girlofprey

( My up and down Christmas )

And I also watched the ( Coronation Street Christmas episode )

And then there was Yuletide. I found one slash story for a pairing I loved in a fandom that doesn't get much fic, which was pleasing. But I remember when Yuletide used to be more exciting than this.

Um. Merry Christmas?

So. Christmas Day and Boxing Day are over for another year, and with them go our obligations to have lots of the family and both kids over to our house at once. And the days themselves were only mildly harrowing. Mostly because my mum was working a night shift at the hospital last night, and my sister sort of took pity on her and left early yesterday and today.

I seemingly forgot how to wrap presents on Christmas Eve, but it all came back to me once I gave up and just started scrunching the paper down. And I managed to get my various bedroom Christmas decorations up before (or around) midnight even. Despite my best efforts to go to bed and get some sleep (at about half 3), my messed up sleeping patterns, being wound up about Christmas and the full bottle of coke I drank only a few hours before going to bed meant I was laid awake until at least ten to seven, but I definitely got some sleep because I woke up, all confused, at nine or so when my alarm went off. I didn't know what my family were doing, because my mum was doing a night shift, but I listened out and they were up, so I got up and went downstairs, with the hopes of getting all my unwrapping out of the way so I could come upstairs and listen to Adam and Joe's Christmas show at 10 o'clock. However, I mentioned it to my parents and because they are lovely and it is Christmas, I guess, they found out how to get it on the TV and let me have it on down there. For three hours. They truly are lovely.

There were plenty of quite lovely gifts, including a new electric toothbrush which it turns out you have to plug into shaving sockets and charge up and stuff, so that'll be interesting to use, at least. Probably the best present was Jon Burgerman's Pens Are My Friends book, which I've been looking at and meaning to buy for some years, and it keeps going in and out of stock, and I get angry with myself every time it goes out for not having bought it yet. But now I don't have to, since I totally have it. Anyway. But the biggest present was. Well. I'd asked for an iPod, because I have a little MP3 player but it's full now and I like enough songs on it that I don't want to have to be removing a lot of them to put new ones on, or removing ones I want to keep to put albums on and then find out I don't care about half the songs on them. So I wanted something bigger/massive. So anyway, I got through most of my presents, and there was only one big box left. Way too big for an iPod. So I opened it, confused, and it was a brand new laptop. Because I'd been talking about having had this one for about 6 years now, since I first went to University, and it keeps playing up because the memory's too low and there's too much on the disk. But I couldn't really afford a new one. So my dad bought me one for Christmas. This is why it's difficult to hate him properly - he's irritating in a number of ways, but then he occasionally goes and does something like this.

So yes. I have a new laptop. And most of the stuff I actually want to keep from this one is already backed up onto a portable hard disk, as of the other week, when I was finally freaked out enough about the idea of my laptop burning out and dying suddenly that I made the effort and backed it up. So setting that up will probably take up some of my Christmas and New Year. And I've decided to be a bit more hands-on or at least pay attention to it this time, because loving my laptop so much and yet not really knowing a thing about it or what to do with it when it has a problem seems fairly ridiculous as of the last few months. So. That's a decision I have made, possibly a New Year's resolution already, if I'm still setting it up/yet to set it up by then. The problem with my small MP3 player remains, my dad apparently told my mum that he was getting me the laptop instead of the iPod/new MP3 player, and if she got me one he wouldn't get that for me. But one of the happy things about my birthday is that it's only three months after Christmas, so if there's anything I don't get then I can always try again then. Hurrah.

Anyway. So, presents, laptop, Adam and Joe. The Adam and Joe show was lovely, complete with ( Spoilers )

Anyway. After the Adam and Joe show, I found a programme about Morecambe and Wise on the TV and watched it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. They're doing a new programme about the early years of Morecambe and Wise and their friendship, and at first from the picture I thought Matt Smith was going to be in it, but then I found out that no, it's my first strange-faced TV love, Bryan Dick. So I was interested anyway. And it is quite lovely, how much they loved each other, and a lot of the sketches are still quite hilarious, even now. There was a bit of weird homophobia surrounding the stories about/celebrity reactions to the bed sketches. But apart from that it was quite lovely.

Shortly after that I finally got dressed and stuff, and shortly after that my sister, her partner, and the kids appeared, in a haze of wildly ripped off wrapping paper. Someone had had the brilliant idea to get one of my nephews a pretend drum kit, so that made things interesting. Then we had dinner, which was a buffet-type affair, and we couldn't all have it at once because there was not enough space in our fancy new dining room. Which mostly meant my dad had had to have his on a tray in front of the TV before going for my sister, her partner and the kids. But we got through it, and then my mum went upstairs for a nap/lie down before her night shift, and my sister, oldest nephew and I played on a new Wii game for a while. My youngest nephew decided that would be a great time to start playing on his new drum set, and we had a bit of a time trying to explain to him that that was fine, but he had to try to do it quietly, since my mum was in bed and she was working later. To his credit, he did do it sort of quietly. For a bit. But anyway, then my sister and her partner decided it was probably time to go, and did so without too much fuss, and my mum came down, and went off to work, and everything was pretty fine.

I watched the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special, and it turned out I'd spoken too soon about Matt Baker not dancing on my TV for me anymore. And he looks kind of brilliant red. And even Gavin was there. Hurrah. I don't normally watch the Christmas special, I think, and it was a bit more of a shambles than the usual show, but John Barrowman was good, and I like that the judges like Erin and Vince, even though I thought he was a bit stiff, and it was nice to see Matthew dancing again. Then dad and I watched Murder On The Orient Express, and I don't know what other versions of it are like, but this one seemed to end with the moral that ( Possible spoilers )

Anyway. When that finished I came upstairs and eventually got round to checking the new Yuletide stories. I think. I find the archiveofourown website quite confusing. But I was rewarded with new The Baker story, a new Jonathon Harker from Dracula story, a lovely How To Train Your Dragon story, a lovely Despicable Me story, and a Whitechapel Chandler/Miles story! Don't get me wrong, I see and even quite like Chandler/Kent. But Chandler/Miles is about a hundred times slashier and more beautiful, in my opinion, and I had sort of despaired of anyone else in fandom liking it. SHOWER SCENE. Omg. Anyway. And today I found a Bite Me! story, and a Hark! A Vagrant story. Yuletide does not cover all of my best-loved fandoms, sadly, but it still quite brilliant all the same.

Today mostly involved my sleeping in to catch up on all the sleep I didn't have yesterday, watching bits and pieces of various films on TV, talking to my grandma who I haven't seen in quite a while, and then us having my sister, her partner and the kids over for dinner again. Things got a little bit tense, mostly when my sister and her partner and my mum and dad were eating, after my grandma and I had eaten, and we were left in charge of the kids. But it was all pretty fine. And then, as I say, they left without too much fuss before 9 o'clock, and my grandma had left just before they did, so now it is basically all over. Ah, Christmas.

I was thinking of going out shopping tomorrow, since everyone seems to be going a bit nuts with the sales, and I don't want things I like to disappear before I've even had the chance to get them. I might be knackered though, so we'll see. And I'd like to catch up on the Christmas and pre-Christmas soaps that I didn't see because of various things. And my dad wants to try setting up the new computer maybe, and backing some more of my stuff up from this one maybe. So we'll see. Mostly I am thinking of random bits of jewellery and some scarves from Accessorize that they're probably not going to put on sale until February/March, when it isn't cold anymore. So it's probably not that pressing. But maybe.

In any case - Merry Christmas, to anyone who celebrates it. And just general yay, to anyone who does or doesn't. :D

I have been at my parents and EVEN WORSE AT LJ THAN USUAL. Hello. Mostly television won at being itself, and my family weren't as horrendous as it all could have been. Quite good actually. Ten games of Lunar Jim are alright, really. And there was Yule Log, which always improves things, really.

Anyway. Telly. OMG. First there was ( Sold )

And then there was Emmerdale. Oh my God, Emmerdale. ( Emmerdale )

And then there was other stuff. Last Sunday there was randomly a Big Fat Quiz on about Channel 4, with Jack Dee and Richard Ayoade and David Mitchell, which was lovely. On Christmas Eve there was a Comedy Connections about Red Dwarf, and then the first ever episode, and Christmas At The Riviera, which featured Reece Shearsmith running around with beautiful glasses on. Then there was the Hudsucker Proxy, which I'd never seen all the way through before, and about which there seems to be no slash. They put the Lemony Snicket movie on as a Christmas movie, and Dustin Hoffman turned up in it. Then on Boxing Day there was The Old Curiousity Shop, and Bryan Dick randomly appeared in that too. Derek Jacobi tried to tell him that he was a wastrel and a scoundrel, and he was all "Excuse me, I think you'll find I have a hat and a cane". He wasn't in it very much, he was mostly just there to get Swiveller into the plot, and the I wasn't too taken with the rest of it, but it was lovely all the same. And yes. It was all quite good and beautiful.

The Hudsucker Proxy was mostly useful for putting off opening my presents, as mum had for some reason decided to work on Christmas Day. But it was fine anyway. My nephew Jack really enjoyed a lot of it, as you would expect, and we had a lot of fun. And now I am back at home in possession of Heroes Season 1, the first four series of Red Dwarf, a graphic novel of the Looking Glass Wars Volume 1: M. Hatter, the Hoosiers album, and a book about Angels. And some chocolate. I have to work tomorrow, which seems wrong, but then there's the rather lovely part that comes after Christmas, of trying to decide what to spend your Christmas money on. And checking Yuletide. And trying to catch up with your flist. Rah. I do have to go to bed for work though. Anyway, I hope you all had merry Christmasses, even if I didn't keep up with them. And I love you all. Merry Christmas.

I got to read some Yuletide today! There is Brick fic. Oh God, there is Brick fic. At some point I'm going to do a recs list, but at the moment I am just trying to avoid recs lists and read the damn things. There are quite a lot that look good though. And four stories for Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Hurrah :)

Today I mostly lazed about, and ordered a few things I didn't get for Christmas, with my Christmas money. Oh, and also there were crushing stomach cramps. And my sister and nephew came over. But there was Pirates of the Caribbean and Norrington doing facial expressions on the TV, so I guess it all balanced out.

And there was Emmerdale. ( Emmerdale )

If I had Yuletide all over again, I'd probably ask for Emmerdale fic. And Susan/Teatime. To little success. Anyway. There's always next year.

Tomorrow I have to start getting up at a reasonable time again, and I'm probably go into town with mum, to see what's cut-price. And start looking at jobs in Nottingham again. I've got to buy the ticket for Lancaster at some point, as well. Saturday is still okay, right? Pls to note I may have to watch the Robin Hood finale at your house, if so.

It's less than 5 hours till Yuletide goes live. I'm seriously considering, if I wake up early, just reading stories till everyone else gets up. Almost a thousand stories, not bad. I keep looking at the requested fandoms list and getting really excited. It is a great thing, Yuletide. Even though at least two thirds of them aren't going to be written, and the rest MIGHT NOT be that perfect Character X/Character Y story I've had semi-plotted in my head for a few years. Anyway. We'll be able to read the requests tomorrow as well, I think. I like the requests, because - fic is great, but people sometimes write it because someone asked them to, or for a challenge, or 'to experiment'. But when someone requests a fic, it's because they really want it, and you know someone out there loves a fandom and maybe a character and a pairing like you do. Even if not exactly like you do. I don't know. It's nice. And you can idly plot out a request idea, instead of someone else doing it for you.

Then of course there's the story being written for me. And seeing how mine gets recieved. First-timer's nerves, yay!

I also watched the first episode of Dexter yesterday. ( Spoilers )

Merry Christmas. Again.

I love Daniel Handler. I would like that to be known. ( Book the Thirteenth, with spoilers )

I have also finished Blackadder Goes Forth. They all wear leather and suspenders, and I don't think that's very fair. But it is great. I love Kevin Darling. This probably isn't much of a suprise, given that I've been spreading the news far and wide, but - I do. Why did no-one tell me he was played by Tim McInnerny, aka Percy from series 2? Why did it have to come from this guy? I love him. I love that he spent two lifetimes as Edmund's adoring, unappreciated idiot friend, before getting himself reincarnated as his frustrated slightly smarter enemy. I love that he is still TIED UP WITH LOVE FOR HIM and doesn't know why. He twitches! He breaks his pencil! Blackadder calls him 'Darling', and he can't say anything about it! It is beautiful. And they are a good pairing, which is nice. Blackadder stares at him, a lot. At one point Darling says something about not having been born yesterday, and Blackadder says 'that's a shame, we could have started your personality from scratch', and I love it when people say things like that, because it's basically like saying 'I'd really like you if you weren't such a complete tit'. Lucas Buck says something similar about Matt in one episode of American Gothic, and it is yay. Anyway. WHY ISN'T THERE MORE BRITISH COMEDY SLASH??? But there is actually fic for this pairing, which is a beautiful and rare occurence for me. Rabbitholes and Foxholes features the twitch, and OH GOD OH GOD. No Man's Land rescues me from the bleakness of the final episode. Choose Life gets a special mention just for the suggestion that Darling might alphabetise the paperclips. Yay. And Tinlow Industries is...an AU where they're both 18 in America, working as cashiers and bagging boys in the same shop. It's not actually that bad, even if they once again have Darling EVEN CAPABLE OF SAYING OR UNDERSTANDING WHAT HE WANTS. Dude.

I love Yuletide for supplying me with most of these fics. I keep thinking about signing up for this year (if I can), then backing out because of my general intertia in that area. Also there are strange new rules I'm not sure I understand. And I might have missed the fandom sign-up date. Hmph.

Anyway. Back to Lemony Snicket. I'm pretty sure I won't finish it tonight, but I have some train journeys tomorrow. It's all good. Then maybe I'll finally get round to writing that con report. Um. Yes.

It snowed! And on Christmas day! Was still half-asleep when I first saw it, but eventually very pleased. Mum didn't believe me when I first told her, and dad didn't believe her. It's a Christmas miracle! Nice gift, anyway.

( And what Christmas is <EM>really </EM>about )

Am currently: perusing the fics on  yuletide, planning what to buy with my Christmas money, and trying not to think about my language essay, for which I have done fuck all. Well, started analysing the passage I want to look at - point of view in 'Enduring Love' - but not any of the huge, huge reading, which is sort of the important part, because they want us to show a 'breadth of knowledge of theory'. Sense I may be spending some time in Nottingham finishing that, and probably reading more as well. Still have to edit my lit essay too, argh! But have 5 days more for that than for the language, and at least its written! Sigh. Haven't read the Canterbury Tales yet either. Have they no respect for the yuletide season?

In other news, my sister has moved back home, and is apparently staying now for good, or until she moves into a council house. Until she has the baby anyway. They're a little worried because his abdomen is below average size, and the growing he was recently doing has tailed off a bit. The doctors just want to keep an eye on it, but my sister's worried. I'm not, but hell, I haven't completely accepted the fact I'm going to have a nephew soon, so what do I know? Anyway, I'm rambling. My point is that I'm back in my own newly-painted and curtainless room, in the single bed that is so much more uncomfortable now I'm used to a double, and having to tiptoe around her because her usual violent tendencies are suddenly tenfold, and she gets to criticise me for yelling back now. Sigh. Still, I am having a good Christmas, and possibly the last of these kind of ones I'll ever have. So yes. Merry Christmas, one and all. Roll on Christmas dinner.