Time Is Not An Infinite Dimension In Space

12:50pm: Happy new year
So I apparently started the new year by beating myself up with a TINY CARDBOARD TAG in the night. Seriously, there's blood all over the bed. WTF, world?

Went to toilet in night, got back in, scratched hip on something, went "ow". Couldn't find anything, still halfasleep, thought it must have been oddly sharp feather, went back to sleep.

In morning, my trousers slip down my hip, Hugh goes "OW" and touches SEVERAL INCHES LONG SCRATCH over my hip. Investigate, there is a tiny stiff cardboard tag (the sort you get on clothes) in bed and blood all over sheet (seriously all over sheet. I apparently rolled about. There are spatter patterns).

If I stretch my hand out the cut goes from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my middle finger. I repeat, TINY CARDBOARD TAG. How?

4:11pm: Yuletide Recs!
Time for my recs - which for some reason all appear to be books, mostly YA. Apparently I have a Type for stuff I like.

( CHERUB, Queen's Thief, Tillerman Cycle, Chalet School,Peter Pan, Hexwood )

12:04pm: Hunger Games
Oh god. After hearing the Hunger Games trailer was out, Hugh made me watch it. Well, NOW I know why I heard people comparing it to Twilight *flails*.

People-who-have-not-read-the-books, can I just say that they've pretty much taken at least 50% of the even SLIGHTLY smooshy moments out of the first book and stuck them in that trailer? This is not generally a smooshy book. It is a book where the heroine spends most of her time thinking "How can I fake being smooshy for the publicity?" If they're trying to keep the mood in the trailer up for most of the film well, uh. They can't unless they rewrite.

Seriously, this is a series unsmooshy enough that my husband loved it. WTF, film trailer people?

(The book does however have the awesome aspect of the heroine viewing everything in light of her relationship with her younger sister. Which I loved.)

5:22pm: Dear Yuletide Writer..
Right! Time to sit down and write my Yuletide letter. Except, you know, I have a sinus headache and Sudafed is making the world all floaty so ignore anything particularly incoherent.

( CHERUB, Queen's Thief, Fire and Hemlock and Ender's Game )

10:00pm: How did this happen?

Sept11

Her name is Omni. She was a stray who, apparently, comes with the bungalow. And, the vet says today, she is not in heat nor pregnant.

Because she's a boy.

Oops?

10:33am: 4 days to go!
Due to our Order of Service getting printed on the wrong card and subsequently reprinted, we have approximately 130 spares if anyone would like a copy posting after the honeymoon.

Also, NOT LONG NOW!

5:37pm: Getting rid of ALL OF THE THINGS!
Amazon

Bookmooch

eBay

Adding things pretty much constantly right now so keep an eye on things! All sorts going up from books, gadgety things, manga, DVDs... you get the idea.

5:31pm: Book Swappin'!
Currently in the process of ebaying/Amazon marketplace/car booting/bookmooching/freecycling EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD before we get ready to move. More on that, with links, in a bit (anyone wanna buy Dr Who audio tapes plays?)

One of the things Hugh has in abundance is Star Trek/Star Wars/Dr Who novels. He collects them and there's a big pile of duplicates. They're not worth enough to eBay or Amazon but he would rather swap them for other books of the same sort that he hasn't got than just chuck them into bookmooch's big points bath and hope Who or Trek books come up.

So, if I typed up a list would anyone be interested in swapping dupes? I know I have folk on here who might.

5:38pm: Holiday Book Recommendations!
So, we now have our honeymoon booked (Corfu, yay!) and I need to contemplate which books to take away with me. This may take a combination of the local humongous book swap store, ebay, Amazon, bookmooch and having my birthday just after I leave as two weeks is an awesome amount of reading (and my Kindle is NOT going near the pool!) so I figured I would lean on you folks for recs.

Things I like and things I don't

• No books available just in hardback! Too heavy!


• I like Mercedes Lackey but it's horrible to source over in the UK. I liked Protector of the Small too.


• Like the CHERUB series, disliked Alex Rider. I need a certain amount of realism in my kiddy spies


• Have a YA weakness in general actually. Megan Whalen-Turner was my last really good discovery in that area.


• Have a great fondness for both Diana Wynne Jones and Diane Duane (especially her Wizard series. Rather fond of Jenny Nimmo's Children of the Red King series too.


• Fonder of fantasy than scifi. Never hit it off with Terry Brooks, Piers Anthony is a little TOO light and I grew out of Anne McCaffrey. Got sick of Terry Goodkind too. Melanie Rawn, David Eddings, Robin Hobb are all examples of a style I still love though. And I need to read more Ursala le Guin


• Secret weakness for girly boarding school stories. My Chalet School collection, it grows, slowly and quietly.


• Do I even need to mention Pratchett?

Any recs? Who is everyone reading at present?

11:32pm: The Most Unsuitable Wedding Song List Evar
It became clear, when looking for wedding songs, that it is More Difficult Than You Might Think. I might have four days worth of nonstop songs.. and yet the VAST majority appear to be about breakups, cheating, violence, death, the apocalypse, more sex than I want my elderly relatives to listen to or ALL OF THESE.

So I made an anti-wedding songlist instead, just for fun. (Surprisingly, it was much easier).

First Dance I'll Never Tell

Father:Daughter Papa Don't Preach

Bride: Best Man Take A Chance On Me

Followed by:

• Never Been To Me (Secretly, I really like this song. Yes, I know what it's about but I prefer to treat it as a secret fantasy list. With Yule Brenner.)


• Paradise By The Dashboard Light(listen to the END if you don't know it)


• The Hungry Years


• The Ballad of Barry and Freda (If you have never heard, LISTEN NOW)


• Chain Reaction


• Disco 2000


• Lucky Stars
  
  
• Too Much, Too Little, Too Late

Closing On: Another Suitcase In Another Hall

And not quite making the cut

Are You Happy Now?

If I Wrote You

Better Days

Fast Car

Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?

If You Could Read My Mind

9:53pm: White Collar spoilers
( Click for thoughts )

7:53am: YAY
\o/

12:04am: Free book!
And it's one of my favourite YA authors so I highly suggest trying it.

http://www.cherubcampus.com/freebook

8:08pm: It's Like CSI: Your Mum
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-11912067

I love that this is news

11:38am: Snowed in
Although, at a different house. Hugh came home, got his car stuck at my house, dug MY car out and drove it downhill backwards through snow VERY SLOWLY.

Hugh rocks \o/. And I packed clothes for a week so I'm good.

No uni until it clears a bit. (I could probably make it if I used public transport and didn't mind freezing cold walks through a foot of snow but this? THIS is why I did the running for perfect attendance until now)

And it's STILL snowing. At this point, it's starting to feel like the rice pudding poem, you know..

( Read more... )

Oh look! Snow. Lovely. IT CAN STOP NOW.

1:41pm: Laura is begging favours
For my degree major project (basically my dissertation, but with more practical work) I am designing and building a shared media player. Because I think it would be awesome. You know how people used to all watch TV together and then discuss it next day, and then we all got a million recording devices and iplayer, and then we lost that? Okay, so imagine if you could start up a chat-room with your friends, and everyone signalled ready, and you all could start watching the latest episode of White Collar or whatever simultaneously? And gossip about it as it went on rather than later through LJ or DW. Or if you could run a community which had moderated chats and everyone could pile in and watch CSI S1 together with the moderator starting and controlling it?

(Yes, my project has been inspired by "Dammit, why hasn't someone built this for me yet?". Hush now.)

What I need is people willing to fill in questionnaires for me. There are going to be two sets of those -- one now, and one when I have something built to actually test. However, it's a little more complicated than that.

Because this is for my study, and I'm using actual human people, I need anyone I use to sign an Ethics form (with an actual pen!) which says you've been informed of your rights and are fully aware of what you're signing up for and that I can dissect you (okay, maybe not that last part). I will need you to print it, sign it, and either snailmail it back to me or scan it in for me to print. Without it I cannot use you.

If you're up for that, you are awesome and please let me know and give me your email. I'll send stuff across to you shortly.

7:45pm: I hate winter
Procrastination: When you start laundering bedding you found under the bed which has possibly been there since you moved in.

1:19pm: Is it still just November?
The sky is falling. It is white, and fluffy, and cold and all over the place.

We should totally tell the king.

5:11pm: Dear Yuletide Goat..
Dear Yuletide Goat,

I want... a pony. Unfortunately, I have been informed I can't have a pony. Apparently, even a small one is unlikely to fit in my bedroom. This is terribly sad.

( So, I must ask for fic instead )

Take all of my ideas or none of them and know that whatever you do I will doubtless be very grateful. Thank you very much, yule writer, and have fun with it (I'm holding out for that pony though.)

Laura

9:27am: FIC: Discretion
Title: Discretion
Author: googlebrat
Fandom: Merlin
Rating: G
Genre: Gen, humor
Characters: Arthur/Gwen, Merlin, Morgana, Uther
Summary: Faced with a choice of Gwen leaving Camelot, or Arthur accompanying her into banishment, they come up with a plan b.
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this!
A/N: Queen of Hearts made me laugh a lot, but it struck me that there was a somewhat easier way of dealing with things. Full credit to Blackadder for "Bob".

( Discretion )

Six months later.

“Father, about what you saw – I, I can explain!” Arthur was frantic, chasing at Uther’s heels. This time, this time the rage would no doubt be apoplectic. It might even give Uther a heart attack or something.

Actually, that would probably solve a lot of problems.

Uther laughed, and kept laughing. Arthur stared.

“Don’t be silly, Arthur! I was young once, you know. I do know the temptation of serving boys.”

He did? Arthur almost swallowed his own tongue in shock. It took a moment to find words again. “So, it’s all right?”

“Well, you’re not meant to get caught, I mean it’s hardly the most suitable thing for a young prince..”

It seemed uncannily like a conversation they had already had six months previously. Arthur felt his heart sink. “I just must never see he-him again?” he guessed unhappily.

“What? No, don’t be stupid. You’re hardly going to get him with child, are you? As long as you aren’t going to have a bastard heir about the place, I have no objections.” Uther frowned for a moment. “No, that never works out – child ends up coming back, lots of resentment, tries to replace the rightful heir, all very messy..” He shook his head, as though dislodging a troublesome thought. “No, if you like this – Bob, is it? Just be discreet. Give the boy a permanent post around the palace so he has no incentive to cause trouble, keep him out of the way.”

Arthur nodded dazedly, wondering if this were a dream. Life never went this conveniently well. “Yes father.”

“Good. Just as long as we understand each other.” Uther started to walk away, and then turned back as though remembering. “I find a post like physician works particularly well. Remember, be discreet!”

Be discreet, Arthur thought. Well, he could manage that. At least, until he had to explain to his father that “Bob” was pregnant.

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11:01am: Made in Dagenham
I'm aware I haven't posted much lately, but we saw this last night and it was GOOD.

In short, this is an awesome film about awesome women being awesome and the writers should feel awesome about making it.

UKers, get ye to a cinema while it's still on. Americans.. I suspect you might have to wait for the DVD. Sorry.

5:07pm: I want..
Highlighting software which allows me to highlight parts of adobe acrobat docs/ebooks and reduce them down to the highlighted parts alone with a click, while also allowing me to quickly re-expand by clicking (rightclicking?) again.

Does such a software actually exist, or did I just invent it in my head?

11:33pm: Didn't these used to be more subtle?
*DIES*



LEO AUGUST HOROSCOPE
Luck is on your side and you may win or receive some unexpected good fortune. If you win the lottery now is the time to post some money to a poor astrologer.

7:00pm: Because I rock
Work-based project. Worth 40 credits -- 2 units -- 1/3 of my marks for the year.

...90%

\o/\o/\o/

(to put this in perspective for USers, 70% in the UK is an A. This is PASSING an A and keeping right on running).

If I can hold that next year, I might just be walking away with a First. For a kid who crashed out on A-levels that's pretty damn good.

10:13pm: *dies at free cycle*
"The above has now gone.

Thanks for all the interest.

In case of disappointment, please note that it was actually rather horrible."