clo_again

Oh dear. Thought "I am completely disorganised for Christmas this year; I shall fix this beginning with a Christmas-themed LJ layout!" Then I spent an hour doing the layout (which is not what I pictured; the wrapping paper I scanned for it has bright silver horses but would they scan silver, would they hell) and ended feeling pleased with myself. So pleased that I rewarded myself with an hour nap since I only had about three hours sleep last night (I've rediscovered that I only really write well between 11:30pm and 4am, which is not conducive to getting up for work at 6am) until 10:15pm. Woke up at 10:44pm, went "Excellent! I have only slightly overslept and shall now do useful things!"

And promptly went back to sleep until 1am. You may be sensing a reason here as to why I'm not Christmas-organised at all.

So yes. So far I have sent no UK Christmas cards. This is a terrible situation and I plan to try to fix it, at least a little bit, tomorrow morning since I'm back to working half-days Tuesdays and Thursdays (yet I get paid for the whole day. Have I mentioned before that this job is marvellous?) and should have time, unless I stay up until 4am again. I actually fell asleep on my desk in work tody for a few minutes, so I really probably shouldn't.

Thankfully my immediate boss is all kinds of lovely and woke me up with Christmas chocolate cake and gingerbread. No, really. I am going to miss this job. Especially the money, since I seem incapable of saving; I really must save every extra penny between now and when I finish on Jan 7th to do...I don't know. Something. Not stalk the cute post boy around the hospital anymore, I suppose. D-: It's all I've done for about four months now! What will I do!

Except you know, he lives in my village. So that may prove handy.

So yes, life and such continues to happen to me. We had beautiful snow last week, enough that I took a day off work (oops, moneywise) and they're predicting more for Thursday/Friday which is marvellous, except I really can't miss any more days and will be dragging myself through the blizzards regardless. Then Saturday I have to venture into the manic last-minute shopping crowds to do my manic last-minute shopping. It's entirely possible that I won't make it out alive but I'm inclined not to trust Amazon at this date, especially with all the knock-on effect problems they've had from last week's snow.

Sigh. Remember the days when Christmas wasn't stressful? Yeah. That was good.

That said, I just found the Top Gear Christmas Special teaser on Youtube and frankly, I think it will make up for every single instant of stress...IN THE WORLD. (There are two episodes. TWO. I THOUGHT THERE WAS ONLY ONE. :DDDDD) HERE:




And the Doctor Who special is looking great. And I still have all my Christmas movies to watch. And I'm about four days behind on my advent calendar, so I'm going to do something about that before I sleep.

Hello Christmas. Maybe you're not so bad after all (now please let that cold snowy weather hang around until the 25th again this year please. Let it snow!)

Okay, so there was new Good News Week on this week? Dear Channel Ten, I want a full goddamn podcast this time. No more fourteen and ten minute nonsense! I don't care if you make me pay $2.99 per episode or what-the-hell-ever. I JUST WANTS A WHOLE EPISODE. DAMN YOUS.

We didn't get the Melbourne Comedy Festival one as a podcast either. It's probably on Youtube in bits but it's not the same. Just because we're in Britain doesn't mean we don't want to watch GNW Channel Ten! 'm just saying. And tomorrow I have 750 more buckets to security tag so believe me, you do not want to piss me off further this week or we'll see how many irritating complaint emails I can cram into the hours between 5:30pm and midnight. Hint: IT WILL BE MANY.

~

In other news, work doesn't suck so much. Yes it's tedious and repetitive but there are no customers. I didn't realise 'til now just what a big part customers played in my Issues with my last job; plus everyone is nicer in this place, in that I don't get told I'm weird for liking Top Gear and they actually know interesting things like that iPhones don't work around here and where I should go if I want to go horse-riding. So apart from my GNW problems, life is not so bad.

BUT. It will be in a few days because people on Twitter are already going on about the Edinburgh Fringe. I want to go so badly and just don't have any money, not to mention accomodation's going to be non-existent. Why don't I know anyone in Edinburgh? WHY? Neil Gaiman and Wil Anderson are going to be there, plus all the International Book Festival goodness. I hate everyone who's going and leaving me here. Bah. *sulks* I'm thinking next year I should plan to go for at least a week of it. How far in advance would I need to book the hostel do you think? Hm.

I just idly checked what Tim Minchin is up to and realised he's actually performing on my birthday. But in Northampton which even though I don't know where it is (it was featured in Kinky Boots wasn't it?) I definitely cannot get to because it's like five hours on the train. And I rather suspect the London one on the 24th will be sold out, because it's London. Maybe Birmingham... There're seats left in Birmingham but I couldn't get back that late, so I'd have to stay over on top of the £40 train ticket (the Tim Minchin ticket is only £17.50. How dumb is that, that my train ticket is more than double the price of what I'd be going to see?) Mmmmmmexpensive. And Manchester which is easier to get to for me is pretty much sold out of all the good seats. Maybe I'll take a raincheck. *gloom*

(I'm not checking out Edinburgh for October 10th. I'm really not. I can't afford it dammit, even though it's cheaper for me to get to Edinburgh than London. Ack, I hate not being rich.)

~

Actually while I'm thinking of train tickets, kindoftrouble when am I coming down for in November? And did you know that there's another Top Gear Live show going on in November too? However, the cheapest tickets seem to be £42. I can't decide if that's too ridiculous or not but given that I'm probably skipping anything birthdayish in October this year... I don't know. It could be the wrong end of November anyway, in which case maybe not.

~

Anything else... nope, I'm all out of complaints. Except, my pay for last week showed up in my bank account today. Haaaaaaappppyyyyyyyy. More of that in the next month please! I could so totally cope with a fulltime job at this place.

Okay, now I'm really out of anything to pointlessly ramble about. Laters y'all. :-)

I'm just rewatching the David Tennant episode of Top Gear and it really is hilarious/odd how much he looks like Richard Hammond.

It's also hilarious/odd that it makes me want more Hammond/Tennant slash. Maybe more odd than hilarious but hilarious nevertheless. Clearly topgearslash has warped me more than I thought.

And now they're mocking him for the "Oliver!" yell. I love this episode.

~

I need Top Gear icons on my LJ, or more than just my very cute facepalming Hamster who is cute, but hardly appropriate for squee. I really should work on getting Photoshop to install this weekend. In the meantime, have a Tennant in drag.

How much like a gay vampire did Hamster look on tonight's Top Gear? It was awesome.

In other news of my week, discovered Anne McCaffrey mis-shelved in Romance, ranted to a customer about the stupidity of American publishers calling Northern Lights 'The Golden Compass' (and my annoyance at UK publishers now buying into the movie hype by selling film editions with THE GOLDEN COMPASS in huge letters on the front and northern lights tiny at the top), spent our Christmas work dinner laughing myself hoarse at my boss' girlfriend's lesbian stories and spent more money than I care to think about on Christmas presents. Oh, and sat in the staff room smiling at my boss while issaro calmly reads NC-17 Smallville slash through my headphones.

She has such a beautiful voice - issaro, not my boss - that I'm wondering if pretty voices will now be added to the list of things I look for in fic, in addition to pretty styles and interesting (if not strictly canon, I'm beginning to realise) characterisation. Brings an interesting angle to it in that a lot of fic probably won't be read by the author; fans, in some small way, can now... own their favourite fics in a way I guess. Bring their voice to it, literally. I might now listen to a fic not because I know and like the author, but because I know and like the reader.

It's an interesting new step for fandom. I love it. Even when holding a sensible conversation with workmates over the sound of Clark being seduced in a smooth American accent.

More mundane, I discovered yesterday that I've actually missed the last posting date for Australia. Without having posted so much as a card and the present I spotted with much glee for chickybee's Tristan not even arrived here yet. So, I'm very sorry to all the Aussies I owe Christmas cards to and I promise virtual cards will be photoshopped before Christmas. Merc, I'll send Tristan's present on as soon as it gets to me and hopefully it'll get there not too late (it's Christmas-related and everything, so I'm annoyed at myself for not being more organised.)

The last American posting date is tomorrow; I still have to finish scoobydumblonde's letter and write my other American christmas cards, of which there are less this year than I remember there being so I've probably missed people. Sorry in advance.

Haven't even considered my closer-to-home cards yet. Bugger.

I'm working five days in a row now, which means my post count will once again drop to zero no doubt. I finish early Tuesday and Thursday (to make up for the 8am starts) but I work 'til 7:30pm the other three nights, so I expect I'll spend the extra evening time sleeping. When I surface for my easy weekend in a week's time, I'll get back to y'all. If I'm not too wiped, am off to see NORTHERN LIGHTS (shutup) on Tuesday. Will get back to y'all on that too, such I'm going in with expectations at rock bottom after hearing yet another thing to piss me off about the film. Suspect Hollywood has, once again, entirely missed the point.

On a more optimistic note, saw a brief trailer for Prince Caspian the other day and got entirely too excited at the pretty. In my mind it's always been a darker book than Wardrobe (if you can get darker than eternal winter and sacrificing sentient lions) and for all that it was never even close to being my favourite book of the seven, it leads into Dawn Treader, a defining story of my childhood thanks to the BBC's fantastic adaptation. There are no words for how much I'm looking forward to seeing it on the big screen, big budget. Prince Caspian being good is a step towards Treader being good and that's *good*.

I realise I'm getting excited about a film that isn't out until at least 2010. Sh. *Defining story of my childhood*. It has to be wonderful.

Oh and as a final note of squee, BBC is still showing Heroes teaser trailers. Even though the first series finished airing this week. I'm kind of hoping this means a second series airing, or what there is of it with the strike, isn't too far away.

~~~

edit: Okay, I quit. It's almost 2:30am, I'm in work 'til 7:30pm tomorrow and I can't find addresses for holiday cards no matter where I look. If you want a card and you're in a country that isn't the UK, email me your address at cloudymagicjh at hotmail dot com in like, the next seven hours; if not, or you're sleeping/away from the computer, I'm sorry. I love sending/receiving international holiday cards but working six days in every seven means I'm behind even more than usual this year. Next year I'll start collecting addresses in November.

And now, to bed. Which is still not clean because I didn't have time to change it today. This one day off thing? Sucks.

AHHHHHH HOW AWESOME WAS TOP GEAR?!!

WHEN RICHARD SAID 'JAMES IS MY CABIN BOY', I SAID "LIKE ROGER THE CABIN BOY HAH HAH". AND THEN HE SAID IT.

And Hamster falling off onto France and him and Jeremy being three years old racing each other around the track and Jeremy smoking the Porsche pipe the wrong way and oh my god I think I've died of squee.

How can they replace it on the schedule next week? How can anyone care about TV that is not Top Gear?

ActualTopGearslashonmyTVhahthatwasawesome. I was watching with my parents and it was still hilarious. Though, I was mostly thinking about how funny it was going to be to see the LJ comm explode. Hah. I love you Jonathan, you secret slasher you. Though- is it still bad etiquette to show slash to a famous person when it's being done by another famous person? Interesting. Is it bad manners for a fan to show Johnny Depp that manip of him taking Orlando Bloom manfully over the wheel of the Black Pearl but okay for Keira Knightly to go "Hey Johnny, look what Googling you brought up!"?

Intriguing. There's an essay in that somewhere, if I was a more bored person.

But anyway. Popular talk shows on the UK's premier TV channel showing two, well-known male TV presenters manipped into a half-nekkid homosexual pose? Yeah. I love my country. ^_^ Also, I was walking through town today and someone had a printout of the 'serious cat' macro stuck to their window. Seriously. So much love.

We're all mad here. :D

Now some articles are saying a woman was driving the Bugatti but the inital ones were very clear about it being a man. Curious. I've also remembered that, on Top Gear when they were racing the Bugatti vs plane, Jeremy called an insurance company to check how much the Bug would be to insure... and was told "We don't insure that car." Wonder how they got insurance for this one? Especially if it was going to be a rental? And how much would it be?

Crikey. Some people really do have more money than sense.

In News Of My Life, Gonzo is currently in the small tank by himself because he was sitting on the bottom not going anywhere and wasn't very steady about it whenever he did try to move if something startled him. I've fed him some cooked peas and he seems to be perking up a little or at least managing to stay more upright and off the bottom, mostly. His tail's all ripped again though and I have no idea why.

Fish =/= easy pets. Really not, as much as I love the Muppets. Give me something fluffy that you can easily bundle into a car and take to the vet over this.

I seem to have had an insanely busy day without actually having done anything. Except buy the three original Star Wars films, because I'm weak and the book I'm readying for my dissertation keeps referencing them and it annoys me that I can't remember them that well. On the plus side they were three for £20 and the guy in HMV gave me student discount even though I didn't have a student card on me or at all, since I lost it. Which I suspect -- without proof mind -- might have been because I was a girl buying Star Wars. Or maybe he was just lovely. Anyway, £5 cheaper than play.com. Can't complain.

So dumb with tired. Maybe I should just watch Star Wars and veg. And stop drawing out this dull entry with rambling. ;)

I hate going to bed earlier in order to get up earlier. I never feel like I've slept as well as I do if I go to bed at 4am and get up at noon. But dissertation -- and creative writing, oh god it was meant to in yesterday and I need to go do that now -- calls.

Hamster met His Tonyness. I'd say I hope they mock him about it on Top Gear but they film Wednesdays and he met him on Thursday, so maybe the timing's off. And they can't do it the week after because this Sunday is the last episode. Sadness. I just hope they do something awesome to make up for the pitiful series run, or at least swear on a Bugatti Veyron that they'll be back in early summer as usual.

I should go wake up some more. Nnggghhh.

edit: Oh and this article sounds too good to be true. Nice, don't get me wrong; I'd love to legally be ablw to watch shows I missed online (except, not after I leave uni because our home internet is crap.) I'll just believe it when I see it happening.

dit: And another one. I'm not going to make much of a comment on the tennis fiasco over the RR format, because I think it speaks for itself. I'm sorry the players had to get caught up in it but I'm glad that, as all the fans said it would, the RR format is coming back to bite the organisers in the ass. You want to make tennis more popular, you don't do it by making it into a new game. All you get then are old fans leaving and if new ones happen to come along, they say "So how does this work?" and promptly leave when the old fans still around go "Um."

Marketing, tennis people. You want to be more popular, look at how football markets itself in this country. And possibly get Roger and Andy to have a fistfight, or Marat to be found sleeping with prostitutes or have Ljubicic arrested for murder, you know? ;) Any publicity is good publicity.

I would have fun organising an ad campaign for tennis, I really would.

Genderfucking is stalking my life lately. There's topgearslash's February challenge and then it shows up on the flist and then, today, our English lecturer brought it up. Only she called it genderbending but I still prefer genderfucking, for no reason other than I am still five years old and swearing is funnier.

Anyway, starting to be a little weirded out. Any minute now, someone's going to do it in tennis slash and convince me the world is indeed conspiring to make me write it. I am womanfully resisting. Mainly because as funny as it is to give Hamster breasts, I'm having more trouble building a mental image of woman!Roger.

...

For anyone who might've just started reading my journal, HI. I AM NOT CRAZY.

No, really.

...Yeah.

Food and earrings and a nifty new shop down a street that I had no idea existed. Oh, and I bought Clarkson's new book to keep me sane.

Though, even that -- or perhaps, especially that -- may fail in the face of me opening my flist and going, with genuine interest, "Oooo, Hammond/Clarkson."

Going. To. The. Special. Hell. The extra burny kind.