You know that antique wind-up traveller's clock I bought a while back? I have now resolved to have it ticking (and hopefully, chiming) in time for this. Probably with a Seal of Rassilon replacing the original ruined paper clockface. :D (Or maybe the chameleon-arch design, though that would be harder and less recognizable.)

I don't know if I'll get around to doing anything else, though. busy busy. Also I need to get started planning for Fear Day.


Anyway: I will be at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC on Saturday, all day. I traditionally use it to meet internets people. Anybody local planning to be there?

Con.txt was great fun! I haven't updated about it yet for two reasons:

The first one is that I came home on Sunday night, got back online, and all over my flist I found ( The Loquacious Duchess of Richmond. ) And that was something completely the opposite of con.txt, and the people at con.txt, in every way, and I didn't want to contaminate my squee. (Why did she have to post it *that* weekend? OMG conspiracy!)

The second reason is the complete Highlander on VHS that I brought home from the swap table at the con. (Well, it was missing a few episodes from Season 3, including the first one with what-his-name, the guy with the big nose), but seriously, NOT COMPLAINING. ( You old-school fangirls rock my socks. ) So I spent most of yesterday, when not engaged in schoolwork, watching videotapes and squeeing quietly to myself.

As for something resembling ( an actual con report ): Con Committee, though I have no standard to judge by, you did an amazing and awesome job as first-timers (and for this first-timer). It all went flawlessly as far as I could see, and I had a really, really great time.

Also, I think I had the weirdest hairdo of anybody at the con, which I was really not expecting, because fangirls=weird in my limited experience. But I forgot how many old-style slash fen are used to working undercover, I guess. Well, anybody who remembers the girl who talked too much in panels and had her hair done up in pirate braids with Canadian pennies in them will know it was me.

Okay, so Con.txt is this upcoming weekend already. And I'm going, probably by way of the metro, which means I'll be hauling a huge backpack around all day, with a Gryffindor logo on it, if anyone wants to find me. (How so soon? Ahh!) And on Friday night there's a theme dance, theme: the 70s. And I can't decide between two outfits. Help?

( The dress that's actually a few years too old to be the 1970s, but I really want an excuse to wear it in public while it still fits me like a glove. )

( The dress that *is* from the 1970s. 1976, to be exact. And is very very fun to wear and dance in. )

They're neither of them in terribly good condition and require some seam-reinforcing and ironing if I'm going to wear them for more than just dress-up clothes. Mom has also repeatedly tried to give me a "hand-crocheted vest and miniskirt set, you can't get more 70s than that, you could even wear the clown shirt with it!" Which, just. Um.

[Poll #747069]

In the parking lot at the train station today there was a very dead, flat, dry frog. It was the largest frog I have ever seen in the flesh - nearly a foot long, counting its legs splayed out behind it. I prodded it over onto its stomach with one foot and it was still wet underneath. Wet and *wriggling*. I'd read the description many times in books, but never have I seen before a dead thing that was so full of maggots that it seemed still alive - more than alive, bursting and crawling with it, writhing under the flesh, little white curls of it squirting out and rippling over the concrete below.

It was cool.

Oh, and speaking of death and writhing masses, as a reward for not committing jigai at my stat exam this afternoon, I bought myself a con.txt membership. So, I guess I'm going to con.txt. Happy birthday me!

Actually, now that I can look farther into the future than monday. 1:30. doom. again, I should probably figure out my schedule for the summer. Let's see:

( This is as good as I can do with that 'planning ahead' stuff. )

And there should probably be something about getting a job and stuff in there too, but, ehh, why worry?

Also, I'm now one of the top 50 taggers on LibraryThing!

Lots of fun, but my feet hurt;

Neil Gaiman personally gave a shout-out to my personal blog, and I will not let anybody tell me differently;

George R. R. Martin is grand (but did not solve the on-going argument: is Cirsei pronounced seer-see or Ker-Sigh);

siegeofangels is a lovely, wonderful person, and I hope I see her again when I'm not almost running late for something (We found each other because we were both wearing pigtails!);

And zamochit is also a lovely person, but decided to lurk in her room today, which is also good, but means I did not get to see her.

Much more substantial update is on the way.

So I haven't been on lj at all since ... wow, ten days ago. We spent a week with my mom's family, doing a great variety of stuff, and then twenty-four hours at Mammoth Cave, during which stellar_dust and I together took something like four hundred digital pictures. Then it was four days or so with various members of my dad's family, including one who was slightly less than three and one who was about four months. My brain is still running in patterns of "Vroom vroom! Car crash!" and "Wow, toes are so fascinating!" and probably will be for the next week.

We are not going to a HBP release party at midnight tonight. Strangely, the town of Sevierville, Tennessee, doesn't seem to be having one. However, they are having a morning-after party tomorrow morning, so we're planning to each get a copy there and then try to whine Mom into dropping us off in some quiet scenic spot in Great Smoky Mountains National Park so we can read all day. We will be wandering back home to Maryland over the next day or two or three. It has been interesting trying to plan an extended road-trip around potterparties.com.

Just for the record, here's my (mostly unspoiled) predictions for the new book: the HBP should be either Peter, Draco, or a new character, and if somebody dies it should be either Peter, Neville, or (cross fingers) one of the Dursleys. But I promise not to post any actual spoilers at all 'till at least Wednesday next week, if you're trying to keep clean.

Now, if you will excuse me, the Sci-Fi season premieres are about to come on, and stellar_dust and I plan to spend the next six hours making fun of people's hair. Probably mostly each other's.