| Well this makes up for yesterday |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|08:02 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | song 2 | ] |
| [ | Current Moodswing |
| |  chipper | ] |
| [ | T'ippodd is playin' |
| | Rocketman | ] |
Today has been a hell of a day. After a ridiculously short amount of sleep, I was rudely awakened by the dustmen by a knocking at the door. I went downstairs, hoping it was important. It was; the postman had two letters in my Aunt's handwriting. One was for me and one was for my brother.
This is the same Aunt who is the the executor of my Gran's estate. We don't really have any contact with that Aunt - we haven't fallen out, we're just not that close. So when I saw the letters and worked out that they weren't cards, I figured it would have something to do with that.
So I started the day today with a £3000 cheque. Pretty much worth getting out of bed for. I even managed to go an entire hour before waking up my brother at 8:40. He also thought it was worth getting out of bed for.
So the cheques are banked, should clear by Friday, and we're rather chipper about that. For me, it means that I get to pay off a large chunk of my credit card bill. For my brother, it means he can get the kitchen replaced. See, my parents decided that they would give my bro £5000 out of the £15,000 they received. So by the beginning of September, we'll have a shiny new kitchen. And possibly bathroom.
Oh, and knowing the money will hit my account, we've bought a new washing machine. It was an absolute steal, in the sale and it'll be delivered tomorrow, thank goodness.
All in, a good day.
|
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|10:16 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | torchwood | ] |
| [ | Current Moodswing |
| |  exhausted | ] |
| [ | T'ippodd is playin' |
| | Repo | ] |
Assuming there is even a season four, I will not be watching it. I'm done. Fuck you RTD. |
|
|
| Things I didn't expect to say tonight. |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|08:12 pm] |
"Yes, we'll have two strippers please."
And no, you're not getting any context. You're also not getting a Stream on Consciousness Commentary. Partly because I will be far too drunk by that point and partly because I have company and it's rude to not talk, type and watch TV. Apologies but there will doubtless be drunken ramblings. |
|
|
| Is this a duster I see before me, the polish towards my hand? |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|08:08 pm] |
I'm currently sipping hot, sweet tea and nibbling on a sandwich. I'm in shock, I think. You see, I've just cleaned and tidied the lounge.
I don't do cleaning, not unless I absolutely have to. And I don't tidy unless I'm looking for something/can't see the floor any more/got someone special coming over. But today, I got off work early and it just...happened. I feel so used.
Anyway, I will be visiting the post office tomorrow to return the lovely but damaged shoes. I'm going to ban myself from Ebay so that I don't buy any more. That way I'll get £20-ish back into my account and that will pay for my mate Jo's birthday thing. Or at least mean that I can go without worrying so much about what I spend.
I have a strange sense of accomplishment. Oh dear, I do hope this clean and tidy thing doesn't turn into a habit. It's already been eating into my TV watching time. That said, tidying up to Billie Holliday and Adam and the Ants is really something.
Speaking of which, if anyone has an Adam Ant/Adam and the Ants album they'd like to share, I'd be chuffed.
More Torchwood tonight. I'm mildly worried by the summary of episode 5 that I found on BBC.com/Torchwood. But then those descriptions were wildly inaccurate for Robin Hood so we shall have to see. But if the spoiler I fear does happen, there will be much lamenting and gnashing of teeth. And possibly even alcohol.
Right, now I have to unload the dishwasher, put the rest of my stuff in it, clean teh surfaces-arrrrgh! It's happening again! Help! Save me! Someone!! |
|
|
| Whinging bullshit. Avoid if in a good mood. |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|08:23 pm] |
Holy crap this place is a mess. Thursday will be a mad tidying up evening because I have the pleasure of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) swizzasnake 's company for the finale. And if you don't know which finale, you haven't been paying attention.
For two consecutive days, I've had a few hours where I've just felt angry and depressed for no reason. Not no good reason, or exaggerating bad things. No reason whatsoever. It's confusing and annoying because I've been snapping at people, which isn't appropriate. I just don't even know.
Looking forward to Torchwood tonight. hllangel has given me a lovely spoiler/theory to explain something I had heard. It may turn out to be utter bullshit, but it sure as hell makes me feel better. *hugs her awesome lawyer-in-training friend*
Had to put the pocket watch to one side for a while. I really, truly want one but I just don't have the £50 to spend on the skeleton full hunter that I would like. I don't see the point in buying an interim one, especially given that I have my cutesy Doctor Who one to keep me going.
Finally got a pair of shoes that I bought on Ebay. No communication from this guy at all, which was annoying. Even more frustrating was that they had scuffs on them and didn't bloody fit! Size eight and a half my arse! Those are a seven if they're lucky. I'm going to send them back for a refund (which was offered because the scuffs weren't mentioned in the auction details), which I suppose is no bad thing given that I am ridiculously poor again this month. 60% of my salary went on bills and getting my brakes re-done. The rest is fading fast. I've got, and this includes my £300 overdraft, £100 per week for the rest of the month. Not bad, more than a lot of people on my f-list I'm sure. But out of that there's another £100 of bills plus another £100 of food shopping. Oh and probably £60 of fuel.
Oh god, I wish I hadn't written that all down. I'm gonna go rock in the corner now. Stream of consciousness commentary to come on Torchwood.
|
|
|
| Grrr. Arrgh. |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|06:03 pm] |
A prick at work today has put me in a foul mood so I'm properly cooking. I'm doing a mammoth batch of Spicy Salmon Risotto. I figure I'll have some tonight and then batch the rest up for meals throughout the week.
My brother has decided against repairing the washing machine so we will be buying one. Not sure when, yet, but we will be at some point.
( Torchwood Season 3 spoilers )
I will not let an arrogant, unthinking, self-absorbed arsehole ruin my night. So I'm going to watch Spicks and Specks before Torchwood. This is happy in and of itself.
Oh crap, and I need to email my sister and get bank details transfer my brother-in-law's birthday money.
|
|
|
| Friends, Geeks, Torchwoodians, lend me your ears. |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|08:17 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | pimpage, torchwood | ] |
| [ | Current Moodswing |
| |  enthralled | ] |
| [ | T'ippodd is playin' |
| | Homes Under The Hammer | ] |
Ladies and Gentleman, Torchwood-fans of all ages, I beg only a moment of your time and assure you, you will not be disappointed.
Have you ever watched an episode and thought "What? No, that's not right!". Or had a perfectly good fanon theory dispelled by canon Retcon? Maybe you've fallen into one of the many plot holes that make Torchwood what it is?
Well now, I present an opportunity for you to vent your fury. Mistress Secondsilk's ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) retcon_rage , an emporium for Torchwood rantage of all kinds.
Do the promo shots annoy you with their faux-action poses? Join and rant.
Do you wish that they had spared Tosh, or Owen, or Suzie? Join and rant
Does the characterisation of Jack/Gwen/Ianto frustrate you? Join and rant.
Cunningly timed, the community will open up on Wednesday, halfway through the British screening week of Torchwood. So save your ire, be it nit-picky and petty, or glaring and huge annoyance. Then let loose the dogs of war and feel that sweet catharsis.
|
|
|
| *Dances the dance of Joy* |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|02:38 pm] |
I finally got my CRB through! I passed, of course, but it meant that I could call my new work about a start date. This is EXCELLENT progress and about damned time.
For a little background, I've been told by numerous friends and family members to ask that they hold my start date until August so that I can get my redundancy payout. I've said no, because it was conveyed to me that this was an urgent start.
So I called my lovely new supervisor, and she said that the woman who organises everything is off, but she'd text her to check. I get a call about half an hour later, to inform me of three things:- NewJob has received both my references, and they're fine, but one didn't fill in the template. (Bet you a tenner that was the reference from OldJob. They're very strange about references). Not to worry, though. They'll call OldJob up and get it sorted.
- NewJob hasn't had the CRB through from HR yet. As soon as they get that, they can set all the wheels in motion.
- The provisional start date for me would be 17th August.
That is SO FREAKING WONDERFUL! I get a two week holiday, with pay from OldJob (my redundancy). I'll get to see Pooja down in London, chill, leave OldJob and OldIssues behind and just relax. It'll be great. It also means I won't at any point leave OldJob in the lurch, so I can leave there without any feeling bad. I've still got to wait a while (over a month I suppose) and it'll make September a very tight month, as I won't get paid until the end of September. Back to living off the credit card for a while, I suppose. But hey, I have a job and even a start date.
Oh and I got the afternoon off work as a thank you for Friday. All in, a very good day.
|
|
|
| Please, oh mysterious noise, disappear just as mysteriously. |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|06:29 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | arrgh! | ] |
| [ | Current Moodswing |
| |  worried | ] |
| [ | T'ippodd is playin' |
| | DIY SOS | ] |
I've been doing some washing. When I went to get the most recent load out, I heard a thunk every time the drum completed a revolution. Please don't let this be our washing machine dying. Even when it was on spin it would thunk, just more quickly; that, to me, suggests that it's something outside, not inside, the drum.
Please don't let this washing machine be breaking. We really can't afford to replace it. |
|
|
| "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|12:44 am] |
Happy Fourth of July to all my American friends! It is well gone midnight here and so time to celebrate the 233rd anniversary of the independence of country that gave you birth.
Thank you for providing the world with the first non-white president. Thank you for giving us such culinary delights as oatmeal and raisin cookies. Thank you more than you will ever know for making Mythbusters so popular. And finally, thank you for accepting this mad little British bint with her strange ideas into your lives.
And thank you for taking many of the more unpleasant people and providing them with a home. I'd like to think that, over here, we'd have had them shot arrested, but we'd probably have just ignored them, like we have with this motherfucking, arseleak of a douchewaffle.
You rock, US citizens. You rock and you roll.
|
|
|
| Theological ponderings |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|11:46 pm] |
If Stephen Fry is God, then Phill Jupitus is his prophet.
If Morgan Freeman is God, then you'd better fucking believe that Samuel L Jackson is his mutherfuckin' prophet.
I think I just became a polytheist.
|
|
|
| If this place gets any hotter, I'm going to have to take my skin off to keep cool. |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|11:01 pm] |
Welcome, one and all, to Drunken Friday. Tonight's Letters are Q and I, and our drinks are Baileys Mint Chocolate and the traditional mad blue stuff.
Today was fun at work. I was on my own. No, really, no manager, no supervisor, no senior colleague, no junior colleague - just me. After an initial crisis where I had to call the manager of another group, it all went remarkably well. That said, the only work I had to do was truly some of the most boring data entry I have ever had the misfortune of experiencing. It dragged so badly, I could only do about thirty minutes at a time.
But there was an upside. And it's all thanks to some impertinent colonials who threw a paddy. That's right, one of my colleagues baked the most amazing Independence Day cake. It was a scale model of the Stars and Stripes with white cream icing, strawberries for the red stripes and blueberries for the bit with the stars. Wow. I mean, really, that cake kept me going. That and my Oatmeal and Raisin cookies. So thank you, inhabitants of our ex-colony, for making this day that little bit more bearable.
Ooh and I finally managed to pick up a present for my mate's other half. He's a Star Wars fan, and I let him down a bit for his birthday, so I went all out. That's right, I got him a replica Obi-Wan Lightsaber. It's fucking awesome. If I hadn't bought Dal (my remote-control Supreme Dalek, so called because my brother has another one, called Lek), I'd have been tempted to keep it! Can't wait to give it to him tomorrow. Wonder if he'll take it bowling with us, because that's a way to scare the kids without me risking being banned/arrested.
For the record, I've never been arrested, but I have sworn at a magistrate and been in the back of a police car. Good times.
Found a new takeaway called Balti Towers. Had a lovely Pakistani dish called Achari Chicken and man, that is gorgeous. So much flavour with just enough spice to keep it interesting. Yummy, especially with Aloo Gobi.
It is still too motherfucking hot. And yet, my apathy has still not been surmounted by my dislike of heat; I still can't be arsed to get the fan out of the loft. So I shall be British and continue to moan and bitch about the weather.
On the fic front, I'm at the stage of Kirk and Sharpe almost having sex. The convenient stumble into a wall has happened and I'm going to have to go with the old stalwart of pouring rain as lube. Unless someone out there has an idea for lube that can be found in a back alley on 18th century Pseudo-Earth a 3am. Tempting as it is to have them stumble in to Ye Olde Ann Summers (and that's just a whole other fic), I'm at a loss.
Right, enough wittering, QI is on and, approriately enough, it's the drinking episode. I shall attempt to find the QI drinking game again and play along.
Hasta luego! |
|
|
| With apologies to anyone still at work |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|03:32 pm] |
On this, the hottest day of the year so far, my boss of awesomeness has given me a paid half-day off.
I actually had to check with him twice before I believed it. I mean, it's not like I had any work to do for the rest of the day, and there's still going to be my supervisor there to answer the phones, but it was still a bit of a shock. Freaking awesome though.
So far I have - contemplated going shopping (too hot and I should wait until my bills have come out)
- sung along loudly and tunelessly to Kerrang on my lovely drive home
- gotten a hair cut (local salon, nice but nothing special although remarkably cheap. Will probably go there again.)
- thought about sunbathing.
Now the latter was something that I thought would be great. Then I remembered that our back garden - doesn't really catch the sun
- is a mess
- doesn't have any patio furniture and
- is full of creepy crawlies due to the surrounding trees.
So all I'd really be doing would be sitting outside in the warm, worrying about stuff crawling over me while trying to shade my eyes from brightness of the sky so that I could read my book because the internet doesn't go quite that far.
Why no, I'm not the outdoorsy type. However did you guess?
Which is why I'm indoors, in the slightly cooler temperatures, online and watching Wimbledon. I must turn over soon, though, because I tend to jinx British athletes if I watch them. Might watch some more Spicks and Specks. Or I might catch up on some of the sleep I lost last night. I do like it being warm, but I look forward to the temperatures getting below 19C (66F) at night.
|
|
|
| Bit late to be jumping on the badnwagon, but there you go. |
[Jun. 28th, 2009|02:24 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | movie | ] |
| [ | Current Moodswing |
| |  impressed | ] |
| [ | T'ippodd is playin' |
| | Death Note | ] |
I'm slowly beginning to see what the fuss is about Death Note. Admittedly I'm only watching the DVD, but it's pretty interesting. I'll wait until the end before deciding whether or not to invest in the Manga Box-set. |
|
|
| You don't need someone else's approval! Really, you don't! |
[Jun. 28th, 2009|11:08 am] |
This secret in yesterdays Fandom!Secrets has caused me a little concern.
Let's get the disclaimers out of the way first. Yes it is about one of my good friends. Yes there are replies bashing said friend's views. Yes I have replied to it, and even replied to one of the more sarcastic anon-comments. If you think this has biased my views beyond the point where I can talk about something else, please don't read any further.
Also note that I am talking about general fanfic writing, not replying to requests. By definition, these need to be tailored in one way or another to the details of the request.
I am genuinely concerned that almost no-one else in these comments is trying to persuade the OP not to change what they write or the way they write. I just don't understand why the responders are not trying to encourage the OP to have confidence in their own work, without worrying about being rec'd by another writer.
Does getting someone else's approval mean that much? Do they think that getting someone else to recommend their fic will give them more confidence? That's fallacious; the minute they don't show suggest that they like what you've done, your confidence would be shattered. And how would that work if you've had to change what you write?
To carry on the example from the secret, I know that karaokegal has a significant dislike of the Jack/Ianto ship, but that hasn't stopped her beta-ing TWO J/I fics for me. I've even posited a third and she's still offering to beta it for me, if and when I get it written (who knows when that will be). If I was craving her approval, I'd probably write all Jack/Owen all the time!!1!! But then my fic would be crap because my heart's not in it. I also won't character bash Ianto, because I think there is the potential for a good character there, but that he is the single most inconsistently written character in all of Torchwood.
Maybe this is another example of my being incredibly naive, but if you're trying to tailor your writing to impress someone else, won't it make it worse? Isn't the best writing when you write what you want, what you actually feel is realistic and believable? Why not try and impress them with that? Again, maybe it's a confidence thing, that you think if this person likes my work, it must be really good.
Well, no offence to anyone, BNF, respected fanauthor or otherwise, your opinion shouldn't be that important. Unless you're being asked to beta or look over the work, I don't think writers should should need another person's approval. Comments are enough for that. And writers sure as shit shouldn't change the way they write to accommodate someone else.
I'm not going to lie, I love being rec'd and it doesn't happen very often, but that's not going to change the way I write. Otherwise getting rec'd wouldn't be the joy that it is, it'd be the goal and would depress me if it didn't happen. Talk about stripping all the fun out of writing.
|
|
|
drunk
pissed off
productive
discontent
bouncy
bitchy
cheerful
contemplative
relaxed