this misinformation needs to be removed

Just seen S3 Torchwood. Please send help.

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:57:24 GMT

I should probably say that I haven't been watching Torchwood - Frogface put me off, mostly (he's so attractive! NO HE'S NOT STOP THAT) so we watched S3 more out of a desire to want to be able to talk about it rather than with joy and excitement, or possibly fevered anticipation of whether Capt. Jack might get his kit off (he does). To be fair, the first episode or two was/were pretty creepy, although I felt the script rather underestimated human resilience (and parental ennui). I mean, the first couple of times, definitely frightening, scary... After that I think most people would just be like, oh not again... "You'd better not be trying to get out of doing the washing up, young lady!" "...Darling, have you seen my earplugs?" But it was three episodes in before there was any explanation of why the British government was having kittens and not even talking about the 'or...?' And by then I had said "or what? what?" an awful lot of times and my suspension of disbelief had joined my scepticism in picking holes in the rest of the plot. And even when they finally did say "Oh or, um, we'll, like, destroy the world" I had already concluded that on the available evidence, this could just be the interstellar equivalent of two blokes in a van. I mean you don't want the sort of proof that lays waste to cities, but something to prove that there was a bit more to them would have been possible, surely? As was they could've just as easily gone for pretty much anything that was on record as being (a) unexplained (b) scary to humans.

Alien commander: And we will claim to be the aliens that the hu-mans refer to as the 456! It's brilliant!
Alien sub-commander: Wasn't that actually some kids from the Lalande 21185 system, sir? We don't look much like the Lalandeans...
Alien commander: All the earthlings saw was a bright light... enough mist effects and they'll never know the difference! We'll take Fleurkel along with us, he's kind of tiny and has wierd freaky eyes like hu-mans - so long as he doesn't talk they'll think it's one of those kids that disappeared!
Alien sub-commander: Surely this won't work, sir! They'll want some sort of proof!

I did like Gwen's character - actually and surprisingly I liked all the main characters, with Capt. Jack being my least favourite, not really because of the handing-over-some-kids-in-the-60s, or even because of the exploding-own-grandson thing (why on earth did they need a child? Why couldn't they have had an adult? If only they'd had an immortal adult on whom they could've at least tested that idea!) but more because he's just kind of annoying. But the secondary characters - or character, can RTD actually write more than one? - are a different matter. It's like the Dialogue Of The Clones! Every character (less so with the primary characters, as noted, but it's still not a vast improvement) all think in exactly the same way, and make the same stupid choices - and variety is good, you want a character whose worldview is dissimilar to your own, but I'd prefer not to be shouting at the screen every time it's showing something more than just scenery. Example: Jack's daughter's (and pretty much every character) wierd attitude to her father's immortality. Now I'm sure that there are quite a few people out there who would react with this wierd mixture of jealousy and vanity; but aren't there some people who would be pleased to have their significant other, dad, best friend, live forever?
But anyway, Gwen's character was so much better written than when I was last watching: she sounded like a grown-up, and more importantly she sounded like a (n ex) policewoman - previously she didn't sound right, somehow. I still don't like RTD's characterisation, either of individuals or of groups (every soldier in the entire army conveniently has kids and is going to wait around, guns in hand, while you threaten them? Are you sure? In every country?) - but I think part of the problem is that when he gets it right, it is very good - which makes the clumsy bits look awfully bad in comparision.

It's probably best not to get into the 'five-minute-virus' and it's amazingly non-contagious properties: I'm not a biologist, GCSE was my limit, but this whole thing just did terrible things to my suspension of disbelief, which had already pretty much given it up as a bad job by this point: codeined up last night I said to M: If they'd said, aha, we have infected you all with a dormant virus, and you have infected others, and now we're going to activate it in 10% of carriers! I'd have been much happier with it - at that point the sheer volume of technobabble has (for me) crushed my sceptism (at least for the moment! Don't worry kids, it'll be back next week), or to put it another way, I'm no longer trying to analyse it because it's gone outside my understanding of how the world works - it's become magic/scifi again.
Similarly the children=drugs thing, while also creepy, did puzzle me rather.

Aliens: We want your children! 10% please! (split, splat, splort)
Frobisher: Um, no, and why?
Aliens: They are like DELICIOUS DRUGS to us (splish, splash, splosh)
Frobisher: My knowledge of biology is very basic, sir, but could you possibly be referring to the hormones and so on produced by the human body?
Aliens: Possibly! Sorry, we left our science officer on the ship, but he was kind of stoned (schplut, scplotch, schkpludge)
Frobisher: Well we can manufacture synthetic hormones you know...
Aliens: :O (sploodge!)
Frobisher: Well you just let us know what you'd like and we'll get right on that!

Epilogue: Sol neighbourhood property prices drop as Earth becomes the drugs capital of the universe.

I found it bizarre that when the aliens asked for 10% of children their immediate response was "Hmm, let's talk about that" - I think mine would have been more on the lines of "What? Why? No! What for?!" but then I am not a diplomat. Although I was amused by the American general's apparent confusion over what the alien was referring to. (Aide to General, aside: Sir, children, sir! They're those small versions of us that run around more. They're noisier, sir!)
And the alien's plan really seemed needlessly complicated:

Alien captain: Right! Time to terrorize the humans by making their young stand still and kind of scream. We will then force them to beam up 10% of their children, except they don't have the transportation capabilities, so that'll be up to us to manage. And Intelligence Officer Kzgareth has just told me that at certain times of the day, there are large groups of children concentrated in small areas called school playgrounds anyway, so... Actually, you know what, let's scrap the whole screaming thing, and just beam up all the large groups of children we can find and stick them in the hold. We'll end up with a few adults too, but oh well, does that matter?
Alien crew: Splort!

And finally - what was with the (admittedly creepy) recorded-voice thing that was going on? Was there any explanation for that, other than RTD proving 'he could do creepy too'? Or the constant alien splortching? Was it a subtle reference to swine flu?
I felt about these episodes the same way as I've felt about other RTD episodes - they'd be really good if he did some research, talked to some different people, and got someone to read over it and point out the points at which the plot was threadbare, or where the villains-of-the-week should have employed a small child to point out the flaws in their plans. The monotonous characterisation really does get tedious - my favourite characters (apart from the aforementioned Gwen) were probably Frobisher (hope I've got his name right :D ) and whatshername, the Girl On The Inside, mostly because to a greater and lesser extent respectively they were such a refreshing change from the rest of the clones.

Don't worry, it's not a 'proper' update... ;)

Thu, 15 May 2008 08:34:35 GMT

Of possible interest only to the Dragonsilver group (and apologies for omissions, was going for an endgame sort of thing... Made with Gaia avatar creator (when trying to avoid working...)

And because I apparently did this but failed to post it, so why not:

Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish. From samanthas

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22

One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick – Got a feeling I have read this actually, but a looong time ago…
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey – Bits for quoting, never got round to reading the whole thing. Does not live up to the childhood promise of Ulysses 31 Ul-y-see-eee-eee-eee-ees, no-one else can do the things you do!: almost no robots or spaceships. Terribly disappointing.
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian: a novel – Nearly as bad as Angels and Demons, although it didn’t start out too badly iirc.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World - Prophecy
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible: a novel
1984
Angels & Demons – Please note that the only way they got me to read this was to bundle it free with something else and put me on a sufficiently long train journey and therefore it was not my fault… It’s dire. Don’t bother.
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise) In the process of reading this.
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune – Don't think so, but maybe
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes: a memoir
The God of Small Things – We have this. Should I have read it?
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon (Might have read this, it sounds familiar, but if so then it evidently didn't leave a lasting impression...)
Oryx and Crake: a novel
Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

</div>
(edit: broken links fixed, sorry)

from undyingking :)

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:49:48 GMT

I Am A: Neutral Good Human Wizard (5th Level)

Ability Scores:

Strength-11

Dexterity-15

Constitution-10

Intelligence-15

Wisdom-16

Charisma-15

Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:09:51 GMT

Just been to see Death Proof and felt... moved to write about it. I'm not sure I enjoyed it, exactly: it's such a nasty film that I think it would be difficult to enjoy, exactly. But it was, I don't know, satisfying, perhaps: the plot is minimalistic, to say the least, but somehow that doesn't stop it being a good film.
I've just realised that I already have some desire to see it again...

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:37:01 GMT

from querimonious:

1.) Go to Career Cruising
2.) login nycareers password landmark
3.) Take the career match maker quiz and list the top 10 responses

1. Artist
2. Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator
3. Illustrator
4. Animator
5. Website Designer
6. Graphic Designer
7. Stylist
8. Sign Maker
9. Political Aide
10. Pet Groomer

Not quite sure how #9 fits into the theme there... !
(Last time I did one of these, my destined fate was to become a makeup artist... that's now down at #31. Just below 'Ship's Crew'.)

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:26:42 GMT

Well, I finally update, and it's a meme thingy. I blame midnightoak ;) I'm, um, working up slowly, okay? :)

music meme answers

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 09:17:53 GMT

I just picked up the phone and was greeted by a flood of Foreign. Sorry, I say, I think you've got the wrong number, and start to put the phone down. She laughs, and says No, no, this is the right number, (in English, you understand) and starts talking again in Foreign. At this point I am rather flummoxed and I'm afraid my natural politeness rather deserts me, so my response is "Um, sorry, what?" rather than anything more tactful or coherent. She then puts the phone down on me...
Hmmm, actual news. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything at the moment while at the same time not being able to get much done. Still haven't been able to register at Exeter because of 'problems with my IT account'. I'd be more worried but the head of the course rang me up the other day to check my contact details, so I know I'm still expected... We seem to finally have a date for the house move, so hopefully that'll go through alright. Oh, and Dragon Quest 8 is a great game (worryingly perhaps, you do get used to the freaky Dragonball character design), and The Mighty Boosh is just great. Go find it and watch it. :)

1. And the sign said, 'Long haired freaky people need not apply'
Fatboy Slim - Don't let the man (bring you down) - waistcoatmark
2. I am buried up to my neck in Contradictionary flies
Nirvana - Very Ape
3. A friendly wave each morning starting the day, neighbour
PWEI - Pretty pretty

This next was the alternate #3 posted on lucian_albrecht's journal entry

3i. In my room, I'm alone in my room
Dandy Warhols - Be-In

4. She gave you eveything she had, but she was young and dumb, she'd just turned 21
Garbage - Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!) - leathellin
5. Asked the girl what she wanted to be
Beatles - Drive my car - bibliogirl (and grampus on the previous post)
6. Hey I said you're godless and it seems like you're a souless friend
Dandy Warhols - Godless - grampus
7. I bongo with my lingo
MIA - Sunshowers
8. And I'm a black rainbow, and I'm an ape of God
Marilyn Manson - Disposable teens
9. To pretend no one can find / the fallacies of morning rose
Portishead - Sour Times
10. Now take me dancing at the disco
Goldfrapp - Ride a white horse - undyingking
11. I'm on it, get on it, the troops are on fire!
Kasabian - LSF (Lost Souls Forever)
12. I can hound you if I need to
Elton John - (Gotta get a) meal ticket
13. When comes the shaking man / a nation in his eyes
David Bowie - Jump they say
14. It's no secret that the stars are falling from the sky
U2 - The Fly - bibliogirl
15. Well you win, it's your show now, so what's it gonna be?
Jack Johnson - Good People
16. Riding on any wave / there is the luck you crave
Elastica - Connection - whouk
17. They found sixth-form poetry scrawled on the walls of your old bedroom
Thea Gilmore - Juliet (Keep that in mind)
18. When I was very young / nothing really mattered to me / but making myself happy
Madonna - Nothing really matters - undyingking
19. Once upon a time at the foot of a great mountain, there was a town where the people known as Happyfolk lived, their very existence a mystery to the rest of the world, obscured as it was by great clouds.
Gorillaz - Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head - grampus
20. In here is a tragedy; Art thou player or audience?
Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill soundtrack) - Walk on Vanity Ruins
21. They knew all along / they're not dumb, they were so wrong
Foo Fighters - Alone plus easy target
22. Canta per me ne addio / quel dolce suono / de' passati giorni / mi sempre rammenta
Yuki Kajiura (Noir Soundtrack) - Canta per me
23. Goodbye to the summer / sold down the river
Chumbawamba - Amnesia
24. The hero is exposed when / his crimes are brought to the light of day
Bangles - Hero takes a fall - undyingking (and grampus on the previous post)
25. Doro darake yo najimenai tokai de / onaji you ni waraenai utsumuite aruita no
Yui (Bleach soundtrack) - Life

25 lines music meme thingy

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:52:57 GMT

Cross-posted from lucian_albrecht's journal.
More sheep-like following, I'm afraid, - anyway, just to be slack, I'm going to quote lucian_albrecht :)...
"The rules are as follows: set your ipod/itunes/laptop/whatever to shuffle. Take the first 25 songs that are not instrumental, do not have their title in the first line, and are not by an artist that already appears.

Then list their first lines and get your mates to identify them (without using a search engine). They, presumably, will mock your musical tastes, or lack thereof, at this stage."

Actually, I've just realised that I've messed that up on two levels - I've repeated an artist and one of them has the title in the first line, so I've replaced one of the duplicates (#3) with what I'm listening to now. I've left the one with the title in there though.

1. ~~And the sign said, 'Long haired freaky people need not apply'~~
Fatboy Slim - Don't let the man (bring you down) - waistcoatmark
2. I am buried up to my neck in Contradictionary flies
3. A friendly wave each morning starting the day, neighbour
4. ~~She gave you eveything she had, but she was young and dumb, she'd just turned 21~~
Garbage - Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!) - leathellin
5. ~~Asked the girl what she wanted to be, she said "Baby, can't you see?"~~
Beatles - Drive my car - bibliogirl (and grampus on the previous post)
6. ~~Hey I said you're godless and it seems like you're a souless friend~~
Dandy Warhols - Godless - grampus
7. I bongo with my lingo
8. And I'm a black rainbow, and I'm an ape of God
9. To pretend no one can find / the fallacies of morning rose
10. ~~Now take me dancing at the disco~~
Goldfrapp - Ride a white horse - undyingking
11. I'm on it, get on it, the troops are on fire!
12. I can hound you if I need to
13. When comes the shaking man / a nation in his eyes
14. ~~It's no secret that the stars are falling from the sky~~
U2 - The Fly - bibliogirl
15. Well you win, it's your show now, so what's it gonna be?
16. ~~Riding on any wave / there is the luck you crave~~
Elastica - Connection - whouk
17. They found sixth-form poetry scrawled on the walls of your old bedroom
18. ~~When I was very young / nothing really mattered to me / but making myself happy~~
Madonna - Nothing really matters - undyingking
19. Once upon a time at the foot of a great mountain, there was a town where the people known as Happyfolk lived, their very existence a mystery to the rest of the world, obscured as it was by great clouds.
Gorillaz - Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head - grampus
20. In here is a tragedy; Art thou player or audience?
21. They knew all along / they're not dumb, they were so wrong
22. Canta per me ne addio / quel dolce suono / de' passati giorni / mi sempre rammenta
23. Goodbye to the summer / sold down the river
24. ~~The hero is exposed when / his crimes are brought to the light of day~~
Bangles - Hero takes a fall - undyingking (and grampus on the previous post)
25. Doro darake yo najimenai tokai de / onaji you ni waraenai utsumuite aruita no

(with apologies for any misspellings of the Foreign...)

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 17:14:13 GMT

http://treap.net/gavri/lji61.html

You know, I may actually get round to doing a proper update, one of these days. But all my news has been reported already... :) Other than that, the graduation went well, and the holiday was lovely :) Really, I'll update properly at some point. Honest.

Leeds!

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 16:12:43 GMT

Back up to Leeds tomorrow, for graduation and start-of-holiday! waistcoatmark and I will be going to Arcadia for food-and-booze on the Friday evening - we'll be there from 6ish if anyone would like to join us :) (sorry about the short notice: I have no excuse other than being A Bit Rubbish Really at the moment...)

from bibliogirl...

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 14:27:05 GMT

I died in the Dungeon of Sielis

I was killed in an enormous chamber by Samanthas the nymph, whilst carrying...

the Axe of Tonylee , the Sword of Bravecows, a Figurine of Itsjustaname, the Amulet of Hellsing, the Wand of Carolejo and 98 gold pieces.

Score: 86

Explore the Dungeon of Sielis and try to beat this score,
or enter your username to generate and explore your own dungeon...

some random stuff because I am too tired to make any sense

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 08:27:54 GMT

If you haven't seen this yet, you should have a look... artists take pre-schoolers' drawings of Christopher Robin, Pooh Bear et al., and turn them into terrifying, nightmarish visions that will haunt said child for the rest of its life. I mean, I'm judging by the results here rather than having actually looked for a mission statement, but still. Seriously, there's some fabulous art there... (edit: I'm thinking that Jeff McMillan's is the scariest. Why does Christopher Robin have six feet? Why does Pooh have such very scary teeth?)

The last few nights have been disturbed by mysterious tapping noises which have made sleeping... difficult. waistcoatmark's colleague (whose name, if I know it, escapes me, I'm afraid) apparently believes that our trip to Avebury last weekend has caused spirits to move in, or something. They couldn't have waited for a month or so? Further evidence for this - last night we were woken up at, I think, 1:27, by the radio in the bathroom coming on full blast. I am still faintly proud of myself for going to switch the damn thing off. Go me!

oh, and I've got to book about a zillion hotels asap. Which probably means using the damn phone again. Curses!

...more later, maybe, when I'm not so damn tired...

good grief, I must be bored...

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 10:46:20 GMT

Feline Incarnation
73% Cattitude, 73% Catendencies

You may have been born to human parents, but you're a cat through and through. Body and mind both follow the grand feline ideal that mere humans can only aspire to. You are the inspiration for catgirls and their male equivalents worldwide.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Cattitude
You scored higher than 99% on Catendencies

Link: The Feline Incarnation Test written by Velorien on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

...
er, right.

...Well, as you might guess from this, I have no actual news... it's too hot to think about doing anything...

THEY SQUEAKED AT ME OH GOD I TELL YOU THEY SQUEAKED

Thu, 25 May 2006 17:23:27 GMT

...we have mice in the kitchen. And apparently, I'm scared of mice, which was something of a surprise to me: I really didn't think I was. Although in fairness it may be less 'scared of mice' and more that instincts honed by Silent Hill tell me to either flee the as-yet-unidentified scrabbling, scratching, squeaking noises or HIT THE MONSTER WITH LEAD PIPING DAMMIT except I haven't got any lead piping so... oh, yeah, there's a mouse there, but so what?

Oh, god. How am I going to eat tonight if it takes all my courage to go in the kitchen and make a cup of tea? I had a horrible suspicion of this as this week I've been hearing concerning-but-it-could-easily-have-been-water-pipes-and-imagination noises, and I've been at a low level of concern anyway ever since I noticed mice strolling in a proprietorial manner across our patio a little while back. Which was one reason to welcome the fox, of course, because I'm not allowed a cat. Bah. But when I went downstairs just now the noises had escalated considerably and I actually saw one of the things. Actually, I held a conversation with them - or at least, I told them to go away or die, although doing the latter outside would be appreciated, and there was a chorus of squeaks every time I stopped talking. Which seemed odd at the time and even odder now I come to write it down. Perhaps they are the mice of NIMH (anyone remember that?) and we will be doing the world a profound disservice by speeding their removal from it.

...think I might go and get a curry, as waistcoatmark suggests: I can't even get something to throw into the microwave and just make a couple of desperate ninja raids on the kitchen, armoured to the teeth (or something), because they appear to be behind or possibly even in the microwave and I'm too much of a wuss to investigate properly. (And don't want to risk the appetising odour of baked mouse permeating the kitchen for the hereafter...)

Diary of FOX

Tue, 23 May 2006 15:30:07 GMT

Today was a good day, although mange still bad, and shredding own tail does not appear to be as effective as one had hoped. Some stupid HUMAN had left delicious catfood and honey sandwiches next to my favourite sunbathing spot! Ate sandwiches, although they were slightly mauled by birds. One must not be picky. Later, found, killed and partially ate some sort of rodent. Left remains for stupid HUMAN as felt slightly guilty about sandwiches. Sunbathed and managed to get into shed before torrential downpour. Go me!

Bleach

Tue, 02 May 2006 20:21:49 GMT

So... it's been a hell of a long time since I last updated. I blame this mainly on the dissertation though, which has been duly handed in - and many thanks to those who read the thing, and also to those who offered but didn't have to due to my only finishing it with a couple of days to go... and I was still making frantic updates the night before. But it is in and I don't have to worry about it any more until it is marked, although given the strike action at the moment that may be rather later than expected. Ah well. Apologies to, well, everyone, really, as I appreciate that I was frequently in a less than cheerful mood and to make matters worse, could speak of nothing but Mary Magdalene's breasts. Er... sorry about that...
Still got another two essays to go (why am I not doing them? They have to be in on Tuesday...). Today was, however, my last lecture ever for this course. Which is faintly terrifying I suppose, except it doesn't really seem to have sunk in yet. I suspect that it may do soon though, as in another few weeks I'll have finished completely - essays, exams, everything. Now there's a scary thought. What will I do with my waking moments? Looking back over the last month or so, I don't seem to have done a great deal except writing the dissertation and watching Bleach. Lots and lots of Bleach. This is all bravecows' fault ;) but really, I'm not complaining. Really, go watch it, it's great.

...right, back to the essays then...

doom doom doom

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 10:53:52 GMT

My tutor has, again, recalled the fact that I exist. Oh well, easter holidays soon... although as the dissertation is due in directly afterwards, I don't think they'll be particularly relaxing. Oh well.

My mood has improved considerably from the beginning of the week, when this picture described my somewhat unreasonable state of irritation with the world in general rather well. Drawing it was surprisingly therapeutic, though...

And today we're looking at yet more houses, some of them again. Hopefully we'll actually make some sort of decision soon...

shortest update ever...

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 19:23:35 GMT

Hit wordcount. SO HAPPY. ^_^

rrraagh! Kitten-minions SMASH!

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 13:57:34 GMT

I'm in a really vile mood today. The sort of mood where most people would be considering stomping on small furry things, except that always seems a bit unfair on the cute fluffy things - it's not generally their fault - and rather a waste of valuable stomping resources. There's only so much stomping to go around, you know. So I've decided to recruit a legion of cute fluffy kitten minions so we can go stomping and disembowelling (because kittens can't really stomp, you understand). Should be interesting, particularly as I suspect I'm developing an allergy to cats: so our road to vicious and terrible vengeance on the world at large will be interspersed with sniffles, frantic searches for tissues and my minions stopping to wash themselves every five minutes. Apart from that, though, it will be fearsome. Oh yes.

(If you have surmised from this that the essay's not going well, you are absolutely correct.)

I must be mad...

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 16:45:22 GMT

Look, don't even ask, okay? I was bored. Very, very bored. And couldn't get down to doing any real work...
Well, I thought they might entertain... briefly... ^_^

The girl stirred slightly and sat up. They found themselves looking into green eyes with slitted pupils, and a fleeting impression of rows of needle sharp teeth.

Crowley blinked.

He'd had a hard time entertaining the young man at first, but then he'd turned to Aziraphale with a sweet, wistful smile that transformed his entire face, and asked if he didn't have any maps?

Aziraphale, caught up in his enthusiasm, considered starting a new collection.

“Gods”, the young man said firmly, and with great conviction, “should not meddle in the affairs of mortals.” He poured himself another glass of wine, and politely waved the bottle at Crowley, who took it.

“Humans should create their own destinies. They should be free to carve out their own fate without interference.”

In the golden glow of the candlelight, his profile looked noble and sad, that of a poet or a philosopher.

Crowley smiled, snakelike. This one would be easy.

“Crowley. Crowley. There's a dead woman in my house.”

Crowley became fully awake faster than he'd done in a very long time. “What?”

They stared at the woman. Attractive still, with long platinum blonde hair. No visible wounds or reason for death. But what was really worrying Crowley and Aziraphale was...

“You know”, Crowley began, carefully, conversationally; “I'd expected her to be a bit less, well, animate.”

“I'm not sure I really quite see the point, to be honest”, the young man said, frowning. He pushed the contract back. “I mean, I have power, I have women-” here his expression momentarily became one of incredible smugness, and he ran a hand through his hair, blonde and perfectly styled- “so, why would I bother with this... changing allegiance?” He became very serious all of a sudden, and leaned towards Crowley. “And it would lead to certain political problems.”

Crowley regarded him sourly and considered immolation.

edit:
...oh, yeah, I should probably explain briefly, shouldn't I? Rather than a word limit, these have a time limit - three minutes. (explains a lot, doesn't it?) The idea is that you get two characters and a keyword, which you have to include either by the theme or actually in the text. Or both. They are supposed to be set by someone else, but I wanted to see if I could do it at all first! And I have no keywords, because I figured that that was going to be difficult to do for oneself. I can't remember where I first saw the idea, or whatever variation: but I think that the term 'fic fingers', at least, belongs to bravecows. So apologies there...

It is surprisingly fun.
Anyone else want to join in - at either end? (Doesn't have to be Dragonsilver-related!) ;)

edit2: Apologies to most of the people reading this, who will have NO IDEA what the hell this is all about... ;)

edit3: Now cross-posted to 3minutefiction

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 12:11:49 GMT

Why is my tea twittering?
I don't appear to have inadvertently boiled any small squeaky animals...
Not sure I want to drink it now. I'm a bit disturbed...

Got the marks back for my essay on the Tarot - 64, which translates to a low/medium 2:1. It's not a bad mark, but I thought it was worth more than that. Irritating. Oh, well. Just hope that the exam marks make up for it, but I'm not holding out too much hope. I ended up answering the question on the Lollards in the Deviance exam, which as I know very little about them ended up being a rather abstract answer. Would've been quite a good answer with some facts thrown in... The question on the Templars was just a bit odd, though, and didn't allow for waffling my way into a reasonable answer. Never mind, never mind. Had a meeting with my tutor, which actually went very well, in a startling break from tradition. And the lectures so far have been very good, although I was rather horrified (along with the rest of the group, it wasn't just me being slack) to learn that instead of the usual 3000-word essay and exam, or the slightly less standard 1500-word essay and 3000-word essay, we have two 3000-word essays. Marvellous.
At least this might motivate me to actually go and use the study skills centre. I'm planning to go and wave my essays at them and demand to know what I should've done, because at the moment the only thing I've come up with is 'have had a considerably higher word count', which is not tremendously useful and not really something that I feel I can address.

...my tea's now stopped squeaking, so I've drunk a bit. If it turns out that there was a cute fluffy thing lurking invisibly at the bottom of my mug, I'll let you know...

breakfast notes...

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 09:58:14 GMT

For those interested in experimental cookery: grilling porridge does not work.

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 15:32:44 GMT

Well, I'm back in Leeds. Missed Stabcon entirely in the end (bah!) including Read or Die (also bah!) but if I'm honest it was far more sensible to substitute revision and essay-writing. I also suspect I wouldn't have been good company... anyway, finished my essay, with proof-reading and checking-for-sense done by my dad, and done... some revision. Really not quite sure what I'm actually meant to be revising, though: I hate Art History exams for exactly this reason.

The family photos were actually quite fun. Yes, I was shocked too. I don't usually like photos being taken of me, either. What I was most impressed with, though, was that he managed to take pictures of all of us looking actually good. Although there were a fair few bad¹ ones there too ;) It was done by Venture, and no, they aren't cheap, but I'd say they were certainly worth it - it's not the sort of thing you'd get done every year anyway. Definitely recommended.

1. Well, I didn't like them. But they were, mostly, of me. And most people seem to dislike pictures of themselves...

found it!

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 11:12:21 GMT

...at number 16. Apparently they'd delivered to number 18 for reasons which are beyond my limited comprehension...

And I only had to knock on seven doors and talk to four people (one of whom clearly recognised me instantly as some sort of ultimate evil^TM. I felt like a salesman or something. Wierd)

Oh well, at least I've finally got my books...

Parcelforce (yes, I know it's been done before)

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 09:55:39 GMT

What is the point of asking for a signature if it doesn't match THE NAME ON THE DAMN PARCEL? And if you're going to randomly deliver a parcel to someone who happens to be walking past, could you not take some information as to who the hell they are?

I don't know if samanthas will remember this, but back when we were living in Hartley, we accepted a delivery of a beautiful, shiny, expensive phone. It wasn't for us, but for the chap in the flat below us: and we'd not even got into our front yard (well, technically back yard, but only technically) - we really could've been anyone. While admiring the phone, we pointed this out to the gentleman delivering it, who suggested that we sign for it under a false name and keep the phone.

Now there's service.