Apologies for the spamming today but I had to post this:



According to the Anne Frank House, which posted this today on YouTube as part of its ongoing mission to keep her story alive for new generations, the footage was recognized by the bridal couple in the 1950s after the diary was published. They contacted her father, Otto Frank, and gifted him with the small portion of film in which she appears. According to The Guardian (via Mashable), the scene dates back to July 22, 1941 and was provided to the museum by the couple in the 1990s.

Actualfax goosebumps, y'all. It's beyond amazing that this has survived all these years and that we have the opportunity to see even a few seconds of her life before.

Once a month I get an intense craving for red meat. I just want to eat steaks for breakfast, lunch & dinner and everything in between. Because of the iron maybe? Clearly I am no expert but I have decided that it is because of the iron and lo I shall not be swayed.

ANYWAY! It was possibly fujiidom who linked this on Twitter earlier but I am too lazy to check, so she gets the credit:

A list of famous people you can totally still (or begin to) fangirl because they are for once sane and decent and not horrible, crush-destroying, wrong-thinking, Polanski-apologist fucktards

(BTW, Harrison Ford, you suck. Thanks for killing almost thirty years of finding you a pretty lolarious and faildorable dude irl! The same goes for a lot of very depressingly familiar names on that original petition, which I will not be linking because it makes my entire being sad to think how many non-celebrities would probably sign it.)

And now I am going to eat my weight in cheesesteaks (stfu it's got steak right there in the name and OMNOMNOMNOMREDMEATANDGREASE), spam the Twitterverse with blip.fm links, and finish this crackfic. There is definitely going to be vodka involved, oh yes.

I feel pretty confident that I don't need to actually spell out for you guys where I fall on the whole Polanski thing. BECAUSE I'M PRETTY GODDAMN SURE THERE ARE NO "TWO SIDES" ABOUT THIS THING.

This post brought to you by today's shining examples of why everyone in the world should get a Fiat for their birthday.

I am officially dropping out of SGA Big Bang. I couldn't make the story work and honestly had no desire to kick my own ass long enough to figure out why. So, for NaNo! :D? :D? :(

It's the end of the financial quarter, which means free lunches! Free Lunch Week is a beautiful thing. Even better than surprise!cake, because there is more of it, but not surprise!cupcakes because a) surprise! and b) cupcakes! and c) sometimes those chalky disc-shaped sprinkles! However it doeesn't make me as sleepy at the end of the day. Just the normal post-lunch sleepy without the added bonus of "why don't I keep a toothbrush in my desk for the high-sugar days?"

Fic rec!
I am a complete mess when it comes to actually reading email these days, so luckily wandersfound sent the link for this on Twitter instead! She wrote this fic for me and it is sheer genius: The Bear Planet, Dwight is the Doctor's companion. NGL IT IS PRETTY MUCH THE MOST PERFECT REPRESENTATION OF THAT IDEA THAT COULD POSSIBLY EXIST. EVER.

The weather has turned to autumn overnight, pretty much. A big thunderstorm rolled in last night and temperatures dropped about 10° F, so now everyone is bitching about having to pull the heavy sweaters back out of storage. THESE PEOPLE ARE INSANE BECAUSE HEAVY SWEATER WEATHER > ALL OTHER SWEATER. I MEANT WEATHER. WHAT.

Still listening to Sarah Harmer's Almost on a loop.

Don't send help. ♥_♥

Oh hay wait, do send help. Boss and Fail!coworker appear to be about to come to blows. Soothe them with folky Canadian singer-songwriters y/mfy/just gtfo to lunch early?

Tonight, I will feast on delicious Greek delicacies and frosty alcoholic beverages!

But for now, there is listening to the Big Boss drone on and on about tomorrow's Ohio State game, attempting to recover from 3 hours of Dead Laptop time this morning, and dreaming of skipping through the doors at 5pm on the dot.

eta
There is also an incredibly boring audio conference to which I didn't need to be invited, and stealing a coworker's chair for the afternoon now that he's gone home. OMG you guys, this thing is amazing. I'm not hunched over my desk, I can type without my elbows knocking against the desk, and my back aches in new weird places because my posture is improved by a factor of about a billion.

Amaaaaaaazing.

Man, I am done with people dying. Do you hear me, world? DONE.

Moveon.org is passing this video around today and I'm struck anew with how much there was to admire about Teddy Kennedy, Senator. Teddy Kennedy, Playboy, maybe not so much, but the Senate lost one of its greatest members last night. I keep thinking about not only his political career, but stories from people like Joe the Biden and Orrin Hatch and the 9/11 widow they interviewed on NPR this morning about how gracious and caring and open a man Kennedy was behind the scenes. I'm going to miss his bluster and his big Irish head.



And y halo thar shoutout to Lolhio Senator Sherrod Brown. Good on you, sir, for repeatedly turning down the Congressional healthcare plan until we have a comparable one of our own. So let's actually get that comparable one, yeah?

PS
I did not win the jackpot. :(

There was an older episode of Iron Chef America on tonight which I only watched a few minutes of, mostly because a) secret ingredient = corn and corn is made of magic I'm pretty sure, and b) &Marcus Samuelsson;. He is so pretty I don't even care what he cooks. LOL SHALLOW :(

The weather today was so gorgeous, sunny but chilly, and reminded me of just how very much I love autumn. It's my favorite season by far, although I love any seasonal transition. And I adore that the region I live in has four very distinct seasons, so we get the full effect of rapidly changing temperatures and dramatic flora.

Not that I saw much of it today as I was busy fighting to get my pictures off of my phone before its deactivation next week (thank you BitPim!) and getting sucked into a Married... with Children marathon on TVLand. That show makes me feel guilty and hypocritical but I love all Bundys anyway.

The cats were hunting a baby cricket in the basement earlier. I always feel so guilty putting them out of their misery after the cats have had a go, but they creep me out so bad that I can't deal with trying to capture and deposit them safely outside. Yes, that's right: crickets and butterflies and moths and ants are the insects I can't handle. Roaches - no problem beyond grossing out over hygiene issues. And spiders are not insects but they are creepy-crawly and surprisingly only an issue if they stealth!dangle in front of my face.

This entry is refreshingly light on fangirling so I'll just add a lakjd;aljds;flja;sdfj I LOVE NECESSARY ROUGHNESS. Oh Scott Bakula, how terrible yet awesome thou art.

eta
Seriously wtf is up with these tags in this layout? They were fine a few days ago and now all that extra space is driving me crazy and I can't figure out where in the CSS I've gone wrong.

OH HAY WHAT'S THAT, IS IT A &TAAAAAAYLORS; ICON?

Working in the office yesterday did not get better, but it broke in the middle for delicious North Carolina-style pulled pork sandwiches (om nom nom) and ended with a Team Meeting of Fake Bad News and Pretend Scary Possibilities (aka Ha Ha), cupcakes, and leaving early.

\o/

Unfortunately, I continue to feel like I have the flu. THE SWINE FLU OMG. No, not really. OKAY MAYBE.

Oh yeah, and I woke up yesterday morning to a flat tire. Because there's a giant freaking screw stuck in it. So now I'm completely confused about whether to get it patched and rotated to the back, go ahead and buy two new tires because that one and its pair are practically bald (srsly the treads are almost level with the wear bars), or just suck it up and get four new tires since I've never had them rotated and they're all original to the car and almost 50,000 miles old and wearing thin. Bank account says patch, but panicky!inner-self says get four new tires or you'll die. What to do, what to do.

Today I also plan to do a fuckton of laundry, watch FNL, and some other stuff that I've already forgotten. Damn, I just had it. Oh yes, win the Powerball jackpot because working is for losers. Oh! And work on my SGA Big Bang fic because I just broke 15000 last week, which means only another 25000 to go oh lord save me.

My sister and I were who watches the Watchmen DVD last night and oh man I lol'd harder at her reactions than anything else, even the porn!sex. She's read the book so none of it was a surprise (except the ending but somehow she'd managed to block the original from memory) and I didn't have to explain anything about "Ozymandingo's plan". When Dr Manhattan was in Vietnam, she was all "wtf bananahammock D:", and then once the swingin' penis made its debut she was all "plz bring back the bananahammock D:"

Best part was during Dan & Laurie's first fight scene: as Dan shoves the dude's bone right out of his arm, she just goes: DAN FUCKIN' DREIBERG \o/

I love it when she actually likes the things I like and has the good sense to fangirl characters like DAN FUCKIN' DREIBERG \o/

(As an aside, Truman Capote is listed in the credits. Where does he pop up - Warhol's party? Also Y HALO THAR LIEUTENANT GAETA! The sound mix is still freaking terrible (thank god for subtitles because wtaf did Matthew Goode think he was doing with that "accent") but it holds up surprisingly well on repeat viewings. Jackie Earle Haley is even better on a smaller screen, and JDM = still lolzy! AND ZOMG THEY PUT THE POSSIBLE HOMOSEXUAL LINE BACK IN, AND NITE OWL'S LAST SCENE ALKJDFAJFD ;_;)

The rabbits that live in the backyard are growing bolder. The big one, which I shall call Mamabbit, sat about ten feet away from me last night the whole time I was outside. After suppressing my natural instinct to shriek OMG BUNNICULA I'M NOT A CARROT and run away, it was quite nice.

I started working on a Five things about Howard Wolowitz thing the other night but goddamn is it difficult to write him without making him a total asshole, or a complete sad sack, or both! And since the point of it was to be funny, I think it's just going into the DNW folder.

And now I return to the working-in-office world and hope the day gets better. /o\

One of the cats - the one with the longest fur and also the one who grooms the others like she's in training for a spot on America's Next Top Groomer - yarked up a hairball and what appeared to be most of everyone's breakfast all over my bed this morning.

Which didn't have any sheets on as they were in the wash from the Great Another-Cat-Has-Grossness-I-Won't-Detail Cleaning Spree. DDDDDDD:

Take this opportunity to splash out on an Ikea bed I've wanted for ages, y/y?

+ It has a headboard! I haven't had a headboard since high school!
+ No more gouging up the floor and mopboards with my pos metal frame (with optional wheels, wtf I don't live in a hospital why did I buy this thing)
+ Frame, box spring or slats, and mattress together would cost about the same as a mattress/box spring set from anywhere else.

- Those mattresses look pretty thin and I sleep like the Princess with the pea.
- Uh, slats? They look terrifying, and lots of reviews talk about them popping out.
- I do not understand Ikea's bed-buying system. What goes with what? Does everything go with everything else? Are these US or Euro/UK/EMEA size beds?

Anyone have Ikea bed stuff? I want the Hemnes or Aspelund or maybe all of them. D:

Btw I checked in on Home Team Round 2 last night and omfg there are so many incredibly tight races! &women of fandom;

Miss Piggy (Muppets) vs. Scout Finch (To Kill A Mockingbird)

Look, flist, I know this is a really tough choice but TEAM JEAN LOUISE FTW

( WARNING: NSF Pigs )

Tomorrow after work I am going to the Verizon store to play with a bunch of phones. I'm leaning pretty hard toward the Sam(e)sung Omnia, because Windows Mobile syncing with my email and calendar and junk = win, and pretty much every LG touchscreen available. The Blackberry Storm dropped from contention over the weekend when I played with someone else's and the touch screen was too difficult to figure out after two glasses of wine. These are important tests to do, you know.

Anyone have an opinion on the Omnia?

ETA
For breaktime today I check the NPR and :D :D :D :D :D :D

North Korea: 2 American Journalists Pardoned

Aw crap. I just realized that my apocalyptothon story is due in like three weeks. Whoops! Anyone willing to beta a shortish story that will hopefully stay fun and not take awful detours into maudlin and incomprehensible territory? :D? :D? :(

But the real point of this post is to ask: I got this gorgeous hydrangea at one of the wedding-that-lasted-forever events, but our soil is like a billion percent clay so if I stick it in the ground, it will go pink. And then die because our winters are kind of brutal. Is there a special kind of soil I can use to keep it blue in a pot or am I going to have to mess with testing the pH and adding crap to it or whatever?

My thumbs aren't so much green as they are brown like dying things, in case that's not clear.

Have you ever looked at your last.fm history and found a story waiting in the order of the songs? Because I just looked at mine and there was John Lennon's Beautiful Boy, followed by the Stones doing Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows, followed by a live version of Sean Lennon's Dead Meat.

...so it's not exactly a happy story, but a story nevertheless. :D:


eta hours later
OMG THERE IS MY FAKE CELEBRITY GIRLFRIEND MARY MCDONNELL BEING AWESOME ON MY TV SCREEN. And she's not even being Laura Roslin! She is adorable and I love the way she drags out her 'SH's.

Have you ever had one of those days where you should have just stayed in bed? I'm starting to feel like that's how I should have spent this entire month.

'Don't take vacations unless you don't plan to come home' is the moral of this story. >:(

But now I go to Mom's house for ridiculous amounts of cookout food and Ninja Warrior. \o/

(In other news, I'm now listening to Kanye and wtf why is he worried about what people are bitching about in barber shops? Kanye, you are one weird dude.)

Oh lol

So I keep thinking about that feline-Vulcan thing, so I go to Google and type in "vulcan feline" because a) yay fanspec, and b) NEED MOAR FIC.

Result #2? My post. /o\

IRL news, the guy here in the office who has decided that I should get married by December just came over to ask if I'd be interested in one of his friends. His opening line: How do you feel about back hair?

Um.

So tonight we went out for a fancy dinner cruise. I wore a nice dress and looked pretty good and proceeded to flash my bra at every one all night long because I couldn't find a safety pin and never pack an emergency sewing kit ("Who's ever going to need that dumb thing anyway?" >:( ). Faux wrap dresses are so not my friend.

Okay, no, scratch that. Faux wrap dresses are totally my friend.

IDKY I'm using this icon except that it's made me giggle for at least the last ten minutes. Also I <3 spellcheck.

Tomorrow is more crazy running around! I've walked more in the past two days than I have in a year! And I've eaten almost nothing! Yay for vacation-induced weight loss! And drinking enough to forget how big my blisters are and how much I hate all of my shoes!!!

So here I am in my hotel room, walking around in my underwear because I can. The rental car is awesomesauce and has free XM radio (BRUUUUUUUUUUUCE) and I only got mildly lost once on the way from the airport!

And now is the time that I pass out and hope to god that I don't sleep through whatever it is we're supposed to be doing tomorrow.

PRO TIP, BTW: faxing an itinerary printed on dark paper != a good idea. There is apparently something happening every minute of this weekend and I have no clue what or when or where or how I'm supposed to get there. Whee!

Also my room smells of stale cigarette smoke and my dirty sneakers. Off to a fabulous and classy start! D:

See, this is how we're going to roll up in this LJ from now on:

1. Spam with annoying bizarre entries
2. Forget LJ exists for weeks at a time
3. Fic dump
4. Repeat

\o/?

Also! I am having major meltdown re: vacation trip and meeting new people and wearing dresses and makeup and things oh argh. So now's a great time to decide that yes, I am definitely in the right frame of mind for putting myself on THE ANONYMOUS WRITING FEEDBACK MEME, right?

Right?

(SRSLY THOUGH. I love these things because I live for actual criticism. While I love my shit to pieces, I know it's not great and there's totally room for improvement.)

I wish I were kidding, but I am in a video conference right now where the presenter just said, "So what am I here to talk about today? Leadership." And then he babbled for a while and came back to "...Leadership."

Oh if only it were a reference to SGA and not just clueless irl Rodney-like behavior.

Oh hay the femme_fic stories go live tonight! :D I ended up writing two which I will throw onto ishieland sometime after the reveal and the DC WEEKEND OF DEBAUCHERY OR POSSIBLY JUST SHOPPING WITH BFF AND HER MOM \o/

Which reminds me that I should probably start packing so I have actual clothes to wear that aren't touristy t-shirts from the airport gift shop. OR SHOULD I?

What is up with me doing that OR ____ I? thing all the time now? Did I watch Count Floyd recently or something?

OH CRAP I LITERALLY JUST THIS SECOND REALIZED THAT I HAVE ONLY 10 DAYS TO FINISH MY TARDIS BIG BANG FIC AND GET IT OFF TO MY BETA AND THE NEXT 10 DAYS ARE MOSTLY WEDDING- AND/OR TRAVEL- AND/OR WORK-RELATED THINGS D: D: D: THANK GOD FOR AIRPORT WIFI :D :D :D

God, why must you be so painful, bra shopping? I just need exactly this style in exactly this size with exactly these straps. JUST READ MY MIND! >:(

Tomorrow I get to go to a seamstress to model my sausage-casing-like bridesmaid's dress. D: