Ugh. Cold has moved up from throat to envelope entire head. Afraid the only thing I'm going to be spending time with tonight are my blankets.

Har, Robin. I don't understand why people think that just because the message is going over the internets, you don't still need to spell out all the words. Especially AT WORK. Honestly.

for ita, from The Daily Dish

BLOOM IS HOUSEHUNTING IN THE CARIBBEAN

British heartthrob Orlando Bloom fell in love with the Caribbean while shooting "Pirates of the Caribbean" there, and is looking for a home in the sun-kissed region.

The star, who is currently shooting two adventure sequels in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Bahamas, has his heart set on a remote home on western Caribbean's little-known Emerald Isles.

A source reveals, "He wants somewhere to escape the pressure of being an international movie star."

I'm all sorts of disappointed in one of my favorite fanfic authors. I just discovered her LJ, and found this posted over the weekend:

Just for a lark, I went over to the Harlequin website. And I'm thinking... low hanging fruit. They want a couple of characters falling in love. In one line (Silhouette Romance), I could even stick with my predilection of waiting for marriage before consummation (one of the other lines, I don't remember which, specified at least two "fully consummated love scenes"). In the Intrigue line, I could even have a suspenseful plot, as long as the characters plan to bang each other at some point.

I really couldn't write something that I wouldn't respect myself for. But could I treat a genre I've always despised respectfully enough to write something worth reading? It would certainly be a total break from everything I've been writing, and I was saying I needed to make such a break.

But...Harlequin? Could I really write for a company that's synonymous with "mass-produced drivel"?

I guess the answer's no. If for no other reason that I wouldn't disrespect potential readers by saying, "Well, at least it would be money."

Grrrr. I posted a response (probably rude of me, since it was my first post ever on LJ, let alone her site, but I did preface it with much praise of her fics!) that basically told her it was a good thing she decided not to try and write in this field, especially if she really didn't read it to begin with (I left out the utter contempt she seems to have for the genre, as well as my usual rantings on the subject).

I probably should post this in GWW, but I hate barging in on a discussion already under way since I don't normally post there.

Kathy, on behalf of this hard-working romance writer (because telling a love story well=hard work), thank you.

Wait. A Fan fic writer was genre bashing?

has his heart set on a remote home on western Caribbean's little-known Emerald Isles

Yay for having a boat.

So on 24 this week, and the preview, why in the hell is Terror!Spawn more important than Jack being dead (other than Marwan channelling Dr. Evil, I mean) ? Also, what's the likelihood that Terror!Mom is really dead, since the shot her off camera? I just can't think of a single reason why they would have let her live.

The reasons why that was a really, really stupid plan are far too numerous to go into. But dude, at the very least, put some kind of tracking device on Jack! We know he can't die, but the characters shouldn't. I think Shorei's dead. Yeah, it was offscreen, but what would be the point of letting her live? (Of course, what was the point of her not shooting Jack in the head?) All in all, not one of their finer eps. Good to have Chole back, though.

Frank, I wondered about that staging too. If it happensoff camera, it didn't really happen.