Cupid Bow Mouth

I totally miss LJ. Life is ... life is cray cray these days.


1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
Learned the Cup Song, wrote 9k for NaNoWriMo, attempted the Squat Challenge (and failed the Squat Challenge), rode a Jet Ski, almost learned to float, self-published a short collection for e-reader, Heated Yoga.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't generally make resolutions. Although years ago, inspired by the Transformers movie and Sam Witwicky who said, "Fifty years from now, when you're looking back at your life, don't you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car," I promised myself that I would try more new things. That's been pretty successful so far.

3. Did anyone give birth?
Stephanie ( I think), Min and Angela B, by way of the spouse, Billy.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no.

5. What countries did you visit?
Jamaica!!

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
Money, adventure, a whittled down waist line, and a better job.

7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Hmmm ... not so much ...

8. What are your biggest achievements of the year?
Completed my first ever self-pub. It's been an enlightening experience about writing and marketing. I'm not so sure that it's an industry I'm cut out for.

9. What were your biggest failures?
Same job, same apartment.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No

11. What were the best things you bought?
A trip to Jamaica ( even though it beggared me).

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Ahmad, for making huge changes to his perspective and approach to life.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The American political elite.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Bills

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Publishing, going on vacay, moving, Hunger Games: Catching Fire (movie)

16. What song will always remind you of 2012?
Royals (thanks Andrew and KIIS FM)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier
ii. thinner or fatter? fatter, once again,srsly.
iii. richer or poorer? poorer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Plotting world domination and how to be happy.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Worried about other people

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Probably cooking dinner and hanging out.

21. How will you be spending New Year's?
I'd like to go and do something, but what? Who knows??!! Skinny dipping, snogging strangers, dancing on tables?! The sky's the limit.

22. Did you fall in love in 2012?
Sam Claflin, He doesn't know it, but we were destined to be together.

23. How many one-night stands?
Wouldn't you like to know...

24. What was your favorite TV program?
The Walking Dead

25. What was the best book you read?
Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill and Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
We all discovered Lorde this year, but Malaysian singer Yuna came out of nowhere and surprised the Hell out of me. That woman has the sweetest voice.

27. What did you want and get?
A vacation

28. What did you want and not get?
A new job, more money ... SSDD

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Brave

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Not a thing. 36.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A new job. A clue.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Ill-fitting and worn out. With boots.

33. What kept you sane?
Admittedly, I wasn't totally sane this year, but writing, music, and walks to the corner to see Jesus.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Sam Claflin, Seung Kang, Liam Hemsworth

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Politics piss me off ... so, the question is really: what didn't stir me up this year?

36. Who did you miss?
Cyn

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Did I meet anyone new this year?! I'm so anti-social. RIO!

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012?
The same lesson learned late last year and beat a little deeper into my brain: You cannot be responsible for other people's happiness. It will never.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Give your heart a break.

1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
I made body butter and hair gel ... from scratch. It got all Martha Stewart up in here, yo!

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I set some goals. One goal that I totally nailed was the successful completion of the 50 Book Challenge. BOOYAH! I have goals for this year, one of which is to read 10 classics among all the other things that I will undoubtedly read.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My cousin had a baby boy.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Not that I can think of. Thank You!

5. What countries did you visit?
Nada. This is very sad. Although, I did go to Huntington Park. That's almost like another country, right?

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
More money. A new job. A new apartment. A new stamp in my passport. A published book (a self-pub'd anthology will do). A completed draft of The Novel. Balance.

7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 25th because I turned 35, OMG! September 8th. Wackiness ensued, that's all you need to know.

8. What are your biggest achievements of the year?
Finished the 50 Book Challenge. Unfortunately, that was kinda my only achievement.

9. What were your biggest failures?
Still being at the same job. Figuring out that K-12 isn't for me, which isn't really a failure except that it means that I'm still at the same job and at a bit of a loss.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No. YAY!

11. What were the best things you bought?
I didn't buy much. My first book for my kindle was pretty exciting, though. I bought The Night Circus.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
The Crazy Jamaica, always. Bacardi!Girl.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
OMG! Pretty much every political participant across the spectrum.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent. Student Loans.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My brother graduated from dental school. I came up with A Plan.

16. What song will always remind you of 2012?
Call Me Maybe and Fantastic Baby (They played the shit out of Carly Rae Jepsen, and I totally discovered G-Dragon and the gang this year).

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
Probably the same, although I am more hopeful

ii. thinner or fatter?
Fatter -- OMG, I didn't think it would be possible.

iii. richer or poorer?
Poorer. Thank you, student loans.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Writing.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Panicking

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent an awesome Christmas with people who love me.

21. What was the best holiday for you in 2012?
Many things were resolved towards the end of this year, so, probably Christmas.

22. Did you fall in love in 2012?
Why is this question still on the list?

23. What was your favorite TV program?
The Walking Dead

24. What was the best book you read?
With My Body - Nikki Gemmell

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Big Bang

26. What did you want and get?
A Kindle (even though I didn't actually know that I really wanted one until I got one)

27. What did you want and not get?
A job. More money. A new stamp in my passport.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Cabin in the Woods

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 35 and I had an awesome homemade dinner with friends and family.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A new, better job, more money, less chaos and panic. A stamp in my passport.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Loser chic? No, that's self-deprecating. Slouchy casual.

32. What kept you sane?
There was no sanity this year; although, reading alot helped take my mind off things.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
William Levy (My brain literally shuts down).

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Generally, partisan politics and ass-hat rhetoric.

35. Who did you miss?
Oddly, I don't think I really missed anyone this year.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Angela

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012?
I cannot be responsible for another person's happiness (no matter how hard I try). It's ok to let go.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Last year it was all about being a firework. This year? It's old, but Anna Nalick described this year perfectly: "Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable and life's like an hourglass glued to the table. No one can find the rewind button, girl, so cradle your head in your hands and breathe. Just Breathe."

Of course, because you can't keep me down, David Guetta stepped in with the perfect pick me up tune to carry me through to 2013: "You shoot me down, but I won't fall. I am titanium." Thanks, David Guetta.

The Hotness Meme (Female version than the male one) (snagged from viciouswishes

1. Bold the names of women you'd definitely sex it up with.
2. Italicize the names of women you might do after a little persuasion.
3. Leave the women who don't do anything for you alone.
4. Put a question mark (?) after the women you've never heard of.
5. Strike the women you wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.
6. Add three more women to the list.

( The Hotness Meme )

I am obviously a whore for the man flesh. *sigh*

The end of the year has rolled in and I'm doing what I always do, eat too much junk and sum up my year. Although it wasn't a year for reading fic. It was a good year for reading books ...

( Books Read 2009 )

It was a close one this year: 34/50. Let's see if we can't make that 50 mark come December 2010.

Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic [EDITED: or any story, really] I've written, and comment to this post with that selection [Note: Please include the title/fandom]. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

Fic is here. Or go over to the tag cloud and pull from anything labeled fic:____ or drabble: ______.


darlas_mom FYI - Working on that drabble for you!

Sorry this took so long. Don't ask me why. It really shouldn't have.

( Under the cut and in no particular order )

I am sad and doubtful. Why do writers do these things to themselves?

I don't usually indulge because, well, I have serious issues.

♥ the fanficcers love meme, continued ♥

Every year for the past two years I am aim to meet the 50 book challenge. Last year, my first year participating, I came in at just under the half-way mark with 21. This year ... well, this year can safely be declared a bust.

1. Family Man - Jayne Ann Krentz (re-read)
2. Morning Glory - LaVyrle Spencer (re-read)
3. The Looking Glass Wars - Frank Beddord
4. Threshold - Caitlin R. Kiernan
5. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
6. Silk - Caitlin R. Kiernan
7. Dangerous Angels - Francesca Lia Block
8. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
9. Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons - Lorna Landvik
10 Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr
11. Ink Exchange - Melissa Marr
12. Low Red Moon - Caitlin R. Kiernan
13. Alabaster - Caitlin R. Kiernan
14. The Dry Salvages - Caitlin R. Kiernan
15. To Charles Fort with Love - Caitlin R. Kiernan


Considering my new library card and the one hundred dollars in gift certificates to the bookstore that I received for my birthday, you would think that I'd have read loads and loads. Yeah, me too. What I did do, was buy a lot of books and stick them on my bookshelf. In fact, last night I bought two more: Laura Weiss' Such a Pretty Girl and another one that I can't remember the title of but am totally excited to read. (And isn't that just sad!)

It would also appear that 2008 was the year of Caitlin Kiernan. With most of her novels in reprint by the ROC imprint of Penguin-Putnam, I was able to finally snatch up all of the out of prints. With the exception of Five of Cups which hasn't gone into reprint. My library card got me three more Kiernan's: Alabaster, The Dry Salvages, and To Charles Fort with Love.

More reading in 2009 is the vow that I make. I'm even aiming to re-read the Harry Potter series. I'd like to say that I'll do it all in one fell swoop, but who really knows. All of the things sitting on my shelf that need to be read, hopefully, will be read. In the meantime, I still have Hogfather to finish re-reading. It's a story about Christmas (mostly) and gods and crack-brained lunatics, wizards and worlds where magic goes twing! in the air. I love it.

Rec me a book, if you like, and we'll add it to the list. I've got fifty books to get through, after all.

I'm dreadfully, dreadfully late because this list was harder to put together than I thought it would be. Dio is totally the bee's knees and I am wishing her a very, very lovely solstice.

Books:
1. The Bride Stripped Bare - Nikki Gemmell
2. Silk - Caitlin R. Kiernan
3. Dragonsong - Anne McCaffery - Comfort reading. Not unlike The Chipmunk Adventure. I read it, always, when I'm having a bad time of it. I can read it and re-read it over and over, cover to cover, back to back.
4. Dragonsinger - Anne McCaffery - I'm kind of cheating because this is such a close sequel to Dragonsong that I really should count them as one book.
5. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak/Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - This was a hard one to decide on. Once upon a time, my favorite book was Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned. I don't know if it will hold up, now. I haven't read it in ages and ages. I always love Where the Wild Things Are.

Movies:
1. The Chipmunk Adventure - Total comfort movie. I watch it constantly. When I'm stressed, upset, pissed, tired, sad. It's my movie for all occasions. When my mom died I watched it every night for the first week and then quite regularly after that. The case in the bookshelf is ALWAYS empty because the tape is a permanent fixture in my VCR. Yes, it is that old. One day I will wear it out and then I guess I'll have to upgrade.

2. Lili - Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrer. Sweet, sad and kinda tragic, but then hopeful at the end. I can't NOT watch this movie when it comes on TV.

3. Zathura - I have no clue why I enjoy this movie so much. Objectively, Jumangi is better. For some reason this movie totally floats my boat. It might have to do with Dax Sheppard, but I'm enthralled even before he shows up in a cloud of space dust at the door.

4. Now, Voyager - Another movie that I can't NOT watch when it's on. I still don't own it. One day I will. But like a lot of my favorite movies, there's this thing that I love where I wait for it on TV and it's just awesome to sit back and watch it. Something about knowing that I can watch any old time just ruins it a little. Except for The Chipmunk Adventure.

5. Toss up!! The Philadelphia Story, Bringing up Baby and The Goonies - I know, random!

Shoes:
1. Black Nine West Platform Slides
2. Chinese Laundry Red Peep-toe Slingbacks with the 4" heel -- These are my happy shoes. Just the thought of them is enough to make me happy. When I wear them, I am giddy with joy.
3. Chinese Laundry Brown Wedge Boots
4. Groove flat brown boots
5. Airtalk Black platform flip flops - In the summer I pretty much live in these shoes. Comes from years of living on or near the beach.


Make-up:
1. Mac lipliner in Vino
2. Lancome Juicy Tube lipgloss in Miracle - My most favorite lip gloss ever!!
3. Maybelline XXL Volume and Length Mascara in black
4. Tarte Eye Couture Day-to-Night Eye Palette -- You can do all kinds of things with this palette! I love it!!
5. Laura Mercier Oil-Free Foundation - Even though I'm currently using a much cheaper L'Oreal True Match Foundation, I ADORE Laura Mercier foundation. It is my favorite foundation ever. But at $44.00 per 1 oz bottle, I can't always indulge.

Skincare (you might notice my deep attachment to Neutrogena here):
1. Shea Butter (PURE, unwhipped, 100% shea butter -- the kind that smells vaguely of burned nuts)
2. Neutrogena Visibly Even Daily Moisturizer SPF 15
3. Neutrogena Advanced Solutions Acne Mark Fading Peel
4. Neutrogena Blackhead Elimination Daily Scrub
5. Shea Moisture African Black Soap