Bah!  Why is Labour MP Keith Vaz whining about the new Call of Duty game? 
Soooo, he's an MP, right..? 
I was kinda under the impression they were meant to do ...y'know... politics and suchlike. 
For example, Betty Williams - MP for Conwy district - never sidles up to me and says "You should really stop reading those trashy Kellerman thrillers, Shwoo.  You know they're all action and fast-paced but with little substance.  Why don't you read more great classics like your father?"  Let's face it, if she did, I'd hurl my shelf of trashy thrillers at her book by book until she went away.*

Also,  he's bitching about the violence level of a game which hasn't even been released, so somehow I'm doubting he's actually played the thing.


Oh, and he's venting in the Daily Mail.  NVM.  I henceforth give up this rant, as that presupposes there's any point in arguing.  Argh!  Daily Mail!  He's an MP and that's the first forum he turns to!  Gah! 

*And once done with those I'd move on to the Stephen Kings.  She'd never have the staying power for those. 

Latin: invesperascere - to begin to approach evening. English doesn't even have a verb for that, and the only one with a similar meaning Czech is to go towards dusk. And that doesn't sound half as neat as invesperascit.

I've been doing an evening class in digital photography paid for by my trade union, and as we're coming to the end, they've asked everyone to submit their favourite three pics so they can put up a gallery.
I was a bit stumped, because I'm quite new to Photoshop. Because of the way it's set up, it's easy to do really impressive effects with a single mouse-click. Therefore they're not really impressive, I guess. (Note, our course has been focussing far more on the image-editing side of things, as opposed to the actual taking of photos).
Anyhoo, after much faffing around and chopping and changing, I ended up with the following three...

( Cut for - duh - photos )

I has new avatar.  Fear the creepy dryad makeup. 

I'm not really into photography beyond pointing my camera at anything which comes too close at LT events, but these things have had me staring in fascination and wishing my My Pictures subfolders were a bit more interesting:

(Shamelessly nicked from ditzy_pole )
This is the most amazing gallery.  It's probably best to read the background given on this blog, as the gallery itself is hosted without commentary. 
I'm not going to spoiler it, but do read the blog. 
I'd love to do something meaningful with photos like this guy, but wouldn't want to mindlessly copy his idea.  I'd need a different twist. 

The other thing I've discovered in the community abandonedplaces which has some really pretty photos of what it says on the tin.  Nothing in my immediate soggy Welsh vicinity will rival all those dilapidated Soviet-built factories and grand houses from the ever-numerous Russian LJ community, but there are a few local bits and pieces I might try and get pictures of. 

I quite enjoy taking photos at LT events, and usually get quite a few, but somehow it never feels quite right whipping out my camera at Maelstrom.  Dunno why - it feels more immersive maybe, so a camera feels more jarringly out of character. 
So I ask the internet:
Poll #1452784 Do I go out and take photos at Maesltrom?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

Do I go out and take photos at Maesltrom?

Feel free to comment. 

I'm currently working on costume for my next LT character.  I'm not plannig to die / retire, but backup is useful. 
I mail-ordered feathers and beads, and today hammerhydra and I went to the dump to get rid of the old front door and went to investigate the giant indoor car boot sale next door.  I found the bead stall kiebeau had told me about (sorry Kie, we had to collapse the back seats to get the door in, so no room for passengers - but I'm definitely up for having a better look round in the future) and got many more spangly costumy things, as well as a replacement copy of a damaged PS1 game, some knitting needles and a beanie guinea pig :)
Also, my AWOL Amazon parcel finally turned up (but only weeks after they delivered it, after I threw a shitfit at them, after they refunded my money, and after I requested Amazon to remove all details of me from their records*).  Oh well.  At least Ellie will be getting her birthday present at the G. 

Life is good. 


* I stand by the fact I was not over-reacting, as they never put a note through my door saying where they'd left it, and when I emailed they said they didn't know, and when I got angry they gave me an address, and when I contacted the occupants they did not know anything, and then a few days later the guy downstairs from the address they gave me finally got back from his holiday and managed to catch me in so he could hand over my parcel.  The delay was not Amazon's (or their delivery guys') fault, but the not-having-a-clue was. 

...learning to do crazy patchwork.
I picked up a random book in my local library about this months ago and then promptly didn't get round to trying the technique out.
Crazy patchwork is not in fact patchwork, but basically glorified appliqué, which is great as patchwork involves all kinds of careful measuring and sewing, and I'm basically lazy. Also, I'm OK with applique - it's dead easy with a sewing machine (not 'dead easy to do *well*' note - but Ithat brings us back to the "lazy" thing).  Also with patchwork you need all your fabrics to be of approximately the same density and strength, which doesn't apply to crazy patchwork, as it's all stitched onto backing fabric.
Anyhoo, here is a random square I tried out just to see if it worked. Probably would have been neater if I'd put a bit of effort in and done stuff like pressing and tacking, but I'm lazy and whizzed through it with a sewing machine.

( Click here for the result )

I need to find a costuming use for the technique.  As you have backing fabric and patches, the whole thing ends up quite stiff, meaning it's OK for bags for example, but not so good for regular clothes. 
Have started making a pen-bag for Athelwyn - complete with more irregular shapes and more garish colours - to see how well it bends (oh, all right - also as an excuse to combine purple PVC and lurid pink lace).

Talked on 'phone to world
Unemployed people are broke
Sick people are sick

Ahahaha!  I knew there was a purpose to amusing myself by exchanging haikus with Luke whenever nothing else is happening.  Marvel at my 733t skillz!

First of all, I must apologise for referencing the Daily Mail, but I found the wuzziest article ever there (well actually I saw the story in a colleague's copy of the Sun, which isn't much better, but nvm).
Everyone go look.  Go look now.  What are you waiting for?


( Cut for critical mass of wuzz (also large image) )

I was preparing to write an intelligent and intelligible review of Provocation, but I got distracted at the critical moment by this post of amusing haiku(s?). Now I've been a long-time lurker-never-poster on lrpdrabbles, but this is more up to the level of my maturity and creativity. So, without further ado...

( Cut for those Maelstrom-disinterested or those who don't think I'm as clever as I do )

As a bonus, I was writing these at work and got sidetracked briefly by computerfail:

CAM's frozen again
So I write haikus until
It deigns to unfreeze

For fuck's sake, software
Who built you out of duct-tape,
String and rubber-bands?

I realise this last bit is a total rip-off of the work haikus electrokin wrote ages ago, but as I didn't get round to reponding at the time, consider this a belated reply. 

(More to continue depending on how much my work PC freezes up). 

This is what I get for being good.
Whenever I exercise I feel like I've been kicked in the chest.
Tonight I go to do the washing up and promptly shatter a plate on my foot.  A big chunky one.  Not a glass one.  Therefore I'm not sure why my foot is bleeding in that many places.*
I'm henceforth giving up being good and will go back to eating junk food on the sofa playing console games. 


*OK, it's marginally better than last time when I dropped a plate on my foot and must have fractured something as my toe hurt for weeks.  the plate, however,  was unharmed. 

On the way home hammerhydra, Luke and I decided to have an impromptu burnt offering barbecue in the back yard. The yard is warm enough to be pleasant while shady enough to be comfortable, all the plants are leafy and green, the first of the honeysuckle flowers in just opening, and all the seeds I planted are at least little shoots - if not miniature versions of their parents. We also discovered sweetcorn can be wrapped in foil and cooked very nicely with butter.


On an entirely unrelated note, here is a further instalment of JobCentre job-title-related weirdness:

( I Thought All Of These Things Took Care of Themselves... )

After this post featuring my new superhero team created entirely off JobCentre Plus job titles, I bring you the next instalment.

( Fear the further JobCentre Plus-related randomness )

Background:
JobCentrePlus has this great big database of all the jobs they advertise. The jobs are stuck into categories with numbers, so for example there is a number for secondary school teachers, one for psychologists, one for actors and so on. One day, I was just learning how to use the system and found a list of all the sub headings. There were loads of them - for example secondary school teachers would have art teachers; dyslexia teachers (secondary-level), geography teachers, history teachers; PE teachers, special needs teachers (secondary) - and so on, at great length, often involving huge lists of synonyms. As I was still a trainee, I had quite a lot of time and was bored, so I ended up looking down the list of potential job titles, just to see what weirdness I could find.
( Therefore I decided to assemble a superhero team )

Ha ha yes!  Shed-loads!  There are two in my building alone.  I constantly get their emails. 
Sometimes there is something to say for naming your kid Pippin Galadriel Moonchild. 

Hmmm... Marginally less impressed with Lovefilm.  Signed up and it turns out that one of the obscure TV shows I searched for as a test (and was so pleased they had) is not actually available.  It's "on reserve" which usually means isn't out yet, only this is a show from the 90s which has been on DVD for a good few years.  And the stuff that isn't out yet has a release date.  This one doesn't.  I know it's pretty obscure, but they didn't need to pretend they had it when they didn't...
Also, whenever I search for any game, it's available, but not for *me*.  There are many different plans (limited numbers of discs per month; unlimited numbers; one disc at a time; multiple discs at a time) but none of them say games or no games.  It won't tell me about my subscription type and says I have email customer service.  I can only hope this is because you get two weeks free trial when you first sign up, so maybe we don't have all the features of a full account.  Hopefully after two weeks we'll have full access.
The annoying thing is that I was intending just to rent videos.  it was only when I saw they had games that I got excited about that.  Now it's just annoying me.  If they never mentioned games in the first place, I wouldn't be bothered.