I just added December to my template and then realised it wasn't December. Never mind, I won't have to do it later now. In my defence, my calendar has been on December for the best part of a month now and Chanukah starts next week.

This morning I was suddenly really busy with everyone wanting everything at once, and at the same time a friend of mine asked if I wanted a Christmas present from Amazon (I was just waiting for her to ask - she's getting me Douglas Adams at the BBC) and she talked me into going to the Buffy New Year con. I probably can't afford it (well, I can, I'll just be paying for Australia for longer after I get back) but it should be good fun anyway.

Then after all that was sorted it was nearly lunchtime and I had to go to Waitrose to pick up some of our chestnuts. Then I didn't have a lot on after lunch. On the plus side, it's usually the other way round.

The reason I'm writing this entry now is because I couldn't think of anything to do. As I've written it I've remembered I updated my website yesterday and didn't back it up onto a zip disk, I have some CDs to make, I think, and some e-mails to write. I've just got so used to being really busy and having to do the stuff that was really urgent that I can't quite get used to doing things that I merely should do.

And on an unrelated note, that I'm not going to explain in a public place, me and my dad make a great team I'm actually looking forward to going home next week to get some intelligent conversation, which I seem to get everywhere except at work. The people there are fun, but sometimes you just need to talk about something slightly more intellectual, like this weekend when I was talking with someone about how to get a manned mission to Mars, and why we would want to.

I'm feeling slightly more organised now. I'm not entirely convinced we have everything (or everyone!) for Victorian evening on Thursday but anything we don't have we can worry about on the night. I'm nearly there with Christmas dinner as well - I did delegate the phoning of the pub to find out when they wanted money and food orders. Slightly worryingly though, I put the orders into an excel spreadsheet and got it to calculate how much of everything there was. I obviously do too much of that at work.

Yesterday I did all of my Christmas shopping, in Birmingham. I stopped off in Coventry so I could go to the one shoe shop that sells shoes that fit me. Helpfully, they had my old ones (which have fallen apart, hence the need for new ones), which was just as well because none of the others fit. Apart from that, I did really well in not buying things for me - until we got to the Lego shop. I now have a lego R2D2 and Darth Vader to go with my lego Yoda.

Someone was saying at work the other day that they hated Sunday nights because they would think about having to go back to work the next day. I said that I didn't mind because I got bored. And I'm bored. Although not for lack of things to do, just lack of being bothered. Maybe I should play a game, being as I bought a few for the novelty value of being able to play them. I've just remembered I have to phone someone, but I like the idea of Unreal Tournament. Which is rather cutting this post short really.

My delegation skills are slipping. Someone pointed out when we left tonight's meeting that I had a load of things to do I could have delegated. The trouble is that there was hardly anyone there tonight and there are loads of things to sort out. But I think I pretty much just have to ring everyone, so it probably won't take as long as I think it will. Especially if I organise myself during Teachers in a bit.

I did manage to give the job of secretary to someone else, as the real secretary wasn't there. I think all the girls in the club have done the job now I think my entire night is going to be Rotaract though, because we have so much coming up:

• Going Christmas shopping in Birmingham on Saturday
• Going to Burns Supper at the end of January
• Going to the local panto in January (Humpty Dumpty)
• Victorian Evening - which is where there are a load of charity and other stalls in the town and all the shops open late. We sell chestnuts for charity
• The Cheese and Wine Quiz we hold every year for the Rotarians
• Our Christmas dinner in early December

And since December is always busy with various Christmas meals and such like, our next meeting is down the pub. The meeting on 28th is cancelled for obvious reasons And I haven't quite had time to think about Rotaract Week in March (I think) and whether we're going to put on our Barn Dance this year - I need to get most of the above out of the way first, I think!

Mind you, I also have to find someone to be president temporarily while I'm in Australia. I was going to say I already have every weekend in April booked up, but in all fairness, I'm not in the country for most of them.

I let myself in for all of this, knowing full well how much work it would involve. Well, to an extent anyway. But it will be really nice to give it up to someone else in July and do an easier job. But when I get to 30ish and have to leave, I don't know what I'm going to do with my time!

Because Blogger isn't happy about the html in this (it is a bit of a mess, and more of a pain to sort out than I can be bothered to). So, the latest post is at livejournal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/paranoidangel42/45341.html

That lj meme (most of which I had to go to my userinfo to look up):

My journal is called Angelic Paranoia because I thought it needed a name. I really don't need to tell you where it came from, do I?

My subtitle is Paranoidangel's blog because it is.

My friends page is called friends because I've never felt the need to change the default setting.

My username is paranoidangel42, because the answer's here if you want to know that where the name came from. Someone else got there first with the paranoidangel though, so I added a number on the end, and if I have to explain where that number comes from I will be hitting you on the head with a large spade (if you can provide the spade). And then adding you to my list of people who need to borrow my tapes.

My default userpic is Orlando Bloom because fileg is amazingly talented with these things and I love it. Look out for Ewan McGregor when I feel the need for a change.

My LJ "name" is Nic because it tells people who I am.

I feel like I've done loads this weekend - and it's still the weekend! I successfully managed to find Forbidden Planet on Saturday, and bought myself my Chanukah present from my sister - a Stargate calendar. I've had one before, and I hate repeating myself, but it was that or bunnies, and looking at pictures of bunnies only makes me want one all the more.

I also managed to successfully find the pub that the ZZ9 AGM was in! It usually takes me half an hour to find anywhere in London, from the tube station, but both times were far less than that. I impressed myself. I got a bit unsure of myself finding the way back in the dark, but I did quite well.

The AGM was good. I'm very glad I'm not on the committee though - some of the things that were discussed sound similar to discussions we have at HASA and Rotaract. Not similar in the subject, but just the way the discussions themselves go.

I managed not to buy myself a drink either (except for the first one) or a round. Admittedly, I keep forgetting this whole buying rounds thing - I can cope if it's two people and you buy every other one, any more people and I just get confused. I think the last time I went out and bought a round it was half a one. I don't mean to do it, I really don't, it just works out that way.

Anyway, I stayed much later than I planned, so ended up getting to Guildford at 11.30pm and getting to taxi (to avoid the chavs at the bus station). Not that the taxi driver knew where he was going - why he thought I did, I don't know! I saw an hour of Kill Bill 2 and I liked it (although the punching wood bit was clearly ridiculous - how did he expect her to do it when he just let her not doing properly? She was quite obviously never going to punch a bit of wood like that). And the sword fighting bit was equally silly. But now I really need to see Kill Bill 1 and the whole of Kill Bill 2.

And I stayed up to 3.30am. Although this was because we were watching Sci-Fi porn (had no connection to sci-fi. Or indeed to real life). There's nothing quite like watching bad TV, bad writing, bad acting, in fact bad everything, with a group of people - it makes it so much funnier.

I had a list of things I needed to get done really and I didn't write them down. So now I have no idea what they are - which was sort of the point. I can next Sunday's going to be a getting things done day.

I was down to collect money for Children in Need from 7-9am this morning, before work. So I dutifully went to bed early (although in comparison to the times I've been to bed this week, late) and set my alarm for 5.45am to give me plenty of time to drag myself out of bed. I woke up at 6.10am. My travel alarm clock decided, for reasons best known to itself, not to bother going off. I rushed about, managed half of breakfast, discovered e-mails I needed to reply to, and made it into work with five minutes to spare.

At this point, despite the cold and the sun not having come up yet (although it was quite light by this point), I was warm. I was collecting from cars waiting at the crossroads. The road they were coming down from had been shut for three days this week - and the people doing it didn't feel the need to remove the diversion sign. There were temporary traffic lights on, and lots of signs in the road. Which collectively meant I had very few cars and when I ventured into the road, had to keep one eye on the traffic coming the other way in case I got run over. This was not helped by cars parking on the other side of the road and the cold setting in about 8.15am.

The time did go quite quickly in the end, but it wasn't as much fun as last year when there were loads of cars. When I got to work, I had second breakfast (pie from the Bakers Oven downstairs) and a hot chocolate. And eventually managed to be warm enough to take my coat off at 11.15am.

So now I'm quite tired. Or was until I ate, now I've woken up a bit. I can't have much of a lie-in tomorrow because I'm going to the ZZ9 AGM, followed by spending the night in Guildford. And I haven't even thought about the number of things I have to get done this weekend. Possibly because my brain's not quite working just at the moment.

And in a discussion of weather and accents today, the people in my office told me I say Dorset in a dorset accent, apparently. I've nearly caught up on my viewing - I just have Have I Got News For You from three weeks ago left, which I think I might give up on somehow.

Need sleep...

I don't need to write a con report for SG8 because Sel has already done one I will add that Paul McGillion is a guinness, although completely off his rocker. He is also, as he felt the need to tell us many time, single. Oh, and he told me I was a 'saucy thing'. Which took me aback a bit, although I have to admit I was a bit flattered.

Of course, the best bit about any con is talking to friends. And friends of friends, who by the next con are friends. It's a bit like university was in that respect. I now really want to write a Sam/Jack slash fic. Yes, you did read that right - we're talking quantum mirror here to make Sam male.

Although it's not going to be serious (assuming I can think of a plot, that is) it did make me think. If we assume that the only difference in this universe is that Sam has a Y chromosome instead of an X, then she probably wouldn't be called Sam (or Samuel). It is entirely possible that her parents were going to call her some variation of Sam either way, but it would be more likely, assuming she's the eldest, that she would be called Mark. My parents certainly never had any intention of calling me Nick (or Nicholas - although at the time I don't think the shortening of my name occurred to them). If I was a boy I'd have no name because they couldn't agree on one.

Although if I gave mirror Sam a different name, that would no doubt confuse everyone. And talking about Mark/Jack slash, doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Sam/Jack slash

I also thought I'd post my dream. It is weird, but bearing in mind I can actually write down what happened, it's not nearly as weird as most of my other dreams, which I just can't describe.

It involved me and Sel sneaking about a car park trying to get breakfast (in a building, I should point out, probably a hotel of some sort). I ate rather a lot of crisps and had to give out, even though I'd only eaten half a bowl (a big bowl). The reason for this was something to do with Avon's book, which was called The Serbian Montenegro.

Sel was enthusing about it, I think. I discovered that it was actually a series of books (lots of books!) and they were a sort of Lord of the Rings thing. By that I mean there was a family with twin boys and a younger girl, and a brother. The twins were obviously Elladan and Elrohir, and yet the father was Elrohir, and the brother Elladan. I can't make sense of it now, but it seemed perfectly fine at the time.

I also remember that the picture of the father had short light hair. He looked like someone I recognised (ie had seen on TV) but I couldn't work out who. Sadly, my alarm clock went off 25mins early because there had been a power cut in the night and it gets fast on battery power, so I never worked out exactly what was going on.

Yes, I can see the men in white coats coming to take me away - but as long as they include Stargate's no 1 doctor, I don't mind!

I had a good time at SG8, more because of the people who were there than the actual con itself. And I got away from it all for a bit. I came back, of course to crises - they still haven't stopped either. I have a Tae Kwon Do grading tomorrow, but I managed to write my Elrond essay for Idol Reflection.

I'm ridiculously far behind on my TV watching - I still haven't seen Have I Got News for You from two weeks ago. When I actually get 5 minutes to think I'll post more (like about just how nice Paul McGillion was - much better looking than he is on screen - although he is completely off his rocker).

Last weekend I spent in a windmill in Somerset. I even managed to take a picture of it this time:

I had a good time - catching up with people I'd not seen for a while (four years, in some cases), not sleeping, and drinking lots. I went down the pub with Rotaract last night, so I almost feel as if I haven't been sober for a while. I'm going to SG8 this weekend, so I definitely won't be sober for a while.

I had today off work, and I cleaned my room, did my washing, and most importantly, defrosted the fridge. Which may not sound like much, but I'd never defrosted a fridge before today. I meant to ask my mum how to do it but never quite got round to it. So I made it up from what I found on the internet and what I vaguely remember her doing when I lived at home.

I did find an example of what not to do: So you thought defrosting a fridge was boring?

It took me pretty much all day but I have done it. The fridge is now pretty much ice-free. I also watched The Bill on my landlady's TV, which has UKGold. It's really not that long ago but there are practically no characters in there who are there now. Today I saw:

Boyden, Sam Harker, Monroe, Conway, Dave, Polly, George, Tony, Di, Jenny Quinnan (pre-Quinnan), Beech, Jaaaack, Tom Proctor, Kerry Holmes. Spot the odd one (two) out. The preview for tomorrow's has Boulton in, so I will have to make sure I am up in time for that. I'm certainly looking forward to it more than tonights.

And Blogger is being annoying at the moment and refusing to let me post. Grr at Blogger.