Okay, this has been really niggling me lately, so I am just going to type it out and then let it wither and waste here where I don't have to look at it ever again.

( In which I reveal even more clearly that I am a HUGE dork, and also my idea for a meme. )

ETA: Also, I had to chuckle a bit when I saw this post on my LJ since my layout automatically converts my subject lines to all-caps. Sorry, e.e.cummings!

I love how I totally changed my default icon and not my journal subtitle. Way to make an obscure joke even less comprehensible, search_soleil!*

I kind of don't know what to change it to though. :/ I guess I could put it back to what it was before, when it fit in with the whole Because theme, but that just seems to be moving backward. Progress people! We need to make progress here!

And because I'm already on the topic, I'm going to force a quick meme on you all.

Name/LJ Meme stolen from sokka

1. My username is ______ because ______.

Search_soleil, because I like 's' sounds and French sounds, and I am not afraid to be a little kitschy. And because I enjoy sun imagery, even if I don't enjoy my actual physical presence in it.

2. My name is _____ because ______.

Elizabeth because my mom was obsessed with Beth from Little Women, even though I have grown up hating the nickname. We have since compromised and say I was named after Lizzy Bennet. What can I say, I am only one in a long line of lit nerds.

3. My journal is titled ____ because ____.

Because the wind is high, it blows my mind," because I love that song. I don't think I've changed this one in more than a year, possibly two (?!?).

4. My friends page is called ____ because ____.

"Because the world is round, it turns me on" because it's another lyric from the song and it fits in with being the title of my friends list in many ways, hahaha. *gets shot*

5. My default userpic is ____ because ____.

WELL, it USED to be Tomoyo from TRC drinking tea because I needed a chillin' icon and I liked how it was so simple and defaultable (also see footnote for important confession). Now it is Sawako/Sadako from Reaching You being pretty and inscrutable because it is from a new favorite of mine and it also fulfills the chillin', simple, and defaultable requirements I have come to demand of a default icon. Also, it has a spring kind of feel to it and it IS spring! Funny how that works out.

6. My LJ name (you know how you can change that sort of sub-name thing?) is:

"The Girl With The Thorn In Her Side" because I continue to identify and obsess over Smiths songs to unhealthy degrees.

*I don't even like tea. I've just seen My Fair Lady too many times, and I think that is one of the funniest parts of the movie.

You know, you take a long weekend to do necessary RL things like reconnect with your parents and read a book before you go out of your mind, and in the mean time everyone and their mother starts putting the queer (as in BIZARRE) back into sexual orientation discrimination.

First is that Times article from Sunday, which just, I can't get started on this. Every girl in that suite is a sweetheart and my support lies firmly with them and my college. The horrible part is that in any other circumstance I would support an article exploring the changing role of gender, but knowing some of the underlying facts of this particular matter, I'm incensed instead. Fucking Alissa Quart and her conformation bias. The entire article seeks (rather ironically, I might add) to cast all transgendered people into the role of the misunderstood pioneer and every gender conformist in the world into either the role of oppressor or confused bystander. Like jerks don't exist in every frequency on the gender spectrum.

Second is the lovely news that LJ has censored "bisexuality" out of its popular interests, as well as other sexuality-friendly words, ranging from "hardcore," to fucking "faeries." FAERIES. I ASK YOU.

I kind of feel like climbing a tall building and announcing to the world that things don't have to be black and white. Some people even enjoy a healthy tour of the grey area every once in a while! Look at the freaking Best Picture nominees this year and it's like getting bludgeoned with a neon sign that says "AMBIGUITY IS THE NEW HOLLYWOOD BY-WORD."

Taking the quote slightly out of context: Climb out of your holes, people!

A number of things:

1) I really want my paid account status back. It really pains me not to have it. I don't care that we've been dumped and given to the Russians, I just want more icons and comment editing. I WANTS IT.

2)I have had a busy "weekend." Friday I couldn't sleep so I ended up watching Enchanted and August Rush from the pirate sites I'd come across earlier in the day. I finally fell asleep around seven.

I woke up at 1, threw on some clothes, and joined loweryourwand at Strawberry Fields for the John Lennon Memorial gathering. There was lots of singing and togetherness, and I genuinely had a lot of fun. The only dark spot was that Diana was reluctant to leave for anything, let it be sustenance, shelter, or lavatories, and I had skipped breakfast thinking she would want to have lunch at some point. By the end of the four hours I was there, I was about ready to bite her face off if it would have appeased my growling stomach.

( Cinematic Evidence of Our Excursion, or, alternatively, OMG I'M ON YOUTUBE! )

After that we crashed in my dorm, watched Love Actually and A Hard Day's Night, and then had a mini dance party to Beatles music until we were both too tired and Diana wandered off to bed.

I woke up on Sunday around 3, and basically proceeded to work for eighteen hours on a first draft of a paper that I was required to hand in today (er, yesterday). Slept two hours, but paper safely submitted!

3) Today, I finally made it down to Kinokuniya for the closing sale. There wasn't really much left, but I did buy a Pinky:St doll (someone stop me before this becomes an obsession!), a Monokuro Boo lanyard (Nobuta has definitely made me notice the inherent cuteness of cartoon pigs), and a bunch of manga that I'm looking forward to reading when I need to escape finals hell.

4) I have a paper due this Thursday and finals on Friday, Monday and next Thursday. Wish me luck!

Okay, so. Super busy. Getting good at this drive-by posting thing.

Just finished Isaiah Berlin's essay, "The Originality of Machiavelli." Biggest thing I got out of it was a deeper understanding of the Slytherin dynamic. Signs that my very thought processes have been irretractibly* altered by fandom: +1.

Have been avoiding LJ (FList reading being its own necessity that I barely even associate with LJ), since my paid account expired. Looking at all of my frozen icons made me depressed.

Across The Universe is out on Friday. Am v. excited. May cry bitter and unrelenting tears if it sucks.

*Irretractible/y is apparently not a word, but it sounds awfully pretty.

LJ is at it again. 6A's shit is once again hitting the fandom fan and the fandom fan is thinking ominous things, such as "DONE," "GONE," and "TAKE MY PAID/PERMANENT ACCOUNT AND SHOVE THAT UP YOUR ASSES, MORONS."

What does this mean to me?

Thing one, I'm going to let my paid account expire when it's set to, in early September. I loveses my extra icons, but I can deal. LJ won't be getting any of my money until it gives fandom a straight answer about whether they want us or not.

Thing two, I am a member of fandom_counts, innocence_jihad, and fandom_flies. When the time comes for us to go, I plan on being ready and willing.

And now I'm off to read lots and lots of Sakuragi Yaya and Matsumoto Temari, veritable queens of the high school yaoi romance. Heinous!

Because of my disillusionment with LJ, I ran off and had a torrid affair with Facebook and its new graffiti application. I'm back insomuch as I am ever back. Oh LJ, I'm fickle, but I always return to you. :D

( An iTunes meme... )

Alright. Strikethroughgate appears to have been resolved. For the time being. Thank God, because LJ, I really like you a lot. I wasn't ready to break up!

I firmly believe some really spectacular things were accomplished amidst all of the hysteria. For one thing, fandom_counts is like, my new favorite thing ever. Once we hit 30,000, we'll be able to fill Otakon! (Guess what I'm looking forward to?) :D:D:D ETA: 31,330 and counting!

The other thing is fandom's new theme song!

YO HO, HAUL TOGETHER, HOIST THE COLORS HIGH.
HEAVE HO, THIEVES AND BEGGARS, NEVER SHALL WE DIE.

WTF, I need to go on medication at this point. Real Life, STOP SUCKING. Six Apart, STOP BEING BASTARDS.

I'm standing against Six Apart over Strikethrough '07.

fandom_counts. Stand up and be counted.

End of transmission.

Gnaaaaaa. *cries*

( In which I whine. A lot. Cut so you don't have to deal with it. )

I am off to play Chuzzle in the hopes that it will make me feel better. If it is unsuccessful, perhaps I shall bang my head into a wall. Sounds like a plan.