Entries tagged with writing: original

Current Mood: cranky

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I can not has tired?

So, I'm not at choir. I've been bloody knackered all day and just want to go to sleep, and the thought of not getting back until 9.00pm just filled me with dread. I got home at 6.00pm and lay down but sleep would not come, as the aforementioned story-narrative-thing ("Three Strikes and Out") was going through my head demanding attention. I want to write it, but I don't know if I want to share it... or, well, I DO want to share it, I just don't think I should, if that makes sense. It will contain a lot of things I really want to articulate, but I think it might upset people.

That is to presume, of course, that anyone would read it in order to be upset by it.

So instead of trying to sleep I got up and did something instead. As a result,

jackiesjottings, your parcel is now ready to go and I'll take it to the Post Office tomorrow. Completely forgot to package it up last night.

I've been starving all day.

I'm feeling a little ambivalent about the whole choir thing, to be honest. As much as I want to do the Christmas concert, I find myself not enjoying the experience as much as I always used to. Instead I dread Tuesdays because they are long, and by the time I get to rehearsal I'm tired and cranky. Choir used to be something I would make time for, and these days I feel more like it's just taking up that time. After two years, I still don't talk to anyone there above greetings and occasional chats, and even though I didn't join with the intention of creating a new social circle (I have enough of those already, thank you), I do sometimes wonder if that would have made it easier or more enjoyable. Part of the reason I enjoyed choir so much at school - apart from the music making and the actual activity of singing - was because my friends were there as well.

I always feel ambivalent about it at this time of year because it takes me a while to get into the flow of it again after the summer break. I really enjoyed the Mahler and the opera concerts last year, just as I enjoyed the performance at Tewkesbury Abbey the year before that, but I'm usually not so ambivalent as to consider not bothering at all. I'm getting bloody sick of being tired lately, for no apparent reason, no matter how much sleep I get, and I hate it especially when that tiredness is so pervading as to interfere with things I should be enjoying. Except I don't think I do enjoy things really, any more.

There was a point earlier this year when I thought things were getting better... but lately I've just been trying not to fall into a slump. My writing keeps drying up for increasingly longer periods of time; this time it's not because I can't do it, it's just because I'm too exhausted to try. The ideas come rushing at full pelt lately (I had another novel idea on the bus this morning, once again thanks to the Metro) but I end up in this position of "Eh, what's the point" and never bother to take them further.

I should write "Three Strikes..." and get it over with. I think some of this stuff needs to come out of my brain.

I'll stick at choir until Christmas and then see how I feel.

Current Mood: busy

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I Need an LJ Subject Header Transplant

Or I need to make entries which are about one thing instead of many. :P

( Cut cutty cut cut... )

Was that rambly enough for you?

PS: To any that may be interested, there's another open rehearsal for the choir in a couple of weeks. I'll scan the flyer tonight and post it...

Current Mood: thoughtful

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Random Snippets of Inspiration

My brain was doing that thing this morning where it threw little tiny snippets of story inspiration at me, for no apparent reason.

Firstly, I've been re-reading (or trying to finish reading, as Uni got in the way last time) Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors (currently halfway through "The Goldfish Pool..." which is the reason Lloyd gave me a copy) and for some reason this morning I was half-inspired to write a follow-up to the one whose title escapes me, ( spoilery ) That's honestly all I had.

Then, listening to "He Had It Comin'" from Chicago, specifically the bit where Velma tells her story, I was struck with something about when she does the deed. Just sort of vague, "nothing behind the eyes" type ramblings, as she reaches for something heavy to beat them to death with...

Finally, for some unknown reason, I was thinking about EastEnders and a line from a recent instalment from Stacey's mum, Jean. It was something along the lines of "I'm still me, underneath the illness and the pills", and I suddenly imagined an early part of Stacey's childhood, before everything went wrong and her mum wasn't crazy. It was only fleeting, of course, and nothing more than that. Very odd.

None of the inspirations are solid enough to do anything with. In retrospect they very much feel like half-waking dreams because I was pretty zoned out this morning listening to my MP3-player. The sheer randomness and scope of the ideas is what struck me more than the ideas themselves.

It's strange when it happens. I haven't written anything in a while (haven't updated the UB fic since late May, I think, even though I'm just about to get into the more juicy shippy stuff) other than a few random lines here and there for various fics, and at times like this it's almost as though my Muses are popping up to remind me they're still around.

In other, completely unrelated news, I forgot to mention that our new PC is named Aurora. This is purely because when we first turned it on, Vista went through various settings, including a name and desktop background. The first background which looked vaguely interesting was a view of the Aurora Borealis (or similar) and that's entirely where the name came from, and it's stuck. I think this is the first PC I've ever named, "The Beast" aside. The free one we inherited had been named Gollum. ;) Since computers get PMT, they are quite obviously female. :P

Also, I had the strangest PDR ever on Monday. 15 minutes of it was spent actually talking about work and completing the PDR sections, whilst the rest involved me telling Marie where to visit when she goes to Paris - she made me write things down - and various mental health / wimmins-type stuff. We were discussing the Pill in a very girly-chat kind of way and, since I've not had a period since February on my new Pills, she made me write those down as well.

( Pill Stuff - TMI )

I think that's more than enough. I shall post this one before I find something else to ramble about.

Current Mood: accomplished

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Most Unproductive Day EVAR.

Apart from going out to turn our bags of pennies into real money and use them to pay off some of the credit card bill, I've spent the entire day in front of the PC. The majority of that was spent ripping CDs to the hard drive (firstly using CD Grabber, then using WMP because it filled in the track numbers for me...) and then trying to get various attempts at FTP to work.

Cute FTP will not patch properly. I realise this serves me right for using pirated software, but still. So I attempted to find some freeware FTP and failed on all accounts. (Plz to be noting, various website people: do not claim something is "free" if in fact you mean "30-day trial". Thanking you.) Then remembered David copied me Dreamweaver some time ago. The FTP function on there is hellaciously awful, combined with Vista's weird file management system, but eventually I managed to upload the thing I wanted to.

Which was this. The prequel to my movie script, pre-renaming, and my Writing & New Technologies coursework. It was originally hosted on Brinkster before they deleted my account, so here it is again.

I should probably not spend the rest of the evening at the PC, really. But it's so preeeeeetty!

Current Mood: blank

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Character Interview Meme

I was going to do this meme, as seen on

anotherusedpage's journal, where you take some of your characters and ask them some "about you" type questions... but I started it and then scrapped it when I realised that none of my characters (either in fanfic or otherwise) are actually that interesting. :(

More to the point, all of them are catastrophically whiny. In retrospect, I think they always have been...

Doesn't exactly bode well, does it?

For the record, I intended to use Minh (my Voyager Mary Sue), Mila and possibly Jorel, but yeah. WHINY. Every last one of them.

If anyone is particularly desperate that I fill it out, I will, but meh. Just once it would be nice for the Muses to come up with a character who has some semblance of a personality...

Current Mood: achey

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"This boy's dying of LURGY, Jim!"

So, quite an enjoyable evening yesterday. Paul phoned on Monday night whilst drunk and hyperactive to ramble down the phone at me for an hour and a half. I think Eve thought I'd abandoned her, though, as I ran away from our AIM conversation to answer it. Must plan a trip to her city-that-I'm-not-allowed-to-mention so they can meet at some point... Anyway, the outcome of this conversation was the making of a deal, wherein Paul could give me (back) his bloody lurgy in exchange for one of two equally horrendous options: a) not smoking all night; b) arriving at work for 9.00am.

The eventual deal was settled at not smoking and coming into work at 9.30. More on that later...

So, we went to see The Jacket, starring Adrien Brodie and Keira Knightly. It looked interesting from the trailers, but wasn't what I was expecting at all... ( Spoilers and review under here. )

That's all I can really say without spoiling it completely. Post-movie discussion via email this morning with Paul tried to ascertain whether or not it created a paradox (I think we decided it didn't), so it's not exactly the most linear narrative in the world. It is, however, gloriously and wonderfully post-modern, very pretty, and well worth a viewing.

We also saw the trailer for Sin City and woooow. It looks frelling amazing, all done in black and white but with little touches of colour for people's eyes and neon and stuff. So I've decided that if I ever finish Orphan Eyes and it's ever made into a movie, it so has to be done like that.

( Orphan Eyes ramblings/spoilers under here, too. )

So, anyway, after the film we wandered to the Flapper for drinks and pool and I stole Paul's cigarettes so he couldn't cheat. In the end I let him have two of them back before he went on a murderous rampage, and the deal from now on is that he's only allowed one every two hours when we're out. For numerous reasons; the main one being they taste foul... *ahem* Cue amusing conversation in the pub that basically ended in his realising that I am cruel, heartless, evil, and mean.

Took him long enough. ;)

Today has been mostly uneventful, but was one of those days... you know those days? Those days when you spend about five frelling hours on average just waiting for buses? Yeah, one of those days. Not helped by feeling all blah with a sore throat (and suddenly, random pains in my stomach. How bizarre.) and aching all over. Definitely coming down with something. There was a very odd moment at the third bus stop of the morning whilst waiting for the 101, though. Young Mother with Small Child asked me to escort said Small Child onto the bus for her while she struggled to collapse her pushchair. So there's me, bag in one hand and Small Child in the other, trying to get onto a bus with - of course, because it was late - no seats whatsoever.

Oh, yes, and Liz broke the shredder.

That's actually about it. Definitely a day of doing nothing whatsoever tonight.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Still Kerrang...

Entry tags:

Various.

I need to phone back the MHLive ticket people... I'm paranoid they spelt my email address wrong. It's really not easy to spell 'teylaminh' to complete strangers, since it doesn't form any recognisable words. So, will do that later.

I am currently text-tennising with

izzles about MHLive. At this rate I'm going to end up with a list of people to get signatures from/steal/abuse/kidnap/generally annoy. I have to say, though, I'm paranoid that I'll end up squeeing loudly about every single MHOTP! moment, or laughing at things, and they'll evict me from the premises, VIP or not... ;) (But still. Guest list, dude.)

The cough I've been trying to fight off all week appears to have actually manifested into something and now I can't talk properly. Joy.

I woke up randomly inspired with little snippets of scenes for Orphan Eyes, though I'm not sure if they're for the prose or screenplay version. One was definitely movie-like; the other was a better description of one of the settings. ( More here; cut in case people don't want minorminor spoilers. ) I'm really considering changing the title, though. Orphan Eyes fit at the time when the plot was in basic fruition, but there's so many other threads running through it now. Er... suggestions? Anyone?

Now I have to go find an LJ help community who can tell me if it's possible to use I-frames in a layout. I think it's possible with the S1 style system, but I'll have to check...

Current Mood: cold

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Better.

Feeling a lot less aggravated today, though only after a while. The car refused to function again this morning so I got the bus. Stupid woman at the front of the queue didn't make herself obvious enough and the bus drove straight past (though in fairness to Stupid Woman, he was going at quite a lick anyway and clearly had no intention of stopping) and then the 11C stopped at a completely different stop to the one it stopped at yesterday. Look, 11C, just because you've been diverted down Hagley Road doesn't mean you can cause more annoyance by randomly changing your mind about where you stop.

Anyway, much calmer now. Semi-considering going to the Inline MGM on Friday as I'm being coerced by random people, so will have to think about it...

Heads-up to Yoshi, etc., if they happen to wander over here. :)

Oh, yes, and the stupid on-bus CrystalEyes television/entertainment/information system decided to proclaim the Oscar winners in big, bright letters. Thanks a lot. Though I suppose it does save me watching them and being disappointed, after four hours, to discover that Johnny Depp wasn't chosen a-frelling-gain for Best Actor. Philistines. I guess Finding Neverland was too long ago for the ancient Academy members to remember, and it lost out to the third bio-pic of the year - and De-Lovely wasn't nominated even once!!

Academy Ancients - you suck!

Nothing else to report. Will try to make a start on chapter 8 of Come Forward tonight. (Oh, and Sweet/Eve, if you're that desperate to read something of mine that's original, there's 7 chapters worth of a novel sitting right under your noses over at FictionPress under my Electra Creek pseudonym. Not... terribly original, granted, but it's better than nothing, right? So stop complaining and gimme some reviews! :P)

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: Michael Ball - We Have All The Time In The World/Millennium, etc...

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Now the meme's out of the way, some random things.

Today, I:

~ typed out a dictation tape for our temporary Chair (whom I accidentally said "snurched" to in general conversation, and she didn't bat an eyelid. I think she was generally overwhelmed by the confusion that is Child Protection...)
~ had nothing else to do, so spent the majority of the day having a conversation about sporks and the Evils of AOL on the Intranet message board.
~ gots me some new trainers from Skechers, which took me half an hour to find in the Bull Ring. They're pink, I'm afraid, but very pretty, and cost me £40, but since my last pair (from Faith, for £15) are falling apart, I'd rather spend the money on something I can wear to death in a decent time, rather than a year... My last pair of Skechers lasted me about three and a half years before they literally fell apart. (I was trying to find a photo of them on the website, but they don't appear to be on there yet. Damn.)
~ became inspired to write a short story (for the Today's Forecast... series, no less), whilst on the bus (the bus was unrelated, I just happened to be on it at the time), for the first time in absolutely ages. I might attempt to write it tonight, though I don't know which 'weather' I'll use for it. (If anyone wants to suggest something for me to use at random, weather-wise, I've already used the following: Rain, Snow, Thunder, Sunrise/Sunset, Cold Front, and Total Eclipse. Cloudy is also going to be a future one, if I can ever regain the inspiration for it. Suggest things!)
~ started to think about what to take with me to wear in London. Because, obviously, I have to wear all my uber-fashionable things. So far I've decided: ( boring fashionista ramblings under here. ).
~ been randomly amused by how similar the backing/introduction to the two songs in my "Current Music" are.
~ remembered that new shoelaces are almost as wonderful as new socks...

And very little else.

First love post:

collie_wing (I'm still thinking what to put for

thefleshfailure)

So, why I love

collie_wing.

Erika, I love that you're a Phantom geek to the same degree as me. More on some days. I love that your name even reflects that. I love that you're so focussed on what you want to do and that you're working so hard to achieve it, because you will, because you deserve it. I love your animal stories, especially the current puppy stories, and I love the way you tell them.

I love that you think about things - really think about things - like your Erik/Christine/Raoul triangle post, and inspire other people to think about things, too. And in the vein of Phantom, I love that even though you were dreading the movie as much as I was, you saw it and just... let it go. You didn't go in expecting a miracle, and didn't get one, and you just left it at that, brushed over it with a few well-placed bits of snark and nothing more. I wish I had the strength of mind to do that. It doesn't seem much, but it's something I admire in you - the way you can just accept stuff, and carry on.

I love your fanart. It's purdy. And your MSPaint POTO pictures are hilarious. :) And you write purdy fic, too.

I love that you randomly got back in touch with me after however many months it was and prompty terrified the absolute dren out of me with your Opera-ghost story. I also love that story, 'cause it rocks.

I... can't think of anything else. But Erika is hereby lovely. :) And she gets the special Erik icon for that reason. :D

Eni... yeah, you know what I'm gonna say. I owe you, like, a drenload of stuff. I'll get around to it eventually. I'll see if I can't finish the first London writeup before there's another one to procrastinate over. ;) And, oh, crap, I just remembered I still haven't finished the online bit of your Christmas present. *head-->desk*

And don't you dare comment and say there's no rush, because, impending love post aside, one thing I hate about you is that you're so damned accepting. So don't. :P

Stop posting, BeX. Go to bed.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Robbie&Nicole - Somethin' Stupid | All Saints - Black Coffee | Cerys - Only A Fool | Les Mis

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Weekend things.

Right, well, in a moment I'm going to e-mail everybody instructions on how to get to my house (except for those who I'm collecting, which is all... one of you. Err, unless anyone else wants to be collected. It'd be doable, if complicated.) as well as what time to arrive and what to bring, etc. Some of you I'm still not sure are coming or not, so I'll just send the details anyway.

On Saturday, we moved lots of furniture. Then we went out in the rain to Maskerade to find me a wig - I can hire one for a very reasonable ten pounds - and I finally got some red eyeshadow and discovered that they sell black feather wings for £25.50, which is about the same as they were on Hot Topic's site. But I'll check, because I think the Hot Topic ones were angel wings and not bat wings and probably marginally cheaper... in any case, I may have to get some. Wings! We got back from Maskerade and moved some more furniture, so those of you (all... two of you) who have already seen my house will be slightly confused upon entering the living room...

And on Sunday, obviously, I was at my father's, though most of it was blocked out by my latest Alanis-Spiderman-Evanescence-Cerys playlist and the Drama and Action of Eastenders. He's found a local amateur operatics group type thing, which meets every other Sunday, and asked me if I might be interested. I declined, for several reasons:

1) I don't want to join something with him, because... I just don't. It'd be more than a battle of wills. I'd want to frelling hit him in rhythm to get him to sing in time.
2) The inevitable embarrassment/heartache/annoyance/general arghishness if one of us got in and the other didn't. Especially so if it was me and not him.
3) I'm better than him. Well, in any case, I'm younger than him and my voice is more trainable and slightly more versatile (and, y'know, higher; I have the Sarah Brightman syndrome of everything sounding higher than it really is), which would act in my favour
4) He's had more experience than me, which would act in his favour.
5) Last but not least, he's had 23 years to try and spend time with me (especially in this kind of capacity) and he decides to do so now? Uh, no. Sorry. Not interested. Maybe back when I actually liked spending time with him it would have been a possibility...

I do want to join something; once I've stopped gallivanting around the country and can actually commit to rehearsals I'll look further into it. I don't think I ever told you this at the time, but just before I started uni last year, he was supposed to be directing a production of The Wizard of Oz and the last I heard until very recently, he was in the casting stages and looking for a Dorothy. And I said in jest, "I'll do it!" - and got laughed off. The most recent news is he's "lost interest" in it.

How can you lose interest in having that kind of power?? I mean, unless that's just me, but... *sigh* I'm beyond despairing. Really.

So, yeah. That's the latest aggravation.

I have nothing to do at work again, as I finished my horrendously huge pile of typing and distributions, so I think I'll spend tomorrow sneakily working on chapter five of Come Forward when nobody's looking, and find something that looks like Child Protection typing to do whenever someone comes up behind me. I hate having my desk right by the filing cabinet, though I've got the instinctive minimising down to a fine art. :)

Right, email directions coming up, and then I'll book those bloody tickets...

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Fan heater whirring...

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Bleh.

I thought this icon was particularly appropriate, given I took the photo at Naomi's 18th birthday get-together at the Flapper, right as I came down with a cold. Yes, I have a cold, again. I'm trying to kill it off before I go to London, but I have a feeling I'll be trying not to cough all the way through The Woman in White and Michael Crawford'll glare at me...

Which reminds me, I must remember to buy a souvenir brochure and two programmes, as I was going to ask him very nicely, if my stalkingness works out, to sign one for Angela. That'd completely blow her mind, I think.

So, this cold came on strongly on Sunday, having started with a sore throat on Saturday morning, and this morning I was in no fit state to go to work. I was hoping I could go in as I'm already having Friday and next Monday off as it is, and I've just been given a whole pile of typing to do for Small Heath, as their typist is applying for the CP Admin job. Which, okay, is fine for me, as I'd rather be busy than bored, but only when I'm actually there to do the work...

I went to my father's yesterday complete with headcold, which somehow made it more bearable because there was less shouting and trying to engage me in conversation because I couldn't talk... The only incident of note - and this story will make me sound so petty and mercenery it's untrue - was when he went to the bank to draw some money out. Upon asking what I wanted for my birthday, I said "Money to spend in London, please" - so what does he hand me? £20.00. At first I thought he was kidding. But, no, I've got £20.00 to spend in London, because apparently he's got no money. This is the same man who is willing to spend 25p a minute phoning the Philippines, or vast amounts of money building an extension onto the house, and earns more than my mother and I put together.

No money? I'll believe that when I can see a bank statement. And because I was ill, it really upset me, though not enough that I'd let him know that. So there I was in the car trying to fight off tears. I can't even content myself any more in the knowledge that I'll be going back to Derby and won't have to deal with it for a few months. I'm stuck with these pointless Sundays for the rest of the forseeable future. Christ.

The one thing I do like about having a cold, though, it has to be said, is that everything ends up emotionally heightened. On Saturday, I'd printed off Naomi's fabulous drawings of my Orphan Eyes characters to show someone, and they'd ended up in the back of my pad with all the other bits of writing and random doodles, and on Sunday I just couldn't stop staring at them. I don't know what it is, or how she does it, but it's as if she's right there in my head seeing exactly what I'm seeing when I'm writing... and maybe it is the sheer power of my descriptive prose (ha...) or maybe it's just... I don't know. All I do know is that I'm really frelling lucky to have her as a friend. It's one thing creating these characters and trying to get others to visualise them; it's another thing having someone else get far enough inside your head to manage to bring them to life before your very eyes... And if I write my bizarre dreamed-up children's story about the people living in a basin, I can think of no-one better to illustrate it.

*stops gushing*

I watched The Pianist today (Roman Polanski; Adrien Brody won the Best Actor Oscar for it) having taped it Saturday night. Really powerful film. Definitely worth watching. That's about all I can say, though...

I'd be more excited about London (4 days!) if I wasn't so damned ill. :(

Entry tags:

writing: original

Review me, biyatch!

Come Forward, chapter one is all completed and uploaded. Yes indeed.

Eve, you can stop complaining, I finally did an original piece. Well, okay, not completely original. But close enough. You are now obligated to review. :P

As is everyone else. Do it, damn you.

Current Mood: grumpy

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Update on general things...

Well, I'm back. Huzzah for that. I've nearly sorted all my stuff out, just got some general debris to shift back up to my room, which then needs re-tidying (although I've been trying to do that as I go along and been marginally successful) and some bits for the bathroom.

I really wish people would let me screw my life up on my own... I can't do three things at once. It's either tidy up the stuff from the hall, phone the job centre people about job seekers' allowance, or go into town to find a job. If I don't do any of these things, I'm going to get screamed at, so, y'know, which am I supposed to do?

*sigh*

Other than that, nothing to report, other than the fact that Most Haunted brought their three-night live investigation to various places in Derby the exact weekend I happened to leave. Grr. That being said, it was quite interesting, and Derek's possession by 'Charlie' Stanhope only added fuel to my Derek/Yvette shipping vibes. Talking of which, I extended the plot for my Come Forward idea... Everything as it was before under the cut, plus new bits...

( Come Forward + plot )

So, it has a plot, it has inspiration, and I have pretty much all the time in the world to finish it. All that's left to do is start it. I also had this little idea for it earlier where Yvelyn receives birthday gifts prior to a shoot - earrings from Mark and flowers from Alec, and is later seen wearing not the earrings, but one of the flowers... possibly. I was really, really trying not to portray Mark as the bad guy, but it seems to have ended up that way. No matter how adorable Derek and Yvette are (in RL, I mean), she and Karl are also too lovely for words...

Guh. Damn you, canon-based series.

Current Mood: geeky

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There is no hope whatsoever. I am hereby officially a lost cause.

But before I explain why... more photos. On Thursday we went to Merry Hill, and came back with stuff. So, in the vein of

queenc2346's recent post, here's what I got...

( Clothes!! )

Right, now for why I'm a lost cause...

Most Haunted. For those who don't know: it's a series on Living TV that has acquired something of a cult following. It basically involves a team going to the various supposed haunted places in Brtain to find out if they actually are, taking along a spiritualist medium, a paranormal investigator, a historian, and various technical guys, with lots of digital cameras and special equipment. They've got some pretty good footage from some of them (an armchair being moved in a Dudley hotel, for one, as well as the medium getting possessed with more and more alarming regularity) but all of the footage is then studied by a parapsychologist and generally refuted as technical glitches/whatever. All in all, it's just... pointless. But fun, and quite interesting whether you're a believer or a sceptic. And very addictive, for several reasons:

1) It's presented by ex-children's television presenter, Yvette Fielding. She's also the executive producer alongisde her husband, Karl Beattie (who, for the record, proposed to her on air on something else they both worked on, which is rather sweet...) The fun with Yvette is that she gets very scared very quickly and screams a lot - though she's getting much braver - and it's absolutely hilarious... I mean, it's cruel to laugh at her, but it's all part of the entertainment... Lately she's actually getting more level-headed about it and trying to explain things in terms of what they could really be, rather than instantly assuming they're paranormal happenings, but she still clings to whichever male crew member happens to be nearest...
2) The medium, Derek Acorah, is a popular presence on Living TV and seems to have his own little fanbase... He's from Liverpool and wanted to be a footballer when he was young, until his grandmother or aunt, possibly, honed his psychic abilities. Whether you believe he's genuine or not, it's fascinating to watch...
3) Everyone has to throw tomatoes at Dr. Matthew Smith, the parapsychologist; we love to hate him because he's blatantly in the minority and he knows it. I get the impression he's only there so we can boo him...
4) My general interest in all things paranormal is what made me watch it in the first place; the longer I watched it, though, the more I started to care about the people involved, which is probably how it is for everyone else, too.

Anyway, over the Easter weekend, they did a three-day (seven-and-a-half hours) investigation to find the spirit of Matthew Hopkins, witch-finder general from the 1600s. It was really interesting. Funniest moment was on Saturday night at their first location, where Yvette, Derek, and Matthew (Smith) were wandering along a beach following Derek's psychic lead, and Yvette got stuck in quicksand; it took four strong blokes, including Derek and Matthew, to pull her out (one at each limb), dragging her out of her wellies in the process. They showed the clip four more times over the course of the night, including to Yvette herself later on, just to extend the embarrassment. Aside from that, Matthew and Richard Felix (aforementioned Derby historian) got into a verbal spat, and clearly had to be separated after Friday's argument, since they were never in the same room together afterwards... It's just so much more than a ghost hunt; it's fantastic entertainment in its own right, but only when you know the cast/crew/presenters well enough to care. :)

Long explanation, I know, but I'm probably the only one here who even knows what the Hell it is, let alone watches it... But yes. My lost-cause status...

See, I'm so used to watching epic, fictional, canon-based serieses, that I unconsciously apply the same rules to Most Haunted without actually realising it. The presenters and crew are the characters; it's 'canon' is just previous investigations/occurrences. And hence, naturally, the Inner Shipper, which is also a presence in and of itself (or herself, since it's blatantly female) takes over when I'm not paying attention, and before I know what's happening, I find myself shipping for the bloody thing. To reiterate: it's a non-fictional, reality-based investigative television series with real people in real relationships that I have no right to dabble in, and I am shipping for it. Specifically, I am shipping for Derek and Yvette, and, at the same time, Yvette/Karl...

The latter is fair enough because they're married and teh most adorablest couple evar. But the really idiotic thing is Derek is also quite happily married to Gwen, and despite the fact that I know this, that I know they're real frelling people, Nautica persists in trying to make me ship for them.

Y'know what? I blame the Derby Gaol investigation. It was in series one; in one of the cells, Yvette was overcome by random inexplicable emotion and couldn't stop crying (she was fine once outside the cell.) So Karl ( ran to the rescue. ) But before he was alerted by a crew member, Derek was on hand to ( lend a shoulder. ) It can be attributed to the fact that he's generally a nice guy and can't stand to see a damsel in distress, but that was the moment that Nautica prodded me and said "Oo!"...

In any case, in order to get her to shut the Hell up, I'm doing a new original story based on the Most Haunted premise. Details as I typed them up yesterday are under the cut. I want to start it now, seeing as my characters have names and I have a plot and I really, really like the idea, but I will wait until I've done my dissertation. Yes, I will. Or maybe I'll do bits of my original thing after however many thousand words have been written...

( Notes on 'Come Forward', including which character is meant to be whom... )

Honestly, it'll be better than it sounds. I just have to do it before my brain explodes...

And now I want to make a Most Haunted LJ community to out all the fans. Hm. Yes. I think I shall... *toddles off to community-create*

Current Mood: shocked
Current Music: evanescence - "haunted" (live AOL session)

Entry tags:

bloody 'ell...

bob monkhouse is dead... there goes a little bit more of britain...

anyway, on a less morbid note, have some randomosity:

~

translucent has converted me to being a predictive text user. although so far i've had to teach my phone the word 'frell', unsurprisingly, and it persists in using 'of' instead of 'me'. but nevertheless, it's considerably quicker and not as annoying and confusing as i first thought, and i'm going to kill her, because it gives me one less thing to complain about. ;)
~ just watched the first third of the three-night most haunted live, and am continually inspired to write an original story about similar characters... but i'll probably explain that more if and when i ever get around to writing it...
~ got the evanescence my immortal single. it's way better than the album version - the vocals and the arrangement in general is better, the video is pretty, and just wow. everyone buy it!
~ watched a mid-season episode of the 10th kingdom at random today. most of you probably haven't got a clue, but here's the buffy cast crossover version, which'll never get written, but is fun to do anyway...

virginia - buffy
tony - giles
wolf - spike (pointy teeth; major predator issues...)
wendell - xander
the queen - willow
snow white - tara (don't ask. that makes sense in context.)
troll king - riley (*snigger*)

and there it sort of falls apart because i've forgotten most of the characters. but yes... i definitely have some sort of incurable disease. ;)

Current Mood: aggravated

Entry tags:

a subdued rant, but a rant, nonetheless.

we still have no internet access. this is a given of the semester, i feel. i get the distinct impression it will continue to be a given for next semester and possibly the semester afterwards, but, then again, they may prove me wrong.

anyway. i present, for your reading pleasure, Reasons Why Having No Internet Access Sucks...

Reason the First
well, for starters, most of my life is constituted of what i do online: email, messengers, and fanfiction, to name but a few. hence, doing all of the following on average twice every week, and in a public place where people being in the immediate vicinity make me twitch uncomfortably, is a Bad Thing.

Reason the Second
i haven't 'spoken' to anyone for what feels like absolutely ages. this includes people i could just as easily telephone, obviously, but for some reason it's not the same... but it also includes people i don't even see that often (sweet, eve, etc.) and i miss having 1am angst sessions and manic conversations about monkeys...

Reason the Third
naomi and i are meant to be writing a crossover, which was planned almost a year ago on a whim, and which i have been looking forward to writing for bloody ages. it is impossible to write a sodding fanfic when you can't communicate with the person you're writing it with and bounce ideas around on MSN. similarly, i'm meant to writing a crossover with jenny-in-georgia, and i can only speak to her online.

Reason the Fourth
it is incredibly inconvenient having to remember to carry a zip disc around with me whenever i'm going to check my emails, just in case there's something i need to download. it is incredibly inconvenient having to remember to put certain things onto said zip disc in case i want to upload something. it is incredibly inconvenient having to take pictures back and forth between university and my own computer if i'm trying to make a layout for something. you get the idea.

Reason the Fifth
having reinstalled my computer again, i have practically nothing on it. i have the very basic windows version of MSN messenger, which i only set up so i'd know if the computer was connecting or not (obviously, it's not), but have yet to download YIM, AIM, the livejournal windows client, copernic, etc., etc., etc.. my desktop is bare. i am also missing the farscape and buffy fonts, which is incredibly irritating.

Reason the Sixth
i'm getting a dot com at christmas. i already fear that i won't even be able to create the site if the FTP uploader won't connect over the network, short of having to email them and beg for a port number that works, but that's if we even get the bloody network back.

Reason the Seventh
every single one of my modules this year is based in some part online. which, ordinarily, in the comfort of my own room on my own computer, i would not be so annoyed about. but having to find online resources in the library is very, very annoying, since i always forget what i'm meant to be looking for, or the disc to save it back to, or can't get to a bloody computer in order to find said resources...

Reason the Eighth
my independent studies being in fanfiction, and fanfiction being a predominantly, if not entirely, internet-based phenomenon, i would rather search the endless ream of buffy fics for a couple to compare/contrast in the middle of the night when i have nothing better to do, than on a computer in a room full of people staring over my shoulder... and also on the fanfiction issue, any uploading i do myself is delayed by at least 24 hours by the time i've got the disc to uni and put it on the site, which means that i can't even play on when the 'peak' times are for uploading so it doesn't get buried in seconds...

Reason the Ninth
checking my friends list is really annoying. it's bad enough getting the curious glances when people spot the edward scissorhands-emblazoned screen, but the various community posts take up lots of space to the degree that i have not only stopped posting in them, but stopped even checking them until i have enough time to do so at my leisure.

Reason the Tenth
my new academic year's resolution was to read every single livejournal friends entry and reply to it in some form, and to always be listening to something so it made my life look at least slightly more interesting. which, obviously, isn't happening...

Reason the Eleventh
i can't do livejournal angsts in the middle of the night. which i suppose on some level is a good thing, but still...

Reason the Twelfth
the lack of internet access has inadvertently been the reason for my resigning as a beta-reader, even though that was mostly my own fault for being a moron.

Reason the Thirteenth
i have no idea what's going on in most of your lives, especially naomi's, because i get most of such information from messenger conversations...

Reason the Fourteenth
YIM pictionary...

Reason the Fifteenth
i can't read fanfic in a public computer lab! it's Wrong!

i'm sure there are many more, and i could keep going forever on this, but you get my drift. jesus, how do people live without the internet? more to the point, how do people live without their own computer and printer? take my PC away for a month and i start going stir crazy...

although i guess those sorts of people have what are generally constituted as 'lives'...

and! as if the internet being down was irritating enough, not only is david brottman in hospital (which is actually good because we can use our own resources instead of the 8 specific ones he'd set for the coursework) but dave ellis - course leader and my independent studies tutor - is off until at least the 20th november, and the proposal deadline is the 21st.

GAH. in a word.

anyway. on the plus side of things, i finally managed to turn some of the orphan eyes screenplay into prose, which i just sent to eve and sweet in its entirety (what there is of it) for opinions... but here's the decidedly bizarre opening sequence (it's only short) for your reading pleasure. this one is shaping up to be a novel i may actually finish...

comments would be appreciated, but i know you won't bother. i sound like a comments-whore, but i just don't care.

( Orphan Eyes - the opening )

that's the opening. i'm not sure if it's trying to be first person or second person, or what, but it seems to work. the bulk of the novel is in your usual third person prose, although it's going to leap around between the main time it's set, flashbacks, and flashforwards, for each of the characters, at random intervals (all very post-modern, dahlink) and possibly i'll bring that ^ style back at some point.

but yeah. i don't know why i bother.

Current Mood: tuggered!!

Entry tags:

rocky, cats, random stuff...

i present, for your reading pleasure (although i make no promise as to their coherence), two writeups...

( da rocky )

before i do the next one, however... a little rant.

i left derby today because i was too tired to do so last evening. in retrospect, however, it might have been a good plan to do so. i left halls at 1.00, which usually means i can be home by 3.30ish if i'm lucky.

i got straight onto a train, which was on time and everything. we got to burton, then tamworth, then wilnecote. then we got literally 10 minutes from birmingham new street. and stopped. for an hour and a f*cking half.

apparently, the power had gone out at new street, which meant the signals were down, which meant nobody could leave or arrive. anyway, after the long delay, we started moving. for twenty seconds. then stopped again.

approximately two hundred trains passed us coming out of new street in the opposite direction. another train, going in the same direction as us, went into new street. we remain, disgruntled, ten minutes from birmingham.

and finally, we get to birmingham, and the bus is stuck in rush hour traffic. i get home at 5.30pm.

needless to say, i was slightly annoyed. luckily, i'd mellowed by the time we got to the alex...

( caaaats! )

so endeth the gush...

as a final note, i've had a wonderful idea for a piece of creative writing. since we've been learning all about multiple personality disorder with brottman, and on the video documentary we watched there was a woman whose personalities each wrote in the same diary, with different handwritings, i've been struck with an idea along those lines. a story from the point of view (or points of view) of someone with MPD, told through each of the 'alters'. and i need you guys to help me with the handwriting. :)

if i ever write it, is anyone willing to copy out various passages for me? they can either scan them and send them, or send me the actual things and i'll scan them. just let me know...

right, that's everything. i shall now go to bed and prepare for the consumption of lots of alcohol tomorrow...

oh, except that i have a job. it's at the vine inn in mickleover (which has a bus service that comes more than once every hour) and it's seven hours a week on thursday and friday nights, at £4.50/hour. yay job! yay job that gives me saturday off! :D

tuggerrrrred! (and also pirates because of growltiger, but he says "rrrra!" instead of "arrrr!"...)

Current Mood: creative

Entry tags:

writing: original

writingness

in response to her and sweet's challenge set in manchester, upon seeing a palm-reading man in a little hut in the market place, we have...

( palm reader challenge )

it's very odd and doesn't really go anywhere - it's meant to be a sort of tie-in for all my today's forecast... stories, but it didn't work very well. nevertheless, at least i got it done, eh, sweet? ;)

Current Mood: creative
Current Music: bits of the haydn nelson mass in my head.

Entry tags:

writing: original

erik's back!

so. it was 4am. and i finally thought, y'know, i have to be up in four and three-quarter hours, i should really go to bed now. so i did. and at 5am, i did the following. only this is the much improved less annoying version. and after a lot of deliberation, i decided to post it, because it's not like i haven't embarrassed myself enough this month on here.

( 'Cold Front' - a possible vision of my future? Who knows... )

i'm still not sure about it. but nevertheless, a short story is a short story, and it's about time erik came out of hibernation. so, anyway, i got about 3 hours sleep, got up, checked my timetable to see what i was meant to have read, and it turned out we had this week off, so i went back to sleep. and i've got an essay due in on the 17th. why does that always happen when i'm losing a weekend?

Entry tags:

(no subject)

arghaddiction...

the address for this dollmaker, by the way, is here.

right, these are a couple of characters from my as yet untitled original screenplay, along with descriptions from the text itself... just to whet your appetite...

"...She is anywhere between teens and early twenties, it's hard to tell, with a shock of tousled bright red hair and a nose ring, which indicate she is obviously not one of the working class business folk we've so far already seen. This, will we discover, is Mila. She is pale, dressed in a ¾ length purple leather coat, obviously more the worse for wear, over damaged-and-repaired black flared jeans and a scraggy grey knitted jumper. The ensemble is finished off by heavy combat boots, a home-knitted khaki-coloured scarf, and a roughly woven bag slung over one shoulder (the main cause being that it only has one remaining shoulder-strap, the other hanging forlornly from the base.)..."

okay, a little difficult to get all of that in on a doll, but anyway:

"...The movement is accompanied by a rustling sound, as the weeds part and a figure emerges from under the bridge. The figure, a skinny girl with short, spiky mahogany hair, wearing old brown corduroy trousers and a khaki green tee-shirt, with a long black coat, is carrying a scruffy shoulder bag stuffed with various items she's scavenged that day. This is Anati, 17 years old, but small for her age. It's not yet apparent if she's one of Mila's group, or another rebel entirely..."

again, difficult to get it all in. and this character was more or less created and named by naomi on the night of the circus of horrors...

the character of tay, so far, doesn't have much of a description, but this is pretty much how she appears in my head...

"...The noise level returns to its previous raucousness as one of the older girls (Tay)- about fifteen or so, with straggly blonde hair - removes the spit from the fire and slides the carcass thereon into a recycled "in" tray from one of the desks..."

(sometimes it's safer not to ask... :P)

and i will stop soon, honest ;)