Like everyone else on the internets, I just have to post about the new pictures of ( Various casting spoilers for Doctor Who )

Or: duh, I should be asking for help here too, after having cross-posted this to several writing comms.

Subject: A good part-physical, part-mystical/metaphysical/whatever cure for lycanthropy (the actual turning-into-a-monster-once-a-month thing, not the medical delusion) that somehow works with the overall plot and themes of my werewolf story
Setting: Modern world, as far as I know; might be in Alaska, where I live, or somewhere similar, at least to the extent that wolves should be around in the wild and it would make sense for the family in question to have a semi-remote cabin in the mountains for camping and stuff. I guess it isn't quite our world in that the existence of werewolves is slightly more accepted, maybe the way the existence of ghosts is kind-of-not-really accepted today.
Previous searches: I have been researching this a lot, because I wanted my character to be able to sift through all the folkloric cures and not find anything that works, and then because this actually turned into my undergrad thesis: part werewolf story, part academic look at folklore and pop culture about lycanthropy. Running water, silver knife, kneeling in one spot for a hundred years, removing the skin/belt that caused the transformation in the first place--none of those are really going to work. Mostly I suppose I need new ideas. The other thing I need is a compelling reason by the werewolf in question wouldn't try to get medical help for his condition.

( Cut for rambling )

I never did post a wishlist before my birthday or Christmas. Not that anyone was begging me to. But I like listing stuff I want. :p But then that post-here-and-I'll-make-you-something meme was going around (...um. I don't think I've finished anything for anyone on my list. Possibly haven't started any.), and I posted on several others', so I figured I might as well post the part of the wishlist that are things people could, you know, actually make. In case anyone wants any ideas, or...whatever.

• A cunning hat. Because.
  
• I have to admit: the Secret Life of Dolls kind of had a big influence on me getting into action figures. I mean, I wanted a Ten action figure anyway, but now I have him, Rose, Martha, and Angel, plus a 12" Clockwork Droid doll. And I want more, like Coraline (okay...I think I've seen two or three different face sculpts for each version of the doll and I can't figure out whether I'd be getting the one I want) and Edward Elric and Spike if I could find a good one. But what I really, really want are three that don't exist: Death of the Endless, Tonks (seriously, why isn't there a movie!Tonks in her DoM outfit? That would be perfect), and River Tam. I have thought about cannibalizing an existing doll for one of these purposes, but none of mine are right; all I have are old Barbies, and not only do none of them have the right coloring for any of these three, their faces and shapes are...well, come on, do you think Death or River really look like Barbies? (Tonks could, although I expect she ordinarily doesn't. And I wouldn't want her to, natch.) If I had gobs of money, I could piece together a perfectly satisfactory River, Tonks, and/or Death from the kinds of dolls and clothes at places like the Denver Doll Emporium, but when the naked doll alone can run anywhere from $50 to, like, $600...well, yeah. But if anyone has got some dolls/action figures or knows where to get them cheaply and could make a convincing River/Death/Tonks, that would be so awesome. (I might be able to make a decent Death out of my sister's old Arctic Barbie, assuming she still has it, along with some white and black model paint and goth-girl clothes, but adult Barbies have such a weird shape, and they really aren't very flexible...)
  
• This kitten. Or this one.
  
• Or a red panda! Especially if it's a baby one! Heck, a normal panda would be cool too.

There are so many fics I'd love to read but, for whatever reason, don't feel qualified/inspired to write, so I pass them on to you. And they get their own list. Annnd nearly all of them are crossovers. I dunno, that seems to be the easiest way to think of "Hey this would be AWESOME! But I have no idea how to write it, but someone should!" ideas.

• Ten meets Dumbledore. Two mad, brilliant old men--they'd get along great. Bonus points if Ten puts his feet up on Dumbledore's desk. (And no I do not mean Ten/Dumbledore, geez.
  
• Molly Weasley meets Jackie Tyler. They would be terrifying.
  
• You know in A Wrinkle in Time how Meg and Calvin and Charles Wallace get their dad back but don't actually defeat IT or fix Camazotz? Don't you think Nine would be a good candidate to come in after and take care of that?
  
• River and GLaDOS and the Weighted Companion Cube PLEASE PLEASE. Look, River's a little crazy and also brilliant, and GLaDOS is a crazy evil sentient computer, and it would be awesome. (No, I haven't a clue how you'd work that out.) And don't even ask how I came up with such a cracked-out idea. ...Okay okay, it's not that complicated: for some reason I thought Laura Gibson's version of "All the Pretty Little Horses" sounded like a good song for River, and it has a line that goes "...and when you wake, you'll have sweet cake," and of course...yeah.
  
• OH YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE WOULD BE AWESOME (also easier): you know what happens if you beat the game, right? Right, well...maybe somebody should, you know, land his TARDIS in the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center and check that out. Because while River and GLaDOS would be cracktastic, Ten and GLaDOS would be epically hilarious.
  
• My most frequent comment when watching Lost these days is "You know, if the Doctor would just show up, he'd have them all sorted out in ten minutes."
  
• You know Jacen Solo in the Star Wars EU? Han's kid? You know what he's been up to lately? Yeah. There should be an AU where Ten smacks some sense into him, you know, when such a thing would still be possible. Because nobody messes around with Time on the Doctor's watch, and Jacen seriously needed it.
  
• Ten and Chrestomanci saving the world together. I think they might be annoyed with each other at first but would then get along fabulously. I kept being reminded of Ten when I was reading any of the Chrestomanci Chronicles.
  
• A semi-crack fic crossing AtS/BtVS with the Twilight-verse. You know, because Angel and Spike need to beat up Edward, and Buffy or Cordy could pretty much beat up Bella just by looking at her, and Spike would have a wonderful time pointing out to Angel all the ways in which he and Edward actually are similar. Also because Angel really needs to tell Edward something like "When I crawled into my girlfriend's room and watched her sleep, I was evil!"
  
• Any Doctor and Charles Wallace, ideally when he's still young
  
• Nine couldn’t save Númenor either. EPIC ANGST, I know.
  
• Doctor Who crossed with Back to the Future, especially after the "Shakespeare Code" mention, and also, TARDIS > Delorean.
  
• Any new Doctor and companion somehow on a reality show like Amazing Race, because...it would be cracktastic. (I know "Bad Wolf" kind of does this and it's made of win, but them actually being in a reality show because, like, another contestant is an alien or something, would be awesome.)
  
• Nine or Ten and Ender Wiggin. Not sure if Ender's Game or Speaker for the Dead Ender would be better.
  
• Four or Ten and Willy Wonka (either). Crazy manic shenanigans.
  
• Ten and Ace Ventura, NO I'M SERIOUS. A lot of the Ace Ventura humor is too juvenile for my tastes, but some of it is honestly hilarious, and...honestly, I have no idea how Ten would react confronted with someone like that.
  
• The TARDIS landing on the Satellite of Love. YES. IT WOULD BE AWESOME.

So...um...yeah.

Got back late last night from Juneau, stayed up doing something I needed to for class, crashed. Got up at 1 p.m. (the last hour or so before that was mostly not sleeping because I just couldn't make myself get up) with a sore throat, and have been getting increasingly tired and achey since then. Now I feel too tired and achey to do anything, which is awesome. I have about ten things written in my planner to do today, all of which take forever, which is why I never seem to get anything done. And I have a lot to do. I need to get a job. So I need to apply for some. I also need to work on marketing my paid blog so I can maybe make some money on that, since now I'm making almost none. I have just over a month until I graduate, which means I have that much time to write most of my thesis and also seven other papers (one is due Monday). There are paid surveys I could do for extra money, and I need to list a bunch of stuff my dad doesn't want on half.com so I can sell them for him and make some other money. Also I really need to e-mail my adviser and hash out what exactly I'm even doing with my thesis--great timing, right?--and finish a mix CD for someone I don't actually know.

Only I'm sick and everything hurts right now, and as soon as I start thinking that maybe I can get some things done I start thinking of other things I need to do. And I can't get anything done because it all takes so much time and ugh I feel like crap. I already want to go back to bed. Body, this is really bad timing, I have a paper due at noon on Monday.

Annnd I used my 30,000 frequent flier miles to get tickets to bring faeriemaiden up for my graduation, so I keep having random flail moments about that, like, "Hey I wonder what movies/shows warriorofshadow and I should make her watch when she will BE HERE REALLY SOON OMGOMG" and "Hey, I never did go to the Chocolate Lounge, I should take Jolene there!" and then that kind of gets poisoned because it's like "Eeee Jolene will be here in just over a month!...which means that's how much time I have to FINISH MY THESIS and write SEVEN OTHER PAPERS OH HELP."

So...yeah.

• 23:31 WHOO PORTAL #
• 12:51 Ooh, gray Converses for 16 bucks...but I kind of need to not spend any more money. CONUNDRUM. #
• 15:38 Well, turns out gray converses were two mismates of the same color but different sizes and styles. Poo. #
• 15:39 Second conundrum: I have forty million things to do. I really want to play more Portal. #
• 15:47 @cleolinda: I like to use that time for browsing LJ, Failblog, and Go Fug Yourself, personally. #
• 18:32 Search with Swagbucks and earn points to get...stuff. Uses Google so it actually works okay: tinyurl.com/bh77k4 #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

• 23:33 @perfectdistance: I know, right? It's the most fun to spork EVER. #
• 23:33 @perfectdistance: on the plus side, the actual sinking is appropriately epic and horrifying, but the romance bits...? Not so much. #
• 00:39 New book review: so entrecard market is interesting tinyurl.com/bxtk7p #
• 00:39 New book review: neil gaiman: sandman (vol. 6, fables and reflections) tinyurl.com/bt6aco #
• 19:41 @the_anachronist: well, I don't know how much you've saved from your job (...er. do you have a bank account yet?) but Dell Outlet is cheap #
• 20:52 Man, Boyd Langdon in Dollhouse sure has big man-boobs for somebody who's not overweight. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

• 23:38 @warriorofshadow: Heh, yeah, it was Nunnally. I wish I had another professor as awesome. #
• 23:46 Oh crazy Ben Linus, you are the world's biggest psycho. Please stfu and die now. #
• 12:55 @the_anachronist: probably...until your birthday or you come up here, whichever comes first? I collect things for people all year long, see. #
• 12:59 @nelldrik: hahaha, so true. Also possibly in Disney World; my dad dubbed DisneyQuest "the Soviet Ministry of Virtual Entertainment". #
• 16:18 I found the room for the taiko-drumming demo by listening for THE SOUND OF DRUMS OOH SPOOKY #
• 16:24 Dear computer playing drumming video: stop lagging or I CUT YOU. #
• 17:18 WHEE BEATING DRUM IS FUN WANT TO MAKE MORE LOUD NOISE ARMS FEEL LIKE JELLY THOUGH #
• 17:24 Want to learn taiko drumming. Completely lack the time or money to do so. #
• 19:38 Irritation is a symphony rehearsal that stops every 10-60 seconds so the conductor can nitpick. Worse is having to be there for school. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Also because most of these went in my Random Stuff folder and I only just realized that for some reason, privacy settings kept said folder invisible to everyone but me and those in the UAA network (which is to say, virtually all y'all). So...I don't know what was up with that.

( Pictures! )

Sooo...how many of you have Twitter? Because you should. All the cool kids are doing it. Basically it's kind of like Facebook statuses except more versatile, and also they last longer. (And unlike Facebook, it actually works when I text a tweet, which means I tweet things like "AUGH THIS CLASS IS SO BORING GOING TO DIE" during my hateful Modernist Lit class.

Anyway, if you have Twitter, I'm 100_indecisions on there and you should follow me.

Or, "Kyra has another conundrum about what to buy and what not to buy and needs your input AGAIN".

So here is the conundrum: the wonderful piratecatarina gave me a $20 Amazon gift certificate (for Christmas or birthday, I forget which), and as always I have thought of far too many things I can buy with it. The difficulty, of course, is that I cannot possibly get all of these things, and I would really prefer not to go over the $20 because...I kind of have no moneys. As in, I have about $500 to my name right now (not including the $250 in my retirement fund so far, which I'm not planning to touch, and not including the $300 tuition waiver I should be getting ANY DAY NOW or the $375 when I finish this stupid binder project or the $500 from Fellows I should get at end of term).

Thus: y'all get to help me decide. It also helps that most of this is available used for somewhat less, which is where my math comes from.

Poll #1345687
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

What should I buy?

ETA: Oh great, so far I have one vote for each thing except none for the Coraline shirt and none for "other". That's not helpful, I might have to actually MAKE A DECISION OHNOES.

Very Very Important Public Service Announcement, or at least where "public" means me, seeing as it's my services I'm promoting: Now you can subscribe to my paid blogs by e-mail. Because maybe then you'll comment or at least click on them and then I'll get pageviews which means money? Still doing travel-blog stuff at Dusk Through Narrow Streets and book reviews at Lost Quite Classically. Or of course you can subscribe with something like Google Reader. Either way I don't have much in the way of readers, which makes me a sad sad panda.

Basically, it's really been One of Those Days. Skipped three classes so I could write up a Request for Exception so I maybe won't have to pay for two classes I'm registered for but probably won't be taking once my UEA credits FINALLY TRANSFER, WHAT THE CRAP GUYS, and stayed just long enough in one of the two remaining classes to take a quiz and then book it out of there, because I had to pick up some forms and take them to the University center to drop them off so I could actually sign up for my thesis and waiting until after class was going to cut it way too fine.

So I'm in a hurry anyway, and of course I slip on the ice outside the library and bang up both legs, and then when I get to the elevator since CAS is on the third floor and I hate walking up stairs anyway, much less with bruised knees, of course there's some dude in it fixing...something. I don't know. Whatever, it wasn't working. So I go find the one other elevator in the building. It's not working either. I'm about to go limping up the stairs anyway when another student waves to me from down the hall.

"They're done with the service elevator," he says. "You can use that one."

"Service elevator?" I say intelligently.

"Yeah, it goes up from the loading dock all the way to the roof. Technically students aren't supposed to use it." He dangles a key at me. "Side benefit of being a math major: I'm around here all the time. I know stuff."

"Oookay," I say, but I follow him, because my knees are throbbing in earnest now. I'm trying to think where this building would have a loading dock--or the need for a service elevator, for that matter. The only one I can think of is in the Arts building, and they need it for props and stuff. Oh, and the one in the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror; I think about making a joke about this and realize I'll just sound stupid. So instead I say, "You're not telling me the SSB has secrets? It's too boring."

"Every place has secrets," he says very seriously. We get to a hallway that I think runs behind IT Services, maybe parallel to the library, and yes, there's an elevator--the door's kind of dinged up, but it looks...elevatorish. He sticks the key in and turns it, and the doors grind open.

I step in and juggle with my books to push the right button, finally getting it with my elbow. The other student steps back, a half-smile on his face, only he looks...a little sad? Okay. That's weird. The last thing I see as the doors grind shut again is him touching two fingers to his eyebrow in a sort of salute.

Yep. Weird.

The elevator lurches painfully upward; I swear I can hear every individual gear groaning. I rock back and forth, already thinking about the form I need to pick up and whether I can get it to the University Center and back in time for my next class. The elevator seems to be taking an awful lot longer than it should--it's only going to the third floor--but then half the elevators at UAA are crap, and anyway I'm impatient so of course it seems long.

I finally get to the third floor, step out--and stop. The floor is one gleaming length of polished wood, not dingy carpeting, and the ceiling lights look like...I don't even know, I think maybe gas lamps. I've been gone three months, sure, but I was in this building last week, and I know how long it takes them to renovate buildings over here.

Something is ticking.

The clock on the mantle is broken, I think, because I'm a nerd, and go down the hall where the CAS office is. Everything seems to be in the right place, but the decor is still different, and the ticking's getting louder. No, not louder, there's...more of it. More than one clock? There aren't any clocks this loud in the SSB.

I go into the office anyway, because I'm still in a hurry, and only sort of half-notice that the furniture is all heavy wood, sort of neo-Victorian, and there's...quills and ink-bottles on the receptionist's desk? Well...okay then. I start to ask for my form--

And that's when I notice her computer.

It's basically open in the back so I can see right in where all the circuit boards and wires should be, and instead there's...gears. Lots of tiny gears turning in precision, all in burnished iron and bronze and maybe gold, clicking over each other, and they're ticking. Her computer is ticking.

It's a clockwork computer.

The look on my face is probably pretty comical at this point, and when the receptionist asks what I need, I don't really hear her and can't reply anyway. I do the only sensible thing: I blink, hard, assuming I'm imagining things and this is going to go away. When it doesn't I try the other old standby: I chuck my books on a chair, grab one arm with the other hand, and pinch.

Nope. Nothing.

I'm not dreaming.

i. I'm on the fanficcers' love meme here, because...I'm an attention whore? Probably. If you're on it as well, link me and I'll give you some fanficcer love too.

ii. I was flattered enough when firefly_124 recc'd my fic The Lost Boy on her personal journal and then, just recently, on crack_broom, and then today I was informed that somebody had nominated my story for the Forbidden Awards. Like, somebody else nominated it. I had no idea these awards existed. Sure it's fanfic so it's not going to get me anything, and sure it's not a hugely famous thing, but still--the idea that somebody else thought it was good enough to nominate for an award is...well, pretty awesome. (For what it's worth, forbiddenawards doesn't appear to be at least quite as kinky-sex-focused as it appears...I mean, both the community's icons are BDSM and they have kinky sex and group sex categories...? But they have gen awards too, and "The Lost Boy" is about as gen as you can get, so.)

I'd been following some of the rumors (well, to the extent that people on my flist posted about them, anyway) so I had some idea who the contenders were. I didn't know it was going to be revealed in the Confidential today (apparently that's why they didn't air a Confidential right after "The Next Doctor"?), so seeing cleolinda's announcement today came as a surprise. I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to know--look, I'm still in denial over Ten leaving even though I've known for months, shut up--so I clicked with some trepidation.

My first reaction: "Who?"

Yeah, never heard of the guy. He looks okay, I guess (I would just love to see a multiple Doctors special where he runs into--well, really, any previous Doctor, but especially one of the first four; they'd be all "This is ridiculous, why do I keep getting younger as I get older?"), but I have no idea whether he can act. Although the fact that he's worked with Billie Piper before more than once is amusing.

Yes, this really is me posting just to say I finally switched out a bunch of my icons. (It took a really long time. Seriously, it's like the only thing I accomplished this evening.) You know, because it makes sense to do that when you have less than a month left of your paid account. Oh well.

Is anyone else receiving very few LJ and Facebook e-mail notifications, if any at all? I don't mean since the server move; this has been happening for several weeks, at least for me. I've pretty much stopped getting Facebook e-mail notifications altogether, which isn't so bad since they have a little message center deal, and so does LJ, but if someone responds to a comment of mine on a community or someone else's LJ, I have pretty much no idea.

It shouldn't be Hotmail, either; I have their useless junk-mail filter turned off. And oddly enough, I get all my notifications for theturningworld just fine. But on this LJ, either I don't get them at all, or I get them really late--like, spockodile left a comment on one of my entries on Nov. 12, and I got the notification for it...yesterday. Which is when the e-mail says it was sent.

I don't get it.

So I went back to that Television and Movie Store today, you know, the one with all the Doctor Who merchandise that I shouldn't buy because I'm spending too much money. I ended up not getting a Martha action figure or a Ten action figure because it turns out I can get them both a lot cheaper online, but I did get a clockwork robot doll because...I wanted it. And it was £7.50 which is not that bad considering.

Anyway the only thing I didn't get that I still need from there was a Doctor Who poster, and I did check to see if that's any cheaper online and it's really not, so I'll be going back. Problem: don't know which one to get. They have several, but there are only three--new ones--that I'm dithering between, all of which you can see here, and I can't decide which I like best. I can't really get all three (or more than that; there's an SJA poster I wouldn't mind because Luke is just so adorable) because they're £3.99 each, which comes to about $6.30.

Which means, flist, it's time for another poll!

Poll #1293837
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

Which Doctor Who poster should I get?

Because I need to distract myself with something frivolous and because I need input. Yes. Very Very Important input.

Item the first: Tom Baker is going to be at the Television and Movie Shop in Norwich's city centre next Saturday. Yes. That Tom Baker. He's no David Tennant of course but Four is the most well-known Doctor, and he's also very much like Ten (except not as cute and not as angsty, but kind of adorkable all the same) and I quite like him. I was in that shop day before yesterday anyway and it's packed full of Doctor Who merchandise--badges and towels and posters and rubbish bins (no, seriously--there's one with this weird bottom so if you toss something heavy in it, it'll go "EX-TER-MIN-ATE" or something) and action figures and proper dolls and of course books and DVDs and...I could spend so much money there it's not even funny. (But the posters aren't that expensive, and neither are some of the Daleks, and I need a Ten action figure of some kind, and there's a rather nice Martha doll and clockwork robot doll for £7.50 each and they would be kind of awesome...!) Anyway if I spend at least £10 there I can have Tom Baker sign something. And chances are I'll spend a good deal more than that, so.

The real conundrum is this: that's next Saturday, Oct. 25. Well, Oct. 24-26 is the Christian Union houseparty in Great Yarmouth. I've been to Great Yarmouth and it's a lovely seaside town, and what's more it promises to be quite a fun weekend--probably a bit like Spiritual Emphasis Camp, actually, and it would be a very good chance to make some more Christian friends since CU is good but a bit more like church in the sense that it's a large group. And I really want some Christian friends here, and I also really want some British friends, and in general it would be a good thing.

But I also really want to meet Tom Baker and have him sign something. And I may need that weekend for studying since I have two papers due that week (ulp, need to start those).

( So, what do you think? )

Also, any suggestions on just which Doctor Who merch on which to blow all that money I need for food etc. would be helpful. :p (There is, however, a Four doll that I am so not getting, because if you think Edward Dollen is coming to eat your brains, you ain't seen nothin' yet. I wish I could show you the picture--I took a bunch of pictures with my cell phone for my own reference, but it hasn't got a memory card (rather, I haven't forked over money for a mini-SD) and there doesn't seem to be another way to transfer photos from it to a computer without paying through the nose for internet use or something.)

Item the second: I have another new blog. Because I needed another one on which to sporadically update and eventually abandon, right? Well, this one's different: it's a legit paid blogging site. I hadn't mentioned it yet even though I got a blog there almost two weeks ago because I wanted to make sure they actually paid, and they do: they're just slow because apparently someone actually reviews all the entries. Anyway the point is, this isn't one of those things where you earn a few pennies through Google AdSense based on how many people read your entries; today.com pays you $1.00 per entry per day. You can only have one paid entry per day, but the entries can be as short as 100 words, which takes like...five minutes, tops. Better yet, they have a system by which companies put out calls for brief (300 words, generally) articles for which they'll pay about $5, and so far I've sold two of those. Five bucks for a 300-word article that probably took me 15 minutes to write? Pretty nice. Not exactly publishing since my name's not on it, but still, the money's not bad. So that's something any of you might be able to do to pull in a bit extra.

Anyway, the point is, I'll get pageview money if you read my blog (I've been updating it daily--it pretty much functions as a short-entry companion to my other travel blog, as indicated by the fact that, you know, they have the same name and look almost identical), and I'll get more if you use my referral link to sign up yourself, and then you will get money for almost no writing and it will all be fab.

Item the third: Speaking of deciding what to buy--on my first item, yes I know, whatever--I need help deciding on some shirts. 'Cause I need these shirts and I feel like some retail therapy anyway and I am not exactly made of money, here. And there's...a lot I want. >_< I mean I could just show you my Kaboodle wish list (oh, and then there's also this list, which sadly is not a list of shirts I own but a for-future-reference list of Threadless shirts I need but can't get because they're currently out of print and I dearly hope they will be reprinted) but there's other stuff on there too and not all of those shirts are of the same priority. So all y'all get to help me decide, isn't it exciting? Just gonna list my top several, I guess. Assume Threadless unless I say so because most of them are.

( Another poll, yes )

So...um...yeah. And I should really read for like 15 minutes now because I'm going to a Bible study and have...done exactly no studying today. Or working on the letter to my dad. Oops.

For starters, there's this cold, which I first got...well, I think it was probably Sept. 25 when I first got the sore throat that turned into an all-body ache by the end of that day and all of the Friday after it, and by Saturday I was better but still achy and fun stuff, and I started losing my voice on Sunday. You know, a week ago. Monday and Tuesday, I basically couldn't talk, partly because it made me cough more and partly because I just really could not get my voice loud enough to be heard. Or if I did it would crack and I would start coughing. It was lots of fun. Especially since I'm one of those people that talk a lot in class. >_< Wednesday I finally started getting my voice back, which was fun, but my cough's kind of been getting worse despite using Advair, and at this point my voice is still weird, I'm still coughing, my nose is getting runnier (and I get blood from it if I use Zicam! Weird, right?), and this morning I was thinking, um, I kind of feel achy again. And I might even have a sore throat. And my nose is more plugged. Am I getting sick again before I even got better??

Oh, and also, as of this morning it kind of hurts in my back, around my ribs/shoulder somewhere, when I breathe real deep or cough. So that's, you know, really good.

IBS and back are mostly being their usual selves, which I guess is good, but the left-hand joint in my jaw hurts to much to open all the way, as it's done since Turkey (you might remember me mentioning that, faeriemaiden), since the night-guard my dentist made for me on the day I left for England has done exactly squat to help. Because, I don't know, I don't grind my teeth at night and that's not what's causing the problem? So making a thing that perches on my bottom teeth so I can't properly close my mouth and will drool all night...probably not gonna do it. Oh yeah, and that "open contact" (I still don't know what that is) that said dentist supposedly fixed, also on the day I left, which involved two or three shots in my mouth and a numb lip for hours...is not fixed. That spot hurts again, which means it is again letting food get jammed in and making the gum all inflamed. So way to go there, Mr. Dentist.

And there's my wrist, of course. You know, the left wrist that I broke at the beginning of July. It's actually totally healed, and I haven't been wearing the splint at all for weeks per doctor's orders, and I've regained nearly all my range of motion there which is good, but it still hurts. Muscular I think, since immobilizing anything will make it stiff and sore and whatever. But still, that's kind of annoying.

And the best part? Well, you know how I had that stress fracture in my foot that had me clumping around in a walking cast for months? Yeah, well. Ever since then, on and off, I'll still get a bit of pain where the fracture was if I've been walking a long time, but it was never very bad and it didn't worry me much since it only hurt to walk on it--I couldn't make it hurt by pushing on it with my fingers, which I could when it was actually broken.

Right, well, it's been hurting a bit more from less walking, seems like, mostly while I've been here. And after walking around a lot yesterday, it was bothering me more, and then I started limping, which I hadn't done in a while. Annnd when I checked it later by pushing on the bone...I could make it hurt. Not a lot, not like when it was definitely broken, but...more than in a while. Still hurts on and off today even though I haven't done much walking Which is not of the good, clearly, especially since our insurance is kind of borked and I don't know how to file a claim on the student health insurance I paid four hundred bucks for.

OH, AND ALSO, I'm kind of breaking out like a teenager. Okay, so I never had really bad acne and I still don't, but it's worse than it's been in a while, and it's very annoying, because it hurts and it looks stupid.

Oh, and I went to London yesterday, which is where I did all the walking around. Saw the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. It rained and was insanely windy. I also just found out that apparently it's London Fetish Weekend over there, so...it's just as well I didn't run into that, I guess. (London is quite a big city, after all.) And if you want more of an update than that, just...uh, keep checking my travel blog, which...is going to get updated soon, I swear.

Yeah, I'm behind on some of my shows. Shut up. Once everything gets started, this semester I'll be watching Supernatural, Fringe, Chuck, Pushing Daisies, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and The Office. Also cleolinda's recap made me curious enough about True Blood to try the pilot ep, and...well, the vampire fangs are very lame, as are certain other bits of it, and as it's HBO there's an awful lot more sex and language than on most such shows, but...vampires. And Sookie is cute, and the worldbuilding is interesting, and...I don't know, really. Moonlight's not coming back and Twilight just makes me laugh (and the usually reliable Vivian Vande Velde's Companions of the Night was fairly awful after a very promising beginning; warriorofshadow knows what I mean--and should read Sunshine, stat, because it's a really excellent vampire novel).

( Cut for spoilers on...all the shows mentioned above, I suppose, even though I'm behind )

Speaking of fic, what I'm talking about here is my dw_cross fic, which still has no comments and in fact probably hasn't really been read. *tear* It's insanely long and needs the abovementioned edits as well as a few more, so at some point it'll be reposted elsewhere, but I worked freaking hard on that thing, even if I'm not overly pleased with it.

...annnnd right now I should really be studying, working on my thesis proposal (some months overdue, yes), working on the column due Friday, picking pictures to send for a calendar at UAA due tomorrow, writing an entry on my travel blog, or making myself some kind of food before the Christian Union meeting at 7:30, which...should be interesting considering since Sunday (and more so yesterday and today) I've been at the stage of my cold where I pretty much can't talk. I already skipped a Creative Writing Society meeting I wanted to attend and a meeting of the student paper, largely for that reason.

Oh, and I just wasted a bunch of time last night on last.fm trying to see whose concerts I could actually attend and now have even more possibilities, some more realistic than others, so my poll in the last entry still very much needs your input.

And yes, it's dark, and yes it's late, and...faeriemaiden and I just finished watching OotP. On the roof. And verily it was awesome (and okay, a bit uncomfortable, but still awesome). And I leave Sunday night, which is really sad, because I kind of want to not leave or possibly take Jolene with me, which would be difficult since my suitcase is overflowing already.

Also, time for bed. But just in case anyone's wondering, faeriemaiden is just as awesome in person as online. So, you know. <333!