I am expecting a resounding chorus of "Yes!"es in answer to that question, because I have faith in you, my f-list. Anyway, if you are, watch this video, because it is literally the greatest thing ever:



As far as this year's Eurovision goes, I'm obviously hoping for a Jedward victory, but I love Denmark's entry too and Finland's is beautiful. My opinion is rarely a good reflection of europe's though - my favourites last year (other than Jedward) were Belarus and Norway, and neither made it through the semis.

Stolen from mysticheaven. Been a while since I started a twenty day meme, and even longer since I actually finished one, but I promise to try to attempt to last the three weeks with this one.

...Boo, since my userpic extension expired I have no Miranda icons :( It'll have to be half-naked Ringo instead.

Day One – Miranda - Series One or Two?
Series 1. I <3 Series 2 as well obviously, but series 1 has the job interview, and the "holiday", and Peter Davison, and the dogs, and the literary themed parties, and the dancing, and the caterpillar-duck race, and the chair issue, and "I AM A TRANSVESTITE", and etc.


There isn't an ep in series 1 that I don't really like, whereas series 2 has a couple I find a little tiresome (even though it has lots great moments, and obviously all the Miranda/Gary stuff properly getting going).

( Days to come )

Have been putting off writing essays this weekend by watching Red Dwarf eps with commentary which I haven't done in yearsss. I'd completely forgotten the bit where Hattie says Chris looks like Dawn French in The Inquisitor XDD And their constant Craig impressions when he's not there.

I haven't updated in a while, I do apologise. My net access has been precarious lately, and I was ill for a bit, and I've got into the habit of starting posts that I never get finished...I'm an excuse machine. Also, I've become addicted to the The Sims 3 again (as well as the Facebook one - can never have enough Sims). My current favourite family is of the Fifth Doctor and Turlough and Tegan.


I'm not entirely happy with how the Doctor's cricketing gear has turned out, and I gave up trying to do his celery. Tegan and Turlough are alright-ish though.

Of course Turlough and the Doctor like to snuggle.


Not sure who to make next. Either a Goodies house or a Brittas Empire one. Might go for the latter because the clothes will be easier - turquoise polo shirts and navy blue shorts for everyone.

Tim and Gavin share everything anyway:

What could be cuter than this?


Maybe this?


COMBINED FOR MAXIMUM CUTENESS

Holmes: In The Empty House, about when I was in Tibet, you say I spent some time with the 'head llama'.
Watson: That's what you told me.
Holmes: One 'l'.
Watson: I beg your pardon?
Holmes: It should only have one 'l'. L-A-M-A. One 'l'. You spelt it with two.
Watson: I did nothing of the sort.
Holmes: Well, if not you then the type-setter at The Strand.
Watson: Oh dear.
Holmes: You're familiar with the word?
Watson: Enough to know it's not exactly appropriate. An animal, isn't it?
Holmes: Mm. A sort of mountain goat, popular for its skin and its milk and given to congregating in small herds. I don't believe they have heads.
Watson: Of course they have heads!
Holmes: Not in the hierarchical sense, they don't.
Watson: 'I spent some time with the head mountain goat.' ...Oh God.
Holmes: I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Watson: No?
Holmes: No. I doubt if his supreme radiance will be offended, I don't think The Strand sells many copies in Tibet.

-- The Lion's Mane, dramatised for radio by Bert Coules.

If you claim to be a fan of Sherlock Holmes, or Holmes/Watson, and you haven't spent 45 minutes of your life listening to this, then you need to examine your priorities (...ignore the slightly stiltedy bit towards the beginning - or rather, don't ignore it, but keep listening because it's not what you think).*

And after you've finished that, there's another 63 episodes of Clive Merrison's Holmes and Michael Williams' Watson to enjoy (and a further 16 with Merrison alongside Andrew Sachs). I'm always torn between whether Merrison and Williams are my favourite Holmes and Watson, or Jeremy Brett and David Burke, but lately I'm falling definitely in the former pair's favour. They're perfect.

*Also, if you don't know who William Gilette is, the first bit may not make much sense. I think it should be self explanatory, but basically he's an American guy who did a play of Sherlock Holmes which gave Holmes a love interest and introduced the "Elementary!" catch-phrase.

And it occurs to me the first quote I used may not make sense either unless you're aware of the typo in the original publication of the story. In case that's true (I don't want to be elitist and 'Holmesian credentials' about this), then maybe this bit of Holmes shamelessly trying to make Watson jealous will be more convincing:

Watson: Do you ever see anyone?
Holmes: Yes, from time to time.
Watson: Who? People who get lost? You don't seem to be over-endowed with neighbours.
Holmes: There's quite a large place about half a mile away in that direction.
Watson: You wouldn't know it.
Holmes: No, I'm well-hidden here. A geographical quirk.
Watson: So who lives there?
Holmes: An assortment of people. It's a school.
Watson: A school? Right out here in the middle of nowhere?
Holmes: Quite a famous school actually, The Gables.
Watson: Never heard of it, I'm afraid. How big is it?
Holmes: Fairly select. A score of pupils, only a few masters. Run by one Howard Stackhurst.
Watson: Never heard of him either.
Holmes: Shame on you, Doctor. He's an excellent all round scholar.
Watson: Oh, erm, you...you, er, you know him well, do you?
Holmes: Hmm. We've been friendly ever since I came here.
Watson: ...Oh, really?
Holmes: Oh yes. We drop in on each other sometimes. In the evenings.
Watson: I see.
Holmes: ...You haven't mentioned my garden!

Apologies for the radio silence, here and on Twitter. I've had some connectivity issues (I've had a few PMs/DMs/emails - I'll reply to them when I'm back at uni (7th Jan-ish), please don't think I'm ignoring you).

Some thoughts on a couple of television programmes I've watched when I haven't been revising:

Sherlock
I have been somewhat sceptical in the past of complaints about female representation in Sherlock. My view has always (in retrospect, perhaps somewhat naively) been that the source material isn't exactly swimming with strong female characters (...understatement), and given that basically everybody except Holmes (and sometimes Watson) is made to look like a moron in the end, it's sort of a catch 22 for adaptors in terms of whether to have lots of female characters and be criticised for them being shown as stupid/unimportant/powerless, or not having many and being criticised for under-representation. (If I were doing a modern adaptation of the Holmes stories, I think I'd tackle this with making Mycroft and/or Lestrade and/or Gregson female - but I do appreciate that's not a solution that would suit everybody.) However, after watching A Scandal in Belgravia, my only response can be "Are you serious?".



Because there is one strong woman in Conan Doyle's original texts. Irene Adler. (Arguments can be made for a few more being pretty awesome too - Helen Stoner or Violet Hunter for example - but they're not as well-known or it's more open to interpretation.) I appreciate that I'm somewhat biased as she's one of my favourite characters, and I understand that some changes have to be made to the character to make it work for a modern audience (a royal simply having an ex-girlfriend isn't really scandalous anymore - making her a sexworker spices it up a bit). But there are some deviations that I just see the point in. In the original Adler is aware of Holmes, but not obessed with him, and does not get distacted by him or give him much thought at all until he starts investigating her. In the end she outwits him and then she leaves of her own volition (to be with her new husband). In Sherlock, Irene Adler is turned from this independent, intelligent woman to a tool of Moriarty's, who gets too distracted by her feelings~ for Sherlock enabling him to outwit her. And then he has to help her escape.

Doyle (allegedly) created Adler to show that Holmes' views about women were not his own as the author, and to try and right/balance the criticism he had had of his representation of women. Moffet and Gatiss seem to have used her to reinforce everything they were being criticised for before. What's the opposite of modernisation?



I did enjoy the episode, I can't deny. Though I still think in principle that this version has far too much Mycroft in it, he is very good. "The Geek Interpreter" and "The Speckled Blonde" were cute callouts to two of my favourite cases, and all the little nods to canon throughout made me happy ("Hat-man and Robin" *snort*) although Mr Cumberbatch really has to get better at his violin-miming. And the copious amounts of Sherlock/John was good too.



Maybe it's just because I saw it so soon after the new Guy Ritchie Holmes film, which I thought was amazing even though I hadn't been such a big fan of the first one, that the first ep of Sherlock seemed slightly disappointing and problematic. But yeah. I'm certainly not as impressed as I feel I could have been.




The Top Gear India Special.
(I'm aware that my f-list seems to be fairly equally divided between people who think Top Gear is awesome, and people who judge the hell out of anyone who watches it for pleasure. If you fall into the latter category, you may wish to ignore the rest of this post.)

You know when a couple is about to get divorced, but they decide to go on one last holiday "for the sake of the kids". They try to be civil to each other, but it often breaks out into hostility, and then occasionally they forget that they hate each other now and they start to have a nice time, but then they remember they don't love each other any more and it gets nasty again. And the children get caught in the middle, and end up doing things they know will piss one parent off but they don't want to make the other parent think they've taken sides.

Now watch the Top Gear Indian Special and tell me that Clarkson isn't the husband, May isn't the wife, and Hammond isn't the children. (...I mean only in a dynamic sense, not literally. I'm not tinhatting here...yet.) Maybe it's just me being weird/paranoid/driven-crazy-by-lack-of-internet, but like, none of the car heater games seemed friendly and lolsy like usual, nor did the "kill me" "alright" or "what a monumental bellend" bits (especially when compared to similar bits in the Botswana ep and the Bolivia ep, which I watched straight afterwards). Made me slightly sad.

Nevertheless, the episode was very pleasing to me. Mainly because of this:

Whether or not they're divorcing, they're still OTP.

Though tbh the funniest bit was the bumper of Hammond's car hitting him in the face.

For the first time in my life ever I was actually on schedule with writing essays, and then I lost my memory stick, so these last three/four days have been the most stressful ever as I tried to rewrite 9,000 about the British constitution, the English School, and why no one likes the EU. I now loathe all three of those things with a passion.

But anyway. That's over now, and I can shift my focus to Christmasier things (speaking of which, please leave me your address if you haven't already, because I would like to send you something...though it will only be cards this year, because I spent all my money on Pro-Plus and Maltesers while writing my essays). Also, Simmier things. I have become completely addicted to the Facebook version, and have made my own little Roger and Stan. This is Stan:

Based on


And this is Roger:


Based on


Together, they have fun.


Tbh, most fun has been designing Roger's Swiss-themed house:


You should all come join. And make Spaniards.

Stolen from calzamante, and authormichals, and about sixty other f-listers...

Give me a pairing and I will tell you:
who is the big spoon/little spoon
what is their favorite non-sexual activity
who uses all the hot water in the morning
what they order from take out
what is the most trivial thing they fight over
who does most of the cleaning
what has a season pass in their DVR
who controls the netflix queue
who calls up the super/landlord when the heat’s not working
who steals the blankets
who leaves their stuff around
who remembers to buy the milk
who remembers anniversaries

Feel like I'm a bit late to this this year. Anyway -

If you would like a Christmas card from me, please leave a comment to this post with your address, and I will send you one.

Comments are screened (and anon comments are enabled). We needn't be on each others f-lists, I just like sending cards.

I did have all the similar posts to this that I'd noticed on my f-list opened to reply to them all at once, but then Firefox ate my tabs again (...I don't know why I keep trusting it to remember them, when it's made it evident it cannot), so if you could leave a link to yours in your comment, that'd be helpful...but I'll wander back through and try to find them again anyway, so it's not necessary. And if you don't have one, that's fine too - reciprocity is not required, I just like sending cards.

Get it? "appealing"! Because he's appealing the decision to ban him from tennis forever, but also I want him in me now. As in, he appeals to me. Bow before my incredible play on words.

...I'm sorry, that was an awkward moment for all of us. It's just I'm very nervous about what the outcome of this will be. And I know 99% of people who have anything to do with tennis would be happy to see him gone, but I would be sad.

In other news:

Rawr. But please shave.
A very enjoyable match to watch. Tbh, from now on I may just refer to Naldo as "The Messiah".



Someone needs to draw in a lower half of this pic with them holding hands.

And down in the second league...

I'm fairly sure the phrase "milky thighs" was invented for Benny. He has other parts that are appealing too

That's a "second win of the season, bitches!"!tummy-shot.

Bruno: Come to me, Craig's hand. Oh no, he's moved it, I'll have to grab his thigh instead.

Other gifs feat. Bruno Tonioli, Craig Revel Horwood, Justin Berfield, Frankie Muniz, Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Ezequiel Castano behind the cut.

( Here. )

I have so many half-finished posts saved as .txt files on my desktop that I've been meaning to post over the past month or so. I want to have a computer clear-up and I feel like I haven't posted in forever (idk how you people who do it daily manage, but respect), but I cba to make them all postable, not all of them are really relevant any more, and you wouldn't want a deluge of them anyway. So a summary, of what you missed out on:

* Westlife are breaking up, this makes me very, very sad.

* Strictly Come Dancing started again. I'm still as in love with Craig as ever, but Bruno is annoying me this year. Not as much as Len, who I wish would stay in America and do that version only, and leave us alone. Contestant-wise, I hope Chelsee wins, but my decade-long girl-crush on Holly Valance lives on. Harry Judd is also good, and with Dan Lobb and Rory Bremner out of it, he's basically the only guy I like left (because Russell Grant annoys me, and I loathe Jason Donovan).

* MERLIN! I'm loving this series so much. Completely beating Doctor Who in the Saturday-night-kids-TV category for me this year. And the pandering to slash-fans is unsubtle but appreciated.

* Verbotene Liebe has been watchable for the first time in ages. Chrolli 4 ever (or until it all goes tits up...).

* I got my ears pierced for the first time (but I suspect not the last...also, may have finally decided what I want as a tattoo, but idk yet).

* Lucas is awake from his coma (in Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden), but not before Edwin cheated on him with Ron the Intern. Sorry, but he was only comatose for two months, that's bollocks that he ccouldn't remain faithful....I'm this close to abandoning ship-Ludwin and re-boarding Lucas/Noud. Sucks that they've had no scenes together in forever.

* Rewatched all of Malcolm in the Middle, such an awesome show. Can anyone recommend any Malcolm/Reese fic?

* Speaking of..incestuousness, I can't be the only person on my f-list who's totally obsessed with the Peters twins, right? I'm so in love with Milo. Someone join me in my squeeing, or I'll have to do a picspam to convert you all.

* Wawrinka was rubbish, then a bit good, then rubbish again. Ditto Kohlschreiber, except without the good bit in the middle. The non-Stan Swisses have been kicking arse all over the shop though, in their own little ways (Steph, Marco, Michi) or in a massive way (Fed).

* Werder are being a delight this season. Alemannia are not. Frings is back, training with the kiddies, which Bild keep trying to turn into a massive drama - there is no aspect of this that doesn't amuse me.

* Uni is being stressful. I have to give two presentations next week. One about feminism in International Theory, the other about Tony Blair. I can research neither without becoming massively pissed off - the former because all the books in our library about feminism in International Theory are dripping with transphobia, the latter because it's Tony Blair. I also have approximately 800,000 words to write before the 12th of December. I hate the doing stuff part of uni, wish I could just do the learning interesting stuff bit.

* Went to a meeting about becoming a civil servant. Apparently you have to have a qualification in either French or German to get into the get-to-travel-around-Europe-having-fun bit, so I's be getting myself qualified with a language course. Has become the highlight of my week (there is a very, very hot guy there).

* Laila Rouass is leaving Holby, sad times.

I think that's everything, or at least everything I'd be willing to put in a public post. Conclusions we can draw: I watch far too much television.

Hope you're all well.

M-EU-sical Meme!
Post a link to your favourite song by an artist from each of the European states! For reference, they are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. You may also include Iceland, Switzerland and Norway.

I've also included Turkey, Serbia and the Faroe Islands, just because. Was tempted to include Belarus as well, had I have done this is what I would have picked, but as I couldn't think of any other Belarussian songs, seemed silly to nominate a favourite.

I fear this is, somewhat inevitably, a little Eurovision-heavy. And sorry for Youtube maybe having blocked the videos in your country.

( Cut for embeds. )

I hope I haven't mis-nationally-identified anyone.

Got my Pottermore email yesterday. I'm BatUnicorn144, add me please if you're there :))
(I'm pretty useless at it though...especially this Potions malarkey. Snape would be unimpressed with me. Which is okay, I don't need his approval, I'm my own woman.)
I'm in Ravenclaw, if that's important. And my wand is hard.

Spent most of the rest of my week crying at Alles was zählt, you all know why...and if you don't, here's why (for the new people on my f-list, it's a a German soap about ice skaters - clips below are with English subtitles, if you're interested):
( Cut for embeds. )

Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper.
Explain in no more than five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!


(Click for bigger. ...And sorry for the clutter, I was mid-iconsing.)

As for an explanation...does it need one? I think my Wiese/Frings shipping has just turned into any number 22/first goalkeeper shipping, Frings/Frei is pretty good too (though I need a new shipname for that, because that one always puts Ring Frei by Lafee in my head). Anyway, I just thought it was a very cute pic. And I'd had a lot of tennis ones lately, so it's a nice change. And cute.

All the other guys - checking out the view, Roger and Stan - checking out each other.

(...It's posts like this that make me think I should be on tumblr.)

New series of this starting soon

I'm very excited.

Can't wait for more of this:


And this:


But mostly this:

Unf, that smile.