New Years Resolution for 2009...read more books or watch more movies. I'm going to try to read 100 books and watch 100 movies in the year. I can do this. It'll be fun, and it'll get me to read more!

EDIT: Cut down to 50 books and 50 movies cause there's no way in hell I'll be able to do both. I'm still tracking the amount of books I read/movies I watch though, when I get past 50.

( 50 Books )

( 50 Movies )

Sendhil Ramamurthy joins the cast of "Rex" "Rex", of course, being "Rex Is Not Your Lawyer", that show with David Tennant in it. Hopefully this will be good. I couldn't stand David's Doctor and Sendhil's been screwed over on Heroes multiple multiple times. The best part about all this? I have no expectations at all for this show. It's NBC. They tend to fuck over their shows like nobody's business. Here's hoping that this isn't true.

I need to finish my Columbia app and these two newspaper articles finish themselves.

Subject/first sentence of each entry per month.
J: [] / I neeeed to get my ass in gear and start working on the Russian Revolution project I'm supposed to do.
F: Why yes, I did just want to use this icon / Mother and I are getting into arguements about college...again
M: I need a Dr Horrible icon to represent / Apparently the comic geek community goes explody during the weekend I decide to go camping (in the rain, in freezing temperatures under a tornado watch. Yeah, what the hell, self?).
A: [] / You guuuuuuys.
M: [] / HEY YOU GUYS.
J: [] / [1] List 10 celebrities you would make out with without even asking questions.
J: [] / Uh, I saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen today.
A: [] / Thought on rewatching an old Scooby-Doo marathon...
S: Take my breath awaaaaaaay / Tagged by arcanelegacy
O: [] / Happiness is when your AP Government teacher accidentally assigns the wrong section and when you ask her about it, she tells you not to worry about the assignment, have a nice weekend.
N: WORD COUNT: 2014 / In typical Kates fashion, I have decided to do NaNoWriMo on November 2, after finishing and being inspired by Soon I Will Be Invincible, despite the fact that I still need to do my Columbia application and that I will probably be eaten alive by the biology subject area test and various scholarship applications.
D: GOSSIP TIEM / Sendhil Ramamurthy joins the cast of "Rex"

I need to learn to write smaller sentences.

Okay. There's a story behind this. Sam and I were playing clip wars in chat. I showed her Four and K-9 playing chess, she showed me Snowman Hank. I showed her the Brig punching the Master, she showed me it's a trap trap. Then I mentioned Tinkerbell Jesus and the horror that it is. But she had to leave before I could post the clip.

SO HEY SAM AND ANYONE ELSE? HERE IT IS.



This is why I like Old Who. I mean, that whole Master arc was embarrassing enough (Scissor Sisters, Dobby Doctor, horrible green screen, unfortunate implications with Martha's family, etc.) but this is just the icing on the cake.

I just wanted to share this with all of you. This is absolutely my favorite Christmas song ever. A pity that the radios don't play it as much as I would like.



Just listen. It's beautiful.

How did I manage to post this on all my RP comms but not on my actual LJ. What is this.

For those of you who don't know, I'm currently on vacation! I'm visiting my grandmother up on Petit Jean Mountain near Conway, Arkansas. It's an honest-to-God mountain. Granted, I do have internet-thanks to my Oma getting DSL. Unexpected internet is...you know the rest. However, I'm taking a hiatus from blogging/the internet/whatevs. If I actually get ON teh interwebs, it's because I'm doing college stuff.

And you know what? I like this. I am greatly enjoying this stress-free week. I'm actually reading stuff I want to read (just finished Diamonds Are Forever, gonna start on Bridge Over the River Kwai soon) and I'm actually getting homework done (Beloved, you going down!). I romped through the woods yesterday and am gonna hang out with family on Tuesday.

Monday I've got a college visit to Hendrix (they accepted me! Yay!) but I get to sit in on a class and audition for a theater scholarship. Here's hoping they have a Film Literacy Class. We've been doing that in theater (because Guidry is awesome) and I've fallen in love with analyzing the sexuality in Dr. Strangelove and discussing the importance of Rosebud in Citizen Kane. It's so much fun.

So yeah. See you on Friday and have a happy Turkey Day, for those American peeps on my f-list!

Note to self: go to comic store on Friday and BUY FREAKING DR. HORRIBLE COMIC. He has actual backstory now, from the preview. Oh my god, I love actual backstory.

On a completely different note, I'm watching a bit of Lilo and Stitch before Criminal Minds comes on. Life is good.

Today was really a Doctor Who themed day.

Earlier I started Mawdryn Undead, but didn't finish it until now because of Dailymotion glitches. As this is my first proper Five episode (not counting The Five Doctors), I feel the need to comment on it. Oh my god I hated the background music. It was horrible and electronic and sounded like someone had too much fun with a synthesizer. Aside from that, it was a pretty good episode. I liked the bit with the two Brigadiers and how half the episode was just running around. But what really made the episode was Turlough. You whiny little bitch. I really like you.

Also, my sister and I busted out one of her favorite Doctor Who episodes that I actually own on DVD, Planet of Evil. That and Pyramids of Mars are the source between our continual 'anti matter monster vs. robot mummies, which is cooler?' debate. Planet of Evil is one of those mediocre eps with a GORGEOUS set. Seriously. The set crew went all out when making Zeta Minor-no BBC quarry here! The best part was watching it with Emily and continually snarking all through it. Prime snark points included the awful guns that always seemed to miss (except when shot from about a foot from the Doctor's face), the horrible effects for the anti-matter monsters, and the fact that no one listens to the Doctor and, surprisingly, they all die.

I am slowly failing at Nano. Possibly because I've written all the parts that I know I want to write. I know it's not complete, but I don't know what to put there in the middle. Also, I kinda didn't write at all this weekend so yeah...there's your problem.

On the bright side, I finished a 1000 word paper on PACs! I have no idea how I'll be able to write 25 page papers on something in college, especially considering that I am immensely proud of my 1000 word paper and it's right at 1000 words. The longest paper I've ever written was about 8 pages on Roger Chillingworth from The Scarlet Letter. College is gonna be fun, you guys!

On another note, I watched the Star Trek gag reel. The bit where Leonard Nimoy curses is hilarious, as is the fact that the door hit Chris in the face. Also, someone needs to find me an icon of Zoe, Anton and John doing their ridiculous little dance thing as it was ten kinds of adorable.

I'm really waiting for the next 60% day so I can do another 60% day movie marathon...the odds are shaping up for it to be the most awful movies that I can find at Blockbuster. Either that or Bond (again).

I have decided that the best writing music for me is David Bowie. Which, of course, means that I'll be sick of him come December. I also have decided that one hour of sleep really makes all the difference. I went to bed at 11 instead of midnight last night and I felt wonderful. I think I'll do that tonight as well.

Yeah. I'm BEAT.

In typical Kates fashion, I have decided to do NaNoWriMo on November 2, after finishing and being inspired by Soon I Will Be Invincible, despite the fact that I still need to do my Columbia application and that I will probably be eaten alive by the biology subject area test and various scholarship applications. Honestly, I'll be happy with myself if I get half the words written. I am so horrible at things like this.

On the bright side, this'll help me cut back on role-playing slightly and get me writing again. Mom'll be pleased about that.

Halloween yay whoo. I have candy handing out duty, but I live in a cul-de-sac, so I don't have to worry there. Dad and I have the annual arguement of 'kids who don't wear costumes get less candy' (me) vs. 'goddammit girl, we bought too much candy just give it to them' (him). He usually wins.

So yeah. I'm celebrating by watching (or more accurately listening to) "Catspaw", the hilarious Halloween episode of Star Trek, most notable for stuffing as much Halloween into one episode as it could and Chekov having the worst hair day on record. Later it'll be Charlie Brown time.

( Oh, and speaking of Star Trek... )

Katie, thanks for being a stage manager.
No problem
So, you're in charge around here, is that fair to say?
Absolutely, I'm the boss.
Okay, so take us through the day of the performance.
Well the first thing I do is...

GET SOME WENDYS (LIKE A BOSS)
RUN THROUGH RAIN (LIKE A BOSS)
PAINT A BOOKSHELF (LIKE A BOSS)
GIVE OUT ORDERS (LIKE A BOSS)
TAPE THE ROSE (LIKE A BOSS)
MAKE ROSE MOVE (LIKE A BOSS)
MAKE A WASH (LIKE A BOSS)
WASH ON STAIRS (LIKE A BOSS)
FIX SPRAY BOTTLE (LIKE A BOSS)
GET MCDONALDS (LIKE A BOSS)
MOVE BOOKSHELF (LIKE A BOSS)
FIND A QUILT (LIKE A BOSS)
THERE'S NO QUILT (LIKE A BOSS)
Oh fuck man, we don't have the quilt!
USE SOME FABRIC (LIKE A BOSS)
GO FIND CAST (LIKE A BOSS)
PEP TALK TIME (LIKE A BOSS)
GET SHOW STARTED (LIKE A BOSS)
CUE THE MUSIC (LIKE A BOSS)
DO SOUND CUES (LIKE A BOSS)
TALK TO LAUREN (LIKE A BOSS)
EXPLAIN ROSE (LIKE A BOSS)
MORE SOUND CUES (LIKE A BOSS)
START APPLAUSE (LIKE A BOSS)
EAT SOME CANDY (LIKE A BOSS)
CHANGE THE SET (LIKE A BOSS)
NOW RELAX (LIKE A BOSS)

I have officially submitted my common application and the supplements for Washington University in St Louis, Hendrix, Dartmouth, Middlebury and Northwestern. So yeah. I MIGHT GO TO COLLEGE, YOU GUYS.

PHEW.

That takes a load off of my shoulders.

Now to make sure all my teachers turned in their teacher review forms...

Almost done with my lazy-ass Chekov costume for Halloween. Now that my hair's shorter, I think I can get it in an appropriately hideous Monkees 60s swoop. I just need to practice on my hideous Russian accent and actually iron-on the lovely Star Trek iron-on that I'm gonna iron on my t-shirt (yo dawg i heard you like iron-ons so we put an iron-on on your iron-on so you can iron while you iron?)

Fall Festival (aka that thing that eats my time) is on Friday. We are soooo not ready. Like...epically not ready. Like 'our set is not painted yet why are you still on book' not ready. If it was any other thing, I wouldn't worry about it. However...I'm stage manager for fall festival. SO YEAH. I'M WORRIED.

The best part is we're all encouraged to dress up on Friday cause it's the day before Halloween. So yeah. I'm gonna probably be running all over town/freaking out while wearing a Starfleet Uniform. CHEKOV'S GONNA MANAGE A PLAY, YOU GUYS.

On another note, I love the fact that the one day I decide to wear make-up, everyone thinks that I look real nice and I get all these compliments. I love how superficial humanity is at time.

Monty Python sketch cause I say so:



I bet nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition, huh? :3

So I expected there to be wifi somewhere in New York that was free. Hence, I didn’t put up a ‘I’m going on vacation’ post and just was planning on updating at night. Whoops.

So yeah. I’m in NYC! My high school won the College Board Inspiration Award. As I’m second in class, me and the valedictorian got to go to NYC to give a ‘thanks for giving us this award my school rocks’ speech. It’s all paid for by the College Board-meals and everything. Fuck to the yes. I got here on Tuesday and I’m leaving on Friday. Tuesday I took the world’s shortest plane ride here and ate a lot of complimentary pretzels and drank even more complimentary Diet Coke. I drank a lot of Diet Coke on this trip. Sorry teeth. Anyway, Tuesday! We arrived and I set up base in my hotel room. I had a hotel room all to myself! Color me happy. We also saw Wicked on Tuesday. It was BRILLIANT. We had a marvelous Elphaba, our Boq was too cute, and the effects just blew me away.

Wednesday-I was on the Today Show. For serious. Me, my teacher (Van Uden) and the lady from ESF (Heather) were standing outside watching them set up for when they film outside, when an intern walked up to us and asked if we had any questions for ‘Money Talk/Finance 101/Insert Catchy Name Here’. Heather was all ‘ask about finances’ cause I have some money squirreled away. So I give intern my question and cell phone number. Half an hour later, she calls me back and says that they were going to use my question, can you come across the street in fifteen minutes? So I asked my question. If you watched for some odd reason (around 9 o’clock), I was the teenage girl in the purple-Katie. If you also saw a purple arm waving around outside, that was me too. What else...I bought a knock-off Chanel wallet. I’m not complaining. I bought some pashminas also in red, white and purple! Let’s see...had dinner and rehearsal with the College Board people. We had Italian. Also, I watched Repo! The Genetic Opera in my hotel room. It kinda sucked. Rotti can’t sing. I like Sarah Brightman and Anthony Steward Head though.

Thursday I spent most of the time at the hotel. We (me & Evan) presented our little speech, ate lunch, and listened to Gwen Ifill talk about African-Americans and what it’s like being a African-American woman and a journalist and yay education and so on and so forth. I also took a bus tour of uptown and shopped. Dinner was at the Hilton and we listened to Tony Plana (?) from Ugly Betty (he’s the dad) speak about how the schools need the art program and things like that. A-freaking-men. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of either Gwen Ifill or Tony Plana wearing my hat. Best part? At about nine o’clock, Van Uden, Carrington and I went to the top of the Rockefeller Tower and saw NYC at night. It was GORGEOUS. I’ve got pictures but, as I’m updating from the airport, they’ll come later.

Friday, we saw the Statue of Liberty (from Manhattan shore, not from a ferry or actually from the island). We walked around some more, went shopping, ate at this cute little restaurant, almost got squashed by people, etc. etc. We saw a television show filming in Times Square. Anybody know La Gordo y La Flaca? If not, don’t worry. I probably bastardized the name anyway.

My assessment? College Board is LOADED. We had rooming at the Hilton, they paid for our meals and airfare, limos to the hotel / airport, these people shell out the big bucks. And I had a blast! I love NYC so much. I wish that I could have stayed longer to see more shows, hang around at the stage door, see motherfreaking HAMLET with motherfreaking JUDE LAW, but I’m fine with what I did. Overall, I had a blast!

EDIT: And photobucket went asplode. Yaaay. New temporary layout is basically badhorsefan 's layout (aka the Dr. Horrible I play at CnC)

It's finally cool here!

Highs around 60, lows around 40. I am so so happy! I am a cold weather fiend. So yeah. Momma's taking me shopping later today. Happy fingers whoo! Cause yeah, I need new dress clothes.

The downside of it being cold? The frantic race to dry off and get in my warm comfy robe after I take a hot shower. It's REALLY cold when you're wet.

Uh yeah. I am bored and I need to take a shower, so here's a meme.

[01] -- Go to IMDB.com and look up 10 of your TV shows.
[02] -- Post three official IMDB "Plot Keywords" for these picks.
[03] -- Have your friends guess the show names.

1. Famous Opening Theme, Christ Allegory, Corridor
2. Interracial Relationship, Brotherly Love, Theft
3. Video Camera, Interview, Deception Lie To Me
4. FBI Profiler, Serial Killer, This show only has two tags. :/ Criminal Minds
5. California, Scientist, Sitcom The Big Bang Theory
6. Actor Playing Female Roles, Part Animated, Absurdism Monty Python's Flying Circus
7. Talking Animal, Kids and Family, Teen
8. Dog, Freud, One Word Title Frasier
9. Tragedy, Man In Uniform, Shipper
10. Exploration, Male Bonding, Beautiful Women Star Trek

http://www.20q.net/

I am doing Doctor Who 20Q OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

So far it managed to guess the Fourth Doctor, jelly babies, Skaro, Jack Harkness, Agatha Christie and Bessie. It didn't manage to get Grace Holloway, Vespiform, or Leela. My favorite '20Q says you're wrong' bit was this:

You are thinking of Bessie.
Would the police take it seriously? You said Doubtful, 20Q was taught by other players that the answer is Yes.

Who really would take Bessie seriously? :/

On a non-DW note, I watched some TOS today, most notably 'Catspaw'. I just have to say one thing...who was in charge of Chekov's hair? It looked REALLY awful. Like...REALLY AWFUL.

Okay, so I saw Styx tonight. It ROCKED. Here's a list of what they played.

Miss America
Grand Illusion
Too Much Time on My Hands
Lady
Lorelai
I am the Walrus (I'm serious. It ROCKED)
Fooling Yourself
Crystal Ball
Suite Madame Blue
Come Sail Away
Blue Collar Man
Renegade

...aka nothing written by Dennis deYoung. :3 But yeah, it ROCKED. The band looked like they were having so much fun and the audience was having so much fun. Tickets were INSANELY cheap ($5!) but that's probably because it's the Mississippi State Fair. So yeah.

So I have two very happy squee moments, both involving the keyboardist and sometimes vocalist Lawrence Gowan (they played vocal shuffle on all songs). But first, a word of explanation. Me and my friend Michael were RIGHT AT THE RAILING in the mosh pit, with my brother, my sister and my friend Lindsey behind us. (We were by stage right, theater folks) We had a perfect view of Lawrence Gowan's ass for most of the show-which isn't that bad. He looks GOOD for a forty-year old. So, the various people of Styx would go up to the people by the railings and high-five them, show off their guitar skills, whatever. You get the idea.

So "Lady" comes on. Gowan is singing, he's strutting about the stage, I'm singing also, being a TOTAL moron and a TOTAL teenage girl. I forget just what part it is, but he spots me AND STARTS SINGING TO ME. NO SHIT. He's looking at me, I'm looking at him, my brother and Michael are just poking me and going 'ohmygod ohmygod' and I'm basically making this face: :D So he sings like...five seconds of "Lady" STRAIGHT TO ME I SWEAR ON MY GRANDFATHER'S GRAVE (both of them). And then all my friends were like HOLY SHIT. So yeah. I have a new favorite Styx song.

BUT IT GETS BETTER. Near the end, it was basically the band showing off their guitars and their guitar skills by playing these complex riffs and stuff. Since Gowan can't play guitar, he's walking around the stage, taking Polaroids of the guitarist and bassist and throwing them out to the audience. Now, I have no sense. I'm wearing a blue hat and I throw it onto the stage when Gowan passes by. It lands kind of near his feet but more on his leg. He PUTS MY HAT ON, TAKES A PICTURE OF HIMSELF IN MY HAT, and GIVES ME BACK MY HAT AND MY PICTURE. HOLY SHIT.

( proof under cut )

The picture didn't come out all too well cause I accidentally let some of the stage light shine on it before Lindsey reminded me to stick it in my pocket so it wouldn't spoil. Thanks Lindsey! So yeah. I was a blubbering mess for the rest of the concert. And I'm never giving away my hat never ever.

And Michael got a guitar pick. :3 Which is very very good cause he actually knew what the guitars were.

And I bought a purple t-shirt.

This was AWESOME. Styx fucking ROCKED.

There was a one-legged turkey in our yard yesterday and earlier today.

My brother and I named it 'Gimpy'.

I fucking LOVE living near a creek!

Guess who spent all day at the beach? Me! My family and friends piled in two cars and drove 3 hours to Gulf Shores. We took an hour-long boat ride to Ship Island. I laid out in the sun, got a little bit tan, spent a large amount of time in the water and helped build a sand castle. My lips taste like salt water and I have sand between my toes. <3 I love it.

And so now I'm watching Pocahontas, drinking Coke and eating strawberry ice cream while I'm waiting for my Hard Candy torrent to download when Pocahontas is done. Life is good. Speaking of Pocahontas, I want to listen with my heart. Who knew that listening with your heart gave you the power to understand all languages and have fun with technicolor leaves?

So yeah. Listen with your heart, Batman!