fightingthecage: (Angus - Rocking It)

Procrastinating on essay. And on getting breakfast, for no reason I can think of. So!

Choose a number and ask me…

01. My sexual orientation.
02. What I'm really bad at.
03. The one person whose arms I'd like to be in.
04. My best first date.
05. A description of my self-esteem.
06. Who my best friends are.
07. My favorite book.
08. Biggest turn-offs.
09. A description of my best friend.
10. My favorite animal.
11. Someone I miss.
12. The reason behind my last break-up.
13. What I did yesterday.
14. My greatest achievements.
15. My favorite songs right now.
16. A description of my last kiss.
17. What I find attractive.
18. All of the pets I've ever owned.
19. My favorite ice cream flavor.
20. The one place I wish I was right now.
21. The most cruel thing anyone has ever said to me.
22. All of the places I've lived.
23. Qualities that make me more likely to love a person.
24. My future plans.
25. One of my internal conflicts.
26. What I'm doing tomorrow.
27. My life's aspirations.
28. My most embarrassing moment.
29. Two of my insecurities.
30. What I would do if I won the lottery.
31. What I love most about myself.
32. My biggest pet peeves.
33. What musical artists I've seen live.
34. How many kids I would like to have.
35. My idea of a perfect date.
36. What I'm really excellent at.
37. My most traumatic experience.
38. Where I would like to live.
39. The nicest thing anyone's ever said to me.
40. Whether I like where I live now.
41. What I can hear right now.
42. My relationship with my siblings.
43. What's currently worrying me the most.
44. Something I've repeatedly wished for.
45. My relationship with my parents.
46. What I dislike most about myself.
fightingthecage: (WW - Leo or Gerald?)

I read a tweet this morning that made me blink - no, not the one I already posted about. This one was a bit more serious, and I made a fairly cool reply. I expected to forget about it, but twelve hours later it's still annoying me.

The author of said tweet was someone called Lisa Bloom, who I'm not really familiar with. I followed her because she wrote an excellent article on raising little girls with the focus on their intelligence, rather than their looks. Most of her tweets are intelligent and positive, and I've no problem with her.

Then this morning, this:

"Hard to get excited about new gender equality for UK royal succession
since they'll still all be white, rich and NOT ELECTED by anyone."


...um?

OK. Well. As I replied to her; the royal family - recent revelations about Charles notwithstanding - do not, or are not supposed to, shape government policy. So how is their 'unelected' status relevant to anything? They're figureheads. Sure, the Queen gives permission for a government to be formed, and dissolved, and technically has the power to stop any bill becoming law. But it's all done by convention. The Queen would no more veto a bill than she'd grow another head. She would never stop an elected Prime Minister forming a government, because that's not how things are done.

A lot of our 'constitution' is made up of conventions, rules that we treat as laws, even though they're officially not. That's what comes of having a Parliament that's around eight hundred years old, though admittedly the monarch was more involved for the first four hundred years or so. Yes, we have an unelected Head of State. Does that Head of State  do anything that directly controls the lives of her citizens? No. More people complain about the unelected nature of the House of Lords, than the Queen. That's understandable, as the Lords are involved with shaping our laws (should also point out, that while they have to pass our laws, they can also be bypassed. So it's not like these unelected people have the very final word, if the government wants to get something through badly enough).

I would also point out that in the UK, after any given general election, we generally end up with a government that more than fifty per cent of the people in the country did not vote for. Tony Blair ruled with, I believe, 39% of the vote. Gordon Brown, 36% (stats from memory, so not 100% accurate).  I have never voted Labour in my life. They still got to run the country. And some American is mouthing off about the Queen being unelected? Please.

As for rich, and white - last I heard, that wasn't a crime, dude. Again, look to government. The majority of politicians in power - rich and white. And yes, that's sad, and wrong. But they have influence. Government should definitely be more diverse. But the royals = not Government. They're a family. There are many, many families in Britain - mine included - that are entirely white. We're not rich, but we're not poor either. Should we be getting slagged off on Twitter, because none of us have, yet, married a person of colour?

I like to think that if Prince Harry wanted to marry a black woman, or an Asian woman, or anyone non-white, that it'd be fine. There would undoubtedly be comment on it, and we'd never know what conversations went on behind closed doors. But in this day and age, guess what? The royals are not the archaic, blind institution they once were. No matter what private thoughts on the matter were, they would never be able to stop Harry marrying someone of colour, because of the PR angle. It's bound to happen eventually, and when it does, I hope that no one gets on Twitter and starts sighing with relief about how the royals have finally stopped being a racist, outmoded organisation, with some kind of agenda. They're people. OK, there are expectations of them, but that's as much the media as actual knowledge about them themselves. If Harry married a black girl, you can bet your bottom dollar it'd be all the talking heads, and satire merchants, and spin doctors that would get all up in arms about it.

I don't know. Stuff like this bugs the hell out of me. And much as I don't like what it says about me, I have to admit - the majority of my ire, I think, comes from this comment coming from an American. Given Lisa Bloom's background as a Yale-educated lawyer, and an author, I would have expected better. You know what, Lisa Bloom? Your country elected its first black President three years ago. Three. Not three hundred. Three. Every single other President before that? Rich and white. We've had monarchs in this country for thousands of years, and the current lady that sits on the throne can trace her line back to William the Conqueror, in 1066. This lady was not brought up to sit on the throne, but had it forced upon her. And she didn't bitch and moan, or run away because it didn't suit, like her uncle did. She took responsibility, and has given her life to what she sees as her duty. As of next February, she'll have been doing the job for sixty years. And you know what? Any Prime Minister, any President in the world, would give their right arm for the kind of approval ratings she's had during that time. Including yours. So bag on your own Head of State, and STFU about ours.



...right. OK. I feel better now. /royalist rant
fightingthecage: (Gene - LoM Team)

I know there are very few Life on Mars fans on my flist, and those there are will probably facepalm at me, but I just can't help it. When I see a tweet that says;

"Celebrity spot list from the Noel Gallagher gig: Paul Weller, Kelly Jones, Joey Barton, John Simm and Philip Glenister."

 - there is no part of me that does not scream 'TOTALLY A DATE.'









Carry on.

GET. IN.

Oct. 28th, 2011 03:19 am
fightingthecage: (SPN - Dean Fuck Yeah!)
It needs 27,000 words chopped off it, minimum.

It needs so much work.

I already have a list of things that need to be added/changed/killed in a fire.


I do not care. 10066 words today, 147, 220 words total.

NOVEL. FIRST DRAFT. DONE.

I drink from the keg of glory. I want the finest muffins in all the land. I am motherfucking Josh Lyman, on that day after he did whatever it was that made him drink from the keg of glory.

WHATEVER.



...I am going to bed now. I want to be awake to start my fun week off. Which will consist of far more Uni work than I'd like, but what're you gonna do? I FINISHED MY BOOK, DAMNIT. FOR NOW. \o/!!!


ETA: Ahahaha, my typing in the comments. Yep, brain gone. Fingers gone. Bed now.
fightingthecage: (Gene - LoM Team)
I don't think I like the stats thingy on journals now. I've only just realised they exist. Checking out the loads of people that have visited my fic journal, and not left comments = me going, 'do I suck, or what?'

But then I remember that loads of people read and don't comment, and I've been guilty of it myself in the past. These days, I seriously try to leave a comment if I like something, or even if I've just read it, unless there are things about it that I'm trying to get my head around. I guess it's just an instance of me wishing everyone did the same. But! Never mind. Onwards and upwards. I imagine the key is to write better, and that's always the goal, right?

Merlin

Oct. 22nd, 2011 08:42 pm
fightingthecage: (Own Pic - Hoover Dam)
I quite fancy Borden. #shallow

And props to Arthur for the 'lol' moment. 'Get out' - hahaha.

Also, the boy should be careful.


Spoilers )
fightingthecage: (MR - Can Can Can)
I wrote 9048 words today. I need this book to be done so damn bad. #collapse

Tomorrow looks like this:

* child to nursey
* book
*lecture
*book
*short story for class submission by midnight (1500 words, or therabouts)
* collect child from nursery
*feed, play with and get ready for bed, said child
* book
*book
*book

If it goes that smoothly, this mofo should be done by Saturday night. Does it ever go that smoothly? AHAHAHAHA.

No.

But I can/will dream. If I have to stay up for the entirety of Saturday night, this draft will be done before I hit the sack that night.

And then I will WRITE ALL THE FANFIC and WRITE ALL THE OOMs and play ALL THE THREADS. It will be glorious. For a week. And then I will start editing.

OK BED NOW BYE BYE OMG.
fightingthecage: (SPN - Dean Fuck Yeah!)
Question for Life: why is it completely impossible to come up with a website name when you want one?

...I haven't set that up so it looks like I'm going to answer it, have I? I hope not. I don't know myself, which is why I'm asking.

ANYWAY. LIfe update, in brief, as I'm trying to school myself into remembering to post about things.

* Just finished the first week of my second year at Uni. 100% attendance so far! Go me. And the first time ever I've made it as far as the second year. You know what they say: sixth time's the charm. Or something.

* Book - or, first draft thereof - within days of being finished. THANK FUCK. Because, quite frankly, I'm dying to write me some fanfic. Shut up, this is a totally valid reason for relief.

* It's Evie's birthday today. She is four! *pleased* Now I just have to teach her that the world is not a playground for her fearsome disciplinarian ways; that us mere mortals are not subjects to be crushed underfoot, and we'll be all set.



So. Nothing new for people who follow me on Twitter (I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. I SEE YOU WATCHING ME.), but for anyone else, I am totes fascinating, right? Fo'shizzle.

....OK, I'm going to go take a few steps closer to FANFIC FREEDOM, BABY. I am so productive and shit.
fightingthecage: (Gene - LoM Team)
I keep expecting my flist to spontaneously refresh itself.

Note to self: THIS IS NOT TWITTER.



Mind you, LJ should totally look into that. Just sayin'.
fightingthecage: (Gene - LoM Team)

Read the first page of my flist just now for the first time in, I think...hmm, three years? Four? I HAD FORGOTTEN HOW AWESOME YOU ALL ARE.

And I am going to read it every day now. Even without all the awesome, another source of procrastination can never be a bad thing. (I've got that right, right?. Yeah. Think so. >_>)



Merlin was a bit of a let down tonight.

And you have no idea how hard it was not to hashtag Merlin just then.
fightingthecage: (Angel Walking Alone)
OK, I have to get this off my chest before I can get anything else done tonight.

Opinion... )


Right. Now I am shutting up, and going to do something productive. Feel free to agree or not, as you will. Choice, see?
fightingthecage: (Gene - LoM Team)
...(on which I blame the photo of elephants with wigs on, omgIaminpainfromlaughing), I bring all us aspiring pro- writers out there some words of encouragement, courtesy of Paul Abbott. That might not mean anything to people outside of the UK, but anyone who's seen State of Play, or Shameless (long-running series over here) - yeah, he wrote them.

This was from a Q&A he did, being asked questions from a big noise in the Commissioning Drama department of the BBC. And I love it. Because every time I read what a top writer has to say, I love it when they come out with (and they all do): If you're good enough, you'll make it.

It’s about you and what you’ve got to say... )



'...the minute you speak for yourself in all earnestness, I swear that you can’t not find work.'

Love it.

ETA: Also, this. I love this.

'Honestly, we need about seventy percent more writers than we’ve got in this country, because it’s getting
boring now and the ones who wrote really well are still writing way they wrote twenty years ago and that’s just
crap.'
fightingthecage: (Angel Walking Alone)

I can't work out if this is all, like, post-modern funny, or horrifically sexist. Or both. But ultimately, I don't care because it made me laugh my ass off. Baking during sex? WHY NOT.

How to get a guy to notice you while you're having sex - 'Guys love blowing their load into a confident woman'.

WARNING: It's from The Onion.


All hilarity aside - 2011 really is shaping up to be the worst ever for my family. My Aunt was in hospital yesterday having her gall bladder removed. She was in so much pain today, her husband called 999 and it turns out, they forgot to tie off one of the...I don't know. Can't remember what it's called. Anyway, bile has been leaking into her stomach since the operation - she's been back in theatre for nearly four hours now. Calls are being put out to the family with a 'this is not good' message. There's nothing for it but to wait and hope. *throws hands up* 2011, you were fired the second week of January, and now I'm just pulling the AK-47 on you.
fightingthecage: (Gene - Kicking Ass)

Awww, John Simm regrets not doing a third series of Life on Mars. My fandom heart hurts. D:

ETA: The full article. And wow, I'm not sure what to make of it. Couldn't do any more with Sam? Uh...I find that hard to believe, and it almost sounds like he's having a dig at the writers for giving Gene all the good lines. Which is weird. Sam was the straight man, it was always that way. 

Hmm.

Though, HAHAHA. 'I work with Phil every ten minutes, so I'm not going to miss that.' :D :D :D BOYS!
fightingthecage: (Gene - Boots)

I have questions and conundrums! And no one to ask, except you lot.

Software:

Can someone recommend a video-making program that's around £100 or less? One that's a) easy to use, b) of decent quality and c) EASY TO USE. Because I want to make videos but I have no patience whatsoever with fiddly programs that make life awkward.

Writing:

Final Draft 8 or Movie Magic Screenwriter?

Final Draft is supposed to be the industry standard but the latest release is apparantly full of glitches, whereas MMS is...idk, not the standard (how different can these things be, I ask myself?) but is apparently great to use. It would be a drag to buy MMS and then have to buy FD8 when it came to sending stuff out though, right?


Nvm, went for MMS. Ran across a couple of comparison sites that unequivocally pointed to MMS, so. Yay!

Computers:

Using easy-to-understand words, can someone explain to me why MacBooks are so great? I'm looking for a new laptop and my uncle recommended them to me - he just got the new Air, and says it's amazing. But I look at the specs and it doesn't seem better than my current laptop, though I know it must be (probably doesn't help that I don't understand the specs).

I just want something fast - my current laptop has 4G of RAM and I love it, when my crap internet connection lets things move at speed, anyway - and someting fast, and did I mention fast? Because I always have tons of things operating at the same time and I can't bear waiting. And something cool, and easy to use - you have to learn different commands for Macs, don't you? And something widescreen and preferably with a Blu-Ray player and cool shit like that. My life would be made if Photoshop was included.

Idk. I am useless at this stuff. Recommend me things, people?



In other news, I love the way I thought my Student Loan was arriving on April 28th, only to open a bank statement this morning (which I never do! Open them, I mean) to find that it's been sitting, unmolested, in my account since March 28th. WIN! I am off to book a ticket to Download - damn that Festival, DAMN IT AND ITS DEF LEPPARD AND ALICE COOPER-SECURING WAYS - and then possibly clean some things. Or, y'know. Buy shit on the internet. :D I'm already four gneil books and a moleskine notebook and GROCERIES OMG to the good. And a DVD for Evie. I will stop now, though. Shit's gotta last me until October, yo.

But yes. HELP PLEASE. COMPUTER THINGS, IDEK.
fightingthecage: (Angel Walking Alone)

I so wanted tonight to be fun and productive. Instead, I find myself sitting here, working myself up into a rage so strong, it's making my chest hurt.  So I'm venting, because it usually clears my head and then perhaps I can get something done.

When my sister got married, she was amazed to find there were families out there who were actually supportive, and nice to each other. At the same time! I'm not kidding. (Warning; may trigger mother!issues) )

I'm at the point where I'm seriously considering counselling to find a way to deal with the levels of anger I have. And I am the sort of person who would rather eat dead rats than talk to a shrink. But seriously. Feeling actual hate cannot be a good thing, and the more I'm forced to see her, the worse it gets.

...but I was right! I feel better now that's all vented, so hopefully the rest of tonight can be somewhat more productive than sitting here raging.
fightingthecage: (Gene - Boots)


Hahaha, prospective agent just got in touch with his direct email, just as he said he would, and a renewed expression of interest. Reassuring!

OK. I am going to go write more words.

*excited*

ETA: I replied to him, and now I'm all, 'what if that pisses him off 'cos he's busy?' etc. But on the whole, it would have felt really rude not to and it was only a very short 'thank you for getting in touch and I will certainly send you the novel when it's finished' sort of reply. So that shouldn't be annoying, right? Right. *chews lip nervously*
fightingthecage: (Gene - Kicking Ass)








...I haven't said anything on here about the writing festival I am at today because I have been neglecting my LJ and, of course, recent other stuff. But, I am at a writing festival. Part and parcel of it is the chance to have the first chapter of your book looked at by a book doctor and an agent.

I do not have a book. I have...six thousand words of what I planned to be a book, eventually.

Well, it looks like it needs to become a book PDQ because I sat down in front of the lovely David, he shook my hand and promptly said; 'It's very good. It's very good and I want to read more. From what I see here...'

Sod it - GUYS, I THINK I HAVE AN AGENT.

Basically, as long as it continues in the vein it is now, he'll represent me. There's no deadline on my finishing it but I (probably optimistically) told him I was aiming at the end of August to finish it. Perfect, apparently, as it gives us a couple of months to go through editing and he can start sending it out in January. He was talking about sales and the popularity of historical fiction and we have established that we'll just use my initials on the cover, because men don't buy historical fiction written by women. He's emailing me his details so I can send the finished article direct to him. He punched the air when I told him no one else had seen it.

To say I'm a bit shell-shocked right now doesnt really do it justice.

*MASSIVE VICTORY ARMS OF MASSIVENESS*

#geek

Mar. 26th, 2011 04:37 pm
fightingthecage: (Gene - Kicking Ass)


Ashley Pharoah is so sweet. I have spent the last hour wanting to smish him. /fangirl geek-out

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