Defying Gravity

End of the Year Meme

2015-01-01T04:13:07Z

Here is my end of the year meme for 2014:

( End of the Year Meme )

General Goals for the year:

1. Do well at St. John's College. Read a lot, make new friends.
2. Volunteer at educational nonprofit(s).
3. Improve at Parkour, lose fat, gain muscle.
4. Continue learning Spanish and start learning German (I'm a few lessons in on Duolingo).
5. Make vids for Festivids, VVC, pleasure.

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Beginning of the school year!...Kind of

2014-09-01T23:40:05Z

Even though I'm not in school right now, the beginning of September always feels like a new beginning to me. It seems like a good time to share my plans for the rest of the year and the time to come as I finally have some ideas of what I want to do.

First a catchup of the last three months. In May, I went to a fun Ingrid Michaelson concert with beerbad and had a great time listening to some of my favorite songs. Mother's Day was pretty sad and I tried to avoid the media but eventually gave in and just scrolled through and watched some sad TV shows and cried some. One of the most fun things I did was go to Malibu State Park and go to this little pond (not sure what the right word is here) where they had cliff jumping rocks and I went to the highest one (about 30 feet) and jumped off of it. It was SO fun and I had been feeling kind of meh about the world and it gave me an adrenaline rush that made me feel happy and full of hope again. I just love feeling like I'm flying and being that high in the air, I really felt like I was in the air on the way down and it felt amazing. I also went to a fun Harry Potter roller skating event where there was a ton of people dressed up and they played Harry Potter songs and it was just really fun even though at the end the music was meh so I put on my headphones and listened to shippy songs for my favorite couples (mostly Kane/Toews). I went to a Memorial Day BBQ with other geeky/fannish type people and had fun playing Cards Against Humanity and talking various TV shows with people. I had a lot of fun going to see the Chicago Blackhawks play the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center in my first live hockey game and I was lucky enough to see it with celli and get to see Toews score a goal right in front of me. celli and I had a lot of fun talking hockey and various real life stuff after the game and it was fun getting a chance to get to know her better. I also went to see a screening of the Mindy Project season finale and got to see a cast Q&A and later got to meet Mindy Kaling for the fourth time - and she remembered who I was for the third time ever. It was pretty cool and she even took a selfie of her and me. I also went to my second cousin's bridal shower and got to catch up with that side of my family and got to see my grandma's sister as well which was nice and I'm looking forward to going to his wedding in November.

In June, I spent a lot of time finishing my Femslash Premiere and my Premieres vid for Vividcon which was a bit stressful but I was ultimately able to finish by the deadline. I was also following the NBA draft and super happy when my favorite player, Tyler Ennis was selected 18th in the draft and another Syracuse player, Jerami Grant went to the Philadelphia 76ers which has a Syracuse player, Michael Carter-Williams who just won Rookie of the Year and who I slash with his friend on the team, Nerlens Noel so I'm looking forward to OT3ing them together. I also started watching the World Cup, following it seriously for the first time ever and fell in love with the USA team, most of all the coach, Jurgen Klinsmann. Jurgen who was a big star in Europe who won the World Cup with Germany in 1990, coached the German team to a 3rd place finish in 2006 (in Germany) but who loves the USA and lives there with his family so he decided to coach the USA team in 2011 and is attempting to turn the team around so it can eventually win the World Cup with the men's team. I really love what he's trying to do and his personality and I have a lot of hope that he can help us win it all so I began to follow the US team and was in ecstasy after we beat Ghana and went to a USA bar for the Portugal game with cenedrawood and was SO HAPPY when USA came back from a 0-1 deficit to be winning 2-1...only to lose in the last thirty seconds in one of the most heartbreaking sports moments ever for me. Thankfully we still had another game against Germany where Jurgen was coaching against his friend, Joachim Löm (who was his assistant coach when he coached Germany) and since I ship them together (thanks to caesaria), it was an entertaining game for me if terrifying. We lost by one but were still able to make it out of the group stages where we played Belgium which I don't even want to talk about because I'm still super bitter and prefer to think about how Tim Howard made 15 saves and Julian Green scored a goal on his first touch even though he's only 19 years old and was another young player that people complained about being on the roster and yet was one of the many players to prove that Jurgen knew what he was doing cause he's an amazing coach <3 Anyways, I started out rooting for Brazil (because they were at home, it meant a lot to them and they spent so much money at least they could get SOMETHING out of it), Germany, England, Italy and I also added the Netherlands after I saw their first game against Spain and enjoyed watching Robben and van Persie play. Eventually Germany and Netherlands were my favorite teams as after watching a documentary about the 2006 German team and falling in love with Robben as a player I wish I could be like, I emotionally connected with them, plus it helped that both teams did super well.

In July, I was really into basketball as the NBA summer league started and all the new rookies, 2nd year players and undrafted players trying to get a spot on rosters were playing and I watched the 76ers team do well in Orlando with my guy, Jerami Grant. The major summer league was in Las Vegas though and I decided to go to Vegas, buy tickets for the games (they're cheap) and let out my basketball feelings while trying to meet some of my favorite Syracuse players since many of them were going to be there. I had an amazing time, getting autographs and talking to Tyler Ennis, Rakeem Christmas (current SU player), Jerami Grant, Michael Carter-Williams, Baye Moussa Keita and Brandon Triche (former SU players) as well as watching a ton of players play for their teams. Unfortunately my car had some issues so I stayed longer than I wanted to but I also had fun hanging out with n0apologies (twitter) who I had met at Wincon and we had a great time talking about our lives, Adam Lambert, Queer as Folk and other fannish topics. I was also there duing the World Cup final and went to a bar to watch Germany play Argentina where thankfully Germany won and I was SO HAPPY as Jogi Low and the team had come soooo close to winning in the last 8 years and always came up a little short so I was super happy for the team to finally win it all and I just had such a fun time celebrating, happy crying and joining in the celebrations at the German bar.

Finally I got back to LA and had fun going to elipie's karaoke birthday party and then going to a Lady GaGa concert with her where we won free seat upgrades and got to hang in the VIP lounge with free drinks and hang out with hot half-naked boys while we could easily see Lady GaGa especially when she came over to the platform right above us. It was super fun getting to hear her sing some of her classic songs and she's an amazing performer so we had a fun time singing her songs and enjoying the performance. At the end of July, I went back home to Syracuse where I spent some time with my dad, caught up with my best friend and hung out with my cats at home. I also drove down to Pennsylvania to visit my cousin's family and spend some time with my aunt. My cousin is starting her own business so I spent a little bit of time at her shop and we also went with her family and my aunt to one of my favorite amusement parks where we used to go almost every year as a kid so it was very nostalgic to be back there again. Speaking of nostalgia, I also went to visit my childhood elementary school and was bummed to see they tore down the playground I had loved although they are building a new one, it's not the same. After that, I went to Vividcon which I'll talk about in a different post but the Wednesday after that, I had an amazing time going to Six Flags Magic Mountain with elipie getting a chance to talk about Vividcon, new vidding ideas and other fannish stuff.

This summer I had planned on taking some courses related to college admission counseling but after a couple of days trying to take them, I realized my heart wasn't in them as I wasn't sure yet whether that's what I wanted to do as it might not be big enough for me career-wise. Thankfully I was able to get a full refund and another thing that affected my decision was a revelation I had thought of while reading books about colleges. I kept having regrets while reading on how I wish I had gotten a true college experience and had gone to a more intellectual school when I realized - I could still do that. There was a college I had first heard about in high school called St. John's College that covered in four years, many of the so called Great Books but without lectures, it's all discussion based or laboratory based as they cover science using classic experiments and original texts for everything. Two of the most interesting aspects is learning Ancient Greek and learning math from classic books like Euclid's Elements which I've always wanted to do to understand more of where the English language comes from and understand the basis of math which I've always though could be interesting in the right context. The college is pretty intense but that's exactly what I want, a place where people want to read and think about some of life's biggest questions by reading some of the most enduring books many of which I've always wanted to read and just needed some more structure and people to discuss them with. I feel like my intellectual development has been pretty stunted the last seven years and I know I need to take a big leap to become the person I've always wanted to be and this college is the perfect way to take my communication skills both written and oral to the next level. I am an ambitious person and I have big dreams of doing things to change the world but I need to build a strong foundation so that I can accomplish that so I think I need to take a risk to go to this college and become the person I want to be.

During the summer I started working on my application which consists of three essays talking about why I want to go to the college, a book that has influenced me and a significant experience that has left an impact on me and I'm working on finishing that up by the end of this month. The college has a January program that I'm looking to get accepted at where by going to school over the summer, I'll be all caught up with the freshman year program and will be a regular sophomore by the time next September comes around (but thankfully I will get a summer vacation right before the first potential Vividcon weekend). The college gives good financial aid so I'm not too worried about the money aspect, the bigger opportunity cost for me is the time but I think the education I'm getting will be worth it and I'll be doing part time jobs, volunteer work and internships during the school years and summer to help me figure out the best work for me to do after college and I always have a backup job as a programmer as well. One of the biggest negatives is the college is in Santa Fe and although the weather is not too much colder than LA (averaging 45-85 plus like 6 snow days blech), it'll still be a big adjustment leaving the city (and friends!) I love to be in a much smaller city with less things to do (although Albuquerque is only 45 minutes away and Denver/Phoenix are semi-close too). But I think it's worth it for this oppurtunity that I can't get anywhere else and I feel like I'll always regret it and wonder what if, if I decided not to do go. Plus I'll definitely be visiting LA during breaks, Escapade and during my free summers so I think I'll be able to survive. Another concern is the book list is not that diverse but I know there are book groups there that cover more classic books written by women, minorities and Eastern writers so I'll be sure to be reading them. Something I'm excited about is they have a lot of sports intramurals so I'll still be able to play soccer, tennis and there's lots of nature for hiking and even rock climbing. Most importantly, I'll finally get to have a true college experience and make lots of new friends as even though the college is small, people are very self-selected towards the kind of people I tend to get along with (minus your obligatory pretentious arrogant idiots) so I'm looking forward to that. It'll be a big life change for me but I think this is the best step I can make in working on becoming who I want to be and for my development to being able to help the world solve the major problems we're facing.

I originally was applying for this fall semester but I was having a hard time being ready for that so I decided to wait til January although I have a plan for what I will be doing in LA until then. A friend recommended to me a friend of hers who has a philosophy PHD and is willing to meet with me to go over classic texts that I want to start reading this fall so I can have some accountability and someone to discuss things with to prepare me for St. John's College. I'm planning on working on doing more reading (besides fanfic of course) this fall as I sample many books from nonfiction to fiction in many genres. I'm going to be focusing especially about reading books about California and LA as I want to work on solving problems in the state and want to become more knowledgeable about the issues surrounding the state. I also am going to be doing some volunteering with various organizations to learn more about LA and start figuring out what exactly I would enjoy doing for jobs. I also have a part time job I'll be working on to earn some extra money. Another big goal of mine for this fall is to start seriously trying to date while I still have time in LA which should hopefully give me more motivation to do it. I'm also continuing to work on improving my Spanish through Duolingo and translating Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone from Spanish to English using my Kindle App Spanish to English dictionary. And I definitely want to spend more time with my friends in Los Angeles while I'm still here.

Another big focus for me this fall is heath and fitness as I'd like to lose about 15-20 pounds before the end of this year. I signed up for an accountability type service which has been good with keeping me on track with my eating and exercise goals. Something inspiring for me was watching Kacey Cantanzaro complete the city finals course for American Ninja Warrior, an obstacle course competition where participants can win 500k for winning the finals course in Las Vegas. That inspired me to look into parkour and rock climbing which are two training aspects that some of the best competitors do. I figured that even if I don't make it, it'd be a fun goal to try to train for the course as it looks really fun and it's something that anyone can accomplish even if they don't have a lot of training when they were younger (unlike most sports). Thankfully there is a parkour (more accurately, freerunning) gym in the LA area and I've already taken two beginner lessons there and had fun practicing in the opening gym sessions. So far it's pretty basic, working on vaulting over objects and precision jumping, jumping from one ledge to another but it's been really fun and a great workout and I look forward to being able to do the crazy workouts I see in the gym. I was super scared about doing a flip from the high ledge into the pit (filled with soft foam stuff) but finally managed to gather my courage and did as well as do some flips on the trampoline. I also attempted to run up the warped wall they have in the gym and tried to jump from one bar to another (not there yet). I've also been into soccer as I really enjoy team sports so I signed up for a three days a week soccer class at my local community college and although it's a bit intimidating as it's all guys except one other girl and many of them want to compete on the soccer team at the college, so far I've been having fun playing (minus getting blisters on my feet from my new cleats). I even scored a goal during a game! We've been mostly just playing games which was a bit disappointing as I hoped to practice some skills work as well but it's been fun and I've been learning a lot even if it's been pretty hot playing during the summer. I've also been keeping up with my strength training workouts since March and been continually adding more weight to my lifts. Food is always tough for me as I hate cooking and love delicious food but I've been making a lot of progress and have lost three pounds so far.

I can't wait for the new TV season! I've been watching some of the trailers for the new shows and have added a few shows that I'm going to check out this fall. While A to Z has a couple of annoying things about it, it also features the Mother from HIMYM and as soul destroying it is seeing her, the show looks really cute and right up my romantic loving alley with the whole matchmaking element. I'm also excited for How to Get Away With Murder as Viola Davis looks amazing in it, the premise sounds fun and deliciously messed up and I will always trust Shonda Rhimes to do crazy things. I'm also going to check out Utopia which fascinates me as I've always loved thinking about how to create the perfect society although the reality show format makes me keep my expectations down. I am also looking forward to checking out Survivor's Remorse which is about a BASKETBALL PLAYER (!!!) who becomes successful and must deal with everything that comes with it which sounds super fun for me to vicariously see that side of things and is produced by Lebron James (who I've come to not hate since he went back to Cleveland) so I'm very curious to check it out. I kind of wish I could watch The Flash because the lead actor is a guy I found SUPER hot on Glee (Sebastian!) but I've sworn off all superhero shows unless it features a female/PoC lead so I'll just be checking out Agent Carter. Mostly I'm going to be listening to friends and critics to see if there are any high quality shows I should check out. I'm really looking forward to The Mindy Project, Faking It and Scandal coming back especially the first two as they feature two of my favorite ships. I'm mostly planning on using the fall to continue to catch up with some well written shows I haven't watched yet including Deadwood which I MUST finish by the end of the year. On the movie side of things, this summer I LOVED Maleficent (Maleficent/Aurora all the way!), enjoyed X-Men: Days of Future Past and am looking forward to seeing The Hunger Games 3, The Hobbit 3 and Annie (love the trailer!). On the sports side of things, my new soccer team is Bayern Munich since they have my favorite player, Arjen Robben, lots of German players from the national team like Müller, Neuer and Götze and my fave USA guy, Julian Green (although he's on loan to Hamburg this year) so I already have an emotional investment in them and will be watching all their games. I'm casually following the English Premier League (mostly for my USA/Germany people) and some college football as well and will be checking out my usual NFL teams this fall (although I'm still super bitter there's no LA team) such as the Bills, 49ers, Giants, Chargers and Jets. We'll see timewise what happens as once NBA seasons starts in late October and Syracuse basketball in November, most of my attention will go to that because YAY BASKETBALL. Hockey will be back in October as well and I will check out some Chicago games sometimes.

Super excited for Festivids! I have about 6 possible nominations at the moment although I worry about qualification for a couple of them but I'm excited about them and the vid ideas I want to make already. Before I get my assignment though, I need to start working on my Escapade vid as that's going to require a time committment and I have another vid idea I want to make for next year that I need to get started on clipping right now to get it done in time for VVC. I have another vid that's almost done that I should hopefully post in the next week as well. I have a couple ideas that require me to stretch my skills that I'm really excited about even if it'll be a challenge, it should be fun to do. Other fun fandom-y things coming up is a bunch of NorCal (and elsewhere) fangirls are planning a Fandom Beach Vacation where we rent a beach house and just hang out all day and I'm so excited to hang out with my fandom friends in November :) I also need to plan out what to do for my birthday in October this year, I have an idea and need to check if it's realistic. I still can't believe I'm going to be 27...is that officially late 20s? Eek. But hopefully with all the plans I have in place, I'll be ready to enjoy this time in my life shortly!

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Yay October! And September update

2013-10-01T20:11:19Z

Happy October everyone! As I posted on Twitter, I'm really excited about this month because it's my birthday month and I have some super fun stuff planned in store. This coming weekend, I'm going to see Gravity with a friend of mine after we do some hiking and on Sunday I'm going to see Maroon 5 (and Kelly Clarkson) in concert!! Soooo excited as I've fallen in love with Adam Levine after watching him being a hilarious, competitive, adorable dork on The Voice who can't stop flirting and being in love with Blake Shelton. HAVE I MENTIONED THEY ARE SUCH BOYFRIENDS??? Who say things like, "I would never cheat on you Blake?" THAT IS A THING THAT HAPPENED.

Ahem. I'm getting ahead of myself. The weekend after that or rather, pre-weekend on October 9th in the evening I'm driving to Las Vegas to go to Wincon! I'm going to be rooming with some awesome SF people and I'm looking forward to seeing nikibee again along with cee_m and many others! October 11 (friday) is my birthday and there will be fannish panels, hanging out with fannish people, a VIDSHOW (of which I have two vids, one premiering), Once More with Feeling and Rocky Horror Show screenings and hopefully a drunken birthday party full of fangirls. I'm sooooo excited! Plus I'm totally going to ride that roller coaster I saw last time. I am going to be going back early Sunday morning but that's because I have tickets to see the Blind Auditions (ie Adam/Blake FLIRTING NONSTOP) of The Voice with elipie! I can't wait!! Other fun things I'm planning on doing is getting a tattoo on my right ankle. It's my first tattoo as I've wanted one for a long time but could never justify the expense. It's going to be Nala from The Lion King like in my main icon. I figure I've been a fangirl of it for 21 years, I think it's a forever thing plus I've always felt my spirit animal, what I've been in another life, etc is a lioness so it's really important to me. The biggest thing for me is I'm going to go skydiving! It's always been in the top 3 things I want to do in my life since I love flying and want to feel like I am if only briefly. Will probably save it towards the end of the month.

A month ago I had an amazing time Labor Day Weekend getting to hang out with nikibee in the Bay Area. We watched Game of Thrones, Teen Wolf and Parks and Recreation and had a vidparty where we watched Vividcon vids with franzeska (who I had a great talk with!), Alice, Michelle, Dani and I think that's all? It was so much fun! We (Nicole, Alice and Michelle) also went to Oakland Pride and got to see En Vogue in concert and it was so great to get a chance to have some good talks with nikibee all weekend. I also went back to San Francisco near where I used to live and work and got to have lunch with someone from Dev Bootcamp which I also visited and got to talk to the founder who changed my life with letting me go to it. Unfortunately I left my favorite hoodie there and haven't been able to get it back :( I also visited the Berkeley campus which is SO BEAUTIFUL! Probably the prettiest one I've ever seen, it's like half nature reserve. Finally I went to a Haven party franzeska (who else? ;)) was throwing and got to say goodbye for a couple hours before I had to leave to catch my flight. Gotta say Southwest was awesome, they gave me a better seat when I complained I didn't know I had to check in for the return flight. It was a super fun weekend and I'm so glad I went!

Other than that, I've been working a lot. We had a big deadline a few weeks ago before our company presented a website at a conference. Some of the weeks I worked on interesting things and that was fun especially getting to pair with my mentor here but a couple weeks I didn't like what I was working on and kept getting distracted by the internetz at work which was less fun. We did go bowling last week as the conference went awesome and that was really fun! I've also been running more and I paid for a personal trainer so I can actually get a REAL strength training workout and that has helped a LOT with developing some muscles. I've always wanted to do chinups so that's my long term goal. I've been thinking about running a marathon next year as I need a big running goal to get me inspired to run more and I want to beat my last time (5.5 hours) and hopefully have a rain free experience. I've been eating a lot cleaner lately and did lose a little weight but got a little bored with it and regressed last week. No worries though, I varied my diet up and am doing better now. If there's anything I learned in the past it's not to give up and let little backslides trip you up.

The big news is I've decided to quit my job soon and go back to college to finally finish my degree. It's something I've always wanted to do and I've had enough of a taste of the real world working on something I kind of like but not love (even with the nice money benefits!) to want to go back to school and work on finding what I really want to do with my life. I'm going to continue study programming on my own and help code for the AO3 along with working on personal projects I'm hoping will lead to possible job opportunities or at least direction. I'm going to go back to community college for Spring 2014 and I'll be applying in the next two months to UCLA, CSULA and CSULB as a Philosophy major. Yes, Philosophy because I've loved the courses I've taken in it, I've always wanted to learn it and it requires a very low amount of credits so I can graduate fast as I'm aiming for May/June 2015. I'm also planning on volunteering at College Track during the time and maybe seeing if after I graduate I can get a job there or at a similar organization. Or maybe I'll do another programming job to save money/pay off debts, I don't know, we'll see.

Let's see...a couple weeks ago, elipie came over to watch vids, vid and talk with jetpack_monkey and I and it was a lot of fun! I've been trying to go to more meetups lately to meet new people and feel less lonely and so I went to a happy hour and met some cool people DTLA and also went to a hiking group last Saturday where I had some good talks with a couple people. The weekend before that I went hiking with my friend, Jen who has turned out to be one of my closest friends in LA even though she's a bit older than me. She used to be in a rock band but now is learning to program so we hang out a good amount to do that. But we hiked in Griffith Park and had a really long talk about life, fun things in our history and the future which was really great.

I've been missing my mom a lot lately. I didn't fully appreciate that when I felt lonely and couldn't reach any of my friends to talk, I could always call my mom and know she'd be there for me. It's just tough sometimes and earlier in the month I was feeling really lonely. I think of her every day whether in small moments or longer memories and it just hurts a lot. I just really wish she was back again :( Last Sunday was the three month anniversary of her death and it feels so far away and yet so close like I can vividly remember getting the call that she had died. I called my dad the other day and it was good to talk to him and hear he's doing well especially after my brother freaked me out saying he couldn't get a hold of him. I'm still terrified he's going to die, I just heard that statistically spouses are more likely to die after one of them dies so even with my dad's health issues, it's even scarier. I'm really looking forward to going back to see him for the holidays and my cousin and aunt as well, both who've been there for me a lot. I went to a meetup last Saturday with a group that's about women who've lost their mothers and it was really helpful talking to other people like me there. Someone said that the worst part is even if you have other people who help fill the hole your mother left, it's not the same as having MY mother there, she's mine and no one is mine in that way. And that's totally how I feel. It was helpful though and we got to smash plates and mugs to help let out the anger :)

On a happier note, I'm so happy fall TV season in back! I'm watching sooo many shows right now, omg. Monday I have How I Met Your Mother (ahhh THE MOTHER, brb happy crying), The Voice (Adam/Blake are SUCH BOYFRIENDS who flirt constantly, yay Christina and CeeLo being back and I love so many of the contestants already), The Blacklist (reminds me of Alias with Sydney and Jack (and Irina)) and I'm watching Mom purely out of love for Allison Janney who is a goddess. Tuesday I'm giving Agents of Shield a couple more episodes before I give up as I didn't like the characters (minus Coulson) and the plot, Brooklyn 9-9 (I really like it! it's funny and GREAT characters), New Girl (close to letting this one go again), The Minday Project (still sadly only love Mindy) and The Voice again (Blake is not doing an all country team again yay!!). Wednesday is Modern Family (yay gay marriage!) and I'm going to give Super Fun Night a try. Thursday is The Big Bang Theory (still sometimes funny, I love Sheldon but my god the gender issues), OUAT in Wonderland (going to give it a try), Glee (KURT/BLAINE DYING FROM LOVE AND SQUEEEE) and Parks and Recreation (still perfect and still LESLIE IS THE BEST). Sunday is Downton Abbey (I need to catch up actually), Once Upon a Time (MORE SWAN QUEEN, less boys pleeease) and Homeland (didn't really like 301 although I LOVE Carrie still). Lucky 7 is getting cancelled soon but I enjoyed the premise and focus on working class families so I'll continue watching. I didn't like Sleepy Hollow at all so I cut that. Any other good shiows I should watch? I'm currently catching up on Scandal (OLIVIA IS SO AWESOME and I love the addicting plots), Spartacus (deserves its own post but AWESOME!!!) and Twin Peaks (so pretty and I enjoy the plot).

On a happy/sad note, Breaking Bad is over :( But it went out on top! I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Hollywood Cemetery to see the Breaking Bad series finale live with the cast and creators of the show. I went early to get good seats and spent the day reading books (including Clash of Kings! still working on my reread) with blankets and my pillow until elipie showed up and we got to go in. We got good seats near the center but further back because there was a big VIP section for all the industry people who showed up. I went to checkout the RV where Walt and Jesse cooked their first meth and people were getting pictures with it and then AARON PAUL showed up and I quickly got in line but then he left but right near me so I was like 6 ft away from me. I got a picture in the RV though and it was so cool! We saw the Pilot of Breaking Bad (introduced by Aaron Paul being amazing) and then saw the Finale which was AWESOME!!! I'm so happy and fully satisfied with it. Sooo much better than The Sopranos and many other shows that can't stick the ending. I'm looking forward to doing a rewatch of the whole show and hopefully making some vids to it because it still needs ALL THE VIDS!! I read Sepinwall's review like my usual tradition (he helped me get into the show) but not reading any more because I'm sick of the negative stuff. I really loved seeing the cast Q&A after the finale, it was great to see it in person.

I've been working on a Game of Thrones vid that I'm really excited about so I'm looking forward to posting that sometime this month. I need to clear these vids off my plate because Festivids is starting!! I nominated some things and I have some requests but mainly I'm excited about making vids for people because I'll have more time than last year without the OUAT exchange. I already have 7 vids I want to make and I'm really excited to get my assignment and start. Last year was amazing and I'm hoping to have a wonderful experience this year as well.

Oh and I'm going to Europe next month! I can barely think about it, it makes me too excited and happy. Some background: I've been dying to go to Europe since like 2005? Since college started definitely especially London and Paris. It's something I want to do before I die and I've had to cancel every plan I've had to do it because of money but now that's no longer an issue! So Thanksgiving week I'm going to go to London, Paris, Munich (to visit infiniterain!!!) and Belgium (to visit indybaggins!) and I'm sooo excited to see some of the touristy stuff I've never seen in person. If you're in the area, let me know as I'd love to hang out! It's going to be an epic adventure I'm sure.

Wow that was long. This is what happens when I don't post for a month. I love that people are posting more to DW/LJ and am going to try to do the same, weekly is a good goal for me. I'm gonna see Laura Veirs with beerbad tonight which I'm excited about! A great start to my October :)

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I came to win, to survive, to prosper, to rise, to fly

2012-04-02T23:41:39Z

So I'm back in Los Angeles. SO HAPPY!!! There's something about this city that makes me feel alive, energized, inspired, whole and fulfilled. The beautiful, wonderful weather helps a lot too. Sunny and 70s!!! It makes me want to dance on the streets of LA or drive with my windows down and sing as loud as I can (I may have done one or both of those things). It's just really good to be back. I took the PCH down from San Francisco even though it took longer and it was SO worth it. It was so beautiful to see the hills, forest, mountains, countryside, cliffs and best of all, the ocean. Wow, it looked even more beautiful than I remembered especially around the Big Sur area. Also got a chance to check out Santa Cruz and Monterey although it sadly got dark before Santa Barbara. It was really nice to get to see the coast again, I haven't done it since 2007 (with a great WL roadtrip!). The night before I also had fun as I went to a gay club in the Castro as it didn't feel like a real San Francisco trip without that. I had too much to drink but someone who I thought was hot danced with me briefly so that was cool. Also I went to Yosemite a couple weeks ago and had fun climbing 5000 ft of mountains. My legs hurt like hell the next two days but it was so worth it and I got some awesome pictures. I did get lost a little in the dark one night but it turned out alright in the end so I can look back on it in a good light now. The falls were so pretty!

I was planning on going back to college but I've had some trouble getting into classes I need so I've decided to not do that and just try to get a web developer job instead. It may take me a few months so I'm going to look for something more temporary in the meantime. I'm really excited about it! The last month has been a lot of fun learning Rails and various parts of the stack and I'm excited about continuing to do it in a Los Angeles environment. Plus I can't wait to hang out with vidders in the area! It's sooo nice to be home.

On top of it, TV is back! I just finished reading Game of Thrones yesterday and although I tried to start the second book, I finally gave in and watched the S2 premiere. It's funny, when I read the 1st book I thought I would have enjoyed the first season more if I had read the books first but now I'm thinking it's better to NOT read the books. Reason being I'm a believer that TV/movies should VERY closely follow the books so little things like dialogue reeeally bother me when they change things or leave stuff out. Part of the problem is I'm reading the books way too close to when I see the TV show as then I remember and get annoyed at everything. For example, I enjoyed the last Harry Potter movie much more because I don't remember a lot of the little specifics of what happened and just enjoyed it for what it was. But anyways, I did love the GoT premiere. The books made me like all the characters a LOT more and now the only one I hate is Joffrey (omg I hope he dies soon). So that's awesome. Arya is still my most favorite ever and I can't wait to see more of her. Also enjoying Mad Men (PEGGY!) although I'm only half through the most recent episode. Sundays are SO awesome now! I do miss Parks & Rec :( Come baaaaaack. Thursdays suck now.

I also went to see the midnight showing of The Hunger Games and LOVED it. No movie could capture the magic of the first book but I loved that it did a great job staying true to the book (they did the smart thing and gave the author screenwriting duties). All of my worries about the casting were thrown away quickly as all the actors totally sold their characters. It was all really beautiful, fun to watch and great to watch with a group of people laughing, crying and making funny comments in all the right places. And I'm so happy it did amazing at the box offic, I KNEW it would. I'm hoping to see it again once I do a reread of the first book which I read in one sitting back in July. If you haven't read it yet, READ IT! It's so addicting and fun to read. Katniss is SO awesome although Cinna is my favorite.

I've been hard at work vidding...vids that are NOT my Club Vivid vid. OOPS. The good news is one of them is almost done and I'm out of the honeymoon phase so I can devote some more time to getting that done along with maybe some other vids I'm working on. It was so much fun to get addicted to vidding something without a deadline and just be into my ship SO MUCH and enjoy seeing them all the time while vidding. It's good to be more productive vidwise again. If anyone want a vid made to order, check out the Vividcon Auction vidders here, there's so many that I wish I had more money to buy!

I still can't believe I'm back here in LA after dreaming about it for two months. There's no place like home...

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A new start...

2011-08-29T20:18:28Z

So things have been up in the air for the last couple weeks but I finally know what I'm doing this fall. Unfortunately although I applied again to appeal the decision (with some great people helping me), Chapman once again rejected my appeal. So I'm not going back to Chapman University. At least I tried my hardest to get back in and now I see it as their loss. After much angsting and thinking it over, I finally found a backup plan that has its own benefits. I'm going to be attending Los Angeles City College this fall and then look to transfer to Cal State LA or Cal State Northridge for Spring (waiting on results now) or Fall of next year. I'm going to be taking some GE and business courses this semester (a speech and health class, computer science for MIS, managerial accounting and Business Law at the moment) and I'm really excited to have a fresh start and do well in them. I also want to start looking for internships-paid would be best but even unpaid would be helpful for experience. Basically I want to not repeat my previous mistakes and actually make the most of college.

The best part is the college is near Downtown LA which is my favorite place in the city so I'm going to get an apartment in the city and live there. I'm soooo excited. For those unaware, downtown LA (referred to as DTLA) is undergoing a revitalization at the moment and there are a lot of people moving there along with new businesses, restaurants, etc popping up everywhere. It's really exciting and there's a lot of activism and the like there to try to improve the community. I love the aura of DTLA, it's so exciting and invigorating and I can't wait to live there. I love being around tall buildings, lots of people, events and fun places to go to no matter where you go. I already found a really cool coffee/sweets shopa, cute lunch place with great food and a beautiful bookstore to hang out in. The best thing that's happening right now is Artwalk which I haven't gone to yet because of conflicts but I'm going to the one in September and I'm dying to go. Basically they close off the streets, tons of people come out to check out the art galleries/restaurants and there are specials and I've heard it's amazing. I really want to get involved in the local community to help create more of a community and help prevent poverty, homelessness and any other social problem around here. I'm really interested in learning more/experiencing more of the educational system (for a few startup type ideas I have) so I'm looking to get involved in tutoring and after school programs that help enrichment. I want to really experience what it's like living there so I can use that knowledge to think of ways to help.

Fandom wise it's been hard to keep up internet wise since I've been going to a lot of free internet places (I'm waiting on money to get my own place). I'm working on reviewing source for a upcoming vid I'm dyyyying to do so that's taking a lot of time right now. One other problem is the PC side of my computer isn't working which is causing another delay in getting my vid up. I hate dealing with this kind of stuff argh. Glad my Mac can bootcamp though, probably need to reinstall Windows. I've also been catching up with Breaking Bad which is AMAZING. I stopped watching S3 in a slow part and then of course it speeds up after that episode. The end of S3 just destroyed me completely and now I have no idea what's going to happen. Jesse is still my total favorite and keeps me from being too depressed about it. But Gus is pretty awesome too and reminds me of Stringer in some ways. I really can't wait for Fall TV to come back (GLEE) as well as Mad Men which I miss a LOT. It's not the same without it and it's usually on in August so I miss it a lot (especially when seeing Banana Republic's clothing displays at The Grove).

I am really looking forward to getting settled here and not being so all over the place. But hey, I'm in LA, I'm looking forward to my future and I feel good about the possibilities of life so I'll take it.

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Glee and Sadness

2009-12-03T06:37:29Z

It's been a day full of ups and downs today. First the ups:

( Spoilers for Glee 112 )

In other great Glee news, both Adam Lambert AND Idina Menzel would love to be on Glee!! So hopefully Ryan will be able to get them both on this season or next at the latest. Next week I will be savoring this last pre-hiatus episode sooo much it's not even funny.

On the not so great side, motivation for college is fading very very quickly. It is getting very difficult to fight my screw it, I don't care side. There have been small victories though and hopefully I'll be able to get some stuff done this weekend. Going to LA this Friday to shoot some photos for my final project, do a gallery report AND hang out with some fans so hopefully that'll go well. Another bad thing is my bike got two flat tires AGAIN after getting them replaced a month ago and I don't have the money to get them replaced. The good news though is that I got a job as an assistant here! Also made some money in an economic experiment here so that helps a lot and lets me buy a hard copy of Adam's CD and not just my free Amazon digital one :)

In sad Adam news, ABC canceled his free concert with Jimmy Kimmel. I am so sad and angry as I had a ticket to go to it. Ugh it pisses me off so much. I am so sick of this kind of crap. Add that to finding out the NY Senate voted down the Gay Marriage bill, I'm disgusted and disappointed by the discrimination in this country. I know we'll win the war in the end but goddamn it losing all the time is depressing. On the good side, Dave Valesky whose my representative who previously was on the fence voted yes! Good to know that maybe my communication with him might have had a tiny impact. So I will have to support him in his next campaign as he's up for re-election and they're sure to use it against him.

sdwolfpup being the awesome person she is started a Vidding Love Meme and my thread is here. It is so great to see all the vidder and vid love going on over there! I am already feeling more motivated to work on my festivids vid this weekend :)

On a Fanfic Love note, I just want to thank ALL the writers out there who write fanfic for all of us in fandom. After reading amazing fanfic over at queenbitchfest, it reaffirmed my thankfulness of writers who create so many stories for everyone to enjoy. It reminds me that true romance exists in the world, that there are endless possibilities and so many different imaginary worlds to explore. I am in awe at the talent of the writers we have. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for bringing me and others so much joy, or dare I say it, glee.

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Music <3

2009-11-27T23:31:07Z

Courtesy of falulatonks, I found a cool site, The Sixty One that's like a combination of Last.fm and Pandora. Basically you listen to music, most of it from new artists and you can save or heart music you like (you only get a certain number of hearts per day). The stuff that the most people like gets featured so it's easier to find. It's a great way to discover new music. I've already found The Orange Peels who I love, they sound like Owl City with more rock. There's also fun quests that are kind of addicting to do in order to gain more hearts and reputation points. If you sign up, if you could say that Anoel referred you, that'd be great :)

I had a good Thanksgiving. Went to a nice restaurant here with some students who stayed over break and one of our Trustees paid for a meal for all of us so that was nice. Also watched some TV including a two parter Will and Grace Thanksgiving episode that gave up nicely in my queue since I'm watching the show right now. I'm on S4 and I love that for this show I love all the main characters equally. I probably love Karen the most though, she cracks me up so much especially when she does her "I feel so bad for you/I'll be nice... *laugh NOT* It is entertaining, funny and delightfully gay. I like it.

After the December 9th episode of Glee, it's not coming back til April 13th. FOUR FUCKING MONTHS!!! *sobs* I don't even know what I'm going to do. Rewatch my DVDs, vid and hang around in fandom a lot I suppose. I don't know what I'm going to do without my usual happiness bringer. Like this week's episode with so much amazing music and character love. Oh and I was thinking of my dream Adam Lambert guest star appearances and I have two. Either he's a rival school's glee club's director who leads a group of kids like him who dress glam rockery and sing great songs and are all edgy and fun. But then it'd be hard to get him to have solos with the kids. So then my second scenario would be to have him be the vocal coach that they invite in so he gets to sing songs and have interaction with Kurt, Rachel and everyone else. It would so be the best thing ever.

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Life, The Universe and Me

2009-11-22T06:39:03Z

( Update about me, college, TV/fandom, Adam Lambert and my plans for next year )

Adam Lambert's CD, For Your Entertainment comes out Monday!! Everyone go buy it, for it is awesome. My favorite songs so far are Music Again (best.chorus.ever.) and Surefire Winners for it's great lyrics (I was born with glitter on my face/My baby clothes made of leather and lace/And all the girls in the club wanna know/Where did all their pretty boys go?...!!!) and I love the pure dancability of Fever (there HE goes, my baby walks so slow...HE!), Strut, If I Had You and For Your Entertainment. I also love Soaked (ORCHESTRA epicness!) and Sleepwalker is ridiculously beautiful. All the songs are just so amazing, I can't even say. He is definitely worth supporting. And he's performing his single for the first time at the AMA's tomorrow! I am so excited I can't even say. I'm sure the concert will be presented amazingly like him.

Speaking of Adam, I have a favor to ask. Please please please if you could click this Demand It link to get Adam, Kris and Allison to perform in NYC (I wanted LA but NYC is ahead so let's go with that-plus I may be closer anyways who knows) it would be awesome. It only takes a minute, I swear. You can put New York City or zip code, 10001 in the box. I need to see some Kradison live in concert!

View all New York City events on Eventful

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Too Much To Do

2009-09-15T22:26:34Z

College is really overwhelming me right now. I feel like the walls are closing in on me and there's not enough time to do anything or give anything the time it deserves. I had fun at the Outwest Bootcamp this weekend but because of that I lost almost my entire weekend so I'm massively behind on these two big projects for my design classes due TOMORROW. And I feel so out of my league because I haven't really done anything like either of them before and I'm afraid I'm screwing it all up. This is not even talking about the vidding and reading projects I'm putting on hold right now and I'm barely watching any TV just Mad Men and Glee (which I'm MASSIVELY and ridiculously in love with and it's completely made for me) and a few other shows (Entourage, Project Runway, Gossip Girl, Supernatural) which all deserve a lot more posting time than I can do right now. And stupid crap keeps bringing me down so I feel like I'm on this roller coasters of highs (good TV, good Adam/Kris fanfic, good conversation) and lows (deadlines, money shit + too much to buy, pressure, other stupid stuff)

Kill me now.

(On another note, it kills me seeing Adam in Syracuse when I'm not there. Stupid dates.)

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Go prompt!

2009-09-05T00:49:26Z

daybreak777 is holding a Itty-Bitty Viddy Ficcy Thon (with Icons too!) this weekend where people leave prompts for short ficlets/vidlets or whatever (any fandom!) and people create them this Labor Day weekend. Prompts close at 12 EST tonight so go leave some! I may be making a few vidlets if all goes well.

Had a bad morning yesterday but college is going pretty good so far! I am actually really enjoying doing homework for my classes (although that may be the beginning of the semester starting). Had two interviews today and those went pretty well although there's a lot of competition so who knows.

The exciting news is my mom might buy me a MacBook!!!!! I've been dyyyying to get one to have a new computer with mutable sound, a battery that works, a keyboard that works and the option to use Mac or Windows so I'm super excited about it. Even if she just wants to do it to get the free ipod Touch/printer ;) It's crazy to be getting so much of what I want all at once. I love it and after what I've been through, I say it's about time.

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Back Home

2009-09-01T16:04:31Z

So I'm back at Chapman. I got in Sunday night at 10 pm Pacific time and was just glad to finally make it here. Sunday morning started good with the beeeeeeautiful Colorado mountains which I fell instantly in love with and Utah had some amazing ones as well. But I got sick of driving on them and driving in general so it just got bad after that with the exception of Las Vegas which I drove around in for 10 minutes and was taken by all the crazy grandiose stuff they have there. But yeah, first I almost run out of gas because I wasn't paying attention and then in California it got really congested and full of idiot cars swerving in and out and I just wanted to get home and it sucked a lot. It's a wonder how much Bale Out will describe your mood. But I was focused on getting back to Chapman that night and made it home and it was so beautiful seeing everything again for the first time driving. We Are The Champions was my mood music then.

Of course, then my ID card didn't work to get me into my room so I had to go through an hour process of trying to get it to work and then having to prop my door open to bring my essential stuff in. Not a good day. Thankfully yesterday was much better. I woke up and met the person who I'm sharing a bathroom with who is really cool, likes Dexter and we get along pretty well so it's nice to finally have a roommate whose a bit more like me. Definitely think I might have a fun so happy about that. I also got in off the waitlist of a class I reeeally wanted to take, Foundation Course in Design and was SO excited at the first project which is the collage type thing that I have a ton of ideas for. Good to be excited about a class and get a feeling that it fits me perfectly. Got my ID fixed and then had lunch in the new dining hall which is amaaaazing. It's huge with pretty lights and giant art murals and cute booths and I love it a lot. The new building where I live is generally awesome and I can't wait to try the rock climbing wall.

My other two classes were okay, History of Political Philosophy is where I'm excited about the content and there's not a ton of work and I like my Dancing in World Cultures professor a lot (funny and cool is a good combination) so at least some of the writing for that will be worth it. Then I was going to a floor dining together dinner thing but we took too many people on the elevator and got stuck on the second floor for 30 minutes. Not fun in a lot of heat, I can tell you that. Then I had my Introduction to Graphic Design class which was...intense. Really scared for it as it's all, this is the real world, everything has to be professional, lots of assignments, etc etc. I just really want to do well more than any class I've ever taken so it's a lot of pressure. Thankfully I could go back to my single room and get some alone time and enjoy some Adam who makes everything better.

Way behind on my Flist and still have to get stuff from storage and apply for jobs and a bunch of other housekeeping things but thankfully I only have one class today so I have lots of time. I'm a bit overwhelmed though, there's so much to do and so much to learn and I don't know how I'm going to do it all. It is really nice to be back in California, it makes me happy and I have a wonderful view from my floor where you can see the city.

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Road trip! Road Trip!

2009-08-26T19:10:45Z

Soooo...change in plans. Instead of flying on Friday to California, I am DRIVING there tomorrow in my car!!! OMFG. I'm going to see so many states I've never seen before which is exciting. I've never driven for such a long time and all by myself and holy crap, this is actually happening!

The plan is to drive through NY, Ohio (Cleveland), Indiana, Illinois (Chicago) and Iowa on Thursday, Nebraska (Omaha), Colorado (Denver) and Utah on Friday and the rest of Utah, Nevada (Las Vegas) and California (!!) on Saturday. Of course this is subject to change based on how long I can drive and whatever else happens but yeah, going to be a long ride. If anybody is along that route (highways 90, 80, 70, 15) and wants to meetup for lunch/dinner or whatever, let me know. Going to bring LOTS of podfic (recs welcome especially long ones!) and audiobooks so I should have plenty to listen to.

I am SO psyched to have a car in the fall! The amount of freedom I'll have, to go wherever I want and not have to worry about getting around is so amazing. I'm overwhelmed right now by that and the fact that school starts in less than a week! Gah. Really exciting though. Of course I'll be without internet most of the time so don't expect activity from me then.

Eeee road trip! *sings* See the USA in your Chevrolet...Too bad I don't have an Impala ;)

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Fandom Love (Mad Men, Project Runway, Adam/Kris) + College

2009-08-23T19:18:22Z

Mad Men's back YAY! I got a download from the hotel and watched it Monday morning and have resisted getting too into it before I finished all my VVC writeups (okay I do have a couple more coming but those are not as much write asap). But here's my episode thoughts on the third season premiere!

( Spoilers for Mad Men 301 )

I love this show. I love that it doesn't do what I expect, I love that it uses metaphors, I love the slowness, I love the prettyness, I love all the characters (or love to hate) and I love the history of it. And I'm so psyched that we're going to get more Sal this season! As I said at VVC, if this is the way fall TV is going to treat me, I'm going to be a very happy person this fall.

It is SO good to see the Mad Men fandom giving Sal some love. Makes me super happy :D
Links: Great Bryan Batt (Sal) interview
Old Hollywood Comparisons with Mad Men
Bryan Batt at Times Square

I am so jealous of the people who got to see Mad Men in Times Square. I love seeing Bryan Batt there and the communal viewing is so cool. I wish there was a lot more of that kind of opportunity in the world.

More Mad Men tonight OMGYAY!

And then Project Runway came back which I'm super excited about!

( Spoilers for Project Runway 601 )

And then I've fallen more and more in love with Adam, Kris and Adam/Kris. Been reading some wonderful fanfic at night. My favorite so far is Apples Are Not The Only Fruit (Adam/Kris AU, NC-17) which makes me SO HAPPY. Like watching Save The Last Dance over and over again, bouncy squee kind of delight. It just perfectly captures fan squee and has a wonderful slow buildup and is basically perfect. They're just SO CUTE! It reminded me of Seduction of the Desert Prince and not just because of the fruit love. Also I loved The Fairytale Story of Adam and Kris (Picspam with captions) which is filled with hearts and flowers and sparkly unicorns!

I am just experiencing am overload of fannish squee right now with vidding/Vividcon, Mad Men, Project Runway, Adam/Kris and yes, The West Wing, I am still madly quite in love with my show. To add to that, now that Vividcon is over, it is beginning to hit me that I'm going back to college in a week OMG! Well, Friday actually. I'm the most excited I think I have ever been this year mostly because I am doing a major I'm really interested in learning about AND I have my own room (and soon car eeeeee). And I know I'm so very privileged for getting all this which is why I'm so over the moon in getting it. I just really *need* a place to myself even if it's only to be able to ask over friends and not have to apologize to a roommate for it or to be able to dance crazy and not fear a roommate walking in. Plus I'm super excited to be back in California and SoCal and with a car, I can actually explore it so much better! And this year I really want to focus on creative pursuits and getting marriage equality in CA and I'm super excited about doing both. I'm going to the OutWest Bootcamp at USC in September and I can't wait to learn more about running campaigns (in terms of overturning Prop 8).

I can just feel that this year is going to be amazing and I feel so much more in control of who I am and what I want to be. Getting my VVC reports done for once helped show I can get things accomplished even overwhelming, tempted to procrastinate ones. I know I can create the life I want and I'm excited to be on this journey and just, yay life! It is truly an awesome thing right now.

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NYC Writeup

2009-08-10T05:12:55Z

The videos will have to come later as I'm too tired now to edit them all together but here's what happened when I went to NYC and saw Adam/Kris/David, Allison Janney and fans...

( Details of my NYC trip )

And that was my trip. I'm just glad I didn't lose my backpack this time and nothing went disastrously wrong. It was amazing really. And it made me look forward to Vividcon so much more because there really isn't anything like hanging out with fans. It's just satisfying in a deep kind of way. Anyways, thanks to everyone who I hung out with for making my trip so much fun! I'm thinking of going back to NYC actually to see the ball drop. We'll see...I think I am going to have to get really into Allison Janney and Adam Lambert because they are too awesome to be ignored.

On another note, have I mentioned I'm getting a car in January? I'm soooooo excited!! It'll help me get around in LA and I'll actually be able to go out and night and do stuff and not have to worry about sucky public transportation. The freedom!! I really can't wait. I will need to buy a TV for my dorm and I'll have to spend some money on that because I love big tvs and don't think I can settle for a small one. Can't believe I'm going back to college in less than three weeks. I miss California a lot though so that'll be good.

I can't believe in one week I'll be watching Mad Men. At Vividcon!

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From LA to NY

2009-06-04T00:13:30Z

So back in Syracuse again. Ehh. The worst is seeing events in LA and not being able to go to them like the Paley event with Hugh Laurie. At least it's not the whole cast/crew I guess. I keep reminding myself that this should be the last summer I have to do this. The good thing is I get to see my kitties again :)

I went to LA the night before I left and had an AMAZING time. First I went to The Kills concert, didn't have a ticket since I just learned about it but I hoped to score one and did. It was easy actually, didn't even have to ask. But it was my first real concert and I had a blast. I did have to stand through two hours of other bands and wait for awhile for them to appear but when they did it was one of the best experiences of my life. Cause let me tell you, The Kills in concert are AWESOME. They played a whole bunch of my favorite songs like URA Fever, Sour Cherry, Cheap and Cheerful, Alphabet Pony, Black Balloon (someone actually had a black baloon!), Fried My Little Brains and No Wow among others. I wished they had played Cat Claw and What NY Used to Be but was happy with what I got especially Sour Cherry. I just loved the energy of being with all the other fans and singing along and most of all getting to see the artists perform. They are just so amazing in terms of charisma and sexiness and really getting into the music. And they'd get close to us, I was in the fourth row or so and a few times it looked like he was looking at me even if he wasn't. It's so indescribable. And after they left, we made a lot of noise and they came out again and played Hook and Line and another song with the other band, The Horror. Towards the end they fell on the floor and got all tangled up in each other, it was funny. I can definitely get now why people go to concerts, I must go to more.

Then I biked to Factory Nightclub in West Hollywood which wasn't too far. I liked it a lot, very big, had big screens like Club Vivid with pretty lights and confetti and many pretty boys :) It started out perfect too as I was high from the concert and went up to the bar and started talking with Jonathan who was super nice to me and we talked about a couple things before he hugged me and left. Then I gulped down a drink and went out to dance and just was transported to a place where I could dance my heart out and not care what anyone thought. They played a Lady Gaga song (not Just Dance breaking my clubbing record at four but I came in late so I'm sure I missed it) and best of all, Girlfriend so I could yell out the words pretending it was the House vid up on the screen. They also played Circus which was SO much fun not only because I imagined it being the Star Trek vid but because I accidentally hit this guy (not the good part) and then he came over to dance with me and it was so much fun. I danced to they chased us out and I'm sure part of the free part was the alcohol but it just felt like one of the best experiences of my life. Mmmm.

Of course the crappy part came after that when I had some trouble getting home since the freaking subways close in LA at night...don't even get me started. I decided to bike down to try to catch the bus I needed to take...it took longer than I thought. It was nice to see some of LA though and I managed to catch the Downtown Disney bus so it all worked out in the end. Managed to get a few hours of sleep before I had to get up to pack and take my stuff to storage. Barely managed that in time but I got home alright so it all turned out okay.

I got my job back as soon as I came home so at least I'll have some money. Been working this week in the morning and then going home and napping in the afternoon. Last Tuesday I went to Buffalo to visit my grandma since she had a seizure earlier in month and wasn't doing so well although she was home with people taking care of her. She can't really talk except for a few hard to understand words (think Failure to Communicate) but can see and understand people talking. It's so sad to see her that way :( Makes me appreciate my life and health more at least. Finally got internet there last Sunday (see West Wing post). Also spent some time with my cousin (first removed) and she was really nice. Turns out we both watch Ugly Betty and like Harry Potter so that was fun to talk about. Also in other family news, my favorite cousin is pregnant and due in August so that'll be the first baby of the family I know. I don't know what to think, we'll be cousins first removed but I like my cousin much more than my brother so I care more about this kid than any other ones. We'll see what happens.

In good Chapman news, my new major got approved! And I did really well with grades, much better than I thought :) Got two A's, an A- and a B+ so I'm really happy with that since two of my professors must have been very kind to me. A bit worried about money for next year but hopefully that should work out alright. Next year I'm taking Introduction to Graphic Design, Computer Science II, History of Political Philosophy, Foundation Course in Photography and Dance in World Cultures (GE). I'm looking forward to it although bummed I can't take History of Television (same time as major class, too many credits unless I wanted to overload myself).

Trying to work on my Premiere vid and not freak out about time and getting it done. The Vividcon schedule came out and once again I'm forced to make tough decisions between panels and vidshows. Probably going to do all panels except my own of course (I'll need to find someone to take detailed notes on Vid Watching 101-price I pay) but it's so frustrating to have to choose between Also Premiering and Understanding Audience *sigh* Ah well, better to have too much to do than the opposite. Had another vid idea for The Wire which I do like but it's so frustrating that I keep getting ideas that aren't what I want: interesting exploration of the people and ideas expressed in the show.

Reeeally hoping Federer will win the French Open this year! Nadal left it open for him so I'm calling it as fate for him to beat Pete's record by winning the only grand slam that Sampras never won. God, how I love them. Hope he doesn't let me down!

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Let the old week end and the new one begin

2009-05-04T23:27:21Z

So glad this week is over. It was deadline hell week over here with a big hw assignment due on Tuesday and a test the same day. And then I worked most of the next three days on my Club Vivid vid, freaked out about it being a little late and then learned I had extra time til Sunday (had a self-imposed LJ sabbatical to work). THEN I of course forgot to turn in an assignment that's going to have BIG grade ramifications *sigh* You know those times when you can't stop laughing because everything keeps going wrong, kicking you when you're down and there's nothing else you can do but laugh? (and then you weep) Have done that twice this weekend. This is my life. Yesterday I took a break and watched TV and relaxed because deadlines are of the evil for a chronic perfectionist procrastinator like myself. On the good side, done with the vid which I like very much (was in sucktitis for awhile there) and VERY excited to do my Premiere vid. It's a good reminder that vidding with my heart greatly increases my motivation levels.

I'm on Dreamwidth! My account is here (does anyone know how to get the little DW user symbol?). As mentioned previously, I'll be crossposting and leaving comments open on both sites. I'll be moving to DW once I add everyone on DW (it's coming along slowly) and customize my journal so I like the way it looks. I'll be making a filter on LJ for non-crossposting people so I don't have to read things twice and since I don't want to defriend people. I'm just excited open beta is finally here and it's actually happening. Paid accounts are only $3 for a month and there are plenty of free invite codes flying around (check my friendsfriends if you need one). And bonus: no advertising whatsover. Including anti-gay marriage ones that were found on LJ the other day, joy joy. My prediction is most of fandom will migrate in 1-2 years but who knows.

Have I mentioned I lost my old hard drive? Yeah, it was going to cost 650 to fix WITH the discount (originally 200 more) and no way can I afford that. So I lost my vid collection and lots of important documents and clipping for a vid. Ugh. As I'm rebuilding, I have to ask: can people make zipped documents of ALL their vids? Because it'd be so much easier to just extract that and not have to redownload every single link. I'm just saying, it'd be nice for the lazy among us. I will of course do the same.

I still have lots of stuff to catch up on and it's kind of overwhelming. On the good side, my roommate's been gone all weekend and next year I'm getting a single!! I am SO EXCITED because I really need my own room. I like my privacy. Plus it's in the Film/TV living learning community so I'm happy about that and hope to meet some cool people. Although as I have been reminded this semester, I really suck at making good friends. It's just so hard to figure out if people really want to hang out with you or how to ask them (like Fraser in Burning Down the House!!) and whether you can trust telling them the more intimate parts of your lives and how. Blah the internetz are so much easier.

I have the last Pushing Daisies episode in my posession but I haven't watched it yet. I don't want this show to be over :( God, what a tragedy. DAMN YOU ABC. I've been so cynical about ratings and shows being saved (Chuck, TSCC, Dollhouse) because it's just all about the money as shown by ratings and it's so depressing. I want to help change it but I don't know if I can either ability wise or in terms of ideal career wise. We'll see I guess. In good news: there's going to be a special preview of Glee at Paley next week!! I am soooo going, I've been dying to see this show. And I'm hoping and praying that Victor Garber will show up...I'd die of happiness. At least I'll finally get to use my membership since the last two times I've been foiled with car troubles and vacation trip.

I've been catching up on Desperate Housewives since Marc Cherry's coming to my school this Tuesday. SO excited! He's supposed to give great presentations. But I'm totally loving this show and I can't remember why I quit it. It has exactly the kind of funny that I love, the deliciously evil kind and omg that is so horrible, I can't believe she just said that (I love her). I love all the characters (well Susan's a bit boring) but Bree, Gabby and Lynette are made of awesome and deliver the best smackdowns. It's so much fun to watch. I'm in mid-S3 right now, hoping to be done with it by tomorrow night.

Are episode titles/writers spoilers? If so: ( Future House episode title and writer spoilers ONLY (nothing about the episode) )

Oh god, guys I am so in love with House/Wilson I can't even. Like last night I was all GIDDY watching vids of them and listening to vidinspiring music and omgtheyaresoinlove. Everything I say seems so inadequate to describe them and my love for them. THEIR LOVE IS SO DEEP AND UNSAID! It's House Day yay! And one more week til the finale. All is well in my world.

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