Top Hats and Coattails (and Starships?)

Today be my 21st birthday. After a wonderful weekend full of warm fuzzies and family time, it's back to school to get to work on the massive end of the semester assignments to be done.

(also, how frustrating that I got pulled over on the way back to campus. GAH. I'll never speed again, and thank you Mr. Policeman for only giving me a warning)

But it didn't stop the awesomeness of my getting THE COMPLETE GRANADA SHERLOCK HOLMES SERIES FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!! And going out to eat, then coming home, popping popcorn, and watching Star Trek TOS. How I LOVE STAR TREK. And also my new running shoes, giant pillow, and new purple pea coat.

What a wonderful birthday so far, though technically, it was yesterday's pre-birthday celebration. However, all I can say is:

Best Halloween EVER. Me and some buds went out as the Star Trek crew of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty. I, of course, was my favorite, Dr. McCoy. We roamed stores in costume, played phaser tag, visited the mall, and spent about 15 hours watching Star Trek TOS episodes and a ST movie.

A weekend so very, very, very well spent. Long live the Trekkies.



( A couple more... )

Changing my diet and exercising daily is one of the hardest things I've ever done. And it doesn't help that I essentially need to lose 70 pounds (thank God I'm tall). But here we are, over a month later, and I've lost ten pounds and counting!

There are times when I'd love to quit. Exercise is tiring and often hurts because my stamina's not great yet and my body is still in the process of getting used to it. And I miss eating whatever I want. I miss peanut M&Ms and Taco Bell and kettle cooked potato chips and hamburgers and fries and ice cream and tons of chocolate. Grocery shopping is riddled with temptation, and the college cafeteria doesn't offer many healthy options. And I hate salad. So that narrows it down even more...

But those are pretty minor compared to the tremendous will power I've developed. I've found the more I make this a habit, the easier it is to stick with it. Gym time is regularly scheduled when I get out of class each day. I watch what I eat, but will allow myself some treats every now and then. There will be off days and sometimes I'll just have to jump back on the wagon the next day. But I simply can't let myself fail now, because I've seen how far I've come and what I can do if I'll just keep going.  My friends and family have been wonderfully supportive, which helps with my accountability and motivation to continue. But my biggest motivation is how much thinner I'll be and how I'll get to wear the clothes I want and not feel bad about myself every time I look in the mirror. Gee golly whiz, how I hate mirrors.

I'm not doing this for anyone but myself. And checking the scale every week is a reminder that I'm succeeding.

Today I was inducted into the college's honor society, Alpha Chi, for students with a GPA of 3.75 and above. My parents made the hour drive to attend the simple ceremony, as well as my brother who goes to the same college as me (my other brother was too sick to come, poor guy). I hadn't seen my parents in almost a month and it was great to go to dinner with them and spend time together with my family, something that I don't get to do very often any more.

And they brought me stuffs: apple-cinnamon cheerios (my favorite), tuna fish, a giant bag of gummy bears, my favorite pop-tarts (s'mores!). And new socks! Lots of socks!

You can never have too many socks.

It was sad to see them go, because I really wanted to visit more (after showing them my dorm room), so I can't wait to go home in the next weekend or so. *sigh* Today reminds me of how utterly blessed I am that I have such a loving family, parents that are still together and support me in everything and never miss an opportunity to teach me how to cope in the real world. I thank God above all for everything He's given me.

*fuzzy feelings*

Dang, I love this movie. Just watched "Rough Riders" again last night with some history nerds and we had a grand ol' time. It's a shame people don't know about it! And so I've put some clips of it up on YouTube on my account "ericthefrootbat", and the link be HERE.

Oh yeah, I've made some Sherlock Holmes and Scarlet Pimpernel videos...and Batman:TAS...

Ya'll enjoy now.

*snerk*

I've been on FFN for a some years now and have never run across something like this. A fellow FFN friend of mine has been accused by another FFN writer of "stealing" an idea from one of her LJ friends for a story element. My friend doesn't even have a LJ, and has only posted anonymously once. She didn't even know about the other story. My friend and I both write for the smaller and lesser known fandom of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and this accuser has gone as far as to now state on her FFN profile that there is no creativity left in the SP fandom and is essentially proclaiming us "regulars" of the fandom to be utterly inadequate writers in her opinion who only steal ideas from other people because we can't be original ourselves.

Unbelievable. If we are so unworthy, FFN user, please leave our fandom with your pessimistic attitude and uppity canon notions. We are original, we don't plagiarize, and one silly coincidence of a similar story element does not mean that it was done on purpose. Do you actually read the SP fandom, or just your own pieces in it?

It's Teddy Time. TR icons from photographs and from the TNT movie, "Rough Riders."
(credit and comment if you use them :])

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Got back from the family "vacation" a few days ago. I say "vacation" because a walk ALL OVER D.C. is not really what the general term for vacation describes. But it was worth every last aching foot. Mannnn, the wonderful historical things I saw! One of my favorite things was seeing the actual chairs that Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant sat in at Appomattox Court House when the South surrended the war. Gahhhh. *history fangirls*

Saw basically every D.C. monument known to man and still managed to fit in 3 Smithsonians and Arlington National Cemetery. I liked the American History Smithsonian best (no duh). Saw the actual Star-Spangled Banner, which is as big as my living room and dining room combined, actual Lincoln artifacts, and of course, the "America At War" exhibit that covers the history of warfare in the U.S. Had a grand ol' time in the Civil War section.

And LO! Guess what I discovered was in the middle of the Potomac River?

THEODORE ROOSEVELT ISLAND. The man's so awesome, he has his own island. People go running on the trails through the forests there; kinda apropos for the guy who was such a conservationist. He has this beautiful monument in the middle of the forest and I took pictures hugging his statue. His 17-foot statue.

Then we were off to the battlefield of Gettysburg, which was my favorite part of the entire trip, being the avid Civil War buff that I am. It was uttlerly breathtaking and heartbreaking at the same time. We took the auto tour of the military park which took about 3-4 hours, because the battlefield itself is 6,000 acres. I got out and took pictures, climbed huge observation towers, scrambled up rocks and ridges, walked a bit of Pickett's Charge, and everything in between. It was utterly amazing in every sense of the word.

In the course of the trip I acquired 3 Civil War posters for my dorm room. I will display them proudly all over my walls and lecture on the importance of each of the generals and battles to anyone who merely pauses to look at them.

I also found at the Library of Congress a plethora of hilarious action figures having to do with music and literature, so I ended up getting an Edgar Allan Poe one (complete with raven!) and a Sherlock Holmes one (with magnifying glass!). Pictures to come.

And upon getting home, I was shown pictures that literally made my life. Unbeknownst to me, my family had found and bought a Teddy Roosevelt finger puppet at the National Archives gift shop and decided to take pictures of of me with him behind my back. So they show me all the pictures of me sleeping in the car (Teddy Roosevelt Finger Puppet behind my head), me at breakfast (T.R. just behind my shoulder), me on the tram at Arlington (T.R. posing for the picture behind me). My brothers apparently kept T.R. in their pockets and popped him out anytime there was a photo op. And then they found a Robert E. Lee finger puppet at the Gettysburg gift shop. And took a picture with him behind me too. Pictures to come of these dudes too.

Simply said: this vacation was the best thing EVER.

Ha. We were supposed to leave in the next twenty minutes. Guess who's still packing? Ah, well. We'll be outta here soon and on the way to D.C.!! And Gettysburg on Tuesday!

*does happy little vacation dance*

I have books, and more books, a book light, and another book. And my iPod. That'll last me the 8-hour trip, right?

Gah, I'm so EXCITED! *sticks tongue out at workplace* See ya next week!

Preparing for the family vacation (just two days away!) to Washington D.C. and Gettysburg has made my inner Civil War buff ecstatically happy. I am in charge of the research for the trip and spent hours last night poring over many Civil War books (many of them my own) and refreshing my memory on the key points. My parents want me to make an audio recording of some Gettysburg facts to listen to in the car on the way to the battlefield.

Of course, I'm going overboard and am writing a play-by-play of the main points, positions, and personae of the battle. Because I CAN. *dances* What's left is to organize my notes and make the mp3 recording.

I am one happy little history major right now. And one excited little Civil War buff.

This vacation is going to ROCK.

Edgar Allan Poe was a true literary genius. Gah, the man practically created the genre of horror fiction and greatly influenced the detective category as well. What makes him a genius, however, is how haunting his works are. Truly haunting. And unique.

I have a tape set of several of his poems and short stories that I listened to one dark, stormy night in bed. The narrator's voice is wonderful and the experience was just utterly fantastic. And downright chilling. And just...gah. I love Poe.

For my favorite EAP short story, "Masque of the Red Death" and the famous, and incredibly awesome poem, "The Raven." :

(Please credit and comment if you use!) :)

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( more mystery... )

The look on Watson's face cracks me up every time.

I ordered a book from www.betterworldbooks.com, a site that helps save books from landfills and gives profits toward funding world literacy. With the bonus of free U.S. shipping (woohoo!).

I received an email alerting me that the book had shipped, a very amusing email...

It read:

"Hello (my name),

Working in the fast food industry is the stuff nightmares are made of. My particular job started out in high school and has turned to a job to work during the school breaks from college, mainly summer vacation. BLEAH. Closing shift's a drag, and I can pretty much say that there's no real feeling of accomplishment, as everything just gets dirty and has to be done over again the next day. The never-ending work cycle.

This is why I'm in college. To hopefully get a job far, far, FAR AWAY from the fry cooker and annoying, nagging customers.

*bangs head on wall*

I can only count the days until I go on vacation next week.

(And write new chappies until next week rolls around)

It is a well-known fact that Teddy Roosevelt is made of awesome. He saw to it that the Panama Canal was built. He was the first American awarded the Nobel Prize for peace negotiations with Russia and Japan. He was a trust-buster and creator of the Square Deal. An assassination attempt was made on him, but the steel eyeglass case and 50-page speech in his pocket prevented that. He was a paleontologist, taxidermist, naval historian, Rough Rider, conservationist, writer, editor, orator, President, and field naturalist. Oh, and he liked to shoot stuff. BIG stuff. On safaris.

Did I mention that the guy is adorable?

And so here's my cartooning tribute to my favorite president (and his horse that probably couldn't keep up with him):




Teddy Roosevelt doesn't NEED stirrups. He laughs in the face of whoever invented them.

A madlib courtesy of the boredom of SherlockianGirl and Baroness Orc.

( The Adventure of the Speckled Band (In a Minute) )

Indeed.

There's an interesting contest I ran across called "Fifty-Five Fiction", a writing challenge in which you essentially write a short story in 55 words.

I haven't tried my hand at this YET, but first read an entire book of contest winners called "The World's Shortest Short Stories."

( And here are two of my many favorites )

Inspiration given. I shall endeavor to write some of these with their twisty-like endings and see how that goes, but in the meantime...

I went to ye olde used book store today and garnered yet more Sherlock Holmes related material. The dear detective is slowly taking over my shelf with a vengeance. But invariably, they will make their way back to my dorm room this fall.



I need bigger shelves.

I created this poster for my best FFN friend Baroness Orc and her fanfic, "The Adventure of the Australian Refugee." 'Tis an excellent story, and I encourage everyone to check it out HERE.

I've been doing madlibs with my friend, Baroness Orc (of fanfiction.net) and must say, there's nothing like laughing your head off to make even the worst day more bearable. And these aren't just any madlibs. They're literary madlibs for Sherlock Holmes and the Scarlet Pimpernel.  And they're SILLY.

( Here be some literary fun... )

Hee.

I've been playing with some photoshop paint-brushy filters, and so today's icons are:

   

with the ever-silly exception .