redfiona99: (Default)
2017-05-27 07:49 pm

Brief update

In good news,I've found somewhere that I can slance Internet and power from while I wait for my home Internet to be set up.

Bad news is that said Internet connection hates dreamwidth and livejournal so the only updates forthcoming will be text only ones.
redfiona99: (Default)
2017-04-08 07:33 pm

So, about the new LJ TOS

I am less worried about it that other people seem to be, possibly because I am previously paranoid and always presume someone is watching (spot the Cold War baby). However, I don't want other people to be put out, so I'm going to start cross-posting to dreamwidth (under the same name).

I continue to run a comment-at-will blog, so if you prefer to comment on Dreamwidth or LJ, feel free to comment wherever you'd rather.
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2014-07-29 04:19 pm

DVD Spree

Because HMV had a foreign films sale, I managed to get Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance for £7.99 ($13.55/ 14.41 AusD). Which is totally for the win because 1 - I <3 Park Chan-wook's directing and 2) Lady Vengeance is his best film. I would recommend it thorough, with the caveat of read the warnings.

On top of that, while I was on Amazon looking to buy 'Rewind The Film' and 'Futurology', I spotted Rome, seasons 1 & 2, on sale for £17 ($29/ 31 AusD), so I snapped that up, because that's been £60 within the last two years and therefore totally counts as a bargain.

That was about it as far as successful shopping missions go. It turns out I didn't need a new phone, I'd just accidentally blocked my Mum's phone (which I will hear the end of some time after doomsday), Next hadn't shipped the dress I wanted to try on to all their shops yet and I still can't fit into a size 14. Actually, it's possible that my waist can but my thighs definitely can't so I am left with the fencer's problem of trying to find nice belts because our waists and thighs are out of proportion. That or menswear and I suspect New Look are having a sale ...
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2014-07-22 01:51 pm
Entry tags:

Phones

New phone is continuing to play silly devils (not accepting text messages) so it looks like I may have to take the plunge and get a smart phone. Any suggestions?
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2014-05-15 09:54 pm
Entry tags:

I have a laptop again

Windows 8 continues to be unusable though.

And it's going to take time for me to get used to the new keyboard. Is it just me or are modern keyboards much flatter than old ones?
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2014-05-04 09:33 pm

RL Update

The laptop issue turned out to be a hard-drive failure so I'm going to have to get a new laptop. See also expenses I could have done without, because in between the leak, the tooth thing (which I suspect is about to gain yet another add on but I'm going to see if I can convince the dentist to chuck it in for free) and the laptop my contingency fund is about tapped out. Although that's what it's there for so I shouldn't complain too much.

I'm looking at either a Dell or a Toshiba from PC World. I'd like to buy from PC World because I like the idea of supporting a shop so when I have a tech problem I have somewhere where I can walk in and go "help!" but when equivalent spec laptops are ~ £100 ($169) cheaper at Dell, that becomes an expensive and unsupportable luxury.

The one advantage to the death of the laptop is that I've now got the time to do all of the things I keep not doing because they're less fun than being online. Noticably, tidying the flat. Otherwise my mother will murder me when she comes down after the fencing.

Also, I finally watched "The Case of the Silk Stockings" which is a Holmes I've had on home-taped video for ages but never got round to watching.

Generally approved of and Rupert Everett should feel free to play Holmes any time he wants. Spoilers below. )

Some X-Men related silliness produced by said Holmes )
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2014-05-02 07:11 pm
Entry tags:

(no subject)

So my laptop has basically died on me ('master table data file is corrupted' is never a good sign) so I won't be around for a bit.
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2013-11-05 04:00 pm

(no subject)

I am indulging myself a little in one of the fics I'm writing and giving a character a Ferrari 360 Spider (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_360), which is very close to being the (modern) Ferrari of my dreams.

I count it as behaving myself because I didn't given him an Enzo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_Enzo), the actual (modern) Ferrari of my dreams. Mostly because there are only 500 of them in the world and I'm trying to maintain some level of plausibility.

~~~~

I am also grinning with glee that Saints will have this guy on the team next year - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jimChS-HcBM

~~~~

I delivered a fiendishly polite put down to someone claiming I'd been stomping on the WMF VE developers. I pointed out that I was just following their orders i.e. if you see a problem, see if you can narrow it down to what the problem is with and then report. And it was a major error (replacing all accented characters with garbage). I am 100% behind the idea of VE but like everyone else who has ever had to use it, I've got some issues with how many bugs it has.
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2013-10-13 01:01 pm

Tripod Are Bizarre

I've finally been able to find out which page on my website caused such grievous offence. Basically, I'd been told my ban was for explicit content.

So was it any amount of PWPs I'd put up there? Was it some of my more explicit smut fics? Did someone take offence to a given sex scene?

No, the page causing the bother was my 50 Kinky Ways index page which basically looks like this -http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/305309.html

So yeah, of all the pages that could have caused upset, that was not the one I was expecting.
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2013-10-12 01:08 am

Website Organisation

If you were to come across a webpage containing fan-fic, would you prefer it to be organised alphabetically or divided into say femslash, gen, het and slash and then alphabetical?
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2013-09-28 09:08 pm

Website Argh!

So Tripod have, for the time being, kicked me off their website for suspicious content, despite me having disclaimered everything up the wazoo. So suggestions for other website hosting places are gratefully received.

~~~~

Let's not get into the building management company still not getting back to me 4 days after I asked them something. There shall be phone calls on Monday.
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2013-07-22 07:03 pm

Good News/Bad News and A Meme

Science:

Good news: I may have interesting results
Bad news: I can't interpret them because work computer is, to quote the Linux dude, "shafted".

Good news: The project students are gone at the end of the week
Bad news: Leaving me with a mess of data because they did not listen and didn't add DTT or TCEP to buffers when I told them to.

RL:

Good news: The students being gone means I can start fencing again
Bad news: I haven't fenced in months. I am going to die. And so is my wallet (need to resub to the national body and pay my club membership).

Writing:

Good news: I am getting somewhere with the novel I'm working on (hat-tip to [livejournal.com profile] idleleaves for some of her suggestions).
Bad news: I'm not sure I'm getting anywhere useful.

Good news: I think I know how I'm ending part 2 of the never ending Mystique fic
Bad news: Part of the solution is to add about 2 more long paragraphs of thinking and a bit more speaking. Part 5 is already 6 people sitting around a table with no action. I wanted there to be less of that in part 2. (Part 4 is two people sitting round a table but fun stuff happens, and part 6 is two people sitting round a table but interesting stuff happens)

Fanfiction Meme - Day 27 – Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?

Not sure it's my favourite place, but I do most of my writing on my sofa. I wish I had a desk (like I used to) but there is no room in my flat. I used to write in bed but there's only one easily accessible socket in my bedroom and my alarm clock now uses that.

I write using my laptop and, 99/100ths of the time, using Notepad. I have no idea why I prefer it to writing in Word, I just do. I always send my fics through Word before I post. It's amazing the number of times doing that catches those little details I've forgotten to put in, or those tiny mistakes I have left in.

For some unknown reason, I find it easier to write Harry Potter fic by hand.

Other Days )
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2013-06-04 08:03 pm

Technology and Revenge (the TV show)

My beloved work computer is working again after having a hard drive failure. Never leave me again my darling.

~~~~

Revenge, quite sensibly didn't try to beat the Seven Devils sequence from last year's finale. Not that it didn't do things again )
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2013-01-10 01:26 pm

I officially can't complain about the LJ ads

They've just helped me find something I've been looking for for ages.
redfiona99: (Thinking)
2012-12-16 09:44 pm
Entry tags:

(no subject)

Damn it, managed to accidentally wipe my Dr. Who tag while trying to change it's name.
redfiona99: (Default)
2012-09-01 03:41 pm

(no subject)

TNA - 29/08/12 )
~~~~

Football

Juve - are you just going to be lurking sinisterly for the one remaining day of the transfer window or are you actually going to buy anyone? Later edit: Nicklas Bendtner is not the forward we were hoping for

Dear Brendan Rogers - A pox on you. You are being mean to Andy Carroll. May West Ham beat you both home and away.

~~~~

Cycling

ITV's Vuelta coverage just came up with the best bit of word play. "I'm not sure what the opposite of a pilgrimage is, a grim pilage maybe".

~~~~

Paralympics

I know he's a judoka and therefore there's a limit to the tv programmes that will have him on but Ben Quilter needs to be on all the programmes, all of them.

Actually, if you ignore the ad breaks, the Channel 4 coverage is pretty decent. They've had the sense to import an anchor who knows what she's doing (Claire Balding), so there's a central point that steadies the ship. And OMG, they also (sensibly) have ex-paralympians as pundits, and oh yeah, unlike the BBC, don't go in for "brave individual" (condescening pat on the head), they go for the proper line of "sportspeople" (so tactics are discussed, results aren't treated 'oh they tried' but in terms of who the Brits were competing against).

~~~~

Technology

Dear Dell, do you want to know why people resort to the cheap, non-branded replacement batteries/power cables? Because they do the same job as your replacements for 1/6th of the price. That is of course if you still do replacements parts for certain models. For instance mine, which is merely 3 and 1/2 years old, you no longer make parts for it. And when I call for advice, you don't even give me the right number for your parts line.
redfiona99: (Default)
2012-04-13 06:32 pm

(no subject)

I see LJ have changed the graphic you see if someone makes an LJ cut. I think I like it even if I don't understand why they've done it.

Shakespeare Meme - Day #13: Your favorite romantic scene

I shall have to go with the obvious, which is the bit in Act 1, Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet where it's all

Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.

Romeo: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

Juliet: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

Romeo: O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do!
They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

Juliet: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.

Romeo: Then move not while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by thine my sin is purg'd.

Kisses her.

Juliet:
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.

Romeo: Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urg'd!
Give me my sin again.

And so on, it's the most ridiculously over-the-top thing ever, and perfectly fitting the characters. Teenagers, never change.

I've gone with this because I've been told promising to kill your best friend is not a romantic gesture (also, it reflects badly on Benedick that Claudio is his best friend), and most of Viola's pronouncements don't work written down. The bit at the end of Hamlet, Act five scene 2, from 'I am dead, Horatio' to 'And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest', breaks me every time, but how romantic it is varies with version. Macbeth's act five, scene five soliloquy is heartbreaking, and Lady Macbeth's death is the point where Macbeth dies, the rest of it is just his body catching up with him. I might not like chunks of the rest of it, but the Peter Hall/ Ian McKellen Macbeth is my favourite version of this scene.

Other Days )
redfiona99: (Default)
2011-12-06 01:49 pm
Entry tags:

Phone Wars IV: A New Hope

So, after my Ericsson finally died yesterday, I am now the proud owner of a new Samsung. Well, I say new, I suspect it of being a very old model (E1080i for those who want the details), but it's perfect. The highest tech app it is has is a torch. There is no internet on it. It is the mostly gloriously basic thing ever. I love it.

A few of my friends have suggested I get a smart phone, with reasoning ranging from 'they're the in thing' to 'everyone needs a smart phone'. Given that I have enough trouble concentrating now, I really don't need a Crackberry or anything of that ilk.

~~~~

Covert Affairs returned to it's "mytharc". And introduced a new complication. And wallowed in shades of grey. Spoilers )
redfiona99: (Default)
2011-07-29 12:27 pm

LJ, You're Back!

This makes me very happy, because I have missed you all. I enjoy things more when I talk to my friends about them.

I think that's one of the reasons I won't be jumping ship, you are all here, and I'm in this journaling malarky to interact with you. Blogging always makes me think I'm shouting into the void, and I think you all know why I don't do Dreamwidth. None of this means, by the by, that if you (plural you) switch, I won't still follow you, but I could do with a link.

Now, to double check that LJ have kept the Russian political blogs that were the targets and to give them some money if they have.
redfiona99: (Default)
2011-06-01 08:54 pm

Semi-related to the previous post

Has the SML vanished for anyone else?