Many thanks to whomever nominated me at ![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
absence_oflight! I have my suspicions who it was, but I shall keep quiet - it's very much appreciated!!
In other news, I bought some new plant pots and will be attempting to grow/maintain basil plant number three. Don't know why I bothered buying more coriander; may not bother with it and just grow mint instead. Yum, mint. Have moved my jade plant into this hideous blingy mosaic glass ball thing (meant for candles and presumably the ugly nineties spa look?), but as I hoped the soil tones down the blingy glass and leaves it a nice-ish textured pot that goes with the living room. (It was the right size, basically, and everything else was horrible too. This was so ugly it charmed me...)
Generally, I am in complete love with this song - ish. It's the best off the album (which isn't that great, but nice enough), and the original was one of my favourites off the original album. It's definitely better than the original, but I feel like something's supposed to happen after the first two minutes that never does. :(
absence_oflight! I have my suspicions who it was, but I shall keep quiet - it's very much appreciated!!In other news, I bought some new plant pots and will be attempting to grow/maintain basil plant number three. Don't know why I bothered buying more coriander; may not bother with it and just grow mint instead. Yum, mint. Have moved my jade plant into this hideous blingy mosaic glass ball thing (meant for candles and presumably the ugly nineties spa look?), but as I hoped the soil tones down the blingy glass and leaves it a nice-ish textured pot that goes with the living room. (It was the right size, basically, and everything else was horrible too. This was so ugly it charmed me...)
Generally, I am in complete love with this song - ish. It's the best off the album (which isn't that great, but nice enough), and the original was one of my favourites off the original album. It's definitely better than the original, but I feel like something's supposed to happen after the first two minutes that never does. :(
Fic Rundown 2012!
2 January 2013 00:23Another year, another meme! Here's last year's, and so it comes around again.
( Hmm, the amount of things written is slightly easier to deal with when they aren't all tiny... )
( I did some other stuff too..! )
( Oh, heck, there's a meme as well. Well, I suppose it's traditional. )
Generally, I think my problem is that I don't have that much fun writing fun fics! Typical.
( Hmm, the amount of things written is slightly easier to deal with when they aren't all tiny... )
( I did some other stuff too..! )
( Oh, heck, there's a meme as well. Well, I suppose it's traditional. )
Generally, I think my problem is that I don't have that much fun writing fun fics! Typical.
I'm in such a weird place with fandom at the moment. I've been drifting offline more and more, but over the last couple of days I've been reading my old fics in one of those elusive moods where I can enjoy it rather than just picking out the flaws - and I miss them all. :( I don't know what's happened over the last couple of years - with my S6 Spuffy series and Fag Ends I've somehow ended up distracted away from all my short story experiments of 4-20K words, but I still love them to pieces. Two and a half year's distance means I can appreciate all of the frustration people felt reading An Exercise in Futility, for example, but then I kind of revel in that feeling. It entertains me that there are so many things spinning in the air - and that the actual emotional weight and impact of the story exist entirely in the negative space around it, one you've got to the end and think about it a bit. I have a plan for the novel it should go with somewhere on my other computer, and I kind of wish that that existed, but I doubt I'll ever get round to it.
I've even been re-reading my Spikeid - and I'm finally at peace with the pacing issues in books 6-8. I'm quite determined to revise them at some point, because it seems so clear to me that there are just a few transitions that need to be re-worked and bulked out with some space, but it's been finished for long enough that I can enjoy it.
And that's the thing, because, for whatever reason it seems/feels as though very little of what I write these days really strikes a chord with people, compared to back in the day. Which is fine. It's not as if I don't still do relatively well for feedback (love to you all!) and I'm not great at responding to positivity anyway, always looking for the next adrenaline rush and trying to find the negativity hidden between the lines - but then this seems to have got worse and actually become a problem in the last year or so, because I get so invested in things and then can't feel satisfied after I've put them up, obsessing for longer than makes me happy. Which makes me think it's not worth continuing; I should look to original stuff, give myself a change rather than hanging on for an audience who've gone another way. And yet, then I re-read old things again and remember I've only ever really written to entertain myself. And I still do.
Ergh, but then I can't bring myself to open the Word doc and start writing. I think I blame the Spikeid and Turn and Face the Strain. Those two projects burnt me out. And the fact I'm still dissatisfied with them (even if I'm at peace with that dissatisfaction) continues to burn me out. (Also, why can't I punctuate? Idiomatic prose/verse shouldn't be so difficult to punctuate in a way that brings across the nuances I want from it.)
Blech. This has been a self-obsessed ramble about me as an author. But then, I got into LJ back in the day to be part of a community of authors, so I fear this is what I'm posting.
I've even been re-reading my Spikeid - and I'm finally at peace with the pacing issues in books 6-8. I'm quite determined to revise them at some point, because it seems so clear to me that there are just a few transitions that need to be re-worked and bulked out with some space, but it's been finished for long enough that I can enjoy it.
And that's the thing, because, for whatever reason it seems/feels as though very little of what I write these days really strikes a chord with people, compared to back in the day. Which is fine. It's not as if I don't still do relatively well for feedback (love to you all!) and I'm not great at responding to positivity anyway, always looking for the next adrenaline rush and trying to find the negativity hidden between the lines - but then this seems to have got worse and actually become a problem in the last year or so, because I get so invested in things and then can't feel satisfied after I've put them up, obsessing for longer than makes me happy. Which makes me think it's not worth continuing; I should look to original stuff, give myself a change rather than hanging on for an audience who've gone another way. And yet, then I re-read old things again and remember I've only ever really written to entertain myself. And I still do.
Ergh, but then I can't bring myself to open the Word doc and start writing. I think I blame the Spikeid and Turn and Face the Strain. Those two projects burnt me out. And the fact I'm still dissatisfied with them (even if I'm at peace with that dissatisfaction) continues to burn me out. (Also, why can't I punctuate? Idiomatic prose/verse shouldn't be so difficult to punctuate in a way that brings across the nuances I want from it.)
Blech. This has been a self-obsessed ramble about me as an author. But then, I got into LJ back in the day to be part of a community of authors, so I fear this is what I'm posting.
I wrote a fic! And because I get some sort of masochistic thrill from posting where no one will see things, I've put it up (for the moment) at sb_ashtray, sb_fag_ends' new sister comm! No specified pairings or characters, no limits, just responses to the Fag Ends prompts of yore, whenever you get round to it. The fic itself is Spuffy nonetheless and the first part of four. The whole thing should come in around 16,000 words, probably just R. It's the turning point in the London futureverse of mine where Spuffy go from their long distance relationship to living together, because that's always something I've wanted to work out how it happens. Check it out!
What it is to Burn.
After three years in a long distance relationship, Buffy’s the one who cracks first.
(I am in such a weird mood today. It's been massively stormy and I made the mistake of getting MineCraft (the Technic Pack in particular). I'm too much of a noob to go on the multiplayer server, so I've been pottering around this empty world entirely on my own, full of dreams of building some sort of steampunk magic railway but mostly unable to find anything I'm looking for and failing to set up my one machine properly. And then dying the moment I actually get my hands on some diamonds. It doesn't help that my laptop's too rickety to run the game smoothly, so it's actually physically tiring to play. Sigh.)
sb_ashtray, sb_fag_ends' new sister comm! No specified pairings or characters, no limits, just responses to the Fag Ends prompts of yore, whenever you get round to it. The fic itself is Spuffy nonetheless and the first part of four. The whole thing should come in around 16,000 words, probably just R. It's the turning point in the London futureverse of mine where Spuffy go from their long distance relationship to living together, because that's always something I've wanted to work out how it happens. Check it out!What it is to Burn.
After three years in a long distance relationship, Buffy’s the one who cracks first.
(I am in such a weird mood today. It's been massively stormy and I made the mistake of getting MineCraft (the Technic Pack in particular). I'm too much of a noob to go on the multiplayer server, so I've been pottering around this empty world entirely on my own, full of dreams of building some sort of steampunk magic railway but mostly unable to find anything I'm looking for and failing to set up my one machine properly. And then dying the moment I actually get my hands on some diamonds. It doesn't help that my laptop's too rickety to run the game smoothly, so it's actually physically tiring to play. Sigh.)
DVD Commentaries
13 August 2012 18:51My creativity is at a seriously low ebb, but I always like talking about past creations! Leave me any bit of anything I've written/created in the comments and I will indeed, as the meme going round says, give you a DVD-style commentary about it. Even if it's just gags/anecdotes. (It's possible I like those DVD commentaries the best in RL... But I also have wankery to share!)
[Find fic, poetry and vids on DW!]
[Find fic, poetry and vids on LJ!]
[Find fic and poetry on the AO3!]
[Find vids on Vimeo!]
[Find fic, poetry and vids on DW!]
[Find fic, poetry and vids on LJ!]
[Find fic and poetry on the AO3!]
[Find vids on Vimeo!]
(no subject)
4 August 2012 14:03Sorry everyone I owe comments and stuff to; I seem to be in a moment of disengagement. Should be out of it by Monday, hopefully Sunday because there are fag_ends things to do... But on the plus side the four hours I lay in bed this morning were also the time my brain decided to work out what happens in my vamp!Buffy-Spuffy fic, which includes among other things the solution as to why the fuck I bothered characterising Dawn and Satsu's teenage children in my head.
So that's all good.
/I will miss Twenty Twelve (the sitcom).
So that's all good.
/I will miss Twenty Twelve (the sitcom).
Mark Watches
20 July 2012 13:42FFS, I told myself last night that I wasn't allowed to think about this, but... I can't believe it's been ten years - ten years - and people are still demonising and threatening people who dare:
1. Read Smashed in a way that Buffy is not a victim.
2. Analyse Buffy/Spike on its own individual basis of a relationship between two characters in a fantasy world rather than something solely contextualised by impersonal sociological narratives.
3. Suggest that they find Spuffy hot.
And the whole thing's been brought about by someone who operates on the assumption that we're all dense enough to believe that he 'forgot' he knew about SR when he started shouting at people for having different views about Smashed.
I'm so angry.
All I've got is my video which I like to think indicates that Spike's sarcasm vs. Buffy's violence has been their game for a long time:
Tell me they both fuck up in S6, but don't tell me either is fully taking control.
ETA: On the other side of the coin, All Butterfly AU, anyone? (+ bogwitch's comedy sequel)
1. Read Smashed in a way that Buffy is not a victim.
2. Analyse Buffy/Spike on its own individual basis of a relationship between two characters in a fantasy world rather than something solely contextualised by impersonal sociological narratives.
3. Suggest that they find Spuffy hot.
And the whole thing's been brought about by someone who operates on the assumption that we're all dense enough to believe that he 'forgot' he knew about SR when he started shouting at people for having different views about Smashed.
I'm so angry.
All I've got is my video which I like to think indicates that Spike's sarcasm vs. Buffy's violence has been their game for a long time:
Tell me they both fuck up in S6, but don't tell me either is fully taking control.
ETA: On the other side of the coin, All Butterfly AU, anyone? (+ bogwitch's comedy sequel)
This is where I post the most pathetic whinge about AO3 that has ever been whinged. I like to think I'm not that wanky about my creative stuff; I can let things go; the net is an imperfect publication system and that's OK (how many fics have I split up to post on LJ that weren't meant to be split into parts?). But apparently I can still be irrationally irritated by minor things...
Basically, what this boils down to is the way you align text to the right on the AO3 interface. (Yes. Text alignment. I know.) My last poem was aligned right - some might say unnecessarily, but it was still a conscious decision. To display that on LJ and DW I put the whole thing in a tag <div style="text-align:right"> - but the AO3 doesn't support in line styling, so the poster strips the tag down to just <div>, which does nothing to the alignment. I get around it by using <div align="right"> - but I try not to use depreciated HTML (except <font> in comments because it's just very easy... I am a bad HTMLer :( ), so I drop a line to Support, because it seems odd that this would be the most sensible way around the issue. As it turns out, it isn't, and the AO3-recommended way to do things like aligning sections of text etc. is to apply a CSS work skin (eg. the public basic formatting skin) and then use classes, ie. pull down on one extra option on the posting form's menu and then use the tag <div class="align-right">.
To be fair, this is very easy (although I feel like I should mention that this wouldn't make sense to someone who's trying to use the Rich Text editor, because that has an alignment button and it doesn't work). My issue with it is the way this Work Skins business has been implemented is so that creator's styles can be very easily be turned off, either by default or by a fairly obvious button at the top of the work. So now anyone on the work page can basically toggle my poem back and forth across their monitor. I suppose this is so, should there be a trend in formatting fics in eyes-bleedingly ugly ways they can be very easily turned back into plain text - but. While the rational, readerly part of me understands this is very sensible, the wanky poet part of my head won't stop ranting, "but the poem is aligned right!! It's not aligned 'right but with a button in case you want to read it left-aligned'!! The act of moving your eyes from the part of the page where you expect text to this other corner is a whole part of the reading process!! It's not there to be toggled at will!! It should just be!!".
And yet the rational part of me that is proud of her basic HTML skills refuses to change the tag back to something wrong just to get rid of the button, not least because it's the site standard and you should uphold people's expectations. So now I'm miffed - about something which isn't really a problem. Because I wrote too much poetry and became pretentious. :(
We shall not talk about the time I spent faffing with longhand spaces - ie. [ampersand]nbsp[semi-colon] - in my last poem so that everything was aligned correctly on the various different platforms I posted it, with their different fonts and sizes + posters which strip back multiple typed spaces. Concrete poetry doesn't half feel that way when you post it in HTML...
Basically, what this boils down to is the way you align text to the right on the AO3 interface. (Yes. Text alignment. I know.) My last poem was aligned right - some might say unnecessarily, but it was still a conscious decision. To display that on LJ and DW I put the whole thing in a tag <div style="text-align:right"> - but the AO3 doesn't support in line styling, so the poster strips the tag down to just <div>, which does nothing to the alignment. I get around it by using <div align="right"> - but I try not to use depreciated HTML (except <font> in comments because it's just very easy... I am a bad HTMLer :( ), so I drop a line to Support, because it seems odd that this would be the most sensible way around the issue. As it turns out, it isn't, and the AO3-recommended way to do things like aligning sections of text etc. is to apply a CSS work skin (eg. the public basic formatting skin) and then use classes, ie. pull down on one extra option on the posting form's menu and then use the tag <div class="align-right">.
To be fair, this is very easy (although I feel like I should mention that this wouldn't make sense to someone who's trying to use the Rich Text editor, because that has an alignment button and it doesn't work). My issue with it is the way this Work Skins business has been implemented is so that creator's styles can be very easily be turned off, either by default or by a fairly obvious button at the top of the work. So now anyone on the work page can basically toggle my poem back and forth across their monitor. I suppose this is so, should there be a trend in formatting fics in eyes-bleedingly ugly ways they can be very easily turned back into plain text - but. While the rational, readerly part of me understands this is very sensible, the wanky poet part of my head won't stop ranting, "but the poem is aligned right!! It's not aligned 'right but with a button in case you want to read it left-aligned'!! The act of moving your eyes from the part of the page where you expect text to this other corner is a whole part of the reading process!! It's not there to be toggled at will!! It should just be!!".
And yet the rational part of me that is proud of her basic HTML skills refuses to change the tag back to something wrong just to get rid of the button, not least because it's the site standard and you should uphold people's expectations. So now I'm miffed - about something which isn't really a problem. Because I wrote too much poetry and became pretentious. :(
We shall not talk about the time I spent faffing with longhand spaces - ie. [ampersand]nbsp[semi-colon] - in my last poem so that everything was aligned correctly on the various different platforms I posted it, with their different fonts and sizes + posters which strip back multiple typed spaces. Concrete poetry doesn't half feel that way when you post it in HTML...
I have written a couple of fics for The Awesome Ladies Ficathon and Art-a-thon, which I shall bring over later, but you should check it out and comment and prompt and write and artify and everything!
Secondly, is anyone watching Dead Boss? This is the latest sitcom that's keeping me entertained and it does it very well. It's a murder mystery+prison comedy about one Helen, who has been wrongly imprisoned for the murder of her boss. Many, many amusing characters - my favourites are Mrs. Bridges, the dead boss's widow, who is a sort of EastEnders-style arch villain (but clearly a red herring) and also Helen's sister Laura, who has basically taken over her sister's life now she's in prison and wants to be played by Beyoncé when Helen gets out and they sell the film rights of her story. And it has Jennifer Saunders in! | |
Thirdly, I was soooooooo wrong about Burial (at least the recent stuff, I haven't relistened to see if I was wrong about the early stuff), and have been in love with certain tracks the last few days. This is the latest one: Four Walls, done in collaboration with Massive Attack. Commit about three minutes to it (at least until the proper vocals kick in) and you will (hopefully!) see why: |
Hello world!! If you're even tangentially in Buffy fandom and have a vague interest in Spike and/or Buffy, please take a look at the discussion we're having in sb_fag_ends and add your opinions! We value your input, innit. :D
Discussion Post of Doom!!
.
sb_fag_ends and add your opinions! We value your input, innit. :DDiscussion Post of Doom!!
.
1. I take back everything negative I've ever said about Burial. All right, it's rare for me to be more into an artist's later stuff than earlier stuff, but I should have known better. Listening to tracks from 2007 is not enough!
2. I have finally found a track for the epic long-narrative/silent-movie-almost style vid concept I've been wanting to do for ages.
3. These things may be related.
4. Erm... When I appear with such an item in an unspecified number of months, people will be interested, right? It'll be Spuffy! At least in a parallel character study sense. Think of something like a sequel to 4'33", but less myopic.
Blergh... I don't want to do the boring bit where I work out which DVD chapters I want to rip as a starting point. Damn this complicated creative process...
2. I have finally found a track for the epic long-narrative/silent-movie-almost style vid concept I've been wanting to do for ages.
3. These things may be related.
4. Erm... When I appear with such an item in an unspecified number of months, people will be interested, right? It'll be Spuffy! At least in a parallel character study sense. Think of something like a sequel to 4'33", but less myopic.
Blergh... I don't want to do the boring bit where I work out which DVD chapters I want to rip as a starting point. Damn this complicated creative process...
Writing & Tchaik
17 May 2012 21:00Well, it's my ![[community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
seasonal_spuffy day tomorrow, and come hell or high water I will have the unofficial Part I (~30,000 words) of my ~80,000 word fic up. The plan is to have the rest up for the free-for-all, though I have a feeling it might clash with writerconuk, so I may have to put it all on my journal and then put up one chapter on the comm that day with a link to the rest beforeahand. (The main reason behind this is not to overload people, but if it turns out the only people reading it want to be overloaded, I'll just get it up ASAP.) I'm quite excited about the whole thing, though I do need to beat some kinks out of it, just to make myself happy.
In other writing, I'm somehow having the time of my life writing up a ~20,000 word chunk on my PhD text, so my whole life at the moment is about writing. It's quite nice. I'm chatting theory at the moment, and I always like that.
At some point, though, I've fallen head over heels in love with Tchaikovsky 5, so have been listening to it all day and will probably listen to it all day tomorrow... Here, have a video!
seasonal_spuffy day tomorrow, and come hell or high water I will have the unofficial Part I (~30,000 words) of my ~80,000 word fic up. The plan is to have the rest up for the free-for-all, though I have a feeling it might clash with writerconuk, so I may have to put it all on my journal and then put up one chapter on the comm that day with a link to the rest beforeahand. (The main reason behind this is not to overload people, but if it turns out the only people reading it want to be overloaded, I'll just get it up ASAP.) I'm quite excited about the whole thing, though I do need to beat some kinks out of it, just to make myself happy.In other writing, I'm somehow having the time of my life writing up a ~20,000 word chunk on my PhD text, so my whole life at the moment is about writing. It's quite nice. I'm chatting theory at the moment, and I always like that.
At some point, though, I've fallen head over heels in love with Tchaikovsky 5, so have been listening to it all day and will probably listen to it all day tomorrow... Here, have a video!
Grandma's House was like dreams on toast tonight. So, so good.
In other news, I really want to finish the draft of myseasonal_spuffy fic by the end of the weekend, so I can edit the first half for posting next Friday (in consultation with the ![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bogwitch splitting it between my posting day and the free-for-all seems like the most sensible idea, rather than spamming the hell out of people). Given my rough estimate puts me at 16,000 words still to go, things could get interesting. Hopefully I'll hit the downhill slope at some point...
Lalala, fun times. I think I've discovered interesting, nay Good (TM) things about the text I'm working on, so PhD endeavours are looking up. (The answer, my friends, lies in Propertius 3.1 and 3.3, oh yes. This is why we are on a boat. /random)
Maybe there should be more stuff here...
In other news, I really want to finish the draft of my
seasonal_spuffy fic by the end of the weekend, so I can edit the first half for posting next Friday (in consultation with the bogwitch splitting it between my posting day and the free-for-all seems like the most sensible idea, rather than spamming the hell out of people). Given my rough estimate puts me at 16,000 words still to go, things could get interesting. Hopefully I'll hit the downhill slope at some point...Lalala, fun times. I think I've discovered interesting, nay Good (TM) things about the text I'm working on, so PhD endeavours are looking up. (The answer, my friends, lies in Propertius 3.1 and 3.3, oh yes. This is why we are on a boat. /random)
Maybe there should be more stuff here...
Easter Weekend
9 April 2012 19:17So, my Easter weekend can be summed up by easily boilable carbohydrate things, writing and computer games. Yep. Oh, and Tchaikovsky. A lot of Tchaikovsky.
I keep opening up this window trying to come up with something more to say about that, and a witty way of turning the anecdote about the group of classicists who decided to go into the library on Good Friday only to end up in the common room for most of the afternoon watching supergreatfriend's Let's Play: Deadly Premonition and my ensuing roller coaster ride through the videos over the next three days, but that's pretty much all there is to say.
Currently 44,000 words into what will hopefully be a completed longfic thing forseasonal_spuffy and have hassled bogwitch with 30,000 words of it. At least that chunk makes a rough Part I that I could post if all else went wrong. Need to get the rest out, though.
Also: new things you learn everyday about US vs. UK idiom. Dish towels instead of tea towels? I think I knew this anyway, but that was annoying to have to Wiki when it sounded wrong in Buffy's voice. And I have always wondered what 'rappelling' is. Turns out it's just abseiling - who knew?Why can't I write for a British fandom...??
I keep opening up this window trying to come up with something more to say about that, and a witty way of turning the anecdote about the group of classicists who decided to go into the library on Good Friday only to end up in the common room for most of the afternoon watching supergreatfriend's Let's Play: Deadly Premonition and my ensuing roller coaster ride through the videos over the next three days, but that's pretty much all there is to say.
Currently 44,000 words into what will hopefully be a completed longfic thing for
seasonal_spuffy and have hassled bogwitch with 30,000 words of it. At least that chunk makes a rough Part I that I could post if all else went wrong. Need to get the rest out, though.Also: new things you learn everyday about US vs. UK idiom. Dish towels instead of tea towels? I think I knew this anyway, but that was annoying to have to Wiki when it sounded wrong in Buffy's voice. And I have always wondered what 'rappelling' is. Turns out it's just abseiling - who knew?
Never set a scene in KFC, especially if you haven't had any breakfast. It will lead to you wanting KFC. And then finding out that the only one in your city just so happens to be about three minutes from your front door. You then be mired with indecision about whether to go and get some for lunch, and will probably give in...
Related to this scene however, how much is KFC in the States? Could you feed two people with ten dollars back in 2002? What drinks do they serve? I remember it being Pepsi, but you don't want to drink Pepsi cola (obviously) so the option over here is (obvs) Tango, but I'm not sure that gets around much in the States. Do Pepsi places do Mountain Dew? Would people drink Mountain Dew with KFC? What does it even taste of? 7Up is my back up option, but it's quite a boring choice.
Oh, I iz hungry. I need a shower, but my housemate's having one and that will take time... I might just throw on some clothes and venture forth. For chicken, which I haven't had since I was about 17. (Strangely enough, KFCs relatively rare over here compared to McDonald's and Burger King. Or maybe this isn't strange?)
(Also, why am I trying to write something so long? It's going to send me mad...)
ETA: Well, that was fairly greasy and unpleasant. Tango's nice, though. I like how my chip bag is telling me 'crunchy, hot, delicious, tasty, delicious, golden' and even 'excite the senses', as a list of all the things its chips failed to achieve...
Related to this scene however, how much is KFC in the States? Could you feed two people with ten dollars back in 2002? What drinks do they serve? I remember it being Pepsi, but you don't want to drink Pepsi cola (obviously) so the option over here is (obvs) Tango, but I'm not sure that gets around much in the States. Do Pepsi places do Mountain Dew? Would people drink Mountain Dew with KFC? What does it even taste of? 7Up is my back up option, but it's quite a boring choice.
Oh, I iz hungry. I need a shower, but my housemate's having one and that will take time... I might just throw on some clothes and venture forth. For chicken, which I haven't had since I was about 17. (Strangely enough, KFCs relatively rare over here compared to McDonald's and Burger King. Or maybe this isn't strange?)
(Also, why am I trying to write something so long? It's going to send me mad...)
ETA: Well, that was fairly greasy and unpleasant. Tango's nice, though. I like how my chip bag is telling me 'crunchy, hot, delicious, tasty, delicious, golden' and even 'excite the senses', as a list of all the things its chips failed to achieve...
But I feel like I haven't posted in ages, so I am posting. Here is some stuff:
1) Just played Holst's The Planets in a concert. Venus was a shambles (at least for the viola section), but Jupiter was great. It's my favourite planet and my favourite movement and even though the big tune mostly sounds indulgent and overplayed whenever I hear it about the place, playing the viola part right in the middle of the suite is a wonderful and lovely feeling. Especially since our conductor was keen to have the first time through restrained and reflective - by the time we were in the upper register it was all sad and slightly hopeless, heading straight towards Saturn - before we were back in jollity again. Good stuff.
2) Am quite miffed that I can't yet watch the third episode of Melvyn Bragg's series on Class and Culture, which like The Tube series I mentioned last time(?) has become the closest thing to must-see TV I have at the moment. You may well ask when the last time I watched a drama series was, but I feel like documentaries that cover literary culture are so rare that I want to just gobble this one up (and all it's other culturey bits) with a big spoon.
3) Just signed up forseasonal_spuffy, which means getting the third part of my alt S6 AtS crossover thing done in time. Even though it's apparently going to be long. But I'm looking forward to that; just need to write it.
4) Everyone should come and play Prompt Tag with us atsb_fag_ends, because bouncing off other people's ideas is highly amusing! I wrote a fic.
1) Just played Holst's The Planets in a concert. Venus was a shambles (at least for the viola section), but Jupiter was great. It's my favourite planet and my favourite movement and even though the big tune mostly sounds indulgent and overplayed whenever I hear it about the place, playing the viola part right in the middle of the suite is a wonderful and lovely feeling. Especially since our conductor was keen to have the first time through restrained and reflective - by the time we were in the upper register it was all sad and slightly hopeless, heading straight towards Saturn - before we were back in jollity again. Good stuff.
2) Am quite miffed that I can't yet watch the third episode of Melvyn Bragg's series on Class and Culture, which like The Tube series I mentioned last time(?) has become the closest thing to must-see TV I have at the moment. You may well ask when the last time I watched a drama series was, but I feel like documentaries that cover literary culture are so rare that I want to just gobble this one up (and all it's other culturey bits) with a big spoon.
3) Just signed up for
seasonal_spuffy, which means getting the third part of my alt S6 AtS crossover thing done in time. Even though it's apparently going to be long. But I'm looking forward to that; just need to write it.4) Everyone should come and play Prompt Tag with us at
sb_fag_ends, because bouncing off other people's ideas is highly amusing! I wrote a fic.I've had a really nice day today, for several reasons. It started with ![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
snickfic leaving some massively juicy feedback on As Good as a Rest, which I hope she won't mind me linking to over here, as part of the More Feedback Week she's running. I don't know if Snick's up for debate or anything, but I do want to take the opportunity to say that if you ever want to talk to me about thematic stuff in my fic, you can do it any time of ever. I overthink most stuff I write, so I'll always have something to say back!
Otherwise, I spent the day actually reading the text that I'm working on (believe it or not, this rarely happens) trying to make sense of how I was going to talk about it in relation to all the other reading I've been doing, and actually managed to develop some ideas. All preliminary stuff, natch, because we're only halfway through term, but I now have a notebook page with sections and passage references and questions to be answered. This is not the level of achievement I usually expect to perceive!
Also went out for a lovely meal with friends (only slightly scuppered by my high-waisted skirt and remarkably poor digestive system, which for some reason turned a cheesy pizza into enough pain that I felt nauseous for the whole journey home and a little while afterwards, but let's ignore that).
And then I watched this interesting slideshow on the BBC website about the history of British housing. For some reason I'm often drawn to documentaries about housing, so I knew quite a lot of what was covered, but I still thought it was interesting.
So there you go. It's rare that I look back on a day and really think 'well, that was pleasant, wasn't it?', so I thought it deserved a post.
ETA: Although, also, side note, just because it appeared above my post on my DW reading page and I think it's probably my turn to mention it, but - Mark Watches? Are we all agreed he's basically given up anything even vaguely resembling review-writing now? I think I might have to keep reading just to see how the heck he manages to spin this out for another four seasons of material, but, otherwise, yeesh.
snickfic leaving some massively juicy feedback on As Good as a Rest, which I hope she won't mind me linking to over here, as part of the More Feedback Week she's running. I don't know if Snick's up for debate or anything, but I do want to take the opportunity to say that if you ever want to talk to me about thematic stuff in my fic, you can do it any time of ever. I overthink most stuff I write, so I'll always have something to say back!Otherwise, I spent the day actually reading the text that I'm working on (believe it or not, this rarely happens) trying to make sense of how I was going to talk about it in relation to all the other reading I've been doing, and actually managed to develop some ideas. All preliminary stuff, natch, because we're only halfway through term, but I now have a notebook page with sections and passage references and questions to be answered. This is not the level of achievement I usually expect to perceive!
Also went out for a lovely meal with friends (only slightly scuppered by my high-waisted skirt and remarkably poor digestive system, which for some reason turned a cheesy pizza into enough pain that I felt nauseous for the whole journey home and a little while afterwards, but let's ignore that).
And then I watched this interesting slideshow on the BBC website about the history of British housing. For some reason I'm often drawn to documentaries about housing, so I knew quite a lot of what was covered, but I still thought it was interesting.
So there you go. It's rare that I look back on a day and really think 'well, that was pleasant, wasn't it?', so I thought it deserved a post.
ETA: Although, also, side note, just because it appeared above my post on my DW reading page and I think it's probably my turn to mention it, but - Mark Watches? Are we all agreed he's basically given up anything even vaguely resembling review-writing now? I think I might have to keep reading just to see how the heck he manages to spin this out for another four seasons of material, but, otherwise, yeesh.
2011 Rundown
1 January 2012 22:00I have mixed feelings about 2011, but by all accounts 2012 should be better, so hooray that we're here! I wrote quite a lot of fic last year and produced some vids too, so in the spirit of tradition, here is a rundown with my thoughts on everything at the end of this year...
( Wot I wrote, all 100,000-odd words of it. )
( Wot I vidded, all three things! )
/
( And a meme. )
OK, let's go.
( Wot I wrote, all 100,000-odd words of it. )
( Wot I vidded, all three things! )
/
( And a meme. )
OK, let's go.
1) Wow, it has been a long time since I've watched American TV. All the rolled Rs and round, high-in-the-palate vowels are really discombobulating. Still, my ear acclimatises very quickly.
2) I have seen Sleeper far more times than any person should see a single episode of TV. I'm so un-swept-up in it that my eyes pick up the join between every single shot and every single continuity blip - and yet it is still my most favourite episode of the series.
3) Every time I watch this run of episodes I think I'm going to have to watch hard for the Spuffy, because everybody knows it only comes in minor flashes... And then I remember that the pair of them flirt or chat like buddies or reference their relationship in every single scene they have together, and it's all good again.
4) Anya is very, very excellent, especially in Potential.
5) Xander is great (especially when you skip back to the menu before the closing scene of Potential, because I don't care how much better it was than I remember, that speech is on my cringe list), especially when shaking his head with a fond exasperation at Anya.
6) I actually like the potentials when there are only five or six of them. They should have kept it like that. Rona amuses me at this stage in the game - and, yeah, I thought this last time and I'm thinking it again: I like Kennedy; the world has ended.
7) Andrew... Why do we always have to fight?? Seriously, he cracks me up, no repentance.
2) I have seen Sleeper far more times than any person should see a single episode of TV. I'm so un-swept-up in it that my eyes pick up the join between every single shot and every single continuity blip - and yet it is still my most favourite episode of the series.
3) Every time I watch this run of episodes I think I'm going to have to watch hard for the Spuffy, because everybody knows it only comes in minor flashes... And then I remember that the pair of them flirt or chat like buddies or reference their relationship in every single scene they have together, and it's all good again.
4) Anya is very, very excellent, especially in Potential.
5) Xander is great (especially when you skip back to the menu before the closing scene of Potential, because I don't care how much better it was than I remember, that speech is on my cringe list), especially when shaking his head with a fond exasperation at Anya.
6) I actually like the potentials when there are only five or six of them. They should have kept it like that. Rona amuses me at this stage in the game - and, yeah, I thought this last time and I'm thinking it again: I like Kennedy; the world has ended.
7) Andrew... Why do we always have to fight?? Seriously, he cracks me up, no repentance.
