Bit of an odd day. Woke up with one of those niggling, hard-to-shift headaches that left me feeling spacey and detached to the extent I got lost in the contemplation of bare tree branches against a clear blue sky. True, I normally find that one of the prettiest sights ever anyway, but given my brain-state this morning they were indescribably beautiful. Still, I managed to maintain the integrity of my personality enough to get on with the things I had to, like picking up my book lay-by! It's taken me 2 months to pay them off but now I finally have Anatomy for the Artist and National Geographic Greatest Portraits in my covetous clutches. Yeah! Beautiful books, too. I will insist the cubs wash their hands before touching these ones. : )

Managed to pay off the cubs' library fines yesterday so we can borrow again. They got a Garfield book each, and I got a copy of Order of the Phoenix and The Years of Rice and Salt. I'm reading OotP first (Ootp! Sounds like an owl spitting!) cos I may as well read it while the rest of them are still fresh in my mind. It's much darker than the others, isn't it? Not sure I'm enjoying it as much either, but, having read a lot of Snape-slash before reading the majority of the series I find I have an interesting slant on the text. Hee.

I attended the Turning of the Sod ceremony at the cubs' school today. It was very low-key despite a couple of news crews in attendance. There were a number of people in suits wandering about amongst the parent-guests, important people, apparently, government ministers and such, but I didn't recognise any of them. But anyway, after a few mercifully short speeches (kept even shorter cos the public-address thingy was squealy with feedback) a spadeful of earth was dug up and turned over. And that was it. Woohoo. Then a jacaranda sapling was planted in commemoration of the event, but across the way in the 'native plant walk' and not in sod-turning area which was a bit silly in my view cos they had the makings of a perfectly good hole right there. Oh well...
I stayed around long enough at the afternoon tea to get a cup of coffee and a couple of biscuits before deciding that was it. By then it felt like I'd been on my feet all day, I still had a wee bit of shopping to pick up and the spaceiness had transmuted into a desperate need for a nap. Besides, the cubs' father was picking them up after school so I didn't have to hang around.
I was still asleep when the cubs' got home and I missed the 30 second grab at the end of the news about the ceremony but I'm sure I'll manage somehow to get on with my life despite the loss. <hand to forehead> Oh yes, spacey and snarky - it doesn't get better than this. <g>

Aaaand chapter 15 is finished. Quite quickly, actually.
Bit of a dilemma coming up though. SFSG is about a *cough* adult movie actress so naturally the story will every so often get a bit... lemony. Now, how much detail do I need to go into? Quite a lot in parts I should think - 'artistic merit' an' all that - but then there are ways and ways of dealing with lemons. I suppose the best thing to do at the moment is just write they way I want to then later the text can be pulled back (or expanded) as necessary.
But still... 15 chapters, eh? Hee. : )

Finished reading the 4th Harry Potter book. I certainly enjoyed it but I had a couple of little quibbles. The biggest one was not being able to escape the feeling that 'magic' is the biggest, easiest plot-device ever. Got a bit of a tricky situation in the plot? Gosh look, there's a handy charm. Hm. However, Rowling did manage to give reasonable explanations for the things that made me go "...'kin what?!" and that is why my quibbles aren't big ones.
She's not the most sophisticated of writers but I do like the way she's moved from the simplistic plots of the 1st couple of books to the later deeper, layered ones. I've really been enjoying that.
Heh, now if I can pay off the cubs' library fines I'll be able to borrow the 5th book, then hopefully when I've finished reading that a copy of the 6th will be available. That's one good thing about avoiding a series for years, you can read it all together...

<sigh> So many more channels available on cable, so much less that I'm interested in.
Except for Mew Mew Power, which is starting this weekend on Nickelodeon. Yay! Magical girls! Yes, I know it'll be the bastardised kiddy-safe version butbutbut catgirls! With magical powers and secret identities!
Ah, I'm easily pleased. <g>

Is it Fireman Sam or Postman Pat who lives in Pontypandy? I can't remember...

I'm half-way through the 4th Harry Potter novella.
I say 'novella' with heavy irony, you understand, the thing's weighty enough to hurt my hands when I'm holding it.
It's a good and enjoyable story - Joules and Soulsis are definitely right, the books do get better as you go on. I'm particularly enjoying the wider view of the Wizarding world, and now some of those fanfics are beginning to make sense. It's good to see minor characters gaining some depth, too, though our hero doesn't seem to be making that much progress. Eh, he's 13, what am I expecting?

Chapter 15 is probly half-way done as well. I'm covering another lot of bits that have been written in my head for ages which just makes me impatient to get it all out. <g>

One of eBay's best features is the 'watch list'. Everything I see that makes me go ooooh is whacked in there straight away. Then I can keep an eye on it - without having to bid - while deciding if I really truly want it, or can afford it. It's great for curbing that pesky impulse bidding, something that's caused me a fair few heart failures in the past.

This coming Friday the school is having a 'Turning of the sod' ceremony to signal the start of rebuilding. <smirk> You can imagine what sort of images that phrase conjures up for me - can't help sniggering every time I hear it. But it's a relief to know that the new school is finally getting started, I think it's not just me that's fed up with the portable classrooms.

Keep forgetting to say that the cub's elbow is fine now, thanks for the enquiries. : ) He wore the sling to school the next day though that was more to stop him wrecking his shoulder from trying to hold his arm at a particular angle all the time. The day after that he was practically back to normal, didn't even need any paracetamol.
This was the same cub that got whacked in the face with a rounders bat. <sigh> Wondering what's next...

Yay! Alarice is back in Melbourne! For a few weeks at least. Hopefully we'll be able to catch up soon.

The next Harry Potter book is being released here tomorrow. I plan to stay away from anywhere that has even the hint of a possibility of a bookshop. I'm sure the news tomorrow night will be full of images of children in capes and dodgy plastic glasses clutching (or staggering under the weight, perhaps?) of the next instalment. Then I'll wait for the furore to die down in a week or two then go and get my own copy. Heh, or buy a copy for Soulsis cos she's lent me all of hers. That way I don't have to try and find room for it on my own shelves. A cunning plan, eh?

Can't remember where I found this results of a photoshop contest link. The specifications were to create a chimera, a creature comprising bits from 3 or 4 different animals and to make it as seamless as possible. The idea was to get a realistic, naturalist shot. (... or is that sposed to be naturist? Tch, can't remember which one means frolicking about with your gear off...) Some of the results managed to be disturbing and amusing.

I had planned on going to see Kingdom of Heaven tonight, but it came down to squeeing quietly to myself for almost 3 hours or being able to afford food next week.
Hopefully I'll be able to catch it somewhere else, and anyway I'm sure the DVD will be out soon. Then I'll be able to do lots of freezeframes to pick up those fiddly costuming details. : )

And chapter 14 is finished and I'm past the seventy-thou word count! <happy dance> Given the way this thing is expanding like proving bread I'm not even going to speculate what the final count will be!

Back months ago when I decided I'd had enough of shared households and wanted it to be just the cubs and myself I set about replacing my old Blue Willow pattern crockery with something else. I was so over blue and white, doncha know. Over the next few months I collected a variety of very pretty green and purple crockery from different sources but, like so much of my 'glory box' items they had to be packed away.
I think that desire to get rid of everything and start afresh was tied in with the whole not wanting to be where I was mindset, but now that time has moved along and I'm no closer to moving out I've had a rethink about things, specifically the Willow pattern crockery. I like it, looking at it makes me happy and I don't really want to use something else. But what about all that other stuff I bought? It won't go to waste, when I've got space/a place of my own it'll come out of the boxes but I don't think I'll be using it all that often. The reason is that all the green/purple pieces are stoneware rather than porcelain. Stoneware glazes sit on the surface of the item and are ridiculously easy to chip, unlike porcelain which is an inherently stronger material anyway and the designs are bonded to the surface. Yes you can get an amazing array of colours with stoneware but what's the point if you can knock bits of the glaze off with just a light bump against a hard surface?
I bought my 8 place setting Blue Willow crockery 20ish years ago, when I first started working and it's lasted in good condition. Sure a couple of the dinner plates have broken, as have most of the sandwich plates and half of the bowls but it's never chipped. And I can find replacement pieces for everything except the pasta bowls at my local supermarket. Which is what I'm going to do now - gradually replace the broken bits and bring the set back up to its original number. : )
Now if I can just find somewhere that stocks the pasta bowls I'll be laughing...

The cubs have been intently browsing the new Lego catalogue, commenting hopefully about the things they'd like. Heh.

Chapter 14 is progressing nicely. One of the trickier things I'm having to negotiate with SFSG is avoiding the use of terran-centric words and terms. It can be really awkward. Early on I realised there was a whole range of adjectives I couldn't use - chocolate, coffee, creamy, milky etc; - because those substances don't exist in this worldframe. Well, not under those names, anyway.
I thought I was pretty good at finding alternatives for terran terms, I'd had practise in the Alliance Chronicles after all, but I was still surprised at just how much of my vocabulary I was using without thought. I'm more careful now though at times it's a real headache trying to find a different word for a common item. Eh, I'll manage, I'm sure... : )

<happy squeak> The Golden Arches of Doom in the US is having another run of Neopets! I've seen the list of critters for the 2005 release. I want the kugras! And the meercas! I'm really hoping they'll be released down here. Can't see why not, the last lot did astonishingly well. I'll just have to be patient I spose.

Caught the tail-end of a program on (our) ABC this evening - a weekly half-hour show about collectors and collections. The subject today was wooden toys and I made the cubs shush while I was watching. Some of the older toys were works of art - not complicated in form at all, but the craftsmanship that had gone into them was fabulous. A lot of the 'minimalist' animal figures were bordering on the totemic and I was itching to play with them. I like wooden toys, I always have. I used to have some that my grandfather made for me and I played with them for years. I don't know where they've gone, alas. You can still find wooden toys about but the quality of materials and workmanship varies I've noticed, as does price. I think they're more versatile than the majority of mass-produced plastic toys. Think of wooden blocks, they can extend a child's imagination because they're not fixed in form, they can become whatever the child makes them. Unlike things like the Hot Wheels playsets, which present one scenario, no matter how whizz-bang it looks. Steiner schools use this minimalist principle in all their toys, deliberately keeping everything as simple as possible to encourage a child to use their imagination. (I used to think the dolls, with their pinpoint dots for eyes and mouths were kind of creepy but, without the fixed and painted smiles common to other main-stream dolls they allow you to project any sort of emotion on them.)
So anyway, looking at these beautiful toys made me want to try woodworking for the first time. <g> I'll add it to the list...

(Heh, and the number of posts here has jumped from 1242 to 1410. Tch, the counter really should be updated more regularly.)

Right, wot a day it's been, eh?
Chapter 13 is finished (hoorah!) and chapter 14's been started. Hee, and now I have an excuse to go browsing internet porn, it's called research.
<shifty> Not that I do much of that normally you understand. Moving right along...

The M cub fell over at lunchtime today and whacked his elbow. By the time I picked them up he was complaining about the pain. Didn't stop him wanting to see Revenge of the Sith again though.
It's not that I was bored, exactly, but I managed to have a lovely nap during the first part of the movie. I woke up in time to catch Kenobi's final duel with Grievous, one of my favourite bits. Getting past the whole 'plot device' grimble with Grievous I can now appreciate just how good his design is. And Kenobi, well, I'm liking his character more and more - I think Eyecandy McDrooly did a splendid job.
What are those feathered lizard called? It's fantastically sure-footed and absolutely fearless! Did you see the places it was venturing at Kenobi's bidding? Not being forced to it either, simply leaping off the edge with a lizardy 'wah-haay! <g>
'3PO still annoys me, he has a 'glib assurance' subset to his programming. In the distance we can see that something has obviously gone horribly wrong at the temple and what does he say to Padme after he tells her Anipoohs is over there? "Don't worry - I'm sure he'll be all right." Tch. Protocol droids.
And finally... That flower-filled coffin was very Lady of Shalott, wasn't it?

By the time we got home the injured cub had a thumping headache, not helped, I'm sure, by his insisting we sit right up in the front row to watch the movie. Anyway, gave him some paracetamol and his father (the health professional) checked him over and strapped up his elbow - and put his arm in a sling, very exciting - while I dug something icy out of the freezer. Rest Ice Compression and Elevation, of course.
There's some swelling and he doesn't have a lot of range of movement in the joint at the moment but I think if it was something serious the paracetamol wouldn't be working as well as it is. I could be wrong. We'll see how he is in the morning.

Joules has been finding the time to do some drawing and so far she's produced three sketches of the new AC's version of Vejiita, Raditz and Zha'haabron. Good sketches, too, despite her worries about not having drawn anything for ever such a long time.
The new charas are markedly different, physically, from the originals but it's going to work well. The tweaks to the species are interesting and plausible and open things up for us to have even more fun with them! : )

Even being as close to a major city as we are, there's lots to see in a clear night sky. The Southern Cross, and the Pointers, are always there but at this time of the year the constellation of Scorpio is clearly visible. Orion and Taurus can be seen during the Summer, but that makes sense given that Taurus and Scorpio are opposite each other. At various times of the year it's easy to pick out Venus, and Mars, Betelgeuse, and of course the intense spot of light that's the International Space Station. If you look up at the right moment you can see one of the satellites zipping across the sky in an arrow-straight line, very cool...

This is a conversation one of the cubs had with his father yesterday - as reported by his dad.

M cub: Do you like John Howard? I don't like him.
Dad: I'm not overly impressed with him, no.
M cub [thoughtful]: I think Optimus Prime would make a better Prime Minister...

<g> He's probly right, OP at least genuinely has his people's well-being at heart.

Can't remember where I found this.
Superman is a Dick. Go browse the Galleries, especially 'Confounding Comic Covers' and 'Seduction of the Innocent'. <smirk> Very very funny.

And here's a recent quote from a Planarchy for the UK post:

"... I'm just rambling on because it's raining and I can't go out and take the pictures I wanted to (again). So, terrorists won't stop us from going about our business but the rain might. That is, I think, quite British after all."

: )
(Quoted without permission, by the way.)

I slept in this morning cos I wanted to continue my dream.
Someone - alternately me, or me watching them - who felt they had nothing to lose, nothing to live for, impulsively steals an experimental Exo-suit (ala Bubblegum Crisis). While using it almost kills the person through overloading their nervous system the suit's AI bonds with them and essentially becomes a life-support. The bond is physical and permanent. The pair try to avoid capture while testing the suit's limits and the user's self-destructive fatalism is gradually replaced with a desire to experience as much as possible. It's a more insidious form of self-destruction as it involves knowingly putting herself in high-risk situations, but, oh, the rush.
The suit's creator catches up with them but instead of handing them over - the suit is a government project, terribly original, I know - decides to help hide them cos, as she sees it, it's a perfect opportunity to study and test her creation...
I woke up reading some of the manga panels in my mind. Neat, eh? : ) I've had a good run with dreams recently. Must be getting enough sleep for a change.

And chapter 13 is half-way finished! Now the fun begins.

I woke up this morning to the sound of gentle rain, and the realisation that the washing line was full of stuff that shouldn't be out there getting wet. Tch. All of the cubs' uniform bits were washed and dried a fortnight ago so all I have to do is make sure there's enough underwear and socks ready. Golly, what an interesting way to spend the weekend.

I'm constantly astonished at how pointless the online TV guides are. The 'search engines' are laughable, the search parameters confounding. I think the assumption's made that you're a regular viewer so you have some idea where to look but just trying to perform what you'd think was a simple search to see if a particular program is listed is frustrating. And then there's the 'block programs', things like The Big Cheez which goes for an hour and a half in the mornings showing cartoons but nowhere does it list what those cartoons are. <grump> Might have to resort to actually reading a TV magazine...

(<g> The cubs are watching the Spongebob movie in Dutch again, though with English subtitles this time. Dutch sounds close to German, close enough for me to think I recognise some of it but be stymied by the context. : ) [Did you know that stymied is a golfing term meaning 'A situation ... in which an opponent's ball obstructs the line of play of one's own ball on the putting green. (Dictionary.com.) Online dictionaries are just as much fun as paper ones!] What was I talking about? Ah yes... And last night we all watched 'Totoro' in Japanese without subtitles - cos this copy Soulsis leant us didn't have any - but the characters are so expressive there was hardly any need for them. : )

Being one to always want to try new things, yesterday I bought a different type of toothpaste from a health-food store. Actually, I thought it was the same one I tried years ago, a bicarb powder product, but it wasn't. Still comes in a little bottle rather than a tube, but it's a bicarb paste this time. Interesting taste though, it uses extract of stevia as a sweetener and it doesn't burn like (hygiene!) the regular toothpastes. Plus the container can be used for something else instead of going straight into the bin. Re-usable packaging, always a bonus.

K-mart is having their 1/2 yearly toy sale with accompanying no-deposit, you've-got-until-Xmas-to-pay-it-off lay-by. The catalogue's misleading though. It doesn't say the special lay-by conditions only apply to toys, you only find that out when you go to the store and try to lay-by a digital camera. Bit miffed, frankly. I could just about justify buying a digicam if I'd had 6 months to pay it off. Oh well.

(<blink> Now I'm just confused. The cubs' are watching the movie in Deutsche, which as we cosmopolitan types all know is German, but... the subtitles are also in Deutsche, apparently, but I recognise even less of the words there than I'm hearing. Comparing the structures of the vocal and written sentences I'm getting even more confused. I know German grammar is torturous, what with the verbs all bunged up at the end of the sentence, but this makes no sense. I wonder if the subbed German version is different from the dubbed version? Wouldn't be the first time, happens a lot in anime with the English sub/dubs after all, why would German be any different? Ack, no, on only one cup of coffee it hurts too much to contemplate. I'll think of something else, but not how appalling my German comprehension must actually be to mistake it for Dutch...!)

The new bus route is very handy, it goes past two decent op-shops and Niki's place! Which means I can just hop on a bus and go rather than having to take one bus to the nexus then take a different one out. It also means the cubs and I can get to and from Niki's easily under our own steam if we can't get a lift.

The fluffy bunny's a sneaky cow. A couple of days ago I wanted to listen to something while I sewed but wasn't sure what. Eventually chose the Moulin Rouge soundtrack but it wasn't until I got to the fabulously soppy 'Come What May' duet I realised the fluffy bunny had influenced my choice. Tch. Better keep an eye on her or I'll be buying a copy of 'Ghost' before I know it...

24 hours after the event my Mum finally got in contact with her brother's family. Brian works in London - his company's headquarters is practically on top of one of the bomb sites, apparently - but he usually drives to work, and yesterday he was in Kent anyway. Likewise none of my cousins work in London anymore so they're all in the clear as well. Big sighs of relief I can tell you - Mum was very quietly having conniptions though she assumed she hadn't been able to get through because of the disruption to the phone network.

On a weirder note:
Woke up blinking from last night's dream. I was about to enter a sub/dom relationship with someone I used to work with. Pushy little uke too, with plans to introduce me at 'Court'. Still, it's nice to know someone fancies you in some fashion. (Heh, and just remembered I was going to take 'Lady Jacqueline' as my moniker. No idea why. )

Oh good gods, they've rereleased The Smurfs figurines. Oddly enough I'm not the least bit tempted. Does this mean I've grown-up or something?
... nah.

Cubs are back to school on Monday. This hasn't felt like much of a break at all. Oh well, at least I've managed a sleep-in most mornings. : )

Re: the problems in London... We've been flicking around the free-to-air stations for the past little while, just to see what's being broadcast. ABC has a live, continuous feed; channel 7 has much the same; channel 10 is showing Law & Order, (or something else with people in court, in suits); and channel 9, true to form, is playing 'The Footy Show' <rolls eyes>.
( <snerk> The cubs' father has just pointed out how big the ears are of the G8 members. My gods, look at Putin's! Wonder if there's a connection between big ears and megalomanic tendencies? Hm...)

But anyway...
The cubs and I had a good - I keep going to say 'weekend', but of course it's not, it's mid-week - time at Mum's. She drove down to pick us up and as always I drove back. We got to Mum's in time for a late lunch then the cubs and I shot off down to the village. Well, I shot off down to the village, and the cubs of necessity came with me. Why was I so keen to get down there? I wasn't sure what time the op-shop closed. : ) Had a good, long browse and found 4 interesting garments to add to the fabric stash, foremost of which was a Thai silk skirt. Oooh, pretty! Almost didn't pick it up, Autumn tones are generally not my bag, baby, but I'm glad I did. Hand-washed the skirt and though it was filthy it's come up a treat. Panels of rich, dark reds and golds and a vibrant brown - 'vibrant' being a word I hadn't previously associated with brown - in subtle, geometric patterns. That'll do nicely for the planned wall-hanging.
The cubs played happily in the park for a little while before they were dragged away so I could go and visit the patchwork shop. How they suffer, my children... I found some pure-wool felt! Exactly what I needed for my Balian plushie! Hahah! Ostensibly it was quite expensive but given it's 180cm width instead of the 90cm of the very cheap but truly awful viscose-felt, and 1/4 metre was more than enough, not that expensive after all. : )

On Wednesday we took a drive out to the Tarago River Cheese Factory only to find it's now closed to the public. Bit of a bummer considering it had taken us an hour to get out there but even so it was a lovely drive. We passed through dim eucalypt forests and over sunny-hill tops, and took our lives in our hands on some of the curves on the road. Not saying that I was driving recklessly but some of the people coming the other way...? (Tch. Just cos the speedlimit on a narrow, sharply winding road that skirts a steep drop is 100 km doesn't mean to say it's safe to drive at that speed.)
On the way back to Powell Town, where we planned to have a break, we detoured to see the historic trestle bridge at Noojee. The cubs had a ball tearing back and forth along the top, while I had a ball taking photos with Mum's camera. The structure is 21 metres high but the safety rail is well back from the edge so you don't/can't get any sense of danger. I had to stop the more adventurous cub from trying to climb down the slippery, steep 'track' (looked more like a runnel worn into the clay from rain run-off) running directly beside the bridge, instead of one of the wider, stepped paths that were far safer. He grouched, but I pointed out that a: if he slipped the only thing there to stop his descent would be one of the bridge's wooden supports as he hit it, and b: if he got stuck half-way I couldn't come and rescue him. He gribbled for a bit but stayed away from the path.
Powell Town is very small but gorgeous, even though it's still essentially a logging town. I'd consider moving there, honestly, some of the views of the nearby hills are beautiful, and the solitary fast food/general store/restaurant/cafe sells crunchy cabana! Mmmm... (Cabana is a delicious processed meat thing similar to salami, but when it's been left to hang and dry out a little it becomes crunchy and even more deliciouser. <drooling> The last time I went vegetarian it was crunchy cabana that swayed me back to the dark side. <g> )
Powell Town is also only 15 minutes or so from where Mum is now. Problem is there's no bus line out that way, I'd definitely need a car...

We didn't spend all day out, got back in plenty of time to take the cubs to the park for a little while again. These excursions are necessary cos Mum's unit is tiny and it can get awfully crowded in there with all of us and the cat.

Today, Thursday, I chivvied the cubs into packing their suitcases before we went out in the morning - saves the frantic rush later on before we leave to come home. We drove out to Warburton for the traditional visit to the Patchwork Teahouse and the equally traditional milkshakes for the cubs. Except this time they had lemon and lime spiders. Eh well. I got a couple of pieces of some very pretty fabrics and the perfect pair of wooden handles for my puffer-fish handbag. : )
We went for a shortish amble along the river - <happy sigh> trees, running water, what more could I want? - then into the township to browse the op-shop there. (Found some more fabric, hee. : ) I also found - or rather, Mum spotted and I squealed and pounced upon - a 2nd hand copy of the first book in a crime-fiction series of which I've recently read the 2nd and 3rd books. Pleased about that, now I can find out about the things hinted at later...
It started to rain just as the cubs and I were getting ready to leave Mum's. It'd cleared by the time we get to train station so we didn't get wet. Had a bit of an adventure on the way home though. For starters the bus-bays had been changed around so our bus now picked up somewhere else, and then, after clambering with our luggage on to that bus it appeared we might have got on to the wrong one, anyway. 'twasn't so, the route had been changed recently and we got home without a hitch, perhaps even a few minutes early as the new route seemed to be a little faster...

All in all it was a good, relaxing few days. Mum started sorting through some of her boxes of material while I was there. Fortunately we have disparate tastes in colour and patterns, my Mum and I, so it was only a small stash of fabric I had to squeeze into my suitcase. But I'm going to ignore the teetering pile of material for the moment, need to get back to SFSG and have a go at writing up the ficlet that [pinged] me just before Mum arrived to pick us up. : )

Ah yes, knew there was something else I wanted to mention...

Watched the first 5 episodes of Saiyuki.
It really is just Monkey with guns, isn't it? Though Sanzo is much more of an interesting, kick-arse priest than Tripitaka ever was.
It was bound to happen I guess, coming across an anime that didn't grab me at the outset. Admittedly I was watching the dubbed version - so I could sew - and what a flat dub it was. It picked up a little after the first two eps, as the actors got into character I spose, but it still never quite reached that involving stage. But then, how many dubs do? I've found I can pick up so much more of what's going on by the inflections in the Japanese cast's voices. I did enjoy the banter though, especially between Goku and Gojyo - some of their by-play made me smirk.
Is it just me? Have I been spoilt by things like Last Exile and Wolf's Rain? The animation in Saiyuki was definitely cheesy, saved from being a total waste of time by the more-than-occasional 'frames' of pure, beautifully emotive artistry but the rest didn't impress me. There was a lot of c/p filler (repeated character actions pasted over different backgrounds) and a noticeable amount of that really annoying Hanna Barbera-ist dodge of having a long scene essentially freeze-framed with just a tiny bit of mouth animation to indicate speech. CLAMP isn't so obvious about it, why couldn't this lot be? It just felt like they were trying to save production costs. Using a load of pretty-shiny split-screens and fade-ins/outs didn't improve the overall product either, and it seemed to be out of focus a lot of the time. Or that could've simply been my glasses needing a clean. Some of the angles were just weird. I lost count of how often Sanzo (and others) ended up looking vaguely cross-eyed! <g>

I think this could grow on me, though, there's been hints of angsty background and side stories which are always a magnet for my attention. If it was on telly regularly at a time I could sit and watch no doubt I'd end up addicted to it as I was with DBZ and Ultimate Muscle. I'm not giving up on it entirely though - I'll watch it with subtitles, first, but as it is it's waaaay down low on my list of follow-ups. Glad I got to see it though, thanks, Joules!

Woohoo! Finished all the tacking stitches. The quilt's ready to, well, quilt. : ) And there's only 5 of the individual strips of the other quilt left to pair up (though technically I spose it'll be one pair and one... No, I'm not going to say threesome. I'm not...) before I can start piecing that together. And I had a [ping] for another wall-hanging - silk, this time.
<g> As luck would have it the cubs and I are going up to Mum's for a couple of days which means we could pop into the Patchwork Teahouse to browse the lovely fabrics there...

<snigger> Found this do-it-yourself Romance thing on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books site. Admittedly I tweaked it a little after reading the first result but not a lot. : )

Smart Bitch Madlibs: A Dark and Stormy Tryst.

It was a dark and middling pissing down night at shetland-blunderbuss Manor. Lord shetland-blunderbuss's gaze spent the slim body of the nubile young chit who stood before him. She came in trepidation.
'What is your name, little one?' he gruffed.
'Fufu,' she ratted. Her limpid glittering sapphire eyes clung to his face like a persistent nudibranch, soft yet stinging.
As he gazed at her, a burning sensation shot from his groin to his liver. It may have been chicken pox, but he doubted it. The finest twits in the land had tried their wiles on him, but all had failed. He was far too cynical about women after seeing his mother betray his father time after time again, the purple jade. But this girl's innocence touched him in unexpected ways. His gaze dropped to her pouting ruby footsies.
'Well, Fufu,' he sneered, 'I believe you will get exactly what you were looking for!' With those words, his hands shot out and pulled her to him. She squeaked like a girl in dismay, but her protest soon turned into sighs of pleasure as he ravaged her soft, unpracticed mouth. He ground his hard, aroused body against her hips. He heard her give a shocked gasp, and she hoofed away from his grasp.
'My lord!' she exclaimed. 'Was that your manly... bitter melon I felt?' She blushed furiously. 'I'm afraid that was most improper of you!'
'Oh my dear,' he purred, 'Before the night is through, you will do a lot more than feel the potency of my man-spam!'
'Obesa cantavit,' she cried, before he covered her mouth yet again and overwhelmed her qualms with a melting kiss.

<giggling>
Obesa cantavit is apparently Latin for 'the fat lady has sung' and came from this site helpfully supplied by the Smart Bitches.

Had an interesting dream the other night. Only have fleeting impressions of what was going on - vaguely spy-thrillerish, I think - but the setting was amazing. It was all happening at a train-station on a pier, part of which was a huge domed building. I was looking up at the ceiling, entranced by the visual effects of the contrasting brown and white marble panels way up there shifting in and out of position. Watching it was almost like having vertigo, but in a trippy, nice kind of way. : ) It's not often I have dreams that have a physical effect on me. Always fun when they do...

I had several lovely hours alone today - the cubs' father took them to ScienceWorks and the Planetarium - so I finished watching Drawn Together. <smirk> I really enjoyed it, chortling away to myself. It was less squicky than I thought and very, very clever in places. Xandir was definitely the most sympathetic of the characters, not hindered at all by those thighs and that loin-cloth, though everyone, even Captain Hero, had moments of poignancy. My favourite character however was Ling Ling. Not sure I'd want one of my own, though... : )

Hoorah! Chapter 12, and hence Part 1, is finished! <happy dance> Hee, I have some cider to celebrate. Word count is just a smidge past 63,000! Quite pleased about that. Going to spend a little bit of time now getting my notes in order cos this thing's getting unwieldy enough to need them. Wastes a lot of time having to trawl back trying to find someone's eye colour, let alone trying to remember what I called that insignificant bit of tech mentioned once before in chapter 2... or was it four? <g>

And Joules - with me squeaking excitedly - has been giving more thought to the revised AC. This is a good story and if all goes well we should be able to spend some time exploring plot arcs that were skipped over somewhat in the original. She's currently reworking the Saiya-jin, quite successfully, and we should be able to retain the flavour of them without treading on anyones copyright. Hee, it's fun, we both get a buzz out of this planning/world-building stage of a project. Stay tuned!

D'oh! Almost forgot to mention my own presents today.
Soulsis gave me a couple of danglies she'd made - one had a lovely, curvy dragon pendant, and the other had some Hello Kitty beads! - and a gorgeous clear glass plate with embossed goldfish! So pretty! Thank you, Soulsis. : )
And I got a parcel from Joules. <fuge g> I knew it was on its way and funnily enough, only yesterday, I jokingly mentioned that I hoped it wouldn't turn up today cos could you imagine it? A parcel arrives on the cubs' birthday and it's not for them?
Heh, anyway, the parcel arrived today but I managed to sneak it into the house without the cubs noticing...
<happy squeak> It contained a video copy of Drawn Together that Joules has painstakingly recorded for me over the past several weeks and Volume 1 of Saiyuki! Excited? Yes, and...? <g> There was also another swatch of the beautiful ice-blue material and some more sachets of flavoured hot chocolate. Mmmm... that's me set for the next couple of days. Thanks, Joules!

My babies are 10 years old now, or as they say, 'the big one-oh. <g>
They had a good day. I got out of bed later than I'd anticipated (I hadn't been woken up at sparrow's fart to be shown their haul of presents) to find them already happily ankle-deep in bits of lego and Star Wars toys. That lot kept them occupied until their cousins arrived and they were given a copy of the Spongebob movie (thanks, Soulsis!). Watched that for a bit then they got ready for their party.
Their father had spent several hours last night and today slaving over their costumes. The M cub had a black, hooded cloak (coupled with an Optimus Prime mask) to make him Darth Marcus while the S cub had a plain, sleeveless gi style top to become Sean Skywalker. <silly grin> And they both had lightsabres, of course, which they waved about with flagrant disregard for the light fittings. (I'm proud to say my cubs love being in costume - I'll have to take them to a con sometime. As proto-geeks they'll fit riiiight in.)
As seems to have become traditional their party was held at a Golden Arches of Doom which, while I have ethical objections to the company, means I don't have to organise food and entertainment, or clean up. Niki's two kinder were there as well, and a couple of friends from school. And the S cub's teacher, who he'd invited. Admittedly she was only there for a little while with her niece, on their way home from seeing a Holy Rodent Empire Extravaganza on Ice production, but she diplomatically gave both the cubs presents.
I was a little concerned that some of the kids might be a bit bored - at 10, you know, pass-the-parcel doesn't have quite the same appeal it once did - but they all still got into the musical chairs, with the competition becoming quite fierce towards the end there. I don't think anyone was bored but then ice-cream cake can make up for a lot. : )
Have to make special mention of Sarah, Penny's daughter, playing 'Happy Birthday' for the cubs on her baritone (trombone?) then a quick rendition of the 'Imperial March', which she'd worked out herself. <g> She got a big round of applause for that.
Ice-cream cake devoured, bill paid, the party finished with the kids blowing a storm of bubbles with the bubble-mix they found in the giftie bags supplied by the 'restaurant'. We had to shoo them all outside after a few minutes, the floor was getting slippery from the slurry of burst bubbles...

Niki and Soulsis et al came back with us for a wee while. We watched movies and played with Soulsis' new puppy. She's a - let's see if I get right - some floppy-eared type of spaniel beginning with 'B' crossed with a border collie. Very cute, even though she smells a bit doggy. : ) Still not inspired to get a dog of my own.

Heh, cubs have been chivied off to bed but they're not asleep yet. Having too much fun playing with their loot. Bet they sleep in tomorrow...

Other stuff:

Chapter 12 is almost finished. It's taken a week longer than it probly should've but I've had the holidays as an excuse, I guess. The second part of SFSG was looking a bit sparse for a while but as I get closer to writing it there's lots of stuff floating up to fill in the blanks. <g> I'm looking forward to this next bit, wondering though if I should show restraint in what could essentially be a series of lemony bits. I spose I can just write it then pull it back if necessary later. There is some plot to pad out the sex...

Earlier today I was listening (via ICQ) to Joules mutter and curse as she sorted out the Alliance Chronicle galleries.
"Remind me not to do this again." She growled.
Yeah right. <long-suffering sigh> If it follows the usual pattern she'll think about doing something similar; I'll remind her how much fun it wasn't; she'll consider that for a few heartbeats then go ahead and do it anyway! Tch. Stubborn...
Eh well, the results are usually worth her angst. : )

My very own meme, spotted nowhere but my brain. Indulge me in this...


A part of my body I particularly like: My nose. It's very cute.

A part of my body I don't particularly like: My earlobes. I've never liked them, they're big and fleshy. This is why I wear jewelry in my nose and not my ears.

Stupidest thing I've done: Sniffed hydrochloric acid.

Smartest thing I've done: Used the argument on myself that 'if you haven't attempted something how do you know you can't do it' to start writing.

Weirdest thing that's happened to me: Doped up on morphine after the caesarian to deliver the cubs (couldn't use pethadine, I'm allergic to it) and alone in my room trying to sleep. I was woken up twice, first by an invisible screwed up ball of paper hitting my forehead - from the angle it hit I worked out it had been thrown by an equally invisible dwarf standing in the corner - and the second time by an invisible rat jumping up on to my shoulder from behind me, which then bounced onto my chest and ran away down the bed. I growled at them to 'sodding leave me alone so I can rest!' and I wasn't bothered again.

Something that always makes me smile: Lawn daisies.

A childhood memory: Being scared of the Sooty puppet at pre-school.

Oddest thing I've collected: Broken pencil leads, coloured and greyleads. I think I had the idea to crush them up and do something useful with them. They got tossed out in the purge of stuff when I moved away from my parents' home. Perhaps I shouldn't have, I still think about them...

Strangest thing I've attempted to cook: Polenta. I just cannot get that to taste right.

Quick! Think of a song!: Um, er, Knights in White Satin - Moody Blues.


<snigger> I went back and mucked around with the How Jedi are you? quiz. This result made me laugh...


how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

Mandy?!

<listening> Good, I think the cubs are asleep now. Going to sneak off and assemble their birthday packages so they're ready for them when they bounce out of bed tomorrow morning. : )

<snerk> Heard this joke on the telly tonight. <cheeky smirk> Val should get it...

Q: What's a hindu?
A: It lays eggs, eh.

<rolling around laughing> Ah dear me, any chance at all to pick on the kiwis...

It's one of the reasons I liked watching Xena so much. They used locals as extras and every now and again there'd be a broad kiwi accent amongst the broad American accents. ("You goin' to the fistival?") And listening to Lucy Lawless speaking as herself was a real brain tweaker! You just don't expect those inflections when you've only seen her in character but it was so cute. <g> My favourite ever NZ line, however, came from Cheeky Hobson in the Footrot Flats movie: "I niver want to see you agin, Wal Footrot, niver iver!"
Still cracks me up...

Hee, finished half of the holding threads on my quilt this evening. Problem is the only flat, clear space I've got to work on is the coffee table which means hunching forward, perched on the edge of an armchair. I think this must press on a nerve in my thigh or something cos I've got an achey leg now. Eh well, just have to make sure I get up and move around every now and again.

Cubs and I went to see Revenge of the Sith today. I had threatened that we wouldn't go and see the movie if they hadn't cleaned their room, but I compromised - the room's not completely tidy but I can see they've made an effort. Besides, I think we all needed to get out of the house.
What did I think about SW3 this time? It was long. It's not often I can say about a movie that the action sequences were more interesting than the character development and plot bits. The betrayal of the Jedi still got to me and I still went 'ooh!' at the planetscapes but ultimately I wasn't entertained.
Cubs loved it, though, they thought it was awesome (I really must work on expanding their spoken vocab) and I had the pleasure of trotting around the shopping centre accompanied by Darth Vader and General Grievous. <rolls eyes>
(Have to say however that the M cub does a very accurate Vader-respirator noise - he can also do a very convincing squeaky-toy - while the S cub has Grievous' hunched lope down pat. : )
Tomorrow the cubs have to get back to cleaning their room...

Joules has been tossing around the idea of reworking the Alliance Chronicles sometime in the future for book publication. It's a great idea, her story is involving and complex and the characters are compelling. My parts will certainly need some serious rewrites and it'll be interesting sorting through the canon/fanon/original concepts but I reckon it'll be even better for the effort.
But not yet, we're both hip-deep (heh, eyeball-deep!) in other projects just at the moment. : )

(Heh, the cubs are sitting up late watching Supersize Me. It's interesting to see what they're picking up on.

(Spotted on Erestor's lj, Val's and now The Zone...)

I thought I might have some trouble coming up with 10 of 'em but it wasn't that difficult.
These are in no particular order but range from the <squinch> awww cute to the OMFG-fall-to-my-knees-jaw-dropping-PHWOOAR cute. : )

Directions: List 10 celebrities that you find attractive, then don't tag any of your friends. ('Tagging'- ie: dobbing in people on your 'friends' list to continue a meme is a lj thing. Don't think I've ever seen it on a blog.)

Orlando Bloom - *le sigh*
Uma Thurman - never see enough of her.
Lucy Liu - freckles!
Johhny Depp - gives excellent face.
Cheri Lunghi - I thought she was pretty in Excalibur all those years ago but now she's stunning.
Keira Knightley - lovely face, and her accent...
Liam Neeson - like Sean Connery he just gets better with age.
Japanese guy on a Nokia poster - no idea who he is and I can't find a reference online but there's something about him...
Brendan Fraser - "What is it about chicks and horses...?"
Ewan McGregor - I don't call him 'Eyecandy McDrooly' for nothing.


See? That was easy. And all actors, hm...
Here's a list of others that I considered until I worked out it wasn't them so much as the character they played.

Oded Fehr - the Arabic good-guy in The Mummy films.
Sean Bean - cos he looks damn fine in a Rifleman's jacket.
Lucy Lawless - well, Xena, really...
Jason Issacs - Lucius Malfoy and the most recent Captain Hook! Heh, no wonder I liked that movie...
Alan Rickman - always a joy to watch.
Tommy Lee Jones - not for any of his characters but his voice. I swear I sat through his bits in The Fugitive with my eyes closed so I could concentrate on the voice. Missed half the plot but who cares!
Oh and I had the biggest crush on Eric Idle when I was about 15. Looking back at the pics now I can't understand it. <g>

Heh, my list of anime charas isn't nearly as extensive as Joules and they seem to be mostly semes (blond or otherwise). Except for Botan (Yu Yu Hakusho) that is, but then pink is one of my favourite colours.
Shall I try to list them? Oh why not. Let's see... (Please excuse any misspellings but I couldn't be arsed checking.)

Eiri - Gravitation.
K - ditto.
Iason Mink - Ai no Kusabi.
Alex Rowe - Last Exile. Now there's a man who fills out a uniform nicely.
Sophia - ditto. And ditto the uniform - except the bit about a 'man'.
Fuma - X.
Botan - YYH. You've gotta love a girl who can knock out zombies with a baseball bat. <g>
Hiei - ditto. Good things come in small packages...
Tsuzuki - Yami no Matsuei. Pretty, pretty eyes, and oh, the angst!
Muraki - ditto. The silver-haired Villain.
Oriya - ditto. The Villain's special friend.
Darcia - Wolf's Rain.
Excel Excel - Excel Saga. Hyper-manic genki girl.
Il Pallazzo - ditto. Her boss and awfully reminiscent of Studio CLAMP.
Juzo Hasegawa - Cyber City Oedo. Dang that man moves like a cat! Not a pretty cat, either.
[And quickly and quietly so Joules doesn't notice - Benten (CCO) and Radittsu (DBZ) ]

Right, that's quite enough time spent on that! Off to do something useful. : )

(Nicked from Onna's blog.)

Gosh, this is a surprise. <g> Obviously all those years of watching The Bill haven't been a complete waste of time...

(Edited to just display the results - the coding was doing weird things. Quiz came from here.)

Your Slanguage Profile

Aussie Slang: 100%
British Slang: 75%
Canadian Slang: 50%
Prison Slang: 50%
Victorian Slang: 50%
Southern Slang: 25%
New England Slang: 0%

Remember that first quilt I started, the stars and hexagon one? It's been languishing for weeks in my bedroom as I got distracted by other things but today I finished pinning the layers together and started putting in the 'holding' stitches. Once they're all in place the pins can come out and I can start quilting!
I'd forgotten how bright and beautiful this quilt is - I fell in love with it all over again when I spread it out to work on it. : )
KittenKong showed her appreciation for it as well, in the usual cat-fashion, by alternately trying to sit precisely where I was working or lurking under the over-hang to chase monsters in the folds of the fabric... <sigh>

The cubs have seen some of the (awful) Little Britain and - I think this is telling - they really like it. <eyebrow> Does this mean the writers have the sensibilities of 10 year olds, or are they simply writing to that level?

Saw the first of the Dalek episodes of the new Dr Who on Saturday. What sort of cop-out PC crap was that? Was it Roddenberry who first serialised the concept that contact with humans - the good and noble ones, of course - can prompt a fundamental change in nasty beings? Grrrr.
And look, we've picked up another Adric...

I had a lovely dream the other night but I didn't realise just how lovely it was until I described it to someone. There was a valley, a place of peace and tranquility whose inhabitants lived in a slower, more ancient lifestyle. I was looking down into this valley and I knew that I could get there, using the hidden path that kept it separate from the rest of the world. (I'll probly never live this down but the only place I could think of to compare the valley to was Rivendell... : )

Half-watching "Andromeda Strain". I keep expecting Charlton Heston to appear, I always associate him with this movie. No idea why cos he's not in it; "The Omega Man" is his contribution to the post-holocaust genre. That, and "Planet of the Apes".
Would "Soylent Green" fall into that category? Or is that more your 'the world is too crowded/polluted to sustain life' genre? Like "Zero Population Growth" or "Silent Running"? (Lutra blatantly displays her knowledge of late 60's - early 70's US sci-fi movies. : ) But we won't mention "West World" cos it still creeps her out...)
For extra points - what was the name of novel Soylent Green came from, and who wrote it? (I can answer the first easily, have to look up the second) And what language was the Planet of the Apes book originally written in? (I can answer that, too... unless my memory is faulty, that is. Been a long time since I read it...)

KoH is showing at the Astor Theatre mid-July, I'm planning on seeing it then. However:

"Ridley Scott, the master of modern epics, floods the screen once again with action, romance and handsome heroes. This time, he offers the tale of a young blacksmith from Jerusalem who fights to protect his people from foreign invasion during the Twelfth Century Crusades..."

Humph. Whoever wrote that review obviously hasn't seen the movie, or even read the press release properly.

... There was a purpose to this post. What was it? Ah...!
Last day of term and we had a special final assembly. Both of the cubs were in plays performed by their grades and displayed a well-developed sense of hamminess. <g> Their father said that had to come from my side of the family. He's probly right.
The school's brass band performed a couple of (mercifully) short pieces, a funereal Jingle Bells and something I didn't recognise at all. But, considering the kids only started learning the instruments at the beginning of this year it wasn't too bad. : )
And the cubs got their half-year reports.
Hm. Definitely room for improvement for both of them. Once again the comments been made that they're both more than capable of the work they just don't put in the effort. The S cub's teacher noted that he only really tries when he knows he's being assessed. <sigh> That's probly my cue to be more encouraging and attentive...

I think that when I've finished this first part of my speshul sikrit project <g> I'm going to treat myself to something alcoholic, and see about making some comprehensive story notes.
Not at the same time, obviously, otherwise they'd make no sense at all...

Oh lovely. The browns of last year's women's fashions seem to be 'in' this year for men. The colours for women this Winter all look like bruises. Sure they're labeled things like plum and dark cherry but they look bruisey to me.

Hee hee hee. Shhh... don't tell the cubs but it's not only pumpkin they're getting mashed up with their potatoes. They've also had sweet potato and cauliflower. <evil grin> I should've followed advice and done this years ago.

This is apparently a quote from one of Oscar Wilde's plays - "A Good Woman", I think (and I've probably misquoted it cos I didn't write the whole thing down when I heard it. Tch.):

"I like America. Name me another society that's gone from barbarism to decadence without bothering to create a civilisation inbetween."

I snerked. : )

Last day of term tomorrow. Theoretically the last morning for two weeks where I have to force myself to be genki-girl at sparrow's fart to get the cubs out of bed on time. Hoorah.

Oops. Finally got round to getting some overdue (waaaaaay overdue) items back to the library. Fortunately they were on the cubs' cards so the cost of the fines didn't make me blink - it's only 5 cents a day per item for them as opposed to 20 cents per item for me. It'll still be a couple of weeks before I can pay them off though. The cubs have already got a list of stuff they want to borrow as soon as their accounts are clear. <g> So do I. And I'll have to use their cards cos I still haven't paid off my fines yet...

It's hot-air balloon season in Melbourne. (You need a big gun with long-range projectiles. They don't need to be armour-piercing but incendiaries are effective...) The cubs and I saw one pass overhead while we were waiting at the bus stop. Very exciting - even more so when a camera flash went off a couple times while the cubs were waving. <g> Those two have absolutely no issues with having their photos taken. And not only did the balloon pass directly overhead, as it was heading to land in a nearby oval it was descending as well. Great fun to watch. I'd love to do a balloon flight one day. When I was in hospital with the cubs at 7 months and trying very hard not to think too much about the future I used to watch the early morning balloon flights passing over the city. I'd think how marvellous it would be to be floating above it all...
<g> One day.

Batman Begins is the best Batman movie ever! Okay, that's not hard given the previous efforts but still...
While I liked Tim Burton's vision of Gotham City, it didn't quite gel with me. It was too over-the-top to fit the Dark Night mythos, but not campy enough to go completely the other way, either. It was a visual treat but it straddled the line a little uncomfortably. (I did like Michael Keaton's Batman, however, he was the most human of the lot. I had more empathy for him than Kilmer's or Clooney's versions.)
The Gotham City of BB is close enough to 'real' to be affecting and its decay is believable. I was never quite sure if one of its denizens was to be trusted at any given time and the villains weren't necessarily clear-cut, I liked that.
The plot was well-handled, staying within the bounds of comic-book reality but not taking a huge amount of suspension of disbelief to make it palatable. While I've been a fan of Batman for years it was mainly for the 60's TV show, I've not delved much into the comics. I don't know if this 'origins' story is consistent with anything that came up there but in this instance it all hangs together nicely as far as I'm concerned.
The casting was, for the most part, excellent and it was great to see so many British actors in a major US production. : ) Christian Bale did a good job, the conflict, the tension, was never far below the surface. This is the third movie in recent years where Liam Neeson has been a mentor with a sword but he does it so well! <g> Gary Oldman, as always, looked like he was born to the role. His Gordon seemed to be an amalgamation of all the other screen incarnations, tying them together, whereas other versions of other characters seemed to be swimming in other directions.
Now, let me rave a bit about the settings...
Oh oh the scenery! And oh oh the iconic images! I was grinning fit to burst in a couple of places cos visually the thing just sang. Not all the time, but when I was stirred by the visuals it was deeply felt.
There was a section that made me giggle, though - I don't think I've giving away anything here. Our hero is released from prison in a desolate, empty area with only his clothes and a small satchel. As he makes his way up the mountain he manages to accumulate scarves and hats and balaclavas and overcoats and cloaks... <g> By the time he got to the top he looked like a very grubby Staypuft Marshmallow Man! Okay, perhaps that was an exaggeration but I did wonder where he got all the extra clothes from - we only saw one village and he'd acquired most of the gear before then...
A quick word about the soundtrack. It was a wee bit loud in places but never for long and not overpowering. The music really did underscore and enhance the action. I'd be interested to hear the CD now, see if it has the same impact without the visuals to back it up.
I enjoyed this movie, it was a great ride! However it didn't tug on quite the same chords as Kingdom of Heaven did so I'll be happy to let this one go and pick up a copy of the DVD when it's on special. It's not going to lose all that much impact on a small screen.

And speaking of KoH, I found some lovely dark-red velvet which will just perfect for my Balian plushie...

A little while ago Moosifer Jones mentioned that The Ferret had compiled a list of '10 worst lj habits'. I eventually decided (today) to post it here, with my responses, but first I had to find the blinking thing. I was positive MJ had the comprehensive list on her blog, but there were only some lj links to follow in the post. So anyway, I found it, sort of. What I can't find on the list is the worst habit that I was most guilty of. I know I read it somewhere! Anyway, here's the list - compiled from various sources...

Auditions ("I'm going to drop you as a friend unless you comment right now.")

Blackmail, pure and simple. 'Show me that you love me!' Bah! Not guilty.

[Joules sticks a fin in] I loathe that one. Delete the offending blog/Lj/whatever from my bookmarks immediately.


Bad grammar/spelling (either accidentally or via l33tsp3@k)

Sort of guilty. As part of my 'style' of writing (on my blog) as I speak I use phonetic spellings of some words - ie: cos, probly - or rarer, misspellings that are private jokes - ie:crinimals. But other than that I make an effort to write properly. Everyone should. So there.

I can cope with it if it's someone for whom English is not the native language (in fact, I'm more likely to give 'em mental Brownie points for trying, bearing in mind how bloody incoherent my blog would be if I tried to write it in French...) And, as you say, personal stylistic idiosyncrasies are fine. The rest - no excuse. That's what spellchecker - and basic education - is for. [grins happily. There, wasn't I restrained?]


Constant Paypal/eBay whoring ("If only someone were to make a donation!")

Not guilty. Though would I if I had the facility? I dunno. I don't object to the webartists that have donation accounts, for some it's a viable source of income and if I could I probly would donate to the ones I read regularly.

Ken suggested on more than one occasion that I should start charging people to read the AC. I pointed out that 1) it was fanfic and therefore not my copyright, 2) you, Lutra, were writing half of it, and 3) as far as I was concerned it was me experimenting with plot/subplot/story arcs/dialogue/character interaction and therefore I'd feel as though I was ripping readers off if I even suggested it.

This is why I'm unlikely to ever be rich.


Cryptic posts ("Oh, my, who knew that would happen?")

One line posts that make no sense. These are very annoying and I won't do it.

[blink] I seem to have managed to avoid these. But the concept sounds intriguing... [big evil grin]


Teaser post ("I've got a speshul sikrit that I can't talk about.")

As above, only more annoying. Either bloody tell me or not! <grumble>

Oh, and people who vaguely mention something in public that refers to something in their special secret friends only journal that you'd know about, obviously, if you were a real friend. Ye gods, even Kai's schoolfriends don't resort to that!


Eeyoring ("Today I will post the seventieth entry in Why My Life Sucks...")

Attention whoring. Psycho-drama. Moaning Minnies/Maxes - never have anything good to say. Tedious. I run out of sympathy very quickly. It's ok to whinge, it is, really, but doing nothing else gets boring.

I have no patience. I was once told I don't suffer fools gladly - my reaction was to glower and state I don't suffer them at all. I really really loathe this. We all have problems - for f$%*s sake stop bloody whinging and DO something about it!!


Long, uncut posts/images.

This doesn't happen so much on blogger I've noticed, but if I'm going to have a good, long rant I try to make it interesting. Besides, if someone doesn't like what they're reading they can skip it, ne? I do.

Hm. I also try to make rants interesting - or short! Sometimes I fail. Well, you can always skip them. I find uncut posts more of a problem in Yahoo daily digests...


Repeated deletions/goodbyes ("Once again, I have deleted my journal because WOE IZ ME.")

<sigh> More emotional blackmail. I feel these posters are generally looking for feedback, encouragement to stay online. Don't have the time for this sort of shilly-shallying. If you're pissed off enough to go, then go.

[bemused] People actually do that? How very silly. Such a waste of time and effort.


Quiz overload

Not looking at anybody. <g>.
I'm a grown-up, I can pick and choose the quizzes I want to do, likewise I don't have to post every result to my blog, just the entertaining/most relevant ones.

Hear here!


Significant other lust all the time ("Guess what my schmoopie did today!")

Okay, just possibly guilty of this sometimes when I gush about my cubs, but dammit, they say the darndest things! : ) Gods help me if I ever get another partner...

Sprogs are different. They're the future, they grow so bloody fast, and the occasional words of wisdom still leave me stunned.

SO, on the other hand... well, I suppose it's OK at the start of the relationship, within reason - after all, these things are very important to us all. But when it goes on and on and on with no other topic of conversation... [shudder]


Song lyric posts (especially those not LJ-cut)

Rarely do this. More likely to post just the significant bits, with an explanation of why.

Guilty. But I don't do it very often, nor do I usually post the whole lyrics, and it's usually to illustrate something I have to say. So I don't feel too guilty about it!


Totalitarianism. ("If you disagree with me in any way, you are a troll.")

Eeuuww, no. Far too confrontational.

[blink] Um... I don't see the point. Simply disallow comments and stew in your own little egocentric continuum. Just don't expect anyone to want to have anything to do with you outside it.


Updating once a month or less.

I don't think I've left it that long but there's been times when I've not had anything to say.

Doesn't bother me. I'd much rather wait until the individual feels like talking than pressure them to do so when they're too busy/can't get online/have nothing much to say. Just because I can't stop talking doesn't mean I expect everyone else to be the same!


The Secret Project. ("I'm working on something, but I don't want to give anything away...")

Oh yes. Guilty. But it's not teasing, it's pure Piscean paranoia that someone will nick my idea. : )

That's just sensible. I'm the same. As long as you don't gloat/brag about it, I don't see the problem: there are serious copyright issues with a lot of what we do.

As long as you find out eventually what it's all about!


Interesting, eh?

Woke up from an interesting dream this morning. I was half-way through a mystery/occult novel written by Joules and was just about ready to piece the plot together. What I remember of the story could fit quite nicely into the Leander Pryne continuum, though what puzzled me the most was how Joules had managed to write (and publish) a book and I'd known nothing about it. <g>

Chapter 11 is finished! (And there was much rejoicing.) Chapter 12 should see the end of part 1. That's not bad going really - I originally envisioned there'd be 3 parts of 5ish chapters each. Hee. What's exciting is that I've only got the vaguest idea of what's going to happen, the details are being filled in for me by the main character as I get there. She's had a very... interesting life...

(nicked from The Zone: )

The picture is cute but I'm not at all sure about the results. But, there were only 3 possible results for the quiz anyway so the chances of accuracy were slim, I guess. (For a list of potential other My Naughty Little Pony results, check out the comments on the relevant Zone post. Feel free to add your own. : )

You Are Opium!
You like to have fun and enjoy life. Reeeeeally enjoy life. If it isn't fast, loud, or extreme forget it. You value friendship and are loyal and will not hesitate to go off if someone crosses you.

What Naughty My Little Pony Are You?

Gah. Only 4 days 'til the end of term and the cubs' birthday falls right in the middle of it all!
Ah well, at least I'll be able to sleep in...

It was getting dangerous in my bedroom again, the possibility of slipping over something and breaking either my ankle or neck was getting more likely every day...
Phase 1 is completed - I've hacked out a path from the door to my bed and I can now get into my wardrobe - but phase 2, clearing/reorganising space in the garage so I've got somewhere to put the boxes will have to be a holiday job. But, if I can get the boxes out of my room I should be able to squeeze in another set of shelves. As luck would have it I think I've got a spare set in the garage, one of those metal, lock-together ones. That'll do nicely, at least then I'll have somewhere to store the current projects except on the floor under my feet.<melodramatic sigh> I yearn for clear carpet...

Of course now I'm feeling hard done-by about my lack of space and not being able to organize the house the way I'd like because because because...
However I've seen the sort of bed I'd like (carved four-poster, except the 'headboard' runs along one of the sides. Bit like an alcove bed. : ) and that's something to have happy thoughts about. I know exactly the sorts of drapes I'd like.

The cubs had 3 hashbrowns and 2 sausages each for dinner. The M cub made a picture of R2D2 out of his - the S cub made the Death Star shooting something... : )

The cubs and I went to see Madagascar after school. It was fun, not the most brilliant movie ever made, but fun. The characters weren't particularly engaging - aside from King Julian and the lemurs, and the penguins, they had their moments too. The animation was ... good, but not outstanding, it certainly had none of the imagination of The Incredibles or Robots but then this was sposed to be more of a 'real-world' setting. Actually, no, I'll amend that - the scenery was nothing much interesting but the character animation was fluid and expressive.
There were some genuinely funny parts where I giggled or laughed out loud and on the whole Madagascar was inoffensive and amusing but it didn't grab me. I've no desire to see it again.

ICQ isn't a perfect messaging software but I like it, more so than anything else I've tried. The latest version has a cool feature where you can design your own avatars to sit in your message box and be seen by those you're chatting to. Joules has had hers for a while now but I haven't been able to see it until today; no idea why.
I squeaked - the thing is so cute! It blinks and follows the movement of the cursor - so naturally I scampered off to get my own. Didn't take long to design and she's a vaguely realistic, if still idealist version of me: dirty-blonde hair, blue eyes and a smile.
Anyway, I was playing with the avatars just a little while ago, running the cursors back and forth over them, as you do, when I noticed their different reactions. Mine looks at it with an expression of 'Oooh! What's that?!', while Joules' (as she put it) is '... more wary - kind of "Should I blast it or not?"...'
<smirk> Highly appropriate!

Forgot where I got this from...



how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

<giggling>
Don't piss me off! Don't piss me off!


I just had to try that one...



[grin] Fairly apt. Though for a moment there I was tempted by the dark side - decided the black mask would give me claustrophobia, though...

Joules


I could never turn to the dark side - black just isn't my colour, dahling. : )


[smirk] I don't think it's possible to be evil in pink...


Heavens, no! Pink is a sacred colour! <delicate shudder> The very thought...
Besides, how could something the colour of bunnys' noses be evil?
Though on the other hand - Infinite Diversity Infinite Combination - I suppose it could be possible.


Curses! Resorting to series-hopping... a cunning and devious defence...


<smirk> Live long and prosper!

Dammit, I broke a tooth. >: (
The front of one of my top molars came off while I was eating dinner, probly cos of a bit of well-cooked and crispy lasagne sheet. <grumble> I must've swallowed the piece of tooth as well. Oh well, at least it doesn't hurt. Might be able to put off going to the dentist for a bit. I hope so, can't afford to go right away.

Heh, the cubs have recreated Hoth on one of their beds using a doona. They've delved into their lego box and created all sorts of appropriate vehicles to go with it as well. They've been keeping themselves amused in this manner for days. <g> When they get into something they get in up to their eyeballs.
But, with the SW DVD's we've got they've not watched Cartoon Network at all for over a week, can't complain about that.

It annoys me when op-shops put high prices on their goods. Sure the stuff is below sale price, but not that much below. Tch. Sometimes, however, you can get a bargain, like I did yesterday! On the '$1 each clearance' rack of my local (usually pricey) op-shop I found a black skirt made of cotton velvet, and two linen shirts, one a nice, bright red, and the other a gorgeous rich, deep purple. None of these will fit me, I should point out, they're all destined for the fabric stash. <g> That velvet will make a lovely doublet, I'm sure...

The cubs' school had a Medieval day today, to round off their term of 'From Caves to Castles' integrated study. Most of the students - and teachers - came in costume. <g> The cubs went as a peasant and a squire, wearing a couple of their father's tunics. The peasant-cub also had his dad's grubby quiver as a bag and the squire-cub wore his metal gorget. They were gorgeous! 11th century garb really suits them...
In the morning parade there were lots of princesses with poorly secured conical headdresses, knights and jesters, a couple of queens, a sprinkling of peasants and one bard. It was fun to watch and it sounded like it was an enjoyable day.
Hm, next week is the last week of term, we should get the half-yearly reports then. I'm not expecting any nasty surprises, they've both enjoyed this year so far, and they both like their teachers. I am definitely looking forward to the break, though, it's getting harder and harder to crawl out of bed when the alarm goes off in the morning!

Chapter 11's started, and I'm still having fun. : )

Mmmm... steak with mushrooms cooked in cream...

I don't miss driving. I don't miss the stress of trying to second guess the idiots I share the road with. I don't miss prowling for parking and I especially don't miss having to squash down the idea that every time I get behind the wheel it could be a disaster.
Taking the bus is so much better for my peace of mind - and I get an extra hour or so a day to daydream. : )

Joules and I were talking about totem animals - prompted by a very interesting program I saw last night on Pagans - and I reckon I've got more than one. The otter is the primary, of course, but there's also a small raptor (probly a kestrel), and a dragon for when I'm Queen of the World. <g> There's another one, though, small and furry and nesting, that I've never been able to pin down.
'A dormouse.' - says Joules.
'<blink> I think you're right.' - says I.
Small, round, furry tail, likes fruit and sleeping... <g>
Gorgeous wee creatures, dormouses, and in a class of their own - literally!
The Encyclopedia Britannica site had this info:

Dormice are not "true" mice (family Muridae); they are the only members of family Myoxidae, but their relationship to other rodents is not clear. Dormice have been allied with two different major groups: the squirrel-like rodents (suborder Sciuromorpha) and the mouselike rodents (suborder Myomorpha). In reality, the closest living relatives of dormice are unknown...

Cute and unique...

I'm feeling very virtuous at the moment, I've been making small bags out of an old net curtain. I use those instead of the flimsy plastic bags the supermarkets and grocers supply. Yes, they do weigh more than the plastic bags but at 20 grams, or less, which is around 10 cents extra on something that costs $5 a kilo, it's a cost I'll happily wear. I will eliminate unnecessary packaging from my life...

Very pleased with the way my cubs can turn off the telly and walk away when there's nothing they want to watch. I could never do that. Even when I hated the show - Josie and the Pussycats, Scooby Doo, <spitspit> - I never thought to turn the telly off.
Heh, and I've trained my cubs out of the habit of leaving the telly on standby, something I've not managed to do with other members of the household. Grrr... What? Is it too sodding hard to switch the telly on as you walk past it to sit down that you have to use the remote?
Given my druthers, aside from the fridge/freezer and possibly clocks, everything would be switched off at the powerpoint when it's not being used. Naturally, this would mean being able to access the powerpoints...
<g> When I'm eventually in my new house it should be interesting to compare the differences in the electricity usage between there and here. : )

And finally, Joules has finished reviewing FL which means she can start sending it out to publishers. <g> Crossing various appendages...

Woohoo, chapter 10's more or less finished. One more chapter I reckon, perhaps two, and that'll be the first part completed. : )

Soulsis and I visited Niki on Friday and had a very civilised lunch. Niki's remodeling her laundry so there were strange plumber-type men of varying sizes prowling around outside. <g> She's also done some work with the bedroom her two kidlings share - taken out the built-in wardrobe and made that space her daughter's. The wall there is a lovely shade of lavender now, really pretty. <sigh> All this business with houses, makes me wish I owned my own so I could play, too.

Borrowed some movies from Niki as well, episodes 4 & 5 of Star Wars (for the cubs), Grease and The Incredibles. The cubs watched the SWs first, asking me questions all the way through - '<growl> keep watching and you'll find out' - then we rummaged through the extras on the TI dvd. There's some fun stuff there, not the least of which is the short 'Boundin''.
Mr Incredible and his Pals is hysterical, a send-up of the awful, stilted superhero cartoons of the early 70's. Well worth a watch, and then again with the commentary playing. <g>

Given the cubs current interest in SW, their father bought home copies of episodes 1 & 2 today. We watched 1 this evening... It's not as bad as I remember, and it makes so much more sense now having seen 3.
See? Lucas had a plan all along...

I went to see KoH again today. <happy sigh> Was going to leave it for a couple of weeks but from tomorrow it's only showing once a day, in the evenings, which makes it awkward for me. Dang I love this movie... can you tell?

The cubs' father grinned when I told him how I'd spent my morning.
"What new details did you pick up this time?" he asked.
"Balian's red and white gambeson is spot (ie: tie) quilted, unlike the ones the men-at-arms wear, which are quilted in straight rows."
"Yes. Makes him look like a sofa."
<smirk> "There's worse things to sit on..."

This isn't the first movie I've obsessively seen more than once during its first cinema release. : ) The trend started with the original Star Wars trilogy, not surprisingly, but then it's not hard to see a movie a dozen times when it's in the cinemas for over a year. Then what was there? Let's see...
The cubs' father and I saw Branagh's Henry the fifth several times. That was fun actually, after the second viewing we realised we were seeing the same people again and again in the audience. We saw the first The Crow movie about 4 times, Jurassic Park and Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet at least three. I've seen The Incredibles 3 times, and Robots and Finding Nemo the same, though The Incredibles was the only one of these that I wanted to watch over and over - the others we saw more than once cos the cubs wanted to see them again.
It's hard to explain why but all of these multi-watch movies have an emotional pull for me. There's been something about them that makes me itch to see them again. I've loved the worldframes and happily immersed myself in the lives of the characters and - I've just realised - it's these movies I continue to think about once they're over. The majority of the other films I've seen I don't think about again - kleenex movies, use once and discard - there's nothing more in them for me than a momentary diversion. But these others... I suspect they strike a chord with the romantic in me, not the fluffy-bunny romantic but the lover of epic tales who identifies and empathises with the characters.

But anyway, I probly will have to leave it for a couple of weeks before I see KoH again (and I will), because now I have to organise babysitters.

Still on the subject of movies...
I usually sit all the way through the closing credits of every movie I see in the cinema. There's a few reasons for this. First, there's an awful lot of people involved in making a film and I think it's an acknowledgement of their work to watch their names scroll past. Second, sometimes there's fun stuff or extra bits included in the credits or at the very end - all of Pixar's features are worth sitting right the way through. And third, especially with emotionally involving movies, I need the time to pull myself out of it and readjust to reality.
I don't need to do this with movies on DVD cos reality is right there in the room with me, usually saying "Mum, can I have...?". : )

<blinkblink> And suddenly I can get into blogger again.
Ack, quickly! Did I have something I wanted to say? Let's see...

Chapter 10's started.

I had a dream a couple of nights ago where Joules wore not one, but two different dresses. Not at the same time obviously.
The indignant squeak growl when I passed this information on was completely expected. : )

[loftily ignores the 'dresses' comment. And I don't squeak. Ever.]

In Toys'r'Us this afternoon I saw a couple of the supposedly rare LotR action-figure playsets - the battlefield one from RotK and the Lothlorien. I giggled over the elves - the Haldir, Celeborn and Galadriel figures all look the same as Legolas, in his various incarnations. I thought for a moment I might be tempted to get them but while the bodies and clothes are meticulously detailed I still don't think that much of the faces.
There was a new (for Aus) SS4 Vegeta figure though. Hee. Pretty monkey.

The sick cub - who spent a lot of today playing quite happily - is going to school tomorrow. He's not fussed, I think he was getting bored at home without his brother.

Joules found a Snape/Lucius Malfoy fic on AFF. Not that keen on the fandom but this story's pretty good.
And that has to be the most plausible explanation of mpreg I've ever read!

Yay! Chapter 9 is finished. : ) Good, feels like I'm back on track now.
A couple of very interesting ideas for other things have recently surfaced, too. I've made notes and added them to the list...

Soulsis sent me this - I laughed!

One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behaviour that was going on. So he called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time.

When he returned, he told God, "Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not."

God thought for a moment and said, "Maybe I had better send down a
second angel to get another opinion." So God called another angel and
sent him to Earth for a time too.

When the angel returned he went to God and said, "Yes, it's true. The
Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good."

God was not pleased. So He decided to e-mail the 5% that were good,
because He wanted to encourage them. Give them a little something to
help them keep going.

Do you know what the e-mail said?







Okay, just wondering; I didn't get the email either...

<giggling> What was that about the 'moral majority'?

Oh dear, looks like the other cub has come down with the cold his brother had several days back, only a more virulent strain. The M cub wasn't ill enough to miss school but given the S cub's hacking cough and lack of appetite he might have to skip a couple of days.
Not that he's complaining, of course.

Vaguely disturbing dream last night. I was employed, somehow, in tracing and hunting down suitable girls for what felt like a slaver. The aim was to whisk the victims away with the least amount of fuss so nothing would appear amiss. I didn't like what I was doing but there was the threat of something hanging over me, ensuring my co-operation. There was a lot of adrenalin involved, in the hunting, naturally, but also in the trying to not do my job without looking like I wasn't doing my job.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was an interesting book, though towards the end I found myself wondering what the point of it was. John Berendt did an excellent job in building an evocative picture of the people involved and the place they lived. I want to see the movie!
And... ahah! A half-read book that's been missing for two months turned up today in the place I'd left it. <frowning at house brownies> Oh well, at least I can finish it now - I wanted to know what was going to happen. : )

<happy fan-girl squee> I went to see KoH again today!
Joules rolled her eyes when I told her I planned to do this. 'Research purposes' - I said. No, she didn't believe me, either. All squeeing aside as I indulged myself again I did pick up some lovely details in the costumes. Godfrey's livery, for example is parti-coloured red and white (or jules and azure if I'm going to be picky, which I probly will) with 7 crosses patee counterchanged. Balian's quilted gambeson was also parti-coloured red/white. It sported a small collar and the red sleeves were laced on. The gambeson, like the surcoats and chainmail haulberks were split in the front and back for riding. The surcoats had a small, laced slit at the back of the neck, a detail you don't pick up unless the coif is being worn for battle instead of hanging down around the neck.
Balian's 'good' undertunic was ankle-length (clean!) with a small collar, and loop and button fastenings at the wrist. His 'everyday' tunics - all 2 of them, a dark red and a plain linen - were hip-length and loose, with no collars, and cuffs that flared out from the wrists every so slightly. Gorgeous!
I'm going to have to watch the movie on the big screen at least one more time so I can suss out the details of the sword-belt, scabbard, and the Eastern style silk overtunics Balian wears occasionally.
Oh what a chore - the things I put myself through for the sake of accuracy. : )

And there was a different movie previewed today...
I never watched Dukes of Hazard when it was on telly, still don't have that much interest but dang, the General Lee is delicious!
<g> Would I go and see a movie only because of a car?
... Wouldn't be the first time!

(Shall we just take it as read that Joules is posting for me until I say otherwise? : )

I'd suggest you wait until you've watched the first Saiyuki volume and see if it really grabs you. Yes, the characters are great and quite complex, the backstory fascinating (as far as I've seen it, anyway) and the overall story interesting - but oh, the slow, long-winded and repetitive journey to get there! Argue, travel, fight demons, argue. Repeat. Endlessly. 50 eps and 1 OAV in and they're still nowhere near India. Much as I like them all, I'm having second thoughts about taking it any further. Though I do really like the manga... Heh, will sleep on it. It's not as though I need to make a decision right away.

There seems to be a correlation between the length of an anime/manga and how repetitive (read: boring) it becomes. (DBZ is the prime offender, of course.) That worries me, because GetBackers is currently up to vol 29, and I'd really hate for that to go the same way. Eh well... have to get some of the manga and see, I suppose.

Anime. More expensive than drugs and twice as addictive.

Seconding Lutra's comment about action figures (see previous post), I'm strongly tempted to try making a Xandir (yes, of course I'd go for something tricky! Forget heavily swathed characters where the clothes hide all the seams, I want skimpy and sexy...) Though when I'll catch enough haddock to do it I have no idea...

(But if Xandir works, and doesn't take too much time, I could consider making a Zaabon next. And maybe a Radittsu. A'lestrel? Lutra? The Haadri characters? Ye gods, it opens up a whole new universe...)

<pout> My anime dealer has added Saiyuki to their catalogue. I'll put it on the list...
(Couple of hundred dollars and I'd be able to get everything - or nearly everything - that I want. Anime is an expensive hobby. : )

Had a poke around online: there is KoH merchandise available, mostly replicas of the weapons and armour. Tch, don't want those, I want action figures! Guess I'll just have to make my own, hee. (Thanks to Erestor for the link!)

Picked up the Sonic the Hedgehog DVDs that we've had on lay-by. The cubs squeezed in one episode this evening before I hijacked the telly to watch the news. They loved it, thought it was hysterically funny. The animation is surprisingly good, too, if simple.

The M cub told me today the reason he likes Darth Vader is because his mask is really cool.
Well, there are worse ways to choose your political affiliation I suppose.

(And again, thank you, Joules, for posting this. Still can't get the farging cookies sorted...)