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[Nov. 17th, 2009|08:46 pm] |
I have properly given up on NaNo now. I'm deeply disppointed to have to give up my run of three years of wins, but even though I'm over 30,000 words in, I just don't have time to be churning out 2000 words a day. I had to slow down over the weekend because I had hurt my hand and the constant typing wasn't helping it any. I have to type a lot at work, so when I need to rest it, I really can't type at home. That aside, we're off on holiday on Sunday and I have crazy amounts of things to get ready for that, and the house will be ours a week after we get back, so NaNo...? No. Pleased I've done what I've done. Trying to keep doing a little bit because I'd like to tie this story up and there's not too much more to go. It's really not great in places, but there are bits I like, and once it's done I can go back over it and fix some things. Maybe overhaul a few others.
So yes. There we are. I'll post it on the writing blog when I get around to it.
Have made myself a christmas playlist to listen to at work. We sang carols at choir, so obviously I now feel in the christmas mood, albeit a little early. My suggestion that we sing the Coventry Carol was turned down. Which is sad, because it's very pretty, but understandable because it's about dead babies. Not such a fabbie idea since we're supposed to go and sing on hospital wards. It isn't exactly bringing in the christmas cheer...
Which reminds me...
Dear Tori,
You know I love you. It's probably a fairly good bet to say I will buy most things that you release, unless you do something crazy like become completely normal. I can't see an outlandish thing like that ever happening. Although, I am not saying I like everything you've ever done. We need to have words about 'Ireland'. What were you thinking?
But Christmas album? I was sceptical. But it's beautiful. Not too sure about some of the original stuff there (although I do like 'pink and glitter' - the one song that from the title alone, I really was deeply unsure about), but loving the carol mash ups. Much, much love for them. It's very stripped back, but the sounds are gorgeous. Harpsichord, brass band, and a really stunning vocal on 'candle: coventry carol'.
My geeky musical side enjoyed the brief education on the history of carols. I'm not being sarcastic. It really did.
Also, absolute spasms of frickin' DELIGHT over The Light Princess track. I love it.
Actually, Winter's Carol, which is the track from The Light Princess, reminds me of a song that I was possibly thinking of writing, but abandoned. When I say write, I mean just the lyrics, since it was to use in a story. If it was the music side, I might have actually had a chance at getting somewhere.
Anyway, it was for a story and it was supposed to be a song about a personification of winter and one of summer and you know the sort of thing. This track is exactly like that sort of thing. A kind of lovely mythic arc. Anyhow, mine were switched the other way. I had winter as female. I digress. Again.
While the song was sort of mythic, it was actually a caricature of a couple of people and I was going to set the whole thing up so I could have a couple of throw away lines and a joke that I liked. Obviously, I realised that writing a whole bunch of lyrics so I could do a joke was far too much effort. Only I laugh at my jokes anyway. And Bekky sometimes. So I can just do that one in my head and I don't have to write anything. I am not JRR Tolkein. People do not need to stop to sing songs at every opportunity. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|01:09 am] |
Seriously contemplating dropping NaNo. Feeling quite disconsolate about the whole thing. Also feel a need to seriously distract myself with books/games so I don't have to think about flying next week. I've been doing pretty well up to now, but I can feel myself starting to get tense about it.
So, back to NaNo. Doing over 2000 words a day is difficult. Well, yes, obviously. I knew that before. But I didn't realise quite how little time it would leave me to do other things. Which is none, by the way. I'm getting burned out doing this and I'm not at all sure how well it's turning out. I would like to finish the story that I've started (although I'm at the point where I won't sweat it if it turns out to be less than 50K). There's still quite a bit to tell though. I'm getting there in a rambling sort of way. *sigh*
In other news work last week sucked, hence why I'm not talking about it.
I also notice Bekky has clocked up a fabulous word count for today, so go Bekky. Obviously my day one novelling sprint has passed on to her. :) |
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| In need of morale boosting... |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|07:38 pm] |
Oh dear god, what has happened to this story? It started off so well. Really. I actually really love lots about the beginning parts, including my digression on the market tax which briefly led the story off into dangerous 'Phantom Menace' territory. (I still love my market tax digression and have no intention of taking it out. Ever. Also loving the Institute that I have created, as someplace for one of my not-yet-introduced characters to work.) However... what the fuck has happened? I mean, really? It's gone Bleurgh. This is a technical writing word for yuck.
It's the bloody travelling. I knew it was going to be a problem. It's this idea that is in soooo many fantasy novels and yes, I'm doing it too, I shouldn't criticise, but it has to be done (sadly) since I can't think of a creative way around it, of collecting people like Pokemon. You know how it goes. You have the Epic Quest. Then you have to gather the right people to take on the Epic Quest. So that's the bit I have trouble with. The added difficulty is that it isn't so much a quest as a diplomatic 'let's all try to agree on something' thing. Which is good because at the moment my characters are apathetic to the point of being comatose.
One, having been dragged out of her native country with next to no explanation, then dumped in a patch of forest and on the verge of being killed by someone (mistaken identity - best not to ask) is practically on the verge of offering him tea. At least she would if she had any fucking tea. Argh.
I need to spice it up. Am tempted to start dropping bombs or something. But no. That's for later. I am BORED. And I am fed up with 'lots of exposition' 'wander around for a while' 'some more exposition'. At least I have condensed this into ten pages. Most fantasy books take four whole novels to do this bit. Oh why did this seem to be a good idea? Why why why? I mean, it's not that I lack drive. I'm doing ok for that so far. I just have no idea what to do next. I need to either do something daring and ambitious - but not the pink rabbits, as fun as that was last year - or just plod on and hope like hell that I'll come out somewhere the other side. |
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| 5690/50000 |
[Nov. 1st, 2009|11:09 pm] |
Hoping to get a little more done before bed, but day one has been a roaring success! Compared to last year (and what I thought would be my 'easy' NaNo year... so very wrong) when at day one I had a grand total of... 112 words. By day two I had amassed nearly 1300 words. A couple of 6000 words days about half way through saved me. It was a tough year.
So, at current rate my graph thingy tells me I'll be done by Nov 9th. Hahaha. How we laugh. |
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| Widget update... Still not working. |
[Nov. 1st, 2009|04:17 pm] |
4567/50,000
I'm zooming along! I'm nearly a tenth of the way there! This is bloody amazing for the first day! I know lots of people like to get a lot under their belt on the first day as padding for when you inevitably fall off the wagon at around Day 5, but I've always been a bit lazy and taken the "It's only day one, even if I do nothing I've still got loads of time - I can totally do this" which is pretty much my attitude to most things (until day before deadline when I become a blur of frantic activity). I'm not known for my time management skills. Yes, I was known for doing my art homework while lined up outside the classroom waiting to go in. It was art. No one cared.
Aaaanyway. Yes. Going well. I can totally do this by 21st Nov. Totally.
I will need reminding of this in approx. 3 days. Erica, I will be eating diner with you around then. May need a pep talk and moral boost. |
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| Progress so far.... I may even get around to sleeping. |
[Nov. 1st, 2009|01:16 am] |
Bugger. None of the wordcount widgets seem to be working just now. I will put his down to the usual Nov 1st outages at NaNoWriMo central.
Anyhow, up to about 2000 words or so. Not bad at all for an hours work. Admittedly, I've had the previous beginning to draw on, since I knew that was pretty much how I wanted to set this one up (if it ain't broke, don't fix it). While it's good going, please remember I only have until the 21st to get to the 50K mark... So I need to be hitting about 2300 ish words a day. Hoping to be able to get ahead a bit tomorrow and give myself a little leeway for the rest of the week... And you know, if all else fails, I can always go and take out all the hyphens from the Nuathan names (low down cheating tricks will undoubtedly be on the agenda in 21 days time) which should boost the word count considerably. They're also very irritating to type. I forget why I decided this would be a good idea... |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 31st, 2009|12:15 am] |
Finally posted all of last year's NaNo novel on the writing journal. It's reminded me of so many things that I need to change/expand on. And so many things that could be more effectively condensed. Anyway, no time for that now, it will have to wait. I've written some more, the last few months. I just haven't got it stitched together right yet so I might have a crack at that in December.
I am sure there was something else but the night has eaten my brain.
Congrats again, Bek. :) |
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[Oct. 28th, 2009|09:25 pm] |
Yes, it rained in Glasgow.
In choir we sang The Lamb for the first time. It is really quite lovely (although really sappy words, thank you William Blake) but an absolute bastard. Not an easy one at all.
I have been poking around the NaNoWriMo forums. My favourite is the character and plot realism one. I like to try and answer questions for people if I can, and it has come in handy for me a time or two in the past. Anyway, I like how occasionally you see things that you just have to hope are for a novel and not a very cunning person asking for real life advice (today's top contenders are 'price of a kidney on the black market' and 'potential murder weapon in a high school science classroom'). Frankly I'm left baffled by the 'what would it be like to be 2000 years old' one. I'm not sure who they're expecting to answer... Pretty sure it's going to be one to make up yourself with a little imagination (Almost tempted to create a new username along the lines of Gilgamesh or something similar and answer.... But that would be mean). |
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[Oct. 21st, 2009|08:29 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Leeds Utd - Amanda Palmer | ] |
I have had this song in my head for about 3 days now. I hate earworms.
I have joined the Christmas choir at work. I wish they did it all year round, since I'm really enjoying it. My breathing is frankly shocking, which is what happens when you neglect it for a couple of years. 44 beat notes did not used to present a problem - that is, I could do it, but would be v glad when it was over - but now 12 beats are presenting me with problems. I need to take up swimming or something. That is supposed to help. Or, you know, I could keep taking sneaking breaths where no one will notice. We are singing Vivaldi's Gloria, which is beautiful (and endlessly used for adverts so everyone knows it), various carols and Tavener's The Lamb, which I don't know and we haven't tried out yet. I like singing the harmony part (as altos inevitably do - there is more to assigning parts in a choir than voice pitch, it irritates me when people think that's all there is to it), there's something pleasing in it. The sopranos can keep the tune - it doesn't present enough of a challenge.
Sat in on a phone call today that made me laugh a lot. I may even get a box of chocolates out of it. Maybe.
I am attempting to make a NaNoWriMo calendar, because this is my idea of planning. Outline? Storyboard? No. I will make a calendar. Because it is productive enough to make me feel orgainsed without actually being hard work. Also, everyone else seems to be doing it this year. That's enough of an excuse.
Off up to Glasgow now for a few days. Where it will rain, because it always does. |
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| Nano thoughts |
[Oct. 15th, 2009|07:49 pm] |
Urgh. It's been a long couple of weeks. Still alive. I've been rather crappy about email and stuff, but I will actually get around to it eventually...
Work has been relatively drama free.
Pretty sure there was stuff I meant to blog over the last week or two, or thoughts or something, but they have now gone. Obviously they weren't that interesting. Not that this has stopped me blogging about things in the past.
Nano time is creeping up. Pretty sure I'm going to take a crack at 'Light and Shadow' this year, even though I'm having Issues with it. And even though I only have three weeks instead of the usual four... Very much not going to make the 50K this year, but it'll be good to get something done. Ok, so, my Issues (With the story. The other kind would take me hours to type out) are mostly as follows...
First, the eternal NaNoWriMo problem. I don't really feel that I know anyone in my story that well. This year is better than some years have been for this problem, since I started this one some time ago before abandoning it, but I'm so used to the EpicWIP, with characters that are like old friends. It makes all the others seem a little 2D. But this one generally works out while I'm writing, so not too worried about it this year.
Second, I'm being a bloody scientist about it. This does not work. This story is very much what I would term pure fantasy. I'm not entirely sure what I mean by that, but it feels that way. I usually write some sort of fantasy, but I either lean towards fairytale, or steampunk, or basically anything that isn't ye olde high fantasy. This isn't high fantasy either but it feels like a kind of classic fantasy. In truth, that's what I was aiming for when I plotted it. This story hinges on the premise, which is that the world is naturally dark, but part of it is lit up by an artificial construct. Hence no cycle of day or night, but eternal light or dark, depending on where you live. This is fine if you're willing to accept it as just a fictional world. I never am. I have to know how everything works in my fictional worlds, even if it's something that never gets mentioned on the page. My head keeps wanting to make this world a globe and find some kind of way to make this work as though it was in space. That doesn't make much sense... Anyway, the science head is interfering with the creative head, which is a thing that actually doesn't happen very often. I know you're supposed to lean strongly one way or the other. Left brain/right brain and all this. I am very happy where I am, sat on the fence in the middle. It's the best place to be. Apart from right now when I need to be thinking about plot and not how to make the world work properly.
Third, I deeply suspect I need a proper 'I am evil, hear my evil laugh, MWAHAHA!' bad guy. This is not what I have. I have my usual shades-of-grey, not exactly evil bad guy. I don't buy the absolute blacker than black evildoer. It doesn't work for me. I can never find a world view to make it work, even in fiction. Apart from once, and I'm saving that one up for Oona to bring down, all guns blazing. I think my bad guy needs to do something dispicable. I'm sure I'll think of something. |
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[Sep. 20th, 2009|04:00 pm] |
Much work!drama. Obviously this only reinforces my idea that I should run the world because I would fix everything. If only people would do what I tell them, everything would be much better. What can I say? They are slowly learning the lesson that I am always right (Sharpie has a theory that now she is 30 she is always right. Something to do with being older and wiser I think). It is now only a matter of time before everyone bows down to me as Queen of the Database and starts bringing me tribute (strawberries would be nice), since I seem to be the only one left who knows how a frickin' study should be run.
*sigh* Anyway. That's that.
Have been cleaning out baby snails. They are now in three tanks (30, 30, 42 per tank). Have also been playing ancient NES games. Would be happier if Spotify would bloody work properly today so that I can sing along to something at the same time.
Yesterday I went for a little walk around St James Park. It was an accidental walk, since I didn't intend it before I went out (I like to plan - I lack any sense of spontenaiety, it freaks me out a little), but it was nice albeit packed with tourists who like to suddenly stop in the middle of the pavement.
House news: it fell through. But now we have a lovely new house. That is actually a flat. It is thrid floor, but I'm keeping this a secret from the relatives. This is because they might not want to help with the moving process if they knew... Am also employing bribery. Last time we moved, Tom, Ally and Holly helped out. We made them lunch and then sent them a chocolate slab from Hotel Chocolat. So I'm just letting it be known that the same thing will happen this time and hoping that some volunteers turn up. Hopefully, they won't run off half way through.
Anyway, flat is lovely. Has a wee balcony. Very wee indeed, but big enough for a chair or two and possibly a small BBQ. Three bedrooms, and a little tiny patch of overgrown garden. Needs some decorating and a new bathroom. Stephen says we need to do the sitting room first since he can't live with a room that is lime green. Oh, and it has room for a dining table! So I will finally be able to participate in Alex's Come Dine With Me experience (oh dearie me, yes. I will try not to poison anyone).
And I have now burbled on about nothing in particular for long enough. I have been anticipating an email from lovely E to ask me why I hadn't updated. I am surprised to have heard nothing - the shock! :) |
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| Over Silbury Hill |
[Sep. 13th, 2009|08:13 pm] |
( Read more... )
Back away from Gem's lalaToriland. We no longer have a house, so I need to stop mentally arranging furniture in it. We are now on the hunt for another house. We have seen a lovely flat, so prob will offer on that tomorrow and we'll see.
Lastly, I saw this and realised that it isn't just me. Other people obviously do it too. I don't write them down. I can do them in my head.
http://xkcd.com/634/ |
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[Sep. 3rd, 2009|08:00 pm] |
Today we had our photos taken. I do not enjoy having photos taken. Hence why there are so few pictures of me between the ages of about 6 and the present day. Or at least ones where I'm aware the camera is pointing at me. Anyhow, unlike some of the others who wanted about a hundred taken so they could pick a good one, my response was 'are my eyes closed? No? It'll do.' This whole event meant that people made an effort. Which in turn meant that I got to see some of the scariest make up that I've seen for some time... (Also, 'I couldn't decide what to wear' is not a good excuse when you're late. I mean really, couldn't you make up something more acceptable?)
I have bought many lovely things today, since I visited Rococo (who made our lovely chocolate snails) and I am incapable of not buying something for myself in that shop. Violet creams... Mmmm...
I had a weird idea the other day. Don't think I can use it, since I'm honestly not sure that it's a thing that I can write, but I may stick it on one of the NaNo threads in November. Maybe the dare thread. I love the dare thread. Anyway, in my odd little musings, I was thinking what if thoughts and I came up with this. What if there's a werewolf, but he/she dresses like a vampire? By which, I mean the liking for evening dress, and has the pale and interesting thing going on. Classic vampire. And it amused me and I sort of liked it. Because the sort of person who would do that would like to mess with people's heads and I always enjoy that. People would know there was something odd, something not quite right about him/her, but would obviously assume vampire, since everyone knows werewolves don't look like that. And he/she could happily munch a couple of bulbs of garlic/go vegetarian for a month/whatever it takes to prove them wrong. So they would shrug it off as a weird guy/girl with an itch to be different. It would be kind of neat. And is also my trademark premise-no-plot. Must remember to dump it on the NaNo forums. I'm sure someone there could use it.
Watched ITV's adaptation of Wuthering Heights, since it's a book I'm fond of. Sort of wish I hadn't. I spent a long time dissecting it in my head with the intention of blogging it, but really don't have the energy for it now. Four main points; hidden characters of the book are the moor and the weather. I think I may have blinked and missed them.
Was it just me or was everybody utterly toothless? Catherine was an absolute kitten (and we are talking about the women who more or less manages to kill herself in a fit of pique through a combination of starvation and, apparently, sheer willpower, to punish the men in her life) and Heathcliff and Hindley were not much better.
Far too much was missed or rushed over and it suffered for that. Would probably have been better over four or five 1 hour episodes. Then we could have had a little more of the subtlety and complexity.
And last, I don't love this book for the plot. I love it for Emily Bronte's voice and way with language. You don't get so much of it with TV, of course. But you could get some of it. There didn't seem to be much of an effort to even try though. And occasionally well known lines were shoe-horned in to different situations that made them lose so much of their original meaning. It sort of made me sad.
Still, points for actually trying to tell the whole story, ITV. I know most people like to chop it in half so that they can have their tragic romantic hero without having to deal with the crazydogstranglingdiggingupcorpses part. |
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| My day, told through the media of abstract art (possibly) |
[Aug. 26th, 2009|07:44 pm] |
This was my day at work. The blue circles represent the sense of inner peace and calm that I started the day with. Also note the appearance of redish patches as the day goes on... We will return to the theme of red later. See how the circles disappear as we approach lunchtime, represented by the brown squiggle.
I feel a brown squiggle properly represents hospital food. You'd think I would have learned by now, but nooo I was too lazy to walk to the sandwich shop.
The red spikyness is the afternoon and I think that frankly, red spikyness probably speaks for itself. Needless to say I was considerably irate. The 'Argh!' is probably slightly unnecessary.
The last feature is the grey rectangle of boringness as my brain finally decays beyond the point where anger and irritability dwell. There is no emotion in the grey rectangle. Just endless, robotic actions and simple one-word answers (Nice words. I don't mean those words. But yes, those probably would have been appropriate). |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 23rd, 2009|09:15 pm] |
Went to see Otsoko (Wolf) on Friday. It was not the best day to be sat outside - a little cold for me, but I'm always cold - but it was quite enjoyable. I liked that Red Riding Hood wore a white cape. I thought Wolf was beautifully played as a dapper man in a suit with a cane. It worked very nicely. It maybe could have done with being ten minutes shorter. I would have liked it if it had ended with the Wolf standing over Red Riding Hood in a threatening manner and the narrator saying that the pack needed to feed. That would have been a striking end. Instead it went on with a slightly gratuitous spraying down of the two principle characters with water and Red Riding Hood's transformation into a wolf. I don't really have any objection to the sexual nature of it. That's a pretty big part of any retelling of this story (particularly one that's going to follow a dark, adult route). But that had really already been covered and this just went on too long. The transformation was nice, but again, too long. I think everyone got the idea pretty quickly but it was just too much by that point. But overall, I enjoyed it. They're probably off to the Fringe now, and I hope they do ok up there.
Have had a rather nice weekend doing not very much. Which I really need after this week. I've also been learning to play Civ, and have Tidied because Eri's coming for a visit and I thought I had better use that as an excuse to tidy, since I'm not very good at remembering things like that. We went to the giant Paperchase on Fri and I managed not to spend money (I'm saving for paint - v exciting purchase...). However I do have a lot of cards/postcards now so if anyone would like to share the postcard love or if you just find getting post exciting (I am a small child - I love getting letters that aren't bills) drop me a line. Bek, you're getting one anyway. It's compulsory because I have the perfect card for you. Also have a funereal card I bought as a happy anniversary card for the parents before looking at it and realising it maybe looked like it should say 'with sympathy' instead (black border with a swan on it - I thought it was pretty in the card shop. I have questionable taste.) |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 20th, 2009|06:39 pm] |
I'm not sure now whether I prefer people to try and tackle my work while I'm away, or whether I'd rather they leave it, since they don't do very much of it and what they do manage to do is mostly wrong. We do not ad lib when filling in database forms. Maybe you think they should be filled out a different way, or ask for different information, but after 3 years of study information, probably best to stick to the same methods... Obviously this is a rhetorical 'you' - unless anyone would like to volunteer to do my work for me. Always welcome.
I'm sure it's possible to tell how much of a bad mood I'm in by the state of my handwriting on the files. I get (more) scribbly when I'm irritated since I'm much less inclined to put in the extra effort. My handwriting is atrocious. I'm peculiarly proud of this. I had remedial handwriting lessons when I was 12 or so (when they spotted that I hold my pen oddly - wrist curled round like a left handed person, but with my right hand. Quietly wonder if maybe I should have been left handed as I favour it for many things) where I sat and wrote rows and rows of a's. Because this was going to help. Anyhow, I work with the medical profession who are notorious for their handwriting skills, so they make me look good.
Lovely (alcohol free - yes, I can prise myself away from the mojitos) night out on Tuesday. There was belly danicing. Not by me, since I don't do dancing (ceilidh dancing only since I get instructions and no one else is ever very sure what's going on either). The food was excellent, only I wish I had picked something else, to be honest. Not a fan of coriandor, and some of the other things looked amazing, so there was definite food jealousy. Chocolate mousse with honey was amazing though. I hadn't realised how much I had missed my train trips home with Lyn.
Off to theatre tomorrow. It's a dance thing, but it's only 50 mins so even if it's bad, at least it doesn't last long! |
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[Aug. 16th, 2009|09:10 pm] |
Sadly the week off work is now over. Just hoping I don't have to face too much work tomorrow, since recent habit has been to leave everything til I get back...
I haven't done that much with the week. Visited the parents (possible photos to follow), went to the cinema, met up with a few people, went shopping for work clothes, went shopping for bridesmaid dress with Sarah (who has told me that if I want to wear a big fuck-off starfish in my hair, I'm allowed. I may content myself with some seashells. I only suggested giant starfish to make her give me a Look. It didn't work. She is surprisingly unbothered by crazy stuff I may choose to adorn myself with.).
Yesterday we had a day trip to Oxford, since I've never had a good look around the city and Stephen hasn't been there at all. Also, I had read about a museum that had recently been refurbished that I wanted to take a look at. We had a good wander around the colleges and so on. Practically everywhere in Oxford has apparently featured in Inspector Morse, which wasn't a surprise, but did get amusing as after a while you start to look for the obligatory mention on the information board/plaque/information leaflet/etc.
The museum (The Pitt-Rivers Museum) was amazing. It looks and feels like an old musuem, despite refurbishment. It's dark enough that they hand torches out to kiddies so they can explore. Little hand written notes accompany objects. Sometimes the notes are written on the objects in pen. There are as many objects crammed in each case as physically possible and the cases themselves are collections of things. They seem slightly haphazardly arranged - pottery, next to shrunken heads, next to religious figurines from around the world.
They open the thrid floor (firearms, arms and armour) in the spring, so we will probably return then. It's totally worth a trip. While it's ostensibly a musuem of anthropology and archaeology, we have named it the museum of weird shit. So very sad I don't live nearer to it. If it was in London I might spend most my weekends in there, which probably says too much about me.
( Read more... ) |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 4th, 2009|07:07 pm] |
Today I was stood up for my lunch date, which made me sad since I was looking forward to it all morning. All I have to say is that this never would have happened if I still had my lunch dates with Eri.
There is someone. Let's call her Little Miss Bossy, since she reminds me of Mr Men. Not sure why. She has been a problem for a while. I thought my opinion of her could not get much lower. Oh, today it reached a new low. She's reading the fourth Twilight book. I am not snobby about many books. Just these ones. And Thomas Hardy, which is more that I loathe him, rather than snobbyness. My own taste is also extremely questionable at times. But oh dearie me.
Someone else at work has bought their own pig. It's being raised elsewhere and then will be eaten. Am v impressed by the whole pig buying scheme (Stephen said no) and have zero problems with knowing the name of my food. I do find people who can't stomach the idea that once their food was alive and frolicked in the fields a bit puzzling. But then, I do have some strange ideas about the whole thing.
My love for the Beeb is restored since today there is, on the Have Your Say page, an article called 'Are You Worried About Killer Robots?'. Honestly. It's really there. I never believed I'd see that, but it's remarkably entertaining just to know that it's there. Some of the responses are very nearly as entertaining as the question, but I try not to read HYS since it makes me cross.
Have been contemplating NaNoWriMo 09. Obviously cannot take part in a serious way. May not even get close to winning, since I'm on holiday for part of Nov (and as it is for a friends wedding, probably best that I don't spend all my time scribbling). But I will need something to occupy me on the long flight, if nothing else. Was thinking of writing Oona's story this year, but I'm still a bit stumped in places for that one. Also suspect I will need internet access and books to look things up in. Might take another bash at the Light and Shadow thingy since I worked out yesterday that I started it... lots of years ago. And parts of it nag at me. Aesthetically I love having the night people be all pale with dark hair and the day people fair and tanned. Then my science brain kicks in and points out why I'm wrong. And there are lots of aspects of it that are cookie-cutter fiction that I think I would like to fix now. It was a thing I did on purpose at the time, but now I'm not sure why and it doesn't seem such a good idea. I'm sure I can make it more interesting than that if I try. So I might give that a whirl.
I have many exciting things planned. A trip to Southampton this weekend (not that exciting in itself, but nice to see Sarah again), trip to Oxford next weekend (for sightseeing touristyness), trip home to see the parents and to help them decorate the house castle. Looking forward to the finished product. There are many exciting features. Underfloor heating, which is sooo nice in the morning when the stone floor is cold. A music thingummy (or magic music box, as I like to call it) which you load MP3s on and can play in any room. Welcome to Radio Gemma - all Tori, all the time.
Little brother has also managed to buy a house. He was very keen that it should have a garden, which mother was surprised at - right up until I pointed out he needs one for bonfires. And BBQs. The two staples of his life. If he didn't have a garden he'd build a bonfire in his living room and cut a hole in the ceiling to let the smoke out. His love of fire is a deep and scary thing. I suspect it started when he set fire to his bed (while he was in it, not one of his smarter moves), afterwards claiming it was spontaneous combustion. Or possibly it got too close to the light bulb. He needs to set his hair on fire. I can personally vouch this is a good cure and inspires a healthy respect for flames. Then we just need to cure his fascination with the axe. And with mashing frogs with a spade. And I have successfully made him sound like a fruitloop. Job well done. |
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| In Which I Pretend to be a Grown Up. |
[Jul. 31st, 2009|07:34 pm] |
Today we bought a flat. It's exciting. (I get excited in a very reserved sort of way - Alex at work actually seemed more excited than me. There was squealing and jumping and hugging.) Hopefully it'll all go through ok. There may be photos later, if I get around to it. I am now drinking champagne and eating cake. Very decadent.
The lovely Miss S left work yesterday and I made her a leaving card, since she always makes such lovely cards for us. It seemed wrong to buy something. After the hassle, I made it clear to everyone this is the first and last time I'm making a card. She was very sweet and bought us all presents!
We are also planning a 'come dine with me' experience (Alex and I). It should be fun, but no meanness is allowed. It's basically an excuse for us to talk about food and plan menus. Which is what we do in our lunch hour. |
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arian's journal
