raloria

:: There's more than FanFic out there: In the past I've read (or tried to read) a couple of Oprah's Book Club selections. When I saw her new choice of "A Tale Of Two Cities" & "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens, I figured it was another good opportunity to broaden my classic literature horizons. I picked up the book (the 2 are paired together in one volume) at Target the other night and I'm looking forward to diving in. I figure I'll have time to read during mom's daily radiation treatments when I don't have any SPN fanfic printed out.

:: Fangirls unite: While at Barnes & Noble the other night, mom & I got to talking to the clerk who's a SPN fangirl there. Actually, she initiated the conversation once she saw us. She's really getting to know us since we've been talking about SPN. *g* She admitted sheepishly that she hadn't watched the show since just before the "dog one". She was afraid it would make her cry. I told her it was sad, but it was a good eppy and that she needs to catch up! She agreed she would and was happy when I told her she had until the show returns on Jan. 28th.

:: FanFic In Progress: My current work is coming along. I've been writing off and on during mom's treatment sessions. I only get about 10 minutes or so, but it's amazing how much I can get written in that small amount of time. I'd say I'm roughly about a quarter of the way done, but I still haven't figured out how I'm going to end it. Guess I'll find out once I come to it. :P Btw, robo!Sam is incredibly hard to write! I don't know how the show's writers did it.

:: I haz goodies...finally: I ordered a SPN poster & the 3 pack of calendars from Creation during the Thanksgiving Day weekend last month, taking advantage of the free shipping. The calendar arrived fairly fast on December 9th, but I was concerned when the calendars didn't arrive on the same day. I waited a week and still nothing. I even emailed Sharon at Creation and she assured me they shipped together. Sure enough, the next day a package was at the door. Problem though...the calendars inside were not SPN, but 2 Xena ones instead! Gah!!! I emailed her back and she said the right ones would be sent out the next day. Yesterday they arrived and yes, they were the 3 SPN calendars. Yay! Got my Winchesters to get me through 2011. :D Meanwhile, I've got 2 Xena calendars I don't want. Anyone want them or know of anyone who'd like to have them?

:: To-Do List: Seems like everything I need to get done for Christmas has come down to one day....today. *pulls hair* Stressed? Just a tad. The good thing is that mom's appointment for today has been moved to the morning and she won't have another until after Christmas. But I still have a lot on my plate for the day and I'm pretty sure I won't get it all done. Meanwhile, my sleep schedule is all shot to hell and so are my eating habits. It's a combination of this new schedule from mom's appointments and the holidays. The building stress is in there, too, I'm sure.

Speaking of my current state, I'm not feeling all that peppy. I was okay until early Wed. evening, then I started feeling all bleh, no energy. Finally narrowed it down a couple hours later to my left arm aching. Took some Tylenol and it eventually took care of the pain, but now I still feel out of sorts. :(

:: Watermarking?: I love sharing my fanart works here on LJ, but one of my Christmas headers again got posted to Tumblr without any credit or link back to me. So I made another Tumblr entry about the problem. But this makes me wonder if I should consider watermarking my fanarts. I know others do, but I was hoping I could avoid it, but as long as people are going to repost my stuff without crediting me, I feel I should do something to claim it as mine, something that can't be easily eliminated. I just thought I'd let you all know that any future headers might very well be watermarked with my LJ username. I'll try my best to make it as inconspicuous as possible while still being useful. I won't make a final decision about this until the new year starts, but I thought I'd let you know what I'm considering.

That's all for now, I guess. Gotta get to bed soon for the treatment appointment in the morning. Hope I feel better by then. Btw, I wanna apologize again for my lack of commenting and replies back. I also owe a few of you some PMs and E-cards and I'm going to try my best to get caught up with that when we get home today. You know I love you, my friends, even if I don't have time to show it that often. *hugs flist*

I'm taking a stab at watching more movies & reading more books this year, so I thought I'd start a list to track my viewings/readings and give brief reviews.

( The list under here... )

Had to return the DVD of "The Italian Job" to the library yesterday and decided to look around for more goodies. Boy, did I find'em. ;) I picked up two more movies, "Bad Day At Black Rock" and "That Hamilton Woman". Never seen either of them, only have heard of them or seen clips. Plus, there's the added intrigue of the one being the title of a SPN episode. ;)

Here's some books I picked up. These are all in preparation for VanCon this year. I need to get to know my camera (and photography in general) better and I'm looking into getting to learn Vancouver more, too. Plus, mom wanted me to look into some places we could go see that would be accessible for her or just seen by car.


♦ Digital photographer's handbook / Tom Ang
♦ Digital SLR cameras & photography for dummies / by David D. Busch
♦ How to photograph absolutely everything / Tom Ang
♦ Vancouver & British Columbia : the best of Vancouver's big-city attractions plus Victoria's heritage
♦ Vancouver and Victoria / Andrew Hempstead
♦ Time Out Vancouver
♦ Frommer's Vancouver & Victoria 2010, with Whistler / by Donald Olson


As for "The Italian Job"...I enjoyed it. A little fragmented and hard to follow in the beginning, but the car chase was awesome! :D

:: Went to the post office today and parked next to a car from Kansas. *glee* No, sadly it wasn't an Impala.

:: I finally, FINALLY got the books I've been looking for for months! The SPN S3 Companion book, In The Hunt, and Michael Caine's book on acting are mine at last!!!! *happy dances*

:: It was hot here in western WA today. Ugh. I think it got close to 90 (F). I don't do well in hot temps. Thank goodness for A/C in cars. :)

:: Bought a new and hopefully better antenna for the TV in my room. Haven't been able to get the local CW station since the big switch to all digital TV last month. :( Of all the stations that wouldn't come in, why did it have to be THAT one? *sigh* Here's hoping the new antenna does the job.


Okay, this post has taken far too long to post because I'm tired. :P

:: Bought the book of "Supernatural: John Winchester's Journal" by Alex Arvine last night. I've started reading it already and read a bunch of the cool passages about Dean and Sam. It's neat reading and matches up well with what we already know from the show. Loved reading about how Dean slept in baby Sammy's crib to keep him safe right away after Mary's death and how he quickly showed his hunting skills. Then you've got Sam wanting to be normal almost immediately and being a geeky Mac-loving, research kid. :)

:: We've gotten a little snow already. Not much...less than an inch. I keep checking out the local radar for more snow showers, but it's all heading to the mountains in the east for now. It looks like Vancouver might be getting some of this stuff, too. I'm watching the webcams up there, but they seem normal so far.

:: Made some cool fractal backgrounds for text icons tonight with Aviary.com. Next step is to open them in Picnik and tweak/refine/resize and then add various SPN quotes. I had a lot of fun making the fractals. I never knew what color combinations I would get, but some of them were so pretty! I now have over 50 of them in a folder waiting for those next steps.

:: LJ seems unusually quiet lately. In a way that's a good thing, right? No wank going on, that I know of anyhow. But it's boring with things so quiet. I want to post things, but who will see it? *sigh* Maybe things will pick up tomorrow with reports from the NJ Con. Jared may not be there, but Jim and Misha are. Wheee! Can't wait to start reading people's reports, looking at their photos and videos. :)


Okay, time to get to those comments. *dives in*

It took me about 2 days, but I just finished the first SPN novel by Keith R.A. DeCandido.

Please remember, this is purely my own opinion about the novel. What follows are my honest feelings which may or may not match yours. This is my journal and therefore my place to express my opinions. Feel free to express your own views in your comments. I always welcome discussion and debate on my LJ as long as it doesn't become hurtful or abusive.

( Get ready for a long read behind the cut... )