girlofprey

So, my parents are back. They brought the kids with them. That swung between wonderful and horrific. But they've taken them back home now. So one way or another things are pretty much back to normal. I've really enjoyed this week though, it was kind of nice having the house all to myself, looking after the dog, having dominion over the tv. And it was just lovely and quiet in the house by myself. But I'm pretty ready to have them back though, the most cleaning I did was putting things in the dishwasher when I ran out of cutlery and cleaning up after the dog, and that felt like the most I was prepared to do. It probably wouldn't cut it for weeks and weeks though. So hurrah. But it was nice though.

Anyway, I have noticed that LJ have sort of changed the posting box so the text is different, but I kind of like it. It's smaller and easier to focus on, especially when you're doing big blocks of text. So well done on this thing, Livejournal.

And now my parents are at the supermarket, so I am going to go and play some games. In game news, I focused on Batman: Arkham Asylum and I actually managed to get past what I was stuck on and get a bit further in the game. But now I've got to my first boss fight and I'm pretty rubbish at it, and I can't go back and do anything else. However, I got some tips off the internet and I'm going to go try it again now. I haven't played much of Kane and Lynch since the last time I posted, but I did learn about one button in the game booklet that I'm hoping will make things easier ('Aim'). And I ordered and have since received another game called InFamous, which I'm seemingly much better at that either of the other two, and am really enjoying. So I'm definitely planning on playing some more of that. Assuming I'm still rubbish at Batman, and also probably if I'm not.

So. I just freaked myself out trying to buy something online (long story short, there was a webcomic offering itself for $5, when I got to the checkout shipping turned out to be $13.50, I immediately tried to cancel and then - having signed in with Paypal as it recommended - couldn't tell whether I was signed out or not or how exactly my Paypal account was tied up with the site). But anyway, I went into Paypal and changed my password and there's no activity in my account, so I think I've done everything I can to fix that, if indeed there was a problem. It was a very confusing site I was trying to buy the thing from. But anyway.

In other news, I almost can't watch Emmerdale at the moment. ( Emmerdale )

On the other hand, Coronation Street! ( Coronation Street )

And I've been playing more Heavy Rain. I think I'm into the last third or quarter of the game now, and it's getting harder, obviously. ( Spoilery thoughts )

In other news, I think a bit of a rehaul of this journal is in order. Nothing massive, just getting rid of some of the deleted journals from my flist, update the interests, go through the icons and get rid of the ones I don't really use. It's a bit difficult because at the moment I mostly like stock icons, not having many current fandoms at the moment (that aren't soaps), and they're the kind of icons you kind of love and upload and then hardly ever use, in my experience. Maybe it's just me. But anyway. It's needs doing. Whether or not I will actually get round to it anytime soon is another matter, of course.

Also, I totally went to my appointment yesterday, and then this morning I got up at twenty past nine to go to today's at ten. My mum drove me to where it was being held at, at a community centre that's pretty near our house, but down a bunch of weird streets on an estate I don't normally go to. She said she'd wait outside for a few minutes and if I wasn't done by then she'd go home, and I could call her there if I wanted a lift back. It took about five minutes for the woman to even come downstairs, then we went upstairs and she briefly outlined the course, and said something about it being completely voluntary, but if I agreed to doing it I'd be committed to doing 10 hours of stuff a week up there. Then she asked me, just to check, if I was on Jobseeker's, and I said no, I'd just signed off and gone onto Employment Support Allowance. And she said whoops, the course was only open to people on Jobseeker's. So I couldn't do it obviously, but she told me later on, when I was feeling more up to doing stuff, I could call her again for some other courses. Anyway, so I came out at about quarter past ten, my mum had already left, and I ended up trying to find my way back on my own. And getting lost. And briefly climbing a dirt track up a hill. It was like a really elaborate April Fool's joke the world itself had played on me. But anyway. I'm not going on that course, obviously. And at least I went and checked it out, I guess.

My Playstation 3 came. I managed to be awake when the postman came so I could receive it, and then I unpacked it and left it in the room since I knew my dad would want to have a look at it when he came in probably. But, then we had a slight disagreement about where it was going to go. When I asked my mum about getting a Playstation, she asked if I'd let the kids use it, which I think is part of the reason they got it for me. So it's not really just mine. But my dad thought it should go in the living room, and I just think that's ridiculous, because I actually want to play on it fairly regularly, and I'll probably want to do so in the evening, when they'll be watching TV. Dad said I'd have to play it in the daytime when him and mum were out, but I'll feel awkward doing that when mum's in, and I'm not always awake during the day. We had a brief argument about whether I could change that if I wanted to (probably I could, but not all the time I think) and whether I technically get insomnia. But anyway. I just pointed out that it affects me anyway, that it will mean I can't use it in the evenings or till after they go to bed, in the middle of the night, and that we've got the Wii in the living room, and we never use that unless my nephew's here, and hardly even then. Ideally for me it'd be in my room, but the only screen available for it is tiny, and there's nowhere to put the console really and I wouldn't fancy having the kids in my room too often to play on it. So I think the screen in my nephews' room is the best place: it's a decent screen, it's out of the way of the rest of the house, and it won't get in the way of anyone watching TV. Dad agreed in the end, and now I have to wait until he goes and buys a shelf to put the console on.

It came with a free game though. Little Big Planet 2, which having read about it on the box and on the internet, I still don't understand what it's about. And I've ordered one of the games I was interested in. I had to go through Amazon, which I've been trying to avoid for about a year, because nowhere else seemed to have it for sale new. Unless I wanted the Playstation Move version. Which I don't. The page seemed to assure us it was being sold by a third party company though. So I guess that's alright. Another game I was looking at doesn't seem to be for sale new anywhere though. But, conversely, you can apparently get another game I was looking at, Batman: Arkham Asylum, for about a tenner now. So it's not all bad.

I've just been watching Coronation Street. ( Coronation Street )

Also, some stuff I forgot to talk about a week ago was this: when I was a teenager (I think), I used to read quite a lot of LJ Smith. The woman who wrote the Vampire Diaries, which the TV series is based off of. A few weeks ago I was wondering if they'd look at adapting anymore of her books into TV series or movies or something, and got quite excited that they might adapt one of my favourite series of hers, The Secret Circle. Well apparently, they're doing it. Or at least a pilot for it. It could easily be shit, but I'm sort of excited, at least reservedly, all the same. And apparently, according to some articles/an article I read, they're making a bunch of pilots for supernatural or fairytale-themed shows this fall, or trying to. Trying to find something as popular as The Vampire Diaries I'm guessing. But still. I'm kind of a fantasy fan more than sci-fi, if I was to choose one, so I'm kind of interested in them. Again, they could easily be shit. But it's interesting to see some new things getting made. I might be downloading some stuff come pilot season, if they're available, depending on how many actually get made.

Anyway. Has anyone else heard of the Japanese guy, Hideaki Akaiwa? Apparently he scuba-dived into the tsunami to rescue his wife, and then his mother, and is currently still going out looking for and rescuing people in his hometown if he can. I'm not 100% fond of the tone of that article, as I think it's just as badass and touching even if you don't act like he's an action hero. But either way, hats off to him. My God.

I'm trying out a thing with my LJ where I just post anything I've seen, am interested in, or love. Without worrying whether it's good or not. Which mostly seems to be links, which I sort of apologise for. I'm not sure how long I'll be doing it for, or whether it'll end up with me just posting my own flailing about soap operas and some pictures of animals made with Paint. But I'm trying it out for now.

As I was leaving the house for work this morning, I thought what I'd really like to do was take the day off and spend it tidying up my flat.

At about 10 o'clock I got a call from my agency (after a couple of missed calls and emails) saying that actually my position had finished on Friday, but between my agency and the HR department where I was working they couldn't manage to tell me. So I sort of got my wish, really.

In other news: omg Russia. Check out the picture a post down. Snow bunnies! It's not often I pick up a new community through LJ Spotlight, but this does seem to be the winnest of them all.

Right. A quick review.

1. Last week, I went to see Lars and the Real Girl, which is a great film, and apparently not being shown many places. Possibly because it's about a guy falling in love with a sex doll. Except that he doesn't think she's a sex doll, he thinks she's real, and everyone (on the advice of the town doctor) has to go along with it, until he's worked out his issues. It's really a very beautiful film, and Ryan Gosling plays the main character and is pretty great. I would highly recommend it.



2. My parents then came to Nottingham on Saturday to take my nephew and me to a play made especially for 3-4 year olds, which was actually really good. It was basically about a "girl" going to sleep, and keeping on going into this dream world of mirrors and lights. It was very well performed. I think my nephew enjoyed it. Then we all went back to my parents' town and went out for a meal for my birthday the next day, which was nice.



3. Thank you to all the people who wished me a happy birthday as well. I was a bit rubbish at replying. Thanks.



4. I also saw 27 Dresses this week, which is a great film. ( My thoughts )



5. Diamonds are For...Trevor
   
   I sort of hope there is no character in the new, apparently a bit gay, Bond film called Trevor, because if so that's the best headline the Sun's ever come up with, ever.



6. I may have, possibly, to celebrate and because I had a bit of money from my birthday, ordered all the books I could find on Amazon from Adrienne Martine-Barnes' Sword series, the first of which I read when I was about 10. The first one and the one I was most excited about, The Rainbow Sword, arrived yesterday. I imagine it fights for the honour of the LGBT everywhere. It has the most beautiful cover I've ever seen also. The second one, The Crystal Sword, came today and sadly smells a lot of cigarettes, but appears to be about the son of the main character from the first novel, who wishes he could have adventures like his mother, which is GREAT. I love them so much. Magic swords will save the world. I'm pretty sure.



7. I still do love the Heroes Peter Can Do Anything Better Than You vid. And I quite like this Claire+Niki+Jessica one. Although I think it's a shame no-one's done a Niki/Jessica one to Material Girl.



8. I got to wander around a pre-renovated set of artist's studios based in an old police station that was still a bit infested with pigeons on Wednesday. And yesterday I may have applied for a permanent job at the Broadway cinema. My application form was written pretty much in one night and may be mostly waffle, but I'm waiting to see how it pans out. It would be nice to get it. Very nice.



9. I started watching Dirty Sexy Money last week, and got to see the first episode - on during some panel at Orbital - on Saturday. It's quite great. It's about a lawyer (Peter Krause) who works for a large, rich, and quite corrupt family in New York because his father did it and the head of the family pays him a lot of money to do charity work with. Also he thinks one of the family might have killed his father. Mostly I'm shipping Peter Krause (aka Nick) with the brother who shouts at him (aka Brian). And I love Peter Krause/Nick, but Brian Darling is slightly the best thing ever. ( Spoilers up to episode 3 )



10. I might have got all my icons back. Possibly.

1. I forgot to mention the funniest part of my going home for Christmas. We always get quite decorated up for Christmas, because mum likes it. So we have light-up Christmas shapes in all the windows, Santa signs outside, the lit-up Christmas tree in the front window. From the outside, it all looks quite nice. Anyway, mum was telling me that the week before I came back, one evening she heard carol singers come to the front door. And she thought "Oh, carol singers", and started looking around for some change. When suddenly from the other room she heard some banging, like someone jumping up. And then my dad shouting "GO ON! GET AWAY! COME BACK WHEN IT'S CHRISTMAS!". He has a thing about children coming round early, like trick-or-treating before Halloween. Apparently the carol singers ran away. My mum had to point out to him that it was in fact going to be Christmas next week, which I think he hadn't realised. People who think their dads are strange, I can only say: NOT AS STRANGE AS MINE.



2. I also fell quite in love with Adele's new song while I was at my parents', and the video. ETA: I don't know why the girl was dating Sylar for a while there though.



3. Last weekend was more manic than I could possibly say. I saw three films in two days, two of which were the new St Trinian's one, which I enjoyed. I'm possibly a bit in love with Camilla Fritton. K was down for the weekend, and when we were out on Saturday night wanted to do something sitting down, and there was nothing else we wanted to see on, and I did enjoy it when I saw it on Friday. So. The other film was Fred Claus, which was magically back on last week after going off the week before, and I totally got to the one 10:30am showing a day, a mere twenty minutes late. Except that it turned out to be the one 11:30am showing. Anyway, it turns out that Vince Vaughn: still beautiful. But I got quite stressed out over the weekend, to the point of sort of wanting to push other shoppers as they went past me. On Sunday night I remembered I was about due to have a period, and probably this had something to do with it.



4. I considered taking Monday off work sick, but decided against it. On Monday night I went to my first dentist appointment in about three years, and that was suprisingly quite nice. It turns out that three years of eating quite a lot crap has apparently not affected my teeth too much, although they're still not great. And the bits I was worried about, the bits I could feel worn down on my front teeth, are apparently perfectly normal. My wisdom are doing something a bit funny, but generally things are fine. There was some extortion at the end, but other than that it was all quite pleasant. Hurrah.



5. On Tuesday, after failing to get to bed at a reasonable hour AGAIN I did take the day off sick, and stayed in to clean the flat, and ended up having a two and a half hour conversation with my mother when she called. Which was nice. Did get the flat a bit tidier. Since then have been mostly working and making sure I go to bed earlier. Friday night involved Mr and Mrs Smith, which was quite good, and I liked Brad Pitt in it a lot more than I thought I would.



6. I think people should know that on Friday I read ironicdutchess' journal at work, and it was perfectly fine. Then I went to read nerdcakes', and got an Adult Content warning. Which wanted me to confirm I was over 14. Dude.



7. I had some thoughts and reasons why I thought part of my being stressed out was to do with Alias season 2, but it essentially boils down to OMG SYDNEY YOU SUCK, YOU ARE NOT IN ANY WAY GOOD ENOUGH FOR JACK. Also, WILL STOP BEING BORING, POSSIBLY TURN OUT TO HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED A BIT, WHICH JACK HAS TO FIX?

Things which are annoying me right now:

• See above.



• People who come to the Probation office and get impatient with me trying to get their name right through a not too great microphone. I need to to get your details correctly on the computer and check who you're actually meant to be seeing for your appointment. I'm sorry you're a felon. BUT THIS IS NOT A VACATION.



• People in the Probation Office who make appointments with their clients but don't put it on the system, so I don't know what's going on.



• There is no central heating in my flat. Everything is done off storage heaters, and the hot water comes through a boiler. You can do things with timing but generally your choices are between freezing and boiling. I've taken a number of showers lately that have gone cold in the middle. I've spent most of the last few weeks being in love with my duvet, my hot water bottle, my jumper and my hairdryer, not necessarily in that order or exclusively.

On the other hand:

• It randomly and vaguely occured to me that Sawyer and Sayid would be the best Gay FBI Lovers I'd ever seen.


• It turns out that Green and Black's Mint bar is quite nice. It's like a big bar of After 8.


• The (gay) writer of Disturbia said in an interview that there was absolutely nothing homoerotic in it, there was in his next film but not in this one. I found this interview while looking around for Kale/Turner slash, and just before finding someone's review where they said Kale was totally gay for his best friend.

To recap:

• I've had stomach cramps all day. But it's not really a great day for hot water bottles.



• I caught up with Supernatural S2 on ITV. And promptly remembered all the reasons I liked it. The question now is whether to keep watching it on Friday nights - my original plan - or to download it and watch it all now. I'm slightly leaning in the latter direction.



• The new Six Apart/Livejournal thing is really pissing me off. I sort of wasn't so annoyed with it the first time, because I can vaguely understand panic-inducing accusations and flaily reactions to them, even in a big company - it's rubbish, but I can understand why people would do it. But to apologise, and then do it again. I don't necessarily mean the incest/underage stuff - I think if people don't want that on their commercial sites it's pretty much their call. But deletion of the accounts of (paying?) customers without warning isn't really on, especially when a lot of those customers just made their feelings about it known.
  
  I probably won't be renewing my paid account when it runs out in a month, but probably will be staying on Livejournal. At least for the time being. The sad thing is seeing a bunch of people make new journals on all different sites, though Greatestjournal seems to be the main one. It'd probably take time for fandom to settle if it did up and move, but it'd be sad if it did sort of split up. Although possibly more resilient. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.



• Re: above - Hmph.

• ETA: Though I suppose it does beg the question of where we will go for our incest/underage goodness. Especially if all the other sites take a similar view.

Town takes longer than it really feels like it should.

I've been quite busy this week. Mostly I think I just shouldn't get involved in fandoms that have fic written for them. That way only leads to madness, and no sleep. Though it turns out coffee helps with that.

The job is going pretty well. I'm working for an NHS Mental Health clinic, and it literally is just answering phones and transferring people, and typing up letters. And dealing with people in reception. Sometimes it gets a bit hectic when all those things happen at once - and they keep trusting me to come in a bit early and unlock all the gates and fire exits (fools). And sometimes people call up and are crying, but mostly it's all easy enough to cope with, if you know what to do. We only get a half an hour for lunch, which is annoying, but the area's quite nice and my work when I'm in there is mostly to be near the phone. And the people there are really nice, and friendly. Apparently the temp who was there before me, on Monday, came in the morning and then walked out at lunchtime, so mostly they think I'm great for still being there. There is a fire exit right next to the toilet though, so frankly I think they're asking for it. But I have no intention of escaping. I've only got the job for another three weeks though, which sucks a bit.

Otherwise I have mostly been learning that my "independent" life doesn't involve a) cleaning, b) posting on LJ, or c) sleeping. The bathroom quite powerfully needs a clean at this point. That might be this evening's job. And there was an issue on Thursday when K texted me to ask a 'big favour' - could I put her up for a month in November. Now, most of you haven't seen my flat because I can't work a digital camera (or at least keep it supplied with batteries), but it is essentially a room. It's a fairly big room, but a room nonetheless. And I don't have guest bed, she would be on the sofa, which is uncomfortable for me, and she's taller. For four weeks. While she was assumedly working on a project she's trying to set up here, and I was probably trying to keep out of her way. Mostly I flailed a bit, asked for more time. Then on Friday we talked about it, I explained that I thought it would be a bad idea for 4 weeks, though 1 or 2 would be fine, but that she could stay for 4 if she really wanted to and needed to. Because it is going to be important to her project, and she and J did it for me. Which she seemed happy with. Nothing's really set in stone at this point though, so we'll have to wait and see how it turns out.

This Wednesday I have to pay my rent, and it'll be the last month I have to pay rent for this flat. It's sort of freeing and nerve-wracking at the same time. I don't think I'll leave the flat any time soon, if I don't have to. I quite love it, even if the heat is a bit variable. And I love Nottingham. Yesterday I discovered the joy of Pumpernickels, which is a sandwich bar with armchairs and tudor benches in the back. There's a bar in town that does a teapot of shots, and the Ted Baker has a spiral staircase. Probably lots of cities have things like that. I quite like this one.

Other things:

• I'm a bit in love with the the_sc_files. OH GOD, GABRIEL. OH GOD.



• I'm watching myself for Heroes spoilers, because people have started to watch it. But I'm planning to watch it myself on BBC2, as a kind of catch-up. But BBC2, WHAT IS THE POINT OF REPEATING IT REALLY LATE AT NIGHT ON WORKNIGHTS?



• I'm thinking of swapping out a bunch of my icons, but also thinking about not renewing my paid account when the time comes.



• The Simpsons Movie, which I saw on Friday with K and J, is very very good. I laughed quite embarassingly loudly. And we had doughnuts. That was win.



• I'm still mostly in love with Draco Malfoy.



• Some other things, probably.

My paid account runs out tomorrow, and I can't really afford to renew it. That's a bit wank.

I'm not watching Green Wing tonight, because we're up to the episodes I taped when it was first on, and pretty much watched to death a year ago, or at least enough that I can wait for the DVDs. And they're the episodes where Guy is an arse (though I still love him), and his love for Mac is just angsty, and I'm getting all my old plotbunnies like that he talks in French in his sleep, and I can slightly do without it. So you get another post instead.

The DVD release date for Life on Mars has been moved up to May. Which means nothing to you downloading people, but it is VERY GOOD NEWS FOR ME.

It has occurred to me that I don't generally post much in this journal about my actual life and emotions, other than annoyance with DVD release dates and crying about essays. I get the feeling it makes me seem like a relentlessly and inordinately cheerful person. This is not the case. I don't think it's a big issue, but I just thought mention it and attempt to clear things up.

Most of the time I post, I do it at university. This means its a specially organised 'slot' in my life, rather than a general part of it. And just getting to a computer and the internet at all tends to make me happy. And I make an effort, since it's a temporary 'slot' to post about things I think other people will know about, like glorious TV and such, rather than personal problems with people no-one will know, and which I can deal with at other times, and probably already have dealt with. So that's that, and will probably change once uni is finished and I (assumedly) have the internet 24/7. Then will come the whining. Oh yes.

But other than that my life is really pretty okay right now. In that, it's not brilliant (no showers of gold and diamonds arriving in chauffeur (?) driven limousines while I fight crime by the sea, or anything), but its better than it has been for a long time. The family drama has quietened down, and my sister is coping, and clean, and my nephew is okay. And I'm enjoying my course, if not working too hard at it, and I have friends, whom I love. And I'm pretty much drowning in wonderful fandoms at the minute. I'm getting slightly antsy about what the hell I'm going to do when university is finished, and probably if I was doing more with my life, I'd probably have a lot more (healthy) stress to report, and that annoys me a bit, that I feel like I'm wasting a lot of time, but that's pretty much it. And even though it's not all perfect, I'm really not planning to complain, considering how bad it has been before. And could easily be, at any given point in the future. So am pretty happy at the moment.

And then there's the fact that I don't think I really get wound up about personal problems, in general. Unless they're really bad, and continuing, like the whole "family drama" thing was. I have long, extensive experience of just sort of 'leaving people to it' in bad situations, and getting on with my own life. Which is a bit callous, but what're going to do. Otherwise I tend to make decisions pretty quickly about how to handle things, and then just - do that. So you probably won't ever get long drawn-out deliberations about a situation or how to handle it here - ever. And I probably wouldn't be coherent enough to post about it until I'd sorted it all out in my own head first anyway.

And if this journal reads to other people like a big whinefest, then this is all going to backfire quite spectacularly.

But it's bugged me a bit for a while, so I just wanted to post and get it off my chest. So there it is.

Blah. I think I need to take that Yeah Yeah Yeahs CD back. On further inspection - after giving up trying to listen to that 50-minute track all in one go - it turns out the second track (15 minutes long) doesn't play at all, just skips straight to Track 3 - which sounds suspiciously like part of track no. 1. As do all the other songs on the album. Which could be a clever, post-modern trick, but just seems sort of - wrong. Hopefully it's a problem with my CD, and not the album itself. I will replace it, and find out.