The Winter Court of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

A couple of weeks ago or so I found the Kingdom Hearts 3 cutscenes of Sora's adventures in the first Frozen film. I had wondered if revisiting the first film in any form would make me decide I liked the sequel better after all. Instead, it had just the opposite effect, lol. I reaffirmed that the first one was perfect as is and didn't need a sequel, and that I really don't like the path the creators chose for Elsa in the sequel. Most unnecessary. I think the shorts and books have much better follow-up stories. I ordered a set of some of the Anna & Elsa books for my birthday and got another Prime trial for the next four weeks. They also offered me a $5 credit just for downloading a book to read free on my Amazon tablet! I chose another Frozen book, one about a ghost supposedly haunting the castle. It's fun and cute so far.

Build-a-Bear sent me an email the other day with Disney products in it. They have some cute Mickey and Minnie plushies, but most were too expensive in general and all were too expensive to buy online and have to pay shipping to get. Looking at the email made me decide something, though. I've wanted a Mickey plushie for years. This is the year I'm going to actually get one! I have my brother's little Mickey, but he's not very furry anymore and the stuffing was coming out. I can't remember if I was able to patch him up. I always felt like I couldn't get another Mickey because it would be "betraying" that one, lol. But I really want one and am determined to get one. Disney isn't having any sales right now, so I considered Walmart's offering. Theirs is really nice, but doesn't have a tail. I see a lot online with tails. I am most tempted to buy a 25 inch one that's $20, and then I'd get $5 off with my credit. I have a weakness for supersize things!

I also have a $5 coupon from eBay that I can use for once. Usually they send things I can't use, like coupons only good for fashion categories or whatnot. I'm still debating what to buy with that too. Part of me thinks I should get the Yami Yugi pin I need to complete my set of them (the set with the Yami Bakura pin). Another part thinks I should buy the other uncut dub DVD. I have 1 and 3, but not 2. I hadn't been interested before because it's just the Weevil duel and Joey's first duel with Mai, and I imagined Weevil's duel wasn't that different from the dub version and I don't care for how skimpy the Harpies are in their uncut forms. But it would be more voice-acting from the actors I love playing those characters, which would make it a treasure. I think it and Bonds Beyond Time are the only DVDs I don't have with any of the original YGO characters. (And their guest spots on GX. I don't have those either. I did watch the Paradox Brothers' guest spot on Hulu and can't say I was that impressed. The duel certainly wasn't as epic and spectacular as Yugi and Joey's duel against them. But it was nice seeing Syrus find inner strength he didn't know he had.)

I've actually watched some 5Ds. I like the Dark Signer arc and watched Carly's and Kalin's episodes for that. Then I wanted to see Kalin's redemption arc too. I really like the Duel Links event that was done for the latter. Kalin is a character who develops so much through just the few episodes he's in. I found it very vindicating how sobered he behaves when he finally realizes how horrible he's been acting. His extreme behavior change is how I tend to write characters going through the same type of phase.

I still hate the setting of Domino City after an explosion tore the city apart. Why did the creators think the fans would want to see their beloved city a wreck? It's so depressing. I refuse to accept that 5Ds absolutely happens in the future, even though I like some of the characters and arcs. I can headcanon it happening in an alternate dimension, though. I may or may not write a fic exploring that premise.

(Also, motorcycle duels will always be ridiculous. The characters can't even look at each other! I have a hard time believing that Seto designed such a thing, as the Wiki says he did.)

Azure Week was interesting and fun and now I've been preparing for Whumptober and maybe Comfortember. Two months of hurt/comfort prompts! Squeeee! I'm doing a connected story for Whumptober with Yami Marik tormenting the Big Five and I've just finished the first draft of the tenth prompt. They're all fairly short scenes. I might expand some before posting next month. We'll see. I don't think every prompt will be part of this story, as a few seem like they need to be stand-alone, but again, we'll see. I also sketched a picture when I needed a drawing prompt and used one of the Comfortember prompts. I may or may not save the picture to actually post for the prompt. That's a long time to wait, and I planned to write a fic for that prompt too.

On the local holiday last month we went to the nearest JCPenney's to see what they had, as we had a gift card to use. We couldn't find any of what we were actually hoping to find, but we got a nice blue bath towel and I found a hilarious kitty shirt with kitties randomly floating through space on pastries. It is so silly! Some of them look blase, while others are WTH about it. I love it. It was a fun holiday and was so nice after the nothingness of the 4th.

On the 1st we had to go to the dentist and I hoped to stop at a mall and check the JCPenney's up that way. I was looking for some things I didn't find at the closest one to us, but I found similar things there and thought another branch might have the actual things. What I was looking for was Wreck-It Ralph figures (by themselves and not with huge cars that cost $40) and Mario and Luigi figures. I didn't find those things at the other JCPenney's, but I found something that excited me even more: the Vanellope plush! JCPenney's must have some deal with Disney, as they sell some stuff that I've only seen otherwise at The Disney Store. I've been trying to find the Vanellope plush for ages and figured I'd have to buy her online. She was more expensive at Penney's, yet cheaper than she'd be online with shipping included. First I saw one that was totally messed up with some weird brown stuff all over her. (Yuck!) I desperately hoped that wasn't the only one and went to look through the plushie racks. I found one half-hidden on the bottom shelf! I also found a third one on another rack. I was so excited. I got the good one I found first, from the bottom shelf.

There was also a Target just a block away, so we went there too. I still can't find the Farrah Fawcett figure, but I finally found Medley! I've been looking for her so long; she was on my last Christmas list. It felt so good to finally bring both her and Vanellope home. Medley looks so '80s. It's awesome.

I couldn't help remembering an August 1st in the past that was a happy day for me too. I can't remember now if the year was 2002 or 2003; part of me says it must have been 2002, but the other part says that wouldn't work, time-wise, because I'm pretty sure I got into YGO in late July 2002, and that wouldn't have left enough time for all the figure-searching I was doing. What happened was I wanted YGO figures and I found big ones of Yami Yugi and Seto were coming out. I hadn't seen them locally, so I finally ordered the Seto one on July 24th online. He arrived on August 1st and I was thrilled! I remember standing him next to the TV to watch the YGO rerun that day, heh. I also remember it was the very first episode, not a favorite because of Seto's horrible behavior. But I watched it and then we went out shopping and went to the Toys R Us on the West side of the valley. I found that the figures were out, wouldn't you know it. So I got Yami Yugi that same day. Then we had a nice driving excursion to an old mining town.

I really miss back then when YGO and anime were so new to me and everything was so exciting and there were always new discoveries to be had. It just seems like these days, there's not a whole lot to get excited about regarding anime. There were some neat merchandise things coming out for anime I've loved for years, like YGO and Sailor Moon, but there isn't much of that left around now, it seems like. I did see a Sailor Moon shirt at Target, which made me ecstatic, and I desperately want to go back and get it (if it's not a crop top; I couldn't tell and those would not look good on me). Hopefully all branches will have it; I saw people finding it at their Targets too, so that's hopeful. And there's one at Forever 21 I like even more, but I don't know if it's in local stores or just on the website. But places like FYE, which used to be one of The places for anime and video game merchandise, don't seem to have much at all anymore. The last time I was at the big one, there was hardly any of that. It looked so barren. It's really sad. I discovered a neat store called Boxlunch with anime stuff, but their prices are horrifying. They have better prices online, but then you have to factor in shipping.

I've been following Toys R Us very closely all this year. Geoffrey's Toy Box was a success, apparently, and they have emerged from bankruptcy! It's interesting that I never could accept they were gone and it's ended up that they're not. They finally announced the new stores for the year, but apparently there will only be two, in New Jersey and Texas. I'm still trying to convince them to come here too. Heh. Hopefully next year it will happen. In any case, there will be the website, and I desperately want to support them and buy something there. I hope they'll have a huge selection and a good shipping policy. The new stores are going to have product demonstrations and play areas for the kids to play with Geoffrey. Those things sound epic! I just really hope they won't mostly have educational toys and not much else. Educational toys are important, but I feel like all the other toy stores in existence right now focus on those. I want Toys R Us to still have toys based on popular characters and such. They had a better selection of those than anywhere else.

(Also, still no sign of this KB Toys comeback they were promising. There's been no word from them at all since they told why the stores they promised last year didn't happen. I prefer Toys R Us, of course, but I was hoping KB would be back too. I am not impressed with their lack of information and apparent lack of going forward with plans....)

A couple of weeks ago it really hit me that ShopKo is gone. I don't think it ever really sank in before, especially since I didn't get to go to the liquidation sales much. It's really sad. Okay, they usually had horrible prices and that's probably why they're gone, but I still loved the store and sometimes they had good deals. I got a Turtles playset there to get the laptop out of it. I got a Twilight Sparkle Christmas ornament. I think it was ShopKo where I finally found the big Marik figure. And the fun Halloween stuff they used to have.... So many happy memories of them.... Now there won't be any more.

I was going to buy myself that book about Mario for my birthday, but the price suddenly dropped to $17, so I decided I needed to get it now. It's different than what I thought; it doesn't have all the juicy background information I was hoping for, and it only focuses on 17 games they consider the main timeline. But it is a fun book, detailing the gameplay of those games and the enemies and the power-ups and such. I love books like that. I also got a book about haunted locations in my state. Some things I hadn't heard before. It was a short book, but a fun read.

And I ended up getting a very dark idea for my next big YGO fic, of whether the accident that killed Noa was really an accident. I also got the idea of someone falsely accusing Lector of hitting Noa, due to that story I mentioned reading where he really did kill Noa, on purpose. Since I was partially inspired by that story, I tried to contact the author to ask if it was alright if I posted mine, but I didn't have any luck. A friend told me she thought it would be alright if I posted it anyway, since I was only inspired by it and my story went in a completely different direction, with Lector innocent. So I credited that author and her story for partial inspiration and I've been posting it. I just put up chapter 6. Lector really goes through the emotional wringer. It's pretty much the opposite of the story I read, as he not only didn't do it in mine, but he is devastated by the accusation and is tortured by painful memories from the past throughout the fic. He fears it was his fault, as he and Noa were arguing and Noa ran away when he was struck. Due to the subject matter of wondering if Noa was murdered, I ended up rating the story M. I just wasn't comfortable rating it T.

I've been doing more pictures, and I finally made a Big Five wallpaper I've wanted to make for months: http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com

I also decided on a bunch of image songs for Nesbitt in my verse. Whereas in canon he is over-confident and arrogant, in my verse pretty much all of that has been knocked down and he is discouraged and despondent, hating his impulsive and reckless behavior and how he often blurts hurtful things to Lector and the others. Leave Out All the Rest I chose for him a while back, along with The Reason and Forgive Me. Yesterday I realized Breaking the Habit also fits very well, and that song has been stuck in my head since then.

Now I'm calm enough that hopefully I'll remember all that I was originally going to post, lol. I should be able to see Geoffrey's Toy Box on Tuesday and I'm thrilled. Even though it's just a pinprick of Toys R Us, even a pinprick is better than nothing! From what I'm reading, lots of people are excited. Someone from Kroger even said people hadn't been this excited about something at their store in a long time, if ever.

ROTFLOL, the kitty is so silly and adorable! Yesterday I had one foot on the garage step. She decided to sit on my leg, knead, and rub her head on my face. Tonight she tried it some more. Then she went nuts and started investigating everything in the garage that she hadn't looked at before. She climbed in a wheelbarrow and went under an open umbrella positioned over it. Then she climbed around, looked at an old oven we brought from the old house, and somehow squeezed into a box full of sealed electrical supplies like plugs and cords and empty boxes. She went under a sack of wilted flowers to get in through the hole in the middle. All the flaps came up and I couldn't get her out of there for a while. She would look up at me with big round eyes and then resume digging into the box to see what was in there. **snerk.** Silly, silly kitty! I finally got her to come out by pretending to leave. Yeah, letting the kitty roam freely in the garage is a very bad idea. We were considering it for Tuesday, but I think we'll have to try something else.

(Also, she apparently killed a mouse, as there was a dead one by the garbage can. What an appropriate place for it. But ugh, this shows there are still mice in the yard. We'll have to be careful none of them get into the garage. We can't have them in the house again! Dad said he found another dead mouse a couple of months ago under the red car. Great.)

Last night Dad found a DVD with several Christmas movies on it and we watched one called Holiday Affair with Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh. It's a clean film, despite the title, but it's one of those annoying love triangle things where the girl is engaged to a perfectly nice man, but he's not exciting enough, and when a new guy enters her life who seems more interesting, she wants him instead, and after only several days. The new guy had a great relationship with the son she had from a prior marriage (her husband was dead) and that was adorable and sweet, but I don't really ship the romance. I think the first guy was much nicer and she should have stayed with him and realized whatever she felt for the new guy was just infatuation. The new guy could have continued to be friends with the boy without trying to nose into her love life. He even stood up at the dinner table on Christmas and said he felt she should marry him instead of the guy she was engaged to. **headdesk.** And that he felt a guy had a right to ask a girl he liked to marry him, even if she was someone else's girl. She was understandably indignant at him being so bold and brazen, with the first guy and her parents all there. Of course, the script tries to twist it into her being upset because she had feelings for the new guy that she was trying to deny. But since I'm never sold on real romance happening within a matter of several days, I'm not impressed.

(Of course, ironically, I have a similar problem with the Serenity love triangle in YGO, and I have her with Duke instead of Tristan. I feel like Tristan shelters her too much, but also, I think he probably reminds her a lot of Joey, and she may think of him as another brother. She's already said she thinks of him as a friend. However, if I really thought Duke was an immoral womanizer like most of the fanbase, I would hate Cheershipping. I always felt the flirting was a facade and that he really does care about Serenity, unlike the empty-headed fan club girls. And I usually write Duke with more of the manga personality, where he is much less interested in the flirting, so he's more mature.)

I have a lot of gift cards for Amazon and I was considering getting one of those films with Richard I haven't seen yet. One of them is unfortunately one of those love triangle kind, with Richard as the nice boy who gets jilted in favor of the more exciting Frenchman the girl meets. I definitely decided against that; it would probably just make me mad that she would pass up Richard's character.

I also considered a movie about a dog that he's in. I think he plays a nice character. But the movie largely involves the dog ending up in dogfights, and even though people say you don't see the fights onscreen, I think that would bother me too much even though it is a dark part of actual history. I rejected it before because of that and I rejected it again this past week.

Then there's a suspense movie with Richard playing a nice character, but it sounded depressing, with the main character eventually ending up killed. I've passed it up multiple times because of that.

In the end, I don't think Richard has a lot of screentime in any of the films, and I'm still just not impressed by the films for one reason or another, so I opted against all of them and got The Mod Squad (the complete series for $27, squeeee!), The Odd Couple complete set ($35!), and the Pony movie soundtrack. With earlier gift cards, I got the Wreck-It Ralph soundtrack and an amazing-sounding Perry Mason book that has interviews with cast members, including Richard and H.M. Wynant! A friend of the author posted about it in the Perry Facebook group and I was ecstatic. It was published in 2015; I don't know how I managed to not know about it all this time. I can hardly wait to read the interviews and see the other stuff. It's almost 700 pages! I'll probably finally have a new blog post for my Perry blog after I look through it.

I've spent a lot of this past week trying to fix my room, because I'm so crowded I couldn't even reach my Christmas CDs. I got the idea to move some of my tapes into the living room, ones that have the PAX shows on them that we all enjoyed. Then I had enough free space to start taking down the towers on a bookcase. It feels so good to have been able to take down some of the towers I had stacked around and to have cleared out and rearranged a shelf and some stuff in the printer box. (I can hardly believe the amount of stuff that I had, well, stuffed into that shelf. Good grief! Once it was gone or put other places, I had enough space to move a huge stack of magazines into the space!) I have an old printer in here that I was going to use, but it needs a new toner and doesn't work right, so I've ended up just stacking things on it instead and using the up-to-date printer downstairs when I want to print. Now I want to somehow get it out of here and maybe put a small wheeled bookcase in its place. I think I mentioned that, and that I can't find wheeled bookcases anymore. But I found a wheeled metal cart that would hold DVDs, so I might get that. I also need a nightstand by the door instead of the bags and box that my backpack keeps sliding off of. I ended up accidentally breaking a picture frame trying to stop the backpack from falling. It's amazing the glass didn't break.

My laptop's DVD/CD drive suddenly stopped working. I don't know if it's because something went wrong in another part of the computer and that's affecting it or if it just died, but it won't read any discs at all. I've tried just about every possible solution, even seeing if it will play in Safe Mode to tell if it's a software problem. That didn't help. Ironically, I was trying to play the Wreck-It Ralph soundtrack when it borked. I don't think the soundtrack was responsible, since it played on another player just fine, but it is darkly amusing to think that Ralph wrecked my drive. I'm going to bring the gaming desktop in from the hall, since I really need a working DVD/CD drive for multiple reasons. (It's not literally a gaming computer as the technical term goes, but I mostly use it for gaming because it has the space for big games.) But I'm not ready to give up the laptop. It still works okay, basically, and we've been together since 2010. It was hard giving up the Gateway too, but at least I had more time to prepare for that since it acted up for months before giving out. This was so sudden. So I'm going to keep using the laptop for everything other than DVD/CD drive needs.

Yesterday I demonstrated I have the Big Five on the brain way too much by dreaming about them. And it was Lector hurt/comfort too. I'm debating if there will be any such scene in my current fic. It's possible.

I'm also debating if I'll go full-blown Azureshipping in this fic or another in the current timeline. With the old fics, I preferred keeping it friendshippy and the Azureshipping fics were in the future instead of the present. Since I have Cheershipping in the present in the new timeline, however, it makes it more tempting to have Azureshipping too. I've been teetering in an Azureshipping mood ever since I decided to make the Tea plush, and the feelings have been even stronger lately. I just love that pairing. Crump has kidnapped Tea in the fic (or rather, his soulless body did; Portman couldn't bring back the trapped souls, but she healed and revived the bodies and they're running loose all over town. Lector, who does have his soul since he was allowed a second chance after helping Mokuba, is highly shaken and disturbed), so either it's just because Crump likes pretty, young girls (ugh, dirty old man) or because even soulless, there's some recognition that taking Tea will hurt Seto. Everyone else is occupied with stopping Gansley and Nesbitt from hurting Mokuba, but once the dust settles there, they'll realize Crump hasn't been seen and discover Tea's missing. (Johnson already attacked Seto and Yami Bakura sent his body to the Shadow Realm.)

Then I finally got around to reading the details on the Wreck-It Ralph sequel, since I probably won't get to see it in theatres and I wanted to know what happens. I have ... mixed feelings. ( Spoilers )

We had some lovely cloudy days last week that made things feel very much like fall, and the shortening days in general are making it feel that way too. It's so exhilarating. There was already a Spirit Halloween store open a week and a half ago when I finally got to use my Build-a-Bear coupon before it expired. (I got Eevee, as the Ponies weren't available, oddly, and for once the coupon didn't exclude Pokemon, so I decided I should take full advantage of that since I wanted Eevee too.) I'm guessing more merchandise will come in as the weeks go on, but it was fun going in and looking around at what they currently had. And after Labor Day, most stores will start getting their Halloween sections going! I'm excited to see what they'll have. Smith's was getting ready for their section last week. They had tons of candy boxes ready to unpack on the seasonal aisle. And Dollar Tree already has Halloween cards and some decorations. I bet this week they'll have the full section up.

On the downside, you wouldn't think it would be impossible to find a plain blue button shirt, but it is. The only button shirts aside from dress shirts seem to be plaid, and the dress shirt I'd staked out at Walmart to buy in a pinch if all else failed is also gone. WTH. I find it ridiculously maddening that I started planning my Halloween costume in February and I still can't find something so simple to make it work! I'll look a little more, but by this point I'm tempted to use a light blue denim coat I have instead. Unless that has gone AWOL too.

As usual, I'm not sure what to ask for for my birthday. Naturally I would like things, but since I can't come up with anything it's often tempting not to ask for anything. But I know it means a lot to Mom to have something for me, so somehow I'll need to think of something. What I'd like most is more Kotobukiya YGO figures, but of course that's out of the question. So expensive. Maybe I should just go the practical route and ask for a small bookcase. I keep dawdling on getting one because I want one on wheels. But we can't find those anywhere anymore. I'm almost tempted to get a regular bookcase, then switch it with the one on wheels in the living room and bring the wheeled one into my room. But I'm not sure the one on wheels has enough space to fit everything I need to have go in it.

Of course, my go-to thing to ask for is mysteries by my favorite local author. He's probably written at least one more by now. But I have so many books stacked around now that need to be read that asking for more seems laughably ridiculous. Occasionally one goes out of print faster than others, though, so I do like to keep on top of the releases even if it takes me a while to get to all of them.

Another thought would be asking for more of the retro G1 My Little Ponies by The Bridge Direct. I definitely want more; I only have one, and they've done three waves by now! The Target near us always seems to be out of them, though. And it's not really that near to us; it takes about twenty minutes to get there, and Dad is obsessive about gas, so I wouldn't be surprised if we wouldn't even be in that area until my birthday. Heh. So that would be out. I wish Walmart would carry those Ponies too.

Target is also carrying some neat Mego-type figures of classic TV characters. They had one of Kelly Garrett from Charlie's Angels, but I wasn't sure how good the likeness was. I'd like one of Sabrina most, but I'm not sure they made her. They may have just done one character for each series, although I saw several Star Trek varieties. But that's Star Trek. A cheesy, cute little show like Charlie's Angels might not get dolls of everyone. I'll try to find out a little more about the Kelly figure, since she's my second favorite Angel, but I think if I have to question the likeness, it's probably not a very good one. But on the other hand, it could just be that it's been way too long since I've watched Charlie's Angels.

I have a chance to get some gift cards on a project I'm doing for work. I'm debating if I should use them to get another tablet, if there's enough of them. I'm thinking I really need a second recently-made tablet, because the old tablet is too old to handle much of the work I was doing on it and the gaming tablet has little space and I kind of feel protective of it like it's more fragile, especially since it's not one of the sturdier brands like Samsung. (It's a DigiLand.) I don't like installing too many things on it or doing too much on it other than Duel Links, but I've had to do a lot of my work on it lately. I'm thinking maybe I should get an Amazon Fire tablet, which I had considered in the first place. Only maybe I should try for the 16 GB model instead of the 8 GB model. I guess it depends on how many gift cards I end up with at the end of the project.

I've finished tinkering with two YGO oneshots I've had around for weeks, waiting for the right time to post them. I think it's the right time for at least one of them. And I'm tempted to try writing a Halloween mystery and try very hard to make it like the old mysteries, but I'm not fully sure I can. I mean, how are smugglers or thieves that daunting and dangerous after the gang has faced off against the personification of the darkness in human hearts? I may have to make it a supernatural mystery, but try to keep as much of the lightheartedness of the old mysteries as possible. Easier said than done! The old mysteries were humorous and often OOC for some characters. I could keep some humor, but the OOC stuff would have to go, of course, and probably also a lot of the hurt/comfort. I try to be more sparing and at least slightly more realistic with my hurt/comfort now, as compared to the old stories. (I.E., there would not be any strangeness like characters getting hanged without many serious aftereffects.) I would likely still have knockouts without many serious aftereffects, though, because that's one hurt/comfort thing I'm not willing to give up or write completely realistically.

In any case, I'm kind of worried that I'll start a mystery and then stall on it, especially if there aren't any serious stakes. I might end up feeling that I'm stumped and that it doesn't matter that much if I am, if the story doesn't really have overall importance to the timeline. And it also wouldn't matter if I got stumped if the person I'd be trying to please by writing it wouldn't like it anyway since it would be set in the new timeline. I've considered off and on trying to write a mystery just for myself, as I should, but I honestly do like to give readers as much of what they want as I can, and I thought of the Halloween mystery fic idea while trying to think of something that would make that person happy. But as long as it's part of the current timeline, she probably won't be, so I probably shouldn't even bother for that reason. I honestly thought the past two twenty-chapter adventures kept the basic feel of the old timeline, even though it's true that they weren't as funny. But she didn't think so, and I doubt I can really replicate the old stuff very well. I'm not the same person who wrote those old stories and I have some different story interests now. I don't want to revisit a timeline I don't care to write in anymore, and I don't know how to make the current timeline more like the old one. I'm really trying my best. I've even got this Seto to where he's loosened up enough to consider Yugi-tachi his friends now, so that will be somewhat similar to the old timeline. He had some important development in the shorter adventure I finished writing on Friday.

I don't know what to do. Maybe just start writing some stuff for a Halloween mystery and see if I like it enough to keep going, or if I think I'll just stall on it instead. I did have an amusing idea of Yami Bakura being amused by Halloween decorations and wanting to fix up the yard to be creepy, although he would probably say that none of the decorations seemed scary enough to him. LOL.

So we got to go out today, which is awesome because it was the last day of my Barnes and Noble coupon and the last day before things are supposed to start acting like winter around here. I think the East Coast is having their winter plus ours this year! We need some more moisture or we'll probably have a drought come spring and summer.

Anyway, Target did have some of the Ponies! Squeee. As I half-expected, Bluebelle and Blossom weren't there. Neither was Butterscotch. But I was happy to get Minty! I wondered if I should have got Snuzzle too. I wanted to save money and hope to have a chance at getting Bluebelle and Blossom later (and Butterscotch), but really, I want all six. I kind of wish I'd gotten Snuzzle too. But I needed to check Toys R Us to see if they had any, so I opted to just get Minty. And really, I'm glad of that, because I met a guy there who was absolutely chuffed to see 1980s Ponies back and he was excited hoping to go buy some with his paycheck tomorrow, so I really hope Snuzzle and Cotton Candy will both still be there for him! Toys R Us doesn't have any yet, but they're being shipped to the warehouse, so maybe in a couple of weeks.

I also saw the Mutagen Canister figures back at Toys R Us, but they only had two Raphaels. Honestly, he seems to be the worst seller of the set. The Wal-Mart I visited later didn't even have a place for the Mutagen Canister figures anymore. Now I'm a little worried that maybe I won't get to buy another Baxter to fix into Barney for my dA friend....

I didn't end up going to Build-a-Bear because I felt I wanted to save the money for more Ponies, but Mom asked twice if I'd gone there and now that's making me nervous wondering if I should have. I have a month to use that coupon, but the time will likely go by quickly.

At Barnes and Noble I was considering getting the book on Legendary Pokemon, but when I saw it, I wasn't impressed. It told some of the encounters from the series and movies, but it didn't seem to want to talk about Pokemon Classic much at all and refused to mention movies 2 and 3. WTH.

I saw the new Equestria Girls book and it said that Sunset's friends fell under a spell where they only remembered the bad things about her. I'll probably want to read it since it is an original story, but that sounded sad and I knew I'd probably spend the whole book feeling bad for her, so I decided I didn't want to get that right then either.

Then I looked in some other Pokemon reference books and ended up hopping mad. I thought that book about Ash's journey from Kanto to Kalos was bad in their descriptions of Team Rocket. I found way worse! One reference book out and out lied about James' past. It said he got bored of the rich life and ran away because of that. No mention of being engaged to an abusive girl his parents were forcing him to marry. Maybe they felt that was too dark for kids to hear about, but why make up stuff?! Just say nothing like the Kalos book did! Then a book about the movies slanted it so that Team Rocket's unselfish acts sounded selfish. True, they did try to say that they were only helping to save the world because if it was destroyed there wouldn't be anyone to steal from, but their later sacrifice proved that was just talk. They thought they were going to die, which they outright said and which the book outright didn't say. Ugh. It's one thing to want to make sure the kids don't want to emulate the antagonists, but making them sound worse than they were and even lying about them is not the way to go about it.

I ended up supremely ticked off and bought a Nancy Drew book instead. There was one classic Nancy Drew that they had that I didn't. And heh, oddly enough, the few Nancys and Hardys they had were on the bottom shelves, just like in my dream. They weren't on the bottom shelves the last time I was there.

All in all, a fun little outing and I discovered an amazing Darren figure modeled after his character in A Christmas Story! I couldn't get it right then, as it was $30, but I'm going to keep monitoring it for a price drop! I must have it!

I just hope I won't regret not going to Build-a-Bear....

After more edits, I put up the second half of the mask fic. Now to sit back and hope people won't stop reading in outrage and throw things.

In the morning I made some tweaks to the wax blurbs and now I have it that Team Rocket was drawing the creature away from Ash and the others, although they didn't realize they were going to be trapped until they ended up alone with it. I also mention Pokemopolis to see how it looks, and I like it. So I guess that will indeed be part of the Pokemopolis fic I'm tentatively planning.

Still hoping to go out this coming week, both to look for the G1 Ponies and to use a coupon and a gift card I have for Barnes and Noble. Don't know if it will really work, though; I think I'm okay to go out, but I thought that last time and then it caused more trouble. Ugh. But I'm longing so much to get out. I still have Christmas presents to buy and I want to enjoy the stores I didn't get to see at Christmas. In January they probably still have some Christmas things on Clearance, judging by past years, so I'd get to see a little bit, even though it wouldn't be the same. I wish we had one of those year-round Christmas shops. I don't think we do.

It's fun pondering what to get at Barnes and Noble, although in the end I might not end up with any of the things I'm thinking of. I'd like a Pokemon book, but I don't know what one would be nice to Team Rocket. I looked in that one book at ShopKo that covers things from Kanto to Kalos and I didn't like what was said about Team Rocket. Of course, I suppose they do that to try to keep kids from liking or emulating the characters, but it isn't fair to slant things so as not to tell the characters' good sides too. Nor do I like that they didn't bother to mention why James left his life of luxury and instead made it sound like some big mystery.

I think there's a new Equestria Girls book out, so I might look at that. Don't know if I'd get it, though; I've really been less interested since they introduced the gems with special powers. I liked Equestria Girls because the girls didn't have special powers except in times of crisis. And maybe the book just adapts the new webseries or something. I only buy the ones with original stories.

Also, I find it so insulting that Build-a-Bear won't let the Pokemon plushies be included on their coupons! I'm amazed I was able to use my birthday coupon on one. Part of me wonders if it was a fluke! I hate wasting coupons, especially $10 ones, but I don't know what to do when the plushies I want to buy most are the ones excluded! There are others I'd like, though. I've considered off and on maybe buying Peanut from the Lalaloopsy line. I love her purple hair. I'm not too happy she's a prankster, but at least she seems to believe like Pinkie Pie does, that it's only fun if no one gets hurt and everyone enjoys it. So she's a much nicer and more thoughtful prankster than some. Problem with buying human characters is that they need clothes. I STILL don't have clothing for Sugar Cookie! (I will not call her Crumbs. What a horrible name.) Then there's the tuxedo cat, although I thought she was awfully small for the steep price. Maybe she'd look bigger on a second viewing, like Pikachu did.

It's really not a good time to buy from Build-a-Bear anyway, though, what with the G1 Ponies and the Barnes and Noble stuff (I might find something I want that would cost more than the gift card would cover, after all) and the Christmas presents. I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

Then there's the Team Rocket plushies idea, but I haven't been as motivated for that because the figures are so nice and big and have been satisfying my need to have the characters in the house. And Wal-Mart sold out of the blue stuff I wanted for James' hair. Maybe by now they've restocked, though. That was three weeks ago when I checked. If it turns up again, I might consider making the plushies again.

I'm rather ecstatic that I finally got my kiddie Team Rocket book, heh. Barnes and Noble sent an email with 25% off an item, plus free shipping. I didn't realize they meant both things were included even with one little item, though, instead of having to pay $25 to get the free shipping. But I looked at the email again, realized it looked like it meant both even for one item, and I tried buying the Team Rocket book and adding the coupon code just to see what would happen. And it really happened. That is one amazing coupon! Must be something that could only happen at Christmastime. Normally Barnes and Noble doesn't have deals that good! Hopefully the book will be worth getting. Anything with Team Rocket getting to come to the rescue sounds promising.

My Meowth figure arrived safely on Wednesday. The bubble was all yellowed and stapled back together at the edges (as I already knew it was), but Meowth was still cozy inside. Seems to be perfectly mint! At first I thought some places had faded, but when I looked at the paper that came with him, it looks like that was just a design of the figure. And adorably, James can hold him! That's how I'm displaying them right now. I like this original Meowth figure better than the one Tomy did more recently, because the recent one is battle stance and expression and the old one is docile and cute. And I chose this particular one because he was the only one still in a package for the lowest price. Would've cost about the same to get the recent one in a store.

I finally got my shirt, too. Mom and I figured out stuff to get for Dad for Christmas, so we had him put some money from his and Mom's account into mine (without saying why, of course, though I'm sure he knows the routine by now) and I bought the stuff for him and added the shirt to the order. I kept waffling on whether to really get it, but after going over and over the options I concluded there really wasn't anything I wanted more than the shirt, despite the raised price. I hope everything will get here in time. The most important part of the order has shipped, but the other half is shipping with my shirt, for some reason, and that part of the order hasn't shipped yet.

Then I got sidetracked with this writing quiz FidgetFidgets did. I recognized some questions but not others, so I decided to take it:

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

LuckyLadybug is the name of a silly, cute, old song that was covered by Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons. I was in a Yahoo Group for them and everybody was choosing a song of theirs to be like a signature song to describe them. For some reason, I picked that one and it's stuck ever since.

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/subscriptions/hits/kudos).

On AO3, I believe it's one of my West Side Story fics (the one where Schrank is shot, I think). Yeah. The Worth of Souls.

On FF.net, it's Frantic in Frisco (apologies to any San Franciscans who hate that name), an old Yu-Gi-Oh! mystery.

Of course, on AO3 the kind of feedback I get is rarely ever in comments.

3. What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

Carl Kolchak holding a cross. I probably chose it because I was on a Kolchak the Night Stalker kick when I made my account and I wanted an icon with one of my actor darlings. And because it just looks cool seeing him try to ward off evil with a religious object. :)

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

Heh, anybody who comments (and is nice) is my favorite! I do have some regular commenters, but they only tend to show up when I write for something they like. Understandable, of course. I'm usually the same. I might love someone's writing so much I'd like to read everything of theirs, but I just don't have the time, so I stick with fandoms I love.

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

I can’t think of one specific one. I will re-read multiple oneshot stories by friends, especially if they were gifts to me.

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

Not very many. I don’t think there are any subscriptions and only a handful of Bookmarks. That’s the same on FF.net, basically, except I am actively Following a SYOC (Send Your Own Character) fic, because the author wanted to include a character of mine and I agreed and created one for him to use.

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

I used to consider it an insult to be told I wrote AU, especially if my stories simply picked up where canon left off! But I can’t deny that what I’ve been writing for over a year is indeed AU. My 87 Ninja Turtles AU breaks off after the second to last episode of season 7 and goes off in a different direction more in keeping with the spirit of the early seasons rather than the dark stuff canon gave us starting in season 8. And now I have my Pokemon AU verse too, which breaks off some time in season 2, incorporates some events of later seasons, but mostly goes off in its own direction too. And for the Pokemon AU, I have an explanation within the stories as to why. LOL. The creator time-traveled to the present day, spoke to the real people, then went 20 years in the past to create the games and anime. He then had to come up with stuff of his own to keep things going once the series took off, so most of the stuff in Johto and beyond to Sun and Moon is his own creation instead of what he learned from the real people. Heh. I’ve only revealed that in the crossover fics, but I may or may not have it in the solo Pokemon stories at some point.

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

Ehhhh … on AO3? I’m not sure anybody is. But what the heck, I’ll look…. Hey, wow, 28 bookmarks and 5 subscriptions. I don’t think I get emails for those things. There is also 1 user subscription. I guess that’s like Following me instead of a story?

Now, on FF.net, on the other hand, I have … 846 people who list me as a Favorite Author and 391 who have me on Author Alerts. **blushes.** I am … rather established there. Of course, a lot of those stats are probably for now-defunct accounts and such, but still, it’s kind of nice that at least at some point, every one of those people wanted to see what I was writing next.

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

I don’t think so…. If I want to write something, I probably will. Now whether I’ll post it is another story, but if I like the way it came out, I probably will.

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

Descriptions. I used to be way better at descriptions than I am now. I slipped into an Ernest Hemingway way of writing that’s more dialogue-heavy, and while that usually works fine, sometimes I miss my descriptions. Occasionally I can still do them, depending on the scene, but in general it’s not like it once was.

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

I write … very few pairings of any kind! Man, even this quiz is romance-obsessed, automatically assuming I write romance. I’d rather write friendships. Now with them, I often write established friendships but also a lot of friendships that have somehow developed over the course of the stories, since they’re often connected.

The few times I do dip into romance, I think it’s usually well-loved pairings but not always.

12. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

135, it says.

582 on FF.net. And then there’s stuff I’ve only posted to Livejournal….

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

Everything! Blurbs, too.

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

I try to write them down or I’ll forget them.

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Yes, but I don’t think any collaboration attempt ever got finished.

16. How did you discover AO3?

Can’t remember. I think a friend found it and told me? Maybe? I liked the tagging system and felt like, Well, what the heck, I’ll try it out, especially since they have some categories FF.net doesn’t. I’ve submitted some stuff to other fic sites, like Fic Wad and Media Miner, but it looked cooler than those. I found it aggravating when I realized people didn’t like to comment much there. Of course, these days it’s often the same thing at FF.net too.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?

Heh, nope. Maybe I am in the Ninja Turtles category by now. Who knows.

This version of the quiz sure likes AO3. I’ve seen a lot of these questions before, just not the AO3 ones (and a few others).

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

No. Although I think I used to jokingly call them my Lovelies. Now that’s a name I gave to my Tumblr account that has pictures of my favorite actors.

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

Mom and Dad, I suppose. I started writing fanfics at age 3 or 4. Of course, I didn’t know that’s what it was called then, but it seemed perfectly natural to want to tell new stories about characters I loved. It still does.

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

Write about what you love. Don’t try to force something that’s not coming. People will be able to tell if what you’re writing about is something you truly love. But also try to write about what you know. Put the characters into situations that you'll be able to actually write, instead of stumbling your way through it because you don't know what you're doing.

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

Half and half. I try to have a basic outline, but I don’t plot out every detail.

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

Oh, the stories I could tell. (And some I have told.) Honestly, what I did depended on what the comment was. Anonymous jerks get deleted. Signed in jerks usually get ignored … unless I’m in a particularly bad mood.

Of course, if there’s genuine criticism that’s valuable, that’s something else again. One of my most valuable comments told me I wrote like a script. I resolved to change that from then on, and I did.

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

Scenes requiring a lot of descriptions, like fight scenes. Unless I’m really into it and happily detail it out, which is rare for fight scenes. I’d rather write character interaction.

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

Several Pokemon:

- Human Meowth vignettes (which may become a regular oneshot or multi-chapter after all)

- Downfall of Team Rocket as an organization

- Control Freak redo

- Movie 2 missing scene

- Christmas fic for Crystal

- Ash is angry at a Pokemon (follow-up to A Hero Lies in You)

- Wax fic

- Team Rocket watches and comments on the anime (silly crack and might not get posted)

One Turtles:

- Christmas fic

Annnd a bunch of other assorted fics that I stopped work on long ago but may still finish someday (I hope).

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

Sometimes. It all depends on the plunnies! Many times a new idea comes and then it’s torture not being able to start it until I’ve finished what I’m already doing.

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

No, but I hope to write something every day.

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

Heck yes.

28. What is your favorite story that you’ve written?

Just one? Gosh, I don’t know. I love Lead Me Through the Fire and Close Your Eyes, Clear Your Heart for YGO. I love A Hero Lies in You and my Dead and Alive Redux for Pokemon. My Turtles series….

29. What is your least favorite story that you’ve written?

Family Ties and Family Secrets, both YGO. Urgh, I’d take them both down if people didn’t like them so much….

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

I’d like to say I’ll have finished my novel, but who knows. I find it so much more fulfilling to write about other people’s characters than my own. That ain’t gonna pay money, but I guess I’m also worried about using fiction writing for work. Maybe it won’t be as fun then. Having a publisher or an editor breathing down my neck for updates would get very stressful.

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

Telling stories about characters I already love.

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

When the descriptions don’t work or a scene drags or a fic just doesn’t seem about to let me know what it needs.

33. Why do you write?

It’s my passion. I can’t not write. It would be easier not to breathe.

Well, to my relief, things did settle down soon after writing that mega hurt/comfort scenario. For the first time in months, though, I've been working on two fics at once, the latest Turtles one and this Pokemon one, since it insisted on being a story. It's interesting going back and forth between fics again, especially when I enjoy them both.

The previous Turtles one came out alright, but now I'm stalling a bit again because I think the one I'm trying now will be filler until the antagonist shows up to cause trouble, and I have most of that part written already. Maybe I'd better work on that rest of that bit and I can fill in the other filler later.

Then for some reason, while fiddling with the Pokemon one, I started thinking about this person I ran into years ago who hated sacrifice fics, at least with certain characters. I remember her saying that Bass (from Megaman) was far more interesting than to do that with him, or some such. Of course, I certainly don't care for deathfic sacrifices, but stories where they do survive (or come back to life later, heh) I adore. It sounded like her arguments against them weren't really about killing him off, but it was so long ago that I don't recall the details.

Anyway, so then I started worrying about the Pokemon story and wondering if I should really have the scenario I wanted where James has to be heroic and nearly dies, since maybe there'd be some Pokemon readers who hate such scenarios too. But there have been canon occasions where Team Rocket has done that (second movie especially), so it wouldn't be OOC for them. Then I worried if it should just be James in the fic or if it should be all of them, like in the second movie, but I specifically wanted it to just be James. And I had assorted other worries, like whether Rocketshippers would get bent out of shape for James to do that and leave Jessie (although the reason he gave was because he wanted to keep the world safe for Jessie and Meowth, and he was pretty much forced into a situation where he had to do it or there wouldn't be any hope). And then of course he does come out of it alive, even though there's a big scare at first.

(Then I also worry if Rocketshippers will be mad that I'm not Rocketshipping, even though I do of course portray them as being very close.)

Eh, I don't know. I like how it's been coming out, though, and I would like to post it. This one I may wait until it's all done to post. I rarely do that if it will be in multiple parts, but right now I'm not fully sure how long it will be, so I don't know what kind of chapter breaks it will have. It was originally going to be a long oneshot, but I decided it needs to be at least several segments.

Then I wonder about ages too. I thought they were in their late teens years ago and some fans seemed to have that as a thing, but others felt they were adults. I'm not sure canon has ever said one way or the other, but I know that at least in the early seasons, they come across more as teens to me. They've certainly seen more than a lot of adults have, yet at the same time there's a definite immaturity to them. (Plus, James looks like a teen in how he's drawn.) And of course, sadly, there are a lot of adults who act immature. But I prefer seeing them as teens and am still writing them as such. Especially since I'm sticking with old-school Pokemon.

I'm honestly bothered by a lot of the canon that comes later. Even in episodes where James gets good development, like the one with his grandparents, Jessie and Meowth don't fully seem IC. One would hope that they would respect James enough not to steal from his grandparents when he repeatedly pleaded with them not to. And then I saw some of the one where the team splits up, specifically the scene where Jessie tells James to go home to Jessiebelle in spite of knowing how abusive she is and then just twirls off and leaves him in the middle of nowhere to do her Pokemon Coordinator stuff. I'm all for them leaving Team Rocket, but they should leave together. Jessie didn't even ask him to come with her. She just seemed to not want to be with him anymore. It all felt so very off. I thought I must be watching a nightmare or something at first, because it didn't ring true. I do like that when James flips and tries to catch a rare Pokemon in the hopes that she and Meowth will come back, Jessie does come running as soon as she learns that everyone who's tangled with the Pokemon has vanished.

So anyway, things seem to go up and down like that. Add to that the confusion of many years of canon and regions and types of Pokemon that I know next to nothing about. I think I prefer sticking with old-school Pokemon and I imagine all of my fics will too. I like the simplicity of when there was a core cast that didn't keep changing.

I doubt I'll ever write much for the series. One hiccup is that while I want them to leave Team Rocket, it would probably change the status quo too much. I'd want them to always be around, and how would that happen if they weren't following Ash? Of course, I guess it could be like the movies and they keep ending up in the same place by accident. Or they could be shadowing Ash to protect him from other Team Rocket members, but that's pretty unlikely, especially since Ash manages fine. Anyway, since I'm worried about the status quo and yet at the same time must keep developing characters in stories to be happy, I don't think I'd be able to sort out my problems and write very much with them.

In any case, one interesting thing is that years ago, I was pretty much only interested in the series for them (even though I did enjoy certain Pokemon creatures). This time around, I seem to be absorbing more of the culture as a whole and find the Pokemon themselves utterly fascinating and magical.

I also drew a picture of Barney meeting a Clefairy. I am highly amused.

Still don't know what the deal is on the payment/credits for the book fair, so I'm undecided on what book to drop if I figure I can't get them all. I did decide they were worth enough to me to take the extra shifts, however, so on Thursday I should be able to find out for sure what the deal is with the money, if my friend doesn't learn tomorrow on one of her shifts---the only one of hers we won't be sharing. Too early when Mondays are usually busy. And Tuesday is the only day I won't be doing something this week, so the breather is nice.

I always get nervous when debuting a new costume. Hopefully it will go over well on Wednesday at the party for the girls at church. And it looks like I'm probably going to a Halloween dance, as my friend was interested when I told her about it and I'll go if she goes. It's big band and masquerade, so those things are certainly appealing. We both just want to go and have a fun time rather than looking for romance with guys there.

Working on a Turtles fic, but I'm not quite sure what to do with it and my attention keeps wandering, hence why I'm writing this long entry.

I never did take the time to record what I thought of the other two Equestria Girls shorts. I loved the first one so much because it seemed to go back to the formula that really worked, the urban setting and school stuff going on and no constant magical powers courtesy of mysterious stones.

The other two shorts I liked less than the first one, even though they also had things I liked.

( Spoilers )

So yeah, in the end, it was a mixed bag and I haven't bought the DVD yet. I'm debating whether I really want to, since I only really liked the first short and there were just things I liked in the other two rather than liking them as a whole.

It feels so good knowing autumn is on its way. The days are getting shorter and some days are getting a little cooler and it's wonderful. I feel sad for Mom, as she always feels bad when summer ends, especially if we haven't been able to do much during it, but autumn is totally my favorite season and I am always so relieved to say Goodbye to summer heat and Hello to autumn leaves, spooky stuff, and my birthday. Heh.

I'm also wondering, honestly, what to even ask for on my birthday or what I might like to buy on my celebratory shopping spree. I'm pretty happy/content at this point in time and can't seem to think of much I want, at least that would be available around here. If I saw, say, season 2 of U.N.C.L.E. or that awesome Charlie's Angels boxset or season 1 of Rockford, or the other DuckTales and Talespin DVDs (or new human Baxter merchandise!), I'd be happy to snap them up. But I'm unlikely to see them offline (and unlikely to see human Baxter merchandise at all). I'll still want to have the shopping spree, though.

Normally one thing I always ask for is the latest Clair Poulson novel. But the one he's just released didn't sound quite as compelling to me as most of his books do, so I'm a little "Eh" right now. It sounded like it might focus on romance even more than most of them do. Honestly, as much as I love the plots and suspense and most of the characters, I get really bored when there almost always has to be a romance. I just tolerate it because the rest is so great. I think he only has one book where there isn't a romance between the male and female leads, and that's Conflict of Interest. I should read it again. It was a breath of fresh air to see a friendship instead.

Maybe for the shopping spree I'll focus on trying to get the other pieces I'll need for my Baxter Halloween costume. I really only need a wig and the coat; I have everything else. And without K-Mart, that seriously limits my costuming options. Sigh. They had such a good selection of stuff. ShopKo used to, but the last couple of years they've hardly had anything. Wal-Mart usually has a pretty good line-up, so I'm hoping I'll be able to find what I want there. If that fails, I guess there's Target and maybe a party store to try. The lab coat should be easy to procure, but the wig may be a little harder. Baxter's hair is such a unique color. I'd be willing to get a blond one if it was the right style, but I'd prefer light brown. And wild scientist wigs usually only come in white.

Most years, I'm lucky to find one or two things I want on the shopping spree. A lot of years, I find nothing and decide what I really want is online and get it there (and have to wait for a week to get it in the mail, sigh). Last year was one of the best times I've had in ages. I got ... let's see ... the Indigo Zap doll, a Real Ghostbusters DVD, the plushie that became Baxter, a YGO book (not a manga, a book about the anime and the characters and such), and TMNT seasons 1 and 4. It was so awesome.

Seems like most of the Pony Movie toys coming out are Sea Pony related or Ponies dressed as pirates. The new characters I wouldn't want toys of until I see whether I like their characters. And I have no desire to own the established characters in Sea Pony or Pirate form. I want to see the movie, but I am not thrilled at all about the main characters having to change into mermaids and blowfish (WTH, poor Spike). And since that seems to be one of the main product lines being pushed, it seems like it must last longer than one scene in the movie where they go for help. Then again, I guess some of the other lines have been based on scenes in the show that were only one scene. One can only hope.

And the fandom meme that's been going around. Since it's year-end I should have gotten to it sooner, but I've been busy getting up chapter 8 of The Case of the Broken Ties.


Year-End Fandom Meme
1. Your main fandom of the year:
I'm not sure what to say. I played in the Monkees, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and West Side Story fandoms around the first half of the year and Perry Mason for the rest of the year. Although I'm still writing for all of them. Chronologically speaking, however, I suppose I've been with Perry the longest. Also, I discovered The Wild Wild West, a show I've long wanted to watch and am nuts about. I'm not really involved in the fandom, however.

2. Your favorite Film this year:
... I didn't watch any films in the theatre, so I'm not sure what to put. My favorite film that I watched in the past year would be something old. But I'm honestly not sure which film gets the nod. Maybe it's a toss-up between The Persuader and One Minute to Zero. Both are intense dramas in which William Talman has starring roles. I love the man. I also greatly enjoyed Bullit. The police procedural plot highly intrigued me and Simon Oakland was just wonderful as the police captain.

3. Your favorite Book read this year:
I am so terrible at reading lately. I have many wonderful books that I still haven't finished or got to at all yet. Let's see ... my favorite was probably either Altered State by Gregg Luke (a thriller involving mind control) or Final Act by C. Paul Andersen (a thriller involving a big old house and a dark family secret; it reads like a Daphne Du Maurier novel and is every bit as amazing).

4. Your favorite Album or Song this year:
I probably played the heck out of the West Side Story soundtrack the most. The music is just so much fun. It's one of the only musicals I really like.

I'm also very thrilled with Evanescence's new, self-titled album and Jackie Evancho's Christmas album. Jackie is the latest in a line of young classical stars whose career I am eagerly following.

As for one specific song, I'm really not sure. I don't think I played one particular song more than any other. Except perhaps A New York Christmas by Matchbox 20, as I wrote my annual Christmas fic. And Gee, Officer Krupke from the West Side Story soundtrack. I love it. I even wrote a parody involving this conceited nut pleading for Mr. Burger, a judge, a psychiatrist, and Lieutenant Schrank to listen to him. (If anyone wants to see those screwy lyrics, let me know and I'll type them up.)

5. Your favorite TV Show this year:
Perry Mason.

6. Your favorite Community this year:
I'm not sure. Most of the fandoms I've been playing in this year don't have very active journal communities.

7. Your best new Fandom Discovery of the Year?
That Perry Mason season 2, 6, 7, and 8 have many, many wonderful friendship scenes between Perry and Hamilton. I've seen a lot of those episodes in the past, especially from 2 and 6, but I didn't know what seasons they were from. Nor did I know the overall ratio of episodes with those scenes.

Also, I would count The Wild Wild West as a runner-up discovery. It's just amazing! It has everything I want in a series: friendship, hurt/comfort, suspense, crime-fighting, good-looking men....

8. Your biggest Fandom Disappointment of the Year?

... Probably that I've had a very difficult time getting people to believe me when I talk about certain things in Perry Mason being out-of-character at particular points in the series' timeline. If that was all it was I wouldn't care so much, but I feel like some people think I'm an idiot for feeling that way. And that makes me quite unhappy.

9. Your favorite TV Boy of the year:

... Gosh, I don't know. "Boy" implies someone rather young, and I've mostly spent the past year crushing on guys in their forties.

I did have another Monkees phase near the beginning of the year, so I guess I'll put Micky. I just love him, especially in season 1 when he's intelligent, sarcastic, hilarious, and generally brave and unselfish. Season 2 Micky and his cowardice and stupidity just makes me cringe so bad.

10. Your favorite TV Girl of the year:

This one's even harder to pick. My favorites are really more women than girls.

Would the Monk women qualify under girls? Natalie's grown on me a lot, although I really don't know that I could ever say I like her more than Sharona. Natalie is a little too perky sometimes for my tastes.

11. Your biggest Squee moment of the year?

Just one? There were so many: When I saw Tony worried about Kolchak in The Energy Eater and The Trevi Collection, when I started watching Perry Mason again and realized just how many wonderful friendship scenes there are between Perry and Hamilton.... I have a big squee every time I find one. Each scene I find seems to top the previous one in its level of awesomeness.

12. Your most Missed Old Fandom?

I don't know. I miss getting the amount of reviews and interest I used to get on my old Yu-Gi-Oh! mysteries. Even when I return to the fandom again and again, I can't recapture that. The audiences are still there, but I can't seem to pack them in the way I used to do.

13. Your Fandom that you haven't Tried Yet, but want to?

That ... recent magical girls show whose name keeps escaping me.

14. Your Biggest Anticipations of the New Year?

Writing fanfiction for my favorite series and hopefully being able to record seasons 7 and 8 episodes of Perry Mason. (Our station is skipping most of those and starting over this month. Aurgh!)