My brother is dangerously close to invoking the wrath of my Mom, Dad and half my relatives.

( Not including airplane tickets, he just cost us about 500 bucks for losing three out of four contacts, another 200 bucks for Chinese violin lessons, and a whole lot of other crap. )

And the kid's not even in high school yet. @__________@;

I know he hasn't done anything really bad yet like try drugs or something, but seriously, this habit of lying all the time (while everyone has already figured out you're lying) and losing expensive things like they mean nothing NEEDS TO STOP. Mom's sick of it, she's not buying him anything else over $100.

I have an idea that maybe we've yelled at him "too" much for his liking (believe me, this kid was spared of all the yelling *I* got when I was his age =_=) and now he's just completely shut us out or something. It's beyond frustrating 'cause talking with him hasn't done a lot of bloody good.

OMFG HEI AND YIN (and Mao? O_O;; Wtf) ARE BACK FOR SEASON 2 OF DARKER THAN BLACK. YESSSSSS. I was SO afraid that Bones would fail miserably and move on to brand new characters for season 2. And they're so cute and touchy now, which is a VAST improvement from the first season. xD;

EDIT: First scanalated chapter of the new DtB manga is also out! :3 Art looks amazing and so anime-accurate. EEEE!

In other news, I think I'm leaning toward getting a job instead of going to graduate school after I graduate next May. Merck is hiring right now from its pool of interns (there's was a 40% chance that an intern could get hired last year) and I wouldn't mind attempting to get a job at Johnson & Johnson or Bristol Meyer Squibb. Provided, it'd be a low level job since I'd only have a Bachelor degree, but I get to live at home and save up for (hopefully) getting a Master of Public Health later, so I'm not complaining. ^^; Plus, I am really, really  sick of school.

Also, Mom's been acknowledging me as "grown-up' nowadays. Being as tempermental as she normally is, she screamed at me over something harmless involving a door yesterday, and I just looked at her, rolled my eyes and walked away like I normally do when I think people are being retarded and I don't want anything to do with it. Then she came and apologized to ME later, which has only happened about three times in my life.  ^^; That definitely made me feel good.

She also somehow talked me into buying four inch heel pumps for no reason. I don't like wearing high heels 'cause I don't normally have a reason to wear them, but they are pretty. xD; Might as well indulge, I guess, even though I have no idea when I'd wear it.

I just had a dream about being in a haunted hotel of sorts where our luggage (while we were still holding them) kept getting flung out into the river outside. Then somehow that dream blended into one where I've brought destruction upon the world by unleashing monsters/Armageddon (all because I pissed off the ghost, I think) and then I somehow had to flee on to a battleship with secret agents. THEN, on the battleship, I ended up babysitting five or so hyperactive kids.

Then Michael Jackson showed up and we had dinner, and I kept trying to get the kids to shut up and not bother us. O___o; I remember the MJ part of the dream the best, and he was just nice, calm and very, very quiet. He was also sad over something but I don't remember what. :( I didn't know in the dream that he was dead or going to die, but I remember telling him to go deeper and deeper into the ship 'cause there were things out to get us. In retrospect, that makes me sad. D:

So yeah. xD;

Anyways, going to the beach with Mom, be back in a day or so.

I've come to the general realization that I am and always have been a bit of a loner. It's weird, I have plenty of friends both in RL and online but I don't seek them out for socializing unless they come and find me. I'm totally fine in a house with just my Mom for company. I'm fine if I haven't been outside in a few days. I'm fine if my only form of entertainment is a book or a pencil and drawing paper.

It's weird... I guess. Oo; I always thought this was a phase I would outgrow once I passed, say, high school, but I still haven't changed at all.

The thing that bugs Mom is that this doesn't bother me. She claims there's something wrong with me and that this is why I'm not dating anyone. I think it's just my personality. :/ I think. Unless I'm socially deranged or something and I just don't know it, judging by her tone...

That makes me insecure though. << >>; I know kids my age, especially since I'm in college, go out to see movies and drink at their friends house and party at clubs or what not. I'm not into any of that, though I don't mind seeing movies or drinking with friends occasionally.

I do feel like I'm missing out on life, but I currently have no urge to join in on the "fun", per se. :/ Is that bad? Especially since I supposedly should be enjoying all that before I get old? *SIGH*

Oh my God, Orlando Bloom is 32 years old. SERIOUSLY? Man, I just... totally forgot how fast time goes by, I guess.

Also, he filmed LOTR when he was 22. *I'm* turning 22. Makes me wonder what the hell I've done with my life. =____=; *sigh* Along that train of thought, the LOTR trilogy was filmed a decade ago. A DECADE. AHHHH.

Okay, enough of that. Moving on...

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Stolen from onewhomust

1. I'll make a list describing 20 of my favorite idols, without using their names. (It's best if you don't list them in order of preference.)
2. People will comment, guessing who each one is.
3. As they're guessing, I'll cross out the clues and add next to each one the answer, and who guessed it.
4. You copy these instructions into your journal and we play again!

Some of these are so easy 'cause I fail... << >>;

( NOTE: They are all real people. )

It grieves me that we found worms in our rice. >:

In other news, I have been so unproductive lately and it bothers me. I can't focus on reading papers for work, I can't focus on drawing, I can't focus on GRE studying, I can't do much of anything except watch CNN and occasionally read LOTR fanfiction. @__@ Ugh.

Also, two lol's of mine that I submitted weeks ago have recently made it to the front page of Pundit Kitchen, the news lol-site. Unfortunately, that makes them kind of outdated as news goes... Oh well! ^^; Nice surprise anyways!

Moving on to the speculation of Doug Jones as the potential candidate for the Elvin King, the man behind "Pan's Labyrinth" hints that Jones may get another part but the King. "I would love to find a part for Doug. It's not necessarily the Elvin King. I think there is a part that will suit him, but it's not the Elvin King," so he claimed. (Full article.)

PHEW. @____@ DEL TORO, I KNEW YOU HAD SENSE LEFT IN YOU! A small part of my soul would cry if Doug Jones got Thranduil. I love Doug dearly and I think he's amazingly talented, but he just looks... frail and kinda awkward. ^^; Not really warrior/kingly elf-like at all. I mean, he plays characers like these: the Pale Man, the Angel of Death and Abe. He plays them all WONDERFULLY, but still. ^^;

What the hell? Is there some part of Chinese culture that's entirely against surprises or are all Chinese people just blabbermouths?

My family has planned for almost a YEAR to send my brother to China as a surprise. (None of my relatives have seen him in two years, and he grew about a foot and a half in that time.) We didn't tell any family members or family frinds in China until a few days ago, when we told ONE uncle because he needed to pick my brother up from the airport. We told him not to tell anyone --especially our grandparents-- because we wanted it to be a surprise.

( And of course, he went and told EVERYONE. )

It's one freakin' secret. It's not that hard to keep.

And while I know my relatives will be extremely happy to see him and shower him with affection, I feel kind of bad for my brother. He's 14 years old and mischievous, and pwning all our relatives was going to be the highlight of his YEAR. It's unfair that we planned for a year to do this and people just couldn't keep their darn mouths shut. :/

Enlighten me. I feel like there's something I missed. Is it really rude or bad or something to surprise people in China nowadays? Or was that always part of our culture and I just don't remember it? ._.

I seriously hope I don't get in trouble for skimming the Encyclopedia of Arda (a Wiki-esque Lord of the Rings site) during work. ^^;

( Oh yes, definitely falling DEEP back into LOTR. X____x; Anyways, did you know that Galadriel is only half Noldor and is, in fact, half Teleri? )

On a totally unrelated note, NOW I know why we've been having such beautiful sunsets lately! :D Russian volcano explodes and causes purple sunsets in the U.S. I've been taking pictures of the sunsets lately 'cause they're just so rich in color. ^^; Never really thought there would be an explanation for them.

A stingray leaps out of the water as it is hunted by a killer whale, whose fin can be seen below the ray, just off St. Heliers beach in Auckland, New Zealand, Wednesday, June 24, 2009.
(AP Photo/New Zealand Herald Photograph, Brett Phibbs)

First off, I wasn't aware that stingrays could actually LEAP out of the water. Secondly, I didn't know killer whales ate sting rays. Oo;; Thirdly, of COURSE it has to be New Zealand. @____@;

Sorry, pointless post, I have five minutes to waste at work in between experiments. *sneaks away again*

Is it bad that I liked it? ^^;

But you all know me, I looooove fancy CG. I also had a really good audience to watch it with because we'd cheer when some of the more evil characters got their asses kicked. There were also some hardcore Transformers fans that screamed out nonesense during the plot twists in the movie, which was pretty entertaining, lol. Also, half the movie took place in Egypt, which made me flail with glee! (Except they destroyed all these famous temples --AND THE FREAKIN' PYRAMIDS-- so I was so sad to see that happen, even if it was all CG. D:)

And for anyone that's curious, I live and grew up a few minutes away from Princeton University. The kids there do NOT behave, look or act that way. I was wincing at how everyone (in the movie) was super horny and looked like they stepped off a catwalk with their perfect makeup and their miniskirts and high heels. No, no, no.

That being said, I really did enjoy the movie. The plot was simple, yeah, but I thought the entire movie was very well done. Also, it was even funnier than the first one, although most of the humor now centered around Sam's parents. (They have to be one of my favorite onscreen parents now, hahaha.)

Sorry for the LJ spam. Mom wanted to see some videos of MJ dancing, and I found this one on YouTube. He performs 'Dangerous' (mixed in with some of his older songs) at MTV. Oh my god, his DANCING. O_O There's more dancing than singing in this video, and even his backup dancers are freakin' amazing!

World will never again see talent quite like this, I think. :/

(Also, does anyone know when he did this? I'm assuming late 90's 'cause of his... er... face, but I have no idea.)

I AM SHEDDING INSIDE MY MOUTH. O___O The skin on the inside of my lower lip is just peeling away (no pain, thankfully) and it feels like my mouth is full of spiderwebs. WTF. It's all just... peeling these giant strips and it feels like jelly. And I can't stop it. EWWW, WTF.

I've never had this happen. @_@; Dude.

(Oh yes, stare at my icon. xD You know you want to.)

I never got into hardcore ficcage with Lord of the Rings, but due to how educated and mature the fans tend to be, the best fanfics I've ever read are all from the LOTR fandom. I'm just sharing some general stories for now, since I tend to prefer plot and dialogue over romance/slash/etc. for this fandom. ^^;

Most of these stories are written with flowery language but have great wit. As great LOTR fics should. ^_- (I've featured four authors because they have sooooo many awesome stories. Since I can't mention them all, I'm only showing the ones I've read. I need to go catch up on these authors myself. D:)

Note: Thranduil's wife/Legolas's mother, Oropher's wife/Thranduil's mother and any siblings that Legolas might have were never mentioned by Tolkien, so any family members that show up in these stories --there are many-- are not canon.

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( Some serious SPAM. You guys know how I get with LOTR. XD )

Obviously, there's more stories that I haven't read or should've read but haven't. :/ I'll go see if I find any other ones.

Minorly lapsing into LOTR... again. As always. There seems to be less and less time in between these relapses. :/ Weird.

ANYWAYS, it's been announced that Hugo Weaving (Elrond) will be returning for the Hobbit movies! :D (Although I don't think Elrond has a part in it either. Oo; Geez, all these people that aren't supposed to be in the Hobbit are coming back, but they haven't mentioned any of the main ACTUAL Hobbit characters aside from Gandalf. D:) Also, they mentioned specifically the story arcs involving the Lonely Mountain and Mirkwood's spiders, which makes me squee. 8D C'MON, STOP HIDING IT. If the spiders are there, the Mirkwood elves (Legolas's people) have GOT to be there to fight them. C'mon, I gotta know about the casting for the elves. ;___; Stop being so slow at making announcements, Del Toro!

On a totally unrelated note, I spent two hours mashing 70 mice pancreai (pancreases?) today and now I reek of... of... well, flesh. :/ (For anyone that's curious, I work in the diabetes research department. ^^; We need to measure insulin levels in diabetic mice.) Ugh, I don't mind working with tissue, I just wish I could get the smell off my hands. @_@

For anyone wondering why AIM and LJ were being reeeeally slow yesterday, it's all 'cause of Michael Jackson. Seriously. "Michael Jackson dies and almost takes the internet with him". O_o; I wasn't aware it was possible to make Wikipedia crash.

Also, I need advice on my brother again. He has, yet again, failed to call, and this time he's been in Canada for a week. Mom's HURT by this. She's tried to call every day, and we get nothing. We assumed he got no signal, but then he called and was like "Oh yeah, uh, I left my phone in my backpack." Which is entirely possible, except that I think that's BULLSHIT 'cause you must have used the phone at least once in the week and you MUST have seen that we called a few times.

Basically, my Mom's interpreting this as him not caring about the family. I'm seeing this as he's just being a selfish, self-centered brat, which is almost the same thing. We JUST told him not to do this because he didn't even invite us to his middle school graduation (he was all "Oh, I only knew about it the night before", which is complete bull because *I* obviously went to middle school and *I* knew a month ahead of hand), and now he goes and does it anyways. He didn't learn. At all.

Dad even cried before he left to tell my brother not to stress Mom out so much. I thought that got to him. Apparently it didn't. I know this shouldn't be a big deal, but the fact that Dad CRIED and it DIDN'T WORK is pissing me off severely.

Mom's away for two days today. I need to deal with this problem. I think I'm going to sit him down and tell him in a calm but extremely serious voice how much we despise this behavior and how absolutely selfish he is. It's not helping that I'm currently PMSing and I seriously, seriously want to bitchslap him. We're paying thousands of dollars to send him on this trip and he hasn't even bothered to THINK about calling. I know when I went to Australia when I was a teenager we actively called our parents anyways, even if it was difficult to do so. UGH.

Anything wrong with the 'talking to him' approach or does anyone know a better approach? :/ At this point, is there anything else I can do to get this through his thick head? Lemme know, please.

MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD. O_O OMG. I WATCHED IT HAPPEN ON TV *RIGHT* WHEN THEY GOT NEWS OF IT. Mom and I were eating dinner when they were reporting him in the hospital first with cardiac arrest, then in a coma. And then if that wasn't bad enough, the reporters got news through their headphones that the L.A. Times was reporting that Michael had died.

Michael. Jackson. Dead.

Oh my god. This is huge. I loved that man, even if he was all sorts of messed up. DDD8 (CNN summed this up pretty well. "This is going to be a worldwide shock. It's like Princess Diana dying.") I know I'm going to be telling my kids about this moment. It's one of those flashbulb memories that you'll remember for decades to come. ><;

Oh my god.

First things first. In case I seriously don't get that Power Rangers helmet I paid for over a year ago, can Paypal do anything about it? :/ At the very least I'd like my money back. Anyone know how to deal with a situation like that? (It's an overseas company that makes Power Ranger/Sentai outfits.)

Also, I got super freaking lucky and bought a PR morpher (attached to a belt) WITH the PR gun and the holster. ALL TOGETHER. O_O WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? And I'm sending it to my house. << >>; I just hope Mom doesn't open it and be all "wtf". I'd be hard pressed to answer that one, although logistically it just looks like a toy...

Second, for the first time in my life, I think I've succeeded (somewhat) in weaning myself off of biting my nails. Every since my internship started, I just haven't been biting them and now they're somewhat normal again. :D (Although I tore two up this morning when I wasn't thinking. << >>; I guess 8/10 isn't so bad...)

( THIS MONTH OF NEVERENDING RAIN IS ABSURD!!!! )

"So, you're almost done with college. What do you plan on for a career?"

"I don't know yet."

"Oh, go be a doctor." (THAT IS THE DEFAULT RESPONSE TO EVERYTHING. I HATE THAT.)

"Uh... Not interested."

"LE GASP. How do you plan on making money?!"

"Some other way."

I'm almost crying watching CNN right now. They are doing a real-time, live updates of the protests in Iran, and so far there is 19 confirmed dead and possibly up to 150 unconfirmed dead. Oh my god. D8 It's like the Tiananman Massacre, only live and broadcast across the internet.

( In case anyone doesn't want to hear about graphic images. )

There was one Twitter that just broke my heart. It was being passed on by people around the world, and it said something like "I had one vote. I gave it to Mousavi. I have one life. I give it for freedom." I teared up when I saw that come on CNN.

I'm so PROUD of all the protesters, but I'm so scared for them at the same time!!! DDD: 150 (possible) deaths is just too many. ;A; They just interviewed Iranian-Americans on CNN and one woman said that she was so incredibly sad that she can't be there fighting beside her people and trying to help. They're all so hopeful that change has come to Iran, and I damn want the protesters to win, but I don't know how long they can hold out against armed policemen. (I heard there was a suicide bomber at the burial ground for the Iranian rebel leader from the 1970's Iranian Revolution. I'm just speechless, I don't know what to say that that.)

GO IRANIANS, GO. Kick your government's ass!

EDIT: A reaction from Obama. "We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people," Obama said in a written statement. "The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights. . . . Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away,"

At this point, I don't care if the world scoffs at the U.S. "meddling" again. Obama's right, though he's a bit delayed in admitting it. D:

EDIT #2: Oh wow, international embassies in Iran are sheltering the injured. That's a HUGE stance against the Iranian government. O_o