Happy new year ...

... that's all I have, really. I hope 2012 is a good one :-)

This is what I spent today doing.

Before:

After:

Far more orderly and the nightmare corner of junk and boxes I had is gone. Well, some of it's just shifted but I think I've done enough for a mallowpuff today. There's books, CDs, DVDs and some magazines on those shelves. Noice.

:D

Reading, cross stitching and movies ...

... and other things, most likely. I really should get back to reviewing books on here; it's become a bit of a weekly mind-dump. But then, I suppose, that's one of the functions of a blog. Hrm.


I guess you're stuck with my ramblings until I can be arsed writing reviews again. Sorry about that. :D

The good news is I have been reading. Little bit slow lately, but I have been reading. I just finished Kraken, and will be doing a co-review of it with Jodie from http://bookgazing.dreamwidth.org/ ... once we can stop dissecting all the things that are wrong with Merlin, that is. So there'll be a review of that. Stay tuned. ;)

So, some, or all of you might know that one of my more intermittent hobbies is cross stitching. I used to - mostly - make gifts for others, but lately I've turned to some old, unfinished WIPs of my own to try and get them finished.

I'm working a kind of half-assed rotation: http://crossstitch.about.com/od/glossa2/g/rotationdefinit.htm and I have these three projects on the go at the moment:

The one on the far left is my focus-piece, meaning I work on that one in between rounds of the others. If that makes sense -lol. At the moment I'm mainly working on them on Saturday nights when  my friend and I have our TV/movie-watching dates, and on Sunday nights which is movie-night for me.

It's relaxing and makes me feel productive - lol.

Anyway, here's a list of the movies I've watched so far on Sunday nights:


A Single Man
The Runaways
Inception
Murder by Death
Centurion
Designing Woman
The Picture of Dorian Grey
Sucker Punch
The Last Station
The Ghost Writer
Romeo + Juliet
The Tempest

It's a nice way to end the weekend - watching a movie and doing a little stitching.

As for reading; right now I'm reading a Van Gogh biography that's the same size as my head, and Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell. Both very good books, but I need something to lighten the load a little bit - lol.

So. How's everyone? What's going on with you? :D

Um

Hi.

I've just sat here for the past 20 minutes not typing anything. Go me?

Um um um.

Oh!! Readathon this weekend!

Are you reading? Are you cheering? Are you saying ... what? http://24hourreadathon.com/ is where you need to be for all your information. I'm cheering this year. I've tried doing both in the past and it always goes south, so I'm just cheering. Plus there's always way more readers than cheerleaders so ... I don't have a good way to end that sentence. /o\

I've hit fifty books read for the year which is some sort of milestone yes?

I watched the 2009 film of Dorian Grey last night. It was ... interesting. Unfortunately, at the crucial moment, the portrait rather reminded me of the caretaker from the Harry Potter films ...

*poke poke* Is this thing on?

Heee. I've already used that pic over on the #spbkchat blog (which is here by the way, let's not pass up the chance for a little bit of self-promotion: http://spbkchat.blogspot.com/)  But meerkats are funny and make me smile and I'm too lazy to find another pic, so here you are. ;p

Now, let's see ... since last time, I've finished three books - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John LeCarre (fantastic but slightly confusing); Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (preferred American Gods but it's still good. I mean. Gaiman) and Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Heard (loved. LOVED.)

I went to What's Your Number, which made me somewhat ragey with the slut-shaming and the prevalent 1950s attitude that's in ALL THE ROMANTIC COMEDIES RIGHT NOW but Martin Freeman was in it for five minutes for no good reason, so there was that.

Anyway.

What's good is this: http://24hourreadathon.com/ Readathon!! In a few short weeks! I've taken the sensible route this time (lol) and I've just signed up to be a cheerleader, not a reader as well. Cheerleading is fun, it helps you lose weight and helps old ladies across the road. Well. It's definitely the first thing, and you should sign up because there are always way more readers than cheerleaders and readathon readers need all the *\o/* they can get! :D http://24hourreadathon.com/2011/09/25/cheerleader-sign-ups-october-11-read-a-thon/

I will - probably - do a food porn vlog still because how could I not? It's readathon!