Maledicte

• I have been telling myself that I should post here every night for at least two weeks, I swear. And then I get distracted by something, or I put it off for the night telling myself I'll do it the next night... And we all know how that goes. But now I am updating my Kindle and the Boyfriend is working out for the next hour or so, so I might as well buckle down and actually let you all know I'm alive.

• I am. For the record. Alive, that is.

• Speaking of the Boyfriend, we've basically been living together for the last three weeks (he picked me up from the airport the day I got home from NYC and spent the night and then never went home) and it's really lovely. Things are still awesome, he's still awesome and amazing, and I am still happy. So yay! (Though, I forget to do things that I usually do in the solitude of night. Which is mostly journaling stuff. I haven't written in my paper journal for weeks either.)

• Also for the record: the trip home from NYC was fraught and full of annoyances and terribleness. That is all.

• I tripped and fell down some stairs the other (last Thursday) night, and rolled my ankle in the process. It's still a bit swollen and I still can't walk around all day on it, though I don't think I've done more than pull some muscles and bruise myself. Still, it's the worst injury I've done to my ankles in a really long time, and I am deeply, deeply annoyed with myself.

• Kindle is still awesome. I read Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches, which was tons of fun, and I am currently reading an advance copy of the sequel, Shadow of Night, which is awesome. On the other hand, these books are sort of long and dense, so I am not adding a whole lot of numbers/entries to my "Books I've Read This Year" list. I've decided to be ok with this. Next up on the reading list is Holly Black's Black Heart and Jim Butcher's first Dresden Files book. I also think I ought to finish Anne Rice's The Wolf Gift, if only because I started it and I would like to be able to say that I've read an Anne Rice book that's not part of her filthy porno trilogy.

• School will be drawing to a close soon, and I register for next semester's classes tomorrow, and I am super excited because I will have an amazing schedule. Five classes, four of which only meet once a week; two classes on Monday, two classes on Tuesday, one class on Wednesday, one class on Thursday and no classes on Friday; nothing earlier than 9:15am; and three writing classes and two literature classes. It's going to be awesome. Also: three day weekends! Whoohoo!

That's really all I have to say right now. C:

It's been a while since I posted anything of substance, so here we go!

• First, I bought myself some paid account time on DW and now I have icons! This is delightful! (Despite the fact that still most of my posting (which mostly consists of comments) is over at LJ.) I am very pleased, and have even changed some of them around. Delightful, I tell you. Obviously, for those of you reading this on LJ, it likely won't matter. But the fact that I have them on DW just makes me happy. So. It's the little things in life, clearly.

• Right. Next. I am officially dating someone*. We met on Christmas Eve when we were sitting next to each other on a plane. We spend the weekends together mostly since he lives an hour away. It's lovely, he's wonderful, I'm happy.

• We're doing a Valentine's Day thing next weekend. And by "thing" I mean, "I've been tasked with picking out a restaurant and I have no idea what I want, so I haven't picked anything yet." I know tons of restaurants in NYC because I eat out so often there, but I don't actually eat out that often here in Santa Fe. Not really. More research must be done.

* I'll have to figure out how I want to refer to him here, if I decide I want to.

• Moving along. School. It's going well so far. My Gothic Lit class and my Poetry class are by far my most interesting classes. I volunteered to go in the first group of workshops for my Poetry class, and while I'm not nervous, I sort of hate my poem. I have a paper coming up in my Gothic Lit class, and I suspect I'll be writing on the Poe stories we read, since we won't have read anything else that actually will hold my interest. I suspect I'll be writing my final paper on Dracula because, um, yes.

• My Religion & Image class makes me mentally slam my head against a wall for an hour three days a week. I'd forgotten what talking about literature with teenagers who aren't into it is like. Let me give you an example:

This morning a girl said something like, "It's definitely a dream," about one of Kafka's stories (A Country Doctor for those interested or those who might be familiar with it), and when I asked her why she said "definitely" she explained how the whole sequence would never happen "in real life" and I just... couldn't look at her and say, "You haven't read much Kafka, have you?" So, I just tried to explain—without being snarky, not sure if I succeeded, but really I was just trying to show her that there's no "definitely" about anything—that it really didn't seem to out of character in the surreality of the story. I got a blank (and possibly slightly annoyed) look in return.

My Paradise Lost class is only slightly better. We talk about the book a bit more, but we also go around the room and read long passages of it aloud and the teacher goes, "See how this is an example of something I told you would be in here?" Less slamming my head against a wall, more internally crying.

• I am already behind on my IS. I am likely going to write two short stories this week (nothing super polished, just first drafts) in order to catch up. Oof.

• My Kindle is my current favorite thing. Well, my Kindle and the application calibre. I've been adding books to both like crazy, and reading almost as much. Though, I am having trouble sticking with one book and finishing it. (Except for the one I'll talk about in a minute.) I suspect this is because I keep getting new books and having "new toy syndrome" as applied to books. (I dub this, "new book syndrome.") Still, I am reading books and having fun with gadgets. The Boyfriend is pretty much convinced that he wants a Kindle now. Which I consider a victory. And I am finding that it's nice to be able to carry a ton of books with me wherever I go, and that reading on the Kindle can sometimes be nicer than reading from an actual book. I like having the actual book, but sometimes the slim little gadget it nicer to practical application.

• The only book I've finished (that's not a reread) in a while on my Kindle was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. If you haven't read this book already, read it. Go out, buy it, read it right now. There are so many amazing things about this book, I literally had to put it down at times and hyperventilate over how I will never write something this amazing. Or at least, how I'll never write this book because someone else already wrote it. (Other books that inspire this feeling: Steven Brust's To Reign in Hell and Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens. Probably there are others, but those are the two I can recall off the top of my head.) Of course, I am happy with the things I am working on as books that will likely sell if I can get them into some sort of publishable shape (and, you know, written) but sometimes I just think, "Why couldn't I have written this?" Seriously amazing, if you haven't read it yet, do it asap.

Note to exrpan: Consider reading this for your Independent Study with David. No, seriously.

• Other than DW/LJ, I've been slacking off on my other online hideouts. I haven't really used Twitter or Tumblr in a while. I've sort of lost interest, even though I don't want to have lost interest. It's an odd conundrum. I haven't even really been reading fic. It's not that I am losing interest in my fandoms—because, if my reaction to the Avengers trailer during the Super Bowl is in any indication, I'm definitely not—I just have other things that I am thinking about at the moment. Hm. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to fandom things in not too long.

And that's it, folks!

I keep opening the "post an entry" window and then not posting.

• Thanksgiving happened. Also, it was stressful and I got no sleep. Not exactly the vacation I was looking for, but it was nice all the same. Got to see family, hung out with lskull86 a little, and got some beautiful lace yarn which I will eventually find a pattern that I like enough to use. For those who were confused by my Twitter posts, I flew into NYC on Thursday, drove out to Massachusetts on Friday, had Thanksgiving on Saturday (because that's how my family does it), drove back to NYC on Sunday with Aaron, and then flew home at an obscenely early hour of the morning on Monday. Quick vacation.

• School is progressing. I have papers that I need to write for four classes, and a portfolio to turn in for the fifth. I'm pretty sure it's all doable.

• I convinced my Fiction teacher to do an Independent Study with me. One where I will write a short story (as defined by 5k-20k words, I guess) every two weeks. This seems manageable. I am going through all my works-in-progress and my various idea and picking out the ones that are viable and trying to formulate the ones that were tenuous at best. Hopefully I will have 8 concrete story ideas before the start of next semester.

• I really out to be reading a chapter in my religious ethics textbook, but it's only 10 pages long, so I am putting it off in favor of finally updating this thing with real content and drinking pomegranate limeade from Trader Joe's.

• NaNoWriMo happened pretty much as it ever does for me. I wrote about 6500 words on my novel and 3500 words of a short story, and then gave up on returning to the novel because I have no idea what needs to happen. However, this is the first NaNoWriMo novel that I think actually has potential beyond just churning out a wordcount. (The one that I got the farthest into is 13k words, about 10k of which is smut. Granted, it's mostly all plot related, but still.) I actually feel like this is a novel I want to continue thinking about and working on. Of course, I have plenty of novel ideas that have the same sort of potential, but I'm not sure that I've actually started writing any of the others. (No idea why, except that I didn't really write anything between graduating high school and recently. God, that's five years. I hate that.) This novel is interesting enough that I will likely have to do more research and more meta-research and then more figuring out how the plot is supposed to go. I'm actually looking forward to that!

• I need to finish reading this fic for xmenbigbang and make my damn mix and cover. I suspect that they wanted to get all the posting done before Christmas, but it actually would have been easier to do this afterwards.

• Oh oh oh. Remember how I mentioned that I wanted a Kindle and how I told my godfather that that was what I wanted for Christmas? I got an email from my mom on the day when the Kindle Fire started shipping asking me, "Is this the Kindle you wanted?" with the Kindle Fire ad in it. When I answered no, my mom responded, "Oh, well, you can tell me which one, or just go into my Amazon account and put it in my basket so I can get it." YAY KINDLE. I am not even bringing any books with me on my Christmas trip. Since I am flying on Christmas Eve, I will actually be getting the Kindle the first morning of my vacation. I am excited.

• I am also excited to be spending Christmas in Michigan, no matter how cold it supposedly gets out there. I will wear lots of warm clothes, or just not leave the house much. There will be snow, and wood fires, and a dog, and a Christmas tree, and everything. Oh, and also a menorah, lest I forget that I am actually Jewish.

• Speaking of vacation though, I will be in NYC from Dec. 28 through Jan. 12. I have no plans as of yet, so anyone who wants to try to make plans with me should feel free to do so. (exrpan, you still have to tell me if I'm going to overlap with whatever you have planned for your holiday. Fingers crossed!) I would like to do something for New Year's, though I doubt that I will go to the ball-dropping thingy (because no) or a big huge party or anything. No plans yet, but hopefully it will be something festive and inauspicious.

Ok, this entry is likely long enough now.

Don't forget to request a holiday card!

See, sometimes I can update this thing with less than a month between posts.

• The Writing Buddies feature on the NaNoWriMo site is running now. :) If you're doing NaNoWrimo, you should definitely add me as a buddy. If we were buddies in the past, their update got rid of everything, so you'll have to add me again.

• I've been thinking about getting a Kindle for a long time at this point, but with the release of all the new Kindles, I am seriously considering it now. I can't decide which one I want, though. Except the Kindle Fire. Pretty sure I don't want that one. I'm not ready for a tablet in my life. An eReader will be enough. Last time I was in NYC I played around with the Nook Touch at a B&N (with the touch e-ink) and it was surprisingly interesting. Which gives me hope for the Kindle Touch. But I sort of want the one with the physical keyboard and in black. :/ And I can't decide if I want 3G wireless or not, or if I would find it to be necessary. Anyway, I'm thinking about it, and thinking about asking for whichever I decide is the one I want for my birthday this year.

• I've also been thinking about getting an iPhone. I mean, I was so against them because their touch technology tended to not register my touch bout 50% of the time. But I haven't had problems with that in a while. And now that you can get the phone on Verizon, it might even work at my house. I don't go up for an upgrade for another 10 months, but I am thinking about it. I do like my BlackBerry, but the iPhone can just do a whole lot more. There are tons of apps that aren't available on BlackBerrys, or aren't available on my version. (Like the Kindle app. My BlackBerry is the single version that doesn't have a Kindle app. What even.) I have 10 months to think about it and talk it over with my mom (who pays the Verizon bill) so it'll be a while before anything changes if it does.

• Went to the first of two Halloween parties last night. I went as a pirate. I was going for pirate captain, but since I didn't have a hat and I didn't wear either of my pirate-y coats (neither matched the costume all that well), I settled for First Mate. :) It's likely a costume I will reprise, since it's all stuff that I took out of my closet and just wore in a unique combination with a few safety-pin alterations. There were pictures being taken all night, but I have no idea if any were taken of me that were good. The second party is tonight, and tonight's costume is Captain Jacqueline Harkness. Which is mostly just jeans and boots, my military-esque dress worn as a coat, and my really fake Torchwood ID. Still it amuses me, and it's a comfortable costume. There might be pictures, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

• Before the party tonight, I am taking my dad to a screening of the New York Metroploitan Opera's Don Giovanni for his birthday. Should be good. Don Giovanni is always entertaining, and I am curious to see how they stage it for this production. Fingers crossed for good singing.

• My bookshelf depresses me. I need to read more. So many books I haven't read yet.

• Writing continues apace. Wrote a large chunk of Game of Thrones fanfic (specifically show-canon) in my last class on Thursday. And a chunk of my original thing, which I think I need to finish by the end of next week so I can give it a once over before handing it in for my class. I think I will be plotting my NaNoWriMo novel tomorrow. I might write up outlines for all the novels I am considering and see which one I like best once I have a better idea of what each one is about. (Also, I need to update my NaNoWriMo icons for 2011.)

• Speaking of classes, I had a meeting with my advisor last week, and my schedule is... not at all hammered down. The classes I can take are sort of limited, and then they all conflict with each other time-wise. So my advisor sent an email to the head of my department (who likes me, yay!) and hopefully she'll be able to open up some new sections or move some times around. We'll see. I really really need to be taking five classes again, so hopefully things can be worked out. Registration is in a week. Really really would like to not be totally shafted for classes that I need. (Though, I suspect that because I am not a freshman and because the head of my department likes me, she would try to squeeze me into classes that were technically closed if I had to go that route.)

Whoops, time to go.