1. Wow, I totes failed at writing up my recap of the House season premiere yesterday - I was GOING to, and had gone and trawled through pages of TWOP fanwank in preparation (just to see if I was alone in thinking what I did about the episode), and then I FELL DEAD ASLEEP. Nice. So I'm a little less impassioned about it right now, which would make for less bitchery - yay for you if you click on the cut! ( apparently I'm in the minority here? )

2. I really really REALLY would freakin' kill to be at the Signature Theatre at any point over the next few days. The Kander & Ebb concert going on down there featuring Ms Murney is actual five million kinds of awesome and it hurts me to think I can't see it for myself. God. That said, another interview with Julia popped up, and I have this to say to what she has to say:

My favorite show is probably Chicago because I did it at camp as a kid (very appropriate for kids), and then again in college, and I harbor a secret desire to try to tackle Velma in NYC.

OH HOLY GOD YES PLZ. SDFLJLFHLASDFLAHDASDA. I have said, FOREVER, that Julia is my dream Velma; if only I could ever see that happen I would die happy, probably. It was really nice to know it's on HER radar too. ;)

3. And really I should sleep. Apparently this was just an explosion of ranty words. Sigh.

1. Okay, so anyone who's even vaguely a Julia fan has already been digging through her newly functional official site (seriously it has been 'under construction' for 100 years, give or take a decade), but whatever, I felt the need to squee about the photo gallery. The rest of the site is pretty standard stuff - albeit very nicely done and very comprehensive (it's so GOOD to see a gorgeous, up-to-date site for Julia!!) - but the GALLERY, OMG FAVOURITE. Aside from the fact that there are tons of photos that are completely new to me, DID YOU GUYS GO THROUGH EACH PIC AND READ THE CAPTIONS? So snarky and so clearly in Julia's voice, OMG I LOVED THEM. ♥ ♥ ♥ Honestly they made me lol. My particular favourites... ( under the cut ) So yeah, I think I'm making icons at some point soon... XD

2. Wow, it feels like AGES since I've flailed over Julia. As timeofyoursong pointed out... :P I still love her, I do - I went back and listened to Julia singing Life Of The Party again the other day, and holy crap, she might not hit that crazy high note Idina does, but wtf are those riffs of awesome she's tossing about, I don't even know.

3. I'm eating bite-size Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies at 1am. Be jealous.

4. Today was movie day!! :D I'm trying to get caught up now on the movies that opened while I was away in Aspen, and saw:

a. Bruno, which was really not as funny OR as good as Borat - it just felt way more scripted/contrived and I didn't care for it as much. Not that there weren't moments of inspired insanity: Paula Abdul's appearance was GOLD, as was Bruno's reference to Mel Gibson (LOLOLOL LOVE). Other favourite bits remain the ones that riff on politics: his attempts to fix the problems in the Middle East were HILARIOUS. Otherwise, not as good as I was expecting/hoping for. OH WAIT I LOVED THE MUSIC VIDEO THAT CLOSED THE MOVIE. OMG the guest stars of WIN ahahaha!!!

b. The Proposal: excuse me what is this supernova level of hotness that Ryan Reynolds is radiating. Really now. I'm not going to pretend he wasn't the main draw - I invited my friend to the show by proposing "dinner and Ryan Reynolds" - but I thought it'd be a fun night out, since everyone seems to have really liked the film, plus the cast! Sandra Bullock! Who's ALWAYS fun in shows like this and really should just never try to move beyond her comfort zone because that way lies disaster. Betty White, Mary Steenburgen etc... And YAY I LOVED IT. Beyond getting to appreciate Ryan's really sexy ripped body adorkability, the movie really was one of the best examples of the genre in recent years. Not that it had all THAT much competition - I was trying to think back to the last rom-com that had me raving when I emerged from the theatre, and it was Definitely, Maybe (also with Ryan - how strange and coincidental!!)... and I wouldn't even call that film a rom-com per se. So The Proposal is, like, the first proper rom-com in ages that I've really LOVED. I just liked the sparky, RIDICULOUSLY antagonistic banter between Ryan and Sandra's characters so much - omg, when the tables were turned and she needed his help? And he MADE HER PROPOSE on the streets of New York? EFF, LOVE FOREVER.

5. The only thing that would've helped me enjoy the show MORE? Being able to hear. I'm still suffering from a nasty NASTY case of waxy build-up in my right ear, so am half deaf and have been experiencing tinnitus for the better part of three days. Yuck. FAIL FOR ALWAYS.

6. One last thing before I go to bed - I'm trying to be responsible and turn in early (for me) so I can do real work tomorrow - I need to flail over my LUNCH today. HY suggested we go to this AWESOME sushi place in town, and I looooooooved it. OMG, I got the chirashi set, which came in a bento box that really didn't look like much. I hadn't thought it'd be enough food for me... but really I couldn't even finish it, because the raw fish (so fresh) was packed down and there was so much awesome with the preserved vegetables and tamago and ♥! Not to mention unagi chawanmushi and clams in the miso soup, plus aburi softshell crab maki AND hotate mentaiyaki to share!!! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE. I need to go back. Everyday. Om nom nom nom.

1. Minor friends-cut has been done! If you feel I have erred (either in cutting or NOT cutting you) and/or want to be added back, please message me now or forever hold your peace! (Comments are screened and, if necessary, will remain screened for discretion!)

2. WORK IS MADE OF FAIL. Seriously now. I should not be awake at 3.07am, but I am. And I have to be back at work in far too few hours, rewriting an entire paper again. After I left at about 1am. D: D: HORRORS.

3. GOOD THING MY FANDOMS MAKE UP FOR THE LOUSY. OMG seriously there has been SOOO much random lollerskating/random flailworthiness involved in my fandoms over the last couple of days:

a. It was just Meryl's 60th birthday on June 22! :) I missed it, because I suck big time, but girlie_girl_23 didn't and her lovely tribute is here.

b. Next To Normal: The Abridged Script <-- omg I howled laughing at this, especially the way ALICE RIPLEY always and only refers to herself in the third person as ALICE RIPLEY, and Bobby, poor guy. *weeps*

c. Random thought: Alice is actual going to be bereft when her FB account reaches its maximum number of users, isn't she...!? And that's coming up soon, she just needs, like, 2,000 more people...

d. Official site for Julia's upcoming show - the Cy Coleman revue. She is looking classy. David's goatee, on the other hand, amuses me far more than it really should. So who's going to see this, other than Not Me?

e. OMG the Wonderettes universe is going to expand! - I swear I flailed when I got that google alert: now we get the story from the point of view of the Crooning Crabcakes! I'm hoping it includes - other than Billy Ray - Johnny and Richie as well, so there'll be shout-outs to my Wonderettes. ♥

f. And as a perfect example of how my life is full of random lollerskaty flail, guess what show's coming to Singapore in August? CLEARLY I would rather be watching Beth in this show in Aspen (OH GOD I WANT TO GO SO BADLY), but I guess I can make do with a local production of Spelling Bee. SO RANDOM A COINCIDENCE, AMIRITE?? It's the last show I thought would get a run here, just because it's not well-known at all (usually we get Phantom or Les Miz or some such well-worn chestnut of a show, ad nauseum).

g. Also, I got this comment on one of my random House!flail posts and was ridiculously amused. I can't decide if poster was being sarcastic, LOL.

4. Also, I think I am legit insane. Today I decided to embark on a flail project of complete insanity. OMG. Details... at some later point. XD BUT THE PROSPECT OF IT EXCITES ME.

5. How is it that I am wide awake NOW, when I am flailing, but will be half-dead when I'm at work, trying to work? Urgh. I PROMISE TO CATCH UP ON COMMENTS SOMETIME IN THIS MILLENNIUM.

1. URM. FOUR DAYS. Just four days more, guys - this time, in four days, I will literally be boarding the plane for Qatar New York. OMG. I can't... even BEGIN to process this, it doesn't feel real at ALL. I mean, I have tickets for most of my first week of shows, and at least half of the second week, and I've been planning this for a while. STILL. NOT GOING TO BELIEVE IT, as usual, until I'm actually THERE.

2. In other news, longest, laziest weekend I've had in AGES. We had a full three days off thanks to Labour Day (May 1) falling on a Friday. I had SOME grand plans of catching up on tv (god knows my flist is going to explode when the next House episode airs, and I am FIVE MONTHS BEHIND), or do something a little more productive... and yet, I spent most of it asleep and being lazy. Truth be told, I actually kind of like the sound of that. XD

3. Friday was family day - lunch out for my brother's birthday, at a fancy Chinese restaurant where basically we proved that, genetically, we all have a song playing in our heads at any given moment. Seriously we all just kept... humming out loud during the meal, while scoffing down epic amounts of beef and cod and god knows what else. I came home and napped after that, as I had gone to bed at some ridiculous hour of the morning, and then out for dinner to my aunt's place again. She's doing better after her second round of chemo, not having quite as bad a reaction to it as the first round, so ♥. Then I came home and... spent the entire night flailing at weazel_luv over Wonderettes. GOD KNOWS WHY. (I AM SEEING IT WITHIN THE WEEK, GUYS. ASFHALFHLSDHFLSDHFLSD.)

4. Saturday: I had plans to go for yoga, which were completely thwarted when I got up at 3.30pm (sigh). Instead, I watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which I actually REALLY liked. I know it's been critically savaged, for the most part, but I loooved it. Turns out I'm just a huge X-Men/Marvel fandork, I guess, because I just... had the best time settling back into that universe, watching all the characters I love pop up in flesh, blood and celluloid, and... it was just FUN. (I also loved X3: The Last Stand, so yeah, I really am just a huge nerd with really poor taste in movies. I'm not apologising though, these movies make me happy!) I am a sucker, apparently, even for not-entirely-well-wrought romance, and bought into the Silver Fox thing by the end. URGH, ME. No spoilers, however. Let us, for a minute, discuss the masculine pulchritude on display in that movie. ZOMG HUGH. JACKMAN. When I saw the trailer, I KNEW the movie could have been an absolutely god-awful pile of steaming manure and I'd have loved it anyway just because Hugh gets to run all over the screen being sexy and hot and growly omg omg. And that he did, in epic amounts. What surprised me is that I also found Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool ridiculously sexy. SHUT UP. In his six minutes of screen-time, he didn't even bare these, but I was still done. OMG HOTNESS. Now I have to go watch Definitely, Maybe again. I did NOT, however, like whoever played Gambit. Taylor whatever or somesuch? Urgh. Not that Gambit's one of my favourite characters, but... it just didn't work for me. He wasn't anywhere near charismatic enough.

5. During the movie, I had the insanely pressing URGE to delve back into the comics again - now, try to believe me when I say that I really AM far from being the biggest comics dork around. ( I don't think anyone really believes me, do they? )

6. AFTER the movie, to get back to my weekend - I went to a colleague's house for an awesome potluck dinner. ♥ He made chili and corn on the cob, other people brought corn muffins, mashed potatoes, ice cream (I contributed some not-so-great salad that wasn't popular anyway with all the OTHER things on the table), and it was just fun to sit around chatting about... movies, work, anything, everything. Honestly the people I work with are about the only reason I haven't lost my fragile grip on sanity in the past six and a half years I've been at this job. And it's been FAR too long since we had one of these chat sessions, so that was good!

7. Then, on Sunday, I managed to get up in time for my 2pm yoga class: which, although it was the easiest of the easy classes, I almost died in. GOD. I have not been back in weeks, because I've been lazy and the thought of inflicting pain on my really just completely inflexible body didn't appeal. So, being out of practice, that - predictably - became a self-fulfilling prophecy. A+, me. I'm already sore, and am going to hurt like the DICKENS tomorrow. In fact, I was apparently so tired I went for lunch, came home, and SLEPT FOR FOUR HOURS. Straight through dinner on a worknight. EPIC FAIL. That now means, of course, that it's 2.46am and I am WIDE AWAKE. AUUUGGGH.

8. ALSO, YOUTUBE LOOP. AIEEEEEE. Chiefly, there was Alice and Emily belting their faces off in I Will Never Leave You, one of the few times I've SEEN them sing that song unattached at the hip. YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT, GUYS: can we say omigod sexy SASSY belting times a million. 2:31 is legit an ORGASMIC EXPERIENCE, when they belt in opposite directions but sound PERFECTLY in sync, omigod. (ETA: OMG, 0:55!!! How. Cute?!) Then I found Bebe videos, and although she really doesn't have the best voice on her, god I LOVE her sass. She's SUCH a killer Velma, and probably the only person I'd want to see in the role over Julia (that's right, REPLACE IN CHICAGO, JULIA, PLZ). And yay, Bebe singing from Cabaret! I LOVE her line readings more than anything else. Mmmm, dripping with sarcasm and sass. I heart you, Lilith Bebe. ;)

9. And, because apparently this isn't already epic long enough, I figured I should get started on my alphabet meme, or I won't be done by the time I hit NY. To wit, here's the first five letters of the alphabet, accompanied by a lot of flail and a handy Twitter-ready summary for each. ( That would be A-E, in case you didn't know )

10. OMIGOD THAT TOOK FOREVER. Wow, I am going to have to seriously cut down on the time I spend on the next 21 letters or I am going to die. D: I shall now attempt to go to bed at 3.47am even though I'm WIDE AWAKE (damn the nap) and hungry (no dinner). Blaaarrrgh.

1. Am I posting from work right now? YES I AM. I don't give a damn. I was gonna post yesterday, but was so crazy shacked I fell asleep in bed... the perils of having a netbook, sigh. Though I guess it's better for me than falling asleep on my chair and waking up all bent and broken just to stagger to bed.

2. MY JOB FAILS SO DAMN HARD. After staying 'til 6.30am on Monday morning, went home and crashed, but went back in at 3pm and stayed 'til 1am. Then I didn't go back in until 1am the next day and stayed until 8pm that day. For NOTHING. There wasn't ANYTHING to write, or anything that I COULD write, and it was a complete waste of my time. I also discovered that what I was hoping to have happen at the end of the year - that would have given me a few months' reprieve from this hellhole - is in all likelihood NOT happening for me. So, you know, FML in every way.

3. I'm STALKING MY MAILBOX SO HARD. Still nothing as yet. Why does my mail not bring me flail, guys? WHY? D:

4. Icon meme from timeofyoursong, because I like icons and I like flail and I like flailing about icons. Let me know in your comment if you want to play:
1. Reply to this post, and I will pick six of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.




( flail ensues )

5. And another meme, because this one looks like crazy fun. I suspect I'm too verbose to be quoteable though. ;) Go forth and play! And let me know if you have a thread too. :)



6. Okay I should stop procrastinating and work now. I don't want to. :( I'll flist properly tonight.

WATCH THESE VIDEOS. YOUR LIVES WILL BE BETTER FOR IT, I PROMISE.

Epiphany: Holy HELL, Alice is FIERCE.


I am legit obsessed with this. Especially when Alice cackles at one point, and then at the very end, when she just eases into a gentle, sweet smile. INSANITY. Best female Sweeney EVER, y/y??

( more amazingly sassy belting under the cut )

Thanks SO much to the filmer for sharing!

1. I am EPIC late for work - as in, I'm supposed to BE in the office by now - but since I spent a while lounging around in bed and am already late... whatever. ;) I fell dead asleep yesterday early this morning before posting... this, I realise, is the upshot of having a laptop which can be used in a semi-horizontal position, rather than my usual desktop computer which keeps me upright... for better or worse.

2. Anyways. A couple of quick things. I was tagged by irnbruise and alex_kingston for a handwriting meme:

a. Write your LJ username
b. Write your two favorite bands/groups at the moment (not overall, just currently)
c. Write either I ♥ k-pop ; I ♥ j-pop ; I ♥ c-pop (this isn't really for anything, just to see how you draw hearts xD)
d. Write the name of your favorite person of all time (e.g. Yamada Ryosuke)
e. Write down your recently favored person (e.g. G-Dragon)
f. Tag 5 people to do this meme

( pardon the illegibility )

3. Quick fly-by flail: I'm done tracking my audio of the awesome Superband concert. ♥ SO MUCH LOVE. Can't get over its amazing. ( audio and some pro-shot video! )

4. ALSO, JULIA @ BROADWAY JUKEBOX. OMIGOD YOU GUYS. She sang soooo many things, like Unusual Way and LOSING MY MIND (THE LOW NOTES IN THIS ARE SEX, YOU HEAR ME? SEX!!!) but but BUT my favourite? The fact that we finally have a FULL VERSION of her singing I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miz. AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Guys, do you know how obsessed I - and a legion of fangirls, thanks to Mr Rudetsky - am with having her sing that? THIS OBSESSED <-- literally I had spliced together two fifteen-second clips of her singing different parts of the song during interviews so I could pretend to myself I had a full version. AHAHAHAHA NOW I DO. And it is unbelievable. She acts the craaaap out of this. I want to flail more and will probably do so in comments but now I must run. Although I have to add: Julia is doing a show on May 18! XD Possibly not a solo performance, but whatever: this more than ever confirms to me that I need to be back in NY in May, y/y?! OMG. Why is everything falling into place for crazy epic amounts of flail AGAIN?

5. And now I am INSANELY late for work and really REALLY need to get going, ackity ack. OFF I GO.

1. What a surprisingly productive day!

2. I managed to get up before 2pm - 'TIS A FEAT - as I had bought myself a ticket to see Valkyrie at 2.50pm and really did not want to sleep through ANOTHER movie and waste another 11 bucks. Unfortunately, any attempt to have a normal lunch was THWARTED by the epic huge rainstorm that blew up RIGHT over town when I was walking to the cinema (having parked somewhere further off in a failed attempt to incur less parking charges). Seriously, I would have really wanted an ark right about then, though not so much the pairs of animals that would've come with. :P I had to buy an umbrella on the way just to make it to the cinema vaguely on time, and as luck would have it, the WORST of the storm would ease RIGHT after I opened the umbrella and started outdoors. Story of my life.

3. Valkyrie was... disappointingly HOLLYWOOD, given its very weighty, very worthy subject matter. I mean, I should have seen this coming a mile away and expected it: WHO casts Tom Cruise in a movie about the last, most successful (not to say it SUCCEEDED) attempt to unseat Hitler and change the course of world history? So yes, it was Hollywoodised, Tom was not awful but didn't really seem able to make me want to care about the character... and Eddie Izzard was unrecognisable in the film. I liked Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson though. Again, REALLY solid supporting cast. That being said, I STILL CRIED AT THE END. EVEN THOUGH I KNEW THE OUTCOME AND THE MOVIE WASN'T THAT GREAT. My tear ducts, how much more faily could you be?

4. BTW, as a sequel to yesterday's cookie-eating debacle, I am currently trying to eat a chocolate bar that suffered a similar fate. Cleanliness and maturity are kind of not happening right now.

5. Yoga after that, for the first time in almost seven weeks. Aside from being off in NYC and being felled by illness/work, I've tried a couple of times in the past week to go back... but keep getting to town too late for class. GRRR. Clearly it was not the best idea to go with a class taught by one of the most strangely sadistic instructors on offer. I've had trouble in this guy's class before, when I was already fairly run-in and could handle classes without COMPLETELY unravelling in them. Today, his favourite REST POSITION was the plank i.e., full-on push-up. SIGH. I'm already starting to ache, a little bit, and will no doubt regret this when I wake up on the morrow later today.

6. Subsequently provided an alibi of sorts for noldoparma to hightail it out of her high-school reunion, and we met for Japanese at Vivocity. GOD. I've been stalking a particular restaurant there ever since I came back from NYC, but for some reason have never been able to get there in time to eat before/after whatever movie I'd be seeing. FINALLY got to have my hotate kakiage don - which is basically tempura (lightly battered) scallops and vegetables over rice. OM NOM NOM NOM. V HAPPY. I think I might be addicted to that particular dish. Then, predictably, black sesame ice cream before...

7. Heading back to mine to try our hand at Rock Band and Sing Star. *weeps* What a rockin' way to spend a Saturday night, huh? WE ARE SUCH DORKS. I held the guitar the wrong way around, and J got blisters from the drums ALREADY. But I think we might be a little bit hooked. AUGH NO.

8. Finally, I came home to Youtube, and I don't generally REALLY look at the recommendations on the front page, but I did today and they kind of amused me a lot: ( What Youtube thinks I should be watching )

9. How is it that I always manage to write SO MUCH about a day that really was, basically, VERY BORING to anyone who is not me?! Do not understand.

10. ETA: Meryl pic-spam - because everyone needs a dose of class (and PRETTY) in their day, y/y?!

1. HERE'S A NEWS FLASH: MY JOB = FULL OF SUCK. Well, okay, that's not a news flash, it's a friggin' sad fact of my life. But I'm pretty certain I'm never going to get to go home at a normal time again - not for the next week... make that month (year? decade?), anyway. I am very much not looking forward to having even less of a life than I already do. And yet that is what shall happen. Fuckity. I whipped out a four-page paper in a few hours (again earning my stupid boss' five-figure salary for her) and went home at 11.30pm and STILL I'm not done with the work I have to do.

2. Is it any wonder that I actually looked up my vacation quota for the rest of the year? *weeps* Turns out I have 30 days, if I use my FULL quota, accumulated over years of service. How tempted am I to go back to NYC, like, yesterday? Also, I am having a minor Twitter war with curtains and llyfrgell right now, and I want a New York bagel with cream cheese and irnbruise has offered to buy me one if I go back! SURELY THE BEST REASON TO GO BACK TO NEW YORK EVER, Y/Y?!

3. Also, I super hardcore want to go back because llyfrgell watched The Marvellous Wonderettes on Sunday and I flailed about it with her and am now missing the show MORE THAN EVER. I want to see it again SO badly, especially with the original cast, and I'm bummed that Farah is leaving in early March. SAD. :( BTW, new icon inspired by Meredith and meepette - wtf, guys, I really did NOT make the pink & green connection until you pointed it out to me! How perfect is that, though. XD

4. I guess the one good thing about being made almost entirely of flail is that, no matter how depressing my work life can get (and trust me, it's heading in that direction as of today), my fandoms can and always WILL sustain me. SO MUCH AWESOME TODAY.

5. Julia's new hairstyle - or lack thereof - is worrying to me. She needs a hairbrush. Hair aside, however, she looks great in this interview for her Oklahoma production of Tommy. She talks about having been on SATC! XD And then she sings a bit from Tommy here. Again, I feel the need to reintroduce her to the concept of a hairbrush. But I think she is going to be FIERCE as Mrs Walker, who's with me?

6. Here is Reason #5,385 why Meryl Streep is better than you. You know, aside from the 15 Oscar nominations, her sass and her general awesome? She recently said in an interview that she needs to start recycling the expensive dresses she only wears to award shows - and she's gone and done just that: recycling a dress at the BAFTAs yesterday that she first wore thirty years ago, in 1979. WTH, SERIOUSLY. Way to make the rest of us feel like slovenly failures at life, Meryl. Unlike you, I'm going to look like this in thirty years, I know it.

7. The FLAILIEST thing I discovered today, however?? It's Emil-related, of course! I don't think it's FAIR, but his kids have inherited his musical ability - certainly his daughter Anya has a gorgeous voice (and is also gorgeous, which is good for her since, you know, her dad, bless his heart, really isn't). So I happened upon her Youtube channel, and she uploads videos of her singing duets with her dad while he plays the guitar. CUE MY BRAIN EXPLODING. Oh my god, seriously - they harmonise like crazy, and it's KICKASS, and they sound amazing AMAZING together. OMG OMG OMG OBSESSED. Plus they cover awesome English songs, like Two Of Us by the Beatles, and my personal favourite:

Falling Slowly - from Once the movie

SO. DAMN. BEAUTIFUL. ♥ ♥ ♥

8. Right, it's 3.45am. And it's not like I won't have a shit-ton of work to do tomorrow. I'm an idiot. Bedtime.

1. WOW. I EPIC HATE SENDSPACE. Stupid piece of junk site. I was uploading my tracked-and-ready Chicago boot when it DIED HALFWAY and now it refuses to even load at all. Bah humbug. I'll just have to share the madness with y'all tomorrow, I guess.

2. In other news, I am SICK. WTF WTF WTF. I spent all day apparently trying my very hardest to cough my lungs out through my eyes, which is only slightly less painful than it sounds. And then I started getting snuffly AGAIN. I disapprove of this in every way. How is it FAIR that I am sick AGAIN. I have spent, like, six of the last eight weeks incapacitated by illness of some sort - the two clear weeks being when I was in NYC. Evidently this is a sign that I should just move there now, since I MUST be allergic to Singapore/work/all of the above. Who's with me on this?! Sigh.

3. (That being said, I admit that I am actually more upset that I might ruin my audio on Saturday of VERY VERY TRES IMPORTANT CONCERT than I am at being ill again. I ADMIT THIS.)

4. Going phone-shopping after work did not put me in a much better mood. I must have hit at least ten mini-shops and asked after the kind of phone I need and just came away empty-handed each time. (Either that or I was quoted a price that I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a barbeque fork than pay.) Should I just give in and use a Nokia although I kind of pride myself on never having used one? Bah humbug redux.

5. Is it a secret that I love people who sing/belt awesome? BECAUSE ZOMG WHY SO SO SO AWESOME, GUYS. ( video flail )

6. I hate sendspace, my cough and work. However, I love my fandoms. Also, I adore Julia belting. Just, you know, fyi. Because she sounds like a DREAM. (p.s., I think I need to learn MORE about Farah Alvin. Who wants to educate me?!)

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 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. It's almost Christmas! I feel like I should have uploaded music for everybody - in fact, I probably WILL get around to doing that tomorrow, as a kind of Christmas eve celebration of awesome. I'm a bit lazy to do that tonight though.

2. Mainly because I am currently RIDICULOUSLY excited to be seeing Next To Normal in a few weeks' time. This interview with the incomparable Alice Ripley popped up on my Google alerts and pretty much made my evening. She talked about so many things! The new production, Side Show, her upcoming DC show (which I would so go for if I weren't going to see A Little Night Music in NYC instead...) plus, she fangirls Brian. A+, Alice, I approve. XD

3. So now I'm back on an N2N kick. VIDEO OF NEW PRODUCTION:



4. Oh wait, I lied about not having anything else to flail/ramble on about. I think know I've been horrifically remiss in flailing about Julia's November Joe's Pub concert. Mainly because I was overseas at the time, and then other fandoms got in the way, and well, I suck. So I decided today to just listen to the concert all the way through at work. Good god almighty. GUYS. I've flailed about it before. I KNOW I have. But if you trust my taste at all (and dudes, if you're STILL reading my LJ after this time, you must to a certain extent, right?), you HAVE to listen to Julia sing Sara Bareilles' Gravity, because it is ASTOUNDING. Does anyone have good to okay photos of this concert? I neeeeed to make album art for my iPod, and I can't remember where (or even if?) I saw good photos from this.

5. Meryl = ♥ Again, as always, why so articulate, Meryl? *sighs*

6. Oh god, HOLY BELTING OF AWESOME, ALICE.

7. Christmas Eve celebrations at work tomorrow - which means epic amounts of food and no work done, which is aces in my book. I'm due to take care of my cousin in the afternoon, as his parents are only returning from Japan at midnight. I shall take him out for lunch (if I can still eat after inhaling turkey at work) and watch Bedtime Stories. WUT, NO JUDGING. I don't think I can convince my cousin to come watch me weep over Hugh Jackman's sexiness in Australia for three hours straight. So Adam Sandler it'll have to be...

8. I think I'll... go and watch some more 30 Rock now. I watched the Seinfeld episode from Season 2 just now and died of LOL. OMIGOD TINA. She is almost criminally adorable. Also, my disturbing crush on Alec Baldwin continues. I think I should just go with the flow. Also the ship, because eek. Jack/Liz!! XD

9. I'm still downloading music, in between distractions. You guys are all AMAZING. Fanmixes to follow - probably as massive Christmas gifts to the flist. :D

10. God, I am boring as fuck these days. I apologise...

1. GUYS. ( JULIA. MURNEY. 16-MINUTE INTERVIEW. THAT'S RIGHT. )

2. I've just spent... far too long working out my show schedule for NYC. Is 18 shows in 13 days excessive? *weeps* On an impulse and at the last minute, I bought two tickets for my sister and myself for the closing performance of Gypsy, after they unceremoniously announced that its theatre is shutting its doors two months ahead of schedule. FAIL. And now I've got a huge albeit still tentative line-up of other shows planned and it's INSANITY.

3. There's also new Meryl video, but it's taking forever for Youtube to upload/process it today. OH WAIT, IT'S DONE. Awesome. Thanks much to pdt_bear for ripping it and sharing! ( Meryl on Doubt - including her thoughts on Cherry Jones )

4. Now I have some diabolical cough of extreme evilness. It's not constant, and sometimes I feel as if I'm imagining it and am... just, I don't know, playing at being sick so I don't have to do other things like exercise. And then I go into paroxysms of coughing, and life quickly becomes a whole lot less... fun. I coughed my way through a looong work meeting today, and also through family dinner.

5. On which I have one comment: it must be NICE to be filthy rich. I now have an ENORMOUS, gorgeous, lavish basket on my bed filled to the brim with... I haven't even looked inside yet, but I imagine goodies of every sort. I find that to be... kind of crazy as a Christmas gift, but wow.

6. Oh, I lied about having just one comment. The soup at dinner tonight deserves a special mention. ♥ Omigod - Buddha Jumps Over The Wall, which means delicious soup double-boiled over EIGHT HOURS: apparently six chickens were used, as well as pork, abalone, mushrooms, TWO kinds of fish maw (because one wouldn't do, clearly), and I'm missing all the other herbs and ingredients, but OMG. Orgasmic experience in soup form. TALK ABOUT INDULGENCE.

7. OH AND. mirime's home. XD YAY. If only for a day before she disappears with the rest of my family to Japan, leaving me behind *weeps*, but hey. It's still nice to have her back. ♥

1. GUYS. IT'S, LIKE, SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS. And it hasn't really FELT Christmassy for me yet, this year... not so far, anyway. Not that I'm religious or really participate in gift-buying and card-giving or anything of that sort (I am SUCH a Scrooge), but well. The most I've done is put Santa hats on icons, and that's about it. BUT GUESS WHAT, IT'S OFFICIALLY CHRISTMAS-TIME IN MY BRAIN. YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY? BECAUSE, ZOMG, IT'S JULIA FRICKIN' MURNEY SINGING MY FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS SONG, LIKE, EVER. And singing it mightily AWESOMELY, I might add.

2. I was planning to upload a Christmas mix of, you know, amazing, like with Frankie and Bing and Karen (Carpenter) and Cheno, but well. All I have do now is direct you over here, where the awesome pdt_bear has uploaded some frakkin' awesome CRACK, so you can keep up with the flail that will ensue... ( COME JOIN ME IN MY FLAIL )

3. Also. Let's talk about a completely random fandom collision. (Ahahaha, random fandom! Mommy, I made a rhyme!) I was watching this Emil interview when he was hilariously describing what he got up to when he was done working on his album and could just tool around at home. So what he basically does is make a nuisance of himself, because his face was all swollen up from when he tried to dust something, and then he cut himself when doing the dishes. There was this ADORABLE moment of when he held up his hand as he recounted the story, of how he went crying to his wife over his fail. And it SO reminded me of, well, a very similar Julia moment. To wit:


AHAHAHA. I have waaaaay too much free time on my hands.

4. And then. You know what's adorable? You know what's adorable at the age of 59? With a horrible cold and cough and plans to return home to quietly die once she's done with the interview? Meryl on Letterman, that's who. ( I wish I could go home, but I caaaaaaaaaaan't!! )

5. Okay, I'm actually going to go to bed now, because it's back to work tomorrow. I hate my illness, btw. It's SO ANNOYING. I feel terrible at times - usually when I wake up - but better than okay at others, but I'm still stuffed-up, and my cough gets pretty bad. Sometimes. Like when I was flailing over Meryl. I think it was a sympathy cough, but man. Not fun, and kind of painful. Isn't it stupid to give me cough meds to keep the symptoms away for the day - except that they cause drowsiness? As if I don't have enough problems staying awake at work as is. Boo.

6. ETA: O_O WTF. All the lights just... went out. I think the electricity just blew. I like how my computer seems to be running on a different electrical system than my lights and air-conditioning though, mwahahaha. I don't think anyone else in the house is going to notice, since they're asleep and I'm... not. Faily house of fail. Our front gate is still broken, so I had to climb into the house yesterday. Would have had to do it today too, except I got my grandma to manually unlock the gate and leave it for me. Bah.

1. So I wasn't going to post today as I've flailed QUITE enough over the last week. But WHO AM I KIDDING. SERIOUSLY. Just WHO do you think you're kidding, self?

2. Let me say it now: I LOVE THE CHINESE. 我愛中國人啊!!! Aside from the cracktasticness that is tudou.com, noldoparma and I - both of whom are now hopelessly hooked again on old-school Chinese pop - were directed towards some insane Emil fan's ENTIRE ONLINE ARCHIVE of bootlegs and audios. OMIGOD YES PLZ. YES PLZ TIMES ONE MILLION BILLION AMOUNTS OF AWESOME. I've spent the better part of the last five hours testing the limits of my computer by downloading songs, listening to them and obsessively renaming etc for my archive. I am a happy, HAPPY camper. Because I now have, like, over 100 new Emil live performances, with him belting the crap out of Your Song in particular, which was... like, a religious experience. ♥ ♥ ♥

3. All this, of course, AFTER an epic dinner out with noldoparma, when we spent the entire time recounting... erm, videos we had both watched (which is kind of sad, no??), and just flailing over how epic and GENIUS Emil and Jonathan Lee and ALL the old-school Chinese pop singers are. My god. All that flailing over a HUGE pile of truffle fries (so gorgeous-tasting, why would anyone want normal fries ever?), scallops... and I had this mushroom ragout thing that was okay, and J had duck. THEN we went for dessert and shared a lemon tart. Because we're not at all like pigs that way. *weeps*

4. It's also been an EPIC MERYL DAY. :D I bought the Mamma Mia DVD at Borders today, so that can go in a matched set with my special edition of the CD and I'll NOT watch the movie for the billionth time this weekend. (Yeah, right.) Then I get home, and discover that my Amazon order has arrived, with a clutch of rare(r) Meryl movies, all ready for me to watch/discover/savour. YAY. AND THEN. ( Why I really want to grow up to be Meryl Streep )

5. And as if THAT wasn't enough, we have the MOST adorable Julia interview in ages. She would be SUCH a fierce Mrs Walker, OMG. I've never wanted to visit Oklahoma more than I do now. :P Also, too many too many things of awesome happening in March. *weeps* Fly to NYC for Julia concert and 9 to 5, and then to Taiwan for Emil concert? WHERE WILL ALL THE MONEY TO FEED MY INSANITY COME FROM? I also feel the need now to hunt down that random Muppets Christmas album Julia mentions. I wonder if she'll sing anything from that in Toronto?! :P

6. Illness had abated, kind of, during the day - I guess the magic antibiotics helped a bit, though I was not too happy that I couldn't take my cough meds as they would make me drowsy... and I certainly didn't need any help with that. Well, cough is resurfacing again, right now, as it tends to do at night, boo. Do not want. So I'm going to... stop downloading EPIC MUSIC CRACK and go sleep it off. At 6am in the morning. GO ME. :P

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. GUYS, I AM HOME. XD

2. And since I am home, with the internet at my disposal, apparently I don't do this thing called 'sleep' anymore. It's 5.34 in the morning, y'all. And instead of getting some REST, as I should - since I've been more or less awake since 4am Singapore time on Friday, when we got up to leave for the airport - I've been messing around online.

3. Even though I am SICK. ARGH. I didn't post on Thursday because I spent the entire day nursing a dreadful not-quite headache that had me feeling pretty terrible: even as we went to the Victoria Street Market in Melbourne, caught a flight back to Brisbane, went out for Indian food, met my dad's friend etc etc. I woke up on Friday feeling okay though... and then I got back to Singapore, and the cold/cough symptoms have steadily increased ever since. WTF.

4. I'm not sure how I'll avoid it (since I'm pretty sure that once I actually deign to go to bed and get up, I'll be even sicker than I am now), but I most emphatically do NOT want to be sniffling throughout my audio of the concert I'm supposed to go to Saturday night. Dude. I'm going to see my favourite male singer. I haven't seen him live since 2006. NOOOO. D:

5. MOVIES. Everybody! WATCH BOLT, OMG. For it is ABSOLUTE ADORABLENESS. ( That and other movie ramblings, no spoilers )

6. I'm soooooooo shallow.

7. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, y/y? XD I don't even know WHAT possessed me to make this batch of icons, but well... It was fun. ;) And now I definitely feel inspired to put together a fanmix of my favourite Christmas tunes soon.

8. Okay, seriously, ILL. FAILING TO BREATHE. Argh. (But, new tag! XD) I wanted very much to get back to yoga, but at the rate I'm going, I'll just have to spend the weekend in bed catching up on House (GOOD, because apparently I missed A LOT in not being around to watch/download 5x09!!) and comments and movies. TOMORROW. FOR NOW THOUGH, BEDTIME. SERIOUSLY.

... but I've been away aaaaages in interweb-time and I figured y'all have missed the flail. SURELY YOU HAVE!!??? FOR I HAVE A LOT TO FLAIL ABOUT.

All I can say is:

1. THANK GOD my dad has decrepit old bones, more decrepit than mine. He used the internet while I was in the shower and then promptly fell asleep, while my considerably younger brother and sister went out drinking. Since I am old but not THAT old, and also averse to social interaction/mingling, INTERNET TIME FOR ME. AND FLAILING FOR Y'ALL.

2. My sister's screening was SO FUN. *weeps* My sister is TALENTED, y'all. I'd share her clip, but I can't because it's not uploaded to youtube yet. It's one of my favourites from the night (almost two hours of mini-clips by animation students throughout her university), some of which were SO professional. EEEEE. GET A JOB AT PIXAR, mirime, and support my theatre habit!!! ;)

3. CAPSLOCK FLAIL TIME. ( MISSED ME, GUYS???? )

4. The cat just leapt over the armchair and then onto the floor and now it's staring at my feet. *weeps* Do not want to get scratched, aieeeeeeee!!!

5. OMIGOD. LIFE IS KIND OF AWESOME RIGHT NOW. WICKED TOMORROW. :D

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.