Unfit for Society recs have been updated. I've appreciated them a whole lot more for the great Sirius/Remus ones I've found on there.

Computer Stupidities has also been updated.

I haven't posted for a while because everything has been very stressful and I didn't really want to admit the world existed for a bit. Last Thursday was the president's night dinner. I was spending lots of time organising that and trying not to think about having to get up and say a few words - but it turned out that was the least of my problems. The chef we had discussed the menu with left and the food that we got was not up to the standard we were expecting from the price.

So I was just getting over the stress of that when we had the Charity Funday in town on Sunday. We were running a Harry Potter quiz on the basis it went over well last year and there is a new film out. Sadly, it went badly. Not many other people there did very well either. There weren't very many people there and the weather wasn't great (it did keep raining).

So I'm just getting over that (although I still have some more Rotaract-related stuff to do that I really want to get out of the way) when HASA has a flare-up. If it's not one thing it's another.

Now, I knew I wasn't going to enjoy elements of being Rotaract president because I don't like leadership. But that doesn't stop me doing it. And in all fairness one of our old presidents said it was horrible for the first few months, and this is coming from someone who did it three times. So I'm hoping that one will settle down.

And I do like being busy. I'm very bad at having nothing to do because I get bored. Except it's now quarter to 10 and I need to watch The Bill before tomorrow's episode, Atlantis before the weekend when I can watch the next episode on dad's computer, do some more reviews for Sel (if I can find them), write some birthday drabbles, and some scenes for the HASA Tag Team Challenge. OK, so some can wait but where has this evening gone?

I should be doing other things really, but I went out to play tennis and ended up playing on the climbing frame in the park. Who wants to be grown up anyway? Certainly not me.

iwantoneofthose.com It's basically like a big Gadget Shop - full of really cool stuff that you don't need but really, really want. Like a gadget to make orange juice flavoured shot glasses (for putting vodka in). The kitsch section is particularly fun.

Cat User's Manual Written as if a cat is a computer. The difference between a warm and a cold boot is the presence of absence of a shoe. There are other cat jokes on the site as well.

And some Harry Potter recs:

First Signs of Magic: Hermione Granger Dr. and Dr. Granger have a perfectly ordinary evening, when something very odd occurs. What do they do? "As a family, they made the decision to panic." Includes vampires, uncomfortable chairs, and singing hospital orderlies. The mystery of lost paperwork is solved.

Scrabble The Slytherins play. Who knew Scrabble was a wizarding game?

Stealing Harry What would happen if Lucius Malfoy got to Peter before Sirius did? And if Sirius followed his godson, forbidden to do more than watch him from a distance? Until, one day, Harry found Padfoot... (Sirius/Remus and has kid friendly sections as well)

I should really be in bed before I fall asleep (my fault for having a late night last night) but I'll just say a couple of things first.
 
We were between a video and having to leave for the cinema on Saturday, so ended up watching the National Lottery and I remembered a vague discussion I'd had before, probably with dad. So, I looked up all the results for the main Saturday draw on the National Lottery Results website and discovered that if I had played with my numbers (5, 16, 25, 36, 42, 49 and they're all significant) I'd have won nothing at all. I'm almost tempted to go and look at them all but that takes too much effort. I think it would still show a loss even though I would have won �10 twice on the Saturday and on the first Wednesday draw.
 
I've also been reading Harry Potter fan fiction. Just a little bit but it's a slippery slope. I read some on Thursday, then nothing more till Sunday. In that time I went from a Ron/Hermione shipper to a Sirius/Remus slasher. I won't say any more because the facts speak for themselves.

I meant to congratulate all the finalists in the Mithril Awards. It was cool to see so many names I knew and fics I read on the list of finalists. But it was also a bad thing. See, I use awards as a set of recs. I'll read winners in categories I might not otherwise read, and all the nominees in categories I do. But what am I supposed to do if I've already read them?
 
I have issues with Mozilla, Firefox and Opera. Also Netscape, although that one's different since it doesn't really want to run on my computer. Much as they might be better than Internet Explorer, they're worse in two tiny, yet important aspects.
 
First, when I open a new browser window it goes to my homepage. I often surf with a few windows open (novelty aspect at being able to have more than two open withou my computer crashing) and it's so useful to be able to just press back on the new one.
 
Other one, on my livejournal layout the text is much less than half of the window size. Now, granted I have a widescreen laptop, so I do have my browser window at quite a strange shape. But it doesn't explain why internet explorer can manage boxes on the page with more than a couple of words per line. If I can't read my friends page in anything other than IE there's not really much point in using anything else. Which is a pity because I love Opera.
 
Note: Blogger have just changed the way you write posts to make it easier to change things (so it's a lot more like a WYSIWYG editor). This has had the effect of making it much more difficult to put web addresses in. Unless you know html. It took me longer to discover this while putting in the Mithril Awards link than it did to type the rest of this post.

I'm actually feeling like I'm catching up. I still have a load of things on my to do list, and another load that haven't made it to the to do list but none of it is particularly urgent. Although I really ought to watch Thursday's Bill before Wednesday. I managed Wednesday's last night but two in one night was a bit much.
 
I've been so busy this week (and in comparison had practically no work to do at work). Monday was Tae Kwon Do, Tuesday was my first Rotaract meeting as President (could have gone better in my opinion, although everyone else seemed happy), Wednesday was my landlady's daughter's birthday barbecue. So free food, although it made me feel sick, and I didn't get any sleep because the party went on till late. I did get to see next door's new dog though, who was really sweet and friendly.
 
Thursday I ushered Harry Potter. I then went for a look for Harry Potter fan fic but luckily none of it interests me particularly. Friday I was in! But then I had stuff to watch I'd taped in the week and some writing to do. I hadn't done any for ages, so I quite impressed myself.
 
And in a bit I'm off to Guildford to see Spiderman 2 and the shops (which are apparently pretty good). And I'm definitely not going to do any thinking about Rotaract at all.

Arthur Dent never could get the hang of Thursdays and there's someone at work who hates Tuesdays. Everyone hates Mondays. So it's only fair that Wednesday gets a look in. It's not close enough to the weekend coming up to look forward to it and it's too far from the one just gone to remember it. It doesn't help that I don't do anything on a Wednesday. Or that I woke up Monday morning and wondered if it was the weekend yet. That's really not a good start to the week.

Plus the weather is really foul and some bugger drove through a puddle on my way home, soaking my trousers. And The Bill was crap, although I think [censored] is the serial rapist. There weren't half some big clues tonight. Although it could all be a red herring. But then the serial killer was someone we knew.

I was browsing through GAFF and some people were talking about how bad the Hitch-hiker's film will be (pretty much purely based on the TV series, as far as I can tell). And then I read MH, where it was enthused about. But frankly, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks or what any reviews say because I'm going to see it. And it will be one of those rare films I have to see on opening weekend.

How much have I just completely failed to get done last night and tonight? Lots. And what have I been distracted by? So glad you asked...

Clay Kitten Shooting - my best is 7/10

The Sightings section of the Bad Baby Names Forum, which led me to American Baby Discussion Groups because what's here are the worst sigs ever. Trust me on this one - just have a look at one of the testing sigs threads. There are also lots of scarily young mums there - and older ones, who frankly, have no excuse.

And because reading forums was fun: Godawful Fan Fiction and not just fan fiction either, bios, names, journals, the lot. And this led me to journals where I found the Sextips Livejournal. I had to read it because I couldn't quite believe it. I started at the userinfo page where there are 10,809 members. Somehow that doesn't surprise me. Why, yes I would like to describe my sex life in detail in public.

Today's Dilbert turned up mid-afternoon and made me laugh, it was so true.

The final results for Fantasy Wimbledon went up and I am 99th! I'm amazed. I didn't win a DVD of Bjorn Borg (don't know how I'm going to survive without it) but it means I make the leaderboard (Note: the link is to a picture is 100k so it's readable and I doctored the page so you can see the bottom and top of it - it's only available if you log in)

I also rediscovered How I Spent my Summer Vacation by Elladan son of Elrond and its sequels. I'll have to re-read it to review it on Sel's site (poor me).

And having had great trouble with birthday/mothers/fathers day cards I found sympathy cards are much easier to find - some of them are really good. And nearly made me cry - just as well they were in the corner.

I've also trying to do a healthy eating thing and eat five fruit and veg a day. It would be a lot easier if fresh fruit and veg lasted longer or there was a decent source of them nearby. I really wish Waitrose would sell half melons though. Melons are so much nicer than the kind in packets, which I had forgotten, but I've now eaten most of a melon in three days. Practically every meal involves melon. I love the stuff, I just don't know how much I'll still love it after eating it that much in a few weeks time.

And now I'm going to listen to the new Corrs album and do something productive. Really.

We were on centre court yesterday and we did see both of the women's semi-finals. And a mixed doubles match. I'm now 160th in Fantasy Wimbledon and very tired. I've finally made it through my friends list and everyone is talking about livejournal being down. Um, I didn't notice. I mean it was playing up recently but no more than usual.

This link's from Sel: How to write a best selling fantasy novel and this one's from a few people: 20 Questions to a Better Personality in which I got:

You are an SRDF--Sober Rational Destructive Follower. This makes you a font of knowledge. You are cool, analytical, intelligent and completely unfunny. Sometimes you slice through conversation with a cutting observation that causes silence and sidelong glances. You make a strong and lasting impression on everyone you meet, the quality of which depends more on their personality than yours.

You may feel persecuted, as you can become a target for fun. Still, you are focused enough on your work and secure enough in your abilities not to worry overly.

You are productive and invaluable to those you work for. You are loyal, steadfast, and conscientious. Your grooming is impeccable. You are in good shape.

You are kind of a tool, but you get things done. You are probably a week away from snapping.

Some of which is quite worryingly true.