Red Threads

aaaaaaah the Dead Fantasy guy released parts III and IV and holy shit *_* Most Awesome Fanmade Thing Ever or Most Awesome Fanmade Thing Ever?

...yeah, IV is coming close but II is still my favourite :D

I've been meaning to address this for a while - or, more broadly, the entire issue of the welfare-to-work process, because every time I see articles like this, or about whichever latest set of unemployment figures are out, I see misconceptions and misrepresentations. I also see a lot of comments from members of the public and people recently made redundant who don't seem to understand what's out there or available to them, but that's a separate - and bigger! - post in its own right.

For now, I want to talk about the fraud investigations, and ( a bit of background on the industry... )

I. I think I just broke 60,000 words. This is officially a novel. Or. Would be if it wasn't stupid fanfiction. fjdks;afhdsjkomgwhat.

But! The end is in sight! I just wrote the second of the scenes that I've been waiting weeks for, and now they're about to figure out who the bad guy is, and then it can be endgame tiem. Finally.

...of course, then I have to type it all up. lol.

fdaslfhdasjfkadsl don't look now but I think I may have just spent 5 solid hours writing. My pen, which was a brand new pen that I got two weeks ago, ran out halfway through. I-it was the good part, okay.

...which is to say that after 50,000 words and a whole lot of AUGH WHY ME, I have finally, finally got my characters together. ♥ I'm sure I'll hate it in the morning (especially since it seems to be 1am crap I have work) but right now I am.... wrung out and shaking. Uh. Well, now it's onwards to the rest of the plot and an ending!

*falls over*

snatched from... a whole lot of people.

01. Anyone who looks at this entry has to Anyone who wants to can post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal.
02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper.
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this. The point is to see what you had on.

( lololol )

...that Back From Holiday feeling is always crap. :/ Have gained +1 suntan, and my fic is still kicking my ass.

( pics etc under the cut... )

fjdsklafhdjaslf this fic is kicking my ass. *counts*

1. 32 pages 110-120 words per page, depending which bloody notebook - I'm on my 3rd. :|
2. 31 pages
3. 32 pages
4. 34 pages
5. 31 pages
6. 48 pages
7. 53 pages

...so even at a very conservative estimate and allowing for everything that's scribbled out, that's well over 25,000 words with no end in sight and still no fdhska;fdjks title. And starting tomorrow I have 5 days of holiday, and I am taking my multiple notebooks but not the computer, and I am going to make a damn good attempt at finishing this thing. Because even at that point I will still have to type it all up oh god.

I need a name for this fic. Since, you know, I just worked out an estimate that puts it around 27,000 words so far, all longhand. I'm on my third notebook here. And it still doesn't have a name.

Anyone have any awesome ideas? Broad themes are change, growth, evolution, etc.

*goes off to hunt through random poetry*

...so the question becomes, how long can I put up with the dub without screaming and running away.

First attempt: approximately 3 seconds.
Second attempt: 10 seconds.

Conclusion: this is not going to go well.

It's probably stupidly picky, and I know I'm terribly snobbish about dubs in general, but augh. Way to turn adorable Japanese pre-teens into attitude-laden American late-teenagers. Those aren't my characters :( Add in the changing of the names (whyyy) and chopping random bits out of the series, and it just loses all resemblance to the original. :/

The sad part is, I'd be happy with raws, but the torrents are old and no one's seeding. :// Guess I'm saving up for the Japanese DVDs, then.

Things You Stumble Across That Turn Out To Be Unexpectedly Awesome, KH edition:

Kingdom Hearts Tarot fjdkslahfjdska

Also this fic was really unexpectedly good, omg, although I have slight issues with the ending due to my own interpretation of KH mythology etc. But those are my issues, this is a really good fic.

Anyone who can decipher this without Googling deserves a prize...

"For HB/CTB purposes, customers on ESA(C) have a £20.00 disregard applied to their earnings from PWK (LCWRA) and anything over this is taken into account. For ESA(IR) customers, earnings up to the £92.00 limit have no effect on HB/CTB."

Any guesses? XD

Oooh, fic rec, fic rec:

Scheherazade - Kingdom Hearts, pre-CoM, Namine and the Organisation. ♥

In other news, I have had enough of being ill and would like it to stop now pls.

It's snowing and it hasn't stopped snowing all day. :| While some of you may consider this a normal occurrence for the middle of winter, this is south-west England and we do not do snow. In fact, here is a handy guide to the many terms for snow in this area.

Snowing (present tense) - A small amount of snow is falling out of the sky and may continue to do so for up to half an hour. It's not enough to stick anywhere except the windscreen of your car, and is easily wiped away with a glove.

Snowed (past tense) - During the night or while you were otherwise not looking, snow has fallen. You know this either because people tell you so or because it has managed to stick enough to resemble a thin coating of frost on the grass.

Thick snow - It has snowed (and stuck) enough that you can only see the tops of the grass and the pavement is crunchy. People start wearing boots and attempting to build snowmen.

Heavy snow - It has snowed thickly and is continuing to do so. This is also analogous to:

Severe Weather - As in the phrase "A Severe Weather Warning has been issued by the Met Office." There has been heavy snow, possibly up to an inch and a half, which can be seen on TV. Some bloke from the AA advises you not to travel unless absolutely necessary. Everyone ignores him.

Blizzard conditions - A thick snow which is set to continue and is blowing about a lot. May be up to six inches in places. The supermarket sells out of everything but soy milk and bake-your-own bread.

Record snowfall - Anything over ankle depth. Businesses close.

Excessive snow - Any snow that falls on you personally.

White Christmas (Official) - A single flake fell on the Met Office roof just after midnight.


...having said all that my sister in Guildford is very excited because they've had over a foot of the stuff. They can keep it XP

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

I was born into an Amnesty family. My parents were active in the Bristol group, and later became Secretary and Treasurer of the Fareham group once we moved. For years we had a supply of trestle tables not for wallpapering but for flag days and cake stalls. I remember being given charge of the bran tub at Goldney Festival at the age of seven or so, and countless other events and collections that were mostly marked by trying to keep leaflets from blowing away in the wind. I remember releasing balloons on College Green and marching from Portsmouth to Southsea carrying a banner.

Once I was old enough to shake a collecting tin of my own, I was old enough to understand why, and to take out my own Amnesty membership and start writing letters to officials whose names I couldn't pronounce in places I will never visit. When I was sixteen I set up an Amnesty youth group at my school and we put on a three-night production to raise money and awareness. Tomorrow I get to stand up in front of two dozen deprived teenagers and tell them why human rights are important to them (yeah, envy me XD).

Because human rights are important to them, and human rights matter to everyone, for the simple reason that we are all human.


On the 10th of December 1948, the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all people and nations. Sixty years on, we are nowhere near the free and ideal world that was envisioned, but I still believe that respect for these basic, inalienable rights, the rights that we have because we are human, is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

Because we are all human, and we are all born free.

Article 14: Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

I should really know better but somehow I found myself volunteering to run a session with the youths next week O_O;

Articles 18 & 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and belief, and to freedom of opinion and expression

For the next seven days I'm going to be counting down to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I'd apologise for the spam, but you know, I'm not actually sorry, because this is something that's important to me - that's been a part of my life for all of my life - and that I believe is important to the world. So I'm going to be posting these daily.

And, as it's the season, if any of you are writing your holiday cards right now, there's a simple action you can take that costs very little and could end up helping to save a life: