| 04:09pm 23/07/2008 | |||
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So, no application post-age on Monday - I read in the quiet room instead. Got a bunch of healthy (I hope!) stuff to eat at Tesco before I went home. The meatball thing was actually OK - I don't normally eat anything in that kind of tomato sauce. And the Ribena smoothie lolly was simply YUM! And only worth 1 point too - but I was good, I didn't go and get another as I might have done before. Mum called while I was trying to eat my tea (naturally) and told me she had a new car. I boggled for a moment and wondered if she mean now, because she had told me she was taking her car to the Jag garage down there because something was wrong with the hand-break. Turns out there's still something wrong with it, but she's clearly decided that car is damaged goods, and plumped for the new Jag *sigh* Muuuuum! I've been trying to work on her, to convince her to get a Honda again - at least when we had that she didn't whinge all the time about wind noise and so on. And it was so friggin' expensive! I swear, I wish she had never heard about the car we currently have being for sale... Anyway, the car isn't available until September I believe. She got it in the same shade of blue again, which is...meh, it's not a bad shade of blue, but something different would have been nice I think! Yesterday was glorious. Lovely and warm. Well, hot for this area, anyway! 24 degrees Celcius and not much wind. Naturally I had to plod up to the Post Office at lunch time to see about my passport. I'd had a narty panic the previous night. I'd hasked Mum when she phoned about where to find the birth certificates and her current passport. When I was gathering them together and noting down the relevant information, I realised that the envelope I had put my photographs in was missing. I suddenly had a terrible vision of myself putting an envelope in the bin that afternoon. The desk bins are empties late in the afternoon by Marg, so if the envelope had indeed been thrown away, I'd have to either a) get more taken, get them signed, get them bac and so on, taking a few more weeks, or b) Bin-pick. I had to go to bed with those thoughts running through my mind like maddened, rabid rabbits. I even got myself to the bus stop early so I would have a little more time before the bin-men came to empty the skip to retrieve the black plastic bag if necessary. Turns out it wasn't - the envelope was in the drawer. WHEW! But I got to the Post Office, and after waiting in the queue for ages, got to a counter and asked for the check and send service (£7!). Turns out I needed a photo that wasn't signed on the back as well as a signed one, plus my full name put in one section and payment, of course. Geh! Third-time lucky, perhaps! So today's lunch-time was very busy, when I finally got out (Lee was late) I had to rush to the WeightWatchers meeting to be weighed. I lost 3lb this week! Woohoo! I was expecting 1lb, maybe 1.5, but not 3! So now I'm 14st 1.5lb and I've lost 10lb since I started. I'm told that's a dress size, but I doubt it - but that logic, I'll be losing 9 dress sizes on my way to 8st. Or maybe she's saying I've gone from size 18 to size 17...which doesn't exists in the shops. Still, it's progress, so I'm happy. At this rate, I could be 12st by my birthday! Got to the Post Office, thanking my lucky stars that the side of the road the Post office is on was in the shade - it was another gloriously sunny and hot day. At least this time all my infoand stuff was present and correct, so my application is finally off! I onyl hope I will not be affected by the strike some of the passport office workers are on for the next three days - they just started tosday, typical, eh? I'm glad today has gone by reasonably fast. I was pretty busy this morning, goign laminating for Jennifer and cutting up tickets for Lisa. This afternoon has been nice and quiet - not like the last 45 minutes of yesterday! I realised that no-one had sorted out the cartering stuff for a meeting across the road, so I had to call lee to help me sort it - the IT needed setting up, coffee and tea making, cups and milk bringing over, sandwiches found...brrr. Glad we made it in time! But no worries this afternoon! |
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| 12:06pm 21/07/2008 | |||
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Had some nice pasta with tuna, sweetcorn and peas put in it to add some colour, interest and vegetable matter for tea. Not bad - I think I'll do that more often! I had a go washing my hair with Mum's Aveda products as she suggested, but it didn't seem to go well. Maybe it's the age of the products but the shampure didn't spread well and the conditioner didn't either...when I could get it out of the bottle at all! I finally got my poor druid to level 45 in WoW - 10 levels in two years, heh. Poor Eidolone. In the evening on Saturday I went out to the guys' flat - we ended up going to play pool at Ambassadors for an hour or so, then went back to the flat and watched...Poultrygeist. I do not recommend this movie to anyone who doesn't have a rather sick sense of humour. Seriously, avoid. On Sunday I slobbed about the house mostly. Did some washing though. Mostly played WoW and eventually watched Slayers Revolution episode 3 and then the last 5 episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Wasn't too sure about the ending. Pretty epic, though it would have been nice if Aang had to do a little more to get back the Avatar state than just nearly die - I thought it was locked, no matter what, unless he sorted out his chakra's or something. And the kiss at the end...euuwww, Aang's what, 11? Brrr Still this series is made of win - makes me think of watching the Myrterious Cities of Gold when I was little. And speaking of which, I'll be getting it from LoveFilm sometime too =D I also watched the first disk of 'The 10th Kingdom' - one of those series from a fer years ago when fantasy mini-series were really popular after Gulliver's Travels came out. I never got round to watching it before. I'm enjoying it so far, can't wait to get the next 2 disks. Today has dawned bright but a little cold. At least it was when I was last outside. I wanted to take my passport application in to the post office to be checked and sent away today, but Mum has stashed the birth certificates somewhere. They certainly aren;t in the folder marked 'Birth Certs', so goodness only knows where they are. Thank-you Mother. So I don't have much to do this lunch-time because after I'd spent 5 minutes lookin through the study, I didn't have time to put my beading supplies in my bag. So I just had to read at lunch. Or maybe I'll eat my lunch quickly and snooze for the rest of the lunch hour - that sounds rather good at the moment, I feel really rather sleepy, and I don't think the headache tablet I just had to take will help with that. I hope it works fast - today has been an somewhat annoying day so far. Two people are off on holiday - the executive assistant, and the HR officer who used to be the executive assistant and can cover some of the stuff she does. So I end up doing stuff the executive assistant does as well as some of the HR officer's stuff...sorting mail, doing application packs, taking calls for both of them because their phones are set up to forward to mine... I can't wait to get home, but I have to go shopping once I get back to the car - need bread, milk, 'skinny' things for tea that aren't too much hassle and sweet things that aren't too naughty - hello Snack-a-Jacks...-_- |
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| 02:36pm 18/07/2008 | |||
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As expected on Wednesday, I had only lost 1.5lb, according to my weigh-in, but I think at least 0.5lb of potential loss was lurking in my inner tubing -_- In any case the WW scales show me at 14st 4.5lb, which earns me a 'silver 7' for losing half a stone, and the home scales show me at about 14st 2.5lb. Colour me chuffed. Still no luck getting a group in WoW on Wednesday evening, but Mum had some nice news for me. Margaret loved the little gift I made for her, and calling her 'Auntie Margaret' made her smile too ^_^ Thursday was quiet as usual. I took some beads with me and started to make a kind of cover for the ball-point pens I use when I'm here - should stop people just oicking them up and taking them away. I'm doing my first one in greens, so it'll look like some kind of odd reptile skin when it's done. When I came home, Mum had been busy all day outside - cutting the grass and washing her car I think, since Mr Ed came to do the garden. I had a WoW raid starting at 6:30pm, so I was glad that tea was something simple - poached salmon fillets with salad and potatoes. So I logged onto WoW and waited...and waited...and...you get the idea. Not much was accomplished, even when we managed to get the 25 people we needed to try to take on Magtheridon. It was basically a washout, and by the time we gave up I had to get in the shower to wash my hair, so I couldn't stick around for a guild-run heroic *sigh* Maybe tonight... Mum spent the evening packing her bags and sorting stuff out for going down to Nana's today. As usual she complained that she really didn't want to go etc. and so forth. Luckily for me, she only asked for cups of tea or an opinion on which cardigan to take with her during a break in the raid - usually she groans for a cup of tea making when we're right in the middle of fighting something. I was up rather later after washing my hair, watching the last episode of Farscale on disc 2 of the second season - thank-you Love Film! It's so long since I've seen these. It really brings back just how much I loved that series, and how it felt when the episodes were coming out. 'Crackers Don't Matter' is still hilarious, and I can't wait to see 'Out of Their Minds' again! Ahh, those heady days of a newborn fandom. Maybe I should go excavating in my desk drawers for the hand-written episode transcripts I made. One of mine is still online actually - the transcript of the Pilot episode (ye gods, they could have given it a decent name!) is on some website, still with my e-mail address attached, as a comparison to the shooting script. Damn good work, even if I do say so myself, considering all the work I put into it. Recording the audio onto a tape, all the rewinding I had to do on my walkman, handwriting the script and then typing it all out - you don't get much more dedicated without actually being involved with shooting the damn thing. Farscape, you were clearly too good for this world T_T Quiet as usual today. Did some more beading during lunch - it's going to take ages! I'm not sure I like peyote stitcj for these things - the thread is much more visible than with brick stitch. I suspect it uses less thread though. Well, I'll see how it looks when I'm finished anyway. When I got back from lunch, I found two e-mails for my in the Googlemail inbox from Mum - she had sent them rather than phone me to say when she was leaving. Meh. She's going to give me a ring when she gets in though. I hope the Fordel place has reopened by now... |
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| 10:51am 16/07/2008 | |||
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The rest of yesterday consided of showers of suck with occasional glimpses of yay. Suck the first: The 5pm bus didn't turn up. No explanation, just...nothing. Everyone waiting for it had to get the bus at 5:15pm instead, so it was 6pm before I even got back to my car. Suck the second: Driving through Ellon, having gone past the petrol station, I realised there was a silver car behind that that seemed to like to be stuck awfully close to my car's backside. Well, I'm sorry mate, but the speed limit in town in 30mph and I ain't breaking it for you, Mr Flash Car. So I have him the Finger of Appreciation every time it looked like he was trying to crawl up my exhaust pipe. As expected, as soon as I got out of Ellon and past the 'national speed limit' sign, the bastard zooooomed past me. Right, I thought, I'll stick to Mr Flash BMW like glue all the way home, since he was going the same way. It turns out this would not be a hard feat for my little car to accomplish, since, having previously sped past me, Mr Flash Bastard proceeded to drive at 40-50mph on a 60mph road in broad daylight on a dry road. I'm guessing it was to spite me. I peeped my horn at him as I was nearly home. He slowed right down to 20-30mph as we got into the village, but if he was trying to annoy me it failed because I slow down to that anyway because it's where I live. Twit. He pulled into a space outside one of the neighbours just 2 houses before our drive. I half-hoped he saw where I lived and would come up to complain so I could let rip at him. Moron. Yay the first: Mum had a seafood salad almost ready - just the potatoes boiling for another 10 mins and the seafood to set out. Yummm. Suck the third: no heroic Shadow Labyrinth group on WoW that evening. I gave up and watched Blood + and cracked out the Nivea instead *sigh* Today is...yet another dull and quiet day. It's my weigh-in this lunchtime and I suspect I won't have lost much this week. And it looks like I'll have some audio-typing to do thus afternoon too, since Mandy is on holiday. Oh, I'm quite capable of it, but...geez, it doesn't take long to type stuff unless you really are an all-thumbs hunt-and-peck typer. Thank goodess for the interent so I can look up any odd-sounding names and addresses if things aren't clear! And I've just recieved news that I will soon have a new friend on the reception with me. The Prince's Trust Team folks are going to be doing two-week placements, and one of them has asked that it be here. I don't so much mind that, as worry about one thing - will she even be able to answer the phone? She has some sort of disability - she sort of 'staggers' along with a pair of sticks. I don't know if she has any kind of speech impairment to go along with that - I hope not, because that would mean I couldn't have her answering the phone or greeting people, and there's little else I can have her doing regularly here. |
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| 03:15pm 15/07/2008 | ||||
Yesterday was not a 'Marie Celeste' day, as I had expected. It was a local holiday here, and loads of folks are off for their holidays too. No, it was the fact that the network decided to die on us, so none of the computers could log on. And since it was a local holiday, the company that takes care of our IT equipment and systems for us was closed. So, no computers and thus no internet-derived entertainment. Hardly anyone in, very few phone calls...all made for a very, very dull day. Thank goodness I had brought beading stuff to do at lunch-time and enough beads to last me the entire day. I got a very good start on the beaded needle-tube cover for Margaret. Mum suggested I make one rather than a bracelet for her birthday, and it had to be done by Tuesday night - Mum is going to see her on Wednesday rather than the usual Friday because she is going down to Nana's then. Eventually, 4pm came and I even saw my line manager leaving and everyone else in the building bar one person had left so I nipped off. Missed the bus, of course, and had to wait until 4:30pm for the next one, which didn't leave until 4:40pm because of a problem with the ticket machine. And once I got back to the car I had to go to Tesco to get a few things and then to the library to pick up a book that was in for me (Swiftly - sounded good!). Mum had chinese chicken in hoi-sin and plum sauce charcoalising under the grill and put the noodles on when I came in the door at 6pm. I had no luck that evening getting a group on WoW for the last heroic I need to do, so I finished off my beading instead, while watching the last episode of Farscape season 1 and the first three episodes of season 2, courtesy of LoveFilm. At least the computers were working again by about 10:30am today, so I didn't have to sit and read Lord of the Rings all day or something. harry showed some very impressive geek skills by not only quoting a couple of the poems from the book but also the version of the ring-writing in the Black Speech and some Quenya too. Quite the language buff, he is. Always interesting to listen to, even if he does seem to think that Japanese has a 'si' sound in it. I managed to get some easy-thread needles to put in Margaret's needle tube, though I wish I had gone right to the haberdashery in the marget rather than John Lewis - it would have saved me quite a bit of time. I guess the extra exercise is a good thing though - I have a feeling I haven't lost as much this week as I did last week. Still, as long as it's a loss and not a gain, that's something to be happy about! And the incoming WoW-patch makes me a very happy person indeed - roll on Wednesday! Shoulder-high flying pets, a new pet from the Sha'tari Skyguard (MINE!!), level 30 mounts...mmmm! Oh, and new Slayers too! Life is gooooood! |
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cheerful| An end in sight | |||
| 09:23am 09/07/2008 | |||
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What I got home on Monday Mum had been busy cleaning all day - and using her new foot-thingy - so I had to start the tea - the Jalapeno beefburger with potatoes and salad. Then it was time to get some stuff done on WoW. I managed to get a grouo for the Shattered Halls heroic, because it was the heroic daily. We had some nasty moment, but because we had a shammy (self-rez ftw!) and a druid-healer (combat rez ftw!) we just managed to make it to the end to kill the executioner and get the unused axe for the 'Test of Mercy' quest - only two more heroic quests to do in the Shadow Labyrinth and Arcatraz then I can try to get into a raid to kill Mags, safe in the knowledge that my title is in the bag! Tuesday was another quiet day here, and also idiot-free. Had it away on my toes at the usual time and spent the bus trip back happily reading another book by Diana Wynne Jones, the Merlin Conspiracy - I've already finished reading A Charmed Life and The Lives of Christopher Chant. I popped into the Co-Op on the way back to get some bread. Mum had tea nearly done when I got in - liver & bascon with veggies, mmmm. I jumped on WoW with the intention of doing heroics if I wasn't needed in Karazhan, but I eventually ended up helping the Stranglethorn Surf Club in Zul'Aman. We made it all the way to Zul'jin before we wiped again on our second try with him and I had to go to bed. I got a nice caster dagger out of it (the thing is freaking HUGE! Seriously, there must be something off with the scaling) and I earned enough from my completed quests to offset the cost of repairs and reagents. A good night, even if I am pretty knackered now. I have stuff to do today though, so once this is done, I have to get to work typing out a witness statement and some other things so it's all done before Rhoda comes tomorrow and roasts me. *sigh* Only a couple more weeks of this and it'll be done - such a relief! |
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| 03:28pm 07/07/2008 | |||
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On Friday it was like the Marie-Celeste around here, even after the Prince's Trust team folks came back it was very quiet - I ended up leaving at about 4:40pm because there was simply no-one around. I didn't get home early though, because I had to get petrol and also pick up some books from the library. I was fuming by the time I got home because I got stuck for ages waiting to get out of the junction at Tesco and had to pay for parking to use the library - it's a bloody tax on people who don't live in Ellon, dammit! After dinner (dippy eggs!) I resumed my efforts to get a the Frostscythe of Ahune for my priest in WoW. The group I was in was reasonably good - we had a pally tank who was still in Blues, and got his first epic from Ahune. We did pretty well, and only wiped on the second summon. There was also a warlock in the group who was after the Scythe and when it dropped on our forth try, we both went for it...and I won! w00t! Then we went for the final time...and it dropped again! Big smiles all round I think, because we all got some kind of epic out of it. I wasn't so happy on Saturday morning, however, because I logged on to find that all the festival stuff was gone - I had thought it would last until the end of the night, and I didn't buy my characters their festival stuff yet T_T So I'm Not Very Happy indeed *sigh* On Saturday afternoon I spoke to Paul on MSN and he asked if I wanted to go see hancock at the cinema. We agreed a time so I set off at about 5:20pm to get to the cinema by 6pm and meet Paul there. Of course, he was late. Supposedly due to bad traffic at the Haudagain roundabout. Hmmm. But anyway, the movie was great, and not too long like some movies tend to be nowadays. Everything seems to push the 2-hour mark, by which time some movies, however good, are starting to outstay their welcome a bit. The cinem was heaving with kiddies though, what with the school summer holidays just starting. I had soup for tea when I got home (don't think I'll get Baxter's broth again, it was a little watery) then got back on the computer to do a little Japanese with Paul over Team Speak. He had been busy that week so we didn't get much done. I'm going to see if I can get a Kanji-instruction book from the libarary and the next books in the 'Japanese for Busy People' series...once I've learned the adjectives and verbs in the first book off by heart! Vocab is as important as sentence structure. On Sunday, Mum and I went into Aberdeen to get a few things. I wanted a new pair of trousers from Marks & Spencer and some new trainers - I had notced the soles of my old pair were coming away when I wore them to the cinema on Saturday. I managed to get some trousers, though not the ones I had wanted, but no luck with the trainers. Mum got some tights from Marks & Spencer and a bunch of toiletries and stuff in Boots. As well as the usual shop in the Marks & Spencer food court. When we got home I got on my computer and finally, finally got my quest for the Kudgel of whatever handed into the NPC in the Slave Pens - I had thought he was in Underbag before and did that heroic too, ooops! Ah well, it meant more badges, if I ever pick something to spend them on! My druid continues to progress, though I'm not keen on doing instances with her at the moment - I dislike tanking because of my inexperience and the pressure put on me. Plus it's hard without any kind of bleed effect in my bear-form. So I'll see if I can get away with healing, though I'll have to make sure I keep my healing gear updated. To be honest I'll probably have her healing anyway when I get her to 70. Or Boomkin, wooo. She was boomkin specced when I started her two years ago anyway. Today has been another quiet day - even the phone calls have been fewer than usual. it's probably because lots of people are taking time off work for holidays so there are fewer people to phone in the first place. My diet seems to be going OK. I've haven't gone over my point allowance once this week, so I have lots of points to spare (12 at the moment, since Wednesday, and it would be more if the online planner would let me bank more than 4 a day) but I doubt I'll use them. I'm going to go for a walk to the briggie and back when I get home, before I have my tea. I really want to hit my 2-pount target this week - I've charted out my 'goals' all the way until May, so I'll see how I do. I'll probabyl have to do a lot of exercise around Christmas to make up for that food! |
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| Slayers Revolution Episode 1 | ||||
| 01:01am 05/07/2008 | ||||
Well, as far as the fansub quality goes, I would much rather get my hands on an .avi version for archiving, because the font I have to read on VLC player sucks bunches. I want a purdy karaoke, dammit! The opening theme...oh god, I can't stand it. I'll have to make myself listen to it over and over with the episode to like it. It sounds like a hideous throw-back to some of the early season OPs of Detective Conan. Brrr. As for the content, I had a good fan-gasm over the familiar music and voices. I wish Gourry had come across a bit better though, rather being the dumb guy with a sword that keeps breaking. So from a Gourry-centric PoV, it was a little disappointing. From an over-all fan PoV, however, it was great! A voyage into the known, where the plot, while basically outlined if it vaguely follows the rest of the books, is unknown! Especially where that stupid-looking pokemon thing is concerned - I'm with Lina on this one. And I still say 'kill it with fire!!' *shudder* The animation looked pretty good - though it lacks a little soul, it makes up for it with the vibrancy of the colours. I liked the ED theme and sequence a lot and I'll be looking for the mp3 when I can find it. All-in-all, I'm a very happy fan, though I hope that creature doesn't turn into another bloody Filia *sigh* |
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| 12:38pm 03/07/2008 | |||
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Weekend was pretty good - got Stuff Done. I helped Mum outside on Saturday - she was planting flowers in the tubs at the bottom of the drive, while I pulled weeds. It was sunny one second and then the next the sky would be falling. I mean monsoon-like rain, rain with lots of vim, vigour and velocity. Especially the latter, according to Mum. I rushed out with an umberella, and got thoroughly soaked myself. I had a hot cup of tea and a towel waiting for her when she got in! I spent the whole weekend with goo in my hair - that Ojon stuff - so I kept it in a bun. Pity I didn't get it all washed out on Sunday. I should have used shampoo on all of my hair, not just my scalp like I normally do now. Oh well, it just meant that I had to keep my hair plaited up until Tuesday night. At least it was super-easy to comb! My first weigh-in at Weight Watchers was on Wednesday at lunch time. Apparently I've lost 1.5 pounds, though I'd scale that up to 2, because I was wearing heavier clothes compared to last week. So, not a bad start, though it could have been better. Next week I'll be walking up to the briggie and back before I have my tea when I get back home, so that should help a bit. Yesterday I took my NVQ binder home to work on, because I had been a bad procrastinator again and still needed to do a lot of stuff. But first I had o get home. Rich called while I was on the bus, asking if I wanted to come out for lunch sometime, that he was paying and it would be whenever Rich, Paul, Tim and myself are all free...and he had some good news to tell us. My money is that Jaqueline is pregnant again, I can't think of anything else likely. I wouldn't personally call that good news... Then Mum phoned me just as we were coming up to the by-pass roundabout to ask in I wanted...a Chinese take-away. Now, that upset me because I'm on a diet. She knows that, and she still asked?? Come on! Why was she trying to make it harder? Also, I had a raid on WoW that started at 6:30pm, and I didn't want to be messing about in town before then and ending up late. Mum had sent me an e-mail about it, but I didn't check my e-mails during the afternoon for some reason and so never read it. I managed to get home in very good time though, reading one of the Diana Wynne Jones books I got from the library on Tuesday on the way. I actually hot home at about 1750, which must be a record. Tea was pasta snails - the last of which I'll be having for a long time, because there are 7.5 points in just half a pack. Must be the filling. The raid took ages to start once I logged on to WoW, and when it turned out we would be using Ventilio for voice chat, I found that my PC was having a somewhat serious problem...I couldn't finish downloads of .exe files! It said I didn't have permission to edit whatever folder I tried, and it appeared they were all read-only and wouldn't stay UN-read-only. Damn. Oh hell. A virus?! We made it through the raid anyway, Gruul dead and my quest item obtained - now I just need to get back into heroic Underbog to delivery it, then do the other heroics, then kill Magtherdon...*sigh* I have time though. I had to come off right after, with the intention of making a start on my personal statement for my latest NVQ unit, but I was distracted by the shiney lure of 3x3 Eyes manga. I fully caught up with the latest release before I went to bed at 12:30am. Damn, it's good! Certainly once of the best I've read - I put it up there with Chrono Crusade. Were it to be completely (and competantly!) translated in English by a publisher, I would faithfully buy every volume. But then, I have a weakness for that kind of pairing -with a male 'contracted' to a female as their defender, be it Rosette/Chrno, Miyuu/Larva, Saaya/Haji or Pai/Yakumo/Parvati (yes, I mean those three names, but you have to read the manga to understand). Non-romantic!Asuna/Negi is also cute as that dynamic turned around, with a female protector. Anyway, I was up at 5am (I mean to be up at 4:30am, but I set my alarm for that time and forgot that alarm slot was set to go off at the weekend) when Mum went to bed and woke me of - and good thing too! I worked away feverishly until 6:20, when I got myself washed and dressed as usual, albeit a little earlier so I could get the bus at 7:30 and not get stuck in the back of the bendy-bus *shudder* Everything was just about done that I could get done by the time Rhoda came in the door, so I mostly escaped from a rather sticky, procrastination-caused situation. Whew! So in comparison to last night and this morning, the remaining time here has been a breeze! It's totally quiet not, because everyone in the office behind me has gone home and the health team consist of two people right now because the rest are on holiday or just not in too. I have to stop at tesco on the way home to pick up something 'skinny' for tea, plus milk and bread. The last of the latest group of hair sticks I got on eBay arrived this morning along with a wireless card Mum ordered from Dabs on Tuesday night to put in the PC Mum got from Margaret. Looks pretty cool. I'm going to install WoW on it to see how it runs - if it runs better, then I'll use that computer as my gaming machine, hehe. Plans for tonight..? Hmm, washing and madly doing quests on Wow to get my lowbies levels, and my 70s flowers to get goodies. On Friday night I'm going to tour every one of them around Azeroth to get as many as possible (though I don't think I'll be able to get into the Horde cities for that 100 flower bonanza) and lots of experience - I've already managed to get my shammy and druid up at least 2 levels on the daily quests alone! Good times, good times! |
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| 12:00am 02/07/2008 | |||
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well, I've just caught up with the volumes of the 3x3 Eyes manga I had read up to - volume 26, chapter 8 seems to be new to me, so it's a roller-coaster into the unknown from here on! V26 ch9 Ooooh, poor Yakumo, stuck in void-space - I love the fit he's pitching. Gotta save that page for the image v26 ch 10 Amara is going to fuse with Yakumo? Is this why Yakumo looks all grey and really zombie-like on a couple of the volumes covers? Cool! This manga is as good as One Piece at throwing really cool curves - that it isn't more popular is positively criminal! v26 ch 11 Go go Yakumo! XD v26 ch 12 Waitasec, just how big is Yakumo now?? Ah, kinda normal sized, and pretty pissed off too. Looks rather psycho with those Amara-like eyes. v26 ch14 oooh, he got a Spider-man kiss, haha! And years before Spider-man too XD v26 ch15 Ah, it's good to see Hong-Nyang again. I rather like her. Though as for the Amara-sphere, it looks a little small - I thought it was much bigger. ch16 Oooh, what's this, Yakumo is using the power he recieved from Amara's conscious thought form? v28 ch2 'Fujii Ichi'? Pff, idiot translator, it's 'Fujii Hajime', moron! v27 Heh, I wonder how long Yakumo's clothing will last this time. For some reason, no matter what happens to him, his trousers seem to be as immortal as he is, though his vest-tops don't seem to have a similar quality. It's nice to see him with sleeves for a change though. |
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| 04:09pm 26/06/2008 | |||
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Nearly the end of the day and also the end of the week, thank goodness! Mum came back on Monday, after a glorious week of having the house to myself. She said she might get in at 6:30pm, but that was a mighty fib, because she was there by the time I came home. And of course, she was not satisfied with how I had cleaned the house. Well, I must admit that I didn't put much effort into it. I've been putting less and less in recently, because she always finds fault with sometime - why go out of my way only to still get whinged at? I resubsctibed to WoW on the 20th and so far I've seen Ahune dead just once, which really sucks. I've been doing the seasonal daily quests though, so hopefully I'll at least get a robe or three for my alts and a brazier for Taly at the end of it. I've mostly been playing my druid, Eidolone, these past few days. I finally got her to 40 yesterday. Quite an achievement, actually, because she was the first alt I made, intended to be a potion factory back when the Burning Crusade was only a twinkle and a character only had to be level 35 to have maximum alchemy skill. I might make her a new main for the next expansion, because druids are pretty versatile with regards to roles they can play - ranged and melee dps, tank, healer. And I want flight form XD Tanking is damn hard work though, trying to keep a lid on multiple mobs with only one AoE taunt that has a 10-minute cooldown. Meh. In other news, the new themed movie night is going to be held at Douglas Towers first, since we have two good sized-TVs here with good sound systems. At least the sun room will be put to its intended purpose - entertaining groups of friends. Richard's choice of theme got picked: pirates. Note, that means pirates plural, and also not just people dressed as pirates. I have a couple of options to put up for consideration. each of us brings one movie and two will be watched. Should be fun. Better than if it was at Rich's, because we'd need to keep the noise down there with Richard's sprog asleep. I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting with Mandy yesterday, and signed up for a month. I started today, and I've already been good by not taking a chocolate from the open box in the office behind me, or a slice of some sort of chocolatey cake *sigh* My mouth waters at the thought. I guess I'll be having soup for tea when I get in, with a thrilling dessert of raisins...or something like that. Diets are only interesting if you have time to faff around - in other words, you're at home all day or you have your diet food cooked for you. And since I don't enjoy cooking, I'd rather spend my time on weekdays doing other things... |
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| 11:31pm 24/06/2008 | |||
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So, on Saturday I decided to catch up with my manga downloads. One of the ones I got the gaps filled in for was my perennial favourite, 3x3 Eyes. Now, this is a series that got me into anime. Tim had, borrowed or painstakingly downloaded the first three OAVs, which we all watched at Paul's house during one of those first games nights after we left the academy. Year later, I got copies of all the OAVs to watch, and then the manga. Well the scanlation group, Sazan Quest, are still translating the manga (and only another 4 volumes to go out of the 40 published between 1987 and 2002), but it's been about a year or more since I last read any of the chapters I downloaded. But as you can see from my main LJ icon, it's still a series very close to my heart. I decided it would be the first manga to catch up on. So much (very weird!) stuff has happened in it, I decided to read it over from the beginning again. I'm only on volume 14 and I must have gone through as many storylines - and I still have another 22 volumes to read! I don't know why I like this series so much. It's not the fact it was one of my first, otherwise I'd still be all over Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon like a rash. I find Yakumo 'the original shield of meat' very endearing - I've often been tempted to make a warrior in WoW to be a tank and call him Yakumo XD Pai is very cute as well of course. The progression of the art style also interests me, just as it does in Violinist of Hameln - good grief, both of them looked so dated when you read the first couple of volumes! They started and finished around the same time too. Anyway, time to dry my hair some more and finish watching Tales from Earthsea before bed... |
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| 09:41am 17/06/2008 | |||
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Meh, well I've definately forgotten the PIN for the Tesco card Mum got for me to use when she wants me to buy something for her. It's not locked out, so I'll have to find a phone number to call and see about getting a reminder/new PIN/choice of PIN. I watched a few episodes of The Second Raid - I really hope they make another series out of FMP. And Fumoffu. It's almost a shame that stuff like Lucky Star and Haruhi has the priority right now. Rich turned up on MSN, asking if I wanted to go round to his house on Wednesday or Thursday to see a movie rather than us all going to the cinema. Sounded OK, though only if I could bring something to eat - a Chinese, an indian, something from home, I dunno. I plan to retrieve my Slayers box set and the rowing machine while I'm there and lend either Rich or Tim my American Gothic set. I'm sure they'll like it. I think I'll have fishcakes and so on for tea tonight and play some Final Fantasy X or XII. I really need to catch up on where I was in XII. Hmm, actually I remember pretty well, but I need to remember the details of that battle (hard as nails, but with a damn nice sword that can drop) and the battle system. It was a pretty sunny day yesterday, but as per the weather forecast, it's been rainy this morning. I managed to forget my umberella while re-packing my bag before I left the house, looking for the house alarm fob. I hope the rain stops before lunch, because I want to go to the Trinity Centre and see if I can get some coconut oil in a smalltub that doesn't cost a tenner right off the bat, or a small bottle of jojoba oil. I'm finally sick of my hair behaving like a bush until two days after it was last washed. Combing rather than brushing doesn't seem to make any difference there, I still end up with VOLUME LIEK WOAH *sigh* My hair is not thin, I don't need volume, dammit. |
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| 04:42pm 16/06/2008 | |||
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I've had a mostly-lovely four days off. Thursday was spent either playing Utawarerumono or designing patterns for my needle tubes. Ditto Friday, with side-orders of 'Mum and Nana going out' and 'Mum being an unreasonable pyscho'. Mum and Nana left on Sunday morning, witha couple of trays of plants for Nana's garden on the back seats. I then spent the rest of the day having a go at a new hair style and not using a brush, as well as the pilates machine - gawd, the woman doing the demonstration on that DVD has really ugly feet *shudder* Mind you, the rest of me doesn't look too tip-top, so eh... I finished Utawarerumono at about 3:30pm. Aside from the shudder-inducing hentai scenes (just pictures with super-cheesy text) it was short, but not too bad. I just wish more of the story parts had been animated using the battle sprites, because looking at a serious of character images over a background was really dull, even with the voice acting. Having to click to get to the next ‘paragraph’ rather sucked too. The whole story was much better explained than in the anime, especially the events surrounding the Iceman and the true nature of Witsuarunemitea and pretty much all the more complicated parts of the backstory. That said, the anime did makes the battles seem much more threatening, since you were able to actually see the number of soldiers and other people involved. and it's sanitised, much makes Hakuoro seem like less of a jerk (though it the game he was the one who got jumped about 70% of the time). It makes me wonder how many more H-games have a decent plot hidden under the hentai garbage. In the evening, Tim sent me a hilarious version of the Lucky Star opening sequence with female Transformers dancing – I also found a very good Suzumiya Haruhi version before I went off to have my shower. After four days off, it sucked to have to get up at 6:30am again *sigh* At least it’s been an OK day – lots of folks coming in and phone calls, but otherwise fine. |
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| When 'mein fuhrer' speaks... | ||||
| 09:50pm 13/06/2008 | ||||
She'd been out this afternoon with Nana to see Margaret for lunch. When she came back I stuck around downstairs after I had made them cups of tea, and realised that the pile of paper that the posters from my latest SFX magazine had gone. The question was, where were they? Mum has a habit of throwing things out without a care as long as they aren't hers, so I asked what she had done with that stack. I sure wouldn't have moved them, and I doubt Nana would, so that onyl left her. She denied touching them or throwing them out - clearly bullshit, because she's the only one who does. I just tidy piles up for fear of moving something of hers and setting her off on the warpath. She got angry with me and I got angry back because who the hell else would have moved that stack of paper from the kitchen? They weren't in the bin or paper bin - both were emptied this week - which meant they were long gone. Mum came upstairs a little later, fuming because she thought I had spoken to her like an idiot. Well, she is an idiot, but I didn't speak to her like she was one. She said that I don't pay enough rent to speak to her like that. I tried to make the point that it didn't matter how much I paid her, she would still not accept being talked to in a tone she deems 'inappropriate'. Which is true. And yet again, she went off on my this evening when I went down to the study to ask her a question. I wanted to know if she could transfer files other than mp3s and pictures to her phone. She didn't let me ask more than that though, because she lost her temper for no apparent reason and said she was busy trying to find something. Feh, fine all she needed to do was say she was busy as soon as I asked if I could ask her something. Then she came into the kicthen and said "Sometimes you talk to me like I'm such a fucking idiot (oh hey, there's her awful Middlesbrough accent peeking through there!) and this attitude has to stop, you have an iPod of your own...". I tried to interrupt her rant to say that I didn't want to put mp3s on her phone or whatever bloody stupid conclusion she had jumped to. "If you'll just let me finish what I was asking..." and told her (once she finally shut up) that I only wanted to know so I could try to get some new midi files onto my phone to use as a ringtone. Her reason for going nuclear on me without warning? She can't find the sat-nav software on her phone. Well, hell, all she had to do was tell me she was a) busy and b) trying to find her software...or something like that. I'm personally sick of her going off on me like that - I'm not the only one who can have a bad attitude. When someone is denying throwing something out when she's the only one who does stuff like that and acting like I'm the only talking out of my backside, or when she goes off on me without having the decency to listen to what I say... Well, that's not unusual these days either. She hardly ever actually processes what I say to her. It seems to go in one ear and right out the other without even sparking a single neuron on the way. Mum, you are a fucking idiot. STFU. Seriously. |
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angry| 09:29pm 12/06/2008 | ||||
Oh god, thank goodness these bits don't have voice-acting, I think I'd just die. One gallon of brain bleach, stat! |
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embarrassed| And the song goes on | ||||
| 08:56pm 08/06/2008 | ||||
( Read more... ) |
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| 03:50pm 06/06/2008 | |||
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Lunchtime yesterday was miserably quiet due to lack of iPod - I really missed it. But at least I had something to occupy me. Bead crazy was my first stop, where I got a spool of pink Nymo and had a brief look at the beads - picking large ones for my curtain ties will require more time than I have on weekdays. Then I went to see if John lewis had any 2mm bubgle beads in suitable colours, but nope - I'm betting the duitable colours were the ones that were sold out. Then I left via the side-door and went to Forbidden Planet to get the latest SFX, which came out the day before. The Clydesdale ATMs were my next stop to get a mini statement to check that the money had come out of my account and into Mum's, which it had. 2nd last was GAME, were I only went in to have a brief look, noticed that had 2nd hand silver slimline PS2s for £60 and decided to get on. Last was Boots, where I got two bottles of nail polish, two cans of deodorent and a stick of concealer. Not bad for an hour's trotting around town. And that meant plenty of steps on the pedometer too. The afternoon brought a surprise delivery from GF - the new shredder I had only ordered the day before! I took it across the road myself and Lee help me get it out of the box. Steph was dismayed that it was just as noisy as its predecessor, but Rachel and Claire were happy to give it its first work-out. The old one from across the road still works after a fashion, so has replaced this building's one, which didn't work after any fashion. Smiles all round I guess. Once I got back off the bus, I went to get the TV from Grandma Ethel and managed to manhandle it into the car. After that I couldn't be bothered going to the library, because I'd have to park at the bank and carry the bag with the books in or park at the library and pay...uh uh, not happening! So I got home, got the TV inside and Mum put the oven on for my pizza. I'd sent all my LoveFilm DVDs back, so I just watched episodes of Chrono Crusade while working on more bead-balls. I'd made one out of bugle beads so I could better understand how they are put together so I can make adjustments of my own, like changing the size. Paul popped up on MSN and asked if I want to climb Bennachie on Saturday, via the long route up. Uh...no. We tried that before and it was pretty dull. I'd much rather walk along the railway line where we have a much lower chance of getting lost! Plus I have a much better chance of keeping up, since it's a railway line and therefor pretty flat. I woke up rather groggy this morning, possibly due to the pillow I was using - one of Mum's beany pillows with a flannelette cover, just to see what it was like. Caught the bus fine, spent pretty quiet morning on my own at the reception, bar the folks who came in to get their baus fare or work money *sigh* I spent my lunchtime beading and now the afternoon is extremely dead and I just want to go home =( At least I managed to book Thursday and Friday off next week... |
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| A tale of annoyance, yum and cool anime | |||
| 12:02pm 05/06/2008 | |||
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Ehem, another gap, ooops. I just haven’t felt like doing daily updates lately. Well, Nana is still driving Mum and I slowly nuts. ( \Snip/ ) |
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| 09:03am 26/05/2008 | |||
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Wednesday was a truelu hectic day at the Foyer. The Health Team had a heath fair running from 11am onwards, so the place was full of people coming in to set up their stands, and then people to see the stands. I had thought that Rhoda was coming that day to see me about my NVQ stuff, so I sent her an e-mail saying that all the rooms were booked and place was going to be super-busy so the usual quiet spots like the canteen wouldn't be so quiet. And it wasn't just the health fair that was on, but also the guys from Capture finally came to fix the printer and there was a man in from Coca Cola to poke at the vending machine and refill it - all go indeed! I didn't really have the inclination to look at the stands when 1pm came and I could go off for my lunch. Maybe I should have, because there was a lady upstairs somewhere doing henna tattoos, which I found rather tempting. I'd much rather have my hair henna-ed though! At least I got a little cup of frozen yoghurt and vanilla ice-cream, courtesy of Jackie from the Foyer's partner Ben & Jerry's in the Bon Accord centre. The frozen yoghurt was rather nice - I haven't had any before, so I was surprised. Oh Thursday morning I had to leave the house a little earlier than usual to pick up a package for Mum from the Post Office service centre. It had to be signed for because it was from QVC, and because no-one was at home to sign for it, it had been taken back to be picked up *sigh* Mum has tried to get QVC to stop sending items signed delivery. She asked for that option because we had a didgy postie when she first started buying things from QVC and a bunch of items went missing. But we know where our current postie lives, heh heh. The day itself was...probably pretty quiet and dull, because I don't remember any details, besides having to type out stuff for the health team from sheets filled in by the folks who came for the health fair. My Delica beads arrived in the post, as well as the needle tubes, so I got a start on making the tube-cover. I had to go out early on Friday morning too because this time Mum had recieved two packages that needed signing for - Ojon hair stuff from QVC. I got plenty of walking done that day, going up to Bead Crazy to get some spindles of Nymo thread so I would have a better colour to go with the beads than white. Though I got some more white because my spindle was nearly empty. It was Aiveen's last day at the Foyer, and I decided I'd go to her little farewell get-together at 5pm in Carriages. It wasn't too awkward, thought I made my escape at 5:50pm so I could catch the 6:05pm X50 bus home. Richard called me on the bus, thinking I wanted to go to the cinema. I'd asked Tim and Paul if they wanted to go to see the new Indiana Jones movie at the weekend, so goodness only knows why that translated to 'on Friday evening' to Rich. Mum also phoned me when I was just about to start up the car and leave Tesco. Of course, I missed the call because the phone doesn't ring long enough. It vobrates for a while and only actually rings for a few seconds. I swear I'd love to turn off the voice message thing, because I never check it and anyone likely to call me on my mobile knows that. It was nice to get home though and happily sit and bead. I had to restart the tube because what I had already done was too wide and would not fit around the tube snugly. I was a bit annoyed to find out that the new tube was only 27 beads around,r ather than the 28 I had a pattern for. But 27 was perfectly snug, so I just had to edit the pattern a little. I did my cleaning on Saturday. Mum set off with Nana at about 10:15am. I was going to cut the grass so it would be freshly done when she got home, but the 'rumble bee' was low on fuel and I didn't fancy taking a chance just to do the front lawns and end up having to push it all the way back to the garage myself. Sure, I could get more petrol for it, but I'd need help keeping the funnel still so I could pick up and pour the now-heavy petrol can. So I just did the usual hoovering and so on. I didn't make any special effort, because Mum always finds something to whinge about. This time it was the lack of emptied ashtrays and stuff in the Utility - but really, how the hell should I know where she wants that stuff put? She'd only whinge that I'd 'dumped' it somewhere. I nipped out at about 3pm to get some milk, bread and petrol for the lawn tractor. Mum had just called from Dundee which mean that she was only a couple of hours away. She got home at about 5:15pm. Normally she calls me when she's about 10 minutes away and tells me to put the kettle on, but this time the only warning I got was the sound of a car coming up the drive. Sneaky! Mum had her whinge about the state of the house as usual. I showed Nana the kind of stuff I'd been making and helped both of them get their bags upstairs before continuing my beading while listening to audio books or episodes of Justice League. I finished Making Money on Friday then moved on to listening to the Bromeliad trilogy (Truckers, Diggers and Wings), which I had never read before. I remember seeing a scene from Cosgrove Hall's production of Truckers where some of the nomes were learning to read (and having some confusion over the pronounciation of the 'ow' sound in 'down' verses 'show' - ahh English, so consistant, haha). On Sunday I got Mum to help me refuel the Rumble Bee then got the grass cut. I had to change the deck setting from 5 to 7 so it could handle the length of the grass without cutting out on me. I swear, I've been quad-biking and navigating the Rumble Bee around the garden was a lot bumpier and scary! Mum had to go out to tesco to get some shopping because she was low on tea-bags. I'd already been out a lot, so refused to go. Nana is already driving Mum and I nuts. From the first night she was here, actually. She went to bed at about 10:30pm. I went to bed ay about 2am and when I went to wash my face I found the hot tap still running. Stupid al' fogey! She interprets the instructions to take her tablet with food as meaning 'take a bit of food, take a tablet' rather than 'eat meal, take tablets'. Sunday lunch-time brought more geriactric idiocy. I'd just made myself a sandwich and Nana came into the kitchen, so I asked if she wanted one and got the stuff out for her. Rather than look for a chopping board/mat, she had put the bread right on the counter top, so I got one out and put the bread on it. Then I realised she had taken the bread off the chopping board to butter it and quickly picked up the slices and put them back on the board. Dammit woman, the board is there for a reason! She probably would have cut her sandwich on the counter-top too, and that is how it gets marked. She groused that if I hadn't done it, Mum would have. Well, yes, we're not all filthy like you. She went to the loo when she got in on Saturday. Now, I knew for a fact that there was no toilet paper in that toilet because I had used the last of it and had forgotten to take a new roll downstairs. She didn't ask us to get her any. Euuwww! She's getting as bad at Grandma Ethel, who eschews the wearing on underwear! I finished making the needle-tube cover on Sunday afternoon. I'd made a start on the netting that covers it the previous night and got it finished on Sunday afternoon. I made the little cover to go on the cap in the evening, while watching dubbed episodes of Ghost in the Shell and talking to Alex. He has finally decided that he will be coming to Japan with Tim, Paul and I next year, which is good news indeed! I had to take a break front talking though because I was trying to follow the pattern for a ball made of beads, and the last few steps fairly turned my brain inside out because the pattern required using two needles - both ends on the thread - in a kind of right-angle weave. I'm making them to string together into a tie-back, since I wasn't happy with the rather weedy one I had made the previous weekend. Yesterday was mostly nice and sunny outside, but here in town it's pretty dull [Edit: And now it's not!]. I was expecting sun and warmth *sigh* I'm glad I took another cardigan with me to go over the blue one I have on. Richard the Annoying is away at a learning house, being taight how to use a computer. He's leaving in 2 weeks, actually, to do another course at Greyfriar's House. While it's nice, there being someone here to nab the phone, I certainly won't miss the way..he speaks..like...Captain Kirk. |
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