Memorabilia was fun, as usual. I spent way too much this time, even though the one thing I'd been hoping to find, I didn't. But money well spent: Christmas gifts for two friends, more pics for my slash wall and more Supernatural autographs. Probably my last Supernatural autographs, as I won't be going to Asylum 4 or 5 (unless by some miracle they book JDM. But I don't see that happening). But there's a little unsigned space left on my box set, should a company capable of organising a piss-up in a brewery start running SPN cons in the UK.

Oh, but even more fun than Memorabilia was the German market in Birmingham city centre. I went exploring there with ynys_crodden on Friday. It was huge with some fantastic stalls and boy if I hadn't been travelling by coach I could have spent a fortune there, too. Those hats! And puzzles! And food. Lots and lots of food. But coach does rather limit what you can carry :( There were these chocolate-covered marshmallow thingies that...oh, boy. Very rich but so very tasty!

George's funeral is tomorrow. Sis, Mum and the UselessFiance^(TM) are all going. I am staying home to work on my Yuletide assignment and dog-sit overnight. I will take advantage of having the kitchen to myself and I'm going to make lemon-roast chicken and maybe some shortbread if I've got enough sugar.

Weather is crap, which will come as no surprise to the Brits on my flist. On the way back from Memorabilia my coach went through Monmouth and the flooding there is awful. Not in the town so much, but around it. Fortunately flooding is not a worry where I live - I'm atop a hill - but there's been a lot of damage in the surrounding areas.

Also...after Merlin on Saturday I'm kinda craving BDSM slash with Arthur as the sub...does such a thing even exist?

Crossposted from my Dreamwidth journal. comments at Dreamwidth.

Tags: misc:random

I impulsively bought a copy of BBC Good Food magazine for the Christmas recipes...boy, I'd forgotten how much I love this magazine! I am really tempted to get a subscription again. Two problems with that:

1. With the whole thing of having to battle Mum and Sis for time in the kitchen, I don't get to properly cook very often. When I do, it has to be either slow-cooker stuff or fast-to-prepare stuff, or it's not worth the hassle from them.

2. I've got three mags on subscription already, including the SPN magazine. I should really give one of those up if I'm going to get another, if only on the principle that I don't have time to read more.

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I've enjoyed reading everyone's reaction-posts to Waters of Mars, so much so I decided to watch it. (Note: not a Who fan.) Not bad. Not fantastic, but I did enjoy it. I suspect there was stuff in there I didn't 'get' because I lack the background, but it's a huge improvement on the odd episodes I've seen. I like the whole moral dilemma thing.

Just out of curiosity...

Question: given that the Doctor travels in time, is it possible for him to meet himself? Or to visit the same time more than once? (I gather doing so is probably agains the rules, but is it possible in this 'verse?)

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Chai latte and the company of a good friend may not fix everything, but it sure makes things better. Thanks, Mel. I really needed that :)

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I have an actual outline for my Yuletide fic! And 250 words written. Here's hoping it continues.

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I've been checking out Google Wave. It's in closed beta (they call it "limited preview") and I can't actually get in, but I've been reading and researching. I can imagine it being a nightmare as a social networking tool (at least for the anti-social like myself), but I think it would be a brilliant way to beta a fic. I mean, to really beta, not just proof-read. It will let you make comments or even have threaded conversations within a document; let multiple people edit the document directly; let you "replay" so you can see who changed what and change it back if needed; and when you're done you can strip out all the commentary and be left with a neat, polished document. Or, in this case, fic. Of course, both writer and beta(s) would have to be Wave users, but who doesn't use Google for something these days?

There's definitely potential for both good and evil in this one. But I still registered for an invite so I can explore further.

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Speaking of fandom (well, I was, sort of), is it too weird that I really want this book just because it's got a vague link to my favourite detective?

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Procrastination, thy name is Morgan. Got to read a chapter before I sleep and here I am blogging instead. *sigh*

Crossposted from my Dreamwidth journal. comments at Dreamwidth.

Tags: misc:random

I updated my laptop to Windows 7 over the weekend. ( Sure, Windows is evil, but... )

Crossposted from my Dreamwidth journal. comments at Dreamwidth.

Tags: misc:random

On Sunday I finished the last essay assignment for my first OU course. An odd assignment that - it was supposed to be done under faux-exam-conditions (i.e. timed, and without access to notes or books, though the question was supplied in advance). The doing it from memory part was easy (I don't have a photographic memory but I have a very good one); timing it, however, proved near impossible as in spite of my begging indulgence from family I was constantly interrupted. I think I was a tad ambitious in how much I wanted to get into the essay, too, and ran out of time at the end so my conclusion sucks. Still, hopefully it's good enough and I will mail it off today.

Then I have a break from study until the next course begins in November.

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I'm a big fan of sushi. That is, the kind of sushi you can buy on the high street and eat with those tiny fake-chopsticks; I've never had a chance to try the real thing.

Over the weekend I was searching for recipe books to see if I could try making my own, and instead I discovered bento. What a fantastic idea! I found a couple of places in the UK that sell bento boxes - and it would be easy enough to improvise one anyhow - so all I need is to figure out how to make the stuff. I can improvise a lot, but there are a few Japanese ingredients I'd want to use and I don't really know anywhere locally that supplies them. It's not exactly Tesco-fayre.

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Plan for tonight: catch up on the first episodes of Eastwick. gwendolynflight was kind enough to let me know it's safe to watch, but I put it off because I was reading Andrea Dworkin for that essay I mentioned. I figured that level of irony would be a little too much even for me.

I'm 99% sure I wasn't hallucinating...but I'd really like to know why there was a 8 foot-high purple handbag outside the Capitol shopping centre this morning.

Heads up - I'm gonna bite the bullet and rename my LJ this weekend. (Kip, that's why I haven't posted yet about the thing we were discussing; I don't want to confuse people by starting out with one name and switching mid-conversation to another! But I'm on board and will post soon.)

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I have actually been watching Torchwood. I am not a fan: they lost me with episode one (Rape is not funny. Ever). But they filmed part of the current series a stone's throw from my house...so I had to watch, just to see.

The bastards CGI-ed in some trees or you'd be able to see my bedroom window! No one cares but me, I'm sure, but still.

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My website is down - creative-imperative.net. Or at least, it's down for me. It's the only one of my sites still with that particular web host; and it's been three days with no response to my attempts to contact tech support. They're notorious for this. And now I can't even log in to the support site...I'm wondering if the company finally folded, but Google yields no information. So far.

The same thing happened a few years ago when I had the Stargate Fan Awards site hosted there but that righted itself eventually and by then I'd moved the site in question. This time...well, the Creative Imperative site was screwy anyhow because they upgraded something and it broke my galleries. I hadn't found time to put everything right. Wasn't bothered as long as my fic archive still worked.

The good part: I have the domain registered via an independent company so if I have to dump the site, I can. It's only still there because I'm lazy. The bad: if I do that, I think I've lost a lot of my archived fic. The HTLJ, Buffy/Angel, Sentinel and most of my SPN fic is safe in AO3 and the SPN fics I don't have archived there are on LJ. But my Stargate and Highlander stories will be gone. Some of the SG fic is probably still at Area52 and I have some on my hard drive, I'm certain, but probably not all of them. My Highlander fic was never archived anywhere else. And it'll take me forever to rebuild the site properly. If I have to.

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I was sick with a migraine on Tuesday; this means I now have to go caffeine-free for at least a week. As a pain-management strategy it works - I get far fewer headaches and when it's bad enough to make me spend a day in bed it doesn't last more than that day. In the past I was losing two or three days at a time, every month.

But the downside of cutting out the caffeine is obvious - I can't. stay. awake. Fell asleep on a two-minute bus journey yesterday and ended up in the city centre when I meant to get off at Tesco! This is why I can't cut out the caffeine entirely...well, that and my Cafe Nero addiction.

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Crossposting from Dreamwidth is a PITA from work. It's likely not DW's fault but the ancient browser I'm forced to use here doesn't display the update page properly. So I can't tag or set a mood...can't change the icon half the time. PITA!

Do you ever find that, when things are placed next to each other, it sort of implies a connection? You know, like ham and eggs.

Sis and the Useless Boyfriend^TM have a habit of leaving odd things beside the front door, so they don't forget to take them when they leave for...whatever. Seems like a bad idea to me with three chew-happy dogs in the household, but it's their stuff. So okay.

Right now, in the space by the front door is Useless Boyfriend^TM's pool cue (he always plays on Sunday evenings) and a long electrical extension lead complete with safety surge protector.

I'm at a total loss to figure out why he needs an extension lead twice the length of our garden to play pool. Do you have to plug a cue in these days?

Oh! While I'm here, thanatos_kalos as suspected the movie was not in English: Mandarin with English subtitles and occasional irritating English voiceover. Pretty darn poor subtitles (misspelled, and occasionally totally wrong word was used - it was like reading bad fanfic). You might enjoy it: there was lots of stuff about desert warfare and strategy *ducks*

I am not naturally optimistic...but today I bought a proper picnic set from Lakeland: cool bag including plastic plates and suchlike for four people. It even has a matching blanket. If you can see what the weather's like around here today, you probably know why I'm calling it an optimistic purchase! A four person set is optimistic another way, too - I don't have that many friends living near me (and picnic with family isn't going to happen - sis likes BBQ instead). So I'm not likely to pack a four person picnic any time soon.

But when the weather improves, I am determined to use it. Even if it's only Saturday lunch in Bute park, and even if I end up picnicking alone, I'm going to use it. I'd really like to take a day or two at the beach, too; again weather permitting. The beach thing, though - that's not good to do alone. If only because I can't go and get wet unless there's someone to watch my stuff while I do it :-) One of the few regrets I have about never learning to drive is not being able to head to the beach whenever I want to. I have to plan.

So. What's good to go in a picnic? Any recs?

It is possible I am becoming addicted to Cafe Nero's chai latte.

I had one a couple of weeks ago while out with thanatos_kalos and I can't stop thinking about it!

Starbucks also have chai latte on the menu, but would it be the same?

Guys, under the cut is a review of Mama Mia by BBC film reviewer Mark Kermode - it's a YouTube vid so I hope non-UK folks can still see it.

I just saw the movie myself and I will write my own review of it later, but Mark's review is so spot-on and so hilarious I just had to share it. It's a video of a radio broadcast, BTW, so the movie clip included is audio-only.

( Video under the cut - it does include some spoilers for the movie. )