Below are the 50 most recent journal entries recorded in Leni Jess' LiveJournal:

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Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
12:45 pm	Taking another little break Just long enough to bitch. I've been researching intensively this last week and more, for two stories, and I'm getting pretty tired of restarting my notebook several times a day because the memory has clogged up. Just think, when this one was built, half a GB was considered adequate. It's only two and half years old. Ah well, next time. I think I might go for 2 GB, when this one falls over, as well as a hard drive several times the size of the current 80 GB. (Thogh I do hope it will be partitioned; I've found it very convenient having two drives on this machine.) *re-opens research URLs* *returns to writing* *hopes current fic won't turn out too weird* Current Mood: determined (and ignoring stiff shoulders) Current Music: Purcell Ode for St Cecilia's Day 1692 (Hail! Bright Cecilia) (Alfred Deller, ct, Ambrosian Singers, (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
1:05 pm	Skiving off again, but hey, good excuse I wasn't supposed to be going on the net at all today, but I had some essential research to do for the current fic – fatal. So I found my snarry_holidays gift fic had been posted. And it's yummy. Go read, either on LJ With Pleasure or IJ With Pleasure. *returns hastily to fic writing* (Comment on this)
Monday, November 17th, 2008
5:03 pm	Something new (to me, anyway) I'm reading this (otherwise quite good) story full of "too" for "to" and apostrophes in all the wrong places, and thought it sad I was grateful that the author can spell per se correctly, but what I wanted to share was this: its' as a possessive, as in I like its' looks [not a quotation]. When in doubt add an apostrophe, obviously. Has anyone met that before? I wonder if it's in Lynn Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Must look sometime. Yes, I am skiving off from writing exchange fics. Again, with two due Friday and only half finished. I sank a glass or two too much last night while watching Order of the Phoenix, so I spent the morning reading lolcats: about as much intellectual exercise as I could stand. Current Mood: grammar Nazi Current Music: Soleriana: Passepied, Fandango, Contradanza and Bolero (Asturias Sym Orch/Maximiano Valdes) (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 9th, 2008
8:25 pm	You'd hardly know Christmas was coming The first of the seasonal fic exchange fests that I'm involved in (snarry_holidays) started posting on 1 November. No more than 7 comments on any of them so far, and more like 2 on most (that's on LJ). The people who wrote those fics must be wondering why they bothered. I've been making notes on all of them as I read. Given this low response rate, though I've only commented on a  couple so far, I feel I should comment on (most of) the rest (there was one I couldn't finish). (I must check out IJ; maybe it's better there. – Just did so: much better. Phew. That's a relief.) There have been a couple of fics I thought very readable, too: have you tried them yet? Apparently I'll do anything to avoid writing fest fics. I have two more due soon, and of course they’re not finished. My "old" TV (my mother's 68 cm screen, about 5 years old) broke down over a year ago; I haven't bothered to get it fixed. Today it was tucked into a far corner of the library and my brother brought his "old" one over (at least 10 yo, recently replaced by a 92 cm or thereabouts, a real beauty), so now if I want to watch a DVD I can. Have not done so yet, of course; I don't do it much. Current Mood: jittery Current Music: some pretty dire opera in German Czech (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
4:30 pm	That was quick! I go out to lunch and, wow, Obama's in! That's quite a lead; no one could deny it's a mandate. Now let's hope he can live up to 30% of his promises. The ones that protect people and enhance rather than limit their lives. Let's hope also that all the nay-saying mean limiting state propositions were voted down... Current Mood: cheered Current Music: Hadjidakis, A Carnation behind your Ear (Agnes Baltsa, ms; Athens Experimental Orch) (Comment on this)
9:43 am	Elections and promises If I had intended to do that "post every day in November" thing, it didn’t take me long to blow it. I shall be very glad when the US election is over and my flist can settle down. ( Outsider looking in ) Good luck, USA! May you get the president you need. Among the many net acronyms, is there one for "I forgot all about it?" If not, I propose IFAAI for consideration. Nearly a fortnight back meri_oddities asked me to beta read a short fic exchange story, and I said I'd do it next day. Next day I was up to my eyes in a late fic exchange story of my own, so I emailed an apology for delaying. Then... IFAAI. (Grovel.) A week later she had to email and ask me when she might expect to see it. (Grovel.) Luckily it wasn't due for a few days yet! But I know how busy her normal day is, and so I did the job at once and sent it off. /(Grovel.) I like beta reading, usually, and do enjoy getting the sneak peek into fics I'd otherwise have to wait for. (I am also pants at identifying the author of anon fics.) Moral: If I forget to do something for you that I promised to do, in a particular time frame, don't hesitate to remind me! Unless I've fallen under a bus I shouldn't have problems keeping a promise I would have thought about fitting into the schedule when I made it. Er, exchange mods: the first part of this applies to you too, but you do that already; the second part is another kettle of fish. You can be damned sure I won't be saying IFAAI. Current Mood: apprehensive Current Music: Blake arr Tingley, Walking in the Air (I Cellisti) (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
3:09 pm	That was Halloween, that was Ur furrin kulchur is in my grocery store upsettin my vegies! Seen in the local Woolworths vegie section, for the first time ever: actual meant-for-carving Halloween pumpkins for sale. I don't think they were expecting a rush; there were about three of them. Big. Orange. Presumably carvable. Abnormal. I certainly shouldn't like to see anyone attempting to carve, say, a Queensland Blue with anything short of a chain saw. You'd take your hand off. If I buy a piece of one of those for soup (they are very tasty indeed) these days, I get one of the vegie blokes to slash the rind off with his special vegie machete. Oh, and an icon to match. Current Mood: November already? Current Music: Jack Blanchard and Misty Morgan, Tennessee Bird Walk (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
9:15 am	So far and no further News of the day: Tooth fixed! Broken dam wall replaced (if a bit more fragile than the original – no more wasabi peas, perhaps). Tax return submitted - this normally takes maybe half an hour, done on the computer and posted on line; this time one question got in a loop and kept returning an error message I couldn’t get rid of – had to phone this morning and wait to speak to the help line. Grr. Added emotional feedback to return. Don’t know if anyone reads it, they certainly don't reply. Still fighting Snape and Harry to get to the smut for snarry_holidays. Am trying to get back to posting more regularly. Even if I've nothing of interest to say - that could be a problem. (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 26th, 2008
11:00 am	Really looking forward to... I see I haven't posted for nearly a month. I've been hiding from my fic-writing commitments, mostly. This is a horrible state of mind that can only be dealt with by immersing myself in long historical novel series, or long Snape/Hermione fic (where I found myself downloading some real losers, once I'd read some old favourites, so I went back to the bookshelf). Denial also means I don’t get anything else done. For some people it leads to a sparking clean house, but not me. Cooking is as productive as it gets. Every so often I write more of the first-in-queue commitment, or make notes towards a later queued fic. Not good enough. However, see icon, cross fingers, etc. So, what I am Really Really looking forward to includes Finishing my snarry_holidays fic, which is looking up, and also the lovely mod gave me up to another week, which I hope not to need, but some of which should certainly improve the quality of output – lots of editing and re-writing needed; Going to the dentist tomorrow: a week back I broke off part of a back tooth – the dam wall, as it were – and left the dammed (note spelling carefully) filling standing up like a volcanic core. Which digs holes in my tongue. Then the night before last a combo piece of tooth and filling broke off, when I was eating pizza. Since its time clearly had come (I mean, pizza?), perhaps I should think myself lucky I hadn’t yet had whatever ameliorative dental work is possible. Because soon enough I'd have been going back and paying double. Then, guess what, Eating something more interesting. Maybe I'll see if my brother wants to go out to lunch. Finding a moment to tell Symantec they can take Nortons AntiVirus 2009 and drop it in the Marianas Trench, and give me my money back. An AV program that denies me access to the net as soon as installed (several times, now, despite Symantec 'analysts' doing it, even) is by its nature the epitome of uselessness. Cleaning up after their rubbish swallowed over a week of writing time. However, I have been keeping up with my flist, in fits and starts, as I aten't ded yet. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 29th, 2008
8:00 am	Pleasures of a country life This evening I watched what turned out to be the last episode of series 3 of the new Doctor Who – and was confused initially, as it started with a resurrection. Conclusion: I need to watch this from the start (having seen part of an episode here and there, maybe, tops). Pity my TV's bust. Must exert self to get it fixed, or to recall previous TV from under my brother's desk. I also concluded that I needed to get the DVDs, so as to watch an episode more than once (they talk too damn fast). However, this may be mostly due to ( Er, spoiler? ) ............. I've been at my sister's new place down the coast (ie in the country rather than a coastal suburb) for the last week. My brother and I are sharing the one spare bedroom, but that's not exactly a hardship after travelling together for three months. The house needs fixing (when the previous one is sold), but it has horse accommodation: a paddock out the back and another at one side, plus a front yard where the older horse (28 yo) is fed, to make sure the young fella doesn't make off with his food. The horses love the fresh grass. The dog is in dog heaven (except when he comes back with paralysis ticks): paddocks and roads and friendly neighbouring properties to wander. The cat takes his country pleasures more moderately. It's lovely, out in the back blocks, no city lights or traffic (or sewerage or mail delivery or rubbish collection, but my sister and niece seem happy anyway), and uninterrupted stars. Fresh air, trees, green, concerned and friendly neighbours (apart from the one who nearly ran my sister off the road and down a not-quite-cliff). Wonderful views (and scary roads to get to them, agh). Oh, and the broadband works just fine; the result of being on the top of a ridge, perhaps. I've done more cooking this week than in the nearly 4 weeks since we came home from our travels – but it's always easier, cooking for more people than oneself, and it's very pleasant to have the food appreciated. The local area arts festival is on, so we've seen some attractive stuff (and, let's face it, some dreadul stuff, too). We've also eaten in some good places (and some not so good); the good are carefully noted for next time. We also went to a concert given by the Don Burrows Quartet - he's one of Australia's outstanding jazz musicians, only going on 83 or so now; it was marvellous to watch and hear him. I've been reading a lot of Snape/Hermione – possibly my ultimate comfort food fic – but must soon get back to writing fest fics. I don’t know how it is, but when I come down the coast I bring a lot of books – and I read maybe one. Not sure what I've done with the rest of the time. As usual, I didn't bring enough warm clothes, so I'm wearing a Pony Club polar fleece jacket over the one pair of jeans I brought with me. One day I will remember all these things. ........... When I was about to post the above, just before 10 pm last night, the power went; not a light to be seen for miles (while there are very few candidates, some other people live out here). Electricity came on again around 12:45 am, but I'd been asleep for a long time then. So, good morning, world. Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: bird thou never wert making noises off (Comment on this)
Monday, September 15th, 2008
2:49 pm	Hates mouses Probably no one remembers that just after we left Australia my just-over-a-year-old USB mouse died on me. Luckily, I was in Singapore and someone pointed me to a really good IT shop, where I bought a very nice replacement. Now, just over three months later, it too is dying. Reeling, writhing, and fainting in coils. Not lighting up. Not being recognised, every few minutes (when it deigns to operate at all). God rot it. It has a one-year warranty, but a lot of good that will do me, seeing the shop's in Singapore. I am learning to use the notebook's touchpad (again), but touchpads make my fingertips sore, are much slower than a mouse, and selecting text (especially on line) is a singular pain. Ho hum. There goes yet another $50, I suppose. Current Mood: Not happy, John Current Music: Aaron Copland, The Tender Land (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
8:18 pm	Real life coming back to life again I'm told this has been a very cold winter. It’s now spring, but you wouldn’t know it. I've spent about ten days getting over jet lag, and still am not sleeping above 4 hours a night. (Typed "houris"; could wish, if I were differently sexed.) Gah. However, I must be getting back to normal: I've just spent 7 hours at my brother's place, looking at his photos from our trip on his TV screen, on random play, taking turns to say, "That's the chapter house of X cathedral"; "Isn’t that the rose window at Y cathedral?"; "That's the south facing view from the Getty (Centre)"; "I took a photo of that last year – what is it?", "What the hell's that?" and so on. Random play keeps you alert! I am now in bed with nine new books (eight SF). This is the life. Current Mood: Still bloody cold Current Music: newly discovered Vivaldi opera 'Montezuma' (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 24th, 2008
2:27 pm	End of holiday approaching fast In fact we're doing nothing today, ( which is a welcome change. ) It will be good to be home, in one place. It was a wonderful holiday (bar colds and stomach issues and, er, some English B&Bs, which were eminently forgettable but are not yet forgotten). We enjoyed ourselves, and have seen lots, and have loads of photos to edit (and shirts not to wear for six months because I'm sick of them). One of the really good things was seeing people again: ( and forgive me if I've left out your name! I'm writing this without a diary to fall back on ) But I think next time it might be a shorter trip! Maybe just Azkatraz, and some leisurely running about museum-going and nature-viewing on the west coast. Our next trip isn’t for a month, and then only down to the NSW coast to see our sister and go to a Don Burrows jazz concert (and the annual arts festival). *sinks slowly into the west, like the sun at glorious Balham* Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: motel air-conditioning (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
4:30 pm	Making a rod for my own back... or not I have today signed up for harry_holidays, snarry_holidays (couldn't see any mention of the 80 cap having been hit), and the sshg_exchange. It's the first time I've signed up for specific pairing fests, and it feels a bit odd. There are some great prompts out there, though! There's still smutty_claus to come. That'll probably be my lot. Let's hope that this year I don't go into meltdown as the deadlines approach. Fortunately, they're comfortably spaced. It should be okay, seeing that submission dates are spread over nearly two months. Current Mood: crosses fingers Current Music: café muzak (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
9:15 am	From my palace on Lake Michigan (or at least, from the Hilton) I fell in love with American hotels when we moved into our Newark hotel (a Best Western) and found that though it cost less than we'd been soaked for quite a few English B&Bs, it had a lift, a roomy bedroom, sensibly laid out and helpfully furnished (a fridge! a room safe! a real desk with a real office chair!), edible breakfast thrown in, and free shuttle service to the airport, and to the station. On top of that, I loved the bathroom. Passionately. After all those weak lukewarm showers and spaces you couldn't turn around in, it was heaven. I enjoyed the wallpapers: the bedroom looked like superior woodchip, the bathroom like very superior highly polished concrete (the sort that has lots of little pebbles included for interest) – whether this was conscious self-mockery, their decorator having a lend of them, or just happy coincidence I don't know. We were pleased when checking into the Chicago Hilton yesterday to discover that we'd been upgraded to a room with two bathrooms. We're very comfortable, and it's super lovely having a bathroom each – a luxury I never managed to covet before ( though there are some silly deficiencies, which my brother calls intelligent design ) However, there's an internal Starbucks, and we can breakfast there, a pleasant habit we've missed since we left Birmingham for our road trip. (OT: Starbucks is closing almost all of its Australian shops, and the other day the reason came out: they'd not taken into account that Australia already had a strong "coffee culture", ie our postwar immigrants taught us how to make it, drink it, and enjoy it, and use coffee shops for socialising. We didn't need Starbucks to revolutionise our lifestyle, so they had to compete on coffee standards. Heh.) For Terminus attendees who want to drink their own stock: the concierge recommended a liquor outlet which I recommend in turn: Liquor Warehouse, on Wabash just above Balbo (ie go out the hotel north door, turn left half a block, cross over Balbo, and there it is across the street, a couple of doors up from the corner). I have never seen more varieties of good scotch in my life. They also sell coke etc, at reasonable prices, chips, and even salsas, and are open until 10:30 pm. The Hilton's Pavilion restaurant does a decent dinner; we haven't sampled the others here. It's right beside the foyer, though, with only a waist-high barrier, so if you don’t like squealing guests with your dinner move well into the restaurant. I won't have my mobile while Terminus is on. My brother's mobile can't be charged here (his charger isn't dual voltage, which he forgot to check on before we left home, snerk, and the phone's so elderly it won't work on my charger), so I'm giving him mine for the emergency that never happens. My room number, if you want to leave a message at the desk, is 1138. Just please don't phone the room after 10 pm or before 8 am! I am looking forward to meeting so many people tonight, at the Harry Potter Erotic Night at Quimby's. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
11:22 pm	Terminus schedule I'll be there. I'll probably attend panels etc pretty full-time, as I'm a nerd like that. I am unlikely to have wifi access there, so if you want to contact me, email before Tuesday 5th. If friends want my cell phone number, email me, but be warned you'd be calling Australia if you call using that; it would be cheaper to text me, and I'd get the message, too, whereas I often can’t make out what callers say (it's all that ambient noise...). Heavens, three foreign words in one sentence. Tuesday 5th afternoon - my brother and I arrive, settle into the Hilton. Sometime on the 5th or 6th, we go on the Chicago Architectural Foundation's architectural boat trip. (We can't book on line, or rather won't; not only do they hit you with a great "convenience fee" to book online, and save their staff having to sell you a ticket over the counter, but foreigners get slugged an extra $2.50 just to collect their tickets at the dock! Service with a smile, oh yes.) Wednesday 6th, 7:00 pm - Erotic Harry Potter Night at Quimby's (slashers) Thursday 7th 12:00 pm on - Registration 7:00 - 8:00 pm - Arrival Dinner Friday 8th ?:?? am - Possible Snape/Lupin Meet-Up? (reference seen on r_grayjoy's IJ)- if anyone hears about this happening for sure, point me? 5:15 pm - General Slash Meet-up at Grant Park *looks for hiking boots* 7:30 pm - Snarry Meet-Up at Edwardo's (521 S Dearborn Street branch) Where's the Snape/Hermione? (That's a serious question, though I doubt if there's an answer.) Monday 11th 8:00 - 10:00 am - Departure Breakfast I'll be hanging about some of the rest of the day, but most likely we're going to the Field Museum (for the Ancient Americas exhibition). Tuesday 12th – the Art Institute. Wednesday 13th – We fly out for LA. Current Mood: getting sleepy Current Music: sirens, hotel doors slamming... (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
8:20 pm	Leaving London, alas Tomorrow our time in the UK ends; my brother and I fly out for the US via Toronto (where we sit on our thumbs for four hours before the connection flight; the departure time keeps being put later and later). The flight leaves Heathrow at 12:05 pm. You'd think that would allow us to get up at a reasonable hour, wouldn't you? Oh no. Air Canada says, Check in by 9 am. Which we will try to do, because their on-line check-in system has rejected us. Sods. To have the best possible chance of an acceptable seat, we get there as early as we can. So we rise by 6:30 am. At least I don’t have to worry about fitting in breakfast. Since Monday night I've had a tummy bug (you don't want the TMI on that), and while it’s a lot better, it's not quite gone yet. Tuesday, I ate two oat cakes and a small glass of apple juice: bad idea. Wednesday, a quarter slice of plain brown (packet) bread: okay. This morning: the rest of the slice: apparently okay. This afternoon: half a dozen potato crisps (crazy, I know): paid for that. I had my first outing going to Sainsbury's for more oat cakes to take home (can't find any there) and bought essential salts replacement stuff. I hope it works, because it tastes disgusting. The stuff I left at home is far superior in convenience of making up, for a start. The pharmacist was kind, though: he gave me a 200 ml bottle to mix the stuff up in. See me doing this in turbulence on the plane... Luckily I don't feel hungry. More brown bread tomorrow, I suppose. I have lots of wonderful things to look back on (and hundreds of photos to review). I didn’t get out since we checked into our hotel room until this evening, but I've spent parts of the last two days with a bunch of Snupiners (Snupineers? We discussed this), and had a most enjoyable time. I wasn't even very quiet – except that I couldn't drabble (TMI causes brain fade), though I could play Telegrams okay. They are now at Snape's Pub having a good time, lucky bastards. They were good company. Now for the States and, I suspect, an enormous change in the weather. Hot on the East Coast, yes? I can put my jeans away and get out my light summer skirts. I believe we will have net access in New York and LA, if not in Chicago, so see you all on the net! Current Mood: cheerful in adversity Current Music: surprisingly quiet hum of traffic (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
3:40 am	I have an online life again (temporarily) I'm back on line again, thanks to my sister, who replied to the same kind of wail you people heard from me the other day with the news that Microsoft had put out an update that meant my firewall wouldn't let me on the net (temporary fix, lower security level). How one is supposed to intuit what happened, I cannot imagine. God bless Bill Gates and all his works. ZoneAlarm has now provided an update which I assume fixes it; nothing's come up from Windows automatic updates. Thanks, Bill. Note time stamp. I can’t sleep, and am hoping not to wake my brother, so I can't make this a long post; the keys clacking will wake him eventually. I'd love a cup of tea, but that's definitely too noisy. We move again in the morning, from York to Lincoln; I've no idea if our place there has wifi, so I may not be in contact again until we're in London on 21 July. Yes, we're having a good time. Yorkshire has been great (real ale, old churches, magnificent ruined abbeys, good art galleries, fine weather – after 7 pm, but at least no rain, at last, for the last five days). We're pretty active, but I don't believe I've lost an ounce – or even a gram. It's all those good dinners. And possibly the Black Sheep ale. (Comment on this)
Monday, July 7th, 2008
10:27 am	Traveller's Tales It's a month since I last posted – you must have thought I'd fallen off the face of the planet. We haven't had internet access often, and when we did most of my time on it went on finding accommodation for the next few stops. There's a lot to be said for a rigid timetable; you can get it all lined up beforehand. OTOH, we've been able to do and see things we didn’t know about when we left home... Hello to our kind hostess lazy_neutrino, and to parlophone and kennahijja! To keep you entertained, and for my records (since I haven't been able to keep up the diary since we started running about in a car – a Saab, no less, not exactly the little Astra we ordered – about three weeks ago), here are some traveller's tales. ( The day we went to Sodom ) ( The day it was fine and sunny ) My current look is English sheepdog. I'll have to look out a photo. I will try to write, and post again when we next get internet access, but now I must get up and help pack the car; it's nearly check-out time! See y'all later. Current Mood: hopeful (though not of fine weather, not today) Current Music: packing noises (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
9:03 am	Traveller's Joys: of sheep, goats, and the gameof hide and seek We are in London. Still tiring easily (I started dropping off every time I sat down at Tate Britain yesterday), and stiff (probably due now to the 65 steps to street level - or 91 to breakfast and wifi access - rather than to hauling suitcases which only weigh about 15 kg/35 lbs, after all). However, we are emphatically having a good time. So far, we've visited three major art exhibitions (the major ones, as far as we're concerned): Lucas Cranach the Elder, at the Royal Academy, The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery (and Treasures from the Royal Collection, on the side) at the Queen's Gallery, and The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting, at Tate Britain. All most enjoyable. We're still hunting the perfect cup of coffee. However, into each traveller's life some special joys come. ( Of sheep and goats ) ( Of the game of hide and seek ) Today is a fine day (with a high pollen count predicted). I'm writing this looking out our window on to the plane trees around the church in the central garden of the square, with sunlight glittering on them and on the stone. I'm planning to take it easy, while my brother returns to the National Gallery. I explored it very thoroughly last northern summer. Maybe I'll catch up with my friendslist, and find out what you've all been doing (and writing). And collecting the last Snarry Games stories. Heaven knows when I'll have the chance to read them, though. We fell into bed about 9:30 last night, pole-axed. Current Mood: contented (if stiff) Current Music: distant traffic, and my brother polishing his shoes (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
9:26 am	On the road and mostly out of touch I did a post for our last (third) day in Singapore, but access? Ha. See also para #3. We had a good time despite the humidity, which knocked both of us about a bit. Our last day – spent in an airconditioned museum and its attached Indo-Chinese restaurant (yum) – was the best as far as comfort went. Our time there was also rainy weather, and when it rains in Singapore, it rains! A lot of the rainwater gutters are deeeep concrete ditches, with inlet pipes/holes every foot or so – and sturdy guard rails. Watch the water fall. Last night we flew to London. We are definitely now dead, having been without sleep for nearly 48 hours by now. Thank goodness for the range of entertainment available on the little individual TV screens each passenger on Singapore Airways has! I have now seen St Trinians (with Rupert Everett and Colin Firth) and I am Legend (with Will Smith), both enjoyable. I backed out of Beowulf (why make a movie with people then treat it so that they look like computer game computer-generated images?). I also watched that TV special on A Year in the Life of J K Rowling (or noises to that effect), and was interested to discover that she thought that anyone who paid attention could have worked out the Battle of Hogwarts took place on 2 May. News to me. I have had to buy a mouse. Mine (all of 18 months old) died Sunday morning, so I was practically incapable of communicating. (I hate touchpads.) I was directed to one of the hundreds of mall shopping centres in Singapore – this one specialising in IT – and found a branch of a store well known at home, with lots of mice to choose from. Familiar brands, and cheaper than home, too. So I have this dead cute little red and silver mouse with five buttons; I must remember to learn  to use the scrolling buttons. The wifi in our Singapore hotel was in the lobby only (which had one double power point), and chairs and tables definitely not meant for computing in. However, it worked just fine. I only once found the energy to go downstairs and use it, however, after we came in knackered after a little touring! All being well, I'll be normal again in London. Once I've caught up on my sleep. However, I shan't be on the net much here, either, as the wifi is about five floors of dodgy staircase away. (I'll email the people I expect to be seeing here, probably tomorrow after breakfast, as I shall have to make that trek downstairs then anyway.) Our London 'hotel' is in one of those garden squares common to central London, with a church, with garden, and lots of well-grown plane trees in the centre. A very pleasant view. Also, it neither roars nor moves nor chatters, and our personal space, though small, is not nearly as cramped. Our ambitions at the moment centre on a pub and a laundrette. And a better class of hotel next time/later in this trip. Do I sound incoherent? Colour me surprised. (I can see I need to get back into the habit of using the lj-cut, too, but Semagic doesn't seem to handle that.) [written 2-3 June '08, posted after breakfast 4 June] Current Mood: exhausted, and hyper on coffee Current Music: London traffic – surprisingly quiet here (Comment on this)
Monday, May 26th, 2008
2:22 pm	My fic cup runneth over, and then some In fact my hard drive is being flooded with unread fic. It's not so long since I finished working through the wintersshg_exchange fics, and the summer round is starting next month. I'm striving valiantly to read all the snarry_games fics, and falling behind; I'm also trying to comment, at least where I can honestly offer appreciation, as well as voting on all the fics I read. Then I download the occasional fic from challenges like hd_worldcup or hds_beltane (where recced by someone I trust to rec me a good read rather than a silly one - I read a terrible fic on a rec recently; never again that reccer). There are quite a few fics from the Christmas exchanges I haven't read yet, either. *sigh* And once we hit the road on Friday, my reading time is going to be even more considerably circumscribed. (At present I'm reading when I should be doing organising-type stuff. It's tiring trying to find affordable accommodation in downtown LA, for example. Still, 2 hours work last night got me a bit closer to the goal. It's 2 pm, and I still haven't touched today's To Do list.) I could look on it as laying aside supplies for the dry periods, I suppose. Certainly there are times when I feel there's nothing new I want to read. But for the last six months or so, that has not been the case. Even if I limit myself to 'comfort' fic, which tends to be long, meaty fic with Snape in it. Dunno why Im complaining when I'm in what many would consider a fortunate position! Current Mood: resigned Current Music: Nigel Westlake, The Hinchinbrook Riffs (String Quartet no 2) (Goldner String Quartet) (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 24th, 2008
8:45 am	I can haz visual acuity! On Monday I collected my new multifocal glasses. ( Whee! ) As we're hiring a car for four+ weeks in the UK, my brother has just bought one of those GPS navigation things. It's going to take a bit of getting used to, but looks promising. (He will be dismounting the gadget from the hire car window every time we get out of the car, to make sure it doesn't walk. Lucky it's tiny.) I'll be interested to see whether using it's easier than managing a big road atlas on our Australian travels. (I can't navigate from the atlas and read road signs at the same time – glasses off to read map, and on to read road signs.) It's made for some hairy moments. Thursday we had a farewell lunch with our family: our sister, her daughter, son, and daughter-in-law, though we'll see the latter pair once more, when I pass my car over to my not-so-new-now niece, for the duration. That way we get to drive in to the bus station, and she gets a car to go to her teaching job in, so our nephew doesn’t have to drive her before going off to his gym to work. This time I have taken the precaution of getting everyone's Tshirt sizes from them instead of taking a punt and buying stuff several times too large. Friday I managed to wrestle my new mobile phone (which has Bluetooth) and my notebook (which also has Bluetooth) into agreeing to communicate (Bluetooth instructions seem to be abysmal, whatever you're trying to do). This enabled me to download one miserable (and lousy) photo. I don't think I'll try to turn email on for the mobile, somehow. Rather more importantly, I still haven't managed to get LJ Archive to work – the most recent version I downloaded keeps falling over, and certainly never gets as far as downloading comments. Bah. I think I may have to find an earlier version – I managed to get the previous one I had to work just fine, but the archive file from that has disappeared. Leni 2: software 1. Could be worse. (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
6:05 pm	Getting ready for off (RTW #2) We leave early Friday 30th May. So much still to do! Some of the time we're staying in places with wifi access, so I can get emails (Singapore, London, Birmingham, Newark, Chicago). Rest of the time *shrugs, dunno* - taking potluck. This is an outline itinerary, for people who live in these places and might like to get together (our daytimes are usually going on art galleries, museums, cathedrals and gardens, but there's always evenings and breakfast!): Singapore 31 May – 2 June London 3 – 11 June Birmingham 11 – 19 June West Midlands/Wales/mid North England 19 June – 20 July London 21 – 24 July (incl Snupin meetup 22 – 24 July) New York (staying in Newark) 26 July – 4 August Chicago 4 – 12 August (incl Terminus 7 – 11 August) Los Angeles 13 – 24 August Sydney OMG 26 August And here's ( A slight improvement on last year's passport photo (could hardly be worse) ) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
10:08 am	PSA (having nothing better to do) Compatriot != companion, comrade-in-arms, or any such relationship. A compatriot = fellow-countryman, that's all. Cohort != companion, comrade-in-arms, or any such relationship. A cohort = a tenth part of a Roman legion; any band of warriors; a group of individuals; a group with a shared characteristic, especially being the same age (statistics). To no end != very much. To no end = to no purpose, uselessly. No end (UK, casual speech) = very much. You can tell I've been reading fanfiction and building up a head of steam. Current Mood: donwannadoanything Current Music: Nigel Westlake Antarctica, Suite for Guitar and Orchestra: Wooden ships - Slava Grigoryan, g; Melbou (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
3:30 pm	Preparing for a 3-month trip I shall be exhausted by the time we get on that plane on the 30th. I swear I shall also have a bigger weight of medications/dietary supplements than clothes in my baggage, too. Today I went fror a check on my spectacles prescription – my vision has been getting a bit vague/vaguer lately, and I wasn't looking forward to wandering through unfamiliar teritory with decidedly imperfect visual acuity. Even last northern summer, I couldn't read big signs in airports without getting right up close. So I decided that if at all possible I'd find out if I needed new glasses. Apparently if there's a change above a certain level the government will put its sixpennorth in, even if it's less than two years since the last pair of new glasses. Yep, there's a change. New lenses coming up, but they have to go in the old frames. (The government's contributing, but their help is quite inadequate for multifocals, so it's setting me back $200+. New frames would about double that.) Luckily I'm not deprived of my only viable glasses for a week and a half – they can get the lenses cut to size/shape and install them on the spot when received. Although it was only supposed to be a prescription check, the optometrist did the full bit, including putting in those drops that foul up your vision for hours, to see if cataracts or glaucoma might be a problem. (I am old, I am old; I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. My brother had to hurry over in the bus in order to drive me home.) Not yet, but she suggested preventive care – two lots of newly-devised dietary supplements, a 3-month course. Some $85 later... ouch. And of course they're in glass bottles, to add to the baggage weight. So tomorrow I go back to the GP to have my blood-pressure checked (I have put back on some of the weight I got rid of on tour last year) – and to have yet more chemicals added to the signed list of medications one has to take with one to keep Customs happy. Ah well. At least I have another hotel booked, and my brother is at last thinking about where we should go in our 6+ weeks in the UK, now I've sorted out London and Birmingham. Current Mood: would like more sleep Current Music: Handel, Rinaldo: Lascia ch'io pianga (Barbra Streisand – not a patch on Kiri Te Kanawa) (Comment on this)
Monday, April 28th, 2008
4:44 pm	Offer to translate a fic to Russian: comments/info/advice, anyone? I've had an offer to translate one of my earliest fics into Russian, from one saiana (saianasav), who says, inter alia, and fairly though not perfectly literately: "Recently I have read your fanfic The Phoenix and the Serpent, and I want to say that it is really great! Thank you very much for writing it! "Would you mind terribly, if I translate this fic into Russian language and publish it on Domiana website and some other sites? I will state everywhere that I am just a translator and you are the author of the fic. Also, all the additional information (like your email or website) can be published, if you wish." Does anyone know this Russian fan or her work? And does anyone know the website she mentions? If so, could you say whether you'd recomment my accepting the offer? My instinct is to say no, since I have no way of evaluating the result. I thought I'd check with my flist to see if anyone knows her/her work. If she has a good rep I'd possibly say yes; if not, not. It's a compliment, of course... But if anything of mine's to be translated, I'd want to know it was to an acceptable standard. Current Mood: doubtful Current Music: birds lazing in garden (Comment on this)
Friday, April 25th, 2008
11:55 pm	Mixed bag So, for the first time I've had to back out of a fic exchange. ( Ow. Ow. Ow. ) The notebook came back from Tech Support at 7:45 am on Monday (I was still in bed), and hasn't overheated yet. Perhaps they really did fix it. Let's hope so. At least this time they removed all the dust that had apparently accumulated around the fan, which the tech on its January trip can’t have done. My sister and niece are staying for the long weekend (Anzac Day here today – the one day of the year you can legally play two-up, not that I know how). ( And we are doing things ) (Comment on this)
Monday, April 14th, 2008
12:23 pm	And what have I done with my life? Australia will have a new Governor-General later this year. The new Labour government has appointed a woman to the post: Quentin Bryce, currently Governor of Queensland (and just re-appointed, so that's another job search for them). The first woman ever in the position (and the last person, perhaps, if the Republican movement has its way). Now it just happens that Quentin was in my year doing Arts at the University iof Queensland. A husband, five children, and extensive and valuable public office later.... *sigh* That puts me in perspective. I am still wrestling with my hp_beholder fic. I hope bethbethbeth is stil lspeaking to me by the time she gets it. The notebook will shortly be collected for couriering to Tech Support in Sydney, so my internet attendance may be intermittent – non-existent, even, if the desktop continues to refuse to get on the net. So I'll see you Saturday, if I'm lucky, and next week if not, I hope. Current Mood: pleased Current Music: Concert from Kissingen Summer Festival 2007: Thomas Quasthoff, baritone & Justus Zehen, piano (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
2:30 pm	FIC: The Toymaker's Daughter (Severus Snape/Nymphadora Tonks, NC17) Part 2 of 2 Continued... ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
2:20 pm	FIC: The Toymaker's Daughter (Severus Snape/Nymphadora Tonks, NC17) Part 1 of 2 Author Leni Jess Title The Toymaker's Daughter Rating NC17 Pairing Severus Snape/Nymphadora Tonks Disclaimer All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended. Summary A sadder and a wiser Tonks after she survives the Battle of Hogwarts? No way. Back into the lists of love she goes ... with a bit more forethought than last time, but an even more awkward target. Warnings AU from all some of those deaths at the end of DH; they've been undone. Word Count 17,261 words Author's Notes Written February 2008 for hp_springsmut. Doing the research for this was fun. It would have been more fun if I hadn't been in such a hurry, but at least I was able to build on some previous knowledge (gained during my wonderful time in Birmingham in July 2007), and now know more, which is always good. Anyone who really wants to know more, see the self-indulgent End Notes. Just so the title doesn't bug you – in the 18th century Birmingham toymakers made "toys" (duh). "Birmingham toys" were not dolls or trains or spinning tops, but small more-or-less useful objects, including anything for which the patterns used changed frequently: boxes, buttons, buckles, bracelets, seals (most of what we now call jewellery), clocks, watches, specialised tools, and you-name-its. Thanks to my beta reader bethbethbeth, to my brother, who read the fic pre-beta, and to the mods for their patience, no doubt finger-tapping and head-desking, but they never shared that with me. ( Tonks wants Snape! ) (Comment on this)
Monday, March 31st, 2008
11:40 am	Of time: the week's complaints (so far) It's winter here – or will be on 1 April, I'm not sure, but the weather has fallen into line. I'm just grateful it's sunny – it looks good, even if I have to rug up. Live Journal (for comments only) is clearly one of the many organisations which has convinced itself that south eastern Australia switched off Summer Time last Saturday night - a date that's been true for years, but not this time, thanks to an attempt by four states to compromise and have a common time. Next weekend. Let's hope the systems that have the date right manage to do the switch smoothly. I'm not sure whether to timestamp my comments or not! At least LJ can get it right on posts. Maybe the south eastern states will be encouraged to have a common date to turn Summer Time on, too – Tasmania, being much more southerly, goes onto Summer Time nearly a month before Victoria, NSW and the ACT (which, being smack in the middle of NSW, doesn't have many options). Everyone gets very tired of the radio time announcements during October (announcers included, and there've been some hilarious exchanges): "and an hour later in Tasmania". We managed to live with a very early start to Summer Time for the Sydney Olympics, after all (late August). My home state of Queensland still does not believe in Summer Time, as far as I know, even though Joh is no longer with us. [Google on Joh Bjelke-Petersen, if you want to know about one of Australia's weirdest and longest lasting politicians of modern times – the Sydney Morning Herald in an obituary said Sir Joh, who ruled as premier of Queensland for 19 years with almost total disregard of Parliament)... /ex-Queenslander's rant.] Queensland had a referendum in '92 which voted against it, but there's always a push to restore it, especially from anyone connected with the tourist industry. Changing clocks as you cross the border north or south drives people mad. At least it makes sense going west to South Australia (half an hour's difference) and Western Australia (two hours' difference). Lessee, what else can I bitch about? I'm sure I can think of something. (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
1:50 pm	FIC: Witch's Sabbatical (SS/HG, NC17, post-Epilogue) Part 2 ? wizard_love fic ( Part 2 of Witch's Sabbatical, SS/HG, NC17, post-Epilogue ) (Comment on this)
1:45 pm	FIC: Witch's Sabbatical (SS/HG, NC17, post-Epilogue) Part 1 ? wizard_love fic Title Witch's Sabbatical Author Leni Jess Rating NC17 Pairing Severus Snape/Hermione Granger (and non-specific references to previous RW/HG and HP/GW) Summary Hermione has a year off work to do research in Britain's best libraries. Heaven, yes? Not so much, after Snape comes out of the woodwork: trouble is still his business. And hers. Word Count 16,734 Warnings Post-Epilogue. Canon-compliant, epilogue-complaint (in the letter if not the spirit), with one great honking exception (see pairing). Author's notes Written February 2008 for wizard_love. Thanks to my brother for helping me inject some plot into this, and to bethbethbeth, rfachir, and eeyore9990 who beta-read it, and made most helpful (and quite different) comments in spite of the last-minute rush. My thanks also to the person for whom this was written, shiv5468, who inspired me (whether she meant to or not) to write library porn. Sort of. ( Witch's Sabbatical, SS/HG, NC17, post-Epilogue, Part 1 ) (Comment on this)
Friday, March 28th, 2008
10:56 am	Such stuff as dreams are made on I had a doozy of a (travel) anxiety dream last night. Many of my anxiety dreams follow the worn path of travel: usually I'm about to get on a boat, and struggling to get onto it (and sometimes to pack to get onto it) an irrational amount of baggage, starting with (for example) an enormous double bed. Not this time. Oh no. The Sandman has modernised. I was on a bus, and going to be late for the plane, because it was headed for Victoria (in London), but not getting there and not getting there. Going through these abandoned areas of sooty brick houses with their windows fallen out, a streetscape nothing like that of the real Victoria's surrounds. Then arriving at an apparently abandoned station, a conglomerate of buildings with many possible entrances and no real one.  I was of course abandoned there. Then the bloody luggage came back. I decided (why only then, heaven knows) to go through my bag(s) and send back inessentials. By this time I was in some stately library, not the old British Museum Reading Room, but something of comparable dimensions and solemnity, complete with various former friends and seldom-met relatives working at the big desk tables (and more unlikely students you could not imagine). I turned out see-through plastic backpacks and sling handbags full of battery chargers, plugs for enough countries to delight Arthur Weasley, boxes of mixed spices in separate containers (some broken), and goodness knows what. Everything one might ever buy on the road because it was needed and not in one's bags. At one stage I was piling onto an enormous wooden octagonal table, with an ornamental rail around its edge, (also part of my baggage) wooden carvings of deer with impressive horn racks (but in the African eland style, not the European deer), horrified when I pulled out the third – and I assure you I have never given house room to those carvings from Kenya. One of my relatives had volunteered her son to take my rejects back, but it was becoming obvious he wasn't going to be able to manage. And flight time was getting nearer and nearer, and my bag(s) still not appropriately packed. Which was, no doubt, the point of the dream. Somewhere around this monumental absurdity the dream fizzled out. Thank goodness. I can still see that table and its burden of woodcarvings. This morning we are taking flattened boxes and bubble wrap and a new millet broom over to our nephew's place, for him to take down to his mother when he goes to help her with her house move over the weekend. If that dream was her fault, I shall be seriously annoyed. It's a lovely sunny day (it rained a lot while we were away), but definitely winter here now. I wish I thought the day's maximum temperatures would continue to get as high as 19 Celsius. I'll post my wizard_love fic tomorrow. Or later today. Current Mood: glad to be awake Current Music: Handel, Messiah (The Sixteen/Harry Christophers) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
7:00 pm	I'll spare you the saga Since the morning of 21 March, I've been internetless, as some trojan screwed my sister's computer, modem and router. I couldn't decide whether I was peaceful, or twitchy. I am now home again, where my own router is still screwed, but the ethernet cable works just fine. Since I forgot to take this morning's medication until after 4 pm, however, I feel off colour. No fancy dinner for me tonight. I'm catching up with my friendslist. (It was only at skip=100 – what on earth have you people been doing with yourselves apart from Friday's boycott?) At least you didn't break the net while I was gone. Thanks for that. On rwday's journal a link led me to this charming piece of html ( behind the cut in consideration of dial-up users ) I was going to make oysters in beer batter this evening for my brother and me, with a bottle of Clyde River oysters I brought home from the coast. I've called it off until tomorrow, when my stomach should feel normal again. Here is a recipe (found on a NZ fishing site) which I will not be using, but which tickles my funnybone: ( To make Beer Batter ) We had a good Easter, thank you – our last visit to our sister's current home. Moving day is next weekend, and we've done some packing and shifting already. Next weekend, however, we shall be here, not there – getting old and tired! Discovery: Salt and pepper squid is the greatest! (Comment on this)
Friday, March 21st, 2008
5:20 pm	More fic for me My hp_springsmut fic was posted yesterday, and my writer gave me a delightful Lucius/Narcissa and Lucius/Severus fic, Not from the Stars. (The link to IJ leads to the offsite location, because it's a nice long fic, too.) As I said in my comment, there are some nice hot sex scenes, but also lots of character interaction and respect for canon without letting JKR's view of these characters blind readers to interesting possibilities. It's the Malfoys struggling with the consequences of their master's madness, their hopeful/worried trust in Severus, their attachment to each other (and Lucius's attachment to Severus is also very nicely done), and I enjoyed it very much. So long as you're happy reading both het and slash, I'd recommend you to go and read it. The icon is the one katesque did to go with my wizard_love fic. Nice, huh? I haz chocolate Easter bunny (and Easter bilby)! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
10:55 am	Fic for me! My wizard_love fic has been posted at last! My mystery author wrote me Lucius/Narcissa during Book seven and after: The Fall and Rise of the House of Malfoy. They're not fighting for their freedom, because they have no weapons, but waiting for the chance to seize a weapon, focussed entirely on saving their son. Lucius's world view gets turned upside down in this story. (And Lucius/Narcissa providing support to each other in bed is pretty nice, too!) If you like them, or if you're interested in the POV of people JKR doesn't represent in canon, go read! (Comment on this)
9:00 am	Rambling along LJ isn't passing on comments on tracked posts, alas. Lucky I can put my anonymous exchange fics in Links to see if anyone's commenting (answer: not many, gah, but I'm a terrible feedbacker too – what goes around comes around). It'll be nice when Squeaky can get tracking built into IJ. Not that I wish to complain of IJ! He's making sincere efforts, and efficient ones. Go Squeaky. Although most of my flist are only cross-posting there, a small but significant element live there and there only, and certainly fic exchanges feel a lot safer there. Not sorry I bought my permanent account there on a day when he was having an extra special giant economy sale last year. I don't see me leaving LJ though, unless I'm thrown off. It's just too convenient, and too central to my fandom. ( Holiday planses ) Moan: Why is it Semagic won't post html formatted stuff apart from LJ commands? I can put stuff into it already in italic and bold etc, but not the little page-breaker above. *sighs* (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 15th, 2008
2:10 pm	Here we go round the world again I've finally got the itinerary sorted for this year's northern summer round the world journey; this time my brother's coming with me, so we're going for a slightly higher class of accommodation than youth hostels. However, while we can come at the room rate for Terminus (US$169 pn), he flinches about as much as I do from your standard Hilton etc rates of c US$259. This morning I sent the itinerary off to the travel agent to book, and tonight I'll be phoning the London hotel I have my eye on (*crosses fingers*; I've started having travel anxiety dreams, so the sooner all this is sorted out the better). Current plans: end of May: 3 days in Singapore to get our breath early June: flight across Asia and Europe, and a week in London rest of June and most of July: running around the UK (mostly by car), including Birmingham, Stratford area, Liverpool, and the north generally, maybe as far as Edinburgh last week of July: a few more days in London, and a flight across the Atlantic late July/early August: New York, New York! Terminus! (Chicago), plus a couple of days before and a couple after mid-August: Los Angeles end of August: flight across the Pacific (groan), Sydney, home and bed and recuperation. The UK travelling plan, BTW, is based on the fact that on previous visits, long ago, we've driven around the South West and Scotland, and my brother's biked around some of the East (and Ireland). So we're filling in some gaps. Museums, scenery, stately and not-so-stately old homes, gardens... This time I'm going to try a lot harder to keep the luggage light, and to have printed out the how-to-get-about maps before we leave. If anyone wants to meet, comment. I can email you with more detail, and we'll see if it's feasible. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
8:09 pm	I can haz working mobile (cellphone)! Since late last September my mobile phone consented to work maybe 5% of the time. (It shut me out, and my supplier wanted unspecified untold gold to fix it, though they said it was a software problem – which is surely their problem.) I was, therefore, very happy when the contract needed renewal last week and I was entitled to a new handset. This morning it came (at 7 am, shrieks of woe). However, once I had it charged up I wasn't very happy with it, because the navigation button (one of those that rocks in four directions, and doubles as the Select button) insisted on going to Select no matter how near its edge I pressed a careful fingernail. However, some hours of fiddling about meant I got better at it – I could rock maybe one in four tries. (Yes, my old phone had the same kind of button, just not so determined on its own way.) Then mid-afternoon I wasn't very happy with it again: it gave me a message: SIM card rejected. WTF? Moans of pain. Phones customer service, explains, gets put through to tech support. Ah, he says, after having heard the sob story. It's quite an old SIM; if I take in in to an Optus shop they'll give me a new one free, and I can have a 3GSM one, too, with more facilities. That's good news. (Pity no one thought of that five months ago when I was bitching to them about, among other things, the SIM card. It might have fixed the problem.) So I trot in – and there's one of those "Back in 10 minutes" notices up. I swear, and go and do some food shopping. 20 minutes later the one clerk is back (on her own today, poor girl), and very helpful. So after some to-ing and fro-ing, the new SIM was in, recognised, and downloading all my phone numbers from the backup on their system that I made last year. (I remember cordelia_v moaning about having to re-input all her phone numbers because her supplier wouldn't/couldn't get them off her old SIM card. Heh. Luckier me.) Now I just have to master this pig-headed rocker button. And be careful not to drop the handset – it's so light and feels so fragile, I'm terrified it'll slip through my fingers and plunges suicidally to the floor. Ah, and it has a camera, Bluetooth, a radio... and goodness knows what extra goodies come with the 3G card. It looks as if I need to download them from their website, and they're carefully non-specific about costs. Current Mood: up and down all day Current Music: Hugo Alfven, A Polka (Helsingborg SO) (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 8th, 2008
10:05 am	Weekend miscellany, getting back my life Being a free person at last (having turned in my hp_springsmut fic last week, two minutes before the first midnight post – phew! – I'm free to read LJ as much as I like, and have fallen in love with the new LJ command in discussion threads, 'Expand'. Makes it so much easier than 'Thread'. Yay for LJ doing something that's useful! And on IJ we can hope that Squeaky adds the facility eventually; he does seem to work on keeping up with coding advances, which is nice. (Forget about GJ, obviously. And I'm really only on JF for smutty_claus.) While wandering around the net, as you do, I decided to try BabelFish (already knowing it was better for producing bloopers than adequate translations). I plugged in a bit of Keats (which might not have been very fair, but it was simple): what can ail thee knight at arms and got this: ce qui peut indisposer le chevalier de thee aux bras. WTF? A slight failure to communicate, there, including screwing the sense of "what"... Isn't "thee" tea? What's "toi" done? *giggles* My wireless connection has been flickering in and out all morning, driving me nuts. Late last night I had to pull the plug on the notebook due to the combination of that and a travel itinerary making program, which opened a new tab every time I hit a key, I think, though they didn't show up until the whole thing fell over, and couldn't be closed, possibly because they were so many. Grr. At least all that took my mind off my fury with the concert my brother and I had been to earlier in the night. ( Mosquito whine voice ruining perfectly good music ) Seeing that I'm going down the coast for Easter, I'd better start thinking more frequently about my hp_beholder assignment. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
9:35 am	Fic: Revenge of the Bat (SS/LM, NC17, warnings) Title Revenge of the Bat Author Leni Jess Pairing Severus Snape/Lucius Malfoy Summary The war is over. Severus celebrates his freedom, and his birthday, with the reluctant aid of Lucius. Malfoys pay their debts – when they have to – even if they don't like it. Warnings Mild D/s with crossdressing, breathplay, cock and ball restraint, public humiliation, and even subliminal messages in the entertainment. Oh, and I suppose I should say it's AU, since Severus is alive; it's canon-compliant otherwise. Rating NC17 Notes Written February 2008 for hpvalensmut. Thanks to my beta reader florahart for her readiness to do the job in a hurry, and for pointing out an embarrassing lapse, apart from her other helpful comments. Lovers of Viennese operetta may recognise the title, which I nicked from Johann Strauss, but if you think of Hogwarts you'll get the idea too. ( Revenge of the Bat, Severus/Lucius, NC17 with kink, see above )
9:34 am	Fic: Revenge of the Bat (SS/LM, NC17, warnings) 2nd part ( Continued from the first part, where you will see *warnings* )
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
11:00 am	*Gets head above floodwaters* Allo, allo. I am still working on the last fic of the current wave of exchange fics, and expect to be begging for a beta reader again tomorrow some time. However, a little bit of RL has been going on too. ( My brother's birthday ) After that, we went home. I don't know about him, but I slept. No writing done that day, but I did a good deal of research in the morning, desperately hunting for a plot-starter. A story needs a plot as well as character-interaction and some smut, yes? Aha! Admire my new icon: the phoenix, from a medieval bestiary held in the Bodleian Library (Bodley 764). I can't afford the facsimile edition the Folio Society is pushing (only $1,200 odd), but I can certainly scan all the lovely illuminated pictures of fantastic beasts in the promo material. I've been listening to a program on the singers Mozart wrote for, and discovered the premiere of The Magic Flute had Pamina sung by a17-yo soprano, who previously, at 12, premiered Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro. Blow all this flop about practising until you're in your thirties before taking any decent roles. Opera houses were smaller, of course, as were orchestras, and I hope Anna Gottlieb's voice lasted. Everyone else's seemed to. (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 19th, 2008
12:25 pm	Last of the Christmas presents (and ramble on architural writings) For the last week I've been going over to my brother's place most evenings (usually taking dinner with me) to watch another two episodes in the 1997 (or so) BBC dramatisations of Dorothy L Sayers' Peter and Harriet novels. The last two episodes tonight. ( Despite enjoying seeing the series again... ) That DVD set was part of my brother's Christmas present to me, which came late, of course. The other half arrived today: ( Pevsner's English cathedrals ) Our favourite baker has re-opened after the Christmas break, so we went to stock up on bread (the fancier sorts are only available Saturdays). We also went to our favourite greengrocer, as we'd decided on fish for dinner and been lucky enough to find good-looking tuna steaks in Woolworth's deli. So now as well as dinner and materials for a stir-fry early next week I have mangoes, avocados, and ruby grapefruit. Life is good. And it's raining, quite steadily; an improvement on the brief showers of the last couple of days. However, it means my gardening bloke won't be digging up my weeds just yet, and I probably won't be able to collect the SF books I have on order tomorrow from my friends who operate out of the back of a van. You can't have everything. On Thursday I got in to see the other dentist in the practice I go to, and she fixed the great gaping chasm in my back tooth. I'm going to have the other fillings checked (this is the second to fall over inside a month) but hope the rest are okay; at over $200 a pop it would be a good way to go broke. Current Mood: happy it's raining Current Music: rain + Scarlatti (Comment on this)
Monday, January 14th, 2008
9:55 am	Holiday fic exchange thank-yous Now that the reveals for the three holiday fic exchanges I took part in are up, I should like to record the following thanks: iamisaac wrote for me in merry_smutmas The Bonding - RLSS NC17. Summary: Severus and Remus are acting as spies for the Order, Severus with the Death Eaters, Remus with the werewolves. The only way to prevent even the best Legilimens guessing their secret is to form a particular sort of magical bond… Warnings: Bondage, coercion/dub-con. chazpure wrote for me in smutty_claus The Headmaster's Teas - SSHG NC17. Summary: When Hermione realized Harry truly had no plan at all for finding the missing horcruxes, she knew she had to do something. At the very least they needed to do more research, and the best place for that was her beloved Library at Hogwarts. True, Hogwarts was now in the hands of that treacherous, traitorous murderer, Severus Snape... but Hermione was called the Cleverest Witch of Her Generation, after all! Warnings: Hermione starts off as 18 in this fic. DH-compliant (depending on your interpretation of canon). Oral, wanking, some canonical gore. regasssa wrote for me in harry_holidays Typical Lucius , LMHP (implied SSHP), NC17. Summary: Lucius knows how to bring Severus back. He doesn't intend to give the information up easily. Warnings: Dubcon, I suppose. Blackmail. Suspicious amounts of canon. Copious foreplay. All are good stories, and I'm sure the writers would enjoy more feedback! Then there are the noble souls who beta read for me, all at short notice. I thank, most sincerely, for their kindness, help, and tolerance, and the difference they made to these stories: amanuensis1 beta read You Can't Always Get What You Want for harry_holidays (LMHP), and made me think harder about characterisation and appropriate language. meri_oddities and snakeling beta read Keep Your Enemy Close for smutty_claus (SSHG); they both made me think about my choice of words. florahart and gatewaygirl beta read Unforgettable for merry_smutmas (SSHP), and between them pointed out a number of places where clarification was in order. Now on to the Valentine's Day and spring fic writing! Memo to self: enough with the Ron and Ginny bashing in fic drafts (even if I don't like either of them, and despise that simple-minded Epilogue). Yesterday, a large filling fell out of one of my upper left molars, and the dentist can't see me until 6 February. I can see mysel