gryffindorseeker's imagination journal.

i suck for not updating, duh, but i've been slaving away on this screenplay for school and i kinda like it. i mean, i want to finish it and submit it to some hollywood studio that will immediately reject it, but hearing their criticism (a.k.a. "coverage") would be cool. it is tentatively titled "pygmalion: a documentary" and at least the kids in my class like it. here's a snippet of act one:

SALADIN: Yeah, 'cause the defenders won't know what hit 'em when they realize that Jack's a girl!

The guys begin laughing uproariously, except for Rob and, of course, Jack. Jack appears mildly perturbed while Rob is irritated by their insurrection.

HAT-TRICK PATRICK (to Saladin): Salad, who the hell has ever mistaken Jack for a girl? Come on!

L'IL TIMMY: Yeah, she's man-er than the rest of you jerkfaces!

HAT-TRICK PATRICK (to L'il Timmy): SILENCE FROSH! L'il Timmy, you look like a Keebler elf preparing for his bar mitzvah.

ROB: On that note, I declare practice to be officially over. Get a good night's rest on Sunday and I'd rather you didn't but if you must, cocaine. Uppers, not downers.

it's about a girl named jack (after famous cellist jacqueline du pré), her henry higgins-esque friend rob (after cold warrior robert mcnamara), and their comrades with funny names.

so i failed NaNoWriMo, but i did end up with a 40,000 word piece of mediocrity masquerading as a novella. it was a good experience and i learned many valuable lessons, at any rate.

[edit: i posted a lengthy tidbit from the upcoming wg chapter on my hpff forums blog. it's here, or if the link doesn't work, it's entitled Hello Blogosphere. and it's in the general list thing.]

fuck it, i know i just blogged a few days ago, but this warrants its own post.

'Arrested Development' film gets closer, says The Hollywood Reporter.


squee!!

The "Arrested Development" feature has moved closer to reality, with Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard reportedly closing deals for the long-gestating project from Imagine and Fox Searchlight.

reportedly closing deals?? and mitch hurwitz is going to write the screenplay and maybe direct with help from ron howard???

oh happy day!! finally, FINALLY, the arrested development movie is moving from myth to reality! if (when?) this unquestionably prolific film hits theaters, i am going to scream and squeal and giggle like a twilight fangirl every time jason bateman comes onscreen and when george-michael and maeby inevitably kiss and when tobias pulls his analrapist stocking over his head! (note: that's anahlrapist, a contraction of analyst/therapist)

considering that they've already had charlize theron, ben stiller, liza minelli, carl weathers, henry winkler, et al., i wonder what famous hollywood stars they'll get to co-star in the movie!

let's play "guess what movie roger ebert is reviewing!"

Should a woman fall in love with a man because he desires her so much? Men seem to think so. It's not about the woman, it's about the man's desire. [...] [At its core, this movie is] about two good-looking kids who want each other so much because they want each other so much. Sometimes that's all it's about, isn't it? They're in love with being in love.

while you mull it over, watch this video of suburban youths hurling compliments at pedestrians:



that was dickishly charming. okay, ready to hear the title of the mystery movie?

twilight. but roger does concede that the movie is "lush and beautiful" and well-cast, and that robert pattinson "is not unaware of how handsome he is."

it's official: everyone has jumped on the "r.pattz is smexy" bandwagon except me.

i know i rag on twilight a lot and i genuinely don't want to offend anyone, what with its small and generally dispassionate fan base,* but this franchise is EVERYWHERE and it's driving me CRAZY. maybe i love to hate twilight as much as bella & edward love to love each other, but roger's first quote sums up what i don't like about the story. that and its racist portrayl of native americans. (to be fair, twilight does better than pocahontas. have i ranted about how disney brainwashes kids with its racist and misogynistic agendas, in addition to taking all of the cool violence out the films based on fairy tales and all of the fact out of those based upon history?)

in other news, we gryffies will probably be pushed further back because i won't even be able to begin writing it until mid to late december. i know i suck and that this post is just full of happy thoughts, but i presume you'd all prefer honesty to false promises. also, i'm having a rare "i hate the world" sort of day. later, biznitches.

*tee hee, that's meiosis!†
†and that's sarcasm!‡
‡which is original!§
§now i'm just being obnoxious.‖
‖shame on you if you didn't catch the dr. horrible reference.

dear log,

it is Day 11 of National Novel Writing Month (i.e. NaNoWriMo) and much to everyone's surprise, i have not quit yet. this is my first attempt EVER at an original piece of fiction and it's going almost well. in fact, the thing i like the least about my novel is its title (The Wicked Witch of West Hollywood) which i am thinking of replacing with something like Seurat's Monkey (which makes sense if you read the narrative, i promise). my NaNo page is here, if you want to friend me or laugh at my pitiful word count.

i am so sorry that i am so behind with answering reviews, i really am. please don't be offended if it takes me several weeks to respond to your review(s), but NaNo + school are both absolutely killing me right now. i think i have a decent track record of responding to reviews overall, so please bear with me during this masochistic month of november.

hmm, i don't have any fun stories to share, since NaNo sort of dominates your life by necessity. everyone seemed to like the story about my english teacher from a few posts ago, so i'll make a list of the many life lessons he has taught us. (we haven't learned as much about literature, sadly - he spent the first HOUR of yesterday's class on various tangents. they were entertaining, but the class is only an HOUR AND TWENTY MINUTES long.)

13 life lessons i've learned in english class this semester:

1. your life is meaningless. there is no higher power, there is no afterlife, and karl marx was right when he said that "religion is the opium of the masses." (this went over REALLY well considering that 95% of my class is RELIGIOUS.)
2. all white people should feel guilty for the genocide of native americans and the rape of their culture. (this also went over well considering that 100% of my class is WHITE, including our TEACHER.)
3. never follow the directions for daily contact lenses - don't throw them out and wear them until they start to hurt or get sucked behind your eyeball. (you'll save a fortune!)
4. watch out for your australian buddy from graduate school - he is probably secretly dating your little sister and will probably marry her one day. (this was actually a cute story.)
5. suburbia is just an outlet for men to prove their masculinity, by having the greenest, most well-maintained lawn in the neighborhood. men are always trying to prove their masculinity.
   
6. a subaru outback wagon is not effeminate. not compared to a minivan.
7. bono and aragorn are the two ideals all men should aspire to.
8. you can never read ernest j. gaines's "a lesson before dying" too many times or feel too guilty for racism/segregation/slavery, if you are a white person.
9. if you want to make a woman fall in love with you, leave shakespearean sonnets in her mailbox. if this doesn't work, she is obviously a robot. (only 10% of our class is male, but i suppose that statistically, some of the girls are gay.)
10. if you want to make a woman think you're perverted, leave a copy of john donne's "the flea" in her mailbox. (personally, i prefer donne to shakespeare, but maybe i'm a perverted robot.)
11. there are three different kinds of moles, and all are bad.
12. don't buy your children toys. they will pick a stick they found in the woods over a store-bought toy every time.
13. the most effective way to kill the animal variety of mole is not by poison or guillotine, but by beating it with a stick.

and this guy isn't even the weirdest teacher i've ever had - far from it. see why i always write weird characters? either i'm surrounded by weird people, or just notice the weirdness more than other people do...

hi guys!! i have not been blogging much...i actually started a blog at the hpff forums, but i sort of like this one better...it's colorful and stuff...

i figured i'd let you all know that i hope to post we gryffies ch. 22 by halloween...it's half done at this point, but i'm participating in nanowrimo which means that if i don't give up on writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, i won't be able to update wg until december. and that's no good, hence my manic panic to finish ch. 22 by the end of october.

since i have no shame in pimping tv shows that i love, i think i'll do that now. i have recently discovered It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Skins, which are both AWESOME.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is the funniest show on television today, i am convinced. it also might be the most "offensive," but i don't necessarily agree with that. it simply tackles topics that other shows are afraid to. (for example, the first two episodes are titled "the gang gets racist" and "charlie wants an abortion.") it has also been hailed as "Seinfeld on crack," which i think is also misleading: Always Sunny attains a level of sophisticated humor that Seinfeld never even attempted. (and i like Seinfeld!) Always Sunny is about a group of misanthropes who run an irish bar in south philly (i suppose i'll watch any show that takes place in an irish bar...The Black Donnellys, anyone?) and get into the craziest shenanigans you ever did see. while it isn't exactly a groundbreaking show, the acting and writing are excellent. note: it's on FX so they do swear, and this show isn't for everyone. if you're easily offended (personally, it takes a LOT to offend me), then you might not like Always Sunny, and i would feel really bad for recommending it. but if you're bored and in the mood for giggles, it's on hulu. (also: it's rated MA so children probably shouldn't watch it...)

also, charlie kelly is the greatest character on television today. (the passionate passionate night man!)

all you brits out there are probably like, "wow, you must've been living under a rock if you haven't heard of Skins" and to that i reply, "no one in america has even heard of Skins!!" except now i have and am catching up on all the episodes. like how i will watch any show that takes place in an irish bar, i am also inclined to watch shows with lots of swearing. (and on Skins they drop the f-bomb, which they can't on Always Sunny!) simply put, Skins is a teen dramedy that makes the kids on The O.C. look like saints. (e.g. they drink and do drugs and other bad things.) but, unlike absolute crap such as 90210, Skins is well-written and makes you actually care about the characters. (however, i might just think it's clever because the kids talk with english accents.) anyway, it's smart and compelling and almost provides an accurate portrayal of teenage life. (not that i was as cool or badass as these kids when i was in high school, but i KNEW people who were this bad.) again, this show probably isn't for everyone (if you're disgusted by Gossip Girl, Skins is possibly more nefarious), but if you like indulgent television then you might enjoy Skins.

also, i'm still catching up on all the episodes, but sid is the most adorable bespectacled character ever.

i'm such a tv dork, but that's okay. hopefully we gryffies will be done soon, and in the interim check out Always Sunny and Skins. (or not...particularly if you consider Two and a Half Men to be cutting edge programming.)

neil patrick harris + some other guy, singing les misérables:



i heart nph. i was obsessed with watching doogie howser reruns when i was five, i love harold & kumar, and i LOVE dr. horrible. when faced with adversity, i say to myself, "what would nph do?"

it's almost 4 am so i find this reeeally entertaining. oh, and wg is updated.

this is potentially worse than her inability to name a single newspaper.

2:02 mark:

Katie Couric: Why, in your view, is Roe v. Wade a bad decision?

Gov. Palin: I think it should be a states issue, not a federal government-mandated [pause] mandating yes or no on such an important issue. Uh, in that sense I’m a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas.

who remembers the federalist papers from high school history class? the ones written by "publius" (a.k.a. james madison, alexander hamilton, and sometimes thomas jefferson) advocating a strong central government, where states have less say in the laws of their lands and individual areas?

d'you think she meant "new federalist," which means the exact opposite of federalist? you see, this complete 180 in the definition of the word is a fairly recent development, spurred almost exclusively by the prominence of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, an association of libertarian lawyers counting among its members the appointees john ashcroft, michael chertoff, and justices scalia, roberts, and thomas.

maybe sarah palin is trying to keep us on our toes. maybe she does read every newspaper in the world every day and knows that there's a secret new definition of "federalist" that is the opposite of the definition that we learn in school!

maybe not. she can't even name one supreme court case other than roe v. wade. and that doesn't count, because roe v. wade was part of the prompt.

joe biden, i could kiss you!

since hpff is down, i said to myself, "kelly, why don't you write a blog post?"

"capital idea!" i replied.

so here we are. i am currently in the midst of some relationship drama (or getting-that-jackass-to-commit drama), but otherwise i had a pretty good day.

thursday is my "omfg overloaded with classes" day, but i like all my thursday classes so it isn't too bad. i had an art history quiz so i woke up early to study (8 am...yeah, i know, it's not early for the real world), and i came to the conclusion that i'm crap at art history. i mean, no one's really crap at art history, and i'll probably end up with a B on the quiz, but i suspect that i'm better at regular history. which is nuts, because art history is what all the football players take to make girls think they're sensitive and emotionally vulnerable. art history is supposed to be the easy kind of history, but i'm so bad at drawing/painting/coloring inside the lines that it has rubbed off on my aptitude at studying other people's art. but i am one of the two most vocal people in the class (it's a celtic art history class and i studied medieval ireland for like a month in one of my classes last year, and there's been a lot of overlap), so hopefully that will help my overall grade.

after art history, i ran across campus to my screenwriting class. this is the most phenomenal class ever. right now we're studying the one-hour teleplay and writing spec scripts (which are episodes of existing shows screenwriters write to show execs their writing skillz) and me and my partner are writing a script for Lost. he is possibly more obsessed than i am, so it's really fun. so act 1 was due today and we had a workshop for the groups that are doing House and The Office (every group can't go every week, natch). so we did table readings and everyone was either less than enthused or passive or something, so i got to read for house and dwight (i was also the only one in the class remotely familiar with these shows), and i was also really engaged critiquing/complimenting their scripts. (i chugged a cup of coffee while running from art history to screenwriting, as has become my routine.) i wasn't mean, and i know that screenwriting is a very different medium than prose, but honestly, most of the writers on hpff could do a better job than some of my classmates. i don't mean "most of my favorite authors," i mean "most of the authors." i've become very spoiled because I'm so used to such a high caliber of writing.

then i had english class, which was fun regardless of that-jackass-who-won't-commit, who i think is pissed off because i get check pluses on the homework when he usually gets checks. anyway, we read some play called "fences" by august wilson, which james earl jones was in way back when and he won a tony award. i was still on a coffee high and had some very insightful contributions, if i may say so myself. my teacher is hilarious because he always spends at least half the class telling personal anecdotes, which is great because i hate discussing books in english class. today we somehow got on the tangent of my parents being concerned that i won't be employable as an english major (which greatly distressed my english professor) and then my teacher started a class discussion on whether from a psychological standpoint, this might explain why i excused the main character in "fences" for discouraging his son from following his dream of playing college football, because we all turn into our parents whether or not we mean to, which i think is valid. my professor also swears a lot but has started cutting back so he won't get in trouble with the chair of the department, and he accidentally said that i should tell my parents that "it's bullshit that english majors aren't employable," so then he started freaking out that i'd say B.S. to my parents and he'd get in trouble (honestly, i'm not five years old), so then he made me pinky swear that i would keep it D.L., but he didn't really know what a pinky swear is so the class spent like ten minutes explaining it, so then i pinky swore to my english professor that i would explain to my parents that i can be an english major but i wouldn't nark him out for saying bullshit. which in itself is bullshit, because i miss when he would drop the f bomb during class. (i love swearing, but someone apparently complained about our professor's language.)

so, this is a long and random entry, but there's a snapshot of my life without getting into my personal life. i hope hpff comes back on tonight because there's a grey's anatomy premiere party tonight, and i fucking hate grey's anatomy. (excuse my language!)

item #1: listen to jeff buckley, the single greatest musician from the '90s, and maybe a couple other decades too. i've been working on my "defining moments" piece (pinky swear!) and listening to jeff buckley has really helped me get in the right state of mind. (i'm doing dumbledore, btdubs.)

this is going to sound like a bad oscars speech, but THANK YOU to everybody who voted for wg at the dobbys!! i'm over the moon about losing best humor to a fountain pen because duh, settling the score is incroyable and it's flattering just to have the opportunity to lose to afp. the notion of wg winning best next gen hasn't really sunk in yet...i mean, i think it's a piece of crap compared to vog and delicate but i'm also wearing my humility socks today. (not really...it's sooo hot outside.) so thank you all from the bottom of my heart, it hasn't been the easiest year (what with the deaths in my family and the bullshit my brother's had to deal with that i'm not going to specify cos it's his business, not mine) but the dobby really does make me feel better. but because i'm wearing my humility socks (erm, let's call them humility bermuda shorts) i feel weird calling it "my" dobby cos it isn't, it belongs to the readers who put up with james's eccentricities (as well as my own) for as long as you have.

a lot has happened since i last blogged to y'all. obama picked biden as his vp running mate, and i was okay with it. mccain picked palin as his vp running mate (i was disappointed to learn that it was not michael palin, the monty python guy), and i raised an eyebrow in suspicion. i feebly hoped that mccain would pick joe lieberman, the republican senator from connecticut (parading in an independent's clothing) whose '06 campaign i worked so hard to derail. now, what kind of bff is johnny being toward joe? besties don't turn their back on besties! plus, that selection would have caused me to shed tears of mirth and delight. i don't want to get into politics (it's too late, anyway), but as a former hillary supporter, i'm not going to vote for an anti-feminist, socially conservative, former beauty queen governor of alaska just because she has a UTERUS. that's NOT HOW I ROLL. frankly, it's insulting that mccain's people think that a broad who hates abortion and likes guns will remind me of HILLARY MOTHERFUCKING CLINTON and entice me away from barry o'bama. just because i disagree with most of o'bama's policy (i disagree with more of mccain's), i refuse to vote for an old dude just because his vp pick is a traitor to the women's rights movement and, i must reiterate, IS NOT MICHAEL PALIN.

...you've got to bash in minds!

ahoyhoy! I just wasted 30 seconds of my life reading the breaking dawn spoilers (no offense if you liked the book...but if you did, i hope you're on vicodin or something). let me make it clear that i am not bashing twilight. i just think that that insane lady who wrote the books is in a permanent state of arrested development and needs to see a psychologist.

here are we gryffies spoilers if you're curious. why keep secrets when you can ruin the suspence? (highlight to discover the truth!)

• james starts sniffing tea leaves and becomes a seer
  
• tegan realizes her folly and reunites with james
  
• they get married three days later, with hagrid officiating the civil ceremony
  
• tegan gets knocked up and names the baby farfignewton
  
• freddie is gay
  
• micah becomes a pimp
  
• j.d. discovers that he's sterile and kills himself
  
• albus and scorpius become marginally successful con men
  
• rosie drops out of school and becomes the dred pirate weasley
  
• james forsees that dobby longbottom will die, but is too late to save him
  
• tegan discovers that umbridge is her birth mother and fudge is her birth father
  
• james becomes a dancer in a chorus line
  
• farfignewton joins a motorcycle gang
  
• farfignewton falls in love with a malfoy

hi everyone! if anybody still remembers me, the next wg chapter should be fit to post in a day or two. my plan is to resolve the cliffhanger, take a wee break from writing to study for exams, and get my ehpf collab and challenge done by the end of august.

at the moment i am so sunburned it hurts to type, hence my dedication of this post to the magical, magnificent gel we call aloe vera. but once all the dead skin peels off i should be in top form to write!

hellooo people of the internet! i've been busy with school, which is good, and consuming a bit too much...er...firewhiskey...cough cough.

i'm working on my contribution to the elderly hp fans "defining moments" collab, and mine centers on dumbledore. the collab is on my favorites page if you want to check it out...momotwins' one-shot about percy is extremely fabulous. oh, and gryffies ch. 18 is up, if you haven't read it.

i'm up to date on answering reviews! this is nuts! and registration for pottersworld is this weekend if you want to join...frankly, i'm not all that addicted but it's a casual hobby, and my writing has improved. so don't be afraid of being addicted...if you want to try something new, give it a shot. =)

also, if you're extremely bored this summer, watch the mole. it's the only reality show that doesn't make me want to vomit. it's a really cool mind game, so check it out.

Shut up, I've got Doctor Who on the brain. xD I loves it.

Sooo, let's debrief, shall we? 7000 words in on WG Ch. 18 and I still have a ways to go. I know that long chapters suck for some of you and I'm sorry, but I really want to avoid cutting this chapter in two. There's no good place to split it, you know? And I'm in school and I've got a couple thousand words to go, so let's be patient, yeah? I promise that when it's completed, it will be the Most Significant Chapter To Date. So I want to make it as perfect as possible.

And it's the infamous Christmas chapter! And here's a sneak preview for you all:

‘What’re you lads doing so deep in Knockturn Alley, lads?’ asked Giraffe-Neck MacDougal, his voice so hoarse that I wanted to offer him a throat lozenge. Sadly, I did not have any on me.

J.D. pointed at me. ‘He told me we were going out for ice cream!’

‘It was a fairly transparent ruse!’ I shot back. ‘Who eats ice cream in December?’

‘Smart people, that’s who!’ said J.D. ‘It’s already cold, so it doesn’t melt!’

‘He’s right, you know,’ Giraffe-Neck MacDougal said to me. ‘It’s cheaper too. Ice cream in the summer is one sticky, expensive mess.’

edit: ch. 18 is tentatively titled "the phoenix and the turtle." i think i'll ultimately go with it...

things have been a-happenin' and i have not updated this thing!

1. i posted my infamous dawlish-centric one-shot today. clicky (m).

2. i stayed up 'til 3 a.m. answering reviews last night and am almost caught up!

3. i'm transferring colleges! the ivy league was not for me and i'm very happy to go to a less expensive and less crazy school. if you think i'm insane or whatever...well, look at the insane stuff i write.

4. tim russert and george carlin died. why oh why?

but this is a public service announcement! because i love you guys, please get tested for lyme disease.

as you do not know, for i have kept this very dl, i have chronic lyme disease. so does everyone in my family...even my dog. it's not usually terminal, but almost anyone who's ever been outside is at risk. it's usually thought to be present only in north america, but like any good epidemic, it has spread all over the world.

the american center for disease control works alongside insurance companies to discourage doctors from diagnosing people with lyme. i wish this conspiracy wasn't true, but it is. lyme should be covered by most insurance, but the insurance companies don't want to pay for people's treatment. the cdc insists that all cases of lyme only last for two weeks, and then you're all better. this is an umbridge and fudge-sized lie. i'm no medical researcher, but all i know is that my little brother couldn't walk for six months. he missed school, he was in pain, and he was not making it up.

sorry to be so somber...i'm just feeling angry right now. almost all lyme sufferers go undiagnosed because of the corrupt cdc, and that isn't okay. even if you're not american, listen up because this thing spreads like the black death.

fun facts! (adapted from the international lyme and associated diseases society, 12+)

1. lyme disease is transmitted by the bite of a tick, and the disease is prevalent across the united states and throughout the world; a patient's country of residence does not accurately reflect his or her lyme disease risk because people travel, pets travel, and ticks travel

2. it is caused by a spiral-shaped bacteria (spirochete) called borrelia burgdorferi; the lyme spirochete can cause infection of multiple organs and produce a wide range of symptoms

3. fewer than 50% of patients with lyme disease recall a tick bite -- because i share the exact same strains of the bacteria as my mother, my doctor believes that i got it congenitally

4. the cdc surveillance criteria for lyme disease were devised to track a narrow band of cases for epidemiologic purposes; as stated on the cdc website, the surveillance criteria were never intended to be used as diagnostic criteria, nor were they meant to define the entire scope of lyme disease

5. the elisa screening test is unreliable; it misses 35% of culture proven lyme disease (only 65% sensitivity)

6. the western blot test is not much better, but it's the best laboratory test we've got

7. there are 5 subspecies of borrelia burgdorferi, over 100 strains in the u.s., and 300 strains worldwide

8. there has never been a study demonstrating that 30 days of antibiotic treatment cures chronic lyme disease; however there is a plethora of documentation in the u.s. and european medical literature demonstrating by histology and culture techniques that short courses of antibiotic treatment fail to eradicate the lyme spirochete; short treatment courses have resulted in upwards of a 40% relapse rate, especially if treatment is delayed

9. many patients with chronic lyme disease require treatment for 1–4 years, or until the patient is symptom-free -- but, you see, insurance companies don't want to pay for this, and have bought the government's support

10. like syphilis in the 19th century, lyme disease has been called the great imitator and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of rheumatologic and neurologic conditions, as well as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, somatization disorder and any difficult-to-diagnose multi-system illness

again, sorry for the drama, but i've volunteered for various dumbledore's army-style lyme advocacy groups for years. but there's something wrong with the system when you go undiagnosed with a chronic condition for 15 years. since then, i've made marked improvements. =D even if you think it's impossible for you to have lyme, please please please get tested. the western blot is the only one to bother with in the u.s., but i think they have better tests in europe. anyway, get tested, especially if you get the bulls-eye rash! and if you find a tick on you...pleeease get tested! you don't have to live in the deep forest to be at risk! heck, there's a chance you've been infected if you've ever played soccer or sunbathed in the grass!

i know i probably sound more mental than usual...i just care. lyme has hurt so many people in the world that it isn't fair that the u.s. healthcare system prevents diagnosis.

Sooo I updated WG yesterday. I had it all ready to go and it didn't make sense to hold off posting it just because I've made zero progress on Saskia. And I'm genuinely sorry about that...let's hold out a bit longer, shall we?

I may or may not be taking a hiatus from writing for a short while...I'm just so burned out. I'm fairly certain that I've written more words over the course of this past year than in years prior, which is a good thing. I just need a bit of time to recharge my batteries =).

And I hope to get caught up with reviews, but honestly, it's overwhelming. I've responded to 3000 reviews in two and a half years (most of them for WG...heh heh). I'm not trying to sound arrogant or ungrateful, because I'm neither, but short of hiring a team of trained monkeys to answer reviews, it's a lot for little ol' me to deal with. (And a team of trained monkeys is so not in the budget right now.) I will most certainly keep on reading reviews and chances are I'll respond to some or most of them. And thank you so much, all you special reviewers. I can't even properly verbalize my gratitude. Especially to those of you who are a bit nicer than "you suck, go die"; for those of you who are not, I show my gratitude by getting your flame deleted.

On that cheery note, good day!

Hi guys. It's 2:39 AM. w00t w00t.

Summer is upon us now and I am quite the busy bee. It's difficult to balance my attempt at having a real life with writing, reading, forums, and Pottersworld. (I'm Toby Jacobson, if anyone cares. Dude, who else would pick Mikey Cera as their charrie face?)

WG is coming along too well, I'm struggling with the Dawlish fic, and anything I try with Saskia comes out horrible. Do you mind if we wait a bit longer to see if my muse comes back? I think Saskia deserves to have her story told as coherently as possible.

I've rediscovered The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and all those Douglas Adams books. They're sooo funny. Please read them. I'm adding them to my favorite books list. If you have any capacity to enjoy humor, the Hitchhiker books will have you in giggle fits.

I've also started watching Dr. Who with my friend, whose dad is a total Anglophile, and I think I like it. There are tons of people 'round HPFF who loff the Doctor, and now I think I understand the fangirliness about David Tennant. I don't really get the pacing of the show but I'm going to try a few more episodes and see how I like them.

By the way, the Season 4 Lost finale BLEW MY MIND. That's excellence in screenwriting, my amigos. The acting was superb, and I can't believe I didn't realize who Jeremy Bentham really was. We learned about him in AP Euro last year!

xoxo,
you know you love me,
namaste,
cordially yours,
Kelly, Kelso, gryffindorseeker, gryffie, and GS

Title taken from Arrested Development, o' course. (It's meant to be a parody of A Spoonful of Sugar.) I <3 Mrs. Featherbottom.

Hope you are all well on this day in the lovely month of May. I've been quite busy with tutoring and general life activities, but I'm still here! I'm finding it quite hard to write Saskia...my muse is still on his extended holiday, I suppose. Since I am an expert procrastinator, I've begun a Dawlish/Grubbly-Plank/Dolohov love triangle one-shot. It's something between We Gryffies, Not Quite Love, and a soap opera. All tongue-in-cheek, of course. Hope you all check it out when I post it!

Respek.

I'm going to be ambiguous and respond to some general concerns from the comments here:

Pineapple Wig - Certainly seems like one of those wigs the woman wears in the Chiquita banana commercials. Is a trip to Hawaii in store for the Gryffies? How would a Pineapple Wig explain a secret about a well-to-do Welsh family? Is Pineapple Wig something else altogether...the "Wig" part is key and I've already dropped hints.

The Character Who Will Die - Something JLHufflepuff said in a review sparked my idea to kill off a character. All I will say is that this character is canon and most of you will throw rocks at me when it happens. There's a second character who might die later on, but this first character is more important. There's been mild foreshadowing, but I doubt you'll be able to guess it yet.

Cheers! I'm done for the semester and am schlepping all my stuff back home tomorrow!

Okay, I did not mean to post three days in a row. That's why I'm a loser loser. Seriously, though, check out the Beck song. It isn't as emo as it sounds. It's Beck.

I've raised the rating for We Gryffies to Mature and wanted to proactively answer any questions. I could say that it gives me more artistic freedom, but that would be haughty. And I was asked to change it or edit it =P. I'm lazy...and I like the story the way it is.

If the rating change makes you not want to read the story anymore, I totally understand. I'm really sorry for changing it like that. But I should admit that there aren't going to be wild sex scenes anytime soon, or ever. (Nope, if James and Tegan ever do the deed, there would probably just be a mention. But I'm not guaranteeing anything.) I'm just being really cautious and leaving the Strong Language and Scenes of a Sexual Nature warnings up.

On a lighter note, I thought of a delicious plot twist regarding Tegan's family secrets. Oh, "secrets" in the plural? (I hear you ask.) Yes. Rhys and Eleni are tricky little buggers. You won't find out the first secret until the end of their seventh year, and the second until after 1 year out of school. Yeah, I'm planning on taking the story that far (if you'll have me!), but if I shorten it I'll just squeeze everything into a smaller span of time.

Okay, here's a clue to both secrets: Pineapple Wig.

Now, the clue might change depending on my whims, but the secrets will not. And if you can infer something from this entirely ambiguous clue, then snaps for you. There have been hints, even before I figured out the second secret.

Yeah, I'm a loser, blogging AGAIN. It's like in the Beck song: "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?"

But I was just made a prefect at the HPFF forums and I'm EXCITED. I've already PMed people about their huge signatures and I love it! Plus, I'm a moderator at EHPF, so I think I'm going to go crazy with power. And if you didn't know, I'm a trusted author too. I'm gonna go all Slytherin and usurp the power!

I have one stupid recommendation that's definitely Mature. Like, not as bad as Superbad, but the language is coarse. However, it's the funniest web series I've ever seen: Clark and Michael (M). It was written by Clark Duke (who's on some show called Greek that I've never heard of) and Michael Cera (who you better know or I will hurt you).

CBS paid them to write and shoot ten mini webisodes, and it's TOTALLY my brand of humor. In fact, my current avatar ("no bathroom stuff!") is from Episode 2. Clark and Michael play themselves, as struggling screenwriters with delusions of grandeur. They can't seem to sell their show and they blame it on everyone but themselves. They're best friends and totally embrace their guy love, which is a theme in We Gryffies. So, if you're not afraid of strong language, I highly suggest it. Michael Cera is a sweetie, of course, and Clark Duke plays his lovely foil. It's silly and sweet and stupid and brilliant and full of vulgar language. The title sequence is the most amazing thing I've ever seen, and when you see it, you'll know why. Plus, Buster and Tobias from Arrested Development guest star, as well as Mitch Hurwitz, the AD creator.

I've warned you: if you can't handle something like Superbad or Knocked Up, Clark and Michael is too much. But: I love those guys. I tried to make a film like this in high school and failed miserably. They have succeeded.

Hi! I haven't posted in like...four days. To quote Juno: "Whoa dream big!" But sigh, I'm such an obsessive little blogger.

My sleep cycle has been sooo fricked up cos I got no sleep on Friday. There isn't even a fun story. The fire alarm in my dorm went off about 20 times between 1 & 4 AM, apparently because of a system glitch. I spent most of that time trying to sleep on a bench outside, and it was cold. I think I might've started crying, but I blocked that memory out. So, then we can finally go inside and my friends all went to sleep, but what with my very delicate sleep cycle, I couldn't get my REM thing started again. So I stayed up all night, alone except for this weird kid down the hall who I don't like. So I've been angry and cranky for a while.

I know I've been like "blaaah throwing TV shows and musical groups in your face blaaah!" but I have one more thing that I was obsessed with when I was 11 and have rediscovered. It's a miniseries called The 10th Kingdom. It's actually 7 hours long, so it's hard to sum it up, but this is according to our good friends at Wikipedia: "It depicts the adventures of a young woman and her father after they are transported from Manhattan, New York through a magical mirror into an enchanting world of fairy tales and self-discovery."

That's basically it, but it's really a modern adventure/fantasy story that incorporates Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and a ton of other Grimm's fairy tales. And of course, the girl (Virginia) falls in love with a werewolf (aptly named Wolf), and I now realize where my preference for werewolves (Jacob Black, Remus Lupin) comes from. The whole thing probably sound cheesy and stupid but I promise it's not. I hate fairy tales but I love The 10th Kingdom. It's sort of a satire, but it also celebrates the genre. It is very humorous and there are a ton of jokes I didn't get when I was little. I'm not sure what it's rated, but probably PG. Kids can watch it but it's also entertaining for adults. Like, it's not worse than We Gryffies or Saskia.

So try to find it at Blockbuster or Netflix! The whole thing is also on YouTube, but of course the quality isn't fantastic. If you just want a taste of it, here's a clip of the beginning.

I should warn you that in the title sequence (which won an Emmy, I'll have you know) there's an image of the World Trade Center collapsing. The series was released in 2000, so how could they have known? But you might find this troubling. I know people whose parents died on 9/11...I thank God that my dad was in Boston that day. But you can fast-forward to 0:55 (55 seconds in) and you'll skip it.

GS loves you! I feel weirdly affectionate right now. But I love you and want you to be happy and I bet my bottom dollar that The 10th Kingdom will make you happy. Well, no, I'm actually broke. But Max Medina from Gilmore Girls is in it! Let's hope that's sufficient consolation.

Y Feliz Cinco de Mayo! Olé! Lo siento, yo no hablo español.

WG Ch. 16 is up! Link is here (15+, as most of you should know).

It clocks in at 7311 words (sorry and you're welcome regarding the length) and here is the summary: H.U.W. rides, Rhys instructs, and Tegan is a bit randy.

Sorry, but I HAVE to share this with any Office fans out there. Steve Carell is interviewing Phyllis Smith, and hilarity ensues:

I am very proud of this snippet of WG and cannot hold off sharing it with you. It's only really spoilery for several chapters ago, so you all should be okay.

Ah, Quidditch. How I miss thee.

I think I’ll compose a limerick:

There was once a sport we called Quidditch
And Tegan frequently caught the Snitch
But Snorky was mad
He did something bad
And now a ride with H.U.W. we did hitch

Ooh, that’s a good one, Jamesie boy! Definitely writing this in the Imagination Journal later.

Because I loff you readers of my Imagination Journal, here's a super cool sneak preview of WG Ch. 16: "Let The Sound Take You Away".

We ran though the trees, our pace slowing as we grew increasingly weary. I stumbled on a rock and Micah screamed when he got a pine needle wedged in his eye, but we made it to the boundary of the Hogwarts grounds without any major injuries. Which is an accomplishment for a Quidditch team that was known as The Invalids only a few months ago.

Tegan came to a stop and we men of Gryffindor did the same. She glanced at her wristwatch, then peered through the trees, looking prepared for disappointment.

‘Stop hiding, H.U.W.!’ she shouted, oh so slightly snarling. ‘We don’t have time for your tricks, we’ve got limited practise time and an impending showdown with our greatest rivals!’

Then a cloud of smoke erupted to our right, and a familiar tall, balding man appeared before us.

‘You don’t have time for my illusions, McTegan!’ yelped H.U.W., looking hurt. ‘You don’t have time for my illusions!’

I love Monty Python. I'd forgotten this until I found a whole treasure trove of Pythony goodness on YouTube. I'm posting some of my favorites in case you need a laugh :). 15+ to be safe...you know how the Pythons are. Apologies for all the videos I've been throwing at you lately...just the sorts of things that I find entertaining.

The Lumberjack Song



The Philosophers Song



Always Look on the Bright Side of Life



Argument Clinic Sketch



The Fish Slapping Dance



How To Irritate People On An Airplane



Dead Parrot Sketch



Holy Grail - The French Taunting



Ministry of Silly Walks

Last but most certainly not least, is George Donaldson! He's the group's baritone AND the only Scotsman, so major props! Additionally, he used to work at a box factory. Like on The Simpsons.

It has been said that Ryan Kelly is the Irish McDreamy. I like to say that Patrick Dempsey is the American Ryan Kelly. (Honestly, he's a crap actor and Grey's Anatomy is what's wrong with America today.)

Introducing Paul Byrom! His nose looks exactly like what I picture Dumbledore's nose to look like (before Aberforth broke it, of course).

Next up in our beginners guide to Celtic Thunder: Keith Harkin! He currently habitates my avie. Let's get another look at Mr. Harkin:

Because I'm oh so slightly hung over (I am Irish, after all), I feel like doing a bit of blogging instead of catching up on sleep. And what musical group of five male vocalists do I love to blog about more than Celtic Thunder?

Hola. Me llamo Kelly. Yo quiero Harry Potter y Arrested Development y Celtic Thunder. Y Taco Bell.

Pretty good for never taking Spanish, eh? I've picked that up off the streets.

Um, what's up with me...WG Ch. 15 is up. It's only slightly shorter and it's not a groundbreaking chapter by any means, but there's a running sequence that seems to stick in people's minds.

At the moment I'm just trying to get through school alive. Boring, yes. And it's the weekend, which for normal people means having fun. But no, at my school, having fun to locking yourself in the library and doing work. Our libraries are really ugly, unfortunately, and I don't function well on a schedule. I'm a creative person, darn it, and you can't turn that sort of thing on and off.

Hmm, just felt like updating this regardless of my lack of exciting stories. I'm stuck in this moment of humility where I can't believe that there are people out there in Internetland that read my stories. You know when you get whacked upside the head by humility every so often? I do, and I'm certainly confident enough most of the time. So thanks.

For We Gryffies, that is. Very minor spoilers that I can't help but share with my loverly blog readers, cos I love you and you're cool enough people that you'd probably care about this. But don't read on if you want to be anything less than completely surprised for minor things in the next two chapters.

So the Gryffies are forming a band. What will that band be called? The Gryffies. They aren't a creative bunch.

Now let's say the Slytherin Quidditch team forms a band too, cos they're copycats and must serve as foils for the Gryffies. What might they call their band? Hardcore Buzzkill.

Because the Ravenclaws like to copy the Slytherins, they might form a band too. Called Euterpe's Addiction. Wikipedia search for Euterpe and reveal in the cleverness.

And since the Hufflepuffs like to copy everybody, they just might form a folk music group. I'm still revising their name, because I keep coming up with ideas, but it will probably be something like Tawny Faraday Presents: Hilarius Goodman's Olde Time Troubadour Friends, with Mia Dodgson and Ava Fairchild.

Oh, I smell a battle of the bands coming.

And I got 45 points in Simon in the HPFF arcade today, putting me in third place. I know that's probably the stupidest expenditure of my time...but I like the pretty colors, darn it.

Hey guys. I know I've been blogging up a storm, but whatever, it makes me happy. Since I've been telling everyone that I want to be a screenwriter, I should probably give it a go, right? So that's what I'm doing. When I'm not working on the fanfic magic, that is. I doubt I'll ever go for original fic, but oh well.

I'd like to focus mainly on television, and I'm currently working on a pilot and a spec script. A pilot is the first episode of any TV series, and you present it to the network so they can decide whether or not they want to invest in more episodes. The writer of the pilot is generally the creator of the show. My pilot is sort of a mockumentary, which is a really fun genre to play around with.

A spec script is an episode you write of a show currently on the air, in the hopes that when you send it in to that show, they hire you as a writer. It's cool, because it's like fanfic in that you use an existing world, but decide where you want it to go. The spec script I'm working on is for The Office, and I thought I'd share part of the cold open with you guys. The spacing is messed up because you can't use tabs in Blogger, but you get the idea.

FADE IN:

INT. OFFICE – EARLY MORNING

JIM is sitting at Dwight’s desk, typing something quickly on Dwight’s computer. PAM, sitting at her desk in reception, looks over in curiosity.

JIM TALKING HEAD

JIM
I signed Dwight up for Facebook. I know
it’s kind of a weird thing to do
without Dwight’s permission, but he’s
been going through a rough time lately
and it might be a nice distraction for
him.

INT. OFFICE – CONTINUOUS – D1

We see a close-up of Dwight Kurt Shrute’s Facebook profile. His profile picture shows Dwight and Mose at their beet farm.

JIM TALKING HEAD

JIM (CONT’D)
I actually got the idea from my sister-
in-law. She made a Facebook profile
for their family cat, Corey Feldman.

INT. OFFICE – CONTINUOUS – D1

Close-up of Corey Feldman The Cat’s Facebook profile. His interests include catnip and taking long naps in the sun.

JIM
Corey Feldman has 47 friends. Let’s see
how Dwight does.

No essay this time. I just have to have to have to post two Celtic Thunder vids in the hopes of converting more people.

This is "Young Love". You really see how much the guys love Damian, and you see how much crap Damian puts up with, singing stupid songs and wearing stupid hats.



This is "Christmas 1915". I've only just discovered it, and I alternate laughing (b/c of the WWI uniforms and fake snow) and crying (b/c it's so sad and beautiful). George and Damian are just sort of...sprawled...there.



I was never into Nsync or the Backstreet Boys, so I think it's okay that I'm obsessed with CT. Right?

Title is AD quote =D. I have a fever, and the only prescription is more Arrested Development. I pray to Jesus, Allah, Yahweh, and whoever else might be up there that the AD film becomes a reality.

So the queue is bound to open very soon, and WG Ch. 14 is 73.561% complete. Slowly but surely we are moving along. I'm hoping to have it up in a week. Huzzah!

Also...The Life & Lies of Albus Dumbledore has been reincarnated as For The Greater Good on Gluttony. The link is here and it's rated MA18+ to be safe. It's a bit of D's seventh year plus the summer of Grindelwald. It isn't hardcore slash, by any means, and I think you'll still enjoy it if you're not normally a reader of slash. WG is my stupid story while FTGG is my smart story. By the way, Gluttony's really cool, if you don't know about it. The community is smaller than HPFF and on the whole, the average fic is better written than the average fic at HPFF, in my opinion.

As for my other fics...I need to finish WG and FTGG before I can start back up on them. I'm sorry for the disgustingly long wait, but it's very difficult to be a college student and a fanfiction writer. (As I have discovered...) I know that I NEED to add closure to Saskia, but my muse has been gone for months, I've lost touch with the characters, and I simply dread writing it. Would it be horribly lame to just post an epilogue and that's it? Or would you guys prefer waiting months or years in the hope that my muse returns. (His name is Rémy and he is most unreliable.)

I also might start posting bonus previews of fics here, just cos my Imagination Journal readers are extra special and deserve treats once in a while. This post is long enough, so I'll save it for another day. And I'm usually very good about posting previews on HPFF and EHPF.

Thank you guys for sticking with me through my bouts of crazy. This blog is basically a collection of my most insane thoughts, so at least this is my plateau of insanity.

Shameless plugs that I wish I was paid for:

- Arrested Development. Obvi. It's quick and clever and probably inappropriate for kiddos under 16. But it's the ultimate example of making unlikable characters likable. I wish I was as smart as Mitch Hurwitz. Oh, and Henry Winkler (a.k.a. Fonzie) is on the show. Who doesn't love the Fonz?

- Celtic Thunder. Lovely gents with lovely singing voices.

- The Office. New episodes April 10!! It will be the greatest day of all time.

- Scrubs. This is the last real season! Watch the last episodes and we get to find out Janitor's real name!

- smartwater. I like the taste of it and it has electrolytes. I think drinking electrolytes late at night makes me hyper. Oops.

- Gluttony. Just some more fanfiction for you.

- Wishbone. Did anyone else watch this on PBS when they were little? I've found videos of episodes scattered around the web and I honestly think this show contributed to my love of classic literature when I was young.

- Microwaves. We'll all probably get cancer from the radiation, but I am a semi-proficient microwave chef.

Title is one of my new favorite songs ever. It's also fun to say.

I changed the layout and my avatar! I can never stick with the same thing for long.

Um, what shall I report? Wrote about 100 more words for WG Ch. 14. Went to sleep at 4 AM last night. It's 4 PM now. I'm wigging out pretty bad. But I made sooo many avatars -- Celtic Thunder and The Office mostly. They aren't very good. Someday I hope to become a mediocre graphics artist, and maybe then I'll pluck up the courage to do the whole song and dance over at TDA.

Hmm...my sense of judgment is like nil. So tired. Almost got hit by a car this morning. My own fault, cos I didn't look both ways before crossing the street. I don't like living in an urban area. I like trees. I actually was hit by a car for realsies once, many moons ago when I had to rely on my bicycle for transportation. I was fine, though. Relatively.

So Ch. 14 might be, for lack of a better phrase, pretty cracked out. I haven't been in my right mind while I've written most of what exists of it so far.

People have asked in reviews if I'm really hyper and random (what could've tipped them off?), and cos it's raining and I don't want to go outside and risk being hit by a car again, I'm going to detail what goes on in my wee head: Arrested Development, Celtic Thunder, Arrested Development, Celtic Thunder, plot bunny! The Office, Scrubs, Lost, Celtic Thunder, hand cramp, I need chapstick, where are my glasses? Ew rain, Arrested Development, Michael Cera is a cutie pie, I could really go for some apple pie right now, ew rain, Celtic Thunder, Arrested Development, plot bunny! Writing essays sucks, write fanfic instead. Oops, I somehow finagled my way out of Microsoft Word and into Photoshop. Yay Photoshop! Plot bunny! Which member of Celtic Thunder is the hottest? Now that's an question without an answer. If I married Ryan, my name would be Kelly Kelly, since Kelly is his last name as well as my first name. Teehee, that would be funny: Kelly Kelly. Kelly M. Kelly. Mrs Kelly M. Kelly. I always thought that I'd keep my last name when I got married, but how could I pass up such a funny opportunity? Wow, I think I took my stupid pills this morning! So maybe I'd marry Ryan. Ryan & Kelly Kelly. It could be a really funny, stupid sitcom plot. Plot bunny! Life is more complicated when you're a girl whose name is really a surname. My grandmother would roll over in her grave if I married someone surnamed Kelly. Kelly was her maiden name, bless her soul. I'm kind of glad my mom named me after her maiden name, instead of her first name, Teresa. I'm more of a Kelly than a Terry, right? Kelly Kelly. Oh, I smell a bad sitcom premise. It smells like lighter fluid.

Hmm, I should freewrite like that more often. Sort out my mad thoughts. And that's the watered-down version with way fewer swear words and crude jokes. If you wanted to know how I write insanity, there you go. It's my status quo. Granted, I got four hours of sleep last night, but I'm generally always mental. Especially when I take my Adderall. I'm like Juno, I'm on Adderall. Except I don't sell it to people. There are already enough Adderall dealers on campus that I don't have to join in. I have half a heart to cry out: "Blaaah! I'm a kraken from the sea!" Except Ellen Page mispronounces "kraken" in the film. It's "crack-in", not "krake-in". They even say it correctly in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Gah, I'm sorry this is long and pointless. (That's what she said?) I'm probably going to pass out soon, and I'll probably wake up tomorrow, look this over, and wonder if I was sniffing paint. The sad part is I'm not. I wasn't? I hate verb tenses. Mandarin rocks cos there aren't really any verb tenses. Um, I think I should stop writing before I hurt myself. Or frighten the two or three people that read this.

xoxo,
mental patient #4

Title from Arrested Development. I'm uncreative.

Okay, I know I've been really random and off topic as of late, but I posted a preview of WG Ch. 14 on the HPFF and EHPF forums. Check it out. You'll be confused.

And mostly I'm posting because I came across a really great Stephen Sondheim quote. (If you don't know who he is, you should! He's the composer and lyricist behind Sweeney Todd, Follies, Company, Into the Woods, and a bunch of other musicals. Plus he wrote the lyrics to West Side Story: "Then you are set / With a capital J, / Which you'll never forget / Till they cart you away. / When you're a Jet, / You stay a Jet!") Anyhoo, he once wrote: "Humor is about character, not cleverness." I really like that interpretation. If you're trying to be clever, then you're probably not that funny. You have to concentrate on the characters and the humor will come about organically. That's my two cents, at least.

Ch. 14 is coming along. It will probably be short, but there's been complaints about length so it's probably for the best. It's been really, really difficult for me to write, and you'll see why with time. Hopefully it doesn't end up being a train wreck. Don't worry, no one dies! Though I think I'll kill off somebody by the end of this school year. I'm not kidding.

Oh, and James McAvoy once played Riff in West Side Story! Isn't that cool? I can just imagine him singing the Jet song and snapping his fingers.

Title from Arrested Development, o'course. And it's so true.

Sup homeskillets? I am currently participating in that rite of passage commonly known as spring break ("Spring break, whoooo!" - another AD quote), so I've been slightly MIA. All reviews will be responded to eventually. Pinky swear.

Also, there's a queue closure on the 26th, and that goes for trusted authors as well, and considering that no chapter is anywhere near completed, there won't be updates for a while. Sorry =(. If you are really bored, you can watch Arrested Development. I should feel a bit more shame for plugging it all the time, but oh well.

Happy belated St Patrick's Day! (I had a midterm that day...sucky.) And I have a new favorite band! (Okay, another plug. It's my imagination journal!) They are called Celtic Thunder and I'm obsesseddd. www.celticthunder.ie and they have a myspace too. It's five Irish and Scottish guys, ages 14-40, and they're the best singers I've ever heard. Ever. And I roll with a musical crowd. They sing everything from traditional Celtic ballads to the Eagles to Italian opera and they're sooo good. And they're all adorable in their own special way. I suppose the group is like a boy band, only good. They've been on PBS a lot as of late, and they were on the Today Show. They have a CD and DVD of one of their concerts, and I can't stop listening/watching. And oftentimes they wear kilts. 'Nuff said.

Because I'm so cool and think I'm better at the internet than I actually am, here's a clip of Celtic Thunder singing Ireland's Call and Caledonia. Hopefully it works.

Title is a quote from the incontrovertibly brilliant Tobias Fünke of Arrested Development. Not quite sure what that would be rated, but I've been giggling at it all day.

The deal: the hard drive on my laptop crashed and I had to have it replaced. Subsequently, I lost all of my fanfiction stuff (plans, outlines, and half of WG Ch. 13), not to mention all of my schoolwork, music, and photos. So things might take a bit longer than I foresaw, trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle back together.

Yeah, so we're studying West Side Story in my Broadway class now. I'm not in love with the dude who played Tony as much as Hugh Jackman in Oklahoma!, but the dancing in WSS is far superior. And Bernstein is the most brilliant composer of the 20th century, plus Sondheim wrote some sweet lyrics. But Oklahoma! is Rodgers and Hammerstein, and you can't go wrong with those crazy kids. Sigh...wouldn't it be awesome if real life was like a musical?

Down to business. I've got some good news and some bad news! Good news: I've posted a preview of WG Ch. 13 on HPFF and Elderly HP Fans forums, so check it out. It's only spoilery if you have a tendency to connect dots, and it will make you a bit confused. In the best way. Bad news: I'm only 1500 words into the chapter and it's not looking like a noteworthily long or exciting one! We find out who the mysterious stranger is, Dobby L. will counsel our hero, we may see the next gen equivalents of Marx Brothers or the archangels if it tickles my fancy, and the ending will be appropriately melodramatic. I'm in the middle of an identity crisis right now and have loads of time on my hands, so HOPEFULLY it'll be out by the Ides of March/James's birthday.

And if you care about my identity crisis...I quit crew. I coxed for the number 1 Division I women's crew team in the U.S. for over a semester, which is certainly exciting, but it wasn't for me. I was overtired, overstressed, and miserable. My grades suffered, I currently have two friends outside of crew, and I couldn't play my cello or write for the school paper. It was kind of like a cult, but now they've cut me loose and pretend that I never existed. Some feelings were hurt, mostly mine, because some very mean words were said, towards me, and I just have to move away from the negative forces in my life (cough ex-coaches cough). With time, I hope to write them into a story, because no matter how horrible they were to me, they'd make excellent, rich literary characters.

And since the last time I haven't had crew was in seventh grade, I'm going through the identity crisis most people have in middle or high school. "I don't know what kind of girl I am", sort of like Juno. But the real adventure begins now! Who knows, maybe I'll follow my heart for once and join a thespian troupe...

Thanks for reading =). It helps to get my feelings out, you know? I feel like I've been in an abusive six-year relationship...with a sport. When you're a rower it takes over your whole life, and now I have to pick up the pieces and make a new life.

...but that's not what this post is about. The 1999 film version of Oklahoma! changed my life. Hugh Jackman in chaps...

I posted a preview of WG Ch.12 at the HPFF forums and Elderly HP Fans! Check it out. I hope to update in early March.

I'm trying to embed video just to see how it works, and this should be a clip from Arrested Development. If you find my sense humor even remotely funny, I strongly recommend this show. Like, with all the conviction I've got. The characters are marvelous and get into such crazy hijinks...sometimes I fall out of my chair laughing. AD is The Office meets Lost meets The Royal Tennenbaums.

Here we see an aspiring actor (Tobias) audition for a commercial, but his wife (Lindsey) may have more to her acting chops that meets the eye. (Sorry if the AD plugging is annoying, but come on! They're having a FIRE SALE!! AMAZING GRACE...save the children! Plus I'm trying to convert people to watching AD so I have someone to talk about it with =D.)

I think the title means "hello" in Korean. I probably shouldn't rely on the foreign language skills I learn watching Arrested Development, but there you go.

Hey guys! Just a little update here. I have about 1500 words of WG Ch. 12 done and I think it's going well. I'm shooting for 4000 but it might be 6000, and still only the first half of what I'd normally deem a complete chapter. Because spring semester is well underway and, well, I go to a hard school (I try really hard not to brag about it, because I'm the last person to care about the Ivy League (I want us to secede), but Brown ain't clown college). Last semester was horrific in the grade department and I really need to step up. So I'm shooting for WG in mid to late March. I will do my best to sum it up in nine words: secret alliances, mistaken paternities, and dark strangers in alleyways.

I hope you all are well, and I hope that you stick with WG despite the wait! I know I'm a cotton-headed ninnymuggins sometimes, and theoretically I should quit fanfiction and focus on what "matters", but this matters to me. That probably falls into either the category of corny or the category of weird, so I think I'll stop there.

Hokay, so I've completed my Detailed Plan for Chizzzapter 12 (I write it as such here because I've come to the realization that my WG notes are almost all in ebonics), and I have a lot that I want to cover. It'll milk a week (or two if I play my cards right) out of the plot, so hopefully it feels like we're moving along. I have no idea what the projected word count is, since it always changes when I actually sit down and write the thing. But my dilemma is whether to split this bad boy into two chizzzapters.

Ch. 11 of We Gryffies is up, entitled "V.O.L.D.E.M.O.R.T." Read it!

K, I literally have one more scene to write for Ch. 11 WG, and I promise that it will be up sooner than projected! (See, I have been writing.) I'm also waiting on this thing for the chapter image...I don't want to spoil the surprise, but the base photo really needs to be edited, and you'll see why.

Yeah! 1500 words of We Gryffies Ch. 11 so far! w00t! (Don't you dare spell w00t with o's instead of zeroes.)

Because I haven't emulated JKR nearly enough (what with using her characters and her world to create my own fiction), I'm going to follow her lead again and wish my characters a happy birthday. (Provided I actually remember, of course.) For the canon ones, I've naturally made up their birthdays if it's not given, so these are just when I like to think these guys were born.