Category: General

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07/22/2002 Archived Entry: “A real entry…”

So, the last entry was kinda – well, it was a song that Jas was playing which fitted (fits) with my mood. I’m just about holding steady at “really not very happy”, which is better than the alternative which keeps attempting to assert itself.

So. Anyway, what’ve I been up to? What? Not talking about my mood? Well, some of the causes might become more apparent.

So, first up was friday – we (Lauren and I) went down to London to meet Aoife and Aisling – after dropping of a Laser printer….which was fun….Can I just say I really hate london. Really. I mean, it’s just *so* polluted and dirty – you could actually see the film of dirt on the car just from one day. Gah.

And cleaning myself afterwards – it was like I’d been dirtblasted.

Ahh well. Anyway – we met a very nice MZ owner who gave us use of his 5 hour visitors parking permit in a completely “permit holders only” zone of London (aren’t MZ owners cool?). Anyway, so we headed in on the underground (yes, yes, I know I said I’d never use it again) and met up with Aoife and Aisling in Camden, where I learned that Aisling has a fettish for photography – we’ll see what the results of that were when she gets the pictures off her camera.

Anyway, so we wandered round Camden – I picked up the worlds *worst* pirate DVD. God it was awful. Well, it *is* awful. I mean, I’ve never seen one of those famed “video camera in front of screen” videos, but this was one of them – complete with camera moving to correct the location part way through.

Yes, So, I’m glad I’d seen it before (at the cinema) anyway. It’s a nicely done box….

Anyway, so, after a bit of faffing to move the car (Aisling didn’t know what a Morris Minor was! And seemed slightly unnerved by the lack of seatbelts) – incidentally, if you meet Aisling, be sure and pat her on the head, she really likes it ;-)

So. Yes.

We trecked back into london, enjoyed the nutritional delights of a Burger King meal and then wandered off and sat in a pub getting slowly sober ;-) As usual these days lack of Alcohol wasn’t a problem and we chatted away – suddenly finding it was 10:30 and time for Lauren and I to head out of london (especially considering we were on the wrong side of London). Anyway. We flew back here….

And the next day we headed off to my parents.

Where I cleared out more and more of my stuff – and became a little more worried – that picture of me – that *first* still theoretically existing picture of me still hasn’t turned up. I could have *sworn* it’d be in the boxes that were in the garage-attic but it wasn’t.

Still, Lauren and I made multiple runs to the tip and ridded my parents of a mixture of junk and stuff which though they technically have the space, they don’t think they’ll have space in the future, so. Well, it’s sad. But anyway. We’ve saved some stuff between us – me saving more the specifically related to my dad’s work – and Lauren saving general retro computer/telecoms stuff.

Anyway. While I was sorting through yet another box of my stuff (I’ve got the “stuff in the attic” down to about 7 boxes – which isn’t nearly so bad) my dad got worse. Although we *think* it’s the Warfarin – which they have now decided to stop (follwing the incident on Saturday night) – it’s just another setback when we thought we were moving forward. I hope we’re still moving forward.

God I hope so.

I’m so scared. I’m just so scared. I’m terrified of losing him – and he’s been talking about it. *sigh*. I’m not ready for that. And there’s everything else (if I want you to know then I’ll tell you). Fuckit, that’ll do for today.

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07/22/2002 Archived Entry: “A shocking development”

And in a shocking development, cats have started their own experiments….
Fear the cat…

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07/22/2002 Archived Entry: “Junkyard Wars”

Hrm. Just watched junkyard wars (i.e. the ‘merkinised version of Scrapyard Wars) – interesting, and to be honest, irritating. Why?

Well, in the semi-final the team that won (pitbulls, iirc) should have been disqualified – or at least lost – because they’re machine just *did not work*. Whereas the other team’s machine did at least do what it was meant to, not well, but it did. How did the ‘pitbulls’ win without their machine working? Brute force. They were building fire-pumps and the pitbulls just threw water at the fire, with a bucket.

Anyway, so they got through that one – although you could tell the presenters didn’t like it.

And *this* time – they cheated, got pissed off when the other team stole back stuff (which is a bit of a pot, kettle, black situation since they stole stuff before). Anyway, they won. Which was irritating. But anyway.

The thing that struck me is that you don’t see that in the UK version. You don’t see another team’s members threatening to attack another team, and you don’t see outright stealing. Yeah, they’ll nab stuff from *outside* the other teams area, but not *inside*. Anyway. It just struck me as really unpleasant.

Replies: 1 Comment

Er, Scrapheap Challenge, surely?

Posted by Peter @ 07/26/2002 09:59 AM GMT

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07/17/2002 Archived Entry: “Hormones…”

It seems that my body’s unhappy with the current set of hormones. Having looked back at blood test the results and compared them over time you could see that one enzyme was slowly climbing.

But no one did that until now….because now one of my liver enzymes is outside the safe range. And I can’t remember which one, which is even more annoying because my GP said, and I quote: “I’m not really sure what you
should do – do you think you should go and see your endocrinologist again”.

Gah!

[cue rant]Why in hell can’t I have a condition that people actually *know* how to treat, rather than *me* having to work it all out for myself?[/rant]

Okay….normal service is resumed. We’ll see what the endo says…

[…although last time he had less clue than me. Whoopee!]

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07/15/2002 Archived Entry: “continued”

Okay, it seems that Amy is feeling somewhat better today so I feel like doing a little more on the what happened on Saturday….

So, anyway, I suggested going down to Southend. So….it was about 7ish when this happened. Unfortunately, at this point we were still clearing up from painting, were wearing filthy work-clothes (in the sawdust/paint style), both *really* needed a bath, and hadn’t even started sorting out stuff for the next day.

So, we managed to scrabble through the bath, change, pack routine fairly quickly – getting out of the door at about 9:30.

The journey was made far worse than it should have been by stopping at a Service station. Now we’d not eaten and we needed something ‘cos it was getting very late. So we stopped at a RoadChef on the M25. To say that it’s the worst meal I’ve had in a Service station wouldn’t be stretching the truth. Lauren’s was off, as I suspect was mine because I had the pleasure of being ill later. However, despite the worlds stupidist counter attendent and manager (it’s not *hard* to work a manual credit card machine, but they somehow managed to make it take so long my coffee went cold), and the rotten food, the service station did manage one good thing. The shop there, bizzarely, had some nice jeans and denim jackets…and amazing number 2, they were on sale. So I grabbed a jacket and jeans (in my size! Woo!) – paid (which unsurprisingly took some time), and we headed back out into the night.

So we arrived in Southend late. [No, I’m not saying how long it took because I like my licence just the way it is]. And sat down, drank wine, wished the Nikki creature a happy birthday, chatted, chatted some more, whiled away the hours, I got pounced on and tickled by amy (on the left in that picture).

Anyway, so, eventually we decided to head to floor (where we were sleepin’), and me and Lauren had a nice snuggled as we drifted off into sleep. About 8am I awoke to find a hyperactive Lisa chatting away….eventually, much later we hauled arse into town.

Amy, you may wish to skip the following paragraph….

After some persistant nagging by most of us Amy got changed – had her makeup done – and looked fantastic. I mean fantastic. I mean I was jealous of how good she looked. I was *really* jealous.

Okay, you can start reading again here Amy…

And we trundled into london.

Having met up briefly with Martin and Sandriana (shame, would have been nice to see more of them) and stopped for lunch, and meeting Nattie we set off to Camden where Nikki got her birthday present. Only a few hours previously we’d (Lauren and I) been forewarned of this and so were prepared….In Camden Nikki was taken into a shop, pointed at the corsets and told “Choose one” :-)

The grin on her face was fantastic (and pointing the wrong way for the camera…) So anyway, she chose a very nice corset….

And we sat down to relax….met up with some more people….

And after some relaxation, we headed over to the Wagamamas where we were to eat dinner….this was to be my first experience of Japanese food, which I can say I thoroughly enjoyed. My chopstick handling didn’t let me down either, which is something I’m grateful for. Anyway, we ate. We drank (well a little bit) and we were distinctly merry. Then headed over to the pub – and found that we were just in time for last orders. Then we were all set to head back home to Southend. After a brief detour which nearly left us stranded in Moorgate; Lauren, Chrissy and I made it back to Liverpool Street station….

Note: London Underground maintained it’s 100% record of breaking down and attempting to leave me stranded in the middle of london. That’s 5 times of 5 I’ve had it happen and I’m sick of it. London Underground can go get screwed. Note Ends.

And we made it back to Nikki’s very tired. Very very tired. I remember lying on the floor and thinking “Hrm, this floor is a bit hard” and then I appear to have fallen asleep.

And boy did I sleep.

When I finally awoke the next morning and we finally hauled ourselves out of bed….well, we had a grill-up. Well, Chrissy grilled and Lauren fried the eggs. And then we headed out for a walk….now bear in mind I’d been wearing my nice-but-uncomfortable shoes the previous day. And we’d had to walk a lot, finally having to walk a fair way to make up for the lack of underground. To say my feet hurt would be understating it.

Anyway, ignoring that we headed out in search of a pair of trainers for me (six quid!), so we could go for a decent walk. Finally walking down the pier….and sitting, relaxing on the end. After a while we headed back….and then Lauren and I piled into the car and flew, yes, flew back to Bristol.

Was a good weekend….although when we got back, well, you saw what happened. Anyway, I’m told that Amy’s feeling better. Goddess I hope she is.

I’m hoping that maybe she’ll come over to bristol for a couple of days. Although that means keeping my hands off her for a couple of days – Something that’s very hard to do ;-)

Anyway, so for pics: Nikki Meet Pics (in the About me:AFP section).

And I’ll get around to talking about Starbucks and Oxford some other time….

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07/14/2002 Archived Entry: “Christ I’m tired.”

Christ I’m tired. Godly god.

Is 190 miles too far to go for a party? I’d say not….

So, it was nikki’s birthday this weekend so I headed down there…but there was a slight change of “plan”…it went like this:

After spending all of last week putting up desking and shelves in the back room here I sat down in front of the PC and while reading my email made the mistake of going into the chatrooms on IRC (as usual)….and Nikki was chatting about how her and Co (Amy, Lisa C, Chrissy) were chilling out down at her place. And I suddenly though “Hey, why not go down tonight”. A thought which I foolishly expressed aloud.

Anyway, a long chain of quite amusing things happened and I had a good time. This was to be much longer but I’ve just read Amys diary entry. Amy’s someone I care about – and I fear that I may have contributed to her current state.

I…I just hope she’s okay. I really thought she was enjoying herself. I just misread her so completely.

There may be photos subject to vetting.

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07/08/2002 Archived Entry: “Urgh”

Picture the scene….

It’s 9:34 on a monday morning. A small and untidy bedroom with a green double bed and some sheets that are coming up to needing a clean. There’s a girl with medium-long brown hair lying under a duvet and just waking up.

She looks at the alarm clock, mumbles something about wanting some water, yelps, scrabbles around in the bag next to the bed pulling out a dirty pair of jogging bottoms and grabbing a black teeshirt (which she, in her rush puts on backwards). Then she incoherantly expresses something about “shoes” – and runs down the stairs.

Pausing only to grab keys and half-stick her shoes on she runs out the door yelling “doctor’s appointment” and “shit, shit, shit, shit”.

That was me this morning. Still, I made it in time for my appointment (granted with my hair a complete state, I’d not remvoed the fuzz from my face, my teeshirt was on backwards and I’d not got my trainers on properly). So, tomorrow they’re going to thieve some blood from me (oooh, fun) for my biannual blood test. This time they might even test everything they should (since they’ve now got my notes, apparently, although last time I saw them they were rather bigger which is a bit disturbing).

So. Yes. The one good thing about this was that despite my extremely disheveled state not one person presumed I was male. Yay, Go me… ;-)

Unfortunately I feel like hell, having not ingested enough water yesterday. So I’ve got a fairly awful headache (not aided by this mornings rather rapid departure from the house).

Anyway, so, I had a really nice weekend – although I’m thoroughly knackered after it – much of it spent (with Lauren) clearing out my parents garage – although we’ve now got the first processor board my dad designed, it’s floating point unit, the first board my dad laid out; I think; a bound copy of a big chunk of the code he produced…

That seemed to make him happy – he’d put it all in “stuff to get thrown away” – we took it to the tip, and then saved it. We also picked up some rackmount boxes – and some other bits and bobs. Sadly the first real computer my dad built had to go in a skip. I’d’ve kept it but there’s *really* no space for it. As it is we’ll be off to the tip later to take the old mattress from my room and the oven from the garden, probably.

Anyway, after another run to the tip on Sunday we headed over to the world’s most expensive non-london carpark in Oxford. I’m impressed by the fact they managed to make me feel good about paying 8 pounds for 8 hours parking. Yes, they did this by the cunning means of making me think I was going to have to pay 12 pounds.

Anyway, carparking fees aside – I had a really good day in Oxford with Peter, Stephanie, James and Lauren. A quick pub lunch (roast dinner, really nice, bit heavy on the gravy), lots of mooching around shops (mostly book shops, very dangerous but remarkably I came away with my cards completely untouched), attempting, briefly to find me new jeans (failed – Mad House in oxford only seemed to carry three lines of womens jeans, none of which were very nice).

A brief stop for a milkshake and then off to the Cinema – where we saw Minority Report. Now this film doesn’t have the most inspiring title, but looked cool. Oddly for an american film, it’s one where the title becomes meaningful when you’re part way through the film – which was, incidentally, a film I enjoyed. My only criticism is that some of the product placement was particularly, well, blatant…..

Anyway, I’ll stop wittering in case people haven’t seen it.

Then we finally headed over to a cafe which serves bagels. Now I’ve not previously understood people liking bagels – actually, that’s not strictly true – I’d tried a bit of one lauren had and thought that was nice, but prior to that, the only bagel I had was a rock hard object from some railway cafe.

It was ‘orrible.

But anyway, we went to this place who’s name has totally escaped me, where I had a *really* *really* good bagel. Okay. I understand bagels now.

So yes. Then we headed back home where I flaked out in bed…forgetting to set my alarm, which brings us back to this am.

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07/03/2002 Archived Entry: “Damn”

Damn it, I’m having those “I wish I’d told my parents earlier” things. *sigh*

Particularly before university. What a waste.

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07/03/2002 Archived Entry: “IRC [need a hug]”

[KateE] I’m feeling pissed at the fact that: I have completely fucked up my
hands, wasted multiple years of my life, I’m broke, and I don’t
have *any* friends around here who I can just bugger off to the pub
with.
* KateE doesn’t know how to make friends irl
[KateE] I don’t go to work, so I don’t make freinds there. I don’t *do*
anything. I just sit here.

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07/02/2002 Archived Entry: “F*cking w*ndows”

Argh. No, let me rephrase that – AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.

Fucking windows fucking GDI printers. We have one, sadly. A colour Laser. Which wouldn’t be so bad except the drivers for this particular one are *utter* *shit*. It includes a particularly useful piece of software called “Minolta Uninstaller” – which you might think was a tool for uninstalling the minolta printer drivers, but no, it’s actually a tool for breaking your windows install.

Bear in mind that these are specific windows 2000 drivers, running on Windows 2000.

Clicking uninstall leads it to uninstall itself and various bits not belonging to it, thus making it impossible to reinstall the fucking things. Grr.