Prologue: I'm not screening spoilers that are available from the trailers, so read at your own risk, I guess.

Watched Planet of the Dead an it was awwwwweeeesome! I mean, some of it was stupid (seer woman, gtfo of my episode, as well as the few random, unnecessary deaths), but most of it was great. Randomly hilarious one-off characters, sexy sexy banter, high-class thievery, the Doctor being bossed around, the Doctor bossing other people around, ( some more things that are more spoiler-y )

All in all, this was a romp of an episode, and while it wasn't up to Doctor Who's true standards of brilliance, it was GREAT HEAPS OF FUN, AND I ENJOYED MYSELF IMMENSELY.

Also, now that I've gotten back into the Doctor Who spirit, I finally looked up casting spoilers and OH MY FUCKING GOD, the companion for the Christmas specials is EFFING ( BEEEEEP SPOILERS )!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY LIFE = COMPLETE. I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL CHRISTMAS FOR THIS. WHEREFORE MUST I PINE FOR SO LONG A DURATION?

Thank you so much, everyone who commented on my last post. It means a lot to me. And you'll be relieved to hear that later that day I had a whole breakdown/cryfest that resolved a lot of the lingering issues, and I have been up and about for well over a week. Just in time for a CRAZY MIDTERM WEEK OF DOOM.

As proof of my gratitude, I will not complain about the midterm madness and will instead move on to lighter topics.

Things I have been doing with my time that you might actually be interested to hear about:

Merlin fandom (through Delicious) - I think I need to have Delicious taken away from me. It is a terrible and addictive timesuck and my network is far too enabling of the crazy fangirl indulgence. My Bradley James love continues to reach new heights of creepitude every day.

( Anime-related bold points: Code Geass, Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, Earl and Fairy )

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Okay, so I am watching the show for the first time? I'm kind of in the middle of season 2 right now? I'm enjoying myself, but in true Elizabeth form failing to really love it because it has been over-hyped? However, I've heard the show doesn't really get truly awesome until like, season 5 or so? And Bradley James is a huge fanboy, so I figure this is just another way I am succumbing to the insanity of my love for him.

Antique - As in the Korean movie adaptation of Antique Bakery with the general hotness factor, and in particular the gay text/subtext quotient, turned up to 11. Basically, already awesome Antique Bakery now with SMOKING HOT GAY LOVIN' with a French Jonathan Rhys Meyers look-alike. And THREE-DIMENSIONAL(!) insanely delicious-looking pastry. And insanely GORGEOUS set designs and cinematography. And INSANELY INSANE RANDOM MUSICAL INTERLUDES. I basically watched this movie with my mouth hanging open the entire time.

Also, I had another Merlin dream where I was traveling with the gang in a kind of modern world, where we all had monster companions. Like, I'm talking digimon/pokemon, Japanese fighting familiar, amalgam-ish monsters. There were stock poses and cg sparkle effects and shit. My subconscious is an amazing place.

SO. A MONTH LATER, I HAVE A LAPTOP AGAIN. HP customer service is really good, but I cannot say the same for their incompetent tech support division.

In celebration of my return, have a Hikago art meme. Though I think I completed it in the spirit that art was a very vague term that can encompass tooling around in paint with my roommate's tablet.

( I think we can take away from this that I should never pursue a professional career in the visual arts. )

OH MAN, NEW EPISODE OF ZOKU NATSUME YUUJINCHOU, YOU GUYS. SOOOO GOOD. I like Natsume Yuujinchou best when it is like this, when it makes me tear up and appreciate all of the people in my life who make sure I never spend a day alone. The new season is really good so far, I am so gladdddd.

Also, I am really, REALLY excited for next week's ep. Totally polishing my slash goggles, hahaha! *rubs hands together*

ETA: Listening to this song (In This City, thanks thisissirius! <3), it actually fits reaaallllyy well with Natsume Yuujinchou. Like I needed another fanmix bunny. :(

My life right now is a careening ball of awesome and crazy bouncing wildly between Christmas insanity, Havemercy modding, and Merlin love.

I barely sleep. It is like I went into fangirl finals right after my school finals finished.

BUT THE AWESOME AND THE INSANITY CONTINUES AND ON THAT NOTE:

Prelude: For the record and anyone who doesn't know yet, splintercat and I are not just co-mods of thremedon, we are also internet-married. We're even facebook-official. We aren't sockpuppets of each other, although occasionally splintercat claims to be able to influence me psychically.

So today we were up at insane hours of the night talking about, among other things, thremedon, internet memes and slang, and the state of our marriage. This conversation was ~*~epic~*~. I feel compelled to share these highlights:

( Cut for a medium-length facebook chat. )

In other news of instanity and love, roommate loweryourwand made me a Morgana/Uther fanvid for Christmas! With a Muse song! They are my sekrit OTP, and this particular gift is insane and angsty and also wonderful!

GUYS, I LOVE ROMANTIC POETRY. I LOVE SONNETS. I LOVE KEATS. OBVIOUSLY, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO SIT DOWN AND WRITE THIS PAPER. AND YET INSTEAD, I AM UNABLE TO EXTRICATE MYSELF FROM MY SPASTIC FANGIRLING. FUCKING FUCK WHY MUST ENGLAND BE SO GREAT WHY MUST MY LOVE GET ALL CONFUSED ABOUT WHICH TIME PERIOD I'M SUPPOSED TO BE FOCUSING ON (LIKE, FOR INSTANCE, CELTIC TIMES THAT PRODUCED THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND, 19TH CENTURY TIMES THAT PRODUCED KEATS AND TENNYSON AND WATERHOUSE, OR MODERN TIMES THAT PRODUCED BRADLEY JAMES' ASS).

So, my life right now. I don't even know where my time is going. I haven't read my FList since the last time I posted. Which is not to say that I haven't been following the LJ. On the contrary, I seem to be around quite often. It's just that it's become a very specific following of very specific things. For example, the shit-ton of Janto fic I've been reading lately. And the fanmixes I've been downloading. And the communities and friends I can be bothered to check up on when I see them pop up on my Firefox alert for new FList posts.

So. I've been reading a shit-ton of a lot of things in the past month. Most of it is shoujo manga. Basically, any and every short shoujo manga that comes up in goosygirl_icons. That girl has fantastic taste. It has become a problem. A time- and bandwidth-consuming problem.

Also, I've been following Nodame Cantabile season 2, which, can I just say, ack. The picture quality in the second season has dropped off the charts. It still has great voice actors and a great story and its the quality and not the aesthetic that's changed, so it's bearable (not like, say, Antique Bakery, which I still haven't watched because the aesthetic quality of that anime is abhorrent to me), but still. It pains me in a the way that one might be pained to see their lover make a horrible faux pas. You love them, right? But you kind of don't want to be seen with them. Oh Nodame, you are not making it easy for me to spread this love I have for you.

What else, what else. Well, there was a lot of school stuff going on this October as well. I had midterms and an insane paper/presentation thing on Yeats whom, let me qualify, I have loved for years, but possibly never want to hear another word about ever again. I ended up dropping that Psych class and my life is a thousand times better off for it.

Over the past long weekend (Columbia closes up for Election Day weekend) I re-watched Torchwood, every episode of Doctor Who with Captain Jack, and also, incongruously, The Sarah Jane Adventures. Then Wednesday night I was cleaning out my gmail account and ran across arekuru's old rec of the Kimi Wa Petto drama, and randomly decided to start watching it. Such a wonderful mistake. I stayed up all night and ended up sleeping through my first class, but GOD, OH MY GOD, I LOVE KIMI WA PETTO. I've been rereading as much of the manga as I've been able to find online. God, no josei will ever be as great as this one. Love love love.

Oh and OBAMA GOT ELECTED. THAT WAS PRETTY COOL, EH?

This is me attempting not to make this into an insane tl;dr post, but I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their lives as much as I have been enjoying mine. If you haven't, I advise you to repeat the words "PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA" to yourself as many times as it takes for the awesomeness of that statement to sink in. :D

So I've kind of been ignoring the Intranets in favor of being with people in RL. How strange! How new! I've reached this strange plateau where I am consistently about 70 entries behind on my flist.

Well, behind on everything except thremedon and mistful. Speaking of, NEW COVERRRR. Speaking of, LASSST CHAPTTTTEEEEEERRRRRRRS.

( Some DDG fangirling and some fandom-related ranting. )

Moving on to other aspects of my geekery, I have finally seen the original Star Wars trilogy and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. My nerd cred has received a major boost!

As for other endings I've experienced lately, ( cut for some anime fangirling of Itazura Na Kiss and Natsume Yuujinchou, minimal spoilers for series/season finales. )

On the RL nerd front, I went to (1) Equus last Wednesday for a pre-season showing and only paid $30 because Columbia is very good to its students. I loved it. I loved it so much I didn't even pay attention to DanRad's exposed package. I also went to (2) NY Anime Fest on Saturday, which was a nice time. I got to hang out with some cool firsties and splintercat and her boy-thing. And then, (3) Neil Gaiman's tour stop for NY was at Columbia['s Teachers College]! I take inordinate pride in this. Yay for Columbia supporting the geeky side of book-learning! So I went and had a lovely time listening to Neil be funny and wise for two hours, and now I have a signed copy of The Graveyard Book to show for it, even if I don't know when I'll be able to read beyond the first chapter.

Which brings me to the actually real RL front, where school is sort of getting away from me. I have a paper due for Romantic Poetry on Monday, which happens to be the day of my Psych midterm, and I am not ready for either. Can I write five pages on the use of the word "minstrelsy" in Coleridge's poems? I like the idea because it allows me to explore interpretations we already touched on in class (automatically know I'm not doing it wrong!), but still, writing an entire paper on one word could present a challenge.

(Also, I really want to drop Psych? The readings are unbelievably boring, it really does nothing for my transcript, and I have discovered I have issues with being awake at 8:30 on a Monday morning, surprise surprise. However, I've already promised my friends in that class that I would do a share of the study guide, so I am forced to stay on until the midterm, which is the day before the drop deadline? Dilemma...)

Also, one of my friends--previously referred to on this journal as Paypay--is in the Sign Language Club and has been teaching me things. Today, I learned how to sign "L-U-K-E, I (AM) YOUR FATHER" and "NOOOOOOOO." Also, "What's up, zebra?" is our new unofficial catchsign. You heard it here first.

And thus, this tl;dr post to break all tl;dr posts has come full circle at 6 o'clock in the morning. It is time for me to put this and myself to bed.

So... Natsume Yuujinchou is pretty darn cool? I hate the fact that I have this HUGE HUGE WEAKNESS for characters like Natsume. Lost characters who are just aching for a kindred spirit. I hate that I identify with these kinds of people, but I can't help but love them despite myself. AND OH MY GOD, MADARA/NYANKO-SENSEI, WHAT THE SHIT, WHY ARE YOU SO AWESOME?

I'm so behind all my other shows, what is wrong with me.

Anyway, I recently finished the Librivox recording of Pride and Prejudice that's done by Karen Savage. HEARTILY RECOMMEND. She has a smart English accent and she "does the voices," but not in a hammy way, which is just how I like it. And then I went nuts and re-read all my favorite P&P fanfic and also maybe Mr Darcy Takes A Wife. Oh self. You so trashy. Although I found it funnier this time around? I'm mildly disturbed saying this, but I actually enjoyed it more having read P&P just before it. Does that make any sense at all?

I have been listening to a prodigious amount of ABBA and ELO. I bought their greatest hits CDs with the last of my iTunes gift card money. ABBA is rather self-explanatory, but oh my God, Electric Light Orchestra. When put up against my recent hardcore classical music immersion after Nodame, their classical touches just send thrills through me. Also, my Dad stole my CD backup of the ABBA and has been playing it non-stop. This included hijacking the mix I painstakingly created for my mother's party, and telling everybody how awesome they are and how they should listen to them, which, I can't even explain how unnecessary that was in my pop-oriented family.

Actually, regarding the party, we were rained out of our usual outdoor location, which rather literally put a damper on things, but we made due at the house, even if it was in no way prepared for visitors. It also put a strain on the theme, seeing as we were no longer in the park, but everyone took that better than my mother. Half of them didn't even get what the theme was, hahaha. It didn't stop us from making them wear (New Years, plastic) top hats!

I also reread How To Marry a Marquis and Sorcery and Cecilia, and in my fit of Regency love, I dragged my mother to two separate libraries one day when our true motive for going out was to acquire a Personal ID card for me from the DMV, since I've given up even the pretext of acquiring a driver's license in the near future. We went to one library before the DMV which required doubling back, and then after the DMV we stopped at the other library which was 20 minutes out of our way. My mother is a saint.

So I acquired To Catch An Heiress, the "prequel" to How To Marry A Marquis, as well as Darcy and Elizabeth: Days and Nights at Pemberly, the sequel to Mr Darcy Takes a Wife. To Catch An Heiress was AMAZING. The ending didn't quite live up to the beginning or middle, but SUCH a beginning and middle! I had to put the book down multiple times because I was laughing so hard I couldn't read for my shaking. Most of those times involved something with Blake's butler who was HILARIOUS. I made a start at Darcy and Elizabeth, but I got 60 pages in with no humor, intrigue, or truly, anything of interest sighted which was about the time I consulted the reviews on amazon and saw that even people who 100% enjoyed the first were thoroughly disappointed by the second and I put the book down like a hot potato. Sigh. I've also acquired Mr Darcy Presents His Wife, which I'm hoping is at least marginally more interesting. Also, These Three Remain (twice in as many months!) and have been rereading favorite passages. My love of Dy only grows upon reacquaintance. And to round out the numbers, I also took out two Heyer books, even though they are in large print, which annoys me. They're Heyer; that should count for everything.

I've made a (very) unofficial goal for myself to have finished 15 books by the end of the summer. Just for reference, I've read 9 books so far: Aidan's Darcy Trilogy, Victory of Eagles, Pride and Prejudice, Mr Darcy Takes A Wife, How To Marry a Marquis, Sorcery and Cecilia, To Catch An Heiress. Don't think I don't see the running theme, it will be broken by Breaking Dawn whenever I get around to that. Speaking of, I avoided the release frenzy on principle, but I'm chafing at all the spoilers on my flist. I swear, when Deathly Hallows came out I barely stumbled over spoilers even when I was looking for them. What the hell, Twilight fandom.

So uh, yes. My week. There you go. OTAKON THIS WEEKEND! I realize I never posted about it here, but I semi-solved the problem of companions. Two of my friends are coming along, even though neither of them is any kind of anime fan. One is intrigued by the novelty, and the other's boyfriend is going to be there. Plus, I'm deep discounting their fare in the hotel since I'd rather have them there than be alone, so it is a cheap weekend away for them. I figure they can ditch me for a few hours if the endless parade of panels and merchandise begins to bore them. They have assured me they are up for a laugh, which is all I really care about. I'm excited! :D

My life has been kind of crazy lately. I've been running around doing lots of summer things, such as going out to movies and staying in to movies and going to birthday parties and the like. I've also been working, which is getting shittier and shittier the longer I'm there. Oh well. Such is life.

I re-read Sailor Moon, which did not hold up as well as I hoped it would to my maturity level. God, when I was in sixth grade, Sailor Moon was my entire universe. How is this manga so mediocre?

After that though, I started watching Nodame Cantabile, which. I have no words. Wow. SO good. Amazing. Heart-warming, hilarious, pretty, thoughtful, educational. Finally got me to listen to my parents collection of classical music. Finally caused me to fall head over heels in love with Tomokazu Seki. To me, this series is on par with Hikaru no Go. It is that good, that epic, that wonderful. It also reminds me a lot of Nobuta, in that it is about a haughty guy who learns how to connect to life with the help of a strange girl. And also, the necessity of human relationships, their interconnectivity, and how love and friendship make the world go round. Superb. 5 million stars. I need an S-Oke shirt for Otakon.

Then I reread Cartograhper's Craft. Which is also superb and wonderful. I never get tired of how unrelentingly clever copperbadge's plots and style are. So much fangirlism. How the man does it, I will never know.

This of course led to a re-reading of Come Write Me Down (a prequel to Cartographer's Craft written by metallumai, not Sam), which, is heartbreakingly beautiful. Reading them both back to back, I actually like CWMD better, which is upsetting. But I love this Ellis and Sirius so, so much. Their feelings and their goals and their meaning to each other. God, so beautiful. And by stopping before the tear-your-heart-out ending, my love of it isn't tainted by the overbearing angst that puts me off so many Marauder-era fics. It handles the foreshadowing beautifully though.

And now I'm sort of hovering around thremedon waiting for people to start posting madly. I want mad posting!

Next books!

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

( The books! )

This one is sort of late, but oh well.

Reply to this post with the answers to these questions so that I can get to know you better. Then post it on your journal so you can get to know your flist.

( The questions )