It's been a long time, my friends.
I've been a bad LJer of late, not reading my flist, and even more not posting. I still have photos from America to share!
Also, there are a couple of memes I plan to do. So, one big post of ramble it is then.
Umm... so what's happened to me. Not all that much. Ok, so I went to see Blood Brothers the other weekend, and to Kew Garden's last week, but other than that. Not much.
I now own the first four volumes of Scott Pilgrim. I love it. Even if Scott is a bit of a douche, and I really wish they didn't have to keep pointing out that the gay characters are, in fact, gay. But those problems aside, I like it. Weird and quirky. Quite funny in places too.
Also, I loved Sherlock. Nice little canon touches all over the place. Not often you get to see Mycroft (also Mark Gatiss squee!). My response to the final episode: !
And I've gained a new fandom. Oops? Admittedly, it was one I'd kind of already claimed, cos I knew that once I'd actually sat down and watched it properly I would be hooked. Hence waiting til after my degree. I'm blaming James Spader for this one... well that and Quantum Leap fic. Was having one of my semi regular Quantum Leap fic reading jaunts when I found a QL/Stargate crossover that was pretty good. This, combined with the fact that I just changed my phone lock picture to a picture of James Spader from Stargate made me want to watch SG1. And read fic. So here I am. O, and apparently, the closest thing in my room to Stargate is Boston Legal. It sorta makes sense? Kinda?
Finally: I get the keys to my flat on Saturday. There will be pictures. There will be squee. You have been warned. I'm not properly moving in yet, I'm doing it by degrees over the coming weeks.
So anyway.
Meme 1 - The Alphabet
Stoled from bethan_b_bad .
A - Act your age? Jesus fuck no. Not if I can help it
B - Born on what day of the week? I don’t know. Hold on. The internet tells me it’s Tuesday
C - Chore you hate? Hmm…I think the one I really hate is wiping up and putting away the washing up. I don’t mind the actual washing up itself. Just the sequel.
D - Dad's name? Dad. No, seriously, these are like, security questions. Call me paranoid, but I don’t wanna stick it on the internet.
E - Essential makeup item? Don’t wear make up
F - Favourite actor/actress? I have many. But I’m going to go with David Tennant for range. And pretty.
G - Gold or silver? Silver. I is not a chav, you get me?
H - Hometown? Crawley. *shudders*
I - Instruments you play? I play the clarinet, though I haven’t picked one up in years. I did a year of drum lessons, and have been known to have the odd tinkle on the ivories. I sing a bit too, though not very well and not for a while.
J - Job title? In about 4 weeks - Graduate Software Engineer. Doesn’t that look all grown up?
K - Kids? One day. Maybe. Who knows
L - Living arrangements? Home for another couple of weeks before I move to a flat of my very own in Cambridge
M - Mum's name? See D.
N - Nude? Ehh, sometimes.
O - Overnight hospital stays? Nada. Thank god.
P - Phobia? I’ve never quite worked out how to phrase this one correctly. Heights. But not all heights. Anything where you can look straight down and see the floor below you. Or where there aren’t very high railings around you. These include: spiral staircases, stairs with big gaps between the steps, glass floors, mesh floors, cliffs and bigger multi-storey carparks. On the other hand I adore flying and rollercoasters. I don’t get it either.
Q - Quote you like? Lots. Stephen Fry’s “Religion, shit it” is a favourite as it pretty much sums up my view.
Currently Douglas Adam’s view of the Cambridge one way system is another favourite: “He had extracted himself from the Cambridge one-way system by the usual method, which involves going round and round it faster and faster until he achieved a sort of escape velocity and flew off at a target in a random direction, which he was now trying to identify and correct for.”
R - Religious affiliation? As you might be able to tell from my previous answer, I don’t hold much truck with religion. It’s not that I have a problem with people being religious, or holding whatever beliefs they feel. It’s when they use these beliefs to marginalise others that I start to have problems. And the hypocrisy. Either you live every word of your religious text, or you agree that all of it is open to interpretation. You don’t get to pick and chose which bits you like.
As it happens I am also an atheist.
S - Siblings? One brother, two sisters. 10, 12 and 15 years younger than me. And technically half siblings but I don’t notice that.
T - Time you wake up? *shrugs* When I need to. Or when I wake up.
U - Unique habit? Being Michelle. I don’t know when I started it, but now I just can’t seem to stop
V - Vegetable you refuse to eat? Swede, brussel sprouts and parsnips
W - Worst habit? Several. Avoiding confrontation. Being terrible at keeping things tidy. Being extremely pedantic.
X - X-rays you've had? Lots. Lessee. When my Mum thought I broke my arm when I was two. When I cracked a bone in my elbow. Think I had a chest x-ray when they thought I might have asthma. When I nearly broke my finger playing basket ball. When I dropped a wardrobe on my foot. And too many to count during my four years of orthodontic treatment.
Y - Yummy food you make? Make a not too shabby stir fry. My chocolate trifle appears to have garnered almost universal acclaim as well.
Z - Zodiac Sign? Aquarius.
San Diego - The Last Day.
So on the last full day we had in San Deigo we decided to grab the trolley into town and explore downtown without several thousand people thronging the streets.
But first, the TV in our room. It is difficult to appreciate the beauty of the sheer size of it from that photo.
Also, all of my convention loot. And yes, I did manage to get most of that back on the plane. Don’t ask me how.
Before the aforementioned trolley grabbing, we went for a fortifying breakfast at Denny’s. This was the first day we had to wait to be seated, and so this was the first time I noticed that you could see a sign for another Denny’s from the lobby of Denny’s!
Not quite the Starbucks situation, but close.
More Lady GaGa impressions, only this time complete with cup.
Then into town we went for souvenir shopping and… nope mostly souvenir shopping. Bought various sweets I had been commissioned to get (plus some for myself) from Ralph’s and stuff for my family.
The NBC building just cos.
There is a bizarre sort of outdoor mall. Basically like an ordinary shopping mall only with less marble and no roof. Kinda funky though. At the entrance they had one of those signs that declares “Welcome” in various languages. On said sign it also said “G’day” We forgot to get a photo of it, but seriously, what? It made us laugh, it must be said.
There we saw (and were sorely tempted by) DC Converse.
Bat-Converse.
Super Shoes.
I don’t have a creative name for these but I think they are the prettiest.
The signs that hung off of the lampposts around the city were still up, so I snapped a pic.
We went into Borders where they were still giving away free stuff such as badges and Black Lantern rings.
Discworld books with different covers is weird.
The Gaslamp District sign. Photos taken because of the pretty.
And finally, a panoramic picture of our room.
An amazing holiday. I want to go again the year after next. Although next time I think I’d like to go for two weeks so I can see a bit more of San Diego before the Con.
Someone said to me before I went that it would be a once in a lifetime experience and I agreed. Now, I can’t let it be. It was just so amazing. It’s impossible to take it all in. For example, we didn’t make any of the evening programming, because we were both so knackered. I’d love to be able to do that - there was a sing-a-long screening of Doctor Horrible and a midnight screening of Rocky Horror, let alone Penn and Teller and Mythbusters. I’d love to go again when I’m a bit more immersed in comics to really get the full experience of that aspect. I’d love to go when there weren’t so many huge must sees for me so that I could go to some of the smaller panels (yes I am fully aware I could have done that this year, but missing Paul and Scott Pilgrim and Thor and Captain America? Please!) I’d love to go again when I know a bit more what to expect so that I don’t spend the entire first day in a kind of dazed wonder that, whilst awesome, isn’t good for a) my auditory processing (sorry Hayley for making you repeat yourself so much) or b) for actually getting anything done. I was like a kid in a candy store with too many choices to commit to just one and consequently didn’t get any.
So, SDCC 2012. Anyone up for it?
Meme 2 - 30 Days of film.
Nicked off of gingerhobbit. Because I like talking about films. Now, for some of these, the same film fulfils more than one category. Rather than talk about the same film over and over again, instead what I’ll do is list several, and talk about the first one that I haven’t already mentioned. And there will be some films I forget. Feel free to berate me in the comments if I do.
· Day 01 - The best movie you saw during the last year
· Day 02 - Most underrated film
· Day 03 - A movie that makes you really happy
· Day 04 - A movie that makes you sad
· Day 05 - Favourite love story in a movie
· Day 06 - Favourite made for TV movie
· Day 07 - The most surprising plot twist or ending
· Day 08 - A movie that you’ve seen countless times
· Day 09 - A movie with the best soundtrack
· Day 10 - Favourite classic movie
· Day 11 - A movie that changed your opinion about something
· Day 12 - A movie that you hate
· Day 13 - A movie that is a guilty pleasure
· Day 14 - A movie that no one would expect you to love
· Day 15 - A character who you can relate to the most
· Day 16 - A movie that you used to love but now hate
· Day 17 - A movie that disappointed you the most
· Day 18 - A movie that you wish more people would’ve seen
· Day 19 - Favorite movie based on a book/comic/etc
· Day 20 - Favorite movie from your favorite actor/actress
· Day 21 - Favorite action movie
· Day 22 - Favourite documentary
· Day 23 - Favourite animation
· Day 24 - That one awesome movie idea that still hasn’t been done yet
· Day 25 - The most hilarious movie you’ve ever seen
· Day 26 - A movie that you love but everyone else hates
· Day 27 - A movie that you wish you had seen in theatres
· Day 28 - Favorite movie from your favorite director
· Day 29 - A movie from your childhood
· Day 30 - Your favorite movie of all time
Day 01 - The best movie you saw during the last year
I have seen so many good films during this past year that it was hard to narrow it down. I came up with 8 off the top of my head. But I think all in all I’m going to have to go with Toy Story 3.
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Why? Well several reasons really. It’s part of my childhood for one. For another, it’s one of those rare beasts, a fantastic second sequel. But mostly because it is funny, touching, heartbreaking and joyous all at the same time. I also love the fact that not only is it aimed at kids, but they’ve also kept in mind, not just the adults that will be watching it, as pixar always do, but us. Our generation. Those kids who saw the first Toy Story in the cinema. Those of us who grew up with it. And I don’t just mean the plot, although that is a big part of it, but little things, like some of the toys that appear had me squealing “I had one of them!”
Other films in the running were:
Up (2009)
The A Team (2010)
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
The Losers (2010)
Inception (2010)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Secretary (2002)
So, that’s that meme over with for today. And finally, a quick picspam of some pictures I took at Kew.
The stupidly tall treetop walkway. Funnily enough, I didn’t even attempt to go on it.
Ducklings!
Moar ducklings!
The Chinese Pagoda
A really big palm tree
A greyhound statue that looked rather like Scooby Doo.
I like this tree. My sister reckoned it looked like ribs. She’s not the only one. It makes me thing of a dinosaur dying in a tar pit. This probably shouldn’t be so cool.
Interesting fish. It manages to be simultaneously pretty and ugly.
Giant Bamboo. It’s Giant!
The Princess of Wales Greenhouse or some such name. Its interesting shape makes it bloody hard to work out which bits you’ve seen or not. My sister’s favourite cos it houses the carnivorous plants (this makes it pretty darn cool in my eyes too)
Giant Water Lillies. Apparently, these can hold the weight of a baby.
A lizard of some kind
A friggin’ *huge* butterfly! Probably bigger than my hand.
I actually finished this last night, but it took so long that by the time I had, the parentals had switched off the internet, so I had to wait until now to do it.
Also, there are a couple of memes I plan to do. So, one big post of ramble it is then.
Umm... so what's happened to me. Not all that much. Ok, so I went to see Blood Brothers the other weekend, and to Kew Garden's last week, but other than that. Not much.
I now own the first four volumes of Scott Pilgrim. I love it. Even if Scott is a bit of a douche, and I really wish they didn't have to keep pointing out that the gay characters are, in fact, gay. But those problems aside, I like it. Weird and quirky. Quite funny in places too.
Also, I loved Sherlock. Nice little canon touches all over the place. Not often you get to see Mycroft (also Mark Gatiss squee!). My response to the final episode: !
And I've gained a new fandom. Oops? Admittedly, it was one I'd kind of already claimed, cos I knew that once I'd actually sat down and watched it properly I would be hooked. Hence waiting til after my degree. I'm blaming James Spader for this one... well that and Quantum Leap fic. Was having one of my semi regular Quantum Leap fic reading jaunts when I found a QL/Stargate crossover that was pretty good. This, combined with the fact that I just changed my phone lock picture to a picture of James Spader from Stargate made me want to watch SG1. And read fic. So here I am. O, and apparently, the closest thing in my room to Stargate is Boston Legal. It sorta makes sense? Kinda?
Finally: I get the keys to my flat on Saturday. There will be pictures. There will be squee. You have been warned. I'm not properly moving in yet, I'm doing it by degrees over the coming weeks.
So anyway.
Meme 1 - The Alphabet
Stoled from bethan_b_bad .
A - Act your age? Jesus fuck no. Not if I can help it
B - Born on what day of the week? I don’t know. Hold on. The internet tells me it’s Tuesday
C - Chore you hate? Hmm…I think the one I really hate is wiping up and putting away the washing up. I don’t mind the actual washing up itself. Just the sequel.
D - Dad's name? Dad. No, seriously, these are like, security questions. Call me paranoid, but I don’t wanna stick it on the internet.
E - Essential makeup item? Don’t wear make up
F - Favourite actor/actress? I have many. But I’m going to go with David Tennant for range. And pretty.
G - Gold or silver? Silver. I is not a chav, you get me?
H - Hometown? Crawley. *shudders*
I - Instruments you play? I play the clarinet, though I haven’t picked one up in years. I did a year of drum lessons, and have been known to have the odd tinkle on the ivories. I sing a bit too, though not very well and not for a while.
J - Job title? In about 4 weeks - Graduate Software Engineer. Doesn’t that look all grown up?
K - Kids? One day. Maybe. Who knows
L - Living arrangements? Home for another couple of weeks before I move to a flat of my very own in Cambridge
M - Mum's name? See D.
N - Nude? Ehh, sometimes.
O - Overnight hospital stays? Nada. Thank god.
P - Phobia? I’ve never quite worked out how to phrase this one correctly. Heights. But not all heights. Anything where you can look straight down and see the floor below you. Or where there aren’t very high railings around you. These include: spiral staircases, stairs with big gaps between the steps, glass floors, mesh floors, cliffs and bigger multi-storey carparks. On the other hand I adore flying and rollercoasters. I don’t get it either.
Q - Quote you like? Lots. Stephen Fry’s “Religion, shit it” is a favourite as it pretty much sums up my view.
Currently Douglas Adam’s view of the Cambridge one way system is another favourite: “He had extracted himself from the Cambridge one-way system by the usual method, which involves going round and round it faster and faster until he achieved a sort of escape velocity and flew off at a target in a random direction, which he was now trying to identify and correct for.”
R - Religious affiliation? As you might be able to tell from my previous answer, I don’t hold much truck with religion. It’s not that I have a problem with people being religious, or holding whatever beliefs they feel. It’s when they use these beliefs to marginalise others that I start to have problems. And the hypocrisy. Either you live every word of your religious text, or you agree that all of it is open to interpretation. You don’t get to pick and chose which bits you like.
As it happens I am also an atheist.
S - Siblings? One brother, two sisters. 10, 12 and 15 years younger than me. And technically half siblings but I don’t notice that.
T - Time you wake up? *shrugs* When I need to. Or when I wake up.
U - Unique habit? Being Michelle. I don’t know when I started it, but now I just can’t seem to stop
V - Vegetable you refuse to eat? Swede, brussel sprouts and parsnips
W - Worst habit? Several. Avoiding confrontation. Being terrible at keeping things tidy. Being extremely pedantic.
X - X-rays you've had? Lots. Lessee. When my Mum thought I broke my arm when I was two. When I cracked a bone in my elbow. Think I had a chest x-ray when they thought I might have asthma. When I nearly broke my finger playing basket ball. When I dropped a wardrobe on my foot. And too many to count during my four years of orthodontic treatment.
Y - Yummy food you make? Make a not too shabby stir fry. My chocolate trifle appears to have garnered almost universal acclaim as well.
Z - Zodiac Sign? Aquarius.
San Diego - The Last Day.
So on the last full day we had in San Deigo we decided to grab the trolley into town and explore downtown without several thousand people thronging the streets.
But first, the TV in our room. It is difficult to appreciate the beauty of the sheer size of it from that photo.
Also, all of my convention loot. And yes, I did manage to get most of that back on the plane. Don’t ask me how.
Before the aforementioned trolley grabbing, we went for a fortifying breakfast at Denny’s. This was the first day we had to wait to be seated, and so this was the first time I noticed that you could see a sign for another Denny’s from the lobby of Denny’s!
Not quite the Starbucks situation, but close.
More Lady GaGa impressions, only this time complete with cup.
Then into town we went for souvenir shopping and… nope mostly souvenir shopping. Bought various sweets I had been commissioned to get (plus some for myself) from Ralph’s and stuff for my family.
The NBC building just cos.
There is a bizarre sort of outdoor mall. Basically like an ordinary shopping mall only with less marble and no roof. Kinda funky though. At the entrance they had one of those signs that declares “Welcome” in various languages. On said sign it also said “G’day” We forgot to get a photo of it, but seriously, what? It made us laugh, it must be said.
There we saw (and were sorely tempted by) DC Converse.
Bat-Converse.
Super Shoes.
I don’t have a creative name for these but I think they are the prettiest.
The signs that hung off of the lampposts around the city were still up, so I snapped a pic.
We went into Borders where they were still giving away free stuff such as badges and Black Lantern rings.
Discworld books with different covers is weird.
The Gaslamp District sign. Photos taken because of the pretty.
And finally, a panoramic picture of our room.
An amazing holiday. I want to go again the year after next. Although next time I think I’d like to go for two weeks so I can see a bit more of San Diego before the Con.
Someone said to me before I went that it would be a once in a lifetime experience and I agreed. Now, I can’t let it be. It was just so amazing. It’s impossible to take it all in. For example, we didn’t make any of the evening programming, because we were both so knackered. I’d love to be able to do that - there was a sing-a-long screening of Doctor Horrible and a midnight screening of Rocky Horror, let alone Penn and Teller and Mythbusters. I’d love to go again when I’m a bit more immersed in comics to really get the full experience of that aspect. I’d love to go when there weren’t so many huge must sees for me so that I could go to some of the smaller panels (yes I am fully aware I could have done that this year, but missing Paul and Scott Pilgrim and Thor and Captain America? Please!) I’d love to go again when I know a bit more what to expect so that I don’t spend the entire first day in a kind of dazed wonder that, whilst awesome, isn’t good for a) my auditory processing (sorry Hayley for making you repeat yourself so much) or b) for actually getting anything done. I was like a kid in a candy store with too many choices to commit to just one and consequently didn’t get any.
So, SDCC 2012. Anyone up for it?
Meme 2 - 30 Days of film.
Nicked off of gingerhobbit. Because I like talking about films. Now, for some of these, the same film fulfils more than one category. Rather than talk about the same film over and over again, instead what I’ll do is list several, and talk about the first one that I haven’t already mentioned. And there will be some films I forget. Feel free to berate me in the comments if I do.
· Day 01 - The best movie you saw during the last year
· Day 02 - Most underrated film
· Day 03 - A movie that makes you really happy
· Day 04 - A movie that makes you sad
· Day 05 - Favourite love story in a movie
· Day 06 - Favourite made for TV movie
· Day 07 - The most surprising plot twist or ending
· Day 08 - A movie that you’ve seen countless times
· Day 09 - A movie with the best soundtrack
· Day 10 - Favourite classic movie
· Day 11 - A movie that changed your opinion about something
· Day 12 - A movie that you hate
· Day 13 - A movie that is a guilty pleasure
· Day 14 - A movie that no one would expect you to love
· Day 15 - A character who you can relate to the most
· Day 16 - A movie that you used to love but now hate
· Day 17 - A movie that disappointed you the most
· Day 18 - A movie that you wish more people would’ve seen
· Day 19 - Favorite movie based on a book/comic/etc
· Day 20 - Favorite movie from your favorite actor/actress
· Day 21 - Favorite action movie
· Day 22 - Favourite documentary
· Day 23 - Favourite animation
· Day 24 - That one awesome movie idea that still hasn’t been done yet
· Day 25 - The most hilarious movie you’ve ever seen
· Day 26 - A movie that you love but everyone else hates
· Day 27 - A movie that you wish you had seen in theatres
· Day 28 - Favorite movie from your favorite director
· Day 29 - A movie from your childhood
· Day 30 - Your favorite movie of all time
Day 01 - The best movie you saw during the last year
I have seen so many good films during this past year that it was hard to narrow it down. I came up with 8 off the top of my head. But I think all in all I’m going to have to go with Toy Story 3.
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Why? Well several reasons really. It’s part of my childhood for one. For another, it’s one of those rare beasts, a fantastic second sequel. But mostly because it is funny, touching, heartbreaking and joyous all at the same time. I also love the fact that not only is it aimed at kids, but they’ve also kept in mind, not just the adults that will be watching it, as pixar always do, but us. Our generation. Those kids who saw the first Toy Story in the cinema. Those of us who grew up with it. And I don’t just mean the plot, although that is a big part of it, but little things, like some of the toys that appear had me squealing “I had one of them!”
Other films in the running were:
Up (2009)
The A Team (2010)
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
The Losers (2010)
Inception (2010)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Secretary (2002)
So, that’s that meme over with for today. And finally, a quick picspam of some pictures I took at Kew.
The stupidly tall treetop walkway. Funnily enough, I didn’t even attempt to go on it.
Ducklings!
Moar ducklings!
The Chinese Pagoda
A really big palm tree
A greyhound statue that looked rather like Scooby Doo.
I like this tree. My sister reckoned it looked like ribs. She’s not the only one. It makes me thing of a dinosaur dying in a tar pit. This probably shouldn’t be so cool.
Interesting fish. It manages to be simultaneously pretty and ugly.
Giant Bamboo. It’s Giant!
The Princess of Wales Greenhouse or some such name. Its interesting shape makes it bloody hard to work out which bits you’ve seen or not. My sister’s favourite cos it houses the carnivorous plants (this makes it pretty darn cool in my eyes too)
Giant Water Lillies. Apparently, these can hold the weight of a baby.
A lizard of some kind
A friggin’ *huge* butterfly! Probably bigger than my hand.
I actually finished this last night, but it took so long that by the time I had, the parentals had switched off the internet, so I had to wait until now to do it.