.: so comes snow after fire :.

This was such a lovely day for some of my favourite fandoms! There are lots of wonderful spoilers on twitter coming from the Teen Wolf panel at NYCC, confirming what we already thought, that this show is indeed a wonderful gift from the gods. ♥

There's an update of the Travelling Lemon project here, with pictures of what the finished book will look like. And let me tell you, it looks amazing. *__________*

Tati and I bought the train tickets for Lucca Comics and Games, and she ordered new blue contact lenses for her Fem!Castiel cosplay. Now it feels definitely real, completely official. \o/

The Vampire Diaries season premiere was, as expected, brilliant. So many things happening, all of my theories turned out to be wrong. I love it when my shows prove me wrong. *________*

Tati, who is awesome, spent a good hour yesterday creating a Stiles and a Derek for my Rock Band band. She's so talented, she's the one who made Sherlock and John too, and as soon as she finished their wardrobe and instruments, I made them sing and play this playlist:

Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon
Hungry Like The Wolf - Duran Duran
Howling For You - The Black Keys

It's as good an occasion as any to remind all of you that most of the time I have the sense of humour of a twelve year old. Thankfully, Tati shares that with me, and we kept giggling and laughing all the way through it. After all, we constantly play Staying Alive just so we can watch Sherlock and John sing it and jump around while trying to steal each other's microphone. :D

EDIT: Also, COULSON LIVES. This day just keeps getting better and better! ♥

Hip hip hurrah for me, as today I finally have a multiregion bluray player in my hands! Yes, you read that right, something that isn't supposed to exist, and yet it's here. It started with a long and frustrating search on Google last week, and after a couple of hours I managed to stumble upon a forum thread mentioning the Toshiba BDX1200 player and a certain australian firmware. Much clicking and crosschecking later, I managed to find one on amazon.it, got the firmware ready, and waited while it travelled from Barcelona to Paris to Milan and this morning to my house. It is surprisingly light and slim (I'm used to the PS3, and even if it says so on the package, slim it is not). Five minutes later, the hidden menu was revealed, the region set to A (but I can change it to every other region as many times as I see fit), and my Alice bluray started loading. Behold, behold, it WORKS! It only took me three years since the day I bought that bluray to have it finally working (still pissed off about that one).



It's the second one, just under the PS3. I can't put anything above the PS3 since the top is convex, and I'd like to meet the genius who designed that so I can punch them on the nose.

And now the Avengers special edition, with the Tesseract and all the movies, that I pre-ordered last month, is actually a reasonable purchase after all. As in, now I can actually watch the movies too, instead of just playing with the Tesseract. :D



IT'S ALIVE!!!

If any of you not-american friends would like to know how it works, just drop me a comment. It took me only 130 € (very cheap for a bluray player, and the quality is VERY good), three days for delivery, five minutes to set it up. And to do that one just needs a usb stick!

What day is today? It's Avengers day! The bluray is finally on sale, in a bunch of different versions, and luckly for me I pre-ordered a month ago the limited edition on Amazon.it, because as it turns out by noon it was already out of stock everywhere. Which is incredibly dumb, did they only make 5 copies? Do I have to keep it in mint condition so that I can sell it on ebay next week at a crazy price?



Yes, I went for the obvious background for this picture. And man, it's hard to take a picture of these steelbook editions, they either capture my reflection or go the J.J. Abrams way with the lens flare effect.

Talking about real life, everything's going fine. Tati's holidays start in three weeks, the day before my birthday, so I'm counting the days. Therapy is great, although I've realized there's no point in working on what I want to talk about beforehand, because I always get distracted five minutes in and start talking about something else entirely. I'm having some sort of writing block with the dream journal too, I either forget what I was dreaming about five minutes after I wake up, or I have such boring dreams I refuse to waste time recording them for posterity. A few days ago I spent the whole night dreaming I was making bouillabaisse. First, I'm good at cooking, but not that good. Second, 6 hours of cooking fish? What the hell, brain?

And with the great weather we've been having lately, warm sun and fresh air, I feel so energetic! Next monday the new year at the gym starts, and I'm so looking forward to it! \o/

Oh what a day, I recieved all the orders I did in July. Which is weird, because they're from different sites, on different dates, and one of them was even supposed to be a birthday gift for myself (so, you know, next month), but apparently the stars are in position or whatever, because my room looks like Santa Claus just paid me a visit. \o/



First, the birthday gift. It's an amazing Avengers skirt I bought on Etsy. It's custom-made, so I had to give them my measurements, and I thought it would take them a lot longer to make it and ship it. And yet, here it is. The quality is great, better than I hoped. It's very soft, comfy, and the red ribbon is actually a belt, so it fits perfectly. And the best part is that with the appropriate stockings I can wear it in the winter too!



Then, the other two packages. My new S.H.I.E.L.D. bag from Etsy (the same seller who did the I Am Sherlocked minibag, she's so talented), The Art Of Marvel artbooks (a note on artbooks: when we first got into the anime/manga fandom, Mom and I started collecting every artbook we could get our hands on. We bought the first one two days before my first surgery, that was painful as hell but went fine, so we had this inside joke that artbooks brought us good luck. Plus we loved them. So now that I found out there are artbooks of Marvel movies, I wanted to buy them all, but they were quite pricey. Then a fanfic writer I follow on tumblr told me there was this special edition, which costed one third of the collective price for all four artbooks, and I obviously got it straight away), the Kingdom Hearts 3D official guide (which looks exactly like the first Kingdom Hearts guide, cue trip down Memory Lane), the second Cabin Pressure boxset (YYEEESSSSS! Best summer ever!), Carry The Fire by Delta Rae and Rock Swings by Paul Anka.



The artbooks came with a poster. An amazing, gigantic poster that made me squee in delight and do a little dance all around. I have a couple of ideas about where to hang it, although I'm an older and wiser Emperor now (and if you got that reference, I must hug you), and I'm going to put it in a frame first. I have two other things I have to frame before hanging them on the walls, and I'm waiting for the end of the summer to do it. That's because the shop is on the other side of town, I'd have to go there on foot carrying a bag with precious, fragile prints, and I'm too lazy to do it in this heat.

You can also see the S.H.I.E.L.D. necklace I bought along with the bag, it has the acronym on one side, the logo on the other.



Close-up of the Cabin Pressure boxset. I'm worried as it doesn't have the Christmas special, it ends with Limerick. I wonder if they're going to put it in the third boxset, although it wouldn't make much sense. I just hope they didn't cut it out entirely, because it's one of my favourites. Crossing my fingers here. This time the booklet is written by Douglas, we have the Hey Chief notes, a few lists (dwarves, sins, etc), a few phone numbers from various women, a Hangman game that looks suspiciusly like a grumpy Martin, and pictures of cheeses.

And yesterday I had an amazing night of sleep. I was wearing ear plugs, as the neighbour upstairs is very noisy when getting ready for bed, and has an annoying smoker cough, but the other times I used them I woke up around 1 am and took them off. This time I fell into a deep sleep, and woke up all nice and cozy just before the alarm went off, and it was so refreshing. Hurrah for ear plugs and for my uncle who told me to buy them! *_______*

Feeling a lot better today. Still have a couple of blisters on my feet, but nothing serious. It was definitely the hottest day in weeks, so I ate a lot before heading out of the door. Not going to faint in public again, thank you very much. For the first time since I was 13 I bought art supplies. That's... 16 years, holy crap. Obviously, it took me an eternity to choose. I wanted cheap stuff, because it's not like I'm an art student, but not too cheap, and there were lots of Disney pencils and pens that got me sidetracked, and Spiderman erasers too. Kids are so lucky nowadays, wish we had those when I was a kid. Wow, now I sound like an elderly lady. Long story short, this is what I bought:



I felt an awful lot like Steve Rogers in The Act Of Creation Will Be Your Salvation, which is one of my favourite fanfics ever (go read it, it's amazing), and it has this beautiful chapter about pencils and the colour blue, and there was a moment when I checked the pencils and got lost in thought trying to guess the proper names of all those colours. I blame the heat.



Tea and biscuits when I got back, and I finally tried the Loki tea. It's mint-flavoured. Which is, as you all know, green. I opened it, sniffed it, and started laughing. Well played, Cara, well played. :D I put icecubes in the cup, and it was very refreshing indeed. And green. ;D

( Follow the cut for the Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff teas. )



Bonus picture of Sakura. She hates the heat, and she's even sleepier than usual (considering she's a cat, she's sleeping all the time). She doesn't usually sleep in that position, she usually looks way more graceful, and her sleep is light - she actually purrs while napping. Lately her sleep is so deep she doesn't even notice when I leave the room, and I usually find her sprawled on the couch, like my dog used to do.

Yesterday night I finished watching Grimm! What an ending, what a cliffhanger! I'm so glad I only have to wait 10 days for the next season, the ending took me absolutely by surprise. I finished watching it by 1 am, and when I woke up this morning I found myself humming This is Halloween while making breakfast, which I guess was my brain processing the show. XD I did a quick search, but it seems no one made a Grimm fanvid to that song, and that's so weird.

I'll try and do my first drawing before dinner, so that I can show it to my therapist tomorrow. I already have a couple of ideas twirling around in my head, it'll be nice to put them on paper.

I just received my latest order from Adagio Teas! It got here way faster than the last time. They're all from the same seller, the one who did the Sherlock and John teas. I can't wait to serve all these new teas to my aunt! \o/ This time I ordered teas giving more importance to how they would taste (among those with characters I love, obviously). ^^



From left to right:

Reichenbach Recovery - "Only time will heal your broken heart. Maybe this tea will at least bring a little comfort until Sherlock reappears. This is purely indulgent. My favorite tea for a while has been Earl Grey bravo, with a dash of hazelnut syrup (it's what I order at coffee shops when I go with my friends, since I don't drink coffee). It's a very comforting taste to me, and the flavors all go surprisingly well together. It's a bit like fresh baked cookies."

Tardis - "Tastes bigger inside the cup [Ethereal earl grey and enchanting black berry with notes of vanilla]"

Clint Barton - "A slightly playful blend that may be hard to take very seriously, but will prove to be strictly business when under fire."

Natasha Romanoff - "A worldly blend, based off of Russian tea culture. A strong, smokey tea perfect for a busy spy."

Loki - "Cool, refreshing, but just a bit dark, with a hint of floral undertones. This blend truly shines when iced."

My therapist made me promise I wouldn't overdose on caffeine, so we decided I could only drink one cup a day. And I already had my Countess Grey one today. It'll be so hard to wait until tomorrow!

It was a day full of curve balls, but I managed to dodge them all and still have a smile for everyone. Nausicaa: 1 Life: 0. Tomorrow it's therapy time, and we haven't seen each other in three weeks, and I'm literally leaving post-it notes all over the house so that I don't forget any little thing I have to tell her, that's how crazy it's gotten to. I'm also going to check with Mom's doctor, as she hasn't feeling very well lately. As it turns out, she suffers the hot weather just like she did before the coma, so nothing out of the usual, but everyone got a scare.

Leaving real life on the side, it was a lovely day fandom-wise. Coming back home I stopped at the comic book store, and asked the guy at counter if he had any idea where I could buy the sticker album for those Avengers stickers they had given me at the Disney Store back in Verona. As luck would have it, he had one, which was left in his care by a customer, to give to a friend. What a random and crazy happenstance! :D We started reminiscing about our childhood, back in the 80s, when we used to buy sticker albums. I remembered my Little Mermaid one, and he told me he had one for this cartoon, and I hope that link can make you even glimpse the girly 80ish atmosphere that had burst all around us while reminiscing. I love hanging out with guys my age. Magical. :D

There was a last stop before getting home, to buy the first piece of my first cosplay ever (duh-duh-duh-dum), as seen in this picture:



I'm going to play it all mysterious, but it's actually easy to figure out which character it'll be. ;)

There was also a package from Amazon waiting for me, with the first Cabin Pressure boxset! It's the first season, on three cds. Other than that, they could have made a little effort with the packaging or the booklet, but I shouldn't complain. ^^"


There's a list of things that make you completely happy, by Arthur: the first item is something concerning apples, and the others read "when you really don't want to get up, and then you realize you don't have to / when you get home and your dog goes bananas / when you think you've lost your wallet, and then you find it / toblerones". As usual, Arthur is my spirit animal.


Dodging a suprisingly hyperactive Sakura who wanted to steal my camera, I set at my table to arrange those stickers I already had, while listening to Fitton on my stereo. I think this should be added to the 'pure happiness' list. *____*


I was surprised to see most stickers belonged to the same two pages, plus one Hawkeye, and one Iron Man. And I only got two identical ones, I feel lucky! I had completely forgotten sticker albums always have a poster inside, so there was that too. :D


It took me a few tries to peel the paper off the first sticker, but then it all came rushing back. Hurrah for feeling like a six-year-old again! \o/

Today sent me all sorts of mixed signals. The morning was splendid. Everything I set out to do went perfectly, and everyone I met was incredibly nice to me. I had all kinds of wonderful conversations with strangers. Then I had some problems at the bank (they changed my account's number), and I had to call four different callcenters, and that got me so nervous I was on the verge of tears. But then everyone who answered was exceptionally nice, and now I have solved almost everything, and only have to visit another office on thurday. Crisis averted, faith in humanity stronger than ever. And I even rescued Sakura who was trying to eat a bumblebee. I scooped her up and rushed her inside before the bumblebee decided to act.



On the way to the bank I walked by a little music store. I checked the windows, and they had Harvest by Neil Young. It was my dad's favourite album, and I already had it (both tape and cd), but I suddenly remembered all the times he told me of when he bought the LP, as a teen, and how much he loved listening to it. So I entered and bought it. The clerk put it in a transparent plastic bag, I walked out, and a middle-aged couple saw it, and the man stopped and said, in awe: "Harvest. Neil Young. Congratulations." I stopped on my tracks, smiled and said thanks, a bit surprised. He went on praising the album and my taste in music, and I thanked him again, and we talked about how the classics stay in our hearts, and that even if cds have the best sound, vynil records have an inimitable nostalgia factor.

Today shall be remembered as the day corporations tried their best to piss me off, while strangers made my day so much brighter.

It was also the day my Art of the Avengers artbook finally arrived, which made me squee and do a dance around the living room to Heart of Gold, while Sakura silently judged me.



She can't understand why I got so excited over that book, while it came in a much more interesting box.



Along with a few Civil War comic books, that are apparently very comfy.

day one • a song
day two • a picture
day three • a book/ebook/fanfic
day four • a website
day five • a youtube clip

I'll go with the latest book I bought, Professor Moriarty : The Hound of the D'Urbervilles by Kim Newman. It arrived two days ago, I haven't had the chance to read it yet, so here's what Amazon has to say about it:

Imagine the twisted evil twins of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson and you have the dangerous duo of Professor James Moriarty - wily, snake-like, fiercely intelligent, terrifyingly unpredictable - and Colonel Sebastian Basher Moran - violent, politically incorrect, debauched. Together they run London crime, owning police and criminals alike. When a certain Irene Adler turns up on their doorstep with a proposition, neither man is able to resist. An entertaining and wickedly humorous crime adventure from the bestselling writer of Anno Dracula.

Sounds so fascinating! *____*

On the fanfic front, my favourite Avengers fic, and one of the best I have ever read, In Which Tony Stark Builds Himself Some Friends (But His Family Was Assigned by Nick Fury) by scifigrl47. It has everything, humour, romance, drama, great character development, an eye for the comics while keeping the movie characterizations flawless, it is definitely an A+.