Sarcasm is an adjusted stress reaction.

Television angst

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:30:40 GMT

Since finishing The West Wing, I have found myself in a state of vague dissatisfaction where my evening entertainment is concerned. There was 30 Rock, but somehow I'm less interested in that now that Jack's doing Salma Hayek. (And that troubles me, because usually I'm highly in favour of anything that puts Salma Hayek on my screen.)

I went back to Doctor Who, but somehow, watching the Key to Time series just seems to highlight all of Romana's flaws for me. Namely, that Mary Tamm really isn't very good (bless), and Romana is not Delenn (that's more my problem than hers, and also sort of heretical. Lalla Ward has been in Melbourne for, like, a week, and not only have I failed to stalk her, but the possibility only occurred to me yesterday).

Anyway, Doctor Who was perhaps a bit tiresome. That's fair enough, you need to be in the right mood for Tom Baker. I'm still in the mood for Star Trek, but then I think of the immense commitment that involves, and I wonder if I have the stamina. I mean, watching the whole series sounds like a good idea, but then you remember "Spock's Brain", and the entire first two seasons of TNG, and the existence of Enterprise.

So now I'm weighing up my options. I have the first episode of Merlin, because the woman who plays Morgana is SO BEAUTIFUL, and apparently she becomes powerful and a bit mad later on (and you know how much I love that sort of thing). But I have this feeling that I've tried to watch it before, and thought it was rubbish.

I did consider Being Human, but that's a Toby Whithouse project, he being the genius responsible for "School Reunion" and the Rose-Sarah Jane catfight that (a) made both characters look like they just stepped out of an unsocialised man's idea of how women interact and (b) was totally out of character for Sarah Jane. Also, I loathe and detest Russell Tovey.

Then there's Leverage, which piecesofalice and suburbannoir enjoyed, and that has Jeri Ryan in its second season. suburbannoir also recommends Caprica, on the grounds that it's hilariously cracksome and has a talking robot. I did mean to watch Mad Men at some stage, and catch up with Dexter, but I keep finding that I'm not in the mood for srs bzns television. The Good Wife keeps poking me and demanding attention, but then I wonder if it's actually as good as people claim.

Really, what I want is for an extra season of Babylon 5 to magically pop into existence. And for it to not suck, obviously. Why has the universe failed to respond to my perfectly reasonable and realistic demand? It's quite strange.

FIC: Sisterhood [B5, Delenn, David, (Lennier) | PG]

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:50:56 GMT

Title: Sisterhood
Summary: The Sisters of Valeria summon Delenn and her son.
Rated: PG
Notes: Set during "The Lost Tales". Possibly I have a Thing about the ambiguous role of mothers in B5. Thanks to cesario for providing useful beta comments like "that bit is awesome" and "your title sucks, by the way".

( The mountains of the south pole were rising up before them... )

Maybe this goes back to that whole "The entire internet is not American" thing?

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:18:37 GMT

This article is a bit of a headtwist: I know that bandwidth quotas are largely unknown in the US, but I hadn't thought of them as a THREAT TO DEMOCRACY.

(Of course, part of the issue is that much of Australia's telecommunications infrastructure is too old to handle high bandwidth, which goes totally unaddresed here.)

"It's a real fun ladies' comedy show for ladies."

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:18:53 GMT

So for the last year, I've been running the release candidate version of Windows 7. The one that expires today. And, due to a series of shenanigans that were not entirely my fault, I only got around to installing the update last night. (First, I must add, I spent 11 hours backing up all my data. Except, apparently, my Firefox bookmarks, because who needs that sort of thing anyway?)

Problem was, the update didn't work. Something to do with a file that gets corrupted if you burn it too fast.

Which means that this morning, I had to pootle around the internets in search of a new copy of the file. It's okay, it was only 3gb, that's almost nothing to download. Right? RIGHT?

So that happened, and it was nice, and this time the upgrade worked. And it even saved all my old programs and data, although the programs are not actually usable, so I still need to reconstruct my Firefox bookmarks from scratch. (The really funny thing? The backup that I spent 11 hours doing yesterday? Doesn't work. I LAUGHED UNTIL I CRIED.)

Anyway, we're good to go now. Except, you know, only having about a third of the programs I consider essential for my day to day existence. Also, my bookmarks! I only reorganised them a few days ago! Help me rebuild -- what sites do you consider essential to your online and fannish existence? Good sources of Doctor Who images, for example. Celebrity image resources in general. Widgets that improve your experience on the intertrons. Answers on a postcard while I take a nap!

Here is a technical question!

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:38:53 GMT

I need to upgrade from Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 Ultimate. But first, I need to back up all my data. Which is about 200gb of ... stuff.

The House o'Squid has a 1 terabyte hard drive, but piecesofalice and suburbannoir are Mac users, so the drive is partitioned. And it looks like the Windows partition is only 29gb. Is it possible to increase that without reformatting the drive and losing the others' data? And if so, how the heck do I do it?

"Get a Mac" or "Switch to Linux" are not the correct answers, and anyone suggesting that will be defriended for obnoxiousness.

This is very strange

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 19:23:19 GMT

An actual, honest-to-God debate about whether or not women can be geeks. I ... don't understand. Apparently the blogosphere is actually a vast competition for "influence", of which there is a limited amount? The whole thing made me facepalm. It's far too early to parse this sort of rubbish.

Improvements

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:26:23 GMT

Re: the job, I've decided to email the HR guy I've been dealing with, let him know that I don't think I achieved the minimum standard on the typing speed test, and ask if I can be considered next time a vacancy arises. I'm just trying to explain why I did badly without sounding like I'm complaining or blaming the company. Because I don't.

Tonight I'm going to the Amanda Palmer concert at the Forum, which is a definite mood-improver. I've been kind of avoiding the thought of it for the last couple of weeks, what with the Evelyn Evelyn controversy and all, but now the day is here, I'm properly excited.

She's known for staying back to speak with fans, so I'm thinking of hanging around after to say, "Um, yeah, you didn't intend to cause offence, but you totally caused offence, and also the whole Evelyn Evelyn idea is tacky".

As for the controversy itself, I've been staying out of it, because while I agree with the FWD posts and posters, I've seen a lot of journals that I previously considered safe spaces for feminists descend into misogynistic name-calling, and that's a bit upsetting to me. (The bad behaviour of some people obviously doesn't invalidate good arguments presented by others, but red mists of anger do impair my ability to approach things reasonably.)

Now I am going to try and write, although there is a TV Tropes window open, so who knows what will happen?

In conclusion: HEY KIDS, DON'T MIX TEQUILA AND WHISKEY.

Doctor Who season 5 trailer

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:35:34 GMT

I totally meant to make a post about this on Sunday, back when it was current and exciting. But I was distracted by the sheer acid trip crackiness of it, not to mention I had to work. So. Here is a screencap recap, with bonus commentary! Please note that said commentary includes spoilers of just about every stripe, including some stuff that I might have just made up in my head but thought I read somewhere.

( All of time and space ... anywhere and everywhere... )

Thoughts

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:43:59 GMT

1. Simultaneously mainlining The West Wing and 30 Rock inevitably leads to thoughts of crossovers. Which would be AWESOME and EPIC, even with the timey-wimey required to have the Bush and Bartlet administrations co-existing.

2. I would like to have a nap. But then I have an opening shift tomorrow, and will need to go to bed early. So I am torn.

3. Probably I sleep too much.

4. But I just love naps so much!

5. The cat is asleep in a bag. Maybe he could be persuaded to transfer his nap to my bed?

6. Jack Donaghy is secretly obsessed with CJ Cregg: FACT.

7. I wonder what I'd have to do to get reincarnated as a sloth?

I don't know, subconscious, I don't know.

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:16:07 GMT

Last night I dreamed that Muppets were given the right to vote and hold office. Then it turned out that The Monster at the End of This Book is actually about the easy lure of Fascism, and we are all the monsters at the end of the book.

Bleaurgh

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:24:54 GMT

I keep waking up stupidly early. Then I spend the rest of the day feeling like a zombie.

In other news, I have watched half a season of 30 Rock in two days, and Alec Baldwin is beginning to seem attractive. SEND HELP.

Books inhaled

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:22:05 GMT

I hit the library a couple of weeks ago, and carried away the teen section. Three out of five were enjoyable; the other two went unfinished.

The good:

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

Naomi wakes up in hospital following a head injury, only to find she's forgotten the last three-and-a-half years. Her parents have split up, her boyfriend and best friends are total strangers, and the more she learns about the last few years, the less she likes herself.

Amnesia's one of those Terrible Cliches that hardly gets written anymore, which is a shame, as I secretly love it. And this was great -- looking at her life from an outsider's perspective, Naomi is funny, frustrating, terribly likable. She falls in love with a Brooding And Angstful Boy, the best handling of such a relationship I've seen in YA lit for a few years. But the best aspect is her relationship with her best friend, her sharp-witted yearbook co-editor. Naomi and William have a Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday sort of relationship that is terribly fun to read.

For cheap laughs, check out the hilariously bad photoshopping on the cover -- here's a high res version that makes it all too obvious. Here is an extract.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Over Christmas, we were inundated with teens begging for this book (and its sequel), and hopeless parents and grandparents peering at email print outs and saying, "Um, I think it's about some kind of anorexia game?" So I was pretty eager to check it out.

Overall, I was not disappointed. In a dystopian future North America, the elites of the Capitol demonstrate their dominance over subject districts by forcing two children from each (chosen at random) to compete in games to the death. Which are televised. This is an elaborate punishment for a previous rebellion (like feeding Athenian children to the Minotaur), with compulsory participation and viewership.

The worldbuilding was not totally convincing -- only one district out of twelve is agricultural? The Capitol has access to advanced genetic and material manipulation, but is dependent on coal for fuel? -- but it was an enjoyable yarn with likable central characters. Katniss, the narrator, is a hunter and a survivor, whose main emotional attachments are to her mother and younger sister. Peeta is the son of a baker -- as middle class as you can get in District 12 -- and he's in love with Katniss.

The strongest points were in the games themselves -- the narrative is totally manipulative, and works very hard to protect Katniss and Peeta from difficult choices, but the strategy and situations are compelling nonetheless. It would make an amazing game, for the five minutes it would be on sale before the moral outrage drives it underground.

In short: I was not totally and wholeheartedly sold, but I liked it enough to grab the sequel from the library this afternoon.

The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

A retelling of the Maid Maleen fairy tale, set in a world based on Mongolia. Which, I might add, I completely failed to notice until I stopped and actually looked at the illustrations -- somehow, despite all the talk of steppes and yaks, I had been fooled by the European-style tower on the cover illustration. (Which is a different kind of white washing, and if anyone is interested, there is one edition that doesn't have European imagery on the cover, and that is what I think of as a Headless Girl Cover.)

ANYWAY. This was an unexpected little gem. Dashti, the maid, is clever, resourceful and funny, and her relationship with Khan Tegus, the prince, is enjoyable in the extreme. I take issue with the blurb, which describes the princess as a brat; it would be more accurate to say she's not very bright, woefully uneducated, and suffering from profound psychological trauma. The villain, I have to mention, is ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING.

The not so good:

Dreaming of Amelia by Jaclyn Moriarty

I loved Moriarty's first three books, was eh on The Spell Book of Listen Taylor, and completely unmoved by I Have A Bed Made Of Buttermilk Pancakes. Looks like this might be a case of diminishing returns, as I couldn't even finish Dreaming of Amelia. It's set at the same school as the first three books -- and some characters even have the same names as in those books, although I honestly could not tell if they were meant to be the same people -- but for once, Moriarty's conceit of narrating the story through the characters' own documents didn't work. What seemed artless in the earlier books felt laboured, and frankly, some of these characters cannot write. It was all too much work, and the story wasn't interesting enough to make it worthwhile.

The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

I had saved this one for last, as I had heard nothing but good reports, and I always enjoy seeing fic authors turn pro. Possibly my expectations were too high; the concept was derivative, the dialogue was glib, the characters ranged from unlikable to dull. I got through five chapters, then returned it to the library. But as everyone in the world has stopped to tell me that I am wrong, your mileage may vary.

Oh, fandom.

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:39:57 GMT

This, a thousand times. I can't even believe it needs saying.

Josh Lyman still a douchebag, news at eleven!

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:19:25 GMT

So Donna comes back to work, having been blown up by terrorists, operated on, pumped full of drugs wrapped in plaster. Why she would come straight back to work from the airport instead of taking a few weeks leave with a slab of red wine and the Harry Potter books for company is beyond me, but Donna's awesome like that.

Anyway, Josh is pushing her wheelchair, and this dialogue happens:

Donna: You shouldn't wheel me around like this.
Josh: I want to wheel you around.

Then he was beaten to death by thirty ableism activists, and everyone else lived happily ever after.

This will come after he's been beaten to death by the population of Northern Ireland, on account of how he managed to go from "You're Irish, you know nothing about terrorism" to "You're totally IRA" in, like, two minutes.

Still, everyone who said that season five was rubbish LIED. It was awesome. It had multiple episodes about how CJ is brilliant and competent. And, admittedly, a whole episode about how Josh is SHOCKED and AMAZED to learn that international free trade agreements can cost middle-class white collar jobs (which is much worse than losing working-class blue colour jobs, because ... um, well), but that's Josh, and he's not very bright.

In short: YOU ALL LIED TO ME. Except cesario, who correctly predicted that I'd love season 5. The rest of you, I'm never trusting again.

You know, I'm feeling pretty good today. Off to the gym!

Thursday afternoon: literally a wash out.

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:10:16 GMT

Suffice to say, SSRI withdrawal syndrome is no joke, and that's how you end up calling in sick to work from a public toilet in the QV centre, with only yourself to blame.

Before that happened, I went to Spotlight and discovered that two fabrics I need for my quilt have been discontinued (bah!), met up with Weaves, got a blister, bought a new pair of shoes to accommodate said blister. (Don't give me that look, I did need a new pair of shoes for work.)

When I emerged from the QV centre, it was to find that the rainpocalypse had come. Here is a photo that piecesofalice took:

We met up outside Target (here is a picture of me as a drowned rat, having forgotten my umbrella), spent a few minutes window shopping in the hope that the rain would die down, and eventually boarded a tram.

At the Flinders St stop, we ... stopped. The intersection outside Crown Casino was totally flooded, trams were backed up, and we were on our own.

Pieces took this picture, too:

And you can check out her video of the tram actually taking off, complete with me stating the obvious in the background.

suburbannoir heroically agreed to pick us up, but we had to get ourselves through the gridlock to Clarendon Street.

We were going to have to wade for our lives.

( There are more pictures! )

Now we are home, dry and wearing clean socks. For more good, floodtastic times, check out Pieces's post.

If you want to be totally grossed out, here's a 23 second video of a couple of guys swimming down Flinders St. Mmm, e.coli.

Serious commentary on serious television

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:54:33 GMT

lizbee One of the kids from SJA was in Law & Order: UK this week, and I kept going, "No, no, your friends aren't drug mules, they fight aliens!"
cesario *snort*
lizbee I suppose there's no reason they can't do both, but I don't think I want to see that Very Special Episode.
cesario it depends on whether they put the drugs in SJA or the aliens in LO:UK
lizbee I would like to see Harriet Walter fight aliens. I think she'd be good at it.
cesario fuck yes
lizbee Let's just sit back and contemplate the amazing quality of that mental image.
cesario *sits back*

In theory, this was inevitable. In practice, I'm having trouble coping.

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:54:01 GMT

I just found a Babylon 5 fan who thinks "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" is a great hour of television that should have marked the end of the series.

I know. I know.

It figures that this would come to light on the same day I learn that RTD wonders if he was on drugs when he wrote "The Sound of Drums". (Thank you, selenak, for sharing that day-making quote.)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be ~~quilting~~ hiding under the bed waiting for the apocalypse.

Adventures in OldSchool: "Colony in Space" IN MY PANTS

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:50:21 GMT

In a triumph of Doing Stuff over Procrastination, I recently finished my two major craft projects of 2009: a baby blanket for my brother's baby, and a TARDIS cross-stitch for munditia. (You can see photos of both here.) The baby was due last Monday, but has yet to make an appearance. This is probably torturous for the prospective parents, but at least the quilt arrived before the birth.

This left me with idle hands and lots of TV left to watch. I did start a new cross stitch, but it's from a kit, and therefore automatically less satisfying. And then I found a pack of lovely quilting fabric, and ... well. So I put on "Colony in Space" and did some quilting blocks (I'm playing with triangles for the first time! They are lovely, but fiddly; you can see one block here.) and wound up playing the "IN MY PANTS" game with the Doctor and the Master.

( Spoilers are in the Master's pants. )

Memes that need to die a fiery death, to be mourned by no one and then forgotten.

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:56:15 GMT

"Independent bookstores are where the real booksellers are!"

Because, as everyone knows, chain bookstores only hire illiterate schlubs who might as well be selling nail polish for all their emotional engagement and knowledge is worth. (Not that I have anything against nail polish, or people who sell it, but you can't really talk about its amazing dialogue, or plot twists. Not unless you really enjoy getting strange looks. Which, admittedly, I sometimes do -- oh wait! Tangent!)

The meme has made its latest appearance (here's an example) in the responses to Amazon's latest fail, and it usually comes from the keyboards of authors. Which saddens me, because booksellers (of all stripes) tend to have a symbiotic relationship with authors, and if there's one profession where you rather expect people to pay attention to their words -- well.

Suffice to say, it doesn't encourage me to wax enthusiastic about their books.

It does have the knock-on effect of making me think, "Well, independent bookstores aren't all that!" Which is obviously not true, unless we're talking about my particular nemesis, Readings Carlton. Where the shelves are messy, half the aisles are inaccessible to prams and wheelchairs, and a bookseller who was way too cool for school told me last year that there was no point in my ordering The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King, because it would be expensive and take a few weeks. I'd like to say that I waved my [chain bookstore] staff card in his face, said, "I know, that's why I'm taking advantage of your superior special order facilities, and would it kill you to make eye contact? I'm trying to give your company fifty bucks!" and stormed out.

What I actually did was mumble, "Never mind" as I turned away, feeling quite unwanted. Possibly that staff member has been replaced by someone who can actually be bothered to deal with the public; I wouldn't know, as I've never been back.

While I understand that good independents are lovely places filled with sunshine and light and smiles and happiness, I'm a little bit tired of being bookselling chopped liver. I'd say more, but I have a massive pile of new release YA novels beside my desk, and they're not going to read themselves.

Here's an old meme!

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:17:06 GMT

Bold everything you've eaten, italic and bold things you've eaten once and never again, italic things you never intend to eat.

1. Fresh fish
2. Lobster
3. Steak
4. Thai food
5. Chinese food
6. Ice cream
7. Pizza
8. Crab
9. Curry
10. Prawns
11. Moreton Bay Bugs
12. Clam chowder
13. Barbecues
14. Pancakes
15. Pasta
16. Mussels
17. Cheesecake
18. Lamb
19. Cream tea
20. Alligator
21. Oysters
22. Kangaroo
23. Chocolate
24. Sandwiches
25. Greek food
26. Burgers
27. Mexican food
28. Squid
29. American diner breakfast
30. Salmon
31. Venison
32. Guinea pig
33. Shark
34. Sushi
35. Paella
36. Barramundi
37. Reindeer
38. Kebab
39. Scallops
40. Australian meat pie
41. Mango
42. Durian fruit
43. Octopus
44. Ribs
45. Roast beef
46. Tapas
47. Jerk chicken/pork
48. Haggis
49. Caviar
50. Cornish Pasty

Apparently these are foods you should at least try before you die? I guess I only need to live a little longer, although to be honest, I have the opportunity to eat a durian every time I visit my dad. The smell, though... Apparently it makes a nice ice cream? Have to say, I'm lucky in that I live in a country with a diverse range of foods. MORETON BAY BUGS, GUYS. It is like eating a delicious, fleshy fossil.

There is a small, persistent part of my brain that thinks it's time to watch Babylon 5 again. I think this little batch of neurotransmitters is hoping that if I watch it enough, the DVDs will magically sprout new episodes. There should be fic* where Delenn and Ten meet at People Who Get Quite Cross About Genocide When Other People Do It But Have Been Known To Wipe Out The Odd Planet Themselves Anonymous. The best thing you could say about such a team is that, at the final reckoning, Earth would probably still exist. Although in what state, and under whose control, is anyone's guess.

AND NOW to have a nap, and think about Moreton Bay bugs and crackfic I might one day (maybe) write, unless I can con someone else into writing it for me.

* Yes, yes, I should write it myself. But if someone else wants to write it for me, that would be okay too.

Cartoon: The International Society of TARDIS Gingers welcomes its new member

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:10:57 GMT

( Does exactly what it says on the tin. )

Meme! And stuff!

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:35:57 GMT

I am feeling satisfied today, as I went to the gym this morning, then came home and wrote five hundred words on the teen superhero romance. That brings me up to two thousand and something, which I think is reasonably respectful for three days work mixed with an actual day job. This is the first line:

"—So I stripped naked and did a fertility dance, right there in the classroom."

Which I feel is a promising beginning.

On the down side, working on Cape has taken time away from the B5 fic with the working title "AU With Moar Space Fascism And Delenn Has A Really Crazy Idea While Sheridan Just Stands Around Being A Bit Useless Actually". This ... may actually be a good thing, but it's a bit frustrating, having two stories in your head. Especially if you suffer from occasional insomnia, and that's when the stories come out and play.

Less satisfying is the fact that my mobile phone has been cut off. I paid my bill yesterday, but that was still actually quite late. Because I am forgetful. So now I need to find an extension cord, plug in the landline, call Virgin and quote my receipt number at the call centre guy.

Frankly, I'd rather just have a nap.

While I do that (the nap, not the calling Virgin thing, what, do you think I'm some kind of non-procrastinating person?), here is a meme: ask me my fannish top 5 [whatevers]. Have I done this recently? I can't remember. But I enjoy it.

Re: female characters

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:40:26 GMT

I've seen some muttering here and there -- not, I think, on my flist -- about how, now the slash debate is winding down, we're going to face an obligatory round of talk about awesome female characters, as penance for fandom's love of the white man's penis.

So I would just like to say that I love my favourite female characters all the time, not just when I'm attempting to prove their awesome through the medium of picspam (or whatever).

Finally, and in conclusion:

Stuffs!

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:33:02 GMT

Last night I dreamed that the Press Gang reunion special of legend actually aired. And it was great, only Dexter Fletcher couldn't remember how to do the American accent, so John Barrowman played Spike. But there was a subplot about Lynda being in a feud with Rupert Murdoch, and Spike turning out to be the man behind a blog that had all the political and media gossip before anyone else. This totally needs to happen at once, excepting the bit about John Barrowman. What's Steven Moffat doing these days, and can he drop it to return to the kids show he did in the early '90s? Oh, right. Yes. Carry on.

After the whole waking, boggling at my dream and having breakfast part of the day was dealt with, I AMAZED myself by going to the gym. Where I ran and cycled and, um, cross-trained, and did various weights, and stretches, but what I'll really take away is that I can't do a single push-up. But I did learn that the only way I can stand the cycles is by watching fanvids on my iPod, so it wasn't a total loss.

Then, as if that wasn't ridiculous enough, I met up with baggers, sajee and suburbannoir, and we played squash. I've never played squash in my life, but by the end of the hour my racquet had begun to make contact with the ball, so I deem it a success. Never before have I had fun, or made improvement, at a proper sport. But then, never before have people stopped laughing at my lack of co-ordination long enough to give me proper help and practice. YES I'M STILL BITTER ABOUT SCHOOL PHYS. ED.

Now I'm home, and I've eaten mac and cheese for lunch, and bought tickets to see Amanda Palmer next month (AFTER ALL THESE YEARS OF MISSING HER*, THAT IS A GREAT RELIEF!), and now I think I'm going to have a nap.

* She has this amazing skill for coming to town at times when I'm busy, or broke, or both. The most notable occasion was when the Dresden Dolls were relatively small, and they were doing a concert in Brisbane, and I had the money to go, only I also had a really early start the next day, and I was quite new in my job and didn't want to turn up over-tired. So I skipped it. But that same weekend, we were seeing Ben Folds in concert with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and who should appear on stage halfway through, but the Dresden Dolls? They did "Coin-Operated Boy" with Ben on piano, and then he and Amanda sang "Steve's Last Night In Town" as a duet. And it was magnificent. But I still wish I'd been able to get to the other concert.

Hilarity

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:27:27 GMT

Usually I hear about sf_drama lulz secondhand from karnythia, but in this case I got it secondhand from piecesofalice and weaverandom. Middle class Brisbane boy is planning to holiday in Melbourne as a homeless person for a month, is repeatedly schooled in why this is a bad idea, still doesn't get it. Hilarity ensues. It's almost enough to make me wish I was still a member of melbournemaniac, even though last time I checked that comm was a cesspit of fail.

I came home from work yesterday to find Pieces and Weaves cackling over this. I'm never leaving them alone again.