1. 3.47am for the epic lose. Omigod. I need need NEED to stop watching Emil Chau videos. NEED TO STOP. Except cannot, because aieee, so obsessed. *weeps*

2. Guys, I TOTES OVERSLEPT FOR WORK YESTERDAY. It was awful. I don't know why I didn't hear my phone alarm, or why I turned it off even if I did, but I only got up at 11am and only because my sister did. *cries* NOT. GOOD. I took the half-day off, and since I did, I went to see the doctor as well for a routine thing. So it wasn't completely wasted. BUT STILL. WHY SO FAILY AS AN ADULT, ME?! Okay, I KNOW I was tired from the last three days of paper-writing, but come on. COME ON.

3. That being said, I didn't feel too guilty or like I should work. :P I ended up leaving the office at just past six as I wanted to go for a slow, easy yoga class. Unfortunately, traffic conspired against me and I got there too late (my yoga studio is frickin' annoyingly anal about punctuality), so instead of going for a tougher class, I went to see a movie.

4. Slumdog Millionaire - which I REALLY liked, but found to be just... too soppy in the end? Even for me? This seems to be something of a trend for me and Danny Boyle movies - like Sunshine, I really enjoyed the first two-thirds of the film, and then the last third went weird. Less so in Slumdog, since it more closely gels together as a movie and Boyle's intent was always clear to make it about... fate or something like that :P, but I also LOVED Sunshine more than I do Slumdog. Which makes Sunshine's eventual wackiness more unforgiveable. Urm. Anyway. I also saw a trailer for Push, and am HYPER EXCITED FOR IT. New superhero movie ftw! (Yes, I DO like Chris Evans a lot more than I should prpbably admit to.) So many films to catch up on this weekend. Benjamin Button, The Wrestler, Defiance. Man. I think I have to work too, which makes me sad. :(

5. And I'm never going to stop listening to Emil. Crappity, guys, I found video of him singing Your Song. I have an unhealthy adoration of that song, ever since Moulin Rouge!... WHO ELSE LOVES THIS MOVIE - and I know not you, irnbruise, I apologise in advance! ;) Ewan = ♥ I just about had my brain explode on me when Emil sang Your Song at his concert here in 2006. Back when I was faily, stupid and did not have a recorder, fuckity. So this video will have to do. OMG HE'S SINGING/BELTING AWESOME. And he was legit sick that day too, apparently. Man.


I also enjoy the faily attempt at English subtitles.

6. I like how I'm worried about not being able to get up for work later today, and yet I'm still here. AT 4.02AM. WTH IS WRONG WITH ME. Also, gmail is being faily and cutting in and out for me intermittently. Do not like, bah.

... but it IS. I am about to head to the airport, for a ridiculously long flight to New York (at least 25 hours, if my math does not fail me, though it has frequently in the past). I am excited. And yet I don't think I'll... BELIEVE it, until I'm THERE? Until I stumble out at the other end in JFK, and get into a cab, and end up near Central Park and then in Times Square and then and THEN.

NO WORDS FOR THE AWESOME.

Anyway. I almost had a heart attack earlier when I thought I had LOST MY PASSPORT. Of all things, of ALL IRREPLACEABLE THINGS on the night before a huge trip - I woke my dad in a frenzy demanding that he check his locked drawers, in case it was there. Turns out it was in the glove compartment of my car. *sheepish*

Which was a nice reality check. Passport, credit cards, tickets. The rest... can be bought, if necessary. And so. HERE I GO AGAIN. I will see MANY of you, this time, in New York and/or DC. And honestly I cannot WAIT. I'm super excited. XD

As usual, treat this as a spam post if you like. LINK ME ANYTHING EXCITING GOING ON FANDOM-WISE, 'KAY?? I'll be able to go online this time *pats my laptop*, so should be checking email once in a while. More so than in June, anyway. In the meantime, take care, guys.

1. And so ends my weekend of EPIC FLAIL. Soon to be followed by a FORTNIGHT of EPIC FLAIL in NYC. Heh.

2. Mayday concert tonight was AMAZING. SERIOUSLY. Every time I see these guys live, I fall in love with them all over again - even if they made me work REALLY HARD for that. As mentioned here, when I went for a full-fledged concert in April last year, attending a concert by these guys is like a CARDIO WORKOUT. Even if you have assigned seating, it doesn't matter - you're on your feet for pretty much three hours, jumping and flailing even through the tender, sweet ballads. So the concert organisers for Sunday's event clearly decided - why bother with SEATS. Everyone who had tickets was just herded into Stadium Green, which is a large expanse of grass right next to the Singapore River. And so tonight, probably a few thousand people rocked out to Mayday (oh, 阿信, how I LOVE YOUR VOICE), beneath a cloudless, moon-lit sky, yelling like crazy people so everyone for miles around could hear. EPIC. ♥

3. Am tracking my audio now - SO amusing, OMG. The quality is actually really good, considering that the concert was outdoors and EVERYONE was singing along like it was a communal karaoke session (that's probably the most FUN part of c-pop concerts, how much PARTICIPATION is expected from the audience... though it makes for less-than-ideal boots). But you can actually HEAR the parts at which I just gave up on a consistently good audio and started jumping around like a mad thing. Hee.

4. Now that I'm planning to see SO many shows and concerts and read and watch movies, I decided to expand my yearly list to include live performances. It's only four days into the new year and I'm off to a pretty good start already! :D This is gonna be an EPIC year for flail. EPIC.

5. OH. I also got my hair cut. And coloured, and styled. FOR FOUR AND A HALF HOURS. Omigod. FAIL. I look like... a China doll or something. I now have a fringe, it's bright red (AGAIN), and... it's CURLED? *weeps* I'm sure at SOME point I should have stopped taking my hairdresser's advice - just as her assistant was about to dump all the brown (it's SUPPOSED to be brown) dye on my head, I had a moment of going... errr, the permed hair is QUITE enough of a difference, thanks. (What even possessed me to say yes to THAT, in the first place?!) And then I chickened out because the dye had already been prepared. And then I just had to suffer through it, because omigod it took AGES to get it all into my hair and then it HURT and made me feel sick. Yuck. And now it's RED. *weeps some more* I'm sure the colour will even out after I wash it a couple more times. BUT. Remind me - next time I get my hair cut, I'm going to stay away from colouring for a while.

6. Finished reading City of Stars. SO OBSESSED with this series, omigod. It's EPIC. From a parallel Venice to a parallel Siena, with winged horses, horse races, and just an AMAZING expansion of the universe from the first book. LOVE.

7. And I think I'm... falling sick again? As in, back into the illness I had all of December? Maybe it's just the lack of sleep from today coupled with the crazy cardio workout. But I'm snuffly, my throat is scratchy and ARGH. NO WAY. Not before NYC. How incredibly SUCKY would that be, seriously.

8. I should SLEEP, obviously, to try and avoid illness. But but but. I'm almost done with audio! Except I just screwed up and have to reload the entire file to fix it. ARGH. Why do I fail SO HARD.

1. I think this pretty much says it all, guys:



♥ Whatever (or even whether!) you celebrate, have a WONDERFUL holiday season! ♥

2. And I DID promise music, didn't I? So here's some Christmas cheer for everybody - some of my favourite songs for the season:

a. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - The Carpenters
b. I Wonder As I Wander - Julie Andrews
c. O Holy Night - Julia Murney & Max von Essen
d. 平安夜 (Christmas Eve) - Emil Chau

( a little song-related flail )

3. In other news: I... totes overslept for work. And missed most to all of the Christmas Eve party. F A I L. I like how I don't oversleep, however much I abuse my body and have strange sleeping patterns, on a normal work day. On a day when NO ONE WORKS, however, I just... can't seem to get up. I even slept before 2.30, wtf. Sigh.

4. I drove down anyway, for the last part of the party, and picked my cousin up for dessert and to watch Bedtime Stories. Which is... SUCH a random movie. Funny, sure, and fun to watch. But raaandoom.

5. And then I came home, stuffed myself to the gills with leftover ham (soaked in brandy and raisin sauce) and pasta from the Christmas party, while watching 7-8 episodes of 30 Rock. OMG OMG. So obsessed with this show. I actually liked Alec Baldwin BEFORE I saw him play all of Tracy's relatives in a mock therapy session. AFTER THAT I WAS DONE. OMIGOD EPIC. EP. IC. *cries* I did take a break to watch a shit-ton of Emil interviews (I don't think I'll ever be done, he's been on the entertainment circuit for 22 years!) and fetch my aunt and uncle from the airport. But, back to 30 Rock tomorrow, YEEEES.

6. Also! Meryl gave a rather legendary press conference for Doubt which was translated into a million articles and soundbites across the web. Finally, some bright spark found a full audio of this interview, together with transcript. WAHEY. Because there's nothing I like more than listening to Meryl speak, unfiltered and just... unguarded. Laughing and being snarky and awesome. Also, it gives MUCH needed context to her apparent good cheer vis-a-vis a purported Mamma Mia sequel, thank god.

7. Now I'm off to bed. Have a lovely lovely day, everybody. Much turkey and presents and good wishes to y'all. :)

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. I HAVE SO MUCH VIDEO FLAIL. OMIGOD. FLAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL. But I will get to that later. Y'all have to promise to flail with me, plz.

2. You know what I did today? So I have the latest copy of Entertainment Weekly, yes? I was going to read it, right? And then, you know, keep it because of that gorgeous full-page spread of Meryl? WELL GUESS WHAT. I TRIPPED AND DROPPED THE MAGAZINE IN THE JOHN. WTF, CLUMSY SELF OF FAIL. God, you'd think I'd have better hand-eye-brain coordination after 20+ years trying to figure out how to use my hands. HA HA. CLEARLY NOT.

3. YOGA OF DEATH. Although I lie, a little bit. Did a hot class today. Still am a fundamentally inflexible person. But it was good. We did the same bendy-twisty thing that hurt like eff the last time and I managed to last the whole pose this, so that was encouraging. Was SO dripping with sweat by the end of it and really quite gross though.

4. AND THEN I CAME HOME AND MY FANDOMS EXPLODED. Good thing LJ is back up! If you have some spare time, COME WATCH ALL THESE VIDEOS. Because they make me ultra-super-capslocky-HAPPY. XD

5. ( FANGASM = HUGH LAURIE IN A TUX, DRIPPING WET )

6. IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE A VERY COLBERT CHRISTMAS. Oh my friggin' god. How excited am I for Stephen's MUSICAL CHRISTMAS SPECIAL?! Yes, that's right! MUSICAL. CHRISTMAS. SPECIAL. STEPHEN COLBERT. A whole bunch of awesome words strung together to produce something awesome. He's promoting the special now, so a bunch of promos and talk shows and stuff are leaking, and WTF it's HILARIOUS AND AMAZING. It makes me want to DIE FROM LOL. ( I am swept up in myself )

7. AND THEN AND THEN. The Mamma Mia DVD comes out soon! So random clips are surfacing, beyond the outtakes that I posted earlier. This is a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Mamma Mia (the song), and I LOVE IT. Meryl talks about having to climb a goat house that turned out to be "this 60-foot Mayan pyramid without the pyramid" and how she had to SING ALL THE TIME, wtf. I love that they all sang live and stuff, but man, dangerous. Plus, can we say knackering?! Last line is my favourite - "I'm going to just... dangle here for a while". LMAO.

8. I would also have Julia video to share... except it's taking forever to upload. weazel_luv, be so kind as to post it in comments if you don't, you know, fall asleep in front of your computer? ;)

9. It'd be a good day. Except, yuck, work. And now it's 3.30 in the morning. Clearly my plan to sleep "early" this week is not working out for me. Or at least not when the alternative is to be flaily. Ah well. Two more days before Australia, anyway. I CAN DO IT.

1. I have a sneaking suspicion I might be narcoleptic. I shall have to test this theory by actually getting regular amounts of sleep at night to see if I still fall asleep at random points in the day, but wtf. I slept quite well and quite a lot the night before and still I was COMPELLED to sleep throughout the day at work. WTF. Is it because I have no pressing work to do? Or the fact that the new office is as cold as the Arctic and I'm hibernating? I DO NOT KNOW. Need to stop sleeping like that in plain sight though. It's AWFUL.

2. Family dinner - my younger brother cooked his cereal-breaded pork meatballs thing, which was yummy - and then we watched embarrassing home videos. OMG. Like, EMBARRASSING. I was such a shameless camera whore as a kid. :P Although, mirime, I have to say you were one of the most adorable children in EXISTENCE. I spent the whole time squeeing at how cute you were!

3. AND NO, NONE OF YOU IS GOING TO GET TO SEE THIS. :P

4. It's wrong to be as amused by one of my own icons as I am with this, but: It started with someone in a forum pointing out that Meryl's glasses in this photo are ridiculously similar to a certain Mr Potter's. I ran with it thereafter, what can I say. *weeps at my patheticness*

5. I started reading again! Granted it's hardly great literature as it is the 30th book in the by-now ridiculously tired and punny Xanth series by Piers Anthony (is it the 30th? it might just as easily be the 35th or some outlandishly huge number like that), but these books always make me happy. They might be silly and fluffy and pure fantasy - at least the later ones, the first nine still remain some of the best, most imaginative books I've ever read - but it feels like coming home. It feels like my childhood. ♥

6. No iTunes meme 'til tomorrow. I be tired and have not the energy to be uploading songs just now.

7. I still want to be in NYC on Nov 24. Someone going for Julia's concert, please promise to, like, come straight home and post the setlist and FLAIL VERY LOUDLY IN CAPSLOCK for me, yes? YES?

1. Fuck I really really NEED to stop eating chocolate. Also, I had bought myself dinner (couscous and grilled vegetables) and was finishing it off when my brother - freshly done with mandatory military service and apparently now a fledgling cook - brought me samples of HIS dinner. Fried pork slices coated in a cereal/breadcrumb mixture of his own concoction. So now I've eaten way too much all day. SIGH.

2. It's only 1.19am but I'm really going to try and head bedward. (Yeah, all your reactions are similar to the one in my icon right now, yeah?) Honestly though. I was TERRIBLE at work today. Aside from the times when I was chatting with weazel_luv, I was sleeping or almost sleeping and ARGH. No wonder I managed to survive on no sleep on Sunday. FAIL, ME. So I'm gonna try and sleep a little more.

3. I am totes phoning it in at work these days though. I don't even know why I bother anymore. I would like very much to contract a non-fatal, non-painful, non-debilitating illness that would require me to be at home, in bed, for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I used up THAT karma, and didn't appreciate it then because it meant missing out on Ian McKellen doing Lear and the Seagull live. YUP. MY LIFE SUCKS AND I ALREADY HAD CHICKEN POX LAST YEAR. :P That being said, I DID spend those two weeks watching House i.e., it was awesome times.

4. AND OMG GUESS WHAT?! I'm SO PROUD to be a Singaporean today!!!!!! YOU KNOW WHO CAN RECITE MY PLEDGE? Chinese mega star Gong Li! (Yeah, I'm being sarcastic, but hey, it's a sight better than having Fann Wong represent us in Hollywood, no?)


Yup. Randomly enough, she's now a Singaporean.
This was FRONT-PAGE NEWS in our local paper. Above the fold and above an article promising financial relief to deal with, you know, the GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS. I like our priorities.

According to that article, I was apparently upset that she did not turn up for a ceremony of some sort back in August. Wish I'd received THAT memo. I think I was too busy dying at work...

5. And now, sleep. I'll post an iTunes-ish meme tomorrow. I bet you all can't wait for that. :P

1. WOW. I have basically... just sat here and inhaled a TON of Hershey's chocolate kisses. So not good for me. *weeps* I found a bag of the dark chocolate ones that I brought back from New York in June but never got around to, you know, giving to other people. So I guess I'm gonna be eating them. ;)

2. I'm pretty amazed at my ability to survive an entire day on just over two hours of sleep. I wound up getting to bed at about ten past nine IN THE MORNING, and then getting up at 11.30 so I could shower before meeting my friend for lunch (yes, I was late). And unlike at work, I didn't feel the need to doze off throughout the day. Probably because I'm not doing soul-suckingly boring things like reading and filing or whatnot, but whatever.

3. Here's a little story about HOW MUCH I FAIL. After lunch, my friend and I were going to see the new Bond movie - so I collect the tickets, note that it's cinema 10, and herd said friend in the direction of the huge lighted 10 sign in the corridor. We settle in our seats amd start giggling about the cheerfully cheesy trailer advertising some brainless Emma Roberts movie... and REALLY GETTING INTO IT, because I may be ancient, but I still love fluffy chick flicks like that. But then someone who works for the cinema - he had the t-shirt and everything - came over and asked us nicely for our ticket stubs. TURNS OUT I HAD BROUGHT MY FRIEND INTO THE WRONG THEATRE AND WE WERE JUST WAITING FOR A TOTALLY DIFFERENT MOVIE TO START. *weeps* I'm just amazed that the people whose seats we were so rudely occupying hadn't come right up to us and told us to GFTO - they actually contacted service staff, wtf! I'd have just demanded the idiots in my seats to LEAVE. I'm glad we were alerted to being in the wrong cinema though. They were showing some stupid local animation movie based on a literature text we all had to do in secondary school. The trailer = DIRE.

4. Quantum Of Solace! Was fun, insofar as relentlessly dark, violent movies can be fun in a totally perverse way. There are next to NO moments of levity in this film. And not that I can judge since I... errrr, haven't seen any Bond movies all the way through beyond Casino Royale, but this one FELT more Bond-like to me (based on the reading I've done about the franchise in magazines and stuff) despite the complete lack of dodgy humour. (Aside from the name of Agent Fields... which you only discover in the credits, mwahahaha.) Casino Royale felt like BOURNE, not BOND. This one, at least, went a little crazier with the conspiracy theories and wacky megalomaniacal villains rather than get all super-poncey about the Bond origin story.

5. Today I also felt a ridiculously strong URGE to just READ again. I haven't read properly all year - I've managed to sneak in some fantasy and kids' books around the edges, but mostly I've not had time for recreational reading outside of work and the interweb. I strolled through a couple of bookstores today though - I love just BROWSING, don't you? - and so suddenly wanted to be stuck IN a book, just living that world and those characters and argh. I resisted buying anything new, because god knows I have enough unread books scattered around my room. But I'm going to READ something, once I'm done with my current issue of Empire. I'll get to read when I go to Melbourne too! :D

6. On a related but decidely silly note: is anyone else here a book dork who actually... um, totes judges books by their covers? *weeps* If I have the pick of the same book with different covers, odds are I'll pick the one that I find prettier and more aesthetically appealing, even if it means a small price differential. But it also means I just... won't buy some books I DO want? Like Cornelia Funke's Inkdeath, which completes the trilogy - I WANT IT, and I don't even mind that buying the hardcover would mean it doesn't match my paperback copies of the other books. But the paper it's printed on is annoyingly smooth photocopier paper, so I feel like I'm reading a textbook rather than a NOVEL. So I'm not buying that until it comes out in paperback. :P Also, I will never buy this sulphurous edition of A Lion Among Men because it's so YELLOW. The American edition is SO MUCH PRETTIER, AMIRITE.

7. Yoga again. TOUGH instructor today. He made us jump around like frogs, up and down our mats, WTF. O_O Why do I do these things to myself I will never understand.

8. Christmas has come to Orchard Road (our main shopping district). There are Christmas trees and decorations everywhere already. Although, randomly, I think it's only in Singapore that you can walk down the street and have someone playing an er hu version of Yesterday Once More, wtf. I live in a weird, weird land.

9. I am deeply concerned by the fact that I JUST posted a batch of 75 Meryl icons yesterday, and already I have nine new ones. Not to mention the almost 30 I have from Falling In Love which I'm not posting until I'm done spamming the heck out of that movie. (Seriously, how can I resist? Look at the PRETTY!)

10. And now I'm DEFINITELY going to go to bed, before 2am (or about 2am, anyway), since I don't even know how it's almost 2am and yet I'm subsisting just fine on less than three hours of sleep. It must be the chocolate. :P

1. Oh god, I was the laziest bastard at work EVER today. I don't even KNOW what I was doing. I mean, I read everything I had to and am all caught up from the weekend, which is awesome. But I'm pretty sure I spent at least three hours ASLEEP. FAIL. Not to mention the time I spent spazzing online. You know, THIS is why I still leave work at 10pm even when there isn't work to do. Because I FAIL IN AN EPIC WAY.

2. And I was lazy. I figured I could go for yoga, or a swim, and did none of those things. Instead, I had potato chips and cookies for dinner. WHAT IS THAT. ARGH. Although Sunday's yoga did break me a bit - I'm achier than I have been for a while, possibly because I slacked off on yoga a bit last week. Boo.

3. Man, I am a dork and love tracking, but this Lee Hom concert is loooong. (Also, full of squealing fangirls.) I always forget how spoiled we are by Chinese pop musicians. Their concerts last anything from 2.5 to 3.5 hours! When Gwen Stefani came a few months (was it a year?) ago, and did an eighty-minute set, I was all, like, what is UP with your faily lack of stamina, OMG. :P

4. Eek. While my computer was down, I FAILED and missed out on birthdays! So, happy belated birthdays to girlie_girl_23 and fiddlings!! (BTW, TIFF: watch this video if you haven't already. I LOVE IT when the reporter right at the end tells Meryl she looks 25 and she looks utterly shocked and then goes, "You're so far in the back though!!")

5. I was tagged for a meme by kelbelle - I promise you much LOLZ with one of my answers. Well, it amused ME anyway. ( 15 questions )

6. And now I GOTTA GO TO BED, REALLY REALLY. AIEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Catching up on comments tomorrow. That's the plan, anyway.

7. P.S. does it make me dorky that I'm thinking of taking the day off on Wednesday so I can watch the US presidential election live? I did that throughout the night back in university for the 2000 election - one of the most fun dork-nights of my life EVER, since I stayed up literally all night in the junior common room in my college and then went straight for an American politics lecture completely ABUZZ with the non-results of the Bush/Gore election and what it all MEANT. And I watched the 2006 midterms from my cubicle (the TV used to be right in front of me). I don't even know WHERE the tv is now that we've moved offices. So yeah. Big dork here was thinking of taking the day off. I DO have to take my car in for servicing too, so I'm not being UTTERLY NERDY here. Still... am a dork. I should... embrace this, yeah?

1. I am a lazy bugger. I woke up at... well, almost 5pm, shall we say (in my defense, I went to bed at 9am), and had all kinds of plans to run or skate or sign up for yoga classes. Suffice it to say that none of THOSE things happened. Instead:

2. I'm a big book dork and spent $130 at the Kino book sale. :D All on kids' books, because we have long ago established that I am six and therefore really grown-up. But I'm so happy with my haul! I have the entire Gemma Doyle trilogy now, since it comes so highly recommended by llyfrgell, and also pretty much the whole Adventure series by Enid Blyton. Also, I had this HUGE wave of nostalgia when I spotted Anne of Green Gables on the display shelf - as part of its CENTENNIAL EDITION celebration, OMG. Then I realised I had absolutely no frickin' clue where my entire series of Anne books had gone to, and that I'd probably thrown the lot away. So I bought the full set of all eight books. O_o Pleased with my purchases, but OMG, when am I going to find the time to READ them all?!

3. I am obsessed with N2N and NEED TO STOP MAKING ICONS. OH GOD. I know this. But I can't stop! It's so addictive! *weeps*

4. I love Empire. It's the only movie magazine - UK edition - I read religiously, and it makes me happy. And dorky. Not to mention the fact that the August edition, which I've only just got around to reading, has a huge splash interview with David and Gillian. WIN. Here's my favourite bit from that interview. When asked to pick a favourite XF moment, Gillian had this to say:

1. I HATE DURIANS. STUPID LOCAL FRUIT. I hate that they are in season and that they stink to bloody high heaven and that when I went for a facial today, they were having a DURIAN FAIR on the ground floor and it was all I could smell ANYWHERE. WTF NO.

2. Fell asleep during a work meeting - well, dozed off for a couple of seconds a few times. When I was seated directly across from my boss. Who noticed. GOOD TIMES. :|

3. Either I fail, or perhaps I forgot, but Kristin Chenoweth is recording a Christmas album! How awesome is that going to be!? EXCITED.

4. I AM GOING TO WATCH XF2 AT 3PM TOMORROW. THIS IS A MERE 13.5 HOURS FROM NOW. FUCKING FLAIL. ALSDHASJLJADLJASLDJLSA. Edited to add: I HAVE TICKETS I HAVE TICKETS I HAVE TICKETS OMFGXF2!!!!

5. New batch of Julia icons - mostly from her recent benefits and such. Hardly any anicons this time; I'm actually having fun with colouring and text (yes, text!) instead. Since I seem to be posting a new batch every three weeks or so, figured I'd better do so now before EVITA. ;)

Teasers
[35] Julia Murney icons


Plus another wallpaper! :P

WOOT! Julia's surprise appearance at Don't Quit Your Night Job from a couple of nights ago has been posted on the interweb! :D Which I only knew to look out for because the awesomely lucky llyfrgell flailed about unexpectedly having her as a guest star that night. Mwahaha!

FAIL. I just woke up, obviously, since I went to bed at close to 11am. I should be at dinner RIGHT NOW. But clearly flailage was more important. Off now. Shall reply to comments and such later. SIGH.

ETA: The lights just came back on. WTF. The electricity in the house - at least the lights - went off yesterday night and never came back. Now they have, like almost 15 hours later. I guess no one noticed but me, and I went to bed and didn't care. Man do I ever fail. Going to be SO late for dinner OMG!!!

1. I am back. Sad sad sad. But indubitably back back back. And yes, back to work in less than six hours. How is it that I am already back to my sleeping habits of fail from pre-trip? I mean, seriously - I slept more than I have in ages on the trip. Probably got 6-7 hours a night on average, if not more, which is GOOD for me. And now here I am, again. Heh.

2. Not jetlagged though. I could have slept at any point after I got home - about 7.30pm, which would have placed more on a normal schedule - but I've been flisting instead. As you can tell from your inboxes (hopefully), I've managed to get through ALMOST everything. Except, well, the ones that don't go beyond LJ's 1,000-back-entry limit. :P So if you posted anything pre-Tonys weekend (there was a DELUGE of posts that night, LOL), you're gonna have to link me to it unless I've already hunted it down myself! ;)

3. There'll be photos soon! I've uploaded some - and clearly already made good use of my Julia photo to create new icon *points* - and I WAS going to spam everyone with them today, but I honestly NEED to sleep at some point. It's terrifyingly close to 3am for a work night. Why did I not just take tomorrow off as well, dammit?

4. Was also going to spam broadwayshare to gauge interest in any of my audios before I tracked them and/or released them, but that's going to have to wait for tomorrow too. You guys can tell me if you want anything of mine though. They're yours, obviously. ;) Tracking is going to take me forever, oh dear, even though I only plan to track SOME of the audios.

5. I really honestly super do not want to go back to work tomorrow. BAH.

6. Oh, and no Eden in Rent. Sadface. :( The understudy was good though. And I always weep like a baby at Rent anyway, especially at the I'll Cover You reprise. Guess I'll just have to make do with... other ways of experiencing Eden as Maureen. :P

7. I also watched Mad Money on the plane instead of something considerably smarter like Unforgiven. Does that make me a bad movie buff? I made up for it by watching Fargo and Out of Africa on the second leg of trip though - but I missed the last five minutes of Africa because stupid plane touched down 20 minutes early. :P

8. BTW, after walking everywhere in NYC, and getting used to it - even the blister has now thickened into a not-painful sore of some sort - getting back behind the wheel was so strange today. I hit 110km/h on the highway without even realising it! And came awfully close to... errrr, plastering the front of my car into the back bumper of someone else's car with my failage at using the brakes. BAD.

9. I'm going to go into withdrawal. I just KNOW it. To get myself over it? I promise more flailage and stage door encounter stories... soon!

10. ETA: Tomorrow, I catch up on comments. :D

1. lfae, Wenn ich tanzen will is a crazy kickass song. CRAZY KICKASS. God. Pia Douwes is awesome!

2. BED BED. It's 6.40 in the MORNING, FAIL.

3. I am the spammiest person ALIVE today. I so did not need to spend WAY TOO LONG making new Julia icons, bah. Here they are regardless. I am henceforth banned from making icons. NO MORE UNTIL POST-TRIP.

Teasers
[20] Julia Murney icons

( la la la la la la, guava? )

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

1. As usual, I be a lemming. Marching ever more steadily towards my death from sleep deprivation. JOIN ME. SLEEP IS OVER-RATED.

2. I FAIL AT WATCHING HOUSE. FAIL IN EVERY WAY. I haven't even watched last week's, for one thing, and was planning a double bill tonight after dinner. But my download took SUCH ages that by the time it downloaded - about an hour ago - I didn't have time for both if I wanted to live through tomorrow. So I can't see it... and I can't see it until Thursday (my time)! *CRIES* YOU MAY TELL ME HOW MUCH I FAIL. NO MORE SPOILERS BEYOND 'SWEETSAUCE', GUYS, LOL. ;) I swear, that word is everywhere on my flist today. Insanity!!

3. And the reason I can't watch House 'til much later? I'm going to Elton John's concert tomorrow night later today. Which is crappy timing, but I AM dorkily into Elton so I'm gonna just have to live with not watching new House for another day. Epic FAILURE. But! Let me know what your favourite Elton songs are, if you have any, and if my *ahem* recording works out, I'll upload tracks for everyone! I'll probably share anyway, if the boot comes off clearly enough.

4. OMG. ALICE RIPLEY SINGING (NOT) GETTING MARRIED TODAY FROM COMPANY. FLAIL TIMES A MILLION.

5. Also, lfae, what are you DOING to me, OMG. EVIL. I so do NOT need a new musical obsession. DO NOT NEED. But but but. Willemijn Verkaik! (whose name I can finally spell!) She plays German!Elphaba, which means she is one half of the possibly-hotter-than-Murney/Arcelus ALAYM! <-- Yes, this is sacrilege, but close to the truth! Her voice!! This is one of the loveliest versions of Somewhere Over The Rainbow I've seen/heard in a long, long while...

6. BEDTIME BEDTIME BEDTIME.

7. BUT. ONE LAST FLAIL FOR THE ROAD. OMFGJM. I LOVE JULIA'S NEW SONG. I listened to it for, like, four hours straight at work after I downloaded it, LOL.

Clearly I cannot handle two fandoms at once. Or maybe it's that I cannot handle RL and work at the same time. Whatever the case, I couldn't concentrate much at work all day, even though I stayed back late - waaay later than I wanted to - and was completely unproductive for the most part, anyway. FAIL.

Then I came home, and downloaded House, but that took ages (longer than it should), so I got distracted setting up trades instead. Bah. I mean, YAY, because I'm on the way to getting some things I really really want. BUT. Now it's too too late to watch House unless I plan to be even more of a black hole than usual at work tomorrow, sucking up efficiency and positivity and whatnot as I sit there like a grumpy, useless lump.

There are plans afoot to set up a trading site with noldoparma. (BTW. OUR USER NAME - SO TAKEN IN GMAIL ALREADY, FAIL.) Kiss my sanity goodbye, guys...

I'll watch House tomorrow, if possible. I'm having dinner out for my brother's birthday, which means I have to leave work at a normal hour. Plus, it's May 1st after that, a public holiday here. SO I WILL WATCH HOUSE.

In the meantime, you guys should feel free to spam me about HOW MUCH I AM MADE OF FAIL, KTHX. ;)

1. IT IS 2.15AM AND I AM STILL AT WORK. And I can't even really blame it on the job today. Well, I can, obviously, because the requirements mean I have to stay back, even though today has been the RANDOMEST day ever for me. I just can't concentrate at all, or focus on ANYTHING, even though I have been sitting at my desk doing and reading stuff. So of course, I've stayed back for no real reason and have just been ridiculously unproductive all night. ALL NIGHT. I'm giving up and going home for a few hours of sleep and then coming back in. And hoping that I can work well under time pressure.

2. Because I have plans to watch Wicked - ahem - with noldoparma over lunch. I HAS DVD OF JULIA AS ELPHABA, OBVIOUSLY. Best lunch plan ever, y/y!?

3. I CAN'T flist today, guys, I'm sorry - I just cleared my inbox and now I'm going to drive home and go straight to bed. Bah. Will catch up later, but feel free to flag me anything you think I'd be particularly interested in? :)

4. Just have to say, I REALLY love the fact that my office pool is now open until 9pm. It was great to swim as long as I wanted - just over an hour - and not be chased out by an insistent pimply-faced boy who just wants to go home and abandon his lifeguard post.

5. I had a minor fandom collision moment today. :) I finally properly listened to my remastered version of Julia singing I Will Never Leave You with Debra Bradshaw, which I never paid much attention to before because I couldn't hear any of it. And then I FLAILED. Because hai, I currently also have MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF SKIPLEY/SIDE SHOW LOVE. Julia sings Emily Skinner's part, ftw! LOVE. 

6. That is all. My work life is made of so. much. fail. Sigh.

1. I should stop deciding to do random things like change my entire layout at 4am in the morning. Because, bah, that's exactly what I did. Obviously, it now more accurately reflects my current obsession: Julia Murney. (Bet that was a shocker. :p)



2. It's now 6.10am. WIN EPIC LOSE. I went to bed at 8 yesterday morning and got up only when my dad woke me - at 6.30pm, for dinner. WHAT KIND OF CRAZY TIMEZONE AM I LIVING IN!? Certainly not the one I SHOULD be living in.

3. Went for dinner at a lovely place called persimmon in a local hotel here. Very interesting too - Westernised versions of local delicacies, which means a fisherman's pie but filled with delectable laksa sauce *drool* and chunks of fish and crab rather than chicken; Hainanese chicken rice salad; and a chicken roulade filled with glutinous rice. LOVE. ♥ I definitely want to go back there!

4. And that's all I've done all day/night apparently. Eat, make icons a new layout and wallpaper, watch youtube. FAAAAAAIL. I am going to BED. I actually DO have to work today, curses and more curses.