planning the revolution

In case it wasn't obvious, I am trying to get back into the habit of regularly updating, which is why these weekly quasi-summaries keep showing up. I've done okay this week, though. I posted other things to places that aren't my tumblr! Hurrah! I've been quite busy at work, too, and trying to catch up on sleep since gallivanting around London last week.

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On Monday night The Mother and I bought pizza and watched more of Justified series 1. I have not managed to catch up with 3x01 yet, but hopefully will get to that today. I have Bones and two episodes of Fringe, too. I have accepted that if I don't watch Borgen this week then I am never going to get caught up.

But: early Justified when the villain du series was much subtler, and the individual stories held more weight! The last episode The Mother and I watched was the first one with Arlo Givens, but the one before that was the one with the dentist. The Mother seems to be enjoying it; I'm getting a kick out of re-watching.

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On Tuesday I went out with some co-workers to see Shame. It was the second time I'd seen it (film fest!) and I was feeling weird about it because a) coworkers and b) it turns out Michael Fassbender is a lady beating asshole, gdi. I normally have quite a hard and fast rule about dumping things because of the leads being dicks, but. Gosh, I'm finding myself being a massive hypocrite. The film was put together by Steve McQueen, and the music is wonderful, and it's galling to me that Fassbender is the face of it, because I love them film. I do. So I spent a lot of time thinking about social responsibility, and not getting very far.

I did enjoy having the opportunity to talk about the film afterwards. Am very, very much the New Girl in that circle of people, but enjoyed a drink after the film, then took myself home. Am in the process of flat-hunting right now, so maybe I won't have to skip out so soon in future.

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Thursday was weird for me at work because I was super busy but not doing the job that I usually do. It was brilliant for that - I talked to a lot of people that I do not normally talk to. I think I've mentioned before that the nature of my work and the arrangement of seats in the building makes interacting with people a little awkward sometimes, but being up on my feet and interacting with people was great. Had a good day.

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My aunt went into hospital at the top of the week, and it didn't go as planned. She's still there today, but from the sound of things is doing a bit better. I don't know; there's not been much news.

My gran is in India, did I mention? That, too.

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I got some post this week - a card and some lovely bracelets from (and made by) fallapartagain, and a lovely long letter from belantana. I'm in the process of trying to send some packages. I say trying because I keep forgetting to leave work and go to the post office. (I try to go at opening so I don't have to queue for a long time.)

I also received a copy of Stacie Cassarino's Zero at the Bone which I had forgotten I'd bought, plus two copies of Richard Siken's Crush which I am going to distribute. A new dress should arrive next week - dropped from £30-something to £12, so I do not feel bad about the additional purchase. I should probably try to find some trousers, ffs, but I am having a hard time on that front.

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The Duck Cheer tumblr has some pictures and a video from last weekend. I'm opening it up a little this time. I'm going to send out the eight ducks I bought for round 2 (I really am! I am just waiting on the arrival of some info cards) and track those like I did last time, but this time I'm also opening up to submissions from other people. Have a duck of your own? Share!

A few people have been asking me: why ducks? And this project has never really been about the ducks as much as it has been about the people and the places. Ducks are just an easy way in. But the root of the story is that at secondary school water used to collect on the roof of the cafeteria. My friends loosed about 10 ducks up there once. It's just our thing, I guess, and it took off. Either you find plastic ducks inherently cheering, or you don't.

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Have you seen these posters? I love them.

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But, yes, Cassarino's poetry. I started reading it on the train and fell into a collection that is basically a long list of my lexical kinks. Words for earth, light, water. I am trying to be better at reading poetry on two levels again - the semantic, and the syntactical. It's been a while since I've pulled something apart, and I've never done it without guidance of some sort. I am trying to do this because reading at a syntactical level informs writing; it always will. And I think it would be good practice, if nothing else.

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Lastly, hestia8 and I went to see Di and Viv and Rose last year, written by Amelia Bullmore and starring Tamzin Outhwaite, Nicola Walker and Claudie Blakley. I have recently discovered that copies of the text are available. Does anyone want one? Let me know.

Sometimes I'm in the middle of a reasoned debate, and I have to ask myself if the next thing I am going to say is going to tip it into non-reasoned debate, and then I have to pull out, so to speak. And it's not because what I have to say next is particularly inflammatory, just that I don't trust the other people in the conversation not to take it personally.

Have been thinking about this quite a lot recently, because self-censorship wasn't something I was into ten years ago, and now it plays a huge role in my personal interactions. A lot of the time it's with people who are very buff about their own lack of limitations when it comes to 'telling the truth' - I find that more often than not, those people are the ones I am least likely to be straight with at line-end, because those people are the ones who overreact.

Normally it's not something I'm worried about, because normally I'm not talking about anything too important, but every now and then I get frustrated at feeling the need to cut a conversation short because of the fallout.

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New Fringe! How exciting!

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The first of the polls for naming the ducks is up at duck_cheer. Please play/pimp/etc. even if you're not too invested. It doesn't obligate you to further participation, and I'm sure there will be something there to amuse you. The last name that was submitted to the list was 'Fauxlivia', and I laughed pretty hard.

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Had a really great time in London at the top of the week. Made a stupid, rookie mistake with the tubes on my way to the theatre but it all worked out. ( London ton. )

Afterwards I took the tube back to King's Cross and made my way home to find my Merlin DVDs had arrived. Things I am doing this afternoon: burning through the commentaries, oh yes.

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Am trying to sort out a group booking for the theatre in July (girl cousins have decided we want to do another trip) and it's proving really bloody difficult. Some of it is availability, some of it is pricing. Some of it is lack of choice, believe it or not. On the other hand, still have months to book it. Managed it last year; damn well going to manage it this year.

Did I mention we ran out of oil on Thursday night? Yeah.

I live in the sticks, albeit close to amenities (a mile to town actual), but like most people in the Fen, I don't live close to a gas line. This means that everything in the house runs on electric. When the house was extended a couple years ago, we bought gas cannisters so that we could run a gas cooker. But all the water in the house - the taps, shower, the heating - runs on electric. What fuels it? A huge oil tank in the back yard. For some reason, we've gone through more than usual this year, and are out again.

This means: no heating! And also: no showers. We have been doing it old school, boiling water in huge saucepans on the cooker, and then carrying it to buckets in the wet room, which is thankfully on the ground floor. I went to sleep with two pairs of socks on last night.

Am currently using my uncle's space heater to warm up my room, and then am passing it to my sister so she can do the same. Then I will not be opening my door until I absolutely have to - at 5 tomorrow morning.

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Today The Mother found a box full of photos from '95 and before. All our baby pics! And some truly hilarious photos of The Dad in his early twenties. He looks a bit like Prince (the Artist Formerly Known As). Or a Leo Sayer nightmare. And my mum has the hugest tortoise-shell glasses! Their wedding photos are amazingly lol. Jesus.

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My ducks were only despatched on Friday, so probably won't arrive until tomorrow or Tuesday. I'll set up the poll for names on Tuesday, so if anyone has other thoughts for names, hit up duck_cheer.

On that front, I need some advice. I found that ducks that circulated flists did better than ducks that went out into the world last time around. This time I want to do that, but I want to tell people where the duck should head to eventually (hence asking for participants). BUT. Am super aware that it's one thing to share your address with a flister, and another to share it with a flister's flister. So: I need suggestions for sustainability this time around. I don't want my ducks to sink!

For those that missed it: outtakes from a session in which Ricky Gervais meets Elmo. I have watched this repeatedly since I saw it yesterday and I LOVE IT. The ending is kind of scary? lols.

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Things that happened today: ( &c. )

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This evening Five aired Corporal Punishment (5.10, NCIS) so naturally I watched it again. Can now recite the dialogue pretty much verbatim. wishes_of_stone texted me during the first ad break and, because I don't have any credit, I called her on the landline during the second one. We spent four minutes omg-ing over everything (mostly Ziva, let's be honest) and then watched the rest of the episode before having another very similar conversation. GOOD TIMES, Y'ALL.

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I have also rewatched parts of this week's Criminal Minds. I read a review of the episode which I agree with in the main, but disagreed with on some details. Sometimes I read reviews of episodes and I wonder if the reviewer and I even watched the same scene. I know interpretations vary but how so widely?

Anyway, but really, Paget Brewster was fantastic this week, guys, and I am going to keep saying it over and over again because I have yet to cap the scene and give you the play-by-play which proves it.

Bonus: blooper reels for S2 (the first one, with Mandy? SO WEIRD. SO GREAT).

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Thank you to everyone who left me a comment or a message or an email earlier this week; I really appreciate it. I promise I will get back to you all individually soon enough. On Sunday I will have to go and buy my train ticket. I am hoping that I get to grips with the whole thing by then or else Monday is going to be a hell of a shock.

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This tweet pretty much sums up my reaction to this week's Bones. Also, lols, David Boreanaz directed this week and it kind of shows? Not in a bad way. Just in a ...choice ...way. Or something.

Dear inoue130,

Look who arrived today!

meet Gillian the Duck

Thank you so much - she's wonderful! More pics under the cut.

( quackers. )

Meet Roma, the newest addition to my collection of plastic waterfowl:

wliberation = &HEARTS.

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Proper update once I've dealt with the mountain of clothes in the guest room.

Boston.

She's not so good at hide and seek.

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GUYS. I feel like my Very Important Poll isn't being taken seriously! Vote! Pimp out! Stay vigilant!

Oiskie.

The Flatmate, N and I were up ALL NIGHT. Finally finished work around 8 or 9am and handed the damn thing in two hours later. I tried to sleep, failed, so decided to stay up, except my body decided to do that thing it does when it thinks I need to sleep already, namely: my body temperature dropped viciously and suddenly. I went to bed at 3pm in my jammies, my jumper and my woollen socks. Yeah. Didn't wake until 9pm, either. Still knackered, though, so I'm heading to bed as soon as my hair dries.

Muscles still cane, though.

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The Pierces are amazing and people fail for not telling me about them sooner. I'm subscribed to this song-of-the-day podcast because they had Haley Bonar's Captain Captain listed about a fortnight ago an I'm coming across some brilliant music, the best of which so far has to be The Pierces. Am listening to their newest album right now. It's fabulous; I love it.

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Got more duck_cheer pictures of Leopold today. Was obviously too tired because they made me all nostalgic. Little people I once knew, now all grown up and adult-looking. (The pictures were taken at my secondary school.) So. Yeah. *weepy*

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Replying to comments and then going to sleep again. Thanks to every one who took my cracked out emails last night. Around 4am things began to get wobbly; by 5am every little thing was hilarious. Oh hysteria, how we love you.

(The walk to and from campus was interesting to say the least.)

ANYWAY. Done with; thank you; sleep now.

twincy = FTW. !!!

The plan for today was originally to hand in my work, come back and read until abut 3 o'clock, then have the afternoon off. That's really not going to happen. I'm going to go to Avenue, print out my essay and hand that in, head up to the main campus where I'm meeting the project editor to cut another 300 words from our project. Then I want it to be done, thanks. I need to hand this bitch in on time. I can't believe these are the people I have to discuss my dissertation with.

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Watched all of Numb3rs (GIP!) last night and whilst I was very excited about the guest cast (see previous post), the story resolved itself in a very wtf manner. Sigh. Also managed to watch half an hour of The Black Donnellys pilot and figured out why people are so into this show: BECAUSE IT'S GOOD. Have yet to see last week's Prison Break. Oops?

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I have the best best to put up for duck_cheer today, thanks to viciouswishes. I'm normally farly anal about presentation, but her write up will be an exception because it works, and is funny. I laughed out loud when I read/saw some of it. Good stuff!

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Question: do I have change for the printers? Bugger.