teylaminh | Entries tagged with icons & lj stuff

Temporary new layout (it's called "Fleur") until I make a new one which actually fits my monitor layout. It's at least more work-safe than the bright pink slash-fest of the Priscilla one, though I have a horrible suspicion it will completely fail to load at home.

The subtitle (Miniature Disasters) is a KT Tunstall song, and the comment links (Stick By Your Side and Only # Fool/s) are from Cerys Matthews's "Only A Fool". Just because I always wanted to use the former for something and the latter is one of my favourite songs.

Current Mood: eating mini eggs

When Paul goes out ~~boozin'~~ to Armchair Revolutionary Thursday (or ART for short), I end up being productive. Have finished wrapping those presents which are present, other than Paul's birthday present as that will wait until I have non-Christmas wrapping paper, and put them under the tree. Tomorrow I must phone my grandmother.

And here are some more icons...

( Jonathan Creek and Retro Silliness )

Thought I'd use Marian on this one because I tend to neglect her a bit... hence the expression, obviously. :P

Also this evening I have: attached extension lead to wall by television unit (by way of thumb tacks, as the only screws we own were too big for the holes) in order to free up double-socket extension cube thingimabob, in further order to plug in a heater on this landing. It's only just about taken the edge off, but I attribute that today to the fact that Jesus Christ, it's cold.

Anyway. I did, however, completely forget to tape Buzzcocks for Paul, as I thought it was on at 9.30 and not 9.00 - anyone know if it's on Replay?

I shall slob about online for a bit until bed. *goes to put on electric blanket*

Current Mood: creative

Today I have been uber-productive, or uber-destructive, depending on how you look at it... I got the majority of my Christmas shopping done, at the very least, but I'm going to be raiding the savings account to cover the more expensive purchases (namely the Waterstone's / Disney Store stuff)...

The only remaining things to get are stuff for my grandmother and uncle and Paul's in-laws, which I think we're going jointly on if all else fails, money being rather tight. I've pretty much decided to get my uncle the Simpsons movie as he wanted to see it in the summer, and the others are still a mystery.

I'm quite proud of some of the purchases this year - as anticipated, the majority are books, including some for people I didn't intend to get things for at all, as inspiration struck at the opportune moment... As for Dave at work, he's getting various silly things from Festivals - a recycled pencil that reads "I used to be a plastic cup" (which will be adorned with a post-it reading "Sustainability-Friendly"), a stapler shaped like a hippo, which is the nickname they have for a particularly horrible Judge in the County Court, and a digital clock that rotates so you can stand it anywhere and have it be the right time.

I managed to get stuff for

doec and

thefleshfailure also, and I intend to copy dren loads of CDs for people as well, because it's easy...

On the way into town, however, the bank rang me up again. Basically, as my account is changing from a graduate account, they want to talk to me about my overdraft (and presumably the reduction thereof - I have a plan with regards to this, but it involves being back in credit...) and also the loan which Paul took out on our joint account, as it's technically a graduate loan. The woman on the phone asked when I was free for a meeting with someone - obviously, I didn't want to go into the bank today, so I said Saturday. She sounded quite put out.

Yeah, that's right, bank - I WORK during the week. Idiots.

So anyway, we have to go and see 'Colleen' at the Kings Heath branch on Saturday at 10.45... Hurrah.

I have Christmas pretty much planned now, I think...

Friday 14 December: works do, which I will probably only attend for a while, depends how tired I am, especially given I now have to go to the bloody bank on Saturday morning.

Sunday 16 December: Christmas concert. Yay concert!

Friday 21 December: payday! And hence, subsequent trip to Asda for Christmas shop.

Saturday 22 December: going to see grandmother - must ring in advance to check.

Sunday 23 December: family around for present-passing.

Monday 24 December: Christmas Eve and possible drinking if such is happening. If not - blissful relaxation, or getting a cheap turkey from the butcher.

Christmas Day: SLEEP.

Box Day: SLEEP

Thursday 27 December: At work. Boo.

Friday 28 December: Annual Leave.

Etc. It's best to write these things down.

I should go and wrap some presents - the tree is looking quite forlorn. I'll post some photos later, probably, when my hands have warmed up a bit...

In the meantime, have some Christmassy icons. The icon on this post is from a set I made a couple of years ago and Yvette's expression basically embodies my attitude towards Christmas at the moment. Bless her.

( Don't click here if you're getting a card off me. Unless you don't mind being spoiled. I should have waited, but I'm impatient and forgetful. )

And that's it. A-wrapping I shall go. And also washing up. Hoorah.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: The oscillating hum of The Beast...

I watched Graham Norton last night for the first time in absolutely ages. I used to love So Graham Norton when it was on Channel 4, and the BBC show is almost as good (though seems to have lost the level of smuttiness that made SGN that little bit more daring). Last night his guests were Alan Carr and Glenn Close, possibly the strangest combination ever...

Glenn Close is in danger of being fangirled something awful. She's utterly mad, but in the kind of way that you just wouldn't notice...

She can do frighteningly accurate baby impressions which have to be heard to be believed, and also taught Graham the intricacies of Shoe Golf, resulting in her winning a round of it by launching her own shoes (insoles and all - the glamour of Hollywood!) across the studio. So yeah. That was entertaining.

Otherwise, it was the usual surreal fare of The Mighty Boosh, which means a double helping of Noel Fielding as he's replaced Bill Bailey on Buzzcocks for a couple of weeks...

I had another really bizarre dream last night but now cannot remember any of it in the slightest...

PC News

I did a system restore to 1 October the other day which somehow seems to have helped a bit... it started first time yesterday and only took three restarts to get going on Wednesday, with Windows loading after each of them but the mouse freezing after a few minutes. Given that until this point it's been taking anywhere between 6 and 10 restarts / turning off-and-on agains to get it running properly, this is progress. If it does go wrong again, though, unfortunately the warranty ran out yesterday...

The other stupid thing its been doing is thinking its attached to a proper network and every four weeks or so pestering me to change a non-existent password. I went into the adminstration section to tell it there was only one user, but it still seems to think there's a network it has to sign into. And Norton keeps telling me I need administrator privileges, even though I am the administrator... I might just reinstall Norton...

In any case, we might be able to get a free, higher-spec PC off one of Paul's colleagues, which will probably result in there being two redundant PCs in the loft. Although I guess if we ever move into a house we can have a computer on both floors...

I don't think I have anything else to talk about...

Oh, if anyone wants to get me a Christmas present and is stuck for ideas, store vouchers would be brilliant. For clothes, preferably, as I already have £30 to spent on music in HMV and Virgin... so, y'know, Debenhams, House of Fraser or M&S. Failing that, there's an Amazon wishlist somewhere. :P

PS: I've only just noticed that LJ comment editing is back, at long last. That only took them, what, five years?

Reverted back to my Priscilla-layout, as I was getting bored with Component.

I frelling HATE S2. Always have, always will. I cannot customise as I want with it, but I can't have entry icons and tags if I use S1.

Stupid LJ.

I'm giving up on it for now. Just as well I'm not creative enough to make a new layout, or LJ's idiotic style system would frustrate me to the point of "bugger it, I'll go back to Component". As ever.

BAH.

Current Mood: aggravated

Semagic has loaded on the first try so I'm taking that as a good sign and attempting to post this for about the fiftieth time. If you read between the lines (literally), you will see the entry I've been trying to post since Friday bloody afternoon. I would cut it, but there's a cut in it already. I would also backdate and link to it, but nobody'll bother reading it if I do that. So I'll inflict it on you here, instead. Suffer.

Friday

Well, the afternoon didn't get much better. The work was thin on the ground and was still being taken. At one point Val popped her head around the door and said "Oh, you've got no work!". I almost replied, "Well, whose fault is that?" but managed not to.

I had the journey home from Hell, too. Not as bad as it's ever been, but unnecessarily annoying. The bus took bloody ages to turn up, and was packed, and I had to share it with a screaming child, and the bus driver was doing that annoying stoppy-starty-brake-too-hard thing that really gets on my proverbials.

And then I nearly got run over by a woman with a pushchair who wasn't looking where she was going and just had to cross the road at the exact point I was walking towards the kerb to give her a wide enough berth to pass. Her husband / partner apologised, but UGH. When I have a small child I'm going to use my pushchair as a battering ram like everyone else does...

In other news, here is a meme from

jackiesjottings. She requested explanations for three of my interests and three of my icons. You can comment and I'll do the same, if I remember...

( Answers for Jackie. )

I hope that answers your curiosity. :) The majority of my icons are fandom-based (mostly Most Haunted, as you probably realised) and those that aren't are random photographs taken of various things. They're also mostly mine, except for the four or so which are credited to other people...

I'm extending the meme: comment if you want to know about my interests / icons &/or if you want me to reciprocate. :)

( Weekend )

( Monday, in more detail )

I also spent the majority of Monday night trying to post this entry via email from both Outlook and Yahoo, without success... at least as far as I know. I also bit the bullet and posted the first chapter of my Ugly Betty fic on FFN. It can be found here if anyone is remotely interested... It seems to have gone down well, anyway: 10 reviews overnight, two of which consist of more than five words and most of which have all the words spelt right... ;)

I jest. Reviews are kind of like drugs. And apparently it's very easy to relapse after you've detoxed. MORE!! MORE REVIEWS!! MORE, DAMMIT!

Current Mood: hopeful

Icon!

It's been so long I thought I'd forgotten how to use ImageReady, but apparently not.

I made this in homage to the crazy days of ficcing with Katie (Kat-Doec, Trill) and Traci (Marissa Blake, Terran) and writing our Terrible Trio (lastly including me, T'eyla Minh, Bajoran) onto Voyager as though they'd always been there. Wish fulfilment? Of course, but it was hella fun. I have no idea where the said Starfleet Cheerleading Squad came from, but it's probably in one of the many AIM conversations somewhere.

I was looking for something else entirely. Go figure. ;)

Whee, nostalgia.

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: Alanis - Surrending

New(ish) layout. It's one of the default 'Expressive' themes until I can muster the creativity to make a proper one. I wish S2 were easier to modify in the same way as S1; I prefer the S1 style system, but I like the fact that you can view tags and your own user icons with S2. Meh.

There is something of a theme here in that I was trying to use Alanis lyrics, as I had the idea to use "I'm wrong and I'm sorry, baby" as a header. The rest of it is slightly unoriginal, but I've used three songs which kind of define me: Hand in my Pocket (my life, except in parts), So Pure (reminds me of Paul) and Everything (which reminds me of both of us).

So, there we go.

I'm running out of momentum already, and it's already quarter-to-Wednesday. Tomorrow I must actually be productive, including: sandpaper bannister in preparation for repainting; take bathroom light fitting to Argos to get it replaced because there is a nut missing (or rather, it fell out of the box behind the washing machine and we can't find it; Argos don't have to know that), and try to get Paul's new MP3-player working...

I hold out no hope of getting any of it done. I really need to head into Kings Heath at some point in order to find some summer shirts for work and some smart black sandals that aren't frumpy, clunky or tarty, which will be an impossible task. Even more impossible due to not really having the money to do so.

We won a tenner on the Dream Number lottery thing on Saturday, and £2.00 on a Piratical scratchcard. If this is a winning streak, can we get a couple of million next time?

Ah well. At least my stomach ache's gone.

Current Mood: sleepy

Today has been quite productive. This morning I put some washing out to dry, and put the bed linen in to wash. Messed around online for a bit, and then paul helped me put the bed linen out before we popped out to Somerfield to buy cheese. Well, technically we went out for broccoli, but since the only cheese left in the drawer was parmesan, a cheese shop was overdue.

We came back with mature cheddar, wensleydale, red leicester and brie. So at least now when we offer you cheese and biscuits, the options won't be "Er... oh. Cheddar."

And then we had a bit of a spring clean. Paul vaccuumed the stairs for me and then I did the landing and hallway, and we put boxes in the attic so the bit at the top of the stairs is now clear and ready to receive bookcases. And once we have bookcases I'll be more inclined to sort through the boxes in the attic properly...

The washing has been brought in, also, because the neighbours are having a barbecue. I am muchly looking forward to Alison's barbecue on the 19th, even though it does fall on the same day as my concert. Barbecued food will be a nice reward, I think. :) Oh, and if Alison is reading, there's a gas barbecue being sold for just under £60 at the discount 'miscellaenous furniture' store by McDonalds. Failing that, apparently Somerfield are selling various types of barbecues quite cheap as well.

I am going to attempt to make a strawberry parfait for said barbecue, if I can get a tin to freeze it in. I may make lemon cake as well. It depends how creative or culinary I'm feeling. ;)

As mentioned yesterday, the overhead views of Birmingham on GoogleMaps are now in more detail, so in honour of the occasion, have some random icons:

Rather self-explanatory.

If anyone wants one (and you live in a well-developed area, i.e. not a small village in the middle of nowhere), gimme your postcode! And any, er, distinguishing features about your house that I could spot from the air, i.e. "bright pink car on drive" or "second house after the gap" or something like that. A house number won't really be any good ;) They will obviously be subject to the level of zoomification that Google gives; most major cities seem to have a very close zoom level, but then there are sections of field where you can see each blade of grass, but not the house ten minutes down the road. I suppose it depends on where the satellite is.

I will screen comments in case people are uber-paranoid about people stealing their postcodes.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: next-door's barbecue noises

There's a story behind it. If the die-hard Little Britain fans are trying to place the quote and failing, that's because (AFAIK) it's not from Little Britain.

It's actually from the Wellington. One of Asa's replacement hostesses said it in response to Gobby Paul being a bitch. And naturally, I had to make it into an icon. :D

I need to get back into the habit of icon-making. I saved an entire X-Files screencap site to my favourites over a year ago with the intention of iconising, and I could definitely now make better Moulin Rouge and Farscape. My next two icons were going to be Jerry Springer: The Opera and The Mighty Boosh, (only a vague idea for both, and possibly a weird combination of the two...), but then, my next layout was going to be Charlie & the Choclate Factory and Labyrinth and Nightmare Before Christmas and... yeah, you get the idea.

Anyway. ICON!

I will do requests if anyone has another fandom the quote would fit... just give me a photo or a helpful link.

Current Mood: creative

Since

herringprincess requested them, here are some firework / bonfire icons. They're not very good, but you can attribute that to my being out of practice with Photoshop. And also creativity in general...

Anyway...