Sword of the Zenobians

Last night, I had fun, which was beginning to become an alien concept. I played on the DocSoc quiz team versus all the other geeky societies - Tolkien, Trek, RPG and OUSFG (speculative fiction; they're elite) - and had such a good time. I wasn't going to go, because I had maths to do, but I was on the phone to my mum, who actually made the effort to remember the name of the society and the event, and ordered me to go. I was touched. And I mentioned it to Claire later, who said something like: "It's gonna be so geeky! You have to go!"

One of the many things I like about Claire is even though she's not fannish, she really and honestly gets it, and doesn't think I'm a sad and pathetic person at all. So with the full force of public opinion behind me, I went. It was at Christ Church (which is absolutely amazing; I'd never seen it before) and I went in quite early so I didn't know anyone except narahttbbs, who wasn't playing for the DocSoc on the grounds she's the president of the Tolkien society! But the others trooped in eventually, and there was momentary bitching about the scourge of work (it amuses me that even actual tutors bitch about tutorials; they cause pain on both sides) and then the real geekiness began. There was a pause as the teams were rearranged - Trek were too underrepresented, so they joined with Tolkien to make TrokSoc, which was then too big. The offshoot wandered in about five minutes late, to a roomful of catcalls. They came in beautiful, glorious, purple-evening-gown drag. The girls were in suits, and the guys in ballgowns and diamanté hairclips. They were immediately christened DragSoc, and then we got to it.

The first round was RPG-based, which was irritating and we didn't know anything very much, but one of the questions was, "What was Romana's full name?"

You haven't lived until you've heard five people chorus, "Romanadvoratrelundar."

We got three points. The RPGsoc themselves got zilch.

The other rounds were all rather fun. parrot_knight did a biography round, for which none of us knew anything, and so wrote "William Hartnell" for every single question. We did quite well on our own round, which was full of such delightful questions as "Name the Jurisfiction safehouse in the Thursday Next novels", "What did Rimmer do instead of taking his exams?", and "On which planet did River board Serenity?" (The Sword of the Zenoians, go swimming and Persephone respectively.)

The music round was the best, though. We needed exactly one chord to name the Red Dwarf and 2001 themes, and less than that for Doctor Who. All good fun, and in the end we came second, with seventy-four points to Tolkien's eighty. And once it was all over we decamped to the pub.

Well, I didn't; I stayed a little while and then went back to do my maths. This proved much cause for insomnia, and I didn't get to bed until three. With predictable consequences - I woke up this morning and glanced at my watch to note I had a lecture in seven minutes. I texted Pat to pick up the handout and went back to sleep.

This aside, I'm really in a scarily good mood. I've done the maths, after much angst, written my Politics essay up to the word limit and handed it in to the porters, and today was spent doing all my reading and writing a good thousand words about the concept of pleasure in Mill's utilitarianism. It's all about to start again, but I've survived it all, and I've just got to finish off the Mill and that can wait until tomorrow. I would perhaps have done more, but Sarah came round to ask if I could get something out of Balliol library for her. I did with pleasure, but I can't help but wonder if anyone will notice a PPEist has got out a 1000-page textbook on organic chemistry.

Speaking of tomorrow, Terry Pratchett is coming to speak at the Union omgyay, and it will be love, and then hathy_col, zeta_of_s and amchau are all visiting me on Thursday which is even more love.

Now, Firefly. I have earned this, damn it.

Also: tau_sigma, you are an absolute darling. I got your card this morning, and had a lovely lunchtime reading it. Thank you!