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This is my new little friend, Skeeter.
I won Skeeter during the Yankee Swap (or White Elephant) at Breckenridge. Actually Tabby unwrapped him, but I cleverly figured out a way around my intense hatred of the Yankee Swap process: If you just take something from someone else, you know what you are getting and can avoid having everyone's eyes on you as you unwrap something you don't like and have to feign excitement over (I get quite enough of that with my regular Christmas gifts, thanks). In this case it all worked out for the best because the next gift she picked was some sort of liquor, so it was a win-win situation.
I didn't post a pic earlier because tragically on packing day I dropped him and broke off his head and caused fairly severe lacerations to his front legs. I was too devastated to deal with it before, but last night I went to work with the super glue. You can still see the scars, and he has a reverse tracheostomy on the back of his neck, but still. He is adorable, no?
Tery is gone on a 3-day business trip to L.A., so to keep the bird entertained I turned to the XM radio channels included on my satellite TV service. I stumbled upon a station that I'm hooked on now, a 90's and contemporary alternatives channel that plays awesome song after awesome song...a lot of older stuff I forgot I loved so much, and a lot of new stuff I didn't realize I loved yet. U2, Bush, Garbage, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Decemberists, Our Lady Peace, The Dandy Warhols, Stabbing Westward, Smashing Pumpkins, some Franz Ferdinand, Killers, Depeche Mode, even NIN and The Cure. The name of this incredible channel? Ethel. I guess "Irma" and "Gertrude" were taken? Weird. I'm working upstairs on the computer with the TV remote next to me so I can see who sings this amazing new song I've never heard before, but being an old lady I have to put on my glasses to read the tiny type on the screen so I can download all the hottest hits. (Guess I could just go to XM's website.) Not sure how the bird feels about it, but she's happy any time I'm singing and dancing, and there's a hell of a lot of that going on with this music playing.
But please don't tell DirecTV I love it so much. I similarly went apeshit over their college indie rock channel and a week later it was available through special subscription only. Fuckers.
One new discovery I've made that I'm thrilled with is the band Muse. I could have sworn I had someone on my f-list who occasionally has Muse listed under their Current Music (remember now...my clever and hip Roxie girl. SUCH good taste in music, baby). LOVE. THEM. The lead singer sounds like the love child of Jeff Buckley and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. Their melodies alternate between hauntingly ethereal and sublime to heartbreakingly dark and seductive to angsty, angry and fucking rocking my ass off. I haven't raped and pillaged the music industry by downloading so extensively off Limewire since I found Kill Hannah. I swear I love every song I download more than the last. Check them out. The song that got me started is "Our Time is Running Out." Masterful.
Finally, last night I was watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (trying to forget how long I still have to wait before Goblet of Fire comes out) and something struck me that I keep thinking about. After reading Half-Blood Prince and some theories online, I became unshakeably convinced that Snape is still good and only killed Dumbledore because DD asked him to. This may seem like a no-brainer to some, but I discussed it at work with a girl who believes everything is exactly how J.K. made it appear to be. I remember feeling a tiny bit contemptuous that she would take something at face value so readily and refuse to be willing to read any more into it. But whatever.
Anyway, in CoS Fawkes flies in to assist Harry in the Chamber, and later Dumbledore says that Harry must have demonstrated great loyalty to him for Fawkes to do that. This stuck with me for some reason, and now I think it would be really cool if in the next book Fawkes appears to help Snape (perhaps even defend him against Harry) because of his loyalty to DD. I am so in love with this idea that I think I will be terribly disappointed if J.K. DOESN'T use it. Again, I don't hang out on chat boards or read any official sites in the fandom, so if this is old hat to anyone, forgive me.
Edit: What are the odds? I just finished a Snarry that uses this very idea. I'm so damn sheltered.
Think I'm done pointlessly rambling for now.
I won Skeeter during the Yankee Swap (or White Elephant) at Breckenridge. Actually Tabby unwrapped him, but I cleverly figured out a way around my intense hatred of the Yankee Swap process: If you just take something from someone else, you know what you are getting and can avoid having everyone's eyes on you as you unwrap something you don't like and have to feign excitement over (I get quite enough of that with my regular Christmas gifts, thanks). In this case it all worked out for the best because the next gift she picked was some sort of liquor, so it was a win-win situation.
I didn't post a pic earlier because tragically on packing day I dropped him and broke off his head and caused fairly severe lacerations to his front legs. I was too devastated to deal with it before, but last night I went to work with the super glue. You can still see the scars, and he has a reverse tracheostomy on the back of his neck, but still. He is adorable, no?
Tery is gone on a 3-day business trip to L.A., so to keep the bird entertained I turned to the XM radio channels included on my satellite TV service. I stumbled upon a station that I'm hooked on now, a 90's and contemporary alternatives channel that plays awesome song after awesome song...a lot of older stuff I forgot I loved so much, and a lot of new stuff I didn't realize I loved yet. U2, Bush, Garbage, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Decemberists, Our Lady Peace, The Dandy Warhols, Stabbing Westward, Smashing Pumpkins, some Franz Ferdinand, Killers, Depeche Mode, even NIN and The Cure. The name of this incredible channel? Ethel. I guess "Irma" and "Gertrude" were taken? Weird. I'm working upstairs on the computer with the TV remote next to me so I can see who sings this amazing new song I've never heard before, but being an old lady I have to put on my glasses to read the tiny type on the screen so I can download all the hottest hits. (Guess I could just go to XM's website.) Not sure how the bird feels about it, but she's happy any time I'm singing and dancing, and there's a hell of a lot of that going on with this music playing.
But please don't tell DirecTV I love it so much. I similarly went apeshit over their college indie rock channel and a week later it was available through special subscription only. Fuckers.
One new discovery I've made that I'm thrilled with is the band Muse. I could have sworn I had someone on my f-list who occasionally has Muse listed under their Current Music (remember now...my clever and hip Roxie girl. SUCH good taste in music, baby). LOVE. THEM. The lead singer sounds like the love child of Jeff Buckley and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. Their melodies alternate between hauntingly ethereal and sublime to heartbreakingly dark and seductive to angsty, angry and fucking rocking my ass off. I haven't raped and pillaged the music industry by downloading so extensively off Limewire since I found Kill Hannah. I swear I love every song I download more than the last. Check them out. The song that got me started is "Our Time is Running Out." Masterful.
Finally, last night I was watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (trying to forget how long I still have to wait before Goblet of Fire comes out) and something struck me that I keep thinking about. After reading Half-Blood Prince and some theories online, I became unshakeably convinced that Snape is still good and only killed Dumbledore because DD asked him to. This may seem like a no-brainer to some, but I discussed it at work with a girl who believes everything is exactly how J.K. made it appear to be. I remember feeling a tiny bit contemptuous that she would take something at face value so readily and refuse to be willing to read any more into it. But whatever.
Anyway, in CoS Fawkes flies in to assist Harry in the Chamber, and later Dumbledore says that Harry must have demonstrated great loyalty to him for Fawkes to do that. This stuck with me for some reason, and now I think it would be really cool if in the next book Fawkes appears to help Snape (perhaps even defend him against Harry) because of his loyalty to DD. I am so in love with this idea that I think I will be terribly disappointed if J.K. DOESN'T use it. Again, I don't hang out on chat boards or read any official sites in the fandom, so if this is old hat to anyone, forgive me.
Edit: What are the odds? I just finished a Snarry that uses this very idea. I'm so damn sheltered.
Think I'm done pointlessly rambling for now.
