A Study in Contradictions

Oh, god, I haven't posted in forever and a day. Or, like, three weeks but whatever. The internet moves at the speed of light and all.

So, I suspect that y'all suspect me of having achieving great and marvellous things in my absence from your flists.

This is sadly not the case.

Sorry.

My boyfriend Nat has been working away, many miles away for the last month, only home at the weekends. So I've been Home Alone. I meant to get a lot of stuff done, mostly writing and maybe some recording. But mainly what I did was mope around the house, watching a lot of crap TV and eating biscuits. Sulkily.

I also went to work. Work sucks, I know, right? It's reached a stage with my co-workers which feels very Assimilate or Die. Like, I have next to nothing in common with any of them, and they are not interested in most of the things I am passionate about and. I can either keep myslef to myself and listen to the music that I like and podfic. Or I can feign an interest in things I really don't care about (can I fake it about fake tan?) and stop myself making sarcastic comments (I swear, I don't mean it badly, it's my sense of humour)  and using complicated words (which Karen [who thought that euthanasia was a country] accused me of doing to take the piss). Stop being the proper version of myself. I don't know. I think I've got so used to being with people like, well, like you guys. Who send me tweets supporting my choice to grin like an idiot while I rewatch clips of Glee on the train and who use words like, "proselytize" and who blame me and &hearts me and squee about sexy revelations with me and just GET ME. 

ANYWAY. Enough of my angstface/FANDOMADORATION. Seriously though. You guys. <3.

Let us focus on what I actually have achieved...

I made my Master List/ Introduction Post! VICTORY IS MINE AND IT COMES IN DELICIOUSLY LISTY FORM. It took me an upsettingly long time because livejournal hates my face and also my attempts at html. Oh, so very much html. So, new friends, old friends, lurkers, please feel free to go comment and ask anything you would like to (I have included suggestions but have no doubt you'll think of something much more awesome) or just marvel at the amount of of RPF I seem to have ended up writing \o?

I read Who Fears Death for bookdeyada and it was amazing and set in Africa and full of fabulous female characters and non Western mythology and, ugh, I loved it so much. I love it when you get to the end of a good book and you just feel this really bone deep feeling of satisfaction, you know? Shoe joy is all glitter shiny and instant but book joy is real fulfilment.

I recorded myself playing television theme tunes on the kazoo and singing show tunes for various people, thus proving that I probably shouldn't be left on my own for long periods of time.

I broke my laptop charger dancing to My Chemical Romance but now have a new, shiny one that actually works properly and not just in one special position which takes forever to find. My precious laptop, I have missed you so! *pets, gently* 

I signed up for Muskrat Jamboree which is a very very awesome fandom convention. In America. So, yeah. I AM GOING TO AMERICA and I am going to stay with brimtoast in New York and meet shiningartifact and novembersmith and swiiftly in Boston and we are going to a FANDOM CONVENTION and OMG I AM SO EXCITED CAN YOU TELL?!?! So, if you are in the New York or Boston area around the end of March/start of April we should totally meet up and have coffee or something. I plan on riding the A train and charming people with my accent!

I have been around on other parts of the internet, even though I have been a terrible poster. I have been on twitter, like, all the fricking time. I live on Twitter. How did I survive work without Twitter? I have a service that allows me to use Twitter like a text message, where I just write out the message and send it to a number, which I find extremely cool. I get to text people all over the  world for free! So I was discussing the Glee version of Teenage Dream as sung by AVPM's Darren Criss with kaiserkuchen  and she made an excellent point and so I replied

Yes, yes eye fucking, exactly \O/

You may notice the distinct lack of an @ at the beginning of that tweet (incidentally have I mentioned that I hate almost all the words associated with Twitter? Tweeting *shudders*) so of course it or rather Yes, yes eye fucking, exactly \O/
 showed up on EVERYONE's feed. There was some confusion, but mostly in a "Oh, Lal, what is it this time?" kind of way. Which I appreciated. I feel it is a fairly accurate summary of my feelings on the subject anyway. It is extra amusing to me because just a few days I had been telling Kaz that it is basically my greatest fear that one day I will accidentally text Twitter instead of my boyfriend... I mean, going on what most of our conversations are like it will be something about the weather or poorly spelled shop signs but YOU NEVER KNOW. 

I wrote a teeny tiny sequel to my Inception subway!AU fic, (AKA the fic of nothing but crosswords and snarkary, or My Subconscious Loves You, brimtoast) for bookshop 's fluff meme. I am well, well aware that this is NOT what I am supposed to be writing, but anyway, I did. This is because I am powerless to resist the lure of being ordered to write something delightful and schmoopy and because the fluff meme is like a big fuzzy blanket that I can wrap myself in after a particularly crappy day and because I wanted to do something nice for many reasons but mainly, as I said to C,  because sometimes people in fandom are dicks. There is a little more further down the thread, by the way, so scroll down if you feel your sugar levels can take it...

I also went dancing a lot, which remains awesome. We are doing a samba routine at a Carnaval club night in December and my friend is trying to persuade us all to wear bikinis. I will be on Team More Than Bikinis, Oh Please, For The Love Of God, but I suspect my team will not win. Possibly we need a snappier name. 

And you guys? How have you been? Didja miss me?! 

I keep thinking aout making a real, honest to God post. I am also thtinking about some sort of Intro/Masterlist post thing because, hi new people! I'm still trying to work out what people need to know about me. Suggestions?

But then I figured, ah, whatever, I might as well just throw together a random collection of things for y'all, featuring Inception, work, POST but sadly no bats.

Firstly, this is why I should always spend a lot of time on Skype with kaiserkuchen . But also why our Inception Big Bang plan is Somewhat  Vague (you guys we are doing Inception Big Bang and I am super excited and mildly terrified but GO TEAM US!)

Me: I don't know, whenever I think about Arthur's job I think, "what actually is a point man" and I just go to this weird 'A Very Potter Musical' place in my head.
Kaz: Two things about AVPM. No. Three things. Firstly, the Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts song is crazy catchy. The dude who plays Harry is crazy cute and the dude who plays Voldemort is like, craaaaaaazy hot.
Me: Yes, yes and yes. Anyway. So, I just think of Arthur standing up all earnest and going, "POINTMEN ARE PARTICULARLY GOOD FINDERS" and then Dom(bledore) squinting and saying, "... WHAT THE HELL IS A POINTMAN?"

Oh what times we have.

Inception Fandom remains incredible and really, really good for my Internet Bucket List. I was going to write "would be good for my Internet Bucket List" but that would be pretending that I don't have one. I am trying to keep up with the INSANE amount of fic being produced by reading on my phone on the way to work. Because I have bookshop 's delicious saved on my phone bookmarks like a creeper. Anyway, Say I'm The Only Bee In Your Bonnet now has 100 delicious saves! \o/ FOREVER! Plus taurenova has agreed to write her amazing AU (yay boybands!) if I write mine (er, ballroom dancing). This is actually the third Inception fic I have recklessly agreed to write via the medium of Twitter. The 140 characters makes me crazy, clearly. But, yes, so many lovely, lovely things :D

Incidentally, I love how we are all pretty clear about why we love Joseph Gordon-Levitt (because he is adorable and I have loved him for at least ten years ever since he was a snarky alien child and also he is seeeeriously hot. And also THIS  [he makes his own French part *_*]). But we all seem to be all kinds of confused about Tom Hardy, the man, the enigma. French film expert and shoe obsessive. Man with chav tattoos and who spells with numbers. IDEK, you guys, but ILHIM.

I have also recently got amazing post from Kaz and mcollinknight who sent me a awesome package with sweets and this amazing necklace which has flowers on one side and is made from an L scrabble tile. AN L FOR LAL SCRABBLE TILE, YOU GUYS. :D! And a postcard from shiningartifact , who went on holiday without telling me where and so I waited for her postcard to find out and it
was kind of super exciting for me. And also everyone else who I had told about this. Plus lovely voiceletters <3.

Work remains kind of this bizarre mixture of really dull and randomly hilarious. I work with this one guy who used to be in the army until he broke his leg in four places on a training exercise and it's so strange because I walk to work with him and he tells me about like, grouse shooting and kayaking and how he can't sleep because his company just got shipped to Afghanistan. And I tell him about how The Last Airbender is a bad, rascist movie and dancing. It seems to be working out okay.

Also we are all going out to a kareoke bar next month, as some sort of work bonding thing. We all have to sing. What the hell am I going to sing?!

And finally, in dancing news, I have started samba and reggaeton again :D. I went all of last year but I haven't danced since. It does mean that I have a *calculates* 14 hour day on Mondays, but it's so very worth it. I feel achey but very satisfied and I'm looking forward to feeling more fit and flexible. Plus I love my teacher, she's so great, and the whole class spent our break talking about Strictly Come Dancing. I love that show more than anything. It is genuinely my favourite show on television, the happiest of all happy places. Twitter friends, I'm really sorry about the spam, but love makes me crazy.

I think that's everything? I hope y'all are doing well. Tell me some news! I have seen many entries that I mean to reply to (OMG, Anna, seriously, you rock) and I will hopefully get round to it at some point. I pledge a love eternal to every one of you &hearts

Hey guys!

I am just so pleased it's the weekend and there is so much cool stuff going on, offline and online, that I am basically a giant happy ball of Lal as I sit here in my pjs (they have pink sheep on them, if you were wondering), eating dried mango.

So I thought I would share some of the things that have been taking me happy places in the last few days, in exciting video form!

There's been a lot of discussion recently about women characters in fiction and in fandom (bookshop and sarahtales have some pretty damn fabulous and fascinating posts on the subject) going on recently. And obviously as a girl with a vested interest in both of those things, it's something that I've been thinking about a lot. I'm sort of umming and ahhing about making a post about My Thinky Thoughts on reading girls and writing girls and all that, but I don't know if I would just be shouting down a hole and/or preaching to the choir. But anyway, there is a festival called halfamoon going on that is fairly awesome, and one of the things that has come out of it is this vid. It's celebration of women in sci-fi and fantasy, of women being brilliant in every way possible. It's pretty much everything I wanted to say, and it's just beautiful and beautifully made.



It makes me feel like I could do anything, you know?


Another thing that is making so very happy is, actually, a TV show. I don't know if it shows, but the thing I love best in the world is books. I can hear your "DUH"ing from here. But I am also exceptionally fond of televsion programmes. Even lots of really bad ones. But sometimes, once in a while, I fall in love with a show like it's a book. I know this sounds weird, but bear with me.

And this show is called WHITE COLLAR. You guys, I cannot even. Everyone in the world should watch this show. All the cool kids are doing it!

White Collar is a show about a con man and an FBI agent and together they fight crime. No wait, they actually fight crime! Neal, master forger, is working for Peter of the White Collar crimes Division, who caught him and put him in jail twice, under probation. Neal has to wear a tracking anklet, neither of them should really trust the other, they are very different people, but they make a Pretty Awesome Team. So far, so mismatched buddy police procedural, I hear you say. BUT WAIT.

What White Collar is also is smart, funny and totally character driven. And said characters are smart, funny (noticing a pattern), wonderfully acted and utterly believable, and 100% adorable. It subverts your expectations, delivers quality acting and has New York City looking so good I want to move there tomorrow.

What White Collar is to me is the equivalent of having a box of puppies delivered to me every week.

Everyone in the show is adorable and I want to hug them. EVERYONE. Neal, who is a charming, I mean unbelievably charming, brilliantly smart conman who wears hats and waistcoats and believes in love and beautiful things and has some Trust Issues but wants to trust Peter. Peter, who is a practical, deceptively brilliant, FBI agent who believes in justice and really likes smart (that is a direct quote, btw). El. who is a funny, sensible events planner who is married to Peter and likes to engage in adorable banter with him and basically keeps the boys from tripping over their tangled relationship and myriad issues. There is also Moz, Neal's friend who is played by <3Stanford Blatch<3 from Sex and the City<3 and who is a hilarious, non people person, conspiracy theorist forger/unassuming criminal genius. The rest of Neal and Peter's team! So adorable and witty! June, Neal's landlady who knows he is a criminal and doesn't care!

A box of puppies, you guys. Did I mention they are all seriously pretty. I mean Matt Bomer - Neal and also Bryce from <3Chuck<3 - is an insanely attractive man, but Tim Dekay has this crazy ninja hotness that blindsides you and frankly the cast as a whole is pretty damn fine. The show is very prettily shot as well.

Furthermore, everyone has SO MUCH CHEMISTRY it is ridiculous. I really believe that Peter and El have this real, really good marriage. Neal and Peter have some of the best bicker-banter I've ever seen (and yes, I've seen Sherlock Holmes). Oh, just watch this video. It's very well made and the song choice is marvellous.



And then go watch White Collar! As I said to shiningartifact when persuading her flailing at her until she agreed to watch it, I feel confident that everyone will love this show. Unless they do not like hot people being clever and adorable in great clothes. And there are only 11 episodes to catch up on!

Aaaand finally. The Winter Olympics starts today! WOO! I mean, as a country we lack the necessary climate and mind set for most of these sports, but I love the Olympics and most importantly, this means there will be ICE SKATING ON TV. I lovelovelove ice skating, y'all. I used to have a Torvill and Dean poster and tee shirt and a video and OMG ICE SKATING. It is the most camp and ridiculous thing to ever call itself a sport. I cannot love it more.

I feel the whole thing is summed up by America's Johnny Weir's routine to Poker Face. No. Really.



It's like Adam Lambert took up figureskating. Or had an insanely talented sparkly ice baby with Lady Gaga... It's so unapologetic and celebratory and wonderful. You do kind of have to ignore the commentators a little, but still. Love.


And that's everything I can think of for now! Come chat, I have about a billion things to say about, well, everything I've mentioned here and you guys are always my happy place.