There's another meme going round about posting what's on your dekstop. This seems to entail posting the wallpaper that's on your desktop, but I'm gonna do a one-up and post a screencap of my desktop as it is:

( Cut to spare your flist, though it's already a thumbnail. )

The original image is by mahirates, HERE. My mum came in to use my PC once, I don't know what she thought of my having a nekkid lady sprawled on the monitor, mwaha. V^_^

I'd love to see your desktops! Not really tagging, but I'd particularly be interested to see the desktops of rosa_cotton, dinglehoppers, mermaidbia, lady_heartilly, joeyteapot, kidagakash84, dramedy, little_nimue, piyo_halliwell and sirose. No pressure! Just me being curious. ^^

Part 5 in a series, I guess. ^^;;

1. Take pictures of any seven items from your collection. They can be anything you collect, from action figurines to dirty gym socks.
2. Post the pictures in your journal. You can post them separately, for example, one for each day of the week.
3. Describe the items, i.e. when, where and how you got them, etc..
4. Tag seven people from your friends list. Leave a comment at their journal, informing them that they have been tagged and to check your own journal.

The thing is, I'm reluctant to call myself a Queen fan. (As in, the English band, not the royal title, though that would've been funny.) To the layman, okay, I am a fan of Queen, but to the large droves of Old School Queen Fans, I'm just a newbie on the block. Which is fine by me, because I've never been fandom-monogamous.

Queen's music has always been in the background of my consciousness, along with Genesis, ABBA and Bruce Springsteen, thanks to my father and the Australian music television shows "Wavelength" and "John Torv's Music Videos" that I grew up with. Then in 2005 my parents took me to watch We Will Rock You in London, and I got hooked.

Of course, it would be scandalous if I were to tell any Old School Queen Fen that I only really caught on to the awesomeness that is Queen through their musical, which, to be perfectly honest, is more a showcase concert than an actual musical.

This is why I usually don't tell people I'm a fan. It's rather like saying that you're a fan of Lord of the Rings when you only got interested in it because of the movies. It may be valid, but the n00b label is immediately attached to you.

( Part 5: Ready, Freddie? )

The hard drive of my dead PC turned out to be too busted to repair, so I ended up ordering a new one. PC, that is, not hard drive. In a remarkable show of getting my hopes up, the Dell Lady called today to let me know that they're delivering it to my house tomorrow, a whole four days ahead of schedule. AWESOMESAUCE. I'm bummed that I've lost a whole bunch of stuff from the old one, but I'm trying not to think too hard about it, because I'm already freaking out over settling the bill for this new one, so I've decided to worry about one thing at a time.

I met up with an old friend for lunch today. She's going to London tomorrow and so very helpfully offered to get something for me if I so wanted, which she totally shouldn't have said, because I squeed and asked her to get me three musical recordings that I shan't name here in case I jinx myself and she ends up not being able to get them for me.

Anyway, continuing the meme:

1. Take pictures of any seven items from your collection. They can be anything you collect, from action figurines to dirty gym socks.
2. Post the pictures in your journal. You can post them separately, for example, one for each day of the week.
3. Describe the items, i.e. when, where and how you got them, etc..
4. Tag seven people from your friends list. Leave a comment at their journal, informing them that they have been tagged and to check your own journal.

I love jigsaw puzzles, and I find solving them therapeutic and calming. It's like I'm fixing a part of the world, setting it to rights even if only on a small scale, and the effects is very satisfying. I was going to post a picture of the double-sided jigsaw that gave the most fun I ever had fixing a puzzle, but it's not with me at the moment, so I'm posting a picture of the puzzle I most recently completed.

( Part 3. Fixing the world, one piece at a time. )

Part 2 of the meme:

1. Take pictures of any seven items from your collection. They can be anything you collect, from action figurines to dirty gym socks.
2. Post the pictures in your journal. You can post them separately, for example, one for each day of the week.
3. Describe the items, i.e. when, where and how you got them, etc..
4. Tag seven people from your friends list. Leave a comment at their journal, informing them that they have been tagged and to check your own journal.

Like a lot of people, I like to keep ticket stubs and brochures as memoirs. I used to be more rigorous about keeping them, but nowadays I have to prioritise, because I just don't have enough space. I got into musicals within the past few years, so I've started a little scrapbook project to store the pieces of memories.

( Picture Set 2: Acid-free paper is love. )

My previous jigsaw puzzle was this one, a 2000-piece set that took me about 30 hours to complete. That was ages ago and I'd been planning to get a 4000-piece set and finish it within 72 hours (or before the sun sets on the third day, ha). I'd put off buying it because the things are fiendishly expensive, but when I started to notice that the puzzle shop I frequent was running out of nice 4000-piece sets, I had to save up like whoa and get the one I wanted chop-chop.

So, last Friday, I did. ( This is the puzzle I bought: )

It's still in its box, because once I start on it I must not be interrupted, so I'm saving it for an extended weekend where I can cloister myself in my room and time myself.

The Lake House = A recently released romantic movie starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves.

Il Mare = the Korean movie it was based on.

Me = a fangirl of (well done) romantic movies and time-travel.

This entry = evidence of that sad fangirlishness.

( HUGE spoilers for The Lake House and Il Mare. )

Technically this qualifies as fanart, but it isn't, not really.

Inspired by a throwaway line in Superman Returns that made my friends and I burst out laughing in the cinema -- for we are g33ks. Represent!

Oh, and possible spoilers for Superman Returns.

( Are you a g33k like m3? )

It's official. Although the Disney Princess merchandise line continues to make me go bleh, the Disney Villain merchandise line is quickly becoming... something else.

I think I've mentioned the My Side of the Story picture book series (detailing, in the villain's own words, their side of the story), but I only bought two of them recently. There are five in all (I think), and I planned to get just the Ursula-Ariel one, but the Maleficent-Aurora made me squee. See, this is why bookshops should have browsing copies, mmkay? Excerpt from Maleficent's side of the story:

Until my recent troubles, I was the most successful businesswoman this side of Kingdom Come.

Enchantment Value Industries Limited -- that's my corporation (E.V.I.L. for short). Maybe you've heard of it? We specialize in black mag -- I mean, market -- enterprise. And I can proudly say we have branches all over the world.

But my success has come at a price. Over the years I've been the victim of a lot of vicious gossip. People say I'm a ruthless witch (I simply know what I want). They say I lead a gang of hideous goblins (my company maintains a strict policy of nondiscrimination). And, they say a storm of wrath and frustration continually thunders around my castle in the Forbidden Mountains (it may be a bit rainy, but I got an incredible bargain on real estate!).

Hee! I'm starting to suspect that the people in charge of Disney Villain line are fanboys and girls. There's none of the doe-eyed futz and (arguably) condescending tone that's the norm for the Disney Princess books. And there's, like, big words! I've always been uncomfortable with shows and books that underestimate and talk down to children.

Maleficent's side of the story has a touch of deliberate wide-eyed "Who, me?" irony, and Aurora's side of the story makes her adorably clueless (which may or may not be your thing, but it worked for me).

( Two sample images behind the cut. Yeah, the art's pretty good. )

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Oh, and because ladydemando asked, Captain Hook's dossier from The Villain Files:

( Yarr! )

Somewhere in April I made the resolution not to buy any more DVDs until June. Having lost access to ebay and amazon.co.uk made me twitchy so I was snatching up DVDs left, right and centre. Then I remembered that I have to save up for the October onslaught of Little Mermaid merchandise, plus a super sekrit project that I don't want to elaborate on just yet, in case I jinx it and it doesn't happen. Hence, no more DVDs until June.

But the other day I saw some things that I had to get, and I figured that since they were books, they didn't count as part of the fast. Besides, I have a 9-to-5 job now, and I deserve some rewards, right? Don't answer that. XD

Book 1: Villains: The Top Secret Files



This one was little pricey, but dayum, it was designed by people who actually know the movies.

The Disney Villain merchandise line seems to be getting better treatment than the Disney Princess line, and that's all sorts of ironic. Besides the "Their Side of the Story" books (which are awesome and twisted), I found this Top Secret Files quite some time back but didn't get it because I couldn't browse through it first.

Then I went to a store that had a browsing copy, and when the book made me literally LOL I knew that I had to get it. The concept is as though "Villain Specialist" has compiled information, notes and artifacts related to a few of the Disney Villains. The villains featured are the Wicked Queen, Captain Hook, Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, Jafar, Ursula, Yzma, Madam Medusa, the Wicked Stepmother and Gaston.

( A sample of the contents inside. Image-heavy. )

Book 2: Ariel's Secret.

A Disney Princess product. The story inside smashes canon into smithereens, but young Ariel was too cute to resist.

( Young Ariel and... )

Book 3: A Special Song

Panders to the Disney Princess philosophy that any girl can be a princess. The story's little too sentimental for my tastes, but then again, I'm not the target audience. I'm just here for the art. Wait, does that make me a sub-section of the target audience...?

( The cover. )

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In other news, Disney Theatrical's Tarzan looks pretty cool! Wirework, baby!

I've listed out my DVD collection at DVD aficionado:
The Overview // The Full DVD List.
*I tried to be as accurate as possible, but some of the regions are wrong.

However, this list does not include the following DVD titles that aren't in the database (I can't be bothered to add them yet):

+ Brainiac: Science Abuse
+ Happily Ever After tv series vol. 1, 2, 3 and 4
+ Hugo the Hippo (which will probably be the subject for my next minor shrine)
+ A Peanuts Celebration
+ Saban's The Little Mermaid vol. 1 and 2
+ Swan Lake / Hakucho no Mizumi
+ Norman Conquests (a British series) vol. 1, 2 and 3
+ Xena: Warrior Princess (various episodes)

I haven't even started on my VCDs and videos.

I had no idea I was this far gone. No idea.

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I went to Jigsaw World today and identified the puzzle I intend to buy once I save up some moolah. It's a 4000-piece collage of various Disney movies from Steamboat Willie to Snow White to the Hunchback of Notre Dame. My goal is to complete it within 24 hours. \m| ^_^ |m/

( My previous jigsaw project. )

Edited to add: ( Now with photographic evidence! )

I swear I'm perfectly normal otherwise.