Hi all; Merry Christmas! Or Happy Holidays, if Christmas isn't your thing. ^___~

So, after missing my flight a few days ago, I'm glad to report that the rest of the day after that went smoothly--thank goodness for the airline lady who hooked me up with the modified itinerary, she was awesome. My flight to Houston was only, like, half full, and the flight to Austin was only about 3/4ths full, so, beyond the inherent awkwardness of an airplane ride, I wasn't uncomfortable. I even called the airline later to say they were doing a great job, and the lady I spoke with on the phone told me I made her day, which in turn made my day. <333

I wanted to get some of those Merlin episode reactions done while I'm here at dad and co.'s, but I'm staying in my little brother's room at the moment and it only has a Mac in it, which I barely know how to operate (just so you know how Mac-retarded I am, it took me about 5 minutes to figure out where the power switch was). The only PC in the house is my dad's computer, so I might try to use that to do the episode reactions on.

Also, I just wanted to let anyone who's interested know that Backupify (a service that backs up your online accounts) is free until Jan. 31st.

Talk to you all later!

Okay, so, today I'm flying out to see dad and co., and I thought I knew when my flight was, but it turns out I'd accidentally read my "arrive" time as my "depart" time, OMGFAIL. #facepalm# Luckily, there's a flight to Austin at 12:30 that I can take instead (there's a layover in Houston, but that's fine). I'm currently writing this on my Archos on the free WiFi in the boarding area, and it's taken me ages just to write this much because it's got a virtual keyboard that's a pain in the ass to use. This was a bad time to decide not to bring along my laptop, obsly). Also, I'm not sure how secure a portable device is on public WiFi, so I'm hoping no one hacks my account and starts posting, like, Russian porn sites or something.

Talk to you all later, my flight is going to start boarding in a minute. <333!

HAI THERE! #SMISHES#

Okay, so, I've been a really sucky LJ friend lately because I haven't been around for, like, a month. Er, sorry? #clings to her flist's legs apologetically and promises to bake them cookies and send them sexy Christmas strippers#

IDK what happened, I just started falling really behind on episodes of Merlin and SPN and was, like, "Well, I guess I should hurry up and watch the episodes, but in the meantime I'll stay away from LJ so as not to get spoiled," except I still haven't watched the episodes and I've turned to Star Trek XI fic and LifeHacker articles and beauty products to fill the void (LOL, sorry to anyone to follows me on delicious, you must have been, like, "WTF o_O" when my Merlin recs disappeared and I kept bombarding you with Trek fic and cleanser reviews and recipes. I promise the Merlin recs will come back soon--probably a lot of them, as there's a lot of backlogged Merlin fic I haven't read yet). On that note, I will be watching the last four Merlin episodes and doing reactions/picspams for them; I'll try to get that done soon.

In RL news, that job interview I mentioned before went well, though they're still interviewing people. I took a hiatus from college this semester, and I intended to go back next semester but I might delay it a little because I'm looking into enrolling in a program to get a teacher certification, which will give me work experience and a financial cushion for college.

On a more superficial note, I'm finally warming up a little to that haircut I got a few weeks ago (though I'm grudging about it); I still miss the five or six inches or hair that got cut off, but this hairstyle does look prettier and is less hassle (my hair doesn't get caught on door handles now or touch the floor when I bend over, and it's much easier to brush).

This year I spent Thanksgiving with my mom and I'm going to spend Christmas and New Year with dad and co. For as long as I can remember, my grandma and grandpa (on my mom's side of the family) have hosted Thanksgiving, but this year they took a trip to Nevada (to gamble) during Thanksgiving, so all the assorted family units on my mom's side had our own individual Thanksgivings. For my mom and I's Thanksgiving, I was in charge of the sweet food and she was in charge of the savory food. I went a little power-mad and ended up making six pies (we always have lots of people visiting, I knew it would all get eaten up eventually), and I made two more pies (another Kentucky Derby pie and a pecan pie) several days later. Here's a video of the original six--after they'd already been cut into, oops! (Ignore the clanging in the background, my mom was washing dishes. And yes, I did stand on a chair to get that camera angle. ^__~ #facepalm#)

The password is "pies"

Thanksgiving 09 from ifyouweremine on Vimeo.

Most of the recipes I used are here.

Oh, also, I seem to be on a(n accidentally) destructive streak lately--the week before Thanksgiving, I accidentally broke the kitchen sink (I literally broke it. In half! I don't know how it happened--one minute, the spout was in my hand and working fine and the next the spout had broken off from the rest of the faucet and water was squirting over my shoulder. We had to get a new faucet; on the upside, this faucet is better than the previous one). The day before Thanksgiving I almost ruined a pot when I spectacularly failed at my first attempt at making homemade caramel sauce--it turned a coffee color and mom and I had to air out the kitchen to get rid of the burnt smell, and then the scorched caramel solidified into a black candy coating on the bottom of the pot, and I have no idea how my mom got that off the pot. And, finally, the week after Thanksgiving, my keyboard died after I rearranged the electronic stuff on my desk (how was I to know that unplugging my keyboard and plugging it back in later would disrupt the fragile balance that kept its circuitry alive?), and now I have a new keyboard that's two inches smaller and that I'm not entirely sure if I like or not yet.

In other news, nataliadarimini sent me a surprise Christmas card (because she is a sweetheart like that, EEE ^___^ #GLOMPS#), and it came with a packet of fake snow (just add water, mix together, and BAM! Instant snow. It's even cool to the touch!), which delighted me to no end, as here in Texas snow is something of a half-mythical novelty. Here's a picture of my lucky cat and stylish ninja frolicking in the snow:

Thank you, Natalieeeeee! <33333

Also, today I decided to sing a little Christmas song for you all; please enjoy!
Download mp3 on MegaUpload or download mp3 on SendSpace

In other news,:
-I think I'm going to do a Star Trek rec post soonish, as there are some excellent fics I don't want anyone to miss ^___~
-I got my five year old cousin into Kristin Chenoweth's singing; I feel accomplished
-HOLY SHIT, WHEN DID LIVEJOURNAL'S "DATE POSTED" TIME START UPDATING ITSELF? Just before I posted this, I went to go change the time (because I'm anal-retentive and I want my posts to display the time I actually posted them and not the time I started writing them, so usually I have to manually update the time before I post), but then the time changed by itself! I'm much more impressed by this than I ought to be. Also, how jealous are you that I just used the word "ought"? I love that word. I ought to use it more often. LMAO =o)

So, I've got both last week and today's episodes of Merlin downloaded, but haven't watched either yet. I will, though, and I'll try to get both episode reactions done soon.

In RL news, I have a job interview on Monday for a clerk position, so I hope that goes well. In preparation for the interview, this evening I got my eyebrows done and a haircut; I only intended to get a trim (I have long hair; I'm weird about it), but my mom and the hairdresser talked me into getting layers (the hair falls in a sort of V shape now).

I'm still a little freaked out by how short my hair feels now; it used to just reach the top of my thighs, and now the longest part of it is at the hollow of my back and a lot of the rest of it is missing because of the layers. Hmm. I feel kind of sad that it's gone, but hopefully I'll get used to the new style by tomorrow.

I was in the mood for some chocolate earlier, so I thought: cookies! Except I didn't want to make a whole batch because they'd only sit there on the plate in a delicious little mountain of yumminess and tempt me. But then I remembered there was a tub of pre-made cookie dough in the freezer AND that I'd heard somewhere you can make one cookie at a time in the microwave, so I thought, oh yes, self, that is what we shall do! Oh, you are so terrifically clever (which, coincidentally, is what I believe Bradley James is thinking ALL THE TIME, LMAO! Except he probably adds a few manly adjectives to the end, amiright?).

Anyway, I--again, much like Bradley--was not quite so clever as I thought, as I had no idea how long one should leave a scoop of cookie dough in the microwave. I was young and reckless and stupid and decided I'd just ~*~experiment~*~ instead of checking. I think you know where this is going.

I ultimately ended up eating a spoonful of chocolate frosting, haunted by the smell of singed cookie coming from my kitchen of failure.

Possibly, when the vent sucks up the last of the burnt smell, I may try again.

Sorry this is so late!

( Merlin 2x07 Rather Large Episode Reaction/Picspam (150 screenshots)Collapse )

Spoilers for next week’s promo are okay.

Yay for price wars! Walmart announced it’s cutting the prices of 10 popular upcoming DVDs to $10, and Target and Amazon have followed suit. (I know the article says Amazon hasn’t responded yet, but it has now; Star Trek (Single-Disc Edition), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Widescreen Edition and Full Screen Edition, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (Single-Disc Edition), and Julie & Julia are all listed as $10 for pre-order—there should be several other titles at that price as well, but I’m not sure which they are.)

$10 Star Trek? Oh yes, my precious, we likessss it! #cackles#

And don’t think I’m neglecting you, Merlin fans, as I have a lovely and wonderful Arthur/Merlin rec to share today! Here you go ^___^:


(FIC) But, to me by tetsubinatu (Arthur/Merlin, very light R, 3,790 words)
Merlin is taken prisoner on the battlefield.

tetsubinatu is an absolute sweetheart and wrote me this as a thank-you, which was entirely too kind of her (but very much appreciated! <333), and I enjoyed it so much that, after I was done flailing and capslocking, I knew I had to head over here and point you all over to it.

So, I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but I will tell you that this story is the perfect mix of seriousness and ZOMG-I-can’t-breath-from-all-this-laughing!funny. Arthur and Merlin’s interaction is just so them; Merlin is naively reckless but still very loveable, Arthur is protective of him despite himself, and they both argue a lot but only because they like each other so much.

Also—and this part’s a little spoilery, so please highlight this next part if you want to read it—START SPOILER everyone thinks that Merlin is Arthur’s catamite, LMFAOOOO! It’s so hilarious and so hot, and played to perfection here. ^___^ END SPOILER

And did I mention that it’s hot? Because, yes. Merlin bathes Arthur. Twice. #squees#

This is a very satisfying read; it nicely balances drama, humor, sexiness, and scmhoop and will leave you warm and smiling by the end. I hope you check it out and enjoy it as much as I did!



Other things pleasing to me at the moment are:
*I recently revamped my LiveJournal tags so they're easier to navigate

*Last night, I happened to see this guy on t.v. that looks exactly like a young Rob Lowe (mmm, pretty! =o)

*IT'S MERLIN DAY!!1

Cory Monteith (Finn) is doing an interview on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in just a few minutes, so please tune in if you're interested. ^___~

So, I just now got caught up with the last two episodes of Supernatural (episodes 5x07 and 5x08), and, I have to say, I really enjoyed them a lot (especially 5x08, which I think just became my favorite episode of season 5 and one of my favorites in the overall series).

( General SPN comment under the cut, very lightly SPOILERY for episode 5x08Collapse )

This season is making me feel like I can finally enjoy this show again, and I really like that feeling. ^___^ <3333

So, a comment I got on my recap earlier inspired me to make a few icons of strutting!Arthur from the last episode, and after I made those I decided to make a few more icons of other things just for the hell of it. They're kind of rough, but, oh well. Enjoy?

1.

( 5 more animated Merlin 1x06 icons under the cutCollapse )

Recovering from a stomach bug + PMS + sleep deprivation + hunger, because the pizza delivery was thirty minutes late + 4 rambunctious, hard-to-manage small children + 1 extremely fussy, sick baby who refuses to sleep and keeps yelling and throwing up on you + several extra, unexpected hours of unpaid babysitting duty + your mom giving away half of the pizzas you ordered without consulting you, fucking thanks + lukewarm, under-sauced pizza with no cheese packets but 17 packets of those gross red pepper flakes you never eat = MIRANDA'S EXTREMELY FOUL, TERRIBLE, AWFUL MOOD. >:o|

My day has been increasingly unbearable, ugh. My cousin's near the end of a heinous divorce (it's already dragged out two years), so she had to be at court today, and my mom was testifying, so she was there as well. The session lasted three hours longer than anticipated, meaning I was stuck babysitting my cousin's three girls and my mom's two foster sons. It was, in a word, hellish. Especially because the baby has had some health problems recently and I spent most of my time checking her breathing and trying to get her to go to sleep and stop crying, and in those brief interludes where I did get her calmed down, I invariably had to deal with a problem from one of the other four kids.

DO NOT WANT. #hisses# I think there are some new episodes of shows I like tonight, though, so hopefully that will pick me back up.

ETA at 8PM: Okay, I feel much, much better now that I've been able to relax some.

I've had this little bit of silliness sitting on my hard drive for a while, and today I found it and giggled a little and brushed the dust off, and now I'm posting it here. I hope you like it! ^___~

( Bradley James's Google Search Log (large gif; not dial-up friendly)Collapse )

( Merlin 2x06 Humongous Episode Reaction/Picspam (176 screencaps, 8 gifs)Collapse )

Promo spoilers are okay (anyone avoiding them should be careful of the comments).

Hey guys, I wanted to get my Merlin episode reaction done and posted today, but last night while passing out Halloween candy, I caught a nasty, awful flu (at least I think that's what it is, IDK), so right now I'm feeling too shitty and feverish to finish the last half of the reaction. Hopefully it'll be up by tomorrow or the day after (I promise it'll be good. There are gifs!).

<333

Title: You Hit Me Once, I Hit You Back
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Pairing: Kirk/Spock
Rating: NC-17
Summary: “Your fist hits his mouth and Spock’s bottom lip splits down its supple center, blood spilling glossy across his chin, his head thrown back against the pillow and he gasps, blinking, and you lean down and slot your lips to his”
Word Count: 1,330 words
Spoilers: Refers to one event in the XI movie
Warnings: Extremely fucked-up. Sadomasochism, some powerplay, lots of violence, bondage, choking, anger, bottom!Spock, explicitness, blood, sweat, come
Author’s Note: So. bendtothesun created this amazing, addictive Kirk/Spock hatesex fanvid called Kiss/Fist, and it grabbed me by the shoulders and manhandled me into writing a fic in response, ohyes. Also, stripedpetunia/waketosleep has already written a fantastic fic for the fanvid as well, and you definitely need to check that out if you haven’t already (hers is bottom!Kirk, for anyone who wants to know). I’ve gone ahead and taken my cue from stripedpetunia and used a line from the song (which is, BTW, “Kiss With a Fist” by Florence and the Machine) as my title.


( Hatesex under the cutCollapse )

Hey all, I saw this article on Lifehacker about some limited-time free DVD ripping/burning software, and I just wanted to share the link here in case any of you were interested.

Also I'm taking the opportunity to use my fabulous new icon! ^___^ (Thank you, velvetine01! <333)

I’m 869 words and counting into the Kirk/Spock hatesex fic, but I’m going to have to finish it up later; I’ve got babysitting duty tomorrow, so I have to go to bed now.

In other news, one of the stories right now on the Yahoo frontpage is a hand sanitizer misuse news segment, so I checked it out (because I’m a bit germophobic and information about hand sanitizer is of interest to me). I shouldn’t have. It basically just says: don’t drink half a bottle of antibacterial hand gel, as that could be bad for you.

Fucking really, Fox News? What revolutionary new gem of information will you share with me next, that I shouldn’t juggle loaded guns or season my food with chlorine? Wow. But then again, I should have known the video was useless as soon as I noticed it was from Fox News; the only thing they’re competent at is suckling from the teat of right-wing America and shouting hysterically at everyone else. LMAO, I’m a little impressed with myself for having used the word “teat” in casual conversation ^___~

BTW, I came across this interesting article yesterday about how to stop Google, Yahoo, and Bing from being able to secretly track your clicks; I hope it will be useful to some of you.

Talk to you all later; goodnight! <333

Meme snagged from taversham

List 10 TV shows you like, in no specific order. Do this before reading the questions below.

10. Merlin
9. Glee
8. Modern Family
7. Supernatural
6. Criminal Minds
5. The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien
4. Castle
3. Dark Angel
2. The Venture Bros.
1. Psych

( The rest of the meme under the cutCollapse )

( Here’s the format for the meme if you want to fill it out as wellCollapse )

Also, expect a nasty, violent Kirk/Spock fic from me (based on bendtothesun's amazing Kiss/Fist fanvid, which I'm a little bit infatuated with ATM, LOL) soonish (tonight or possibly tomorrow). I wanted to finish it up and post last night, but my sleeping schedule's all messed-up lately and I fell asleep early.

( Merlin 2x05 Episode Reaction/PicspamCollapse )

Promo spoilers are okay. If you’re spoiler-free, please be careful of the comments.

...I'm pretty sure our exterminator was just flirting with me. Both times he's been here (once to spray the whole house for ants, and again today to re-spray the kitchen and bathrooms), he's been very friendly and chatty and kept asking about my life and interests and telling me about his (even though I looked like a mess both those days, as I was just hanging around at home in my pajamas), so I'm about 85% sure he was flirting. HA!

Today I come bearing four completely different recs: an epic, lush, painfully lovely and powerful J2 zombie remix fic, a funny, sweet, molten-lava-level sexy Arthur/Merlin fic, a cracktastically awesome and silly Arthur(/Gwen, /Morgana, /Merlin) fanvid, and a dirtynastysexy Fightclub-esque Kirk/Spock fanvid. TO THE RECS!

( J2 RPS fic recCollapse )

( BBC Merlin fic and fanvid recCollapse )

( Star Trek XI fanvid recCollapse )

( SPN 5x06 Episode Reaction (SPOILERS)Collapse )

No promo spoilers, thank you.

Sorry I’m late for this, I had a birthday party to go to yesterday and I was too tired to watch the episode when I got back. But I’ve watched it now, and I have a lot to say! No, really. A lot.

( Merlin 2x04 MASSIVE Episode Reaction/Picspam (SPOILERS). Seriously, don't click this if you're on dial-up, there are 53 picturesCollapse )

Promo spoilers are okay (if you’re spoiler-free for Merlin, be careful of the comments)

( SPN 5x05 Episode Reaction (SPOILERS)Collapse )

No promo spoilers, thanks! <333