I do not like it Sam I am


No, not Teacher's College, I like that well enough, what I am currently waffling on about is the news that my beloved Grissom is leaving CSI.
Le sigh.....

In other news, Teacher's College is fine, not too challenging intellectually, but it just takes up loads of time, which means that I haven't done much work on my proposal or my work-that-I-get-paid-for which is kind of stink but really, whats to be done? The routine is coming together so it won't be long until I've got a handle on it, and have my days planned out.
The lack of easily-accessible internet is a double edged sword, because while there are a bajillion things I haven't caught up with online, there are also a bunch of other things I have done because I haven't been wasting time online catching up with things that aren't really that important in the grand scheme.

Teacher's College is weird in a way because we are constantly asked to think about our time at high school and the teachers we had, and it almost feels like now-me is visiting then-me.
If only I could, oh the things I would say to myself.

Right, back to the salt mines.....

Steady as she goes

This whole 'absence of immediate and fast internet' thing is certainly proving harmful for blogging. As soon as I have some money I am buying a wireless router so I can has the internets in my room, and therefore will never have to get out of bed again. Schwing!!!!

I've been watching "Weeds". Admittedly I have only-just-last-night finished the first season, but I can safely say that I love it and have a big girl crush on Nancy Botwin.
Watching it prompted a big thought the other night, about suburbia and the popular culture representations thereof, and I was going to speechify in defence of suburbia but right now I have a belly full of tikka masala and an absence of motivation so I think its time to crawl into the recliner with a cup of tea and watch the Food Channel.

I miss Maggie.

urgh.

This will be brief because I am horrendously hungover.

I am Nic-Less as he headed off to NYC today for 48 hours, then off to Spain to walk across it. As you do.

I have (finally, one year later) updated my Flickr account. More to come.

Sophie is still delightful.

I finally watched the CSI finale, and all I have to say is WTF?!?!?! I did not see that coming.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go......

I'm off tomorrow.
Off home for 12 whole days (which is 12 days NZ time, even though I'm gone for a fortnight....so confusing)

Blogging may be erratic, but I'm sure you'll cope. Its not like you'll miss much!!!
For those of you so inclined you may rest assured that I shall be making plans to secure arrangements for your inevitable immigration.

In 41 hours I can hug my favourite people in the whole world.
That makes me happier than a whole room full of puppies.

Also, I just watched the first episode of season 4 of Doctor Who...... I tell you, I DID NOT see that coming!!!

Two Things....

1) When Sophie goes out walking in the snow she doesn't let the snow get in the way of her snuffling all the things that dogs sniff so she sticks her nose right in to the snow to smell stuff and then she gets these little mountains of snow on the end of her nose and she doesn't even seem to notice but there little nose-snow-mounts just kill me because they are so damn cute and yet another thing that Sophie does that makes her pretty much the cutest dog I know.

2) The other night I had this fantastically filthy (in the best possible way) dream about totally hot TV guy but I can't say who it was because I am ashamed to admit that I watch the programme that he stars in because I have a reputation to consider goddammit and while I freely admit that I love dumb things like movies-in-which-stuff-blows-up there are some things that I just can't admit out loud so my secret TV guy crush will have to remain secret.....

In which Claire is overly emotionally invested in TV programmes

Spoiler alert!!!
So I just watched the latest episode of CSI, "Goodbye and Good Luck".
Yep.

There were tears.

I'm not sure if its pathetic or not, the degree to which I get invested in fictional characters. Right now I am inclined to think that its not that pathetic, but that might be the wine/emotional trauma talking.

A long time ago, perhaps 2 years ago, I began compiling a list of my favourite TV characters. Of course Sara Sidle made the top of that list, for a multitude of reasons, and now she is no longer on television. I am sure that in the CSI universe she still exists, and spoilers I have read tell me that she will be back, but for now, I kind of feel cheated.
I'm kind of pissed off that I have been deprived of my weekly Sara fix, because I find her inspiring.
She is strong and tough and damaged and and brilliant and beautiful and complicated and I can identify with that some of that sort of thing.

But now its 10.46pm and I've got a grip on myself and I have to write a 6 page paper by 9.30am tomorrow.
I just wanted to let you know that this may turn into a Jorja Fox fansite.....

Remember, remember the fifth of Movember

Movember is here again, beware the handlebars!!!!

The Street signed up for the Aussie one, being a resident of Melbourne-town.
Go and hook a brother up. He has promised all sorts of handlebar goodness.

In other news, I carved my first ever pumpkin last weekend. Of course I couldn't carve a face or anything simple like that, I had to aim high.

So, I carved a butterfly.



Cordell carved a Decepticon logo, that was pretty awesome too.

Next day I woke up blonde and went to bed looking like this
The tattoos were fakes, only for my Fairy GothMother costume.

OK time for CSI now.

I just stand by and let you fight your secret war

Reasons why I love Thursdays, by Claire.

- CSI
- at approximately 7pm today, I got out of my jammies, had a shower, and got changed into some clean jammies.
- I can do loads of work without feeling like I am working, because I am in my jammies.
- CSI
- No class, so I can work until 9pm and then do nowt.
- Did I mention the jammies?
-Also, there is this programme on CBS....what's it called? Oh yeah...... CSI. Fan geek much?

Also I know that Jorja Fox is leaving but due to events in tonight's episode and spoilers I have read, I refuse to believe the worst.....

I've got a pain in my sawdust

OK this is just ridiculous.
It is currently t-minus 65 minutes until CSI.

I am supposed to be reading Douglass North's fascinating book "Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance" and taking notes for tomorrow morning's class and packing my bags for a week's house sitting and cooking dinner BUT I CAN'T FUCKING CONCENTRATE ON ANYTHING!!!

Seriously, I don't think I have been this nervous/excited/geeked out about a new season premiere ever. EVER, I TELLS YOU!!!
I went to the supermarket this afternoon to satisfy a craving by buying steak for my dinner, but there is no way I can eat. Butterflies in my stomach....... butterflies.

I wonder why I have become so invested in this programme and these characters? Does it mean that there is something fundamentally missing from my life? Perhaps I identify with them because I see pieces of me, or aspire to share their traits?

Ah, who fucking knows.
All I know is that I have been waiting for this night for four freaking months and it had better not let me down or there will be some serious toy-throwing.

57 minutes.
tick tick tick

Cause what doesn't kill us now just makes us better whores

OK sometimes honesty is the best policy.

I have spent the last few months trying to convince myself and anybody who will listen that I completely hated him, that he was a complete twat and every single thing he has ever done is totally inexcusable.
That is exhausting, I can tell you, and I can't keep it up anymore.
So, in an effort to make my life a bit easier, I have tried a different tack.
Of everything in the last six months, this is the only thing I have a measure of control over, so tonight we sat down and I was honest and admitted everything and confessed to trying so hard to hate him because that would have surely made my life easier but it turns out that something doesn't become true dependant on how much we think we wish it to be so. And he explained his part in the whole thing and apologised for some parts and explained others and we talked and laughed and cried and made the beginnings of a peace and now a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I can get on with it all.

I had all sorts of wonderfully philosophical things I was going to write here but then I got talking to Ben about cricket and accents and drinking with the Irish and computer bugs so I got all distracted so now I am going to watch Eureka. I thoroughly recommend it.

And the prize for best use of a Kate Bush song in a series promo goes to.....



ohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuck

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!



Warning for the squeamish: bone crushing (literally) sound effects

Less than a month to go!!!

London, quiet down I need to make a sound

I have a headache.
Not just your regular run of the mill headache either, on the scale of headaches with 1 being a mild twinge and 10 being a "please someone pass me the power drill I need to drill many holes in my head so I can let the hyperactive axe-wielding homocidal maniac who is running around inside my skull out" this one certainly measures around 8, maybe even 8 & 1/2.
This one certainly qualifies as a "right cunt of a headache".
Seriously. I've had it for at least a week now, and I know its because I am stressed and anxious and when I am stressed and anxious I hold lots of tension in my shoulders and neck which causes lots of pain in my head because chiropractically I am a pretzel.
The suck-knob is turned up well high. Who wants to buy me a massage?

By way of distraction, here are the next ten songs that come up on my iTunes:

1) M.I.A.: "Bucky Done Gun"
2) Morrissey: "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get"
3) Midnight Oil: "The Power and the Passion"
4) Depeche Mode: "Waiting for the Night"
5) Blur: "Tender"
6) Interpol: "A Time to Be So Small"
7) Throwing Muses: "Bright Yellow Gun"
8) The Clash: "Bankrobber"
9) Powderfinger: "These Days"
10) The Decemberists: "When the War Came"

In other news; it is looking good for those of us who are still reeling from the OMFGPLZNO of the CSI finale..... ok mainly me...... check the cast list for the fall preview.
*launches into "I will survive"....changing it from "I" to "she".....

"So, life's a bitch. What do you want to do, cry about it?"

I watched The Episode last night, Maelstrom.
(Yes, I'm talking about Battlestar Galactica, build a bridge).
Spoiler alert....

Thing is, I KNEW what was going to happen at the end, because a) quite frankly; foreshadow much?!?! and b) because Ben told me.

That didn't stop me from totally losing it when it happened.

Yes, I am probably unhealthily invested in certain fictional characters, be they television or literary characters (I still worry about the fate of Saleem Sinai and his pickle factory) but in some ways they become important in our lives.

I am beside myself with anxiousness about the CSI season finale because I know who the Miniature Crime Scene killer's next victim is (go the spoiler boards!!) and nothing has been made public about a certain actor's (gender neutral) contract for season 8 and I know CBS are probably just fucking with us because they made this mistake before at the end of season 6 when Brass got shot and we knew he wouldn't die because he had signed on for season 7. But this one looks like it might be a real humdinger of a cliffhanger.

Anyway, I lost it last night when my beloved Starbuck bit it, and I know that in a couple more episodes she will return, again because Ben told me (ah, bless ya!) and I also know SHE IS NOT THE FINAL ONE because quite frankly my feeble little mind couldn't handle that.

Needless to say I am pretty fragile at the moment given the last month and the intense isolation that has resulted from it, so please nobody do things that may in the slightest bit upset me or I will either have a tantrum of epic proportions or sit in the corner and cry for an hour.

Its up to you to figure out what could possibly make a tough chick like me cry.... Hint: nobody sing "You are my Sunshine"....