"Heaven Knows No Frontiers"

I've had such a beautiful past few weeks.

School's been great; our yearbook is almost finished!  I've made so many great friends this year . . . I don't want it to end.  I want just one more year of high school . . . I even made up a dream schedule of classes :)

I love yearbook class so so much.  At the risk of sounding cliche, it taught me a whole new way of looking at the world.  I'm working on a photography series about seeing the world through raindrop-covered windows.  And I can't look at fonts anymore without analyzing them.  I learned that there really are no rules you can't bend, and no frontiers that are permanent.  I'm actually seriously considering a graphics/photography minor in college now, and it's all cause of this class.

I've been watching the Olympics . . . started out with tragedy, but everyone has managed to come through. These athletes are so amazing and inspiring.  Although I will say that I have been accused of being unpatriotic for not cheering for all Americans, all the time (notably, I was sooo rooting for the incredible, adorable, Shen/Zhou couple in pairs figure skating, I was so happy when they won!).

But the commercials get so overplayed.  Gah.  Especially Meg Whitman's "elect me!" commercial, which demonstrates an astounding lack of common sense and an unacceptable amount of pandering.  She says she wants to create jobs, and follows that up immediately with saying she wants to cut government spending.  I guess she missed the memo that we're just coming out of a recession and the economy is still shaky, and cutting spending is NOT what you do in a bad economy.  Sheesh.  I took a semester long economics course, and even I know that.  My point is, she is saying exactly what her Republican constituents want to hear, while offering no real solutions.  Gah.

I've been in a political and artsy mood lately. . . .go figure.  I blame it on the rain.  So I'm making campaign logos for all the Democratic senators running for re-election.  I'll post them all when I'm done! Also, with the TV in my room for the Olympics, I've been watching The Rachel Maddow Show every night . . . sheesh, that lady is AWESOME.  Especially when compared to the pretentious screamy git, Keith Olberman.

I spent last weekend in San Francisco with two of my beautiful, amazing, perfect Irish dance friends at the feis there.  The 6 hour drive turned out to be really fun, even though the I5 through the central valley is boring, my friends never are!  The stages were tiny and had no marlay down, but I managed to place in almost all my dances!  Everyone else did great too . . . and, since I'm in a bragging mood, the two dancers from our school who went to All-Irelands brought back medals!  Soooo proud of them!  Anyway, we also got to see a lot of the town, which was really nice.  Pictures are forthcoming.

I just spent a beautiful night watching the Olympics and doing henna tattoos with my two best friends.  I love the weekend.

In yearbook, we're doing a corporate ID project, and it's really forcing me to look at myself and what I want, and I realized . . . I want everything.  I am so many things.  Computers, graphics design, astronomy, politics, photography, Irish dance . . . they're all such an integral part of me.  I want to do so many things in life, and I worry that I won't have enough time to be everything I want to be.

I decided I'm re-starting the Minstralian Alliance series on my website.  I just . . . had inspiration, all of a sudden.  I don't know what happened.  But I'm excited!

Current Music:
The Corrs
Sinead O'Connor
Midnight Oil
Maire Brennan
Sarah Brightman
Loreena McKennitt

Current Books:
"Madame Secretary", Madeleine Albright
"Light in August", William Faulkner

Current TV Show:
Battlestar Galactica, Season 3

Movies I Really Really Want to See Right Now:
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Shutter Island
Avatar: The Last Airbender

Sorry for the really rambling post.  There's been a lot going on lately, both in my life and in the wide world, and I wanted to write it all down.

Watch Out World, Anya's Bored!

Semester break = time for me to catch up on all those wallpapers I promised people for Christmas and then never got around to.  Ahem.

The Dark Knight.  Batman.  For 'Drea :)

Alice (The SyFy Miniseries).  Alice.  For Toria :)

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.  Greg Sanders.  For Marina :)

Battlestar Galactica.  Laura Roslin & Tory Foster.  For Laura :)

Mad Men.  Don Draper.  For Ashley :)

So . . . I know everyone whom I've dedicated these to have seen them already, but I thought I'd post them here so you all could see a wider sampling of my artwork.   As always, full-size versions and detailed explanations of the thought processes behind all of these can be found at my website: http://www.anyaprynn.com/artwork.html.

U's and Reviews

Lame title, maybe, but just deal =)  it'll all make sense, eventually, haha.

U2 is playing at the Rose Bowl tonight, and I'm not there!  Life is so not fair sometimes.  But on the plus side, I'm sitting here at my computer, watching the live stream on youtube.  In a way, it's better than actually being there, becuase with the 90,000+ people there, I'm sure I wouldn't have seen a thing.  Add to that the fact that U2 has lovely camera people (do you know how rare that is at concerts?) and that my little geeky self is loving the lens flares, you have a pretty happy Anya, all around.  Bono is funny, the stage is amazing beyond words, and the band overall is perfectly top-notch.  I'm crossing my fingers that they'll play "New Year's Day", but I was looking through old set lists and they haven't recently =(  In any case, I can't wait for the DVD of this!

My friends got me totally, utterly, helplessly addicted to Law & Order: SVU.  Thanks a lot, you guys . . .  I won't be doing reviews for each individual episode (I wish I had that much free time!) but I'll do a recap at the end of each season, 'kay?  'Kay good.  I watched the first four episodes this weekend . . . Olivia Benson is fast becoming one of my favorite TV characters, period.

I finally finished watching Atlantis Season 3!!  So now I have three more episodes to review, and then I can cross something off my to-do list! =)  Review for "Sunday" is finally up on my website, check here.

A few words of advice:  naps are not just for little kids, they are lovely for everyone.  Just don't take them on couches in hotel lobbies while waiting for your sisters to dance at a feis.  The people who work there tend to be rather unamused.  Um.  Yeah.  Story of my weekend . . .

Anyway, that's all for now, since I'm beyond tired, but check back soon for some more politics-related stuff, rather than just my random ramblings =)

Housekeeping

So, I haven't posted in a while, and I know that when I have, it's mostly been reviews of various and sundry things (*cough*Warehouse13*cough*). But school started and hit me like the metaphorical ton of bricks, which is why I'm writing this instead of a nice review for today's Warehouse 13 episode. This is basically, as the title says, a "housekeeping" post, so I can put down what some of my future plans are, and give you some updates.

• New blog header. Duh, that's obivious, but I wanted to explain it a bit . . . it's my blog title and description, but I spiced it up with fonts and pretty brushes in GIMP, which is one of my absolute favorite computer programs, hands-down. Credits to ObsidianDawn.com for the circle, fairy, and glitter brushes.
• As far as my website goes, I am spending all my time right now finishing watching and reviewing Stargate Atlantis Season 3. I have four more episodes, then . . . I actually don't know what I'll be doing. Maybe (probably) I'll be resurrecting my original scifi series Minstralian Alliance, which used to be my main focus.
• I want to start doing a "this week in politics" section on this blog. I feel like I only do reviews, and don't get enough time to focus on other things.
• The review for the next Warehouse 13 will be up by the end of the week. I wish I could be more definite, but . . .

So, that's my plans! Check back for more updates soon! :)

Common Sense Fail

According to this Washington Post article, there has been a bill introduced in the Senate that will require states to prohibit people from texting while driving. Excellent idea! Right?

People, why do we need this law? Well, obviously because people are texting while driving, and thus getting into accidents. Which begs the question, WHY are people texting while driving??!! That is quite possibly one of the stupidest things you could ever do. It's in the same vein as the hands-free-phone-while-driving law, but at least that one, I understand. I know many people who are on their cell phones in the car, whether for their work, or because they're calling someone for directions. And honestly, even though I think it's better to not call people while you're driving, and you certainly need to have a headset on, responsible and mature people can talk on the phone while driving safely.

But texting. That is so different. Texting requires (unless you are one of the very few people who are texting wizards) two hands and total concentration. Which means that your driving lacks . . . well, what a surprise, two hands and any concentration! It is completely unfathomable to me why anybody would think that is acceptable. You guys, it's just not. I know I complain about people's stupidity sometimes, but this is a whole new level. We need laws to tell us what common sense should have made totally clear. That's just . . . wow. But since apparently we need these laws, I really, really hope this bill gets passed.

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On a totally unrelated note, check the Atlantis section of my website for new Season 3 reviews and some new artwork!

Stargate Atlantis Reviews

So, I won't be posting my Stargate Atlantis reviews here, because they're generally really long, and the belong in the nice Atlantis section on my website. But I will post whenever I update the reviews section there =)

For those who are curious:

• Season 1: Review for episode 4
• Season 2: Review for episode 2
• Season 3: Reviews for episodes 1-9
• Season 4: Reviews for episodes 14-17
• Season 5: Reviews for episodes 1-2

Season 3 is my current project, and I've just posted a review for episode 9, "Phantoms". Enjoy!!