Where love is just a lyric

Today I got three PS2 games for under $20! \o/ I got Xenosaga Episode II, because I haven't gotten far in Episode I YET but it really fascinates my roommate to watch me play it, so assuming I don't hate it by the end I'll probably be on to Episode II before winter; Escape From Monkey Island, because it was very cheap and I've heard good things about the series, so I thought it was worth the five bucks; and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, because it was $2.50 and at that price, I was willing to find out what the big fuss over these games is all about.

I also went to Target and got a bathmat, because our shower is very slippery and I've fallen twice this week. D: It is painful and I don't like pain, so a bathmat seemed wise.

I feel much better now that I've gotten some fun shopping in. :D And since today's my day off, the roommate and I are going to hang out tonight. I'm looking forward to that.

I have decided that my uterus just doesn't like to travel. Costa Rica totally knocked my period off-schedule, and it took it months to realign itself. When it finally did (and at three weeks instead of four, annoyingly enough), I then went off to China, and it went off-schedule again! All morning I've been sitting here going, "These aren't cramps, it's too early. I had my last round in the last two weeks of the China trip." (Note that the last-two-weeks part is because it lasted twelve days in China, instead of the normal 8-10. I counted. Ten's bad enough--I was so ticked at going on to a three-week schedule because at 21 days, I was literally spending half my life on my period--but twelve really sucked. And I think was responsible for the massive continuous allergy attack in the last week and a half of the trip.) But unfortunately, I was wrong. It is cramps.

orz orz orz

I am generally really opposed to the idea of mucking around even more with my body chemistry than I usually do by throwing artificial hormones at myself, but some days birth control does sound tempting....

Fairly eventful. Before that, though, I just want to share that last night, I dreamt we got five numbers on the lottery (admittedly the draw was done by buses pulling up to a bus stop, with their numbers corresponding to the lottery numbers) - what a shame to wake up and discover it wasn't true. :(

Went to see my mum on Saturday. We were going to have paella for dinner, but on arrival they'd changed their mind and were going to take us out to the Kings Head (formerly Quantum, formerly Kings Head) in Bearwood. Quite possibly the most expensive meal I've ever had, but also hands-down the absolute best I've had, too.

For starters, David and I both opted for the seared scallops with pea puree and crispy pancetta. Very nice indeed. Paul and my mum both had the chicken liver parfait with cumberland sauce, which was also delicious. I think I heard the waiter say the scallops were Michelin starred...

We had different mains: David had the steak (which looked delicious, though he wasn't inclined to share it. :P), my mum had the tuna, Paul had half a lobster, and I had the lamb shank. There was seriously enough meat on it to feed three people. And it was gorgeous.

Despite having half a sheep for my main course, I still found room for dessert in the form of a lemon tart with orange syrup, which was just as good as the savoury dishes. Quite often I find restaurants are let down by their sweets, but not so in this case.

Despite being expensive, however, it was very good value for money (especially given the size of my lamb!), and I would definitely recommend it. Their bar menu looks impressive, too... We put in the customer satisfaction cards to enter their monthly draw and try to win a meal for two...

They also do a good value set menu Mondays to Thursdays which also sounded very nice...

Got back and managed to catch the Killers live at T in the Park on BBC3, which was fortuitous. :)

On Sunday we had breakfast at the cafe in Tesco at Five Ways, en route to the cinema. I was still full of lamb and lemon tart, but managed a couple of vegetarian sausages and hash browns. I am now on a mission to find said sausages, because they were very nice - mostly potato, leek and carrot, I think, actual vegetables rather than quorn... I tried the little Tesco in the city centre, in the hope that said sausages were perhaps their own brand, but they didn't appear to have any vegetarian sausages at all... I've kind of gone off most breakfast food (at least at breakfast), you see. As such I've stocked up on croissants and muffins and want to find some veggie sausages because I think my constitution will cope better with those than full-on meat-filled ones.

After breakfast we went to see Bruno, which was even more gratuitous than Borat and about as entertaining... it had its moments ( Spoilers ), but seriously, one of these days Sasha Baron Cohen is going to get his head kicked in by angry racists / homophobes / religious nutters. There's one point where a chair comes very close to landing on his head, which is mildly terrifying. I quite agree that half of the time these people fully deserve to be baited in such a way, but I imagine there's only so far you can push before they turn violent...

The rest of the evening was spent watching the 'Stenders omnibus and fighting off tiredness, then watching the latest installment of Big Brother and finding Clue on ITV3.

So I've not really had time to think this weekend. Hopefully next week will be a quiet one.

I need to book some tickets to We Will Rock You tonight, before there are none left...

Treiss is wearing something under that, right? Only Belle knows for sure.

Here's this week's Catena update.

We don't have any sort of buffer for Catena, so when there is any kind of extra work whatsoever, the comic is the first thing to grind to a halt.

Fear not, I'll have something up next month and maybe some doodles in between.

At the moment, we're gearing up for Comic-Con in San Diego. We'll be with Blue Dream Studios for a while signing Gary the Pirate and then eventually I imagine that we'll be wandering around in general.

There won't be any Catena merchandise at Comic-Con at all - sorry. We don't actually have anything to sell right now and we don't have a booth to sell it at anyway. ;) I'm sure there will be copies of Gary the Pirate around though, so feel free to grab that up if you can!

Just keep reading this LJ for news. I may even post a con report next month when we get back.

Ciao!

I HAVE A NEW COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...and it is glorious. i heart macbook pro.

I've been carrying this newspaper clipping around for so long that I'm committing it to LJ!

Peggy Morris's Amazing Butter Tarts

1 cup raisins
2 eggs
1/3 corn syrup
1 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
18 Sweet Tart Pastry shells

In a small bowl, cover raisins with boiling water. Soak for 20 minutes, then drain and set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, corn syrup, brown sugar, butter and nuts. Stir in raisins.

Pour evenly into prepared tart shells.

Bake in pre-heated oven (450F) for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F and open door slightly for 15-20 seconds to bring temperature down rapidly.

Bake for 15 minutes or until bubbling and deep golden brown.

Let cool for 10-15 minutse before removing from pan.

I had a dream last night in which I and some other people were playing a TV Tropes RPG. It wasn't as nonsensical as it sounded--the idea was that the character classes were based on different genres (your character could be an Action Movie Hero or a Comics Superhero or a Shoujo Heroine or so on), the characters were supposed to be a little Genre Savvy and the players a LOT so, and everything in the game, from class abilities to weapons to storyline, was based on tropes (of the appropriate genre or those that appear in all genres, depending on what they were used for). I'm not 100% sure how that would work out in real life, but I'd kind of like to try it out now. :O

I must investigate why "Why the most peaceful people on earth write the greatest homicide thrillers".

Oh man, it took us about two weeks to watch this movie. Part of the problem is that I knew it wasn't the kind of movie you watch with friends or if you're in a really good mood. I've never been able to stomach David Cronenberg movies - except for A History of Violence, they tend to be all quite weird, which is an understatement. Videodrome was positively terrifying. If homosexuality and drug use bother you, definitely skip this one. What does it mean when a movie makes you uncomfortable? I'm not sure at the moment...but I was really surprised by what an excellent actor Peter Weller is. Apparently he turned down Robocop 3 to film this movie instead.

Cronenberg certainly doesn't hold back in Naked Lunch which is more autobiographical than derived from William S. Burrough's book. I picked the movie out because I was too young to watch it when it came out. It was a unique way to approach the subject matter because the book is so wildly offensive, graphic and bizarre that I'm sure it would induced vomiting on a mass scale. At the same time, it's an artfully constructed movie with close attention paid to colour and detail and filled many visual metaphors. The one I liked most was that of the talking typewriters that resemembled cockroaches. Come to think of it, the story is something of a beat-era version of The Matrix in which reality is frequently called into question. Layering and themes of duplicity and paranoia abound.

I THINK I'M KINDA DRUNK

\o/

\o\ /i/ /o\ \o/

It's kind of hard to focus on the computer screen right now 8d

I've had two bottles of cider. And I've never gone beyond that. So I think tonight I'm gonna find out what it's like to drink three

\o/

MAKE THAT FOUR

[edit2]LEE SAYS IM' ALREAYD DRUNK

I THINK SHE'S INAACURATE
WHAT DO YOU THINK? [/EDIT]

I don't think this Stu has been sporked before; I google-fu'd it and I couldn't find anything. Also this may be somewhat subject to debate, given that the symptoms are not as severe as some of the other Stus we've seen in here. I mean, I think he's a Stu, but I'm just saying, YMMV.

Title of Work: "North"
Author: Written by Alan Zweibel, directed by Rob Reiner

( Click here if the title doesn't speak for itself )

just go here.

I was only half-convinced they would actually make a real Compare the Meerkats site, but there it is. :P

"I take a dim view of staggering home every Sunday with five pounds of wood pulp on my arm, when what I really want is information, not wastepaper. How I look forward to the day when I can press a button and get any type of news, editorials, book and theater reviews, etc., merely by dialing the right channel. The print will flash on the screen, and if I want "hard copy" to file or read elsewhere, another button will conjure forth a printed sheet containing only what I need."

- Arthur C. Clarke, "Technology and the Future," presented 1967

He goes on to anticipate e-mail, admittedly "typed or written on special forms like war-time V-mail," two paragraphs later. :P

I'm re-reading Report on Planet Three, a collection of Clarke's essays that has, somehow, ended up being one of my frequent re-read books. He has both a bright vision for the future and something of a talent for prediction, even if he's often wrong in the specifics--and the timeline. In particular, there's two things that Clarke assumes will exist by the year 2001 that did not, in fact, end up happening. The first is AI. I'm not too torn up about that being wrong; my roommate makes a compelling moral argument about intelligent machines. The other, though, is that he assumed space exploration would proceed at the pace it did in the late 50's and early 60's. Clarke envisions a human base on the Moon, exploratory missions to Mars, and orbiting space hospitals by the turn of the century. This is the one I really, really wish he'd been right on. I could go on about why, but the subject he keeps bringing up casually, as an "of course it will happen," and that I therefore keep being "D:" about, is the space hospitals. I'm not a doctor, but from my layman's perspective, Clarke's points about how zero-gravity could help various types of difficult-to-help patients today--particularly burn, cancer, and heart patients--seem valid to me. And that makes it bitterly disappointing that we don't have them.

I bet my dad would love getting heart surgery IN SPACE. >:

Well we are home, in one piece, or mostly anyway...

I feel like I've gained about 20 lbs over the past week. I don't think I'll be taking a look at the scale any time soon. D:

We had some pretty rough hurdles to overcome on our way home.

First we drove and drove until ~1am, stopping at a rest area in Kentucky right past Louisville. We found a good spot, folded down the back seat of the hatchback and curled up in the back. We left the CD player playing, but little did we know that the stupid car also apparently had turned on its automatic headlights; they're dimmer than the regular headlights but still bright enough to kill the battery. Joe woke up about two and a half hours after we fell asleep because he heard the music stop playing-- do you know how hard it is to find someone to jump your car at 4am?? And Highway Patrol isn't even open until 8am. (And this was central time so to them it was only 3am-- that would've been 5 hours to wait for Highway Patrol!) Thankfully there was a guy in a mini van that was willing to jump our car. Lots of people passed us by even though we were sitting there with our hood open and the cables hooked up just looking for someone to give us two seconds of their time. ._.

That wasn't the worst of it though! Oh no, there is more... we kept driving through the rest of the morning and finally we were both just dragging soooo bad, we decided to drive through a Starbucks. (Remember the time I was high on the Java Chip frapp? Yeah, I was counting on that kind of buzz to get us home again.) We ordered, paid, and then had to wait a minute for our drinks. Joe put the car into park to wait. We got our drinks and Joe goes to shift it into drive aaaand... the thing slides, but the car won't actually shift out of park. WTF?? He tries again, no luck. He turns the car off and then on again, no luck. We try pushing but because it's in Park and we can't get it to Neutral, we can't get it out of the way. So here we are, blocking the Starbucks drive-thru window at 10am! AUGH! Joe called AAA, and the kids working the Starbucks window just kind of chuckled and said "Well, don't worry, we could use a little break anyway." So they closed the drive-thru as we continued to look around for what the problem was.

Joe popped off part of the console and we started from one end to try and find out what the problem was. Nothing wrong inside the console; the cables still seemed to be working on that end. We're looking and looking, and finally after about half an hour Joe was going to have me try shifting again to look under the hood by the engine to find the right cable, when he noticed... the little cap connecting the cable to the engine had simply popped off and was sitting on the little box NEXT to where it should have been sitting. O_o He popped the cap back on, we try it, and sure enough, it works!! Thankfully nothing major was wrong and we didn't even need AAA to come help us out. Joe called & cancelled the order for the guy to come out, and we were back on our way again.

We had been TRYING to get back in time to pick Reo up from the vet's, but we didn't even reach Atlanta until ~1pm, and we *know* it's at least a 6 hour drive from Atlanta (assuming no traffic/construction) so we decided not to even panic about getting home "in time" any more. We resigned ourselves to getting there whenever we got there. Good thing, too, because just after we made it through Atlanta we got hit by a really bad storm. It was pouring rain and lots of loud thunder/lightning. So we went and walked around a Wal-Mart for a while, then got back in the car and off we went.

We stopped @ "The Smokin' Pig" in Valdosta for some awesome BBQ (we had stopped there after FWA this year and loved it!) and their excellent peach and pecan cobbler.. yum! Just what we needed after a long day. (And I even have some BBQ leftovers for lunch today!)

We finally got in around 9:30 last night. Oy! What an adventure. So we slept pretty hard last night.

Otherwise our week was a good one. Sad, of course, that we had to go to Joe's grandpa's funeral, but it was good that so much of the family could be there. We also got to see a lot of Joe's mom's side of the family. Then we went on up to Michigan for a couple of days to see my mom, my sister and her kids, and my youngest sister was supposed to be there too but I think we saw her for all of three hours, and even then she was too busy being prissy to worry about her sister that she "came up from Illinois just to see." We had lots of fun with the nephews though, including getting to go with them to Chuck-E-Cheese's (I haven't been there in years!) and the zoo. Needless to say the whole week was PACKED with activity.

So now I have a week and a half to work before Ancient City Con arrives, and a week beyond that before Megaplex.

I think I'll go collapse for a bit, now, before getting to work. D:

Away Day yesterday was okay; not as bad as some years. We had a toxicologist come in to talk to us about hair strand testing and what its used for / how it works, which was interesting, and also one of the high up Judges gave a talk at the end about what the Court expects of the Local Authority and stuff, including (quite gratifyingly) correct spelling and grammar. :P

I did not win an award but was nominated along with three others. It's quite suspect that all of the people who won were part of the same team, i.e. the biggest one. Myself and a fellow nominated colleague later on decided we should have a ballot box / election format and force everyone to vote, just to make it fairer.

As usual, things overran - in the morning by 15 minutes, then by 20 minutes in the afternoon, despite cutting our lunch short to get back on time. Instead of going home I went back to the office to make a dent in the workload and didn't leave work until 6.00pm.

We went out for food, mostly because I was too knackered to cook and also because Paul has (a) a new job starting today (the one he was interviewed for on Tuesday) and (b) an interview for a proper job in Solihull next week. Obviously he would much prefer the proper job to the temp job, but it'll do for now. As a result of the tiredness I didn't even manage to stay up for Ugly Betty (stupid 10.00pm timeslot) and instead sloped off to bed to watch some more X-Files and gain glorious sleep. I'm still bloody tired today. Can't win either way.

Am meeting my mum after work for a Secret Purpose which I am not yet inclined to tell people about, and they're both also coming over on Saturday for a barbecue or a meal if rain calls it off, and so David can screw things to the walls for us.

Oh, in realising I forgot, I went back and added the answers to my lyrics meme entry. The only participant, and hence the winner, was obviously Eni. I generally try to avoid that pervading sense of "why-do-I-bother?", but sometimes it's a little hard to fend off. :(

This week has gone quite fast, but I'm losing the will to live today already. I had a nice-looking bacon and sausage turnover from the pasty shop for breakfast, but it was so horrendously salty I just couldn't finish it... and Pret have stopped doing their dangerously good chocolate popcorn... meh.

And oh yeah, check out this Fallout LARP. It seems more meaningful as it takes place in Russia. I guess anything can be LARPed!

Stephenie Meyer is an idiot.

All four of her books were terrible.

I cannot be convinced otherwise.

( it only gets worse from here! spoilers, etc! let's get this party started... )

( 16. Why Do Gorillas Have Big Nostrils? Because They Have Big Fingers. )

Ok so my boyfriend Brian works mostly at the Jedi Training Academy at D*sneyland and he shared a very amusing story with me. A story about Christian Bale at the park. =D It was such a cute story I asked him if I could share it in my journal and he agreed.

So this was all copied and pasted from his journal.

( Remember, I'm Batman! )

Things are looking up today, as Paul has an interview this afternoon (at 1.00pm) for a job at Auchinleck House on Broad Street. His agency rang yesterday to let him know. I'm crossing all my fingers and toes and would ask everyone else nicely to do the same.

I hadn't even been at work an hour this morning when my chair decided to break. I wasn't even doing anything! Just sitting there happily typing away when the left front corner of it suddenly dropped a couple of inches. It's been quite wobbly for a while, admittedly, but yeah. I'm not taking any chances. I borrowed a spare chair (Adults Team use it to sit by the filing cabinet, it would seem) and have since been brought a different and somewhat more comfortable spare from downstairs. There might be a brand new one in the innings if it's approved, as they need to order another one for someone else.

( Some brief work annoyance. )

The other annoying thing was trying to order food last night. Firstly we tried one of the many new southern-fried chicken places which sprang up in Kings Heath in the wake of KFC. We attempted to order from them shortly after they'd first opened, only to have their phone ring through to voicemail; assuming that was just an early opening glitch, we tried again last night - same result. So we won't be trying them again.

Then we tried another chip shop which had put a leaflet through the door advertising free delivery (we are lazy, you see), only to have them tell us they don't deliver. Er... okay then.

Eventually we went back to our usual delivering chippy, which we probably should have used in the first place. That or gotten off our backsides and walked ten minutes down the road. ;)

I got soaked on the way to work this morning. Was that the summer, then?

It still amuses me how much Britain panics when we have any extreme of weather; I mean, we had a proper extended heatwave in 2006 (i.e. that one which made me ill) and then we get one in 2009 for about two weeks and the warnings start being issued by the Met Office. ;)

Which reminds me, I think I forgot to mention that we caught the majority of Michael Moore's Sicko the other week. Conclusion? Move to France. They have things good over there.

Nowt else to report, except that I'm hungry and about to have my lunch...

Edit, 16.23: Paul thinks the interview went well; they'll let him know tomorrow.

In other news, we're going to try out the new griddle pan tonight on some steaks. I should not be so excited about this. :)