This made my week! It's my favorite song on the album (and I guess that Matt thinks it will do well as a single...I'm hoping that he's right).

( I put it under a cut because it messed up my whole layout... )

I did something I didn't think I would do, but after all the pains of losing half my icons on my old journal and not having the motivation to update it either, I decided to create a new graphics journal and start over. I was basically just posting icons that, looking back, I didn't really like. I want to start fresh and build from the skills I have right now.

So, if you friended me for icons in the past or you're newer around here, my new icon journal is chaoticxmuse.


I'm also in a situation with my writing. No, I don't have writer's block again. But I would really like to practice with some feedback, but I'm not sure where. It seems that no one takes LiveJournal seriously for anything like that. Honestly, icons seem to be the big business around here. WordPress has the potential to be a site, but it seems to be for those people who either blog with one theme in mind or have a personal site where the blog is their life. I've tried DeviantArt, but I guess you're supposed to be a fanartist there even though they have writing categories. Most of the forums I run across tend to be dead, and I've been warned against using FictionPress. Does anyone use Dreamwidth? Any pros/cons? I guess I ask because they're priding themselves on being a place for artists. Essentially it looks like LJ but apparently better for some reason. I think WordPress might be the place, though. I already have one blog over there. The thing about something like LJ or Dreamwidth is that they let you join communities that help you with critiques and things. Not to mention I just read a blog at WordPress that essentially says To Kill A Mockingbird was not a well-written, well-executed novel. Excuse me while I weep for humanity. I'm not saying that every novel you read in school is well-executed, come on. So, yeah, Dreamwidth reviews or you know of some gem that I have happened to have missed online would be lovely.

I know nothing is going to replace sitting down with someone in real life and reading my writing, but there's some things I'd like to write about, which I'd like to remain a little more anonymous. Not trying to hide from anyone, I just don't want to be too identifiable in real life. For the same reason my last name isn't on my Twitter, I guess. I'd really rather my students didn't find me. Not to mention my friends don't really have the time anymore. I might give myself a pen name in any event.

OK, as promised, the American Idol 2009 Finale Picspam. I think this is my best yet. This has become sort of a gift to my f-list every year Idol has been decent (which meant no season 6). I've been working on this one for a while now, and my greatest fear was that I would exceed the posting size limit because of the coding. I know the finale was a week ago already, but I wanted to get this up anyway. I'm sure you'll all forgive the lateness as I was out of town. So, enjoy. I don't know that I'll have the time (or be inspired enough) to do this next year, but we'll see what happens. I should really start doing these for other events.

A few things before you get to the goodies:
1. I didn't hate any of the contestants this year (except Tatiana and Bikini Girl). The comments intended for humour are meant entirely in jest.
2. On somewhat the same level, I'm not a Kradam supporter, but some of those pictures were just asking for it.
3. Yes, I got sentimental at the end.
4. THIS IS IMAGE HEAVY. Definitely not dialup friendly. I don't know of any picspam that is.

( I guess some could argue that Rock Week Under the Bus was the hurricane that Kris had to weather... )

What homework? Oh, right. Hmm. Long story. I think I know how to start it now, though. That took some pushing. I'm just not feeling very creative. Well, I've got a starting point now, right?

So...uh...procrastinating...again... ...That means a new layout! Yeah...Well, I couldn't leave those pictures in the header alone. I was looking through them before, and I knew I'd play with them in GIMP eventually. Might get rid of the reds, though and end up pulling some blues from Patrick's jacket. I like how the coloring came out on it. I don't know what my deal is. Winter begins, I use nice blues and whites, which I suppose works...then spring arrives, and I use blacks and grays. Hmm. I don't know.

I've taken on a new writing project, and once I tell you what it is, you all will think I'm crazy. I just wanted to play around with a couple of different characters for a while. I really should try at least. I'm not going to get any better or feel any better about my fiction if I don't.

Class in half an hour. I think we're all hoping it goes a little better than last week, as even the professor realized we weren't very involved.

ETA: Well, let's not talk about class. More entertaining than last week in any event.

Oh, yeah!

( Proof that my iTunes and iPod are biased...last 35 songs played...on the iTunes shuffle...this playlist had a few hundred songs on it too... )

You all love me don't you? You do one, you get addicted, I swear. At least this one is more interactive! I've got nothing better to do. No homework this week. Do you know how wonderful and unfulfilling that is at the same time? Maybe I'll do some writing tomorrow when I'm not so tired. I stole this off of a friend's Facebook, by the way. It will probably hate me and play an assortment of Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson, and Fall Out Boy...because that's the way my iPod rolls. I don't know why. I still don't have everything on it again. I also never realized how many songs I have where the title is mentioned in the first line of the song...


Guess that song..

Step 1: put your music player on shuffle
Step 2: write down the first line of the first 50 songs that play (no matter how embarrassing)
Step 2a: skip any song that has the title in the first line
Step 2b: skip any song with no lyrics.
Step 3: Strike through the line when someone guesses it right.
Step 4: looking them up is CHEATING!

( Cut because long list is long. )

I think it tried to call my bluff but still screwed that up. It's a better mix than last time. I suppose with 50, that will happen.

This is all westlifefan's fault. Blame her. For real. I don't really have any self-discipline when I'm doing homework. Everyone on my list should know that by now. At least I got everything done on my list tonight before I did this, right? Two iPod shuffle memes. I re-started the shuffle for the second one. I didn't tag anyone. You people are probably just annoyed it's popping up on your f-lists.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Put your iPod or other music player on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the NEXT button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag friends who might enjoy doing this as well as the person you got this from. Everyone can do it. XD

I said I wasn't tagging anyone. If you really want to, knock yourself out.

( 'The New Girl in Town' from Hairspray - Brittany Snow )


The rules:
Put your music player of choice on shuffle and answer these questions with the first line(s) of the song.

( This one turned out to be more entertaining. )

My iPod is biased, by the way. In case you couldn't tell from the overabundance of FOB and Bon Jovi...well, maybe BJ isn't so weird for me.

Sick today. My throat got irritated late last night, and I woke up with it sore this morning. I've been trying to fight it off, so we'll see what happens. The days are just changing so drastically. Yesterday it barely hit 20. Today it almost hit 30. So the weather is increasing about 10 degrees a day. I just hope I don't get too sick. March is so crazy.

I love WordPress. Blogger is a pain for a few reasons. One is that they haven't changed the designs in years. While I can't change the CSS to the WordPress templates without paying, the templates are better than the Blogger ones, and they add to them and make them more modern. Blogger also had no stats system. It's not exceedingly important that I know people are reading it, but it's nice to see when you don't get any comments. I also love that the tags make it so that people can find your posts. It's all networked. It's pretty cool. I also was able to import my old stuff from Blogger. The Dashboard at WordPress is a little overwhelming at first, especially if you've been using things like Blogger and LiveJournal, which are fairly easy to figure out. There's just a lot to WordPress, but it doesn't take very long to get the hang of it.

Anyway, I did set up over there. I even put up the Kelly Clarkson album review. I think I'm getting confident in writing my opinions again. I've also been a little more motivated lately, so I can try to keep things updated. Here's the new URL: http://hearmeasiam.wordpress.com/

And now...time to get ready for bed since my medicine kicked in, and I'm now very sleepy...

Meet my favorite.



I have not had this kind of a reaction to an Idol contestant during the auditions in forever. I probably would have squeed and made more noises had my roommate not been in the next room. There was a lot of kicking and squirming, though.

YES. Thank you, Kara. It IS time for someone like him.

So he can sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" and was in Wicked? *iz ded* What are the odds he's gay?

Yes, someone already compared his hair to David Cook's. And there is the musical theatre. Hmm. Regardless, they still sound different.


Anyhoo...excuse me while I go scrape myself off of the floor.


ETA: So, uh, it looks like he started in the original touring cast of Wicked, which I saw when I was in San Francisco in the summer of 2005 (sans Stephanie J. Block who was out with an injury...but yay for Eden!). O_O I'm so going home and digging up my program this weekend. He was just in the company but ended up a Fiyero understudy in Los Angeles, if my source is right. It's a good night.




I snatched the photo from DJSlim. Hope he won't mind too much.
Like the new Adam tag? :P

New layout again. I thought going into the new year, it called for one. David is gone. Actually, he's still my mood theme, but I plan on switching that to song lyrics some time soon since almost every time I make a new layout it involves some musician or music in some way. For this one, refuted created the code. I think it looks a bit cleaner than the last one. Definitely more simple at least. I did some editing and added the banner to the top. Yay! It's Matt Nathanson. Matt is my favorite current artist at the moment. You may or may not have heard "Come On Get Higher" on the radio. Not many people are aware of his other work (and the obligatory 80s sing-a-longs at his shows). So, I made a little playlist for my f-list. These few songs came from his latest album, Some Mad Hope (however, I highly suggest you listen to his earlier work as well...you can find pretty much everything at last.fm). My personal favorite is "Falling Apart." You'll have to hit "Pop-out Player" then tell it to play. If a song doesn't work, try refreshing. If it still doesn't work, let me know.



It's about four hours too early (for me anyway), but I thought I'd say Happy New Year anyway.

I plan on doing 2009_scrapbook this year. Probably post that some time after midnight tonight (...the next afternoon/evening is still after midnight...I'm tired). Working on it because I just discovered what it was today. Sounds like fun. I just hope I remember to keep up with it. I encourage everyone else to do it too, if they like.