I've been nominated as:
Petyr Baelish
Renly Baratheon
Bronn of the Blackwater
Jaime Lannister
Myrcella Lannister
Ellaria Sand
Tyene Sand
Taena Merryweather
Genna Lannister
Tormund Giantsbane (omg I actually had to go wiki that one...)
Elia Martell
Shiera Seastar


OMG YOU GUYZ. *is dead of laughing*

I have no idea who I'll actually campaign for... I love that I am apparently dooooomed to hang out with lots of Lannisters and Martells. Can't imagine where that idea came from.

I think I'll definitely campaign for Elia, and maybe Shiera... but I would love Tyene or Genna. Or Petyr, because that makes me laugh.

Arianne Martell and Renly Baratheon both exist inside my head, apparently. LOL although there were several votes for Petyr Baelish, Margaery Tyrell, Genna Lannister and Ygritte.

Click the pics if you want to go be sorted.

I spent today having a migraine and then being a consumer. I helped the economy by buying a bunch of clothes at Maurices and then at Stage (I had coupons and sale slips and stuff though!) ... and I went to Wal-Mart, because Sultana and Kitty both highly recc'ed Garnier Fructis' new Surf Wax stuff, and I was out of tons of beauty products that I did not buy this weekend at Sephora because I would like to someday have money in this century.

I bought Bare Minerals at Sephora this weekend though. I... i didn't mean to. It was just... the sales lady! And then! She just... and it looked... and I wanted it... and... and... *hangs head in shame* 

I'll let you know how the Bare Minerals thing works out.

I got tons of cute new tops though! AND STUFF TO LAYER WITH THEM! So I don't have to bust out the god awful winter clothing yet. I hate winter clothing. I HATE IT. I like big winter jackets but clothes which are actually warm I invariably loathe because they make me look like a mutated potato. I want to be one of those girls who can wear big giant hoodies and droopy sweaters and look good. :( I am not one. I wear miniskirts out of the desire to prove I have actual legs. I'm short, they're easily mistaken as nonexistant. Bleh.

Oh, and I got my new SCA gown too!! It's gold and its Italian-style and it's silk and it fits right (read I can lace it TIGHTLIKEWHOAH. DEAR SWEET SHUGGOTH THE CLEAVAGE) and the sleeves have red embroidery on them. *___*  Now to whine and look pathetic at Kitty until she says I can borrow her crimson silk overdress for it. Heh. I also got some glass pearl beadstuff and I'm thinking I may practice weaving it through my hair. I've got the hang of the hair ribbons now, so pearls shouldn't be too much more difficult...

ok ok, I'm a bad fanthing. I sort of decided to ignore A Song of Ice and Fire re: the HBO series cause, gods know, it always turns to dramedy when a fave series gets the tv deals... BUT! I finally went ahead and looked at the casting.

Now, I actually really liked the pilot script I read, so bear that in mind. Also? I am biased because I like HBO and their True Blood has eaten my soul in a way the books never managed to. So I have faith that HBO will find good and awesome people to do stuff right. And then they'll probably cancel it like, one season in or some retarded ass thing. Like they did ROME. I'm still not past that bitterness. Or Carnival. Let's not talk about Carnivale either. 

So seriously, HBO has given me a lot of my favorite series: Band of Brothers, ROME, Carnivale, Deadwood, True Blood.  I know that they have my brand loyalty now.

Anyway. On to the casting!!! 

( cut for CAPSLOCK and FANGIRLING and fannish tantrums )

5 Things I Want/Expect to Happen in A Dance With Dragons
1. SOMEONE TO READ A F*CKING BOOK.
I want someone to give me some damn history to work with.

2. To meet Quentyn Martell
There can never be enough Martells. Anywhere. Ever. And I want Quentyn to be awesome too, plz. Omg, if he does not live up to his dad and uncle and even Arianne on some sort of level, I will sob in broken fangirl disappointment.

3. Someone to kill Ramsay Bolton/ Euron Crowseye/UnGregor/Cersei
All of these choices are rather too much to hope for. But a fangirl can dream.

4. Find out more about the conspiracies within the Citadel
Again most likely not gonna happen but it would be nice.

5. Dany gets laid.
Probably going to happen. I can just hope girl gets a lucky break with this one.

6. Get a glimpse of Highgarden
Even in a random aside sort of chapter.

... and please do not remind me anyone that it will be a whole nother book before I can find anything out about Sansa or Arya or Brienne or Jaime or Everyone Ever To Live In Dorne or .... or... *sob* We're never going to get the full answers about stupid Ned and the stupid Tower of Joy and stupid people dont' ever read so no one's ever going to find Care and Feeding of Dragons. ever. :( 


5 Fandoms I Never Fell In Love With Despite The Best Intentions
1. Battlestar Galactica 
 I tried, guys. I tried so hard. I really wanted to love this series, but in the end I wandered off and watched some old Babylon 5 reruns. From the hideously slow pacing in the first season, to the way nothing seemed to happen at all and the way I failed to care about anything aside from wishing desperately than someone would SHOOT THE FUCK OUT OF BALTHAR AND THAT DUMBASS HALLUCINATION!CYLON. But no one shot him and she kept popping up and I just couldn't care anymore. :( 

2. 24
 This is weird because what with my love of Glorious Bastards everywhere, you'd think I'd watch this show like a crack addict would watch a dealer. In fact I do adore Jack Bauer, but I've never been that into the series. I watch it when it's on, but it never turned into a can't-miss show with me.

3. Alias
 Again with my failure to love the many glorious bastards and the hot wardrobe and the concept of girl!spy. :( Alas, my love for this show's forerunner, La Femme Nikita was too great. After LFM, Alias felt too fluffy to my younger self. Not even awesome wigs and daddy issues could keep me tuned in.

4. Angel (between the first and last seasons)
 Doyle died and so did my devotion. Then by chance I caught the death of Fred and the entrance of Illyria and all the time between was forgiven as Angel and co took over The Big Bad and fought all the massed armies of hell and it was awesome. Shame about the major sucking in the meantime.

5. Sopranos
Not that I didn't watch the Sopranos, and its' not that I didn't really like it and worship the characters... but Sopranos never quite fit for me. I will still watch it and I still love the whole family, and all the dysfunction... It's just I never got obsessed. Which sort of makes me quietly sad.

Honorable Mention: 

BBC RobinHood  -  I don't actually understand why I don't love this show. Maybe it's Robin's eyeliner? Idk.
Sex in the City - I laughed and I appreciated, but the show fell victim to its own hype.
Lots of Fantasy book series- I'm stupidly picky about fantasy books. but especially:  Drizz't Do'Urden (dude I get it, you're angsty), Dragonlance (except for kenders. I heart kenders).  




((there is nothing on tv and I'm sick and I can't go out and play tonight and life bites tonight. Srsly.)) 

Fierce Bitches are my favorite people. I'm not sure how I'm going to get just five!! Ok, I'll try...

1. Pam - True Blood 
 So fierce she can put a 1000-year-old Viking vampire Sheriff in foil and give him make-overs. So fierce she can tease Eric and still have her fangs afterward. So fierce she has Lafayette terrified. Well, girl did eat him a little bit... Pam is Eric's uh, progeny? And she spent her life being an awesome debutaunte or society girl or something and then she got turned into a vampire and happily ripped everyone's throats out and helps run a vampire bar and she does this all looking like she walked out of Liz Claiborne's dreamshop and no one comments.

2. Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass- Gossip Girl
 Blair is everything you could want to be as a teenager: GORGEOUS, thin, effectively bulemic (but not grossly so, natch), obscenely rich, and she's got stupidly hot ex-boyfriend who's sweet as pie and then she's got his bff who is just as fierce and bitchy as she is and together they will rule the world. In painfully chic clothes. Chuck and Blair combine to be the bitchiest, fiercest force in all New York. And they will buy your soul. Do you take AmEx Black? 

3. Cersei Lannister - A Song of Ice and Fire
Love her, loathe her, think she's dissolved into a flaming ball of FAIL, you cannot say that Cersie Lannister is not a BITCH or that she is not FIERCE. Lioness, bb. Lioness. Also, she had amazing fashion sense right up until she started drinking like a fish. She was supar gorgeous and she came in a matched set! How can you not be a fierce bitch when you have Jaime Lannister as your twin/ass kickinest royal body guard/ talented lover?  She had her twin brothers babies and put one on the throne!

And then she went all whackjob Elizabeth Bathory Wicked Queen all over the place. but still, for a shining glorious moment, she was the fiercest bitch in Westeros and that takes some considerable talent.

4. MaryAnn Forrester - True Blood
In one of my usual Summer-flipflips of which I do so many, I abruptly realized that I really love MaryAnn Forrester. I hate her plotline because they seriously messed up the pacing I think, but the idea of her, and what she really is... You gotta hand her some kudos. Also, I want her wardrobe right now. I respect anyone whose wardrobe can make me drool this much. Also, she can throw a seriously, ludicrously killer party, wield a knife like nothing, and bend people to her will. Oh, and she can cook!! 

There's also the fact that in Greek mythology, the Maenads are second only to The Furies in fierce bitchness. That's some major juju right there.

5. Daenerys Targaryen - A Song of Ice and Fire 
She can smile sweetly and then lure your mercenaries into killing you in the night. She can blink at you all wide-eyed innocent princess and then her dragon flambees your ass and her army loots your entire city and KILLS THE FUCK OUT OF EVERYTHING. Baby got fierce. 
I mean, I could be normal and put Olenna Tyrell in here but Olenna is not quite fierce anymore, just scary as hell and demonically devious. I could have put Tywin Lannister in instead but we've got one Lannister on this list already.

Honorable Mentions: 
 Lady Stoneheart - A Song of Ice and Fire 
 Takes a fierce, fierce bitch to rock that Zombie look and gaping neckwound and still have guys following you into death and beyond. 

Scarlett O'Hara - Gone with the Wind 
 Classic, classy bitchitude with all the fierceness of a pissed off Southern debutaunte. 

 Lafayette - True Blood 
 Gold. Lamee. Pants. 

Chase - Blade: The Series. 
 Bitch was nothin but fierce. And a ninja. 

Reepicheep - Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian 
KING of. Mice! Voiced by Eddie Izzard! Will KIIIL You all! And your unoriginal musings on mice! AND DO IT ALL IN MAD FIERCE STYLE. With a floopy hat that would have Jack Sparrow or Porthos all crazy jealous.
 
((dear sheikah : I nearly put Hester Arryn down but then I remembered she's not canon. :O )) 

So, prepping for the Test of Doom (because as much as I love my favorite history professor and his rumpled slacks and tweedness and hats and loafers his tests really are a bit sadistic). It's on Friday. I'm going to flunk and die and be beaten with sticks and... well, there's that.

I've been reading Renaissance characters and obsessively reading my notes (when I'm not on e-bay but thats' a whole separate section right now tbh) 

Kitty was foolish enough to join me in this class so she's in on it as well. We're obsessing about Condottiere and Machiavelli and the role of women and the origin of the Papal States and the art of the period and the rise of the Medici and.... finally, you just have to stop.

So what to do we do to take a mental break from Renaissance Italy and its politics?? 

Discuss how to save Westeros.

Good grief.

Tonight's strategy: Magically take over Joffrey Baratheon circa book 2. Make him our personal muppet. Anytime he tries to do anything remotely Joffrey-like just make him go all house-elf and he'd bang his head into a wall. So he'd, y'know, eventually learn.

2 full hours later ( we sort of got the whole series sorted out.. )

Kitty: I'm going to brave the frozen tundra now... I say that a lot don't I?

Summer: Only when it's cold outside. And now it's always cold. It's always been cold. We thought it was summer but it wasn't. Summer never existed. Only the frozen cold...

Kitty: Well... maybe Jon Snow will die of frost bite.

Summer: That's okay then.

Kitty: Which part do you think will fall off first?



EDA... Russia is the White Witch. Daaamn, Russia. That's harsh.

I am amused.

I'm quite fond of twelve, nine, eight, seven and if I actually sent any of your Day 3, I would expect to be acknowleged as goddess divine thereafter.

Okay, so I was bored for a couple hours last night and talking with Kitty about the Westeros RPG we play with- A Gathering of Shadows on IJ- and how unbelievably damn pretty the cast is... We realized House Martell needed proof that THEY ARE HOTTER THAN U.

HOUSE MARTELL OF SUNSPEAR:
( Role Play Graphic of Silliness )

Guess how I found out Kitty had finished A Storm of Swords? 
 ... When it thunked into the wall right by my head. Apparently I was very wrong to let her read that book. I warned her! 
Kitty: But you said... and I kept thinking... and it wasn't! More happens in the last like 200 pages than in any book ever. And it HURT ME.
Me: I told you it would.
Kitty: BUT... it... It wasn't! And it didn't! ANd then HELLO LAST 200 PAGES.
Me: *offers cookies of peace* 

I guessed right about Oberyn. She was in love. And then... The book was in the freezer for a couple hours.

Red Wedding. She nearly killed me on that score.
Kitty: I get why you love Rob now though.

And now Tyrion is on her list of "Characters Kitty Wants to Throw In a Dungeon Til They Make Better Choices." 

Best part? She ran out and bought A Game of Thrones for her cousin and they started reading it. I got this phone message:
Kitty: EVERYONE'S DEAD. OMFG. HE KILLED EVERYONE.

And then I kissed a boy because he was tall and blond and had Jaime Lannister's snark. It happens.

News of the Good
C's on antidepressants so hopefully my bestest friend will not be quite so tumultuous, but will also not be zombified.

My platonic soulmate chan sister_of_night and her husband got her x-mas present from me safe and sound in Bulgaria, and liked it. Yay!! I had more fun putting together her gift than anything else in Christmas. I was giddy with packing her present. I let myself loose in the candy aisle, found Christmas marshmallows, Nerds, and Bubbletape and Reese's and it was really all history from there. Then I found the S'Mores kit...

I got my gift from her and was in love with it. It's this cool, well, we shall call it bookmark, but as a bookmark it Owns All Other Bookmarks. And it has St George and the Dragon on it. It's like a mini tapestry-and-ornateness thingy. There's a rule with us that anything of nebulous usefulness and overall awesomeness is a perfect gift. Or candy. That's our theory and it means we have many happy thingamajigs that we just like looking at, and we've had a variety of candies to sample as well.

I moved out of the Suite of Doom at the end of last semester and am now in the Suite of Splendid Serenity. My roommates are trackstars, which I don't hold against them, but which is forcing me to rethink my exercise regimen.

My muses are present and I am writing when I am not forcing them into giving me inspiration for design projects.

Have found time for reading in between frantically trying to figure out how to use Adobe Illustrator and combine two letters into a marvelous black-and-white ode to artistic design using one as the foreground and the other as the background without morphing either letter in anyway from the chosen typeface...

Have been free of any romantic entanglements for nearly several months.



News of the Less Than Wonderous
Am still not ruler of the universe. Or graduated. Or done with homework. Or done with a manuscript.

Muses feel that 3am is the Perfect Time for Writing and Inspiration. Even if I am in bed and asleep, it is still 3am when I wake up and think "Omg, that's IT!"

Still have not hit upon a way to combine two letters into a marvelous black-and-white ode to artistic design using one as the foreground and the other as the background without morphing either letter in anyway from the chosen typeface...

My friend and partner-in-crime Hestia's husband is a selfish ass who more properly belongs in the shadier types of Lifetime Original Movies. Preferably one where some mistress or other would fly into a jealous rage and cause an unplanned cessation of life on his part. He certainly has enough of them. And people wonder why I don't swoon at the possibility of matrimony? With examples like these? Is it really that much of a stretch to figure?



All that aside, I did mention I'd been reading, right?

Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich
( Review here )

A Feast for Crows by George R Martin
( Review here )

1491 by Someone Whose Name I Don't Remember Just Now
An intriguing look at the Americas before Columbus- sort of a first glimpse to the entire swirl of nations and cultures that we never knew existed. If you like history and are intrigued by the idea of preColumbian societies, and want a good introduction to it, try this book. It's an excellent jumping off point.

... George Martin, what have you done to me??! *weeps. flails. sobs.*

( A Song of Ice and Fire rantings )

I just spent most of the weekend reading George Martin's book A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1). WOW. It's been a while since a book hooked me in with silk-wrapped steel grip and dragged me into another world that amazed, scared, and enthralled me. And I wanted to stay.

It's exactly what I've been wanting to read recently: no clear-cut good guy or bad guy, no one is safe, there's no real main character, and the intrigue is maddeningly well-done and twisty.

I was feeling not-so-healthy and exhausted so reading was really about all I was good for and this book was good enough that I didn't want to put it down anyway. Just... wow.

He has a few stereotypes in it, but they are not what they seem at first. By the end of the book, I had come to like or at least feel sympathy several of the 'bad' guys, and feel more questionable toward several of the 'good' ones.

Catelyn- still not sure how I feel about her. And her sister is... yeah. That family has problems.

Joff- Okay, so he was obviously a stereotype and he has no sign of changing. Rotten royal brat. With a sadistic, mysogenist streak. But I can kinda see why he might be that way...

Tyrion: Much love for the dwarfman. He's snarky, he's morally ambiguous but damn it if I don't like him anyway. I wouldn't trust him but I do like him.

The Hound: ... Huh. THAT was surprising.

Arya: Grrrl power!

Sansa: *coughSusanPevensiecough*

Dany: Daamn. Who knew she had that in her?

Ned: Sigh. Born in the wrong universe, I think.

I love love love how Martin has written the kids in this. And he's done female pov's so insanely well. I actually believe his girls as girls. And that's refreshing for a male author. The kids though are the tragic ones. They are the victims in this game the adults have going and then they're going to grow up and just continue the cycle...

Seriously. This guy is Joss Whedon of Fantasy. You know, the way Joss makes you love the characters whole-heartedly, gives them horrible lives and situations and then rips your heart out in the end because there is NO happily ever after. For anyone. Ever. Yet you come out the other side loving him anyway?

Yes. This book was that good. This book was Buffy good. Serenity good. Crying over Bran's broken dreams, worry for Dany as she suffered at her brother's hands, staring in horror as you read and re-read a page to make sure that was really what you just read. Because surely that doesn't happen in fantasy. Good men don't die in fantasy... and yet...

I've already ordered the next one from Amazon. Because if I don't find out what happens next I'll go mad.