The Quill Point

Enchanted! And a brief message...

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:33:01 GMT

Just a quick message: to all those who are celebrating Christmas, have a very merry Christmas. To those who don't, have very happy holidays. Drink, be merry and so on.

I can actually use this userpic with pride now because, on Saturday, I actually caught up and watched Enchanted. I will now retract my previous fears about it being a travesty, as I loved every second of it - though I felt Susan Sarandon was wasted in her part. I didn't expect to see Timothy Spall (but he pops up in everything, so I don't know why, to be honest), James Marsden was utterly fantastic - but the film really does belong to Amy Adams. Her performance was amazing, and I loved the fact that she was so natural in the part. It's a shame they won't put Giselle in the Disney Princess range, as she deserves her place there, but because they'd have to buy lifetime image rights to Adams, they pulled out. Silly people.

And yeah, Idina Menzel! Wasn't expecting her to be in there either - bless Nancy and Edward. They're an odd pair, but I can see it working well - he has someone to sort him out and she gets the romantics. To be honest, it's a shame she wasn't singing, but I suppose the film's a departure from her norm. I can't find the track she recorded with James Marsden anywhere, because it was cut from the film - I don't know whether it's still on the soundtrack or something. The only problem with her singing is that her breathing technique is lacking - but she can't help it, because she's asthmatic, apparently. It's a shame, but never mind.

In other, mildly related news on vocal performance: after two concerts and two carol services, it would seem my singing voice is back with a vengeance! I've been absolutely frazzled the last few weeks, and stress affects your singing ability to the point where I was going flat on the higher notes. Thankfully, it seems this has sorted itself out. And I (hopefully) will never have to sing in Latin ever again. Thank god.

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:54:49 GMT

You know, you do something small and seemingly insignificant on LJ like changing your theme, and suddenly, you feel the need to swap everything else about as well. This might just be me. I have not given into the temptation, however, as the mood (thankfully) then passed and I didn't feel the need to do it after a couple of days. Like many in my family, I have an obsessive personality, but some things don't keep a grip on me for that long, because other things get in the way. For instance, my manga obsession turned to the X-Men and I've not looked back (or forward, because I've not found anything better to replace it yet).

The most extreme example of this obsessive personality I know of is my great uncle (and godfather), who is eccentric and fantastic. He was a Buddhist for about a week at one point. His last phase was learning Italian and I think he's kept going with that one, thankfully. I think our family is just genuinely idiosyncratic, verging on the point of madness, but it may be something to do with a strong creative vibe within the family. We've got amateur artists, writers, a film maker and all sorts floating about within the family.

Of course, there were a couple of people who used to have genuine funny five minutes. My great-great grandmother went through an old photo album with Victorian photos in of the family, and went through whiting out each name with correction fluid, or rubbing out anything in pencil. However distressing this was (we spent a family party recently scraping as much of the fluid off as possible to get at the writing beneath), it also took dedication from her. She would have had to go and get the correction fluid before she could actually complete the task.

We also had Bonfire Night recently (or Guy Fawkes Night, or whatever - basically, a celebration that the Houses of Parliament didn't get blown up by plotters trying to kill the monarch of the time and kill the first step towards democracy for Britain), and we did manage to get the entire family together for fireworks and pumpkin soup. It rained a bit, but we had a good time watching everything in the back garden before the weather set in in earnest. We also put Hot Fuzz on, a hilarious cop film... set in a quiet English West Country village. The significance of this was that my uncle, the super-intendant of a local police force, laughed until he cried along with the younger members of the family in attendance.

Yeah... I'm just trying to fill in Anna on events recently... oh! Oh! Eight letter word in Lexicon (think scrabble with cards, in essence), Anna, from yours truly. I managed to get 'litigate' on the table, and I cannot tell you how excited I was at this. Regrettably, I didn't win the round (damn you, 'x' and 'z'), but it was something.

FAO: ANNA (speed is of the essence!)

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:29:35 GMT

Anna, the opportunity has arisen for us to catch both Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in a comedy, "Waiting for Godot", at the Theatre Royal. Please reply back ASAP in relation to your interest in this event, as we need to get tickets and, naturally, these things sell out quickly.

Website link, clicky clicky for info

RSVP, plzkthx!

(Nano word count currently 3060-something)

(Oh, the tribulations of theatre tickets.)

The horrors of "[insert controversial statement]. Discuss." essays and the US election

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:07:04 GMT

The word "Discuss" in an essay title is a disgusting term and whoever came up with it should have been shot on the spot. I do tend to moan about essays, don't I? I suppose I've made my bed and I should lie in it. Still, once I'm finished with the Glass Menagerie, I will be ever so, ever so happy. It's the most depressing thing I've ever had the misfortune to come across. No one is happy during the course of the drama, and once it finishes just about every character is even more depressed.

I must admit to being vengeful about the English Lit course this year. I was promised Shakespeare and Chaucer and got given Williams and "Girl with a Pearl Earring" instead, the latter of which is written in such a dull fashion (but who am I to talk???) that I am purposely re-reading Pride and Prejudice for the other side of the course and ignoring it until at least Monday.

In other news, the US election is coming up (if no one had noticed), and I found this absurdity of a comment on a website detailing how McCain could win. Now, never mind who I support. This idiot obviously hasn't done his homework, and I've cut out most of the tosh to get to this bit: "Vietnam Vet. vs. Islam". Obama, despite his unfortunate name (Barack Hussein Obama) is not a Muslim. I believe he's Christian, he certainly has links with a pastor and has joked on the inappropriate nature of his name before.

If the Americans have no clue about their candidates and fall back on idiocy, should we trust them to make a decision which will (directly or indirectly) affect the rest of the world?

P.S. jackks: go and find Richard Armitage in Spooks on the BBC i-player or Youtube. He's scrummy and there's huge segments of him topless xD. Regrettably, in typical Glassy fashion, I was not ogling at him, but thinking "I know what Gnothi Seauton means, go me!" and I'm not ashamed to say so.

Thank the Lord for half term!

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:50:10 GMT

Finally, a holiday. Time to relax, plan my NaNoWriMo novel and genuinely unwind from eight weeks of torture via essay. While, of course, I like my current subject choices, they do comprise an awful lot of work. Last night, for instance, I started my Politics essay at six and finished it at eleven, five hours and four and a half pages later (and I still wasn't happy with it, because I hadn't included everything in there which I could have done). Democracy is a pain in the behind to write about.

In any case, I get Friday afternoons off, so I got home at 1:15 today and now I need to find a way to keep myself occupied for the rest of the evening. I will, no doubt, need to do some homework, so I can get rid of it all fairly quickly, but I also have to assemble my costume for tomorrow morning (I will, no doubt, be in no fit state to get it all at 5AM). I'm just going to spend the time reading up on my subjects and generally having a break.

Oh, half term, how glorious you are. Couldn't possibly have come at a better time.

I might have an entry of Expo stuff, generally because we're taking a zombie horde with us and I'd like to show Anna my costume, if it looks decent.

It's expo time! (plus a little walk...)

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:03:43 GMT

Well, I'll be popping off to Scouts in a few minutes, but I thought I'd make a quick post just before I go.

It's coming around to Expo time once again: I'll be up in London next weekend. The thing this year is that, as a huge group, there's a general dress-up theme of 'Death', so I'm going as a dead scientist, 'Johnny'. Basically, this involves a re-hash of last year's Hallowe'en costume (damn you, spell check, I am spelling that correctly), a mad scientist whose experiment had gone horribly wrong, and then a generous coating of pale make-up and blood beneath that. I'll probably end up drinking through a straw all day so I don't have to re-do it. As we're taking the 7AM train, and I have to actually get to a train station, I'll be up at 5:30 getting myself sorted.

I do love my house, but its location can be niggling. To walk to a bus stop is either two miles on the flat, to the nearest town, or a good kilometre up-hill to the nearest village. In fact, to get home today, I walked down the hill in high heels, a minor feat. For one, most of the walk is through livestock fields, which have uneven ground, severe dips and, on top, the hill is very steep. The small section done on road is treacherous as there's no pavement, and the bit you walk on has a stream of water cascading to the drain further down, which has eroded the tarmac below it: very slippery at the best of times. Then you get motorists who think that they can drive far too fast on a country lane, and you end up throwing yourself into the hedge for safety when cars and lorries come by.

There are good things and bad things to living in the countryside, I suppose. The view from the top of the hill is utterly beautiful, looking over the trees to the sea in the distance, so it's worth just sitting down on a stile to look over everything for a while. I know that jackks is loving city life, but there's far too much hustle and bustle for me. Give me my home any day, even if it is in the middle of nowhere.

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:29:28 GMT

My F-List seems to be having problems with strange/infuriating noises coming out of electrical equipment today. My commiserations - it really must suck.

On a more personal note, I've been doing the same History essay for at least four hours now, and I still haven't finished it. How long can it take to do one of these bloody things???

Argh, my eye!

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:05:13 GMT

No, not a reference to Polyphemus (...though I do need to do some Classics homework). My left eye has gone a little bananas, in that it's nearly completely bloodshot. As long as there's no force beam coming out of it, it's absolutely fine, I'm sure, but eye drops have, thus far, had little effect.

Yes... why was I posting again? Ah, that's it. Anna (you know who you are). Please e-mail me and give me assurance of your continued survival. I've just realised something completely crap - my draft of that GF bunny we worked on last year, Meche/Dom, died with my computer. I had a cunning plan for that, too, damn it.

I've had computer turmoil over the last couple of weeks. I have (comparatively) just gained my own PC, Windows XP, a beauty of a machine, new 19 inch monitor... and then, as soon as I'm all happy and working on it, it tries to automatically update and then proceeds to crash and die on me. [Insert large, melodramatic, cliché 'NOOOOOO!' here.]

I'm not quite sure what caused this problem, but I assume it can be put down to malware eating through the system, as the computer is comparatively old. Nonetheless, the only solution was to reinstall the operating system and start all over again; a tragic loss of a lot of work, even more fanfic and many, many photos which have all joined the choir invisible. Additionally, my speakers are now refusing to work; incredibly vexing indeed, as I can no longer annoy people by playing Adiemus over and over.

Thank goodness I'm starting all over again with new subjects this year. I (rather foolishly) am doing four essay based subjects: English Literature; Classical Civilisations (woo Greek literature!); History; Politics; finishing off my Maths AS level with a unit of Decision (i.e. playing dot-to-dot and drawing pretty things!). They all go together quite well, in all truth, but between homework, school, eating and sleeping (or not, as the case may be), there's little time for much else - aside from procrastination, of course. xD Everything's very interesting, but I do wish that they'd leave off on the homework front a little. My darling twin brother comes home every night and can play on his X-Box 360 as much as he pleases, lucky sod.

Oh, and a new addition is coming into the household: a Nintendo Wii will be arriving soon enough. Whether I'll actually have time to play on the thing is another matter entirely, but never mind. In theory, it's just there to bring the family together.

Anna, if you don't email back in the next week, I'll assume you're either dead or with some sexy Italian's flat somewhere in Milan. Do come along, now.

Excessive homework makes Glassy cranky...

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:02:07 GMT

Just tried to read my monthly comic dose as respite from my homework mountain - I swear, there are more adverts in comics these days. My Ultimate X-Men this month (is it embarrassing to admit I'm still reading that?) had so many advertisements that reading the bloody thing made me feel like a deer in the headlamps. I don't need double pages telling me not to do drugs, for crying out loud! Is that the audience for comics these days: do you have to be high on smack to suspend your disbelief enough to enjoy the plot? I wouldn't mind if they were Marvel stuff, but they're not, they're just annoying as hell TV programmes I've never seen before because they're so crap no broadcaster in the UK will buy them.

America is commercial hell, mind you: you can't watch sport (Olympic coverage etc, not grown men playing rounders), or a film, or even a ten minute TV programme without being advertised to. Every programme has product placement in it ("this show bright to you by..., the [insert bad slogan here]!"). On one TV channel there are more advert breaks as the transmission goes on, meaning a two hour film takes three hours as - during the climax, no less - there's a five minute break every ten minutes, and by the end of your stay there you never want to see a advert for prostate medicine again. I spent two weeks (got back Monday) in the historic part of Virginia, away from all the huge billboards; a wonderful relief.Despite that, they've got huge posters spread across everywhere else in America, and you can see fast food chains from miles off. I do like the USA as a place - don't get me wrong, we had a lovely stay there - but enough is enough, in my honest opinion.

As a finishing note, I've just let my tea get cold. Perfect.

Alive and hopeful for the Future of Marvel films...

Tue, 13 May 2008 16:02:16 GMT

Okay, I've been dead on LJ. This is because I've been feeling very guilty, as I have been spending time getting addicted to PC solitaire and Gaia Pinball, plus writing a load of shite that will rot on my hard drive forever, rather than doing anything particularly productive.

Note to self: never promise reviewers that you'll get chapters up 'in the next two weeks', as two months later you know you'll have done absolutely nothing about it. It's not worth the apologetic author notes. This is also known as 'ah, crap, I have written myself into such a state', which probably shows how bad a writer I am... and there I go again. With this attitude, I'll never post anything ever again, will I?

Anyway, why was I posting? Ah, yes. Found this on MSN: Marvel Production Company!. This made me very excited, especially the list of movies supposedly coming out. I haven't seen Iron Man yet, though all reports are good. I suppose it's partly lack of time and the fact that the local cinema is far, far away. Civil War took Tony Stark from my good books anyway.

Ahem.

Also, this gives me slightly more hope for Marvel movies in future. Because they're in the company's hands, hopefully they won't go the same way as X-Men 3 Spiderman 3 and the Ang Lee Hulk film, all of which (IMHO) were a load of rubbish. If they have (good) comic writers penning movie scripts, hope may not be lost for the whole franchise yet.

Yeah... you'll probably hear from me again around mid-June, when all my exams are over (my first two are tomorrow, joys of joys). See ya, guys!

Simple things Please Little Minds...

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:49:59 GMT

Ah. For anyone who's even mildly interested, I'm on my third or fourth draft of my next HSE fic chapter. It'll be up when I get the time to write something I like enough, and the first scene of said chapter is basically down.

Anyway, fic, unfinished projects and so on aside, I'm here to sing the praises of Lush, a cosmetics company I get stuff from to try and clear my ever so spotty complexion. I mail ordered a product on Sunday and it came through today, in a little box on my front drive. I opened it, expecting the usual polystyrene chippings or the plastic that's normally used for packaging... to find popcorn instead! Talk about a company living up to its social responsibility. Genius! Had to love it.

I can now go about my normal business and feel absolutely conscience-free about the environment for a while, which is always a plus.

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:33:23 GMT

Scorpi, my lovely, I'm only doing this because you told me to.

(Fandom note: no, nothing has gone anywhere. French coursework has beautifully obstructed every plan I had of doing anything. HSE#godknowswhat will be produced in the next week, hopefully.)

Well, a pointless meme that I'm sure no one could give a shit about. I told myself that memes are only a stupid waste of time and I would never participate, but that apparently got shot to hell, didn't it?

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Glastea/ Glassy
2. Cory (rl nickname)
3. ...

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1. Glastea
2. kermitthefroggy
3. God, I've only ever had two. How sad/stalkable am I?

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. Hands
2. My interesting feet (webbed toes. They're alien and weird.)
3. Boobs.

THREE PHYSICAL THING YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. Hair
2. Legs
3. Spots.

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. English
2. Welsh 1/8
3. Irish 1/64

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. AS Level French (what am I putting myself up for?)
2. Going to some shitty university
3. The amount of random prejudice against red heads. (I mean, what? It's a fucking genetic mutation, get the hell over it.)

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Whose Line Time
2. Checking the post in vain for comics
3. Trying to sit down and write a chapter of something - anything... only to remember I have homework >.<

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING NOW:
1. Jamboree wristband (it's not coming off!)
2. Converse trainers
3. Scout T-Shirt

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS:
1. Placebo
2. Killers
3. ... Frank Sinatra... (sexiest singing voice in the world. Sorry, Jimmy.)

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS (RIGHT NOW):
1. Ask for Answers: Placebo
2. Nicest Kids in Town: Hairspray
3. Adiamus - Karl Jenkins

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. You're having a bubble. Me? Relationship? Pull the other one, that one has bells on it.

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:
1. I was actually social last weekend (i.e. leaving the house), and I will be this weekend as well.
2. I have learnt my lines to perfection for my latest Drama project.
3. I want to read English at Cambridge University when I'm older.

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. Dark hair/blue eyes combination
2. Reasonably prominent cheekbones
3. Male genitalia.

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Perusing the internet
2. Reading every book/comic I can get my hands on.
3. Writing fanfiction that no one will ever read as it's scrapped within the hour (many a chapter draft has gone down the toilet in this manner.)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Look at the Cambridge website and pick the ideal college for me to go to in... three years time...
2. Play Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
3. Drink tea and play croquet, though I can't stomach tea at the best of times and croquet is impractical in the middle of the night (bizarre urge, that one.)

THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING/YOU’VE CONSIDERED:
1. English lecturer/teacher
2. Penniless writer/actress (I got too cynical and decided I'd rather not live in a cardboard box when I'm older.)
3. Translator

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON ~~VACATION~~ HOLIDAY:
1. New York
2. Austria
3. Sweden/Finland

THREE KIDS NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Christian
2. William
3. Elsie

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Get something published. Article, novel; not bothered what.
2. Finish Hope Springs Eternal!
3. Gain a PhD in English Literature.

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GIRL:
1. Fangirlish urges over certain actors.
2. I love empire line dresses and long skirts. Adore them, even. I'm a misplaced child of the late 1700s.
3. Ability to spend an hour in the bathroom in the mornings.

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY:
1. Very warped mind. Very warped.
2. I'm ~~supposedly~~ good at Maths
3. Ability to sit for hours transfixed by the PC monitor.

It's all there if anyone honestly can be arsed to look through it. There was the last bit recommending people to take it, but it's late now so it's there if anyone wants it.

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:30:24 GMT

Ach. Christmas holidays spent doing maths revision =/= no fanfic finished at all. Diddly squat. I've got jackks bugging me to handle a Grim Fandango plot bunny, but I'm getting guilt trips because I started HSE over a year ago and I still haven't finished the bloody thing yet (nowhere near ending it, either, which could be a cause for celebration or a hearty groan, depending on your viewpoint).

Meanwhile, procrastinating as usual, I got the chance to leaf through UXM#89. How bloody pointless is the issue? Between despising the cover art, the randomness of what little plot there was and wondering just what the fuck was going on, I found time to compare their Shadow King to the 616!Shadow King, who appears in Uncanny X-Men #117 before Xavier has a psychic duel with him over Storm, effectively killing him but really subjecting him to permanent mental agony. As you do.

Farouk, an obese telepath in a fez and three piece white suit, could very easily have been a pimp. He'd even got the cane and the statutory pair of scantily dressed women following him around. That said, Ororo was very young at the time, and pick-pocketing for him rather than anything else unsavoury. However, the character's transformation between verses amused me.

His Ultimate upheaval is much more appealing physically, but almost painfully melodramatic. Nothing like a jilted, basically imaginary angsty lover to start the evening, is there? Christ. It almost gives me security to think that my plots maybe aren't as bizarre as I think they are, compared to the comics.

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 12:55:45 GMT

Right, random Happy Christmas message, though it does have some kind of point.

I managed to stop procrastinating an icon making session, which can be seen in my current userpic (whoo! I actually have another one!), because I needed a J. Marsden one and felt I'd found the perfect image. Bebo had a big thing going on with Enchanted; there's another screencap I can probably gank later to manipulate into some semblance of goodness.

It's there for the taking, if anyone wants it, which is highly unlikely.

Otherwise, happy holidays (as not everyone celebrates Christmas) and I'll hopefully get the Cyclops bear finished this holiday between Maths and IT work.

Mneh. Is Procrastinating

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 18:28:25 GMT

I should not be on the net. I should be revising for the Maths exam I'll have after the holidays. Never mind.

Stop writing stupid, pointless fanfic that will never go anywhere and try and work on the actual fic you've had going for over a year, will you? (It is over a year now; you've slacked heavily). It's just getting stupid.

Then, you can start something new with clear conscience. Easy as pie.

Getting distracted by God-knows-what isn't good for me.

Oh, while I'm here, happy holidays to anyone who's reading.

Eureka! (or Why Enchanted Just Might Suck)

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:07:19 GMT

Nope, this is not a 'I've done all this (insert rubbish here)' moment. No, it is not. However, I have just returned from the cinema, and have worked out exactly what is wrong with 'Enchanted'.

Mind you, I didn't go and see the actual film, just watched clip after clip after clip of it, and stared at all the pretty posters of James Marsden festooned all over the walls... ahem.

The concept of Enchanted is good, and the animation looks sumptuous (really; cartoon!James looks just as good as his irl counterpart). I've realised the problem, and that's the media they're using compared to the script.

Animation has to be blown out of proportion: the voice acting has to be overdone to work, and the writing has to be exaggerated; all bells and whistles are attached because to make animation work, everything has to be slightly... well... larger in scale to look good. It's not a subtle medium; if you underplay it, whether traditional Disney work or CGI films, the product comes out flat and generally crap.

Now, the scriptwriters have managed that fairly well, from what I've seen. All well and good. However, the exaggeration has been carried across to the actual film section, and that's the problem. This was, of course, intentional; to carry of the film across the two medias, those from fairytale world need to be overly energetic and costumed in God-knows-what. That's not to say it works. There are scenes I've seen which are so overly acted they're painful to watch. If they had, maybe, been slightly more subtle with some of their contrasts, it might have been easier on the eye.

I might go and see the film anyway despite the complete cringiness, complete with animatronic squirrel and everything else they could throw in for the schmaltz-factor. Mind you, it's unlikely. Ah, well; we'll see what the critics say. I don't think it looks promising.

Hairspray! Yay!

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:12:15 GMT

Yes, a squee post. This is not unusual for me, I know, as I am atrocious at such things, plus the whole fixation on a guy who's ~~probably~~ twice my age and is happily married with a son... I shouldn't know that, should I?

Never mind. Hairspray is the only film in around three months I haven't had to run from the sofa cringing in the middle, and that, for me, is saying something. I was expecting a lot, and I wasn't disappointed; the cast were all brilliant, newcomers or High School Musical... things (they don't count as people), and I believe it takes an awful lot of guts to shake your ass on camera when dressed up as a woman in a fat suit; go John Travolta!

The book was very good, too; amusing lyrics and script. Since I'm embroiled in the trollop that is The Boyfriend at the minute (a 20's musical which requires a French accent on my part), everything compares favourably, and though it wasn't jaw-crackingly funny like Avenue Q it had a good dose of laughs that brought up the mood of something that could have easily become very slushy and sentimental with an overbearing moral, which was just about avoided.

Mind you, didn't James Marsden look sexy in that purple suit? ^^ I didn't know what to expect with his character, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I loved the lyrics to 'Hairspray'; Corny Collins is an arrogant bastard indeed. In fact, I was only there for his part originally, but highly enjoyed the whole extravaganza, though I noticed how songs deviated from the soundtrack.

Other observations... oh, I did a double take when Tracy descended with her black and white number, but it wasn't her dress, it was her hair. I thought of Movie!Rogue straight away, and ended up in a fit of the giggles. Whoops.

I'd usually go looking for fanfiction at this point, but I've decided I'm not going to mash my brain either by reading or writing for the fandom. Well, I could write it and then leave it on my computer to rot, like 99% of everything I do, but we'll see.

I'll get RL stuffs over first, I think. Minor things like GCSE mock exams come first, sadly (why, oh why did they move them forward two weeks for all of three people? Why?)

Avenue Q squee, Jimmy Marsden and a NaNo update.

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:48:59 GMT

Ook. I haven't updated in a while. Forgive me while I squee briefly...

I'm going to see Avenue Q again this Saturday! Yay for puppet sex, schadenfreude and general lulz!

...

Ahem.

Otherwise, I have become hooked on Jimmy Marsden's song on the back of the SJP perfume advert. Whoops. It got to the point where I've downloaded the actual video off Youtube and then proceeded to attempt to convert it without the picture into a music file, because I prefer the audio to the video (I agree wholeheartedly with Frankie Boyle when he described her as 'either a very ugly woman or a very beautiful seahorse', which is harsh but I can see his point, in a way).

I've so far failed, though I'm still working on the issue. If it works, then I'll upload it somewhere for anyone who wants it, because it might be of interest.

Oh, and NaNo WriMo word count: doing very well at 19K or so. Today, I should be at... 20K, but I've got the rest of the evening to work on that issue: only another 700 words or less. Plus, as of yet, no filler! Yay!

(Note that at this point last year I was writing X-Men fanfiction and slotting it in at opportune moments. I've got better at writing at length now, I think).

Cyclops... in teddy form?

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:40:56 GMT

Well, this must seem a rather mundane reasion to post. Mneh.

Yeah, I couldn't get hold of a Cyclops cuddly toy at the Expo on Saturday-- I mean, I met Eoin Colfer, Mark Sparacio and a load of really really good cosplayers, but all the plushies were FF VII, or animé, and I couldn't be assed to fork out £18 for something pointless.

Nonetheless, I'm not one to back down (come on, I wore an intensely silly bunny hat on the tube on the way home on the tube/train for a bet, clutching a large Astonishing X-Men print protectively), and I really did want that bear rather badly. So, stage one of Cyclops Teddy has been completed; that being the visor, which took a wire frame and a very complex sewing job to get it to fit. Huzzah!

(I apologise for the crappy quality of this photo in advance)

Yeah, it's a bit of a mothbitten teddy, bless it, but it's the most traditional one I have. Plus, don't you think that Cyclops would be a bit worn with use if he was a teddy bear?

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:58:14 GMT

I'm heading up to London tomorrow. I, and a group of friends, will be going to the MGM London Expo, so manga, Marvel and madness galore! Yay!

There are at least two old X-Men writers there too, which amuses me much. As well as Eoin Colfer, Christopher Lee and several other Heroes (pfft- X-Men rip off) stars.

In other words, I'm flipping well excited. Except for the fact that I'll be getting up at 5:30 tomorrow, to dress up rather extravagantly (well, you can count a maroon tailored dress coat, with all black and three inch heels boots as extravagant, I'm sure) and spend the rest of the day fangirling shamelessly.

I'm informed that you can get Cyclops teddy bears. If I can get hold of one, I'll have to post a pic for everyone's amusement.

...

Does this make me a proper nerd? Not that I wasn't there already, mind you.

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:22:46 GMT

Well, any fic I could be writing is going nowhere because I'm bogged down in work and crying over inequalities-- yes, I do mean that. It's pathetic, I know.

At the same time, though, jackks (or Scorpicus; anyone remember her Grim Fandango fic 'Murder at Vertigo's Tower'?) has started a forum which is basically self glorification with the 'I-ban-you' game on the side. It's addictive xD. It concerns all her Final Fantasy short films, because that's what she's into at the minute, with YouTube and so on. That means Final Fantasy 7 discussion, which I fail at because I haven't got at all far in the game yet, and although I've watched Advent Children, it's more criticism than discussion on that front.

But still, I reckon the girl's deluded. Why make someone who has little to no clue on Final Fantasy a moderator? The great thing is that literacy is enforced (ha ha! Grammar nazi-ing FTW) and it's a nice userbase that's online; around 50, many of whom aren't active. Not that hard, but still.

The little time I get to do anything on the site means that the power hasn't gone to my head, which is good. No self esteem plus arrogance =/= a good thing. However, it also means less time to do other, pointless things, like plan for NaNoWriMo, which I'm in the midst of.

November will be a month of little to no productiveness, but there we go.

Ach. Drama Scripts, oh joys.

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:44:43 GMT

Ugh. I've got a day off, and I'm going to end up spending the entire of it editing a script that reads like a horribly contrived high school AU fanfic, complete with melodrama, meaningless angst and lines that are so stilted and formal no one would be able to say them in real life.

Then again, at least I did manage to persuade the head writer that, after a month of verbal bullying, a girl who previously was very self confident wouldn't be throwing herself in front of a train to 'stop the pain', considering that there are only 15-25 reported suicides a year attributed to the issue-- that's not melodrama, that's hysteria. I'd like to report proudly that my writing's nothing like that, but I'd probably be lying. 'You're thinking too much of our target audience and not of the entertainment factor' =/= a valid argument when the piece of string just about suspending disbelief can't take it anymore.

Now, to try and make the blasted thing fit its target audience (that being, quite possibly, a group of educational psychologists) rather than teenagers, and therefore feel perfectly justified as I slash some of the more vulgar innuendo that's completely unneeded, though entirely intended by the writers.

Oh, God, why did I even agree to this?

A brief, costuming nitpick...

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 08:39:32 GMT

Well, got my Ultimate X-Men comic through the post this morning (yay, subscription!), and I've just finished reading through for the first time.

(Not to worry, no spoilers!)

Anyway, I'm just going to nitpick: is mesh (and it's not even that tight-knitted) appropriate for fighting in? I mean, Storm's in battle wearing what acquaints to basically a bra and string- not the most practical of things, because it wouldn't protect her skin at all- plus (from personal experience) if she gets caught on something, it's going to be hell to detach herself without breaking a piece of the material. Then again, I suppose this is a comic, so disbelief should be suspended somewhat.

Eh. I'm awful with picking out the most minor things, I suppose. Having grown up with the movies, where they're up to their necks in leather, no doubt with flak layers inside, skimpy latex just seems very, very impractical.

On that note, can Kirkman please increase the average 1-page per comic of Cyclops he's had in the last couple of months? The poor guy's been abandoned again, bless him.

(Ooh, that reminds me, time to get off my behind and post something... holiday = a lot of fic got written).

Exam results and so on.

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:22:21 GMT

Aww, hell. Exam results today, oh the joys.

I took my Maths and Science a year early, so I now have to go and get an envelope telling me whether I've failed in life or not. In theory, I shouldn't have done, because if I was going to get a 'D' they wouldn't have put me in the 'accelerated' maths group.

~~Mind you, that's theory.~~

Oh, yeah- I'm going on holiday for a couple of weeks on Saturday. Actually, I'm going on holiday and will be helping my writing at the same time, because I'm going to Florida (ahhhh- heat and alligators! Save me!). In theory, I'll be immersed in the American vernacular, learn just what they have and don't have compared to us (apparently, US tea is atrocious, but we'll see- I have an idea for something narrated by Xavier, who in movie mode is very, very English), and whether I can avoid jet lag on the way there and the way back, which should be fun.

Oh, bugger it. I'll report back later on results, if they're any good.

Ubertastic edit of goodness and wonder: Exam results are good! Yay!

Well, I count A for Maths and A* for Science better than good, but y'know...

RIP GF copy #1

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:38:54 GMT

Ohnoes! Our Grim Fandango copy has dieded!

This is depressing- the game lasted a long time, and had a full and happy life, always being played with, referred to or quoted (jeez, that sounds like an epitaph).

Nonetheless, when one has a Grim Fandango multichaptered (not long, mind you) plot bunny which needs certain people to refer to the cut scenes to work out a couple of things, one does not need one's copy (and this is both discs, mind you) to kick the bucket and join the choir invisible. Buggerations on a stick.

Ach. Plot discussion only goes so far. Thank the Lord for YouTube and so on!