Thoughtcrime does not entail death

wtf, self, why do you always make characters have the most complicated relationships with members of the opposite sex you can possibly think of?

Okay, question for people who've seen it: is Coraline appropriate for a kid aged five? I know it's supposedly a family movie, but every review I've read said it's dark and I've not read it so I couldn't say. I suppose it would do to mention that said five year old has sat through a crap ton of shows and movies that have scary or violent moments (Supernatural, Buffy, Spooks and I don't even want to go into the movies but, seriously, not our fault he creeps in) and has loved them. That said, he also cries at Fox and the Hound and Lion King still. So. Yeah. I really don't want to take him to a movie only for him to get upset, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Oh, Michelle Ryan, I forgive you for being annoying in EastEnders.

For some reason, I'm really emotional today and it's freaking me out. I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which didn't help (such a good film, omg, and guaranteed to get me), then Boy in the Striped Pyjamas which I had never seen before. I swear to God I bawled like a little baby.

And now just looking at a picspam someone made for Titanic made me tear up a little and that film hasn't really got me crying unless I'm a bit of a wreck already since, like, the second time I saw it.

The way I'm heading, though, I think I'll end up watching The Notebook and crying myself to sleep or summat.

(Apologies on the RP front, I have a stomach bug and I'm being grouchy and not doing anything due to it.)

GUYS. THIS IS THE GIG I WAS AT LAST NIGHT:



We didn't let Lightbody sing his own chorus. We rule.

OMG, it was so great and there will be a proper review, I swear but you should ALL go see Snow Patrol like, NOW. Or WHENEVER but you should because it was FABULOUS.

And I haven't slept really since but it was fabulous and THE CROWD RULED.

Proper entry to come, I swear. BUT WATCH THE VIDEO. Epic!

I admit I'm a tiny bit terrified that the Troubles are going to start up again, or some people are going to try it. This past wee while hasn't been great: the Real IRA attacking those soldiers, the Continuity IRA shooting the policeman nearby. Literally, really; I can get to where he was shot by walking for about five minutes. And yesterday when I was walking the dog the main road was blocked off due to a bomb scare after there being one in Lurgan about two days ago as well. The main road is a green and a bank away from my house and when I say green I mean a space where terraced houses used to be that have since been knocked down. It's quite frightening really.

Looking at the Googles news section for my town isn't exactly reassuring either though, thankfully, an article involving a priest berating those who shot the policeman was yielded in my search for some news articles that weren't hopeless and depressing. People are sort of dying to stir stuff up and I think it's mostly people my own age, which is far from good. We're all too young to remember the Troubles which is why I think there are some twats out there who want it again; everyone, or nearly everyone, who was alive and old enough to remember them during the time the Troubles occurred wants nothing of the sort to ever happen again. With good reason. Thousands of people died because, oh, we can't decide whether Catholicism or Protestanism is better and, oh, we're going to blow the shit out of the other just because.

Now, I know that's not the reason. Hell, I've studied the Troubles fairly recently so I could give you a rundown of causes but when I was learning them all I could think was, "Well that's pretty effing stupid, isn't it?" I have family who were on different sides during the fighting that now get along like a house on fire and I really do not want to think about what would happen if the IRA and the UVF and the Red Hand Commando and the Provies and good knows who else decided to start this shit all over again.

Needless to say I will not be attending any St. Paddy's day parades or celebrations over here. There will undoubtedly be trouble and that's not my kind of scene anyway. I've always been slightly disdainful of the way people decided to either were their Northern Ireland or Ireland football shirts just to rub it in other people's faces.

/rant

Today, sitting in Starbucks, Great Lake Swimmers came on the radio. This is completely pointless, but I thought it was fantastic. Especially because about ten minutes later Laura Marling did as well and I very nearly died of glee. Why are all radio stations (or whatever) in shops, especially coffee ones, not as cool?

I also bought four DVDs for sixteen quid which was fantastic and I sincerely wish that this happened more often. I managed to snag the last copy in HMV as well of Snow Patrol's latest which I've had for ages just not, uh, legally. I'm going to see them on Saturday so I figured I may as well actually buy the CD and properly listen to it. I've had it on a few times but never listened to it properly mainly because, well, I don't know. Some of the songs just didn't catch me as much as their other CDs I suppose.

Sticking this up, also, because I'm interested:

Comment to this post and tell me which of my characters (past or present) I am most similar to and why. Then repost, and I will tell you the same!

Criminal Minds aired last night, the series premiere that is for the United Kingdom. Maybe I just got my hopes up too much because while I enjoyed it (SPOILER: oooh, bombs! ooooh, badass Morgan!) I expected it to be better. And I had it all figured out in minutes, too, which was a slight disappointment because I wasn't even trying. I hate working out plots of shows because it always ruins the enjoyment. Still, I liked it well enough and God knows I'll be watching it next week.

Also, can I say how thoroughly odd it is to watch the last series (three) before this one and be thrown slightly by how frigging weird it is to see people apparently in the same time frame with different haircuts and all. Eh.

On a good note, I caught up with Being Human. It's fantastic, although like most British shows much, much too short. Six episode series, people!

Anyway, it basically has all my things in it: a ghost, a werewolf, a vampire. Funny bites, sad bits, real character development and plot! Plot and character development in one show. How dare these people do such a thing! How dare they make something I enjoy. I feel slightly slighted by the Beeb, because it's become less and less of a recurrence and I was giving up hope. Have to admit, show has restored it. It also helps that it has two actors in it I love. Russell Tovey (mainly a massive crush of days gone by due to The History Boys) and Lenora Crichlow, who played Sugar in Sugar Rush. Sugar was a fantastic character and I suspected Lenora was a fantastic actress but wasn't entirely sure of it until I watched this series because Annie is so different from Sugar that it's ridiculous and I still love her. I'm totally fangirling at the moment, btw, and trying to entice as many people as possible into watching it. Please, please do! You won't regret it, I promise. Or if you do, then. Well. Eh.

FINALLY! I have a gig to go to tonight. My friend's band is playing at a bar in Lurgan and I'm tailing along to be their groupie. Thankfully without the sleeping with the band part and with maybe a drink or two that's free, if I'm so lucky.

Get Smart is so. effing. good. I'm always loud in the cinema (well, it seems that way because I laugh loudly and no one else ever seems to, which is sad) but I was louder than usual, just because some of the scenes were so frigging funny. I mean, some of the ads seem a little naff but I really liked it.

I'm also the proud owner, now, of a proper blinking iPod. I'm stingy, never got one before because my mp3 still lived and then my phone was grand. I love my iPod though. I mean, I don't understand half of the shit it's supposed to do but I've not bothered to do more than poke at it yet. Yeah, no good songs on it or nowt. I'll probably change that in, y'know, a little bit.

( Rambling about RL. )

Ugh. I hate going back to school. Or putting off things, rather, and then having to do them before classes begin again but the less said about that the better. My mum, Gem, Stephanie, Paul and Sabrina, Gemma's friend, all buggered off to Glenade and Dad had to stay here because of meetings. I stayed because of work.

But, anyway. Today was spent mostly on the phone to Linda who is going through a bit of a crisis and decided we could take advantage of her free minutes with Vodafone. Cool with me.

Anyway, talking about what life is like as a proper student. You know, university with the flats near the school but not right by it because the rent costs a bloody fortune. She's been lured back to uni and got accepted at Queens there. Snippet of conversation just because:

Me: You'll be a proper student, love. Y'know, ringing up to tell your mam how you survive on beans and noodles.
Linda: Don't you mean Pot Noodles?
Me: No, you'll be smoking the pot.
Linda: Why would I want to smoke a pot? *pause* Oh, wait.

I was too busy laughing at her to really listen. I mean, that's frigging daft, dafter than she usually is but God.

Also, I have downloaded Big Bang Theory and now reckon I should go watch it. Well, that or celebrate. The other day I went into a second hand book shop that was like heaven. The sign outside said '20,000 books' and it wouldn't surprise me and the old man who was working was lovely and the shelves were buckling under the weight of that many books and it was a bit like walking into paradise. I couldn't reach most of those I wanted, and despite the shelves being overfilling, there were overflowing boxes on the floor. I walked out with ten after putting ten or so back and they cost fourteen quid. Man, I was so pleased with myself.

As a random note: why the fuck do I need training days to work in the school library?

When I saw that I had a heart attack for a moment.

Fuckity.

New glasses. Thick black frames. Geek chic. I quite like them. And I can see properly, and I went for that 2 for 1 deal at Speccy-savers so I've got another one stashed away downstairs at the moment. New desktop, too. It's lovely and great, and has a TV card, and wireless headphones, and this nineteen inch monitor and I've really been using it as a TV since I got it in yesterday.

Got Anastasia, The Incredibles, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pinocchio and The Lion King 2 for my brother. I don't think he likes Anastasia, but watching it made me want the soundtrack. I'm such a sad, sad person. I do love Broadway singers, though. It's sad how much. Ditto Hunchback of Notre Dame but that's more courtesy of my friend sending me a mix with 'The Bells of Notre Dame' on it. I never realised just how many instruments they've got going on at once in that track. It's fucking fantastic. I underestimate the score of films a lot. I should stop doing that. (As a note, the In Bruges OST is gorgeous.) He loved The Incredibles, though. Still going through the others.

Tuesday going to see Mamma Mia with Soph. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean, it looks fun but it doesn't look great. Eh. I like fun movies more than great ones to see in the cinema anyway. I am, I admit, a total girl with movies. If I'm in the right mood, I'll blubber. It's shocking. One of the reasons I cannot go see true story movies in theatres. I'd prefer not to come out with a bright red face, y'know?

Also, I'd move to Scotland just to use their new bank notes, I swear to God. I love those things. I kind of want to collect them and pin them to my wall instead of posters, 'cause they're that bright and lovely. Sad, I know.

Sometimes I hate being a Virgo.

Our shifts at the shop aren't long. They're broken down into four hours because the time it's open splits perfectly down and it makes sure everyone works a fair amount of hours, for their age and what they want in wages. Sometimes people work nine a.m. to five p.m., or one to nine. That's all good. But covering this week I ended up working nine to one, then again five to nine. Five to nine Thursdays...well, I work every five to nine, no biggie. However, don't normally work nine to one and basically all my cover hours are morning hours. It was fucking AWFUL. I got released from the prison (of sorts, of sorts) and had enough time to myself to do...not very much. Then I'd to go back.

And my mum kept me up last night nattering away. Albeit about stuff I'm interested in. Birthday's not for a while but she said she'll give me about a hundred and fifty, maybe a bit more, to get a computer custom made of a mate of hers. She was talking about maybe going for a long weekend in Munich if we could afford it and if school wasn't weird in Novemeber--and about the holiday she's booked for us for a fortnight next summer. There was a mention in there of going up shopping to Belfast on Sunday (and holy fuck do I ever need to) and one of going down South for a few days in August. A lot of other random crap, too, but she kept me up to half four this morning talking, and then I slept until seven and now I'm up and it's eight and I've to be in work in an hour precisely.

My feet hurt from the shoes. I probably shouldn't be breaking them in there but whatever.

I'm also getting more and more violent urges. I seriously want to punch people in the face a lot more in the shop than I did before. Some woman tossed a handful of change across the counter, I picked it up and started counting. Her grubby fingers were shifting through the change in my hand, taking away a handful of coins and putting different ones down and she kept going, "Is that enough? How much more do I owe you?" looking more pissed off when I couldn't tell her right away. What the fuck, bitch, slow down, back off and let me count the money you've actually given me and I might be able to tell you. Fucking patience is a bloody fucking virtue, Jesus.

And old people. Oh my God. I know children can be so, so very rude and parents don't seem to understand that teaching a kid manners is just that bit of a hassle that's WORTH it. But old people. Sullen, sour, face like they're sucking a lemon. Slamming change down, getting shirty when you tell them no they don't owe you seven, they owe you eleven. I really don't care what anyone tells me about the hardships of their lives. I'd say both sides of my family have had hard lives, but I've not heard either one of my sets of grandparents being so cheeky and disrespectful of a fucking cashier in my life. It's uncalled for. Denise told me this one man had fought in the war and wasn't right from it and you had to let it slip. By fuck. Manners don't cost you anything and regardless of age or life experience it is NEVER okay and it should never be acceptable for someone to slam down a handful of change onto the counter, for it to go rolling and fall off and for them to have the cheek to say, "Go pick all my hard earned money up, lazy bitch," (paraphrased, because there was more but I'm lazy). The moment something like that becomes socially acceptable for someone who by all accounts is just old, there's nothing wrong with him (I like Denise but she talks shit), something is very, very wrong with the world. There's guys constantly stoned coming in who are more polite and are the rabble rousers, apparently.

One of my friends told me today she was going to read the Narnia books before she went to go see the Prince Caspian movie with Donnie. I laughed. I read those things primary three, I think. Wtf is with people and putting them off to they're what? Eily's seventeen, I think. Something like that. It's ridiculous. Those books are all right but you read them once and then it's, like, the writing is far too simple. I find that with a lot of books, though. Read them once, they're grand, best book you've read in ages. Reading it a second time because you've not got the plot to hook you and make you miss those things it suddenly becomes obvious that the author writes as though she's writing a story for fourteen year olds, or ends chapters abruptly or on some kind of cliffhanger all the time. Which I hate. It reads funnily. So the fact Eileen with her pretentiousness is only reading it now kind of boggles. Bitch boasts about all the Shakespeare she's read, you'd think she would have managed Narnia.

Dick all in the house to eat. I hate buying shit at the shop for breakfast, too. Because they are four hour shifts, you're not allowed breaks out the back. Technically you're not allowed a break, but Dan and Sheila don't mind you taking a cup of tea or coffee and a snack as long as you take it up at the tills, so you can work as you eat. It's annoying. Every fucker comes in then, even if there's been a lull beforehand. And if today a delivery comes in, I won't get tea until about twelve and then there's not really a point and God damn it, we get new scones in today and I REALLY want a fucking scone.

I think I'm done rambling about shite now.

( That handwriting thing going around. )

I love Google blogsearch. There's this band, Loquat, who I've kind of fallen in love with but after checking all my usual places I found naught. Aye, a song here and there but not an actual album. Google blogsearch was seriously awesome that way.

Going to sleep at normal hours sucks. I'm always up way too early, then, and I feel really weird. And I actually really mean way too early. I know people who crash around nine-ten and get up at about seven or eight and that works, that's grand. I crash at about half nine due to day of being stupidly, unreasonably exhausted and wake up at four a.m. What the fuck?

I think I'm getting a desktop. My laptop works fine, but it's not really supposed to be used all that often and I don't want to burn it out. And in about a week I start the massive week of cover, so I've got two hundred quid for that and then I've got about two hundred set aside anyway for random computer funds. 'Cause I'm anal and paranoid like that.

Plus, this desktop, the home one I am currently on to give poor laptop a rest is kinda shit. And the colours on the monitor are weird and though I know they look grand on my laptop which is NORMAL, they don't here so that kinda creeps me out, to be completely honest. They are either much too bright, or much too dark, so to overcompensate I make things brighter or darker and then it just fucks everything up. *shrugs*. Bloody heck.

Also, after ranting at about two different people about the British language and people getting it wrong I think I can remove that stick from up my arse for the time being.

So, my caddy? My beautiful, beautiful 500GB caddy that died? Well, I finally got off my ass and went off and asked someone to have a look at it, to see if they could fix it. I watched as they totally tore it apart and nearly weeped, and then they told it's completely fucked and they can't fix it. They don't even know how it happened but they speculated that someone prolly dropped it. (Er...no, dudes, my livelihood is basically on that thing, I protect it like a baby.)

Then, I was all pouting and all and went 'round the corner to visit my granda who is back up from down South while his da is in the hospital and he just presented me with this brand spanking new 500GB caddy and I think I love my granda so much. I'm happily trasnferring everything I have on this computer's HD onto it and so aim to go and DL more. More, more, more. *gleeful*.

Um, on that note I just DLed Paris je t'aime, but it's in mp4 format (okay it's DLing). Does anyone know if that'll play on, like, VLC or if I have to change the file extension or summat?

So, I've already asked a few people. But who on my f-list uses Skype? Anyone? Does it work? My mate wants me to DL it but I'm wary.

Glastonbury is awesome. Not that I'm there, but on T.V. it seems it. I so wish I could go.

Spain won the effing Euro. I am so happy. I may even be a little bit tipsy from celebrating but what the hey. But it was a great, great, great, GREAT match. I love the Euro. I love football.

I totally just got a letter saying I'm getting one of my short stories published in a compilation. It's only for this wee local thing, but I couldn't care less really.

Also, next week, literally the only day I'm not in work is Monday because I stupidly agreed to take on three of Stacey's shifts and one of Maureen's. Oi. Oh, well, I'll just think of the money.