Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans on my flist! It's just a normal day for me, but it did get me thinking about what I'm thankful for. So, here are some things that I'm happy to have around.

- I haven't watched all the videos from the Chicago Con yet, but this one, where Jensen talks about wanting kids? And Jared's response? Oh my god, pick me up off the floor, because I turned into a puddle of goo. That is just so sweet! I hope he and Danneel have lots of beautiful babies some day. Really, can these guys get any more adorable? There seemed to be a lot of good questions asked this time around. Let's hope Vancouver can get its act together next year...

- Really enjoying White Collar. It's so much fun, and the fact that it's on cable hopefully means that I don't have to worry about it being cancelled right away. Plus, Matthew Bomer has the most piercing blue eyes I've ever seen. I can barely concentrate because I'm too busy staring into them. I'm just sad that it's airing a week behind here. The pilot was free on itunes a few weeks ago, and while I don't think it is anymore, it may be worth a look if you like the combination of a rogue ex-con teaming up with an FBI agent to solve crimes (it's funnier than it sounds).

- Chuck is coming back on January 10th! I'm going to be rewatching an episode or two a night, and by then I'll be all caught up.

- Speaking of rewatching shows, I came across this community called spn_watching, which is dedicated to rewatching Supernatural from the beginning. I think it's a good idea, but so far, they only have a couple members, so if this sort of thing interests you, then I'm sure they could use a few more people.

- zimshan did this amazing picspam/meta about the significance of how colour is used on Supernatural, specifically red and blue, and how it relates in a greater context to so many issues. It's something I hadn't noticed much before, but the way it's laid out here is brilliant and a must-see.

- Some of you might remember that earlier this year, I made a fanmix that included a song called "No Heaven." Well, now someone has done a vid to that song, and it's pretty much just how I'd hoped it would look. I would've tackled it myself if I knew where to start, but fortunately, I didn't have to. That's one of the great things about the Supernatural fandom - there seems to be a collective consciousness about this sort of thing. Or maybe that's not the right term? You only have to wonder if someone has done a vid to a certain song, and then there it is! Though as a vidder it's probably frustrating, because a lot of good stuff has been done already. Anyhow, go check out.

- 8Tracks is a great site where people can post mixes of at least eight songs or more (hence the name). You can browse by genre, artist or tags; skip songs you don't like; add mixes you like to your favourites; share mixes with others (but no downloading); and "follow" a person if you like the mixes they've made. There are a few odd quirks to it, though, like you can't post a list of the songs in the mix; it's against the terms of service. I guess they prefer you to go through and listen to it song by song and be surprised or something. They also shuffle around the songs if you listen to the mix more than once. They say it's required by their license. Which is annoying, because I know when I construct a mix, it's often meant to be listened to in order because it doesn't make sense out of context and just flows better as a whole. Regardless, I will probably be joining and adding some of my own mixes to see how it goes. As for fannish mixes, there don't seem to be a lot of them (which is fine), but I did find this cute Blair/Chuck mix called "Dirty Pretty Rich Kid Blues." It does sound a lot like stuff you would hear on Gossip Girl, and I love the tag: "your ascot clashes with my headband." Heh.

I was also going to talk about some other music I'm into at the moment, but this took longer than I thought and it's getting late, so that will have to wait until later. If you have any fun stuff you want me to know about, please share. :)

Okay, once more I've waited way too long to do this. But I usually like to read what other people have to say before weighing in with my own thoughts, and it takes a while to do that. Plus I am easily distracted. ;)

( Changing channels )

( Gossip Girl )

By the way, congratulations to Jensen and Danneel on their engagement! I know there are probably a million fangirls' hearts breaking right now, but I really couldn't be happier for them. Danneel seems like a lovely person, and they make such a cute couple. I wish them a lifetime of happiness. I am curious how Jensen proposed though...

Hey, who wants to hear a really late Halloween mix? Okay, I know I should have posted this a couple days ago, but my Internet wasn't co-operating, and I didn't want to wait another year. Besides, today is All Souls Day, as well as the Day of the Dead, so I think it's still relevant. Hopefully this mix is still versatile enough to listen to the rest of the year, so I decided to go ahead and post it anyway. Enjoy. :)

( Music and artwork )

I meant to post something like this a few weeks ago, but now that we're pretty well into the viewing season, it looks like this is what I'll be watching:

Monday
Gossip Girl
Chuck (returning -?)

Tuesday
Being Erica

Wednesday
Cougar Town

Thursday
Watch:
Ace of Cakes
Flash Forward
Supernatural

Tape/Download:
SNL Weekend Update
Parks and Recreation
Fringe
30 Rock (starts this Thursday)

This is where having digital cable comes in handy...I can watch some shows on the eastern feed hours before they air here, and other stuff in their normal timeslot. Though even with doing this, there is still stuff I have to catch up on later. I wish DVRs weren't so damned expensive. :(

Friday
Ugly Betty (starting Friday)
(I was all excited to watch this last week, and then I found it had been delayed a week. That can't be a good sign. I think this will probably be Betty's last season. Shame, this show had so much potential.)
What Not to Wear

Then there are talk shows like Ellen and The Hour that I watch on a daily basis, as well as stuff that I might not watch all the time but still enjoy when I do catch it, like The Simpsons, South Park and Project Runway. I guess SNL would be in that category too, but it's always very hit and miss, so it's more puzzlement that they thought half of those sketches were good enough to make it to air. Oh, and I like to watch travel shows too, and basically anything on the Food Channel. I keep meaning to check out How I Met Your Mother. I'm also behind on Entourage. I think that's it? I really don't watch that much TV, even though it sounds like a lot.

I'm kind of disappointed that the Beautiful Life only lasted, what, two episodes? It looked like trashy fun. Cougar Town is an awful title for a show, but I like Courteney Cox, so I'm giving it a chance (I don't think anything could be worse than Dirt, so it's got that going for it already!). It's not particularly original, and she needs to tone down the screechiness, but it's fun enough. Flash Forward has a great premise, but I'm not sure how long they'll be able to sustain it. What happens at the end of the season when 2010 is here? Are they going to do something different for season two, or what? Guess we'll have to wait and see on that. Do you guys have any recommendations for things I should watch? I've heard nothing but good things about Glee, but I was unmoved by the pilot and although I love music, I'm not really a musical theatre kind of person. Should I give it another chance?

As for stuff I'm no longer watching...I had to drop Heroes. I don't drop shows lightly - I try to stick it out until the end - but it had just become such a chore to watch. I didn't care about any of the characters anymore, it's confusing and stupid, and it's clear the show doesn't know where it's going anymore than I do. And to be honest, I never really got over the moronic way they killed off Elle. I also dropped Dollhouse because I never really warmed to it. And I haven't talked about Gossip Girl this season because, is it me, or is it kind of dull? I'm liking the Blair/Chuck interaction, but I could take or leave the rest of it.

Oh, but awesome news about Chuck - it might be coming back by the end of the month! No waiting another six months! There's a hole in NBC's schedule and they need to fill it, so that's the best thing I could hope for. The only thing is, I'm not sure if they'll have time to effectively promote its return when it's so last minute. It's possible that if they just let it air during the Olympics, they might get more viewers. But it's not a done deal yet anyway, so I guess I'm happy either way. More details here. There 18 pages of comments! Insane. Just please NBC, I am begging you - not on Thursdays!

Also, just a few thoughts on last week's Supernatural that I'm 5 days late for...
( But it's not really about that at all )

It's the last day of summer, and I figured that just because summer is ending, that doesn't mean the summery music has to stop. So here's a playlist that I put together for myself a little while ago, and I thought I'd share it with you guys. It's in two parts, the first half being more mellow and the second half being more upbeat. It's fairly eclectic, with everything from ska to pop to drum 'n' bass in Portuguese (which I don't speak a word of, but it sounds pretty anyway). Enjoy!

( Art and tracks )

So I went to the Vancouver Con and I've had a week or so to gather my notes and put this report together. I didn't do it before now because I had no internet during the con and, uh, I procrastinate a lot. :P Please note that this is very long (brevity is not my strong point) and mostly from memory, so I may have left things out or reported them inaccurately, though I tried not to. There are no spoilers (well, one teensy thing that might be to some people, so I'll clearly mark it). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures or video to share because I was sitting way at the back and my old camera wouldn't zoom that far, plus the lighting was kind of weird, so none of them turned out. But I'm sure you can find other pictures because I saw some people there with tripods and professional equipment and they could've taken much better photos than me anyway. With all that said, let's begin!

( Gabe's panel )

( Alona, Julie and Traci's panel )

( Saturday's panel with Misha )

( Sunday: Jensen and Jared's panel )

( Richard Speight Jr., the Trickster )

( Jim Beaver )

I haven't seen anyone talk about this yet. Okay, so you know how last year, Gossip Girl had that "OMFG" promo campaign? This year, it's "WTF" - as in Watch This Fall. Clever. Here's a cute little scene with Blair and Dan:



It will be really funny to see how Blair handles college now since it looks like she doesn't fit in that well anymore. (I hope it's not spoiling anyone to say that?)

( Spoilers that you come across unintentionally, however, are not fun. For either Gossip Girl or Supernatural. )

A cute little clip of Jason Dohring right when Veronica Mars started:



How have I not seen this before? You can tell he's so excited about the part and really trying to give it his all. Ah, those were the days...

Has it really been over a month since I last posted? Oh well, I just haven't had much to say. But guess what I did on the weekend? I went kayaking! Me, the klutziest, most uncoordinated person - and I didn't fall in the water! I actually enjoyed it. I don't know if I'd want to take it up as a sport, but it was fun to try. My arms hurt a little the next day, and somehow I managed to get bruises all over them without realizing it (having other people point that out is embarrassing, by the way), but they're sort of proof of my experience, so I don't mind.

( Work-finding woes. Again. )

Hi! I am around, I've just been working on a project that's taken much longer than I expected. So until that's done, I thought I'd pop my head in here and talk about what I've been up to lately.

Watched some of Michael Jackson's funeral yesterday. I don't think it really sunk in until I saw his casket that he is really gone. I was never a particularly big fan, but the effect he's had on a lot of people is undeniable. I think we, as a society, were too quick to judge his eccentricities and dismiss all the good he did. None of his antics matter anymore when you see his daughter crying her heart out on TV because she lost her father. Poor kid. You'd have to be made of stone not to be moved by that. The other thing that struck me was that she looks so normal. She looks like she could be any kid on the street, not the daughter of a huge star. I don't know what I was expecting, but not that. Which just goes to show, I guess, that everyone is not that different after all.

How come when you buy clothes that fit perfectly fine in the store, and then you take them home and wash them, they shrink? Do they have some magical shrinking qualities that kick in once the garment leaves the store? I followed the wash instructions so I don't know why. I hate that!

Out in the boonies, we're surrounded by farms, so that makes it easy to go berry picking. And let me tell you, it is harder than it looks. I can cross that off my list of potential jobs. Too much kneeling and bending over. I did that for half an hour and I was tired; I can't imagine what a full day would be like. On the plus side though, now we have strawberry jam to enjoy next winter.

You know that saying about how you never forget how to ride a bike? Well, apparently you can. I know I rode one when I was kid, because I remember a disastrous field trip I took in elementary school. That's probably what curbed my interest. But recently, I've been wanting to get back into riding, so I asked around if anyone had any old bikes they didn't want. My dad found one in a ditch, believe it or not (maybe it was stolen, I don't know), and after a tune-up, it was ready to ride. It sat in the garage for another six months, until last week, when I finally took it out for a spin. I guess I was expecting that I could master it in an hour or two, but that was not going to happen. I seem to be incapable of balancing on two wheels. I was so focused on trying not to fall that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and then I fell anyway. But after an hour's instruction, I learned not to look at the pedals all the time and how to ride in a straight line! Stopping and turning are two other things I have yet to master, however, and I don't know what I'm going to do when I encounter a hill. But apparently it takes a couple weeks to figure out, so that makes me feel slightly less lame.

If I can't get the hang of it, I guess I'll sell that bike and get a trike. No balance problems with a trike, plus you can dump all your stuff in the big basket at the back. Getting your hands on one is tricky, though, I've found. Someone was selling one on Craigslist the other day and never responded to my email, so I went back and checked the site and it had sold within one day. Thanks, buddy! Here's me wondering if you even got my email and you go and sell it. Would it be so hard to just reply and tell me that instead of having me worry? Oh, but you didn't think about that, did you? Whenever I sell something, I respond to interested people and let them know. It's the considerate thing to do. But apparently, I am in the minority there. Or the person leaves an ad up for ages instead of taking it down when the item sells. Come on, it takes two seconds to delete the post. Don't get my hopes up for no reason. This is happening a lot lately and it's pissing me off.

Blah. I feel cranky and exhausted today for no particular reason, so I'm going to wrap this up. Hope you guys are having a more eventful summer than I am. :)

I don't normally do memes, but this one looked interesting, and I'm bored, sooo...

The rules are as follows:

Comment to this entry and I'll pick three of your fandoms. You must then update your journal and answer the following questions:
1. What got you into this fandom in the first place?
2. Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
3. Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
4. Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
5. Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?

marshmallow gave me: Fringe, Felicity and Chuck Bass.

( Fringe )

( Felicity )

( Chuck Bass )

After my last mix, eggblue wanted to know how I made the cover art. So here's a little tutorial. Sorry it took me so long to finally do this. Hopefully, some people will find it interesting....

Before we get started, I should note that I used Gimp for this, although I think it should be translatable to Photoshop and whatnot. So if you don't have a copy of Gimp and want to try this out, it's a free program for Windows, Mac and Linux (which it was originally developed for). You can download it here for Windows, here for Mac (OSX) and here for Linux. I would also strongly suggest using the FreeType text plug-in (for Windows only), because it makes using text way easier than the regular text tool. Just add it to the plug-ins folder of Gimp, which should be under Program Files or something like that. Later on, when you're more comfortable with the program, there are a lot of other plug-ins and stuff you might want to install as well, but for the purposes of this tutorial, you won't be needing any of them.

Ready? Okay. We'll be going from this:

to this:

( in some fairly easy steps. )

It occurred to me that it's been awhile since I've talked about myself. So here's what I've been up to recently.

I really want this bike:



Normally, I wouldn't go for one with flowers all over it, but come on! It's so cute! I would be almost afraid to use it because it's so nice and I'd probably end up crashing it (Me + two wheels = totally unstable). And oh yeah, it's almost $900. :(

Which I can't really afford, because last week, my glasses broke. Fortunately, the store was able to send away for a new part to fix them, but I was still without them for a week while they did that. It's really no fun walking around blind as a bat. So I was thinking I should use these as a back-up in case this happens again (as history serves, it will). You need to get your eyes checked every two years, and that's about how long these frames have lasted me, so I was looking around at other pairs, and there was one pair I loved at first sight. Of course, they were one of the most expensive pairs in the store. Hand made in France and almost $500 for just the frame, nevermind the lenses. And I'd still like to get some sunglasses too at some point this summer. I could go with a different pair, but I haven't seen anything so far that I like as much. So I'm trying to justify the expense. I mean, can you really put a price on vision? (Yes...if you're still unemployed with no medical coverage.)

I threw my laptop on the floor in a fit of frustration the other day, and now there's a tiny crack in the screen. Oops.

I made tzatziki (instead of buying it, for a change) and it was so yummy! I can share the recipe if anyone's interested.

It's been really hot here. We had a heat wave for most of this week that broke records. It was 35 degrees on Thursday (about 95f), and I didn't even have a fan to keep cool. Thankfully, it was a much cooler 20 degrees today.

I'm thinking of going to the Supernatural con in Vancouver, but after every con, like the last one, there are always reports about them that make me cringe. I don't know what it is about normally civilized people who turn into raving idiots as soon as they're in sight of a celebrity. It's not the time to comment on someone's weight or that you hate who "X" is dating or whatever. It's embarrassing. I can only imagine what Jensen and Jared think of us. So given that these things tend to bring out the crazies, I'm a little scared. There's also the fact that I was probably going to get one of the cheap seats and go on Sunday instead of attending the whole thing, but Jensen apparently might pull out. So I'm going to be kind of upset if he does, because then I can't go if he reschedules for a different day. And they don't announce the schedules until a few days in advance, so it's hard to really plan.

New layout! Woo!

That's all I've got for now. I am terminally boring, what can I say? :P But aren't you glad to see a post on your flist that isn't about Star Trek or American Idol? :P

Happy birthday, i_am_girlfriday! I would've sent you a card, but I forgot to ask you for your address. So this will have to do instead. Here's a song just for you. :) Have a fabulous day!

I didn't want to say anything until it was officially announced today, but Chuck has been renewed! You guys have no idea how happy this makes me! We did it!
Unfortunately, there are a few conditions to season three that I'm not so thrilled about - like that we'll have to wait until next March (!!) to see it. The problem with this is that ten months is a long time and it's going to be hard to keep people interested and motivated to watch until then. There was a big gap between the first and second seasons because of the strike, and the show had trouble gaining momentum when it returned as a result. So I'm just worried that the the same thing will happen again if something isn't done. The upside, though, is that should Chuck do well, its order can be boosted from thirteen episodes and extend into the summer. So here's hoping for that.

-I'm kind of meh about Dollhouse's renewal. I watch the show, but it's confusing and I don't think I care enough to keep watching. I also probably won't be watching Scrubs if they bring it back with new people. It's not the same. The show has had a good run; it's time to let it go.

-Ugly Betty is moving to Fridays? Kiss of Death. I guess this is going to be its last season then. It's sad, really. Maybe the show isn't as brilliant as it was during the first season, but I still find it consistently fun and watchable.

-I hate that Leno is ruining five hours of TV a week. The guy has never been funny! Why can't he just retire and go play with his cars? Why did he have to eat up a chunk of air time that could go to, well, anything but him? That has got to be the lamest way of a network saving money.

-There will be no Gossip Girl spin-off. I know I said I probably wouldn't watch it anyway, but I don't know if I'm relieved or disappointed by that news. The CW must be doing really badly. Which brings me to last night's finale...

( Gossip Girl )

All right, enough stalling. It really shouldn't take me so long to think about these things...

( You can take your peace and shove it up your lily white ass. )

I would've posted this days ago but I've been having Internet issues. It seems fixed now though, so here you go.

( Supernatural )

( Gossip Girl )

Happy birthday, havenward! You are an awesome friend and we don't seem to get to chat much lately, so I wanted you to know that. Have a great day, babe. :)
It's Cinco De Mayo, so that's as good a reason as any to celebrate. And I'll take any excuse I can get to have homemade guacamole and a watermelon smoothie for lunch, especially when it's nowhere near summery outside.

( Gossip Girl )

LJ is quiet lately. How are you guys?