brought home a Wacom tablet a few days ago, so I'm hoping to start drawing and posting more, since I don't have to try and track down a scanner anymore. Fair warning, it'll be a lot of fantasy stuff, probably some fan art, and all of it fluffy, happy crap. If that hasn't scared you off, keep watching, I guess.

Johnny Depp and Christian Bale will be in Wisconsin over the next few months filming scenes for "Public Enemies," a movie based on the book "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34."
Depp will be portraying infamous gangster John Dillinger, while Bale will be playing the pursuing FBI Agent Melvin Purvis.

I foresee slash. Lots and lots of slash. Possibly involving obsessive hate!sex.

I realized yesterday, that it's THAT time of year. The point somewhere round late January - early February when everyone is tired of the cold and snow and dark, when winter seems to weigh heaviest on a person's spirit.
I've been seeing this sad malaise all over my LJ friends list, here on DA, and in the people around me, and it makes me wish I could hug everyone, and then shove them under a sunlamp. Normally, I'm as susceptible to the winter blues as anyone could be, but this year I've developed a strange immunity and I wish I could share it with everyone. I hate seeing people I like sad, but all I can offer is some ideas that have worked to lift my mood in the past, for whatever that's worth.

Make a playlist of music that reminds you of summer. Bouncy music, sunny music, dancing music, road trip music. Anything that evokes warmth and happiness for you. Mine has stuff like ZZTop, Sugar Ray, Led Zeppelin, Aqua, Sublime, 311, Stray Cats, and Great Big Sea.

Crack open a bottle of sunscreen, the kind that REEKS of coconut, and give it a good sniff. Buy shampoo and lotion in clean, springlike scents, or warm tropical ones.

Sit in sunbeams as often as you can, wherever they are. If people look at you funny, fuck 'em. They're just envious of your sweet sunglasses and the awesome little umbrella in your fruity drink.

Speaking of fruity drinks, round up some friends and go somewhere that specializes in cocktails of the strong and highly decorated variety. When I say "highly decorated," I don't mean "award winning." I mean "so much fruit salad on amusingly shaped sticks poking out of that coconut that if you don't use a crazy straw, you're gonna lose an eye. Or two." Around here, that would be Psycho Suzie's Motor Lounge and Tiki Bar. If you can't afford a night out, and goodness knows I can't, I've found a six-pack of Corona and a lime works admirably.

If you can wrest control of the TV, watch things that make you laugh. The Groundhog Day episode of SG1 where Teal'c and Jack (in full argyle golf regalia) are whacking golf balls through the Stargate, that scene where Bumblebee piddles on, excuse me, LUBRICATES Agent Simmons (like that doesn't sound even dirtier, sheesh). The swordfight on the Cliffs of Insanity. Sparrow's fabulous sinking-ship entrance. Falcor chasing the bullies down the street and into the dumpster. The pirate episodes of Mythbusters and wow, my geek is really starting to show isn't it?

For those who have cable, try watching some of the stuff about warm sunny places Travel Channel's airing right about now.

If you're a WoW-playing dork like me, try running your toon through the greener, more cheerful areas of Azeroth. High-enough level in the right places, you can streak and skinny-dip with relative impunity! If you play one of the non-"pretty" races, you get the added entertainment of making people go "Gnaked Gnome! D: D: D:"!

The more artistically-gifted ones can doodle (DOODLE. Not make into an epic project. The point is to relax, not add more to your stress-load. If it never sees the light of DA, that's ok. It's there to make YOU feel better) out their favorite characters in summer-type situations... an Organization 13 pool party, during which Axel has been (unwisely) put in charge of the grill? The Gargoyles in various sunbathing poses during their day sleep (Goliath in blindingly loud bermuda shorts and bucket hat, with the white zinc-oxide stuff on his stone nose)? Superman, in shield-print jams, towing a water-skiing Flash while back on the beach, Canary has spiked the volleyball off of Ollie Queen's noggin, much to the amusement of Wondie and GL? So what if it's out of character?

You writers could whip out one of those "What I Did on my Summer Vacation" essays they made us do every September, only there's no despotic teacher to make you adhere to the facts or even a writing style. If can be fan-fiction, an original creation, or a fantastic retelling of a real event. I can be surrealistic, a story-book, iambic pentameter, or heck, Old English epic poem style, if you want.

Read your favorite books. The ones you've read before, but you can always go back and reread because they've become old friends, with happy endings that you almost know by heart. I like Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and I can't recommend War for the Oaks by Emma Bull enough (If you don't find the phouka utterly, obnoxiously adorable, there's something wrong with you).

I think I've run out of steam, and I'm sure anyone who's still reading is bored stupid by now. Just remember, winter can't last forever. In a few short months, it'll be the height of summer and you'll be thinking longingly of snow.

For those of you who feel the need to angst about this particular holiday, or for those who just have a healthy sense of humor about these sorts of things, I offer this little tidbit.

Saint Valentine's day is the early christian church's adaptation of the ancient roman spring and fertility festival of Lupercalia, which was, in essence, about blood, sex, and werewolves.

So, if your coworker with the obnoxiously large floral arrangement starts to get on your nerves, or you just feel like messing with somebody, wish them a happy horny werewolf day and see what happens.

One should also keep in mind that this day doesn't have to be only about the people you wanna sleep with. It can be about friends and family, too.

Or cheap chocolate. I'm ALL about cheap chocolate.

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 1 launch pad fire that claimed the lives of three astronauts. Today is the 21st anniversary of the ill-fated Challenger launch. February 1st will mark the fourth year since the Columbia exploded on re-entry, becoming a rain of falling stars over much of the central southern US.

Take a moment in the next few days to stop and think about what those 17 brave people gave their lives for, and maybe raise a glass in thanks.

Grissom, White, Chaffee, Scobee, Smith, Resnik, Onizuka, McNair, Jarvis, McAuliffe, Husband, McCool, Anderson, Brown, Chawla, Clark, and Ramon. Thank you, and may god keep you amongst the stars always.