(no subject)

This song is my utter favourite thing in the whole world right about now. I've listened to it a few times, but I've just downloaded it, and listened to it properly. I just heard the piano introduction, and a smile came to my face. This was some feat, as I was in a bad mood from reading something I shouldn't have.

I haven't had the best day today, due to the universe thinking that my attempt to sleep in today to recover from the last three days was entirely unwarranted. I had a call from my mother, followed by a call from my sister's school asking me to pick her up, as she'd sprained her ankle. Both our parents work full time, so I had to go get her. I missed a delivery man by scant minutes as a result, so I had to drive to Waverley Gardens at 4pm, having decided (well, I'd hoped) that the package might be for me. Turns out it was for Da, which the delivery man should have put on the card, and they wouldn't let me pick it up. Dad's written a note on the card they left, so I'm picking it up tomorrow, and taking Kara to have x-rays done. Sigh.

So today was a total write-off. I'd planned on sleeping till noon or so, then doing some washing. The insanity of the weekend left no room for washing.

Good thing about today? I found out I got into RMIT! Wh00t! I'm doing my Writing and Editing Course! So. I have to call them tomorrow and find out details, and also call the x-ray place to arrange for Kara's x-rays. I hate calling people... I invariably forget, and I just don't like calling people. Especially businessy type people. I think I'd rather be a hermit on a wheel atop a pole.

...Come to that, why a pole? It makes no logical sense.

(no subject)

OMG NEIL WRITES LIKE I DO. This is how I was handwriting NaNo this year. No lie:

I'm writing my novel with two different fountain pens (a Lamy 2000, and a regular Lamy) filled with two different coloured inks (a greenish one and a reddish one), and I'm alternating pens each day, which means I can see at a glance how much writing I've actually done that day, or that week. More than five pages in the same colour of ink must have been a good day. The Lamy 2000 days are my favourites because the regular lamy, although a good pen for signing in, is less happy writing a novel, and handwriting like mine needs all the help it can get.

Except, y'know, it was in two Schaeffers, or similarly priced cheapish nice fountain pens, because I lose things and am also Not That Rich. I wrote in dried-blood red and green and purple. Red and green were better, because purple bleeds more over other pages when you drop the book in the bath.

*does the validated writer fangirl dance, which is complex, and so involves two European lace fans. And a black tutu with blood-red sequins.*

(no subject)

This is a really interesting article about how gender constructs in characters of video games affects their playability and so forth. It's a really good, thought-provoking article, and I can't recommend it enough.

*snerks* I so want to play Arcanum:
One of my favorite PC Role-playing games is Arcanum. What I like about it is that the gender you choose for your character affects the paths open to you as you play. [...] One of the quests in the game involves gaining entrance into a gentleman's club. In this steam-punk Industrial Revolution world, attitudes are still very sexist. The doorman at the gentleman's club won't let my female elf in. But I have a special letter from the owner. At that point the unhappy doorman allows the lowly female into the club, although he cautions me to make my business quick.

I got that letter, incidentally, by sleeping with the slimy and lascivious owner of the club. I had the choice to beat him up for it, but my character was too weak to take him on, so I chose the sexual way out. Brilliant!

I thought this was also interesting, and echoed my (unspoken) minor dissatisfaction with Diablo II:
One word of caution: don't design characters whose attributes are tied too closely to gender. There's a danger of stereotyping, for one - why are females always archers, elves, and thieves? Part of the fun of a game, as I'll talk about in the next section, is being able to play with gender stereotypes.

[...]

Justin adventured with me as a massive troll shamaness. "You don't see female dwarves or trolls in Tolkien," he says. "All the trolls are genderless, which is to say, they are male."