I've been appointed to the Law Librarian Recruitment Committee for the American Association of Law Librarians. I feel like such a grown-up now. This is sweet, as I've been interested in "career development" and "professional growth" lately. I'd love to know how people find the time to do stuff, though. Ideally, I'd like to be able to throw myself into some professional activitites and network or whatever it is that adulty librarians do. I'd like to have some personal growth stuff to do, like taking classes and volunteering to help homeless people (though I'm still a little burnt by the homeless people, maybe they'll be nicer to me when I don't get paid to help them). But I also really need just plain socializing time to hang out with people. All that, working 35 hours a week, hitting the gym after work to stay in some semblance of shape, and cooking dinner at home to be healthy. There is no time! I'm also back on my law school kick, though that will absolutely have to wait until a time when I work somewhere that will pay for my tuition.

Yesterday I heard the most beautiful radio transition ever: Mogwai into Built to Spill. Which made my day, it was just breathtaking how well the two songs worked together. It also comforts me to know that the kids these days are still actually listening to music I would be playing on my hypothetical radio show (I'm reading the WMFO email list now, and I promise, promise, promise that when they have sign ups for the summer I'm going to get on that train).

apeyanne has run off with Mr. B.C. in a whirlwind of romance and adventure, we won't be seeing her for a while =)

We got very soggy waiting to see the man, but it was worth it. The poetry....I'm not so sure about.

So apeyanne and I will be grabbing dinner at Tanjore in Harvard Sq. tonight around 5:30. Anyone who wants to join us before we head off to see the Great Pumpkin, er, Billy Corgan, is welcome to do so.

Heee. I am such a nerd. Along with apeyanne, I'm going to drop by Billy Corgan's book signing next Friday night. Tee-hee. *jumps up and down a few times* Shut up, don't mock me!

So, uh, Games Workshop? Could you please not me charge me 4 times (in varying amounts) for the order I placed yesterday? Thanks. Now I'm on hold and being prodded to order some sort of prince thing for the battle of pelinor fields. So geektastic!

In other news, if I may proceed to be schmoopy for 20 seconds... Today marks the one year anniversary of my moving in with Drew. It also marks the 3 year anniversary of my moving to Metro-Boston Braintree.

What a quiet day.

So, as basha pointed out: Farscape is coming back! Well, sorta. But still, that excites me so much. Hold on... sorry... my geek is showing.

Tonight I am off to a Britney Spears concert. My brother had a ticket that was going to waste, and he wants company at the show, so I figure it'll be good karma to keep him company amidst the sea of 14 year olds.

Last night komos came over and I made a tasty (least I hope it was tasty) dinner for us all, and we consumed the Best Beer In The World. I believe it was called Quelque Chose, and it was really quite good.

Buying presents is fun! Borders actually had it very together, and though there were about 2 dozen people ahead of me in line, I didn't wait very long at all.

I am becoming very antsy for the impending dorkery of tonight. Eeee! Must see geek movie now!

And, as swiped from c_m_i: This year summed up in 20 words or less:
Boring job, New York, bunny!, tiki, lovely friends, California, new job, London!!, moved, engaged to Drew!, let me outta school!!!!!

So, my CIA/spy book was thrilling me as usual last night. So c_m_i had me read one of his books about conspiracies (it was a big comic book, can't recall the name). So I read a good chunk of it, my eyes getting bigger with a combination of disbelief and belief. And then I got to the part about aliens. And got totally freaked out with paranoia. Worse paranoia than any acid/shroom induced paranoia I've ever felt. For a few minutes I had myself convinced that maybe even c_m_i himself was an alien or working for the aliens. Then I felt silly. Still, had to take a Tylenol PM to get myself to sleep.
So, ok, I can buy the CIA and the government being bad guys and totally covering up things and planning assassinations and the like, since I tend to believe that the people in power (i.e. "The Man") are generally up to no good. Plus, people with power tend to get corrupt since they like power and want to do anything they can to keep their power. So that stuff, sure. But aliens breeding us as a giant people farm so someday they can come back and put us to work? Aliens providing the "missing link" that jumpstarted us from monkeys to homo sapiens? Aliens creating civilization and periodically coming down and experimenting us to see what happens? I dunno. The gullible part of me can believe it (otherwise I suppose I wouldn't be so paranoid). The insistently logical part of me says science can explain it all away. Science tends to win in my head, but not without a fight. So, anyone know of any good websites that talk about this alien stuff? I've got no boss today and am curious. Or secret society/conspiracy stuff. So I'm not going to be walking around seeing conspiracies in everything, and I'm certainly not going to be paranoid about aliens. Cool, cool logic prevails in my head. Of course, it didn't help that when we were talking about all this last night a certain someone totally had that "I'm up to something" look on his face, the look that means he's totally plotting something that is sure to scare the crap out of me. Hrmmmm. Anyway, I had more to write about the question of reality and whether coincidence is just merely coincidence, but this entry is getting pretty damn long already. Give me web pages to read, feed my brain!

i have to confess: i love doing my taxes. really. it makes me feel all responsible. and due to tuition and student loan interest deductions, i end up getting a sizable amount back. it gives me joy.
wheeee!

ok, not so snarky anymore.

Nation States Aside:
i don't quite get how i can outlaw elections, make my word The Law, and still have political freedoms rated "very good." maybe it's cause my Law is Awesome.

Tenille tells me this is gaming. All I know is that there's no way I'll ever be placed in charge of any real political entity. That, and my ideal of a liberal socialist state where everyone loves each other is totally unrealistic.

The United Socialist States of Hello Kittie
"I am ER!!!!"

UN Category: Scandinavian Liberal Paradise
Civil Rights: Superb
Economy: Struggling
Political Freedoms: Excellent

Location: the South Pacific
The United Socialist States of Hello Kittie is a tiny, socially progressive nation, remarkable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 5 million enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level social equality free of the usual accompanying government corruption.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, liberal, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it devotes most of its attentions to Social Welfare, with areas such as Law & Order and Religion & Spirituality receiving almost no funds by comparison. The average income tax rate is 53%, and even higher for the wealthy. Private enterprise is illegal, but for those in the know there is a slick and highly efficient black market in Retail.

Crime is totally unknown. Hello Kittie's national animal is the penguin, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

man, what a waste of a sick day. although i am starting to feel better, 2 hours in the doctor's office better be worth something.
wow, so last night i went to the Sex Workers' Art Show, in a super-sketch chinatown loft. it was...interesting. less performance art than i had expected. there was, however, a bunch of not-so-great poetry. it reminded me that i actually enjoy not-great poetry. there's something to be said for a turn of phrase that makes you shiver, gives you goosebumps. while i appreciate a certain degree of intellectual snobbery, at the end of the day, i'd rather read something that really makes me feel- even if it'll never make it into the canon. the show also raised a lot of questions about sexuality and power, i don't think i've fully formed my opinion on that yet. good times, good times.