You had plenty money 1922

packing for discworld con and working from home. The thing about discworld? One costume. ONE. No clubbing gear. The costume has changes of bikini for hygiene purposes and that's it. Alcohol and food has been bought, got to pack the regular clothes and washbag. And I'm taking my inflatable champagne bottle for a panel, last seen when I was dressed as the Absinthe Fairy from Moulin Rouge years ago. Yes, I've been volunteered.

Eyeing the met office, which is predicting mostly sunny but not getting above 18 degrees in Brum, so pondering whether it's worth taking trainers/boots or something heavier than my crochet top.

Yesterday, made the 300 dress and caught up on wordcount. Just got to make the jewellery and put the fasteners on the straps. For all my grousing about really needing a tailor's dummy, the spirit of Rosie Palm was with me - put a pin in the centre of the ribbon, made sure that was at the back of neck, settled the cloth on my arse, pinned it on one side, pinned it on the other, two minutes of adjustment, doubled the ribbon for strength and keeping the cloth in place, sewed that, and... pretty much done in half an hour.

Front
Back

Really, the straps should be leather, or at least leather-like, and the material should be hemp linen rather than cotton lycra, but this falls correctly (could be looser from the hips), is bloody cheap, easily available and isn't as see-through.

Oh, and for anyone going 'how the hell do you stay in that', the answer on the night will be tit tape and a single pin. You actually need the tit tape and pin to make sure it flashes the flesh, because as the material is clingy and elasticated, its natural state is completely decent and showing off only a bit of cleavage.

I'm rather amused that the 'sexy bought costume' version you can get (google 'gorgo 300' on images), complete with recommended stiletto sandals and bad pout, actually shows *less* flesh than the correct version.

My only real peeve with it is that because I've got a relatively short torso, the second band around the waist looks somewhat redundant.

Hmm. On the other hand, I think I might now have a spare costume for Discworld - random goddess and/or priestess. I could even compete with Laura for the role of Bethan. Why yes, going as the character I'm known for's *mother* is a bit twisted. It's Sir Terry's fault. There's only so many named curvy blondes* in Discworld, and pretty much my only other option is to start donning armour. To which I respond 'On August Bank Holiday? HOW many layers? With the running around I do? Are you MAD?'

Oh, and finally found the supplier of my deodorant in a pot that smells nice and doesn't give me a rash by ... er... looking on the label. : Cornish Soapcakes. Comes in woody or citrus, lasts at least six months. Phew. Was resigned to only being able to get it when I made my pilgrimage to the Eden Project.

*There are very few named blondes in Discworld. All the others are specifically stated as flat-chested or anorexic.

from here :http://www.pjsmprints.com/news/ (also, anyone in hungary looking to be an extra?)

Moist von Lipwig - Richard Coyle

Reacher Guilt - David Suchet

Lord Vetinari - Charles Dance

Adora Belle Dearheart - Claire Foy

Drumknott - Steve Pemberton

Groat - Andrew Sachs

Miss Cripslock - Tamsin Greig

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. (though sorry, Random, you're going to be played by Little Dorrit)

:pokes internets:

You know how there's that timeline for the internet memes? (when 'all your base belong to us' and rickrolling first hit the web)

I have decided there really needs to be a trends aggregator. Specifically, when it got to be critical mass of how people used t'internets.

For example : communities used to be based in email groups. (onelist, egroups, yahoogroups) Now they're mostly on places like lj (especially fic) because it turned out to be a hell of a lot easier to organise and archive, you didn't get a full inbox, you didn't have the spam problem, etc. When did the critical mass happen?

Another one : people get music in all kinds of ways. Download sales have now overtaken cds. We all know youtube is the main place if you want to watch vids and short clips, most big media organisations have their own channels, *theatre* groups have their own channels for advertising, etc.

However : when did it get to be people's jukebox if they just wanted to listen to a song? (not download, just listen to it, like on the radio - good for 'look, this is what it sounds like') Used to be that you'd google for the mp3, now you're more likely to check youtube.

any other critical mass examples?

In other news, yours truly would really like to know when I started referring to Terry Pratchett as 'Mr. Pratchett' in conversation. And where I picked it up from. I don't refer to other writers like this. I used to say 'Terry', or 'Pratchett'. I say 'Terry' to his face. Now if there's a conversation *about* him and his work when talking to people who've never met him, I always say 'Mr. Pratchett'.

Btw, gmh and clanwilliam, have you got your copies of the newsletter? There are some fabulous photos of you two. Me, it's all fuzzy. :sigh: But several quotes. Gideon got one too. Though really not sure why Jacqueline Simpson seemed to think I was a junior version of whoever it was the Raven haired.

Also : fuck me it's cold out there. Actual *winter* appears to have set in.

To do : wade through allll the tabs I opened of interesting entries and fic from my skip=800 post-con. (seriously, what is it with my flist? normal weekends, the groups slow right down. Con weekends, ramps up to posting frenzy. I think a lot of these were fic codas to the Shrine ep on SGA, though. It would probably help if I got round to dl'ing this season. But I promised myself I'd dl Dr Who first and I still haven't done that.)

Write up the Edmund/Bacchus fic set post-battle. And then work out if the Caspian gibbering after he sees them is repetition or not.

Still waiting on Lucy for the Edmund post-war fic to come back. The problem with being used to getting all your beta-ing done through AIM : you forget that beta via email takes *time*. Of course, I discovered about seven spelling mistakes the minute I sent the file off...

Dear self, do I want to know why, even though in the books, the easiest people to slash Edmund with are Caspian and Eustace (which has most of the fandom screaming 'nooooo! If you must write Edmund/Eustace it bloody well better be one-sided crushing from Eustace or we will damn well hunt you down and get Reepicheep to do horrible things to your intestines!'), or Peter (the only Pevensie-cest pairing I'm remotely convinced by is Susan/Peter), my brain fixates on Edmund/Bacchus? They don't interact once in the books! Bacchus isn't in the films! ...Excuse me whilst I glare at Ivy from across the years for writing that single fic with the pairing in it. However, I'm clearly not alone in my insanity. All the feedback was very much in favour of Edmund/vicious lithe wine-stained young god. Far be it from me to suggest fandom in general is shallower than a shallow thing.

Oh, and something I'd forgotten to mention about Discworld con. This was a) interesting meta and b) broke Terry's brain. Stephen Briggs, in his role of Patrician, normally has someone wandering around as Drumknott, who acts as his assistant and marshalls the Dark Clerks. There have apparently been four of these over the years. The current one is a very pretty young woman named Esther (until you put her into the Drumknott outfit). At the gala, Esther turned up in a rather fab corset (for pics, go search Flickr for discworld2008 - she's in the white corset) but was still acting as Drumknott. Terry's brain set to gibber since someone pointed out that this would put an entirely new spin on all that Patrician/Drumknott fic out there... Esther and Stephen had very, very evil grins when they related this. And then came the meta discussion that 'well, there's no reason Drumknott can't be female. Even though Drumknott's referred to all the way through as 'he'. It could be tradition that the post of secretary is referred to as male no matter what the sex of the incumbent is. Like Dwarves.' And on the far side of the group, you could see Terry's brain leaking out of his ears...

Further on the subject of costumes : certain characters are very popular (you'll often have about five or six Tiffany Achings or Magrats or Otto Chrieks similar running around.). However, oddly, some characters are only done by one person, said person becoming *known* as that character. Normally because they've done it so well that no-one else feels able to measure up. What's really odd, though? This is often a character no-one's done before, or the last time was so long ago that it's faded. And somehow the knowledge filters through to newbies. Who have never been. Who never attempt said character. How? How does this filter down? Is it just because no-one ever normally thinks of doing that character so if you do there's a fair chance you'll be the only one?

List off the top of my head :

Simon as Carrot (this con, he was wandering around as Greebo instead since he felt it was more *him* - and he's a very good Greebo) - this could be a height and physique thing, admittedly.
Pam as Granny Weatherwax - it's not like you don't get a fair few Nanny Oggs.
Kev as Cohen - physique again?
All of the Silver Horde - physique? Not to mention Mad Hamish has it sewn up due to the wheelchair.
Heidi as Adora Belle Dearheart - ABD is clearly based off Heidi. Not that anyone outside would know this...
Constable Haddock - well, er, this was an original that Terry nicked. On the other hand, when it comes to the AMCW, most people I've seen tend to be 'random guard' since it's all-encompassing and they can be *them*.
Conina, I think it comes under the 'such a minor character it doesn't normally cross people's minds'

....BBC have just released the Merlin trailer on youtube, here. I'd heard that this was supremely pretty. I'd heard that this was slashy. Dear GOD. And wow, BBC, how much money did you spend on this?

Making a broderie anglaise version of the sundress as an alternate Conina outfit for Discworld. (probably evening wear). Going at least twice as fast due to knowing exactly how it's put together this time, aside from having to unpin the back skirt seam twice. Bloody pleating.) Because this is a white dress, having to put a lining of the skirt part on. Which involves tacking them together. MUTTER.

Also? Broderie Anglaise is a schizophrenic fabric. It keeps confusing my sewing machine - goes from paper thin cotton to heavily embroidered every centimetre or so.

Spent saturday buying bits in town and then playing on t'internet. Want to make something with the chinese brocade they have. WANT. But have learnt my lesson that we do not buy fabric unless it's for a specific purpose - see bales of fabric in upstairs wardrobe that I really have to work through if at all possible.

Most of the way through my Edmund post WWII fic, aside from the bit in ... probably Korea where he meets up with Peter's SAS regiment. that's only a couple of lines of dialogue so far, and requires a fight scene, some more dialogue, and other stuff. Trying to decide whether to split the fic into two between Edmund alone and Edmund + Peter, since they're really different in tone.

Spent large portion of afternoon and evening finally getting off arse and making sundress that I bought the material and pattern for last saturday. Now just got to put the lining band on, put in the zip and hem it.

As advised from last time, went down a size from what Simplicity said to make for my measurements, and it fits.

Weekend spent being lazy. Really lazy, since I really could have done more than cutting out the material yesterday afternoon, but the sun called, so I spent most of the afternoon reading The Economist in it. Sadly not quite warm enough to sunbathe.

Really need to poke Discworld stuff and re-make the Conina skirt - plus see if there's owt else I need to tweak on that costume. I'm not doing a Maskerade entry this year unless inspiration strikes at the very last minute, so all I need to do for that con is figure out what I'm taking, and figure out what books and cloth I can haul up.

Sent the Peter-post-war fic off to be beta'd. need to figure out some more of the one-where-they-stayed. Written a few snippets - Calormene intelligence reporting back, them discussing precisely what to do with Caspian to make it look like he's not completely shut out while they train him up to something approaching *useful*, and just started one where the ambassadors have got their orders on what do after the dust settles and are very tentatively talking to the new rulers.

Oh, and jamjar and megolas? The Harbour View Cafe (the one we had the last brekkies in, the one outside) had an explosion with their deep fat fryer yesterday. Scalded a couple of waitresses and brought the fire brigade out.

Saw Wanted. It is gloriously silly, immensely pretty, but so very awesome (with a side order of '...this is so crap but it's too much fun'). And everyone in it is SO VERY DUMB. If they shared half a braincell between them, they'd be dangerous. But my word it's pretty.

All the adverts were kiddy ones, and even the car one was for a 7-seater people carrier. And the Cbeebies one was causing acid flashbacks. Except for the Nokia one which was deemed utterly crap and incoherent. Audience was wondering aloud if we'd stepped into the wrong cinema. Trailers were all in the 'biiiig explosions' vein. Death Race (with added Jason Statham flexing some very nice muscles) looks of the fun. I think I'm the only person in the country who doesn't want to see 'Wall-E'. Guy Ritchie's latest British crime caper also looks fun and terribly stylised. And then we had the Rob Lowe Orange trailer : audience rapt.

Further notes : I sneezed rather loudly just as the BBFC certificate came up and for some reason this sent entire audience into peals of laughter. My weak moan of 'shut up, you bastards' only furthered the giggles. Conclusion : Cbeebies trailer with sing-along affects the brain.

Did quick conferring between me, Inal and Shely. Angelina Jolie is 'dribble', but Salma Hayek still wins overall.

...So, has anyone drowned yet in the UK? 1 months' rainfall in a day.

trinityofone has just read Guards! Guards!. And has made the point of '.....how is it I missed that?' that Carrot *is* Benton Fraser. (I pointed out that he gets more Fraser-ish as the books go on, espesh wrt passive aggressive and playing dumb, and sending partner insane. Dear god. Angua=RayK, y/n? Carrot's better at playing the system, though.)

Find self wanting narnia fic. anyone got any recs for decent narnia fic comms? There's a thousand and one out there, the problem is figuring out the tone. (and yes, I do want adult sensibilities - I used to have narniabynight on my reading list - anyone know if that's still decent?)

Brain has now decided it wants to work out the problems of a world where the Pevensies stayed in Prince Caspian - political, clashes, culture clashes, Telmarine resentfulness over the fact that they favour the Narnians and that they're suddenly being ruled by children, court rumour-mongering, Caspian's place (because there's no fucking way the Pevensies would relinquish power to Caspian), him having torn loyalties and stuck being the go-between. Oh, and occasionally setting his brain to 'gibber' mode due to the way the Pevensies casually drop cultural bombs when telling stories, not to mention the brain breaking of Lucy (is she 13 or 12 in new film age?) talking about very bloodthirsty battles and such. (he's really getting smacked in the face with the old maxim that you never want to meet your heroes/figures out of legend) On that theme, Susan and Peter really need to properly break his brain. Susan/Peter/Caspian triangle for the WIN.

work do tonight, theme being beach party. have bikini and sarong. the fact that rain has only been a couple of showers bodes vaguely well...

SMALL GODS? FUCK. OFF.

ETA : I can't read. But still. Not a sodding alchemist.