Instant Human...

Relevant to some interests

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:53:14 GMT

Okay, so I was a bit grumpy about things and went hunting for things to help me sing the alto part of the Hallelujah chorus. I can read music, but I'm not used to being in the middle rather than on the top (oi, get your minds out of the gutter :P), and was finding it really hard to pull out the line in full choral versions.

But it turns out that the BBC is doing a big 'Sing Hallelujah' thing (which we're taking part in), and as part of this, they've recorded the BBC singers singing various lines with and without each other, to help people learn their lines.

I'm using it to learn the alto line, and listening to everyone else sing without your part, you suddenly realise that it's a *whole* piece, that every part is equally important, and if you take any of them away, the whole thing suddenly sounds really thin.

Anyway, I'm sure there's folks who'd find it fun, so here's the link: Get your music here!. If anyone wants them and can't get them, let me know too :)

Identity crisis

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:40:24 GMT

So, for the Oxford Libraries Carol Choir, I will be singing mostly Alto, apart from the song where I'm singing second soprano.

For Oxford Singers, I will be singing mostly Part One, which is sort of Soprano, and in my small group I will actually be singing soprano.

And when we sing carols (different from our concert songs), I will almost certainly sing descants.

I'm not sure I have enough brain cells for this...

This is not the post you're looking for

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:02:09 GMT

It's almost 3pm here and we haven't seen the sun all day. It feels more like 6pm and I'm ready to go home, not work 2 more hours. *sobs*

I often despair of humanity, but I should remember not to click links that make that worse, especially when I'm like this. The current battle is to not go and empty the vending machine of mars bars, but to have a banana, a decent coffee *hugs cafetiere* and get some work done so that I don't feel the day has been a complete waste.

The irony is, of course, that I have achieved things today, just...not that I can remember.

*sigh* Come on folks, what are you up to? Tell me what you've achieved today - I need some hope here!

Phew!

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:09:51 GMT

So I finally picked a costume for the "Come as you aren't" party, although for me, it's more 'come as you were'. Man I'd forgotten how much I love Gambit and loved writing him. I went in search of some icons (because that's usually my first stop) and nearly embarrassed myself in the reading room. *fans self* Now we have a big, working TV, I MUST HAVE Origins: Wolverine on DVD. As long as I can stop myself from drooling on it. I'm only up to date to the end of the Foxx storyline, but boy oh boy do I want to get caught up.

Anyway, my costume is definitely going to be Gambit-shaped. Yes, I've written it before, but who around here remembers that? And since it was my first fandom, it's cosy and nostalgic to go back to it.

I have half of a sort of kernal of an idea but if anyone wants to throw me a prompt, I'll see if it hits the spot. *twirls* Looks like I'm out to party after all \o/

watches the tumbleweed

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:04:07 GMT

Gosh, it's quiet around here, by which I mean LJ in general as well as my journal in particular. I think everyone migrated to Twitter when I wasn't looking (I'm there under this username, although I don't Tweet very much) and forgot how to make posts more than 140 characters long.

The quiet around here is due to a combination of the weather and general busyness. In theory, keeping myself busy and occupied should be a great way to combat the SAD that usually wallops me at this time of year. In practice, I'm mostly getting very tired and cross with myself for not being able to keep the flat in any kind of state of tidiness or achieve anything at all in general. We also had some house-stress, which is over now but has left me a little washed out and bluesy. That leads to no posting, and the less I post, the less I want to post and add that to one of the nastiest cases of Writers Block that I've had since I started writing and mostly what you get is a whole lot of nothing.

On the other hand, I've got most of the drabbles done now (some morphed into ficlets, because apparently I can't write short SGA any more) and am starting to have itchings to write more, which is definitely A Good Thing. I won't be doing NaNo this year, but will be trying to write every day, so that I can get through some of my stack of promised stories before Yuletide kicks off. I also won't be writing for the 'Come As You Aren't' party, because I can't think of anything that I'm capable of writing that I haven't written yet (although suggestions are welcome ;)), so I'm going to concentrate on my requests/prompts/exchange list for now. Should keep me going until the new year...

So yes, most of the reason I haven't been posting is that my life seems to be a random mixture of mania and boredom right now. If I'm not dashing frantically from commitment to commitment, I'm twiddling my thumbs and ~~reorganising my icons folder~~ pretending to write. My concentration span is approximately that of a hyperactive gnat right now, so just writing this post has been tricky - I keep wandering off to do other things :S If I could concentrate for more than 5 minutes at a time, I'm sure I could achieve greatness. As it is, most of what I'm achieving is a mess. Hopefully it's the kind of mess that suddenly coalesces into something, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, that's me. How are you guys? Still hanging on in there? *waves*

Podfic: Mount Badon by Brown Betty

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:07:52 GMT

Title: Mount Badon
Author: brown_betty
Reader: jadesfire2808
Fandom: Merlin
Pairing: Gen
Length: 23:46 mins (9.5 MB)
Link: Audiofic Archive

Recorded for fish_echo (who also provided the link, thanks!) as part of the Fandom Free For All. Apologies to anyone who knows how the names should be pronounced...

Cross-posted to amplificathon and merlinpodfic.

There's a double meaning in that

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:15:19 GMT

I am attempting to fill the bath using the shower. It's taking quite a while, and I kind of feel it should be a metaphor for or statement of something.

Mostly what it is a statement of is "I should put the hot water tank on earlier if I want a bath."

Nevertheless, I can't help feeling that it's the kind of thing that, if used in a story, would hold deep and meaningful significance.

*waits*

Nope. Still just boring...

Drabbles

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:47:22 GMT

I've got a total of 21 drabble prompts, so this is just the first batch. More to follow!

For dune_drd: Torchwood; Jack; starlight
Post 'Children of Earth'

Starlight

The cabin is dark and always moving. When he's shaving, Jack has to sway to keep pace with the mirror, and even then, he's fairly sure he missed a bit by his ear. Not that there's anyone to really shave for out here – the crew are more interested in Jack's coaxing another lightyear out of the engines than in anything else.

He shaves by the light of a lamp; there's no starlight in hyperspace, and he wouldn't know which was Sol anyway, but it's easier, knowing he can't see it. No point in running if even the light follows you.

For naye: Doctor Who; Donna; shiny
Post 'Journeys End'

Among the Stars

It's weird, but lately Donna's found herself turning into something of a magpie, buying clothes and jewellery that sparkle, anything shiny. There's the scarf with the metallic thread woven through it, and the dangly earrings that catch the light as they turn. She keeps taking them off just to look at them. It's like she's star-struck, only for actual stars.

She doesn't know why, nor why she's got those daft glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to her ceiling. But she knows that lying in the dark, staring up at them, she feels content somehow. Like this is where she's supposed to be.

For avon_09: Donna vs Castiel; ticked off

Kidnapped

"You just take me back right now, you winged freak."

Absently, Castiel rubs his chest where she poked him. He understands human anger as a fact, but being confronted with this much all at once is starting to hurt his head.

"I don't care what you think you're doing, I'm got friends in high places."

"We know." He almost has to shout to be heard. "That's why you're here."

That calms her a little. Only a little though, and as she starts again, Castiel has to wonder if this was a good idea.

Or if earplugs would make it easier.

For apiphile: Discworld; Vimes; youth

Known by Name

As much as his knees creak and his back cracks when he gets up from playing 'dragons,'* Vimes never wishes he'd done this earlier. If he has his way, the only monsters his son will have to face are under his bed and the only demons the imps in his disorganizer. But if he doesn't have his way, then the distance between the boy he was and the copper he's become means that he doesn't have to worry. He knows every monster and demon by name and young Sam won't face them unprepared.

*Which Sybil considers more suitable than 'horsies'

For donutsweeper: Criminal Minds; Garcia; sunny

Into the Light

Penelope blinks against the light, the brightness almost hurting her eyes.

"You okay?" Reid's touch is light on her shoulder.

"I guess. Just can't remember the last time I left work in the daylight."

"Summer's coming."

"Is that good?"

"Possibly. Although some studies have found that murder rates increase as the temperature goes up."

It's hard not to smile; Reid always has an answer for everything, even more than she does.

"That's good to know." Penelope pinches his cheek before setting off for her car. If she drives fast, maybe she'll be able to catch some rays before they disappear.

For white_hart: Discworld; Death; knitting

Monsieur Defarge

Clickclickclick.

"Are you making a scarf?"

"ER. YES?" Amongst the old women in the front row, it had seemed the thing to do.

"Very good colour, that. It's hard to find good black at the moment. You here for the revolution?"

"I…HAVE WORK HERE."

"Well, it's good to take a break. The next bunch of filthy aristos should be along soon."

"AND MY WORK WILL BEGIN."

"What a shame. You'll miss it."

"NOT EXACTLY."

Clickclickclick.

"I like the pattern. Are they skulls?"

"YES."

"Very realistic. What size needle are you using?"

Death looked down at his long, thin fingers. "NEEDLES?"

For perspi: SGA; Ronon; after

Downtime

What he does after a mission is just as important as the prep beforehand, cleaning his gear, polishing his boots, making sure his gun is recharged and ready to go. Around here, a mission can start before the last one is finished, and there's no way Ronon will risk being caught out.

It's also his own ritual, the wind-down that he needs, just like Teyla's meditations, Sheppard's run, or McKay's gabbling. There was never any time for this while he was running, and he makes time for it now, no matter hwat. Because who knows how long it will last.

For xwingace: SPN; John Winchester; angels

Someone to watch over me

"Don't you boys have a home to go to? No father to keeping an eye on you?"

"No, ma'am, I'm afraid he passed a few years ago."

"I'm sure he's up there, watching over you."

Dean barely manages not to wince, fervently wishing himself out of this conversation.. The comment is kindly meant, but the old lady doesn't know what she's talking about.

She can't know what being watched over from above really means, that he'd actually welcome his father's impossibly high expectations and stern guidance. Compared to the burden he's being asked to carry, John Winchester's rules seem light.

For travels_in_time: Discworld; Sam Vimes; fatherhood

Tall Tales

Everyone always asks young Sam what his father was like. Did he really do everything they say? Did he really arrest the Patrician that time? Did he ever smile? Everyone's heard the stories, and somehow think he'll tell them which are real and which aren't. As though most of them didn't happen before he was even born.

Sammy never knows what to tell them. Because for every true story, he's heard ten fake ones, and sometimes even he finds it hard to tell one from another. So he looks blank, like Dad taught him, and says,

"He was my father."

For karaokegal: Torchwood; Owen; pride

Broken

There's no point binding up his fingers, not really. Everything will break eventually, and if he's not careful, he'll end up mummified. He does it, though, just like he keeps getting up in the morning as though he slept the night before, and keeps going into work as though it's worth doing. He pretends not to see how the others look at him. Even his pride has limits.

He might not have beaten death, not really, but he's not done yet. Because if it comes down to a battle of wills, Owen against Death, no one should bet against him.

In a lesson about chickens and counting

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:29:01 GMT

We won't be buying a house for the forseeable future. Thanks for all the good wishes anyway :)

Still not going to be around much for a while apart from fic-posting, so love to y'all and catch you on the flip-side.

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:53:27 GMT

Life has been eaten by property hunting, budgeting and general DIY wrangling.

Yes, it's very exciting, but dear heaven my brain hurts.

More soon. Don't break anything while I'm gone.

Taking a break from drabble writing

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:48:42 GMT

becky_h, you're going to love this one...

Think of all the money you could save!

Credit to Awful Library Books.

One small step...

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:14:00 GMT

Everyone who writes goes through dry patches. This is pretty much a Truth Universally Acknowledged, blahblahblah, keep going, you'll get over it etc etc and much hand patting and hugging later, things get better.

Except when they don't, and you're *counts* three months on from when you last finished a fic properly, and you start to think that there's something actually wrong.

That said, I wasn't going to do this, because you know what's worse than having severe writer's block? Putting up a post to help with your writer's block and having to listen to the tumbleweed blowing through your empty journal. But I'm just desperate enough to risk it, quiet as LJ is right now (curse you Twitter!)

So I'm taking drabble prompts. The usual drill: leave me a Fandom, Character and Prompt word, and I'll deliver a 100 word story. Crossovers are fine, but no pairings please. I'll take on Stargate Atlantis, Doctor Who (including Eight (Lucie or Charlie) but not Eleven), Torchwood, Criminal Minds, Discworld, Supernatural and Sapphire and Steel but not House this time around, since I've only seen S1 & 2 and that was a while back.

FANDOM; CHARACTER; PROMPT WORD and a shiny 100 word story in return.

Simples!

If I'm chatty it's because my husband is talking to the computer instead of me

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:40:21 GMT

To be fair, J is actually rehearsing a presentation for a job interview tomorrow, but it doesn't change the fact that the screen's the one getting talked to, not me.

Flushed with soup-making success this evening (easiest thing I've made in WEEKS and utterly nom-worthy), I decided to flick through the flist before washing up, and was reminded of reel_torchwood. I totally, totally, honest to goodness don't have time to write a Torchwood version of a film. But. One of the things I have sometimes felt Torchwood is lacking is 'whole world' AUs. There are lots of fix-it/fork in the road stories, but not so many putting them in totally different situations. Admittedly I went straight from Torchwood to SGA, which breeds AUs like horny bunnies, but still. I decided I would be looking forward to the fics from here, and that I would have a look at the list of prompts, just to see who was writing what (yes, Chrys, I know about yours ;)).

It was all going so well.

Seriously, I am NOT going to write a Cabaret, with Jack as Sally and Gwen as Brian. Ianto is not the MC, definitely not, Owen is not Max and Tosh is not Natalia.

I'm not writing this *whimpers*

Usually I know what I'm doing. Mostly.

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:49:39 GMT

Does anyone out there understand Linux (Linpus Lite based on Fedora, and I'm fully updated) well enough to explain to me in words of one syllable how to uninstall a programme? My VLC isn't working properly - I get sound, but no pictures - so I want to uninstall it, then try reinstalling, in case that does the trick. But the 'beginners' forums tend to sneer at you if you can't do that. Is it just 'sudo yum uninstall vlc'? My experience with Linpus (*STABBITY*) suggests otherwise... I'm seriously considering switching to a friendlier version of Linux, or even XP, but for now, I'd settle for a working copy of VLC.

Most things have worked just fine, but the lack of picture is seriously irritating and kind of defeats the point of having VLC at all.

GRRRR!

What's got into Radio 4?

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:27:45 GMT

We are currently doing scary grown up financial things, and this made me snort in an undignified manner while J was on the phone to the mortgage people:

From The Times: Paxman says Mastermind is Dumbing Down

[John] Humphrys [presenter of Mastermind], who also spoke at the [Cheltenham literary] festival on Saturday, said Mastermind questions were also more difficult than in the past. When told that Paxman disagreed, he said: “Well, deliver this message to him. He’s welcome to test this proposition by appearing as a guest on Celebrity Mastermind.

“We’ll deliberately make the questions a bit easier for him, if he likes. Alternatively, we could have a shoot-out. I could put to him a set of questions chosen at random from the last ten programmes and he could do the same.

Come on, Paxman, if you think you’re hard enough.”

(er...emphasis mine, because that's the bit that made me giggle)

How much would I have loved to have heard him say that? Honestly, what are they feeding them at R4 at the moment?

Because you need to know this

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:17:34 GMT

When I put my Netbook in front of the main computer, I suffer from severe mouse confusion.

That is all.

stamps foot

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:07:33 GMT

I actually slept last night, deeply and properly for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long. It makes a staggering difference, and I am therefore obnoxiously cheerful. Seriously, it's horrible, but I don't care XD

On the other hand, I opened up my flist to find that just as I'm having a good day, everyone else seems to be being hit by life, and hit hard. Apparently 2009 didn't get the memo that it's supposed to be better than 2008, not worse. I am currently looking for someone to write to to complain.

Because of this, I don't think my usual "HOW ARE YOU AWESOME??" meme is quite going to cut the mustard* this morning. So I propose this meme instead, nicked from apiphile (er...hope that's okay *smiles winningly*) from a while back:

ORGY OF EGO-BOOSTING!

Here's your side of the deal, you comment and tell me:

1x AWESOME thing about me.
2x AWESOME things about you. (That's right. TWO)
3x AWESOME things about a friend of yours, on or offline. I don't have to know who they are, just tell me.

Here's my side of the deal! I will reply with two AWESOME things about you. If I don't know you very well, I will make something up, post a picture of a baby animal, or write you a ~~poem.~~ drabble (seriously, no one wants me to attempt poetry, it's painful for all concerned)

Come and play! And if you know someone in comments, or even if you don't, remind them how awesome they are too. It's always a free-for-all around here, but this time, I'm making it an official free-for-all.

See, I told you. Utterly, obnoxiously cheerful and with no intention of stopping :P

*I'm British, I can get away with phrases like that and keep a straight face. Mostly

Demanding Jades is Demanding

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:40:26 GMT

Sorry to spam everyone with endless requests, but I'm really hoping that this is a simple one. For once, my Google-fu has utterly failed me.

I'm working on AU Children of Earth fic, but can't find any full summaries anywhere - I need a day by day breakdown for the basic events and it just...doesn't seem to be out there.

Help! Am I just being really dim?

Er. Actually, don't answer that.

Can anyone help me?

Thank you!

Uck.

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:42:07 GMT

If anyone has any tried and tested non-nauseating food, I'd love to hear suggestions. Every time I eat at the moment, I end feeling incredibly sick, and at the moment, I feel like I've got a golf ball stuck in my throat.

Shockingly, I'm not at work, and have spent the day curled up in bed or asleep. I *never* sleep all morning unless I'm actually sick, so this has gone from 'slight stomach upset' to 'tummy bug', at least in my head, which gives me permission to be ill. Which makes sense to me, at lest.

So yes, if anyone has suggestions for food I could eat without making myself really ill, I'd appreciate. Otherwise, I'll be under a blanket watching Doctor Who and trying to pretend I don't feel like I'm about to throw up :S

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:44:33 GMT

Well, we can officially put last week's frostiness from my Legal Foundations course class down to nerves. They were much friendlier this week, and although the lecturer had to compress 2 hours of lecture into 1, she did a great job. Did I mention that I love the lecturer? She's one of those people who you feel lives at the edge of a chaos curve, but is incredibly knowledgeable about her subject.

The basic thrust of the lecture was that British law is what judges make of it, which I think I already knew, and how they get around precdent. Or don't. Something like that. Anyway, I think I learned something. Possibly.

Quick PSA: Do not listen to The News Quiz in any kind of confined public place like, say, a coach from London to Oxford, as the underpant jokes will cause you to embarrass yourself by snorting.

Quick favour request: </b>Is there anyone out there who could make a little graphic for me?</b> Please? I need about 500 words turning into a little picture so that it looks like a newspaper clipping. I could probably figure out the font, but making it into a full graphic is more than beyond me.

Did I mention how much I love wi-fi on the coach? It's about as much as I hate business men who spend the ENTIRE JOURNEY having a loud conversation on their mobile. *stabbity* Thank goodness for Radio 4 podcasts...

Fic and art: The Book (Supernatural, Gen)

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:31:27 GMT

Sometimes, an idea just won't let go. Waaaaaay back in March, donutsweeper wrote a really sweet Supernatural Weechesters story called Another One For the Book. At the time, I had a short discussion in comments about what would go under each letter. Most of the time, I don't think any more about these conversations, but for some reason, this one stuck.

So I decided to make The Book (capital letters compulsory). As you do. And because insanity loves company, I roped rustydog in to give me a hand. The result is some kind of hybrid between fanfic, meta, fanart and a labour of love. Certainly it took me long enough to put the basics together, and it took forever for the parcel to make its way across the ocean so that Rusty could finish it off and send it on to its final destination with Donut.

Below the cut is the story I wrote to go in the front of The Book, along with an album of pictures to show the making process. Rusty performed sterling beta duties as well as providing the original art work for the book.

Special thanks must go to nightdog_barks who sent me a huge bundle of newspapers which provided both a useful source of cuttings for The Book and a slightly alarming (for a Brit) insight into Southern US culture. I'm not used to seeing so many adverts for churches and I'm not used to seeing any for guns! Anyway, the papers were essential to the making of the book, and enable the whole project to get off the ground.

Title: The Book
Author: jadesfire2808
Artist: rustydog
Words: 1,044
Rating: G
Genre: Gen
Spoilers: 4x17 It's a Terrible life

Summary: It was one of the few pacts that neither of them had broken, ever. Mostly.

The Book

There was still a lot of junk left over from their non-lives in the corporate machine, and Dean kept finding the wrong stuff in weird places. First of all it was the suspenders at the bottom of his duffel bag, then it was the bag of what turned out to be decaf coffee spilled all over the carpet of the trunk. He found a tea bag under the silver bullet box, three (empty) hanging files behind the driver's seat of the Impala and a pencil sharpener in his spare pair of boots.

At that point, he was pretty sure that Zachariah was screwing with him.

When they next stopped, somewhere just outside Hastings, Nebraska, he left Sam leafing through newspapers at the nearest diner and went back to the motel room, determined to root everything out once and for all.

It took him about an hour to go through all his things, pulling out pencils and file cards from the most unlikely places and dumping everything in the trash can until it was almost full. He was going to have serious words with Castiel about angelic senses of humor.

He picked up the trash can to put it back by the door, then glanced over at Sam's bag which was sitting on the fuchsia and lime bedspread. They'd had a rule about not going through each other's stuff since Dean was fifteen and Sam had uncovered his porn stash. It wasn't that he'd minded sharing in principle, it was just that Dad would have torn him a new one for letting his eleven-year-old brother get hold of that stuff. Anyway, it was one of the few pacts that neither of them had broken, ever. Mostly.

Desperate times, Dean told himself as he tugged the duffel open. If he found another ballpoint pen buried under a stash of tapes he was going to go stark raving crazy and probably kill Sam and eat him or something.

There wasn't much evidence of the oh-so-funny heavenly practical joke in Sam's bag, it turned out. A couple of pen drives (I haven't run across this term - it's funny how many names there are for them!) with the Sandover logo on them, which Dean decided not to throw out, just in case they had genuine research stuff on them. The headset that he found tangled in a pair of socks probably wasn't Sam's, and he was fairly sure the weird paperweight thing that didn't look like it could hold down much more than a post-it note also went in the trash.

Sam's bag was lighter without the laptop and his usual weird book collection in it, but Dean could feel something hard and square at the bottom, so he tipped the bag upside down, frowning as the small, black notebook bounced off the bed.

Flicking it open at random, he glanced at a couple of the pages then sat down hard on the bed. More slowly this time, he began turning from entry to entry, smoothing down notes that had been stapled in, and unfolding pieces of paper that had been too big to fit.

This was The Book. Or at least, it was the reincarnation of The Book. He thought it had been lost along with the rest of Dad's stuff.

Sam seemed to have ordered it the same way they had done when they were children, with pages for each letter and neat little entries underneath. Some pages were crammed tight, while others were blank, and it looked like the overflow had gone in the back, along with some pieces that he hadn't managed to stick in yet. The original Book must have fallen to pieces, but it looked like Sam had carefully copied every page, sticking them into this new version. Dean had wondered if Sam kept a journal like Dad did – had done – whatever – but this. This wasn't lore or speculation or rumors.
This was like reading a diary, of everything they'd seen and killed, and while it was his life too, Dean suddenly felt like he was intruding.

Closing it with more of a snap than he'd intended, Dean quickly dropped it back into the bottom of the bag and stuffed Sam's clothes on top of it. He'd make some excuse about picking it up to move it while it was open and all the stuff falling out or something like that, and okay, if he was at the point where he felt he needed to think of cover stories in advance, he was seriously rattled.

Holding that battered notebook hadn't been like holding The Book again. It didn't smell right, for one thing, not having had Dad's Jack Daniels or ketchup from one of Dean's burgers spilled all over it. And it was too neat and tidy, covered in Sam's girly handwriting, everything at right angles and carefully stuck down rather than the mess that the old book had been.

But it had still brought it all back, the nights looking after Sam while he waited for Dad to get home, or going out on hunts knowing that his father was there to back him up. Learning to fight, to shoot, to look after himself and Sam, learning about all the things that went bump in the night. He couldn't remember a time when he hadn't known about the monsters. Actually, that wasn't true, was it? Thanks to Zachariah, he'd had three weeks where he hadn't known anything about them.

Dean had always thought that ignorance was bliss, that part of his job was to make sure the plain, normal people in their cookie cutter homes didn't have to know anything about the dangers that lurked just outside their safe little world. The Book was everything those people shouldn't have to know, should never have known, just as it was everything he and Sam needed to know. As much as he'd wished it all away, more than once, this was part of who they were, and there was no way he could change that.

Grabbing his car keys, Dean snagged his jacket from the back of a chair and headed for the door. There had to be some stores still open in Hastings. Maybe it was time to get himself a journal.

The below should play as a slideshow. If you want a chance to look at the pictures properly, just click on it, and it'll take you through to Picasa for the album. The yellowy pictures were taken by me, the decent shots are by Rusty.

Welcome to the week

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:54:44 GMT

I just heard the words "Come on, if you're hard enough" uttered on the Today programme on Radio 4. Please can I always start my Monday mornings like this?

In case you're wondering why, it was in relation to this news story: Evan Davis vs. the Karate Kid. The 'kid' in question being the world's youngest holder of a black belt at the age of 5. Appropriately enough, she's in the UK to promote the video game Mini Ninjas!

Square muffins!

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:37:15 GMT

All you need is a lack of muffin tin, a roasting tin and 12 paper muffin cases and voila!

[Apologies for terrible webcam picture - our camera is broken :(]

happy sigh

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:08:05 GMT

It is entirely possible that Moroccan-style mint tea is the best thing in the world. Ever. 1 peppermint tea-bag + 1 green tea bag, teapot, boiling water, brewed for at least 5 minutes (preferably more), drunk from a small glass with sugar to make as sweet as you want.

Seriously. Best. Thing. Ever.

*is refreshed*

Between a list of chores that takes up an A4 page, and J's reading for his viva, it could be a long weekend. Anyone out there? Doing anything interesting? Got any good banana muffin recipes? Mine always seem to burn...

Happy Friday

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:40:29 GMT

♥ I spent about an hour reading in Duke Humfrey's library last night. It's part of the Bodleian and looks like this. I arrived at 5.30, when the sun was streaming through the stained glass windows and making everything look beautiful. Then, just as I started to read, a choir started singing somewhere, and I honestly felt like I was in some kind of Oxford nostalgia film, complete with my own soundtrack. It was just one of those perfect moments, and I honestly couldn't have been happier. *sigh*

♥ Choir was awesome. Also, cheesier than a fromagier's, but awesome. We've got our Christmas concert on 12th December, for anyone who's in the area. I'll be doing a solo, but don't let that put you off ;)

- I'm very jealous of everyone already on Google Wave, because it looks shiny and exciting. Here's hoping the beta goes well and the rest of us can get in soon!

♥ I have a good feeling about work today, and home this weekend. Nothing I can put my finger on for why, just...an all round good feeling. Of course, that could also be because I've got my little light box on as I type this, and my big one has arrived for home. After some faffing, I think we've come up with a light set-up that's actually going to work for me - a lamp with a daylight bulb that comes on using a timer switch, a little LED light box under my monitor at work, and a big Lumie lightbox for the living room at home. The morning light is especially good, because we keep it on the windowsil behind cream curtains, which means that it's like waking up to a glorious sunrise every morning. Of course, it's a bit disappointing when I get into the living room and it's all gloomy outside, but that's what the big box is for. Here's hoping for a better winter.

♥ I've joined Bookmooch, which was recommended by a friend at work. Books are hard to sell on eBay, so I figure I may as well swap them for books I actually want to read!

♥ After a trip to the doctor's yesterday, I am officially 'fine', if in something of a catch-22 situation. I have a stomach upset, which means I need to be careful what I eat for hte next few days. I also have inflamation behind my kneecap which is intermittently very painful, and for which I should take ibuprofen. Which is notoriously bad for upset stomachs. ...yeah, I'm still working on that one...

So, today I am awesome because I am in a good mood. What about you, guys? How are you awesome today?