speak no evil

Well, going to see the ridiculously crazy Fast and Furious 6 just cost me about 300 bucks! I lost my iPod!! T___T I guess it fell out of my pocket and I didn't notice. We went back to look for it, but it's black and the cinema was very large and dark, so no luck. Maybe one of the cleaners will find it and I'll get it back. Fingers crossed. I can't live without my music, and I definitely can't travel. If I don't get it back, Italy may have to be cancelled.

Coincidentally, has anyone ever had cause to use the remote disable/find my device function of the iCloud? I hate Apple products for a lot of things that I won't go into, but that? Is really cool. And it makes me feel a bit more secure. Someone does find my iPod and doesn't hand it in, the second they connect it to Wifi, it'll lock itself and ask them to please give it back, and it'll tell me where it is so I can either go hunt the mongrel down or at the very least delete everything on it. So there, possibly dishonest person!

All this remote access technology takeover stuff makes me feel like I might warrant an honorary membership into the FF team! Sure I can't drive like they can, but I do prefer stick shift and I'm absolutely full of attitude. Totally fit right in. Man, craaaaaazy movie, let me tell you. The plot? Jez-sus. But the stunts and the driving and the cars? In no way disappointed. And as for the eye candy - while I adore Vin Diesel's shoulders (and voice) and Dwayne's unbelievable guns, I gotta say I like me some of that Paul Walker. Actually, I like me a lot of that Paul Walker. Guy has a smile that puts sun lamps to shame, and his character is quick and smart, can beat down on three guys with shivs, takes his responsibilities seriously, isn't afraid to get all emotionally cosy with his bros, pulls some of the most insane shit and is great with kids! So yeah, if anyone has a spare one lying around, could you maybe send him to me? I promise to take very good care of him.

Of course, I miss the days when the F&F franchise was laden with all that Ho Yay, but oh well, I'll settle for a nice smile and impossible car chases too!

Wow, I am all go go go at the moment. I've baked, sewn, cleaned, laundered and shopped and now I'm off to lunch and a movie (yeah, Star Trek Into Darkness again what? It's only the second time). I suspect I'm suddenly uncharacteristically busy because I'm avoiding thinking about my upcoming trip overseas and how much I'm not organised, and also how much money I don't have. This always induces panic so I am just pretending it's not there.

That being said, I was wondering if any of you lovely UK people might have some tips on travelling in Scotland in mid August? You know, what I absolutely must see, issues with getting around etc. I'll be on my own for about a week and I could do with some advice!

Borrowed from scribbles and cho. I'm a follower, not a leader!

( Alphabet me )

Ah fell off the radar again, didn't I? Just so exhausted lately though. I spent a couple of weeks house-sitting for a gfriend, and in that time I was up in the 4am's almost every day. Consequentlty I was hitting 8.30pm and wondering if it was too early to go to bed. I'm such an old woman sometimes.

Now I'm home again, I've started to wake up at more reasonable hours (6am thanks!) but now I'm home there's also been a million things to do and honestly, my home computer is crap and I tend to avoid having anything to do with it. So yeah, not a lot of online life going on. May have to move the whole get-a-better-computer thing up the priority list, because that shit is just not right.

So this week has been filled with gardening (because I always have gerdening to do), cleaning the house after the painting and not much else. Little bit of reading, hardly any gaming, lot of staring at the TV, too tired to think (although Man vs Wild still makes me want Bear Grylls survivalist porn, but I suppose that's a whole other conversation! Also, am seriously considering applying for job at Mythbusters. The frequency with which they get to blow shit up is enviable to say the least). This weekend (the Easter long-weekend, yay!) will likely be more of the same, with added furniture rennovation and possible demolition tasks, because I'm having the floor in the back room re-laid and need to rip up the circa-1950s lino tiles in preparation.

So yeah. That's my catch up. On a completely different note, I am a little baffled by the presence of a) fanvids and b) FILOTE (fic in languages other than English) on a certain fic archive. Someone in fact just recently has posted in one of my pairing hangouts about a dozen 500-word fics. In Chinese. I know this is going to sound white-priveleged of me, but is it unreasonable to want these tagged so that I know before opening them that I in fact won't be able to read them? I realise there's no rules preventing either fanvid or FILOTE finding its way to the archive, but I got excited at seeing so many new fic in one of my favourite hangouts (it's a small fandom so things like that don't happen every day) and was crushed when I discovered I couldn't read them. And what really baffles me is, is there no-where other Chinese speaking fans hang out? Really? Well, ok then, but if a predominantly English fan archive is the only place you can post your in-Chinese fanfic, don't you kind of think that defeats the purpose since no-one can read it anyway?

Aaaand I got my flu-shot yesterday and now I am feeling a teeny bit fluey. This is normal. I get the shot every year now, and every year I spend the next few days feeling a little under the weather. It's for a good cause, i.e. me not falling over with a from-hell version of the full-blown thing. Been there, done that, wanted someone to kill me. Never again, if I can help it.

Title: A Simple Job
Fandom: Saiyuki
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Prompt: Yakuza enforcer Gojyo is assigned to shake down powerful, wealthy businessman/politician Hakkai, who has been breaking promises to former yakuza allies. Gojyo quickly finds himself out of his depth.

Summary: Break, enter, deliver a message. Why do the simple jobs never go as planned when you're working for the mob?

A/N: Written for a challenge prompt over at saiyuki-wk-au - Kenren, Tenpou and a brief appearance by the some of the Ants (and a slightly random Saiyuki character crossover), all wrapped up in a little upper-class gangster AU which is not as action packed as I'd maybe imagined it to be. It also sadly lacks the porn. But there is perhaps some flirting! If you count bruises and rope burn. Deepest apologies to the prompter - this really didn't know what it wanted to be or where it wanted to go, and I managed to pretty much nail none of your requests in the process (is so ashamed). And I'm late, so that's a hat-trick T___T

(When they wanted heads cracked and knees broken, they didn’t call Kenren.)

I made a kind of extravagant purchase today - a new Samsung Galaxy Tab. For what reason? Mostly to read comics, to be honest. Ergo, the extravagance. I was going to buy a Nexus 7 because they're so cute and I really like the feel of them, but in the end it came down to price, since I shouldn't really have been making the purchase in the first place.

But! I did have about 75 bucks in gift cards sitting in my wallet (when I do good at work my boss gives me eftpos gift cards - that's kind of cool, actually) so it was 75 bucks off the already cheap price. I thought that sounded like a good trade-off, said trade-off being between "I should not be spending this money" and "I really, really want a tablet" so I'm not sure the logic behind that justification stands up, but oh well. I can now read comics to my heart's content.

Hmm I'm also struggling manfully with some writing for a certain promptfest (which I will not reveal until I'm done in case I don't actually get it done!). I really need to adopt a forced regimen of minimum daily writing time or something, because it really is all about habit, isn't it. That's what stops me. I don't make myself write; I only write when I feel like it. Obviously, that state of being does not occur with a great deal of regularity or reliability, or I'd have way more finished fics.

And you know, I go back and read something I started, and some of that stuff is pretty good, man! I mean, it's not perfect or anything, but when I read it, I don't feel like throwing myself off a building. I actually kind of like it. I think "hey, that's not bad. I really ought to finish this". I try really hard not to feel ashamed or guilty for that, because really what kind of message am I giving myself if I look at everything I've done and automatically hate it? No. I am way too old for that shit. Isn't it nice to realise that you've lived long enough that you are no longer obligated to despise and belittle everything you do purely because you're the only one you really need to please? Of course, I love it when other people love something I wrote, but I never really started writing for anyone but myself. I can't work out whether that's really selfish and self-absorbed or kind of, you know, healthy.

So, happy 2013 everyone! Here's to a good and prosperous new year!

I am sitting here in my jammies, it's getting progressively warmer outside, and I am thinking about my resolutions for this year. Usually, I make just one or two - last year it was "I will accept more invitations and therefore leave the house more" which I did to an okay extent. This year I think it might have to be "I will finish stuff that I started". It's a terrible trait of mine, and it's starting to tick me off, so I hereby declare this year will be the year I Finish Stuff, whether it be my landscaping project, my arts & crafts projects, a tv series (I still haven't watched the second season of Sherlock) or a fic (TenKen porn, anyone?).

What are your resolutions? I'm curious to know!