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| Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 |
purple_peril
|
3:54p |
Oh well
I'll not be getting my shiny new garden this year after all. I had a rough figure in my head for the amount I wanted to spend in total, including design, landscaping and planting. I've received the quote from the contractor and it seems that for the design and landscaping only (i.e. not buying any plants) it works out at roughly double what I had planned. Even if I cut it back to the bones, by not paying for inessentials such as installing the water feature (£505 just for the installation!) or resiting the rotary washing line (£188!) I still can't afford it right now. So I will put it away for now, cast around for some other quotes, save up some pennies and maybe see about having it done towards the end of next year. To be honest, it's probably more of a priority to have something done about my wet, dark, cold, slimy garage anyway! Current Mood:  disappointed |
omylouse
|
10:35a |
Christmas Festivities
Good Christmas, nice & relaxing. We managed to spread it out over several days too! ( festivities past )( festivities yet to come )Presents this year includes no novels (except 1 audiobook) :( ...but we did get jointly the (almost) complete set of Dragonology books (by Dr. Ernest Drake) :) Other good presents of mine include home-made shawl/shawlet, a combustion engine kit (Haynes) & a plecostomus (named Alan) for the tank. Plus several nommable items from various goodly people :) Current Mood:  content |
tictactoepony
|
10:33a |
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| Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 |
burntcopper
|
2:01p |
I define myself by christmas tv
Spent the last few days watching tv and eating occasional chocolate. In conclusion, I definitely prefer Princess Diaries 2 to Princess Diaries 1. Partly because I don't have to mute parts of it that are intensely irritating/overly american teen movie. Family, as always, piled in to watch Pride and Prejudice and make giggly and 'awwww' noises. Told off for doing the '1,2,3, KNEE' gesture during the Bingley-Jane proposal. Was a little freaked out to realise that Bingley is Simon Woods (adult Octavian in Rome and the adorable doctor in Cranford). Day of the Triffids, I spent most of it making 'er, plothole? Executive Transvestites : when you need a clear amoral out for themselves head, choose the best.' noises. Explained premise of Supernatural to Mum, including vampires and the various hunters on it. Appear to have caught bro's girlfriend's cold, just when I'd mostly got rid of mine. Leaving tissues in my wake. Pondering going to see Sherlock Holmes. Have no desire to go anywhere near the sales, since I don't remember seeing anything I particularly wanted previously in the shops aside possibly from some hiking boots, and I'm not allowed to buy owt in the way of dvds/cds until Jan 8th as it is. Weather - mostly sunny but cold, and today has had some sleet but it's mostly been downpour. Parents decamping to Cornwall for New Year, and pondering joining them... Current Mood:  sick |
purple_peril
|
12:56a |
A very happy Christmas
Christmas Eve: Cooking, tidying, Beloved arrived, peppered fillet of beef with boulangere potatoes, present-wrapping, sleep. Christmas Day: Slept in until nearly midday, stocking-opening, smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and Bolly, present-unwrapping, more Bolly, cooking, Her Madge, pumpkin and chestnut soup, turkey with three stuffings, potatoes roasted in goose fat, parsnips roasted with maple syrup, Sprout Thing TM, baked red cabbage with apple and cinnamon, carrots, gravy, home-made cranberry sauce, more Bolly, chocolate and raspberry cheesecake with cream, cuddles, Moulin Rouge, ABBA documentaries on Channel 5, quite a lot more Bolly, gets a bit hazy after that... Boxing Day: Beloved off to family, me off to family to see brother, sister-in-law and niece in Poole, lots of cold cuts and wine and chat and silly games. Dec 27th: Drove from Poole to visit ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ramtops and perlmonger in Hull, more cold cuts and wine and chat, admiring their new home and being very pleased and relieved to see them settled and happy. Dec 28th: Drove to Kirkby Wharfe near Tadcaster to look for graves of ancestors - didn't find any but it was a beautiful crystal day and strangely spooky to be in my ancestral home, on to York for shopping, took photo of the church where my great-great-great-...-grandmother and grandfather were married in 1708, tried on but did not buy shoes, perfect afternoon tea in Betty's, nearly ran out of petrol on the M1/M25/M3 (where are the services?), gone flump. Tomorrow: going flump, clearing up the mess! Current Mood:  sleepy |
| Monday, December 28th, 2009 |
luckykaa
|
8:55p |
The year that was
So, we come to the end of the last year of the n aoughties - the decade that nobody really wanted to name - so how has it been? I seem to have been pretty down for a large chunk of the year. Feeling under-appreciated at work, finding myself somewhat flustered that all my friends seems to be coupling up yet I've remained single, and didn't do any travelling at all. Completely failed with my resolutions and generally felt quite stressed. Pride was a complete non-event, Hallowe'en wasn't as much fun as it usually is and Christmas was just stress. On the plus side - have gained a lot more confidence. My love-life hasn't been the complete non-event of previous years even if only one of the "relationships" really lasted more than a day. Did have higher hopes for one of them since that was with a friend but alas, was never meant to be. Took up trapeze. That was a whole load of fun. Also had some cool LARP events. Kekoa got killed which was probably the best thing to happen to the character since he wasn't really doing anything. Being King for a few hours was one of my favourite RPG things ever. Left the job that was repeatedly irritating me. Did get shafted slightly with the replacement job but the meta-replacement is actually a lot better for me (25% more pay and shorter so more flexible and not games). Birthday was lots of fun and am pleased people managed to come from foreign climes for the water pistol fight and picnic. Coolest thing was 4 weddings of people I'm very fond of. All of none of them were in a church. Am also happy that certain friends have managed to couple up. Although I do want my friends back... So that was 2009. I'll try and make 2010 a much better year. |
| Sunday, December 27th, 2009 |
beermat
|
9:53p |
Have managed to picke up a sneeze, cough, blargh! lurgy somewhere on the trek up to the frozen wastelands of Stafford for visiting my folks & friends for the xmas hols. Back to working tomorrow (telework, so not so bad) twixt xmas & new year as have a lot to get done for www.peek-traffic.co.uk before the year end. Rest of Jan on contract there, then come Feb I start "EG7540:Working with FPGAs" as a short course, hopefully (if I'm accepted on the course) converting that to being module 1 of a Uni Leicester "MSc in Reliable Embedded Systems" - 6 modules over 2 years, distance learning with 1 week per module presented at Uni L. I'm fascinated with FPGAs & they're something I've been meaning to learn more about anyway, so it all fits in nicely with it being a bit quiet in my line of work at the moment (good time to do some training) and wanting a degree on the CV. Am reading my way through the modules coursebook ("Digital Design and Computer Architecture") and enjoying it so far. Must sort out some accommodation for the feb15-19 course ASAP. Anyone got recommendations for nice place near the Uni Leicester eng. dept? Current Mood: sleepyCurrent Music: KLF - Chill Out ; 05/14 Madrugada Eterna |
luckykaa
|
6:19p |
Seems that's a little too hard for everyone. Anyone fancy seeing Avatar on Sunday 3rd Jan instead? Also anyone have any interest in joining my Serenity crew for a LARP in February? |
aperrott
|
5:21p |
|
| Saturday, December 26th, 2009 |
luckykaa
|
9:55p |
Avatar
So, anyone want to go see Avatar (in 3D) at 16:15 at the Odeon on Monday? |
luckykaa
|
7:36p |
Reinstalling XP takes longer than you might expect
I've done this often enough that I'm fully aware that not only do you have to install Windows plus drivers, firefox and thunderbird, but also media codecs, every piece of software ever, and sort out bookmarks and mail setup. And several windows updates. - It's a lot of work. and newest version of TomTom software doesn't install. I suspect it needs .NET (edit: suspicion proved correct).
- The copy of Pinnacle Studio that I splashed out 7 quid for now works.
- I can now double click on a folder in My Computer and it opens rather than giving me a cryptic "index out of range" error.
- Thunderbird no longer has loads of unrelated folder names.
- Must work out what bookmarks I actually want in Firefox.
- Wondering if there's a more sensible way to carve up this disk. ATM it's 80GB for the main partition (honestly, this should be plenty - my system is mostly filled with data), and 1.3TB for data.
It's still going to be a while before it starts behaving just so again. Don't really enjoy this job. |
burntcopper
|
3:24p |
hogswatch on boxing day
well, Dr Who was...errrr. Slightly painful to watch. All shoutiness and a rather bad plot. Made up for it with Christmas dinner and watching St. Trinians and the Grey Gardens adaptation. Earlier, neighbours for drinks and nibbles while peoples' turkeys cooked. The haul, so far : Blade runner Star Trek An apron with cows on it Chocolate Empire film encyclopaedia (geeky trivia, oh yes, including the original Empire reviews - seriously, 2 stars for Tombstone and saying Costner's version was better? Crack they were smoking.) Spent a couple of hours today over at mate's mum's, playing with baby Amelia and giggling as her older sister Sophia bounced around and hunted down any olives that were stupid enough to be lying around without an electric fence around them. Watching Young Victoria. It's rather fun. Current Mood:  cheerfulCurrent Music: Young Victoria |
| Friday, December 25th, 2009 |
luckykaa
|
12:21a |
It's christmas
Happy Chrimbo everyone. And belated Hannukah and solstace greetings to those who celebrate those. If anyone has another seasonal celebration around this time let me know and I'll try and include you. |
| Thursday, December 24th, 2009 |
luckykaa
|
8:33p |
Ahhhhhh.....
Presents all wrapped. Work over for a bit. Off to pub in a bit to see friends from school who I typically see about once a year. Developing a cold and I don't care! Really looking forward to spending tomorrow morning in bed. |
hawkida
|
12:13p |
Cat query
How long is it okay to leave a cat alone for? I know a working day is fine, I know 48 hours is okay if enough food and water is down - but beyond that? Would four whole days be too much? Is it all down to the cat's own personality and a "how long is a length of string" type of question? I am toying with the idea of getting a cat, but I am often away for 3 days at a time, occasionally more and I don't intend to mistreat one - it wouldn't really be practical to rely on having people available to look after it when I'm not about. |
omylouse
|
10:59a |
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| Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 |
luckykaa
|
10:35p |
Stop finding me so employable!
So, the project is taking a bit longer than expected. Still need to add a widget or two. Still need to fix the speed issues. Still need to check stability and fix bugs. So my contract has been extended. Well, technically it goes until the end of Jan anyway, but I was sort of under the impression that it would have finished at the end of last week. Instead they keep giving me more work. I want this to be over with. I'm tired. I want to spend a silly amount of time in bed. Need to do stuff between new Christmas and New Year
Well, the extra money's nice. Not that I really need it. I have a slightly different attitude to this than other people though. The aim is to maximise income × free time. At the moment, that equation comes to zero. It will hopefully balance out over the coming year. I can justify a week off after this is done. Or try and get a contract immediately and do that round the world trip I want to do after it's over. I have provisionally offered to go to Finland if needed. The main reason for this is that this means there's no way they'll ask me to go to Detroit. |
burntcopper
|
9:58a |
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| Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 |
squirrel_dreams
|
4:45p |
Had no broadband for a week but thankfully it's back now. I took my iTouch to Starbucks the other day (remembering they had free wifi), but they've stopped that unless you have a paid up Starbucks card. I thought paying a fiver for coffee and a biscuit was enough extortion for one sitting so gave it a miss. After every moan must come something positive so to you all I say Hyvää Joulua and I hope you're all rockin' around your respective mock spruces!. xx |
| Monday, December 21st, 2009 |
purple_peril
|
10:54p |
Blessed Solstice!
Wishing everyone a Blessed Solstice, as we (in the northern hemisphere) start our journey towards the light. May the sun shine upon you and bring you love and light! I've had yet another smashing weekend. After the Friday night irritation (and yes, I will be billing for the fruitless banging of my head against the authentication software) I spent Saturday getting things slightly organised: Christmas tree up and decorated, kitchen tidied, spring bulbs finally potted up (until I ran out of compost!). It was the most beautiful day. Glorious blues skies and sunlight twinkling on the snow. It took me a couple of hours to do the bulbs but I was quite warm, even though the pots were stuck together with films of ice. I'm so glad we're having a proper winter these year :) Sunday morning I had to go into work to finish off the task I hadn't been able to complete on Friday. I let myself into the building with my pass as usual, setting off the intruder alarm! Surprisingly, nobody turned up to find out what was going on until the security guard discovered me two hours later as he was doing his usual round. Oh well, not a lot I could do about it. Anyway I got the job done and then off chez The Beloved, and then into London for a mooch around the Christmas market on the South Bank followed by Sandi Toksvig's Christmas Cracker at the Royal Festival Hall. The latter was a slightly shambolic and uncohesive cross between variety and panto - it didn't altogether work, but was nevertheless enjoyable. Ronnie Corbett stole the show, closely followed by Jon Snow having a whale of a time as Scrooge in the show-within-a-show and a distressingly doddery June Whitfield who only has to stand there to be a star. Innocent fun that reminded me of childhood pantos. We spent the long, dark night at my place, and in the morning I was thrilled to see that this year's extra-large Solstice Candle had burned away to nothing overnight. So hopefully this year will be full of wishes coming true! Today was a comfortably domestic day. The chimneys have been swept, Christmas food shopping completed, deliveries accepted, junk Freecycled. The beloved was a hero driving through the snow to do the shopping and generally being cuddly and lovely. Back to work tomorrow and Wednesday, assuming the office is open, and then on holiday until January. Hoping to fit some visits in before then - anyone fancy a visitation? Current Mood:  happy |
tictactoepony
|
2:43p |
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tictactoepony
|
12:50p |
"Firefly" fan film
For those that are following the various fan film projects relating to "Firefly", one of them is now on LJ as bdff :) |
| Sunday, December 20th, 2009 |
luckykaa
|
6:08p |
Random bits and bobs
So, had a 12 day week... Finally fixed all the issues in the software. Hope they let me have a bash at optimising the texture loading (or at running a separate thread to handle it). Was really hoping to be finished with this contract by now. I mean I guess getting all this extra money is going to be nice, but I'd love to have been able to go to burning of the clocks. Was really nice to have a day off yesterday. Still need to find a Christmas present for my mum. Am starting to enjoy Dollhouse. It's got really rather good since they cancelled it. Up until this point, the whole series felt like a mid 80's series with a personality-of-the-week plot. Wish we could have had all this plot development last year. |
| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 |
raygungothic
|
12:02a |
So, that was the last day in the office for 2009. In fact, it was someone's leaving do, so I left early - attended and sank a pint or two - then returned to work and finally managed to get started on the year-end report I should have written last week but kept procrastinating about. Home late but it was worth it. I have lots of Christmas off because I have taken no holidays this year other than to study, but oh well. Writing a report on the year's achievements was actually a little scary, because it made me realise how much I've done at work in that time. The first few months in the job, at the end of last year, were a bit rocky while I tried to work out what I should be doing and then achieve enough that they'd believe I was worth having around. This year I've gone from interfering outsider to...what? I'm not quite sure, but it's been awesome. Things I've developed are really widely used and getting more so. My to-do list is now longer than both my arms put together. I've certainly learned a lot. I work with more people than anyone else I know in the company - editors, designers, publishers, freelancers, assistants, heads of the New York office - and most of them are lovely. I'm feeling pretty fortunate about the whole thing. My first OU delivery for next year arrived, unexpectedly early, today - embarrassingly, I was so excited I nearly squee'd aloud! - so I staggered home under the weight of six months' worth of group theory. We lit the coal stove because of the cold, and I decided it was so nice that I really ought to sleep in front of it. So here I am in the sofa bed in front of a few hundredweight of hot iron, drinking brandy, surrounded by maths - a situation I can strongly recommend. |
| Friday, December 18th, 2009 |
luckykaa
|
1:52p |
So why the delay?
Okay, so the train is delayed by 19 minutes. Why? I don't know. The train must have been at the station all that time since no train went the other way. Still, it did manage to make pretty good progress to Gatwick. Then got a little past Gatwick and stopped. Then travelled a bit further and stopped. Then travelled a bit further and stopped. The train part of my journey took 2 hours inlcuding the waiting at the station! What is the problem!? Why can't trains run in the snow? They don't skid off the rails! |
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excited
chipper