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Am on the express train from Kings X to Leeds, composing this entry on my phone - so formatting might be a little dicky - having had a lovely couple of days away and feeling much refreshed. I had fun at the British Museum & took Duracell Bunny on a tour of some of the dodgier pubs in London, which was great. We ended up playing doubles pool with a couple of French lesbians in Candybar, which was a proper laugh. And then this evening we had something to eat in the Betjeman Arms at St Pancras, which is fast becoming one of my favourite pubs.

I am now looking forward to getting home to my

matgb and my Holly and my doggies. I've had a great time, but I've missed them lots.

Anyhew, the point of this post is twofold:

To let you all know that I'm not dead.
to mention that because of stupid rail pricing structures, the cheapest ticket option to get home was to buy a return, so I have an open ticket to London to be used before the 8th of March. I thought I'd use it as an opportunity to see all (or at least some) of the Londonny folks I keep missing. So watch this space for planny things.

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nanila and I'll be putting the proper code in for this bit when I'm not composing it on my phone. Probably.

I am located at: on the train
I am feeling: tired
What? I can't hear you over: idiot next to me's iPod

We just attended a local version of Question Time, in the hall of a nearby school, Dimbledored by a local methodist minister. Lets have a game of "match SB's impression of all the candidates to the candidate's name", shall we? It's very simple. Match a number to a letter, and let's see who is closest... Your prize will be in the form of smugness :D

Candidate Name and party	Matches with?	SB's Impression
1, Booth, Stephanie (Labour)		A, Vacuous, slimy, self-important, self-obsessed turd who will likely win
2, Buckley, Greg (UKIP)		B, Sweet, enthusiastic, spent most of their time endorsing Lib Dem policies
3, Myers, Hilary (Lib Dem)		C, Surprisingly nice, given that they are related by marriage to Tony Blair, but hasn't got a cat in hell's chance of winning due to both local and national scandals
4, Chris O'Conner (Ind)		D, Batshit insane but quite likeable anarchist
5, Kate Sweeny (Green)		E, Utterly lovely, the most sensible candidate by far, will likely come second
6, Craig Whittaker (Tory)		F, Completely clueless, ill-informed, ill-prepared, and risibly bad at public speaking

The most amusing bit of the evening was several of the Labour camp assuming we were Labour and putting a charm offensive on - one of them even tried to recruit me LOL. And the scrum over who got to be nicest to the cute little girl (that would be my daughter) in the front row was rather amusing too. At the end, Holly pointed to Hilary and said I'd vote for her. Lets hope the electorate of the Calder Valley feels the same way, eh?

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I am feeling: amused

As February starts to bite, the tradition of it being a shitty month seems to be continuing. Following in a long and glorious tradition (well, following Mortimer, anyway), the current Queen of Lib Dem blogging, Charlotte Gore, has hung up her keyboard. We mourn her passing, and reminisce about her many fine rants.

But as we mourn, we must celebrate the fact that this means a succession to the throne, and the next highest ranked female Lib Dem blogger is the one and only Caron. May Cthulhu bless her and all who sail in her.

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Here is a list of things I put in my "things to link to" folder over the past week:

Ads bearing Malware appear on Livejournal. It's at this point I would like to remind everyone that DW is totally ad free...

Sarah-Jane.tv are running the third annual Sonic Lipstick awards. Go and vote, all you SJA fans!

How to deal with conversations with geeks.

Assisted Death: Pterry is in the news over it. He did the Dimbleby Lecture last night, and it was very moving, and I urge you all to watch it. The best post I have seen on the matter is here.

Sexual Harrassment: the post is about ending it at conventions, but it could easily be applied to workplaces too.

Chromatic Fandoms: despite agreeing with many of the criticisms of the exercise (detailed superbly by Debi here) I still think it was a cool thing to do. And the best one I saw was this re-imagining of Blake's Seven by

moviegrrl.

Wikio Labs: an interesting new set of tools on Wikio. I particularly like the backlinks factory.

The Fail on Sunday ruins another life unapologetically. Why do people continue to buy the stupid rag?

And, in order to inject a bit of levity to proceedings, here's

moviegrrl again with her reaction to the release of Apple's much-vaunted new tablet PC...

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I am feeling: busy

On Sunday I was very briefly a trending topic on twitter, as lots of people retweeted my anger over the fact that there is a page on Facebook where one can become a fan of Hitting Women. Lots and lots of people did as I politely requested, and reported it to Facebook as inappropriate content. Yet it's still there. It's been there for well over a week now. A standing testament to the fact that while it's unacceptable to pick on the religious, or ginger people, or those of a different skin colour, sustained abuse against 51% of the population is perfectly fine in the eyes of our society. I, for one, am sick of women being classed as a lower order of human being, and I do not think it's acceptable.

How long do you think it's going to be before someone comments to tell me I'm a humourless feminazi who can't take a joke? Shall we start a countdown?

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I am feeling: infuriated

Did you know? February is Women in Horror Recognition Month. Horror is a fandom I have neglected of late, so I thought I ~~jump on the bandwagon~~ would use this opportunity to talk about it.

The thing is, horror is generally seen as a very het male genre. Women are there to be eye candy, not to be the protagonist. To be rescued, not to be the rescuer. To be passive, not active. Of course, this is the case across the entertainment industry, but it is even more the case in horror. But sometimes the horror industry does produce a female lead who is exceptional. Today, I'd like to talk about just one of them.

Ellen Ripley

It says a lot about how even our language is subject to the kyriarchy, that I want to refer to Ripley as The Daddy. Ripley is not a male lead played by a woman, nor is she an eye-candy screamer who survives by luck, she is an all-out all-woman heroine. She uses her brains and her muscles to outwit the men, the aliens, and the evil computers of her future world, and she saves the cat while she's at it.

She's intelligent without being irritating, assertive without being arrogant, capable without being cocky, strong without being strident, and sexy without being sexual. She takes everything that the dystopia she lives in throws at her, and throws it right back with a hearty fuck you.

But the best thing about Ripley is she's not perfect. Sometimes she screws up. The way she deals with her errors are what make her, as a character, for me. She's not a Schwarzenegger-like God character, she's a flawed human being, and she's the most real female horror lead I can think of.

The tragedy is that she really is one of a kind. Every generation should have a Ripley, and we've been waiting 31 years for the next one to come along.

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I am feeling: contemplative

Hello internets! Did you miss me? My week has been full of ups and downs and drama. I have had a promise to buy my car reneged on (so it looks like it will be eBayed pretty soon). I have had my hair done at Toni and Guy (been saving up for that one for ages). I have done lots of cellar work at work, and lots of karate and climbing. I have redone the menu leaflet for work. I have made a fair dent in all the web design stuff I'm supposed to be doing, but am nowhere near finished. And I haven't stopped all week. I've barely had time to switch the computer on, let alone blog.

I have managed to have an f-list cull across all platforms though. If you've been removed, don't take it to heart, I was just drowning under the weight of stuff. I feel a lot better for reducing facebook and twitter by about a third. LJ was harder, and Dreamwidth harder still, but I think it will do my sanity good.

State of my health: I have a bunged up nose, loads of bruises of unknown origin, a knackered knee, a pulled pelvic floor muscle, and have been having the odd depressive attack. And I am very very very tired.
State of my finances: buggered.
State of my house: a tip.
State of my love life: pretty good.
State of my inbox: overflowing.
State of my To Do List: overwhelming.

Urge to do anything about any of the above? Non-existent.

I spent last night sitting in bed, nursing my poor sore knee, sipping brandy and watching Genesis of the Daleks. I have Imbolc to look forward to next weekend, not to mention lovely friends coming to visit for fun times (Andrew Hickey even says I can plait his beard!), and then a few days away in sunny Luton. Last week was very busy and stressful, but next week looks to be being better. :D

Oh yes, and I have a new sponsor :D Say hello to the lovely

nanila, who was the very first Dreamwidth friend I made. Her blog is excellent, and you should all be reading it.

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I am working ridiculously long hours this weekend, so probably won't see you all until Monday, when I shall be unveiling my new sponsor. Thanks for the advice on the car, I shall have to beg for more money to get it MOTed. I hate being in debt... It's so frustrating that Mat actually HAS a job now, but we won't actually start seeing any money from it for at least another month.

Anyway, say goodbye to Ozzy...

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I am feeling: tired

I had my stitches taken out today. I am stitch free. I also did karate and I was rubbish because I haven't done proper training for weeks. But the main issue at the minute is that I have to sell the car. And I need to ask your advice about that.

For various reasons I owe my dad £640, and he needs it back ASAP (within the next two weeks). To obtain that money, I can sell Kaligula (I can cycle to work, and it will be fine to be carless). Kaligula's tax and MOT have run out. If I MOT and tax him I will PROBABLY get much more money for him, but I can't afford to do that. So do I borrow more money and then gamble that I will get £640 + whatever it costs to tax and MOT the car, or do I just stick it on eBay untaxed and untested?

Tell me, oh internet. Give me your wisdom.

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I am feeling: mildly inebriated.

2010 is really turning out to be a big steaming pile of shite. Anyone else got anything to throw at me? Come on, bring it on. I can take it. I'm a big girl.

I really, really, really want to go and kick the shit out of something right now. Somebody give me an excuse. Please.

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I am feeling: infuriated

... I requested Ripley/McKay slash from

strangefrontier. This means I have to repost the meme. Like SF, I can't remember the last time I managed to finish a writing gift for someone, and when I offer drabbles I get stuck in one request expanding far beyond 100 words and then forget about all the others. Let's see if I can stick to the plan this time too!

The first TEN people to comment in this post get to request that I write a drabble of any pairing/character of their choosing. In return, they have to post this in their blog/journal, regardless of their ability level.

Don't expect me to be quick about it, though. I have lots of design stuff to do, and am working a 6 day week this week.

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I am feeling: calm

My google-fu is failing me on this one, so I am putting out a batsignal to the f-list: does anyone know how to make it so a Skype conversation window is always on top? I know it must be possible because google reveals someone wanting to DISable it... I did look at that to see if I could work it backwards, but it appears to be for a different version of the software or something.

Any ideas?

Oh, and while you're feeling helpful, go and see if you can help

matgb with this.

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I am located at: in bed
I am feeling: frustrated
What? I can't hear you over: Duracell Bunny on Skype

When I was a nipper we used to watch a lot of sport on the telly. My dad and I both love rugger, obvs, but there was also athletics and tennis and snooker and... ah yes, the snooker. Holly and I have been watching the snooker this week. Holly loves Ronnie O'Sullivan, in a way that reminds me very much of how I used to be about Jimmy White.

ANYWAY. When I was a nipper, whoever we wanted to win would always lose in the final when my mum watched it (Jimmy White in the World Snooker Championships, year after year, being a particular bugbear). So my mum was eventually barred from watching after the semis of any championship we cared about, lest The Curse of Mother affect the result.

Tonight Holly and I were watching the final of the Masters. She was getting very excited because Ronnie was winning, and I had all hell on to persuade her to go to bed. Eventually, when Ronnie was nine frames to six ahead, and only needed one more frame to win, I got her to go.

The final score?

O'Sullivan 9 - 10 Selby.

The curse! It lives on!

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I am feeling: amused

For a number of reasons I think it would be sensible for me to take a sanity break for a couple of weeks. If you need to contact me I'll still be phoneable and textable, but I'm going offline for a while, so don't expect me to be blogging or twittering or answering emails. Thank you for understanding, and I'll see you in a couple of weeks.

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I am located at: hiding under the duvet wishing the world would go away
I am feeling: tired

My back hurts, and topical application of my lovely Monty Python box set isn't helping. So have some:

Fresh Squeezings From the veins of the Internet

Nick Clegg's rubbishing of Gina Ford seems to have garnered almost totally positive coverage. OK, so Gina's not impressed, but everyone else seems quite happy to have an MP actually stating an opinion and not equivocating. Who'da thunk it? I do like this mickey-take in the Graun though.

Speaking of MPs, if you've ever fancied a go at being one, there's a new game on the parliament website. It's pretty resource intensive, and even on easy doesn't give you nearly enough time to even answer all your messages. Still, it's an interesting little diversion. I only did monday, but I ended it with excellent voter happiness and media coverage, and only a mildly negative party rating... ;)

Christopher Lee is recording a metal album. Yes, you read that right. It's either going to be magnificently over the top and ridiculous, or cringemakingly over the top and ridiculous. I can't decide which.

Heart-warming news: a reconciliation between Guantanamo inmates and guard. I don't have anything to say about that, other than go read it.

Pope Shits in the Woods News: Illegal downloaders spend more on music than anyone else. Is anyone really surprised by this?

And today's meme is Design a Cameron Billboard Poster. There's a bunch of them here for inspiration. Here's my effort:

Click to embiggen, or why not have a go at making one yourself?

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I am feeling: busy

My mole is removed
I have a hole in my back
Please send me brandy

The doctor was lovely. It didn't hurt much beyond having the anaesthetic injection, and it just feels hot now. She is sending the mole off to the hospital for biopsy just to be sure, but she says she's 99.5% certain it's nothing to worry about. I have three stitches and a ruddy great Elastoplast, and I have to go back next Thursday to have the stitches out. Dr Reed says the worst bit will be pulling the plaster off LOL.

I have to be gentle and not do anything which might pull or impact on it. This means no karate until next Thursday at the earliest. I'm allowed to go climbing as long as I am gentle, and I'm not allowed to walk the dogs if they are likely to pull - which they are. I'm also not allowed to get it wet, which will make bathtime interesting.

amazing_holly and

matgb have both been lovely. Holly gave me extra gentle hugs and then covered me with her cardigan to make sure I was warm enough, and Mat is being all attentive and nice. And I have another day off work tomorrow, which will help.

All in all, it could have been lots worse.

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I am located at: in bed with lovely Mat
I am feeling: relieved
What? I can't hear you over: Mat typing on his little laptop.

I thought I was getting comfortable in my politics geekery. I must have been. Because the last 24 hours has seen fate grab a bazooka and fire several missiles in my direction.

Firstly, Mat went to a local party campaign group meeting last night and I'm not going to go into detail about what happened, but I suspect that the ructions will be pretty severe and longlasting. There's battles to be fought, and I don't know if either of us has the mental energy required. I was aware that elements within the local party held some animosity towards us, but was not aware of the lengths to which they will go to exclude us from any form of decision-making until last night. Cthulhu alone knows how we are supposed to recruit activists when they actively try to piss off the ones they already have. I fully expect the party to lose ground in both the general and council elections if things continue as they are, which in the current political climate is not just a crying shame and a missed opportunity, but an infuriating exercise in cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

Still, at least the national party is doing OK, right? Well, maybe. Our Glorious Leader has chosen today to announce that we won't be able to afford all the policy commitments we are committed to, despite the fact that three months ago conference told him we would not be happy about it. Predictably it's the equality-based commitments that are highest up the cancellation list.

Thirdly, The Speaker's Conference has decided that in lieu of doing anything that will actually help end discrimination, they are going to go for the imposition of counter-productive and patronising all-women shortlists.

And finally, the possibility of attending spring conference (or, indeed, any conference ever again) is looking more and more remote. Mat's new job does not allow him time off during term time, and we can't afford the entrance fee anyway. There's no point in attending as a steward to get in for free, because that means we won't actually be able to attend anything. And the way I am feeling today about the party, I'm not actually sure I'd want to go anyway.

Still, at least I have nice, relaxing surgery to look forward to this afternoon.

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I am feeling: pissed off

Fresh Squeezings From the Veins of the Internet

Snow Joke! If you have been housebound, you may not have heard that the UK is in the grip of a big freeze because climate change has "temporarily" rerouted the Gulf Stream. Science Punk has some suggestions for fun and interesting things to do in the snow.

Moar Sciencey Stuff: The Ladybird Book of Chiropractic Treatment and English Libel Law; Scans of 16th century science books and 'The Unbroken Thread' (ft. Attenborough, Goodall, Sagan) (last two via the wonderful strangefrontier).

Doctor Who News Redux: the new series writers I talked about last time have been officially confirmed. Not only is there not a single female writer, but there's the guy who wrote Men Behaving Badly and Chris frigging Chibnall. I expect huge steaming piles of misogyny in series 31...

Politics Stuff: Ming the Merciless Q&A in the Indy and a graphic comparison of party finances and value for money.

Geek News: which CPU is best value for money in terms of performance for price paid? PaulIsAGeek has the skinny, in a dynamic table.

And today's meme is inspired by this post on Geeka Chicas: What is, in your opinion, the best and worst remake ever made?

Best: House of Wax with Vincent Price, a remake of Mystery of the Wax Museum. I have a soft spot for the original of this, but Price's performance in the remake is astounding. Honourable mention to the Raul Julia/Angelica Huston reboot of the Addams family, which I love enormously.

Worst: This is between the Nicholas Cage remake of The Wicker Man and the Tom Hanks remake of the Ladykillers for me... I am sure the forthcoming Mel Gibson version of Edge of Darkness is going to challenge those, though. Lets take a sophisticated and subtle political suspense film and turn it into a bangs and flashes action flick... *headdesk headdesk headdesk*

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I am located at: in bed with lovely Mat
I am feeling: busy
What? I can't hear you over: saturday play on radio 4

I am going in for minor surgery to remove a mole on my back on Monday. It's been there since I was born, but has recently become more prominent and started itching. The doctor says it's probably nothing to worry about, but he's going to whip it off just to be sure.

I'm trying not to worry about it, but I can't help having it prey on my mind, and this necessarily impacts upon the blogging. On the plus side, it does mean that I have finally done a bit of work on some of the design stuff I am meant to be doing, because that is a nice distraction. Hopefully it hasn't made my design work all grim and worried-looking...

In other news, it's still snowing, and the current temperature is -3. This is getting really old now...

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