Last week was quite good, actually. I meant to write about it here - several times, in fact - but work kept getting in the way. Work even got in the way of my video, which had to be posted on the weekend this time around.

There are good and bad sides to everything really. For instance:

Good: Work is more interesting these days and involves far fewer library-oriented tasks.
Bad: It also involves fewer actual breaks.

Good: People keep complimenting me on my (apparently) awesome taste in shoes.
Bad: This fills me with uncertainty every morning as I choose my footwear AND causes me to wonder if I should have a lot more shoes.

Good: I was complimented within an inch of my life on Friday.
Bad: I'm not quite sure if it's OK just to say "thank-you" or if I should return the compliment if at all possible.

And now I am on holidays and am being kept company by actual, real internet! Internet that's much faster before! Ironically, I spent the first day of said holidays far from this fast internet and instead in the company of people from Ober.net. (Although, as you can see here, we were all very close to mobile forms of internetness...) It was a splendid day! There was an almost-rained-out picnic, followed by unintentional spending of money in Minotaur. This required us to sit down in Borders with a beverage of some sort... followed by further unintentional spending of money.

But seriously, Borders had the "Buffy staked Edward" t-shirts! As part of a stand of Twilight merchandise! How were we supposed to resist, especially when they look this awesome?



I don't have mine on because I wanted to preserve the integrity of my gypsy outfit. *cough*lazy*cough* Oh yes, I didn't mention the gypsy outfits, did I?

We were wearing gypsy outfits.

There you go. It was part of our theme for the picnic and we didn't actually stand out too much, thanks to the fact that we were in the city on Talk Like A Pirate Day. However, according to various bystanders, we could also double as:

1. Authentically-dressed Russian villagers


2. Pirate wenches


3. Pre-Buccanneer-era pirates

Of course, the 3D glasses add considerably to our authenticity in that pic. We were just waiting to see Up in 3D, which is possibly the most gorgeous movie I've seen in ages.

And once all that was over (although none of us wanted it to be), I got right on to my delayed video. Unsurprisingly, it's writing week again and this week's theme is to do with authors we admire or who have influenced us. Since I was in a rather grateful mood all week, I decided to make my video into a thank-you to all the authors who've inspired me in one way or another. Watch to see who makes the cut!



I'd love to know which authors you guys would like to thank, even if it's for trivial reasons. Comment! Make a video! Send me a smoke signal!

Let me tell you, the last few days have been just fantastic. It's funny to think back to my first trepidatious steps towards meeting these crazy people from this equally crazy website and to compare said steps with my crazy-enthusiastic run towards said meetings now. To catch you up (and to draw us all away from that laboured analogy), I should explain that I have spent three of the past five days at the Melbourne Writers Festival in the company of people from Ober.net, some of whom I'd met before; many of whom I hadn't.

It was so much fun! We talked, we watched, we fangirled, we bought books, drank coffee, ate pancakes and drew signs and it was all over far too quickly. Mostly, we were there to see sessions with Isobelle Carmody (since she's the reason behind our website), but it was also a fantastic chance to meet up with people from interstate who share our loonish tendencies. It's just wonderful to be able to act like an idiot in public - and much easier to do so when you have a group of people with you doing exactly the same thing.

Actually, it was so much fun that I didn't quite manage to write those hundred words I promised in my last video. There'll be more excuses about this in this week's video.

The up side of this lack of writing is that the festival has inspired me to actually do some of said activity. The past few festivals I've attended weren't quite as inspiring. In fact, "pretentious" is the word I'd apply to them... and then only if I were being nice. This time around, it definitely wasn't pretentious.

And I really, really feel as though I should be writing.

This one’s really only going to be relevant to people who know me from Ober.net, so feel free to skip it if you’re not one of those.

Everyone else: pay attention!

This is how it is - I want to spend more time on my writing and less time pestering people about their double posting or the size of their signature image...  Therefore, I’m no longer a MoO at Ober.net.  Instead, I have thrown my lot in with the Guardians and left Min, Avvy, Clare and Emerald to the thankless business of abusing power on the messageboards...  Did I just say that?  What I mean is that they really do an amazing job and we’re in very safe hands there.

That is all.  That’s why my profile now says “Guardian” instead of “Master of Obernewtyn” and why I won’t be spending quite as much time at Ober.net from now on.

You may now celebrate. :P

Oh, as for LJ, I’m afraid you wouldn’t be able to prise me away from that with a steam-powered prising machine.  So you’re stuck with me here.  There is no escape.

Just a short one today to:

1) Whinge about having to go back to work on Monday.  I'm not ready to be bored out of my brains again!

2) Celebrate the fact that I thought I had to go back to work today, but don't.  Who'd have thought I'd ever thank the education department for something?

3) Congratulate the good Blindmouse for having a story accepted by Aurealis.  She's going to be a famous author in no time at all with her dedication to the craft.

4) Reveal that I think I've finally worked out how to make Black Fiddle work and am greatly excited by this development.

5) Pass on this meme compiled by the good people at Ober.net for all the Obernewtyn Chronicles fans out there: ( You know you're addicted to Obernewtyn when... )