Initial Avengers: Age of Ultron thoughts

Probably a 3/5. Parts of it 5/5, parts of it 1/5. Really liked the Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and (spoiler) parts of the film. Not too fussed about the rest of it. James Spader was even more wonderful than usual though.

Meme Rerun

Meme 1 - Ask me my fannish Top Five [Whatevers]. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post.

~~~~

Meme 2 - 1.comment with any character you know I've written.
2. receive three bits of trivia about their sexuality: practices, preferences, experiences, fantasies, kinks, etc.
3. Profit!

The Peculiar Joys of Fic Writing

Have fantastic idea, mapped out, point to point - writing it is an agony and you eventually get to about 700 words, and it just won't solidify into any finished product.

Have a silly, throw-away idea, where you're not quite certain where it's going - takes a week to write, wham, bam, done and you've almost reached 2000 words without noticing.

Most peculiar.

(no subject)

So my Twitter handle is non-gender-specific, and the picture of a giraffe doesn't mark me out as female either. But I've never hidden that I am of the female persuasion.

So I'm a little stunned when someone who's a Twitter acquaintance, and has been for two years, gets confused when I post a high pitched post-glorious Malaysian grand prix tweet about Seb Vettel that went "Seb Vettel just won the heart of this Ferrari girl. <3" because how was I a woman? And then got even more confused when it turned out that I was only 30. Apparently, without any identifying information, my twitter sounds like that of a 40 year old man!

Which is oddly close to the description of the person that got confused, and I wonder if it's just that when we've not got enough information, we fill in with our own backgrounds.

Links

History:

Southwark Park 'ghost' station uncovered by Thameslink workers - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32382231

Cycle speedway: The 'skid kids' who raced bicycles on WW2 bomb sites - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31013387

US to exhume remains of Pearl Harbor dead for identification - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32313713

Bergen-Belsen liberation: Tank driver John Darby recalls opening gates - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-32314874

Miscellaneous:

Delays on M74 after dog 'drives' on to carriageway - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-32411621

Politics:

The filter bubble effect is limiting what news users of social media see about the General Election - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-32340384

Abraham Lincoln: The enduring images - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32292217

The political pollsters' report card: the statisticians' verdict - http://www.statslife.org.uk/politics/2122-the-political-pollster-s-report-card-the-statisticians-verdict

The story behind classic election images - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32324666

Taking Stock: Gains in Health Insurance Coverage under the ACA as of March 2015 - http://hrms.urban.org/briefs/Gains-in-Health-Insurance-Coverage-under-the-ACA-as-of-March-2015.html

Science:

Turning Ethiopia's desert green - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32348749

Could a ‘miracle tree’ help end malnutrition in Zambia? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30504720

Better Drinking Through Chemistry - http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2015/04/13/better_drinking_through_chemistry.php

Sports:

Sports Ranked by Length of Game vs. Actual Gameplay - http://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/32q4fk/length_of_game_vs_actual_gameplayfixed_oc/

Rugby Union:

Stephen Donald was New Zealand's accidental hero when kicking the winning points in the rugby World Cup final - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/newzealand/8899568/Stephen-Donald-was-New-Zealands-accidental-hero-when-kicking-the-winning-points-in-the-rugby-World-Cup-final.html

Television:

Father Ted’s legacy, 20 years on: up with this sort of thing - http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/apr/20/father-ted-legacy-20-years-on-up-with-this-sort-of-thing via nwhyte