The Jeweler's Bounty

HELLZ YEAH!

bibliophile20 — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:44:56 GMT

JK Rowling drops hints of possible eighth Harry Potter book

Text of Article:
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has strongly hinted for the first time that she could write an eighth book in the series.

Rowling, 42, admits she has 'weak moments' when she feels she will pen another novel about the boy wizard.

One of her biggest fans – her 14-year-old daughter Jessica – has already put pressure on her to revisit the character.

And her younger children – David, four, and Mackenzie, two – are likely to join the clamour for another novel as they discover the Potter books.

However, if an eighth novel were to be written, Rowling concedes it is unlikely that Harry would be the central character.

She finished the seventh book in the series – Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – last January.

At the time she thought she was ending a 17-year association with the boy wizard.

But in an interview with Time magazine, which put Rowling at No 3 in its Person Of The Year list, she said: "There have been times since finishing, weak moments, when I've said 'Yeah, all right' to the eighth novel.

"If - and it's a big if - I ever write an eighth book, I doubt that Harry would be the central character. I feel I've already told his story.

"But these are big ifs. Let's give it ten years."

In the meantime, Rowling is working on two writing projects – an adult novel and a "political fairy tale" – and is involved in charity work.

/text

Weak moments? Admit it, admit it, Jo, you've been bitten by the same bug we've got; you just can't leave the Potter-verse alone!

Well, that explains something...

bibliophile20 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:08:31 GMT

Most Literate U.S. Cities

It's an interesting survey, but the part that caught my eye was that, even though Cleveland is not high on the "Overall" list, which is a measure of six different factors, it has the highest library resource ranking of all of them.

So... no wonder I was spoiled by the Cleveland library system when I was younger! Here I thought I was getting average treatment there and grumbling when I find Rochester's library system to be "below par" from what I was used to and now I find out that Cleveland has one of the best library systems in the country! *shakes head* 'Tis funny.

Of course, it makes sense; Cleveland has not one, but two different library systems (although they're getting along better than they used to) and over fifty locations spread across the city between the two of them! (and the nice thing about having two different systems is that you can have your library card maxed out for one system and still take books out from the other system)

Hehe...

bibliophile20 — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:04:10 GMT

I like the way this dad thinks.

Dad sells son's 90-dollar video game online for more than 9000

Text of Article:
MONTREAL (AFP) - After catching his 15-year-old smoking pot, a father sold the hard-to-get "Guitar Hero III" video game he bought his son for 90 dollars for Christmas at an online auction, fetching 9,000 dollars.

The sale took place after the father spent two weeks searching for the video game for the Nintendo Wii gameboard.

"So I was so relieved in that I had finally got the Holy Grail of Christmas presents pretty much just in the nick of time. I couldn't wait to spread the jubilance to my son," the father wrote on the eBay website.

"Then, yesterday, I came home from work early and what do I find? My innocent little boy smoking pot in the back yard with two of his delinquent friends."

The man, a school teacher, who kept his identity private, said he sold the coveted video game to punish his son and discourage him from smoking dope.

The sale was a boon for the family's bank account, since the game the father purchased for 90 dollars (US) was finally sold to an Australian who plunked down 9,100 dollars for it.

The naughty son, however, will not go without a present on Christmas.

"I am still considering getting him a game for his Nintendo. Maybe something like Barbie as the Island Princess or Dancing with the Stars ... I know he will just love them," the father said, tongue-in-cheek.

/text.

bibliophile20 — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 05:36:53 GMT

For the past four-odd weeks, my Mom has been experiencing terrible back pain; theories ranged from muscle fatigue to a slipped disk to a fractured vertebra. Now she's in the hospital; the x-ray of her spine shows that the eight thoracic vertebra is opaque. Right now, the most likely cause is an infection of the bone; the fact that her white cell count is through the roof helps support that theory, but they've done a biopsy to be sure. The other, albeit far less likely possibility is a tumor. I trust that I don't have to explain which is preferable; an infection... a little I.V. antibiotics and she'll be back on her feet in time to boss me around when I come home after New Year's; a tumor... how the hell do you remove a tumor in the spinal column? So, while they're almost certain that it's an infection (the specialist commented that she sees about two of them a week), there's still that chance.

We find out the results of the biopsy in the morning.

As for myself, I am taking two Ambien and knocking myself out for the next ten hours, partially to make up for the premature wakeup I had this past morning (I think it was the fire engine at around 6, after having gone to bed around 2:30) and partially so I don't spend the entire night up waiting anxiously; that's not going to help anyone.

Happy Chanukkah!

bibliophile20 — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 06:29:59 GMT

Have a happy Chanukkah, everyone! (even if you don't celebrate it)

ROFL

bibliophile20 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:49:50 GMT

Hehe... I was chatting with my 52-year-old dad a little while ago.

This past weekend, my sisters were hosting a dozen girls from around the country as part of a Senior conference of Yavne (Jewish high school) girls; this year it was Cleveland's turn to host the more than 200 delegates from around the country.

So, he was half-commenting/half-gripping about the fact that a few of the girls staying at our house said that he was, quote, "Cool."

This makes at least the third time this year that a teenaged girl has called my dad "Cool." I find it tremendously amusing, but the part that really has me laughing is that he complained, "Why couldn't I have been cool thirty-five years ago!?"

My amusement knows only minor bounds at the moment.

bluugh...

bibliophile20 — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:11:36 GMT

*sigh* Sorry that I haven't been around much lately--things have been decidedly on the busy side. We're currently in the midst of the "pre-Thanksgiving rush"; y'know, the time period during which each and every professor decides to give either an exam or a paper, all at once? I'm currently studying for my Roman history exam (Augustus through Hadrian) which I have this afternoon, and I had a CompSci exam last week, and a Sociology exam next week (and I'm getting off lightly--more than a few of my friends have multiple exams a week or even a day).

So, wish me and my friends luck and I'll have some catching up to do later.

bibliophile20 — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 06:11:29 GMT

The art masterlist has just been updated. And it was a long overdue update, I might add; over 30 new pieces of art have been added. You can find the list here.

Wish list meme

bibliophile20 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:36:31 GMT

gacked from a good portion of the f-list: Post ten wishes, far-fetched or reasonable, and then go and see what your friends have wished for that you can fulfill.

1. A vacation
2. ThinkGeek.com gift certificates
3. An Xbox 360 (hey, I can dream...)
4. The ability to focus in boring lectures
5. A tshirt that says "If all the world's a stage... I wanna be the one in charge of the trapdoor!"
6. The ability to juggle (still can't quite manage three ball cascade for more than a few seconds)
7. A cure for my insomnia
8. A faster/higher metabolism
9. Star Wars RPG (Saga Edition Core Rulebook)
10. The Bush Administration, impeached and tried for war crimes.

The IRS: Making sure no dollar gets away

bibliophile20 — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:09:32 GMT

IRS to poker winners: Pay Up!

They're not bluffing: Tax collectors will start requiring poker tournaments to report the winners' take.

Casinos and other sponsors of poker tournaments will be required to report winnings of more than $5,000 to the Internal Revenue Service beginning March 4, 2008, the tax agency said Friday.

Sponsors who meet the reporting requirement won't need to withhold federal income tax at the end of a tournament, it said.

If a sponsor does not report winnings, it is responsible for withholding the taxes and sending the money to the IRS, normally 25 percent of the amount subject to reporting.

The IRS said poker tournament winners must provide their taxpayer identification number, usually a Social Security number, to the sponsor. If the winner fails to do so, the sponsor must withhold federal income at a rate of 28 percent.

Casinos and sponsors of tournaments completed before March 4 next year will not be required to report winnings to the IRS or withhold tax.

By law, the winners already must report poker earnings on their federal income tax returns.

/text.

Yeah, just imagine if the IRS missed a few dollars; the Pentagon might not be able to buy their full quotas of $200 hammers and $600 toilet seats. Still, this reminds me of a couple of jokes:

The IRS Audit
The Internal Revenue Service decides to audit Ralph, and summons him to an appointment with the toughest auditor in the office. The IRS auditor is not surprised when Ralph shows up with his attorney.

The auditor says, "Well, sir, you have an extravagant lifestyle and no full-time employment, which you explain by saying that you win money gambling. I'm not sure the IRS finds that believable."

"I'm a great gambler, and I can prove it," says Ralph. "How about a demonstration?"

The auditor thinks for a moment and says, "Okay. Go ahead."

Ralph says, "I'll bet you a thousand dollars that I can bite my own eye."

The auditor thinks a moment and says, "No way! It's a bet."

Ralph removes his glass eye and bites it.

The auditor's jaw drops.

Ralph says, "Now, I'll bet you two thousand dollars that I can bite my other eye."

The auditor can tell Ralph isn't blind, so he takes the bet.

Ralph removes his dentures and bites his good eye.

The stunned auditor now realizes he has wagered and lost three grand, with Ralph's attorney as a witness. He starts to get nervous.

"Want to go double or nothing?" Ralph asks. "I'll bet you six thousand dollars that I can stand on one side of your desk and pee into that wastebasket on the other side, and never get a drop anywhere in between."

The auditor, twice burned, is cautious now, but he looks carefully and decides there's no way this guy can manage that stunt, so he agrees again.

Ralph stands beside the desk and unzips his pants, but although he strains mightily, he can't make the stream reach the wastebasket on other side, so he pretty much urinates all over the auditor's desk.

The auditor leaps with joy, realizing that he has just turned a major loss into a huge win. But Ralph's attorney moans and puts his head in his hands.

"Are you okay?" the auditor asks. "Not really," says the attorney. "This morning, when Ralph told me he'd been summoned for an audit, he bet me $20,000 that he could come in here and piss all over your desk -- and that you'd be happy about it!"

And Dear IRS
Dear IRS,

Enclosed is my 2005 tax return showing that I owe $3,407.00 in taxes.

Put your ad here!

Please note the attached article from USA Today, wherein you will see the Pentagon is paying $171.50 for hammers and NASA has paid $600.00 for a toilet seat.

I am enclosing four toilet seats (value $2400) and six hammers (value $1029), bringing my total remitted to $3429.00. Please apply the overpayment of $22.00 to the "Presidential Election Fund," as noted on my return. You can do this inexpensively by sending them one 1.5" Phillips Head screw (article from USA Today detailing how HUD pays $22.00 each for 1.5" Phillips Head Screws is enclosed for your convenience.)

It has been a pleasure to pay my tax bill this year, and I look forward to paying it again next year.

Sincerely,
A Satisfied Taxpayer

Desktop meme (gacked from half the flist)

bibliophile20 — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:36:28 GMT

Immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun. Tag five of your friends and ask them to give you a view of their desktops as well...

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Ah, Coincidence, how I love thee...

bibliophile20 — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:28:56 GMT

I just found out via Facebook's oh-so-useful birthday alerts that I have two friends with birthdays this Sunday. Both of them were born in 1988, both are Jewish...

...and both of them are named Jessica.

I'm deeply amused.

This is almost as good as my freshman year dorm floor; my hall had three Josephs, two Steves, two Jordans, and two Davids; on the next hall over, we had three Allisions and two Ashas; we had three Nicks on the floor (different spellings for each), three Jamies on the floor (different spellings), and over a dozen birthday pairs...

...all on a floor with a quarter less people than typical, because half of the rooms were singles.

:)

I have a backlog...

bibliophile20 — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:42:51 GMT

I have a considerable backlog of art to add to the Deathly Hallows masterlist, but it's not going to get done until Tuesday... after my Roman History exam is over and done with.
Wish me luck.

And, just taking a glance at the folder full of bookmarks, this will be one of the single biggest updates for the list: at least 20 pieces, which means that the list is going to have well over a hundred pieces listed.

Book Meme (gacked from half the list)

bibliophile20 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 04:13:09 GMT

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of today). As usual, bold what you have read, italicise that you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. Add an asterisk to those you've read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and punishment
Catch-22
One hundred years of solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The name of the rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods (sitting on my headboard, waiting for winter break)
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury tales
The historian : a novel
A portrait of the artist as a young man
Love in the time of cholera
Brave new world
The Fountainhead
Foucault's pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A clockwork orange
Anansi boys
The once and future king
The grapes of wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & demons
The inferno
The satanic verses
Sense and sensibility
The picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One flew over the cuckoo's nest
To the lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's travels
Les misérables
The corrections
The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
Dune
The prince
The sound and the fury
Angela's ashes : a memoir
The god of small things
A people's history of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A confederacy of dunces
A short history of nearly everything
Dubliners
The unbearable lightness of being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down Much better than I expected
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit*
In cold blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White teeth
Treasure Island*
David Copperfield
The three musketeers

24 total. Not too shabby.

bibliophile20 — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:16:53 GMT

My friends introduced me to House last Tuesday; I'm in the midst of watching the pilot episode at the moment.

I feel another addiction coming on...

Do Not Call list expiring next year.

bibliophile20 — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:15:56 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/do_not_call_expiration

Short version is, the DNC list is on a five year expiration cycle; if you registered in 2003, when the program started, you have to re-register next year.

So, with that in mind, I dug these up out of my files:

Fun Things To Do To Telemarketers:

** Turn on the TV. Change the channel to one that only gets static. Turn the volume up really loud. Say that you can't hear them over the static.

** Make up your own language. Speak it.

** Say, "This phone line is for emergency use only. Do you have an emergency?"

** Order a large pepperoni pizza, some garlic bread, and a meatball sub.

** Dial the phone and say, "Hey! I lent you 50 bucks. You better pay up or else I'm gonna come over there and hurt you! "

** Repeatedly dial the phone. Mutter that it isn't ringing.

** Say, "Moe's tavern Moe speaking."

** Ask him/her if he/she would like a magazine or newspaper subscription.

** Communicate only through Morse code.

** Try to sell the telemarketer something.

** Ask him/her if he/she can smell bacon. Insist that there is a strong scent of bacon over the phone.

** Pretend to be an escaped mental patient. Mutter things like, "They'll never catch me again," "No! Not the jacket! No, no, no!" After saying one of these mutter incoherently.

** Make him/her dance for a sale. Claim that you won't buy because you couldn't see him/her dance.

** Make him/her sing to get a sale.

** Pretend to be really interested. Then say, "No."

** Engage him/her in an "intellectual" conversation on an extremely boring subject.

** Say nothing until he/she hangs up.

** Say, "I told you. I don't know where your dog is!" Then hang up.

** After he/she hangs up, use *69 or Caller ID to get the phone number. Call the telemarketer.

** Ask the telemarketer for his/her home phone number. Claim that you need some time to think, and that you'll get back to them.

and

GETTING RID OF TELEMARKETERS...
** If they want to loan you money, tell them you just filed for bankruptcy and you could sure use some money.

** If they start out with, "How are you today?" say, "I'm so glad you asked, because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems; my arthritis is acting up, my eyelashes are sore, my dog just died..."

** If they say they're John Doe from XYZ Company, ask them to spell their name. Then ask them to spell the company name. Then ask them where it is located, how long it has been in business, how many people work there, how they got into this line of work, are they married?, kids?, etc. Continue asking them personal questions or questions about their company for as long as necessary.

** This works great if you are male: Telemarketer: "Hi, my name is Judy and I'm with XYZ Company..." You: Wait for a second and with a real husky voice ask, "What are you wearing?"

** Cry out in surprise, "Judy! Is that you? Oh my God! Judy, how have you been?" Hopefully, this will give Judy a few brief moments of terror as she Tries to figure out where the hell she could know you from.

** Say "No", over and over. Be sure to vary the sound of each one, and keep a rhythmic tempo, even as they are trying to speak. This is most fun if you can do it until they hang up.

** If MCI calls trying to get you to sign up for the Family and Friends Plan, reply, in as SINISTER a voice as you can, "I don't have any friends... would you be my friend?"

** If the company cleans rugs, respond: "Can you get out blood? Can you get out GOAT blood? How about HUMAN blood?

** After the Telemarketer gives their spiel, ask him/her to marry you. When they get all flustered, tell them that you could not just give your credit card number to a complete stranger.

** Tell the Telemarketer that you work for the same company, they often can't sell to employees.

** Answer the phone. As soon as you realize it is a Telemarketer, set the receiver down, shout or scream, "Oh my God!!!" and then hang up.

** Tell the Telemarketer you are busy at the moment and ask him/her if he/she will give you his/her HOME phone number so you can call him/her back. When the Telemarketer explains that telemarketers cannot give out their HOME numbers you say "I guess you don't want anyone bothering you at home, right?" The Telemarketer will agree and you say, "Me, either!" Hang up.

** Ask them to repeat everything they say, several times.

** Tell them it is dinner time, BUT ask if they would please hold. Put them on your speaker phone while you continue to eat at your leisure. Smack your food loudly and continue with your dinner conversation.

** Tell the Telemarketer you are on "home incarceration" and ask if they could bring you some beer.

** Ask them to fax the information to you, and make up a number.

** Tell the Telemarketer, "Okay, I will listen to you. But I should probably tell you, I'm not wearing any clothes."

** Insist that the caller is really your buddy Leon, playing a joke. "Come on Leon, cut it out! Seriously, Leon, how's your momma?"

** Tell them you are hard of hearing and that they need to speak up... louder... louder...louder...

** Tell them to talk VERY SLOWLY, because you want to write EVERY WORD down.

Meme, gacked from margaret67

bibliophile20 — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 04:20:58 GMT

Tell Me About You

1. Name:
2. Birthday:
3. Place of residence:
4. What makes you happy:
5. What are you listening to now/have listened to last:
6. Do you read my lj:
7. If you do, what is particularly good/bad about it:
8. An interesting fact about you:
9. Are you in love/have a crush at the moment:
10. Favourite place to be:
11. Favourite lyric:
12. Best time of the year:
13. Weirdest food you like:
14. Do farts make you laugh:

Recommend

1. A film:
2. A book:
3. A band, a song and an album:

Me

1. One thing you like about me:
2. Two things you like about yourself:
3. Put this in your lj so I can tell you what I think of you.

The art masterlist...

bibliophile20 — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 23:34:25 GMT

The Deathly Hallows Art Masterlist has been updated. It now includes 98 entries of art, done by 55 artists, with 46 scenes illustrated. You can find the list Here.

(sorry I haven't been working on it lately; things have been very busy around here...)

bibliophile20 — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:17:43 GMT

I have finished the outline for "The Long Twilight Struggle". Now all I have to do is fill in and expand upon what I have written.

So, unless my muse decides otherwise (which is always a possibility) here are the chapters for "Long Twilight Struggle":

Chapter 1—The Geometry of Shadows
Chapter 2—Soul Mates
Chapter 3—Ceremonies of Light and Dark
Chapter 4—Comes The Inquisitor
Chapter 5—A Spider in the Web
Chapter 6—Signs and Portents
Chapter 7—Shadow Dancing
Chapter 8—Learning Curve
Chapter 9—Moments of Transition
Chapter 10—Rumors, Bargains and Lies
Chapter 11—Mind War
Chapter 12—The Exercise of Vital Powers
Chapter 13—Movements of Fire and Shadow
Chapter 14—All Alone In The Night
Chapter 15—The Coming of Shadows
Chapter 16—In The Kingdom of the Blind
Chapter 17—A Day in the Strife
Chapter 18—A View From the Gallery
Chapter 19—By Any Means Necessary
Chapter 20—A Late Delivery From Avalon
Chapter 21—Hunter, Prey
Chapter 22—Deathwalker
Chapter 23—Knives
Chapter 24—Legacies
Chapter 25—Revelations
Chapter 26—Strange Relations
Chapter 27—A Call To Arms
Chapter 28—Severed Dreams
Chapter 29—The Parliament of Dreams
Chapter 30—And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder
Chapter 31— No Surrender, No Retreat
Chapter 32—War Without End
Chapter 33—A Race Through Dark Places
Chapter 34—Epiphanies
Chapter 35—Midnight on the Firing Line
Chapter 36—Endgame
Chapter 37—And Now For A Word
Chapter 38—Points of Departure
Chapter 39—Between the Darkness and the Light
Epilogue—Point Of No Return

Ten points to whomever can guess what one of my all time favorite television shows is. ^_^

Anyway, I hope to start posting it over on Bibliophics relatively soon; however, I want to have the first four chapters already written and beta'd before I do it, so as to give myself a bit of a buffer.

Just showed up in my inbox: The Clocks

bibliophile20 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 19:34:05 GMT

A man died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, "What are all those clocks?"

St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie the hands on your clock will move."

"Oh," said the man, "whose clock is that?"

"That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie."

"Incredible," said the man. "And whose clock is that one?"

St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire Life."

"Where's Alberto Gonzales' clock?" asked the man.

"Alberto's clock is in God's office. He's using it as a ceiling fan."

Just finished Kushiel's Justice.

bibliophile20 — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 00:50:16 GMT

I just finished reading Kushiel's Justice. And I thought that it was great.

First off, I knew without even having to look to tell that there's going to be a another book in the series; at the very least, we need to find out if Melisande died laughing when she found out that her son and Sidonie are in love.

Secondly, Sidonie is awesome. I think, quite honestly, one of the most awesome scenes in the book is at the hunting manor where she puts everyone, including her uncle, in their place.

Oh, and speaking of the hunting manor, the Shahrizai have insanely well trained servants. Either that, or they have special classes on how to be completely unflappable.

And I have just one question for those on my flist that read the Kushiel's Legacy series (I know that there are at least two): Of the Thirteen Houses of the Court of Night-Blooming Flowers, which would be your preference to patronize... and, if you're feeling brave, why?

Heading back to Rochester

bibliophile20 — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:27:09 GMT

I have a whole list of art entries bookmarked for later addition to the masterlist (and, for one particular piece, a trip to the Xerox printers on campus).

Also, for some bizarre reason, my muse has been very talkative for the past week; of course, it also helps that I have five WIPs at the moment, so when one gets blocked, it's onto the next. Still, I've pumped out something in the 10k+ range this past week (and I think I'm going to give myself carpel tunnel from typing on this laptop keyboard) which is insanely exceptional from my perspective--my one completed multichapter fic, The Very Long Night of Harry Potter, is only 90k word count.

Yeah, well... anyway, total word counts at the moment stands as thus:

The Long Twilight Struggle (sequel to The Very Long Night of Harry Potter): 20,363 (estimated completion to be at 140k+)

Hallowed Butterflies ("What if?"): 21,504

Ginger Gemini ("What if?"): 1493

Year Eight (the year post-DH): 7309

Saying Hello (one shot sequel to Saying Goodbye): 1607

And, as for the point of this post, I'm driving back to Rochester tomorrow; weather forecast? Scattered thunderstorms.

Won. Der. Ful.

At least I'll have my sister in the car to talk to; my family is coming out to visit me and to see my apartment; I shall have the long-overdue pics of my (semi)new living space up later this week, as my siblings are bringing that one vital piece of equipment that I lack: digital cameras.

And, with that, I need to go to sleep; my mom wishes to depart by 10:00 in the morning.

absolutely furious

bibliophile20 — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:28:35 GMT

If you are an American, you. Must. Watch. This. Video. NOW. (unless you currently have high blood pressure)

THAT BLOODY LYING BASTARD! HE KNEW! HE KNEW THAT HE WAS SENDING OUR PEOPLE OFF TO DIE IN A QUAGMIRE! HE KNEW BECAUSE HE SAID IT HIMSELF, 13 YEARS AGO, ON CAMERA!

Heading home for a week...

bibliophile20 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:48:24 GMT

Heading back to Cleveland for a week before coming back here for the fall semester; I'll try to keep up with things on here, but I might miss a few things.

Here's to hoping that I'll have a nice and easy trip; no police, no heavy traffic, and most certainly no big rigs that like to tailgate small red Honda Civics.

feels rather proud of himself

bibliophile20 — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 04:46:31 GMT

Three days.

Five fics in progress.

Combined progress of 11,000+ words.

Not a bad weekend at all, I think...

^_^