Been a very long time since i've posted, had a weird few months...

Uni's been a LOT better this term, made some ace friends and there all lovely and it means im going out *shock*.

Lupus has been the usual son of a bitch, having my kidney investigated cause I have high protein levels or something, hoping all is fine, sure it will be. Been getting very tired and stuff, and the legs are playing up again now it's cold :(

Also my Dad passed away. It wasn't a massive surprise as it was alcoholism that killed him and he's been an alcoholic for a few years. I've been struggling with it, not as much cause he's dead, but it upsets me how he wasted his life towards the end. I went through some pictures with my Nan and he used to be such a sociable vibrant man, and me and him used to be very close, I used to tell him everything, and he'd trust me in the same way.

When he died it was the opposite, I hadn't spoke to him for 6 months, he had died alone and he weighed 6st cause he just gave up i think. My brother went to see him hospital one last time before he went, but I didn't get home in time, I was a couple of hours too late. Im sure he knows deep down that I missed the old Dad, but it didn't affect him enough to change, which is probably why im so torn about it all.

I think I'm just going to hang on to the memories of walking across fields in the summer as a family, and listening to music with him, and him taking me to my first gig, not the man that stole money from me when I was 14 to fuel his addiction, or the man that left everything behind him in his pursuit of drink. I don't like that Dad I like the one he used to be.

So yea, helps to write stuff down, gets it off my chest, I'm not good at verbalising it and I don't feel comfortable talking to people about personal stuff, so have to inflict it on you guys lol!

laterz x

The thing that annoys me the most when it comes to writing essays, is that they tend to be more about how many people you can quote than about how much you actually know. I have lost marks before specificially because my bibliography wasn't big enough.

Therefore, my current essay is driving me mad. The very first textbook I read gave me 50 quotes and covered all areas I planned on looking at in my essay. So despite the fact I now have a good understanding and everything I needed, I still have to go and find other sources that say the exact same thing as the textbook I just read did :(

EDIT: The very first required text is 258 pages. Go away.

I went to another private dentist today about having the bottom teeth moved, and unlike the other private dentist I don't now wish her dead.

Though one of the first things she said to me was "Had you considered getting your front teeth fixed?" GEE THANKS. I don't know how I have gone this many years without noticing there is any problem with them when both private dentists have immediatley tried to get me to get them sorted. She said she didn't think that the clear braces I wanted would be good enough for my teeth (I just want the lower teeth moved forward a bit) but I could get the assessment if I really wanted. It was £200 just for the assessment, so I didn't.

She said that she would wait until I'd got my front teeth made a bit longer, because then they might cover up the fact that there is a gap anyway. She had a slight overbite too so I felt like she understood my worries, haha.

She's specifically qualified in cosmetic dentistry and making them longer and more tooth shaped. But also charges £125 per tooth. And has the advantage that the wait time is generally about three days. The appointment I already have with my NHS dentist isn't till January but is £45 for however many I want done. Hm. Not sure.

♥ I can't believe it's less than two weeks until Christmas. I got my cards mailed out the other day, but I haven't even started wrapping presents yet. Fortunately, I've had them all bought for weeks, but the wrapping *whines*
♥ I went to the college bookstore to pick up my books on Friday. Sort of made the whole 'going back to school' thing more reality and wibble-causing. Eeep!
♥ During Spring Break, it looks like I might be taking my brother(s) on a road trip up to Gettysburg and DC. I haven't talked to the older younger brother yet to invite him, but Trase is extremely excited (at this time, at least) about the idea of seeing all the museums and history stuff. My interest in history has rubbed off on him. LOL So, yeah, that's something fun to look forward to in a few months.
♥ My original idea for space_wrapped is refusing to let me write it. I just can't get the words flowing, which makes me frustrated and not able to write anything at all. I might just drop that idea and think of something else holiday/winter-appropriate. There are some amazing fics and art being posted there, by the way, so go check it out if you're a Kirk/McCoy fan! Maybe I'll scan the prompt post to see if something unclaimed sparks an idea that actually lets me write it. *gives Jim-in-my-head a dirty look that he totally ignores, of course*
♥ andrealyn and I started another AU collab that I'm just loving to bits. We're about to hit 40k on it (I know, Flora. We're crazy...and apologizing in advance for all the high word count fics you'll be stuck beta'ing for us *sheepish*), and it's still got more to go. I've loved all our collabs, and it's nice to have that outlet for creativity when I'm blocking myself on one-shot fics/drabbles with the lack of ability thing. Heh.
♥ All the responses to the two memes I posted last week had me giggling and grinning. Thanks for playing along!
♥ I hope everyone's having a great weekend/start of their week! *hugs and love to you all*

Title: Daughters Know Best
Authors: andrealyn and inell
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Rating: Adult/NC17 (Overall)
Summary: Best friends, George and Joey, are worried that their dads are lonely and not as happy as they should be. When the girls realize that being sisters would be even better than being best friends, Jim & Leo’s lives will never be the same.
Word Count: 1230
Beta: florahart
Warning: Modern(ish) Day AU
A/N: Previous parts are found here. Hope y’all enjoy it!

(Daughters Know Best [2/?])

Stolen from my f-list.

if you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, (even if we don't speak often or ever) please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL memory of you and me.

it can be anything you want -- good or bad -- BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE.

when you're finished, post this little paragraph in your lj and see what your friends come up with.

If you are like me and are easily confused, it's inspired who normally has all the rainbowy icons. And now we're over that...

I've had my business proposal for leadership and management approved - which is good, because the number of words I used to write up the proposal is actually more than the limit for the project itself. I think I briefly forgot I wasn't actually starting up the business because I really did get quite overboard, but oh well. The class is small, so hopefully if I go wrong and screw the project up she'll go easy on me due to how wonderful my proposal was, haha. Well, a person can hope.

I had a tutorial for Faith in Education the other day and that didn't go so well. I am doing Faith as a starred module, which means it's not anything to do with my other subjects but we're allowed to do one entirely random module anyway. Everyone who is doing it as a starred module had to have one, because the system they use is different. Whereas English is the cursed Harvard referencing system, FIE is....another one, I don't remember. I'd gone ahead and drafted out my essay anyway because I found the topic interesting so didn't mind doing it - it's on whether faith schools prevent community cohesion. He wasn't allowed to actually look at the essay but I'd written out my key points that I was making and he was allowed to look at that. He doesn't seem to like my points. He wanted me to go with the more obvious ones. So where I've gone with things like how children are likely to bully children who have to wear religious clothing - which definitley prevents any kind of community cohesion as the two sides will grow up reseinting each other, he was thinking more along the lines of how religious schools are likely to teach that being homosexual is wrong, which would then cause conflict. I didn't bother with points like that initially as I thought that's not really a fault of faith schools, that's a fault of differing religions. I don't know. I can't bring myself to re-do it just now.

I'm thinking I may have to give up with the RAF. I still hate running. After taking a week off because of illness I hate it even more as it hurts just as much as it did in the beginning. They now don't think my trades are going to open to 2011 and I can completely not wait until then. I'm still going to continue with my running though, and for my summer holiday plans I'm booking one place for three weeks, coming back to England for two, then another place for three weeks etc, as that way I won't be leaving the country in giant blocks again - if they had to appeal for me due to me leaving the country for too long previously, they're not going to be too impressed if I go ahead and do it again after applying, haha. That way if something happens and the trades do suddenly open up earlier I still have a chance.

EDIT: LMAO. I loaded up chatroulette whilst sort of doing my work. It's where you can talk and watch random strangers. I don't have a webcam on this laptop, but I do have a microphone. I hadn't used it before, but the person I was talking to did have a webcam - I just loaded it up and sort of creepily watched a random stranger in silence. LMAO. I couldn't think of a thing to say so I just stared at him for a while and then decided it was probably a sign that I should go and do some damn research.

Eh, why not.

If I had a warning label, what would it say?

After a long conversation with our current American exchange students, I was slightly amused by what they thought about England the UK.

SO, now I am going to be creepy, and test my friends lists knowledge.

Please, humour me! Fill out the below form (10 questions) with what you think the answers are. I'm curious as to how much people know. I will screen the comments so no one will be humiliated :D No cheating! If you live in the UK, go away.

<b>What country are YOU from?</b> <b>What country or countries is Britain?</b> <b>What countries is the United Kingdom formed of?</b> <b>What is the capital city for each country in the UK?</b> <b>What continent do we belong to?</b> <b>What currency do we use?</b> <b>Who is next in line to be King/Queen?</b> <b>Who is the prime minister?</b> <b>What number would you call in an emergency?</b> <b>What is the drinking age?</b> <b>How old do you have to be to get a full driving licence?</b>

EDIT: Though I'm keeping peoples replies screened I'm replying so don't cheat and look!

As most of you know, I worked at a summer school for international children over the summer holidays. I hated most of the kids, haha, but I have stayed in contact with a few of them. Two of which are Italian brothers Romeo and Luciano - Romeo is the older of the two, who I help with his English homework sometimes and in return he is (doing a terrible job at) teaching me Italian. Luciano doesn't speak, ever, but still.

Anywhere, Romeo and Luciano's mother randomly emailled me this earlier:

Hello, I am Giovanna, Romeo mother. I know you talk to Romeo and have helpful been with teaching him for his homework. Antonio and me have thinking been of hiring someone to live us with, and to help Romeo do work, and to teach Luciano so he can English speak. Romeo would like you to come, so we would like to know if you would like to live in Milano with us and to help them? We do not need you to speak be able to Italian, in Milano there are many schools so you can if you would like to learn, and we would provide a room and a food for you. Please let me or Romeo know if you would come like to, and we would need to know if you are full United Kingdom as otherwise I do not know if we can provide a job certificate.
Thank you,
Giovanna

I presume the last sentance is referring to the fact that the UK is in the European Union. For those non Europeans who do not know, basically if you have a passport of any country in the European Union, you can basically just get on a plane and move to or work in any other country in the European Union. So I can randomly go and work in Greece if I wanted to, but an American couldn't.

Now I have a sudden desire to go and do this. I went and announced it to my mum. Of course, this would be if the RAF said no - if they don't like three months in America, they aren't going to like a year in Italy. I know, I know. I already have a PGCE offer. I should do the damn PGCE. I would accomplish nothing in Italy because the pay would be terrible, but I would learn Italian properly, maybe get a proper job over there (Yes I'm joking, I have a feeling the Italians are even worse than the UK when it comes to wanting ITALIAN PEOPLE FOR ITALIAN JOBS) and maybe meet a sexy Italian man. KIDDING. Sortof.

I informed my mum that before I settle down with a career for life, there are other things in my life that I wish to acheive. This is true, I just don't know what they all are yet. But I figure this could be one of them. One was visit at least 25 states and I have managed that, but I'm sure I had more than one Life Goal (TM).

It's Monday, which is a good time to pimp Kirk/McCoy, right? (Of course, I think everyday is a good day for Kirk/McCoy!) There is a new community challenge with a goal of going live February 14, 2010, with an Anthology of Kirk/McCoy adult fic. They are accepting sign-ups here, and they're wanting authors and artists who are willing to write/draw R/NC17 Kirk/McCoy based on assigned kinks. Now, don't think kink automatically means an orgy or bondage. Kinks can be everything from vanilla to hardcore. McCoy being a king of dirty talk or Jim jerking off while McCoy watches? Totally kinks worth writing. So, go join km_anthology and sign-up if you want to participate! You can read the rules and everything at the link above.

Yay for more Kirk/McCoy fic! I love all the ship-centric challenges for these boys. So much fic and art but never enough! LOL ♥!

Also, I love this icon and the image it's made from! *loves these boys, if that wasn't obvious >_>*

I have discovered a significant problem when it comes to learning Italian. I cannot roll my R's. Well I sortof can but it sounds very strange when I do it and there is always a pause beforehand, I can't do it naturally.

Yes, I went with both German and Italian because I couldn't choose between them. At the moment it's fine because I know all the German words already so I'm not confusing between them. I know, you guys voted for Spanish, but, well, I never wanted to learn Spanish, so though I tried because I had no inclination it didn't go anywhere, haha. I figure this will give me even more sentances to angrily mutter to myself. I'm the only one in my family who speaks any German, so whenever I'm pissed off I go and angrily mutter it. I am generally saying things like "the dog is brown, white, and very stupid" but in German, obviously, but no one knows what I'm saying and German is such an aggressive language to begin with that it sounds much worse than it is, haha.

On a related Italian note, where is Gino?! This Morning promised me Gino. I have been watching for two hours and NOTHING.

My leadership and management lecturer has approved my project so I can get on with that! I was about half way through the write up when I figured I should actually get it okay'd before I do the whole thing then get told to change it.

EDIT: Got my £7 Harry Potter. Also got hugged by a giant man dressed as Hagrid in order to get it, but it was worth it.

EDIT 2: I decided that since I am focusing on my Italian, I would read a website in German - obviously I was looking for websites aimed at young children as they would use more simple words. Absolutely hopeless. I could basically understand every fourth word :(

Title: Daughters Know Best
Authors: andrealyn and inell
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Rating: Adult/NC17 (Overall)
Summary: Best friends, George and Joey, are worried that their dads are lonely and not as happy as they should be. When the girls realize that being sisters would be even better than being best friends, Jim & Leo’s lives will never be the same.
Word Count: 3455
Beta: florahart
Warning: Modern(ish) Day AU
A/N: Previous parts can be found here. Hope y’all enjoy it!

(Daughters Know Best [1/?])

My mum spent most of the morning complaining that she didn't want to have to cook Christmas dinner for me. After about twenty minutes of this I finally got fed up and said that actually no, she did not, as I had already agreed to have dinner with some of my friends. At which point she immediatley flipped to the opposite and began to try and make me feel guilty by holding a conversation with the dog about how it was going to be just the two of them. STFU.

Coraline arrived yesterday as part of my DVD subscription service. I asked if she wanted to watch it. She said no. So I went and watched it in my room. Cue five minutes ago when I was putting it back in his envelope when she suddenly flipped out saying that she had been looking forward to seeing Coraline. THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU SAID EARLIER. I asked if she wanted to watch it now as I had enjoyed it and did not mind watching it twice. Cue flip out about "NO, THAT'S FINE, JUST SEND IT BACK." So I did. Bloody hell, I asked if she had wanted to watch it, twice, and either way it is me who pays for the DVDs to begin with!

By the way, Coraline is a very good movie. I would definitley recommend it! Probably the most disturbing film I have seen all year. Which reminds me, Harry Potter is out tomorrow for £7, so hopefully I will remember to go and get it!

I have got somewhat obsessed with one of my university projects right now. The project is, that we have to come up with an innovative business that would benefit children and/or their families and make a business plan relating to it. So I have gone completely mad with picking the area I want to base it in and finding evidence to back up my location, finding worldwide equivilents, and actually conducting surveys of random strangers for evidence. Now I will be pissed if I don't get a good grade haha, as I have probably done far more than anyone else has.

I just had a strange conversation with my mum. She does belly dancing, and is doing some strange sort of show for some Italian group today. Or, right now, I think.
Mum: Italians are quite mild-mannered, aren't they?
Me: No.
Mum: I thought they were supposed to be quite calm and quiet?
Me: .... Have you never met an Italian? I'd say every single Italian I've met is abnormally loud and cocky. Also, horny.
Mum: But they're all Catholics!
Me: Where did you think the whole "Italian stallion" phrase comes from?! The Mafia? Any of that familiar?

The whole reason I tend to appreciate the Italian nature is because they're so bloody loud and obnoxious, haha. I'm always quite wary of them at first as they speak too much and don't hold anything back, and the fact that I'm pretty sure they spend about 95% of their lives hitting on anything that moves, but they are also one of my favourite cultures for this very reason.

Might go to Stockholm or Oslo on the weekend. It's not very Christmassy here and I feel one of those will do it better. I'm hestitating a bit because I buy about 16 plane tickets every year that I never actually use, but I figure if I only book a weekend in advance I'll be a bit more inclined... Or maybe I should counteract the Winter by going somewhere hot, but then I'll probably be depressed when I get back. Or maybe I should stay here and do my damn work.

My first attempt at Spanish was a giant disaster. I am completely incapable of picking it up. Actually that's not true, I can remember a few words now but not very well, but when I was actually trying to do the program it was me failing over and over again.

So I tried it in German. I have a GCSE in German but I haven't spoken a word of it in about five years. Strangely, the German instantly came back to me. If you asked me to say "The old man has long, red hair" in German then I couldn't do it off the top of my head, but if you ask me which of a set of sentances says that then I could tell you immediatley. I don't think I got a single question wrong when it came to doing it in German, apart from the times where I got annoyed and started clicking all over the place because I knew the answer already and it wouldn't let me choose, haha.

SO LJ, which should I go with? Spanish is more useful, probably, but I already have the foundations of German. Obviously it's going to be easier for me to pick up the German because I know some of it already, but I might be able to pick up Spanish eventually too. It would be quicker for me to learn German but I'd be more inclined to randomly move to Spain... Which should I go with?!

I decided that (because it's not like my time isn't already completely clogged up!) that I would learn Italian.

I was all well and good with this. I got my programs ordered, and then someone pointed out to me that Italian is an entirely useless language to learn, on the grounds that Italian is spoken pretty much only in Italy - a country where they already all speak English fluently anyway.

Why not cancel and go with French? Because I had to study French for five years. I sucked at it.
Why not cancel and go with German? Because I hold a GCSE in German already and about two months after finishing the course promptly forgot everything.
Why not cancel and go with Chinese? I considered it on the grounds that it's the most commonly spoken language, but on the grounds that I suck at languages with letters that I recognise, I probably won't be very good with a whole new alphabet.
I pondered maybe Spanish, because it is widely spoken, and because I have a lot of friends who can speak it which suggests it's not ridiculously difficult.

I pondered that maybe if the linguistic branch of the RAF was to open shortly I would have an advantage on the grounds that I would have already taught myself a language, before I realised that Italians are probably not a particular concern of the RAF, especially on the grounds that they are a member of NATO and therefore on our side anyway.

OH WELL.

Why Italian? I was watching I'm A Celebrity last night. The person that I want to win is Italian, and last night it showed a clip where he was getting pissed off and just yelling in Italian at no one in particular. I thought "That's a fun sounding word! I think I will learn Italian." I'd like to pretend there was a bit more logic involved, but no.

Poll #1493907
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

Friends of LJ, which should I learn?