The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

We were studying Dancing at Lughnasa today, and one scene in particular in which a love interest of one of the main characters is the catalyst for her family falling apart. We were meant to make notes on it, but since someone ran off with my copy of the play, I had to ad-lib a bit. Which of course meant that I was the first to be picked on. I gave the scene a quick readthrough, decided that the love interest was being manipulative, and said so. My teacher asked me why that was, then, when I failed to give her any concrete evidence (I do a lot of my English based on gut feelings- it usually works), told me she didn't agree.

Trouble was, the only real evidence I had was that the love interest reminded me so much of The Ex it was almost ridiculous. His way of getting the girl to fall for him again was just like the way The Ex used to try and get me to do things when we were 'together'- but I wasn't going to say any of that in public, surrounded by people who know both of us but don't know we were going out.

Ugh. It's bad enough that he's constantly pouting whenever he sees me, but does he really have to get into my English Lit classes too?

Still, felt a bit happier at lunch, when the teacher randomly came up to me, grinned and told me the essay I handed in a few days back was 'brilliant'. I also have a fairly solid idea for my art project (about time!) and I've started Symphony Orchestra properly now. Not used to actually having to work as a double bass player before, and while I embarrassed myself once or twice with a couple of really basic sight-reading mistakes, it's a nice challenge. NaNo is also slowly but surely coming along (emphasis on the 'slowly'), and because it was my sister's birthday yesterday, chocolate cake abounds in our house!

To share this admittedly fairly personal happiness, I give you this:



Like I said to icequeenrex , I take absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for any time you might spend staring at/singing along with/acting out parts from the above. ;)


ETA: The major bad guy in my NaNo has taken it upon himself to fancy one of the major good guys. I... did not see that coming. Don't even like the pairing normally, but if I don't write it in then neither of them will be written properly. *grumbles*

Actually, scratch the above. All the bad guys bar two are getting the hots for various good guys. And their kinks are wrong. I blame re-reads of all_he_ever for this (yep, it's a Hetalia fanfic. A crossover, actually, and right now I don't think I'll ever look at The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the same way again.)

I am watching an anti-EU Tory MP being interviewed on BBC News right now, and I don't think I've facepalmed so much in a very, very long time. Fuck you, Philip Davis, and the horse you rode in on. That done, go and get some actual, unbiased information on our world standing right now. We need the EU. Realistically, it does not need us. Please understand this before you and your future government make us the laughing stock of the world.

And Karadzic- it's been practically a decade since you committed those crimes. I'd say that was more than enough time to formulate a decent defence. And I didn't see you observing the Human Rights Act half so well back when you were committing those acts that are the reason why you're in the Hague in the first place. Now please shut up. The judge asked you a simple question- there's no need for you to wear out the translator like that.

Finally. And pfft, I love that judge. That was an awesome putdown.

A fantabulous night to make romance / 'Neath the cover of October skies

Okay, so this post really doesn't have much to do with August Rush. Or October. Although I'd strongly recommend the former, and as for the latter, well, I was rather pleased by the amount of fallen leaves on the pavement outside my house this morning- although I did almost break something when I slipped on them.

First off, hi to my newest f-list friend, irish_injun! *waves* And happy Halloween to all of you! Wow, time flies seriously fast now. I really wanted to watch Dead Set on Channel 4 tonight, but I'm going to be at a party, and I could never handle zombie films anyway. I'd probably be huddling in the corner of my bed all night, and that would not be good. Still, Chris Bishop of the SHQ site is writing a glorious Captain Scarlet fanfic with a fairly unique take on zombies, if not the genre itself, so I'm happy enough for now.

ETA: mithrigil is writing a Hetalia fic with proto-England, creepy Rome, King Arthur(-to-be) (complete with Arthur/England slash), mini-France, zombie!Gaul, Wales being a bastard and unicorns getting shot. My day week freakin' month? Officially made now.

I went to see The Fantastic Mr Fox yesterday! And it was beautiful and uplifting and funny and my only real complaint is that, after the diggers are brought in, it did not resemble the book in any way, shape or form. Seriously, it was like that Eddie Izzard sketch where Hollywood takes a British storyline, adds in loads of action and American characters, and has all the bad guys played by the British (animals in Fantastic Mr Fox all have American accents, the humans British ones). It was ever so pretty though, and they handled the 'extra' bits so well I didn't mind the fact that they weren't in the book so much. What I really loved about the whole thing, though, was the fact that my two sisters and my Mum were there with me, and we all adored it. It's rare to find a film that everyone in my family will enjoy (my Dad wasn't there, but I think he would have done too), so that was really, really nice.

NANO STARTS TOMORROW OH DEAR LORD WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO? I have a plot, at least- well, something of one anyway- so I should be okay, but still. I am going to have no free time or sleep whatsoever next month, methinks, given that there's an Art deadline in January and multiple mini-deadlines before then.

While I go mourn for my life, have some icons and fanfic:


Title: Havisham, Chapter Two
Characters/Pairings: Kira, Near, L/Light, mentions of various others.
Rating: R
Notes/Summary: Part two of the epic torture saga, in which L and Near are both treated rather badly. Poor things. This particular chapter won Mod's Choice Award over on dn_contest a few months back, for the 'caught on tape' week.

Again, cowritten with the awesome autumnsunday.

Chapter One

( Bang. I stabbed at a wedding cake. / Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon. )

Amused!Elizabeth does not quite cover the extent of my lulz.



My mother tells me I have rather impressed her too, what with my finding a can of whipped cream in the fridge and doing the logical thing of making us all hot chocolate with it. That and showing her the video, of course- though not at the same time. I do rather like my laptop, and appreciate the un-milk-splatteredness of its screen.

Did y'all miss me?

Anyhoo, Paris is amazing and wonderful and bohemian and I want to live there one day. At least, the parts near the centre are anyway- and I am not kidding, London is actually feeling a little less like home right now. As soon as I can get a connecting cable, I'll do a picspam of the better parts of the 500-odd pictures I took whilst there (and that's after deleting about 100). Until then, I'll stick to giving you this piece of gorgeousness to listen to:

Since I am leaving for Paris at 4am tomorrow (!) and will thus be out of wireless reach until 7pm on Monday, I'm thinking I'll leave you with these.

( This way for profoundly profound thoughts... )

See you all Monday!

...since I didn't manage to get this printed off before the lesson earlier- what do you guys think of it? It was written in a couple of minutes last night, so critique would be much appreciated. ^^

( Do be warned though- it is a bit... incoherent, to say the least. )

Because, on going over my ff.net account, I realised that I'd never actually posted this one here, and thought that this might be a good time to do so.

Title: Havisham, Chapter 1
Characters/Pairings: Matsuda, all the Kiras, mentions of various others.
Rating: R; my first, possibly my last, but certainly rated with good reason. I scared myself on re-reading this guys, I kid you not.
Notes/Summary: So much of Carol Anne Duffy's poetry was begging for fanfic when we studied it last year- not least 'Education for Leisure' (which the exam board banned after our year, because it had OHMYGOSHKNIVES. They kept the Shakespeare murder-fests in, of course.

So, while I could never quite get that one to do anything other than an utterly standard piece on Light's god complex, 'Havisham' proved far more entertaining. The idea of Light taking vengeance was one less explored, but no less interesting and besides, I really, really wanted to hurt someone after the last episode. Pity Matsuda. And Near. And Ryuk, possibly. And the mystery final victim too (if you've read this on ff.net, please don't spoil the surprise for others!)

Cowritten with the lovely autumnsunday, after a beta request led to her effectively rewriting huge chunks of this.

--

( And of course, the cohorts would want to get in on the action too... )

A boy in my art class put up a board that people were meant to write things they'd never tell anyone on, with a pen underneath for them to write with. Someone wrote 'I'm stealing your pen', so I wrote 'me too' underneath, and did. MLIA



...well, it was funny at the time, anyway.

-

( Smug!Christian!Amy is smug. And knows more about Christianity than the American Far Right, apparently. )

-

I love using the Bible against these guys. xD

In other news, reading through the fan fiction archive at SHQ has made me realise just how early on I was corrupted. Captain Scarlet was possibly my... second ever fandom? And the sheer amount of torture we put those characters through on a regular basis cannot have been good for me, back when I started reading the fanfic in my early teens. Cordyceps, though, proved to be almost beyond my boundaries (though I was thrown out by the quick recovery at the end. Scarlet's got t need serious psychiatric care after that kind of treatment- how can a mere party suddenly transform him from begging to be killed to his usual geniality?) How that works I have no idea- especially given the Halloween fic I'm going to be reposting here over the next week or so.

What does annoy me though, is how they feel the need to recount the entire story of the series in every medium-long fanfic there is. We get it, guys. We have watched the series, after all.

And are versipellisand I the only CS fans on my flist, or are there more of you hiding in the woodwork? I know it's a seriously obscure, geekish series, but still...

Vague post ending is vague. ^^

(yep, that would be my name, contrary to what my username might lead you to believe. It's a seriously long story.)

And 7... I wish. Seriously. And 4? Please don't. Sometimes, suspense is a Good Thing.

And because this is completely ripped off from inspired by versipellis' entry on the same meme, here's another one:

Give me a character and I'll give you:
(a) three facts about them from my personal canon/fanon
(b) a reason he/she sucks
(c) a reason he/she is awesomesauce
ETA: Wait, what? 5 and 7 are giving me a headache...

Oh Jan Moir. Of course your article about Stephen Gately's death was utterly innocent and full of sweetness and condolences for him and his family. We believe you.

First time I've ever had a chance to report an article officially before, so that's kind of fun, but still. Ugh. I was going to write about the amazingness that is the church I went to this evening (seriously awesome time), but now... I feel kind of put off. Idiot homophobes ruining my night.

On the upside, I found out yesterday that my Dad brought Muse's 'Resistance' earlier this week. 1984 references and a ginormous Queen tribute? Yes please.

This time last week, I was in the process of writing an absolute epic for the Hetalia Kink Meme, with notes, ideas and huge chunks of the story written up on an Word Document. Unsaved, and kept open, because I seem to lose all inspiration for stories once they're saved.

You can guess where this is going, can't you?

My Dad decided to confisticate my laptop, shutting it down in the process. Having got it back, I've been looking for the story I was writing previously, given I'd only gotten about two chapters done before the confistication. The document, of course, has not saved.

I'm stupid. So. Frickin'. Stupid.

Just... ARRRGH!

Me: Hi! I'm here for the senior staff/student rep meeting about the Tanzanian school partnership project. It's meant to be with the Headmaster- is he in?
Receptionist: Yes, he is, but you can't see him right now because he's in some kind of meeting about the African school thing... can you leave your details?

Cue several minutes of me trying to explain that this was in fact the meeting I was meant to go to, her refusing to go and confirm with the people in the meeting that I was indeed meant to be there, and my eventually being asked to leave as I was holding up the queue (that consisted of about two people).

I mean, wtf?

For which I blame crazyboutremmy- you did tag everyone, love! ;)

1. How have others described you over the years?

Individual. One of them said I'm not like anyone she'd ever met before- in a good way, she hastened to assure me. I'd like to believe that.  I've been Hetalia-stamped as England and Austria too, so make of that what you will.

2. You are most likely to...

Give you a seriously sardonic look without the use of eyebrows. It can be done. That or hug you.

3. Have you ever dated, and what did you think about the experience?

Yes, and I now appreciate being single. If I could find someone like my first boyfriend, though, I think I'd be happy. Having said that, I was only seven back then...

4. Have any of your parents had a significant influence on you?

Any or either? ;)

I'll say both. My Mum's passed on her bookworm traits, my Dad's given me the habit of spending all my time on the PC, as well as an appreciation for politics, economics, psychology and the environment, and they've both given me a faith, an individuality and confidence to use them both. They've also made me a geek. It's great fun all round. xD

5. Dream job?

Translator. If I got to travel, that would make it absolutely perfect.

6. Something you've never admitted to anyone?

I was still playing with Barbies when I was twelve. I got so upset when my sister cut all their hair off to make 'straw' for her 'stables' it was unreal, and I pretty much stopped after that. It was mostly clothes design though, using tissues, elastic bands and glue.

7. Can you fake any accents?

Irish? Though while we were reading Dancing at Lughnasa, I did slip into Scottish and Welsh a lot. I can certainly do an upper-class English accent though.

8. Which bad habits drive you crazy?

Like remmy, baby voices used when there are no babies around. Seriously, my sister's going through a phase of doing it all the time at the moment, and I'm having to keep a cushion nearby to wring. Also, mothers who leave their children crying so that they can get some shopping done/finish their conversation. SERIOUSLY NOT COOL. D:

9. If you had to live in the sea, what would you be?

Dolphin. I used to be obsessed, and I'm still rather fond of the things. There's a huge one painted on my wall in strange colours, because the design was copied from a painting-by-numbers thing and there was nowhere near enough of the paint in the set to cover the wall version, so we (my Mum, my friend Jessica and myself) had to improvise. Good times. xD

10. What are your reading preferences, and why?

Pretty, twisted, sarky things. 'The Book Thief' would be the perfect example, with 'Hamlet' coming a fairly close second.

TAG SOMEONE:
EVERYONE /is feeling lazy

( Instead, I bring you the beginnings of Swedish Chef!Sweden... )

On Sunday, Anna hijacked my Facebook account to get me on Cafe World. Intrigued- and a little miffed- I went to see what it actually was, and I am now hooked. I have two major essays to write, my first school partnership meeting tomorrow, and an interim art deadline next Friday. This? Is seriously not cool!

On the upside, we've finally started doing creative writing in English. Showy-off times naow! xD

And winter's started setting in already. It's October, and already I cannot feel my fingers. I am indoors in a city how does this even ENGLISH WEATHER WHY SO RUBBISH? WHY CAN'T YOU JUST RAIN/SNOW ALREADY AND BE DONE WITH IT?

Oh, and if there's any Hetalia fans who remember Muppets out there: this.

Do any of you guys know if this is true? I'm torn between wanting it to be and loathing at the way they're tainting Supernatural by association...