I've seen a meme on the old flist:

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them ;-)


Anybody know where this comes from and what this 'Big Read' is? The list is so similar to the BBC's Big Read that I assume that must be it, but some of the books are missing and some others (like the Bible) have been added, and the order's all wrong.

I'd always assumed tales of the incredibly short notice given to PhD students in my department was apocryphal, but I've just been told that my confirmation viva (the meeting that decides whether I get to stay on as a PhD) requires me to submit a literature review and a journal paper within the next week. I've written a literature review but it needs significantly overhauled; the journal paper doesn't exist at all, as I've never written one. My supervisor's not in the country. Fuck. (Comments off as I need to get off the internet...)

Heads up - something weird's going on with my home internet (we're with Virgin Media - we can access all sites fine, albeit slowly, apart from Livejournal on my computer, and Fark on my housemate Kevin's. Which would be the sites each of us use most. We have no idea why this is happening, or how to fix it.) So if I'm not replying to comments more than usual, ignoring ficathon entries written for me, etc, apologies - I can only access LJ at work right now, and since there's no net access in my labs it means my time's limited.

Many moons ago I ran buffyverse1000, a slightly mad project to get people to write 1000 different pairings in the Buffyverse. Now settiai's running a Doctor Who/Torchwood/SJA version: whoniverse1000. This makes me squee delightedly, so if you share my desire to pair everyone ever up in the Doctor Who universe (including the super-obscure one-off characters from the books and audios and comics), go and check it out.

I'm watching a 70s sitcom called Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads (and loving it, so thanks to the anon on fandomsecrets who posted about it) and loved this little exchange, as the two main characters wake up in a police cell:

Bob: What happened?!
Terry: Well... do you remember a police box and a strange Doctor...?

My show, it gets everywhere.

Two fics from me, both short comedy stuff (I WAS SHOCKED TOO):

Title: Domestic Goddess
Characters: Gwen/Rhys, Ianto, Tosh (briefly)
Rating: PG
Notes: For prettyquotable for the Gwen ficathon: request was ‘Gwen/Rhys post-wedding. Gwen tries to cook lasagna for Rhys but fails miserably.’
Summary: Cooking, in theory, sounds simpler than crazed shapeshifting vampire aliens. In theory.

Title: Beware the Jabberwock
Characters: Fitz, Eight, Compassion
Rating: PG-13
Notes: For kseda who wanted an exciting, cracky adventure with lizards. She didn't specify silly or plotless, but I took it as read...
Summary: Fitz and the Doctor ponder elephants, alien megafauna and whether Wuthering Heights might be improved by some enormous lizard action.

I watched the Four and Leela story Invasion of Time tonight. Brilliant stuff, but one bit in particular stood out:

( Spoiler for The Poison Sky )

I set this up ages ago but only remembered today I never finished and unlocked it - Classic Doctor Who episodes love meme. Go. Squee.

*scurries back to thesis*

Now, it could be that everyone else in old school Who fandom already knows this and it's the equivalent of 'omg did you know Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who!!!1!' but it's entirely new to me: last night we were talking about the Brig (as one does) and my housemate mentioned seeing Nicholas Courtney on Harry Hill's sketch show some years back - playing the Brig. And singing 'Don't Leave Me This Way'.

Surely not, I thought. That's too brilliantly insane to possibly be true. So I googled a bit and found this Nick Courtney interview:

I recorded that back in October, as The Brigadier. My agent contacted me and said would you like to do The Harry Hill Show and I said, yes of course. It was wonderful to do, obviously he (Harry) had grown up with Doctor Who and liked the Brigadier and asked me to do a guest spot. I do a scene with a Cyberman and another scene where I’m singing a song by The Communards called Don’t Leave Me This Way and it should be going out at the end of February I think. So you’ll be able to see The Brigadier in full costume singing Don’t Leave Me This Way, so that should be a laugh. (Laughter).

WHAT. ALSO: THIS IS CLEARLY DOCTOR WHO CANON. SOMEHOW.

Authors are live on remixredux08: my probably entirely obvious entry is below. I was really lucky in who I was assigned; there were loads of booster17's fics I loved and I spent ages going back on forth on which one to write, finally rejecting the Rose/Jake/Mickey pr0n and the Jack/Gwen shag or die because I couldn't think of any sort of twist on them, and the Sarah one because I wasn't sure if the original writer had seen Sarah Jane Adventures, and I thought making a fic into a different fandom might be a bit off. So, I picked the one with Dawn and Jack, because I really really like the thought of Dawn meeting Nine, Rose and Jack.

Title: The Great Bikini Incident (The Key to Time Remix)
Author: doyle_sb4
Summary: Dawn’s suspicious of the three electricity inspectors outside her sister’s Rome apartment.
Fandom: Buffy/Doctor Who
Characters: Dawn, Nine, Rose, Jack
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Property of Mutant Enemy and the BBC
Original story: The Great Bikini Incident by booster17

( The Great Bikini Incident (The Key to Time Remix) )

Title: They Came to Norway to Eat Our Brains
Author: Doyle
Characters/Pairing: Rose/Jack, Mickey, Jake
Rating: PG
Notes: Very late backup for the available_very ficathon for honorh who wanted a reunion between Rose and Jack in Pete’s world, Mickey, yorkie!Rose, no Doctor and no angst.
Summary: The Torchwood base at Darlig ulv Stranden has a problem with zombies. Well, one zombie (suspected). And when the pictures come through in London, Rose is shocked to realise who it is.
Length: 5000 words

( "You know zombies?" )

Some stuff I've posted elsewhere, linked here because otherwise I'll lose track of it:

Worlds of Smoke and Song (DW, Rose, Doomsday AU)
First Frost (SJA, Sarah, Maria, post-Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane)
A Time For Every Purpose (DW, Barbara/Ian, pre-series)

They're all a bit angsty and about death, which is not my usual fare at all, but the stuff I'm working on now for Remix Redux and churchontime is my usual comedy-with-people-running-about, thank goodness - it's much more fun to write.

I'm still thinking about some of the prompts for the unpopular opinions meme - yes, a week later because I am slow and end up getting stuck on things like "are there prevailing opinions on, say, Spike or Xander? Because you could get a sizeable crowd arguing most things...</i>" (My #1 unpopular opinion about Spike and Xander is that I don't see them together, I suppose, although have a weakness for s4 basement odd-couple comedy, and cliche be damned.)

From cidercupcakes: Pretend you knew I was going to be assigned you in a ficathon. Give me a title, character(s)/pairing(s), and a word or two of prompt, and I'll tell you about the story I would write for you. Possibly even start the story in a file somewhere and maybe, one day, if the stars and planets align just right, actually finish it. Oh, and feel free to add what made-up ficathon it's for.

Fandoms: Doctor Who (all of it), Torchwood, Sarah Jane Adventures, Buffy, Angel, Hot Fuzz, Black Books, Red Dwarf, all the Treks bar Enterprise, Discworld, Good Omens, Harry Potter, anything else you think I know well enough.

Memeage via kindkit:

1) Comment with one of my fandoms or a character or two from that fandom.
2) I'll answer with one or two of my unpopular opinions about that fandom or character.

I'm running a pimp a Doctor Who companion posting month on loves_them_all. I know there are lots of you who could do a great Barbara, Benton, Jo, Turlough, etc... *eyes*

I've run memes like this before for companions and for ships (and I'm trying to dig up links to those) and decided it might be fun to try one for all the episodes of old school Doctor Who. In the comments are threads for every story from An Unearthly Child to The TV Movie (actually, The Curse of Fatal Death, because I couldn't leave Lumley Doc out); reply to these comments with what you loved about the episode, whether it's favourite lines, moments, squee for the rubbish dinosaurs, character love, shippiness, screencap picspam, or just 'best episode ever'. No harshing others' squee, please - there are 160 serials linked, there must be some you loved... Loving on stories generally derided by fandom is positively encouraged.

For some help navigating, this wiki page has the serials in order.

If any have been missed, feel free to stick them on at the end - I've just realised The Myth Makers isn't there...

Maybe my expectations were unreasonably high due to PJ Hammond's reputation and his episode last year, but ( god, that Torchwood episode was rubbish )

So it seems that if I wish for something fandom will provide - there's a new Gwen/Rhys comm, gwenxrhys. Now, if I keep searching LJ interests for Buffy/Satsu, a comm will eventually appear...

hearts_in_time, a Nine/Rose comm, may be shutting down, and has some prompts to try and generate some activity. Go contribute, for the sake of those of us too lazy to hunt through all the Ten fic on general Doctor/Rose comms. (Not that there's anything wrong with Ten. I just can't really ship him with anyone unless it's crackfic or inherently doomed from the outset. Which, come to think of it, would make Ten/Astrid my OTP...)

And on more fannish stuff, for the DW novel fans: there's an EDA ficathon going on at henriettastreet.

And the lgbtfest (multifandom, for fics about LGBT issues) is open for claiming with a ton of awesome prompts. Like the Simm Master, I Can't Decide.

This week's Torchwood seems to have split my flist; I enjoyed it a lot but have one uber-petty complaint:

( Petty petty )

I'm seriously out of touch with Buffy fandom these days - can someone point me at a ( season 8 issue 12 spoiler )

I didn't realise quite how much of a lame fangirl I am until this afternoon, rereading the chronologically first Jeeves and Wooster story and almost squeeing out loud in delight at the mention that before he met Bertie Jeeves was employed in Florence Craye's household - because I'd been pondering the fact that Florence Craye (the gorgeous, bossy, scarily brilliant one Bertie keeps getting accidentally engaged to) is so obviously a chameleon-arched Romana, but since Jeeves clearly has a fob watch stashed somewhere too, shouldn't they have ended up somewhere together? But they do know each other, pre-Bertie, so that works out all right. Hurray!

I put far too much thought into these things.

Turning from unlikely crossovers to perverted children's shows, this Sesame Street video has destroyed my childhood. And my brain. And the last shreds of my sanity.