every second every moment

iridescentglow wrote a Lauren ficlet "how to be a domestic goddess", that I think everyone should read. Spare and quiet - Nicola paints a picture of a Lauren we haven't seen...but might. The inevitable end.

Thanks to everyone who's signed up so far for the Lauren ficathon - the number's exceeded my expectations and I'm very grateful.

If you're like me and have problems scanning because 1) your flatbed scanner is conspiring against you and there's a funky little red line that goes through a portion of your finished image 2) you don't have a scanner - this is a fantastic scans resource for some of your eyecandy needs. Over 4,000 scans of pretty people!

see you next tuesday - I love this clip, and I've stolen it from quite a few people on LJ. It's a bunch of celebrities revealing their favorite swear words - E.R., Scrubs, O.C. members as some of the participants. Darn that Adam Brody...

And because it's a lazy Sunday, I present a short list of things to read when you're sad and need cheering up and no one is around to amuse you

In no particular order:

1. Read Terry Pratchett. I'd say read any Terry Pratchett, but I do have a fondness for his Discworld novels, and of course, Good Omens. I just re-read Hogfather. (my favorite Discworlds involve Death as major parts of the plot)

why? Because,

[context - Death has just decided to give the Little Match Girl a reprieve]

Shortly afterward there was some tinkling music and a very bright light and two rather affronted angels appeared at the other end of the alley, but Albert threw snowballs at them until they went away.

Pratchett writes these delightfully overlapping puzzles of novels, where point A starts and then he throws in Point B and you don't know how they connect until Point C taps you on the shoulder and gives you a wet raspberry of a kiss and it's all very, "aha!" so that's how it works - very controlled lunacy. I love his writing.

2. Read Bill Bryson. Everything, full stop, do not pass The Lost Continent. Bill Bryson is primarily known as a travel-book writer, and I've been hearing about his work for the last few years, only I've just recently gotten into his bibliography - and now I'm waiting for his next book. He's hilarious - he's written about living in England (Notes from a Small Island), moving back to America after living in England for two decades (I'm a Stranger Here, Myself), Australia (In a Sunburned Country), walking the Appalachian trail (A walk in the woods)...and just so many other places and things (he makes grammar and the study of words interesting and fun...for that alone, he's a genius.)

I want his brain.

From In a Sunburned Country, the travelogue I've just finished...

[about Australia]

It is the home of the largest living thing on earth, the Great Barrier Reef, and of the largest monolith, Ayers Rock (or Uluru to use its now-official, more respectful Aboriginal name). It has more things that will kill you than anywhere else. Of the world's ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of its creatures--the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick, and stonefish---are the most lethal of their type in the world. This is a country where even the fluffiest of caterpillars can lay you out with a toxic nip, where seashells will not just sting you but actually sometimes go for you. Pick up an innocuous cone shell from a Queensland beach, as innocent tourists are all too wont to do, and you will discover that the little fellow inside is not just astoundingly swift and testy, but exceedingly venomous. If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback. It's a tough place.

3. Read Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle. My first DWJ book and arguably, my favorite. It would be the book I'd bring along with me to an island. Structured around a John Donne poem (Neil Gaiman's Stardust was his part of the challenge to write a novel around the same poem), Howl blends magic, humor, snark and romance perfectly, and I prefer it over the second novel in the same universe - mostly because of the strength of the characterization in Sophie (the heroine) and Howl (the incredibly vain and amusing and damn it, crushable sorceror, Sophie's constantly fighting with). If a screwball comedy was ever written in book format....Howl comes awfully close to it.

I can't wait to see how Miyazaki turns it into an animated film....

and that's it. I said it was a shortlist.

off to see Diego dancing.

shut up.

has anyone found "latin lover" by lemon on a fileswap program at all? It's driving me nuts.