Exit Life Through Window

Oh, I'm so fed up with the lack of organisation at the Humboldt!! Or at least, the lack of communication. I've just now found the website where you're supposed to register for the end of module exams. Yes, the exams I did on Friday. The exams I only knew you had to register at all for two weeks before hand, and was given the impression that registering was just so that you would get the marks back, nothing urgent. Aaaaaagh.

Oh well, at least I'll know what to do next semester. I just hope I actually get my credits from this semester, because otherwise I'm screwed. Well, and will be making the biggest fuss possible, but that is a) stressful and b) not the point.

Hopefully this is the final post of my frustration/obsession with getting MONEYZ!! and then my journal will go back to being interesting, intelligent, and varied... ahem. Yes. Anyway, on Tuesday I finally had the bright idea of calling the generic student funding office number, rather than just stupid woman's extension, and got through to someone who was both polite and helpful. It was rather a shock :)

Anyway, he looked up my details on the computer, and told me they'd received my forms last Thursday, and that my payment date was scheduled for yesterday (Wednesday) and that so long as stupid woman (turns out she was off sick Monday and Tuesday) was back in, my payment should be made. Obviously, I was happy, although a little confused as to why everyone else got the congratulatory 'you're getting your grant soon!' email on Thursday and not me, if she got my forms then... but anyway.

So what happens yesterday? I get the 'congratulations, you'll get your grant once you've filled in your bank details' email, and eveyone else gets and email saying 'congrats, your grant has been released and will be in your bank in three working days'... *sigh*. Bit confused now. Especially since my bank details have been on their system for months now. But I guess I either got paid the money yesterday, in which case I'll have it Friday or Monday, or I'll get another email soon and then it'll come some time by the end of next week. Which would be kinda good, since by then I will be at the chavving off Trev again stage.

In better news, I'm playing in the O2 arena on Saturday! And I'm going to be in England til Wednesday! So yay, I get to see Trev and everyone :) And I'm seeing Bill Bailey in Cardiff on Sunday night!!

( An update on money things... )

In better news, Trev is here for a whole week! And it's soooo nice :) Not so good on the working front, but oh well. I'll just have to hope that the stuff from this week comes up in my exams!

Bah!! aalcc, the community for All About Lily Chou Chou fans, has been suspended. What are LJ going to do, ban people from mentioning the film? It's not like HP, where underage sex only occurs in fanfic/art - this is a film about underage Japanese kids raping each other (very poetically, I should like to add, it's not gratuitous violence. This is a film which has huge artistic merit.) As far as I'm aware, the film was simply discussed on the community. I think there were about two pieces of wanky emo PG fanfic, and a load of icons, and some interesting discussion. What can banning it possibly achieve?

Blergh. LJ is silly.

(Icon taken from the film. That child is about to commit suicide)

I've been reading so much good fic recently that I'd forgotten some of my pet hates in fandom. But aargh, it just takes one fic to remind me of all of them! There's obviously the nickname one... I hate hate hate all that 'Remy' 'Siri' 'Mione' stuff. They have perfectly good names in canon, why not use them? Apart from the fact that Remus and Sirius already HAVE nicknames in canon. I'm just glad I've never come across 'Alby'...

The one that set me off this evening was in a fic (I'm not going to name and shame because the rest of the fic is OKish) where Harry is ill and ends up being looked after by some of the teachers at Hogwarts. It's fairly typical with the whole 'Snape suddenly caring about Harry' scenario. But what I abhor is when, even after Harry has recovered, he is still carried everywhere like a baby whenever there's the slightest hint of trouble, and acts like a 9 year old (or younger) the whole time. In canon, Harry is a fairly mature and self-aware boy even when arriving at Hogwarts aged 11. I find it unlikely that at age 14 he would consent to being carried around, especially by Snape! And just because he's been ill doesn't mean he has to have a personality transplant. Grr.

I also have a real problem with Dumbledore being characterised as a manipulative bastard. I can see where that could be extrapolated from canon, but not to the extreme that some people seem to enjoy - I think that, however powerful, Dumbledore is still only human, and therefore has made some bad decisions, but he's not cold-bloodedly manipulative. Too be honest, he's always been one of my favourite characters, and actually, I find myself fairly unexcited about book 7, simply because I'm not so bothered about the rest of the characters. Well, of course I am, but it'll just feel like something's missing... I'm going to read it as soon as it comes out, though, obviously! Although I have to say, copperbadge's (Sam Vimes) 'Cartographer's Craft' pretty much ticked all the boxes for what I would love to see in the final book... so I hope I'm not disappointed!

Anyway, going back to the pet hates... The other thing I completely don't understand is how people (particularly on Fiction Alley's boards, it has to be said) can rant and rave about how great a particular fic is, when the characterisation is completely off, and the spelling and grammar is awful. Now, I can deal with a little bit of OOC-ness, if it's for a reason, or it's gradual, or it works in the context of the story - I love fanon Draco for example, despite the fact that he tends to be a lot suaver (is that a word?) and wittier than canon Draco. I can even forgive a reasonable number of spelling and grammar mistakes. But when something is GAFF-worthy, but gets recced as the best thing someone has ever read, you have to wonder if a) they actually haven't read it, or b) (more likely) they wrote it themselves. Either way, it really puts me off trusting recs from somewhere where something that bad has been recced. I'm really looking forward to the new GAFF boards, because if you rec something bad there, you'll get the piss taken out of you FOREVER. So the recs tend to be worth reading.

And finally, what is the point of songfic? I've never understood the reasoning behind that. I mean, fair enough if you quote the song at the beginning as your inspiration or use the lines as chapter titles or whatever, and then write something worthwhile, but those fics where it has a line of song, then a line of fic, then a line of song, etc... just, why?

Anyway. I think that's quite enough ranting. I'd be interested to know what bugs other people, though. It's useful when writing, for one thing! So what pet hates does anyone else have?