Post-Christmas Stuff

These things I got for Christmas:

Muse-Absolution
Snow Patrol-Eyes Open
Imogen Heap-I-Megaphone
Phantom of the Opera
Dog pajamas
Three boxes of biscotti
Socks
Money for a bra
Snow Patrol-Eyes Open (yes, got that one twice)
Walmart $20 gift card

What I still haven't gotten but I have been assured I WILL receive in future:

Snow Patrol-Final Straw (I'm trading Eyes Open for it)
Muse-Showbiz (Mum lost it someplace)
A ring that Mum bought for me two weeks ago and I have seen hide nor hair of since. She lost it someplace. It'll turn up.

Also got to see David Tennant in Hamlet last night. All I can say is "guh", and "Oh my LORD he's done it AGAIN!" because, of course, he's amazing and it was bloody wonderful stuff to watch.

The only bad bit was that he died at the end (of course), and he's gonna die again as a different character later this week, and apart from Michael Shanks from Stargate (whose character descriptions include dying/getting bashed every five and a half minutes) I don't believe I've watched somebody die in two separate acting jobs in the same week.

So, good play all around. Better BY FAR than the Mel Gibson version (the Freudian bits when he almost-rapes Glenn Close as Gertrude nearly blinded me for life), better BY HALF than the Derek Jacobi version (too old to play the part but Patrick Stewart's first go as Claudius was divine), and VERY MUCH BETTER than the Laurence Olivier version (ditto on the too old to do Hamlet. It made him look somewhat like a pervert when he snuggled up to Ophelia, who looked all of about 15.)

So, I'm very glad I got to see it at last. It was worth the wait. It's supposed to air in February on PBS here in the States, and if you can sit through three hours of Shakespearean dialogue, DO IT. I don't usually tell people what to do on this blog, but this was something to BEHOLD.

So I ask. I plead. I cajole. I beg you to do it. Watch this thing. It was so awesome I might have to sit down and watch it again in the next week (it IS three hours and I do need time between watchings.) Hope to God they put it out on DVD here, because then I'll have something coming next birthday or Christmas (I'm buying it.)

Not much else going on. Whisper's healing fine from her surgery (stitches out on Wednesday.) I actually can't move my chair right now without disturbing her sleep.

Ta,
Bec

Almond Joy Cookies and No Bloody Compliments.

The dog is at the vets. No report to here yet-either they got a late start or she's fine and coming home in a while.

I've made my Almond Joy Cookies again, but nobody around HERE apparently appreciates my efforts because I haven't received a thank you or a congratulations or anything. Not one damn compliment. Last time I make these for those two ungrateful saps. Those cookies require a lot of effort when it comes to chopping the nuts and when it comes to stirring the stuff in. I deserve some respect for the work I've done.

Nothing much else going on, save that I'm attempting to sign up for classes online and have hit roadblock after roadblock. I'm planning to go down to the actual campus in June-this gives me time to get down there and settle in over the summer months.

That reminds me-gotta contact Residence Life or whatever equivalent they have down NCCU way. Probably will do it after hols.

Ta,
Bec

PS: Whisper's home and sore. She can't seem to figure out what she's doing right now-a little confused and a little exhausted. We're going to have to keep her from bouncing up every time the TV does something she likes...

Muse Were Awesome

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 4
Tenth Doctor's Death: 11

Despite Matt's apparently recent breakup with his longtime girlfriend in the last week, he still managed to belt out very lovely versions of Uprising and Starlight, with the help of Dom and Chris, of course. Ever the consummate professionals, my Muse, and I understand the swapping off of Undisclosed for Starlight, seeing as Undisclosed is an extremely personal song about the now EX girlfriend and I can understand the emotions it entails right now. Although Starlight is also about them, it's a little less of an emotional song for him. And it just fits better with Christmas.

So on with Christmas week. Wednesday is Whisper's surgery day. Thursday is Christmas Eve, Friday is Christmas Day. The Tenth Doctor starts his downward spiral towards death on Friday (GASP! CRY! SOB!), and Tennant's Hamlet premieres on Saturday (I'm rubbing my hands together with glee for this one.)

It's going to be a busy week y'all.

Ta,
Bec

Dragon Release Day! Muse on SNL Day!

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 5
Tenth Doctor's Death: 12
Muse Play SNL: 0
Sparky Attacks Camelot: 0

Yes, the dragon has been released as of last week, but it's this week when we get to see him burn up Camelot into cinders and smoke.

POOFKA! Series 2 ends with Camelot on fire!

And it's tonight when Muse play SNL. Yay! I'll have to tape it, but no matter. I'll watch it tomorrow after everything gets over.

Ta,
Bec

MERLIN SPOILERS





PS: Well, the season is over. Gwen didn't leave. Arthur thinks he murdered the dragon, but the really awesome powers Merlin got from Daddy Balinor when he died meant that he sent the dragon off and told him to play nice.

Merlin's a Dragonlord. Ooh. That looks really cool next to his name. And did I mention that Colin Morgan looks even more gorgeous than usual with his eyes full of tears? And that Bradley James looks good covered in the soot of his burning kingdom?

They didn't look for Excalibur like someone said they would, so I don't know where that comes in now because the season is OVER.

Morgana was nowhere in sight and probably won't be for a long while.

This is it, folks. No episode next week (that's going to take some getting used to.)

For Those Who Were Asking...

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 6
Tenth Doctor's Death: 13
Muse Play SNL: 1
Sparky Attacks Camelot: 1

I got in to North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC. It's a mostly African-American college (doesn't bother me, but it's an interesting detail.)

I don't know when I'm going. Two weeks is such a short time to plan a move to a state where I don't know anyone and don't have anywhere to live. I might try to get in in summer or even in fall, meaning anything I spent would fall under FAFSA but I'd have to pay back loans for a while if I got a job.

So we'll see. I'm waiting on a couple of e-mails and then I'll know more about the situation.

Oh, and I apologize for saying Merlin was ending today. I obviously was exhausted and MEANT tomorrow because today is Friday and Merlin airs on Saturdays. My bad.

Ta,
Bec

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 7
Tenth Doctor's Death: 14
Muse Play SNL: 2
Sparky Attacks Camelot: 2

I got in!

I got in!

I got in!

I got in!


Ta,
Bec

PS: Yes, I got in...and they want me down there on the 6TH of JANUARY. This may prove nearly impossible to do. We'll see.

As a plus, Merlin ends tomorrow. We'll see what happens to that stupid talking dragon...

Losing Patience

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 8
Tenth Doctor's Death: 15
Muse Play SNL: 3
Sparky Attacks Camelot: 3

No, I don't know and no, I don't know when I'll know. It's a terribly frustrating and annoying situation that A) isn't my fault and B) I have no power to resolve save by nagging someone who isn't making the decision in the first place.

I am thinking I should call Eau Claire and tell them I don't have a job yet so that my loans don't come due on me.

SIGH.

Ta,
Bec

PS: NOTHING.

I'm Waiting. Again.

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 9
Tenth Doctor's Death: 16
Muse Play SNL: 4
Sparky Attacks Camelot: 4

Nothing yet.

It's 9:30. I should be doing something significant right now. Like not sitting here, repeatedly clicking my inbox.

I ate. Got Mom something because she doesn't eat good stuff in the morning unless I push the issue. Did the dishes (keep that one a secret-Mum hasn't figured that out yet, although she's gonna in about two minutes). Clicked my inbox a dozen times. Sang along to a bunch of Imogen Heap songs (I'm working on my high notes. Laaaaa!) Clicked my inbox a dozen more times...all with the same damn result. Nada. Zilcho. Nein.

So.

I'm bored.

15 minutes later and still nothing at all. Wonder if these people have a clue how much of my future is hinged on them actually making up their minds before CHRISTMAS?

This is gonna be a long day.

Ta,
Bec

PS: 12:15 and still nothing. Grandma needs help lifting stuff today so we'll see if the e-mail arrives while I'm busy not paying attention.

Waiting, Waiting. I Might Just Go Mad With Waiting...

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 10
Tenth Doctor's Death: 17
Muse Play SNL: 5
Sparky Attacks Camelot: 5

Half an hour till the mail comes.

Half an hour till the mail comes.

Impatient.

Impatient.

Impatient.

Half an hour and it might all be over.

Or not.

But I hope it will be.

Been waiting all weekend.

Doesn't seem half-FAIR that they'd make me WAIT anymore...

But here I am. Half an hour till the post arrives. Have Elvis' Blue Christmas stuck in my head (no idea why.) Haven't bothered to get dressed yet.

15 minutes!

So, busy. Will go down soon.

Mum went. Still busy...

NOTHING. NOTHING!

AGGGH!

Ta,
Bec

PS: Having e-mailed the poor beleaguered woman who's been fielding my e-mails all this last week (e-mails that increase in panic with every day that passes by), she forwarded me an e-mail that basically begged the Dean of the college to get a move on with mine (and others) applications.

So nothing yet. Nothing in the mail tomorrow. But possibly an e-mail. Maybe.

Sunday Before An Answer Arrives?

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 11
Tenth Doctor's Death: 18
Muse Play SNL: 6
Sparky Attacks Camelot: 6

Hopefully tomorrow there will be an answer to the ultimate question: Am I a Master's student or not?

Not much else going on- I can barely type because my fingers are so cold, so I'm going to go warm up in the bathtub.

Ta,
Bec

Well THAT Was Unexpected...

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 12
Tenth Doctor's Death: 19
Muse Play SNL: 7
The Great Dragon (A.K.A. Sparky) Attacks Camelot: 7

MERLIN POST-MORTEM EPISODE 12.

DON'T WANNA KNOW, DON'T LOOK.





SPOILER LINE





We found out nothing about Morgause or Morgana's family tonight. Damn. My family tree stands in place a little while longer.

Instead we saw Merlin's relationship with Morgana go down forever and ever AY-MEN. There ain't no returning from giving Morgana hemlock in the waterskin...

Apparently seeing as Morgana was patient zero to Morgause's little sleeping sickness that knocked out the entire city, that meant that Merlin had to KILL the source, or risk losing everything in Camelot including his own life. Merlin POISONED water with hemlock and gave it to Morgana. Morgana realized it and was looking at Merlin like she couldn't believe he'd done that to her (who wouldn't?)

Morgause found out, and was pretty upset. She made a deal with Merlin that if she stopped her big marching 300 year old immortal knights that he'd tell her what poison he'd given Morgana. Morgause breaks the enchantment, and the knights go down in heaps of armor. Morgause tornadoes out of the throne room (Merlin's gotta learn to do that spell) with Morgana in her arms.

And Merlin let Sparky off his leash. So that's happening. Silly boy swore on his mother's life that he'd let the dragon go. So there wasn't really an out seeing as we all know Merlin's a momma's boy and would rather die himself than watch Hunith take the blow.

I have no clue if Morgana will be back next year (probably a no.) The minute Morgause gets a chance she's going to tell Morgana who she is and help her with her powers and stuff.

I have said many a time before in this blog that Morgana wouldn't be able to stay very long in Camelot without getting into trouble, especially given who she is (and her constant hatred of Uther, everything he stands for, and apparently her love of wandering around in the woods meeting strange people in cloaks.) I'm amazed, however, that her little treasonous butt got taken out in this season (I was almost certain it'd be next year. Oh well.)

She's gone to live with her half-sis. Knew that would happen eventually.

Unfortunately, Morgana's sudden departure into the arms of family (no pun intended) means that Gwen is out of a job. No longer a maidservant...but where will she go? She's supposed to DEPART. Only one episode left to DEPART in.

I suspect Camelot getting smashed into bits next episode means she doesn't have a place to live either, even though Arthur promised it to her as long as she lived last year (well, he didn't see the dragon coming out and smashing up the place into cinders, now did he?) and so she has to leave town on the back of a horse driven by Lancelot (why does HE keep sneaking into the picture? God only knows.)

Now here's a revision on the thirteen ways (cut neatly down to...10 and a HALF.) Anything in italics has been ruled out...meaning anything to do with Morgana.

1. Uther dies. (Ha. Not till the end of the show, darlings. But the dragon's probably pretty pissed at him so he'd better be hiding in the dungeons way, way, WAY under the castle.)

2. Arthur dies. (Double ha. They aren't going to kill the future king of Camelot. FORGET IT. They tried it last year and thanks to fourteen other people lining up to die in his place (that'd be because he's so HANDSOME even when he's dying), he ducked sailing off to Avalon. Again.)

3. Merlin dies. (Oh, BEYOND ha. Like they're going to kill the character the show is NAMED after?)

4. Gaius kicks it (a high possibility. He's been aiming for it for practically the entire show.)

5. Morgana dies (Enh. Probably not. Unless she rises from the dead as an eeeevil character)

6. Gwen (nah. Arthur's too attached to her to let her really die. And he has to marry the woman so they can't kill her off.)

7. Merlin's magic gets revealed. (OK, this could happen, and it would mean that Bradley James lied to all of us when he said he wished this scene would happen "someday," meaning not in Series 2. But I'd forgive him if this happened at the last minute. Probably.)

8. Morgana and Gwen leave town. (Yeah, maybe. It'd explain Gwen leaving, anyway.)

9. Morgana's magic is revealed (Mm, probably not. She has practically no control over it right now (see bedcurtains and window glass, episode 3) and can't really MAKE it go without being asleep in bed so that's probably not going to happen.)

10. Lancelot shows up and takes Gwen with him (possibly due to Arthur's loving influence telling her to get out of town before she gets smushed beneath the dragon's big nasty claws?) (Interesting, interesting...)

11. That guy that knows so darn much about Merlin dies. (Yeah, and his final words send Merlin off on some freakin' goosechase for next series to some faraway place with lollipops and Velcro.)

12. Some character looks like they're going to die/gets apparently mortally wounded at the last minute and in S3 will survive the wound SOMEHOW. (This is the most likely of all. Come on. They stick somebody with a sword/arrow/part of the wall/dragon claws and we get to see the horrified pain and fear on their faces (and everyone else's) as they drop in slo-mo to the ground. And END SERIES! HA! Do they make it? Do they not? Do they turn into a tree, a bird, a fish, or a marsupial?)

13. They just bloody END the series in the middle of nowhere and leave the other half for next year. Or they leave it as the castle gets smashed to teeny, tiny bits of marble and stone. Oh, Cornelius Sigan should have just let the damn dragon tear up the castle and it would have destroyed Camelot nice and thoroughly.

STILL. WAITING.

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 13
Tenth Doctor's Death: 20
Muse Play SNL: 8
The Great Dragon Attacks Camelot: 8

STILL no answer from NCCU. I have no idea when or where from the answer will come. I have no idea if it will be a yes or a no. All I know is that I am tired of waiting.

There's nothing much else to say at the moment. Spritey got loose today out in the snow and 17 degree weather.

I went out once and shouted for her.

Went out again. Walked farther along the trail and still didn't hear her, see her, or anything else. Was having trouble with my lungs thanks to running all over and since my WET hair had frozen into place figured it was time to go back to the house.

Decided to try again after about 10 minutes of recovery and warmup time, and finally heard her loud barking in one part of the woods. Ran towards the noise and shouted her name the whole time I was fording through two feet of snow. Tripped and nearly broke my kneecap. Finally came up to her, she spotted me.

She started WADING towards me (short legs and deep snow mean she was swimming in the stuff,) and it was pretty clear she was exhausted from all the activity, so when she got to me I clipped her on the leash I had with me, picked her wet and cold ass up, and started to haul her back to the trail. I tripped again with her in my arms and nearly broke my kneecaps a second time, but we both made it home mostly in one piece. I dried her off with a towel and she got shouted at (a little bit) by both parents when they got home.

The only issue I have is that my knees were painful to begin with and now I have some LOVELY bruises to show for it.

Spritey has been trying to sleep all afternoon to get all the energy back she expended during her half-hour outside.

I'm tired after that long description, so I'm going to bed.

Ta,
Bec

Still Waiting...

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 15
Tenth Doctor's Death: 22
Muse Play SNL: 10
The Great Dragon Attacks Camelot: 10
I Go Mad: Mom bought this stupid plug-in Christmas ornament that makes obscene noises like the Death Star (come to think of it, it looks like the Death Star, too.) Why she bought the stupid thing is beyond me-I find it just plain annoying as hell.

No answer yet on NCCU. Not that I'm impatient. No way. Not me.

Wrote a Merlin fanfic yesterday that turned out bloody brilliant. Here's the link:

http://merlinfic.dtwins.co.uk/viewstory.php?sid=327&chapter=1

PS: Should know today. But don't trust that because I said that yesterday. Let me rephrase that: I MIGHT, POSSIBLY know today, but don't count on it.

PPS: I am bloody miserable. They haven't answered. About all I'm doing is complaining and clicking endlessly on the e-mail. I'm dying here...

Triple-P S: Today is not my lucky day. No answer. I told you not to count on it.

AH-HA!

MERLIN STUFF!

HEE HEE!

Morgana finds out who she's related to this week. There's pictures of Morgause and Morgana having what can only be neatly termed as a "moment." I assume Morgana's origins will become very much clearer and I'll get to find out if that family tree was right or if I was just whistling in the dark.

Is it possible Morgause is about to bite the dust? Why on earth would Morgana find out now? Is it because she just figured out last week how much she hates Uther and they're just making it all the deeper this week? If Morgause IS about to die, then who kills her (Merlin? Morgana?) Or maybe they'll just keep her around for next season and have Morgana running off to hang out with her (like I didn't see that one coming.)

Those freaky knights with the Imhotep masks probably grab her up and haul her off to the woods (she's spending a hell of a lot of time in the trees this year. She keeps it up and they'll start calling her Le Fay.) She gets to meet some family. Fun! I just hope she doesn't find out about Uther hiding it from her or he's liable to get burned by Morgana...literally.

Well, that sets up Morgana for a really awesome fall from grace...like she wasn't already trying to do that this year. I wonder when and if the dragon will be loosed from his chains...

Here's the scenarios I came up with:

Uther, Arthur, Gaius, Gwen: Two of these people (Arthur, Gwen) probably know the dragon is down there but wouldn't have a reason to let it go. Uther never would, as he's the one who chained the thing up in the first place. Gaius has already heard the prediction Merlin saw in the crystal, and since he isn't on good terms with the dragon anyway I can't see him being driven to let it go.

Merlin: Knows about the dragon, knows his motives, made the deal in the first place, knows what's coming thanks to that stupid crystal, and is continually being telepathically yelled at to keep his promise and let the dragon go. If Merlin lets the dragon go, it will either be under a broken promise that the thing won't smash up Camelot or under severe duress/hypnosis of some kind. He won't do it unless he's pushed to the breaking point to do it.

Morgana: Hasn't visited yet, but I saw the shot of her standing in front of the dragon's cave in the green robe. Suspect it's coming in 12. I betcha she's going to feel sorry for the beast and since he can't get Merlin to do his release papers, he'll get her to do it. She doesn't know he's a manipulative pain-in-the-rear, but she should be able to hear him shouting at Merlin...

Morgause: She probably knows the dragon's down there, but she'd be better off sending Morgana to do the job. It would take a lot less time than zipping around inside the castle doing dangerous and deadly spells just to get down to the dragon's cave. She could get caught, and don't think for a moment Uther would spare her life if she got caught sneaking around his domain.

That's my theories on the topic. Feel free to write me!

Ta,
Bec

Waiting...

Days till (now I've gone and corrected my numbers again...):
Christmas Eve: 16
Tenth Doctor's Death: 23
Muse Play SNL: 11
The Great Dragon Attacks Camelot: 11
I Go Mad: I'm really starting to hate these sappy Christmas commercials.

Nothing on earth is going to stop me from checking my e-mail a billion times today.

Nothing.

We're supposed to have a snowstorm today. Yay. Mom and me turned into little weather beacons-we were both aching like hell when we got up this morning. My rib on the left side has decided screaming is the best way to go today.

Oh, sorry. That's the RIGHT side rib. I can't even tell the difference when I'm TYPING.

I'm probably going to go take a bath just because I can't just SIT here on the computer and brood all day.

I'll let you know as soon as I know, guys. I'm trying not to think about it.

Ta,
Bec

PS: It appears there will be no answer today. Guess I'll get it through the mail in a couple of days.

Tomorrow...

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 18
Tenth Doctor's Death: 23
Muse Play SNL: 11
The Great Dragon Attacks Camelot: 10
I Go Mad: I should really go argue with my characters again.

I called NCCU today (college I applied to). The nice woman there let me know that the decision will be made tomorrow, and she offered to send me an e-mail with the answer.

Yikes.

Today was exhausting. I found myself rough-voiced and coughing after singing again tonight. Dunno what this is about-I suspect it's mild asthma like my doctor said. Dunno why I popped up with it at 23 and not sooner, but oh well.

When I actually get some decent money I'll get it checked out, but for now it only bothers me when I work my lungs too hard-mostly singing or running. If it gets worse, I'll probably wind up at the doctor anyway because breathing is sort of important.

SO, after tomorrow I will know for sure.

Ta,
Bec

Not Much To Say

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 19
Tenth Doctor's Death: 26
Muse Play SNL: 12
The Great Dragon Attacks Camelot: 13
I Go Mad: Been there, done that, ate the pie that came with it...





I've decided Morgana probably lets the stupid dragon out.

I have a lot of work to do with my writing and I don't seem to be getting anyplace. Round and round and round we go...

Nothing else to really say-I have a headache, I'm tired, and I'm going to bed.

Ta,
Bec

Merlin Post-Mortem Episode 11

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 20
Tenth Doctor's Death: 27
Muse Play SNL: 13
The Great Dragon Attacks Camelot: 14
I Go Mad: Definitely a past thing...


SPOILER LINE







Morgana: Her big episode, besides 3 this year, is going to be Numero 11. I assume this is the episode where Morgana's irrepairable break from Uther comes in, and the beginning of the end of her friendship with Gwen. She's going to align with Mordred and with those who would see magic restored to Camelot...but NOT with Merlin, who would also see magic restored to the kingdom but not at the prices Morgana and Mordred will eventually be willing to pay.

I was right on all counts here, although this was an easy one. Morgana made a HUGE shift to the fanatical side...and Uther knows about it, and Merlin, and Gaius, but NOT a sadly oblivious Arthur and Gwen.

Uther, however, is still hurting over the sudden change in her, as she finally got fed up with his tyrant-y ways and told him to go to hell. He spared her, not having any evidence to A) kick her out of the castle or B) kick her out of living in general, but her movements are going to be watched and she will be under suspicion. She has set herself up neatly as Uther's enemy, something I personally wouldn't want to be if I was living at his behest, his sparing mercy, and in his castle. She was actually in a better position when she wasn't constantly mad at him.

BUT I get the deep and meaningful significance of their last argument-she was spitting at him in rage, calling him names and such. He was kind of in shock but treating her like a little girl again, telling her to go to her chambers. Morgana spun round, not a little girl anymore, but a woman finally knowing what side she was on, and said, "And you can go to hell."

Morgana is who she is, and whether Alvarr's love for her is real or fake SHE believes she loves him. Mordred has become well and truly pissed with Merlin, who is regretting not killing the little leech last year. And he knows that letting the Great Dragon out of the basement is NOT in Camelot's best interests, despite the nagging 30 foot telepathic beastie shouting in his head (he ain't gonna sleep for the entire span of the next episode, is he?)

Not much else to say-this one was very straightforward and got to the point.

Ta,
Bec

Thirteen Ways...

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 21
Tenth Doctor's Death: 28
Muse Play SNL: 14
The Great Dragon Attacks Camelot: 15
I Go Mad: Forget it. Happened a long time ago...

Hello, all. I have gotten nothing done today and wish I had. I should do something besides sit here and THINK.

Having figured out I'm overdosing on Merlin slash fics (if you know what that is don't tell my mother.) Tomorrow I will try to read NONE (good luck there.)

Having heard that there's a possibility that the end of this series of Merlin could end in a cliffhanger, I have thought of thirteen ways this series could end. Or leave me screaming bloody murder at the end of the last episode because it's 9 MONTHS till we get a straight answer.

Bear with me-some of these are so stupid I could cry.






SPOILER LINE


1. Uther dies. (Ha. Not till the end of the show, darlings. But the dragon's probably pretty pissed at him so he'd better be hiding in the dungeons way, way, WAY under the castle.)

2. Arthur dies. (Double ha. They aren't going to kill the future king of Camelot. FORGET IT. They tried it last year and thanks to fourteen other people lining up to die in his place (that'd be because he's so HANDSOME even when he's dying), he ducked sailing off to Avalon. Again.)

3. Merlin dies. (Oh, BEYOND ha. Like they're going to kill the character the show is NAMED after?)

4. Gaius kicks it (a high possibility. He's been aiming for it for practically the entire show.)

5. Morgana dies (Enh. Probably not. Unless she rises from the dead as an eeeevil character)

6. Gwen (nah. Arthur's too attached to her to let her really die. And he has to marry the woman so they can't kill her off.)

7. Merlin's magic gets revealed. (OK, this could happen, and it would mean that Bradley James lied to all of us when he said he wished this scene would happen "someday," meaning not in Series 2. But I'd forgive him if this happened at the last minute. Probably.)

8. Morgana and Gwen leave town. (Yeah, maybe. It'd explain Gwen leaving, anyway.)

9. Morgana's magic is revealed (Mm, probably not. She has practically no control over it right now (see bedcurtains and window glass, episode 3) and can't really MAKE it go without being asleep in bed so that's probably not going to happen.)

10. Lancelot shows up and takes Gwen with him (possibly due to Arthur's loving influence telling her to get out of town before she gets smushed beneath the dragon's big nasty claws?) (Interesting, interesting...)

11. That guy that knows so darn much about Merlin dies. (Yeah, and his final words send Merlin off on some freakin' goosechase for next series to some faraway place with lollipops and Velcro.)

12. Some character looks like they're going to die/gets apparently mortally wounded at the last minute and in S3 will survive the wound SOMEHOW. (This is the most likely of all. Come on. They stick somebody with a sword/arrow/part of the wall/dragon claws and we get to see the horrified pain and fear on their faces (and everyone else's) as they drop in slo-mo to the ground. And END SERIES! HA! Do they make it? Do they not? Do they turn into a tree, a bird, a fish, or a marsupial?)

13. They just bloody END the series in the middle of nowhere and leave the other half for next year. Or they leave it as the castle gets smashed to teeny, tiny bits of marble and stone. Oh, Cornelius Sigan should have just let the damn dragon tear up the castle and it would have destroyed Camelot nice and thoroughly.

The only thing I'm (fairly) certain of is that that STUPID, MANIPULATIVE, PAIN-IN-THE-ASS dragon is going to DIE. Love to know how they'll get the body out of Camelot. Dragon steaks for all! Bar-bee-Q!

And I've got it narrowed UP to THREE on who let the dragon out (I tossed in Morgause while you weren't looking.) Gaius isn't that stupid, Morgana barely knows the thing, Merlin would be a total doof to let that thing out (Note that he's the one who made the promise in the first place but he didn't say WHEN either) and Morgause could sneak in through the bad castle security and break off his chains. Otherwise she sneaks into the caverns another way.

Two weeks from tomorrow. I'm starting to get all tingly!

Ta,
Bec

3rd Series of Merlin!

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 22
Tenth Doctor's Death: 29
Muse Play SNL: 15
The Great Dragon Attacks Camelot: 16
I Go Mad: -4
Merlin Series 3: 10 Months. Oh the waiting will be long but the rewards will be beautiful, namely in heaps more of Colin Morgan's cheekbones and Bradley James in all of his Arthur-i-ness swinging around a sword IN. A. CHAINMAIL. HOODIE...

Oh, dear.

I am hopeless.

It was confirmed yesterday by Merlin and Arthur...oh, sorry-Colin and Bradley-that there's going to be a third series.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

(Screamed bloody murder, jumped about the room like an idiot, and finished by falling off a table while dancing a jig)

What a Christmas present, knowing that next September there will be more of this stuff for me to go crazy over. Which is all right and fine with ME, but I feel sorry for everyone else having to put up with me.

Well, that's settled. Now I have to go get the mail before the good news starts running out.

Ta,
Bec

Prince Within Getting Confused

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 23
Tenth Doctor's Death: 30
Muse Play SNL: 16
The Great Dragon Attacks Camelot: 17
I Go Mad: -3

But the real problem is: His AUTHOR is confused.

See, I started doing something different with the writing on this part (have written most of the 2nd portion and got bored, so I'm working on the first again.) Instead of sitting down and writing a set section of work, I decided-nah. I'll just write a bunch of stuff down and see where it goes. Flow of consciousness. Thought process. Psychological mumbo-jumbo that might help me get SOMETHING down even if it wasn't useful.

That has backfired. Immeasurably. In a way I didn't see coming AT ALL.

It's all fine and dandy when you write two scenes two weeks apart and they're both good scenes-I was very pleased with how they turned out. The ISSUE is when those two scenes start to contradict one another. And both of THEM contradict the one I wrote in the first place.

I really didn't do it on purpose. I just happened to look at the notes I'd written on one page and the notes I'd written on the other two weeks later and said, "Damn."

They can't all exist in the same universe. I'm having a minor argument with, well, ME, over where the power comes from in the story. It can come from HIM, the PENDANT, or the book that I took out of this half-baked crazy plot about a month ago because I didn't need it anymore.

I decided on the pendant, which to my poor befuddled mind made the most sense, but that makes me have to change a whole bunch of really good dialogue lines and it's ticking me off.

I have no earthly idea where this ship is headed right now (iceberg, ho.) I have to untangle the rampant, sprawling mess I made of this story and figure out if there's an actual plot to be had (which at the moment there isn't.) I can't just have characters chatting, arguing, cajoling, and whatever else for 20 pages. That's going to get boring. I need to add an element of danger to this part that the second half has far too much of. I want to cut back on the "James Bond in the Middle Ages" bits, but the go-go-danger-danger-run-run impulse I love throwing in in spades is way too strong. Explosions, death, and character whompage. Isn't that the whole reason I'm writing in the first place?

See, all I was trying to do was add some pizazz to this puppy. And look where it's gotten me now-I have completely and totally LOST THE PLOT (no pun intended there).

I figure I'll type it all up, give it a week of distance, and then work on it again and see if I can't salvage something out of a month's worth of work.

Ta,
Bec

PS: The upshot of reworking my story is that now I have an idea of how close I am to having a full and complete draft of both halves. I am very close-I can give you a better idea after I type up the sketch lists and cross off what I have done and what I haven't. A good three or four weeks worth of difficult work and I COULD be done by Christmas, but I don't want to put that kind of pressure on myself. I'll pace myself and see how it goes.

Y'all will hear me screaming when I finish the bloody thing anyway.

Countdown Begins

Days till:
Christmas Eve: 24
Tenth Doctor's Death: 31
Muse Play SNL: 17
The Great Dragon Attacks Camelot: 18
I Go Mad: -2

So, today I have wrapped Anna's present (finally had the time and energy). This means Christmas present stuff is all completed for me.

I may wind up wrapping my sister's presents this year if Mom asks me to. I have offered my services. I'm here, I'm bored, I do about as well at the wrapping stuff as Mom does, so might as well.

I should be writing right now. I have three or four pages worth of Prince Within stuff to untangle and I should hop to it.

The dogs are sleeping peacefully on the floor. Very busy working today. Whisper's having a good dream-her feet are twitching like she's running. Spritey is sacked out two feet away from that and honestly doesn't look like she's sleeping at all although her foot just twitched so she must be.

I should really get to writing something that doesn't have Arthur or Merlin in it.

Ta,
Bec

Doctor Today

I am so glad I am going to the doctor. Last night was a nightmare. I was in pain and rushing to the loo every ten minutes. Miserable.

Much better this morning, and have drunk my 4TH pitcher of cranberry juice in as many days. I'm glad I don't have to put up with this for much longer.

No Merlin analyses today (yet)-I'm all thought out.

Ta,
Bec

PS: Got my three days worth of antibiotics, so I'm officially on the way to being cured.

I've actually been putting forth on Prince Within (cue shock!) so I'm giving the Merlin stuff a bit of a rest. I think I thought of everything I wanted to anyway. Analyzed the possible ways Uther would have handled getting a son, the possible relation between Morgause and Arthur, the way the rest of this season is going to go, where everybody seems to be headed...I may have just ripped the whole thing apart and put it back together. There are only 26 episodes here, and three I haven't even seen yet, so there's only 17 hours of stuff thus far to shred. I think I've done a fairly decent job.

I keep thinking (hoping, actually) that the writers or someone will spot this and tell me to shut up or take it down because I'm ruining it for everyone else. Then I'll know I'm onto something...

Ta,
Bec

Merlin Post-Mortem Episode 10

For those wondering, another pitcher of cranberry juice has been made and I'm downing the thing as I type this. Sick of it, sick of it, sick of it...

I'm going to be talking about Merlin again because they just released the synopsis of Episode 13 and I've gotten all excited.


SPOILER LINE





OK, so Gwen didn't leave. Arthur and her kissed and made up at the end of the episode.

Episode 11: Morgana and Mordred unite under another sorcerer to fulfill a prophecy to steal a big crystal that apparently has weaponlike powers to kill Uther with.

Episode 12: Morgause lights up the Fires of Idirsholas and Arthur and Merlin come home to find the entire castle under an enchantment...save Morgana.

And for your viewing pleasure, here's the synopsis of Episode 13!

The Great Dragon is finally free and, full of rage, attacks Camelot with pitiless intensity. The castle is crumbling and Arthur's men cannot hold out much longer. Only a Dragonlord can kill a dragon and Uther wiped them all out years ago – or did he? Gaius admits one such man could still be alive and in hiding.

The last Dragonlord is the key to Merlin's own past as well as the future of Camelot, but will Arthur and Merlin find Balinor in time to save the kingdom and can they persuade him to return to Camelot to save his enemy, Uther?


I suspect that Balinor is Merlin's dad/knows how he got made and can tell him where to look. That would be not that far of a stretch. Merlin mentioned he knew nothing about his father in 8.

How does the Dragon get loose? Does he die? Will we ever see him again after this season? How mad is Uther going to be at whoever let the damn thing out (MERLIN!) and how angry is he going to be at the magical people when it all comes down? I would NOT want to be a magical person in Camelot when the pieces get picked up round there. Uther is going to want a full investigation and if Merlin was the one who let the bugger out, I'd probably kill him MYSELF.

This proves to me that the whole Morgana-Uther break IS going to happen in 11 and 12. No mention of Morgana here and Gwen is still in town. How very very interesting...Maybe Morgana lets him loose, eh?

I suspect that those massive shoots of fire we were seeing in the trailer that I couldn't explain are the dragon roasting people as they try to flee. Gwen gets trapped in the middle of all of it and Arthur starts screaming her FULL name in PUBLIC, in what sounded to me like abject terror that she was gonna get a little too toasty for his liking.

So the dragon had his own motives all along. LIKE I'm surprised at that. He manipulates Merlin to do what he wants and then when he gets free he smashes up the place.

But it does mean that the stupid Dragon isn't going to be around for advice next year. I assume he'll be big dead dragon meat at either the end of this episode or the beginning of Series 3. Well, Merlin was only going to see him half the time anyway. It's damn time the kid learned how to manage his own problems.

So we know the general plots of every episode there is thus far. Let's hope there's a Series 3 to enjoy!

Ta,
Bec

PS: Here I go again.

There are three ways that the whole creation of Arthur thing could have gone. Here they are:


We are completely certain of Uther's knowledge of the fact that someone was going to die. He just didn't know who. Gaius WARNED him at the time of Arthur's conception that to make the deal with Nimueh was going to cost him someONE.

But whether Igraine knew she might be the one or whether she had no earthly idea is the fact we aren't sure of. If Igraine knew, then she was very noble in giving her life for Uther's child. If not, then Uther is a lying, cheating bastard and someone should give him a spanking.

The Old Religion is fickle, but I assume there's reasoning in whoever's making the decision. Merlin made a deal and sacrificed his own life for Arthur's, but he's too important to the Grand Scheme and it bounced over him and tried to take his mother instead. If she had died, Merlin would have made a deeply personal sacrifice. Then Merlin is willing to toss himself off the cliff for his mother, but Gaius goes first and tries to do it in his place, but Merlin gets there behind him and blows up Nimueh, sparing Gaius, Hunith, Merlin, and Arthur. Someone dies. The balance is restored.

In this case, the Old Religion may have seen Uther as the only one who could hold Camelot together for 20 years while Arthur grew up. It also may have seen that the natural order was in chaos and that Uther would get it back to normal by killing lots of innocent pawns along the way. It saw him as important somehow, but Uther made a personal sacrifice, so the most important person to him at the time was Igraine.

So here are the scenarios:

1. Uther and Igraine both know the consequences and both of them are aware that a life will be lost in the creation of Arthur. Igraine is possibly the one who goes to Nimueh and finalizes the baby deal, knowing full well in her heart that the child born will result in her death. Uther is pleased but plans on giving his own life in her place but never gets the chance. This is the least likely of the three-a younger, nicer Uther would never have sacrificed his young wife like this or let her do it. He would have consulted with Gaius behind her back just to keep her around, I suspect.

2. Uther does know and doesn't tell Igraine, betraying her and going behind her back to have an heir. This I can see, although Igraine must have suspected something was going on with him. How does a woman who can't have a child suddenly have one? Get lucky? She couldn't have been that big of an idiot. His desperation might have translated and become her own. She might have only desired to see him happy, regardless of the cost to herself. The desperation might have pushed him a lot too far and he might not have wanted to worry her. Maybe he believed that he would be taken (see 3 below) and that there was no need to worry her when he was so willing to go for an heir. Maybe he thought they'd escape the Old Religion's rules.

OR THIS!
3. Possibly Uther assumes (incorrectly, of course) that his own life will be forfeit, but the Old Religion does it again, skips neatly over him, and takes Igraine out instead. Maybe he makes the mistake Merlin made at the end of Series 1-just because you sacrifice a life for someone ELSE's, it doesn't mean it's going to take YOU out, even though you assume YOUR life will be forfeit. I can see a scene where Uther bursts into the room just as Igraine's life slips away. He rounds on Nimueh and lets her have it, mad in his grief over losing his wife. He banishes Nimueh and begins the Great Purge.

SO there ya go. I bet I'm wrong again, but it helps to write this all out.

Cranberry Juice (Whine-Time)

(I'm going to complain again. Sorry! If you don't want to hear me whine, don't read)



WHINE LINE





I'm sick again (ish), this time with a UTI. If you don't know what that is, it's an extremely personal issue that will be resolved by Monday because I'm seeing my rheumatologist and she'll give me an antibiotic for it.

In the meantime, however, I have to drink BARRELFULS of cranberry juice. I drank 42 ounces of the stuff yesterday; I'm about halfway to that again today. I have made an entire juice thing of it two mornings in a row, and I am SICK of drinking the stuff.

But it is helping somewhat, and the better I can keep this stupid thing at bay the better. Monday cannot come fast enough.

On the upside, Anna's present arrived today and so present stuff is COMPLETO! Now all I have to do is wrap the thing.

(Dusts off hands in text form. On to the next thing!)

Ta,
Bec

Survived That. Onwards!

Thanksgiving was fine. The hotel room was not what we'd expected-there was no hot tub or pool in the vicinity. We drove around Appleton looking for food for an hour. No Christmas shopping got done at all.

All in all, it was a terrible trip, and now the house is crammed with two extra people and, for some reason, my sister's fifty billion instruments that she brought home for all of TWO DAYS. There's no way she can play them all; she should have left most of them at the dorm and not brought them here. Now I can trip over them every time I need to feed the dogs! Joy!

Muse movie that I mentioned so very long ago is finished. The guy will put it up soon.

Muse themselves are going to be on SNL-dunno if they've got a stage BIG enough for them.

Think I'll watch an episode of Merlin.

Ta,
Bec

Episode 10: Arthur gets drunk on love potion and starts a war by accident.

Episode 11: Morgana and Mordred try to steal an amulet for a sorcerer.

Episode 12: Morgause lights up the Fires of Idirsholas and Arthur and Merlin come home to find the entire castle under an enchantment...save Morgana.

Episode 13: Should know about this one in the next couple of days.


PS: Having watched an episode of Merlin, I started thinking again. I started pondering whether Morgause was related to Arthur...

And that's where this came in. A possible family tree.



Now, as you can see, although we don't know if Morgause and Morgana share a mother or whether they share a father, I assumed here that they share a mother. Magic and seeing the future often run in families and tend to fall to women more than men in literature, so that's why I did that.

PS: UPDATE FROM 25TH OF MAY, 2010. Having watched that episode again last week, I am almost certain that Morgause and Morgana share a mother, thanks to that bracelet Morgause hands over to Morgana from her mother. The bracelet seems to control dreams, so I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if Mum, Morgause, and Morgana all had the same power...hence the passing down of the family heirloom.

One thing I've yet to suss out is why the bracelet has the symbol of the house of Gorlois on it. Morgana's dad was Gorlois-we all know this. Something doesn't jive here. Haven't sorted it out yet.

The people that raised Morgause are the same group that Nimueh was from, although I believe she was probably acting on her own. Morgause said she KNEW Igraine WELL, which would have been impossible unless Morgause and Igraine were family. Igraine lived in Camelot, but Morgause hadn't been there since she was a baby, presumably when she was first smuggled out to the priestesses of the Old Religion.

Igraine must have been visiting her family, and Morgause happened to be visiting there because she's of the same family. Morgause is also considerably older than Arthur and Morgana, and would have probably been a young girl when Igraine died.

Since Uther prefers not to talk about Igraine, it would be reasonable to believe that he wouldn't tell Arthur about the rest of the clan. He's certainly not talking to the Dubois' if magic runs so heavily in their family (as I assume it does.)

That makes Gorlois, Morgana's father, Uther's brother-in-law. They were close. He didn't say family but nobility are always related in some way.

That makes Arthur Pendragon Morgana's cousin, and since nobility were always marrying each other inside of the family that's pretty normal.

It also explains why Morgause is a blonde, like her supposed cousin Arthur and her supposed aunt Igraine, and why Morgause seems to care so much about Camelot, and why she tromped Arthur but didn't kill him.

I assume Igraine was the youngest of the three kids, and whoever Morgana's/Morgause's mother was received the magical inheritance that the DuBois family carries in their bloodline. Igraine and Tristan probably did not, or if they did it was minimal, enough that Arthur has no magical ability at all.

This is all speculation. I have no idea why Uther wouldn't tell Arthur that Morgana was his cousin (if indeed they are related that closely) save for that Uther NEVER talks about family and so it just never came up.

But I DO believe that, even if this family tree I've created is wrong, that there is SOME relation between Igraine and Morgause's family, however faint that link may be. Noble families are always related, and since legend says that Arthur and Morgana WERE related, it's not that far of a stretch to say that the show wouldn't do the same.

Feel free to drop me a line about this!

Ta times two,
Bec

Here Comes Thanksgiving (The Horror, The Horror)

The only reason I am enduring yet another stupid Thanksgiving with my father's relatives is because MOM bribed me with two little words that I cannot ignore:

HOT.

TUB.

Yes, m'dears, she promised us three kids that if we came along on the terrible suffering that is Thanksgiving (again), she would get us a hotel room with a hot tub in the hotel.

So that's why we caved.

Again.

We're taking the dogs along (can't leave them alone for two days) and Anna will be here late tonight. Sara will be joining up with us tomorrow night.

I'm bringing my portable DVD player (with accompanying DVD's) and my Shakespeare book (recall when I got that back in the spring?) and audio to go with that. No getting ignored for me this year, no way. I have solved my problem of getting ignored:

I IGNORE THEM RIGHT BACK.

HA!

TAKE THAT, YOU SCALAWAGS! YOU RUFFIANS!

EN GARDE!

Anyway, I am still waiting to find out if A) I am in school again B) if I am going to be published. Anna's present is coming now-I got the e-mail that it's on the way.

Of course, I already had to warn the presentee that her Christmas present is coming and she had better not TOUCH the package coming from the mail person. If they'd just sent it last week this wouldn't have been a problem. I'm going to be locking myself in the bedroom to wrap this present so that she doesn't SEE it. At least I have all the others wrapped up already. This is the LAST ONE. Then I'm all set for Christmas a month from now.

Not much else here. The dogs are packed, I'm packed, Mom's packed, Anna's coming with Dad and so here we go.

Ta,
Bec

Another Bit On Merlin

Had this thought last night after I went to bed, so I'm going to add it to the heap of thoughts I had yesterday.






SPOILER LINE




So, here's my thought. Morgause showed Arthur his mother, something that he desperately wanted. Igraine, whether a vision created by Morgause or real, told him that Uther had betrayed her and went behind her back to make a deal with Nimueh, despite knowing that in creating Arthur, he would sacrifice a life to do so.

We know that most of what Morgause showed Arthur (if it was just a vision) is true. Uther knew the consequences of his actions (since Gaius told him that making a deal like he was making was a bad idea), and that Igraine did die. The only part we question is whether Igraine knew what Uther had done and was complicit.

We have no idea how Morgause got her information (if indeed it wasn't real), save that she could have been watching her spying crystal for quite some time and could have overheard Uther and Gaius discussing it last year, the only two who know exactly what went on.

I think it was some damn powerful magic and that what Igraine said was the truth, otherwise why would Uther react by telling Merlin that he would be hanged if he ever told Arthur the truth? Morgause had probably called her up beforehand just to make sure her information was correct.

So we assume that what Igraine said is true. Uther desperately wanted an heir, and was advised by Gaius that doing it with magic could only backfire. Creating Arthur would mean that the balance would need restoring and someone would have to die. Despite Gaius' protests, Arthur was created by Nimueh, a priestess of the Old Religion and a woman formerly a friend of Uther's. When Igraine gave birth to Arthur, she died to restore the balance to nature. Nimueh was tossed out of favor and Uther began his reign of terror against all forms of magic.

What if Morgause's plan was to restore magic to Camelot by taking out Uther, no matter the consequences to Arthur? What if she knew that showing Arthur his mother would cause him to become so enraged that he would go after Uther? What if she's in cahoots with other magical beings/or the dragon (druids are peaceful but even they've got to hate him by this point?) Morgause's plan was to get Arthur to take out Uther and have magic restored to the land, thereby freeing her kind to take the kingdom back?

However, Merlin got in the way of that plan, because his interests are purely for protecting Arthur even if it means keeping Uther alive a little longer. He knew that Arthur killing his father would most definitely destroy him.

So, will Morgause be behind the plot to get the amulet (Episode 11?) She must know who Morgana is (her half-sister). She was taken to the druids so she probably knows of/has met Mordred. Will Merlin try to stop her? Will it wind up being Morgause vs. Merlin or Morgana vs. Merlin or Merlin vs. everyone with a Mor in front of their names?

I won't be the least bit surprised if Morgana leaves Camelot at some point to go live with Morgause and Mordred. She wouldn't have to hide her powers, she'd be with actual family, and it would mean she would be learning how to use her gift.

I believe Morgause's interests are to get magic back in Camelot regardless of the consequences. The Old Religion must survive, and the little people on the chessboard don't matter.

As always, feel free to give me an opinion!

Ta,
Bec

Merlin Predictions

OK, so these here statements are my (probably wrong) predictions for the remaining 4 episodes of Merlin season 2. I was dying to say something about each character and where I think they are headed and so here it is. If you have anything to say about this, drop me a line and let me know (rude comments will be deleted, OK? I love this show and I'm merely speculating because this is what I do as a writer all the time, so I'm practising for doing my own analyses of my own stuff.)






SPOILER LINE


Episode 10: Arthur gets it on with Vivian. And apparently tries to start a big snarlfest.


Episode 11: Morgana has to get some sort of amulet for Mordred and some other people. This sounds like last year...


Episode 12: No earthly idea.

Episode 13: Really no earthly idea. But Arthur probably doesn't die.


Morgana: Her big episode, besides 3 this year, is going to be Numero 11. I assume this is the episode where Morgana's irrepairable break from Uther comes in, and the beginning of the end of her friendship with Gwen. She's going to align with Mordred and with those who would see magic restored to Camelot...but NOT with Merlin, who would also see magic restored to the kingdom but not at the prices Morgana and Mordred will eventually be willing to pay.

At some point along the line, possibly sooner rather than later, Morgana's going to find out about her half-sis Morgause and things between her and Uther will get sourer than they are now.

I'm starting to think Morgana's going to leave Camelot for a while, making a (false) excuse to Uther that she's going to visit someone in a faroff kingdom and disappear into the woods to be with her "own kind" for awhile. Otherwise she's going to go missing again for awhile, but it's hard to believe the writers would allow her to be fake-kidnapped twice (almost THREE times).

I am becoming increasingly of the opinion that Morgana is being set up to eventually kill Uther at the end of the series. There are several reasons why I believe this:

1. Morgana's alignment with Mordred at the moment would never get her into a hate/hate relationship with Merlin, Arthur, or Gwen, but Uther's blood on her sword (which Morgana knows how to use plenty well) is a real possibility. It makes her a fugitive-Arthur would have to pursue her for treason and for murder, along with Mordred and possibly Morgause, too. It breaks her away from her friends and towards those who will become her allies-Morgause and Mordred.

2. After all he's been and all he's done and all the people he's killed, I would never think Uther's death would be a peaceful one. He's a warrior, he thinks and lives like one. Most likely, his death will be a violent one. It would be poetic justice in a way.


Arthur-I believe Arthur's probably had most of his big moments this year, but I'm eager to see the next one and where he winds up (looks like Uther's mad at him again-this time for almost doing Vivian and pushing Camelot to the brink of war. Whoopsie.) He has grown up so much this season, as evidenced by his treatment of Merlin in episode 9. At least he's no longer coming after him with a mace...

The writers have to walk a fine line with this particular character-Arthur must be increasingly separate and distinct from his father's ideals and display his qualities to those he considers his friends, but in front of Uther he must put up a false front. He is a good subject, a loyal son, a good soldier. He can try to push his father to take a softer hand (good luck there) and try to make things easier on the people, but Arthur has to pretend to align with his father's ideas until the day that his father dies.

Merlin-His powers are still a big secret save to Gaius and possibly to Morgause. I would say there won't be any really monster moments for Merlin anymore this year, merely reactions to the situations occurring to other characters. We know where his path lies, and it's against the forces of evil that threaten his prince.

Gwen-She's leaving for somewhere this season, but I don't know when, why, or how. She's a servant, so no horse unless she steals one. She has no home or friends outside of Camelot save for Hunith in Ealdor. Going somewhere else isn't possible unless she goes with Morgana-a woman wouldn't travel without a retinue in those days. My opinion is that Lancelot is going to pop up out of nowhere and she's going to ride off with him. Arthur will be left looking out of the window as the two of them ride off together.

But that still leaves the question: why does she leave? Your guess is as good as mine. My prediction is the next episode, where Arthur and Vivian get their groove on and tick her off. She decides that he really doesn't give a damn and leaves town (no idea if and when she will return, but I'm assuming that yeah, she's coming back and she's going to be a lot different).

Uther-His ruthlessness knows no bounds, and yeah, a lot of us want to see him dead when Arthur's ready to take the throne from his father's hands, but can he get worse than he is already?

It's obvious what's happening to this character. They are prying him away from all of the other characters. Without Morgana's voice in his ear, without Gaius' advice, the only voice he's hearing is his own. The more off-base he goes, the more Arthur will see him for what he really is and change his own character so that he's a different sort of king.

Gaius-Gaius is the most expendable character on this show. The actor is elderly and might at some point want to quit to spare his own health. Uther has to last either until the last season or close to it, to give Arthur's character time to grow and expand into the king we all see he's going to be (if he ever stops being a PRAT). And the rest of them can't die because they all become important in the Arthurian mythos, so the only main character left to kick the bucket is Gaius.

Granted, it probably won't be this season. Lord knows they TRIED to kill him but he just insisted on living. I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if Gaius did do a surprise 180 and die at the end of this season or beginning of the next. There's somewhat of a rift forming between Gaius and the other characters-Merlin included. They're finding their feet and spreading their wings, and Gaius is becoming increasingly outdated in the middle of all this change.

Besides, the only secrets Gaius is hauling around now are the Merlin and Morgana are magical ones, and since Morgana's about to toss herself clearly on the side of the magical beings and Merlin seems to be keeping the secret all right by himself (unless he keeps using his powers to steal sausages from Arthur-cough cough) Gaius isn't a character that has permanency.

If someone major's going to die, it's going to be him. Merlin's in on the Arthur born of magic one (and has been duly threatened by Uther for it) so we won't be seeing him reveal that one anytime soon. Arthur trusts him absolutely at the moment-it's not a good time to be telling him he lied to him back there just to keep him from doing something stupid. Or that he can move chicken legs with his mind...


Ta,
Bec

Why Am I So Tired?

My mother takes an awful lot of medication. Painkillers, some blood vessels openers, a cholesterol pill, and sleeping medication.

Her one pill is Amitriptyline, a medication that looks way, way similar to my regular ibuprofen pills and which we're forever mixing up. The only major difference is size-Mom's pill is a little bit bigger.

Yesterday afternoon I wanted painkillers for my cramps. I saw two orange pills sitting on the table. I don't have a very good memory and I assumed they were ibuprofen. Down the hatch they went.

An hour later, I was sitting at the computer and my head started to droop. Just as I'm drifting off, Mom asked me to make the rice for supper-did that. Laid down on the couch to rest for a bit and Mom booted me out of there because she wanted the couch. I stumbled up from it, feeling like I wasn't quite in control of my limbs.

This is the point when it dawned on me that I hadn't taken the ibuprofen I thought I'd taken, but the Amitriptyline that Mom had left sitting there.

Then I went to bed...only to be bounced out of there because Mom wanted me to call the hospital and make sure I would survive the night on that much medication.

Finally I went to bed at 5:30 in the afternoon and didn't wake up till 11 hours later. Even now I'm groggy, dizzy, and woozy. Mom said she woke me up at 8 last night-don't remember that at all.

Kind of feel like I'm underwater right now. I want to take a bath but I want someone here if I do that-the warmth is likely to make me want to go to sleep again and that could be a tad dangerous. I'm not fully in control of my brain yet (it feels like it's full of rice pudding or some other gushy substance) so I think I'll wait a couple of hours and see how I'm feeling then.

On the upside, when this stuff wears off I'm going to feel really energetic from all that sleep.

Gotta go drink some water. I'm trying to flush this stuff out of my bloodstream so I can think...

Ta,
Bec

Nine Men's Morris!

According to the tracking number, my board game is in town and headed towards me. Got here at 5-something this morning, and since the post comes around 10:30, that's when I can expect it. That would be why I haven't turned on Merlin or whatever else this morning-I'm waiting till the postal person gets here so I don't get interrupted.

22 minutes. Hope they're running early today.

I'm about to start painting the desk with Tabasco sauce as the dog wouldn't stop licking it. That would teach her.

They were running early. Package here. Gotta go get a scissors...

Ta,
Bec

PS: Very small board, but CUTE! Came with a nice handy box but there's no holder for the marbles (can't really expect that on a board this small but oh, well.) I'm going to have to find some way of keeping the marbles with the box with the board...

It's quite possibly the most adorable version of this game I've ever seen.

No Three

The second set had the exact problems as the other (actually it was almost worse.)

I was mad. There isn't any other word for it. Does MGM CHECK the quality of their damn discs before they leave the factory?

Amazon sent me an e-mail. They're not sending a third Complete SG-1 set because they figure if Set #1 and Set #2 had the same problem, Set #3 wouldn't be any better. They offered a full refund of the money my mom put forth for it.

I've given up on the whole business. To hell with it. If the ratio of bad to good is this high, that means that the good ones are few and far between. And with my rotten genetic luck, I won't be getting one of THOSE.

So, I changed my mind. I decided to go with a board game that I've been wanting for ages. I'm getting a nice Nine Men's Morris board-which is worth all of 20 bucks with the shipping thrown in.



Hopefully I won't lose the marbles.

Got things to do, so I'll be going now.

Ta,
Bec

Christmas Presents 95% Complete

Due to sneaky people who would probably want to look at their Christmas presents when they arrive here to visit next week, I wrapped them up today. Swapped the boxes Sara's and Mom's arrived in so that they can't tell what theirs are and so the size would fit the present (seeing as Sara's came in a box too big and Mom's came in a box that was almost too small, but when I swapped the boxes they were just right.)

What I was worried about was screwing up Mom's with Sara's because they've been sitting there for a while in the boxes they arrived in, and when I swapped the boxes I started to think Sara's was still in the big one and Mom's was in the little one.

I deliberately labeled the big one with MOM so that if something should happen to the tags I placed on the presents and I mix them up again, the big name on the top of the box inside the wrapping paper should get them swapped back to the right people before a massive mistake gets made on Christmas morning (hopefully.)

The only present I have yet to get from the mail is Anna's. I have no idea when it will get here but when it does (hopefully not next week) I'll wrap it and sock it in with the others. Christmas accomplished.

Doctor Who on Sunday was scary enough, but the last ten minutes were probably the most terrified I have ever been of David Tennant (and that includes his scenes in Harry Potter, Secret Smile, and Randall and Hopkirk, although the makeup and the bride dress he was wearing sort of made it funnier than scary)

I won't go into details but let's just say the Doctor decided he was in charge of everything, which is never, ever good for him. Ever. He was Valeyard-ing big time.

Waiting on UPS to bring me my package, and I have to go make a couple of phone calls.

Ta,
Bec

Palin Plague. Someone Please Shut Her Up.

I have voiced my strong feelings about Sarah Palin before, and here she is on my TV screen again. Never mind that I turned her off once this morning and wouldn't you know, there she is AGAIN.

If I could disappear some people, she'd be one of the first ones. That stupid Cyrus kid would be next, followed by the Duffs, the Jonases, and the rest of Disney's Little Contract Crap-Song Club.

And I'd at least mute Pink and Natasha Bedingfield permanently, if only to spare my own ears. And I'd make Shakespeare on the radio mandatory.

They're coming to take my box set away today. The new, hopefully better one is coming around the 17th. They're supposed to be shipping it out soon.

No baking today-there are 5 out of 32 cookies left on the plate. Rave reviews!

Ta,
Bec

Box Set, Box Set, Show Me An Episode, Do...OR NOT

I got my SG-1 box set today! I'm currently watching a muscley soaking wet de-glasses Daniel (cue drool here) argue it out with rubber-faced alien Nem (WHAT. FATE. OMAROCA?) in Season 1. I haven't seen this one in a while but I remember some of the lines pretty well.

I decided that the first one I'd watch would be the first one I ever watched. I can't believe they crammed 214 episodes plus extra stuff on 54 discs in a 2 foot space. And Mom is paying about a buck 90 for each one (set originally was 350, she's getting it for 104). Not bad at all.

So, happy graduation to me. This one will probably be my most loved present purely because I waited over two years for it. I already have plans to keep it in the Amazon box it came in because I am so worried it'll get damaged.

The reason I didn't ask for something more keepsake-y (like a hope chest, which for those that don't know is is because I don't know where I'll be in six months. I needed something I would want, something slightly more expensive than I usually ask for, and something that would last me a long time.

Hence the box set. It's portable. It's expensive. I've wanted it since BEFORE it came out two years ago. And if I take good care of it it should last me a long while.

Ta,
Bec

PS: Due to massive flaws in this box set, I have been forced to ship it back to Amazon for a replacement set. The discs were supposed to be new, yet the ONE episode I watched skipped and skipped. I got mad, put it back in the holder, and packed up the set for a resend back to wherever it came from. I didn't look much at the discs, but Season 1 had 4 out of 5 that were dirty and scratched. Unacceptable. I don't need to look at the other 9 seasons to know I'm sending this one back to the manufacturer.

If the next one has the same problems it'll go back too. I could keep this up as long as they don't send me a quality, unscratched, undirty copy of this box set.

PPS: I was so ticked off about the whole box set thing that I made cookies. I found a really awesome recipe which I altered a touch, but it turned out spectacular so I will post it here.

Almond Joy Cookies


2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. salt

Combine dry ingredients and set aside.


1/2 cup softened butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar


Cream butter and sugars together.


2 eggs

3/4 tsp. coconut extract

3/4 tsp. almond extract


Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the extracts.


Sift in the dry ingredients, then stir until well mixed. Stir in:


1 12 oz. bag of chocolate chips

1 cup sweetened coconut

1 cup chopped almonds

Dough will be very stiff.


Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.


Makes about 36 cookies.

Have fun! If you do make this, let me know how it turned out for you.

Ta,
Bec

I Just Want A Toasted Cheese Sandwich!

SO, I have been wanting a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup for WEEKS now.

I have waited patiently, waited until Dad realized the cheddar cheese slices were out and bought some more.

So, we have the cheese, we have the soup. But WOULDN'T YOU KNOW, we have no bread to make grilled cheese with.

Sigh in text form.

Guess I'm eating a leftover pork chop for breakfast.

Chest hurts on the right today. Probably because I woke up on that side.

Second sigh in text form.

I'll let you know if anything exciting! happens today. Probably not.

Ta,
Bec

PS: Only thing that's happened thus far is my graduation present getting shipped this morning. I asked for the Stargate SG-1 Complete Series box set (since I've wanted it for over two years), it got remarkably cheap in the last week or so, and it's being sent to me as I type.

I have waited a very long time to have this box set, probably longer than I've ever waited for anything. I had figured I would never get it but when the price dropped so low I asked politely.

When it gets here and I have a camera, there will be photos.

No Running. And No Singing, Either.

Nothing really new to report, save I got short of breath after a long singing spate in church this morning (not like me at all.) Still don't know why. I'm going to see my rheumatologist at the end of the month, so unless the symptoms take a turn for the worse (that is, to the point that they're affecting my normal, everyday life around here) I'll probably try to hold out until then.

Like I told Mom, if I don't run or sing I'll probably be okay.

Nothing else new to report.

Ta,
Bec

PS: Grandma Koshak has been besieged by a bat. As Dad so deftly put it (and may I remind you, this is his mother I'm talking about here) "The old bat has a bat in her house."

I can see her swinging around like a madwoman, screaming at the thing to get out of her house. This could be very interesting.

So Dad went over there and the bat was hanging out behind Grandma's clock, sleeping. Dad woke him up and took him outside and the bat was totally unhappy about losing his sleeping place (although living around my grandmother would be far worse.)

Lung Issues (My Body's Turning Into A Pinto...Again)

I've had a bit of a problem the last half-day or so. Yesterday, Mum and I were in one of the local thrift stores, and for some reason I got a feeling like I had a rubber band tightened around the lower half of my lungs. It was sharp and shooting and hurt like hell.

After a couple of minutes the sharp pain disappeared, but the rubber band feeling didn't and decided to persist for three more hours. I couldn't stand up for very long and it felt like I had a weight in my chest. Even my back hurt.

Mom's been tired(er) lately, so I volunteered to do the drying of the laundry last night despite the pain I was in. I went and while the laundry was drying, the band around my chest sort of let go. I put it down to a weird muscle cramp.

I felt good for an hour, maybe two, but right in the middle of feeding Spritey, my right side seized up again, same as before. And I've had a dull ache in my side since last night (it hasn't let up yet.) Taking a deep breath makes it worse, and any position I sit in helps the cramp but makes my back hurt. I'm currently watching Doctor Who and even laughing is killing me.

I have no idea why the cramp came in the first place, why it left, or why it came back but only on the right side. Mom thinks I should go see a chiropractor, but it isn't in the joint this time; I'm sure it's muscle.

Hopefully the damn thing goes away so I can do other things today. I get bored lying around doing nothing.

Ta,
Bec

Little Garden Shed of Horror

My grandmother has a shed. She keeps garden supplies and tools inside of it. It's not very big at all-maybe 10 foot by 10 foot. When my grandfather was alive and still had chickens (only for the eggs-Grandpa was too much of a softie to use his birdies for meat), the shed was their house. As a small girl, I used to go and find the eggs from the chickens so that Grandma could wash them and put them in the fridge, and I used to go to the big container in the garage and get feed for the chickens.

However, that was then. This is now. Grandpa and the chickens are long gone. The shed is now a garden shed. And today, Grandma wanted the shed clean.

Now to me, a clean shed would have meant something along the lines of A) removing all the objects from the shed B) sweeping/vacuuming the floor C) putting the objects Grandma wants back into the shed D) shutting the door and forgetting about whatever you just did.

Grandma's idea was a lot different.

A) Remove objects (Okay, that one was obvious)

B) SCRUB THE CEMENT CLEAN! (My extremely sore muscles attest that I'm not kidding about this. For those of you who have never cleaned rough cement it is very, very hard to do, partially because this cement was probably never meant to be cleaned as it was the base of a chicken coop. It has never been sanded smooth, so it has a rough texture that grabs dirt. This might have been the first time in its life (15 plus years?) it had been cleaned. Once I had vacuumed up the loose dirt and scrubbed the surface with a brush to get the dirt UP out of the microscopic pits in the floor, I also had to take a rag to it to get the now loose dirt off the floor.)

C) Watch Grandma rip out the chicken wire that Grandpa had stapled over the lone light bulb, then take first a screwdriver to the wall to remove the holder for the wooden board holding the light, proceed onward with a saw and then when that didn't work, a knife/hammer combination to remove the board that the light was strung through. And then she restrung the light on its wires and put it back up on the wall.

My grandmother is 83 and could probably bite nails in half if she wanted to.

She scares me sometimes.

Continuing on:

D) Scrub out the old feed box (this meant removing the decade-old caked sawdust from the bottom. Fun!)

E) Grandma scrubbed the window in the back. I vacuumed and scrubbed the upper shelf (lady beetle hell), and also sucked up cobwebs.

Then once all that rigmarole was done, Grandma cleaned her garden tools (this I understood-dirt left on them over winter will make them rust) and we put the stuff back in the shed. We plunked bags of potting soil back onto the clean floor. If they leak, I am NOT going to be the one scrubbing up the dirt.

Job done, I go home, right?

Wrong.

Grandma had more for me to do today...namely, cleaning up those dead plants piled up in the garden weeks and weeks ago.

So, I grabbed a recently-polished pitchfork and piled slimy, moldy, rotten plants into the wheelbarrow so she could take them out and dump them in the copse in back of the garden. When they didn't come off the fork nicely, fingers were the only recourse.

(Does Mike Rowe need an assistant? Because those jobs he does can't be nearly as bad as handling a long wet rotten moldy gushy slimy tomato vine that really should have hit the compost heap a month ago.)

Grandma also wanted the vacuum cleaned out. Some of the lady beetles I'd sucked up before were still ALIVE in the machine. Grandma dumped the lot out in a piece of newspaper and stuffed the whole thing, living bugs and all, into the woodstove.

And then we went and got logs from the woodshed and put them in the wheelbarrow, wheeled them up to the steps and hauled all six of them down the stairs.

And we had to find a spot for the wheelbarrow in the garage. There wasn't one, so Grandma moved some stuff and I shoved the riding mower forward a few feet so the wheelbarrow could fit behind it. Then we shut that garage door and went to put all the stuff from the house we'd used (vacuum, brooms, brushes, rags, and some other things) away.

THEN we were done.

But only after I had pulled EVERY, SINGLE, muscle group in my body past its scream point. I haven't pushed myself that hard since I got the fibro, and the way I feel now would be why.

Recall, if you can, the first time you went skiing? Recall the day AFTER you hit the slopes when you felt like the slopes were hitting back?

That's sort of what it feels like (maybe times two?), save for the fact that I'll have the pain a couple of extra days because fibro makes muscles overly sensitive to strain and tension. When I overdo as I have, I may hurt for about 4 or 5 days. Worse if it rains or threatens to.

Bending at the waist is very painful right now, lifting my legs up and into the car was awful, and my upper neck and back feel like when I hit that kid on the sledding hill (dummy was walking up the down slope and I smoked him at about ten miles an hour on a plastic sled (going in the right direction for once and look where it got me.) He got blown one way and I got thrown in another. I had the wind knocked out of me and couldn't lift my arms above my head for a week.)

I'm on a lot of ibuprofen right now so that I can sleep tonight, otherwise I'll be spending my night shifting around in bed and raining down curses on my grandmother for making me SCRUB A GARDEN SHED'S CEMENT FLOOR.

Good thing I probably won't have to do it again. I'm making myself scarce next year when she starts mentioning cleaning the shed.

Ta,
Bec

Poem Time

An ode to the garbage eater in the house, Spirit the dog.

I'm a little Spritey
Short and fat
Can I have some food?
Are you gonna finish that?
When I hear food dropping
Hear it splat
There I am in seconds
To chew on that.

The way she's eating, we're not going to have enough food for the humans around here. Last week she was munching on eggshells. We know she doesn't have a calcium deficiency because she eats enough cheese for three people.

Whisper snarfed down my popcorn, but she's pretty picky about what she eats otherwise. She has her phobias (note: everything from rain to dark to cars to loud noises), but she's affectionate and sweet all the same.

Spirit, however, is jealous, conniving, sneaky, bratty, pushy, temperamental, sassy, and a glutton. She is also terribly cute and funny, which would be why she gets away with everything. Case in point: Poo's in a temper because she can't go out and play. Guess who's going to have to deal with that all day?

Not much going on with me. Waiting on everything...

Ta,
Bec

Roadkill Fishy

SO the dryer has been dead for about three weeks, despite all attempts to save it. Dad thinks the igniter is busted, which means it won't heat, which means that at the moment it's a very useless sort of appliance.

So Mom and I have been taking in the wet laundry (cause the washer's fine) and drying it at a laundromat in town. We also got groceries today when we did that because ten miles is a lot of distance to have to run back in to get stuff for supper.

So we did all we wanted to do and were headed home on the highway, when my mother suddenly shouts "Fish!" and slams on the brakes, sending the gallon of milk we'd just bought under the seat.

She claimed that she'd seen a fish lying on the side of the highway.

Me being me, I miss everything and I didn't see it. Mom believed (and was probably right) that I would continue to deny that there was anything there till the end of time if she didn't drive back across and back over to the place where she'd seen the fish and make me see it, too.

So she drove back around, as I tried to unwedge the gallon of milk from under the backside of the driver's seat.

And I saw the fish.

Dead.

On the side of the highway.

Mom assumed it was a perch or a small walleye.

Okay. So I believed her after I SAW the stupid thing lying there with its mouth open and everything.

How and why it was there was anyone's guess (Mom assumed the eagle that lives nearby may have picked it up from the river and then dropped it by accident.)

We considered going back again, picking it up, and cooking the thing for supper so that Dad could eat genuine piscine roadkill.

But we didn't. We had burgers instead. They were, at least, processed properly and the meat was somewhat cleaner than a fish with probable eagle talon marks and enough mercury to fill a thermometer in it (when they used to put mercury in them.)

It tops the list for weird roadkill I've seen. And I've seen plenty in my time.

I am fairly certain I won't be seeing a FISH on the side of the road again, especially not like that.

That is about it for me. Nothing else is happening.

Ta,
Bec

Discovering the Art of the Limerick

I clearly have a knack for limerick writing (this is the first one I've tried to write), but I need to practice. Take my poem about Jon Gosselin as an example.

There once was a man named Jon
8 kids later his morals are gone
He parties all the time
And perfects the art of whine
We wish he would go mow his lawn.

Ah, well. I can't be perfect at everything the first time around...most of the time I'm not. I'm surprised I could even produce a limerick of this quality straight off, without editing and without having ever done it before. I think I'm going to work on that for awhile, although 90% of the ones I've read are basically a sex joke.

Ta,
Bec

A New Idea

I have an idea for one of my poems. Or several.

Most people of the average persuasion think that poetry is a 2-D deal. On paper, hard to unravel, flat and uninteresting.

I feel it's time poetry, specifically mine, took a step forward. So here's my plan: I'm going to (hopefully) videotape or take a picture of myself doing something relating to the poem I'm working with. As soon as I get the camera back from my thieving sister, I'm going to go ahead with some of these ideas. We'll see if they work.

Hopefully, I won't lose my nerve.

I don't know what kind of reaction I'll get and I don't know much about artistic license, but I hope that people will notice and comment, good or bad. Here's hoping I can push my idea into reality.

Ta,
Bec

Been Quiet Here

I have my Muse CD and DVD. It is awesome. It is grandiose. It is wonderful.

There's nothing else going on around here. I'm trying to apply for Master's school.

Ta,
Bec

ARGH!

Have we become so hardened to the way the world fell 8 years ago that we can't shut up when highlights of today's memorial service are running on TV? I wanted to hear what was being said, and yet I had to fight to hear anything over my mother talking about her day to my father.

It is a sad world when we start forgetting what's really important.

I recall that day 8 years ago pretty clearly, and while others seemed not to be thinking about it (Mom had to be reminded when she wondered why the flag was at half-mast) I was.

Shame that I wanted to hear the highlights of that memorial service and didn't hear a galdarn thing, thanks to someone chattering on about the inanities of her life.

Also, I am getting sick of not being listened to. I told my mother that we had no cheddar cheese in the house. She didn't listen. I told her in town we needed cheddar cheese for our hotdogs tonight. She didn't listen again. I told her there was none downstairs and she still ordered me down there to look for cheddar cheese.

Strangely enough, there wasn't any! How shocking!

Dad's down there digging around. He won't find any. (Okay, revise that. It was buried so damn deep that a pirate couldn't have found it. Honestly, did they expect me to climb over all that crap he has in the way to open the bloody fridge door?)

I am never listened to around here. I say something and it's like I'm talking to the air. I told her three times that there was none down there and I knew it but Mom just had to make me go down there and look for it. If I hadn't, it would have spawned a massive argument.

And someone just has to prove me wrong.

Sorry. I'm full of bad humors today. Feel like attacking everyone. I have days like this once in a while. Everything was going fine until this cheese thing happened.

Sigh.

Gotta go. I have a feeling this is going to end in flames.

Ta,
Bec

Blah.

So, not much going on around here. Spritey is still a brat, Muse are still awesome, Whisper's still mopey.

Things are sort of at a standstill round here.

Ta,
Bec

OH MY GOD...

Just heard album on Youtube (who on Earth (or any other planet for that matter) could resist (no pun intended.)

I am busy picking myself out of the wall (it was Unnatural Selection's fault) where my body wound up lodged.

The most awesome, gorgeous, wonderful, splendiferous, ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

I won't spoil it for you (go have a listen already) but my only minor gripe is that Muse have gotten so good at turning a song on a dime that I'm going to have to hear this fourteen more times in order to catch all the times they change key. (And Matt's French isn't the best :).)

But I really won't mind. Not a smidge.

But I will wait till tomorrow to listen to it again, because I have to recover from the rollicking, rolling, screaming, piano and guitar throwing THING I just heard.

Muse albums are quite literally living beings. This one just ate me.

If I go to a Muse concert on this tour, I'm going to come back hoarse, with my arms a couple feet longer from punching the air, and blinded from the display. (I wanna go real bad now.)

But...THAT was AWESOME!

Ta,
Bec

Paralyzed!

Listening to Undisclosed Desires recording (not live version this time) for the first time. Tears are running down my face right now. Excuse me.

Oh that is gorgeous.

Well, not much going on here.

He's playing it again!

I LOVE THIS GUY!

Oh, I can't write a blog entry like this...

Ta,
Bec

A Week Till The Explosion Occurs...

Next Sunday could very well be the last day I live in obscurity as a US Muse fan. I may have company after Uprising hits the airwaves...

Still bingeing on Muse. Can't stop now that I have three new songs from the live set last night in their hometown.

About a week and a little bit to go (unless someone does me a favor and hands me the album earlier than the 15th-pretty please?)

I'm going to go ponder the wonderfulness of The Bellamy.

Ta,
Bec

Going Stir-Crazy

Three months ago, I became a near-prisoner in this house. I have no money and nowhere to live. It was sort of a given that I would end up back in the house.

But with my sisters departing in 24 and 48 hours respectively, I think I may have to either clean the place down or write a novel to keep busy. Getting a job seems difficult-working on that. I'll be applying for school tomorrow (hopefully).

I'm going to go nuts here unless I find something to do.

Very tired now, and I think I'm going to go crash out before Sara conks me awake at 3 AM when she gets out of bed.

Ta,
Bec

An Extra Little Note

Been Muse-freaking this week, and I'm beginning to think I had better slow down because I still have, by my count, 2 1/2 weeks till the release of the new album.

BUT there are still a few out there (okay a lot of you) who don't understand WHY Muse is so...well, let me attempt an explanation.

American music has slipped into a bad spot. Not all American music is bad, but when I hear the radio these days, most of it isn't high quality. It doesn't sound like someone put effort into it; it kind of sounds like people just wanting to make money off of their music.

Muse are something special. They are all very talented, very intelligent guys whose main interests consistently have been the music. The money they've earned was well earned. They have worked so hard the last decade to get where they are. Muse have more than paid their dues.

How many bands do YOU know of where the lead singer pulls triple, sometimes quadruple duty? Matt Bellamy not only writes the songs, but sings them, plays guitar, plays piano, and somehow finds time to do stage moves most would break their necks attempting.

I have yet to find an American band that keeps the high standards that Muse does. They give so much of themselves into a performance, so consistently, a person just has to promote that.

With Muse, I found that I suddenly respected a decent guitar riff (I'd never understood that before), that a song played on stage requires something akin to playing a part in theater. A singer isn't really a singer unless they can pull off that song on a stage in front of people.

Also with Muse, they seem so darn humble for how great everyone in the fandom knows that they are. Matt won Sexiest Male at the NME's, and when he was told, the look of shock on his face was absolutely priceless. He stated that he was too short to be sexy (a lot of female fans disagree with this statement).

I've been a fan for two years this October, and as far as music goes, this has been the best two years of my life. My musical taste has improved drastically. I listen to Rachmaninoff and Mozart...and most of it is because of Muse.

So, as the new album approaches, I will try to slow the Muse love/crazy screaming/just general I'm off my rocker and loving it stuff down. But I don't guarantee I'll shut up about them, and this blog is still going to talk about them. I will be a Muse fan for life. I think they've earned it.

Ta,
Bec

NOPE

All right, you recall how several weeks ago I said I had PCOS?

Well, it turns out that I DO NOT have PCOS.

Ha.

Just try to keep up with the lunacy, okay?

Hey, if I keep going like this, by the time I'm 500 (God forbid) I'll have cleaned out the possible diseases box.

Ta,
Bec

Trip Diary

Sunday: We're off and running...no, we're not. The van has died. In Grandma's driveway. Let's hope she doesn't come home right now. Dad has walked off home, back through the rain to get the car.

We have arrived at the local waterhole...and the van has died again. Dad's taken off in the blue car to go get a battery.

Okay, here's the scene: Three INCHES of mud in the driveway. Pouring rain. Packing the contents of a large van into two rather small cars, cutting out what we can along the way so that it all fits in.

I wound up leaving an entire bag at home so that we would have more room. I, Mom, Dad, Whisper (shaking on the floor) and Spritey (bouncing in Mom's lap on the front seat) are in the red car. Anna and Sara drove the blue.

So, NOW we're off.

Monday:

Spritey is losing her third coat (as evidenced by the seat she was in yesterday). When Spritey begins to lose her third coat, she can completely cover a chair in a matter of minutes with the loose stuff.

Why Spritey couldn't have lost her third coat earlier is anyone's guess. She's been miserable all summer because of it.

Whisper, however, has already covered the campsite with holes (she loves to dig.)

Tuesday:

Went to see the butterflies (Monarchs down by a point on the lake.) Dad got lost trying to get there, then we spent an hour driving towards the point.

There were hardly any butterflies, thanks to the wind, but there were BURRS in the woods, and boy, did Spritey and Whisper catch them. I spent a good 15 minutes pulling them out of Spritey's fur and still didn't get them all.

Wednesday:

In the process of brushing Spritey's fur out, Anna discovered burrs in between her toes, stuck in the fur of her paws. Very difficult to get them out, and to top it all off, Whisper had them, too.

Supposed to rain tonight. We'll see.

We laid out on the beach for awhile in the warm sun, and Spritey chased me all over the place when I tried to run off, outran me, and then nipped me in the ankles for running away. No leaving the herd for me.

Thursday:

Pouring, pouring, pouring rain. We're going to Newberry and we're taking the dogs. Mom wants to do laundry and Sara wants to go to a restaurant.

Had a good dinner and we came back in the dark. Mom decided that we absolutely needed to find her nightshirt and her book, both of which Anna managed to lose. I had no earthly idea where they were, but somehow wound up being the one having to LOOK for all these lost things when I was cold and tired and wanting to go to bed and get warm. I lost my temper.

Friday:
Freezing today. Spritey has taken up a new habit-shoving her nose into the dirt and pushing it around. Amusing as hell. Took video of it earlier, and then Mom dropped buckwheat pancake batter and Spritey decided to bury it. I got video of that, too. Will post it when I get home.

Those videos are here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzwrTdyxwKk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAom5e548c0

Saturday: Bloody weather. You wouldn't know it was August today, thanks to the FREEZING cold we're experiencing. We went out to the point today, and the only time I was really warm (in two sweatshirts and a T-shirt, no less) was when I was sitting fully in the sun.

Nice fossils this year; Dad had to crowbar a rock apart to get the good stuff out of it.

We went to Seney Wildlife Refuge tonight (save Sara) because it was so cold. Saw swans, ducks, and even a beaver. Got back so late we couldn't see two feet in front of our faces and had to use the pit toilet in the pitch dark. Fun, fun, fun...

Sunday:

Packed up this morning. Red car wouldn't start. Dad borrowed a pair of jumper cables, got it going, and then didn't turn it off all the way home, fearing that if he did, it wouldn't start again.

Got home and now I'm tired, so good night.

Ta,
Bec