(10 shinys | shiny paper)

littlemoose Time: 10:28 pm.

Hey everybody. Thank you for all the kind thoughts - I've kinda been blown backwards by all the support I've got (online and offline and offline from online people... if that makes sense!). Dad wants to say thank you too - he says he feels 'like an honorary member of the interwebs'. So, the funeral yesterday, after possibly the longest wake in history (there is one crematorium in NI, so we just had to wait). We played mum's favourite song in the crematorium afterwards and it made a lot of people smile, so that was actually really nice. We're not traditional, but it worked, it was mum :) I guess that makes today day one, after everyone's gone and we're just here getting on with things. It's not been too bad today, but I'm not under any illusions - I know things could be shit for a while. But we discovered today that we can still laugh, so that's cool. My uncle came over today with some pictures of mum when she was young too, and left us copies - one of them is her when she was about... I dunno 15 or so, so late 1950s. In her convent school uniform looking awkward and teenage and brilliant... I've never seen photos of her that young before, it was weird, but cool. So... yeah. Thank you guys, each and every one of you - you've been awesome. And... well... I dunno, I'm just winging it, but I guess I'm back :)

(14 shinys | shiny paper)

dracothelizard Time: 1:26 pm.

TRAILER FOR SERIES 14 OF TOP GEAR STARTING THE 15TH OF NOVEMBER. Oh, wait, I've got nanowrimo write-in planned, then. Nano write-in trumps Top Gear, unfortunately, and I'll just have to download it the next day. Anyway, have a trailer: Jeremy has things on fire! Racing through sewers! Crap car challenges! Some sort of 'make your own tank' challenge! HURRAY.

(2 shinys | shiny paper)

scytheria Time: 1:20 am.

So it's really done, this time. Funny thing is...I initiated it this time. And I think it's going to stick. And I feel like shit. And like no one will ever and could ever love me. The end. Tonight.

(2 shinys | shiny paper)

visp Time: 6:29 pm.

There are rumors and legends about a book. You find it in an old book store, in a dusty corner. You've never heard of anything like it, but it catches your eye, so you keep it. It's fascinating at first, but as you continue to read, you grow weaker. Eventually you realize that the book is devouring your lifeforce, stealing your soul, but still, you can't stop reading it. References to it are made in the corners of madmen's journals, in hushed whispers among the occult seekers. Then, there's the very true instance of a law student who saw a copy of Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson in a little store while looking for antique teacups for her mother. She knew damned well what it was, and knew that she didn't have the time or energy to spend the next month brushing up on her 17th to 18th century history, the Stuart Rebellion, the origins of calculus, alchemy, the stock market trade of the Netherlands in the 18th century, the scientific and philosophical status of the Cambridge and the Royal Society, and all the other things needed to properly understand this monster of a book. She opened it anyway. Then she bought it and took it home. You can put "she knew better than that, but did it anyway" on my tombstone. That is all.

(shiny paper)

dracothelizard Time: 1:26 am.

I have broken the 10K line! And I have Kyle Katarn in there! He's now a vampire at the vampire school. Not a lot of sparkly Mary Sue ness going on, I'm afraid, and Kyle's not really being Kyle yet, he's mostly being Mr. Exposition. Obviously I'll have to give him a sword.

(shiny paper)

dracothelizard Time: 5:28 pm.

Had a bit of a busyish day today, since I was up at 7:30 so I could go to the folks who did the selling of bicycles picked up by the city. I was there at a bit past 8, got a number and was informed that I was the 120th person of that morning and to come back at 9:15. Went to the copyshop to look at some testprints for the Dracula flyers, which were fine, and the flyers would be done that afternoon, so that was that taken care of. Went back to the bicycle people, and got some free tea and a slice of cake from the Academy Building of our university as there was some sort of information day for secondary school students going on. So, I had my tea, and waited around with the other bicycle-hunters. It took ages, and by the time it started to speed up, some other people (presumably they had more experience with this thing) said that it was highly likely most of the decent and cheap bikes were sold already. And I had a day of presentations for university, so I left before I could even get a look at the bicycles, but I doubt anything suitable was left for me anyway. Anyway, the presentations were fine, and it proved once again that this teacher is awesome, because there was lunch available, including tea, coffee, cookies, apples, tangerines and bread, so we were all right with that. And now I can sit back and watch The Sarah Jane Adventures! I was rather surprised the current two-parter doesn't seem to have any Luke in it at all. I'm thinking the actor who plays him might be very busy with school or something, because Luke got sidelined in last week's episodes as well (a lot of 'Luke, stay here while Clyde, Rani and I check out the other room!') and in the one where Rani visited her old hometown Luke was left out a lot as well, having to stay with Rani's old friend rather than check out the fair with Clyde and Sarah Jane. And tomorrow my parents are going to drop by to bring an old bicycle from home. They had to visit family in a nearby town, so they decided to combine that. Handy, that.

(19 shinys | shiny paper)

dracothelizard subject: Jo Harvelle with a gun? Also hot. Time: 11:42 pm.

So, I spent a rather large part of the day watching Due South episodes, and I continue to enjoy it very much. I especially enjoyed the last bit in The Deal where Vecchio beats up the mob guy, and thought that was alarmingly hot. I'm not usually a violence pervert, but I suppose it was like Burn Notice, because Burn Notice had a moment that made me go 'aha, so that's what hurt/comfort is about', and another one that made me go 'aha, so that's what the gun perverts are about', although quite frankly, I've had moments of gun perverting before, because Simon Pegg was hot in Hot Fuzz when he was wieling ridiculous amounts of weaponry, and I find Richard Hammond worryingly attractive in this picture where he's got weapons as well. Anyway, yes, Vecchio needs to intimidate mobsters more often. And I still can't believe Fraser made him blow up his Buick, even if he found a replacement fairly quickly. Speaking of Fraser, I want more Fraser/Elaine. They'd make an adorable couple!

(4 shinys | shiny paper)

dracothelizard Time: 1:59 pm.

The saga of my bike, let me tell you it. So, last Monday it turned out the backtyre of my bicycle was flat. The backtyre is a bugger to fix, so I figured I'd get it repaired. I was rather busy that week, what with labstuff in the afternoon, so I didn't get round to taking it to the bicyclerepairshop until yesterday. On my way there, my backtyre decides to break down EVEN FURTHER. You know the metal bit on the inside? Yeah, that snapped in two places, so it was completely unmendable and I was going to need an entire new backtyre, which was going to cost me 70 euros. Since I am a poor student, I wasn't going to pay 70 euros for that, especially not when they informed there was the monthly sale of bicycles for about 35 euros this Friday. The bikes sold are the ones picked up by the city council because they were parked where they weren't supposed to be, and then never got picked up by their owners. As I was dragging the bike back home, _glarawen_ was having coffee with hope4dreams, and was all 'what happened?' so I explained what exactly what had gone wrong, and how I could always incorporate it into my novel. She suggested my baddie vampire could have a broken down bicycle, but no baddie vampire of mine is going to ride a bicycle. Maybe his do-gooder younger brother can have one that breaks down at an inopportune moment. And I still need to shove Kyle Katarn and Russell Watson! It's not a proper nanowrimo without them :D. My parents want to take the broken bike back home, since my dad can fix it at some point and having a spare decent bike is always handy. They also offered to drive up here with another bike we have back home (I think every Dutch family has about twice as much bicycles as they technically need), but I thought that was way too much hassle, especially what with the upcoming sale. If the sale doesn't work out, they can always drive up this weekend and collect the broken bike. But for now, I'll have to do things by foot or bus, which is doable over here. Right, and now it's time for some Due South, and after that I need to organise my notes for the Genes and Behaviour exam tomorrow, which is an open book exam meaning we can bring all the notes we like. I'd love to take another course from that teacher, seriously! Not just because of the open book, but also because she's a good teacher.

(2 shinys | shiny paper)

dracothelizard Time: 7:44 pm.

Well, the Bio-Organic Chemistry could go either way. The Organic Chemistry part was doable, the Pharmaceutical Biology horrible, so let's see if I scraped together enough points for a pass. And Firefox has been giving me ridiculous amounts of trouble. For some reason it refuses to connect to https websites, meaning I can't log into my email, amongst others. I re-installed it after uninstalling it, and it still won't work. Internet Explorer will access https websites, luckily, and I also installed Google Chrome, but that refuses to go to https websites as well. I expect it's some setting in my internet security somewhere, but it really is rather annoying. As for Desperate Housewives: SHUT UP, TOM. SHUT UP FOREVER. Do Lynette a favour and divorce her, will you? I still don't understand why we're expected to believe that his going back to college to study Mandarin was a good idea to begin with, since his excuse was that he'd learn Mandarin because he's a businessman and bla bla bla business with China. If you want to learn a language, going to college for it is the worst idea EVER, because they'll also expect you to learn about the history, and the culture, and the literature. Which, granted, can be very useful when doing business with people from China, because there might be less culture clashes, but for Tom it's useless. He's been out of the ad industry for over six years, and it clearly isn't even his dreamjob if his pizza place was anything to go by. Why couldn't Tom have just got a food-related job? Or a restaurant-managing job? SOMETHING THAT MAKES SENSE. And I can't believe the Lynette pregnancy thing either. At least Katherine the Psycho is entertaining, although I wish they'd bring back Orson the Psycho. On the bright side, I'm still on track for nanowrimo! And my vampire baddie has decided he has a do-gooder for a younger brother. I'm sure this'll come in handy.

(3 shinys | shiny paper)

visp subject: Halloween Time: 10:35 pm.

Saw a girl dressed as Alex from A Clockwork Orange, and another as Mia Wallace. I think I'll do Alex next year.

(13 shinys | shiny paper)

littlemoose Time: 5:59 am.

I know it probably seems awful, mobile posting at a time like this, but you guys have been my strength and in an odd way I thought I should tell you too. We lost mum at 4.30am. She was 65, the second youngest of 9, married to my dad for 30 years and my sarcastic, wonderful, maddning annoying loving generous mum, who only passed her driving test three months ago and thought she was the stig. I love her. Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com

(shiny paper)

visp subject: Best. Move. Ever! Time: 9:47 pm.

Zombieland! Go see it! It is awesome! Seriously, I was grinning like a lunatic when I left the theater. Woody Harrelson is fantastic in it.

(49 shinys | shiny paper)

dracothelizard subject: I have been ambitious but rubbish. Time: 3:54 pm.

Right, as there were two people interested in pictures of the contents of the Big Book of Top Gear, here are some highlights. ( Book picspam! ) Now with 100% less fail.

(2 shinys | shiny paper)

dracothelizard Time: 1:53 pm.

Only just now got round to watching the latest Sarah Jane Adventures. I love K-9 snarking at Mr. Smith! I am so doomed to a lifetime of dog-fangirling, what with Top Gear Dog and Diefenbaker, and now K-9. ( And more Sarah Jane )

(shiny paper)

scytheria subject: sleep deprivation Time: 2:07 am. mood: exhausted. music: afi--girl's not grey.

I don't drink at all, never have. But when your fellow coworkers are telling you you're acting like you're tipsy, you know you're sleep deprived. 85-hour work week, 13-hour shifts (14 tomorrow!) without breaks the last two days and this coming one, getting home at 1:30 AM and still needing to feed my pets and feed myself, maybe sneak in a super-fast shower, getting up early to dress up for theme days... I apparently am cursing like a sailor and have lost all sense of a verbal filter. But it's okay...because so has everyone else around me. It's...fun. And horrible. But fun. SLEEP. SUNDAY.

(4 shinys | shiny paper)

dracothelizard Time: 3:45 am.

I was going through the study guide for my Biomedical Sciences major, and checking if any of the demands for the major had changed, and the rather wonderful thing is that, as far as my planning is concerned, there is very little difference between my current Biomedical Sciences major and the Behaviour and Neurosciences major! I'm already planning on taking courses that count towards the Biomedical Sciences as well towards the Behaviour and Neurosciences major, so if the Organic Chemistry course fails and I do all right at all other courses, I can always switch to becoming a Behaviour and Neurosciences major without too much trouble. And let's face it, behaviour is fun. Granted, I may have complained about the C Elegans and its tininess and the way they're almost impossible to pick up with a toothpick, but fact is that I understood the labwork, and like I said, behaviour and the courses on it are fun. I am totally keeping switching majors in the back of my head as a plan B. It helps that, as far as the university is concerned, Biomedical Sciences and Behaviour and Neurosciences are quite similar. Win!

(8 shinys | shiny paper)

dracothelizard Time: 12:40 am.

ONLY 24 HOURS UNTIL NANOWRIMO STARTS :D :D :D. But now, back to two weeks ago when I went to Walibi World for a bit of Halloween. ( Although most of these pictures feature rollercoasters, and only three scary people, so I kind of fail at capturing the Halloween atmosphere, oh well. ) In other news, my Top Gear Annual of 2010 and my Big Book of Top Gear has arrived! The Big Book is filled with EVEN MORE ridiculous crack, and I love it! They all clearly made their own AU comics, with James getting Bigglesmay, Richard getting a Black Shadow comic where he marries a rich woman at the end, and Jeremy getting some Thunderbird thing. The international versions of Top Gear, where the Dutch version involved the Dutch equivalents of Richard and Jeremy shagging while they waited for James! The people who made it clearly had a lot of fun making it, and I still maintain that we at topgearslash should get involved to make it EVEN CRACKIER.

(6 shinys | shiny paper)

dracothelizard Time: 7:50 pm.

So, today was our project as labpartners, and we did two chemotaxis assays which involved a lot of washing petridishes and eppendorf cups with tiny tiny worms in them and pipetting them onto petridishes and then watching them for an hour. We weren't done until 16:45, and we get to do another chemotaxis assay tomorrow so we can compare three strains of tiny tiny worms and see if one of 'em goes to the attractant quicker than the others. So far, we've noticed that the N2 worms are sprinters, and the Hawaii worms do slow but steady. Good for you, Hawaii worms. Take it easy. And last night I stumbled across an upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie that has even LESS to do with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories than the Robert Downey Jr one. FEAST YOUR EYES ON THAT. Have you noticed what is probably a T-rex? The giant squid in the water? The firebreathing Pterodactyl? I'm just mentioning these things because the first time I saw it, I completely missed the firebreathing Pterodactyl, and I think everybody needs to see that. The entire Asylum movieline is AMAZING. It's filled with crappy horror movies and rip-offs of popular films! There are Transformers rip-offs and a Da Vinci Code rip-off and an Indiana Jones rip-off, and I sort of want those movies in my life. I also want James May's go at making a 1:1 scale Airfix model of a Spitfire in my life, but it's still downloading. Hurry up, download! Until that arrives, I'll do some Bio-Organic Chemistry studying. I am still enjoying Due South, by the way. It's such a NICE show, and Ray is adorable if a bit stalkerish when he completely falls for a woman. I still love Diefenbaker best, and I want Fraser to meet Nicholas Angel, Moser from Kommissar Rex, and Carrot Ironfoundersson. Massive Due South/Hot Fuzz/Kommissar Rex/Discworld crossover please? Except I can't be bothered to write it, obviously, but I'd love it if it existed.

(2 shinys | shiny paper)

scytheria subject: passing the week at Gothic Renaissance Time: 12:26 am. mood: exhausted. music: afi--dancing through sunday.

Sexual Harassment Mondays Topless Tuesdays Humpday Surprise Threesome Thursdays Casual Sex Fridays Slutty Saturdays Bloody Sundays As decided by Bobby (a girl)