Lin M's Journal
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Below are the 18 most recent journal entries recorded in the "lin_m" journal:
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07:20 pm
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Darwineers
Ok, this isn't exactly the ChavTown of Blackwood that I grew up next door to, but it's the chavvie end of Cardiff.
So - there's a break-in in the early hours of the morning at an outdoors gear shop, £40,000 worth of ski jackets stolen ... ( Read more... )
.... shortly after, on the railway line at the back of the shop, four twenty-something lads are riding very loud quad bikes down the railway tracks, normally deserted at this time of night ...
But not the night in question, when a passenger train is being taken off for repairs down the same length of track. A much faster passenger train.
Oh dear.
www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/12/09/rail-death-quad-bikers-linked-with-40k-theft-91466-25353576/#sitelife-comments-bottom
Tags: chavtown, darwin awards
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10:22 pm
[Link] | <tumbleweed>
<chill winds>
<dust settles>
How about we pretend I've been spending a couple of years dead for tax reasons, or something civilised like that?
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03:36 pm
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BSG fic: Some Kinds of Monsters
Thisis kind of embarassing, as I'd had this hanging round for ages while I tried to think of a title. Then I realised if I didn't post it, it could be overtaken by changes in the spoilers for S4. (Until, that is, the writers' strike happened. Heh.)
Anyway. Here it is, mildly spoilerish for S4 (or at least it was back in late July 2007. I said it was kinda embarassing.
Current Mood:  embarrassed
Current Music: Bach, cantatas, Don't ask
Tags: bsg fic
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08:13 pm
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I for one welcome our new SciFi overlords
So, while I was off having a work crisis followed by a weekend away, Ron and David Eick have confirmed that S4 of BSG will be the last. Hardly a surprise given the number of hints and slips and retractions flying around.
Current Mood: sanguine
Tags: bsg, meta
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12:00 am
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Political Savvy Test
Not a tale of woe about me and the rest of the minions chained to our desks in the Whitehall Paper Factory, but a short comment on the Liberal Democrats in Wales and the situation they’ve currently got themselves in. For those poor readers not having the good fortune to be born Welsh, let me try to explain. Imagine you are a small, progressive political party that believes in consensus politics in a small state. You have been out of power in central government for a century, and haven’t held local government power for decades. You haven’t had a sniff of power for all those years, because the Labour party been the governing party in Wales the whole time. (This may understate it. The myth is that Wales is naturally Labour: the people are Labour, the sheep are Labour, the coal is Labour, the rain is Labour. But hey, everybody needs a change sometimes.) In the recent central govt elections, you Lib Dems did reasonably well. You didn’t win, and in fact nobody won as such. There are two parties bigger than you. But you – yes, lil ole marginalised you - you hold the balance of power. So, when you are invited by the Labour Party, which shares many of your progressive ideals, to join a ruling coalition – what do you do?
Tags: politics, wonkette mode, work
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10:21 pm
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How to make Tonya Harding look classy
I don't normally comment on bike racing as a rule - the racing part isn't my thing.
It's not actually true that when out on the bike I have from time to time been overtaken by roadkill; it's merely the poetic expression of a certain type of reality.
Current Mood:  pissed off
Tags: biking
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06:52 pm
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BSG Meta: The Fandom (Countdown till implosion)
Hmmm ... now I'm out of mourning for Rome, what to do while BSG is off the air until January 2008?
Tags: bsg, fandom, meta
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05:03 pm
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BSG Meta: Those Spoilers Again
Yup, more about those BSG spoilers, so spoilerphobes look away now. Usual caveats about IF they’re right, because in advance of tonight and next Sunday, I’m still not 100% convinced they aren’t foilers. However. For one of them, I think we could be in for a case of bait and switch.
Tags: bsg, kara thrace, laura roslin, meta, spoilers
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10:33 pm
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Eco-Update
Today I washed a tree.
Leaf, by leaf, by leaf ...
With little cotton buds and a proper rinse cycle and everything.
It's the little indoor bay tree on my kitchen window sill. I looked up at it, and at the window, and there was sticky gunk over the leaves and the branches and the window.
Checks the Royal Horticultural Society's charming direct publication, PESTS and how to KILL them.
That'll be scale insect then.
Not good news - messy, kills plants, spreads around. So, into action with the cotton buds and warm to hot soapy water and friction.
Guaranteed to work 100% on the window, but on the tree? Meh. Not likely, and despite my fantasies of a nuclear strike on the little frakkers, the drug of last resort is spraying with Malathion which is (a) poisonous and (b) very stinky and (c) probably not going to work if the scale insect is established, in which case -
It's DNR time.
Man I'm bummed.
Current Mood:  bummed
Tags: trees, washing
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09:58 pm
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BSG meta, and spoilers
Spoilerphobes look away if you don’t want to know -
Current Mood: sceptical
Tags: bsg, kara thrace, meta, spoilery
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09:42 pm
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What the - ?
Did that LJ cut not work? huh? HUH?
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09:23 pm
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BSG 17 Maelstrom: Plots, and not advancing them
Meditating on where we are after Episode 17, and where we could be at the end of the season.
Vaguely spoilery, so beware.
Current Mood: unimpressed
Tags: bsg, meta, review
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08:38 pm
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BSG Meta: Quests, and how not to write them
Meta on literary genres, and how far their inbuilt rules and the audience’s expectations of the audience can be bent without breaking.
Tags: bsg, meta
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08:21 pm
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My, it's been a while
So ... inspects thick layer of cyberdust ...
Fast-forward through the end of 2006 -
2006 wasn't a bad year for me - I mean, nobody actually died.
Current Mood: embarrassed
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08:10 pm
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Look! Cool new Icon!!
Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ingridmatthews
I shall name it Lesbians in Space just like rap541 told me.
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09:12 pm
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You won't get anything like this on your Harold Pinter
Said Frankie Howerd to audience and camera in Up Pompeii, which the BBC are repeating on BBC4 more or less alongside I Claudius.
You know what? Up Pompeii makes for better TV second time round than I Claudius.
It also stands up better – titter ye not – as an attempt to do Rome and the Romans on TV.
Look, I’ll confess to an element of irrationality here. Frankie Howerd, of the face and mannerisms of an offended dowager camel, makes me laugh, always did.
Confession time over.
Somewhere in the dim and distant origins of Up Pompeii are the comedies of Plautus and Terence – and the Greek Menander. It doesn’t do subtle. Broad farce – which is very demanding technically to do well. Stock characters treated with the minimum of respect – the foolish lusty old man, the idiotic young lover, the wily slave, and the sluttish wife. Knowing sexuality. Silly names: Nauseus, Ammonia, Lurcio, Ludicrus Sextus. Senna the Soothsayer. Loads of irreverent shout-outs while transposing old-fashioned plots to the modern day. Having fun by drawing the audience in – and then shutting them out. Exiguous plots – mistaken identity, star-crossed lovers, blah blah. But they aren’t the point: being a vehicle for your star comedian is.
See? Roman.
Up Pompeii is a perfect little gem of a machine that you take out and it does its trick for you and it gets me every time.
And then there’s I Claudius.
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09:24 pm
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The Cassie Claire Memorial Fanfic Challenge
Just when you thought the MsScribe Unmasking saga couldn't be beaten, along comes the Cassie Claire plagiarism debacle.
Top summer reading, both.
So, here's the challenge.
Go to your bookshelves. Pick a novel at random.
Open a page at random. Stick your finger on that page.
Copy out the line where your finger has landed.
Repeat selection procedure until you have a short story. Or a novel. Or a haiku. Depends how many books you have on your shelves.
You must not write any linking material.
Post at fanfic site of your choice and prep your sockpuppets to pimp.
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09:20 pm
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First Find Your Icon ...
I put them in a safe place. I know, I know ...
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