Here in the shadows of my soul...

LJ is cleaning house, this is to prevent this journal from being removed.

Ok, just watched The Academy Awards (well, the ending that I'd recorded). Did Quentin Tarantino piss The Academy off somehow? I mean, really, no awards at all? 'Inglorious Basterds' definitely deserved the Cinematography Award at the very least. I'm not even a huge fan of QT's, but that movie was freaking gorgeous; I swear you could take any frame of it and have a striking work of art. Isn't that kind of the whole point of that award?

Went and saw 'The Book of Eli' yesterday. I'm... not really sure what to say about it to be honest. It was a neat looking film with a bleak almost colourless tonality (I think that's the right word) in both the wardrobe and the striking post-apocalyptic desert sets that felt wonderfully gritty with the sand swirling against steel gray skys and around ruins. I'd totally watch it again just because of how it was shot, but as for the plot... maybe I'm not looking at it right or am just too dense, but it had me quite baffled in parts and left me thinking it was totally pointless in the end. I don't know.
For those who have seen it: can you help explain the film or at least why people were so wasteful?
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I don't post in this thing for so long and then I forget what I was going to say/what I've already told you. *laughs*
Um, as the people who are also on Facebook know I took my ACT on Feb. 6th (I was meant to take it in December, but the reservation got screwed up, I don't even know). It was long and totally nerve-wracking, but I ended up doing good on everything except the maths. Omg, I went completely blank on so many of those questions, the only thing that saved me were the handful of simple word problems. I ultimately got final score of 27 (out of a possible 36).

I've been only looking at one college really: Northland, it's this liberal arts place up in Ashland that I found randomly Googling one night. Yay, fate!
It's fantastic. It's really takes the environment and being green seriously, but it also has some of the best schooling you can find. It only ever gets around 700 students, so everyone knows one another (even the teachers) on a first name basis. The biggest class has about 30 students in it though that size is rare with the average being only 7 students. I've visited campus twice thus far (I'm going back on the 27th for a Scholarship dinner) and each time I never wanted to leave.
I was really worried about getting in, but the day I received my ACT scores I actually got a phone call from one of the admission counselors there telling me that I'd been accepted! And that I got an $8,000 Academic Scholarship which I will get every year I'm there as long as I keep my grades up! That should be easy: as you probably guessed at this school you really have to work hard to actually fall behind. *laughs*

Ooh, I'm so excited! I want to leave right now, I swear. Though I do have to finish High School first. Boo! *laughs* I only have one class left (which is about one lesson and an exam from the end right now), I hope (I might have an overabundance of credits or I might need one last class) then my graduation on June 11th.

Updating because aquat1cf1sh said I should. *laughs* Just got your Christmas card today, I love it when they're late like that, it always makes me smile. :)

It's a little late, but MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!
I hope they were/are utterly fantastic. ♥

Christmas was pretty low key here, a few presents and a delicious dinner (Mum made lasagna, omg, it was to die for). Sam and the kids were over all day; Kiera had gotten a set of Uno cards so we spent almost all day playing that. I swear that game is addicting. *laughs*
We were planning on going to a hotel the day after with nearly all of Mum's side of the family (I think I might have told you this), but that kind of fell through what with the horrible weather (I swear we got an inch of snow and four inches of ice, it was ridiculous). So, that was disappointing, but we're going to try and move the date (possibly to February) and try again, so cross your fingers. :)
New Year's Eve was uninteresting as I was the only one home/still up by Midnight. Well, and a dog or two, but they weren't very interested in counting down with me. *laughs*
New Year's Day though was spent watching a 'Buffy' marathon on TV; seeing as the last marathon turned on was of 'Bizarre Foods' (that show is so, so gross), this was a great deal better and fun for everyone instead of just Dad. *laughs*

I don't really have any resolutions, I know that's what you're meant to do the start of every New Year, but I can never think of any that I wasn't already trying to do. Hmm, maybe stop procrastinating so much? Yeah, that works, I have gotten so, so bad about that, I swear I'm going to live forever just because I'll go to die and get totally distracted by something else. *laughs*

Guess I failed at completing the 30DoD meme, oh well. BTW The Music Giveaway is still going! Come on, there has to be at least one person who would like some music. :)

Speaking of memes, one from queenp71; First One of The Year!
If you respond to this, I will:

* 1. Tell you why I befriended you.
* 2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc.
* 3. Tell you something I like about you.
* 4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
* 5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
* 6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours. (after some searching on my part)
In return, you must post this in your blog. Or not, as I know a lot of you already have. :)

30 DAYS OF DECEMBER MEME
I didn't totally give up on it, really!
All the photos are thumbnails to make this post not so long. Just click them to view fully. :D

Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy

That's my Toy Poodle, Opal. She can be a pip some times, but I utterly love her.

Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad

Okay, it's actually a painting, but it's still beautifully sad.

Day 09 → A photo you took

I'm not very religious, but I love this photo, especially the way the light is. Taken for Round 45: Clean on snapshot_hunter.

Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago

This is of my brother, Gary and me, I think we were about 4 and 6 years old respectively. As with 90% of our pictures we are surrounded by animals. The dog is our old Black Lab/Chow Chow mix named Bruce, he was one of the best dogs ever.

Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently

Those who know me on Facebook have probably already seen this. It was taken a week or two ago. Basically just me showing off my new asymmetrical haircut. :)

Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Following in siscokid98's footsteps I'm Giving Music Away!!

In her words:
"You, my lovely f-list, have been amazing this year...and I want to be able to give something to you this Christmas season. Since I'm not able to send out Christmas cards this year like many of you, I've decided, instead, to give MUSIC!

...Just comment with ANY 5-10 songs you want [You can do more, I don't mind], and I'll upload them!

I've never used this site before, but DON'T click on the artist's name, it won't show you the songs that I have. INSTEAD, click on the "+" box to the left of the artist to see album and song! And again to see what songs from a particular album that I have."
[Link]
Note: I have some Podfic and Audio stories on the list too, as well as at least one (two second long) quote, so if it doesn't sound like a band it probably isn't (though I'll still upload it for you). :D

Day 13 → A fictional book
... I'm not sure what I'm meant to do for this one. Here, have a link to the online series I'm reading now: Shadow of the Templar. I've only read the first novel, but it's pretty good so far, you can tell the author is British with the American characters occasionally saying some odd, non-American sounding things like "piss off", but still I liked it. It's rather like 'White Collar' with a full team and canon!gay. Do NOT start reading it if you have to go to bed though, I thought "Oh, I'll just read one chapter..." yeah, 5 hours later: I'm still reading.

30 DAYS OF DECEMBER MEME
DAY 6 → Anything That Strikes Your Fancy:

I just watched 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', so I'll post the poem from that. It's one of my favourite poems and definitely my favourite part of the film.



Text:

'Funeral Blues' by W. H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

[Audio Download]

Day 04 → Your favorite book

Wow. That's a hard one. Even after discarding all the series and things my favorite book is still a toss up between 'Wicked' by Gregory Maguire, 'A Separate Peace' by John Knowles and 'Interview with the Vampire' by Anne Rice.
While the other books I've read tend to be good, they're not really worth a second look through, whereas the ones I'll read over and over capture me every time, their words reaching into my soul and weaving themselves into it so that every time I open them it's like meeting both myself and my best friend all over again, it's like coming home. I've read all of these at least three times. There is just something about those books that just draw me in and makes me love the stories and the characters, so much so that sometimes I find myself thinking of them as if they were real as though somewhere they lived and existed because how can someone with such love and soul and such an amazing life be totally fake, ya know? Though maybe they do exist, not the way they are in the books, of course, but in us, in our hopes and fears and doubts, in our glories and our falls from grace. In truth maybe anyone who's ever read a book and fallen in love with a character is falling in love with themselves, with a quality they wish they had, even if they never know they wanted it until that moment they saw it in someone else.

Day 05 → Your favorite quote

Eh. Have two, I collect them:
"It always seemed to me that those who claim to know that others are going to hell must already be very familiar with the way to get there." - Mark Landers

"Oh, movies are important and they're dangerous because we're the keeper of the dreams. You go into a little dark room and become incredibly vulnerable - on one hand all your perspectives can be challenged, you could feel something you couldn't feel normally. It can encourage you to be the protagonist in your own life. On the other hand it can completely misshape you." - Susan Sarandon

30 DAYS OF DECEMBER MEME:
Day 03 → Your favorite television program
Hmm... I'd like to say 'Dollhouse, but apparently that got canceled. *mutters darkly* And people wonder why Fox is hated so.
SO! Anyway, my favourite TV show (of the ones still on TV as otherwise this would be a very long list ranging from 'Oz' [the prison drama] to 'Black Books' and 'Star Trek: TOS') is probably a toss up between 'White Collar' a new show which is fun and exciting, slashy as all-get-out and surprisingly well-written (admittedly I don't like the female FBI agent or Kate: The Lost Love, but the three main characters: Peter, Neil and El more than make up for her).

and 'Glee' which is so much fun with brilliant music. I do wish they would stop giving every single solo song to Rachel and Finn though. Maybe give half of them to Kurt because my gods, that boy can sing! Here, have him singing 'Defying Gravity':

Gives you goosebumps, no?

Meme via misscam (much delayed because I procrastinate like crazy):

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions. (Or just comment back with them if you don't feel like continuing the meme)
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

1. What would be the first things cats did when they took over the world from humans? Ban removal of the claws. The fact that this hasn't been done and that not everyone owns a cat is sometimes the only way I know that the world haven't already been taken over by them. *laughs*

2. Which is your favourite teacher from all your years at school and why?
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~
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Now lets see if I'll actually manage to do the whole thirty days. *laughs*

~
and finally:

FANDOM MEME:

Name a character from one of my fandoms (just pick a fandom, any fandom, heck, pick multiple ones! If I truly don't know them you can pick more) and I'll give you one (or more) of the following:

(a) three facts about them from my personal canon/fanon
(b) a reason he/she sucks
(c) a reason he/she is awesomecakes
(d) five things that never happened to that character and/or
(e) five people that character never fell in love with and why

Went to the Rusk County Fair tonight where at 9pm Blackhawk played!
I mostly listened to the first half-hour playing the fair games or at the temporary plastic fence they had set up for the VIP section which you had to pay $20 more to get into: you also got to meet the band and got a video, but they didn't tell anyone that until after the concert so there were maybe 20 people in that section and while there were a few, like me, crammed against the fence most were about 50 yards away. Everyone complained, even the band had, had enough after the first half-hour, but the police/fair employees wouldn't open the gates. So I jumped the fence. And was quickly followed by at least a hundred other people.
While I can barely hear now and my throat hurts a little (From 'WOOO'ing as one does) I was able to get right up by the stage and it was more than worth it. They sounded just like they do on CD (maybe better) and I was RIGHT BY THE STAGE. It. Was. Awesome!
*Raises arms*
WOOOOOO!!!