Wednesday, December 9, 2009

I'm BACK!

It's true, months and months later, I have finally gotten round to returning to blogging, just in time to wish y'all a very merry Christmas.

Uhm, news, I am back in Britain, Wales specifically and loving it! Back at University, applying for jobs, doing assignments (honest!) and working around my lectures at Millets - an outdoor shop. It's fun and it's so good to be home.

I could list loads of reasons for having disappeared but you don't want to hear it, suffice to say, I'm glad I'm back ^_^

Tell me your news. I've missed you guys...

Oh oh! Shout out to/for/about Marilyn Brant over at Brant Flakes who has had a book published, will be getting another published next year and is in the process of writing a third. I am so chuffed for her! Her first book According to Jane is on Amazon, and on my Amazon wishlist (and has been since it was first available for pre-order) ready for some Christmas money to buy it for me ;)

Love love love.
I promise not to wait eight months before posting again ;)
xxxxxx

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Big news!

That's right! I have amaaaazing news. So you might have noticed if you're a reader of this blog that I am somewhat unhappy with my life in the Netherlands. I don't talk about it much but it might have come across... Lol, like I don't bitch about it a lot. I'm sorry about that btw. Anyways. So my contract was for 12 months meaning I had to stay until the end of June. But that's CHANGED! Yeah baby, due to a number of reasons that haven't been explained to me plus the fact I mentioned I was quite homesick I get to go home on 26th April! Woohoo! I am so unbelievably chuffed hehehehe.

In other news I finished a story! OK, so it was one of those sub-ops and was *definitely* written to a deadline which is less great but all two of my readers enjoyed it soooo...Whatever. I submitted it about eleven pm my time last night which is about five their time and I haven't heard back yet I doubt I will for a while. I'm not really sure how these things go. It's a story for Circlet Press, this e-book in particular so I'll let you know if I get e-published or not!

Fun times ^_^

Friday, March 20, 2009

Whooooooooa it's been a long time

So, as you might have noticed I haven't blogged in a while. I decided to give up on that whole blogging once a day thing because I realised that I had nothing interesting to say anymore. I was always tired when I was writing the post and it just wasn't working. Unfortunately *now* I managed to forget to blog *ever* Sooooooo here goes a MAHUSIVE catch up!

Testing week went well, version 24 of the company project was released. Yar for them.

MY PROJECT WAS RELEASED!!!! Seriously this time. It is actually actually actually out there. In the big wide world. I'm *so* proud. And it's nice to think that, given that I have firmly decided to leave this business behind, I have left something out there in this field that people are really using. And not just that, this technology is, I'm told, really quite desirable so the company having it available might well just have been the deciding factor in people using it. It's not the same as some interns projects that never see the light of day or aren't used widely but mine...Is really out there. Yay for me.

I have been lazy on the book-writing front too, so! I decided to write some stories from some sub-ops Paperback Writer mentioned. They're very *very* different from my story but I figured they might get me back in the writing frame of mind, plus then I can write some stuff and get some feedback on it, even if it's just "No thanks that's not what we're looking for" I haven't got my heart completely set on being in their (e-)book though I'd be immensely proud of myself if they did print it. But it's good practice and thinking in other genres is quite fun.

Oh, and the lovely Marilyn actually commented on a post to ask how thing were going *sends Marilyn a hug* specifically to do with my website. So here it is: http://faeryforest.co.uk/ Slightly different from before lol I'm working to work on the "theme" as Drupal calls it. You can use a whole bunch of set themes or there are configurable ones. So I decided to get one of those so I can fiddle with it, make it my own. I'd encourage any readers I might have to sign up so you can join in the forums or something but a) nothing much is going on and b) I'm not sure how much you'd have to discuss with 18 yr old computer science students in Wales! But hey, it'd be nice if you wanted to :)

I guess those are the big things, people are coming to visit me soon though, my mother is coming today and my boyfriend and some friends are coming over easter!

The weather's turned lovely over here which is nice, I've made some fun cakes, I made brownies last week - yum!

I should go - work time and all that jazz!

Love love love.

Maybe I'll write more often again. *sigh*

P.S. Happy Equinox every one

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Testing week

It's begun! Not testing my stuff, no that'd be far too easy. Nope, yet another testing run for visible. Seriously, sometimes I wonder who designed this. There are so many illogical wtf moments it's ridiculous. But anyway, testing means not working and not working means not thinking so let's hope the rest of the week is taken up with testing ^_^

Other than that, not much going on! My friend wants me to scan my face... I declined!

Night.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Catch up

Oh dear. It happened again. Mass distraction. Mmmkay.

So, Saturday. Fragalot came over \o/ I overslept, was almost late and then his train was delayed. For an hour ¬_¬ But meh. It's all good. I finally went in a little restaurant that had often looked tempting but I don't eat by myself so I'd never gone in - amazing pancakes! They were so yummy. Then we mooched around and finally got to the square where we were supposed to be meeting the others. And there were skateboarders <3 But then my camera died out of the blue. I hope it's just the battery or I'm so screwed and so gutted. I love my camera, it can't be broke :S But Fragalot took some cool pics so it's all good in the end. We also went to see Yes Man. Such a good film. Jim Carey is an excellent actor methinks. I mean, I think he goes over-board on the weird faces/noises things that he does. But without them he wouldn't be Jim Carey so...

Sunday... Electricity went out, a fuse blew or something. I can turn back on all the fuses except for the wired lights. Meh... cooking by candle light is fun ¬_¬

Work still blows. Talked to Dad today though he has fun skiing! And is going again next week... Ugh, I want SNOW!

Have been encouraged to take up writing again. I shouldn't have abandoned it really. So yeah, maybe I'll get some done... I hope so. I like my story!

Night night.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Yup, too good

Bleugh, it was a long hard day today. Authentication (no, I won't explain ;) ) still didn't work and my glorious loving boss decided to a) ask me to do stuff b) make me change stuff c) suggest things that would be nice THEN DO THEM WITHOUT TELLING ME So, yeah, ugh. And instead of a late night I decided to just leave. At six.

So I got home, reheated some food from last night. Drank an 89 cent small bottle of smirnoff ice, had some ice cream. And it's all good.

I also took one of those Jung psychology test things: http://similarminds.com/jung.html It was quite interesting. I took a similar test earlier but it came out with a result that was only half "me" this one however, is all me. Not all *of* me, there are some bits that are still present in other "results" but there wasn't anything I would disagree with. So that was cool. Check it out, see what you came up with. The similarminds site has its own "profile" page for each Jung-type but there are also fairly good descriptions here - that's linked to my Type. INFP. Sounds a bit wishy-washy but hey. Not everyone gets to share a psychology type with Shakespeare, ET and the Virgin Mary :P

I took the BBC brain-sex quiz too. I've taken it before, three or more years ago now. I have a 100% asexual brain! Woo! I think... Anyway, if you fancy having a go and don't feel totally embarrassed about the results post them up ^_^

Night night.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Too good to be true

Well it would have been wouldn't it? I knew it and it was. *sigh* I almost blogged yesterday but I forgot to hit the right button. Anyway I was having testing issues which Sietse fixed, followed swiftly by authentication issues. Not yet fixed. And then! Coding changes. Bye bye 20th February release. Probably... That or a late night >_< *sigh* fun fun fun. And all that jazz.

I was chatting to my new Italian housemate again today. She's so lovely ^_^ The only down side is that she's so chatty and I wanted to come back and talk to welp and people. She distracted me a bit from that needless to say. But it's ok really hehehe.

Ummmm. I've been playing with adding stuff to my website. I actually have a proper home page and stuff now! www.faeryforest.co.uk heeheehee.

Bed time...

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Problem resolutions...

That's right! Problem semi-solved ^_^ The work one that is. Sietse came over and pair-programmed with me for a couple of hours. Again it was one of those "Let's change everything" jobs. But as it was only really the XML he changed and it was all made up anyway I didn't much care... But yes. Just a bit of tweaking, some testing, integration with Ewout's stuff and... we might have a release! Though I'm trying not to get my hopes up, seeing as the releases have never worked out before.

Speaking of releases - testing fun next week for VIZ >_< *sigh*

On a cool note though. Through a legal aliens e-mail someone had posted about wanting artists and photographers to help make e-cards as part of her new business. Just donate some of pictures (fully credited) to put on e-cards that managers can send to employees, she's trying to battle the "bad manager" issues that are often existent. It's a really cool idea I think and as I haven't much else to do with the photos other than put them on flickr and dA I figured I may as well put them to good use ^_^

That's pretty much it. Might hang up my rose to dry actually.

Night x

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Meh

Bad day at work today. Just... people being arses. 115 days left \o/ Gods I hate it. I have that deadline tomorrow. Though I do think I'll be able to make it I just don't much want to go in. I'm starting think it's not really worth making cake for them either. I mean. Some of them appreciate it but on the whole... I dunno. Yeah. Just a bad day. Yeuch.

On the upside there's another photo meet up on Saturday *and* my belgian friends is probably coming so that should make it more interesting ^_^ I'm going to use colour film this time. Twenty euros a film (developing) is a bit much and as I get to pay for three more on thursday... I'll be feeling a tad poor!

Bleugh...

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day... and all that jazz

As I wished you all yesterday, I hope you all spent today exactly as you wanted. Within reason, I mean, if you wanted to spend the day with Johnny Depp (I don't blame you if you did!) then I hope this day managed to live up to slightly more realistic expectations ;)

Today was better that I thought it was going to be. I have a boyfriend, of sorts... We met on t'internet through a teacher as he goes to my university - so it's not just a random internet relationship! It's been quite a whirlwind to be honest! But yes, so we've been officially together ten days. Needless to say given that he's in Wales and I'm in Rotterdam I wasn't expecting anything. I really wasn't. So when I got woken up at the godawful hour of 9:30 ;) - hey! it's Saturday - opening the door to a lady holding a rose was quite possibly the most pleasant surprise that can turn up at 9:30 on a Saturday. Unless it was himself - that would have been pretty good too! Lazy person that I am I washed up a bottle to put the rose into, trimmed the stem etc. and went back to bed! When I got up two hours later I promptly took pictures of it ^_^

I didn't do much else today. I meant to go into town to buy a usb wireless majig for my computer but decided to stay in and talk to Welp instead. Which means I have to go out shopping tomorrow funfunfun! But then I will have internet and can put my computer online and maybe, just maybe, it'll work...

Go Wales in the rugby! Hehe, being French and English and going to Uni in Wales gives me a fifty per cent chance of supporting a team that wins the Six Nations! Wales are looking good so far for another Grand Slam this year which would be amazing.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

More art stuff

So there are *more* photos up on my flickr account. And then I decided that they were going to drive me crazy - looking at black and white photos from the same trip over and over so I've put up some drawings instead. Fun times. To be fair I'm kind of cheating. I haven't done any proper drawing for a while so these are all kind of old. Hopefully I might do some more drawing but I'm not banking on it! I really need to organise my art work - I've photos and drawings all over the place, it's getting a bit ridiculous. Another trip to Blokker to buy boxes maybe? Hehehe. It might be a good idea actually. Given that I haul stuff everywhere. Some of these drawings are oh, five years old, if not more, and yeah they've travelled everywhere with me. Finally being immortalised! I'm clearly going to have a house with an attic that I can convert into an "Art space" then put all my art work or the art of friends/relatives all over the walls. It can be attached to my dream dark room and photography studio ;)

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. I hope you all get to spend it exactly as you wish, or near enough ^_^ xx

Friday, February 13, 2009

Halo!

Hehe, so I *finally* went back to Ewout's and played some more Halo. I didn't do quite as well as last time but it's been like a month since I played so I figure I'm excused. I wasn't totally useless either so it's all good.

More photos going up ^_^ There were some less interesting ones at the end of the first film (all of which is now up) but the second one is more promising so hopefully cooler photos will be up in the next couple of days!

Nada mucho mas... xx

Thursday, February 12, 2009

FOSDEM and photos

So, um, yes. Last weekend I went to FOSDEM, it was lots of fun. We had great weather on the Friday (no lectures) so we walked around Brussels taking photos. Brussels is a beautiful city I thought. Sure it's got some down points, what city doesn't? But I thought on the whole it was very very pretty. When I get my films back (next week) I'll show you...

Speaking of which!! I've done it! I have scanned and uploaded some piccies ^_^

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amethystwillow

So the black and white ones are from the UPC and there will be more to come. The other ones are older and stuff, bleh. But yay! I have some up! Only... 9 more films to go... that were developed in Rotterdam >_< It's an undertaking lol.

But yes, FOSDEM was great, it was nice seeing some people from Aber and meeting some new people. I learnt some stuff too... I also drank beer! Proper Belgian beer. It was lush! I got really rather drunk, much fun was had!

I had a meeting with Peter K today which was less bad than I thought it was going to be but I've still come out of it with two deadlines ¬_¬ but I thought I was going to get majorly told off and I wasn't so it's all good.

People might be coming to visit me over Easter! Fun fun fun. Things are pretty good anyways :) Except that people at work suck and/or are leaving. *sigh* some things never change though that's just the way life is I guess.

Night night x

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Excuses time

Ok so, I was away Friday and Saturday, as I said. Then I forgot on Sunday and my internet was broken yesterday.

I've been playing with my scanner today so it's late. A complete update tomorrow ^_^

Night all x

Thursday, February 5, 2009

T'was the night before FOSDEM..

..and all through the house, the Kate monster was sewing. But then! She finished! Woop woop. And now she's going to bed! *Before* midnight... roughly ^_^

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Bleh

Dull day at work, again.

But I got to get my photos! They're very pretty and very expensive :S I now know what some of my spare cash will be going on... Still, they're pretty awesome so I'm chuffed ^_^

Not really got much else to say I don't think...

Monday, February 2, 2009

I don't have a good title for today really. I just tried to get my vista license 'cos the boys at work said I wouldn't have to download it I could just get the license. But, unsurprisingly perhaps, they were wrong. This is what happens when people who have bugger all knowledge of what you have to do try and help you. ¬_¬

Ah well, seems I do have to download it and now it's late and I haven't - whoops! Bah! It's my computer, I've already gotten it weeks ahead of schedule so it can wait I guess.

I'm on the verge of an actual breakthrough at work. I may have managed to solve the problem I've been working on for a long long time. And it's not just because I've been spending too much time on IRC. The problem with code you haven't written and only half understand is that it takes a looooooooong time to unravel. But I think I might have done it!

I'm still not done with my sewing either :S Gonna have to speed up a bit!

Hmmm Welp ^^

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Do Nothing Sunday

I had planned on setting up my computer today. I really had! But then the place where I download it from - legally! - was down for maintenance. So I still haven't got a fully functioning computer *sigh*

On the upside Welp and I confirmed the fact that we liked each other - woo!! Unfortunately now we're even more down about the fact that we can't see each other at FOSDEM. *gutted*

I'm going to try and restart meditating and that kind of thing again. I don't remember why I stopped, forgot probably. So there, another compulsory objective!

Nothing much else to report.

Night night xx

P.S. Woo!

Buggrit!

I forgot *again* This is not going well...

So yesterday was JB's last day at work. I'm really going to miss him, he was one of the few always-lovely guys at work. But he's getting paid more and I think he'll be happier so that's all good.

Not much else happened. Welp started walking! He's on crutches now and very mobile it seems! He may even not have to go back to another hospital, just straight home or back to Aber as he so wishes.

The IRC channel #fresher was "usurped" by #42. Basically we encouraged everyone to move over to the new one due to the fact that not everyone on the channel was a fresher *and* all the freshers on it wouldn't be next year!

This time next week I'll be at FOSDEM! I wish Welp was going to be there :( I *might* have a small crush on him >_>

My black and white photos from last week aren't done yet, they should be ready on Tuesday. On the up(?) side. I now own a scanner. A non-cheap one, eeks! But still, it means I can scan all my pictures in - woo!

Tomorrow is D-Day... Download-Day. Tomorrow I *will* sort out my computer, I *will* do it. This is getting ridiculous. And now I don't have an excuse because I have an extension cable. A black one. Yes, I did specifically buy a black one, even if it possibly cost more. Yes... I have issues! But otherwise it wouldn't match!

I finished Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs. I think I'm getting soppier, I got a little teary at the end lol. It was very good though a little too much "OMG he's dead! Oh... no... wait, he's still alive!" going on but that's not really a big problem lol. I think I might start on one of the nice hard backs tonight.

My website is closer to being set up. I still have to create a fireFTP account (I think) and then I can upload proper HTML files. Then my website will be truly my own! I also found some people to do an online "book club" type thing with so I'm going to work out how to fix up that forum thing. For the other online book club we might be reading Fight Club, Catcher in the Rye or Brave New World. I loved Brave New World but I haven't read either of the others, I'm quite looking forward to this months. Perhaps if I've gotten the forum up in time I'll set it for our book club too. Or maybe just review it ^^

Night night xx

P.S. *big* crush...

Thursday, January 29, 2009

The way of the pin

So yeah, I called up my step-mother this morning, she's nurse you see. And she said I needed to go to the hospital, which scared me not a little! So I went to work to find someone to go to hospital with me and they said that I should call up my GP first so that then I wouldn't have to sit in A&E forever! I started calling the GP and couldn't get through for more than an hour and my stomach is getting pretty painful by this point so I go tell my boss who then rings them up and gets through immediately. Of course. Anyway doc says don't go to the hospital, come see me... in two and a half hours... So in the meantime I am told to eat some Ontbijtkoek which should wrap round the pin and stop it spiking me and help me pass it etc. I go to the doctor and he said "Yeeeeeeah, it'll be fine, you'll just have to wait". So at the end of the day I was completely right to just let it get on with it! Lol, but this way I didn't have to do much work so that was cool!

Not much else is happening. Still talking to people on IRC and one of the guys that I'm going to meet at FOSDEM is being fairly flirty with me so my inner flirt is responding. And my friend told me he was a little jealous bless him lol. But I explained that I couldn't help it and I think he was a bit mollified lol.

Night night

Wednesday

Nothing much happened today. The canal outside work is freezing over. Oh! And I swallowed a sewing pin!

I was making my friend's bag and I was holding a couple of pins in my mouth, as you do, but then I stabbed my leg and inhaled... Yeah, not sure if I should see someone about it or not, I don't often swallow much stuff I'm not supposed to! We'll see what happens I guess!

Ummm not much else. Found other reasons to dislike Sietse, so it goes.

Realised that I might actually have finished one bit of coding though it wasn't specifically a part I was supposed to do yet. I may have to do more code moving etc. Bleugh

Night night

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Oh noes!

I almost posted last night but I was distracted before I clicked the Publish button then closed Firefox without clicking it - d'oh!

So, yesterday: I got my screen! (It's so shiny) I also got fabric to turn into goodie bags for FOSDEM. It's going to be lots of fun.

I cleared all my desk and wiped it down and plugged my computer together (the externals) then I realised I'd left my power-cable at work... Ah well, I haven't actually turned it on today either, just never did lol. I'll turn it on tomorrow hehehehe.

I finished my prototype drawstring gift bag, it's pretty darn cool actually! I'm now making my friend's one then I'll get on with making my other friend's then mine :D They're easier to make than stockings ^^ You don't need to bother with a pattern for one thing.

Nothing much else is happening, work is being crappy again but I'm making lots of new aber friends so it's all good.

Oh! My friend had his skin graft yesterday and it all went well apparently, hopefully he'll be back in aber by the end of the week :D

Night night

Monday, January 26, 2009

Vintage Black and White

Today was photo shoot day! Here's the link to the pictures that have been uploaded so far, not sure when mine will make it up, developing and scanning yet to be done! It was really good fun and we had beautiful weather.

Very sleepy now - bed time!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

And again

It's been a bad week for blogging. This is technically my blog for the 24th but it's late *again* So what happened this week? I made a new friend! He was supposed to be going to this FOSDEM conference with some Aber people and we were gonna meet there, but then he had his leg horrible broken and is gonna have crutches for six months so, yeah, he ain't coming! But he encouraged me to join the Aber IRC chatroom and I have since made lotsa new friends :)

Whoops got distracted...

So yeah - geeky conference, geeky friends :)

Work was going OK, didn't do much on Wednesday, felt sick on Thursday then I get in on Friday and decide to check out some of our test tracking numbers as I do about once a week, just to see what's going on. Turns out DHL have very kindly completely changed their layout which means the screenscraping isn't going to work. I still have no idea how to start deploying on my local machine again and besides I just changed the whole freaking setup so I'd have to check out an older edition which sucks ass. So I emailed the DHL people about their API and it seems that they're changing that too so I've upped the JIRA issue priority and maybe I'll get on that thought I still need to finish the REST stuff - nyark!

Photography tomorrow!! Woop woop! I'm looking forward to it thought I think it might be wet, real wet. So I'll keep an eye for emails - see if it gets called off - I don't want to turn up by myself!

Over the next few days I have a new sewing project. My injured friend would like us to bring him back lots of freebies so I'm going to make him a bag! There was the possibility of a book-bag style bag but I figured he'd never really use it so I'm going to make him a - much simpler - drawstring bag. It seems pretty easy hehe, maybe I'll make a dinky one first then make him a bigger one to hold all the free stuff :D

Ummm... it's ten past two, g'night! xx

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I did it again...

Yup, turned off the computer before I blogged - whoops!

So I did a major recycling run for work today, about three crates of paper and *lots* of boxes. It wasn't fun. But I learnt one thing; never get personalised stationery. At least, not if you're a company and so you'll get lots in at one time. Then change your logo. I'm so glad it was recycling because there must have been hundreds and hundreds of pages of unused company-logo paper. It was such a waste but then it's not like it can go back in the printer. It was so sad :(

Hum hum hum what else? Oh! I'm going to a totally geeky conference in Brussels on the 6th of February woo! It's all about OpenSource development and stuff. Should be good! Hopefully at least Matthias will come with me and maybe Ewout too. I asked everyone else via email but they haven't gotten back to me so whatever! We'll see what happens...

I'm sure I should have more to say... Just a short one it is!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Confusion

Yeah, I'm confused right now. You know how, when you're on your dashboard, there's a little counter that says how many posts you've... posted? Mine says 79 but I only have 64 "year in posts" tagged posts and five posts prior to that. I think I may have mis-tagged a couple since I started because I have more posts since I started the daily posting than are tagged as such. But only two. so that gets me to 71. Eight posts seems a pretty big discrepancy... Do comments count as posts? This is my theory but I'm not sure!

Anyway yeah, so that's confusing. Also I think the whole internet is on the blink, either I or various of my friends are signing in and out of msn. Now if we were all in the same place it'd be different. Obviously it's not possible but it's a scarily amusing theory.

Oh! I promised reviews! Bother, I have a few stacked up now. In reverse order then:

The Andromeda Strain
I thought this was great, very tense, I swear only read it half properly because I wanted to find out what happened. Very "scary" in the it-could-happen kind of scary way. If you're in to sci-fi I do recommend it! Having said that the ending was a bit of a let down. Given all the tension and the unknowns that people had to deal with and the bizarre and crazy deaths and stuff I thought something at least "vaguely" catastrophic was gonna happen. There were often times when it was mentioned that "It was 48 hours before he realised his mistake" as if this mistake was somehow crucial. Which it was... sort of. At least you thought so. Hopefully I haven't given away too much to make it not worth the read lol!

The Great Gatsby
This was an... odd story. It was, frustrating mostly, it didn't really seem to have much of a point to it I must admit. Some of the scenes were very interestingly described but yeah, not overly interesting. There were many occasions when dramatic stuff could happen, but something else half as dramatic happened instead. There were a couple of really big things but they weren't given due attention. I kinda ended up disliking the narrator for being so... non-committal about certain situations. And he has a vague love interest that fizzles out, most of the book just fizzled. That's how I felt it went anyways.

Argh! There was a third one I was supposed to give you but I've forgotten it!

I was slightly annoyed over something to do with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I was the first one to finish it in my online book club but that's fine 'cos I can just make a thread for the book and start talking. So I wrote a great big long post about the things I felt were interesting, what was important. All that jazz. And the next person to finish - and possibly the only person who will read the story - said "My friends say I'm a robot".

Now, OK, this forum is a bit of a weird one. It's pretty eclectic and that comment isn't particularly out of place. But *she's* the person who set up the book club so we could discuss books and that's *all* she has to say about this one? OK, so I wrote a *lot* about that book but fine, ignore what I wrote! Write your own stuff, talk about the book at least. But no, that was her *only* comment. ARGH! People are frustrating! *looks miffed*

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Cook shop!!

I finally finally made it to the cook shop *does little dance* it's so cool! I was so impressed. I may have to go back there and buy more stuff at a later date - woop! I got me a loaf tin and a pie dish and! what must be the most awesome piece of bakeware ever - an expandable cookie sheet! It's in two parts that can be slid apart or together to make a different length sheet. I have a real big oven at work so I can stretch it out and probably will have a smaller one at uni so I can have a shorter tray. I'm so chuffed with it it's untrue!

I went to a photography shop today. There's another photography meet-up next sunday (ugh) with the theme being "vintage black and white". Naturally, in this digital day and age, that could pose quite a problem for afilm photographer like me. Not many places sell black and white film these days let alone develop it. But! Foto Klein to the (slightly expensive) rescue! Not only do they have a huge stock of black and white film *but* they develop it, in three days! There was a little shop in Cambridge, near the station that did black and white development in three hours but not many people used their services so they had bugger all else to do. Great shop; I hope it's still there. But as regards the rest of the world I don't really have high hopes for speedy black and white film development so three days is awesome!

I just watched Panic Room. A very very good movie I felt, I got really tense during it I must say. It really draws you into the action. It was also very well filmed. There were lots of "going through the floorboards" type moments which were well handled. Yeah, really good film.

That's all I can think of to say now. I'm sleeeeeeeeeeeepy!

Night night xx

Friday, January 16, 2009

To bed!

That's right, I'm going to bed. But I have to post heehee.

Night night!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Riding Whales?

This should be another quick one really. Posting late again, you'd think I'd learn!

Computer update: it's HERE! And built! And works! And has Vista on it... Hmmm less good ;) But it's all put together, OS installed and I have my new mouse and keyboard but I can't get the screen I want till next week :( Still! Yippee! Hehehehe. I bring it home tomorrow probably. We put it together at work and now that everything is installed the only thing I need to change is the monitor and I can do that here. Though I really need to tidy my desk!!

Right, the reason I'm posting so late is 'cos I was watching a movie. The Whale Rider to be specific. Quite a sweet movie, kinda predictable but it was more moving than I thought it was going to be, less cheesy, I felt. Which was nice :) Um yeah, it's not a funfun movie though but it's not a deep thought one either. It's nice but I can't think of a way to define a decent viewing time. You know, you have pick-me-up movies and he-just-dumped-me ones and one where you're laughing all the time so you're in the mood for a funny one, or you want action or romance. And clearly it's not any of those. But it's a nice movie if you can't think of something else to watch, or you're not in the mood for any other genre. And of course when you want to watch it too! Don't get me wrong, it's just kinda - unclassifiable!

Night night! I'll do reviews over the weekend methinks. Friday tomorrow!!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Just a quick one - in theory

So just this should be just a quick blog 'cos it's late and I'm tired and I swear I've messed up in this sentence so many times that I really need to go to bed! But! In the spirit of trying to blog every day but having failed miserably recently I came online solely to blog - yay for remembering.

Nothing much has happened today, Sietse reckons my computer parts might be here by the end of the week which means going to buy a screen/keyboard/mouse tomorrow. Fun fun fun!

I got an e-mail about another Rotterdam Photography Collective group outing - Vintage Black and White. And I've found somewhere that might sell black and white film and develop it - I'm so happy ^^ Should be lots of fun.

I went to Jeremy's (Ewout's friend) house today to play xbox games - we played Halo and I didn't suck! OK, comparatively speaking, I did. But I actually killed some people and I've gotten the hang of running around and moving my head/view at the same time. Pretty useful skills I must say. I might actually be vaguely good by the end of my time here - woo, accomplishment.

I had some musings that I thought of earlier which would, in my normal way, probably have become a full-blown essay but that I will instead summarise due to afore-mentioned sleepiness.

I was thinking about language and about how there are so many acronym words going around these days: omg, lol, wtf, ftw being just a few examples. I thought about how the written word was actually created based on speech. And now what we say often becomes written, "doing a delia" "chav" and "asbo" being new words/phrases entered into the English dictionary in the last few years. So speech becomes written words, and I was wondering how long it would be before written words became speech. "Asbo" is a fairly good example. Technically and A.S.B.O. is an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (or something) but it became an acronym and now just a word just in everyday speech. But will people start actually saying "wtf" as in w.t.f.? Or o.m.g. I wonder... A lot of these acronym-phrases have come from the gaming community and some of their words *have* leaked into everyday speech, if only amongst, well, the gaming/nerdy community - n00b being an example. N00b means a newbie but has now become a regular word, though it hasn't yet been dictionarified - which *should* be a word ;) But will these acronyms become proper words too?

It was an interesting thought and occupied me for much of the journey to Ewout's house. I don't really have an answer. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't. But if it does, remember, you heard the theory here first ;)

Night night xx

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

You get what you wish for...

So I've been begging for some work to do... mentally, not out loud. And today I got it! It's not nearly as fun as the stuff Ewout is doing but it's should be interesting. It's pretty simple but then might lead to a whole restructure - yes, another one! But it's stuff to do.

I've finally decided on my computer screen and I think I will just get a keyboard and mouse here in the Netherlands then if I want a better keyboard I can get one when I go home. That or I'll get a real nice one but just reassign the keys so it works like an english one :D I'd have to get some little stickers or something but that's all for the future!

I've been in a bad mood all day but it's finally been shifted just by conversation with good friends which is nice. I talked to a couple of dutch guys and they're lovely but it just doesn't work as well as with friends you have a connection with you know?

Thank goodness for well-known friends.

And for ones that don't say "Have you bought a screen yet? Don't get that one, that brand are crap, well fine then! Get that screen. Have you bought it yet? Have you bought WoW yet? I want my zebra!"

*Willow bangs her head on the table* arrrrrrrrrgh ::brain malfunction::

But now I am feeling more chipper and I'm going to play xbox games again tomorrow woop woop! I'm so awful but hopefully after six months I will be fairly decent then I can play against my housemates! I won't win but I might actually do OK, that'll be good enough for me :)

Oh oh! I'm reading The Andromeda Strain so expect a review soon and I also just finished The Great Gatsby at the weekend so I'll review that soon too :)

Night night xx

Monday, January 12, 2009

Very late blogging - but I don't care! =D

It's been a loooong time since I last posted it. There are various reasons but I cba to list them because they're not very interesting!

News news news then...

I've officially registered to live at a house with three of my friends when I get back to Aberystwyth, I'm so chuffed! I can't wait! We have it from the sixth of June so theoretically I can move in whenever! Or carry the odd thing over and stay there for a few days. It's going to be so cool! *runs round in circle* yippee!

I ordered parts today for the computer I've been thinking about buying for goodness knows how long! I'm not entirely sure when they're coming but fairly soon and then I'm going to put it together in the office. It has light up fans and things lol. I firmly believe that the first self-built computer anyone ever builds needs to have lights! Just because it's so fabulously cliché hehe. Anyway yeah so I've got the computer on order and I have to order the outside bits now. I can order a mouse but not a keyboard from amazon, well, to be delivered to the Netherlands. Very frustrating. And I'm trying desperately to get hold of a screen. PC Pro reviewed one that looks awesome - can I find it in the shops here? No. The ones I can find - do they have a review? No. *sigh* but it's going to be sexy and be a 22" TFT when I find it - woop woop!

Yay for being a geek ^^

I finished "One with the Night" which Marilyn Brant over at Brant Flakes sent me as part of our Christmas book exchange. It was good fun, some interesting additions to vampire lore which would make vampires even cooler! There was quite a bit of "I like him but look he doesn't like me" and "I like her but she shouldn't like me I'm evil" going on which got a little frustrating by the time you're five sixths of the way through and it's like GET TOGETHER ALREADY! Hehehe but then it felt a little unfinished because they were on a "What shall we do now?" precipice and the response was "Whatever you want *gazes into the future* we have all the time in the world" which is nice but I'm obsessed with resolved endings.

I think I would have screamed if JK Rowling hadn't put that epilogue in! It wasn't such an issue in Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn because they'd talked repeatedly about a future so even they had the same precipice (almost exactly those words actually) you did vaguely know what was going to happen. Not like with HP when you weren't even sure he was going to live!

You all know how my book is going to end now. With a nice happily ever after resolved ending. I mean I'm sure there'll be twists and turns and "who will survive?" questions etc. But at least one of the characters has to survive... or they all have to die I guess, that'd be a pretty resolved ending!

Rant time briefly: oh my god! New msn is so... ugh!! It's just... weird! *And* I had to reinstall msg plus! Which was easy but frustrating *sigh*

Loving: Fall Out Boy - Folie a Deux. Amazing album. I've been listening to it since Saturday!

Night night xx

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Almost the weekend

I know, I've been back less than one week and I already want to be off work again... Surely there are people in the world who love their jobs, if you are one of those people please tell me! If no-one responds I won't take it as confirmation that there aren't people who like their jobs, don't worry.

We had another testing day at work today. I've come to realise I quite like doing software testing, it's mostly easy and lots of people join in so it means there's a lot of conversation going on. There are a couple of tables posted on an internal wiki page so you can tick the ones you've done that passed or put crosses next to the ones that failed. It was a good day for the most part.

This evening I went to hang out with Ewout and his friends. They're pretty nice people. Quite a mixed bunch actually. One of the guys, Frank, is one of those sweet "I'm not emo!" kids and a huuuuuuuuuge prude. Which is fun because the other guys aren't, to varying degrees. It was good fun. I played Halo... And sucked ass, major amounts of ass. But I knew I would so at least I didn't let myself down!

Tomorrow I go to kookpunt! *Finally* I get to go play in the big cookery shop :D I hope I don't buy too much stuff... Fun fun fun though. Tomorrow I also have to make a cake again. I don't know what it will be, probably something from my sexy new recipe book ^^ When I get my site up and running I will have a separate recipes section and promise for months on end that I'll update it, honest I will, and just as you give up hope I'll write up billions of recipes hehehe. Which reminds me! I found my own, hand-written recipe book, with my recipe for super awesome unbaked chocolate cheesecake. I'm so happy!

Beeeeed time! x

Snow and art and hobs...

Right, so I totally forgot to post yesterday, I wish I had one of these excuses but I really don't sadly.

Not much happened that I can remember... The canal outside the office was *completely* frozen over, real thick ice too so people were skating on it and then we had snow today. Snow! It was so pretty, I brought my camera to work in the hope of getting some photos. I lucked out; it was lovely and sunny during my lunch break. I went and took lots of photos and then my colleague had brought his skates in to work so I took a couple of him skating too. Who knows if they'll be any good.

Oh! So my daddy told me over the holidays that to pass the time I should create some kind of online my-wishlist app. People would be able to log in and create their own wishlists, of whatever they wanted. Kind of like the Amazon one but for everything. So I spent time at work planning what would go on that. I've registered two domains but haven't got proper hosting for them yet so I might try another provider, so there's nothing there yet sadly. But when something turns up, even without wishlist I shall post it here. I've decided that I might as well make a whole web site and then have the application be one part of it. This also means that I have the option of creating a web-based app for my dissertation and already having somewhere to put it!

Anyway so I want to put some art on it, y'know, to make it pretty. I've decided on doing some photomanipulation 'cos it's the only kind of art I can really do to any decent extent. Besides, if I'm using deviantArt stock (which I am) I have a guarantee of starting out with decent images! So I'm messing around with that at the moment, I need to download some kind of decent photo editing software. The GIMP frustrates me! I'm thinking of downloading a free trial of Paint Shop Pro seeing as I'm planning on getting a new computer so I don't want to buy it and then do various things to be able to put it on the new PC but if I just use a free trial it may well last long enough for me to do some interesting things! I'll post links to any pictures I make here as well. They'll be of faeries ;) Hehehehe.

I finished Hob's Bargain by Patricia Briggs yesterday. It was good fun though at the end I thought there couldn't be enough pages to actually conclude the story so I probably finished it off in a hurry to find out what would happen and if it would all fit! It did :) I'd quite like to meet a Hob you know, he seemed like quite a friendly creature :) Now to read one of the other billions of books I dragged back with me :D

Night night x

Monday, January 5, 2009

Words then and reviews

I just found my way on to a blog, through a blog link on a blog that I found as a link to another blog... Or something! Ahh the ways of the web these days, life can be more interesting if you don't know how you got there. I mean, in the long term you need to know where you've been, it's part of who you are, your identity, but in the short term randomly stumbling across things can be good fun. This from the girl who is a self-professed recluse... E-stumbling then I guess it'll have to be. Which is fun too. I follow one blog and from that I found out about another blog. But I can't remember how I got to the original blog apart from through a list of comments on someone else's blog! And I only went to look because she mentioned starbucks and her blog is named after her favourite starbucks drink! Kristi, if you're reading this - that's you! I was in a starbucks deprived place that day!

So then, e-stumbling is fun, and I stumbled upon the Murderati blog which looks nothing less than intriguing I must say! I've only read the first post but already I'm interested. Oh sweet words... I like to think of myself as a lesser word nerd and I do sometimes get carried away while reading the dictionary I admit but this was a great post and, I'm afraid, I may have to subject you to a similar post in the near future when I go on a binge heehee. I love words, I love knowing about them, how they're made, where they're from, how really peculiar they are and how their peculiarity changes depending on your state of well-being. Haven't you ever had a moment when perhaps you're feeling a bit tired and you say something and you realise it's an odd word but you never would have noticed otherwise? Same goes for being drunk I guess or in fact just any state, depending on your mood then. For example, I was exhausted this morning, really tired. I know, I know, I shouldn't have slept all day yesterday yada yada, but so I was talking with my friend about feeling asleep and I just had this moment of thinking "sleep is a really fricking weird word". Now that I'm marginally more awake and I realise it isn't, not really, just a regular everyday word. Which given they're all made up is saying something. I need to buy me a thesaurus...

Um um um, I've completely lost my train of thought now... Oh well, I'll talk about something different. I may have mentioned before, vaguely, that I am part of an online "book club". I'm a member of a forum and we just have a book that's set for a certain month and whoever remembers to find out what it is, reads it and then we discuss it. So it's slightly more loose than a regular book club but seeing as we're on different continents I guess that's a given. Anyway, I just finished reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It's actually for the end of the month but again that's the other benefit - you can just read the book when you have the time! Or when you can nick it off your dad...

It was a really interesting book, it's the one on which Bladerunner is based, I really enjoyed it. It was one of those make-you-think books that doesn't actually let you know you''re thinking until after you've read it. I found this out when I wrote up my review for the book club. I didn't have much to say beforehand and, as you've seen me do, words just flowed out of my fingers tips and spread across the page. If only that were the case every time I tried writing. That'd be neat! But then it'd just be a stream of conciousness book and only certain, more intellectually refined, people should do that. I'd literally just be talking to myself which isn't cool... unless it's on a blog?

See? Distractions again... In some ways the book was primarily centred around the idea of empathy, I think. There are other issues, many of them, but empathy was a key concept and could be found in the other issues.

Possibly my favourite "discussion" or issue was based on intelligence and how it was related to empathy. For you see the book is set at some point after the so-called World War Terminus. There's some kind of weird dust that has killed most of the animals and a good deal of people have emigrated to colony worlds. And there are androids. This dust has also affected some of the people, rendering them "chicken-heads" which is just a vague term for anyone with an IQ lower than some determined level. So, on earth, we have humans, chicken-heads and escaped androids who killed people in order to get to earth (and who the hero human has to kill). There are a few occasions where the key characters come into contact with various animals, both real and electric. Electric ones are around for people who can't afford real ones. And the characters' reactions are noted. Isidore, the chicken-head, is the most empathic, he feels for every living thing, even spiders. Deckard, the human, is very empathic though in a different way it seems. He believes in the beauty, sanctity and magnificence of animals, all animals to be fair, but mostly he just ones to own one, to take part and share in the joy that comes from owning one of the few animals left in existence. It's not enough for him to know they exist, he wants one, that makes him sound totally selfish but he's not. And then there are the androids. Particularly in this case androids with a Nexus-6 type brain - which means the top level of android at the time of writing ;). These beings are organic, highly intelligent, have needs and desires like another human being. But they're incapable of empathy. They cannot understand the interest humans have in living things. They literally pull apart Nature's work (the spider) to work out whether it really needs eight legs. Science isn't everything, intelligence isn't everything. If we become too intelligent will we forfeit our humanity? That may not be what Philip K. Dick is asking but it seems an interesting question nonetheless.

There you go... the fingers just type, I had no idea what I was going to say today and yet again words just happened!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Back in Holland

Almost forgot to post again, bad habits turned up over the holidays apparently!

Umm so yes, I caught the ferry back and it was a really nice crossing, really calm, I know 'cos I was awake for most of it sadly. Not sure why, just couldn't sleep. So I slept most of today instead - yay!

Yesterday not much happened just packing so this is a distinctly uninteresting post lol but I have to get back into the good habits ;)

Night all x

Saturday, January 3, 2009

A mixed-up couple of days

Yeah so today had been pretty mixed. I read the whole of Lynn Viehl's Master of Shadows - really really good. I read the whole thing in an afternoon I was so hooked. I also have finished reading the Vampire Academy book I bought by Richelle Mead also very very good.

I went to see Twilight yesterday!!

It was... alright. Not nearly as dreadful as I thought it was going to be though I did have a lot of issues with it lol. I'm in two minds as to whether to post them here. I wrote them all down in a forum post but perhaps I won't bore you with them ;) Anyway yeah, it was OK really, I didn't expect brilliance and I didn't get it so I wasn't let down by any means.

Today I got up late, did some reading, had the hugest fight with my brother about he's a lazy, ignorant, self-centred, self-loathing hunk of miserable attitude and how him being all those things was hindering him and pissing off all the people who wanted to help him, vaguely got through to him and got him to do some work. God it was a big fight and I doubt it's made any long-term difference but we'll see.

On a darker note I also broke up with my boyfriend. I'd been thinking for the last couple of weeks that actually, no matter how much I loved him we weren't really right for each other. We'd have found that out eventually anyway no doubt but it seemed like seeing as we were so far away anyway there wasn't much holding us together so it seemed ridiculous to hold on to a thing that I knew wasn't right. Sucks though. I found out that he had sort of been thinking the same things but hadn't wanted to say anything. So at least he doesn't hate me! Every cloud...

Tomorrow it's back to the joys of Holland uggggggggh. But still with any luck the supermarket with have the little chocolate not-quite-profiteroles that are so yummy and I can go back to my routine of spending Sundays ignoring the outside world so long as I have something tasty on the inside world ;)

Probably can't post tomorrow as I don't know when I'll be able to go online, I get on my ferry at some late time in the evening. So we'll see what happens.

Night night.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!

Um yeah! I hope you all have great New Years Parties. I went to a great one where there were a whole bunch of people I haven't seen for three or so years, I'd forgotten how much fun they were. We used to go to school together, they were all in the year below me or more and they're fair lovely. A damn sight better than the girls in my year it would seem, but I really need to start getting over that. I realised that they weren't very good friends years ago but somehow it still hurts when they forget me yet again. Maybe that shall be my New Year's Resolution, to move on. One of them anyway!

Another one is to keep to my regime that I started in stages back in October or so of the little chocolate and lots of writing.

And perhaps another one should be to take advantage of the fact I live on the continent and actually go places. I don't like to go places by myself much, it scares me somehow and, let's face it, I'm kind of lazy! But the fact of the matter is I might regret not taking the time to go places when I could. I don't think I'd regret it for a while but once I get back to England I have to go off to uni again and then get a job and who knows if I'll have the time or money to go places but little day trips and over-nighters would let me see a whole bunch of places. So that's my next resolution.

Here's hoping I keep them! The first one should be easy 'cos I've started trying already, the second one shouldn't be too hard because I did it before I came home so I should be able to continue. The last one will be hard because it will actually require me to find some get-up-and-go from somewhere and to overcome my... fear? Well not quite the right word but it's 2am so never mind! Overcome my issues with going places alone anyway. But we shall see what happens!

Have a wonderful celebration of the New Year and I wish you all the best for 2009. May you keep your resolutions, may your heart, health and home be safe and strong and may any hardships you have faced in 2008 be overcome and may you not get too many more! I shan't wish you an interesting life, I believe that's been called a curse ;)

Night night x