Compost Mentis

hello and merry Xmas everybody! What did you get pressiewise? I got an iPod touch which I'm using to post this. It's so cool! Hahaha... Still can't cntrl it but no matter.

Hey you, how's it going?
( So I'm feeling a bit better now )
In other news, here are the things that I am currently enjoying and why:
TV - New Series - The IT Crowd  "Not as nice as your mother's glasses!"
       Merlin - 1) Saturday TV is back! 2) Arthur is pretty cute.  3) Sulky teenage wizards - why change a classic?
       CHildren In Need Special - I think they've been reading fanfiction.  How else do you explain Top Gear/Ashes to Ashes?  Also the sneak Doctor WHo preview looks pretty good.  Mmmm.
       Doctor Who - Best Christmas present ever?  I hope so.
       No Heroics - Bring it back bring it back bring it back!
       Clone - I'm not sure where you're going with this, but more Mark is always good.
       Coming of Age - Funny, with extra added Jeremy Clarkson cut outs!
       Dead Set - Seriously.  Fucking. Scary.  Even though I always wanted to see reality tv shows eat themselves alive.
       Charlie Brooker I always used to read his Screen Burn thingy in the Guide (Guardian Saturday insert FYI) and it cheered me up no end, so now he's got a tv show of the same name (and pretty much same content) it's just brilliant.  Not only does he hate most people on tv, and say so with wonderful erudite rudeness, but he also detests reality tv.  He destests it so much he seems to watch it all, soley for the purpose of telling us how shit it is and thus saving me at least from having to watch it.  And he thinks the whole Brand/Ross thing is stupid as well.  Plus he has a fantastically infantile sense of humour that made me laugh out loud.  Yes, hand gestures are fucking funny.  I thought so too. Oh, and he wrote Dead Set.  Now I want to hug him, but he'd probably hate that.  Damn you Charlie Brooker!

Music - THe Foo Fighters - I actually bought and paid for an album.  I feel so virtuous.  And I have happy ears.
Books - I finally read a Dresden Files novel!  And enjoyed it!  Now I have the suspicion that I may actually like detective stories.  Is this good or bad?
Also - The Last Watch (Sergei Lukyanenko).  I read it in a hurry last night, so I'm not 100% sure how I feel about it.  I think the ending bugged me a bit - obviously reading it too fast means the ending comes as a sudden surprise, but... I don't know.  THe other  books were defiantly not international - they offered (for me and my monoculture at least) an insight into a different country/culture.  They were sparse on pop-culture references that I could understand.  This one isn't, and it seems a bit odd because of it.  BUt it's still pretty damn good, even if the ending is more than a bit The Other Wind (Ursula Le Guin, last book of the Earthsea series).
Also I have new icons that I didn't make myself.  They're pretty shiny.
       That's enough rambling for me.  How was your day?

Mmm.
Nothing much happened today unless you count randomly reading internet crap.
Apparently some Swedish guy thinks that the USA is not the centre of the literary world.
Over on sf_drama people are getting all upset about things.
Specifically, Europeans are snobbish and stupid for assuming that America has just one culture.

I find myself kind of bewildered by the whole thing.  Is the USA one country, or not?

Also, Europe is a continent.  Not a country. What culture the individual member states share comes mostly from having kicked the crap out of each other in various wars.  And we don't agree on anything, ever.  This is not the same as the US, which at least pretends to have a unifying government that is capable of making decisions.
Grumpy patriotism aside, the Swedish guy is a twat.  Or his English isn't as good as he thinks it is.

Reading the original article I can't help but notice that the quote they got from the guy:
"Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world ... not the United States,"
has a big gap where those ....s go.  I wonder what else it was he said?
P.S. William Gibson = American Internationally-minded author FTW!

I just read my last entry and realised it's pretty much a double for this one.  For some reason I only update when I'm off work ill and have stuff I need to do but am not doing.  Still the same stuff, actually.  Oh well.  IN other news I am still in the life-fixing process, but gradually improving.  I do things on a regular basis now, rather than just sinking gradually further into a dingey funk of panic and depression.
I'm now going to clean my flat and write everything that needs to be written.  Then I shall write some more.
And eventually, I WILL do this bloody comic.  I have more plot than you could chuck a stick at.  I have names.  I have backstory.  I have an idea about writing it like it's a tv program only in comic form.  I have the potential for crossovers of fan-tastic awesomeness.  Now I just need a bit of spare time and less sofa inertia.
My cunning plan is to eventually be a well-rounded, healthy happy person who is capable of contributing to the world of internets without it becoming an obsession.  I'll let you know how that works out.

NB Sofa inertia, n. - Descriptive of the empty, lazy feeling that occurs around 9pm when there is nothing good on the tv and hasn't been all evening but still you cannot bring yourself to get up and do something, and so instead stay up until 1am watching reruns of Have I Got News For You.

Well the life-fixing process si still going on, but I feel a hell of a lot happier now I'm doing something about it.  I still have the same old problems with using the internet though - seems I can't go on it sensibly unless I'm actually working; if I go on here for fun I end up staying in front of the computer untill 3am, blurry eyed and stupid brained, while I assimilate a collective conciousness of really badly written fanfiction.
Yes, I'm still a bit strange headed from being up most of the night.  I also feel perfectly horrible, which is why I'm not in work.  I spent yesterday in front of the tv, playing final fantasy XII (or possibly X, I never remember) and watching Gormenghast.  Which is an awesome program.  Then I spent a good few hours on the computer, looking for fic about theDoctordonna, which is fairly lacking, and laughing myself stupid on ihasatardis , which is fairly hysterical.
Now of course I'm overcome with guilt because I did nothing of any use to anything or anybody yesterday, and I have a massive report thingy to write.  SO I planned that today I would get up early, shower, go to work and do many things.  I got up, showered, took some painkillers, and decided I would be quite happy if I never did anything again, ever.  So bleah.
In other news I haven't written anything, original or otherwise, in about a year.  I've not really made a start on my comic strip, although I have a plot, characters and tonnes of ideas.  I'm slowly teaching myself to play guitar, developing a social life, getting fitter by osmosis and a vague attempt at yoga, and being as self-sufficient as a terminally lazy person without an acre of land to herself can be.
I decided to name my cat Cat, after Red Dwarf, seeing as how that's the only thing he answers to anyway.  My rats still don't answer to their names and I doubt they ever will, but they are a heap of fun, so I don't mind.
In other news, I also watch a heck of a lot of tv.
( spoilers to DR WHO, HEROES, & IDEAL FINAL EPISODES )
So yeah.  That's my news.  And how are you feeling today?

A breif explaination of why things never get done.

Me:  I should hang up the laundry at lunchtime.
[Lunchtime arrives]
Me: I'll eat lunch first.
Common Sense:  WHy not fill in your account details with your broadband provider at the same time?
Me: Um, I might get drumbs on the keyboard?
Common Sense: Just be careful.  And you coul dbuy a calendar, too.
Me: Hmm, I do need a calendar.  And it saves time.
Stupidity: Yay!  Multi-tasking!
Me: Yay, multi-tasking!
( Common Sense: Oh Dear God )

So in short, I didn't do the laundry, I took two hours for lunch instead of working, I didn't update my account details, and I'mm sitting in front of the computer when I should be in front of the cooker, making the fish cakes I decided I was going to eat for dinner early so that I can watch Being Human at nine.

In other news, how're you guys?

You know that thing about desensitizing yourself to allergenic things, like pollen, so's you don't have an allergic reaction?

Do not try it with the internet.

ANyhow, I have signed up for a couple of interesting fic challenges (okay the same challenge, twice) over on fiandyfic 's journal.

In RL news, I am going on a proper sciency conference!  Hooray!  And I've been living off stew for a week because I couldn't be arsed to cook!  Boo!

Oh, and I've diagnosed myself with Delayed Phase Sleep DIsorder. Because I haven't been able to sleep all week.  And honestly, sitting up all night in front of a computer screen has nothing to do with it.  I have a disability, alright?  I should be able to start work at 11am and finish at 7pm if I need to.
Mm.  I'd laugh at myself more if I didn't remember that I'd always found it near impossible to sleep untill I discovered my own vitamin B12 substitute*.  Problem is, even though I think it's just the usual medical paranoia that happens when you read too much about a subject, I still can't fucking sleep.  And if that makes no sense so be it - you don't want to hear my sleep-starved brain actually working because the crap it comes up with is worth the trouble of trying to purge your brain afterwards.

I'm going to go try and fall asleep in front of the tv.

*read the bit in wikipedia about treatment

Woo.  2008.  The year I fnally get my act together, both in real life and on here.  I also, for once, have New Years Resolutions.  Which I will share with you guys later; at the moment I'm at my parent's, and must fight against ebay and my mum's email to get internet access.  I think maybe I'll sae up and buy a laptop.
Anyhow, have fun and all that.  This blog will live again next week.  Cheerio!
P.S. There's an adult content button at the bottom of this screen.  Why?

Okay, I have no idea why DS decided not to post that, but here's the thing I was all excited about. It's the Doctor Who Children in Need special, which everyone who was interested in has probably already seen, but anyway. Woo! See if you can spot the N.A.T., and the shameless fannage.

So apparantly I suck at making macros.
I guess it's not that important as a life skill.
I mean, think of all the useful stuff I could have been doing instead.  Like learning Russian.  Or washing the dishes. Or, God forbid, actually doing some research.
After all, in the great grand Scheme of Things, what does it really matter if I can't make a picture of a cat with amusing random words stuck to it?  Nothing, that's what!  It doesn't matter!
In fact, I honestly don't care.  I. Don't. Care.  Macros are stupid.  Really fucking stupid. In fact, they're the last word in dumbfuckery flame wars.  In fact, I never wanted to be able to make macros anyway.  You hear?  I never wanted to do it anyway!!

Seriously though, I have no idea why these are considered so sucky.  I'm gutted.  Gutted and grumpy.  Gutted and grumpy and hungover.
Although that last one I can't really blame on anyone else.

I have also had my first experience of the non-student nightlife of Edinburgh.  It's pretty good for the most part (says the person w/ nothing to compare it to).  I'm not used to being hit on, though, even as the friend of the attractive people (the girl I went out with has a magnetic personality) or at least I'm not used to being hit on by guys I can barely understand, and certainly not by guys old enough (like, 40+)  to know that when you lean over to try and kiss a girl and she shoves you backwards, that's a good time to give up and go the fuck away.

Ah well.  T'was good anyhow.

Is it wrong that this made me so happy?

My journal now looks cool, right up until you read it when it's still as crappy as ever.
Nevermind.  There will be fic later, I promise.
P.S. Finally, icons for sarcasm!

It's 6am and I'm an idiot.  Yay, insomnia!

but honestly, this is a joke, right?

Right?

I am not ignoring you, I'm just busy pretending I'm busy ;)  I have things to clean and things to tidy and dinner to cook, and I really can't be bothered.  I mean, it's almost like work.

I also bought All Tomorrows Parties by William Gibson on Friday and read it all on the train.  NOw I've started on Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.
It does strange things to your head, but they're both very, very good.
Very much so.
Now I shall see if there exists on the nets such a thing as Anansi fanfiction.  And try to ignore the fact that (still!) I keep on getting confusing images of Spider from the Mighty Boosh (as opposed to Spider from the Anansi Boys) popping into my head.
Also, I am now officially more geeky than I have ever been in my life, because I own a Doctor Who book.  And I've read it.  And, when I'm done with my other new reading things, I shall read it again.
♥

1) Have you ever become trapped in an argument/discussion just because you refused to let the other person have the last word?  How did you get out of it?
If that's never happened to you, have you ever been trapped in an argument (online or otherwise) because the other person thought they had to convince you that their opinion was right, and you were wrong?  Which do you think is more annoying?

2) Do you use a client program thingy to post to LJ?  Which one do you use?  Does it have a spellchecker? (and can I have the link if it does?)

3) What do you reckon is the main difference between British and American fiction (i.e. films, tv series, books etc) apart from money?

4) What book did you read as a teenager that you could never, ever read again?

5) Does it bug you when new books are described as "the next Harry Potter!" or "the Russian answer to Harry Potter!" or similar?

6) Do you care what happens in Lost? 

( my answers, let me give you them... )

SO here I am, all left home in my own flat with my own stuff eating my own cooking and smoking my own fags, ON MY OWN.
It's a bit weird.
But on the plus side, I have t'internet again!  So hurray!  I also have (I know, full of promises but never delivering - this one will turn up I promise!) a fic.
I also, also have a job.  So the actually ficcage may be a bit slow, but I'm detirmined to finish this story, even if it takes me several weeks or even months (considering most of my fics go for years without anything remotely approaching an update this will be quite an acheivement.)  In the meantime all I can say is that Torchwood is a really nice place to work, and I'm enjoying myself hugely apart from the huge mountains of dishes, laundry and mess that I apparantly make, and my pet rats Moz and Psycho Paul whose favourite activity is currently trying to prise things off the wall.  Particularly the phone cable.  THey also like to steal things, anythign that I've handled a lot (like the phone, the remote for the tv, the ashtray, my cigarettes, the contents of the ashtray etc) and pee all over anything that they can't run off with (like the sofa, and me).  I'm sure we'll work something out eventually - I bought them some toys but it seems that anythign I give them immeadiately becomes really boring.  Currently I'm keeping one of their toys with me, so they'll get confused and think it's mine and then, hopefully, actually want to play with it.