bluflamingo

Life has been a little crazy since... oh, February, maybe... but I miss you all, so I'm going to try to actually post something occasionally. In the meantime, have a list:

1. I passed my PhD upgrade panel! (In case I never said, I'm a part-time PhD student alongside working full-time, looking into service provision for female victims of domestic violence from a same sex partner). It basically means I can now seek ethics board approval and do the research part - eep!

2. My landlord decided in May to evict me (apparently, I'm supposed to just live with water coming through the ceiling and not complain about it?) so I ended up moving in something of a rush to a fairly tiny flat that I nevertheless love - I keep telling people it's the best decision I was ever forced to make when I didn't want to

3. I've been making some clothes, since I like to sew, and I hate to clothes shop. So far: one dress with shirring top (out of purple fabric with squirrels on it); one blue and purple patchwork skirt (oh my god, that took FOREVER); one very bright wrap around skirt; a tea dress with tea pots fabric (about three quarters done, but needs another panel to make it long enough); and a panel skirt that I figured out myself, and which is hence driving me slightly crazy. Next up is a shawl to wear to my best friend's wedding (over the dress a friend is making me), a bag for the same, a circle skirt out of green floral fabric, and a halter top dress that's suitable for work. Plus, if the latter works out, another version in purple camouflage fabric. Oh, and a baby quilt for a quilt show.

4. Job interview tomorrow, eep. and extra eep because I bought a new dress to wear, but it's white with black flowers and I just got my period - slightly risky?

5. My marvel big bang fic is almost finished, but I think I want to write a companion piece to go with, because then I can write Natasha and Sam and Steve and Maria Hill being smart and awesome and coming to the rescue. Fifty days is plenty of time though, right?

6. I still haven't finished my beginners archery course, mainly because it's on Sunday mornings and I'm not very good at mornings even on weekdays. Does anyone have any good suggestions for making myself get up and go?

I just got called a hysterical female by an assistant at Timpsons (for non-UK folks, they cut keys).

Way to make sure I never buy anything there ever again!

Particularly since all I was doing was calling to complain that only 3 out of the 10 keys I just had cut actually worked. No apology, when I pressed it, sarcastically asked if I wanted him to get down on his hands and knees, and then told I sounded like a hysterical female.

So, not only can they not cut keys that work (or am I supposed to use them to decorate my office?) but they're also rude and sexist. Anyone know a good key cutting service? I seem to be in need of one!

I got three lovely stories written for me in holiday exchanges this year:
The Witching Hour (1212 words) by havocthecat
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Laura Cadman/Teyla Emmagan, Kate Heightmeyer/Elizabeth Weir, Ronon Dex/Evan Lorne
Characters: Laura Cadman, Teyla Emmagan
Summary:

It's midnight on Atlantis and everything's all right.

Moving Day (2045 words) by tielana
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Kono Kalakaua, Jenna Kaye, Danny "Danno" Williams, Chin Ho Kelly
Summary:

Kono and the guys help Jenna move into her new apartment. Except that the guys have been delayed and it's just Jenna and Kono.

Restoration (4228 words) by perspi
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Chin Ho Kelly/Steve McGarrett
Characters: Steve McGarrett, Chin Ho Kelly, Mary Ann McGarrett
Summary:

Sometimes restoration comes when you least expect it.

Which means I should really link to the stuff I wrote, but that's going to have to wait for another day - I can't wrap my head around coding all the links today.

To my amazement, I don't have anything I should be writing because there's a deadline coming up (which probably means it's time I got my act together for another round of Cam Trope Fic). Instead, here's a list of things I'm hoping to get written in 2012:

Stargate:
1. The thing I started as a pitch hit for 2010's secret santa, in which John doesn't go back to Atlantis after the Return, and ends up with Cam Mitchell, with a sub-plot about how he was involved with Rodney and it fell apart because Rodney was scared and couldn't get over his insecurities about John having to keep them secret
2. Dysfunction verse future fic, in which John and Cam get their happy ending (and a dog)

Hawaii 5-0:
3. The one where Danny totally knows Steve likes him, doesn't like Steve back and knows Steve knows this, and is trying to avoid talking about it
4. The thing I started which is a post-2.10 AU in which Jenna lives and about her and Lori trying to learn to relate to each other (because to Lori, Jenna's the girl who nearly got her friend killed, and to Jenna, Lori's the girl who stole her spot on the team even if she didn't).
5. Something about Steve and Chin before Steve joined the Navy, and then the awkward conversation about what happens now they're working together years later
6. Sequel to Building Family

Other fandoms:
7. The White Collar AU where Alex is Diana's CI, and Alex and June's daughter get up to criminal high-jinks together while looking hot
8. Firefly: sequel to Gone where Bridget finds Kaylee
9. Possibly something about Ariadne and Philippa in Inception - mainly because that film has far too many men in it, and I want to write about the women
10. Something Colby/David, from Numb3rs, having just watched season 5. Possibly a post-season 6 AU in which David stays and takes over leading the team, and Amita and Colby bond through online role playing games in which she mocks him for being terrible

Plus, I've been saying everywhere that this is going to be the year in which I write my space moles novel, and get upgraded from MPhil to Phd with my studies; start a queer writers group, get paid to run a writing course, volunteer more. Be more involved in activism - I want to start a Lesbian Feminist Collective, because I feel too gay in feminist spaces and too feminist in LGBT spaces, but I don't know how or what we'd do. Of course, the trick might just be to gather people together and see what happens.

So, that should keep me busy :)

1. I've finished my sg_flyboys fic. Usually I wouldn't even have started it yet. What's going on?!

2. The biro I had in my trouser pocket at work this evening has leaked and I've now got a lovely purple splotch on my thigh - looks like a horrible bruise, weird.

3. skieswideopen, thank you for my card! So lovely, and the first one I received.

Mrr, I was sure I had more things to say when I was mentally writing this post while I was driving home from work. No idea what they were now, of course.

Actually, here are two Hawaii Five-0 fics I posted elsewhere:
Shore Leave: Small world, similar types of partners, it was bound to happen eventually (Steve/Catherin, Kono/Catherine, Steve+Danny friendship)

Leave No Man Behind: A test, an escape, a rescue. Family (goes au towards the end of episode 2.10) (Steve, Jenna gen)

I just got accepted for my PhD! I was hoping to get funding to study full-time which I didn't, so I'll be doing it part-time alongside my three jobs (yeah, I know) but I don't care because I GOT ACCEPTED!

I've also got permission from my landlord to get a cat, and am hoping to adopt to 2-year-old brothers - ginger, like me (and Cadman) and raised as indoor cats, which they have to be. Things keep coming up so I've been waiting to get them for a few weeks, but still, hopefully they'll soon be living with me.

I'm 4000 words from hitting the word count for my Atlantis big bang, and I need a break from thinking about it, so, a meme (stolen from penknife:

Give me a pairing and I will tell you:
1. What they most commonly do during sex
2. Who has prettier hair
3. What they argue about most often
4. Who'd cope best if the other one died
5. The happiest plausible happily-ever-after I can think of for them.

I've now got eleven whole days off, in a row. I think this may be the longest I've had as holiday since I was living with my parents. That's over a decade!

Anyway, I was going to go away, but then I got the flu about the time I would have started sorting it out, and I'd have had to pack, and all my things are here and... yeah, that's not happening. So I'm staying at home, and being a tourist in my own city. I've got a cheap ticket to the circus (yes, the circus really is in town), I won two tickets to see the Philharmonia Orchestra, I have a voucher for half price demo of blue glass making and to have a go at blowing my own glass thing.

I'm going to the zoo to see the flamingoes, the South African penguins, and the pygmy hippos; I'm going to the Botanical Gardens; I'm driving a couple of hours to Watchet to make sure the sea's still there; I'm going to sit by the river and look for cormorants.

I've also got to finish a mobile I'm making for a family friend whose wife is having a baby any day now, and decorate a glass bowl for my mum for her birthday. Possibly start making a felt rock monster family for a friend's birthday. finish three fics I'm partway through, and start my queerfest fics.

All in all, probably for the best that I'm not going away!

Hi world! hi!

Not that anyone probably noticed I was gone (because I know it takes me weeks, sometimes months to start going, hey, X has been quiet lately...) but I noticed you all were gone :(

The reason being, I moved house on the 4th and only got internet reconnected today. Worth it, though, because my new flat is gorgeous, and doesn't have rats, and is bigger than my old one, and in a better neighbourhood and I love it to a completely ridiculous degree. So - yay!

Other news...I also got a new car, after my old one died on me, and it's tiny and pretty and red. I have my last appointment with my counsellor next week and, unlike last time we were possibly finishing (where I go books counselling in 6 week blocks) and I had a complete freakout over it, I actually feel ready to stop now, which is good.

Um, I'm off to a wedding fayre this week, with my sister, my mother, my sister's future mother-in-law and my sister's future sister-in-law, the latter two I have never met. And I'm so not a wedding fayre kind of person, I don't care about this stuff. But it's part of me and my sister trying to get along better, so I'll fake it :)

( Also, under a cut because this is where I rant, not about any of the above stuff )

Also, also: passed by a guy loading beer things (barrels? are they barrels if they're made of metal) into a van.
Him: Some weather (sarcastically, as it was pouring)
Me (also sarcastic: Yeah, lovely
Him (apparently sincere): So are you
Me: *keep walking and pretend he didn't say anything*

Cos God knows I look my best when I'm in slob around the house clothes and my hair's wet cos it's raining! Why do people do that?

There was something else I was going to say as well, but do I know what it was? I do not. (tangentially related to that, in uni, my friend and I watched The Mummy until we could practically recite it, and we'd often end a tale of our day with "And did I panic? I did not," John Hannah's line.)

So, weekend's nearly over, and I'm actually kind of glad, because let me tell you, it has been frenetic in the style of a busier working day.

Starting with my car refusing to start at 10pm Friday night (but a nice man from the AA came and rescued me *and* followed me 30 minutes to my garage *and* drove me home). Then the rental car I had Saturday wouldn't start either, so I had to get a new one (they're street rentals, not from a company, so I'd already walked to one, and had to walk on to another. Uphill. In the rain.)

Then, during my volunteering shift at a theatre box office, the ticket printer broke down. Starting to wonder if me and machines are cursed right now. Also, not a good thing when you have 300 people to get into a panto. Including a screeching parent who swore she'd bought two tickets we could find no record of, and a bunch of people who thought 20 minutes before a show goes up was a good time to come in and buy tickets.

Still, on we go. Also, now I have a cold.

On the bright side: I (subject to references and credit checks) also have a new flat! It's lovely, in a nice area, the guy living downstairs seems nice and like he'd totally come and help if there was a spider in the bath (shudder) and I can't wait to be living there. Which is good, since I said I'd move in two and a half weeks. What was I thinking?!

On which note: why does the removal company I just looked up, in their list of 'things you want to move' include a piano, but not a bed? Do I want to know what that says about them (answer: almost certainly no).

The joys of watching the news with the subtitles on.

The presenter said "People looking to quit (smoking) will be able to get a Quit Kit from their chemist."

The subtitles said "People looking to quit will be able to get a kick from their chemist."

Somehow, I think that might be less tempting!

Some days I hate my co-workers. One of whom just announced that she didn't think my city's Pride festival yesterday was 'gay enough.'

Unless you're gay, which I know she's not you don't get to say if it's gay enough or not! It's nice that some not gay-specific vendors came along. And, also, pride's as much about having a safe space to be openly gay as it is about being all-gay all-th-time.

Can I go back on holiday now please?