Today I went to the mole map clinic where they mapped a few for future comparison and removed two suspicious ones right then and there under local anaesthetic. One was on my left calf and the other on my right shoulder. I have to go back next week to get the stitches out. Even if they're melanomas, they were small enough to be caught in plenty of time. The clinic had these huge glass backlit pictures on the wall depicting an island (possibly The Island of Lost) at sunset, and at midday, and two waterfalls while the changing light behind then made the water look as if it was rippling or falling. I was... a little disconcerted and asked why. The doctor said the office designer said they were soothing to patients. Me, I spent time trying to work out of the patterns were random or not (not).

When I got home, I found I had: a travel umbrella I'd bought on line; the When Vila met Gan audio I ordered from Horizon complete with Michael Keating's signature and a very miserable photo of S4 Vila (I will scan it tomorrow); and a postcard from kalypso_v on her holiday in France--thank you! :-D I am somewhat nervous about listening to the CD. I've heard it is not just rather crap and that Gan is from Croydon (these two facts possibly connected) but it's not from the B7 universe at all, but the alternate B7E one set 200 years in the future but with contemporary helicopters and police cars. Yes, the same one that will be in the miniseries. Still, it's Michael Keating, so it can't be all bad. Can it?

Then I went out to Mamma Mia with Greg and three others from his work. Meryl Streep as Donna, and her two friends (esp the wonderful Julie Walters) were the best. Pierce Brosnan was a bad choice though; every time he burst into song--looking slightly embarrassed, poor guy--we sniggered. Colin Firth was awkward and sweet; pity there wasn't more of him. For one frightening moment, I thought Egrorian was performing the marriage ceremony. :-P

I am now back home after a very nice fish dinner followed by an amazingly good stem ginger pudding and am going to bed.

I should report that the livelongnmarry auction raised over $30,000 and rising! That's an amazing effort. $25 of it has been paid by crycraven for me to write an Avon and Vila story set in S1 or S2. Now I have to think one up!

Hip Deep in Heroes is a new Blake's 7 fan fiction archive.

It is completely independent of LJ and is not intended to replace anything. b7fic will remain, being an excellent way of keeping up with new fiction via your flist. Rather, the new archive is a successor to the Hermit Library which, as several of us have found, is no longer being updated. Hip Deep in Heroes is intended to be a searchable archive to which any B7 fan can upload stories.

Features

• Authors (once registered under the name they prefer) upload their own stories, and then have control over them. They may edit them and delete them at any time without anyone else's intervention.
  
  
• You can search stories by season, character or a combination of two characters, rating, genre, and story type etc. All of the story's attributes also appear in the automatically generated header. You can also search for stories by author.
  
  
• You can load longer stories in chapters.
  
  
• You can create series of stories, either exclusive to you, or shared by several authors.
  
  
• Readers can leave feedback without having to register.
  
  
• There is an extensive Help which should give you all you need to start uploading your stories.

Why does the police helicopter spend so much time overhead? Oh right, because the next suburb is a low-income high-crime one. Well bloody well hover over it, not me, and if you really have to, keep a sufficient altitude not to rattle my windows and model Daleks.

Yeah, fat chance. I wonder if I can buy ground-to-air armaments online.

From communicator: who would I be in 1400AD?

( Yes! )

These are for kalinda001 who had no pictures of her original characters to display with the canon ones in her PGP series. She described them to me so I could have a go at drawing them. Kalinda, I hope they're not too far off what you had in mind. Ignore them if they are; they didn't take me that long once I got round to it.

( Argus, Reya, and Sester )

I donated a story of over 1000 words to livelongnmarry which is raising money by auction for the fight against the California initiative which will legally destroy existing same-sex marriages and ban any further ones.

So far I have one bid. If anyone wants me to write a story for them, then go to my post and bid. I offer more than Blake's 7. :-)

Note: You'll have to add your bid to the bidding thread or the person you've outbid won't know. :-)

Bidding closes 15 July at midnight Pacific time.

If you win, then you make a donation to one of the three charities specified in the comm's profile, or to your preferred organization or coalition fighting for marriage equality.

The bastard who spammed several B7 communities--at the very least--yesterday has been suspended after I (and doubtless others) reported the abuse. Result!

[Edit] I just got this message:

Dear LiveJournal user vilakins,

Thank you for your report. The account in question has been permanently suspended as it exists solely to spam the service.

Regards,
Zoe
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team

I found a lovely Donna picture a few days ago, and decided to make a couple of icons from it.

( Donna pic )

If you like either of these icons better than the Donna one you already have from me, it's yours!

From snowgrouse, another meme.

( Well, it's not discipline )

toft_froggy did a very entertaining post about family words and phrases, and I decided to do one of my own. Anyone else?

( Family expressions )

Via jaxomsride, a song for Donna after Journey's End which says it so well.

Spoilers for those who haven't seen it of course.

I just realised that I should have cross-posted this from b7friday a while back. It was written for the hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades challenge, a little over 500 words set pre-series. And you can probably tell what I'd been reading, can't you?

( The Unpleasantness at the Belhangria Club )

From kernezelda: Below the cut is Entertainment Weekly's list of the top movies of the last 25 years. Go through their list, bold the ones you have seen and underline the ones you own on video or DVD.

( 100 films and some comments )

( Spoilers of course )

Bwahahaha! linda_joyce sent me this German vid which turned out to be an ad. For those who don't speak German, here's a quick and dirty translation from me which won't spoil the fun and will improve your enjoyment.:

"What're you doing there, Giesele? Man, the camera's already running. Come over here! C'mon! ... So, haha! Now just you wait, wait, lad! ... You'll see, lad. You won't go through here again. ... Ach, man, Giesele, not with the flowers again. Here, over here! Yes, yes. ... Ah, here he comes, here he comes, let me have the camera!"
[grabs camera from Giesele]
"Boy, boy boy... cool!"
[shocked look from Giesele]

German DIY speed-bump vid

At the end FWIW: You have a better DIY idea? Make it with Toom Builders' Market and win 5000 euros.

I've been meaning to take a picture of one of the kids' rides in the local mall. It's been disturbing me for about three years. What were the designers thinking of?

( Nightmare train ride )

The train seems to be a permanent fixture, but other rides come and go. At the moment there's a rotating Bat Cave with Robin lurking behind it, presumably turning it.

More of the five icon meme.

1. Reply to this post, and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon fun.

I won't do any more of these posts, but you're welcome to ask me about any of my icons in the comments, or to ask me to pick five of yours, or indeed both!

For vandonovan ( a mixed bunch )

For babel ( a fistful of Vilas )

From sallymn

1. Reply to this post, and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon fun.

Here are the icons sallymn chose.

( Loony Latin, gladiator cows, red swingline staplers, and more! )

I have to post about this one because it too was excellent.

( Massive spoilers of course! )

They deserve it!

Many years ago in that world, in a deep sea of that world which is called the South Sea, a shipload of pirates were driven by storm on an island. And there they did as pirates would: killed the natives and took the native women for wives.

It is no bad place. The race of those pirates who first found it has died and it is without inhabitants. There are good wells of fresh water, fruitful soil, timber for building, fish in the lagoons, and the other people of that world have not yet discovered it.

My car has been fixed!

A mechanic at Honda rang me yesterday about the part it needed (computer control for ventilation) which would take 3-4 weeks to come from Japan.

Mech: Did I tell you how much it will cost?
Me [apprehensively] No. How much?
Mech: $2000
Me [shocked and appalled]: WHAT? I could buy an old car for that! I'm not paying that when the thing could break down again.
Mech: It's a different part from the one that broke down last time.
Me: Yes, and you've already said that you don't stock either because they so rarely fail. There's no way I'm paying that much and having an undriveable car for that long, and you already told me you won't give me a loan car.
Mech: We-e-e-e-ell. We could put a second-hand part in.
Me [cautiously hopeful] How much would that cost?
Mech: It depends on the supplier. $300 to $500?
Me: That's a hell of a lot better than $2000. When can you get one?
Mech: We could fit it tomorrow. But there's no guarantee like there would be for a new part.
Me: DO IT!
Mech: We can't guarantee it won't break down.
Me: Look, even if it does and I have to get another second-hand part, I'd still be way ahead of the game. Go for it!

So I have my car back. It annoys me that I could have got a second-hand resistor back in summer and had the aircon fixed immediately, but then that part was only about $160.

This car is only five years old, which is fairly new for this country--and me. I hope this is the last thing for a while.

I finally saw the footage. That is incredibly unsporting. I'm so glad we won, and on the last ball too. Ha.

What's next, underarm bowling? OK, that's mean. It wasn't the bowler's fault, but the captain's.

One of my friends is appearing on UK Mastermind with the specialised subject of Blake's 7. Go, her!

When the contender comes back to the black chair for their second round of questions (the general knowledge round), John Humphrys, the question master, likes to have a little chat with them. He will probably want to talk about B7. My friend would like some ideas of what likely questions might be, and some suggestions for answers to them. So far she's thought of:

1. What was so good about B7?
   
2. Wasn't it really cheap and ropey?
   
3. Is it relevant today?
   
4. What makes it different to other SF shows?
   
5. Why has it become a cult?

1. The complex and witty characters of moral ambiguity.
   
2. The sets and the SFX were, but the plots, characterisation, and dialogue more than make up for that.
   
3. The series carries the initial message that we should fight against injustice and oppression, and that sometimes the people on the right side aren't exactly angels, yet ends with the very bleak and cynical message that the fight is a hopeless and doomed one. Do we accept that?
   
4. It was the first to use plot arcs and morally ambiguous characters living in a dystopia.
   
5. Because the characters are so interesting and snarkily witty, and because we are not told everything we need to know so there's so much room for speculation and discussion.

Another book meme, copied from a few people now. I'm not sure where the list comes from, but it has a couple of double-ups. I've changed it slightly.

1) Bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out those you dislike.

( Book list )

And now for Prince Caspian

( Spoilers )

We braved the weather to go to Sylvia Park to have lunch at the Casablanca Moroccan restaurant (yum!) and to see Prince Caspian. It's really strange weather today: cold, wet, blustery, and sunny, all mixed up. It was miserable when we left home but bright and sunny when we got there, and it has just hailed. I have a fan heater on in here as well as the heatpump in the TV room; it's 6C out there. :-P

I shall put my comments about the film in a separate post because of spoilers, and devote this one to picspam.

First of all, two cats in boxes. Greg's hard drive failed while he was away so he got a new one delivered. Claudia and Vic were more interested in the box it came in.

( Cats in a box )

And at Sylvia Park mall, I finally got round to taking pictures of the wall climbers and also Boba Fett de Milo.

( Climbers and a Lego Boba Fett )

I don't often comment on Doctor Who, but I thought I would on Turn Left. Yes, I know I'm late, but downloads are capped here and our billing month ran out on Saturday so I had to wait to get it.

( Spoilers )