Manifold have been the calls for an update these past few days, so as a very special Christmas present (despite the fact that I don't celebrate Christmas and do actually hate it) I shall indulge you and give you this goodie-filled nonsense-rambling entry! Yay!
First of all I must share with you my new-found love for Simon Amstell. Well not really that new, but newly re-ignited now that he's hosting Never Mind the Buzzcocks and being so fucking adorable at it. Just look at this cute little gay jewish wide-eyed curly-haired pretty-mouthed perfection!!!! 
So today I watched Never Mind the Buzzcocks again - Christmas bumper special too! I guess not everything is bad about Christmas. The rest of the day, thanks to the lovely J, I watched House M.D. Yep. All day, pretty much. Seven episodes in total. Yay. Only six to go until I'm done with Season Two. *sigh* So obviously no deep-flat-cleaning was done. At all. If I watch one more episode tonight then 5 tomorrow I guess I'll have a few hours left for cleaning.... 
Landlord-sidekick came tho, to pick up the rent. He was stuck in France until this afternoon. Airport troubles 'n' all. Actually, now that I think of it, that's quite funny, cuz last month when he rescheduled the "monthly rent pickup" he said he'd be in London on business on the 18th. Guess he thought that sounded better than "I'll be skiing in the Alps" or sth? Oddball. Anyway. He said he'll send the builder round early next year to fix my leaking sink. For I have a leaking sink you see. S'ok tho.
Oh yeah. A few days ago I found the essay I wrote in 1999 about Hyperfiction. I reread it and hey, I actually still kinda liked it. It was my best ever grade too I think... closely followed by my The return of the repressed: Vampires and the Uncanny in Romantic and Victorian fiction. Aaah, thinking about that still makes me moist. Anyway. Hyperfiction. I really liked the topic, it appealed to my literary mind and my geekiness. I should maybe get back into it again. I've wanted to create a proper hyperfiction text ever since I made that crazy hypertexty email for Chris (Tobias, do you still have that? I think I've lost it.. again).
Oh yeah. Chris... I know, most of you lot don't know him. He was, like, my obsession before the Twat - long before him. I came across a song last night that I used to associate with him (Eye in the Sky by Alan Parsons Project in case you cared) and - totally gone. The association I mean. Chris - I barely even think about him anymore, ever. Robert the bastard on the other hand... yeah, he crops up. In dreams, sometimes, and during my waking hours too. Funny, somehow. Bah. I don't know where I'm going with this... I guess I'm just kinda trying to compare the few guys that really mattered in my life & that treated me like shit and draw some sort of useful conclusion from it, but I'm not getting very far. Are there parallels or am I just trying to forcibly find some so I can pretend to myself I have learned something?
Um anyway. I was talking about Hyperfiction. I found sth in that essay that is quite interesting:
The idea of readers sharing their newly discovered references and associations is imaginable on the Web, but here of course, practical matters slow the process down considerably. It is not currently possible to change anyone else’s text, and although the concept of one enormous network of texts belonging to all readers who have access to it is very appealing, it is clear that such a construct would result in anarchy as everyone would try to add more [info].
So I wrote this in 1999... isn't it fascinating how far we've come since then? Wikipedia is pretty much exactly that, and yes there is a fair amount of abuse & anarchy, and yes it has its critics, but on the whole it works and it's a pretty damn cool resource. And of course the whole Web 2.0 thing (wah) builds on user cooperation. Yeah. Also relatedly, I found Hyperland [about] on Google video, it's a documentary from 1990 by and with Douglas Adams - it's all about hypertext too.
Ok, from geekiness to amazing scare-mongering. Threads is a docudrama by the BBC shown in 1984, about the effects of a nuclear war on the UK. It's long (107mins), gruesome, extremely pessimistic and incredibly compelling. Did you grow up during the Cold War? I was born a bit too late to experience most of the fear, but I remember having an irrationally panicky phase at some point after reading a government booklet about how to react in case of a nuclear emergency. What scared me most was the description of the different sirens - first warning, imminent danger, whatever they were. I imagined those sirens ominously sounding all across town, and you knew that whatever you did you were more or less doomed, and it just totally freaked me out. Here's an interesting discussion about people's general fears back then. [fyi there's a nuclear plant really close to the Lux border in France, so the emergency procedures probably referred to that. still scary - especially after Chernobyl].
Now how did I get from fluffy Simon-Amstelly loveliness to bleak doom & gloom? 
No matter. I shall leave you - on a good note - with some musical presents - carefully selected from my amazing music collection, just for you, dear readers. Because Christmas is all about giving.
You are in my prayers. The whole fucking lot of ya!!! God bless.
Merry Xmas to you, too. 
Weee... Baby Jesus wishes you a very Happy Christmas!
Posted by: Mel on Tue December 26, 2006 at 1:37Just wanted to say Merry Christmas & that House M.D. rules!
I have a Sara comment!
I'm done with House. 
Thanks for your Merry Xmas wishes everyone
Merry Xmas
Belated Christmas wishes from mmmmeeeee!
You watched ALL of House MD ALREADY!? OMG... that's pretty quick. But then again I did watch 3 seasons of Friends yesterday.
Even I managed to do some form of cleaning yesterday/this morning (and by this morning I mean at 3 am), I rearranged my wardrobe and ruthlessly got rid of some junk, it's been something I've been meaning to do since summer.
Personally I'm glad Christmas is over, bring on the New Year!!!
Posted by: J on Tue December 26, 2006 at 20:57Spread out over 3 days. 
Not really that quick. 
And certainly not as insane as 3 seasons of Friends in one day!
Well done @ cleaning. My lounge is all done now! Got rid of some stuff too. *hehe*
Simon Amstell sucks!!!
Posted by: The BML on Fri December 29, 2006 at 14:49 How very dare you!
Donny Osmond sucks more. 
BTW do you like Leona's single? I think they messed the recording up. She's not vibrating in tune, and she sounds far away.
Posted by: stagiaire on Sun December 31, 2006 at 2:02Yeah I like it... and I'm not sure what you're talking about. 
She often vibrates too slowly. It sounds weird.
Posted by: stagiaire on Sun December 31, 2006 at 11:54