_jems_

So, I got back from Tenerife about three weeks ago, but I've been putting off posting because I wanted to post some images and my Photoshop is completely shot (and my computer isn't far behind). Of course, since I just bought a new couch, I can't afford a new computer and the accompanying Photoshop until next month at the earliest. ( So screw it! Unedited photos it is! )

On vacation, I read nine books (I think. Most of them were my reread of Harry Potter), watched seven seasons of television (Lost Girl season 2, which I loved, Teen Wolf season 1 and some of season 2, which I'm extremely meh about and which I haven't even bothered to catch up on since I came back, The Walking Dead season 1, which actually started to get interesting towards the end and which I will catch up on...some day, 10 Things I Hate About You, which I enjoyed okay, but I wish they had focused less on Bianca, who bored me, as well as three seasons of Design Star), and managed to burn myself on the very last day. How I managed to burn myself on the last day when I didn't burn myself at all in the three previous weeks I'll never know, but burn myself I did.

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When I got back I spent the rest of my vacation catching up on TV:

( Bunheads )

( The Newsroom )

( Suits )

( Rookie Blue )

I also watched Leverage season 4 (seriously, the only reasons to watch this show are Hardison-Parker-Eliot. The others could go in the wood chipper for all I care) and The Closer season 7 (which ended well, I think. I tried the first episode of Major Crimes, but it could barely hold my attention.)

Actually, I've watched a ton of other stuff, but I'm already bored typing out my vague thoughts about things. What I need is a freakin' 'ship to obsess about! Does anything this fall look promising?

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Oh hey, did you hear? ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT STARTED SHOOTING. Eeeeee, so excited!

(just thought I'd get that subject line in first. *waits impatiently for the multitude of posts that will use that same subject line over the next few days*)

It's weird how Harry Potter was never really a fandom thing for me, and I never think I'm going to have anything to say about it after a book or movie is released, but inevitably all these FEELINGS and THOUGHTS keep cropping up and I end up posting about it anyway.

( The boy who lived, come to die. )

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Oh, and before the movie I found another desk I want! At about a third of the price of the one from my last post! ( It's soooo pretty. )

I can haz Harry Potter tickets! For the premiere on Wednesday! (Well, there is the midnight showing on Tuesday night, but sometimes you've just got to admit you're an adult now and work responsibilities have to take priority.)

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For the past few weeks I've slowly been migrating three more bookcases to my living room from my bedroom. "Slowly" because it's been hot and/or muggy the whole time, and I haven't exactly been jumping for joy about vacuuming/carrying/shelving books for hours on end. Anyway, my livingroom now has ten bookcases and my bedroom only has three! Soon to be two! Which means there's tons of space! Which of course means I'm surfing the web in search of new furniture.

( First up: a bedside table. )

( Now for the part where I curse Danish design. For being both great and ridiculously overpriced. )

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My kdrama obsession continues unabated.

( Dream High )

( Heartstrings/You've Fallen for Me )

( City Hunter )

( Romance Town )

In conclusion, can it be Monday Tuesday now so I can see Myung Wol the Spy? *is officially getting excited*

My job is so awesome sometimes. Like today, the Daily Show file was late so the translator and I made our own fun by having an extended email conversation using really bad translations of English idioms. (And I'm not even counting the fact that I get paid to watch The Daily Show. Every. Single. Day.)

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( I stayed up till 1 am watching the first two episodes of True Blood season 4. )

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I am seriously obsessed with City Hunter, checking the Tumblr tag several times a day. I'm even to the point where I rewatch and notice things that make me want to write meta. Meta! About a kdrama! I don't even know, you guys, how come this drama is so GOOD?

Of course, I forget everything I want to say if I don't write it down immediately. ( The only two things I do remember... )

( Lie to Me through episode 14 )

( Finished Best Love. )

( Still keeping up with Romance Town )

( Saw that there were 16 episodes of Baby-Faced Beauty and watched that )

I got back from my island vacation a couple of weeks ago, but hiatus doldrums have put the kibosch on my posting anything. Basically, it all boils down to this: ( What I Did on My Spring Vacation )



I hadn't really been inspired to post until I was emailed the link to this today: ( Jersey Shore transcripts as read by actors from Oscar Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest )
YOU'RE WELCOME. WHO SAYS PEOPLE NO LONGER MAKE GREAT ART?

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I caught up on my shows in three days, though pretty much the only thing that aired during my absence was a bunch of reality shows. And The Good Wife, for some reason. My reactions, in short:

( Top Chef )

( Survivor )

( Extreme Couponing )

( The Amazing Race )

( Cougar Town )



I can't believe there's only one more episode of The Good Wife left! And it's not for another two weeks! I watched the preview and OMG! <lj-cut text="Spoil yourself at will.> Peter! Moved to his own apartment! Actual repercussions and Alicia -- *gasp* -- NOT forgiving him for his swinish behavior! It's like Christmas in season finale form! The one thing I feared about the whole Kalinda/Peter thing was that Alicia would put all the blame on Kalinda and forgive Peter again (I hate it when women blame the other woman instead of, you know, THE GUY WHO ACTUALLY MADE PROMISES TO THEM TO STAY FAITHFUL). Of course, with Alicia I can totally understand her having issues with Kalinda now too, but at least in her case it will hopefully be grounded in the fact that Kalinda withheld this vital information that would have impacted her marriage and their friendship. And yet, I can totally see why Kalinda wouldn't say anything. In the beginning there would be no reason. And in a new friendship there is such a thing as too much honesty. I think where Kalinda went wrong was when they whole thing floated up to the surface and instead of facing the music, she tried to bury it even further. Nothing good ever comes of that. I just really hope that Kalinda and Alicia's friendship survives this storm. And that Peter and Alicia's marriage doesn't. </lj-cut>

Last week was a close call, though, when I got sick on Tuesday morning and still had to work all week (racking up 50 hours total for the week. Fun! Except not.)

I really needed more than just a weekend to recharge, but that's all I get, so I tried to make the best of it. And by "make the best of it" I mean "buy the last charms I need to complete my Pandora bracelet". ( So that's what I did today... )

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Other things that have happened:

• I finally got myself that new cell phone I was talking about a few months back! And yes, I ended up getting an HTC Legend after all. I LOVE IT. Don't know how I ever lived without it. I've read two books on it so far, I've got two True Blood episodes awaiting viewing, I've become addicted to Mancala, Reversi and Unblock Me (any other game app recs would be most welcome!) and it's the only way I've been able to stay sorta up-to-date on my Twitter feed for the past two weeks.


• I've been fairly good about keeping up with TV. Well, considering... ( Reaction spoilers mostly. )
  


• I uploaded a bunch of icons today.

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( Being Erica (spoilery) )

A couple of years ago, on the first day of winter, we had people in Stockholm who were stuck in traffic for seven hours (black ice was the culprit if I remember correctly). I thought that was bad, but this NINE DAY traffic jam has to take the cake. Holy crap!

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The only shows I'm keeping up to date with are reality shows. I may get spoiled for True Blood, Eureka, Mad Men, et al whenever I venture outside my flist (and sometimes even when I stick close to home - mostly through no one's fault but my own), but knowing one thing about an episode won't completely render it pointless the way knowing who gets booted off does for a reality show.

( Project Runway )

( Top Chef )

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And just because I'm bored:

( Ten Random Things About Me )

(An Essay by _jems_.)

1. Watched Kdramas.


2. Um...

Haha, you think I'm kidding, but I'm NOT. On Monday, my first official vacation day, I watched 15 episodes of Goong. That's over 16 hours of TV watching in one day! That takes dedication, let me tell you. (Also, it cracks me up to think that I'm getting extra pay to veg out in front of the TV for two weeks. And I don't mean that I have paid vacation, I mean that in Sweden WE ACTUALLY GET PAID MORE WHEN WE'RE ON VACATION. This country sometimes... *shakes head* ... *also, stays here forever*).


Honestly, it feels like entire countries have dedicated their television-making industries to delivering to me my favorite 'ship trope: asshole!boy falls for protagonist!girl and sets off on a path of redemption.

( Of course, that's not to say there aren't problems. )

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Let's see, where did we leave off...? ( Oh, I know, Hana Yori Dango season 2. )

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Shows what I have downloaded but not watched:

1. Attic Cat.


2. Boys Over Flowers. (So, I had planned to watch this right after Hana Yori Dango, but EVERYONE kept saying they couldn't finish it, and I started to see it as a personal challenge to watch all 25 episodes. But I figured that might kill this whole obsession dead if it is indeed as bad as everyone keeps saying. So I'm putting it off until the feeling passes.)


3. Capital Scandal. (I keep saving this one because I figure I'll need a palate cleanser after BOF. Heh.)


4. City Hall.


5. Goong S. (Anyone watch this? Since no one recced it along with Goong I'm just going to assume it sucks and go from there.)


6. Nodame Cantabile.


7. Oh! My Lady. (If for no other reason than this gif by typicrobots. CUUUUTE.)


8. Que Sera Sera.


9. You're Beautiful. (in progress)

Now I just have to decide what to watch next...

You know, you'd think a job where you watch South Park all day is pretty sweet, but it so isn't. OMG, most boring work EVER. I'm so sick of South Park that I could puke. And I haven't even gotten to the seasons where the show started to suck so much that I quit watching. Ugh.

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Work is insane this week, but instead of letting my long work hours interfere with my Drama watching, I'm letting it interfere with my sleep. I'm only sleeping five hours a night right now so that I have time to put in about six hours of Drama watching after my 12 hour work days.


Since my last post I've:

• Finished My Lovely Kim Sam Soon (Cuteness! Best pacing of the Kdramas I've seen so far!).


• Finished My Girl (Learned a lot of interesting things about Korean family relationships. Enjoyed the female lead a ton.)


• Finished Hana Yori Dango season 1 (It's so much more stylized than the Korean dramas I've watched. Is it bad that I actually miss the hour-long episodes? I mean, 46 minutes, what the hell is that?! That's just WEAK. ;-)


• Watched three episodes of Hana Yori Dango season 2.

Waiting for me (on my new hard drive I had to buy because the old one was full):

1. Boys Over Flowers.


2. Capital Scandal.


3. Full House.

Still have to get:

• Hana Yori Dango movie (Wait, this isn't episode 2x11, right? It's all very confusing.).


• EVERYTHING ELSE EVER!

I'm having so much fun with this, you guys don't even know. I've missed being completely obsessed with something like this. Usually it's a 'ship, but I'll take a genre.

I don't think I talked about it all that much, but most of the fall I was living with my parents because my kitchen and bathroom were being remodeled. (Of course, one reason for the lack of talking was probably the lack of posting.)

I know know how much I enjoy seeing how my flist lives, so maybe someone will get a kick out of this?

( Kitchen! )

( Bathroom! )

And now I'm off to take a shower!

01. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their livejournal.
(02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper.)
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this. The point is to see what you had on.



I use WallMaster, so this is only one of many wallpapers I use (it changes every thirty minutes), but it is the only one actually made for my screen resolution (1920x1080), and as such, is pretty much the only one that actually looks good. I did grab a bunch of Star Trek wallpapers from the official site that I could put up, but that would involve some cropping (they were not 16:9), and I'm lazy, so...

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So, my vacation is over. I didn't do what I had intended to do, but that's okay, because I dabbled in some retail therapy. And I haven't loved anything as much as I love these two things in a looong time.

So, I was paying my bills the other day, and I started wondering what it's like elsewhere. I can't imagine not having e-billing, giro payments, and online banking in general. Plus, paying all your bills in one go at the end of each month makes me happy. But I get the feeling that the US is still stuck in that same old "check-is-in-the-mail" archaic bill-paying that was the norm when I lived there twenty years ago. Therefore, ( a poll! )

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Speaking of bill-paying, I'm only a few weeks away from being completely free of credit card debt, so of course I'm looking at ways to spend all that extra moolah. And I think I found it! I'm leaning towards this one, though to be honest, it's more because it comes in a pretty light blue color than for the battery life. Does anyone have any recommendations? Words of wisdom?

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I think my eReader purchase has already paid for itself, because I'm reading more books than ever. Since the beginning of May alone, I've read 15 books. 15 books! I didn't read 15 books all of last year! (Granted, it's been mostly chick lit and easy fare, but still!)

Except, reading all these actual books instead of fic has made me realize that I've probably averaged about 100 books a year, just in fic. So I'm not reading that much more than usual right now, I'm just reading other things.

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( Teevee )

...except you get to have the day off. So I took a drive and ended up at Drottningholm. ( I parked, grabbed my camera and went for a walk. )

Afterwards I went grocery shopping and in the fifteen minutes I was in the store it had gotten dark and started snowing quite heavily. While it's been pretty damn cold lately, we've hardly had any snow. I am not looking forward to digging out my car tomorrow morning.

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On a whim, I started keeping track of the TV episodes I've watched this year, and right now I'm at 28. If this keeps up I'll have absolutely no problem reaching 1000 episodes. In fact, I'd probably clear 2000 with a comfortable margin. Yikes!

And I haven't even watched Jon and Stephen yet! (I kinda forgot that for pretty much everyone else, this is just another ordinary day.) And I'm in the middle of yet another episode of Grand Designs. I'll top at least 30 before the day is over. IN SIX DAYS. And I'm not even counting the two TV episodes I watched while proof-reading, or the episode I translated this week.

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I don't know if it's because I've been so disconnected from LJ this fall, but my only reaction to the news of the firings was that it would probably crush me to lose some of the fic that's posted here - and only here. I think I'm going to have to go find some of my faves and back them up, just in case.

That's not to say it wouldn't be devastating to lose all the people around here, but I really don't think that would happen even if the site disappeared completely (which I don't believe it will). Sooner or later, most everyone would gravitate to one place or another, and as long as you've got an email adress for at least one person you're going to be okay.

For someone who doesn't really make new year's resolutions, I feel like I've made quite a lot of them this year. Mostly they're continuations of things I'm already doing, I'm just buckling down and focusing on them. So, this year I'm:

• Lending more money through Kiva.org. Not just making the odd loan whenever I remember to go to the site, but I'll be putting in 25 dollars every month. And with the loans that are being repaid, that should mean about 15 new loans over the next year. Possibly more, depends on the time they'll be paid back.


• Reading more books. Okay, so this was my only "non-resolution" last year and I failed miserably - except in one aspect: I started reading books in genres I don't usually read. Books that take time and consideration in a way thrillers and mysteries just don't. I think that's why I couldn't quite get the hang of it - it was like learning to read again.


• Paying back debt. (Says she who just spent 100 bucks at BPAL. Sorry, $100.50..)


• Trying to make some headway on all those picspams I've got planned. There are so many of them and they're so ambitious (well, some of them) that I just feel overwhelmed by it. My new motto when it comes to picspams: Just do it.


• Taking more pictures. And since my parents gave me a new camera for Christmas, ( I've already made some headway on this one. )

( My job is taking its toll on me. )

( So I'm too exhausted to do anything but watch TV Oh, the irony! (Spoilers for Life, HIMYM, The Office, Fringe, My Own Worst Enemy, Pushing Daisies and The Amazing Race. )

During this weekend sailing trip I saw:

( Cows grazing by the sea )

( This ship run aground )

( A loose seal! )

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When I got home, I saw:

( This in the mirror: )

( This in my inbox: )

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However, I did not see the new X-Files movie, so please don't spoil me, and if you could cut your reactions as well, that would be swell.

( I'm going to be redecorating my apartment this summer. )

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So, aside from the two Ally McBeal episodes I capped and the half a season of Avatar that I watched (half a book that I watched? Sounds bizarre), that's pretty much how I spent my weekend. *g*

Since I last posted - last Wednesday - about how the work week already seemed about six days long, I have not had a single day off. Not only have I worked every day, Friday-Tuesday I also helped remodel a kitchen. ( This kitchen, in fact. )

Add to that the fact that yesterday and today, my work days have ended...oh, around this time. I just finished working for the day (because I can no longer be coherent) and yesterday I finally sent in the rush job I spent all day working on at half past one. Kill. Me. NOW.

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But yesterday I remembered a segment Samantha Bee did on The Daily Show last month, and watching it periodically throughout yesterday and today has saved my sanity, I'm sure. ( I still laugh till I cry every single time. )

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Before this madness started, I got about halfway done with the next installment of my Aeryn picspam, so I'm hoping to have that posted sometime this weekend.