Steps

I am quite pleased – not only did I manage to achieve a haircut at the start of this week, but also:

I now manage to fit into my new “small” jeans – the original jeans are now huge, the “smaller -1″ size look big, and the smaller -2 size look quite ample and roomy.  I know they have a certain amount of stretch in the denim, but still, good improvement – I am now on size-3:  I do not need to lie on my back to do them up, and I can sit down comfortably – Kay says they are therefore not too tight…

I may be going to get a job – a very small part time job which may grow in time.  Might be good though.

I have completed the form for the primary school selection for B

I have made a bracelet (go me for being so creative)

I have cleaned the bathroom – boo, I hate cleaning the bathroom, and the decalcing spray gives me a sick headache…  I want a water softener to make cleaning the shower less of a chore

I have sorted and put away loads (literally loads) of laundry

~~~~~~~

Stuff I’ve been doing

Today I have been mostly doing:

unpacking ebay purchases.  Approval from son.

ringing the gardener who did such a good job (why can’t I link his details?  because he does not have a website) for a recommendation on a plumber – he said he would let me know by Friday

chasing up the lakeland order that I made last month

feeding the boy

pouring lots of water over the chillis, tomatoes and courgettes, but need a bigger watering can, because the one I have is ridiculously small…

making the new iphone do what I could not make it do last night – syncing the apps I wanted.

things still to do:

round up the remaining bits of crockery round the house and get the dishwasher on.

see if I can carry the laundry downstairs and get that on.

wind the clock

whilst Ben is sitting comfortably on the sofa, drawing on the megasketch, do some tidying.

I think Ben is coming down with something – he was very hot this morning when I got him out of bed – or rather when I roused him from the floor, where he was surrounded by cuddly toys.  He has been quite unusually quiet today – he has voluntarily snuggled under a blanket and is watching same smile for the second time, without any apparent sign of boredom.  And drawing.

Census Meme (from Livejournal)

Having filled in the UK 2011 census yesterday, here is my response to the meme

March 2011

I am married and have a toddler who may have learning difficulties, as yet undiagnosed.  My marriage is happy, and I am a housewife, living at home.  I am about to start an OU course.  My legal career is almost entirely dormant.  We live with two cats in a semi near Slough.

March 2001

I am in a relationship, but live alone.  I sail frequently, and live in a small flat in Suffolk.  I am lonely.  I am miserable in my training contract to be a solicitor, which is due to complete in August.  I have a computer, and have made friends through a newsnet group.

March 1991

I am in boarding school in Hertfordshire.  I am just about to get suspended for leaving the school grounds and going to a pub.  I have written sonnets, and love English literature, which I have applied to study at University.  My A levels are looming.  I have decided that social norms are for hypocrites and that being non-conformist is the only true way. I live The Cure and smoke on the balcony or behind the boiler shed.

March 1981

I live at home with my mother and brother.  This year is when my parents divorce, a not-so-clean break that lasts for approximately 10 more years of acrimony.  I am aware of Bobby Sands, the hunger striker, but curiously uninterested in the Royal Wedding, that happens later this year, and which I am forced to watch.  I am at a less than academic school, where my mother teaches.  I am often bored and stare out of the window.  I have already got in trouble for leaving a clove of garlic in the inkwell.  I learn to swim here, in a cold outdoor swimming pool.  I also start to soak up knowledge by myself – this is the time when I start to learn about Thomas Moore, when I am nearly scared by adult and peer pressure into posing nude in a drawing class, where I learn about tennis lessons, and how much they cost, and watch my mother balance her checkbook on the kitchen table.  This is the year I learn about living frugally, and how terribly deadening it is.  We have a black and white television, with a button for tuning it.

 

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misslissa666 dear_gnome

3/11/11 01:13 am

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(no subject)

Dear random pugs from over the last week or so that my priest has been in,

If I join a group and I’m shadow that means that I made the choice to eat a full length DPS queue because I wanted to DPS.  My priest who is level 84 atm will be my 4th 85 and my 3rd healer to 85 and of those three healers she is the only one with a DPS offspec that I love (I used to hate shadow back in wrath but I love it to pieces these days) but if I pick healer plus DPS you can imagine how often I actually get to DPS…never.  So sometimes I do decide to pick just DPS and and tab waiting to hear my queue pop.

What this means is that if we zone in and the healer drops straight away it is not ok for you to try and bully me into healing so we can just go.  I don’t care if you think I should be dual specced heals (which of course I obviously am) or hell even if you go and armoury me and come back with incontrovertible proof that I have a healing spec (something I never lied about btw, I always just say I’m here as DPS today) I am still not healing if I don’t want to.

It is doubly not ok for you to start abusing me and calling me selfish because we have to wait 5-10 min for another healer to replace the one that bailed.  Nor is it ok for you to threaten to kick me, to use you ‘power’ as the almightydouchebagtank to try and get the other dps to start in on me as well (and it is always the tank who starts with the priest can just heal crap, I’ve never had a DPS instigate it) and other DPS grow a fucking backbone tanks are not irreplaceable -_-

I will put you on ignore, I will not leave the group and get a debuff (if you really find my non healing presence so offensive you can kick me and I will just requeue, possibly even as a healer but not before putting you all on ignore) and I will not heal you – I have had some interesting groups lately where the only person I didn’t end up putting on ignore was the new healer.

Current Mood: bitchy

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bunnyk

3/10/11 01:13 pm

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Brrr

It’s a clear day here, very cloudy, but still bright, and windy like you wouldn’t believe!  I went out in the back garden with Charlie to play ball for a bit, and nearly got blown down the path.  That’s what I call impressive!  Also, rather cold.  *shiver*

Mum just called to check the colours of the clematises that I purchased for her from the cheap shop in town.  (Myself I’d rather get nice ones from somewhere like thompsonandmorgan.com!).  My phone kept cutting out when she was talking to me – apparently it needed to be recharged.  This was silly, as I tried all 3 of the house phones, one of which was on the charging station already and therefore should’ve been charged but wasn’t. Bah.

I have just taken a delivery from Purlfrost, which I am very impressed with.  When I placed the order 2 days ago they said to allow 10 working days, so this is good.  If you scroll the page down to just before halfway, it’s the one called ‘Brocade’. http://www.purlfrost.com/decorative-window-films.php We just need to install it now…

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serawench dear_gnome

3/10/11 05:54 am

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Lenluv from Altar of Storms; Boxing from Thrall and Yallu of Tanaris:

Kixil is my fifth, yes, FIFTH, 85 and you three gave me the most frustrating and definitely the worst experience I’ve had yet in the RDF. I zone into H Stonecore and before we’ve been buffed by our kitty DPS (Woosty from Haomarush!) and our priest healer, Lenluv pulls the entire first group without CC. Woosty dies, and before everyone is topped off mana and health wise, he pulls the second group in the same fashion. Woosty dies again, and Lenluv off before Woosty is rezed. We make it to Corborus, and he pulls before our poor priest has a full mana bar.

We wipe, because people weren’t aware that his tunneling is deadly on heroic and die. I give tips, we get him to 3% before we die again. The priest leaves, mostly because, I suspect, you have so little regard for your healer.

You tell us we all suck horribly, and I’m the worst hunter around because I can’t get the shards down with ZERO FOCUS. Yeah, my error, but Kix is new to H Stonecore and misjudged when she’d need to shift to aspect of the Fox for regen. My bad, I admitted it. You continue to call us all terrible, terrible players, say the rogue (who was silent the entire time) and Woosty had crap for DPS anyway. I mention we lost the priest likely because you were a crappy tank pulling everything without CC without a word to anyone, especially your healer. You said it doesn’t matter what anyone else needs, you can zerg the content. If you can zerg it, run it alone or with your guild, otherwise, you’re just a dick. Someone initiates a vote kick after we get in Yallu, the new druid healer.

Then we get the pleasure of you, Boxing from Thrall. You ask what happened, and Yallu says immediately the DPS sucks, and that’s why we’re here with a new tank in front of Coroborus. You, Boxing, immediately demand lead so you can kick anyone who doesn’t do their job and get the crystals down. Actually, your first words after Yallu calling us all bads was “wtf dps do ur job”.  You spend FIVE minutes telling us how if we’re really that bad, you’ll just kick us until you find people who can do the job. Woosty, a DPS like me who’s spend upwards of 40 minutes in the queue, keeps asking you to just pull the boss. You don’t. After two more minutes of you and Yallu wanking about how bad the DPS is, and me telling you to just pull and you can’t kick anyone right now because we’d JUST USED IT ON THE LAST JACKASS TANK, Woosty says if you don’t pull, he will. And he does, which I admit is a bit of a dick move, but he warned you.

After we all run back in (except me, Feign Death for the MFing win), you refuse to do anything. You demand we kick Woosty (you won’t initiate it, or even try), or you won’t be doing anything at all. You say you’re going for a bio and Woosty better be gone by the time you get back. You’re obviously back and doing something to avoid going AFK, and we spend 15 more minutes waiting for you to man up and pull, or leave. You leave.

After that, Woosty D/Cd after requeueing and I just gave up. I’m so disgusted by the behaviour you two tanks displayed, and the behaviour of Yallu. Just because you’re the tank, or the group lead, doesn’t mean you make or break the group. We all work together, and my best PuG runs have always been ones where people work together to accomplish the task (in most cases, killing bosses for shiny loots). Every time I’ve had a bullheaded, jackass, mean-spirited party member, I’ve questioned why I play this game and PuG.

So here’s a big, huge, shiny and bedazzled FUCK YOU to all three of you.

Kixil, who hit 85 two days ago and can pull 12k in a heroic run. I’m not the bad you think I am.

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pashazade

3/10/11 12:27 pm

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All You Need

To cut a long story short, my mother is in hospital and had an operation yesterday. I was very worried, because she’s extremely frail. (The operation went well and she seems to be recovering OK.)

Yesterday, coughingbear walked me to the station after Ash Wednesday mass, and told me to accept hano ‘s offer to come over and keep me company in the afternoon. I did and he did. I was grateful. My next-door neighbour L, who is eighty-six and housebound for the moment, has just rung to find out how my mum is. She said that her carer Mary, whom I have met once when we couldn’t get L’s front door open, was also anxious to know how I was and how my mother is.

I am now complete choked up. You know, much about the world is rubbish but, mostly, people are good.

Current Mood: indescribable

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bloodfyr dear_gnome

3/10/11 07:17 am

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Dear Tank in SFK:

I’m a real healer. I don’t mean to sound elitist or a prick, but I am. I’ve been healing since before Wrath made everything super easy, stayed on the Holy side of things when The Shattering shattered the bottom of my [Endless Mana Bar] and mana started leaking everywhere (I’ll fix it, I promise. Gimme a few tiers.) and I’ll be healing long after. I know my spells. I know what to do in an emergency, and trust me when I say this: I’m more familiar with your healthbar than you ever will be. I fill her up in ways that you can only imagine.

Furthermore, this is Heroic SFK, not a progression fight. I’ve been here a hundred thousand times before, and I know how hard mobs hit, what mobs to keep interrupted (yay baseline interrupt!), and what groups are going to wreck your face in less time than it took for your queue to pop. In a similar fashion, the first couple of pulls of that place when done without CC are a very good test of how much damage you’re going to be taking throughout the dungeon, so I have a pretty good idea of how much of my attention you’re going to need. So when I leave you, Mr. Mostly-Purples with nearly 200k health sitting at 80% health and I decide to throw out a couple of guarantee crit Exorcisms so I can amuse myself watching crit numbers bounce on my screen…you are FINE. You are in no danger of dying and I don’t feel like casting a Holy Light while waiting for my Shock to come off CD. In fact, we’re on the wreck-your-face pulls before Walden and I’m still keeping you up with nary a dent in my mana pool and there hasn’t been a moment, short of scripted ones, where you were anywhere CLOSE to dying. Say it with me now: I am fine. Really. Trust in your healers. We’re your friends. It’s those threat stealing DPS dicks you gotta worry about. >:3

And speaking of scripted near-death experiences (andthreatstealingDPSdicks*):

Dear Magetard:

You know why I didn’t respond to you when you yelled WTF HEAL ME after one of Ashbury’s Asphyxiates? I was too busy looking for the Healer icon next to your name, cause strangely enough, last time I checked it was next to MINE. OH WAIT! IT STILL IS!

I’m not going to heal you to full. I’m not going to heal you to half. I’m probably not even going to heal you to 30%. You’re fine, you’re not going to die. Shut up and DPS. What’s really funny is how you call me out for “lol l2p” when I nicely decided to explain to you afterwards why I wasn’t healing you to full after every Asphyxiate…and then you die because you forgot how to play Red Light/Green Light on Walden, and you die because you don’t Decurse on Godfrey. The irony in that is just so delicious, there’s no way it’s calorie-free.

Signed,
Your soon-to-be former Blood Elf Paladin Healer. Farewell, Horde. *sniffles*

PS: Dear Daybreak and Eternal Glory procs: I love you. I do. I love it when you come together. The two of you are so absolutely decadent together that it’s like an orgy of instant low-mana cost heals. It’s so amazing that I feel like I need to go to confession everytime the two of you proc.

XOXOXO,
Cy

*don’t take me seriously at 7AM. I’m feeling snarky. I love you guys. Really!…in the non creepy way of course**
**unless you want to be loved that way…cause I’m always open. >.>

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aquarionical

3/10/11 12:02 pm

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Dungeons and Dragons

So, we’ve been doing a D&D4 campaign for a little over a year now, at an event a month, and I’m beginning to lose track of what’s happened between sessions, so I’m going to try and remember to do writeups.

( The Story So Far )

This entry is really part of the Dreamwidth peninsula of the Aquarionic empire, copied here for your comfort and convenience. There are comments on the original entry over there.

Tags: dungeons-and-dragons

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uitlander

3/10/11 12:03 pm

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(no subject)

The census form arrived last night, so I guess its my turn to do the census meme:

March 2011
Working at the Computing Service at Cambridge University. I have just become bye-fellow of my college and am teaching Palaeolithic Archaeology in my spare time. I live in a detached house in a village near Cambridge with my cat, Angus. I can read Archaeological French quite fluently, and apparently speak it with an upper class Belgian accent whilst putting the wrong stress on most syllables. I have spent the last few months committing snippets of mediaeval Latin to memory so that I can perform a ceremonial role for my college.

March 2001
Working at a dot.com, having left academia 6 months earlier. Living in a semi-detached house in a village near Reading with my two cats Mallory & Angus. Feeling somewhat out of my depth in the world of IT and wondering if I have made a terrible mistake.

March 1991
I’m six months into my D.Phil. at Oxford. I’m preparing for a week long trip to Belgium to visit museums and people to establish whether there are any palaeolithic collections I can work on. The trip is because no-one has answered letters asking about visits/sites/collections. I later learn than no-one in Belgian archaeology answers letters. The trip is successful and I find, amongst other things, the lost collections of Edouard Dupont which will become the core data set for my doctorate. My French is very rusty, but I am learning many new words that mostly mean ‘sediment’. I am becoming strangely grateful for learning French from a text book published in 1898 as my primary sources are amongst the easiest French I have had to wrangle.

March 1981
I live with my parents in north-west London. I’ve just started my O-Levels. My school average is 3 passes at O-Level, and the only famous alumnus is Sue Arnold, whose main claim to notoriety was being expelled for infringements of the school uniform code within a week of arrival. I am sulking because the school has refused to allow me to drop French (my worst subject) and is forcing me to do 10 O-Levels, double the number of anyone else in my year. My father is teaching me ‘the insurance business’ at weekends by making me come and work in his office, and is telling me that once I pass my O-Levels a bright future selling insurance awaits me. I am increasingly determined to have nothing to do with the insurance industry.

March 1971
I live with my parents in north-west London. I’m in infants school learning my times tables and how to read. The school has expressed concerns to my parents that I may have learning difficulties and they may not be able to cater for me. This is because I have recently been trying to read backwards and have been getting very confused. It transpires that this is at least in part due to the Hebrew classes I have been attending at weekends and these are stopped. My father has bought a copy of Asterix and Cleopatra to encourage me to read. I am starting to learn about history and the Romans, and becoming fascinated by it. Later in the Summer I will be left unattended in the house, and my parents will return to find part of their back garden de-turfed and my first archaeological excavation in progress.

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How to make Carrot wine

How to make Carrot wine.

 

having made elderberry wine, what’s the next project?

 

I’m thinking carrots…

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Grump

Managed to crash my computer last night – and a complete reinstall is taking ages.

And the boiler is broken, so I cannot have a shower[1].  And the house is a little chilly.  And grump…

[1] It’s like camping – washing in cold water – bracing, chilling and as rapid as possible.  I just can’t wash my hair in water that cold.

Plants. Flowers. Fwowers. Worms

This weekend, we went out to the Crocus nursery open day – and came back with some plants for the garden.  I was very restrained, honest – and I have laid them out where I think they should go.  Ben enjoyed it – and now calls every plant a “fwower” and keeps touching the leaves.  I have been digging over the bed that I will put the plants in with a border fork – the clay is now moist enough to be workable, so I am trying to incorporate some of the strulch mulch and some horticultural grit as well before I actually plant the plants.

The grass is growing fiercely in the drizzle and rain – M mowed it on Saturday I think, and already it is long enough that another cut would bring some clippings – but the drizzle means that it not only can’t be cut, but that the stuff is *growing*…  M will not be pleased.

Everything bar the mint that I bought from the Windsor farm shop excursion last week is now in the herb bed.  Along with the fuchsiathat seems to have sprung up there whilst we were away.

The wormery did not fare too well whilst we were away – there was far too much water in the sump level – plenty in the collection bucket of course, but the worst part was the stuff on the top level that had gone seriously nasty – the smell was so bad that not even worms would eat it I think – so I tipped most of it into the larger compost heap and have left the feeder level out for rinsing in the rain – it’s bad enough to turn the stomach.

The thing is  – I know that the worms eat paper, cardboard, food scraps (that are not meat or cooked) – but I think they don’t eat stuff that is really really revoltingly putrescent.  Even though they don’t have mouths, there must be something that makes them unhappy – if they were happy, the stuff would have disappeared, and the top level would not have fruit flies and earwigs in.

So I have left two levels of worms with some anti-lime mix and worm treat for a while.  Now I need only produce something that they would *like* to have a go at.  That I no longer see as being it for human consumption….  Perhaps I should puree Ben’s left over apple cores and give those to them…

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I shall wear midnight

Just finished the new Terry Pratchett – and already want to read it again – partly because I had boy-related distraction through most of it.

Because it’s fairly soon after the publication date, I’m not going to write a plot summary here, in case that spoils anyone’s enjoyment, but stop here if you want absolutely no comment

******

The plot is structured so that most of the action you are waiting for takes place in the last fifth of the book – the marriages, the unmasking, the trial, the answers to the questions – I’m not sure quite what the building of antici—pation is called in literary circles (if I knew, I have forgotten) but it’s rather like the teasing of foreplay – you enjoy the book, but as far as plot is concerned, the end happens almost too quickly, after you have been waiting for it for so long.

I love the image of a hare  – at the discworld convention 2010 I saw that Bernard’s stall had a list for all who might be interested in a gold(ish/en?) hare on a necklace – and I put my name down to express interest.  The design they have devised is different from the one at the end of the book, being more circular.