A couple of days ago my geek plot/character comparison module (the same part of my brain that many years ago figured out which LotR character each of the Babylon 5 characters equated to) realised that the Winchester brothers share a lot with the brothers 'Mir.

Spoiler warnings for Supernatural s1-4 below. And LotR.

The first similarity is simply that they're both four years apart in age, but that's nothing. Both brothers lost their mothers at a young age (Tolkien never specified when Finduilas died, but in my head canon it was when her sons were probably about six and ten). Following their mothers' deaths, both pairs were raised by fathers who became increasing crazed, never recovering from their wives' deaths. In both families, there's a rather complicated dynamic between the father and the younger son: their fathers outwardly seem to view their younger sons as inferior to their elder siblings and to love them less, though in truth, in both cases, they may actually love Faramir and Sam more. Eventually, both fathers sacrifice themselves for their sons, leaving the boys parentless.

In both pairs the elder brother is a tough and experienced fighter while the younger is more of a scholar, though Faramir and Sam are both skilled fighters when they have to be. Boromir and Dean will both do whatever it takes to protect what they love (Gondor/Minas Tirith for the former and Sam/family for the latter) and nothing in the world is more important to them. Both would and have died for their cause, leaving their little brothers to carry on the fight for them.

Ultimately, the younger brothers are both woobies while the elder are very easy to paint as villains but actually tick all of the hero boxes.

Yes, I'm reading too much into stuff, but I find the similarities interesting.

Boromir and Dean are my boys.

< /geek>

Who am I kidding? The geek never ends...

So, last night I made a christmas dinner for moose_biscuit and me (after depositing the Chad at the kitty hotel).

Roast duck with crispy skin (just leg portions, so there'd be no leftovers), Nigella's roast potatoes cooked in goose fat (but without the semolina), Nigella's maple roasted parsnips, Delia's spiced, apply braised red cabbage and her corriander roasted carrots and some brussels drizzled with sesame oil (my dad's recipe, and I recommend it. If I'd had some sesame seeds in the cupboard I'd I've used some of those, too). Oh, and a sweet spiced sherry gravy made from the duck dripping, which I made up on the spot when I realised a sauce was needed, and which was very tasty.

It was all very tasty and very filling. So much so that the christmas pud we'd bought will have to sit in the cupboard until we return from our families next week.

A meal made entirely of sweetness (the sherry sauce and maple persnips particularly) and waterfowl fat. Om nom nom.

I called my dad just to check that I was doing the right thing with the duck, and it turns out that what I made is almost identical to his menu for christmas day (there are only going to be five of us, se he's doing a duck) so now he feels like he's got competition - he has to make his better than mine!

So, you may have noticed that I've not been here for a month, and you might have realised that that was because it was November and therefore NaNoWriMo. I have been writing. It was my sixth year in a row (2005 to present) and I'm pleased to say that I won (for the sixth time).

Woohoo!

I wasn't as motivated as I've been in the past, and I think I've worn myself out with it, so I'll not be taking part next year.

I like the concept of what I've written, so I will probably try to do something with it (though it is very very unfinished), but my most immediate writing prioject is completing and editing 'The Mobster and the Mermaid', my noir NaNo novel from 2008, which is by far my favourite of the five novels I've written for NaNo.

So, I'm back. If anything important has happened in November please let me know, because I've been out of the loop and won't be able to catch up on a month's-worth of LJ.

Ok, so as weird celebrity-filled dreams go, that one was pretty frakking weird.

Last night I dreamed that I was a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, only my partner, rather than being the rather dishy James Jordan, as I might have hoped, was in fact my mother. Granted, she's a very good dancer, but not quite their standard! Fortunately the only dancing in the dream was the two of us in the practice studio trying to choreograph some sort of rock and roll routine. It was pretty dire.

The weird celebrity-ness happened when the dream jumped to directly before the show. I was eating dinner in a restaurant with my mum and someone else, and Russel Brand and Omid Djalili were on the table next to us - they were going to be in the audience.

For some reason, my role in the dance routine was that of an aloof diva, so I'd decided to get into character early to prepare, and practice on the waitor. It was ok, because he was a fiend (and may well have been Greg Wallace, from Masterchef), so I knew he'd understand and play along. However, the comedians on the next table weren't in on it, obviously, and after I'd been rude to the waitor (gesticulating rather than deigning to speak to him) I heard Brand telling Omid how disgusting my behaviour was.

I was devastated that the two men would now have a terrible opinion of me, so I set out to track them down in the studio after dinner. I couldn't find Omid, but I caught up with Brand, who didn't really want to talk to me (understandable, considering the behaviour he'd witnessed), but I got him to stay long enough to hear me out. Once he knew that I wasn't really a diva bitch, Brand was very sweet and friendly and I got a hug.

Fortunately I woke before having to dance in public. Thank God.

Well, I say 'woke up': I somehow managed to either not set my alarm last night, or turn it off while asleep, and moose_biscuit woke me at 7.20 - I have to leave the house not much after 7.25 to catch my 7.33 bus to work. By some miracle I got out of the house at 7.30 and the bus was running a couple of minutes late, so I was at the bus stop in time to catch it at 7.35 - and I hadn't even run, because I was sure I'd missed it and would have to get the next one.

Anyway, very odd dream. I'm sure it means something. My deep-seated need for others' approval, or something. I have no idea why the others in the dream were Russel Brand and Omid Djalili, though.

So, Ain't it Cool News has released some supposedly confirmed Hobbit casting.

Martin Freeman will make a brilliant Bilbo, but I'm not so sure about the lovely Richard Armitage as Thorin. Mind you, John Rhys Davies is huge, so it's sort of a tradition for Dwarves to be played by massively tall actors. Still, I'm having trouble seeing a skinny 6'5" bloke as a Dwarven lord.

So, how long has the internet on mobile phones been around? Forever? I finally changed my P&G tarif to Text&Web, so last night I surfed the interwebs on my phone for the first time ever.

Of course, my phone is a proper phone, and therefore only has a small (non-touch) screen, so it's not really designed with surfing in mind, and it's not 3G so it's a little slow, but I can check facebook (and post and comment) while on the bus, which is novel. I've not tried checking emails yet. Also, I suspect it eats power, though I was looking at fbook while waiting for my bus for 10mins this morning and that doesn't seem to have used much battery at all.

I had thought that the tarif would give me 500mb a month (which would give me a fair amount of simple browsing), but the text I got through from O2 when I topped it up said that my 300 free texts and unlimited web had been uploaded. Nice. My old tarif, which I'd been on for a few years, just gave me the 300 texts for the same price, so I should have changed to this one ages ago.

Of course, now that I've unleashed the monster of mobile web, I sort of want to upgrade to a handset with a nice big touchscreen for web use, rather than the Nokia 6700 I've been eying up. Touchscreens are far pricier, though.

moose_biscuit is making noises about wanting to get rid of the landline phone in the house (and the Virgin cable tv :() to save on the bills. She doesn't really use the landline, because she gets free minutes on her mobile contract, but because I'm P&G I don't. So, if we lose the landline I might have to finally get a mobile contract (after a decade of prepay), so that I can affordably use my mobile for calls. However, O2 contracts with web seem to start at about £25 (I currently top up a tenner every two months, though I may start doing it monthly to get my free web).

Of course, getting a contract would get me a discount on a phone, and a wider choice - I quite like the Nokia X6, which O2 only do on contract, and I'd kill for an Android device (likely an HTC).

However, a tenner a month on P&G might be enough for using it for call, too - I could always start spending £15 if necessary, and it would still be cheaper than their cheapest web tarif. But I'd have to spend more on the handset, especially if I want a nicer phone.

Indecision: I has it.

Fun weekend. And quite busy.

Went into town on saturday afternoon to get a haircut. I'd been toying with the idea of having a bit of a change and getting a fringe, and I'm glad I went through with it. It's a short fringe, very retro, and everyone thinks it looks quite cute. The hairdresser even stopped cutting to say that she was really glad I'd opted for a fringe, because she thought it really suited me.

I then popped into my favourite fabric shop, as I was passing, to see if they had anything suitable for my proposed new Maelstrom kit. I discovered thay have a whole upstairs room which I never realised was there, in which they had pure silk satins in some lovely colours (for £8.50/m), but there is also a fabulously soft silk/cotton mix which I rather like.

I also discovered upstairs in the shop a few designer leftover bolts, including some Armani suiting and an absolutely gorgeous Hugo Boss striped cotton - shot burgundy with stripes of gold and some pinkish tones. It was so pretty (and reasonably priced)that I couldn't resist buying enough for a skirt (and an invisible zip). I also bought enough calico to make a toile for my Maelstrom costume so that I know how much silk I'll need.

It was a friend's birthday, so we went out to Lola-Lo with her on saturday night. It's a Hawai'ian-themed club, and therefore had many rum-based cocktails, which were half price until 10pm, so we filled the table with half price cocktails just before ten and those lasted us until we left around midnight. Mmm, many rums.

We then gave the birthday girl her present on sunday night, in the form of a sushi making evening at Moshi Moshi - and special even put on as part of the 'Brighton Food and Drink Festival'. We were slightly concerned that they'd be both stingy and disorganised, and that we've have a a chatic evening and very little to eat (having paid rather a lot for our places at the event). Turns out our fears were unfounded.

The sushi lesson was good - we knew how to make maki, having done it several times at home, but we also learned the proper techniques for tamaki handrolls, gunkan and nigiri. We also learned lots of interesting bits of trivia, like the origins of sushi (raw fish was pressed onto vinegared rice as a means of preserving it) and how to prepare mackerel (never eat it raw, as it contains nasty bacteria - marinate it with salt and then vinegar to kill off the nasties).

We'd been drinking plenty sake while making the sushi - unlimited sake, beer and tea was included in the price. Also, once the class was over, and we were already reasonably full from our self-made treats, we were told we could help ourselves to anything from the conveyor belt. And more sake.

Needless to say, I ate too much sushi and drank too much sake. I feel a little blurgh today. Delicate stomach is delicate.

All in all, a very fun weekend.

So, NaNoWriMo is suddenly only about six weeks away, which rather caught me by surprise.

We'd hoped to hand over the mantle and responsibility of Municipal Liaison to someone else this year, because moose_biscuit and I have run the region for two years now, but no one seems willing, so it looks like we either do it again or let the region fall apart. We'll make a concerted effort during November to recruit replacements for 2011, because we sure as hell aren't going to do it for a fourth year.

So, with only six weeks to go, aside from the realisation that we're going to have to sort out all the weekly meets and stuff again (and the weekly quizes, which aren't un-time-consuming to create), I'm in the sticky situation of not actually knowing what I'm going to write this year.

I did have a fun idea for a thoroughly English murder mystery, slightly inspired by MB's mother, but I did murder mystery last year, so I want to step away from that this time.

One option that's been on the back burner for... gosh... apparently six long years would be based on the linked fics here and here. I have a loose premise, and interesting lead, and like the idea of being able to write lots of places and times, but I have no plot and am now concerned that anything I write would now be coloured by Supernatural, what with it being about fallen angels.

Option number 2 is a premise I came up with a couple of months ago and have brainstormed a little with apiphile. In a multiverse of parrallel Earths, some people have the ability to look through thin patches in the veil between the worlds; fewer have the ability to actually traverse these gaps in the veil. It's an oportunity to write a sort of urban fantasy where a regular 21stC girl finds that she has this gift and has to use it to... stop some evil or something. Regular quest type stuff, but with dimension hopping.

Option 3, which I came up with this week and may need talking out of, because it's appealing but rather silly, sees a disparate group of larpers discover that the whole game was just a ruse to find a suitable party of 'heroes' to go on a real quest. It would be a full on fantasy quest tale, but with a rather post-modern and silly twist. What would the big scary larper do if faced with an actual scary evil thing? Is Matt Pennington really a fantasy Charlie looking for his Angels?

So, three premises, zero actual plots. Fun times.

Opinions?

Ok, this is what I plan to make in the next few months:

• New summer weight Chinese hanfu robes for Maelstrom - current kit is polyester satin and is ridiculously warm in the summer, so I plan to make a new set in silk and/or cotton. moose_biscuit also wants a new summer outfit, but I think she wants to do it herself, so I shouldn't be needed.
  
• First attempt at a justaucorps/pirate coat - I have a miniature pattern which I need to scale up and then fit to my tricky proportions. The first try will probably be imperfect and therefore suitable only for random larp kit, but I will eventually make a nicer one for a planned poncy character.
  
• Regency short stays x 2 - moose_biscuit's should be relatively easy, I think, but manufacturing a period bra to support my ample assets will be more challenging.
  
• Late Regency gowns x2 made from sarees - a dress I saw at the Medieval Fair put the thought in my head that sarees imported from East India would have been perfect posh cloth for regency ladies, so I plan to make us each one for the next 'Masquerades & Massacres' event, whenever that is.
  
• Leather corset armour - for Odyssey and any other time that I might need some armour, as I have none.