Don't Give Up Until You're Dead

  Change Name of Blog. Paint downstairs room. Write dissertation in plenty of time. Get acting work. Do exercise every day.... (ongoing) Read. Books. Newspapers. ABSORB INFORMATION. Get part time job once university is over. Join YAMDA once university is over. Get interview with two actors together for fansite. Stop eating crap. If I can do it, JUST DO IT. Lose all the weight I put on. ...

 This is my only resolution this year. To "get shit done." It's all-encompassing. Basically, I will be making a list of things and getting them done. If I don't think I can realistically do the thing, then it won't make the list, but the idea is that everything is doable if you believe you can do it (and you're not being ridiculously impractical or living in fantasyland) hence all things should go on the list and all things SHOULD GET DONE. Number one on my list is change the name of this blog.  (In case it has changed by the time you read this, it used to be called yourinnernerdisshowing.) I do like the name and I am a nerd - or am I geek? Apparently I don't know the difference - but it's not exactly the catchiest of names is it? So, in honour of my new "getting shit done" attitude, and in honour of something my 96 year old (at the time, now sadly passed away) aunt once said which was put slightly more succinctly by Billy Connolly: ...

 Ah, The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. If you haven't heard of it, you've been living somewhere without WiFi for the last month. When I did mine, I had only heard a little bit about the "ice water challenge" and I woke up to a nomination and wasn't aware of who I was supposed to donate to or that I was  actually supposed to have ice in the bucket! I used extremely cold tap water and donated my money to Macmillan Cancer Support, which was who the UK seemed to be giving to. Then I started looking up other challenges and seeing that it was actually the "ALS Challenge." I had no idea what ALS was. I had heard of Lou Gehrig's disease, but again didn't have a clue what it was, so it was time to do  some research . It was then I discovered that ALS is actually a form of MND (Motor Neurone Disease)  - or vice versa - which I  had heard of, and had known people who had suffered from it. In fact, you probably  all know someone who has a form of it - a ve...

 If someone asks me years from now, "What's the best piece of advice you've been given?", I will definitely have an answer for them. Up until six months ago, I'd always heard things that are useful, or seen people I admire in interviews say things that can be noted down, but nobody had every said anything directly to me that had impacted me or my life to any degree. However, last October, after one of 16 nights of a run of a city play, I was sitting in a pub with some of my cast members having a fairly angry (text) argument with someone. Obviously I couldn't see it, but I expect my face looked like a wet weekend and one of my cast mates leaned over and asked me what was wrong. I explained and he offered me these words of wisdom: "Don't waste time caring about people who don't care about you." At which point I put my phone down and haven't spoken to that person since. I don't think I can express how much healthier things have be...

  "Shameless" episode 404 "Strangers on a Train" Photos .

 January 1st saw the VERY highly anticipated return of BBC original drama series Sherlock . Now before we start, for those of you who don't watch/haven't watched/are considering watching  Sherlock,  let me tell you a few things about it. Each of the three seasons contains only three episodes, but the episodes are all 90 minutes. Each one is loosely based on an original Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes story, but set in the present decade, i.e. use of mobile phones, t'internet etc. The series is co-created by Steven Moffat (of Doctor Who writing fame) and Mark Gatiss (who has also written a few Doctor Who episodes, but is also a very great actor and co-creator of The League of Gentlemen ) who also stars as Sherlock's older brother, Mycroft. They are both terrible because they make us wait a loooooooong time between seasons, so if you start watching now, you're lucky because you can watch all three seasons back to back - no waiting! Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) w...

 SPOILER WARNING: A rant. I live in the UK, so with a great number of movies/TV shows etc... the release dates over here are a long way behind those in the USA, but sometimes even when we are just a week behind with a show, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a spoiler warning on a review or when someone is about to start live-tweeting about something so people like me who don't want to see spoilers (I know some don't mind being spoiled) at least have the  option  to look away. I have only just seen a spoiler for a show that I watch less than 24 hours after it has been aired. And not just a little scene, but a HUGE character development. And with absolutely no spoiler warning whatsoever. And before all you social network people say "you should have muted the tags" - it wasn't tagged, so that wasn't possible. Also, web twitter doesn't allow you to do that does it? (If it does without an unofficial add-on that would be GREAT) I co-run a fan-...

 So we're five months into the year... let's have a quick check in on how we're doing with these: Resolutions: FINISH the fanfic I started writing.  YES!! I finished it just yesterday! It's FINISHED and I wrote a couple of others too! DO NOT GET ANY MORE BOOKS until my to-read shelf (and to-read folder on Kindle) are both empty! FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL. I have read a couple from both shelves but also bought several books. DOH. Get a good mark on my first year at Uni. My marks for the first semester were good! Just waiting on the second semester now! Try not to get sucked into fandom nonsense: um... can I just... many fandoms. Much nonsense. I can't help it! Think before I speak/type/tweet.  I think this is going okay? Except maybe when drunk. Three out of five. Not bad. Let's see how I'm doing a couple more months down the line!

 I didn't do a round up of the year at ALL, I just realised! And after this  post, so much is different, I really think I should! For starters, I quit my job at WeightWatchers. Our house (and car and every available space basically) was completely overrun with stock, there was no room to move, and since becoming employed - as opposed to self-employed - the previous year, it had all been about the numbers and not so much about the members any more and that wasn't how I wanted to work. so in March 2012, I resigned. And my weight hasn't been the same since! HA! The holidays. Ah the holidays. The Chicago/NYC trip was amazing :D I saw my friends and we had an amazing night in Chi-town, followed by me making my way in New York City and indeed getting the lovely Andrew Garfield's autograph on my  Death of a Salesman playbill :D :D :D Having never seen or read that play before, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I loved it. Whilst at the theatre, I also managed to  liter...

 I can never really stick to resolutions. Especially ones that require a dramatic lifestyle change. Nobody wants to do anything like that in the post-Christmas funk that is January and I am no exception to that rule. Still, I always make some. Last year's were to make time for myself (by way of my Cineworld unlimited card) and.... be more organised I think. Neither of which I have been particularly great at, seeing as I started university and couldn't use (or really afford) the cinema card anymore, and organised? Well let's just say I still haven't completed my 2011/12 tax return which has to be done by the end of this month. Crap. This year they are as follows: FINISH the fanfic I started writing. I'm great at getting them started. Not so great at finishing.  DO NOT GET ANY MORE BOOKS until my to-read shelf (and to-read folder on Kindle) are both empty! Get a good mark on my first year at Uni. Try not to get sucked into fandom nonsense. Think before I speak...

 So, I was just reading through Tumblr - as you do - and I came across a reply that someone had written to a question they had been asked. I read their answer, but I didn't agree with it. It's one that can have many opinions by the way, but I wanted to make my own reply without it looking like I was jumping on theirs. So I'm doing it here. The question she was asked was: worst noel fisher character (morally etc.?)/worst noel fisher character you've actually felt sympathy for?/nicest n.f. character? Noel's worst/most morally wrong character:  The person in question chose Dale Stuckey. Stuckey, for me, was, let's say, overenthusiastic? I don't think he started out with any intention of killing anyone. He was trying to do his job in the best way he knew how (which, okay, wasn't very good) and kept being literally put down and humiliated in front of anyone until he flipped. His morals were misguided but I don't think Stuckey was ever truly evil - he ...

 **SPOILERS**  Marc Webb & Curt Connors explain the end-credits scene Speculation abounds about who the "man" is in the end credits of this summer's The Amazing Spider-Man. Here's my take on who it is: It's Electro, people!! Now, the first time I saw that end scene, two things stuck in my mind. One, the fact that he appeared and disappeared from Dr. Connors' cell without going anywhere near the door (he appears by the windows in the shadows and at the end of the scene, the camera pans up to the ceiling and we see that he has not moved, but is gone on the right of the shot, and the door is visible to the left) and two: he is fiddling with a hat (a bowler?) in his hands. I'm still not sure if this is relevant or not, but there was a lot of focus on it. The voice/actor are not important at this point, otherwise they would not have named him in the credits - thus avoiding further speculation and questioning the actor! What IS important, I believe is ...

 So I don't know what made me think about them earlier today, but I've decided to get my Sims out again. I was going to play TS2 (that's The Sims 2) as I'm much more familiar with the gameplay and have all the expansions, but I think I want to do my Marvel legacy - either continue it or restart it - and I can create better characters with TS3 so I'm going to use that instead. For an example:  http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=104007&asset_type=story&user_id=1460272 I somehow remembered my passwords though for my old logins to the TS2 official site where I used to upload my Sims Stories (basically comics with Sims!) and now I'm reminiscing! So much fun!

 There are days when you realise that the people you surround yourself with are not the people you thought they were. I expect that perhaps they are looking at me and probably thinking the same thing, but as I said, there are days when that happens, and it doesn't just happen to me. Over the past year, I have grown to love a lot of people. Got to know them, made friends with, even travelled thousands of miles to meet them. And all the while it seems there was a Judas Iscariot among them and yesterday I was in the Garden of Gethsemane getting kissed. Not just me. One of my best friends too, who now doesn't seem to know what to say to me because she is so completely despondent at how we've both been treated and we're thousands of miles apart with absolutely no clue what the hell is going on. Something so unprecedented happened we were both left stunned. One minute everything was situation normal and the next, it was completely FUBAR for no apparent reason. I suppose w...

  *Disclaimer for generalisations and stereotypes in this post. I think I'm a fairly techno-savvy person. I can work an iPhone and a laptop and my Sky+ and most electrical devices that I have in my household. (If you have pervy comments at this point - keep them to yourself please!!) For a woman, I think I am quite a typical "bloke" with this kind of stuff though, I have to admit. In that I'll get something out of its box and plough on in there without reading instructions first, usually because I'm excited about my new appliance and I just want to get it working! There, however, is where the similarity ends. If said appliance is not working how it is supposed to, I will put it down and read the instructions at this point, rather than keep pressing buttons /touching screens until it appears to be working. Because, you know, a guy can make it work. Whereas I don't want to fuck it up. (Although I am  one of those people who keeps frantically clicking the mous...

So I did my 2011 round-up post. Now to look forward into 2012. Just a quick side FYI - I will be saying "two thousand and twelve." Maybe at a push, I might  drop the "and" but I will NOT be saying "twenty twelve" even if we have been saying "nineteen..." whatever for the last thousand years. Just... no. Anyway, on with the post... things I've got to look forward to. Holidays. I've got a couple lined up this year: The first is yet another trip to the States, but this time, there is no Twilight involved, unless by complete accident. The point is, I'm not going for a convention or anything. Just going over there for a week to stay with some great friends and have fun in Chicago and New York. I cannot wait. (There is another thing included in this that I am very much looking forward to, but that will come under a second heading.) Second holiday is a family cruise around the Baltic with S, P and H, my parents and my aunt. Will be ...

 Way back in March of 2011, at the NashCon, as a thank you to our lovely friend Betsy, all the people in our little group pitched in a few dollars and bought her a present (as she had done a lot of arranging.) As she is a shoe... connoisseuse, Cathy thought she might like a pair of Louboutins. (Wouldn't we all?) In fact, she got SO much money from everyone she was able to buy her NINE pairs!! Don't get excited though. As you can probably tell from the title of this post, they were only fit for a Barbie doll. Nevertheless, they are a genuine Louboutin/Mattel collaboration, and Betsy was absolutely thrilled! Louboutins. Want.   The reason I bring it up is that I was talking with my sister-in-law this morning about Barbie shoes, and they came to mind. I went to a site, found the link and happened to have a browse around and the amount of amazing outfits I found for her that I would KILL to wear. Here is one such site. Have a look. See anything you fancy? Barbie Collecto...

 I never usually make these. I can never stick to them. However, I now realise why. I'm never realistic about them. And, I usually don't give them a great deal of thought either and make them somewhere in a drink-filled haze on New Year's Eve, which is completely insane. Therefore, this year, I have waited. I have actually given them some thought. I have planned  them properly. And they will begin from Monday, so I can say I have prepared and won't feel like I have failed at the first hurdle (unlike so many people - myself included - who usually make their resolutions on New Year's Eve and then break them on 1st/2nd January!) And an important difference this year is that these are not resolutions, but S.M.A.R.T.  goals.  The key letter being R. Realistic. 1) Manage my time better.  This is a huge one (that's what  she  said!) I'm nearly always on my computer, but never really doing anything productive. I'm a Twitter-addict. I'm a blog-browser....

This post looks wordy, but it's mostly a lot of pictures! 2011 was a pretty great year all in all. Bearing in mind how absolutely rubbish my memory is, I'm going to do my level best to remember all the fantastic things I've done! January and February were the usual post-Christmas blur, made all the more blurry with planning, shoe and dress shopping and saving money for the things that were coming. March was NashCon time. After planning this on TwilightMOMs for almost an entire year, I FINALLY got to meet up with not all, but a fairly huge chunk of the people I'd been dying to meet for the longest time from across the Pond. There was a small group of us who were pretty tight, encapsulated within a group of about 15, within a larger lot of about 30 who had all arranged to meet at the Con. As well as meeting EXTRA people who we have remained friends with (Cory/Mel - I'm talking about you!) It. Was. Amazing.  NashCon I gave up smoking in April. I was very proud of mys...

 I am, as I have mentioned earlier, a Weight Watchers leader. This month I have been doing the job for two years - a fact that I am very proud of -  and I have been a member for 4-and-a-bit  years. I have been around for three different variations of the plan and have lost weight successfully with each and every one of them. Over 70lbs in total which I have kept off since 2008, excluding 12 months where I had a baby and had to re-lose 30lbs. As a MEMBER, I would say, if you're not losing weight, you're not following the plan properly. That's my opinion as a member. I can also pretty much say that as a Leader I could probably prove this pretty much conclusively too. [cap Screen Grab from the ad Anyway,  on January 1st, there is going to be a new WW advert released. Alesha Dixon (who, by the way has NOT lost weight with Weight Watchers, a fact I find completely  irrelevant as she is a singer) was inspired by all the weight loss and wrote a song to inspire more p...