I'm not an exclusive person. If you want to friend me, let me know.

I totally want to see North and South after simplydivine's kickass picspam involving pretty dresses, hats and Old Southern Things (except for Lesley-Anne Downe, who would be a Young Southern Thing). Possibly in the next couple weeks. We shall see. Epic Miniseries, you are my favorite.

Now. rayvin813 supports me in this spam, and it's Wednesday, so don't we all want a Middle of the Week random picspam (that isn't really random at all, but whatevs)? Ok, good.


( Cliquez ici )

It has recently been borne in upon me that it might be a good idea to flock my entries from now on.

This is something I've always avoided in the past, as it seemed rather pompous for me to behave as if my words had so much import that they needed to be kept under lock and key, but there've been enough "incidents" that I'd rather just take steps to ensure they don't happen again. For I am lazy and don't want to deal with similar occurrences in the future.

If you're some invisible person who's been reading my journal and want to go on reading it, I'm fine with you creating a blank journal and friending me, so long as we know each other on some level (or if you can prove you're not creepy).

I'm keeping my old entries open, as it always pisses me off when I go to someone's journal and I can't see any samples of their writing to see if I want to friend them or not. For now, my main concern is finding a kickass Friends Only banner.

I couldn't do all of them. Too much picspammage. But I think I did a lot of them.

( Stop eating people's old French fries, pigeon. Have some self respect! Don't you know you can fly? )

It appears my plans to get to the RenFair will come to fruition. ...And I just realized I'm going to a Stargate con this weekend and a RenFair the weekend after. My life, she has come to this?


eta: As thedramagirl reminded me, I discovered last night that for some reason, if you google image search "bridget regan legs", my journal is in the second page of results. THE SECOND.

Getting one of those 'you're a fricking moron for thinking you need to do this, but you obviously need to do it anyway' thoughts last night meant making a picspam about my favorite Michael/Jan scene in The Office. I haven't even shipped them for over a year and a half. Don't know what's going on. I was rewatching The End of the Their Relationship, though, and got all pissed off at TO writers (until you've heard my 'All The Office Writers Are Secretly Misogynists, and Yes, I Include All of Them, Even You, Mindy Kaling' rant, you have not lived, my friend).

*sniff* Michael/Jan was my first Office ship ever. And those damn writers burned it, sunk it, then went on a deep sea mission to unearth the remains and spat on them.

Season 4, Dunder Mifflin Infinity

( Jan pwns Ryan )


( Jan Explains Things to Michael in a Nice Way Instead of Being Annoyed and Mean, aka Best M/J Scene Ever )

Also, you know lists are awesome, so ASK ME ABOUT THE FIVE THINGS THING. Might be hard, though. Don't have a lot of interests.

[1] Reply to this post, & I will pick six of your icons.
[2] Make a post (including this info) & talk about the icons I chose.
[3] Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
[4] This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

( My completely awesome icons that were picked to be 'splained )

Having made, not just a vid, but a Days of Our Lives vid to a Jesse McCartney song, I appreciate when others put up with him long enough to set precisely timed clips to his singing.



Plus now I really like that song. As it is catchy.

runawaynun is in NY, and the infamous Becca from the Songcatcher vid is visiting my rl bff, so they're gallivanting about Charleston as I clean my room while watching 30 Rock. But no, I — I did things today. I'm getting my temporary headshot taken for Tuesday when I go into an audition and say "I AM HODEL." And then sing 'Far from the Home I Love' and possibly 'A Cockeyed Optimist', because THAT IS MY SONG.

And can I briefly mention that iTunes entitles it "C**k-Eyed Optimist" on the original cast recording, and that that's hilarious? Ok, done.

(except for ( Bridget Regan's twitter profile pic ) under the cut. because damn.)

Alice! It is August and almost September! Whatever will you be watching this fall?

I'm glad you asked me that, me. I shall be watching the following:


The Office: I ended up liking a lot of last season's episodes more than 30 Rock's. And there were hints that my beloved Dwangela might be revived. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

30 Rock: I'm a 24-year-old girl. I have to watch 30 Rock.

Parks and Recreation: I love this show, kind of in the way you love your handicapped child.

Glee: Um, heck yes. I need more of this in my life. And...I mean the show, not glee. That wasn't some attempt to be playful with words. I don't go down that road. Plus I'm already damned gleeful enough. What was I talking about? Oh yeah -- this has both singing and UST. In other words, I'm watching every episode.

Bones: Oh, hi FIC IN TELEVISION FORM. They're using my favorite fic premise ever for their s5 opening, so yes. I will be watching Bones.

Legend of the Seeker: Not until November. No more episodes until November. Oh my GOSH nothing until November.



Stop looking gay, Craig. You're ruining my buzz.

You know, as I sit here, watching Richard/Kahlan vids on youtube and wondering why all their fans seem to pick really randomass songs no one's ever heard of, I find myself feeling at a loss for what to do next regarding fangirling.

I can't properly fangirl Bridget Regan because she is A) 27 (I know, shame shame shame, and I expect all of you to be looking at your computer screens and shaking your heads at this moment) and B) not a stellar actress. I consider my Keeley slip (she's 33) to be permissible because she is both over 30 and quite up to snuff in the dramatics department.

What Bridget Regan has going for her really is height, hair and fantastic chemistry with her possibly gay co-star. I really fangirl the two of them rather than just her. And now I have watched every episode and it's not out on DVD for two more months and I AM NOT ACCUSTOMED TO WAITING FOR THINGS. I mean, every show I've gotten into lately has existed for quite some time and there have been seasons upon seasons available. This has ONE and it's not even accessible outside Netflix Instant/Hulu/Youtube. I am quite put out.

(quick note: can you imagine Lady Catherine fangirling? because I totes can)

I had my headshots done yesterday, and the girl was awesome and fantastic and I think we shall get married and watch Star Wars all the livelong day. This is her site, and missfoxie said I had to use her once she saw a heading entitled "What If I Want Nothing To Do With You and Your Shenanigans?" Mainly she said words and I was supposed to say them in my head and apparently this shows up exteriora..lly. That's a new word and it's mine.

I'm probably laughing/smiling in far too many of them, as that's what I do, but at one point she mentioned Twilight (we'd discussed it earlier) and my face darkened and I looked up at the camera with somber eyes. So while I don't remember most of the words she said, I will most likely be able to identify those particular shots when they come in. And that will be my Twilight face.

In other news, Kahlan needs to wear red more often:

On my walk to work this morning, I laughed while in the middle of rush hour foot traffic. Not because some passer-by suddenly tickled me (I'm a very ticklish person. the only reason this isn't common knowledge is that I kill anyone who attempts to tickle me, and thus word has not spread), but rather because "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" had just come on my Palin 2.0 mix and I'd completely forgotten it was on there.

I would like to mention right now that y'all are getting off EASY with this, since I've now seen 17/22 episodes of LotS and have only made two posts and am NOT capping each episode. I mean, compared to Stargate Atlantis this is NOTHING. And it's way prettier than SGA, so that's kind of a shame.


( They only act like they're five because it's not actually them but instead hilarious impersonators )

Also, when did all my friends start wanting to go out to dinner? This is happening all the time now, and the only thing I can think is that it's because it's warm, and we in Chicago hibernate in winter. It's kind of like in Ye Olden Times when farmers would work the land and harvest all the crops and have barn dances in the summer, and come winter they didn't leave their cabins, because they would die. Chicago got down to -45 with windchill this past winter (-42 C). I remember waiting at a bus stop, thinking 'Well. At least I'll have died on my way to church. That must count for something.'

In other news, I secretly want to live in a small country town in Kansas in the 1800s and wear gingham dresses and have a hidden passion for Tommy the blacksmith's son.

My morning started off hilariously as I went to purchase pads and was given them in a nondescript brown paper bag. Thanks for making me feel like I was buying booze and porn, Walgreen's.

The thing is, I'm secretly thankful for my small brown bag since I have to keep them at my desk all day and it's the somewhat bulky 40-pack, but still. Principles or something.

So this weekend was almost entirely cordoned off from any real responsibility, and I spent most of it watching 15 episodes each of Designing Women and Legend of the Seeker (including that totally kickass DW episode where Charlene gets breast cancer and Julia lays out her doctor in one of her more memorable rampages).

Honestly, if I could do nothing but watch Designing Women for the rest of my life, I would be happy. Season 2's coming out tomorrow, but I shall stay strong and wait for a holiday or something.

Now. ( Legend of the Seeker is like highly delicious crack )

Sunday I saw Plaza Suite with a group o' church people. The second act was good and everything else was lame. Then my associate pastor and two friends and I walked back (it was at Theatre on the Lake, which is kiiind of near the church) and it was dark and we saw bunniiiiies. I get excited any time I see any kind of life (plant or animal) while in the city, as it's mostly concrete with Very Tall Buildings I Don't Find Attractive.

But Chicago's famous for its architecture for some reason, so there we have it (don't ask me what 'it' is, as I'm sure I don't know).

Basically, Legend of the Seeker is the prettiest damn show on television. The writing's cliché, the acting's so-so, and it looks like fair to middling sci-fi/fantasy in terms of its special effects, BUT. The Pretty cannot be ignored.

And the clichés are kind of comforting. Like in the pilot, one of the characters not only says "Who are you to decide a man's destiny?", but also "Prophecy be damned!" You can predict most of what people are going to say (ex: when the hero tries to interfere and save the girl in the pilot, the villain says something along the lines of "get out of my way, boy!"), so you don't have to focus on things like "the script", but can just sort of stare.

And the central character is this young guy who didn't know he was totally special and awesome, but one day gets told, and he has to save the world, and it's basically Harry Potter, Darkness Is Rising and Everything Else Ever.

But I really, really don't care. Because I will just look at the two leads, giggle kind of stupidly and say "YOU'RE SO PRETTY."


( This is Bridget Regan's costume in the pilot, as the ABC people know no shame )

When I saw the ginormous banners for it on my walk to work, I knew it'd only be a manner of time. And then they put it on Netflix Instant, I gave myself the weekend off and it looks like that time is now. It's also been time to watch hours of Designing Women, but that's a completely different post.

I have decided to pick my top five 9 to 5 songs and list them here. Why? Well, I would use the done-to-death 'because I can', but I think you all understand that already. So really it's a "those are your favorite? honestly? that's so odd -- we obviously have completely different musical tastes, despite loving the same musical. I am shocked and stare at you with my mouth agape" sort of thing.

And yes, I of course want to know yours.

[1] 9 to 5 (oooobviously)

[2] Dance O' Death (this got me through my various plane delays. I love big band more than almost anything, and...y'know. Stephanie.)

[3] Around Here (the chorus..she is so catchy)

[4] Cowgirl's Revenge (not the whole thing, but the yippee-kay-yay parts. for they are awesome)

[5] Tie between 'I Just Might' and 'Finale'

I love the final song of basically any musical, because that's when everyone comes out and bows and one's main memory is clapping like the dickens and being super-happy. And when I was running late for my plane, I had 'I Just Might' stuck in my head, and behold! I was there in plenty of time. Thank you, Airport Shuttle Man. However, Dolly has a tendency to write songs about overcoming odds/becoming a stronger person/whatever, and there are WAY too many of them in this musical (um, as in like six out of 18).

Heart to Hart would OBVIOUSLY be on here, but it's favorite songs from the cast recording, not the show. And that really needs to be seen.

Oh, and I acknowledge that Backwoods Barbie is an excellent song (it totally is, so quiet), but I kind of feel like Dolly was not-so-subtly working out some issues, y'know? Which makes me feel awkward.

Well, now that we're out of the harrowing morning, life can resume and we can continue, relatively unscathed.

For those who were somehow not online this morning, social networking came to a grinding halt as twitter, facebook and livejournal were all refusing connections. All of them.

Facebook came back first, albeit with limited functionality, and twitter's still being squiffy. But at least they're up. And gmail didn't go down, which would cause me to start heralding the endtimes.

Anyway, you might have noticed a distinct lack of fangirling in my journal as of late. Other than for the Wimseys, and they shouldn't count. Not in that particular case, anyway. There are several things involved in this:

1. I have become mind-numbingly busy. Not at work, but during my precious free time after it. And when I say free time, I mean Time Which Is No Longer Free.

2. Busyness means no watching new things, which means no fangirling new things, or if I even had an inclination to fangirl something, fangirling for me requires picspams and I most definitely do not have the time to put them together.

3. This makes me sad.

4. I like doing picspams very much.

5. For the meantime, you will have to put up (if you wish) with me rambling about my actual life, or at least a small section of it. I feel like many of us do not mention the giant things happening in our lives, but rather focus on the minutiae, and I enjoy that. For example, today I got Jimmy John's and ate outside in this small Park Thing That Isn't Quite a Park, But There Are Flowers and A Small Pond, So There We Are. And I read part of Good Omens, which is nice and doesn't make me think.

Do you ever think your life would be easier if you were Clara Barton? Probably not, she had a lot going on. I always confuse her with Betsy Ross, though, so maybe HER life wasn't so bad.

I shall be flying away, away, away this afternoon, if all goes well, and landing in the sunny-or-possibly-stormy city of Charleston, SC, whereupon I shall visit my RL bff genevieve_horn, who never updates her journal ever. Which is lame. So I will be online a bit, but I will also be gawking at old slave quarters and the like. And watching the X-Files episodes 'Home', which is both disgusting and wrong, but for some reason we've made it a tradition to watch it together once a year.

As I wended my way to my job this morning, I was listening to my Madame Defarge playlist, and one of the songs reminded me that with an apparent surge in XF fangirling as of late, I should post this because it makes me feel all squishy about them being a team:


You know what's great about that song is that it can apply to FBI agents AND 18th c. revolutionaries.

And that's mostly it. I pored over Gaudy Night last night for Peter/Harriet parts of adorableness and I guess found enough of them. Dorothy L. Sayers makes me both laugh and scowl when she essentially makes fun of the reader for their (more than likely) expectations of Sudden And Total Making Out betwixt P&H during the self-defense lesson. That was cold, Ms. Sayers. Cold. Damn writing "in character" -- I want UST. This is what I like about George Eliot; she was basically a 19th c. fic writer (oh yeah, and then she had all this other crap in her books about "reform bills", etc, but one can ignore that). I'm not saying DLS wasn't being one in BH, but I'd appreciate a little more GN action, hm?

The obsessive personality is rather prevalent amongst my age group, but not in The World at Large. This, however, is the same World at Large that didn't really know who Tina Fey was until she did her Sarah Palin impersonation, so I don't know if I really want to have much to do with it.

I saw the Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane play three times, and the first reaction from any average person seems to be "whoa, obsessive?" The thing is, I can't see how it's even odd. Seeing a play multiple times is like re-reading a book, only it's obviously more fluid and dynamic and therefore more interesting. Actors change tiny things, and once you've gotten over the initial encounter with the story, you get to observe the minutiae and see what works best (i.e. I have favorite versions of lines, where they can emphasize a word slightly differently, but it makes the scene).

Not to pander, as the fangirling community at large is obviously also the one most prone to this sort of behavior, but it bothers me when I'm called obsessive for behavior I actually don't deem so. I am fully aware of when I'm being obsessive. Was I obsessive about this play? Oh my, yes. But not because I saw it three times. For other reasons, which..erm...I shall not list here. I would like to only be accused of crimes of which I am guilty. And by 'crimes' I suppose I mean irregular-behavior-which-is-all-too-regular-for-me.

On a random note, last Friday while getting ready to see BH for the second time, I stepped on my straightener and now have a highly attractive red line burned into the top of my foot. All in the line of duty.

Most of us shipped this when we were younger, right? Right.


from here

( One of those meme things, which I would like people to do, but I'm not taggin' nobody -- and if any of you brings up double negatives, so help me, God... )

For some reason, a large number (read: 2) of my friends have started going to bed between 9 and 10. This is also my goal every night. It makes sense for me and another friend, as we have to get up crazy-early for work, and we're not 15, damnit. We need eight hours. But my other friend, no idea (and yes, hcdapres, I mean you). Though then I remember freshman year in the dorm and how my friend and I would go to dinner at 4:45 because that's when the dining hall opened, so maybe this is some kind of phase, and then I will go back to being my actual age. Maybe.

I had completely forgotten I'm going to see Busman's Honeymoon twice this weekend. It was kind of one of those instantly-obsessed-and-thus-overdoes-it decisions. If I hadn't bought the tickets a week ago, I'd prooobably only go to the last performance, as I'm bringing my parents. But I'm going Friday, and afterward I'll more than likely be all "AHHHHHHH CUTENESS" again. Why? Because Peter Wimsey & Harriet Vane are The Hotness, people. This needs to be acknowledged more, as then I won't have to have this conversation:

Alice: They're doing Busman's Honeymoon up in Rogers Park!
Random Person: What's that?
A: It's the final Lord Peter Wimsey.
RP: Who?
A: Dorothy L. Sayers! English lord! Solves mysteries!
RP: *stares blankly*
A: *sad face*

Not to pull one of those 'Oh Why Can't the Masses Know Anything About Anything', but their not having any background knowledge on Wimsey means they'll have no interest in seeing the play. And it is so very good. All I need to complete my fangirl happiness are adorable candids from backstage (although honestly? every play should do this. particularly Mary Stuart). And the clock's ticking on the possibility of this happening, as there are precisely five performances left. I'm hoping to somehow have the show burned into my memory by Sunday evening. I shall focus my small amount of energy on this.

Thank you for being completely accurate, quiz.

Which American accent do you have? Neutral You're not Northern, Southern, or Western, you`re just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don`t really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Completely unrelated, but my voice teacher's very into the whole "oh, your astrological sign helps you identify the problems you're put here to work through", and unfortunately I am a Gemini. This means that at this very moment, I would like very much to be at my parents' house, curled up in the fetal position on my bed, napping. Geminis have the adult/child problem a bit harsher than others. Not all of us, obviously, but...yes. And before you stare, mouth agape, I don't read horoscopes and yes, I'm a Christian, BUT some things about astrology make sense. So there we have it.

I found out completely randomly yesterday that Beverly's Norma's being released TODAY, so I ordered that from Amazon. It isn't quite Ye Olden Days where I'd buy absolutely everything associated with her, but Norma is worth it. She plays a druid priestess who kills herself or something. I never got that into the opera. The tenor's a jerk, basically, and I prefer my tenors non-jerky (not that that's a frequent occurrence).

You know what's a great movie? Falling in Love. I love that movie. Especially when compared to crappy ol' Brief Encounter.

Tara in True Blood is now one of my favorite characters ever. Also, that show is porny beyond belief.

Tara: My life sucks.
Sookie: Tara, don't you be feelin' sorry for yourself. That's just lazy.
Tara: But why can't I keep a job?
Sookie: Maybe because you can't keep your mouth shut.
Tara: Bitch, who asked you?

Every scene she's in shimmers with a golden aura of hilarity.



hcdapres and I went on a road trip to Bishop Hill, Illinois on Saturday (photos are on facebook, and if you're not on facebook I really don't understand you). It's on a backroad in the Illinois prairie, so the fact that we found it without getting lost made us overly gleeful. I'm a huge fan of crazy-tiny towns, as they retain a Certain Something (also a lot of not-so-bright people, but I didn't say I wanted to live in one). Bishop Hill doesn't have a gas station, but they have three places that sell pie. And a bar. So we're all set for our retirement.

I guess I eventually want to live in a laughably small town, but only if it has decent internet. Then I shall need no gas station, as I shall cut myself off from the outside world, barring my wireless connection. And we'll buy a house across from the town square and add to the local pie baking, and sit on a bench near the main road and watch the occasional tourists walk by while saying things to them like "Nice enough day for ye?" And start a lending library from our living room.

I got back home Saturday night, and two of my professors who just returned from six months in Paris stopped by after Harry Potter. Neither of them taught subjects I like (Russian lit/Nabokov and a complit survey course I had to take as a senior), but they are both yea and verily awesome. She loved Narcissa's clothes in HBP, making me think it's a girl thing and we just all will, because they're gorgeous. And they brought me a copy of Odette Toulemonde from France with Catherine Frot on the cover. "!!!!" say I. I love people.