I have things I should be busy with, I really do, but what I am actually doing is sitting on the couch with a cup of tea, listening to the rain pour down outside whilst re-reading 'Subtleties'. My ability to be more productive is rather hampered by feeling tired and stretched from my yoga class this morning. Mmm....tea...

*hides from the world*

I have an extra ticket for the Merlin Screening (with cast) in London at the NFT this Sunday, 3pm. If anyone's interested in coming along to ogle Bradley/Colin/Giles, please let me know :)

from pandarus

I'm probably going to regret this...( Hits shuffle )

In other news, I am having a very good bank holiday weekend. Last night I spent freezing my ass off at a party in the most gorgeous old farmhouse near Prince's Risborough where Mr. Optimism and a friend played (She sings and plays guitar, he's the bassist). The party was outdoors in the garden, and I don't think anyone was expecting the cold snap we had last night. Mr. Optimism is unimpressed that his guitar case reeks of smoke (as do all our clothes) from huddling around the open fires they had to try and keep everyone warm, but apart from that we had a great time, ate delicious hog roast onna bun and enjoyed some brilliant music :)

This morning was spent at Wembley Arena going to see the Walking with Dinosaurs show, which was pretty spectacular, if rather filled with young children who sometimes found the giant roaring beasts a little too much to take, poor things. A good time was had by most though, including us. Mr. Optimism is rather fascinated by robotics / animatronics and I think came away from the show wishing he'd chosen a different career path :)

So looking forward to next weekend when I shall be going with zoetrope and an as yet unnamed other to the Merlin S2 preview screening at the NFT. Apparently the cast will be there too, which is a bonus. I look forward to seeing whether Colin is as gawkily adorable irl as he is on screen.

Okay, I'm home on my own this evening. I have a shiny, just-purchased copy of Children of Earth, which I'm utterly unspoiled for, other than noting that it seemed to provoke strong reactions on lj (at least from the cut tag text).

Thing is that I'm quite easily creeped out when I'm on my own in a place at night, so I'm asking my flist for advice. I desperately want to watch it, but if I do, will I need to sleep with the lights on?

*is conflicted*

Things from today.

1. I am officially an aunt! These are the times when I *really* hate being on the opposite side of the world to my family :-/ But yay, aunt!

2. In much more minor news, there is a big-ass spider lurking in my lounge (seriously - I didn't even know you *got* spiders that big in London. Did it mutate in the sewers or something?) I appear to have lost track of its exact location...*shifts nervously on the couch*

3. Shows that I've been loving in the last month or two:
Mythbusters, Supernatural, Merlin, True Blood, Supernatural, The Mentalist, Torchwood, Life, Supernatural, Dollhouse, Leverage, Supernatural. I have also developed a...complicated...relationship with Twilight. *ducks*

4. I am stuffed full of butter chicken and peshwari naan. Mmmm.....

5. The police helicopter that has been hovering mysteriously yet loudly over my street seems to have gone.

6. I have spent far too much of my day browsing through Dan Savage's archives.

7. Podfic rocks my world and I need to leave more feedback than I do. I wish I was stonkingly rich so I could pay certain lj'ers to just sit and record fic for a living.

Oh god, how long has it been since I posted to this thing? *blows off cobwebs*

So, it's Mentalist special finale night on 5 this evening. Things that have surprised me:

1. Simon Baker - surprisingly a teeny bit less sexy with the native Aussie accent (Patrick Jane is still hot like burning though). However,
2. Owain Yeoman - not so sexy as American, but PHWOAR in his native Brit/Welsh(ish). Call me. In *that* voice...

Cho will never cease being the coolest one in the show though.

Random thing about SPN 3.03

( cut for spoilers )

Brian Dettmer: Book Autopsies

Awesome artist. He carves into books, revealing fragments of what's inside to create a 3d sculpture. Want!

Am still getting to grips with my new Virgin telly with a squillion channels and still nothing to watch except the next show, which I spotted on a random channel-surf and am actually staying up for due to apathy and couch-potato-ness. It's called 'Badly dubbed porn', and apparently contains footage from pr0n films dubbed over by 'well-known British comedy actors'.

huh.

*is mildly agog*

ETA. okay, I could take precisely 3 minutes of *that*. I have a feeling the dialogue is possibly worse than the original. *eyeroll*.

Sitting here watching MADE, and it's about a skinny nerd (according to the subtitles) who wants to be a football stud, and he's busy getting killed out there on the field. But he's trying so *hard*, bless.

What I want to know is WHERE is the SGA AU of this? - John Sheppard, skinny 14 year old maths whiz, wanting to play football, getting the chance to live his dreams when the MADE guys rock into town? It would explain so much (at least in my head) :)

slogan on t-shirt of tall guy I passed walking to Kensington Olympia station this morning that made me do a double-take:

"Bukakke ruined my carpet"

for any charitable SG-1 fans on my flist, I have a favour to ask. I've never been in the fandom, but with synecdochic's awesome new series (Take these broken wings), and with dodificus recording paian's wonderful 'Rules of Evidence', to which I'm now addicted, I *really* want to give it a whirl.

Is there an SG-1 equivalent of seperis's fantastic SGA recslist? - I'm starting to investigate the who's who of the fandom as of this weekend, but if anyone has any pointers, or even an idea of the authors to look for, or the classics in the fandom that are used to suck newbies in I'd be really grateful.

I've had an incredibly evilly sucky few days and any Jack/Daniel schmoop / first time / domestic fic would be unbelievably welcomed.

ETA: I've been doing some research, and I have found a lot of stuff (yeah, I know, 10 YEARS worth of fandom:), so the problem is more that the sheer volume is a bit overwhelming. I've only just started watching the show from the beginning properly (janedavitt you are a goddess), so ideally I'm looking for fic set in the first 4 or 5 seasons, because from what I gather, Daniel's character changes quite a lot from various traumas that the writers seem to enjoy inflicting on him, and I think I'd rather not get ahead of myself in the spoiler department until I've at least had a bit of a chance to catch up on canon

UK peeps with BT lines - does anyone know what it means to get repeated calls that, when answered, just beep at you?

Someone or something's been trying to get through at regular intervals for the last hour, but when I pick up, it's that beep, beep, beep a bit like a fax, but I don't think someone's trying to fax us at 11pm at night!

God, surely I'm too old to still be living like a student? it's 11.30am on a SUnday, and I'm still in my pj's, eating cold pizza, tea and mini-oreo's (they're so tiny!) for breakfast brunch while perusing gig-listings

So, um, Iron and Wine at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on the 31st October anyone? If any London flisters are interested, you *might* catch the last few tickets on sale for Jose Gonzalez at the Union Chapel in October at wegottickets.com. And I'm debating on going to see Feist in September too.

And I wonder why I don't have any money left, but seriously, live music is one of the main reasons I *moved* to London, and I'm ashamed that I haven't made more of an effort before.

Imogen Heap live is just awesome!

Out of the blue, a friend of mine called me today to say that there were free tickets going for her gig at the itunes festival at the ICA this evening, and on a whim I decided to go. I was so not expecting it to be so intimate! She was at a piano, in a tiny room - if there were 200 people there I'd be surprised, and half of them seemed to be her family and friends and ex-bandmembers. Her voice just soars, and her piano playing is fantastic - there's a classical undertone to a lot of the accompaniment which really appeals to me. Apparently the concert is going to be up for download on itunes soon.

Plus I got sort of chatted up while waiting in the queue outside by a gorgeous young Irish boy and his mates - very earnest, funky jacket wearing boys, who were a)waiting to see Imogen Heap, b)interested in my Palm, and e-books and gadgetry in general, and c)chatting about Narnia. Needless to say it was a nice ego boost, as well as a pleasant way to pass the fairly long wait :)

*AND* I found out today that Andrew Bird is playing at Shepherd's Bush tomorrow (ie 11 July) if any London flisters are interested? And I'm off to see Kate Walsh next week - I guess this is the big benefit to living in London.

*twirls off to bed*

Could this pave the way for the first non-Ancient ZPM?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6283374.stm

hee :)

*Finally* finished BSG S3 this weekend. *hides from zoetrope before she can say 'I told you so*

I am helpless in the thrall of my utterly hopeless fangirl crush on Anders. I need images! large ones! lots of them! (and if you can't say that sort of thing without blushing on lj, then where can you, dammit?)

( spoilery for the finale )

*cough*I also think he'd look very pretty in a John and Rodney sandwich *cough*


This post brought to you by an excess of Haagen Dazs Pralines and Cream ice-cream. mmmm... *rubs belly*

psst...message to zoetrope

I am watching BSG RIGHT NOW.

:)

ohgod, I just had the BEST interruption ever at work when zoetrope got hold of me to share the news that Callum's on the guest list for Galactica 3, in just over a month's time

*hyperventilates quietly*

I'm not sure whether or not to get overexcited because

a)guests can pull out at any time, and, seriously, Callum at a con? I wouldn't be surprised if he gets cold feet at the last minute, and

b) Callum and cons are two very unmixy things. What if we scare him, or scar him permanently? *g* Hell, I went to Peg3 and was a bit skeered of the excess of fannish love in the room.

Still. Callum. In London. um, yeah...

Here - have some crazy awesome French human beatbox action.