from the floorboards to the flies

Hello, m'dears.

It's "random update in the wee hours" time again! How is everyone?

I was supposed to have an injection today, but had to cancel because the chemist hasn't been able to fill my prescription. It's been about a month, I think. They had two out of six ampoules in, which I've since used. The manufacturer doesn't have any of my hormone in stock and doesn't know when they will, and none of the other pharmacies the chemist rang had any in their stock either, so... not the best outlook. I've contacted the gender clinic though, so hopefully they'll arrange some alternative treatment. And much as I'd like to keep my dosage as regular as possible, I'm not too worried about it; it'll be a while before any nasty consequences happen. Fingers crossed it gets sorted soon, though.

festivids has been live for a week now! Have you all been and had a look at the masterlist? I've seen a couple of people doing this and I'm going to follow suit: if you can guess two of the four vids that I made this year, I'll make you a vid. I say two because I think it's really obvious if you know me and read my recs list, but I may let you off with just one if no one else guesses right ;) You have until reveals next weekend (4th Feb).

Speaking of vidding I'm taking a break from a vid bunny that attacked like it was auditioning for a Monty Python tribute act. It's for the movie 'Tigerland' which I have watched twice in the past two days because oh my god, my heart. If you want a good wartime movie with masses of homoeroticism and romance between soldiers played by Colin Farrell (*paws*) and Matt Davis (UNF) then I strongly recommend it. THEIR LOVE IS SO BEAUTIFUL ;_____; I'll probably get the vid done by tomorrow (or... later today) and you can see for yourselves.

And I just hit myself in the eye with my headphones. That's probably my cue to leave. Ow.

I GOT THREE VIDS FOR festivids! THREE! AND THEY'RE ALL AWESOME! Clearly I have been a good boy this year ;D

Weapon of Choice (Jumper)
This is so awesome, I cannot. David getting caught up in the war with the Paladins and his relationship with Griffin and all of the fantastic special effects and badassery and Jamie Bell's hotness afa;fjas;adk! ♥! The music is great and the editing is really fast-paced and slick, just like the film and GAH, SO COOL.

And then I got two Se7en vids and between both of them, they capture everything I love about this film.

Archetypal Sins
This one focuses on the murders (so is fairly gory as you can imagine) and how Mills and Somerset get swept up into John Doe's brutal "sermon" and the tragic inevitability of everything that follows. The music choice is wonderful for getting the mood of the film across; it's so bleak but beautiful. Just *HANDS* Gorgeous.

Like a Man Possessed
This focuses more on Mills and Somerset (especially Mills) as people and god, it's just so beautifully heartbreaking. Not as gory as the first one, but there's still unpleasant stuff in here. Without spoiling if you haven't seen the film, it builds wonderfully to the climax. The editing and the use of motion is fantastic as is the song choice. Again, bleak and tragically beautiful.


The masterlist is here or, if you prefer, on LJ. There's 195 other vids you should go and check out, and tell the makers how awesome they are! I have watched so many vids omg, but I'll hold off a rec list until I've watched everything. Happily, I'm getting wonderful feedback on my offering(s? I'm saying nothing) and it's always a relief when your recipient likes their gift!

Happy New Year! Late, I know, but it's the first time I've posted in 2012.

It's been a pretty good year so far! A lot of it's been spent furiously vidding to meet the festivids deadline. I submitted my assignment on with a couple of days to spare, yay. That's an improvement on last year! Now I keep doing that thing I do with new vids where I watch them repeatedly to make sure they haven't become crap since I last watched. It's a thing. I'm so excited for it to go live though! And nervous, but mostly just excited about all the shiny new small fandom vids to watch :D

We've been continuing our Buffy rewatch and Oz has finally turned up and I've made it my mission to balance the Spike stans in the Mark Watches comments with the force of my Oz love. Best werewolf ever ♥! Of course, rewatching and discussing Buffy with people makes me want to vid it because that's how I roll. I already had a Giles vid bunny, this isn't helping. I have resolved to make more vids about women this year, though, and Buffyverse has some awesome female characters so I'm considering ideas for them first.

I decided to spend my Christmas money on some DVDs, so we finally have series 2 of Merlin and Dollhouse (I see of rewatch on the cards because there is a severe lack of Enver Gjojak's talent in my life right now) and season one of Community \o/!! We did a marathon and watched all the commentaries (on every episode omg let me love you) and special features. Dan Harmon is the anti-Ryan Murphy, I love him and the cast and the writers so much *____* I've also ordered Sucker Punch and Scream 4 and POTC: On Stranger Tides because yes. And Jason's ordered X-Men: First Class :D Fuck yeah, Play.com's Winter Sale!

Of course, buying new DVDs meant finding space for them because we hadn't even got room for the stuff we got last month. I did some rejigging of the shelves on the TV side so now there's a bit more room and I can move the stand-up or music next time there's a space shortage. I moved the world cinema (because I sort them alphabetically and if I'm keeping some separate they need to be distinct in some way) under the TV. Yay, being productive!

I went to see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows with Holly (shinybits) yesterday. I hadn't seen her in about a month so we met up, bought tickets for a later showing and then went and had a catch up over a pub lunch, which was nice. Made plans to do some writing and hopefully get some videos/podcasts up at some point, yay. The film was delightful. I had a couple of problems with it but neither of those were Moriarty or Mycroft omg so good. I kept trying to make Holmes and Watson kiss with the power of my mind. I almost felt sorry for the couple who made the mistake of sitting in one of those double love-seats on the row in front of us. Almost. Anyway I think Holly summed it up best when she called it "the film where you don't know what you're looking at most of the time, but you know you like it!" Pretty much, yeah.

The cats have (after a week of encouragement and frustration) learned to use the cat flap. It's much appreciated by all! Alex can go and sit out in the yard and orate to the neighbour's cats (no, seriously, he just sits and gives monologues sometimes) and River can go out and play/murder things without us having to open the back door for her. Oh, and she's lost yet another collar. She's still quite little so I get her kitten collars, but they all have safety buckles which - while good, in that she won't choke if she gets it caught - come off when she's playfighting so I keep having to fork out for new ones. I'd get her a regular buckled one but they're all too big for her neck and ack... I'm sure you're all fascinated by this -_-

Today's tasks: get a new fucking collar for the kitten and pick the rest of my prescription. Right, now to have breakfast before I keel over from hunger.

How are all you lovely people this fine [insert appropriate time of day]? Well, I hope!

I had a rather delightful Christmas with Jason and the kitties and then the in-laws -- Jason's dad, brother D and sister-in-law E -- visited us for a couple of days, which was nice!

I spoke to my mum and dad in the morning. Mum got an iPad -- or as she types it an I Pad -- and is adorably enthusiastic about it. From an email she sent me: "I'm still trying to get uses to all the apps etc. but I'm sure by next Christmas I'll be a whizz !!" Bless her. I got money from various family members, which was most appreciated, and Jason got me the X-MEN BOXSET. AS IN, THE X-MEN CARTOON OF MY CHILDHOOD. ALL OF IT. ON DVD. I may have napped while hugging it at one point. He also made me a couple of vids! There was a Knight and Day vid, Crazy In Love, which is the June/Roy vid OF MY HEART ILTHEM SO MUCH and a delightfully happy making Community dancing vid, Party Hard :D :D :D Best husband ♥ I got him the McFly 2012 calendar and made him a Community ensemble vid, I'll Be OK that is essentially a great big hug in a vid.

Our oven is terrible (see the Tale of the Grilled Lemon Cake for details) so I was really worried about cooking Christmas dinner. It was just me this year so I got a turkey joint which thankfully had a shorter cooking time. I put it in at like half five in the morning, gave it a bit of a break so I could get the potatoes going and managed to successfully cook things in time to have my dinner just before Doctor Who. Huzzah!

It was Jay's birthday yesterday, which is partly why the in-laws were up. They got here on the 27th and we had a nice couple of days chatting and watched some Community and looked at pictures from D and E's wedding. It was the first time either of us had met E and she's so lovely! She fell in love with Alex and has excellent taste in vampire fiction, both of which endeared us to her even more :D She and D are so cute omg and we kept squeeing about how precious they are when everyone went to bed.

We got the cats -- and ourselves -- a cat-flap for Christmas! Jason's dad very kindly prepared the door (i.e. cut a hole in it) while he was here as it hadn't actually arrived at the time. But it came this morning! And I fitted it, yay. River is the most ridiculous. She was in and out and investigating while I installed it. At some point she lost her (third!!) collar, presumably fighting with her BFF, Scraps. She hasn't yet figured the flap out, despite my best efforts. It's so daft; she tries to open the back door by pulling the handle down, but pushing her head through a swinging door is apparently beyond her. The daftest part is when I was installing it she came in and out through the cut out hole in the door even though it was open! Alex managed to figure it out earlier, though, so hopefully she'll pick it up from him.

I plan on spending the weekend finishing my Festivids assignment and watching X-Men. And I'm going to do that end-of-year vidding meme tomorrow because why not?

Well, it's Christmas Eve and I still suck at updating. Sigh. New Year's Resolution will be to post more. I'm taking a break from vidding and cleaning the flat and I thought I'd do this fandom end of year meme I've seen floating around to fill the time and say hi to you all.

Nabbed from fizzyblogic and such_heights, my fandom year:

Your main fandom of the year?
I don't really know how to gauge it. I don't write or read that much fic. Thing I'm most consistently squeeing about is McFly, and I did make a Harry/Dougie vid... Probably McFly and Community.

Your favorite film you watched this year?
SCREAM 4, BECAUSE YES. Also loved Thor and Captain America, but dude. Scream 4 was everything I ever wanted *_____*

Your favorite book read this year?
'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins. Haven't got round to the other two in the series yet, but very excited to!

Your favorite tv show of the year?
The Vampire Diaries and Community. TVD is amazing and just keeps getting better and Community is the best written, funniest, smartest sitcom I've seen in a long time. So much love.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
Ooh, erm... Strictly Come Dancing? I started watching this year for Harry Judd (SO PROUD OF HIM!!) but just fell in love with the whole thing along the way. The pro dancers are just the most delightful dorkfaces (James Jordan, ilu) and so good and Bruno is delightful and why isn't Craig Revel-Horwood my friend? For the mere fact that I now want to watch all future seasons, I think it has to be Strictly.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?
Hmm. Was it this year I broke up with Nick Wheeler? I think it was last December, actually, but I'm going to count it. Nick being a transmisogynistic, slut-shaming douche. Other than that... I wasn't overly impressed with Doctor Who or Merlin this year?

Your fiction boyfriend of the year?
ABED NADIR, BE MINE. No seriously. He is the best person and so adorable and hot. I want to date him and Troy (because they're a package deal like that).

Your fiction girlfriend of the year?
Katniss Everdeen. I also have a massive soft spot for Annie Edison because I am Jeff. And she was only in one episode, but I loved Mithiam on Merlin.

Your biggest squee moment of the year?
Dougie winning I'm A Celeb and Harry winning Strictly. Seriously, even better than meeting them, if only for the heart-explosions caused by Tom and the boys jumping on Dougie and Harry respectively when they won.



*________________* MY HEART.

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?
Please god, don't cancel Community. THE HOBBIT. The Hunger Games and Avengers movies. More Vampire Diaries because sfj;ajfa;sfa;jsf; SO GOOD.

Right, I can't see myself posting again before tomorrow so: MERRY CHRISTMAS to all those who celebrate, Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends and a wonderful holiday and new year to everyone. I love you guys! ♥

Another update? My god, it's a miracle!

Got my Festivids assignment! I had bunnies for about half the things I offered (which was a lot, even though I restrained myself), so of course I got matched on one of the fandoms I didn't have a song for. But! I do now and I am so excited to get started. This is a nice feeling, I've been sort of blocked lately. I know I just posted that Harry/Dougie vid, but I finished it about 6 weeks ago, so :/

Oh, another thing I forgot to mention in my last post, I got into Pottermore in mid-August! My username over there is ShadowFlame95, add me if you haven't yet :D I love it, it's a lot of fun. It'll be better once they fix the bugs and stop it crashing, but still awesome! I was so nervous about the Sorting, but I needn't have been...



Identity crisis averted! No, but really. I am nothing but Gryffindor. I can't imagine how sucky it must be for y'all who got mis-Sorted. I love my wand, too! It's cypress with dragon heartstring, 12 3/4 inches, supple :D

Speaking of wizards and magic, how good was Merlin this week? Bradley James, you are a damn good actor. However, I did have a huge problem with ( spoilers )

Oh and because she asked so nicely, a mini kitty picspam for loki_dip: ( Mr Alex and the Lady River )

:D ♥!

I am the worst at updating.

Since I last updated, I've met McFly, turned 24 and got married-ish.

( McFly meet and greet (with photos!) )

My birthday was pretty quiet but very nice! The universe decided to be awesome and make loads of great things happen on that day. Mostly TV based, but whatever, it was great. (Speaking of TV, I don't think I've ever been watching this many currently airing things! I feel like I'm watching ALL of the shows, my god. But Community and The Vampire Diaries are the best of the bunch, although I'm loving Strictly Come Dancing. Shut up, Harry Judd is on it and it's fun. I'm also enjoying The Secret Circle and Ringer so far. I think we're two episodes behind the US for those two, so no spoilers please!) Jason got me Lego Pirates which is SO MUCH FUN and The Losers, Sherlock Holmes and Tigerland on DVD because he is the best and knows that I like hot guys and explosions in all genres.

The day after my birthday, Jason and I had a small but lovely handfasting because it'll be a while before we can legally marry and we wanted something so because the 7th anniversary of our meeting was coming up we decided to have a handfasting on that day. And now I can call him my husband and wear a lovely ring to symbolise that ♥. I meant to post before then to invite anyone who wanted to/could come but I ... forgot :/ Worst at posting, seriously. At least I said on Twitter? (Seriously, if I don't have you on Twitter, add me. I'm leanwellback there, too.) But yeah. Jason's dad came up for it, as well as the lovely ngaio, and wonderful angelikitten who, bless xyr heart, made us a lovely wedding cake (that was also an anecdote because our oven is so crap that after three hours of attempted baking, we shoved that fucker under the grill. And you know what? It was delicious) for the occasion and helped with decorations and stuff.

I went to the ever awesome connotations with half of my birthday money (thank you, relatives!) and had a wicked time and got to see ngaio again as well as soupytwist and catwalksalone so that was AWESOME. YAY CONS! YAY FANS! YAY!

So yeah. Life at the Tree House is good! We have sorted some stuff, but managed to acquire even more in the process (Jason's dad has been up a couple of times and brought books and bookcases). The kitten is getting bigger and growing up, which means Alex likes her more these days. They've been curling up on the bed together, it's so sweet. We finally, after nearly 10 weeks of waiting, got our housing benefit through which is a huge fucking relief. Our landlord is the best and said it was fine for us to delay payment of rent so long as they got it within the month it was owed for. We just managed September's rent and were still a little late with this month's, but the money's in and we're paid up and now we can get shit done.

Well, that's me. How are you guys? ♥

Title: Five Colours
Song: 5 Colours In Her Hair by McFly
Fandom: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Vidder: Dogstar
Summary: "She's got a lip-ring and five colours in her hair". Rainbow Dash vid (implied Rainbow Dash/Pinkie Pie)
Notes: Some fast cutting and flashing images at the start and end.
Disclaimer: Music belongs to McFly, clips copyright of Hasbro Studios. This transformative work is not made for profit.

( Five Colours )

Title: Bad-Hearted Boy Trap
Song: You're So Damn Hot by OK Go
Fandom: Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Vidder: Dogstar
Summary: Scott hates having to deal with Ramona's evil exes, but she's so damn hot.
Disclaimer: Music belongs to OK Go, clips copyright of Universal Studios. This transformative work is not made for profit.

( Bad-Hearted Boy Trap )

I am hideously late with this for various reasons, including losing the first attempt I made because my laptop did an automatic restart before I'd saved it and then weeping for like an hour at the thought of doing it all again because typing with an on-screen keyboard takes approximately 3 times longer than normal. Also, I've been busy with RL stuff, but that's not what this post is for. So now that I have Jason's netbook with a working keyboard, I'm typing this up again because despite 3W4DW being officially over, this is something I really want to share.

She's Kind of a Big Deal: Yoko Ono

As soon as I saw that this prompt had gone unclaimed, I jumped on it because there is just not enough love and appreciation for this amazing, beautiful, inspirational woman. Quite the opposite, actually, which is a source of constant bafflement and outrage on my part. How can people aim so much misguided hate at such a wonderful person? (Short answers: racism, sexism and jealousy. Yay [/sarcasm].)



"But James," you might be saying, "what has she done, apart from marry a Beatle, that's noteworthy?" Well, my hypothetical lovelies, let me tell you...

( everybody knows her name, but nobody knows what she does )

I love you, Yoko.

i ii iii