girlofprey

Other complaints you would have heard today: (No crashes since I last posted so far)

• It's been windy as fuck here today.


• Why are all women's light tops basically see-through nowadays? Is that a thing we're supposed to love, showing our bras? Or are they just openly using cheap material nowadays? It makes shopping for work-appropriate tops that won't kill me a nightmare.


• I can't remember the others, but I'm sure they were there and valid.

Okay, but for real though, the worst thing about our new living room is that the cat is no longer allowed in it. Maybe forever. Because we have fake leather seats in the kitchen and her claws have made lots of marks in those, so she can't ever be allowed on our stupid leather sofas. Or near them, since she occasionally stretches up at us and her claws come out. So...yeah. Some people might have thought "hey we have a cat - maybe we shouldn't get leather sofas". But not my dad. So now we have to either watch her constantly like hawks, relegate her to the garage, or keep the kitchen door closed at all times. I certainly can't stroke her while she sits next to me or let her sleep on me, like she used to. Awesome.

In happier news (for me), a few weeks ago I was out having Sunday lunch with my parents, and we ran into a neighbour who commented on how I'd lost weight. Naturally my brain is translating this as 'drastic weight loss', but w/e. My mum said I had in fact lost some weight, so yesterday I went through my wardrobe trying on all the dresses I love that I thought didn't fit me anymore. And they fit me again! Even one that I really thought was like 'those days are gone, never to come back' and only hung onto because I loved it. And all the dresses I bought even though they were a bit tight fit. And all the 18s I have that I also like still fit too, they look 'comfortable' but not ridiculous or shapeless. I'm wearing one of my old sun dresses right now. My mum says she wants to go on holiday again just so I can wear them all. That was pretty top.

In other other news, I may have to come off Tumblr. The only time I seem to talk to anyone is to argue with them, or if they seem to be in a really dark place and I want to offer them a little support or advice. I was on there because I really like talking about Emmerdale, and quite a few people on there are doing that, but - this is going to sound a little xenophobic, but a lot of them are americans, and I don't think they understand...what they are seeing. Or how soaps are written. The dude I am arguing with currently is not the guy I was arguing with before, who runs a podcast, it is just this dude who constantly complains and talks about the writing and slams every character for bad behaviour while obviously being a fan of the most misogynistic, homophobic, borderline abusive sociopath on the show. And then yesterday he was talking about an affair storyline, where an outside character was saying they'd told their wife it happened and she just blamed the 'other man', while the married woman they were related to was "blameless, of course". And this dude said he loved that line, because it was clear even the character saying it didn't believe that, when - that was the entire point of the line. When pretty much no-one in England would use the phrase "[blank]'s blameless, of course" unless it was sarcastic. BUT HE'S SO CONVINCED HE'S RIGHT. AND KNOWS WRITING BETTER THAN THE EMMERDALE WRITERS. AND IT'S NOT HARD TO DO THAT LATELY, BUT LKSJDLKASJKFLD. AND I JUST NEEDED SOMEWHERE TO VENT ABOUT HIM. GOD.

My life is full of moral conundrums right now.

( Pacific Rim, discussion of racism, whitewashing )

And my dad has also offered me my grandmother's old mink coat. She died last year, but they're just on the points of selling her house so they're just finishing sorting through her stuff now. I don't agree with fur, obviously, but it's not like I'd be buying a new one and contributing to supply and demand. On the other hand, I do think wearing fur is kind of an advertisement for it. But I also don't like things going to waste when they still do their job, and how many people can say they own an antique mink coat? But if I hate the way the coat was made, why would I like the product? Also, where would I even wear a mink coat? Also, will the coat even fit me? It seemed a little forward to check about that when I hadn't decided if I would morally like to own a mink coat. I will probably not take the mink coat.

Hmm. This is life, I suppose.

I just wrote out my appeal form. They give you the tiniest space to write your reasons why you don't agree with their decision. Which is largely how I felt about the assessment form - although apparently I was some good at filling that in this time. Maybe I just feel like I have A LOT OF REASONS to give them. But I think I got at least some relevant points through, and it's completed now at least. Now I just need to send it out so it will get to Barnsley before Monday. Sigh.

I also caught up with Dallas yesterday, and then watched the final episode. ( Dallas )

The new series apparently begins in America in January. So obviously I either need to get downloading, or really enjoy these few months of being all caught up before I lose them again.

We also had the American election this week. I am happy and genuinely a little bit amazed that Obama won. As well as all the 'shenanigans' I'd been hearing about, things sort of came to a head on Tuesday night when I started seeing posts on Tumblr about how people were taking pictures of their pro-Obama ballots and posting them online because they were so excited, but that they shouldn't do that, because they could be arrested and have their votes annulled. I was ready to give up, get ready for Romney to win, and be all "2012, End Of Days". But then Obama won. And apparently it wasn't even close. So hurrah.

I also finished Portal, and bought Portal 2. I liked the song at the end. A LOT. And while I was looking for Portal 2 (in vain) in my home town, I found out that the little games shop I used to see when I was a teenager was still open, and both stocking and selling Bioshock action figures! It was a good day all around.

And we had my YN over at my house today. He is sweet, and can pull himself up on furniture, and make lots of noises now. And point. At one point he looked up at one of our houseplants, pointed at it and went "Aaah!", and then went back to playing with his cars. He plays with cars by pushing them along and going "aaaaaaah" or "grrrrrrrrr". He is lovely. I also learned that my mum thinks he's "weird". Which, in fairness, is something I would expect a sitcom granny to say about their baby grandchild, so at least we're living up to the stereotype, thanks mum.

And I saw a bit of Emmerdale today with Declan in it, and it gave me Declan/Nathan feelings. Sigh.

And I had a dentist appointment today, which went quite well, with quite a lovely new lady dentist. It was her first day apparently. She didn't make any mistakes which could only be covered up by saying "It's my first day!". Yay. And we had Bonfire Night, which means we're now in the period of time I officially recognise as Pre-Christmas. Argh. And...something. I'm on my period, and I'm really tired. Oh, and I attempted to buy trousers from H&M, and I found out that of all the weird sizing issues there are from shop to shop, H&M might just take the cake for 'obviously a lot smaller than the number would imply'. And yet I also tried a jumper from there, and the Large was too big for me so I had to get a Medium. Weird.

Today was my job interview. It went fine, it was a lot more casual than I'm used to in job interviews. And apparently the position doesn't really exist yet and the charity has never really done anything like it before, and are sort of planning to define the job as they go along. Which made discussing it and asking questions difficult. And the fact that it was so casual sort of made it hard to judge how well I was doing. There was a man there and a woman leading it, and sometimes the woman looked sort of bored, and sometimes she looked happy. But it went alright, and I said some things and mentioned experience I had in doing some of the things they were talking about, and asked as relevant questions as I could think of. And I didn't suddenly stop talking or start crying or anything. So I think it went okay. The only problem was I asked so many questions trying to work out what kind of role it might be that I didn't really leave time to ask when I might hear from them, so I'm just going to have to wait for that. But generally speaking I think it went okay and I'm quite happy.

So that's done. And my employment coach took me for a coffee afterwards, which was nice of her. And now on Friday there's London (I booked tickets, woo hoo!). And in the meantime, there is sleep, and obsessing about coats. Hurrah.

Aaaaaahhhh. I got up at 9am this morning, for an 11 o'clock appointment in Wakefield. I went to bed at 1am, and went to sleep at about 6am. And then got up at 9am. I would say it's not so bad, I can just sleep it off tomorrow, but really I need to go to bed early tonight and then get up semi-early tomorrow, so I can go to bed early-ish tomorrow night and get up at 8am on Wednesday morning. For an appointment, and then another appointment in Wakefield in the afternoon. And then, possibly, get up on Thursday so I can go into town with my mum and buy/pick out food before she goes away to Portugal.

I'm aware that to people who go to work and stuff every day this probably sounds quite run-of-the-mill. It's just INCREDIBLY OUT OF THE ORDINARY FOR ME.

It wasn't a completely terrible day, though. I checked my bank balance, and found out I still have quite a bit of money at the moment. I bought my train ticket to Durham for next week, for Connotations. And I discovered the wonders of the game department in the CEX in Wakefield, and bought a game because it had a female main character on the front of it, AND she appeared to be fully dressed! I mean, I couldn't see all of her, and her midriff was naturally showing. But still, compared to others, woo hoo! Also, it was five pounds. Double woo hoo.

Speaking of underdressed ladies, I ended up catching some of Strike Back: Project Dawn last night. I meant to watch it from the start, but I decided my dad wouldn't want to watch it (I was incorrect about this), taped it, and then never caught up with it. I spent most of what I saw of the episode thinking I recognised every black guy in it - although I did not twig that the bad guy was Mr Eko from Lost. I'm still pretty sure the guy driving the car at the end was a paramedic from Casualty a while back. However, what I did pretty much catch was the preview of next week. ( Slight spoilers for that )

Also, I went to the Pets At Home shop. To look at lovely rabbits and rats and fish. Man, I would like a rabbit or some rats or some fish.

Anyway. I am so cold. And one of the t-shirts I loved at Threadless and haven't bought yet has sold out. Sadface.

People started putting up the first episode of The Secret Circle earlier this week. This is difficult, because I'm currently downloading NTSF: SD: SUV and Death Valley every week, and in some ways it's not that bad, because NTSF: SD: SUV episodes are only 10 minutes long so they're only about 100MB, and Death Valley episodes are only half an hour long, but it still all adds up. And I don't know if downloading another whole episode a week is something our download limit can take - I don't even know what our download limit is. My dad has apparently increased it and changed internet providers since the days when I used it up watching videos on 4od and Youtube, so I don't even know if we have a download limit, or if we just have to pay more if we go over it or something. Which is a little frustrating.

The annoying thing is that I was really deliberately not downloading things, because I knew there were three shows I wanted to try out and possibly watch regularly in the autumn, and even that seemed like a stretch. But I decided to start watching NTSF and Death Valley to sort of get into the habit of downloading again, to sort of test out the download limit a bit, and because they looked like they might be funny/have good actors in. And I think somewhere in my head I was thinking, "oh, they're just little comedy shows, they probably won't last very long, and be over by the time the other shows start". I think because I have forgotten how American TV works. Hmph.

But in any case, it turns out the episode of The Secret Circle that's about at the moment is a pre-air pilot, so it looks like the show's not really started yet. So I have another few weeks to decide what to do about my downloading habits. Woo hoo!

In other news, the soaps are kind of shit at the moment. Eastenders have apparently managed to cock-up the only plot I am interested in, by - as far as I can tell - having Michael doing everything he's doing not because he's fucked up about his mum killing himself when he was six and wanting revenge on his dad for it, but just because he wants his dad to pay some attention to him. This is apparently worth ruining his dad's life, risking his brother's life, and bullying a woman into helping him ruin his dad's life over. And, mysteriously, apparently a reasoning that the people on Digital Spy find much more understandable and sympathetic than merely still being messed up over his mum. So, well done there Eastenders. In Emmerdale I can barely care about the storylines from one day to the next, I do not care about Jai and Charity, or Declan being a dick, or the never-ending plot of Watching. Aaron. Be. Sad. Never. Be. Gay. Or. You'll. Just. Be. Sad. People. Sometimes Nicola's in it, or Val, and that's lovely, but oh my god the rest. And in Coronation Street, Tracy's back, and apparently they want us to start being sympathetic to her now. I never really liked Kylie that much, but I do think they've sort of ruined whatever character she did have by making her horrible but also not to blame for it all at once. And they're building up to a really horrible plot with one female character, and it's partly by having her act really weirdly and stabbing her friend in the back (again). Which is kind of rubbish.

The only soap doing anything even vaguely interesting at the moment is Hollyoaks, and that's only really if they actually step things up in their Silas plot, now that they've had something big happen because of it. There are a lot of things I am imagining about the Silas plot which make me very excited about it, but if it just goes on and on as it has been doing already then oh my god. It's apparently going to last till Christmas anyway, and there are a lot of things apparently happening up to and around then that could make it really interesting. But if they don't do them, then arggggghhhhhhhh. Also, more Seth please. Thank you.

Anyway. That's the end of my rant. I spent most of my day today avoiding flooded roads and poking around in bushes looking for the many balls my nephew managed to lose. I was also going to have a rant at one point about how annoying it is when there are people who do something you love, but then they become so successful at it, that they stop actually doing the thing you loved in the first place. My main examples were going to be the Hark! A Vagrant writer doing a book, so not doing as many comics while she was doing it, but she's finished writing it now and is back to doing comics. And besides that, it was going to be the woman who writes Welovehollyoaks.com, who first of all started going to events with the cast and started posting interviews with them, instead of her recaps (which I liked better), and THEN actually - on the strength of her blog - got a job with E4, meaning she didn't have a chance to do her blog as much as she used to. But she's got other people helping out now, and they've started putting up posts in the last few days, some of which are really good, so it's not so bad anymore. And the other one was going to be Allie Brosh, who does Hyperbole And A Half, getting a book deal, and not having done a post since then. But it turns out that that's more to do with finding doing the blog really stressful at the moment than actually having to spend a lot of time writing her book, so that doesn't really count either. So so much for that post. I do think it's lovely, by the way, when people who do good things become successful because of the things they do. And it's really nice for them, of course. It's just also sometimes slightly maddening. That's all.

Rah. In other news, last night I ended up watching parts 1 and 2 of a BBC programme about the Regency. I had actual thoughts at the time about kings and queens, and how it's kind of a rubbish system but sometimes really interesting culturally. But most of the thoughts I have been left with are that I really like Regency suits, especially on women. And that I really, really liked the soundtrack. But I get the feeling, somehow, that the BBC won't be releasing that for purchase. Hmph.

Hello. I am totally still around. Now I'm going to Prague tomorrow, and I still haven't picked out any clothes to pack, packed, or tidied my room a bit like I wanted to. Eek.

I don't think it'll be too hard to pack for Prague though. We're only going for six days, and two of them are going to involve travelling, so we'll only really be there for about 4 full days. And from what I feel like I know about Prague, and what my mum has seen on the weather forecasts for there, the weather will probably be pretty much like it is in England, if not slightly worse. So I'm mostly planning on taking a few pairs of jeans, maybe some lighter trousers for if it's sunny, some t-shirts, something nice to go out in of an evening, and something to sleep in. Plus the basics, obviously.

What I have done is listened to the Adam and Joe show this morning, which came complete with a bit about Labyrinth, which was lovely because I just rewatched it the other night, so it was very apt for me; went into town today and finally bought another pair of jeans, so I now I actually do have (including the ones I'll be wearing) a 'few pairs' to take on holiday with me; I also managed to get some vests, a nice dress, and a free pair of sunglasses because I spent more than £35 at New Look (the free sunglasses started falling apart not long after I started trying to clean them, but I managed to get the little screws and put it back together, so hopefully that'll be fine); and I also went for my yearly haircut this week, and shaved my legs and underarms, as is my yearly tradition. Mostly I am pleased about my hair. It is short and doesn't get in my face as much. I would like to make a note to try to keep it this short more regularly.

I also got my period this week, not that long since my last one. But there was quite a big gap, I think, between my last one and the one before it, so it's probably fair enough. And as I said to my mum, I'd rather get it now than when I'm in Prague. So hurrah.

So yeah. I've had a fairly busy week. I've also been watching lots of stuff and having things to say about them, but not massive things to say.

One of them, though, was ( Spoilers for Silk, last week's Scott and Bailey, and now next week's Emmerdale, possibly triggery )

I also went to see X-Men: First Class last week. And I have mixed, and then changing feelings about it. ( My thoughts, spoilery )

Anyway. So those are my (apparently fairly long) thoughts on X-Men: First Class.

Right. I have other thoughts, but mostly they are about how I love Becky McDonald and I love David Platt and Gary Windass is acting a bit creepy at the moment. And other things. But I really need to go and pack. I am going on holiday tomorrow. So you probably won't hear from me until next week sometime, at the earliest. So, bye!

( Shopping adventures, aka what happened yesterday )

Anyway. I came straight home after that. But between running around Leeds on Wednesday and running around in Leeds and Wakefield yesterday, I am feeling pretty tired today, so I probably won't be doing a pairing picspam. Which is kind of a shame, because Daniel/Eli is a really big pairing of mine, not just in terms of films. Oh well. Next week, maybe. I'm quite happy about the dresses and jacket though. Although I'm still planning on getting my mum's opinion about the 18 I got, just in case.

( Tonight's Coronation Street )

I have to go have a bath now. And then maybe try on a new online-bought dress. Hurrah.