Mostly Friends Only

For one reason or another, I've deemed this journal to be largely friends-only. If you're here from a friending meme or because I sent you, then welcome! If you're not, leave a comment and I'll get back to you. If I've seen you around, chances are you'll get added :) If you are a total stranger never seen you once, ever, chances are that I won't friend you; I already have a large f-list and I never want it to get to the point where I don't know who I'm talking to. Also, I vent about work and I would prefer to know who I am venting/talking intimately to.

Other things will eventually go here, such as fandoms I am a part of, communities I'm a part of, etc. But for now this will have to do :)

( Food For Thought Monsters )

( Superlatives, Stamps, Sigtags, All that Graphical Jazz )

• I am a Gryffindor over at hogwarts_elite.
• I play Lily Evans and Darren Avery over at marauder_elite.
• I keep my graphics at frackingkitten.

I just breezed through that Geography test. All that worrying for nothing!

I AM TRIUMPHANT!! I AM SPARTACUS!!

Seriously, sometimes I amaze even myself.

This narcisistic post is brought to you by my iPhone and the wide world of Geography. Taste the rainbow - and the happy.

frackingkitten WAS UPDATED WITH MUSIC HERE. It is three mp3s by The Kooks.

( The Kooks video for 'Ooh La' behind the cut, so you can figure if they're worth you tube'ing further )

The end of the year is upon me - three or four weeks left or so. Which means that while I'm simultaneously stressed out I'm at that point where it's passing hunger, energy, hyperactive thoughts and general paranoia to the point where I'm becoming almost catatonic in relation to any and all schoolwork that I see unfit to deal with. Which basically means all classes (History and Creative Writing) which are not British Literature or Geography.

I mean, seriously people. How can you be near-catatonic when talking about Volcano viscosity? That's right. I thought not.

Kym's List Of Things:

1. ReBoot. Download Seasons One, Two and Three. Because I can't buy it on DVD and I loved the shit out of that show.
2. Season 3 of Doctor Who is really not that good. Although the episode Blink made it ALL WORTH IT OMG. That episode was amazingly fantastic. I loved the ever-loving shit out of it. Which reminds me that a few episodes are kind of crapped up and I must make a small list of them and re-download if I can not afford the third by summer's end.
3. I worked on City of the Dead today and had a minor break through. I also read through all my notes and realized that I'm more together than I thought, and my book could have more literary merit than I gave it credit for. Although, let's face it, CotD is mostly there for the adventure. Hopefully I can flesh out some characters and I'm trying to see some of the Big Picture (metaphors and the like that are intrinsic or that need to become so) etc. I don't know.
4. I need to make icons. Badly. Desperately. Ideas include Dark Angel, Roswell, Doctor Who and my stock photos at the moment.

I was cleaning up my MacBook Pro (I should name it. I think I did, actually. I called it the Lounge Lizard, although I'm not sure if I will keep that) - shuffling downloads and such to the external hard drive (named Amphigorey Who) and deleting needless things from the Downloads folder - earlier this morning. I had the first two episodes of Season 4 on there (since they don't even s start airing until next week on BBC America.. or was it Sci-Fi? Dunno) and moved them to the Doctor Who folder on Phigorey when I realized I had an episode that I never watched. I hadn't even added on the file name (from back when I used ihearttvshows all the time), in fact! So, I typed ".avi" at the end and began to watch The Christmas Invasion.

I'm not all done yet, but it reminds me WHY I loved Rose so much as a companion and why David Tennant didn't really bother me too much back then (although I love Christopher Eccleston's Doctor the most).

( I jumped into Doctor Who expecting to really dislike Rose. )

( Doctor Who 4x02, The Fires of Pompeii )

You know what? I even love the Sarah Jane Chronicles so far, even though it's more for kids. I'm glad there is a companion who isn't wasting her life or pining away, much as she loved her time with the Doctor. I'm glad she's slowly becoming a happier person, content with what she has. It's just heartening - like when you get over that big break up and find something even better for you. I dunno, it's just one of those things.

Also, I've probably never mentioned it here before but my dad and I watch Top Gear religiously. Thank the gods for BBC America, because that is the greatest show to watch in the evenings when you're bored. The boys are funny and you still get the nerdy joy of car loving and the machismo of demolishing things/seeing cars pushed to their limits. Helen Mirren was awesome that one time she came on. Thank you, England, for providing me with so much joy :) ♥

Why why why why why am I waking up at four AM for a class where the lecturer constantly repeats his useless facts? A class where he tests mostly from the book because he's going senile? What is the POINT of attending his lecture?

Ugh, I am so tired. I want to sleep for days.

This sentiment is being reflected in one small portion of the back of my hair which is short and bouncy, not knowing if it wants to be part of the group of hair that sits nicely on the side of my head or the group that sits nicely on the back.

It's like "O HAI. KYM HAS BEEN SLEEPING REALLY BAD AND ROLLING ON THE PILLOWS AND WE SHALL TELL THE WORLD THIS! ESPECIALLY YOU, VAGUELY ATTRACTIVE DUDES THAT ROAM AROUND THE WORLD!!"

Whine, whine, whine, bitch, bitch, bitch.

Stealing a page out of 427's book, I am going to post my first page of flickr favs!


( Flickr Favs, Page One )


1. Go to www.flickr.com
2. Type in your answer to the question in the "search" box
3. Use only the first page
4. Copy the html and paste for the answer.
Kym's sidenote: Just so you know, technically flickr's terms are that if you use a picture offsite from flickr, it needs to have a link back to the page of the picture so that others can find it. Please do this if you do this meme.


1. What is your first name?

(2/9 human lady 'Kimberly's on that page were normal. The other 7? Batshit. I guess that should say something. Also that I picked one of the batshit ones)


(Kym)

( THE REST, BEEETCHES )

• Kingdom of Loathing: I am obsessed with Kingdom of Loathing. I'm sorry, world, my soul is gone. If you have a KoL or join up, feel free to add me - elvenkitty. Yeah, I'm original. What?
  
• Twilight: Behind the Scenes on ET. OH MY GOD. I AM SQUEEING SO HARD. I feel a million times better about this movie, especially after hearing Kristen talk about it.
  
• The Office: Comes back tomorrow! I'm going to pimp, right now, www.DunderMifflinInfinity.com for those of you who are obsessed. My Profile. I'm a part of Kalamazoo, MI (originally because it was Ack's branch) and the people are great. The forums are much better now and there is no joy quite like helping your branch win a task. There are trivia tasks, video tasks, graphic tasks... you name it! And they don't have to be amazing or anything - you get points just for submitting something or participating and each week you can earn up to 100 Schrutebucks by being active on the site. See my latest entry down at the bottom.
  
• Battlestar Galactica: Is owned by NBC, like The Office, so it's no surprise that they are starting their own online game like DMI. Join The Fight is brand new and this week's challenge is recruitment. You can friend me under the name Artemesik (in theory my profile is there). I chose to be human because of their polytheistic religion. Otherwise, I would have gone cylon. But even then, the coolest cylon of them all is helping the humans, so maybe not! I'm with Illa.
  

Was my latest entry for my branch. Nothing spectacular, but it was fun anyways :D Especially when talking to people in the branch forums while doing it.

( And now, some art )

Anyways, not half bad for being so rusty. If only I could do anatomy now... hopefully by mucking around every now and then I can slowly improve on some things. Any artists/links you artsy types found helpful?

Spring Break is sadly over, but I'm kind of glad. I didn't do so hot in the eating department but this week, so far, has been a lot better. The second extra bedroom is cleaned out now - all the crap is trashed or donated - and all I really need to do now is get rid of the large furniture. Which basically means the bed.

So, my goal this week is that by Friday evening I will have the bed apart, the bedding on the extra bedroom bed, that old bedding somewhere folded nicely for my mother to do with as she pleases and the parts of the bed ready for trash or donation.

This means that we can finally put at least one thing in there, which I need desperately. I've been maintaining my body weight for a long time, and I feel so unhealthy not exercising. In my defense, I've completely cut soda out of my diets and cut way back on coffee. Also, the coffee that I drink is a lot healthier. I'm drinking smoothies twice a week and trying to be more vocal to my mother about what foods I like so that I can eat the veggies on my plate (mmmm, asparagus. mmmm, artichokes). And also trying to eat less on those times when we do go out.

I'm not a total failure. I'm just not Being All That I Can Be. Which is why this 'breaking down the bed' thing is really exciting for me. Elliptical, here I come. I am sick of being a size 11/12.


I finally got my hands on Rock Band (Tiff bought it)! We played Sunday night and I have an amazing drummer named Squeej. I freaking love playing drums on that thing. Makes me wish I hadn't stopped taking lessons. But oh well! This summer I'm picking between guitar and violin lessons. TOUGH CHOICE, PEOPLE.

I am so tired. And I'm sorry if this offends, but I just couldn't give quality lj time to everyone I had on my flist so I did a cut. If you want to defriend me and I didn't defriend you, no worries! It's a blame-free zone. If I felt I didn't comment enough or we didn't have enough in common, I cut. I'm sorry - I really don't want this to a be a Thing. I just feel awful when I come back after a day or so to have to skip back over a hundred on my flist.

In brighter news, I saw Run, Fatboy, Run over Spring Break with Coralyn and spent some quality time with Jess.

Other than that? BSG reruns, some books and catching up on sleep. It was the laziest break I've ever, ever had.

I will post BSG and Doctor Who thoughts in a bit!

First thing's first:
HAPPY FRAKIN' BSG DAY!
Let's party, people. DO EET. DO EET.

Tagged By: 427
I think, therefore ... I want a reordering of our society to place greater emphasis and financial prosperity on artistic careers.
All you need is ... Love. Seriously. If you have mutual love for friends, you can survive anything - they'll put you up when you're down and out financially and help you flourish. "I get by with a little help from my friends. I get high with a little help from my friends..." Well, love and coffee.
When life gives you a lemon, ... exchange it for a better fruit. Lemons are gross.
Early to bed, ... the more time I have to dream about a life that can never exist. DOWNER. But also kind of cool.
The squeaky wheel ... is annoying. Shut the hell up, you squeaky piece of shit. It's called OIL. The Tin Man even knew that. USE IT.
A bird in the hand ... is cute and feathery until it pecks at you and wants to leave.
The early bird gets ... tired before the other birds who woke up at a decent hour. This is why the gods invented coffee.

Tag: xferinoc, tolightacandle, blackpearl61205, bekkah20, arasan
Sorry if you've already done it XD You can just ignore me...


Every single one of these people are amazing to me and a-ok in my book. It kind of made my week to see how you guys see me. That every one of these women on the list are someone that I look up to is kind of awesome to me. Seriously, I'm getting fahklempt over here, people. I was told in chat that picking Jenna Fischer (my AIM icon) or Ellen Page (my default lj icon) was a cop out. We (marauder_elite) decided to apply this (the 'pick someone different than their default icon/AIM icon' thing) to everyone we did this meme for.
( My Play-Bys, according to you fine people )


Presenting, my choices for those of my F-List who did the meme!
Includes arasan, bekkah20, incognito323, kiwi_magic, maxineofarc, papermint, silksieve, xferinoc, yuki_onna09. Alphabetical by screenname.
( My Flist Cast )

This post is for Bekkah's Play bys, because the world demands it and Bekkah is a sleepy Bekkah.

bekkah20

Based entirely on my personality, hunt down a "played by" who you think would best represent me. Reply here with the picture or link.

This person may be male or female depending on whether *I* strike you as male or female.

Although, if you throw a dude at me, tell me a chick, too, just so I can feel kind of girly :D
(stolen from lesaut)

Also, I fully intend on answering this meme for whoever does it on my flist - I know I am usually bad about these things, but this meme is actually FUN!

Please note how I did not use a face icon for this post. I do not want to influence those who may or may not do this. AND YES, I AM SPAMMING. SORRY BUT IT IS MY PREROGATIVE.

Edit: To quote Maura: In journal-based RP, folks usually choose an RL person to represent their character, and the character is said to be "played by" that person, as if it were a movie or something. So for example, Adrien Brody is my play-by for Severus Snape in our Harry Potter game. And then people expend amazing amounts of effort finding pictures of their play-by in various moods that they can put into sets and use with their journal posts as appropriate.

I'm almost pretty sure that the specific instance in which MS13 gangs would be bumping cars is untrue (despite their bad assery) because a) it's going around in other states as well and b) no one has issued a police statement.

SO I BRING YOU MACRO.


see more crazy cat pics

Edit: though, of course, if you get hit get the license number and call the cops before getting out. Which you should do anyways, really, for insurance purposes.

A Midsummer Night's Dream was amazing. I can't believe I stayed at UCI for so long when CSUF is so much more amazing and fun. FUN. IN COLLEGE. WHO KNEW. Olly, Coralyn and I laughed until we couldn't breathe. My face STILL hurts from laughing, even if Helena made herself sound like a crotchety old woman from the midwest too much.

What made the evening more amazing? We ate at Round Table beforehand and some creepy dude (who downed a pitcher of beer right before our eyes, btfw) lingered really close to us and it was gross. We decided to go into the room that didn't have screaming college guys watching our school's major Basketball game and instead opted for the room that's always playing a movie. TWISTER was on. Awesome. But we only got to watch the last ten minutes. Somehow we started talking about Ferngully and THEY PUT IT ON THE TELEVISION FOR US. We had to leave before we even got to meet Zack, but HOLY CRAP. FERNGULLY. YES.


New Goal: Go Ziplining. Who is in?


Haven't heard from Whitney yet. I am getting pissed off because I would prefer to not travel alone when adventuring along for the first time. I need to discuss this with Olly and Coralyn since both have expressed a mild interest, especially if we do it on the cheap.


Srs Question Times: How many would be interested in reading a story I'm in the process of writing? It probably will never get published, but I'm still paranoid about people taking my shit. It will be f-locked and such.... I guess I really want your comments on if you have something similar? I mean, I know Kiwi mentioned this in her journal once (having something in the works but worrying about posting it anywhere). I don't know. I may just post it in bits and see what happens. See, I'd really like some feedback or just thoughts in general other than my own.


It'll be nice to get home from work and a) eat a nice meal and b) finally get to work on the beater entry for this round. I'm filling in, but I was brought in about a week after the contest was posted so I'm nervous that I won't finish before the round ends. Blurgh. We'll see!

Since Sunday I have managed to see North and South, Enchanted, most of the second season of the BBC The Office, Northanger Abbey and most of How I Met Your Mother. Needless to say, my love life now feels kind of empty, though I am once again optimistic.

Today was the day I watched Northanger Abbey (as some kind soul has uploaded a ton of wonderful Jane Austen movies up on You Tube) and that was kind of special. See, Northanger was the first Jane Austen book I ever read and it struck a chord with me because of the heroine's love of novels and how geeky but lovely her counterpart was. I don't know. Maybe it's just the accent, but I feel all happy again. British accents on adorable, bookish men for the ultimate win!

It's been a really great week. I didn't have Creative Writing today, nor do I have it next Thursday because we are again finished with our three drafts and are revising one for submission. It's all very (un)exciting. Also, I woke up late this morning due to having, apparently, turned off the alarm clock. I missed my first class, though this is good for two reasons:

1. I was able to get a dirty chai and was therefore energized throughout the day and am still rather happy and High feeling.

2. Last class the instructor repeated the entire lecture he had given the class before that. I wanted to stab him. I feel so useless going to that class because I barely take notes, I often do other homework out of boredom and he tests mostly from the book. If I'm going to wake up at 4:30 in the fucking morning to listen to your stupid tangents and your babbling about Very Important Things, then you better damn well test from the lecture you old bastard. I really like this teacher, actually, and I get straight Bs but GOD I want to stab him an awful lot.

I didn't have creative writing today, so that meant I got to spend time with Coralyn and Olly, which was awesome. We talked about a lot of things and all I can say is that I love them a lot. They get it, but they are different enough to be interesting all of the time. Bravo to them.

We bought tickets together to see A Midsummer Night's Dream tonight on campus, so that should be nice. Flirted with the teller a little bit, but I seem to have no brain-mouth filter.


ALSO, I NOW BRING YOU THE BEST DREAM EVER: Me. Neil Patrick Harris (NPH!). Two Greek Goddesses. An Imaginary Somewhat French Forest. A Norse God Manning A Lemonade Stand In Said Forest. Said Lemonade Stand Contains One Large Big Screen.

Discuss.

Also, also:



...if you are interested. I'm beginning to collect them in my Photoalbum because: YAY. Guilty Pleasure Books are also for the win.

I think I did awesome on my British Lit midterm and I am a happy McKymlet. Today was such a happy day for no real reason.

( The Only Thing That Can Express My Joy Is This Video )

Money is increasingly becoming a concern for me - both for the future and for the present. I'm by no means in debt (I pay anything on the credit card off immediately, in fact) and with the system I am now FIRMLY adhering to going along smoothly, my savings is slowly increasing and is back on its way to where it was before last October.

I've cut a lot of small but superfluous expenses without completely cutting myself off from fun. Instead of buying 4 copies of Buffy Season 8 (about 13 bucks/month) so I could get the special cover, I decided that the special covers are really uglier than the normal covers and that I simply didn't care. I only need one and if my friends like the comic, they can buy it. So there's an extra 10 dollars or so. I've also made it a point to make sure that when the groceries are bought there is enough food for me, because going out to lunch is a) expensive and b) not healthy. I make exception for my smoothies, but that's cash and is different.

I just canceled my Tabula Rasa payment after going "WHA?!" because I had less money in my account than I thought I would. 40 dollars every 3 months? Too much, sorry. I just can't afford it.

So, what is all this money that I'm saving in my checking account for?

Well, as of December I had 4 trips for this year planned. Looking at what I have and what I can make before summer, I know I will only be able to take one. It's really disappointing to me to admit that. I had made loose plans for two of these things: First, was the possibility of Portus in Texas. It's close and I think that I can realistically make it in maybe a year or two, but I'm honestly not that close to a lot of Gryffindors anymore and I worry about that. I also made loose plans with Bekkah to get out to New York for my 21st. That's an obvious bummer but I am hoping to maybe consolidate this trip and the D*C trip in the next paragraph into one awesome bash sometime next year or so.

There were two slightly more solid plans: a few real life friends and I had discussed a trip up the west coast with our bikes on the AmTrak. Mostly it was talked about with Whitney, but I know I mentioned it to a few other close friends who really liked the idea. I'm planning this out right now and I think it's the most realistic one. I also was looking into going to Dragon*Con in August to meet Maura but the cost to go across the country again, so soon after the trip of last October, pay for some of a hotel, for meals, to buy the little shit that I know I'll want to buy... I just don't think I'll have the money. It's really frustrating but I had to make a decision. I really, really wanted to dress up and make Maura laugh. This is probably the most disappointing thing and guilt-inducing thing, because I'd also started planning this trip and started caring about it.


Also, I spilled hot chocolate all over myself the other week. That was fun. I thought the little that had gotten on my tablet hadn't effected it because it worked fine that day. The next day? I would use the pen and the mouse on screen would flicker everywhere, clicking when I hadn't clicked, etc. So I have to buy a new one if I would like to work comfortably in Photoshop and with the dicking around drawings that I do.

I've been planning to save up for Photoshop for the Mac but I'll have to figure out a) how much total the coast trip will cost and how much I want to put on the credit card.

Tomorrow after school I am dropping off my Holga film to be developed (3 rolls! Eeeee...) and if I get even 1 nice photo, I will be content.

I had a great day at the beach yesterday with my dad. We went down to Dana Point. I was like a beacon of luck - it was great. We found a parking spot immediately thanks to my eyes and we had a really great lunch. It was nice to spend time with him. I feel like I talked a lot, but we all had a kind of awkward dinner on Saturday so I expected conversation to need coaxing. I found gifts for Reya to go along with the card I have, which I owe her from Valentine's and Ky, whom I promised a little something, and for my exchange lion! Hoorah! I'm planning on packing this up maybe Thursday after school or so.

Busy times. I'm trying to just roll with it and not worry or feel guilty or tired.

Dudes, Patrick Swayze is dying.

What the hell, '08?

QUICK THINGS:

I AM BECOMING A CLOTHESAHOLIC.

I FINISHED THE MARAUDER_ELITE WALLPAPER HERE. THERE IS A SMALLER ONE, TOO. BUT I WON'T POST THAT NOW.

Bridey is dedicating her radio show to Marauder_Elite right over HERE AND IT IS AWESOME. SHE SAID MY NAME ON AIR. AND PLAYED DAVID DONDERO. AND TEGAN AND SARA. AND TODAY IS GOOD.

Also, my fuel pump broke yesterday and my car had to get towed. But that suck is totally overshadowed by this awesome.

( Hi, I am en Egyptian Gods meme )