Speak Syntax To Me Baby

Anyone watching me work on my laptop at Vividcon would know that my laptop sucks. My laptop sucks so hard, it takes nearly five minutes for a window to appear after a right-click, at least ten minutes (this is neither an overstatement nor an exaggeration) to turn on completely, and the battery only lasts an hour.

So those people (especially Jen, she has shouted at my laptop “KILL IT WITH FIRE!” since the beginning of our friendship) should be pleased to know that that Laptop (her name was Fallon….) is dead.

Okay, so maybe that’s the wrong choice of word. She’s not technically DEAD. She’s still alive and running at a speed slower than a snail on depressants…but she’s no longer my Main Computer. She now belongs to the Little Brother (I’m tempted to call him Fratellini online from now on…) and she’s his problem*.

I now have a laptop that is infinitely more awesome. His name is Wolowizard.

He is a dual-core (to Fallon’s single), 250GB hard drive (to Fallon’s 7GB), 3GB RAM (to Fallon’s 1GB), 6-cell Li-Ion battery (to Fallon’s…something shitty dying battery), comes with a built-in microphone and webcam (not like I’ve ever wanted to video blog or anything >_>), has Windows 7 (to Fallon’s XP), and can burn DVDs and CDs alike.

Oh yeah, and here’s the awesomest part (or at least it’s awesome to my wallet): Fallon cost $1000 (Fujitsu, Fry’s cheated us and said it was ‘top of the line’ my ass). Wolowizard? $536. Total. It’s a Dell Inspiron.

OMG, you might be saying, OMG HOW DID YOU GET SOMETHING SO AWESOME FOR SO LITTLE?! To which I reply, STOP CAPSLOCKING WHORE and Oh yeah, I totally stood in line from 4am-5am in 36F weather outside a Best Buy on Black Friday.

But it was worth it.

Now I have to transfer ALL my programs and files over onto Wolowizard. Which would be easier if the power supply cord for Lillith (my external 750GB hard drive) wasn’t broken. *le sigh*

*Technically if he was anyone else’s fratellini, it wouldn’t be a problem. There’s not much a 15-year-old boy needs a dual-core for so Fallon should be perfect, y? NO. He’s my brother. He’s asked me to keep my video editing program on there so HE CAN MAKE VIDS. You have no idea the amount of love that streams from me. MY FRATELLINI IS A VIDDER. I win.

[01] -- Go to IMDB.com and look up 10 of your TV shows.
[02] -- Post three official IMDB "Plot Keywords" for these picks.
[03] -- Have your friends guess the show names.

1) Inanimate object, eccentric, Niagara Falls
2) murder, pie, man in love
3) obsessive compulsive disorder, nerd, California
4) cult favorite, friendship between men, computer nerd
5) british comedy, sex, stabbed in the head
6) magic, sword fighting, king
7) escape, pirate broadcast, genetic engineering
8) space opera, telephone booth, fish out of water
9) pineapple, psychic power, pharmaceuticals
10) book, drunk, irishman
OKAY I'M A REBEL I'M DOING 15 SO SUE ME I WATCH LOADS OF TELLY OKAY?!
11) man in uniform, lost city, good versus evil
12) absurdism, crossdressing, comedy team
13) grim reaper, life after death, false accusation
14) space western, clever dialogue, gun nut
15) grifter, computer hacker, scam

In my family, there is a show that captured our hearts from the get-go. Chuck. I'll take an adorable geek boy with goofy faces and a government computer trapped in his head, watched over by awesome sexy female agent and tough no-nonsense sexy Jayne from Firefly OMG male agent and you have a recipe for awesome!

Also, when he 'flashes' on things, he makes really strange faces.

Did I mention the faces?

Title: Chuck On Shrooms
Show, Spoilers: Chuck (NBC), clips used through Season 1
Music: "I'm On Shrooms" The Lonely Island
Length, size: 0:36, 2.49MB

Download: on MegaUpload

watch it before you download!

Find more videos like this on BAM Vid Vault

okay, after watching at least half of "lancelot and guinevere" i've decided to write down my squee and anti-squee. But it should be known that I have just finished T.H. White's The Once And Future Queen. Therefore my judgment on this and future episodes will be a little biased, in example: ( SPOILERS )

And please repost this? I don't have a subscription so I can't make this an official poll.

I'm making some vids at the moment, and I need to know if anyone's seen the movies I'm making them for.

1) Sunshine Cleaning.
a) Have you seen it?
b) If yes, did you like it?
c) If not, why?
d) What was your favorite part/character?
2) Lars and the Real Girl.
a) Have you seen it?
b) If yes, did you like it?
c) Are you pro-Lars?
3) Even if you have not seen either of these, would you still watch a vid if it gave away the whole movie?

So I was extremely hassled when I first made this vid- through poor planning, I got the 13th episode of Merlin Season 1 on the day the vid was due. So I threw the thing together and sent it in.

Unfortunately, I made 2 errors: 1) I read the wrong guidelines and didn't put my name and vid title in the vid (I think I read the guidelines for the challenge vids) and 2) I didn't doublecheck and triplecheck my vid before sending it so it was filled with technical blips (such as: frame flickers, mismatched aspect ratio, and awkward pacing). So it didn't go over so well at Vividcon.

So with the aspect-ratio fixing help from thingswithwings at the con, and a lot of time when I got back home, I have remastered my vid (I was told by someone to call it Remastering) into a streamlined version of how I wish it had shown at VVC.

I give you:

Title: Cassandra
Song, artist: "Dream Awake" The Frames
Warnings: Spoilers through season 1 of merlin
Summary: You will dream the future, and no one will listen. You will be forced to watch as they take up the sword, and it will break your heart when they fall by it.

Lyrics: if you're interested

download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HBIMH8NU

I just wanna say, this was probably my favorite episode ever. I saw it last night when I was too tired to take out my computer and type my reactions, so what I remember of it today I'll comment on.

1) In the beginning, there were REALLY NICE TRANSITIONS. Like, I think they've grown so much from Season 5 episode 1. It was almost...*gasp* as if they were VIDDING.

2) please to be excusing me but I'm about to capslock squee. OMG PERSONAL SPACE. CAS AND DEAN HAVE ACTUALLY TALKED ABOUT THIS. WHICH MEANS CAS HAS STOOD WAY THE FUCK TOO CLOSE TO DEAN ON MANY OCCASIONS SO THAT DEAN HAD TO TALK TO HIM ABOUT IT. AND AND AND AND DID YOU NOTICE, WHEN HE FIRST APPEARED, BEFORE DEAN SAID ANYTHING, DEAN LOOKED AT CAS LIKE HE WAS GOING TO KISS HIM. I SRSLY CANNOT WAIT TO VID THIS EPISODE, IT'S LIKE THE SLASH WRITES ITSELF, PPL

3) I just love the dialogue in this episode. "What were you planning on doing for your last night on Earth?" Dean asks Cas. Cas replies, "I was planning on sitting here in the dark." THAT IS SO FUNNY I DON'T EVEN KNOW. I'm sure I'm not the only one who, when we see Dean leap on Cas's awkward look at the mention of women, took it to mean (obviously) that Castiel is gayer than Dean and Sam's epic awkward love. Also, I'm sure that in our minds, it was a gay brothel.

4) Chastity? Really? Is Serendipity there, too? Because I couldn't have been the only one to catch the Dogma reference.

5) Or maybe that's just me...Chastity's scream is because Cas made her come so hard she was almost blinded.

6) OH WOOBIEDean! Oh, the laughter! Oh, the horrible dark transition into Dean's realization that Sam never made him laugh like Cas has.

7) They are getting so good at their one-liners. "...and the Eastern Seaboard" OMG HOW AWESOME WAS THAT.

8) I can't be the only one who thought WHAT THE HELL, JESS. And I KNOW that across the globe, hundreds of fans screamed out CALLED IT. when the Devil whipped out that "oh yeah, you're sort of THE VESSEL...of PURE EVIL. duh." on Sam's ass. Which leads me to the last little rant...:

I believe that Fans are the strongest people in existence. We have the most enviable amount of willpower. Despite all odds, we will believe that ___ loves ___, even when all televised evidence points to the contrary. Also, we are the epitome of "original thought." It may not seem like it, since we're writing fan-fiction (which draws from previously-conceived works), but most of what is PUBLISHED was thought of/written by a fan before it was cool.

someone once said, there are only ten original stories in the world. I believe they were all written by fans.

After reading a lot of the fannish squee/hate on the representation of fangirls in Supernatural, I have taken it upon myself to re-write a few choice scenes with a large dose of realism.

Title: How It Should Have Gone Down
Wordcount: 946
Warnings/Spoilers: Realism (oh noes!), swearing, slash
Author's Notes: I have no idea how to write a screenplay for a movie or otherwise. What I recall I learned from being in a few plays and from owning the complete screenplay to Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Any resemblance to a real person is incidental and non-intentional (with the exception of Sam, Dean, and Chuck, of course). My mary sues are mainly based off of rival fan forces I have either witnessed or hold warring within myself.
Also, when I wrote this, I couldn't remember Chuck's last name. So sue me.

( Scene 1: a room covered in autographed CW posters, to add a bit of Irony, and about five Terabytes of video footage and fanvids )

okay, i haven't read any fannish response on this episode yet, because I am dreading the response. I predict there will be a lot of "OMG THEY'RE TRASHING OUR CRAFT" and "WELL FUCK YOU TOO" and possibly a bit of "NOT ALL OF US ARE INTO WINCEST" (a tiny bit?), but I'm here to throw out my two cents.

Basically, this episode made me happy. Like, grinning ear-to-ear happy. As soon as the fangirl scene kicked into gear, when I heard that girl typing about the Wincest, I paused the screen (yay, tivo ftw!) and laughed/cried for a few minutes, and then tried to control myself to continue. THEY PUT A FUCKIN FANGIRL ON THE TV. This is epic, ppl. "One small step for slashers, one giant leap for fankind" EPIC. Yes, it was derogatory and pedestrian and possibly insulting, but it was acknowledgment.

I know Kripke is 'all up in fandom's grille' etc, rehashing this 'phenomenon of fandom' and these 'crazy people who like to write cheesy fanfic about two brothers getting it on' (NOTE: none of these are quotes, sorry to disappoint), but to actually publicize it?

I don't know, it just made my day.

Especially when Fangirl touched Sam irl and he said "Please stop touching me," to which she appropriately replied, "No." THAT part made me giggle like a two year old. COME ON, LIKE YOU WOULDN'T TOUCH SAM IF YOU GOT THE CHANCE?

the only thing i didn't like was the whole "Dean....you're not like I expected." DEAN IS THE SEXIEST MOFO THIS SIDE OF THE MILKY WAY, OKAY? YOU DO NOT MESS WITH THE DEAN, HE IS MY SEXY SOLDIER.

monday? I trip on nothing at school and fall down three concrete stairs (more like I fell on my knees and then SLID down the stairs) and I get a huge-ass bone bruise all down my left shin that has me limping around school the rest of the day.

Tuesday, I wake up and my leg still hurts, though not as much as before. I can walk on it, but now it's got a bruise showing (before it was a bone bruise and it hurt but you couldn't see it, now you can totally see it). I had trouble bending down and walking up/down stairs, but it was manageable.

TODAY? Yeah, I'm walking out the door of my house on my way to school and my foot catches in the strap of my laptop bag and I fall DOWN THE STAIRS AGAIN, and yes, they're also MADE OF CONCRETE. I fall down a flight of concrete stairs (same deal as before: fall on knees, slide down stairs ka-thunk-ka-thunk-ka LAND), and this time on the SAME BRUISED LEG, except wait, there's more! I land with my left knee on the edge of my dad's table saw, which is not on a table but resting in a temporary spot on the floor of the living room. I land with my knee on the sharp steel edge of a heavy metal object and not only does it bruise the FUCK out of my ALREADY BRUISED LEG, but it cuts STRAIGHT THROUGH MY JEANS and rips a chunk out of my knee.

needless to say I am in so much pain, I left home with a crutch we found in the garage and a bottle of motrin. I can't even BEND MY LEG without it hurting like a bitch.

oh, yeah, and I'm late to my Astronomy class on the second day, and I was late Monday, so I'm waiting outside the classroom to explain to my teacher that I TOTALLY CARE ABOUT THE CLASS, BUT I AM IN SO MUCH PAIN IT HURTS TO WALK.

i need a new laptop. my current model is a Fujitsu N3410, single-core Pentium M processor with a 1GB ram, and the (apparently 4-cell li-ion) battery dies in about an hour. The screen is 15.4''. It weighs in at 6.5 lbs, the speaker is cracked, there's a flap missing on a drive, there's a chunk missing on the closing mechanism that makes it a bitch to close, and it's so slow it freaks out when i have more than two programs running.

what I NEED isn't necessarily what I can afford right now. I'd like to be able to vid and get wifi on a good vidding computer that I could take around with me.

what I NEED is: a dual-core processor, extended battery life, a price less than $800, a wifi receptor, a weight that won't break my back lugging it around, a bluray disc reader.

what I can SACRIFICE in computer and just purchase separately: cd/dvd/bluray optical drive, hard drive memory.

I own: a wacom intuos tablet, a 750GB external hardrive.

I considered netbooks. At costco they have sales ending in September on netbooks. They have 2 Acer inspire-ones, one has a 6-cell li-ion battery, is $350 and includes a case, mouse, and optical drive, but it has a single-core processor.
the other Acer has a dual-core processor but only a 3-cell li-ion battery for $350.
both have 10 inch screens and weigh about 2-3 lbs. neither have a built-in optical drive.
Also at costco, there's a deal on a Dell studio 1555 laptop. it's not a netbook, so it weighs about 5.8lbs and has a 15.6'' screen. It has a dual-core processor AND a 9-cell lithium-ion battery. it has a 500 GB hardrive. it has an internal dvd/r optical drive. it has a 4GB ram. however, it's $800.

extra Acer batteries are about $150.

so my choices are: an affordable netbook with a great battery and poor processor, an affordable netbook with a great processor and inferior battery, and an expensive laptop with a great battery and great processor.

i am expecting my first credit card to appear in the mail in the next couple of days. i might get the laptop as my first purchase. it's just a lot of money.

This post cannot contain all the awesome of VividCon.

But it will make an attempt:

Have you ever had an experience where you walk into a supermarket/etc and realize there is a celebrity standing near to you?

Imagine that instead of a supermarket, it is a hotel. And instead of a celebrity, it's every BNF you've ever rabidly followed on LJ for vids, fic, meta, etc, and they're not just standing near you but talking to you about your vid or the weather, and you have so much SQUEE built up you can never let out.

oh, my god.

And then watch a million amazing vids and TALK TO THE VIDDERS LATER. !!!!

Also, imagine: a hotel room with like-minded drunked fangirls watching a show/movie of your fandom and MOCKING THE SHIT OUT OF IT...

and in the case of the Merlin party, making insane glowstick sculptures.



despite getting lost on the transit system more times than not, I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE.

Title, Rating: All I've Gained Are Craving Palms (G)
Fandom, Pairing: Merlin (BBC), suggested Arthur/Merlin
Warnings/Spoilers: No spoilers, warnings for angst
Summary: This is how it happens. This is Merlin's sacrifice.
Wordcount: 499
Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin, nor do I desire to. That is too much magic to be held by one person. Title is from the song “Pale Blue Eyes” by Barzin, a song I believe captures the very essence of this drabble. Go listen to it.

“If you got some magic, babe,
then now, now's the time to use it.
Now's the time to prove your heart
and lose it.”
~ “If U Got Some Magic” Rademacher

( In Arthur's dying breath... )

Because someone at VVC asked me what I've done and everything slipped my mind. So I rallied up my projects:

(In order of when I did them)
*"The Prayer" Stargate Atlantis (Youtube took the vid away, but I still have the tiny clip of it here)
*"Atlantis Gone Coconuts" Stargate Atlantis (at youtube)
*"As Cool As I Am" SGA (imeem took it away!)
*"Waiting For The Kill" Bones (youtube took it awayyyyyyyy....!)
*"I Never Thought I Could Feel This Way For A Boy" Merlin (at Bam)
*"Dimmer" Dr. Who (at Bam
*A premieres vid for the Merlin fandom at Vivid Con!
and some more Merlin vids i'll upload later...

today:
*took the bus in the WRONG DIRECTION. took it all the way to the end of the line. When the bus driver saw me, I told her where I was headed and she said, "You should have asked! That's in the opposite direction!"
*got on the train finally.
*a baby on the train gave me the stink eye the entire trip.
*walked from the train stop to the Marriott, only to find....
*IT WAS THE WRONG MARRIOTT.
*waited at the wrong hotel for an hour, for the free shuttle to pick me up.
*talked to the Valet guy during the wait. apparently, he's crashed every car he's ever driven (his lifted trucks, his motorcycles, his lowered volvo, his friends' cars), and yet he has a job as a VALET. he says the hotel doesn't know.

I'm in CHICAGO, my plane landed last night. Here's a short run-down of my life afterwards
*I got lost in the airport looking for the baggage claim.
*A REALLY NICE STRANGER handed me a 7-day cta pass, said, "Miss? Here, I think there's still some on here" and it expires on the 14th.
*I took the wrong train because the train information guy gave me the wrong directions.
*I walked three blocks to the hostel from the train stop when it was dark and spooky out
*The wheels on my large roller suitcase decided to stop rolling straight so now my suitcase rocks when I pull it
*one of the sidewalks I had to walk down to get to the hostel was closed due to construction
*i get to the hostel, check in, and spend three minutes trying to open the door to my dormitory because it's jammed
*I get stuck with a top bunk
*the mattress is terribly uncomfortable

THIS MORNING:
*my roomates keep waking up early to shower
*I wake up at 8am (which is technically 6am in California time) because I went to bed at 10pm (or, 8pm Cali time)
*I go to 'breakfast' to find that 'breakfast' is bagels, jam, coffee, and tea.
*As I'm waiting in line to get my bagel toasted, a cute french boy (OMG HE'S LIKE 17 OR SOMETHING) stands behind me, and then SITS DOWN NEXT TO ME
*I strike up a conversation with an Australian woman, who reminds me that as terrible as it was that my airplane got stuck on the runway for a total of two hours, it could have been worse (her group was stuck in Dublin AIRPORT, unable to go outside, for 12 hours)
*French boy's friends plop down next to me and ask me all about where I'm from, what it's like temperature-wise and traffic-wise and tourist-wise and I confess that I failed my French class otherwise I'd talk to them in their native tongue

hahaha.

Also, French Boy totally looks like Bradley James. And barely managed to mutter out in English, "Where are you from?"
and is possibly way younger than I.
Did I mention Bradley James? I ALMOST LEPT ACROSS THE TABLE AT HIM. which would have been a terrible diplomatic incident. I might have been barred from France.

Title: Enter The Dragon
Wordcount: 500-ish
Fandom: Merlin, AU
Warnings: swearing, ridiculousness

( He gets the call at 4 A.M. )

So I've decided to get my hair cut while at Vividcon in Chicago.

I'm using the hotel's website to search the names of local salons, and I've discovered something.

There are a lot of FANTASTIC NAMES of salons in Chicago.

Here's some of my favorites:
Blood, Sweat and Shears
Cut It Out
Do Or Dye
Hair's Looking At You
Mane Event

and one disturbing one:
Magic Fingers Hair Salon

So I go to see the new Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie with my little 15-year-old brother, who's only read the books as far as Azkaban (he has no time for reading and he hates it when I read to him).

Backstory: He knows I have a strange love for teh slash. He willingly ignores it. Once he walked in to find me watching yaoi anime and promptly ran away.

however:

we're sitting there, watching, and we've seen about three 'glares of hatred' that the actors of Harry and Draco have attempted to pull off. Really they're just 'glares of lust'. there is no anger in those glances.

At the part where ( oh noes mild spoilers ) I'm thinking "I would totally write fanfic where Harry follows Draco and fucks him against the door", my little slightly-homophobic brother....

...leans over to me and whispers, in a sing-song voice, "Secret lovers!"

SRSLY.

Title: Olly Olly Oxen Free
Song Title, Artist: "Dimmer" Bishop Allen
Fandom, Episode: Doctor Who, The Christmas Special

download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5CBJWN8E

streaming link coming soon to an imeem near you.