Sort of bisexual in general and fond of cuddles

9:18pm: Tomorrow, the Olympics!
We're going to the Olympics! My dad got tickets for three events: tennis, basketball, and beach volleyball. The last was applied for as a joke, but the universe has a sense of humour too and we're going! Men's and Women's preliminaries, Tuesday 2:30-6:30. If you happen to be watching, keep an eye out for us. I'm the one without a beard.

9:11pm: Movie time!
I've been on a cycle of work-socialise-sleep-work recently, none of which I particulary can/want to post about. I'm sure you're all grateful not to have endless stories of how lovely C is and I don't post about how cute the kids at work are (very).

However, this evening C and I went to see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I was fully prepared for "so bad it's good" but it was actually very enjoyable with several good actors in substantial roles (Rufus Sewell, I'm looking at you). There were also several laugh-out-loud parts where it was just ridiculous, but in a very enjoyable way (he HIT him with a HORSE). I studied the Civil War for my A-Level project, lo these many moons ago and was gratified to see a few historical elements being used well, but to be honest I wasn't expecting historical accuracy! Mary Todd was a fully-realised character and got to be badass, I am happy.

In short:
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - not as bad as it sounds.

3:53pm: Does anyone here know anything about comics?
I am clearing out some old boxes. Younger me, like older me, was a hoarder. I have found the following magazines, all in good (as compared to "as new") condition:

Marvel Comics Learn and Play Rupert No. 3 12th Jan '94

Marvel Comics Learn and Play Sesame Street No. 6 20th Apr '94

Playdays Magazine number 3 8-14 August 1990
Playdays Magazine number 4 15-21 August 1990
Playdays Magazine number 155 21-27 July 1993
Playdays Magazine number 160 25-31 August 1993
Playdays Magazine number 175 8-14 December 1993
Playdays Magazine Issue 210 October 26-November 8, 1994
(I have no idea why the numbering is different for this issue. It is also the first one to have "BBC Children's Magazines" on the front cover.)

Postman Pat Weekly Number 198

rainbow number 275
rainbow number 293

Disney and Me Issue 112 16th February 1996

Rosie and Jim No 44
(This issue is all about ducks!)


I also have, in slightly beaten up / drawn on condition:

Play and Learn Postman Pat No. 2 12 August 1994
Postman Pat Weekly number 222 10th June, 1994 (Last page missing)
BBC Toybox Play and Learn July 1994 (Last page detached but present)

Apart from the huge rush of nostalgia that these magazines give me, I have no use for them and they have been sitting in a drawer since 1997 when we moved house the first time. I would be happy to part with them if they were wanted. Suggestions welcome! Should I put them on Ebay?

11:03am: Mr Bobo's psychic paper
This weekend dainul and I went to see Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. It was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I do most things from Aardman. One thing I was wondering about this morning was how Mr Bobo the monkey always has the right speech cards for the occasion. He is never seen writing a new one or hunting for the appropriate card. Then I thought, of course! Psychic paper!



But where would he have got it from? However, this can be explained by the fact that he works for Charles Darwin, who is voiced by David Tennant.



Tennant used his connections!

5:23pm: Don Benito has become a bit scary since I left, it seems:

http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20120318/tres-muertos-tiroteo-don-benito-badajoz/508117.shtml

The basic facts of the matter are as follows:

At about 10pm on Saturday night, there was a shooting. This "indiscriminate" shooting killed three men, identified so far only as "a waiter and two drug addicts".

It happened in the nightclub and social area just outside of town, where the noise is less disruptive to residents and the majority of young people go on a Friday and Saturday night. A man aged between 40 and 45 years old left the club "violently" and went to his vehicle to get a shotgun. It seems he shot the waiter in charge (the owner had gone home for dinner) and subsequently(?) the two men identified as drug addicts who had been receiving help from the Don Benitan Association for Help for Drug Addiction. These two men weren't in the club but were found nearby. He then went on the run and is expected to be arrested shortly. Someone who was with him but who didn't participate in the shooting has already been arrested.

The article ends with the mayor saying that Don Benito has gone downhill lately. When I lived there in 2008/2009 this kind of thing just didn't happen. Everyone warned me to be careful when I went to Seville or Madrid, as "they're not like around here, it's dangerous". It's all just very worrying and sad.

8:49pm: Lovely sunshine-y days!
It's been half term this week and I have been making the most of it!

Last weekend already seems ages ago, but there was an ex-housemate reunion in Bristol. Housemates and honourary housemates met up for the purposes of seeing The Muppet Movie. It was a lot of fun and I was so happy to see so many lovely people again that I was practically bouncing off the walls. We chose Bristol because it was convenient for smudge_rat and various other people and easy to get to by train for everyone else. I'd like the next one, whenever it happens, to be in Exeter, but as one housemate is off to South America for a few months it may take a little while!

I'd then scheduled a couple of days at home, as the next Tuesday was Valentine's Day and dainul had booked Wednesday off work so that we could spend the day together. There was dinner and DVDs and we went swimming on Wednesday morning. I'd missed swimming, especially silly splashing around swimming, which is what we did. It was a wonderful twenty-six hours.

On Thursday I went to my Exeter home (J&J's flat) for a few days. There was a pub trip that evening as Exeter is so full of wonderful people that it is impossible to see them all individually in only two days, especially if you want to sleep as well! jedda was there, as were fanged_geranium and catmint_1984 and almost all the rest of Tolksoc! I was honoured to be considered more interesting than an actual Tolksoc meeting, as we discovered partway into the evening that there was only one member on campus and maybe it was time for people to head up to Cornwall House! As well as Tolksoc there were some Methangles and Bellringers and catmint_1984's new housemate, who seemed delighted to meet so many nice people at once. There was much curry and giggling and catching up on news. I was thoroughly broken several times and it was brilliant! I also got to talk about dainul a lot, which makes me happy.

I've started knitting again, making the most of spending hours on trains this weekend. My first project is a scarf for Stephen Bear, as teddies appreciate scarves even if they are wobbly and not quite perfect. This one is stripey, as it is made of lots of little odds and ends of wool that my mum had lying around. Colours so far: purple, brown, rainbow, red, light brown and pink.

And finally, I took this photo today:



Spring is on the way!

9:57am: Quotes
Usually it is dainul who posts quotes, but I found these and after sending them to him thought that other people might appreciate some Oscar Wilde in their weekend:

"Every woman becomes like her mother, that is her tragedy. No man does, and that's his."

And my favourite Wilde quote:

"How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being?"

9:54pm: As I have commented on el_staplador's post, I am reposting the art meme. Get your art here!

The first five people to respond to this post will get some form of art, by me. It will be about or tailored to those five lucky people.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will agree with what I perceive as art and/or quality. (Nobody said anything about quality, anyway!)
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done before the year is out. (I'd rather give myself enough time to make something nice.)
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be fic. It may be poetry. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well in order to spread the love!

8:34pm: I still feel vaguely Christmassy, so I am using my Christmas icon. I think it's because we've only been back at school less than a week and so I'm still having the "and how were your holidays?" conversation with people.

Work continues wonderful. Not really going to give details on here, but I'm happy.

I'm also in a very good mood because I'm in love. Everything is shiny and new and exciting and I get butterflies in my stomach every time I think about him. He feels similarly, which is good news really!

This seems to be a post of vague good news, hmm. Something specific: I finally bought the album Who Killed Amanda Palmer after having loved it for two years (my housemate bought it and we listened to it a lot). It was my driving music this Saturday morning and even with my dodgy car speakers it was an exciting experience to hear all those songs again.

9:35pm: Odd neurons sparking, making connections
The lyrics of this song make me think that it should be in a Doctor Who episode, most likely starring Ten.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hR6O7VxKaQ

"My heart will build a bridge of light / across both time and space"

8:56pm: Such a good day!

• Excellent morning at church, complete with small children and a bacon sandwich.

• I put up our Christmas tree and decorated it with the decorations we used when I was little.

• I spent the afternoon on Skype with Good People. One conversation in particular has me feeling all glowing and happy.

Life is good.

5:42pm: LJ is messing up and my default userpic keeps appearing as someone else's picture. I've not uploaded any new pictures or touched anything to change it, and it is only part of the time. I recognise the picture, though I'm not sure exactly whose it is. This is just to say I see it and have no way to fix it, sorry! Hopefully no one else can see this and it's just a problem with my account; I don't want anyone to think I'm some weird icon-appropriater.

7:39pm: This afternoon has partly been spent looking up the details of two concerts.

One is in Fareham in February with these guys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

(That's Straight No Chaser from Indiana University, reformed and now doing a UK tour. Dublin, London, Edinburgh, Fareham! No idea what happened there, but I'm not complaining!)

The other is next autumn in either Southampton or London to see the American Idiot Musical, based on music by Green Day. I adore that album and have fond memories of the 2005 concert in Milton Keynes.

Not sure which I'm more excited about!

Teaching assistant work continues well. It's not long until the infants' Christmas play! I'm sure they're all going to be brilliant and we're all really getting into the Christmas spirit at school. The Christmas tree is up in the classroom, though decorations at home will probably not go up for another week or so. So glad to be home for a while.

8:15pm: Marriage
Lately I've been thinking about religious and non-religious marriage ceremonies, civil partnerships and same-sex marriage. What I've put down here are some of my thoughts on the matter in the hope of having it out of my head in a way I can look at and also because I'd like some feedback and opinions if anyone is that way inclined.

Debate is welcome, picking a fight is not. Thank you.



It's all about this word "marriage" and how "civil partnership" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

I think part of the reason people have trouble seeing eye to eye on this is the fact that we use "marriage" as a way of describing the relationship following both a secular/ civil ceremony and a religious/ Christian /church wedding. If two people are married at a town hall by a magistrate, under the law of the UK they are just as married and entitled to all the legal benefits of a married couple as two people who had a full-blown white wedding in a chapel with a priest. They also receive all the cultural benefits of having a husband or wife, as opposed to a civil partner. A same-sex couple is legally only allowed a civil partnership, which has a different social and cultural status. For example, introducing someone as "my partner" is not nearly as clear in explaining their relationship to you as being able to say "my wife".

One solution to this would be to have all secular ceremonies called "civil partnerships" whether they are same- or opposite-sex unions, and leave it up to the couple to choose to have a religious ceremony in order to call it marriage. But this is unsatisfactory, as people wish to use this word, marriage. It has emotional and cultural importance far beyond its dictionary definition.

As regards the Christian viewpoint, that "marriage" should used to describe an opposite-sex union with the intention of creating life, that may be the ideal of the church, but it does not reflect reality. Denying same-sex couples a religious ceremony on the basis that they cannot produce children without outside help is clearly a hollow argument, but one that is often presented, often joined with the view that same-sex couples are somehow "unnatural". However, opposite-sex couples may wed when they are too old to have children, or are infertile, or intend not to have children for whatever reason, and these couples would not be forbidden from having a church wedding ceremony. Furthermore, nothing in the world would prevent them from having a legally binding wedding in a secular ceremony. The UK may be a Christian country, but there are many people here of different or no faith, and the law reflects that.

A fear I often see expressed is that priests will be forced to bless unions that they do not approve. Priests currently have the choice whether or not to perform marriage ceremonies for divorced persons; why not for same-sex couples? There are enough LGBTQ-friendly churches in the UK for same-sex couples to be able to find a church where they could have their union blessed in a joyful, welcoming ceremony, rather than feeling disapproved of on their wedding day, so I, perhaps naively, think that this would be the more likely choice.



I feel I've explained pretty well the desire for legal and cultural recognition, but there's another side to this that I think is better explained by people who are actually married or getting married.

This video was made by couples and families in California during the Proposition 8 debacle (a change in the law was being proposed to make same-sex marriage illegal where it had previously been allowed).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-awVQkTeVE

These people are members of their community and have friends and family who support them in their marriage. There's a public show of love and commitment in a marriage ceremony that you don't get anywhere else and that is continued in married life. To deny this to same-sex couples or give them "same but different" treatment seems to me to be incredibly unfair.

4:45pm: Quiet
I go really quiet when things are unsettled. [N.B I also go quiet online when things are busy and good in real life, so large gaps in posting are usually nothing to worry about!] I learnt from the debacle of my PGCE and got in contact with my supervisor here to talk about my worries, which are now sorting themselves out and I won't go into details online for obvious reasons. That's a great start to an update, isn't it? "Things are a bit meh, but I can't tell you why"! There are great things about volunteering too. Today there was cake!

Things I can talk about:

I adore Cambridge! The weather has been brilliant for the past few weeks and I've been into Cambridge loads to see A and J and reipan. J took me on a sightseeing bus ride around the city, which was awesome fun. She also introduced me to a group of friends known collectively as The Lesbians, as they are all at a women-only college. We went to Wagamamas and wandered around town, which was Good Times.

A had me for a weekend and we went for a walk, pub lunch, punting on the Cam and over to some friends' to see Doctor Who all in one day! On Sunday I went to Cambridge City Church and then back to A's house for a delicious barbeque and then to a Messy Church activity afternoon at the local church here in the village. They rang me on the Saturday to ask if I wanted to join in, it was so lovely to be included. The whole weekend was fantastic, just to be busy and having fun. Best moment: lying back against blankets in the punt and looking up at the clear blue evening sky while people chatted around me and the water went past just a few inches below the edge of the punt.

Matthew is coming up from Oxford-ish for a visit this Saturday. I am so pleased to be seeing him. I am massively homesick and to spend time with Matthew and J will hopefully be like being home. I'm seeing my Ian on Wednesday for the first time since I left Exeter and then the next day that I have off Isaac and Lyn are coming up to London for a day and I'm going down and there will be MANY HUGS. I've spoken to Ian every day and been online and on the phone to lots of people and it's made things so much better. Honestly, most of what's wrong is homesickness and worry that I'm doing things wrong. These thoughts are getting easier to move past as I settle in here and find my feet. It's not even been four weeks yet and I shouldn't expect to have it all sorted out, but this is me and so I have ridiculously high expectations.

I am fine, and confused, and sad, and loved, all at once.

3:01pm: Does anyone want to play with a broken laptop?
Here are the errors detected (so far) on my computer, possibly caused by a Trojan virus or possibly my laptop just decided to give up the ghost on the same day as my virus scanner found a Trojan virus:

Read time of hard drive clusters less than 500ms.
35% of HDD space is unreadable.
Bad sectors on hard drive or damaged file allocation table.
Boot sector of the hard drive disk is damaged.
Hard drive doesn't respond to system commands.

It's a Dell Inspiron 6400 running Windows XP, though it also has Ubuntu installed. Most of my files are backed up and I can live without the ones that aren't, though obviously I'd like to keep them! I have an eeepc as my back up and will probably just have to wait until I can afford a new laptop. As the battery was already dead and it is nearly five years old now, I was planning to look for a new computer anyway.

Does anyone feel like they could fix it, or maybe wipe everything and get it going again? There is no pressure for either, but if any geeky friends would like to take a look at it I would be very grateful and happy to return a favour or pay you in pizza/chocolate!

4:20pm: Where I am
I'm having trouble writing this post, which I have been intending to write for weeks now, so it's going to be the usual stream of consciousness.

I've been listening to Avenue Q this morning, as I am back in the position of being an unemployed graduate, though not with a BA in English. (Close: Modern Languages!) The PGCE didn't work out, for reasons it's probably best I don't go into, or I'd feel like I had to make this a friends-locked post and I don't want to do that. It's nothing awful, I just wasn't suited to the course.

I feel relieved to have left, but also sad, especially as I'm not sure what to do now. I'm looking at volunteering with Community Service Volunteers, or getting a job in Exeter, or getting a job somewhere else. I'm in the fortunate position of staying with a friend in Exeter (thank you, fanged_geranium!) and therefore not having to move away from the south-west just yet.

I've been left feeling very run-down. I sleep a lot and get tired easily. I am looking after myself and will be going to the doctors soon, no worries about that, but it means that everything takes a while.

( Lovely things in my lifeCollapse )


And there we go, an update of sorts! I'm still here, still reading my friends list, just a bit quiet. Hi, everyone *waves*

1:11pm: Merry Christmas
As I have explained in previous years, Christmas at home doesn't really change. I've been to the Nativity, Midnight Mass and Holy Communion and may finally have sung enough Christmas carols. Some presents were opened before breakfast. Mum got me the Doctor Who annual and a cat calendar, she knows me well! Dad loves his Simon and Garfunkel CDs, Granny likes her slippers, Mum has gardening vouchers and Christine has several things because I didn't know what she wanted. One of them is Dogma, which she's never seen before, so I am pleased to be the one to expose her to it!

My sister is sweet but cheeky - my present came wrapped half in happy birthday paper and half in merry Christmas paper. My birthday was in November. On the other hand, it is a snuggie and I can now pretend to be a wizard, so I don't care!

Christmas dinner is in a few minutes, then comes the Queen's Speech, then more presents, phone calls and Doctor Who!

Then we all fall asleep on the sofa.

However you spend today, I hope it's wonderful. Merry Christmas!

3:53pm: Religious confusion
Penal Substitutionary Atonement is the idea that Jesus died on the cross to satisfy God's wrath that would otherwise have been turned against sinning humanity. This doesn't sit well for me with what I can grasp of the idea of an all-loving, forgiving God, nor with the idea of the Trinity, as it pits the Father and the Son against each other. Is there an alternative? Can anyone explain the Anglican church's view on this to me?

I have been over the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion for the Church of England, which sets out some general basic tenets, and the only part about Christ's atonement that I could find was number thirty-one:

"XXXI. Of the one oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross.
The offering of Christ once made is the perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual, and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone."

Any help would be welcomed.

3:06pm: Proposition 8 and the need for actual Facts and Evidence
I intended to blog about the Proposition 8 trial and the final report of Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling, which is available in PDF form at http://www.scribd.com/mobile/documents/35374462/ and is surprisingly clear and readable for a legal document. However, this article by Lisa Bloom for CNN says what I wanted to say with much less flailing and hysterical laughter at the sheer lack of sensible argument or rhetoric from the side defending Proposition 8 ("Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.")

Favourite quotes from the article (bolding mine), which you should go read if you're interested in the debate over same-sex marriage:

""You don't have to have evidence of this point," counsel responded to the judge's question asking what support existed for their claim that "responsible procreation is really at the heart of society's interest in regulating marriage.""

"Here's the kind of "evidence" gay marriage opponents offered at trial: Homosexuals are 12 times more likely to molest children, their witness argued, and allowing same-sex marriage would cause states "to fall into Satan's hands." The witness' source of information? "The internet.""


Basically, the plaintiffs' position was that allowing same sex marriage would be beneficial for the American ideals of equality and tolerance, as well as providing the social and economic benefits of more married couples and stable families within California. This was backed up by expert opinion and substantiated facts. The defendants' position was that same-sex couples were morally wrong and allowing them to marry would harm heterosexual marriage and society in general. Their evidence? Unsubstantiated statements of opinion. Oh, and "The Internet".

8:44pm: The Summer So Far
As is usual, summer is quickly becoming lots of little trips to see the people I love who are too far away to visit during term time and the people I love who I am separated from by the vagaries of tenancy agreements and going home for the holidays. And Spain, again!

( MadridCollapse )

( Birthdays and ExeterCollapse )

Now I am at my parents' for a few days. Mum is helping me do some patchwork. It's the first patchwork I've done in about fifteen years and certainly the first time I've done it with any particular pattern in mind, so I'm doing a cushion cover first. The blanket I'm dreaming of will maybe happen once I've practiced a bit more.

As I need to watch my hands when I'm cutting out fabric, I've been listening to radio shows on BBC iPlayer and some music on Spotify. I highly recommend Fry's English Delight, a radio programme by Stephen Fry. Last week's episode was about Qwerty and this week's was about gender differences in speech, both very educational and enjoyable. It doesn't hurt that Mr Fry has a lovely speaking voice and I could listen to him talk all day!

5:47pm: I'm sure I've forgotten something...
In the past week I have:

Graduated.

Moved house.

Organised school experience placements for September.

Visited my sister at her new flat in Derby.

Confirmed the hostel beds for tomorrow night in Madrid.

Graduation day was busy but good. Floella Benjamin is our Chancellor! She gave a lovely speech and greeted everyone as we walked across the stage to receive our certificates. I got a kiss! Mum and Dad came down to see me graduate and we've ordered lots of pictures to send to my Granny and other relatives. Granny wants to have pictures of all three of her granddaughters in their graduation gowns up on her shelf :)

Hugs, home cooking and a proper mattress are getting me through my Exeter withdrawal. That, and I'm going back for a visit in about a month. I have loved living in Danes Road this past year, mostly because of my amazing(ly geeky) housemates, and I will miss it a lot. However, New Flat is gorgeous and fanged_geranium is lovely, and I'm sure this next year will have a lot of wonderful things in it as well.

I'm not going to mention names of schools, for obvious reasons, but I have a primary school placement and a secondary school placement. These are to give me a chance to observe classes and get the feel of what being in school is like before I start my PGCE. I've already done similar things, but it was a while ago and it can't hurt to have more experience! The secondary is a private* girl's school. The PGCE organisers told me not to go back to my old school as I knew it already and needed some other experience. This will be as different from my secondary school as it could possibly be!

My sister also finishes uni this year. She wants to stay in Derby to be with her boyfriend, so now begins the job hunt! The new flat has everything they need in a small space. We took up a few bits of furniture and went to buy a washer-dryer on Saturday, but I'm not sure there's room for much more! I think it'll be a really nice place once they've had a chance to settle in and unpack some more. I'm looking forward to her having a job as it means she'll be able to afford to come visit us.

And finally, Madrid! K and I are going in order to sort police record checks for next year. Doing it from England cost about the same as the plane tickets, so we thought, why not make it a holiday? As I also get to pick up my last paycheque from last year's teaching job, because they paid me after I'd left Spain, I may actually make money on this trip! Things I am looking forward to include meeting goshemily for the first time, El Retiro park, La Reina Sofia art gallery and tapas! We leave tomorrow afternoon and come back late on Friday, so that's three days of wonderful Spanish-ness.


*Edited to add: Oops, my bad, not private. Selective girls' grammar. As close to private as you can get while still being a state school, I feel!

8:23pm: Posting as procrastination. Also because it's been a while.
In one of my last proper posts (life posts, posts that actually talk about what's going on and not just funny words or videos or Doctor Who reviews, though those are fun too) I wrote

Final year isn't as terrifying as I feared, although all the exams are in the summer, so ask me again in May!

Exams start on Tuesday. I'm alternating between frustration, panic and gleeful ostrich-like behaviour. Burying my head in the sand, not laying huge eggs.

Sometimes I feel like I can pass just as I am. This is not quite true. I could scrape a pass, but not do nearly as well as I could have done, which isn't fair to anyone. Sometimes I feel like I need to relearn everything from the past few years. All the grammar and vocabulary of nearly four years of French and Spanish. Which isn't true either. Hardly anyone remembers everything they learn ever, that's not expected of us. Neither mindset is conducive to actually getting anything useful done.

I'll be glad when this is over. I finish around the 25th, when I hand in my last paper. The deadline is the 28th, but I want it out of my life, so I hope to get it in earlier. The course is great, I'm just ready to be done!

Apart from panicking and trains of thought like the one above, life is good (see: gleeful ostrich-like behaviour). I have wonderful friends and housemates. We've been watching a lot of things together and playing board games. I've lost count of the number of times M. has beaten me at chess, but I still love playing it with him. I love my house and my view out over Exeter and Exwick and how I can hear St David's church bells on Sunday mornings. Oh, news! I got onto the PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate of Education) course at Exeter. Next year I'll be doing my teacher training and placements and going mad over paperwork. I've been looking forward to this for five years, poor mad fool! The best thing is getting to stay in Exeter, at least for another few months. I'll be living with fanged_geranium and visiting my old house lots to see R., smudge_rat and otilu.

For Methangles, past and present:
Methang has had... well, since I last wrote, we've had a musical! Isaac directed with my assistance and choreography (and loudness! I'm practising my projection for when I'm a teacher). Plagued! was a great success on the theme of the plagues of Egypt and we raised lots of money for Force, a local cancer charity. Methang also has a new committee. They're just as wonderful and silly as in previous years; I'm sure they'll be just fine. A. came back from his trip around the world this week and was relieved to find that Methang hadn't become sane in his absence. I can safely say there's no danger of that! It's good to have him back, though.

Pardon me while I worry. It'll all be finished soon, then I'm sure I'll find something else to worry about! And the circle of life goes on... *cue singing animals*

7:59pm: The Eleventh Hour
I've just watched the first Matt Smith episode of Doctor Who. For the third time.

Spoiler-free part: I love it! It's a great place to come in if you're a new fan and it hasn't lost any of what I loved from the old episodes. It's no secret that I prefer Moffat's writing to RTD's, but I really think he wrote a brilliant introductory episode here.

I watched it the first time with my family and Isaac, clutching a cushion to hide behind when it all got too much. The second time through I made notes to remind myself of interesting points. Then of course I had to watch it again, as I'd missed bits through typing! What follows are my observations. Please add your own, whether you disagree or want to squee with me!

( Spoilers go hereCollapse )

10:48pm: An experiment with a sample of one
I just tripped and landed on my alarm clock. I'm not hurt, but I broke the snooze button! So now we'll see if I can get out of bed the first time my alarm goes off. I used to every day, but that was when I had a bunk bed and the alarm was on my chest of drawers! How I didn't break anything rushing down a ladder first thing every morning remains a mystery.

In case something else in the clock is broken, my phone has been set as a secondary alarm. I am prepared! *nods* Goodnight, all.