Adventures of the Anonymous Blueberry Muffin Thief

Term is finally over. I have a staff meeting of joy on tuesday next week, but other than that I'm done until January 7th. I have 2 lectures of notes to type up, and then I can relax. Well, relax and panic over my Yuletide fic which is still in very flimsy note form.

I have a plan for the weekend which probably won't survive the hideous cold I have, but maybe writing it down will inspire me to stick to it.

Tonight I go and game the game of the wolfy. Our werewolf game, which is a farce at the best of times thanks to the makeup of our group IC - we have 2 werewolves, a Nuwisha, an Ananasi and a Bastet. We're hopefully about to gain another werewolf, but they're going to be a first time changer (and a first time gamer) and one of our wolves has been away for the last two sessions, so is currently err, probably trying to regain gnosis. Or sulking at his lack of technology.
I'll crash there tonight, and tomorrow will flee Bletchley without touching MK. Head home and get notes typed up for the last two lectures, and then maybe try and create something from nothing for Yuletide. I'd rather not default, but its been a few years since I've written anything fannish, and it apparently isn't just like riding a bike.
On sunday, which is dad's birthday, I will probably not see him, but my plan is to read Cold Days, which has been sat there waiting to be read for about 2 weeks, and I've just not had the time to just sit and read. Which sucks.
And then on monday I shall go and see The Hobbit. Which means I shall mostly also be avoiding the internet for the weekend. I've already had one hilarious text from Helen about it, something that she felt that she had to share, but other than that, I am unspoilered.

And now I am going to go and have a shower, in the vain attempt to batter some of the crud sitting in my lungs lose, and also wash my hair without having to dangle my head upside down. And then to MK. In the cold and the wet.

But I shall remain joyous, as term is fucking OVER.

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.

I keep seeing lots of people complaining about how Game of Thrones (TV or book, pick your poison) is OMG! so grimdark! And I just want to shake them by the collars and shout "you do not know grimdark until you have read Steven Erikson! And also they're better written!"
Because, um, yes, I have feelings about these things.

I'm still not sure which is more grimdark. I think Erikson may have the higher kill count (although I'm only counting named characters that last for more than half a book) but Martin, after the first book, seems to lack any joy in his world at all (I still haven't read Dance with Dragons, I'm trying to finish book 8 of the Malazan series, oh god character who I hate, WHY MUST YOU TALK SO MUCH?!)

Which is mostly to say I'm 450 pages into a book which has larger than normal pages, and I'm still only about a third of the way through, and I hate one of the main characters, and I know something awful is coming (because it's Erikson, and also because Dave and Caroline keep looking at me and asking me if I've got to something awful happening) and then I have two more books in the series and then I won't know what to do because it will be over. And to be fair, my reading list is ridiculously huge at the moment, but I think something in me might die when I don't have those characters to read about (although I need to reread them from the start, because I can't remember half of what happened in Gardens of the Moon, it was that long ago).

I'm fairly sure if you piled all my books to read up, it'd be a pile taller than me.

And now I'm going to bed, because tomorrow I have to go and find something suitable to wear to a wedding that might be sunny and might be hideous and cold because it's in Scotland.

In which I read rather a lot.

( 2011 Books. 57 of them )

And that was everything I read last year. Quite a bit of YA fiction, mostly fantasy, and a bit of crime on the side. I started Reaper's Gale (book 7 of the Steven Erikson series) and didn't finish that until Jan 2nd 2012, and I started a non-fiction book that I have yet to finish because I can't find where I put it. What I didn't read was the new GRR Martin (I am rapidly failing to care, and only continuing because I have an OCD streak about finishing series) and the new Janny Wurts (I haven't had time as it came out right when I was reading other stuff, and I need to borrow it off someone).
I suspect that 2012 is going to be just as book heavy (at least I hope so) and if you're even remotely interested, I sort of review the stuff I read over at my GoodReads

I am bored. This is not unusual.
I am hungry. Also not unusual.
I would like someone to make me a cup of tea. Very common.
I need more space. A usual state of affairs.

I spent an excellent xmas weekend at Chez Dave & co, where there was carol singing (in Leighton Buzzard), a massive amount of food (cooked by me and Dave, including some excellent roast potatoes) and the usual amount of insanity that comes from that house.

I got some excellent presents, and everyone seemed pleased with what I got them, which is always a relief.

I'm trying to work out if my computer is making strange noises, or if I can hear the wooden wind chimes from down the garden. I'm not entirely sure which would be more disconcerting.

I have about a billion and one tabs open, I'm about a third of the way through the 7th Erikson book (nothing bad has happened yet, but the build up to bad things is certainly there) and today I got to meet my aunt's new puppy, who is adorable.

And I think on the grounds that my father is ignoring my psychic calls for tea (I tend to get ignored once I'm upstairs apart for when dinner is up or I need to be shouted at for some reason) I shall go and make myself some.

but that's going to come later, because my brain is ridiculous (and not always in the good way)

( Contains vague spoilers for a minor character in The Bonehunters, and me waffling about alcoholism and why I find it really hard to read )

I have no idea where that came from, or why. This is one of those posts that I'm sure would have made the gobshites I used to live have a screaming fit and tell me that it's not all about me. I know it's not all about me, but these things still hurt sometimes, and still make me feel fucking weird.

Book post shortly. I'm fine, book did not break me (at least not with this character) but I am still going slowly insane from being stuck in the sticks on my own.

I had a traumatic experience today at work (which involved TOO MANY PEOPLE in the library foyer courtesy of a job fair, and some whack job interrupting my chai to give me a victim blaming, slut shaming piece of religious bullshit) and then I felt ill for the rest of the day, courtesy of student inflicted plague.
So I came home and made white chocolate brownies, and then ate steak and chips and mushrooms and salad and felt marginally better.
Now I'm getting on with the pile of proof reading that I've been putting off for the last god knows how long that's due this weekend. Ho hum.

The book I am reading: A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages. It's not great, but it's interesting enough that I haven't thrown it against the wall, and it's well researched enough (in my opinion) that it's not a waste of time.
The book I am writing: I'm not sure anything I'm writing constitutes a book. A collection of short stories, or a RPG setting document, maybe, but that's about it.
The book I love most: Ack. I hate this question, because my answer changes so fucking frequently. Possibly Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep because that's one that I keep going back to, possibly The Fionavar Tapestry (which is three books but totally counts) or possibly the Olga da Polga books by Michael Bond.
The last book I received as a gift: I was going to say I Never Knew There Was a Word For It which I got for xmas, and keep flicking through, or The Pain Merchants which I also got for xmas (and had already read, but I'm quite fond of it), but then I remembered that Dave bought me Neon Court a few weeks ago, when he saw it on the shelves before it was actually due out.
The last book I gave as a gift: Salt: A World History to Dave for xmas. And some knitting books to one of his housemates for her birthday.
The nearest book on my desk: A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages. Which isn't as interesting as it could be, but I tidied up recently, and actually put stuff away.

And that's quite enough of that. Back to work methinks.

Woohoo! I had a nice new year drinking sily cocktails and playing Warhammer Quest with my boyfriend and two of his housemates, following an amazing gigglefit that made me mostly want to sleep. I made it to midnight, didn't send too many annoying texts, and on New Years Day, me and Dave just made it to Wetherspoons in time for uber breakfast of humungouness. There was a lot of food. But we were hungry.

In 2010, I did a lot of stuff.
I had a job when I started the year, and I had a job when I finished the year. They might be different jobs, but I only spent 2 months unemployed, and I am significantly happier at my current place of work than I was at Geismar.
I had a boyfriend! I still have a boyfriend!
I haven't burned my house down! I still manage to live on my own without destroying things! I have had people over for dinner! I even remember to pay bills mostly on time.
I LARPed! I always LARP, but I bought more kit, and I ran a lot of events, and I played at the other system I go to.
I started running a tabletop campaign! I have always said I would never do this. I'm not a massive fan of tabletop gaming, but I found a system that I liked, and Dave made puppy eyes at me, so we have commenced on the most slap dash Unknown Armies game ever, and I continue to not have a clue what I'm doing.
I read quite a bit... but I'll get to that in a minute.
I sort of moved from LJ to DW, but only sort of, cos I still cross post.
I started baking. And suceeded at baking.
I watched a lot of films. I can't remember which ones though, because I forget to write them down. I know I saw Iron Man 2, and Inception (which I went to see on my own because no one else wanted to see it) and Legion (which I saw with Royce because Dave pulled a funny face when I suggested it), The A-Team, and The Losers, and a bunch of other stuff through my LoveFilm subscription, but my memory really does suck at times.
I watched a lot of crap TV. And good TV.
I continued to get on with Kay, and my step siblings (although in their case it's mostly down to never seeing them).

And I think that's about it.

( Books I read in 2010 )
I only read 50 books this year, which is a lot less than previous years, but I've read more novels and non-fiction, and a lot less comics, mostly because I don't have the time to sit in front of the computer and read the .cbr collections, which is what I've tended to do in years past.
My to read list for 2011 is ridiculous, and likely to only get worse. My bookshelves are overflowing, and the library is suddenly an attractive prospect again. My Amazon wishlist is huge, mostly with Young Adult fiction, and my reading time is sadly reduced due to work.

And this is a huge long post, which I didn't intend it to be. Oops.