Let others know a little more about yourself by re-posting and tagging your friends.

1) What is your salad dressing of choice?
Balsamic vinegar          

2) What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
There was a great fresh Italian place in Newcastle I went to with my mum when I was looking at uni’s  – Can’t remember the name, but it was great.  Either that, or this excellent Mexican down Leith shore.  Can’t remember the name of that either…  Favourite chain would be Frankie and Benny’s.

3) What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it?
Bread, because I already have bread nearly every day for toast in the morning.

4) What are your pizza toppings of choice?
Pineapple.  I don’t abide people who rail against fruit on pizza.

5) What do you like to put on your toast?
Margarine.  Pate, although that really only happens once a year around Christmas.  For the rest of the time I forget how good meat on toast can be.

6) How many televisions are in your house?
4, and an infinite number of DVD players. 

7) What colour cell phone do you have?
Black with silver trim.  I like it very much.

8) Are you right-handed or left-handed?
Right handed.

9) Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
Tonsils.  An alien spore.

10) What is the last heavy item you lifted?
My dog, onto the table at the vets. 

11) Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
Nope, but I always wanted to be.  Never fainted either.

12) If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
Nope.  Like Big Fish says, it could help knowing when you die because you could survive everything up until that point.  But just knowing the date doesn’t tell you which philosophy of fate it prescribes to: i.e. If this is a fixed date, no matter what or if everything is in flux due to your knowledge of it.  So, to keep things simple I wouldn’t want to know.

13) If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
I’m not sure I’d suit another name – as much as I’m convinced that I don’t suit my present one.  Maybe Juliet, though I’d hate to be called “Julie.”  Isabella is my favourite name, but I’m saving that for the offspring.  Maybe I’d just shorten myself to L.J.  How early 90’s of me.

14) Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
If I was guaranteed to survive.  I read a thing about a guy dying from a chilli pepper eating contest.  I don’t do well with hot stuff but I could get through it for a grand I suppose.  When drunk, me and my uni compadres would dare each other 50p to eat various ridiculous condiments available on the table.  I’m sure hot sauce would be an improvement on horseradish.  Yeuck.  I’m shuddering at the recollection.

15) How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
1 pair, I think.  I can’t remember if I chucked them during my last merciless clear out.

16) What’s your goal for the year?
I have about 6 or 7.  I wrote a list of short and long term goals the other night.

17) Last person you talked to?
Katie.  She called me last night as I was about to go to sleep at 10: which was extra wussy of me.  She wanted to tell me to watch The Apprentice even though she knows I dislike reality stuff and don’t watch UK broadcast TV.

18) Last person you hugged?
Laura as I was leaving.

19) Favorite Season?
Autumn.

20) Favorite Holiday?
Used to be Hogmanay but last years was a non event and I didn’t even drink.  Now I’m practically verging on straight edge (urg) I’m not sure.  I’ll say the Illuminations which is the end of the season festival on Cumbrae when all the shops along the front of the island decorate their windows (and sometimes roofs) with the most extravagant and imaginative displays.  I’ve not been for many years, but memories as a kid with a pack of sparklers, walking along the front and waiting for the fireworks were great.

21) Favorite day of the week?
Don’t really have one.  Not Sunday, as transport is intolerable.  My Saturdays are usually eaten up with football.  Fridays are OK.  I don’t think I really have one.  I’ll say Thursday.

22) Favorite Month?
It would be November, were it not for the knowledge of Christmas around the corner.  I’m surprised I’m not being told to do my shopping now – Only 9 months, minus a day until Christmas!  *vomits*

23) First place you went this morning?
To the kitchen to double check when the notice said the water would be off from and to.

24) What's the last movie you watched?
I finally watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.  The DVD’s been sitting there for what seems like years.  S’OK.  Jesse James deserved it and Mary Louise Parker wasn’t in it nearly enough.

25) Do you smile often?
Not really.  Prefer to stay in neutral.

26) Do you always answer your phone when it rings?
Do I always hear my phone when it rings?  

27) It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it?
It would be a drunk apology or confession, and I can’t think of who that would be right now.  95% of my friends are responsible home owning, family having, rat race job working adults.  Boring, but I love ‘em anyway.  It would probably be Katie, she usually calls when she’s hammered.

28) If you could change your eye color what would it be?
I like my green eyes.  If anything, I would make them a sharper green all the time.  It’s actually the only green coloured thing I do like – I generally don’t like the colour.

29) What flavor drink do you get at Sonic
I do not know what this means.

30) Have you ever had a pet fish?
Plenty.  We even had mini eel fish when I was wee.  We had a proper fish tank and everything, with lovely coloured fish.  But it was a mere fairground goldfish who lasted the longest – 8 years – which I’m sure means something in the scale of the universe.

31) Favorite Christmas song?
I think Silver Bells, mostly because of the fast interlaced vocals and dramatic effect used in Home Alone 2.

32) What's on your wish list for your birthday?
Nothing. I really don’t like receiving presents.

33) Can you do push ups?
I can.  I can even do the clap in the middle.  Then I fall on my face.

34) Can you do a chin up?
Nope. My chin’s not that cool.

35) Does the future make you more nervous or excited?
Neither.  I feel more interested.  It’s the present I get nervous or excited about.

36) Do you have any saved texts?
I never delete texts so they’re saved by laziness.

37) Ever been in a car wreck?
Wreck, no.  Fender bender, yes.

38) Do you have an accent?
What an idiotic question this is.  Of course I have an accent.  Everyone has an accent.  

39) What is the last song to make you cry?
Apocalyptica’s Fade to Black.  It has the most beautiful note ever heard, and the cello is just the instrument to play it.  I spent a hangover/weepy break up day lounging about eating crap and listening to this song on headphones.

40) Plans tonight?
Not really.  Maybe decide what project I want to work on, cause I’m getting no where fast by going in 6 different directions.

41) Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?
I have.  I did not enjoy it.

42) Name 3 things you bought yesterday.
A new blue football, AC Milan football socks that were on sale (I love sleeping in football socks) and new training bottoms.

43) Have you ever been given roses?
Yep.

44) Current hate right now?
The fricking road works through the centre of town which is making everything a nightmare and I have not yet seen them working.  It’s supposed to go on for another 3 weeks and they are not doing a fricking thing.  It’s making everyone crazy.  I’m quite glad I’m not in Edinburgh for the month long shutdown of Princes Street with no work done.  That would make me mega crazy, and also quite sad – the roads have been butchered and the centre of town looks a complete state.

45) Met someone who changed your life?
It’s hard to say.  Hard to say whether my life was changing already.

46) Have you ever dated someone longer than a year?
 Just under a year.  Twice.  I never seem to be able to make it to that anniversary

47) Do you have any tattoos/ piercings?
My ears were pierced when I was younger but I haven’t worn earrings for about a decade.  Got the side of my lip pierced in uni and wore it for about a year, but kept losing the ball for the ring and got fed up.  It’s still open though, as well as my ears.

48) Does anyone love you?
My dog – she loves me and has no qualms about showing me.  Apart from that, my parents and my closest friends.

49) Do you like to cuddle?
Sometimes and only with certain people.

50) Have you held hands with anyone today?
Nope.

51) Who was the last person you took a picture of?
I don’t take pictures of people, I take pictures of places and yesterday it was the view of the Haylie Brae above Largs.  My shitty wee camera phone pics do not do it justice.

52) Have you ever ridden an elephant?
No.

53) Do you like to play Scrabble?
I don’t mind it.  I prefer Monopoly.

54) How did you bring in the New Year?
Playing Guitar Hero and sitting in my friends kitchen.  There was no party, it was just us who couldn’t be bothered going out.

55) What song represents you?
I’m not sure as I only ever relate songs to other people.

56) What were you doing 12 AM last night?
Sleeping, huzzah!  I’m quite happy I’ve got into a good healthy sleep pattern.

57) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
What are you doing in my room?

My internet is being throttled big time, thus rendering it practically unusable.  It should not take more than a minute to load up Google.  But it does.  That’s how bad it is.  It’s the scam of the Fair Use policy all ISP’s are slamming on their unlimited downloads customers.  If I pay for unlimited bandwidth, I should fucking well get it.  That’s how angry I am about it.  There’s not a lot I can do about it, seeing as they’re scummily breaking the contract in a legal way.  Tricksters and charlatans, I say.  Not to mention Westminsters proposing yet more legislation on broadband restrictions and access.  They should work on building the infrastructure instead of whatever the fuck they’re doing now.  I’m quite fuming.  I do not take kindly to idiots fucking with my internets.

Looking for another job, again, mostly due to my knack of landing temporary contract jobs as opposed to the other kind.  It’s good in a way, as I get writing done in between, but it’s frustrating.  I’m applying for something in the civil service, which is ideal as my ethics just do not mesh with the private sector.  I despise working in a cog in the machine environment with more emphasis on profit than actual flesh and blood humans – be it employees or consumers.  I do hate capitalism more each day – though it’s the best system we’ve got.

I see friends grow more accomplished in the lives they have chosen: steady careers, mortgages and some with families.  I’m not envious, but I still struggle with the traditional notion of life at this stage of life compared to what I’m doing.  If I bought a beret and moved to Paris, I’m sure I’d feel better.

I do want to have something extraordinary, but it would be so much easier to relent and join the commuter crowd, resigning the writing to the back burner of life, get the house and settle down.  But I’d go crazy, burning with unfulfilled dreams and resentment.

Hmm.  The green grass on the other side looks so much more together and sure of itself.  I’m constantly wracked with doubt, worry and all that good stuff.  Or maybe that’s just the person that I am and that won’t change if I move to the suburbs and adopt a golden retriever.  But mostly I think I’m worried that I’m incapable of growing up.  And most of the time I don’t see why I should.

That’s enough of that.  I’m working on a comedy-drama pilot script at the moment, because there are always competitions and opportunities to get TV scripts out there, and I’ve got nothing remotely adaptable for that medium.  Plus I’ve never tried it before.

I’m sure I have more things to say but sleepiness is taking over…  Will catch up on f-list tomorrow.  Will.

Has the "plot twist" eye-rolling factor soared beyond all comprehension?
(I can think of about seven of these in this season alone)

Do the new characters just seem shallow and pointless?

Do the old characters seem 300% more irritating than they once were?
(For this I'm looking at Hiro, Peter, Nathan, Mohinder.  Maya has actually decreased in the irritation stakes while Parkman continues his incredible,  improbable rise to 5000% more irritating, which increases on weeks that he doesn't even appear)

When did my favourite character become Sylar?
(I actually know the answer to this one.  It was after the "Claire - That's disgusting" line)

Answers?  Any Heroes fans left?


I think we all know my suggestion for making Heroes better.  More.Kristen.Bell.  It's a stopgap, but a very pretty stopgap.

Tis been a busy week, most of it boring.

But on Tuesday/ Wednesday morning I did finish (the first draft which runs at over 2 hours) of my play – Huzzah!  I had the usual loopy, sleep deprived day after in which I loved everything and the world seemed infinitely better.  I’ve sent it out to a few friends for feedback and after that I’ll fix and polish and then will use it to try in vain to convince theatre people that I can write and that they do want to pay me for the privilege. 

Also entered a competition with an old play which my old tutor feels I have a good shot at.  I had to fit specific criteria – 3 characters, living urban or rural Scots dialect and under an hour – So I sent in the play I often consider to be the bastard spawn, if I were to look at my various works as children.  I don’t know why I consider it the let down and the bastard spawn because I actually enjoy it when I read it, instead of squirming.  Perhaps I feel that way because it’s fairly crude and the plot isn’t overly taxing (read: simple).  I didn’t do the extreme planning and research I usually do, because it didn’t really call for it.  I wanted to have a go at writing about male friendship because I’m usually quite female-centric ;)

We’ll see though.  I have a feeling that this competition might be trying to find a Sunset Song-y type of play, about fucking farms.  Urgh.  I feel like poking my eyes out when I read that genre in Scottish literature.  So perhaps two Edinburgh boys who play computer games, worship football and argue about which Disney film was the last great Disney isn’t what they’re looking for.  There’s more to it than that, but most of the disgusting humour comes out of those two.

Here’s a movie which a highly, highly recommend you see: Boy A.  Terrific.  It’s British movie about a youth murderer who gets his life together after release with the help of his social worker.  Moving, horrifying, so, so well written and dare I say beautiful?

And here’s some opinions on the start to some TV shows – Heroes, Fringe and House.  I have been watching other stuff – Gossip Girl which I’m fairly happy with (zee014 : I thought of you during this weeks hockey skirt wearing scene – I’m still working on those Lively legs).  And I have seen Grey’s, but not sure I want to comment on it yet.

truelovepooh

Stacie is going to need constant treatment over the coming months and she needs our help to fight this disease. We are starting a fundraising drive to help support Stacie and her family.


This is what we're doing - from supportstacie.net

A Fanfic-On-Demand fundraiser is underway for friends of Stacie. Authors in any fandom are invited to write a short fic on demand. The writing challenges will be delivered to each participating author by the highest bidder in their personal auction, which will run September 8-14, 2008 here at SupportStacie.net.

The highest bidder gets to deliver the fic challenge to the author they’ve “won,” along with the story’s pairing, the rating, and other pertinent details (within reason and within the author’s stated fandom and limitations - i.e., some authors prefer not to write smut or a certain pairing). The author will be given up to 30 days to finish the fic, beginning with the day that payment is received.


What I'm doing

I've got 3 auctions going on - a 2,500+ word Harry Potter femslash, a 2,500+ word Grey's Anatomy femslash and a sneak preview of chapter nine of the This Is A Problem series which will be 5,000+ words. You get to set me to work. You say Hooch/Giant Squid, I'll be writing it. [As long as the Qiant Squid is female - cause, y'know, femmeslash only ;) ] You want raunchy mop cupboard sex, you got it. You want a heartbreaking unrequited Katie Bell/Professor Sinistra love story, it's all yours. Just put up the cash ;)

I'm trying to find the words to explain why I'm taking part, but I feel it's quite obvious.

truelovepooh

The Need-To-Know links

A summary of all the authors and fandoms available in alphabetical order

http://supportstacie.net/auction/about_the_authors.htm

Main Board: All authors bid threads are housed here

http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=101&sid=0ec81ef42d535dd036fb7f076bdad9d7

My $5 Harry Potter fic auction - F/slash, 2,500

http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=1795

My $5 Grey’s Anatomy fic auction - F/slash, 2,500

http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=1796

$10 Grey’s Anatomy – This Is A Problem series Chapter 9 advance sneak preview auction - At least 5,000

http://www.majiksfanfic.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=1797

Characters: Harry, Hermione, Ginny

Summary: What happens when the internet comes to Hogwarts?

Authors Notes: Crack fic to the extreme.  Time period is irrelevant.  And it’s so terribly post-post-post modern ;)  Written between the hours of 2.10am and 4.30am.  That should be warning enough for the “humour” contained within.