I think I've posted about it here before but :)

My friends eurii and aoshi and I all run a fiction book club together on LiveJournal. It's bookclubfiction and it's been going strong for over two years. We only read fiction, vote on genres, and then vote for books within each genre (and read 3 of them - 2 books with regular discussions and one book as a bonus).

I am totally biased but I find it to be a really fun book club format because everyone gets a say in the books that we choose. It's also super fun to read books together with friends and get to talk about them. Annnd let's be real, LJ is sort of deadles these days and it can be nice to have something to keep your friends list fresh. (We don't post too often though - usually 1-2 posts a week, with the exception being the weeks that we choose a new genre and new books for the next section.)

I would love if some more of you guys wanted to join and check it out :D it's also super low pressure and there's no need to participate reading books you don't feel like reading (though we do award participation in discussions with extra votes, so a book you want to read will be more likely to win)

We are nominating books today and tomorrow and will be seconding books to choose our top 3 starting on Thursday, so it's a good time to get involved if you want to check it out and see how the process works!

bookclubfiction :)

Apparently I still haven't posted about this here which is super dumb.

My friend Sam has been participating in Extra Life for a few years now. I've always wanted to participate as well since a) it's for a great cause and b) it seems like it would also be pretty fun.

I've always helped out friends and my parents when they've done walks - for me that's something I'm happy to support but I haven't found something that I was ready to participate in yet. I thought this event was a great place for me to start!

On October 20th instead of doing a walk, I'll be doing a 24 hour video game marathon. All the proceeds go toward helping sick kids at my local Children's Miracle Network Hospital, kids who are going through cancer, cystic fibrosis, who have been hurt from accidents, etc.

Since it's just about one week away (I'll start my 24 hours when I wake up on the morning of the 20th) I'll probably be writing about it here for my next couple of entries. :)

I'll be tweeting through the event (@caitorait) and may try to stream my PC gaming, but will have to experiment with this during the week and see if it works out, since our internet isn't nearly as good as it was when Chris used to stream stuff back in Massachusetts.

My donation page: http://www.extra-life.org/participant/ayashi

Please consider donating, chatting to help keep me awake during the wee hours of the morning during the event, or just cheering me on :) Of course, if you already donated, thank you so much, you are the best! :D Thanks for reading!

This is Tcl ("tickle").

She is a Pomeranian, possibly some sort of Pom mix but we just call her a Pom because she looks close enough.

When we moved to our new apartment, Tcl was absolutely fascinated and confused by the sliding glass doors that exit onto our patio.

At first, Tcl was a bit nervous. She didn't understand these strange clear doors and would often sit on the patio outside, while the door was open and I was calling her, not knowing what to do. She would stand up on her hind legs and extend her forelegs to where she thought the glass was, and then would fall forward adorably, and her front legs would hit the carpet. At that point, she knew it was safe, and would run into the room.

Eventually Tcl grew bold. She realized that she didn't have to go through this nonsense of standing up to try to touch the glass to make sure it wasn't there. So naturally, the next time we went to let her out, she barreled right into the glass door, and then staggered back, confused. After I opened the door, she watched her dear friend Grubby dash through and followed.

These doors are really strange. Sometimes they are there, and sometimes they aren't, and poor little Tcl can't tell which is which.

Since that incident, the little dog has still not quite figured out the doors, though I think she's getting closer. Being a person who tries to not have her silly pup run into glass doors (even if it is hilarious), I started to change up how I was letting them out. I decided not to open the blinds to see if that would help.

First time I did this, Tcl nosed the blinds aside, and ran right into the door.

Another time, I let Grubby out of his crate in the morning first AND left the blinds closed, in order to have him stop and wait by the door so Tcl could see and learn by example. Tcl shouldered him aside and ran through the blinds, right into the door.

She has done this no less than 10 times by now, though I think she might finally be getting it. At first I was starting to wonder if I'd need to get those things you put on big glass windows to prevent birds from flying into them, only putting them a foot above the ground at Tcl eye level. Thankfully it doesn't seem like this is necessary :)

So yeah. That is the saga of Tcl and the glass door.

ALISTAIR FROM DRAGON AGE BECAUSE HE IS THE BEST

End caps lock. xD

This is weird but... actually, The Hobbit XD I honestly haven't seen it in a while, but it has always been my favorite "holiday" movie, because it used to always be on TV around christmastime when I was little.

I beat L.A. Noire last night! It was really awesome. The game started out pretty slow but the end was a flurry of detective activity. I had a lot of fun with it and while it wasn't better than Red Dead Redemption, it was still a pretty damn good game. Now I just have to work on some achievements :)