bennet_7 | Entries tagged with personal

cobweb_diamond has started an amazing blog called Hello, tailor. It's all about fashion history, current trends, costumes, and designer commentary. She really knows what she is writing about and writes with great wit. Forsooth.

2. Today I went to the Camden Markets which impressed me with their size but disappointed me with the prices of their vintage. £60 for a dress I'd still have to get mended? I don't think so! Hopefully this is just a Camden Market thing and not a London thing.

3. nerdboyfriend.tumblr = how to dress your boyfriend like nerd icons.

4. A little old but GQ's "The 25 Most Stylish Men on TV" is surprisingly decent at recognising different styles worn on TV. Gloriously, Chuck Bass is way down the list, although Barney Stinson is still way too high (Barney has not impressed me in a couple of seasons).

Current Mood: melancholy

1. I don't like the London Underground!

2. I do like Scotland!

3. I wish it was less hilly though.

4. But palaces and castles are really cool!

5. I amused someone by saying "capsicum" instead of "pepper."

6. Wow, there are a lot of French bistros in Scotland.

7. I am not complaining about that!

8. Crepes!

9. Blisters on my feet from walking so much!

10. Have resisted the urge to buy anything in tartan.

11. Skinny jeans actually look great with my hiking boots!

12. But my hair is always a mess from the wind and the rain.

13. Sometimes when I'm on the train I imagine I'm going to Hogwarts.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Somewhere in Scotland

Just watched The Social Network with my parents. Had to pause the film to explain what a blog is to my dad. He was amazed that people a) use the internet to judge other people, and b) use the internet to tell other people about their relationship status.

I wonder if he knows anything about YouTube? Might save that for another time - he's already learned so much tonight.

Current Mood: chipper

Since I last updated I have:

- Been in a car accident. I'm fine. My car is decidedly not. It is an ex-car. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. Don't have car accidents kids - the paperwork is a bitch.

- Watched 27 Dresses. What a crappy crappy movie. It made me want to punch every single woman who worked on it in the ovaries because crap like that does nothing to empower women.

Side note: how did Katherine Heigl not cut her hand on James Marsden's cheekbones when she slapped him? He could cut diamonds with those things.

- Enjoyed Rob Thomas' return to television. I quite like newCupid and I think it's got potential if they let Trevor and Claire spend more time together. So far they don't have anywhere near the chemistry of Piven and Marshall but I'm willing to give it time.

Party Down aka 'the great Veronica Mars reunion of '09' is pretty good too. It's not quite as funny as it could be but I like the characters a lot, especially Henry.

- Watched 17 episodes of Legend of the Seeker on YT in about three days. I am very charmed by this one. It's not great television by any means but it hits a lot of my buttons. One of the reasons I shy away from fantasy is the lack of self-determinism - it's all prophecy this, destiny that, and nobody ever has a choice and I think it's more interesting for someone to defeat evil not because they are supposed to but because they want to. Despite the prophecy stuff of Seeker Richard does choose to take on that role and he embraces it - he may want a normal life someday but he's not bitching about being the seeker 24/7 either. He seems to treat it more like an opportunity than a burden...

...Except when it comes to Kahlan. Whom I love. Lots. So awesome. Always fighting right by Richard's side in her impractical but pretty white dress and generally doing a better job of it (Richard is hamstrung by that trope of TV writing - the hero must take down the bad guy in a prolonged one-on-one fight. Kahlan, meanwhile, gets to take out the multitude of nameless minions). I love that she's complex without being dark and angsty (coughStarbuckcough).

( General shippy spoilers )

Does anyone else get massive Farscape vibes from this show? Partly, it's the plethora of Australian and New Zealand actors who give me whiplash, momentarily take me out of the story (Jay Laga'aia who plays Chace sometimes hosts Play School here in Australia. It's a kids show where they sing nursery rhymes, tell stories, and interact with a cast of plush toys). The armies of Darken Rahl (most obvious villain name ever y/y?), with their red/black colour scheme remind me of the Peacekeepers. The Mord'Sith look like they shop at Scorpius' House of Fashion and have read his book "Torturing your enemies: A guide to mind fuckery". And even Richard reminds me of Crichton, with their farm boy-iness and generally happy dispositions.

So yeah, Legend of the Seeker is Farscape + The Lord of the Rings.

Finally, below is the absolute best thing ever:

Participating in something like that would be awesome.

Current Mood: geeky

So I haven't posted in aaaages. Sorry about that. Partly, it's because I was working a really crappy job. I'd never been so miserable and so bored and so frustrated before and I didn't want to spew all that bile into this journal - LJ is my escape from real life.

I've gotten out of the habit of posting and I've found it hard to break the silence but I really want to get back into the swing of things. Any kind of writing is good for me, whether it's a 2,500 word essay on the cult of Amun in the New Kingdom or a paragraph on what I'm watching on TV at the moment, so I'm gonna try and do the latter a bit more (I did the former last semester and once was enough).

Right at the moment even a paragraph is beyond me so I'll take a baby step and start with a list of stuff I've been doing lately:

- Cooking. I've been baking, roasting, stir-frying, boiling, and leaving-to-cool-to-room-temperature a lot and I'm loving it. I've always liked cooking but I've started experimenting more, attempting my own recipes (with mixed results). Next time I make something impressive I'll post pictures.

- Reading Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. I quite enjoyed the recent mini-series and the book is good to but it's very Dickensian - whole chapters about characters I don't like or don't care about and I struggle with those (though this isn't as bad as Our Mutual Friend. I refuse to give up but it's slow going.

- Re-watching The West Wing. The parallels between the campaign in season 7 and recent real life have me itching to skip forward but I'm still watching season 1 at the moment.

- Watching Being Erica (it has Eric from Wonderfalls!), How I Met Your Mother (spot the baby bumps!), Gossip Girl (why can't something good happen to Blair?), The Office (really good this season), 30 Rock (not so great this season), and Scrubs (oh dear lord but do I want that teal dress Elliot was wearing in the last episode).

What about you?

Current Mood: recumbent

I have not updated in ages which is so weird because I check LJ practically everyday. But for me LJ is about escapism and I don't much care to rehash the boring details of my life when I could be finding new David Tennant picspams to drool over, searching for that perfect Pushing Daisies fanfic, or popping in on bat shit crazy fandoms like Twilight to point and laugh (They're so earnest and pissed off - it's great (am I being mean? I think I am).

Anyway, here is what is new with me:

1. University is over until March next year. My exams weren't great and I haven't checked out my results yet. I'm hoping that my class work will help me maintain my HDs but I'll probably get knocked down to Distinctions which will suck but I suck at exams and that's life.

2. I'm going to Egypt next year for about two weeks. I'm really excited but I'm going by myself (I'm doing an 8 day tour when I get there but I will be on my own for several days) and so that excitement is heavily tinged with nervousness. But it's all booked and paid for (except for two nights accommodation in Alexandria - any recommendations, let me know!) so there's no backing out now. Plus I've been wanting to do this since I was 7.

3. I just can't believe that the writers strike is still going on. I thought it would be sorted by now.

4. We have a new Prime Minister in Australia! And we're ratifying Kyoto! Our days being America's lap dog are over! Go us!

5. TV-wise, I'm loving Cranford and Top Gear (thank hypothetical deities for the BBC!) After ten episodes of not watching Moonlight but being a member of a Moonlight community I finally watched Moonlight. It's terribly cheesy but I kinda like it and you can actually see it improving.

Finally, I am not a fan of Jack Black. But every time I watch this trailer, I not only laugh, I feel happy and hopeful. Maybe it's the magical powers of Mos Def and Michel Gondry working to tone down Jack Black's Jack Blackness. Whatever it is, I can't wait for this film which looks to be not only good but great.

Current Music: 'Here comes my baby' - Cat Stevens

I haven't posted in aaaaaages. Sorry about that. Life has been weird.

Item the first: Back at university. This is actually my third week and it's all just going so fast. I'm taking a unit on Shakespeare, a unit on the theory of Comedy (Moliere and the Marx Brothers, woo!) and a unit on revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe. I should really be studying right now as I have a debate on Friday. My team is arguing that pre-revolution France wasn't actually so bad ;-)

Item the second: Got a new job today. I'm going to be waitressing at one of the best restaurants in the country. Seriously. It's won that award twice. The head chef has been awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (France's highest culinary award) and he's been knighted (Chevalier Dans L'Ordre National du Merite).

Question: Should I curtsy when I start next week? Or just kiss his shoes and thank him for giving me this job?

Item the third: I was surprised to discover that three Austen novels have been turned into new mini-series: Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park. The official website is also up and running with trailers and galleries.

(Sense and Sensibility is in pre-production.)

Mansfield Park airs this Sunday and stars Billie Piper, James D'Arcy and Blake Ritson (I loved him on Red Cap). Mansfield Park is not one of my favourite Austen novels and I'd never pictured Billie Piper as an Austen heroine (a Dickens character sure) but I'll still be downloading it.

I'm a lot more excited about Northanger Abbey which is my third favourite Austen novel (after Pride and Prejudice and Emma) and was scripted by Andrew Davies who wrote the screenplay for the definitive and most wonderful version of Pride and Prejudice ever committed to screen (SHUT UP Keira Knightley! Go jump in a lake except don't because Colin Firth already did and it was awesome. Take your bangs and never darken my doorstep again!). Then again, Davies also wrote the 1996 version of Emma starring Kate Beckinsale which was entirely sucky and some of it can be blamed on the script. Hmm.

I'm also not much of a fan of Persuasion which lacks so much of the Austen wit. However, this version will star Rupert Penry-Jones in all his prettyness (Side-note: The new season of Spooks starts this friday for those in Oz) and Anthony ~~Stewart~~ Head.

Anyway, here are some pics, courtesy of

jellybeanie87, of all three productions.

( Click! )

Current Mood: good

So I haven't updated in a while. Pesky tertiary education asked to be paid some attention and I've been doing end of year assignments. Sleepless nights, headaches and existential angst - and I'm paying for the priviledge.

( More on school, life, turning 19 and the first of many interesting facts about genocide that I have recently learned )