daeseage | Friday Five

I got this idea from Sarah Dessen (one of my favorite YA authors, whose blog I may or may not subscribe to via RSS so I haven't missed a post in 4 years...). I figure I may not be able to justify writing something as often as I would like, but 5 items every Friday shouldn't be too bad, right?

Anyway, here goes:

1. I'm getting back on track with all my school stuff, and it feels sooooo great. I let myself get behind, blaming the con and then being sick, and it was wrong and it was lazy, and while I enjoyed catching up on the Homestuck and Sherlock fandoms (oh I nerrrrd so hard) it's been seriously detrimental to my actual, required productivity. I've let a few more assignments than I really should have slide, but I'm able to pretty much start fresh right now, just in time for midterms so I should be okay. =]

2. My grandma's in the hospital after an MS flare-up and some really bad eating/self-medicating choices, and I'm really worried about her. I'm driving home this weekend to go see her (when depends on whether not someone can take over my shift tonight. Stupid homecoming bonfire.). I can't really afford it, and my mom says she'll probably be fine, but I'd never forgive myself if she took a turn for the worse and I didn't take an opportunity to see her. If anyone knows any nice florists in the Sacramento Area please let me know so I can pick up something pretty for her on my way there. Otherwise it's Raley's flowers. I'm also thinking of trying to find some Rita Mae Brown or Poirot audiobooks at the library. I'm pretty sure the local one has some; I just hope they're not on the wrong side of the county!

3. S is doing better at Basic Training, and I'm so happy that she's coping better. I haven't heard from her directly, but she called home again this past Sunday and my mom played relay and updated me on her letters. I wish the one that she said she sent me would come -- it's been almost 2 weeks! I want to know what she thinks of His Dark Materials.

4. I updated my iPhone to iOS 5 the other day, and I actually really like it! I don't watch videos through iTunes very often so the the split of music and videos doesn't affect me much (I may change my mind if I ever put those genetics and ecology video lectures from iTunesU back on, but meh.) I really like the addition of the Reminders app -- I'm awesome at ignoring To-Do lists, but this one is always right there, and items slide right off once I check them, so there's not a horrid mess of crossed-out words obscuring the remaining tasks. I wish that Apple would allow you to remove stock apps that you have no use for, though. I have no use for Stocks, GameCenter, Compass, or Notes, and I just want them to go away! It's not like there couldn't be a stored copy in iTunes in case I ever changed my mind.

5. I have read an incredible number of fabulous Homestuck fan fiction in the last couple weeks, and I'd really like to pimp a few of my favorites:

Not What We Planned On by elemental is a great post-SBURB fic! I love the characterization, especially the interactions between characters. It's fairly lighthearted at first, but shit has just started to hit the fan in the last couple updates. For anyone who likes podfics, she's planning to record the whole thing, and has snippets of chapters available to listen to here. It's up to 6/14 chapters and already 70,000+ words long, so you've been warned!

Actually, that's the only one I'm going to rec this week, because I really want you to go read it! It's rated Teen for language, and for those of you concerned about these things, there are a couple ships, but it honestly only adds to the story, even if they're not your ships. =]