Thursday 13 - Oscar Edition

13 Oscar nominees that I have never even heard of before:

1. Milk - Best Picture

2. The Reader - Best Picture

3. Slumdog Millionaire - Best Picture

4. Melissa Leo - Best Actress

5. Michael Shannon - Best Supporting Actor

6. Viola Davis - Best Supporting Actress

7. Taraji P. Henson - Best Supporting Actress

8. Frozen River - Best Original Screenplay

9. Happy-Go-Lucky - Best Original Screenplay

10. Doubt - Best Adapted Screenplay

11. "Jai Ho" - Best Original Song

12. "O Saya" - Best Original Song

13. Defiance - Best Original Score

See all of this year's Oscar nominations here.

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Thursday Thoughts #1 - TGIFT Edition

This is a quickie list, because I'm still in head-down busy-tizzy mode.

Thirteen Reasons I'm So Very Glad It's Thursday

1. Thursday Thoughts!

2. This is one of my four-day work weeks, so today is secretly my Friday.

3. Today is the last day I will have to work on this gorram production job. Other people will (should) finish it tomorrow while I'm out.

4. I have a new phone! Which has nothing to do with this being Thursday, really, but it's shiny and purple and cute and plays mp3s and does everything else I could possibly need it to do, and I'm still on a new phone high.

5. Speaking of mp3s, this is also the day I'll finish 7th Son by JC Hutchins, and it's very good and I highly recommend that you go listen to it. Or if you don't like audio novels, or free stuff, or instant gratification, because you're crazy or something, you can wait for part 1 to come out in hardback later this year.

6. Now I have to find a new podcast novel to listen to. And a new tedious, no-thought requiring job to do while I listen to it. Any suggestions?

7. I'm running out of reasons to be happy that it's Thursday.

8. Tonight, I can stay up late if I want to.

9. Because tomorrow I get to sleep in.

10. Sleeping in is awesome, y'all.

11. I wish I could have slept in today, because I stayed up too late last night fiddling around with all the gadgets on my new phone.

12. It's purple!

13. I probably should have made this thirteen things about my new phone. But I'm still happy that it's Thursday.

Keeping in the spirit of the original T13, the purpose of this post is to share some random thoughts from our lives each week with you so you continue to get to know us better. If you would like to do the same, leave a link to your blog post where you’ve shared your Thursday Thoughts or, if you don’t have a blog, share them in the comment section at the end of this post. Or just be a lurker - we don't mind.

Thursday Thirteen: '08 In Review

Oh, here's more sad news: Thursday Thirteen is no more. One of the reasons why is that the maintainer's 7 year old granddaughter has been diagnosed with leukemia. That is such a terrible thing to have to start out the new year with, and my heart and prayers go out to that little girl and her family.

Since I already had this drafted before I found out, I might as well go ahead and post it. So here goes....


Thirteen things that happened in '08, in random order:

1. I bought a house!

2. I moved.

3. My old car died.

4. I bought a used car.

5. My dog died. :( :( :(

6. I got a puppy!

7. I attended a Buffy Sing-a-long. Awesome!

8. I became an aunt x5.

8. I became a great aunt x2.

9. I learned I'm soon to become a great aunt x3.

10. I survived turning 35.

11. I developed some serious acne.

12. I finished the first draft of my novel!

13. I had an exhausting, exhilarating, mostly excellent year. And I hope you did, too.

13 Simple & Inexpensive DIY Holiday Decorations

1. How to Make a Cookie House Village using graham crackers. No baking required. 2. Paper Flower Ornaments - beautiful, and all you need is some colored paper, a stapler, and some double-stick tape. 3. Origami Gift Box - These do double duty by looking pretty under the tree until you give them away. 4. Plastic Grocery Bag Pom Poms - This one is pretty versatile, too. And I love a holiday craft that reduces waste. 5. How to Make a Snow Storm - Tired of the old-fashioned paper snow flake? Whip up your very own White Christmas. 6. Make a Large Snowflake out of Doilies - On the other hand, do you love the old-fashioned paper snow flake but can never make it come out quite right? Dollar store doilies to the rescue! 7. Paper-craft Gift Card Box - Download this free pattern for an impressively beautiful way to present gift cards. 8. How To - Recycled Paper Trees - recycle old magazines into lovely and colorful mini Christmas trees. 9. Whip Up a Minimalist Christmas Star - Turn a bunch of sticks into something both artful and meaningful in minutes. 10. Have the Greenest Tree Around - These old-fashioned food garlands are not only classics, they're also good for the environment. 11. Chocolate Andes Mint Tree - Speaking of things that are green and edible. And also yum. 12. Tutorial: Fabric Ornament - I remember making these in grade school. This version is all grown up and beautiful. 13. DIY Photo Ornaments in 15 Minutes or Less - Display your favorite photos on your tree in an unexpected fashion. It doesn't get any easier than this.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thursday Thirteen: 'Shipper edition

Thirteen Most Romantic and/or Heartwrenchingly Tragic TV Couples (a.k.a. the main reasons I love television) 1. Buffy & Angel - Not my favorite, but even I can't argue that their Season 2 arc takes the crown in both categories. 2. Buffy & Spike - I know a lot of people would raise an eyebrow at calling this paring "romantic," but they had their sweet moments, especially in Season 7. At any rate, even at their worst I couldn't stand not to see them together. 3. Willow & Oz - Most people would say Willow & Tara, but that pretty much goes without saying, and that's the only reason I'm going with Oz instead. I still can't watch the end of Wild at Heart without my heart breaking for Willow. 4. Zoe & Wash (this whole list won't be Whedonverse characters, I promise...although it easily could be; nobody does romance and pain like Joss) - Of course Whedon couldn't let a happily married, functional, fun and sexy couple stand. From the moment we realized how well they got along and truly loved each other, we should have known that one of them was doomed. 5. Wesley & Frillyria - As horrible as Fred's death was, and as heartbreaking as it was for Wesley, I just never really got into their romance, and I never really cared that much for Fred. That is, until her soul was burned out of her body and replaced by a demon goddess who turned out to be completely awesome. Wesley's anguish at having to be the keeper of the thing that both killed the woman he loved and looked like her was gutwrenching to observe, but none of it was as heartbreaking as watching some sliver of humanity surface in Illyria, causing her sincere grief as Wesley died in her arms. Excuse me, I have something in my eye. There. Moving on... 6. John Chricton & Aryn Sun - Everybody's favorite leather-clad interspecies couple were all over the romance map, and I loved following them every step of the way--even the parts that broke my heart. And then they got a happy ending. Nobody can say they didn't earn it. 7. Mulder & Scully - The last few seasons kind of fell apart, but their reunion won back some brownie points from me. Even so, it was the deep, deep regard and love that the OBVIOUSLY felt for each other before we even had a hint that they had ever acted on it that constantly made me swoon. 8. Jack Devereaux and Jennifer Horton - If you watched daytime television in the late '80s, then I probably don't need to explain this one to you. These two were totally my teenage self's Spuffy. 9. Mark Green Doug Ross (der) & Carol Hathaway - Two words: surprise ending. Made me cry. 10. Chandler & Monica - When these two hooked up I was almost as weirded out over it as they were. But it didn't take long to realize that they made total sense. And their proposal scene was hands down one of the best proposals ever seen on television. 11. The Doctor & Rose Tyler - Nine or Ten. Both versions had their own special chemistry with Rose, and it broke my heart and left me in tears when each of them had to say goodbye. 12. Lois & Clark - Okay, after they got married it kind of degenerated into corny fluff, but up until then this was one of the most romantic pairings ever. My early-twenty-something self's Spuffy. 13. D'Argo & Chiana - Another pairing that I didn't expect, but once they got together I liked it--at least while it lasted. But even if their relationship died, their love for each other stuck until the very end. Chiana's grief at having to leave D'argo behind to face certain death was nearly matched by my own.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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The Return of Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Favorite Muppet Show Muppets Kermit (natch) Fozzie Bear Gonzo the Great Sweetums Beaker Scooter Lew Zealand Janice Zoot Rizzo Foo-Foo Animal Rowlf

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants in the Comments!

13 Reasons there's no Thursday Thirteen this week

1. Nanowrimo.
   
   
2. Nanowrimo.
   
   
3. Nanowrimo.
   
   
4. Nanowrimo.
   
   
5. Nanowrimo.
   
   
6. Nanowrimo.
   
   
7. Nanowrimo.
   
   
8. Nanowrimo.
   
   
9. Nanowrimo.
   
   
10. Nanowrimo.
    
    
11. Nanowrimo.
    
    
12. Nanowrimo.
    
    
13. Nanowrimo.

Now I'm going to take a break before I get into "All work and no play makes Jean a dull girl" territory. Red rum!

Thursday Thirteen: Salmonella Edition

Thirteen Things about FOOD POISONING! Cook your bratwursts thoroughly, people. Trust me on this one. When blood shows up, just go ahead and go to the hospital. Don't wait it out hoping it will get better on it's own. All that does is prolong the agony. When I told my mom that I can't imagine childbirth being as painful as that experience, she laughed and said I'm in for a rude awakening. But then I was told that Jane Seymore said the same thing about her food poisoning last week, and she's given birth to TWINS, so I think she should know. Ambulances are roomier inside than I expected. Here's a fun piece of trivia I picked up at the ER: apparently redheaded women are, like, super-bleeders. I was treated in the same "resuscitation room" they put me in after my fainting spell, which means I once again had the pleasure of staring at the same Golden Plastic Jesus on the wall whilst I floated away into drug-induced bliss. Antibiotics are a blessing for which I shall ever be grateful. Ditto strong painkillers. A diet of Gatorade and soup gets old pretty fast. The sympathy of co-workers gets stretched pretty thin when you visit the ER twice within a month. With husbands it's less so, but I did have to give him a pass on accompanying me on the next non-life-threatening trip to the ER if it occurs when he has a test to study for and a ton of homework to get done. Of course I completely understand his frustration, because this whole thing seriously cut into my NaNo time. But I'm feeling much better now. Links to other Thursday Thirteens in the comments!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thursday Thirteen: NaNoWriMo Edition

Thirteen Reasons I Caved At the Last Minute and Signed Up for NaNoWriMo I'm a bit touched in the head. I have a new idea that's been nagging me and now's as good a time as any to develop it. I was feeling left out of all the NaNo talk I keep seeing. I want to have a good framework ready to build on so I don't lose any momentum when I finally finish Hero Factor. I always, ALWAYS overestimate how much time and/or energy I'll be able to devote to any project; why should now be any different? It's a great community of writers that I want to be a part of. Getting some exposure for my writing certainly can't hurt. I have a new word processor! And it's portable! I have a lot of writing process hangups that I need to overcome. I need to practice writing in a POV other than 3rd person limited. I secretly kinda like it when friends and loved ones look at me like I'm a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Mmm, Happy Meal. Did I mention the part where I'm just not a sane woman? Links to other Thursday Thirteens in the comments!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thursday Thirteen: Trick-Or-Treat edition

Thirteen Halloween Costumes I've Worn Throughout My Life 1. Raggedy Anne (age 4) 2. Wicked Witch (age 5) 3. Genie (age 7) 4. Princess Leia (age 10 - ANH side-bun version) 5. Hobo (11-ish?) 6. Zombie (13) 7. Vampire (14... and also many times throughout my twenties - this tends to be my default costume when I'm not feeling particularly creative) 8. Zombie Prom Queen (15) 9. Freddy Kreuger (16...it was for a high school carnival spook house; I owned a replica of the glove, which pretty much made me Freddy by default, gender notwithstanding) 10. One-half of Milli Vanilli (17...my friend Tess was supposed to be the other half, but she chickened out. Lame!) 11. Just Got Out Of Bed, Desperately In Need of Coffee Woman (20...and I admit, this was just an excuse not to have to get dressed for work that day) 12. Random Sunnydale High School Student/Victim (31) 13. Crazy Cat Lady, a.k.a. "Bedtime Jean" (last year) Links to other Thursday Thirteens in the comments!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thursday Thirteen: Frightfest

13 Scary Movie Moments That Scarred Me For Life 1. Samara crawling out of the TV. 2. Mike standing in the corner while Heather's camera falls to the ground. 3. Kayako crawling down the stairs. 4. The clown doll grabbing Robbie and pulling him under the bed. 5. Freddy's tongue coming out of the phone to lick Nancy. 6. The shower scene. Yes, that one. That one, too. 7. Jason jumping up out of the water at the end of the first movie. 8. Pretty much the entirety of Jaws. 9. The last half-hour or so of The Descent. 10. Jason Patrick's rice turning into maggots while Kiefer laughs. 11. Pennywise peeking out of the sewers (hi, ask me about my clown issues). 12. Many parts of the original Amityville Horror. 13. "They're heeeere!" Links to other Thursday Thirteens in the comments!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Unofficial (Officially Lame) Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen reasons I can hardly be arsed to blog this week:

1. Work is still busy, and it's sucking up my energy.

2. Which is not helped by the fact that I'm on a break from my ADD supplements while I see if fish oil is enough to control my symptoms. So far, it's not.

3. Which is neither helped by the fact that my doctor put me on a new med that makes me sleepy, without warning me that it could make me sleepy so that I'd know to take it at bedtime and not first thing in the morning, duh.

4. None of which is helped by my allergies being so bad that none of my meds are having much effect on them.

5. The new TV season has started, but I don't have time to add any new shows to my lineup, so I can't blog about those.

6. And the shows I do watch are mostly being recorded for me to watch on the weekends, so I can't blog about those, either.

7. Other than that, we're too busy and broke to have anything interesting going on currently, so....

8. I haven't worked on my novel in weeks, either. Every time I blog instead of writing my novel I have guilt.

9. Mostly, I'm just in a mood to be passive and take things in.

10. Things like TWoP recaps, which I'm spending entirely too much time reading these days.

11. Ultimately, it all comes down to time, or a lack of it. I started this list hours ago, and it's sat here at number 10 since well before lunchtime.

12. I have a headache.

13. Did I already mention my lack of foc--ooh, look! Shiny!

Thursday Thirteen #7: Fangirl Edition

Thirteen Fannish Obsessions I've Had Throughout Life, in Chronological Order 1. Star Wars (at four years old, seeing this movie pretty much sealed my geek fate) 2. Freddy Kreuger 3. Star Trek 4. The Vampire Lestat (the anti-Spike!) 5. Batman/The Joker/Harley Quinn (no, not like THAT! Ew. Although I'm sure there's fanfic....) 6. Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (Sigh and swoon!) 7. The Phantom of the Opera 8. The X-Files (...movie! Yay!) 9. Gargoyles 10. The Entire Whedonverse 11. Farscape (Swoon and sigh and SOB!) 12. A Song of Ice and Fire 13. Supernatural, Heroes and Dr. Who are all contenders for my newest obsession, but none of them are quite there yet. Header graphic by samulli Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Impworks 2. Angela Klocke 3. Lynne 4. Qtpies (See more in the comments!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thursday Thirteen #6: Quotable Buffy Edition

Thirteen Lines from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Notice I didn't say favorite lines, because that would be impossible to choose. To keep this short and sweet, I kept myself mostly to one-liners (although I cheated a little), leaving out dialog exchanges and big speeches. Interactivity Bonus: I'll send a Dancing Lessons: War! soundtrack CD to the first person to correctly identify the speaker and episode for each quote. 1. Well, this is just...neat. 2. Go monkey! Choose monkey! 3. The who whatting how with the huh? 4. No, sir, no more chick pit for you. 5. I mock you with my monkey pants! 6. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it. 7. I like the quiet. 8. It's a ritual sacrifice, with pie. 9. That'll put marzipan in your pie plate, bingo! 10. Don't taunt the fear demon. 11. Check. No more butt-monkey. 12. Hecate hates that! 13. Poor Watcher, did your life flash before your eyes? Cuppa tea, cuppa tea, almost got shagged, cuppa tea? Find links to other Thursday Thirteens in the comments!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thursday Thirteen - Birthday Edition

I'm still running a day late. I tried to have this ready to go Wednesday night, since I took yesterday (Husband's actual birthday) off, but Picture2Life crapped out on me before I could finish adding text to my graphic header, and I finally gave up and went home without posting. But better late than never, I guess, so here are:

Thirteen Things About My Husband That Are Awesome

1. He's hot

2. He's smart

3. He's sweet

4. He's wicked funny

5. He's considerate

6. He's supportive

7. He cooks

8. He loves to hang out and talk

9. He's insightful

10. He loves the Lord

11. He loves my mom

12. He loves my dog

13. He loves me.

Happy birthday, Baby.

Look for links to more Thursday Thirteen in the comments.

Thursday Thirteen #4: Stardust Edition

I should disclaim that I haven't actually seen the movie yet. I really wanted to go last weekend, but it just didn't work out. I have high hopes for this weekend, though. Thirteen Reasons You (And I) Should See Stardust This Weekend The book is wonderful. And while I know that The Movie Is Not The Book, I still also know from the book that this is a wonderful story with wonderful cast of characters, who are played in the movie by an equally wonderful cast of actors. It's a gorgeous movie, which I can tell from the previews and the web site. It should be, seeing as how the look of the film was designed by Charles Vess, who also illustrated the Stardust graphic novel. The role of Yvaine was originally offered to Sarah Michelle Gellar, who purportedly turned it down because the shooting schedule required her to spend too much time away from Freddie. That's not really a reason to go see the film, but let's all pause for a moment to ponder how AWESOME she would have been, and sigh. Despite a not-so-great opening weekend, it's mostly getting good reviews. It's also getting a lot of positive comparisons to The Princess Bride. I didn't really think that when I read the book, but I can definitely see how they compare. Two words: Rupert Everett. If you don't go see it, God will kill Fred the Unlucky Black Cat. Just kidding. Or am I?!!! He'll kill Cabal instead. Okay, that's not true either. Or is it?!!! Beyond being an amazingly and enviously talented and imaginative writer, Neil Gaiman is, by all accounts, an amazing person, to boot, and he deserves not to have his pets killed off because you wouldn't go see his movie to have a lot of success in Hollywood. He's also written many other wonderful things, several of which have already been optioned and lying around in screenplay limbo for years and years, and if this film does well, it will increase the chances of those other projects ever seeing the light of day. Two more words: Michelle Pfeiffer. Maddy Gaiman will give you a stern look until you go. See? What else are you going to see this weekend? Superbad? Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Frigga 2. Nancy Bond 3. Holly 4. Kuanyin 5. Carolan Ivey 6. Spacy Tracie 7. Susan B. 8. So Lost 9. Pat J. 10. Denise Patrick See links to more Thursday Thirteen in the comments!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thursday Thirteen #3: Once More With Feeling

Thirteen Things about the Buffy Singalong So apparently, it's Buffy week here at Sparkle Motion (what's that you say? Every week appears to be Buffy week at Sparkle Motion? Too true. And what's the downside of that?), and since I haven't gotten around to properly recapping my night at the Buffy Singalong, I'll give an overview of it here. An MTV News clip they showed to give us an idea of what to expect described the Buffy Singalong as "a less slutty Rocky Horror." This turned out to be an apt description. It could stand to go longer. Maybe show more fanvids, or add another round of "Buffy-oke"? At $10 per person (plus online purchase fees), I expected a little more; and from a fan perspective, it was just over too soon. Speaking of fanvids, when I squeezed in around Fenwic's computer monitor three summers ago to watch sdwolfpup's "Coin Operated Boy" video (below), I thought it was awesome, but I never dreamed I'd eventually see it on a big theater screen. (P.S. Her Take A Chance On Me video is drenched in even more awesomeness.) The audience at my showing was packed with Spike fans. I felt right at home. Except for my husband, who prefers Angel, and who was attending his very first ever fandom event, and as such had no idea what to expect. He was an excellent sport about it all. We arrived early to the midnight showing and they still had plenty of goodie bags for everybody, but they were already out of audience participation instruction sheets by the time we got there. So we found ourselves with bags full of goodies we didn't know what to do with. But then the host read the directions to us before the show, so it all worked out okay. During "Under Your Spell," the host threw real pink daisies into the audience. Husband caught one and put it in my hair. Awwwww. I was, as usual, more of an observer than a participator. I sang my heart out along with the musical, and used the props they gave me, but I didn't do any of the stand-uppy or hand-holdy-with-strangers parts. I did, however, win a candy prize for answering a trivia question before the show (Q: Who was the first recurring character to appear on Buffy? If you know the answer (without looking it up), leave it in the comments. I was amazed at how many people got it wrong.). The props: a little rubber monster finger puppet, a champagne popper, a set of plastic vampire teeth, a bottle of bubbles, and a kazoo. The monster puppet was for going "Grr! Arrgh!" at the projector guy to signal him to start the show (and for singing along with the little Mutant Enemy ghoul at the end). The popper was to, aherm, "finish" for Tara at the end of her unfinished song. The teeth were supposed to be worn when Spike vamped out during his big number. The bubbles were to be blown during Dawn's ballet number, and the kazoo was to help Buffy sing "Heaven" on key. We were also instructed to shout "Hotness!" when Spike first appeared on screen, and "Shut up, Dawn!" pretty much any time she opened her mouth. This last task especially was met with great enthusiasm. It was one of the most fun things I've done this year, and totally worth staying up late for. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here, but any links left past 5PM Central tonight will have to wait until Monday to be added.)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thursday Thirteen #2: Harry Potter Edition

Thirteen Things about Harry Potter This was originally going to be "Thirteen Ignorant Things I've Heard or Read Recently about Harry Potter", but surprisingly, I couldn't come up with thirteen. Or maybe not so surprisingly; the anti-Potter crowd does tend to repeat itself. At any rate, here instead are seven ignorant criticisms of Harry Potter, followed by six refutations, prompted mainly by having to hear from my mom for the umptieth time the other day why Harry Potter is a tool of the devil and I shouldn't be reading those evil, evil books. The Critics: "JK Rowling is a white witch." "The incantations in the book are authentic and children who repeat them may unwittingly summon dark forces." "JK Rowling has said that parts of the books are based on her own life experiences. Therefore, she has practiced witchcraft and the magic portrayed in the books is real." "Harry Potter has caused a rise in Satanism among children. I read an e-mail that says so." "Harry Potter causes children to turn to Wicca and Paganism." "Harry Potter teaches moral relativism and that there is no such thing as good and evil." "Harry Potter is a Christian allegorical tale along the same lines as The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings." The Rebuttals: Re: #1 - No she's not. And saying so, especially on your own political propaganda machine thinly disguised as religious news program, amounts to slander, Pat Robertson. Re: #2 - You mean these "incantations"? Really? I mean, really?! Most of these are regular English words with Latin suffixes attached. They're as made up, nonsensical, and also about as authentic and dangerous as "Bibbity-bobbity-boo." I know singing that song never caused any of my pets to turn into pumpkins or coach drivers any more than shouting "Expelliarmus!" has caused papers to fly out of my co-workers's hands. Not that I've tried to do that. Re: #3 - JK Rowling has said that she drew inspiration for aspects of the story from her own life. And I'm sure she couldn't possibly have been talking about the parts of the book that deal with being a teenager, dating, navigating relationships, relating to teachers and parental figures or any of the myriad other parts of the story that have absolutely nothing to do with magic. Re: #4 - Er, yeah. You mean this e-mail? Re: #5 - This essay, which I've linked here before, gives a much more eloquent, studied and thoughtful rebuttal to that argument than I could ever provide. Re: #s 6-7 - These arguments are flip sides of the same extremist coin, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I think stories that depict negative consequences for negative actions, overt punishment for rule-breaking, and have clearly defined "good guys" and "bad guys" can hardly be accused of promoting moral relativism. Does it allow for gray areas? Yes. Because the world is not black and white, and in my opinion, neither are good stories. Should parents leave it up to the books to teach their kids right from wrong? Of course not. That would be some seriously lazy parenting right there. But while these books DO depict clear-cut divisions between right and wrong and good and evil, and DO also promote values such as loyalty, friendship and love, they also don't sugar-coat the dangers faced by Harry and his friends, or the issues normal, non-wizard teenagers face every day. And to say that they're overtly and intentionally Christian in their depictions of good is a stretch too far in the opposite direction. Rowling has said that she was inspired by Lewis and Tolkein, but has never said openly that, like them, she's a Christian and set out to promote Christian values. But that doesn't mean she set out to undermine them, either. In short: Chillax, people, and stop regurgitating alarmist propaganda about books you clearly have never read, because if you did, then you would know better. And somebody please pass this list along to my mom. Maybe if she read it in an e-mail, she'll finally believe it. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Mitchypoo 2. qtpies7 3. exhausted intern 4. Comdy Plus 5. J. Lynne 6. Joely Sue Burkhart 7. Nicholas 8. Annie

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thursday Thirteen: The "Nerdier Than Thou" Edition

Look, ma! I'm participating!

Thirteen Things you might not already know about why Jean's a giant nerd: 1…. I was first chair alto sax in high school, from the day I finally won it in 9th grade until I graduated, much to the relief of the second chair. 2…. I can also play the harmonica, although I'm no John Popper. 3…. I didn't eat my first sushi until about two years ago, when my husband took me to a sushi restaurant when we first started dating. I didn't know how to eat half of it, and I couldn't handle the chopsticks, and even though I'm pretty sure I embarrassed him, he was very patient with me and had a good sense of humor about it, thereby increasing my already growing suspicion that this was the guy for me. My love for both Husband and sushi has continued to blossom to this day. 4…. I once thought I was a fairly hard-core Trekker. Then I attended my first (and only) Star Trek convention and learned that I was but a lowly padawan (wrong universe, but you get my meaning). Since then, I've grown kinda "meh" about Trek, although I still have a warm, squishy place in my heart for the original series, TNG and DS9. 5…. Speaking of me being a giant nerd, I only stood in line for four hours for the first midnight showing of The Phantom Menace, yet somehow I still got interviewed by a local TV news reporter doing a story on the crazed fans. I mean, other people stood in line for like a month. I don't think four hours made me that crazed. 6…. Except that it would have been more like four days if the theater management hadn't barred us from the premises. 7…. I didn't visit a foreign country until I was twenty-five. 8…. I didn't visit another one after that until my honeymoon last year. 9…. I used to be completely obsessed with the Joker. To that effect, I even built a fairly popular (by those days' standards of popularity, which were definitely not today's standards) fan site about him. 10…. But that's nothing compared to the nerd points I racked up in Buffy fandom, in which I attended two fan conventions, wrote several novels' worth of fan fiction, wrote several academic papers, one of which I even submitted to Slayage for consideration, collected action figures, built web sites, moderated discussion forums, and spent countless hours on IM debating the shows' intricacies with fellow fans. 11…. I still have a sizeable Star Wars toy collection. I wanted to decorate our kitchen with it. Husband said please no. 12…. At the end of the month I'm dragging Husband with me to attend the Buffy Sing-a-long, and I'm so excited I just might pee my pants. 13…. And I'm not even going to get into my whole Phantom of the Opera phase. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. The Rock Chick 2. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants