Since the flu thing has now turned into a sinus-based cold type thing (ie I'm no longer so feverish and achey, instead I'm just sneezing constantly) I ventured into work. No one has checked the shared emails, the head of the department seems to be under the illusion that I'm his lapdog who knows the answer to everything instantly and is ratty that I haven't answered an email he sent on Tuesday to the shared email address. It's Thursday and I wasn't here. The fact that the other four people who have access to the email account hadn't bothered to check it is not my problem.

I feel awful, yesterday I was actually thinking "I'm a malingerer, I should be at work." now that I am at work, I can barely keep my eyes open against the urge to sneeze, my nose is running like a tap, my throat is killing me and I'm already nearly finished the box of tissues on my desk.

I'm taking a half day and if I don't get that half day I'm going home sick. To hell with the damn points rating system thingy that counts the number of times I've been off sick.

bleugh

ETA Yay!

I have a half day today and all day off tomorrow, I can go home and feel like crap in my own house! And I can make icons and graphics, and work on pointless nostalgic and work on the fic I want to work on and possibly engage in the debate over brown/blue when it comes to suits... *g*

new season three DW pics have been released - here if you've somehow managed to miss the news. Not sure about the blue myself... but hell, it's not the wrapping that counts is it? (btw, shouldn't have to say it but I will anyway - that link has season three spoilers...)

Y'know how I finished the claim for 100days100icons for Impossible Planet/Satan Pit icons? Well I went and signed up for another episode - Tooth and Claw this time. And I also signed up for doctorwholims as well - expect much flailing on my part if I get through to the next round! And... I feel like I've been neglecting my BtVS/AtS/Firefly icons and it turns out that the entry I've made for this week's DW LIMS is actually akin to the 'one per episode' plan I had a while ago which I may have to start up again. So that's what.... around three hundred icons just for that, then the 100 for Tooth & Claw and the wallpaper for the dw_wallpaper second challenge (Final Stories - I'm having a tough time narrowing it down to one character) and then anything else that catches my magpie like eye... Oh - how could I have forgotten!? I also signed up for liz_marcs's Dark!Xander ficaton! I have two bunnies nibbling at me for that one - both set during the show but at different times. I must get something finished for that one (still feeling guilty about not having finished the Africander fics yet...)

Since the flu thing has now turned into a sinus-based cold type thing (ie I'm no longer so feverish and achey, instead I'm just sneezing constantly) I ventured into work. No one has checked the shared emails, the head of the department seems to be under the illusion that I'm his lapdog who knows the answer to everything instantly and is ratty that I haven't answered an email he sent on Tuesday to the shared email address. It's Thursday and I wasn't here. The fact that the other four people who have access to the email account hadn't bothered to check it is not my problem.

I feel awful, yesterday I was actually thinking "I'm a malingerer, I should be at work." now that I am at work, I can barely keep my eyes open against the urge to sneeze, my nose is running like a tap, my throat is killing me and I'm already nearly finished the box of tissues on my desk.

I'm taking a half day and if I don't get that half day I'm going home sick. To hell with the damn points rating system thingy that counts the number of times I've been off sick.

bleugh

ETA Yay!

I have a half day today and all day off tomorrow, I can go home and feel like crap in my own house! And I can make icons and graphics, and work on pointless nostalgic and work on the fic I want to work on and possibly engage in the debate over brown/blue when it comes to suits... *g*

new season three DW pics have been released - here if you've somehow managed to miss the news. Not sure about the blue myself... but hell, it's not the wrapping that counts is it? (btw, shouldn't have to say it but I will anyway - that link has season three spoilers...)

Y'know how I finished the claim for 100days100icons for Impossible Planet/Satan Pit icons? Well I went and signed up for another episode - Tooth and Claw this time. And I also signed up for doctorwholims as well - expect much flailing on my part if I get through to the next round! And... I feel like I've been neglecting my BtVS/AtS/Firefly icons and it turns out that the entry I've made for this week's DW LIMS is actually akin to the 'one per episode' plan I had a while ago which I may have to start up again. So that's what.... around three hundred icons just for that, then the 100 for Tooth & Claw and the wallpaper for the dw_wallpaper second challenge (Final Stories - I'm having a tough time narrowing it down to one character) and then anything else that catches my magpie like eye... Oh - how could I have forgotten!? I also signed up for liz_marcs's Dark!Xander ficaton! I have two bunnies nibbling at me for that one - both set during the show but at different times. I must get something finished for that one (still feeling guilty about not having finished the Africander fics yet...)

Ow. Ow. Ow.

I used to get really bad cramps in my legs at night. I took some medication for it but one of the side effects was that it gave me hot flushes. Since I was 18 at the time I really didn't want to feel like a menopausal woman (especially since my family on my mum's side actually has a history of early menopause and the warning signals are something I've been aware of since I was 14). So I stopped taking the pills and instead started eating saltier foods. I'm crap at the medical facts, but leg cramps can be a sign of salt deficiency so it's one way to prevent them.

The leg cramps faded into a painful memory and then became a joke "You remember those nights I'd wake up the entire house with my screaming? Ha ha!" And then I stopped eating so much salt because my blood pressure was a little high (nothing worrying but since my mum lived with heart disease and hypertension most of her life it's something I have to be aware of) and to be honest because I don't really like salt all that much. I don't add salt to the water I cook my potatoes, rice or pasta in, I rarely add it after cooking. Hell, I even stopped putting it in my cheesy eggs and I usually cook from scratch so salt kinda disappeared from my diet. And then I started training for the run and drinking more water as a result so what little salt I do take in is leaving my body almost straight away.

I'm paying for it now.

Ow. Ow. Ow!

Two nights ago - four times I was awake screaming and flailing about watching the muscles on the back of my legs contract. If it wasn't so frelling sore it'd be kinda fascinating. Each time I managed to relax the muscle and rotate my ankle a bit, got back to sleep only to wake up a couple of hours later and have to do the whole thing again.

So all day yesterday I had a hell of an ache in my leg, but I figured it wasn't too bad so I went for a (slightly shorter than normal) run and eased through it. It seemed okay, still achey but not sore.

Last night, six times I was awake screaming. And now both legs aren't just achey, they're sore, and my shoulder's trying to cramp up as well. I really am falling apart aren't I? So not going to be at the computer much today, not going running, I'm going to have a long hot bath with some Radox muscle soak and I'm going to eat pretzels. Lots of pretzels.

Ow. Ow. Ow.

ETA engelsteorra? Neil Hannon's going to be on Jonathon Ross' radio show on Radio 2 at some point between now (10:10) and 1 - thought you might want to know.

Ow. Ow. Ow.

I used to get really bad cramps in my legs at night. I took some medication for it but one of the side effects was that it gave me hot flushes. Since I was 18 at the time I really didn't want to feel like a menopausal woman (especially since my family on my mum's side actually has a history of early menopause and the warning signals are something I've been aware of since I was 14). So I stopped taking the pills and instead started eating saltier foods. I'm crap at the medical facts, but leg cramps can be a sign of salt deficiency so it's one way to prevent them.

The leg cramps faded into a painful memory and then became a joke "You remember those nights I'd wake up the entire house with my screaming? Ha ha!" And then I stopped eating so much salt because my blood pressure was a little high (nothing worrying but since my mum lived with heart disease and hypertension most of her life it's something I have to be aware of) and to be honest because I don't really like salt all that much. I don't add salt to the water I cook my potatoes, rice or pasta in, I rarely add it after cooking. Hell, I even stopped putting it in my cheesy eggs and I usually cook from scratch so salt kinda disappeared from my diet. And then I started training for the run and drinking more water as a result so what little salt I do take in is leaving my body almost straight away.

I'm paying for it now.

Ow. Ow. Ow!

Two nights ago - four times I was awake screaming and flailing about watching the muscles on the back of my legs contract. If it wasn't so frelling sore it'd be kinda fascinating. Each time I managed to relax the muscle and rotate my ankle a bit, got back to sleep only to wake up a couple of hours later and have to do the whole thing again.

So all day yesterday I had a hell of an ache in my leg, but I figured it wasn't too bad so I went for a (slightly shorter than normal) run and eased through it. It seemed okay, still achey but not sore.

Last night, six times I was awake screaming. And now both legs aren't just achey, they're sore, and my shoulder's trying to cramp up as well. I really am falling apart aren't I? So not going to be at the computer much today, not going running, I'm going to have a long hot bath with some Radox muscle soak and I'm going to eat pretzels. Lots of pretzels.

Ow. Ow. Ow.

ETA engelsteorra? Neil Hannon's going to be on Jonathon Ross' radio show on Radio 2 at some point between now (10:10) and 1 - thought you might want to know.

Yes, I fully recognise the irony in me writing a Cordy-centric stream of consciousness/thought process and having her constantly rabbiting on in my head but right now I have to get ready for work. I can't write this right now, I have to go...

Dammit!

Oh, and to my lungs, please, stop this coughing. It's annoying as hell and it makes my voice sound all funny. (the cough/laryngitis thing I had at the weekend is now firmly seated in my lungs making me cough almost constantly, making me not really able to breathe properly and still giving me a wonky voice. This is so much fun, no really.)

I've been a bit absent over the last couple of days because I keep curling up on the couch and waking up four or five hours later wondering why it got so cold/dark/what happened at the end of whatever programme I was watching when I fell asleep. Should be able to catch up over the day - honest!

(pretty icon is by kornpeep by the way!)

To do list for today
Finish, get beta'ed and post Cordy fic for spring_of_cordy
Finish chapter 2 of Final Straw and get it beta'ed
Make some headway with chapter 3 of Final Straw - that 10K deadline is looming and I'm only halfway...
Flesh out Learned From the Best and maybe get some of it written

ETA Best. Thing. Ever. (comparison of Cap'n Mal and the Tenth Doctor in pictures. (Spoilery for every episode of Firefly and every aired-in-the-UK episode of Doctor Who s2))

Yes, I fully recognise the irony in me writing a Cordy-centric stream of consciousness/thought process and having her constantly rabbiting on in my head but right now I have to get ready for work. I can't write this right now, I have to go...

Dammit!

Oh, and to my lungs, please, stop this coughing. It's annoying as hell and it makes my voice sound all funny. (the cough/laryngitis thing I had at the weekend is now firmly seated in my lungs making me cough almost constantly, making me not really able to breathe properly and still giving me a wonky voice. This is so much fun, no really.)

I've been a bit absent over the last couple of days because I keep curling up on the couch and waking up four or five hours later wondering why it got so cold/dark/what happened at the end of whatever programme I was watching when I fell asleep. Should be able to catch up over the day - honest!

(pretty icon is by kornpeep by the way!)

To do list for today
Finish, get beta'ed and post Cordy fic for spring_of_cordy
Finish chapter 2 of Final Straw and get it beta'ed
Make some headway with chapter 3 of Final Straw - that 10K deadline is looming and I'm only halfway...
Flesh out Learned From the Best and maybe get some of it written

ETA Best. Thing. Ever. (comparison of Cap'n Mal and the Tenth Doctor in pictures. (Spoilery for every episode of Firefly and every aired-in-the-UK episode of Doctor Who s2))

... and apparently that something is every single joint in my body. I'm kinda falling apart here and am still in a fair amount of pain. Wrist is still screaming at me with every opportunity and on Sunday morning I was out playing with my dog in the snow (he's a Westie, he's only likkle, he loves the snow but when he jumps into it he gets kinda... sunk. Heh!) and I went over on my ankle. So my right wrist is in a splint, my left ankle is strapped up in athletic bandaging and my head is pounding. (Okay, so technically my head isn't a 'joint' as such, but it's one more niggling health thing that's adding to the multitude. *g*)

And I couldn't get into work yesterday because of the snow, I was in the car for two and a half hours about fifty yards outside of the village where I live hoping that the snow plough was actually going to stop clearing the damn farm road and clear the main road instead... At 11.30 I gave up and went home.... to find I had no power at all. It came back on late in the afternoon but I have a cordless phone. Which doesn't work when there's no power. *le sigh* (when I say 'farm road', it actually is a farm road, but it's also the direct route to the Hunterston nuclear power stations so it figures they'd prioritise that...)

Still hurts to type for long so I'm going to go nurse my black coffee because I left the pint of milk on the kitchen counter and Monkey isn't in work so there won't be any cow juice today.

Still alive, still grouchy, still in pain.

ETA so it's now 9:15. I've cleared three days worth of queries and now have very little to do for the rest of the day. Joy.

Oh, and emeraldswan? As of 6.30 this morning I hadn't gotten any email from you - I'm not chasing you for it at all, I just know that your email server doesn't always like mine so if you sent it before... what would that make it, 1.30 am your time? then I didn't get it. :)

... and apparently that something is every single joint in my body. I'm kinda falling apart here and am still in a fair amount of pain. Wrist is still screaming at me with every opportunity and on Sunday morning I was out playing with my dog in the snow (he's a Westie, he's only likkle, he loves the snow but when he jumps into it he gets kinda... sunk. Heh!) and I went over on my ankle. So my right wrist is in a splint, my left ankle is strapped up in athletic bandaging and my head is pounding. (Okay, so technically my head isn't a 'joint' as such, but it's one more niggling health thing that's adding to the multitude. *g*)

And I couldn't get into work yesterday because of the snow, I was in the car for two and a half hours about fifty yards outside of the village where I live hoping that the snow plough was actually going to stop clearing the damn farm road and clear the main road instead... At 11.30 I gave up and went home.... to find I had no power at all. It came back on late in the afternoon but I have a cordless phone. Which doesn't work when there's no power. *le sigh* (when I say 'farm road', it actually is a farm road, but it's also the direct route to the Hunterston nuclear power stations so it figures they'd prioritise that...)

Still hurts to type for long so I'm going to go nurse my black coffee because I left the pint of milk on the kitchen counter and Monkey isn't in work so there won't be any cow juice today.

Still alive, still grouchy, still in pain.

ETA so it's now 9:15. I've cleared three days worth of queries and now have very little to do for the rest of the day. Joy.

Oh, and emeraldswan? As of 6.30 this morning I hadn't gotten any email from you - I'm not chasing you for it at all, I just know that your email server doesn't always like mine so if you sent it before... what would that make it, 1.30 am your time? then I didn't get it. :)

in pain - wrist ligament problem flared up yesterday and then I went and fell getting out of the car last night. And put my hands out to catch myself. My full weight on an already painful wrist.

Ouch.

So AWOL until I can type with both hands - hopefully not too long though. Zeppo Stillness is obviously extended.

in pain - wrist ligament problem flared up yesterday and then I went and fell getting out of the car last night. And put my hands out to catch myself. My full weight on an already painful wrist.

Ouch.

So AWOL until I can type with both hands - hopefully not too long though. Zeppo Stillness is obviously extended.

Too much caffeine, not enough sleep = Headache.

And irritability at people going home sick.

I should have worn my STFU t-shirt today really...

Too much caffeine, not enough sleep = Headache.

And irritability at people going home sick.

I should have worn my STFU t-shirt today really...

So I got me some sleeping pills yesterday. Guess what? I overslept.

Ooops.

I'm still feeling crappy so I've called in a sick day, but hey - at least I know the medication works! (plus, now I have a whole day to curl up under the duvet and write. Speaking of, someone sneak into my laptop and hide both free cell and 3D pinpall please? Cheers! I should have the OFWI draft finished today definitely, it's odd, once Willow started talking I got all the dialogue done, now I need to put actual prose around that. I've only done that with one other story in the past, and that was a pre-ship B/X fic. Heh!

Between Lies and Dreams on the other hand (my NaNo novel) is still dragging its feet. I will get this done, I swear it, but it's so much harder than I thought it'd be. And I thought it would be pretty difficult.

My GP was patronising yesterday, I've had issues with him in the past (he actually accused me of being a malingerer whilst I was sitting in his surgery in immense pain, with a neck brace on, unable to move my upper body at all (plus he gave me a neck brace which was too large, making the problem worse - I have an extra piece of bone on one of the vertebrae in my neck, it traps nerves and causes real problems every now and then). Yesterday he was actually quite nice, or tried to be, but I just felt like he was patronising me. Yes I'm depressed, yes I'm an insomniac, but I'm also an adult, I don't need him patting me on the shoulder and telling me I'm doing well for not crying in his office. Oh, and if I want to call it 'help' I don't need him telling me that's the wrong term. It is help. It's helping me help myself, that's still help. I have no problem using the word because 'support' doesn't cover it. Him telling me I'm using the wrong word just pissed me off yesterday, but if it'd been a bad day it could have knocked any sense of self-esteem out the window.

Oh - I have a favour to ask emeraldswan? Could you take over zeppo_stillness this week? If you've not got time (I know you're really busy right now) don't worry about it, I'll put it on hiatus for a week, I just have no time at all right now to concentrate on it.

So I got me some sleeping pills yesterday. Guess what? I overslept.

Ooops.

I'm still feeling crappy so I've called in a sick day, but hey - at least I know the medication works! (plus, now I have a whole day to curl up under the duvet and write. Speaking of, someone sneak into my laptop and hide both free cell and 3D pinpall please? Cheers! I should have the OFWI draft finished today definitely, it's odd, once Willow started talking I got all the dialogue done, now I need to put actual prose around that. I've only done that with one other story in the past, and that was a pre-ship B/X fic. Heh!

Between Lies and Dreams on the other hand (my NaNo novel) is still dragging its feet. I will get this done, I swear it, but it's so much harder than I thought it'd be. And I thought it would be pretty difficult.

My GP was patronising yesterday, I've had issues with him in the past (he actually accused me of being a malingerer whilst I was sitting in his surgery in immense pain, with a neck brace on, unable to move my upper body at all (plus he gave me a neck brace which was too large, making the problem worse - I have an extra piece of bone on one of the vertebrae in my neck, it traps nerves and causes real problems every now and then). Yesterday he was actually quite nice, or tried to be, but I just felt like he was patronising me. Yes I'm depressed, yes I'm an insomniac, but I'm also an adult, I don't need him patting me on the shoulder and telling me I'm doing well for not crying in his office. Oh, and if I want to call it 'help' I don't need him telling me that's the wrong term. It is help. It's helping me help myself, that's still help. I have no problem using the word because 'support' doesn't cover it. Him telling me I'm using the wrong word just pissed me off yesterday, but if it'd been a bad day it could have knocked any sense of self-esteem out the window.

Oh - I have a favour to ask emeraldswan? Could you take over zeppo_stillness this week? If you've not got time (I know you're really busy right now) don't worry about it, I'll put it on hiatus for a week, I just have no time at all right now to concentrate on it.

Happy belated birthday aaronlisa! Sorry I'm late - I wasn't online much yesterday. Hope you had a great day! Gah! Just realised I missed beccagirl17555! Happy very belated birthday sweetie!

In NaNo news I am now so far behind my target that it's beyond funny. I'm not giving up on this story at all, and I managed to get a lot done yesterday, but if I don't hit 50,000 then it's not going to be the end of the world. Although having said that I kind of overcame a hurdle last night in a part of the story that was bugging me a lot. It's still bugging me but I can always go back and fix it after November so now that's out the way the rest may just flow. Maybe. *g* I'll post what's done to marajaded_nano soon - I want to read it over one last time before I do (yeah I know, I'm risking an attack of the inner editor by doing that, but what the hell...)

I've also had zero motivation to do the site for Stu - the Gaelic Shamanism site - I told him I'd have something for him by today and everything I've done so far has sucked beyond the telling of it. It should not be this difficult - it's maybe 12 pages and one pdf file. That's it. Can I get it to behave? Can I buggery.

Plus, I'm considering having another efiction site - the code that's used for uploads to INAP. The new site would be the Buffy/Xander ship site I've been toying with for a while now. If I do use the efiction script it would be authorised uploaders only - anyone can submit but they'd be screened before they were accepted for the site. That should keep quality high. Plus there would be a huge section for graphics, I'm even considering having an uploadable gallery for that. Obviously with my current schedule this wouldn't be ready until the start of December but what do you guys think of the idea? Anyone who doesn't have the time to (or would rather not) upload their own stories could still send them to me and I can upload to their profile. Opinions?

Guy in the office just plugged in a fan to cool him down - I'm sitting here wrapped up in my jacket and scarf. One of the two of is clearly not well. *g* I actually have an appointment at the doctors tomorrow - to 'demand' sleeping pills on the advice of Norman the Psychologist - the appointment was made last... Tuesday it would be and this was the first I could get. Is it karmic that I'm feeling lousy just in time to see my GP? Heh!

Final note - we're really low on voting again on zeppo_stillness (and still no entries for the new challenge but that's open till Friday so I'm not too worried about that yet).

ETA HA! Y'know the data I was sorting last week - the Excel spreadsheet that wouldn't behave? Well I just tried something different with it - pasted the titles into Word to sort alphabetically and when I tried it I got this message: The data is too large for Windows to handle.

Ha!

I was a little bitchy to the GT there, for wich I apologise. She asked me something about Serials and I told her what I knew but said "It's probably changed since I did this, you'd better double check with someone who's done it lately" She wandered around a little, did the thing she was meant to do but then didn't know what to do with it. Then she comes back to my desk and says "Am I looking in the right place for this?" I don't know - it's changed since I did it. I told her to go check with someone else. Was that mean? Is it my fault both the Serials supervisors are off sick today?

It's now 10:10. I was *this* close to calling in sick this morning and am now alone in the office... Just as well I didn't call in then!

Oh - and speaking of sites, 'cause I was a while back in this post.... *g* Just to clarify - White Knight Awards is still open. We're only at the moment running two rounds per year because it's a lot of work getting each round going - but nominations will be opening up again in January for Round Three. There seems to be an assumption that we were closed - not the case at all. I'll be updating the site soon to show that.

edit again yeah, you know what's really witty? Coming up to someone bundled up in every layer they can get their hands on and clutching a cup of tea and asking that person "Are you feeling the cold?" No I'm not - thanks for asking, I just feel like raising my body temperature to see how long it takes me to pass out... *g* God love her, but the GT keeps asking me if I'm alright. I keep saying 'not really, but it's just a cold' (I dunno what it is, it's probably a cold though) and she keeps right on asking me. I can't go home sick, I'm not actually ill enough to go home sick to be honest, but there's not enough staff around anyway. And hell, if I went home that would mean there's no supervisor between 4 and 5 because J's got a dentists appointment.

Happy belated birthday aaronlisa! Sorry I'm late - I wasn't online much yesterday. Hope you had a great day! Gah! Just realised I missed beccagirl17555! Happy very belated birthday sweetie!

In NaNo news I am now so far behind my target that it's beyond funny. I'm not giving up on this story at all, and I managed to get a lot done yesterday, but if I don't hit 50,000 then it's not going to be the end of the world. Although having said that I kind of overcame a hurdle last night in a part of the story that was bugging me a lot. It's still bugging me but I can always go back and fix it after November so now that's out the way the rest may just flow. Maybe. *g* I'll post what's done to marajaded_nano soon - I want to read it over one last time before I do (yeah I know, I'm risking an attack of the inner editor by doing that, but what the hell...)

I've also had zero motivation to do the site for Stu - the Gaelic Shamanism site - I told him I'd have something for him by today and everything I've done so far has sucked beyond the telling of it. It should not be this difficult - it's maybe 12 pages and one pdf file. That's it. Can I get it to behave? Can I buggery.

Plus, I'm considering having another efiction site - the code that's used for uploads to INAP. The new site would be the Buffy/Xander ship site I've been toying with for a while now. If I do use the efiction script it would be authorised uploaders only - anyone can submit but they'd be screened before they were accepted for the site. That should keep quality high. Plus there would be a huge section for graphics, I'm even considering having an uploadable gallery for that. Obviously with my current schedule this wouldn't be ready until the start of December but what do you guys think of the idea? Anyone who doesn't have the time to (or would rather not) upload their own stories could still send them to me and I can upload to their profile. Opinions?

Guy in the office just plugged in a fan to cool him down - I'm sitting here wrapped up in my jacket and scarf. One of the two of is clearly not well. *g* I actually have an appointment at the doctors tomorrow - to 'demand' sleeping pills on the advice of Norman the Psychologist - the appointment was made last... Tuesday it would be and this was the first I could get. Is it karmic that I'm feeling lousy just in time to see my GP? Heh!

Final note - we're really low on voting again on zeppo_stillness (and still no entries for the new challenge but that's open till Friday so I'm not too worried about that yet).

ETA HA! Y'know the data I was sorting last week - the Excel spreadsheet that wouldn't behave? Well I just tried something different with it - pasted the titles into Word to sort alphabetically and when I tried it I got this message: The data is too large for Windows to handle.

Ha!

I was a little bitchy to the GT there, for wich I apologise. She asked me something about Serials and I told her what I knew but said "It's probably changed since I did this, you'd better double check with someone who's done it lately" She wandered around a little, did the thing she was meant to do but then didn't know what to do with it. Then she comes back to my desk and says "Am I looking in the right place for this?" I don't know - it's changed since I did it. I told her to go check with someone else. Was that mean? Is it my fault both the Serials supervisors are off sick today?

It's now 10:10. I was *this* close to calling in sick this morning and am now alone in the office... Just as well I didn't call in then!

Oh - and speaking of sites, 'cause I was a while back in this post.... *g* Just to clarify - White Knight Awards is still open. We're only at the moment running two rounds per year because it's a lot of work getting each round going - but nominations will be opening up again in January for Round Three. There seems to be an assumption that we were closed - not the case at all. I'll be updating the site soon to show that.

edit again yeah, you know what's really witty? Coming up to someone bundled up in every layer they can get their hands on and clutching a cup of tea and asking that person "Are you feeling the cold?" No I'm not - thanks for asking, I just feel like raising my body temperature to see how long it takes me to pass out... *g* God love her, but the GT keeps asking me if I'm alright. I keep saying 'not really, but it's just a cold' (I dunno what it is, it's probably a cold though) and she keeps right on asking me. I can't go home sick, I'm not actually ill enough to go home sick to be honest, but there's not enough staff around anyway. And hell, if I went home that would mean there's no supervisor between 4 and 5 because J's got a dentists appointment.

I will stop sneezing at some point soon! I will. (I moved furniture and hoovered resulting in lots of dust in the air resulting in me sneezing constantly)

Gah

I will stop sneezing at some point soon! I will. (I moved furniture and hoovered resulting in lots of dust in the air resulting in me sneezing constantly)

Gah

A proper catch-up with me post, rather than icons or memes or sign-ups... Wonders'll never cease.

I still haven't heard back from Psychological Services about an appointment, some days - like today - I think maybe I don't need to go, that maybe I'm okay again, and then I get days and weeks where every single thing gets to me and I think, "Yeah, I need help with this". Last week was bad, I'll be the first to admit that, I was an utter bitch to people in RL, not much better to folks online, and I pushed people and things away from me again. I know that's the crux of my problem - isolationism - but I still do it every time it gets bad. I'm fine now though, the broken toys filling my head are currently in the teddy-bear hospital getting fixed. Ha! That was something my dad used to say when I was a kid, I haven't used that turn of phrase forever and it suddenly came out there. Odd.

Health-wise, being down like this plus the blood sugar issues drops my immune system way down so if there's a bug going around I'll get it. So for the next six months I will be constantly sneezing and coughing. I can cope with it though - the lemon and ginger tea willowmina  recommended to me a while back makes the world of difference, especially with a tiny bit of local honey in there... mmmm. Other than that I actually feel pretty healthy. Still could do with dropping a few pounds and definitely need to do something about getting fit again, but it's not too bad.

Work-wise, I ran out of things to do yesterday morning at 10am. I mean everything. I usually have back-up stuff kicking about my desk that gets pushed aside for days when things are slow. Nope, all done. I have no idea what I'm going to do for the rest of today!

Family-wise, well, I got a call from my sister last night asking me how to fix her VCR. Over the phone. Ha! I did it as well, and it worked in the end apparently. Nephew and Niece had made a video at nursery that day - some kind of blue-screen thing where they sit in a toy jeep and someone maps in moving images behind them. I think it was dinosaurs or something. Apparently the video costs £15 to buy. She's buying it, despite the fact that the ChromaKey was off on Niece (she's really blonde and her hair was transparent through most of the video apparently) and also despite the fact that she owes me £400 and the bank £500 (on top of loans and mortgage arrears). *sigh* looks like I won't be getting my car fixed any time soon then... She also said to me (at 7:55) "so what are you up to then?" I said "Waiting for SG-1 to start in five minutes." Twenty minutes later (after much grumbling about how everyone and their dog is ripping her off) she says "So what's your plans for tonight?" I say "Well, I was going to watch SG-1 but it started quarter an hour ago..." (Yeah, I could have hung up on her but it was a repeat anyway - just making the point that she doesn't listen to a word I say at all....) Families, dontcha love 'em?

Other-wise. Almost done on the site for my friend. It'll be hosted on Moments-Lost for the moment (it's only a few pages but is damn interesting stuff). This is my friend the published author, Stuart Harris-Logan, the site will be on 'Gaelic Shamanism' and from what I've read whilst I've been coding it, it's fascinating.

I'm making myself busy again as well, there's Stu's site, there's the revamp of Effects (I'm going with the red and black by the way!), there's the launch of Can I Have You?, there's the rework of the main Moments Lost page, there's the content to code for I Am Unwritten (my personal fic site) and then there's something else....

NaNoWriMo is kinda... worrying and exhilarating at the same time. I've still not settled on an idea for it - I've narrowed it down to two but I'm concerned they're both incredibly derivative and with the time limits imposed on it I could easily stray into inadvertent plagiarism. (One is akin to Iain Banks (without the M. - same guy, just not sci-fi) and the other is Orwellian - you can't say I don't aim high!). I still have a while to settle on one of them, and to plan it out so that I steer clear of the plagiarism trap. Thirteen days counts as a 'while' doesn't it? And then there's joss100  which should be a lot of fun if a bit daunting. 100 Simon Tam fics, given the fact that I've not written Simon's pov ever should be interesting to say the least! Plus, I may still get the fanfic100  claim for Mara Jade - that one should be slightly easier, although it really has been an incredibly long time since I've written Mara (in her own universe - crossovers don't really count). And then there's Old Friends With Indiscretions which I signed up for in the hopes that having a specific challenge would help me get over this problem I've built up in my head about writing Willow. The prompt I have for that is a good one, I think, and ideas are already swirling, it's just a matter of me getting over myself long enough to sit down and write it.

And finally, there's all my ongoing WIPs. Like I said before, I hate being the one who starts all these things and never finishes them. Destiny (for that is the one being reworked at the moment) will be completed soon - and radically re-written it has to be said. Crimson Regret will also be finished soon, and possibly re-written a little because the larger background story is now overshadowing the core dynamic I think - at least in my head. What a Difference a Day Makes, I wish I could say this would be finished soon but to be honest my muse for this one left the building a few months ago and hasn't been seen since. I'm trying to lure him back (yes, my muse is a he!)  but I don't know how successful I'll be with that! Slayerless... that one I think I'll leave on the back burner right now, at least until Buffy gets fed up with being in a coma and wakes up on her own! Off Course - oh I had such grand plans for this story, updates every week as a new episode of Lost aired in the UK, re-writing the episodes to incorporate Faith and Xander, watching them relate to the islanders. But... the truth of the matter is, our guys (Faith and Xander) wouldn't be as reactive as the survivors have been so far. They'd try their damndest to be proactive and by doing that they'd change the whole dynamic. So the episode re-write scheme is out the window right now, I'm in uncharted waters so far as this story is concerned, and I don't think it'll be as long as I originally thought it would. 'Cause lets face it - these two won't be happy with making a life on the island, they'll get off or die trying. Still, I have their back stories plotted out - the reasons they were on the plane, the reasons Robin isn't with Faith, the whole thing really - and I really want to tell those stories. So the story will not be abandoned at all - it just might not be what I originally said it would be...

'kay, I've now been typing this for far longer than I intended to. 'Bout time I looked around for something I can pretend to be doing for the rest of the day I guess!

ETA got the new Jamie Cullum album yesterday, and apart from the sometimes obvious heavy hand of a certain N.E.R.D., it's fantastic! thedothatgirl? There's at least one obvious fanvid song on this (maybe two because he does an incredible version of "I Only Have Eyes For You" as well)!

A proper catch-up with me post, rather than icons or memes or sign-ups... Wonders'll never cease.

I still haven't heard back from Psychological Services about an appointment, some days - like today - I think maybe I don't need to go, that maybe I'm okay again, and then I get days and weeks where every single thing gets to me and I think, "Yeah, I need help with this". Last week was bad, I'll be the first to admit that, I was an utter bitch to people in RL, not much better to folks online, and I pushed people and things away from me again. I know that's the crux of my problem - isolationism - but I still do it every time it gets bad. I'm fine now though, the broken toys filling my head are currently in the teddy-bear hospital getting fixed. Ha! That was something my dad used to say when I was a kid, I haven't used that turn of phrase forever and it suddenly came out there. Odd.

Health-wise, being down like this plus the blood sugar issues drops my immune system way down so if there's a bug going around I'll get it. So for the next six months I will be constantly sneezing and coughing. I can cope with it though - the lemon and ginger tea willowmina  recommended to me a while back makes the world of difference, especially with a tiny bit of local honey in there... mmmm. Other than that I actually feel pretty healthy. Still could do with dropping a few pounds and definitely need to do something about getting fit again, but it's not too bad.

Work-wise, I ran out of things to do yesterday morning at 10am. I mean everything. I usually have back-up stuff kicking about my desk that gets pushed aside for days when things are slow. Nope, all done. I have no idea what I'm going to do for the rest of today!

Family-wise, well, I got a call from my sister last night asking me how to fix her VCR. Over the phone. Ha! I did it as well, and it worked in the end apparently. Nephew and Niece had made a video at nursery that day - some kind of blue-screen thing where they sit in a toy jeep and someone maps in moving images behind them. I think it was dinosaurs or something. Apparently the video costs £15 to buy. She's buying it, despite the fact that the ChromaKey was off on Niece (she's really blonde and her hair was transparent through most of the video apparently) and also despite the fact that she owes me £400 and the bank £500 (on top of loans and mortgage arrears). *sigh* looks like I won't be getting my car fixed any time soon then... She also said to me (at 7:55) "so what are you up to then?" I said "Waiting for SG-1 to start in five minutes." Twenty minutes later (after much grumbling about how everyone and their dog is ripping her off) she says "So what's your plans for tonight?" I say "Well, I was going to watch SG-1 but it started quarter an hour ago..." (Yeah, I could have hung up on her but it was a repeat anyway - just making the point that she doesn't listen to a word I say at all....) Families, dontcha love 'em?

Other-wise. Almost done on the site for my friend. It'll be hosted on Moments-Lost for the moment (it's only a few pages but is damn interesting stuff). This is my friend the published author, Stuart Harris-Logan, the site will be on 'Gaelic Shamanism' and from what I've read whilst I've been coding it, it's fascinating.

I'm making myself busy again as well, there's Stu's site, there's the revamp of Effects (I'm going with the red and black by the way!), there's the launch of Can I Have You?, there's the rework of the main Moments Lost page, there's the content to code for I Am Unwritten (my personal fic site) and then there's something else....

NaNoWriMo is kinda... worrying and exhilarating at the same time. I've still not settled on an idea for it - I've narrowed it down to two but I'm concerned they're both incredibly derivative and with the time limits imposed on it I could easily stray into inadvertent plagiarism. (One is akin to Iain Banks (without the M. - same guy, just not sci-fi) and the other is Orwellian - you can't say I don't aim high!). I still have a while to settle on one of them, and to plan it out so that I steer clear of the plagiarism trap. Thirteen days counts as a 'while' doesn't it? And then there's joss100  which should be a lot of fun if a bit daunting. 100 Simon Tam fics, given the fact that I've not written Simon's pov ever should be interesting to say the least! Plus, I may still get the fanfic100  claim for Mara Jade - that one should be slightly easier, although it really has been an incredibly long time since I've written Mara (in her own universe - crossovers don't really count). And then there's Old Friends With Indiscretions which I signed up for in the hopes that having a specific challenge would help me get over this problem I've built up in my head about writing Willow. The prompt I have for that is a good one, I think, and ideas are already swirling, it's just a matter of me getting over myself long enough to sit down and write it.

And finally, there's all my ongoing WIPs. Like I said before, I hate being the one who starts all these things and never finishes them. Destiny (for that is the one being reworked at the moment) will be completed soon - and radically re-written it has to be said. Crimson Regret will also be finished soon, and possibly re-written a little because the larger background story is now overshadowing the core dynamic I think - at least in my head. What a Difference a Day Makes, I wish I could say this would be finished soon but to be honest my muse for this one left the building a few months ago and hasn't been seen since. I'm trying to lure him back (yes, my muse is a he!)  but I don't know how successful I'll be with that! Slayerless... that one I think I'll leave on the back burner right now, at least until Buffy gets fed up with being in a coma and wakes up on her own! Off Course - oh I had such grand plans for this story, updates every week as a new episode of Lost aired in the UK, re-writing the episodes to incorporate Faith and Xander, watching them relate to the islanders. But... the truth of the matter is, our guys (Faith and Xander) wouldn't be as reactive as the survivors have been so far. They'd try their damndest to be proactive and by doing that they'd change the whole dynamic. So the episode re-write scheme is out the window right now, I'm in uncharted waters so far as this story is concerned, and I don't think it'll be as long as I originally thought it would. 'Cause lets face it - these two won't be happy with making a life on the island, they'll get off or die trying. Still, I have their back stories plotted out - the reasons they were on the plane, the reasons Robin isn't with Faith, the whole thing really - and I really want to tell those stories. So the story will not be abandoned at all - it just might not be what I originally said it would be...

'kay, I've now been typing this for far longer than I intended to. 'Bout time I looked around for something I can pretend to be doing for the rest of the day I guess!

ETA got the new Jamie Cullum album yesterday, and apart from the sometimes obvious heavy hand of a certain N.E.R.D., it's fantastic! thedothatgirl? There's at least one obvious fanvid song on this (maybe two because he does an incredible version of "I Only Have Eyes For You" as well)!