The hair...THE HAIR

All my favorite Austen hair.  If I didn't like the hair, I didn't post it here, no matter how hot the guy is / was.  Of course, I didn't post any good hair if the face isn't up to par.  No good faces with bad hair here.  Was hair really like this circa 1800?  Was it this dreamy?  I LOVE HAIR.

Here they are, by order of hair-ness:

Jeremy Northam as Mr Knightley

Rupert Penry Jones as Captain Wentworth

Colin Firth as Mr Darcy

Simon Woods as Mr Bingley
(and Matthew Macfayden as Mr Darcy,
but his hair is too lank and greasy)

James McAvoy as Tom Lefroy

And because he's my favorite, I'm listing him again, from a different angle.

Simon Woods as Mr Bingley

. . . SIGH . . .

O by golly

Yesterday, 23 December, I started preparing for Christmas.  It involved buying a bunch of food.  B will get the booze.  Prep complete.  I did not buy a single gift; mainly because I can't afford it, and even if I could afford a few gifts I certainly can't afford to send them back to the States.  The shipping would cost more than anything I bought, and while it's the thought that counts, everything counts when one has no income.  

I couldn't find the only two movies I really wanted to watch on Christmas: Love, Actually and Bridget Jones' Diary.  A Christmas Story can wait til next year (sorry, Cait - but you don't read this anyway).

I think that the whole greatness / worstness of Christmas IS the preparation.  Sure, some people like to say "Jesus is the reason for the season!" and that imbues the holiday with some extra special thoughts and feelings if you believe in it.  Of course, I would argue the real reason for the season is older than Christianity and that Christmas just got plastered over it, but whatever, it's just history.  However...really it's the building excitement / horrible breakdowns that make Christmas what it is.  I'm totally missing out now.  I have been for years.  I've removed myself from the worst ergo I don't get to experience the best.  

For now I'm ok with it.  Honestly I just want to go to parties and hang out with people and eat and drink. That's all the Christmas I need.  Maybe I'll even decorate something someday.  I admit that part of the fun of going home on Christmas is just to see how the house has been dressed up.

Merry Christmas dear reader friends.  I'm thinking of everyone I love today (and tomorrow and always).

Quoth

In the spirit of not doing real work, I'm cleaning up my papers and notes.  Just some stuff I will preserve on the internets so I don't need the bits of paper...


For some reason this cracked me up at the time - maybe because L is super religious and she was trying to figure out why I had stopped believing in Catholicism while she had converted to it.  You know how converts are, and if you don't, you don't want to know.

L: What do you think happens when you die? 

Me: I don't feel qualified to answer that. 

Because it's funny:

"We been having this party for years.  It seems like every year it gets to be a little bit more fun, couple more people come.  It started off small, and the younger people are comin'...this year we had a girl come and everything..." - Trekkies

From my serious Chuck P phase, a couple from Lullabye:

"There are worse things you can do to the people you love than kill them." (128)

"No matter how much you love someone, you still want to have your own way." (148)

My two favorite quotes from American Movie:

"And then I realized one thing, you know, in a Christian-coated ethical arena, why you should you be successful while others are not?  Well you know what...I got over that guilt cuz you know what - hey, I don't know the answer...I don't know why I don't know cuz it feels like in a Christian..what Jesus would be saying is totally unchristian, man.  To try to get ahead because everyone is on an equal level playing field on equal par.  But you know what I'm not a Christian.  I'm half and half, man.  Uhhh..half the Satanist idea and half the Christian idea...  Satanist idea, which the purest of human endeavors, to Christianity, which is the purest of higher levels." (Might not be entirely accurate.  The person who wrote it down for me didn't really believe in punctuation so I'm trying to guess where it was to convey the tone.)

"Well, I been losing about 10 bucks a day for the last week.  Well, here's what I think of the lottery.  I think it's like when you play the lottery sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but it's better than using drugs or alcohol, because when you use drugs or alcohol, especially drugs, you always lose."

School's out for winter

Classes are over.  Serious work begins.

So, obviously I spent the last day cleaning up my email.  I still have a month, after all.

Having a few interesting nights.  One was with Brittany, her two flatmates, and their friend / colleague (7 Dec).  It was an Italian-Greek-German-American smash hit.  Went to Walkabout Temple on Friday (9 Dec).  Not exactly recommended, but an alright experience.  Brick Lane for some curry on Saturday (10 Dec).  Drinks in Shoreditch apres, naturlich (I'm sure you like it when I mix all the languages I know anything about - just imagine the accent grave and umlaut).

Worked on my practice website a great deal yesterday.  I've learned a lot this year.  I must be coming up on full capacity soon ;)

I hope everyone saw the photos of my day out with Brittany last Sunday (as in 4 Dec).

Here's a nice quote from an email from a friend:

Why are you right oh so often?
Why?
I've been reading happy potter-the first book n im on chapter 9, I've
not even turned on my tv for 2weeks unless I have company cos of
reading. Blast! Only because its just more reasons to listen to you
and admit your right, curses

Here's something I want remember:

According to John Waters' Crackpot,  a hair-hopper is a "fashion victim who spends too much time on his or her 'look,' does it poorly, and sees no irony in the predicament." (p. 194)

A not so memorable chat, but amusing nonetheless

(I changed the name to anon, though clearly not to protect any innocence):

4:13 PM me: asshole

4:14 PM anon: you are the asshole

  asshole

  assholery all on u

4:15 PM me: please enjoy those suggestions

4:16 PM here

 anon: fucking fuckerton

18 minutes

4:34 PM me: what

Hope I haven't missed anything.  O - maybe I'll mention I watched Four Rooms again and had forgotten it was so good!

Also, great post Becca mentioned on fb about the perils of too many internets (in case you missed my re-posts on every social media network I have).

AND I was carded twice in the last two weeks.  I don't get it.  How in the world can I pass for under 18?

Information-related behavior

We're sitting in class creating diagrams about seeking information.

I'm thinking about what I did last night, which was an evening at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.  Brittany is always going on about Hyde Park...  Saw Cirque Extreme and was thoroughly impressed by a woman who juggled all sorts of things (some of them flaming) with her feet.  It looked like a steam punk circus.

Also, Susan sent me this article about the 2011 Boring Conference.  Alas, it's sold out.

There was a cat on my doormat last night.

I blog

Well friends, too many things to recount.  I see I've neglected this blog for almost a month.  Remember I had to move to Angel?  Then life exploded.  Good times were had.  Let me try to recount some random moments:

Stared down by sinister baby on tube.  At no other point have I ever felt like a baby was reading my mind or looking into my soul.  Creepiest.  Thing.  Ever.

Achieved good marks on assignment.

Starting to think I will switch to Information Science.  A bit more technical.

Have now watched tons of bizarre tv.  Do not care for The Only Way Is Essex.  You gotta search for Virgin School on youtube.  Big Brother is a giant waste of time.  Phoneshop is totes hilar.  The Misfits looks good but I want to start at the beginning.

Terry is still good at astrology.

Croydon is bit crazy.

Flogging Molly put on a good show.

I can buy cranberry and vodka in a can.

British meat is still suspect.  I've been eating a lot of pork / bacon because beef is so bleh.  Cheese is still good.

I'm getting to know a variety of ciders.  I had a South African one called Savannah Dry the other day.

My flatmate, Dukana, is very fun.  We mostly watch bad tv together and laugh about random crap.  She's good at telling me what to wear when I need advice (which is all the time).

I spend a lot of time with Meghan, Brittany, and Jonathan.  Going out with Meghan, studying with Brittany, and winning pub quizzes with Jonathan.

Won 2 out of 3 pub quizzes.  That's £80 that we got at the bar for winning!

Couchsurfing.org is great - met a new German friend!

Salt beef bagels on Brick Lane are worthy of the walk.  I also obviously need to go have Indian there, but I fear I may always be tempted by salt beef bagels.

Went to the Museum of London because I can walk there.  Only got through prehistory and Roman times.  Need to go back for medieval through modern times.  Great place.  Went there in 2009 with Mom.

Saw the protesters at St Paul's Cathedral.  They're were dancing when I saw them.  I can walk to St Paul's, too :)

Not impressed by Top Shop.  Sticking with H&M.

Haven't had many amazing restaurant meals here.  Paul knew some good places, so I should go back to them.  Apparently the fish & chips near my flat is divine.  Pizza Express is still good (and everywhere).

Went to 2 great pubs last night: The Gunmakers and The Lexington.

I've had too much cider

Two nights in row I ended up in two different Wetherspoon's.  They're cheap, but when you're eating the merely adequate food you're thinking - why?  Why is this going in my mouth?  It looks like food, it smells like food, it feels like food, but the taste isn't worth the trouble.  But lemme tell you the old folks crowd in there.  Perhaps they serve a lot of food pre-chewed.

Over the last week-ish I've managed to convince someone that I'm awesome so she'll let me live in her cool flat that's only a short walk from class and all sorts of great stuff.  My school (should I call it uni so I fit in?) is in a fantastic area.  The walk to the British Library only takes about twenty minutes as well.

Saturday, Meghan and I met with a couchsurfing group and had an informal tour of a section of London I hadn't spent much time in before.  It started in Canada Water and ended near Millenium Bridge (you know, the one that was destroyed in HP6).  We wandered around the South Bank area and saw lots of interesting stuff, like the first tunnel dug under water.  I may go back to that little museum for a bit longer.  The tunnel is still used for the London Overground (not sure how that makes sense).  Met a bunch of people from a bunch of countries, and left with a new Italian friend.

Sunday, I saw the place I'm now moving into in Angel.  Later, hung out with the Italian near Picadilly Circus (you know, the supposed Times Square of London).  Had some good pizza, but it was no (original) Ledo's.

On Monday a couple American classmates and I almost won a pub quiz at the Boadicea.  This is quite a feat, considering we had no Brits on our team and everyone else in the pub was British and the questions often have much to do with British crap (who knew :P).  It was the newspaper swimsuit we had to design and create that saved us (2nd place for 3 bonus points), and then the music section really helped.  The musical questions I knew were that Prince wrote the song "Nothing Compares to You," Sir Paul McCartney's middle name is Paul (thanks to Gene), and Madonna's real name is Madonna.  I need to get back to listening to Newspod so I can get the current events questions right.

Tuesday, I had delicious Sri Lankan mutton curry in at the Apollo Banana Leaf in Tooting with Meghan, Hannah, and Paul.  Wednesday, Meghan and I went to lovely pub in Tooting and I (apparently) insulted an Irishman.  All I did was make a joke about the Irish hating the English.  Can someone please tell me if this is no longer true :P  He insulted librarianship as a profession (he said his job was even more boring than ours).  I don't know why one party is expected to have a sense of humor when the other clearly doesn't.  Thursday was the Wetherspoon's in Angel with a bunch of City U law students.  One asked me if I was a first year (ie 18!).  And last night we spent in Croydon with one of Meghan's former flatmates and her coworkers (all teachers at a Catholic school).  A great time, even though the second pub / club we went to (The Ship) played their music (metal / rock) waaaaaay to loud.  I haven't turned my music down on public transportation so much that I can barely hear it only to have my hearing destroyed by music I have only a mild appreciation for.  Time will tell.