1. It's been a WEEK since I've posted. Whaaaaat. Where does the time go? Oh well, it just means less verbal diarrhoea for you guys to wade through... or it just means that it ALL COMES AT ONCE, like I expect it will in this Omnibus Post of Doom. Heh.

2. Work. Holy god, WORK. Last Wednesday was legit one of the worst days - WORST DAYS - I have ever spent in the office. I left work at 9pm the night before, dragged myself back in by about 5am, and WORKED and hammered my brain into submission and wrote something like 11-13 paragraphs, NONE OF WHICH WAS USED, and basically wound up in a stairwell crying. Yeah... really NOT a highlight of my career to date. And to just add insult to injury on that bad, bad day, I went in search of some Japanese food in this particular restaurant... only to discover the restaurant had closed (temporarily, for renovations, but REALLY, talk about shitty-assed karma, huh?). SIGH.

3. So HOW have I rewarded myself for that much fail? I think it's called an epic EPIC marathon of TV over the weekend. Basically, I watched over half of Season 5 of Desperate Housewives AND got caught up on the new season, and just finished watching House, Bones, Glee AND 30 Rock. A++++ me - bringing couch potato-dom to new heights of obsession every day. ( THOUGHTS )

4. WOW THAT WAS A LOT OF TV. Amidst all of that, I still managed to find time to meet friends on Sunday afternoon to FINALLY watch Julie & Julia - OH HAPPY DAY. I have such a craving for French food right now, and am about three million times more excited for It's Complicated. ( some disjointed thoughts on the movie )

5. Everyone needs some pretty damn awesome Bebe Neuwirth in their lives. No lie. All fact. Courtesy of illusory_thrill.

6. I really need to go to bed, though I'm not sleepy at all. Good thing I'm away from regular work for the next two weeks and can use that time to recover my sanity. Oh, and buy tickets for NYC. XD I'm so tempted to get tickets for A Little Night Music RIGHT NOW, guys, but the tickets are so expensive and Telecharge isn't offering up anything AWESOME. Are they holding blocks of seats in reserve and only releasing them later? Should I wait a bit? Will there be discounts? Because ticket prices for this show are LEGIT INSANE. Oof.

1. I think people need to write a thesis about the phenomenon of peanut mist. So I've been eating peanuts for the last hour or so - when I cracked the first one open, it kind of sent up a little POOF of mist. What was that?! And don't tell me dirt. Because I've already eaten it. :P

2. HAVE YOU MISSED MY RANDOM?! Hee. It's been three days. Filled with work (yuck), movies (ranging from yuck to yay) and good friends (MUCH yay). Balanced out pretty well, I'd say.

3. Epic work day of epic fail - it's the main reason I disappeared for such ages. Honestly it was terrible. I went out for dinner with my sister and brother at a lovely fish restaurant in Greenwood (mmm, I love cod SO MUCH), and then for gelato (peanut butter & cookies and cream XD) after that, but had to go back into work because something was due first thing the next morning. (Even though I got the draft in on time, my stupid boss took ages to clear it, which makes me BITTER but argh, let's leave that can of worms closed, shall we?) I think the day that I realised I could work throughout the night in time for a morning deadline and ACTUALLY DID SO was a bad bad day for me - because it set a precedent. Once I've done it, staying all night is no longer off-limits, you know? No matter how tired it makes me or how plain stupid it is. Also, I hate that I stayed for HOURS on what should have taken me, like, two hours. WHY SO STUPID AND UNFOCUSED, ME? Grrr. Darn job.

4. So that was bad - but I went home, slept until noon-ish and went in to work. Was in NO MOOD to work, so didn't, and had an epic chat with irnbruise about, you know, awesome movies and awesome actresses (Isabelle Huppert ftw, seriously), among other things, and that was GREAT.

5. Airport after, to send mirime off - it was great having you back, Ka. ♥ And thanks for spotting Julia going to NYC with me. I'm so glad we got to do that together! XD

6. Met noldoparma in Borders after that, at about 9.15pm, figuring we'd have our usual epic chat over dinner/dessert/whatever. AHAHAHAHA. We didn't know what we were about to embark on. I think we stayed a couple of hours at the Borders bistro, chatting over calamari, and then we moved on to TCC (mmm, green tea freeze with red beans!) for QUITE a few more hours... until 3am, by which time we were ready for more food. So we moved onto McDonald's for... supper/breakfast/something, and ended up talking until 5am. If you did the math, that's AN EPIC EIGHT HOURS OF CHATTING. Like, a legit WORKING DAY, guys. We spent all of that chatting about EVERYTHING: politics, philosophy, work, our childhoods, art and fandom and everything ELSE in between, and omigod. Honestly, one of the most epic chats of my LIFE. Thanks for sitting there and picking through my brain with me, J. ;) It was fun.

7. Collapsed at home after that at about 7am, and slept 'til 4.30pm (!!!). Then it was time for a TON of movies: three, to be precise. Let The Right One In was creepily atmospheric, and I'm GLAD I subjected myself to it (I don't usually watch horror/vampire movies except for very good reason i.e., well-reviewed, as this one was, or epic lulz i.e., Twilight). Best movie of the day. Then, Marley And Me. AUGH. The ending made me cry, because it WAS sad, but the film was so manipulative. PUPPY PORN, for one thing, but it just... wasn't well-written, or particularly engaging, and Owen's character seemed SO neglectful to me of his family. Did not like. Third film was Last Chance Harvey - I would watch Emma Thompson in anything, and she and Dustin Hoffman had a nice chemistry. A sweet little film, not AMAZING, but nice. It was like Before Sunrise for the geriatric crowd, and set in the stone-washed loveliness that is London rather than Paris. I want to go back!

8. I decided to pretty up this rather boring entry with a minor pic-spam of my favourite film actresses - inspired by chatting with Leslie about Isabelle - and EEK. It ended up taking me SO LONG to find pictures and put them together. But, worth it.

( I need to go where people are serious about acting )

9. Brunch at 11.30, eek, and then work after that. I'D BETTER GET TO BED NOW.

1. It kind of sucks MAJORLY that I am actually sicker today than I was yesterday. I know I was JUST starting on the illness on Monday, but I was hoping that the meds would be able to help somewhat in preventing everything from going completely wrong. Well... no. Very much no. This is the most tenacious bug in the history of the universe - I pop the antiobiotics (theoretically for 12-hour stretches since I have to take one twice a day) and barely 4-5 hours later, the green gunk is BACK. I'm SO stuffed-up, although the cough isn't too bad, and I have illness aches. Like, my back, and my head at times, and blargh. I was NOWHERE near this ill in December. I guess this is my body's way of going: I warned you in December, didn't I? I CAME BACK ONCE. Well you didn't fix me then. TIME TO DIE.

2. To that end, I spent almost the whole day asleep. Got up at almost noon for lunch and meds, spent an hour trying to figure out a stupid Taiwanese website to buy tickets, watched one episode of Desperate Housewives (WHY IS IT KICKING SO MUCH ASS THIS SEASON??), and fell dead asleep again. Then I got up to go get a new ATM card (the kind that will allow me to draw money overseas, essential for upcoming NYC trip), and came home and fell asleep AGAIN. Proof that I'm really sick? I just got my hands on my brother's old laptop, which means I'm finally typing in the comfort of my bed - and I'm going to finish this post and just go to sleep, because, urgh. Sick.

3. Bright spot of the day: noldoparma and I have Superband tickets! For 7 March 09. TAIWAN HERE WE COME. XD Omigod. Second-row seats in the centre block, though not dead centre as, by the time I figured out the website and its archaic log-in requirements, my ORIGINAL, very awesome seats had been snapped up by someone else. Bah. Regardless! This is going to be the year of flail...

4. I really REALLY don't want to go to work tomorrow. But I fear I must as I'm slated for a whole set of interviews in the afternoon which I THOUGHT I could make it for, but I can't imagine trying to stay upright during the entire ordeal and trying to remain civil throughout. I'll see how I feel when I get up at 7+ in the morning, I guess. Bah humbug.

5. Finally - noldoparma mocked me for taking ages to write a post, as I had said I would post and then go to bed. She's right. The reason it took me so long this time, however, was because I decided to snag an icon meme from fiddlings. I'm pretty sure I've done this in some form or other before, but this one has a handy icon table and is FUN. ( musings on my icons )

6. ARGH, WHY SO SICK. Going to collapse into bed now, sigh.

1. I realise that I need to stop abusing my headphones. Because even though ONE set is cheap enough at $25, the fact that I bought my third one for the year today? Means I've spent $75 so far! WTF. I never MEAN to break my headphones, obviously. But I just... do? And it sucks, because these are the nice clip-on kind, which produce AMAZING-quality sound and don't annoy my ears. So they're worth the money... but three times over? Faily of me, I know.

2. Also, since Jeremy Piven had to go off and pursue his new career as a thermometer, Norbert Leo Butz and William H Macy are filling in for him in Speed The Plow. Frak. I mean, FRAK. I wasn't going to see this, and my schedule as it currently stands really doesn't allow for it, but OMG - to see William H Macy live? (Also, Raul Esparza and Elisabeth Moss, but mainly for one half of Filliam H Muffman.) AUGH. Yeah, I know. The only way to REALLY resolve this dilemma is, clearly, just to move to NYC. Sigh.

3. MERYL. I need need need to stop watching her promotional interviews and stuff for Doubt, because, argh. Do not need to be spoiled, or have my expectations raised any further. As things stand, I think I got spoilt in a pretty major way for a key plot point when I watched a kind of town-hall-type press conference the cast did for the movie. BUMMER. ( Nevertheless, I MUST share my favourite parts of the interview... )

4. And I also bought Dark Matter when I spotted it in the DVD store - I was looking to see if Mamma Mia was on the shelves, but I suspect it was sold out. Serendipitously, however, I spotted this DVD, and it's one of the few Meryl movies released in the past few years that I HAVEN'T seen, so. :D

5. As I check IMDB to see which ones I HAVEN'T seen - House of the Spirits, wth. I didn't even KNOW this movie existed. Okay, I did, but I didn't know what it was ABOUT. What a weird (albeit awesome) group of actors to have playing... a bunch of Chilean characters. Jeremy Irons? Winona? Glenn Close? I have this book somewhere, waiting to be read. I should get to that.

6. Finally: a meme snagged from in48frames - I'd love it if you guys could spam me with some music! XD It'll be fun!

Friends List Soundtrack Meme I want to have a complete soundtrack with one song from each of my friends. It can be your favourite song in the whole world, a recent favourite or just a song that you think really identifies you. Upload the song and leave the link in a comment. If you can't upload your song, just post the artist and name, and I'll (try to) download it myself. I'll put a fanmix together with (hopefully) pretty art and post it on my journal for everyone to download.

1. WTF, body. Seriously, WTF. I woke up this morning and the Elphaba cold from hell is back. And I mean, back - there is snot, and it is GREEN. AGAIN. I finished my antibiotics! All of them! DO NOT UNDERSTAND. I guess maybe... since my brother is now down with the exact same cold (we compared symptoms) and I'm still weak-ish or whatever, it decided to come back? Or it was just never really gone to begin with? In which case, do I need MORE antibiotics?! Why was the initial course of meds SO FAILY!? D: So I am snuffly. AGAIN. WUT.

2. That said, it didn't prevent me from coming to work. Where I am now. I'll focus after this, promise.

3. Nor did it prevent me from eating potato chips for breakfast. Sigh. I figure I'm sick already - eating like a six-year-old isn't going to change the fact that the infection is back and I need food in my stomach to take what's left of my cold meds.

4. Urm. Happy things. Posting another batch of Meryl icons made me happy. She is inordinately beautiful. I'm a bit obsessed with this one in particular, because I can't believe how perfect she looked at a press conference. Sure, she had youth on her side then, but how does one explain this, from last month? Sigh.

5. Also, it's Felicity Huffman's birthday (Dec 9)! :D Awww. I think I'll go home and repost my vvv old Flicka/DH/Sports Night icons in her honour. In the meantime, have a grand ol' picspam.

6. I watched Zack & Miri Make A Porno yesterday - aside from one truly horrific scene involving... urm, defecation *cries*, it wasn't AS risque as I thought it would be. Also, not as funny. What's up with that, Kevin Smith? Although I have to say, I still kind of think that JasonMewesisstrangelyhot... is that wrong?

7. This being sick at work thing kind of sucks.

1. 7.08am. How am I ever going to get back on a normalish sleep pattern for work next week!?!? D:

2. I'm not sure the "things that make me happy" meme is supposed to be SO heavily fandom-related, but honestly. My fandoms make me happy. *indicates new default icon* Anyway, MANY things made me happy today...

3. Oh man, I AM OBSESSED. There is really NOTHING SADDER than discovering a new (old) song (彎彎的月亮) covered by Emil on youtube - and realising that one of the two versions available on Youtube is cut off at the beginning and the other at the END and THAT WOULD NOT DO. So I spent ages ripping the MP3s (including downloading the videos at one point because the MP3s were ripping WRONG), and then splicing them together. A number of times, because I kept saving the file wrong. YES. I AM THAT SAD. But the song is SO PRETTY. ♥

4. LOL, the alarm I set on my phone to wake me up on weekdays JUST went off. O_O

5. I should download stuff from Megaupload at this hour ALL THE TIME. For serious - usually it creeps along at something ridiculous like 10-15KB/sec; now it's downloading at over 250KB/sec. :P I just downloaded the newest episode of PD and another one of DH in 20 minutes!!

6. Speaking of DH: ( OMIGOD NEW SEASON )

7. And let's have a mini-picspam of photos that have made me happy this past 24 hours: ( cate & meryl & julia oh my! )

8. I was contemplating doing that time capsule meme that's making the rounds - and then decided that I really didn't need to be reminded of how little my life will probably have changed by this time next year, and that I would probably be to blame for that. Sigh.

9. BEDTIME OMIGOD. MUST TRY FOR YOGA AT 3PM. I MUST.

10. Translating Chinese song lyrics into English is just so... hilarious. Doesn't 'A Sailor On The Sea Of Love' sound remarkably, REMARKABLY DODGY? Yet, that's what I'm listening to now. And honestly, it's a gorgeous ballad. HONESTLY. *weeps*

1. This is the Elphaba cold from HELL is what it is. Again, no fever or cough or sore throat - thank goodness for that - but apparently the meds have not helped any. Not so far anyway: I got up at 8 in the morning and again now (about 2pm) and I'm still all gunked-up with green stuff. Yuck. If you haven't figured it out yet, I skipped out on work AGAIN. This time taking my own time off, because I can't be bothered to go back to the doctor and tell him that he could just as easily have given me TWO days off as one. Idiot. I mean, he stuck SOMETHING up my nose yesterday and marvelled at how gross and blocked-up it was. Didn't he think it'd take a little longer than a day to rest AND unblock it?! Twit.

2. So I have just TEARED like crazy from the cold and I think I'm going to... well, I'd go get lunch because my grandma made this vile thing with melon that I don't WANT to eat, except I'm not hungry so maybe I'll just lie in bed and watch more tv.

3. Which is basically what I did YESTERDAY, since my computer stopped working for a while. (It also died on me early this morning just after I tracked stuff, piece of junk, except Firefox retained the entry I was working on - what's the POINT, Firefox!?) Oh, so I can ramble on about catching up on Season 4 of Desperate Housewives and also Pushing Daisies... (basically whatever was in my external HD that was NOT Last Resort *grumps*): ( some rambling ) Oh, and also House - that boring episode before Last Resort that was about, IDK, Foreman. And Kutner. And their issues. BORING.

4. I also spent a lot of last night tracking my 3-hour concert audio of awesome. And I still cannot GET OVER how freakity frakkity AMAZING it was. Like, WHAT THE CRAP IS THIS. Seriously. It's the most amazing thing EVER, with so many talented people, and my audio!! ♥ SO GOOD. Aside from the fact that it picks up people TALKING REALLY LOUDLY, which is still totally bearable. Otherwise, it's crystal clear and FABULOUS. I love it. ARGH.

5. Okay, I'm snuffling up a storm and crying a little bit. Sucky. Off to pop some more pills and lie in bed watching tv. I really wish the doctor had been kind enough to give me TWO days off, especially since I actually feel worse today than I did yesterday, but I guess he thinks the meds will take care of whatever ails me. Boo.

1. I AM GOING TO BE SPAMMY TODAY. Because I feel spammy. Lots of spammy goodness.

2. I'm actually feeling not too bad work-wise - I spent waaaaay too long chatting with *ahem* weazel_luv but still managed to get through the masses of work I had on my plate, and managed to leave early enough to actually do some exercise for once. Which was nice, though now I'm aching all over. Why?

3. Because I went skating, for the first time all year, I think! I'm glad I persevered and skated my usual five laps of the track by the huge drain near my house - it started to drizzle, kind of, halfway through the second lap, and I was all, like, I'm not going to be out here to be roasted by lightning while on skates. But it never amounted to much more than a drizzle, so... it was good. Tiring, but good. Also? Guess who is a loser? I realised after I'd put on my skates and guards and everything and left the house that I had my shorts inside out. SIGH. SO CLEVER. It was night-time though, and I wasn't about to change just because I apparently don't know how to put on clothes even after almost three decades of practice, so. HEY. IT WAS NIGHT-TIME. PEOPLE COULDN'T TELL THAT I AM AN IDIOT.

4. Oh god IDINA MENZEL. *sobs a bit from the awesome* I've been waylaid by other singers since - quite obviously - but Idina was the first and gah has she ever been reminding me recently about how amazing she can be when she trots out that high belt of hers. I'm just a very little bit obsessed with her high notes in I'll Be Seeing You, which she performed for PBS' Memorial Day concert yesterday (go here to watch both songs.) And I keep forgetting how much I ADORE Where Do I Begin. Plus Idina looked gorgeous at the concert - her hair, GAH, so old-school Hollywood!! *flails a bit* Ah Idina. Why must you pwn me so.

5. I HAS NEW MUSIC CRACK FOR EVERYBODY! I promised people some Gavin & Sarah!


6. I need to stop comparing original recordings of Broadway songs to Julia's versions. Spread A Little Sunshine from the Pippin OBC just came on, and it's a fun, trilling version - but it doesn't quite have... erm, Julia's verve? Anyone who's seen her belt the living daylights out of the song and... errrr, sex it up but good should know what I'm talking about!

7. I've started reading again! YES. I love to read. Love it. But work has been so crazy this year that I've only managed to read magazines outside of work all year. FOR SERIOUS. SO STUPID. But really, no books at all, nada, zip, zero. So this weekend, when I couldn't find one of my magazines and finished another one, I started on Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Yes, a kid's fantasy book, don't judge. It's good so far, though I'm only a fifth of the way through. And of course, being the movie fandork that I am, I had to go hunt down cast info for the upcoming movie. I APPROVE. Helen Mirren as Elinor? That should be awesome. :D I'm less pleased about Brendan Fraser as Mo, though I don't even dislike him - am mostly apathetic towards his career. Shall give him the benefit of the doubt, however. Plus, Andy Serkis as Capricorn? NICE. I haven't even encountered Capricorn in the book yet, and I'm like, dude. Andy Serkis is creepy enough for ANY VILLAIN. ;)

8. iTunes, OMFGWTF? Michael Crawford singing Reflection from Mulan is both a little bit gay and a lot weird.

9. Still hooked on Desperate Housewives. Tornado double-bill ftw!! I shall now log off - before 1.30am, shock horror! - and watch an episode before bed. :)

10. LAST THING. My scroll button on my mouse has stopped working for Firefox. Why the hell! It works for everything else in the computer, as far as I can tell. Just not for Firefox, which is driving me batty when I try to scroll through my flist. Flist: any suggestions on how to debug this!?! Apparently shutting down and restarting Firefox works, who knew. :p