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.

Am watching Bram Stoker's Dracula for class tomorrow. So far we have:

• Gratuitous vandalism of religious statuary.
• Keanu Reeves with a horrible British accent.
• Old!Dracula with a hairdo that looks like a butt from the back.
• Gratuitous uses of circles in transitions.
• Random acts of orgy.
• Random acts of lesbianism.
• Random acts of bestiality.
• Gratuitous moaning of a sexual nature (even when not involved in a sexual situation, though really what in this movie is not at least a metaphor for a sexual situation).
• And Cary Elwes in a pornstache.

I haven't stopped laughing in the hour I've been watching this movie.

ETA: Second half of the movie, we also have Young!Dracula (a.k.a. Gary Oldman) looking like a pimp out of the 70's with

• the John Lennon sunglasses
• the long wavy hair
• the too-huge-to-be-real hat
• aaaand the pornstache.

ETA2: That Southern accent is too horrible to be real. What is with this movie?

Actually, I really love this movie meme. I avoided doing it because I think/fear/feel that no one will respond, but ah well. Some of these are inexcusable, but I am unrepentant.

1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Fill in the film title once it's guessed.
5. NO GOOGLING / using IMDb search functions. Totally cheating, you dirty cheaters.

( 1. Anyone who isn't dead or from another plane of existence would do well to cover their ears right about now. )

ETA: 11/15 guessed.

It's days like today when it really hits home that I am going to an all girls school.

My roommate and I started talking about how sad and shocking and terrible Heath Ledger's death is, and as our conversation went on, my roomate pulled down her copy of 10 Things I Hate About You. She brought in a couple of friends from the hall, and we all started watching it.

This movie defined the beginning of our teens. I wasn't lying when I said he was my first idol crush. All of us love this movie and love Heath in it. The first time he came on screen we gasped a little and groaned and were so aware of his every movement, but then the movie took hold. Before long, we were laughing and groaning at everything, simply and plainly enjoying ourselves. It became less of a thing of mourning and more of a celebration of his life and his work.

As this went on, other girls stopped by, realized what we were doing and stayed to see the movie. At our largest, there were about sixteen of us in the room. About twenty filtered through for different portions. Twelve finished the movie with us. And throughout, we shared trivia and stories and thoughts about the movie and Heath Ledger. We all came to terms together.

I'm sure we weren't the only group of girls who did this, but I'm glad I was a part of it. Heath Ledger was one of our generation's greatest heartthrobs, and he was a wonderful actor besides. He will live on as Patrick and Cassanova, as Ennis del Mar and Gabriel Martin, as Sir William Thatcher, and the speculation surrounding his death can never taint those characters, or his stellar career. He figured prominently in my adolescence. For being that person in my life, I'm grateful to him.

I went to go see Juno in NYC sometime in the weeks of finals hell. I went with the roommate and a hallmate and actually wasn't all that excited. I was sort of put off by the whole teen pregnancy thing. They don't call it Catholic guilt for nothing you know. But I watched some trailers and decided to give it a shot and went down to Lincoln Square and was simply unprepared to be blown away.

I came out of the theater wanting to go back in and have that experience again. Which is why, once I got home, I insisted on taking some of my home friends to go and see it. This time I was prepared for the movie to be amazing. I was, however, blindsided by the realization that every one of the three friends I saw it with hated it.

Even now, over 24 hours after the fact, I'm startled, and more than a little hurt by the fact that those three girls, some of my oldest and dearest friends, hated a movie that stole my heart. At the time I was too shell-shocked to even defend it, but rather than let it fester, I'm taking the opportunity to give them the rebuttal Juno rightfully deserves.

( This turned out rather rambling and long, but it is what's in my heart nonetheless. )

So I woke up late today and basically threw on clothes as I ran out the door. A cursory glance to make sure I wasn't wearing anything horribly wrinkled was the only thought I gave to my choice of clothing today.

After class, I spent the day lounging around reading Empire of Ivory. BTW, there was about a two week period during the first part of the book when they thought Temeraire was going to die. You'd think that would be the perfect time to reaffirm Laurence and Temeraire's relationship--you know, force them to stop taking each other for granted in an intense way. Except it WAS TOTALLY GLOSSED OVER. NAOMI NOVIK, EPIC FAIL. I think this series is sort of like a bad relationship that I just can't seem to let go of because I remember how heart-wrenchingly wonderful it was in the beginning.

Then my roommate flies by telling me she's going with floor people to see Across The Universe again (we went and saw it together the day it came out). I love the movie, so of course I drop the book (UGH UGH UGH) and go with.

On the subway, one of the two floormates says to me, "Are you wearing that shirt on purpose?"

Long pause. I look down and see that I am, in fact, wearing this t-shirt.

"Actually, no. But now I love it about a thousand times more than I did three seconds ago."

As an update, Otakon plan is currently operating under a worst case scenario, but it is a bearable worst case scenario, so no more of that silly business.

In other news, I am desperately trying to reread HBP quickly so that I can read DH before I leave late Thursday. I wasn't too worried about spoilers before the book leaked, but now that it's out there, I can't help but fear that something awful will come out of the mouths of the marauding masses of super-nerds I will no doubt encounter over the weekend.

This plan is currently being frustrated by the fact that The Count of Monte Cristo is on abcFamily right now. I love this movie for all the reasons it is so bad, but also because when I was in eighth grade my friends and I decided that Jacopo and I were somehow related. I don't even remember the details now, but when I flipped to the channel, he was there and I went "JACOPO!" instinctually and I broke out in a crazed grin. Best and worst years of my life, just as adolescence should be.

All right, so I'm watching TV and a Harry Potter TV Spot comes on. In a fit of randomness, I "gave some" (is there a slang-ish way to say I gimme some-d something?) to the TV because yeah, there is nothing I could wish more for the fifth movie than copious amounts of crack.

AND THEN RON GAVE ME SOME BACK.

( See for yourself! )

I have magic hands!

ETA: Damn it, it's more of a fist movement now that I've viewed the second-long clip in question multiple times. Part of me realizes I've had too much interaction with Aaron if I'm hallucinating people gimme some on the television.

I can't say I didn't love it! So many little things in this movie are so awesomely awesome it makes my heart hurt to think about him. Some things I didn't like so much. Overall, the pacing sucked a great, great deal, but that went away after the first viewing, so I figure I'll be fine watching it a third/fourth/nth millionth time.

Just to note, this movie was sort of weird. For as much info from the book as they managed to keep, a shocking amount of it came out in dramatically different way than it did in the book. I'm surprised, looking back, at how much of the stuff I really loved is completely movie invention.

( What I loved, didn't love, and what I just laughed at. This is gratuitously long. )

To be finished when I finally see this a third time (which may be never... >_>).

1) My computer is yellow. We are not exactly sure how this happened, but we think that our old and slightly quirky CRT monitor is finally breaking down on us. Let me just say, after staring at a screen that washes everything in largely yellowish tones, everything else in the world becomes pinkish when you look away. Most annoying, I assure you.

2) I finally saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I love those guys. I'm still not quite sure how I managed to watch the series before seeing the wildly more popular movie, but there you go.

3) The past week I have been mainly using the spare laptop, in my room, where there is air conditioning. No doubt this has caused me to come across rather dead, as said laptop does not have AIM and that is the only place my friends ever contact me. I feel somewhat isolated, but one must make sacrifices when one has a delicate constitution and is trying to survive a heat wave while her feminine sensibilities make war with her.

4) I finished Castle in the Air and promptly went crazy with Howl's Moving Castle fangirlishness. I raided two livejournal communities: conesoldstober and movingcastle for fic. V. recommend hi_mi_tsu's work. She blends the book and the movie and is much a genius, even if I would love her more if she used Howl's real eye color (Green! They are green! All this grey-twilight nonsense is most disconcerting!). Right now I am re-reading Howl's Moving Castle and loving every minute of it. Howl is love and most charming and squee!!1!