I left work at 6pm yesterday only because I brought something home to do. So today I thought I'd get up an hour early. So the network was down and I didn't get to start until 9.20. Grrr. And it meant I didn't leave until 6.30, but I did finish everything I wanted to get done before I left. Hopefully it'll all be working at 8am tomorrow morning.

Just before I go to check my whofest thing one more time before the deadline's up, a meme from Una and Marta where you link to a story of yours beginning with each letter of the alphabet:
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I'm all yay! at the moment because I just drove to bowling in Oxford and back. I even had quite a good score in the first game, it all fell apart after that. But driving home was the first time in a long time I've driven in the dark - it's quite scary because you can't see very far! And I used the full beams for the first time ever in my life. And only forgot to turn them off once - after being really paranoid about turning them off in time.

And I put Dream up on Teaspoon just before the weekend and got some really nice reviews, so I'm feeling good about that. Although less so about my whofest thing which has to be done by Thursday. I've been really bad at proscrastinating on it and it now needs more work than I really have time for. Which isn't good.

Work, though, looks like being really busy this week. Could have done with it being five days really!

I've had a busy weekend, which is good cos otherwise I'd have just been bored. Saturday and Sunday I spent at Banbury Camping Rally, which is a big Rotaract event I've heard lots of good things about. I only went up for the day but I still really enjoyed myself. It's great to catch up with people from the District and from other districts that I only really get to see at these sorts of things. I have photos that I must put on my computer, although most of them were of the welly wanging competition (or welly wanking as they mistakenly announced it as).

The only thing now is I seem to have ended up with lots of potential things I could be doing in 2007 and 2008. Next year I already have Peg2 and Redemption in February and I've booked for RGBI (National) Conference in May (for my birthday! - anyone who wants to come and help me celebrate is welcome). And there's potentially a District Conference at the beginning of April.

And then EUCO 2007 (European Rotaract Conference) is at the end of April in Milan, which sounds good (I've wanted to go to Italy for ages too) and there's Deben trying to talk me into going skiing in March.

If these were all spread out it would be fine but I'm really not sure I have enough money and holiday time to do all of these. If only it was possible to get paid for doing nothing...

I kept reading today that Pluto is no longer a planet which confused me because I thought they'd alreay decided there would be 12 planets in the solar system (with the addition of Ceres, Charon and Xena). But I must have read something that just said that's what could happen and I liked the idea. So, I reserve the right to have 12 planets in my solar system, rather than 8, so there. *sticks tongue out*

I'm quite tempted by the sg-rarepairings ficathon as it includes all pairings that aren't Sam/Jack, Jack/Daniel, Shep/Weir, McKay/Shep. Which doesn't rule out most Atlantis pairings I'll quite happily read. I know the 11th December deadline looks a long way off but it won't be by the time assignments are out and I'm distracted by something else.

I also had a drive tonight, with my landlady's boyfriend, who was really good to drive with. The roads were quiet, which was good. I was thinking I might just about manage to go round the block but we actually went through town then round it on the bypass and it went okay. So I might well drive to bowling on Tuesday (with a new Rotaract member who is training to be a driving instructor).

I've also been playing with my sat nav. Not only do I have John Cleese's voice on it, but the daleks too. Not that you can really understand their instructions but it works for entertainment value. And Sel, you're right, it can't find your house. It manages your postcode but gives me another road and then refuses to deal with house numbers. So I'll be able to get in the vicinity of your house for Peg2, then there might be some ringing of your house to tell whoever answers John Cleese can't find it

I'm all excited now! I'm off to Banbury this weekend - it's a big Rotaract camping weekend, so I'm going up for the day today and tomorrow. Tomorrow is the Conference bid, so I have been told I have to be there Tonight they are having a big Christmas party - which is their theme. Don't ask.

But it's a bank holiday weekend, yay! Except last one till Christmas Monday I'm going to defrost the fridge, do my monthly backup of the whole computer and clean my room. Wow, don't I live an exciting life.

I am now up-to-date on where BBC4 is up to in The Avengers - at least once The Proms have finished. The one I had missed was a funny Scottish one with Steed in a kilt. And, in fact, most of the men in it in kilts. And lots of bagpipes, which are thankfully a lot quieter on TV than in real life. Although I still don't quite understand what the plot was all about I enjoyed it anyway.

I was good tonight and updated my website. And remembered why I hate putting fics up on ff.net so much. Although it says it accepts quite a few formats it actually refuses to even look at half of them. And the other half it ignores all the formatting on. HTML is the only one I can get to work and then, for no explicable reason, it stripped out all my between scenes symbols. After two goes I gave up. I have better things to do with my life, frankly.

I've also done my wrist in. It wasn't happy a few weeks ago which I realised was probably to do with doing too much Hanjie. Except this morning it got too painful to use the mouse with, so it could be a combination of both. Now I am practising my mouse use with my left hand and handily the tubigrip I bought to protect my skin from my guitar (as I'm allergic to it) fits on my wrist.

Last night while trying to sleep I came up with part of a plot for the Dream a Little Dream sequel. I'd sort of planned doing one anyway because I realised I'd not so much written a hurt/comfort as a comfort/hurt, and while I don't plan on making it all better, I should probably be slightly nice and let the characters recover a little bit.

I've not read anything on the subject but I see from the links in metafandom that it seems to be an issue again, this time about music vids. The issue seems to be that vidders want to be asked before someone links to their vid in a rec. Er, have I missed something or have I misunderstood the nature of the internet?

I can understand that you don't link directly to the vid - I would personally want to read more about it first anyway - and I understand that people might have bandwidth-related issues. But that's only really going to come into affect if a rec is read by a lot of people. OK, so I don't make vids, so I don't really know how many it all works exactly, but chances are, one chance comment on someone's LJ/blog/website is not really going to make that much of a difference.

This all seems to tie into the asking before linking thing. Does the BBC tell people they must ask before linking to them? No, because it would be ludicrous. If someone was to ask me if they could link to my website I would ask them what they were on. Letting me know they have is something else altogether because it's nice to know that sort of thing.

Similarly, if people ask if I mind them friending me. Um, great, but how do I stop you? And if I said no, what's to stop you reading my LJ anyway? Nothing. It's great when people tell me they have because otherwise I have no idea, and I'll friend them back if their LJ looks like it's worth reading. Admittedly, I don't have any friends-lock issues because I don't. If I don't want it on the internet for every Joe Bloggs to read, I don't put it there. My life is simple like that.

So, tell me dear readers (since I imagine you exist), what is it I've missed?

I told dad about Stargate being cancelled and he said, and I quote:

You mean Stargate is ending after onoly 10 series?

Sometimes, he can actually be quite cool.

All I thought when I saw it is, 'yay, Atlantis is continuing' and 'that'll be one less thing to watch'. I see from next week's TV guide that next week is going to be the third week in a row that I watch nothing at all on TV because none of it is worth watching.

OK, this is quite cool, although I have no idea what some of them are supposed to represent (and there are LJ-specific links in there so I had to fiddle so it would work).

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...you finish one thing and try to fill in your timesheet before starting the next.

(Trying to dial 9 before a number is another one I kept doing for a while).

I can see this week is going to be crap, and probably next week too, so I worked through half my lunchtime and left slightly late, with the result that I felt completely brain dead by the time I got home. I was fine once I've eaten dinner.

For some inexplicable reason (except that it's Trillian) Trillian decided to lose my Jabber connections (to Google Talk and LJ Talk). It took me ages to find the LJ Talk instructions, mainly because I couldn't remember what it was called, then it turned out pretty much all I needed to do was tell it my username and password. So I am feeling slightly more connected to the world (although not much because it kept msn, which is where most of my contacts are - which does mostly consist of my parents, mind you).

And I almost forgot about it for the fourth day in a row, but I posed an Epilogue to that long Doctor Who fic: Dream a Little Dream Epilogue.

I should really go and reply to some emails and think about stuff for tomorrow's Rotaract meeting.

I have a car instead. Well, all I've paid for is the insurance and a sat nav. I'm so looking forward to understanding the cost of petrol and the fun of services and MOTs next summer. And trying to understand the lights, the fan thingy, the windscreen wipers (ok, they're simple) and de-icing. To say nothing of cleaning and painting related activities. Why is owning a car so complicated? It's very strange to see dad's car parked outside my house, though, that's not right.

If only I could drive it... I need to convince people to let me take them round the block in it. I did get dad to take me to Tescos before he left, which was just as well because they've moved my milk to the highest shelf possible, then stacked it up. So there was no way I was going to be reaching that.

I hurt from swimming yesterday as well. I discovered just how much my arms ached when I started my driving lesson this morning. Yesterday I just felt really tired and couldn't be bothered with anything. I have got a bit more done today, though. Except when I looked at the clock on my computer and saw it was 21.39. How did that happen? Where did the weekend go and do I really have to go back to work tomorrow?

I went swimming with my sister today. Now I hurt and am completely knackered. The trouble was we were actually there to get fit and I soon discovered that backstroke does that quite nicely - my muscles are obviously more used to breaststroke. In theory this would be a regular thing, if I didn't have quite so busy weekends.

But when I got back I did get to watch the 200th episode of Stargate. (spoilers) Read more...

As today's A-level results day it meant I read through the Clearing list for Physics carefully and I see that, as usual, Warwick has no places. Reading did. I'd mention this to my sister but she doesn't care; it's just me and my dad being smug. Although sadly, when we looked last year we found they don't do my course any more. Can't imagine why - we certainly did our best to put people off doing when we were there.

There was the usual stuff in the paper about A levels getting easier and a piece on there being fewer people doing science subjects because they're 'hard': Sir, can we do something easier?

This is something that I can never quite understand because A level Physics has got to be easier than A level English Lit, for example. For Physics all you had to do was learn the formulae and the situations you applied them, and the definitions. That's it. English you have to read a load of books and write essays. The idea of essays without formulae, headings, diagrams and graphs is just odd to me now.

To illustrate their point (I assume) they've got a science quiz in there, which includes the easiest questions ever. For example:

6) What is Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection?

Frankly, if you don't know that you should be taken out and shot.

7) In what order are the planets arranged in the solar system?

In all fairness, there's been a bit of an issue over this recently but everyone should be able to manage the basic nine. I remember in secondary school our class coming up with a mnemonic to remember it. The only way I could remember the mnemonic was to first think of the order of the planets. (The mnemonic was, BTW, Mark Versus Emma. Mark Jumps Sexily Undoing New Pyjamas - there was a girl in the class called Emma who was going out with a boy called Mark at the time).

I gave up reading them after that because I was too busy laughing.

The most interesting, and true, part of the article came at the end:

you shouldn't have to work that hard to make physics exciting, because [...] it is exciting

Too right. I mean, you get to find out how things work. You don't get that in english lit.

(It was so nice the other weekend to be with mostly physicists and mathematicians, I'm surrounded by arts students at work, it's terrible.)

It is tempted to have a rant about work but I won't. Work finished two hours ago and therefore I will not be thinking about it for another thirteen and a half.

I just updated my friends & family numbers, discovered you can have more than ten, although I only have ten. Mind you, of those, one is work, one is the doctors and three are Emma. Who is, incidentally not in, so I can't rant to her other and discuss Ewan McGregor.

This morning when I read my RSS Feeds I saw one with a meme I've seen before about posting three lines from a WIP. So I looked through my folders, found some things I've worked on this year and thought that'd be more interesting to blog about.
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The trouble with going away is that I forget how crap the network at work is. Plus our IT guy is away, which is a signal to it to go completely screwy.

On Friday I cut my nails (a sad pre-requisite) and got my guitar out for the first time in a couple of months, I think. This was on the basis that no-one was in to hear how much worse I'd got for not practising, plus I wanted to try and calm down a bit before my driving lesson. The latter worked and after a bit I wasn't too bad. I'm forcing myself to get back into a routine of practising straight after dinner and tonight I was back up to where I was before.

I had a conversation with dad about this at the weekend. I keep thinking that driving should really not be that hard because so many people can do it - and some of them really are complete idiots (most of whom I seem to meet when trying to cross the road). But on the other hand an awful lot of people seem to be able to play the guitar and that's hard. Dad did point out that they've had many years of practise - and if they can't play you don't get to hear them in public. In all fairness, a greater percentage of the population can drive than can play the guitar.

It didn't help that I discovered that I can't play and sing at the same time. Not being able to talk and play at the same time I'm fine with because I could never do that while playing the organ and I learnt that for ten years. But the singing thing is a problem because I can't get enough space to breathe probably. And if I hold the guitar further away from my chest I can't get my hand round enough. I much prefer playing tunes anyway.

I posted the latest part of my longest fic I've written ever last night: Dream a Little Dream part 2

And a meme that I've seen in at least two places this evening:
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Having been home for the weekend (well, I'm still here, but only for a few more hours) I've now worked out most of dad's new technology. This afternoon I discovered an episode of Futurama on Sky Three, so I set the TV to come on in time for it 4pm. I could really do with one of those because I never remember to watch things. Well, that assumes I'm in for them in the first place.

Friday night I got woken up by two foxes fighting. It was bizarre because I knew the noise didn't sound quite like cats but I couldn't work out what it actually was.

Saturday I spent in a quarry, at the annual waterpistol fight. As it was a bit cold I spent some time at the start wondering round taking photos. I left my camera at home, so I'd borrowed dad's new one. I didn't make much of a dent in his 1Gig card, though. But I do like my camera better. Inside the caves wasn't too cold and I didn't get too wet (I hide a lot). My arm aches now from holding my water pistol up.

This morning I got to drive dad's car round the block, which was hard. I did manage first to second half the time. And getting out of the drive involved me on clutch and accelerator and dad on the handbrake. And driving through mum's border, although in all fairness dad did hit the kerb parking it by the side of the road later. He's bringing the car up next Sunday but I don't think it'll be going very far for a while. My left leg hurts from all this driving now.

Then tomorrow I have to go back to work to find out how badly it's all gone in my week's absence. And I have no idea what else I'm doing next week because I missed the last Rotaract meeting and haven't had the minutes yet.

I am crap and forgot that I posted the next part of Dream a Little Dream on Wednesday evening and I really ought to link to it here. Previous part and headers two posts down.

Dream a Little Dream: part 1

I am currently not looking forward to my driving lesson in three hours (I am looking forward to going home afterwards, but that's afterwards). I am getting better it's just such a slow process it feels like I'm never going to get there. I'm just hoping dad's car is going to be easier to drive (it doesn't have fifth gear, so that's something for a start).

I had all these plans of things to do today but mostly I've been playing with washing in between the rain. Every time I peg it out, it rains. Then I get it in and by the time I've draped it round the house, it's stopped. I can't win!

I had a good time this weekend (where the weekend = Saturday to Wednesday) at the windmill with ex-modscifi people. We went up the Tor in Glastonbury, went swimming and generally drank lots and played lots of games. The most popular of the latter was Bang, a game rife with sexual innuendo and where beer is very useful for healing bullet holes. On the way there and back we saw lots of tourists.

It was good to catch up with everyone there and nice to get a week off work. I really liked that we could actually have intelligent conversations. There is only so much of work people I can take - they're entertaining enough but are mostly arts students, which says it all really.

I'm still catching up on my emails and RSS Feeds from when I was away. Tomorrow I had a driving lesson, then I'm off home to play about with all dad's new technology and attempt to drive his car.

My 16,000 word Doctor Who epic is nearly done, and as I'm just polishing off the ending (for polishing off read agonising over how to end it) I thought I could post the prologue. And then bugger off to Somerset. Enjoy!

Title: Dream a Little Dream
Author: paranoidangel
Words: ~16,000 altogether
Rating: PG
Characters: Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan, Nat Redfern, Josh Townsend
Spoilers: SJS audios: Buried Secrets and Fatal Consequences, School Reunion and small ones for The Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel
Summary: Sarah Jane Smith often wished she believed in coincidences but so far her faith had been shown to be true every time.
Beta: by tellitslant
Disclaimer: Not mine, guv

Dream a Little Dream: Prologue

When I got up this morning it wasn't that light due to it being rainy outside. So instead of wearing sandals to work I thought I ought to keep my feet dry and wear shoes. Which meant wearing socks, which was just such a weird feeling, it's been weeks since I wore any socks. Mind you, it did at least help with being warm at work. The person whose desk I'm at this week is right in the path of the air conditioning and I'm sat in a cold draft all day. The office is helpfully laid out so the other end of it is still quite warm, even though I'm shivering. It's also the boys office, so they do tend to like it colder than us girls.

There was a new Armando Iannucci program on tonight - The Time Tunnel. It's set in 2031 and they're looking back at the early 2000s. So a satirical look at today by cunningly setting it in the near future. It was interesting in places, funny in others and just weird in others still. Plus they did go over the top a bit in my opinion, in pieces like Charlotte Church vomiting herself inside out. It sounds funny as a one-line thing but just gets disgusting and too unlikely once you go into it in detail. There is a real point in there but satire is best when subtle, and that's so not.

It was an entertaining way to spend half an hour, though, so I'll probably watch it next week.

I also read some Atlantis fanfic this evening and I can feel myself starting to be pulled more towards that again. I'm remembering why I like Sheppard/Weir - I must get back to the Langford U fic I do have a first draft of. And read some McShep, I'm starting to miss the banter.

I finished The Hand of Fear while my dinner was cooking, and wrote up some of the highlights at Sarah Jane Fic. I'm so feeling tempted to get her episodes on DVD, which is bad. I did the whole Ace thing last summer, I'm determined not to do the Sarah Jane thing this summer. Plus I think I prefer Jo Grant (to Sarah, not to Ace, obviously).

I've been trying to keep on top of my emails this week, yet they never seem to go down much. There's a few people I've been meaning to email for months and still haven't got round to.

I was going to say that I've done Rotaract stuff every night this week but since last night's consisted of going down the pub, that probably doesn't count.

I have spent most of the day keeping up with a thread on sarahjane_fic about a rumour for a Sarah Jane spin-off that was in the Outpost Gallifrey news feed this morning, so that kept the day interesting. I do seem to be working my way through friending most of the members of the comm, though, which I'm trying to keep down because otherwise my Feeds list just gets out of hand.

Tonight, though, I am having a TV night. With emailing and Rotaract stuff in between. Tonight they're repeating the first part of Three Men in a Boat that I didn't see the first time round. The second part I watched because they went through the town I live in. It's almost appropriate it's being repeated because in the book the only disease he doesn't diagnose himself with is housemaid's knee, and mine is playing up at the moment for no particular reason, and really isn't liking stairs.

I remember in an interview Tom Baker said he hated having to kneel down to K9 because he didn't want to get housemaid's knee. Which leads me nicely into the other thing I'm watching tonight which is the Hand of Fear DVD commentary, in my amazon rentals 'due out on 25th July month'. The other two DVDs in the month are Drop the Dead Donkey series 4, the first one of which turned out to feature the one episode I remember - where Dave pretends to be Helen's girlfriend because she doesn't want to tell them she's gay. But now because I've seen earlier stuff, and in order, I know what else is going on because Dave is in love with Helen.

I was thinking at some point this week I might do some writing. Um, maybe tomorrow.