So, er, LJ is having a temper tantrum and being all "NO, I WON'T, I WON'T, I WON'T LISTEN TO MY USER-BASE!" I toyed with the idea about cross-posting, but that just gives LJ revenue and such, so I'm restricting my posts to Dreamwidth, now. My DW mirror is readwriteplay.

It looks a little ugly now, I apologize, but I'll fix it up soon since it'll be my new home. Maybe if this mess with LJ clears up I'll cross-post here.

Feel free to friend (er, subscribe? I think that's the term) me there, if you like.


Temeraire: “I am very tired of this Government, which I have never seen, and which is always insisting that I must do disagreeable things, and does no good to anybody.” --Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik.

I changed the time to 11:11AM, just because I could. Why not? But it's really 18:52, if you must know

So, if you stuck me in a bookstore, told me you'd come find me in another hour, and after that hour started searching, you'd inevitably find me in the Sci-fi/Fantasy section, either trying to decide if I should try a new series or drooling at the number of Discworld books I have yet to read (more on that later).

There is a tiny, tiny confession I have to make, though: In spite of that love of fantasy, I have never read ( A cut to keep things suspenseful )


'And what would humans be without love?'
Rare, said Death.

The current Patrician ... He did of course sometimes have people horribly tortured to death, but this was considered to be perfectly acceptable behaviour for a civic ruler and generally approved of by the overwhelming majority of citizens. †

† The overhelming majority of citizens being defined in this case as everyone not currently hanging upside down over a scorpion pit. Sourcery

[Vimes] couldn't help remembering how much he'd wanted a puppy when he was a little boy. Mind you, they'd been starving — anything with meat on it would have done. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

I've finished reading The Hunger Games Trilogy, and I liked it overall (also cried like a baby at the end of the last book). I heard its plot was similar to Battle Royale, so I picked it up from my library (and ha, it took so long for the person who had it last to return it, I waited almost a month after its due-date before it was available!). It was very....gory.

I'm not really the sort of person who puts a book down unless she has other things to do (sometimes not even then; I've perfected the art of the single-handed multitasking). I also don't get squicked by descriptions, or acts taken by characters, or characters themselves. But this book made me put it down once. Not because of any of the gory scenes. But because of a certain character within, who practically reveled in making teenagers kill each other to the last student standing. His psychology made me ill.

So, I do recommend Battle Royale. Koushun Takami has a talent for making characters come alive, and while he doesn't skimp on the details in the killings, he doesn't glory in the deaths, if that makes sense. I also recommend the Hunger Games trilogy, if you want a slightly lighter take on the battle royale theme.

Eureka got canceled some time ago, but we'll still be getting a season 5. I'm just really, REALLY not liking ~SyFy's~ set-up for seasons. Why split up one season to 2 years? It makes no sense. Just call 3.5 season 4, season 4 #5, and 4.5 #6. Really. Also, I swear, if they replace Eureka with wrestling, or some other "reality" show, I may just have to put a suggestion out into the Internet that someone create a new network for sci-fi/fantasy television.

And what is up with all the websites of networks (TNT, ~SyFy~, I'm lookin' at you) making it ridiculous to watch their shows? TNT is the worst offender, I think, requiring people to go through so many hoops that are questionable in legality and web-safety. I'm sorry my family can't afford premium cable channels, but why are you making your shows so inaccessible?? /first-world problems

I'm playing Portal on my computer (I got it for free because they had some sort of freebie give-away going on). It's awesome, logic-based, physics-adhering fun with CREEPINESS ABOUNDING. AND CAKE. BUT THE CAKE IS A LIE!!!! I don't like playing it on the PC, though. The controls are awkward. It's a short game, because it originally came in a bundle pack with a bunch of other games. Portal 2 is reportedly even more awesome, but I'm waiting until it comes out as a Greatest Hits, because then it'd be about $20. Unfortunately, since it's a PS3 game and PS3s are so expensive, it's not reaching the benchmark for Greatest Hits as fast as some other games. But if you get a chance to play Portal, I highly, highly recommend it.

Now for a meme, because this entry isn't long enough already.

Pick six television shows and answer the questions below. No cheating (don't look at the questions first).

(1) Eureka
(2) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(3) Doctor Who
(4) Leverage
(5) Stargate SG-1
(6) Sherlock

( Questions and Rambly Answers )

Homemade cheesecake is muy delicioso (sa? I don't know if cheesecake is female in Spanish). But Diet Caffeine-Free Pepsi is BLEGH and NOT WORTH THE CALORIES YOU SAVE, if any. I also finally came up with a cheese-steak recipe that works for me. Woot!

Also: Spectacular Avengers Trailer is spectacular. WHY CAN'T IT BE MAY 4, 2012 YET??


"The Enrichment Center promises to always provide a safe testing environment. In dangerous testing environments, the Enrichment Center promises to always provide useful advice. For instance, the floor here will kill you. Try to avoid it."

"The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Companion Cube cannot speak. In the event that the Companion Cube does speak, the Enrichment Center urges you to disregard its advice." --GLaDOS, Portal

When the highlight of your day is JURY DUTY, there is something wrong with your day, y/y?

I was tapped to sit for a trial, and at the end of my day a bailiff asked to have my number so he could contact me if I was needed again. I gave him my cell number, left the courthouse, and had some TMI bodily issues to deal with. And then? I discover my cell phone's display was broken. Not the screen itself, but the internal pixel display and whatnot.

I nearly missed the bus I needed to get to the mall (and back to the car), but I got there and went to the cell phone company's outlet. It was under construction and super busy, and I had to wait around 30 minutes to have someone help me. Two different store-clerks checked on me to make sure I was in their queue, and my phone was still broken when they did. But when I finally got called? My stupid cell phone had somehow magically FIXED ITSELF. So I was facing the guy with a perfectly working phone, but thankfully he believed me when I said there was something wrong with it. He said the software probably needed to be updated, so I had to wait an hour for that. When I got back...he told me the phone went back to its broken state, I couldn't upgrade my phone for a while, and so I'm pretty SOL.

OH. And throughout all this, I'd been up since 5:30am and had nothing but a 6oz cup of coffee until about 1:30pm, whereupon I had slightly awful mall food. *headdesk*

I've been following the Mark Reads/Watches blog, and it's awesome. He reads and watches various things he knows nothing about and writes his impressions. He did one for the Harry Potter series, and he's reviewed the whole of Nu!Who, and reviews Fringe when those episodes air (I don't watch Fringe, so I can't comment on that). He's also reviewing Avatar: The Last Airbender, and is two episodes away from the series finale. It's just interesting living vicariously through his introduction to these shows/books I know and love. He's reading His Dark Materials, too.

Speaking of books...Less than 3 weeks until book 13 of The Dresden Files comes out! Woo! And there are sample chapters up at Jim Butcher's website, so I can get a little bit of my fix before the 26th.

Fic meme!
1. Write down the names of 10 characters.
2. Write a fic of 15 30 words or less for every prompt, using the characters determined by the numbers.
DO NOT read the prompts before you do Step 1.

1. Raiden (Mortal Kombat)
2. Castiel (Supernatural)
3. The Doctor (Doctor Who)
4. Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files)
5. Kurogane (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle)
6. Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
7. Auron (Final Fantasy X)
8. Jack O'Neill (Stargate SG-1)
9. Parker (Leverage)
10. Sheriff Jack Carter (Eureka)

( Ponies, Evil Aliens, and Ninjas Not Trucking With Hypocrites )

And Round 2!
1. Karrin Murphy (The Dresden Files)
2. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)
3. Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
4. Alanna (Tamora Pierce's Tortall series)
5. Sakura Haruno (Naruto)
6. Captain Will Laurence (Temeraire)
7. Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy VII)
8. Lyra (His Dark Materials)
9. Claire Novak (Supernatural)
10. Sonya Blade (Mortal Kombat)

( Wherein I sneakily add a Good Omens cross )

Time for Awesome!Iroh quotes

Katara: [after the gang has been captured by pirates] Aang, this is all my fault.
Aang: No, Katara, it isn't.
Uncle Iroh: Yeah, it kind of is.

Aunt Wu: Care to hear your fortune, handsome?
Uncle Iroh: [smiling] At my age, there is really only one big surprise left, and I'd just as soon leave it a mystery.

Uncle Iroh: Euch! This tea is nothing more than hot leaf juice!
Prince Zuko: Uncle, that's what ALL tea is.
Uncle Iroh: How could a member of my own family say something so horrible! --Avatar: The Last Airbender (various episodes)

Make a stack of all the books you're either 1) currently "in the middle of" reading (no matter how long that's been the case), or 2) have on deck to read soonish and post the list. [include a photo if you feel like illustrating your post / comment]

Currently reading Hard Times by Charles Dickens, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, and am on Book 3 of The Chronicles of Amber (which has 10 books) by Robert Zelazny. Have...way too many books on my to-read list. I do have to read Night Watch by Terry Pratchett and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens by May 31st (library books FTW).

My mother has started a project. The only thing I really remember when my family visited my Korean relatives were vases filled with paper cranes; they're supposed to be for luck. My mom has decided to start her own, so now I (and my sister) have been drafted into folding paper cranes for her. It's not exactly time-consuming or difficult, but she's giving us scraps of paper that aren't quite square-shaped, so some of the cranes come out looking a bit...iffy. My sister, having more dexterous fingers than I, churns out these itty-bitty cranes, but I make do with medium-sized cranes. My mom's eyesight's too poor for the smaller cranes, so she makes the slightly bigger ones.

( Pic behind the cut )

My sister bought a PS3 on the sly, so we are now able to watch Blu-Ray movies (but we don't have an HDMI cable, so without the Blu-Ray experience) and play PS3 games. She bought the TRON movie pack they were selling at WalMart which includes original!TRON in Blu-Ray, and TRON:Legacy in DVD, Blu-Ray, Blu-ray 3D, and a Digital copy. I have no idea why anyone would need that many copies of a single movie, but at least she's prepared? (Though, we don't have a 3D TV. So she's over-prepared?)

We will get FFXIII whenever there's money, but I've been hearing good things about a game called Portal 2. Unfortunately, Portal 1 has been out for a while, so now I can't find it anywhere. Bah.

They're making Good Omens into a 4-part mini-series format! I'm actually more excited about this than if they'd made a movie. A mini-series gives them time to flesh everything out, whereas they'd have to cram so much into a 120-min slot for a movie. Here's hoping they cast everybody right! Especially Crowley and Aziraphale. It would be kind of interesting for Mark Sheppard (who plays Crowley on Supernatural) to play Crowley in this adaption, but I dunno...maybe that'd be a bit too meta?

Speaking of Supernatural and Good Omens....OMG. Could that last episode have been any more Good Omens-inspired? The "Arrangement" was what really got me. But oh, Castiel, you need a hug. *HUGS* You kind of also need a smack upside the head, but I suspect Dean will be doing that all too much next week.

I'm replaying Kingdom Hearts II, and now that I've seen the original TRON I can't wait to replay that world again. Also, I get to have Bruce Boxleitner/TRON join my team! Though, I keep referring to him as Sheridan, since I knew him first from Babylon 5.


Wish I could prove I love you
But does that mean I have to walk on water?
When we are older you'll understand
It's enough when I say so
And maybe some things are that simple --Simple and Clean lyrics by Utada Hikaru (known as Hikari in Japanese), theme song from Kingdom Hearts

Er, yeah. I've been M.I.A. for a while. Also, my email has been dumping into my spam folder stuff-that-does-not-belong-there for...I'm not sure how long. Bah. Stupid technology.

Speaking of technology... My sister got me my Christmas present early: a PSP! With Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep! And Crisis Core! Yay! Although, unless you're invested in a game that you cannot play without the PSP, I wouldn't really recommend getting one. Mine's all temperamental and keeps asking, "Do you want to quit the game?" right in the middle of crucial battle scenes and such (and I can't even shake the game in anger, because it'd just cause that screen to pop up x1billion more). Still, it's silver and shiny and CRISIS CORE AND KINGDOM HEARTS!!!

I may also have to stop watching House live for a few weeks. Yesterday they didn't show a new episode, so I was channel surfing, and randomly thought, "Hey, what's on between CW and FOX?" I changed the channel, found some bloke that, to me, bore a little resemblance to John Simms, but thought it didn't look interesting. Just as I hit the channel button, though, the camera switched to the laptop with the words "The Personal blog of Dr. John H Watson."

!!!! It was BBC's Sherlock! So, I watched, I enjoyed, I did not even realize there were no commercials and that it was an hour and 15 minutes long until it was over. Such awesomeness. But I looked at the schedule, and as far as I can tell, they are only going to air two other episodes. Sucks to lack BBCAmerica.

I do love being a B&N member. I got a 40% off coupon for Side Jobs! Most of the short stories for the Harry Dresden universe, plus two novellas, all in one book? Yay! Also, long after my childhood ended, I've finally started reading The Chronicles of Narnia. I finished....The Magician's Nephew, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Horse and His Boy. They're alright, and I'd say at the moment The Horse and His Boy is my favorite, mostly for Cor and Aravis. It's not something I'd reread, though.

The grocery store my family's gone to since we moved here is closing. R.I.P. Mega Foods. And people can't even blame WalMart, since it hasn't even been built yet.

I hate bringing up political stuff, but...really, State? No for I-1098, and my district voted for Herrera? Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh.


Sherlock: "If you were dying, if you were murdered, in the very last seconds, what would you say?"
John: "Please God, let me live."
Sherlock: "Use your imagination."
John: "I don't have to." --BBC's Sherlock, "A Study in Pink"

Well, this review is about 2 months late, but the Last Airbender movie, putting casting failures aside, was horrible. Horrible pacing, horrible script, horrible acting. It was like Shyamalan just fast-forwarded through the entire first season and asked himself, "What sticks out as I do this?" and had the entire plot revolving around those key moments.

I'm torn with Eureka. I love the episodes, they're like seasons 1&2. Plus, with this storyline, we might get a chance to see some characters return. I just wish they'd stop re-writing the continuity. Technically, they never have, I know, because the season 1 finale was more of a "return the timeline to its original path" sort of thing, and we never got to see what those 4 years were like (aside from tremendously different). But I still feel like they keep changing and changing things. Probably it stems from the revolving-door cast. I prefer the S1 set-up, but oh well. I do like Trevor "Charles" Grant. I just hope we keep him. (I'm also an episode behind, because I'm on Hulu's schedule, which doesn't air episodes until 8 days after its first air, so no spoilers, please!)

Skimming through Hulu's shows, though, there are a lot there that I didn't realize were. IRIS is there, which is an amazing Korean spy/secret organization drama. But there's also Magic Knight Rayearth and X and xxxHolic (what, no Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle?), from CLAMP, The Invisible Man (2000), Highlander, The A-Team, and others. I should look into LEXX, see if that's interesting. I wish they had Brimstone, though. John Glover as the (slightly campy!)devil, yes please.

Umm, on the not!tv side of things, I'm almost finished with this wolves cross-stitch that I started...I don't know how long ago. 2 years, maybe? It's a really big pattern with lots of different threads, the biggest project I've done yet. I'll be happy when I can go back to smaller projects, le sigh.

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle continues to be mind-screwy. It only has one more volume to be released (in English), I believe, so you would think things would get cleared up in that volume. From what I've read, though, CLAMP made things even MORE mind-screwy. *sigh*

I've also decided someday, I'll go to San Diego Comic Con. It would be especially awesome if I could go while Eureka or one of my other shows was still on, so I can go to the panels and get spoilered enjoy the discussion of the shows. Maybe one day I'll even go to Sakuracon, since that's only in Seattle, and theoretically within driving distance.

I feel like I'm forgetting something... We'll see if I remember later.


Buffy (excited): Spike and I are getting married!
Xander: How? What? How?
Giles: Three excellent questions. --Something Blue, BtVS

There's a black-orange-white cat that has taken up to hanging around outside on our little section of cement-patio and mewing at our screen door. We don't know why, I'm pretty sure it's a stray, but it's adorable. *vows to take a picture*

I tried this http://iwl.me/ site, but either I input insufficient writing samples, or apparently my writing style is all over the map. Unless somehow I managed to combine Vladimir Nabokov, James Joyce, Stephen King, and Mark Twain into one style. Which would be really freaky.

Apparently, though, in my journal entries, I write like David Foster Wallace. I don't even know who David Foster Wallace is. *checks Wikipedia* Oh. How...not reassuring?

( Long book memes are LONG )

If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a non-working cat. --Douglas Adams

Okay, firstly: Happy Fourth of July everybody! (though, y'know, happy not-a-holiday-4th-of-July to those not American)

My sister hasn't decided if she wants to see Airbender or not, so I haven't seen it. From what I've read from reviews, though, it seems that Shyamalan made a mess of it, casting-fail aside. I'll take time to say, though, if you haven't seen the original source, go watch it! There are 3 seasons of about 20-ish episodes, but they're only 20-minutes, and IT'S JUST MADE OF AWESOME. Penguin sledding! Surprisingly-Knowledgeable-Cabbage-Man! Tea! Flying bisons! Character development and comic reliefs! Laughs and heartbreak and triumphs and OMGWHATDIDTHEYDO!moments.

Just...go watch. 'Tis lots and lots of fun.

I bought the first of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series using my University Bookstore rebate from my last year. And I have to say...I love it much better than Anne McCafferey's Pern series, though it's almost entirely opposite of Pern. To summarize: It's the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. ^___^ I don't know much about that era of history, but I still followed along well enough. Maybe, if I space out buying the next four books, I can get through the interminable wait for Dresden Files #13.....

Yeah. Never mind. I'll be buying and reading those books as fast as I can get my hands on them.

I've also finally seen Ocean's 11, and I liked it. The music definitely reminded me of Leverage. I'll be watching Ocean's 12 and 13 later (probably Saturday). Maybe I'll watch the original Ocean's 11, if I feel like it (I got Target's 4 films-in-one-box thing).


Zuko: [Studying a map detailing reported Avatar sightings scattered around] How am I going to find the Avatar, Uncle? He is clearly a master of evasive maneuvering.
[Cut to Sokka, looking at a similar map]
Sokka: You have no idea where you're going, do you?
Aang: No, but I know it's near water! (zooms out to show the ocean below) --Avatar: the Last Airbender

So, I went out to run some errands for my mom, and when I came back there was someone on the phone for me (remarkable timing, that). I picked it up, the lady asked if I was "Sonya", I said yes, and off she went on her little spiel about how I had been missing payments and *insert business name* was there to help. The problem: I'd never heard of them before, and so I started freaking out about identity theft, all the while the lady was adamant that I had signed on, since they had papers with my signature and everything. Somehow I had the presence of mind to ask if they were calling the right person, saying my full name to make sure.

The pause from the other end of the line truly did speak louder than words, lol.

Still, I find it pretty interesting. They managed to call not only the wrong number, which I'm assuming was only off by a number or two, but also called the wrong "Sonya." I'm not used to my name being all that common.

I'm thinking about baking cookies this week, but I don't know what kind. I want to bake something my sister can munch on, too, but the only kind of cookies we both like are chocolate chip and butter cookies, neither of which I want.

Hmmm...I could make Island cookies and separate a portion for only chocolate chips...or I could try another recipe altogether and somehow get my sister to try them....I'll need to think on it some more.

There's a fanfic meme I'm attempting to fulfill, as a sort of stepping stone back into writing fanfic (and maybe some original fic, if I can only get my Muses to cooperate). It's going to turn out fairly crack-y, though. There are some where the characters fit perfectly with each other, and others where I'm left to cock my head and think, "I'm a writer, not a miracle-worker!"

Mother Nature seems to be a month behind; it's supposed to be April showers, not May showers

I watched the season finale of Grey's Anatomy Thursday, in spite of the fact that I haven't seen it for...2 seasons? Thereabouts. And I have to say, I still had enough invested in the characters to scream, "DON'T SHOOT CRISTINA! DON'T SHOOT HER!" Also enough to sit through the entire 2 hours just to make sure one of the characters I loved dearly made it through.

ETA: I'm a terrible, terrible Hitchhiker's Guide fan. I totally forgot today was Towel Day! Next year, I swear, next year I'll remember to bring my towel with me everywhere. *shakes fist*

For everyone else: Do you know where your towel is? ;)

And LJ is acting extremely wonky today. It's weird.

Random outburst: Internet, why do you have such a long memory? Whhhhyyyyy! I was happy not remembering one particularly horrendous movie, and then I went and read an LJ entry that reminded me of it.

Woman Dr. Jang-Deok: As a maid for Imperial Officers, you must learn to give up!
Jang-Geum Seo: I'll tell you this: no-one can ever persuade me to give up! I will never give up! --Dae Jang Geum (English title: Jewel in the Palace)