Frantic catch-uppery!

Hello all! Right, first off, I've been listening to a lot of Owl City (Spotify link). It's beautiful stuff; Fireflies has been #1 in the UK. I have no idea how long for, and in fact it's a miracle that that much information made it into my head.

I'm afraid that my extreme slackness means I'll have to do a bullet-pointy catchy-uppy thing.

Friday 29th Jan: We had a uni field trip to Cardiff Bay, got rained on, and went to the pub; and I had one glass of rosé and wouldn't stop talking. Here's a  few photos from the field trip:

Saturday 30th: I'd had a very early night, and consequently woke up at 4am. My housemates were awake, though more of the "still up" variety than my "already up." I watched Iron Man, started making my boyfriend's Not-Valentine's Day presents (bath bombs! It's ok, I've already given them to him), and saw the final episode of Dollhouse. No spoilers here, don't worry, but I was a WRECK by the end! A shell of a woman.

The rest of the day consisted of a girls' day at my church. I hadn't been to one of these things before, but my wariness of all things girly has subsided somewhat as I've grown up, so I thought I'd give it a go. After a worship session of rather gutless and floaty (but very pretty) songs, we had a great sermony thing, and set off on a Grand Adventure.

We started with a pub lunch at the Captain's Wife (a name that gave me the giggles for some reason); after which we traipsed around the beaches of Penarth, enjoying the sunshine and taking photos of people, places, and (in my case) interesting bits of driftwood.

Back at the church, we watched a movie called My Sister's Keeper. It was billed as a chick flick - I was expecting something with Sandra Bullock in, you know, a guilty pleasure, but instead I got a child dying of cancer. Lolz were not had. Don't get me wrong, it's a good movie, but crying at a screen twice in one day is just demeaning.

My week at university was fairly standard, and then I had another action-packed weekend...

Friday 5th Feb: I went round to my boyfriend's house and watched Buffy. He got the box sets recently so we're plowing happily through them! We're into the 3rd season now, and honestly, I wholeheartedly forgive Joss Whedon for always killing the one I love. When I'm King of the World, I'll ban FOX from cancelling anything he ever makes, ever.

That night we went to TGI Friday's. I'd never been in one before; the food was great (if pricey) and the service was excellent, but I couldn't help staring at the waitress's 'flair.' I've gone off pin badges lately - I used to think they were awesome, but I never seem to have a good place to put them. Yes, I have braces, but now that I've seen Office Space, they've become emblematic of workplace dictators and the futility of ambition. So YAY for that I guess.

Saturday 6th: Pub, house party, home at 7am. I met lots of lovely new people, and totally messed up my 8-day streak of 'early to bed, early to rise' success.

Sunday 7th: I woke up late for my new role-playing thingy! Also, I appear to be having noun troubles today. ANYWAY. The pub's just around the corner from my house, so I ran in with my dressing gown flapping dramatically behind me (untrue, but improves the visualisations). We started playing a Victoriana game, and it's AWESOME. Also, I'd never met the GM before - his name's Nimrod and he runs a convention called OddCon  UK. I very much like the sound of it. I've been searching for geeks like this my entire life... I'm so happy... and determined to get myself a pretty set of these:

Also, a huge thanks to the legendary Andrew Canham for the blog's new look. As someone remarked, mine is the Incredible Changing Blog, but I think this is a dramatic improvement over the old look! What do you think?

Programmes I used to love

... and I still do, to be fair.

I'm not going to go with the obvious thing, which would be to dive through YouTube unearthing clips from 1980s children television (amazing though that would be); instead I'm going to address the programmes that had an impact on me in my teenage years.

First of all, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I am not ashamed of this. I think it was absolute quality, with enough 'normal teenage stuff' to make it relatable. For example, there was a wonderful episode in which students started disappearing, fading into invisibility, and all it took to bring them back from oblivion was some eye contact or a quick conversation. It was a wonderful metaphor; directly relevant without being overbearingly obvious.

My favourite episode would either be Hush, or the musical episode (which was truly amazing if you loved the show as much as I did / do). Hush hardly had any dialogue, which many people would argue was an improvement (these people would be wrong and silly. Silly wrong people). The sheer horror levels of that episode were at an all-time high, and The Gentlemen were unforgettably creepy.

The Gentlemen

Also, eyecandy is always a winner. The series was around for long enough - six years, apparently - for my interests to phase from Xander to Spike. Even to Giles on some days. And Willow on others (no homo). Never Angel though, the big broody stump of emo that he was. He was all sad and pathetic and in love with Buffy, which held far less appeal than Spike's wannabe-rocker mojo. Of course they eventually cut Spike's balls off in an attempt to redeem him, and he turned all sad and pathetic and fell in love with Buffy. I mean dammit people.

Another programme that influenced me was Star Trek: The Next Generation, shuttup, it's awesome. And here's why. The spirit of adventure - of scientific discovery in space, and of pure indulgent fantasy in the holodeck - really caught my imagination. If I'd been any older I'm sure my imagination would have been elsewhere, no doubt musing on the contents of that secsi uniform (muscle padding, apparently. *Noise of disappointment*). So it's just as well TNG got me while I was young and innocent; I was too young to find Wesley Crusher irritating, so I just harboured confused daydreams of making friends with him and, I don't know, discussing dilithium crystals.

Wesley attractive?
Now you kinda see it...

And now you really, really don't.

You SO don't.

It's sad but true: if I watch something enough, I start to fantasize about having conversations with the characters. That's not insanity, it's imagination, and anyone who disagrees can take it up with Frank the 6-foot rabbit, can't they Frank.

YES

Also, I'd like to cast an obvious yellow vote for the Simpsons. I'm pretty sure the Simpsons affected everyone in some way. They informed American and British humour for over a decade until South Park took the reins. I still hold a tremendous affection for the characters, although not to the point where I'd willingly watch them in anything for quite a while.

He likes doughnuts LOLLLLLL

So, yes. Those are my three nominees for "Programmes I used to love." Feel free to share your special memories in the comment box. You too, Rich, don't be shy!

OH by the way, Dan, Stephen Fry, the ACTUAL Stephen Fry, is following me on Twitter. I Shit You Not. Admittedly he's got as many internet friends as MySpace Tom, but this IN NO WAY (slightly) cheapens how awesome this is.

Nursie!

Not in the Blackadder sense, tragically, although I would make an AWESOME nursie. And not in the naughty PVC way either, although again, I'm sure I'd be more than up to the task. No, I've been simply nursing my beloved back to something-approaching health.

He was DYING!! Well, not really, but certainly very ill. Since Wednesday noon I've spent most of the time at his, flapping my hands ineffectually and occasionally changing his hot water bottle. I'm sure my nursing award is in the post...

He seems to be better now, so hopefully I'll become a bit more frequent in these supposedly "Almost Daily" updates. I confess, I've taken some liberties with the term "Almost", but such is life when things actually start happening.

Tonight Gav was actually feeling well enough to come to the pub with me to see everyone, which was a blessed release for both of us from the confines of his room. Things are looking up, people!

Dawn: Last night she was vomiting and then this morning she was vomiting some more, and then, just when we thought she was done, she started vomiting again.
Principal Wood: Yeah, we've got that stomach flu going around.
Dawn: Her exact words were "I've got stuff coming out of both ends."
Principal Wood: Thank you. That's... very helpful.