Sweet Dreams

Well, the outing was successful this time, but I have to say that it ended up being a rather disappointing day all around. I blame hormones. They put me in a bad mood all day long.

First off, when we got to the mall, we went to Barnes and Noble like we usually do. I wanted to get the new Someday's Dreamers manga, but they didn't have it. *sigh* I ended up buying a gift card instead to order it -- along with the upcoming  Fruits Basket and Absolute Boyfriend volumes -- online, and Mom bought me the sixth Harry Potter book that finally come out in paperback a couple of days ago.

After that, we headed to the food court, where we had lunch before going to the movies. Mom really wanted to see Lady in the Water, but since I thought it looked stupid, we decided to see The Devil Wears Prada instead. While I really enjoyed it, Mom got bored halfway through, which made me feel bad since this was supposed to be kind of a birthday celebration. (Her birthday's this Saturday.) Anyway, afterwards, we went to a few other stores, but we couldn't find anything we wanted, so we headed to Best Buy.

To be honest, going to Best Buy was the thing I most looked forward to. I planned to buy the first season of Kaleido Star (what else?), but, again, they didn't have it. Nor did they have my second choice, the second season of Wedding Peach. (They did have the first season, which I almost got, but I really wanted the second, since I haven't seen all of it.) Luckily, they did have my third choice, the Evangelion movie boxset. I ended up getting that, but, because of the aforementioned stupid hormones, I was actually trying to keep from crying that they didn't have the Kaleido Star boxset. 

Yeah, I was tearing up because they didn't have a boxset. *rolls eyes* Definitely hormones.

The rest of the day pretty much just went downhill from there. Not even The Mary Tyler Moore Show managed to cheer me up, and that show always cheers me up. I'm better now, but still... Sucky day.

There was one moment of brightness, though. Dad just gave Mom her birthday present, and it''s a new flat screen TV, which means I can rid of my little TV and switch to the old living room TV. Whee! Along with my reclaimed DVD player, I can now watch subtitled anime in the comfort of my own bedroom.

At least something good happened today.

So, I decided it was about time to go beyond the horizon of anime fanfics into the TV Show section at FF.net. I didn't have much luck in the Grey's Anatomy section, unforunately, but I did find a few stories in the Firefly and Numb3rs sections. If you're a fan of either show, I recommend these fics. ^_^ (Summaries are mine; beware of spoilers.)





Oh, and if anybody has any other recommendations, I'm all ears, especially for multi-parts. Most of the above were one-shots, but I would love to find some longer fics. ^_^
 

Write 12 of your favorite characters in any order (but number them). After you've written it, look at the questions.

1. Sasame (Pretear)
2. Tooya (Ayashi no Ceres)
3. Mal (Firefly)
4. Coach Kido (Princess Nine)
5. Haruka (RahXephon)
6. Helios (Sailor Moon)
7. Misato (Evangelion)
8. Ron (Harry Potter)
9. Oyamada-sensei (Someday's Dreamers)
10. Touya (Card Captor Sakura)
11. Shigure (Fruits Basket)
12. Chitose (Chobits) 

List your six favorite TV shows.

1. Everwood
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Gilmore Girls
4. Numb3rs
5. Desperate Housewives
6. Firefly

I finally got the first chapter of Against the Rules submitted to the various archives where I post (ASMR, ff.net, .moon, and SMF). It would have been done earlier, but I had the worse time trying to come up with a summary. I'm still not that fond of the one I decided on, but I guess it will do. For those who have been looking forward to it, I hope you like it. ^_^

Nothing much else has been going on, writing-wise. I managed to write a Yui and Ami scene for Ch. 3 that isn't too bad, so yay me, I guess. Too bad the rest of the chapter still sucks.

Oscars are tonight! Here's a list of my picks that I posted over at .moon a couple of weeks ago. Even though I have seen Walk the Line and Corpse Bride since I first made the list, my original choices still stand.

Best Movie
Brokeback Mountain

Best Director
Ang Lee

Best Actor
Joaquin Phoenix

Best Actress
Felicity Huffman

Best Supporting Actor
Paul Giamatti

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams

Best Animated Film
Howl's Moving Castle

Best Animated Short
One Man Band

Best Live Action Short Film
Cashback

Best Original Screenplay
Good Night, and Good Luck

Best Adapted Screenplay
Brokeback Mountain

Best Score
Munich

Best Original Song
"In the Deep"

Best Art Direction
Memoirs of a Geisha

Best Cinematography
The New World

Best Costume Design
Pride and Prejudice

Best Documentary
March of the Penquins

Best Documentary Short Subject
The Mushroom Club

Best Editing
Crash

Best Foreign Language Film
Don't Tell

Best Make-up
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

Best Sound Editing
King Kong

Best Sound Mixing
War of the Worlds

Best Visual Effects
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

It was a disappointing year for the men. Even though national champion Johnny Weir was in second place after the short program with a very good shot at a medal, he ended up dropping down to fifth. :(

From the article I read on AOL, it doesn't sound like it was the best night of skating for anyone except for maybe the U.S. silver medalist and world bronze medalist Evan Lysacek, who ended up just off the podium in fourth place even though he had a stomach flu. Too bad he had been in 10th place after the short. If only he hadn't messed up in the short program...

The third member of the U.S. team, Matt Savoie, came in at a respectful seventh.

No surprise that Evgeny Plushenko won the gold. If he hadn't, it would have been a huge shock. Stephane Lambiel came in second, and even though I think I've only seen him skate a handful of times, apparently he's been doing very well on the international level the past couple of years, so no real surprise there either. (Curse ABC not showing the big international events. I feel so out of the loop sometimes, although I try to keep up on the Internet.) I am surprised that Jeffrey Buttle won the bronze, though. Where did he come from? O_o I mean, I vaguely remember watching him a few times in the past and he was good, but if I was asked to list the top names in men's figure skating today, he wouldn't be on it. Or if he was, it would be near the bottom of the list. I thought for sure that if an American didn't make it to the podium with Plushenko and Lambiel, who I thought were virtual locks for a medal, the third place would go to France's (very cute) Brian Joubert, who actually ended up sixth, I believe, between Weir and Savoie.

Oh, well.

I guess all our hopes are now on Sasha Cohen and ice dancers Benjamin Agosto and Tanith Belbin to bring home some medals, preferably gold. ^_^ The compulsory dances start today, so good luck, Tanith and Ben. *crosses fingers*

God bless the person who decided to rip-off Dancing with the Stars.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Actually, I was really impressed with how good the celebrities were after only a month of training. From the commercials they've been showing, I was expecting that there would be a lot of falling and crashing. There were little wobbles here and there, as to expected with amateurs, but nothing that horrible. Of course, the only technical aspect they had to include in their first program was a three revolution spin, but still, very decent.

John Zimmerman and Jillian Barberie, the current leaders? If they added more difficult elements, I really could see them making it to the Nationals. They were that good. (To be fair, though, I think I read somewhere that Jillian actually did have a little experience in competitive skating when she was younger, giving her a slight edge over the other celebrities.)

I guess if I'm going to be denied the chance to watch Worlds and the Olympics, this is a nice little substitution. ^_^

Wahoo! U.S. Figure Skating Nationals this weekend! I've been waiting for this for months, especially since it's the only real major competition I'll get to see. Worlds are again on ESPN this year (boo!), and I probably won't get to see the Olympics since they're on NBC, which is the channel we can never get a clear picture on. *sigh*

Anyway, I just finished watching the men's final. Johnny Weir defended his national title, Evan Lycacek got the silver, and Matt Savoie won the bronze with an absolutely wonderful free program. If only he hadn't had that one fall, he might have challenged Weir for the gold, but I'm happy that it looks like he'll be going to the Olympics. (They haven't announced the official team, but it's usually the top three.) He deserves it. Of course, that means fourth place finisher Michael Weiss, who's one of my favorites, most likely won't get an Olympic berth, but he's already been twice before, so that's okay.

My favorite part of the competition, though, was when they revealed State Farm had bought tickets for Rohene Ward's mother and nephew to come see him skate. Unfortunately, he ended up having a terrible free skate, but it was still really touching when they brought his family out. Major waterworks.

The women's final is tonight at seven, and the big shocker is that Michelle Kwan withdrew from the competition with a groin injury. She's still hoping for an Olympic berth, though, as injured skaters can petition for a spot on the team (like Nancy Kerrigan did in 1994, ironically knocking Michelle off the team). Boy, it's going to be strange not seeing her at the Nationals. She's been to every one since...1993, I believe. I've never watched a Nationals in which she wasn't there.

However, with Kwan absent, that means the title is (my favorite ^_^) Sasha Cohen's to lose. I don't think any of the other skaters can touch her as long as she skates well. She has a fairly good lead after the short program. It'll be interesting to see who the third will be, assuming that Sasha wins and Michelle is given the berth. I'm rooting for Kimmie Meissner, but she's currently in fourth after the short, so I don't know. Emily Hughes is second, and I have to admit she's pretty good. It would be kinda cool if she went to the Olympics and had a fantastic free skate like her sister did in 2002 to win the gold, but I don't think she's really at that level yet. It's only her first or second year on the senior level. Then there's Beatrisa Liang, who's currently in third and rather good as well... It's a shame that Jenny Kirk decided to turn pro and Angela Nikodinov is out of competition due to the hand injury she suffered in that terrible car wreck that killed her mother during the Nationals last year (or was it the year before?). I would have loved to see one of them (especially Angela) at the Olympics this year. Michelle and Sasha are strong, but none of the others at the competition have much international experience.

As for pairs and ice dance, I hope they at least show the winning skates during tonight's broadcast and not just ignore them to show the women. I especially want to see Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, who won the national ice dance title and are currently the world silver medalists. They're always fun to watch, and the good news is that Tanith finally got her citizenship, so they'll be able to skate at the Olympics. That's a relief. Americans have never been that strong in ice dance, but they have a really good chance of medalling, maybe even the gold.

One more hour! Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!

Yanked from amazonqueenkate

You have seven days of dream-dates (all of which, of course, end in mind-blowing sex, hence the title of the game, if, of course, you're into that. You can also just cuddle with your date, if you'd rather). You are allowed to choose one celebrity date for each night of the week and one alternate for each night, in case your first choice dream date is, say, arrested or is away on location. The remainder of the rules are as follows:

1) The definition of "celebrity" varies according to the group with whom you're playing. Basically, everyone in the group needs to be able to pick your choices out of a police line-up.

2) No time-traveling. I'd like to date Paul Newman, circa Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but that's against the rules. Everyone you date, you date right now.

3) It doesn't matter if you and your friends all have George Clooney as your Saturday night. This is bound to happen and it's fair within the rules of the game: having to cross check your schedule with your friends will add a level of difficulty to this game that you don't need. It's hard enough to decide whether So and So is a Tuesday or a Wednesday without having to make an Excel spreadsheet to make sure you're not stepping on your officemate's toes. You'll see.

4) You can't use, say, "the cast of Band of Brothers" as one night. One man or woman per night. Nice try, though.

( Drumroll, please... )

Yeah, my birthday isn't until the second, but my parents won't be home until after seven that day, so Mom thought we might as well do the cake thing tonight. She offered to let me have my present (the Princess Nine boxset) as well, but I wanted to save something for Wednesday. Besides, I know if I had gotten it tonight, I would totally not work on my my Someday's Dreamers fic that I want to get done by my birthday.

The cake had to be the chocolatiest (yeah, that's not a word...) cake I ever had in my life -- Triple Chocolate Fudge with Triple Chocolate Fudge Chip frosting. Yum. I love not having my sister around to tell me I can't have a chocolate/chocolate cake. ^_^ I guess you could say this cake made up in spades for all the times I had to have a vanilla/chocolate, chocolate/vanilla, or vanilla/vanilla cake because Laura didn't really care for chocolate cake, even though she usually only ate one piece anyway.

I also managed to blow out all my candles for the second year in a row! Twenty-two this year -- I'm quite proud of myself. ^_^ Of course, they were all rather close together, but who cares? I still get my wish. (And no, I'm not telling or else it won't come true. :P)

In other news, tonight's Grey's Anatomy was just too sad, and not just because Derek chose... Well, I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it. I will say, however, that I don't think I've cried so much over a TV show for a long time.

*sniffles*

Oh, yeah, this show is becoming one of my faves...