Sherlock Holmes was a thoroughly enjoyable movie.

Watson has my heart and my heartfelt sympathy. He will never be able to leave! He is doomed!

Christmas was a little bit small this year, but considering my main present is plane tickets to Hawaii, I'm not complaining!

But more physical manifestations of giving:

- Gift cards to Borders and Barnes and Noble
- The World Ends With You
- A nice silk Persian area rug from Mom
- various small bits and bobs, including good socks

I was honestly more preoccupied with whether or not my family would like my gifts to them, because I have anxiety in that way. Still gunning for a PS3 for graduation, but Heather has a 360 that we can play FFXIII on when the time comes.

Bawwww, paid account expired. It is interesting to see which six of my icons LJ decided to give me access to.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Livejournal Folk. :D

So. It's been sweat, blood, and tears. And it still needs editing like whoa.

But I've finished the rough draft of something. :D 57k, roughly! I estimate it will be ~70K once I go back and add in a few scenes that are wanting, and some exposition to make for easier reading. I'm just wallowing in being proud of myself for a little bit.

My New Year's Resolution is to be slower to anger. If it's someone who cares about me, then we should meet each other with patience. If it is someone who isn't worth my time, then they aren't worth my anger either.

...

In completely unrelated news, today marked my first time driving on the highway. And getting cut off! Twice! Then I hit the curb on my parking job because I was freaking out, but otherwise the sister reports that I did quite well. Other than the poor curb.

Grades are in! A-, A-, A, B+. My GPA is stuck firmly at a 3.6, though I hope to get it up to a 3.7 or 3.8 next semester if I really work at it.

Got caught in that snowstorm down here, and the power was out from Friday until yesterday evening. We spent Sunday night in a hotel, because blech and cold and blech. But it came back on as we were driving into my sister's town! Her school still canceled tomorrow, so we're heading back a day early.

I am super bad at puzzles! But with the aid of a flashlight I made it to the third book of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy. It's so...fluffy. It's an emo fantasy romance novel. AND I ENJOY IT. Mmm, brain goo.

Done!

Whether or not the conclusion is victory remains to be seen.

Tomorrow we are driving down to the excitement that is West Virgina, where I'm staying with my sister until the 24th, when we drive back up for Christmas. She has wireless!

Then, on the 29th, I'm on my way to the airport so that the ladybean and I can be off to her homestate of warmth on the 30th. Wireless also available!

I get back on the 15th, but Dad and I are going to chill in NYC for a couple of days if anyone is around who wants to hang out. THEN BACK TO SCHOOL.

For my last semester.

Eep.

Things that are bad for my blood pressure: internet discussions on feminism.

HOW DARE WE ACCUSE MEN OF HORRIBLE THINGS.

I guess the real consequences of reading "Child Roland to the Dark Tower Came" again are more shenanigans. Artwork and half of the mental work are beautifully provided by jan_the_verse.

Thoughts on Persona 3 thus far!

I fear my opinion of this game may have been tarnished a bit by playing Persona 4 first, because a lot of the fiddly mechanics issues were patched up nicely for 4. I felt a lot more connected to my party members in 4, as well, because the S.Link system expanded so smoothly to fit all of them.

Also, 3 is more absurdist in comparison to 4's manic whimsy.

Anyway, spoilery thoughts below. I'm just before the next full moon, the one after the Hierophant and Lovers battle.

( Give Creepy Old Man Your Money? Y/N? )

Zi Zhua icon in honor of the fact that I was mostly in charge of cooking Thanksgiving dinner today. And it wasn't a failure! Actually quite tasty, though I picked at it so much while I was cooking it that I didn't manage to eat much actual dinner.

Cake and pie to commence later. Both store bought, because I didn't have the time or the will to bake today or last night.

I'm thankful for love and family of all sorts. I have been blessed with an overabundance of good people in my life, and I strive everyday to deserve them.

TODAY, in Mansplanations, lesbian sex via a critique of Swinburne's "Anactoria," circa 1971.

"More specifically, however, Sappho's yearning for a total interpenetration of bodies may be interpreted as a powerful impulse toward sexual fulfillment (in the literal sense of the word), which we must imagine to be especially strong in affairs where there is such an inconvenient disproportion of orifices and members."

I leave for a weekend and my suitemates...break the internet?

THIS JUST IN:

Foucault is a confusing man.

SO. Fanfiction.

I have received at least two messages in the last month asking me (very politely and kindly) what the ever loving hell is up with the status of Bandages.

The last chapter exists. On my laptop, in a rough, stagnating for like a year and a half form. So! I am on the desktop right now, but next time I turn the laptop on - sometime tomorrow, roughly - I will upload the last chapter to ff.net.

And that will more or less be the official end of it.

Fandom gave me a lot of things, not the least of which being a great deal of good friends and acquaintances and an improvement in my writing ability. But all good things come to a close, and any fanfic I write from here on out (if I do) will be dabbling, drabbling, doing favors, and nothing more.

But you will get that last chapter. Hand to my heart.

I've caught a chest cold, of the particularly unfortunate, hacking cough and sore throat variety. Japanese was oodles of fun today, let me tell you what. Though Ishida-sensei did pretty much go 'today you're not going to talk very much' and tried to live up to that as much as possible in a class based around talking.

Japanese has been particularly difficult this week, because we're covering the difference between 'mado o akemasu' and 'mado ga akimasu.' Which are, respectively, 'I opened the window' and 'the window opened.' Which isn't bad until you realize that those two words have different verb forms and there are way too many verbs like that.

So it's more like -

Akemasu - akeru, aketa, akete (rarely used with imasu), akenai
Akimasu - aku, aita, aite imasu, akanai

First day word count is just 1,700. I'm not officially doing it this year, because I'll be expanding on something I already started. So it's 50k or the finish, which might come a little bit before that. I already had 40k going into this. WE SHALL SEE.

Whether or not I'm still awake because of this movie is a toss up, because there are days when I'm just still awake at this time anyway. But I definitely took a sort of MENTAL CAPSLOCK out of the theatre with me, and I very much enjoyed it. Will try to coax my father into seeing it with me, because I suspect there are visual distractions in the set that they purposely set up to unnerve - I want to have a second look at the scenery.

( Spoilers are watching you sleep )

Mom's leaving today.

She'll be paying to have internet while she's over there, but it's not the same. Not even the same continent.