Review of the other half of the year
I got as far as the start of June in my Happy Review Of The Year and it was a really long post.
So now I'm making another one.

The good thing is the concentrating on the happy seems to be working, and instead of new year's eve depressing I have a whole 'wow, that was a year!' kind of feel.

onwards!


Re-reading the year it seems to be mostly meta.
And insomnia.
And meta induced by insomnia.

I do big thinking sometimes, and re-reading it I still think it sounds okay. Cool.

June was the last month of Doctor Who class. I finished an essay and presentation, which turned out to be really good. And I handed them in early. Then I spontaneously and without prior preparation decided to go to a Stargate convention.
I decided on the 11th and went on the 13th.
This is unprecedented. Usually I need a huge great run up to decide anything at all.
So I went, and I got the autograph I've been chasing for years, and I had fun, and I talked.
awesome.

and did I mention I got a great grade for that essay?
yes.

also the good things stay in memory way longer than the bad. I'd not bothered remembering that was the con with the useless disco, but I do remember Michael Shanks made me smile.

Also of the good and making me smile: Doctor Who season finale with Torchwood xover.
:-D

I met a new friend in 3D who is also aurorra on LJ.
I think we've talked 3 times this year. In 6 months. I think being friends could involve more talking than that.
But it's a start, and I discovered I can do this still, just, rarely.

I discovered Vegi Deli beef flavour slices, which again should be fairly minor, but now I eats them as often as I can walk up and get them. They're nice. They go in bread. Or not. Sometimes I get bored and don't get around to bread and just snack on the not-beef. My mouth likes.

More audio books with Doctor Who audio exclusive books: Pest Control, and DT with his own accent on. Nice.
I like the things that audios can do and TV doesn't or can't. I'm beginning to understand how they work, and how they work differently. It's good.

My DW essay I was proud of.

A theory on Captain Jack, with a coda I was also proud of.

I went to the Bad Wolf convention. This involved chatting to a bunch of people and sitting in the same corner as Kai Owen quite a lot. It also involved running out of brain half way through the weekend. But my bracelets were shiny. I remember. It's the only thing I remember... I also met K9 :-) And listened to my first Big Finish audio. I didn't get a signature from the audio companion that was signing. Now I'd think that would be cool, but then I didn't know her work yet. But I did get lots of other autographs and talk about stuff as planned. Yaays.

July was the last time I can remember my stutter causing significant difficulty.
In fact it was nearly the last time it turned up.
... when you try and show a written down question to people it doesn't help when they keep asking you what the question is. But the same hotel had someone who not only read it but brought me a written down answer. Nice!

July was also when I started going to Norwich science fiction group, which was fun. I didn't go half as often as I've wanted to. Things kept clashing, primarily college. No fun.
But they're considering changing the schedule next semester so it won't clash. Much fun!

It's a few hours every other week of talking geek with a couple other people in a pub.
This is new and shiny in my life in several ways.
Pretty cool.

Paperwork woes at City College have taught me patience and persistence.
... yes, I can see a silver lining most places.

On the last day of July I went to see Hamlet, with David Tennant.
It was awesome. It was an experience unlike any before and unlikely to be repeated. I understood theatre as theatre, rather than as a... well, slightly inferior form of television, sorry. But I saw this and understood things from seeing it as a play that I would not, indeed had not, understand from seeing a film of it.
We'll be studying Hamlet next semester and I'm glad about that. Have notes already.

My Doctor Who essay got 72% :-)

... yes that's the last time I'll have an excuse to mention that.
I studied Doctor Who! How cool is that? More of that and college be more fun!

This year I got better at phoning the police.
... my neighbours need a less exciting life.

I went to http://www.NSFG.info ... the meeting, not the website. The website seems never updated.

Then I went to the Norwich Dr Who and Cult TV meeting http://www.norcult.freeuk.com/
The quiz night was good, the next meeting had no people in it, and after that there was college.
Talking about Dr Who is of course win.

For my birthday I went out shopping with friends. I bought a book for putting wishes in. I have noticed that it's difficult to make plans to do things I want until I've figured out things I want, so I'm writing them all down. Not much of the book is full yet, but themes are emerging.

Also I got my Most Gorgeous Coat.
Tail coat with ribbons.
When I wear that, the new underwear, and the new corset, I look like an entirely different and more woman shaped person than the one in my head. And, for once, in a very good way. Likes it.

I found a little wooden Buddha statue that looks right, and I've been looking for such a dude for ages now. It's great, he looks serene and happy at once.

I went to look at the elephants, and I found elephants, and I found Norwich as I went along, and most of all I found I was in fact able to do all that. Awesome degree of win there.

I've been going to see films at the cinema in Norwich. To start with I needed my helper person to go with, but lately I went on my own. That's been the pattern with lots of things this year, have gone from needing help to going on my own.
Still need a pattern and some deadlines before I do things at all, but still, progress!

I've been doing my own organising and paperwork.
*looks around*
Okay, in theory, and in intermittent bursts, I've been doing my own organising and paperwork.
And it has only turned into one red bill this year!
... I'm getting better at it though.

One of my reviews was print published. I still don't know which one. They didn't ask first or notify after or anything complicated like that. But my words are in print.
I also found out a lot about copyright law while deciding they'd pretty much broken it.
Still need to go find a copy somewhere and look at it. Think Waterstones in Norwich center.

In September my toilet got fixed so it worked and didn't make a noise like a foghorn.
... I need to drop a note in to upstairs about this possibility. Soon.

September was also Big Bang Day. And therefor Torchwood: Lost Souls.
It was a good story on its own.
It's a great thing if it leads to more of the same.
And some recent links suggest it might.
As Big Finish demonstrate, continuing a fandom through audio gets you stories with actors but with lots less cost so you can do lots more.
Lots more of Torchwood? Yes please :-)

It's possible I only got to three NSFG meets this year. That's... not many. But there's going to be more next year.

College started again, and Myth&Med was great... while we were on the myth section. I adore Greek Tragedy. I want to buy all the surviving plays and read the lot. I haven't yet because in theory I'm concentrating on studying medaeval stuff, and then the rennaissance. but later I can read even more plays.
I love the way both sides get a strong argument and the way different personality traits lead to the ending and the way everything seems inevitable past a certain point. I also love when there's lots of stabby murder. And scary screamy supernatural things.

My laptop survived all year despite having a once a month note of 'must call tech support' and me only calling twice. Clever laptop. *pats*

New season of Sarah Jane Adventures, yaays!

I finally got to London to see the Doctor Who exhibition :-)
... 10 hour day for a 90 minute exhibit.
But it was cool! And you could press buttons and make stuff do stuff! And K9 said things!

Merlin started. I don't actually like Merlin, the plot, or the characters. But I do like that ASH has a regular gig and that there's a fantasy sword and sorcery thing happening regularly on BBC TV. It might well get better.
Also, there's pretty boys being very slashy. Always of the good.
... I'm not convinced Merlin is pretty but someone said he looks like a young Peter Wingfield and now I can see what they mean.

I did a typing speed test and I can do 90 words per minute.
I know I can keep up in class more often than not. Pretty cool.

Script & Screenwriting classes were cancelled. This counts as A Good Thing in the long term, because I discovered this year I couldn't manage that many credits in a semester, and if I'd screwed up a class I actually liked and wanted to be on, that would be annoying. Now I know that if I want to study the writing side I'll either have to get more stamina or a lighter City College schedule.

I got new hair several times. Hair in pretty colors. Yaays.

I went to The Hub convention
which was awesome
despite the hotel difficulties and having to cross the road and the dark and all
I got there consistently
and I had fun.

Enough fun I paid for the next one before I left.
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1600141.html

Also I went to the Hub in the same week I had classes and I survived them all.
:-)

Plus it's a whole different convention experience to be reading Agamemnon in your pocket in the queue all the time.

I discovered how to use my ATHENS login and get articles on JSTOR and all. THere's endless interesting to be had there. If I can find it.

Torchwood Yearbook, Torchwood Archives, and the last set of Torchwood novels: Trace Memory, Skypoint, and Almost Perfect. Two good and one excellent fun novels, a useful ARchive, and an okay Yearbook.

Got my second Tom Baker autographs. Happy becca. And I went on my own. And I bought an MP3 player, which involved finding out, er, what they are. ... my knowledge base has a time lag. No need for portable devices if you don't got travelling.

I was all responsible and sensible about not going to a Doctor Who thing that would have clashed with college.
... then I missed that thing at college.
But my teachers sorted out so that was okay. And eventually I got 77% in that exam. Rock.

The Soulful Spike Society is celebrating each of us in turn. My part was on Halloween. :-)
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1607187.html
They're very cool there. Supportive. Proper online *community*.

I discovered I like Thai food too, also that the Thair restaurant in Dereham does a fully vegetarian menu, with multiple options. So many kinds of cool at once. I keep meaning to go again, but I want to share, and social I'm less good at organising.

Obama won the election. This is win for everyone.

I talked to more people thi syear. More times. About mostly Doctor Who.

The shop I've been buying things at for years never complained about sorting out my recorder box problems. Even when the problem turned out to be the cable. Which I'd also bought from them. It was sorted out and it works now, yaays.

Secret Six comics are also persistently worth reading.

I had interesting philosophy and theology thoughts this year, many of which I can turn into stories.

I talked to friends in cafe in town on couple different times.

I went to a careers fair, and started thinking seriously about careers, in a looking to the future way.

I survived the 'medieval' part of term and can - when I get around to it, which apparently won't be today - write an essay that will probably pass. Yaay.
... I also learned that Chaucer really annoys me in the writing style and details even if I like the stories when they're told a different way.

I do like Malory and the Morte D'Arthur quite a lot though.

In November I listed things I was thankful for.
It's a good thought exercise.

Big Finish Audio adventures means there's more Doctor Who. Including more 5th Doctor. And more Turlough.
There's also more of new people, like Hex.
And Ace and 7.
:-)

I've become calm and relaxed about travel even when there's delays and complications.
... that comes up a lot all year.

I went to the GDL signing. By the time I got in my speaking had frozen, but it was still cool.
Then I went to the cinema and saw a film on my own.
Still cool.

I achieved college this semester with no lessons missed and only one session missed.
I turned up for lessons when very few other people bothered.
And I'd done the work.

So I did good at college.

I've done quite a lot of helpful keeping an eye on daft!sib.
It's nice when that's not my job.

77% in Myth & Med exam. I like Greek Myth.

And that's this month.

I finished a first draft of a script, still need a beta.

I did a lot more meta, and some of it was about why this kind of study, paying attention to stories, is important, and has effects in the real world.

I had a relaxed christmas. It didn't involve family. But mum says she's okay, just a cold.
It did involve the Doctor and a lot of awesome. :-)
And a whole lot of Yuletide fic :-)



And then it was now
and I skimmed every single LJ entry all year
and decided that actually I had a whole lot of cool stuff happen this year

there was sadness
but also lots of growth

so 2008
pretty good year



As for my year in fic: It's a really short list. There's a couple of drabbles and ficlets right at the start of the year. And then there's

Siren Scent

an actual proper script format Torchwood episode fanfic.

There would be another one of those but (a) no beta and (b) persistent feeling I need to rewrite it completely with one less character.

But clearly it will be brilliant when it finally exists.