Survey wot I got from my mom (!) in the emails. From the Wide, Wide World of Web.

1. What time is it: 6:05pm
2. Name: Shannon
3. What are you most afraid of? The sun (exploding!) (turning into a red giant!) (flaring!)
4. What do you drive? Ahahahaha...*weeps*
5. Have you ever seen a ghost? No, unfortunately. Although at a seance in high school we convinced ourselves we'd heard a ghost. Alas, it was probably a coyote.
6. Where were you born? Kansas City, KS.
7. Ever been to Alaska? I haven't been to New England.
8. Ever been toilet paper rolling? No; I wasn't cool in high school? People know this, yes?
9. Croutons or Bacon bits? Croutons.
10. Favorite day of the week? Constantly changing, and dependent on when my current favorite TV show is on; right now, Sunday.
11. Favorite restaurant: Johnny's (barbeque).
12. Favorite Flower: Daisy.
13. Favorite sport to watch: College basketball.

14. Favorite Drink: Non-alcoholic would probably be regular Coke (mmm, sugar...); alcoholic would probably be a strawberry dacqueri (mmm, girly...).

15. Favorite Ice cream: Mint chocolate chip.
16. Disney or Warner Brothers: If we're talking features, Disney. The old animated shorts? Totally WB.
17. Favorite fast food restaurant: Wendy's. 99 cent chili in the house.
18. What color is your bedroom carpet? Last I checked, drab wasn't a color, so I'll go with gray.
19. How many times you failed your driver's test? Zero times.
23. Who will respond to this email the quickest? Where did the missing numbers go? It is hard to say. But I cheat you, question, as I post this on the WWWoW.
24. Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to
respond? Laura. Heh.
25. Who is the person that you are most curious to see their
response? Honestly, I could guess most folks' responses, so...
26. Favorite TV show: Battlestar Galactica

27. Ford or Chevy? Ford (I go with my mom's answer here, as...I don't know?)
28. What are you listening to right now? Fellowship of the Ring full recordings.
29. What are your favorite colors? Green, white and yellow, green and pink.
30. How many tattoos do you have? None. Shocker!
31. Do you have any pets? Two cats: Phoenix and Jack. I miss them. Sad face.
32. What is your favorite Movie? Young Frankenstein.
33. What would you like to accomplish before you die? Sell a script. (When/if this happens, I will upgrade to, "Have a script produced.")

Laura has a link on her blog to Bruce Campbell's new Old Spice commercial. It's just...beautiful. And perfect. And reminds me once again how empty my life is that I'm not somehow married to Bruce Campbell.

Oscar nominations! The season's been a little bittersweet the last couple of weeks, after I saw Children of Men and knew that it wouldn't get nominated for Best Pic and Clive wouldn't get in for Actor (Alfonso did get in for adapted screenplay, though!). However, there were plenty of other people and movies to pull for (and yet others to pull against...)

First of all, I knew it wouldn't actually happen, but the Globes gave me a passing moment of icy fear-thank the gods that Beyonce didn't get nominated for actress. It's nice to see Kate Winslet sneak in there even though she'll be number five in that list, but Kate, Meryl, Helen, and Dame Judi are pretty much my favorite, and the best, female actors working today. If Cate had somehow managed a leading nod instead of supporting, I'd have just thrown up my hands and been done with it. In actor, I was surprised LeoDiCap got in for Blood Diamond instead of Departed, but it probably is a stronger leading performance for him. Moo point, as Forest Whitaker is going to win. I haven't seen Half Nelson, but people have told me that Gosling is great, so I'm glad he was able to pull a nomination as he seems a nice sort.

Mark Wahlberg for the Departed in supporting! I know Eddie Murphy's going to win, but I'm glad Marky-Mark got in over Jack. Now, I think plenty of people are aware of my seething dislike of Jennifer Hudson and her apparent shoo-in for supporting actress, but I squealed out loud when I saw Abagail Breslin on the list, and squealed even more as I moved on down the list, for reasons I'll explain later.

Plenty of things to pull for in techs; Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth, The Prestige, even Pirates. And then...the first big gasp and giggle of schadenfredualicious joy! Bill Condon didn't make it in for director! Now, Dreamgirls has been touted since October at least as the frontrunner; Oscarwatch has talked of little else best pic-wise for months now, and anyone who dared defy that proclamation was shouted down. But Condon didn't get in for director? That's going to hurt their BP chances, I told myself...

Back to techs. More of those other movies this year that were just as challenging and deep and interesting and about the human condition as those other movies, but the ones that did so with a veneer of fantasy or a dusting of science fiction. Yay for techs! Am definitely pulling for Philip Glass in score, as I discovered him this year, and The Illusionist's soundtrack is just gorgeous. I haven't had the chance to see the movie yet, it's next in my Netflix queue, but I've heard it's good, so I'm excited.

Dreamgirls didn't get nominated for Best Picture! Ahahaha! See, this weekend, Little Miss Sunshine won the PGA, and that was a big, big deal, as everyone assumed that it was between Dreamgirls, Departed, and the Queen. Did that mean that Little Miss Sunshine's stock was taking an uptick right before the end? Yes, yes it did. Which brings me to my retrospective musings on supporting actress. JHud has been rolling this category all season, and sometimes Oscar goes along with that momentum (Jamie Foxx, Hilary Swank), and sometimes they don't (Cate Blanchett, Adrien Brody). If Dreamgirls is cooling off just as Little Miss Sunshine is heating back up...I don't know. For the first time in this race, I'm getting a little bit of hope here. Because for no other reason than that I didn't like her on AI, and that I don't like season-long frontrunners unless I already really like the person (Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker fit into this very hypocritical position), I just do not want Hudson to win. It's bad enough she got nominated for an Oscar, but I can allow that since Beyonce didn't and that makes me laugh at Beyonce. But I just really, really don't want her to win, and Abagail would be so cute walking up there and everything, so this'll be my big hope/fear category of the night. Thankfully it's early, so I don't have to wait too long for it in the ceremony, but sadly Hudson's still probably going to win, so I'm going to try to not let that sour the night for me.

(As I was typing this up, I was also opening up Marie Chantal and saw Lindsay Lohan's thread, and laughed that last year, as she was filming PHC with Altman, and Bobby with Emilio, she probably thought she'd get a nomination. And now she's in "rehab" and can't even get her stripper movie made. Oh, how I laughed.)

I'm finally remembering to do that New Years meme where you post the first line of each month's post throughout the year. Hopefully, this will be less lame than last year's.

January: I am back in Austin.
February: I said it a couple years ago and I'm saying it again tonight, "I love Aaron Pierce"! Next to Jack Bauer, he's the man I'd want watching my back. When I grow up and become POTUS, Aaron's going to be the first man to ever simultaneously hold the number one positions at the CIA, FBI and Homefuckingland Security.
March: Dear Guy Who Uses the Weight Machine When I Am There: Just lift the weights already.
April: Someday I want a pet who also has a pet.
May: A while back, my Grandpa gave me a pocket watch he got when he left his old work.
June: TV! First things first, remember when I posted that if Aaron got his own freeze-frame, name to the side, previously, that it would make my life?
July: I want to marry Brandon Routh.
August: Right now, my family is out eating someplace nice for Marshall's birthday. I am eating braunschweiger on Saltines and a pile of dill pickle slices.
September: As far as I can tell based only on the schedule for the film lab class (which I did get into, even though the professor ended up not reading my second draft wot I wrote in a day before hand), not even my other two writing classes and the TA position, this was pretty much the only weekend I'd have time to really mess around in Photoshop and make new banners and such.
October: I'm working on a new scene outline for my revision, which has been a weeklong process.
November: This is Gaius Baltar. He is pretty.
December: Oh frabjous day!

Back in Austin, which was more trouble than I would have thought. Originally I was to fly in on Saturday, but KCI cancelled flights. They didn't have the decency to do so while I was still at home, but waited until I was in line to board, so that I then had to wait to get my bags back. I spent three hours at the airport to not fly.

Tuesday, made it into Dallas okay on my rescheduled flight, but then my flight to Austin was cancelled; I luckily made it onto the next flight, but everything else that evening was also cancelled, so I spent a fun hour contemplating my overnight stay at the Dallas airport. When I did make it back, it was icy in Austin but certainly not the terrifying frosty nightmare they were making it out to be. I get that they're not used to the ice and such, but I had to laugh when the weather guy commented on the BITTER COLD, when it was a full thirty degrees warmer than it was in KC. And there, we went ahead and drove on the snow-ice mix to go sledding, by God.

Christmas break itself was good, although Laura and I were trying to figure out how exactly we managed to stay occupied for a month when in retrospect we didn't seem to actually have done anything. But it was a nice break, and I'm rested and ready to start writing again (although not today, heh).