soupytwist, posts by tag: blighty - LiveJournal

OMFG, we are nearly done with 2010. Here's a final booklist; I don't think I'll bother in 2011, to be honest, but I am definitely going to keep the habit of writing down everything I read. (When your memory is as occasionally-terrible as mine is, it's a good habit, haha.)

I read some Master and Commander this month; I always forget until I'm reading them how immersive they are, how much they really feel like being there along with Jack and Stephen as they go about their lives.

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In total I read 132 books in 2010. I don't think, realistically, I'm going to beat that in 2011, but I'm glad I put in the effort. I think writing it all down really helped me see the patterns in my reading, and see better what I need to shake up. I'm not done improving, at all omg, but I think I see improvement, and that makes me happy.

Any recommendations?

I have two final things for 2010, that are sort of... representative, really, haha.

First, NCIS kittens!

And second, one of the many reasons I love Britain is accidentally turning on to the BBC to hear Rolf Harris (and half of Glastonbury) singing Tie Me Kangeroo Down, Sport to the tune of Land of Hope and Glory. WTF, and also lol!

This entry was originally posted at http://soupytwist.dreamwidth.org/4…. Please comment there using OpenID.

I just went to South Lakes Wild Animal Park with newsbot3 and can I just tell you? It is hands down the best zoo I have ever been to.

It is wonderful. I really think more zoos should follow their example. The biggest thing is that animals live together in much bigger enclosures - obviously things that eat each other are separate, but generally, animals that would live together in the wild get to live together in the zoo. They have space, they have an actual changing and interactive environment, and I don't think I'd quite realised just how sad most zoo animals seem to me until I saw ones that had proper friends and neighbours and things to interest them. A bunch of the animals are free roaming within their section of the zoo, too! A lot of the monkeys just have total free reign to go wherever the hell they want, and clearly love it. You can even go right in with the condors and the emus and mysterious pink birds which are genuinely not plastic, and even feed some of them, with keeper input. It leads to this picture, which I adore, and I can imagine it might well be really good for education purposes, too; you get to see the things that live together, and how they might interact.

And, you can actually see them! Because even the ones you can't get in and see from right up close - although even rhinos are really very damn close! - tend to be mostly seen from slightly above, often on a platform that goes right into the enclosure. So, for instance, even though there's no playing with spectacled bears, I could take this from about the middle of their enclosure. (Which also had some monkeys and some capybara and otters and things in it. ♥ so much!)

Seriously, it is delightful and brilliant. But my very favourite thing about the trip was:



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James got better pictures than me - because he has a really, really beautiful, if sodding expensive, camera and lens, which he foolishly let me play with and which I now plan to steal secretly in the night. You should check them out, cause he is really very good.

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And finally: I wrote the milk_and_orchids re-read post for Where There's A Will. It's here, and people who want to geek about Wolfe and Archie? Pls to be coming and talking, because it is fun! I have been so impressed at how geekily in depth and critical but loving and fun all the discussion has been so far, and I hope mine isn't the post that breaks that record. *g*

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Also:

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...wow, my abuse of the shift key seems to get exponentially worse as I get tireder, sorry about that. Anyway, other stuff.

It's Stephen Colbert's birthday, and I just discovered he and Hugh Laurie have major love, and it's adorable. My geeky objects of affection liking each other is such a good thing in my world. :D

People wanting new-Prime-Minister-finds-out-about-Ministry-for-Magic fic - which I accept is not all of you, despite this occasionally confusing me :) - should check out HERE, because it is awesome. No, really, more awesome than that.

(This is useful as it helps take my mind off the fact our new Equalities Minister doesn't think I should have rights, and also rich white dudes are an even bigger percentage of government than before.)

I meant to link to the XKCD colour survey results before but forgot. I have now, though, because I genuinely find them kind of fascinating.

How are you lot?

OK, so apparently reading Salem's Lot when a sodding EARTHQUAKE hits means that your first thought will be "Oh shit, it's the apocalypse!"

... luckily the mood is then broken by the other people in your house yelling "what the fuck was that?!" and "it's a fucking earthquake again!" :) Otherwise, I think this metaquote pretty much sums it up, ahah. (Except for the bit where, hi, LINCOLNSHIRE IS NOT LONDON, FOR FUCK'S SAKE.)

However this morning I read about this ridiculous plan to get fertilized eggs recognised as people in Colorado and I would kind of like to go into epic rant mode about how utterly ridiculous this is and how whether you personally would get an abortion or not doesn't make any difference to the stupidity of this idea. But then I figured that people who don't read that and think "okay, so... people who get their tubes tied or an ovary removed or who miscarry or any of the other bazillion things which can stop a pregnancy turning into a child should all be arrested? Uh... really?" probably aren't going to ever believe that the anti-choice movement could possibly be about hurting women rather than saving babies whatever I said. So, uh, yeah. Just imagine lots of flailing and waving and generally getting pissed off, yes?

Talking of, I think this Idealistic Pragmatist post is an interesting take on the whole Nader's-running-for-President thing. I do think there is an argument to be made that if you really feel that you can't vote for anybody who might ever even slightly have a chance of winning the election, it might be better for you and for your country if you left and found somewhere else, somewhere you can participate meaningfully. Obviously not everybody has this option, but really... voting for Nader seems like shooting yourself in the foot in so many ways to me. He's not making a third party (if he was, he'd be doing a whole lot more grassroots stuff and probably succeeding better, too) and I feel bad for the poor sods voting for him because they really don't have another choice. I wish they did, because as it is, all their options pretty much suck.

(Also, if somehow Nader manages to end up giving the world President McCain, I will cry.)

I am so tired, Mr Jellineck, so tired, and therefore here is a brief list of things yayful and woeful.

YAYFUL:

- it is a beautiful winter's day, cold and crisp and just enough fog to make the sunset really stunning.

- yuletide is DONE HURRAH!

- this post about fandom, which I think I may have to write more on at some later date when my brain is not mush.

- my family are being really spiffy, and while putting up the Christmas tree (which we have not done in, like.... fifteen years?) my sister did an impression of a chicken on steroids which made me go into hysterics, while my little brother ran back and forth between the tree and the living room table, carrying tinsel that was bigger than he was and beaming like anything.

- The Astronomy Pictures of the Year 2007.

- this manip, which shouldn't please me nearly as much as it does, and yet EEE. Heh.

- They're doing a movie of The Hobbit! ELEVENTY!!

WOEFUL:

- Two movies of The Hobbit? Really? Only Ian McKellen from the Lord of the Rings cast? Hmm.

- as ever, the instant I woke up this morning I became irrevocably convinced that my Yuletide fic was rubbish and the recipient would hate it and blaaaaah. I am currently attempting to not think this.

- I'm uploading a .zip of the Persuaders caps I made the other day and dammit, it is taking forever. *kicks it* ETA: hurrah, it is done!

- I have approximately eighteen tonnes of things to do before I can legitimately give in to the holiday season and slob a little and this is currently really irritating me.

- I still haven't been paid for the last two weeks of work, which is EVEN MORE ANNOYING.

- There are four pinch hits that I really want to write (and may attempt stocking stuffers for, if nothing else), but I... dunno.

- This, which I do not recommend unless you don't want to hate the world for a good half an hour.

Otherwise, it's doin' all right. How are you?

Ok, so, this morning I was reading the Torygraph (it's like the Daily Mail for posh people!) and I came across this.

Just... ew. I can't even describe the levels on which I disgaree with this fucknut. I disagree that there is a "correct" way of speaking, I disagree that the "English have lost their voice" (um, all those people you mention are also English, I mean honestly, just get over this whole 'authenticity' cult thing we've got going, please), I disagree that you can just decide that some bits of language are better than others, and I disagree that he's talking about "language" rather than "accent".

You can't bitch about pronounciation without bitching about accent. "Glottal stops and dropped aitches" ARE ACCENT. "Accent" means HOW PEOPLE TALK. And by "language, note; not accent", I think he meant "this isn't about poor people". He meant "this isn't about me being a bigot". Which, I give him props for at least giving lip service to the idea that poor people and foreigners aren't scum, but... that doesn't actually change the fact that what he's saying is that poor people talk in a way that bothers him and it's appalling that people who speak anything other than Recieved Pronounciation are on the radio and television.

If he was making an argument that people can't understand those glottal stops and dropped aitches, that would be one thing. But he isn't: he doesn't mention that at all. And in fact, my eighty year old grandmother (who agrees with him!) actually, when asked, admitted that people were more difficult to understand fifty years ago, because the accents were stronger. As far as I know, all the people he mentions as speaking English "badly" are perfectly understandable and do their jobs just fine. I've never heard anybody say that they couldn't understand the people on the TV and radio except those to whom British accents are relatively new, and who therefore have more trouble with it. And even then, all the people I've heard say that were referring to characters in films like Trainspotting or shows like Queer as Folk, where the accents are much stronger than they are on, say, the news, or current affairs programmes.

His problem, therefore, is that he doesn't like the way those people speak: hence the really weird bit about how awful it is that an artist - gasp! - complimented Scousers on their accent - SHOCK HORROR! And that, I don't think it's difficult to extrapolate, is because it's a sign that people who aren't the traditional rich, white men are saying things in public. His problem is that common accents are becoming, slowly, more normal.

And you know what? Screw him. Second-generation Punjabis and poor people from Yorkshire whose parents worked down the pit are just as fucking English as he is. There is no goddamn reason why they shouldn't have just as much airtime as he does other than that he doesn't like it.

Because this is about defining 'normal'. He's pissed off that people like him are no longer the default 'normal', and to a certain extent, he's right to find that scary. Just like Top 100 Hot Babes lists define some women who it's 'normal' to publically lust over, who speaks in public defines whose views, whose concerns, are considered mainstream, what complaints are considered 'reasonable' and 'normal'. Top status depends on having your views being the most widely acceptable, particularly if, like with the rich white men, you are actually in a substantial minority. Let other people speak too, and maybe they'll do some of the things you did to them right back.

But frankly, that's too fucking bad. We're a long, long way from having the public voice representative of the actual people; LivingTV, the channel for women, runs adverts regularly which assume an ultimately male gaze, male judgement. Women, who make up over goddamn half of the world's population, and more like 52% of Britons, can't get away from male judgement on the channel that is supposedly for us. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but I can go hours watching some channels without a single advert that even remembers women exist beyond being gawped at. I don't think a little more equality here is so goddamn much to ask, and if people like Michael Henderson get a bit antsy about maybe listening to somebody not like him for ten fucking minutes, then he can get the hell over it: maybe it'll give him some insight into how the other side has felt for years.

(Goddamn, I need a Spider Jerusalem icon. Maybe I should make some of these to de-angrify myself, as I don't actually want to end up spending five years in isolation just to get away from the wanting to kill people.)

ETA: Wow, they've found the Northwest Passage to the sea. I never expected that news to be so bittersweet.

REGINA SPEKTOR ON JONATHAN ROSS?! WHAT?!

Not that she wasn't awesome, because hi, so much love for her and things which get her money to keep making records is fine by me. But, uh, on primetime TV? Clearly we slipped into the world of crack for an hour: Eddie Izzard was fine and lovely, obviously, but then there was Janice Dickson gossipping about her time with Mick Jagger and being CRAZY and I totally thought she was going to chuck water all over Andew Lloyd Webber and that would have ruled, but the discussion of his elephant penis and, er, Sarah Brightman blowjob jokes and mocking people during performances of Oklahoma! and singing "here's Captain Jack, he'd fuck aaaanything!" to the Doctor Who themetune and John Barrowman just collapsing in giggles the whole time and then REGINA SPEKTOR and just WHAT WHAT WHAT?

Crazy! I love that that is primetime TV in Britain, though. Bwah.

I did kind of like the clip from tomorrow's Who, though, at least until, er, the Jack-holding-on-to-the-TARDIS thing. That... not so much. But there was old skool running and yelling and yay!

I liked Higniffy, too - I always like it when Paul wears ridiculously bad shirts and mocks people and the jokes at Chris Tarrant's expense were mostly pretty funny and taken in excellent spirit. And I sort of have sekrit love for Lembit Opik, so it pleases me when he's on, too. Otherwise I feel I have little to say about it. Hmm.

As you can tell I have had a very productive evening. So now I am going to attempt writing something and then go to bed. Tomorrow I am, among a few other things, watch the last two episodes of Supernatural while eating chocolate, cause I don't think I'll be able to handle them any other way. Cause I am hardcore, yo.

You know, for all that it's the Number Of The Beast or whatever today, it's been a gorgeous day. All sunshine and sitting in pub gardens with concernedlily, no rivers of blood or raining fire or whatever at all. For which I say hurrah, although it means I'm now back to saying "phew, it's way too hot, goddamn". Mid-twenties is just about when I start whimpering and protesting and eating icecream in darkened rooms to get away from the heat - and yes, I realise how much a wuss that makes me. :)

Man, I hate feeling all sticky and sweaty, and annoyingly, more showers don't actually help. It's hot enough that I'm forced to forego my usual long sleeves and multiple layers, and this is just wrong. Though uh, some of it might also be because my shoulders are now a deeply unattractive shade of pink, oh yeah.

Talking of hot, holy shit, this and this are now up there as reasons why I no longer have any shame for squeaking about a new Jensen Ackles photoshoot. Although this just makes me laugh, because wow, somebody was on some serious drugs that day.

My song for today, which is weirdly happy and boppy and summery even though it's actually hella depressing, is Jonathan Coulton's Shop Vac. It's kind of the Long Island of songs. I present it to you on yousendit and megaupload, in lieu of the bigass music post I am going to make once I've finished work, and because there aren't enough Jonathan Coulton songs being swapped around, dammit.

And finally, I got Strangers with Candy in the post this morning, discs and discs worth of Stephen Colbert being awesome, so I feel like publically squealing that tiniago is fucking fabulous. As is Stephen Colbert: I haven't seen the discs yet, but I did just see this, which I feel is evidence enough. In fact, the only bad thing about him is that he makes snoopypez force you - force, I say! - to start planning a whole epic mad crossover thing. With Sports Night. Um. *hides*

I got told to update already by no less than three people today, so, er, hi. I have not much to say. I hope to squee about Wilby Wonderful and Hard Core Logo and also Stargate: Atlantis later, but the world is a bit mad here, so I don't know if I will be able to. But I live in hope that mentioning it will mean that I do.

A Bit of Fry and Laurie is coming out on DVD. BOFFLE ON DVD. What with this, and the Sentinel Season 1 coming out on DVD, like, THE SENTINEL ON DVD OMG - hey, jekesta, you did hear about this, right? - and a new Lucifer Box novel by the lovely Mark Gatiss coming out, my cup doth truly, as myf said, runneth over. Squee!

When I check my GMail, I am told that dictonary.com's Word of the Day is "ineffable". That makes me really, ridiculously happy. :)

I also just checked the the BBC news homepage and the Grauniad, and I was just hit by such gladness that I live here. It's not perfect, no, but - lots of news stories about other countries! Fairly prominantly placed, like we should care about them! Oh, the joy, people. I mean, I used to rant about that as much as anybody; we're still are not perfect at giving other countries a decent amount of news space ahead of, say, some woman from Grimsby who won the lottery. But after being in the US for four months, the contrast still hits me, and I can't help but feel grateful for that.

I actually had a random debate about that the other day with somebody who absolutely maintained that it was not only OK but desireable for a country to look after its own and focus on its own news above everybody else's. In fact, that's what this person thought government was for. It kind of boggled me, because I can't imagine ever feeling that way - I've always seen it as much more analogous to the way I think decent typical adult human beings should behave. Obviously, putting your own concerns first is to a certain extent necessary and inevitable, but when those very limited, short-term concerns are being put before the long-term concerns of everybody else ever, then I can't help thinking that's more than a bit sick.

And, well, I tend to get more than a bit annoyed with people for thinking I should want to live in a country that disagrees with me on that. Hum.

Especially cause here also happens to be a place where Richard Dawkins gets a TV show on religion called The Root of All Evil? and it's not only shown, it's on primetime on Channel Four. That makes me weirdly happy. :D

It always interested me that when Peter Pan said "second star on the right and straight on til morning!", he was lying.

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