What's Up Wednesday (28)

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, so we can check in with each other. To join, just check out Jaime Morrow or Erin Funk's blogs for the link widget and sign up!


WHAT I'M READING

I finished WE WERE LIARS. It's true the less I tell you about the book, the better, but I hope you put it on your TBRs because it was quite a read. Beautiful prose and voice and both sweet and heartbreaking.

I'm currently reading Gillian Flynn's DARK PLACES. As with all Flynn novels, the plot is just gripping. I cannot wait to find out the truth.


WHAT I'M WRITING

Well, I can stop being quite so secretive about my New Shiny thing because I've had some news. Basically, my #twtpoem accomplices (Lydia Kang and April Tucholke) and I decided to submit an idea for the Twitter Fiction Festival, which is an online festival celebrating the new forms of fiction that Twitter has spawned. Back in February, you could submit an idea for Twitter Fiction to the panel to be part of the official showcase. Given our #twtpoem love, we naturally had to give it a go.

We made it past the first round, but alas, we did not make the final cut! The official showcase is being announced today, and the festival is happening March 12-16. But anyone can participate by using the hashtag #twitterfiction.

So that's what I've been sort of working on - discussing the idea, structure, and plot, writing a few sample tweet poems. Our story was going to be a murder mystery told from the POVs of the murderer, their lover, and the house in Twitter poems.

Unfortunately, Lydia and April are unable to work on the project just for fun (since you know, they both have book sequels to work on), but I looooved the plot Lydia spun. SO I will endeavor to work on this (with my cohorts' blessings) on my own. Though I don't know if I will stick to the Twitter format, but I do want the 3 POVs and the poetry.


WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

Source: myglitterandgoldthings tumblr

Lupita Nyong'o! She's talented, graceful, gracious, and beautiful. She has killed it with her fashion this Awards Season, and her Oscar acceptance speech was SO moving. She had another acceptance speech pre-Oscars where she addressed standards of beauty and the importance of diversity in media that I also found to be so, so inspiring.

You can read the transcript for her ESSENCE'S Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon speech here: Lupita Nyong'o Delivers Moving 'Black Women in Hollywood' Acceptance Speech


WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

Nothing much. It actually RAINED (like rain-rain!) this weekend, so I mostly just chillaxed. My two favorite TV shows from last year came back for their second seasons: NBC's HANNIBAL and A&E's BATES MOTEL.

Oh and the sister spotted THEO JAMES on Saturday in one of the shopping areas we frequent. Unfortunately, I wasn't there at the time, but I received frantic texts in ALL CAPS telling me of what happened. She walked right past him!

Random things: amusing videos!

First, after the Oscars, Jimmy Kimmel's post-Oscars show featured star-studded trailers for movies based on viral YouTube videos (think double rainbow guy and Keyboard Cat). The best by far was the VERY DRAMATIC one about brothers, starring actual brothers Chris and Liam Hemsworth.

Check out BITMAN BEGINS.

Second, many of us were anticipating Idina Menzel's live performance of the super inspirational Frozen song, LET IT GO. The performance itself was not as awesome as we wanted - what with the flub of Idina Menzel's name and then the strangely fast tempo of the song. Luckily for us, Idina performed the song later with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots and it was perfection. :)



And finally, here's a Loki for your week. (He has big teeth.)

Happy Wednesday! What's up with you?


P.S. Come back on Friday for a Cover Reveal of Kendare Blake's newest GODDESS WARS book!

Happy Loki Friday

I was going to blog constructively about things like writing (hit that 50,000 wordgoal a few days back and have been nagging Krispy to keep on nanoing, and she has been, I'm so proud of her I could burst into a cloud of glitter and unicorns) or TV (been watching a lot of shows lately like Almost Human, Elementary, Dracula, Sleepy Hollow, Supernatural, and Legend of Korra) or reading (except I've been stuck on Crown of Midnight for weeks because urrrrrrgh the fanfic and the clichees are keelhauling me) but then it got to be late and hey Loki is adorbs so whee!  Have video of the Lokster.

Here he is approximately five days ago with a new rope toy.  Note the stylish Star Wars collar:

As you can see, Loki was having a grand old time with his new toy.  Observe his red toy as well there, that weird wishbone-shaped nubby thing that is made of rocklike plastic and is all munched up from his gnawing.  Loki is what they term an "aggressive chewer".  What this means is that if you were stuck in prison, you'd want Loki with you because he could chew through the bars and you'd be free.  Loki laughs in the face of toys that claim they are "virtually indestructible" because Virtual is his middle name and Obliterator is his last.

Here he is approximately 20 minutes later:


Loki is not only the God of Mischief, he's also the God of Destruction and the God of Really Huge White Sharp Teeth.

Happy Friday, folks!  Do you often destroy what you love?  This includes things like eating dessert.  What's your favorite dessert?  'Cause clearly as I'm typing this right now, I'm suddenly really hungry.  I will not, however, be chewing on or eating a rope.  Have a good weekend!

What's Up Wednesday (20)

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, so we can check in with each other. To join, just check out Jaime Morrow or Erin Funk's blogs for the link widget and sign up!


WHAT I'M READING

ALLEGIANT! I didn't make it for YA Book Club (which you might want to check out if you HAVE read Allegiant), but at least I finally finished All Our Yesterdays! Despite how long it took me to read, it was good! The time travel was interesting, but beyond that I liked seeing the difference and lingering similarities between Em and Marina.


WHAT I'M WRITING

Still NaNo-ing! Very, very behind but I'm happy that I'm writing pretty much every day. Woohoo!


WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

Last week, the Make a Wish foundation and San Francisco turned the city into Gotham for a day so that 5-year-old Miles could be a super hero for a day. BatKid went around the city fighting crime and saving people in a Batmobile. People turned up to cheer him on, and the SF Chronicle even printed a special edition of the paper for it.

Seeing the pictures and tweets all day was so incredible and inspiring!

If you missed it, here's a good round-up of the day: Everything You Need to Know About...Crime-fighting Batkid.


WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

It was Alz's birthday last week, and we got her sprinkle donuts. Alz is birthday twins with one of our other friends. So there was celebrations for that too. We went out to eat and then, of course, there was karaoke.

[Photo/ Gennia]

But prior to karaoke, there was an amazing prank that was played. Our dear friend Luce is easily scared, and so this scenario was too good to pass up. Enjoy. (Video from Gennia)



Then, as we drove home from karaoke, the Sister won advanced screening tickets to see THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE!

So, on Monday night we got to see Catching Fire at the same time as it was being shown at the red carpet premiere. They let us into the theater an hour before the screening and live-streamed the red carpet premiere to us. They made us check our phones before we entered, so the Sister and I were both hungry and unable to tell time, haha. Then at 7:30p, we got to see the movie!

They had a mini red carpet set up for us & took our photo.

Outside the theater, they had a mini red carpet, a bunch of the Subway Catching Fire Victor stand-ups around, and a photo booth. They also gave us a movie poster and Subway CF cups.

Our photo booth picture: can you spot the Peeta-pocket? The Sister accidentally blocked him.

Now, I had a lot to say about the 1st Hunger Games movie- pros and cons. And while I liked THE HUNGER GAMES, I didn't love it.

But THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE movie? Loved it! It basically fixed my biggest issues with the first movie - like shaky cam! No more shaky camera! And the fashion! There's actual, gorgeous, outrageous fashion. And FINNICK ODAIR.

Rocked the Mockingjay pin I got from Scholastic back when Mockingjay was released.

I also loved Johanna. So, in short, if you liked the first, I think you'll like the second. I'm so happy about this too because Catching Fire is my favorite HG book. The Sister liked this movie better than the first too! So good.

The Sister used her HG purse: Mockingjay emblem & loaf of bread sewed on by Alz.
The Sister also wore her bread socks in honor of Peeta.

And that's what we've been up to! Can't wait for you all to see Catching Fire later this week! Then let's chat about it.

What's up with you?

What's Up Wednesday (13)

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, so we can check in with each other. To join, just check out Jaime Morrow or Erin Funk's blogs for the link widget and sign up!


Not gonna lie, it seems a little weird to me to be doing a What's Up Wednesday without the Ready.Set.Write! attached. I think others felt that way too because Jaime wrote a RELAUNCH post today, complete with adorable new badges! I love them all (but settled on the kite...for now). So definitely check out her blog this week!

WHAT I'M READING

Lots of crazy things going on with my reading. I finished CONTROL, didn't finish SECOND CHANCE SUMMER (though I plan to return to it soon), started THE BOOK THIEF, started QUINTANA OF CHARYN. My crazy book hopping has nothing to do with the quality of the books or my attention span. It actually has a lot to do with due dates, hah. Those library books...

I'm currently focusing on QUINTANA OF CHARYN, not only because I ADORE the Lumatere Chronicles and have been eager to read this last book in the trilogy but also because it is due soon and I am out of renewals!


WHAT I'M WRITING

Nothing at all at the moment. Taking a little break. I've been pondering some things and I got feedback on one of my poems that I'm also mulling over. So when the break's over, I hope to write story things and also work on that poem.


WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

Two things. Firstly, we've been having a late summer heat wave in SoCal, which is not uncommon. But as a result, we have been getting some GORGEOUS sunsets and general cloud art.

(First pic by the Sister; second pic by me)

Secondly, I didn't make it that far through THE BOOK THIEF (yes, it's my first time reading this), but the language is just beautiful - unexpected and evocative. So the writing itself is inspiring, as are its themes. The Sister and I were lucky enough to make it to a special Q&A and signing with Markus Zusak on Sunday at the LA Museum of Tolerance. It was so amazing to hear him talk about the book and the subject matter.

BONUS, since the event was presented by 20th Century FOX, we were also treated to sneak peeks at 2 scenes from the BOOK THIEF movie!

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

As you saw in last Friday's Loki Jacket post, Alz and the Sister made a jacket just for Loki. My contribution was just hand-writing the name for them to embroider over.

We also took him for a walk at a nearby park where there's a lake. He wanted to chase the geese and nearly dragged me straight INTO the lake in his attempt to get them.

It was also the Sister's birthday! To celebrate, we went to what was basically a kids museum to see dinosaurs over the weekend, and Monday night, a friend made a bunch of funnel cakes and ice cream.



But perhaps the most interesting/fun thing that I've been up to is I SAW THE BACKSTREET BOYS last Wednesday with my besties and the Sister. IT WAS AWESOME, and so, so fun. Like ridiculously, fabulously fun.

I can't believe they're celebrating their 20th anniversary! And it seemed fitting that this concert was at the Gibson Amphitheater, which will be gone after this concert season (to make way for the building of Hogwarts!). This venue was probably where I saw my first concerts ever!

Holding up our phone lights for the slow song! (Photo/ Gennia)

The Backstreet Boys put on a great show. They sang, they danced, they played instruments! Their stage was a crazy light show. They mostly sang their old hits (which was great for us because we don't know their new songs), and on top of that they used all the classic choreography. They did the HAT ROUTINE during All I Have to Give, and though they didn't do the chair routine from As Long As You Love Me, they did do the mic routine from that song.

My friend recorded "Everybody."


I got some of their acoustic set of the oldie but goodie "10,000 Promises." This was a song off their 2nd European album before their US debut. Basically, I never would have expected to hear them perform this, so it was a surprise and treat and was absolutely lovely. (I'll have to upload the full video some other time...)



Excuse the appearance of my inner fangirl for a moment here, but it was kind of AMAZING AWESOME to see BSB again after all these years. They were such an integral part of my and my friends tween-teenage years - and even younger years for my sister. At the concert, she realized the last time she'd seen them, she was like 10 or 11! Now, we're all old enough to drink at a Backstreet Boys concert, haha. We were obsessed with these guys, and honestly, this mutual love strengthened our friendship. In some cases, we became friends through our BSB fangirling.

Just noticed we kinda match - rocking red shoes & galaxy bottoms!

So, it was kind of a big deal to see BSB together with these wonderful ladies (who still knew all the words to the songs, heck yeah!). #KTBSPA

Q4U: What's up with you? OR What experiences/bands/etc. act as the glue between you and your friends?

What's Up Wednesday (5) / RSW (4)

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, so we can check in with each other. To join, just check out Jaime Morrow or Erin Funk's blogs for the link widget and sign up!


WHAT I'M READING
I'm currently reading Siege & Storm, which I'm glad to report I am quite enjoying! It's actually kind of a relief because as some of you might remember I wasn't that enamored of the first book Shadow & Bone (here's Alz and my double-review of Shadow & Bone if you're interested). Nevertheless, I was interested in S&S because I did enjoy the world and thought the story had a lot of potential (even if I didn't love Alina), and no lie, I'm kind of in love with the Darkling. What can I say, at some point in recent years I've become a sucker for pretty villains (I blame Loki).

But yes, I'm enjoying it! I'm liking Alina a lot more this time around; there was Darkling early on in the book (but alas, I think he will be MIA for this next chunk); and I'm starting to come around to this Sturmhond fellow. (But I will never abandon the Darkling ship! Never!)


WHAT I'M WRITING

Still working on that backstory story! I'm going to try to make a Ready.Set.Write twitter session one of these days, but the downside of being on the West Coast is that I'm usually at work or eating dinner or at the gym during the times of the write sessions. BUT ONE DAY!

Goal: Finish this stupid backstory story! Until then, since Tracey suggested it, here's an excerpt:

She was taught to read and write, to sing and dance - footsteps I would follow in my own education. They adorned her with silver hoops, woven shawls, and brightly patterned skirts.

It was no wonder then that my father took notice of her when he and his party arrived at their remote village.

The story is unclear here with accounts varying as to the reason for my father’s presence in such a far flung nook of the empire. What is clear is that he was on his way home when he heard tale of a heartrending beast lurking in the dense forests of the Northern range. Whether he was goaded by his men to pursue it or wished to gain glory for himself is a mystery, but it was this local superstition that sparked the beginning of my father and mother’s own legend.

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

I just picked up this book, and it is kind of awesome. Alz and I have already been fascinated, boggled, and amused by the many strange things found in this book. See that round thing with 4 wings and 6 feet on the cover? Apparently, that is a god.


WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

It was ridiculously hot this past weekend in Southern California. Like it was probably around 100F in my area, but I hear it was 134F in Death Valley. In any case, to stay cool, we went swimming and took Loki (and my cousin's dog Sadie) with us. Loki knows how to swim, but as Alz posted last Friday, Loki is too scared to leave the first step by himself.

But thanks to the heat, he figured out how to do it himself! He will now voluntarily launch himself from the top step and into the pool! He became so confident that he kept showing off to Sadie while we were trying to teach her not to be afraid of the water. (Sadie really hated swimming, haha.)



This weekend was also my cousin-once-removed (is this correct? The daughter of my first cousin?)'s birthday. We ate BBQ, played Just Dance (well, I watched - I am NOT coordinated enough for that game), and made balloon animals.

I made a tiger. Rawr!

Hope the rest of you had cooler weekends than I did!

Q4U: How is your RSW or Camp NaNoWriMo going? What's up with you?

P.S. Our blog/writer friend and awesome blog layout designer Caroline Richmond sold her book - and it sounds like a fantastic read! Definitely go congratulate her if you haven't! Here: It's a Book Deal

Beating the Heat with Loki and Swimming

It's Friday and we are going through a heatwave.  It's supposed to spike over 100 degrees in ye elde Fahrenheit here.

In order to combat the heat, we dress appropriately (Krispy in shorts and tanks and flipflops, Alz still in black and long sleeves and jeans but summerweight rather than winterweight), eat frozen yogurt and fudgesicles, and indulge in iced teas and copious boba.  Tangerine juice tea and orange-kumquat tea with rainbow jelly are refreshingly delicious.

Poor Loki spends his days panting in the shade, eating ice cubes, and taking the occasional dip in the pool.  And by "occasional dip," I mean "prolonged torture session."

What it boils down to is this: our resident Overlord of Cute turns into Kentucky Fried Loki when it comes to swimming--he gets scared when his paws don't touch the ground, but at the same time he likes the water and actually seems to enjoy swimming, and would probably swim on his own if he wasn't too chicken to take that first step.  Or second step, rather, as he will willingly hop into the first step of the pool by himself and lie down in the water.  It's just that the second step is a wee bit too far down for his paws to reach and he cannot muster bravery enough to dip himself in a little further.

Krispy and her Sister even got him a life jacket to help him float, but I don't think he realizes that's what the life jacket does.

For your viewing pleasure, here is Krispy, her Sister, and Loki, Pool Version:



Swim, Loki, swim!  Look at him go!  I was his favorite person that day since I didn't drag or dump him into the pool, and he demonstrated his affection by rubbing all over my legs while still in his life jacket and freshly saturated from the pool.

Happy Friday, folks!  What's your favorite cold treat to beat the heat?

PS Love Star Wars?  Are wookiees your favorite walking carpets ever? Then you'll be pleased to know that there's something even better than Chewbacca!  Check out Krispy's Sister's article about how Chubaka is the new in-thing.

Randomosity on Fridays: Friday 5

May is coming to a close and summer is on its way here! I'm chipper this Friday because Thursday was strangely awesome, even though I am also extremely jealz of all the people currently chatting it up at BEA in New York. One day!

Here's my Friday 5.

1) On the other hand, though I may not be at BEA this year, it turns out I will be going to Comic Con after all! Yay for scoring badges during the resale! That was Thursday Awesome Thing #1!

2) Thursday Awesome Thing #2: While I was pining over the fact that people were getting Maggie Stiefvater's The Dream Thieves ARCs at BEA and commiserating (and also offering bribes) with Mindee Arnett, the very lovely Sarah Goldberg offered to share the ARC that will be coming to her. Obviously, I jumped on that offer ASAP and pledged my undying love.

3) News came in that NBC renewed the TV show HANNIBAL for a 2nd season. I'm so excited because this is such a stylishly shot show. It is tense, creepy, and also truly disturbing. I love the psychology and the moodiness, the horrific imagery. SUCH a good show (even if it makes me question my love of food). Recommended! (Also, I love Hugh Dancy.)

4) The Sister and I marathoned the new Netflix season of Arrested Development with our friend Justine. She also hosted an amazing viewing party: lasagna cupcakes, guacamole and chips, juice boxes, candy beans, and the all important chocolate-covered frozen bananas.

Definitely deserving of the title Mister Manager!

She even made us gift bags!

The Sister went to the party as Buster.

The new episodes were definitely different - even wackier than the original and the formatting has changed - but we still enjoyed it.  Just took a bit of getting used to, and we loved how the different storylines intersected. We want more! (Also the song "Getaway")

5) The Sister and I also got to see Imagine Dragons last night at the Hollywood Palladium. Needless to say, it was awesome.

Shot by the Sister from the balcony, where we watched most of the show.

Sister did a short vine video of Radioactive.

Q4U: What are your Friday Fives? Are any of you going to Comic Con this year??

Whatever Wednesday: Video Edition

Hello and good day, for 'tis Wednesday the 29th and quite nearly the end of May!  'Tis also then the near end of Asian American Pacific Islander Month and whilst Krispy and I did intend to post more things related, never did we get around to it or so the universe has fated.  Whyfor is this post written in rhyme?  Perhaps because Alz has the time.

ENOUGH OF THAT AHEM.  Anyway, to round out our lackadaisical APA Month postings, Krispy and I wanted to share with you this very special video by Ken Tanaka about how to respond to that question--"So where are you from?  No, like, where are you from?"



Now if we're ever asked this question, we'll have a verbal riposte ready.

And now have a video of Loki VS the Hose:



Loki was super fluffy after his bath and subsequent toweling and blowdrying, whereafter he promptly went to lie down on the gritty ground.  I suppose that's better than rolling in the mud, though I'm sure if there had been mud around, Loki would've gone for a brisk romp therein.

Q4U: So, seeing Loki up there biting at the water made me think about how I've never drunk from a hose (talking about a garden/lawn hose here)--but when I was little I had a couple of friends who drank from hoses without a second thought.  I always thought it was kinda gross, particularly as our hose was always lying around outside in the dirt and stuff, and if I was thirsty I'd just go inside for a drink.  Have you ever drunk from a hose?

Randomosity on Fridays: Poetry Edition

[Edit: Our hearts go out to all the people experiencing craziness and tragedy this week, but especially to those in Boston where most of the crazy has been these last few days. Be safe and take care.]

April is National Poetry Month, which is nifty and totally something we should celebrate more. While poetry is a highly subjective genre (I think even more so than the way fiction is), I think it's a valuable subject of study for readers and especially writers. As writers, words are our tools of choice, and poetry can really make you realize the true power and potential in those tools.

With poetry, the focus is drawn down to the word-by-word level, where everything has to pull double if not triple duty because of the shorter (and sometimes strictly structured) form. So it can really be an exercise in precise diction and imagery, something all writing benefits from. Beyond that, poetry also takes into account the flow of words, the cadence of the lines as they're read, and sometimes even the look of the poem itself. It is a form that operates on multiple levels of comprehension and feeling, which is something we can try to bring to other forms of writing. It's like the literary equivalent of music.

Basically, I have a soft spot for poetry even though I never really studied it (or even read that much of it) from an academically rigorous standpoint. But it appeals to my sensibilities as a writer and reader, and I totally wanted to be a poet (in 6th grade) before I ever wanted to be a novelist.

So anyway, I thought I'd share a few poems to sort of lighten the tone of this dark week. First, you will find a brief medically-inspired Twitter poetry session between authors Lydia Kang and April Genevieve Tucholke, which eventually led to a line of my own.

And my little entry into this:

Here's something a little lighter on the poetry front. It's one of my favorite moments from the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender even though it's sort of a filler episode. Sokka stumbles upon a haiku reading and proves to be rather good at it.




Lastly, since I love you all so much, here's my Brit actor crush Tom Hiddleston reading poetry. It's one of Alz's favorite poems. Beware, you might swoon.

Tom Hiddleston - He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by William Yeats
Shared from sweating-like-a-cornered-nun using Embeddlr

"Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

Q4U: What is your favorite poem? OR Share a line (or two) of atropine poetry!

Happy weekend!

Randomosity on Fridays: Happy Things

Happy Friday, everyone!

We've got another wedding this weekend for another of our childhood friends. (Yep, another one. We truly are at the point when all our friends start getting married. Another good example of early 20s versus late 20s: The Sister is going to Coachella this weekend; we're going to a wedding.) Though neither of us is involved in the wedding party this time, it's still busy-busy.

And it's Friday, so here are two videos of fun things!

Firstly, we have a cool time-lapse video of the dance floor from the last wedding that the newlyweds recently posted.

Gennia and Scott Reception (condensed version) from Scott Rabideau on Vimeo.

Secondly, we have a video the Sister took of Loki earlier this week. It was a super windy day, and though Loki was a bit frightened by it, he was also really taken with the leaves that came fluttering by. Here's a vid of his floppy ears vs. the wind.




Have a great weekend, friends!

Randomosity on Fridays: Cute Overlord in Motion

Posts with substance will return next week! I got too distracted by fiddling around with our pretty new blog to plan far enough ahead for a post, and dear Alz is sick! Many people have been getting sick lately, probably because the weather in SoCal has been so inconsistent.

So we're both going to take it easy, especially since Alz plans to be well enough for cotton candy this weekend. It is our city's annual Camelia Festival, which means a mini-carnival held in the park in front of City Hall. And a parade. I marched in this parade as a middle schooler in band and volunteered at a carnival booth as a high schooler for community service. Fun times.

I'll probably pop into the library and see if I can get a copy of Finnikin of the Rock. My borrowed e-copy expired while I was still reading it, and it was getting goooood!

We leave you with these few items:

1) Nominate a book for the YA Book Club in March at Tracey's blog: Nominations! Nominations!

2) DUALED by Elsie Chapman is out next week! I reviewed it here: DUALED review. Some stuff bothered me, but overall, it was a really engaging read and a different kind of dystopian. Love the gray area the main character occupies!

3) Loki being a playful and sleepy boy during the day time.

Happy weekend!

Toast to Love & the New Year!

What an eventful week it has been this mid-February! As you know, yesterday was Valentine's Day and this past Sunday was the Lunar New Year! It was also the Bad B*tches Bachelorette Weekend for one of my bestest friends (and ex-facebook wife).

So I thought it'd be appropriate to ring in the new year (Year of the Snake) with a lovefest and pictures.

Taken by the Sister at Hsi Lai temple over the weekend.

In no particular order, I'm sending love and general warm fuzzies to...

1) My co-writer, co-blogger, and general sanity manager: Alz. I'm lucky I've known you since we were children because that makes you significantly less intimidating. You've probably seen the absolute worst of my writing. except for maybe that truly terrible fanfic from middle school

[NO PICTURE AVAILABLE]

2) The Sister. We're stuck with each other, so we might as well be each other's best allies.

Taken by Gennia at the Color Run

3) Best friends: ladies I wouldn't mind getting lost in the snowy desert with.

Hiking in Sedona for Bachelorette weekend. Photo: Gennia

Posing in a dry creek bed.  Photo: Crystal

4) Virtual friends: my book people and writerly cohorts! You who understand the love of words and fictional people and all things geektastic! (And you're all incredibly sweet, to boot!)

Thank you for the sweet Valentine's card, Akoss!

5) Loki

Well, I mean this one too, but mostly I mean...

...this Loki!

He is everyone's Valentine!

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR! Also, have a great President's Day long weekend. You all know how much of a U.S. History nerd I am. ;)

Q4U: Make a toast of your own in the comments! [The Toast of our Bachelorette Weekend was: "To ancient times and distant music!"]


P.S. A long weekend bonus for you...

Paperman - one of my favorite Disney Animation shorts!




Justin Timberlake's SUIT & TIE (Official) video // It's a cool video directed by David Fincher AND the shots of the chandelier-decorated room? That's the El Rey Theatre (where the Sister sometimes works)!