Plagiarist Rant

So one of the least deserving authors ever received her second children’s book award according to the Today show this morning.

This author (not saying names though I’m sure you can figure it out by the end of my rant) has stolen most of her material (excepting one sparkly bit) from Annette Curtis Klause (in my personal opinion of course). I’m sure there are other authors that are lesser known that this plagiarist is stealing from.

I wonder if the authors won’t say anything because of the Rowling scandal years ago when an author showed her book (consisting of wizards, muggles, owl carriers, etc) and claimed Rowling stole from her. The protesting author lost their case (obviously since J.K. is still writing) so it might scare any other smaller writer from calling a popular writer a plagiarist.

Castle

Hello again readers!
Something new for those of you not in the television loop (like myself). I have been introduced to a new show, Castle on ABC. AMAZING!
Castle stars Nathan Fillion (You may remember him as Captain Mal from Firefly, and will be happy to see him in a Brown Coat on episode one) and Stana Katic (Morgenstern in The Spirit and Corinne Veneau in the new Bond film). The show is about a mystery writer, Rick Castle, who teams up with a savvy detective chick, Kate Beckette, and helps solve crimes with his unique insight on criminology.
Check it out Monday nights at 10pm. I know its late for those of us that gotta get up early but hey, it’s worth it. If you can’t catch the new episodes you can find them online to watch during your “free time.”

Gloomth Coupon

Free Shipping Coupon!
Available until April 4th.
Code: 5FREES

You can use it as many times as you want until the 4th.

La Carmina Contest

La Carmina is spreading the word of her new Goth Cooking Show on You Tube (above I'm attempting to embed it but I'm not sure it will work, I'm so dumb when it comes to that sort of thing).
She's also hosting a contest with prizes from Gloomth and Aromaleigh.

A Treasure in Trouble

Until yesterday, I never really thought about the current bad economy. Other than tuition going up %5 I was not effected by it really. I heard about jobs being lost at the local factory and price cuts but it was never personal…like I said, until yesterday.
Happy Belated St. Paddys
It is also my boyo DC’s birthday (such a Irish baby).
I took him out for food at the local German restaurant (there aren’t any Irish pubs here sadly) and we stopped in on our friends Brandy and June at Unique Treasures which is just down the street form the restaurant.
We found June and her daughter and sat down to talk.
The place is in trouble. With the bad economy, Brandy has pulled out and she wants to close.
I didn’t understand. I thought June meant close that day. She meant permanently.
Unique Treasures is a treasure in itself. The place is beautiful; an old jewelry store that has turned café/boutique. Great coffee, lovely tea, beautiful antiques and charms and trinkets. Everything is for sale, including the seat you’re sitting on.
June reads tarot cards in the front room that looks like it came out of a beautiful gypsy caravan with tapestries and comfortable chairs and dim lighting. (So far I’ve found her readings to be correct)
Brandy wanted June to pull out as well but Unique Treausrures is not just June’s place of business but her home and her daughter’s home.
Determined not to loose this treasure in downtown Johnson City, I’m doing what I can to stir them up some business (getting an ad in the school paper where I work, having my Jane Austen class an hour earlier there, and encouraging others to do the same).
DC and I will be helping June out this Sunday, doing some heavy lifting.

If any of the readers here are local to the Tri-cities area I would love to encourage you to visit Unique Treasures. It really is a beautiful place.

Modernism...eh?

Ok so in two of my classes (Humanities and American Lit.) we're dealing with Modernism. So far, all I want to do is groan every time I hear the word.
I don't understand it. It's an all encompassing box of ideals during the 20th century, sure. But that doesn't make any sense. The Europeans see it as a break from all that is the past, the Irish see it as embracing their past, Americans don't have a lot of past to break from or embrace so they see it as urban or rural...there are too many ideas here to all be put in the same box!
Faulkner has so much dialect its ridiculous, and in The Sound and The Fury (which, strangely, I actually found myself liking) there's all this muddied time and place and who and name. It would take years to really understand the book. (BTW, thank God for spell check or this last bit would have been gibberish with my typing rant.)
Next we read Grendel and I'm not sure if I should be afraid...A book based on another book so that the author didn't have to focus on plot...not only that but the symbols are zodiac and the philosophy is 20th century rather than pre-historic Celtic whatever that Beowulf was written in? My head hurts already!.

Looking for a job for the summer, any ideas?

Henna Job!

Had my first job at Unique Treasures Saturday. Did henna on a teenage girl, and sadly it was not my best. She kind of surprised me with a custom piece (a claddagh with a clover instead of a heart, which sort of defeats the point of the symbol in my opinion). I did the piece as a bracelet, explaining the symbol to the girl and giving advice on how to take care of her tattoo. I asked that she not move her wrist around much until it dries and let her be. She ruined it within minutes and asked me to fix it. I said I would if she let me take a picture of the piece. She did but I don’t think I’ll be using the picture due to the piece’s ruin…the clover looked more and more like a glob no matter how I messed with it.
I did three free pieces for the owners of Unique Treasures and will put up the pictures in a new photobucket account when I can.
My jac bottle clogged up and I had no mylar cones with me, a mistake I will not repeat that is for sure.
For my first time doing henna there I think it went rather well. In all I made 8 dollars and some change (the girl’s mother had to pay with debit card which has a fee at the shop).
If you’re ever in Johnson City, TN on a Saturday stop by downtown at Unique Treasures for some excellent coffee and a henna tat.

The Joys and Sorrows of Firefly

This past summer I was introduced the wonder that is Joss Whedon's Firefly. As soon as I was able I bought the series online and watched it all in one day with DC. We both were in love with the show and ran out and bought Serenity after finishing the series. Having now watched the movie twice and revelled in the special features I can blog about it.

Rant
WHY THE HELL DID THEY END WITH ONE SEASON!
So wrong. So very, very wrong. What's gonna happen to Zoe now that she's lost her hubby? Will Kaylee and Simon last? Is the Alliance still after them? Does Mal and Inarra get together? What was Book's past?
As you can see, I am a lil agitated.

Joss Whedon's The Dollhouse starts this month, pretty exciting. I hope it turns out well though there are so many recycled actors from Buffy and Angel.

Henna Tryouts

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/WickedDecember/December/P1010121.jpg
I bought some henna samples from hennapage.com
They're ok but I've used better. It may just be the mix I did.
Here's the outcome

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/WickedDecember/December/P1010123.jpg

And after about 2 hours of setting

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/WickedDecember/December/P1010125.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/WickedDecember/December/P1010126.jpg

Another Amazing Date

I know its been a while, and I'm sorry for it.

Whats going on in my life in the new year?
I have 2 jobs, one wiht the library and another witht he school paper as their advertising manager.
Dealing with other people to learn how to do something fo ryour job is not the best thing ever. I'm currently playing phone tag with a guy from College Publisher to try adn do a demo to learn how to advertise and post advertisements online. Its been three days of phone tag and he isn't in the office on weekends -_-
I have 17 hours of classes, almost all of which have a stack of books to read. I'm also teaching a class on Jane Austen, reading four of her books (Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, and Emma).
All of this on top of a boyfriend who and friends as well as my writing...

As for something a lil more personal and recent yesterday DC took me on a beautiful date.
We went to lunch at my favorite oriental fusion restaurant where I had sushi and redbean mochi buns which I've been craving for weeks.
After eating and talking like an old couple for an hour we went to the historic district of the city and walked around in the snow flurries. There were beautiful houses and storefronts. We had expensive gourmet chocolates at Earth and Sky (I had a honey and lavender truffle which was amazing and DC had a peanut butter thing that was very sweet and yummy) and looked at antique stores and I bought an Indian purse necklace at a shop that sells trinkets and statues from Asia and South America.
Just walking around in teh cold holding hands and kissing under the snowy sky was so romantic and its those pictures that stay in my mind when I think of DC.

Sorry for the gush but I had to post and figured this was the best thing thats happened to me in a while.