dorsetgirl

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Below are the 25 most recent journal entries recorded in the "dorsetgirl" journal:

June 23rd, 2017
08:52 am [Link]	Welcome to my Journal Hi there! Although this is mainly a fic journal, I do use the dorsetgirl identity to post comments in a variety of places, so if you've arrived here from a non-fandom location, welcome! This journal contains the occasional rant or rambling about life in general, but most of it is fic, some of which is of an explicit nature. Please do not read on unless you're comfortable with that.
June 22nd, 2017
08:34 pm [Link]	My Fic Masterlist - Last Updated April 2011 . This list is a work in progress; it's not completely up-to-date with everything posted between January2010 and April 2011. I plan to go through the drabble challenges etc when I have time, to pick up the bits I've missed. Most of my fic is set in the Life on Mars universe; nearly all of it is slash - that's a male/male relationship. If that bothers you, don't read any further. Items marked * are new since the last update. At present, most of the links go to comms rather than my journal, because that's where the comments are and because not everything is here in my journal yet. (If you'd like to add to the comments, I would be delighted!) ( Life on Mars fic ) ( Other Fic )** (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
May 24th, 2012
10:49 am [Link]	Not selfish, no, not at all. My middle son has his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze practice expedition this weekend. When the older one did his expedition two years ago, I heard back from one of the dads that there really weren't enough checkpoints for safety because they didn't have enough volunteers. So when I got an email from the school asking urgently for more volunteers to run checkpoints, I straight away said yes, we would each do one day, and I assumed the only problem would be stopping OH taking over in his "I'm the man, this is a man's job" kind of way. Not so. "Well, what does it involve? You don't want to be sitting in the middle of nowhere by yourself." I differ. I'd much rather I be sitting in the middle of nowhere by myself than my rather impractical, slightly clumsy, daydreamy middle son sitting in the middle of said nowhere by himself. And besides, what the hell do you think manning a checkpoint involves ffs? "What time would it be? How many hours?" Well, I didn't bother asking, tbh. It's less than an hour away, and all I have in the calendar is do the washing and go to Waitrose. And if you have anything more important to do this weekend, perhaps you could have mentioned it before now? "...because it's the Monaco Grand Prix, and I want to watch the qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday". Right. Because that's obviously more important than your son's safety, or supporting the school in providing this very useful and enjoyable activity. I do know that it's only women who get the automatic personality transplant when a baby is born, but seriously, wtf? (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
10:03 am [Link]	What was that about? So far it's been a very non-routine day. Normally my kids get the train to school, but I have a policy that anyone taking an external exam has the right to a lift to school, by themselves, if they want it. Which oldest - having an AS Maths exam today - did. Middle and youngest both have school trips today, middle son's coach having to leave school at 8:30 on the dot. That only leaves ten minute's grace from the time he normally gets in, so I thought it best for him to have a lift in as well in case there was any problem with the trains. Luckily OH has very flexible working hours, so it's been in the diary for a week for him to take middle and youngest in while I took oldest. Unfortunately oldest gets very unsettled by anything non-routine, and with two people going on trips, I swear he could feel the non-routineness of the day from his bed (the one he was still lying in half an hour before his designated leaving time). Anyway, I finally got the younger two sorted to go. Youngest (blond, pale skin, sun-seeking instincts of a vampire) is on a Geography field trip which will have him in the midday sun for several hours - I wonder if it's only in England that you have to insist on high-factor suncream (forecast 26 degrees) and a waterproof jacket (possibility of heavy showers) for the same trip? (Yes, I do know the difference between Britain and England, but I'm thinking Scotland probably won't have the high temperature and for some reason I imagine Wales to be colder also). Oldest finally wandered into the bathroom ten minutes before planned leaving time, to wash his hair. In the end we left at 8:25, and I was getting seriously worried about getting him there in time. The journey is nominally twenty minutes, but there are several extremely badly-phased sets of traffic lights which can push it up to thirty-five. Anyway, I got him there for ten to, which was OK. Twenty-five minutes of total silence broken only by his mate phoning to ask anxiously whether he was up yet. On the way out through the former big-house park that his school shares with two other schools and a college, my car was stared at very beadily indeed by a officious-looking type with a hi-vis jacket and a clipboard. I have no idea what that was about - OK, I could have gone out another way, but I think I had every right to be where I was. I wish now I'd stopped and asked him if he had a problem, but I'd already had entirely too much human interaction for one morning so I just stared back as I drove past. Then finally, as I queued up for one of the above-mentioned sets of lights, I saw a guy reclining on the grass on the other side of the road, displaying a small placard. He was 25-30, pleasant- and cheerful-looking and he didn't exactly look as if he was hitching a lift, so I looked more closely, and as I came alongside him I saw that his hand-written notice said, "FEMALE ARROGANCE SUCKS". Female arrogance exists? So I gave him the finger, because he looked reasonable, and he smiled and reciprocated. What was that about? He definitely didn't look angry, or as if he'd been chucked out of his home or anything. Again, I wish now I'd stopped and asked, but talking isn't often my first reaction to something that puzzles me. (Leave a comment)
April 23rd, 2012
09:41 am [Link]	Keep Big Business out of NHS decision-making Reposted from this page 38 Degrees are asking for £1 of your money today The 38 Degrees office team has just been told that two big private healthcare companies are plotting to rig the future of our NHS in their favour. On Tuesday Capita and United Healthcare are planning to try and schmooze with leading GPs at a conference in London. These GPs have been put in charge of deciding who runs services in the new NHS. Right now no one's quite sure how it will work, but the big healthcare companies know this is their chance to grab big chunks of the NHS. They want to take advantage of the confusion to lobby doctors and drown out the voices of ordinary patients. I've just chipped in along with thousands of other 38 Degrees members to sponsor an alternative event, to represent the voices of ordinary patients. It won't be as lavish as the big corporate events, but I hope it will make a big impression because thousands of ordinary people have come together to pay for it. Could you chip in £1 to make it happen? Click here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/GP-Event-Donate Tags: comment (Leave a comment)
April 19th, 2012
04:09 pm [Link]	Apropos of nothing at all... I've been randomly following links and WOW am I pleased I followed this one! Not for the story itself so much as how totally gorgeous this man is - I've watched about three times now and I just keep laughing in delight at his beauty and the way he's eye-fucking the interviewer while the surgeon is talking. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17222883 (Leave a comment)
April 18th, 2012
08:49 am [Link]	This has cheered me up! I've always enjoyed this song, but setting it to Lego has me lol'ing like a mad thing: (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
March 24th, 2012
09:38 pm [Link]	Film - the Hunger Games - No Spoilers . I’ve been holding off reading the book(s) because with the sole exception of Harry Potter, every film-from-a-book I’ve ever seen has been a major disappointment. So I decided to watch the film first and work up. [As an aside, my fifteen-year-old has read the books, and he felt the film reflected them (or more particularly, plot-wise, the first one) reasonably well in terms of characterisation, plot and general tone.] Well, I enjoyed the film, quite a lot. Reading the reviews this evening when we got home, there are various points from the book that critics say have been left out of the film; well, maybe for some people, but I got them. I’m looking forward to reading the books now, but I totally got the message that this is about us, and our society, and the extent to which some characters were just performing for the cameras. “Most Interesting Male” Award: There was one character who, all the way through the film, I was thinking, “Who is that guy? Very charismatic, rather attractive and faintly familiar.” Watching the credits at the end, I was gobsmacked to find it was Woody Harrelson. (Well, OK, I haven’t seen him in anything except Cheers, and he was just a pretty boy and presumably thirty years younger then). Very nice piece of work there. The only time the film dragged, for me, was when it suddenly turned into a teenage luuurve moment, but apparently the books were written for teenagers, so I suppose that was to be expected. Conclusion: go and see it, it’s an interesting story and a clever look at the superficial nature of modern society. Tags: diary, film, review (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
March 23rd, 2012
08:22 am [Link]	From a long time ago... La Chica de Ayer Fic - Madrileños . Title: Madrileños Author: DorsetGirl Fandom: Crossover: Life on Mars / La Chica de Ayer (Spanish LOM) Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters or their universe. BBC/Kudos/Antena3 do. I’m not making any money out of this. Rating: White Cortina Pairing: Sam/Gene Word Count: 450 approx Summary: There’s a couple in Spain just like Sam and Gene... A/N: I seem to have written this back in 2009 and never got round to posting it. margo_kim’s WIP Amnesty Drabble Challenge set me searching, and I thought I might as well chuck this one out there. You don’t need to have seen La Chica de Ayer to make sense of this, but a glance at this pic or this snippet might help. (And this is afaik the only other piece of La Chica de Ayer fic ever written, although I'd love to hear I'm wrong on that one.) By the way, if you want to know what they're talking about in the park bench scene, it's here. ( Madrileños ) (Leave a comment)
March 11th, 2012
10:25 am [Link]	I did not need that, thank you. Warning - contains mention of spiders . Dear Internet, Why is it that we're supposed to be so careful about warning for anything that someone else might find offensive or "triggery" when it's about religion or colour or sexuality but it's perfectly OK to post - without any warning and not under a cut - a close-up of a fucking huge hairy SPIDER for fuck's sake? Last time someone did it I put up a comment asking for it to go under a cut - the poster refused and basically implied that I was being pathetic and unreasonable, and all the other comments were about how perfectly fucking cute it was. Some days, frankly, I hate the politically-correct section of the world that says you only have to be politically correct about the things that it's politically correct to be politically correct about and that almost getting a heart attack from a sudden unexpected FUCKING GREAT HAIRY SPIDER apparently doesn't count. Fuck off, world, I'm going to sit outside in the sunshine. (7 comments \| Leave a comment)
March 7th, 2012
11:53 am [Link]	Another city busily travelling backwards It's not too late to petition the Governor of St Petersburg, asking him not to ratify their nasty new anti-gay legislation. Apparently the aim of the new law is to "improv[e] the moral image of St. Petersburg" so that it can become "the moral face of Europe". Personally, I think what they're doing is utterly immoral. Thanks to hambelandjemima for bringing this to my attention. Tags: comment, slash (Leave a comment)
February 18th, 2012
11:54 pm [Link]	The Woman in Black - No Spoilers . Went to see The Woman in Black this afternoon. It is utterly, brilliantly, *fucking* scary, and should not be a 12A. It should be at least a 15, and I'd almost say it should be an 18, except that probably 15-18s would be less freaked by some parts of it than adults would be. My almost-thirteen-year-old had his eyes closed most of the time, and he'll watch terror and gore that turns my stomach. My fifteen-year-old had his ears covered half the time (he's weird like that). As for me, I never swear in front of the youngest, but despite the fact that he was sitting right next to me, the various shocks and frights had me completely unable to stop myself coming out with things like "fucking hellfire" and "Jesus Christ". There were several moments where practically the whole cinema jumped and about ten percent (including me) gasped or shrieked in shock. After about an hour, I was wrung out, and couldn't watch the scary bits any more. I was covering my eyes every time the music got worked up. Having said all that, it is an excellent film, truly. As soon as I got out of the cinema I was regretting the bits I'd missed - I just couldn't take so much suspense and fear in such a short time. Daniel Radcliffe is very good indeed - at no point did I feel I was watching a child actor grown up, I was just watching an actor who had the part nailed, and was indeed very watchable. This film will do his transition to an adult film career no harm at all. In case you haven't read any other reviews, this film is horror the ooold-fashioned way: lots and lots of tension and atmosphere till you're so strung out that you'll jump at almost anything. Even though I couldn't hack it for the whole film, I still thoroughly recommend it. It simply is a very good film. Oh, and the Woman herself is apparently played by Liz White, but I have to admit that all the scenes with her were so scary that I never actually got a look at her face. Tags: diary, film, ramblings, review (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
January 24th, 2012
10:23 am [Link]	To UK Flisties Originally posted by de_nugis at To UK Flisties (Taken most recently from amber1960, slightly adapted.) Edited for length. If you're from the UK and you believe in freedom of speech and an uncensored internet, you really need to sign this petition. There are others floating about, but that particular one is the best way to ensure that your voice gets heard. It's hosted on the directgov website and addresses parliament directly. If it gets more than 100,000 signatures, it becomes eligible for discussion in the House of Commons. Everyone's been getting so worked up over SOPA -- and rightly so -- that ACTA seems to have slipped under the radar. This is hugely problematic, because ACTA is a similar bill, but it has the potential to be far more damaging than SOPA ever could be. ACTA is a global treaty which has already been signed by eight countries, including the US, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore. Europe votes on Thursday. If they vote 'no', the bill will have to be taken back to the drawing board and reformulated, which should buy us some time at the very least. If you think this doesn't affect you, you're wrong. If ACTA passes, it could well signal the end of the internet as we know it, and that isn't an exaggeration. If ACTA passes, sites like YouTube, Livejournal, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and even Google and Wikipedia could become impossible to maintain. ACTA would allow ISPs to monitor your net activity and cut off internet access for your entire household if one person is suspected of breaching copyright. Internet giants such as Google are opposed to this bill, and it's pretty safe to say that they're not in favour of copyright infringment, as anyone who's ever had a fanvid taken down from YouTube will be painfully aware. Whatever your stance on copyright, this isn't the way to go about dealing with it. This is dangerous legislation that impeaches on some of our most basic human rights, such as the right to privacy and freedom of speech. So if you're from the UK, please, please sign the petition. If you hail from elsewhere in the world, there may well be similar movements in your own country, but I think the most effective thing anybody can do right now is to keep talking about this. Talk about it on Livejournal, on Twitter, on Tumblr, on Facebook, and anywhere else you can think of. Make sure this issue is never far from people's minds. The internet is an amazingly powerful tool: let's utilise it while we still have the chance. Please repost and spread the word :) SAY NO TO ACTA! Please consider reposting this, especially if you have a large proportion of UK flisties. And please consider spreading the word via other platforms: Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, your own personal network. (Leave a comment)
January 18th, 2012
08:41 am [Link]	. . . . If you're outside the US, we can still do something: Petition the US State Department . . . (Leave a comment)
December 31st, 2011
10:21 pm [Link]	Happy New Year Everybody! Posting now while I have a quiet moment. I hope everyone on my flist has a wonderful 2012, and that life treats you well throughout. Lots of love to all of you! (9 comments \| Leave a comment)
December 25th, 2011
01:04 am [Link]	Merry Christmas! Finally done the sacks - I just hope the kids all feel they've got what they were hoping for! Anyways, probably won't be around much on Sunday, what with cooking and whatnot, so I hope you all have a brilliant Christmas Day - see you on the other side! hugs and kisses to all my lovely LJ friends DG (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
December 23rd, 2011
03:42 pm [Link]	Is it finally time to go? . Listen, all this LJ stuff: I'm not a great one for conspiracy theories, but igdick is enjoying the consternation and anger he's provoked. He's delighted with it. This is not a normal way to act in a new job. This is not a normal way to run a business. I don't even like Dreamwidth, but I've nabbed DorsetGirl over there (I suddenly remembered there is another dorsetgirl around the web and I didn't want her getting it!) and I'm importing my LJ over there at this very moment. I'm also planning to do my personal family history LJ as soon as I can. I have no plans to leave LJ, but I want to be ready. The timing of all this is very suspicious - call me paranoid but I wouldn't be completely surprised if we woke up on Christmas Day to find LiveJournal gone. If that happens, I'll see you at Dreamwidth. If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, check out the last few LJ News and Releases posts and read some of the thousands and thousands of angry comments. I don't want this journal getting suspended for dissing igdick so I'm not even putting his real LJ here, let alone his real name. You'll find it quick enough in the comments. /paranoid P.S. People are saying that some people have had AutoPayments switched on, so please do check that out and switch them off again! (Sorry, I haven't time to point people at how-tos right now, but there are links out there. Sorry again). (Leave a comment)
December 16th, 2011
04:12 pm [Link]	Bollocks to 'em, I say So, it's middle son's birthday treat today; we had to bring it forward from tomorrow at short notice because OH has booked himself to do something else. Something fun, of his choice. And now OH is in a foul mood because I asked him not to keep over-filling the kettle so it overflows all over the fucking base and the worktop. And oldest son won't even get out of fucking bed although he said he would come with us, because he was expecting it to be tomorrow. And because he just does that sort of thing; it's not entirely unexpected, but I don't know what he thinks he's going to eat tonight. Anyway, we're going to see Sherlock Holmes, and then we're going to middle son's restaurant of choice, Frankie & Benny's, which is usually good value. I've just got to get there without hurting someone... (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
December 5th, 2011
03:33 pm [Link]	Russell T Davies returns to the UK ...but not for any happy reason. I wish him and Andrew all the very best in getting through this. (Leave a comment)
November 25th, 2011
01:38 pm [Link]	Dear Amazon, this is not the United States What is it with "Black Friday" ffs? Why do Amazon keep sending me emails about it, and why would I want to know? "Black Friday" sounds like something bad, along the lines of Black Monday (Black Monday was the day I started a new job, my first in the financial services industry. Yeah, timing.) Why are these companies trying to sell me something that sounds so bad? And now bloody IWOOT are doing it as well. Dear Amazon and IWOOT, I am not American: I am English and annoyed, and I am in England. Please stop treating this country like a mere outpost of the United States. Tags: comment, ramblings (7 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 22nd, 2011
02:30 pm [Link]	Wootton Bassett Rocks . NEW: Now available at Amazon "Wootton Bassett Rocks" is a project which aims to raise money for four charities: Royal British Legion, The Undentable Trust, Combat Stress and SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association). The people of Royal Wootton Bassett have made a single which comes out on 27th November. It's a cover of Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and - with thanks to the Green Day Authority for the link - you can preview the video by clicking the picture below. The video really captures the way the whole town has worked together on this, in the hope of raising £1m for the above-named services charities. (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 18th, 2011
07:37 pm [Link]	Film - "V for Vendetta" Can anyone give me a steer on how suitable/unsuitable this film would be for a twelve-year-old? It's classified 15 with "very strong language and strong violence", but he's seen The Matrix, also 15, and Torchwood - Miracle Day without apparent trauma. Being the youngest, he has been distinctly less sheltered from stuff than the oldest was! I've been told by several people that this film is brilliant, and I know there's a fandom, but that doesn't really answer the current question. (Context - his big brother has got it out of the library and is talking it up, quoting the V speech etc, so he's gagging to see it right now). Any non-spoilery comments about the film would be welcome, whether or not they directly answer the question! Tags: film (6 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 9th, 2011
02:21 pm [Link]	Book Meme Giant Book Meme Reading meme ganked from suzie_shooter 1. Favourite childhood book? Oddly, I have no idea. No books that I love to go back to because they were so important to me as a child, although I did used to read all the time. 2. What are you reading right now? WaterProof by Chris Crowther; one of a series set on the Norfolk Broads, which is where I bought them. Slightly over-complicated plots, rather formulaic, but wonderful settings, decent characters, plots that are reasonably well resolved at the end. And no messages, no clever pondering upon the human condition, just stories. 3. What books do you have on request at the library? Parish Registers of North Crawley in Buckinghamshire 4. Bad book habit? The only bad book habit imo is not reading. ( Cut for length ) Tags: alex_rider, book_club, comment, film, harrypotter, meme, review (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 2nd, 2011
09:21 am [Link]	Blimey, is it that time of year already... So, November. National Novel Writing Month. But not for me. Sorry, I’ll stop channelling Ian Wylie now. Anyway, I worked out several years ago that if I typed at my normal speed for fifty percent of the minutes I had available during the month, I might just make the 50K. That’s assuming I can think at the same rate I type. Not normally a problem, but I guess fifty thousand words need some kind of joining thread if they’re not going to become totally random, and that involves Plot. I don’t do plot - I can never think of anything for the characters to actually do, and besides, I get bored. I get them in a situation and then start to think, “Oh for fuck’s sake, sort it out for yourself.” I’m not the kind of writer who wants to “convey a message” in my fic; I’ve only ever done that once, and it worked, but I just don’t have it in me to want to tell other people how to live their lives or what they should be thinking about. All I ask is that no-one tells me what to do or what to think. (This could be why I totally refuse to do Hallowe’en: all those supermarket shelves full of pumpkins and ghouly cakes and stupid costumes simply make me think “Don’t tell me what to do just because it's the end of October.") ( Getting to the point of this ramble: No NaNo for me, so I've signed up for WriSoMiFu - Write Something you Miserable Fuck - which I'm hoping is more my style. ) Tags: diary, family_history, fic, ramblings, wrisomifu (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
October 22nd, 2011
08:40 am [Link]	Busy Busy... Oh, the complications. I won't say everything's organised, because that never ends well. But OH is on his way to Exeter for a car show, oldest son is on a train to London on his way to a University Open Day (Reading), middle son is still asleep, and youngest son is up and raring to go. Us three stay-at-homes will be setting off on holiday in a couple of hours; the general plan is for OH to collect oldest son from Reading this afternoon and we'll all meet up at our holiday location in Norfolk this evening crosses fingers And I still haven't had time to read any of the LoM Big Bang fic, and more immediately, I haven't yet had time to even start watching Hidden. By my calculations it should all still be available on iPlayer when I get back next weekend, so with any luck that's my Monday sorted out. Ian Wylie promises a (brief) shower scene. That man understands us too well. Tags: diary, glenister, proud_mum, ramblings (1 comment \| Leave a comment)

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