So this is the new wallpaper I made with the idea of being creative and helping people be creative. If you don’t know what a burning bunny is, go here to read about it. Basically that link goes to Kim Harrison’s website to explain how her idea system works. I confiscated her burning bunny image to make this wallpaper, copyright is all hers, got it? I will eventually own one of those adorable burning bunny pins. I will! They look adorable. For now he will just have to decorate my desktop. Enjoy.

No bunnies were harmed in the making of this wallpaper.

If you haven’t noticed there’s a new Star Trek movie out. I’m sure you’ve noticed. You should go see it. The guy who plays Sylar in Heroes plays Spock and other than this constant 5 o’clock shadow he seems to pull it off pretty well. The best actor, shocking to both my Honey and I was the guy who played Scotty. He, who everyone will know as Shaun of the Dead, did an amazing job. He truly pulled it off and even got to use one the best lines “I’ve giv’n ‘er all she’s got, Cap’n” which made us all laugh. I mean, even a non-trekkie like me knows that particular line.

This movie also will suit any fans who love constant action and fight scenes. A car goes off a cliff, there’s a bar brawl, there’s the possibility of throwing up on someone, there’s a green-skinned girl clad in nothing but her panties and bra, there’s an interesting and mind-numbing look at Spock with a certain situation. Go see the movie to find out. Leonard, the guy who played the real Spock in the series and old movies, does more than a cameo. It was a definite plus to the movie.

If you’re a diehard Trekkie… or an old school Trekkie who’s not only watched the show but read the novels, this is not your Star Trek. This is for the new generation of fans. If you know anything concrete about Star Trek this movie will most likely just piss you off. I’ve warned you.

For those who like hot guys, fights, space battles, crazy ass aliens and so forth, you’ll enjoy this movie. And oh yeah, Harold from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is Sulu.

Want to do a salute to Star Trek? Are you 21 or over? Get a shaker, toss in some ice, add one shot of vodka, one shot of bailey’s, one shot of kaluha, one shot of peach schnapps, shake and pour (makes 7 to 8 shots). My sister calls them “Beat me up, Scotty’s”. They are delicious. Later.

Hot damn I keep finding myself some amazing authors lately. If you have previously enjoyed authors that I’ve mentioned here before (Hamilton, Harrison and Davidson) then you will also enjoy Richelle Mead. That’s right, I’ve devoured three novels in around 2 days (I’m going by actual reading time) because they were just so damn hot I couldn’t quit until I was done and now I’m aching for the next book due to a tease at the end of book 3. You’ll want to start this trip into fantasy with Succubus Blues to learn all about what’s going on in Seattle with Georgina and her friends.

Georgina Kincaid is your lovely thirty-something book store employee who seems to have it all. Great friends who enjoy hanging out with her, getting drunk and having fun, with her lovely sarcastic wit that sometimes pushes people over the edge and sometimes gets the fun started. You’ll find that trouble finds her instead her finding it most of the time. She has a lovely little quirk that I may have to adapt to stop devouring novels the way I have been - she only reads 5 pages a day of the author she obsesses over. FIVE pages a day! I love the reason she gives which is basically because it’s just SO good that she’d read it all at once and then have to wait forever for the next novel to come out. I can completely relate to this issue as I’m waiting for several series to continue right now.

You’ll envy Georgina because of the simple fact that she has the power to look perfect, every time, anytime, no matter what. She can simply shapeshift into any type of body, any clothing, whenever she wants as long as she has the power to do so. She gets that power by seducing men (or on occasion women) which also keeps her alive. Georgina can eat and drink, and sort of has to or she gets lightheaded. She has demons, imps, vampires and even human friends. There are only 3 or 4 humans who know what she really is. The true kicker? One ofher best friends is an angel. That’s right, you’ll love Carter but he’ll annoy you with his “mysterious clues” as to the things he’s trying to teach Georgina. I think I have a hint on that but I refuse to share.

It’s hard for an immortal being to have a love life, especially with a human, but she tries it anyway and it’s a wild ride. The relationship is an absolute rollercoaster of emotional torment and lust that, if fulfilled, would take time off his life. With everything that’s going on around her, between mortal concerns and immortal happenings, Georgina’s life is a ton of fun, heartache and sometimes fraught with danger. This series is definitely worth starting and following. Enjoy!

I seem to be devouring novels at an unbreakable speed lately, especially when they are so good the characters are appearing in my dreams. Weird, I know, but the character creation is so damn realistic, and just breathtakingly amazing that I apparently can’t get enough of them. I am seeing them here and there in my dreams, scenes from the novels, and then I turn away and move on.

The first book is Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Book 1) and introduces you to a white witch by the name of Rachel Morgan who is having a really bad week. Not only is her job going downhill due to her boss putting her on crappy runs (she’s a type of bounty hunter) but her love life pretty much sucks, too.

Throughout the series you’ll meet a ton of amazing characters. Ivy - a living vampire and Rachel’s roommate who’s slowly hunting her and wants to make her a scion, which Rachel is completely against. Jenks, a 4-inch pixie with a lot of spunk, guts and kids (54 kids!), and my favorite, Kisten, another living vampire who has close ties with Ivy and enjoys hunting Rachel a bit more enthusiastically.

You’ll find out all kinds of amazing things from this alternate reality saga, such as humans have an absolute disgust of tomatoes due to a plague. Magic is real, vampires are real, both living and dead, elves are extinct, pixies and faeries have wars over gardens and they aren’t big enough to matter and so much more. If you enjoy reading the Anita Blake saga but are one of the many who get tired of all the sex (come on people, Jean-Claude is a succubus for crying out loud, they feed of sex) then turn to Kim Harrison and the Hollows saga. You’ll enjoy Rachel’s crazy life, how every time she tries to do something right it goes wrong, the demons that plague her (literally) and so much more.

I’ve added the books to the Amazon widget and the link for the first book above will take you there. I have literally gone through all 7 books so fast I know that I’m going to have to read them again. And again. I simply enjoyed them that much. If I caught a leprechaun I’d wish to be able to write as well as Kim Harrison does. Enjoy!

Now that I’ve played around with TweetDeck a bit I have a love/hate relationship with it. Even though I tell it to remember me it tends to log me out of Facebook so that when I go to look at the latest tweets coming in it decides I can’t until I relogin. Fine, ok, no problem. I have to login to Facebook anyway to do things with the people who update their status messages anyway, so no big deal.

I don’t like the fact that it opens profiles inside itself and I wish it gave you the option to have them open in an IE (or default browser) window. Anyone know if there’s a way to do that? Did I miss it somewhere? Perhaps they’ll add this to their updates to make?

I turned off the sound it makes when I get new tweets because it was freaking the Little Lady out when she was sitting next to me with her iPod Touch and I kept getting tweets.I did find it quite amusing the way she’d jump or twitch every time one came in.

I don’t care for how it pops up to let me know I have tweets when I’m watching somethng full-screen. It doesn’t bother me but it makes me want to know what’s going on and I’m usually watching something with someone and it would drive them insane if I were to pause to see who tweeted what.

Other than the whole logging me out of FB randomly and the fact that I can’t really do anything other than read status updates and update my status with them it’s a pretty nice little program. Hope you enjoy it, too.

We were invited to go to a Wildflower Hike party today, lots of good food, company and music, plus a hike? Obviously we were all thrilled about going. There weren’t as many wildflowers as I was expecting, but it was still pretty to go on the hike. I enjoy being outside (you won’t find me outside often though) and I really enjoy being in the woods (despite the mosquitoes) and I love to go walking (irregardles of what Little Lady and Honey say). So I had a good time, a good walk, good food, excellent music (I’ve never heard a real live Mariachi band before) and now I’m home relaxing back on my cozy couch.

As you can see these are images of the waterfall that was the prize at the end of the hike. Most of the creek is quite dry so we were surprised that there was a decent waterfall (at least I thought it was going pretty good with the dry season we’ve had) and took some photos. I don’t get to see real waterfalls often so they tend to please me in terms that relate to being a water sign (Pisces) and I find them quite relaxing. I think one thing I would really love to have someday is a pond with a waterfall (man-made if I can’t have a real one) that I can sit out by and simply enjoy the burbling sounds.

Got some great waterfall shots? Comment, let me and others know! Later.

So we all know how much I truly love photoshop and I decided that since I’m getting ready to go to a party that I’d take a photo of me all made up. Unfortunately, due to the flash, you can’t tell that I have makeup on at all. This is before I’ve done anything with my hair and before putting on lipstick. So enjoy.

There are so many different scents that I love, such as lilacs. Honey’s mom has a lilac bush, which is now dying due to the increase in temperature, and I absolutely love the smell of them. Luckily her rose bushes are starting to bloom and that is another flower that I enjoy.

Other smells I love include baking cakes and cookies, my favorite perfume by Coty called GhostMyst and many others. I can’t find my favorite perfume in any store and the only time I received a bottle from a store was in a package of three. Exclamation and Vanilla Musk were the other two that came with it. This little 1.7 ounce bottle of GhostMyst was amazing though. Everyone loved the scent of it. I can only find it online and for the price they want is too high, even for my favorite perfume. I guess I’ll stop and smell the roses instead.

If you haven’t noticed I’ve been moving things around again, tweeking the widgets, adding stuff, removing stuff, changing dailies and so forth. It’s not as much as it sounds really. There are a few changes that you may or may not notice depending on how often you visit Disillusioned.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the ads. Yes, I know, it can be a bit much when there are ads, but I am trying to keep them to a minimum and trying to do different types on different pages. I have two right sidebar widgets now. On the main page you’ll see everything and if you click on a Category or Monthly link you’ll see fewer. This may be temporary and I may move the bulk of them to the sub-pages of the site.

I’ve moved the Social Widgets and some others back to the left side because the right column was growing due to the skyscraper ad. I shrunk the Amazon widget and changed it to randomize the books listed in the widget. I am thinking of adding more books or creating another Amazon widget for the sub-pages that will list different books I’ve read that aren’t completely of the adult dark fantasy genre.

I’ve added the ‘main’ link to the Category and Monthly pages. If you are new to Movable Type 4 you can do this by adding it on the Entry Summary template, not the Category and Monthly templates. I know, it’s a bit confusing. Just like the Meta Tags you want to add for Google and such go on the Header Template.

I’ve also created a page for Advertising on Disillusioned. It contains information on what types of advertising I am available for. There’s also two ways of contacting me by email and the comment form. Feel free to let me know if there are any questions.

I’m going to still work on lowering the amount of advertising. I wish the ContextAds with Linkworth would kick in, but apparently that is not happening. I don’t know why, the test worked and it took forever to make sure that it was working properly, that I had the code in the proper place, etc. The context ads are set up to show on the sub-pages (Category, Individual, Monthly) because I had to include the code in the Entry Summary Template instead of on the individual templates. That is the only place I could find that it would work in Test Mode and for some reason it still hasn’t kicked in. It worked just fine in the previous incarnation of MT and on Chelle’s Reading Corner when that was active. Perhaps I need to try another form of link advertising?

I’d appreciate it if anyone having issues would let me know via comments or email! Thanks.