Maz's confused virtuality

I don't do memes. Really, I don't. So why did this one catch my eye? *shrugs*
Because I found myself doing it as I read it on kazzy_cee's, brutti_ma_buoni's and curiouswombat's posts.

So gakked from all three of them -

The rules - No using Google
Every answer must start with the last letter of your previous answer

Name – Maz *g*
Animal - Zebra
Girl's name - Anne
Colour - Emerald
Movie – Dogma
Something you wear – Amber Pendant
Drink - Tea
Food - Apple
Item in the bathroom – Elastoplasts (It's where I keep the first aid kit)
Place – South Shields
Reason to be late – Slept in

Do you enjoy photography?

Do you enjoy a simple sort of challenge that can make you look at what's around you with different eyes?

There's a community called photo_scavenger where curiouswombat posts a prompt each Monday and you get to post two (or more if you put the more behind a cut) photos on that theme.

Recent prompts include:
Favourite Places
Face
Keys
Bottles
Home
Circles
Stars
and more

And speaking as someone who determinedly keeps my fandom ID separate from my private life, I can say that it is quite possible to fill those prompts without exposing anything personal.

So why don't you go and take a look? And maybe join in?

John Watson was trained at St. Bartholomew's Hospital as a British Army doctor and served as a Captain in the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers.


The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was a real regiment (Wikipedia Link). I thought people might be interested to see one of the war memorials in Newcastle city centre, this one naming the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers. It was erected in 1907 to commemorate the dead of the South African War, now more commonly called The Boer War.

( Pictures below the cut. )

In other news, we finally watched the last two episodes of Ripper Street, last night. Whoa! What an ending. Goodness, but the potential there for complexities in the future. *shakes head* So sad it's apparently not being continued.

On a more positive note, Musketeers seems like good, rollicking fun and is full of ridiculously pretty young men (including Lancelot with a pointy beard and moustache *g*)

Just because it's interesting.

1066andallthat is a community with the aim of posting "one interesting historical thing a day - whether that's a bit of trivia, a book rec, a link to a news story of historical interest or a rec of a film, documentary or television period drama."

Over the last umpteen weeks (trans: 2 months, which is as far as I went back) examples from the headlines include -

Medieval Underwear
The Day The English Discovered Cannabis
Baby Names - 17th Century Puritan Style
Seven Strange Taxes From History
Camlann, USA
Gladiator School
Oldest Art in Australia
The Forgotten Africans of Tudor England
The Oldest Surviving House in the USA?
The Best Drink - 1600 Style

There is a bias towards European and specifically British history, but that's because the mod is British. But members are positively asked to send in suggestions for posts, so if membership increases, that may shift.

Why am I posting this? Not because I've been asked, but because I happened to look at the membership list today and realised that the Com and I only have one friend in common. And it occurred to me that my flist is an intelligent, interested and interesting flist. And further, that you might be interested by this com too.

It's six years exactly since I got my first laptop, but it's six years and two weeks since I got broadband. (Remember those days when being online meant that no one in the house could use the phone?)

The first thing I did on the morning we went live, was get a LJ.
The first thing anyone else did was sparrow2000, who welcomed me, sent me a set of very helpful instructions on how LJ works and introduced me to a load of other people. *twirls sparrow2000 round and round*

I may not be posting much at the moment, but LJ and the people I've met through LJ make me very happy.

Thank you.

Because I was reading a story that I really enjoyed *except* that the author consistently used 'that' instead of 'who', when describing people, eg Merlin was revealed as a sorcerer that had lied to hide his secret.
If Merlin was a table, fine, but Merlin is a person and so should be who.
'That' and 'which' can be difficult, but 'that' and 'who'? It's okay in dialogue, but not in narrative.

And, while I'm on a roll, there are other words and phrases that I wish I could avoid:

He/she can't help feeling, always make me ask why they were trying to.
In fact, why do fanfic characters always *have* to do so many things? -- He had to smile at her joke -- Was he fighting the urge, until it proved too strong for him? Why doesn't he simply smile at her joke? Why this constant need for compulsion?

( Cut, because this turned into more of a rant than I expected )
Am I being intolerant? Yes, I guess I am. But hey, I have enough trouble finding the time to read good fic. If I read the stuff that irritated me too... *g*

So, dear flisties, especially my American flisties, what are your thoughts? Does 'gotten' get to you, or do you not notice it?

What about 'drug' and 'instinctual'?

What are the things that drive you up the wall?

As always, none of these examples are prompted by anything written by anyone on my flist, so come on, you lot, you know it's good to share. Do your good deed for the day and help me feel less of a pedant. *g* Or, at least, less of a solitary pedant.

That snow we had has played havoc with the roads around where I live. The picture under the cut was taken just around the corner from our house, and honestly? I could have taken twenty like it... Except that would have been boring. One, though, is kind of fun.

( It's just a road )

Hi *waves*

I am so glad to be connected again. I heard about the trouble with LJ, but it seemed to hit me 24 hours later than everybody else. I am usually only on line from 5.30 to 6.00am on week days and yesterday it was fine, but today... I haven't been able to get onto LJ at all, until just now.

Having taken a quick look at my flist, I don't see anybody complaining, so was this just me?

There was something about a go-slow for British users, earlier in the week. Was that the problem?

Anyone got any ideas?

Also, those who read my stories might have noticed that I use http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/ to check on canon dialogue. Today I went there and got a pop-up message that my computer was infected. The site opened up an application that started scanning my hard drive. I closed everything down and disconnected from the internet. Then I ran a thorough virus and adware check (my anti-virus software is up-to-date) and it all came up clean. So I am left thinking that the twiztv site has been corrupted.

Unless anyone knows different?

Anyway, as a result, chapter 19 of Bewitched will be a bit late. I do still aim to post today, though - I just have a lot of typing to do. Sorry for the delay.

... for a good, free registry fixer?

I am running WindowXP on my laptop. The machine is only two and a half years old, but lately it has been freezing, especially when I'm in Word. It is also generally slower to do anything.

( Inserting a cut, so as not to annoy those of you who don't know what the hell I'm on about, or who use a Mac. )

Getting rid of the laptop and buying a Mac is also, unfortunately, not an option. *g*

Has anybody more got any practical advice? Please?

Someone on my flist made a post about how Spike's character developed during the series and asked what, besides love, could have made him shift from villain to hero. It's locked, so if you can't see it, you won't and if you can, you already know who that was. *g*

I started to ramble in a comment, until I realised I was going on for far too long to be polite in someone else's LJ. So I moved it all here.

( My interpretation of Spike and his personal journey... )

I could see him making the shift without falling in love with Buffy, but I think the spuffy was an accelerant, that it was the means by which he eventually destroyed his own place in the Scooby camp and that was what sent him to Africa.