With friends like these...

So, after a week of being horribly oversensitive to everything my laptop does, mistaking every tiny noise for a My Hard Drive Is Crashing sound and worrying every time it does something that I didn't think I told it to do, it's managed to break anyway.

Oh, I'm still using it, but this morning (and yesterday morning) when I opened the lid after leaving it on overnight the screen, aside from a strip maybe 100px high at the top, was a washed out grey/white colour with a pink pixel line and a green pixel line which slowly filtered down for about another 100px before the screen flicked back to normal. I couldn't screencap it, which leads me to the conclusion that it's a problem with the screen itself, not the software. I've contacted Samsung, who told me that it was certainly not normal behaviour (I had held out some small hope that it might just be because of the lid being shut, more fool me) and that I should look into repair or replacement. I don't really want to faff about with getting it repaired, because it would have to be sent to Samsung and god knows where they'd send it or how long they'd keep it, so I called Laskys.

Since the laptop is still under warranty they've offered me a replacement, which unfortunately won't be for about another month since the laptop is out of stock at the moment. They're going to call me when it's back in and I guess we'll sort it out then. In the meantime I'll be getting a cheapish external hard drive so I don't need to go through all the bother of spending three days transferring everything from my old laptop again. I'll just have to make sure I turn off my laptop at night and don't fall asleep with it turned on - since that's when I tend to wake up all out of it, close the lid and go back to sleep - until I can get it replaced.

Bleh.

Having some weird trouble today.

My sister asked me who voiced Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, and so I went to check IMDb, which wouldn't load. Wikipedia also wouldn't load. Through checking my bookmarks I found that Hotmail and DeviantART also wouldn't load. I checked on my other browsers, and they still wouldn't work. After I poked around on the internet for a while I found that several sites I was trying to use to check why it might be happening wouldn't load either. However sites like Livejournal, tumblr, Gaia, AOL mail and the webcomics I read would load fine, as would Facebook.

So, I figure, it has to be a virus, though I don't know how I got it since I haven't gone onto any sites that I wouldn't normally. I set Avast up on a boot-time scan (scanning before Windows boots up and before viruses have the chance to activate) and it found two PUPs, which I deleted. When the computer started up again it seemed to have worked - the sites that wouldn't load before would load up... for about five minutes. Wikipedia and DeviantART still won't work (though DeviantART seems to be getting halfway there before it quits) and several of the other wikia sites I use occasionally (Fable, Fallout, Stargate) will refuse to load until repeatedly refreshed, when they will connect and work fine. Hotmail and IMDb will now load perfectly well also.

I've tried a system restore, which did nothing, and have also tried temporarily turning off my firewalls, which also did nothing. As a suggestion off a website I tried flushing my DNS... which also did nothing. I tried logging onto a guest account on my laptop and couldn't access the sites on there either, which makes me think it's a network issue.

I really have no idea of where to go from here and would really appreciate suggestions. I don't think it's a virus, since I've never heard of any virus behaving this way. Also, having just checked, I know that the problem websites WILL load if I use a proxy.

What the heck is even going on.

So it's been a little while since I posted a personal update, and I'm going to do one now. I'm starting this at 10:30 in the morning and I have no idea how long it's going to take me, because these entries always seem to take me forever.

I just checked, and it's been exactly two weeks since my last personal entry, so I can take it from there. I was stuck with the crippling pain for the rest of that day and the day after, (oh look, it's half past twelve. I got distracted) and as usual it affected my eating and sleeping habits, though far worse than it normally does. I've decided that if it's as bad next time I'm going to take it to the doctors because I can't keep being totally out of action for two or three days out of every month. I'll probably end up being put on some contraceptive pill or something, but I don't even care anymore.

As usual, I half killed myself getting all my assignments done on time. I don't know why I just don't keep to the resolution that I make every year (it's now 3:30, I got distracted again) and actually do my work in good time. I suppose I just manage better under pressure. Not that I'm terribly sure about the quality of this semester's assignments, but whatever, I got them in and that's all that matters. =_=

I've still been playing on Gaia, though not quite as much, probably because I've been doing all that work so maybe I'll get back into it now. I met a couple of nice people on there, and one very cool gal who shares so many of the same interests as me as well as being the same age and having just completed the same MA as I'm now doing. Small world, huh? 

Very little exciting has happened, though I'm beginning to get rather concerned about the state of my sister's mental health. I think she's hiding a lot more from us about how she's feeling, but at least she's getting a bit of help for it now. I'm worried, but at the same time I want to shake her and snap her out of it. Six weeks is far too long to still be crying over a boy. I don't know, maybe I seem a little cold, but she's making herself unwell and I looked at her today and realised how much weight she's lost.

Speaking of that, I've lost some weight myself. I'm currently standing at 5'7" and weighing in at 120lbs. Starting to become a slight problem now I think (it's now 4.30, I got distracted watching funny vids with sister). It's a lot harder to put weight on than it is to lose it, especially with my sleeping and eating habits... which I don't intend to change. I'm quite happy with how I am at the moment. Though speaking of my sleeping habits I haven't had a proper night of sleep in about a week. Part of that is my fault, though for the past two days I'm not sure what's wrong with me, I just can't seem to be able to sleep more than four hours at a time. It's not impacting upon me terribly since I don't have anything to do but it's still a pain.

In more interesting news, on Thursday night I went to see Rush. Who were absolutely fantastic. It was really good to see that they obviously still have so much fun with what they do, because really, at their age (57/58) they don't need to still be doing tours and they especially don't need to still be doing Europe tours, but they do. I never thought I'd get to see them but my dad, who is awesome, got us tickets about two weeks after we were discussing how we'd probably never get to see them.

It was a little bit strange, though. Rush have been going since 1968 and as a result most of the people there were 50+ year old men, so I felt a teeny bit out of place. I wasn't complaining, though, because it meant that there was no crazy shoving and pushing and people actually SAT DOWN, which was great because there's no way you'd get me standing up for three hours. My hands were so sore by the end from clapping and I had a really loud ringing in my ears when I finally got home and went to bed.

Dad wanted to know why so many of my friends knew who Rush were when none of his do. I just think I have awesome friends =3=

Yesterday, since dad was up here anyway, we went out with him (something we normally do on a Saturday) and we went to see the new Pirates film, which was.. alright, I guess. It wasn't amazing, but if you liked the others I'd say give it a watch, even if the mermaid subplot is really shoehorned in there (if you've seen it you'll know what I mean). After that I had a bit of stress when I realised I'd left my bag hanging over the arm of the seat in the cinema. Lucky I realised at all, I don't remember now exactly what prompted me to remember it, but I did, and thankfully it hadn't been busy at all so it was still hanging exactly where I'd left it with nothing missing. Phew.

I have some stuff that I want to get on with now that I have all that work out of the way. I need to update my newest fic and get my two fanworkathon fics done for the usxuk  comm, I have three RPs to reply to (PrUK, UKJap, AmeLiet) and ooooh what else do I need to do... I need to read through 14 sci-fi short stories and pick my favourites before the end of the month for my internship, and I also want to get back into gaming. I want to finish Okami again and try to make some more progress on Kingdom Hearts, and I have a load of games to replay after my Xbox decided it didn't want to transfer my old saves. Ho hum.

Well look at that. It's now half past five and it only took me seven hours to finally get this entry finished. That must be a new record.

Okay, it's been a while, and hell knows if I'll actually get this finished tonight, but here goes nothing.

On Friday we found ourselves in Leigh at two in the morning, waiting for the connecting minibus to take us to Knutsford so we could get on the coach. It took us eight hours to get to Dover because of bad weather and having to go off the motorway, and diversions we had to make to pick people up. The drive to Dover is, if you go straight, about five hours. I wasn't impressed, and I spent a lot of it somewhat bored since my phone battery doesn't handle ebuddy to well and it only lasted about four hours. I think I slept, a bit, and after a bit of a blip at Dover thanks to us being late for our ferry we were on our way to Calais. The sea had this strange mist over it, and I ventured up onto the outside deck (even though it was freezing and took a few photos, which if you haven't seen them will be in the album linked to at the bottom of this entry.

From Calais (France) we drove an hour and a half to Ostend, in Belgium. I can't say I was overwhelmed with the place though there was a very pretty ship in the harbour, which was all lit up as we left.



After we meandered around the town for a few hours we went to our hotel, and I was dealing with a steadily mounting urge to kill the people sat behind me on the coach. I'm sure you know the sort - the people who never shut up and complain about everything, while most of the things they complain about could be solved by them if they'd just stop complaining and deal with it.

Needless to say they were the bane of my existence for the entire weekend but I did my best to ignore them.

I crashed as soon as we got to the hotel. In my clothes. And slept for about twelve hours. On Saturday the day began bright and early and we set out for Valkenburg, Netherlands at 9am. People behind us were still complaining. I wanted to kill them all. They would not shut up about how the tour guide person on the bus wasn't telling them anything, but if they'd just shut up for five minutes they might have been able to hear him.

Anyway, we paid a little extra to be taken to some other markets in a placed called Maastricht. 'T was very pretty, and we had some mulled wine, which was nice. Also my idea, I swear mum and John had never had it before or something. It was so rich though, I couldn't even manage to drink one glass. After a couple of hours there we went to Valkenburg, which has its Christmas markets inside caves. It was very pretty, the only downside being that once you left, you couldn't go back in. It was also really freakin' cold, but I didn't mind that so much. Oddly, I wasn't really cold for the entire trip. I did buy some very cute gloves in Valkenburg - sort of suedeish and a light tan colour, with no fingers and fur around the edges. I also bought a candle shaped like a teapot and one of those glass things with bubbles inside that make a picture. People kept talking to me in Dutch! That's the problem about holidaying in northern Europe - if you're white-British, you don't look foreign enough XP

That night we had a meal in the hotel, which didn't go as well as we would have liked since the kitchen actually forgot about us and we were waiting two hours for our food. I wasn't that bothered, really - I'd had wine, I was just giggling - but mum was livid. It was a good thing the food was so good once we finally got it. I had steak.

Sunday saw us going home, but first we had a final stop to make, and one I'd been looking forward to. Bruges. The Venice of the North. It really was gorgeous, and I want to go again. I love places like that - where everything looks different and you just know you're in another country. Over the markets the bells in the Belfort en Hallen were ringing constantly and the snow had cleared but it still had a very Christmassy feel to it. It took us 20 minutes to walk to the markets from where the coach dropped us off, and when we found the edge of the main town centre there were lines of horse and carriages, with very enthusiastic drivers who would shout ahead in Dutch, French and English that we had to get out of the way because they weren't going to stop! 

Bruges is full of chocolate shops. Some of them have very strange things in them. The last thing I expected to see in what looked like a high-end chocolate shop was a row of chocolate penises. I admit I tittered a bit, though it made me wonder how that sort of thing would go over in England. Probably not very well.

We walked around Bruges for a few hours. I bought a snowglobe with the Belfort en Hallen in it, and a little dragon statuette, because I collect them. I also found a very nice mug with blue windmills painted on it and 'I love Holland' on the handle. The irony of buying it in Belgium did not escape me. I also had the most amazing waffle I have ever tasted - hot, with cream and strawberries on it. I was completely determined to eat the entire thing, even when it started falling apart.

It was so good ;~; I would very much like to go back to Bruges. I love places where I can walk around all day taking photos.

We crossed the channel at night this time, and then it took us a further eight hours to get home, by which time, my god, I was just glad to be home. I'd forgotten just how much stuff I'd bought.

After we got back, on the Tuesday, I was very ill. I did in fact lose ten pounds in ten days, which is the most weight I've lost in the past five or six years. Mother blames my eating habits, which would be fine if I hadn't had the same eating habits for the past three years (which she denies). If I ate like a normal person, I'd start putting on loads of weight, because I never do anything to burn it off.

*turns randomness switch on*

This.



gjkdfgfd

My dog has a weird lump on him. It's about the size of a pea and looks like a cyst. He's going to the vet tomorrow and my god I hope it isn't the 'C' word because if it is I might just be completely useless for all my assignments, which are due in four weeks. God that does seem like a long time doesn't it but it really isn't.

Holiday pics here

/end waffle.

I've finally shaken that cough, though now I've developed two very strategically placed mouth ulcers, one on my top lip and one on the lower half of my cheek, both on the left side of my mouth, which are stopping me eating properly. My knee is still sore, too. I can't kneel on it without it hurting, and though the bruising seems to have mostly gone down, I'm wondering if there's any lasting damage... Meh. It's probably just deep bruising. I did land on the ligament after all.

So. It's my birthday tomorrow. I'll be twenty-one years old. I don't want to be.

Perhaps it's a side effect of people (namely my mother) always using my age as a reason why I ought to be doing certain things, but I don't feel 'ready' to be twenty-one. It infers a level of being 'adult' that I don't think I've reached yet. Sometimes it feels like my brain got stuck at sixteen and my body just carried on without it. I don't know if I just didn't grow up or grew up a different way but I'm just not doing the same kinds of things that other people my age do. I'd rather spend my time indoors than go out and get drunk with friends (that I don't have...)...

Meh. I dunno.

My grandparents are going to be here in about 45 minutes, and I can't be bothered. I never have anything to say to them anyway.