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Puerto Rico is wonderful. :)

I’m posting updates and photos (like instant postcards!) via Twitter. If you want to follow along:
http://twitter.com/drinkthepoison

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I’m going to be in Chicago on Friday and Saturday for my brother’s wedding. I’m busy with wedding stuff in the evenings, but I’ve got the mornings and afternoons to do stuff. Any recommendations?

I’m staying downtown, here. I might end up defaulting to the one day Frommer’s thing but personal recommendations are always appreciated.

(If nothing else, I think I’ll have to go to the art museum featured in Ferris Bueller…)

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* Um. There’s an Edward Cullen bedsheet set. This might be the most disturbing thing I have ever seen.

* I watched the two John Simm Netflix DVDs that have been lying around my house for the past six months. The first was a TV show called Cracker, in which adorable young Simm plays a deeply fucked up young killer who just wants to be loved. Awww. You kind of want to snuggle the poor darling… and then lock him up for life. It was fun to watch, but nothing new; pretty much the same thing he did in Chiller (which was more fun because of the gay subtext with his evil imaginary friend).

Then I watched Wonderland… or, I should say, the first half hour of Wonderland, before I couldn’t take it any more and had to fast forward to only the Simm parts. It’s apparently a movie about a bunch of incredibly boring, miserable people, who go about their boring lives being miserable. I guess it’s supposed to be “realistic,” but it was just pathetic. Admittedly I only got part way through… maybe it got better? Simm didn’t have much to do anyway; he played one of the many boring pathetic losers, basically Danny Kavanagh without the spark. I don’t understand why people make movies like this. Even if some peoples’ lives are this dull, who would want to watch a film about it?

Between Wonderland and The Devil’s Whore, I am beginning to doubt the conventional wisdom that John Simm has great taste in projects. At least we’ll always have Life on Mars and Doctor Who. And I still haven’t seen anything as bad as the crap I endured during my Sean Bean phase.

* I had a peculiar weekend.

( Saturday I got way too drunk at my friend Livi's holiday party )

Sunday I had to drag myself out of bed to go to the Museum of Modern Art, because I'd bought a ticket in advance. I got there at 3pm and it closes at 5:30pm; the world is just not made for night people. Or hungover people. >:( But thanks to coffee and tylenol, I managed to enjoy the Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night exhibit. I know it's a cliche, but it really is so much more incredible to see an actual painting in person. They had both of my favorites, Starry Night Over the Rhone and The Starry Night. Which I also know is also a cliche, but... they're really popular because they're really amazing! It's stunning how beautiful they are, and how vivid the colors are when you see them in person. The exhibit was actually pretty small--something like 40 paintings--with a focus on how Van Gogh captured the light and the "spiritual qualities" of night. It was definitely worth seeing; I'm glad I finally made it there. (If you're going, buy your museum ticket online in advance and you're guaranteed entrance to the Van Gogh exhibit; otherwise you have to get a timed entry ticket, which they might sell out of before you arrive.)

Then I went to the Looking at Music exhibit, which honestly just seemed to be a bunch of stuff from the 60s and 70s randomly thrown together based on what had been donated to MOMA. However, they did have Bowie's "Space Oddity" video running on constant repeat, and I watched it through a couple times because I couldn't get over the novelty of watching a music video I like at a big fancy art museum. I wish I had thought to the use the "It's ART!" justification when trying to convince my parents to let me watch MTV as a kid. :P Oh, and I rather optimistically bought two tickets for the Bowie music video screening on Friday night. I don't know what I was thinking; now I have to find someone to take the second ticket. But I'm really glad I got one for me. Even though it's just music videos, it's music videos on a big screen! At a museum! Sorry, I just find it really amusing, in a good way. :)

* I'm trying not to panic about the holidays. Trying being the operative word. There is nowhere in the world I'd less rather go than Southern Indiana, but I owe my parents for helping me move, so I'm going. Wasting time and money I really can't spare to go be miserable out in the middle of nowhere, while my cats are left alone with a catsitter I can't afford and I have nothing to do and no one to talk to and nothing to eat and... just... oh my god I don't want to go. *sigh*

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( Things I miss about the UK )

( Things I missed about the US )

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Virgin America is having a sale. My Gallifrey One plane tickets are booked!

jaydk and I are arriving Thursday night and leaving Monday morning.

Hope to see many of you there! :)

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I never, ever, ever want to be offline for twelve days straight EVER AGAIN.

*hugs flist*

Pictures soon!

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Proof that the stuff I’ve been working my ass off on has some impact on the world:

* SuperVegan got a really nice plug from Ecorazzi yesterday.

* We announced Writercon! And tons of people already registered to appear on the attendees list. It’s actually happening!

* I finished the Freelance Project of Doom! Which is pretty much all I’ve been doing (aside from announcing Writercon) over the past five days. Now if I could just get the client to pay me before I leave for London… (*crosses fingers*)

I now have a giant to-do list of boring stuff like laundry, cleaning, and packing. Did I mention that I’M LEAVING FOR LONDON ON SATURDAY MORNING?!!!!!!

Um, so, what should I do in London? Who wants to meet up? What are the must-see things? I’ve been so busy trying to finish up everything before I leave that I’ve barely had any time to plan the trip.

( Vague plans so far )

And then (OMG!!!) Stratford.

Am I missing anything? What's the must-do stuff when you're spending nine days in London?

I think there are several people I need to exchange email addresses or phone numbers with... send me an email at laura@rusty-halo.com if you're one of them. :)

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( I went to the Candle 79 5th anniversary party last night )

Other things I'm meaning to do sometime soon:

* Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night at MOMA

* Gothic: Dark Glamour exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Technology

Meanwhile, jaydk and I have booked our London hotel and are now planning the specifics of our trip (OMG! Less than a month!!!) and I think I've found a catsitter who is experienced and isn't going to charge me an arm and a leg to watch my cats (*fingers crossed*). There are no words for how much I'm looking forward to this London/Stratford trip; it's the one thing that's kept me going all year.

And... we booked a hotel and bought tickets for Gallifrey One, so I guess that means we're going. I remain wary, but I suppose it's worth trying it out once, and if it's awful I never have to go back. I did very much enjoy chatting with the new Who fen I managed to find at DragonCon, so let's hope it's worth it. Plus I really am curious to hear what the new Who writers have to say. :)

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Virgin Atlantic’s having a sale, so I JUST BOOKED MY FLIGHT TO LONDON.

OMG YAY!!!! :)

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Due South: “Some Like it Red.” Okay, Fraser makes an incredibly unconvincing woman. But Fraser and Ray Vecchio are so utterly OTP! I don’t know how in the world I’m going to deal when the new Ray shows up.

Oh, and, hey, I got home from Atlantic City alive. Obviously. I was home by 3:30am, which isn’t bad at all. And I’m so glad I went. I was expecting the show to be bad, hoping for mediocre, and was really surprised that it turned out to be good. Really good! The band was tight, they all seemed to get along, their stage banter was funny, Weiland was on form and perfectly coherent. I had a nice spot, in the third row on the far left, despite having arrived around 9pm, shortly before they went on. (Stupid bus got stuck in traffic.) The Borgata is the perfect venue for seeing big bands in a small space.

All my criticisms of Stone Temple Pilots stand–Core is good but most of the songs sound the same, and their subsequent records are mostly filler with around three quality songs for singles. Their lyrics are thoroughly uninspired, and they haven’t an original bone in their musical body. And they were always blatantly money-driven, unlike similar bands of their era who seemed largely motivated by, y’know, actual musical creativity.

That said… I like their sound, especially from the Core and Purple records. That’s my era, y’know? You couldn’t listen to rock radio–or watch MTV–in the mid ’90s without knowing all their singles by heart, and they were better than 99% of the other grunge wanna-bes (did you see that Candlebox is making a comeback? Candlebox!) And I think that Weiland, although not the brightest guy, generally seems to have his heart in the right place. When I saw him with Velvet Revolver at Jones Beach he gave a speech about how much Clear Channel sucks, and last night he talked (with a minimum of incomprehensible rambling) about how he supports the troops but not the government’s policies, and that the two are entirely different things, and that he encourages the audience to educate themselves about politics instead of vegging out to reality TV. Aww. Not that I take political advice from Scott Weiland, but I think that it’s sweet that he’s trying.

And it was so good to see him in his element. He just fits with Stone Temple Pilots so much better than with Velvet Revolver; it was like night and day, compared to the (wow, at least ten) Velvet Revolver shows that I saw. It was wonderful to see “Interstate Love Song” and “Sex Type Thing” played properly by the guys who wrote them. As my favorite part of the Velvet Revolver set was always the STP songs, it was like all the good of that experience, distilled. I got to hear “Plush”! And “Dead and Bloated”! And “Creep”! And “Big Empty”! And “Crackerman”! And they closed with an amazing rendition of “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart,” with the audience singing the “I’m not dead / I’m not for sale” line at the top of its lungs by itself every time but the last. They played every song I wanted to hear, which isn’t that hard considering they played every one of their singles and all of the good songs from Core, but hey, at least that means they know what they’re good at.

They all seemed really happy–it was one of the DeLeo brother’s birthday, and Scott wished him a happy one very nicely. And they even commented that it was one of the best shows of the tour, which I definitely believe given the disastrous tour reports I’d read in advance.

So, yay! I’m really glad I went, and I hope they can keep it together for the rest of the tour. :)

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I’m in the middle of week three of the hundred push ups program, which means I did 71 push ups tonight. Owwwwwwwwww. I’m doing the half-assed knee push ups, but still.

I’m doing this mainly because I didn’t believe it could possibly work (me doing 100 push ups after six weeks? I’ve never been able to do more than 15) and because I really need to start exercising again. I was doing so well last year; I was up to four half hour workouts a week, and lost 20 pounds. And then I got depressed, stopped exercising, and gained back all the weight. Ugh. So this seemed like a way to jump start the working out thing also.

I’ve also been busy cooking. I’m still following the Vegan Cooking for One meal plan. I like cooking and having a homemade meal every night, but I’m getting sick of the bland and unimaginative recipes in this book. Mushrooms, potatoes, rice, spaghetti, onions… c’mon, at least throw in one interesting thing per week! How about eggplant or … I don’t know, kumquats or something. Blah. But I’m taking photos and going to blog it on SuperVegan, so at least it’s good for something. :P

I’ve been really busy with Writercon, but we don’t have anything to announce yet. I’ve got my fingers crossed that we’ll be able to announce a city and hotel soon, though! Meanwhile I’m learning Drupal and spreadsheets.

I’ve been reading “Hamlet” on the subway to and from work. I’m trying not to get too excited, but I keep picturing David Tennant and OMG CAN’T WAIT FOR OCTOBER.

I’ve been catching some TV here and there. I decided that I adore Fraser’s boss, Meg Thatcher (lol), and that I’d rather watch a show about her. She’s kind of like a female Fraser: older and more cynical, but incredibly socially awkward and with that core idealism underneath. Just, she’s interesting, with her heart protected under so many layers of caution and professionalism, and her default reaction to assume the worst of everyone and to push people away. The last episode I saw was “We Are The Eggmen” so this could change; don’t spoil me for anything that’s coming up.

The next Doctor/Master episode is “The Claws of Axos.” Anything particular I should look out for in this one? I’ll probably start it on Sunday.

jaydk came over last weekend for more Doctor Who. I made a whole batch of banana split cupcakes, and we had a lot of fun. She agrees that “Terror of the Autons” is way more entertaining than “The War Games.” And “Journey’s End” feels more “official” now that we watched it together–although I’m highly amused that we had to pause it twice so that we could get into extended arguments. Ah, fangirls.

Tomorrow I’m taking the bus to Atlantic City to see Stone Temple Pilots. I’m stressing about this, not only because it’s apparently a money-driven mess with a relapsed lead singer, but because I hate Atlantic City. This was the only show I could get tickets to (they’re not playing NYC), so I bought a ticket with a blithe “Oh, I’ll find someone to go with me!” Which never happens, of course, and I end up alone at 12:30am in an empty corner of a casino parking garage, waiting for a bus that may or may not show up, with no human being in sight. I feel like it’s tempting fate to keep doing this. I even looked for a hotel room thinking maybe I’d stay overnight and take a daytime bus home, but Atlantic City hotels are absurdly expensive. So, late night bus. I probably won’t get murdered.

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Looks like I’m in for an adventure when I go to see Stone Temple Pilots on Saturday.

I know STP is a sad excuse for a band. I have lots of nostalgic affection for them anyway. And I don’t want Scott Weiland to die. :(

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I just booked our Stratford B&B.

*squees in a thoroughly undignified manner*

Now we just need to choose a hotel in London for the week before. Where would you stay if you were going to be in London doing touristy things?

(Ideally we want something centrally located, near a tube stop, and with two beds and an en-suite bathroom. And, um, not horrifically expensive. *frantically saves money*)

I have no idea where to even start looking. I’m just finally starting to realize that this is real and we’re actually doing it!

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It’s completely silly to hope for a Stratford B&B that will actually have food that I can eat, isn’t it?

*sigh*

Whatever. I’ll be on such a high from seeing David Tennant two days in a row that it won’t matter. And even if I can’t eat the B&B breakfast, there should be somewhere in town where I can find something more substantial than fruit.

Also, dear Google: “vegetarian” and “vegan” are not the same thing. Stop showing me results for one when I’m looking for the other. It’s nice that most of the B&Bs in Stratford offer vegetarian options, but it really doesn’t help me when they consist of eggs, cheese, milk, fake meat made with eggs, and vegetables cooked with butter. :P

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I had the most awesome Saturday. jaydk and I went to Philadelphia for Projekt Revolution.

( Good friends, yummy food, street fairs, Chris Cornell, and Linkin Park )

What else I've been up to:

( I liked The Dark Knight, but I didn't *love* it )

( I've been catching up on Due South )

( My Doctor Who fannish experience has been very Doctor/Master centric lately )

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Tonight I got to see one of my favorite bands with two of my favorite people in the universe.

chenanceou and jaydk met up with me at Pukk, the yummy vegetarian Thai restaurant. Then we headed to The Living Room to see Common Rotation.

It was a good show, although way too short. The band members were in good moods; the stage banter was adorable and the songs were all entertaining. But it felt incomplete, because they didn’t play a single one of the staples I’ve gotten used to at Common Rotation shows; no “Everything Under the Sun” or “Gone Dyin’” or “Clear Channel” or “Party People” or “Indie Rockin.” Just, good, but I wanted another hour. Remember those living room shows, when they’d play and play? I got so spoiled back then…

I made chenanceou get their autographs afterward, because, dude, she’d come halfway across the world and timed her trip to see them. She was all adorable and shy. And of course the band was nice, as they always are. Adam Busch is the nicest “celebrity” I met in the entirety of Buffy fandom.

Amber Benson was there, and it always freaks me out to see her, because she is tiny. Like, ethereal. And when you remember that people complained about her being “fat” when she was on BtVS, you realize that Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan must be, like, doll-sized, to look small next to her. It also made me feel like some kind of hulking giant. But anyway. She is also nice.

And tomorrow I’m going to Asbury Park. I’m going to lay on the beach and breathe salty air and read something light (maybe Harry Potter) and just be glad to be out of NYC. I can’t believe I haven’t gone anywhere in eight months. I’m not made to stay in one place for so long!

(Is it really annoying to choose three mood icons? I can’t decide if I’m more drunk, tired, or happy.)

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SuperVegan was named one of the 21 best vegan blogs by VegNews Magazine. They called us “The Vegan Daily Show.” I am so proud!

Our incredibly-belated second birthday party also went off well. Tons of people showed up and devoured our giant cake at record-breaking speed. And I served free beer from a keg! Now I just need to get cracking on the hundred-million things on my to-do list…

But first, I need a vacation. I haven’t traveled anywhere for the entire year. (*sigh* I never found the time/money for Florida.) I’m going stir crazy. And it’s summer!

But I’m low on money and vacation days, so I posted here asking for advice. Several people told me to take a train to Asbury Park, swim, stay overnight, and take the train back the next day. So I booked a Saturday in July at the Empress (which is mostly a gay hotel but seems welcoming to everyone, has great reviews at TripAdvisor, is right on the beach, has a hotel bar, and looks very pretty).

My memories of Asbury Park are, um, grim (Uranium 235 played at the Stone Pony on Halloween 2000–I think that was the place where my friends had to switch hotels because the original hotel they’d booked wouldn’t let them in!), but apparently they’re remodeling the boardwalk and cleaning everything up, so it’s a good place to have a beach vacation while the prices are still fairly low. (At least, I hope so!) It’s heartbreaking how much is gone, though, and how such an amazing place could decline so badly.

It looks like I’m going alone–I’d rather have company, but it’s hard to find people I travel well with, and none of those I know I get along with can go. I’ll keep asking around, though, and I don’t really mind bringing a book and going on my own.

I also really want to go to Coney Island this year–I adore kitchy old amusement stuff, and I want to see what’s left before it all gets replaced by condos. :( Maybe I’ll go there for July 4? Not sure, it could be too crowded. Whatever, I’ll figure it out–I’m officially a Brooklynite now! (Although HopStop tells me the quickest way to get there is to go into Manhattan and transfer to the N at Union Square. :P)

Pretty much the entire past two weeks have been taken up by moving. I barely even had time to rant about Doctor Who! It’s getting better, though; my living space is starting to feel more like “home” and less like “empty space full of unpacked boxes.” So far I have:

( lots of talk about moving and organizing )

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versaphile is finally posting the Doctor/Master epic she's been teasing about for ages. Chapter one is here.

And if you didn't see it: she also made a Doctor/Master archive! My plan for the weekend is to scour that place for fic I haven't read yet. >:)

(How much do I love that the show canonically gives us the set up of the Master keeping the Doctor prisoner for a year? And gives us the set up of the Doctor "settling down and caring for" the Master? No wonder there's such good fic about those two.)

Today sucks. Evil web clients are being even more evil than usual. Nothing is more annoying than building a beautiful website only to be ordered to deface it hideously by a client with no aesthetic sense. I WANNA GO HOME. *is happy it's Friday*

The neighborhood cat just showed up to sprawl on my desk and drool on everything. Right now he is the only thing I like about this job.

I've concluded that it's time for a vacation. I'm thinking... warm air, sunlight, beach. Maybe Florida? Unfortunately, Spring Break is coming up and I'm sure everyone is thinking the same. I suppose it could be fun to go anyway; just take a three day weekend, find some slightly falling apart but adequate hotel on a beach somewhere, and sprawl in the sun with a book for three days. It could work.

I finally caught up with all of the Daily Show and Colbert Report episodes since January. You know how I said I was over Jon Stewart? That fit of insanity has passed. I do read the news in, y'know, newspapers and everything, but somehow none of it feels real until I see Stewart and Colbert mock it.

(What was with Howard Dean's flirty goodbye to Stephen the other night? I laughed for five minutes straight.)

Doctor Who series four spoilers keep coming out, with all the associated wank. It's hard to bring myself to care; I'm already pretty sure I'm going to get what I want, which is ( not really spoilery, but just in case )

It's time for a new order of BPAL imps, and I've found eight that I really want. I need to narrow it down to six. Anyone have any advice (recs or anti-recs) on any of these?

( I'm in a vanilla mood: Belle Epoque, Eclipse, Golden Priapus, Antique Lace, Peitho, Mouse's Long And Sad Tale, Lyonesse, and Tamora )

Just got tickets for Marilyn Manson at Hammerstein Ballroom on January 30. My friend April (who I haven't seen since she OMG HAD A BABY!) is coming with me. Anyone else going?

I know Manson sucks now, but it's a nostalgia thing; I can't help it. Antichrist Superstar was good. And I have strangely happy memories of waiting in line huddled in a sleeping bag in the freezing cold for eight hours just to get a front row spot when I was eighteen, so it would just feel lame to not go at all when he's back in my neighborhood.

Also got tickets for Macbeth starring Patrick Stewart at BAM for March 11. Good seats, too. After the awesomeness of King Lear with Ian McKellen last year, I'm really looking forward to this.

I am also so excited that I'm going to see David Tennant in Hamlet this year. So totally beyond excited. That and the fact that I get to spend time in London again. It's the thing I'm most looking forward to in 2008.

Oh, and in case you haven't seen this: YEARS worth of RPF fantasy material.

10zlaine came to visit this weekend. ( my fun but exhausting weekend, seeing Chemlab, watching Doctor Who, and hanging out with fandom friends )