pippychick

Ok… next chapter nearly done. And… Brienne really *needs* to take this up, because it’s about as romantic as the Hound is ever going to get (albeit kind of violent, peculiar and twisted, just like he is). Hell, I’d have taken him up ten chapters ago, and I haven’t even written ten chapters. *sighs* Looks like Rory McCann is easily making my list of people I want to play “dressing up” with.

This new muse is doing okay so far. Very inspiring. While at work, I didn’t have to think about work, because I was busy thinking of the fic and characters, and how I can get them to do what I want so they get a nice, happy ending. Clegane is developing a very dirty little laugh. In the meantime, IRL, I have already used up my quota of ‘c’ words for the year. It’s lunchtime. Time for a little nap.

I think I might be waking up or something. I’ve just written some kind of beginning for a fun little Clegane/Brienne/Tormund fic. Just need to work out some plausible details. Writing Clegane’s pov atm, but might chop and change about. Hard to tell yet.

In other news, while I’m on about songs, I go on holiday at the end of october. Going to be seeing Stacey Kent live while I’m away.

17. Is it possible to base an entire song around the lyric: “Dreaming of a lighthouse in the woods”

1. Yes. Yes, it is.

I want to put something witty, upbeat and positive here, but this is me, so…

(insert swear words of choice)

You may have noticed I’m never online. Sorry about that. I’m really ill. Can’t even read atm. I've restarted Matt Haig’s latest about half a dozen times now. Still haven’t got past the first four pages. Goldfish have better concentration and mental agility than me right now.

I can’t even do you any politics…

Well, except to say to all: Fight fascism, with everything you’ve got. But then, that’s not really politics. That’s just basic humanity. I still have some of that left in me.

So, apologies if you’re waiting on me to reply to emails/admit I’m alive/do something I’ve forgotten. I honestly don’t mean to be ignorant. I just have zero energy. I have no idea when normal service will be resumed.

This status update is the most writing I’ve done in weeks. 

Just going to leave this here:

Hectic, stressful and nonsensical… but that’s just my life atm. Now onto the election.

Everyone lost, but Labour won. Labour is not forming a government… yet. I predict another election by October, which Labour will win by a landslide. And when I say Labour, I mean socialist Labour. Bring it on!

Kensington is Labour! The richest people in the country voted for socialism! Also Canterbury, which Labour has never held, ever, is now red. New poll today shows the surge continuing, meaning Labour would win outright an election if it was held now.

Not sure what you guys make of it across the pond. There’s a good Irish contingent amongst you. Tories making deals with the DUP breaks the Good Friday agreement. This is awful. Remains to be seen how much damage May can cause negotiating with the EU, given that she shown herself to be utterly inept in every way. We’d be better off sending the Chuckle Brothers. “No deal is better than a bad deal”… wtf?! No deal means standard WTO tariffs for EU market access, which is 40% on agricultural goods. 

All I ever really wanted out of life was to wake up one morning with Alan Rickman on one side, and Hugo Weaving on the other, possibly with the Glenister brothers in the next room.

That isn’t happening.

Bugger.

--- message ends ---

Well it seems like all the stress and extended working hours do take a toll after all, and the upshot of it all is that now I'm really not very well. And I still have lots of hours to work this week.

I may be MIA for an extended period of time.

I'm afraid to say I haven't been writing anything either – not a sausage – so updates to my stories are on indefinite hold for now. Sorry about that.

Now, while I can, I am going back to bed.

Oh, sod it.. I am back! Kind of… as work permits.

No, I haven’t written anything, but I miss being able to post status updates, which technically should count.

Warning: personal politics

So… this week. The only thing sadder than Trump still being President of the USA, is Tony Blair, war criminal, telling a group of people with cameras pointed at him that if only the British people rise up against Brexit, the government will have to listen to them.

That’s a little optimistic of him. Why, I seem to remember… it must be nearly fifteen years back, when a million people “rose up” to say: “Please don’t kill innocent Iraqi children, Mr. Blair!” And at the exact same time as we gathered in Hyde Park, Tony Blair was explaining to parliament why he would be completely ignoring us.

He also talked a bit about ‘direction of travel’ with regard to Brexit. Direction of travel, aided in part by him, is why we are in this mess. In some ways, direction of travel, aided in part by democratic presidencies, is why we are all in this mess. Direction of travel can be directly illustrated by the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor, that these generations (from mine onwards) are less well off than their parents, the rise in street homelessness, the breakdown in social care, charging for doctors’ appointments, the americans who had their homes repossessed and could not possibly be bailed out for a few thousand (or even a few hundred), while the bankers who caused the misery got billions… and billions. I could go on… and on.

Back to Blair, it’s almost as if he paid someone to find as many ironies as possible for him to add into his speech, though we shouldn’t expect anything less from a man who was somehow – inexplicably – made middle east peace envoy despite causing unimaginable terror and suffering there. This is on par with making Trump a leader on women’s issues, or electing him a spokesperson for an alliance against police violence towards minorities.

Yes, I do believe Trump and Brexit are part of the same phenomenon. I’ve got to. I’m no fan of Brexit, I voted remain, but as I listen to Blair and I watch the insincere wringing of his hands, I almost hope it happens. Just to spite him. Just because it will force people to either wake up or drift further into the nightmare we’re all heading towards. I’m in the bottom third (and probably in the bottom third of that). I’ve got nothing to lose except everything, and if things stay the way they are – if the direction of travel continues – I’ll lose everything anyway.    Right there. That’s exactly the sentiment that got Trump elected. It’s the sentiment that will see us leave the EU. I hope it’s not the sentiment that puts us (as I predicted a few months ago) on the wrong side of the next war in Europe.

People of Britain and the US, please, do wake up. You can be anti-establishment without being anti-humanity. It’s not hard at all. It’s as easy as putting yourself in someone else’s place and deciding you’ll stand with them. We’ve evolved for this.

Quite apart from all that, I don’t think the establishment mind Trump or Brexit at all, for all that people wish it. It kind of leads me to think they’re happy to use those things, as if the people have chosen their own diversion in a brand new game of misdirection, which leads to just one question…

What the hell are they trying to make off with this time?

Nearly all of my work is now deleted from the other place. I feel good about this. What couldn’t be deleted (giftwork) is orphaned, and I just have a small handful of co-written fic to deal with. Still haven’t figured those out yet. I will.

Unfortunately, my increased working hours are not even nearly over.

I am mostly not here.

But while I am here, if you’re not already aware of them, I would like to introduce you to the ‘I See You’ stories by comedian Sam Gore.

The Meryl Streep one is particularly good…

As the UK government ends a scheme requiring us to take in vulnerable unaccompanied Syrian children trapped in Europe, this quote now seems apt on both sides of the atlantic…

“The way a government treats refugees is very instructive because it shows you how they would treat the rest of us if they thought they could get away with it.”

Tony Benn

It is likely that a chapter of ‘Ai o Juten’ will be posted at some point today.

WARNING: Politics and bad language… but I was provoked (on the bad language). I make no excuse for my politics.

Hahaha...

The Speaker of the House of Commons in the UK (John Bercow), has said this about the possibility of Trump talking to MPs:

“We value our relationship with the United States. If a state visit takes place, that is way beyond and above the pay grade of The Speaker. However, as far as this place is concerned, I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism and to sexism, and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons.”

So basically he’s said: hey, let’s not.

Unlike the BBC, I don’t think I need to include the idiot comments (who shall remain unnamed), being as he is a complete and utter **** who used £4000 of public money to keep his fucking stables warm… FFS. But he’s not happy… bizzare! He’s like one of those minority members of UKIP, who you just think… what the hell are you doing there? Get out you imbecile! But then for some people greed trumps everything (so to speak) – even victimisation of your own ethnicity, since he was born in Iraq and so has been unable to enter the US for the best part of a week. What a moron!

WARNING: Personal politics ahead...

So the petition against Trump making a state visit now has over 1.5m signatures. For context, the UK has a population of about 52m people who are over the age of fourteen.

This evening, I was off out protesting in Sheffield. For such short notice there were a lot of people, so many we closed the main road in front of the town all. At one point I was out on the edges, when a woman asked me what it was about, since she had just finished work. I told her; so she joined in.

Of all the slogans I heard chanted tonight, “Trump – better out than in!” is probably my favourite. Followed closely by the “Theresa the appeaser!” mentions from the speakers.

Also memorable is the moment when a girl stood up in front of the microphone and declared: “I am a muslim woman! And an activist!” to rapturous applause.

I’ve got to admit, I have (especially in my younger years) participated in many anti-racist and anti-fascist protests, marches and rallies, but this is the first where I felt protest and civic duty really merged together into one.

Is anyone else, like me, looking at the news in sheer unbelieving horror?

Or has everyone taken the route of sanity and turned it off?

Refugees denied, families seperated, US residents denied entry… suddenly that TV section from the newspaper about the inauguration doesn’t seem as funny.

And I swear everyone around him.. you can see in their eyes that they know he’s completely and utterly insane. They just haven’t got a clue what to do about it.

This is some really, really bad shit… and terrifying. 

Goodbye and RIP John Hurt

Who said of Downton Abbey: “I just think it is poxy! I mean, I'm sorry, but it is rotten writing and rotten acting.“

And also this: “I remember talking to Olivier when we were doing Lear. He said: 'When it comes to your obituary they will only mention two or three performances, and they will be the ones that defined you early on.' I said: 'What will they write about you?' Richard III and Wuthering Heights_', he replied. And he was right.”

So today you’ll hear a lot about his death scene in Alien, and his role as The Elephant Man, but let’s also remember we’ve lost a man who played The Doctor, who voiced the dragon in Merlin, Winston from the film 1984, Mr Olivander from the Harry Potter films, and the narrator of Dogville (which imho is one of most horrific studies into human nature ever conceived).

Well… it’s been a strange few days, that’s for sure!

Here are some examples of “alternative facts” for reference:

Despite photographic evidence, in terms of visible crowds, less is more.

A unicorn just flew past my window with a can of Red Bull in its mouth. It had a sign around its neck saying it was a Pegasus.

Being sent abusive comments means you are guilty of harassment.

The world is actually flat.

There is no such thing as marmite.

I do not have work in the morning.

I am not going to bed.

I am not saying goodnight.

Well…

This morning I turned on the TV and threw up in my mouth a bit.

I haven’t done that since the day Diana died. And for many of the same reasons.

My apologies, but this was too good not to share. Found on one of my political sites who came on it via George Takei, here is the Sunday Herald’s (Scotland) TV section:

Awesome…

It is likely there will be a new chapter of The Teacher tomorrow.

So yesterday I knitted a bobble hat for the dog. You can’t tell, but she’s really impressed.

Is anyone really surprised that Trump doesn’t like (or even understand) intelligence? After all, they’ve got nothing in common. It’s like a bad match up on a dating website. This is the guy who probably still thinks he can “turn off” the internet. The guy who’d have more money now if he’d just saved the loan his father gave him, instead of fannying about with it, making as many people miserable as possible.

Much as I dislike certain aspects of US Intelligence services, if I was about to be President, I’m still damn sure I’d trust them over Putin. What a complete and utter wazzock… I wonder if he’ll be able to bring himself to trust the intelligence services the first time they say: “Get down!”

I must stop watching the lunchtime news.