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21^st March 2002, 20:02

Good time eh?

So. People have been bullying me into writing another entry – I mean, it’s not like people are short on stuff to read on here…I mean how many of you can remember the earliest entries? No… you can’t can you. So you could re-read them couldn’t you…. :-P

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to do a new entry for a while.

22^nd March 2002, 13:29

Okay, I got interrupted for a few minutes.

But I’m actually feeling much better than I have been for a while, I’ve managed to shove my little demons back into their box for a bit. Actually, to be honest they keep leaping out and attacking me without any warning.

Failing my driving test seems t have been the nudge my brain needed to be able to start attacking me again. Which was nice. I’d forgotten what it was like – but anyway, it seems ot have settled down again now. At least, so long as I don’t think about my driving test too much. Or any of my other miriad of failings.

So, we’ll see if we can’t keep the misery in a box for the time being.

Anyway, so I’ve been using the RiscPC for the last few days, I’d forgotten how much I liked RISC OS – anyway, it’s been mostly okay, it was very crashy the first few days but it seems to have settled back down again. It’s still no-where near as good as it used to be, reliability wise, but then I guess I’ve been pushing it harder. That and I’ve discovered that OmniClients NFS protocol stuff is crappy, which means that I can’t listen to streamed MP3s on this machine, despite it being quite definately fast enough.

Grr. We’ve got a copy (original) of LanMan98 around here, apparently, which should fix the problem….but finding it’s obviously the issue.

So…

Yes, I failed my bike test. Unfortunately for me I had a car examiner, who clearly had no fucking idea about bikes; and I quote: “I have ridden a bike you know”. Yeah, uh hu.

*sigh*

So, what’s going on with regolith? – well, we’re currently gathering sales figures, well, hoping to. Next week is A day – our advert’ll appear in next weeks NME, so we’ll be sorting out prices today.

But I’ve got to take a temp job, because well, I’m broke. I’ve got bills to pay and no money, so….I shall be trundling up the road to ManPower later today – I’m trying to remember how this stuff worked – do I need a CV? I guess I better print one anyway…

Just in case.

So….Oh, and I might drop off the film today….so the pictures of the ‘zed should be up fairly soon.

—

Kate E

15^th March 2002, 16:15

Well, I’m encoding my way through my CD Collection. I’d say that I’m at R-T,
but I’ve realised that somewhere along the way the U-Z section went missing – I
think I’ve managed to confuse the order in which the boxes go.

So, I’ve been trying to sell the cavalier – hopefully it’ll sell at the end
of the week. I’ve also been being evil to Kellaway Motorcycles – informing the companies
who they are dealers for about their history. We’ll see if we can’t stop them
being Sym dealers, and Warrior dealers.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be so evil, but Tony Underhill deserves whatever he gets,
he could have killed Jasmine or I. And probably several hundred other people. I
hate to think how many people suddenly discovered their rebuilt brake-calipers
didn’t work anymore because of those brake-seals.

I’ll get bored of chasing them again soon I expect.

So, I had one of those “I’d like to keep this moment forever” moments this
morning – when Jasmine rolled over and snuggled me – and we just lay there
snuggling. It was just so quiet and [snip, okay, I’ve got to go and design an
advert for our shop]

—

Kate E

11^th March 2002, 12:41

So, no one’s been filling in the survey on the Regolith site – anyone got any
ideas why? We’ve tweaked it a bit – but….hrm. Anyway, I hope someone fills it
in soon.

So, j’s sat over there reading older diary entries, which is kinda odd – I
guess when I started writing this I didn’t really imagine anyone’d actually be
interested in reading it – it’s not like I have a particularly compelling
writing style, or I’m particularly good at it.

Nor do I have a wildly exciting life – I have my friends, partners, bike, car
and job – I don’t travel the world, although I’d like to, I don’t build rockets,
I don’t really do anything as such – just meander through my life – which
has it’s ups and downs – as obviously do I, but really, it’s not that
interesting. Is it?

So – I’ve just remembered that Jenny rang last week while I was about to go
out and I promised to ring her back. I forgot about it until now – which is
bloody stupid of me.

Bugger.

Hrm, I really ought to sort out this site and remove some of the stuff I just
transfered across without thinking about it. Still, I don’t want to lose it
entirely.

Anyway, I had a bit of a bad night last night.

[Went to bed at this point]

11-03-2002, 15:00

So, we were discussing IQ’s and once we’d started I couldn’t stop thinking
about how much I’d lost – well, how much my abilities had gone down. I mean, I
used to be good at this stuff, judging by the tales my dad tells, I used to be
really bright. Now, on a good day, I’m probably average. I just don’t seem to be
able to pick stuff up – I read this stuff and it’s like hitting my head against
an impeneterable barrier of stupidity.

It’s painful. I stare and stare at books where I know that when I was 15, I
could easily grasp the stuff they’re talking about – but now I just
can’t. It’s deeply upsetting – I mean, you expect to loose something as
you get older, but this, it’s just insane.

And I don’t know what to do about it, if anything can be done.

I can remember fighting so hard with stuff at university, and if I fought
hard enough eventually it would come, I could understand things – but it was
odd, it wasn’t like a gradual dawning, it would be “no, no, no, no, yes
complete understanding”. It’d just not go in for ages and then I’d read it and
it would make perfect sense.

But now, well. It’s different. I never get past the just-not-going-in stage.
It’s like I’m reading the words without having any understanding of what they
mean.

*sigh*

I don’t really know what to do about it. Lauren calmed me down, and
eventually I got to sleep – but…*sigh*.

Anyway, onto more cheery topics, I’ve updated Rebecca’s page, and I’ll be updating Naidenka’s later, although I’ve not got the photos of the rebuild
back yet. Okay, I’ve not taken them to the developers yet. Well, when I’ve done
them I’ll do it. I’ve also got an idea for another poster.

I’ve got to fill time while waiting for an estate agent to ring back….Oh,
anyone got 330k ukp they fancy giving me? Or even just, I dunno, 150k? No? Sure?
Nuts…seen the perfect place for us to live and run the business, but it’s 330k
which is a tad out of our pricerange.

—

Kate E

9^th March 2002, 18:46

Laziness….

Which
Rock Chick Are You?

—

Kate E

6^th March 2002, 17:34

Blurgh, for some reason I’m feeling appauling this afternoon. Well, early
evening. Blurgh.

Anyway, so, what’s to report? Well, the ‘zed is back on the road – did I say
that already? Let’s check. No, right, well, I got the evil little sod back on
the road – did about 50 miles before something else went wrong – the exhaust
came off….again.

Anyway, so, we think we’ve tracked it down to the exhaust being in slightly
the wrong orientation, so hopefully that’s sorted. I’ve also had a few bouts of
water in the petrol, which isn’t exactly what I’d like to have, but it’s at
least fairly easy to cure.

Drained the last few microdrops out of the tank and a large chunk of it was
water…..which explains the running problems, but doesn’t really answer how it
got there – I’ve now tried the original MZ tank lid and the Burwin replacement
and they both seem to leak. Anyway, so, I’ll be adding a bit more to the MZ
pages soon, maybe even get around to writing about some of the experiences….

Hrm, I really don’t feel very well. Headachey, eyestrainey….

Anyway, so, we’ve had some car related issues – the mog’s heater has expired
in a major way, so that’s waiting until next week when she’ll go down for a new
heater, and the golfs water pump has died. Not entirely suprising, I’ve been
aware that it’s been “a bit knackered” since shortly after I bought the car, but
never replaced it on the basis that it still worked. But the bearing’s now given
up – so she’s off the road too…

Anyway, so here’s a couple of pictures of the mog: Rebecca, picture 1 & Rebecca, picture 2. Looking good eh?
:-)

Blurgh.

Definately unwell, lack of sleep that is, I think. Maybe. Had to get up early
to go and see the bank – regolith now
has a bank account – and an overdraft…..also been hastling estate agents,
which is not that much fun. Actually it’s tedious.

Ah well, if it’s not sorted out by the end of the week we’ll start looking
elsewhere…which is annoying. You’ll all have noticed that I’ve still not got
around to doing the transfer of the files from the iPAQ, this is mostly because
I’m lazy.

So, you’ll have to wait.

Mmm.

Blurgh.

I’d just like to share with everyone something I’ve discovered over the past
few days; KOffice sucks. It’s complete crap. I mean, a DTP/Word processing
package that can’t even print for god’s sake. It’s just ridiculous.

Gah.

Anyway, so I’ll be doing lots of stuff on Xara X (windows software, *spit*),
and probably go back to using OvPro for our stuff, on the basis that it works
extremely well. It’s a bit sad really having to use a what, 5 year old machine
for doing DTP because it’s better than anything else we’ve got.

So, we’ve got nearly all of a studio. We’ve paid for all of a studio, bar a
building.

Blurgh.

I think I’ll stop now…oh, news: got to take my bike test on the 18th, and
the Bikes MOT on the 19th.

—

Kate E

28^th Feburary 2002, 12:55

So…what’ve I been up to which has kept me from writing diary entries? Well,
now you can see for yourselves…www.regolith.co.uk.

I promise I’ll write more stuff, and that should be the only bit of shameless
self promotion, at least for a little while…. ;-)

—

Kate E

22^nd Feburary 2002, 08:29

Christ that was scary. I just had a dream, an insanely vivid dream in which
someone I dearly care about died. She knows who she is, because I instantly came
onto irc to try and find her.

I don’t think I’ve been so terrified for quite a while. I wanted to throw up
I was so scared…..

—

Kate E

19/02/02, 12:46

Well, it’s not actually 12:46, but the clock on my iPAQ is a bit out and I’m not quite sure what the actual time is.

Anyway, I’ve been insulting this bottle of cranberry for the last five minutes – saying really derogatory things about it, but I don’t seem to be able to depress the lid so I guess I can drink it. It was quite a nice day when I started writing this, but, well, it’s gone rather grey and quite cold..:

Is the presence of E160(c) (smoke flavour) in these Cajun Chicken Louisiana Style Wrap due to some louisina influence or is it the cajuns who are responsible? Hrm…..

I think it’s time to find somewhere warmer, away from the seagulls….

13:20, Bill’s cafe in Bath

Hrm, free advertising….actually, this appears to be a trucker/mechanics cafe, and the tea is lousy….never mind. Probably give Russell Reid a heart attack seeing me here, black jeans, bike boots, bike jacket, no bra, copy of Ride magazine in front of me….

Ah well, dry and warm….

‘s odd being in Bath, what with Donna-related memories and so on….actually I came here once before, for my mums OU course…..old memories.

So, the Mogs in the mog centre – hopefully she’ll come back leak free – I’ll head back in a bit….see how they’re getting on…it’s sort of trying to rain. Lauren’s doing her CBT at the moment. Worrying about her, I really hope she passes this time….still got my bike to rewire…

Anyway, I went to see Hannah a couple of days ago, Friday actually. Which was interesting.

[09032002 – at this point I went back to the mog centre, and my Rebecca was actually already ready – so I didn’t finish this entry…]

—

Kate E

17^th February 2002, 14:00

Yes, I am still alive….

I have actually got a couple of diary entries waiting on my iPAQ, and tbh,
I’m not really in the mood to write anything wildly exciting right now –
although maybe I should, but for some reason nedit’s decided that it doesn’t
want to let me use the cursor keys….

Not sure why, can’t really be bothered to work it out right now…

It’s been “a while” since I last wrote anything in here, I guess I’ve just
had a lot on my mind – what with my dad being ill, although I think, maybe,
hopefully he’s getting better. Maybe. I hope.

Certainly when I went to see him with Lauren, he looked so much better
than he has for months. For the first time in months he was talking without
coughing. I guess that’s given me some hope.

I also picked up Rebecca who’s page
I’ll have to update – although the mog centre forgot a few things one of which nearly
lead to me blowing up a radio-cassette….the other of which has lead to some
water ingress, and some water leaking from the coolant system. Still, I’ll take
her down in the morning on Tuesday….Hrm, doing an online update in the
background, keeping this machine nice and happy…

That reminds me, I just fixed an A4000S (ARM 250/2Mb of RAM) that k picked up
yesterday. Was just a broken track in the end….

Needs some software and a mouse really, but still, it’s working at least.

Ooops, just spent 20 minutes trying to find out about the A4000S, well, more
acurately trying to find a page I could link to, but I can’t, so, well, sod
that.

So, I’m sat here catching up on other peoples diary entries, well, to be
honest mostly Jennys and Amys, and that’s really about it….

Anyway, so:

The great linkback idea

Everybody who writes weblogs/journals also reads them.
Almost. So as an experiment to see how far this goes
I’m trying to get everyone who reads this, and also writes a
journal to link back to the first place they saw it.

In this case, http://amy.shacknet.nu/cgi-bin/diary.pl?action=show&comment;=123

Do this by either taking the code from this site (View source,
copy, paste, post) or grabbing it from http://www.aquarionics.com/fun/linkback.php
and editing it. Lets see how far this can spread.

So, that’s for Amy there….

I’ve actually not been using the computer nearly as much recently – outside
of doing the website for the new business….which I’ll link to as soon as it’s
finished :-)

I think this is a good thing, but I’m not sure….

I really should be outside fixing my bike, but I’m trying to give my self a
bit of a rest. No, I’ll go and do it in a bit, I’ve been resting quite enough
recently.

Hrm, Opera just crashed, that’s probably my cue to leave….

I’ll try and stick the other two entries up soon….before you all get too
bored… :-)

—

Kate E

15/02/02, 02:30

Well, you’re probably wondering what the hell’s been going on with me, I mean it’s been ages since my last entry, and I’ve not even put up the one I did on the second of february – at least as I write this I haven’t. Probably alienated half the readers with this huge break….

It’s not actually deliberate, I just don’t seem to have time to write this stuff down at the moment – not that I’m not still having weird thoughts….

I guess I can do more plain rambley stuff by leaving huge gaps between entries. Anyway so, I’ve not healed yet – which is moderately depressing – I mean, okay, major op and it’s only really 4 months since the op, but I expected myself to at least have a complete layer of skin by now. I do seem to be healing just very slowly.

What’s really annoying about it, no, scratch that, it’s all really annoying. One of the annoying things is that it doesn’t seem to matter what I do. I can spend a chunk of my day reorganising a garage, or I can just go to sleep. I’ll still bleed just the same.

Anyway, so, I’ve been pottering around in Rebecca which is incredibly different to driving the Golf (nina). Shockingly she’ll actually, happily keep up with modern-day motorway traffic, although it’s an entertaining experience. Sadly my dad’s not currently able to look at her, he still being in hospital.

Although, I at least am feeling a bit more hopeful of a “positive” outcome – as far as cancer can ever have a positive.

Okay, so I’m generally a fairly sceptical individual, but this is a little odd: When my parents moved into their current house the ‘seasonal’ river hadn’t flown for two years. On the very day they moved in it poured with rain, and by the evening it was flowing. So, it then flows almost continuously for 5 years. This year, it’s usual winter / spring break of a couple of weeks extends. People are suspecting that it’s not going to flow at all. My dad comes back from hospital for one day…and it starts flowing. So anyway that was what happened – and I thought that was ‘a bit of a coincidence’. He wasn’t meant to be going home for one day but he crashed (got majorly worse very suddenly) and ended up back in hospital.

Which was the stuff of my nightmares. But by the time I got to see him he’d actually improved to being better than he has been for weeks.

Apparently he’s holding steady with the chemo (which is excellent news). So I guess I’m feeling a touch more relaxed – which is why I’ve had to find something else to stress me. In this case it’s waiting for my oldest friend to ring me & meeting up with my ex, Hannah.

So – I seem to have had a bit of a flurry of e-mail…I wonder who’s linked to me. Still it’s cool……

Oh, and k’s sussed linux on the IPaq so it should soon be bye bye WinCE…..

—

Kate E