Take another hit, let the bottle slip from your fingers

Poem Spam

2008-04-13T19:55:58Z

I do love the last line of this poem.

--

On First Reading Romeo and Juliet

While the rest of us read the death scene,
you twirled your gold-red hair, red
like the inside of a pomegranate,
spun it around
your index finger
in spirals.

Maggie,
you didn't know that in a certain light
sun motes glinted
off your hair, not quite copper,
not quite bronze, but something
more rare.

When the bell rang right in the middle
of Romeo's final soliloquy,
you closed your book and tossed
your tresses, all fourteen-year-old
nonchalance, then strolled past Jimmy Dimouli,
the dumb kid who'd read the part of Romeo
you'd ignored

You made your exit like a star, hair
trailing behind--a fiery comet
showering particles of gold
at Jimmy's feet.

Maggie,
you didn't notice him, star-struck,
spiraling like a solar win toward Earth,
half a soliloquy stuck in his throat.

- Diane Lockward

Not dead.

2007-08-29T20:16:25Z

Not been updating recently. Mostly because all I have right now is free floating gloom and non sequiturs. Even I'm not interested in my free floating gloom, and while the non sequiturs may possibly be of interest to someone out there, the gloom has somehow killed my ability to make words do the things I want them to. Thus, no updates.

(And also no writing. Which is probably the part that's making me crazy right now. My orginal fiction = my therapy.)

--

Here, this is something fun to read: True Porn Clerk Stories. Very funny and makes you think at times.

Briefly

2007-08-04T20:34:27Z

See how I didn't watch the Formula 1 qualifying and thus didn't jinx McLaren like last time?

*

Having fannish geek friends really is fabulous. Nothing beats brunch, cowriting a HP fic that we both know will never get finished, and talking about everything from marmite to NaNoWriMo.

*

FYI, I'm on both GreatestJournal and InsaneJournal as anachronistics if the LJ deletion asshattery thing persists, but probably won't be doing anything drastic unless things get out of hand.

Looking like John Oliver

2007-07-27T21:20:25Z

There's this running joke in my family that I look a lot like John Oliver off The Daily Show. ("Seriously, I think he could be your long lost brother or something.") I had my hair cut quite dramatically short today and the first thing my mother says when she sees me: "Hey! Now you look just like John Oliver!"

Hee. But seriously, my hair is really fabulous right now. *loves* I do absolutely adore my hairdresser for putting up with my cluelessness about what exactly I want to do with it and just employing some kind of telepathy to make it perfect anyway.

--

Link: John Oliver on TDS about the flooding.

HP. The End. No Spoilers.

2007-07-22T21:24:36Z

Well, I finished the book a few hours ago. Yeah, I took my sweet time with this one. My opinion? I quite liked it, yes. Some parts not so much, some parts more with the jumping up and down "eee!" but by the end of it, it levels out as a thumbs up from me.

And considering that my general track record with finales of things (books, TV shows, movies) is fairly terrible, usually involving considerable apathy, gloom and dissatisfaction, you have no idea how glad I am to be able to say I liked the ending of the book series that brought me into fandom.

Brief non-book stuff

2007-07-21T15:31:52Z

Note to self: There is a reason you never watch F1 qualifying. That reason is that every time you do, things go horribly wrong for the driver you're rooting for, usually in a crashy way.

This is the first one I've watched this season, and go figure this happens. *sigh* Glad he's not hurt.

...why yes, I am made entirely out of superstition when it comes to sport.

NO BOOK.

2007-07-21T11:07:17Z

Oh flist, you all have the boooook! And I do not! *kicks the postal service*

I'm holding out hope it will turn up in the next few hours, otherwise I'm getting hooked up with the leaked pdf. Because dammit, I have paid for this book already and I should have it. *grumbles*

ETA: BOOK!!

Procrastinating

2007-07-17T22:27:40Z

Ok, that epilogue thingy for Deathly Hallows that's floating around had better be a fake because some prat just spoiled me for its contents and oh, I will be so pissed if that troll has just ruined the ending for me.

The thing is, I wouldn't have been that annoyed about the spoilerage if I hadn't just seen OotP today (more thoughts on that later) which has rekindled my give-a-damn for the HP 'verse. I'd forgotten how much of that book I really did adore, between the filler. But yeah, <33333. *reads fic*

*

At some point I really do need to go through the big list of bookmarked links marked "To read properly when I have more time" skimmed off the flist while I was on holiday. Not to mention the stuff I missed completely while I was In Transit. But it's somewhat intimidating in length so *hides* and *is a bad person*.

*

ALTERED STATES FICATHON.

loneraven's doing a poll to gauge interest in an Altered Mental States Multifandom Ficathon, (and separately a Slings and Arrows ficathon).

Writers, readers, anyone in the slightest bit interested, go and vote in the poll.

/pimping

Back in the UK, and Wimbledon

2007-07-08T17:50:43Z

Went up from Malacca to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Flew back to Birmingham airport... *looks at calender* yesterday. Ish. Am now back, albeit with a deep hatred of Birmingham airport for having the most bloody finicky, superior, troublesome immigration people I've ever had the displeasure of meeting.

But yes. Back. Arrived in time to watch the Wimbledon Men's final, which was amazing in every way, and now I'm... too tired to finish this sentence?

*falls over, a la Federer*

This country

2007-07-02T07:45:00Z

Sometimes this country is completely insane and not in the good way.

I'm sitting in a room now with people trying to mastermind a strategy of getting my cousin out of Malaysia permanently to have a new start, because her converting from Islam has wrecked her life here.

Stupid, Cool, and Doc Who

2007-07-01T09:43:33Z

Floods are judgement on society, says Bishop. For fuck's sake. Particularly that pro-gay laws have apparently "provoked God".

This Visual Dictionary, however, is pretty cool. *plays with it*

*

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get hold of the Doctor Who finale right now, which appears to have been something of a love-hate thing with people. Erk?

I have to say, I'd completely forgotten it had aired yesterday in the UK. Right now in the Portuguese Settlement bit of Malacca, it's Festa San Pedro. Or rather, it was; it starting last Saturday and ended yesterday. There have been decorated fishing boats, fairs, markets and (really, really awful) concerts every evening.

Also, sport has somewhat eaten my brain, too. I love that this is a house full of sports fanatics here - it's been all about Wimbledon, motorsport and football transfer rumours, so the main event everyone's thinking about on the weekend is the French Grand Prix this afternoon.

(Incidentally, yay Lewis Hamilton for qualifying second. And everyone started laughing when they heard about Fernando Alonso tenth, aw. *likes him just a bit*)

*

Good grief, it's hot. *melts*

Morse Code Slash

2007-06-29T07:31:20Z

This is the reason I am now fluent in Morse Code.

(Tch, I don't even slash Sam/Dean, but the geekiness compelled me.)

Flooding and brief Doc Who - The Sound of Drums reaction

2007-06-25T10:17:18Z

I watched The Sound of Drums last night after miraculously managing to get it downloaded on the useless internet connection in the family house here.

(Incidentally, said family house was very nearly flooded a few hours ago. Torrential rain all morning (we're talking don't-even-bother-with-that-umbrella-because-the-rain-will-BREAK-IT rain here) and the nearby field was a lake for a little while. Has now receded to merely a swamp.)

Anyway. Thanks to that episode, I've spent this morning pondering why I'd be one of those really useless always-gets-caught supervillians (and why the Master is > most for that) whilst tapping out the diddly dum beat without realising it.

Oh, Doctor Who ILU.

Arrived, with internet

2007-06-23T11:09:06Z

Have arrived safely in Malaysia. Happily no jetlag, yay!

Stuff and things in no particular order...

- Main thing I have learned from that journey: never mix travel sickness pills with painkillers if you want to be able to, you know, walk straight and stuff.

- Dubai airport where we changed planes is completely crazy. Busy and confusing, but the cheap duty free means I've now got an 80G iPod for about £50 less than if I'd bought it in England.

- Emirates? Fantastic for fancy touch screen TV thingies on the plane. Not so good for organisation, or getting planes out on time. I had ample time for a refreshing 1-hour nap while waiting in the departure lounge for the connecting flight. Woke up and had to wait another twenty minutes to board,

- 'The Economist' is fabulous and everyone should read it. *hearts*

- God, they seriously butcher films on flights. In Casino Royale, they got rid of out whole plot-related sections, and cut down many of Le Chiffre's scenes, as well as the shower bit, and enough of the torture scene to render it completely dramatically ineffective. Bah. I'm also certain they cut at least one of M's really good lines.

- Missing Doctor Who tonight. *sads*

- Thierry Henry's gone to Barcelona? Am surprisingly depressed to hear this, considering I didn't think I cared that much about Arsenal, and have been largely indifferent to all the newspaper rumuors about Henry.

Going, going, still going....

2007-06-21T14:16:02Z

Need to be out of house in less than twenty minutes.

STILL PACKING.

Will probably not be around for at best, a few days, at worst, over a fortnight.

*waves goodbye*

Whovianism, birthdays, football, blind panic. Not in that order.

2007-06-20T22:11:25Z

Going off for two weeks to visit family in Malaysia tomorrow. Should be packing now. *procrastinates by watching football and reading Doc Who meta*

England U21 football team, incidentally, must've broken some sort of record for epic penalty shootouts, and also, SO MUCH LOVE. This is one of those cases where the result is just irrelevant. They were practically falling over by the end of that game, some playing on injured, and still kept going and oh, so proud of them.

A few pics of the U21s during training being dorky and slashy and generally love.

How can you not adore these guys?

*

You know you've spent too long in time travel fandoms when...

... friends are discussing Captain Jack and trying to wrap their minds around the possibility of three Jacks in one time period, and not only does it make perfect sense to you, but you say "Actually, I think there may have been four."

*

Had a fabulous three-weeks late birthday thingy two days ago. Presents included a handmade comic of my life, a lovely backwards-and-upside-down notebook (on the front, the question "Are you normal?" and a picture of a little stick person with a giant speech bubble "No!"), a DVD of Withnail & I, and numerous cards containing computer jokes, punning and sheep fancying.

All this interspersed with the people I love best in the world, fandom talk, pizza and giant chocolate donut metaphors.

Basically, not just the best belated birthday ever, but best birthday ever.

*

OH GOD THIS TIME TOMORROW I'M GOING TO BE ON A PLANE TO KUALA LUMPUR. WHY THE FUCK HAVEN'T I PACKED?

... Too close to midnight to pack now. And this is one really appropriate icon.

Doc tor Who - Utopia

2007-06-16T20:42:59Z

Oh, Doctor Who.

I am a happy, happy fangirl. Especially in the slasher department and the shallow department. (Not to say that the plot wasn't mind-blowing too.)

This one I'll be downloading to watch again and again, certainly. Jack and the Doctor were joyous and I want to marry the radiation room scene. Also in the category of things I want to marry? DAVID TENNANT. It's taken me two seasons and some fancy red lighting, but that smouldering hot of his that all the fangirls have been talking about has finally kicked in for me.

*afterthought* And yes, general fabulous acting too from DT.

Oh, and those looks he was giving Jack through the window? *slashes*

Incredibly absorbing episode all round, with too much good to list really. Lovely tension and pacing, dialogue, acting, casting, the funny, and that was so much better an episode than I thought Russell T Davies was capable of writing.

Oh, I am made of lust and squee right now. *fangirls RTD* *licks John Simm and DT*

Side note of dirty-bad-wrong: If he's going to say 'Master' in that particular way, there is only one thing I am going to think. *raises eyebrow*

Next week needs to be tomorrow. *hyped*

...

*sudden realisation* I WILL BE OUT OF THE COUNTRY NEXT WEEK. Bugger.

The Web's the world's greatest library, but some of the books are burning

2007-05-30T13:48:59Z

ETA: All fixed now ftw!

So, that's pornish_pixies gone then, in what we seem to be calling Strikethrough 2007. (I hear people are getting the lawyers out? But that's not the point of this post.)

That's the thing that just plain sucks about internet fandom - how easily things can just disappear. People who have always been there just dropping off the face of the earth all of a sudden, places and stories that mean something to you not being there when you wake up in the morning.

I haven't been in HP fandom for a long, long time but it was my first fandom and if it wasn't for accidentally stumbling onto the pixies comm, I may never have found LJ, LJ fandom and all you people.

That was four or five years ago now. Back then I didn't know what a blog was and I didn't know any of the fandom language and that resulted in my reading a fic on schnoogle.com labelled "noncon" and... oh, I don't remember all the warnings except that I didn't understand any of them, but some serious dark stuff there. Anyway, it was the first good quality story I ever read and the content scared the hell out of me (nearly scared me off completely) but the writer and the calibre of the writing really made me think.

Somehow from that writer, I found LiveJournal, and the rest is ~~pornography~~ history.

I looked for that story recently and I found out it had been removed from all archives, even the writer's LJ because it turned out it broke some laws in the writer's country. I looked for it long and hard, contacted the writer, searched my own past computer files, but no, it was gone.

And now what was my first ever experience with LiveJournal is gone too. Times like this, I get the urge to back up everything because it's like someone's gradually erasing bits of my history.

*sigh* I need to be less of a packrat about memory, but I always worry that if I don't have something written to hold on to and look back at, I'll lose it and I couldn't bear that.

Eurovision Song Contest

2007-05-12T19:42:51Z

Oh, Eurovision, Terry Wogan. Love. Didn't watch it last year or the year before; had forgotten how fabulously crack filled it is.

Wogan snarking at the show hosts. "Will they fall in love? No, they're going to shout a lot. And mention Helsinki every ten seconds. Ah look, there's the first. And the second. Third..."

Oooh, Bosnia's pretty. Her dress a bit less so. Looks like some sort of algae pudding. Song boring.

Spain - "Thrusting trousers and women pretending to play the drums." So much white clothing omg.

Belarus - "A fine big boy in black with a whale's toenail around his nail." And oh, bwahahahah! Can't stop laughing at this guy.

Finland - oh, cheery. Song called "Leave Me Alone". Very emo. I can't help but laugh at the fake wind blowing her hair around.

Oh, Macedonia. Very nice but has forgotten most of her skirt. And then a return of the gale force winds which really could've been very unfortunate for her lack-of-skirt.

Slovenia with something operatic... and a fascination with her right hand? Oh, she's got some kind of light on it. Good grief, that was a bit creepy there. (Wogan - "The real title of this song is 'Talk to the Hand'.")

And Hungary have a big bus stop. Ok.

Bog football? ... dude.

Greece - Aww. *double take* Looks amusingly like Cesc Fabregas! Bwah! *votes for Greece for the comedy value*

Sweden - Very gender ambiguous until he started singing! Oh, this is fabulous, this. And eee, it gets even more extravagent! Spinning on a... spinny thing on the floor and taking off his shirt.

Wogan on the pink dress girl they pulled from the crowd being a presenter - "This must have seemed like a terribly good idea at the time..."

France are stupidly catchy. And stupid amounts of pink. <3

Latvia win for wearing top hats! And holding roses!

Russia - "These are three convent educated girls, I'd say." Christ, what exactly are they singing? "My bad ass is beating for you", I heard first time wtf. "Bad ass feeling for you"?

Germany - I really wish I'd been able to understand more of the German considering I studied it for quite a long time.

Serbia have got some nice lesbianism going on there. They're like, in one clump, hands everywhere.

oh, impending Ukraine...

Ukraine! Drag queen! Wearing tinfoil? Do they have lyrics beyond the "Eins, Zwei" thing? Oh, yes, they do. Sort of. Oh, dancing! Such colossal, camp dorks. There's not way to quite describe that. You have to see it to believe it.

Scooch, oh god, they're ours. Aw. *kind of likes them* *actually kind of loves them a little bit* Endless airport props and innuendo!

Romania - Ooh, how many languages are they going to sing it in? *loves*

Bulgiaria with much drumming. And Turkey... shaking it.

Armenia have tree! With bits of cloth tied to it! Drumming, pan pipes and... is that a Red Indian? Wtf bleeding? Where did that come from?

Oh, I like Moldova quite a lot. Dramatic and with a violin.

The amount of Santa is quite confusing. Easy to to forget it's practically summer.

Did he just say Apocolyptica are playing? Hey, I actually know them! They're the ones with the cellos, yes? *has not one but two of their tracks*

Circus! *is quite terrified by the bloke in the bubble swallowing the fluorescent tube*

The voting - goodness there are a lot of countries in Europe. Looks like Serbia have won it, and omg we didn't end up with nil points! Ireland gave us some, then Malta gave us the full 12 points!

Congrats to Serbia! More lesbianism, now with national flag!

And we only came second last. Sadly, Ireland came last. We need to recruit some countries so we can have a political voting bloc too. Maybe we can invite Malta, considering they were so unexpectedly nice to us.

Aimlessness

2007-05-07T18:21:06Z

I'm done. I'm done, I'm done, I'm done.

Well, with Things and Variations of Things, at any rate. And as those are the only things that require actual effort, I'm done! Oddly though, I'm feeling less relieved and more kind of pointless and drained. Been watching Disney films, old episodes of The West Wing, drinking a whole lot of tea and catching up on sleep again.

Also, been thinking about next year. I feel like I've spent the whole of the past 12 months or more just trying to get to this point, to this mythical next year, when I'll be going to New York, learning some Italian, doing a lot of new things that I can't wait for.

And now I'm basically done with this year, but next year's not here yet. *drifts aimlessly and without purpose wtf*

--

The world of football seems to be drifting into the aimless vague place that I'm currently inhabiting. The situation at the top of the Premiership is settled and at the bottom, well, I don't care that much.

The Championship is over, and my Wolves miraculously didn't screw it up at the last minute and managed to make the play offs. I mean, I don't think we'll win the play offs because we have no defense, but still, it's fabulous and the future's bright considering we started with basically no team and got to where we are with mostly kids and bargains bought in the January transfers.

Plus, the fans have got faith in the team again, which is wonderful. The two matches I actually got to see this season, Wolves lost both times but I still went home dead proud of them.

In summary, football = ♥.

--

Doctor Who, The Lazarus Experiment:

Excellent episode, if with a slightly dodgy plot. Excellent performance from Mark Gatiss, who incidentally looked exactly like Peter Davison's Doctor.

Also, as has been pointed out by fandom, the Doctor saved the day with his mighty organ! Hee.

As for the trailer, mostly my reactions can be summed up like so: Jack yay! John Simm yay! I think my brain may actually now be wired to see John Simm and go 'eee!', all Pavlovian like.

Memes and The Thing

2007-04-25T17:53:45Z

*flails* I have to do The Thing tomorrow. The Thing that involves public speaking and the possibility of me knowing very little and screwing it up entirely. Which I suppose isn't the end of the world, really, in the long term. But I just have to get through it.

And then I have to get through the Variation on The Thing next Friday. But then, then I'm done and the world will be all sunshine and rainbows.

Also? Completely out of nowhere, I seem to be getting a sore throat and cold. Why, universe, why? In two weeks time you can give me the flu or something, whatever you like, but just not now, ok?

--

Visual DNA meme (pure joy if you're a picture person like me):

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

I've also got the "explain three interests/user icons" meme to do at some point, which I really must get round to because it's rather fabulous and everyone should do it.

--

Hmm, football tonight. But alas, it is Chelsea v Liverpool which I hate to watch. It's so stressy it actually make The Thing sound appealing. So, actually, lucky it's on today, really - I'll avoid the match and actually prepare for The Thing like I ought to.

Doc Who, "Gridlock", plus a rec

2007-04-14T19:36:27Z

Oh, Doctor who, you're just my weekly joy time (with occasional crying time) now, aren't you? ♥ ♥ ♥ *loves everything* I especially love what this show does with the minor characters. I mean, I don't even pick up their names half the time but I do get attached.

And that was totally the set up for the Master turning up in the season finale, wasn't it? *joy*

---

Rec:

Everyone, absolutely everyone needs to go and read this fic by alyse. It's Meta/Fandom slash. It's clever, it's riotously funny and also? Pretty damn hot.

anachronistics @ 2007-04-10T22:26:00

2007-04-10T21:41:24Z

So, I watched the football instead of the Life on Mars finale. But I'm watching it now and huge thanks to the flist for not spoiling me.

--

God, that was a good match. Similarly amazing was the post match interview with John Terry, wherein manager Jose Mourinho suddenly charged in, yelling with happiness and hugged him. Always good for bringing the slash, are Chelsea, but this is something else. I'm still semi-convinced it was a hallucination.

--

John Simm is breaking me with his acting, ai.

ETA: *tacklehugs LoM* Oh, win. Vaguely confusing in a wait-what-exactly-just-happened? sort of way, but oh, most definitely win.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

2007-04-10T14:28:13Z

Hey, look, I'm on the BBC!

Well. The footie chant I submitted got picked for the BBC Sports Quotes of the Week page.

"Where's your statue gone?"
Sung by Wolves fans to Southampton fans after Saints were forced to pull down an embarasssingly out of proportion tribute to Ted Bates. (Joey, UK).

My team, Wolves, lost six nil - our worst defeat this season and a home defeat no less. Well, at least when we fuck up, we do it spectacularly, eh? Anyway, by the time Southampton had scored five goals we'd basically given up on the match and were doing Mexican waves and singing. The Jack Harris stand and the Steve Bull stand had a little chant war with each other for a bit before Jack Harris starting singing at the Saints fans. Because hey, we may be losing but at least we've got really cool statues.

Another of the Jack Harris hits that made it to the site:

"We're gonna win 7-6..."
Wolves fans, with five minutes to go, keep the faith as they trail 6-0 at home to Southampton. (Ed, England).

Oh, Wolves. Truly, the only thing you could do was laugh at that point.

And a word from the manager:

"I ******g hope so!"
Mick McCarthy, Wolves manager, when asked by a reporter if their 6-0 loss at home was a one-off. (Matt Varndell, England).

Mick ♥

the Sky box saga, plus poetry.

2007-04-10T09:26:55Z

I'm on hold.

I've been on hold so long I've been starting to forget that I'm on hold.

On the plus, when I finally get through this hold purgatory, they say they're going send round a guy to fix it for free.

*

Here, have some poetry. I'm told it's national poetry month at the moment. Admittedly, not in my country, but what the hell.

Eve Argues Against Perfection

And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat.
-- Genesis 3:13

Beguiled, my ass. I said no such thing.
You say I lost the gift of Paradise.
I couldn't lose what I never had.

You say the serpent tempted me to eat.
You omit that he entered the Garden
on two legs and walked like a man.

And here's what your story always ignores:
I had pure gold, rare perfume, precious stones,
but Adam hadn't touched me all those years.

Perfection in the Garden didn't mean that way.
Not having it and not wanting it
was God's idea of perfection, not mine.

So when that serpent strolled up to the tree,
all upright and fine, he threw off the balance,
and I began to pray, Oh, let him be mine.

When he held out the apple, so round and lush,
when he stroked it to a keen red glow,
I didn't fall to temptation -- I rose to it.

I ate that apple because I was hungry.
I wanted what lay outside of Paradise,
a world without the burden of perfection.

Now you call all sinful women my sisters.
I say, let them claim their own damn sins.
The apple may not be perfect, but it's mine.

[Taken from "Eve's Red Dress" by Diane Lockward]