RL Update: Fire Alarms, Fannish Ways and Fear in the Night
Hallo, and happy... tuesday? It is tuesday, right? *thinks* Yes, happy tuesday everyone :)
Well, it's been an eventful few days in the House of Nerds - entertaining, too :D And in case you haven't noticed, it's given me a bad case of Alliteration...
Smoke, Slash, Scissors and a Saucepan - spoilers for Merlin 3.1
So Saturday, to start with. Was looking forward to Merlin all day - but had to do one of my get-up-at-half-seven-to-be-at-the-supermarket-by-eight to get my breakfast, because I'd run out of cereal. Boo. But it gets me up, and I had lunch for the first time in weeks. (Normally I get up late enough to have breakfast pretty much at lunch time. Yes, I've been that lazy, lately.) Then it was afternoon, and I'm sitting at my computer with my headphones in - can't remember what I was watching - when the fire alarm goes off. Now, this may be stating the obvious; but good god that thing is LOUD! Lol. Went running down the stairs to find out it was Adam's cooking - it wasn't actually on fire or anything, but there was enough smoke to set the alarm off.
Cue me, Adam, swoot_of_ealdor and Jess frantically throwing open all the doors and windows and then grabbing teatowels and desperately trying to waft smoke away from the alarm *giggles*. It worked eventually, but not after me and swoot had wacked each other in the face with teatowels a couple of times - we're not the most coordinated people in the world *grins*
I think my ears were still ringing for several hours after that *shakes head*. But at least I am secure in the knowledge that if there is a real fire, there is no way in hell that I won't know about it :D
Then it was Merlin time! I have to say, I liked this episode as an opening. There's cheesy/lameness, but that's always been present in Merlin and I love it. Though I do wish they'd given Morgause a new pretty dress like Morgana, and Gwen didn't get nearly enough screen time... if they don't start playing with her character more soon, Arthur's going to end up marrying a Mary Sue...
I like the mandrake, twas both horrible and effective. And Uther seeing the drowned child and Ygraine in the well was scary! I haven't been genuinely scared by Merlin since the end of The Beginning of the End. (Ha, good sentence, "The end of the beginning of the end" XD). And despite making Arthur back into a complete prat, like they do at the beginning of every series, it was sort of alright this time - mostly because you could really tell that the insults weren't meant to genuinely hurt Merlin. And I love his little grin over his shoulder to Merlin after he's pretending to be Merlin fighting - it's teasing but it's so much more "I'm funny!" than "I hate you!" which is always good.
In other news, I think my fic-writing ability is coming back. I haven't actually tested it yet... but I feel like I might start writing again soon, yay! It's because I'm getting busy... fresher's week is next week, and I've got to get the Sci Fi and Fantasy Society ready. Am making flyers in the library tomorrow :) We'll split up, I think, and get them posted to all the Uni Accom at the weekend when the new firsties move in...
I'm looking forward to this semester of English Lit. I'm doing three modules, and the texts for them are all fairly interesting as far as I can tell.
- Cultures of Childhood: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, Peter Pan, The Secret Garden, Northern Lights, and A Wizard of Earthsea. I've read all of these now... Alice annoys me slightly, not sure why; I love Peter Pan and Secret Garden as always; A Wizard of Earthsea I need to reread because I can't remember it very well; and my only disappointment is that we're studying Northern Lights in this module and therefore are unlikely to discuss the religious stuff in it, which is what I find the most interesting. But I'll always reread some Pullman! :D
- Literary Theory: The Lifted Veil by George Eliot, and some critical books. Should be interesting :D
- Researching Genre Fictions: We're doing Sci-Fi!! :D Specifically, Paradise Lost (ahhhhh! *is scared* I've just started it, very tentatively), The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin (just finished it, it's brilliant), The Matrix (! need to rewatch it, I've borrowed my mum's copy), Avatar (see below) and DOCTOR WHO! We're looking at The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords (eeee!). I don't know what it's going to be like, but I'm quite excited. And of course, I already own those on DVD so yay for not spending more money!
Avater is the one that's fascinated me lately. I didn't watch it when it came out - I was put off it mostly because of how much everyone was going on about it, and by persistantly having conversations like this:
Person: You have to see Avatar, it's going to be incredible!
Me: I might catch it, but probably not until it's on tv - I'm trying to save money.
Person: Oh no, but you have to see Avatar in 3D!
Me: 3D isn't really my thing, to be honest.
Person: Oh, but you'll love it so much! There is no way you could possibly dislike it!
...which makes a considerably less polite part of my brain want to demonstrate exactly what happens when you make me watch 3D (it makes me nauseous). So without even having seen a trailer, I was immediately against it on principle. Kind of unfair of me, but there we are.
But upon watching it last night, I take that back completely. I love this film :D Yes, it's basically Pocahontas but blue - but I love disney films *shrug*. The visuals are glorious (though I still shudder at the thought of seeing that kind of movement in 3D) and I was pretty happy just to stare at the film for most of the time. The storyline is simple and predictable - and I really have no idea why some people think that that's an insult. It really did watch like a Disney film with a dollop's worth of swearing. Very, very good - I shall watch it again soonly, methinks :)
And now the final note of interest from the last few days.
Okay, so I finished watching Avatar and maybe half-ten at night. I hear movement downstairs - Jess and Adam, swoot being out with some friends. I go downstairs and the three of us did our usual trick of sitting/standing on the stairs and talking... must've been for about an hour and a half. Probably more. Leastways, it was not long after midnight and we've slowly progressed up the stairs, I'm standing at the door to my room and the other two are in the corridor. Then there's this THUMP THUMP THUMP on the door. Made me jump, same as the other two. There's a pause, and then it happens again. Someone is banging the crap out of our door. We knew it wasn't swoot, because a) she has keys and b) she knows if we're all shut in our rooms we can't always hear the door, so she'd ring if she couldn't get in. And swoot would shout, too. So all three of us are fairly unnerved by this, when Adam points out that the front door is not, in fact, locked, and all the person outside would have to do would be turn the handle. Adam, bravely, goes down really really quietly to lock the door with his keys; I'm clutching my scissors as we stand in the hall. After maybe fifteen minutes, for some of which I actually had my finger on the nine button on my phone, the banging stops and it all goes quiet.
Us unsettled folk stay scared, because we're worried that they've gone 'round the back (there's an alleyway that's access for all the houses on our row). This sounds silly now, in the light of day, but it was dark and scary at the time. We go into the kitchen and make sure the back door and both the ground floor windows are shut, and then stand and chat for a while quietly, trying to not be so scared. Jess's hand was shaking when she made hot chocolate, it was really weird. At some point I crept into the living room to see if I could see someone at the door, but there was no one there. Eventually (it was about one in the morning by this time) and after having rung Swoot and the two friends she was out with to no avail, we decided to go upstairs (Jess with my scissors, me with my big red saucepan and Adam clutching his penknife) and watch Narnia in the hope of chilling out.
We got comfy in my room, and the film was just starting, when Jess says, "Did you hear that?". We all go deathly still, I pause the film, and the Adam goes to the door of my room and says, "Hello?"
Pause of terror and silence and then...
"It's me." Swoot was back and had just let herself in :D I think we scared the living daylights out of her because we all shouted "Sophie!" and came running downstairs to meet her (me still clutching the saucepan, Jess still with the scissors. At least we know what we'd go for if the zombie apocalypse comes :D) and then had to explain what had been going on. Being effectively the mother of the house, she then came upstairs and watched Narnia with us - Adam bowed out and went to bed about half-way through it, but me Jess and Swoot watched the film to the happy end, and then went to bed at about a quarter to four.
Phew. Looking back at it, it does all seem a bit daft - but the sun's shining now, and it wan't then, and it's amazing how you rely upon it for your courage :D
Well, that's all for Adventures in the House of Nerds this time - tune in next time, Merlin knows what'll have happened by then! :D
How's everyone else been? And what would your weapon be in the zombie apocalypse?
HK