Well, for starters- I'm easily distracted. It helps if those distractions are pretty and female, which they were both. That's my excuse for not being around here. And cause I've been away from the computer for the past two days and so at Annie's mountain house, and blah and blah. I'd blame the former reason for most of it, though.

So, another massive overloaded update, because one of those distractions was nagging me oh so sweetly about it. Wohoo.

Here's to a belated Happy New Year to all three consistent readers. This New Year's party was awesome, to say the least. The skit actually went way, way better than expected (I mailed you the script, Gettings, and Jessie, Andrew's given the green light on letting you see the video. The script we don't particularly care about anyone seeing, but the videos are another matter.) Surprisingly enough, we actually didn't forget that many of the lines, though some of the cues like the Inquisitor were a bit botched. And I did become a bit over enthusiastic with the homicidal hat trick and the katana that was pulled from said hat, which led to a interesting intermission. And that hardly anyone got all the jokes. Oh well. Now we just have to make a better one for next year (current ideas revolve around a possible exploration of Bron's POV with Kelsier and Declan and Cayal/Elend. We’ll see what we can manage). The girls loved it and laughed enough, which makes me content. Goal reached.
The girls also did a pretty good job with their skit, although I slightly resent it that none of them told me that they had black dresses that would've been amazing on Bella. Oh, and I have your fan, Gettings.
I really don't have much to say for my new year's resolutions, other than stop procrastinating (again). Last year was...Interesting, thinking on it. Lots of late night phone calls, awkward situations, a cat finally getting out of the bloody bag, Hilton Head, college. And Mistborn becoming my purpose in life; lots of that. Fun stuff.

Moving on.

 

I got an email from Krumpe (orgo chem professor) sent us an email last week about how he's now Chair of Natural Sciences. Which means that it's a 50:50 chance that Allen will end up as Chair, which would be bad for us poor research students since it's hard enough to stalk the man just to nail down a meeting with him. More importantly, we've got to deal with Orgo Chem starting at 7:45 AM now- apparently, Krumpe felt it wouldn't 'cut into anyone's schedule too much and would allow the class to cover more material'.
7:45 Organic Chemistry. I can now say bye-bye to ever being on time to that class. Oh, whee. Kill me now.
And then Allen mails me something about how he's decided I'm going to be learning some weird...Program. I still don't quite understand what he's talking, other than I get to make pretty pictures with a really complicated procedure.
On the top side, at least I'm not taking two labs next semester. YAY+HAHA! I knew it was a good idea to keep my lab reports and my notebook, DW! HAH!

In the late wake of Christmas, Christmas. Christmas this year was the same as most- uneventful and boring. I did get a lottery ticket as my present from my uncle, so here's to hoping that I win.
Oh, and on the matter of Santa while we're at it. I had an issue with Santa that I resolved quite nicely.
So, Santa as we know comes down the chimney- the problem is that in the said chimney there's all numbers of nasty carcinogens building up there. So, with all the chimneys that he has to go through every year, the likelihood of Santa developing prostate cancer is incalculably high. Santa would've died of cancer by then. So, my rationalized explanation of the whole Santa myth/the story that my children, if I ever have any, are going to here goes like this:
Once upon a time in the far off future, a philanthropist realized that there was no real Santa, and likewise, the Santa myth was dying out rapidly. So, to rectify the loss of innocence, he decided to go take the handy time machine and go back in time to whenever the myth started. Along with him, he brought an electron sharer/converter that could allow him to appear in multiple locations at once, a flying sled, a lot of factory machines, a supercomputer and a cloning machine. Oh, and spliced his DNA with a fish's so he could survive the cold conditions. With this in hand, he was able to leap aboard the sled every night, charge up the electron sharer which gave him the properties of an electron an then delivering all the toys built on his assembly line of machines. When he reached a critical stage from encountering so many carcinogens in his job, he would then use the cloning machine to clone himself from previously saved good genetic material. Oh, and every cell by now has basically been inscribed with all the memories of a person, so Santa's basically immortal. And that's how Santa came to be.

More pertinent matters.

Friday. Oh. Right. Nothing actually happened so far on these Fridays. It made itself up, of course, with enough other awkward situations that I got myself into. And getting lost while hiking through the mountains, though it was gorgeous up there.

Mistborn! And Sanderson in general.
Right. Lots of stuff on this matter. First off- HoA is on sale! Still, it seems, but the online versions seem to have run dry already. Aw wells- I'll go see if I can snag a copy over the weekend, even if I already have two copies of the book. I might just find some actual use for it.
Oh, and beholden are we to the new annotation(s)! Two new ones. First one, Chapter 51- we get to see the first appearance of Preservation, and a more interesting turn on Elend killing Jastes. Which apparently was around when Elend started to go more gray, which I didn't actually consider that he underwent during the time lapse between the two books. Then again, killing your former best friend does count as something gray. Ish. Suppose it might've laid the groundwork for my future adoration of Elend.
Chapter 52 isn't so interesting, except we get some reasoning as to why we watched the war from Sazed and Breeze's POV. I still think that Breeze should've suffered longer effects from the trauma, considering he didn't actually have any of the amusing conversations with Ham at all. Then again, he did comment on the evil force of doom, so I can forgive him. Then we get to the horseshoe trick, which kind of makes you appreciate the tiny details.
And last but not least, Sanderson has given his hand at trying sci-fi. Or a sci-fi short story. It was a good story- I don't like sci-fi much, but the characters were decently realized and I liked the ending in which Dennison won by playing on his brother's confidence. Dennison was a sympathetic enough character, which gives me some hope for The Way of Kings not turning out like Elantris and Warbreaker and more like Mistborn. Yay!
Oh, and now thanks to Gettings, I've got my hands on a Amazon gift card, but the poster still isn't out yet...Blarh. Now I just don't know what I actually want, though...Oh, and it's been brought to my attention that Sanderson isn't on ratemyprofessor.com. Sacrilege! 

Oh, and the long awaited book log update on none other than...*drumroll*
The Immortal Prince, who has been on hold for a while. Then one of the stalking stalkity stalkers got to nagging me about it, and I've run out of excuses as to why I don't have the time to write it. Spoilers ahead.
This was actually a pretty good book, even if it was mostly just backstory and largely info dumping without much action. Lots of amusing dialogue, though. And plenty of gray characters who are oodles of fun. Like Cayal, the manic depressant immortal who wants nothing more than to die out of a fear of boredom. It kind of plays on the idea that eventually, when given enough time people get bored with life and likewise ruin their humanity- it's hard to connect with someone when you know they're going to die and you'll be around for who knows how long. And it also helps in the regard of breeding a certain arrogance and callousness, although Cayal isn't that callous. He is kind of...morally apathetic, though. Which does explain his mass murdering spree, but not the reasoning as to why he went to such lengths when he could find Pellys or the like and have him cut off his head. And then there's Declan, but we don't see much of the Spymaster, sadly. Though we do have a particularly amusing line in which he suggests that some of the royalty be brought to a dark alleyway to be...introduced to some of the finer mistakes that they've made. He gets to be more funny in the later books, supposedly, trusting Gettings. And Arkady, who's not too bad but kind of firmly rooted in her world of academia. Then there's the whole Cayal Arkady ship which is NOT healthy at all and doesn't work nearly as well as the Declan/Arkady ship.
Then we have on a lesser note, Gods of Amyrantha. I haven't actually finished this book yet, since reading it via the fruitcake method of the search function is quite a trial to say the least. But I've gotten 200 some pages into it, and a particular, dear someone who is being an absolutely vicious, vile, malicious, cruel, spiteful pitiless fruitcake is dropping all sorts of hints around, making me just a tiny bit frustrated to say the least. It almost makes me wonder why we’re friends.

 

Music, no less!
Well, I'm pretty sure that Gettings' regretting this about now, but Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is now stuck in my head. Or My Freeze Ray (which you had the unfortunate chance of seeing us perform and sing on various occasion), Brand New Day and My Eyes. It does sadly work in context with the musical skit, though.
Oh, and then we have A Fine Frenzy's Almost Lover STILL playing on loop in my brain. Still. That's the longest running loop I've ever had. So, here are the lyrics.

Your fingertips across my skin
The palm trees swaying in the wind
Images
You sang me Spanish lullabies
The sweetest sadness in your eyes
Clever trick

Well, I never want to see you unhappy
I thought you'd want the same for me

Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should've known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

We walked along a crowded street
You took my hand and danced with me
Images
And when you left, you kissed my lips
You told me you would never, never forget
These images

Well, I'd never want to see you unhappy
I thought you'd want the same for me

Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should've known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

I cannot go to the ocean
I cannot drive the streets at night
I cannot wake up in the morning
Without you on my mind
So you're gone and I'm haunted
And I bet you are just fine

Did I make it that
Easy to walk right in and out
Of my life?

Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should have known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do