What a palaver

What a strange day. Called someone out on a lazy sexist stereotype, in a civil way that totally left it open for discussion, and she told me to fuck off and left the way open for anyone who agreed with her to weigh in which they duly did. Wil's right; it's clearly troll season.



NEVER MIND HAVE A PUG THAT CAN'T RUN

 

Good news, everyone!

celebrating with expletives

I got a 2:2, which is what I expected (when I was stable enough to not be expecting failure, the disapproval of my friends and loved ones, and being put down for my own good). My mum was so excited! And my dad told me that he's been published, which is SO fantastic. My dad's pretty much the best.

Ben got the First that he SO deserves, not to mention a bajillion exciting authorial opportunities. That boy's going places, I'm telling you. B. John Shaw Liddle, keep an eye out.

Also, gay marriage is now legal in New York! Seems to be a good day all round, really. I hope you've got something to celebrate, wherever you are.

I went to a fancy dress party last night, actually wearing a fancy dress for once. It was SO fancy. I haven't uploaded the photos yet, but here is an artist's impression:

Much love to the incredible @irkafirka for that picture! Trying to remember which children's illustrator this reminds me of. It's a bit Horrible Historyish, but I don't think that's it... answers on a postcard please. Anyway, yes, I'll upload photos at some point. I've been taking a lot more lately, which is a lot of fun! They're all going up on my Flickr account, as usual, but here's a couple of recent ones I like:

Nellie the Elephant

I'm rereading Unseen Academicals at the moment, by Terry Pratchett. The main character, Nutt, is obsessed with having Worth. He creates things, and he learns, and he helps, because he needs to be worthy. I understand how he feels.

I restarted my twitter account today. It was complicated - I had to change my username and details and delete that account, then start a new one with my original information. It was a bit of a snap decision, but I decided that I've let it matter to me far too much. Twitter doesn't matter, not really.

I'm relieved that I've been able to let go of that obsession with rank. I no longer care how many people read my blog, to be honest, since the only important thing for me was to write it. I wanted to prove that I could keep it up, and I've done that, by my standards.

I'm hoping that, once I've finished uni for the summer, I'll be able to spend the summer doing worthwhile things. Not spending all day on twitter; not reading dozens of blogs; but learning things, and doing things, and meeting people. That's what really matters to me. I want to practice playing the ukulele more, and I want to get better at calligraphy, and I want to read and write more. I know I say these things fairly often, but that's because it's good to remind yourself where you want to be heading once in a while.

And above all, I want to be ready for the adventures when they happen. A couple of weeks ago (I intended to write more about this, but the time has passed), I went to the beach. My friends asked if I fancied going. I was at Gav's, but dressed for adventure: jeans, trainers, everything I need in my rucksack; so I said yes, and we went.

I splashed about in rock pools, went paddling, sat on rocks, climbed into a cave, found spiral fossils embedded in the rock floor, and had maybe the best day I've had for many years. Because I was ready for adventure.
It's all very well to wait for these things to happen, but I think it's time I started doing random scary things again. Goodbye to the circus of internet drama, hello to making the most of my free time. Fingers crossed.

Name-dropping

Name-dropping's terrible, isn't it? Terrible.

Getting fangirl all over your laptop screen, that's pretty terrible too.

Which is why I'm classifying this as a fascinating insight into the phenomenon of the celebrity vs. the everyday, as seen through a web 2.0 lens, and the use and impact of social technology in intra-professional communication. So there.

Friends like these

Stupid changeable weather.

There comes a point, on days like this, when the abruptness of the weather change makes you question your choice of clothes. For me, today, it was at about the point the rain turned my t-shirt seethrough.

On the plus side, I did meet a lot of friendly people on the way home!

Speaking of friendly people, I was trying to explain Twitter to Ross last night. We were trying to explain to Dan why friendships with people you'd never met were perfectly valid and rewarding, and he raised the very interesting argument that I could be going out and meeting real people in the real world. Which is, of course, a perfectly valid point, and therefore made me want to cry and hit him with the keyboard until he stopped twitching.

Because, I mean, it was all very well being the introvert when I lived in Plymouth. Understandable, if not excusable. But now that I've moved to the promised land, why does it still feel so far beyond my reach to actually meet people by myself?

Well, the answer's obvious really. I'm horribly insecure. I don't really feel worthy of the friends I do have, and the thought of trying to make more is as daunting a prospect as it was when I was nine.

So! Food for thought there, for me anyway. Hope you're all well.

Round-up time

I haven't really updated people on my life in a while. One of the reasons I started blogging was so that old friends could check in on me and see how I was doing. With that in mind, this is what I've been doing lately:

I've started that photography course! The first day was on Tuesday. It was fun, explained things nice and clearly, and I've got high hopes for the coming few weeks. At on point we were left to roam the streets for a while taking photos with a particular theme in mind, and this was a LOT more fun than ambling about by myself! I took this one during that free-range half hour:

We're going to get some dark-room time at some point, which I was very excited about until I actually saw it. Red lighting is possibly the creepiest lighting imaginable.

I've been getting to the gym more regularly, which is already making a difference. I still feel fat and wobbly, but at least I can do sit-ups now! No kidding, I couldn't do one the first time I went. I plan on getting better, especially now that the gauntlet's been thrown down...

Oh bring it ON. I know what Gavin's thinking now. He's fearing the moment we get to the gym, I lie down, and say (with a glint in my eye) "How many can Rich do? HOW MANY?!" From what I know of Rich, it can only end with one of us dead. So if you know Rich, you might want to say your goodbyes.

I went to this thing called Trydan today. It's pronounced "trudd-en," for no good reason other than that it's Welsh *shrug*. Crazy language, I'm telling you. Anyway, it's basically a Cardiff social media café (nerdy people talking), and it's fantastic! I finally got to meet @carlmorris, who is a lovely and very interesting chap. I'm thinking of getting on the Wiki and suggesting that we introduce board games to the process... we meet at the Juno Lounge, which conveniently provides board games! Must check that out. I'd love to run a connect-4 tournament. Or Chess Wars! Amazing.

Right! the other thing I wanted to do was catch up on all the "interesting thing of the days" that I've been steadily accruing and forgetting to share. So, with apologies for the link bombardment, here we go:

Tweenbots. Little cardboard robots that need human help to get to their destination. I like to see it as evidence of basic human goodness.
Freakangels. I'm nothing short of ashamed that I haven't posted this before. It's a stunning online graphic novel (worlds apart from a webcomic). The art and story are superb, and the fact that its creator is a mad bastard should not dissuade you from enjoying it. It may even enhance the experience.
Datamancer. I've written about steampunk before, and Datamancer's breathtaking computer mods have come to epitomise steampunk design for many. I mean, c'mon, look at this laptop. It's a thing of beauty!

Run. I posted a link to this on my Twitter, it's a simple and addictive flash game. I can't finish level 50, and that knowledge will gnaw at my soul for all eternity... click at your own risk!

Alright, I think that's your lot, hopefully you'll be hearing from me again soon.

Just a quickie

For a while now I've enjoyed writing drabbles - stories of 100 words. I've got a fair few up on my DeviantART, but I've been presented with a new challenge in microfiction... yes, it was inevitable, there's a twitter fiction account.

Their site's here if you're interested in submitting.

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.