Anogete's Journal

Well, crap. sshg_exchange is having another round of fics. I haven't written much anything in the last couple months, but I still want to sign up. It's like a drug. I can't resist, even though I know I would fret over doing the prompt I'd get justice.

In related news, I lovingly put together a fanmix for Snape/Hermione relationship-ness. Half my flist 'ship it, and the other half of my flist probably give me the fish eye when I mention SS/HG. So, if you're in the eww-gross half, feel free to ignore or just think of this post as free music. Since there is virtually no SS/HG in canon, I'm going on the fanon version of the 'ship. The songs are a bit subdued because I just can't imagine Snape or Hermione fitting with NIN or even some emo band. I desperately wanted to include a few other bands, but the songs just sounded out-of-place with this collection.



( preview/download songs with track listing and larger graphics )

I'm fiddling around with making another related fanmix with a different feel to it, but I haven't manage to find all the songs to compliment one another.

I couldn't leave well enough alone. I went back to the store and got more letters so I could put the alphabet and numbers on the bookcase.

( see )

While at Target, I treated myself to some summer sleepwear. I haven't bought anything girly in a couple years, so I got a couple short nighties and a frilly tank top with some even frillier boy shorts. I figured since I was being such a girl, I might as well throw in some pink panties. The last time I wore my pink polka dot panties, Jason made fun of me. I guess I'm not a very pink person.

I got the itch to knit something over the weekend, so I started on a HP Ravenclaw house scarf. I was even legit and got some bronze yarn instead of the silver they use in the movies. It's coming along quite nicely, but it isn't even halfway finished yet. It's terribly easy to knit, though. So, I can watch television while working on it. The majority of that sucker was done while watching There Will Be Blood on Saturday. Great movie, but I don't know if it deserves all the copious fandom love it is getting.

( look, i'm a ravenclaw )

What's wrong with me? I've taken to reading Draco/Hermione fics. I hate Draco. Or at least I thought I did. I feel all dirty now.

I forgot to mention that Jason and I watched Der Untergang (Downfall) this past weekend, and it was absolutely amazing. Wow. It is an extremely powerful film. Even if you have no interest in the fall of the Third Reich, I still highly recommend it.

It looks like I'm going to write, despite my dry spell. I volunteered as a pinch hitter for the SS/HG Exchange on a whim since I've been itching to write something lately. I got an e-mail today requesting help with a last minute fic. I've got a choice of three prompts, two of which I'm considering. I'll sleep on it tonight and start on something tomorrow if I can stop flippin' coughing.

Has anyone heard Blake Lewis's album? It's adorable. He made an '80s boy band album. I'm completely in love with it. No, I'm not being facetious; I'm serious. I swoon, I swoon! He even reworks "Puttin' on the Ritz" and incorporates it into a song called "Gots to Get Her". If I could stay awake another ten minutes, I'd post mp3s my other favorites. As it is, I'm a few seconds from falling asleep on my keyboard. I love nighttime versions of medicines. This Theraflu is putting my ass to sleep.

I have done absolutely no work today, but I did rearrange some papers on my desk so it looks like I've done something. My lack of work ethic is for a good cause, though. I just finished the first draft of my post-DH fic. I need to go through and clean it up, which will include adding some things in to make the plot flow properly. But, yay! Now I get to bug my lovely betas.

Jason and I went to the gun range on Sunday afternoon, and I hurt my pinky. No, I didn't shoot it off or anything. My gun is a subcompact, which means that the grip is itty bitty. My pinky won't fit properly and keeps flying off with the recoil. I need to get the grip extender to slap on the end of the magazine, but I'm procrastinating. At any rate, I've got a tiny red blister on my pinky now. :-( Feel sorry for me.

Yesterday, I learned that the burglary alarm in my apartment will go off if the power fails. The monitoring company called my cell at 2:45pm to tell me that the alarm had been set off. I ran home to find everything locked up tight and all the clocks blinking midnight. I suppose if a burglar tried to cut the power to my place to steal a television, then this feature would be helpful. However, I doubt this will ever occur, so it is just a nuisance.

And the worst thing? I was putting company time to good use by writing a bit on the fiction I started a couple days ago. Things were flowing well when the evil alarm company interrupted me. As for the fiction, it's coming along fairly well. I'm still dancing around, not sure what direction it is going in. I don't even have a solid plot. Maybe something will come to me after another chapter or so.

( three paragraphs of the fic - spoilers for DH )

Jason's dad is coming over for dinner today. He's bringing the pizza. I was under the impression we were going to watch a video, but I don't know if Jason and I, being the weirdos that we are, have anything Jason's dad would be interested in seeing. Supposedly, Jason's sister is coming along as well, but I have my doubts. I get the feeling that she's very intimidated by Jason and I. This wouldn't be surprising, considering that we both believe her to be a worthless lump of a person. Her baby's attendance is still up-in-the-air. She may or may not come along. The dog may or may not come as well. I suspect we won't find out until they show up on our doorstep.

Gypsy, Jason's mom's dog, is still at the vet's office. Her survival is in question because she is so sick. The vet still isn't completely sure what is wrong with her, seeing as how her symptoms don't all point to one particular cause. The medical bill is climbing with each day, and Jason's mom is getting nervous about it. I'm sure it is well over a thousand bucks by now.

Meanwhile, the biggest drama from my family is the fact that my brother's can't seem to find a desk chair that won't break when they sit in it. My brothers are monstrously large--about six feet tall and at least 350 pounds. The scale ends at 350, doesn't it? I remember them telling my mother that they had made the scale go all the way around to zero again. It's not exactly something to brag about, you know? So, they're stuffing their faces and drinking soda directly out of the two-liter bottles. Rolling desk chairs with plastic legs won't hold them for more than a month before breaking. My mother thinks it's a crime that desk chairs aren't constructed better. I think it's a crime that she's not telling them to stop eating five ice cream sandwiches after dinner. My brothers think its a crime that desk chairs cost $150 at the office supply stores.

( minor spoilers (i certainly hope you know by now) and fanficiness )

With all the Harry Potter hubbub going on, I didn't mention that I finally purchased the gun I'll be using for concealed carry once I officially get my license in the mail. I wanted something compact, but with a decent amount of power. I also wanted something reliable and simple that can stand to be placed in an ankle holster or shoved in a purse for days at a time. After shopping around for about a month, I decided on the Glock 26, which matched all of my criteria and then some.

( pictures of da gun )

I'm actually very happy with it, even if it did reduce my checking account by nearly six hundred bucks. Jason also bought a Glock when we went to get mine on Friday. His is a Glock 23, a 40 caliber compact model that is larger than mine and slightly more powerful.

So, Friday was a crazy day. I got out of work early and went to the gun range to rent and then buy the gun I wanted. We returned home and had dinner. I twiddled my thumbs for a couple hours and eventually called my mom to spill my guts about how excited I was for DH. Jason made me sit down and watch two movies with him before we went to retrieve DH from the bookstore. And then I inhaled three chapters of the book before Jason made me turn the flippin' light out so he could sleep. Sleep? Sleep?! I have chapters to read! Needless to say, I slept for a few hours before reading more before he woke up. I would call him a bastard, but he was kind enough to close the door and leave me alone when I was sobbing over Chapter 33.

( bonus picture of ferguson being awesome )

Because I'm a maniac, I've already finished Deathly Hallows. Have no fear--all spoilers will be securely behind the cut. And I'm certainly not going to proof this, so if my grammar sucks or there are crazy typos, then sorry. My bad.

Jason and I arrived at the bookstore at 11:30pm because I didn't think I could manage being in a room with hundreds of other people for more than an hour, even if they are fellow HP fans. We bypassed the Sorting Hat and just got in one of the lines for pre-orders. Poor Jason lasted all of five minutes before getting creeped out by the two Dementors floating about the door, weaving in and out of the lines. He went to wait in the car away from all the "madness" and crowds. I ended up in line with a girl who was busting at the seams to get the last book. I think she told me her entire life story in about ten minutes. She confided in me that she was fairly sure Voldemort would be dying. No? You think? It'd be a pretty crappy ending if he didn't die. She also assured me that she thought Snape was really a good guy. Obviously, she didn't see my shirt, which proclaimed in two-inch letters to, "Trust Snape." We got along fairly well. She said that we were "meant to meet in line" for DH. So, I had someone to squee with when we finally got to the register and paid for our copies shortly after midnight. We parted in the parking lot on the assumption that we were both going home to read at least one chapter before passing out.

I managed three chapters before hitting the sack. I woke up at 8:30, rolled over, pulled the book off the nightstand, and shoved my nose in it. Jason woke up an hour later and laughed at me. He dragged me to breakfast at 10:30, but only after he promised that we would be back home in less than an hour. A brief break was taken from reading at 4:00 so we could go to the grocery store and make dinner. I had my nose back in the book by 5:30. Just as I was getting into the last 200 pages of the book this evening, he shut me away in the bedroom, telling me that he was going to watch a couple movies while I finished. So, I just finished.

( OMG - SPOILERS!!!! PLEASE DO NOT CLICK IF YOU DON'T WANT PLOT FROM DH REVEALED TO YOU. )

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more to say about the book at a later date. Right now I'd just past midnight, and I'm bouncing around, unable to think of much beyond the book I just finished. I'm going to sit here and listen to some angsty music and feel sorry for the people who died in DH.

I'm not going to say where I read it, what it's called, or who wrote it, but this short passage pains me.

( explicit sexual content. no click-y if you don't want to read badly written (and possibly painful) sex. )

I took Ferguson to a dog park on Saturday morning, which was a huge mistake. Thankfully, Ferguson and I were not involved in the drama. However, a dog fight (actually, it was more of a skirmish) broke out. This led to a screaming match between the two owners. This almost led to a fist fight by the gate of the dog park. Sheesh. It's rare that I'm witness to such blatant and silly macho male posturing. One of them was even shirtless. I was not impressed, even when he jumped the four-foot fench to go after the other fellow. After they decided that they had screamed at each other enough, the owner of the smaller dog departed. The shirtless (and possibly drunk) owner of the larger dog decided to regale me with tales of how wonderfully friendly his dog is. It's good that at least the dog is friendly because he certainly fell short. I left within two minutes of realizing I was alone with a crazy lady and shirtless macho man. And the funny thing? I was only at the dog park for ten minutes. All of this drama crammed into such a short amount of time. Holy mackrel.

Jason and I saw The Order of the Phoenix on Saturday night. I'll not go into details, but it was most excellent. I have my minor complaints as does everyone, but, on the whole, I enjoyed it greatly. And Alan Rickman's voice makes me want to melt into a puddle on the floor. Jason has great fun teasing me about it. We rented Quigley Down Under a few months ago, and I was teased mercilessly throughout the first twenty minutes of the movie about how much I lurv "that guy who plays Snape." I should be more careful with what I say around him. He already uses my weird infatuation with William Hurt against me. And you'd be surprised at how many movies William Hurt is in.

My most detested co-worker came up to my office this afternoon to discuss the upcoming Harry Potter book. Is it wrong that, in this office, he has the most in common with me, but I can't stand being in the same room with him? He's so flippin' annoying that I can't handle even thinking about him. I tried to put on a happy face and chat with him about theories for the seventh novel and such, but it was just so forced. He's convinced that Dumbledore is still alive. I'm convinced that he's in denial. Thankfully, Payroll Girl interrupted our conversation by saying that all she knew about Harry Potter was, "that he's a boy who does magic, there's a hot guy who teaches him, and they play Quidditch by flying on brooms." Yes, I taught her everything she knows. Although, I'm not sure where she heard about Quidditch. I don't recall dropping that info on her lap. The hot guy who teaches Harry? Yeah, that was my doing. I told her all about Snape. But, now that I'm thinking about it, I may have neglected her HP education. There are many hot guys in the HP-verse. Enough to fill a large closet in my depraved dreams. Perhaps I should introduce her to Lucius and Remus. (P.S. - What's up with J.K. Rowling ending most her adult male names with 'US'? Severus, Lucius, Sirius, Remus, Albus, Filius, Mundungus, Cornelius?)

Jason says me that he'll go to the midnight release of DH if I let him put a paper bag over his head to hide from the crazies. I just might take him up on that offer.