I Just Can't Walk Away

( MH pics! )

  I took this ages ago but apparently lost the memory card. This is Dead Tired Cleo (love her!) wearing Operetta's fashion pack. Wearing it better than 'Retta ever will. Sorry, love, but it's true.
Cleo knows exactly how awesome she is. And now so do you.

So. I've been up for an hour and a half or so, and I've cleaned a cat litter box, found half the sink and begun work on the other side, made breakfast (who doesn't consider baked potatoes breakfast?), fed the animals, changed their water, thrown out some perishables that perished, and... I dunno. Stuff. Oh, paid part of my credit card bill and remembered that I must pay my cable bill the next time I go downstairs. Huzzah?

Huzzah.

Dear girlie parts: Stop with this whole going on strike business. This is unpleasant. Unpleasant indeed.

Moving along to shiny things:



( Dead Tired )

Obviously I've now been up for much longer than the time stated previously, so I should probably go do things to add to my list of chores. Whee? Oh, and cable bill paid even if it did take forever because their system was screwy. Next up, books and nostalgia and other things. Whee!

So... I might have spent a tiny bit and bought some shiny things from the Pink Sale at the BC site. *cough* Just two things. It would have been cheaper to buy the third, but I'm saving my reward for either the basics or something else. Also, I think owning the repro Peaches & Cream Barbie isn't high on my list at this moment. Tomorrow I may fall to my knees and weep for my stupidity. But for now, I'm happily anticipating Uhura and a doll I plan to headswap depending on who matches.

Doll people are sick and twisted, man. Sometimes this is awesome.

The book gods smiled upon me. My Wicked Lovely manga issue (the first) from PBS? Brand. Spankin' New. Hot damn!

Because I figure I have a couple of pictures I can spam you with til I take new ones:

Lagoona and Clawdeen (Crescent and Hisette, too) say hey. If I haven't mentioned this before, Lagoona the ragdoll is my most favorite. The only one who might rank higher could be Ghoulia when released. Crescent still has the best bio, however.

I have spent the better part of my week coughing up my lungs. Part of this is my own damn fault, as that's what Mucinex is supposed to do. I just didn't realize that it was going to try and take a rib or two along for the ride. The plus side, if I can call it that, is that my lungs no longer feel like a swamp has set up residence there. Sadly, it has cost me my voice, my throat, my taste buds, and my sweet disposition.

Wait. I was lacking that before. Never mind.

So, new pics were found and shared and to not steal someone else's bandwidth, I capped and uploaded to flickr although I never add promo/proto pics there. Whatever. Mad Science and all. Anyway, click on any pic to see it larger. And now... doll talk.


Dead Tired
I'm not really sure that's going to be the final name used for the line, but it's the one been thrown about longest (I think?), so it's what we'll use. I'll admit that I'm a sucker for pajamas. Not so much for myself, but for toys? Hell. Yes. So this is pretty much a gimme, but it works even beyond that. Frankie is adorable, although I'm kind of wondering if she's always going to look pretty much the same in each line.* I think Draculaura is my favorite, although I want to scoop Ghoulia up and give her a hug for some reason. Cleo, stay awesome.


* Yes. I'm aware that they all tend to look similar, although there are definitely moments when each breaks their own mold. See: DotD mostly. Except, y'know, Frankie.



Gloom Beach Ghoulia
As much as I like the artwork previous released for her, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the doll. I suspect that this is a case where the promo isn't as awesome as the finished product. Or, if it's not that, I'd imagine that she'll switch outfits with someone since I think it's the red paired with her grey lips. But it's too soon to really tell.



Bed Sets
Loving Draculaura's outfit off to the left side. (Frankie's continual print-overload hurts my eyes.) Cute microphone. Clawdeen is purple-tastic and I love her. I want a Howleen someday, but for now she can share with another Clawdeen.
  Lagoona's Hydration Station: WANT. NOW. This opinion has not changed, thank you. This is one I, should the finished product be as amazing as I'm hoping for, will shell out the money to twin. Just because.



Classes/DotD
  I still think DotD D looks a bit goofy, but hey. I'm one of the people dying for Lagoona and you know her hair is going to be wonk-tastic so...
   Classes! Mad. Scientist. LAGOONA. Yes. Please. Now. Gracias. Frankie's doing that pattern overload thing and I like her second outfit, but not so much the one on the doll aside from the tights. But look! Bangs. :D And this is my favorite Ghoulia of the bunch.


Fearleading:
I do not understand Draculaura's hair. At all. But Ghoulia is adorable and Cleo's prettiful and did I mention Fearleading uniforms sans stitches? Exactly. Yes, please.

  So these two pretties showed up Friday. I was bitten by the Basics bug, so I decided before Thursday's event, to join the BFC. I figured that even if I didn't like or want to shell out the money for the actual collector dolls, I could use my rewards towards the Basics on my list. I've spent too long with the big head dolls, however, because when my first arrived:

   All I could think was how tiny her head looked. Anyway, I went for Tango (blond) because she looks so unusual. Also, I'm a sucker for the doll that I overhear people bitch about how ugly she is. Island of Misfit Toys, unite!

I haven't deboxed the Friday girls, but that's probably what will happen later today or tomorrow.

And now it's time for lists in picture form!

These are definite wants.


Mebbe. I love how 001 looks, but I'll admit that standard Barbie blonde isn't necessarily my favorite of all Barbie variations. The 80's made me a sucker for the other two face molds. MIDGE. (Yes. I know. They have actual names for the molds, but my brain sees them and screams Midge usually.)

1.5:

The other from this mini-line on my list. I'm a sucker for how damn happy she seems. I gather not everyone else shares this opinion... :P


Jeans, dudes. Jeans. This is a mix of wants and mebbes. Redhead and super curlie are both "Now." and everyone else is pretty likely.

Looking over this, I'm kind of surprised by how many blondes appear. If you went back in time and looked at my doll collections over the years, the blonds were usually not picked out by me unless it was a Skipper. (Or it was the BSC and I was hunting Dawn or Stacey.) I love my brunettes and I've got a thing for redheads (See above: MIDGE love.) Weird.

Weird feels like an understatement. Also, need to find something for these loverlies to wear besides what they come in.

I'm off to find the rum for oatmeal rum cookies.

And now we discuss the state of the union. Not politically or even realistically because, really, the union is pretty fucked up, all things considered. But really, the state of the Impy. That'd be me for those just tuning in.

  On the pain scale, my head is killing me. But I suspect this is a combination of wisdom tooth HELL and sleeping too long (oops) as well as on my side with my ponytail being pulled. So it's my fault, really.
   Flipside of the pain is the fact that people are again coupling and now they're nesting all around me. Sometimes I'm content to just think, "aww, babies" and sometimes I get a little twitchy about feeling left behind. The plus side to this is that I'm not currently super lonely even with all these couples surrounding me and us running towards Valentines full stop. I consider this a good thing.

  The nephew is adorable still, but the school's inability to realize that something is seriously effing wrong is probably going to give me my first grey hair. He's nine. He should be able to read and retain knowledge and yet his brain is not retaining things he learned two years ago. One of his doctors has finally realized HEY. This isn't right. I miss the teachers he had last year and the year before. This one is just... not getting it? I don't know.
  That said, I'm not entirely sure what the hell I'm supposed to do anymore. Anything I say is immediately contradicted, even if I'm merely parroting what was just said. And it's not even as if it's my brother being contrary because I'm the older sister and years of conditioning have taught him to immediately say the opposite of what I've said. It's everyone. Dad does this a little less because he usually comes in at the end of any given statement and just tries to reinforce that (which isn't always helpful if you're saying not to do something and he misses the not portion) but Mom and the boy? All. The. Damn. Time. So... I've kind of given up. :/ If nothing I say is backed up, then what's the point?

Le sigh.

Moving right along, we head to the land of books. I need to go on a small requesting spree at the library. I should have actually ventured to the library itself yesterday, but no one was awake and it's too far to walk, what with them screwing around with the greenway and the road out of the neighborhood. Otherwise yesterday seemed just cool enough for a walk. (By the time you warm up enough to overheat, you'll be at your destination.) So if you've got any book recommendations, now is the time to share. My 2011 reading list is pretty friggin' small thus far. And I completely flaked out on my 2010 one after awhile. Sad.

  Mail call. I'm waiting on three packages and I need to send at least one. I'm waiting on books for my SV/BSC exchange, my MH-goodness from zallia, and my B&W Frankie from Justice. Yes, when they clearanced her, I finally caved. This way the only ones I'm missing are Holt and Jackson, and I'll add them sometime soon, I hope. Plus another Ghoulia so that she won't be the only one not twinned.

And now for a picture!

If this screws up your friends' page, lemme know, but I'm going by mine and mine is freakishly small so... Anyway. This is to compare various AG skintones. Of which I thought there were more, but I think the crazy thoughts or they don't really translate to photographs done by crappy photographers (me!). Whichever.
   I thought I'd compare Sonali (whom I gather is one of the darkest dolls) with Kanani (billed as 'medium'), and then Ivy (hullo, Chinese doll from the 70's), Samantha (pre-Mattel), and Felicity (Mattel and pretty much brand new). In person, Samantha is darker than Felicity and Ivy, but either her hands aren't or it just didn't really show up, so it looks kind of weird comparison wise. But there was a method to my madness, I swear.

Off screen, Sonali is being held up by a bottle of whiskey. :P [ Shot with my Bitty Twin looking like the others killed her.] And yes, just about everyone is wearing pajamas. Ivy and Kanani are probably wearing the least warm 'jamas, while Sonali is quite happy to be wearing long sleeves.

Almost time to go do some laundry, watch some PLL, and find something to munch 'n crunch. Oh, and this morning I got to ride to school with Widget since both Mums and Dad were ill and the boy cannot be alone with his son til the court changes its mind. Funsies. It wasn't bad since I love early winter mornings, honestly.

I'm cold. Have a picture of my various interests at the moment.
(Hey, cutest Kanani in all the damn world!) Lagoona, Applejack, and Fluttershy also say hey.

And that's my Elefante from last Christmas. He's adorable, he is.

Oh, and the newest Scarpetta novel? Doesn't suck. HUZZAH. To properly sum it up though: I liked Benton better when he was dead. Mom wants to bargain that down to before he died, but I'm currently too cold to bargain.

You might recall that not so long ago I placed high enough in the MH comm's Halloween contest to win a prize. I entered because I thought I'd give it a shot and also because I actually really wanted a little re-ment set. Yes, I'd have loved to have won super-big, but it's like that whole shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you land among the stars thing. In this case I snagged myself a sugar-shock sort of star, which is excellent since I'm not big on sushi and if Lagoona or Draculaura want some, the Bratz sushi playset is around here somewhere. :P

I figured I'd share pictures of my rement prize from singnovember for the super fun Halloween contest. :D

Sadly someone borrowed my camera and while they said they replaced the batteries, I'm thinking it doesn't count as a replacement if the batteries you use don't work for longer than five minutes. So behold! Five minutes of nonsense culminating in tiny doll food.



( Geek day. )

Also posted in the MH comm, though this tweaked things a smidge. Not much, though. I actually really like most of these pictures. The background, if you can call it that, are the various sleeves to the decemberunderground records. It worked out much better than I planned. I went looking for a serving tray or a platter for the sweets and I found my cardboard Buffy characters. It seemed perfect for Ghoulia to ♥ Giles. :)

The problem with dreams is that sometimes you wake up and it takes you a moment to remember why you felt unsettled by the dream. In last night's case it wasn't so much the fact that dream!Mums kept looking away from the road while she was driving on the interstate, it was the fact that in the dream the ex was not the ex and we were holding hands.

That's all. It's just that in the dream it kept bugging me and I didn't know why. Nap time now, thank you.

Tonight I apparently have my crabby pants on because my temper has flared in varying degrees over a fun assortment of things.

1) It's hot as hell in this house and yet, if I go outside? Mosquitoes descend upon me like I am a tasty, tasty buffet.

2) Despite liking the first book, and loving at least two characters in the series as a whole, I still hate that if one mentions a vampire or a werewolf (SPOILER: HE'S NOT A FUCKING WEREWOLF. HE'S A SHAPESHIFTER. There. Now you don't have to fucking read Breaking Dawn.) BAM. You are obviously influenced by Twilight. What I hate even more? That to a degree, they're right. I'm not entirely sure we would have gotten MH goodness if Twilight hadn't told a new generation of tween girls that vampires are AWESOME and werewolves shapeshifters are, too. On the other hand, it's possible. Vampires seem to have their moment in the sun, as it were, and then they fade away to the fringes of society again until pop culture remembers her old friends. I get it.

I just don't have to like it.

3) What the shit is this? It's bad enough fucking CBS won't put Mike & Molly episodes up anymore, now I'm told that people cannot handle fat people in a relationship, and all that entails, on a television show because fat people are icky?

Really, Marie Claire? You're going to pull this shit now, too? I fucking took Allure off my subscription list (and I really liked Allure til they went with the "are fat people icky?" question and didn't seem to find anything wrong with it), don't you think I'm going to say something? Yeah. It's going to be small, but anyone who isn't borderline stick-thin will now get, "Marie Claire's writers find you disgusting so are you sure you want to give them your money?" as a bonus question. I am dead. Serious.

So anyway, yes, I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other ... because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room — just like I'd find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine addict slumping in a chair.

AND

I would really like to apologize for the insensitive things I've said in this post. Believe it or not, I never wanted anyone to feel bullied or ashamed after reading this, and I sorely regret that it upset people so much.

Those two things do not go together. How the HELL did you intend this to be taken? Oh, right. You wanted people to back you up or be so grateful that you were dispensing weight loss tips that they didn't realize what an unbelievable fuckup this was. And it was. Oh, it was. It is, even. If I were slightly less interested in being the bigger person in every goddamned way, I would make many a cheap shot at certain things mentioned in the update. But sadly, if I'm going to be the bigger person, I'd like it to be in more than just clothing size.

But remember kids. It gets better. Unless, of course, you're fat. Then you're fucked.

*seethes with rage* Add to that the family is desperately in need of something, although I don't know what that is short of a friggin' lottery win without the accompanying curse, and you've got super fun times.

*makes strangling motions*


( So... hair? )

( Somehow this turned into picture day. )

Cass sent me Draculaura (I'd asked for either Lagoona or Ulla D as a double) and now I have one I can de-pigtail without worrying about getting her hair back the way it's "supposed" to be. This got me thinking. If it weren't for these dolls being so ridiculously hard to find at times (all times), would I want a second set? I've been saying I would, and I wouldn't turn them down as gifts, but would I shell out full price for a second set? *muses* Of course, I don't have the C/D set as of yet so they would come first. I think I want a second Lagoona because I luff her so, and if hell freezes and I ever find Ghoulia, I'll probably want two of her although she doesn't seem quite... Ghoulia enough.* But Frankie and DotD Frankie are both really similar as it is. That said, W1 Frankie is beautiful. Clawdeen is fangtastic but for fuck's sake, she took longer than everyone else *combined* (including DotD dolls!) to be found.

Musing is dangerous.

Ghoulia: For me, the doll looks a bit too... harsh, maybe? Ghoulia in webisodes seems so sweet but the doll is the anti-sweet. Of course, I wasn't really sold on Draculaura at first and now... well. We luff.

But I seriously tire of chasing these things down. It's annoying and unnecessary. Given how well received they seem to be (and I'm not just talking about the older collectors, I mean I have to bite my tongue when the tweeny girls are all, "OOOH! They're all vampires in high school!" at the empty Target display. And then they huff off because there's nothing to buy.) you'd think they'd release, "We have a hit! Fuck, if they have no merch to buy, we make no money!" and then, you know, they fix this.

But Impy, haven't you anything else to discuss? I tire of your MH talk!

Um, my hand hurts. That's fascinating, right? No? Well then. My vacation starts in a little more than a week. That's good too, right? And for all those who realize I'm taking my vacation right before Halloween, you can have some candy of your choice. :D

Trying to decide. Do I dye my hair red during said vacation, or do I bleach the tips (it's getting long enough that I should cut it anyway) and then dye them (a) fun color(s)? Hmm.