And so it begins…

Greetings from Wednesday night. I’m posting this from the past, due to the next few days being chockers with uni assigments. Except today, where I am  combining my love of Halloween with my love of horseracing, and have gone to the Victoria Derby dressed as a gremlin.

Okay, so that’s a lie. But I’m sure I’ll scare someone, as is the time honoured tradition of the day. It might even be Halloween related.

But that’s not what I’m blogging about.

NaNoWriMo. The ultimate seemed like a good idea at the time.

So determined am I to get this thing done that by the time you read this I will have disabled Albert’s internet. (Albert is my laptop.  He is Cockney. I have no evidence of this but he is. Bear that in mind). This means no blogging and probably no twittering. The only things I will be doing is continuing the Neverending Cycle of Scrabble games against my mother (because nothing will ever stop that), and email – gainful employment being somewhat necessary these  days (seriously, I need a job. My highlight today was watching Dharma and Greg/Murder She Wrote back to back, and then Antiques Roadshow and The Simpsons.

Good luck to everyone who has succumbed to NaNo this year. In the dark before the dawn, when the walls are closing in on you, just remember: YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE.

Happy Halloween. Good luck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KUJE2xs-RE

Whatnots and etecteras

Had my copy-edit exam on Thursday. Do not even want to think about it. A pass is all I’m looking for any more. The good news though is that with the exam over and done with, I can turn my attention to other things, like job hunting and writing. And by job hunting and writing, I mean sitting on the couch eating chocolate and watching all five seasons of Press Gang.

If you’re following me on Twitter, you might have a vague idea what I’m talking about. This was my absolute favourite TV show when I was a kid. It made me want to be a journalist for a very long time, it taught me about important moral issues like drugs, guns and child abuse and it taught me about life in England. Most importantly though, it introduced me to the relationship that I now judge all relationships by – Spike and Lynda. Their relationship never really got off the ground, but I keep watching in the hope that one of these days Lynda won’t torpedo it with her insane control-freak ways. Spike Thomson is one of my biggest fictional crushes (and every time I hear Dexter Fletcher speak with his English accent it freaks me out. For the longest time I thought he was American).

Incidentally: 

Dear creators of Press Gang,

WORST SERIES FINALE EVER. HOW DARE YOU END A TV SHOW LIKE THAT? I HATE YOU.

(Not really. I can’t hate you. Not after the immortal line “Your wardrobe was open so I just popped in.”)

Love, Briony

In other news, I finally finished Carpentaria. You can read my review of it here, but suffice to say, it is now one of my favourite books. I only have two more weeks left of uni (which means only one  more semester and then I have to go back to the real world), and I have blocked out my November for NaNo, although I haven’t  fully committed to the idea yet. I need something to get me back on track though… we’ll see.  Ooh, and yesterday I won $40 dollars on one of my friend’s horses at a race at Caulfield. I love this time of year.

In the meantime, I leave you this. How great is Kate Miller-Heidke?

Is this thing on?

It’s been over a month since I’ve been here, and I’m still drowning in a sea of misplaced modifiers and grocers apostrophes. Until such time as I can return to being a functioning member of society, I’m staying offline. In the meantime, here’s a list of important things.

1. I am still reading Carpentaria.

2. I figured out who the killer was on page 223 of The Lost Symbol. Brown, you’re slipping.

3. I went to a music festival which was great! It was only the second time I have ever been camping in my life. The first time was in the Sahara when it was about 50 billion degrees and I got a visit from the Celestial Sand Stalker of the Sahara.

4. I finished up my job at the place with the cat. I also made  friends with the dog that lived next door to the  place with the cat. On my last day he licked my nose.

5. I attempted to dress up as a pirate for International Talk Like A Pirate Day, however I ended up looking like the lead singer of Thin Lizzy. Ah well.

6. New music! I really like Lisa Mitchell , Mumford and Sons, and Philidelphia Grand Jury. Check ‘em out. I also like Air’s new CD.

7. I have applied for an amazing job that I can’t really talk about for fear of jinxing it. Cross your fingers anyway.

8. I’m going to a ball on Friday night. I’m still not entirely sure how that happened, but I’ll be sure to wear my glass slippers. YOU NEVER KNOW.

9. I have a copy editing exam on Thursday. It may kill me. I regret nothing, except maybe dressing like the lead singer of Thin Lizzy on Talk Like A Pirate Day.

10.  On Friday I’m taking my grandmother to see Mao’s Last Dancer, in an effort to distract her from my lack of husband.

All in all, I think the current state of B. can be summed up by the following gif, which apparently only animates if you click on it:

See y’all on the flip side.

Thar she blows…

I am proud to announce that I survived the Big Wind Storm of August 2009. It was a dicey couple of hours there with no power, but in the fine tradition of this house Krystle and I said “screw you mother nature!” and went and ate cake in Ivanhoe.

Before that though, I was home alone with no electricity. And when  I went lookng for candles, torches and pants (as previous pair were soaked in the deluge), I made the startling discovery that THIS HOUSE IS TOTALLY UNPREPARED FOR THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.

Seriously.  My search for illumination and pants yielded the following items that could be useful should the undead walk the Earth:

*One torch, almost flat.
*An assortment of candles including one I got for my 21st, two I bought in Thailand last year and one I got in an oil burner from a friend in 1998.
* Hayley’s hurl
*One oversized cat, who insisted on following me around the house
* Two Ferrero Rochers (clearly the most useful)

As you can see, if this were a zombie movie we’d all be dead by now so I am going to spend tonight on my Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Plan, whilst ignoring the two editing assignments that I have due on Thursday and  Monday respectively.

PS – My second shift at  the Melbourne Writers Festival was awesome, I got to listen to Margo Lanagan and Anthony Eaton talk about young adult fiction and now I am inspired to get  back to my story.

PPS – My first shift at the MWF involved 2 crazy men, a flock of lesbians,  a bearded lady, the federal police and this sign:

You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

Can’t sleep…the soprano will eat me…

Today we had a knock on  the door from someone claiming that he was there to change our lightbulbs for free. We were somewhat sceptical at first (this has happened before, it turned out that it was only free if we changed electricity providers) but it turned out to be genuine. Which is great, and huzzah for free light bulbs, but now I have three working lightbulbs in my room, instead of just one.

You would think that this would also merit a huzzah. But here’s the thing. The light fittings in my room are yellow glass, and with all three light bulbs working, my bedroom is now SAVAGE YELLOW. To a normal person this would be fine, but when I was little I used to have a recurring nightmare where I was stuck in a big yellow room on my own, and the only sound I could hear was an opera singer singing the one high note, without pause. (I swear, I was about seven when this was happening. It stemmed from reading The Enchanted Wood in a way, because the Scary Opera Room was at the top of a tree, Faraway Tree style.)

While I have mostly grown up enough to recognise that just because my room is now SAVAGE YELLOW that the world will not end, I am putting an embargo on opera music, for the sake of the tenuous grasp that I have on my sanity.

I swear I’m not mad.

Many other things have happened since last I wrote an actual post, instead of pointing at impressive things on youtube, but they mainly involve me being really sick and coughing up my lungs. The good news is that despite my best efforts, they are still firmly in place. Even more exciting is that I have gotten my mojo back just in time for the Melbourne Writers Festival, which starts on Friday. Big huzzah! There are many reasons why I’m excited about MWF this year, but the biggest of all is that I get to be a volunteer on the ‘Eclectic Bookshops Walk’, which goes all over Melbourne to bookshops that you might not ordinarily know about.

How excited am I? Let’s face it, I don’t really need to know the location of MORE books, since I’m doing such a good job spending stupid amounts of money in the ones that I DO know about. But screw that, I’m excited!

(PS – have finally update the books and movies list. Also updated the about page, just because it seemed like a good idea at the time.)