do not read this.

( do not click, there's nothing to see here )

I got The Tales of Beedle the Bard for Christmas! Special Edition!

Ha hahahhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

It's beautiful! It's expensive! It's sitting in a place of honor on my bookshelf, and I've been READING it! That's right, reading it! The stories are so wonderful! *sniff* I love Dumbledore!!!

I can't seem to end a sentence without an exclamation point! =D!

:) 

Saw Twilight. Loved it. Want Edward. Must read books now.

It's really just all about the sexiness and tension, however. SO YUMMY. I can see why the majority of the female population has become addicted. I don't have the highest of expectations as to the quality of writing in the books, but I can definitely see why it simply wouldn't matter. I've always enjoyed the, um... appeal of vampires in a good bloodsucker flick, but this...wwhhhooaaaa!!!!!! "biteme baby!"

ahem. < _ <   > _ > I'm not embarrassed. Not in the least. Perfectly natural reaction to have.

And yes, I am aware of the ridiculous amount of fragment sentences in this entry.

On a different note, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is out (or will be out tomorrow, I can't be sure) and I don't have a copy! I MUST HAVE THESE TALES! I wanted the special edition $100 one sooooo badly when I first heard about them, but the lack of money is, shall we say, proving cumbersome. I'll survive without it, but damnit I am one of those special individuals who salivate over precious, unique books, especially when they are a piece of folklore from within another book which I just happen to worship and look so darn pretty! It should be mine! But nooooooo.

I had better at least get the paperback version for Christmas. I can't even buy that on my own since I'm scrounging for gifts for other people *pphtth* And now I have to wait until July of next year to have my Harry Potter movie fix. Why oh why?

Is anyone else unreasonably pouty today because we didn't get to go see HBP? *pout*

And here's a funny, and perhaps scary revelation: I have not read the Twilight books, I never even heard of the things until word got out to the HP fandom that Twilight was gonna be a movie, and yet I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THIS FRIGGIN' FILM! I'm really rather chomping at the bit, which is highly inconvenient since I'm out of money and can't spur-of-the-moment-splurge on an evening ticket. How silly is it that I'm vaguely disappointed that I didn't go to the Twilight midnight premiere in an HP witch costume? Especially since I don't have a proper HP witch costume (yet!), and anyway what I really want to see is Harry Potter!... Right?

( Right? )

I also can't help but find it hot that Cedric didn't really die - he just turned into a vampire! This movie better be damn good.

I will definately be trimming it down this year. I always have some sort of budget in mind when I start gathering gifts for family and friends, but this year I'm really struggling because I'm unemployed (keep your fingers crossed for me, I'm still trying to land something) and I'm simply running out of money. I have to get at least a seasonal job, or I won't be able to pay my bills let alone buy presents.

I've convinced myself that I'll either end up writing everyone cute quotes with a caligraphy pen and role the paper up with a bow, or get everyone discounted items from whatever fantabulously paying retail job I wind up with. You know, coffee, lotion... because I will get hired... by the end of the week! Yes. I believe!

I've come to the conclusion that I pretty much have no life.

I've been collecting a lot of favorites on DeviantArt, namely my own account mansrot.deviantart.com. I've gathered mostly HP fanart (yes, I am big huge dork and PROUD OF IT!), but I'm also trying to find good calligraphy and so far, not much luck. I like handwriting/penmanship and have recently considered practicing more calligraphy of my own *gasp!*.

I melt every time I see images of old manuscripts, letters, and other documents; all the love and detail which was put into those pages really speaks to me, perhaps because I feel it highly appropriate to express such love for words. When you think about it, words are truly precious things, expressions of our main form of communication: language. And written words are almost magical in their power to carry knowledge across oceans and through time, long after their writers have passed on. Without the written word our ability to pass on information would be greatly diminished, and we would likely have to start from scratch with each new generation, oral storytelling notwithstanding.

In this age of digital communication I think we are losing a necessary appreciation for real, hard-copy written documents. I find it ironic that I am at this very moment committing these thoughts to livejournal... rather than my moleskine journal. Huh.

I. Am. Disgusted. We're supposed to be better than this by now... but more on that later.

I randomly found this meme oncorryn</lj>  (did I type that so that it works?). Thought it looked like a cute thing to do...

*Grab the nearest book.
*Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
 

"She had three men beside her, three men alone, however brave they might be." - from Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry: Book Three The Darkest Road. I didn't look, I just reached out my left hand while still sitting at my desk, and pulled out the first book I touched. One of my favorite fantasy authors.

( Enter the rant if you dare! )
Strait and against H8! (read above)

I just thought I should put down somewhere a few of the books I like... no, love the most.

I'm a bit of a Margaret Atwood fan, though I've only read three of hers so far:
The Handmaid's Tale
The Blind Assassin &
Oryx and Crake

( more on my weird relationship with books... )

I've gotta join some book clubs *procrastinates*. Suggestions?

I just exercised my civic duty by making sure my vote was counted. Did you?

I've been so worked up about some of the more... emotional issues. ( just take a deep breath... and remember how lucky we are to be Americans )

DUNT da da DAAAAAAAA!

Still haven't been hired by anybody *grrrummmbblllle, grumble*, but at least I now have a project other than being turned down for badly needed employment. My grandma needed some invitations made for her annual Christmas party, and after she saw a B-day card I made for my mom, she asked me to do the calligraphy! I likes to write pretty! And yes, she does think of these things before Hallowe'en.

Not that I'm an expert mind you, but given enough time and provided the style isn't anything too fancy, I do okay. The truely wonderful thing about this particular project is that she's gonna pay me! Money! x) I need it sooooo bad...... I hate being poor.

But the cards, yes. The fronts will have little christmas lights twining around a snowman to one side, with the christmas-card-y words taking up (hopefully) most of the space. I tried to steer her towards something simple and elegant like clusters of holly berries, but she wanted "cute" which is appropriate I guess, since her parties are rather "cute". Anyway, it's her money! Soon to be my money!

If I can figure out how, perhaps I will post a picture of the card front once it's done. Geek or no geek, I'm hopeless with computers. I haven't even figured out how to make the damn LJ cut thing work yet...!

Well. Apparently journals which are brand new and rather foundering are a total turn-off (won't say who I'm quoting). Well really! Just how is a newcomer supposed to get started? *hmph*

How about if I....ramble randomly?! Woo!

I'm drinking one of the most wonderful liquid inventions of all time: hot coca with peppermint. I'm not talking any of that cheap, packaged, just-add-water insta-cocoa stuff with mostly fake sugar and hardly any real chocolate, oh no, I mean the good stuff. I mixed it myself from 100% cocoa, real cane sugar, salt (yes, that's the secret!), a drop of vanilla and a few drops of peppermint extract all mixed in milk, not water thank you! *sigh* is goooooooooood =)

I feel like I need to be writing something, creative wise, but I haven't been struck with any inspiration today. I think the need for stories might be springing from the total lack of money-making opportunities. I need to feel productive, which for me translates into "I wish I felt creative". Yet my thoughts always circle back to "I need a job". Creative urges kinda get shunted to the wayside when money is this scarce.

I have another problem as well; there's a gremlin in my computer. Or at least I think it's a gremlin, but it's certainly some kind of mischievous fairy who seems to think it's funny to tell my fathers' office printer to print fifty-some-odd pages of images I did a google search for last night without ever even suggesting I might want to print any of it! HOW did this happen? I don't know, it just did, therefore - wicked fairies! If it happens again I'm calling an exorcist.

Blah. I finally got home from my job interview, which turned out to be me just filling out an application for a temp agency. I really want a job. Strike that; I really need a job because I'm pretty much out of money. I want a job which I can actually enjoy and maybe even be a little passionate about. Is that too much to ask? I really do enjoy quite a few things, like books, and travel, and discussing useless trivia about mythology and ancient history. Surely that sounds like fun to someone else. Surely there must be some kind of paid employment which incorporates these interests. Other than being a college professor, because I don't have the dratted degree for that yet.

So yeah, I probably should have eaten more today than I did, because I'm really feeling the effects of being both tired and hungry which inevitably lead to feeling grumpy.

Do you know what I want? A kitchen. Preferably with the rest of a house attached to it, but just my own kitchen would be nice. I peaked into a kitchen supply store as I meandered through a mall after I left that interview, and oh boy! They had samples! Not enough to fill my empty belly, but tasty nonetheless. Gods I want those pots. And those nice dishes. AND a chocolate shaver! Kitchen tools may seem like strange things to lust after, but when you're hungry... And in any case I like the idea of having that cooking space all to myself.

I think I'll get comfortable and read for a while. A good book is always a comfort, even if I'm not getting paid to read it! ;)

grrrr.... Why am I still up? I have interviews to go to and jobs to get tomorrow!

Who am I fooling? I just wanted to use the all-too-appropriate icon.

GO TO BED! *yes, she often gives herself very good advice, but she very seldom follows it*

Just got back from a job fair, and I'm feeling a little bit better than I've been feeling recently.

Man what a mess! I have a tote bag full of papers and fliers and applications and business cards... I have to go through it all and make lists of what websites to go apply to, who took my resume (that I can remember), and who I'm expecting calls from (Please!!!). Gods it would be great to have money again!

There are so many things I want to do, but I'm just not sure how to start. Unfortunately the job thing is an absolute necessity, otherwise I'd be focusing more on education and a real career, you know, one that involves my life's passions. And what are those life passions you ask? *sigh* Don't have an answer for you yet. That's really why I want to transfer to a four-year university and meet people and "find myself" and all that. I need a path! And I sure as anything am not gonna find it here.

But I'm not going anywhere without money. Which I won't get unless I stay and work. Which requires a job, most of which require a four-year degree.

Nevertheless, I am hopeful that the goal of becoming employed in the near future is much more attainable now that I've gone to that job fair. I'm crossing my fingers! And now to tackle those papers...

I just finished watching the presidential debate, and am now listening to the follow-up analysis. They just said that nine percent of Americans are satisfied with how things are.

Must be the airheads.

I think Obama did a much better job of answering most of the questions; not all but most, particularly in terms of actually outlining how he plans to do things. Neither candidate could keep their responses within the time limit, which I found extremely entertaining!

Obviously there's quite a bit more to consider, so I think I'll watch and wait before I say more.

I suppose this is my first livejournal entry. Mind you, I only opened this account so that I could read some Harry Potter fanfiction, but now that it's been sitting around for a while and I've lurked long enough it seems like it might be fun to actually write in it. Even on the internet I'm a bit uncomfortable and frankly clueless as to how things work. So yes, let's call this a first try. Who knows? I might meet some new people!

Now all I need to figure out is....
what do I write?

I'm sure I'll think of something.