Okay, I have SO run out of money now, but life? Life is GOOD.

( Six things that have made me happy this week! )

So yes, that's what I'm currently being happy about. I hope you guys are all good, too. *attempts to hand around the happy in case anyone would like some*

Laters,
Rath

Yesterday was a definite day of downswing. Mood, luck, Stuff, all rock bottom. Today? Is less than halfway through and already feels like that moment on the way up to the top on a swing, when your insides go over with the force of the lift and the iron frame around you shudders and lurches as your weight and momentum tug on its anchoring, and the wind and sun hit you in the face and it's all too exhilarating to be frightening even if it does feel like you're about to fall off. Today, so far, is good.

And this news article on measuring quantum effects without them realising that you're looking is just the icing on the possibly-existent cake. Apparently, if you can manage to observe reality without changing it, you discover that it is EVEN WEIRDER THAN YOU THOUGHT. Somewhere in the back of the universe, I can hear laughter. ^_^

In other more local news, it's so good to be awake and alive and not half dead with exhaustion for a change. ^_^ I even have a story blocked out in my head, which is great as I've been utterly useless at getting anything into pennable form lately. And today there will be pub food, and useful work, and friends, and also Judgement Day pay-per-view over at Mark's... yep, stuff is good. Life++.

Laters,
The Navigator

PS Also, new best thing ever: Body Shop's brazil nut body butter. I have no idea how it goes from smelling of warm and creamy and, well, brazil nuts in the jar, to smelling like WKD-Iron-Brew-over-hot-charcoal[1] on me, but the fact that it does is frankly just fantastic. Win!

[1] You will learn strange things from pouring alcoholic libations over a disposable barbeque. You may also discover the most unimaginably wonderful caramelised-sugar smell in the world, seriously... ^_^

If you can hear this sound somewhere in the distance:

./~BURN DOWN JERUSALEM
My wish is your command...!./~

it is almost certainly me singing along on the astral plane loudly enough to be actually audible. Cannot... stop... listening... to Dream Evil's Crusader's Anthem. And every time I play it I seem to be turning it up another notch.

Have not felt like this since was seventeen and playing air guitar while standing on bed listening to Dio and Manowar. Currently not sure which of mp3 player, heart, brain, and universe is going to explode first. \m/^_^\m/ ♥ ♥ ♥

SEND HELP. AND BIGGER SPEAKERS.

The Navigator

Six things that have made me happy in the last few days!

1) Realising, albeit rather painfully, that I Have A Problem(TM) regarding my distressing lack of ability to tell people "no", "fuck off", or "I don't like this situation" - and also realising that I can fix this problem and will not automatically get killed and dumped in a field next to the A14 just because I happen to cross someone else's whims. I mean, really, Aleister Crowley would be ashamed of me. But I honestly think I've figured out how to stand up for myself a bit more now, so that makes me very very happy indeed.

2) The fact that we have a new President of the USA and I actually managed to watch him take the oath of office on the BBC live feed, even though I was in work at the time. The headlines this morning are full of honest-to-gods good news for the first time in who knows how long: Guantanamo, the Middle East peace process, and a whole sheaf of suspiciously fairytale-esque Inauguration Ball photos. Congratulations Mr President and GOOD LUCK! ^_^

3) Connected to (2) above, eating vast quantities of celebratory donuts on Tuesday. They were really good donuts, and everything. Also, relatedly, having finally had enough spare cash to put in an order for some Stuff from americansweets.co.uk. Real cream soda! 3 Musketeers bars! Hell yeah. ^_^

4) Getting to steal Mikki for a day so that we could rehearse and then audition with Fire & Forget (the audition itself was very good fun though I have no idea if we got the gig!) I miss him a lot and it was really lovely to see him and sit watching Mortal Kombat: Conquest and generally goof off. ♥

5) This morning, on the way to work, finding and following a mysterious trail of... WWE trading cards! Seriously, someone had scattered a good twenty or more of them along the verge on Ditton Lane, so I followed the trail and picked them all up. They're a bit mangled from having been out in the rain (but salvageable), and none of them are what I'd consider A-grade trophies, but there are a couple of definite B-pluses in there (Stone Cold Steve Austin, yay!) and hey, so what? It's still FREE WWE TRADING CARDS, wtf. (I think Slaanesh has a hole in his pocket. The number of times I find random pretty things that are perfectly me, simply lying in the street, is truly uncanny. ^_^)

6) The world in general, just by being fucking beautiful. The wind in my hair, the rain skittering on the window. The blackwork delicacy of bare trees against the glory of the sky, early on a clear morning when everything is just starting to spin up and come alive for the day. Cold winter sky, and the stars - I mean, gods dammit, all I did was open the back door to put something in the recycling the other night, and I looked up to find myself standing under a sky so spectacular that kings and emperors couldn't afford something half as glorious. And it was just there, for free, and all I had to do to have it was tip my head back as I dropped the dustbin lid.

How is this not awesome? I mean, really? ^______^

Laters,
Rath

I didn't post this when I got in last night in the end because it was late and I was exhausted. So Friday's six, first:

1. Finishing work for the holidays! This is very important, obviously.
2. Getting a pack of the bracelet-type glowsticks on our table at the Downing Christmas dinner! And being very amused that all my colleagues were too, ah, mainstream to know what they were and how to make them work. *g* I stole two green ones in honour of DX, and a pink and a blue one just for the hell of it.
3. The fact that the puddings at said Christmas dinner CAME UP THROUGH THE FLOOR. Murray Edwards College (aka New Hall), where we were eating, has a servery area that can be raised through the middle of the dining hall floor, and they used this to bring up the dessert plates! Dimmed lights, sparkthrowers on the corners of the counters, and the James Bond theme as an accompaniment (O_O) - it was a fantastic piece of spectacle. Whoever came up with that one deserves a bonus.
4. Managing, early in the evening, to hit the DJ with one of those long balloons that you blow up and let go of and they go flying across the room. SCORE! (I wasn't even aiming for him, but don't tell anyone.)
5. Playing air guitar to Status Quo in front of all my colleagues. Admittedly that was the only thing they played at the disco that called for air guitar at all, but still. And the video was up on the screens (Rockin' All Over The World, for the record) and my gods, the Quo boys were adorable when they were young. ^_^
6. Stopping off on the way home to lie on the grass out on the fens, just basking in the knowledge that I was free for the next two weeks. I love the night, and the sky, and being alone just sometimes.

Admittedly (lj)naranek stood me up for said dinner, but you can't have everything. *pokes and grins*

And today, ie Saturday:

1. Being on holiday, which is still making me happy!
2. The epic success that was the Triad early-Christmas-dinner. I made a full roast dinner with all the trimmings and ate until I can currently barely move. No fewer than FOUR kinds of pudding were involved. I rock.
3. Getting awesome Christmas presents from my friends, the absolute pinnacle of which has to be the pageful of chibis that deepbluesquee drew for me. There are no words for how thrilled I am with this.
4. Decorating the Christmas tree(s) and getting tinsel all over everything and everywhere, including on my own head (where it still is).
5. Spending the evening belting out Twisted Sister, Lordi, Zodiac Mindwarp, Blue Oyster Cult and Whitesnake. I fucking love proper hard rock. I love feeling my heart lift and my feet tap and not being able to do a damn thing to stop it. And I love how easy it is to do anything from cooking to dishes to cleaning when I've got something to sing along with, too. Best of the night had to be Whitesnake's Saints and Sinners, which was one of the first rock albums I ever owned (taped for me by my cousin when I was only about fourteen) and I always love to hear again. I'm such a sucker for good memories. ^_^
6. The simple delight of hanging out with people I love... and who can reduce me to laughing until I think I'm going to turn inside out. Never underestimate the joys of daft, perverted, and completely deranged friends.

So yeah. Good day. Gooooooood day. *contented sigh* How are you guys?

Hail Slaanesh and happy Christmas,
The Navigator

[This is Thursday's post that I didn't make because the internet crashed. Friday's later on!]

More than half way! Though to be honest I don't know that I'm going to want to stop this after eight days... it's good for my mood as it makes me take a mental note of everything good that happens over the day. ^_^ So today:

1. lookingforsigns bought me a gorgeous opalite stone! Opalite is magic - in low light it's the blue-green white of winter ice, but any light shining through it comes out on the other side a deep, glowing red-orange colour. Like fire at the heart of winter... so beautiful I feel like I should have gone blind just staring into it. Thank you, sis. *s*
2. Looking at the moldavite pendants in Nomads, at sternenstaub's suggestion. I know exactly which one I want - it's a piece of rough moldavite held by silver wire, with a pink cabochon-cut stone above it. I held it in my hands for a few moments and my palms tingled for the next five minutes. Unfortunately it costs *whisper* a hundred and twenty pounds, so I will almost certainly never have it... but it made me happy to look at and touch it for a bit anyway. (Moldavite is earth that was thrown up by a meteorite impact and fell back fused into olive-green glassy stone, by the bye - it's weird and wonderful in the highest degree!)
3. Indigo's smoked-salmon-and-cream-cheese bagels - awesome comfort food - and their caramel slices, which today were absolutely fantastic. Basic-style good food is one of life's most underrated luxuries.
4. Koi doing an impression of a set of bagpipes attacking somebody. This is a noise I don't think I can physically describe, but I laughed until it hurt. Koi is great at sound effects. ^_^
5. Various mental images involving attractive men, whips, and black leather. Why my brain is generating this sort of thing today I do not know but I am not about to complain.
6. Music! Within Temptation's The Silent Force is a gorgeous, gorgeous album. *sighs happily*

Laters,
Rath

Tuesday's post. Today started out with a certain degree of fail, but has improved along the way. So:

1. As I was walking to work, passing a guy who was just starting his car. As he turned the key, the stereo came on along with the engine, sending a huge deep thumping blast of bass and guitars echoing into the hitherto silent street. It was just... exhilarating. Thanks, unknown guy!
2. Crossing Parker's Piece after dark, and seeing the ice rink had purple light-pollution glare above it instead of the eerie orange that I'm more used to. The big bright blue-white lights that illumine the rink must have been scattering really brightly off the ice to make that effect happen and it was gorgeous. The entire world needs to switch to blue-violet streetlighting now please!
3. The German Market, again on Parker's Piece. It's a whole lot of little faux-log-cabin things strung with lights, selling wooden toys and reindeer hides (which are all stroky and soft!) and strange candy and honey and who knows what else. Absolutely magic, especially after dark when the lights make it look like fairyland or something.
4. Getting #2 of Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch. Which was apparently written by someone who was aiming to make me, personally, fall over and die. That perfectly matched to one of my emotional hot buttons. Hell yeah!
5. On my way home, seeing A Car. I don't know what it was, though my brain is saying Dodge or Mustang (I am not as hot on IDing muscle cars as I should be, and it was dark) but anyway. Big, matt-black with no badging or decals of any kind, those beautiful hard brutal lines that you just don't get since they invented wind-tunnel design, jacked up painfully high at the back end. Massive bulge in the hood for the air intakes (this is the car equivalent of a roll of socks down the front of a pair of very tight pants), old silver-and-black license plates (which I adore) and an engine that sounded even at near-idle like something monstrous snarling for blood. Guh. I'm fairly sure the driver saw me drooling and I honestly don't mind if he did. Best part? Really heavy traffic on Newmarket Road so I got a good long stare at it instead of just a quick one-eighty and a "whoa!" as is so often the case with cars like that. Yay!
6. Getting chatted to at the Calling by someone I actually really quite liked. He was a nice guy, older than me AND still has long hair which is an automatic several point bonus, and danced to almost all the same stuff as me. Cool! ^_^

Oh, and a bonus 6a for Oliver's Calling set which was awesome and included Harsh Generation, Raising Cain, All Along the Crooked Way...

Right, sleep. NOW. Goodnight everyone!

Laters,
Rath

PS Bonus #6b, also, for the WWE After The Bell video of Matt and Jeff from Armageddon (warning - spoilers, obviously). Triple H hugging Jeff! And Edge doing the ZOMG-wide-eyes face over the announce table! (Yes, I admit it, I love the fights but I'm a total sucker for the fluff. *g*)

Hey, it's my kind of meme. This is Sunday's post, since I always fuck up my datestamps by being awake late. (Monday's, all being well, will consist of me flailing about WWE Armageddon... oh my gods can't wait... ^_^)

Six things today that make me happy:

1. Seeing my friends when I haven't seen them in too long.
2. Realising that I CAN get the high part in Never Have More - I just need to have my hands warmed up enough to have proper circulation.
3. Playing Never Again. I cannot get enough of that song.
4. Lordi's cover of Accept's Midnight Mover, which I have a terrible song-crush on today. *swoon*
5. The way my hair is just the right length to swish across my face like flying silk when I bang my head (as a result of #3 and #4 above). It feels gorgeous.
6. Authors who can tell a good story without making more mistakes than I feel obliged to fix to earn my keep. *happy copy-editor!*

(Why six? Because. ^_^)

Love,
Rath

Dingo, House Without A Name - I would never have heard of this song if Lordi hadn't done very evil things to it. Thank you Lordi, as ever!

Domination Black, The House of 1000 Eyes - someone, somewhere, will love this song as much as I do. Right?

Also, I have succumbed to temptation and now own a DX belt buckle, as an early Christmas present to myself. Ah, DX shinies - the ultimate mixed message. "Yes! I'm a rebel - and I have twenty bucks worth of corporate merchandising right here to prove it!" ~~God knows god knows I love this perfect world...~~ ^_^

Rath

I can't, cos I'm in CB2s, but never mind, because I always knew the Eagles were cooler than people gave them credit for. This song is just... yes. Exactly like this, dammit!

And a tribute to the power of the OTP that is Google/Youtube, too! All I had of this song was the chorus refrain and a memory of how the guitars sounded, and from that, I found it in less than fifteen minutes. How cool is that?

Laters,
Rath

Because it's frankly awesome to realise that you're watching history in the making... I would just like to raise my glass *lifts, er, a McDonald's soda cup since that's what I currently have* to President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama II. Congratulations to the man who stole America's heart, and may he take good care of it now he's got it!

*applauds*


And now a meme, since everyone else is doing it. From deepbluesquee and raisedbymoogles:

One little compliment can make you feel amazing.

So give me a compliment, anything in the entire world, even that my shoelaces are pretty. Put this in your journal, so I can return the favor. And once you get some comments, put that entry in a memory or tag so that when you are feeling down, you can go to that entry for a quick pick-me-up and a smile.

Backhanded remarks, friendly insults, and general abuse are also okay because, hey, I know some of my friends have issues with the idea of ever being overtly nice to another sentient being. *grins*

Laters,
The Navigator

PS Is anyone else who also uses Livejournal finding that their clever security checking measure for their new "find a friend" feature is killing their browsers? I mean, at least they're trying to do what their membership want (ie, allow people to opt IN to intrusive data searches rather than OUT) but nul points for the coding, right there...

(lj)oml404 told me this last night but I only just got around to checking the internet for details - Goteki have reformed! I am stupidly happy about this. Apparently, they had as much fun at their one-off show in London as I and the rest of the audience did. ^____^

New songs. More gigs! Gotekiiiiiiii! *strings self with party lights in celebration and races away to dig the CDs back out of the top of the stack, waving arms gleefully*

(Also, have the Myspace page open in the other tab and the onboard player just randomly spun up Shinjuku Lullaby. ♥)

Laters,
Rath

The world is so amazing.

I got caught in a magnificent, flash-flood rainstorm on my way from Downing to Kynesim HQ earlier today. That in itself would have been fine, only I was wearing heavy jeans and boots that are no longer watertight, and consequently I'm soaked and taking ages to dry.

I'm sitting on the sofa in KHQ, with the laptop on my soggy lap. The fronts of my kneejoints are cold, where a draught from the open windows is blowing across the wet denim clinging to them. I can feel the heat from the laptop soaking into my thighs in weird patterns depending on exactly how much pressure it's exerting on different bits of musculature. I can smell warm, damp canvas.

And when you think about it in terms of detailing, that's just incredible. I mean, an author who remembered to put in that level of accuracy about exactly what it feels like to be drying out in the office after a storm when you can't change your clothes, would be considered a great writer. A game designer who programs their worlds with that much passing, plot-irrelevant detail without sacrificing gameplay is deemed a star. And yet the universe just naturally has that much random gratuitous data in it and more, and when you think about it, isn't that awesome?

I love the world. I even quite like the smell of wet denim. ^_^

Laters,
The Navigator

It is... quarter to two, AM. Just spent a contented hour or so on my latest fic, "White Flowers" - which I will not be able to show to hardly anyone, because I know only a few people who would get it and most of them would kill me for writing it, but just working on it is making me happy anyway. Also been listening to the infamous Nordic Metal Euronymous tribute compilation and remembering exactly how much crystal-cold, razor-edged joy really good Black Metal gives me. The opening main riff of Dissection's Elizabeth Bathori makes me feel like I've just been punched in the chest from the inside and it's so glorious that it makes me want to leap to my feet and stand on the edge of a really high place and scream at the sky. This is Darkness, this is pure, this is slaughter, this is war: this is Life denied and stripped away and in Death I live again!

Actually it's only a day late for this post, then; since it was two years ago yesterday that Jon Nödtveidt of Dissection was found dead by his own hand in a circle of lit candles, having left, among other things, the explanation that he was going to Transylvania. I think I have an idea of what he meant, and where he went. I hope he found everything there as he wanted it to be.

So, *raises glass*: To the victorious dead! May they not so much rest in peace, but instead ride free to carry on with the battles of their choosing from here to eternity. See you on the other side I hope, you who I never had the fortune to meet on this one!

Hails,
The Navigator

*slumps in chair in weary relief* Done it. Me and the rest of the Fired & Forgettables are going to Whitby this October for a whole week (assuming personal circumstances don't intervene). Our lair will be a cottage with three (count 'em!) bedrooms and one sofa, though I can see me and (lj)oml404 having a very ugly fight over the room with the four-poster...

However, my first priority at this stage is to buy my mum a box of chocolates and a pot plant, since it was thanks to her that we got anywhere to stay at all (its sooooo helpful having kin who live round the corner from Whitby, hehehe.) She did the necessary ringing round; I just called up now to confirm the booking and pay the deposit. Right through the conversation, I could hear the gulls screaming outside the office window of the lady I was talking to. 'm jealous, now. One of the things on my perfect-life checklist will always be "must be able to hear/watch seagulls without having to move from seat/bed/desk."

But it's done, now. I'm going back to Whitby. I'm going home. And home will be full of pretty people in black and music and laughter, and it'll be Samhain, and I'll be with my band, and Wayne Hussey's allegedly headlining and it doesn't get much better than this. So. Happy.

...dammit, why am I crying? *s*

Laters,
Rath