typing myself into oblivion

news, news, news.

i did my first assignment over the week. i ended up typing over 10,000 words in 8 hours. my hands were a bit sore afterwards. typing up voices takes an incredible amount of time. and i don't really think it matters how fast you are, because you get to a bit where you can't hear and you spend about 20 minutes just trying to decipher it. anyway - i had fun doing it. people speak really weirdly when you actually listen to them.

penelope_stone is coming up this weekend. that will be fun. i was going to go to carlow, but that's not happening now.

i'm back playing oblivion again. :scratch head: yea. i didn't think that would happen either, but i decided to play it on the xbox - just a quick run through of the main quest (and possibly the thieves' guild quest line, because i never finished it) and i got hooked. i'm going thieves, mages, main and deadra quests (and some random stuff). and once i get better at killing stuff, i'm going to join the dark brotherhood. hmmmm. i was only going to play for a week or something... oh well. (oh yea, my character is kind of pretty too. not as pretty as her in my icon, but pretty enough.)

i'm messing around with wordpress at the moment too. it's incredibly flexible with designs and layouts and stuff. you can design it any way you want. it's brilliant.

lordkilljoy is in singapore at the moment. i had an awful dream last night about being at home on my own, and all these men got into the house and were chasing me around the place. i tried to hide in the bathroom, but they broke down the door. it was awful.

crickets, crickets everywhere

lots of news. going to sum up the main bits, and go into detail on the kerfuffle in the kitchen today.

right - since i last posted, i got a job. i'm doing freelance transcription, which is great. i get to write (even if i don't get to create), i don't have to worry about getting into dublin for 9 in the morning, and i can go make tea whenever i want (it's work-from-home, if you hadn't guessed). fantastic.

saturday was my cousin, audrey's, confirmation. i went over to their house with denise. their house is beautiful, and so big. the day was good, got to meet aunts and uncles, and granny again. and i get to do it all again this weekend, because it's my cousin, conor's, confirmation. i'm looking forward to it - i'll get to see even more people.

i've started draft 3 of my novel. lots more changes in this draft, but not quite as drastic as the changes between drafts 1 and 2. i'm tackling the first chapter this week. i'm giving myself a week on ch1 and then a day for the rest of the chapters. until ch 14 (or whatever - the one that used be chapter 6) then i have to devote some time to making large changes again.

so today, or more accurately this evening: it seemed like a normal evening, had dinner, watched doctor who. and then i decided to water yoshi's tank and clean out his pool. normal enough tasks. but while i was at it, i decided to clean his little waterfall / fountain thing. i lifted off the top "rock" and in the pool of water underneath was a little floating island of critters. or critter larvae. all swimming around like bacteria under a microscope. awful. anyway i dumped them down the sink and washed out the waterfall and all was well.

but the god of tricks wasn't done with me yet. thirsty after my exertion, i got a drink. as i closed the glasses press, the smoothie maker fell from the shelf above it. but it didn't just fall onto the ground (no - that would have been too easy). it fell onto the tub of crickets (yoshi's food) and crickets, cricket poo, porrige and shed skins went everywhere. well the last three fell on the ground and on the counter and stayed put. the crickets fell on the counter and on the ground and immediately scurried for the closest dark space.

they ran under the dishwasher, under the washing machine, behind the cooker, under the microwave - even into the cracks in the tile grouting. we picked up as many as we could find, but i know for a fact there are at least three still loose in the kitchen. gooo. i'll be seeing them scurry across the floor for the next month - if not more.

jobs and less formal news

right, since my last post, i've had two interviews and a writing test. the first interview (admin in a recruitment agency) went well, but i didn't get the job. the second (supervisor in a language school) went well and i'm on to the second phase - a technical interview. so we'll see how that goes. the writing test was fun, and i'm waiting to get some feedback on that as well. it will probably be tuesday.

yea... this supervisor job, though. i'm just not sure. it's part-time (2 hours a day, five days a week) and pays just over minimum wage. so, i would waste 3 hours getting there and back for two hours of work. and the pay barely covers travel expenses and bills. but it would be another notch in my CV, and some experience.

i'd like it if this writing thing came through. working from home saves so much money. no travel, lunch costs about 70c, all the time i'm not working i can spend writing. but we'll see.

i went to see "how to train a dragon" today. bit late, i know, but still. i got to see it and i'm so glad i did. i could watch a whole movie that involved a winged creature soaring through the air, pulling mad stunts, a backdrop of exhilarating music. yea... it was good.

Did i mention i was playing splinter cell: conviction? I finished it the other night. really enjoyed it. now i have to get lordkilljoy to play co-op with me.

i finished joe abercrombie's trilogy too. i didn't like the end at all. the first book was ok, the second better, but the third was such a let-down. i have best served cold, and i'll probably read it because people said it was better, but it will be a while.
i'm starting the painted man today. can't wait to read it.

typing speed

wow - i can do audio typing at 60wmp, not very accurately, but i can do it. so now, i am applying for a job as an audio transcriber. 60wpm is their minimum. i tried 80wmp but fell behind, and my accuracy was even worse.
So anyway - i can now officially say i can type 60wmp, even though i don't. i type about 40, because anything faster is just stressful.

yea... i don't really have anything much to say.

and the sun pours down like honey

i got my space adventure finished. i'm debating posting it on the absolute write forums for critique. i'm so paranoid, and doubly so because i want to submit to an ezine. i got davidnarby and penelope_stone to read it and they liked it. i did some more edits to it today, and i think it's as good as i'm going to get it without critique from someone who has better writing skills than me. and because it's going for submission, i can't just post it on the web. oh well.

in other news: i played hard rain for a bit. my verdict - it would be better if it was a movie. it lacks the essential ingredient that makes a game a game; fun. it's not fun at all.
i'm playing splinter cell conviction at the moment, and really enjoying it. but i think their writer got a bit carried away with them-self. half the dialogue is too wordy / badly structured to follow. i found myself zoning out and at the end of the scene going "i have no idea what they just said." but that's a minor thing. i love sneaking around (even if i'm really bad at it) and getting sneaky kills on guys (even if i feel bad for it - i'd like to have the patience to play the whole game without killing anyone.)

emmm. i'm still looking for a job. i applied for a computer room tech job in a language school. i would absolutely love if they called me for interview and offered me the job. i always wanted to be a tech. i'd see the ones in CIT doing their jobs and i was like: i could do their job better than they are doing it. but sure. we'll wait and see.

so, i think that's all my news.

more random postings

do you think applying for just one job a day is a little lazy? that's five applications a week and 20 a month. maybe if i applied for 2 jobs a day i'd have a better chance. that would be 10 jobs a week and 40 a month. hmmm. perhaps i should do it that way.
maybe i'll stick with 5.

i'm so silly. as soon as i send off an application my heart starts pounding and a litany starts up in my head: please don't let them call me, please don't let them call me.

right.
ow, ow - my neck just cramped up. that really hurts.
ok - i'm going now.

good news

lordkilljoy often says how he would like to own a cleaver. my response was always: we don't need a cleaver and we have no space for it.
well, today i could have done with a cleaver. i got to hack chicken wings in half and it was so much fun. i got the biggest knife we had, pulled the wing open then whacked the knife down on it :) cut clean through the skin and bone.
great fun. my aim was off a few times, but over all i was quite proud of my butchery.
now the wings are cooking in the slow cooker with a fiery hot sauce on them.

in other brilliant news, davidnarby read my novel and loved it. wooooo :) i was so happy to hear that. it wasn't boring or slow or badly written. he said once the setting was established he was engaged the whole way. i'm so happy.

right, back to fiddling around with my cv. i've been at this three days, and i'm still not happy with it.
yea, you can tell i'm not completely focused because i've started updating my Lj on a regular basis again.

i'm a little hungry

more procrastination today. i spent the whole morning caring for our pets. i cleaned out nymph's tank: got rid of the bit of algae that had started to grow, cleared the debris from the stones at the bottom of the tank, gave him bloodworms to eat (not so sure he likes them as much as crickets) and cleaned off all the ornaments. yea - might take a bit for most of the bacteria to come back, but i kept most of the old water.
then i fed yoshi. he's such a scardy-head. he flinches away from me when i give him some food. silly lizard-boy.

in job-hunt news: i discovered why i never get called for an interview. i have gaps where i didn't work and then whem i did get work it was always short term. i never even considered that prospective employers would see that as a bad thing - they automatically assume that those two things mean you are unreliable and a bad worker. isn't that absolutely horrific? they blame you straight away and don't consider that there may have been no jobs or that your managers were so bad you had to leave. :sigh:
it makes me remember how petty the working world can be. and how much i can't stand shallow people.

yea.

life moves on

i finished draft 2 on friday (at about 1pm). i printed it out and brought it down to cork and there it waits for someone to read it.

so my new task is to find a job so that i can beef up my bank account. and guess what i'm doing right now? (if you guessed procrastinating, have a gold star.) yea. i'll just check Lj and google reader and then i'll get to looking for a job.
and i have to do up my cv and write coverletters. god - there is nothing worse than this. well, except maybe the working itself. but i don't think so.

firefox updated recently and now its red wavy underlines (for wrong spelling) are very obvious.
can you tell i'm struggling for something to say, just so i can pass another few minutes?

yea.
i'll go.

job update

i start on monday. i'm excited and nervous all at the same time. i think it will be great and i think it will be awful. i really pity me trying to sleep on sunday night. that could be an act of futility.

so, maybe expect entries so become less frequent, or to become more whiny, or both; hopefully not both.

umm, yea. that's all i wanted to say.

i got offered a job :)

got a call back from the agency that's dealing with the job. the guy wants to offer me the position. they are doing a reference check right now. i gave them joe from dod's number. that may have been a mistake. joe does not like taking calls from people. ah well. agency guy can call me back and i can give him mehboob's number instead.

so yea. it's cool. the guy was impressed by my knowledge and expertise of computers. hee, being a geek totally pays off when trying to get a computers-based job. i just hope it's not too stressful. he mentioned targets and performance ratings. these are two words that frighten me because i'm so competitive. i force myself to beat all expectations of me and i hate losing, but we'll see how i can balance apathy because it's a job and natural competitiveness. i'm sure it will be fine...

the way i am

i had another interview today. i found out about it less than 24 hours before i had it; which is fine, but which is why i didn't mention about it here. it's for a sales position in a computer shop. sounds like fun sort of work, but i really don't have much (or really any) retail experience. and i think i answered very laterally in my interview. i can't help it - i think laterally most of the time (which i say is the reason why i appear to have no common sence and am so ditzy). but anyway. i always get really nervous before interviews and, every time, i go looking up stuff on the internet to try to understand why this happens to me so badly. because my head is totally calm, yet my adrenaline glands are freaking out. i have yet to find a "cure" for this diversion between mind and body.
but anyway (again). i was just reading on a site for kids (things for kids are the best, because they don't overlook things that adults take for granted) and i think i absolutely can't deny to myself any more that i am a perfectionist. i know it, i just try to ignore the fact, because being a perfectionist is so hard. but still, if i was given a choice, i couldn't be anything less. i just wouldn't be happy if i didn't strive for perfection. but i guess if i wasn't a perfectionist i couldn't really care. yea...

anyway. getting off the point of me for a bit, how is everyone on my f-list? any personality revelations you'd like to share?

the days of unemployment

it's foggy this morning. i opened the curtains and was like: woah, everything is white. and then i realized it was fog and felt a little tingle of happiness run from my stomach out to my skin. i love fog. it's so mysterious and mystical.

awh, gosh. i started this entry this morning and then forgot about it (it's 12:02 now). i'm tailoring my cv at the moment. most dull of dull jobs. but i need to get a job, so there's nothing else for it. i want to say i hate my life, but i totally don't. i love my life, it just gets trying at times when i can't figure out why things arn't just working out. things have always just worked out for me. i have this innate luck or something, but i think my innate luck abandoned me just before i went travelling and hasn't deigned to return yet. please luck, come back. i miss you.

anyway. since no one at all in the whole world wants to hire me, i think i'm going to have to resort to shop work. i really didn't want to have to do this, because it's like the most soul destroying work on the planet.

i had thought of doing a tefl (teach english as a foreign language) course, but i'm so full of doubt. what if that dosn't work out for me either and i spend all this money on a course and still can't get work. it's a horrible feeling, actually. i never take risks.

today is probably not a good day for me to start ranting about stuff - i feel a decidedly misanthropic. and i'm hungry. i need to get something for lunch.

ugh, i'm such an idiot. i just closed down firefox. thank god livejournal saves drafts of entries.

ok, i could leave this post open all day (it's almost 1 now) and just keep adding to it, but i don't think i'm going to get to a resolution either way. so i'll just go now.

oh - i have some good news. i got my hair cut yesterday (or actually was it the day before). i think it's quite nice - nothing fancy, but it's all the same length now except for my fringe. :)

hand riviter

i just bought a hand riveter. call me peculiar, but it's something i've always wanted. now i just have to find something to rivet together. i'm thinking a large amount of paper, or some cloth or something.

i had my interview-thing. it was ok. my brain just shut-down and rebooted once. yeay.

the sun is shining today. not having been exposed to sunlight in about a month, i've gone a little crazy because of it.

lordkilljoy has been in my dreams for the last week, ever since he went to america. last night we were watching 80s fantasy movies on his psp, but fed through to the tv. it was a little wierd.

i havn't much else to say. i've read up to ch9 of the fall. ch 7 needs to be entirely scrapped and re-written as well. that's ok, though. chapter 8 is fun. my chapters are so long, though. like crazy long. but i think books with 30 or 40 chapters are just silly. 16 is a good number.

autumn changes

i just unsewed a top. and i just made up a word. woo!
i had this lovely top i got in KL, that was a black vest-type thing over a white shirt (or shirt pieces that were sewn into the top. but the first time i washed it, even though i was so careful, the die from the black ran into the white and gave it a kind of greenish tint. but it didn't do it very evenly and the top has been slightly unwearable since then. but last week i got a white shirt, and today i got around to unsewing* the shirt bits off the vest part :)
*unsewing; different from (is this the right preposition?) just ripping the stitches out and leaving bits of thread everywhere and risking ripping delicate wool.

so yea. that was very painstaking and took about 2 hours. my left arm cramped up half way through and the last bits were frustrating, because i just wanted to be done with it. but it's all good now, and i'm happy.

interview thing tomorrow. i'm not so sure if i want this job. it would be cool if it was closer. it's in sandyford, which is clear across the city. that's like a two hour commute on public transport or something... the idea of that just does not inspire me, and while people may say that i could use the time to write - i've tried and all the moving scenery out the window and shuffling people is way too distracting. but i guess we'll see.

i don't really have much other news. i drew a map today. that was fun. now i just have to come up with some city names (i have 2 of 11). city names are kinda hard. well, names in general are hard.
but just as i was saving the map my computer kind of had a spas attack. i had time to grab my camera and take a photo of my work before everything went into not responding mode and i had to restart the computer. i was so happy not to have lost the whole morning's work.

did i mention that i now have one and a half free shelves in my room? well i do. i'm trying to figure out the best stuff to populate them with.

heh - just making up a title for the post and i remembered a cool quote from Traitor's Moon (by lynn flewelling aka otterdance). it went something like: life changes and life changes you. it was so cool - the difference that one word can make.

ooh - i forgot to say: i printed out the fall yesterday. i have come to the conclusion that chapters 1 and 2 need to be utterly scrapped and re-written. i'm up to ch. 5 and it's not going too badly. the problem with writing for the nanowrimo is that i went way overboard on the exposition because i just wanted to fill up my word count. so there is lots that needs to be pulled out and written in a more dynamic way.

things

damnationfvente. i was learning japanese out loud and i missed a call on my phone. (my learning of japanese involved much laughing and music and stuff.) the number was blocked and i couldn't call the person back. i think the universe has it out for me. it totally dosn't want me getting a job.

but to cheer me up, i just got a happy birthday email from home of poi. awh :) more websites should do that. send a short email saying happy birthday.

so apart from having fun learning japanese and getting a nice and unexpected birthday wish, it's only been an ok day. i had a strange dream last night. lordkilljoy had gotten me a skirt for my birthday and i didn't know how to react. then guinness and ginger were there, but guinness was really vin diesel, only as a cat. it was so odd.
so i woke up kinda not exactly in a good mood this morning (i blame nature). i've not really felt like doing anything, and fun japanese took my mind off it :)

yea - i'll be better tomorrow.

books, beaches and bad music

i finished ender's game last night. it felt very short - i read it in 2 days. it seems books these days take me at least 3 weeks to read and even at that i don't get them finished. ah well.
so - i enjoyed it, but i did feel that he slipped during the second half. it stopped being so much about ender's emotions and struggles and became a bit more general, more about the setting and the people around him. actually, i got the impression that card stopped showing us the story and started telling it to us. so the second half was more like a recap on events than events actually taking place. but i still thought it was excellent. i really empathized with ender. he reminds me of me a lot, and not just the hard time i had in school, but the way i fear that if i accept help off people i'll never be able to do anything for myself again. and obviously his loneliness and the way he holds himself away from people resonated - but perhaps not quite as strongly as it would have a few years ago. (what's this - is ria possibly coming out of her extreme enforced lonership?! shock, horror. yea, now i just have to get over a lifetime of avoiding people. sometimes it's hard.)

penelope_stone and i went to the beach today. her car only has a radio or a tape-player, so i got to bring some of my old mix tapes along. one was from 1997. woah - that's 11 years ago. seriously - i should be a DJ. i love making playlists and putting songs into an order where every song blends well with the next one and they coast along through different emotions. it's fun. anyway. we listened to one from 2000 (i think it was my last mix tape - i got iTunes after that, when i went to college). but god - there were some dodgy songs on there. a lot of good stuff that i still listen to, but some seriously bad chart music that i cringed to hear. penelope_stone was greatly amused by it all.

the beach was good - sunny, a bit warm and we bounced along the coast - jumping across the rocks and testing the grippyness of our trail shoes.

i applied for a job as a meteorological officer today. it seems like interesting work and you get to work outside. i would endure quite a lot to not be stuck in some dull office all day every week. so yea - i'm so hoping i get called for an interview. maybe i shouldn't though, because then i just get to be even more disappointed when they tell me i wasn't suitable.

the quandaries of life and finding a job

i changed my style again. this time, it's one of the default Lj ones. i generally don't go for them, because they are too generic, but at the same time i'm way too lazy to go work on a style myself. anyway, we'll see how long this one lasts. it has a good chance of lasting a good long time, because the tags appear in a cloud, the page summary gives numbers of comments and the main entry text is constrained to a certain line length. so it has the things i like, the only problem is the colours, but it was the best of the pixipets ones.

i applied for more jobs today. dull, dull, dull sounding ones: secretarial and admin. i tried to just go for companies that sound interesting, in fields like music, printing, IT. i did apply for one customer service job, and one software testing job (whatever was i thinking? but it is an entry level position and they give you training, so why not? (the voice in my head says "because you have no knowledge of the industry." shush voice in my head))

i did this funny career test yesterday to help me figure out what kind of job i'd really like to do. it had this to tell me: Creative Expression, Aesthetics, Time Freedom, Job Tranquility, Change and Variety, Knowledge, Excitement, Moral Fulfillment are all aspects of a career that i would find fulfilling.
so:
_ i need to be exercising my creative drive, ok;
_ everything needs to be beautiful and inspiring, this is where i generally get let down;
_ i want no pressure, yea - good luck with that one;
_ again no stress or bother, so important it happens twice;
_ nothing boring and routine, never going to happen;
_ i want to learn new stuff and be using my brain, this one is a possibility but probably not without stress and responsibility;
_ can't be boring, i think we had this one already too;
_ and finally morally fulfilling, what on earth does this mean?
so in other words: my dream career is one that dosn't exist. well, ok - i have just cut off any ideas out of hand... ok - actually thinking of jobs that have all of these things: the no pressure thing is the real difficult thing to get around. you know, apart from the stress bit, games designer fits into all of these. i imagine it would get kind of routine after a while. writing a fantasy novel got routine - come up with idea, find good words, structure words into a sentence, come up with more words, structure them into a sentence that dosn't follow the exact same structure as the last sentence... yea. it's really hard.

anyway.

my 3d girl model is coming on. not exactly well, but we're getting there. i re-appled the biped because her hands weren't cooperating.
penelope_stone took me and davidnarby on a road trip looking for a car yesterday. it was quite successful. she found a car that suits her.

right. i think i've said enough.

the craziness of playing games and finding work

so... what do i have to say for myself today? not a whole lot really. i'm playing fallout 2 at the moment (meaning in general with my days, not right this very moment). it's fun - insanely similar to the first game, so it's really just like a continuation, which isn't really a good thing because it lacks the learning curve and dedicated time that hooks you to a game. it's like: ok, i've spent however long getting used to the controls and idiosyncrasies of this game, so i'll play it for a good bit to pay off that time investment. but that hasn't happened with this game. and the story just isn't hard hitting enough - they are holding back on me, alluding to stuff that will come along in the future. i suppose it should make me excited or a little curious about what the future holds, but it dosn't. so i just go around, do side-quests and get killed an awful lot. which is fun too. no dog to keep me company this time, though.

ooh, i never mentioned - i don't have a job. so it's back to applying randomly for me. now i've developed a certain apathy and my self-inhibitions get flung out through my eyes. this is the stage where my actual personality gets to apply for things and i end up putting stuff like is funny, spontaneous and creative on my applications. it has worked in the past - when you stop caring, you get a job. the world is somewhat twisted. perhaps future employers fear a person who is desperate, they get all sorts of nightmarish resonances of a clingy, needy child and absolutely don't want to have to deal with it. but when you just don't give a damn people respect your lack of self-regard and know your the kind of person who will just get the job done without need of extreme guidance. or maybe that's just the cute world of chibi dolls and baby monsters that is my mind.

god - my brain chemicals are so messed up today.

and now an actual update

buh, i always seem to start my entries with a dull statement like, "the weekend was good". it makes me feel uninspired. but i also feel that just starting into a story in the middle of it (as in, not doing a lead-up to the meaty bits) is too sudden. anyway.

i've been playing portal on lordkilljoy's xbox. got about half way through over a month ago, and i finally got around to finishing it yesterday. ok, i feel i should mention that lordkilljoy had totally hyped up the ending, so i was expecting something absolutely amazing. it was a good ending, but not nearly as good as other games i've played (prince of persia comes to mind for best game ending ever: both sands of time and two thrones). i should also mention that portal is the most annoying game i've played in ages. actually, i don't think my frustration was helped by the fact that it takes me ages to aim accurately with an xbox (i had typed xbob, hee) controller (or any controller that isn't a mouse and keyboard, for that matter), so i kept getting stuck around railings and things. all that aside, i couldn't stop thinking about the game all the way down on the bus and as i fell asleep last night, so obviously i enjoyed it... i just didn't realize it as i was playing or something. actually - it was hilarious. i was somewhat tired on monday night (i got mostly finished monday night, and just did the last bit tuesday afternoon) and i kept forgetting that i had a portal gun and what sort of fun things it can do to make my life easy. so i ended up wandering around a lot (i think my brain was secretly looking for levers or something) and wondering how on earth to get onto the next bit. of course, when i remembered the wonderful uses of the portal gun, i berated myself for being such an idiot. lordkilljoy must think i'm slow in the brain or something!!

so yea. monday was interview day. it went well enough, apart from the fact that they asked me to "go through my cv" and gave me no hinting or encouragement or anything. right! i'll just ramble and mumble for a bit and feel like some sort of foolish robot for not being able to read your mind and know what it is you want me to say. grrr. it felt more like some kind of memory test than an interview. like as if they wanted to test my public speaking skills more than my ability to do the job they had advertised. i hate the world some times. i was feeling very misogynistic in the bus on the way back to cork yesterday. i need to stop ranting now - i can feel my stomach start to knot up with annoyance. ok, this is me breathing.

went to galway on sunday - played with lordkilljoy's nephews. or one of them at any rate. ryan is a little young to actually play with. but i got to play run around the cars with darragh (yes, the cars were parked). kids are great for doing random running with :)

hmmm. i can't help but feel that there was something else i wanted to say. lordkilljoy wants me to join twitter, but i don't think i will, because i like to go on so much. i just can't curtail myself to less than three paragraphs once i've managed to frame my thoughts, and i never do anything whimsical enough to warrant a one liner post and so on and so forth ...insert random excuses here...

yea. i think i should stop now - i seem to be getting somewhat ranty. some day soon i will write an incredibly happy post that will have nothing but goodness in it and will smell lovely like a warm summer's day and will taste like whipped ice-cream and will feel like... hmmm, ok :P i think i'm loosing my mind.

ooh - i think i'm actually really allergic to chocolate. i have this annoying cough that (possibly until now used to) comes randomly and i think it happens whenever i eat chocolate. i'll have to put it to the test. it would be so great if it was true, because i don't like chocolate and it would give me extreme motivation not to eat it :)
i figured this out yesterday when i got a magnum (the ice cream in magnums is the best ever, unfortunately there is tonnes of chocolate to get through first) and my cough came along afterwards to annoy me for a few hours. so it would be cool if i knew how to prevent my cough and it would never bother me again :) wooo!

and see - my mood is happy. i got over my mild annoyance at the world. actually, maybe my mood should be hungry. my stomach is empty right now.