T'eyla Minh

Right, I promised to start using my journal for something other than work rage, and I have a lot of Thoughts and Feelings about last night's Game of Thrones which I desperately need to get out of my brain.

Obviously, there are going to be spoilers not just for episode 8-03 but previous episodes also. And capslock. A lot of capslock.

( Enter at your own risk. )

Okay, I think that's about everything I was going to say. Anything else I could add about Braime would be incoherent flail at this point.

Three more episodes to go. BRING IT ON.

I was a day late in watching this one because I was so busy on Monday night. Paul was out at a conference until 8.45pm (and didn't get back until gone 10.00) and I didn't finish what I needed to do until 7.30, and by the time I'd sat down I'd completely lost track of time anyway. So I managed to watch this one last night whilst Paul was out again.

I would say I don't have much to mention, but we all know how that will end. :P

( Home Again )

I did a few more words on my angstfic last night following this episode, so hopefully I can get the written draft down on paper soon before tidying it up when typing it. It's cooperating a bit more now than it was originally; the first draft was more snarky than angsty, and I think I've found the balance now.

Anyway, that'll do for this one.

I haven't updated since April and now that I am, it's to get stuff off my chest – I actually drafted this entry on 30th June and it’s taken me so long to post it that I’ve had to amend it. :P

Mostly I haven't done anything exciting since April because I'm still bloody skint - other than decorating the lounge, and I already shared the pics of that on Facebook. :P (We finally got around to hanging pictures over a month later – after filling all the holes we were rather loath to put more in the walls!)

Anyway, here is my venting, in no particular order...

( Vents are actually one of the problems... )

It's not all doom and gloom, though. :P

I am still enjoying my job. Everyone is very stressed at the moment because of the new Strengthening Families Framework which has been in place since March, because we are crashing in blindly for the most part and communication at all levels seems to have ground to a halt. The good thing is we're all in the same boat, so we are all offloading at each other in work rather than taking it home with us - and they're actually valid things to be stressed about, rather than the petty stupidities that caused such major issues in Legal.

There are a few colleague issues creeping through the cracks - a couple of my colleagues can be a bit annoying, and one of them is your classic example of doing the bare minimum rather than trying to exceed in any way then complaining that she won't pass her PDR... but it's nothing I can't deal with, and I'm learning to rise above it - it helps that the team has a really good relationship (both working and personal) and everyone mucks in to help each other out. It's such a breath of fresh air after my experiences at both Legal AND Ladywood, and makes me very glad that I chose to work at South rather than anywhere else.

Being skint does mean that Paul and I are catching on boxsets. Our Farscape rewatch is on temporary hiatus, as is the JC rewatch as I just keep forgetting about it and series 5 was such a mess of fail, but we are now on season 4 of Frasier and have just finished both Bates Motel and Fargo. We've just made a start on American Horror Story: Asylum as well, which is already looking as creepy/WTF as the first season.

( My Frasier ramblings got long... )

I really wish I had the time and mental capacity to do in-depth rewatches for everything, like I’ve done for Jonathan Creek, but I think I’m up to my fifth 90’s show boxset now (Frasier, X-Files, Buffy, Farscape, Creek) and there are not enough hours in my life, especially given the sheer amount of episodes! If you tally them up it’s a cumulative 36 seasons, over 800 episodes, and I do not even want to think how many hours. I did attempt it for TXF but only got three episodes in before I gave up, and as much as I’d love to attempt it for ‘Scape, I think it might actually break me within half a season. :P

This is why I have a tendency to ignore most modern-day series, or for those I do watch I only do so without such a vested interest. I have too many old fandoms still vying for supremacy, and too many work-in-progress fics for most of them, to start investing energy into shiny new ones. :P

Aaaaanyway, I think this is quite long enough. I had intended to post some fic somewhere whilst I was off, and didn’t quite get around to it… but hopefully I will actually manage to get the JC stuff online this year. :P

Over and out.

I didn't get to see this last night as it was Noel's birthday, so Paul and I watched it this morning. Probably just as well, seeing as I've had flu for a week and would probably have fallen asleep halfway through otherwise (because I'm ill, not because it was boring).

Anyway, I don't think I have quite as much to say this week...

( The Sinner and the Sandman )

One more week to go and then I can get back to indulging my headcanons. :P

Have been somewhat busy this weekend so only got around to watching this one this morning - hopefully this recap will not be as insanely long as the last episode, for the most part because the action is dragged out over two episodes - and also because much of the decent J/M stuff is in part 2.

You may be pleased to note (or possibly not?) that I only have six screencaps for this episode - but I've made up for that in part two. :P

( Series 2, episode 4 -  )

So, yeah. This one is very light on 'caps simply because Jonathan and Maddy don't have that much interaction - there were other scenes of them together but I had real difficulty in trying to get decent pics. Fear not, however - the next episode has one of my favourite opening sequences EVER, plus a little glimpse at what cohabiting life would be like for them, and it's awesome. :D

Somewhat overdue an update - this is what happens when I have work to do.

Firstly: in writing news, I've finished my latest Pirates story, "Oranges to Florida", inasmuch as it's done on paper but I have 6.5 hand-written pages still to type up. Once that's done I will give it another once-over before posting to FFN / plugging on Tumblr. I've been trying to keep the style consistent, but a recent bout of reinspiration has meant that the latter half of the story is more dialogue-heavy than the beginning (and indeed more than I envisaged when I started), as well as including more from Jack's POV in addition to Elizabeth's. (Also, thanks to starting to follow the Sparrabeth blog on Tumblr halfway through writing it, the ending went in a direction I hadn't quite intended because my head was full of meta and subtext and FEELS. I'm not complaining, though, because it ends with some bloody glorious angst. :D)

Paul and I have finally made some progress in moving around the upstairs rooms, although the plan did change a little bit. We're about halfway done now - the daybed and TV / video storage unit (ex-wardrobe) have switched rooms with the PC and cube unit (effectively making the larger spare bedroom the office rather than the box room). This has meant that Denise and I were able to commence our X-Files rewatch on Sunday as we have somewhere to actually watch the videos. :D

In the process of room rearranging I thankfully uncovered my Sims 3 disc so have installed that on the laptop. It now runs properly and has already eaten about 16 hours of my life; at some point soon I'm going to start creating my own (hopefully fandom) characters, and I'm already dreading the insanity that will inevitably ensue... I think I'll probably start with Jonathan Creek; if I'm successful in orchestrating a Sim!Harry, I will be sure to share the (doubtless terrifying) results. :D

After tweeting a random conversation about badgers at work this afternoon, it has also resulted in potentially re-starting the Grand Jonathan Creek Watchathon soon with cloudsinvenice. (Badgers = Jonathan Creek. So shall it be forever amen.)

The conversation in question went something like this:

Karen, who walks to work: I saw a badger walking to work this morning.
[Cue jokes about the badger going to the office.]
Me: Did it have a briefcase?
Maria: *has hysterics*

(We were all very tired and it was quiet in the office. :P)

As for the X-Files rewatch, on Sunday we managed to get through the first seven episodes ("Pilot", "Deep Throat", "Squeeze", "Conduit", "The Jersey Devil", "Shadows" and "Ghost in the Machine" - the fact that I still remember these without looking them up demonstrates how many times I've seen season 1). My intention this time around is to (a) finish all nine seasons, even though it's going to take a bit longer than last time, and (b) top up my original LJ episode reviews / recaps with different episodes. In all likelihood, however, I will just go on Tumblr and flail at the shippiness instead. :P

Rewatches with friends are fun. :D

( A few thoughts so far... )

Still not much to say about the actual episodes yet, as season 1 was a hodge-podge of "monster of the week" and early conspiracy stuff before the proper mythology set in, but I'll try and do an update every time we watch some episodes, at the very least. (I do, however, reserve the right to continually flail over "Post-Modern Prometheus". All my life.)

I am still two write-ups behind, despite having promised myself I'd get them done this weekend. Am busy tonight and also Wednesday (meal for Jade's 21st) so hopefully on Thursday I might get at least one of them done.

Anyway, last night was the long-awaited Easter special of Jonathan Creek, namely "The Clue of the Savant's Thumb". I really wish it had been on Sunday night instead so I'd have a day to recover - as it stands, I didn't get to bed until gone midnight last night thanks to obsessively refreshing both Twitter and Tumblr for fan reactions, and even then did not get to sleep until nearly two.

I probably shouldn't be abusing New Job's technology to be doing LJ entries, but as it's quiet and nobody is looking (shhhh!) I shall at least try and get some of this nonsense out of my head before I attempt (and doubtless fail) to sleep tonight. (Entry also finished at home much later.)

Because seriously, I need to vent this. cloudsinvenice and thefleshfailure may both wish to wait until after they've watched before clicking the cut...

( The Clue of the Savant's Thumb - quite obviously, contains SPOILERS and copious amounts of CAPSLOCK ABUSE. )

I hope the three episodes being filmed in the autumn are better - or that Renwick falls out with Sarah Alexander and finds some way to write her character out like everyone else. :P

Okay, hopefully now I've vented that I will actually get some sleep tonight. SO TIRED.

Right then, we're on to series 2. As much as I have lamented the fact that this show is so short, it will at least make the re-watch less of an epic marathon...

( Series 2, Episode 1 - "Danse Macabre" )

Next week will be "Time Waits for Norman" - I don't have many pictures for that one, for reasons which will become apparent... Once we get past the halfway point of series 2, however, I anticipate things will start to get very interesting indeed...

Click here for "Time Waits for Norman"...

Okay. Not many screencaps for this one because there weren't many J/M moments that were easy to capture - the episode has plenty, though. :) (Also no icon because, well, not many screencaps.)

I should also point out, in case anyone thinks my episode memory is astounding, that I've been recapping with the aid of the in-depth episode guides on JonathanCreek.Net, which are a godsend even if her character observations are annoying. :P Anyway...

( Series 1, Episode 4 - "No Trace of Tracey" )

OMG "HOUSE OF MONKEYS" NEXT WEEK. I am excite. :D

Click here for "House of Monkeys"...

Right then, here we go... SPOILERS within for the episode and the DVD extras.

( Series 1, episode 2 - "Jack in the Box" )

That's that. Next week: "The Reconstituted Corpse". BE AFRAID.

( Transcript for the Deleted Scene )

Click here for "The Reconstituted Corpse"...