Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

I've done this meme before so feel free to ride on by :) However, there's some new peeps on my flist who weren't around last time so hopefully some of you will play!

Comment to this post and I will :-
a) Tell you why I friended you.
b) Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.
c) Tell you something I like about you.
d) Tell you a memory I have of you.
e) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
f) Tell you my favourite user pic of yours.
g) In return, you must post this in your LJ. (Optional!)

sabaceanbabe gave me the letter M for the music meme from yesterday :)

( The Letter M )

...it must be time for a meme!

1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List (and upload, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

I haven't got the songs to upload so I've linked to vids where I can :)

( So halcyon_shift chose Y )

sanba38 asked me "What is more socially acceptable to say in public, boogers, or shit? Or do y'all say bogies instead? Not the golf kind."

Definitely "boogers" although you are right in that in the UK, this is referred to as "bogies". I prefer "boogers" actually, mostly because when I watch a US theme war movie and they say "Bogeys at six o'clock!" it's a hell of a lot less confusing :)

I think using swear words in every day language is becoming disturbingly commonplace. I'm no prude but even I boggle at the proliferation of the F word. 20 years ago I wouldn't have dreamed of using such language. Then I went to Uni :P Now I usually manage not to swear in public or at work (usually, not always) but it's an effort. It seems to have seeped into my brain and of course, it's seeping into the brains of children of ever younger years. I suppose overuse at some point will render the word harmless, such as the use of the word "damn", which doesn't even raise an eyebrow here any more. I'm not sure if this will be a good or bad thing.

therealsherbs wants me to talk about listening to the radio. And this is going to be another short answer because I very rarely do, unless I'm in the car and have a deep burning need to listen to the travel news and find out why I'm stuck in this 'ere traffic jam. I don't have a radio in the house, except for my alarm clock and that's so knackered, I'm lucky not to be woken up every morning by bursts of static instead of talking or music :P I could, theoretically, tune in via the TV, as Sky offers radio channels, and of course there's always the internet. I understand there are some very good online radio stations.

However, I have problems with non-visual media, being hard of hearing, and I tend to get frustrated if I can't make out what's being said. I have several podcasts and radio interviews of people I really like that I've never listened to or never finished listening to because of that. I should, I suppose, make more of an effort. It wouldn't do me any harm to ease myself off the idea of "if I can't see faces, I can't hear".

My Mum listened to the radio all the time, it was always on. I must admit, there was some good stuff to listen to. Maybe I've just got out of the habit. Certainly, a radio can be company in ways I don't think TV manages. Good topic, young Sherbski, I may have to get back into the radio listening habit :)

tired1680, because he is evil too, suggested I talk about Jusnoctis. I don't really know if this can be considered outside of my comfort zone, because I have no problem with talking about it at all. I just don't usually because I don't want to bore people silly :)

For those not in the know, Jusnoctis aka London by Night is the online World of Darkness RPG site that halcyon_shift founded and that I now "run". I say "run", but I don't do a hell of a lot, to be truthful. I don't run stories, I have very little interaction with players except as a player or the Admin of Doom and a lot of the time, if anything technical goes wrong, I have to cling to halcyon_shift's ankles and wail for help. Mostly I lurk and put out fires now and again. That said, when I have to do that, it tends to be not so much a fire but a raging conflagration that threatens to engulf Tokyo. Not much middle ground with these things :)

I've been the site "owner" for, umm, oh hell....4 years now? (good lord, no wonder I'm deranged) and I'm always kind of surprised the site keeps going. We have a very small player base, finding STs (GMs or DMs to those that know of RP things) is always a battle, keeping STs is even harder, yet somehow we endure. At the end of 2006, we even took the drastic step of having a site reboot - total shut down, deletion of all characters etc. - and to my mild surprise, most of our player base not only came back in Jan 07, but new people showed up and stuck around too.

We've had some fantastic players over the past 7 years the site's been open, some truly brilliant scenes and memorable quotes. We currently have a pretty fine crop of STs who are cheerfully torturing a small but resilient band of players. We could use some new "faces" and I'm sure we'll get a few new people eventually; player numbers seems to be a cyclical thing with us.

I currently don't play as much as I used to, I'm a bit burned out, but when I do, I play either Werewolf, Mortals or Changeling. Sadly, we are currently without a wolfie ST while doccy deals with that pesky real life thing, but I'm hoping when my RP mojo returns, my mortal will be suitably tormented by therealsherbs and I KNOW my changeling will be tormented gleefully by the ever evil thessalian.

The range of ages that have been represented on the site might surprise you - our youngest ever player was, I think, 14 going on 15 when he first started and yes, it showed, but watching him grow up was a delight. Our *cough* oldest player is, well, I won't say her age but let's just say her son used to play on the site and she celebrated an important zero birthday a couple of years back that wasn't her 40th :P The vast majority of our players are in the 18 to 30 category, which means we do tend to lose people now and again as real life gets in the way with work, marriage, kids, divorce etc. I don't think anyone really leaves LbN though, we seem to always lure them back, even if it's just for brief visits (hi again, tyrell!).

Perhaps the most amazing thing that has happened because of Jusnoctis is Sweet Charity, the bi-yearly charity auction that halcyon_shift founded to honour the memory of Danzy, a former player and ST on the site. Danzy died, far too early at 33, due to complications from AIDS, leaving behind her husband and twin boys. Those of us who knew her and played with her during the peak of her activity on LbN can't and won't forget her, she was a wonderful person. And in her name, Sweet Charity has, to date, raised a total of (brace yourselves) $51,802.29 (£28,493.82), for three charities but primarily Danzy's charity of choice, RAINN. None of that would have happened if it wasn't for LbN being there in the first place. And halcyon_shift but I don't want to embarrass her toooo much... (Oh and the Mar 08 SC auction is just getting up and running, please consider moseying over and joining in :) )

I've made some great friends thanks to LbN, some of whom I'm very close to in real life, and we're a pretty tight crowd, by and large. Which can make it tough for newbies but if they stick it out, we're worth it in the end :) All in all, although it occasionally drives me up the wall, I wouldn't (and couldn't) give up LbN, at least not yet. It's not just an RPG site to me.

So halcyon_shift, being evil, suggested I write about politics. I would like to apologise to tyrell in advance. Oh and this entry is going to be short :P

The main reason I don't talk politics is I generally feel I don't have enough knowledge to do so. I rarely argue discuss politics with friends because I would like to stay friends and I was always taught it's best not to discuss politics or religion, except in broad terms.

By upbringing and inclination, I vote Tory; that said, I have voted Lib/Dem at least twice, both in local elections, because the incumbent was a media whore who needed to go (he left) and I believed in the candidate. If the Lib/Dems really convinced me they were more than just a mish mash of Tory/Lab ideas, I'd be happy to vote in their general direction.

I believe it's important to vote - if you don't, you don't get to complain about the outcome. Also, I am genuinely thankful and grateful for those women who fought to get us the vote in the first place, because I know I'd be too apathetic to take on that fight myself. So I honour their efforts by making one of my own to get to a Polling Station when it's required.

Overall, I just distrust all politicians and think that we're just voting for the ones that we think are less crooked than the others. I seriously wish we had an option on our voting ballots that said "None of the candidates", I'd really like to see how that worked out sometime. Well, I'd laugh :P I think at the heart of it all, I get so angry about some of the things that governments do and feel that we're so helpless to change anything, I prefer not to study the subject too closely. My blood pressure is high enough and there are other (hi Steve!) who are so much better at it anyway.

I was going to finish there and then I thought of something else. I think governments today operate out of fear, manipulate through fear and spread fear. If the populace could see through that, we'd make some major breakthroughs. Maybe someday soon. In the meantime, my sole political concern is who gets elected President this go round in the USA; that'll be an interesting fight to watch. From a safe distance.

So there are my few and feeble thoughts on politics. I thank you.

I've responded to a couple of these on my flist so it seems only sporting to post this here. Dammit :P

"Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on lima beans, favourite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc.

There's yet another "Guess the song from the lyrics" music meme going around atm and I wanna play too. But as I don't have any music on this PoS PC or an MP3 player with music on it, I'm going to have to do this pretty much from memory. ETA: Heh, this ended up as kind of a musical history of a Mitchy, although not strictly in order. If anyone gets no. 3 without extensive Googling, 'm gonna be impressed.

The current meme suggests 40 lyrics but the thought of doing that is making my brain cry so I'm gonna do 20 :)

1) But the stars we could reach/were just starfish on the beach - bibliogirl
2) Sweep through the heather like deer in the glen/Carry me back to the days I knew then. - bibliogirl
3) Hey Control, this is 67 here / I can hear you loud and I can hear you clear yehbibliogirl
4) Still there was a way to hear her voice again/The phone rang one, the phone rang twice/And then I heard her say
5) And soldiers coming home like shadows turning red - thessalian
6) I know what you think/The girl means business/So I'll offer her a drink - bibliogirl
7) There's a motorway/It's a monument/To distant cities with distant cries
8) I know what it means to work hard on machines/It's a labour of love so please don't ask me why - bibliogirl
9) And here I am/Tryin' to keep you in my line of sight/I'm never certain that you read me right - thessalian
10) I guess we all have these feelings/We can't leave unreconciled/Some of them burned on our ceilings
11) I'm sure he once walked down our street/'cause he painted kids who wore nowt on their feet - bibliogirl
12) I heard you on the wireless back in Fifty Two/Lying awake intent at tuning in on you - thessalian
13) The Gods may throw a dice/Their minds as cold as ice - bibliogirl
14) No one in your life is with you constantly/No one is completely on your side - bibliogirl
15) Eight to Ten years after coming home almost eight hundred thousand men/Are still fighting the Vietnam War - bibliogirl
16) I reached inside myself and found/Nothing there to ease the pressure/Off my ever worrying mind - bibliogirl
17) Come from greed/Never born of the seed/Took life from a barren land - silenttex
18) Young hearts are foolish, they make such mistakes/They're much too eager to give their love away - combined effort by silenttex and itsjustaname
19) You can't turn back the clock/You can't turn back the tide/Ain't that a shame/I'd like to go back one time on a roller coaster ride
20) Please don't put your life in the hands/Of a rock 'n' roll band/Who'll throw it all away - thessalian

I was tagged by the ever-lovely halcyon_shift!

Post 6 things that recently made you happy, then tag 6 more people...

1) The day out I had yesterday with thalinoviel and cookwitch, which I'm going to post about in more detail when I've done this.

2) Slightly Salted Kettle Crisps - these things are worse than crack.

3) Galaxy plain chocolate. Even better than Bourneville and I didn't think that was possible.

4) Stargate Atlantis - the current season is rocking my small self-centred world. There's a con next weekend in Manchester where Jason Momoa, Torri Higginson and David Nykl are going to be attending but I don't think I can really afford to go. The entry's cheap but the travel and accommodation costs aren't. Next time, I swear. And this is the first show since Xena that's made me want to go to a convention :P

5) Black Bomber cheddar - must get some more crackers tomorrow, it deserves only the best!

6) The RP scene I did yesterday with my MitchyBoggan. Man, I'm having so much fun with that character :) It helps that most of the current Changeling players and the ST kick ass.

Not going to tag but feel free to tag yourself :)

27 questions meme

You're on my friends list. I'd like to know 27 things about you. Just copy and hit reply and paste in the comments section with answers. Thanks! Then copy the meme and see if anyone answers you. (I've edited a couple of questions just to make them more appropriate for a general flist :))


1. Do you have a tattoo?
2. How old are you?
3. Are you single or taken?
4. Fish?
5. Do you dream in colour?
6. Ever seen a corpse?
7. City or country?
8. How did we meet?
9. What's your philosophy on life and death?
10. What's your favourite thing to do when we meet socially?
11. Do you trust the police?
12. Do you like musicals?
13. What is your fondest memory of me?
14. If you could change anything about yourself what would it be?
15. Would you cheat?
16. What are you wearing?
17. Have you ever peed in a pool?
18. Would you hide evidence for me if I asked you to?
19. What's your favourite place that you've visited?
20. Which do you prefer - short or long hair?
21. What's your favourite day of the week?
22. What's your favourite colour?
23. If you could bring back anyone that has passed, who would it be?
24. Tell me one interesting/odd fact about you?
25. What was your first impression of me?
26. Have you ever done drugs?
27. Who'd play you in a movie of your life?

(I've posted an edited version of my replies in the comments)