we would sing and dance around

Amanda Palmer; Facebook; jury duty; Weeds.

2008-07-22T22:27:59Z

1. Amanda Palmer's blog today is particularly brilliant. I love her. I was talking to Tom last night about all the bands we obsess about and how we often fall out of love with artists but retain an interest in their work. And, well... I think that the Dresden Dolls are the one band who have never done anything to make me dislike them. There are a lot of musicians (such as Rufus Wainwright, Gogol Bordello, etc.) whom I listen to incessantly but who have done something evil or wanky or irritating that made me stop liking them as people. Which is stupid, because it's not like I have ever met them, and all my feelings are based on some kind of third-hand evidence of bizarre new artistic developments (ie, Eugene Hutz's unexpected allegience with Madonna) or repeated asshatedness in interviews. Oh, we fans are fickle friends indeed.

Anyway, my point before I got onto that little ramble there was, I think, that Amanda Palmer is awesome and continues to wow me with both her music and her personality. And the fact that she can write a protracted gynaecologically-themed blog entry that is both revolting and heartwarming.

2. Is anyone else a little befuzzled by New Facebook? It just sort of appeared today and, well... it's not exactly efficient, is it? I mean, how has it improved? What's up with the new layout? Where has everything gone? In summary: CHANGE IS BAD.

3. My jury duty got cancelled again. First I get called upon for this dubious honour (after being 18 for like, five minutes, Jesus!) and then they leave me hanging! I just have to wait around, calling the courthouse every day to see if they need me yet. Suck! On the other hand, this means that you guys will probably get some fic tomorrow evening, depending on whether it's sunny again tomorrow. (I hope it's sunny; I want to break out the rollerblades again.)

4. So, is the new season of Weeds just kicking ass or what? I mean, seriously: WOW, YOU GUYS. Please continue to be this hilarious and brilliant for another four seasons, kthxbai!

Devendra Banhart's new video, "Carmensita"

2008-07-22T17:57:30Z

spending long nights in the lab makes it hard for your love to thrive

2008-07-22T00:32:29Z

OH MY GOD. Truly excellent link from BoingBoing: an automated pipette machine doo-dah, marketed using a boyband style music video. OMG and, indeed, WTF.

Edinburgh again; Regina Spektor; Er Hu rage; SGA fic;

2008-07-21T17:23:50Z

Hey babies! Late April day and it's sunny outside and the whole of Boston drives that same black fucking truck, etc, etc.

1. Was in Edinburgh yesterday visiting losangelino& dr_octaviawith wrongeyed_jesus and Gillan... it was fun times. We sat around and smoke and drank and ate and, well, it was pretty constructive, as one might expect. Jamie's previously neat (or it was neat last week before the party, at least) room is already trashed. Iain has (hilariously?) removed all the slats from the bed, and there are like four bikes in there already. I swear, Jamie's bikes breed.

(Unfortunately, I noticed this morning that my mother's scarf, which I borrowed yesterday, totally smells of weed and cigarette smoke. Well, good thing she's out of town this weekend, I guess.)

Note: Can you believe that none of my Edinburgh people had even heard of Dr Horrible, never mind seen it? SHOCK AND AWE! So that had to be rectified. Unfortunately, this has probably spoiled Firefly for them, as they had not seen that either, and their first impression of Nathan Fillion will now forever be of him as Captain Hammer. They are never going to be able to take Captain Mal Reynolds seriously, now.

2. Went to see some musics with wrongeyed_jesus and Kapil-from-Edinburgh the other night. There were a lot of obnoxiously trendy hipsterish people there, which is always a little uncomfortable for me. Also, I think everyone except me hated the first guy onstage. I thought his music was sort of relaxing, but apparently some people don't appreciate the joy of repetetive, slightly out-of-tune reverb guitar. I just sat on the floor and entered a sort of calm, meditative state. The band we were actually there to see, Clorinde, turned out to be really pretty good live. Their visual show was far better than the other two bands': one of the songs was accompanied by footage of black-and-white 1920s strippers, and another was clips of cranes. And as any fule kno, I am fond of music that sounds and/or looks like girders, so Clorinde got a a 2/2 on that front.

3. I realise that I listen to way too much Regina Spektor to not own any of her music, so this afternoon I bought "Begin to Hope", which is an excellent album. Although I probably would appreciate it more if I hadn't already heard like ten of the twelve tracks already. I am a little doubtful obout "That Time": is it brilliant or just annoying? I cannot decide. Good use of the Er Hu (okay, I admit it, I couldn't actually remember the name of the instrument, but I could picture it in my head) on "Field Below". Er Hu sticks in my mind because I am 90% certain it's featured prominantly on the soundtrack to Memoirs of a Geisha (a movie about how women are weak and pathetic, and all men are rapists), which is set in Japan, so I remember the presence of the Er Hu (which is CHINESE, YOU MORONS) irritated me somewhat.

4. Did anyone read the new Sophomore Slump, "Junior Jumble"? It is like, the only fanfiction I keep track of any more. I just read fic and del.icio.us it and then forget it entirely, these days.

4.b. ALTHOUGH. I am totally writing a ton right now. I went to the Botanics to lie in the sun today (which, btw, FAIL: the sun went away within five seconds of my arrival) and got started on some SGA fic. It's one of those AUs with a totally ridiculous premise, but I am nonetheless writing it very seriously and without humour, because I am a tool.

5. So, who wants to go see MGMT when they come to London?

The one with the bondage and the penetrative tentacular alien organism of sci-fi evil.

2008-07-19T17:49:54Z

1. So, was I the only one who was like, 'KILL IT WITH "HEAD AND SHOULDERS"!'? Did no one else see Evolution, that work of sci-fi comedy genius starring the somewhat-bemusing combo of David Duchovny and Julianne Moore? You know, where they kill the alien menace with Head and Shoulders shampoo? No? Oh well. I have it on DVD, if anyone wants to borrow it.

2. Most amusing thing about this ep (although there were A LOT): the idea that there is some kind of Atlantis rulebook. Now, I haven't seen a great deal of the original Stargate series, but I do know this: no one ever EVER EVER followed the rules. It was all like, "We are mavericks! Let's steal a government-owned spaceshipand save the world! No one will fire us because we are awesome!" Just like in SGA where the protagonists routinely ignore any and all orders and do whatever the hell they like, and nearly every one of the people who are supposedly in charge ironically have huge issues with authority figures. I love New Boss Woolsey (and McKay's total disrespect of him), but the reason he is total Fail at being a leader is this: Stargate Atlantis is a batshit show, filled with batshit characters and set in a poorly-thought-out and generally batshit setting, but Woolsey is attempting to do things logically! I mean, every one of his orders was thoughtfully devised and sensible! That kind of shit is just not on.

3. Sheppard defeated the wraithy tentacle sickness by flying a puddlejumper into a wall. Everyone else is is like, "We should probably develop some kind of antidote and inject it into the sick person," but meanwhile elsewhere in Gotham City, John Sheppard is racing towards the Shepmobile with a cunning plan in mind: drive things really fast, ignore orders, and solve the problem by blowing shit up and ending up with semi-serious injuries! Oh, show. You rule.

4. Keller and McKay: I am still ambivalent over this. I mean, I don't actually want them to like, kiss or go on a date. But they do have a sort of adorable friendship thing going on (EVEN THOUGH KELLER/RONON 4EVA, SHUT UP), and I find it unreasonably entertaining that Sheppard knows that they were married in an alternate reality but a) hasn't told them, and b) clearly finds it completely horrifying.

5. Sheppard was looking really hot in this one. As was Teyla, despite her wig, which mildly enrages me by existing and being so goddamn golden and fwoofy. I mean, Jesus. During the Teyla-Keller scene at the beginning (two women speaking to one another for more than 20 seconds, OH MY GOD!) all I could think was "this show is a couple of dabs of eyeshadow away from a complete American soap opera aesthetic". I mean, with the big hair and the lighting and the cleavage? And Carson's man-tan? Total soap opera visuals.

6. Tentacles. I cracked up a lot during this episode, but the tentacles were a significant contributer to my general LOL levels.

7. ZELENKA! He looked cute in this one. Short hair?

8. Chuck has been replaced by some blonde woman! I, like most of fandom, am majorly pissed at the tragic disappearance of our favourite one-line-every-ten-episodes background character. BRING BACK CHUCK-TECHNICIAN! I have decided that he has been promoted to official Atlantis baby-sitter. Because Teyla was all busy kicking ass and taking names (and shedding her baby weight in three weeks, what the fuck?) so someone must have been looking after baby Torrin John. And it might as well be Chuck, who would teach the baby how to be adorable and Canadian and, I don't know, rewire stargate crystal circuitry or something.

9. I like how at this point McKay is completely resigned to Sheppard's ludicrous plans. He is just like, "Whatever, drive a spaceship into the wall while Ronon hacks alien tentacles with his machete in order to cure Keller's wraith disease. I DON'T EVEN CARE ANY MORE." Also on McKay-watch: bring back the tight blue shirts! I miss the tight blue shirts. Sheppard wears exactly the same plain black outfit for five years and Ronon is allowed to continue wearing his leather vests of sexiness... why do they deprive us of David Hewlett in the blue shirt from seasons 1 and 2? WHY???

Dramatic fight in the cinema; mystery solved; SGA trailer of Awful Brilliance.

2008-07-15T20:52:39Z

1. So the other night my mother and I went to see Mama Mia, the ABBA movie musical. This is because my cousin is in the chorus rather than any particular interest in ABBA. Unfortunately, although it was actually a totally entertaining movie, I may never find out how it ends, because the film was interrupted by... the cops.

At first, some of the people behind us in the back row were a little rowdy, some hen night kind of thing. But I wasn't exactly going to tell them to can it because a) me telling someone to shut up during a movie would be kind of hypocritical, and b) it's frickin' Mama Mia, a little background noise is not going to spoil the artistic and intellectual experience of watching shirtless, flipper-wearing men linedance to Gimme Gimme Gimme. But after a while people start actually yelling at each other and there are like 50 people standing up to see what's going on. Eventually the cinema staff come in to sort it out, but of course they aren't allowed to touch any customers in case of sexual harrassment lawsuits or whatever. The result is that instead of removing the trouble, there is now an extremely drunk, extremely loud woman standing in the centre aisle, screaming at the top of her voice at an entire theatre of movie goers, and some guy has punched another in the head for, I don't know, singing along, or not singing along, or something. There are about 500 people in the cinema, and understandably very few are now paying attention to Pierce Brosnan's earnest rendition of S.O.S.

After a while of this they switch off the movie and the police come in, but instead of leaving quietly, the various people still yelling at each other refuse to be arrested. In fact, they are literally KICKING AND SCREAMING. I've seen a few people get arrested -- I've seen people, like, curse at their arresting officer, and I've seen a ton of people peacefully resisting arrest at political demos, but I have never seen anyone get carried away kicking and screaming. Wow. It was actually sort of impressive, the fact that they could maintain that level of drunken rage for such a long time.

2. lady_w: I totally read the Edgar van Scyoc thing. AND YOU WERE SO RIGHT, it is awesome. I've not read the first one yet, just the second one, but still. WOW. And also, what a ludicrously esoteric and audience-specific piece of writing! What, 100 people in the entire world are going to understand what the fuck is going on? It's like the most brain-pretzelling metafiction ever, and yet entertaining nonetheless.

3. It was really sunny and gorgeous today. Which is proof that my life is made of bitter irony, because today is the day that I get sick and don't want to go out. It is kind of difficult to go rollerblading when you have to blow your nose every 30 seconds.

4. Last night I posted various pictures from Greenland, one of which was an unidentified piece of torn-up metal I saw in a little back-of-beyond museum. Within 2 hours, Tom had identified it as a B-17 Flying Fortress belly turret. WTF, impressive. Apparently his father has a great deal of WWII machinery knowledge? Or something? Anyway: mystery object no longer a mystery!

5. This week's SGA looked, I thought, kind of lame and sci-fi trope-y: someone gets infected with an alien thingie, whatever. As io9.com put it, the only reason to watch is because Jewel Staite is the central actor, and she is made of Win. But! That was before I had seen the totally hilarious trailer on the SGA site. I have probably mentioned this before, but all the Stargate Atlantis trailers are seriously terrible. I thought they were turning over a new leaf when they produced a fairly high-quality teaser for the season opener, but no, they have gone back to the old school. By which I mean, they have cunningly created a trailer so poorly-edited it almost cuts of the ends of some words, and showcases what will probably turn out to be the most melodramatic, terrible acting in the episode. It is all like, HAMMER HORROR, BABY! FWOOM, SWOOSH! INDETERMINATE PERIL! And then there is some kind of bondage thing with Ronon.

In conclusion: I really wish there was someone in town with whom I could heckle SGA, but unfortunately none of my SGA-tolerant friends are in Glasgow right now. FIE.

We need some Wonderflonium for the freeze-ray!

2008-07-15T14:34:44Z

Dr Horrible's singalong blog is online! And it is clearly the finest work ever written in the English language. NATHAN FILLION IS A DEMIGOD OF FUNNY! Dr Horrible is the most adorable supervillain ever!

GO WATCH IT NOW! I cannot wait for part 2!

P.S. I am not kidding. It is only 13 minutes long, WATCH IT NOW. If only for the sight of Captain Tightpants posing on top of a moving van while singing about how awesome his hair is. Or for the Bad Horse supervillain song with the cowboys. the Bad Horse song is GENIUS.

P.P.S. Okay, it's all genius, whatever. A million Oscars to Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris. Felicia Day gets an Oscar for having a lovely name, but is not quite awesome enough yet to get one for Awesomeness, like the others.

P.P.P.S. WONDERFLONIUM: DO NOT BOUNCE.

Greenland cruise part 3. Narsarsuaq, Greenland. (Or, the one with the icebergs.)

2008-07-14T19:17:05Z

We took maybe a hundred pictures of icebergs. But I thought, you know, maybe I'll trim it down a little.

The glacier:

This is how clear the air was. Those mountains were probably five miles away or something.

And now for some aerial photographs of the ice fjord and the glaciers:

Ok, here's an excellent example of how ridiculously clear the air is. This is the fjord from above, and those icebergs were probably like 50-100 metres across, but they look so close! The water looks like plastic model scenery, or something.

And here are some close ups of the glacier. All the people in the plane were like, why can't we lant like with a helicopter? BECAUSE IT IS A GLACIER, MORONS. Not an ice-rink. Duh. We would end up falling into a crevasse, but unlike in Due South, there would be a total lack of a) Ray Kowalski and Paul Gross, and b) rescue.

All the labels in the Museum of Awesome were like this. Greenlandic kind of looks like someone sat on a typewriter, doesn't it?

Anyone who has any idea what the hell this object is, call me. Because it is fantastic, but also WTF. I wish I'd stayed longer and actually read a few more of the English labels.

SURPRISED GOLDEN EAGLE IS SURPRISED.

Some guy came in just after I was lying on the floor to take this picture (the postbox was like a foot tall). It was pretty excellent because there were just two of us in this tiny 10-room hut of a museum, and from his perspective one of us was a crazy person who was grinning manically at all this random WWII shit and taking pictures of everything. Whatever, dude. I am totally awesome enough to carry off lying on the floor for my fabulous photography skillz.

I have no idea what the hell was up with this. It was on the door to a room full of model aeroplanes and pictures of GIs larking around in the Officers Mess in drag. Random inspirational slogan FTW?

You can see it on the door in the corner of this pic:

This desk instantly made me think of 1940s Torchwood and made me want to write a million short stories about tired base commanders trying to keep control of their back-of-beyond border military bases. (Or, um, one of the three or four WWII AU SGA fics I have.)

And one of the many random photos:

I actually kind of want one of these desks.They are businesslike. And I would less guilty about spilling stuff on it than if I had one of those fabulous walnut Dickensian steampunk affairs.

And finally, my favourite photo of the bunch:

Today's facts about Gavia.

2008-07-13T17:35:48Z

Number of times I can listen to Chaiya Chayia without getting tired of it: Limitless.

People it's okay for me to think are hot because it turns out they are actually older than me: Anna Popplewell.

Reasons why I am pissed off with the Glasgow IMAX site: It will not allow us to book Dark Knight tickets! Hopefully it won't have sold out by the time one of us has been able to go there and buy them manually.

Greenland cruise part 2: Iceland.

2008-07-13T15:24:05Z

And now, here are some pics from the boat trip round Heimaey:

And now for mainland Iceland...

Volcano crater!

And the waterfalls that made me think of Lord of the rings...

This is the plain between the Eurasian and American tectonic plates:

And finally, the random-ass steampunk car mum and I saw on the coach trip and coveted madly:

Fangirl.

2008-07-12T20:58:32Z

Go read this interview with Joss Whedon on Gawker.com right now, because it is hilarious. And then read the comments. The writer is clearly one of these people who think (quite rightly) that Joss Whedon should be worshipped as a god. The interview is about Joss' new internet musical (out in three days, all you people who are not up on the geek news), Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog.

Okay, I just found out Merlin has never seen the trailer to it, so that had to be rectified. I mean, singing, dancing Neil Patrick Harris and posing, stupid-costume-wearing Nathan Fillion! It is like geek heaven. (Correction: Joss Whedon's brain is Geek Heaven.)

P.S. Tom, I am totally listening to Regina Spektor live at Sin-E right now. OMG THANK YOU.

Party bodes well for Casa McSack's future in the Awesomecakes industry; Hancock; Amanda Palmer.

2008-07-12T14:37:42Z

1. Went to Jamie and Iain/Alex's flatwarming party in Edinburgh on thursday night. It is a GREAT place, I am so jealous. Location right next to Jamie's theatre so they can just fall out of bed (in Iain's ridiculously trendy pyjamas -- he even wakes up looking like indie rock'n'roll, the fucker) and end up backstage, practically. And the flat is about 10 times the size of anywhere I'm likely to live in in the next decade, if I stay in London. Anyway, excellent party, very laid-back and lacking in hysterical people breaking up with their boyfriends in the bathroom, with many new Edinburgh folks to meet and befriend. Looks like all the alcohol I imbibed over the 2-week cruise period has come to some use in terms of hardening my innards, as I was still able to walk and talk with great poise and style even at 4am, after a bottle of wine and god knows how much tequila, all in 6-inch stilettos.

Also, a party hardly seems complete unless you wake up to Carl having a breakfast of cigarettes and coke. And hello to sweetmintmojo! You know, in the case of a lot of my friends, people often ask "How the hell did you guys get together? You have nothing in common!" (like for example... all the people I am living with next year) but with Sweet, clearly the answer is: I am friends with her because she will do impromptu impressions of Joe Flanigan, which will never get old. The latest genius addition to the ouvre is Porn Star Joe Flanigan. ♥

I look forward to more fun times at Casa McSack.

2. Hancock is not like other films. Not really very blockbustery, despite the fact that it stars Will Smith flying around in a leather catsuit. Strange, epic doomed romance story is offset by potty humour and frequent cursing, and an unexpectedly incredible soundtrack. Non-superhero movie plot structure, and total lack of epic battle finale scene. Heh? Anyway, the point where it became a film of Stupid Awesome was when Will Smith was drunk-flying around LA with the "MOVE, BITCH, GET OUT THE WAY" song in the background as he swerved around buildings and flocks of birds. Remember when everyone was singing that, like, all the time? I've heard it so many times my mind was directly inserting all the bleeped-out words as it played.

3. Am catching up with all Amanda Palmer/Dresden Dolls online stuff I missed while in Greenland. Am of course giong to buy her new solo album when it comes out, but am somewhat bemused by her choice of first single. Astronaut is a fairly good song but she's indie-popped it a little bit for recording, hasn't she? I watched the video on Youtube and it's sort of... uneventful. But then the first Dolls single (and the most hyped, inasmuch as anything Dolls-related is ever hyped) from "Yes, Virginia" was "Sing", the only Dresden Dolls song I have never liked, and I love "Yes, Virginia". So I guess I shall just wait and see.

4. Someone needs to upload the SGA season 4 DVD extras onto youtube, like, NOW. Because it is frustrating having all these internet people being like,"HAHAHA,THE DELETED SCENES ARE SO HILARIOUS" when some of us can't watch them yet.

Doctor Who season finale and the Prince Caspian Regina Spektor song.

2008-07-09T21:47:38Z

I have now seen the Doctor Who season finale episodes. I can't say anything very intelligent yet because of OVERLOAD. It was just TOO MUCH DOCTOR WHO to deal with in one go. And the sheer classic sci-fi cheesiness! The daleks! The incomprehensible technobabble and gadgets! Russell T. Davies just bowed out in an apocalyptic explosion of geekgasm.

The only problem with it was I watched it with my mother in the room, meaning I couldn't talk. She frowns upon "spoiling the experience" by commenting until the whole thing is over, which leads to a lot of confrontations like this.

ME: ROSE TYLER! ROSE IS ONSCREEN! HELLO BILLIE PIPER!
MUM: Cease your imbicilic commentary!
ME: But, Rose has a big gun! Oh my god! IANTO JONES IN A WAISTCOAT --
MUM: I will kick you out on the kerb, see if I don't.

It would be far easier to watch it with Tom or wrongeyed_jesus because at least they can accept the fact that shrieking and grabbing is part of my process for viewing anything that a) is Doctor Who or Torchwood-related, b) involves Billie Piper in any capacity, or c) all of the above.

In terms of emotional reaction... well, earlier today I saw Prince Caspian (OH MY GOD BEST FILM EVER... more on that topic at a later juncture), and at the end there was a song by Regina Spektor called The Call, which I personally believe is about the Doctor and Rose. Someone must songvid it immediately so I can watch it and weep.

So I loved Donna's ending, even though I want another season of her. But I thought Rose's ending was a cop-out. I would have preferred if it stayed the same, with the tragic pining. Because he's not the real Doctor, is he? Rose now gets to manage the old homestead with human DoctorDonna, and have fat babies while the real Doctor travels (which she can't do -- no TARDIS! This is the real tragedy!) all alone, with no Rose. I love the Rose/Doctor relationship because of their deep love (I want a thousand more episodes of season 1 Christopher Ecclestone and Rose), and if it has to end it must be melodramatic and epic and generally like the Amber Spyglass. Not this weird half-life which is not enough.

Greenland cruise part 1 (Days 1 - 2: Lewis, Scotland)

2008-07-09T19:03:43Z

I have returned! Here are a couple of photos and my diary from the first few days of the cruise... more coming later after I have watched Doctor Who (CAN. NOT. WAIT.) and, you know, slept. These ones are fairly softcore, as they feature no volcanos, radioactive materials, bullet holes, icebergs or lava pits.

That last picture is the pub I am going to open when I retire. How beautiful is it? I would not change a thing. After all, everyone needs pubs, even after the apocalypse. I would need a supply of beer, of course, but this retirement/apocalypse plan would include me having some kind of partner in the hops/brewery trade. (Billie Piper, perhaps. It can be her if I want, okay? Don't judge me.)

Billie Piper dances to Glenn Miller; Canadian DMCA;

2008-06-25T23:57:01Z

1. I love "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" like this much: <----->, possibly more. Definitely my favourite Doctor Who episodes. I just watched them again for the first time since, like, 2006 and you can consider my heart officially melted. The Doctor and Rose (ie. Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper) dancing around the TARDIS to Glenn Miller is one of my favourite screen moments of all time. Also, don't you kind of miss incompetant-yet-charming conman Jack? Makes nice change from emo Torchwood Jack, I think.

Those eps combine my two favourite fictional themes: time travel romance and early 20th century period drama. It's like a magical potion of audiovisual entertainment containing all my favourite delicious ingredients. Billie Piper! Dancing to Glenn Miller!

2. I'm 99% certain I've never posted cute animals on this journal since I started it (when I was what, 14?), but this rule is now going to be broken. Because, baby white tigers. They are all nuzzly and fuzzy! Fuzzly, perhaps?

3. Cory Doctorow has officially been crossed off my Imaginary Cool List as of now. This is because of his incessant BoingBoing posting about copyright law. Clearly it's very important to him, but is the BoingBoing readership really that interested in four posts about the Canadian DMCA every day? I doubt it. I doubt anyone is, apart from maybe copyright lawyers and Cory Doctorow. But pretty much everything else he writes is significantly awesome, which is how I didn't remove him from the aforementioned Cool List earlier on. Speaking of which, does this mean there is a spot open on the imaginary Cool List? It would probably go something like this:

Billie Piper
The Dresden Dolls
Ellen Cushner
Neil Gaiman (who is on everyone's Cool List, but would not be invited to my Imaginary Cool List party because I would be too star-struck.)
And a player to be named later, as a Doctorow-shaped spot has tragically opened up.

4. May have mentioned this before, but I am bitter that there is no UK Wonkette.com alternative. It is kind of unproductive for me to be so obssessed with US election coverage. The closest thing there is are the million sites tracking Boris Johnson's progress, which I haven't been looking at recently since a) depressing, and b) I'm not going to moving back to London till September. Unless Freja gets her way, whereupon I shall move back immediately and be some form of personal entertainer for her (although I draw the line at removing clothing for the cause).

5. So. Getting on the cruise liner tomorrow. I will probably post once or twice from the computer room on the ship. I am going to have exciting adventures! And hopefully everyone onboard will not be dull, middle-class and middle-aged. I am okay with the second two, but dull? Not so much.

cobweb_diamond @ 2008-06-25T19:59:00

2008-06-25T19:01:02Z

1. Went to see Wanted today with sweetmintmojo. Angelina Jolie is scary thin. And it wasn't a very good movie. It was schocky but not schlocky enough, like it was trying to be serious or something, but it was too silly to carry off the seriousness. Afterwards we went to a bookshop and flicked through the original comicbook (N.B. apparently sweetmintmojo's father knows the author, Mark Millar -- WTF? And she lives next to Grant Morrison, it's fucking unfair), and it's kind of... different to the movie. Like, Angelina Jolie's character wears orange flairs and cat ears and there are, like, aliens or something. The movie was more of a straight-up Fight Club/Matrix-style "young man taken from boring desk job and informed ofsexy violent destiny" fantasy. It was all fairly sensible (well, as sensible as a story about a secret cadre of assassins training nerdy accountant James MacAvoy to be a deadly badass in six weeks can be) right up until we are shown the Loom of Fate. Which is a loom that weaves cloth containing super-seekrit instructions -- from "Fate" -- in the form of binary code (WTF?) telling the assassins who to kill next. Also, there was that whole thing where he blew up the oops-they-were-baddies-after-all assassins using... rats coated in nitroglycerine, that he coaxed into a truck using a vat of peanut butter. Once again, WTF? It's all like: sexy danger, sexy danger, "This is your destiny!", badass action montage... VAT OF PEANUT BUTTER. Not a good movie, and certainly doesn't measure up to the genius of Doomsday in the Awesome Terrible Movie stakes.

Anyway, I have a theory regarding the secret cadre of Assassins: it is, in fact, a front for a terrorist training organisation and/or cult. Seriously, it makes sense! They target weak-willed, frustrated office drones like James MacAvoy's character, and feed them some story about how their father was a super-assassin and it's their destiny to follow in their footsteps. They get someone to follow him around and rough him up a little so he thinks some unidentified Enemy is after him. Then, once he's suitable convinced of their "destined to become an assassin" theory, the organisation deprogrammes him by brutalising him repeatedly and telling him his life is a lie, Matrix-style. They make up storied about how Fate instructs them to kill people who would otherwise end up doing Bad Things, like in Minority Report. And voila, you have yourself a person who will kill absolutely anyone you tell him to, without remorse, and if he gets caught he'll just spout shit about a magical loom and how it's his destiny to save the world through multiple homicide. Pretty smart plan, right?

2. Glasgow bookshops have failed me. I tried to find a copy of danibennett and ladyjaida's spiffy-looking debut novel, which came out yesterday and I have been coveting for months. But no! I will have to make do with educational books about Nantucket whaling to read on the cruis. Or, you know, comics about spandex-wearing superheroes vanquishing evil, swearing and gay-marrying one another.

3. So I was on the phone to Freja last night for hours and hours, chit-chattering and giggling like the delightful teenage girls we are, and she said she wanted to get a mention on my LJ (dubious honour though it is). So, hey there Freja! You are quite okay.

4. I came up with an idea of genius (this happens a lot). Tom was watching the first three episodes of Billie Piper/Christopher Eccleston season of Doctor Who, and texting me about the episode with the woman who plays Gwen in Torchwood. Now, I find Gwen annoying. But her character in Doctor Who, Victorian Welsh psychic Gwyneth, was totally awesome! Now, wouldn't it have been so much better if Torchwood had included Gwyneth instead of Gwen?

Think about it! Same shiny-haired actress with adorable Welsh accent, but completely free of her annoying, pining-for-Jack... Gwen-ness. Instead, there would be humerous Victorian/21st century cultural misunderstandings. And a psychic scullery maid is way more interesting than a policewoman with an almost aggressively boring and normal home life. Now I want copperbadge to write this fic, because it would be delightful.

So I was going to do an actual post, or something, but instead you're getting this.

2008-06-25T01:31:25Z

Because I'm tragically obsessed with the sci-fi campfest that is Stargate: Atlantis, I of course read the io9.com review of the s5 season premiere. Unlike with the io9 reviews of Doctor Who (DO NOT CRITICISE BILLIE PIPER!) I basically agreed with all of it, ie. that no one ever dies on Stargate, and so forth. BUT. At the end they are all like, "It should also be exciting to see if they pick up the Teyla/Sheppard love story."

Uh, what was that? Teyla/Sheppard love story? Because...

1. Teyla clearly views all of her teammates as little boys, even though obviously she does love them. Sheppard and McKay spend hours arguing about Batman, and Ronon almost certainly thinks boob jokes are hilarious (Note: they are). Teyla, on the other hand, has led the surviving members of her race to safety from genocide, has a boyfriend, has dealt with the disappearance of said boyfriend with remarkable aplomb, and is now a single mother. The only time Sheppard is serious is when he's, like, expressionlessly disamboweling the enemy, and something tells me that's not exactly a turn-on for most women.

2. Sheppard has the emotional maturity of a 17-year-old boy. He expresses his feelings through monosyllablic grunts and/or chooses to avoid emotional confrontation altogether. His occasional forays into the world of lurve mainly consist of hot women throwing themselves at him, whereupon he looks confused, smirks and/or has sex with them without really meaning to. He is the least likely character on the show to end up in any kind of long-term relationship.

3. SGA is massively blatant about everything. If there were going to to be Sheppard/Teyla makeouts, surely there would be some form of hideously unsubtle foreshadowing-acting from Joe Flanigan, right? I mean, there was that one time when they kissed but Sheppard was all hormonal from being turned into a bug and was literally climbing the walls about five minutes later. Not to mention Teyla's total "Ewwww" look when she pulled away.

4. (Sheppard is gay.)

5. It would mess up the team dynamic. Therefore, no way would Lt. Colonol Leave No Man Behind fuck one of his teammates unless he was fucking all his teammates equally. And I just don't think that the sci-fi channel is there yet. Even Torchwood didn't go that far.

Greenalnd cruise; Doctor Who (no spoilers); writing; Wanted; sibling bickering; Shakespeare.

2008-06-24T01:24:22Z

1. Have packed almost all my clothes for the Greenland/Iceland cruise. Am not properly excited about it yet, mainly because I have no idea what it's going to be like. On the one hand, adventures which may or may not involve Panserbjorn and airship chases (I have a realistic outlook on life). On the other hand, evening events where formalwear is obligatory. After seeing me try on my unimpressive ballgown collection (ugh -- if I could, I would wear the same black dress to everything), my mother has become convinced that all the creepy middle-aged men on the cruise are going to be dazzled by my beauty and attempt to woo me. Her maternal love blinds her to harsh, harsh reality, but I guess it's better than her being one of those scary mothers that encourages their teenage daughters to get nose-jobs before college.

2. lady_w, you are reading the Sophomore Slump sequel, right? Did you read the final chapter? It reduced me to the level of a 7-year-old squealing over the adorability of a fluffy bunny rabbit. I think I'm going to read it again right now and be all like, "Aaaaaawwwwwww!"

3. Ordinarily the episodes of TV I rewatch are the frivolous ones, while the serious episodes I watch once and then attempt to forget because I don't like emotional trauma spoiling my escapist fiction. However, despite the fact that last week's Doctor Who was really very dark, I am totally going to watch it again, because wow. I am a sucker for dystopic what if... scenarios. The thing is, it's the sort of episode that would otherwise inspire a great deal of high-quality fanfiction, but unfortunately I am sure that it will be quickly overshadowed by whatever happens in the finale. Bah.

4. Yesterday my mother asked me if I was still writing. I am pretty sure she uses this as some kind of barometer of my mental state: if I'm not giggling over my who-cares-if-it's-terrible fanfiction or attempting to write the great unAmerican novel, it is time to call in the men in white coats. Anyway, she asked what I was "working on" (ahahaha), and I was all like, "A book about the Nantucket whaling industry!" Which understandably produced a somewhat 0_o response from her. Ordinarily the answer is more along the lines of "It's political space melodrama, with witches!" or "These two guys, right? By day, dance instructors. By night, they fight crime... with magic!" (Note: none of these were ever the outline of any of my failed writing projects. But now I think about it...)

Little did she know that one of the Nantucket whalers is a gay elf.*

*Okay, I kid. Or not.

5. Someone had better go see Wanted with me on Wednesday, because I will be bitter if everyone else gets to see it but me. Just sayin'. Looks like some quality blockbuster artistry. Unlike the trailer for the third Mummy movie (Why? Why?), which looks completely indistinguishable from the first two.

6. So my brother is started to get on my nerves again. Like for example, he insists on singing along with Cyndi Lauper even though he doesn't know the words. And he had to watch Footloose with speakers instead of earphones. Look, I enjoy the beautiful strains of the Footloose as a background to my day as much as the next person (unless the next person is my brother, oh my god), but you've seen it like fifteen times already. Does it need to be in surround sound every time? Also, stop borrowing my graphic novels and bending the spines back and spilling food all over them, jesus. /whining

7. They are doing Bard in the Botanics again this year! I am so there. Much Ado About Nothing, whoo!

Turn Left

2008-06-21T20:34:59Z

DOCTOR WHO!!!!!!!!!
BEST EPISODE EVER!!!
BILLIE PIPER!!!!!!!

You hear that sound? No? Well, that's because my shrieks of geek joy are too high-pitched for the human ear to handle.

My mother just pointed out that I don't get to see the final two episodes (Ianto! And Rose! IN THE SAME EPISODE! If they exchange even one word I will be happy.) till July 10th because we are going to be in Greenland. Well, that totally sucks. But on the positive side, I am going to be in the motherfucking ARCTIC CIRCLE. On a cruise!

Things that made Doctor Who awesome:
Billie Piper.
Wine.
Things that I cannot talk about because they are spoilers.

In conclusion: AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Liveblogging Stargate Atlantis 5x02: "Search and Rescue"

2008-06-20T23:27:35Z

So I forgot that SGA wasn't a show like Battlestar Galactica or whatever where spoilers are hoarded like gold-dust. Of course teh season premier has leaked onto the internet two weeks before the air date. And now I am going to watch it! Because I need some moronic joy in my life today.

Ooh, dream sequence. Clearly. Teyla and Sheppard are having a candle-lit dinner in an Athosian tent; Sheppard looks confused.

FORD! FORD FORD FORD! They bring him back for a three second cameo during a dream sequence? I wonder how much Rainbow Sun Francks got paid for that. More than an extra? (Incidentally, his eyebrows are looking particularly well-shaped in this one.)

Joe Flanigan's greatest acting weakness is waking up from unconsciousness. Which, sadly, as he plays an action hero he has to do kind of a lot.

Ronon is so fucking awesome. He is my favourite character. Which is strange, what with my scary scary love for McKay/David Hewlett.

Hahaha, McKay and Major Lorne trapped in an enclosed space together. Sarcasm overload!

Jesus Christ, special effects! Okay, I'm going to watch that CGI space sequence again like three times. Is that actual quality I see, SGA? How uncharacteristic of you! (Note: Watching this in high-def kicks ass.) Also, the Star Wars-esque music? LOVING IT. Please let this mean that the show is getting new music, because I have a serious dislike for all the music on SGA so far.

Hahaha, the only alien villain more disco than a Wraith Queen is Michael the evil half-Wraith with his hairgel and his snakeskin coat and his army of leather-wearing minions.

Oh, excellent new title sequence. And more shiny CGI! Atlantis looks really pretty, I want to move there.
Unscheduled offworld activation! This lietenant Edison guy is a terrible actor. Is the weird head-twitch meant to be indicative of concussion, or what? He has the mannerisms of a cut-scene character in a 90s video game.

1. McKay -- "I'm claustrophobic. I'm trying to keep my mind busy. Which is difficult because, you know, it's my mind."
2. Lorne just referred to blown-up warehouse as an implosion. Whoo!

Okay, I may be misinterpreting this, but the computers in Evil Half-Wraith Michael's Lab of Evil appear have hard drives that a) are compatible with McKay's palmtop and b) look like they are manufactured by Dell. THIS IS WHY I LOVE YOU, SGA. And oh, look, he plugs in the wire and suddenly we get Wraith writing in Evil Green Letters of Murky Doom on the laptop. SCIENCE! TECHNOLOGY!

Ah, Sam. You and your wind machine. Your non-regulation hair. Your makeup. Your leather jacket. And yet strangely, I don't find myself disliking you.

Hahaha. Poor Ronon, trapped with Sheppard and his crazy mind of self-blame. He wakes up from severe head trauma and a building skewering him in the gut, and within three minutes he's already monologuing about how this all his fault, waah waah waah.

AAH, MICHAEL! STOP TOUCHING HER PREGNANT BELLY, YOU EVIL RAPEY FREAK! Stay strong, Teyla!

I really hope that Teyla's secret boyfriend wasn't such a tool before he was made into a mind-controlled Wraith minion. Because, god. He's not even that hot, either!

Okay, costume department. The leather jacket I can accept. But why the hell is Sam wearing leather trousers as well? She is the military commander and she is overseeing the rescue of people buried under alien rubble! Wherefore art thou, overalls?

Jumpers can't fire while they're cloaked? Shut UP.

I cannot even deal with how adorable Jewel Staite is. So glad she's a regular cast member now!

Ahahaha, "They don't watch the Simpsons, or drink beer." "Michael's hybrids."

Oh my god! Manly bonding at moment of death! Oh, Sheppard and Ronon. You and your emotional discussions. I am tearing up.

Okay, no. Moment of romantic joy: Sheppard's face in the infirmary when he says "McKay's alive?" ALL THIS TIME HE THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD? ♥

Oh, Sheppard. Real men don't need blood-transfusions or surgery, right? He and Harry Potter should start some kind club for heroic masochists.

Ronon: Hot like fiery burning. JASON MOMOA WINS ALL THE EMMYS.

BABY! BABYBABYBABY! The baby is coming! Also, I really hope the mind-controlled Wraith lackey sheppard just gunned down wasn't Teyla's boyfriend. Because that would suck, and would be unusually cruel irony for SGA.

Gotta say? Rodney's reaction when faced with a woman about to give birth? Exactly like how mine would be.
Oh god. This is the best birth scene in the history of television. TEYLA AND RODNEY ARE MADE OF WIN. And John's face and his "wow" when he comes back into the room and there's a fucking baby there? Priceless!

Finally! Using a Wraith dart to rescue people. They should do that every episode! It's the finest way to travel.

John and the baby: ADORABLE.

Rodney and Sam conversation: LOVING IT.

John and Teyla in the infirmary: ALSO ADORABLE. BFFs 4eva! When she thanks him you can see him seize up like, "Alert! Alert! We are not going to discuss our feelings! Time for lunch!"

I literally snort-laughed at Joe Flanigan's face when Dr Keller said that "Lay still and let me play with your insides." Jewel Staite has excellent comedic timing! And is cuter than a basket of kittens.

As for the baby name: a) John? Um. I don't think I agree with this. Ronon and Rodney will be jealous! b) So if she is naming it "Torin" after her father, this means that when she introduced herself in the first episode as "Teyla, daughter of Tegan", Tegan was her mother, not her father as we previously thought. Which indicates that the Athosians are a more matriarchal society than I previously thought. Unless the SGA writers are continuing to be stupid fuckers and making a continuity error.

Poor Sam and her gutted-face. But New Boss Woolsey's new glasses are pretty trendy, so that's okay in the long run. At least he is unlikely to wear leather trousers.

So, all-in-all a pretty brilliant episode, right? Surprisingly so, for SGA. It was like a proper TV show! Which means either season 5 is going to be about a million times better than the past four seasons (not that I care, because even when it's terribly, which it frequently is, it is terribly in an awesome way), or the season premier is one of the three or four genuinely good episodes they allow themselves per year. ;)

LBD; garden party; w00t for Martians; Avril Lavigne; Nazis attack from the moon; blood-fueled car.

2008-06-20T15:14:14Z

1. Have procured little black dress for 2.50 from charity shop underneath flat. SCORE. I am wearing it. Hopefully do not smell of charity shop. (P.S. 90% of my black-and-white stripy goth legs are on show. Smexy.)

2. Am going to High School's inaccurately-named Midsummer Madness fair/barbecue/thing this evening. Should be fun? I mean, it is sunny, which of course would only happen once I've left school and aren't actually obliged to attend. And of course there will be the immense fun of... seeing my highschool teachers again? And because I refuse to change out of my new black dress, looking like a hilarious goth? Also, the teachers have probably already forgotten all about me and my friends. (Especially Iain, who told me he is planning on going dressed as a Pacman ghost in order to hide liquor under the sheet -- WTF?)

Am planning on roping friends into spying on my brother in the hopes I can see what his little girlfriend looks like. I think he will appreciate my affectionate and not-at-all-annoying meddling!

3. I think that we can all agree that NASA's Phoenix Lander Twitter news is sort of hilarious. It's not exactly "One small step for man", is it? It is excellent that the first news of life on Mars (or, you know, icy ice, but whatever) is in a tweet using the word "w00t".

4. I am now completely addicted to Musicovery. I've currently set it to positive, energetic pop, rock, jazz, electro and world music, and it keeps spitting Madonna and Kylie at me, with occasional bouts of klezmer. AWESOME! Although, who knew I knew so many Avril Lavigne lyrics? *shame*

5. Even if the Iron Sky movie turns out to be crap (vanishingly unlikely), I am 100% buying the soundtrack.

6. So according to io9.com a vampire drama/horror series has just started on HBO, starring Anna Paquin. WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED?

7. So, we're all going to go see Blood Car, right? I mean, it's about a car that runs on blood! It is a schlocky horror movie with an environmental message! EDUCATIONAL!

The greatest show on television.

2008-06-19T19:32:02Z

There is a new, better trailer for SGA season 5. AAAAAAAAAHHHH.

Rodney delivers Teyla's babeeee!!!!!!!!
Elizabeth is back, and uncharacteristically badass!
Things blow up!
Jewel Staite is still as adorable as a basket of kittens!
Ronon is all scary, and is possibly involved in some kind of feud!
The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager is back! Doing things! Yay Woolsey!
Joe Flanigan continues to look mildly puzzled!
I cannot wait!!!!!

Less than a month to go!

Housing = doomed; four middle-aged alcoholics talk about their feelings for two hours; The Authority

2008-06-18T20:54:00Z

1. The trip to London was pretty exciting. By which I mean I lay sleepless on a train, arrived at 7am and waited around all morning for my flatmates and their parents to meet up. Then I spent four hours listening to people argue with the estate agents about things that no one but my mother and Freja's scary-awesome businessman father seemed to understand. Got home this morning and immediately got a call from Stefano saying he was pulling out of the (admittedly fuck-headed) accomodation contract thingie, meaning we have to go find another place. So, fun!

2. There was time to waste in London before last night's sleeper train, so my mother and I went to see Sex and the City. It... wasn't awful? I enjoyed it, but I don't particularly want to see it again. Also, I realise that it is SATC and everything, but still, all the women seemed unnecessarily swayed by material goods. It was all like, "Oh, I am getting married to the supposed love of my life, AND AM BEING GIVEN JEWELS AND A HUGE CLOSET IN WHICH I WILL HOUSE MY 10,000 DOLLAR SHOE COLLECTION". And the women always greeted one another with manic screams as if the other had been away for the last year or had just been clutched from the jaws of certain death. What's up with that? They've been friends for like twenty years, they see each other every fucking day, and yet it's all like, "OH MY GOD CARRIE, GUESS WHAT, I JUST HAD SEX WITH MY MALE HUSBAND USING HIS PENIS, IT WAS SOOOO GOOD! And now I will illustrate my nirvana-like joy at seeing you again by utilising a pun and/or humerous euphemism!"

3. Although I'm not really an expert (my true nerdery lies in other fields), I have read a few graphic novels. Sandman, Transmetropolitan, The Invisibles. But although I love most superhero movies, I think that superhero most comics suck. I would not buy one. UNTIL! The Authority. The Authority are a bunch of superpowered people in tights, living on a sentient space-ship orbiting earth and swooping down occasionally to save mankind from the Forces Of Evil. But despite this, it seems miraculously uncliched and generally pretty awesome. The primary reason for this would be one of the writers, Warren Ellis, who wrote Transmetropolitan, which is about a Hunter S. Thompson-like character who reports on the political shitstorms of a dystopian Philip K. Dick metropolis. Just read a couple of random entries from his blog and that will give you an idea of his style.

The Authority has strong female characters. Instead of just pummelling at supervillains, the writers appear to have thought out some kind of plot. Characters have character flaws, they develop, and are killed off. Instead of whining on and on about the tribulations of being a superbeing, they are all like, "This is the best job ever!" and proceed to do whatever the fuck they like BECAUSE THEY CAN. Instead of fighting petty crime on the meanstreets of Whateveropolis, they assassinate evil dictators, piss off President Clinton and rescue refugees in their massive fuckass spaceship.

My other main reason for loving The Authority is The Midnighter. The Midnighter is more or less the most badass character I have ever seen. All the other superheroes on the Authority have ridiculously fantastic powers like laser eyebeams and the ability to make cities bend to their will and shit, but Midnighter is just really, really efficient when it comes to homicide and general brutality. He is an amnesiac supersoldier experiment (making him like a cross between Wolverine and Batman, coincidentally my two favourite traditional superheroes). Also, he is married to his partner Apollo, who is essentially Albino Superman, except without all the Krypton shit.

Now, I know what you are probably thinking -- she is reading it for the gay! But no, I am not. If I wanted gay superhero love stories I would find some fanfiction. No, the reason why I love the Apollo/Midnighter relationship is because I am a fan of any relationship where their idea of a romantic gift is something like the severed head of an enemy on a pike. This may or may not stem from my 12-year-old love of Hannibal which I read about ten times. Also, in my experience all superhero love stories, even the ones where the girl and the guy both have powers, eventually degenerate into a sexist rescuer/damsel dynamic, no matter how "fiesty" the girl is made out to be. It is actually kind of sad that both characters have to be men for them to be portrayed as equals, although I suppose it is way better than the Authority writers making it into one of those weird heteronormative things where one of them always has to be "the girl".

Okay, there was going to be more comicbook overanalysis but I think I am getting a little too obsessive too soon. Step awaaaay!

4. My brother got a punishment essay back from school today for getting into a fight over a cheerleader pom-pom. Um. I don't think there's anything I can add to this to make it funnier than it already is.

5. So, I'm going to watch the Middleman pilot and see if it lives up to the hype. Toodles!

Going to London tomorrow; West End Festival; RDJ

2008-06-16T14:51:57Z

1. Am getting tonight's sleeper train to London so me and my flatmates can have a pow-wow. Hopefully this time on Wednesday we will have sorted some kind of situation involving a flat that doesn't cost three times my student loan. (I can but hope.)

2. Went to the West End Festival mardis gras parade yesterday. Who knew there were so many samba bands in Glasgow? Also, belly dancers. It was sunny and smoky and there were a surprising number of Partick Thistle strips wandering around. Most of the old west-end crowd found each other and we all adjourned to Tchai Ovna (my new facourite tea = daisy chai. Mmmmm.) and losangelino's place, like old times. However, that morning I had heard some EXTREMELY SHOCKING NEWS from my little brother vis a vis his social life, meaning that most of my conversations that day began something like this:

"Hey, Gavia! Long time no see. How's London?"
"MERLIN HAS A GIRLFRIEND."

My friends were as shocked as I at this unexpected development, I think.

3. So Robert Downey Jr is not only in the running for the next Sherlock Holmes, but he also may be in the Cowboys & Aliens movie. Now, it's pretty likely that I'm going to watch any non-animated movie with a title like that, but the addition of Iron Man clearly cements it's general air of awesomeness.

My housing for next year = SNAFU.

2008-06-14T23:34:46Z

1. I think the whole flat-hunting thing has just hit an iceberg. My flatmates have decided to go for a four-bedroom place in Kings Cross we all viewed and agreed on before I left London. But apparently along with sensible stuff like deposits, etc we have to pay various other fees that amount to over six thousand pounds. What the fucking fuck. A thousand quid for "inventory"? It costs a thousand pounds to count how many beds there are and make sure the microwave works? We are clearly being scammed, and unlike my friends, I cannot afford this kind of thing, especially seeing as the basic rent for this place is off the top end of my budget. But also I do not have a leg to stand on because I am essentially a lazy bitch and contributed very little to our househunting process. Compared to Mimi and Freja I have the organisational skills of a 6-year-old, and so proceeded to hightail off back to Glasgow and leave them to it. Admittedly I had to go because I had to move out of last year's accommodation, but still. It is unfair for me to be in any way annoyed at them because I was unhelpful and generally useless, but now I have to pay all this money which hey, does not seem right. Fuckery. Panicpanicpanic. And just in case I did not feel bad enough about this, my mother is now pissed at me for having no idea about the property rental process and is threatening to call all my flatmates' parents like we are twelve and have just been caught TP-ing houses or something. Aaaaaah.

2. So during the brief period of relaxation today in between finding out I had accomodation for next year (yay!) and discovering that I had to pay confusing sums of money to live there (boo!) I went to wrongeyed_jesus's house, where we watched Doctor Who and Velvet Goldmine with her soon-to-be-flatmate Shirley. Shirley, I think, does not know what he is getting himself into for next year. He was alternately confused ("Is Christian Bale meant to be the glam-rock guy at the beginning?" "What is going on?") and freaked out during Velvet Goldmine, although he did seem to have an impressive knowledge of the actual music involved. Anyway, he is delightful, slightly innocent-seeming and rather posh (10/10 for floppy hair) and generally spent the entire time making comedically horrified faces at what was fairly typical conversation for wrongeyed_jesus and I. What I am most amazed at is the fact that he has been friends with wrongeyed_jesus for over a year and yet did not know that slash fanfiction even existed. Like I said: he does not know what he is getting himself into.

3. So I just watched the First trailer for Stargate: Atlantis s5, which completely failed to assuage desire for SGA or calm my accomodation-inspired panic attack. It is fifteen seconds long and really, why has it only been released now? The show starts in less than a month! There should be way more trailers online by now! Although maybe I am mistaking SGA for a show with, like, actual content and spoilery type plots. Because at least 80% of the fanbase are clearly around here for the hotness, as can be deduced from the numerous cast interviews where they are asked more questions about their hair than about their character development.

4. So did anyone see the BSG mid-season finale? Because I'm pretty sure my chair (and my brother's forearm) now has fingernail marks on it from where I clutched at it in hysterical fear. That was the single most dramatic episode of anything ever. And, without a doubt, the most spoilery. OMG. It was shocking. It was brilliant. And I have to wait till f'ing 2009 for more. *wibbles*

5. I am now addicted to the joys of Musicovery. (I think the name is meant to be like "discovery" as opposed to "ovary", by the way. But in my opinion "Music Ovary" sounds better.) It's like pandora or last.fm radio but like 100 times better: you can choose from a whole bunch of genres, moods, periods and tempos and it finds you the perfect music. Like for example you can program it to play "less popular" records of the 60s, in the blues, metal and funk styles, in an energetic positive mood at a fast dance speed. Brilliant! Also, it looks good, with each song colour-coded by genre. I love this site. Go to it at once and fiddle around.