Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! :) I hope you all were able to spend time with your family, get very merry, watch the Doctor Who Christmas special (if you're so inclined), and go see fireworks.

I bring you one of my favourite youtube videos right now: Castle and Beckett - Funny moments Season 5 Part 1. I love the use of text! I have loved the developments for them in 2012.

Here's to 2013!

Oh gosh, I miss you guys and the heyday of fandom. I can't believe I'm one of those people who just up and abandoned their journal for months. I vowed not to do that.

I think a lot of people must have defriended me since my last post in April.

I'm currently in the space where I'm working on my mini-thesis for my law degree. While I finish my degree mid next year, I'll still be studying for my Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice until late next year. Sigh.

Um, what else... I got a new car! Yes, I did! My old car finally gave up the ghost and since I had most of the money for a new car, I took the plunge. I still have not taken a picture yet...

Anyway, hi guys! - Love, Amsie

EDIT: ew, lack of paid account - 6 userpics and the generic reply page.

i_like_doctors reminded me that I should post pics of the guinea pigs and Sooty (but then I just went and discovered my digital camera is broken! My poor old Kodak has now passed the way of its mother company. Guess I'll have to buy a new camera, but I have NO idea about the best brand anymore).

Anyway, pics I had stored on the SD card: ( under cutCollapse )

My goodness, how absolutely crap have I been with updating?

Quick summary of things that have happened in my life since February:
. My 14-year-old cat, Whiskey, passed away from feline infectious peritonitis. His chest filled up with fluid and he had difficulty breathing. We asked the vet to help him pass otherwise it would have been too cruel to let it drain on until finally one day he could no longer draw breath. We took comfort in the fact that he was loved and well cared for throughout his life. Never had to go hungry or shiver in the cold etc. 14 is a very good age.
. So after Whiskey passed, I said no to any further cats. I'm more of a dog person and while I loved Whiskey and he was the first cat in my life, I thought we had more than enough animals. But three weeks later I get a call late at night from Mum saying that there's a tiny grey kitten at the back of her unit, scared, shivering and hungry. I couldn't let that call for aid pass me by. I went over and managed to trap the little kitten and wrap him up. He's now called Sooty (after the character on my favourite children's program, The Sooty Show) and he's grey with a 'bib' of white on his chest and beautiful green eyes.
. We also got two more guinea pigs! I'm the crazy piggy lady now! I named them Tulip and Coco. Tulip is a right rebel and when we had a porcelain bowl in their crazy containing their grain she used to lift it up and let it thump back down, either to get our attention or simply because she enjoyed the noise. Coco is skittish and has a TON of hair. My grandmother thinks she looks like an Indian chieftain. I've recently bought them a new cage with two levels (I can just imagine myself teaching them how to use the ramp) since they're growing out of their current cage. My grandmother has also suggested two other names for little piggys, Peanut and Peaches. Damn it, I will be crazy to have six veggie munchkins.
. Uni is in full swing. My work as a paralegal is still great - although now I have to supervise the student clinics, which means ensuring the student has a good experience while also doing my job.

And that really about wraps it up. (Btw, is everyone watching the Geek and Sundry youtube channel? I love Wil Wheaton's Tabletop!)

EDIT: Media stuffs I'm enjoying:
. I saw the Hunger Games when it came out! I like that it's the 'new thing' capturing teen audiences because I think it has an important message about the nature of the media. The whole concept of the books makes me deeply uncomfortable and I think that's how I'm supposed to feel. Movie wouldn't have been nearly as good without Jennifer Lawrence.
. BONES! Love Bones. Their little family moments capture my heart.
. I now regularly read Jezebel. Keeps me updated on female issues.

I was just thinking about my experiences with university and the gender divide. When I was studying my Bachelor of Multimedia, the males in the class clearly outnumbered the women. I expected that because I think IT is still a male dominated industry. But having been studying my Bachelor of Law going on three years now (only 18 months remaining in my degree - YES!), I can informatively say that, at least at my university, law students are more likely to be women by a significant margin. I'm not sure if that's because it's a regional university, but I thought this would be an interesting question to raise. I know I have a few law students and lawyers on my flist in different countries, so here's my question: when you were studying law, what was the gender divide? Do you think the gender divide in the legal industry is swinging to become level?

Still not posting much, it seems. But I am around - reading my flist, Charles/Erik fic, and making icons.

Last week I finished watching season 2 of Sherlock. Now, I thought the first season was okay. I didn't love it, but I remember really liking how it was updated to modern day and the actors were well-cast. Still, I wasn't all "this is bloody fantastic!" But I am now. Is it just me or did season 2 skyrocket the quality? I loved it. I want to forget I watched the episodes and just watch them all again in a mad fannish frenzy of ecstasy. And count me in on loving the first episode with The Woman, Irene Adler. Even though I'm not in the Sherlock fandom, I did hear there was some backlash against her. I'm still... WHAT? Really? I thought her dynamic with Sherlock made the bloody episode.

And I shall now echo every Sherlock fan of all time: only three episodes? BLAH!

As I mentioned, I also made icons! I had an icon battle with dear obaona - which involved us making both X-Men: First Class and Star Wars icons. Here's a preview with some of my favourites.



You can see my icon battle post here (I also have other icons and larger graphics in that post - here's the full lowdown: icon Battle with obaona - 11 XMFC, 11 Star Wars (with alternates); 7 other XMFC; 3 Charles/Erik graphics (various sizing); 33 other Star Wars; 20 Star Trek; 3 Sanctuary). And here's obaona's icon battle post so you can leave a comment on her icons.

Nannie caught the cold from me just after I'd begun to recover, so I took care of her a little bit. We now both have a dry cough, but that's really only a pain at night. The worst has been the weather lately - it's been above usual summer temperatures.

I just took Mum to the emergency room about thirty minutes ago. She has been vomiting and has an infection in her ear.

We must be so in the wars.

In between all that, I surrendered some of our savings and bought us a new vacuum cleaner that we desperately needed (it has twin bagless cyclinders - maybe I just thought it looked cool ;)) and a cheap electric lawn mower (it sure saves us working out oil and fuel usage). I've also finally, finally found the new office desk I want. My current desk is too small and I never have anywhere to lay my law textbooks flat and read them. Here is the 5 package deal I'm ordering tomorrow. A big factor is that I can push in the return desk under the main desk so I can fit it in my room. We don't really need the bookcase, but it's apparently more expensive not having it so we'll use it to store books and my academic awards somewhere in the main room.

Have I gone crazy ordering 5 pieces of flatpack furniture that I'll have to put together myself in the summer? Oh dear God.

I have ushered the New Year in with a horrible cold and a fever. It sucks :(. I'm not a happy chappy and have spend most of the past two days either in bed or on the sofa staring at the TV.

Nevertheless, HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!

Btw, I'm useless writing comments for my flist at the moment. So will be silent for a few more days.

Merry Christmas, all! :) I hope you've had a wonderful Christmas and for that matter, a wonderful year. If your year hasn't been that bright, here's to 2012!

We had Christmas over at Mum's tiny unit in her over 50s complex. It was a nightmare dragging a ton of stuff over and then dragging it back, as well as Mum wanting to bring down the decorations today. Not the usual relaxing Christmas where we unwrap in the morning and then head to bed again (we stayed overnight at Mum's and I swear her bed should be classed as a torture device). There are so many rules at that complex - God forbid I even talk loudly otherwise everyone will hear and be 'disturbed'. I doubt we'll ever be doing Christmas at Mum's again. It's just much easier to have it at our house.

Anyway, we went to Toowoomba's Christmas Wonderland in Queens Park on Wednesday night. Lovely display. I took some photos, which I've put under cut.

( Christmas Wonderland 2011Collapse )

We've had a lucky year this year as I've had a part-time job for the last few months, so we were able to be more generous with our Christmas spending. See under the next cut for photos of the tree with all the presents under it, as well as each individual 'haul'.

( Christmas 2011Collapse )

Dakota, btw, if you're wondering, got herself a new collar (that unfortunately is too big, so I'll have to take it back for the smaller size), a reindeer plush toy, and a bouncy ball. I love how under our tree we always sign that gifts are for the animals. There were numerous gifts under there 'from' Dakota, Minnie (Mum's fox terrier), and Ellie and Eva (the guinea pigs).