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Monday, June 7th, 2004
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12:00 pm - Genealogical matters...
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Have downloaded some free family tree-creating software ("GenePro"), so I can get a table together to explain the Wars of the Roses for those taking part in the Richard III readthrough. And, you know, because I have a large nug sometimes. *grin*
Unfortunately the software is slightly buggy. It's so flustered by John of Gaunt having three wives, that it now thinks that pretty much everybody is married to John of Gaunt. Including his two younger brothers and *their* wives. I can't persuade it otherwise.
*bangs head on desk*
I have encountered the most amusing cause of death ever though, while checking up dates and things at free-definition.com (which is proving more helpful than it sounds/than this implies).
Philippa Plantagenet, eldest daughter of John of Gaunt, apparently "died of play".
I'm trying to work out if that's a euphemism for something kinky, a difficulty encountered while a watching Mystery, or just boring old syphilis...
Poor John of Gaunt, though. He seems to have spent his entire life trying to have a namesake. No less than three sons called "John Plantagenet", all of whom died at the age of three. No wonder he called his illegitimate children by Katherine Swynford "Beaufort" instead of "Plantagenet". A way of tricking the fates - and it worked, too, as John Beaufort lived to be 37, a young but still far more respectable age.
current mood:  nuggy
current music: Suzanne Vega - The Queen and the Soldier
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12:00 pm
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Grrr. Took my rings (wedding and engagement) off last night before I had a bath and I can't find them. I thought I'd put them down on a horizontal surface along the eastern wall of the flat, but now I'm not so sure.
![[info]](http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/web.archive.org/web/20040609045015im_/http:/=2fstat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) evil_nick was watching X2 at the time (would have joined him but I wasn't quite in a film mood), so he has no idea where I put them.
*whimper*
My left hand feels wrong and my brain's all unfocussed. Whenever I lose my rings I earn a new respect for Gollum...
In better news, have had a tiring but very pleasant weekend. I didn't go to rosie_rhi_bee's hen night on Friday as the planned activities were a little beyond what I could cope with physically at the moment. But I gather it went very well, so yay for that. *smiles at Rhi, Naomi and Liz*
Anyway, Nick and I did manage to make it to andrewwyld's spy party on Saturday evening. Nick went as Bond and I was a bad Bond girl called Agent Scorpion. We looked good. :) We should have taken photos. Maybe we should get the costumes on again this evening (before my fake tattoo fades too much) and get out the digital camera... ;)
The party was very enjoyable. Met lots of new people, many of whom were exceptionally lovely and interesting. Had some nice conversations. ixwin and andrewwyld were their usual gorgeous and entertaining selves, though it was a big shame that vectorious wasn't well and couldn't make it, and that Liz couldn't stay very late. The whole thing had rather the dynamic of the student party, and not just because it's the drunkest I've seen Nick since Pembroke *evil grin*.
We stayed over at Andrew's but then headed back to Newbury for 1pm, and met up with kmazzy for a few hours on her way back from Farnborough. It was lovely to see her and we had a quiet but very pleasant afternoon. :)
Edit: Okay, every time I lose things I should post about it to Livejournal! I'm sure it works some clever mojo. The rings were in the bathroom, cunningly tucked next to the bowl of [Eddie Izzard] pot pourri [/Eddie Izzard]. I'm wearing them now. Brain function is back to "normal". Yay. :)
current mood:  Smeagol's got the Precious!
current music: Chris Jackson - The Moonsheep
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| Thursday, June 3rd, 2004
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11:07 am
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current mood:  okay
current music: Hero - Chad Kroeger
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| Monday, May 31st, 2004
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7:38 pm
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Van Helsing absolutely stinks.
current mood: okay
current music: K's Choice - Not an Addict
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| Thursday, May 27th, 2004
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2:22 pm
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It is now my official position that waking up with severe leg cramp is Not Fun.
The pain's eased up almost entirely as the hours have passed but I still can't put all my weight on it and I'm feeling decidedly dodgy and nauseous. At the time I thought something had snapped or popped or that the veins in my left calf had finally started to do something really stupid, so was rather freaked. Urgh.
I think I need to consider this as an angry message from my body and start doing relaxation exercises before I sleep, and preferably at other times of day too. There's no doubt that it would be in a much better position to fight the M.E. if I wasn't tense as a drum 95% of the time.
current mood:  sore
current music: New York Minute (The Eagles)
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| Wednesday, May 26th, 2004
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3:23 pm
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Actually I think I got this one through outrageous I-can-save-the-world arrogance rather than being a doormat, but it could have gone either way. :)
You're King Arthur. All you want to do is make everyone happy, even if it means
sacrificing something of your own. In fact, I don't think you think of
yourself as much as you think of the welfare of other people. You're a very kind-
hearted individual, but remember to stand up for what YOU want sometimes...
You don't want to be a walking doormat!
Which Mists of Avalon Character are YOU?
by anowyn.
current mood:  quixotic
current music: Ani DiFranco - Angry Anymore
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3:23 pm - Two things of cuteness
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Thing of cuteness No. 1
(For this is the thing of lesser cuteness, and yet is still very, very cute indeed.)
evil_nick has updated his user info page in a very cute manner. Go forth and witness!
Thing of cuteness No. 2
(For this is the cutest thing in all the world)
Today my Celia and Philip (my sister and brother-in-law) sent us a new photo of baby Isaac. Isaac is now about 7 1/2 months.
And this is what he looks like.
I am very clever to have a nephew who is as cute as that, don't you think?
current mood:  cute
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2:07 pm
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Oh man, I have to see the remake of Salem's Lot. I do hope it gets shown in the UK at some point. Preferably, you know, very soon.
There's a link to some promo photos here.
As you will see, my motivations for wanting to see it are entirely honourable and cerebral and not shallow in any way at all... *looks sheepish*
[less shallow] I've achieved something new: two work-mornings in two days! Yesterday I volunteered for the Lib Dems again for a couple of hours, and today I managed to make it into Save the Children as usual with only a little extra tiredness (I sat during my spell on the till rather than carrying on sorting the non-fiction as I usually do but still got a fair amount done). I bought some microwave meals at Iceland on the way home so I've eaten a lot of food with minimum effort and am now prepared to spend this afternoon flopped in a heap in front of the telly. [/less shallow]
current mood:  lustful
current music: Ani DiFranco - Swan Dive
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| Tuesday, May 25th, 2004
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12:58 pm
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Whoops...
I'd need to hear a lot more evidence before holding much of an opinion on the truth of the matter, but that's still a very interesting bit of news.
current mood: darkly amused
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| Monday, May 24th, 2004
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9:49 pm
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Yay, kmazzy and evil_nick and I went to see Troy on Sunday.
It had f-all to do with The Iliad but 'twas very fun.
May I recommend this parody to those who have seen the film? No, really. Go there now. You'll thank me for it later. (And I'd like to thank arianwen for pointing me there in the first place...
evil_nick was deeply affected by the film. He expressed his thoughts beautifully in this rant on his LJ.
I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Troy on a far more shallow level and left it determined to turn into Eric Bana. *grin* I can find a lot to admire in Hector at the very least. Physical courage and concepts of honour have always appealed to me even though I do find most of the stuff they tend to surround both ridiculous and troubling. And as a committed pacifist from the age of eight (with pauses for re-commitment every couple of years or so but no actual breaks in the trend), I developed something of a knack of switching off a few of my sensibilities while watching or reading war-related fiction. I think most pacifist Tolkien fans must do the same...
Nevertheless, if I expressed how much I love Nick for what he wrote in that entry or the mental processes that inspired it then I'd come across as either sappy or (God forbid) patronising. Trust me, I feel neither of those things. Just the usual astonished admiration for this fine man I get to spend my life with. *smile*
Anyway, as I say my own experience of Troy was far less profound, and far more amused. The following is what I remember of my first impressions of the film. I thought I'd share them with you. :)
( My own thoughts on Troy - contains spoilers )
current mood:  thirsty - off to find some water
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10:44 am
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Yay! Elly G has got into the Cecilia Consort too!
When I received my e-mail from Anne Ware I cheekily e-mailed her back to ask if Elly had made it, hoping that this wouldn't cause offence.
Anne wasn't remotely annoyed by this, and apparently Elly did the same for me. *grin*
current mood: pleased
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| Sunday, May 23rd, 2004
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11:34 am
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Stolen from ![[info]](http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/web.archive.org/web/20040609045015im_/http:/=2fstat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) gender_petition, originally from http://www.crimethinc/gender/.
”For every girl who is tired of being weak when she is strong, there is a boy tired of appearing strong when he is vulnerable. for every boy who is burdened with the constant expectation of knowing everything, there is a girl who is tired of people not trusting her intelligence. for every girl who is tired of being called over-sensitive, there is a boy who fears to be gentle, to weep. for every boy whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity, there is a girl who is called unfeminine when she competes. for every girl who throws out her e-z-bake oven, there is a boy who wishes to find one. for every boy struggling not to let advertising dictate his desires, there is a girl facing the ad industry's attacks on her self-esteem. for every girl who takes a step toward her liberation, there is a boy who finds the way to freedom a little bit easier.”
There is of course more to say than that. In some ways and in some circles I would say the challenges facing thoughtful men and women who are naturally inclined to at least some of the gender behaviours society asks of them are nearly as great as those facing those of us who really aren't. I'm reminded of the hassle kmazzy has had from (usually male) acquaintances of hers who find her desire to be a household-goddess reprehensible, not to mention the anxieties facing one or two of my more "masculine" male friends who have subconsciously picked up that their masculinity is something they should be ashamed of, and who from time to time undergo challenges perhaps not so dissimilar from those facing gender-queer women.
Then there's the fact that if you probe deep enough there is unlikely to be anyone who is naturally inclined to all of the gender behaviours society asks of them. And if there is such a person, ze is probably unusual enough to be considered gender-queer all of hir own.
To conclude: perhaps gender is such a problematic thing that whoever you are, any degree of thinking about it risks an identity crisis. But of course that's also when the good things come. That's when we *all* find the way to freedom a little bit easier. Rah. :)
Hehehe. Last night I managed to put up an unexpectedly good fight in arm-wrestling matches against both fluffymark and ixwin. Both of them beat me in the end, but not easily. I am quite absurdly chuffed about this. :)
current mood:  slightly hungover...
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| Saturday, May 22nd, 2004
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2:22 pm - Well, colour me surprised...
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Had an e-mail from Anne Ware of the Cecilia Consort.
I'm in. :)
current mood: thankful
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| Friday, May 21st, 2004
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5:00 pm
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A good thing:
Eee! I've now received five very positive comments from strangers about Distillation. Yay. :) Three of them want me to make it the first in a series. Not sure about this. I don't think I can maintain the style I created there, and it would just end up being a conventional Sam/Josh hurt-comfort fic. Not that there's anything wrong with that (and I can't say I'm not tempted), but as my last-post-but-one may testify, I do have a few other irons in the fire. :)
If on the other hand I come up with an idea for writing a serialised slashy hurt-comfort fic following on from it to which I feel I can actually add a touch of originality, then I will probably end up doing so. And I suppose if I'm going to do it then I should strike while the iron's hot and there are people who want to read it. Which is itself a slightly bemusing concept to be honest, but there you go...
A bad thing:
I think I screwed up my Cecilia Consort audition last night. Possibly quite badly. I'd pulled a muscle in my back and my diaphram just stopped working. We were sight-reading some stuff sitting down and I got The Fear. Started to tense up my throat, have hardly any breath and sing like I did in my final year at Pembroke. I haven't felt like singing all today, my throat is tight, the tone breathy. A physical memory of - almost a regression to - the Bad Days where my voice is concerned. Not the full-out horror that it could be but I'm definitely feeling rumblings of distress over it. Fortunately I should hear either way about the choir within the next couple of days, so at least I'll know the worst and can try to get my composure and (god!) my voice back either way. But I think I may not have got in to the Cecilia Consort. And I care a lot about this, as they're a fabby choir who do a nice mixture of things and are about Pembroke Choir standard (ie just right), and all the people who run it seem deeply lovely and funny and unpretentious and fab.
Shit.
A weird and wonderful thing:
On the upside from the audition: I have a clone. :)
- Her name is Elly (yup, spelt the same way...).
- She is of a very similar height to me, of a similar build, and with similar length and style hair which apparently used to be the same colour as mine (hers is now dyed red).
- She has a boyfriend who is a computer programmer.
- I'm not sure of her exact age but I'd say she was, ooh, mid-twenties or so...
- I was wearing: a navy blue fleece over a multicoloured top, flared navy blue jeans, trainers.
- She was wearing: a navy blue fleece over a pale top, flared light blue trousers, canvas shoes. The necklace she was wearing is exactly the kind of thing I wear on my hippier days.
- I had brought with me: a creamy canvas mini-rucksack given me by ixwin and vectorious, containing (among other things) a bottle of water with one of those tops that you pull forward to enable the water to flow.
- She had brought with her: a black mini-rucksack and a canvas carrier bag (with James Bond on one side and Pussy Galore on the other...). The latter contained (among, I assume, other things) a bottle of water with one of those tops that... yup, you get the idea. We both sipped water throughout the audition and were the only people to do so.
- She did a degree in English (albeit linguistics rather than literature), at the Roehampton Institute (which is where my sister qualified in music therapy).
- We arrived at the audition within a few seconds of each other.
- She sings (obviously), and adores all forms of choral music including rarer stuff and enjoys being challenged. She has a soft spot for "In the Bleak Midwinter".
- She lives in the same street as me (albeit at the other end).
- She is a cat-lover, with a particular fondness for tabbies.
- Her entire family have a tendency to obsessively frequent charity shops, which of course Nick and I (and my parents too) did a great deal of even before I started working in one...
Oh, and another coincidence not just about her: both Anne (the choir secretary) and the 2nd sop auditioning at the same time as us have daughters called Ellie. The jollity had by all at the audition merely over that fact and the fact that Elly and I arrived more or less together and dressed alike was extreme. So Elly sat together and smiled lots, and I should add that from quiet amiability in the audition itself, a brief chat outside the Methodist Hall afterwards and another brief chat in her mother's car (they gave me a lift home!), it is apparent that she is utterly delightful. We *hugged* for heaven's sake. And I know I'm tactile, but still, we'd barely met. Thanks to my backpain and attack of The Fear, I was really in quite a bad mood when I arrived at the audition. Her friendliness and utter delight in the sheer freakiness of our similarities made the whole thing worthwhile.
Of course, we have no contact details for her, though I imagine we'll look out for each other, and she does know that I work at Save the Children. And then of course there's the Cecilia Consort, and hopefully even if I don't get in then she still will - she's wanted to for years so for her sake I hope to goodness she does anyway. (Nick's already safely in, for those who didn't know.) Fingers crossed though that they're short of both quietish but very good 1st altos and half-decent 2nd sops with no diaphram control, and they let us both in...
As I say, I don't think I did very well in the audition itself, and I suspect I'm going to have some inner junk to sort through if I didn't get in this time. But I still wouldn't have missed yesterday evening for the world. :)
current mood: mixed
current music: Hands (Jewel)
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| Thursday, May 20th, 2004
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10:24 am
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I have no patience. I've decided that my revised version of Distillation is fine (barring a couple of word-tweaks that I've made), so I've uploaded it to fanfiction.net and my website and submitted it to a West Wing archive. That's not to say that I never will revise it or that comments aren't still very welcome, but it's time to move on to new things. And I just love that feeling of bunging a story on the internet and hoping that it gets read. *smile*
Well, so far the poll in my last entry is telling me to work at my modern fantasy thing and my Merry & Pippin friendship fic. So as I am a good Elly, that's what I've been doing.
Wrt the modern fantasy, I've mostly just been typing up some notes from my notebook, but other ideas have occured while I've been doing it so it's proving very helpful. There'll be a self-contained fairytale as the first chapter, and then the main plot will be a quest story, involving a lot of train journeys. Possibly an element of the picaresque. I also found the following observation that I made on the train from Stockport to Reading last November:
"Why do sheep all point in the same direction?"
Why indeed. I'm not even sure that they all do. But that day, they did. Please don't swipe - I might use that. *grin*
The Merry and Pippin fic is coming on nicely. I haven't really done much to it today except add about a few sentences to the final chapter, and do a little gardening research for the Sam-related middle chapter. Still progress though. I need a rest (and a singing practise) now though so I shall leave it until later.
I've decided to sing "The Cuckoo" at my audition tonight. Better practise. *grin*
current mood:  creative
current music: Everybody's Fool (Evanescence)
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10:24 am - Stuff :)
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My copy of Daisy Pulls it Off arrived from an Amazon seller this morning. Have now read it through about twice. :)
It's *adorable*. And it has "Catriona'n'Yves play!" written all over it. I'm really looking forward to the readthrough on Saturday now. *grin*
Also can I just say this:
kmazzy is coming to stay on Friday evening!!!! *bounces all around the room*
Er-hum. :)
This evening I have an audition for the Cecilia Consort (local choir, about the same standard as Pembroke, promisingly short of sopranos according to evil_nick. Nick's already got a place in it. I'll need to sing a folk song and do some sight-reading and stuff. I imagine I'll spend much of this afternoon getting warmed up and practising a bit.
Deciding on the folk song is proving harder than I thought it would be. My usual folk style and range are considerably more alto-y than my classical voice. I'll probably go for something like "Farewell Nancy" which I've sang in a classical style for my Grade 7 or 8 singing exam, and which I can folk up a bit while still singing at a reasonably high pitch.
I'm only very slightly nervous about the audition. If I don't screw up then I should be in fine, but I'm wary of being complacent. Wish me luck!!
Hm. Other than that I think today should be a writing day. For those who don't know, my general writing tendencies go like this:
1.) I get a nice idea.
2.) I write it down.
3.) I write a paragraph, a few sentences, maybe even a rough draft.
4.) I decide to come back to it later.
5.) Redo from start.
For lo! I am good at having ideas, and not very good at realising them. The number of unfinished stories I have in Word files or cluttering up my writing notebook is thus somewhat impressive, and sometimes it's difficult to know what to turn to next!
Hmmm I feel a poll coming on. :)
I should admit to begin with that I'll probably be working on a fanfiction rather than an original story this time. I need the practise. I am, however, persuadable otherwise. :)
Poll #296103 Writing poll
Open to: All, results viewable to: AllSo, which of the following story/stories should I work on over the next couple of days? View Answers"Distillation" - get it perfected. I've got some comments to make on it that could inform your next revision, as you're a bit lost as to where to take it now.
   1 (6.2%) That ultra-angsty and rather explicit Josh/Sam "West Wing" story you've been rapidly losing confidence over. Come on, you can do it. It's not like you're trying to write *nice* sex...
1 (6.2%) The "West Wing" retelling of "Hamlet" you've been making notes about all week. Sunny days are exactly the right time to write tragedy, and the concept's shaping up nicely.
4 (25.0%) The Donna the Vampire Slayer (BtvS/West Wing crossover) adventure story (for which you should get permission from the author of the first three stories in the series so you'd better e-mail her first...)
4 (25.0%) The Merry and Pippin friendship story about drawing. Come on, you're at least 3/4 of the way through now - you could get it finished!
8 (50.0%) The Fatty Bolger-orientated angsty "telling the parents where their sons have gone" story.
3 (18.8%) The long LotR darkfic. Come on, you've done a few chapters already!
4 (25.0%) Forget the quality stuff, write that lurid Benjamin/Papa Lazarou/Jack Sparrow pot-boiler you've been promising Kathryn and Catriona all this time...
5 (31.2%) Um, Elly, you have a lot of concepts for a weird modern fantasy novella in the beginning of your notebook. And you're thinking of writing fanfiction?!
7 (43.8%) "Echo and Narcissus" (weird teenage-and-after relationship, stuff about identity and creativity, got to say I'm not feeling terribly inspired by it at the moment)
2 (12.5%) The post-nuclear fairytale. Given that you started it nearly five years ago, you don't think it's time you finished it?
7 (43.8%) The "Hathrin" stuff (secondary world fantasy novel I started when I was 17 and which I should probably re-write from top to bottom before going any further). It really is about time.
3 (18.8%) Something else that I know you've started writing which you've clearly forgotten about as you haven't mentioned it above.
0 (0.0%) Begin something new! For lo, I am an evil temptor and do not care if you end up with fifteen stories on the go. I might even give you a plot bunny in a comment if you're very unlucky...
3 (18.8%) No, no, you naughty girl! You should get the crit done for another chapter of David's novel before you do anything else on your own writing!
2 (12.5%)
current mood: cheerful
current music: God put a smile on your face (Coldplay)
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10:24 am - Story revision 1
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Following some v. helpful comments made by ixwin to my last post, I had a brainstorming session last night before sleeping, and have made a few alterations and a couple of additions to Distillation. I've kept the changes to what I feel was the minimum required. I've gone my own way rather than taking Liz's advice at all, but she managed to successfully pinpoint the major problem and got me thinking in the right way. If the following is an improvement, then it's as much due to her comments as it would have been if I'd followed her counsel to the letter. And if it's no better at all then you can't blame her because the specific alterations made were all my idea. *grin*
I'm still not *entirely* happy with this myself, but I do think it is better. I could be wrong. :) I'll probably do at least one more revision before I call it finished. I'm hoping it will be minor tweaking, but I'm open to more detailed work if necessary. I'm tempted to get all perfectionist about it and I want to resist that temptation, but I'd like to get it at least reasonably good.
Title: Distillation
Fandom: West Wing
Rating/warnings: PG-13. Extreme angst, slight slashiness, uncertain fate of a major character, unhappy subject-matter. Over-use of the 1st person and historical present. A possibly inappropriate didactic moment.
Disclaimer: *So* not mine.
Spoilers: Vague season 4 (post that Orange County congressional election). I myself have only watched to the end of season 3, so forgive (and please tell me about!) any factual errors.
Archive: Still not yet please.
Feedback: It's a lot of ask, but anyone who fancies reading this and commenting on whether or not you think this is an improvement (and if it is, whether it's enough of an improvement, and if it isn't, where I went wrong and what I could think about doing instead), would make me very very happy.
Notes: Anyone like to hazard a guess as to which Ani DiFranco song I was listening to obsessively at the point when the plot-bunny struck? *small smile*
Summary: "So while we wait I'm going to tell you a story."
( Distillation )
current mood: working
current music: Wytches Chant (Inkubus Sukkubus)
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| Wednesday, May 19th, 2004
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8:47 pm - New story!
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It's deeply angsty, it's unbetaed and it's about The West Wing. I'm slightly embarrassed about posting it and am relying those of you who read it to be kind. *shy smile*
If you do read it (and naturally shall not be offended by those who do not), constructive comments/praise/criticism would be good. I want to revise it at least once more before I stick it up on fanfiction.net/fluffhouse/relevant LJ communities and things. I've posted it to the Sam'n'Josh slash list on yahoo, well just because. Though actually it isn't all that slashy, and could probably be read as not slashy at all.
Well, here come the headings:
Title: Distillation
Fandom: West Wing
Rating/warnings: PG-13. Extreme angst, slight slashiness, uncertain fate of a major character, mention of possible drug abuse, references to violence. Over-use of the 1st person and historical present. A possibly inappropriate didactic moment.
Disclaimer: *So* not mine.
Spoilers: Vague season 4 (post that Orange County congressional election). I myself have only watched to the end of season 3, so forgive (and please tell me about!) any factual errors.
Archive: Not yet please.
Feedback: Would be most helpful. This is an unbetaed fic, and I suspect needs a little revision. I'm particularly concerned with the balance/rhythm/through-line of the story (does it change too suddenly near the end?), and also whether writing as a middle-class American man (complete with US spelling) is working for me here, or whether I need to tweak the language further to stop sounding like a middle-class English female(ish) person. Preferably without it becoming too obviously conversational.
Notes: Anyone like to hazard a guess as to which Ani DiFranco song I was listening to obsessively at the point when the plot-bunny struck? *small smile*
Summary: Josh tells a story.
( Distillation )
current mood: creative
current music: Loudly Let the Trumpet Bray! (Iolanthe)
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8:47 pm
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Yay, yesterday evening went well and I've had quite a good day today as well.
As hobbitblue was the first to fill in the poll I went with her plan: I did a relaxation exercise, phoned kmazzy, and then made my evil_nick some tarka dal, kashmiri cabbage and rice. He ended up hanging out the washing. Hehehe.
Work was good this morning, despite certain insomnia-related difficulties last night! An extra set of shelves in the back room has been appropriated by Beverley and I for the books at Save the Children. Any of you who've heard me whinge on about how full of boxes of books the back room has been getting will understand that this is most exciting. We spent the morning filling the extra shelves and sorting them all out into enough of an order to make it easy to move things through into the shop. Hard work, but we'd revealed a vast amount of carpet by the end. Much better for everyone. :)
I flopped for most of the afternoon, reading our new West Wing episode guide and listening to our new CD of Iolanthe. Have bought the vocal score as well. I think there's a fairly good chance that the October G&S; singthrough/readthrough will be Iolanthe - it's starting to make sense wrt those most likely to attend. We'll see. *smile*
In the late afternoon I began to revise a semi-slashy ultra-angsty West Wing fic that I started a few weeks ago. I've now got it to a reasonable pre-beta stage and have posted it to the Yahoo Sam'n'Josh list that I've just delurked into. I'm going to summon up my courage to post it here in a sec - it's angsty to a degree that I find slightly embarrassing to admit to, and of course it's a fandom that most of you aren't into. But if any of you do fancy reading it, constructive comments would be helpful. :)
Slight whinge: my back's not getting any less painful and I shouldn't be taking ibuprofen in order to sleep. Tomorrow I must make an appointment with the osteopath.
current mood: pleased
current music: Overture to Iolanthe (G&S;)
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| Tuesday, May 18th, 2004
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6:21 pm
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Further to my resolutions in the last post, I have:
- eaten some bread and cheese and an avocado and some cherry tomatoes. Not a lot, admittedly, but some.
- watched some West Wing while eating.
- watched some West Wing while doing a few yoga-related stretching exercises and weights
- practised the BSL alphabet yet again
- finally got around to doing some more Spanish: I went through the numbers from 1-10, a few basic phrases, looked up "husband", copied up a verb table and did a few exercises from Unidad Uno of Suenos. I've forgotten loads and was only on a beginner kind of level anyway, but we have to start somewhere. And my brain's definitely functioning better than it was last time I tried any.
- put on some washing/cleared the drying rack/tidied the floor of the bedroom a little, all while listening to the Bill Jones tape that tea_at_bettys made me.
- and of course done a little LJing.
- discovered that I live about 100 metres from the West Berkshire Holistic Health Centre, and e-mailed evil_nick about the possibility of my going to see the osteopath there. They offer acupuncture as well... Hm... *thoughtfulness*
- retrieved the washing from the washing machine. Haven't hung it out yet though because I am Bad and Naughty (and my back's telling me not to).
You know, this is the kind of thing I should always try when I'm feeling depressed and have the energy to do something about it. *smile*
Now then. Hm.
Poll #295165 What should I do now?
Open to: Friends, results viewable to: FriendsWhat should I do now/for the rest of the evening?
current mood: accomplished
current music: June Tabor - The Earl of Aboyne
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| Tuesday, May 11th, 2004
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11:59 am - :)
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| Monday, May 10th, 2004
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10:23 pm
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I'm going to ask a question that sounds so outstandingly naive, I'm wincing at the very idea of posting it.
The trouble is that although I have a few ideas about this matter, I genuinely don't know what I think about it. And I genuinely want to hear what you all do in the hope that it help me to work it out. So here goes:-
What is wrong with political assassination?
I am more or less a pacifist (something I'm not interested in justifying right now - I'm trying to figure out my own position on many things so I just want to hear the views of others and worry about mine later *grin*), so I mean this neither rhetorically nor as a moral absolute (evidently - at least to my way of thinking - there is something desperately "wrong" with the taking of any human life). Nor, I should add, am I intending to put a bullet in anyone myself. ;-)
What I mean is: relative to other forms of aggressive international action (war, sanctions, air-strikes, freezing of assets, arms sales to opponents, sponsored coups), why does political assassination carry such a taboo? When (if you know) was this taboo enshrined in international law, and under what circumstances? What do you yourself think as to the rights and wrongs of the matter?
I had a rant about racism in Britain that I delivered to myself while brushing my teeth this morning. It's really too inflammatory to post. I'm beyond furious with H.G. Wells and D.H. Lawrence, and it's really rather late in the day to do anything about them.
current mood:  curious
current music: Nick playing Quake III Arena...
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10:23 pm - I love it. :)
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current mood: amused
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| Sunday, May 9th, 2004
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10:50 am
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Yay, Friday evening's Revue went extremely well - noticeably better than the one in Hungerford, actually. We done good. And raised over £100 for the Newbury Hospital Instrument[1] Fund, which given an audience of twenty-six isn't at all bad. The audience definitely made up in quality what they lacked in quantity, incidentally: lots of loud laughing and applause for individual sketches/songs. We all performed a lot better as a result.
Talking of the audience, 'twas lovely to see smhwpf and (more briefly) taimatsu and borusa. evil_nick had talked Chris and Katie (a friend from work and his wife) to coming too. There was a comical moment as the last time Katie and I had seen each other I had extremely short hair with little bi-clips in it, so she didn't recognise me at first. *grin*
Also we have finally forced persuaded Matt R to get a Livejournal! He is myatt. Do go forth and be friendly. :)
I'm now pretty wiped. Too many late nights and a lot of stuff going on, and probably too much alcohol too, at least relative to how much I should be having. I think I'd better stick to one unit max when we go to the pub with myatt and his friends tonight! Yesterday consisted mostly of Livejournalling or flopping in front of our newly-Ebayed DVDs of Season 3 of The West Wing. (Though I also managed to find the energy for a lovely little MSN prayer session with yvesilena, and a brief chat with lindisfarnemead.) evil_nick was similarly floppy so it was all rather rather companiable. In the evening we watched Running on Empty, which we bought cheaply in Glastonbury last time we were there with kmazzy but hadn't got around to seeing yet. It's very good.
I suspect that today might be similarly lazy (other than the pub), though I'll try to mix it a bit with some yoga/weights, script preparation for the R&G; readthrough and reading of politics books. Some fresh air would be a good idea too, though the colour of the sky out there isn't proving very enticing. I'll see how Nick's feeling later - maybe we can stroll along the canal east towards the boating pool at least, as that's a short walk but still pretty pleasant.
[1] You know, scanners rather than trombones. :)
current mood: brain-dead
current music: The Beatles - Golden Slumbers
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| Friday, May 7th, 2004
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8:52 am - Come to the Newbury Dramatic Society Revue!
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Yes, well this post was predictable, wasn't it. :)
The NDS Revue is at 8pm this evening (ie Friday 7th), at the Waterside Youth and Community Centre, Northbrook Street, Newbury. As opposed to the Watermill Theatre, Newbury...
Entrance is free, but there'll be a retiring collection in aid of the Newbury Hospital League of Friends (going towards a new scanner, I think).
The Revue is basically a big mix of quotations, poems, sketches and songs, held together somewhat tenuously but I think entertainingly. Our (pitifully small) audience at the Hungerford performance definitely had an excellent time, and if anything this one should be better. evil_nick and I both have quite a bit to do (especially Nick!), as does our new friend Matt R, who is fab and Local and needs to be met by all. *grin*
As further enticement, the audience is likely to include smhwpf, plus possibly taimatsu and borusa, and also kagefaery, who is *lovely* and came into the shop on Wednesday so I could finally meet her. *waves at her*
( How to get to the Waterside Centre )
So far our understanding is that only smhwpf is staying overnight, but we'd be very happy to put others up too. (Yay! lots of audience is what we want!) Just give me an e-mail or a comment here or a phone call during the day. After the Revue there's going to be a cast take-away at the director's house, for which we've booked a place for Sam, but it would be a bit late to ask for anyone else to be included. It won't go on all that long, I imagine, so if anyone else does want to stay then we'll walk you back to the flat after the show with keys and instructions on how to forage for food/DVDs/books etc.. *grin*
Hope you're all as well as possible, and looking forward to seeing some of you tonight!
lots of love,
Elly
current mood: thespy
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| Monday, May 3rd, 2004
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11:52 pm
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Category: Indie
Your life appears to be average, but you look at
things through a different lens. You may seem
shy and reclusive even, but in truth you are
just trying to figure yourself out. Good luck
with that.
If your life was a movie, how would Blockbuster categorize it?
brought to you by Quizilla
Interesting. Ordinarily I wouldn't have said that was me at all, but it's been a funny few weeks, and today I think it's about right.
( The (hopefully) Bearable Strangeness of Elly )
Shaun of the Dead is extremely good, by the way. But also upsetting. And lacking in catharsis. There's one image in particular that will stay with me... those of you who've seen it can probably guess which one (and no, it isn't the Reece-cameo, pleasant though that was *grin*).
Whoops, it's late. Must go to bed and cuddle my Nick now. :)
current mood:  thoughtful
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| Monday, April 26th, 2004
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12:36 pm
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I appear to have lost my glasses.
Waah. I was going to do the following:
a) watch some West Wing (gosh, I'm not predictable at all...) while doing some yoga and weights[1].
b) get dressed and go for a little walk along the canal.
c) flop in bed and read a little more of the books on politics that I've got out from the library.
d) have a singing and acting practise for tonight's Revue rehearsal; work out the basic choreography for the bits that evil_nick and I are doing just ourselves ready for practise/discussion with Nick about them this evening.
e) do a little more on the Chapter 8 crit for spindlemere.
f) work a little more on my own writing, even if it's just tweaking a word or two.
All of which would be much facilitated by my not going around squinting and with that weird sense of there being something missing that I get whenever I am de-bespectacled.
I've e-mailed Nick in the hope that he saw them at some point this morning. And in the meantime I guess I'll just have to squint, and do the yoga close up to the telly or something. It'll be good practise for me to try and have a good day under less than optimum circumstances...
How are you all?
*hugs*
Elly
[1] Not as silly an idea for an M.E.-sufferer as it may sound (or as it would be if my condition were still deteriorating). Obviously I can't do very much, and I only use the lightest of the three sets of mini-dumbells that we have. But I'm on the road to recovery now, and that road will be a lot better-paved if I can regain some of my muscle tone and flexibility. Aerobic exercise I need to be terribly careful with, but as long as I'm gentle a bit of yoga every day and a bit of weight-training every day can only be a positive thing, I think. Not to mention that both getting any kind of exercise and looking more muscular will do wonders for that self-esteem of mine. :) Anyway, I started on Friday and it's going well so far...
Edit: Yay! I've found them!
I had already looked underneath my bedside table, but at evil_nick's suggestion I tried again. They were caught between my bedside table and the washing basket. Oh, I feel happy now. I like being able to see. :)
current mood:  awake
current music: "Try We Life-Long" - G&S; (The Gondoliers)
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| Sunday, April 25th, 2004
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8:29 pm
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I've just remembered my dream from last night.
It is possibly a contender for "most typical Elly-dream that Elly has ever dreamed ever".
I was trying to organise the senior staff of The West Wing into a readthrough of "King Lear".
As I remember, various things connected with the US government were interfering with this (assassination attempts, a large flood and something to do with bicycles), and then I was wondering whether to give Lear to President Bartlet or to Leo McGarry. For some reason I was convinced that Leo could act but that the President couldn't, but I really wanted Leo on Gloucester, which put me into a bit of a quandary. Fortunately the_alchemist arrived at this point so I gave Lear to her and Gloucester to Leo. Zoe Bartlet was on Cordelia and Malory McGarry and I on Regan and Goneril, can't remember which way round. I remember vast internal debates as to who out of Josh and Sam was going to play Edgar, and who Edmund. Cannot remember my conclusion.
I don't recall either which role evil_nick (who was present) was going to end up with but I suspect it was the Fool. I suppose I was giving Kent to Toby or CJ but I'm not entirely sure.
Zoe, Charlie and Malory were helping with the refreshments. I was finding Malory rather scary (as indeed I probably would). For some reason everyone liked the readthrough idea well enough (and trusted me to organise it well enough) to leave all the arrangements and casting to me and to turn up, but they were all chatting amongst themselves and refusing to be quiet long enough even for me to read out the cast list so that we could begin. The readthrough was supposed to start at 6.30pm but I remember noticing that it was 7.15pm and I still hadn't established any sort of order. I recall trying to point out that if we ended up finishing at 2 in the morning and they still had work to do in their offices then it wouldn't be my fault...
*amused grin*
Hm. Yes. So - that's my subconscious. I don't suppose it even needs that much interpretation. :)
current mood: amused
current music: Nick fiddling with computers
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| Friday, April 23rd, 2004
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7:35 pm - Help!
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evil_nick and I need two football (i.e. soccer) scarves for the Newbury Dramatic Society Revue on Friday 7th May. They must be:
a) from the same team
and
b) preferably not either terribly recognisable or having the name of the team printed too visibly.
I know this is a long shot, but could any of you help us out? Persons happy to lend us and send us such items will no doubt be rewarded with undying adoration/a nice CD or something... :-)
Or does anyone just have any ideas from where we might otherwise obtain such things? We wondered about getting hold of an extra Pembroke scarf, but college scarves really do have a different look from football scarves so we've decided against.
Wrt the Revue in general: please come! Directions to the venue (the Waterside Community Centre, Newbury) will be forthcoming. It is walkable from Newbury station. smhwpf: if you'd like to come and stay overnight you're very welcome. Anyone else wanting an overnight stay, let us know and I'm sure that'll be fine. *smile*
Elly
current mood: slashy (hm, what's new?)
current music: Nick practising "Mad Dogs and Englishmen"
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| Thursday, April 22nd, 2004
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12:27 pm
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Good article about women and shopping here, linked to by nickys - who also makes some interesting additional points/qualifications here.
Had a v. pleasant phone chat yesterday evening with tea_at_bettys, and then spent far too long reading fanfiction. Ah well. :) I'm feeling okay today. Quite tired though, and not likely to do much that's very constructive until maybe mid-afternoon or so. Am intending to spend most of this evening with Nick going through our stuff for the next Newbury Dramatic Society Revue (Fri May 7th, at the Waterside Community Centre in Newbury, please come!). Though I think I'll also give spindlemere a call, as I owe him one and haven't spoken to him for ages. And then an earlyish night, I think...
current mood: peaceful
current music: Christy Moore - Ride On
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