prunesquallormd | "I'm doing the Great fucking Northern Run. What does it look like I'm doing?"

Skip to Main Content

Entry tags:

"I'm doing the Great fucking Northern Run. What does it look like I'm doing?"

Well, then. Insert random stuff here, I suppose.

Whitby was all sorts of fun, and the company was fab, and mostly good humoured. I may have drunk rather more gin (and whisky for that matter) than is technically healthy, and I definitely ate more cheese and fudge than my nominally vegan diet would suggest (I miss cheese ok? It's been over a decade, and I've never stopped missing it, and they don't make a decent non-dairy cheese. Trust me, I've looked).

A few days ago,

blurubberband55 posted a Katie Fitch vid that

crackfoxx made for her (the prompt was "Katie Fitch is awesome at life" to the tune of "I'm too sexy"). It may actually be the best thing ever, and it's one of the things things I've seen in the last few days that's brought home to me the total reversal of my opinion on Katie. I loathed her utterly when I first saw season 3, and for months afterwards. Now though? I just want to hug her. I love her so much. This vid may give you a clue as to why.

And the other thing that brought home my total acceptance of the complete awesomeness of Katie Fitch? Well, I hope all of the Skins fans among you are reading

flister's ...And the Battle Began (prologue and first part here, second part (of ten) here). If you're not, you really should be. It's Katie/Naomi/Emily (but not, as Flis delicately points out. in that way ...), and it's wonderful. Seriously, it's only 2 parts in and I love it so hard.

Talking of things I love hard, Doctor Who remains awesome, and Amy retains her ability to render me entirely incapable of rational thought (although the fact that I spend the entire time she's on the screen unable to look elsewhere did make it pretty obvious that in the first part of the Weeping Angels two parter she was wearing red Converse and in the second they were blue (and yes, I know my colour vision is pretty poor, but it's really not that bad). When did she get time to change them? Am I imagining things? Surely it's way too blatant to be a continuity error?

And also awesome? Legend of the Seeker. I'm so late to it, but it's so much fun. And how pretty are they? Seriously, just look at them ♥

And even though I haven't got to Season 2 yet, I really can't miss out Cara.

(LOL at Kahlan's face. So cute).

How gutted am I that it's been canceled? I do not have the words. Grrrr D:

In other news, it's 10 hours, more or less, until the polls open for the General Election, and despite talk of a hung Parliament I strongly suspect that there'll be a Tory landslide. A number of people have suggested that the party that wins this one will render themselves pretty much unelectable for a goodly time afterwards (Mervyn King (the Governor of the Bank of England, for the non-Brits on my f-list) has been quoted as having used the term "a generation" (although really, what constitutes a political generation is sort of hazy. Labour's time in the wilderness lasted 18 years, but I can't really see that feat being equaled)). Either way, though, I'm very much afraid that Friday morning will see the start of at least 2 terms of Tory rule. And honestly, I'll be inconsolable. I remember the last time they clawed their way to the top of the heap far too well. God, I loathe them.
That said, I'm still not quite sure where my vote is actually going. I voted Labour in '97 and Lib Dem every General thereafter. Not that it makes all that much difference, as Liverpool Riverside is pretty much as safe a seat as Labour has.

It's sort of depressing having always lived in a completely safe seat. Where I grew up, I'd be extremely surprised if there's ever been anything but a Tory MP. Actually, I tell a lie. One of the few entries of my great grandfather's diary (it lives with me, because I don't trust my family to look after it) that doesn't deal with suicide, accidental death, murder, Zeppelin raids, sinkings (Sunday April 15 1912 was a big day for him, I think, with a total of 703 lives saved against 1503 lost in one incident (you can probably guess which one))etc.etc. He was a death obsessed old sod) gives the local result of the 1918 General Election to a Coalition candidate, with 8138 votes. The '29 one went to the splendidly named Lt Colonel Ruggles Brice (Conservative - 14020 votes), though, and we've been lumbered with his ilk since.

Anyway, I hope the Brits reading this will be out to vote tomorrow, wherever you choose to put that cross (especially those of you who'll be able to vote for the first time. You know who you are :D).

Anything else? Oh yes, the writers on my f-list, and specifically those of you who are inclined to write smut (and obviously I include myself in that) may find this (Five Ways to Write Femslashy Porn) interesting, or just entertaining.

And that's pretty much it really. I assume those of you to whom it would be at all interesting have already seen Diana Gabaldon's (no, I'd not heard of her either) diatribe on fanfiction, and the various rebuttals it attracted. If you haven't, it's covered pretty comprehensively in the May 3 entry of Fandom Wank (thanks to

jengrrrl for the link). Unsurprisingly, most of the members of fandom who chose to respond to her were generally more well informed, measured, literate and civilised than Gabaldon. But then, the last couple of things I wrote were Skins and Harry Potter themed porn, so it'll be pretty obvious what side of the fence I'm sitting on in that particular argument.

By the way, Al, I'm so sorry I haven't got back to you yet. I will soon, honest. I've been a bit up the wall recently :)

Anyway, love to all. I hope things are going wonderfully.

I'll leave you with a tune. It's VNV Nation "As It Fades", and it never fails to take me to my happy place.

♥

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm really nervous about voting. Embarrassingly so. To be honest, I'll probably be going Lib-Dem, but I don't know what good it'll do around here (we can't stop here, this is ~~bat~~ Tory country! D:). I can only hope that the fact that someone had - eloquently, I feel - daubed one of those Tory signs with the words "POSH CUNT" means the tide might be changing, if only a little. Because I'm a masochist like that.

Urk.

Lib-Dem is a valid choice :).
I suspect your neck of the woods is much like my home constituency, back in Essex. All very green and leafy, and a sea of blue at election time :(. Still, maybe yours can be the vote that knocks your home seat to that rather fetching orange the Lib-Dems have so bizarrely chosen as their identifying colour :)

I hope it wasn't too nerve-wracking when you finally got to it.
*hugs*

The best non-dairy cheese is rice cheese! I am serious, it is a wonder.

Oooh, I've never heard of that before. I don't even know if I could get it in Britain. Would I be able to find it in a Chinese supermarket maybe?
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll definitely seek it out :)

Welcome back <3

Thanks, M ♥
I had a nice time, but it's always so nice to come home again.
(I'm such a home-body. It's pathetic really :D)

I actually discovered Diana Gabaldon quite recently via audiobooks read by the deliciously voiced Jeff Woodman. I don't read her main series (which sound a lot like bad fanfiction to me - present day heroine finds herself transported to the past where she meets dashing Scottish soldier), but her Lord John Grey books are very entertaining - aristocrat and soldier in the 1750s has exciting adventures whilst dealing with being a closet homosexual in an era when he could be hanged for it. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed them if I'd read the text versions, but I could listen to Jeff Woodnam read the phone book and love every minute.

I find Gabaldon's attitude to fanfiction disappointing, though I can understand a lot of writers feeling that way. I'm of the opinion that I would take fanfiction as a tremendous compliement, but then it's possible my attitude might change if I was actually a published writer. Expressing that strong an opinion against it, though, has to be a pretty good way to alienate fans.

As a number of the people who commented on her post pointed out, the best way to ensure that people don't check out your work is to actively attack your fans. And that's the main thing, of course. I can see why some authors might object to fanfiction, but the fact remains that the people who are most likely to write and read it are going to be the biggest, and most loyal, fans of the books, or whatever, they're writing about. How much of an idiot do you have to be to attack them so viciously. And accusing them of being immoral and no better than burglars and pedophiles? Yay. Way to stay classy.

I know of at least two authors who've actively encouraged their fans to play with their creations, and actually commercially publish the results, if they're so inclined: H. P. Lovecraft and Storm Constantine. God knows, neither of them are particularly big names, but I can't imagine they've been harmed by their openness to the idea (yes, Lovecraft died poverty stricken, but that's not the point. He was always poverty stricken). I'll be actively avoiding anything by Gabaldon in the future, just as I've actively avoided anything by Orson Scott Card since I discovered that he's a rabidly right-wing homophobe. I can't imagine it'll make any difference to her, but it'll make me feel better :)

Edited 2010-05-06 18:22 (UTC)

I have no information to give you about cheese. Particularly non-dairy cheese. I'm a big fan of cheese in general. I subscribe to the American philosophy of cheese which is basically, melt it and drizzle it over something.

I hope the voting goes well.

My mother has some Diana Gabaldon books, but I've never gone near the things. I do think it's hilarious that she decided to lash out a fanfic, because who does she think she is? I mean, she's not Lord Byron. She's like, the Stephenie Meyer of old women.

Yay for your Cara pic! I am also gutted that the show has been canceled. It's so ridiculously feelgood. Of course it's not allowed to be on tv anymore.

Glad to have you back!

Cheese rules. I just adore it, and I miss it so much. I went almost 10 years without touching it at all, but I'm getting more and more lapsy. I'm weak, I tell you. WEAK! (Fortunately I haven't succumbed to the lure of bacon yet. I'd have difficulty describing myself as even nominally vegan if I were to chow down on pig products on even an occasional basis :D).

The whole Gabaldon thing came across as one great big, incredibly childish (and badly written, and extremely ill-informed) hissy fit. And her objection to porn is just laughable, given her apparent willingness to go there herself. I certainly won't be reading anything by her in the future. There are more than enough books not written by self-righteous morons to have to bother about the ones that are :)

I really need some LotS icons :)
Why do the good shows so often get canceled? Why? Ok, it's hardly great art, but don't we deserve ridiculously feelgood fluff? It just sucks D:

It's good to be back :)

(Have you been giving Doctor Who a look? It can be silly too, but it's still lots of fun. No blonds on the cast currently, unfortunately, but Amy Pond is just glorious (not that I haven't already bored you enough on that subject already ;D)).

>they don't make a decent non-dairy cheese

You didn't think they made a decent non-dairy ice-cream until I introduced you to Swedish Glace. There is always hope... ;)

That's very true.
I always live in hope! The rice cheese thing sounds promising. Gonna have to try and track some of that down :)

I'm off dairy at the moment, so if you find some rice cheese and it's actually nice, let me know!

I'll try and track some down and let you know how it is :)
(On a related note, Provamel's new formulation for their non sweetened, vitamin enriched soya milk smells and tastes exactly like boiled eggs. It may actually be the most disgusting thing ever D:)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only