Wanderings

otherhawk — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:52:28 GMT

When you see this, post in your own journal with your favorite quote from The Princess Bride. Preferably not "As you wish" or the Inigo Montoya speech.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Or, alternately

"Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."

And it was difficult narrowing it down to those two. Man, I love that movie.

otherhawk — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:40:05 GMT

I'm in the process of dying my hair.

I'm in the process of dying my hair a rather nice dark plum colour, but yet the bathroom - and my neck and shirt - look kind of Evil Dead.

If this comes out scarlet I am so not going to be impressed.

Also, I just realised that I have no idea how long I've had this stuff on for.

&)%^&&*. And it's little dog too.

otherhawk — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 18:03:56 GMT

On the twelfth day of Christmas, otherhawk sent to me...

Twelve lassandsofers drumming

Eleven ele5s piping

Ten dil_em_mas a-wandering

Nine pfyres daydreaming

Eight movies a-hellsing

Seven fables a-writing

Six films a-drinking

Five bo-o-o-ooks

Four politics

Three douglas adams

Two good omens

...and a slash in a rusty/danny.

*Points to last line.* Bwahahahahahahaha!

The ways in which I am crap . . .

otherhawk — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 14:28:04 GMT

So, finished Christmas shopping. Nearly. Give or take. I mean, I only have a couple of things left to get.

So, haven't finished Christmas shopping, but am possibly a little past the point of being able to do more than shrug and move on. To New Year possibly.

But the point is this - I returned from Christmas shopping today with 3 CDs, a book and a box set of Lois and Clark the New Adventures of Superman for myself!!

Is this normal behaviour? Is this excusable in any way, shape of form? Or is it just a bit rubbish, really.

None of it was even things that I'd planned on buying - which isn't that normal for me. I normally only buy things when I've gone out with the intention of getting them. I mean, I still waste a lot of money on junk - but at least it's planned.

And I was waiting nearly twenty minutes in a queue in Borders to get my Mum a copy of the radio series of Dirk Gently's Holisitic Detective Agency. (Don't worry - she doesn't read this.) Twenty minutes? None of the other book/CD places in Glasgow had a queue that long. And I know. Because I think I've been in them all today. Looking for a copy of Dirk Gently's Holisitic Detective Agency that didn't involve standing in a queue for twenty minutes.

I wonder how related those facts are. Could the entire queue have been comprised of people trying to buy Dirk Gently's etc, etc?

P.S (Look, I like the New Adventures of Superman. It makes me laugh, OK? AND it was reduced.)

More or less just to piss the_barlow off - mine's better than his.

otherhawk — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:36:12 GMT

otherhawk — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:36:15 GMT

Just watched the Doctor Who episode Blink for the first time.

Afterwards, in the shower, when I closed my eyes to wash my face - I froze. I knew absolutely, definitely and without any shadow of a doubt that when I opened them, it was going to be right in front of me.

Why do I get the feeling that this is a fear that will linger.

It wasn't there, by the way. But I'm pretty sure one is behind me as I'm typing this.

otherhawk — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:09:54 GMT

I'm sick. I'm very very sick. I had to get up to call in to work, and now I can't go back to bed, because if I lie down, I feel like throwing up. If I stand up I feel like throwing up. If I lean over a little to the left I feel like throwing up. If I think about food, or water, or for some reason, cotton wool, I feel like throwing up.

I'm feeling very sorry for myself.

otherhawk — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:59:01 GMT

Walked into the kitchen and thought 'There's a bad smell in here. I wonder what's going on. Could it be that I left something in the fridge too long and its gone and developed sentience again?' No. What has actually happened, is that in a moment of complete titdom, I have left the freezer door ever so slightly ajar.

The food is soggy, fousty and generally completely and totally mankit.

Bollocks.

Naturally, I threw it out, before realising that earlier we had realised that the backdoor key is completely gnawsed, meaning that I wouldn't be able to remove the rubbish bag from the flat until tomorrow.

Double bollocks.

I remember when my little brother was very, very young he used to be of the firm belief that elephants made everything funny. His favourite joke ran thusly.

Him: Knock knock

Whoever: Who's there?

Him: An elephant

Whoever: . . .

Him: Hahaha.

This, naturally has nothing to do with the preceding rantings about the fridge and the smell haunting the kitchen. But I was thinking about it earlier.

Tagged by Lassandsofer. I am under her command ;D

otherhawk — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:28:08 GMT

If you could be another person for the day who would you be and why?

Hmmm. Tough question. The temptation is to say either Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, so I could sleep with the other one. Not to mention just being that cool. That's quite shallow though.

The other extreme is to say I'd be Gordon Brown, or Kofi Annan, or George W Bush and try and make the world a better place. However, I'm not really arrogant enough to think that I could make a difference that way. I'm not even naive enough to think that I could just order unilateral disarmament, tighter climate control, or anything really.

So I suppose, really, I'd be Spiderman. Not so much for the whole saving-people thing. Not even for the chance to make it with Mary Jane. More just because the whole webslinging, jumping off buildings thing looks really, really fun.

So, to tag other people...hahahah....

brokeassproduc!

Jackfan2!

Dannykitten!

Mayaserana!

Pfyre!

the_barlow!

ele5!

I CHOOSE YOU!

You are under my command....mwahahahahahahahahahaha......

otherhawk — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:23:04 GMT

I can't figure out if I feel tired and . . . wobbly, for want of a better word (and belive me, I looked for one), because I didn't sleep so well last night, or if its because they took five vials of blood out of my arm today. ('They' does refer to members of the medical profession. Anyone else would be weird and disturbing.)

The moment she saw my arm she said 'Oh dear.' I think I have a lack of veins. Least I'm not a likely target for vampires. Unless I come across a vampire that enjoys a challenge, I suppose.

Work continues to bore me, though I'm not there today. My appointment was at noon, and I figured that since it takes nearly an hour to get in and out of work, I'd be far better taking the whole day off. So I did. Now I'm sitting around, trying to do some writing and getting distracted by the inanest things. Like the motivations of pigeons, and the precise, dulux-approved, shade of Matt Damon's hair.

Oh yeah, I was watching 'The Jerry Springer Opera' yesterday and noticed that a fair proportion of the tap-dancing Ku Klux Klan members were black. Does that make it more or less offensive?

otherhawk — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:08:51 GMT

I now have a job which thus far bores me, takes an hour to get to in the morning, costs five quid a day in train fare and is located in a terrible depressing town in the middle of nowhere. I'm commuting out of the city. That's not right.

On the plus side, I'm now making money, which I wasn't before, and the actual job title - mental health caseworker if you're interested - will look good on my CV for later. The fact that it's all admin and so far could be done by a well-trained koala, I quite possibly won't mention.

So, yeah. Gainful employment sucks. But I already knew that. I think I am, by nature, one of those people who should be living in my parents basement, eating doritos, playing computer games and claiming to be writing a novel. But it's just not practical. My parents don't have a basement.

(And anyway, I'm British so it's a cellar. And that has quite different connotations. Say you live in your parents cellar and someone may call social work, no matter how old you are.)

otherhawk — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:28:00 GMT

... stick thirty years and a long beard on George Clooney and you have Albus Dumbledore. He has THE TWINKLE ...

otherhawk — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:19:50 GMT

I have a job interview tomorrow that I was told about today for a job I applied for yesterday. Actually, it is tomorrow, so I guess I have a job interview today that I heard about yesterday for a job I applied for the day before. At any rate, I feel ill prepared. I also feel that I just got woken up by a sodding car alarm that shows no signs of stopping. Bastards. It's been going on for about 45 minutes now.

I don't know if I want the job. I don't even really understand what the job is, except that it's marketing and might have something to do with sales. Which isn't exactly what the job I thought I was applying for was. Still, at this point I'm getting dangerously close to the 'will do anything for cash' stage. Why does no-one want 'will write Ocean's 11 fanfiction with ambiguous sexualities for cash?' I'm getting good at that.

Anyway, if you read this before 1.30 p.m. GMT, wish me luck, even if it's only in your head.

Oh thank everything, the car alarm stopped. Goodnight.

otherhawk — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:43:49 GMT

So this is a thing that puzzles me. I just put a story on fanfiction.net, and, for reasons that escape me, ffnet promptly sent me an author alert email informing me that I had just put a story on ffnet. Why does this happen? It never used to happen, and its telling me that otherhawk has a new story. It seems to me, that at some point, presumably in a state of drunken self-aggrandizement, I must have added myself to my author alerts, just so that I couldn't possibly miss my own updates.

The problem with that theory is that it's completely insane.

Edited because I deleted that email that I was babbling about before I came to write the LJ. But! I just went back to check email again (I'm expecting something, I'm not obsessive. Well, alright, I'm expecting something and I'm obsessive.) and the email is BACK!! Or possibly it's an identical one. Either way, it marks a worrying trend. How can I possibly keep track of my email if I keep getting ones that advertise my own writing popping up all the time? I'm unintentionally stalking myself over email. It's wrong. Wrong, I tell you.

Can't sleep.

otherhawk — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 05:01:35 GMT

Can't sleep.

Can't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleepCan't sleep

I feel a little better now. Sorry.

It's quarter to six in the morning. I went to bed a little after midnight, fell asleep a little after one in the morning and woke up at around twenty past convinced that I had been asleep for hours. And I can't get back to sleep. I feel exhausted, but also I still can't get past the whole 'been asleep for an age' thing. So I'm drinking tea and doing stupid things on the internet. I need to buy more tea. I have a plentiful supply of internet, thankfully.

So, some people who read this - and there ARE some people who read this, I even know some of them - may well be aware that on occasion, from time to time I write fanfiction. Most of this has been posted to ffnet, AKA fanfiction.net AKA the pit. Now, for various reasons (misplaced enthusiasm) I decided to continue writing one particular piece that was a particular sequel to a particular other piece that stretched on an on and nearly killed me - or so it felt at the time. In reality of course, I'm just a drama queen. For various other reasons (Julie) I decided to put this piece onto LJ. For various other other reasons (logic) I decided that people on LJ would be unwillng to read a sequel without first having read the thing that it were a sequel to. So for various other other...no, wait, for those reasons, I have decided to put the first fic - the interminable, neverending, swamp of despair of a fic (I quite like it, really) onto LJ.

So, with all of this in mind, I went to find said, neverending fic to redraft it. It was then I realised, that the harddrive has been wiped at least twice since then and, more to the point it wasn't written on this computer in the first place It was written on the university computers, and stored, for reasons that no doubt made sense at the time, on a floppy disk. A disk that has long since gone wherever disks go, presumably to cohabit illicitly with socks and chuck keys.

So, to cut a very long story very short, which was, if you will remember, the point, I had to cut and paste it off of ffnet. So I now have it all on one document.

It has 111 pages in 12 point font, and 40 909 words. I wrote that. I think it only needs another 10 000 words in order to qualify as novel length. And, to be perfectly honest, I tend to make things longer when redrafting, rather than shorter, so it'll probably end up novel length. A short novel, admittedly, but a novel nonetheless. I should be proud. I'm not, but I think I should be. If only I was able to devote this sort of time and energy to something that someone might, one day, pay me for.

At any rate, all 111 pages will probably be being put up on this journal in the nearish future.

Edited, because I meant to say - what does anyone think of my icon? What do I think of my icon? I made it in paint, so I think that makes it impressive for a start.

Well it makes me smile

otherhawk — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 03:54:41 GMT

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Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com</td>

otherhawk — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 23:08:43 GMT

Ooookay, I think I may have ODed on snark. I've been reading the house_mst site rather more than can strictly speaking be healthy, (If you're interested, it's a community for making fun of bad House MD fanfiction in the style of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Yes, I know I just made something funny sound incredibly dull.) and I now appear to have gone on to making cutting remarks about my revision reading. Which, in the normal scheme of things, would be fine. Except this is human rights revision. I'm mocking genocide. Wish I was religious, so I could ask someone for forgiveness.

otherhawk — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:30:17 GMT

This is a sentence from a book entitled 'Making sense of New Labour'

New Labour is developing a form of state practice centred on a particular method of media management and 'culture' oriented towards the production of consuming and self-capitalising subjects, able reflexively to integrate themselves into a modernised economy/society; the latter, by definition, being centred on information technology and participation in the productive network - as opposed to the non-productive political-communal bloc.

I need a book entitled 'Making sense of 'Making sense of New Labour''.

On the other hand, were I to learn the above sentence off by heart, and quote it in my exam on Monday in some sort of half-way sane context, I might get extra marks. Or confuse the marker into an early grave. Either could work.

Just read the next sentence and I think I'm going to read a different book. This one appears to be wedged up its own arse.

I hate revision.

I hate exams.

I love House MD and Doctor Who. Why are all the good things in life fictional?

otherhawk — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 21:35:05 GMT

Alright. So I haven't watched Star Wars in years. So why, as I'm writing an essay on the Liberal/SDP Alliance, am I thinking of the Rebel Alliance, and hearing the Star Wars themes in my head?

otherhawk — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 12:43:28 GMT

OK, now I'm annoyed. I was supposed to be meeting M. about our group project for the human rights class, but she didn't show up, or get in contact with me in any way.
Now, we'd disussed a number of possible meeting times before settling on noon, so I'm left wondering if I should just go back to the refreshment area of the library on the hour every hour for the next few hours (OK, needing a synonim for hours right about now) to see if she turns up. I would think that it's most likely that she (or maybe I) mistook the time of our appointed rendezvous and that is why this failure has occured.
On the other hand, she may have forgotten it completely, especially since the other person in our group has already said she can't make it.
So, I really don't know what to do. I don't want to wait around the library all afternoon (I really do have better things to do) but I don't want to let her down either. Hence the annoyance. This would be much easier if I had calling credit in my phone and could contact her. Maybe I'll send her an email if she isn't there at one and go home after that.

Oh, and just because everything is apparently funnier if you add pants

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Pants!

Two thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in pants!
All of the roles in Shakespeare's plays - including the female roles - were originally played by pants.
During World War II, Americans tried to train pants to drop bombs.
If you drop pants from the top of the Empire State Building, they will be falling fast enough to kill before reaching the ground.
The most dangerous form of pants is the bicycle!
Pants are the sacred animal of Thailand!
The pharoahs of ancient Egypt wore garments made with thin threads of beaten pants.
The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armour raised their visors to reveal pants!
It's bad luck for a flag to touch pants!
Ostriches stick their heads in pants not to hide but to look for water.

otherhawk — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:24:24 GMT

Just sitting in the reading room, failing to actually do any work on the project I came in here for (my excuse - its too loud and I can't concentrate.) and musing on reasons why I should not buy House MD on ebay. The main reason is that its a knock-off from Hong Kong that will take over a week to get here after the auction closes in two days time. It gets released on the 26th, so you see it really isn't worth it. But, psychologically it seems very tempting.

I did think that you were only allowed to talk quietly in this place, the people next to me are yelling to their friends on the other side of the room. Wish someone would throw them out.

In other news, got a good 2.2 on my politics essay, which is seriously dragging down my batting average. (I just like the phrase, ok?) I've got another essay for the same subject due soon, so I'll need to work to get that a lot better.

Its Valentines day tomorrow. Haven't actually bought anything, I'm going in to town to do that in a moment or six. Our anniversary is just a few days later, so somehow its hard to make a big deal of the commercial one. Hmmm, maybe I should buy anniversary presents today as well? It would save me time later after all, and I know exactly what I'm getting. This may be wise.

otherhawk — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 13:29:40 GMT

Political fact of the day - Lloyd George's advisors used to meet in a shed at the bottom of the garden at 10 Downing Street.

otherhawk — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:01:52 GMT

There is a girl over to my right coughing approximately once every four seconds. (Yes, I timed it.) It's very, very annoying, and while I know that it isn't her fault, I can't concentrate on my reading and I really want to kill her.

In other news....no. There is no other news. My universe now comprises solely of studying for Ideology, and the constant coughing.

That is all.

otherhawk — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 18:55:38 GMT

This one's kinda funny. Thanks to the_barlow

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Otherhawk!

Originally, otherhawk could not fly.
Baskin Robbins once made otherhawk flavoured ice cream.
The Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter is made entirely of otherhawk!
Abraham Lincoln, who invented otherhawk, was the only US president ever granted a patent.
The original nineteenth-century Coca-Cola formula contained otherhawk!
Otherhawk can usually be found in nests built in the webs of large spiders!
Otherhawk is the last letter of the Greek alphabet.
Otherhawk is 1500 years older than the pyramids.
The otherhawk-fighting market in the Philippines is huge - several thousand otherhawk-fights take place there every day!
Otherhawk is actually a fruit, not a vegetable.

otherhawk — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 20:10:04 GMT

Wow, just caught a typing mistake that would probably have got me laughed out of uni. I wrote nationalism when I meant nationalistion. A small difference, but very, very important one.