I'm all giddy.

Look what I just bought!!


It's by a girl named Emily Martin, and her stuff is all here. I was going to buy the painting (this is a print), but by the time I got holiday $$, it had been sold. So I asked her about prints and Bob's your uncle.
Yay.
If you're just messing around on Etsy (which you should do anyway: there's a ton of great stuff), her store name is theblackapple.

Ohio:


Pittsburgh:


and, of course, good ol' Loomy:


See the rest here.

I'm a big show-off.

This is what I made Lara for Christmas.
Mom's scarf and Tiff's surprise (didja get the package yet!?) pics coming. Also, my Chrismukkzah dollar gift exchange surprise, which, if I do say so myself, is pretty damn awesome.
Hopefully, everyone is having a great holiday!

It's just like that time I let you vote for me.

Graveyard-esque library + CosmoGirl! Quiz Book (DDC # 305.235 COS 2004) = blog post.

Find Your Power Color:17 points = Red. I'm spontaneous and passionate and I shouldn't "hide that fiery spirit", whatever that means.
--You know, it's always weird trying to tailor teen questions to my life. I mean, is how much energy do I have after school my energy level after a day of high school, college, librarian school, or a job? My current job, or a former one? THis is tough!--

What Kind of Car are You?: 16 = Mercedes-Benz Convertible
"Every detail about your vehicle rocks."

What Kind of Shoe are You?: tie! Sexy Stiletto and Kick-Butt Boot. Which actually kinda fits with my personality, when you think about it.
--When I get "glammed up" for a party, do I want people to say I look like Reese Witherspoon, Britney Spears, Katie Holmes, or Avril Lavigne? I guess I have to pick Avril, since I've got a tendency towards white tshirts and too much black eyeshadow. Plus, I'm knitting armwarmers (in dark gray alpaca!) but I legitimately need them to keep my arms warm.

What Ice Cream Flavor Are You?: strawberry. Next to the scoring page, there's a girl in a bulky stripey sweater and either no pants or the world's shortest shorts.
Now I have to identify with Mandy Moore, Alanis Morissette, Alicia Keys, or Gwen Stefani. Well, Mandy was in Saved and according to her Lucky spread a few months ago, she loves a good tshirt, so I guess I'll pick her.
Also, does my dream guy remind me of some tennis player, Tobey Maguire, Enrique Iglesias, or Ashton Kutcher?

What Decade Do You Belong In?: tie between 70s and 80s. Shock me, shock me, shock me with my deviant quiz results!

What's Your Internal Weather Report?: partly cloudy, partly sunny
Didn't we already cover my moody nature in the astrological post?

Do You Have a Sixth Sense?: I'm extra perceptive.

What's Your Metropolitan Match?: tie--Prague or NYC
Oh, I've been to Prague.

What Color Is Your Love Life?: Crushing Coral, or, as I like to call it, I Have My Own Life Houndstooth. Plus, I look like ass in coral.
Gosh, anyone with the stamina to read this far has learned sooooo much about me!

Why Don't You Have a Boyfriend?: 15 = You're booked! Or, I don't drop everything for a boy. I think it really hurt me when I opted to not pat the hot soccer guy's ass. (Real question!) But I think Stacey and/or Richard might get a little jealous if I grabbed someone else's butt.
Heh. I think we all have our theories on that one, don't we? Shall we share them in the comments field, perhaps? Be as blunt as you'd like everyone, I'm desperate to know.

Oh, crap, even this is boring. That's enough revelatory self-evaluation for one night.

Happy _____, everyone.

Everybody hates a tourist, especially one who thinks it’s all such a laugh.

The internet is down today, and it’s the last day before I leave for Chrismukkza, and my crappy year end lists didn’t talk about music much, so…
Billboard December 24: 2005 THE YEAR IN MUSIC & TOURING

• Someone (gee, I wonder who) has drawn a heart around $.50’s head. I’m irate, as I always reign in my urges to do that with ever so many boys.
  
• Who watched Project Runway this week? Gwen Stefani’s outfit looks like Santino’s “lingerie”. And she’s holding a scepter. This is a problem, I think.
  
• Oh, and Santino’s “lingerie”? I agree with irritating Elle lady (for once): he was biting off Galliano, and unsuccessfully at that. I LOVE Galliano’s insanity, but I wouldn’t touch that lederhosen mess with a ten foot pole.
  
• I did kinda like the deer makeup, though.
  
• Have you been waiting for Jamie Foxx’s album? This ad says everyone has been.
  
• Call me old-fashioned, but I can’t help but think grainy, wifebeater-and-old-timey-mic is a bit counteracted by ginormous diamond earring.
  
• This is why I’m not a mainstream rap fan, I guess.
  
• It’s so weird when Billboard talks about MySpace. How can something be a legitimate, viable tool to promote music and the part of the internet I use to document my outfits and run stupid jokes into the ground?
  
• OK, how have I not seen a picture of Fall Out Boy yet? They aren’t very cute.
  
• grrr
  
• Cross-marketing a YA novel (Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn) and a pop album? Hmmm, have to see how this plays out…
  
• The album’s by Fefe Dobson, by the way, who is really adorable in this picture.
  
• Who are Hawthorne Heights? Have they covered “If Only You Were Lonely”, or just called their record that?
  
• See, this kind of thing is why I’m going to be actually paying attention to music in 2006. And buying more of it.
  
• I’m listening to “Sugarcube” right now.
  
• I love this song.
  
• And the video seems like an appropriate thing to think about while looking through this magazine.
  
• Aw, giant pictures of Robbie Williams help to distract me from digital hysteria.
  
• ”…the disappointing sales of the soundtrack to ‘Glitter’ (which was released Sept. 11, 2001)…”
  
• Because THAT’S why no one bought the Glitter soundtrack, not the movie’s utter unwatchability.
  
• Seriously? If me and Tiff can’t sit through it, you’ve got a problem on your hands.
  
• ”inch for inch and pound for pound who needs boys when there’s Lisa round”
  
• Sorry, listening to “She’s Losing It”.
  
• Um, I might have a little bit more respect for Mariah Carey now: “Quite frankly, it’s much easier for men to get credit than women…”
  
• Damn.
  
• When 2006 rolls in, can Green Day go back into hiding? Please? I’m so sick of them, and everyone pretending they aren’t completely irrelevant and repetitive.
  
• And, yes, I liked them when I was in high school, but I’m not 15 anymore, and they kinda still are.
  
• Man, I need to hear the rest of that Neil Diamond/Rick Rubin record. And the rest of the Fresh Air interview.
  
• If you haven’t bought me a Chrimukkza present yet, here is what’s on top of my list: Jack White’s horrible facial hair. Not on Jack White anymore.
  
• Also: Jack White’s irritating falsetto. Not on Jack White’s records anymore.
  
• The guy in My Chemical Romance has gloves like mine. Except he probably didn’t get his in the $1 section of Target.
  
• At least, I hope he doesn’t have child-sized hands.
  
• How embarrassing for him.
  
• So, I’m an idiot: flipping past the “Hits of the World” charts, I happen to spot Flanders.
  
• I don’t immediately think, “Country!”; rather, it’s “Simpsons!”
  
• stupid sexy Flanders.

Toothbrush! You came back!

Stuff I saw this year and liked a lot.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
I thought it was a good ending. Or middle--whatever. Made up for stupid little kid Annakin, even if Hayden and Natalie have the chemistry of wooden spoons.
I especially liked how the one robot had bronchitis, the way the robot elder guys looked like the things from The Dark Crystal, and the way I, coming back into a dark crowded theater from the bathroom, couldnt' find Jay and sat down next to some random family instead.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
I heart the Weasley twins. And Jarvis Cocker, even if he is all hairy. And Brendan Gleeson, even if he is all paranoid and twitchy. I think this was the best of the movies. Oh, and I suppose I should have talked about the book in the last post. Ooops. Kind of goes without saying though, doesn't it?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
As a little kid, this was one of my favorite books. The first time I saw the Gene Wilder movie, I was sooooo disappointed and mad. If I had seen this version then, I think I would have been completely satisfied.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I hope that Martin Freeman and I live happily ever after, he doesn't mind if I pepper him with questions and giddiness about this movie.
Of course, I also hope he doesn't mind that Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Stuart Murdoch live with us too, but that's another story.
I saw this with Lara, who never read any of the books but also enjoyed the movie immensely. One of these days, I might even get around to knitting Marvin for her, too.

Batman Begins
Aw yeah.
Total miscasting of Katie Holmes though.

Narnia
YaY!
But weird to see on a screen a story that's been in my head for almost 20 years now.

Another book:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is one of the handful of adult books I read this year. I loved this book. It reminded me of The Tin Drum and "Teddy" the Salinger short story, but it was completely its own book. I was impressed with so many things about this one. The storytelling was wonderful, and the added pictures and typography tricks weren't cheesy or gimmicky at all, I thought.

Boys, movies, and shopping too/My favorite things/I thought you knew

Tiff and I used to be roommates. When you live with a good friend like that, there's always the danger that your extreme likes or dislikes will cement into these ridiculous statements and/or obsessions. Since we both have this tendency anyway, things were kind of in overdrive for awhile.
We wrote a Ghostwriter drinking game. (Although, technically, we didn't live together yet here. I just spent a hell of a lot of time at her 'n' Cindy's place avoiding Ken the assface boy.)
We paid for big sexy cable.
Big sexy cable included, among other things, M2 and VH1 Classic.
At some point, we decided that it was okay for us to like Thursday:
*they were cute
*the song was catchy and pretty good, for cash-in emo stuff
*most importantly, there was Super 8 in the video
The first time I heard "Sugar I'm Going Down Swinging" or whatever it's called, I was reminded of our Thursday arguements. Because I believe I'd like to recycle them for this song, which I kind of secretly, kind of unabashedly like. Just replace "super 8" with "Simpsons reference" and we're all good.

This post is my list of some kickass stuff that came out this year, in no particular order. (And I don't want to hear any technically2004 bits. Sometimes I'm late, okay?)
And I'll probably forget a ton of stuff.

I've got a convenient list of a ton o' stuff that came out, YA book-wise, open in another window, so let's start with that.

The repetitive part:
How can I convince you guys to read Looking for Alaska if you haven't listened to me yet? Just trust me on this one.
I really did go on and on about Prom, but then the stupid internet ate it.
Here's where I gush about A Room on Lorelei Street and Peeps.
I was dating a 20yrold; I was reading a book by a 20yrold; synergy! Or something.


24 Girls in 7 Days is bookish crack. It's Say Anything in book form, kinda. Without actually being much of anything like Say Anything.
Far From Xanadu by Julie Anne Peters. You can see the trainwreck coming and you want to reach into the book and stop it, but not in a bad way.
I need to stop and say something here about David Levithan. Boy Meets Boy makes me sad. It makes me sad because I hate to think that the only world where a boy can meet a boy and have only the same level of angst as your average boy-girl meet is also one this forcibly whimsical.
I don't need a crossdressing quarterback/homecoming queen for a sweet love story to work.
I know a lot of people have called this magic realism and tried to work that angle, but that just doesn't feel right to me.
As far as poetry goes, I can stand Realm of Possibility.
Are We There Yet, however, is one of my picks for 2005, I think, even though I forget about it sometimes. 2 brothers who never get along, vaguely Oscar-and-Felixish but not simplistically so, are conned into a trip to Italy by their parents. I guess the whole point of stories a lot of the time is to see into someone else's viewpoint, and this book, with its dual narration, does that beautifully.

Enough of this grown-up beautiful crap. Valiant by Holly Black is totally one of 15yroldJessy's new favorite books. The Spiderwick Field Guide thing is pretty amazing, too.

And Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last is my favorite of the Susan Juby Alice books. True awesomeness, and I really need to find a Canadian to tape the tv show for me. (Not to be confused with Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Alice, who I've successfully avoided having to read for yet another year--go me and my immature aversion to books about seemingly boring "normal" teenagers and anything my YA lit professor recommended!)

Lulu Dark is the bestest accidental-detective-'cause-she-got-her-tacky-purse-stoled I'm pretty sure I've ever read about.

Did The Bermudez Triangle come out this year? Man, where did Maureen Johnson come from? And how come the big guys never talk about her? I like all her books, but this one's definitely my favorite.
The jacket tells you it's about what happens when your 2 best friends fall in love, with each other, but that's not it. What it's really about is what happens when one of your best friends fucks the other one over, the choices you have to make, and if you can really forgive a loved one for hurting another loved one really damn bad.
And who hasn't been in that situation? Isn't it called "college"?

Yeah, Twilight's pretty great, but any teenager with artificially black hair will tell you that; you don't need me.
You also don't need me to talk up Teach Me (substituting YA librarian for Blackie McManicPanic there). But I should say that I think this is the only book about an brittle perfectionist girl that hasn't annoyed the hell out of me.

Oh, and on the movie tip? I'd talk up Mysterious Skin and Serenity here, but I still haven't seen either one of them. Any interested-in-viewing parties should get back to me.

Serenity Rose is cute and funny and kind of spooky and the best kind of thoughtful, with very little cliche and no ham-fistedness. And that's really hard, especially in a comic about a witchgirl.

Oh, and Necklace of Kisses, of course.

And a year where Jacky Faber makes an appearance can't be all bad, right?