Christmas Cookies (aka-Cookies That Need Explanation)

After baking yesterday, we were all set to decorate today. Right? Right?! Yeah about that. In the twenty four hours between when the cookies were made and when mom and I were ready to decorate them 11 of the COUNTED cookies disappeared. Dad says he only had 2 my brother swears he only had 3. Where did the remaining 6 go? Must be House Spirits. Yeah. So, since it’s late and I have to get up relatively early to go with my mom into the nearest city, here some lovely pictures.

First we have the whole spread. What do you think. Enough cookies for you?

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Here’s a close up of our assembly lined cookies. They came out pretty well if I do say so myself.

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More assembly lined cookies. This time decorated by my mother. They look good, right?

Mom made these for my Uncle. He thinks us country folk all like our farm stuff...

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These are for my diabetic uncle. He won’t stop eating sweets, but I thought I’d help him by giving him something with a little less frosting.
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These are the Cookies That Need Explanation. Most of these cookies are traditional ones. You have your standard frozen to death zombie reindeer, a ninja star, the killer rabbit from Holy Grail, a ‘goth’, a ‘demon’, what my brother claims to be a missile, a ghost and a bomb. All were made with standard cookie cutters and decorated as you see here. I’ll let you figure out what started as what.
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Osama Bin Chicken. There is no possible explanation.
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Remember, if you think YOU are weird, there’s always someone out there who can prove you’re actually completely normal with Christmas Cookies.

Comments are appreciated. Even if they tell me I’m nuts.

Home for the Holidays (aka-Restarting the Blog)

So I’ve been home almost a week (it’ll be a week tomorrow) and I still haven’t written a blog entry. But, but..! Yes, I know there’s no excuse. I should at least have been writing a little blurb every night. Instead I’ve been forcing myself to wrap a present every night. That way I won’t have quite so much to do when I come upstairs on Christmas Eve (It’s a tradition of mine to wrap my mother’s presents to my father during the day Christmas Eve, and then wrap my presents during the evening, carrying them stealthily downstairs after all the other presents have been taken care of and slipping mine amongst them). But you could have written during the day, I hear the voices cry (well, voice). And suffice to say I haven’t been entirely sitting on my laurels while waiting for the cows (or Christmas, take your pick) to come home.

This past weekend we had an intense snow storm. I’m sure everyone on the east coast knows about it. Two feet of snow. And given I hadn’t seen snow since early last year (was it last year? Might have been two years ago. I’m confused by college) I have really enjoyed it. Well, the snow part at least. The roads around here are terrible. I’m sure the fact that it snowed two feet in a day had something to do with it, but still, you’d think they could have prepared a little better. I would have been much happier if they had gotten salt/sand down on more of the roads. I was NOT a happy rider for the little bit I was out yesterday.

Why on earth was I out and about yesterday, you ask? Well, I spent the majority of the day over at my Nana’s house shoveling her driveway with my younger brother and then helping her put up her Christmas tree. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but the road down to the hillside where my Nana lives was..interesting. I was tempted to just cover my eyes and pray that Dad didn’t hit anything (my dad is actually the only one driving currently, ferrying all the rest of us around). In the end I decided that I wanted to see if anything was going to happen. I’m calling the experience “white knuckled riding”.

Today has been less exciting, thank goodness. The major thing for today was helping mom with Christmas cookies. Unfortunately we didn’t get around to decorating them. That will happen tomorrow. There will be pictures.

The one thing that hasn’t really happened since I got home is writing (or editing for that matter). I blame part of this on my own lack of time (I’ve been wrapping instead of writing blogs after all). I just haven’t been that inspired to write though. I guess I just need a few good fantasy books to perk me up. Hopefully I’ll get some for Christmas.

Remember, cookie decorating can be just as scary as icy roads, proceed with caution.

Please comment and let me know who’s still reading.

Late Monday Night Movie Double Feature! (Aka-Gladiator and Super Mario Bros.)

So, I’m sure at least some of you might have noticed that there was not an update last week. That is because while there was a movie on Monday, I was not awake enough to notice the plot. I’d been up since Sunday. And then I proceeded to pull two more all nighters during the week. I actually was going to do a post this past weekend, but then I slept well into Saturday and when I got up decided the Sims were much more interesting than any of that writing stuff (this is what happens when you fry your brain. Of course I made my characters into Sims, so I’m not sure it quite counts as a full break.) Anyways, I’ll now treat you to this past Monday’s double feature.

In SCA we watched Gladiator after a rather extended and convoluted voting process. Now, even though this is an actually decent movie (as long as you’re not hoping for historical accuracy) in true college student fashion we had a running commentary in the peanut gallery. It did help keep the creepy incest factor to a minimum. Please be prepared, there is swearing. The S word and the A word to be precise.

A brief summery of the movie: Maximus has an awesome opening battle that’s fairly accurate..until the legionnaires spontaneously break ranks for hand to hand combat. Still a very cool opening fight. Max then is buddy buddy with the old emperor until the emperor’s son, Bat Shit Insane arrives (his sister comes along too). The Old Guy wants Max to take over Empire and turn it back into a republic. Bat Shit Insane isn’t too keen on this idea. He has a mental break down, and invents the father complex before Freud. He then murders his father. With love. Afterward he calls Max in to make sure he, Bat Shit not Max, will be emperor. Max has a mental fart at this moment and decides to do the stupidest thing possible, in this case being to refuse to acknowledge Batty. So, instead of temporarily tricking the insain one and then later reclaiming his rightful place, Max gets arrested and sentenced to death. He’s okay with this until he learns his wife and kid will be killed as well. So, instead of dying like a good general, he kills the executioners and rides off towards home. Somehow Bat Shit fails to notice the death of his men.

After a long and tortuous travel montage in which Max hallucinates visions, he arrives home to find he’s too late. So, he buries his family and falls asleep by their graves. He’s then picked up by Moorish slavers. They take him off to some place in Africa. He’s bought by a gladiator pimp, and then proceeds, after a slow start, to kick ass like the general he is (though he did carve off the mark showing he was a legionnaire). Eventually he makes it to Rome, and after wowing the crowd, pisses off Batty in front of everyone. Batty decides to have him killed, but it doesn’t work, Max is just too bad ass. The Sister comes in sometime here to plan a rebellion against her brother, but her brother’s insanity lets him see right through her. He arrests everyone and has his way with his sister with a death threat to her son if she doesn’t do what he wants.

In the final climactic battle between Batty and Max, there’s lots of fighting, sword play, etc. Very fun to watch. I’ll just say that the guy in the black armor is the hero for once. I think I’d recommend this movie, either for a serious watch or with added commentary.

Our second movie of the evening was Super Mario Bros. the Movie! I unfortunately came in part way through the film so I’m not real firm on some of the plot. I will tell you that while parts of it were a little iffy, on the whole I really liked it an thought it was funny. I’d definitely recommend this one to the geek crowd.

Well, I’d type more but I’m pulling another all nighter working on a paper. See you all later.

Remember, remarking how creepy a character is doesn’t make him less creepy, but it does make it more bearable.

Comments are appreciated. They make me feel loved.

Late Monday Night Movie (aka-Fanboys)

So this post is now two days late (I refuse to acknowledge it being Thursday yet; I haven’t slept, therefore it is still Wednesday). I’d like to say I’m sorry, and I kind of am. Mostly I’m sorry that the two papers I have due next Monday are eating up this much of my time. I haven’t been online since Tuesday, and I probably won’t be online again for quite a bit (at least not until late Friday, and maybe not even then). All this in the effort to beat the clock. Anyways, on to the review!

I have to say, I LOVED this movie. It was absolutely hilarious. A self aware, story about a bunch of nerds who are trying to quest for Episode One. There are cameo appearances like you wouldn’t believe. William Shatner had to be my favorite: “Are you kidding? I’m William Shatner. I can score anything.” (On how he got the specs for how to break into Sky Walker Ranch and steal Episode One). It’s funny, though, because later in the movie, one of the guards asks “How did you all break in? Was William Shatner involved?” with no prior evidence to the other’s involvement. It makes one wonder if there had been previous attempts. I also enjoyed the last line of the movie, after everything that happens, the remaining friends gather to watch the opening, and just as the movie is about to start, one turn as asks “Hey guys..what if the movie sucks?” I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone willing to admit they’re a geek.

On another note, I discovered something last Thursday. My freshman RA, Alexandra Bracken is having her first novel published! Huray for her! Did I mention she graduated last year? I will admit it. I’m insainly jealous. I’m also in awe. She’s been working on this novel since my freshman year (at least) which is probably part of the reason she was able to get it published so soon after college. Still, it makes me jealous. I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to do something similar in terms of time frame (even though I technically haven’t started writing the first novel I hope to have published). The best part about this is that Alex’s book, Brighlty Woven looks like it’s going to be a good read. I really can’t wait to go buy it in March! Check it out and tell me what you think.

In other news, a combination of finding out that Alex is published and receiving certain feedback on my short stories is making me a little twitchy when it comes to my writing. I’m going to have to make a couple more editing runs through Goodnight Earth and another through Calling Down the Rain before I allow them out to potential publishers again. I have a list I need to tick off on: passive voice, repetitive word/phrase usage, clarity of motives, the list goes on and on. I’m a little worried there might be things I’ve missed the first time around. On the other hand, it could just be paranoia on my part.

Remember, loss of sleep results in loss of reasoning capacities. I need more sleep.

Comments are appreciated. They make me feel loved.

Monday Night Movies (Aka-Double Feature!)

Today, because of an unexpected illness we watched a movie in my first club of the night as well as my second. The first was The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. An interesting little flick from the mid 1970’s. It has some (for the time) cutting edge special effects, including claymation (which by the way, is not the best way to make a hideous creature of evil. The little gargoyle/gremlin thing was so evil it was cute. Or well, just cute.) Over all, I’d say the only redeeming value this movie has is it’s obvious influence on a few later movies (including Indiana Jones and Star Wars). If you’re not offended by overt racism, then have a go at the movie. You might even find Shiva with boobs funny (there’s a statue that’s supposed to be Kali, but to those in the know is definitely Shiva. Except he is a she.) Funny, the pseudo hindu/budhist mix didn’t go over big in India. I suppose portraying the natives as skinny orcs had nothing to do with that either. Yeah, watch for a laugh, watch with friends, watch with lots of soda.

Our second movie of the night is actually a Skiffy homebrewed classic. Some of you might have heard of “Dark Side of the Rainbow”. This syncs The Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd (not my thing personally, but others in the room seemed to like it when we watched it last year). With this inspiration in mind, one of the guys in Skiffy decided to mix the Who’s “Who’s Next” (only the first nine tracks) with a random slasher film. The fifth Friday the 13th movie was suggested (Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning), and they set it up for a try. I have to say, the first real scene of the movie syncs so dead on with the music that it is worth watching, if only for that. There are other parts of the movie that just really click with the sound track (and yes, you do need to listen to the lyrics and not just the pretty sounds). The addition of the music transforms what would otherwise be just another slasher flick (and not a very good one at that) into a work of art. Whether you believe me or not, there is character depth, and actual feeling added to the movie. We at Skiffy laughed, “awwwwed”, and actually felt for some of the characters (most notoriously Jason himself!). There was even a previously undiscovered scene of forbidden love (two guys). I would DEFINATELY recommend this watch. I know it isn’t up on the internet (Chuckles has said that he will try to get it up sometime in the future) so if you want to watch it, you’re going to have to get the video and the music CD. If you can rent, I think it’s worth it.

Going to cut this short because I’m tired. Later all.

Remember, paring music with random movies can make the most awesome watching experience. Or at least make a movie worth your time.

Comments are appreciated. They make me feel loved.

I Have Gone to the Dark Side (aka-I have a Twitter account now)

Yes, I have committed unspeakable evil, and the atrocities are something I can never atone for. I will admit, I never thought I’d get on Twitter. I still dislike it. Random people are watching me and reading what I write-oh wait, that’s the whole point of being an author. Yes, having three absolutely random people follow me was more ‘scary’ than anything else. But, if you want to follow me, my user name there is the same as it is here: Ladykuro. Funny, I only thought about using my real name as the screen name after I’d created the account. Oh well, it’s fine I guess. If they want me to change it later, I suppose I will (they being whoever becomes my agent..when I get that far down the road, so not for a while yet). For now, though, these two will be quite sufficient. Before I hear anyone tell me what a hypocrite I am for signing up for twitter (I’ve said in the past that I wouldn’t’) I do have reasons. Several in fact. 1)I’ve been told for a while that I need to network more if I’m going to have any hope of getting published. Twitter serves to help with that. 2)I hear all of these great quotes around W&M, and I just feel the urge to share/inflict them with/upon the world. 3)Robin McKinley, my favorite author, just got her own Twitter account. Yes, that last reason is the one that tipped me in favor of getting the account (though I did have to wait until after the story and midterm were done to even sit down and look at the site). And yes, she was the one that tipped the scales in favor of having a blog (when I found out that she had one I decided to get on of my own.)

So, other than evil, what’s new? Well, after a night of sleep (and another four hour nap) I looked at last night’s blog and discovered it wasn’t as crisp and coherent as it was when I wrote the bugger. I guess that’s what I get for writing when I should be sleeping. Like now.

Also new is the damp. Yes, it has been raining nonstop since yesterday. I have discovered, however that dampness is invading my dorm. Paper is sticking together (and causing printers to have seizures) and even sealed food items are being affected. I am not happy. Ida needs to move along. She’s not even getting me out of any of my classes (like William and Mary would cancel more than they could reasonably get away with. No, they want us in class. As absolutely much as possible. Yeeeesssss, Learning! You will Learn!)

Anansi has also been visiting of late. I have two more related dreams (related in the sense that they have the same setting and could feasibly take place in the same world). Very pleasing in that I’m getting story details. A pain in tush in that I don’t have time to write them down.

Remember, just keep repeating, networking is good, networking is good.

Comments are appreciated. They make me feel loved

An All Nighter (aka-I think I’ve lost a day)

There’s an well known joke at my college that it’s not tomorrow until you’ve slept. So, for those of us who haven’t slept, I guess that means tomorrow hasn’t come. The fact that it’s dismally grey outside isn’t helping this perception either. I got to watch the sky gradually start to lighten at around 7am. I didn’t realize it was so dark so late. I guess this shows what time I usually get up. But, back on subject, I did in fact pull an all nighter, meaning I haven’t actually slept in..I think we’re coming up on 24 hours (I had a small, interrupted nap yesterday from about 2:00-4:15, with about 30 minutes cut out of the middle). So, what does this mean other than that I’ve been guzzling copious amounts of tea to stay awake? Well, I got breakfast for once, even if it was only a bagel (yes, I know, heresy. Speaking of heresy, did I mention I got to decide what I thought was and wasn’t for this latest midterm?). I head back to my room and change, because it’s started raining. It was threatening to rain last night when I went from work to Swem, but overnight the storm really hit. So, I walked home without an umbrella, changed, and skipped class. While skipping, I worked on the midterm. And then it was time to be off to my next class, this time armed with an umbrella, rain coat and boots. The rain was more fun this time. Unfortunately slogging back across the Sunken Gardens wasn’t as fun the second time around.

Back in the dorm room I finished my midterm and realized I was early. Great! I started the printing and ran to do some business. When I got back I discovered my printer had just had a seizure. It claimed there was a paper jam. There wasn’t. Halved the paper in the printer and tried again. No luck. Look at the time. Ten minutes till class. Have I mentioned that my printer not only hates me, but it’s also slow as mud? I decided to run to the closest computer lab. Normally the place is deserted. I get there and discover that not only have they removed half the computers (probably a money saving measure) but all of the computers are taken. So I literally ask the room if anyone would let me print something off quickly. One guy came to my rescue and let me print from his computer. Don’t know his name, but THANKS! I then run to class where I spend the rest of the period trying not to fall asleep (falling asleep means bad notes). Have I mentioned it’s still raining? Cold rain. With a wind driving it in at a 45* angle. This same wind is trying steal and/or maim my umbrella as well. And this is supposed to keep up tomorrow and Friday as well. Wonderful. I’m sure you all can see just how thrilled I am.

And now, since there is a strange movement on my screen, I think I’m going to bed.

Remember, when the computer screen starts to swim, it’s time to go.

Comments are appreciated. They make me feel loved

Monday Night Movie (aka-Twilight)

Yes, I will admit that this one is my fault. Not totally or completely, but it is still my fault and I will take responsibility. You see, I watched this movie last semester. I have a bad habit of trying to make informed decisions when I say I don’t like something (sometimes these informed decisions are quite traumatic). I watched Twilight, and regretted it. I also, in a rather sadistic manner, wanted to inflict it upon someone else. This someone else happened to be Skiffy, of course. And thus Twilight with Rifftrax got onto the list. And there it stayed until last week when the vote came down to it and Land Before Time 11 (no, I’m not making up the number, it really does go on that long, God help us.) At least Twilight had the Rifftrax going for it. (Now, for those of you who are thinking what the heck are “Rifftrax”, they are a humorous, separate sound track played with the movie itself. From the makers of MST3K. Good stuff.) Still not the best choice in movies, to say the least.

This week’s movie seemed to start out okay. The rifftrax showed promise of at the very least making the movie bearable. There were even some gasps when the van almost crushed Bella (I was still rooting for the van). And then the sparkles began. Last week’s scream-o-vision was back, in stereo. Imagine if you will, a chorus of screams, and wailing and gnashing of teeth every time sparkles appeared on screen (and to give you some idea of how tired I am at current, I originally had that written the gnashing and wailing of teeth…). As the Rifftrax said, that’s not a vampire, that’s a metropire. And the movie went downhill from there. Way, way, way down hill. And it wouldn’t flipping end. Why won’t it end?! Ugh. I ended up being annoyed enough by it that I couldn’t write my review straight away after the movie ended like I normally do. I went and did homework to cleanse my brain. That’s kind of sad when you think about it.

Speaking of homework, I’ve rewritten With the Water (hereafter referred to as WtW) It has jumped from just under four full pages long to well onto the sixth page. I hope that I got a lot of the characters across better and that their motivations and such will satisfy the class. I sigh. I’ll email that out tomorrow. You know, after I’ve had some sleep. Heh, sleep. Not going to get much of it tonight. Oh well. If you all would like to read the new WtW, then all you have to do is head on over to the Fifthwind forum. Its under the prose section, Kuro’s assignments (or I suppose you could just use this link). I’m much happier with WtW this time around, so I kind of hope you all will agree with me. If not, I’d like to hear that as well.

So, now that it’s 4:17 and I have to get up for work tomorrow, I’m going to say goodnight! Sorry the post is short.

Remember, even Rifftrax can only do so much for a movie. It’s still better than without them, though.

Comments are appreciated. They make me feel loved.

More Work (aka-Pounding My Head Against the Keyboard)

You might not be seeing as much of me around the internet until this semester is over if my professors have their way. Earlier today I was handed a take home midterm. Two essays. I was also reminded that I need to revise With the Water for class next week. This is on top of the three longer essays I already know I have to write soon (possibly a fourth, but I’m not going to look. I’m not that brave). So, if you can’t already tell, I’m going to be very, very busy for the rest of this month. With any luck I’ll be able to knock out the midterm in the next two days (planning on starting tonight) and I’ll get some reading done too. Of course this means that I should be cutting down on unnecessary things like forums and internet in general (I can’t say web comics since I haven’t actually read any since some time last week).

It also means that the three day, two night camping trip I was planning for this weekend just got cut down to a daytrip on Saturday. I’m not terribly sad about the loss of the day trip, but it will be much better for getting work done. I wonder if I could get away with bringing books to the event? I usually end up volunteering to pass the time anyways. I suppose this means I should. Oh well, it’ll be along the themes of the event anyways. Sort of. I mean, Saint Ignatius was a medieval monk, so that means I can read him at a medieval event, right? Yeah, that’s what I thought….

So the point of all of this is that you probably won’t be seeing much of me until at least the first essay is written, to say nothing of the midterm or the story I have to rewrite. I’ll still procrastinate on the internet, and you’ll probably see me hanging out on messenger, but I (hopefully for the sake of my work schedule) won’t be about the forums as much as I have been. Sorry to anyone that might be counting on me. If you need me, message me here, on messenger, PM me, or just tell Havoc to give me a yell.

And now to rant about my stories. I’m going to be rewriting With the Water for next week because of the three stories I’ve written for this class, that’s the one I’m least comfortable with. I don’t know enough about the characters, and I certainly don’t know enough about the events leading up to the flood. Why the heck did the dam break? Why doesn’t Patience like to shower? Why is Jack such a little brat? And Uncle Lawrence, what the heck is his problem? Part of the problem here is going to be page length. As this story grows, controlling the length is going to be a bugger. Thankfully there isn’t an upper limit on the final word lengths. I just hope that I get my answers before I have to actually rewrite the story (please expect to find me doing the rewrite next Tuesday).

Remember, mountains of work make me hide out in Swem until all hours of the morning. Oh wait, I was already doing that.

Comments are appreciated. They make me feel loved.

Monday Night Movie Review (aka-Freakazoid)

What can I say, this was one of my favorite cartoons growing up. It ranked slightly behind the Animaniacs, and was part of a class of cartoons that were much more intellectual than a lot of the cartoons that are on television today (most of today’s cartoons are either teaching based, or humorous. They no longer seem to be able to find some kind of a happy medium where they can both amuse and instruct children, and perhaps amuse the parents too. Yet another of the many reasons I never plan on having children.) It was a hit with Skiffy to say the least. As the first episode started the room burst singing to the opening theme song. I think some of the people were ‘getting’ some of the jokes for the first time as they rewatched the episodes. I know I was noticing things that I’d never realized were there. Lots of political and possibly offensive jokes are thrown in. Not things that kids would get, though. The show, like many others of the time period, is also very self aware. It likes to make jokes at itself as well as everything else it’s making fun of.

Best line from the first episode: “That was shallow and based solely on hormones. And that’s okay with me.”

During the third episode they introduced “Scream-o-vision”. Every now and then the word “scream” would appear on the screen, telling the audience at home (or in this case, in school) to, wonder of wonders, scream. The best part about this is that Skiffy has no shame, and will do anything they think is funny. Imagine, an entire room of people aged 19-27+ screaming on cue. Now imagine them doing it while Freakazoid is trying to kiss someone, and him reacting to our disturbance. It’s hilarious.

I would definitely suggest watching Freakazoid, especially if you were one of us lucky ones that got to watch it as a kid. Watching it now makes it even better (the same is true for a bunch of cartoons of the time period. My own personal favorites include Road Rovers, Animaniacs, and Pinky and the Brain. They’re all pretty good (though Road Rovers is admittedly my favorite. I’m still upset about that show being canceled. It was also my first discovery of real fanfiction).

I think I’m going to cut this one a little bit short as it’s far too early to be saying much more. I will tell you that next week’s film..leaves something to be desired. We had a lose/lose vote this week. It ended up being one of the later Land Before Time movies VS Twilight with Rifftrax. I cringe at the thought of both, especially since the damage done by watching Twilight the first time is just starting to heal. I cringe more at the Land Before Time movie, though. At least we have Rifftrax for Twilight.

Remember, Rifftrax are a point in any terrible movie’s favor. Especially when the alternative doesn’t have them and/or is worse.

Comments are appreciated. They make me feel loved.