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Monday, November 23rd, 2009
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11:05 pm - And some cheese.
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New Mythbusters has finished, but instead they're showing us clip shows full of blooper reels and deleted scenes and features about Adam and Jamie's love/hate relationship, and sometimes they pretend it's fun to watch them arguing, which it isn't. It's fun to watch them expressing their love through the medium of congratulating one another when an explosion goes well. A couple of days ago I saw the one where Jamie waterskis behind a rowing eight. The crew leader of the rowing eight made me think slightly of Cakesy's pretend fighting man. He called Jamie 'Big Dog' and shouted things like 'Houston, we DON'T have a problem' through his megaphone. Jamie said practically nothing to him and mostly tried not to look at him, and the crew looked sort of dead behind the eyes. It was very special.
I'm going to bed soon. I'm quite excited. I've turned my electric blanket on and climbing into a warm bed makes me laugh. It's the highlight of my day. Though last night I had a properly mean dream that was all about hammering home to me what a massive failure I am. I'm normally pretty kind to myself in my dreams. Often they're fairly slashy and if I fall asleep muttering 'Don't think, don't think, don't think,' which I do, I generally wake up going 'Ah well, there we go, doesn't really matter'. But it didn't go like that this morning, and also it was raining and seven o'clock. These are not good things for a day to be.
I'm hoping talking about Mythbusters just prior to sleeping will really make the difference.
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| Friday, November 20th, 2009
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5:25 pm - Cooking in bulk to save time - busted.
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I just spent an hour and a quarter making three portions of roasted butternut squash and red pepper soup, one each for my brother and I to have this evening and the other for myself for tomorrow. Only he's gone and eaten two of them in one go. Grrrr.
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| Thursday, November 19th, 2009
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7:44 pm - Panda.
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I have massive dark circles under my eyes. They confuse and intrigue me. I did have slightly itchy eyes after playing too long in the mould without goggles, but that was yesterday and I've had worse when its polleny and this has never happened before. I don't feel extraordinarily tired, but I look like someone who's trying to hold down three jobs, which is rude of me. I've never worn mascara.
Perhaps my new glasses are too heavy.
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| Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
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6:05 pm - My infected house.
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Had a go at treating some of the mould in the back loo this afternoon. It's right next to the kitchen and also the back door and it's powerfully grim - I did at least know about the mould problem in there. The mould remover bleach stuff did actually make a surprising difference, though it's still pretty dreadful in there, and mostly I don't know how deeply it penetrates. I gather I'm supposed to sand it away or something, but that makes the spores fly about and I'd really rather not. My plan was to pull off the infected wallpaper, clean the walls and then paint them with mould-resistant paint, but I think it's too bad for that - it'd likely just break through again in time. Currently I'm just leaving the little window open for ventilation purposes. My brother's quite keen on the whole idea of getting someone into help, and he even says he'd help fund it. I'd quite like the parents to fund it, but apparently my father's refusing to believe in the mould. I raised the topic with my mother yesterday and she passed it on and he says it's just surface mould around where the cat's water dish is. I suppose he's best placed to tell, being SEVERAL HUNDRED MILES AWAY and everything. She's going to try again at a carefully selected moment. In the meantime I'm leaving the door to the back loo shut and trying to forget it exists. Sadly it's right opposite the washing machine. It's hard to avoid entirely.
I'd like to do a post that isn't about mould eventually. It'll likely be about being six months short of thirty or hating everything that's ever happened or ever will or something, or maybe I'll watch The Damned United again and everything'll be fine.
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| Saturday, November 14th, 2009
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11:15 pm - Oh, I do like reading. I forgot that.
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I'm reading my book again. Nearly 100 pages in three days. That's speedy for me.
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| Friday, November 13th, 2009
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7:52 pm - Put-on shoes and wearable hats.
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In the strange world of wandering around the internet looking aimlessly at things you don't really want to buy, I've discovered a breed of trouser described as 'pull-on'. Call me a fool, 'cause it's fair enough, but surely every trouser is a pull-on trouser. Certainly I don't string my jeans up between two doorknobs and take a running jump. Nor do stitch myself into my cords one leg at a time. What, why, and how?
God. I'm sure I used to Do Stuff.
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1:10 pm - Hydration.
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I've been remembering to drink today. Congratulate me. I'm very bad indeed at remembering to drink, but only once in the past few weeks have I realised at around two in the afternoon that I've failed to drink a single thing all day. At present I'm even remembering to take water with me when I go out. This is particularly pleasing because I hate buying the stuff in bottles. I hate it to the extent that I'm apt to shrivel to a crisp as an alternative. Partly it's about not wanting to contribute to plastic waste, sure, but mostly it's about saying 'You want me to pay HOW MUCH for something that comes out of my tap for tuppence?' It's a very brilliant scam. Though obviously I've bought bottled water sometimes. That's why I have bottles to refill. I slightly overestimate my willingness to dehydrate in the names of environmental concern and stinginess. It's a thing I do.
And one of the liquids I consumed today was banana milkshake. I understand that counts double.
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| Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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8:44 pm - And I have nothing else to say.
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* I have new glasses. Two pairs thereof. One pair slightly scares me. They're rather more severe than I recall, and significantly less blurry. They rise hawkishly towards the hinges and make me look a little like an unnecessarily strict professor. Mostly I'm planning on wearing them over the weekend when I don't have to see anybody, and maybe by Monday they'll look a bit more comforting. That's normally the rule. I tend not to stick to an old familiar style with my glasses, having wandered through small frames, large frames, plastic frames, metal frames, silver frames, purple frames, black frames, red frames and various random other frames between the ages of six and now. And every time I think 'That's not quite me' for a few days until I grow accustomed to them. So hopefully that'll happen fairly soon. Good. The dentist wants to see me next.
* I saw a film today - An Education. The one that claims to be introducing Carey Mulligan (not in its credits so much as in its reviews), even though it's the fourth thing I've seen her it. I went 'cause I vaguely recalled reading Lynn Barber's account of that period in some Sunday paper or other. ( Spoilers )
* I have in my cupboard some microwaveable popcorn. If I can lure my brother downstairs I might make some. I can't afford to eat an entire bag of popcorn by myself. Physically speaking. But I quite want to.
And I have nothing else to say.
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| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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10:39 pm - Pictures of Hattie Jacques, in essence.
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| Saturday, November 7th, 2009
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10:07 pm - Words from Peeeeeeet.
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5:34 pm - Words.
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| Friday, November 6th, 2009
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11:21 pm - It's not as though my fandoms are overwhelmed with fic.
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I understand that quite a lot of the Hornblower fic disappeared from the net because Ioan Gruffudd argued with some fans. But I question the fairness of that response. I didn't argue with some fans.
Where is the Damned United fic anyway? Is the answer 'in my head'?
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3:36 pm - Imagine there are bullet points.
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I'm about six posts away from my 2,000th post on LJ, so if I disappear for several months after 1,999 it's because I can't think of anything sufficiently landmarkish to say.
I want a meme. An easy one. A list of questions into which nobody put any thought.
There's a jam sponge cooking on my hob. I hope it won't boil dry. Give it your best wishes.
Other than that, it's not been a day of achievements.
I had a dream the other night that Alien Forces were attempting to eradicate the human race by making the world a bit too chilly for comfort. It went down in stages and it was getting properly uncomfortable and probably it meant I needed to refill my hot water bottle. Nobody actually died of exposure though. People just got so fed up with it they committed suicide en masse, and the few who had warm enough coats survived.
The next day I encountered three piles of vomit in the street. I was concerned they might be leading me towards the vomiter, but they ended at a cashpoint instead. I didn't use it.
I have new glasses. I don't because they're in the process of being made, but I'll have them this time next week. It's quite a tricky business, choosing glasses. You really need your glasses on to do it. I think I keep most of my identity in my glasses, 'cause I found myself wholly unrecognisable in some frames and had to whip them off pronto. That said, I get used to new glasses very quickly, so probably I'm just being cowardly. My new glasses are red, and the spares are purple. I paid £29.99 for £180 worth of eyecare. I love the NHS. Also, opticians are getting younger. So am I, apparently. Two people in as many days have looked stunned to discover I'm 29. It's true that I don't really look my age - well, I don't think I do - but I sort of wish I did. There's no point looking like a sixth-former if you can't go back to school.
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| Thursday, November 5th, 2009
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4:25 pm - Yuletide fails to read my mind.
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An impressive lack of Nightingales in the Yuletide nominations this year. I have only myself to blame. Myself and the rest of the world. I was planning on secretly and anonymously fulfilling a request without actually signing up, but I shan't now. I'm thinking of playing Yuletide with myself this year instead. I'll request something of myself and then I'll write it. And if I can mildly and selectively concuss myself into amnesia before receiving it, that'll merely be a bonus.
(Mythbusters is there though. In blue. Is blue good?)
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| Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
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3:34 pm - Riker doesn't have his beard, but I don't really care.
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I've just found an episode of TNG in which Picard looks unwell and Riker is telling him to relax. The sad thing is that it's already halfway through and it's on a plus-1 channel. I want to see it all. Picard just said 'Who the hell is it?' when his doorbell rang. Help.
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| Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
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4:22 pm - All that occurs.
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1. Yesterday our post person tried to deliver a package when nobody was in, so today at half-two I turned up at the depot to collect it and found that they close at half-one. I could've discovered that by reading the card properly, but mostly I was hampered by logic. My logic stated that if a person isn't around in the morning to receive their post, odds are they won't have time to swan over to the depot before 1.30pm either. Patently I'm a fool. I was sufficiently cross that I didn't even leave for a good five minutes. I stood outside the patently shut building assuming things would right themselves. They didn't. I went.
2. For all that it ticked me off a bit, I feel balletically energetic at present. I can't walk about the house. I have to leap and twirl and skip. I'm glad no-one's in. Actually, that said, I can feel a bit of a downshift occurring. That's because I did ten press-ups, to celebrate the fact that I could. I remain unspeakably pleased at my newfound ability to do ten press-ups, and it really doesn't go beyond that, but they're totally exhausting and they make my elbows chatter. Nonetheless I'm doing ten a day so I don't lose the ability to do ten a day. It's all very cyclical, and rheumatic.
3. I have eustachian tube dysfunction again. Don't get that. It's like having an ear full of moths.
4. I tried to watch the first episode of Defying Gravity just now, but it's gone. I tried to watch it a couple of days ago as well, but the telly decided I couldn't do that unless I could remember the password, and I couldn't. I mean security number really. This isn't Knightmare. Today the telly's fine for me to watch things without the aid of a password, but the thing I want to watch is no longer available. Telly doesn't love me. It does in that it lets me watch Mythbusters every single day and gives me a new Mythbusters on a weekly basis and I think it'd be churlish to ask any more of it than that, but sometimes I think it'd be nice to watch something that isn't Mythbusters. Because Lost has taught me nothing. Also I like being fond of a US programme 'cause it makes a massive change from falling in love with stuff that gets cancelled after two six-episode seasons.
5. Otherwise my favourite game continues to be 'Turn Everything into a Sea Shanty'. My brother and I have been playing this for years now. It's devastatingly simple. You just sing a song, any old song, and wherever you'd normally take a breath you shout 'Heave'. Hurrah for familial in-games. Can I recommend 'Shaddap You Face?' by the Joe Dolce Music Theatre? Just change all the heys into heaves. It's almost perfect.
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| Friday, October 30th, 2009
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5:19 pm - Aimless humming.
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My attention span has completely disappeared, and I'm really starting to miss it. It's been kind of rubbish all decade, but it's just being silly now. Mostly what happens is I turn my laptop on with a view to writing and then by the time it's booted I've decided I can't possibly sit underneath it and write and I have to get up and faff around on the internet instead, or possibly prune something in the garden if I'm feeling especially guilty, and then suddenly it's bedtime and I've done nothing for sixteen hours. Oddly I seem to have an almost endless capacity for faffing around on the internet. I never spend fifteen minutes faffing around on the internet before thinking I can't bear it and simply have to go and do some writing instead. That never happens.
I think I might have to start drawing again. I know it isn't August, but drawing was a thing I could do for over an hour at a time without having to leap to my feet and do something else. Actually Nanowrimo would probably help as well, but I really want to leave some time for not doing all the other writing I'm supposed to be doing. Also I'm in a state of constant nerves, which is kind of tiring. I don't think I'd mind being restless in a productive way, but my brain's a big mass of fuzz so mostly I'm just restless and blank and incapable all at the same time. For example, I just spent two minutes staring at the screen and moving the cursor back and forth between the words 'tiring' and 'productive' while jiggling my legs up and down, which is a handy snapshot of my life. I haven't read anything (that isn't on the internet) in months now. I put my book in the hall so I couldn't see it judging me. I feel a bit amiss all in all. I should probably take up hill-running. I won't.
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| Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
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10:50 am - And artichoke and metronome.
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Who allegedly said this?
'I hate people who use long words, like corrugated and marmalade'.
I know it's meant to be a rugby player, but I don't know who. Or why. And probably it never really happened. But it's maybe my favourite thing anybody ever (possibly) said. I love that he chose two words for which there are no handy synonyms.
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| Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
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7:58 pm - An Exciting Discovery.
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You know I've been exercising on a rowing machine since January? Possibly you don't. But I've been exercising on a rowing machine since January. It's a means of keeping fit, and I didn't do it in order to change shape or lose weight, which is just as well since losing weight is essentially the opposite of what I've been doing. But I sort of feel it should've been doing something to me other than making me better at rowing, which, to be fair, it has. Another thing I've been doing recently is fifty sit-ups and fifty leg-lifts prior to bathing, and I wouldn't advise either because they really really hurt. I just need a less crumbly back. This evening, while sitting up and lifting leg, I thought I'd have a go at something else. And this is when I made my Exciting Discovery.
I can do push ups!
Or press ups. I don't know what to call them. Either way it's quite exciting. I've never been able to do push-or-press ups, ever, or even slightly. I tried a couple of times but it always turned into an entertaining comic routine with a lot of collapsing elbows and smashing my face into the carpet. I have semi-useful legs that can walk me a goodly distance even if they baulk at the whole notion of running for the bus, but my arms have always been pointless. But now they have a point. And that point is hoisting my upper body off the ground fully ten times in a row. Possibly more. I couldn't tell. My bath was running cold.
Also I have biceps. Little biceps.
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| Sunday, October 25th, 2009
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4:54 pm - Clocks.
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I turned the clocks forward instead of back. Basically someone told me they were going forward and I accepted it unquestioningly. Well, I did ask my brother to check the TV guide, but seemingly he looked only at the word 'clocks' and missed the whole 'back' element, so forward they went. The Someone who told me in the first place has a social life and so would've been put right later in the day by her partner or her friends or her family, but the internet and telly on which I rely for information and companionship were no help whatsoever. I only worked it out when I woke at what purported to be 7.41am but was really 5.41am and I saw how dark it was and remembered that clocks do not go forward in October. I told my brother, who was already up, and then attempted to go back to sleep, but failed to do anything of the sort for at least ninety minutes. So essentially I missed my extra hour. I'm crosser about this than makes sense.
Mostly I hate this year. Not because of the clocks particularly, but still. Sometimes I feel I'm more than ready for the next one. Then I remember that the next one is scheduled to contain my thirtieth birthday, though I'm planning on referring to it as twenty-ten, and tories. So I might go back to 2008 instead. December aside, I liked 2008. It had Kris Kristoffersen and double Leonard Cohen.
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