Today's progress report: 2000 of the right words for "Northern Lights (working title)". A bunch of writing in... something else... as well.

I need an icon of Buffy with a sword. Giles with a sword icons bonus. My little stash of icons saved from various sources didn't have anything. Did she ever hold a sword in canon? Of course she did, right? In S5 at the very least, when those knights of the idiot brigade were in town to provide plot complications.

Have been completely distracted and absent-minded for days and days now. Normally this is okay; I wander into my workplace and become distracted by the things they pay me to do, which is convenient all around. Now I get distracted without external structure and vanish for hours into projects. Is there such a thing as attention surfeit disorder?

Life: Was feeling good about my three-minute 12kg kettlebell snatch test until I watched youtube videos of women doing five-minute tests with 16kg bells. I know that I can snatch a 16kg kettlebell ten times just fine; wonder how dead I'd be after snatching it for five minutes non-stop. Probably "very dead". Well, it's good to have goals.

Birthday! Happy belated birthday to spikendru! I was so happy to meet you at Writercon. I want you to know that the bracelet you gave me is at this moment held by my action figures of Giles and Xander. Xander is attempting to show Giles how to do hula hoop. Giles is doubtful.

I find the poll responses telling. ( Wait, aren't you supposed to show not tell? )

I am behind on Merlin and Dollhouse. I can't say I'm really burning to watch either of them, not the way I was burning to watch new House. You know what I should catch up on, though? Eureka. Or I could just try to put a dent in my stack of unread books.

And in conclusion, a most emphatically happy birthday to kivrin!

Woah, birthdays! I missed bloodwrites yesterday-- I hope it was an excellent day with friends, family, and fun. And today we have unmisha, who's been quiet recently, and lilachigh, whom I just met at WriterCon! May the coming year be full of neat experiences for you all.

I hope you're having stunning weather for it up there on the lake. Get on those waterskis!

Any further comments about the miseries of the downslide to 30 will result in instant defriending.

I write you all from the home of wide_rider, where I landed after a long hot drive down the eastern half of Oregon. Which is, indeed, much less pretty than the valley in the middle, but there the road was. It was twisty. The drive over the Cascades was awesome, though. As was dinner with WR and ladyforash! I have met some more of the people I've been reading about here on LJ for years now.

I should write much more about this, but my brain is completely fried. I am nodding off even as I type.

Happy belated birthday to khaoschilde! The next year is going to be fascinating for you! May it be calm and happy as well as fascinating.

( Today... )

( Agenda... )

Random 1: Philip K. Dick on How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later.
Random 2: Brian Eno on the benefits of closing down choice when making art.

Okay, now to find out how far back I need to skip to catch up with the flist.

The difference between me and you, oh flistians: I have no idea who Loreena McKennit is, but have been thinking that a few tracks from Trentemøller's The Last Resort would fit in well with the current writing soundtrack. ( Remainder of the wittering cut... )

( In re wittering: a brief poll. )

Birthdays! I missed some birthdays! tx_cronopio, spiralleds, and nelldance, I hope you had the loveliest of days, with appropriate celebratory food and loved ones both four-footed and two-footed to share with.

Good lord, there are a lot of February babies! clavally, ladyforash, daiseechain, lostgirlslair, and emelye_miller: celebrating their birthdays yesterday and today. I hope you all had great times with friends and family and delicious snackfoods!

November is the best of all possible months for birthdays. As proof, I offer the following evidence.

Earlier this month, we had nwhepcat, froxyn, and chicken_cem. And now for this awesome week of pie and cranberry sauce, we've got misswitch, supermom20, elementalv, penwiper26, and mythichistorian. I dunno about you, but I'm feeling thankful for the reading pleasure those fans have given me.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to a writer of wonderful serials, nwhepcat! May it be an excellent one, full of interesting craft objects and delicious meals with friends. Whee!

Happy birthday to katekat1010! May it be a fine one with happy family and friends, and may the year that follows be full of awesome.

ETA: Oh my goodness, mythicvictory too!

Today is notable in several excellent ways:
- It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
- In San Francisco, it's PARK(ing) Day.
- And it's sueworld2003's birthday! Happy birthday! May there be many fine images of Spikey in compromising positions for you to enjoy today.

Eek! I missed fairygothmum's birthday yesterday, so I'll be a day early with missparker's birthday and say to both of you guys: May there be much cake of exactly the kind you like best with the people you love most eating it with you! And may your upcoming year be 200% more awesome than last year was.

I hope it was fabulous and the Dalek in the restaurant was everything you'd hoped for! We're looking forward to seeing you on this side of the world soon.

I dunno what you're doing with your day, but I'm spending mine watching Synth Pr0n. That is, videos of the Cars playing live and other fun things showcasing classic analog synths. That's a Vox Continental at the bottom of his stack, but most of the characteristic sound is a miniKorg. (I'm not much of a musician, but making sounds with things is my other hobby. Kinda dormant at the moment. I have so far failed in my resolution to get myself guitar lessons this summer.) For an antidote, please do listen to this recent cover of "My Best Friend's Girl" by Greg Hawkes and some friends.

Comfort music: the music of my high school years. Easy to listen to, all those New Wave bands. But I'm also liking Honeyroot 2007 album, The Sun Will Come. "Every Single Day" has the hooky nature of a hit.

And hey! Happy birthday to kendermouse! I hope you are having a good one, full of things that make you grin.

khaoschilde doesn't have the hang of this birthday thing yet, because she gave us the big present in the form of a whole lot of Giles manips. Giles/Ethan and Giles/Buffy are represented, as is the Giles/tea OTP.

Happy birthday to noelia_g! And a very slightly early happy birthday to helenkacan! I hope your Friday evenings and weekends are going swimmingly.

Yoinks. My kink_bingo card is a mixed bag. ( Tats? Cool. What's that next one now? )

Also tonight: playing through the Cars' first album on Rock Band. That thing didn't leave my turntable for ages. No, I'm not all that old: I was only in junior high when the very cool David F showed up in class with a Cars concert t-shirt from that first album. Lots of neat synth work on that record-- Greg Hawkes had some cool toys.

Random link for tonight: slash_victims.

Hey, is it hobgoblinn's birthday? It is! Happy birthday to you, and happy mother's day as well, to one of the most intrepid, dedicated, and thoughtful mothers I know.

It's the birthday of a cronopio, a Texan cronopio! Please tell Riley he doesn't get to eat any shoes today.

Today: clavally and ladyforash.
Tomorrow: daiseechain and lostgirlslair.

Cake for all! Cake all week! CAKE!

Happy birthdays today, and my heartfelt thanks for the day off in their honor, go to flistians glimmergirl and violetisblue! I admire both of you so much, and enjoy your writing whenever you choose to share it with us all. May your day be wonderful and the upcoming year even more so!

May there be many delights awaiting you this year, at least ten times as many as last year!

Happy birthday to chicken_cem, who I hope had a fabulous day with yummy treats yesterday, and to supermom20, who should have all the cake or cake-equivalent deliciousness possible today!

Happy birthday to katekat1010 and to mythicvictory! May there be much cake (or pie) and punch (or tea) as you wish, and may there also be oodles of love from the people around you.

Happy birthday to gileswench!

And my most grateful thanks for stories like "Snips and Snails" and "The Hogs Beneath the Skin" and so many others that have brought us all such pleasure. You rock!