Criminal Minds + Heathers = megawin.

((thanks to the lovely folks over at Criminal Macros.))

So, given that the next movie's coming out, thought it might be a good time to finally do a post on the Twilight books.

( This review is not a positive 'Oh Edward how I love thee let me count the ways' one, so if you don't want to read, feel free to skip. )

Not a single one, because (say it with me, now!) banning books is wrong.

As for subjects inappropriate for teenagers . . . I don't think there's any inappropriate subject on a general level. When it gets down to individuals, then more refined decisions can be made. Since I'm not sure that makes a ton of sense, an example: say Kaylee got to be 15 or so and really wanted to read It, but I know she's had a phobia of clowns for years. I'm going to warn her that going for that book might not be a great idea. But I'm not going to throw a hissy if I see a copy in the school library.

Likewise, if another parent doesn't want their kid reading certain material, that's largely something for that family to discuss. Depending on the book/circumstances, I might not agree, but hey, the kid'll be 18 soon enough. The parents want to whine about how a book should be banned because of the usual 'OMG think of the children!!!' crap? Then I will get mad.

Information freely available to everyone, and if you don't want to partake, don't. But don't try to tell everybody else that we can't.

They're remaking Swiss Family Robinson!

Not really much in the way of details yet, but as long as they either 1) get rid of Roberta's character altogether or 2) at least write her as far less insipid and for pity's sake cut out the brothers acting like she's a fragile delicate twee thing as soon as they discover she's a girl, I will be the happiest camper in the world. ((yes, I know it was made a while back and I try to make some concessions for that, but when it's that obvious? Bleh))

Which reminds me, I need to find a copy of the book for Kaylee and the May Baby.

Progress meter for my current solo project, The Warrior Angel and the Demon Queen. It is a silly cracktastic title to go with a cracktastic and not-so-silly book. ;-)

32800 / 100000 words. 33% done!

Will try to post one of these at the first of every month, and see how it goes.

I went off my antidepressants as quickly as possible once I found out I was pregnant. I know logically that this is a good thing. It just doesn't always feel that way.

The thing is, I'm not quite sure what's going on with my brain. Is it some kind of clinical depression? Does run in the family a little. Or is it more of a situational depression, something I can get over by changing my surroundings/mode of thinking/doing something other than drugging myself?

Evidence would seem to suggest the latter. I get out of the house, I go places, I don't get hit by this nasty sense of "you are worthless and everything you've ever tried to accomplish doesn't work out and what do you mean writer, all you are is a dime a dozen self-published idiot who the hell are you kidding you suck". Inner voices. They're fun. Anyway. I've tried to keep track of when it hits. It's most always when I'm at home with Kaylee, and she's in a fussy mood. So I solve this problem by-- getting ready to have another kid. Heh.

I've figured out what the main trigger is, anyway. Been working to avoid that situation. It's kinda difficult at times, because 1) I don't drive (long story short; other people terrify me and that makes me a nervous/bad driver), 2) basically the only friends I have are online. Which translates into time in the house with a fussy baby if I want to socialize with other adults.

Trying to work out ways to fix this. Put in my name as a wannabe-volunteer at the homeless shelter; they're running into problems with opening and so I haven't gotten a callback. Used to be active in the theater, until I got a joyful lesson in the difference between "friends" and "people who put up with you". Small towns. They're also fun. When Chris is at work evening shift, I head over to my parents' house so I can be around other people. That helps.

Writing helps. Haven't been able to do much of that lately. Cowriter busy and my brain won't focus very easily when I'm doing stuff alone. Bouncing around a fanfic idea to help me get through the dry spell-- just a one-shot, nothing I can try to publish, so no pressure involved. Might or might not work. We'll see. Also thinking about posting some of those little wordcount-things in my LJ at least once a month for my main projects. Maybe seeing something laid out in a concrete way like that will be a good encouragement. Or, in the case of not enough progress, a good kick in the rear.

And this was just supposed to be a really short "dumb brain chemistry" grumble. But I do feel better now. As I said, writing helps.

Okay, so I've stayed away from the whole Twitter thing in general-- it's enough for me to keep up with my LJ and MySpace and Facebook. Also, the whole 140-character thing doesn't appeal to me a whole lot because I like to babble. But there are an awful lot of people I rather like on Twitter. And I keep seeing posts on my friendslist here with Twitter excerpts that are awesome.

Who am I kidding; I'm going to do it. Anyone already on there, let me know what your ID or whatever is and I'll add you. :-)


ETA: http://twitter.com/allthelivesofme

So, got very little gas in the van; but at least we loaded up on groceries a couple of days ago thanks to our good friend the credit card. Which is nice, because payday was yesterday. And after paying bills, guess how much money we've got left?

$3.74.

I'm kinda tempted to spend that on lottery tickets. In the movies, it would work. . .

How could I not answer this question? :-)

Book: Harry Dresden. I'm not entirely sure I would make it through the date, what with all the weird creatures/people constantly after the guy, but it sure wouldn't be boring. Plus, Chicago. *hugs hometown*

Film: Kip from The English Patient. I know the main romance of the movie was centered on a different couple, but I always loved Kip and Hana's scenes.
Bonus Nostalgia Pick: Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride. I had the biggest crush on him when I was a little girl.

TV show: Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds. I know Dean from Supernatural seems like a more obvious choice here (*eyeing default icon and layout*) but he's kinda in the same realm as Sawyer to me . . . love him onscreen, in real life the Sarcastic Overly-Flirty Badass thing would get old fast.

So I run into the rental store to pick something out. Get back out to the car, and there's this:

Chris: "So what'd you find?"
Me: "It's called How to Be a Serial Killer."
Chris: "You do know we're on a watch list now."
Kaylee: *cackles maniacally*
Chris: "And that was your influence."
Me: "Guilty."

Just finished watching the 4th season. Am trying very, very hard to be good and not immediately find somewhere to buy the first episode of the 5th just so I can seewhathappensnownownow.

( Read more... )

Went to see the doctor yesterday; she gave us a preliminary due date of May 20. :-) Going back in a couple of weeks and she's going to do a sonogram to see how things are going so far and to "make sure there's just one in there".

Seriously, so many people in our families have made jokes about twins that it's starting to make me paranoid.

Sure.

This one was actually an easy answer, because I've filled out forms to apply to become a surrogate mother before. Apparently PPD is something the agencies don't want to risk having to deal with though, so . . . *shrug* Que sera sera and all that.

Chris and I actually went on a date. :-) It's been close to two years since we've had the opportunity to do that, so . . . yeah.

Mom offered to babysit Kaylee for the day, so we dropped her off about 10:00 and headed to Wichita. We were thinking about stopping for lunch first, but after we stopped at Cocoa Dolce (yay chocolate!!) we saw what time it was and realized we should probably hit the museum first to be in time for the movie there. The museum was called Exploration Place. Great view of the river, and we loved their exhibits (they have a wind tunnel! And a whole bunch of other hands-on stuff; we're definitely going to take Chris's nephews later on and Kaylee's going to be visiting a lot when she's a bit older). The traveling one, which is an exhibit about the animatronics of movie monsters, had a ton of set props in it, including some from Pitch Black-- if they had allowed pictures, I so would've gotten my picture next to that one, because I love that movie way too much. We also went to see a short film in their Cyberdome Theater, which was about prehistoric sea monsters and fossil digs and whatnot; really good.

Then we went to Il Vicino for a late lunch. One of these days when we get a chance to go back I'm going to try one of their sandwiches, honest, but I have a hard time passing up their pizza. And they have the best tiramisu ever.

Anyway, Il Vicino's second building in Wichita is right next to Cocoa Dolce's new location-- then I saw that there's also a Barnes and Noble on the corner, so I told Chris to just head home without me; I was going to pitch a tent in the parking lot. :-)

We got back and Kaylee heard the door open and ran to us, shrieking "Mama! Dada!" Entirely too cute.

Today isn't going to be as much fun-- catching up on laundry and dishes, and trying to rearrange the upstairs so that it's some semblance of neat-- but it'll be nice to have things done.

Uploaded more character portraits to my website, put up a link to Kath's novel The Sarah Stone, and added a Character Art folder to my Facebook page and proceeded to fill it up.

I hereby label this day productive.

Many thanks to _yggdrasil for posting this! Transform Columbus Day Alliance.

Just heard the cast recording of Don't Stop Believin' (thank you, Pandora radio. And yes, I know I'm way behind).

If the show has more performances like this, then clearly I'm going to have to just buy it when it comes out on DVD and have it be my Happymaking Cotton Candy Program.

From _yggdrasil ginmar, and others on my friendslist:

So all I have to do is be an artiste, and that gives me a free pass to do anything! I can drug and rape a child, and I'll still get a bunch of actors and directors circling the wagons. Good to know!!

Keeping an eye on that list and feeling sick over it. I mean, Tilda Swinton? Terry Gilliam? Come on, you guys. There's a part of me still hoping that tomorrow I'll wake up and see that list was all a huge badly-planned practical joke. But yeah, figure the odds.

On the good side, Kevin Smith and Greg Grunberg have apparently come out and said that oh by the way, no, they are not going to throw their support behind a child rapist and longtime fugitive. Much love for them. Though how low is the damn bar in this society when it almost seems a revolutionary thing for those guys to speak out against a guy who was 44 when he attacked a 13 year old?

*sigh*

I'm going to go eat more ice cream and pretend I live on Mars or something.


ETA: How much do I love Kate Harding? Thiiiiiiiis much.

ETA 2: No, really. Love.