T'eyla Minh

Well, that was an up-and-down sort of four days...

( Easter Weekend )

So, that was our Easter weekend. I had planned to get through a load of washing, but obviously the weather conspired against me. According to the weather forecast it's also going to be grim when we're away in Tenby next week, although they also said we would have ten solid days of rain in Birmingham and there's blue sky out there today, so maybe they're wrong. ;)

Here's the recipe for the Indian-style prawn toasts, off the top of my head... I might have missed something seasoning-wise but I think this was the process.

( Recipe: Indian-Style Prawn Toast )

Today I have managed to injure myself twice in the space of 30 minutes, firstly by bashing the back of my hand off the corner of a desk (I actually have a lump there now), and secondly by walking into the door frame on my way downstairs (probably going to be a lovely bruise). I'm going to the gym later so let's see what else I manage to do. Also my fingers are peeling at a rate of knots, so no chance of getting my nails done all pretty for going away next week. Bah.

Okay, I think that's long enough. Over and out.

Stolen from winter_jasmine... in which I prove to be the Worst English Lit Graduate Ever. :P

( Book meme )

Anyway, there it is.

(I didn't make that rhyme intentionally...)

My silly X-Files fic idea has almost completely come to fruition in my brain. ( Details )

And because it's about fandom, I shan't bother to filter the dream I had last night, but I will cut it nonetheless. ( I won't hold out hope that it's prophetic... )

I'm sure I had something else to mention, but damned if I can remember what it was...

Oh! That was it. I finished The Book Thief last night and the ending is so, so sad. Well, the penultimate chapter, at least. I didn't intend to finish it, but got completely sucked in thinking it couldn't possibly end how it did.

I would definitely recommend it. The concept in itself is interesting (though some people have said the style and narrator make it seem rather dispassionate and distant, given the nature of the characters; not entirely true, but each to their own) and there are some very interesting turns of phrase within the seemingly conversational narrative.

Paul is reading it next and then I can give it back to my mum, though I'll definitely buy another copy for myself. :) Next on the list is Tracy Chevalier's Burning Bright (another borrowed one), and then I can get back to my proper list. I should probably read The Last Unicorn after that (which shouldn't take too long), and then White Teeth.

And then all the others I keep picking up.

Oh! I also got hold of The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Tom Baker (yes, THAT Tom Baker) and it's very, very odd. Somewhat reminiscent of Tim Burton's The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and the ending is horrible. I literally read it in an hour (it's a children's book), so if you can find it, give it a go.

That's definitely everything. :)

I have just purchased Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (the book) by John Boyne, and also the His Dark Materials trilogy in a boxed set, all from Amazon. BitSP was £4.20, and the HDM trilogy was about £15.00. :)

Considering I bought three recipe books and Child C (the autobiography of the foster child who suffered great physical / emotional abuse at the hands of his carer, which was in the news about a year ago, I believe) this afternoon, I am in no position to be buying any more books. I've bought loads which I still haven't read, and I'm trying to work through the bookcase in alphabetical order, which doesn't work when I buy more bloody books. :P I may give up on that, because I really really REALLY want to read White Teeth when I've finished Brighton Rock, and I've got Kim Woodburn's autobiography (another abusive childhood story) and another Tracy Chevalier and two Rosie Thomas and countless others to get through, and I STILL haven't read the final two Harry Potters.

I need to stop buying books. I'm turning into my mother. ;)

( Possibly sensitive )

Er... I think I should go to bed. My fingers are attached to some superfluous and over-analytical part of my brain today...

Thank anything, my stomach seems to have settled itself today. Mind you, yesterday I threw as much at it as I could: cranberry juice, Tums, baked potato, and tuna sandwiches later in the evening using the remainder left over from lunch. I also had a bath, which seemed to help a bit...

Paul went out last night so I spent the evening reading fic. I've been re-reading a Buffy fic I abandoned during the going-insane period, Eurydice's "Promise of Frost". I think I'd stopped reading at about chapter 15, and there are 55 in total. I got to about 46 last night and then gave up. I admit to skimming through some of it to get to the Spuffy goodness, but I'll probably read it properly at some point. Having exhausted the Ugly Betty category's offerings for the evening, I was bored...

Work lasted until 10.50 today and now I have nothing to do. I should really work on some writing, but I'm in the position where all my fics are either at home or at a boring point where nothing happens. I keep re-reading old notes for things and getting reinspired, but only for the fun bits. ;) The parts that lead up to the fun bits are usually my stumbling block, unfortunately... talking of which, I need to get back to work on "Strange Glue" - chapter five is half-finished and I haven't even made a start on six yet.

Still, the reinspiration is something.

I have something to post later on from this morning's Metro which completely broke my brain, incidentally...

Now I'm bored again. Meh. If I could find the Metro thing on the website I'd post it now, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be there. Also this morning, I'm sure I spotted an article headline about Derren Brown whilst skimming, clicked somewhere, went back, and it had gone. Hm. Worthy of Mr Brown himself... Is it a Jedi mind trick? Ironic, most definitely. ;)

Went sale shopping last night, because Debenham's had a big sale on. Except, really, I wasn't in the mood for all the hassle of going through sale racks, especially since I seem to have lost my knack of homing in on the one, perfect thing that just happens to be in my size.

Anyway, I did manage to get some new trainers, and was then very naughty and got a skirt from Per Una at M&S... except their website sucks and I left the disc at home with the photo on it, so no photo yet. It's khaki tartan, asymmetrical, with three layers (two tartan, one slightly darker, and one mesh underneath) and a rouched bit at the side that pulls up... basically, it's a Victorian-era whore skirt, ankle length at one side and then just under knee length at the other.

The picture will explain better. Stupid M&S website. I suspect it's a brand new arrival that hasn't made it online yet.

So, both of those set me back £45 each (they're cheaper in America, too. Unsurprisingly.), and I once again learnt the joys of being a shoe-size 4.5 and a clothing size 13. Which, obviously, doesn't exist. I need to lose weight anyway; half of my frelling jeans don't fit.

So, yeah.

I'm very tired this morning... still having trouble getting to sleep at night even though I'm always sleepy, which is annoying. Luckily David was off today and I was leaving as he came back from taking my mum to work, so I blagged a lift. Ticket office was closed, had to get a Permit to Travel, blah blah blah. But I have a bottle of Mango Tango, so that makes it all okay.

Oh, yes, our internet isn't working. Well, the modem is working, but AOL is being a moron again and refusing to find the signal... the current suspicion is that David's been messing with things he doesn't understand, like blokes do, and has done something to the connection. His computer's next to useless but the CD-writer's faster, and my mum's is the one that controls the network and hence the one he also uses to get online with.

And this, dear friends, is why I am very protective of anyone touching my computer without prior permission. Luckily, because it's so slow, nobody ever wants to, even though it probably works better than the other two. :D (I will upgrade soon. I will.)

Right, best do some work, I suppose...

Oh, yeah, I forgot: I started reading The World According to Garp last night, which is quite good. I saw the film adaptation many moons ago and only remember the presence of Robin Williams, though reading the summary of the book reminded me of more.

WHO'S COMING TO ROCKY HORROR?

I swear I should've read more than this...

( Banned books meme )

Well, today I nearly got up early, but had a headache and ended up staying in bed until 11.22, which is when my mother got back from taking the car to Bearwood to be looked at.  During her absence (about an hour or thereabouts), I had a rather odd and poignant dream.  The only bit I really remember properly was that there was quite a large group of us (including, at one point, Pauline Fowler from 'Stenders...) and I was concerned that I'd left one of my (apparently many) bags behind, but Pauline had it.  And we were all wandering around a village on some kind of guided tour.  At one point we crossed over a stream using a little dark-stone bridge, and there was a fountain that didn't work properly.  Then we got to a house that looked exactly like my grandmother's old house, the one I pretty much spent half of my childhood in, right down to the garden and the shed that used to be at the bottom before they rebuilt it.

Inside the house, there were all the people that would have been there prior to the move - my grandmother and my uncle, I think, or someone that was meant to be him.  It was apparently some kind of other dimension or universe where things were the same, only different.  And the only bit I do remember clearly was going upstairs to where she had the extension built (half office, half bedroom) and her room was all arranged differently.  The office was different too, I think.  There were lots of photos on the walls, and some of them moved a la Harry Potter... one of them was an old 'shot' of me and my mother when I was... seven.  Pre-having to wear glasses.  I don't recall exactly what happened in it, but I was laughing and apologising and it was very strange, and when I woke up, I wasn't entirely sure if it was a real memory or not, because it was so vivid...

Other than that, in the office section, there were lots of photographs of my grandfather. And suddenly I got really emotional about them, crying my heart out and saying "I forgot what he looked like," and someone asked if he died when I was young, and I said, "No, I was sixteen, but I barely got to know him," and I just kept on repeating it, "I didn't get to know him."  And then the person that represented my grandmother picked up a telephone, and asked if I'd like to talk to him.  I said, "Don't do that, he's not here any more," and she told me that in this particular dimension, we could talk to those who had passed away.

I remember that I took the receiver, but then I woke up, so I didn't get to actually speak to him...  I didn't feel sad when I woke up, just... I don't know, it was odd.  Though the talking-to-the-dead-on-the-phone was really quite strange, because today I unearthed a bag of stuff from Christmas, including Robert Rankin's The Fandom of the Operator, that Lorna got me, which deals with that very subject...

Anyway.  I took some paracetemol and got rid of the headache, and today was spent trying to tidy my room again (I need more storage.  I also need more space in which to put said storage), including unearthing of aforesaid book.  At about 6.00 we walked down to Bearwood again to collect the car, taking note of the interesting and diverse houses along the way.  There's one to let right next to the water tower and opposite Warley Woods.  Probably hideously expensive, though, otherwise it'd've been snapped up already...

Talking of which - Naomi!  Bearwood photos!  Also, I'm holding your goldfish umbrella hostage until you finish my docs. :P

I've been playing Pandora's Box again recently, which is both enlightening and horrendously depressing.  All those places I'll never see.  The same was true on Sunday.  I was looking in the atlas (well, originally, I was leaning on it because my father doesn't own a table big enough to put a pad on, or at least, not one that I can see the television from...) to find out whereabouts Katie was, and it suddenly struck me that a) America is really frelling big (I mean, yeah, I knew that, but... wow, it really is) and b) if I want to see all of it, starting on the outside and spiralling in, after I've visited random people I already know, I think I may die before I get halfway...  If, one day, there is a report of some random ninety-year-old madwoman driving around America in a Cadillac terrorising the locals, it's probably me...

Anyway, I also phoned two of the places I have application forms for, one of which was engaged, and the other of which told me to go and get an application form.  Bah.  So that's tomorrow's task.  I've also made a doctor's appointment, and seriously, someone needs to rethink the entire registering-at-uni-and-having-to-register-again-when-you-get-home system.  Everything's on computers.  Computers can be connected to the Big Scary Internet. There's no reason for it to be this horrendously complicated...

Also?  When I am world leader, my first priority is funding scientific research so that I can wipe out every species of moth.  Seriously.  The bastard in my room last night was about an inch long and sitting on my bed.  So obviously, I ran and got my mother to kill it.  I would not survive living on my own, seriously.  I'd end up confined in a dark room as the house slowly filled with insects, then get paranoid they were in there with me, then freeze on the threshold of the room unable to do anything because there was a moth sitting on the wall or something.  Gah.

Right, as to the subject, now I'm not forced to read anything, I can read whatever I like, which is quite nice.  I feel like I've not read properly for ages, from over-reading of fanfiction and all the various randomness for uni, some of which I enjoyed, some of which I really didn't.  Being a lit student has killed my bookgeek.  So, my Reading Project of Doom:

~ Red Dragon
~ Silence of the Lambs
~Hannibal(all by Thomas Harris.  We got a new copy of Red Dragon the other day (a neighbour borrowed our first one and we've not seen it since) and I've been meaning to read them for a while.)
~ The Fandom of the Operator, as already mentioned.
~ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
~ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
~ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabhan
~ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (thank you, Asda.  That should keep me going for a while...
~ The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins (preferably before October 15th, when we're seeing the show... it will, of course, bear no resemblance to the book whatsoever, but it's got Michael Crawford and it's bound to be very pretty...)
~ finish Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
~ Close-up on Sunset Boulevard by Sam Staggs (I've been meaning to read this for ages...)
~ Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
~ Phantom by Susan Kay (because it's been far too long...)
~ All the Discworlds, because I ought to.
~ The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, so I can watch the films and see what all the fuss is about...
~ Beauty by Susan Wilson (it's a modern take on Beauty and the Beast, of which a horrible movie was made in the mid-nineties that destroyed the lovely angst ending.  I've been telling Jenny about it and haven't read it for a while...)
~ Interview with the Vampire
~ The Vampire Lestat
~ Queen of the Damned (for the third damn time)
~ The Vampire Armand
~ Memnoch the Devil (all Anne Rice.  I've read the first two, attempted to read the third twice and failed both times, bought the fourth and never read it, and I think we have the fifth one somewhere.  Incidentally, I caught the last hour of QotD the other day, and my God, but that's a bad movie.  Claudia Black really was the best thing in it.  And she only has three lines, one of which is "Aargh!".  She makes a very very good vamp, I have to admit.  But then, we all remember goth!Aeryn in "The Choice", and honestly, I don't think she's ever looked prettier than when she was mopey and suicidal and sleep-deprived...)
~ Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
~ Pretty much all I can find by Dickens in the house, particularly Oliver Twist.
~ Probably a few others...

Heh.  I think that'll keep me going at least a year or so.  Will keep people updated, obviously.

Of course, aside from this, I have my Re-Watching Project of Doom, too, which includes all of Red Dwarf, The X-Files (season 5 showing on FX289!  Dude!  I'd forgotten how wonderful it was!!), Farscape, Buffy (not difficult with endless repeats), Angel season 5 at last, and all the random films I'd forgotten I owned, bought and home-taped alike...  Someone want to pay me to read and watch stuff?

Yes, I did.  Stop raising your eyebrows. I wrote an entire five scenes of my television script, I'll have you know.  Which, okay, is really rather pathetic, but it did take me in excess of two hours and at least I have something to show people tomorrow.

Anyway.  Reading fanfic, naturally, because it's the best thing to do at nearly-to-three in the morning when you should be asleep, and because there's always that possibility you'll find something that isn't so horrible you want to gouge your eyes out with a rusty nail.  And really, I honestly do not know why I didn't read or even consider reading this one before now.

You know sometimes when you find a fic that's so utterly, utterly perfect you just want to laugh with joy?  When everything in it is just so perfectly rendered that it makes up for every single badfic ever written?  When the characters are more in-character than even the original writers could make them, and when their inner thoughts fit, and all the language usage is right, and even the most far-fetched of plots just works because the writer knows how to make it convincing?  When you can just see it, and hear it, and smell it?  When it's so utterly perfect that even the tiniest mistake - which rarely occurs - can be overlooked, because in the scheme of the greater good, it really doesn't matter?  This is one of those fics.  The kind that make you dance, and grin, and jump up and down and want to hug the author for being wonderful.  The kind that you really wish had been an actual episode, and not just because it's wish fulfilment, but because it's accurate and believable.

This is the kind of fic  - the kind of story in general - that everyone aspires to write.  No matter how good you may think you are, there is always - always - someone much better than you.  (Luckily, to counter that, there's usually about ten people who are worse...)  Somewhere out there, there's a writer who is completely perfect.  And even that writer probably aspires to greater things.

Naturally, this also means there's a writer out there who needs to be shot into the sun for crimes against humanity, but let's not dwell on that.  It's entirely too terrifying.

Oh, wow.  I think I'm in heaven.  It's definitely fodder for my defence of the genre, anyway.  There are days when I completely understand why some people hate fanfiction so much; and then there are moments, like this, when I want to put all the fantastic writers into a room and feed them chocolate, and point to all the anti-fic people, and say "See?  See?  You were wrong!  Fanfiction can be beautiful, dammit!"

Ah.  Back to the wonderfulness.  I might stop squealing with joy at some point before 5am.  It's very very tempting to miss the lecture, but... I missed the one two weeks ago, and that would just be bad.

( book meme )

not as shameful as i thought. although i probably should have read more of them. i suppose it's good that i've heard of at least 85 of them...