lauren3210

lmao, I write a post to say "hey, I'm back!" and then I promptly disappear again, sorry about that! I have been trying to respond to more posts on my friends list though, so I guess I'm making progress, slow as it may be. But I've just finished another epic rewatch of the Lord of the Rings (it's a thing I do every couple of months, because I'm weird like that) and I'm about to start reading a new book, so I thought I'd take some time in between to talk about what I've been up to lately:

WRITING:

I haven't been writing much recently, or at least, I haven't finished anything. My head seems to be teeming with ideas at the moment, some fanfic, some not, and I write like a woman possessed for about 10k, and then I look at it and think, "what the hell am I doing, this is crap," and then I start something else. It's weird, and it's annoying, and I'm wondering if I should in fact have signed up for some fests if this is how I write when I don't, tbh.

PARENTING:

So, as you know, Eryn, my eldest, is getting ready to take her GCSEs in a couple of months, and she's doing really well in every class except History. Now, in this subject, her fairly new teacher downgraded her coursework from a C to an E; told the class the wrong thing to revise for their mocks (the results of which go on college applications); spends most of her time trying to control the class instead of actually teaching anything of substance, and gave my daughter an Attitude to Learning level 1 - the worst mark you can get, and the only one she has ever received, EVER. So, last week I went in to talk to the History dept. about Eryn's work, and after a bit of back and forth about how Eryn should do this and Eryn should do that, I got kind of annoyed, and brought up everything the teacher has done in the past 6 months to knock Eryn's confidence in general. And then we got into a fight:

ME: All I'm saying is, there seems to be a common denominator here, and it's not Eryn.
TEACHER: *scowling* Well, Eryn, what did you say to me in class yesterday?
ERYN: *shrugs* I don't remember.
TEACHER: *yelling* How dare you shrug at me?! That's so rude!
ME: *smacks hand on table* Excuse you very fucking much, that's not rude, that's a social anxiety tic, along with her shaking hands and her inability to make eye contact. And how dare you try to teach her manners when I'm sitting right here? That's MY job, your job is to teach her history, and so far you're sucking at it!
HISTORY DEPT HEAD: Um, okay, so, Eryn you work on your revision, I'm sure you're going to do great!
BOTH TEACHERS: *run out of the room*

Yeah, I scared away two women in their 50s. Apparently though, I am well known in the school for winning arguments - one teacher tried to pull Eryn out of class for wearing nail varnish, and her head of house told the teacher not to because, and I quote "you do not want to tangle with Eryn's mum, believe me. She nearly made me cry once." (I did do that, lolololol)

FAMILY STUFF:

I had a little bit of a panic attack over my parents this weekend. I'd never really thought about it before, because until Joe left for Australia last week (and a guy nearly died in the seat in front of him on the airplane, bless him), he's always lived with them, but when I couldn't get in contact with my mum for two days, I freaked the fuck out, because what if something had happened? I'm 150 miles away, Jo is halfway across the world, how the hell would I even know if they needed help? It was the first instance I had of realising my parents' mortality, and I ended up spending 3 hours on the phone with my mum this afternoon, alternating between sobbing down the line and yelling at her to be more careful (turns out they'd gone on their boat for the weekend and forgot to tell me OR take their mobiles, for fuck's sake).

Also, I've been suffering from sciatica pains (a pinched nerve in my left bum cheek, all the way down to the back of my knee), and the other day I woke up after having slept in a funny position, and I can't move my right shoulder without whimpering. I'm walking around like a hunchback with a limp right now, I look utterly ridiculous! However I did get VERY VERY drunk on Thursday, because it was St Paddy's Day, and it's a rule for us Irish folk. Ben and I went down to our local Irish pub, and Ben wore a pair of my green leggings. I tried to get a picture of his hairy ankles, but I was utterly trolleyed and they all came out completely blurred. And now I'm going to have to buy a new pair, because he completely stretched out the crotch area (which he is ridiculously proud of, because he's a gross boy). One of these days though, I'm going to stop just telling you about the stupid things this man does, and just provide actual documentation!

Anyway, that's what I've been up to lately, and now I'm gonna go read a book. I hope you're all doing wonderful things, my darlings! ♥

It's been a little while since I've talked about stuff going on in my life, so here's a quick update! :D

( Writing stuffs )

( tv stuffs )

( Summer time! )

So yeah, that's me recently. What have y'all been up to?

I finally, finally, have my laptop back, ohmygodddddd I'm so happy!

I punched the screen a few months ago, which somehow managed to both break the actual screen as well as disconnect some wire or something that caused the entire thing to just shut itself down and go "NOPE". So for the past couple of months, I've been having to use a tablet, spending ages typing one fingered comments and tweets and only being able to write anything of any substance when I've been able to get on the house computer. And it's been an absolute nightmare, not being able to just sit down whenever I want and write, but having to actually plan around other people wanting to use the computer (#first world problems). It's kept me a bit stymied, writing wise, and I've been struggling to write my stories for the fests I've signed up for because of it, because I'm so used to just sitting down and writing whenever the muse strikes.

But my husband, my darling, wonderful Ben, about whom I seem to spend at least eighty percent of my time complaining, got his genius little surgeon's hands stuck in there and replaced my screen and fixed the broken wire and fiddled around with the motherboard and the harddrive and lots of other computer type things that I have no idea of the names for, and then declared the surgery a success and my laptop LIVES!!!

So now, I am currently just over 30k into my story for the next fest on my list, and I actually have a chance of finishing it before the deadline! I spent all evening typing merrily away, and suddenly I'm feeling so much happier about my writing, and it's all because I can sit down whenever I want and just go at it.

*happy sigh* Sometimes, having a huge, overgrown 12 year old boy sharing your living space really does come in handy, who knew?

Okay so, I've complained on here once or twice about the things my husband does that wind me up, make me angry or upset or whatever. So in the interest of fairness, I thought I'd share a lovely thing that he did for me the night before last.

( He's a sweetie, really )

How to Get Away with Murder

I'm still very in love with this show, even though I'm disappointed that Michaela's not a lesbian (I was hoping for it okay). I'll admit I wasn't very impressed with her storyline about her fiancee and Connor's past together, because that came across as very bisexual erasing - her anger over not being told about a past relationship "with a boy" and asking him if he's gay was very irritating for me to watch. But I think I understood where she was coming from? She has a very specific life planned out for herself, one that will eventually lead to the public eye, and her husband having a previous relationship with someone of the same gender would cause a scandal (sigh, society) that she doesn't want to deal with, I guess. But it was still annoying, and I kind of hate her a little bit now. I was also becoming a bit concerned that the gay sex was being used as a gimmick; look at us being all progressive and shit, which no, that's still not representation folks, but it's seemed to have evened itself out a bit now, which I'm grateful for - I don't just want to watch a show about queerness, I'd like it to be normalised and just a part of the overall characterisation, which it seems to be now. I'm super into the murder mystery aspect still, and I haven't yet worked out the story behind the flash forwards which is a bonus for me; I'm usually very good at working this stuff out way before the reveal, but this show is keeping me on my toes. So far this show remains my no.1 anticipated episode of the week.

The Fosters

My friends Judith and Ellis encouraged me to watch this show, which is currently in its second season, and I marathoned all the episodes over the weekend and I'm in love. Two moms bringing up a mix of biological, adopted, and fostered teenagers and all the trials that come with these issues, and it's just such a lovely show. It's got a lot of good representation too - a transgender teen, latin@ and their culture, a biracial character and her struggles with where she fits in, a kid struggling with ADD, a young boy learning that he might be gay, I could go on and on. it doesn't shy away from addressing any of the problems that exist in society today and deals with them all frankly and sensitively. Because of this, I would urge anyone considering watching it to be aware that some things may be triggering to watch - I was triggered quite badly over an episode and had to go sob in a ball in the corner of my room for a few hours - but they're all things that I think need to be discussed openly, and this show is amazing at what it does.

The Flash; Constantine; Gotham

I am loving The Flash; it's cheesy in all the right ways and just tries to have fun, and I'm enjoying it very much. I watched the first couple of episodes of Constantine, but wasn't overly impressed. Then I read that the producers have decided to make the character straight rather than bisexual as he is in the comics, so I am noping the fuck out of there - queer erasure is a guarantee that I will not give you any of my time, and I'm kind of expecting this show to be cancelled fairly soon. And I've given up on Gotham too, because young catwoman was literally one of the very few good things about this show, and she's not in it anywhere near enough to keep me interested, even if Jada Pinkett Smith is awesome. Sorry, lady, I still love you though.

Returning shows I'm still keeping up with:

I'm still watching Grimm, because the main dude is hotter than hell, and it's still cheesy and fun. Plus I have no ships to cry about, and sometimes I just need that, to not be so invested in ships that ain't gonna happen, lol. Supernatural is getting worse and worse, please, for the love of God, let this season be the last, because I can't give it up but it's actually becoming painful to watch. Bones and Castle are still fun to watch, as is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but nothing to really get excited about anymore. The same goes for Criminal Minds (dear lord, when are they going to give me my Derek/Penelope ship IT HAS TO HAPPEN OKAY IT JUST HAS TO). Grey's Anatomy is still awesome, although I'm very upset that Callie and Arizona seem to be splitting up, why can't I just have ONE ship go right??? OH, and White Collar came back on last week for its sixth and final season. Now, I've never shipped the Neal/Peter ship; I just really love their friendship and was always happy with it the way it was. But then, they go ahead and put the line "so you chose Neal over your wife" in there and now I'm all kinds of conflicted! I think I might have picked up another ship. God damn it.

It's possible I watch way too many shows. Oh well, I have to go catch up with The 100, apparently this is also a show I just have to watch...

I have a very close friend, who runs a bookblog, called BooksofAmber. With the imminent arrival of the third installment of a book series called The Raven Cycle, Amber, along with another bookblog, has been hosting a readathon, and she asked me to write a guest post for her blog about these books.

And I jumped at the chance, because QUEER REPRESENTATION IN YA. This book series is awesome, seriously everyone needs to read it, and not just because there is a heartbreakingly beautiful queer relationship developing right alongside a het relationship, but because it's also beautifully written, all about Welsh myths and sleeping kings and magic and psychics and an amazingly angry feminist as a main character. It's just perfect okay, go read it.

BUT, because queer representation is a thing that means a lot to me, that is what this post of mine is about, and I'd really love it if you'd pop over and have a look? The author herself has already read it (and tweeted about it on Twitter SEND HELP I'M HAVING A HEART ATTACK ABOUT THIS FACT), and the response so far has been excellent, and the more traffic I can bring to my friend's blog the better, as far as I'm concerned, haha! Anyway, here is the link and I'd really love to know what y'all think!

*hugs my entire f-list*

I'm pretty certain that I've finished my Erised fic! It still has to go through my beta, and it's ended up at least 10k longer than I originally thought it would be, but so far I'm actually really proud of it. It's actually not often that I really like something I write, which I can never work out if that's down to self esteem issues or just being surrounded by insanely talented writers that the stuff I write just looks mediocre and bland by comparison. But this story, I actually really like. I just hope my giftee likes it too! I'm glad I've managed to finish it this week though, because I knew I needed to get it done before work explodes in my face for the Christmas rush, and still having the idea swirling around in my brain but not having the time to write it would have driven me absolutely crazy with anxiety! It's been literally the only thing I have been working on recently, to make sure I could get it done before work constraints made it impossible for me to finish before the deadline, so I'm really glad I've managed it!

And now for some quick TV discussion!

( Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (god those full stops get annoying!) )

And now for a quick complaint:

I'm really tall, and I have a ridiculously long inside leg, which means that I have to do most of my shopping - especially for trousers - online at special stores. One of my favourite online stores also does shoes for tall girls like me, but I must also be cursed with freakishly small feet for my height, because they all start at 2 sizes larger than what I need, and it's not fair because I found the most perfect pair of boots on there and I'm in love but they won't fit me! Okay, okay, I know, that's a stupid thing to complain about, what with people on my flist dealing with FIRES and people with GUNS ohmygod, so feel free to completely ignore my pathetic first world problems. They were just so pretty!

Aaaaaand I'm done. How have your weeks been going so far?

(I've had to edit this post about 8 times now, because the spelling part of my brain seems to have gone offline for the night. I'm thinking this might mean it's time for me to veg out in front of the TV?)

I made a little comment in my post last night that I was deliberating on whether or not to read an RPF piece by a writer I adore, because I'd never read stuff like that before. When I woke up this morning, I'd got a couple of messages (from people not on my flist, which i don't understand how that works, do people go searching for stuff on here? But that's a question for another day.) saying that there was nothing wrong with RPF and not to be so judgmental. I've answered those messages, but I thought I'd put a little post on here to give my views on RPF, just in case any of the people on my flist also thought I was being judgmental.

My objective thoughts: I don't find it morally wrong, or gross or weird or anything like that, and I don't judge anyone who likes to either read or write RPF. As with pretty much everything, my views are that if it's not hurting anyone, then there's no harm in indulging yourself in the realm of fiction.

My subjective thoughts: I don't get RPF? I don't mean this in a "why would you do that" kind of way, but in an actual "I don't understand" kind of way. I read and write fic about characters because I've fallen in love with these two fictional people; I know everything about them and I want them to be happy in my head, and I know they'll only be happy with that one other character. But with real famous people, I don't actually know them? I have no idea how these people would react in situations, and so to me, RPF always sort of seems to me like original fiction, just with a couple of characters who just happen to look like and have the same names as a couple of people from real life? And the thing is, I get that some people do the same with famous people as I do with fictional characters; they fall in love with them and want them to be happy, and so that's where RPF comes in, and I get that. But for me personally, I don't ever feel that way about famous people. Maybe it's because I've spent so much of my life in fictional worlds, or maybe it's because I literally grew up around semi/about to be famous people (I used to hang out with Frank Bruno's daughter because they lived round the corner from me, and I went to school with Chris Hayden, the drummer for Florence and the Machine and quite a few more) so I'm kind of used to the fact that they're still just people? I just, I don't understand it because I just don't care about the actors behind the characters I love, at least not any more than I would care about the random dude who lives across the road from me that I smile and say good morning to every day.

I don't understand it, but I don't judge it either, because I know that not everyone is like me, and everyone has the right to squee over whatever the hell they want. So please, just in case anyone thought I was judging, just know that I wasn't, and I'm sorry if I caused anyone any distress or discomfort. <3

Please feel free to tell me you agree/disagree/find RPF morally objectionable or whatever; I always love a good discussion!

So, it was my baby's first full day of school today, and that was more of a struggle than it should have been. Because of her very recent diagnosis of a hearing impairment, me and the school have had to scrabble around to find her an SEN teacher that's likely to be permanent. We managed it (within a week, actually, which might be some kind of record), and then Imogen spent the whole of the weekend throwing up, having caught a stomach bug from God knows where. She still managed to go in today, but she was completely knackered and fell asleep on the way home. My eldest was sent home from her school today, because she'd managed to throw up in the middle of the hallway, and she's spent the rest of the day hugging a bowl to her chest in between bouts of running off to the toilet. My middle girl also came home feeling sick, and she's now also hugging a bowl and moaning. And my husband has had to come home from work, because he was feeling sick, and being a doctor he's had to distance himself as much as possible from work. And on top of all that, I am experiencing probably the heaviest period ever, including all the post pregnancy ones I've suffered through, to the point where I am literally having trouble standing upright. And now I'm fgeeling sick too.

Like, seriously, if anyone else has had a worse Monday than me, then I shall make you a special award for it, because you'd bloody deserve it.

On another note, I came across THIS on Tumblr today, and I spent a good few minutes laughing incredulously. Someone has decided to rewrite Harry Potter and make it suitable for Christian children, taking out all those nasty bits like magic and stuff because, you know, otherwise kids might grow up to become witches! Which is totally a thing that happens. I'm just... I can't quite work out if this is just a troll (in which case, rme) or if they're seriously thinking stuff like this. It kind of makes me want to shove my entire thesis down these people's throats because WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIVES. If this is for real, I kind of don't really want to live on this planet anymore. Although I have to say, the entertainment value is kind of cool.

But anyway, that's been my Monday! Things can only go downhill from here...

Do you ever sometimes, after reading a bunch of fics that have had you thinking deeply, commiserating with characters, or even just plain old sobbing into your hands, just really need something that you can literally laugh at loud at? I get like this sometimes, where I feel as though my heart is so heavy with emotion, I just need something that I can snort-laugh over, something that reminds me that even fictional life can be absolutely fucking hilarious at times. For this very reason, I have a small stockpile of fics that I like to reread every so often, ones that have me laughing so hard that wetting myself is almost a literal concern. So I thought I'd share them, if for nothing else so that I have a post where I always know where they are.

( Random funny fic recs )

I have more, but these will do for now. I really hope you consider having a look at these fics even if you don't ship the ships, because they're definitely worth it. And I'm done, 'kay bye.