Mildly Obsessed
It's been a while since I posted here, so I thought it was time for a general sort of update and also an admission: I actually emailed my parents today to ask them to buy me a little Prowl toy I saw when visiting them last weekend and have been fretting about not getting.
It might be time to admit that reading the occasional TF fanfic has now developed into a bit of an obsession.
In a good way though. Honestly, I'm not that fussed about the toys (although the Jazz I picked up the other day is looking a little lonely there on the shelf). I am, on the other hand, pretty impressed at the quality of some of the fan fiction writing out there. It's easy to picture the characters as interesting and conflicted personalities with that writing in mind, and that does add to the interest when I rewatch the cartoons. Watching the G1 cartoons during my recent trip to Australia, I even managed to convince myself there were hints of Jazz/Prowl there - and I'm pretty sure that's down to pure imagination and far too much time spent reading the prowlxjazz community.
On the plus side, concentrating on Transformers seems to be helping me beat the writer's block that's been bothering me since December. I actually managed to write something reasonably lengthy while I was away on that antipodean expedition - hurrah! More on that in a week or two, I'd guess when it's been polished a little more.
Of course, it helped to have long overnight shifts with not a lot to do, a whopping great piece of machinery under my control and pleasantly quiet and scenic dawns. Speaking of which, I couldn't help wondering what kind of Cybertronian the radio telescopes I was using would turn into. A big brother for Soundwave and Blaster perhaps? The dish in this picture is 22m (68ft) across, and the little staircase (which is about the distance between one floor and another in a house) on the left hand side probably gives you an idea of how small a human would be on this scale. Sorry if it's a bit hazy, but it was taken from a fair distance away, and at dawn.
In real life, I'm getting more settled in the new house and job. Moving from being a researcher to being a university lecturer is kind of tricky and hard work, but I'm getting there. Having said that, I'm kind of snowed under at present! It's amazing how much admin and paperwork seems to materialise at times. My garden actually seems to have a couple of nice plants amidst the weeds, and it's nice to have the long summer evenings to do things like plant out the stawberry seedlings I've been growing and put in some runner beans, spinach and tomatoes. It'll be interesting to see if any of them actually grow :)