Diary of a Madwoman

Writer's Block: Space Wars

2009-05-19T09:40:26Z

Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Serenity, Alien, 2001—there is a long list of movies and TV shows that take place in space. Which is your favorite?

View 501 Answers

I have a soft spot for Galaxy Quest because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Plus it has Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman ;D Other than that probably the old Star Wars films, but Galaxy Quest came to mind first.

Some Bad... and Some Good News

2009-05-13T13:07:41Z

Bea sleeping on my sister's lap. The scarf around her neck is not some cruel accessory but a way of stopping her from scratching her stitches. She likes it if you put your legs up so that she has more room to stretch - spoiled cat!

I hate to kill the mood and report bad news, but I need to get it off my chest. You've all heard of my cat, Bea's, tumultuous past few months. She's never been away from the vet for more than 6 weeks. She's had 2 operations on her ear, one on her shoulder, one on her cheek and various other minor procedures. She's overcome all this, but she's old, probably older than we realised - the previous owners knew of her existence for 4 years, we've had her for a year and a half, but we're sure that she's more than 11 years old, especially judging from the condition of her teeth. In any case she probably spent the first half of her life in the wild, and wild cats don't live as long as domestic ones. Well, we've had the worst confirmed - she has a very rare form of cancer in cats - salivary cancer, so rare that the vet had to research it because he'd never seen it before. Well, by the time we discovered it, it had spread to her lungs. So unfortunately there's no hope for her. They do perform chemotherapy on cats, but never anything that will make them feel sick, because a cat won't understand that the treatment is to make them feel better.

In many ways I'm glad that we found out now, because at least we won't have the immense shock of bringing a sick cat to the vet and then have them die before us on the operating table, which is what happened to our other cat, Kitty, last August. At least we can make her last few months as comfortable as possible. Cats are resiliant creatures and I'm sure she'll survive at least another 2-3 months. Because her appetite is as healthy as always, she's lost no weight, and she's still in brilliant mood. She deserves a happy few months, because she's obviously been mistreated in the past. Besides, she's the sweetest cat I have ever met. Bea started out as a scaredy cat but now she is the most loving, affectionate cat to all family members, not just one. My Mum says she's the most affectionate cat she ever had - and she had plenty of cats in her youth, before her cat allergies developped.

So that's the bad news, but we also have some good news. I've told you that for whatever bizarre reason, my mother's allergic reactions to our last 2 cats (who were related) were limited. And despite the fact that Kitty was never kind to Bea and only just tolerated her (which I guess in Kitty's way was the closest thing to loving another cat because she despised and fought with all other cats), Bea was still somewhat lonely after Kitty died. So a few months ago we decided to get a kitten, a female kitten, because that was the only way to guarantee she'd get along with the cat. An adult cat would be too risky to introduce to our home, especially with quite a submissive cat like Bea. Knowing that Siberian cats are hypo-allergenic (that most people with cat allergies do not react to them) we set out to find a Siberian cat breeder.

Well, Siberian cats have only been exported since the late 1980s and so are quite difficult to find. As far as we know there are no Siberian breeders in Ireland. But there are a few in the UK, and my mother sent a deposit to one breeder so that she could reserve a female kitten from the next litter. Well one of the breeder's cats had a litter of 6 healthy kittens on April 1 - 2 girls and 4 boys. 3 weeks later she sent us photos of our kitten.

Kitten at 3 and 4 weeks

She is adorable! I've never had a kitten before! My friends think I'm crazy for being so excited but I guess it's the little girl in me who never got a kitten when she was little. We won't get her until she's 12 weeks old, because the breeder likes to make sure that they're fully weaned before she gives them away. In July we'll have to take a ferry to Wales and then drive halfway across the UK to pick her up. But it'll be worth it. And fortunately there's no problem bringing pets between Ireland and the UK. That's certainly something to look forward to. I know that the kitten was initially to keep Bea company, but at least not it'll be able to keep us company after Bea is gone, because having Bea made dealing with the loss of Kitty so much easier.

Kitten in the middle with her brothers and sisters at 5 weeks

Oh and we can't agree on a name for the kitten so any suggestions are welcome!

Kitten at 5 weeks

EDIT: And I almost forgot to mention that you can view all the photos of the kitten and her family in my scrapbook
http://pics.livejournal.com/ali_babble/gallery/00018xap

Happy Birthday Cate! / La Ciotat 1720 Pirate Festival

2009-05-06T18:03:13Z

Happy birthday to abble4b aka Cate - the only livejournaler I've met - but if she's anything to go by then you must all be really, really nice! Have a great one, Cate! I'm not great with graphics, but I know that you wanted to see my pictures of that pirate festival, so here are the best ones! I hope you can go next year seeing as it's usually on during your October holidays and that it's less than half an hour away from where your parents live ;P

You Can View All of My Photographs here;
http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa110/ali-babble/La%20Ciotat%201720/?albumview=slideshow

La Ciotat 1720 is a festival held one weekend a year in the Southern French port town of La Ciotat. It celebrates the fact that the town was quaranteened during a nasty plague in 1720 which killed many people in the surrounding towns but which didn't hit La Ciotat. The tonwsfolk spend all year planning it. Since 2004 the number of visitors has doubled from 40.00 to over 100,000. There were over 100 people dressed up in costumes, from simple pirate and sailor outfits, to military uniforms and elaborate costumes of nobility members and captains of ships. Opening and closing festivals are held, evening fire displays, costume parades, mock battles - there is music, market stalls and grilled food.

As I don't have a car (and can't drive anyway) I could only go for a few hours on the last day. So I missed much of what was on offer. It didn't matter anyway - I couldn't believe my luck that I was there. I never expected that pirate festivals would be on the agenda! My friend almost backed out on our trip at the last second - but even though she was tired she was very glad that she went. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in late October. This was actually the weekend before my visit to Cate's parents' house 4 days later. The difference in weather is amazing!

The old port was transformed complete with sawdust/straw floor and various market stall selling items on a very broad theme of anything medieval/Renaissance/piratey. There were stalls with leather hides, soap, medieval wines (I sampled some - they ranged from nice to bizarre), childrens' toys and armour, leather bags/belts/hats, costumes, jewellery and many things between.

There were also loads of stalls grilling various meats - hotdogs and burgers and such. And in between were bands and small displays, like acobatics and shooting. It must have been so difficult to organise it all and the town put in a goliath effort to get it done.

My friend and I walked down the old port to the end where, amongst huge crowds, there was a reenactment of a port battle. It was quite well coordinated but I couldn't really see anything. The only way that I got any idea what was going on was by sticking my camera in the air and blindly taking photos. So what you see is from the perspective of a disorientated 7 foot tall person. And even then people got in the way of photos because there were a lot of children on parents' shoulders. The band paraded down the port and then came to rest on the platform. Then the redcoats boarded the pirate boat, the pirates defeated them and then they got off the boat, only to be attacked by another set of pirates. A 7 or 8 minute battle (well they'd all at least used a sword before) followed where various groups of pirates fought against each other and fell down one by one. One of them slid down a rope to board the boat (but ended up in the water!). Eventually only 2 were left - the leaders, I suppose. They fought, and, of course, it was no surprise at all that the man in the grand black coat won.

They all came back and took a bow and then everyone raced to leave.
The old port is not that big, but with 1000s of people trying to make their way back along a path only 5 or 6 metres wide, you get into problems. So we eventually just found a seat in a café and watched the world go by. We browsed the market stalls and then before we knew it it was time to go. Sniff. But at least we had a great time and I have the pictures to prove it (thankfully I didn't lose those particular photo when my hard disk broke because I had them saved unto a USB stick). Pirate festivals, I imagine, are not too common - especially outside the USA so I count myself blessed to have gone.

Computer Broken!

2009-04-03T20:05:22Z

Sorry guys, I've been away. My computer broke - my hard disk is destroyed. I'm having a new one sent to me. I don't know how it happened - I'm not THAT bad with computers, they can just be touchy, I suppose. Unfortunately I've probably lost everything on my computer. Memory, photos, writing - everything. I haven't lost all hope but the prospects don't look good. So without a laptop don't expect to be seeing me much online. I'm so bored living in a small room without TV or a laptop or anything - and it's raining. But I'm still doing fine in spite of that. I'm drawing and painting for the first time in a long time, so I guess that's a plus!

Hope you're all doing a bit better than me!

I'm so glad that Exit the King is doing so well. Not that I'm surprised!

And happy birthday Penny (guess it's already the 4th there) - not that she'll see this anyway.

And I'm so sorry to see that your student's condition has worsened, Cate. Life is tough, especially when it's tragically short. I guess all we can do is pray for a miracle. ;(

Happy Paddy's Day!

2009-03-17T22:55:44Z

Just a short little entry (well, by my standards!) because it's the Irish national holiday - St Patrick's Day.

I am so tired but at least I'm at home and wasn't crazy enough to go out. I had no class today because there's a college strike - not just students but staff as well - in France. For the past 6 weeks I've had virtually no classes. Which sounds great in theory but in reality going in to college in the hope that you'll have a class and being ultimately disappointed is not a great place to be. The few times I've had class I've been thrilled because at this stage it's more like a novelty than a chore. Anyway hope these strikes end soon so that I can have class! Incidentally it's not all universities and types of colleges that are getting involved. It seems that the arts faculty in my college is by far the worst affected, and of course I just so happen to be an arts student.

Anyway, at least I wasn't stuck inside on an absolutely gorgeous day! I just panned/hung out in the park with my friends (who were taking advantage of the fact that you can drink in a public place in France). They were drunk by 6 or 7pm. I hardly drank a thing - sometimes I don't know whether I was born in the wrong country because I'm so unlike the average Irish person! They're off on some pub-crawl now but I would've fainted with the effort.

I'm too tired to go looking for any shamrock/Ireland related icons to stick on this page, but perhaps I'll share a photo of Ireland with you guys seeing as you don't know what it's like over there.

I guess it is quite green but it really isn't anything but green so it gets a little dull. And note that the weather was very good by Irish standards on the days that I took those photos!

Congratulations Golden Globes Spolers!

2009-01-12T12:36:02Z

I'm in a hurry, but I'm in such a good mood today. For once I am completely happy with how an awards show went!

CONGRATULATIONS KATE WINSLET!

Kate Winslet won not one but two Golden Globes last night. The videos are adorable, especially the second one where she's completely overwhelmed. I haven't seen either film (typically, not released here yet) but either way the awards are long overdue. It's pretty unfair to any other women nominated, I'll admit, but most of them have been nominated at least once before, so we'll forgive them.

They'll probablly be removed soon, but while they're still there check the videos out!

Supporting Actress

Leading Actress

Hopefully she'll finally get that Oscar. If the Globes are anything to go by she'll be nominated in 2 categories anyway. She already has 5 nominations, so that'll probably make 7. She'll have to win then. Otherwise she'd be up there with the likes of Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole which would just be horrible!

In Ireland they're raving about two wins - Colin Farrell for In Bruges and Gabriel Byrne for "In Treatment". Good for them, but I don't really care! But I'm very happy that Vicky Christina Barcelona won in the comedy/musical category because I really enjoyed it (although it's not for everyone - I guess people will be disappointed with it now because they'll be expecting to laugh when there are few actual jokes). I'm not suprised by the lack of acting wins, there, it's good enough that they were nominated.

Oh, and I can't wait to see Slumdog Millionaire. It's another feelgood movie (this year's Juno/Little Miss Sunshine) but it's good for feel good movies to win once in a while (heck, most of what I watch is comedy - people like to be cheered up!). I had to scream at my Dad over the phone to stop him from ruining the film (yes, he's one of THOSE people!).

Writer's Block: Doctor Who?

2009-01-08T18:23:54Z

26-year-old actor Matt Smith was anointed as the eleventh Doctor Who this week. If you were in charge of casting, who would you cast as your ideal Doctor and why?

Submitted By norikoandshuya

View 502 Answers

Richard Ayoade.

I guess a reporter got there first; http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/tvtoday/2008/11/who-could-be-who-3-richard-ayoade/
But here are my reasons;

# Because he's a brilliant actor, even if he's too modest to admit it.
# He's got charisma on screen. He perfectly steals the show in every episode he's in in the IT Crowd despite a good cast (except maybe for the scenes with Matt Berry but he's a scenery-chewer, not that it's a bad thing in a comedy).
# Because he's still relatively young but not as young as the 26-year-old. Plus he can play older as evidenced in the character of Dean Learner in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and it's spin-off show, Man to Man with Dean Learner.
# He has a really cool, distinctive voice. Some critics describe it as an 'old man's voice - I wouldn't go that far but it would certainly add to the believability that he's over 900 years old.
# He's handsome, and that seems to be a criteria for casting Doctor Who nowadays, doesn't it? That was a big part of David Tennant's success, anyway.
# Because he's evidently intelligent, (having co-written and directed a TV show, as well as directing various music videos) as is the character if The Doctor.

It would never happen, because Ayoade would probably never accept the role anyway - he probably wouldn't stand all the fuss and attention, but mostly it would use up too much of his time and so his other talents would be wasted.
Plus he's under contract for Channel 4, so the BBC wouldn't be able to snatch him up. For now. But one can always hope!

Anyway, I'm willing to give this Matt Smith, eyebrows or not, a chance. Anyway, who had heard of David Tennant before he got the gig? Honestly, I'm just relieved that it wasn't Russell Tovey as the show's creator, Russell T. Davies, suggested because he would've been all wrong. Plus that would've been just lazy casting as he was already in an episode, as was Freema Agyeman before she was reincarnated as Martha Jones and she was The Doctor's worst companion to date...

Failing that the aforementioned Matt Berry would also do a good job but maybe the novelty would wear off after a while. He'd probably want to sing in every episode!

It's Snowing!

2009-01-07T10:54:02Z

This might be nothing to someone who lives in a country where it snows, but to me, living in Ireland where all it does is rain but not snow (on the off chance that it ever does it melts as soon as it hits the ground) it's a big deal. I have an exam this afternoon, but whatever. This is great!

When I signed up for a year in the South of France I certainly didn't expect this! Weather is going crazy across the globe.

That's the dump of a building that I live in seen back in September. And this is it now.

Wow, now it looks like I'm in some Russian slum or something. I assure you it's not that bad!

Anyway, I just arrived back from Ireland yesterday afternoon. I'm wrecked. Glad it wasn't snowing when I arrived or I'd probably be sick and with wet luggage. Why does it always snow when you have exams, though? It's like that Simpsons episode where they have a snow day and Bart needs to write a paper.

Anyway I think my last exam is on the 13th whereby I can take a proper break and catch up on LJ stuff. Yes, next on my list is writing about meeting Cate in Toulon. I haven't forgotten - in fact I feel very guilty that I haven't done it yet. Sorry Cate!

Woot! Snow! I'm off to make the most of it!

Oh, and I almost forgot, thank you to everyone who sent me a Christmas card! Namely Cate, Grace, Joanne (cheshire_pirate), Susan (mooncove), Suzanne (scarlett_0), Laura (thank you for the postcard - too sweet!) and Lauren. Thanks for spreading all that Rushie love and Christmas cheer!

Help!

2008-10-01T15:09:58Z

So, if you had to do a 20 minute presentation on anything from French culture, be it a film, a personality, an author, a director anything really although it has to be serious, what would you do it on? Bear in mind that my partner for this project is Chinese so she'd have to be into it too. Plus, there are loads of other people in my class, and we're not the first to do the presentation so it can't be anything obvious that somebody else would do.

Bored and Tired

2008-09-01T21:32:48Z

I'm in a hotel near Dublin Airport. Flying out to France at 7am tomorrow so have to get up at about 4. Still haven't had dinner. Been travelling all day. I'm all alone in this huge hotel and completely disorientated. I'd better eat and try to get some sleep. Don't expect to hear much from me for at least 3 weeks. Doesn't mean that I've forgotten you guys, it's just that the university and accommodation I'm staying in does not have internet, so I'll have to use more costly means. Hope you've been having and continue to have a good August and September. Talk to you guys soon..hopefully. I'll miss my internet chats! (And my real family and cat, of course).

Apologies For My Absence!

2008-08-12T22:26:27Z

I'm really sorry that I've been away. I don't have a clue what I've been missing. I've been very busy with work and preparing things for France. I'm leaving on the 2nd of September.

My cat, Bea's, persistent ear problems lead to antibiotics then ear drops, then flushing out of her ear under anesthetic in February, then removal of a growth/pollip with another short operation, then more ear drops and antibiotics, and then finally 2 weeks ago (Mon 28) Bea had surgery to completely remove her ear canal because it was so infected and causing her a lot of pain. She's doing okay now, I guess. She's not perfect, as she is now obviously deaf in one ear, but cats adapt so amazingly quickly that you'd hardly notice. Except for the fact that she is (well was, it's grown back a bit) bald on one side of her face. Funny how I go see The Dark Knight, and then 4 days later I have a 'two-face' for a cat! Except that she's still my sweet little Bea, and isn't some comic book villain. [Oh, and, Susan, I haven't forgotten that I said I'd post my review of the Dark Knight, even though you've almost certainly seen it by now and the hype's died down a bit)]. Anyway, I'll fill you in a little more when I have more time.

I'm going off with my sister to see Muse play in Dublin tomorrow. I actually don't know their music too well, but I've never been to a large concert, and I don't want to wait until I'm at that age where younger people raise their eyebrows at you for being too old to be at a concert.You know what I mean. I like the band, I just don't know the words to a lot of their songs. I really don't think anyone will notice, though. Annoyingly one of my sister's friends has pulled out of going to the concert, so we have to pay extra money for accommodation because there will be 3 people paying for 2 rooms instead of 4. It's incredibly frustrating because if she'd told us a day or 2 ago we could've cancelled our hotel bookings and booked a 3-bed room and saved money. Now we have to spend more.
Anyway, wish me luck! Hope that the weather is all right. There were floods on Saturday in Dublin, so hopefully it won't rain! Catch you later!

New Laptop

2008-07-20T23:08:11Z

Still working at the petrol station. The guy I had to cover for a few types has officially disappeared off the radar so I seriously doubt he'll be coming back to wrk. Which means that they still need me. Which is a gift and a curse considering that the job isn't muuch fun, but it does get me some cash so beggers can't be choosers, right?

Anyway, I got a laptop! Yay! I ordered it from the Dell website on Thursday morning/Wednesday night (whatever way you look at it) at 00:30. I spent ages viewing the various options for their laptops - of which there are three standard types, the inspiron, then the brand new studio range, and then the xps. The XPS is the most expensive, but when I looked at a studio laptop with the same configurations as this one, mine only worked out at about 80-100 more, and it came with extra things that the studio laptop doesn't have. Plus, the studio range was only relaeased on the 26th of June, so there are far too few reviews for me to know if it's really reliable.

But the studio range did come in more colours - there were only 4 for the XPS - black, blue red and pink. I really wanted a ruby red one, but it would've cost over €100 more because part of the proceeds went to AIDS charities in Africa (a worthy cause, but absoltely not worth the cost of what is essentially a different coloured coting to the back of the laptop). I debated whether or not to get a pink one, simply because it would be less likely to be stolen (what guy would be caught dead with a bubblegum pink laptop?) but I figured bubblegum pink (contrary to my page's decor) absolutely was not me, so I settled for the midnight blue. The colour is very subtle. It looks almost black in some lights, but when the light shines on it it looks really pretty.

Anyway, the reason why I mentioned earlier WHEN I placed the order is because my laptop arrived at breakneck speed. Dell delivered the laptop by 10am on Friday - that's less than 34 hours after I placed the order. Beat that for delivery! Especially considering that they had to make the laptop to my requierements, and when it arrived all the programs were already installed.

The only major downsides to the laptop are that it comes as standard with Windows Vista, which is actually a huge pain in the ass. I've had it set to 'classic mode' so that it looks more like Windows 2000, because it's generally unnavigatable. Unfortunately I can't do the same for MS Word, which they've messed up really badly by trying to make it more accessible to dummies, annoying this student who is somewhat of a whizz kid at good old fashioed MS word. They've deleted a whole pile of options and shortcuts. There are no more drop down menus for 'file', 'tools', etc., but rather when you click on an option there's the long bar which stretches across the screen from left to right which makes it harder and more awkward to find anything.

As I've been busy at work I've had hardly any time to mess around with it, but hopefully I'll be able to fix that soon. Anyway here are a few pics;

My new 15" laptop as modelled by Bea. She gets quite jealous of it. She's trying to stop me from typing and purring madly on my lap.

Best picture I could get without using flash - the flash makes the colour look unnatural.

It looks filthy in that picture but I assure you that it only looks like that beacuse of the flash!

P.S. I got a lovely text message from Cate (aka apple4b) telling me that she was having a lovely time on the beach on her holidays. Thanks for the message, Cate! Hope it's still going well!

Boring Work... I've Missed All The Fun!

2008-07-06T22:56:12Z

Sunday was *supposed* to be my day off. Except at 2pm I got an urgent phone call from work saying that they needed me to cover for somebody who called in sick. So from 3-10 I was working on tills with nobody to back me up. Oh, and only 15 minutes break - I'm not sure if that's legal, I'll have to check. I could've said I had something on, but I have a feeling that they won't be needing me any more at the end of the week. I was only supposed to be covering for people on holidays. I hoped that they might have a few hours here and there. But yesterday I met the new girl (yup, even newer than me, so I'm supposed to be the responsible one, even though I've only worked maybe 3 or 4 days more than her) so I'm pretty certain that after this week I won't be going back. Sigh.

So the work isn't what really annoyed me. It's what I missed because of it. Geoffrey's birthday - again. I missed it last year and promised myself I wouldn't this year. AND I didn't get to watch the Wimbledon Mens' final (Nadal v Federer), which I was so looking forward to. My Dad said he'd tape it on Sky+ (Tivo/recorder), but he messed it up. At the start of the match we had no signal because of terrible rain, so it couldn't record. And he never checked that it was properly recording when the match came back on. He watched the whole match and didn't notice ONCE that it had not recorded. I got to see a whole 1 minute of ads which recorded under the heading of "Wimbledon 2008", how annoying is that? I hadn't been able to watch a single good match during the tournament, and then I miss, what I was told was, an amazing tennis match. I know it's just a tennis match, but I'm not that into sports, and the sports I'm into are only shown on TV a few times a year, so it is a bit dispiriting.

ali_babble @ 2008-06-26T23:54:00

2008-06-26T23:08:10Z

I am exhausted. First day at work today - I've got a part time job for a few weeks working the tills at the petrol station I mentioned in my last post. Sounds easy enough, but it wasn't! Sure, if you can scan the item and the person has cash it's fine. But if someone wants to pay by credit card, or has an account for the petrol, or wants a lottery ticket (there are so many different types that I wasn't even aware of), or wants cigarettes (there are so many kinds, and they're all behind glass so you have to press these tiny buttons, but I don't know any cigarette brands so it takes me ages to find them) - it's all a huge pile of pressure. And you have to constantly look out the window in case somebody drives off without paying for petrol (somebody did today, and I think they all secretly blamed me, even though there was another experienced person there who should have also been keeping an eye out). And there's the pastries and certain deli items which don't have bar codes so you have to enter these codes into the cash register - but I don't know any because there's no actual list and the cashiers just seem to magically know them off the top of their heads. Grr. This is hard.

I actually think I did okay for my first day, but I won't be able to use the whole "it's my first day" excuse tomorrow so people won't be quite so forgiving.

Tomorrow I go back for 4 hours. 2 members of staff are on holiday next week so I think that they basically expect me to be a pro by then. Yikes! Wish me luck!

Because I have a LOT to learn.

Very Talented Dog

2008-05-27T16:55:55Z

I don't normally pay attention to talent shows, but I have to share this clip from last night's episode of Britain's Got Talent. The dog is called Gin, and his trainer is only 15 years old. She must have spent hours training her dog to "dance" like that!

They didn't get the highest number of votes, but they still made it into the final because the judges picked them as the runners up. Best of luck to them for this Saturday's final!

Video of My Cats

2008-04-13T13:23:46Z

Sorry if I haven't been posting much lately. Just posting a link to my new video of my cats! I've never tried making a video before (I don't really have the equipment - I can only make videos from footage recorded unto a video camera), but I now have even more respect for those who have made several because it takes AGES to edit such tiny clips! Also, I didn't actually have much footage of them, so I pretty much used all my good clips at the start! It's only 2 minutes long, so if you have time check it out.

My Cats Playing
Uploaded by Ali-Babble

Writer's Block: Gotcha.

2008-04-01T18:53:20Z

What is the best April Fools' Day joke you've ever fallen victim to?

View 500 Answers

I've never been the intended victim of a cruel April Fool's joke - but my Mum has. Three years ago my Belgian grandmother rang saying that she was in Dublin airport and was coming to our house because she'd decided to visit us. The house (especially the spare bedroom) was a total mess. We - my mother and I - freaked out. That is, until 20 minutes later when she rang and said it was a joke. She had us totally fooled! We were so relieved when we found out the truth!

Writer's Block: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2008-03-17T16:15:25Z

How are you celebrating St. Patrick's Day?

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I'm not celebrating it. I know, an actual Irish person (not someone who's great grandparent was Irish) who doesn't care about her national holiday. Truth be told I've got piles of work to do for college this week (my last week before the Easter break - yay!). I'm on my break, and my affection-hungry cat is on my lap distracting me. Besides, Irish Paddy's Day celebrations are rubbish. They have awful parades with marching bands, people in dull costumes, and a few crude floats. You're packed in like sardines on the city center streets to try and get a look at one. They're okay if you're a child, but I'm a little old for parades. They're much more fun if you're in them. They showed the Dublin parade on TV - I'm sure you get a better view in your sitting room. I'm sure that there are actually much better celebrations abroad. In New York, for example.

Also the pubs are all packed. And not in a good way. Lots of parents dragging their bored children in.

Nope, I'll probably celebrate instead on Wednesday, after my tests and essays are all finished. That'll be something worth celebrating!

Writer's Block: I'd Like to Thank...

2008-02-24T23:22:44Z

Write your Academy Awards acceptance speech.

View 465 Answers

Oscars! I always get a bit excited around Oscars, I don't know why! Anyway, I'm too lazy to come up with my own speech, but I did come across a sort of 'fill in the blanks', satirical speech generator yesterday so I'll post what it produced for me;

Wow. Oh boy. I wasn't going to prepare a speech, but my ailing relative told me I'd jinx myself if I didn't. So, thanks, Duffy! [Pause. Inhale deeply. Nod to Jack Nicholson.] I'd like to thank the Academy. I'd like to thank the big, breathtaking, ageing actors I was nominated with. Just to be included in a group with you all is an honor. I'd like to thank my manager, Yentl, my agent, Joel, my stylist, and all the immensely talented people at New Line, Harvey Weinstein, Rainbow Queen, and Dr Phil.
I'd also like to thank my parents, who supported me through orphanhood. And Richard Branson, my one ... true ... love [gaze into audience]. Last, but certainly not least, we all just lost Mel Brooks, a truly tedious visionary and splendid soul. [Begin tearing.] I'd like us to take a moment to ... No! Wow! Don't start playing that music, I have 37 more people to go! My editor Elizabeth Cady Stanton, my accountant Michael Bolton, my lawyer Alley McBeal, and my personal assistant Bridget Jones, Josh at Hippogriff Pictures. Brad Grey. When we started this project, the environment was something no one wanted to talk about. Victims of the 'War on Terror', this is for you! Thank ...
[Music swells.]

FROM:
http://www.radaronline.com/features/2008/02/ralibs_oscar_speeches.php

I particularly love the way that this line came out - "I'd also like to thank my parents, who supported me through orphanhood"!

If I did actually write a speech I'd probably throw some Irish/Gaelic in there, just because I don't think anybody's ever done that before, and also because I could say whatever I liked and nobody in the audience would understand me!

In Other News...
By the way I saw I'm Not There this evening at the local arthouse cinema, and it blew me away. I haven't seen the performances of the other actresses in the Academy Awards' Best Supporting Actress category, but Cate Blanchett is absolutely amazing in it. You completely forget that it's her playing the role. Not that the rest of the cast don't also do a great job. It's just that she probably got the weightiest role of the six actors playing Dylan. That and her being a woman also helps. She won't win for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (although she should've won for her role in the previous film - beaten by Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love - what were they thinking?) but it would be nice if she won for playing Dylan.

I don't care for best picture, really. They all look like good films, although I haven't seen any of them!

But speaking of Oscar acceptance speeches, I think that Geoffrey Rush's, though not the most memorable in that it isn't over the top, or very showy (he didn't cry, he didn't brag - unlike George Clooney, ahem - he didn't dance around), is still the perfect example of how a speech should be delivered. Eloquently, acknowledging your fellow nominees, throwing in a joke, thanking people - but not too many. Nothing new there, but all done to perfection. I still have no idea how he managed to deliver that speech so well.

A Tale of Two Kitties

2008-01-12T21:59:46Z

This is a very long post, so I won’t be annoyed if you choose to just skip the text and look at the pictures! Below are the backgrounds and descriptions of my two cats, rehomed since December 1st, from their owners who have since returned to New Zealand.

BACKGROUND
I’ve always wanted cats. Ever since I was a little girl I wanted a cat and not a dog. But my mother has a terrible allergy to fur of all kinds – she starts to wheeze whenever my sister returns from her horse riding lesson because she brings back traces of horse fur. Most dogs will bring her out in a rash if she doesn’t wash her hands after touching them. She used to have all sorts of animals in her house as a child – particularly cats – and she was perfectly fine until she developed an allergy at around the age of 15. But now we’ve found the perfect pair of cats to which she has no reaction to – and they’re not hairless!

Last summer for a whole month I fed two cats belonging to some friends of my parents while they were away. Mr. B, (a girl – but her male owner always called her boy and it stuck; we now call her Bee) was an utter gourmand but so frightfully timid that I could rarely get within 5 feet of her before she ran away from me. Kitty Milk (the name is a little strange, we’ve shortened it to Kitty) on the other hand, was a total charmer. Despite the fact that they were fed only once a day she was always far more eager to be petted than to eat. In fact, I’d have difficulty shooing her off my lap and out of the house whenever it was time for me to leave.
One downside to my feeding those cats was that the owners who were renting were not supposed to have any pets, and the landlord was planning on doing some work to the house while they were away. So every time I went to feed them I lived in fear of the landlord coming in and discovering me with an open tin of cat food and two hungry cats pacing the floor. Fortunately I was never caught, although I had a few scares, but it meant my hiding the food and washing up after me every single day. The cats’ house was perhaps 2 miles away, and so I had no trouble walking there. Except that I live on a very steep hill, and the journey back from feeding the cats was always exhausting. I roped my mum in several times to drive me there, and she formed an attachment to the cats. In fact, she never had a single allergic reaction to them.

On Friday the 4th of January the owners travelled back to New Zealand for good. I was almost in tears when they left; we’ll certainly miss them. And they’ll certainly miss their cats. Fortunately they’ve found a new home with my family! If we hadn’t taken them in they would’ve been left outside to fend for themselves, and would’ve been waiting for their owners to come back, and probably would’ve died within a couple of months seeing as they’ve been domesticated. It was absolutely lashing rain on that Friday, so thank God we did take them in because they would’ve been in a terrible way.

The pair of cats are adopted strays. I have no idea why anybody would want to abandon them, because they are both lovely cats.

BEE
Bee has a stiff left back leg, which is evidence of an accident – probably a hit from a car. In any case she’s used up at least 2 of her 9 lives. One day she came up to her former owner, who had only ever glimpsed her, but never been close to her, in a terrible state. She was pleading to him for help. She had boils all over her backside, which apparently happens to cats if they’ve been injured in a particular spot. She was taken in and apparently just ate for days until she was well enough to be taken to the vet.
On another occasion they think that she was bitten by a rat. She had disappeared for a week, they feared that she was dead. When she returned she had become incredibly thin and had a nasty cut under her neck.
Fortunately these problems seem to have healed. Unfortunately for the last 10 or so weeks she’s had a cold and now we’ve discovered a nasty ear infection. She’s now on antibiotics (which she doesn’t mind because we feed the medicine to her in bits of salmon, which she adores!) Fingers crossed she should get better.
She’s incredibly timid around strangers – she cried for several hours when she was first brought to our house and it took her a week before she could muster up the guts to come on ours laps. Now, she is the perfect lap cat – every time I come down in the morning, or whenever she wakes up she leaps unto my lap and isn’t satisfied until she gets a good 20 minutes’ petting all over (particularly on her belly). She’s not very playful at all, and mostly prefers to sleep. And she has a very healthy appetite, so provided that she’s fed and petted she’s a very contented kitty cat. She’s not an expert at using the litter tray – she always manages to keep her business inside it but chances are that in her feeble attempts to bury it she’ll end up knocking the grit from the tray all over the floor! But that, and the fact that she has a tendency to claw my legs a lot when she’s on my lap (I know that it means that she’s enjoying herself, but she’s pretty much ruined part of a pair of my jeans!) are her only faults.

Bee is very easy to photograph because she’s nearly always sitting down, eating or sleeping. She looks even more beautiful on film because the flash makes her coat look very glossy!

KITTY
Kitty is an especially gorgeous creature. She was patiently coaxed into domesticity with food and kindness. If she isn’t a pure bred cat, she’s at least the direct descendent of one. The owners thought she was a Maine Coon, and somebody else suggest that she might be a Norwegian Forest Cat, but because she doesn’t have these tufts of hair on the very point of her ears (which are not large) I’ve concluded that she’s a Siberian cat. Apparently Siberian cats are hypo-allergenic i.e., most people who are allergic to cats are not allergic to Siberian cats, so that would explain why my mother has no reaction to her. The owners think that Bee might be her offspring, and that makes sense, because they both have the same length fur, are friendly towards humans and my mother isn’t allergic to Bee either.

There aren’t more photographs of Kitty because I love her more than Bee (I love them both!) but because she’s far more active, and because pictures rarely seem to do her justice – she’s even more beautiful in real life!

Kitty is incredibly intelligent. She knows exactly how to tell you what she wants. She has a different meow for certain things –for wanting to go out, for wanting to play. She’ll always attract our attention when she’s out of food but never vocally. She’s the mistress of the litter tray – she’ll always carefully cover everything so that you’ll hardly know that she’s been there. And of course she’s incredibly affectionate. She’s the type of cat that almost anybody can pet. She loves people so much that she has to sleep with them, so she’s taken to sleeping with my sister in her bed (note the purple duvet cover in the pictures). And it’s not the comfort of the bed that draws her to my sister’s room, because whenever my sister is not sleeping in our house kitty refuses to sleep in her bedroom.
She’s incredibly lean and doesn’t eat much, but that doesn’t stop her from being ferocious if she wants to be. On her first venture outside our house within a minute she was chased by another cat. Kitty immediately turned on it, gave it a swipe, and howled to scare it off. Apparently, she was the queen of her old neighbourhood with only the largest of tom cats being able to go near her. Of course you’d never know by her indoor behaviour that she was so vicious to other cats, because, while she is very playful she plays in the daintiest way I’ve ever seen. She likes strings and dangling things (so sometimes we have to watch out with jewellery and certain items of clothing). She also has toy mice which are life sized so she enjoys kicking them around. She’d never before used a scratching post, but we tied a mouse to it so that she would start to play with it and has now worked out what the pole is actually for. As a result, every time that she eats she’ll go to the scratching pole next to her food bowl and will have good stretch and claw. We were told that she doesn’t like toy balls, but she discovered a miniature Christmas tree bauble that I missed when tidying up and it has since become her new favourite toy.

Kitty is very active and a pleasure to photograph playing!

FRIENDLY RIVALRY
The owners have done an amazing job training them. Apparently Kitty used to bite and scratch but you wouldn’t know it now because she’s been trained to be such a gentle cat. They pair don’t get on very well with each other. Bee doesn’t seem to mind Kitty, but Kitty only tolerates Bee. Bee is restricted to the kitchen/dining area, while Kitty pretty much rules the rest of the house. Bee doesn’t seem to mind, though. But after seeing how Kitty defended our garden from a rival cat, then by comparison she’s very nice to Bee! I’m so happy that I have cats! We couldn’t have been luckier in terms of the fact that they are loving creatures, and don’t fit the negative stereotype of a nasty, scratching cat, who only sticks around for the free food.

Kitty is the Queen of the House. Unless Kitty is feeling kind Bee has to wait for food. Usually, though, Bee is the only one there when the food is served so queuing is rare.

By the way, apple4b, the good news is that I’ve found a programme that can get back my photographs of Paris. The bad news is that the programme costs $80! I can see the pictures as thumbnails but I have to buy the programme to get them ; (
As proof here’s a picture of you – I know that I said that I wouldn’t post pictures of you publicly, but it’s so tiny that the only thing recognisable about you is the coat!

Technology Sucks!/A Cruel Twist of Fate

2007-11-17T23:27:57Z

Last night I tried uploading my pictures of Paris unto my PC but it wouldn't work. When I tried turning on my digital camera my only options were to format the disc or to turn off the power. For no apparent reason my memory disc is all messed up. I took hundreds of pictures in Paris, and now it seems like I won't be able to keep a single one. I went to a camera store to see if they could help me but they concluded that my only option was to format the card and then they might, although nothing was guaranteed, be able to recover some of my photographs. As you can imagine I'm kind of upset. Instead of writing a lot of things down on my trip I took photographs, and so I huge chunk of my memories of the trip have been erased. And I took some really nice pictures, too!

This has never happened to me before, and why it had to happen now of all times is puzzling. Most of the time I can live with losing pictures - but I have no idea when I'll next be in Paris. I'll try as best I can, but I doubt that I'll have any pictures to prove that I met Cate/apple4b. So sorry about this, apple4b! I'll try to write an account as soon as possible, although I'm finding that quite hard because I've lost all my photographs. ;(

ali_babble @ 2007-10-29T22:16:00

2007-10-29T22:46:51Z

It’s been an incredibly long time since I posted here. I mean, this site is called livejournal and I’m doing a terrible job at using it as a journal, not to mention hinting at the fact that I’m still alive! Sorry to anybody that I’ve neglected – it’s not that I don’t think about you guys, it’s just that I’ve been having a horrible time getting to use a computer for anything other than college work.

Anyway, a combination of going back to college (at the end of September), DIY, and procrastination have stopped me from posting here. And there’s so many things that I wanted to share with you guys! Anyway, rather than bore you with pointless babble (as only I, Miss Ali-babble, know too well how to do) I thought I’d share a few short pieces of news and some photos with you.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
At around 10:30pm on Friday the 20th November I joined a queue of hundreds outside a bookshop in my city for the eagerly awaited book. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to witness such hype over a book again, so I figured I might as well go along! There wasn’t much to see (some places, I know had entertainment) but there were a few people dressed up and everyone queued in a patient, orderly fashion, which I guess was nice. The only down side was the few idiotic people who were in the city to drink (as is usual, particularly on a Friday night) who decided it would be funny to shout things like ‘Harry Dies’ or insults (which was pretty stupid because there were hundreds of ‘losers’ queuing for the book and they were highly outnumbered!). I had the book in my hands by 1am, which isn’t bad going at all! Of course, due to queuing for the book in my house I didn’t get to read it until several days later, but that didn’t matter. I hardly remember the book at all, because I read non stop for a couple of days (I’m a slow reader) and its all a blur to me now several months later. Anyway, I felt it was one of the better books – more action packed, and was a pretty fitting conclusion to the series.

[Harry Potter – a friend of my sister – and his broomstick!]

I’m Going to Paris!
Okay, so it’s just for a weekend, and it’s an educational college trip but I’m still pretty excited. I’ll be there from the 9th to the 12th of November, which is in less than a fortnight so I can’t wait. So, apple4b, I won’t be too far from where you live, and of course, I’ll be in the same city that Geoff studied in all those years ago. Although that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because Paris is such a historical city (I saw Ratatouille [great film] on the big screen a couple of weeks ago, and that didn’t help to contain my excitement at all!). Anyway, I’ll try to post any interesting pictures or news in a couple of weeks so watch this space!

And Finally…
Only in Ireland! I took this picture on the bus a few weeks ago (which explains the quality). The sign is still there now. Only in Ireland could you have a misspelt sign (it’s diversion, with an ‘r’!!!) printed and kept up for weeks on end!

[Oh, and by the way, yes, I did pass that exam, seeing as I’ve moved on to the next year of college. I’ve no idea what I got in that particular exam, though because they only give you an overall mark. Thanks for all your encouragement, though, guys!]

French Oral Exam - Why Does Everything Have to Be About Mr Rush?

2007-05-14T19:27:10Z

I had my French Oral exam today, and I'm not entirely sure how it went! I chanced my arm that nobody before me had cancelled and arrived only about 10 minutes early, which was nerveracking because there were loads of people there. The examiners (if you can call them that - I didn't know one of the women, but I'm certain that she was French, the other was a very nice lecturer from England) called me late, and I got out slightly early, so i don't know if I got enough time.

I had to pick one of two pictures to talk about - I chose a drawing of two guys sitting on a bench, one reading a book, the other reading his laptop (sideways, as if it were a book) - and I had to describe it, then say what I thought it meant. So I got on about new technology and the internet and I said that I used it mostly for entertainment. I said that I could talk to people all over the world using the internet - I mentioned the USA, Australia and France as examples. Then they asked me what I looked up on the internet and I got talking about Geoffrey Rush! I said that he went to mime school in Paris and that he helped to translate Ionesco's Exit the King (except that I couldn't remember what the word for a 'play' was). I got talking about the fact that Pirates of the Caribbean is coming out next week (I don't think that I mentioned that Geoffrey is in it!) but they soon cut me off (I don't think that they'd seen the last one because they said 'Another one!' when I mentioned Pirates 3).
Then they asked me about French film but I got less than a minute before they asked me another question. I'd said that it's harder to find French films in Ireland but they didn't quiet agree. I also think that they might have thought that I'd learnt things off, but I had hardly done anything for that exam! They asked me about the other subjects that I was studying and I got unto Art History and Paris' importance, and that I'd love to go to Italy to view the art. They finished by asking me if I was going to keep on French. I said that I didn't know, but that I had been certain that I wouldn't keep it on after first year but that now I wasn't so sure. They told me that there's a French cinema section of the course for second years - I replied 'Ah bon!' ('oh good') in typical French fashion, which they laughed at. And that was it! I said "Is that all?"("C'est tous?") and left hurriedly.

I'm not sure that I did too well - I didn't really form sentences, but rather jumbled out strings of phrases. And I think I was a little bit too impolite and casual when talking to them, and I don't think that I made enough eye contact with them. It's election time here and I was certain that they'd ask me about it, but they didn't - they just went with the flow of my train of thought! I'm glad that that's over with, though! I guess I was lucky, because I had two very nice people asking me questions - some of the other students weren't so lucky. It's ironic, though, that I got to talk (if only a little) about Geoffrey Rush, even in a French oral exam!

Happy (Belated) Easter

2007-04-13T14:27:40Z

I know that Easter almost over for a week, and also that the real message of easter isn't chocolate and bunnies; but some of my pictures look good enough to eat so I had to post a few up! What with my sister being away in Spain and my being the only child left in the house my parents absolutely spoiled me - after I had specifically asked them not to buy me any Easter eggs. I guess that some parents will shower their teenage daughters with junk food just to make sure that they're eating (which I don't understand, because I have no trouble emptying my plate...). I won't tell you how much of the eggs I have consumed 5 days after these pictures were taken... I'll leave that to the imagination!

Haha, only just realised that it's Friday the 13th! It seemed like Easter was kind of early this year; I'm pretty sure that they avoided having Good Friday on the 13th... I guess that it would be kind of contradictory. At least I'm not superstitious... but I know a few girls that I can annoy who are! Mwahahaha!

DeviantArt

2007-02-11T01:12:27Z

I started a DeviantArt account to display my few drawing/images. I hope to create/find more to add to it.

Here's a link to my page, although there's not much there yet.
http://ali-babble.deviantart.com/