T'eyla Minh

Still trying to decide what to do with my LJ, given everything that's been going on. I'd literally just renewed my paid account so I need to look into maybe doing the same on Dreamwidth if I decide to fully migrate over there (/here, depending on where you're reading this!), if only so I don't lose all my icons. I really wanted to have finished retrospectively tagging my LJ, but I may have to give up on that...

Nothing much to really update about. I have finally uploaded my Sunset Boulevard fic, "Precious Illusions" to both FFN and AO3, for all the good that'll do in a minuscule fandom. Work continues to be a massive pit of management-related stress. There's a snap election coming up which I am anticipating with a constantly fluctuating state of hope / sheer dread, and I'm still debating what to do about that, mental health-wise. Cannot cope with any more politics, particularly when those politics are literally killing people.

Anyway, in the meantime, have a meme, as stolen from cloudsinvenice.

Comment with one of my fandoms and I'll tell you:

the character I least understand
interactions I enjoyed the most
the character who scares me the most
the character who is mostly like me
hottest looks character
one thing I dislike about my fave character
one thing I like about my hated character
a quote or scene that haunts me
a death that left me indifferent
a character I wish died but didn’t
my ship that never sailed

Go!

I normally leave this until at least New Year's Eve, but as I'm in work for two days with very little to be getting on with (what is the point of opening the office for three days, honestly?), and once I'm off again I will have no inclination to do anything remotely energetic, I might as well do it now.

I very much suspect this will not be particularly interesting.

( 2015 in Review )

So that's that. An uneventful year which has nonetheless been ridiculously difficult, because that Odd Year Curse is ever self-perpetuating.

Next year will have a rocky start, and there are things brewing which have the potential to be difficult, but please, PLEASE, let it be better than this one. I honestly don't know how much more pressure my brain can take before it implodes. :(

I will do a proper update at some point, probably tomorrow or at least next week. Not that very much has happened, but I've been intending to do it for ages. I don't have time now as I have to run off to a pre-concert rehearsal at 1.30 for the first concert of many this season, the Karl Jenkins 70th birthday celebration (choir is one of the things I need to update about).

Anyway, without further ado, here is a 40-question shipping meme I found on Tumblr. I would fill it out there but I dislike their cut text format. :P

( 40-question Shipping Meme )

Okay, that took much longer than I thought it would. Now, to rehearsal!

I think this might end up being long...

( 2012 in Review Meme )

And that's that. Tomorrow I need to make a meringue and a chilli.

I am bloody well determined to finish this, even if it takes me all year. Anyway, as I'm (temporarily) back in Fandom Mode, and the second of these is quite relevant, I might as well get these up. I wrote them months ago anyway. :P

Initially I intended to post the first of these separately, and then the second one in a joint post with number 22, but as 21 ended up really long as well, it makes no odds to post them both here now. Enjoy. :)

( Days 20-21 )

You have no idea how long that took...

Okay, I should probably make some food now. :P

Okay, I should try and get back on track with this, seeing as it's now March. Just as well I decided to move the films meme to May instead...

( Day 17 )

Right. I wrote this at work because I knew it would be long. I think perhaps I should have done this last week after all, as it's quite effective stress relief. I think I'd forgotten that until Monday night's Glee; I'm feeling a little better this week, which I think is down to the episode being utterly brilliant and the fact that it made me cry. It was only a small emotional purge, but it did the job.

It also transpires I will not be sitting opposite Forgetful after all, as the two Legal Assistants in our team have decided to sit at those desks instead. So that's a relief. I’m still dreading the floor move to some degree as it will disturb our peace, but we’ll see how it goes.

I forgot to post this last night, so here’s the next one, too.

( Day 18 )

Thankfully that was a short one. Days 19 and 20 are both going to be quite long, I think, so I’ll post them as and when I find time…

Okay, both of these should (hopefully) be quite short.

( Days 13 & 14 )

Hungry now. I might do 15 and 16 as one post again tomorrow in a bid to catch up. 17 and 19 are both going to be long so I might spread them out with 18 over the course of the weekend. :)

Okaaaaay. Here's another I did at work. Today's is going to be loooooooong and wordy and epic. Consider yourself warned.

( Day 11 )

TL;DR: BECAUSE GUH.

Thankfully it's been quiet today so I could actually work on this. Otherwise I would probably have been up all night trying to get it done.

I'll just go straight into this one. Once again, mostly typed at work on better keyboard and to get the majority of the words down. :P

( Day 09 )

Thankfully, I get a grace period of one day for tomorrow's post, before the epicness that will be Day 11. Oy.

Well, the oven appears to be working now, indicator light and all. In any case, I managed to cook my dinner without setting off the alarm.

ONWARD.

( Day 07 )

Hm, that'll do. Glee is on in a bit and apparently it's the Rocky Horror episode so doubtless I will have things to say. I'm partway dreading it, actually, but at the same time hope it's enough to keep the MTV idiots happy and stop them doing a remake. I dunno if that's still in the pipeline anyway... but hopefully a Glee version will be enough to get the kids interested in the original, thus negating the need for a remake. ;) (Though, the only character I could remotely see as Frank [Puckerman] is in jail, I think? Hm, this could be... interesting.)

Had a lazy one today. I do however appear to be HUNGRY, despite having eaten three hours ago, which is either because I've been eating less during the week (I only had one day where I came in over 2000 calories, woo!) or because I'm coming down with something - it's hard to tell. I have another week of work to get through and then three days off, then I just have the rest of February and March to survive before my April leave...

Anyway, without further ado: ( Day 05 )

Okay, apparently I now have food so I shall end this post. :) I might do a double one tomorrow to get the extra day in, but I'll see how it goes...

Posting a little earlier tonight because I want to watch Skins at 10.00. ;)

( Day 03 )

Aww, bless. *squishes*

Tsk. I have no relevant icons for this post. I shall have to rectify that immediately. :D

Here we go, then... bit late in posting, but since I started this ball rolling I should stick by the rules. :P

( Day 01 )

*ahem* So much for the short explanation. :P

Lengthy book meme / questionnaire stolen from pandorasblog.

( And here we go... )

Well, that was quite long.

I had another go on the Wii tonight whilst Paul was out. Cycling is bloody bizarre and hard work. I seem to have gotten the hang of baseball (seemed easier with the Wiimotion Plus somehow!) and bowling again, still pretty rubbish at frisbee and had a go at canoeing too. I also had a go at Epic MIckey which is awesome but difficult, but I think that's because I haven't owned a console since the early 90s and that was a Master System II. SO. MANY. BUTTONS. (The game uses the remote AND the nunchuck and I can't coordinate my fingers properly yet). The gameplay itself is really cool, though. Will have a proper go this weekend when I'm less tired.

YAY, I HAS A WII!

I did start an entry at work today because at around 11.00 it was very quiet. And then Last Minute Friday kicked in and I was busy all the rest of the afternoon. Bit of annoyance cropped up as a result, but I'll try and keep that together with the rest of the post, which I'll hopefully finish this weekend if I remember. I have since got home and had a shower and put my jammies on so I'm a bit mellower now...

Anyway. ( Music Meme, Days 23 - 26 )

Okay, that's that done.

( Embroidery Scans 32-33/?? and Christmas Decorations )

That'll do. My hands are cold and I'm hungry.

Because it's been a while, and I'm bloody well determined to finish this blasted "30 days" meme, even though it's now tripled in length...

( Music Meme, Days 22-23 )

Right, now here's some more embroidery pics.

( Scans 29-31/?? )

I do believe that'll do for now. I might finish the music meme before Christmas. :P

Two more scans under the cut.

( Scans 24-25/?? )

Music meme continues. I am determined to finish it having gotten this far, but it might take a while.

Day 20 - A Song You Listen To When Angry

I had a couple of options for this, but so as not to repeat artists, I've gone for this...

Skunk Anansie - "Brazen"

It's so gloriously ANGRY. I only own two Skunk Anansie songs, this and "Hedonism" (both of which I'd heard on the radio before) on a mix tape that Naomi made me several years ago. I intended to make a songset of Spuffy icons to this but never got around to it...

I might purchase their back catalogue eventually. They were popular during that period when I was just about discovering the world outside of musicals. :D

Two-day meme catch-up. I'm sure you know the list by now. :P

Day 16 - A Song You Used To Love But Now Hate

I think 'hate' is a very strong word, but...

Celine Dion - "My Heart Will Go On" - from Titanic

I bought the single of this, because at the time it was on the radio constantly and always in my head (buying a song is the only way I can listen to it until I get bored, otherwise it would drive me mad). I then bought an album off the back of it which isn't too bad, but not the wisest decision I ever made... Anyway, as cheesy as this was back in 1998 or whenever it was, it's doubly so nowadays. It didn't help that it became one of those irritating songs that so-called talented tweens used to sing on morning television shows, which alas was also a fate suffered by "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" several years earlier.

Still. Celine is good to sing along to when you want to vent, at least. And I had my impression of her down pat at one point from the endless re-listens to this song. :D

Day 17 - A Song You Hear Often on the Radio

I don't listen to the radio. Hardly ever. Um. And if I do, it's Classic FM, and even that hasn't been for ages. So... I will go for something that I used to hear on the radio a lot in 1999 when I was doing my A-Levels. Heh.

Cher - "Believe"

This was constantly on the radio that year, along with Alanis's "Thank U" and Catatonia's "Dead from the Waist Down" and several others. I fail at modern music, sorry. :D (Also: yes, I do own this; it's on the Greatest Hits, which I bought only for "Walking in Memphis"... *ahem*)

My week off starts here, OH YEAH!

So I don't end up behind again...

Day 13 - A Song That Is A Guilty Pleasure

Avril Lavigne - "I'm With You"

I hated "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi" with a fiery passion. But after I'd got off my high horse and made my peace with Avril a bit, I actually really liked this song. I only own it in the capacity that pandorasblog sent me it on a mix tape, but that still counts... Besides which, "My Happy Ending" was okay, too, if insipidly determined to get in your head...

Now onto the embroidery...

( Scan 19/? )

Right. I suppose I should go to bed. I'm going to be exhausted this week for the pure fact that I have next week off and my body wants to rest already. :P

I can't think of better subjects for these, really...

FULL LIST.

Day 07 - A Song That Reminds You Of A Certain Event

This is an exception to the "songs I own" rule.

Aqua - "Turn Back Time"

Technically it's only the chorus, though I do remember the song being in the charts... This was used for the Sky One trailer for the Season 5 finale of The X-Files. Sky One have always been really good with their trailers (it's part of the reason I really wish they'd had Farscape to begin with rather than Skiffy / BBC2), and I can still remember that particular trailer. The focus was on Mulder and Scully (Sky One knew us so well :D) and the arrival of Fowley putting a spanner in the works. In the episode, there is a brilliant scene where Scully is going to tell Mulder something, but she sees him in the room with Fowley holding his hand, and instead she chickens out, goes back to her car and phones him instead, pretending to be on the move. The trailer had a couple of seconds from that moment of Scully in her car and it was heart-wrenching.

Aside from that particular event, it also leads into several other events, because Season 5 ended whilst I was on work experience in year 11, and thus a couple of weeks away from That Summer Holiday between GCSE and A-Levels. Back in the days when we actually HAD summer, rather than intermittent rain and occasional sunshine. It was the summer I saw Phantom in Birmingham, the summer of The X-Files first movie, and more than that it's a summer I remember to this day with fondness, and memories of ice-skating, cinema trips and gleeful obsession.

In which case, it's also quite an apt song title for the event(s) in question. :)

Failed to do this again yesterday because I was too tired to go on the internet, go figure...

Full list.

Day 04 - A Song That Makes You Sad

Considering how often this reduced me to tears, it can only be...

Meryl Streep - "Slipping Through My Fingers" - from Mamma Mia!

I think I finally became immune to this beast after about... 20 listens? Yeah. No idea why, it just gets to me.




Day 05 - A Song That Reminds You Of Someone

I did have a song written down here, which used to remind me of Paul... except it doesn't any more, or at least not present-day Paul. :) It reminded me of Paul when we were first going out, so it's not that relevant now. So instead, here is something horrendously geeky.

Lily Allen - "Chinese"

This is one of those "once you have seen it, it cannot be unseen" situations. During the midst of post-Easter special madness, and the period shortly before that when I was attempting to finish the last of my episode tags, this song kept on reminding me of Jonathan and Maddy and her inevitable return. Or at least an inevitable return in which there was not a decade of complicated history and things had been actually normal before she buggered off to America.

Of course, once I'd made that association (it usually only takes a couple of lines or a few words to cause it) it wouldn't go away, and now I can't listen to it without thinking of J/M. Unfortunately, the Marks and Spencer's adverts have the same effect - you have no idea how bloody glad I was when they finally showed Caroline Quentin's character's husband in those adverts. Seriously.

Sad, but true. And alas, it's not the only song which does this. I have at least one for every fandom / pairing. :D

Aaanyway, that's it.

Just waiting for Alex and Dina to arrive for another of our dinner party, three-course menu efforts. This time we're having chicken liver pate with crusty bread to start (made by Paul - the pate, anyway), followed by steak-and-ale pie (me) and cheescake with strawberry coulis (Paul - his first ever dessert!) if it ever sets. :D

OM NOM. This time there will be pictures. ;)

So I'm finally getting around to this. The reason for the delay is because the first question was insanely difficult. It's literally taken me a week to think about / whittle down the options.

Aaanyway, commoncomitatus asked that I do this, so here it is.

( The List )

Day 01 - Your Favourite Song

It took me a long time to actually think about what my 'favourite' song was. I like lots of songs. A lot. But I definitely struggled to opt for a 'favourite' of those that I liked. In the end I decided it should be something from a musical, as it was the genre that shaped my early childhood until my mid-teens and I knew no better, and then it was a case of deciding which of my favourite musical duets / ballads to go for.

Michael Ball - "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" - from Les Misérables

I chose this song out of the many I love from Les Mis purely because I remember loving it before I knew where it came from. I have a vivid memory of tying a headscarf I was very fond of to a piece of garden bamboo cane and waving it around in time with this song when it was on television once, before I knew what the musical was about and that there is a great deal of flag-waving in it. :D The video is of the inimitable Michael Ball (who else?!) singing as Marius in the concert version at the Albert Hall for the show's 10th anniversary back in 1995. Les Misérables is 25 this year, so actually, I suppose it's quite apt.

I almost forgot about this one... Stolen from commoncomitatus, who also chose the icons in question.

( Icon Meme )

You don't have to take part if you don't want to...

I might do a lyrics meme later, though probably not for a bit as the PC just did its Angry Beeping of Doom again and I don't want to aggravate it... ;)

Okay, here we go. I can't promise either creativity of anything remotely substantial...

( List and Answers )

Well, that was that. Actually not as fun as I was anticipating, but I'll attribute that to character-choice fail, as I thought said choices would be funnier than they apparently were. That'll teach me. :P

... had Yahoo not refused to open my frelling attachment. My t'Internet at work has expired (don't ask, I'm basically laying low until I can reinstate it and anyway I'm far too busy lately) so I emailed my unfinished LJ entry home, and it will.not.open. Meh. I'll try again later.

Anyway, here's a meme, stolen off 803am. ( Writing Meme )

Right, that's that. I shall now make some food, have a shower and watch Glee, and then hopefully later Yahoo will cooperate and open my bloody entry.