If you followed me from livejournal, you may have remembered I used to do a 40 Days of Drabbles (or at least a few times), instead of just keeping it to myself in this upcoming year, I figured I'd make a community dedicated to it because why not and change it from just being during lent and starting it whenever you want.

So check out 40daysofdrabbles!!

Check out the profile page for more information!

I need to go check on the cat I'm cat-sitting today - I meant to yesterday but due to the weather warnings going on I didn't get out. I made it up Friday, which considering the branches and trees breaking all over the place, was stupid, and I decided I didn't want to risk that stupidity yesterday as well.

The loan I took out to build my credit history is almost paid off. I'm chucking in an extra X per month but not letting it go lower than the default payment amount, so the extra each month will get greater and greater, paying it down faster.

I thought about taking on a new loan and extending it for five more years - and I think I will - but I'm going to wait until the oil in the tank is near-empty before I try. I think the loan will probably be paid off by then because the amount I bought should last about six months, give or take.

Then I'm basically going to try to take a loan out for as much as possible and burn through the following remedials. They are doing loans up to £32k, so we'd take out the loan together (meaning the payment is halved with each of us covering 50%) and do as much of the works as we can in that budget, paying it off over 5 years.

If we got the full £32k we could actually get quite a lot of the stuff that we'd benefit off of most done. I'll wait until the heat is used up before I pursue it though. We're chucking £500/month each into the account to cover mortgage, rates, utilities, and insurance with some to spare so with any luck some items we'll have saved up enough to do ourselves outright. With any luck we can get a HRU retrofitted into the property, as an example, or the fencing - either one of those would be about £2,000. Or maybe since those are smaller costs we just commit to saving up for those and doing them out of pocket. Same with decorating - I'm not going to take a loan out for flooring or paint or plaster repair, or updating sockets.

But updating the ventilation and insulation of the property. Heat conversion to GFCH or heat-pump. The roof is 50 years old and should probably be replaced - some of Patrick's family are roofers so hopefully that can be done for a bargain, and I figure we can plan that out with installing solar and battery. If we can, convert the burner area into a utility area for stacking a washer and heat-pump dryer.

If there's anything left over, try to update the kitchen to something use-able.


Not that I want to take out loans - but we need to keep our credit history going anyway in case we ever want to buy a second house, and these would all help maintain the property and we'd utilise them a lot. So I think it's worth it not trying to just save money 5-15 years. Especially the kitchen because cooking at home easier means less takeaways.

Realized I haven't really done a personal or semi-personal post in a while, since I've mostly been posting to tv_talk for any show discussions and mainly just posting fics for xmen100  and mcu100, I'll start posting here with my TV comments again, just so I have them in one place again.

Well I officially got the diagnosis of carpal tunnel of my wrists & elbows (didn't even know it could go up to the elbow) so yay? At least I got the official diagnosis and not just wondering if I'm just making up in my head. The doctor said I should be okay without surgery for now unless I want it to happen, otherwise my next check up with him is in six months. (Or sooner if it gets worse) I guess between working my full time job (plus part-time job) and spending time at home on the computer within the last few months made my symptoms flare up again - since I feel like it's been ages since it was this bad. Which might be one of the reasons I stopped going on the computer? I can't remember. I think it was just working too much and being too exhausted to go to the basement (where the computer was). However while I was at the appointments I didn't feel any pain or achiness/stiffness/numbness but literally a day later and here's the pain back. FML. That always happens to me.

Also got my first tooth removed since my wisdom teeth like 10+ years ago so dealing with that sucked. Honestly just the anxiety before hand was worse (and the bill). Besides that the taste of blood that for two days and then the bone marrow/blood clot disgusting taste was horrible (I thought I was infected it was so gross). Otherwise I didn't have a lot of pain so that was good. A lot of mashed potatoes and egg sandwiches for the last week.

In other news I joined thestoryinside for their October books/buddy exchange - my buddy monkiainen picked The Meg by Steve Alten (horror), Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli (LGBT, contemporary, female author), and The Alienist - Caleb Carr (historical fiction) for me. In return I picked out Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown (LGBTQ, contemporary, female author), Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall (LGBTQ, contemporary) and Alien: Echo by Mira Grant (Horror, LGBTQ, female author). I picked out the first two books for them since I really enjoyed them (I have Boyfriend Material in audio & book forms heh^^ & I can't wait for the 3rd book in the series/trilogy? - But I also recommend anything Alexis Hall BTW, I've read/listened to most of them). I'm pretty sure I know where the books I need to grab are (luckily they're from the front of the alphabet so I'm pretty sure they are actually where they are supposed to be). I might actually do the Meg first - I was thinking of maybe doing Leah on the Offbeat first since I technically had it on my TBR pile for ages compared to the other two, but I think Meg is shorter so it might be easier to read? We'll see, I'll try to find them tomorrow so I can start on them.

In other book news, I started to listening to audiobooks again at work since most of my current podcasts don't have enough for me to binge without touching my phone a lot (and since that's a big no-no at work, audiobooks are the way to go since they are USUALLY at least 6+hrs). So far I listened to:

• The Singles Dads Club (books: The Dare, The Soul Mate, Penthouse Prince, & Only for Tonight) by Kendall Ryan - which were just okay.... I can't really recommend them unless you just want to listen to that type of romance books but if they are super cheap, sure why not. I think they were on sale at libro.fm when I bought them.
• Zomromcom by Olivia Dade - I really definitely recommend this one! Zombies, Vampires, trolls, fae, and witches included! I really hope this won't be the last supernatural/fantasy novel by Olivia. I think there at least has to be a sequel. I also have the paperbook copy... 'cause just in case.
• Time to Shine by Rachel Reid - I recommend this if you like MM hockey romance. It's pretty good, longer than you expect so a bit of a slow burn. I identify very heavily with the Landon character which probably makes me like it more than anyone. If only I could find my own Casey. 
• Heartless by Gena Showalter - Very dark fae romance like super dark, where even I almost stopped a few times from listening/finishing. It has mixed reviews on Goodreads due to that so just beware if you start it. While it was like instant attraction, it was actually a bit of a slow burn for the major of it. I'm still not sure if I want to read the second book... maybe if it goes on sale. 
• In Charm's Way by Lana Harper - Part of the Thistle Grove book series that I started either last year or this year in paperback but never finished. It's a witch/half-fae romance. It's so weird that this is the third book that dealt with the fae - I feel like I never read those books. Anyway, still haven't finished it yet but probably on Monday since I only five hours left. I definitely recommend the series BTW especially if you like queer romance & supernatural type stuff.

I'm also reading Voidwalker by S. A. MacLean, I'm on chapter 15, it's oddly addictive and unlike trying to read the Orange Priory of last year, the world-building of this book is sooo much better. It helps it's only one POV and not like twenty, but yeah. And yay a monster romance for October. Reading it alongside villagewitch so it's kinda like a mini-bookclub. :) 

Worked on galorechallenge prompt website this week. Still not complete, but I'm trying. Merging all the Marvel stuff together as well as all the DC stuff together minus the Smallville one, so those pages are going to probably be the last ones worked on. I merged them just because it all the characters are basically set in the same universe anyway and having the MCU/DCEU separate was annoying me. Anyway NEW PROMPTS WILL BE NEEDED so feel free to suggest new ones (even if you don't plan to join in - maybe someone will write them).

Made some icons for seasons_of_fandom... I'll have to add those to harpieicons eventually. Also participated in a couple challenges (see the Book Title Poetry - previous entry).

Anyway that's it for now, since I have to get to some sleep.

The below is for seasons_of_fandom bonus challenge "Book Title Poetry"

Specifics:
» For this challenge we are arranging book titles into poems. You can use any kinds of books (fiction, non-fiction) as long as what you create resembles poetry and becomes a story.
» A poem must have at least five lines!
» To get full points, you can make six 5-line poems, one 30-line poem or anything in between.
» The shortest poem with only five lines can’t have more than two one-word book titles.


My "Poems":

One
Would you rather,
a dish best served hot,
a game of hearts and heists,
love, hate & clickbait,
the hating game

Two
Love & other disasters,
bull moon rising,
a discovery of witches,
such sharp teeth,
a touch of ruin

Three
Best laid plans,
the hat trick,
faking with benefits,
the fiancée farce,
So That Happened

Four
When You Least Expect It
Said No One Ever
Plot Twist,
For Butter or worse,
Sit, Stay, Love

Five
Royal Valentine,
fortune favors the duke,
while the duke was sleeping,
her royal highness,
the heart principle

Six
A Thousand Heartbeats,
no one is alone,
sink or swim,
practice makes perfect,
Two Rogues Make a Right

So discovered that there is All Ships Week (October 20-26), and I'm not sure if I'm going to participate in it or not yet because who knows what my work schedule will be but I'm very tempted to do so. If I do participate, I think I'm going to use some small fandom pairings since I'm tempted to try the smallfandombang, but I don't think I have it in me to write an actual 10k+ word fic.


Pairings I've been thinking of doing is Sabrina/Harvey (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), Tyler/Wednesday (Wednesday), Nick/Adalind (Grimm), Nathan/Annalise/Gabriel (TBSTDH), Michael/Liz (Roswell), Hayley/Wheezer (SkyMed), Larson/Heller (Doc -new ship/show alert!-), and Dani/Lito/Hernando (Sense8). Probably a few others I can't think of right now...



This year's prompts are:

Monday - October 20

( the prompts... )

Tuesday - October 21

( the prompts... )

Wednesday - October 22

( the prompts... )

Thursday - October 23

( the prompts... )

Friday - October 24

( the prompts... )

Saturday - October 25

( the prompts... )

Sunday - October 26

( the prompts... )

Activity Bingo (do these any day)

( the prompts... )

Yesterday I found £5 on the way to work. Which I was excited about and initially thought I'd blow it on something. But then I was thinking about The Great Courses Plus and how the course on personal finance has a teacher, a financial adviser, who claims you can get financially stable on $5 per day (presumably over here that is £5 per day).

And I jokingly left a poll in WhatsApp for my colleagues about whether I should use the money to buy two EuroMillions tickets, buy chips, or follow the financial adviser lecture series I'm watching. To which one colleague replied that the savings option made her laugh so hard she choked on her cereal. Now, I get it - we don't make enough money to feel to secure that we can consistently provide £5 to the table per day. But, that's basically a morning coffee or my soda budget. But I am also one for believing you should believe the experts (not without critical thinking, of course) and I decided I'm going to try to follow his advice as well as the retirement planning course.

So I got paid today and I put £150 - the equivalent of £5/day for September - into savings. I found out who to contact to increasing my pension contribution by 2.5% (which would leave the total contributions per month including my employers to 12.5% - the absolute minimum they recommend to live to the same standard as your working years. It's not perfect given my age, but it's a start.)

I don't know how to follow all the advice. For example, unless I renounce my US citizenship, my investment options here are very limited. I suppose relinquishing my citizenship should actually be in my 'dream' list. Given I can hold a UK and an Irish passport, the US citizenship is just a major downer in building my life over here.

But I figure I can try to put £5/day into savings. And reduce my spending. And I can increase my contribution into my work pension. And if I can eventually get an extra £5,000, I can look at renouncing citizenship so I can then follow his investing advice.

The USA is so ridiculous to be honest. They're one of two countries to consider citizens tax-residents abroad, first of all. But they should be pragmatic about it. They don't actually charge taxes for anyone making $109,000. If you're making less than 30-50% of that, they should just let you renounce for free. That way we can hopefully invest and save enough to not be a burden on their own system in our senior years.

Basically the USA should be glad to be rid of most of us (less than 5% of US citizens abroad - if I recall correctly, less than 1% of US citizens abroad) - make enough money to actually owe taxes, so we're just administrative burden. But they keep us on unless we shell up $3,000 not including legal and administrative fees, making sure there are no back-taxes, etc. in case we... I don't know. Win the lottery or something.

And the insult to injury is all I want to do is try to ensure I'm not destitute as a senior.