So, instead of going and pumping up my tires, i just brought my bike for a service. it tuned out one of them was blown, anyway. so i got new, thorn resistant, tubes and they tightened all the wires and things. so my bike is perfect, and i didn't get to go out on it today. awh.
i will tomorrow, hopefully.
i had a fun video chat yesterday. got to see loads of family i wouldn't get to see, even in normal conditions.
i don't really have much else to say...
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
13 December 2010
05 November 2010
Dinner with Denise and Eamon
We went over to Denise and Eamon for dinner last night. I made a slightly melty chocolate cake. Aoife made dinner, which was yummy. It was so good to just hang out and chat. We got to see skittles (the hamster) too. I totally want to have a hamster now.
Today, I wrote a story for Louise. I've never written a story for a 7 year old before. I don't think it was exciting enough, but I have no idea how much tension a 7 year old can handle.
I don't have much news. The apartment is mostly empty. All our stuff is gone. The tv and consoles are still here, but most of the games are gone. The shelves are empty. The walls were bare until today, when we went to ikea and got some paintings (or printed canvases, really) to replace the art prints we had put into storage. We also got a stripy rug, so the place doesn't look quite so bad any more.
I did some mad cleaning today, too. I went all around the skirting boards, hoovered under furniture, pollyfilled holes in the ceiling. So I got a bit done. Still need to clean under the appliances in the kitchen, and clean the presses, and wardrobes. God, it makes me tired just thinking about it.
Anyway. It's the weekend now. I might go to the cinema tomorrow and we are off to galway on sunday.
Today, I wrote a story for Louise. I've never written a story for a 7 year old before. I don't think it was exciting enough, but I have no idea how much tension a 7 year old can handle.
I don't have much news. The apartment is mostly empty. All our stuff is gone. The tv and consoles are still here, but most of the games are gone. The shelves are empty. The walls were bare until today, when we went to ikea and got some paintings (or printed canvases, really) to replace the art prints we had put into storage. We also got a stripy rug, so the place doesn't look quite so bad any more.
I did some mad cleaning today, too. I went all around the skirting boards, hoovered under furniture, pollyfilled holes in the ceiling. So I got a bit done. Still need to clean under the appliances in the kitchen, and clean the presses, and wardrobes. God, it makes me tired just thinking about it.
Anyway. It's the weekend now. I might go to the cinema tomorrow and we are off to galway on sunday.
20 October 2010
Winter
I declare it officially winter. The first frost appeared this morning. The house was at 12C (even after the heating had been on for 40 minutes) so I put the heating on for another 2 hours. It's 19.5 in here now and the sun is doing an excellent job of warming this room. It's such a pity this is the only room with a south-facing window. But at least we have that much. We could have no south-facing windows.
I brought a hot-water bottle to bed last night and had it at my feet the whole night. It was lovely.
We went over to Sheila's for dinner last night. It was good to see them all. Dinner was good, desert was good. They are all well. Laura is a mad little thing.
I can't think of anything else to say. I think I said everything yesterday (or whenever).
I replaced the ram battery in my PC. It wouldn't boot properly yesterday, so I didn't have a choice. that was ok.
right, bye.
I brought a hot-water bottle to bed last night and had it at my feet the whole night. It was lovely.
We went over to Sheila's for dinner last night. It was good to see them all. Dinner was good, desert was good. They are all well. Laura is a mad little thing.
I can't think of anything else to say. I think I said everything yesterday (or whenever).
I replaced the ram battery in my PC. It wouldn't boot properly yesterday, so I didn't have a choice. that was ok.
right, bye.
19 July 2010
my beef with bioware
yet another procrastination post. i'm rewriting the end of my novel, again. what is it with beginnings and endings with me? the whole middle is fine, but i'm not happy with chapter 1 or chapters 33 to 36. hhuuuuuum.
to plants:
the pepper grows about a centimetre a day. it's gotten huge - it's about 2 feet high now. my tomatoes are also growing madly, one of them is really getting big - it's about 12cm tall with 5 leaves. no sign of the strawberries yet. the sun vanished just after i planted them, so i expect they will be a while. the kale isn't doing so well since i thinned it. i have four plants left. one seems to be wilting. two are ok, but don't seem to be growing. the last one seems to be growing ok, but it's the smallest of the lot.
to games:
i finished jade empire. it was fun enough. i figured out a neat fighting style that meant the bad guys couldn't get a hit on me. i don't know what that games problem is, but it seemed horribly unbalanced. the regular enemies could be taken down in about 5 seconds; if they hit you it wasn't a problem - their couldn't do much damage. they were pretty easy to beat. the bosses, on the other hand, were impossible. two hits from a boss and my character was dead. and it took about 5 minutes to beat a boss (that's 60times longer than a regular guy - that seems a bit extreme to me). anyway, i did finish the game, but i won't be rushing back to play it any time soon.
i played through dr ned and got half way through general knoxx in borderlands before i started playing mass effect. it's a fun enough game. for some reason, it seems to lack something. like, i'm kind of just playing it to see what it will present me with. i don't really feel much for any of the characters (my girl is pretty looking - that's about it) and i don't care much for the story so far. in fact, i don't really know what the story is yet. and i'm about 6 hours in... maybe. so i'll stick with it to see where it goes. jade empire was kind of similar - really slow to start and then it got going towards the end. but they spent too long on set-up and by the time the story got going i hadn't fallen in love with the characters. and then it was too late - i was too worried about staying alive.
in fact, i had another gripe with jade empire. it was supposed to be an rpg, but only the first two chapters had quests and stuff. after that, it was all fighting. there weren't even any puzzles or stuff, it was just, 'go here and kill this guy, then kill that mob of assassins, then kill this boss, then kill this mob of ghosts, then kill...' yea - you get the point. yea - schizophrenic game.
so, i kind of hope the bioware guys learned thier lesson from jade empire, and mass effect is better, but so far i'm not seeing it.
penelope_stone is up for the week (or two). it's fun having her around. we're thinking of going to sheila's for dinner some night - we really need to tell sheila about this.
right - it's ten past ten, i really need to get down to writing.
to plants:
the pepper grows about a centimetre a day. it's gotten huge - it's about 2 feet high now. my tomatoes are also growing madly, one of them is really getting big - it's about 12cm tall with 5 leaves. no sign of the strawberries yet. the sun vanished just after i planted them, so i expect they will be a while. the kale isn't doing so well since i thinned it. i have four plants left. one seems to be wilting. two are ok, but don't seem to be growing. the last one seems to be growing ok, but it's the smallest of the lot.
to games:
i finished jade empire. it was fun enough. i figured out a neat fighting style that meant the bad guys couldn't get a hit on me. i don't know what that games problem is, but it seemed horribly unbalanced. the regular enemies could be taken down in about 5 seconds; if they hit you it wasn't a problem - their couldn't do much damage. they were pretty easy to beat. the bosses, on the other hand, were impossible. two hits from a boss and my character was dead. and it took about 5 minutes to beat a boss (that's 60times longer than a regular guy - that seems a bit extreme to me). anyway, i did finish the game, but i won't be rushing back to play it any time soon.
i played through dr ned and got half way through general knoxx in borderlands before i started playing mass effect. it's a fun enough game. for some reason, it seems to lack something. like, i'm kind of just playing it to see what it will present me with. i don't really feel much for any of the characters (my girl is pretty looking - that's about it) and i don't care much for the story so far. in fact, i don't really know what the story is yet. and i'm about 6 hours in... maybe. so i'll stick with it to see where it goes. jade empire was kind of similar - really slow to start and then it got going towards the end. but they spent too long on set-up and by the time the story got going i hadn't fallen in love with the characters. and then it was too late - i was too worried about staying alive.
in fact, i had another gripe with jade empire. it was supposed to be an rpg, but only the first two chapters had quests and stuff. after that, it was all fighting. there weren't even any puzzles or stuff, it was just, 'go here and kill this guy, then kill that mob of assassins, then kill this boss, then kill this mob of ghosts, then kill...' yea - you get the point. yea - schizophrenic game.
so, i kind of hope the bioware guys learned thier lesson from jade empire, and mass effect is better, but so far i'm not seeing it.
penelope_stone is up for the week (or two). it's fun having her around. we're thinking of going to sheila's for dinner some night - we really need to tell sheila about this.
right - it's ten past ten, i really need to get down to writing.
27 June 2010
kerry
go visit three corner square, my website. It has two posts now, one containing some advice about writing different drafts for a novel. i must write a new post soon. i'm thinking of doing something on making the editing process more efficient, but those kinds of articles are rather prevalent on the net already.
on to the regular news.
i have spent the last 5 days in the wonderful company of ms penelope_stone and liam. we went for walks on the beach, flew super-powerful kites, wandered in the forest, watched glastonbury coverage.
in between that, i attended the beach wedding of mytholder and emopod. it was pretty amazing. the weather was perfect, the sky was the lightest shade of blue, the sea was the deepest shade of turquoise.
the weather stayed pretty good for the whole time. we had a barbecue last night and the only bit of heavy rain in the whole week fell as we were lighting it. ah well - it stopped as we were cooking and we got to eat outside. the sun even came out again near the end.
not much else happening. i'm heading home tomorrow. i'd love to just stay here for a month. but it will be fun to go home to borderlands. i'm sort of worried about what kind of state the apartment will be in, though. ah well. i'll be taking a pepper plant home with me, and a renewed vigour to treat my plants with care and kindness.
on to the regular news.
i have spent the last 5 days in the wonderful company of ms penelope_stone and liam. we went for walks on the beach, flew super-powerful kites, wandered in the forest, watched glastonbury coverage.
in between that, i attended the beach wedding of mytholder and emopod. it was pretty amazing. the weather was perfect, the sky was the lightest shade of blue, the sea was the deepest shade of turquoise.
the weather stayed pretty good for the whole time. we had a barbecue last night and the only bit of heavy rain in the whole week fell as we were lighting it. ah well - it stopped as we were cooking and we got to eat outside. the sun even came out again near the end.
not much else happening. i'm heading home tomorrow. i'd love to just stay here for a month. but it will be fun to go home to borderlands. i'm sort of worried about what kind of state the apartment will be in, though. ah well. i'll be taking a pepper plant home with me, and a renewed vigour to treat my plants with care and kindness.
25 May 2010
weekend joys
the weekend was great. i got to meet more cousins i've not seen in about 10 years. everyone was in great form.
then on sunday my whole family came over to the apartment and stayed until today. it was cool.
we went into town yesterday and i bought some plugs for my ear. it's at 6mm now - has been at that for the last few years. i always figured i'd put in the effort to get it to 8, but i was just never bothered. so it's staying at 6 forever. i bought three really cute plugs - i have photos.
yea. they are the motivation behind this post.
i spent today (after everyone left - that really feels like yesterday, or last week or something) editing draft 3. chapter 1 is considerably different now. a little more action packed. penelope_stone tells me the book is too action packed as it is, but i'll sort all that out when i get to it. for now, the start needs more action.
hmmmm, yea. i got a bit sunburned over the weekend. lordkilljoy is off in australia and we are getting better weather here. it's mad. but good. nothing like a bit of warm sunlight.
then on sunday my whole family came over to the apartment and stayed until today. it was cool.
we went into town yesterday and i bought some plugs for my ear. it's at 6mm now - has been at that for the last few years. i always figured i'd put in the effort to get it to 8, but i was just never bothered. so it's staying at 6 forever. i bought three really cute plugs - i have photos.
yea. they are the motivation behind this post.
i spent today (after everyone left - that really feels like yesterday, or last week or something) editing draft 3. chapter 1 is considerably different now. a little more action packed. penelope_stone tells me the book is too action packed as it is, but i'll sort all that out when i get to it. for now, the start needs more action.
hmmmm, yea. i got a bit sunburned over the weekend. lordkilljoy is off in australia and we are getting better weather here. it's mad. but good. nothing like a bit of warm sunlight.
14 May 2010
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.
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.
10 May 2010
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.
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.
10 February 2010
diane duane
i came back in here after having lunch in the kitchen and i said to myself, "it's warm and it smells nice in here." what more could i want. it's so warm, in fact, that i've taken my jumper off. but now that it is off i'm wondering should i put it back on. i'll give it ten minutes and see. (edit ten minutes later - i put it back on.)
i had some other big news that i meant to say yesterday. warpcon was the weekend before last and diane duane and peter morwood were special guests. i may have mentioned diane duane on here before. i first read high wizardry when i was 10 or something and i loved it. it was the third book in a series so i went back and read the other 2. then on our world travels i picked up the rest of the series (to book 7) in a borders somewhere (malaysia, i think) and enjoyed them. i also loved her series about a group of cat wizards who guard the inter-dimensional portals in the new york subways. in fact, those books made me fall in love with new york without ever having been there.
so anyway. on saturday i went in to warpcon specifically to meet diane and ask her about getting published. i spoke to both her and peter and we could have chatted for hours (but i had to go). she had so much to say, from the use of a dictaphone and speech software (dragon) to peter showing me how he uses five different coloured pens for the five different novels he's writing at the moment. it was brilliant.
i love my new space. the sun shone in the window for the whole morning (it's clouded over a little now).
penelope_stone and liam are up on friday, just for the night. then they are off to scotland.
and we might be going to galway on saturday. that would be good. i like visiting catherine. thier house is very home-y.
i had some other big news that i meant to say yesterday. warpcon was the weekend before last and diane duane and peter morwood were special guests. i may have mentioned diane duane on here before. i first read high wizardry when i was 10 or something and i loved it. it was the third book in a series so i went back and read the other 2. then on our world travels i picked up the rest of the series (to book 7) in a borders somewhere (malaysia, i think) and enjoyed them. i also loved her series about a group of cat wizards who guard the inter-dimensional portals in the new york subways. in fact, those books made me fall in love with new york without ever having been there.
so anyway. on saturday i went in to warpcon specifically to meet diane and ask her about getting published. i spoke to both her and peter and we could have chatted for hours (but i had to go). she had so much to say, from the use of a dictaphone and speech software (dragon) to peter showing me how he uses five different coloured pens for the five different novels he's writing at the moment. it was brilliant.
i love my new space. the sun shone in the window for the whole morning (it's clouded over a little now).
penelope_stone and liam are up on friday, just for the night. then they are off to scotland.
and we might be going to galway on saturday. that would be good. i like visiting catherine. thier house is very home-y.
09 February 2010
the news of the last week and a half
right, i have heaps of news, starting with the cutest.
we bought a bird feeder thing in tesco about a month ago - a coconut shell filled with seeds and a kind of lard mixture. we had it out the front and in 3 weeks no bird touched it. last week i moved it to the back and i just checked it there and it's completely eaten. that's kinda cool. clearly the back of the apartment is superior to the front and that's where i live now :)
which moves me nicely on to my next bit of news - my computer is now in the spare room :) i have my old computer desk, liam's chair and a rad beside me. the only things i miss are the arms from my old chair. but i'm sure i'll get used to things. i even had to close down the blind a little because the sun was shining in my eyes. wooo.
now on to the not so cute and happy news. the reason i stayed down in cork for almost a week and a half (when it was only meant to be a weekend) is because joan (my aunt) died on saturday night (early sunday morning). it came as a bit of a shock but everyone knew the day would come at some stage. and now no one needs to worry any more because she's better of where she is, i imagine.
so we had the funeral and the cremation on thursday and then i decided to stay the weekend and got the train back today. in one way it was good, because i got to see aunts i'd not seen in years.
yea, so. i'm going to go now - i need to bring the rest of my stuff out of the kitchen. it's all the finickity (sic) stuff that i have so much of and that i have to try to re-home on this desk somewhere.
right - bye.
we bought a bird feeder thing in tesco about a month ago - a coconut shell filled with seeds and a kind of lard mixture. we had it out the front and in 3 weeks no bird touched it. last week i moved it to the back and i just checked it there and it's completely eaten. that's kinda cool. clearly the back of the apartment is superior to the front and that's where i live now :)
which moves me nicely on to my next bit of news - my computer is now in the spare room :) i have my old computer desk, liam's chair and a rad beside me. the only things i miss are the arms from my old chair. but i'm sure i'll get used to things. i even had to close down the blind a little because the sun was shining in my eyes. wooo.
now on to the not so cute and happy news. the reason i stayed down in cork for almost a week and a half (when it was only meant to be a weekend) is because joan (my aunt) died on saturday night (early sunday morning). it came as a bit of a shock but everyone knew the day would come at some stage. and now no one needs to worry any more because she's better of where she is, i imagine.
so we had the funeral and the cremation on thursday and then i decided to stay the weekend and got the train back today. in one way it was good, because i got to see aunts i'd not seen in years.
yea, so. i'm going to go now - i need to bring the rest of my stuff out of the kitchen. it's all the finickity (sic) stuff that i have so much of and that i have to try to re-home on this desk somewhere.
right - bye.
26 January 2010
the room that is spare
I got no (well hardly any - two sentences maybe) writing done today. the part i'm editing is quite badly written and trying to think up better ways to string words together is hard.
but it was a productive-kind-of-day anyway. after business in the village (got some yogitea cold season tea, yum yum yum), i procrastinated writing by reorganizing the spare room, cleaning its window and contemplated making the bed (but the sheets are still wet after i washed them on sunday. yes - don't even think about how long it takes to get stuff dry.
the re-organization was also an effort to give the spare room a more liveable feel. because come next week that will be my writing room. i'm bringing my desk up from cork and moving my computer out of the kitchen. it means i'll have sunlight (and lots of it), warmth (from said sunlight), a good view, a quiet place to work (the fridge gets really loud sometimes), a bed if i get tired - no, i'm just kidding on that last point. but i'm pretty excited about it. the only con is that i might be a bit squashed. i'll have to do my impromptu dancing in the hallway, i think. the spare room definitely doesn't have room for hip-swaying and arm-throwing and body-twirling. unless i dance on the bed, but i think falling over would be too much of a risk.
penelope_stone is over tomorrow. should have some fun with her. i can't wait. that's actually where the writing angst is coming from. i have to get this chapter done before the weekend, and with penelope_stone around i don't know how much writing time i'll have. but its all good. i'd give up a whole month of writing if i got to spend it with her.
but it was a productive-kind-of-day anyway. after business in the village (got some yogitea cold season tea, yum yum yum), i procrastinated writing by reorganizing the spare room, cleaning its window and contemplated making the bed (but the sheets are still wet after i washed them on sunday. yes - don't even think about how long it takes to get stuff dry.
the re-organization was also an effort to give the spare room a more liveable feel. because come next week that will be my writing room. i'm bringing my desk up from cork and moving my computer out of the kitchen. it means i'll have sunlight (and lots of it), warmth (from said sunlight), a good view, a quiet place to work (the fridge gets really loud sometimes), a bed if i get tired - no, i'm just kidding on that last point. but i'm pretty excited about it. the only con is that i might be a bit squashed. i'll have to do my impromptu dancing in the hallway, i think. the spare room definitely doesn't have room for hip-swaying and arm-throwing and body-twirling. unless i dance on the bed, but i think falling over would be too much of a risk.
penelope_stone is over tomorrow. should have some fun with her. i can't wait. that's actually where the writing angst is coming from. i have to get this chapter done before the weekend, and with penelope_stone around i don't know how much writing time i'll have. but its all good. i'd give up a whole month of writing if i got to spend it with her.
18 January 2010
erm....
Perhaps i shouldn't update my journal right now, but it's been a while and i have some news. Nothing major, but i'd like to have it for posterity.
lordkilljoy and i went over to denise and eamonn for dinner on friday evening. It was a lovely night, got to meet aoife again after so much time. Louise was hyper out (denise assures me she's not like that all the time). had a nice dinner and just chatted for a bit after. Louise's comment was "why don't you play something. Just talking is boring." Heh - i think i probably said that exact same thing when i was younger.
penelope_stone is coming over for her birthday. can't wait for that. she's not coming over because it's her birthday, though - it just happens to be when she'll be in dublin.
i'm moving into the spare room. i will have more light and sunshine to keep me warm (even though it has warmed up so much in the last week - it had got to about 11degrees in here last week, but now it's a balmy 19. and it feels so warm outside as well. i was wearing just a t-shirt and coat out the other day. it's easy to convince yourself that spring is here, but we still have 2 months to go before we can really start looking forward to warm weather.
i'm on chapter 12 this week. getting through it pretty well. just editing now, not rewriting. i think i just one more chapter that i'll rewrite (and i don't know how yet - the original is just too out of character for zachery). ooh, wait - maybe one and a half. but anyway - i'm getting there. in the home straight now (one month to go).
right - i don't have much else to say.
lordkilljoy and i went over to denise and eamonn for dinner on friday evening. It was a lovely night, got to meet aoife again after so much time. Louise was hyper out (denise assures me she's not like that all the time). had a nice dinner and just chatted for a bit after. Louise's comment was "why don't you play something. Just talking is boring." Heh - i think i probably said that exact same thing when i was younger.
penelope_stone is coming over for her birthday. can't wait for that. she's not coming over because it's her birthday, though - it just happens to be when she'll be in dublin.
i'm moving into the spare room. i will have more light and sunshine to keep me warm (even though it has warmed up so much in the last week - it had got to about 11degrees in here last week, but now it's a balmy 19. and it feels so warm outside as well. i was wearing just a t-shirt and coat out the other day. it's easy to convince yourself that spring is here, but we still have 2 months to go before we can really start looking forward to warm weather.
i'm on chapter 12 this week. getting through it pretty well. just editing now, not rewriting. i think i just one more chapter that i'll rewrite (and i don't know how yet - the original is just too out of character for zachery). ooh, wait - maybe one and a half. but anyway - i'm getting there. in the home straight now (one month to go).
right - i don't have much else to say.
09 July 2009
bike troubles
yea. my brain really wasn't working yesterday. i knew there was something good that i wanted to post about, but i just couldn't remember it. it was the trip to denise and eamonn. seeing everyone was brilliant. louise is a mentally lively girl of 6, denise and eamonn haven't changed much, and their house is very similar to how i remember it. it seems everyone is getting on well. we tried to make plans to meet up again while penelope_stone is around, but everyone is busy.
My bike is giving some trouble at the moment. i'm not sure if it just needs a service or if there's an actual problem with it. the chain doesn't stay on the gears - it keeps slipping down to the next one and sort of permanently clicking over, as if it wants to change, but can't. i wish i knew more about bikes and how the gear system works. so that's really annoying. yesterday the chain fell off in the middle of me cycling - with no provocation at all. i haven't gone out today, because it's a little intimidating and aggravating not being able to trust your gears. i should look stuff up online.
not much else to say... i'm still playing sacred2. my main character is almost at level 30. i got to fight a dragon last night, but he killed me. well, actually - i just wasn't fast enough to drink a potion.
i think that's all my news.
My bike is giving some trouble at the moment. i'm not sure if it just needs a service or if there's an actual problem with it. the chain doesn't stay on the gears - it keeps slipping down to the next one and sort of permanently clicking over, as if it wants to change, but can't. i wish i knew more about bikes and how the gear system works. so that's really annoying. yesterday the chain fell off in the middle of me cycling - with no provocation at all. i haven't gone out today, because it's a little intimidating and aggravating not being able to trust your gears. i should look stuff up online.
not much else to say... i'm still playing sacred2. my main character is almost at level 30. i got to fight a dragon last night, but he killed me. well, actually - i just wasn't fast enough to drink a potion.
i think that's all my news.
03 July 2009
summer fun
i cycled 16.3kms today, mostly by accident. i left the house intending to do 12, had a nice route all planned out, but somewhere along the way i must have missed a turn-off, because i ended up in celbridge. yep - just checked google maps and that turn-off was easy to miss. but at least now i know that i can do 16kms with only slightly more difficulty than 10. well, the last km was all downhill, so maybe i should set my new target at 15. agh - i just had the worst thought: go the other way and have a 1km hill at the start of the journey. maybe i won't do that. i'll just have to keep a super-special eye out for the turnoff.
i'm still playing sacred2. my seraphim (whose name is seraphina) is at level 18. she's annoying and i want to play an evil high elf, but i don't want to invest 10+ hours leveling another character. i don't think lordkilljoy would let me. i'm hogging the tv every evening. i feel terrible. i'll just have to buy sacred2 on the PC and play it on his computer instead.
penelope_stone is coming up on saturday evening (giving me a change to get into town to see delichan and mytholder's comic launch thingy). we're going to visit denise and eamonn on sunday evening. I haven't seen them in forever. I'm kinda excited about it. and granny and martene will be there too. it's great. i'll finally get to meet louise too. it's crazy having cousins that you've never met.
ok, gotta go now - make the place presentable for penelope_stone. and hopefully get a bit of writing done too, but i doubt i'll get much done before lordkilljoy comes home.
i'm still playing sacred2. my seraphim (whose name is seraphina) is at level 18. she's annoying and i want to play an evil high elf, but i don't want to invest 10+ hours leveling another character. i don't think lordkilljoy would let me. i'm hogging the tv every evening. i feel terrible. i'll just have to buy sacred2 on the PC and play it on his computer instead.
penelope_stone is coming up on saturday evening (giving me a change to get into town to see delichan and mytholder's comic launch thingy). we're going to visit denise and eamonn on sunday evening. I haven't seen them in forever. I'm kinda excited about it. and granny and martene will be there too. it's great. i'll finally get to meet louise too. it's crazy having cousins that you've never met.
ok, gotta go now - make the place presentable for penelope_stone. and hopefully get a bit of writing done too, but i doubt i'll get much done before lordkilljoy comes home.
23 March 2009
lordkilljoy encouraged me to join good reads the other day. now i have this obsession to get all the books i've ever read listed on my page there. it is folly, because i'd have to add in all the books i read when i was younger (i used read about a book a week when i was in school - it has dropped significantly as i've gotten older, which is a pity). so i've been doing that and not writing, as i had hoped to do today. march is sliding rapidly into the gloomy depths of the past and i'm not even half-way through my high-fantasy.
it was really good having penelope_stone up last week. we went into town on saturday, she bought a bit of stuff, i didn't buy anything - i just don't like the clothes that are in fashion at the moment. i never like the clothes that are in fashion, though - so there's nothing new in that.
on friday, we barbecued food for penelope_stone. it was an extremely random idea for dinner, but it was lovely. we cooked outside on the balcony, but ate inside where it was warm. perhaps the spring solstice is just a little early for outdoor food.
we bought a little (well kinda big, actually) box for yoshi to chase crickets around in. he just seemed scared in there yesterday, but today he ate 2 crickets. i was so happy for him. he can actually feed himself. it's great though that he's gone from only eating morio worms and refusing crickets to catching them on his own. he's shedding a lot at the moment as well. he spends lots of time sitting in his water scratching.
i can't really think of anything else to say.
it was really good having penelope_stone up last week. we went into town on saturday, she bought a bit of stuff, i didn't buy anything - i just don't like the clothes that are in fashion at the moment. i never like the clothes that are in fashion, though - so there's nothing new in that.
on friday, we barbecued food for penelope_stone. it was an extremely random idea for dinner, but it was lovely. we cooked outside on the balcony, but ate inside where it was warm. perhaps the spring solstice is just a little early for outdoor food.
we bought a little (well kinda big, actually) box for yoshi to chase crickets around in. he just seemed scared in there yesterday, but today he ate 2 crickets. i was so happy for him. he can actually feed himself. it's great though that he's gone from only eating morio worms and refusing crickets to catching them on his own. he's shedding a lot at the moment as well. he spends lots of time sitting in his water scratching.
i can't really think of anything else to say.
19 March 2009
it is a beautiful day
i just cycled an 8km round trip. 2 to the shop and 6 home. as you can clearly tell, i went home the long way round. but it is such a beautiful day out, i just did not want to go home through the village. so i headed out into the countryside and did a big loop around. and it was wonderful - the air was a perfect temperature for cycling, the sun was warm, the countryside was green and growing. my only problem was that i didn't have a drink with me and i was dehydrated by the time i got home. but a large glass of juice sorted that out.
in other good news, i got yoshi to eat a live cricket today. the lizard-specialist vet (the vet who'd seen him on monday knew lots, but got the other vet to give us a call yesterday) rang last night and practically gave out to me because his diet was so bad. she insisted we feed him live gut-loaded crickets and try to get him to eat veggies and stuff. so yea. the only way i could get him to eat a live cricket was to let it crawl on my hand. yoshi is such a spoiled little lizard... won't eat crickets that aren't hand-fed.
but anyway - i'm just happy that he's eating live ones. now we can start a rotational system of: crickets out of main container - into veggie container for 2 days - feed to yoshi. i figure if we have about 6 crickets in the veggie container at all times, we'll have enough nutritional food for him.
we are never, ever going to be able to go away on holidays, though. i couldn't imagine asking anyone to come in and hand-feed him crickets. but maybe we can just leave some in a bowl and he'll eat them by that stage.
penelope_stone is staying with us at the moment. it's really cool having her around, i get to have late night watch her tidy stuff away sessions again. i missed those. all we needed was some music on or something! it would have been like home again. ah well. she's climbing all week, but we're heading into town on saturday.
i don't really think i have any other news. i'll go now.
in other good news, i got yoshi to eat a live cricket today. the lizard-specialist vet (the vet who'd seen him on monday knew lots, but got the other vet to give us a call yesterday) rang last night and practically gave out to me because his diet was so bad. she insisted we feed him live gut-loaded crickets and try to get him to eat veggies and stuff. so yea. the only way i could get him to eat a live cricket was to let it crawl on my hand. yoshi is such a spoiled little lizard... won't eat crickets that aren't hand-fed.
but anyway - i'm just happy that he's eating live ones. now we can start a rotational system of: crickets out of main container - into veggie container for 2 days - feed to yoshi. i figure if we have about 6 crickets in the veggie container at all times, we'll have enough nutritional food for him.
we are never, ever going to be able to go away on holidays, though. i couldn't imagine asking anyone to come in and hand-feed him crickets. but maybe we can just leave some in a bowl and he'll eat them by that stage.
penelope_stone is staying with us at the moment. it's really cool having her around, i get to have late night watch her tidy stuff away sessions again. i missed those. all we needed was some music on or something! it would have been like home again. ah well. she's climbing all week, but we're heading into town on saturday.
i don't really think i have any other news. i'll go now.
15 September 2008
2 days of news
penelope_stone left us yesterday for the naturalistic charms of murky kerry. i've had years to get used to the idea that she would eventually leave home, so the lack of her being around hasn't affected me too badly.
i pulled out old boxes of college notes last night for dumping. what with that and me being too lazy to put my clothes away into my various wardrobe-apparatus things, my room is a total mess; the kind of mess where i can either sit at my computer or lie on my bed, and everything else is out of bounds behind the piles of stuff that are on the floor. ok - i exaggerate a little, but not nearly as much as you might think.
i enjoyed the mind body spirit festival (aka the health fair). i spent all day saturday going to talks and workshops on topics from radiation to remote viewing. it was fun - i learned how to dowse with a pendulum (i don't think dowsing is my thing - i wasn't very good at it) and did a 10 second psychic reading for a random woman. madness. but it's the health fair so i'm allowed to dabble in wierd things.
while there i met a woman who wants me to work for her on a multimedia project she wants to do. it seems like a bit of fun - kind of video work, but working with still images and motion effects.
i started on my swashbuckler over the weekend. it's very formulaic, but should be some fun. i think the main problem when i'm writing for genrechallenge is that i don't really care for my characters. not like i care for zachery or zan or kej - or even the way i care for computer game characters. so i think i'll try focus on that a bit more. not just writing to get stuff done, but actually coming out with a character i care about and perhaps even a plot i care about. that would be cool.
yea... i read my zan / kej story again last night. it's not nearly as bad as i was expecting. the first half is kinda fun. the second half does lose it totally, but there is definitely stuff to work with in the re-write.
i pulled out old boxes of college notes last night for dumping. what with that and me being too lazy to put my clothes away into my various wardrobe-apparatus things, my room is a total mess; the kind of mess where i can either sit at my computer or lie on my bed, and everything else is out of bounds behind the piles of stuff that are on the floor. ok - i exaggerate a little, but not nearly as much as you might think.
i enjoyed the mind body spirit festival (aka the health fair). i spent all day saturday going to talks and workshops on topics from radiation to remote viewing. it was fun - i learned how to dowse with a pendulum (i don't think dowsing is my thing - i wasn't very good at it) and did a 10 second psychic reading for a random woman. madness. but it's the health fair so i'm allowed to dabble in wierd things.
while there i met a woman who wants me to work for her on a multimedia project she wants to do. it seems like a bit of fun - kind of video work, but working with still images and motion effects.
i started on my swashbuckler over the weekend. it's very formulaic, but should be some fun. i think the main problem when i'm writing for genrechallenge is that i don't really care for my characters. not like i care for zachery or zan or kej - or even the way i care for computer game characters. so i think i'll try focus on that a bit more. not just writing to get stuff done, but actually coming out with a character i care about and perhaps even a plot i care about. that would be cool.
yea... i read my zan / kej story again last night. it's not nearly as bad as i was expecting. the first half is kinda fun. the second half does lose it totally, but there is definitely stuff to work with in the re-write.
29 July 2008
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)