You had plenty money 1922

So, yesterday, met up with Jules, went to South Bank for brunch, options being Giraffe or Canteen (Jules craved bacon, so Canteen it was.) We also started on the cocktails. After that, popped into the Festival of Britain - all the advertising and a few leftovers from this 1951 festival that was focussed on the South Bank but had stuff all over the UK - meandered up to the Eye (or as i refer to it, the ferris wheel), realised we were going the wrong way to check out the Globe. Got to the Globe, purchased tickets for All's Well That Ends Well, retired to the Swan. *more* cocktails. (the barman refers to the drinks menu as a vague guideline) Chortled and snorted loudly and made gestures. Got addressed directly by one of the players. (they also singled out one poor student asking if he would fancy the job character x had to do) Had sangria and prosecco in the interval. (the Globe is *very* civilised) Concluded that although it's an incredibly feminist play, Bertram is an utter wanker (play v clear about this) and we really wish girl #1 hadn't chosen him in the first place. meandered back, collapsed on the Royal Festival Hall balcony with more cocktails because our feet hurt. Fountain'd. (which mostly consisted of me going 'wah! Cold! Wet!') By that time we were getting hungry again, and Jules craved pie. Sadly Pieminster was not sit-down at Oxo Wharf, so Canteen it was again. But no cocktails this time. G'n'T. Also dessert.

And the whole time we talked writing and fandom and muppets and tropes and AUs that might as well be original fic.

What did you do yesterday?

This week, it's randomly started lifestyle questions!

engraved 6oz hip flask Need a replacement as mine is badly dented - is £33 a decent price for an engraved 6oz? (engraving appears to a be fiver from online trawling, and £22-25 for a plain pewter 6oz)

Joggers - does anyone wear those black leggings you see so much? Do they actually make any difference? I re-started jogging last weekend (OW MY LEGS) and am wearing my 3/4 length tracksuit bottoms, which're fine warmth-wise for this weather...

Valentine's cake for the non-traditional. Or your ex.

Madness? No...This is BOUNTY HUNTIIIIIIIING

In the star wars job workflow chart, it seems I am... destined to be an Ewok Bounty Hunter. Which many of my mates say is fairly accurate. Wicket had seen those reward posters for Rebel Scum, you know it. Sadly, it is not a costume I can ever do, unless I want to die of heatstroke.

Baby Davros. And, er, our lord and master Teh Moff discussing... things with Baby Davros. SCARED NOW.

Being Human. Oh, the love. And they're telling us we may get PUPPIES. (entire viewership reduced to squeaking at the prospect of short, mouthy big-eared werewolf sprogs) Being Human US is so far decent drama with bits of horror, but I'm missing the humour. (seriously, original version had the classic sentiment 'do you want to stay in and get drunk' 'God yes' and the description 'Chavalanche' for a drunk zombie rugby WAG this week) And their Gilbert did not dance. :pout:

Other new tv (aside from all the US ones I have to catch up on - Chuck, Vampire Diaries, start watching Hawaii five-o) Outcasts was dull. Script BORING. Wasted decent cast. Bedlam after it was classic haunted house ex mental asylum stuff (hands at windows, apparitions in hallways, ectoplasm, attempted drowning in bathtub etc) with nice camerawork, saturated palate, a script where people talked like humans, decent performances and a pretty cast who take their shirts off. Plus it seems Will Young's character Ryan and Jed (Kemal - death by orgasm boy from Downton Abbey) are generating some nice chemistry. (Ryan confirmed as at the very least bi in site bios, hurrah!)

Like everyone and their wife, I'm reccing teh Sherlock Mornington Crescent fic. In which Sherlock gets very peeved because John and Lestrade are playing a game he can't figure out the rules for.

Tom Hardy obsession is ramping up something chronic. Damn Inception. have been eyeing various bits of his oeuvre on youtube clips the past few days (he's one of those actors I knew existed, heard good things about his acting skills, thought was terribly pretty, but only ever seen in minor roles in Brit gangster films.). And now he's filming This Means War alongside Chris Pine, in the remake of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and is now apparently being reported as getting some role (no idea what) in Batman 3. (once you're in with Chris Nolan and prove yourself to wear a suit well, you are *in*.) Boy's star is on the rise...

Finally watched Nine Queens last night after Rai passed it to me a few weeks ago because she loves it, thought I'd like it and wanted someone to talk to about it. (and like me does not believe in Hollywood remakes) Discovered something interesting. It's a film about 24 hours in the life of two conmen, interesting film rendered good by an awesome twist, very naturalistic with decent acting. Except. er. subtitles. You know how normally after about ten minutes you don't really register the subtitles, even when you don't speak a hint of the language, unless they get something really bloody wrong (see Crouching Tiger's subtitles' insistence on all characters calling Zhiyi Zhang's character by her formal name, that only her mother calls her on introduction to the character. Once. Rest of the film, everyone calls her 'Jen'.) and it's pretty easy to figure out what everyone's saying even when you look away from the screen for a bit? I have no problem with Cantonese, Japanese, French in pure dialect/slang, Russian... but apparently I have a problem with Spanish. I kept having to concentrate like fuck on reading the dialogue to keep up with what was going on and rewinding if my attention at all flickered. Think it was because it was very talky and none of the body/facial language cues were familiar. (Japanese is easy when it comes to this. Show a Japanese comedy to a British audience, they're in tears - the social rules/behaviours are similar enough to translate perfectly)

Adventures in clothing. Having got sick of bootleg jeans' tendency to let cold gusts up one's legs during the cold season and not tuck into boots, have been on the lookout for some straight leg. Accelerated by one pair of my jeans' seams getting worn as wells as developing a hole on inner thigh. You can't see it, but it's growing. Which has been a bastard. Given that I have very muscled legs, fashion's current cut does not like me. And their current definition of 'straight leg' also seems to mean 'tight on the calf but without the stretch of skinny'. So, in river island, in fitting rooms, having discarded them, and decide I might as well try the bloke's version. Which...fits really well, the fitting room assistant being a bloke is really helpful on fit and how much they'll stretch and what you want to look out for (also asked what I needed them for when assessing fit). and they're button-fly and £5 cheaper than womens. the slightly roomier crotch is a bit odd, but yay! Huh. And it turns out 30" leg on mens is the regular length. on women it's the short.

The Sherlock series raised an interesting thought. Gatiss and Moffatt (evil duo of EVIL) mentioned their glee at realising they didn't have to change a single reference to Watson's background, that of an army doctor invalided out from Afghanistan becasue that's going on right now. The audience doesn't need a single bit of explanation. You could even just say 'the war' and they'd all nod and go 'yeah, Afghanistan, got it'.

Which got me thinking that it's become one of the constants of this time period. Like, oh, I don't know, youtube and facebook. Writers of all media drop references to it without an explanation, expecting the audience to get it, as it's not a flash in the pan. Future audiences watching/reading/listening to stuff from this time may require footnotes as no-one from the period needs one.

Terry Pratchett's Only You Can Save Mankind doesn't detail which war is constantly on the news (It's Gulf War #1) but given the way British forces are constantly involved in peacekeeping, it was a relatively safe bet for the writer. Given that GW1 lasted a relatively short period, there's relatively few references to it without explanation. The current period, no explanations.

A few examples : Supernatural, when an ex-soldier asks where Dean was stationed, he says "Hell", and the soldier nods and goes "Right, Helmand." The writers expect the audience to get it automatically, no further reference. Terry Bellefleur on True Blood has PTSD from his tour. TV series (especially hospital dramas) will devote a storyline/ep to someone back from the war like they would, I dunno, a divorce because it's just another strand of daily life. Soldiers on the train don't rate a second glance.

Seriously. This period is like unto Regency and post-WW1 literature, much of which has characters regularly back from the wars and often not talking about it because the people back home wouldn't get it.

And of course, anyone writing this period will feel compelled to drop a reference to Afghanistan to show that it's set in this period. There'll be the obligatory character back from the war, or screen in the background showing bbc news with another casualty report while commentators/critics will go 'oh god, another lazy marker of the turn of the century' while others argue that it was a such a constant that you have to have at least a background reference otherwise it wouldn't be realistic.

Hmm. thinking of disconnected quotes - film/tv ones that've entered language without people necessarily knowing their original context or having seen the source.

Everyone knows the classics like 'On top of the world, ma' 'Nobody's perfect' 'Here's looking at you kid' etc.

However, now there's new ones. Here's a sample, name some others :

'First rule of fight club is you don't talk about fight club.'
'Sometimes I doubt your commitment to sparklemotion.' (often misquoted as 'You doubt my commitment to sparklemotion?')
'I'll be in my bunk.'

Had a thought for an unconnected ficlet bit, caused by the narnia bunnies wif teef ike iss that squat in my brain. essentially, the whole thing of people claiming to be legendary/famous figures and getting others to believe them. However, what of the ones where the people claiming to be said people but are conmen or pressured into acting it? That looped around to the 'taking on the characteristics/becoming the person' problem. I can think of three well-done cases of this - Simon R. Green's Blood and Honour (actor hired by people out for a coup to impersonate an heir, they cast a glamour spell on him to change appearance, he gets caught up in it and it turns out the glamour spell also changed his blood characteristics so he was the same down to the dna - which equalled the powers), one Merlin RPS fic where Bradley swaps with Arthur. After he realises it's not a dream (plus they can only keep the 'he's sick/memory problems' going for so long), Merlin et al make the decision that Bradley needs to pretend he's Arthur to stop Uther freaking out and executing Bradley... just until Arthur gets back. Starts as funny crack, only it gets to the point that Bradley's actions (including negotiations with Mercia using lines from The Godfather) are actually becoming those of history, and one Supernatural fic (started before we knew Michael was a complete tosser) where Dean fakes being Michael - and because he's designated vessel, can wield the sword, get through Michael's wards and his aura/whatever really, really resembles Michael's.

Anyone got any more examples of this?

And now, back to nerves about footie. 3pm approacheth.

snow falling outside in tiny flakes and there was pavement ice in Shepherd's Bush/Kensington. But not settling. Bah. Apparently it's deep, deep snow back home. Hoping like hell I can get back tonight since I want to mess around in the snow. 'Specially considering tomorrow is birthday. (snow is normally only a february or Easter thing in Berkshire, so I'm used to it being bitter or frost-laden on my birthday, but no snow.) But still going to stop at River Island and New Look at lunch to grab another emergency change of clothing.

Question for the Colonialists : Does anyone ever use 'Ta' to say thanks? (thought they didn't use eejit either, but since I just heard Bobby use it on Supernatural, am guessing it's a matter of location.)

Changed ringtone post-christmas. have learnt my lesson - don't use a popular christmas song since you'll just think it's on the radio if it's not in your pocket. Subjected Meg to the first 20 secs of a bunch of stuff in a quest to find something that walked that fine borderline between irritating and penetrating. Which includes the final test of stuffing it in my bag on the other side of the room while something else is playing on the stereo and getting someone to ring me. Surprising how many songs that you'd think had really distinctive intros fail this. So now, I have the Theme from St Trinians by Girls Aloud.

Forcing self to listen to mp3 player on shuffle in effort to cull the mediocre stuff as I have a habit of shoving albums/concerts on there, as well as stuff you think you'll listen to and never do. One day I really need to go through every single version of Barrowman doing 'I am What I am' and cull them.

Pondering what the most quoted books/plays are. (no, we're not including speeches or declarations of independence-type things. Works of fiction.)

Shakespeare is a no-brainer. The amount of words he made up, not to mention phrases that entered the english language (sitting through hamlet your first time is an education).
Alice in Wonderland gets quoted a lot, normally consciously but in a lot of cases, it's become the stock phrase of description ('Down the rabbit hole', 'curiouser and curiouser').
Pratchett is quoted a lot in my circle of mates, but then we're all geeks.

Any others you can think of? Specifically ones that entered the common language.

Most people aren't special. By virtue of existence, a few stand out from the herd and a few are somewhere in the gutter. Most of us are part of the herd, the big seething mass that gets stuff done and just lives our lives, who'll never make the news or get an obituary in the paper. I fully admit, and always have known, that I was always herd. Unless I do something really fucking amazing, I'm never going to be special. I've got knacks for some things - I know I used to be decent at photography, and I'm decent at writing and sewing, but I always knew that the level of talent I have at these skills was never going to make me stand out. A good example would be my college photography class. Nearly everyone had a knack for something, and we were all quite good, but we all knew exactly who stood out. Their work stuck up on a white wall in the weekly progress meetings made people stop and stare.

I'm not talking about those whose ego is utterly massive, or became famous for being famous. i'm talking about people who by virtue of their talent in one field or another, stand out as special.

haircut finally achieved. Just a trim, but it looks neater now. And will someone explain to me why the hairdressers always want to put layers in? I've *had* layers. They make bugger all difference to my hair, especially when it's in a curly mood.

Caught up with BSG, in process of d/ling latest chuck, and will d/l my first big bang theory once I've checked the Dr Who xmas special over for quality and burnt it.

Staring at comms list. Finally got rid of mckay_sheppard since I realised I was clicking bugger all in the way of SGA fic, and even then it was almost exclusively sga_flashfic - ie, challenges that force people to be creative. Oh, one day i hope my brain goes that way with Torchwood. One day. oh yes. Fingers crossed that Stargate :Voyager (or whatever they're calling it) doesn't grab me with fic, because I have my hands quite full enough with Merlin and Torchwood and my many mini-fandoms. At least Torchwood I'm at the stage where I skate over anything that's not got a new premise.

I continue to be incredibly amused that all the updates for the Russell Crowe/Ridley Scott Robin Hood film are being posted on robinhoodbbc. Casting, filming, location, writers... every piece of goss possible. Seriously. Someone posted a comment (might have been me) waaaay back when it was first announced, in a 'soooo, someone's noticed the new interest in the legend, hmm? Wonder why *that* might be?' way. And from there it went to be a legitimate discussion topic. What, are the other mainstream generic Robin Hood comms that dead?

oh, and everyone and their sister has probably heard this one : Being Human has been recommissioned for an eight-ep second series. Wheeeeeeee! Dear Toby Whithouse : if you kill off any major villains in the first series climax this weekend, we will be very, very pissed off. Because Herrick is fucking *awesome*.

Work randomness : ah, stress, backlog and so on, you are my friends. One of the new girls has made a resolution to be more assertive. Bitchy comments as part of bantering, fine. It's just she's so intrinsically nice she has problems telling people off, saying no when she doesn't want to do something, doesn't like displeasing people even when they're wrong or getting up in someone's face if they're pissing her off - which includes your co-workers. Am firmly encouraging her in this. Because we're all utter sods and it's just no fun seeing someone go doormat.

Finally got off my arse and went looking for narnia icons. After sifting through all the actor icons to find actual *character* icons (not to mention half of narnia fandom seems to lock their damn icon posts after a week, *thanks so much*), I then had the insurmountable :headdesk: of loads and loads of prettily cut and edited icons.... none of which had a decent colour balance. Seriously. How do you not notice that the blues are a bit too turquoise and the scarlet-orange everyone's mouths are turning? Especially in a film where there's a lot of red-red in the general colour scheme.

Some of you may think this is not such a problem or just a filter thing. This is not like using a sepia or toning filter. This is getting your damn colour balance wrong, where your whites will not be correct. Seriously. Do you know how long we used to spend trying to get that correct in the photo labs? There is no either/or, correct colour balance is correct colour balance. It. Looks. Shit. And it is *different* from when you've lit it in an interesting way, or processed it in strange ways to get weird colours. It's very simple. Your whites will be really weird and dingy with a yellow tinge.

...Have thought that I probably sound like one of those old hands in any other craft profession where you spend years of training to make sure that your edges are smooth and suddenly the new trend is for unfinished hems and ragged edges. I don't care. It's not a style thing. It's shoddy and would not stand up to further examination.

(further note to the whole birth certificates thing - apparently I do have one beyond the certificate of live birth, but we couldn't find it. However, we did find my parents' marriage licence, which is an awesome piece of old west-style scrollwork, with all the language and everything. It's quite clearly the next generation up from having the Boot Hill font on it. And the judge has the name JD Plunkett. Who apparently was getting on a bit by the '70s - and he came out to Oklahoma on a wagon train. Why yes, I am jealous.)