Random thoughts from Grimmauld Place

Here's my results for that meme that's been doing the rounds about writing style:





That was for this year's DearSanta fic, so I s'pose it's right...





And that was for the Doctor Who fic the year before (but I've never heard of David Foster Wallace?)

And finally, for one of my Dreamwidth/LJ entries I got this:





Not much consistency there, then.

Anyone know of any decent, but reasonably priced hotels in central New York?

Call me a purist, but I'm not sure how I feel about the changes in the Scrabble rules to allow proper nouns:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8604625.stm

I can understand it for established place names, country names, etc, but to allow all 'people' names as well? That's pretty much saying you can justify any spelling that fits the letters you have, on the premise that someone somewhere may have a name spelt that way :-/

I'm currently doing a benchmarking exercise at work and am finding it difficult to find comparable companies: What I need are the names of companies that distribute chemicals, and in particular biochemicals, to UK universities and research establishments. No other details, just the distributors' company names. Can anyone help, or suggest where I could find that sort of information?

Apparently the American military powers that be are tracking Santa Claus' exact location! Have a look here:

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html

:-)

And if case I don't get online later on or tomorrow, I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the very, very best for 2010 (and I say "Twenty-ten")

So it seems I have until the end of the week until my DW paid account - which was kindly donated to me via yvi - expires. I do agree with the principle of paying for a service you appreciate (and particularly one that isn't bombarding you with advertising otherwise), but this is the first time in that time I've actually used a paid account feature here at DW, and I don't think I can just up and leave LJ just yet - there are too many people I am friends with over there who aren't (yet) over here, and I want to keep my Scrapbook intact as well, and I can't do that to my satisfaction without a paid account there. So what to do?



When I first joined LJ, back in the days when you need to either pay or have an invite code to do so, it was a much smaller, friendlier and less obviously commercial place than it is now. It's certainly lost that feel, which I lament, and I do appreciate that about DW. But LJ has so much of my history and my current links still. Am torn :-/

It's the DearSanta deadline imminently for the usual, low pressure fic/art exchange. It's small, multi-fandom (though all participants must be willing to write/draw in a common fandom - Harry Potter - to help with matching people up with a secret Santa) and for writers only has a minimum of 500 words. The deadline is today, I think, but I'm sure anyone signing up in the next 24 hours will be welcome.

All the details are here:

http://community.livejournal.com/dearsanta/profile

And this year it's running on Dreamwidth too!!!!

http://dearsanta.dreamwidth.org/profile

Needless to say, I've signed up again this year, even though I'll probably stress a lot about the lack of writing time. But the reason I do so is that it's a friendly exchange, challenges me to write - last year's was the first time I wrote a non-HP fic (nearly). And I've generally loved what others have written for me in the past:

2008/09: Revisions (Harry/Padma)

2007/08: Practical Experience (Harry/Parvati/Kingsley genfic)

2006/07: Twenty-Four (Ron/Padma PG-13)

2005/06: The Haunting of Malfoy Manor (Harry/Parvati NC-17)

2004/05: Fireworks (Harry/Parvati NC-17)

2003/04: Midwinter Waking (Harry/Cho)

Also 2003/04: Grant Me One Wish (Neville/Luna PG-13) - I *really* liked this one!

There seems to be a bit of a pattern emerging there, doesn't there - I do give a list of quite wide-ranging requests, honest...

There you go, DearSanta has been running for at least 6 years already. Will you join in the 7th?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to anotherpenguin - Hope you've had an excellent day :-)

Cross-posting to LJ - let's see if this works

This is nice: I've actually got the laptop out after a good night's sleep and am lazing around in bed doing things like setting up this new Dreamwidth account. It seems quite a few of my LJ friends now have accounts here...

*goes to look around the site*