With friends like these...

Yes, it's me, I'm still alive!

How long has it been since I last posted properly.... erm. Wow. Nearly a month.

Jeez...

Guess I should let y'all know what I've been up to! To be honest... roleplaying, mostly. I've joined a couple of games on DW and they've been keeping me pretty busy, but I've settled now and should definitely get back into writing. I noticed it's been a month since my last fic update I am so sorry about that I haven't even noticed the time passing so quickly. It's even half done and everything. I'll have that up soon as I can remember where I was actually going with it.

I still don't have a job and I'm still not much closer to getting one, but I'm still trying. I suppose it won't be much longer before the Jobcentre starts pushing even harder at me but I can't do more than I'm already doing and I'm not going to spend a load of my own money to go trolling around Wigan/Manchester/Warrington looking for jobs. I'm unemployed. I can't afford £4.50 on public transport however many times a week. It's the undeniable flaw in their logic, I think.

Though speaking of work I'm still volunteering at the British Heart Foundation. I've managed to garner myself a couple of admirers and while the attention is flattering it isn't exactly wanted. One of them has backed off, but the other is being a little more persistent. Not pushily or creepily so, but I think he's got it into his head that if he can just persuade me that I'd like to try to have something with him then it would all work out fine. I don't get into relationships anymore for a variety of reasons, and the fact that he's on the rebound after coming after an eight year long relationship with someone who just left him about three weeks ago would mean that even if I did like him that way I wouldn't be getting into anything with him now.

He's a nice enough guy and I think he's trying to be understanding about why I don't want to be with anyone, but I don't think he can quite get his head around the idea of someone who has no sexual desire.

Still, until he starts getting annoying, I'll allow it. He's not doing any harm and it's not like he's cornering me and demanding anything. I'd just be reluctant about doing anything with him 'as friends' in case he takes it as a sign that I'm starting to come around to the idea.

Hmm.

Last Saturday, I met up with the amazingly awesome nasty_show again and we went to see The Avengers. I hadn't been terribly bothered about seeing it since superhero films aren't one of the things I lose my shit over, but I was curious, and Holly once again swept me up in her enthusiasm as she has a tendency to do.

Luckily, that morning, the birthday present that I had bought for her had also arrived! It was late, but it was the first I'd seen her after her birthday so what can you do.

This is what I got her.



It's a pendant, and I bought it from a seller on Etsy. It's about a centimetre high and hand made, and the cutest thing. We had some lunch at my house and then went off to the cinema.

I HAVE NEVER HAD LESS REGRETS ABOUT SEEING A FILM I DIDN'T INITIALLY CARE ABOUT.

Seriously. If you have not seen The Avengers yet then you need to. Even if you don't care about superhero films.

I would see it again. Easily.

Nothing much happened through the week. The manager was off work so we actually got stuff done. Honestly, the manager is lovely but she tends to flit about and get under your feet, while the assistant manager actually organises herself and everyone else. The only major problem we've had is one of the new staff seems to be dating all the new stock incorrectly. We've found stock dated 9/12 (9th of December), and if anyone from head office came in and saw that we would be in so much trouble.

I did, however, have the shock of my life on Friday afternoon. The phone rang, and Sue had her hands full downstairs so she called up to me to answer it. Kurtis, one of the other volunteers, is a nice guy but a bit socially backwards. He was closer to the phone, so he said he would answer it. I said okay.

However, had I known he would give off the 'hello British Heart Foundation' etc spiel in the most bored tone imaginable and then top it off by saying 'what do you want', I wouldn't have let him within ten feet of the phone. It is a place of work. You do not answer the phone like that.

I ended up having to take the phone off him anyway and apologise to the woman he was speaking to before I took down her address and number because he was just mumbling into the phone and couldn't seem to fathom how to hold the phone between his ear and shoulder while he wrote her address down. He's lucky it was just someone ringing for a pickup, not the manager, or the area manager, or someone from head office, or anyone. I smacked him over the head with a clipboard when I put the phone down and told him to never answer the phone again.

For the love of GOD.

Anyone who has made it this far, I congratulate you. There's still more.

Last night, my dad took my sister and I to see Avenue Q. We've seen it before, but dad hasn't. Our dad is one of those cool dads who is an utter nerd and lets you cuss (within reason) and goes to see things like Avenue Q with you. He loved it, and I had actually forgotten how rude it is.

Before that, though, we went to my nanna's with my aunt and two cousins. My cousin Sam is eight (I think?) and one of those kids who tends to just ignore you. I brought a Simon's Cat book along with me, which I'd picked up at the shop for £2.50 (£12.99 new, bloody bargain), to show to my nanna because I know she likes Simon's cat, and my cousin took a liking to it and spent an hour going through it with us. He then went through it again when we were done because he liked it so much.

Sometimes, he can be cute.

Now to the latest thing - my sister has expressed an interest to go to MCM London next year - a pan-fandom convention. She's not into anime, and has never really shown any interest in this kind of thing before, but now she wants to go.

And she wants to cosplay.

She gained so many cool points from me for that. More than she got from being able to quote the Magic Cupcakes video despite never having read Homestuck. Which my dad can now also do since I showed it to him. Amy wants to cosplay Rapunzel, á la Tangled, and I'm going to be her Mother Gothel. I have a friend who makes the most beautiful cosplays and she's going to see how much it would cost to make them for us, rather than having to settle for whatever we can find on ebay (because Gothel costumes are non-existent and Amy doesn't really like the look of the Rapunzel ones).

She's going to have a Pascal and take a frying pan with her. xD

*DEEP BREATH*

So. How are all of you?

How was yours? Particularly unlucky?

I woke up to being screamed at that I hadn't done the dishes (because I'd overslept), went down to do them only to be told to go away, so I hid in the bathroom while mother did the dishes herself, crashing them around like they'd done something wrong. I then had a very paltry dinner of a bit of salmon and salad - you'd not think I was the only one in the house not on a diet. I've seen my mother for less than five minutes and she's spent half of that shouting at me, and the rest of it either ignoring me or speaking to me like she might throw something at me. I do the dishes when it's my turn, pretty much every time. I even do Amy's turn when she's out or not up (and Amy didn't even cover for me, thanks kid), and it seems to me that there's no point in my doing anything at all because whenever I forget just one time it's like I never do anything anyway.

Being lazy and being yelled at for it seems like it would be a lot easier on my confidence than doing things and having them completely brushed aside because one thing is forgotten.

I feel so distanced from my family here. They don't know me at all (to take the emo teen angle). My sister and my mother are very alike, they both like soaps, they both like (ew) Twilight, they both like to shop and all those girly things. Me, I'm a nerd. I like Star Trek and computers, and politics and history. Things that mother won't even humour me about. I'm just stuck inside my own head. It's a bit depressing really.

Also my lady week, as nasty_show calls it, started today, and I was curled up for four hours with crippling cramp before the painkillers kicked in.. or it went away on its own, I don't know.

Well, I'm back on my old laptop again.

It's been a hell of a pain, this past week, I can tell you that much. First I was getting a laptop, then I wasn't, then I was again, then the laptop I actually, finally got is FAULTY. The screen was doing a funky thing that it shouldn't have been doing. I called Laskys to arrange a replacement at such time as they had it in stock, but this morning the problem was worse, so I thought, feck it, I'll just get my money back. After I spoke to my dad he found out that the people who supply the university he works at had 16 in stock, and he could get one, so we agreed that he could do that, and I called Laskys to tell them I'd decided not to wait, and just wanted my money back instead.

They said that was fine, but I needed to call Samsung to get an RMA (return merchandise authorization), so I called Samsung, and they told me that Laskys needed to call themselves to get it because they didn't give RMA numbers out to customers. Fair enough, I thought, and called Laskys back to tell them this. They didn't understand, since they're not technicians, and can't go through any troubleshooting with me, but they did their best. Around this point I got cut off and had to call back, and was talking to a different person who thankfully understood what was going on. She got in touch with Samsung, and attempted to go through troubleshooting with me, but she didn't really know what she was doing.

Eventually, she told me that she would call Samsung and try to sort something out, and would call me back ASAP or pass on the problem to someone to call me back in the morning. Five minutes later, I got a call back from a man called Mark, who asked me if I'd caught the name of the person I'd spoken to at Samsung. I hadn't. He then asked me for the serial number of the laptop as the person who had written it down before had written it down wrong, and he got back on the phone with Samsung again. In that time, the line went dead, and I got cut off again.

I waited five minutes, then called back, and was on hold for ten minutes before I finally got connected.. thankfully to Mark again, who had said he'd been trying to call me back. He said he had everything he needed to put through the return, and that I'd receive a confirmation email (though I'm not holding much hope out for that). They're sending a courier on Tuesday, so I'll need to be up all day for that, and as soon as they get the laptop back they'll put my refund through. Huff.

I just hope I've been unlucky with this particular one, and that the one dad has got (same model) doesn't have the exact same problem. But, he's going to boot it up at his house to check it, since he'll have it until Boxing Day.

Augh. So, I'm back on my old laptop with the noisy fan, dodgy hard drive and sticky S key, but at least it still works. <3 And it's somewhat comforting because I know all of its little tics and issues, so it's not making me paranoid by doing unexpected things.

Because that's how I'm getting right at this moment. I just had to leave my Fallout 3 game and escape downstairs because even with the window open my room is still managing to reach a stifling 30.5 degrees Celsius. I suppose it's just as well I've started waking up earlier because if I hadn't I'd be waking up to that. I wish we had AC. A fan just doesn't do the trick in this kind of weather.

My sister had a bunch of friends over last night, and they got rather drunk. As for myself I went to sleep around midnight with a stomach ache and didn't really hear any of what went on. It's just as well I suppose since I'm told that my sister managed to get herself quite upset while she was drunk (over the ex-bf, again) and no doubt if I'd been awake someone would have come to get me.

The fish are still being quiet but they ate this morning, they're just sitting at the bottom of the tank right now and moving occasionally. Barney isn't chasing Robin around anymore but they seem to be sticking pretty close together so hopefully they've made up. I don't think either of them are schooling fish and I would probably be a little more concerned about their lack of activity if their dorsal fins weren't sticking up. They don't seem to be having any trouble with breathing either. I know I seem like I'm fretting but I've grown very attached to the little guys.

It's pretty quiet here right now. Ben is.. somewhere, Amy is zonked out on the sofa, and I'm sat in the dining room with the patio door open and trying not to fall asleep. If there's one thing that heat does it makes you tired.

Bluh. I can't wait for winter.

EDIT: Also, this is my new fish.

As some of you know, I successfully applied for a Masters degree a few weeks ago. Last week, I went to registration, which was an ordeal in itself and could have been over a lot more quickly than it was. I couldn't pay my fees then, so I had to set up a direct debit in order to register. Today, I went in early to finally pay, and was told that the loyalty bursary that is supposed to be on my details (as I am a graduate of the university I get 20% off) isn't there, so I need to email my school and get them to do that for me. I also need to email someone in the library to get my login details for the student area of the Salford website.

Well, back to today, which was Really Long. I got up in the afternoon, which is pretty normal for me, except my waking up went something like...

Alarm goes off
Turn off alarm
Go back to sleep
Alarm goes off
Turn off alarm
Go back to sleep
Alarm goes off

and you see where this is going. When I finally did get up I felt so spaced out I thought I might be ill or something and I do wonder if it's due to the combination of antihistamine and ibuprofen I had taken the night before, though I've always had quite a strong tolerance for drugs to the point were even sleeping tablets don't put me out.

I managed to drag myself out of bed, stumbled around getting ready and went in to find out about that damn bursary thing (I could have spent an extra hour in bed!) and then I waited around for my class, then I went to it. As you do. It was a lot more informal than I thought it was going to be and it never really felt like a Masters degree... but then my Bachelors never felt like a degree either so I suppose that's not a surprise. We didn't get that much work done, although Scott (the prof) had this whole plan of a lot of stuff he wanted to get done. First lessons are always that way. There are only eight of us in the class but I do wonder how long it will be before someone drops out. Someone always drops out, eventually.

After class I went to get the bus with Alice, a girl I know from my degree enough to chat to but I wouldn't really call her my 'friend'. There's a load of roadworks going on outside the university until Christmas, and the stop I normally get my bus from was unexpectedly closed. We tried to make it to the next one, and the bastard bus driver didn't stop, even though he saw us and we were right near the stop. Git. I rang John up and he came to get me and took Alice home too. If it happens on Thursday we're going to be calling to complain.

I finally got home at a little past nine. I was hungry. I had food. I went to my room, and here I am. I will hopefully be able to get all my shit together before the end of the week.

My only concern with this degree is that my urge to write recently has been virtually non-existent. I have always enjoyed writing no matter what the context, and to not want to do it at all is a little disconcerting. Perhaps I need to read more.

Today, I was woken at 11.30, saved the extra few hours by my sister being in, but she had to go out. I spent the entire day asleep on the sofa.

The damn delivery still hasn't come.

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?

EDIT:
I got bored and made a list of all the places I want to see before I die. It's likely going to get longer, but I have 43 for now.

( Click if interested - w - )

You have no idea how sick I am of you and your fucking double standards. You want to leave? Then just leave and stop saying you will while bashing other people who do the same thing. Nobody's buying your precious princess act and we don't need people like you on the team. Fuck off.

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ARSES YOU PUSSIES AND PLAY SOME GODDAMN FOOTBALL.

That is all.