oceana

Important service announcement!

Here's some things you should know about the current status of Oceana:

*Oceana is not dead!

*Oceana is way waylaid by real life (life? Hah! what life?)

*Oceana has not watched every Don Johnson movie she could get her hands on during the past few weeks. (OMG the icon it sparkles!)


One of the above statements is a lie.


Also, here's a link: http://www.beedogs.com/index_files/page0001.htm

Somewhere in there, there's a deep metaphore for my current real life situation. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.


*hugs neglected flist*

*rushes off*

I've been neglecting my fannish duties, because life these days is mostly, well, not life. It's work, and work, and work, and sometimes sleep. though I prefer to see the horse instead of sleeping.

Work really has been crazy, and not in a good way. But, despite what I said above, I do sleep. Remember the "Improve Oceana!" plan that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago? Well, sleep is part of the improvement, and I'm trying, mostly successfull, to get six hours per night these days (this is a vast improvement about my previous sleep
schedule which was anywhere between 3 and 5). So, yay me.

I'm also slowly dropping weight. Very slowly. With lots of setbacks, but I'm weirdly enough incredibly motivated, so I'll keep on trying.

Improve me!, that's the motto.

But enough with the boring real life already! Fandom it is!

Here's what my fannish self is doing these days:


- rewatching Season 2 of Dark Angel
I'm FINALLY rewatching the rest of Dark Angel season 2. I really really like the show. This is the third time I'm watching it, I think. I remember buying and watching it for the first time and then watching it again just a few weeks later, because it was so good, and I though I had missed so much the first time around (like, drooling over Jensen, when I was all fixating on Logan). However, I always get stuck
in the middle of season 2. The whole oh-so-dramatic-why-can't-we-touch-Max and Logan thing keeps getting a bit much in that time, even (shamefully underused) Alec can't make up for that.

So, even though I had started rewatching DA weeks ago, I took a little break in the middle of season 2 and went through a whole season of Smallville (yikes!) and some horrible horror flics. It happens. But now I'm back with DA and enjoying the hell out of it. I'm really going to miss it (again.) I wonder if there had been another season if it had been givena less stupid title. Dark Angel? Seriously? For the longest time I thought it was a really melodramatic vampire drama, and so I never watched it!


- watching more J2 movies
Yeah well, what can I say. It's the internet's fault! Everything is available everywhere, and I have three credit cards, I just can't stop myself! ;-) (currently that Christmas movie Jared did, Ten Inch Hero and the unspeakable movie with the Olsen twins are waiting to be watched. After Dark Angel, of course. I expect Friday 13th to be delivered soon, but i won't watch it, because I get scared. On the other hand, the Olsen twin movie is probably scarier. Decision, decisions...)


-reading J2 fic
There's so much! And so many recs! And so many other fics that those people whose fics I like wrote that I have to read as well! OMG it'll never end and I'll have to spent the rest of my life reading J2 fic and still won't be able to catch up!

*panics*

No, just kidding. I have about 25 tabs open in my browser, most of them fics, some fo them recs, and when i'm done with those, I'll get organized. Meaning, I'll file all those fics that I randomly saved into folder titled "new", "newer", "more new fic", "even more new fic and it's still all J2" and the like, and I'll post recs and leave
feedback. Probably, because I suck at leavin feedback, and yes, I totally blame it on my sleep schedule (see above). I've been told that sleep is more important thatn feedback, so there. (in case you write J2 and I've friended you in the last couple of weeks, I probably read and completely loved your fic. Just in case you were wondering.)


LISTEN to J2 fic
Oh, isn't podfic like, the best invention, like, ever? *g*
I downloaded TONS of it, and now I can listen to J2 when I do boring, but necessary things, like cleaning, or doing the dishes, or blowdrying my hair. Life is so good. :-) This also means that I'm consummating about three or four different media every day, reading fic, watching TV, listening to different fic, plus the real books I
read (yes, I read real books as well. You can see which ones in my lj profile or at goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/177596) where I spend quite a lot of times cataloguing my books). I'm sure if I continue this way, i'll break my brain in no time at all, and then the real fun will start!

So, that's basically what i've been up to. How's everyone else? I' d ask you all to tell me about something you loved in fandom recently, but I tried that before and no one ever responded. Oh well. Maybe your fandom isn't very loveable these days?
If it isn't, come and watch DA with me. And read J2. It'll make you heart smile (at least that's what it does to me).

*hugs everyone*

Please don't tell anyone.

For those of you who live in Starbucks-free cities, or *gasp!* -countries, you'll be incredibly jealous to hear that I live within two minutes walking distance from Starbucks and that I would have to go out of my way on purpose to go to work without walking by a Starbucks (and I'm talking four different routes here with four different Starbucks', not including the one within two minutes walking distance.

There. Jealous yet?

Well, don't be.

I'm not much of a coffee drinker. If I drink coffee, I prefer my coffee strong and black with none of the fancy milk and sweet stuff that Starbucks insists on throwing in to ruin the caffeine kick. I am, however, a Frappuccino addict. I usually prefer the less caloric Rasperry Tea Frappuccino, but sometimes, like today, a sunny, uneventful Sunday afternoon in one of Germany's busier cities, I treat myself to a Grande Java Chip Frappuccino (without cream, obviously).

"My" barista can smell this. Baristas, Starbucks baristas in particular, don't like non-coffee drinkers. Ordering a non-coffee-based drink on a good, uneventful Sunday evening, is blasphemy. Ordering a cold drink, which requires them to go near the ice machine, is out-right revolution. It is simply not done. Shouting out "I did not go to church this morning, or, EVER." in the middle of Starbucks would in their eyes, be less lunatic (though they look at me as if they expect me to do just that any moment.)

After five minutes, we have established that I will get my Frappuccino, without cream, not with no.fat milk, cause such a thing does not exist in good old German Starbucks land.

Then we get into the name thing. As if to punish me for my sins and show everyone what a heathen I am, they insist on writing my name on the takeaway cup. Because I really want "my" barista to shout my name through the most popular Starbucks in this city, which is, as I have mentioned, one of the busier cities, on this otherwise uneventful sunny Sunday. And then run through the whole city (well, the two minutes it takes to walk home) with my name for the world to see on my Starbucks take away cup. Next thing you know google satellites will have zoomed in on me and some website will tell the world that [insert real life name] is drinking Frappuccino on Sunday in the middle of the city and DID NOT GO TO CHURCH either. (this they would know from the weird barista code on the cup, you know, those signs that look like they tell the Frappuccino-making barista which sort of Frappuccino to make, when in reality they tell him all the sordid details about my blasphemic Sunday, which was otherwise uneventful. (if you have made it this far, you realize how important it is to mention the last part).

Have you ever refused to give your Starbucks barista your name?

It is a scary experience. Especially after having ordered a Frappuccino. First they pretend not to understand. Then they argue ("But it's policy!"). Then they try to guilt-trip you ("But how will we know whose Frappuccino it is?")- Right like anyone else would dare order one. This is usually when I give them a name. And I use " a" name loosely. Me and my Starbucks baristas have gone through all sorts of names - Sam, Jack, John, Daniel. This makes them happy. Even Teal'c made them happy, though I insisted on the apostrophe.

Not giving them a name makes them very unhappy.

And you do not want to make a Starbucks barista who has just agreed to give you a Grande Java Chip Frappuccino despite this being an otherwise uneventful sunny Sunday in one of Germany's busier cities, even unhappier than he already is. As it was an otherwise uneventful sunny Sunday afternoon (boy, was it ever uneventful), this merely lead to soggy Frappuccinos with not enough ice. I shudder to think what would have happened if the Sunday hadn't been so uneventful.

Oh, right, I would have had something else to post about while I drink my soggy, but still delicious Java Chip Frappuccino. *g*

Hope you all had nice Sunday!

So the iPod is dead.
Dead dead dead.
For real this time, at least that's what I think the weird folder on its screen is trying to tell me.

Was I smart enough to write down my playlists and my music the last ten times it died?
No, I wasn't.
*cries*

At least I think I have everything on there on my harddrive somewhere, since despite appearances, most of my music is perfectly legal and available on CDs right here in my home. Still, I'll miss my playlists. They were souvenirs, because I for lack of creativiy I kept naming them things like "January 2005" or "Nice 2007" so I always knew where I was living when I listened to that patricular playlist. Which I why the Paris Metro at seven in the morning will always be connected to Tori Amos' "Jackie's Strength" to me, for example.

Anyway, I think I need a new iPod: anyone got experience with the new models? I'm tempted by the 160GB black classic, though I am kind of pissed by how much accessories you don't get. At least on the apple website it says that you get a dock adapter, but in the store they told me that there were no accessories at all, not even a USB cable. God, I hate apple.But I love the iPod, so what can I do? If you have one of the new ones, I'd love to hear how you like it.

Also, does anyone have "Different Kind of Knight" by Kane as an mp3? I cannot stop listening to it on their myspace page, but it's not available on CD yet, so I can't buy it. Unless it is available for buying online somewhere, but if it is, they better get new P&R people, because it sure isn't advertised very well. Thank you!

margueritem is here and we decided that we are going to meet you.
*Margueritem and Oceana make resolve faces*
So, we thought, we'd let you know.

Let us know where (D or K?)
And when.

Now we are going back to watch more Supernatural. We are already 15 minutes into the Pilot and it only took us, oh, 35 minutes or so.

Dean is pretty.
He wasn't even shown in daylight yet and he's so pretty. Oh, look, daylight.
Dean's so pretty.

...being reborn.

So you'd think I'd be all over the place now that I'm back online, but I'm not. I have yet to comment on an entry and I haven't had the slightest clue what to post about all weekend long. I've been catching up on Bones (*love*) and The Unit (*LOVE*) and am trying to catch up Dr. Who (*excited squee*). I've also been reading my flist from -1000 to -325 and counting and I think this is helping making me feel more at home. It's just so... I can't even describe it. I feel like I used to be at home here and I still feel like this is where I belong, only I forgot where the plates are and if the lights outside are supposed to be on or off during the night. It's like I've been in the wilderness for five months and now cannot quite remember the rules of civilization. Or, the other way around. ;-)

And so I fall back to what I always do when I come into a new place with new people: sit back and watch for a while. It's a bit like a family christmas, when you need a time out from the noise and the people and the warm, happy christmasness and you sit outside to have a cigarette (did I mention that I may have possibly stopped smoking without even meaning to?) enjoy the silence, but you can still hear the noises from the kitchen and the voices from the living room. Home.
(until the fighting starts, but hey, I haven't seen a single wank in those 700 entries I read today. It's a miracle!)

Create a playlist with all your music, set it on shuffle and then let it predict your year...

( My 2007 will be... )

Okay, this is really strange. Can anyone see my last post on their flist? I can't see it on mine (I have my lj friended for exactly this purpose) and what's even stranger, there are 12 comments on this post and all of them are from 2003. Do I have to understand this?

*is puzzled*

Sometime during the last year I slipped into a parallel universe where the soundtrack of Lord of the Rings does not sound as I remember it. I can't prove it, because all of you are probably from around here originally and won't remember what it sounded like before, but I'm telling you, it's different now.

I shudder to think what else has changed. What if the cast David Hasselhoff as Daniel Jackson over here?

WARNING! Not work-safe picture in comments. Actually, it's not safe at all. Keep the brain-bleach at hand and consider yourselves warned.

I smoke. I started a long time ago, longer than I care to think about. And now I'm thinking about stopping.

See, I never smoked much. I'd smoke when I went out, when I had coffee, when I went to the stables. There were days when I didn't smoke at all, months, even, when I was abroad and couldn't afford it. I never had a problem "quitting" for a few days or weeks. I can't remember how much I smoked in school, probably a lot at the end. Same goes for the beginning of university, when I would go outside and smoke a cigarette during the day. Smoking gives you a reason to talk to people. "Wanna smoke?" is something you can say to someone you don't know too well. "Want to go for a coffee?" not only takes more time, but is also way more personal. You can actually join a group of strangers, just because they stand outside a building and join them for a smoke, and you'll probably end up talking to them. And I'm going to miss that.

Physically, I was never addicted, otherwise it wouldn't be so easy for me to quit for a few days. At the moment, I smoke about 1 pack per week, depending on how often I go out. And that's exactly why I never stopped. When the people around me would attempt to stop smoking (none of them successful, I might add), I could say, oh, it's just 4 Euro a week, that's not much, I can afford that. Besides, I can always stop, I'm not addicted.
Right.

So why do I keep doing it?

Well, to be honest, I like smoking. Coffee without a cigarette is just boring for me. Sitting down at the end of a long day, having a cigarette in the garden, those precious few minutes of quiet, of being there just for me. Yes, I like smoking.

Only lately, I have found that more often than not I didn't like the actual cigarette part of the smoking. So I'm thinking it's time to quit. I sort of tried quitting before, but only for a few weeks. The main reason for that is that I didn't tell anyone that I wanted to quit, not even myself. I'd tell myself, I'm quitting for a few weeks. No idea why I was that stupid.

But I think now I'm serious about it, and I have an idea to motivate myself: I will keep track of the cigarettes I don't smoke. Then I will count how much money I saved and buy myself DVDs. I didn't bring my cigarettes to the stables on Friday (four cigarettes unsmoked) and managed not to ask anyone for a cigarette. But the hard part will be when I go out next time, when everyone around me is smoking, and when the cigarette just feels so right in my hand.