burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

Huh.  I got ~8hrs of sleep, woke up a number of times and fell back asleep (left the fan on all night) and ultimately got up on my own before my alarm.

I picked up the key to my new apartment.  And have begun moving boxes out into the living room -- giving me more room to maneuver as well as the opportunity to Swiffer.  It also gives me a better sense of which boxes are only partially full so I can pack the piles of paper I wanna keep and such like.  I have so much crap.  And so much of it I wanna keep.  Or at least go over more thoroughly than I can right now.  I feel like a bitch making people help me move all this.  At least I'm almost done -- just a few more boxes to go through and then it's just packing up books and clothes and a few sundries.  Oh, and food, too.  Anyway.  Another bag of paper to be taken out to the curb, so yay for that.

About ten past three it started thundering.  At first I wasn't sure it was even raining 'cause I didn't smell it, but I went outside and stood in the rain for a bit.  About twenty minutes later it was over.  Oh summer storms.
    I also got caught in a storm on my way to evening church.  About halfway there it started raining, and at first I thought it was just the rain drops from the earlier storm falling off the tree leaves, but then I realized it was real rain.  And just a few minutes from church it started coming down heavily and I was kinda soaked by the time I got to church.  I didn't mind it at all except that I had to wring my clothes out when I got inside.  I was wearing really good clothes for it, though, so I looked fine.  And my new short haircut means my hair being wet doesn't equal my hair looking all bedraggled.

FanHistory.com, what?  I hadn't heard about it before I saw someone talking about it today, and I love the idea in theory but the execution thus far seems subpar.  Someone said, "I think that the FFN entries, at least, are done by a bot, which is why everyone and their dog is on there, with a complete list of FFN stories."

Dr. Horrible fix-it fic I have read thus far:
+ "You Gotta Have Heart" by executrix
+ Untitled by Amalie (amaliedageek)
+ "Dr. Horrible Goes Back In Time: Left Turn" by Lorraine (lunabee34)
+ "Watch Him As He Goes" by kurukami
I also like this idea for how the ending could have gone down.  This idea also works.
And apparently there is horrible_fic (I should not be surprised), though I haven't read any of it yet.

"New brain scanning technologies are revealing that the part of the brain that processes physical pain also deals with emotional pain." (BBC) [link via inlovewithnight]

I had a moderately successful clothes shopping trip today.  Addendum: $40 $30 pants being dry clean only?  So not allowed.  I see prices like that, and the material feels normal (*checks tag now* 63% polyester, 33% rayon/viscose, 4% spandex) and I don't think to check for special care instructions.  Will ask He Who Does the Laundry (i.e., my Daddy) tomorrow (since often one can get away with gentle cycle, handwash, etc. -- witness many of my recent shirt purchases).  I also realized (more accurately? was reminded) how I'm going to have to relearn where to shop when I move -- reminiscent of going to college, but with rather more urgency in getting it figured out (yay for a housemate who's lived there a year).

I stopped by the library after I came home.  People keep asking me if I'm excited -- about the apartment thing.  And I say that I am (often with the caveat that I am not excited about packing) because it's close to the truth and it's what they want to hear [yes, that issue again].  I've been planning having an apartment since sometime last year, so now I have a concreteness to ground the planning but it's hardly new; and I'm nervous about some things but mostly confident that I'll figure it out (because that's What I Do); so basically the concreteness hasn't upped the excitement (or the nervousness) much beyond what was simmering when it was all theoretical.  I've been planning it so much that I don't have much of a mood change -- though I imagine I will once I'm actually moved in.  The clutter in my room is bugging me tonight, though, so maybe I will actually will be able to get myself in gear to cull and pack.

Terry was asking about where I'm moving to, and I honestly couldn't remember where it is in relation to Boston proper (like, I currently live southwest of Boston).  I'm so not used to thinking about how to get places other than by the T (though I am enjoying learning how things are close to each other so I can walk rather than T).  Thinking about people parking at my new place?  Oy.  I think we have a driveway and maybe on-street parking, but I'll have to inquire with OriginalRoomie about public parking lots in the area in preparation for ever having more than one visitor at a time.  (I am so tempted to tell people to park at Alewife or something and T it.)

I've been reading post-"Chosen" Xander-in-Africa fic recently, and of course my brain likes to connect everything, so I'm thinking about how he changes when he's on his own away from the group that has so defined/influenced him (though yes, still connected to them) and from there thinking about those sorts of issues/themes in my own life.

oyceter is asking about cities you have loved, which got me thinking about how I'm not attached to places in the sacred space, pilgrimage, etc. kind of way, and further attempts at articulation got me: I tend to see places-to-live/visit as more means-to-an-end (access to material goods, friends, a job, etc. that one wants).  My phrasing prompted angeyja to ask me for a link to my talk about sacred space etc., but it's not something I've made a full post about (yet), just talked about in conversation with other people.

And speaking of apartment parties, how I function with people, etc.: Ian McKellan on directing a movie and throwing a party:

I've often said that the way of defining a good director… well, you can't be a good director unless you can hold a good party. At a good party, you've specifically brought together a group of people because you'll think they'll get on and you're job is to make them get on. You're job is not to have a good time but to make sure they have a good time. You treat each of them differently. You make sure they've got the right drink in their hand. You say the right words of encouragement. You introduce people to them. Brett [Ratner] is brilliant, absolutely brilliant, but Bryan[ Singer]'s not very good at it. I've never been to a party of Bryan's, but I dread to think what it would be like. Bryan is much more internal and self-obsessed and neurotic. That comes out in the films he makes. That's part of what he does. Brett's a party animal. Brett wants everyone to have a good time. If they're enjoying themselves then so is he. That's a very good atmosphere for a movie of this sort. There are long, long waits while things are being set up. Where the scenes aren't that intense. You can easily get lost in the dialogue of an X-Men movie, so it's very good to have the leader keeping everyone's spirits and that's what he does.