ria_oaks

Oh for... seriously, end of period 2 and we're down 3-0? Fuck me, that's all I can stand to watch tonight. I'll check back at some point in the third period to see if we're not sucking quite as much, but I don't usually watch much hockey to begin with and this is just depressing. Maybe they'll be better when they're back home on Friday?

Anyway, more cheerful stuff - various upcoming events that I wanted to remind everyone about and see who's coming. :)

- Can't Stop the Serenity is June 25th from 11am-6pm. It's going to awesome as always. And I'm making another crochet Tardis for the silent auction! Aside from the movie itself, we're having a Dr. Horrible sing-along which will be lots of fun. Tickets available online at the link above, or let me know if you're coming and I can pick up a ticket next time I'm at Fontana's... Plus, we'll hopefully be showing off our dancing skills with our first performance of Thriller! Everyone's been learning it for months, and I just caught up and learned it myself.

- Which brings me to... Zombiewalk on August 20 and Thrill the World on Oct 23rd (I think). Anyone else want to learn to dance Thriller and come with me? Come on, it's fun and easy! I learned most of it in a day, and if I can do it then anyone can... Our group is doing it at Zombiewalk and then of course for the Thrill the World event. I've never actually been to Zombiewalk, so this oughta be interesting!

- X-Men: First Class - anyone want to come with me? Maybe this weekend? Or whenever, I'm not picky. But I def want to see it, and figured some of you would too.

Okay, that's it for now. Well, there are a bunch more movies, but they're still a ways off.

I just found out that the Vancouver Symphony is doing the Lord of the Rings Symphony in November! The cheapest seats are only $35, so I'm totally going... It's on Sat. Nov 27th at 8pm or Sun. Nov 28th at 2pm at the Orpheum. Anyone want to come with? I'm up for either show. And would much prefer to go with someone (don't know if I'll bother alone, though I may be able to talk my parents into going... they both like the symphony, and they liked the movies well enough).

http://www.vancouversymphony.ca/co_concert.php?concertcode=10SPEC06

In other news... not much, really. My parents are back from Europe, so I'm spending a couple of days up on Bowen with them. Sending out prospecting letters to various companies, though god knows what the chances actually are of them replying to one of those...

Pumpking carving on Sunday was fun! I carved Serenity. :) ( Check it out )

Might carve another one for home... left that one at the cafe with the others so I wouldn't have to carry it home on the bus.

DUDE. Jewel Staite is going to be at this year's Serenity Equality Now screening in Vancouver!! I missed her lats year because of work, but this year it's on a Sunday so I can go. SWEET. I'm buying a ticket right now, because they'll probably go fairly quickly with that news out. If anyone wants to come, I'd recommend booking fairly early - it's $15 ($16 on Paypal; I think it's PP's service charge). Sunday June 22nd at the Norm Theatre at UBC; doors open at 11 for various events, movie starts sometime round 2-3 I think, and Jewel's going to be there for a 1/2 hour q&a before the movie. I'd love to have someone to go with, if anyone's interested. It'll be fun - Browncoats are always a blast - I can say that with definite certainty after spending 5 days on board a cruise ship with a bunch of 'em.

Tickets available here: http://serenityscreeningvan.blogspot.com/

So hyped. :)

On another note - computer update... Harddrive's toast. *sigh* He can get my files off, though, so I've given him a list of a few folders I need. He's willing to sell me a used 100 gig harddrive for $80, which for an internal laptop harddrive isn't bad. Though I'm a bit iffy about the used part. Anyway, I'm at my parents' house right now, using Dad's computer to post this, check what's on my external harddrive (ie what do I have backed up...), and to look up laptop harddrives online. Will prob just go for the one he has, though, cuz it's pretty cheap and it'll be done within a day or so.

Anyway, Lost, SPN, and GA tonight! Woo hoo! I'll have Mom's laptop with me, bk635, so we should be able to do the LT... though her laptop doesn't always get the Internet very well (no idea why - mine was fine, and her's connects fine at other places).

Well, I'm sitting in my last ever class at university, waiting for class to start. ^___^ Tis a kinda weird feeling, and yet it doesn't really seem to have sunk in... today's just an essay writing workshop, so really the last proper lecture was last week. I finished the essay outline I was writing earlier; I'll post it here for anyone interested... the 'topics' section is kind of a mish-mash; I still need to work out the details of how the essay will flow. And I'm still unsure about including Firefly - looking at my outline, I've got a lot more to say about Farscape. ^^; We'll see how it goes. It's only supposed to be 10-12 pages, so if I'm at page 8 and haven't even touched on Firefly yet then I may just ditch it. Anyway, I think it's coming together... will run it by the prof or TA today, and hopefully they'll think it's okay. I talked to the prof at the start of term and she okayed my topic, at least.

Okay, so I was going to post my outline but the formatting's all screwed. -_- I'll mess with it when I get home. Class has started, and I should theoretically be listening right now. ;)

Watching Serenity once again right now. :) Saw it a month ago on the cruise (which was a blast - cheered at all the big moments and quotes ("I aim to misbehave!" "Shiny. Let's be bad guys.") and generally had a great time watching it with a group of fellow Browncoats), but quettalinde just finished Firefly and hasn't seen Serenity yet so of course we must watch. ;) Anyway, I've got my computer here on the couch with me in case I get bored. But damn, it's always fun to watch even in the background.

Dear god, I think I've memorized this movie. o.o *as I quote almost everything before they say it*

Anyways, first day of class on Tuesday! Vaguely excited.. it'll be a nice break from work, anyway. ^^

Yay, prelim schedule for Browncoat Cruise is up! Less than 1 week left, wow... o.o Getting pretty darned excited. Might go buy some more clothes this on Monday, I'm not sure.. I have one nice dress for the formal dinner, and the other dinners are semi-casual. Not really sure what I'm allowed to wear for those -_- Skirts and a nice top, I think. So I can probably do it with what I have, but... might be nice to get another dress or another nice top. Anyway, the schedule of events looks like fun - we've got a viewing of episodes/the BDM/whatever we feel like watching, a panel with the guests, a concert, some other stuff... In Cabo San Lucas there's an 'official' excursion (boat/bus trip around the peninsula) which I'm going on, and nothing planned for Ensenada so I need to figure that out.. either an excursion or I'll just find people to go wandering around the city with. Also looking forward to my first day in San Diego for some shopping with the American dollar. XD Bought $250 USD last week (for $233 CDN!), and am looking forward to buying some Christmas stuff and DVDs and whatnot.

Anyway... very quiet day at work today. Manager was back and complaining that the Christmas decorations hadn't been done yet. *eyeroll* Yes, because we were busy taking care of members. You know, those pesky people who keep coming in wanting money? -_- It's been a busy week, plus we have a ton of backlog in accounts to take care of, so I barely even thought about decorating even though I knew she'd sent an email asking it to be done soon. Plus, you know, it's only November 24th. Come on. -_- Anyways, upshot was that we spent all day decorating. Had a grand total of 6 transactions in the 4 hours I was there. Made a fair number of cut-out snowflakes, though. :) Managed to wrangle a $20 budget for buying decorations out of the manager (*eyeroll* again) and have been sent to go to Michaels to buy a wreath and stuff to decorate it with. For $20. Oookay. It was a nice day overall, though, I suppose.

Had a bad experience during my break though, heh. Went to local coffee shop to grab a snack, and the older guy who works there (who I chatted with previously and he'd seemed quite pleasant) saw my Outweek 25 pin and asked what it was. I didn't want to lie and frankly I don't see why I should be embarassed or anything to be wearing it, so I told him that it's from the pride week at UBC. "Pride week?" "Gay pride week. At UBC." "Gay pride? Hah! What about heterosexual pride??" I laughed this off a bit, told him that hey it's cool to be proud whatever you are, but then he started exclaiming loudly to all the other workers "Can you believe this! Gay pride week at UBC! Hah!" and then started talking about how it was being rammed down our throats, blah blah blah, "why can't straights have a pride week??". So I shrugged and said "well, heterosexuals don't need to fight for their rights." "Hah! Yes they do, the gays are taking over!" And okay, now I was getting a bit annoyed even if it had all been in (relatively) good fun at the start (when I thought he was just joking and wasn't really serious). I just said that I didn't want to argue about it, but he was still kinda pushing it. I can't remember what he said, but I responded with something to the effect of "well, it [homosexuality] is normal..." to which he replied "two guys together?? it's not normal!" and now I was pissed and said as politely as possible "well, I disagree. Good bye." and took my sausage roll and rasberry cream cheese croissant and left. :) (both were quite tasty, I might add, though I felt nauseous a bit later so I suspect the latter didn't agree with me, having had the sausage rolls plenty of times to no ill effect).

Anyway. So. Kinda pissed off about that, heh. We were just sorta joking at first, but when he said that it's not normal I got a bit angry. Stayed as polite as possible, and I didn't want to argue about it or discuss it in the least, but he kept pushing it. One of the girls behind the counter commented that everyone should just get along (when I said something to the effect of how anyone can be whatever they want and should be proud of it) and I laughed and agreed with her. It just annoyed me that he didn't seem to care that he was being ignorant and offensive. Mostly ignorant (the gays are taking over? seriously? that argument fails on every level. because evidently fighting for equal rights means taking over. *eyeroll*) I mean, as far as he knew I could be gay, and wouldn't it occur to him how hurtful it would be to say that to me? Considering that I was even wearing that pin, it could have been a fairly legitimate guess. Gah. I just don't get exposed to this kinda shit in real life enough... in online forums, sure, and in the news, but I just... don't talk to people who are like that. Is it bigoted to be anti-bigot? I'll respect someone if they do the same to me and to all people, but if they're saying that a part of the population doesn't deserve respect then... I mean, I still try to respect their opinion, but if their opinion is to be disrespectful and bigoted then it all just seems kind of ironic to me. -_-

(and granted, if he'd thought I was gay then he wouldn't have been entirely wrong.. or right... yeah, I'm still not too sure on that area. XD let's call me "bi-curious" or "open" for now, mmkay? Or if I decide that I'm ultimately completely straight, then I'm still hugely supportive so... there. :)

And on another note, btw, I'm in North Van right now. Will be until Monday evening or even Tuesday morning. Possibly going downtown Monday to meet bloody_sakura, but otherwise free. Let me know if any of you wants to do anything. :)

Aaand, the big art dump... lots of different fandoms. Take a look, see if any interest you. :)

( links to art under cut )

Whew, done... this post took me 2 days. ^^; That's it for now, at least in the way of big posts. Some small stuff, mostly PB, coming soonish. Working on another Alex/Michael pic on the computer which I like okay other than Michael's face (that boy is HARD to draw, ya'll), and an Alex portrait (pencil) that I'm really quite pleased with so far.

For now, being v. lazy. Sitting here flipping between Chamber of Secrets on CBC and L&O: SVU on CTV. Was watching CoS until 10, then switched over to SVU... which I'll stick with for now thank you very much, since CoS is up to Aragog's lair and ewwwwww. Cannot handle that scene in the movie, it's hard enough in the book. o.o

( Firefly quote quiz )

Huh, I think I know which Serenity one I got wrong, but not sure what the correct answer was... the Serenity ones were really easy for the most part. And I knew most of the FF ones, but not sure about the ones from episodes I'm less familliar with (eps 11-13). Some of them I could guess just based on voice, though, since the characters and dialogue are so distinct...

Yeah, I'm sitting here doing this quiz and watching Friends instead of working. XD And getting teared up over the episode where Rachel gives birth. Aww... I can't help but love this show. :)

I should make dinner...

Mmm, victory. XD I'm about to watch Serenity with one of my roomates, shoebox_of_lies - she just came into my room and asked if we could watch. ^__^ See, it's all about subliminal messages and not-so-subtle comments about how I'm going to force everyone on earth in my rez to watch it. Part of me would prefer to watch Firefly first, because I think it makes the movie more meaningful and possibly more understandable, but I know plenty of people have gotten into the movie first and I'm not exactly about to discourage anyone from watching it. ^^ Anyway, I'm interested in watching with someone who isn't familliar with it.
( Cut for long running commentary, with much squeeage )
Aaaand the end. I went back and did some slight editing, mostly just adding in some more detailed comments so it wasn't all "omgthislinewassofunny!" Okay, so it's not exactly deep and meaningful, but it was fun. :)

(and yes, I am in fact making that Wash icon now... heh. We'll see if it turns out any good.)