dragonchan

Ain't done one in a while, so...

Give me the title of a story I’ve never written, and feedback telling me what you liked best about it, and I will tell you some or all of: the first sentence, the last sentence, the thing that made me want to write it, the biggest problem I had while writing it, why it almost never got submitted to magazines, the scene that hit the cutting room floor but that I wish I’d been able to salvage, or something else that I want readers to know.

Mph. Well, Halloween was a wash; spent it getting an early night. We don't tend to get trick or treaters round our way, our house is just that little bit too far out of the way to make it worth it... only knock we got at the door was the takeaway delivery. XD
Still all kinds of tired despite that...! Don't really know why. I've just been having a sleepy kind of week.

Off to London tomorrow for a coupla days; going to have to get the train back in time to get to work, mind, they've knackered my schedule since I last went. Ah, well. Yay for midweek late evening shifts? While I've got a list of things that might be cool to do, still not absolutely certain about plans... might depend on the weather a bit.

And been asked to do a couple of murals/illustrations on the walls for my cousin's kids: one is going to be Snow White. Not sure on the other... but anyway. This should be interesting! :)

Also, this video makes me wish I was still doing the animation thing. Catchy as hell tune, too.

Random links of the day...
Watch. Feel teeth ache.
(Incidentally, I think this is the first time I've done the Youtube-in-LJ thing. XD)





-

( On the Getting Things Done front: )

I've been on a bit of a down swing all week. Just generally low and getting into funny moods over little things. Could rant like mad, and the wibbly-mood bunny is raising its head in my mind again as I type this... but...
No. Going to try and at least get my head straight. Over the internet.

So... Things Which I Need To Do. In no particular order -

( 1) Get A Real/Full-Time Job. )

( 2) Get a Big Project or Hobby Thing. )

( 3) Get Out More... )

( 4) Get Active. )

( 5) Get Un-Scared Of Things. )

Yesyesyesyes! Finally! Freedom!
...this insane yelling is brought to you by the letter U and the numbers 2:1. In other words, I have finally passed the freakin' Engineering course.
Would've been nice to sneak that last exam up enough to get the first, buuut ... damn. It was NOT happening, that class was just insane. As it was, it was a just-about-pass... and that was enough.

I can sleep at night again.

(And start looking for Real Jobs. As cool as the gang in the house o' electricals are, it's ... starting to drive me stir crazy.)

So I'm heading home tonight. It's been a good trip! I'll try and do a big old post of what we were up to when I'm back, but it's been nice to have a relaxing holiday like this rather than a 'run around doing stuff and going places' one like a lot of ours seem to end up.

Ah well. Good times.

Apartment complex wi-fi is go - hello from Turkey, everyone! Wi-fi reaches from the pool to the bar but not up to our apartment, so I'm just chilling and trying not to get the computer splashed.

So yeah. Pretty nice place around here... lots of interesting bars, lots of restaurants, and the scenery is gorgeous. Not the in-your-face hassle we got last time we were in Turkey, this bit of the country's way more laid back/friendly. Haven't done anything crazy so far, just been exploring the town and so on and realising that 2 cocktails a night is probably enough for me. XD

So haven't posted anything in ages. Whee. Basically because Nothing Interesting's Been Happening. Well, a coupla things, maybe.

The netbook, in all its adorability and tininess, is no longer my main computer. I've recently (two weeks ago) acquired myself an iMac... it is shiny. And fast. And shiny. :D I seem to be having issues getting the scanner to work with it, but currently no big.

Digital critters have been eating my face. There's a thing with me. The more I say 'um, I'm not sure if it's my scene', the more chance I have of getting into something... and next thing you know, I'm snowed under by small fuzzy things.

And today?
Resit exam of doom. I think I've passed, but I'm not certain; first question nightmare (although a nightmare with a pretty little diagram), second meh, third was a surprising piece of cake. I'd expected first question to be the easy one and the third to be a pile of aaargh, but still... just got to hope for the best, now.
Hopefully, will never have to set foot in that uni again.

Planning on catching District 9 tomorrow. Should be good.

And on Monday? Off to Turkey - holiday time! Been to the bit we're going to before, a few years ago; it was nice back then, so hoping it'll still be good times now. Except for the Clingy Sales Guys. Can't have everything, though. Apartment apparently has wifi so that should be good! Just have to see...

So what's in a name?

I've rambled on about this in the distant past. Some people might remember it, I don't know.

Thing is, I hate my real name. Given name. Thing. Saying 'real' is kind of dumb, here. Online, I go by whatever I get called... (one day, I'll actually spend the cash on a rename token for this journal or take the time to move over, I kind of rushed the name when I was jumping at invite codes back in the day. I have a couple of ideas.) But anyway, intros... I've never done them. I've never minded being DC or M3 or Phoenix. But that feels like it should be wrong. But there is nothing I like introducing myself as!
Or hasn't been.

For the longest time, in work, I used to make a play of hiding my nametag behind a notebook in my pocket. Didn't want anyone seeing it. I don't do it, any more, but that's more apathy than anything.

Thing is, offline, I don't know how to change. Everyone knows me as what it says on my birth certificate. That's always what I'm introduced as. I feel kind of awkward when I have to myself - I can write it more comfortably. And trying to tell someone to their face that 'look, no' - for one thing, people inevitably go 'but it's such a nice name!'. No. It might sound nice. But that isn't the point. I'd feel hideously awkward about trying to impose a change on other people.
And where my own family are concerned... I've tried to bring it up. But I think it hurts them when I do. After all, they picked it.
So that doesn't help.

I'd love to just post "Hi, I'm .... Nice to meet you," here, one day. My head knows what it likes the sound of. But there's still a lurking 'would that even be me?' in the back of my head.
What does it matter?

And would I be happy once I'd said it?

Usually, our current boss is a cool guy.

Today, though. He'd asked me to work both Saturday and Sunday, when I just do Saturdays at the moment - I said I'd think about it. Decided no, for various reasons.

Boss calls me in today to ask about it...

"Sorry, but I really can't. I'm always busy Sundays."
"But we really need you."
"I really can't make it."
"We need a cashier Saturday and Sunday."
"I kind of feel bad about it but I can't."
"We don't need someone weekdays."
"I understand, but I really, really..."
"Well, you don't have to make a big deal about it."

Mental facepalm. Dude...

Random Music Link of the Day... it's been a while since I've done one of these, heh.

http://viotex.matrix.jp/

Hit the 'muzik' button for a whole bunch of awesome mashups - anime and games meets rap. And it is surprisingly cool. There's a lot there from Touhou, which is what got me there in the first place, but there's also Final Fantasy and a few other series too that I can't identify from the Japanese text (and sadly Babelfish doesn't really help a lot). But have a click around... use the links next to each song if you don't have a NicoNico account (I don't, so), there's links to both the full mashup version with lyrics and an instrumental version for each.
Enjoy!

Well... just got my results in from uni. Actually, they came yesterday but I was away... (London was as fun as ever, saw a coupla shows, nearly got landed on by a helicopter in Trafalgar Square, bought some cool stuff from Camden... good times.)

But anyway.
Well. Yeah, I've got to resit the exam I thought I did; twenty five percent. Geez. I have never screwed anything up like THAT before. XD But I was expecting that, so it ain't so bad, and juuust passed the other module I was worried about by the skin of my teeth. The resit itself is going to be early September. And if I pass it, I'm pretty much on a happy march to a 2:1. If I beat 60% on it, I may even be on for a first...! I don't know how the marks are weighted, but that'd be sweet.

So yeah. Propulsion Exam 2: Electric Jet-Powered Boogaloo coming later this year. And I intend to Not Screw Up. This time I know what the questions are likely to be like, so that'll help...
... I hope.

So - off again! London for a few days; back late Tuesday. It just kind of ... happened. Mum's been wanting to go since about Easter (aka when I was going 8^%$£*^ at uni) so this is kind of overdue. XD
Let's see if I can get to Forbidden Planet this time; didn't the last. ;)

Okay. Squee over, brain returning to reality. Geez, can't get jetlagged, we didn't even change time zones... but right.

( Portugal post of yay. )

So ... I'm back!

Damn it. That was a good trip. Just - that was one of those holidays that I didn't want to come back from, and I don't have them often.

There will be details soon. Once my head is functioning.

So it's stupid o'clock and I'm getting ready to go...

Why did I say I'd drive. Why? Ugh, feel like hell. But anyway. See ya in two weeks or whenever I can find wifi/a net cafe!

So. Off to Portugal Sunday, and I still have barely done any holiday shopping.
This is because ... it's shopping. Have picked up a couple of new tops and some new swim gear, but apart from that, blah.

Worrying about the first week. The villa looks like it's in the middle of nowhere if Google Maps are anything to go by. The main problem with that is I *hate* mountain roads. Or my stomach does, at least. I just hope that getting anywhere interesting from there's not going to be too bad.
Second week's an actual beach type resort. So at least we're not going to be omgstranded. I like being able to walk places from where we're staying on holiday.

Eh, well. Have to see.

*inaudible squee*

New Halo game, what?

( Okay, so the trailer doesn't tell us a lot, but... )