I don’t actually have a lot of ‘favorite actors or actresses’ but Julie Andrews has to be all time favorite actress. Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, the Princess Diaries (1 & 2), Cinderella… the list just goes on and on. I love the woman!

Mary Poppins is, surprisingly, one of the few Disney movies that I am not very fond of. Julie Andrews is the only thing that even makes it bearable for me. I hate the rest of the cast (aside from Dick Van Dyke even with the terrible cockney accent) and I am just too much of a visual person to let all of that pass by. I love Julie Andrew’s voice and it always amazes me to hear how much trouble she has singing at times (1997 throat operation notwithstanding). But Mary Poppins aside, I loved the Sound of Music growing up and when she showed up in the Princess Diaries I was just absolutely smitten. Seeing her as a queen was simply perfect. Fitting, even. And then she voiced the Queen in the Shrek movies! Oh how I squealed when I heard that glorious voice!

As of the time of this post, she is 75 years old and wow does she look amazing. While I am not one to truly fan all over someone, I have a feeling that the day Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews leaves this earth… I will be in tears. May that day be far, far away.

Stay Classy, Internets.
♡ Kristen

Here’s the thing: the internet has allowed us all to say everything we’ve ever wanted to say without fear of repercussion of any kind. We can hide behind a monitor and keyboard and say whatever we want. There is no sense of diplomacy, no sense of social graces, no sense of dignity.

Every forum you visit, every popular blog you read… they all have trolls, drama!llamas, and wannabe queen-bees abound. There is this weird sensation of the internet being SRS BZNS and your internet-popularity actually means shit in the real world. Excuse me while I go roll on the floor a bit, laughing my ass off. No, no. It’s fine. I need the workout. Laughter is good for the soul. But seriously. Who cares? It’s not like your local high school where you have your jocks, your cheerleaders, your geeks, your whatevers. No one cares who you are really. You can flounce all over your medium of choice and maybe you’ve garnered some sort of following there but can you honestly transfer that ‘popularity’ into the real world? Most likely not.

Hell, even some of the more well known internet ‘celebrities’ are just… You know, I have no words for them. Why? Because I don’t pay attention to them. Laugh. Out. Loud. I just do not care. Scene kids? Nope. Don’t care. Uber-bloggers? WTF. Do people honestly think they are a celebrity or something and that people should worship them and hang onto their every tweet, update, and cross-post? They need help. Really.

But I got off topic a bit; the above was more setting up just how I feel about people who think they are Someone Famous on the Web because of whatever reason they’ve come up with. We come around to the troll-types. These are the people who seem to think that they have some sort of shock-factor because they post comments that would be socially unacceptable in face-to-face interaction. These Cyber Queen Bees take Mean Girls to the cyber form and get their kicks by bullying–because, really, that’s what it is–others. They leave nastiness in their wake and can always seem to dish it out to anyone at any time but cannot handle it if someone calls them out. Why is this, exactly? Because they honestly believe that they are safe behind these internet-based personalities that they have constructed over the years. How dare someone poke a hole in their carefully crafted façade! Your average drama!llama will turn any of this ‘calling out’ around and make it out to be like everyone hates them and everyone is out to get them. The best part is that if someone else were acting how they had been, they would have risen up to reclaim the top spot and said anything they wanted, aiming below the belt whenever possible. The whole thing breaks my smart place so much that I’m no longer even making any sense. Where was I?

So it all boils down to the sad state that our society is in today when it comes to online interaction. Have some heart, people. If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, don’t say it to them online in any form. Everyone is so very quick to cry ‘freedom of speech’ both written and spoken and yet people seem to manage their brain-to-mouth filtered much better than their brain-to-fingers one.

Stay Classy, Internets.
♡ Kristen

Stay Classy, Internets.
♡ Kristen

The Rules:
Once you’ve been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end, choose 6 people to be tagged, list their names & why you tagged them. Don’t forget to leave them a comment saying “You’re it!” & to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you. Since you’re not allowed to tag me back, let me know when you are done so I can go read YOUR weird, random, facts, habits and goals.

01. I love stationery. This isn’t really a secret. My favorite places to wander around are stationery stores, aisles, etc. My friend Kim and I used to go to Staples during our lunch time at work and wander around. Pens, paper, markers, notebooks, the list goes on. I have had the obsession for as long as I can remember. I used to hoard pens, pencils, erasers, and the like when I was younger and couldn’t bear to use them because it would ruin how pretty they were.

02. I do not like to be touched. This is not entirely true but it is for the general, initial statement. If I do not like you, do not touch me. If I do not know you, do not touch me. Do not touch my stomach. Do not touch my sides. Do not touch my knees. Do not touch my feet unless I am in pain and you have offered to rub it away and you actually know what you are doing. The absent-minded “excuse me” touch to get my attention is acceptable because it is usually gentle and brief. I have had near-strangers hug me before and I was tense and upset for hours afterward. I also do not usually appreciate any intimate touching.

03. My favorite numbers are 6 and 13. If I had to choose a third, it would be 27.

04. Eventually, I want to live overseas for a year or more. I would prefer to do so in one of the following countries, in order of preference: Bali, England, Australia, Ireland, the Czech Republic. Other countries I would like to at least visit: Egypt, Italy, Japan, Greece, and New Zealand (in no particular order).

05. Before I die, I want to have written a book and have it published. I have written books in the past but nothing publish-worthy in my opinion. I have so many ideas floating around in my head and it’s just a matter of putting them down to paper and not critiquing myself every step of the way until I shelve the ideas and the attempts for another several years.

06. I do not want to bear children. At this point in time, I do not want to have any children at all. If, in the future, this changes… I will look into adopting. But even then it would not be a baby or even a young child. I do not want to go through the pregnancy or labor process. Ever. Becoming pregnant wound up being an actual fear for me and not the idea of bringing a child into the world and all of the responsibilities that came with such a thing; I did not want to carry or bear a child. Period.

07. I am empathic. At the risk of sounding insane, it is the truth and it is hard to explain to those who have no understanding of it. I feel emotions and energies of people–and sometimes animals. My friend Josh used to joke about my ‘animal empathy’ but I think it was more that they were attracted to me rather than me understanding them. As for people, I tend to shut down emotionally because I become bombarded with emotions that are not mine and it is too difficult to deal with them when I cannot make sense of them. Because of this constant, defensive reaction I am often accused of being emotionless and distant. Oddly enough, I tend to understand other people and their emotions far better than they could ever believe because I feel their pain. I do massage therapy as a form of stress relief, energy wise, on people I know well enough (in that I do not mind taking on their pain) and they are always amazed that I can not only find their pain upon first touch but that they feel less pain and more relaxed even after only two minutes of my attention. I am able to ‘siphon’ off the negative emotions and energies and relieve them a bit. I cannot remain in contact for very long because the pain becomes my own. This is the only reason why I never went to massage school as many have suggested.

08. I don’t sleep well most nights. Even if I manage to get myself to the point of being exhausted enough to pass out, there was a great deal of anxiety prior to going to bed. It is like I am afraid of the bedroom. Psychologically speaking, I understand that I equate the bedroom to being the cause of two sources of intense anxiety for me: sex and sleep. As I do not like being intimate, sharing a bedroom with my boyfriend meant that if I went to bed around the same time as he did, it was apparently to have sex with him (not!). I do not enjoy sex. On top of that, being an insomniac, there were times where I just lay in bed and cry because I cannot sleep. My worst breakdown to date was when I wandered into the kitchen and just laid on the floor, crying my eyes out because I was so physically drained but my mind would not shut down enough to let me sleep. So… bedroom? Not my favorite place to be.

09. I like to think that I am an optimist because I need things to believe in. But I really have very little hope for my own future and the future of society. Can someone be optimistic and cynical at the same time?

10. I really do not think I am as smart as people believe me to be. I like to think I am more intelligent than the average person (for example, it is rare that I misuse words. If I am unsure, I can find a synonym that I am sure of and use that instead or I will say that I am using the word incorrectly but use it to get my point across and the other person will understand). I have a talent for spelling. I love to read. I memorize things quickly, I learn at a fast pace, and I adapt to most situations before anyone even realizes what is going on. Still, I think that most people give me more credit than I am due. This may be caused by the fact that I do not often surround myself with morons.

Stay Classy, Internets.
♡ Kristen

What a week. Robby wound up in the hospital. As there wasn’t much I could do except shuttle Angel to and from the hospital and eventually pick up Robby when he was discharged, I felt rather lost. It didn’t help that I was still recovering from the previous week’s panic attack. I couldn’t quite get a hold on my empathy and couldn’t quite keep Angel’s residual and current emotions at bay. I wound up getting very poor and broken sleep all week.

This sort of culminated into my being utterly and completely exhausted each day. I wound up taking a nap today after work and I failed at even that; I tossed and turned the whole time but was so completely exhausted that my body was pained and getting up was not exactly an option.

I had a job interview on Friday which went awesomely. I should be hearing back from them this coming week. Hopefully by Friday. But when I say that it went so well, I mean that it wasn’t even an interview. It was more like a great conversation between the hiring managers and myself. They were making me laugh, I was making them laugh… the whole thing just seemed to be like it was a place and position that I could absolutely see myself in. Here’s hoping!

Stay Classy, Internets.
♡ Kristen

Avalon High by Meg Cabot

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

… Huh. I don’t even remember where or how I got this book. It was probably through one of the book-trading/swapping sites I have been a part of over the years. But I know that I put it on my shelf and didn’t even pick it up for quite some time. I am not a huge fan of YA books but every now and then I toss them in to break up my usual authors and subject matter.

I was pleasantly surprised by Avalon High. Not that it was “Oh my goodness, that was fantastic writing!” because it wasn’t. But it was not that sub-par crap that people write nowadays and get best sellers out of them because teenage girls are obsessed with vampires. You know who I am talking about. Anyway, what impressed me was the theme. Reincarnation? Not a new idea. King Arthur? Old legend. It is not often that I actually learn new things from a fictional book; I didn’t know several key points of the Arthurian legends and found them out in this book. Granted, I was never a huge fangirl over King Arthur and such–I much prefer my Greek and Norse mythology–but everyone knows the basic story.

I was learning. I was reading. And I tried to put myself into the shoes of the target audience. Would they recognize the history lessons and be immediately turned off? No. And that is what surprised me. My hat off to Meg Cabot for managing to make history entertaining while not being historical fiction! I actually want to find and read the manga now to see what happens next.

So I wound up completely falling in love with the CW show Nikita and Birkhoff is still my favorite character. Sure, I love Michael and Nikita and even Alex but Birkhoff still tops my list.

He is played by Aaron Stanford, best known in the geek community for his roll as St. John/Pyro in the X-men movies. You can see that AS has aged and gained some weight. I think he is adorable! He pulls off Nerd very well and it’s rather hilarious.

Anyway, Birkhoff has the majority of the one-liners. It has been said by writers and Aaron himself that Birkhoff is the hint of comedy for when things are getting too serious. I love watching Birkhoff and Michael go back and forth; Birkhoff told Michael that he needed to get a sense of humor. Michael responded that he doesn’t laugh at Birkhoff’s jokes because he has a sense of humor. Of course, the fangirl in me ships Michael/Birkhoff–not romantically, just a general pairing–and there was this part in a episode where Birkhoff is kidnapped and held in a government office while Nikita is hacking into his laptop (because it is rigged to blow if it gets a certain distance away from him). Michael demands Birkhoff’s release when he gets there and is denied. Birkhoff yells, alerting Michael to his location and Michael kicks the door in to go rescue his Birkhoff. How adorable is that?!

Sure. It wasn’t meant to be adorable. But it was. STFU.

Side note, I actually roleplay as Birkhoff in a game and it’s so much fun getting into the character’s head and waiting each week to see what he does. I missed it when he was gone for a couple weeks!

Even Birkhoff and Nikita have a cute relationship. He calls her Niki (“don’t call me Niki”) and she calls him Nerd (“don’t call me Nerd”). In the same rescue episode, she comes into the room and he jumps up all surprised. “Hi Nerd.” Teehee!

Stay Classy, Internets.
♡ Kristen