life, liberty and the pursuit of geekiness

Title: A Game of Consequences
Summary: Rose and the Doctor did end up in Barcelona, after all. Post-PotW.
Author: jediowl
Rating: U, I suppose
Notes: NO spoilers for the Christmas Invasion. Written before any of the trailers for it appeared. Ten's characterisation is probably wildly off, but never mind.



Eventually, they made it to Barcelona.
( Read more... )

Moving this stuff off my userinfo....

INTP - "Architect". Greatest precision in thought and language. Can readily discern contradictions and inconsistencies. The world exists primarily to be understood. 3.3% of total population.

Free Myers-Briggs Word Choice Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

( Read more... )

I was tagged to do this by...somebody.
Name 5 of life's simple pleasures that you like most, then pick 5 people to do the same. Try to be original and creative and not to use things that someone else has already used. Tag 5 people on your list.

I'm not going to tag anyone. Do it if you feel you want to.

1. Finding a book I haven't read yet, by a favourite author, in a secondhand bookshop.
2. Cats that climb on to my knee.
3. Chocolate!
4. Clean sheets and a hot-water bottle.
5. Wakening up in the night and seeing that there are 3 more hours before I need to get up.

The Christmas meme, gakked from angel_gidget

1.What is your favorite Christmas carol/song? -- I like Silent Night as long as it's not jazzed up. especially in the original German. Song—I'm partial to Fairytale of New York.

2.White lights or multiciolored? -- multicoloured

3. Do you have a cut tree, live tree or an artificial tree? -- Artificial. They were talking about getting a live one this year.

4. Eggnog, mulled cider, or hot chocolate? -- Hot chocolate.

5. Do you decorate your house with lights? -- Just the tree.

6. Do you write a Christmas letter? -- A Christams email is about all they'll get.

7. Do you like receiving Christmas letters/photos? -- I'm not fussed.

8. What is your favorite Christmas story/movie? -- Ack. They'll mostly cheesy. Oh, I know! Run Away Home. The cleverness of me!

9. Have you ever made a gingerbread house? -- No.

10. Poinsettias or holly? -- Holly. I don't even know what poinsettas are.

11. Do you display a nativity scene? -- We have a little terracotta one.

12. Do you bake Christmas cookies? -- No, cake.

13. Ham or turkey? -- Turkey. I don't eat pork.

14. In what languages can you wish someone a Merry Christmas (without cheating)? -- Four.

15. Do you know all the words to Jingle Bells? -- Yes.

16. Do you put presents under the tree? -- Yes.

17. How do you eat a candy cane? -- Suck it till it comes apart. But I've only ever had about two in my life.

18. What is your biggest holidays pet peeve? -- Relatives. No, seriously, all this 'Happy holidays' business, and workplaces banning Christmas decorations. Come off it; Christmas as celebrated by the vast majority of people in the UK is entirely secularised; it's a commercial festival. And I should have thought that whatever your religion was, an opportunity to party, get presents and eat lots at a dismal time of year would be welcome.

19. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? -- Presents.

20. What was the best present you ever got for Christmas? -- Hmm. I think the one which gave me the most pleasure at the time was something called a Super Optic Wonder; it was a little pair of binoculars that had a compass and a tiny sextant and magnifying glass and I don't know what all else. I carried around with me for about three years after that.

Gakked from cynthia_black

( Friends Collage )

Nifty! I wonder what happens when people change their default icons; do you end up with a page full of red x's?

Is anyone else still not getting all of their comment notifications, or is it just me?

Why is it that estate agents seem to be incapable of writing English, but instead produce pamphlets full of their own weird jargon?

First of all, the thing they are selling is always a 'home'. Not a house, a home. Sometimes it's a 'comfortable family home', but the horror can increase, as sometimes it's a 'prestigious home' or a 'unique home', or worse yet, an 'almost unique home'.

Then there's the main body, so to speak, of the copy. Usually it's semi-literate, with the most basic errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar. The thing to remember about this part is to take it with a liberal amount of salt.

For example:
Mature garden=overgrown wilderness à la the Sleeping Beauty's castle
In need of renovation=in need of demolition
Convenient to [major road]=built beneath the underpass
Quiet rural setting=back end of nowhere, reached by twelve miles of unmetalled lanes
Spectacular views=perched on cliff edge

and so on.

The end is in sight when you see a floor plan. However, there are still the labels: 'lounge' and 'sun room' or possibly 'reception area' or even 'vestibule'. Did anyone ever call a room in their own house a 'lounge' or a 'vestibule' when they meant sitting-room and hall? (Even in an airport, 'departure lounge' seems to me a shabby wriggling out of 'waiting room', in an effort to suggest the passengers are enjoying themselves. No-one could lounge on those chairs, and the carpet's too thin to do it on the floor.) As for sunrooms, that's a little over-optimistic in Northern Ireland, don't you think? Surely 'weather room' or 'windowed room' would be more appropriate? I suppose it's a minor improvement on 'conservatory' meaing 'PVC lean-to with own muggy micro-climate'.

Usually there's a photograph, or for 'new builds' (what has the poor gerund ever done to estate agents to be so rejected?), an artist's impression. Of course it's to be expected that the artist's impression should bear little relation to the muddy building site, cluttered with bits of rafter, heaps of topsoil, concrete blocks, assorted rubbish and Portaloos, of reality, but how do they work those photographs? Surely they can't all be taken on the three days of fine weather per year? And the ones of the gardens always seem to be taken at ground level to give a Borrowers-eye-view of the size of the place.

Another baltic morning. The de-icer froze on the windscreen, and apparently someone fell on the ice at the bus stop and broke her leg. I heard on the radio last night that they'll be starting roadworks in the new year on the Westlink, which will just about double the journey time into Belfast. The spokesman waffled a bit about the park and ride at the train station (already full to bursting) and that they were 'investigating' starting one with the bus. Well, that's a fat lot of good at this stage, especially considering the buses are going to take an hour and a half to go nine miles. They need to let them drive up the hard shoulder.

I had a thought: if I am at some point unable to get on the internet, someone else would need to have mod rights to trennels. It pretty much mods itself, but there ought to be a back-up for booting trolls etc. Any of you want to take it on?

I've just got back from seeing GoF. The stupid eejit on the ticket desk told us at first that it was sold out, and by the time we'd gone back to the car to have a council of war, the only tickets we could get were down in the front corner. Emma Watson looks rather lopsided or something when you aren't looking at her straight on.

Anyway, I took a notebook (much to my brothers' derision), so this is more or less point-by-point as it struck me. ( Spoilers, of course )

Now I really, really want Book #7!

Tomorrow will be the first Saturday—the first day—in 4 weeks when I shan't have to get up at any time at all. Mmmm, sleep.

I bought elerrina_amanya another pair of baby scissors in EDCO on my way home, and also a purple rollerball for myself, because I couldn't resist it.

This morning's spam quota is from one Intersection L. Xylophon. Oh, joy.