Longer post when I get round to it (am just in the middle of a 45 hour week at work, 5 days of 9 hour shifts, eurgh), but obligatory HBP reaction post:

( No spoilers, except reaction, really ) HARRY POTTER ICONS FOR THE WIN! Oh, i do hope fandom gets a kick from this...

Erm, hi.

So.

I aten't dead. Just ... didn't really feel like posting much. Exams finished, and then it was seeing people and regaining the world of the living, and either I was happy and busy so didn't post, or I was glum and wierd-feeling about leaving, and so I didn't really feel like posting then either. And then May Week and six nights of fucked up sleep out of seven, which totally blew any coherent thought and emotional stability, and then finally graduation (of which I have some photes that I will post at some point), and then home. Which was itself a bit of a mind-fuck, although not nearly as much as I thought it would be.

Anyway, long story short, was just in the wrong place for LJ. But I think I'm slowly getting back into it, so I should be around a bit more, fingers crossed!


Also, Torchwood is simply FANTASTIC. So many squee-like moments! I'm planning a re-watch so I'll do a live-blog when I do.

Finished.

*collapses*

I'm sure I'll find the humour in this one day: falling ill with a stonking cold two days before my final exam which needs every possible brain cell and a huge amount of knowledge which I haven't learned yet, while there's a very bad open-air concert happening about a mile away but which I can STILL FUCKING HEAR, and all of my friends are having a cocktail night. Also the tide of Conservative shits who have just won seats. GUYS. DO YOU NOT REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME. Idiots.

Woop-de-doo, world. What a fucking scream.

*sneeze*

Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod

EXAM.

TOMORROW.

ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod

I am so not old enough to be doing FINALS omg what.


(On the plus side, GENE LOVE!)

Plus: After a horrid muggy day it finally rained tonight, but only a little bit, so no torrents or wet feet, just nice and cool and beautiful smelling.

Minus: In the library this evening, our Welfare Tea session got crashed by a Porter and the Senior Tutor who proceeded to be incredibly unamused and very very pompous and missing-the-pointy. And rather than standing up for what is actually a very good break for people in a crazy stupid time, I just froze. NOT GOOD for when I am a lawyer. I am not very good with confrontation, eep. Maybe I should give up the whole being a barrister thing?

Anyway, the whole thing's just stupid, because we held it in the FOYER, ffs, not in the library itself, and although it had got quite noisy, no one in the library itself could actually hear it (it's up a complete flight of stairs from the foyer). And we would have cleared it all up - I mean, it's been held for two weeks now and they haven't suspected, it was just because the Senior Tutor happened to be going past and heard the noise. And just assumed that we were having a bit of a party, omgwhat. I HATE the way that this college always assumes the worst about students, ugh - they've all forgotten what it's like to be young, basically. Let alone young and massively stressed (thanks to THEM and their stupid standards). I'm sorry if we weren't respectful enough to your library foyer, omg - never mind that that's where people leave soggy umbrellas and have photos taken at graduation and spill champagne and things.

UGH. Stopping now because it's a rant and it's just making me upset and angry.

Things:

i. The check-out staff in Sainsbury's today were all dressed up! WIN. It's the shop's 140th birthday, apparently, so they were all there in Victorian style clothes, right down to the 'coal-dust' on one cashier's face... I was feeling a bit glum, and it cheered me right up.

ii. This swimsuit just looks like pubic hair to me. Anyone else?

iii. Finals continue, and continue to be boring.

iv. And the weather has been AMAZING, which is both a good thing and a bad thing: good, because Cambridge is stunning in the sunshine and it makes me cheerful to wake up to it, bad because it makes it harder to sit in the library all day.

v. I had a happy day of procrastination re-reading Drastically Redefining Protocol (Merlin/Arthur, AU, NC-17) the other day, after one of you lot linked it again. And oh my GOD but it's amazing. Seriously. Easily one of the best fics that I have ever read, ever. Characterisation is perfect, brilliant plot, and the sex is even quite hot which is impressive because the thought of Colin Morgan having sex is a bit wierd for me (he's too gangly and odd looking for me).

vi. And I'm WRITING AGAIN omg omg omg. Still haven't finished RbtM, don't be silly, but I'm inching towards finishing a Lily/Sirius/Remus PWP, and another silly Marauders one about Peter losing his virginity before James and Sirius which is a bit meh but has one of the best scenes I've ever written (yes, I went there). I think this is the ABW Principle - Anything But Work. :D

vii. And my parents and my brother are coming for lunch in like, five minutes, which is BRILLIANT. So looking foward to it.

viii. HOW ARE YOU ALL? (PS fireworkfiasco I neeeeed to reply to your amazing post which made me ridiculously ridiculously happy - actually mad smiles all day.)

Ho hum, finals finals fun fun fun...

They start in two weeks. I had my first proper stress-out yesterday, until I remembered that because of glorious dissertation and the massive cheat of doing a paper I already know really well, I have BAGS of time. Much more cheerful today, but my god I've been a BITCH the past few days, blimey. These are the things that were irritating the fuck out of me:

- hordes of tourists walking at snail's pace and then randomly stopping to take pictures RIGHT IN MY PATH.
- the way it would start to drizzle just as I walked outside - and then when I went out again wearing appropriate clothes, it would get really muggy.
- my music. All of it.
- the hat that this girl in my college wears.
- the way this guy in my college speaks.
- the fact that I need to pay my college bill but the bursary is always closed.
- STAR TREK. Seriously. I don't know why but I sort of hate it. ESPECIALLY THAT ONE WITH THE FACE. Urgh, whatsisname, Sylar from Heroes. I HATE HIS FACE AND HIS STUPID LITTLE MOUE. And no offence to all you people who like it but that one with the stupid black hair and the eyebrows? Always irritating even when it wasn't Sylar and I don't know how you watch it.

As you see, lots of nice rational anger there... I really am more cheerful, honestly. It just appears that my Star Trek hatred transcends all other moods. Hmm.

Anyway, HOW ARE YOU ALL?

And also, remind me I need to do some Ashes to Ashes reaction posts. Suffice to say OMG SO FUCKING GOOD YEAH.

ETA: COMPLETELY forgot to say why I'm cheerful! Which is, of course, that it's EUROVISION NIGHT! YAYAYAYAY! It's a shame that because of finals I can't do the full drinking game (take a drink every time there's glitter, everytime there's a wind machine, everytime you're not sure of the gender of the singer... and finish your drink for every woman with a moustache, real or fake) but still, omg I love my campy dramatic shitty music festival of camp and glitter! Oh!

ESSAY ESSAY ESSAY.

See you on friday.

Firstly, I HANDED IN MY DISSERTATION OMG WTF AMAAAAAAAZING ETC. Hopefully that means I'll be around a leeetle bit more, except that I have another piece of coursework to write and then FINALS. Blimey.


IN MORE FUN NEWS, moogle62 gave me six icons to talk about.

( Here )

For those of you who want to join in, here's the rules:

1. Reply to this post, and I will pick six of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

GO!

( And another icon meme )

My woes, let me show you them:

- I have a cold. A bad cold. A streaming eyes and nose, non-stop sneezing cold.
- Despite finishing my dissertation, I now need to do my bibliography, and it's just making me realise how much more I should have read. Erp. Also I need to somehow create a brilliant new conclusion. Double erp.
- Sometime in the next ten hours I need to finish packing so tomorrow I can move back to Cambridge. For the LAST TIME WHAT.
- Then I need to research and write a 6,000 word essay as quickly as possible. It's due in in two weeks, but if I take that long, then that leaves me less than two weeks to revise. LESS THAN TWO WEEKS.
- I'm very good at procrastinating.
- AND IT'S RAINING.


Please to be sending happy things - videos and pictures and things. Please.

Thank you, Tanya Gold, for saying exactly what I think about the whole Susan Boyle thing: It wasn't singer Susan Boyle who was ugly on Britain's Got Talent so much as our reaction to her.

Why are we so shocked when "ugly" women can do things, rather than sitting at home weeping and wishing they were somebody else? Men are allowed to be ugly and talented. Alan Sugar looks like a burst bag of flour. Gordon Ramsay has a dried-up riverbed for a face. Justin Lee Collins looks like Cousin It from The Addams Family. Graham Norton is a baboon in mascara. I could go on. But a woman has to have the bright, empty beauty of a toy - or get off the screen. We don't want to look at you. Except on the news, where you can weep because some awful personal tragedy has befallen you.

I was horrified when I watched Britain's Got Talent on Saturday. Not just by the hypocritical reaction of the judges and the audience (and then the radiating smugness when they saw her Inner Beauty), but by how horrendously the judges treated the auditionees. It was horrifying. Apparently we audiences like to see tv like this, but I for one certainly don't. The sight of those three smug, overpaid, overpreened and largely talentless slebs ripping into people whose only crime was to be hopeful and not that good, turned my stomach. The things they said to them! There was absolutely no need to be so harsh, no need at all. It takes a lot of courage to stand up in front of all those people, and the least they should expect is a bit of courtesy. "Thank you", maybe, and "I'm sorry, but not today". Not outright laughter, or "That was ATROCIOUS! LULZ!" Even if those three were Jesus Christ, Mohammed and fucking Buddha, they had no right to be so contemptuous - but they aren't, they're a so-so producer and manager who has had more failures than success, a washed-up actress who can barely act and swings between bitchy and vomitously gushy, and an amoral, humourless, selfish, unprincipled blot upon humanity.

But back to poor Susan. The fact was, and I have to admit it, it was strange to see a woman who was not conventionally attractive on the telly. Seriously. I cannot think of any major celebrity who is not at least personable. And that is terrifying.

We see this all the time in popular culture. Do you ever stare at the TV and wonder where the next generation of Judi Denchs and Juliet Stevensons have gone? Have they fallen down a Rada wormhole? Yes. They're not there, because they aren't pretty enough to get airtime. This lust for homogeneity in female beauty means that when someone who doesn't resemble a diagram in a plastic surgeon's office steps up to the microphone, people fall about and treat us to despicable sub-John Gielgud gestures of amazement.

See also: photoshopping. There are people who say "Well, what harm can it do?" Those people need to wake up. On the one hand, it feeds the insecurities of women - after all, if bloody Hollywood actresses aren't beautiful enough for these magazine editors, then who is? On the other, it's BORING. Boring boring boring. Partly because all women now look like the same bland RoboWoman, but also because it's the "blemishes" that go towards creating the person. The laughter lines, the scars, the freckles, the baby fat - it's life they're carrying around with them (not to get too soppy there). Dorothy Surrenders has more, as does Shakesville (follow the links at the bottom of the article for more examples).

This and this are the best news I've heard for a LONG time.

On the one hand, we have the fucked up National Organisation for Marriage (not linking in protest), who, fresh from an invidious and outright hateful TV Ad which spreads lies about same-sex marriage campaigners, have created a national campaign called "2 Million for Marriage" -- or 2M4M. Shaker Mustang Bobby explains:

For those of you who are not up on the acronyms used in gay chat rooms, M4M means "Man for Man," as in one man looking to meet up/hook up with another man.

So either there's someone in NOM who has not been outside of their cocoon since the advent of the internet, or there's someone inside the organization with a wicked sense of humor and playing these folks for the fools that they are. Either way, this is the best example of an unintentional double entendre in advertising since 1969 when Ford came out with the Rim Blow steering wheel.

Amazing.

Even better is that some enterprising soul has managed to buy the domain name www.2m4m.org, and is in the process of whipping up a website dedicated to countering this kind of fear-mongering. It is called Two Men for Marriage, and please go and join to register your support. It's early days yet (well, early hours in fact), but hopefuly it'll have some good content soon - in fact, you can make suggestions there too.

On the other hand, we have a new protest movement in the States. In the spirit of the Boston Tea Party (which famously demanded "No taxation without representation"), a new group of selfish short-sighted egotists fearless campaigners are sending tea-bags to the White House and holding Tea Party meetings, to protest against tax increases for the rich, or something. The best bit? They are calling it "tea-bagging".

Even more amazing.

You actually could not make this up.

Rachel Maddow, as ever, gets it spot on:

ETA: MSNBC did not like the embedding attempt, but thanks to meran_flash there is a youtube version in the comments.

I've finished my dissertation.


*collapses*

In Norfolk, the sun is shining, and the door is open - warmth, and fresh air, and daffodils and pheasants and things. And listening to Bernarda Fink sing Schubert.

Heaven.

Even with a dissertation to finish.



ETA: Given that my dissertation is on martial society and kingship in fourteenth century in England, it amuses me that the two words I've spelt wrong almost consistently have been "constitution" and "chronicle/r". Oops. It's not that I don't know how to spell them (she says quickly), it's just they're awkward to type...

Wierd mood today. It's been a day of fail, generally - I woke up early and actually did half an hour of work, then I got sleepy and had "five more minutes" i.e. an hour and a half. oooops. THEN I remembered it was the human rights training day at BPP Law School, which is the most perfect training day for me EVER and I'm such an idiot for missing it. Ugh. I'm just hoping that there'll be another next year.

Anyway, what else what else. Sorry for not posting more, by the way - it's just that my usual daily blogging routine (BBC News --> flist --> political blogs) has been wiping me out, and by the time I'm reading the tenth or even twentieth piece of bad news, I'm so depressed I just have to turn the computer off, or go and watch something happy and inane like Merlin. As you can imagine, this isn't very conducive to actually posting anything.

I've been home for a week, mostly pottering and not doing much, except for Tuesday when I went to work and a gas leak meant we stood out in the courtyard for A MILLION YEARS and then did the Most Boring Reception Ever (tm), and Wednesday when I went to YORK! Unfortunately my camera is being held hostage by Ellie so I couldn't take photos, even though the town is beautiful and it was a gorgeous sunny day (although there are one or two from my phone that I will upload when I work out how to do so). My bro was going to an open day there, and I'd never been, so I thought I'd pop along - very good decision, despite a horrid early start (7.30 train, ugh). Wandered around the Minster (i.e. cathedral), which was a leeeeetle underwhelming, dunno why, and has the most hilariously unflattering statues of the kings of England you've EVER seen (I couldn't find the one of Edward III, which is a shame). After lunch, Will buggered off to the campus, and I continued to wander, trying to keep away from the slightly blander streets right in the centre. I stumbled across the beautiful fourteenth-century Holy Trinity Church, on Goodramgate; there was a gap in the houses and there was a little churchyard, bright green in the sun and a little tumbledown-looking. On a whim I went in, and found the interior to be cool, dark, and as tumble-down as expected; subsidence had caused the floor to buckle in places, and there were old box-pews that made me feel I was on the set of a period-drama. Absolutely charming and very different from anything I'd seen before; plus there was a very chatty warden there who was very knowledgeable and interesting. And it turns out an old supervisor of mine was in only the week before! After that, I poked my head into the Richard III museum but it was a bit ropey so I didn't fancy paying £2.50 for that, so instead I walked along the city walls, enjoying the sunshine. Had a coffee and read my book (Tale of Two Cities, enjoying it so far), and then headed back to the station to meet the bro, past a busker playing fantastic ragtime on a beaten-up honky-tonk piano in the middle of a square...

All in all, I really liked York - like I said, it had its bland generic bits, but most of it was beautiful and old, and only a little bit twee in places. Somewhere to spend a bit more time, I think.

So I'm finally watching Merlin, in all its slashy, cracktastic glory. And I got to Episode 8, and... ( Spoilery gloating )

Mememe! From excitedrainbow

01. What are your nicknames?
Lor (general friends/boy), Lorlor (close friends), Lawks (my dad), Vinny (some people at college).

02. How do you style your hair?
badly. When it's long it's usually tied back in a pony-tail or pinned back in a chignon, when it's short it's blowdried upside down for volume and bounceability. :D

3. What do you always carry with you?
Phone, purse (for uni card as well as debit card/driving licence etc), iPod, pen, my commonplace book, diary, and a book. Lipsalve and my inhaler. And usually food. I get peckish.

04. Most recent obsession?
Haven't really got into something reaaally recently. Mamma Mia! probably, lame as that sounds. I've been watching Being Human (and enjoying it mostly) but it hasn't sparked an obsession in the same way.

05. Are you an introvert or extrovert?
Mostly extrovert, although I'm very insecure. But I love company and don't like being alone for too long, especially not at mealtimes. And I find it relatively easy to talk to people, although there are some people who just make me wibble.

06. What was the last book you read?
History book: The Indian Constitution, by someone or other. Fun book: In Tearing Haste: The Letters of Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor. LOVELY, because both are terrific writers and I'm in love with Debo.

07. What's your favourite type of take-away?
I'm not a big take-away eater, but it's a toss-up between Domino's pizza (Margharita and/or pepperoni) and Indian (peshwari naan, mmmmmmmm).

08. Where would you most like to live in the world?
Sydney, Australia. I adore it - big city feel, but manageable size, and green enough, and the harbour, just there. If only it were nearer to England...

09. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Yup, leaving Cambridge - I'm tired and want something new, but don't want to lose the social aspect of living with 300 people right there.

10. What song would you pay to make non-existent?
Oh god. SO MUCH CHOICE. Probably like the entirety of the 80s, but specifically things like Karma Chameleon. Obla-di Obla-da by the Beatles is just stupid. And Ming's Katy Perry is a good one too - although the song is ridiculously catchy, it's also annoying and homophobic.

11. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
TOO LONG! Usually about an hour if I'm swift.

12. Do you have a certain style?
I answered this question in my 2008 meme, and I liked what I put then, so just shamelessly copying. Erm… More fashiony then every before, probably. I fell in love with old school glamour but then was disappointed that all vintage dresses are made of awful man-made material. Ellie says “Appreciative of the modern with a dash of 1950s and an awareness of the Fug, and also a secret love of Rah”. I like this

13. What can you always be found doing?
Working. Or not. :D

14. Did you have any special stuffed animal, toy, or blanket when you were little?
yup, a teddy bear that I still have called Mishka. She was a he at first, but then I decided to dress her up and there were no boy-doll clothes to be found, so he became a she!

15. What's the last song that got stuck in your head?
Probs Just Dance by Lady Gaga.

16. What's the last movie you saw?
I haven't been to the cinema in AGES - I think I saw Inkheart last, at Christmas. Other than that, it was The Life Aquatic, which was ok and silly but not quite my thing.

17. Is the glass half empty or half full?
Half full, defs.

18. What is your least favourite thing to do that you have to do everyday?
Get out of bed, probably - or work so hard. I don't mind the work, I just wish there wasn't quite so much of it.



And I tag:

fireworkfiasco
such_heights
rivier
crooked
reallycorking
helen_pie
moogle_62
strangeumbrella

And anyone else who wants to, of course!

Dear me, it's all rather exciting, because Cambridge has the plague! No, really, one of our colleges has been completely quarantined because of a virulent outbreak of norovirus (what the medics among us charmingly call D'n'V). Apparently ninety students were affected as of yesterday, and the college nurse, having temporarily moved into the college earlier this week, has also fallen ill; except for a stand-in nurse, no one is being allowed in and out, and they've got Tesco's to deliver food and drink every day. So while of course it's horrible for the people affected - it is one of the more unpleasant non-fatal illnesses you can get, as you can see - and probably quite frustrating for the people who aren't ill, it's also rather exciting and Blitz-spirit-y for the rest of us, not to mention very reminiscent of Cambridge as it used to be, rather like it's another of the things laid on to celebrate our 800th anniversary this year. Meanwhile all the other colleges are on high alert, sending alarming emails warning us what to do if we get ill, and in constant contact with the Centre for Infectious Diseases and all sorts of government bods. It seems that we've mostly escaped with only two suspected cases (one of whom was a good friend of mine who I went to rescue with rehydration salts, but luckily I was very careful to wash my hands, despite not knowing about the outbreak then), but instead we have a case of mumps in the first year and we're now waiting to see how many people have caught it*. We'll know next week...

I don't have an appropriate icon for this post. This is not that surprising since when I was picking my icons I didn't say "Hmm, I must have this one in case there's ever an outbreak of PLAGUE in Cambridge". But I don't have any shocked-suprise OMG icons - only OMG WTF LOL or Donna's OMG of excitement/greeting. So to stop myself from using the massively inappropriate icons involving death (of which I have a surprisingly large number, oops) I am using one about not being able to touch people. :D

*This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for bloody Andrew Wakefield and the on-going fallout from the MMR scare he caused with his bogus research.