just dance

There was a lot of it. As I told Jen, it was a hair massacre! Pictures of what came off under the cut, though none of my snazzy new 'do because I roll sideways and don't do pictures of me online. Suffice it to say I really like it. My hair's too thick to have it look exactly like Hannah's but, I really like it. And I can wear hats! (I am wearing one now and I look ~good~)
Everyone at church tonight was awesome and loved it too.

( scaring images! HAIR! Dead hair! Everywhere! Needless violence against hair! )

Yet another rec, I'm sorry, but I just can't help it.
Running Up That Hill
713 Coda - Gen - Sam & Dean - The days that Sam doesn’t go running are the bad days. The day after Emma is a bad day.
;________; Dean's inner voice will break your heart, and poor Sam is quite beleaguered too.

http://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/32702.html

- Community Importing is available for all accounts(previously being paid accounts only), providing they are the maintainer/admin of both comms.
Hey, look, they went ahead and did what they said they were gonna do. Nifty

- Claiming Open IDs and integrating them into your existing DW account is explained in detail.
A bit of a delicate procedure, but totally worth it. Awesomesauce, basically. ♥

- No-invite account creation will remain open so long as the ratio of paid users is maintained at a sustainable level.
YAY! Meaning that so many people love DW they're buying paid accounts right off the bat, and enough people are signing up that they can keep a steady ratio! (if you haven't already signed up, LJ flist, now's the perfect opportunity...*cough* ;)

- DW will not be deleting any "abandoned" accounts i.e. if your account has nothing in it, then that's okay, they won't delete it like some others around here, with minor exceptions.
If you've claimed an account on DW at some point in the past but have not used it, because of whatever, you don't have to worry about it being purged to reclaim usernames

- And loads of other updates and explanations! Check it out!


For those who have recently made a DW account or are looking at one, I highly recommend this tool, which looks at your LJ flist and finds anyone on DW with the same username. It wouldn't work with users like me, who've got a different name on DW vs. LJ, but for most people, it'll bring back good results.

On the 1st, I will be getting my first haircut in over two years...and my first hair-cut where I got rid of this length since I was a pre-teen.
This is slightly terrifying. But also exciting. I know, don't ask me to pick one. I've decide that this pic of Hannah is what I'm going to be taking for her to check up. And I need to fill out the Locks For Love form, but I'm pretty much just stuck waiting 'till then.

Finally am listening to Ceremonials, and it is glorious, because, hello, it is F+TM. And I am THIS CLOSE to finishing Psych, after delaying for so long. NGL, it's so I can get onto Castle, which is now waiting longingly for my attention. \o/

ALSO, LOOK. THIS IS HILARIOUS:

Sherlock has literally left me making unintelligible noises. I can't tell if it's from the sore throat that makes it painful to actually speak, or if it was just that...amazing, but I think I'm certainly leaning towards the latter with a dash of the former.

Yes, it is mind-blowing. And I will spoil no further. But you should watch it as soon as you can, and, of course, bring tissues. Even I teared up and got to whimpering.

It reminds me of a quote from Den of Geek that I saw on tumblr, explaining why Martin choose Sherlock over The Hobbit, and why Peter Jackson still wanted him no matter what.


(completely unrelated, but I feel that damn urge from S1 starting up again; I need to ship Sherlock/Molly, apparently)

A Stargate comm that's active and is putting on a summer Big Bang! \o/ *flails around* I AM SO SIGNING UP FOR THIS ASFJAJK:SJK:SDFJK:
Also, most likely scifibigbang, too, as an artist, of course. I need a lot more practice and plot ideas before I try writing a BB.



Rules and Schedule

Sign-ups: Authors

Other sign-ups open March 15: Artists | Fanmixers | Vidders

For once, got to watch it live! Yay \o/

( spoilers for, of course, The Hounds of Baskerville )

Looking very much so forward to next week! XD

Look what I found on Spotify today! I already own 99% of the songs on the album, but it's awesome looking at it, knowing, hey, these are the songs I grew up with and love. There's no Michael W. Smith, and I'm sad that "Live Out Loud" isn't on there, but I guess repeating an artist(even one who changed CCM and managed to be popular for almost three decades) is a bad idea. There's no Hillsong, but I guess they're...IDK, I don't know why the wouldn't be on it, lol. Hillsong is kinda the definitive praise band.
A large portion of blame for this post goes to morelenmir who got me listening to "Dive" on a loop.

Songs That Changed the Church - CCM

1. Dive - Stephen Curtis Chapman
2. Shine - Newsboys (lol, this was one of my favorite songs when I was younger; the Newsboys were the it band after DC Talk, I guess. I'm surprised "I Am Free" isn't on here...)
3. Jesus Freak - DC Talk (speaking of DC Talk...)
4. Beautiful, Scandalous Night - Robbie Seay Band
5. Big House - Audio Adrenaline (No lie, I cried when they disbanded)
6. God of Wonders - Rebecca St. James
7. Indescribable - Chris Tomlin
8. You Put This Love In My Heart - Keith Green
9. I Can Only Imagine - Rita Springer (and another of my favorites...though I don't know why it's Rita Springer instead of MercyMe?)
10. Step By Step - Kim Hill
11. Thy Word - Amy Grant
12. Friends - Daniel Doss Band
13. Testify to Love - Avalon

I realize only maybe three people on my flist may care, but I thought it was awesome. I want to check out the "Songs that Changed The Church - Hymns" because I'm in love with classic hymns. :D


In other news, this;

Back home! Which I am happy for. It's nice to be back on my computer and be back in my own bed. Mum is too. Hotels are always exhausting. And since we switched back over to our first doctor from the last time she had cancer, it was like a complete breath of fresh air.

For those who haven't heard, another huge selling point for DW just went live. Namely, the ability to fully import a community from LJ to DW. Everything. As of right now, it's restricted to paid accounts and communities with less than 100k comments to prevent the queue from overloading and to ensure the system doesn't all crash from the overload, but they expect to be able to raise those limits in a couple weeks or so once traffic slows down.

Not gonna make any prognosis as to how this will effect fandom and LJ, but...well, you can draw your own conclusions.

In a DW related note, this entry on Technical Debt that denise wrote earlier this year is a fascinating look at what it took to get DW up and off the ground and why LJ has some of the problems it does (and, indirectly, because it was written before the new roll-out and commenting layout and why LJ had to completely recode their S1 layout to give us the new version). I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the difference between DW/LJ beyond the obvious as well as just because it's incredibly interesting from any point of view.

I've been reading a lot, pages and pages, of essays, how-to guides, explanations, and other kinds of informative stuff about DW, LJ, the differences, the pros for LJ and the cons for DW and vice versus, and I just have to say, wow. I feel a lot more informed about making a decision in the future at some point about leaving LJ for good. Don't worry; it isn't happening yet and probably won't for a while, but it's done a lot to explain why LJ is the way it is and how it works internally vs. how we see it working as users. Ditto with DW(which is, by nature, a lot more transparent, and therefore needs less external rationalization/explanations).
It all made my analytical geeky side so happy. Literally. I'm reading an essay on why the current advertising method isn't gonna work for social media for much longer.

For some lighter fare, Jibjab says adios to 2011!

So, working on an essay on The Great Gatsby. That's all well and fine, I actually enjoyed it, compared to some of the books I've had to read for school. I also love the themes addressed in the book that we have to write about. That's awesome, too, because everyone knows I love analyzing stuff. But for some reason, my brain doesn't want to write about how Gatsby's pursuit of the American Dream is the central theme of the novel. It wants to examine Nick's character and explore his story and his perfection of himself and how his pursuit of the American Dream colors how he sees the East vs. West and how his more traditional morals deteriorate over the length of time he spends surrounded by the empty decadence of Gatsby and Jordan and Daisy. And how he spends the entire book explaining and analyzing everyone else but we don't actually see much of Nick except where he reflects off of other characters. I keep circling back to Nick when it's supposed to be all about Gatsby. My brain sometimes.
My love for non-primary characters is once again my downfall.

/melodrama

In other, more interesting news, remember the Aerospace Scholars program I was applying to a couple weeks ago? Well, it looks like I got into it! I had really felt like I would, because I had some really strong essays and my rec letter was fantastic, but I always get nervous over stuff that I think's important.

I will be so happy when break starts, seriously. I've already got a list a mile long of things I want to do during my two weeks, only some of which will get done, I'm sure. Top of the list, though, is learning to drive in a practical manner from a real live human being. I feel like Sheldon, for goodness sake. And I don't want to wait for my neighbor to dislocate her shoulder before I actually get behind the wheel.

The food channel has been on for at least a couple hours every day lately. It's pretty much the only channel Mum likes, and if she likes it, that's good enough for me. At least it's not something where you run the risk of something bad coming on. It's just an endless parade of delicious looking food and soft lighting. I will say it's weird getting to watch shows live. The other night we watched Dirty Jobs as it aired. It was pretty mind-blowing. :P It's bizarre for someone who's never had cable and already doesn't watch hardly anything live anymore.

In case I don't post before the fundraiser Saturday, keep your fingers and toes crossed for us that it doesn't rain or sleet or boil the atmosphere or do something equally Texan and ridiculous during the concert. We're hoping for a decent turn-out of mostly well-off people, so hopefully it won't flop. It's gonna be crazy hectic for us, but I know it can be done. The one thing I'm not looking forward to is the 830am wake up, since my sleep schedule has been screwed to hell all week (Thanks, twisting_vine_x, for sending that over my way! :P) with a 4am-2pm sleep schedule. Oh well. I can rally on this! Maybe I can get to sleep earlier/wake up earlier tomorrow.

→Ugh. LJ! You're not sending my notices, again! How am I supposed to know if any of my VERY IMPORTANT COMMENT THREADS are being updated?

→Got my christmas card from yappichick! 'S very pretty and thoughtful; thank you, bb! My brother got it and thought it was a birthday card, since I've been getting those pretty much all week, but I corrected him when I got up. I showed to it Mum, and she was quite enamored with it, especially when I explained that it was from a friend of mine from SGA, she was all "...wow, you guys must have met a long time ago!" (I neglected to mention that I even remember the old John/Teyla threads from GW that I lurked on and got to know everyone on long before I got LJ, because that was even longer ago).
Made me have a moment of "Holy smokes, I've been in fandom for a fourth of my life, pretty much." Which made me feel both old and young. And also kinda gave me the urge to go and delete anything from before 2008, because who really likes the random thoughts of a teenager? And the fanfic. Oh my god. I can't read any of that stuff. It scares me.

→I also can't believe I've only been on LJ for two years. It feels like so much longer, because of all the lurking I did long before I signed up. That, and the fact that I started on forums rather than LJ, and so I didn't get here 'till after I left forums. But really. The people I've gotten to know, the friends I've made, the ups and down that I've been through with y'all; the shows that I've found and loved and lost...
Basically; akl;dfghjgfijkl I LOVE EVERYONE.

→I really, really love Mission: Impossible 3. Me and the brother had a marathon of the three movies the other day, and I, of course, loved the movies, because I'm an action/adventure junkie with a love of spy movies. But my real great love for M:I3 isn't so much the typical stuff; my favorite thing was the direction and cinematography. For an action/thriller, it was gorgeously shot, IMHO. The colors were all rich in the right spots and washed out in all the right ones; the tones(blue and green and steel-gray vs. red and yellow and orange and brown) matched the actual tones of scenes, the camera was steady and locked-off when the tone called for it, and jittery and handheld when that was needed, too. It doesn't hurt that Tom Cruise was fantastic, either. The whole thing was just amazing, both in writing and directing. I think it helped cement JJ Abrams as one of my favorite directors, ever.
/fangirls

→Oh, something I got a kick out of; Stanford sent me a letter inviting me to apply for their High School Summer College. Basically it was along the lines of "You're smart, apparently, since you score high marks on standardized testing; would you like to come to school here next summer?"
On one hand, holy smokes, if I didn't have to think about anything else, I'd snap that sucker up in a heartbeat. But on the other hand, that's an eight-week program, which would keep me from doing my aerospace scholars program AND the summer seminar at the Academy. And I would have to find a way to get to Cali and some kind of arrangement to stay there. So basically, they got me all excited and then I realized it wouldn't be feasible. So I'm adding it to the stack of letters from places I'd like to go, like Embry-Riddle.
Responsible choices are so annoying.