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Fic Directory
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Jan. 1st, 2030 @ 05:44 pm
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To save people digging through back-entries and the like.
First Steps:
7259 / 15000 words. 48% done!
( All neatly collected and catalogued. )
Also, tags for quick reference:
Character Sheets - Doctor Who - All Drabbles - All Oneshots - All Prompts - All FanficCurrent Mood:  Determined |
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Things I Have Learned From Sarah Jane Adventures
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Nov. 20th, 2009 @ 05:12 pm
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As S03 winds down and Sarah-Jane tells me about the power of Friendship and humankind's ultimate destiny of a vast intergalactic empire based on Truth, Justice and Certainly Not Imperialism, it occurs to me that I have learned many invaluable lessons from The Sarah Jane Adventures. Here are a few:
- All aliens are bad.
- Except the ones that aren't (O HAI THAR DOKTOR!). But these are very rare and probably out to get you in a more subtle way.
- If it looks human then it might be okay, but people who look different to us are Always Chaotic Evil.
- Discriminating against an alien on the basis of skin colour is Bad, but it is perfectly acceptable to do so on the basis of species (see 1 and 3).
- Humankind will one day be at the head of a vast intergalactic empire subjugating millions of alien races, but that's Good, because Humans are Good and Things That Look Non-Human are Bad.
- Friendship is important.
- Except with aliens, because they're probably just trying to trick you into helping them take over the world.
- Beware of aliens bearing gifts, unless they are doing so off-screen in which case they are giving you a plot device that will likely save your life one day.
- Only one supercomputer per household.
- Never kill a Slitheen in an enclosed space.
- You pay, you display.
- Horoscopes don't work, except they sort of do, but not when Luke's around.
- The Mona Lisa came from Lancaster.
- Under no circumstances is it right to use a robot dog to cheat at your test, but you might want to take him to school with you anyway because he'll probably come in handy for saving the world.
- Sarah-Jane Smith is the only person on the planet capable of stopping alien attacks.
- 2059 is when it all kicks off, baby. (Okay, so Doctor Who has a part to play in this one as well.)
Can you tell that the constant comments of 'Well, maybe one day we'll meet a nice alien' have been getting on my nerves this series?
I still want to know why nobody thought to call in U.N.I.T., too.
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Day of the Blathereen!
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Nov. 19th, 2009 @ 06:23 pm
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( Spoilers for SJA: The Gift part 1 )
That is all.
Oh - except, Clyde's drive-by alien racism is hilarious.
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I swear that Solitaire's the one good thing about it
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Nov. 19th, 2009 @ 01:31 am
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Well, with a connection speed of roughly 10kB/s when it's working at all and a chain of hardware and software fails as long as my arm it's taken roughly two weeks, but I have prevailed over lousy Internet connections (seriously, BT, fix our damn phone line already), impossible networking problems and crappy ancient monitors that no longer support basic functions such as displaying output from the graphics card, and I have rebuilt my poor laptop.
That's right, Canonical. Everything you screwed up, I have fixed. Eventually.
I feel obliged at this point to mention that this is the first time I have ever had a problem upgrading an Ubuntu distro in five years of use, but really, it does prove how closely Ubuntu - and presumably other open-source OSs - resembles the little girl in the rhyme. When it's good, it's very good. When it's bad, it's five hours of tearing your hair out and screaming things like, "Yeah, and you know why it's called bash? Because THAT'S WHAT I'M GOING TO ****ING DO TO IT!" before finding out that the problem existed between the keyboard and chair and basically amounted to you consistently mis-spelling 'sudo'.
I exaggerate, but not as much as I'd like.
( Windows has encountered a teal deer and needs to close. )
In happier open-source news, today I also discovered Mozilla Songbird. I've been looking for a replacement for iTunes for ages, preferably something that I could use on both Windoze and Linux, with little success until today.
Songbird uses the same basic back-end as other Mozilla products, in that it saves a nice profile that I can copy from one hard drive to another and thus preserve my playlists. It imported from iTunes without the slightest fuss, loads about five times faster, has a really, really nice layout for the library with a search bar and a quick, simple way to change your sort criteria... and a built-in browser. No, I don't fully understand that last part either, though I assume it's to do with downloading music, but it made finding extensions much easier. The default theme is a little plain, but since it's open-source, that's easy enough to change - there's even a skin feather available that changes it to match your default theme.
By comparison with Banshee, which is what I was using on Linux, Songbird does less spectacularly than against iTunes - but mainly because iTunes has become so terrible of late. Mostly it's in a better state of development; Banshee had a couple of really irritating bugs, including one that caused it once to drop all metadata from all tracks. Given that Banshee's library was unmanageable without that metadata and I'd already risked RSI setting it up once, I wasn't happy.
As a final insult, when I uninstalled iTunes it did not clean up properly - left all of its shortcuts behind, and goodness only knows what else. Since I'm going to have to reinstall it to strip the DRM off my purchased files, though, doing its housekeeping for it is a problem for another time. Say next week...Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Amateur Transplants - Information Technology |
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First Reactions: Waters of Mars
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Nov. 16th, 2009 @ 12:35 am
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GREAT BIG SPOILER WARNING!
This isn't intended so much as a review as a brain-dump. I'd like to watch the entire ending trilogy before writing a proper review.
( Here be spoilers. )
And now... now we just have to hope that RTD's insanely long cast list and tendency to indulge in deus ex machinae and fanboy wankery don't ruin the last two hours of David Tennant's tenure. As much as I'm looking forward to it after tonight's performance, I'm also going to have to start preparing myself for a terrific let-down on New Year's.
On the other hand... the Doctor actually has to die this time. Maybe the hideous deus ex won't be necessary?
/\/\/\
I think I've worked out why we keep getting untranslated alien languages in these specials.
Usually, a Doctor Who episode takes as its 'point of view' character the companion, but without one of those hanging around we're actually following the Doctor's POV for once - and since he speaks these languages, the TARDIS probably wouldn't bother translating.
Of course, the question then becomes 'Why isn't the Doctor talking to himself/the TARDIS rendered in Gallifreyan?', but... eh. Maybe he is actually speaking English - it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the Ninth and especially Tenth Doctors had gone completely native.
(This also puzzles me frequently during the Great Punning Session at the beginning of Destiny of the Daleks. Why are the Doctor and Romana, currently inside the TARDIS with no non-Gallifreyan companions, apparently speaking English to one another?).
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| » I want my mum. |
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Today alone, I think I've had about five miniature panic attacks regarding certain job applications that I've sent off and not yet received replies for. That's just today, mind, and it's been building for a week or so now.
I really wish that knowing that I'm stressed, depressed, probably PMSing and generally overreacting actually counted for something.
Still, at least my Beating Heart arrived today... and works beautifully. Batteries were even included - how's that for stress relief?
Can haz self-esteem bak nao plz?
/\/\/\
Just wondering... which of the six copies of the Mona Lisa that exist in the Whoniverse is the one currently at the centre of the plot of SJA: Mona Lisa's Revenge? Does she have a 'THIS IS A FAKE' notice on her canvas in magic sonic marker?
Nov. 12th, 2009 @ 11:36 pm
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| » Extinction is a relative term |
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Okay, so I've finally managed to watch last week's Sarah Jane Adventures. And something kind of jumped at me about Darkening.
( Spoilers for SJA: The Eternity Trap. )
Nov. 10th, 2009 @ 10:49 am
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| » Review: The Book of Lost Things |
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Homer’s Odyssey was swell
A bunch of guys that went through Hell
He told the tale but didn't tell
The audience why
He didn't say, here's what it means
And here's a few deleted scenes
Charybdis tested well with teens
He's not the story
He's just a door we open if
Our lives need lifting -
-- Joss Whedon
( Once upon a time - for that is how all stories should begin - there was a boy who lost his mother. )
Good story, bad packaging. I recommend trying to find one without the fluff, if you can; The Book of Lost Things is nowhere near as important as it purports to be, but it is an arresting, fast-moving read with a solid story behind it and some genuinely, wonderfully disturbing moments mixed in with some genuinely moving ones.
Nov. 8th, 2009 @ 10:16 pm
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| » NaNoisms |
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Regan scowled at him. "Nothing. Really. It's just... a feeling. Incidentally, author, the horses should be feeling uneasy too, and Meredith ought to be more aware than I am of things being dead all around us. You've started out with the wrong POV again."
"She's right," Meredith said. "So let's quietly switch POV and pretend that I started this conversation, because it'll make editing easier later on. Regan, everything's dead. There's nobody in the fields and I can't even sense any wildlife nearby."
The moral of this story is: never let anally-retentive characters write themselves. Especially when the fourth wall is flimsy and easily-broken.
Nov. 2nd, 2009 @ 08:44 pm
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| » I hate this novel. |
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Iiiiiit's NaNo!
And at some point over the last month, all of my characters have wandered off. I'm having to fight to characterise Regan, Meredith and Anya, FFS - they're some of my oldest and favouritest characters.
On the plus side, it's flowing today. Last night, when I started (yes, I'm one of those sad people who sits up until midnight on October 31st to start as soon as possible), it took me nearly an hour to churn out 500 words of pure unadulterated crap. Today, it's flowing, but there's no spark. None. No character channelling, no plot point happening. Just... blah.
I suppose it's not too surprising. I've barely written any fiction since last Easter, so I ought to be blocked and horrible. Just... hopefully I'll break through it before Week One's out.
Aaaaaargh.
Nov. 1st, 2009 @ 11:17 am
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| » Oh, for the love of -! |
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Okay, Nice Lady In W H Smith's.
I understand that by not using make-up or wearing clothes designed to show off my assets, in conjunction with having clear skin and fairly wide eyes, I open the door to occasionally being taken for a teenager despite being in my early twenties. I do not, therefore, complain too much when I get kicked out of pubs (even though I don't drink) or carded for buying DVDs rated 18 - and even, sometimes, 15. I understand that you have a job to do, that I do not look my age, and that if I was the age I looked, some things would be inappropriate for me (at least, culturally speaking - but that's a whole other rant).
But look, Nice Lady, carding somebody for buying Private Eye is beyond the pale.
It is not a porno mag. It is not glorifying socially unacceptable behaviour (quite the opposite, in fact). The only bad language I have ever seen in it is the substitution of 'Carter-Ruck' for 'Carter-Fuck', which is in my opinion entirely justified. The only thing a teenager is likely to get out of reading it is increased awareness of things that really matter in the world. Increasing social and political awareness is almost the definition of achieving adulthood, is it not?
...Well, it should be, anyway.
More ironic still, did you even look at what else I was buying? Series 1 of Blake's Seven - dystopian, morally ambiguous Blake's Seven - and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, in which I assume at least one beloved Austen character will be gruesomely devoured by the aforementioned sea monsters. Either one of these would be a more appropriate reason to ask me for proof of age. Either one of them will contain, at the very least, murder.
And yet, you dropped both of those into the bag without fuss and then stopped and worried about the Eye. Good grief.
What is the world coming to when people are willing to let teenagers watch/read gory sex and violence, but not show political interest?
P.S. The look on your face when I pulled out my NUS and University cards was priceless. I'm guessing you were one of those people who thought I was under 15.
P.P.S. In an hour I'm going to watch The Sarah Jane Adventures, a children's show, and I'm willing to bet that that will have more gore, violence and terror than Private Eye. Although probably less swearing and definitely less bankers being dickwads with national funds.
Yours,
A concerned, politically-minded twenty-two-year-old.
Oct. 29th, 2009 @ 02:51 pm
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| » Hooray! |
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My MA results have (finally) come through. Against all odds, I passed.
Not much else to report. NaNo plans proceed swimmingly, by which I of course mean that half of my main characters have no names, my villain's motivation is a cliche, I keep forgetting about both subplots and I still haven't created so much as a definite article of the conlang.
But hey - I have an MA.
Oct. 28th, 2009 @ 01:21 pm
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| » Reviews: Twelfth Night, Unseen Academicals, DW: Taking of Chelsea 426 |
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Yes, I have a tendency to do my reading in spurts.
Over the weekend, I have seen the RSC's production of Twelfth Night at Stratford-upon-Avon and read both Doctor Who: The Taking of Chelsea 426 and Unseen Academicals. So. Reviews.
SPOILER WARNING for The Taking of Chelsea 426, by the way.
( Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. )
( SPOILERS: Chelsea Flower Show? What could possibly go - oh, hello, Doctor. Never mind then. )
( The thing about football is it's not about football. )
Oct. 26th, 2009 @ 11:13 am
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| » Too... much... Who... |
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It has begun.
Today, I bought a Doctor Who DVD that I already owned, because I'd forgotten I had it.
I'm doomed. DOOOOOOOMED.
Still, if it ever becomes necessary (doubtful), I can totally watch Romana regenerate in stereo.
/\/\/\
I'm really starting to get annoyed with the Time War being used as a crutch by New Who writers. Big universal catastrophe, sure - but that doesn't mean that every single alien orphan gets to blame the Doctor for their woes. I'm looking at you, today's episode of Sarah Jane Adventures.
Despite that, though, I hope we get a name for Eve's species, because being a time-sensitive race ranks them right up there with the Time Lords and Monans as temporally active powers, and we don't have enough of them - besides, I have a Gallifrey-based fic floating about in my head, and it'd be nice not to have to rely solely on the Monans (who kind of bore me) for politicking.
Also, Eve has Ocampa-ears. Which makes me smile.
Oct. 22nd, 2009 @ 05:24 pm
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| » The world doesn't make sense while I don't have diabetes. |
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Chocolate cake in five minutes. In a mug.
It really works: I was expecting flour lumps at the very least, but mixing it was surprisingly easy. I guess that's because there's no butter.
Mine came out a little dry and dark, so next time I'll either cook it for a bit less time or melt some Nutella over it (mmm, Nutella cake...). Other than that, though it was scrummy.
Oct. 8th, 2009 @ 10:36 pm
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| » It's not what you geek, it's the way that you geek it. |
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I have a board!
...well, okay. I've had the board for a while. The new development is actually that I now have pens for my board.
That... may be a DnD joke in Latin on the bottom. *shifty eyes* On the other hand, the rest of it, in which I attempt to translate my characters' names into Linear B, isn't geeky at all, ohnosirree.
Hey, it was that or look for a job.
ETA: And for just that little bit of extra geek:
(The astute, or more likely the criminally academic, might notice that this in fact says 'NaNoWiMo'. Don't blame me, blame the Minoans.)
ETA2: Sigh.
/\/\/\
Oct. 3rd, 2009 @ 08:11 pm
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| » Reviews: 'Patient Zero' and 'Prisoner of the Daleks' |
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When watching New Who, I often get the sense that Daleks are becoming overdone. Dalek was brilliant, but all of the season finales featuring them have been cliched, miserable messes, and the less said about Daleks in Manhattan the better.
( And then I read one of the novels, or listen to a Big Finish play, and I realise that it's not the Daleks: it's the writers. )
Which just goes to show what you can do with the Daleks, if you're a good enough writer.
Sep. 21st, 2009 @ 04:59 pm
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| » Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies |
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I've never read any Austen, either.
Oh, I've tried. But romances bore me to tears, Victorian purple-prose romances even more so. The characters often seem one-dimensional and the plots formulaic. You know what Victorian romances need? They need something with a bit of bite. Something exciting. Something to break up the plot from the monotony of teenage whining and hormone-driven angst.
They need... zombies.
( Fortunately, Seth Grahame-Smith agrees. )
Roll on Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters, that's what I say.
Sep. 16th, 2009 @ 12:58 pm
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| » Book Review: Stardust |
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I said I'd start doing book reviews here, and I will. That way if anyone ever actually reads this, they will have something to read.
Or something.
So. Dissertation finished, I set forth last night to begin the awesome task of conquering my ever-growing book list. First up: Stardust, by Neil Gaiman.
( There was once a young man who wished to gain his Heart's Desire. )
Will I try Gaiman again? Probably, one day; I think a lot of the problem with Stardust is the slightly affected fairy-tale style, which will hopefully be gone from his other works. But I'm not rushing to buy any more from him. I have a reading list to get through, first.
Sep. 15th, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
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| » Troilus and Crappida |
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"But not all of the Apocrypha are entirely without merit. In fact, one of them, Troilus and Cressida, is hardly crap at all." - The Reduced Shakespeare Company Radio Play
Ah, Reduced Shakespeare Company, why don't I listen to you more often?
Oh, yes - it's because the last time I listened to your summary of a Shakespeare play before going to see it, I spent the whole of Hamlet hearing your voices adding jokes to the ends of perfectly serious lines, which kind of ruined it for me. But still.
Anyway, Nadia and I went to see Troilus and Cressida at the Globe on Saturday. I am... confused.
( Sing, bard, of the suck of Achilles... )
I'm going to have to get hold of The Myth Makers on audio. It's probable that running Troilus and Cressida through the Doctor Who filter - especially the Hartnell filter - made it into a genuinely enjoyable story at last.
(Also, I finished my dissertation. Go me!)
Sep. 15th, 2009 @ 11:01 am
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