anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
I've been trying to complete [livejournal.com profile] 50books_poc and [livejournal.com profile] 12films_poc. For those who don't know, they're challenges in which you try to read 50 books/12 films by authors/editors/directors of colour. You then review them in the appropriate comms. But I'm losing track of how many reviews I've done and what I've read, so I'm posting a list here.

And, BTW, if you're looking for something new to read, you should go see [livejournal.com profile] 50books_poc. There are some amazing books being written about there.

Read more... )
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
FALKIRK = LOVE.

Just so you all know, Michael Higdon is my new god.

I didn't expect to be going to the game, but my uncle phoned on Friday to say he had a spare. The atmosphere was pure terror for the entire game, but at the end everyone just went mad, me included. I felt bad for Inverness, because their fans must be gutted, but...not too bad. Mostly I'm too relieved.

And we've now got the Scottish Cup to look forward to! And playing in Europe next season, and WE'RE STAYING IN THE SPL!!!

Although I do not want another season like this one, because as escapes go this was way too narrow.

But at least I now have BGT to help calm me down!
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
The pain is from something called Tietze Syndrome. Essentially it means I've injured the muscles connecting my ribs to my breastbone, which leaves me in extreme pain whenever I lie down/stand up/stay still/move/breathe. So, all the time, in other words. Thankfully the doctor was confident it should heal on its own.

I've sat two of my exams! The First Scottish War of Independence and Popular Rebellions in Medieval Europe, which both went better than I thought they would. Only four more to go.

And, I don't often talk about them, but I need to ramble about Falkirk for a bit. We've been bottom of the table for too long now, but resigning myself to relegation is just impossible. I know every team going down probably thinks this, but we're too good. We're in the Scottish Cup final, which means that next season we're going to be playing in Europe for the first time ever, and I should be feeling so excited about that. But it looks like we're headed down, and when I think about the troubles we had getting promoted (we kept being ruled out on technical rules that didn't seem to apply to any other club in the league) it makes me want to cry. Relegation would be disaster in so many ways.

But. We won our last game, even though we only had ten men and it had its dodgy moments. My love for Tam Scobbie grows every game. If we win against Kilmarnock next game we'll be off the bottom of the table and out of the relegation zone for the first time in ages. So I'm praying.

Also, I now also have a Dreamwidth account. Same username. Although I don't know how much I'll be using it, I thought it might be a good idea in case this 'fandom migration' actually happens.
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
Everytime I post recently it seems to be a rant about something GLBT-related. Still, it's better than talking about the football (For those not paying attention to the SPL, Falkirk are bottom and headed for relegation. I can't even write *cries* because it just feels to serious for that.)

Anyway. What I'm angry about this time:

Amazon have decided that their customers need protecting from 'adult' books. Except by 'adult' they don't mean porn. Collections of Playboy centrefolds, for example, are absolutely fine. By 'adult', what they mean is GLBT. Books relating to gays, lebsians, and transexuals are all having their sales ranks removed, and are thus being removed from the best-selling lists, becoming harder to find, and much less visible.

These dangerous books that we need protecting from include:

Young adult books such as Alex Sanchez's Rainbow High series.
Academic books such as The Dictionary of Homophobia.
History books such as Strangers: Homosexuality in the Nineteenth Century.
Autobiographies such as John Barrowman's Anything Goes.
Lesbian fiction such as Gerri Hill's The Rainbow Cedar.
Gay fiction such as Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain.
Parenting books such as The Ultimate Guide to Pregnancy for Lesbians.
Children's books such as Heather Has Two Mommies.
Classics such as Mary Renault's The Charioteer.

Seriously. All those books, Amazon feels are adult books that must be kept hidden, and away from the best-seller lists.

Full list of books here, 'explanation' from Amazon here, link round-up here. Follow on Twitter here.

You can contact Amazon via your Amazon account (go to help and then contact), if you wish to do so.
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
My local bus shelter is now covered in posters for Lesbian Vampire Killers, a film in which the male actors from Gavin & Stacy discover a village where all the women have been enslaved by lesbian vampires. The 'Killers' part of the title clues you in to what comes next.

To quote Feminist SF, "in the space of a minute or two, I was reminded that to most of the straight people in this auditorium, I’m just a target. Not a real person. A straight man with an axe planning to kill lesbians is kinda funny, isn’t he? All jolly good fun.

I want this film to bomb and die at the box office. I want it more than I can tell you. I want it to be a massive, multi-million loss. I want the makers to quit. I can’t avoid the damn posters, I can’t avoid the damn trailer: but I can at least want never to see a sequel in the trailers, on the posters, on the Internet, in the film reviews."

Meanwhile, in South Africa lesbians are being gang-raped, beaten and brutally murdered in an attempt to 'cure' them, a lesbian in San Francisco was recently gang-raped and beaten for the crime of not being straight, lesbians in Iraq face torture and murder, while the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has issued a fatwa calling for their 'punishment', and homosexuality still carries a death sentence in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Sudan, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, and Mauritania. Lesbians are being murdered, attacked and raped for no other reason than that they're different, and dare - shock horror! - to not want to sleep with men.

Films about killing lesbians? Not funny.

Shag-list

Feb. 26th, 2009 05:45 pm
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
I saw someone else ([livejournal.com profile] marcella_riddle?) do this a while back, and thought it seemed fun. Who doesn't want to procrastinate by spending time staring at gorgeous women? Well, non-lesbians, possibly. But whatever. We know you're just waiting to be converted!

I think the basic idea was to pick 20 people you would shag. Not dial-up friendly. 60 pictures total. Listed in alphabetical order, rather than a 'who would I like to shag most' order. )
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
Uni started again last week. I am loving my new courses. One I wasn't sure about (From Pocahontas to Post-Feminism: Women in American History) and now I have no idea why I wasn't sure about it, because it's so wonderful. The professor is excellent - one big flaw of a lot of women's history is that it tends to focus on white women. But we're going to be getting a lot on black and Native American women.

Think my essay question will be: ‘Colonial America allowed white women opportunities unknown in Europe, while at the same time stripping African and Native American women of the rights and powers they had enjoyed in pre-Columbian Africa and America.’ Discuss.

Do you not want to study all about that? Anyway, I'm also taking Women and Gender in 19th Century Europe (v good - v important time for lesbians), and the First Scottish Wars of Independence (ROBERT THE BRUCE! YAY!). The lecturer for that is so passionate. I keep expecting him to start yelling 'FREEDOM!' and lead us all on an invasion of England.

So, yeah. I'm happy and excited. By March I will hate them all and stab anyone who mentions anything connected to any of them. But for now it's good.
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
I'm 22 today! I got a huge bunch of flowers this morning, although sadly I have no vases so they've been divided up into pint glasses. But they still look and smell gorgeous.

And thank you [livejournal.com profile] booksbagsshoes for the account time! And [livejournal.com profile] rabbitali, and anonymous (come comment?), for the virtual gifts. You are all wonderful :). Actually, a surprising number of people have remembered - it's quite forgettable, coming so soon after Christmas, but I've been getting happy birthday messages all day.

So I'm walking round with a big smile at the moment. Tonight we're going for Chinese then to FHQ. Uni restarts tomorrow, but thankfully my first lecture isn't till noon - so I may be out a bit late tonight!
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
I wish I could say something important and essential has been keeping me from updating, but actually it's just that my brother gave me the season 1 dvd boxset of House and I'm now completely obsessed. Since Christmas day I have watched every single episode and read a ridiculous amount of fic. Otherwise I would have come and wished people a happy Christmas and New Year. Sorry.

Anyway, I recieved two excellent fics for Yuletide. Pagan's Vision by Elena/[livejournal.com profile] vassilissa, a Pagan's Crusade fanfic which I absolutely adore, and Wings of Desire by Raven/[livejournal.com profile] loneraven, a short and sweet Merlin fic which made me laugh out loud.

I wrote a Merlin fic, which I wasn't at all sure about but has turned out very popular! (30 comments so far!) So that's a relief. And since I know there are a few Merlin fans on my flist, and because I like to keep all my fic in one place, it's posted below.

Title: Merlin, Arthur and Sir Damas
Rating: PG
Characters: Merlin, Arthur
Disclaimer: None of them belong to me - not even Sir Damas and Sir Accolon, both of whom originate in Arthurian legend.
Summary: "Actually, we just meant to kidnap Prince Arthur. I've got no idea what you're doing here.”
A/N: Written for [livejournal.com profile] ankaret. It's a heavily adapted version of a story I found in Roger Lancelyn Green's 'King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table'.

It wasn't the worst dungeon imaginable. )
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
First note: if you receive an e-mail with 'anitabuchan at yahoo.co.uk' in the from field, it's spam. Don't open it. E-mails from me will say something like 'Anita Buchan' (or just 'Anita') in the from field. I don't know why/how/who etc, but people in my address book have been receiving spam e-mails from my address.

Second: Yay Arsenal! *hugs baby!Gunners*

Third: YULETIDE HAS BEGUN! Yay! My first reaction, as always, is to wonder how on earth I'm going to write a fic about that. But then I get all excited and remember how much I love Yuletide. And I'm happy, as for the last two years I've written Hustle, and this year I've got a new fandom.

Anyway. Dear Yuletide Santa... )
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
My flist has exploded with happiness, as has pretty much everyone else I know. It is just all absolutely brilliant. I hope so much that this will mean a better future for the whole world.

It's bizarre that I'm now off to Glenrothes to campaign in the by-election there (a UK Parliament seat - the last MP sadly died in August) to try and take the seat from Labour. One of the things that amazes me most about the American elections is the sheer scale and drama of it - and how quickly it all happens! (The results coming in, I mean. No waiting around in school halls for a returning officer to get a move on!) Everything's so much bigger and seems so much more exciting.

It makes Scottish politics seem tiny. But that's actually okay, because there's something nice about that too.


And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope. - Barack Obama.
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
I may have, as a child, collected stamps.

This wasn't completely my fault: my dad had collected stamps when he was a kid (sadness is genetic?), and then passed them all on to me, but it was really fiddly and a bit boring. But I still like stamps enough to love these, and my feminist side completely agrees.

Photobucket

The six women included are:

Marie Stopes - Wrote first cheap book about family planning, and set up first family planning clinics.
Barbara Castle - Labour's 'Red Queen', campaigned for many things including equal pay and pension reform, fourth woman elected to Cabinet.
Eleanor Rathbone - MP who won family allowances for women.
Claudia Jones - Campaigner for black rights who helped launch Notting Hill carnival.
Millicent Garrett Fawcett - President of National Women's Suffrage Societies.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson - First female doctor and first female mayor in England, founded a hospital for women.

Coolness, yes? I'm actually buying many to give to female friends/relatives at Xmas :).
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
From [livejournal.com profile] sky_77. I normally try to avoid memes but I love handbags and am one of those people who believes the contents of said handbags have deep spiritual meaning. Or something.

one: Take a picture of your bag.
two: Now dump everything out, neatly adjust them, and take a picture (no matter how embarrassing).
three: Talk about the items inside. Details, plz.
four: Tag 6 people

Read more... )
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
I had this job about to start that I was really looking forward to, and it would have been great experience, looked good on my CV etc. So I was obviously thrilled when I got it and quit my old job several weeks ago so I could have a break in between.

Only this afternoon they called to say that they're shutting down their Glasgow office. I think, from what the woman said, that there was something a bit dodgy going on financially: I didn't really want to question her, since she was losing her job and sounded quite upset about it.

So, back to job-hunting, which is just unbelievably depressing.

On the other hand:

1) DOCTOR WHO!!! I know everyone else has already squeed (or panicked/complained/wailed/etc) but, despite its many flaws, I loved that last episode. And, while not wanting to spoil anyone...if they really follow through on that cliffhanger, does that make them the best secret keepers in TV history?

2) Yay Spain. I was very happy with Russia and Turkey getting to the semis. I feel unpopular saying this because there are so many supporters of the 'big' nations on my flist, but...I always want the underdogs to do well. And that would have just meant so much to Russians and Turks. Although I was happy Spain won, since obviously they had that whole underachiever thing and hadn't won anything since 1964.

3) Actually, recently my life has pretty much revolved around TV. Except my mum called, to see if I wanted to go to the Orkneys in August, so my tour of Scotland may continue then! I suppose that's one upside of not having a job.

And, I may post pictures of Stirling/Inverness/Ullapool/Hebrides/Skye sometime soon. If I can be arsed.
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
Well, sort of. The credit union has been absolutely dead recently (seriously: we're getting in about 10 people an hour? Normally it would be several times that) so I asked for time off last week and got it. Meanwhile I've recently left Ann Summers and have a break before starting a new second job in July...so I'm off on a tour of Scotland!

The Highlands, really. Planned route is Inverness - Ullapool - Stornoway - Tarbert - Uig - Portree - Fort William. I'm planning on taking about two weeks? I'm a bit nervous, because I don't normally do things like this, especially not on my own, but I'm feeling restless. And why not?

So, my backpack is (almost) packed, railcard is ready, YHA membership renewed, and tomorrow I'm off.

Everyone have a nice two weeks!
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
Unless you've been living under a rock you've probably noticed lj and fandom haven't been getting along too well recently. Lots of people on my flist have posted about various issues, from Strikethrough onwards. I've also noticed my flist shrinking a bit as various people leave for greatjournal or insanejournal.

This is all relevant because at the moment the elections for the LJ advisory board are going on (voting closes on the 29th). I don't know how much power or influence it's going to have, and I know a lot of people are dismissing it already, but I'm a firm believer that you can't not vote and then whine later. So it is very worth going and checking out the list of candidates which should have arrived in your lj inbox.

If you can't be arsed going through them all, I'm voting for [livejournal.com profile] legomymalfoy as my first choice, [livejournal.com profile] vichan second, and [livejournal.com profile] rm third.

[livejournal.com profile] vichan was the one who created [livejournal.com profile] fandom_counts about a year ago. [livejournal.com profile] legomymalfoy has been an active member of fandom for years and was quite generally convincing that she'd be a good candidate, and [livejournal.com profile] rm, who is also an active member of fandom (including Torchwood and Doctor Who! Yay!).

I did have a whole paragraph here about other candidates, but it's all said much better here. Also, [livejournal.com profile] fandom_votes is trying to form a fandom voting bloc, to avoid splitting the fandom vote, if you're interested in that.

Go here to vote.
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
I haven't posted about this before because I'm emotional and angry over it. I thought those feelings would have calmed down, but they haven't. And I need to say this.

First, the facts: Taylor's challenge broke Eduardo's leg. It pretty much snapped it in half. The foot dislocated and the skin was broken. Because of that tackle - because of Taylor - Eduardo could have lost not only his career, but his foot.

That's not going to happen. We have a good medical team who acted quickly. He's not going to have an amputation. But he's going to be missing the rest of the season, the Euros, and most of next season, assuming he comes back at all. His career could still be over. When he was a teenager, he left his home in Brazil and travelled to Croatia where he slept in a stadium because he wanted to be a footballer so badly. His dream, his job, all he's ever wanted - he could just have lost.

But what have people/the media focused on?

Wenger's comments. The reaction of the Arsenal team. And when not criticising those, they've made excuses for Taylor.

He didn't mean to do it. He's not a bad person. It was an accident. It shouldn't even have been a yellow card. He didn't make that much contact. Alex McLeish - a man I used to respect hugely - suggested it was actually caused by Eduardo's studs being caught in the turf. Stephen Kelly said he thought the red card was harsh. Presumably only mowing down the opposing team with machine gun fire should be worthy of a red.

Well, sorry. If you drove carelessly and accidently ran someone over and left then with an injury as severe as this, you would end up in prison. Yes, Taylor should be harshly punished. He could have just ended Eduardo's career. I don't care if he now 'feels bad'. How does he think Eduardo feels? And maybe it would help to avoid these types of injuries in future: it was only two seasons ago Diaby was out for a year after a 'careless' tackle broke and dislocated his ankle. His career could have ended then. Last season had its share as well, worst being Cech's head injury. Are we going to have to wait for a player to be killed before people start to realise that 'careless' tackles, intended or not, are unacceptable? When carelessness can result in injuries as serious as this - in injuries that are life-threatening, in the case of Petr Cech - it needs to carry serious consequences.

And now Sebastian Larsson has come out and claimed that the reason Wenger was upset is because he's a bad loser and called his comments 'idiotic and childish'. Apparently Arsenal were in a bad mood all game, which shows bad sportsmanship.

What is wrong with this game and its followers, that these comments seem to be common opinion? That its okay that a man's career could have been ended, that the problem is in fact the way his manager and teammates were emotional afterwards, something Wenger later apologised for. Wenger was wrong to say that Taylor should be banned for life, as he later acknowledged. But he was speaking in the heat of the moment. The backlash that followed made him out to be the bad guy here - not Taylor, who could just have ended Eduardo's career. But Wenger, who was emotional after seeing one of his players recieve an injury that could have ended in amputation.

It makes me sick.

Film meme

Feb. 12th, 2008 10:02 pm
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
Nicked from [livejournal.com profile] booksbagsshoes.

1. Pick 15 of your favourite movies
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.

Read more... )
anitabuchan: yellow shoes (Default)
I'm trying to distract myself from the transfer window 'cause there are rumours Pedro Moutinho could be making a last minute switch to Hearts :(.

I'm also quite excited because there is the possibility of me spending this summer in Estonia! And yeah, I don't really know anything about Estonia, but I've been doing a course called 'Central and Eastern European Studies', and if I write a good essay on Estonia then I might get a place. The best part? It's all FREE! I would only have to pay for my flight. And then attend Estonian language lessons while there, but, whatever.

My flatmate said that them being so desperate to get people to visit that they're giving out free trips is not a good sign. Does anyone know anything about Estonia? Mart Poom was from Estonia. I just want to go somewhere different.

Anyway, my yuletide 2007 fic which I've been meaning to post for ages.

Title: Past and Future
Fandom: Hustle
Rating: R
Words: 4600
Summary: A man from Danny's past returns to drag up memories he'd rather forget.
Written for: mooyoo

Read more... )

Title: Homecoming
Fandom: Hustle
Rating: NC-17
Words: 2600
Summary: Mickey has returned from Australia. Mickey/Danny.
Written for: halotolerant

(Read more...)

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