My So-Called Life

I've been pretty busy this past week. Mostly in entirely good ways, although work's imploded on me, too, which is something I could have done without. It's all manageable.

So. It kicked off with a writing challenge and me actually making the deadline and delivering a pretty good fic. Turns out I can write to deadlines, even though it felt like I was squeezing words out of my brain at some point. Still, I delivered and people were happy.

The next day I met up with a friend from Canada and spent a lovely day with him exploring London and catching up. I've now got one more standing invite to come visit Toronto, which means I really have to get my act together AND GO sometime this year.

On Sunday I braved the snow and went to Bethnal Green to watch a friend of mine wrestle. Mexican Wrestle. Lucha Britannia it's called and it was pretty awesome.

Monday I helped another friend with a project on people with prescription glasses and 3D glasses. Spent a great evening brainstorming, eating tasty food and chatting. So great!

Tuesday I actually was home in the evening, mainly doing household stuff and getting myself organised for the rest of the week.

Wednesday I went to the National Television Awards courtesy of an agency who'd invited us to a suite in the O2. This meant free food and booze, so I ate way too much. I still don't recognize most of the British celebs, so the appeal of the evening was a bit lost on me. Didn't go to the afterparty because I didn't see the point and needed sleep.

Thursday I trekked into town after work to watch DJANGO UNCHAINED which was awesome. Tarantino's totally back on form.

Friday I met up with a friend for a massive catch-up and tasty, tasty (and insanely cheap) Thai food.

Yesterday was another friend's birthday, which meant food and the Rocky Horror Show. I've seen Rocky Horror before but never like this - Dr Frank N Furter was gorgeous and there was dancing and shout backs and everything awesome.

And today I went into town for a bit of shopping.

Next week's not going to be quite as busy, at least fun-wise. Work's probably not going to calm down for another month or so.

But all is good. Life is pretty awesome.

The Life Of... WHAT?!

That's what I felt like during most of the film...

This week's been relatively busy, considering it's January and my recent laziness.

Went to the movies on Wednesday with flatmate and some of her friends to watch Life Of Pi, because people have said it's a good film and it looked pretty shiny in the trailer. Looking back I should've known better to watch a film based on a book I wouldn't even consider reading because it sounded boring as fuck, but hey, you live and learn. And it's not entirely bad, really, just... well, it's not particularly good, either. It's very much in meh territory, which is not a good place to be for anything. It certainly is pretty, it even has moments of the Avatar-shiny, but mainly it's a rather huge pile of What The Fuck. I'm sure it's got a deeper meaning, it might be a philosophical exploration of whatever it is that philosophers explore, but to be honest, I really don't care. I didn't get it in the theatre and I didn't get it when I read the explanation of the ending on the internet. I'd make a really shitty philosopher, but to me philosophy is having an argument that no one can win because no one knows the answer which makes it pretty pointless to argue over in the first place.

So, 2 stars out of 5. I'm still disappointed the tiger didn't speak and/or eat the boy in the end. It would have greatly improved my experience.

On Friday I went out for drinkies with my flatmate and the neighbours. It was nice, I got out of the house and  collected some sociable points. Also found out that one of the guys spins staff and is not opposed to setting stuff on fire. There'll be FIRE in our backyard soon. I'm excited.

Saturday saw me trekking to Liverpool Street for combined birthday funtimes and iceskating. The beginning turned out to be somewhat of a fail because I couldn't find the pub we were supposed to meet at, mainly because I didn't look up directions before leaving. It all turned out fine in the end, though, because I located the ice rink, I located my friends and with a leettle bit of delay (one hour or so) we actually made it onto the ice. After a bit of flailing I found my ice feet again (it's like riding a bike, once you know how to do it you're sorted) and skated around in circles for 45 minutes. There were drinks afterwards, and food, and lovely conversations and it was a really great day. 

I probably shouldn't have turned on my computer when I got home and started writing, but I've signed up for a challenge and have to write a fic by next Friday and I'm worried that I don't get it done and disappoint people. Suddenly it was 3 am and I was still wide awake. Yeah. So today's been a bit lazy and I'm doing my best to procrastinate instead of writing that fucking story. Which is why I'm writing this. Oops. 

I'll get going now, then.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

This is the end of year review with the new year outlook. It's not much, but it's all you gonna get. Deal with it.



2012

I didn’t make it to the Electric Ballroom. I’m still trying, though #failboat

I went a bit crazy and really quite enjoyed it. I need more of that.

I found a way to channel my creativity. By writing gay porn. About inky boys in bands. Best idea EVER.

I published my first story on the internet. I keep publishing stories on the internet and PEOPLE ARE READING/LIKING THEM!

I re-discovered my love of music. I crushed. Hard.

I fell in love with The Used. I’m still in love with The Used. It’s a messy, dirty, downright slutty affair. It’s awesome.

I also developed a crush on My Chemical Romance. No one said I have to be monogamous in my band love.

Also, 30 Seconds To Mars. And Jared Leto.

I thought about sex an awful lot. I had quite a lot of it, too. I hope this trend continues.

I watched my first webcast. I listened to my first podcast. Wow.

\m/ punk rock \m/

I made my brain happy by doing things.

I went to France.

I watched really bad comedy. Like, really bad. Not the good bad. The bad bad.

My mind moved into the gutter. It’s still there and occasionally sends amusing postcards. I think it’s bought a house now.

I went to Glade and got epically trashed. Unexpectedly. Twice. I also had a really good time. Success!

I played games on South Bank. Yeah.

I saw The Used. 4 times. Can’t wait to see them again! Band love rules \m/

I went to Warped & saw loads of punk bands & it was awesome.

I went to a wedding. Had fun.

I bought a hula hoop. And then two small hula hoops. I totally suck at hula hoop but who cares. I’ve got hoops.

I didn’t set myself on fire. Hooray!


2013

I want to travel again – Malaysia, Canada, North-West of the USA – because I didn’t get away much in 2012. Burning Man happening this year would be AWESOME but unless there’s a miracle it probably won’t. I can’t afford doing it on my own and currently it doesn’t feel quite right to go this year, I can’t explain why.

I want to kiss, hug, fuck and play and who knows, even fall in love with someone reciprocates my feelings.

I want to grow as a writer. This means making an effort to write more, edit better and find a way to deal with those pesky cases of writer’s block. I like to think I get better with each fic I finish, I can see a progression in my own works and find myself analysing other people's work with a lot more scrutiny than before. I probably need to find a beta at some point...

I want to be happy, not all the time because that would be unrealistic, but when I look back at 2013 I want to be able to say without a doubt that this year was better than the last (which was rather good already, the bar’s set pretty high).

I terms of career I’m actually not sure what I want. Aiming for a promotion means putting in A LOT more effort (according to my ex-boss) and I don’t know if it’s worth it. I do want the money, I don’t necessarily want the extra responsibility and work. I can’t see a way out of the rat race at this point, which doesn’t mean I won’t continue looking for one.

I really should get my ass back into the Bikram Yoga studio again. It’s good for me. My body wants it, even if my lazy mind would rather sit on the sofa and surf the web.

Oh, and I obviously want world peace and happy endings for all. That goes without saying. *throws glitter*

Xmas/NY roundup

Hey, I'm only a few days late *cough*

I went home for Christmas, as usual. The only acceptable excuse not to go would be that I've got a family of my own, and we know that's not gonna happen anytime soon. So off I went, the weather played nice (no fog, no snow), which meant I actually got home without any further problems apart from having to brave Heathrow at Christmas.

It really was the usual, I ate a lot, I slept a lot, I spent some time with the family and my brother's girlfriend. He intends to marry her and for some reason beyond my understanding thought I'd be right person to ask for suggestions on how to propose. I had to bite my tongue to ask why he wants to get married in the first place (well, I did ask in the end, it's because he wants to start a family and that's the "right" way to do it) and then proceeded to suggest that he just says "hey, wanna get married" and hands over the ring. Apparently that's not sufficiently romantic and a big deal enough. I think it's perfectly ok. Would be nice if it was on a beach or something, but kinda popping the question after a nice fuck would be acceptable as well. Just in case it ever comes up.

Fled back to London after 5 days with the folks, I've discovered that that's long enough for us to catch up  but short enough for them to not drive me crazy.

Which brings us to New Years and related celebrations. I spent the weekend not doing much, apart from writing and enjoying having the flat to myself (it was a bit too cold for naked flat time, but I had a quick run through for good measure). Went to a friend's party for the last day of the year/month, it was a big party and really rather nice. Apart from the part when I got a bit wasted and ended up snogging someone I'd been talking to on and off during the night. I really should know better. I really should know NOT to stick my tongue into someone's mouth/let someone stick their tongue in mine just because I feel like kissing someone at the time. Turns out he somehow (really don't know how) got the wrong idea and is now chasing me a little bit. Ahem.

Before I could cause any more damage I got dragged off to an afterparty, which merged with another afterparty shortly afterwards. There was an awful lot of snuggling and hugging and regrettably no more snogging (it's perfectly ok to snog my friends, they know me) and I ended up trudging back home around 6ish in the evening to faceplant gracefully collapse into my bed.

I had the next day off, which was spent mooching about being tired, and then had to go back to work for the last 2 days of the week. In hindsight I should've taken those off as well, but I didn't think that far and in the end it wasn't all that bad. Ok, it was that bad, but I survived.

Last weekend I went for a coffee with the downstairs neighbour, which at least got me out of the house and made her happy.

I've stopped wanting to kill people now, which means I've probably recovered from the NYE shenanigans.

Just in time to go to the movies tomorrow (Life Of Pi) and for drinks with the neighbours (this is becoming a habit) on Friday. There will be iceskating (aka me falling over on cold surfaces) on Saturday for a friend's birthday.

Hey, look at me, I'm sociable!