Awesome Day Is Awesome

The Part That Is Slightly Less Awesome


Work was worklike. Lots and lots of answering machines - I got a huge block of prospects who had no listed home number, so I basically spent an hour listening to voicemail messages in university departments all over the country. Slightly less boring than watching paint dry - although at least watching paint dry you have the satisfaction at the end of having a newly painted wall. I also got a ton of people who refused to even talk to me - just "You're from Stanford, I'm not donating anything, bye *click*" which gets tedious quickly. But whatever. I'm not getting yelled at, so I'm happy.

The Part That Is Completely Awesome

The entire rest of the day! To wit:

• took the bus into town and went to the bookstore, which /always/ tremendously improves my weekend
• read an entire Torchwood novel, Something In The Water. I liked it very much in that it was centered on a mythological monster type thing - water hags, women creatures who live in bogs and draw men in to drown - profoundly creepy, and I do love when Torchwood draws on those sort of themes. It also squicked me a little, though, but that's just because I have this thing where plagues and epidemics of any sort reeeeeally freak me out. And not nearly enough Jack/Ianto love, sadly, although I choose to assume a coda exists where Jack cuddles Ianto and reassures him that aliens aren't about to burst out his throat with his tongue.
• bought new books! I had a bunch of left-over funds from Yaoi-Con in my wallet, so I decided to splurge and spent 50 dollars on books. I'm a little ashamed of myself, but on the other hand...books soooo shiiiiny
• had a loud conversation with hanjuuluver  on the phone while riding on a bus full of presumably normal-ish people about non-con as an element of fiction, Booster Gold related angst, and gay porn.
• rearranged my bookcase - I got kind of sick of having my side of the room covered in untidy piles of books, so I moved all my SLE books and non-interesting/useful textbooks to under my bed. My bookcase is /still/ almost completely full though. I counted - I have about 70 "personal" books with me at school - which includes dictionaries, comics, manga, and actual fiction and non-fiction books - and about 40 SLE books/books from his history seminar/textbooks. 120 books is way too many for one dorm room. DX
• watched the new episode of Merlin! I kind of love that every single week, everyone I know who watches Merlin posts to say that the newest episode is most gay-filled episode yet. And they are always right. Although at times I think that the vibe that Gwen and Merlin have, where she is the fag hag and he is her gay BFF and they check out boys together and do all their shopping together, is even better than the blatant Arthur/Merlin slashiness. At times. And this episode had Lancelot, because presumably the producers were sitting around and telling each other, "you know, this show doesn't have nearly enough nubile young men getting filthy and sweaty and rolling around on the ground together. LET'S FIX THAT."
• Joe Flanagin. In a fedora. JOE FLANAGIN IN A FEDORA. I have heard rumors that in this movie he also wears a vest. GUH. SO HOT.

Books That I Bought Today

• Young Avengers: Family Matters - in which Billy and Teddy accidentally come out to Billy's parents, and then fight a super-Skrull. Also Eli finds out that superpowers don't make the hero (and then gets them anyway yay), and everyone talks to a reporter about why they joined the team. And Tommy! Blowing shit up! So much cuteness, concentrated in such a short comic! Its awesome cannot be contained!
• Hero Heel v2 - second volume of a manga series in which Minami, who plays the lead on a children's super hero show, falls in love with the gay Sawada, who plays the villain in the same show.  The first volume of this ended with Minami blackmailing Sawada into sleeping with him by threatening to out him, so I had my reservations - non-con is Not My Kink, and I have issues with the way it is often played down in yaoi. The protesting uke who eventually gives in and loves it is a huge trope, but it's always made me more than a little uncomfortable. But then the second vol turns out to be all about how blackmailing Sawada completely fucked things up between them and now there are /consequences/ and Sawada hates him and mmmm. Goodness.
• Chalice by Robin McKinley - this was a terribly dificult decision to make, because all three of my favorite woman authors - McKinley, Patricia McKillip, and Diana Wynne Jones - have new books out right now, and all of them sound /fantastic/. But I just read a review of this the other day that made it sound quite facinating (bee-keeper heroine+lots of fire-magic, one of my major kinks for sure), and reminded me why I love McKinley's prose so much to begin with, so Chalice it is.