Back in March I mentioned that I was offering to write drabbles in return for a donation to Habitat for Humanity for me to go to Romania.

Since WP only lets you do one cut I'll come back to the drabbles themselves. But I enjoyed myself writing them, I had forgotten how much, since it's been a while since I wrote any. As my birthday is coming up (Saturday, so I am allowed to get excited tomorrow) I'm going to do it Hobbit-style again, and offer to write drabbles for any requests.

The drabbles: Read more...

I love my PVR. I know there was a reason why I splashed out and spent more money to get something good. it was annoying me that I kept having to fast forward through all the adverts in Lewis and I really wanted something that skipped a certain amount of time, like my TV card does. The PVR does skip but only 10 seconds, which doesn't get you very far in adverts.

So, I downloaded an extension which does it. Problem sorted.

I also discovered, through looking in the manual, that it automatically records everything you watch, so you really can just press rewind. I tested it just to be sure. With my TV card that worked, but you had to be recording it to start with. I want to watch something on live TV to see it now. Except I think the last time I did that was two and a half weeks ago.

Since the authors have now been revealed, I can say that for remix I wrote Overload (The Big Battle Remix), which has been remixed from Overload by sugargroupie.

Last year, I changed the POV of the story and it went from being funny to being angsty. This time, I changed the point of view and it went from being shippy to being action, and the end of mine only overlapped with the beginning of the original. There were gaps in the original that made me ask why things happened, so I decided to write them. And then had no end of trouble because I've not really written action before - the theory of how to do it is all very well but putting it into practise is another thing entirely. But with the help of Tanaqui I got there in the end. And I enjoyed myself, and assuming it goes ahead next year, I'll definitely be participating again.

I was in London yesterday for a friends birthday in the evening, so I decided in the afternoon to go to the V&A. It was a bit of a strange place because I came in on floor 0 and one flight of stairs up I was on floor 3. I decided to go and look at the musical instruments. Which was completely the opposite end from where I was. So I got lost, more than once. And went through the 20th century section, which was pretty much all the same stuff as anywhere else - ie radios from various years, that kind of thing.

The musical instruments were quite interesting, but it was really hot and there was an alarm constantly going off, which drove me mad. I tried some of the other historical stuff but it seemed mostly concerned with fashion, and even hotter. So I only spent an hour in there in the end, and am not really feeling the need to go back.

Sometimes I have mad moments about what I'd like to do with my life. And I remembered/thought of one last night when I watched the Survival commentary.

I think about just resigning from my job, joining an Extras agency (I know it would be boring, with lots of sitting around in the cold, but it would be interesting to see what goes on) and temping and earning money that way. And deciding what I want to do. I just like the idea of every day being slightly different. And being able to take random days off.

What wouldn't be so good would be the lack of money - if you didn't work you didn't get paid - and there would be no putting money into a pension fund from work. And I remember sitting on a till in Somerfield when I was in sixth form and it was as boring as anything. So as much as I'd like to think about being inpulsive and just doing it, I know it wouldn't work out.

I've been on a remix reading spree and read everything I liked the look of. Of those, these are the ones I liked the best. The ones I thought were particularly good I will be reviewing for Haven Reviews after the authors are announced.

I really enjoyed reading through these. I tend to read more varied stuff for remix - and more fanfic period, than I have at the moment - so there are all sorts of interesting gems in here.

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I didn't know, or had heard and forgotten that they're doing His Dark Materials in films. Which will be something to see at Christmas again! My daemon is apparently a wildcat called Romulus. Which I could live with (er, apart from being allergic to his fur...). I've just finished the first book in the trilogy, so I think I'll have managed them all by the time the film comes out.

Annoyingly, I bent my glasses last night. I have bendy glasses but they're not as great as they make out - I am on my spare pair since I bent the originals and they couldn't quite get it to be perfect again. They're good enough for a spare pair, but when I need new glasses I'm not going to be able to get away with just replacing the lenses. The bendiness is good enough when I walk into doors, which is handy since I do that quite frequently. But last night I hit my glasses into the shelf in the kitchen when I was emptying the bin. The opticians were able to fix them though, which is good.

I have to find 80s fancy dress for Conference the weekend after next. I could do the Ace costume again, but I did that two years ago when the District's theme was Doctor Who. And I really want to wear my pink bunny ears headband that I bought in Walmart. So what can I wear with them that could be 80s?

Tonight I voted in the local council elections I got for my birthday. Having done it once I don't know why anyone would bother going to the community centre to put an X in the box with a blunt, stubby pencil when you can play with three bits of paper, two envelopes, stickers and glue that tastes foul. It's far more fun.

Except now it feels like my birthday and it isn't yet.

I went paintballing on Saturday and really enjoyed it. It is expensive, but nothing comes cheap (apart from the US dollar at the moment) and it's not really something you do that often. I was wondering if they'd ask for what size overall you wanted, but they just handed them out. I assume mine was small, since I didn't have to roll the sleeves up much at all. The legs I had to roll up three times, though, so I didn't walk on them. Although I discovered running was slightly tricky, with a trouser crotch round my knees.

At first I was quite crap as I managed to go out in the second game without firing a shot. After that I improved, although I discovered that staying mostly behind cover and firing doesn't achieve much, but running out for cover closer to the enemy gets you killed, mostly. One of the games I was in till the end, though, which was much better.

It does hurt when you get shot - although mostly it stings a bit. No different to fencing really, except for the places you get hit, which in my case was mostly on my left side. So I wore a sleeveless top today to show them off. The worst is when you get hit at the bottom of the mask where there are holes you can breathe through. This unfortunately means you get a mouthful of paint, which tastes really disgusting.

Given that I went swimming yesterday as well (which required two hours driving) I don't ache nearly as much as I thought I would.

There's a link on the side too, but I've put all the postcard guesses I've had so far in a Google Document. It's quite nifty, as long as I remember to republish when I save it.

I've been having fun with NationStates recently. You set up your own country and then vote on various issues they give you. The next day (day seems to be a bit fluid, mind you, since it seems to be mid-afternoon as far as I can tell) your country's bio changes to reflect it. So far I've banned smoking, arts students and religion. And legalised drugs and prostitution. It's great! My fantastic country is the The Most Serene Republic of 42 Paranoidangel Drive

I've never seen a final before. I did wonder if the questions got harder as they go through the series but since I got 4 answers, I'd say not. In case anyone's going to watch it and not yet seen it...
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overlycautious asked for a commentary on Home, Again, when I asked if anyone wanted a commentary on any of my fics. I started off doing it that way, but most of my comments were about whole scenes, or various bits scattered around it. So I ended up just putting all the comments together. So it's slightly less a commentary and more the short interview you get as an extra on the DVD.

Home, Again is on my website or at LJ

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Only a few more books to go!

147.4cm / 155cm (95.1%)

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Favourite stories and companions and the like:
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I was having a bit of a surf last night and came across some stuff on various LJs about RPGing that is buried in my History somewhere. But it got me thinking about it and my experiences of it.

I wasn't expecting it to get that long, though... Read more...

I quite liked this meme:

We all have things about our friends that make us slightly envious.

Not in a bad way, but in a 'Wow! I wish I had that person's hair/eyes/money/relationship/toenails/whatever.'

So tell me what about me makes you envy me... then post this in your blog and see what makes me envious of you.

Big spoilers here for the final episode. Don't read this if you haven't seen it, or if you haven't seen any of the series but might, because being spoiled would spoil it.
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Today I was really ruthless in my room. Most of which involved me sitting on my bed because my back hurt and mum doing most of the work. I did dust some videos though. I discovered all sorts of thing I'd forgotten ever existed! Mostly what I have left there now is books and videos, which I have too many of to fit in my flat. I was intending to add all my books to LibraryThing but that involves time, and taking my laptop upstairs, which my back can't really cope with. So it'll have to wait till next time.

I've also updated my website, and includes my American travel diary. I also posted fic: The Scottish Cottage which is a sequel to Dream a Little Dream (which is still the longest thing I've ever written, at 17,000 words), although not the sequel. This one's more a bit of fluffy angst.

My back does not like traffic jams. Understandably, really, having to press the clutch a lot and it's a long way away, so I have to stretch my leg.

Now, though, I have a clean car (as washed my dad and hoovered by mum) and the scratches painted over. You'd almost never know a pheasant had died on it.

I've just spent an hour adding in spam protection to comments on WP with a simple maths question (easier to read than those letters and numbers I never get right first time). That was the simple bit, the hard bit was adding in a preview of the comment. I tried the plugin dad had, didn't work. So I gave up and tried a different one, which still didn't work. So then I tried another one that worked perfectly first time. And then I discovered my keyboard had gone American in Firefox. Which is a bit bizarre.

I decided, that since listening to audio plays is helpful for my driving (or having a passenger works too) that something that beams it to the radio would be useful, since it's just become legal. And then I'd need a bigger mp3 player, since 256mb won't hold very many hours. I can't find reviews of these things at all, but play.com is doing 1gb for £17 (and in pink) and amazon does the transmitter for £2. So it all sounds good from the price (and colour) point of view.

Ooh, we've won our Davis Cup tie. Which I entirely forgot to watch.

My oat matzo is actually ok. It falls apart something chronic when spreading it, which is a pain. And it's dry, but a different dryness to ordinary matzo, which I could eat without anything on it. The oat matzo I had to add chocolate spread after half a one with only butter. And my soup was largely matzo because it disintegrated in that too. Since next year's Passover is nowhere near Easter, when I'll be at Eastercon, it's just as well it's alright really.

I enjoyed tonight's Doctor Who:
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