T'eyla Minh

In the course of - once again - fandom rediscovery, I've been re-reading old fanfic over the past few days. Initially this was just for Sunset Boulevard because that was the fandom in question, then Phantom and, more recently, Voyager because doec reminded me of a specific story/script and I randomly decided to read that as well - and subsequently reminded myself that one of these days I was going to turn them all into prose. ;) (I wrote script-format fic for Voyager for years, at least until I started writing 'properly' for Farscape and other fandoms in prose...)

Anyway, I digress. ( Rambling 'neath the cut - this entry ended up a lot longer than I intended... )

One day I will have a moment of blinding clarity where I pinpoint the reason for this fandom; either that or it will remain forever inexplicable. Until then, I shall continue to engage in Epic Character Study Discussions with like-minded friends and enjoy the rollercoaster while it lasts...

Eni - if I don't respond to your latest email today then it will have to wait until I've got the internet, by which point I will have had More Thoughts upon Thoughts, but I promise it'll be the first thing I do. ;)

F-List - I'm on leave for two weeks as of tomorrow and also possibly going to Paris if we can get cheap flights/hotel last minute, so I shall be appropriately silent until Sky come to install our intarwebs. Don't do anything interesting while I'm gone, 'kay?

So much for my best laid plan for fandom post catch-up. Ah well. I'll just have to stay behind. I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to keep the momentum going - I'm actually surprised I lasted as long as I did. :P

I promised a work annoyance the last time I posted, in relation to the fact that I'd cleared the backlog on my return to work on Thursday. ( So here it is... )

Oh, and here's an extra, unrelated stupidity from Thursday... ( Communication fail )

ALSO ALSO, a while ago I mentioned a film I was trying to find from my childhood. Or rather, I could only remember the last five minutes because they were on the end of a video. I found it last night!

I had remembered it as being on the end of Mary Poppins. It turns out my intuition on that front was half-right. For some reason I'd got it into my head on Saturday to watch The Three Lives of Thomasina, an earlier Disney film, which stars the same two children as Mary Poppins. I think my mum must have taped this for herself (as her own childhood memory) because the film in question was actually after Thomasina, only to have Willy Wonka taped over it. The reason I remembered it so clearly was because I used to watch Willy Wonka a lot more as a child and thus would fast-forward the tape to that point, and the mysterious badly-dubbed film was thus on the end of it.

SUCH A MASSIVE RELIEF. Again, at least I'm not insane.

It was called Beyond the Dragon's Lair and was made in Romania in 1982. It does indeed involve a man and a woma on a rocky outcrop, though they are both fully clothed (not in loincloths as I remembered), and the man DOES spend the last 20 seconds of the film DRAWING WINGS on a big rock (though he doesn't make them - I think they do fly on them at some point, and I MUST have watched this film all the way through before it was taped over, because Willy Wonka was taped MUCH later than Thomasina.) The wings-drawing part was particularly vivid; also my music memory is much stronger, as I remembered it note for note!

So there you go. Thus far IMDB and Google have not been helpful but I'll investigate further tonight. I'M NOT MAD, HURRAH!

I very much doubt this will be the end of my quest to dig up childhood memories. I'm still waiting on a reliable torrent of A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur's Court, the Bugs Bunny cartoon no-one else but me remembers. Seriously, why is my childhood made up of bizarre televisual remembrances? Normal people remember songs. :P

I wonder how many KEVIHS girls on my f-list remember these...



Swirly biscuits!!

There was a recipe for these in the chocolate-themed cookery book I bought Eni for her birthday, and she kindly typed it out for me. In order to distract myself from election horridness, I have thrown myself into productivity today and decided to make them. (Am also making a chickpea, chilli and lime soup later for tea...)

The ones at school were about twice the size, obviously, but I'd wager the cooks had more counter space than me. :P

Not bad for a first attempt, though!

They taste just as good as the originals, too. :D

Rocky Horror's in town this week (Metro reminded me) and I'm not going. Given I've not missed a UK tour date since first seeing it in 1998, this is a rubbish situation to be in.

( Some Ponderings and Reminiscence... )

I think I'll post this before it gets any longer. I really wish fandoms didn't have to be so complicated...

...that animated short I couldn't remember?

I FOUND IT.

By a very circuitous route - we happened to watch Kill Bill Vol. 1 earlier, and the music behind the sword-making scene was "The Last Shepherd" by a pan-flutist named Zamfir. I said to Paul that the music on the animation was a lot like it, and then it twigged it might even be the music.

So I went to Amazon and found the soundtrack, then stuck the track name into Google, which took me to Wikipedia, which took me to Zamfir's credits on IMDb, where I had a total EUREKA moment and found the bloody short film, which is called Paradise. It's not all on a black background as I remembered, but it EXISTS, which means I'm not insane or delusional. :D

YAY!

Enjoy!

That was quite pleasant. Paul was working silly shifts this weekend (2 til 10 both days) so I basically had the weekend (and the computer!) to myself. Despite that, I was even marginally productive - cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, planted the kitchen herb garden pot, and got some bits of shopping on the Sunday.

Of course, the rest of it was spent on the PC. ;)

I've spent most of the weekend indulging unashamedly in Sunset Boulevard fandom, basically - re-reading old fic, e-mail tennises with sweeterthing and Jenny (from Georgia) about SB fic and introspection, and chatting to Eni on YIM after scanning the old UK tour brochure. Which reminds me, I must scan the APR libretto pictures, too.

Sunday was mostly spent working on my new layout, which I'm still not entirely happy with... haven't even attempted to code it yet. I was going to use the 'Expressive' layout but the CSS looks really bloody complicated, and I'm somewhat out of practice, but I think I can achieve the same effect using 'Bloggish' - i.e. a background and a header banner. I have the background sorted, but need to work on the banner. As ever, these things look so much more impressive in my head, and would be a lot easier if I could draw. My Google image hunt was less than fruitful, to say the least, though I did have a second option for the picture that I might try... :P

As a result of re-reading the e-mail tennises with Jenny, I was randomly reinspired last night to make a start on our SB / Breakfast at Tiffany's crossover, the unoriginally titled "Sunset at Tiffany's". I think that was actually going to be the real title, too, but I might come up with something else... This was the thing which was going to have four different endings because we couldn't decide which one we preferred. I imagine Mr Capote is turning in his grave, but probably no more than Mr Wilder is. ;)

( Random fic details, for those who might be even remotely interested... )

I absolutely cannot find words to express how glad I am that I got to see the London production of Sunset. It is a fandom that is very high on the list of favourites, and I can't believe I fell out of it. I felt so ALIVE on 28th February; I've not enjoyed a show like that since... I can't remember. The Woman in White, probably, as after that point things started to go downhill. Before seeing SB again I was almost about to give up on writing completely (as a result of too many issues to mention), but it has reinspired me to the point of absolute ridiculousness - for fanfic, for icons, for thought-provoking discussion, for general creativity. I can't explain why, and I don't want to analyse it. There's just something about the story which has always captured my imagination and never let go, and somehow, I'd forgotten that.

( Glumness )

Meh. Sorry, this started out as a positive post. In any case, many many thanks to Eni for putting up with my inane messenger ramblings of late...

Anyway, in other news, this month is horrendous for birthdays and events, including Mother's Day. And then in April its our anniversary (four years!), and hopefully after that I should have some money. I say this every year, of course. One year it might be true. :P

Right. It is now lunchtime, so I shall post this and have my sandwich.

Another fairly sociable weekend, which seemed to invole an awful lot of films... I have rambled an awful lot in this one, so I've cut where appropriate.

I don't think I've updated in a while, so: on Thursday I made a seafood risotto using a recipe I got online by Jamie Oliver, which was actually as easy as he said it was. I decided to cook the prawns, salmon and scallops separately in a frying pan so as not to confuse things, which meant the risotto was as stodgy as a brick. Also, the recipe called for an amount of grated parmesan, but as our parmesan is powdered (it's generic 'Italian hard cheese' from Asda, in a plastic box) it ended up being ridiculously cheesy... Nevertheless, despite the fact you could build a house with it and my pans SUCK, it was actually very tasty.

Friday night was quite sedate for me, although Paul went out for drinks after work, came home (we had some more of the risotto and I still had to throw a little bit away - I think I'll halve the recipe next time...), and then went out again. I wasn't best pleased about this because I basically saw him (sober) for all of twenty minutes, but I did get the PC to myself for the evening. :P I had a play around on DOSBox and managed to get Simon the Sorcerer to work from the CD, though I am failing to get the Puzzle Pack to work because it was designed for Win 95/98 and will not install on XP or Vista, but is too advanced for DOSBox. (Although I think it might work with the SCUMMvm emulator, will have to investigate...) Got quite a way through it by remembering what I did last time but am now at a dead end again.

Paul rang me up at quarter to midnight to say he was waiting for a taxi, after which he talked bollocks at me for a while. Came home utterly plastered and hence broke his promise. :P

Saturday, we got up earlyish and went for brekkie at Wetherspoons, pottered around the house for a bit and then left for my mum's. I aimed to get there for 2.30 but hadn't banked on Hagley Road traffic (going through town is probably still bloody quicker than waiting for the 11 to turn up) and got there around 2.45. David was playing a Queen DVD and seemed to have convinced himself that Queen (circa 1985) were influenced by the Phantom movie (2004). Er, no, David. ;) Freddie was already dead by the time the movie was made, although I'm pretty sure the original musical and Queen influenced each other back and forth, judging by some of the videos...

( Random Phantom-esque theory... )

Aaanyway, at around 3.45 we headed off for the Barbecue of Doom at Quinton Church. The horrible thought did occur that my grandmother might have invited my father and not told anyone as a 'well-meaning' surprise, but then I remembered that even if she had, he would only have refused and/or had a strop when she didn't want him to bring Annabelle... So obviously, he wasn't there, thank anything. Nevertheless, the BBQ wasn't as bad as I think my mother was anticipating. The food was good (if cold, to David's chagrin) and there were some sane people at our table, not too many screaming children, and the weather was okay (at least it didn't rain...) We won a pack of playing cards in the raffle as by the time our number was drawn, the good prizes had gone. It was either cards or a set of golf tees. ;)

Back at my mum's, we spent a good hour or so arguing over what DVD to watch, before eventually settling on 300. ( STABBITY! )

After that we argued a bit more over what to watch next, despite it being midnight and everyone being tired. My mum, Paul and I all agreed on Harvey, which David then denied they even had, despite Paul suggesting it because it was on the rack. Meh. In the end we watched the beginning of Eddie Izzard's Glorious but gave up at around 12.30 and went to bed. David also wanted to watch the first 10 minutes (the opening sequence, basically) of the POTO movie, which prompted Paul to want to see the rest of it... I grudgingly agreed we could watch it on Sunday. ;)

In the morning, my mum cooked us breakfast and we went through the pile of car-bootable DVDs in the office, taking home a bagful, and there's also a pile in the living room of stuff I want copying... I forget now what we picked up, but I do now have a full set of Pirates DVDs, including the "lost disc" version of the first one.

Does anyone want a copy of the 2-disc Special Edition of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (that's the first one)? Because I now have two. I'm not sure if Lisa ever bought herself a copy, though, so will ask her as well. It's free, as ever, to a good home.

I've also borrowed a selection of DS games (Tetris, Brain Training, 42-games-in-one, and Barnyard on GB Advance) from my mum, as I'm bored of Pirates 2 and Monkey Ball. ;) Had a go at Tetris and Barnyard last night, but at least I have some entertainment for a bit. :)

On the way home we stopped at the cinema to see WALL-E. ( Review / Spoilers )

Sorry, I went on a bit, there. I was very impressed with this one. I need to make a list of stuff to see over the coming weeks, though. X-Files is out on 1 August and I also want to see The Mist and Hancock and Dark Knight - hopefully at IMAX if it's not too expensive... Also Mamma Mia. ABBA FTW, and Meryl Streep makes everything she's in brilliant. ;)

The rest of Sunday was relaxed. 'Stenders of the afternoon, and we did watch POTO of the evening. I think my hatred of the majority of it has mellowed since its release (this was only the second time I've seen it, for that reason) and whilst the same things still irk me (casting, majoritarily, and the fact that they moved the chandelier incident to somewhere completely different, for no apparent reason) I will admit that the visuals are mostly stunning. I already reviewed it the first time and mostly my opinions haven't changed. ;) You can find it in my December 04 backposts if you're desperate. :P But as a result I started to re-read the original novel, so yay. We got halfway through the insanely long documentary on the second disc before giving up at midnight, so will watch the rest of that tonight. Phantom documentaries never get old, even when they regurgitate information. The origins fascinate me.

And that, finally, is that. I apologise for the longness. Must remember to update more often, or actually do stuff in smaller batches. ;)

Well, that was marginally productive. I created a few empty boxes and made some more floor space.

I admit, my main reason for going up there to root through the boxes was to unearth some old toys and have a good play, but I didn't get that far. ;) Instead I have filled up a bin bag, a box of paper and card for recycling, a carrier bag for the charity shop and another carrier bag of stuff to sort through later. Also brought all my various silly character bags (Elmo, etc) down but stil need to find a place to put them... they are currently in a pile on the bedroom floor.

I also uncovered a Box of 80s! I would take pictures but my camera is still broken and I couldn't get the Motorola thing to work and can't be arsed to fight with it again... It is now a Bag of 80s instead. I went through it with a vague nostalgic glee (a lot of it is hand-made necklaces my mum made in my childhood) and a lot of giggling, and have retained it for now to show Paul later, though I'm half-considering holding onto it for costume purposes... stuff like this is always handy. There are lots of bangles ('gold', 'silver' and neon-coloured) and crazy necklaces and a pair of quite horrible plastic earrings which are square-shaped with a round hole in the middle - and if that wasn't 80s enough, they are coloured turquoise and cerise pink in a sort of marble effect. Awful, but brilliant. Oh, and some NEON GREEN SHOELACES, which I just couldn't throw away. I mean, come on - they're NEON GREEN!

I've also got some stuff to put into a Sekrit Packidge for someone on my f-list, which I shall endeavour to send out tomorrow after I've scanned it... Just because I give stuff away doesn't mean I can't not hoard it. ;)

Anyway, that's that. I did some general rearranging up there, too, so there's more floor space, as we're hoping to inherit an exercise bike from Paul's mum which we intend to put by the window in order to watch the world go by whilst getting fit. Hopefully, anyway. It's always worth a try.

And now, I shall have some lunch, watch some telly (Mr Kyle's informative and intelligent chatshow started 40 minutes ago :P) and finish my embroidery, whilst waiting for my back to stop aching. As ever, my body scuppers my plans for further productivity...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to joetimewaster, first of all...

I have a cold, or at least something resembling one. Spent most of yesterday with a sore throat and most of Friday with a cough, and this morning I'm full of snot. Lemsip cold tablets are fairly crap, it seems, but I can't be bothered to go out and get any Benylin Night & Day. At least the Benylin ones actually knock me out when I want to sleep; there's nothing in the Lemsip tablets to make you even slightly drowsy, which kind of sucks. Given that they're "Cold & Flu" relief tablets and they're struggling to cope with my cold, I dread to think what might happen if I did have flu...

Anyway. Paul went out to a party last night and returned about 20 minutes ago and has now popped out to Sainsbury's for stuff. I was meant to do lots of stuff last night, not the least of which was adjusting my choir skirt, but due to feeling generally rubbish I spent all night watching crappy television, and also The Devil Wears Prada, which was interesting to compare to Ugly Betty in some ways... I'll have to hope the cold clears up by Wednesday so I can adjust my skirt then...

This morning / early afternoon I finally got around to putting the washing upstairs to dry (I'm definitely buying Lenor softener again, it's lovely) and randomly decided to look in a box marked "X-Files Stuff - Fic" out of curiosity. Because obviously an old box is much better storage than, say, a folder. Anyway, within said box I discovered my VERY FIRST FANFICTION, and it wasn't even for The X-Files.

My First Ever Fanfic, ladies and gentlmen, was for Red Dwarf and was a very bad parody of A Christmas Carol. I was going to re-type this, but I think it deserves to be immortalised in its original, badly-typed glory (I wrote it on my dad's crappy electronic typewriter), so it's scanned, under the cut.

I did promise a Red Dwarf drabble a while ago, so you can have this instead...

Enjoy!

( A Red Dwarf Christmas Carol )

Reviews are appreciated. ;)

Good Things:

1. Thanks to Google and a random download, my keyboard is now British again.

2. Between us Paul and I managed to install a 4-port USB 2.0 PCI card into the PC, with the help of a screwdriver and some PCI screws from my old machine (the new one had none, for some reason) so I can now, at least plug in high-speed devices such as my Creative Zen MicroPhoto...

Bad Things:

3. Except that the bloody thing still won't work. It connects, the PC finds it, but then it says it's not working properly and won't do anything else. Also, because I haven't managed to do anything with it since buying it, the battery is completely dead and you can't actually do anything with it unless it has some small amount of battery life. It refused to charge at all through the wall charger but I've left it charging anyway (it also refuses to charge via the PC like it's supposed to - apparently you have to set it as a 'removable disk' but if I can't turn it on I don't quite see how)... Since I've had to essentially buy a new PC and a bloody PCI card to boot, I've essentially paid full price for the bloody thing anyway...

4. Apparently Windows XP Essential (my new OS) doesn't actually have any support for the UK (INternational) keyboard layout. Well. Screw you then, Microsoft, you American bastards.

Further Good Things:

5. Anyway. At least I now have a functional scanner. Paul will be making use of it later.

6. To make up for the crappy MP3 stuff, I hunted through IMDb for an old Garfield movie I remembered from my childhood, and have subsequently bought Garfield: His 9 Lives on VHS from Amazon. Thank you, Internets.