I want this to be a fandom post because I haven't talked about what I'm watching in a long time.

-I recently read the book Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, mostly because I want to see the movie Brighton Rock.  The film stars Richard Attenborough and it was made in the 1940s so he looks incredibly young.  I read the book first because I sort of hate it when a movie changes what I had in mind for the book.  (I know that sentence probably came out wrong but here's an example: Harry Potter.  Now that I've seen all the HP films, whenever I read the books I can't imagine anyone else but Daniel Radcliffe as Harry or Alan Rickman as Snape.  It's kind of annoying, TBH.  It's even more annoying when I read A Christmas Carol and I picture Kermit as Bob Cratchit or Michael Caine as Scrooge, or even Gonzo is doing the narration.  TL;DR I don't want what I imagine the characters to be like in a book to be influenced by films.)

So, yes, I have Brighton Rock on my to-watch list.  I'll get around to watching it eventually.

-for some odd reason I started watching Gilmore Girls again.  I just finished season 3 and now I'm onto season 4 and I forgot how witty and funny the show is.

-I've also started watching Three's Company again.  I started watching it about a year or more ago and then stopped and just recently started again.  (That seems to be the story of my life when it comes to shows: I start watching, stop for some reason, and then start back up.)

-Spaced.  Also started watching that again.  Last time I watched it I only made it mid-way through season 1 and stopped (it was a re-watch, so I've seen the show before).  What with The World's End coming out on DVD and my having watched it recently on Blu-Ray, I was in need for some more Pegg and Frost, hence Spaced.  I'm hoping to finish seasons 1 and 2 this month (along with a billion other shows).

-I started watching a film earlier this month called A NIght of the Generals.  It takes place during WWII and has to do with an officer investigating a murder.  It stars Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasance, Gordon Jackson, and others (although the main reason why I'm watching it are Courtenay and Jackson.  Gordon Jackson was also in The Great Escape, along with Donald, so yay!  Great Escape actors!  And Tom Courtenay has recently become my favorite British actor, so that's also good).  I'm actually liking Omar in this film--I hated Lawrence of Arabia (for some reason) and I had to watch this other film for a class I took in college that starred Sharif and Caine (and it was a bad film) but Sharif is amazing in A Night of the Generals (as well as O'Toole).

-still watching Agents of Shield.  Still liking it.  Liking Fitz a whole lot.  I need to watch the recent episode though.

-started watching Dead Like Me again.  This time I made it past season 1 and now I'm watching season 2 (although I've stopped momentarily--I'll try to finish the season before the year ends)

-also watched The Hobbit.  It was good--I need to watch it again, though.  There were too many things that were happening that distracted me from the movie (someone's cell phone went off twice.  She apologized to me after the movie, explaining that she had gotten a new Droid and she didn't know how to silence the ringer).  Also: Legolas!  And Kili! :D I loved Kili in the film.  And all the scenes with the Smaug were amazing.  I just really do need to see it again in 3-D, just for the Smaug scenes.

Work is going well.  I've had plenty of night shifts so far--not morning--which I can deal with, because I like night time shifts better (I like sleeping in too much).  It's still a tiny bit surreal to see characters walking around backstage--this one time I was collecting hangars from one of the break rooms where all the Sweetums people relax in and when I came out of the room another Sweetums was standing there and it was quite startling, TBQH.  I just didn't expect to see Sweetums standing there and so I was sort of awed because, OMG Sweetums! and at the same time kind of freaked out because I didn't expect him to be standing there at all.

And yesterday I saw Pluto walking around backstage.

I mean I know there are people under there, under the heads and under the Pluto furs and Tigger furs, but I'm still impressed because the people in the costumes make the characters come to life so...

TL;DR the magic hasn't been lost, even if I am working backstage.  I know how some things are working backstage, like how Buzz is put together, which is quite awesome--it's like knowing a magician's secret to a magic trick, but even when the magician still performs the trick it's still wonderful to see, regardless if I know the trick (and that would be the metaphor as to what it means to me to be working backstage).

My favorite thing to do is to put together characters.  For all the characters that have fur, there are rings that you put in the body pads (that are stuffed into the fur) that makes the characters have the certain shape and appearance they need.  It's not the same for Buzz, though.  For that character, there are all these parts that Velcro on and snap onto each other and I like building Buzz.  I've also built Sully--once--and he sheds worse than my cat.  I've also built Woody--twice--and I've built the chipmunks too many times to count.  I've built Bob (Mr. Incredible) only once.

So, yes, the job is going well. 

I've really been meaning to update during winter break.  But I was lazy then, so I didn't, so I'm updating now, after winter break.

It was a good break.  I had finals a bit earlier so I was finished with school earlier and so I started my break earlier, and all I did during break was just basically nothing.  All I really did was read and watch TV.  I got to hang out with my friend though (more on that later).

My birthday was good.  I got an iPad mini, which, really, is quite amazing.  It's sort of a replacement for the mini laptop I had that had died (well, something happened to it: a graphic glitch or something, which my brother said he wouldn't be able to fix).  Plus it has Kindle and Nook :D so I was able to get all the Nook books I had purchased a couple summers ago and all the free Kindle books?  Is awesome :D

though I totally still love buying books and the feel of books in my hands.  I'm not totally set on digital now.  Although it does help when I don't want to be holding a thousand-page book (Wise Man's Fear book, for example, or...actually, that's the only heavy book I have.  And maybe Harry Potter, but I never tend to read that on the bus and I only read that at home.  But Wise Man's Fear, when I had been reading that one quarter, I took it with me to school and it was just incredibly heavy.  So I can see digital replaced heavy hardback books).

My friend got me a quill pen and ink set, a Harry Potter artifact kit thing (with replica 'props' from the films), and a bunch of books that allows you to design your own knight, castle, helmet, and shield (because she knows how much I love medieval stuff).  (Half of it was birthday gifts and the other half was a Christmas gift.)

Christmas was also nice.  I got a pair of Ugg-type boots that replaced the older ugg boots that I had.  And they're much nicer, as well.  I also got a lovely pendant with a Celtic design on it.

I saw The Hobbit.  I had trouble liking the film, but that's only because I saw it in 48 FPS in 3-D and it seemed as if everyone was moving at superhuman speed.  I got used to the high frame rate and after that I found myself really liking the film.  So much so that I saw it a second time.  It's really different from LotR--it's more light-hearted and fun and Kili is just totally awesome (only because he's played by Aiden Turner, whom I really loved in Being Human).  And Martin Freeman is just perfect as Bilbo.  I just loved him in the film.  It's just the 48 FPS issue--I had trouble getting used to that.

I've read the book before, although that was a long time ago, and I can barely remember anything from it, but I do remember being bored by it.  (As well a LotR.  Although now that I'm older, I'm reading LotR and I'm actually not bored by it, so I think it was purely an age thing, with being bored by the books.)

Then there's New Years.  My original plan was to go to Disneyland with my friend, but she found out she was working that day, so I suggested that we go to my grandma's house and hang out there for the night.  Because my grandma was on a trip and the house was just sitting there being unused. 

It was quite good.  It was just my brother, my friend, and me.  We watched some films and some shows and we counted down to the New Year.  Then the next morning we had breakfast at Denny's :D they're doing (or they were doing, don't know if they're doing it anymore) a Hobbit-themed meal and so we got a Hobbit-related breakfast :D it was cute.  Just the names for some of the food.  For the Ring Burger they had onion rings on top of the burger to symbolize the ring.  And they had some type of food named after Radagast.  And Bilbo's breakfast, or something like that.

As for school, the winter quarter's just started.  One week's already passed and already it feels as if it's week five.  I'm taking four classes this quarter, though all of them require reading of some sort, so it feels like more.  I just need to work on time management so that way I don't feel so stressed out this quarter.  Though most of the classes seem pretty interesting--I'm taking an art history class about Islamic art and architecture, a comparative literature class about witches in literature (we get to read Harry Potter!), medieval philosophy (which, really, I don't like philosophy, but I have to take the class because it fulfills a requirement), and a Russian film class.

And then there's land comms--I'm so happy about wlreunion starting.  I haven't been doing anything land comm-ish recently so to get back into that whole thing feels good. 

I really should try to update at least once a week.  I really don't want to get into the habit of updating once a month.