So it seems as if it's been years, as opposed to months, since my last foray on LJ. I feel bad, but I'm sure most of y'all have stopped reading or have forgotten about me. Either way, no hard feelings! :) I've been pretty busy with my Navy life. I really don't know what to say about it except I'm at my first duty station. Boot camp was hard, but not that bad. Actually, it was pretty atrocious... but you know how you can't remember the crazy pain you went through? Yeah, it's exactly like that.

Well... yeah. Just letting you all know I'm definitely alive. Feel free to ask questions.

I'm back, if only for a little while.

What have you all been up to?

i'll see you all in four months.

Jesus Christ! People are just dying left and right.

I'm sorry to say that the voice for South Park's Chef, Isaac Hayes, has passed away. :(

Now, I hate to be a cocktease, but I have a little snippet of chapter 13 from TNTOM to give to you.

!!!

Medium: Book
Fandom: Twilight
Subject: General
Title: Snort the Sparkle
Warnings: Very, very general plot and characters from Twilight through Eclipse; no Breaking Dawn spoilers.
Notes: This mix is meant to be taken lightly and should only be listened to after snorting large amounts of cocaine sparkles. As someone who has a love/hate relationship with these books, I thought it'd be fun to make a silly but sort of serious (except not) soundtrack for Meyer's glittering vampire world. It's a two disc set with 24 songs, is approximately 1.4 hours long and is 111.3 MB in size.

All the wank over Breaking Dawn is seriously the craziest thing I've ever witnessed. Is this the insanity folks were talking about when the last Harry Potter book came out?! Maaaaaan. I don't know whether or not I want to read it anymore. :C

Anyway... I'll be uploading some photos from my trip later. My family and I went to the Hearst Castle, which is seriously the most breathtaking place (home/estate/mansion) I've ever been to. What surprised me the most about the photos that I took was how nicely they came out. My digital camera isn't so great, and my parents tend to like taking those "stand there and smile!" photographs that are just AWFUL. But I managed to pry the camera from my dad's hands and took a series of relatively people-less photos. Mmm. Delicious. God, I'd give up a lot to take a dive in their magnificent pool(s) and stay the night.

Speaking of nights--last night it hit me that this will be my last adolescent vacation with my family. In about one month, I will be leaving for at least two months. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to talk to my parents once or twice and send mail to everyone with a somewhat regular occurrence. Depending on the circumstances, I might not be home until Christmas. The chances are good that I will miss Thanksgiving (which, honestly, isn't all that important to us--we're Hungarian and Canadian), and I won't see my best friend for a long time. After that, I don't know how often I'll see anyone. Four years of uncertainty. I don't really know what to feel. This summer I sort of moved through the days, knowing deep down that eventually I would have to leave... but it never really occurred to me, so strongly at least, that one big part of my life is ending. Yes, I will still be allowed to goof off, but soon I will be in charge of my own life, making decisions I've never had to make before. It's scary and exciting.

I'm scared I won't do well in boot camp; that I'm not cut out for that lifestyle. I've given so much thought into the process that I'm worried my expectations won't fit right and that I will be miserable for four years. I'm so optimistic about it all--even though I know not everything I've heard or been told is exactly true, so I don't think I'm going to be surprised too badly. Still, I'm afraid that my happy-go-lucky spirit is going to be torn down, ripped to shreds and eaten by people who are supposed to be my "shipmates."

How does one calm oneself when s/he's essentially going into something blind?

Ah well. As long as I have a good excuse to where slutty military outfits every Halloween...

i am back.

to sum it all up: long distance driving sucks; my flip-flop tan has worsened; i'm almost 100% positive that the navy is where i want to be. also, socal is so different from norcal it's scary, which makes me wonder how i'm ever going to fare half-way across the country. i feel like i'm going to be one of those types who imagine they want independence and freedom but actually want to stay within 100 miles of their comfort zone.

either way, i had an awesome last family vacation. yay!

I'm going to be gone from today till Friday (hurray for vacations), so do not fret about the radio silence!

I'll take pictures and whatnot. Mmmhm.

Tonight will be the start of my week-long bender. As a parting gift, I leave y'all with ( funny cats. )

I'm going to a cancer walk today. (My mother is an RN and her co-workers and her are a part of some Cancer Association thing which equals me and my friends getting pulled into helping). I've never been on one of these "walk & raise money" events, but I can't imagine it being anything but relatively pleasant. Every person has to pledge at least one hour of walking. You have to pay 10 bucks, too, but my mother will be handling that portion of it. Thankfully, my best friend and her boyfriend are coming to keep me company. Plus I get a free ugly tie-dyed shirt out of it! Sweet.

For the past week or so, I've been re-reading Starship Troopers. I usually go through a chapter or two a night, very slowly, putting little sticky notes onto the passages that I think are really significant. It's such an amazing book. If you have even one little sci-fi bone in your body, I highly recommend reading it. The moral philosophies in it are so... perfect. Everything makes sense, everything makes you really think. While I disagree with some parts of it, Heinlein really went above and beyond with this shit. I have to say that I'm disappointed he's categorized as solely a "sci-fi" writer because his books are so much more than spaceships and kick-ass powered suits. Anyway.

I bought the Twilight books today and have already read a few chapters into New Moon. I hate to be flip-floppy, but I've really gotten into the books as well as the fandom. There's something about the books... it's not written in the typical style that I enjoy, but it really invokes a strong emotional response in me. I can't really imagine why anyone would want Edward (I'd probably choose Jacob), but the Bella/Edward relationship is something I'm really quite interested in seeing play out.

Also I need more fodder for my fanfiction.

I really want to learn how to surf. I feel like such a fake when I really think about it, because I've had all this time to do it. I'm 18 now, and have been living in Surf Central, California for the better part of seven years. And not once had I seriously given thought to going out on a board and learning. Well--I had, and really wanted to, but I'll admit that being a pussy bitch held me back quite a bit. Considering that I'll be in the Navy and therefore near open bodies of water, I suppose I will have time--specifically, 4 years--to learn. But still.

In any case--my surfing obsession has been prodding me for ages, more or less in areas called "write damn AU fanfiction, bitch!" And I know I swore (to myself) that I wouldn't fall down the rabbit hole with Twilight, because I've SEEN what it does to people... but... but I couldn't help it! So now I have this massive plot bunny hopping around my head. Which I really, really want to write. Which is really, really annoying because I have several other writing projects backed-up already. But knowing me, it's going to be started anyway. *sigh* Actually, the main reason why I haven't been so productive is because I no longer have a full-time beta-reader & loving soundboard (my dearest Silvia is away at uni and is a v. busy girl). I love writing, but it's hard for me to move forward and complete things when no one is there to give me advice. :C

I'm not known in the Twilight fandom at all and, as ridiculous as it sounds, I'm rather shy when it comes to reaching out to people on the internet--a far cry from my RL personality, but hey. I'd really like to get someone from that fandom who'd be willing to help me with that fic. Advice?

Urban Outfitters is my hipster douchebag store. I tend to browse more than I buy, as it's ridonkulously expensive. Yesterday, however, my friend purchased me the most amazing present ever: a Barack Obama mug.

Unfortunately, I didn't have as much time as I would've liked to go on a true baking spree. I found some pretty nifty recipes for new frosting and bases... but I sort of had to throw everything together at the last minute, as my best friend was coming back from Germany and I wanted to welcome wagon her ass. With cupcakes.

SO. I promise y'all that, in the very near future, I will put that poll to good use and bake my little Paula Deen heart out.

But I did make regular cupcakes. BEHOLD.