Last night I gave myself the second worst case of food poisoning I've ever had. (It won't overtake first until I have to go to the hospital. Hopefully, the dramamine will prevent that. Bless not_hathor, my roommate for getting that for me.)

Todsay - the busiest day of the con - is going to be... interesting times.

Got 7 invites for Google Wave if anyone's interested.

http://feeds.reference.com/click.phdo?i=100d8a344ac46e75e802ebc6b8e18637

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/11/28.html

rusticate: to go or send to the country.

My daily Twitter posts:

• 07:47 Awake...at work. Joy Joy! Beats the hell outta being in the madhouse that is Black Friday though. #
• 07:49 Only thing that REALLY tempted me was a laptop that WalMart had in their ad for 200 bucks. Not high end by any means, but a damn solid one #
• 07:54 @wonderjenn - thanks! it is getting there.....I've still got some text lables I have to dig into the code and change, but at least ........ #
• 07:55 @wonderjenn ..... the surface stuff is looking pretty good. #
• 08:44 RT: PodCulture 178: The Zombie Waters of Geek - Part B is now up! Listen and let us know what you think!! tinyurl.com/PodCulture178 #
• 09:20 @darksakura - NO....you must go forth and shop! #
• 09:35 @Deekman - you know of some good sites to make use of those R4s that I bought last night? #
• 09:41 @Deekman - Thanks dude! #
• 10:32 @vivad - you could have gotten youself a cheap, but very nice lappy from Wally World if you did! #
• 11:39 @daniinnc - I was interested in getting one of those....had to work today. #
• 11:52 @daniinnc - LOL...had I known...I would have sent ya the buckage, and had him snag one for me too! LOL #
• 12:05 @thegreatlukeski - speaking of Black Friday......we featured Black Friday in the latest ep of PodCulture. (it came out today) #
• 13:39 @BobbyBlackwolf - uh oh ....what happened dude? #
• 14:39 Hey gang.....I need some of you guys to check out: dev.PodCulture.net check it out, poke around the site, and .......... #
• 14:39 .....let me know what you think of the possible new look, and any suggestions you guys might have. #
• 14:45 @jarsto - new toy? #
• 14:58 @docartemis cool thanks! You prob got the mobile version then. I was talking about the normal version. Good to know the mobile works too! #
• 14:59 @jarsto - hadn't heard of that model. #
• 14:59 @jarsto - if nothing else...it has a cool name #
• 15:56 @piratescribe - the shortened versions #
• 16:00 @piratescribe - mainly because of getting the US rights to some of the music and video clips used I think. #
• 16:02 @piratescribe *cough* BT Airways *cough* #
• 19:52 Just picked up Super Mario Brother for the Wii #
• 23:09 @nscottg only played a bit so far...but seems good. First time turning on the Wii in almost a year! #
• 23:10 @treeva_monkey - thanks #

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Being an idiot, I let my mom convince me to watch the pilot of Criminal Minds. Is anyone surprised to hear that I'm completely hooked?

Why is it that I always get new fandoms when I have the least amount of time for them? You know, for example, like when I'm supposed to be working on four stories for holiday fic exchanges, cleaning out my room and packing, preparing for an 800 mile move, working insane hours at the Restaurant of Doom™, selling various belongings online for cash, catching up on several of my current series, finishing the last two seasons of The West Wing - which happens to be the last new fandom that I got into...

Title: Meet Your Master.
Artist: Nine Inch Nails.
Rating: PG, at the most.
Character: The Master (John Simm).
Fandom: Doctor Who.
Spoilers: Series 3 Finale Arc.
Warnings: Slight slash inference. (The Doctor/The Master)
Summary: This was a simple character study of John Simm's Master.
Notes: Beta'd by the genius theanonsisters and dedicated to lastblazes. I'll be linking to an upload as soon as MU decides to cooperate. This is also my first attempt at different techniques in Vegas, so bear with me.

( graphic + link here )

I went shopping this evening (I am not one of the insane people who gets up and goes at the crack of dawn) and got about half of my Christmas shopping done. Plus I picked up a few things for myself. I also ordered some shirts from Threadless cause they were having a $9 t-shirt sale and I ordered an iPod from the apple store online for my stepdad. My mom's gift was taken care of last week! And I started my holiday baking!

AND I came home to discover that fandom_stocking is running again this year and sign ups are open!!!

It's the holiday season!

I hope all my American friends had a nice Thanksgiving. Mine was pretty good, spent with good friends who made the meal effortless and the day relaxing. We had a lazy day in today, too. Alicia isn't well, having lost her voice from the cold she's fighting now, so we decided to make do with in-house entertainment. Movies, games, leftovers, fun. The tree is up, but we're waiting on decorating to let the cats get used to having it around. We didn't want to decorate it and then find it tipped over the first night they're left alone with it, lol.

I'm going to start my Christmas cards at the end of next week, so this will be my last call for one. If you haven't already commented, just head on over to my card post and do so. I want to spread Christmas cheer!

Craig's mother is in the hospital with something viral. She probably could have fought it under normal circumstances, but she's been on various drug protocols the past year to try and fix the joint thing that attacked her last Christmas, and her immune system is compromised as a result. She's going to be fine - they're letting her out on Monday, most likely - but she can't come here for Christmas. Which means the FIL isn't coming, either. It'll be the first Christmas the kids have had without their grandparents there. I feel a little guilty, because there's nobody else to come to try and fill our house, but the kids understand. It's still a loss, though. Hopefully, they'll be able to come in January or February to make up for it.

There wasn't much new that came out of Regeneration Blues (talking about favorite regenerations and learning to deal with regeneration), Days of Future Passed (thoughts on RTD), and Reporter of Bannerman Road (SJA); if you've been online, you've heard it all.

The Torchwood Babiez panel was rocking with absolute silliness, and y'all need to join me in sending waves of psychic energy to jigglykat to get her to draw that cartoon of 10 Doctor babiez standing around a crib with a bow-tied mini Matt Smith in it, because that would be beyond adorable!

I bought Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical and got it autographed... but I was talking to Rob while he signed with a sharpie; when I went to look at it later, it was unreadable because the ink had soaked in!

There are cosplayers: ( Five pictures under here. )

I didn't get a shot of the Charley cosplayer in the R101 jacket holding a Ramsey "vortisaur" doll (although I am sitting right next to her as she sews buttons on a coat.)

Interesting tidbits from Big Finish's panel:
- They are interested in spreading out from tie-ins, but sales of Phantom have been disappointing; the tie-ins have a built-in audience.
- There was a lot of pressure from the audience to bring Charlie back in some manner. India said she'd bribed us all.
- There were so many Sarah Jane-era monsters in the Eight/Lucie stories because Big Finish could use them and nobody else had reused them, and BF had already done daleks and cybermen.
- India was teasing Nick because he tried to read email *on the panel* under the guise of sending a help request for someone who couldn't get their download subscription to start on the right issue.

...augh, there was a lot more, but the shenanigans of the opening ceremony pushed it out of the mental buffer.

Opening ceremony: Nick Briggs was marched up the center aisle by the Dalek Woman. Later, he was talking about how he'd proposed to his girlfriend last year, and how maybe he'd propose to someone else -which is when Rob Shearman started waving at him. "And maybe have another baby," Nick said, ignoring him. Rob nodded and continued to wave.

Lee Jee Tso took a victory lap around the stage, accompanying himself with a boombox beat.

And Paul McGann made his first appearance, tied to Daphne Ashbrook with a 4th Doctor scarf.

Remember several months ago when I said that I should try to write a young adult vampire novel as a get-rich-quick scheme and a bunch of people contributed wacky premises (most of which turned out to have already been done)? I was reminded of it tonight and now I'm pondering ridiculous titles.

Some ideas (with assistance/inspiration from some AFI top 100 lists):

A Vampire to Remember
My Fair Vampire
Vampire and Prejudice
The Vampire Around the Corner
An Officer and a Vampire
The Vampire and I
The Vampire Always Rings Twice
A Streetcar Named Vampire
The Vampires of Madison County
Seven Brides for Seven Vampires
Vampire Without a Cause
How to Marry a Vampire
Gentlemen Prefer Vampires

...and there are probably about a million more.

I have to say one good thing about the Congressional delegation from MA:

They're very big on Tele-Town Halls.

And somehow, I got on the list of people who will actually drop anything for them and listen in which means that in the past two months I've ended up in two Tele-Town Halls — it would've been more except that I hadn't been home to answer the phone.

Anyway, it's no secret that there's a bruising fight going on here to replace the late Sen. Kennedy.

Lucky me, the candidates are calling me. And what do you know? A call tonight from candidate and Congressman Mike Capuano for a Tele-Town Hall complete with Q&A for voters.

Most of the people on the phone are asking questions I would ask, so I was just going to listen to the answers, when a question popped into my head:

Female veterans. Namely, lack of services for female veterans within the VA system itself.

I have a relative that runs a homeless veterans shelter and he's felt that he lacks the resources to help female veterans. THis, with Iraq and Afghanistan bringing in a lot more female veterans than past conflicts. Also, ginmar, herself a veteran of Iraq has mentioned this issue in her journal.

So, yeah. I hit him with the question: There are a lack of services for female veterans. I know people experiencing this first hand. Can you do anything about this?

There was a little bit of a "Humina, humina, humina" when I asked. *evil smile*

But, and this is the important bit here, I'm the first person to bring up the issue of female veterans to him. Period. Amen.

He acknowledged that the VA is under stress across the board. I also definitely got the sense that the idea that female veterans might require different services from their male counterparts was not an idea that actually crossed his mind. To be fair, the female moderator seemed to be taken aback by the question when I put my question into the queue as well, so I suspect that this simply isn't an issue too many people even think about, male or female.

According to Congressman Capuano is that a big part of the problem is simply that there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of information out there. (Keep in mind, this is the first time Congressman Capuano had even been asked about services for female veterans.)

Although he was very receptive to getting more information about the issue, the problem is getting the information to him (or to any congressman/senator who might be willing to do something about it, really) from a reliable source with hard data.

The other issue is that the VA tends to try out reforms in large urban centers before rippling out to smaller centers (which the congressman pointed out is SOP). So, the issue, based on the Congressman's answer seems to be this:

• Getting veterans' organizations to actually raise this as an issue
  
  
• Getting Congress-critters attention about the issue
  
  
• Getting a local large VA medical center to collect data and try something to address the issue
  
  

He was definitely intrigued by the question, though. And that's something

In short, noise needs to be made if attention is to be paid. A lot of noise.

My brain officially hurts. A lot.

And I can't even figure out where to begin. Also in my way: not a veteran, not a member of any veterans' organization. My family was mostly an Air Force family (the odd Army and Navy person aside), and the last conflict where any of them actually needed to fire a gun was in World War II.

My Air Force vet dad, for example, spent most of the Vietnam war decoding coded signals from Russian fishing trawlers in Japan. He was more at the military intelligence/geek end of military service, and not so much at the actual carrying of guns end of military service. Other post-World War II people in my family fell very much into that same category of "geeks" (although, it could be because they were more the geeky Air Force-type people as opposed to the front-line boo-yah people).

So, no juice there, either.

*sigh*

Of course, let me add that I feel like I've been run over by a Mac truck (I've been under the weather since yesterday morning) and I'm not firing on all cylinders mental-wise.

Well, at least I raised the issue. Lord knows what good it'll do. Maybe someone out there has ideas and can run with it with their own Congress critters.

ETA: To be fair to Congressman Capuano, he gave an honest answer to my question. Even if you had the hard data in hand, it's not an issue that would be resolved easily or soon. I also give him credit for taking it and trying to answer it without resorting to a pat answer and without fluffing me off.

I had been leaning towards him for the election anyway. His answer didn't really change that.

Thanksgiving had much pie--I didn't even get to try every kind--and fabulous borscht, because that is what happens when you invite Lithuanians. The other thing that happens is you sneak off to watch Beetlejuice with the other not-quite-adults, apparently. They had not seen it before! And it is totally a holiday movie. It's got food in it! Well. Bugs.

Before school started, my mom made a deal with me wherein if I lost a certain amount of weight (I'd been trying to in the first place), she'd give me a considerable amount of money for manga; I am pretty sure she is eventually going to regret this, as the deal is repeatable and I have thus far kicked its ass, which is how I ended up reading through volume 5 of 20th Century Boys (the other stuff I ordered hasn't arrived yet). IT IS AWESOME and yet I hate it because it ended on a horrible cliffhanger and the next volume is not out yet D: D: D: DON'T YOU DO THIS TO ME. At least I also have the first two volumes of Monster coming to me? But I already know what happens in those, so. My life is so hard, you guys.

I acquired the soundtrack of Kuroshitsuji, because, well, I could, and it amuses me how easily it serves as a description of the show. You listen to one track and you think, there is no word to describe this other than wacky, and then you listen to another and there is ominous chanting and ominouser bass notes and in this track it sounds like the singer is about to cry but this track you are pretty sure could rival Yakety Sax and you have no idea what's going on but you're entertained anyway. So really it fits the mood of the show pretty well! In all its glorious whiplash.

--I was planning to work on Yuletide today but I have a cold and I really do not want to do anything besides drink orange juice and read TV Tropes, so that is what I will do. And fret about 20th Century Boys. Kenjiiii ;_; ;_; ;_;

This is a followup to the Method commercial I complained about a few days ago. They pulled the commercial and sent those who were troubled an email.

( The email Method sent me, which they probably sent to everyone who complained. )

I'm delighted. I think this is probably the first time I've gotten in on a consumer complaint issue before, and it's definitely the first time something I cared about got solved the way I hoped it would due to just people saying it wasn't cool. Tiny victories, but victories nonetheless.

I start early and then like end up buying too much cause i love buying presents. This year I want to try and just make everything...will be less money. Maybe more stress but *shrug* need something to do.

I survived Black Friday (I always get up early and hit the mall to buy cards and jewelry for myself - my parents have no taste and it's always on sale - and look around for random present ideas) and managed to get a jog in before it got dark (stupid winter and darkness hitting at 5pm).

I have eight Google Wave invites, if anyone would like one. (Leave your e-mail address in the comments - they're screened.) All gone! Yay, more people to play with! I haven't really used it yet, since I don't really know anyone else on it, so I can't say whether I like it or not yet.

First, they got Pirate Bay.

Now, Mininova.org goes down.

Anyone know any other good torrent sites? Obviously, I mean this in a gee-I-wonder-who'll-be-next way, and not because I'm suddenly out a torrent site. No, no, no.... of course not. *whistles*

Hello, everyone! I'm relatively new to the video-making community. I've done things previously, but never on the Sony Vegas scale. (I was a humble WMM newbie) But I've finally finished my first video that took about two days complete with coloring. The problem is, I feel like it needs more. So, I'm looking for a Beta to help me figure out what it needs, as well as concrit the work I've done. It would be most helpful if you were familiar with Doctor Who - especially the series 3 finale arc featuring John Simm. (As this video is all about his version of The Master)

You can either comment below, or PM me, and I will send you a download link and the details as soon as possible! Thank you so much in advance!

I've just posted the fourth vidder profile over at the vid_commentary community - a day early this month, thanks to the holiday. The series features an audio interview with the vidder over excerpts from his or her vids. This month's featured vidder is dualbunny, who I interviewed at Vividcon a few months ago.

You can stream or download the profile here.

dualbunny constantly inspires me. Her sense for connecting source-to-song and source-to-concept is absolute genius in a way that I find engaging as a vidder - I want to get in and analyze it, and marvel at it, and figure out why it works so well. But at the same time it's playful and infectious, so you can enjoy her work on so many levels. Her vids are equally impressive on the dance floor, on a computer screen at home, at a convention vidshow, or as an example of vidding for people who don't usually watch this type of thing. There's no other way to put it: She just kicks a whole lot of ass.

Earlier profiles are here:
August Vidder Profile featuring kiki_miserychic
September Vidder Profile featuring bananainpyjamas, aka dragonchic
October Vidder Profile featuring charmax

I've also set up a You Tube channel for the profiles here.

So, I'm at work. It's very slow, so I had plenty of time to check my finances, pay a few bills, and then go sort of nuts on Etsy.

I now have about half my Christmas shopping done, and at least one thing figured out for every person on my list.

Hurrah!

. . . Man, I'm bored.