It's Halloween again! Time for the annual viewings of Nightmare Before Christmas, Rocky Horror Picture Show aaaaand:



( The Halloween Tree. Otherwise known as the awesome creepy movie about a creepy crypt keeper voiced by Leonard Nimoy, with a creepy pumpkin tree and a willingness to take children on an adventure through time. Not that there's anything creepy about that... )

And the weirdest thing to come out of Whoville (don't believe me? Just watch the third part). Otherwise known as Halloween is Grinch Night: 1 | 2 | 3

For those who celebrate/celebrated, what's your favorite (or least favorite hurr hurr) memory of Halloween? (Or if you celebrate something different what's your favorite memory of that?) My favorite is probably all of my aunt's parties - she used to do this huge get-together for all of my dad's side of the family, and she'd have the goofiest "clipboard games" - crosswords and word searches and the like - for us to solve. She also had the creepiest decorations, including a foot-tall or so moving skeleton in a black cape that used to sit at the top of her stairs. I never used her upstairs bathroom if I could help it, because I was terrified of that thing. And the best thing about all of this is that nowadays, when she has her party, she's decided to "tone it down" a bit for the younger cousins and her grandkids, so they don't get scared. Wat.

And my least favorite? The Halloween I was about nine or ten, I went trick-or-treating with just my dad. A neighbor a few courts over had set up a "haunted house" in their front yard complete with a cardboard coffin that someone would spring up out of to scare the trick-or-treaters. Yeah, I ended up running, screaming fit to burst eardrums, because my dad said it was fine to go near the large box. Thanks, Dad. 8|

Tags: going to a dead man's party, youtube
Current Mood: is a fish

Back from the National Book Fest in DC. Am still kind of damp :\ Am no longer damp, as I fell asleep at my laptop typing this orz. But at least it didn't pour like last year.

There was a shit-ton worth of people, though, despite a steady drizzle. Mostly because, as I mentioned before, there were really popular authors whose names I've known but never really read - James Patterson, John Grisham, John Irving, Jodi Picoult, Nicholas Sparks; authors that I had read growing up - Lois Lowry, Judy Blume, Jon Scieszka; and authors I wanted to see, which was basically just Rick Riordan and Ken Burns XD

The downside to the massive amount of people was that the lines for any given book-signing was at least twice as long as they normally are. These lines snaked back and forth (because for some reason they never mark out paths for the lines to go) and end up looping back on themselves. The longest line I was in was Riordan's - I showed up half an hour early and was in the 15th row, and it definitely numbered about 20 by the time he got to signing. So yeah, I didn't get my book signed. Riordan apparently wanted to stick around and sign as much as he could, but the volunteers hustled him out of the way for whoever was supposed to come after him. They really need an over-flow booth or something, a place where an author who wants to sign and see his or her fans can go and stay without worrying about someone kicking them out.

But! Despite this disappointment, I did manage to see him, and Jon Scieszka (who is an hysterical man) among a bunch others.

Also, everyone needs to read The Exquisite Corpse.

( And this is the reason why )

( Misadventures in book signings and Kate DiCamillo )

( Riordan was next )

Tags: bibliophile, i am a dork, the gods are alive in nyc, youtube
Current Mood: sickly

Anglo-Saxon hoard found! This is just so very awesome. Look at the craftmanship (related article here).

And the BBC has a cool site showing what the particular pieces may be from a warrior's armor.

Just...the details and the metalwork are just amlkdlmk; *_____* And the questions this discovery raises omggg you guys I just want to do this for a living. Brb running away to England, faking a degree in archaeology and squeeing in an academic, highly erudite manner with the rest of them.

Also, I should be in bed, because we're getting up at the butt-crack of dawn, but the DC Book Fest is tomorrow today! Rick Riordan is going to be there! As is Ken Burns and Paula Deen (lmao)! Aaaand a whole mess of amazing authors seriously this place is going to be packed, Lois Lowry and Michael Connolly and seriously huge crowds. But! Riordan! 8Db Taking The Last Olympian hopefully he will sign it~!

Tags: i am a dork, in which i pimp a lot of links, it's history!, know your current events, moving to europe
Current Mood: dorky

Guess what day it be again.



>:B

( Also. One Piece from chapter 539 to 557: installment one (539-548). I told you I had a lot to catch up on ;; )

Avengin' the many a sea-dog who perished 'gainst the silent, sneaky bastards, the battle be ragin' on...

Tags: one piece, talk like a pirate day, youtube
Current Mood: wrrrrrry bon-chaaaan

So....these month-and-a-half hiatus type things really need to stop happening, self.

Um, ( briefly, Alaska )

At least one reason I haven't been on is that I am pseudo-employed again. And by pseudo I mean that I'm just back at B&N, because I'm a masochist my friend asked me. We lost a bunch of people - kids going to college type thing - and so my part-time hours are magically full-time hours for the time being. Joyous. But! I need the money. And as soon as I'm back to official part-time I'm going to try volunteering around at some places (as no one wants to actually hire me) to pad up the resume some. I think it's a plan. We'll see.

Birthday was fun! Surprisingly so! Most of mine have, well, sucked or at least not gone according to plan, so it was nice to have simple plans - get steamed crabs for the last time this year, then go out drinking at a few local bars - go simply perfect. Got to drink by the water, and the bartender didn't even charge us for most of my drinks, got two free shots (and one of them was Justin's stupid Wild Turkey, why do I let myself fall into that, why), what more could you ask?

So incredibly far behind on any and all manga. Brother Bob marathoned most of the OP anime - from Jaya to Shabondy I kid you not. Thank god for the faster speed settings, although it makes everyone sound like chipmunks. If you can, find an episode where Brook laughs or sounds horrified and speed it up, it's fucking hysterical - and I caught some of that but I am woefully behind the manga. Still, spoil me! I love spoilers! I will catch up...soon, I hope.

Been reading a lot more. I highly recommend Peter S. Beagle's We Never Talk About My Brother and Jasper Fforde's The Big Over-Easy. I actually like the Nursery Crimes series more than the Thursday Next series. I'm on the second one, The Fourth Bear, now. They're this perfect mix of hard-boiled (no pun intended) crime stories and humorous satire.

And Beagle, oh man, Beagle. I am in love with this man's imagination. The things he comes up with! Everyone has to get We Never Talk About My Brother. It's a collection of short stories - and don't even begin to tell me you don't read short stories - and you need this book if only for the story "Spook," which is hysterical and awesome and clever and makes me talk in run-on sentences so you know it has to be good. One of those stories where I want to tell everyone what it's about but that would ruin the fantastic surprise. And if you've ever read The Last Unicorn you need WNTAMB for "The Unicorn Tapestries". I might try to type up a passage later, if anyone is interested in reading a bit, just because this collection is so good it needs to be shared.

Speaking of good, I think I liked Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box more than the first one. I'm almost finished (pffft I almost finished it in three days); all I need to do is find Puzzle 90 and solve most of the bonus puzzles. And I never knew how limited and sad my gaming life was until I played the beautiful wonder that is the tea-making mini-game ♥__♥ Seriously Level 5, I am in love~ And awaiting the next one. Also, Okami game for the DS? Exciting!

So yeah. How is everybody else?

Tags: alaska boat tour 2009, another year older, brief book babblings, everyone needs to read beagle, i has an addiction to the printed word, i live!, lawl, life
Current Mood: okay

Hello from...somewhere on a body of water! Heh, I think we're still on the Puget Sound, heading to the Pacific Ocean. It's really hard to tell, though, because there's a ton of fog obscuring land right now - visibility's like nothing at the moment. But! Top level of our ship has an internet cafe/DVD rental/library/coffee shop/bar (seriously, this room is huge), so that's where I am now. First update!

( Day 1: Leaving on a Jet Plane Without a Meal Plan; Go West Young Girl )

( Night 1/Day 2: Fire Alarms Are Not Suitable for Wake-Up Calls )

Day 2 later. They're closing up the cafe. It's about 10 pm here. Goodbye from somewhere on the water!

Tags: alaska boat tour 2009, fml

I really need to get back into the habit of, you know, not playing video games all day checking my LJ more than once a month :|

Saw Cheap Trick, Poison and Def Leppard in concert with some B&N pals. Lawn seats, baby~ Was fun, got tipsy on ridiculously overpriced drinks, made fun of the frat kids next to us and surprised myself by knowing more Poison songs than I originally thought I did. Still am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Also, successfully back-seat drove navigated ourselves through DC because of all the times my mom and I did the same run to get my brother from college. Oi.

Otakon! Otakon was fun, ( although not as super much fun as last year (buuuuut I suspect that's because there wasn't an Kappei Yamaguchi to look forward to) )

( Finished Ergo Proxy! Only took me...how long? )

Also am not sure how I feel about the Percy Jackson movie. On one hand, the trailer looks cool. On the other hand, it's already feeling like everyone's going to go "HP 2.0!!!" and it's really...not. I don't know. I don't like what JKR did with the notion of the Hero's Quest in the HP books, but I do like Riordan's take on that mythology and on the Greek gods themselves. Hopefully it won't be butchered? Who am I kidding, it's Hollywood. ._.

I am going to catch up on all the latest manga chapters (OP I'm looking at you) but the thing is, I'm actually cruising. In Alaska at the end of this week. Flying into Seattle and not coming back until August 10 or so! So, um. Yeah, still won't be around D: Unless there's internet on the ship? And even then it'll probably be boring day-to-day "hai self this is what you did" travel logs, like usual. But I'll have lots of lovely pictures when I come back? And I'll probably be posting on old entries a lot, too. My apologies ahead of time.

Is it weird that I'm mostly excited about flying again than actually going to the West Coast/Alaska for the first time in my life? I mean, travel all around is good to me, but flying *____*

It's weird, isn't it.

Tags: alaska boat tour 2009, can't stay in one place, life, music, otakon 2009, randomness of a random mind

It's not funny and I shouldn't laugh but dammit apropos of everything someone dies in a vat of chocolate the day I start rereading Thief of Time? What are the odds.

Tags: i has an addiction to the printed word, i want more people to like discworld

I want to join a flash-mob or whatever they're called. I don't even care if it's for some ad or something, they just look like such fun. If only I could, you know, dance.

Snagged from heartstillatwar.

This can be a quick one. Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.
( So not the top 15 books of all time XD )

Tags: flash dance what a feelin, i has an addiction to the printed word, lawl, meme, randomness of a random mind

01 Wow, it's been...almost two months since I posted last. Um, hi?

02 Two months of no internet means I read a bit more. Still plugging away at Proust and the Squid. The Smith College Used Book Sale came and went, and while I didn't get as many books as I did last year, I still got plenty. Picked up a couple more Iris Murdoch books, a few Japanese books, a bunch more history books, and a few odds and ends, including a book on all the words that have fallen out of use in the English language (I should start posting definitions) and a reprint of a bestiary from...the 1600s, I think? Filled with lions and dragons and such. The best books had to have been the ones with newspaper clippings and such in them; it seemed like every other book I picked up had something tucked away in it. My favorite was the copy of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with a playbill from a production in the '60s and the newspaper write-up for that show. My favorite book so far that I've read from this year's haul, and highly recommend, if you can find it, is I See By My Outfit by Peter S. Beagle. Cross-country on a scooter, and not necessarily for the usual beatnik reasons. Makes me want to drive cross-country, actually.

Finally got Nation and bought the last Percy Jackson novel when the lovely Rae stopped by. Overall I liked both books a lot.

( Spoilers for both )

03 Saw Up. I think I just need to accept that Pixar movies will always, inevitably, make me cry at one point or another during the course of the film. Good movie, but what the hell were the badges at the end. My brother and I sat through the entire credits (we always do, he's a former film major, comes with the territory) and there was definitely an Atomic Bomb patch. What in the world do you do to get that one.

Also saw Frost/Nixon, Kung Fu Panda, Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day and Definitely, Maybe. Loved all three. I was really surprised how much I enjoyed the first one - documentaries are not my thing - and also how sympathetic I felt towards Nixon at the end of the film. Kung Fu Panda, omg, I have such a weakness for animated movies and pfffft the one-liners had me lollin' so hard. I know I am so late to that party - it's been out for how long now? - but gaaaaaaaah so fun. Miss Pettigrew, oh my god, even if you don't really like romantic films this one is just. So awesome. Got my dad to watch the ending with me, it was hilarious. Definitely, Maybe is just. So droll. And. Hits all the buttons I don't like to acknowledge I have for romantic films.

04 Am addicted to Rachel Yamagata's Elephants and Vienna Teng's Stray Italian Greyhound. Why can't I pick one musical depiction of love and stick with it? Oh and, Stray Italian Greyhound? Totes an Edgeworth or Franziska song.

05 Dreamwidth - worth it? Yay? Nay? Ehhhh...? Not that I have a code or anything but I'm curious

06 Played Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego? and Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego? for the first time in years. 8Dbb Am now plagued by cross-over bunnies. Halp. AND OMFG I WANT IT TO BE WINTER. I WANT GYAKUTEN KENJI WHATEVER THE FUCK THEY WANT TO CALL IT. JUST. GIMME. AND LAYTON TOO.

07 I am so behind on every manga title. Upside though, I am now marathoning Ergo Proxy. Woot!

08 Self, finish those damn Night Watch icons. Do it.

09 How is everyone else doing?

Tags: brief book babblings, i am a dork, i am not a gamer, i has an addiction to the printed word, i want more people to like discworld, lawl, music, randomness of a random mind, spoiled you
Current Mood: awake