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?

First of all, arakni666, I apologise for the delay in the last chapter of your gift fic, I wanted to write it last night but ended up falling asleep x.x I don't know if you'll actually see this but I'm writing it right now and will have it done by tonight.

I've spent all day moving files over the wifi (again), though I spent most of the day downstairs so the signal was better :1

I'm going to Iceland in two weeks aaaaaaaaah XO AND I'M MEETING nasty_show ON THURSDAY AAAAAAAAAH

Just when you think that something is over, it gets worse. The S key on my laptop has finally packed in, but thankfully I have a USB keyboard from the last time this happened. It feels weird, but it's better than nothing.

On Thursday, after spending an hour on the phone with Laskys I thought I'd finally sorted everything out. Then, on Friday, I find two emails from them which I didn't really understand, and I sent them to my dad so he could have a look. To him, it looked as if they were trying to send me a replacement. I don't want a replacement, I just want a refund so I can not have to deal with them anymore.

I was out, which I'll talk about in a minute, but I was stressing out so dad called them for me. The man he spoke to said that the refunds department was closed, but that there was a refund marked on my account and nothing to be delivered. So I'm thinking this email I got must have just been an error in the system. Dad rang back this morning to get through to the refunds department, where he was told that there WAS a replacement on order, though I have no idea how they were doing that since they were telling me there were none in stock. He cancelled it for me (though I'm surprised they let him do it) and I will hopefully get an email confirming that by tomorrow.

If I don't, dad is gonna call them back for me, and I'm rather glad he's taken over this for me because I am at the point where I just want it to be over with and I would have snapped on the phone with whatever unfortunate soul happened to end up speaking to me. I'm feeling like I'm being messed about, but I don't think it's happening on purpose, it's just a load of miscommunication and I will be writing a strongly worded letter to them when this fiasco is over.

On to the 'out' part. I was at a church in Liverpool on the door for a charity concert by an acapella group. I had no idea what I'd be doing when I got there and didn't know anyone, but it was alright and my night was significantly brightened by winning a prize in the raffle. 31 is now my lucky number. It was nice to get out of the house, I suppose.

Last night I spent a very amusing hour or so attempting to come up with a name for one of the main antagonists for my dear friend and waifu lemiru's upcoming new webcomic which is yet to be titled. He has been nicknamed 'murderprince' up until this point and after much throwing names at Miru and much giggling on her part at the random names I was managing to come up with I threw the name Matthias Ulfred Rodolph Dmitri Eduard Rafe Philip Robert Ingram Niklaus Cedric Eisenberg at her. So you don't have to spend any time staring at it wondering why on earth I picked those names, I will tell you right now that the initials spell out 'M.U.R.D.E.R.P.R.I.N.C.E.'. I thought it was quite clever.

Eventually, Miru decided she liked the name Albrecht, which I think fits quite well with the name of his errand-boy Marechal, Tibeault. Seriously. 'Albrecht and Tibeault'. How well do those names go together? I think 'very'. 8)

Though the wisdom that is Miru also decided to tack the MURDERPRINCE string on after Albrecht, likely with a few changes in the names, because royals always have ridiculously long names and because his initials all together would then spell out 'A MURDERPRINCE' which is just too awesome.

Mother is coming home today, and I'm kind of torn over whether or not I want to go to the airport when John goes to pick them up. On the one hand, it would be nice to see them off the plane, but on the other hand, mum wants to go out for dinner and I have this sinking feeling that something will happen to cause an argument, which will just leave me wishing that I never went. I don't think that I want to risk it, so I'll just wait until she comes home. I also have no wish to be trying to get to the airport (and away from it) in rush hour traffic... e.e

I think I'll just stay here. =| I have plenty of writing to keep me occupied.

I'll be nearing the big 500 on journal entries soon, it seems =o

I am, at the moment, in Reading (about 45 minutes by train outside of London for you out-of-towners) at my dad's flat because last night, we went to another concert. Not Rush this time, and I was admittedly not as excited as I had been when we went to see them, but I still was looking forward to it so it was a bit of a bummer when dad text me on Saturday morning saying his kidney stones were acting up again and he was in a bit of pain and if it was still bad in the evening we wouldn't be going. That was fine and I went down anyway, and luckily he was feeling much better by the time I got there. Then it was my turn - I hadn't eaten all day save for a bit of shortbread that came with my free coffee on the train (first class, first time ever, it was awesome), and when I got to dad's I was kind of hungry so I had a chocolate biscuit to take the edge off and it probably wasn't the best plan in the world, because it upset my stomach something fierce. I know myself pretty well by now though and I knew I'd be fine, so I did my best to ignore it as we spent well over an hour actually getting into London, and by the time we got to the arena I was pretty sure I was just hungry and guess what, I was right, so I had a hotdog and I felt fine. Huzzah.

After we ate we went in and sat down and the seats were pretty decent until two rather tall men came and sat in the seats in front of us. Now I'm not short at 5'7" and my dad is probably about 5'10" and even with a three inch drop to the seats in front of us they were still blocking the view. It wasn't too bad though, I could see between them and the view was pretty good.

Styx were on first and I've never really heard much from them though I did recognise a few of the songs. I could tell that the audience warmed up to them from when they came on the stage to when they went off, and I think I'll be looking into them a bit more when I get home because they were really rather good. One of the guys had what would be thought of over here as a 'typical' American accent (that is, he was from Alabama, make of that what you will) and he was very enthusiastic. xD

Foreigner were on next and although I didn't know much of their stuff either they did play two songs that I knew very well - Cold as Ice and I Want to Know What Love Is, the latter of which they got the entire audience singing along to. I didn't know that either of them were by Foreigner but it was awesome to hear them. I'm going to be looking a bit more into them too.

It was 9.30 when Journey came on. I'm pretty sure that most people only came to see them and everyone in the lower part of the arena stood up when they came on. It was only an hour and a half but I couldn't stay stood up the whole time (and neither could dad). The new (ish, I guess) guy that they have on lead vocals, Arnel Pineda is amazing and sounds so much like Steve Perry it's weird. Also, dad got me a t-shirt =D So now I have a Rush t-shirt and a Journey t-shirt. I'm not sure which one to wear on the way home. 8|

It took us until 1.30 in the morning to get home thanks to so many people suddenly flooding into the underground and the only trains being ones that take an hour, and then we stayed up watching the last episode of Doctor Who. RIVER SONG. FKHJKGFJKHF. That's all I'm going to say on the matter, but I rather wish I'd watched the last series because I have no idea what all that Last Centurion stuff is all about. I'd say this has been the best series of the 'reboot' that I've seen for a while. Dad went to bed after that, at about 3am, and I was up until about 5am chatting to the people I hadn't seen all day.

Today, I slept a lot. Which was awesome. When I got up dad was playing LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean on his Xbox 360, so I sat and watched him play that for a while. He's funny to watch because he falls off things a lot and gets frustrated. I'm not sure if he talks to himself when no one else is there but if he's anything like me (which he is) then he does. When it got to about a quarter to seven we went out to a restaurant, and I wasn't allowed to look at the prices of the food because it was expensive 8| But I had three courses! I don't remember the last time I had three courses at a restaurant. I had squid to start, which was yummy - I've had it before, and even the salad was nice, I usually leave those. I don't do green stuff =| For my main I had venison, which I've never had before, and it was deliiiicious. I'd definitely have that again. It had glazed figs with it too. I wasn't too keen on the taste of them on their own but they made a nice compliment to the meat. I had baked alaska for dessert, something else that I'd never had before, and heee it was cute. They made it like a little ball and it was all spiky. I must have looked absolutely delighted when the waiter put it in front of me. Then I had a cappuccino, and dad tried to keep me from seeing how much it all was but he failed xD It actually didn't come to as much as I thought it might have. It was good to come away from a meal not feeling like I'd over-stuffed myself.

We walked back to the flat then, in the rain (the heat has finally let up, at least down here), and dad did some ironing while I watched Walking with Monsters. Then we put Walking with Dinosaurs on and I'm sat up watching that right now. I'll be going home tomorrow, sadly not in first class but I don't miiiind. I'll hopefully be able to finish the second fic I need to write for the usxuk fanworkathon. I am not good with deadlines, ahaha, but all the space and having my own table on the way down meant I could finish the first one and make a start on the second, so I shouldn't have any trouble finishing.

Then I can get back to work on my genderswap fic. =D

I can't remember where my last entry was and I can't be bothered to look so I'll just go from the beginning of the past few weeks and see how long this goes on for.

( MCM wafflage )

( Some fretting from me. )

( The week after~ )
( Game stuff. )
( Just want to see the photos? Click here. )

Well, I'm in London at the moment, listening to Robin snoring in the next room X3 I could probably do with a nap myself but I know if I sleep now I'll not sleep tonight and my sleep pattern has been thrown off enough as it is. I'll go wake him up in half an hour. With a long stick, if I can find one. The trip here was pretty uneventful, aside from me completely messing up with setting my alarm and having to ring mum up so she could give me money for a taxi. Was okay though, and I got here on time all present and correct. I haven't eaten yet, but that'll be because Robin keeps plying me with tea and crumpets and battenburg so I'm not really hungry.

Jim and Elaine will be here tomorrow, as will Robin's brother Michael, who I'm looking forward to meeting as he sounds like an awesome kind of geek and plays Fallout 3 so I can talk about it with him - should be good =3

I'm working out another way of paying for a Masters degree. Hopefully, once I've spoken to my tutor, I'll be able to get on track with getting a scholarship. Now, that would be cool. Having everything paid for would really help, though I think I'm going to have to work myself like a dog this year to get a good grade and beat the other people who are going for the same thing. No worries. I know I'm capable of getting a first class degree, I just have to make sure I give it my all. No problem.  I hope X3

For the moment I have some things to work on - chapter five of my fic and another one-shot for a community I've taken to posting on. Well, they wanted more from me, so they're gonna get it.

Good God my mind is screwed.

I'm so damn tired. I suppose it started off when I came on and got my usual gut-spasming cramp, and I didn't really want to eat. So I didn't. Then... I was tired, so I didn't want to eat even after the cramp had gone. This has been going on for about a week now. I've been on my own all weekend and I've barely eaten a thing.

Well, it's been a few hours since I wrote that initial paragraph since I got distracted by making food and watching TV, so I'll carry on. I've had something to eat, but it didn't really help me. What has helped however is the cider that I've drank. It seems to have numbed whatever was wrong with me and it's perked me up tremendously.

I finally managed to get to sleep at 7:30 this morning, and was subsequently woken up every hour by the dog wanting to go either in or out of the house until 10:30 when I let him out and shut the door so I couldn't hear him. At 3:30pm I woke up and let him back in, and at around 4pm I went over the road to my godparent's house. I was supposed to be going out tonight, you see, but due to varying personal reasons I didn't want to, so I needed to tell my godfather not to bother with the dog. I only meant to be there for a couple of minutes. I ended up being invited in and staying there for three hours. It was nice, though. My godmother (Kath) made me a cup of coffee and we sat and chatted while my godfather (Keith) did the gardening. I swear, she could talk a glass eye to sleep. I need to go over there more often. I also need to go and see my nanna more often. I don't really have an excuse not to, it's only a bus ride and it stops practically five minutes from her house. I should go, it isn't like I don't have the time, and really, I don't know how much time she has left. Her and my grandad. I'd hate for them to pass away and I'd just put off seeing them.

Anyway, when I left my godparent's house three hours later (along with half a melon and a bag of garden-grown tomatoes), who did I find on my doorstep but my boyfriend, his friend, and another friend in a car. I shouldn't have left my phone at home - he worried about me. After this very gallant but fortunately unneeded rescue attempt I moped around the house for a while then finally, after my dad said he was worried about me as well, I managed to summon the energy to spend fifteen minutes putting a meal together. So bacon, fried egg, beans and sausage was my dinner. Probably the biggest meal I've eaten all weekend. It was nice. Food always tastes better when you make it yourself.

After eating, I washed up (so mother will have nothing to complain about, though she may notice the fact that very little food is missing), and then realised that John had left two cans of cider in the fridge. Suffice to say they aren't in the fridge anymore. I'm half-way through the second one and typing is becoming decidedly difficult. My mind is all over the place. Hahaha.

I feel good, though... which is nice.

I need to ask mum to go to the post office collection place for me on Monday, because they have some books for me. Three 'small packages' probably means the postman couldn't be bothered to take the elastic band off them to put them through the letterbox. Pft. Also.. something.. oh yeah. I need to go to Waterstones in Bolton and get the copy of Genevieve that I ordered. I'll do that on Tuesday...

Hehe...
 

Honestly, you'd think after twenty years my mother would know when I'm joking but nope, she doesn't. Oh well, I managed to avert crisis by giving her Baileys, so I think I'll be alright haha.

I had my friend Labby 'round last night, thus why I didn't post anything, and it was fun. Lab's one of the few people I can just lie down and watch film after film with without complaints of being bored (Jasper ¬_¬) or worrying about him feeling me up (Matt -.-)... and he was very patient with my question-asking xD We ate.. uh.. two massive bags of Doritos, which for some reason I kept calling Pringles (much to his amusement) and... five white choc-chip cookies, and some chocolate... =3 My tummy was complaining.

I also found out that he is extremely ticklish... just in a very weird way. I had loads of fun after I figured that one out.

What else..? Haven't had a proper night's sleep in over a week... but I've been somewhat relieved by hearing that no-one failed Renaissance poetry, which means I passed... I hope. It may just have been wishful thinking on Sandro's part. I better have passed 'cause I won't be pleased if I have to do that damn thing all over again.
Another thing I'm concerned about is my last CVT assignment. I don't think I did as well as I did in the first one, but then, I thought the first one was rubbish and I got 82, the highest mark I've got since I started. Next year I want to get a 90+ in something. That would be neat.

I ordered a new game - The Darkness. I'm hoping it'll be easy enough for me to actually be able to play it without help. I don't fancy my odds, but I have this desire to get better at FPS games and this one seems like a good jump-off point. Interesting storyline so I won't get bored ^^;

Well, that's all for now...

EDIT:

I lied, there is more.

I have a bunch of stuff I want to do this holiday. Seriously. I have three and a half months off and bugger all to do in them. So, here is a list of the stuff I plan to be doing...

Reading

• Anne Rice: "Memnoch the Devil"
• Anne Rice: "Pandora"
• Anne Rice: "The Vampire Armand"
• Anne Rice: "Vittoro"
• Anne Rice: "Merrick"
• Anne Rice: "Blood and Gold"
• Anne Rice: "Blood Canticle"
• Anne Rice: "Blackwood Farm"
• Anne Rice: "Taltos"
• Anne Rice: "Lasher"
• Anne Rice: "The Feast of All Saints"
• Anne Rice: "The Witching Hour"

• J.V. Jones: "The Baker's Boy"
• J.V. Jones: "A Man Betrayed"
• J.V. Jones: "Master and Fool"

• Robin Hobb: "Assassin's Apprentice"
• Robin Hobb: "Royal Assassin"
• Robin Hobb: "Assassin's Quest"
• Robin Hobb: "Fool's Fate"
• Robin Hobb: "Fool's Errand"
• Robin Hobb: "The Golden Fool"

• Garth Nix: "Superior Saturday"

• David Eddings: "The Crystal Gorge"
• David Eddings: "The Younger Gods"
• David Eddings: "The Redemption of Athalus"

• Terry Brooks: "The Sword of Shannara"
• Terry Brooks: "The Elfstones of Shannara"
• Terry Brooks: "The Wishsong of Shannara"

• Jonathan Stroud: "Ptolemy's Gate"

• Christopher Paolini: "Eldest"

• Dante Alighieri: "Purgatorio"
• Dante Alighieri: "Paradisio"

• Arthur Conan Doyle: "The Complete Sherlock Holmes"

• Gregory Maguire: "Wicked"
• Gregory Maguire: "Son of a Witch"

Manga

• Keiko Tobe: "Raising an Autistic Child" vols 2 & 3
• Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata: "Death Note" vols 1 - 6
• Kaori Yuki: "Angel Sanctuary" vols 1 & 2
• Yukiru Sugisaki: "DNAngel" vols 1 - 11

Writing

• Finish novel
• Finish current fanfic
• Make a start on creative writing work for next year

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And as well as all of that, I also need to start getting out more, get better on the Xbox ( I want those Worms achievements, damnit ), and start doing some bloody exercise...