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I had the most amazing night last night! I met up with so many people, it was just like old times, except better. Even people I hadn't seen for ages (like Katherine and Perry) and who I thought were still at uni (Henry and Bopz) were there, as well as meeting new people (Tim and Simon)! It's been a long time since I could go to Spoons with a few people and find all my friends there, it was great. I went to the bar with Stuart and met 3 people on the way back that I stopped and chatted to, and that hasn't happened since last year either. 3 glasses of wine (the third of which was a mix and I downed because they all told me too and I bowed down to peer pressure :D) and I was good to go. I got talked into going to Jaks because they told me I wouldn't and that I couldn't dance (I'm so easily manipulated), and since I can't actually dance very well I just danced like a fool and showed off my slick 60s moves instead. :D haha. I was so happy all night, even when I lost my glasses (yeah, don't ask) it all turned out okay and I found them again. I felt on top of the world - nothing could go wrong (and nothing did). I love it when that happens.

All in all, a very good celebration of my promotion. :D

I now have an Audioscrobbler account - go add me to your buddy lists please!

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Snagged from LJ Drama, originally posted in in the LJ community CF_Hardcore.

RANT TIME

Harry Potter book release: don’t worry, no spoilers.

Showed up at seven, in full costume for a nine am release. Devoted no? I was one of the few to dress up, and I was the best-dressed. I’m not being vain, I honestly had the most detailed and accurate costume there.

We were told in line, that the best-dressed person in line gets to open the box and have the first Half-Blood Prince book. So, I’m a shoo-in, aren’t I?

WRONG.

Fucking moo brings her bratty sprog in at 8:59am dressed in a generic Kmart cape with stars and glitter and fucking gaudy BLAH. Twig for a wand.

OMG WITTLE PWESHUS SO CUTE OMG YOU CAN OPEN THE BOX AND HAVE THIS BOOK YOU CAN’T READ AND *fawning fawning, blatant breederism etc*

THE FUCKING KID WON’T EVEN REMEMBER THIS. THE BOX OPENING WAS MINE. MIIIIINE.

I wouldn’t have minded if someone had said “Oh look Sass, you are best-dressed but would you mind if this land-mine amputee opened the box instead?” I would have said “Absolutely no problem. Go for it.” But no. FUCKING CROTCHDROPPING GETS THE HONOUR. I’m furious. On principle of course, not out of any sense of entitlement. Well yes, entitlement also. But I WORKED FOR IT, I DESERVED IT.

I made an effort. I spent money making an effort. I showed up early. I will remember and treasure this event for ever and eternity. And I’m passed over for an ugly little brat with a sparkly tie. Woo fucking woo.

I didn’t stab her in the eye with my wand. I WANTED to. I talked about doing so VERY FUCKING LOUDLY. I was going to eviscerate her mother with the cover of my brand-new copy.

I fucking hate breeders and child-lovers. FUCKING GO TO HELL.

I’m so pissed about this, sorry. It’s just that in ten years time, this kid won’t remember what she was doing on July 16th 2005. In ten years time, I will be remembering how I was deprived of this nerdly honor by an opportunistic twat breeder and her shitling. I’m hurt. All my life, nothing has gotten to me more than being deliberately ignored, or passed over. Honestly; that’s the sort of thing that can make me cry in public. Or key your car. Or viciously murder you and your family in the heat of frustration and never-ending denial. Congratulations breeders, you win.

Edited to add: To all of you who are calling me immature etc, I’d like to add that you make a very good point, but have you considered GO FUCK YOURSELF? If you’re so anal-retentive, go back to the other community and go on with your breeder-humping. Also, to the person who submitted this to fandom_wank, I seriously (no sarcasm) thank you. I’ve always wanted to be there!

OMG THE INJUSTICE!

I guess there is only happy ending to this story: she is not planning on reproducing. That's Darwin at work right there.

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It's scary, I seem to have the memory of a 70yr old. I spent half an hour trying to log into my Abbey bank account (I couldn't remember the passwords I'd set), and then spent the next 40mins trying to think what I bought on the 20th for 7.15 from 'Alternative Gifts'? I know it wasn't online (I've checked my emails and my PayPal history), and I know I was in town that day I don't remember buying anything. I don't have a clue who 'Alternative Gifts' are, or what the gift I supposedly bought was. Hmm.

From now on, I am writing every purchase down. And I mean every - even the "OMGZ ITS CHEAP I MUST HAFF IT!"

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(By kandyman on LJ.)

*Hitler[AoE] has joined the game.*
*Eisenhower has joined the game.*
*paTTon has joined the game.*
*Churchill has joined the game.*
*benny-tow has joined the game.*
*T0J0 has joined the game.*
*Roosevelt has joined the game.*
*Stalin has joined the game.*
*deGaulle has joined the game.*
Roosevelt: hey sup
T0J0: y0
Stalin: hi
Churchill: hi
Hitler[AoE]: cool, i start with panzer tanks!
paTTon: lol more like panzy tanks
T0JO: lol
Roosevelt: o this fockin sucks i got a depression!
benny-tow: haha america sux
Stalin: hey hitler you dont fight me i dont fight u, cool?
Hitler[AoE]; sure whatever
Stalin: cool
deGaulle: **** Hitler rushed some1 help
Hitler[AoE]: lol byebye frenchy
Roosevelt: i dont got **** to help, sry
Churchill: wtf the luftwaffle is attacking me
Roosevelt: get antiair guns
Churchill: i cant afford them
benny-tow: u n00bs know what team talk is?
paTTon: stfu
Roosevelt: o yah hit the navajo button guys
deGaulle: eisenhower ur worthless come help me quick
Eisenhower: i cant do **** til rosevelt gives me an army
paTTon: yah hurry the fock up
Churchill: d00d im gettin pounded
deGaulle: this is fockin weak u guys suck
*deGaulle has left the game.*
Roosevelt: im gonna attack the axis k?
benny-tow: with what? ur wheelchair?
benny-tow: lol did u mess up ur legs AND ur head?
Hitler[AoE]: ROFLMAO
T0J0: lol o no america im comin 4 u
Roosevelt: wtf! thats bullsh1t u fags im gunna kick ur asses
T0JO: not without ur harbors u wont! lol
Roosevelt: u little biotch ill get u
Hitler[AoE]: wtf
Hitler[AoE]: america hax, u had depression and now u got a huge fockin army
Hitler[AoE]: thats bullsh1t u hacker
Churchill: lol no more france for u hitler
Hitler[AoE]: tojo help me!
T0J0: wtf u want me to do, im on the other side of the world retard
Hitler[AoE]: fine ill clear you a path
Stalin: WTF u arsshoel! WE HAD A FoCKIN TRUCE
Hitler[AoE]: i changed my mind lol
benny-tow: haha
benny-tow: hey ur losing ur guys in africa im gonna need help in italy soon sum1
T0J0: o **** i cant help u i got my hands full
Hitler[AoE]: im 2 busy 2 help
Roosevelt: yah thats right ***** im comin for ya
Stalin: church help me
Churchill: like u helped me before? sure ill just sit here
Stalin: dont be an arss
Churchill: dont be a commie. oops too late
Eisenhower: LOL
benny-tow: hahahh oh sh1t help
Hitler: o man ur focked
paTTon: oh what now biotch
Roosevelt: whos the cripple now lol
*benny-tow has been eliminated.*
benny-tow: lame
Roosevelt: gj patton
paTTon: thnx
Hitler[AoE]: WTF eisenhower hax hes killing all my sh1t
Hitler[AoE]: quit u hacker so u dont ruin my record
Eisenhower: Nuts!
benny~tow: wtf that mean?
Eisenhower: meant to say nutsack lol finger slipped
paTTon: coming to get u hitler u paper hanging hun cocksocker
Stalin: rofl
T0J0: HAHAHHAA
Hitler[AoE]: u guys are fockin gay
Hitler[AoE]: ur never getting in my city
*Hitler[AoE] has been eliminated.*
benny~tow: OMG u noob you killed yourself
Eisenhower: ROFLOLOLOL
Stalin: OMG LMAO!
Hitler[AoE]: WTF i didnt click there omg this game blows
*Hitler[AoE] has left the game*
paTTon: hahahhah
T0J0: WTF my teammates are n00bs
benny~tow: shut up noob
Roosevelt: haha wut a moron
paTTon: wtf am i gunna do now?
Eisenhower: yah me too
T0J0: why dont u attack me o thats right u dont got no ships lololol
Eisenhower: fock u
paTTon: lemme go thru ur base commie
Stalin: go to hell lol
paTTon: fock this sh1t im goin afk
Eisenhower: yah this is gay
*Roosevelt has left the game.*
Hitler[AoE]: wtf?
Eisenhower: sh1t now we need some1 to join
*tru_m4n has joined the game.*
tru_m4n: hi all
T0J0: hey
Stalin: sup
Churchill: hi
tru_m4n: OMG OMG OMG i got all his stuff!
tru_m4n: NUKES! HOLY **** I GOT NUKES
Stalin: d00d gimmie some plz
tru_m4n: no way i only got like a couple
Stalin: omg dont be gay gimmie nuculer secrets
T0J0: wtf is nukes?
T0J0: holy ****holy****hoyl****!
*T0J0 has been eliminated.*
*The Allied team has won the game!*
Eisenhower: awesome!
Churchill: gg noobs no re
T0J0: thats bull**** u fockin suck
*T0J0 has left the game.*
*Eisenhower has left the game.*
Stalin: next game im not going to be on ur team, u guys didnt help me for ****
Churchill: wutever, we didnt need ur help neway dumbarss
tru_m4n: l8r all
benny~tow: bye
Churchill: l8rS
talin: fock u all
tru_m4n: shut up commie lol
*tru_m4n has left the game.*
benny~tow: lololol u commie
Churchill: ROFL
Churchill: bye commie
*Churchill has left the game.*
*benny~tow has left the game.*
Stalin: i hate u all fags
*Stalin has left the game.*
paTTon: lol no1 is left
paTTon: weeeee i got a jeep
*paTTon has been eliminated.*
paTTon: o sh1t!
*paTTon has left the game.*

lol.

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Yesterday Peter and I went to Audley End house - I had a great time. Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take any photos when inside the house, but I took lots of the outside and the gardens.

Parts of the house itself were a little creepy - there is a huge collection of taxidermied (is that even a word?) animals and birds. One or two I don't mind, as a lot of these birds and animals I will never get to see, let alone that close up, but hundreds in one big room does creep me out. For example, they had a stuffed Dodo, which I thought was amazing - it looked like a big seagull. They had a moose head, but that was a bit scary and made me feel icky. They had some Mammoth fossils - which was also really awesome!

In the kitchen gardens there were hundreds of BEES, and I took pictures of some fat ones. :D The gardens are really beautiful and really well kept, and there were lots of things to explore - and lots of ducks! Plus later we were sitting for a rest on a bench next to a river, and about 10 ducks ran over (seriously, they jumped out of the river and then were almost on us within a few seconds!). Peter got really freaked out but I thought it was awesome (ducks aren't scary). I've never seen a duck that close up before - one was practically sitting on my foot! And then they moved away a bit and started washing and stretching then started to sleep, it was really cute. But then a member of staff came over on a quad and told us it was 5.30 and we had to go home, and totally spoilt it.

I took about 150 photos, the best ones I uploaded to DA earlier. :D

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There are some things about people that you just would rather not know. Tonight, I had a few of those moments. I'm not sure how much of it is true and how much was just exaggeration, but the fact that I cannot ask and find out the truth on them is going to drive me crazy - what my mind can conjour up is always much worse than the reality.

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Haha, this article on GameSpy is genius.

Some people are green.
Look in mirror. Are you green? No?
Then kill all green people.

TIP! Green people flammable!

I also love the diagram at the end. :D

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My favourite community on Livejournal, the Tori Bitchlist, is being deleted because of too much drama - omgzz! The censorship, repression, drama, irony and just general absurd nature of this whole thing makes me sad.

GEE THANKS KATE6458324645684/PETE/BLOODYSUNDAY/ALL THE OTHER ELJAY NAMES YOU HAVE. GO AWAY.

I seriously never thought that the whole Sugarpuss/Kate5458434353963 drama would end up being the thing that made the mods delete the community. :( I mean, yes, it did go too far (it was funny 6 months ago, now not so much), but this is all so sad. A TBL Surviver's community has been made, but it's just not going to be the same. That community was full of so many memories and I made lots of online friends there - I really hope Ware changes her mind.

I can't believe I'm making a post about how upset/annoyed I am that a Livejournal community is being deleted.

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This was a cowardly attack, which has resulted in injury and loss of life. Our thoughts are with everyone who has been injured, or lost loved ones. I want to thank the emergency services for the way they have responded.

Following the al-Qaeda attacks on September 11th in America we conducted a series of exercises in London in order to be prepared for just such an attack. One of the exercises undertaken by the government, my office and the emergency and security services was based on the possibility of multiple explosions on the transport system during the Friday rush hour. The plan that came out of that exercise is being executed today, with remarkable efficiency and courage, and I praise those staff who are involved.

I'd like to thank Londoners for the calm way in which they have responded to this cowardly attack and echo the advice of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair - do everything possible to assist the police and take the advice of the police about getting home today.

I have no doubt whatsoever that this is a terrorist attack. We did hope in the first few minutes after hearing about the events on the Underground that it might simply be a maintenance tragedy. That was not the case. I have been able to stay in touch through the very excellent communications that were established for the eventuality that I might be out of the city at the time of a terrorist attack and they have worked with remarkable effectiveness. I will be in continual contact until I am back in London.

I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever.

That isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith - it is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to divide Londoners. They seek to turn Londoners against each other. I said yesterday to the International Olympic Committee, that the city of London is the greatest in the world, because everybody lives side by side in harmony. Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved and that is why I'm proud to be the mayor of that city.

Finally, I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life.

I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others - that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail.

In the days that follow look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential.

They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don't want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.

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To further the point of yesterday's post, I found this link.

Not only is it an invasion of privacy, it would be so easy for good ideas to be abused, especially when it comes to sensitive information that can be used in blackmail by companies, partners or even strangers. As this website says, there are already many companies in the US that will sell you the details of someone's phone bill for only about $100. It wouldn't be long before it would start and happen here in the UK, too - some phone operators in India have already been accused of selling supposedly private and secure personal data. Money can sometimes be enough to persuade anybody. From the article: Joel Winston, associate director of the Federal Trade Commission's Financial Practices Division, said other types of data-theft investigations have shown that "finding someone on the inside to bribe is not that difficult."

I really don't believe that a company being able to track what phone numbers you've dialled and how long for will prevent terrorism. If you were a terrorist, would you make a mobile phone (something which can be traced easily by the Police or investigators) your primary method of communication? And, even if you did, would you keep that number for very long? I'm not a terrorist, but I don't think it takes a genius to realise that you wouldn't.

It's the same with the Internet and email. All Internet activity is monitored anyway (and anyone can do a simple IP check) by the Government, and although suspicious data is usually kept for future reference and to keep an eye on anyway. It would be an almost impossible task to keep all the data - especially six month's worth - and about 99% of it would be useless. And to leave it to the ISP's themselves to do, which would cost them millions of pounds in servers to keep and would not benefit them at all. Yes, I realise that NTL, AOL, BT and others earn billions of pounds and so they could easily afford it, but what about the smaller, less popular companies? If it was mandatory, it would be just another way of monopolising the market. Not only do Microsoft already have the upper hand in the software world right now, but so would AOL, as the smaller companies that couldn't comply with this law closed down. I fail to see how this would be beneficial to our country and economy.

Mostly terrorists they operate via word of mouth - it can't be traced, monitored, detected, or saved for later analysis. The sooner our idiotic Home Secretary realises this and learns not to talk out of his arse about things he doesn't understand, the better. From the original BBC article: "This is an issue of international agreement and that is what I will be discussing with my European colleagues in Brussels on Wednesday." If this is true, and they decide to go ahead with it, I will despair in the people who are supposed to be leading us.

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Smart. Really smart.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4668903.stm

lol, crazy politicians.

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How can you think you've won,
when there can be no winners?
The soul has been lost of the bow and quiver,
do you remember? Well I remember,
amid the clashing of swords.
I'm losing you in my rear view,
and I have called the Shekhina in,
And the ninefold and a few other friends.
You and your predators were warned
if the cubs were drawn in
for the last time you would officially cross my line.
-Tori Amos, "Apollo's Frock."

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At the moment the news is saying about 58 dead - which, really, isn't half as bad as I had originally been expecting, casualties-wise. They still have to dig out the people buried on the Underground, though, so that will raise the numbers significantly.

I'm so glad it wasn't any worse. This whole thing sickens me.

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After the excitement of winning the Olympic bid on Wednesday, the attacks today just seem very hard to believe. 38 confirmed dead, probably more to come who have been buried under rubble in the Underground or just cannot be identified. At least 700 people have been injured from the 4 blasts, about 50 being critical.

I knew it was coming, we all did, after supporting the war in Iraq, but it was a huge shock when it did. Thankfully all the people I knew in London at the time were safe, but I know that not everybody was so fortunate. My thoughts go with them.

Corset photos.

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I took these this afternoon using my timer. These aren't laced too tightly as I had to do them up myself, but still, they'll do :)

First up: a corset made for me by Natasha of Darkwear last year. This closes at 22", but in this photo it's laced to about 24". I love the fabric!

Next, my latest corset, by Deadlygirlz, which I bought this second-hand from someone on LiveJournal. Closes at 24", and laced at about 25" in this photo. This is my only off-the-rack corset, and I'm really surprised at how well it fits and by how sturdy it is! I'd definitely recommend them for people who are looking for a good quality, first corset - they're off the rack, so aren't custom made, and not really suitable for tight-lacing, but they aren't cheap and uncomfortable like Vollers corsets.


And finally, an underbust by Joyce of Creations L'escarpolette (French, but she also speaks good English) that I won in an eBay auction a while ago. Excellent value (the cheapest of all my 6 corsets!), it gives me an amazing figure and I love the shape - I prefer longer lined corsets. It's laced to about 25" here (but looks much more dramatic!) and closes at 23.5". I'd definitely buy from her again, and she would be high on my list of recommendations for custom sellers.


All I've done this afternoon (after having a brilliant weekend, I would like to add) is take photos. Yay. Maybe later in the week I'll get around to taking photos that actually have my face in, but I'm no good with facial expressions, so don't hold your breath. :D