It's possible I'm drunk (okay, it's certain I'm at least a bit tipsy), and it's true that I was already a little bummed out today. But neither of those fully explain why a few minutes ago I was bawling in front of the TV during the introductory video to Hillary Clinton's DNC speech. On this day in 1920, the 19th Amendment was put in effect, giving women the right to vote. 88 years later, we have 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. But the ceiling is still there. Hopefully it won't take another 88 years to finally smash it.

Dear 20th Century Fox: I hate you.

What is this crap about suing Warner Brothers over Watchmen? More specifically, what the hell is with this: "Surprisingly, Fox said it would rather see the film killed instead of collecting a percentage of the box office." Seriously? Do you want to have the fans screaming for your heads?

Do you think you can make a better movie? Because I highly doubt it. Have you seen the trailer? It's fantastic. Visually, it's stunning. It looks like the graphic novel come to life. I'm not sure who thought to cast Jeffery Dean Morgan (aka Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy) as the Comedian; I associate him with rom-com type shit, but I'll be damned if he doesn't at least look the part. The casting look great, especially when you consider some of the earlier casting suggestions (Robin Williams as Rorschah? Richard Gere or Kevin Costner for Nite Owl? WTF?). The Smashing Pumpkins's song is perfect too. I love the trailer. I just finished the book, and I'm anxiously awaiting March so I can see the movie.

Don't ruin this for me, Fox. You already pissed me off with some of the stuff you did to the X-Men movies, and while I enjoyed From Hell, it was nothing like the graphic novel. I haven't read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, so I can't compare it with the movie version, but the movie wasn't that great. Just step away from Alan Moore's work. Take your cut from WB, but for heaven's sake, let this movie be released. I need it for my soul.

Oh, and Warner Brothers? If for some reason you've attempted to water down Watchmen to get a PG-13 rating, I will find those responsible and kick them in the shins.

I mentioned in an earlier post that many of my favorite Jez commenters have started their own blogs. You can find most of them listed over in the sidebar, but I thought I'd highlight some of them, starting with the fashion blogs.

geometricsleep.
Laia reviews fashion shows, posts pictures of things she likes (and things she hates), and showcases some of her own fashion choices. She is much cooler and way more daring with her style than I'll ever be; the site serves as a nice reminder to take some risks once in a while. The site has also been featured on elle.com.

Fit for a Femme
Skinny Bone Jones chronicles her outfits and occasionally shows off her tomboy. This site is wonderful, and Jonesy tells you what the items are and where she got them in addition to posting photos. At some point I should go through the archives and compile a list of designers/brands/shops to check out, but I'd probably end up spending too much money. Besides, I could never look as fabulous as SBJ; I certainly can't compete with her shiny, shiny hair.

Nadarine: I'm not drunk, I'm brilliant.
Nadarine writes about more than fashion stuff, but she often posts photos of her awesome outfits, so it definitely needs to be on this list. I want to steal many of her dresses as well as her vintage Mary Janes.

All of the the ladies listed above have inspired me to step up my fashion game a bit. They make it look so easy! Of course, since I was stuck in a jeans and t-shirt rut, there wasn't really anywhere to go but up. But still. Today I'm wearing a dress and gladiator sandals. Sandals that aren't flip flops! Will wonders never cease?

Perhaps a bit more practical than inspirational is Frugal Kitten, who finds and shares deals. She hasn't been posting much recently, perhaps because it's not always easy to find cheap but nice clothes and accessories. Or maybe she's just busy at the moment. Either way, hopefully she'll be back in full force sometime soon.

It's Olympics time. I've been watching some of it, at least when my television lets me. (Seriously, it's a matter of if the TV is cooperating or not. My reception of NBC is fairly crappy - if you cross your legs with the right leg on top, it might be crystal clear; left leg on top, nothing but static; uncrossed legs, picture but no sound. It's highly unpredictable.)

So far I've managed to catch some men's gymnastics, a bit of beach volleyball and women's gymnastics, and some swimming. I don't really care about volleyball, and the women's gymnastics always creeps me out a tiny bit, though I do think it's awesome that there's a 30-something year old woman on the German team. Men's gymnastics is insanely impressive, especially the rings, high bar, and parallel bars. I also love the pommel horse - I'm curious if any of these guys have tried break-dancing before; some of the routines would translate pretty well, I think.

Swimming I find less interesting, mostly because all you can really see is a bunch of splashing. Enter technology. They have the World Record line projected onto the screen during some races; it's this green line that moves along the pool showing the WR speed. Usually people are a bit behind it; sometimes their hand is a bit ahead of it and they narrowly beat it. Or in the case of the men's 4x100 freestyle relay last night, half of the pool is keeping up with the line and a couple of people are a full body length ahead of it. It was insane. The US's B team beat the record in the semi-final; the A team obliterated it in the finals. It seems a record is broken in every swimming event - I watched a heat of the women's 400m freestyle semi-finals; Katie Hoff from the US beat the Olympic record that had been in place for about 20 years. The very next heat an Italian woman beats this new record. Craziness.

I got back from my week-long trip to my parents' yesterday, and I took today off work to regroup. Vacations are never as relaxing as you want them to be. I went to a wedding, caught up with a friend, visited family, did some shopping, and went to the zoo. Oh, and I got sick. That part was especially fun.

In some ways today was more relaxing than the rest of the week had been. I'm feeling a bit better (though still not great - curse you, runny nose!) and got to sleep in a bit. I also went to the DMV. Not relaxing, definitely time-consuming, but also happily uneventful. I now have my interim NY state driver's license and have filled out my voter registration form. The rest of the day was spent lazing about, napping, and watching some Buffy. I'm re-watching the series (when it was on TV, I watched until they went to college) and I'm on season 2 now. This means Spike and Oz, yay!

In unrelated news, the weather needs to stop thwarting me. Specifically the clouds. The temperature is great right now (so nice after the horrible heat of the Midwest!), but it started to pour just as I got off the subway at Coney Island today. I went to a tiny bit of effort to look decent for my ID photo, and then I got drenched. *shakes fist at sky* Hopefully I won't look too much like a drowned rat in the picture - waiting in line allowed me to dry off somewhat, at least. When I left the DMV the weather was lovely again, so when I got home I decided to sit out on the fire escape and get a bit of sun. Cue dark clouds and yet another downpour. At least the second time I made it indoors before the rain. And tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so maybe I'll go out and head over to the park at some point. Don't thwart me again, clouds. I need the exercise.

Amazon will be selling a special collector's edition of J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and it looks AMAZING.

I hate writing papers. You would think that as an English major in college I would have found an approach that works for me, but no. Unless procrastinating and writing at a rate of about a paragraph an hour counts as a valid approach. It certainly doesn't count as a good approach. It's like pulling teeth. Write a bit, distract myself until the pain eases up, write a bit more.

I don't mind the research and outline portions of papers -- in fact, I usually enjoy those. As long as I'm at least slightly interested in a topic, I'm happy to seek out articles, essays, etc. and skim them. Taking information from those and coming up with a rough outline usually isn't too bad either. It's just taking everything and pulling it together into a coherent lengthy paper that I have trouble with. By the time I sit down to write, I've generally thought about the topic so much that I'm tired of it. I just don't care anymore. This is one of the reasons I'm going to become a librarian. I'll just need to find information and resources; it'll be up to other people to take those things and create a paper from them.

Of course, right now I'm in library school, and guess what? I have to write papers. Currently I'm working on writing a research proposal, a mockup of something that could conceivably be published if I actually performed the study, sent out the survey, etc. I'm interested in my topic/question (How have advances in technology and digitization impacted artists' book collections?) but as usual, the paper-writing process is brutal. (Note to self: try to avoid jobs that want me to actually publish things. An academic librarianship with faculty standing is probably not in my future.)

On the plus side, I'm learning some interesting things, such as the names of places that have collections of artists' books. Did you know that Yale's Arts Library has an Arts of the Book collection? It does! This is from their website: "The Arts of the Book Collection (AOB) / Arts Library Special Collections Reading Room is a research facility housed in the Sterling Memorial Library. Wooden bookshelves with decorative carvings hold the collection, which contains both examples of and reference materials about the arts related to the book. Topics such as binding, book history, illustration, calligraphy, graphic design, paper making and decorative papers, typography and more are represented. Contemporary examples of artists' books and fine printing are housed alongside more traditional publications." Someone please give me a job here when I graduate, okay?

Sadly, in order to graduate and be qualified for a job at a place like that, I really need to finish this paper. Curses. Back to work I go.