Some great Avengers art

There are some lovely alternative covers here. My favourite is the Incredible Hulk #7 one, with its Winnie the Pooh style, but there're a lot of really great ones (how cool is the Age of Apocalypse #2?). I think Sarah's got one of these as her iPhone wallpaper. I'm looking forward to upgrading to a 4 so I can have wallpaper..!

My tweets

• Tue, 13:41: I hate... http://t.co/nCcteNsr
• Tue, 19:38: In Alan's world, knowing something is a kind of freakish weird thing... http://t.co/SS92zJS9
• Wed, 10:47: Some great Avengers art http://t.co/k296Ezeh

Odds and ends

Depression seems to be rearing its ugly head again. Nowhere near as bad as it has been in the past, but still upsetting and annoying, particularly as I've been pretty rigorous about taking my medication, so I don't know what specifically has triggered it this time. Hugs and kind thoughts and cute gifs always appreciated, folks.

Sarah's OU exam went well, she thinks, although she won't know for definite how she did until August. But she feels confident about it, which is good.

Off to the recording of the pilot episode of Resistance tonight, with Tim. Anybody who's in the London area and can make it to Broadcasting House by 5:30pm and is interested in a sci-fi sitcom starring Katherine Parkinson, Peter Davison and Alison Steadman, let me know as I've still got a couple of tickets spare.

Slightly disappointing note - apparently Alex Kingston has pulled out appearing at The 11th Hour at the last minute. Apparently she's done that at least twice lately. Shame, it would have been nice to meet her, but she wasn't a major reason for me wanting to go. Incidentally as Frances Barber is going to be there it's tempting to try to pick up a copy of Closer to Heaven on CD, but I'd need it to be delivered tomorrow without fail for me to take it to the convention and get it signed. Might be easier to get into the attic (or ask Sarah, who isn't scared of heights) and dig up the program for it. But then it's a case of, "well, which of these several dozen boxes might it be in?"

On which note, the BBC have released another photo (the third) of Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman. All things considered, I prefer the first one, but they're all rather good and just have me impatient for it to be "autumn" so we can see the seventh season, and indeed Christmas so we can see the new companion in action.

Speaking of autumn, that's when a Toby Carvery opens near us (as in about 5 minutes drive down the road; probably walkable if I really want the exercise). I always feel announcing something will happen in "autumn" (or indeed any other season) is a bit too vague, as I'm never sure what date that means. I tend to think of autumn as September - November, winter as December - February, spring as March - May, and summer as June - August, and most of them fit fairly well, but it's all a bit vague. Why can't people be precise?

I keep thinking of work I can be doing at home tonight, and then realising that I'm not going to be at home tonight. Although I'm kind of looking forward to seeing this show, part of me I think would rather not bother...

Writer's Block: Historical Romantic Mystery Thriller

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As far as fiction is concerned, there's a whole shelf unit and a bit dedicated to Doctor Who novelisations, New Adventures, Missing Adventures, Eighth Doctor Adventures, Past Doctor Adventures, and a few Ninth Doctor Adventures, plus several shelves of factual/analytical books related to Doctor Who. I don't think that counts as a genre per se, but that certainly gives a pretty good guide to where my interests lie. Apart from that, in terms of fiction at least, our library I think is predominantly science fiction and fantasy (I tend to favour sci-fi, but there's probably more fantasy on the shelves, particularly with Sarah's Wheel of Time collection and our mutual stock of Terry Pratchett), as well as a hefty load of Clive Cussler and James Bond novels (so, action adventure/thriller, I guess) and some comedy (chiefly Tom Sharpe). That, I think, is a pretty good description of my reading interests. At some point, I'd like to check out some of Sarah's history books, but I have enough in my reading list to be getting on with.

Need to get this out of my system...

Whenever I listen to this song (sorry, lousy video...):

...I think of this joke:

James and Sanfran were best buddies, but when they died, James went to heaven and Sanfran went to hell. But there was a telephone line between heaven and hell, so Sanfran decided to give his old friend James a call.

"How's it doing? How's heaven?" he asks.

"Well, it's not really what I'd hoped," confesses James. "We have to sit on our clouds playing our harps all night. Every morning we have to take all the stars out of the sky and polish them, and put them all back before nightfall. Quite boring, really. What's hell like?"

"Oh it's fantastic!" enthuses Sanfran. "We've got everything you could want -- drink, drugs, discos, loose women -- they're all down here! I've never had such a brilliant time!"

Later that day, God notices than James is looking a bit sad. He asks him what the matter is.

"I was wondering if I could see Sanfran. I mean, we were best buddies and all, and I'd really like to see him."

"Well," says God, "we can fix it up for you to go to hell for one day, but you must take your harp with you."

So James goes to hell for a day, and has a great time living it up with Sanfran. The following day he returns to heaven, and is met by God.

"Well, is everything all right?" he asks.

"Oh, it was brilliant! Discos, drink, women, drugs..."

"Yes, yes, yes," says God, slightly irritated. Then he seems to notice something. "James?" he says.

"Yes?"

"Haven't you forgotten something?"

James thinks for a minute, then suddenly realises what God is referring to.

"Oh no!" he exclaims. "I left my harp in Sanfran's disco..."

Avengers directors cut?

Rumoured to be hitting cinemas late summer.

If this happens, I think I could be persuaded to go and see it for a fourth time. (If I've not already seen it again by then.) huntingospray, what do you reckon?!

There is no version of this in which any other film comes out on top...

If you only do one thing today...

Originally posted by moth2fic at If you only do one thing today...

Originally posted by delaese at If you only do one thing today...

Originally posted by chaotic_binky at If you only do one thing today...

Originally posted by aeron_lanart at If you only do one thing today...

Originally posted by the_silver_sun at If you only do one thing today...

Originally posted by badly_knitted at If you only do one thing today...

Originally posted by jedi_harkness at If you only do one thing today...

Originally posted by ladyhadhafang at If you only do one thing today...

Originally posted by girlofavalon at If you only do one thing today...

Originally posted by cassie_black12 at If you only do one thing today...

Dear UK Flisters,

I know I'm preaching to the choir with you guys when it comes to LGBT equality, but believing something is fair and actually getting off your bum and doing something about it doesn't always follow like it should. So here's a little (and slightly preachy) reminder!!

Three things I'd like you all to do before you go to bed tonight (if you haven't already)

1/ Go here and sign the C4EM's petition for marriage equality. This is the simplest and probably most visible way to show your support. It currently has 60,000 signatures -- the petition against (by C4M) has over 500,000!!!

2/ Go here and fill out the government's consultation. It might take a little bit longer, but you can bet that for every pro-person who doesn't find the time, there will be dozens of 'anti' people who will.

3/ Email your MP. There's a handy template there for you to use so you don't even have to think of what to say. Also, you can go here to see where your MP stands on the issue. A hugely important thing to do because the majority of MPs will be voting with their conscience rather than following the party line, so make sure you let yours know your feelings.

4/ Okay, so I lied. There's actually a fourth thing. And that is simply spread the word. The consultation ends in two day - it's our last chance to get as many people mobilised as possible. So tweet it, Facebook, blog it, beat your friends and family around the head with it until they give in!!! And if you want to repost to your own journal (and please feel free to edit), here's an ever-so helpful button

Predicting the future is a mug's game...

So, just watching the QI episode Bats, and was rather intrigued when Rich Hall suggested the 2012 Olympics could take place in Hackney. However, on checking it turns out that the episode was broadcast in November 2004, and presumably recorded a few months earlier, so I'm guessing that it was fairly established that London was at least in the running for the 2012 Games, so, not as prescient as I at first thought.

Earlier in the episode, though, discussing Battology - which apparently means pointlessly repeating the same thing over again and pointlessly repeating the same thing over again - Alan mentioned a friend of his, called Dave, who pointlessly repeats the same thing over again and had therefore earned the nickname Dave-ja vu, which was a bit prescient, really..!