for the most sensitive among us the noise can be too much.

Fantastic choices on the Q&A everyone! Seems like everyone's in the holiday spirit. Here are my list of movies that I have to watch during the holidays:

The Nightmare Before Christmas, A Muppets Christmas Carol, Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (yes, I did have a TalkBoy), Meet Me in St. Louis, The Santa Clause, Elf, Babes in Toyland (with Annette), The Year Without Santa Claus (and mostly every stop motion Christmas/New Year themed film).

I think that that's about it. These are the movies that I grew up watching during the holidays and they always take me back to that time when I first remember watching them. I saw The Nightmare Before Christmas, A Muppets Christmas Carol, Home Alone 2, and The Santa Clause in the theater when they first came out and those memories are stuck with me in a good way.

I mostly found out about these movies or watched them on my own. My mom would watch them because I watched them and she ended up liking them. I remember this one Christmas where me and my dad were alone for the first time together in years and we watched all three Godfathers. I was older so I understood them all better and they ended up being my favorite movies. So, I've learned in my informal poll that everyone has different tastes but still movie hounds around the holidays. :)

Sometimes I feel like an ass for doing these but 'tis the season:

Holiday Love Meme, Secret Santa Style!

Thank you to jenepherre, sakesushimaki, pbanda, on_the_ground, rinmonsterer, plasticine_star, lennongirl, starcrossed, and anonymous again for the snowflake madness! I really appreciate all of them and they just perk the profile page right up.

Extra special thanks to on_the_ground for the Christmas card and Christmas goodies which I absolutely adore! Me and my mom are using the fun pen, I just put batteries in the lights and I'm going to use it on my desk. Thank you for the wonderful card and message! I feel the same way about you, friend. ♥

I've been all over the place tonight on the internet doing totally random things and listening to VH1's Greatest Songs of the 90's playlist. Glee's love for all things 90's (Acafellas, anyone?) has really got me on a nostalgic trip. I used to love those songs. I used to sing "I Wanna Sex You Up" and "Let's Talk About Sex" and my Aunt was always telling me that it was inappropriate to say those things in public. But, what did I care? I was 5. I didn't know what sex was, okay? Blame my parents for their total lack of censorship for anything I watched or listened to. Let's go back. Click on the song title to download.

1. Hanson - MMMBop: Ah, the song that really started it all. I was a teenager and I got sucked right into the crazy that became pop mania. Surrounding Hanson during this period were groups such as the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys. I stuck it out with them though. Twelve years and counting. I mean, they were right weren't they? The song really was about relationships. So, hold on to the ones who really care 'cause in the end they'll be the only ones there // when you get old and start losing your hair // Can you tell me who will still care?

2. TLC - Waterfalls: What were the 90's without TLC? I remember rejoicing every time "Diggin' On Me" was #1 on MTV's video charts. We took a trip to Vegas in 1994 and the only thing I listened to on that four hour road trip was crazysexycool. What a fantastic album.

3. Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up: Recently covered by Matt Morrison on Glee (HOT) this song was originally done by a boy band in the early 90's. Come on, it was catchy, fun to sing with, dance to ... and now Glee's cover? Sigh. This song is making a come back.

4. Bell Biv DeVoe - Poison: While we're on Glee covers, I'll upload this one too. You guys remember Bell Biv DeVoe, don't you?! Well, shame on you. They were a pop phenomenon! Okay. Maybe they weren't but they were once all members of New Edition and they formed their own group and came up with this little catchy tune. I still jam to this song.

5. Montell Jordan - This Is How We Do It: The partay's here on the Westside! Okay, this was the jam in the mid-90's for the R&B crowd. What do I remember about Montell Jordan? Well, I randomly ran into him at the 1998 Billboard Music Awards. He's tall. Like ... basketball player tall. Tall. If you put this song on in a 90's crowd? Everyone will sing it. I remember McMaster and James (Canadian pop duo) singing it at a concert and the crowd just joined right in. Catchy.

6. Oasis - Wonderwall: There should be songs that would be a litmus test for a friendship because this song would be on that test. I remember one random afternoon, maybe it was lunch, in high school and out on senior lawn someone brought a boom box. She popped in Oasis's "Champagne Supernova" and everyone was like, "Aww. I love this song." I remember someone in my group saying that they didn't know the words (was it you, Claire? Fess up) and there was the collective gasp (or was it just from me?). Anyway, the lawn burst out into quiet song. Oasis just brings the crowd together. Wonderwall is one of those songs that everyone knows. Plus, Oasis. 90's phenom.

7. Dr. Dre & 2Pac - California Love: I was from Sacramento, the capital of California. How could this song NOT be a bit where I was from? I was 10 when this song came out and I took a trip to Chicago that year. I was so confused as to why the song was playing in Chicago. I mean, I knew about California's superiority. I wasn't aware everyone else knew it too!

8. Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way: I knew that N Sync were superior over BSB. Better moves, better songs, better harmonies. Sorry kids. Fact. That said, I was a fan of both. I had/have all Backstreet Boy albums including the European imports and various singles. Now, this song came at the tail end of the 90's. It was off of their album Millennium. What made it memorable? Cheesy dance moves, typical boy band moves, parodied in Blink 182's "All the Small Things". Oh and have you seen this awesome video? I want them to hire me ---

9. Mariah Carey - Vision of Love: Remember when Mariah Carey wasn't a joke and she could you know ... sing? Me too! In 1996 she and Boyz II Men's "One Sweet Day" stayed on the charts for a million years. This isn't that song but remember that!? This song definitely shows off that crazy range of hers that she's destroyed. I could say the same for Whitney. I have her "I Will Always Love You" here too but she will not make the list.

10. Sir Mix-a-Lot - Baby Got Back: Oh my god, Becky. Look at her butt. More observant words have never been uttered. I'll end this list right here.

Rock and alternative and grunge weren't well represented on my list. Well, I was an R&B/Rap/Pop girl in the 90's. Alanis Morrissette kind of knocked me out of my little R&B world with "You Oughta Know" but I didn't really go beyond that. I liked "Enter Sandman" by Metallica and really liked Nirvana's Unplugged when they showed it on MTV. Loved Radiohead's early stuff and still do.

... I miss music and the 90's. What songs do you remember from the 90's?

I guess I just needed to take a little break from it before I wanted to start posting again. The break that I took wasn't even that long. It was probably all of last week and this weekend. But, I'm back in action and as my first priority in this little place we like to call fandom, I'm pimping.

Now we all heard this terrible rumor about fandom's demise, did we not? I remember I posted this fabulous (if I do say so myself) discussion about pet peeves in fanfic It was really more of a general thing but since I have the Qaf love, a lot of Qaf people chimed in. So, I know you guys exist and want to see fandom chugging on as we've been doing for ages and ages just like I do. All of that said ... there are still challenges and fun, wonderful things for fandom that need more participation (from viewers like you).

Remember that? We have some great fandom things to look forward to but especially during the holidays when everyone (mostly everyone) is feeling warm and fuzzy anyway. Don't you want to have someone gift you something? Don't you want to wake up and find that you have something fandom related in a community just waiting for you to open it?

Sign ups close on October 25th, 2009. That means that I have that much time to ask you to join. Please consider it. Remember how much fun the Valentine thing was? We have these little traditions in fandom that certainly make me feel good and I hope other people feel the same way. Please join! Sign up sheet is right here. It's just waiting for you to click on it. Click. That's all it takes. Let's all have a great holiday season this year fandom. :)

Even Gale's suspicious about his own age. Forty really is the new thirty, isn't it?

Gale, it is your birthday.

friday82 made a fantastic, fantastic Gale tribute in her journal. We're talking lots and lots of Gale goodies. Let me link you:

Part I.
Part II.
Part III
Part IV.

And the always awesometastic url_girl made a mix for Mr. Howard Harold on his 40th. You can find it right here.

Also! Also! A year ago today I interviewed for a job and got it (after several months of unemployment) so yet another reason to celebrate today, yay! It's really a good day over all isn't it?

Oh and apparently not a lot of people have heard this story. I posted this on friday82's journal this morning: I know the people who were at the Paley Festival will get this but one of my favorites is when everyone in the panel was talking about how they got the job on Queer as Folk. They told their usual stories, nothing that anyone hasn't heard before, and then when they got to Gale he said, "I WON IT AT A RAFFLE!" It was loud, enthusiastic, and complete with southern accent. Everyone laughed and then it got silent, waiting for him to continue to tell the real story, but he just kind of shrugged and said that that was all that he wanted to say and then they moved on to someone else.

Seriously. Kills me every time I think about it.

Who is the person in fandom who called the parking lot where Justin got hit "the parking lot of violent homophobia"? I laughed my ass off about five seconds ago just thinking about it. This was around 2004 and it may have been a TWoP recap but now I'm not too sure.

I thought about it because I'm reading my memories and it was a conversation that I had with my bestie. :)

First of all, just wanted to say thank you for everyone who responded to my last (a lil crazy) post. Everyone has those nights and it was just a shit weekend so I just really appreciate everyone's words. For those who can relate to my situation, I'm sorry that we have to go through that. For those who said kind words (that's everyone) you have my love. I'm really glad that I have a place to go when I'm not feeling very well and where people will listen. It means a lot.

So, I've somewhat returned to being my old self today. There are still residual feelings of anger and sadness but I know that that's going to pass. I just went to work today and my co-worker really cheered me up throughout the day. Unfortunately, something that I had been working on got completely erased and that sucked. I was almost done with it and for some reason when someone's logged into one of our documents while we're working on it, if we try to save what we're working on, a document gets erased. So, in this case, what I was working on got erased and his copy was saved instead. That sucked.

marishna beat me to it but here's a video of the brilliant and wonderful Keith Olbermann from Countdown today:

I know that I'm preaching to the choir when I post it here but just try to spread the word where you can. As much as I am really, really, REALLY disliking our governor right now, it seems like he's trying to get on everyone's good side and opposing the Yes on 8 decision. The fight rages on.

I hope that everyone had a really wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow with a Heroes review.

Oh, did anyone watch Witness to Jonestown yesterday?