Now we are 30

The woman on the far right, the one hoarding a platter of free dessert, is the luckiest woman in the world. She's just starting to realise this.

Latest order from Amazon

• Ultimate X-Men Volume 1: Tomorrow People TPB: Tomorrow People v. 1 (Mark Millar)
• The Handbook to Literary Research (Delia da Sousa Correa, W. R. Owens)
• A Companion to the History of the Book (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture) (Simon Eliot, Jonathan Rose)
• Gilmore Girls - Season 6 [DVD]
• Gilmore Girls Season 7 [DVD]

Bizarrely, I know W.R. Owens, who edited The Handbook to Literary Research. He goes by Bob, and is very nice, if usually unavailable. I suppose that happens a lot when you do your Thing through your Workplace.

I'm still anxiously awaiting delivery of Meeulanders, which is coming from South Africa and is probably languishing in customs as I type.

And I've just realised that somehow my order of a Star Trek novelisation hasn't processed. Damn!

Three best things about the week so far

1) The plain margarita I had tonight.

2) The smoked margarita I had tonight.

3) Publishing something I've been working on for more than a year.

I'll give you something to ack about

The Friends have all gotten demanding and want me to put a post up. But my whole life right now could be summarised by one word: aaaaaaaaackkkkkkk!

So I'm acking, about stuff. I'm acking about my birthday party, where I will try to combine friends, which always scares me a little. I'm hoping the red wine will ease any bumps. And I was reminded the other day that everyone there will have something in common, i.e. me, but that just makes for more pressure.

I'm acking about moving, because there still so much fucking stuff all over my fucking room, and I don't actually know what to do with it. Yes, I can pack up the boxes, but then what? Where do they go then? There's no room for boxes. And I would really like to see my floor sometime soon. Or maybe I don't, because if I clear the floor then I'll need to vacuum, and I just don't have that kind of energy.

I'm acking about my job, because it's new and it's hard and I don't think I'm very good at it. Yet. I'm sure I will be, but at the moment I really wish I could get a nice dose of flu. Nothing dire, just something to keep me out of work for a week or so, so I could regroup. Except the work would all still be waiting for me when I got back, so what's the point?

I'm acking about money, because I always ack about money.

I'm acking about the furniture I want for my new house, because I don't want to look like I live in a Holiday Inn, but somehow I've only purchased pine furniture in the last two years and I hate pine but it was the only stuff that was available. I think I'll go to Ikea and get two black bookcases to intersperse between my pine ones, and try to break up the pine hell. And I need to get a nice lampshade for my Malawi lamp, even though its proven impossible to wire. It'll make a very nice lampstand anyway. And a nice rug for the floor. And of course the all important sleeper couch. See, lots of acking going on there.

And lastly I'm acking about my sodding MA, which I am excited and TERRIFIED about, because it's been so long since I studied anything, much less did any critical analysis and I don't know if I can remember how. And I still need to buy all my books, so that's something to ack about next month. Why didn't you all STOP me when I was said, oooh, might do my MA. You're all supposed to stand between me and the madness!

The only thing I'm not acking about is turning 30. But I'm sure that will change.

I have about ten reviews to do

I'll get to them, but I'm too busy watching Gilmore Girls.

Packing done so far: exactly as much as before, although I have arranged to pick up boxes from Tesco tomorrow

A sign that the universe doesn't want me to move

Them: Hello!
Me: Is that Oxfam?
Them: Yes!
Me: Are you accepting donations of books and DVDs at the moment?
Them: Wellllllllll. Yes and no.
Me: Ok.
Them: We have a leak and we're closing for two weeks.
Me: Oh shame, how awful.
Them: Yes! I don't know where we're going to put all our stock.
Me: Ok, that's fine.
Them: But we really do want your books and DVDs! Can you hold onto them until we open again?
Me: Welllllllll.
Them: That would be really sweet of you, thank you so much.
Me: Yes, all right, I guess I'll bring them in in a couple of weeks.
Them: That's so sweet of you, thank you for understanding.
Hangs up

So now Oxfam is EXPECTING me. I can't FAIL THEM. So now I have to give up the weeded out preciousses. Although, to be honest, I don't really have a burning desire to keep The Cabbage Soup Diet Book, which I think I may have picked up in a job lot from a carboot.

Of course, this also gives me two more weeks to find more stuff to donate. I might need to add clothes to the pile.

Dammit!

Thing I'm most looking forward to on moving

Not being in one room. I actually feel like my stuff is starting to strangle me. And the minute I put anything down, everything is a mess. I'm actually looking forward to packing it all up in boxes and then being able to put them away in a new place, in more than one room! Such luxury.

The other thing I'm looking forward to is being able to go from one room to the next, instead of moving from chair to ottoman to bed. And there will be doors. Multiple doors.

And a kitchen I can stand in without having to talk to anyone.

And a toilet lid that will always be down.

I can't bloody wait.

Packing done so far: 1 crate of paperwork filed, two bags of books weeded out to go to Oxfam.

Dear Lovefilm

Why send Bad Boys 2 when you can see from my list that I have Bad Boys on there and haven't had it delivered yet? So now I'll return it unwatched and lose out on a rental for the month.

Well done.

Love and kisses

Liz

Mark Kermode pontificates

The Doctor's five best movies of the year so far (not including the Oscar nominations which he saw last year and therefore isn't counting):

5) Julia's Eyes
4) Source Code
3) Senna
2) Le Quattro Volte
1) Benda Bilili

The only entries on this list I actually already decided I wanted to see are Source Code and Senna. I'm not to sure about Julia's Eyes, which looks frankly terrifying. I think I'd be willing to give numbers 2 and 1 a go though, so onto my Lovefilm list they go.

Next week the Doc will have his worst movies of the year. He recently promised he was going to watch The Big Lebowski and hasn't yet provided his review I don't think - maybe he'll shock the masses and pick that one. It would be fairly typical.

Stats are a riot

What percentage of people arrested during the riots have an existing record? Do you think someone will work that out at some point? I think that would be very interesting to know.

Horoscope, by Hayibo

You are ruled by Mercury, which means if you fall on the floor you will split into 200 small silver blobs and it will take an entire Grade 8 Science class to scoop you up and put you back in your bottle.

Chortle

Graphic novel + food?

Sign me up!

GET JIRO! is a futuristic action thriller that takes America’s newfound obsession with exotic cuisine to a manic, violent extreme. It takes place in a world where food and the secrets of how to prepare it are the source of all power leading master chefs to fight over Jiro, a mysterious top-notch sushi chef with ideas of his own.  (From Graphic Content)

 I wonder if The Brother-in-Law would enjoy this? It is written by Anthony Bourdain after all.

When people have nothing to lose

This is the result.

I can't stress enough how much I think young people generally have legitimate grievances.

They do, they absolutely do. But it's the part where they're so disconnected from society, so disaffected, and so disenfranchised, that hurting and damaging the communities many of them live in* seems like a super idea that just shakes me.

And when people act like this, the gulf between them and people who might have been sympathetic, and people who actually have the power to change the status quo, gets bigger and bigger.


Just had such an unexpected and fascinating conversation with a patron of the chippy around the corner (since Tesco was shut in anticipation of rioting, I guess) - an actual conversation that talked about the rioting in terms of issues rather than shoot the bastards. It was refreshing.

How will average people be able to get over what has been done to them? How will these rioters and looters be able to get back to some semblance of normality? What's the conversation that comes next, the - and I hate this word - the dialogue?

How the hell do we bridge this gulf and prevent it from happening again, 30 years from now.

* Catherine just made a really valid point on her blog via a Guardian article that in fact these people don't feel part of any community - so they're not damaging their own.

Stuff everywhere

Stuff all over my room. Stuff in my bag. Stuff in my head. Stuff on my desk. Stuff under my bed. Stuff I want to eat. Stuff I want to eat but shouldn't. Stuff I need to do but don't want to. Stuff I need to do and want to but other stuff keeps getting in the way. Stuff that keeps getting in the way. Stuff to read. Stuff to watch. Stuff to play. Stuff to post. Stuff to copy. Stuff to plan. Stuff to remember. Stuff to forget.

Stuff.

How big a saddo are you, Liz?

I just ordered Meeulanders*, the DVD collection, off of Kalahari with international postage**, as a birthday present to myself.

* And I swear, if I could find Seapatrol on DVD, I would get that too.

** This was actually cheaper in pounds than my last order off of Amazon. How's that for the pound/rand exchange.

At least my subconscious is happy

I dreamt we were in a fish market. We were trying to pick the right fish to buy, but not taking it very seriously. In fact, we weren't very serious at all about the fish, choosing instead to tease each other about our choices. You chose a selection of salmon and tuna fillets, and the long-suffering fishmonger packed them up in a bag for you, all soaked in marinade. "That was what I was going to have," I insisted. "Now I'll have to pick something else." "Pick a nice shellfish," you laughed, and I grumbled and poked at the various lobsters and crabs on offer. Eventually I went for a dressed crab, and even in the dream I thought, mmmm, seafood soup. As I paid for it you laughed, put your arm around my shoulders and cupped my elbow. And I felt warm and content, and cared for.