Anya

Just got my Archive of Our Own email. Am playing around and uploading fic right now. It seems to be working very well even on the CRAPPIEST CONNECTION EVER. I hope it becomes popular.

Having warnings issues, as per some tags and warnings discussions I have seen, but I never really know what to warn for anyway. Maybe if it repeatedly stresses me out I will blanket warn everything and write explanations in the author notes. I mean, I'll always label explicit stuff: after that, caveat lector. Or something. (I will probably never actually take the caveat lector approach.)

So who's on it already?

ETA: Ha, timing! I write an entry and it goes down for maintenance.

Feminax: fast, effective relief from period pain.

WTF? I am beginning to LOATHE the fem- prefix. Because Feminax? Is ibuprofen. And I'm going to keep buying my ibuprofen in packets that cost 16p. WE DO NOT NEED SPECIAL LADY-IBUPROFEN! Seriously. That's not a niche! It's just crass. Grass consumerism, as Adam would say. (Why yes, I am digging Good Omens right now!)

Oh boy. I HATE Doctor Who. I don't have time for this. So I'm exorcising all Who!squee right now.

( spoiler alert, reviewy squee for The Waters of Mars )

"People of colour" is a phrase that is new to me. Partly because it's American, partly because we were all about class and gender in our all-white all-female mostly lower-middle-class Sociology lessons, and partly because race discussion is much more unusual in the UK media and generally revolves around 'ethnic minorities' and how they are stealing all our jobs. Or else how much everybody hates the BNP, except for the lunatics who vote for them in numbers that, while relatively small compared to how many people vote for horrifyingly racist American political figures, are still big enough to depress and/or alarm.

Is it wrong that I think it is an inherently silly phrase? Not in its aims and it's history and its inclusiveness and its usefulness in race meta, but because every single time I see it I get a vivid mental picture of a bunch of people in rainbow colours, followed by the notion that I must therefore be monochrome. This is childish, possibly, but the amusement of taking a euphemism literally always strikes you more when you hear a phrase the first few times. This 'amusing when taken literally' effect has lasted a bit longer with this particular phrase, though, because it makes me double-take every time; it's so eye-catchingly close to "coloured people," which I was always taught was a phrase used by the inbred farmers who'd never left Devon and whose experience of black and white extended to sheep, cows and that one family in town who run the Indian.

I'm not going anywhere with this, btw. It's not like I have had an inspirational thought about a phrase which covers what people mean by 'people of colour' without any ridiculous euphemisms regarding the literal colours of the people concerned. I don't like the phrase, but that's mostly because I don't like the fact that there has to be a phrase meaning 'people who are not or do not appear to be of European descent and who consequently experience a negative bias in America and other cultures that historically and currently favour those who appear to be of European descent.' (That's my Hitchhiker's Guide style definition, which does at least serve to highlight the complete ridiculousness of racism, even if it is a bit wordy.) But there does have to be a phrase like that in order to make race meta readable (not to mention writable), and we need race meta so that we might eventually reach a point where classifying people by race is regarded as almost completely useless in a sociological context because it has no relevance to anything. But we are soo not there.

Of course, if anyone does have a nice concise scientific phrase, without visible-light-spectrum inaccuracy and free from negative connotation, for use in sociological and meta contexts, I would be delighted to hear it. I'd much rather not laugh in the middle of Serious Business.

I am discovering that it is virtually impossible to write with kittens in the room.

( Cut for kittens )

I'm not sure if this really counts as a review... but yeah... Up made me cry in the first fifteen minutes or so. It was utterly lovely. Worth going to see. And Pixar films in 3D are awesome and immersive (and bloody expensive on a Friday night!).

And yeah, I know it's been out in America for yonks. Argh.

In other news... I have a delicious Philidelphia and chicken sandwich, a hot vanilla chai with extra spice, extra vanilla syrup and extra Drambuie, and I am settling in to do a night of Serious Writing. The sandwich is so I have no justification to get up for snacks, the chai is to feel snuggly, the alcohol is for dutch courage, and the resulting textual mess is for rewrites.

This entry is for a short(*ahem*) burst of controlled procrastination. See you in the morning!

So, With Lukey being studented up and with us living five minutes from the cinema, we are getting back into the extremely awesome routine of going to see a flim roughly once a week. The other day we watched Toy Story in 3D, which was awesome even though they've changed the script or something since I last watched it when I was like, ten... so many things I missed! Wow, I feel old.

Anyway, since I watch more films than I understand to be the average, I thought I should review some, in a very informal fashion.

( This week: Zombieland! )

Coming soon: Up, Sherlock Holmes, Avatar, The Men Who Stare At Goats (BEST CAST EVER YES PLEASE), and possibly Cirque du Freak. Also, anything else I see a decent trailer for.

And btw, the answers to my Fannish Top Five questions (ask more if you like and I'll keep doing it):

From spidermoth: What are your fav top five pithy/snarky comments Snape has made to Harry, or vice-versa, in fanfic you've read?

Hard one! There are so many fics with Snape and Harry's brilliant dialogue. I love it when Snape makes perfect sarky one-liners. I am struggling to think of any specific examples, so I will go out and re-read some fic and come back to this when I come across some good lines.

From dementordelta: Top 5 fan fiction tropes--any fandom!

I know I am forgetting some... all Snarry: DETENTION <3, guilty!Snape, Snape being unable to resist his wicked temptations, Occlumency lessons, and potions made me do it.

dementordelta just posted her answers top fives, and it was awesome, so I just had to gank the meme myself:

Ask me my fannish Top Five. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post.

Apologies to anyone who visited my journal yesterday evening and found it in a peculiar shape. I've stopped fiddling now I finally have a consistent(ish) theme across all my journals.

Oh God, is this what unemployment means?

ETA: Apparently I have a Torchwood mood theme! or at least the start of one. Not particularly sophisticated and all from series 1... I'd forgotten about them but the images are all available on photobucket if anyone wants them. Please, use and abuse as you see fit: http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a343/dominicmx5/mood%20theme/

<procrastinate>

SNARRY HOLIDAYS

125 / 10000 words. 1% done!

HP YULE BALLS

0 / 10000 words. 0% done!

SNARRY SWAP

0 / 10000 words. 0% done!

Check it! I started one of three fest fics. (The sign-ups are still open on snarry_swap so this is acceptable progress.) Now I am not going to look at my wordcount again for at least two weeks. *lieslieslies*

I've realised that I am very dependent on weather. I think a lot about the weather, or at least the quality of the light, in order to get my brain into description mode. It's my scene-setting, my plot device, a reflection of a character's mood and an influence. In my precious first 125 words, it is sticking two fingers up at the characters. Am I unbearably clichéd?

</procrastinate>

LOOK. IT IS LIKE HAVING MAYA FANFIC AGAIN. ONLY IT IS FANFIC OF HER VERY OWN BOOK! ONLY OF COURSE THAT MAKES IT CANON. I AM SO CONFUSED BUT ALSO VERY HAPPY. (but you don't really need to read The Demon's Lexicon. Though you should think about it.)

*cough*

I love this story in myriad ways. I love Marie and I love Olivia and I love their relationship and I love the depth of the characters and the empathy and feeling it inspires in such a short amount of time. I especially love Olivia, who is a little bit villainy and a little bit sad and tres mysterious in TDL but is really only made real and deep for me with this story. It strangely reminds me of a Jacqueline Wilson book I read recently, because Jacqueline Wilson is the only other author I have read in recent times who conjured up the same feeling of I have met these people, these are people I went to school with, I am identifying like mad right now. I have met the intimidatingly beautiful girl, and I've liked her despite having reason not to, and I know that boy who's magnetic and mesmeric but unattainable and that's sort of alright. Only, of course, there is magic, and a Darker Context if you've read The Demon's Lexicon, and it's so much what is cool about urban fantasy.

I heart it to little pieces.

And now, I am off to the land of no internets and much sambuca. I will be back in four days. Hopefully with time to sign up for the Snarry_LDWS but my schedule will thank me if it turns out I can't. Night all!

Just watched a midnight showing of District 9, which we have only just got here in the UK. Now for my review:

*incoherent gibbering*

That is all.

Oh, okay, I was just going to watch, I think everyone seems to have it covered, but I have to mention it, I really do, because the comments on this survey thing have been filling me with joy, squee, lol and hellz-yeah for a while now.

Guys, I LOVE YOU. Fandom kicks so much arse it's untrue.

Of course, now I am going to retire from the internet until it is all done, because I have A LOT OF WRITING TO DO.

<3

This season of True Blood is getting like crack. Not in that it's addictive, but that it's LIKE THE CRACKIEST CRACK FIC EVER. High-quality, A-grade crack, but crack. It's... I think it's brilliant. And the queen ships Bill/Eric! Of course, I ship Eric/Anyone, but Eric/Bill is just so much fun it's untrue.

In other news, THE WORLD IS ENDING. I am getting a server error on gmail. I assume this is not just me. WHAT DO WE DOOOOOO? ARMAGEDDON!

In other, very old news, South Park is really very gross. But also GENIUS.

banner by angelfireeast, from art by froggie and gredandfeorge

snarry_swap: Fireworks of Snarry

Sign-ups: August 31 - September 18

I am... not quite so sure I can do this one. Three seems like asking for trouble. But high pressure + short deadlines = prolific!Anya. And my current stressful but not actually very busy RL is like, the anti-muse, I'm going slowly mad not being able to write anything. Give me lots of somethings to do!

Famous people I have seen this week: 1!
Famous person's name: PHILIP BLOODY GLENISTER!

Yes. Philip Glenister was sat behind me in my local café for a whole hour and I didn't see him until he got up to leave. Much OMG and SQUEE was had. Sadly, no autographs or conversations, because, well, for a start he was on holiday with his (really adorable) kids, and also it would have involved me emerging from my quivering position at my table and charging my way through a tiny cafe while he was trying to pay.

He's hotter IRL.

On a less squee-inducing note, snarry_holidays sign-ups have been extended for a couple more days. Hoorah for anyone who missed it! Go sign up!

I must say, I'm surprised though. Where is everyone? It's such an awesome fest and you get a present at the end of it!

Oh, and I am addicted to making t-shirts.

Proooobably going to sign up for this too. Not exactly pro at drabbles, but I think it's a craft it couldn't hurt to hone. Also fun. Yay!


Snarry LDWS

So, in October I am probably going to go to The Hub 3, and while I was browsing the site and trying to justify the price of train and hotel to myself, I came across an ad for Muggle Mayhem. Is this exciting or meh? Has anyone heard of it? Is it going to be all younguns and movie fans? It's cheap and charity, so tempting anyway, but of course once you factor in the hotel and travel from Devon it's a bit less worth it. Also, I spend absolutely no time on Mugglenet... so hmmm. Anyone know anyone who's going?

Edit: so like, I assumed Muggle Mayhem was 2010... but lolno. They just haven't taken the ads down. Ah well. DEFINITELY doing the Hub then. Exciting!

I have never been more excited in my life. Okay, slight lie, I get squee-level excited all the time, but I am very very excited at this moment, because Muse are playing their new album in the Teignmouth, the town of their childhood, which just happens to be a different point on the same sunny Devon coastline as my (decidedly similar) home town.

And I have tickets.

I AM SO SO HAPPY.