Tyne Cot is the largest CWGC Cemetery on the Western Front with 11,953 burials. This includes those believed to be buried in the Cemetery, or whose graves had been destroyed. This would have occurred because the Cemetery was started in October 1917, after the taking of the nearby village of Paschendaele, but fighting continued in the region and the Germans retook the ground and held it between 13 April to 28 September 1918.

The Tyne Cot memorial forms the far wall of the Cemetery and commemorates those with no known grave from August 16th 1917 on, and there are 34,870 names recorded.

One of the names on the wall is that of Robert George Godfrey Falkner, Sergeant, 1^st btn Queens’ West Kent, missing in action presumed dead 26 October 1917.  His younger brother John Louis Herbert Falkner, Private, 7^th btn Queen’s West Kent, died of wounds 4 August 1918.  They were my Grandmother's cousins and, as far as I know, the closest of my relatives to have died on active service from a long line of military ancestors.

They died more than 90 years ago, but too many British soldiers are still dying.  Whether I agree with the actions they are engaged in, I have the greatest respect for them and the job they do.

...and so I thought I’d do a quick run-down of what’s been going on around here for anyone who may have missed it.

I finally posted all of the requested fic commentaries in response to last week’s meme:

Commentary for ‘Pandora’s Box (or Five Times Bill Adama Followed His Heart)’ can be found here.
Commentary for ‘She Lies Awake and Dreaming of Home’ can be found here.
Commentary for ‘Covenants’ can be found here.
Commentary for a Kara/Lee Untitled Comment fic can be found here.
Commentary for ‘Another Round’ can be found here.


I’ve also posted a couple new fics over the past week:

A Match (Nearly) Made on New Caprica which was my fluffy, romantic and slightly cracky contribution to the seventh makelaurahappy challenge;

and

We’ll Gather All Our Arms Can Carry which takes a look at pre-attacks Laura and her relationship with Richard Adar and is exactly the opposite of the aforementioned fluffy romantic fic.


Enjoy!

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• 21:22 Came to bed an hour ago because I couldn't keep my eyes open and now I can't sleep. Bugger. #

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• 11:00 Rewatching #Firefly for academic paper on Science Fiction transcending mediums. Whedon was right. They really can't take the skies from me. #
• 12:01 NY Mag piece calling on anyone to save NBC from Jeff Zucker, Jay Leno, and maybe even Comcast. tinyurl.com/ydkme2c #

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Had a wonderful weekend away with, once again, many grateful thanks to bimo and cavendish. We even managed a trip to the Moon, which was one of the many highlights. OK, it wasn't really the Moon but a very large model of it, but it was still spectacular :)

On the plane home there were only 19 passengers and J and I had to move to balance the plane. I didn't know we were that heavy *g*. Reminds me of the time a friend and I got into the lift at work and were told the lift was overloaded even though there were only two of us in it!

nnaylime asked for commentary on one of my favorite BSG stories, Pandora’s Box (or Five Times Bill Adama Followed His Heart).

( Wherein Bill and Laura do their best to follow their hearts in the wake of Earth 1.0’s discovery. )

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• 07:29 Still feel like crap, so no school for me today. Have spent over an hour writing cover lessons and am now going back to bed :( #

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• 13:22 Running silent mode. Trust me, I'm here...I'm just a lot of other places, too. #

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sixwordstories
Whether you're in the mood for a creative challenge or you're short on time or attention span, this semi-addictive community is perfect for those who find flash fiction way long. Once you get the hang of it, you won't be able to stop. The prince turned into a frog. The girl ran home to mother. Tough to write. Easy to read. It's a double threesome of fun.

dailyfoodie
Delicious, ambitious, and occasionally nutritious dishes make for an eclectic, all-you-can-eat feast. Whether you're searching for recipes for your next dinner party or you're jonesing for a late-night brownie fix, your cravings are sure to be well sated. A warm and inclusive community that welcomes all orientations, from carnivores to vegans, from gourmands to junk-food junkies. Guaranteed bias-free, food-positive, and pan-epicurian.

I'm not going into work today. I've been sitting at the laptop for the last hour and a bit writing cover lessons but they are at last done and emailed in and I can go back to bed. Well, I can, once I've managed to get through on the phone to let them know I'm not coming in. I've been trying to leave a message since before 6 - what is it with the bloody phone system?

Also - X is ill as well, so we're both off. Not surprising, I suppose, that we'd get the same germs!

Title: One of the Boys
Fandom: The West Wing
Pairing/Character: CJ Cregg, CJ/Danny
Rating: It's hardly worth rating.  Appropriate for all audiences.
Summary: A post-ep of sorts for Institutional Memory.  CJ reflects on her time in the White House and the men who have changed her life.  Vague references to events throughout the series.
Notes: This ficlet was actually inspired by the title, which was taken from the Dolly Parton musical 9 to 5.  CJ's character has always been more complex and more difficult for me to explore, so this was fun.  I hope you enjoy it.  Written for tenyearsoftww.  Endless thanks to agrits, my wonderful beta.

( CJ Cregg will always be one of the boys. )

And then there was 1.  I really cannot get over the brillance of last week's episode. Truly.  And it makes me sad that we're already at the final episode of the season.

Season 3, Episode 13: "Shut the Door. Have a Seat"
Don has an important meeting with Connie. Betty receives some advice. Pete talks to his clients.

Remember to track.

(I'll try to chine in tomorrow. I'm still battling a bad cold and I need to start packing for my trip.)

Latest Twitterings

• 08:18 Thought I might be lucky and avoid the lurgy. No such luck :-( I feel like crap and am in wheezing mode again. #

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• 16:21 Having one of those "how many ways I can screw up today" days. #Ifailatlife #
• 18:17 Dear Science Fiction television writers: Please stop using the LOST alternate structure to further a soap opera agenda. #

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I was thinking on the way over to the cinema earlier and I think I've come across a few of the things that they need to fix about SGU.

First up, can they please stop making the IOA into the baddies all the time.  We've had enough episodes where SG1 or the Atlantis team or Jack have had to babysit the "men in suits" on visits to bases.  Isn't it about time they were briefed before they went off world and told that the military guys are in charge and when Something Bad happens, they should shut up and follow orders to avoid getting themselves and other people seriously dead.  The IOA bloke with the beard seems to need only a fluffy white cat and an underground lair.

Similarly with the scientific members of the expeditions.  I rewatched Prodigy the other night.  Jack & Teal'c babysit a bunch of scientists who think they know better then Something Bad happens and one of them gets dead.

By the time Woolsey finished his tour on Atlantis, you'd think that he'd have gone back to the IOA and told them that budget cuts and nitpicking administrative tasks are not the top priority when people are trying to survive against Something Bad.

Rush - OK, he's a flawed character and doesn't play well with others.  But will somebody *please*, for the love of whatever, smack him upside the head and tell him that although he has nothing to go home for, the others do and can he just tell us already what he knows and stop being so bloody smug.

But really, I think the biggest mistake of all, which needs fixing pretty darn quick, is that they've got the wrong Jack O'Neil in charge of this project.  He's the one with only one "l" and he's not nearly as much fun as our Jack.  

As for the others, don't know, don't care.  Scott and Greer are OK, but I wish the others would fall down a ravine or get blown up in a spacesuit. Oh, wait, they did that to Annoying Whining Guy last week.  More, please!

I'm beginning to think that I'm going to stop watching now and wait for somebody to get the boxset.  I shall then borrow it and hope that watching the episodes back to back might make me more interested in it.

He really is rather fantastic.  And he probably dances better than Clooney.

But I wish people with pre-school age children would explain to them that the cinema is NOT the place to be talking in a loud voice every two minutes.  It's annoying to the rest of the audience and not fair on the kids who can sit still and watch the film.

Damn cold out there now.

Title: Part of the Whole
Author: shutterbug_12
Characters: Josh & Donna
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Only borrowing. Make love, not lawsuits.
Summary: Josh is forced to explain the value of Donna's Christmas gift.
Author's Note: Post-Abu el Banat (5.09). Many thanks to my beta-reader, amy_119. Thank you to inocciduous and pocky_slash, the moderators of tenyearsoftww, the fest for which this story was written. 1371 words.

( 'I'm normally not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Josh, but is this your way of saying that you're going to take me to Aruba, or is this it?' )

Clooney, Bridges, McGregor, Spacey and Goats.  Not a combination one would usually expect.  But this one seems to work.  It's rather funny, too.  Any film where George Clooney has to explain the concept of Jedi knights to Ewan McGregor has to raise a few chuckles.

The goats only got fairly small parts though, mostly as a crowd scene.  Except for the poor beastie that Mr Clooney stared at.

I still think the poster is missing a Christmas tree, though!