Anyone who likes the Beatles ("like" being relative, of course) should know that this question is impossibly difficult. I'm often torn between anything on Sgt. Pepper's and Abbey Road - oh, of course there was that one album, the one after the colour. ;)

If my hand were forced in choice, though, I'd give "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" a soft plus one. I'm not going to pretend what that says about me as a person.

***

My X11 team was thoroughly thrashed again, and I think I've figured out finally that you can't play it like real footie, where you can cut through the grease by playing a concrete defence and a strong 4-3-3. What's even worse is I'm doing the impolite thing and attributing emotions to my little pawns, envisioning little pixel conversations to the tune of "good match lads, good match, would've been better except our manager's rubbish, ho ho hum, cough."

Yes, apparently third out of eight means nothing if you only see action twice a week, make of that what you will.

***

If I'm going to be staying up all night again, I want someone to play "Things the Doctor Said Which Carried an Inconvenient Sexual Connotation Caught by the Rest of the Universe, but Sadly Not Him" with me. It has the distinct, joyful result of never boding well for anyone. Especially the Doctor, who gets no say in it whatsoever.

Sometimes, I wish I were brilliant to the point of pedanticism (is so a word! says I, without a trace of irony) at any language, that way I could always put into words what I was feeling. As it stands, my current vocabulary leaves me at a disadvantage nearly 99.8 per cent of the time.

I thought I'd try to write something, anyway. But not about me. That sort of thing is never very interesting, is it? ;)



Title: Masquerade (Pattern 1940)
Fandom/Challenge: Doctor Who. Kinda-sorta response to the dw100 prompt "Mask." (I say kinda-sorta because I'm not sure I'm ready for hundreds of people to read it yet. Might 'spoon it later, don't really know.)
Word Count: 100
Characters: The Doctor (11th)


( He was a thousand years old ... )

Not really, but it's full of a lot of other things (I can assure you it's not what you're thinking, thanks) and it'd please me if you were patient while I sorted through it all enough to spit it out.

First and foremost, the happiest birthday ever needs go to my mum, who can celebrate knowing I appreciate her for everything she has done and continues to do, usually against anyone's better judgement. She brought me into this world, and while many might say she hasn't yet been punished enough for that, others have cause to assure them that in a whopping twist to the plot, I was the punishment after all. (Just kidding; we'll probably have cake.)

Also, the watching of DW will take place Saturday, 4 June, at 5PM EST. Anyone who wants to join in, may.

Now, I have a fairly personal question to ask the section of my flist who were once teenage boys: WHEN DOES IT STOP?

Little brother had me on wit's end this morning; I told him the hot water was still gone until the heater part is delivered, and he told me that if he couldn't wash his hair, he wasn't going to school. Suggested boiling water, was told a resounding no. I told him that I could easily set up a conference between himself and an upstanding member of the community - such as a police officer or a doctor - and he can listen to a lecture on the virtues of staying in school and the punishment for truancy instead of whatever he had planned this weekend, or he can suck it up and boil some water.

Poor RJ had to wash his hair with boiled water.

Still, there's the attitude and the boisterousness - mostly the attitude. So: when does it stop? The arrogance and selfishness? I'm prepared to deal with it as normal development if it doesn't last for years on end. If it does, I'll try home remedies. Like holding his head underwater, and if he survives, he's cured of being a teenager.

Reminds me. Hot water. If that situation isn't resolved soon, I will have words. Last time this happened, it was four days until we had hot water again, and I was nearing the end of what passes for limited patience as it goes. This time I may end up going to the manager's house and saying my piece. It is my firm belief that just because one lives in a "bad area" of the city, one does not have to act like it; I have struggled to bring every sort of dignity into living in this flat (plastic containers, cleanliness, sharp cutlery and a well-stocked tea cabinet go a long way), and it's rendered somewhat difficult if one can't, erm, clean his/herself easily.

We'll see how it works out.

SPEAKING OF TEA. I'm officially convinced that there is no saving this city from inevitable ruin. Not a single specialty store for fifty miles, last I checked, and while the supermarket does carry Twinings (small favours), it's all in bag form and I like loose leaf. Even in Southern Maryland there were loads of places where, if one desired, a nice earthy rooibos, yerba mate, or That One Earl Grey with Super Powers were available for sample. I guess Washington is married to coffee. (Not fair.) allotrios sent me whisky-flavoured tea from the Celtic festival - that was for my birthday. :) It's by the Edinburgh Tea & Coffee company if anyone's interested in checking it out, and astonishingly is the only loose leaf variety I have on hand at present. The whisky taste is a bit much for me in tea form; it overpowers the leaves to the point where I can't tell what kind of tea is in it. It's excellent with a bit of lowfat milk, though, or simply black if you want to fool yourself into thinking you're having a nightcap. The taste is that strong!

I'm compiling a list this month of teas to purchase online, though, so I have a better chance of combating daily tribulations. Thus far, I have the following:
- Hampstead Tea's Darjeeling
- Teavana's Assam Gold Rain
- Tea Ltd's Bohea Lapsang or Yunnan Gold
- Adagio's Chocolate Chip Ceylon
- ?

Suggestions? What's going to end up happening is I'm going to throw all these into my hotdog hat and draw one per month. So, there's no real urgency, just a tea lover asking the forum. (Note: As you can tell by the above selections, I'm more of a black tea person, so preferably one of those - unless it's gunpowder. I do love gunpowder.)

Anyway, again, if you want to watch Who tomorrow, I'm going to have the channel open (in my last post if you didn't catch it) at 2pm PST, 5pm EST, and 10pm GMT. Bring beer. ;)

( lksdjfa football )


Layout! :D :D :D The layout is coming along swimmingly - the black and green would've been too contrasting and unreadable, so there's a tad of white and blue in. I'll be making a second one for vote or switch, but it looks pretty clean as it stands - I just have to get rid of some things and figure out where the ads went. Aheh ...

I also must draw attention to this site, because blogs of this sort keep popping up and I find that I am utterly incomplete without them. (Warning: salty language in the URL.)

Trying to get in with Mum's mates, and it comes with certain inconveniences. There's a bit of River City in with it which I could certainly do without: I received a text from Mum's old love interest saying that she was "too much" for him, but yeah, he'd love to date me. (Cue Ten: What?) I think I do very well maintaining my distance from single men, but for some reason, guys in the 40-60 age bracket tend to ignore that effort. (This is the third pursuit by an older man within the past six months.)

The advantage which lies within being asked to date these gentlemen so often is that I've learned how to express, in a very tactful and friendly way, that while the sentiment is flattering, I'm not interested. It's not that these men are unattractive or unintelligent - I'm just not ready for that sort of intimacy. (I had a boyfriend for a month, once, and I broke up with him because he wanted to kiss too much. That shows you about where I am in terms of romantic maturity.) I like being friends with guys, but that's about as far as it'll ever go.

Anyway, I got that whole situation resolved, and Mum and I were able to go downstairs and hang out for a while. We talked about stuff. :D

The main reason I'm posting today, though, is not to talk about my popularity with menfolk of the retired persuasion (although I find it incredibly surreal and could likely waste a whole entry on a psychological analysis of that absurdity, as I don't even find myself very attractive ;P). I'm working on a new layout for the wonderful, amazing Doctor Who forum known as Death by Aspirin (you should totes join. xD [/shameless]), and I wanted to gather input on what kind of colours and themes everyone was interested in these days so I can make it look as lovely as possible.

Giving that it's a Doctor Who forum, I was thinking something dark and futuristic, like a green + black vortex + hue-altered TARDIS as the bg image, then a lighter (maybe white + light green) forum so it wouldn't be dark enough to hurt one's eyes when they're trying to post. I'm going to put up a poll here to gather info, perhaps enough to throw it together and make THE BEST LAYOUT EVAR. ;) Choices are fonts, colours, sidebar locations, and bg images. There will also be an "other" option so opinions may be expressed in the comment section.

Poll #1742957 So, what features would be in the ideal layout?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10

Which colours would you like to see in a Doctor Who forum layout?

Which font would be best for the main forum?

Where is the sidebar?

What should be the background image?

Do you know the Muffin Man?

Thanks for your help!

( blah blah football )

I'm not disappointed with the last installment of DW, though. It was a nice nod at old form, and with a happy-ish ending to boot. Though I can't help but wonder if they decided to do a pirate story after imbibing questionable substances.

"Ohhh, you know what would be great?"
"I'm so bloody stoned. What would be great?"
"A pirate story. We obviously need more pirates."
"Pirates? But we've already got the Silents arc. How are we going to fit in pirates?"
"I have this great idea. Oi, don't bogart. We make the pirates [whisper-whisper] and then they [whisper-whisper] and the TARDIS [whisper-whisper] a huge ****ing spacecraft."
"Stephen, that's brilliant! Mate, hand me that glass; I'm parched."

Of course that's all speculation. ;P

Wishing most wonderfully eventful and jovial birthday celebrations to jjpor, as what else would befit someone who revolutionised the concept of "picking up a bad habit"?

Anyway, hats off and party hard, mate. xD

I FIGURED IT OUT.

Okay, so, you know how RTD's Time Lords were striving for the "Ultimate Sanction," right? Okay, okay, hear me out:

The Ultimate Sanction was basically the destruction of the universe and TIIIME ITSELF (insert copious amounts of saliva) in order to cause the Time Lords to "ascend" to a higher plane as beings of pure consciousness, yeah?

The Alterrans - or Ancients - of the Stargate universe were beings who looked much like humans, but managed to "ascend" to a higher plane of existence, refusing to intervene in the lower planes. The Ori were basically Ancients with a 'tude problem, intervening to make people worship them.


HEY, NICE HEADDRESS. Didn't I see that in Gallifrey's Vogue?

Therefore, using cracked out fandom logic, I postulate that the Ori are the Celestial Intervention Agency in a universe/timeline where the Time Lords completed the Ultimate Sanction, discovered they couldn't survive in their current form, and needed a way to carry on as they were without the return to corporealness. THUS:

1) They "cracked" through into our universe.
2) They created the Silence to manipulate mankind into serving them - without mankind figuring it out. (From The Book of Origin: "Where there was silence, the Ori brought the gift of speech.")

(POTENTIAL SPOILER FOR S6: Also, doesn't a certain someone look terribly a lot like a Prior of the Ori, here?!)

Remember - you heard it¹ here, first! ;)

EDIT: Ooh, ooh! And the Ori's Celestis = the EDAs Celestis! (Okay, I'll stop...)


¹ "It" being a spectacular, first class load of bollocks, probably, but hey. I'm allowed to get myself carried away once in a while. I have the Internet.

I'm not typically fond of advertising my various online forays in my personal journal, but I'm a bit stuck as NO ONE SEEMS TO LOVE ME it's really really difficult to get people to join your RPG if you don't really ... talk to many people on a daily basis.

So, crossing my fingers with this one as I don't seem to be very popular as of late ...

2011. A magical school in the middle of the desert. Classes, romances, and ambition all cloud the vision of hundreds of teenage witches and wizards, all who believe they know their world, they know themselves. But something's brewing; you can feel it in the air - the charge, the danger. Something beneath the academy, beyond normal reach, has woken ... and when a set of mysterious visitors comes to call, the inhabitants of the school may find that the source of the danger lies within themselves ... Pueblo Hills Academy of Magic is a Harry Potter/Doctor Who crossover RP. Harry Potter fans need not have background information on Doctor Who to join, neither do Doctor Who fans need much background information on Harry Potter. The plot stands alone as a fixture in an alternate universe; however, one may adopt facets of it to his/her personal canon. Canon characters are gladly accepted; original characters are welcomed with open arms. If you can justify bringing a character into the RP, then we will likely accept it. Admins are: gibbous, Merry, and Ian. This RPG is played on an Invisionfree forum. Plot :: OOC Rules :: IC Rules :: FAQ :: Grammar Expectations >> APPLICATION <<