Bit of Ivory

I’m finding it very hard to come up with stuff to blog about when all I do is sit at home all day. So let’s see if I can think of anything.

Hmm. Oh, Gilmore Girls and Smallville on Tuesday were good. Gilmore Girls had too much Jess in it. I know thay have to give the background for the spinoff and all, but I really hate that guy. I wonder why the WB even thinks it worth their while to do a spinoff. I admit that when Jess first came to town I was at least slightly intrigued. I didn’t like his attitude, but the fact that he was a reader was interesting. But he never became more than a jerk. He’s a jerk to Luke, he’s a jerk to Dean, he’s a jerk to Lorelai, and most important, he’s a jerk to Rory. My roommate Jen used to like him– she thought he was better for her than Dean. She’s changed her mind now, right Jen? I think what she said was “I thought it was all an act– but he really is a jerk.” Yeah, Jen. Exactly.

The thing is, Rory is a smart girl, but she doesn’t understand Jess at all. You’d think that after a boyfriend like Dean, she would see when a guy is treating her badly. But she didn’t see it until Dean screamed it in her face last week. I agree now that Dean isn’t the right guy for Rory either– although he’s a heck of a lot better than Jess was. I hear they’re both leaving at the end of this season, so Rory will probably get a new boyfriend. Good for her.

And most of you didn’t care a hoot about any of that, huh? Oh, people. Now that Buffy’s gone, start watching Gilmore Girls. You’ll love it.

Smallville was excellent as well. I have another relationship rant with it, though. For people who haven’t seen the latest Smallville, you’ll probably want to skip this part. I’ll let you know when you can start reading again.

The Lana/Clark/Chloe triangle is just getting more and more painful. I really hate it. Clark and Lana are pretty much officially together, but neither of them has told Chloe yet. Then she saw them kissing at the end of the last episode. Of course, she ran away crying. Heck, *I* almost cried. (Jen, you can start reading again.) Love triangles are cruel. There’s nothing even remotely humorous about this one. Clark and Chloe have been best friends for years. Clark has always had a crush on Lana. Now she’s finally giving in to her feelings for Clark. Problem is that Chloe and Lana are also friends– in fact, Lana is staying with Chloe’s family since her aunt moved out of Smallville. So basically, you’ve got a Trio. Sound familiar? I just can’t see how people can *enjoy* this kind of thing. Does it add drama? Yes. But it also adds a lot of hurt, and the last thing Harry. . .I mean Clark needs is to feel guilty about loving Lana. Gah.

The worst thing about this particular triangle is that it can’t ever, EVER go anywhere. Because it isn’t a question of Lana or Chloe in the long run. They’re both out of the running, ’cause Clark ends up with Lois. It’s written in stone. So all this emotional turmoil can only end with all three of them getting hurt. I have a feeling that Lana’s going to die at the end of the series, before Clark gets to Metropolis. His feelings for her are so involved that it’s really the only way to clear the way for Lois.

But the whole coming-of-age and Becoming Superman plot is very intruguing. I’m just sick of the whole love triangle business.

Take a look at this.

Specifically, look at the copies and the holds.

Okay, now look at this.

I’d say the general public in Salt Lake love Harry Potter, wouldn’t you?

I stayed up way too late last night reading a pretty awful fanfic. I did it in the name of the R/H Debate Team Research and Development. I won’t say much here, as it’s public and I don’t want the party in question to somehow find this. But suffice it to say that I didn’t enjoy the fic. If you want to know details, shoot me an e-mail. I’ll mail you my friends-only post that I put on my LJ. I need to figure out how to do some kind of a private blog here as well. Later.

Consequently I slept in way too late and got almost nothing accomplished today, other than said review of fic. I’d planned to go to the bank, mail Lou’s and Teri’s packages (with everything that went on last week, I just didn’t make it), shop around for a wireless network card for Ginny, write e-mails to my Nimbus panel moderator and Sweeney Agonistes about rooming, fax in my copyright agreement, and work on IFL. I ended up doing none of those things except PM’ing Sweeney Agonistes. But my family watched Chariots of Fire for Family Night, which was highly enjoyable. I’m definitely going to bed early tonight, though. As in shortly– before 3:30, at least, which is when I got to bed last night.

I FOUND IT!! *jumps up and down*

IFL 3– it was on one of my disks. Don’t know why I saved it on a disk instead of on Ginny herself, but I guess I did. You don’t know how happy this makes me. It was *hard* writing that last section–it was already my 3rd or 4th time through, which considering how little I revise as I write, is saying something–and I didn’t really relish the idea of having to write it again– which is one reason why I kept putting off writing. But now that I know where it is, I’ll work on it on Sunday or Monday. I’ll be able to write all sorts of stuff after next week, since I’ll be down with my tonsils out. Having a laptop will be very convenient, although I’ll want to get a wireless network card for it. Hopefully I’ll finish most of the story, and can get it betaed and posted by the June 21st. Wouldn’t that be great?

Work today was– tiring. My feet are really starting to feel the strain of 8-hour days standing up, although I’ve tried to treat them with TLC when I get home. We were a lot busier today than the last few days, which is nice. Time goes mush faster when we’re busy. Tomorrow should be very hectic, since it’s the day before Mother’s Day. Other than Christmas, I’d say the day before Mother’s Day is our biggest day of the year. We get a lot of sales for Father’s Day as well, but it’s much more spread out because on the whole, women shop earlier than men. Tomorrow we’ll get all the husbands and sons who wait until the very last minute to buy their wives and mothers a gift. At least most of the stuff we sell has some meaning. A book says more than a blender, for example.

My brother went to Phoenix yesterday, rather unexpectedly. You see, Deseret Book (yes, Ben works for them too, in the internet department) sponsors these conferences called Time Out, where famous authors and speakers go to some of the places where there are a reasonable number of members of the Church, but who don’t usually get the really cool speakers. The internet crew did a lot of work on the ticketing for these events. Anyway, this weekend there was a Time Out for Women scheduled in Phoenix, and due to some mistake, there were two tickets sent out for every ticket ordered, which meant that there were 6,000 tickets out there for a 3,000 seat venue. Ben and his crewmates were called upon to sort it out. So they drove to Phoenix yesterday. He took SS and CoS on tape with him. If I hadn’t been working at the store, I could have gone with him. Oh, well.

Other news will have to come later. I need to go to bed.

I’m just blogging while my foot spa does its magic. I forgot how tiring an 8-hour day on your feet at Deseret Book can be. My feet and back are now reminding me of it. Ouch.

Worst thing is I get to work another one tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.

My manager called me up a couple of weeks ago and asked me to if I could help fill in for the Mother’s Day rush. So I said yes, and then he told me my hours– Noon to 8, Wednesday through Saturday. I still said yes, of course, thinking of all the money I could make–which is important, seeing as how I have no other job. I didn’t really think about how exhausted I would be.

Oh, well. I can come home and get a good night’s sleep every night, at least. And there’s always my trusty foot spa. Mmm, massage and heat. Best purchase I ever made. I think I’m going to have my mom buy me some shoe liners, though. My Skechers need help.

I need to read two chapters of PoA tonight– I decided not to read “Snape’s Grudge” last night because the darn chapter makes me so mad at Harry– much as I like seeing Malfoy with a face full of mud, and hear Snape called a slimeball and a greasy git, Harry is such a complete prat in that chapter, sneaking into Hogsmeade when he knows a mad psychopath is out to get him. He acts like a typical 13 year old, I know, but I’ve gotten used to the fact that Harry is better than the typical 13 year old. So it’s disappointing. Anyway, rather than end on a complete downer, I’ll read two chapters tonight– “Snape’s Grudge” and “The Quidditch Final.” Much better, don’t you think?

I *know* I saved it somewhere–I typed it on Ginny I– all about Sirius finding a house and the Slytherin showers spraying hot sauce and Hermione discussing working for Gringotts with Bill– I *swear* I saved it on Ginny–

But I can’t find it! It’s gone, just gone! Now I have to rewrite that whole section of Chapter 3, and I. Just. Can’t. Take. It.

*cries*

My brother reminded me of something today. He was reading PoA in preparation for June 21, and last night he crossed the Point of No Return. As in, once you hit a certain spot, you have to finish the book. You just have to. So he ended up finishing it.

GoF has that certain spot. It’s called Chapter 32–The Third Task. If you come to Chapter 32, and you have a few minutes but not enough time to finish the book, you might as well stop there because after you start that chapter, you’re sunk. Back when most of my friends and family hadn’t read HP, I used to warn people to stop there if they didn’t have time to finish the whole thing. When I lent the book to my grandma, I even put a Post-It note at the beginning of Chapter 32 to remind her. I’ve had two friends ignore my advice– Jen had to stop reading in the middle of Voldie’s speech to the Death Eaters because she had to go to work, for example, and she was practically dying by the time she got home. I have yet to be able to stop after that point while reading GoF, and I’ve probably read the book at least 10 times. Even when I was listening to it while driving home from work, I had to take the tapes in with me and finish them when I reached that point. I’m sure many of you have experienced the same problem.

So what’s my dilemma? Well, it’s this chapter-a-day thing. How am I ever going to do it? I don’t know if I have the willpower. When I get to the third task, I’m either going to have to read the whole thing that night, or I’m going to have to put off reading the final chapters until the day before. Probably the former will be what happens.

Oh well. What’s coming will come, and I’ll meet it when it gets here.

Just because something is accepted, it does not make it right.

That’s all I’m saying, because saying any more will just get me flamed.

20 years ago
Umm. . .I was vaguely aware that my mom was going to have another baby in a few months, but was probably more interested in the sandbox out back. Little did I know that the baby would turn out to be two babies– little did mom know, either.

10 years ago
I was desperately trying to survive my first year of junior high school. I was taking Jazz Dance classes and playing the violin very badly in the junior high orchestra.

5 years ago
I was nervously anticipating my graduation from high school and preparing for the Madrigal yearly spring concert, our last big hurrah as Mads.

3 years ago
I had just finished my semester at the BYU Salt Lake Center, and was probably reading Harry Potter for the very first time (it was sometime around May 2000).

1 year ago
I had just finished my junior year of college and was communting to Provo 4 days a week to work in the library.

1 week ago
I was madly packing and cleaning my student apartment, getting ready to move out forever.

yesterday
I woke up much later than I planned and accomplished much less than I planned.

Tomorrow
I’ll go to church at 11, the CES Fireside at 6:00, and probably nap & write fanfic in between.

So I just got back from lunch with Nicole. That’s at least one thing accomplished for today. Next will be unloading my books, which considering I had 3 nearly-full bookshelves already when I got home will be something of a chore. I brought at least 3 boxes full of books back from school with me. I love having this many books, but I’m running out of places to put them.

I feel like I need to list the productive things I do each day. ‘Cause otherwise I would feel completely lazy.

See, the thing is, lately I’ve either been waking up about 6:00 (which is WAAAY too early), or about 11:30, which is WAAAY too late. Methinks I need to set an alarm clock for about 8:30, 9:00. Late enough that I can stay up till midnight, but early enough that I don’t feel like I’ve slept the day away.

My productive things today, though, are actually not too bad. I looked over Jen’s rewrites of Retrospection 3 & 4; added in Lou’s rewrites on AP 15A, put the file in HTML, and uploaded it to the Yahoo!Group; and helped my mom out by making the stew for dinner.

Tomorrow I need to fax my copyright agreement license to Nimbus (’cause I’m *bad* and haven’t done it yet), take Lou and Teri’s packages to the post office, start writing my thank-you notes for my graduation gifts, help my mom get the garage clean enough that we can put the Prius in it again (right now, our driveway looks like a used Toyota parking lot– we do have 6 of them, after all), and at least unpack all my books from my room. In addition, I’m taking Nicole to lunch for her birthday (which was back in February, but I haven’t really had the time to do it before now). So I’ve got a busy day ahead of me.

I’ve just realized I never told you guys about the dream I had the other night. RJA should find it especially interesting. In my dream, James, the guy I like, was my teacher– I can’t remember exactly what for, but I was definitely taking a class from him. I think it might have even been Sunday School. Anyway, in my dream, I had a dream–which is strange enough as it is, but it gets worse– and in that dream within a dream, I was Maud Moody, and James was Snape, and I was searching through the Forbidden Forest to find him. And I came upon him, and he was all sprawled out and bloody, just like in Personal Risks, and I had to save his life. I *knew* it was James, and that I was me, but yet James was Snape, too, and I was Maud. I even remembered feeling bad about Athena dying. Somehow Lorelai Gilmore and Luke from Gilmore Girls were mixed up in the dream, too– not the dream-within-a-dream, just the regular dream. Strange, eh?

I think this is a very good indication that I read too much fanfic.