• If you've found my journal, hello! Pull up a virtual chair, put your feet up, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice). You are very very welcome!
  
  
• I was Friends-only for a while. I'm not any more, but quite a lot of my posts before about mid-2007 are still Friends-only. Generally speaking, unless I'm making posts that are really only for me (lists of things to do) or for specific friends ('phone number or "this is what I look like for when we meet up" posts), my posts tend to be public.
  
  
• That said, I compensate for being rather shy and introverted IRL by being very eager to make new friends on line. If I've Friended you, it's unlikely to be entirely random - either we share a few interests, or some mutual LJ friends, or we know each other IRL, or I've noticed you commenting in a community or on an LJ friends' post and I think you seem interesting or worth knowing. Obviously, you don't have to Friend me back, but I'd certainly appreciate it. Who wouldn't?
  
  
• If you decide to Friend me, please say "hi" by adding a comment to this post.
  
  
• I can be a bit tactless myself, but I tend to start out from a position of trying to be nice and polite to everyone. If I inadvertantly manage to offend or upset you, please bear that in mind. Likewise, if you accidentally offend or upset me, I'll be more than ready to forgive and forget ('cos life's too short, frankly). But if you're deliberately unpleasant or rude or jerk me around...well, I might take exception to that.
  
  
• There are a few things about me that you may consider it worth knowing before you decide to Friend me:
  
  
• I'm bisexual. That doesn't mean that I'm sexually promiscuous or anything like that - there are a few men that I think are rather attractive, but I'm entirely monogamous and engaged to a lady called Sarah - the wedding is planned for September 19th, 2009. If I get to know you well enough, you may well be invited. If you have a problem with me being bisexual, Friending me may not be a terribly good idea.
  
  
• I write and read slash fiction, both fanfic and original - again, if you have a problem with that, you may want to think twice about Friending me. Generally speaking, any fic I write (which is pretty infrequent, I've got to admit) is hidden underneath an LJ cut, so you don't have to read it if you don't want to. I try to tag my entries, but more of them are untagged than are tagged. That said, if you actually want to read my fiction, there is a tag for it, and also I tend to add it to my Memories. Also, I have a goal of wanting to write a novel.
  
  
• Generally, I'm pretty pro-gay rights and pro-gay marriage, and all told a bit of a liberal. Indeed, I'm fairly left-leaning politically.
  
  
• I'm also a Christian, part of a church which is reformed (though I'm not) charismatic. At the moment, I'm...not exactly having a crisis of faith, but having an ongoing discussion with myself and (when I remember to include Him) God about what I'm looking for in life and where I need to be. Paths I'm looking at pursuing include Christian mysticism and/or some kind of Pagan/Christian hybrid.
  
  
• Anything else you need to know about me, you can probably get from my LJ User Info.
  
  
• I'm not sure where my default Userpic came from. When I find out, I'll post a link.
  
  

There's a village in Hertfordshire called Cow Roast.

I find this rather amusing. Possibly more than I should do.

There are Supernatural pics on 'phone boxes in London (possibly further afield too, but I've only seen the ones in London) advertising the fact that season 5 is coming to LivingTV sometime soon. One of them is a pentagram (possibly? My terminology's terrible) and the text "All Hell Breaks Loose". Another is a pic of Dean and Sam which looks (from Jared's hair) to be more like an S1 pic (I'm sure he hasn't had that level of bouffant for some time, at any rate...). It's really kind of exciting. Seems like slightly OTT publicity for such a non-mainstream programme, but hey, if it gets it a few more viewers in time for the big showdown, I ain't complaining.

However, the best is this, which I spotted over at hils' journal, and is absolutely wonderful in its "casually vandalising London monuments" kind of a way:



At some point I have to catch up with S5. Although all things considered, I may wait until it comes to Living.

Speaking of which, the cover of a future edition (possibly the next one) of SFX was on big posters at the SFXWeekender and features a nice pic of the boys.

• 20:39 At SFX Weekender. Neil Gaiman has just confirmed (by letter) that he's written a Doctor Who episode for the 2011 season. Yay! #
• 20:46 Supernatural voted best TV show. Misha Collins said thank you by video. *aw* #
• 20:57 It appears that Gareth David Lloyd is Russell T Davies' sex slave. #sfxweekender #
• 20:58 @neilhimself good scoop. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Just watched episode 3 of the latest series (I'm a bit behind, yes), and...wow. Just, wow. That was an absolutely brilliant episode. Full of unexpected shocks and twists and surprises.

Although I think my inner slasher should be ashamed, 'cos right now I'm very much thinking Annie/George would make a very sweet couple.

...just went down to Tesco and they don't have the latest Doctor Who Magazine in.

They're normally very good at getting it in on the day of, or even the day before, release.

I was looking forward to reading that on the way down to Camber Sands tomorrow.

*grump*

However, as folks may have gathered from reading my most recent entries, my general mood is quite positive right now, and I'm not going to let a minor upset like this drag me back into the doldrums of depression. I may have to insist on a magazine stock-up break at some point on the journey to Camber Sands, though.

On the subject of Tesco...there are two roads from our place to Tesco. Both of them are in really really bad need of re-surfacing. If we weren't going to be moving soon-ish, I'd consider a strongly worded letter to the local council. Residents only parking on the street outside our house would be kind of cool as well...

In other news, watched the Dollhouse finale last night (eps 12 & 13) and annoyingly I'd already read about the three major spoilers so they didn't come as any great surprise. But still, good episodes, although I really ought to re-watch Epitaph at some point. Still...I'll miss it. I've really rather fallen in love with that show in the space of the last, what, five months (I started watching it shortly before the wedding), and it's a shame that something as unusual and different as that couldn't keep going.

Still got loads of Chuck and Supernatural to catch up on, and Ashes to Ashes to look forward to.

Today has been good. Haven't had any crisps at all. Felt a bit weird early, sort of shaky. Wondered, in hindsight, if that might be withdrawal symptoms? But anyway, it's gone now. I was having my healthy lunch (mackerel with a side salad) and thinking, yeah, I feel kind of...mellow. Just have to have a bit of willpower for the remaining couple of hours of the day.

Heard from my boss. We'd been talking about the possibility of me transferring to another site, ideally Milton Keynes, when Sarah & I move house (because, frankly, a 1¼ hour - if the traffic's good - trip each way every day? Not happening...), and that's definitely on. On the negative side, we don't have a definite date for the move yet, but hopefully that'll all be sorted out in the not too distant. I think we're still vaguely hoping for some time around the end of this month.

Apparently, according to a friend of a colleague of Sarah's, it was snowing in Chelmsford earlier today. Didn't see any here in Broomfield, which is only about three miles north of Chelmsford town centre. *meh*

Sarah had a migraine yesterday, but she's better today and back at work. I gallantly slept downstairs so she could have a restful night's sleep. This entailed sleeping on the floor. Not the most comfortable night's kip in the world... But that said, I slept fairly soundly.

Paul Cornell has started a campaign to remind folks that not all Christians are homophobes. The campaign has a hashtag on Twitter. Get the word out. As someone who spends a lot of my time arguing online with some of those who are homophobes (and it drives me fair round the bend, frankly), this can't come a moment too soon.

Speaking of campaigns - but on a far lighter note - there's a campaign on Facebook to get Lord Bernard of Cribbins back into the UK charts. The idea being, buy a copy of Right said Fred between March 7th - 12th, and spread the word so that other people might do the same. Well, it worked for Rage Against the Machine...

...from today's Writer's Block thingy that it's Groundhog Day today.

I feel I ought to watch the film.

Except that I don't have a copy of it, so *meh*

Good things from the last few days: went to the doctor's on Thursday. Explained my current situation re: depression. He doubled my dose of Citalopram (now on 40mg a day). Might have been a placebo effect thing, but by Friday my mood had definitely improved somewhat. Still not feeling particularly great (but then I'm never a bundle of joy anyway), but the really appalling sense of despair and futility and wishing the whole damn world would go away and leave me to hibernate had gone, having been with me for the previous couple of weeks.

Also bought the Doctor Who Peladon DVD boxed set on the way home from the doctor's. Haven't seen much of it yet, although I sat through one episode of Monster with the fan commentary on. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing in full, as it's one of the (few, I think) Doctor Who serials that I've not seen yet, either on original broadcast or on VHS/DVD.

Speaking of which, after two false starts of trying to do a full rewatch of Classic Who, I've sort of given up. I have, however, been thinking of doing a nuWho rewatch - I figure if I can watch an episode a day over the next couple of months (well, most days) I should have the lot finished just about in time for Smiffy's turn as the Doctor.

Won't be able to do that this weekend though, as Sarah and I, in the company of multiclassgeek and zoeiona, are off to the SFX Weekender, which I'm rather looking forward to.

Highlight of the past few days was popping up to Sheffield to spend a couple of days in the company of the wonderful blazingskies and some of her geeky mates, where (amongst other things):

• I drove Becky to Tesco and back (driving up Freedom Road? I-i-i-i-i-nteresting...) and she didn't scream once, so I must be an okay driver.
  
• I went into the city (I love Sheffield, it's fabulous; I could quite happily live there, it's got a great vibe to it) and picked up Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter (it was a bit of an effort not to buy more stuff in the Sheffield Space Centre, *ahem*) and Lego Rock Band, which I've left up at Becky's on the sensible grounds that until I have a PS3 of my own it might as well stay with someone who'll get some use out of it), and had had a Nando's.
  
• On the Saturday evening, we watched The Gamers and The Gamers 2, which were entertaining fun and thoroughly geeky. Pity I kept dropping off as the evening wore on, but in fairness, I was knackered...
  
• On the Sunday, Shadow came round and we actually played some Lego Rock Band, which was enjoyable, once we'd sorted out the calibration...
  

Low light of the weekend was the journey home, which was slightly messed up by an important patch of the A14 being closed, and by some exceptionally heavy traffic on the diversion route because of an accident. Took me about 5½ hours to get home. At one point on the journey I was yawning and feeling really tired, but fortunately I managed to find a filling station to pull up in front of, where I had a rest and a KitKat.

Other low light is that Sarah has a migraine today. :o(

Important points arising from the last few days: I need to take more care of myself. As in, eating more of the right stuff, and eating less of (ideally none) of the wrong stuff. Trouble is, I have really bad issues as far as will power is concerned. A lot of the time, I just figure that it doesn't really matter. I mean, unless I really badly overeat, I don't feel particularly bad, so, what harm is a bag of crisps or a bar of chocolate, or two, or three...etc. But yeah, I really badly need to change stuff. I'm not sure how - any support would be gratefully received. A while ago I suggested some sort of sponsored weight loss. Maybe that would be the right direction - if I felt the money was going to a good cause (I'm still, for personal reasons, inclined towards either Asthma UK or The Peace Hospice in Watford; possibly both), that might be a motivator.

Anyway. Stuff to do.

Last weekend, I finally got round to watching the first eleven episodes of the latest (and indeed last) season of Dollhouse. Just the last couple of eps to go. I'll miss it, but (so far) I think they've done a good job of telling their story in the curtailed time available to them. And the cast is wonderful.

Which leads me on to the actual point of this episode.

I was there through a couple of episodes thinking, "I know this actress" (the one playing Bennett) - "where do I know her from?"

Well, yes, Mr so-called Firefly fan, it's Summer flippin' Glau!

If I had a Jean-Luc Picard facepalm, it would go about here...

(And then Caroline gets to comment of Bennett in a later episode, "bet she could kill you with her brain." *squee*)

And then in episode 10, it was only after I'd watched the episode and checked imdb and wiki that I realised that the actor playing Clyde was Adam Godley, who also played the teacher from Love, Actually who introduces the band playing All I want for Christmas....

I get paid on Thursday.

On Saturday I visit blazingskies and her chums in Sheffield.

On Saturday afternoon, I go geek shopping in Sheffield.

Items on my geek shopping list so far: Lego Rock Band for the PS3 (which I may very well leave at blazingskies' home, on the basis that I don't yet have a PS3 to play it on - *pfah* - and I'm she'll get good use out of it until I can reclaim it...), Doctor Who Peladon DVD set, and the re-issue of Doctor Who - The Writer's Tale.

But after that, I need to behave.