The Alania Files

OH NOES!1!!one!1!

2008-02-21T04:11:13Z

dad was totally unfair to me the other day and now I'm grounded :-(.

And also yesterday was my birthday and nobody noticed or gave me presents or wished me happy birthday :-(.

What sucks is that I am so going to kick neshomeh out of the house. They wore my favorite furry shirt when dreamflower02 and saphychronicler was visiting. I've never been so embarassed in my life!

This entry automatically generated by the LJ Drama Generator!

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A meme, and other stuff

2008-02-16T05:50:18Z

Well, I haven't posted in several months, but WHOAZ! I've just been tagged by ekwy!

Handwriting Meme:

1. Your name/username.
2. Left-handed or right-handed?
3. Fav letters to write?
4. Least fav letters to write?
5. Write "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
6. Tag 5 people

Apologies if I have inadvertently tagged someone who has already done this meme.

Also, I did a drawing.

ALSO, if there's anyone out there who hasn't encountered Sauron's Blog, please read it. Please. For it is made of win.

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I think I'm crazy

2007-12-04T04:03:38Z

It's December in Michigan and I'm still wearing shorts.

I don't like wearing long pants because I have sensitive skin and I don't like the way they feel (I don't wear long-sleeved shirts either, but that's not as noticeable because I wear a jacket when I'm outside). Plus, I would rather freeze outside for ten minutes than sweat inside for an hour or so. And I would be too hot inside if I didn't wear shorts. And uncomfortable.

So, yes. I am crazy.

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Star Trek Movie

2007-12-01T18:11:57Z

Hmmm, I don't think I've posted in about a month. Y'all have probably forgotten who I am. :P

Anyway, I just read in a newspaper article that the villain of the new Trek movie is going to be a Romulan. (I may have read this before, but it didn't "click" until just now.) Huh?? How does that work? The Federation didn't make first visual contact with the Romulans until "Balance of Terror"! So either the filmmakers are making a major retcon, or they're going to do something really unusual and never have the hero and villain actually see each other. Which would be weird. Very weird.

And yes, I've got baaaaaaaaaad feelings about this movie. *sob* They're going to completely screw up my favorite TV show, I just know it! The one positive thing is that, if it's even marginally good, it might get more people interested in the original show... maybe?

Will they make a separate section on ff.net for the new movie, or will the neofen post their movie-based fic (if the movie is good enough to generate any) in the TOS section? *shudder*

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alaniaflamestar @ 2007-10-29T21:09:00

2007-10-30T02:15:49Z

Halloween time!

Every year my siblings and I make an effort to carve the geekiest pumpkins we possibly can. For instance, this year my brother carved the TARDIS and a Dalek into his. Last year I carved "Happy Halloween" in tengwar; this year, being in Sherlock Holmes-obsession mode, I carved it in the dancing men code. Unfortunately my sister's cruddy camera was unable to take a decent picture of it. = (

As another Halloween-related note, someday I simply must buy myself a ridiculously long striped scarf, so that I can be the Fourth Doctor for a day. Maybe I'll get myself a toy sonic screwdriver too. That would be fun. :P

=^.^=

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alaniaflamestar @ 2007-10-25T23:44:00

2007-10-26T04:16:01Z

The Ultimate LiveJournal Obsession Test
Category	Your Score	Average LJer
Community Attachment	3.23% You have one or two loyal pals on LJ... But you probably have better things to do with your time.	22.7%
MemeSheepage	29.82% Easily amused	27.82%
Original Content	24.19% Monthly bitch sessions and occasional movie reviews	37.95%
Psychodrama Quotient	8.43% Had a comment taken out of context once or twice	16.71%
Attention Whoring	13.64% Slothfully Seeking Susan	20.68%
Take The Ultimate LiveJournal Obsession Test and see how you match up! (By The Ferrett)

=^.^=

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The things one learns in Engineering class...

2007-10-17T23:51:36Z

MilliHelen: a unit of beauty equal to the amount of beauty required to launch a single ship.

=^.^=

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Random, pointless quizage

2007-10-14T01:13:18Z

You want to be doing something tangible that matters, and you want to do it with the stuff you have. You're concerned about saving everything, from time to knowledge to stuff, and don't like throwing any of it away.

Our Potentially Ridiculous Hobby Suggestion For You:
Eraser carving
Got erasers? Then carve them into stupid shapes and then bounce them off tables and walls. There is no point to this hobby.

Your scores:

23.85

23.78

20.3

10.99

Raw evil score: 40%

=^.^=

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Words of wisdom from my Chinese teacher

2007-10-10T13:18:54Z

I just found this written on the course website:

Today's quiz focuses on Lesson 4, dialogue 1 and the grammars we learned on Monday.

Is that a very silly mistake, or is it actually a legal use of the word "grammars"?

=^.^=

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School Stuff

2007-10-10T03:24:27Z

Why the heck is first-year Chinese my hardest class?! Seriously, I'm in Calculus II (tested out of Calculus I), Chem Lab (just lab, no Chemistry 'cause I tested out of that too) and Engineering 100... and freaking Chinese, first year, non-advanced or accelerated Chinese, is my most challenging class.

Actually, I think it's because of the sheer amount of memorization involved--not just all the words, but all the characters too. In a way, it's sort of like learning two languages at once. I'm just better at the kind of logical understanding involved in math and science than I am at memorizing large volumes of information.

It is pretty cool, though. I'm interested in languages and linguistics, and I wanted to learn some of a language very different from English. Actually, I'm thinking of making it my goal to take courses in as many different languages as possible during my time at college. I don't really care about becoming fluent in one particular language; I just want to sample different languages and learn something about how they work. I took Spanish and Latin in high school (and studied Quenya for fun). Instead of taking another semester of Chinese after this, I could do some Greek, then Hebrew, then Korean, etc. It could be fun!

Gotta go, I need to study some more for Chinese...

=^.^=

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House Meme

2007-10-04T23:56:09Z

Ganked from a few different people...

Your home is a

Time-Lord's Hideout

Your kitchen consists of dilithium-powered food replicators, manned by obedient robot slaves, who are sure to never, ever rebel. I mean, it's preposterous to even consider it. There's a Chocolatessen, which is rapidly becoming your favorite room of the house. Having one is also becoming a trend among your wealthy neighbors. Your master bedroom is the size of a small barn, with carpet thick enough to reach your ankles. Your study has every science fiction title ever written. One of your garages contains a life-sized X-Wing fighter, and KITT. (KITT was a gift from a well-meaning uncle.)

Your home also includes a robot repair bay, where your mechanized servants are routinely fitted with new restraining bolts. (It's just a precaution.) Your guests enjoy your animatronic replica of the cantina at Mos Eisley. Outside is your radio telescope, listening constantly for alien transmissions. Especially invaders. They'll come eventually, even if nobody believes you. (Nobody does.)

And, you have a pet -- a taun-taun named "Padme".

Below is a snippet of the blueprints:

Build YOUR Dream Home!

I would kill to have this house. I'd make sure to restock the escape pod supply, however. You never know when these things will be needed... </paranoia>

Edit:

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of today). As usual, bold what you have read, italicize those you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. Add an asterisk to those you've read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion*
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's Travels
Les Misérables*
The Corrections
The Amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes : A Memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit*
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

=^.^=

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Meme!

2007-09-22T00:00:55Z

Ganked from bubonicwoodchuk. In which I give pithy responses to a lot of pointless questions. (I really like the word pithy. I think it's my new favorite word. Pithy pithy pithy. Okay, I'll shut up now.)

1. Story behind your LJ Layout?
One day Alania decided to get a LiveJournal. She looked through the layout options and picked the one she thought was prettiest. The end.

2. What's bothering you right now?
I'm kind of chilly. *turns fan off* There. That's better.

3. Do you close the door when you pee?
Err... yeah. I remember when my brother was little he never closed the door. I hated that.

DESCRIBE YOUR:
4. Wallet?
It's black. There's money in it.

5. Wallpaper on your computer's desktop?
I have a whole folder of wallpapers and the computer is set to randomly change every hour. Right now it's a picture of Éowyn.

6. Background on your cell phone?
Haven't got a cell phone. I'm going to have one soon though.

7. Jewelery worn daily?
None. I used to wear a necklace sometimes, but I broke it. =( Jewelery and I don't mix.

8. Where your default icon was taken?
From Google, but it was inspired by one of the default user icons on my Mac. (I mean the fortune cookie picture was taken from Google. Obviously I added my name to it myself.)

9. Eyes:
Greyish blue. Not pretty blue, like my sister's, but kind of a drab, boring blue.

WHAT ARE YOU:
12. Doing this weekend?:
Homework. Hopefully I'll get some fanficcing and vidding done too.

13. Wearing:
Clothes.

14. Wanting?
A bigger hard drive. Invisibility spray. Wings and a tail.

15. Where are you?
Here.

16. Listening to?
My roommate and her friend. The cars outside.

17. Have you ever kissed anyone named John?
No...

18. What do you smell like?
Dunno. Hopefully nothing gross.

19. Eating?
Nothing, but I just had some M&Ms.

20. Besides your bed, what is your favo[u]rite thing?
Books.

21. Do you believe in a soul mate?
Depends on your definition of "soul mate". Actually, come to think of it, no. Not for most definitions of "soul mate", anyway.

22. Do you sleep naked?
Nope. But if I lived all by myself I might.

24. Do you believe dreams come true?
They can, sometimes.

25. Do you believe in miracles?
There can be miiiracles... when you belieeeeeve... okay, sorry. Um, yeah.

26. Do you burn easily in the sun?
When I don't wear sun block, yeah.

27. Do you speak another language other than English?
Some Spanish. A bit of Quenya. And I've begun learning Chinese.

28. What's something you wish you could understand better?
Life.

29. What did you do last weekend?
Nothing memorable.

30. Who do you miss?
My sister.

31. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant?
Bwahahahahah!! No.

32. Orange or apple juice?
Ew, neither. I'll take kiwi juice, though.

34. What was the last instant message you received?
I don't recall. It would have been from Pearly, though, since she's kind of the only one who ever IMs me.

35. Last text message you sent:
See above, but replace "from" with "to".

36. Last time you ate a home grown tomato?
I can't tell a home grown tomato from a store bought one.

37. What is the closest thing to you that is blue?
The blanket I'm wrapped in.

40. Whose house did you go to last night?
Nobody's...

41. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?
Err. I don't know. I don't think I've been in a hospital since my grandma had that brain surgery... and that was years and years ago.

42. Do you like someone right now?
Sure! I like my family, and my LJ friends, and a lot of dead authors and fictional characters. But I don't like like anybody, if that's what you mean.

43. What do you wear more?
More than what?

44. What is the last movie you watched?
Like, in the theater? *thinks* Err... I don't remember. I don't go to movies a lot.

45. Have you ever heard of the band Our Lady Peace?
No.

46. Where did you get the shirt you're wearing?
Well, it says Camp CAEN on it, so I imagine I got it at Camp CAEN.

47. Coach Purse or MLB game tickets?
...I have no idea what either of these things are.

48. Do you believe that you can change someone?
No. I don't believe it's possible for one person to force another person to change; as those cheesy inspirational posters say, "The only part of the world you can be certain of changing is yourself"... or something like that.

49. Do you want someone you can't have?
I don't want anyone, actually.

50. Fight or Flight?
Flight. I'm a coward, so sue me.

=^.^=

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School

2007-09-18T14:19:04Z

Well, so far it appears that one of the biggest differences between college and high school is all the group work we have to do now. I don't think I've met with classmates outside of class in order to work on a group project since I was in about third grade. Now I'm on a team in three different classes. I will really have to practice my teamwork skills, which currently kind of suck. I like working by myself better, but I guess that doesn't happen in the real world. I'll just have to get used to it.

=^.^=

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alaniaflamestar @ 2007-09-05T20:08:00

2007-09-06T00:43:00Z

First two days of university classes are over. Wow... I still can't believe I'm actually at college. It's weird.

But it's not bad. My roommate is fine; she's nice enough, and most importantly of all--she doesn't snore. Seriously, I think that the one thing I really wouldn't be able to stand in a roommate is snoring, or making any other sounds at night when I'm trying to sleep. I've had too much experience trying to sleep in the same room as my sister, who makes all kinds of noises when she's asleep.

And thank you, techno_dann, for your words of reassurance. You were right; it doesn't look as though I'm going to be totally dazed and confused and lost in all of my classes. =D

It is slightly intimidating that I'm one of only three girls in my Engineering 100 class, but I think I'll survive.

* * * * * * *

Other news: I've just re-fallen in love with The Princess Bride. Yeah, I think in the My Favorite Movies sweepstakes it ties for first with Back to the Future.

Never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line!

And the book! *is in love with book!Fezzik and book!Inigo*

=^.^=

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alaniaflamestar @ 2007-08-29T14:15:00

2007-08-29T18:29:53Z

I just moved into my dorm at the university. Classes start on Tuesday. I'm staying in the snooty, old-fashioned all-female dorm, the one where they have fancy dinners twice a week and tea parties every Friday. *shudders* Well, none of that stuff is mandatory and I wanted to be with all girls. I'll just have to deal with the fact that this is the dorm everyone else makes fun of, which will easy because I'll be making fun of it too.

*is freaking out* I'm in COLLEGE! Ack! At least I'm still in my hometown (my dad teaches here) and I can go home for the weekends. Being around other people ALL THE TIME, though... even sharing a room with someone else... I don't know how hard that will be. I'm intensely antisocial.

I'm even more freaked out about the classes though. What if everything's too hard for me? It's exactly like two years ago in high school. I signed up for a computer programming class because I thought it sounded cool, but as the start of school drew nearer I began panicking. I was so sure that I would be the only girl in the class, that it would be filled with genius hackers who would make me seem like a moron in comparison, that I would be way behind everyone else. As it turned out, yeah, there were only a couple of other girls, but the teacher was a woman. I wasn't way behind everyone else; I was ahead of most of the class, actually. And I really, really liked it.

I'm just hoping that it's going to turn out the same way this year.

=^.^=

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alaniaflamestar @ 2007-08-20T19:12:00

2007-08-20T23:17:11Z

Meme-age ganked from ekwy.

o1. Pick your birth month.
o2. Strike out anything that doesn't apply to you.
o3. Bold the five-ten that best apply to you.
o4. Copy to your own journal, with all twelve months under a lj-cut.

MARCH: ~~Attractive personality~~. ~~Sexy~~. Affectionate. Shy and reserved. Secretive. Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic. Loves peace and serenity. ~~Sensitive to others~~. ~~Loves to serve others~~. Easily angered. Trustworthy. Appreciative and returns kindness. Observant and assesses others. Revengeful. Loves to dream and fantasize. Loves traveling. Loves attention. ~~Hasty decisions in choosing partners~~. ~~Loves home decors~~. Musically talented. Loves special things. Moody.

JANUARY: Stubborn and hard-hearted. Ambitious andserious. Loves to teach and be taught. Always looking at people's flawsand weaknesses. Likes to criticize. Hardworking and productive. Smart,neat and organized. Sensitive and has deep thoughts. Knows how to makeothers happy. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Rather reserved. Highlyattentive. Resistant to illnesses but prone to colds. Romantic but hasdifficulties expressing love. Loves children. Loyal. Has great socialabilities yet easily jealous. Very stubborn and money cautious.

FEBRUARY:Abstract thoughts. Loves reality and abstract. Intelligent and clever.Changing personality. Attractive. Sexy. Temperamental. Quiet, shy andhumble. Honest and loyal. Determined to reach goals. Loves freedom.Rebellious when restricted. Loves aggressiveness. Too sensitive andeasily hurt. Gets angry really easily but does not show it. Dislikesunnecessary things. Loves making friends but rarely shows it. Daringand stubborn. Ambitious. Realizes dreams and hopes. Sharp. Lovesentertainment and leisure. Romantic on the inside not outside.Superstitious and ludicrous. Spendthrift. Tries to learn to showemotions.

MARCH: Attractive personality. Sexy. Affectionate. Shyand reserved. Secretive. Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic.Loves peace and serenity. Sensitive to others. Loves to serve others.Easily angered. Trustworthy. Appreciative and returns kindness.Observant and assesses others. Revengeful. Loves to dream andfantasize. Loves traveling. Loves attention. Hasty decisions inchoosing partners. Loves home decors. Musically talented. Loves specialthings. Moody.

APRIL: Active and dynamic. Decisive and hasty buttends to regret. Attractive and affectionate to oneself. Strongmentality. Loves attention. Diplomatic. Consoling, friendly and solvespeople's problems. Brave and fearless. Adventurous. Loving and caring.Suave and generous. Emotional. Aggressive. Hasty. Good memory. Moving.Motivates oneself and others. Sickness usually of the head and chest.Sexy in a way that only their lover can see.

MAY: Stubborn andhard-hearted. Strong-willed and highly motivated. Sharp thoughts.Easily angered. Attracts others and loves attention. Deep feelings.Beautiful physically and mentally. Firm Standpoint. Needs nomotivation. Easily consoled. Systematic (left brain). Loves to dream.Strong clairvoyance. Understanding. Sickness usually in the ear andneck. Good imagination. Good physical. Weak breathing. Loves literatureand the arts. Loves traveling. Dislike being at home. Restless. Nothaving many children. Hardworking. High spirited. Spendthrift.

JUNE:Thinks far with vision. Easily influenced by kindness. Polite andsoft-spoken. Having ideas. Sensitive. Active mind. Hesitating, tends todelay. Choosy and always wants the best. Temperamental. Funny andhumorous. Loves to joke. Good debating skills. Talkative. Daydreamer.Friendly. Knows how to make friends. Able to show character. Easilyhurt. Prone to getting colds. Loves to dress up. Easily bored. Fussy.Seldom shows emotions. Takes time to recover when hurt. Brandconscious. Executive. Stubborn.

JULY: Fun to be with. Secretive.Difficult to fathom and to be understood. Quiet unless excited ortensed. Takes pride in oneself. Has reputation. Easily consoled.Honest. Concerned about people's feelings. Tactful. Friendly.Approachable. Emotional temperamental and unpredictable. Moody andeasily hurt. Witty and sparkly. Not revengeful. Forgiving but neverforgets. Dislikes nonsensical and unnecessary things. Guides othersphysically and mentally. Sensitive and forms impressions carefully.Caring and loving. Treats others equally. Strong sense of sympathy.Wary and sharp. Judges people through observations. Hardworking. Nodifficulties in studying. Loves to be alone. Always broods about thepast and the old friends. Likes to be quiet. Homely person. Waits forfriends. Never looks for friends. Not aggressive unless provoked. Proneto having stomach and dieting problems. Loves to be loved. Easily hurtbut takes long to recover.

AUGUST: Loves to joke. Attractive.Suave and caring. Brave and fearless. Firm and has leadershipqualities. Knows how to console others. Too generous and egoistic.Takes high pride in oneself. Thirsty for praises. Extraordinary spirit.Easily angered. Angry when provoked. Easily jealous. Observant. Carefuland cautious. Thinks quickly. Independent thoughts. Loves to lead andto be led. Loves to dream. Talented in the arts, music and defense.Sensitive but not petty. Poor resistance against illnesses. Learns torelax. Hasty and trusty. Romantic. Loving and caring. Loves to makefriends.

SEPTEMBER: Suave and compromising. Careful, cautiousand organized. Likes to point out people's mistakes. Likes tocriticize. Stubborn. Quiet but able to talk well. Calm and cool. Kindand sympathetic. Concerned and detailed. Loyal but not always honest.Does work well. Very confident. Sensitive. Good memory. Clever andknowledgeable. Loves to look for information. Must control oneself whencriticizing. Able to motivate oneself. Understanding. Fun to be around.Secretive. Loves leisure and traveling. Hardly shows emotions. Tends tobottle up feelings. Very choosy, especially in relationships.Systematic.

OCTOBER: Loves to chat. Loves those who loves them.Loves to take things at the center. Inner and physical beauty. Lies butdoesn't pretend. Gets angry often. Treats friends importantly. Alwaysmaking friends. Easily hurt but recovers easily. Daydreamer.Opinionated. Does not care of what others think. Emotional. Decisive.Strong clairvoyance. Loves to travel, the arts and literature. Touchyand easily jealous. Concerned. Loves outdoors. Just and fair.Spendthrift. Easily influenced. Easily loses confidence. Loves children.

NOVEMBER:Has a lot of ideas. Difficult to fathom. Thinks forward. Unique andbrilliant. Extraordinary ideas. Sharp thinking. Fine and strongclairvoyance. Can become good doctors. Dynamic in personality.Secretive. Inquisitive. Knows how to dig secrets. Always thinking. Lesstalkative but amiable. Brave and generous. Patient. Stubborn andhard-hearted. If there is a will, there is a way. Determined. Nevergive up. Hardly becomes angry unless provoked. Loves to be alone.Thinks differently from others. Sharp-minded. Motivates oneself. Doesnot appreciate praises. High-spirited. Well-built and tough. Deep loveand emotions. Romantic. Uncertain in relationships. Homely.Hardworking. High abilities. Trustworthy. Honest and keeps secrets. Notable to control emotions. Unpredictable.

DECEMBER: Loyal andgenerous. Sexy. Patriotic. Active in games and interactions. Impatientand hasty. Ambitious. Influential in organizations. Fun to be with.Loves to socialize. Loves praises. Loves attention. Loves to be loved.Honest and trustworthy. Not pretending. Short tempered. Changingpersonality. Not egoistic. Take high pride in oneself. Hatesrestrictions. Loves to joke. Good sense of humor. Logical.

=^.^=

alaniaflamestar @ 2007-08-14T14:04:00

2007-08-14T18:11:29Z

Just got back home from Hawaii yesterday on a couple of crazy overnight flights... and, after having been awake for, I think, about 30 hours, slept for 14 straight hours. O.o I have never slept that long in my life. Ever. Of course, the sleeping pill my mom gave me last night might have had something to do with it. Plus the fact that I'm feeling kind of sickish.

I hate hate hate long overnight flights, because I can never get any sleep, and when I'm tired I tend to get airsick. The worst time was on the flights to and from China a couple of years ago--twelve straight hours on a plane each way, and I threw up both times. Even the misery I experienced yesterday cannot compare to that.

=^.^=

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More Hawai'ian Adventures

2007-08-12T06:27:24Z

This morning we rode a bus halfway up the mountain and biked all the way back down. It was fun and easy--no pedaling, just lots of braking. We started out above the clouds, and passed through them on our way down. 'Twas most incredible. Then we snorkeled some more, and saw gigantic turtles! Yay!

We're going home tomorrow, though. =(

<td>Pholph's Scrabble Generator

My Scrabble© Score is: 6.
What is your score? Get it here.</td>

=^.^=

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alaniaflamestar @ 2007-08-09T21:47:00

2007-08-10T07:49:30Z

Old? Moi? Hmph!

=^.^=

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Alania Is in Hawaii

2007-08-10T07:13:01Z

And it is awesome indeed! Went snorkeling and snuba-ing yesterday. The fishes! And the coral! And the water, which really wasn't cold at all! My grandpa came too. He is amazing--eighty years old, and he still skis and snubas.

Also this morning we hiked up these crazy big hills with all these funky holey volcanic rocks on them. At night we went to a luau and saw hula dancers and stuff. It was sweet.

The condo we're staying in is really nice, and right next to the ocean. It doesn't have any internets, but sometimes I'm able to connect to our neighbors' wireless. That's good, because I think otherwise I'd go into internet withdrawal.

=^.^=

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alaniaflamestar @ 2007-08-06T16:40:00

2007-08-06T21:52:06Z

I haven't been able to be online very much because I'm on a family vacation. Right now we're in Minnesota visiting my dad's family; tomorrow we fly to Hawaii (w00t!) to see my mom's family. The last time I was in Hawaii I was a year old.

Anyway, my sister and I were discussing DH some more, specifically the epilogue. We didn't like it.

I wish the epilogue had told us more about the characters we already know, rather than their kids. I mean, aside from the fact that he had some, I really don't care about Harry's kids. Or Ron's. Pearly suggested that the epilogue should have taken place at a wedding--either Harry's and Ginny's or Hermione's and Ron's. And everyone would be there: Harry's former classmates, the Hogwarts teachers, members of the Order, everyone. Or, if she just had to have Harry's and Ron's kids appear, it didn't have to be a wedding. It could have been a Christmas party or something. Just some kind of big celebration that most of the major characters would have been invited to. Even if each character was mentioned only briefly, I think that this kind of reunion would have been a better ending than the one with just the few main characters and their kids.

Also, I think that Draco's appearance in the epilogue was pretty pointless, since Harry didn't even speak to him or anything. I'm not sure why Rowling mentioned him at all, unless she was just dying to tell us that he named his son Scorpius.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, I had a very freakish dream a couple of nights ago. I dreamt that I had a baby. What's more, I was the worst mother in the history of the universe. First I dropped the baby on its head. Then I set it down somewhere and walked off!

I've discovered that I apparently do have mothering instincts after all, but they're only activated by kittens. This is fortunate, since kittens are normally okay with being dropped (more okay than human babies, anyway). I'm definitely never going to have any kids of my own, since I'm sure I would be just as bad a mother in real life as I was in that dream (plus I can't stand being around young children at all), but I've decided that I will have a house full of cats. One of them will be named Spock.

=^.^=

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Finished Deathly Hallows at last!

2007-08-02T05:19:08Z

My family read several chapters a night together, like we did with books 5 and 6, which was a lot of fun. My mom, my sister and I took turns reading aloud. I like doing it this way, despite taking longer to finish it, because it's a lot of fun to make snarky comments and discuss theories together as we go along. This is why I love having a big, geeky family. :D Even my dad started getting into it, despite having missed Book Six.

On the whole, I liked it, even if there were parts that annoyed me for various reasons.

Things I liked:

--Dudley at the beginning! Awww, he likes Harry after all!

--Harry visiting his parents' grave. *sniff, sniff*

--Luna! I am now truly and deeply (and platonically!) in love with Luna!

--The Gringotts vault, with the burning and multiplying treasure--horrible in a really cool way (or is that cool in a really horrible way? Well, pretty awesome idea, anyway.)

--The MIRROR! The true answer to the puzzle of the eye in the mirror took me totally by surprise!

--The Battle of Hogwarts--I mean, I'd known for a long time that there just had to be some kind of battle at Hogwarts, since the idea is too freakishly cool not to use--but after Six came out I thought that the little skirmish with the Death Eaters at the end might have been all we were going to get. Which would have been really LAME. So, I'm glad we finally got a proper Battle of Hogwarts! *squee*

--The Return of Percy! Yayz! *hugs Percy*

Things that bugged me:

--In the very first chapter, Voldemort has a mysterious captive who turns out to be the Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts, Charity Burbage. He kills her. Okay, but... so what? I mean, we've never even heard of this woman before; why should we care that she's dead? Especially since there's no reason why we couldn't have heard of her before--she's been teaching at Hogwarts all the time Harry's been there, for cryin' out loud! Would it have been that hard for Rowling to have slipped a little mention of her into one of the previous books, so we would at least already be familiar with her name, instead of learning it two seconds before Voldemort kills her?

--Major plothole: how the heck can Harry's invisibility cloak be the supposedly invincible Deathly Hallow when Mad-Eye Moody can see right through it?

--Ron and Hermione. I really had thought that all of that stupid arguing and acting like jerks was gotten over in Book Six. But no, first Ron is a selfish jerk and leaves, and then when he finally comes back Hermione turns into a git. I found myself thinking that Harry ought to have dumped the two of them and formed his trio with Neville and Luna instead. They're much more agreeable.

--Snape. Ugh. I mean, I did more or less expect there to have been something going on between him and Lily, but I just can't believe that his obsessive love for her was the entire motivation of every major action he takes throughout the course of the series. That's just so boring! And lame. And stuff. Surely he had other reasons for joining Dumbledore than just in order to protect the son of a childhood friend who dumped him while they were in school and went off to marry his archenemy?

--Also, the so-called "importance of Harry's having his mother's eyes"?? Lame!

--The manner in which Snape died was an interesting twist, but a bit disappointing. I really expected him to go down a bit more heroically than that, or at least accomplish some major blow against Voldemort before dying. Yeah, sure, he swapped Godric's sword with a fake. Big whoop. I was hoping for something just a bit more... dramatic.

--Mrs. Weasley taking down Bellatrix? What the heck?! Since when is she an expert duelist? Really. This is a pretty minor complaint, but I still think it might have been better if Neville had gotten rid of Bella and Snape had taken out Nagini. Oh well... I did like Neville pulling the sword out of that hat...

--Speaking of which, how the heck did the sword get back in the hat, anyway? The last time we saw it, wasn't it back in the possession of the goblins? Am I missing something here?

--Meh to all the endless pages of the Trio wandering aimlessly in the wilderness. I got the distinct impression that JKR was merely including all of that because of course their adventure must take up exactly one year like every other book, even though there really wasn't enough action to fill up an entire year, and unlike in the other six books, there weren't any entertaining Hogwarts goings-on to hold our attention. Just Harry, Ron and Hermione, all alone. By the time they finally got back to the school, I was missing Hogwarts so badly--the other students, the teachers, the ghosts, even the castle itself. At least we got a big awesome battle to make up for all that stuff not being in the rest of the book.

--How come in Books Four, Five and Six the Unforgivable Curses are made out to be the epitome of Evil, and now in Seven the Good Guys are using them left, right and center, apparently without compunction? I mean, I can understand using the Imperius Curse I guess, but Cruciatus? And if Harry didn't have enough hatred in him to use Crucio on Bellatrix right after she'd murdered Sirius, how is it that he now finds it easy to use one on Amycus Carrow, whom he has no particular reason to hate any more than any other Death Eater? And why doesn't anyone point out how Not Good it was for him to do that, when Stunning Amycus would have been both more efficient and more morally acceptable?

Predictions & Misc. stuff:

--I correctly predicted Good!Snape and Horcrux!Harry. Kudos to Red Hen for predicting that Voldemort's soul was inside of Harry before Book Five even came out.

--Deaths: Of my top four suspects for deaths (Voldemort, Snape, Bellatrix, Wormtail) three were correct. It was not made clear whether Bellatrix was killed or not. Moody was also on my list of possible deaths, but I didn't foresee any of the others. I certainly didn't expect her to kill so many characters! I couldn't believe she would kill a Weasley twin, or Tonks... anyway, toward the end it began to look like she was drawing names out of a hat to determine who would live and who would die. It seemed awfully random, but whatever. That's just a minor gripe.

--I was wrong about Draco being useful. His mom was, though. (Well, he was sort of accidentally useful if you count Harry winning the Wand of Dooooooom from him, but that wasn't exactly what I had in mind...)

--I was totally wrong about Hogwarts being closed.

--I was right about Ginny not being around much, and the story focusing on Harry, Ron and Hermione. (Though the way R & Hr were acting much of the time, I would almost have preferred Ginny!)

--I was soooooo wrong about the Hallows being a place rather than a collection of objects.

--As soon as Luna mentioned the Diadem of Ravenclaw, I immediately thought of the tiara Harry saw in the Room of Hidden Things in HBP. Hehehe, go me. :D

--As we were going through the book, Mom kept on verbalizing her theory that Harry would be like Aslan, that he would die but be resurrected because he died in order to save everybody else. I was skeptical; I thought that Harry would probably journey partway into Death, but that he would not actually die. As it turned out, we were both partially right, although I'm still not entirely clear on exactly why Harry didn't die. Dumbledore started going on about Lily's protection and that this somehow related to the fact that Voldy used Harry's blood to create his new body. Then he said something about how Harry's voluntarily dying made "all the difference." Is there anybody who managed to figure out what the heck happened who could enlighten me?

Anyway, I'm glad to have finished the book at last because I've been itching to go searching for fanfiction and fanart, but couldn't until we were done for fear of spoilers. Buahahah! Now I can search for fan-stuff devoted to very favorite character of all, Minerva McGonagall. (Yes, I know she's a minor secondary character who hardly even appears in Book 7. Shut up! I can obsess over her if I want to!)

=^.^=

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Muppets

2007-07-19T11:21:00Z

I've never watched The Muppet Show (I just saw a couple of Muppet movies...) but my brother dug this up on YouTube and I found it strangely amusing:

Statler & Waldorf--the guys who make snarky comments after the show is over.

=^.^=

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007-07-18T13:24:15Z

Whoa--three days!

1. I am 99.9% certain that Harry is a Horcrux. swythyv had the idea that maybe you actually split off a piece of your soul by killing someone while you're possessing that person. I think it's a very clever idea, but I doubt Rowling intends to go there. From what Slughorn said it seems more likely that any old murder will split your soul, but you probably have to have some other spell set up beforehand in order to create an actual Horcrux. When Lily got in the way she fouled the spell up badly, making Voldemort the victim instead of Harry and sending the soul fragment into Harry rather than into the intended object.

2. I am about 95% convinced that Snape is, and has been all along, one of the Good Guys. For him to be evil is obvious, and that's not in Rowling's style at all: throughout the entire series, the person Harry has most suspected of working with Voldemort has nearly always turned out to be innocent. Besides, JKR seems to be very fond of Dumbledore, and I highly doubt that she would want him to come off looking like an idiot. I'm sure that he had a very good reason for trusting Snape of which we have not yet been informed. Dumbledore makes mistakes, sure, but I don't think JKR would have him die as a result of his own incompetence. She likes him too much not to give him a Noble Death™.

3. When Red Hen started going on about the last three books in the series repeating elements of the first three, I was skeptical. I thought that any supposed parallels between books one and five were surely a coincidence.

Then HBP came out and I started to become a little more open-minded toward the idea. There were an awful lot of elements in CoS that were reused in HBP. I still wasn't ready to put a lot of faith in this interpretation at first, but now it really does begin to look like DH is shaping up to look like a reflection of PoA. Red Hen is right: JKR has used Book Six to shove Snape into exactly same position that Sirius Black was in at the beginning of PoA. Let's take another look at Book 3, shall we?

a) Sirius Black is "known" to be a murderer--after all, there were loads of witnesses who saw him kill Pettigrew and those Muggles, right?

b) Harry has a personal hatred for Sirius and wants revenge on him.

c) Sirius turns out to have been the best friend of Harry's father when they were at Hogwarts.

d) Harry finds out a lot about his father and his father's friends in this book. His physical resemblance to James is important to the plot.

Since I believe that Snape is now assuming Sirius' role, I would not be at all surprised to discover that Snape was actually a close friend of Lily's at Hogwarts. PoA is "James' book"--so could DH possibly be "Lily's book," with Lily having the same importance that James did in Book 3? Rowling has already told us that Harry's having his mother's eyes is going to turn out to be "important." This could parallel the way that Harry's physical resemblance to James was important in PoA.

Another element in PoA that I think has a chance of being reused is the time travel plot. JKR was once asked in an interview whether Harry would ever time travel again. She refused to answer. This is hardly proof of anything, but I really think it's very likely that there will be more time travel in Book Seven.

4. Deaths:

--Voldemort. Some people have come up with complicated theories about how "Voldemort" will die but "Tom Riddle" will survive. I don't see why JKR would do this; Tom Riddle is no less evil than Voldemort, so what good would it do to leave him alive? I don't think Harry is necessarily going to directly kill him, though--the prophecy only says "vanquish."

--Bellatrix: After all she's done, there's no way Rowling is allowing her to live. She has no redeeming qualities; she's not even particularly interesting. Everything Rowling has done throughout the books has been geared toward making the reader hate her. I do not, however, think that she will be killed by Neville, at least not directly. Neville may defeat her, but she will probably end up dead through her own foolishness. Maybe she'll even kill herself once she realizes that Voldemort is dead, or get herself killed trying to escape capture.

--Snape: He'll probably end up sacrificing himself nobly in order to bring Voldemort down. I don't think he'll survive because I just don't know what he would do after the war--he seems to be a pretty angry, angsty person, and in a story like this such characters (when they're Good Guys) are likely to either become happy by the end of the story or die. I honestly can't think of anything that could possibly cause Snape to transform into a happy, fluffy bunny. So I think he'll die. But not before Harry discovers the Truth--possibly by means of Veritaserum, but more likely through the use of the Pensieve to view either some of Snape's memories or (more probably) some that Dumbledore left behind. Or he might just talk to Dumbledore's portrait, but I personally think that would be a lot less dramatic/interesting than the Pensieve option.

--Wormtail: Of all of the characters, he's the most likely to "do a Gollum." He still owes that life-debt to Harry, but that doesn't necessarily mean he will repay it intentionally or even willingly. I have a vague feeling that this might somehow be connected to the fact that Voldemort's new body was made using Wormtail's flesh. Was the life-debt somehow transferred to Voldy? I doubt it, but it's a possibility anyway...

--I do think at least one Weasley will die. Most likely Charlie or Percy. I would say Arthur too, but he already had a near-death experience in OotP. It would be redundant for him to be a victim again.

--More Order members: Most likely candidates include Moody and Hagrid.

--I honestly don't think JKR is going to kill off any of the kids (or any of the main ones, anyway). Not because I don't think she would kill kids (she did, after all, kill Cedric), but because there isn't any particular main character kid that I can see her killing off right now.

5. Draco will probably flee from Voldemort and run to the Order for protection. He will most likely assist the Trio at some point, but he probably won't hang around for long. He may only decide to change sides after Voldy murders one of his parents.

6. The Locket Horcrux was the one in 12 Grimmauld Place. Mundungus stole it and either sold it or hid it somewhere.

7. Hogwarts will be closed, but the Trio will have to sneak in at some point. (Even if I'm wrong and Hogwarts is open, I still think they'll visit Hogwarts at least once.) They may make another visit to the Chamber of Secrets.

8. One thing that I'm not entirely sure we've heard the last of is the Mirror of Erised. I keep wondering: where did Dumbledore get it in the first place? And where is it now? But I'm not going to make that prediction, only acknowledge it it's a faint possibility...

9. The story will mainly be about Harry, Ron and Hermione. Ginny may show up once or twice throughout the book but she'll be mostly absent until after the Grand Climax when Voldemort is dead.

10. I do expect the Death Chamber and Locked Door to appear again, or at least be mentioned. I don't think that the Final Showdown will happen in the DoM, though. I think it will be someplace we've never been before... perhaps those Deathly Hallows, whatever they are.

11. Trelawney may make a third prophecy.

12. I don't expect any more developments or "surprise twists" in the romance area. I think JKR got all the romantic junk out of the way in HBP so she wouldn't have to worry about it in DH.

During the summer my family takes a lot of long road trips, and to pass the time we often listen to my sister read aloud to us (I would read too, except that I always get motion sickness when I read in moving vehicles.) This is the way all of us first experienced Books 5 and 6, and we liked the experience so we've decided to do the same thing for DH, even though we're not going to be on a trip when it comes out. What we're going to do is have Pearly read a couple of chapters to us every night, thus dragging it out for a long time and giving us an opportunity to discuss everything as we go along, revise our predictions, etc.

Basically, we won't have finished reading DH for at least a couple of weeks after it comes out. So no spoilers, please! (I'll have to basically stay off the internet during that time, I guess. *sob*)

=^.^=

.

Cool computer stuff!

2007-07-07T19:40:01Z

I've gone into a freeware-downloading frenzy recently (I just know I'm going to get a virus before long if I keep this up, but I've been lucky so far...)

Here are some of the most useful/useless but COOL! things that I've run across in my trawls. Please note that these are all for Mac OS X (only some are available for other OSes.)

Bullet: shoot up your screen! Incredibly pointless, but fun.

Celestia: explore the universe! This one is pretty awesome, and is available for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Desktop Manager: Virtual desktop application. I tried VirtueDesktops first, but it had some features that annoyed me so I got rid of it. Desktop Manager is much better. The most recent version is for Intel only, but there's an older version you can get for PPC (that's the microchip, not the assassins!)

GrandPerspective: one of multiple applications that will show you a "map" of your hard drive, allowing you to easily see which files are taking up the most room. I have already found this useful for managing my disk space usage.

iCursor: utterly useless app that puts fancy sparkles and things behind your cursor... pretty, but unfortunately makes the computer run noticeably more slowly (on mine it does, anyway).

iQuip: another fairly useless thing that lets you display a little message in your login window.

iSquint: converts any video format you can think of to mp4 and can optimize for iPod to take up a minimum of disk space. Most excellent!

MacSaber: another pointless one. It makes lightsaber sounds when you swing your laptop around. Careful not to drop it!

MegaManEffect: this one is just plain silly.

Mine Swept: minesweeper! So what if Macs don't come with it? The freeware version is just as good as on Windows.

Solitaire XL: See above, only this solitaire is way better than the one that comes with Windows.

TubeTV: handy app for downloading videos from YouTube.

Wraparound: pretty useless unless you have a gigantic screen, but fun anyway. When you move your cursor off one side of the screen, it comes out on the other side.

Wallsaver: lets you you set a screensaver as your desktop wallpaper. Whether or not significant slowage occurs depends on what screensaver you use.

Speaking of screensavers, here are some awesome ones:

Euphoria: pretty funky abstract screensaver.

Fenêtres Volantes: SWEET! screensaver that makes all your open windows fly around the screen.

FieldLines, Helios, Hyperspace, Skyrocket: I particularly love Helios... it's so awesome I could just watch it all day...

LotsaEscher, LotsaGlass, LotsaSnow, LotsaWater: all four are pretty awesome.

Snowfall: another snow!screensaver to go along with LotsaSnow up there.

And then there are a couple that I got a while ago:

SizzlingKeys: lets you use hotkeys to control iTunes from any application, without having to bring up the iTunes window. Be careful if you use this one in combination with Desktop Manager above, because the default hotkeys for switching desktops in DM are the same as the hotkeys for skipping ahead in iTunes using SK! Fortunately, DM allows you to change the settings for hotkeys. SizzlingKeys is, I believe, also available for Windows.

Senuti: one of a number of apps that let you copy music and videos from your iPod back to your computer. And I even didn't notice until it was pointed out to me that Senuti is iTunes backwards. *headdesk*

Aaaaaaaaaand that's all, folks!

=^.^=

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How will you be suspended from LJ? by Anonymous LJ User
Username
Years on LJ
Snape
Hours left until your suspension	3
Your crime	Coloring outside the lines.
Who reported you	supplications
Your fate	Old. Alone. Done for.