I feel as though I've started the year off on the right foot by doing housework and working on the Christmas presents. Those to whom I owe them will be glad to hear that they progress. :) When I have a timeline for their completion, I'll be sure to share it with you guys, because deadlines do motivate me.

My parents and I went to see Sherlock Holmes last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am now engaged in reading the books, something that I hadn't attempted since the age of twelve. I didn't enjoy them at the time (I believe I got halfway through 'A Scandal in Bohemia' and gave up), but I am enjoying them very much now. And if my writing tonight seems somewhat formal, the books are the reason for it: I find that I tend to pick up writing and speech patterns when I read or watch something.

Some of the trailers shown look intriguing. I was particular interested by the trailer for Clash of the Titans. Further research revealing that it will star Sam Worthington of Avatar fame and that it is based on the myth of Perseus have cemented my desire to see it. I am somewhat disappointed that my initial impression - that someone was going to dramatize the war between the Olympian gods and the actual Titans - turned out to be incorrect, but I concede that the story might be a little hard to tell. You'd have to go right back to the beginning of creation to properly explain what was going on. So, that's on my list of things to see, despite the fact that poor Hades has once again been shafted and cast as the villain. Poor guy. He's possibly the least offensive member of the Olympian pantheon, practically the only one who doesn't ruin the lives of humans for passion or spite, and yet the fact that he's the god of the dead means that he's automatically marked out as a perfect villain. For goodness' sake. Why not put Ares as the villain? He's the god of war - it should come easily to him. Or Hermes? I'd definitely go see a movie where the messenger of the gods created a divine war for the sake of mischief. Poseidon? Zeus? What about the goddesses? Admittedly Athena would make an unlikely villain, but she has her warlike tendencies. Aphrodite? She and Eros have weapons that are practically made for villainy. What about a Demeter who really honestly snapped when Hades took Persephone? One who didn't just settle for not letting anything grow, but actively started to cause harm? Hestia - I can't even recall a myth that involved Hestia as a major player. She's the goddess of hearth and home, but if you break up a home you have a good start at messing up whole countries. Eris is the goddess of strife, she's practically made for 'bad guy'. None of the Olympian gods are paragons of virtue, so I'd like to see a little variety in who gets the role of advesary.

Ahem.

Still rewatching Ergo Proxy, noting down what I can. I'm still making up some more detailed notes, but after reading through that ramble I did last time, I think it might be beneficial to separate the information into some logical categories. I'm also planning to start up a Wikia for it if I can find a few interested people. That should be fun.

Even though I still have an hour and twenty-one minutes until 2010 officially rolls in, HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 

Just letting everyone know, nominations for the 2009-2010 season of the Genesis Awards, for FF7 and FFX, are closing today. If you have any last-minute noms, now is the time!

Happy Birthday to elanor_pam !  I hope you had a lovely day and did something you really enjoy!

So... the parental units are safely back home as of about 15 minutes ago.  It was lovely to have them visit, and I'm glad they came... but I'm also sort of relieved to have the house back to normal.  Just the puppies, the hubby, and I.  My mom is a rather stressful guest (I cannot count the number of times she got on my nerves trying to do the dishes will we or nil we).

FYI, I will be sending out doujinshi and Cloud Strife scent samples next Wednesday (January 6th).  Things should have calmed down at the post office by then.

Hopefully over the next few days I'll get to write something!

Happy holidays to everyone, and best wishes for the new year!

Better known as The Rev of Avenged Sevenfold, James 'Jimmy' Owen O'Sullivan was found dead at his home in Huntington Beach on Monday, December 28, 2009, at 11:00 a.m. He was 28 years young.
The Orange County Police are currently investigating his death, citing natural causes.

Jimmy left behind a wife, and the remaining four members of Avenged Sevenfold.

It seems cruel that The Rev's life was cut so short, seeing as A7X were only just coming upon the best of their career, with no less than four studio albums, a live album and an all access DVD. With their previous self-titled album being critically praised and an upcoming album slated for a 2010 release, one wonders why Jimmy's time had run out.

Known as one of the world's best drummers, skilled in the playing of numerous other instruments, a superb vocalist when needed and a talented songwriter, The Rev will be remembered by the fans of Avenged Sevenfold for his countless pranks and prevalent good humour.

Rest in peace, Jimmy - you will be sorely missed, but kept alive within the hearts of all A7X fans world-wide.

Title: Guide Me Home
Characters/Pairing: Ursa/Hakoda
Summary: They were engulfed in war and had already lost so much when circumstance pulled them together. (Eventual Ursa/Hakoda, takes place during the show, without contradicting canon.)
Rating: T

Previous Chapters: (Chapter One) (Chapter Two) (Chapter Three) (Chapter Four) (Chapter Five) (Chapter Six) (Chapter Seven) (Chapter Eight) (Chapter Nine) (Chapter Ten) (Chapter Eleven) (Chapter Twelve) (Chapter Thirteen) (Chapter Fourteen) (Chapter Fifteen) (Chapter Sixteen)



( Chapter Seventeen: The Northern Water Tribe )

Or perhaps 'overhaul' is a better term. I printed off my NaNovel today and set about Post-It noting it to within an inch of its life. I got through eighty pages' worth before I was forced to concede defeat for the time being: this was the result of a combination of the difficulties of Post-It noting on writing that has completely gone off the rails from the intended path of the story, and running out of the orange sticky flags I was using to mark something that had to be cut out. Tomorrow I will go to the newsagent and get more. I might even finish my notes tomorrow and then I can get down to re-outlining and then rewriting.

I have to say, it's kind of awesome to have the physical thing in your hands, even if it looks nothing like a book.

Happy Christmas, everyone!  I hope you are all having a wonderful day!!! 

I finished watching Ergo Proxy, having received it for Christmas, and I have just one thing to say: OWWWWWWWWWWWW.

To elaborate: my head. It hurts. The Mind Screw, it is strong with this series.

Oddly, the greatest effect this is having on me is to want to rewatch the series and make lots and lots of notes. It might be giving me a headache reminiscent of the one I got reading an overview of human philosophy in three hours, but my love of theorising is bubbling to the surface. In that, this series is perfect - there's enough information and hints to give you a good base, but there's also plenty of room for speculation and you really have to work to figure things out. I love it! Said note-taking might well be my task over the next few days.

Sadly, I think that the best way to sum up my relationship with this series would be to cap Weiss impaling Nero and use that as the icon. Oh well.

Since most of you on my f-list are what my mother commonly refers to as 'Northern Hemispherites', I thought I'd post some Australianised lyrics to traditional Christmas carols. :3

( Jingle Bells )

( Deck The Shed )

( The Holly And The Ivy )

( We Three Kings )

I'd provide some of the original ones, but Youtube has failed me. I'm very disappointed. If I ever upload them or find someone who has, I'll post them. :3 Because no Christmas should be deprived of 'Father Christmas Showed Me How To Yodel'.

I'm behind again, so we have three songs today:

First, (Day 26) we have Martina McBride's version of O Holy Night:




Next up, Silver Bells performed by Patti Page -- this is one of those songs that doesn't seem to have many modern interpretations.




And lastly, Steve Lawrence with The Night Before Christmas.  Truly different -- I don't think I've heard this song done this way by anyone else.

It's amazing the things you find when you actually finish unpacking after moving across country.  ¬.¬  I think I'll take a video of my office later, so you can see the environment I work in.  (Jawas and fine china and sonic screwdrivers and Cloud action figures and Russian lacquer boxes and stuffed, talking Kero-chans... the video would probably explain a lot.)

ANYWAY...

I have three extra copies of a mini-doujinshi Erin Prendergast did of the first part of Heart's Ease. Anyone want one?  (First dibs to the RK fans on my f-list, but if they don't want them...)

Also, these are FREE. GRATIS. 

Title: Guide Me Home
Characters/Pairing: Ursa/Hakoda  
Summary: They were engulfed in war and had already lost so much when circumstance pulled them together. (Eventual Ursa/Hakoda, takes place during the show, without contradicting canon.) 
Rating: T 

Previous Chapters: (Chapter One) (Chapter Two) (Chapter Three) (Chapter Four) (Chapter Five) (Chapter Six) (Chapter Seven) (Chapter Eight) (Chapter Nine) (Chapter Ten) (Chapter Eleven) (Chapter Twelve) (Chapter Thirteen) (Chapter Fourteen) (Chapter Fifteen) 

 

 

( Chapter Sixteen: Training Days )         

Today we have the Little Drummer Boy, performed by Percy Faith & Orchestra & Chorus. 

I got three wonderful things in the mail today--a gift from a friend (THANK YOU!!!!!), a CD I had ordered, and a Christmas card from Faith's and my publishing company.  There was a handwritten note on the back of the envelope from Ramona (the head editor), saying thanks for my patience and that she'd be in touch shortly after the New Year to get our book moving.  It was lovely and very nice to hear from her personally.  The inside of the card also had a lot more signatures than last year--it looks like they hired more staff.  :)

Today we have "I'll be Home For Christmas" performed by Doris Day.  She has such a warm, sweet voice! 

When my husband was driving me to the airport around 5 pm, the roads were really icy and slippery.  They were like mirrors, reflecting the glow of the streetlights all too well.  As we headed down a hill, a car chose to cross our path instead of stopping at the intersection.  I guess they didn't think they would be able to stop...but what made them think we would have any more success with the added element of gravity working against us too???

In any case, our brakes only slowed us down marginally and we slid inexorably down the hill.  At the last second, my husband steered the car to the left to avoid hitting the back end of the other car.  We didn't hit them!  Whew!  But the slight turn to the left was enough to send our car into a slow spin and we continued our slide down the hill diagonally and then backwards.  Ack!  Luckily for us, there was no other traffic on the road at the time.  Yay!  Then we noticed a car parked along the side of the road...and we were headed straight for it.  Nooooooooooo!!!!!  I noticed that there was a bit of fluffy snow along the shoulders of the road and fleetingly hoped that enough of it would collect behind our tires to provide us with sufficient friction to stop.  I prayed and willed the car to stop with everything I had, waiting all the while for the dreaded CRUNCH to come.

Our car stopped.  My husband and I looked at each other and then toward the back of the car.  The parked car was extremely close but neither of us had heard or felt anything to indicate contact had been made.  We checked again.  Nope, no contact.  Thank God!!!  I exhaled the breath I'd been holding.  We got the car pointed the right way again and continued on our way.  More traffic came along seconds later and I was thankful yet again for the timing.  Things might have gone differently if they'd been there just a few seconds earlier! 

Right. Guys. If you haven't seen Avatar, please. Do yourselves a favour. Go down to the cinema. Get a ticket. Buy yourself enough snacks to last you for two hours. Then go into the theatre, sit your butt down and watch. This. Film.

Now, I am a sap. I get very emotionally involved in films (and other things). But Avatar wins out over anything else I've seen for the sheer amount of times I nearly burst into tears. Not because it was sad (OK, there were sad bits. Of course you're going to have sad bits, otherwise you wouldn't have a good set-up for awesome finales) but just... Sheer emotion. I nearly cried for joy. I nearly cried for anger. I did actually cry over the sad bits, though I tried to control myself so as not to wreck the experiences of the others in the cinema. (My mother told me later she cried, too. This makes me feel slightly better, because it takes a lot to make my mother cry.)

Just... Ho. Ly. Shit. (Yes, there's the reason I put the warning in the title.) I think I just found something I could love even more than Transformers. Maybe. By an infinistesimal amount. When it comes out on DVD I will watch them one after the other and see which sends me into greater heights of emotion.

An awesome, awesome film. Great experience. I need to find the soundtrack ASAP.

...Oh, and I turned eighteen today.

Today we have Bing with 'It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas'... which has to be one of the longer titles of the season. 

 In addition to the Christmas concert, my church also holds something called the Shining Star Banquet for needy families and seniors around Christmastime.  Those guests are served a turkey dinner and given some gifts.  For about a month beforehand, a tree in the foyer is decorated with stars.  Each star has written on it a suggested gift for a needy person and its approximate monetary value.  People from the congregation buy items, donate their money and/or volunteer their time to make the Shining Star Banquet a special and positive experience.

This year, I decided to volunteer my time instead of buying items because my finances are pretty tight.  Since I was planning to be in Edmonton on Dec.16, I couldn't serve during the banquet but I was able to help out with some prep work the day before on the 15th.  Yep, that's the same day I flew out to Edmonton.  It was a very long day.  I woke up early to volunteer during the earlier shift (so I was able to finish packing for my trip and whatnot in the afternoon) and my tasks consisted of wrapping food gift baskets and peeling mountains of potatoes.  Luckily for me, I already had experience doing both!  It just goes to show that no experience is ever wasted! ;)

I also met and chatted with a really lovely and interesting woman named Lois while we divested potatoes of their skins.  She's a mother of four and two of her children were adopted from China.  She's also lived in some other countries (not just visited as a tourist) and it's allowed her to better appreciate both Canada and other cultures even more.  We also discovered a shared love for tea and shy but smart and caring husbands. :)

 In the middle of the week (Dec. 9 & 10), I managed to squeeze in a short trip to Toronto to visit my friend & fellow classmate, D, who I basically hadn't seen since May.  She was finishing up her music therapy internship at Bloorview Kids Rehab and offered to give me a tour there.  So, I took a Greyhound bus to Toronto, inadvertently gave the public transit there a "donation" (paid too much due to ignorance and confusion - it was my first time using the TTC!), sloshed through much rain and slushy puddles (rain in Dec still seems so wrong to me) and eventually found my way to Bloorview.  There, I met up with my friend, made the acquaintance of a couple of other music therapy interns and went on a tour of the facility.

Bloorview Kids Rehab is a beautiful hospital facility with access to numerous awesome programs and resources for kids with disabilities or special needs.  I would definitely take my child there if I had one that needed special care or treatment.  Some things available there that were brought to my attention - music therapy (of course!), art therapy, a spiral garden, a swimming pool & Snoezelen rooms.  I even saw a couple of kids ride around inside the hospital on special tricycles!  That looked like so much fun! For more info about Bloorview, this link is a good place to start.  Their list of programs and services is pretty impressive so I'd also recommend you take a look at that too if you browse their site!

( What happened after Bloorview )

***On a side note, look at me, I'm embedding links and using lj cuts!!! O.o

 I signed up again to be in my church's Christmas concert, which they consider to be "a living Christmas card to the community."  Nice idea, eh? :)  In the week before the performances, I was there on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday for rehearsals and then Saturday and Sunday for the actual shows.  I almost felt like I should just camp out there!

We had a great concert for people to enjoy though.  I knew this church had a lot of musical talent but I didn't realize just how much until this year!

  ( Here's a look at what we had in the concert. )

The performances went well.  The first one had an audience of about 450 to 500 people.  The second one had around 700 and the last one had a whopping 850!  We ran out of seats 20 minutes before the third show had even started and had to hurriedly collect chairs from elsewhere in the church to provide more seating!  I guess we must've gotten some good reviews! :)

 It's been an eventful couple of weeks and I'm in dire need of a post!  This one will be an overview of what's happened:

1. Christmas in Concert
2. Toronto & Bloorview Kids Rehab
3. Shining Star volunteering
4. near car accident
5. flying to Edmonton for Christmas

I've decided to post separate entries for each of these otherwise the one post would be too massive!