I'm going for a theme with my LJ icons. Also, it makes them multi-use. I did one a while ago with Harry Sullivan, Harry Pearce and Harry Potter:

Now I've done Jack Meadows, Jack O'Neill and Jack Harkness:

and Sam Carter, Sam Gamgee and Sam Beckett:

I had a really surreal moment at the end of The Bill last night when, in the trailer for next week, I could have sworn I saw Tommy Knight (Luke in SJA, although I was too tired to remember the actor's name at the time). I contemplated rewinding - I don't watch live because I refuse to watch adverts. I've been on The Bill website a lot recently to try and learn some of the names because I don't recognise most of the regulars any more, so I know they don't have credits or tell you about the guest stars (not when they're not that big, anyway). But what I did find were more trailers and clear evidence that it is Tommy Knight 30 seconds into this video and a photo that tells me he's playing Greg. Although I am more excited that Terry was in it - I hadn't seen him yet, so I didn't quite believe the website when they said he was still in it.

I am enjoying The Bill at the moment, despite its lack of theme tune and pullover, and I am getting used to the incidental music. I can even name some of the new characters. Not that I can necessarily recognise them first off, mind you, even though they have their names on their uniforms these days...

I stopped watching in June 2005, I discovered from looking through my blog. And started again in October 2009. Thanks to the magic of YouTube I've been watching some old stuff and I can honestly that what I've missed has been utter rubbish, for the most part. And it's obvious from the synopses too, which consist of a lot of sentences about the character's personal lives back then. These days it's a couple of sentences about the crime, which is what I'm watching for. I don't mind them having personal lives, as long as it's a background to the crime and isn't the main focus.

Now I might go and put on an early half hour episode from the Volume Two DVD I got for Christmas and see who I recognise...

There is currently snow about. You'd be hard pressed not to miss it - even my parents have had snow. But it's quite amusing.

First, the background. I grew up on the south coast of England where it snowed every three years or so. Although it did, however, completely fail to snow while I was at uni - except in the Christmas of my first year where it snowed at home and nowhere else. Until last winter I'd never seen the snow stay around for more than a day. Until this winter and one a few years ago, I'd never seen it start to snow and settle during the day. So I was a bit startled before Christmas when it did just that, it was really slippery and I vowed never to drive in snow again.

Cut to this winter. There are quite a lot of people at work who, at the mention of snow, get all excited. They were rather less excited after the sudden snow we had before Christmas, mind you, but they're back to being yay about snow again.

Yesterday it started snowing about 5pm, so although I did drive home in it, it wasn't really any different from driving in rain. It was forecast to get heavier and it did. We cancelled our Rotaract cheese and wine planning meeting for the second time for the same reason. So everywhere was a bit white this morning.

But it is just ordinary snow. Walking to the station this morning to get the bus was pretty easy because people had already walked along the pavements and flattened all the snow. So I reckon, looking at the height of the bits people have walked on and comparing it to the bits people haven't, that we've got about two inches. The most snow I've ever seen was last January, which was more than that.

The main roads are fine, just slushy at the edges. The minor roads are snowy, but really slushy where enough people have driven. So understandably the bus was 35mins late. And then he didn't drive that fast because the slush isn't great to drive on. The route does go through a village and coming out of that onto the main road the bus did go sideways. I was just glad I wasn't driving.

So I got to work 45mins late to find that no one else in my office was there. One of them lives not far from me and hadn't come in because she reckoned the roads were impassable. Someone else hadn't come in because they didn't believe the bus company's website when they said they were running the buses until 7pm and she thought they'd leave her stranded. (Amusingly, the bus that runs between home and work stops at 6.53 usually...)

Given that I'm the one least used to snow, I can't believe how wet they're all being. I left early because I had loads of overtime to take and had failed to take any of it on Monday or Tuesday. The roads were much better and because there was no traffic and the bus was on time, I had the fastest bus journey home I've ever had. I'm waiting to see how many people bother to make it tomorrow now.

The best part is that I bought some really big, thick gloves from Primark at Christmas (for a whole £3) and although I can't do a thing with my hands while I'm wearing them, they do keep my hands lovely and warm. I was also wearing my fencing socks on top of my usual socks, my walking boots (waterproof and good grip), my tracksuit bottoms on top of my work trousers, three jumpers and two hoods and a hat on my head. The only part of me that was cold was my feet and part of that was because they were really stuffed into my shoes so I couldn't really feel them anyway.

I am going to bed really. I just got used to going to bed about 11pm ish and waking up at 9am ish. I just have to get used to getting up at 7.30am when it is dark and cold.

First, a toast - to the Professor, since it is Tolkien's birthday.

And a meme from melliyna that looked fun:

Pick a fandom! And then I will say who from the fandom I would...

1. bake cupcakes for:
2. trust with the keys to my car (if I had a car):
3. put thumbtacks* on their chair:
4. have a crush on:
5. pack up and leave if they moved next door:
6. vote for President:
7. pick as my partner in a buddy movie:
8. pair up:
9. vote off the island and into the volcano:
10. wheedle into fixing my MP3 player:

*Bonus question: What's a thumbtack? Is it a drawing pin?

And I didn't write as much this year due to being ill, but I do this every year and it will be interesting to see how it all compares. And since WordPress tells you the number of words in a post, I can easily tell how many words each story has. Read more...

Now that the Yuletide authors have been revealed I can reveal that I wrote a 5000 word Press Gang story, Hoops and Bumps. I didn't intend to write any full length treats because I knew I wouldn't have time. But while I was writing this one I had some Spike and Lynda banter I couldn't fit into the story, but wanted to use. So I made a story out of it and ended up with 1003 words for selenay936: Memories Are Not Made of This. I had wanted to write some short stuff on Christmas Eve, but I was just too tired and work had been too busy and I didn't have the energy or time.

Although I didn't mean to, I managed to read everything I wanted to in the archive on 30th December and therefore two days before the author reveal (as that was quite late yesterday). In the past couple of years I've done a recs list of everything I've read and enjoyed (and therefore commented on) but it was just never going to happen this year. But I have already reviewed nine (I think it was nine) stories for Sel's site.

And on a completely different subject, I took some photos of the cat (the first three of these). He is very sweet and a complete idiot.

I think there were other things I've been meaning to blog about, but I'm buggered if I can remember what they might have been.

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I thought this last week would be quite quiet, I'd get lots of things done... I don't know why I thought that. It didn't help that I kept waking up at 6am - except on Friday when I woke up at 5am. Monday it snowed during the day, and I was sick of waiting in the freezing cold for a freezing cold bus and getting home half an hour later than I would have if I'd driven, so I drove to work on Monday. I contemplated leaving my car at work, but decided to drive home. It was the scariest thing I'd ever done - not helped by two police cars and two ambulances going past me in the opposite direction with their blue lights flashing. They couldn't go above 20mph the same as the rest of us, though, so the blue flashing lights didn't exactly do them much good.

But now I know what it's like, I won't be driving in the snow again. But I'd only ever seen it snow and settle during the day once before, so I assumed it was a freak event and it would just go back to snowing in the night again. But I also live further North than I grew up, and there it snows every year, which I find utterly ridiculous weather, but moving back South would mean I was living far from anywhere, so I supposed I'm stuck with it. If the Gulf Stream ever goes away, we're seriously buggered.

On the plus side, I have a week off work and it is now Boxing Day, which is miles better than Christmas Day. Except that for some strange reason all the good TV is on on New Years Day.

And I have a Yuletide fic! The site's really slow, so it's best visited in the mornings before the Americans get up, but it's a Quantum Leap fic: Returning Home and Meeting Memories for the First Time. Reading through the rest of the archive is taking time, not just because of the slowness, but also because I find the contrast between the text and the background gives me a headache. But fortunately, the other week I came across a site called Readability, where you can decide what you want the page to look like, then create a bookmarklet. So all I have to do, once the fic is loaded, is press on the bookmark, then hey, presto, I can read it! And to think that when I found it I never thought it would be useful...

Which I've been meaning to write for the past week...
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From today's advent calendar at The Sarah Jane Smith Wardrobe Appreciation Society
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Now that we've had ten (ish, since two of them were stuck together) episodes of Stargate Universe, I thought I'd demonstrate just how crap I am at working out people's names in TV programmes. Although, it has to be said the Confidential-type programme after the first (two) episode(s) helped a lot.

There might be spoilers below for the episodes that have been shown. Read more...

I am so busy at the moment, it's crazy. Yesterday at work was terrible - I worked straight through lunch and didn't leave till late. Today I didn't think it would be quite so busy. I did get a lunch break, but didn't quite manage to start on today's work until 4pm and then left late. Tomorrow I have so much to do I can't see how I'm going to start on tomorrow's work. Then I'm off on Friday and Monday and going to the Balance Clinic on Tuesday afternoon. Which means the only way I can get tomorrow's work done in time is going to be to do it at the weekend, I think. Everyone else is busy at work too. The only good thing is that at least there are only two weeks left after this one.

I'm still catching up with stuff I need to do at home after spending my week off ill. I got really anxious about Yuletide and wrote the first draft while I had a really bad cold and felt awful. Which is something I've learnt to do from being ill for so long, it's just something I'd rather not do until I have to. And then I had to work hard to get it into something vaguely readable. Tonight I managed v3 - of 5500 words! I should just have to read it through a couple more times, then it can go to beta. Which is good because I need to get it out of the way so I can do betaing, treats and my TR secret santa. And maybe catch up on my viewing.

This would be me not working on Yuletide, but it's all ISIHAC's fault. They mentioned the rhyme, I remembered it from Brownies, I had to look it up and it all went downhill from there. There were various funny songs I remember from Brownies, usually based on another song, or just using the tune. Here are a selection: Read more...

44.96 / 50kg (90%)

There were all these things I was going to do with my week off (apart from watch/listen to a lot of tennis). I knew I'd be fine because I'd get a lot of sleep and wouldn't have to do much.

At least, that was the theory. In practise yesterday's random asthma has turned into a cold and sore throat. I don't have a blocked up nose, but the rest of me feels bad enough to make up for it.

So everything will have to be wait and I'm just hoping I'll feel well enough to go to Collectormania on Saturday, not least because I've paid for some bits of it already. I really wish I was the sort of person that sleeps when they're ill, because at least then I wouldn't feel like this.

My week off means posting more often, now that I have nothing better to do apart from watch tennis. And do all the other things I need to get done this week (Yuletide, Ch secret santa, baking, Rotaract stuff...).

I got to thinking last night about how people use their journals/blogs mostly because I keep coming across people who use it completely different to me.

Personally, I post everything in my blog (which is so much better to post to than the LJ/DW interface) and have a plug-in that crossposts to Livejournal and Dreamwidth, so people who want to read on those sites rather than by RSS feed can do so. On the extremely rare occasion I post something I don't want the whole world to see (which is usually a rant about something/something specific and I don't want them to happen upon it), then I password protect it on my blog and friends lock it on my LJ and DW. Anyone can ask for the password and if you look back in my blog carefully enough (or use the search, it's pretty good) you can find the password.

When it comes to reading, I read everything, no matter what site it's on, by RSS Feed. It means I don't see LJ cuts and I can mark things as unread if I haven't got time to read them at the moment. Or I can mark things as read without reading them if I know I'm not interested or know I'm not going to get time to read. I also don't have to try and remember where I got to, like you do on the LJ friends page.

My LJ friends list is a copy of all the people I'm reading by RSS Feed. If I stop reading I take them off and if I start reading I add them on. I never use filters because I personally feel like that's lying to people about whether you're reading them or not. I sort of expect other people to do the same thing - so if they have me friended then they're reading me, and it annoys me when they defriend me the minute I defriend them - it feels as if they're too much of a coward to take me off their list before I do.

Dreamwidth is a bit different because on that one I allow access to everyone that has friended me on LJ but i haven't friended back. That way they can see my friends entries, but I'm not reading their journal, and they know I'm not. I am subscribed to a few people on DW that I'm not on LJ because they're the ones I'm occasionally interested in reading and I read my DW list on the site every few days ish. Course, that system falls down rather a lot because a lot of people have accounts at DW but aren't posting there.

To conclude: My LJ friends list is nothing more than a reading list and the word friend is a misnomer.

So, how do you use yours?*

*I know it's not Easter, but I haven't had a Cadbury's Creme Egg since 2004 and I don't watch adverts

It's that time of year again... Well, it's a new time of year. This is the first year the ATP tour final (formerly known as the Masters series final) has been held in London. So, we went yesterday afternoon. As a result I feel terrible today while not lying down, but I have the week off, and anyway, it was worth it.

We saw Nestor and Zimonjic play a Polish pair I've never heard of, can't spell and certainly can't pronounce. They're ranked 8, so they're the lowest ranked pair in there. It was a bit odd because they played a variation, so when it got to deuce whoever won the next point won. And if they won a set each they'd play a tie-break, but to 10 points. It made it very quick, but it felt like it all turned on those deuce points because the Polish pair broke once per set on those points. But it was a good match and now I'm reduced to seeing the rest of the doubles matches online.

We had half an hour's break after that and then there were a lot fewer empty seats for Murray's match. This was back to usual point scoring and because they spend a lot more time than the doubles per point, made it seem really slow. The doubles match was an hour long, this one was two and a half. But it was a battle and Del Potro played well, apart from in the middle of the first set and towards the end of the third. That was a good match too, but we really wanted it to end because the seats just go so uncomfortable after sitting in them for the best part of five hours, I was really dizzy and it was really hot in there, which didn't help.

But we had a good view, even though we were near the back. People at work were trying to tell me we wouldn't be able to see a thing, but it was no different from being at the back of Centre Court.

And there are photos, some of which are a bit blurry because they're all taken with the flash off and the lighting was terrible (really bright on the court and we couldn't see a thing, which made eating lunch interesting).

I keep meaning to update more often but I'm just so unmotivated by everything at the moment. I think all that time reading and watching videos and not doing a lot else and I've got used to it. But there isn't nothing on tonight (I'm most upset that The Bill's off for Celebrity nonsense), so I am determined to do something constructive with my evening.

In Yuletide news I am currently reviewing the source material in the hopes that I might manage a plot at the end of it. I'm quite excited about what I'm writing and it helps that my recipient likes a lot of the same things that I do. I'm hoping that writing that will help remind me about the whole doing something constructive thing.

It's Children in Need tomorrow, so it's guaranteed to rain, since it's not that cold. Normally I'd be running around in the road with a bucket before work, but I'm not well enough to do that, so I am counting money after work instead. I don't think I can quite cope with the idea of not doing something for Children in Need any more.

I'm having a week off work next week, which I will mostly be spending listening to the tennis, since the BBC aren't showing much. I was very excited by a twitter post of Andy Murray's today because he revealed that he's playing Sunday afternoon and that's when I'm going. We're further back than we were for the gymnastics, so expect pictures of ant-sized people.

I am most distressed my today's paper when they announced they are discontinuing the Technology section in the Guardian. I liked it best when it was the Online section with the Science section inside, but it's still been worth buying the paper once a week for it. Without it there'll be no reason to buy the paper any more - and I don't like reading the paper online, it's not the same. These days I tend to get my news from Radio 5 on the way home from work.

I've been wanting to write about this for ages, but wanted to wait until I had the complete story first.

Back in January, once I'd settled in, I remembered that the last time I moved the water company insisted on installing a water meter, on the basis that I'd just moved in. I didn't get as far as ringing them up about it before they sent me a letter. So that was all good because it costs a whole lot less to have a water meter.

So a man came round, handily the day I had off before I went to Redemption. He told me there was already a meter there, it just needed connecting. It all went a bit downhill from there... Read more...

Dear Yuletide Writer

First of all, feel free to ignore anything I’ve said in the prompts. If you can write any of those then that’ll be great, but they’re mostly just what I’d most prefer to get. At the end of the day I’d far rather get something you're proud of than something you’re less happy with but fits in with what I’ve put down. Feel free to add in any other characters you like to these prompts - as long as the one(s) I've requested are in there, you can bring in to the story whoever else you like. There aren't any characters in these fandoms that I dislike.

Generally speaking, I love stories that have an emotional punch in some way. Whether it makes me laugh, cry, be happy, be all gooey inside, be shocked etc. What particularly fascinates me, as you might have gathered from my prompts, are relationships between characters, whether they’re romantic or not. I don't mind whether you write something shippy or gen for any of the prompts, so long as you stick to canonical ships. I’d just rather not have any sex above a PG-13 rating.

If you're writing for one of the British TV show prompts and you're not British, then please get your fic Brit-picked. There's nothing likely to annoy me more than characters being out of character because they're speaking American English when they should be speaking British English.

If you want to do more research then my fic recs can be found at this site. There are recs from a few people on there, mine are the ones that say they are recced by Paranoidangel.

Just a few notes about the prompts: Read more...