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the pirate queen of norway
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[23 May 2012|11:56pm] |
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Some day, and hopefully soon, I will not be too tired for the internet.
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| Posting is procrastination. |
[15 May 2012|01:09pm] |
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mood |
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 exhausted |
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God, you guys, I'm tired.
April was pretty much nonstop, and just when I thought May was going to be a little more chill, it turned out that it wasn't. I've been working all morning from bed, because getting up and dressed and going into the department just seems like too much effort.
I've bought a new camera (IT WILL BE HERE TOMORROW YAY!)--I really do like my little Nikon point-and-shoot I've had for ages, but I've honestly gone about as far as I can go with a compact and need a proper DSLR. And then Argos had a really good deal on a tiny little Panasonic DSLR; it's still sort of the economy model of interchangeable lens cameras, but still a jump up from P&S and I'm super excited!
Also fairly random, I downloaded active.com's Couch to 5K app for my iPod and would recommend it if you're doing that particular program. I did it last summer, but then winter came and so I started it over again in the spring--because of my knee, I need to do really gradual intervals to build up the muscles there, but I think if one just wants to get in shape it is probably good for that too! I like being able to have it tell me when to run and walk and keep track of the time while playing my own music.
I didn't write anything for the KiSCon zine, which bums me out a bit! I wanted to, but I was doing so much work, I just didn't have any brainpower left for fic or even RP tags or anything. I haven't even had energy to post more links to Britain's Got Talent, which was hilarious and awesome all the way to the end.
The other thing I've been watching is Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, which is just awesome, guys. It's a traditional style period mystery show and it's hilarious and lots of fun. I am behind on Game of Thrones by about 3 episodes, because I'm meant to be watching them with friends and we just haven't had any time to get together for them. I may give in to temptation soon and watch anyway.
Looking forward to things coming up! Friend's hen party is in a couple of weeks, where we're all getting dressed up and going to the races. KiSCon of course is at the end of June, following which several of us will be hanging in London for a few days...friend coming over for the Olympics in August (you know, while everyone else is trying to get OUT of London)...Right now, this minute, I want to go to France, but I both can't afford it and suspect that some of this is the urge to be able to just sit in the sun drinking wine, which I might be able to manage okay here. ;)
Okay. Going to get dressed and do stuff. Really. It might kill me.
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[04 May 2012|11:39am] |
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The weather is so screwed up I've had a headache for days. Also I was home for like, one week in April, collectively. Tiiiired.
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[29 Apr 2012|01:14am] |
Avengers made me SO HAPPY.
Tired now.
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| Celebrating Diana Wynne Jones |
[25 Apr 2012|03:30pm] |
Over the weekend I went to Bristol for the Diana Wynne Jones celebration (I would link it, but the information's already down off the page). I came home very tired and with a lot of things left undone, so haven't had a chance before now to write it up, but I begin to worry that if I don't sit down and do it now, I won't at all. I got home exhausted and emotional and buzzing, if also stiff from hauling my backpack and a bag of new books home on the train. This is a haphazard and still somewhat disorganised account more about the emotional reaction than the timeline of events, I'm afraid, and also, the usernames and such are mostly just formatted for LJ rather than DW.
( Surreal weekend, cut for length. )
I rang up my parents after I got home so that I could talk about the whole thing with a minimum of explanation to people who would get why I was feeling like I was--exhausted, buzzed, happy and sad at once, connected. It took me this long to get it all into a form even this coherent, and even now I can't quite decide whether to friends-lock or not, since this is more emotionaly vulnerable than I normally get on the internet. But it may, this time, be worth it. It meant the world to me to be able to go, and even more to be a part of things, and it's not a day I will forget any time soon.
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| A review. |
[20 Apr 2012|01:29pm] |
I will attempt to cover the last week before it gets so long ago I either forget any of it happened or nobody cares. Not that anybody cares all that much now, but I was including myself in that. ;)
( The week after Easter: including adventures in London and Oxford, mostly. )
This weekend I'm popping down to Bristol to bother ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) steepholm and go to this celebration for Diana Wynne Jones, which I feel strongly is something I need to go to. (I mentioned it to my parents, who remember well the first time I discovered Magicians of Caprona and from there went on a hunt for DWJ's books in every used bookshop in the state of Washington, and they said the exact same thing.)
But first, I'm going to help K. finish writing up her wedding invitations.
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| On the road again. |
[10 Apr 2012|11:29pm] |
Have made it to London with only a relatively minor train delay and am holed up at forochel's flat. She's trying to finish an assignment that's due in about half an hour, I've given up on working on my conference paper for tonight. It's mostly done; it needs a conclusion and some editing and I can do that before Friday.
I should probably take more train trips, because I get a lot of words written when trapped in small moving carriages with absolutely nothing else to do.
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| Happy Easter! |
[09 Apr 2012|12:04am] |
I had a lovely day, even though it was damp and grey basically all day. I stayed up too late, then got up this morning to go to church--I'm glad I did, and it was lovely. I mean, it seems redundant to say I love the Easter story (since it's, you know, the main founding idea of my religion and all) but I do; there's something about the picture I've always had of Mary Magdalene's face when she sees Jesus and realises he's not dead. I do love happy endings.
Anyway, I have noted, over the last few years, some significant differences between the conduct of a congregation in an Anglican church in Wales versus a Norwegian Lutheran church in the US. For instance:
*In Wales, people sit in the front of the nave. The very first pews will often be reserved for the choir, but people will actually sit immediately behind them. In ELCA churches, there are generally several empty rows in the front unless 1) someone's being baptised, in which case the family sits there, or 2) someone is new and keen to impress, or 3) they were really really late and there were no seats left.
*In Welsh churches, people sing the hymns. Loudly, so you can hear them! If a note is too high or two low, you can drop or raise it by a third and have a nice harmony. Sometimes people do harmony just because. In the ELCA, the choir tries to make it sound like people are actually singing, while most of the congregation move their lips and try to be drowned out by the organ.
*In Wales, after the service their is tea. Norwegian-American Lutherans are not opposed to tea, but making huge pots of coffee is sometimes considered the third sacrament.
*In both, however, there are biscuits, though of course on one side of the pond they're called cookies.
Anyway, after that I came home and finished cooking, and friends came over and we had a lovely dinner and cheesecake and watched Game of Thrones. Which I have already glowed about (but my friends hadn't seen yet) so won't go into here, though I think there needs to be more slapping Joffrey in the world.
This week I am off to London to see forochel, and then to Oxford for a conference and meeting up with jane_somebody, who I have known now for something like ten years, been on the same land mass for nearly four, and still haven't met up with! So that will be grand. Assuming I ever manage to actually finish writing the paper I'm giving.
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| Easter dinner |
[06 Apr 2012|09:52pm] |
Does anyone have exciting ideas for things to make for a vegetarian Easter dinner? I have stained glass deviled eggs currently soaking up food colouring, and have made elderflower cheesecake, so that's hors d'ouvres and dessert done. I thought I'd do a blue cheese & spinach quiche for a main, so what sort of sides would go with that? The guests are split on mushrooms and I don't want to overdo the cheese, even though we all eat about a dairy's worth of cheese every time we get together. Probably some sort of potato thing?
Give me your best ideas, guys!
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| Genre in Fiction Research |
[03 Apr 2012|02:02pm] |
I've written a few people this morning already about this, but one of my RL friends here at Aber (who is also a lurking fandomer) is doing her MSc in Library Science on genre categorisation in fiction and is looking for authors to fill out a short survey. If you're a published author (not self-published or fanfic for the moment, though short stories in anthologies is a-ok) and I haven't asked you yet and you wouldn't mind filling out a short thing, please let me know and I'll send you the explanation/consent form/survey?
Thanks very much. :)
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| Winter is coming. |
[02 Apr 2012|10:48pm] |
SO THERE IS NEW GAME OF THRONES AND I HAVE MANY FEELINGS.
(MOST OF THEM ARE ABOUT STARKS.)
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| [tv] Britain's Got Talent, first best moments |
[31 Mar 2012|01:38am] |
After yesterday, and because today I was exhausted, I really just needed a night of chilling and watching TV. So since I haven't been able to get Idol this year, and only sporadic episodes of The Voice, I thought the hell with it and transferred my loyalties to Britain's Got Talent, since it's actually on where I live. The first audition episode aired last week, and I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but I thought I would cover a few of my favourite moments. Links to Youtube versions before commentary.
( Actually I'll cut this, in case it's considered spoilery and also because it's a teensy bit long. )
So there's that. Next ep tomorrow. I am already emotionally compromised.
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| Vent vent vent. |
[30 Mar 2012|01:02am] |
So it was kind of a day. Mostly because I honestly thought it was yesterday. I know I'm completely useless when it comes to knowing what day it is, but I don't usually actually miss deadlines even when they sneak up on me. But this huge stupid paleography thing I've been working on was, I thought, due tomorrow, but was actually due YESTERDAY. So I finished it today, thinking, 'Yay! I am productive and can get it in a day early!' and very quicky went to OH HOLY CRAP.
So I scurried up to the dean's office as fast as I could go, only to find it closed. And the postgrad office, that was closed too. One of the lovely porters got me an envelope and I wrote a note and he put it in the dean's office for me so I hope it's now officially turned in. But that was stressful.
Also, there is this book I have to sign twice a year for the Home Office, because for some reason signing my name proves I am not a terrorist. (It's some kind of monitoring thing by which the department is supposed to keep track of research students, but whenever they call to ask about our 'monitoring process' the department secretary explains again and again that there are only four of us, and yes, she actually knows who we all are on sight, and also because our department is so small we all know where everyone is pretty much all the time. But oh well.) So anyway, that was also supposed to have been done yesterday, and got done today instead. Because I thought today was Wednesday the 28th.
At least until I logged into Semagic and it reminded me that today is actually the 29th and therefore would have been caerfree's birthday.
The last week of term there's always a really kind of weird Passover Seder put on by the Catholic church (this is why weird, but actually also pretty cool) so I went to that. Only I didn't know where I was going and went to the wrong place which was a MILE OUT OF MY WAY, so I randomly walked to Llanbadarn when I didn't have to, whee. But the dinner itself was really cool, so anyway, there's that.
Now I'd go to bed, but somebody down the road is having a party and I can still hear their bass.
Also, ever since Rhi mentioned the Twinings advert misusing 'Go Your Own Way', I have been noticing songs in advertising, and the one where O2 is using 'Little Boxes' in completely the wrong way is actually driving me a little crazy. Possibly because the song keeps getting stuck in my head.
ETA: And now my default icon just randomly deactivated itself. WTF, day? WTF, LJ?
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| BGT Audition |
[28 Mar 2012|06:46pm] |
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Guys, this video makes me SO FREAKING HAPPY. I posted something ages ago from this same choir at the Urdd eisteddfod, but here they are on Britain's Got Talent and I just love them.
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| Have a few pretties, and then work for me! |
[28 Mar 2012|01:34pm] |
Because I am the best procrastinator IN THE WORLD, I decided to make icons. It's coming up on time to do a pretty big icon overhaul (at least on DW--I've let my LJ expire so I only get five, but the new 'improved' icon selector means I never use anything but the default anyway) and I realised I have no surfing icons at all. So I went to find some, and it turns out there is either a shortage of surfing icons or they're hiding somewhere. It's possible that the overlap between people who want them and people who make icons is not that big, but anyway, I thought it an easy thing to remedy.
So they're here, on flickr. I'm rather too lazy to paste them all here (and while procrastinating was nice, I actually really do have to go get stuff done now)--take any if you like them, because I made way more than I need! Credit is awesome but by no means required; at the end of the day I just messed with some other people's pictures.
Have fun!
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| Just a catchup about nothing. |
[16 Mar 2012|03:33pm] |
It's been a while since I updated really--there isn't much of interest going on is the thing; I mostly just write all the time. I'm working on a project for my research training module that's taking up a lot of time (and taking time away from my PhD which is vexing), in which I transcribe and edit one medieval/early modern record and one literary piece. The record I'm using is a 17th century woman's will, and the handwriting is appalling. I loathe Secretary Hand. But I've finally finished the transcription, at least. My goal is to finish this off tonight so I can get onto the literary part, for which i'm using a 13th century Welsh poem and is much, much easier.
I say this is my goal for the day. What I'm actually doing, rather than writing it, is searching the net for clothes. I want a new dress for conferences, and my friend's hen party is going to be at the races, so I will need a hat. What I have found so far instead is this dress, which I do not need at all. If only I had seen it this time last year, when I was looking for a May Ball dress! (I hope the link works. Outnet's don't always, for some reason.)
While talking of clothes, Etsy is a really awesome place to find unique stuff from indie designers. I've recently become a fan of stadtkind potsdam, a little place out of Berlin. Their stuff is super comfortable so it feels like wearing a sweatshirt or something but is much cuter.
Friends have been taking turns hosting dinners once a week for the last few--the first week was just because one of my friends who recently moved back to the area wanted to have people round to see the new place, and he makes the most amazing curry. Last week I did a goats cheese pasta thing and Happy Cake*, and the other day K. made a bunch of delicious Spanish food. Food + Friends = Happiness.
Tomorrow, rugby!! Wales have won all their Six Nations matches so far so must beat France tomorrow! That would be epic. Then of course it is St Patrick's Day, and I'm a Celticist who lives with (currently) two Irish girls, so we'll be out. Housemate C has gone to Canada to do field work, so one of her friends is living here in the meantime. This brings me to 21 housemates in 3 1/2 years, but such is the nature of university accomodation.
Anyway, it's getting late and I have a few errands to run, so should probably put this away and go do them.
*Happy cake: devil's food with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles. Called that because it always comes out looking liek a 6 year old made it, but with great joy and love. And it tasets happy.
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| Writer's Block: Play Catch |
[03 Mar 2012|12:20pm] |
Open ALL the doors. Like the outside. And the fridge.
(My cat is too lazy to take over the world, he'd just make sure he got more food.)
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| It's March already? |
[01 Mar 2012|02:58pm] |
Dydd Gwyl Ddewi hapus i chi gyd! (Happy St. David's Day to you all!)
I haven't posted much lately, mostly because I have been insanely busy and a bit stressig over PhD things. You know, as usual. I went to a conference in Cambridge last week, which is the first one I've been to as a postgrad where I wasn't presenting. It is relaxing, going to conferences and not presenting! You just listen to other people and drink nice wine!
Though it was planned over the Wales vs England rugby match, which was rubbish, but at least we won!
It looks like I can swing a writing-up year after all, which is so much of a relief I can't even say. The UK government has done annoying things with visa rules this year and made my life that much harder. I am not impressed. Clearly, immigration matters should be devolved to Wales and a language competency test by the only criterion.
St. David's service up on campus today; our department choir was invited to sing, so that was nice. There was a festival thingy after with free bara brith and Welshcakes and beer (and cawl, but that has lamb in, so am not interested).
Basically life revolves around academia, and most of what I have to talk about would be boring (or incomprehensible); when I think of something that is neither of those things, I'll post again?
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[12 Feb 2012|06:23pm] |
Had a baby migraine yesterday, meaning one where I could technically go out and do stuff without feeling like I was dying, but really didn't want to. I didn't think it was even a migraine at first, but once it finally went away the postdrome aura was still pretty brutal. So I didn't get much done. This week's gone by really quickly and I haven't done much, haven't even really seen my friends, so today we all got together for a Sunday lunch at a little pub just out of town. The food was amazing, which makes me happy because I'd kind of been bemoaning the lack of sufficiently amazing food in Aberystwyth. The pub is also supposed to be haunted in the corner where we were sitting, which may or may not explain why the wood panel under the bench kept falling down when nobody was touching it.
We stayed there to watch Wales v Scotland in the Six Nations. I love the Welsh rugby side but honestly they don't ever seem to bother showing up till the second half the match. And Scotland's strategy this season seems to be 'keep dropping the ball'. So it wasn't the most exciting game ever, but it had some good moments and we won 27-13.
Now for the heartbreaking part? I'm going to be at a conference in Cambridge for Wales v. England. What the hell, who scheduled a Celtic conference over rugby?
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[03 Feb 2012|08:47pm] |
First week of my last term as a PhD student (SCARY!!!) is over, and I'm shattered. I've been pretty productive this week (and typing this entry is just a break from working on a job application) so at least there's that. And I just had awesome nachos for dinner. I found this really good sweet chili salsa at the farmer's market in Porthmadog last weekend, and so was looking for a thing to use it with. Perfect.
...I had something else I was going to say, but now I've forgotten it, so apparently this is just an entry about nachos.
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