Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

1) Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
That's a good question. I don't know what was my first book. But I probably still have it.

2) What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?
Current: Altered State by Gregg Luke. It's a psychological thriller involving mad scientists and mind control.
Last: The Missing Chums by Franklin W. Dixon. #4 of the original Hardy Boys books. For some reason, I didn't like it when I read it years ago. When I read it now after finally adding it to my collection, I loved it. It's very intense and exciting.
Next: Final Act by C. Paul Andersen. A mystery/thriller involving a huge, mysterious house.

3) What book did everyone like and you hated?
I wouldn't say I outright hated Twilight, but I was cringing at the terrible, goopy, mushy nonsense. Honestly, I think I could write a better romance. And romance is not a category I like to write.

4) Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?
I don't know. Any book I'm telling myself I'll read I fully intend to get to.

5) Which book are you saving for “retirement"?
Why would I want to save any book for retirement? Why wait to read in forty years what I can read today?

6) Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
It depends on the book, honestly. Sometimes I can't bear it and I just have to know if the characters are going to be okay. Other times I won't even read it at all if I peek and see there's a discouraging ending. And sometimes I have the willpower to just read straight through.

7) Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
Those who helped/inspired the author should be acknowledged. Usually I read the acknowledgments, unless they're outrageously long.

8) Which book character would you switch places with?
Why would I want a fictional character's life? Then I'd get their problems, too. And face it, book characters' problems are usually far worse than your own.

9) Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?
Yes, I have quite a few like that. Books that were gifts or that were received at a special time often remind me of the particular time they came into my hands. Sometimes I feel quite nostalgic reading them.

10) Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
Exactly what ways are you thinking of, other than buying or receiving as gifts? I haven't stolen any books, if that's what you're wondering. But I do have a few of my deceased maternal grandma's books. I found them in a box and thought they looked interesting, so I brought them into my room to be part of my collection. Another one, a book of cat stories, I used to read and reread at Grandma's house. Also, I received the first Baby-Sitters' Club book through the mail as part of a surprise Scholastic promotion. I read it and fell in love with the series.

11) Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
No. Except when I was really little and I used to "gift" my books to Mom. Otherwise, if there's a title I want to share with someone, I buy them their own copy.

12) Which book has been with you to the most places?
I don't tend to take books out of the house much, but I did read a good deal of the Star Wars book Heir to the Empire while waiting in the car. Also, I took The Lord of the Rings several places with me and finished it at a wedding. That was a very stupid idea. It took me some time to stop crying over the ending.

Though I suppose technically, the books that have gone the most places with me are religious volumes. I always have my old Book of Mormon in my large black purse, albeit I rarely get into that pocket because I discovered spider webs inside it and I still haven't cleaned them away. I tend to read my other copy.

13) Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?
I don't think I've reread any of my required reading. I thought The Old Man and the Sea was rather depressing, but realistic and with some shimmer of hope.

15) Used or brand new?
New. I love the smell of new books. And with used books, to quote the Weird Al song Germs, "You don't know where it's been!" That being said, I have learned that there were at least two Patty Duke Show books released in the sixties, mysteries at that! And I must have them.

16) Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
I haven't read any of his books, but judging from what I know of them I'd say literary genius. I've wanted to read some of them, actually. If I didn't scare easily, I probably would.

17) Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
Yes, almost every one. I'm that strange person who usually prefers to see stories brought to life on the big screen. Save for a couple of objections, I like LOTR better in the movies. I think most of the changes were excellent.

18) Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
Pollyanna. I *hated* the changes Disney made when they did the movie. Also, it seems like White Fang has never been done right. As it stands, I prefer both of those as books.

19) Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?
Yes. Offhand I don't remember what, however.

20) Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?
I don't know if I'd "always" take one person's advice. Everyone's taste runs different.

... What happened to question #14?

First three chapters of A Change in My Life, the Second Look fic, are up. X3 I really like how they turned out, especially the meetings, but I still wonder if they need more. XD; Chapter 2 is really short, for one thing. It's driving me nuts. I keep wondering if there's something I can do to lengthen it, or at least Barry's scenes in general. He's really hard for me to write for, but actually, all of them are hard to write for very long in this scenario. They won't remember for ages, but the main action only happens when they meet. The fic is much easier to write when they meet, and I hope it will continue to be. XD; I kind of stalled a bit, wondering what happens until they do remember, but some more ideas came to light.

For one thing, I realized that it's kind of like Princess Tutu, in that the characters are trapped in a "story" and are trying to break free of their assigned "roles." X3 The double is Drosselmeyer, pulling all the strings and delighting in their suffering. Though unlike Drosselmeyer, who just wants to tell a good, tragic story, the double relishes the pain he's causing because of how much he hates Scott. ;___;

There's other characters in the double's "story" too---so far, Double Trouble and Mrs. Pumpkinclanger have appeared. And pretty much everyone is being manipulated. I'm toying with the idea of a scene where Scott meets Louie once they break the double's spell and Louie is bewildered because he thinks he remembers Scott from somewhere. And Scott, knowing the full truth would be too bizarre to relate, tells him, "Well, maybe in another lifetime...."

I had actually also been toying with Louie and Ms. Parker and those other minor OCs not even being real and only being products of the double's mind, but I think I want them to really exist. XD;

I also wonder if I need to change the chapter titles. Originally it was slated for six chapters, enough to have all the lines from A Change in My Life's chorus as titles. But now I wonder if it will be more chapters than that, and if other lines from the song would fit some chapters better than the chorus lines. XD;

I picked up a Sonic shirt at Wal-Mart. X3 I just love it; it's red (one of my best colors) and has Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in their Sonic Adventure designs. I was at Hot Topic several days later and saw some old-school Sonic shirts, but I like mine much better. **prefers the Sonic Adventure designs.** Beside, Knuckles is only on mine. X3 He's my favorite. (It was Sonic, until Knuckles was introduced. And yeah, aloof, tough, loner = me definitely being interested. I think he was one of the first characters of that type I liked.)

I hate going in Hot Topic because it's so loud, but luckily, it wasn't so bad this time. XD; Especially a good thing because Mom was with me, and I would have been embarrassed to take her in there if heavy metal was blaring out. It was fun looking at the old-school Sonic, Mario, and TMNT stuff, but I didn't locate any of what I was trying to: Disney Afternoon and Carmen shirts, all of which I'd heard they had. Maybe those shirts are just on their website now....

I might actually go back to Hot Topic and buy an old-school Mario shirt sometime. X3 They had a cute one I liked that said Team Luigi. Other than the Mario stuff, I didn't really see anything I'd want. I also prefer the new TMNT over the old, and they only had stuff for the old. XD; They did have some awesome KH shirts, but nothing with Cloud or Seph. ;___;

And Crystal showed me an episode of Shining Time Station. X3 LOL, that show was always awesome. It still is. Schemer = LOL. And I realized how much he reminds me of Sach from the Bowery Boys, but I think that's mostly because of how he looks wearing a baseball cap rather than his actual personality.

The episode was hilarious! It was the one where they're going to stay overnight in the station so Stacy (Stacey? Which way?) can make sure some automatic mail thing works right, and Schemer tries to scare the kids by pretending to be The Man With His Head On Backwards. LOLOLOL. (We never do learn that myth's backstory, but maybe that's a good thing. XD;) He ends up seeing some Jack-O'Lantern decoration on the wall and gets scared himself, after putting his clothes on backwards and trying to walk backwards to look like the guy. **snarks.**

I was surprised not to see Didi (DeeDee?) in the jukebox scene. LOL, when I was little, Grace was the only one I liked. XD; Tito scared me because of his nickel obsession, and the cowboys kind of annoyed me because they seemed kind of ... well, like idiots, LOL. And Didi scared me because I couldn't see her eyes. XD I'm not sure how I'll feel now.

I was really surprised by the train segments. Thomas was so meaaan in both of them. I remembered Thomas could be irresponsible, but I didn't remember he was mean to the other trains. ;___; Gosh, he was made to believe Percy was dead in the first segment and he didn't care at all. He was thinking, "Oh bother, now I'll have to wait for them to clear the line so I can go through." At first I thought Percy was mean to play the trick after Thomas had teased him, but then when I saw Thomas's reaction it was kind of ... Blurgh. The next day he was talking to Toby and said, "I knew you'd be feeling sad about Percy ..." I mean, bleh, he acted so heartless about the whole thing. And he really did believe Percy was dead, so he wasn't being blasé because he knew it was a trick or something.

Afterwards, I watched a little of the Thriller MV (and was amused at how MJ poked fun at the werewolf clichés), but I didn't watch the whole thing because I wasn't sure I wanted to see him turn into a zombie for some of it. XD I'll work up to it, maybe.

So I went and watched Beat It, then went to Weird Al's parody Eat It. Priceless! LOLOLOL. I just love how he had the same locations and choreography and stuff, all while singing about food. "Why are you such a fussy young man? Don't want no Captain Crunch, don't want no Raisin Bran." LOL! And then him waking up at the end of the MV with a stomachache.... **snarks.**

My icon is brilliant. It comes from many hours of Aubrie's hard work coloring and shading, and it shows! **pets it.**

Well, I wasn't going to post this picture in my Scrapbook, but Side7 hasn't gotten to upgrade my account again yet, so here:



I got hit by more insomnia yesterday. Ugh. Sometimes it stays for a week. I hope it won't this time....

I watched the music videos for Like a Virgin and Bad to see the kinds of things Weird Al parodied visually, since I already know how he messed with the lyrics. XD The entire Fat music video is a parody of Bad, and it's just so priceless to watch one, then the other! And the lion in Like a Surgeon is there because it's a staple in Like a Virgin. Also, Weird Al imitates some of Madonna's actions and dance moves. LOL. It's definitely something to see. Weird Al is a comedic genius.

I ordered DC movies 5 and 8 from meganimedvd.com and I got the email that they shipped yesterday. ^^ Now it says that Countdown to Heaven is out of stock, so I must have gotten the last copy.

I wrote chapter 3 of Evil Never Dies! I'm so pleased. Now I really know where I'm taking it! I'll start chapter 4 later today. This will probably be the same length as Ghosts, possibly shorter. Probably not longer. And I dunno if I'll be doing flashback scenes in this one. I love how intense it is, especially with the Gin and Vodka angle.

Last year my cosplay aspiration was Alucard (and I never did get to gather things together for that to happen). This year, I've been toying with the idea of being Gin. XD