Adventures of the Anonymous Blueberry Muffin Thief

Not this time, the 2am time where I was still awake this morning. And yet I was up and about by 10. I'm not really sure what's going on. There was a girl crying on my front garden wall, which was awkward when I opened the curtains. I was going to go and see if she was ok, but she wandered off. I think she's the girlfriend of someone in the halfway house up the road, and I try to avoid them as much as possible. They're not a nice lot (I'm fairly sure I've seen her have a screaming match in the street before).

I took a lump out of my hand yesterday on a shopping basket in Sainsbury's, and its in a really awkward place. I've put a plaster on it, but obviously I have to keep bending my hand, so that's getting in the way, and I need to wash my hair and wash up and do stuff, so that plaster ain't staying put.

I'm poking at fanmixes again. Oops. And I'm finding that my brain is, apparently, in sync with fandom in certain song choices. Balls.

I spent most of yesterday evening reading through my 'writing' folder. There's some really good stuff in there that will never be any use, because it's either really obvious fanfic that I'm never going to finish, and so will never post, or it's Nerys AU, which is just my brain throwing out rubbish. The scene where they find Thomas' body will never not hurt, and the weird discussion of the relationship between Thomas, Daryn and Nerys is my favourite everywhere. Odd little bits occasionally fall into Pathfinder, but not that much, because the world's are too different.
I found some old things that are weird and I have no idea what they're about, and I'm not sure if I want to do something with them or not (there's what looks like something that should be Robin of Sherwood fic, in which Robin is err, not the nice person he is assumed to be, and Herne becomes something much darker).

Right, more tea, clothes, and then possibly getting on with some of that shit that I was supposed to do yesterday. And work out what I'm going to make into lunches for the week.

And it didn't involve losing an hour of my life to trying to make the cover art for a fanmix. The art sucks, but I just want the damn thing done and over with, because it's been sitting on my computer for months.

I'm behind with things. I'm going to catch up with the Snowflake_challenge stuff tomorrow evening. I've managed a fair amount of house related productivity, a small amount of LARP related writing productivity and a big fat pile of nothing in terms of art (which is kind of annoying).

My dad's christmas present has finally turned up, and I'm now paranoid that it is (a) too small and (b) the wrong cut. It looked longer on the website, but given the amount of faff it's taken to get this far, I'm not sure I want to return it.

I've managed to free up the region on my new DVD/Blu-ray player (DVD region only) which is a bonus as I have a load of region 1 anime, and this way I don't have to keep my old DVD player (3 DVD players is a little redundant, I think). I bought and constructed a shoe rack (which really wasn't very hard) and now all my shoes are neat and tidy, and tomorrow I'll be off to Ikea for a new DVD unit, as my one is full. I'm not entirely sure where to put it, but I'll work that out when I get it home.

I've been trying to reconstruct my playlists on iTunes. I'd got them all nice on Pharangese at the start of last year, and then the harddrive fell over and I had to wipe everything, and the playlists were something that I couldn't recover. I'm getting there, but there were a couple that were almost ready for posting (barring art) that I've now found are still partially constructed, and I can't remember what changes I made. The full versions might be on Nene, but starting iTunes up on her is like wading through treacle (I love my fat cherry red netbook, but she's getting a bit old and possibly in a need of a system wipe).

I've also managed to get the number of tabs open in Firefox down, finally. Some I've just bookmarked (some were things for the snowflake posts, I'll open them up again when I need them), some I've read, some I've given up on.

I've had to list one of my pairs of Doc Martens on ebay, which sucks, but they're slightly too big for me, and the soles are really heavy and make my dodgy ankle really unhappy. Hopefully I'll get a decent amount for them.

Anyway, more washing up beckons, and then I should think about heading to the train station and beyond for gaming tonight. Which annoyingly means putting actual clothes on, rather than my scruffy full of holes jeans.

Day 1

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


I hate reccing my own stuff, and I've barely produced anything in the last year or so, but here goes...

Run Over With Mercy, which was this year's Yuletide piece. I'd never written in The Listener fandom, and it terrified me a little, but I'm really happy with how the piece feels, and yes, there is a fair amount of me in it (sudden deaths are something I'm familiar with, Toby's grief is possibly a little too close to my own in places). It's a topic that the series just glossed over, and I will confess that did kind of piss me off.

The Hunter to the Hunted, which was also a Yuletide prompt, several years ago. I love Robin of Sherwood (to the point where I have a quote tattooed on my wrist) and I love the legend of the Wild Hunt, and for all that the series did some really weird things with what Herne was (please, do not get me started), I like the idea that the two could be linked, and ran with it. I honestly can't actually remember what the original request was, but that I managed to get a creepy atmosphere.

The Welcome Hearth is Supernatural fluff in which I get to moon over Dean and Castiel, and then get jossed by the show, utterly.

For a Finer World (part 2) is an Authority fanmix (part 1 is linked in the post) that became a sprawling mess of my love for those stupid comics. My music taste is random, but hey.

And LJ is being an arse, so I won't try and link to anything else.

I am twitchy as fuck at the moment. I have no idea why, just a huge excess of energy and nothing really to do with it.
I want a hair cut, and I'm back to pondering more piercings and tattoos. To be fair, there are about 4 tattoo designs that I've been contemplating for several years. I've just not found anywhere that I trust/like the feel of in town. Ugh.

I still haven't found a present for dad (I got him a copy of the Bourne Legacy, but that's a bit of a cop out really). And after 3 hours in town, I still failed today.


Also, dear Yuletide writer... I may be out of internet connection for xmas. I shall have my phone, which has access to the wireless at Dad's house, but it's not the greatest, so I may not get to fic until boxing day.

Take that Yuletide fic!


No, I haven't finished it. I've just hit 1000 words. What the fuck is wrong with me? Also, all my pens are dying and apparently I can only handwrite this (or type it on my phone at arse o'clock in the morning). Sitting down in front of the laptop with the intention of writing gets me nowhere.

God I feel like shit. Bad night's sleep and a resurgence of plague that has had me wobbly all day.

I made it home and got the work I wanted to get done done, and I've watched an awful lot of Bubblegum Crisis and related media; the last disc of original BGC, Bubblegum Crash, which I haven't seen in years, and the original AD Police series, which I've never seen. I still have the new AD Police series to watch (but I need to plug my other DVD player in for that as my TV is the wrong region) BGC 2040 (which I have seen many times) and Parasite Dolls. It is good. Well, it's pleasant, although dear god the original ADP series is misogynistic. Very of its time, and not always in a good way.
I was also amused to see the bit that had me going "Tony Stark has a motoslave!" when I saw the Avengers in the summer (and there is a terrifying crossover prospect).

I am however now drowning in snot. It probably wouldn't be so bad, but I decided that I wanted icecream, and that never mixes well with colds.

I have actual words for my Yuletide fic. I'm not sure if they're good words, but that they exist is making me feel slightly better. Once again I appear to be doing an episode tag, but it fits with the request, and I'm not up to huge sprawling plots right now.

I also now have a steaming headache, so I think I'm going to go and hide in bed with the end of the book I'm currently reading (Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf, which I'm still not sure if I'm enjoying, despite being 200 pages in) and a hot water bottle and hope that I can get some sleep and be human in some way tomorrow. I'm not holding out huge hope, but all I have planned for tomorrow is reading, writing and trying to remember to eat food (and hoping I don't have to leave the house for said food).

I have also apparently turned into someone who drinks Earl Grey. I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I'm scared.

I really ought to be reviewing my source material for Yuletide (again, the first attempt lasted about 200 words before I hated it to death) or finishing work. Or cleaning. God, why is there always so much cleaning to do?

Instead I'm sitting here bemoaning how fucking cold it is. Because it is, and I hate the cold.

I have no idea what I'm doing for christmas this year. I was angling to stay with dad and Kay, but I've just found out that my step-sister and her other half will be there, and I'm not sure I'm interested any more (not because I don't want to see her, we just have nothing in common apart from the marriage of our parents, and I don't really want to have to put up with her and her other half being couply because I am bitter and single, or something). I was pondering inviting people over to mine, but again I'm not sure if I want to. Hibernating could be a plan, but, blah. Christmas is weird for me.

I'm quite sad that Sir Patrick Moore has died. We were talking about him in the office the other day, wondering what had happened to him.

( Fannish stuff, because I am never sure what is a spoiler or not )

That's probably about it for now. I need to get on with work, and try and figure out if taking the potatoes out the fridge now will warm them up at all before I peel them (I hate peeling cold spuds). And possibly find a blanket, as it is bastardingly cold and I can feel my shoulder start to tense up weirdly again.

Oh, and I won NaNo this year. Go me :D

The last few weeks have been a bit odd. Not always in a bad way, I've just not really had time for much, and my mind has been kind of wonky anyway. But I'm hoping things are now on the upswing.
Dave and I split up, which is nowhere near as terrible as people seem to think. It was mutual, and it's a bit weird, but it happens.
Work is hell at the moment.
The house is still a state, but it's getting there. I'm finally managing to get on top of keeping it tidy thanks to Unfuck Your Habitat, which is awesome. The bathroom is almost finished and we have stuff to start wallpapering and plastering my room and then repainting. It'll get there.
Money is tight, but it always is this time of year. It's one of the downfalls of not working over the summer.

The LARP season is over and we're onto system updates (new spells in, checking things are right in the manual, making sure characters are up to date, playing with some of the new setting stuff) and I'm actually itching for it to be next year already. Not just for PLARP, but for other bits and pieces.

I'm almost finished Toll the Hounds. I really haven't read as much as I would have liked this year. I set out with the goal of 60 books but have had to be sensible and cut that back to 50. I haven't been reading a lot of comics this year, which is possibly part of the reason the number is so low (I usually only read trades paperbacks, which totally count) and work is so manic that I barely have a lunch break to read in most days.
Work is doing a number on my back and shoulders and hand thanks to stupid chairs, a lack of tables in half the rooms I work in and the belief that I can sit and write for 4 hours straight (I put my foot down and refused to work more than 4 hours in a row, they weren't happy with me, but with the amount of typing I also have to do for work, I'm just waiting for the wrist and hand issues to start up).

I am doing NaNo this year, although I'm horribly behind. Mostly due to the lack of lunch breaks and the fact that I get in and it's all I can do to check e-mail, blogs and such and eat dinner before I pass out. The write ins at MK library have been godsends of a weekend, and when I do manage to write, the plot is churning out fairly easily. It's just finding the time.

Anyway, today is a beautiful crisp clear cold day, I had a nice lie in after staying up too late last night reading (and after stomping home from the train station because I made a social interaction fuck up (at least in my head, the other person quite possibly didn't even notice) which made me sulk, and my bag came undone halfway home and I didn't notice, but thankfully I didn't lose anything (although I thought I had lost Pygmy-Pygmy my tiny plushie dinosaur)) and now I'm pottering around the house tidying things up, doing odd bits of work typing and doing the odd bit of NaNo. I need to go and buy veg for dinner, and I might go for a walk later, but all in all, today is ok.

Mushroom soup with ginger

150g finely chopped onions
25g finely chopped root ginger
25g butter
7.5ml/1.5 tbsp olive oil
1kg halved and quartered mushrooms
1 litre hot vegetable stock
150ml creme fraiche
30ml tomato puree

(I used absolutely bog standard supermarket economy closed cup mushrooms and a few flat mushrooms, and it tasted great. Using nicer quality or differenly flavoured mushrooms may well be a good thing.)

1. Fry the onions and the ginger in the oil and butter until they are pale golden brown
2. Add the mushrooms to the pan and fry for about 7 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 7 minutes.
4. Leave to cool until lukewarm.
5. Blend in 2 or 3 batches until smooth and transfer to a clean pan.
6. add the creme fraiche and the tomato puree, reheating gently without boiling, stirring from time to time.
7. Serve hot.

I split it into batches and froze it. It defrosts a little weirdly, in that it does separate, but slow reheating on the hob seems to fix this.