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July 30th, 2008
10:21 pm - Bonekickers
Is there any battier show on TV than "Bonekickers"?
I love archaeology shows, so had high hopes of this. And it's interesting in a 'can't take my eyes off it for a moment in case I miss something hilarious' kind of a way. ( Spoilers herein. )
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/mood/classic/angry.gif) cranky
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July 27th, 2008
12:10 pm - Meme thingy
Meme, gacked from ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif) were_lemur.
Write 10 things you would never say to the person or people you mean them for. They can be positive, negative or simply a paranoia you have that is related toward them directly.( Read more... )
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May 27th, 2008
01:14 pm - Ask me how crabby I am. Go on, ask
Actually, best not. I still have no printer despite the fact that it was ordered on 7 May. I hate DHL with the fiery heat of 1000 blazing suns. I have no idea why they cannot find my address and when having found it they cannot leave a card so that I know they called. I do not even know the correct tracking number as the numbty seller gave me the one that's incorrect.
He did tell me that DHL are the largest courier company in the world - which I knew. I told him they were the worst, which in my experience they are - they even outcrap shCittylink.
As you will have read, on the day I ordered the new living room carpet my computer went down, and having ordered a new one it might get here this week or next. I feel as if my arm's been cut off - more than half of my social life is through my computer.
The problem is either that the CPU is dead or that the motherboard is dead - all I got was an ominous ticking noise, and nothing was happening even with the BIOS. Still, that will be solved when the new one arrives. When.
As if that weren't enough
While I was at my union's conference I fell down in the bath, and now have a bruise two feet long down the inside of my left arm. It hurts. On the upside, the arm isn't broken. At least, I assume if I can use it, it's not broken. That will teach me not to use a lie-down bath in future.
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May 9th, 2008
06:27 pm - National backstabbers register
News here about a National Staff Dismissal Register (NSDR) due to start operation in the UK later this month.
Who came up with this? Especially as it will include information, not only about people actually convicted of crimes against their employer, but also, "...employees who resigned before they could face disciplinary proceedings at work." In other words, if you accept the view that someone is innocent until proven guilty, innocent people.
Obvious problem with that is that the charges could be fabricated, particularly where the employee has been a victim of bullying who turned round and bit back - I've had several cases myself where bullies have turned very nasty when the target got help with the situation. This is really not going to help.
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March 25th, 2008
10:28 am - Work, glorious work*
I'm sore as a gumboil about not getting a promotion. I didn't even get an interview, and the person who did get it is a wanker who knows nothing about the subjects he'll be dealing with, both of which are difficult and both of which I have previous experience with.
I expected that the feedback from my application would be an evisceration of my form-filling ability - I'd never dealt with completing the new CV based application before and it showed. It wasn't. So, now I'm even more baffled than I was.
I am therefore sourly assembling a list of words and phrases which it should be illegal for management types to use in proposals or in discussions with staff. So far I've come up with:
solution (as in 'the two-roof solution' (don't ask));
synergy;
strategy;
more for less;
real opportunities (what, exactly, is an unreal opportunity?);
working with the rest of [organisation] (surely that should go without saying?).
Current Mood: *Snarl*
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March 21st, 2008
04:22 pm - Today
I vacuum cleaned the flat.
Do not ask me why, I think I'm having some kind of a brain fever thing.
Current Mood: busy
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March 3rd, 2008
12:18 pm - What a bloody stupid thing to say
I vomit. I really do feel physically sick.
clare_nce draws to my attention the words of one Kay Burley from Sky News who asked the (completely innocent) wife of Steve Wright (murderer of 5 women in Ipswich):- "Do you think if you’d had a better sex life, he wouldn’t have done this?"
Tasteless? Rude? Thoughtless? Ignorant? All of those things with a dollop of sexism on top. Clarence's entry here.
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December 27th, 2007
10:55 pm - Am back!
I had the journey from hell back from the Aged P's - the only thing which went well was that I blagged a lift from my brother from the Village of the Damned to Nuneaton. From there I had to get a bus to Coventry. I hate travelling by bus for any distance, and as usual I felt rather sick by the time I arrived.
I then discovered that the train from Coventry to Banbury was late. Oh, boy, was it late. The first one to arrive was the 14:25. That one turned up at 14:50, but it was so packed I couldn't get on it. The 13:25 (no, not a mistype) arrived at 15:15, so I got on that. This was good as I was booked on the 15:25, but that wasn't due until 16:00.
I stood all the way to Banbury, which took longer than it should have. I suggested to one of the other passengers that this was because they hadn't wound up the elastic band sufficiently. I think he almost believed me for a moment.
At Banbury, the next train was late. I couldn't get on the first one there was no room. Pity, as that was the fast one to Marylebone. The next (which did have some room) was the slow one, stopping at every lamp post and halt on the way, but by then I didn't care as long as I could sit down, eat a sandwich and read my book.
The Aged P.
Is doing well. She ate well, anyway, and my brother and I feel that our work here is done: she woke up on Boxing Day with a hangover. Ha! That shows a Christmas day well spent, I think.
In more important news
Am shocked and horrified to read of the death of Benazir Bhutto. I have no words.
Current Mood: blank
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December 20th, 2007
10:43 am - OTW. Lee Goldberg weighs in...
Here. I had a feeling he would, eventually. It had a sort of inevitabilty about it. Plus, I was going to post this last night, but couldn't because Semagic was playing up for some reason, and in the meantime I notice Goldberg's entry has made fandom_wank. Way to go, Lee!
His spam filter wouldn't let me post my reply to one of his idiotic little furry friends, so I relieve my feelings by posting it here.
The annoying line comes from a bloke called Richard Wheeler, who is a repeat poodle of Goldberg's. He says, "Fan fiction compromises the artistic integrity of the work, and it destroys the very quality of the work."
I call bullshit.
I mean, wtf? How exactly does fanfic do that? Does it take it out to cheap brothels and feed it bad gin? Make it read "Lolita"? Induce it to mainline Jackson Pollock? It surely doesn't matter how many fanfics are written about a work, or how bad they are, the original work is there on the shelf untouched for other readers to enjoy.
Bit like it doesn't matter how many crap directors re-tell the Iliad in less than glorious Technicolor. The Iliad is still there for me to enjoy, and it always will be.
In any case, surely the point of copyright isn't to protect the 'artistic integrity' of the work, but to protect the creator's right to profit from it. It's a mechanism of the market. It has nothing to do with artistic endeavour.
Current Mood: blah
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November 14th, 2007
06:25 pm - Success!
Letter from the freeholder-landlord-maintenance person received today, "Following my letter dated 18 October regarding the proposed works to the paths around [Chez Lexin] I received several comments expressing concern that the flowerbeds might be removed to make way for more parking spaces. I therefore propose to only renew the existing paths as required by the insurers."
Success! Suck on that, landlord-type-bloodsucker.
It'll still cost the residents around £1000 each to do that work, but it's a win for us.
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October 31st, 2007
07:55 am - Who is it?
I probably shouldn't ask as it shows me up to be the shallow individual I sometimes am...but, US friends, please allow me my curiosity and tell me, who is this royal who's caught up in the blackmail scenario?
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/mood/classic/confused.gif) curious
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October 21st, 2007
04:52 pm
To cheer me up, here's a picture of a happy dog.
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September 28th, 2007
11:11 am - LJ and its uses
This made me laugh out loud... maybe it will with you, too.
http://xkcd.com/77/
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September 24th, 2007
12:11 pm - Update
Any slight guilt I may have felt on spending an hour this morning discussing the death penalty with the colleague in the next desk is totally assuaged by witnessing three of our senior managers discussing football for somewhat longer.
Colleague in the next desk turns out be Nigerian. I'd always thought he was Ghanaian (sp?) because he reads websites to do with Ghana, but it turns out he's a Nigerian who's lived in Ghana. The reason this came out was to do with said discussion on the death penalty...this is a quiet, Christian (in every good sense of the word), man and he was advocating the death penalty as a political tool. Apparently, it really worked in Ghana - to which my only response was, 'Yeuch.'
The matter came up at all because we were discussing what we'd done over the weekend, and I said I'd seen the film "Pierrepoint", which is about the bloke who held the position of the Official Executioner in the UK from some date in the 30's to at least the end of WW2 and slightly beyond. I found it an illuminating film, though it didn't change my mind about the death penalty; I'm still very much against it, though now partly because of the damage it does to the executioner.
In other news
There isn't any. After last week, I promised myself 48 hours of no contact with anyone else, kick back and dribble slightly while playing Oblivion and eating ice-cream and rhubarb crumble. And this is what I did. Oh, and the ironing. But that's it.
And I did not risk taking any bins out today. That'll wait until I get back home.
And a question
Was there some kind of sporting event this weekend? Saturday night there seemed to be some kind of riot-cum-noisy-party going on in the surrounding streets.
Current Mood: Musing
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September 17th, 2007
11:19 am - I fail at life
Or could it be that life is conspiring against me?
OK, I get up this morning, was and dress (as one does). On my way out the door to work, I pick up the full sack of rubbish from the kitchen bin, meaning to throw it into the big bins outside.
At an early stage of this process, something in the bin punctured it. Unbeknownst to me, there was a foul-smelling liquid dripping from the bin the whole time I carried it out of the flat, down the stairs and as I tipped it into the big bin. At some stage, probably the bin-tipping section, it drips down my freshly laundered suit and gets onto my hands. I find out about this when I get on the underground - it's a warm environment and I've stopped moving.
In the next few minutes, I receive an insight into the sufferings of those people with fish-odor syndrome. My sympathies are with those people. Fellow passengers on public transport are not pleasant to fat people (if you're not fat and feel like arguing the point just take my word on that one. I'm all out of patience today) but that is nothing, nothing to how they are if you smell, and it strikes me that there cannot be very many people who smell intentionally.
I get off at Stratford, thinking at this stage that washing my hands and arms will solve the problem. It doesn't.
I give in and call work, telling them I'll be late. My colleague has a glance at my diary and tells me that I've an 11:30 meeting with some important stakeholders in the project I'm working on. I utter various unladylike words, which gain me a startled stare from the passing tramp (this is Stratford E15 after all) who is shuffling away due to the appalling smell.
At this stage, I have a choice. I can either inconvenience 50+ people on the underground, 70+ on a bus, or one in a taxi. The taxi wins - one person will be stunk out rather than 50+, though pity that one person.
When I get home, I pay the taxi driver, adding a handsome tip (the fare again) for his patience. To his credit, he has not mentioned the problem.
It's when I get to the flats, I discover that the bin dripped down the hall and in my flat. Reluctantly, I realise this will have to wait until I get home to be sorted out, due to the 11:30 meeting and the preparation needing to be done for it.
I strip, and put the smelly clothes in the washing machine. I wash, for the second time today. I wash my stick, my bag, my watch strap, my glasses, my ring - even my earrings. I redress in fresh clothes.
I head out for work, for the second time.
When I arrive in the office, the meeting has been called off. I want to go into a small room and scream.
And I can still smell it. I don't think it's on me, I think it must be aftershocks with it being in my nose.
Can we stop today, now? I want to move on to Tuesday, right now.
Current Mood: Peeved
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September 3rd, 2007
11:49 am - Aged P.
I had an email over the weekend from my aunt who lives in Cyprus; she was telling me how hot it is over there. She also wanted to know how the Aged P. is, which is something of a surprise given that she's never betrayed very much interest in her before. Aged P. was upset she didn't get a visit from the said aunt when she was over here earlier in the year. She said she'd been "cut adrift" by that side of the family, which did strike me as true but overblown. My mother the drama queen.
I said that perhaps it would be best not to get visits from this aunt; she has a habit of going to the loo in your house, then taking the opportunity to go through your drawers. She will come down with some unconsidered (but valuable) trifle, and say, "If you're not using this, I'll have it." Aged P. saw what I meant, but wasn't mollified.
Probably the grabby Aunt has been reminded that the Aged P. is 82 tomorrow. I've ordered my usual flowers to be delivered by Tesco, and I'm going up there on Friday so I might even see the said flowers while they're still looking nice. Last time I gave her flowers she complained they were 'too heavy', but realistically, whatever I give her she'll complain about it.
I also have something she has asked for, a double sided purse, so we'll see what she makes of that. Chances are she won't like the colour.
Current Mood: *Snarl*
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August 22nd, 2007
09:14 am - Back!
I'm back from Wales, where I had a wonderful time gaming. The main outcome is I seem to have been elected to run Call of Cthulhu at some date to be arranged around the end of October. I had an idea for a scenario while I was lying in bed one morning, so that'll have to get written. (Quick side-track to add it to my 'tasks' list.)
What else has happened?
Obviously nothing much.
I get back to find a review of "A Life More Ordinary" in which someone has accused me of changing the names of Harry and Snape's children to match DH. Which I didn't. I hadn't, actually, realised that my prediction was accurate until I read that review. So, you know, go me!.
Even my post was really boring.
The Aged P.
Has two ulcers. Obviously she liked the first one so much she went back for a second. But there doesn't seem to be anything else wrong with her stomach at the moment, which I suppose makes a change given the sheer number of other things she has.
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May 31st, 2007
10:31 am
GJ? Sucks rocks.
I hate it, I hope all this crap with LJ blows over and I'm not stuck with it. Or that they all come here, instead.
Current Mood: Dramatic
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March 12th, 2007
06:02 am - Technorati update
Technorati Profile
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August 26th, 2006
12:11 pm
No, I did not draw this, it has been done using MS Photodraw. There may be an alternate universe in which I can draw, but this is not it.
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