Torchwood fans on my flist, the Radio 4 afternoon plays from tomorrow to Friday are all Torchwood ones, bridging the gap between Series 2 and next week's mini-series:

1 July, 2.15pm: Asylum
2 July, 2.15pm: Golden Age
3 July, 2.15pm: The Dead Line

I presume, as with most BBC stuff, they'll only be accessible online from the UK, but I'm sure it won't take long for someone smarter than me to fix that.

Given that i have done very little this weekend other than sleep, eat (strawberries), drink (iced tea) and watch TV (Wimbledon, Glastonbury - OMG, BLUR!!!) you would think I'd be well rested and prepared to face the week. In actual fact, I mostly want to buy more fruit and revel in nostalgia. But duty and my bank account call and I am trying to summon up some enthusiasm for work. It's pretty slow going. And we are apparently expecting a heatwave (at least by UK standards) this week, which is bound to increase my productivity, I'm sure!

I think I'm going to have strawberries lunch now, and see if I can book tickets for Harry Potter at the IMAX yet.

Happy Monday, flist!

Random friending by Russian bots is good for something, as it reminded me that I haven't posted for ages. Instead I have mostly been making the most of every scrap of sunshine as, if this year is anything like the last few, this will be the closest to summer we get, and rereading HP in anticipation of the new film. My mum and Baby!Sis are also rereading, which leads to conversations like:

Mum: ...but I forgot to get the other one.
Baby!Sis: You need a Remembrall.
Me: She'd just forget what she was trying to remember.
Baby!Sis: She's not Neville.
Crazy Great Aunt: *stares blankly*

Dorkiest family ever.

It is probably rather unkind to carry on such conversations around CGA, who is often confused even by interactions in normal English.

Also, my niece, although she is far too young for the books, as she is only two-and-three-quarters, has developed a fascination with Harry Potter that mostly manifests as totally disproportionate glee whenever she hears a mention or sees a picture of Hagrid or 'Mister Dumbledore'. Cutest Thing Ever. My brother is very aggrieved that we are 'turning his daughter into a geek', so now I am definitely buying her the Nerd ABC for her birthday.

Today we have had a massive thunderstorm so it is too damp to enjoy the outdoors. I'm going to finish work and then maybe delve into bandombigbang stories (recs, anyone?). Or carry on reading Goblet of Fire. I haven't decided yet.

What's new with you, flist?

* email header in my inbox last week. seriously.

So I was going to do that thing where I finally post after a couple of weeks and whinge about all the ways in which life is kicking my ass. But then I rewatched this video and I defy anyone to get to the end without a smile on their face.

Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me"

And yes, I was reminded of it by the MCR blog, but don't judge.

swmbo tagged me. Tagging people I don't think have done it yet:deaver, ngaio, soft_princess, traveller, viciouswishes. But no pressure. If you've been tagged, you are supposed to write your answers in your own LJ and replace any question that you dislike with a new, original question. But you don't have to, because this is not school and homework is always only optional.

( Read more... )

I have spent most of today battling computer issues. In lieu of a post which is me complaining about that, here's some random links to the outside world:

- My Little Ponies as movie characters. Even more awesome than it sounds, because characters includes Edward Scissorhands, Chewbacca, and Uma Thurman as The Bride.

- Gay ducks. Called Ben and Jerry. Who names ducks after ice cream, seriously?

Naturally, the story being in the Daily Torygraph, the headline for the latter is 'Blue Ducks likely to die out in UK after male birds get together'.

- I want this so much. £100 is totally a reasonable amount of money to spend on music you already have in mp3, CD and probably (if I dug around in my parents' attic) cassette format, right?

Yeah, okay. Christmas isn't that far off, I guess, compared to, like, the age of the planet.

In terms of achievable goals, I really want a bagel. I woke up with a craving and we only had crumpets, which do not lie especially close on the bread products spectrum.

Happy Monday, flist. We have spring. We've actually had spring type weather since the middle of last week, even before it was official. I love the sun *so* much.

It would probably be tempting fate to switch out my winter icon, wouldn't it?

Apparently I haven't posted for a week. Oops. Actually, I've not been online much at all except for work stuff. I've spent a lot of time outdoors, minding The Niece, getting to grips with my shiny new camera, reading and watching Red Riding, which was some excellent TV and I wholly recommend it. Today I am trying to get some work done and trying to decide how I feel about Spotify. Deep stuff.

ETA belated happy birthdays tominervacat and fodian.

In lieu of actual content, silly news item of the day:

Short-legged pony sparks repeated rescue attempts: Mayflower, a particularly compact pony, would like you to know the following: she is not stuck in mud, she simply has very short legs.

I had a fairly crappy weekend - the plan was for peace and quiet and behaving like a hermit, but the reality involved a little more family drama and a little less sleep. Today I am cranky and overtired and immersing myself in work and music and awesome chocolate chip cookies.

I might have actual content later. For now: Star Trek perfumes* to go on sale. The Guardian asks what TV show's scent you would wear?

Thoughts, anyone?

*Tiberius, Red Shirt and Ponn Farr. I kid you not.

kita0610 made the point, regarding the recent and ongoing RaceFail, that silence can be as damning as saying something wrong; one privilege we don't have is to have our stance on things like this taken for granted and no one knows where you stand unless you take off the invisibility cloak.

So, for the record, borrowing Kita's words because they cover it pretty well:

I am not okay with this. It is not about 'both sides behaving badly'. It is about racism. Full stop. Everything else is window dressing. Racism will not be tolerated in any community I am a part of.

If you don't know what this is about, or like me, have only been following peripherally, that's less a reason not to say anything and more a reason to take a little time to learn. rydra_wong's archive above of links on recent events is incredibly comprehensive.

If you want a broader context than this particular incarnation of the issue, The Angry Black Woman's list of required reading is a pretty good start, as is mystickeeper's Privilege 101 primer, which is here.

( the view from my window at 4.20pm )

( the view from my window at 5pm )

yes, that's the right way round. it's now somewhere in between the two (and getting dark).

also, i really need to clean my window.

The cluster of non-linky numbers on my LJ calendar tells me that I have failed to post for several days in a row. In those several days, for those who are interested, I have eaten lots of birthday cake, stayed up too late, drunk too much red wine, minded my niece, taken pictures of my niece, watched the Oscars, eaten pancakes, slept a lot and coughed a lot. There was also some work in there, although less than there should have been.

Today, as there is still a lot of coughing, I am going to try and get some work done, then curl up in my bed with tea and rewatch S4 of Doctor Who. I got the DVDs for Christmas and haven't even opened them yet.

- Text of an email that somehow slipped through gmail's spam filter this morning:

Did Bob eat shrimp in the mountains last year?

Bandom fic or just Gerard Way's Twitter feed?* Is there even a difference?

- I have delicious ginger biscuits made by my niece** and even more delicious coffee. Life is literally sweet.

* Probably the latter, given that the email subject heading was The phone is the answer.
** Her mum may have helped a little!

The last of the 14valentines recs:

Day 13 (arts & entertainment):

greenet's list of women in the arts links. fooish_icons also has four amazing posts of icons of women in music: one, two, three, four.

Day 14 (international):

Fourteen cover songs by female artists provided by pocky_slash.

Both the recs of the day and a bunch of other 14valentines stuff I've loved can be found on my delicious 14valentines tag. Check them all out and leave some feedback for the people who have put in all this amazing effort.

Yesterday's 14valentines Day 12 (education) pick of the day:

Something a little bit different. traveller has posted a list of links to women's/girls' literacy/education programs around the world. Add to the list if you can; check out what's already there anyway.

Both the recs of the day and a bunch of other 14valentines stuff I'm loving can be found on my delicious 14valentines tag.

Yesterday's 14valentines Day 11 (economics & work) pick of the day:

Podfic this time. general_jinjur has recorded podfics of astolat's SGA/Star Wars AU, The Dark Side, trinityofone's SGA story As Well As Valor, and annakovsky's LOTR RPS/Harry Potter crossover I Am A Visitor Here, I Am Not Permanent, all of which I wholly recommend.

Both the recs of the day and a bunch of other 14valentines stuff I'm loving can be found on my delicious 14valentines tag.

14valentines recs catch-up.

Day 5 (sexuality):

Gorgeous rainbow icons at fooish_icons and sexuality icons at hermit_icons.

Day 6 (sexual assault):

Emancipation by shara_i. House fic, Lisa Cuddy, gen, NC-17:

It’s the first time she hears Don’t, and You can’t, and she nods along to her mother’s lecture, but later, when her sister looks in admiration at her bruised knuckles, she feels a thrill of pride and thinks, I can I can I can.

Day 7 (domestic violence):

And Sometimes, You Just Go Snap by lavvyan. SGA fic, McKay/Sheppard, PG-13.

And then yesterday. New Year's Eve, and Rodney has to go and get himself killed again. Nothing bad this time, just a little electrocution when one of his minions turned a critical system back on too early, and John hadn't even heard about it until he approached the city from the mainland and radioed in to ask why all the lights were out. By that time, Rodney was already breathing again. No big deal.

Day 8 (politics & voting):

Call To Duty by amand_r. Doctor Who fic, Harriet Jones, Mister Copper, PG-13.

She almost flashed her ID before she realised that she hadn't one. For a while she'd toyed with using her passport, but that seemed a bit much. Her fingers itched when she didn't have one, and she considered the fact that really, this was the first time in a long time that she had had the opportunity to introduce herself. Everyone, apparently took great delight in remarking on how much they knew her.

Day 9 (athletics):

Fic Recs by sansets. 8 Bandom Lyn-Z-centric fic recs.

Day 10 (women of colour):

Women of colour picspam from gblvr.

Both these picks of the day and a bunch of other 14valentines stuff I'm loving can be found on my delicious 14valentines tag.

Thanks for the various birthday wishes, darling flist. I am slacking on individual thank yous.

I had an awesome day on Saturday, full of cake and cocktails, delicious food and dancing, and friends and family, some of the things I love best. So far 30 is a lot like 29, in that I did not get nearly enough sleep this weekend and Monday is kind of exhausting. I did get a lovely new camera, having been without for ages (my last one suffered a tragic accident of the clumsy kind several years ago), so there may well be picture spam of my life once I've figured out the bells and whistles.

I am also totally slacking on the 14valentines recs, which I was determined to keep up to - Baby!Sis' 15th birthday was on Friday, too, so it's been a crazy hectic few days - but I will try and catch up today.

Happy Monday.