luthien

Website stuff

2008-09-03T16:46:04Z

I've just given my website a facelift. Well, to be truthful, I chose the new look and then nym777 did all the hard work coding almost everything. (Thank you so much, yet again, Nym!) It had been a few years and I was getting a bit tired of all the blue so... it's only blue-ish, now. *g*

Anyway, the fanfic section is now up to date, and I've also taken the opportunity to do some housekeeping and take down some of the older content.

Come and take a look at how pretty and shiny it is!

FIC: Getting It Right (SGA, NC-17)

2008-08-30T06:15:42Z

Getting it Right
by luthien

Fandom: SGA
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Summary: Everybody's got a date on Saturday night.
Rating: NC-17
Word count: ~5000
Spoilers: Episode tag for 5x06 'the Shrine'
Thanks: to nym777 and somniesperus for looking this over

[Getting it Right]

Writing

2008-08-27T16:47:58Z

It's been an interesting process over the past few days, finding my writing muscles again after more than a year since I last wrote anything longer than the very occasional ficlet. I'd forgotten so much about my own personal writing process. I've found that I'm more productive in the evening than the daytime, and that I get more written after midnight than at any other time, which is exactly the way it used to be. More than once, I've really wished desperately that I could be a linear writer and have everything come out neatly and in order, but my brain just doesn't work that way and never has.

Tonight, though, tonight I'm being forcibly reminded of one other aspect of the way I write: I can never accurately estimate how long one of my stories is going to be. I think this one is finally drawing to a close now, after a detour I didn't see coming, and I can finally get back to the section I wrote days ago, which appears to be the end.

We shall see.

*trudges back to the field of battle for the last round - probably*

SGA

2008-08-21T04:44:23Z

Oh, bloody hell. I've spent the morning in bed with a headache, cuddling the kitten. I finally get up and online, only to find that SGA has been cancelled.

F$%#&!

Clearly, I should have stayed in bed.

Also: what a week to pick to *finally* start writing again.

*looks sadly at fic draft*

*stomps off to find painkillers, and possibly a stiff drink*

Mostly kitten picspam

2008-08-20T10:47:26Z

It hasn't been a very good couple of weeks for me, but things have been on the upswing again the last couple of days, so it's time to wave the flag at the outside world and share a few kitten pics.

You remember these pictures of Sasha on the windowsill from the first week after I got him?

Today, five weeks later, he was sitting in the same spot. He's grown a bit.

And he's settled in well with the rest of the family.

In other news, I just called D in here to watch the latest trailer for this week's SGA episode (which is here, btw. Big spoilers for the ep, obviously.)

D: *starts shipping Sheppard and Woolsey*
Me: *head in hands and wondering where I went wrong, while waiting impatiently for Saturday*
D: *evil grin*

Bits

2008-08-11T14:29:36Z

The last week has been very up and down. Things are now starting to be more up again and I actually managed to get out for lunch yesterday, so... *waves dismissive hand at the rest of the week and seeks contact with the outside world again*

*

It's been really cold lately. Not quite snowing, but we've had sleet here, and there's been snow higher up. I come from a place where it never sleets or snows and I'm never going to quite get used to the fact that it gets this cold up here. The powdering of snow up the hill yesteday was pretty but it's really getting to that point where winter seems to be going on forever. *shivers and breaks latest sheet of ice covering the goldfish pond*

*

I'm still trying to get some sense out of ebay and Paypal. It's been two weeks now, and I'm not hopeful. Paypal acknowledges the problem and is washing its hands of it and referring me to ebay, while ebay... well, there isn't anything I can say about ebay's "help" service and keep my language worksafe, so we'll leave it at that.

*

I've been watching the Olympics. So has has the kitten:

He was very taken with the ads

but then wasn't so sure about the talking head

and by the time the swimming highlights came on

he decided that "To the kitten cave!" was a much better idea.

Bits

2008-07-21T10:39:50Z

The (thing that started as a) migraine continues. I can focus again, which is wonderful, and I've managed to catch up with the flist (yay!) but I don't think I'm comprehending so well. D called me this afternoon and I only managed to take in about 50% of what he was saying. I can read fic but I can't take it in properly, either. Re-reading is working a lot better for me than reading new stuff at the moment. My face is aching like nothing else - and none of my painkillers are doing much to dent the pain, not even the big prescription ones. Face pain means the neck is unhappy. Perhaps it would be worth going to see the chiropractor on Wednesday instead of Friday. Probably. Decision-making is hard.*

Meanwhile, the kitten is growing like crazy. D thinks Sasha's increased a third in size in the nine days since we got him. I have a feeling he may grown up to be a huge orange cat. He's settling in really well:

and he's just great to have around. Loads of fun to watch, escpecially when he's with Indy. Sasha likes to wrestle:

Sasha: FIGHT! *bite* *kickkickkick* *bite*

But Indy keeps having other ideas:

Indy: Sit still! *washwashwash*

Sasha: *thoroughly disgusted*

I've been wanting to write lately but I haven't been well enough. It's nice to feel the urge again, though. It hasn't been there for a while. But things that other people write have been making me happy. In particular, one of my favourite writers has been writing my favourite type of story about my favourite pairing for months now. I was just re-reading a bit of it this afternoon and thinking that one of the great things about fandom is having people writing *exactly* what I want to read. That's something I can't find anywhere else. It's like it was written for me! Well, actually it was written for me - a short birthday story that took on a life of its own and turned epic. *g* I'm really looking forward to reading the whole thing once it's complete.

Well, everything involving thinking is hard. I'm not going to say how long it took me to put together this post but... Yeah.

The last few days

2008-07-17T14:19:14Z

Kitten: continues to be incredibly cute and adorable, even when using human legs as ladders. (Ouch!)

Indy: is totally fascinated with his living toy, and no longer remotely bored.

undunoops: came to visit me yesterday and brought decadent (according to D) chocolate biscuits. (Double yay.)

I: have been trying to decide all day whether I have a migraine or not. Finally decided late this afternoon that the inability to read - or do - pretty much anything at all was probably a clue, so took panadeine forte.

flist: is still a blur. I have no idea what you people are up to. Be good (or at least don't get caught.)

*crawls back under rock with more panadeine forte*

*is snuggled by sleepy kitten and instantly feels slightly more human*

Kitty update

2008-07-15T11:27:37Z

The new kitten is settling in really easily and is turning out to be a fabulous kitten. He's so pretty, and he has a confident, laidback and affectionate personality to match. He's going to grow up to be a great cat. The first 24 hours were a bit traumatic for a few of us (ie. mainly Indy), who couldn't believe that a strange tiny cat was suddenly living in his house. The other cats had been through this before, of course, so they resigned themselves to it pretty quickly. After the first day, Indy's growls and hisses stopped, and the chasing turned into an actual game at some point yesterday morning. By last night, they were like this:

I think it's safe to say that this kitten was the right choice to be a companion for Indy. *g*

We've finally decided on a name. After going through a long list including Balthasar, Tango, ZPM, PJ, Cinnabar, Fred, Apricot, Adorable, Oxford, Kristo and, of course, John, we almost ended up calling him Saffron. I liked it better than any of the other suggestions, even though I just knew he'd end up being called Saffy, which was a bit girly even if I do agree that he's absolutely fabulous. But then I accidentally referred to him as Indy, and when I was correcting myself I called him Sasha instead of Saffron - and D and I looked at each other and said: "Let's call him Sasha!"

So, this is Sasha*:

He's not only photogenic, he poses.

That's always a silly look on any cat, no matter the size.

Zonked!kitten. It's a hard life being this little and this cute.

*I wasn't sure which way to spell it, but Nym tells me that Sasha is the Russian spelling, and is short for Alexander - and so we have Sasha aka Alexander the Tiny. ;-)

Fic rec

2008-07-10T02:59:05Z

Rec: Truth and Measure
by somniesperus (Telanu)
Fandom: The Devil Wears Prada
Pairing: Miranda/Andy (femslash)
Rating: NC-17

If you've ever been remotely interested in the characters from 'the Devil Wears Prada', this is the story that you have to read. Set immediately after the end of the film, it's AU in the sense that Andy made a different decision at the end of the film, and follows all the fall-out that results from this decision and one other specific factor over the course of the following year.

Of course it's incredibly well-written, and the characterisations are dead-on, not just for Miranda and Andy but for other characters, particularly Nigel. This is an immense and amazing story. I've watched it develop and grow while it was being written:

Telanu: "Oh, god! I think this is going to be long. Like, really, really long! Even by my standards!"
Telanu, a month later: "Oh, god. I think it's going to be longer than 'A Wizard Song'!"
Telanu, a month or so after that: "Oh, god! It's going to be more than 225,000 words!"

You get the idea. *g* So, if you want to read a fantastic 270,000 word Devil Wears Prada story that is also the longest thing that somniesperus has ever written, read this now!

Thoughts on Doctor Who 4x13 - Journey's End

2008-07-06T04:29:40Z

In no particular order:

I'm so sad about what happened to Donna! Okay, so maybe this first point is in a particular order. This is the overwhelming feeling that I took away from this episode. The Doctor ends up alone and bleak, everyone else gets a happy ending, and Donna gets nothing. Literally. Everything she's been through, everything she's built, is negated and erased. God. I loved Donna, and I've been so terribly worried that they were going to kill her off in this episode. Well, they didn't. They did something worse. *sigh* I felt she was exactly the sort of person the Doctor needed. Someone to *really* call him on his actions - not just the big ones, but the little ones, too. In that scene on the beach where he was carrying on how Rose changed him, yeah, okay, Rose did help fix him when he was really broken, but Donna really left her mark on him, too. Perhaps he will come to realise that more after a while.

And speaking of the scene with the two Doctors and Rose on the beach... Okay, I can buy that. Sort of. On the really big picture level, there's a certain rightness in Rose finally getting the Doctor, sort of, but the Doctor not getting Rose. I'm really wondering how that mortal Doctor will cope with one little life confined to one planet and one time period, though. Then again, I imagine 'stuff' will happen to him and he may end up getting around time and space at least a bit.

Hysterical daleks spinning around in circles. Love 'em! Can't help it. It's something imprinted on me during childhood. *g*

Daleks EXTERMINIATE-ing in German. Surreal!

Sarah, so very against guns and yet coming up with the biggest weapon of all. Hmmn, maybe Davros had a point there.

Jack: "I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now. " *g* Oh, Jack, you just can't resist in *any* situation, can you?

Donna 'doing' the Doctor. I think it was supposed to be funny, but it sent shivers down my spine.

So, Martha and Mickey are set up to be part of Torchwood next year?

Overall, I think I liked this year's finale better than last. I'm less disappointed and more upset. Or maybe more disappointed and upset on one particular point, and less disappointed and upset on others. More than anything, I need to watch it again. In fact, maxi47, who's been here since last night when we watched the previous five episodes in preparation, is just suggesting that we re-watch now, so I think that's what we'll do.

Movie meme

2008-07-06T01:04:03Z

I don't have the necessary energy to post about Doctor Who yet, so have this instead. Gacked from gaycrow:

This is Entertainment Weekly's Top 100 movies of the last 25 years list.

Bold the ones you have seen
Put an asterisk after the movie title* if you really liked it.
Cross it out if you saw a film and really disliked it
Underline the ones you own

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)*
3. Titanic (1997)
4. Blue Velvet (1986)
5. Toy Story (1995)
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
9. Die Hard (1988)
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
12. The Matrix (1999)
13. GoodFellas (1990)*
14. Crumb (1995)
15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
16. Boogie Nights (1997)*
17. Jerry Maguire (1996)
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)
19. Casino Royale (2006)
What happened to 20?
21. Schindler's List (1993)
22. Rushmore (1998)
23. Memento (2001)*
24. A Room With a View (1986)
25. Shrek (2001)
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
27. Aliens (1986)
28. Wings of Desire (1988)
29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
30. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005) *
32. Fight Club (1999)
33. The Breakfast Club (1985)
34. Fargo (1996)*
35. The Incredibles (2004)
36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
~~37. Pretty Woman (1990)~~
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
39. The Sixth Sense (1999)
40. Speed (1994)
41. Dazed and Confused (1993)
42. Clueless (1995)
43. Gladiator (2000)
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988)
47. Men in Black (1997)
48. Scarface (1983)
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
50. The Piano (1993)
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)
53. The Truman Show (1998)*
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)
55. Risky Business (1983)
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
57. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
58. Ghostbusters (1984)
59. L.A. Confidential (1997)*
60. Scream (1996)
61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
62. sex, lies and videotape (1989)
63. Big (1988) *
64. No Country For Old Men (2007)
65. Dirty Dancing (1987)
66. Natural Born Killers (1994)
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)
68. Witness (1985)
69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987)
71. Unforgiven (1992)
72. Thelma & Louise (1991)
73. Office Space (1999)
74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
75. Out of Africa (1985)
76. The Departed (2006)
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)
82. Lost in Translation (2003)
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
84. Sideways (2004)
85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu Mamá También (2002) *
87. Swingers (1996)
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
90. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
91. Back to the Future (1985)
92. Menace II Society (1993)
93. Ed Wood (1994)
94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
97. Glory (1989)
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)

Wow, I'd forgotten quite how many movies I used to go to see. I just wish Dances With Wolves was in the list so I could strike it through, too.

Getting out and about

2008-06-29T13:26:57Z

Thanks for all the kind thoughts about Jessie. *hugs flist*

I really didn't want to be at home today, so it was good that I didn't have to be. D and I had planned a while back to visit his sister, S, at her home on Dangar Island, so that's where we went today.

Dangar Island is a small island in the middle of the Hawkesbury River just north of Sydney. It's a lot like a typical leafy suburb close to the bush, except that you get there by boat, and no private cars are allowed. There has been some local strife over the importation of golf carts to the island in recent years, though, ahem, some people have been known to use the small tractor they got for excavating the garden to get goods from the wharf up to the house. *g* Wheelbarrows are also a highly prized commodity.

We had a nice, quiet day with S and two friends of hers that were visiting - oh, and with the constant, gently inquisitive company of S's three Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Great dogs, especially good to see them today, when I didn't want to be dwelling on cats. Since the last time I was there, S and C have turned their little house into a much bigger house - or maybe it's truer to say that they've built a second, completely separate, part of the house further up the hill at the back of their block of land! It's beautifully laid out, but comfortable rather than fussy, and the view out over the water from the deck of the new part of the house is specacular. C is an artist and you can really see her terrific eye for design all through the house. I told S that they should be featured on 'Grand Designs'. *g*

It was also really nice to get out on the water again today, even if it was just a fifteen minute ferry trip each way. It was one of those really beautiful, mild winter's days without a cloud in the sky and with the sun sparkling on the water. This photo is taken from the Brooklyn wharf - that's one end of the island on the far right.

I'm really tired tonight but not in too much pain from the travelling and moving about, all things considered. It was definitely worth going.

Quick Doctor Who comment

2008-06-28T23:02:28Z

My comment on getting to the end of this week's Doctor Who episode:

Russell T Davies, you BASTARD!

And now I'm out of here. More detailed commentary after I get home tonight.

Jessie

2008-06-28T10:04:15Z

Jessie
1994 - 28/6/2008

The look was in her eyes yesterday. It was time. So this morning D and I took Jessie down to the vet's where she was put quickly and painlessly to sleep.

Not the usual cute picture of a recently departed pet that you usually see in a memorial post, is it? But Jessie was not your usual cat. She was a sweet, gentle little cat - with a twisted side. I'm never going to have another cat like her, and neither is anybody else. She was truly a unique animal.

Soon after D and I moved in together I got two kittens, Daisy and Ebony. I lost Daisy less than a year later, and since she and Ebby had been such great little buddies I thought I'd better find Ebby a new friend. We went out to the Cat Protection Society shelter one day, looking for a young female cat. We came home with Jessie, and little did we know just what we were getting ourselves into.

Like all torties, Jessie had a naturally weird personality. I'm pretty sure she was badly treated before she came to us - the effects of this manifested in lots of ways, including a complete lack of kitten playfulness in her nature, and a lifelong aversion to human feet coming anywhere near her - and this made her extra insecure, extra attention-seeking, extra nutty. Her personality was tortie squared.

The reason I chose Jessie out of all the cats available in that big cage full of cats one step from the scrapheap was one little thing: when I first came in, she licked my hand as I passed. I thought it was cute, so she was the one I chose. That night, D woke in the wee small hours to discover the new cat up on the bed, licking his cheek. Pretty soon after that we realised that these were not exactly isolated incidents: Jessie was a lick-o-maniac. She loved licking: herself, other cats, and most especially people. Most cats learn a few key phrases, like "Get down off there!" before they're very old. Jessie had one of those all of her own: "No licking!" But she still tried. And tried and tried and tried some more. One time she even developed a rodent ulcer on her lip. "Has she been licking a lot lately?" the vet asked, and then looked at me strangely when I burst out laughing.

It just about broke my heart the last couple of days when she felt too sick to lick any more. My arm would come near her and she'd automatically reach out to lick, get as far as putting her nose against my skin, and then stop.

But when she wasn't trying to lick everyone to death, or howling incessantly in the dead of night or destroying lounges in order to make sure she had our attention - she used to sink her claws into the fabric, lean back on her haunches and then turn to stare straight at us - she really was a sweet, gentle little cat. Her fur was short, but with a double coat that made it always incredibly soft and silky. She had a beautiful black mask around her eyes and would have been very pretty if not for the fact that her nose was three different colours. She was small and pigeon-toed and never going to be Top Cat in any feline family, but she was ours for thirteen years and I really can't quite believe that there is no more Jessie.

Early on she bonded with Ebony. They had a weird dynamic all their own. They'd cuddle up together on the couch and purr and lick, until suddenly Ebony would have enough and sink her teeth in. Jessie would squeal and jump down, but before long she'd be back and they'd be at it again until they finally went to sleep curled around each other. Things got easier for Jessie once Ebony got old and lost most of her fangs, but their lick-bite relationship continued right up until this morning, when Jessie was feeling sick and unhappy and wouldn't sit on my lap because she wasn't comfortable there - but she couldn't resist cuddling up beside Ebony on the couch even then. I didn't have a huge selection of photos of Jessie by herself to choose from to use at the top of this post; the vast majority of my photos of Jessie also feature Ebony. The picture at the top shows one side of Jessie's nature. The one below is the other way in which I'll always remember her:

Bits

2008-06-27T06:04:56Z

Treasury boss Ken Henry opts for wombats over work

THE man at the helm of Australia's troubled economy will leave his post for nearly five weeks to look after a colony of endangered wombats.

Treasury Secretary Ken Henry will miss a key Reserve Bank Board meeting and have no mobile phone as he ventures into central Queensland...

Hey, wombats need care, too! I'm sure the economy will survive without him for a few weeks. It's not like he's the *only* economist working for Treasury.

*

In tea news, I've just finished trying my first pot of White Assam. Let's just say it's not going to be the last. It's not as delicate as other white teas I've tried, but still not too strong, and it seems to have the usual headache-fighting effects, too. I think I'll be drinking a lot of this in future. *adds to list of favourite teas*

Now to test drive the white darjeeling that also arrived today...

This is getting ridiculous

2008-06-24T10:15:31Z

Jesus. D just went to fill up our car, which was almost on empty, because tonight is cheap petrol night. Filling the tank cost $85*, including a $2 coupon discount. That's at $1.54 per litre. By tomorrow afternoon the price will have risen to about $1.67 per litre. I remember what a shock it was when petrol finally reach a dollar per litre. It really wasn't all that long ago.

Just as well we don't drive very far very often and it's easier for D to take the train to work - 67km each way - than to drive. Pity the people who have to drive to work each day.

*US$81 at the current exchange rate.

When in doubt, quote

2008-06-23T16:52:20Z

Gacked most recently from cereta: When you see the meme, quote something from Doctor Who:

"Deactivating a generator loop without the correct key is like repairing a watch with a hammer and chisel: one false move and you'll never know the time again."

- The Doctor, Pyramids of Mars

Wordle

2008-06-19T15:32:09Z

Gacked from somniesperus:

I made a Wordle from the opening paragraphs of a few of my more recent bits and pieces of fic. The largest words are the most repeated. Yeah, huge surprise there...

(click for large version)

*goes back to attempting to combine some of these words with new words*

New toy!

2008-06-03T09:27:59Z

Pretty new red laptop arrived! It's all shiny and zippy and, most importantly, doesn't have 35 multi-coloured vertical lines running down the screen.

Whee!

*goes back to installing software and stroking keyboard*

ETA:

4gb ram
320gb hard drive
2.5ghz processor

And did I mention red?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008-05-25T14:25:35Z

D and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull tonight.

Well, that was fun. Mostly.

Things I enjoyed:

The pace. Whee!
(Most of) the plot. As someone once said of history, it was just one damned thing after another. Silly, but in a fun way, and predictable, but you don't go to see a movie like this because you're expecting any clever twists. Of *course* the kid was going to deliver the letter with the crucial information that only Indy could decipher. Of *course* they were going to be attacked in a centuries-old graveyard in the middle of the night. Of *course* the kid would turn out to be his son.
Cate Blanchett with the ridiculous Russian accent. I kept wanting to call her Natasha. I suppose her main sidekick was Boris.
John Hurt, who can play a crazy man like no one else.

Things I didn't enjoy so much:

Indiana Jones, though I didn't actually hate him. I was just left feeling that there was something not quite right about him. Harrison Ford still *feels* like the character, though older, but didn't he have a few more flaws in the old days? Things worked out for him a little too well, a little too easily in this one. I liked it better when he used to occasionally lose out.
It was fun to see Karen Allen again in this one, playing the same character from more than 25 years ago. That said, the end of her storyline displeased me, mainly because:
Romance - the number one entry on the list of things George Lucas should never be allowed anywhere near. What happened right at the end there? It was like something out of a totally different movie, complete with thuggish little son who was suddenly all respectable and 'safe'.
And speaking of the end, I still don't know exactly what the hell happened once they got into that temple. Or maybe it's more a question of I still don't know exactly *why* everything happened once they got into that temple. Why did the temple self-destruct? The only reason I can think of is that someone decided that "A flying saucer would be a really cool way to end things! Let's put one in!" Other things that confused me in the temple: why did Mac tell Indy that it was okay? (And didn't that bit have a strong echo of the end of the Last Crusade, only without any beautiful blonde Nazis?) And it's probably better not to even start on what happened to Cate Blanchett. I knew that being nibbled to death by ants wasn't a spectacular enough exit for her, but I'm still scratching my head about exactly why she ended up as she did. The aliens knew she was evil so they meted out an appropriate fate? Who knows? I'm getting the feeling that someone took to the script with a hacksaw, especially towards the end. Maybe if there's ever a director's cut, the end of the movie will make a bit more sense. Then again, this is George Lucas we're talking about here..

Oh, who cares? Why should I expect a movie like this to stick to even the shaky sense of logic it displayed at the beginning? It was fun, and I don't think I'll bother wasting any more brainpower on it. *g*

The Glorious 25th of May

2008-05-25T09:21:18Z

A lilac for the Glorious 25th of May. If you were there, or have read Terry Pratchett, you know why.

And for all you hoopy froods out there:

And last, but not least, the 25th of May is also glorious for another reason:

Happy Birthday, starry_diadem!!!!!!

Hope it's a great one! :-D

More bits

2008-05-24T13:27:26Z

1. For the bunch of tea fans on my flist: I got two new teas today, Moroccan Mint and Japanese Quince. I think I could get addicted to Moroccan Mint very easily. It's a blend of China Gunpowder and, well, mint. I haven't tried the Japanese Quince yet, but the packet uses words like "sharp", "sweet" and "delicate" in the description, so it should be interesting to see how it manages to combine all of those.

2. Today I went out with D for lunch at a local cafe we'd been meaning to check out for a while. Great soup, nice atmosphere, all in a tarted up 100 year old coal merchant's shop, complete with an art show in the back room. (It's the same place where that computer shop was, Maxi.) I think I'll be going back there. I was really done in by the trip to the cafe, the tea shop and the pot shop (D got permission from me to buy a wall fountain for the patio, so he did it immediately before I could change my mind. ;-) I was lightheaded by the time we finished our little jaunt and the pain was really beginning to make itself felt again. So yeah, time to go back to the chiropractor next week.

3. I finally got the DVD set of Doctor Who season 3 the other day and I've just been listening to the commentary on Blink. It's pretty good, considering one of the people talking is Murray Gold, who doesn't know much about making the episode apart from the music he composed for it. Having Steven Moffat there as well definitely helps. It's still not as fun as the commentary done by David Tennant, Phil Collinson and Helen Whatserface, fueled by several bottles of champagne, on the 25th anniversary DVD of the Five Doctors, though. ;-)

4. And speaking of Doctor Who:

D just put a candle in front of the household dalek. Eek!

Bits

2008-05-23T17:05:58Z

Journalfen is open for free sign-ups at the moment so I finally got around to creating a journal over there. I'm luthienjf, though my main journal is still at livejournal and the main backup is still at insanejouranl. (Thanks to bethbethbeth for the heads-up!)

My new laptop seems to be spending for ever at the "work in progress" stage at the factory in Malaysia. The estimated delivery date is currently 12 June, which is a lot more than the 7-10 working days they advertise on their website. I'm hoping things will suddenly get a move on and it will arrive a lot sooner than that - not least because I'm meant to be flying to Queensland on the 12th.

I've had a pretty severe headache since Tuesday so this has been a week with not much to show for it. The pain is in my neck and running down into my shoulder as well as around the back of my head, which means the herniated disc is acting up. Nerve pain, I love it so much, only not. If it doesn't settle down soon I'll pay the chiropractor a sooner-than-scheduled visit next week. *cross fingers*

I finally got around to cancelling the account for my old mobile phone this afternoon. I really need to get a new one, and it needs to be with Vodafone because that's the only one with a network that reaches this house (yay for mountain living). I've been looking at their website tonight and trying to work out which plan and phone I should get, and all I've ended up with is masses of confusion. I think I'll try that again when the pain and drugs aren't getting in the way so much. Or, you know, ask the brother with three spare mobile phones what he thinks. *g*

Thanks to windrose for this link. I love that there are people in the world who both can and will do things like this:

Giant 'telescope' links London, New York

As the first splinters of sunlight spread their warmth on the south bank of the River Thames on Thursday, it became clear that after more than a century, the vision of Victorian engineer Alexander Stanhope St. George had finally been realized.

In all its optical brilliance and brass and wood, there stood the Telectroscope: an 11.2-meter-(37 feet) long by 3.3-meter-(11 feet) tall dream of a device allowing people on one side of the Atlantic to look into its person-size lens and, in real time, see those on the other side via a recently completed tunnel running under the ocean. (Think 19th-century Webcam. Or maybe Victorian-age video phone.)

Thoughts on Doctor Who 4x07 - the Unicorn and the Wasp

2008-05-18T07:12:07Z

Professor Peach in the library with the lead piping. So they couldn't resist the Cluedo angle. Didn't think they would.
A little touch of Bix Beiderbecke on the horn there at the beginning there. Cool.
Did the person that wrote this script know *anything* about the modes of address that would have been used in this setting? Um, a footman addressed by his surname? Or is he a second butler? Either way, it doesn't make any sense. And they didn't seem clear on the status of Felicity Kendall's character, either. She was introduced as Lady Clemency Eddison, but then addressed as Lady Eddison. Um, no. She can be Lady Clemency or Lady Eddison, not both.
Liked the actress playing Agatha Christie. She's one of those ones I'm sure I've seen before but can never remember where.
Loved the detox scene. Anchovies! Rather him than me. *wrinkled nose*

More general stuff: I'm still loving Donna. I love the caustic comments she throws at the Doctor. That sort of attitude is just what he's been in crying need of for a season or two now. Sometimes she gets a little bit too over the top for me, but that's balanced out by her ability to be the voice of some of the best aspects of humanity, to express real feeling for others. She does those quieter bits so well.

And again in this episode we got the obligatory comment about the Doctor and Donna being a couple. Okay, so this is clearly building up to something. The production team keeps insisting that Donna is not in love with the Doctor. Well, they've told bare-faced lies before. (Remember a year or more ago when they were saying: The Master? No, we're not going to feature the Master in the new series. We dislike the character.) I've read very few spoilers, so I could be wrong, but I'm wondering if there's going to be some sort of twist on their not being married, maybe linking back into the Doctor's past somehow, given how many echoes from the Doctor's past have turned up in the show this season.

Every episode so far this year has contained elements which put me in mind of 1970s and/or 1980s Who. I got that same feeling with this one. Part of that was the presence of Christopher Benjamin (Hello, Henry Gordon Jago!) but most of it was because I watched Black Orchid again the other week, for the first time in a very long time. 'Black Orchid' is a really badly structured story - with some terrible dialogue - about mysterious goings on in the country house of a titled family in 1925, so it's pretty clear just why they chose to release that one on DVD a month or so ago. This had much better dialogue than Black Orchid - the bit near the beginning with the Doctor telling Donna not to use words like "spiffing" seemed like a clear nod to the worse aspects of 'Black Orchid's script - and it did a better job of fitting the elements of a 1920s murder mystery into the Doctor Who framework, but after the first viewing I still wasn't entirely sure that I liked 'the Unicorn and the Wasp'. There were lots of individual bits of it that I liked, lines and characters and scenes, but the whole thing?

So I watched it again, and reached the flashback and... Lady whoeversheis was so in lurve that she didn't care that her boyfriend was a giant wasp. She had sex with him and continued to love him until he was all drownded. *blink* And then suddenly we're watching a vintage car chase featuring Agatha Christie and a giant wasp. That was when I reached the "Oh, who cares?" stage. This episode was taking place on a plane completely removed from even Doctor Who's usual reality. There's no point in trying to assess it on anything other than its own terms. In that situation, what can you do but go along for the ride and enjoy it?