On being well read

So today my boyfriend linked me to http://1morechapter.com/1percent/ and we have decided to undertake the challenge. Except that! I have read 26 of the 1001 books in the free (I am too poor to fork out for the huger list) excel spreadsheet downloadable here. 26 is 2% of the total 1294 books to read before you die (or whatever) so I have decided to undertake a new challenge.

I pledge to read 5% of the full 1294 books to read before you die. That is 65 books in total. I pledge to do so before April 2011. Should be a fun year...

Anyways. The list of books I shall read is as follows:

• The Rainbow
• Women in Love
• A Farewell to Arms
• American Psycho
• Atonement
• Captain Corelli's Mandolin
  
• Cold Comfort Farm
  
• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
• Doctor Faustus
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• Far From the Madding Crowd
• Frankenstein
  
• Gone With the Wind
• Gormenghast
• Great Expectations
• Gulliver's Travels
• Life of Pi
  
• Lord of the Flies
• Love in the time of Cholera
• Middlemarch
  
• Oliver Twist
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Tarzan
• The 39 steps
• The Cider House Rules
• The Count of Monte-Cristo
• The English Patient
• The Fall of the House of Usher
• The Handmaid's Tale
• The Maltese Falcon
• The Reader
• The Satanic Verses
• The Shining
• The Talented Mr. Ripley
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
• The Thousand and One Nights
• The Three Musketeers
• The Time Machine
• The Wasp Factory
• Wild Swans

These are from a cut down list of roughly 80 and included books that I've heard of, been told I ought to read, know I ought to read, know I ought to have read and plain old books that are already on my bookshelf.

Those are all in alphabetical order save the first two as they come under the category of 'books that are on my bookshelf'. Wish me luck. I reckon I ought to be reading a book every two weeks to finish by next April and I shall endeavour to review each book before starting the next.

Tarrah xx

Magic...duh!

So I deemed it time for a new post lest I forget again for months at a time.

The subject of today's post is: duh moments. I'm reading a book by Tamora Pierce for the umpteenth time, I love them, there are a few things wrong with them but they're great nonetheless. And the time-period she has set her books in is similar to the one I want to set mine in. And she mentioned 'homework by candlelight'. Now, I've worked by candlelight and it is a pain in the BUM. You need a good number of candles to get anything done be it work, reading or making lasagne. Seriously. So that reminded me that *my* characters would have to do work by candlelight. Damn. And then I remembered there was magic in my story so...why not have lights that work by magic? Brilliantly simple and, I suppose, so very obvious. I need to work out the specifics and I'm sure it won't actually come up in the book that often -if ever- but *I* need to know.

Any duh moments when writing you'd like to share?

Willow xx

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

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 ^_^

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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

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...

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.

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

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

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

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

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 ^_^

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...

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 ^^

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!