Hey, more Avatar casting news;
We've got an Iroh!
An admiral Zhao!
And Fire Lord Ozai!

It's good to see that they've done something to go against those allegations of 'whitewashing' the cast.
And-- wow, I cannot even be sarcastic about this. I just. I have died of the 'wut?'

Okay, I think I need to go downtown more often.
I'm hungover, slightly spotty on some of the exact details of last night and I possibly made an ass of myself/pissed someone off on... three different occasions?
But fun, all the same!

People who need coffee this early on a saturday should really just go fuck themselves.

Translation;
I DON'T WANT TO GO WORK! WAHHHH!! *throws tantrum* *ponders throwing boiling hot coffee at customers to get sent home early*

So. Our second roommate (a somewhat twisted young Swedish gentleman named Andreas) moved out on Sunday.

He told us this on Monday. ...yeah, he moved out on Sunday whilst we slept. He came by early enough in the morning that he'd be sure we were in bed and moved all his stuff out, and then swang by yesterday whilst I was at work to let irda know that he was gone.

Cue some immense panic as we realised we'd need to find a third person to share the rent and the bills before the end of the month. Luckily, we put up online ads about the room that very same night, because...

We have a new roommate. She just swang by now, seems really nice and actually social (unlike the last one). And she wants to move in tomorrow.

So, old one out and new one in in the space of... four days? Nice turn around there.

Ugh. I think I'm going to have to throw in the towel on the 'happy thing every day' meme. At least until after the holidays, as happy is few and far between right now.

See, I'm going to be spending Christmas alone. Both my roommates are going to be out of the country and I could afford neither the plane fare back home nor the time off of work. I was actually okay with this. A few people were really cool and offered for me to spend christmas with them, but I honestly would have wound up feeling a little too awkward and odd spending the holidays with other people's families, so I ultimately decided to go solo, made a plan.

I'm working the morning of Christmas Eve until 2, I go home and chill out after that, watch some bad movies.
Christmas day, I wake up late, unwrap the presents I have and then cook myself a nice meal (I bought myself a T-Bone steak which is my idea of the basis of a perfect meal) and generally lounge about the apartment doing nothing and relaxing. Solitary, yes. But a welcome break after the sheer stress of work this season and a little relieving in that I don't have to get dressed up for a variety of christmas parties wherein I have to listen to my various drunken aunts, uncles and various other relations be their petty, catty selves.
In short, I was cool with it.

And then my mother called. And it was, like all the other calls I've gotten from her, excruciating. See, my Mum has a new boyfriend/fiance. I've never met him, but they're getting married January 8th. What I know about the guy is this; He was involved in a gang-shooting in Jamaica and fled to Britain. He's Rastafarian and thus smokes pot as a part of his daily life. Like... 24/7 (Maybe it's racist of me, but I'm not particularly cool with this). He was deported almost a year ago because he didn't have a visa. Getting him back into Britain has been a long, arduous process for my mother that has slowly drained her of every last drop of money she has. Their marriage is happening in January so that he can stay in the country. He's annoying and loud (every conversation I have with my Mum these days involves a good half of it devoted to him yelling something in the background). Now that he's back in Britain (and even before he got deported) he still isn't able to get a job and thus my mum is supporting him. ...and, one assumes, his pot. And he's homophobic. To the point that... last Christmas, I think it was, when I was thinking about going home then to visit, I was asked by my mum to keep quiet about being gay.

Now, she swears he's reformed on that last point. Right around the time the word 'marriage' started cropping up, I pointed out that hi. Your son is gay. And you're marrying a man who is quite vocal about how wrong homosexuality is. Fucked up. She told him and apparently he decided that he was no longer homophobic. Of course, at the time, he was back in Jamaica post-deportation and was somewhat desperate to get back into Britain so... call me cynical, but I can't help but wonder what his reaction would have been if he hadn't been in a situation where he was dependant on staying on my mum's good side.

...long tangent there, sorry. But yes, the phone call was the same old, same old. She talked about what was going on back home, he yelled some shit, she talked about the marriage and how awful it is that noone supports her, etc. etc. he yelled some more. Then as she was in the process of saying goodbye/hanging up, she asked what my plans for christmas were.

I told her. She was concerned. She's worried I'm going to backslide into depression and she's worried that I've 'decided' to spend my christmas alone in Iceland. Which, uhm;
a) I didn't 'decide' to stay here in Iceland, I had no money to afford a plane ticket. And because you had to save money for your boyfriend and the wedding, you told me you couldn't help me out with airfare.
b) You told me to wait with deciding to come home anyway, because you weren't sure if the boyfriend was going to make it back into the country before then. And if he wasn't, you told me that 'no offense' but you had to 'focus on him' and spend the holidays with him.
So, it's not like I purposefully chose not to go back to England here.
She then proceeded to badger me for ten minutes as to why my plan was to spend my christmas alone, constantly bringing up my depression and how 'worried' she was.
The conversation was actually more depressing than my plans because, as is often the case with my mother, it was all about her. Not about whether I was okay, but about how worried she was, and how concerned she's going to be at Christmas and how she's going to have to call me every hour for a regular update.
It's par the course, really. I had a self-destructive phase, it was about her. I sank into depression, it was about her. I needed therapy, it was about her. It's always been all about her, even when I was a suicidal basketcase. And now this is about her, too.

And just-- I wasn't depressed about spending Christmas alone, but I am now. But spending it with one of the other families that have offered to take me in would just remind of the fact that when it comes to family; For the majority of mine, either I don't want to be around them or they don't want to be around me.

And this is rambly and crap and so emo, but just. ...Ugh.

Continuing the meme I started yesterday-- Yeah, I totally started this meme yesterday. Not last week. >.> Shush, this is how Icelandic time works.

What made me happy today?

Twilight.

Oh. My. Good. God.

It was enjoyable, to say the least.

For eight days you have to post something that made you happy that day. Tag eight people to do the same.

This Sugababes video. It's awesome. ...and possibly NSFW if your job is particularly strict. And not just in the shallow 'oooh, man-candy' way. It's a nice little spin on objectification. ...shame the song sucks.

Tagging irda, deppo, causette, dreamt, olgzz, herozero, harrietvane and zoology. Go to it, beeyotches.

I might go for something big tomorrow and post about how happy my WoW chars on my main server make me. ...yeah, all fifteen of them.

So, our apartment is currently in a sticky predicament and none of us are really adult enough to know just what to do about it;

We recently switched to a new ISP after our last one was proving to be too expensive and unreliable. As such our monthly download was halved, going from 80GB to 40GB.
That's cool, we just resolved to watch our downloads and try not to exceed the limit. I even go so far as to install a download tracker to keep myself honest.
The internet slows to a near-halt about two days after. Apparently we've exceeded the download limit. For the week. Yeah, the monthly download limit is rationed into 10GB segments per week. And they've decided to slow down our connections to foreign sites to limit any further craziness.
Having downloaded a couple of big things right after we got internet back, we accept this and decide to go slow until the new week begins.
The internet gets slower and slower and slower, and ultimately unuseable. We call up the ISP. It's because we've apparently downloaded 36.6 GB. Thus overstretching our weekly limit thricefold and forcing them to limit our internet speed to 128kbps.

I check my download tracker and all the files with a 'date modified' occuring after we got the new net. At most (and I'm being generous in the ISP's favour) 6.5GB. Roomie #2 does the same, at most 11GB. Roomie #3 has downloaded nothing but windows service packs, at most 10MB. Over our weekly limit, sure, but not to the tune of 36GB.

...anyone know what to do? Can they enforce a limit they never mentioned to us? Can we contest the downloaded amount?

Fuck Christmas!

And Fuck Celine Dion, too! Right in the ear!

Oh Jesus-- I thought leaving the mall for a few days would mean that I wouldn't have to be witness to parental neglect that borders on abuse, but;

Lady! This is Iceland. It is freezing outside this morning. I'm sitting nice to an espresso machine that pumps out a lot of heat and I'm still chilly. Are you seriously leaving your baby outside in its carriage whilst you enjoy a latte and read the paper? You've been in here almost twenty minutes now and you've only gone outside once. As we speak, I'm on the verge of calling child services. Just... wow.

edit; Never mind, 'tis the done thing here. Don't mind my over-reaction.

Feeling: shocked

So, apparently Gale Harold aka. Brian Kinney aka. God's gift to gay men, is in the hospital following a fairly serious crash. They're optimistic about his recovery, though, but still...

On the other end of the spectrum, recent rumours regarding Tom Cruise's death are all lies.

There's no justice in the world, man.

So, I'm back at the slowest coffee-house in all of Iceland, minding the store for two days so that the girl who normally works here doesn't go completely insane.

Over the course of an average eight-hour day here, we get oh... 30 customers? 40-50 if it's a 'busy' day.

Watch me leech the free interwebs here and update a lot!

I'd quote 'The Shining', but there's no actual work here... No play either, sadly.

Update the first; 9 customers so far, and we've been open an hour and a half. So... one customer every ten minutes. And a great total of... 4,800Kr in the register.

Update the second; Three and a half hours in. 14 customers. 7,600Kr. At the place I usually work right now, the lunch rush would be starting. ...and goddamn, this radio station is annoying.

Update the third; Oh for... if you're not sure what a drink is, then ask before you order it. Don't give me the stink-eye because you ordered an espresso con panna and I handed over something with whipped cream.

Current Location: Kaffitar i Lagmula
Feeling: bored
Hearing: Some hip-hop station

To the world at large and everyone currently suffering under the economic climate;

We, the baristas of Iceland, import our coffee beans. Amazingly enough our chilly clime does not support mass coffee bean growth.
To say that the Icelandic Kronur has slipped a little in comparison to foreign currencies would be putting it kindly.
As such, our Icelandic Kronur now buys us less of the coffee beans we have to import.
As such, we've had to raise our prices.
Amazingly enough, I have no real control over this. ...I realise my happy-go-lucky smile and general stature my have misled you into thinking that I hold the secret to omnipotence, and for this I apologize.

So, put all these facts together and ask yourself this; Is going on a ten minute, hysterical tirade first upon our new, sweet-as-pie staff-member and then me somehow going to change the fact that we have to charge about 150Kr more for our beans now?

Also, they used to cost 640Kr. Now they cost 790Kr. I realise this is not a lenient incline. It is steep. It sucks. But it is not 'double'.

Yours, the coffee-slave you seriously (I am nursing the tequila as we speak) drove to drink. No love, just get the fuck out of my store.

Feeling: frustrated

So, random snippet from the life of someone who doesn't fluently speak the language of the country they live in.

Pizza Delivery Boy: A-Bjordy Bjork Bjork Bjork Bjork.
Me: *smiles, nods and laughs along with the conversation, too tired to do the whole 'Oh, sorry, I'm not fluent, I didn't quite get what you said.' thing*
Roommate: *appears behind me, joining the conversation* Siiiigur Ros? Si si sigur ros?
Me: *nods along, pays, takes pizza, closes door* ...so, what was he saying?
Roommate: He was saying that it's snowing really heavily out there and that he saw four car crashes on the way here.
Me: ....oh. ...so laughing along with that conversation was bad then, hm?
Roommate: ...possibly.

Feeling: embarrassed

So. I'm home from work today on account of teh ill.
I'm queasy, my head aches, dizziness is a problem and I'm not entirely sure that I count as one hundred per cent lucid right now.

I also have the new episodes of Heroes dl'd and ready to go.
Judging by just the vague non-spoiler-y stuff I've seen around, it seems like the two will be a winning combination.

Edit; My head hurts more now. Thanks show.

So. Saw Dark Knight. Loved it, thought it was awesome.
Saw Mamma Mia. Loved it, thought it was awesome.
Of the two, I'd honestly sooner go see Mamma Mia again. ...I'll just hand in my 'geek' badge and gun at the counter.

Today has been eventful for parties. Went to deppo's and had lots of fun. Ate cake, drew on the table-cloth and played with balloons. Yay. Didn't go to the huge work-rager that I had been saying I'd go to. But well, I'm feeling pretty sick and sickness does not mesh well with a huge drinking-party isolated in the middle of nowhere and stretched out over two days, so. I've kind of settled into a habit there, sadly. I always say I'll go and then rarely ever show. I think my drinking muscles are just too under-developed these days. Like, since I've moved to Iceland, I've gotten drunk all of... once. Gotten tipsy twice. And had a misadventure with the least drunk-making tequila in history in between. I'm starting to think I maybe have issues with booze, but... eh.

As a bizarre closing note;
Dear James Franco,
When you tag along with two rentboys and get half-naked whilst watching them get it on with a coked-up businessman, you've kind of crossed the line of things that can be justified with 'research for a role'.
Not that we really mind, of course.

Hearing: Mamma Mia OST.

So, instead of the usual 'Nothing's happening, life is good' standard update, I thought I might babble about fandom stuff;

( Doctor Who and Torchwood. Spoilers for all of Torchwood and up to early s4 of DW. )

( Avatar. Spoilers for the finale. )

I'm really enjoying WoW again right now, which might be due to WotLK looming around the corner. (speaking of, if you can get me into the beta, I will sleep with you. srsly. Or kill for you. whatever it takes) There's a possibility of extremely geeky 'Luke's WoW stuff' posts in the future, so.

And this is a lot less sensical and well-written than I wanted it to be, which I blame on having a very busy day at work. We brought in about 327,000Kr today. (for comparison's sake, that's like... $4000.) I love my job, but I don't love the customers that much right now.

So, surreal moment of the week.
I'm walking home from the bus after a long day at work, dinner and a movie with the roomie. A car goes speeding past. Window rolls down. Guy leans out. Guy yells 'HOMMI!' 'Hommi' being Icelandic for 'Homo'.
Huh.
I'm not offended or pissed, more confused. I didn't exactly look my gayest and I was walking with a girl.


Also this kind of thing just... ugh. Kind of skeeved.

So, working my way through the haze of fever, headaches and antibiotics to make an entry. Figure I'll start off with a meme I picked up from irda;

You know how sometimes people on your friend's list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you *should* already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy mine below, erase my answers putting yours in their place then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration! One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out :)

( Meme. )


In non-meme news, a trailer for Dollhouse has been released and it looks somewhat awesome, definitely enough to get me to watch the show. But... ( cut for casting spoilers. )

I may have just spent quite a bit of money on an original Viggo Mortensen photo. He's a damn good artist.

They're going to make a 'Runaways' movie.

...there is a God. And He is a nerd.

So. Go see Iron Man. Like, right now.

Also, if you know of somewhere online that I can check out the post-credits scene, let me know?

So. I just did my via-email interview for Kringlan magazine.
The fact that the process made me vaguely nauseous and I cringed several times throughout just proves I would make a shit celebrity.
Ugh, people at work are going to have a field day with this when it comes out.


In brighter news, my roommates went shopping at the toy store after visiting me at the mall today. And the best friend/fag-hag/roomie in the world got me something. A WONDER WOMAN. She is tiny and awesome and shiny and the best gift ever.

So, hit the gym this morhing. It was fun. And painful.
...typiRy on this thiug suLks...
That is all, lol.

So, had an interesting birthday so far.

I had my photo taken and I'm being interviewed for the magazine the mall puts out once a year. It was... well, let's just say I am no more comfortable in front of a camera than I was before.

Then I signed up for a month's membership at the gym that just opened down the street. ...which involved having my retinas scanned. ...srsly. No card. No key. Nothing like that. I just have to have my eyes scanned to get in each time I want to go. Oh Iceland, you and your wacky technology.

And now, I'm planning the menu for my birthday party/dinner. ...and I've gotten it into my head that Chinese food might be a good theme to go with. And I've gotten it into my head that Peking duck might be a fun starter to try. Which, um, what? Why, brain, why? Granted, several sites say that it is, in fact, possible to produce in a normal kitchen. So, maybe.

*shrug* Okay, f-list. Anyone out there actually tried making peking duck at home? y? n? yes I did and my kitchen exploded?