Andrew, you sneaky bugger, I've spotted you!

I saw Troy today. Nice looking blokes + sword fighting = good film. And a desire to go to Greece (when it's not hot!), which is not good.

I found a link to this website: BritSlash and it's really quite disturbing. I was just getting over the idea of Eastenders fanfic and then saw the Midsomer Murders an Taggart slash. And the question I have to ask is why? I so don't want an answer to this one (not least because I can only think of one potential answer), but who is there in Midsomer Murders to slash? Mind you, it took me some time to get over the idea of The Bill fan fiction. Or Red Dwarf for that matter, although that's for an entirely different reason.

Yesterday I helped clear a load of bushes for Emmaus. The link is to the Oxford branch and there's a picture of the site on there. It's changed a bit now - all the bushes at the front, near the wall, from the left side of the photo to the middle of it are gone. We cleared more than that but you can't see it for the bushes in this picture.

There was a big police station opposite, which wasn't terribly exciting, although there were a few coppers on bikes hanging about. Not long after there was a bloke taking photos of four of them.

Then, in the evening, I went to the work hen party of my boss. It was quite good, although I couldn't finish my pizza, even though I was hungry before I sat down. After we ate, we went to Bar 38, or at least we tried, because they wouldn't let anyone with trainers in. I really don't understand the no jeans and no trainers rules in pubs/clubs because what do these people expect me to wear out in the evening - the same clothes I wear to work? I don't think so.

Anyway, after that we went to Brannigans. I'd never been, but everyone told me it was shite because it was full of fifteen year olds and no-one liked it there, but we had to go because it was what you did on a hen night. Apparently. I didn't know there was a handbook. Although I did see four other hen nights by the Riverside that night.

They were right - Brannigans was shite. Not so much for the reasons they said - I was avoiding pissed blokes attempting to chat me up. I was really hot but that could have had more to do with the Sambuca I'd downed not long beforehand. They were playing dance shite loudly, so you couldn't hear what anyone was saying (it was also really dark near the bar where we were stood, so I couldn't work out who anyone was - they looked different all dressed up). I'm not against loud music but only if it is actually music (ie has a tune) and if you're going to dance to it. It's not terribly helpful if you want to stand around and chat. I was quite glad I was only there for an hour before I had to go and get the last train.

I'm not quite with it today due to sleeping late, then not being bothered to get up. I ate lunch at 4 o'clock, which probably didn't help. I've really not woken up properly, although I did get some of the things done today that I meant to, which is something. Tomorrow I'm hopefully going to see Troy and remember to listen to the first in the new series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

I wasn't quite ready for The Bill at 8 o'clock tonight, so I set the video on my computer to record it. SO I started watching at quarter past 8, fast forwarded through the adverts and finished at just past 9. It's great - I must do it more in the future!

The floor still slopes. They fixed my glasses a bit but any more beyond that and they might break, which will be very, very bad. So I have shelled out a quite horrendous amount of money for two new pairs which are bendy. I also got a free pair of pescription sunglasses although those won't have special lenses to make them thinner. It's been a long time since I had ordinary lenses, so I dread to think how thick they'll be.

I didn't go to bed till 1.15 last night, which was fine because I wasn't tired. I am now though, I might have to have an early night.

The good news: Enterprise has been renewed (http://www.trektoday.com/news/200504_01.shtml
The bad news: Richard Biggs has died (http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17099)

I went away for 26 hours at the weekend and returned to find 198 e-mails, of which 144 were spam. I've been answering them while listening to "Six Characters in Search of an Answer" on BBC7's Listen Again. Which is so useful because I never listen to anything on the radion on time. I only remembered to watch Have I Got News For You on Friday because the video came on (in my defence I'm usually out).

On the plus side this weekend I established that Hobbycraft still doesn't have any rabbits I can cross stitch. I might have to go on a hunt on the internet, or end up doing cats. Which are nice, but not as nice as rabbits. I've still got a fair bit of The Librarian left to do so it's not urgent yet.

I also made about 20 CDs and did all my backing up. At the same time I finally saw Miss Congeniality. I meant to go and see it when it was out at the cinema. I meant to get it out on video. I even meant to watch it on TV, but forgot. That's a record, even for me.

I re-injured my toes tonight, exactly the same way as I did last week, so they hurt. What's worse is that I had my glasses punched twice on the same side, so the floor now slopes. Which is not helpful.

I finally got round to doing these quizzes, this is from Selenay (I can't quite bring myself to use the word gacked, to me it sounds like the cat's about to be sick):

Good stuff, you are "Wedding? I love
weddings! Drinks all around." You're the
life of the party and nothing gets you down,
not even certain death at the hands of your
zombie nemesis or the Navy. Come to think of
it, realism isn't your strong suit...

Which one of Captain Jack Sparrow's bizarre sayings from Pirates of the Caribbean are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

How true!

This I first saw on fileg's journal:

Yep, that would be me

I am so tired I think I am rapidly losing coherency. At 9pm when The Bill's finished I might end up watching it lying down. I can't help thinking I had more things on my to do list for tonight but if I've forgotten any they're just not going to get done.

Work was actually quite fun today because we're trialling a terminal server. The idea is that all the programs are run from the server, along with the files so there is less traffic going down the link and it is quicker. It is a lot quicker to run programs but there is a really annoying delay on mouse/keyboard clicks.

My computer is also a bit ****ed up and pauses. To the extent where this afternoon it had lost 15 minutes since I last restarted at lunchtime. I think I didn't notice because I was playing with the terminal server but this morning I managed an hour and a half before it got unbearably annoying I needed to restart.

The terminal server means essentially a whole new computer to customise. Which is fun for a day - after a week of it it tends to get a bit samey I'm only now just realising how much I rely on some programs that are only on my computer and make my life easier. Similarly, some of my settings. I can change some things, like how the start menu looks and the desktop but others I can't. I'm having particular issues with my e-mail. Everyone is having issues with everything - the IT guy in the company, and the outside one who knows all about the terminal server were doing nothing but sort people out for two hours between them showing us it and it being lunchtime.

TGIF it's Friday tomorrow, frankly.

I've been reading some of the stories at We Invented the Remix... Redux. It's interesting reading the remixed story and the original. Some of them are really similar and all that's changed is the POV. Some of the then are really different though - one has a long story off one scene and one I don't know how they got their remix from the original, they're so different.

This morning I woke up at quarter past six when my computer fan came on. At which point I realised I was hot too and opened the window. When I woke up again the fan had gone off. Last Wednesday I was trying to get to sleep when I could hear a loud humming. I remembered hearing it Tuesday evening but quieter. At which point I realised I'd plugged my printer in Tuesday to do some printing then forgot to unplug it. Which only goes to show how loud the transformer is.

I've also injured myself at Tae Kwon Do - I can't remember what happened but there was kicking involved and I bent back the three middle toes on my left foot. Which wasn't too bad at the time but they now hurt whenever I move them. I still managed to play tennis tonight, so I doubt they're broken. They did at least bend the way they were supposed to.

The most annoying thing at the moment is that I have nothing to do at work and loads to do at home. I've actually been quite dynamic tonight and have nearly cleared out my inbox (I have lots of folders, so they only e-mails in my inbox are ones I have to deal with).

From reading my friends list and mailing lists it seems like the world and his wife have seen Troy. It doesn't even come out till Friday here (although there were previews at the weekend). Which is a tad academic since I won't get to see it till it's at the local cinema in June because all my weekends are booked up.

There's nothing quite like walking home past big houses to make you think 'I want one of those'. So, when I marry a millionaire (I would say win the lottery but since I don't play it there's more chance of me marrying a millionaire) I will have:

• A purple mini - with someone else to drive it. I get to sit in the passenger seat and decide which radio station to listen to. And not map-read - the driver should always know where he is going. He will also be available at my beck and call.
• A big house - which I won't clean. One room will be mine (I need my space). One room will have shelves all round it filled with books, videos, DVDs and CDs, since all my stuff won't fit into one room.
• A cook. Who will cook what I tell them to. Obviously.
• A garden with bunnies in.
• Someone whose job it is to make sure everything I put on my amazon/blackstar wishlist is bought.
• Craig Parker. Since I'll be marrying my husband for his money I'll need someone for everything else, won't I?

On an entirely different note, there should be a law against people changing the scroll bar colour to match the background of said scroll bar. How am I supposed to page down if I can't find the thing to click on? Also scroll bars within scroll bars because I'm always scrolling the wrong one.

I have been good - I updated my blogger template with more recs. I updated my website, which meant I got to play around with all the Craig Parker photos I took. And I added a page for music video recs. Go me!

I still haven't got round to watching last Friday's Have I Got News For You though. It might not be quite so topical soon...

I am so tired, even though it's only half nine (so this may or may not be coherent), and it doesn't feel like I've done much today, other than wander round the Expo. Oh, and propose marriage to Craig Parker (who played Haldir in LOTR films). Well, ok, I didn't say that to him, and in my defense I wasn't the only person who thought that.

Annoyingly, he's doing a dinner in two weeks, but I have two things on that day (well, one in the day and one in the evening) and a con in October, but Kate won't go with me (too many SG cons!) and it's in Manchester, which is more of a pain to get to than Heathrow (being as it's practically the other end of the country). I did make her promise to go with me to an LOTR con next year, although together with Australia and Redemption that'll pretty much use up my holiday days for next year.

The man himself, and me, as taken on my new digital camera (the original looks a lot better but is a lot, lot bigger):

Then on the way home the (very hot) train stood around at Paddington for an extra 25 minutes, so it meant I missed my bus (and the next one wasn't for 2.5 hours, so I got a taxi - I will try and charge Thames Trains for it) and I finished my book when we were only just past Slough.

On the plus side I now have a very silly mouse for work (it has a floating Nemo in it) and Daniel on a keyring.

New Blogger - now with added comments. And titles. And pages with just one post and the comments on. Which now means all my links have to have the whole address in, annoyingly. There are bits of it I haven't investigated yet, but it seems good so far. I did hear about it via BBC News, mind you...

It really annoys me, in a way, not having a car. I'd love to be able to decide to go somewhere and just go there. And in the case of going home, in half the time. But, cars are:

a) expensive and
b) break (and I really don't understand them)

There's also the problem (and this is less easy to fix) that I don't like driving. I don't like other cars, I'm not terribly keen on roundabouts or traffic lights (I'm never quite sure whether they're going to change or not). I also don't like thin or dark roads, which is what all the ones round here are like. I especially don't like coming onto dual carriageways (so I dread to think what I'd be like on motorways, which sadly, are all round here too).

I also haven't worked out how you can possibly talk while driving. I'm ok, as long as I don't have to change gears, change speed, change lanes, or turn into or out of roads. Which, lets face it, is most of the time. Perhaps an automatic would help, but they're too expensive to consider anyway.

I can have dad's car when he retires in two and a half years. Which is quite nice, because I know it (or will be when the runners have been moved forward so I can reach the pedals) and when I work out how to do first to second. But I'm terrified of what he'd say if I crashed it. I'm terrified of crashing it too, of course.

It's all academic anyway because I can't afford to run one - well, I can but then I wouldn't be able to afford to go anywhere in it. I wish I lived somewhere with better public transport, which would solve all my problems. Or I could just never go anywhere and live a very boring life.

They sent round a recruitment e-mail at work and talked about the American office (which currently consists of one person) and said it could be as big as the one here, meaning there could be opportunities to work over there. Which all assumes rather a lot, mind you, but before I went to America last year I would have jumped at the chance. Which only goes to show it's a good idea to recce a place before you consider living there.

I was there just under a week and after that time I was desperate to get out. The whole country was driving me crazy. And yet I want to go back, which is even more crazy. I don't think I'd survive longer than a week though. I'm hoping Australia won't be so bad being as it's a bit more like here and the accents don't drive me mad. Not yet, anyway.

I'm almost in two minds about Australia. I keep thinking it would be better if I went with someone else, then I'd have someone to talk to. But going on holiday with other people is a pain if you want to be doing different things. There's probably less to do in the evenings but then I could just go to bed earlier and get up earlier to do stuff in the daylight. And I can do what I want when I want, once I've decided what that is. It's also a bit complicated going with someone else being as I want to see my family and meet up with my friends out there.

Barn Dance was last night and it went well. We made a profit, which was very good, and everyone looked like they were having a good time. Which means we'll do another one next year, which I'll be organising, which is scary. The Rotaract year starts in July, so hopefully I'll be more confident by then. I'm not growing up for the purposes of responsibility though. What a horrible thought.

Happy Birthday, undonne!

I thought I'd better update this, since I hadn't in a while. Since my last update I've drunk (but not got drunk), done very little work, seen the first episode of Sports Night, had a three day week, had a birthday, not quite been able to admit my age has gone up yet. I realised that if they don't put the retirement age up in the meantime I can retire in 40 years. Doesn't that sound depressing. I'm now downloading music videos. Barn Dance tomorrow, and more drink this weekend. Yay!