Diary of a tea addict

Forgot to write up my October books apparently so here's a double month. Read more in October than November but that's largely because one book slowed me down and I'm still on track for my 7 a month target.

It has been a horrendous week to be honest, just very stressful at work with a late evening that meant missing my BSL lesson :-( meanwhile Mum had her second knee replaced on Monday - last time she was only in two nights but she's still there because the wound won't heal and it sounds like Monday at the soonest before she might be out

If This Is A Man / The Truce - Primo Levi

The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes - Neil Gaiman

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes

The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West

A Single Thread - Tracy Chevalier

Anti-Social: The Secret Diary of an Anti-Social Behaviour Offier - Nick Pettigrew

The Manningtree Witches - A.K. Blakemore

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot - Marianne Cronin

The Propery - Rutu Modan

Wanderlust: A History of Walking - Rebecca Solnit

The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett

The Black Unicorn - Audre Lorde

All the White Spaces - Ally Wilkes

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell

( October reviews )

( November reviews )

I haven't received my PIN to be able to nominate for the HUGO Awards yet but I have spent a little bit of this weekend thinking about who I might want to nominate and then being amused at myself because in terms of novels/novellas/short stories I've actually read about as many eligible books for the 1941 Retro Hugos as for the 2016 Hugos themselves...

Then I spent a bit of time chatting to Dad about 1940s SFF and now I have two books to read because via him & a bunch of summaries they're two of the more likely novels for me to vote for *g*

If anyone has any great fan artist recs from last year I'd love to see them though, I have a couple of thoughts about who I want to nominate but I don't know that many fan artists!

It's quite weird being able to nominate but not vote, I get why they do it but it still feels a bit odd. I suppose if I decide I really want to vote I can pay for a supporting membership. And then next year we get to do both :D I am already quite excited for WorldCon75 *g*

On the other side I'm still completely torn about Nine Worlds, I loved seeing everyone but really I wasn't interested in a lot of the programming? I mean some of what I was interested in I couldn't get into and that should be different this year but... I was hoping when the hotel rooms went up and inevitably sold out I'd know because either I'd feel sad I missed out or relieved I'd made the right choice but that hasn't happened. Oh well. There's still time and if they have day attendees at the end maybe I'll just do that.

TBH I'm just a big ball of anxiety at the moment anyway and will be until I'm settled into my new job (15 days to go!) so probably I should avoid any introspective thoughts because they're bound to end up in stupid places!

I started doing one of those year in review things and then realised I was just depressing myself so here are some lovely things I have found so far in 2016.

(aka that question about what has kept me sane in 2015? fandom, theatre and you lot <3)

• This amazing multifandom video by Llin
  
  
  
  Touch the Sky
  
  
• Basically everything Star Wars on tumblr including all the art and everything this cast chooses to be but also all the amazing headcanons including this amazing one from astolat.
  
  (did I say I'd see Star Wars TFA? Because I have and it was amazing and I love it very very much)
  
  
• All of yuletide (obviously) :D I'm only up to H and have slowed down a lot because OMG so much Hamilton fic <3 So far however I would most like to draw your attention to
  a thing with feathers which is an amazing modern AU of Georgette Heyer's Devil's Cub
  Things Which Brought Us Here in which Peggy Blackett meets Petrova Fossil <3
  books to help you with your life because who knew I wanted to read Grantchester fic that wasn't about Sidney (it's Leonard Finch/Ben Blackwood)
  and finally
  A rare confluence of events which is anthropomorfic about London stations :D
  
  
• There's a new BFFComic update. I mean I say it's a lovely thing and it IS and yet also my soul has been crushed into a thousand tiny pieces and the worst things of all is it turns out I may actually have stopped shipping my OTP for the comic and I feel like such a traitor. (I love BFF Comic very very much)(technically the update was on NYE but I only saw it today)

This year's resolution- not to freak out when posting lists with even numbers of things and then either not actually post them or add something I don't really mean because who makes a list with only 4 things? This time I do. (Human brains are strange strange things aren't they?)

I've been trying to write about WorldCon all week but so much happened and it's hard to know where to start! I was trying to write about stuff in the order it actually happened but then several of the evenings have merged in my head a little bit which doesn't help.

We'll see what happens if I start writing again *g*

( Thursday panels etc. )

After that there was a pause for food and getting changed (into my lovely Rooby Lane Hobbit skirt <3) and a bit of a rest before heading back across the the ExCel. We were right next to the ExCel, just the width of the DLR & Cross Rail works away but at COMPLETELY the wrong end so I ended up doing a lot of walking!

( Thursday evening- the Retro Hugos & ISIHAC )

The fan village is the bit that merges each night. There were tents with various groups hosting parties- mostly the places bidding for future world cons but also the Tolkein Society and the... I forget their name but the Game of Thrones society. All the tents had food & drink in the evenings so we had rye bread and then interesting sweets from Helsinki, popcorn & nuts from Washington DC, barbecue from Kansas City etc. and then mead from the Tolkien Society, cider & bourbon from DC, slightly better cider from Montreal and a whole range of very tasty but lethal spirits from Helsinki.

I very much hope Helsinki wins for 2017 if that's how they party!

Anyway back to the con.

( Friday panels and such )

During the Urban Fantasy panel there was a fascinating conversation about creating a London with warring tribes of vampires on either side of the Thames which I sort of loved and later in the weekend resulted in us concluding that London cabbies are all clearly vampires because 1) they won't cross running water (the Thames) and 2) at the end of the night they'll only take you if you're "going their way" because they have to get back before the sun rises... I mean presumably there are usual daytime cabbies too? Or maybe they're werewolves or something.

Anyway Friday evening was very much a fan village evening and I considered hanging around for the Ceilidh and Mark Does Stuff but they started at 10.30 & 11.00 and I really couldn't stay awake & alert that long. Still slightly regretting having therefore failed to get to any of Mark's stuff- Dad did and was very impressed with him which was nice.

( Saturday panels )

Unfortunately it was at this point that Donna realised she really wasn't at all well and needed to see a doctor so we headed off to Newham University Hospital. I have to say the staff there were great, we really didn't wait that long (we arrived at 1pm and she was on the ward having been seen by a surgeon and several doctors by 8.30pm) and everyone was friendly and helpful it just obviously wasn't part of either of our plans. LOTS of thanks to everyone who offered help and support <3

I DID just about get back in time for Hallucinating Shakespeare which was a sort of one man (well not quite on man) show by Michael Anderson on some of the more ridiculous elements of Shakespeare including his experience as a teenager of trying to add LOTS of blood to Clarence's murder scene in Richard III, an absolutely hysterical section on critiquing Shakespeare's sonnets as if he was in a college writing class (mixed metaphors, missing verbs, made up words... shocking stuff) and finishing with a celebration of some of the best one-line characters.

( Sunday panels (including my favourite- Generations of Genre)& buying stuff... )

The afternoon/early evening was then mostly taken up by chilling in the fan village followed by getting Donna's stuff together and moving out of my hotel room (into Dad's) so Donna's parents had somewhere to stay. (With enormous thanks to Becca for the support <3)

Then to finish Sunday off ( the Hugo Awards )

Then there was more free booze and free books from the library which was being emptied out and we looked through the stats from the Hugos (LOL at Vox Day being beaten by No Award!) and then it was time to sleep before the last day :-(

( A few last Monday panels )

After lunch and a last look round the dealer's room (I now have a SHIELD patch for my blanket too) we went to the Compleat Wrks of William Shakespeare which was a fun place to finish and they'd rewritten some bits to be a little more SFF appropriate but I think it was in too big a space so we lost some of the sight gags. Still I'm always amused by the big finish with Hamlet getting faster and faster.

And then it was hometime.

*takes a deep breath*

I enjoyed LonCon, it was stressful in various ways but I did enjoy it and I loved being able to talk about science fiction and fantasy that isn't just the current stuff or primarily film/tv based. I think I'd absolutely go to another WorldCon just maybe not SOON and also maybe with some careful selection re: WHERE because I'll be interested to hear how the pair of American cons we have over the next two years go.

Anyway with no WorldCon in the UK next year you ALL have to come to Nine Worlds instead and I really really think lots more of you should *nods*

This post took like three days to write /o\

In case any interested parties have missed it Naomi Novik is testifying before Congress today on the "Scope of Fair Use". I believe there's going to be a livestream (see her LJ for details) but she's also shared the link to her written testimony and it's a clearly articulated argument for Fair Use as a tool that promotes creativity and also a beatiful outline of all the best parts of fannish creativity and communities.

I learned to explore ideas in the remix community, and see where they led me. And eventually, they led me to an idea that could be commercially published, and from there to ten novels of my own with more than a million copies in print and translated into thirty languages. Now other artists write fanfiction for Temeraire, and make fan films, and sometimes they even send me a stuffed Temeraire dragon to give to my daughter.

She talks about that feeling when a fic/vid/picture you remember years later has vanished completely from the web, usually because of a C&D or YouTube deleting things and for the thousandth time my heart broke a little bit that I've never been able to find a copy of the West Wing fanvid to Let The River Run despite trying over and over again and getting my hopes up just to be dashed. It was the perfect summary of a show I LOVE and I wish I could force people to watch it share it.

I put this on facebook & twitter last night but in case you missed it/aren't on those sites Vi Hart's latest video is fascinating and slightly mesmerising and if you're interesting in music or maths or patterns (or copyright law) I'd recommend finding the 30 minutes needed to watch the whole thing.


(link in case embedding fails)

This week has been quite long and very frustrating and I am, yet again, going to have to spend my afternoon at our off-site store using the ancient laptop that sort of maybe occasionally will now connect to the internet via a dongle. Though so slowly that basically most sites make it fall over.

As you can tell I am thrilled about this. Some weeks it would be fine, there's stuff that needs doing over there and at least in this weather it's an okay temperature BUT I have so much to do back at the museum and I can't because I have to be over there supervising workman and *wordless scream of frustration*

This evening I'm off to visit a friend who recently broke up with her longterm boyfriend and I imagine there will be lots of alcohol and then I have to sleep on the floor and I am generally unimpressed with floor-sleeping... I'd say that's because I'm 30 now but it's a lie I'm just generally unimpressed with floor-sleeping however some people are worth it.

This post is none of the posts I said I would write. If I get even more bored & annoyed & frustrated this afternoon than the last two afternoons maybe I'll try drafting some of those posts. Maybe.

ps I hope all Lizzie Bennet Diaries fans have seen the pictures of the cast cosplayingat LeakyCon but if you haven't- here's one of all of them together ♥

I wonder how many people are around on a Bank Holiday Monday evening but having had two people tweet about this today I went back and looked at my Alternative Ways To Say I Love You post and it was four years ago which doesn't feel remotely real!

So anyway I thought maybe it was time for another one. There must be some new canon I love you's since February 2009 and I'm sure we didn't get them all then anyway!

I still love nocturne_alley's one a ridiculous amount
just_harry And. Um. That thing, that I said and you put your foot in the fire that one time? Yeah, that's kind of what I wanted to say, but I can't, so.
potterstinks Thank you, Potter. You can't tell me at breakfast? And on the train? And at the station?

And however long ago it was Queer as Folk when Stuart said It was enough for me just makes me ♥_♥

The two from earlier today were (spoiler cut because not knowing the source material I'm assuming these are VERY recent)

Revenge (suggested by seiyaharris)
Emily: I'm not leaving you alone
Nolan: I love you too
and
Person of Interest (suggested by taurenova)
Finch: I'm not leaving you here, John, so can we please stop wasting time?

So any more suggestions? It can be any sort of love and any kind of source material it's just ways of saying I love you without actually saying it. There are a bunch in the older post but you should feel free to post any of them again ♥

It was gorgeous and sunny earlier today, now it's all cold & grey, I might need to dig out a thicker jumper before I go out this evening! :-(

ANYWAY

What this post is actually about is that wonderful moment when fandom/fannish interest leads you off at a complete tangent and you discover a new book/show/artist/musician/ANYTHING that you know you'd never have found without the initial fannish thing. Well I hope you know that feeling anyway because it's AWESOME.

There's an actor (Globe actor surprise surprise) I very much like called Sam Crane & ages back I bookmarked one of his tweets about an animation by his brother and I've FINALLY got round to watching it and it's funny & sweet & maybe a little bit NSFW and I think lots of you would enjoy it to (and it's only 4 minutes long)

The Library from Leo Crane on Vimeo.

The Library by Leo Crane.

Oh and while I'm posting video links this is another old one I found hiding in my twitter favourites:
Cookie Monster and Grover take on 'The Avengers,' 'The Hunger Games,' and more...in song!

ALSO about 50 episodes too late I have discovered (well started watching) The Lizzie Bennet Diaries ♥ I'm 5 episodes in so far and loving it.

Recently I have been getting quite into webseries and YouTube type fandoms. It's really nice to have canon that's RIGHT THERE and released at the same time worldwide...

So ten years of Connotations... I'm pretty certain it wasn't all a mass hallucination and I'm definitely certain it was fun so thank you to everyone I've met at the con over the years for making it a yearly highlight ♥

And now Things I learned at Connotations X

• It's NOT OKAY to have different opinions to your friends (well your fandom friends).
  
• We're not actually all that fond of fanservice as a group other than the little nod types of things (character names, something in the back of a scene, don't actually give us the pairing we asked for or we'll shun it FOREVER).
  
• We're never leaving LJ... basically if we haven't already then we're staying put because tumblr and/or twitter aren't enough and most of the people who were going to move to DW have already.
  
• AO3 is awesome and shiny and we love it if only people would stop tagging fics like they were still on tumblr.
  
• Coffee shop AUs are the new High School AUs because the writers grew up and presumeably Office AUs come next.
  
• Showing me 5 seconds of Miranda Otto in a show is enough to make me want to watch ALL THE EPISODES (even if she's not in all of them)(yay Miss Fisher Mysteries.
  
• After I finish season one White Collar I'm totally starting to watch Haven while I get season two of White Collar *plans*
  
• There are some AMAZING vids out there ♥
  
• Over the last year my reaction to Downton Abbey has become slightly less squeeful and more homicidal... and it's not just me.
  
• After enough years people actually actively want to be experimented on by fides (and some of them will be sad there are no electrodes involved)
  
• The Interpretive Dance at my first Connotations was a real thing and I have FINALLY seen the video evidence ♥
  
• There's always room in fandom for more femslash! ♥
  
• Connotations predicts the end of fandom as we know it? Or maybe that was just the somewhat doomladed people I was hanging out with :-P
  
• More seriously Connotations predicts next May is going to be AMAZING (Star Trek + Iron Man + The Fast & The Furious films)
  
• The Hobbit is probably going to result in Hobbit/Dragon slash because fandom is predictable and OH SO WRONG about certain actors.
  
• Everyone should watch movies made by The Asylum because they're the new Hollywood only BETTER and also ON CRACK.
  
• Never raise your hand above shoulder height if you don't want to be forced to talk in a panel/forced to write scat/forced to run the con next year.

and

• Just because people are nice to you doesn't mean they're your friends.

Shortly I'm going to be asking people for recs of UK conventions because apparently some of us are in need of a new home...

(insert comment here about how much fun I hope everyone at sirenscon is having and how one year I will totally get there... at least now I have nothing that clashes?)

And tomorrow it's back to work and reality *sighs*

Oh yes- in non-fandom news Monsoon currently has a whole range of gorgeous affordable dresses designed to fit a range of different shapes and sizes and I love them so much for it BUT BUT BUT who makes winter coats with fake pockets!? Not even no pockets but ridiculous flaps with no pockets under them and just... SO MUCH ANNOYANCE.

Some of you may see this multiple times but anything that brings back the meta makes me happy so here goes:



The Meta Month of March is a month-long meta fest for all kinds of meta - general discussion about fandom, writing, vidding, etc. as well as fandom-specific meta. We're looking forward to a (hopefully) great variety of meta topics and a lot of discussion! :)

In the second half of February, you can sign up with a topic you want to write about, and a day in March when you'd like to post it. (There'll be a post for requesting and suggesting meta topics a few days before if you need inspiration!) You can find the full rules here.

Sign-ups open 15th February.

If you'd like to participate with some meta, or if you'd just like to read along with the fest, come and join us at month_of_meta or month_of_meta!