I had intended to write a post about The Bill the night the last episode aired (in this country) and now I'm looking at a blank input box, I'm not sure what to write. I'm not sad, actually, possibly because the last episode wasn't as good as some we've had recently. Partly that comes of having everyone in it and it having a lot of Jack in a uniform (which I still can't get used to) and Neil Manson aka Dodgy DI (who seems to have had a personality change from dodgy to bland).

For anyone who hasn't got a clue what I'm talking about (which the Americans reading won't), The Bill is a cop show. Read more...

Back when I wrote some LOTR drabbles for my drabble a day month, I thought about how much of the whole universe I've forgotten. I thought a bank holiday weekend would be good for watching all three films, one a day because it's been years since I saw them. I didn't quite make it for the May ones, but I did manage it this weekend.

And it's not just facts I've forgotten either. I'd forgotten how funny and brave Pippin was, how loyal Sam was, how pretty Anduril was. And Elrond. I don't think he was right in the film, in terms of looks -he was too old and not pretty enough. But he spends most of the last two angsting over Arwen, and for that, I can forgive a lot.

I stopped writing in the fandom because I thought I've said everything I could about Elrond and Estel. Well, Elrond in general, but those two especially. And now I'm thinking there are loads of things I didn't write. Which could have been because I read them instead, but, that was years ago anyway.

I am currently re-reading Nilmandra's History Lessons because it's good and has lots of Elrond, but also because I've forgotten a lot and if LOTR is hard to get through (and it is - I hate description, Tolkien loves it...), The Silmarillion is worse.

I did, however, manage to write a drabble: My Heart and in the words of Samwise Gamgee: I'm back. Or at least, I intend to be.

And I leave you with my new found screen capping ability of one of my favourite scenes (despite not being in the book) as it features Elrond, Aragorn and an exceedingly pretty sword.
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I keep thinking I should update, but then I have nothing to say. I feel like my life has nothing going on it at the moment. Or at least nothing interesting. Which I've just realised is a terrible lead in to this post, which is a summary of what I'm up to... Read more...

Back at the end of May I signed up for a challenge to write 100 drabbles by early September (I forget the exact date). And I intended to write them all about Harry Sullivan, not knowing if that was possible.

And it turns out it is. I've written 100, 99 of which from his point of view. You can see them all using this tag. If you look at the tags at the end of each post that'll tell you who is in the drabbles in that post and when they're set. I started off posting them in sets with similar times and characters, but by the end I was mopping up a bit.

On the whole I quite enjoyed it. There were still some ideas I had to do that I had left over. It was good to get into the mindset and write 5-10 a day. But it's a hard way of writing 10,000 words!

1. Upon seeing a small tent-like thing by the side of the road you automatically assume there's a dead body underneath. Whereas it is in fact a BT tent to keep the rain off the engineers/hole. In hindsight, why I thought there was a tent concealing a dead body without any police cars or police officers around, I don't know.

I just went away and now can't be bothered with ordinary boring things. So in short:

• Work is not currently too busy! Although in saying that I'm sure I've jinxed it
• Yesterday it rained only while I was out. I do so enjoy shopping in the pouring rain and driving down the dual carriageway in rain so hard you can't see anything and not all cars put their lights on. Still, the last time I did that I had sunglasses on, so not having them on was a step up. And I did see a rainbow.
• I can't remember how many years ago it was that I bought my swimming costume, so it's not a surprise that it's wearing out. It was a surprise that it was so hard to find a new one. Everywhere sells bikinis and swimming costumes with shaped bits at the front, but if you actually want one to swim in, you have to go to the sports shop. Who had about three that were under 40" chest size.
• I have photos from Cheddar Gorge
• After telling people how none of my friends that I'm close enough to to be invited get married, I have been invited to a wedding. Which is a bit strange to me because I don't quite see the point of getting married, I refuse to set foot in a church again without a book to read to stop me from getting bored, and I was friends with them both before they got together. And I think that other people might be all sappy, saying how whatever they look together etc, etc, and I'll be thinking 'pass me the sick bucket'. I don't do sap. Fortunately it's in October, as both my dresses are black.

I tried to open Spotify the other day and immediately it told me it needed to download a new version but couldn't. Because my computer had disconnected from the internet. So I reset it, opened it again and the same thing happened. Which rather suggested Spotify was the culprit.

So the simplest solution was to download a new version. Which was instant. Installing it took less than a minute and it's now fine.

However, before I installed it I first wanted to create a system restore point. In XP I just went to the link I'd pinned to the Start Menu. In Windows 7 I stare at the Start Menu for a while before giving up. Fortunately, when I got Windows 7 I found a great site with tutorials on how to work it, so I went there and found how to create a system restore point. It's in Control Panel->System, nowhere near the System Restore menu, which is in Accessories->System.

I decided it's really silly to keep searching for how to do it every time and ended up following another tutorial which adds a shortcut to your desktop, which you just have to click and type your restore point in and it does it. Much quicker and easier. This is why I also have shortcuts to Start Menu for user and all users because I have no idea how to get to them in Windows 7 because right clicking on the Start Menu doesn't work.

Then I remembered that I wanted to add TextPad to the Quick Launch. In XP you dragged the shortcut. Doesn't work in Windows 7... I ended up going back to the same website to find where the Quick Launch lived and then sticking it in there.

I know Microsoft have done all this so people can't cock it all up (and people really can cock anything up on computers given half a chance). It's just that, by doing that, they've made everything so much harder if you know what you're doing. Which is the opposite to the version of Linux I have on my netbook, where if you don't know what you're doing you're reduced to copying and pasting into scripts... (which works, mind you)