Rhiannon and Tamsin, I finally finished this a couple of weeks ago. I’ll probably even go and re-read The Merlin Conspiracy because it’s been a while since I did read it.
If you are not the two above, they had been needling me to read it. ‘It’ being Deep Secret, the book that comes before The Merlin Conspiracy and is kind of a prequel except not. I do believe though, that they are both listed as being part of Diana Wynne Jones’ Magids series.

The entire book is fun. It has random sci-fi/fantasy references and all the adventure happens at a convention. How could it not be absolute win? It even has Sandman references and this was written mere years after the series finished.
The obvious 90’s feel of it all also kind of added to the fun. I am not sure all the trials and tribulations concerning computers and disks would be as amusing if you weren’t imagining floppy discs and Windows 3.1.

But aside from the general geek/nerd squee, it also reads very much like home. Which sounds very odd but it’s one of those books that immediately feels comfy and warm as soon as you get a few pages into it. There are only a few authors and a few series which read like that for me. Mostly fantasy authors and series, and okay, Diana Wynne Jones is  one of those few authors but warm fuzzies from books! It makes me want to read them over and over again, because that warm fuzzy feeling is just so addictive. (Also, books are a bit less weird to get that feeling from than a movie which has

Unfortunately the combination of the two points above thus make me think this happens in the same universe as Good Omens. Yeah, I’ll just leave you with that image.

And I’d have a lot more squee here if I hadn’t returned the book two weeks ago. But I’ll settle for eyeing Rupert and how he went on about Rob and Nick’s prettiness way too much. Okay, so he also went ‘admire admire’ at Maree too, but… yeah, bi-dar activate!
Or something.
Except all the ‘ships/pairings were kind of ‘meh’, unless they were sibling relationships, in which case they were cute. (Yeah, both the Venables and Koryforian heirs.)
Keeping that in mind, I will admit Maree was unabashedly awesome.

That's it really... I wish I could say more aside from “It was really fun to read!” but yeah.

Firstly a goth goldfish plushie. I love the tail and obviously want to make a similar fishy. Except in bright colours.

Then there are brain cakes. Well, brain cupcakes, but you get the idea.

Cthulhu hat. Is epic.

And oh god, customising rubber ducks brings back so many memories.

The last of the deviantArt links is a Goldie plushie. I am seriously considering misusing my Tanpopo felt to make one of my own.



Now, onto the TVNZ rant.
When I was doing my little delve into what people were saying about TVNZ's pause of Torchwood over the summer, I found out that they had acquired this series called 'Primeval' as well. It vaguely rang a bell but I figured I had glimpsed it out of the corner of my eye while traipsing around fandom one day and wrote it off as something that probably aired on TV1 some time ago. Why else were fans angry at Torchwood being aired a year and a half after it had been acquired?
But it's only NOW it's playing on TV2. At 10:15, which is basically Torchwood's timeslot, if they aren't going to mess around with it with the new season.
Seriously TVNZ can you stop premiering shows you acquired TWO YEARS AFTER YOU GET THEM.

*tries to figure out which episode it is*
Oh, it's episode 1 of episode 2. And they have really small seasons, of which the third and last season only JUST stopped airing.
Okay, so not as big a yell at TVNZ, unless they are doing a run of the first and second season. IN WHICH CASE I'M YELLING AT YOU AGAIN.

And I'm not sure if it's because rips in time and space are in every other thing I read/watch, but it's kind of lame. Interesting but nothing to make a big deal about.
But if Torchwood does make its appearance after this run of it, that does mean there's only 6 weeks until it.

Amidst all the tweets I saw on Saturday, one made me squeal and be entirely too happy.

( Cut for the SQUEE )

In other news, I went to donate blood on Monday. The previous attempt failed miserably, but this time, as people who are Facebook friends know, I actually succeeded.
Well, the nurses succeeded. I just kind of sat there and bled for them. But that’s totally cool.

But it seems that even if I do warn them that my veins are hard to find, they don’t bother looking to the side of where they usually look. Where there apparently IS a nice large vein that is very visible. *head desks*
The first person did find a vein in both my arms, but they were too deep. The one he thought was better and tried to get to just ended with the needle missing and my arm feeling very weird for a couple of minutes. Then another nurse came and tried finding one on the other arm, except couldn’t. So they then brought over another nurse who apparently is quite skilled at these things and SHE found the one to the side of my arm.
I suspect that something similar will happen the next time I go, unless I manage to get the same nurse. Or they make a note in my file.
For those who are curious, I am not particularly phobic of needles. Getting injections or IVs is no big deal for me, but I do NOT like seeing the needle actually go into my skin. I suspect this would be the same of any needle to pierce my skin except for sewing ones. In which case I am glad that I don’t particularly want any piercings below my neck. (Except for nail piercings, which are weird but absolutely painless and use a drill bit instead.)

So, needle problems aside, I actually donated blood. Hurrah! This also means I eventually get to find out what my blood type is. Either by getting a letter in the mail or when I visit next time.
Also, no vampire jokes please. I'm reading my way through Vampire Knight again. Missing kick-ass vampires currently and girls who have will. Yuuki, after reading about Maree? She can't even hold a candle to her. (Pun not intended but a very nice one regardless.) Will post about that later.

So, I am being bored and looking up random book fanart on DeviantArt. I can only be bothered to look at stuff I'm actually reading/have near me, so this means Corambis, Deep Secret and The Nickle Nackle Tree.

I've seen all the DoL fanart as it's a tiny fandom, there's only a few good arts of it and pretty much everything is posted to the_mirador anyway. I also can't be bothered to search for terms like 'Mildmay' and 'Felix', as those would throw up heaps of results.
There's one sketch that I am desperately waiting to be completed and I know of one that is supremely awesome that I stumbled across that is lurking in my favourites.
It also vaguely amuses me that people draw the brothers' hair the same. It's not. Mildmay's hair doesn't seem to frizz and seems happy to be braided back. This means his hair is fairly straight and tameable. Felix's isn't. (He's cut it short at the end of Corambis, which makes me weep a bit. Partly because he cut his pretty hair and partly because I was at a loss of what my mental image would look like. Short! Curly! Orange! But then I had a brainwave and now mental image!Felix is wearing your hair from last year shadowsinfire, when it was short.)

There is a dearth of Deep Secret fanart on dA as well, which doesn't surprise me. *mutters about book fandoms and obscurity of stuff that hasn't been made into a movie*
BUT, I did find an artist who does DWJ, Diane Duane AND Tamora Pierce fanart. alidaART has a unique style, but I'm mostly just jaw dropping over the fandoms they draw for.

Of course, there was NO Nickle Nackle Tree fanart. But I did learn there's a South park Character named Tweek.

Here, have a cute, disgruntled tapir.

There is a UK air date for Torchwood season 3. 4th of July running to the 10th. The US run is from the 20th.

Yes, I will be keeping an eye on the TVNZ website schedule for updates.

I may prod my dad in the general direction of the shiny new radio plays. Thank the BBC for their online radio service which is available ANYWHERE in the world. *dances*


Also, as I was screen capping randomly the other day, happy!Tosh is adorable.

This is kind of a book post except not.
The books currently on my bedside include Corambis, which has many bookmarks and you will be getting a post of squealage for; Deep Secret, which I am actually reading, as opposed to skimming it when shadowsinfire handed it to me two years ago or whenever it was; and the first volume of Vampire Hunter D, which isn't as bad in the 'D is beautiful' prose as I have been lead to believe.

First book is fine, I'm absolutely SQUEEING over every fifth page and CRAP I'm shipping Felix/Mildmay again they're so cute. (Just when I had gotten over that ship as well...)

Second book is more than fine because, possibly because I skimmed most of it one day, but I'm still getting the warm "you're back home" feeling from reading it. Rupert reminds me, in general, of Good Omens a bit much. And another book which I can't remember but was yay fun as well.
I so need to re-read The Merlin Conspiracy...

And Vampire Hunter D is... meh. I understand that translating a Japanese novel into English is kinda hard BUT OH GOD, it's so dense.

Also, why did I just randomly watch some YGO & Vocaloid cosplay skits? It just reminds me that I should really do something about completing one.

I read these two books shortly after each other and now I am dead from it.

Ink Exchange, along with Wicked Lovely, are the two stand alones in the series. Meaning you can read those independent of each other and still get what’s going on. The other three, you need to have read those two books to understand.
With that in mind, yes you can read Ink Exchange first but then you don’t get a superior feeling of knowing what happened with Aislinn and an ‘oh!’ when you realise who was in the tattoo shop that time.

( So... on Ink Exchange... )

Now, Fragile Eternity. This was… interesting and made me yo-yo between being angry at Seth and squeeing at him. It also made me really dislike Keenan as well. Not that I ever liked Keenan in the first place, but it drives home the fact he’s a manipulating bastard, which we only got to see a little bit of in Ink Exchange. (And not at all in Wicked Lovely, which makes sense as Aislinn is completely blind to that side of him and that book is hers.)
I found more to comment about in this book. I’m not sure whether it’s because it’s Seth’s book or because it’s the first book that is actually part of the series rather than a stand-alone. Because on one hand it’s SETH and I usually find something to say about my favourite characters but on the other there’s PLOT and threads of war and betrayal. Or perhaps it’s got characters becoming a bit more human as well as becoming a bit more inhuman.

( So, as I mentioned above, Seth was my favourite character and this book made him swing rather violently in and out of my good graces... )

So... I randomly picked up Dragon Wytch by Yasmine Galenorn to see how bad the paranormal romance genre is most of the time.
And yes, the title does give a good idea of how bad it is.

I tried reading it through, but the first person past tense/the character narrating it annoyed the hell out of me. So I skimmed.

It does seem paranormal romance is romance + fairies/dragons/elves + fighting. There was more fighting in this book as far as I could see though. In terms of pages worth at least.
The romance portion consisted of some love square/triangle though. The summary of that seems more or less that the drow/dark elf was a traitor/spy and now the main character is in a 'triad' with a dragon and kitsune instead of with a dark elf and kitsune.
So it was a bit "Yay! Threesome" except it wasn't a good one like DouWataHima and was more like IshiTatsuHime. It was all focused on the main character.

( I actually have something approaching a term for the different threesome formations I've observed. )

Anyway, threesome was weird, even if dragons and kitsune are in my top five mythological creatures.
And when is Morio a Japanese name? 'Mori' and 'Rio', yes, but Morio sounds like some weird variant on 'Mario'.

I think I'll stick with my regular fantasy/sci fi and urban fantasy/modern faerie books.

( Bonus meme-like lists of favourite mythological creatures/regular animals )

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Automatically compiled by LoudTwitter

This one has Gwen (in boots), a tiger and oversized collectible card game cards on the cover. All of which are in the book, just not in that proximity. The presence of the tiger should tell you how silly bits of this is though. Not all of it like Almost Perfect just… bits.
Not so much monster/alien of the week either, just alien tech of the week. Which is a bit weird for the novels, but not too badly.
Also, rather oddly, Tosh and Ianto get the spotlight for this novel.

A quick sum up of this would be: pre-wedding, Ianto’s invisible for a portion of the book, Tosh is her adorable self, Owen doesn’t get much of a spotlight except as a person who makes jokes and the balance between ‘ships is almost on target.
Anyway, this’ll be mostly comments… onwards!

( Onwards )

Not too many, but they are of varying geekiness.

How to make K9 from Doctor Who in Lego
There's also designs for the TARDIS and a Dalek there.

A Star Trek ship (I can't remember the names, ever) and made from random bits and pieces.

(From the same blog) Fixing sandals OR how to use a leather sewing awl

Felted animals! I'm pretty sure this guy has also posted his stuff on DeviantArt, but I can't be bothered checking.

Vampire cupcakes I just really want to try the cherry/vanilla flavour combination. Bonus vampire biscuits/cookies

I really wish this was a real product: Aerosol scents: book-lover style

Particles larger than galaxies

The perfect poached egg. Although I'm not sure about using glad wrap/cling film. That stuff is NASTY when heated.
The website that its hosted on also has a weekly newsletter filled with links and stuff.

And the link de resistance. An amazing site with not-so-serious experiments
Seriously, you've heard of nailing jelly to a wall and how impossible that is? Well, following on from this guy's experiments the people behind myscienceproject.org decided to follow it up. That experiment is here.
But what's of more interest, possibly, is the sucession of Jell-o/jelly shot experiments they did.
First is about how to increase the alcohol content without compromising structure or taste.
They try to up the results, which just ends up with them setting the shots on fire.
Then it's how to make the best tasting jelly cocktails, followed by a kind of footnote on blue flavoured jell-o/jelly shots.

I'm not too sure on the cocktails, but the chocolate/cherry confection they made looks really tasty.

I have to have a spiral bookcase staircase tower. As in a tower, with a spiral staircase, that has a bookcase running up along the wall following the staircase. And at the top would be a library, with chaise longues to sit/lounge on and loads of books.

( The rest is more or less optional )

So, bits of what a dream house of mine would look like. I don't actually imagine it as an entire whole, just... rooms, not connected or anything. Just rooms the way I would love them to be. Sofas and all.

Eh, for the past couple of weeks I’ve been kind of meh. Been pottering around baking and doing some school work here and there, as well as doing some sewing. Made a dent in the pile, but then the wind in my sails stalled and it’s all meh.

Meeting up with people on Sunday was good though. Although the book I gain from that wander around Wellington means I should really get rid of some of the books I don’t like on my bookshelf.
Don’t suppose anyone can tell me if Terry Goodkind’s book “Confessor” is any good and I should try reading it, even though I haven’t read the others?
If not, I’m selling it and a couple of other books my grandmother got me and I read once before shelving it away. Not any of the books I actually liked though.

( Watched the Doctor Who Easter Special on this Monday, which was Queen’s Birthday Monday. )

Other lessons learnt from TV is that the writers of Bones, or possibly the editors who cut together the previews for the channel it shows on, are really really really pushing the Booth/Bones envelope. (NZ is a month or so behind in episodes, it’s the one right after the mascot murder one. You should know the one I'm talking about.)
Also, if you are going to fake archaeological finds, at least stratify them will you? Salting brooches willy-nilly over a farm is not how you hoax things up.

Phoenix and Ashes – Mercedes Lackey

I had Phoenix and Ashes in my bookpile when I rambled about The Wizard of London and I didn’t even remember that I had it. Oh well…

( Anyway, this book is better than that one. )

House of Many Ways – Diana Wynne Jones

( I finally got around to reading this sequel to 'Howl’s Moving Castle'... )

Firstly, I rediscovered the Hubble Site in my bookmarks! So that means I spent an hour downloading gorgeous pictures of nebulae and galaxies.
My favourite has to be this nebula: Pismis 24 and NGC 6357

Secondly, blood stain pillows. I seriously want to make one. I may very well do.
(I like the 'Wish' laser-cut card as well.)

I love this site. So many links.
Transforming furniture
Unique bookcases II
Unique bookcases I
Weird bedroom design For some reason I can imagine Gwen liking the bat and sheild table.
Chairs! Interesting ones!
Interesting lights!
I could continue linking to that site, but I shouldn't. It is amazing though.


And I've done some more tag organising...

This one gets creepy points for having Bilis on the cover. That and Ianto with half a clown face. No one likes Bilis and Ianto just looks silly with that Photoshopping. (Never mind that it’s unintentionally hilarious, what with all those Joker manips people were making last year.) Oh and about ten minutes after you’ve looked at the cover, you realised they’ve altered the Jack of Hearts on the cover so that it has Jack’s face.


It’s definitely a weird book. The dream futures can never happen, although they could’ve where the novel is placed. Which kinda makes your head hurt all kinds of upside down, but because in general it’s extremely weird, I’m gonna take it as not canon. I mean, Bilis shows up again.
And in ONE page, three fourths of the way through, the entire story shifts from “Bilis is evil” to “He’s actually trying to save us”. Wut.

Anyway, that’s all I can say about it. Mostly just comments that you won’t get if you haven’t read the book.


( And I ramble about the SUV, some of the team dynamics and Ianto's characterisation, chocolate, dream sequences, languages which aren't pronounced the way they spell and a bit about Foyle's War which is only vaguely relevant )



Now, a bit of a ramble.
“Everyone had that chance to turn left rather than right.” is one of the phrases that struck me as odd. I know that symbolically speaking, right is almost always considered the ‘light’ path and left the ‘dark’ path, but Turn Left had the ‘light’ path as left and the ‘dark’ path as right. I have no idea if there are any other Doctor Who episodes with a similar ‘left is good’ thing going on but… this book and it’s right=light theme AND The Wizard of London’s, which I was reading at the same time, seemed very odd after I remembered that episode.
After all, the sinister isn’t always wrong and bad, something I learnt from reading Margaret Mahy’s The Two Sisters, which I absolutely loved. (Which apparently has a chamber opera written for it.) It can be just as beautiful and good as the dexter, even if they are different. Lessons in fairytales 101.
So yes… felt a bit weird about this book and The Wizard of London keeping close to the usual narrative of light and dark/right and left-hand paths. Especially considering Turn Left.

Er... over all? I think I've already mentioned this, but it's weird. But I did like the funny bits.

No.

Although this is a very poorly worded question. I do believe it exists. You may have heard of the planet it exists on, Earth. You may even know a funny creature named a human who particpates in it. You may not know that it is supremely unnatural for a mammal like the human to practise it.

Joking aside, I don't believe it is the one size fits all of relationships. It seems to work for many people though and many people seem to believe is is one size fits all.
But I'm the person who doesn't fit the 'one size fits all' hat. So yeah, people can have just one partner. They can also have two or three or four... however many they want, like or need. My tendancies towards shipping threesomes quite clearly indicates my support. (I think I have more OT3s/OT4s than I do true OTPs.) *uses OT3 icon*


I actually think having more than one person to rely on emotionally is a great idea. Communal emotional support is great in a more general, less deep way too, which is why friends are all sorts of awesome. *gives hugs to everyone*

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In other news, Fenrir Inc., the company who produced Sleinipr, my favourite web browser, has produced an image editor.
Nothing terribly sophisticated, better than paint, but since it isn't in English, I can't figure out how much so.

It does have layers and layer modes. But it doesn't have image adjustments, just filters. And I haven't quite figured out how to make brushes.

I think the general progression of image editing programs on my computer thus goes: Photoshop > the GIMP > PictBear > Paint