And, stealing from my beloved Erykah, I've decided to keep a tally on my Big Read challenge, and add to it with a film challenge.
So. Ones in bold have already been read/watched.

BBC Big Read, 200 greatest books of all time (I was just going to do 100, but hey, there's 200 on the site so why not?):
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri1
90. Sons And Lovers, D. H. LawrenceLife of Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews


And the AFI 100 years, 100 movies:
1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. Godfather, The (1972)
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Raging Bull (1980)
5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
6. Gone with the Wind (1939)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler’s List (1993)
9. Vertigo (1958)
10. Wizard of Oz, The (1939)
11. City Lights (1931)
12. Searchers, The (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977)
14. Psycho (1960)
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
17. Graduate, The (1967)
18. General, The (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)
20. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
21. Chinatown (1974)
22. Some Like it Hot (1959)
23. Grapes of Wrath, The (1940)
24. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. All About Eve (1950)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979)
31. Maltese Falcon, The (1941)
32. Godfather Part II, The (1974)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
35. Annie Hall (1977)36. Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)
37. Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946)
38. Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
40. Sound of Music, The (1965)
41. King Kong (1933)
42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43 Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44. Philadelphia Story, The (1940)
45. Shane (1953)
46. It Happened One Night (1934)
47. Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951)
48. Rear Window (1954)
49. Intolerance (1916)
50. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001)
51. West Side Story (1961)
52. Taxi Driver (1976)
53. Deer Hunter, The (1978)
54. M*A*S*H* (1970)
55. North by Northwest (1959)
56. Jaws (1975)
57. Rocky (1976)
58. Gold Rush, The (1925)
59. Nashville (1975)
60. Duck Soup (1933)
61. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
62. American Graffiti (1973)
63. Cabaret (1972)
64. Network (1976)
65. African Queen, The (1951)
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
67. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68. Unforgiven (1992)
69. Tootsie (1982)
70. Clockwork Orange, A (1971)
71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
72. Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
74. Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)
75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76. Forrest Gump (1994)
77. All the President’s Men (1976)
78. Modern Times (1936)
79. Wild Bunch, The (1969)
80. Apartment, The (1960)
81. Spartacus (1960)
82. Sunrise (1927)
83. Titanic (1997)
84. Easy Rider (1969)
85. Night at the Opera, A (1935)
86. Platoon (1986)
87. 12 Angry Men (1957)
88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
89. Sixth Sense, The (1999)
90. Swing Time (1936)
91. Sophie’s Choice (1982)
92. Goodfellas (1990)
93. French Connection, The (1971)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994)
95. Last Picture Show, The (1971)
96. Do the Right Thing (1989)
97. Blade Runner (1982)
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
99. Toy Story (1995)
100. Ben Hur (1959)

There's a cure on ice

My father's wedding was beautiful. Brief, but beautiful. My brother and I got teary in a room of dry eyes, many people commented on how "different" I looked (I presume purely because I was wearing a dress. It's hardly a novelty in me these days), and we ate good food. Whilst we left the reception early, feeling a little outnumbered and somewhat out of place amongst the step-family and old school friends, I made sure Dad knew how happy I was to see him so happy. I've honestly never seen him smile that, and it made me smile the same way.

Saturday was spent amongst old friends, laughing and talking and righting past wrongs. In a way. It was something I've missed. They're something I've missed. I need to keep those boys around more.

Sunday I returned to London, and to Darren's. We began our Indy marathon, finished on Monday morning, and I acted somehwat out of character. I'm having a crisis of conscience and personality, and some of the most important people in my life at this moment have been on the receiving end of my snipes and moods. I've apologised, and no doubt will do so again many times. After a trip to Genesis (to be dealt with momentarily), I headed off for a very brief catch-up with Rory before deciding that I wasn't in the right frame of mind for the Big Smoke. I came home overnight and had the laziest day I've had (without a hangover) in a very long time. I feel better already.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So close to being perfect. So very very close. Having watched the original trilogy before heading to the cinema, I was in the right frame of mind for a slightly ridiculous film, a b movie made on an a list budget, and to that end I wasn't disappointed. Having heard bad things from many people, I wasn't expecting to enjoy the majority of the film as much as I did. The graveyard, the motorbike chase and the jungle scene were all vintage Indy, and as such put a smile on my face whilst I laughed at their stupidity.
And then the spaceship appeared.
As I said, so close.

Today has been productive in one sense - I ordered a bargainous Arrested Development series one (£7.99?! Insanity I tell you) alongside 2 more Disney/Pixar offerings to get me in the mood for Wall.E. Although I don't need to be put in the mood, that little robot has me very excited already. No innuendo meant there. Punktastic.com now has a film club started, where a different member chooses a film every week, we have 5 days to watch and 2 days to discuss. Potentially, it should be amazing. It also gave me an excuse to register at Lovefilm.com, which will give me a fresh store of films to watch, and in turn lead to me deciding exactly what's worth buying without wasting my money. No more repeats of Miss Potter, thankyou very much. First up is Sharkwater, which I doubt I would ever have thought of watching if left to my own devices. I'll be using this blog to post my reviews prior to adding them to the debate on PT, so I'll have something of interest to say each week at least.

Having left my book in Ormskirk on Saturday, I keep meaning to start Don Quixote. So far, I haven't done it. Although today I did watch the last 4 episodes of House series 4. Which was wonderful. Tomorrow I will shop with Jennie, before heading off to see Gaz in Leeds. In theory. If he stands me up, I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Maybe then you will appreciate your only friends

I got drunk on Friday. Very very drunk. I'm not quite sure how I managed to consume so much alcohol, it was very out of character. My hangover on Saturday was painful beyond anything I've ever experienced, and pushed my coursework onto the back burner. My tattoos are healing, and I'm anticipating holy hell from each of my parents individually once they're discovered.

I've made up for that today, with one essay finished and a coherent plan to help slay the final one tomorrow. Work tomorrow night and Wednesday morning, drinks with the girls on Wednesday night and then on Thursday...home. For the wedding.

How did a year go by so fast?


Also, I'm having one of those "Oh dear, I need to work out what I want" moments, in every aspect of my life. I'll never know. I've accepted that.

Blogs have taught me one thing - I work too hard. I rarely have anything to write because I spend my days going from one job to the other. Over the last week I've even managed to avoid any kind of effort in my essays, which leaves me with a mammoth pile of work to attempt on Thursday and Friday. I need to get these essays written, with only 6 and 7 days left until they're due. Almost the last minute by my standards.

The obsession. They were fantastic, but not in the way they usually are. Having seen a mildly disappointing yet wholly predictable set, I giggled and flirted with my favourite people. I wish I'd gone to Sheffield, purely for the better songs they enjoyed, but alas, not to be. They're back in August, I have tickets for myself and my loved ones. I'll have fun.

I need sleep.

Fine time to fake a seizure

I saw Iron Man last night, and it was fantastic. In many ways it was much what one would expect from a superhero film, predictable to some large degree, yet I couldn't help being drawn in. Especially by the final battle, fantastic work.
Deciding to continue my geek-out, I've spent this morning watching Transformers whilst considering the plan for my third essay. Another film which I've wanted to see for so very long, and have finally found time to watch. The action levels are enough to satisfy even the most war-hungry teenage boy, but it is very enjoyable nonetheless. The second one should be interesting.

For the rest of the day I plan to do a little shopping, visit the library to pick up books for the final essay and maybe visit the cinema again tonight to see In Bruges. I may as well make the most of my monthly pass.

Like three blind bats lost in the light

Another week with little to show. I've worked hard at both jobs, finally finished the first two essays...and that's all. I've got a mountain of washing to do, a room to tidy, things to pack, two more essays to write, and a social life to maintain. I overstretch myself, but at least it means I sleep at night now.

Alkaline Trio in 6 days. I'm screaming inside. I've seen setlists that make me more excited than I thought I could be about a 40 minute maximum set. I'm ready. I won't be disappointed.

My social relations are a mess and I honestly don't see the point in trying to salvage them.