Excitement! And meme!
Nov. 10th, 2011 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayThere is an iPad in my house! Eeeee!
:-D
I've been very restrained and merely stroked the boxes a bit before handing them over to Mum for safe-keeping until my birthday. So. Damn. Excited!
Also, I have booked two days of unpaid vacation over Christmas. Work is encouraging us to take a day or two of unpaid time in December if we can afford it to help them meet the financial targets. Apparently it's not that we're losing money, it's that we're not making as much as the board set as our target.
Whatever.
I'm taking two unpaid days and getting ten days off thanks to the joy of statutory holiday. Woooooo! I really need that break :-)
Project Doom has been re-estimated. If we get two additional programmers and everyone sticks to their milestones (Doom is dependent on other teams finishing their bits), we project to finish in July 2013. As we're not going to get the programmers and it's unlikely that the other teams will hit their milestones, it's probably more likely to be sometime in 2014. Yay guaranteed employment for three years?
Also, there is memeage thanks tonetgirl_y2k! I got a wee bit wordy...
Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back to me). Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself
1. Being Quite Technologically Proficient
Ha ha ha ha ha! *deep breath* Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Mostly, I feel technologically incompetent most of the time. I can program databases, write SQL and cobble together basic Unix scripts. I can design reports and dataloads and I'm getting good with documenting in approved RUP ways. I can build simple websites and I'm not terrible at PHP/MySQL. My Excel skills are top-notch.
The moment something happens to my OS or my email program screws up or I need to setup printers, I'm completely lost. A grown woman should not cry at the thought of setting up iTunes again.
I need the instruction manual for practically every device in the house and I can't even reprogram the clock in my car without swearing, manuals and hatred for electrons.
Installing a hard drive in my media player felt like one of my biggest acheivements ever and I still haven't got the wireless stuff set up for it.
My technological proficiency is of limited focus. I'm damn good at some things and a total moron at everything else. Last night I even forgot how to make the microwave cook things, despite having had that microwave for a year.
2. An Inexplicable Fondness for the England Rugby Team
What's not to love?
Er.
It is inexplicable to me as well. I can only excuse it as a rare manifestation of patriotism. They snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, have major issues with remembering how to play rugby and what on earth happened to their ability to kick on target in the World Cup?
And yet, I still cheer them on in every match and own my England shirt with pride.
My ranking on teams goes thusly: England, New Zealand, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada, other rugby international teams, crap rugby international teams, France.
3. Smashing Taste in Books
This is because of the Agatha Christie addiction, isn't it?
I'm a genre girl and I love me some epic fantasy or a good mystery. I'm also getting into the urban fantasy thing and quite enjoy the odd bit of science fiction.
Agatha Christie is my comfort author of choice. I always want to read her when it's autumn for some reason. Miss Marple is my favourite and those are perfect with a big pot of tea and a plate of hot buttered crumpets or toasted buttered muffins. I'm also reading rather a lot of other rather lovely mystery series - Lynley, Shardlake, Wexford, Maise Dobbs and so on. For some reason, I've never been able to get that attached to American mystery writers.
The 75 books challenge on LibraryThing has been brilliant for finding new authors that I've loved. I'm not terribly interested in books where nothing much happens: I like an adventure or a mystery in my plot. Even when I need something quite cozy or quite easy on the brain, it needs to be engaging with a bit of meat to the plot. I don't do mindless fluff, I don't do chicklit, I don't do worthy contemporary literature and I don't do nightmare-inducing.
4. Unfortunate Weather
There seems to be something about me and horrible weather. This summer, it has rained in a major way every time I planned a day trip. Every. Time.
Most of those times it hasn't just been rain, it's been incredibly windy as well and as my power tends to go out at the first sign of a breeze, that has meant power cut preperations in addition to cancelled plans.
Possibly a lot of this is because I live on the coast and weather here is hard to predict sometimes. Or possibly the weather gods have it out for me. Last summer, I suffered through 30+C every day for two and a half months while my kitchen was rebuilt. As soon as I had a functional kitchen again, the weather broke via a hurricane. The hurricane took out my power for 29 hours so we lost most of our food and it was on the Labour Day weekend so all the stores were shut when we needed to replace it all.
During my first winter here there was a major snow fall at least once a week for three months. I was exhausted by the end of it and that is why I now have a plough guy who sorts out my drive after big snow falls. Last winter the bad weather only really got going when I was very sick and needed many hospital appointments. Biggest snow storm of the season? The day I had to get my scope done at the hospital. It's a good thing that they gave me such good drugs because it meant that I was too looped out to be worried when Mum was inching her way home from the hospital through zero visibility with several inches on the ground.
This winter I'm prepared. There are three bags of salt in the house. More snow shovels than residents. My car has winter tyres, a fold-up shovel and all the emergency supplies it could need. The house has torches (flashlights) everywhere, loads of batteries and I have a friend with a generator if the power is out for a long time. I'm ready.
I'm going to get an ice storm now that I'm this prepared for snow, aren't I?
5. Doctor Who
My dad has watched Doctor Who since the first episode. When I was growing up, he worked really hard and usually came home after I'd gone to bed and worked Saturdays as well. He was always home on Saturday in time for Doctor Who, though, and we watched it together so that he could protect me from the monsters. I've grown up on Doctor Who and it remains my number one favourite TV show of all.
One of my early memories is of going down to my grandmother's house to watch the Five Doctors. We didn't have a VCR yet so she had recorded it for us. It's the disadvantage of sharing a birthday with your favourite show: your party interferes with special episodes. They broadcast the twentieth anniversay episode at exactly the same time as my party. So the next day I pestered my parents until they took me to grandma's house to watch it. What an annoying little mini-fan I must have been :-D
I was heart-broken when it was cancelled and eagerly watched any charity specials just to get my fix. It became easier to ignore the media reports on resurrections of the Doctor because they were always dashed. Then one day, an official announcement came: Doctor Who was returning and they were already filming. I was both excited and horribly nervous. What if they did it badly? What if they reinvented it and did a parody?
What if I didn't love it anymore?
Anyone following my LJ will know that definitely didn't happen :-) I still love Doctor Who. There hasn't been an episode yet that I outright hated. Yup, some of them have not been up to the standard we've come to expect and I've disagreed with some things (Donna, Donna, Donna) but I've always found things to enjoy. It's different now: there is more emphasis on building a narrative through the episodes and giving the companions a personal journey. That is something that you can see starting to happen in the Seventh Doctor's time (it may explain my love for many of his episodes) and it is definitely something we expect from our TV now. It is still the same show, though.
Even when I don't love an episode, I love the idea of this ancient/young man flying through time and space in a blue box, plucking ordinary people up and showing them how amazing the world can be and how wonderful they can grow to be. It's a core idea that could keep going forever and is only restricted by your imagination.
For the most part I avoid getting involved in fandom. DW fandom can be scary. I stick to the happy, fluffy end of the fandom and ignore any posts that look complainy or bitchy. That's probably very shallow, right?
Doctor Who was my first fandom and it's the core thing that I come back to whether I need comfort or inspiration. Please don't let them cancel it ever again?
:-D
I've been very restrained and merely stroked the boxes a bit before handing them over to Mum for safe-keeping until my birthday. So. Damn. Excited!
Also, I have booked two days of unpaid vacation over Christmas. Work is encouraging us to take a day or two of unpaid time in December if we can afford it to help them meet the financial targets. Apparently it's not that we're losing money, it's that we're not making as much as the board set as our target.
Whatever.
I'm taking two unpaid days and getting ten days off thanks to the joy of statutory holiday. Woooooo! I really need that break :-)
Project Doom has been re-estimated. If we get two additional programmers and everyone sticks to their milestones (Doom is dependent on other teams finishing their bits), we project to finish in July 2013. As we're not going to get the programmers and it's unlikely that the other teams will hit their milestones, it's probably more likely to be sometime in 2014. Yay guaranteed employment for three years?
Also, there is memeage thanks to
netgirl_y2k! I got a wee bit wordy...Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back to me). Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself
1. Being Quite Technologically Proficient
Ha ha ha ha ha! *deep breath* Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Mostly, I feel technologically incompetent most of the time. I can program databases, write SQL and cobble together basic Unix scripts. I can design reports and dataloads and I'm getting good with documenting in approved RUP ways. I can build simple websites and I'm not terrible at PHP/MySQL. My Excel skills are top-notch.
The moment something happens to my OS or my email program screws up or I need to setup printers, I'm completely lost. A grown woman should not cry at the thought of setting up iTunes again.
I need the instruction manual for practically every device in the house and I can't even reprogram the clock in my car without swearing, manuals and hatred for electrons.
Installing a hard drive in my media player felt like one of my biggest acheivements ever and I still haven't got the wireless stuff set up for it.
My technological proficiency is of limited focus. I'm damn good at some things and a total moron at everything else. Last night I even forgot how to make the microwave cook things, despite having had that microwave for a year.
2. An Inexplicable Fondness for the England Rugby Team
What's not to love?
Er.
It is inexplicable to me as well. I can only excuse it as a rare manifestation of patriotism. They snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, have major issues with remembering how to play rugby and what on earth happened to their ability to kick on target in the World Cup?
And yet, I still cheer them on in every match and own my England shirt with pride.
My ranking on teams goes thusly: England, New Zealand, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada, other rugby international teams, crap rugby international teams, France.
3. Smashing Taste in Books
This is because of the Agatha Christie addiction, isn't it?
I'm a genre girl and I love me some epic fantasy or a good mystery. I'm also getting into the urban fantasy thing and quite enjoy the odd bit of science fiction.
Agatha Christie is my comfort author of choice. I always want to read her when it's autumn for some reason. Miss Marple is my favourite and those are perfect with a big pot of tea and a plate of hot buttered crumpets or toasted buttered muffins. I'm also reading rather a lot of other rather lovely mystery series - Lynley, Shardlake, Wexford, Maise Dobbs and so on. For some reason, I've never been able to get that attached to American mystery writers.
The 75 books challenge on LibraryThing has been brilliant for finding new authors that I've loved. I'm not terribly interested in books where nothing much happens: I like an adventure or a mystery in my plot. Even when I need something quite cozy or quite easy on the brain, it needs to be engaging with a bit of meat to the plot. I don't do mindless fluff, I don't do chicklit, I don't do worthy contemporary literature and I don't do nightmare-inducing.
4. Unfortunate Weather
There seems to be something about me and horrible weather. This summer, it has rained in a major way every time I planned a day trip. Every. Time.
Most of those times it hasn't just been rain, it's been incredibly windy as well and as my power tends to go out at the first sign of a breeze, that has meant power cut preperations in addition to cancelled plans.
Possibly a lot of this is because I live on the coast and weather here is hard to predict sometimes. Or possibly the weather gods have it out for me. Last summer, I suffered through 30+C every day for two and a half months while my kitchen was rebuilt. As soon as I had a functional kitchen again, the weather broke via a hurricane. The hurricane took out my power for 29 hours so we lost most of our food and it was on the Labour Day weekend so all the stores were shut when we needed to replace it all.
During my first winter here there was a major snow fall at least once a week for three months. I was exhausted by the end of it and that is why I now have a plough guy who sorts out my drive after big snow falls. Last winter the bad weather only really got going when I was very sick and needed many hospital appointments. Biggest snow storm of the season? The day I had to get my scope done at the hospital. It's a good thing that they gave me such good drugs because it meant that I was too looped out to be worried when Mum was inching her way home from the hospital through zero visibility with several inches on the ground.
This winter I'm prepared. There are three bags of salt in the house. More snow shovels than residents. My car has winter tyres, a fold-up shovel and all the emergency supplies it could need. The house has torches (flashlights) everywhere, loads of batteries and I have a friend with a generator if the power is out for a long time. I'm ready.
I'm going to get an ice storm now that I'm this prepared for snow, aren't I?
5. Doctor Who
My dad has watched Doctor Who since the first episode. When I was growing up, he worked really hard and usually came home after I'd gone to bed and worked Saturdays as well. He was always home on Saturday in time for Doctor Who, though, and we watched it together so that he could protect me from the monsters. I've grown up on Doctor Who and it remains my number one favourite TV show of all.
One of my early memories is of going down to my grandmother's house to watch the Five Doctors. We didn't have a VCR yet so she had recorded it for us. It's the disadvantage of sharing a birthday with your favourite show: your party interferes with special episodes. They broadcast the twentieth anniversay episode at exactly the same time as my party. So the next day I pestered my parents until they took me to grandma's house to watch it. What an annoying little mini-fan I must have been :-D
I was heart-broken when it was cancelled and eagerly watched any charity specials just to get my fix. It became easier to ignore the media reports on resurrections of the Doctor because they were always dashed. Then one day, an official announcement came: Doctor Who was returning and they were already filming. I was both excited and horribly nervous. What if they did it badly? What if they reinvented it and did a parody?
What if I didn't love it anymore?
Anyone following my LJ will know that definitely didn't happen :-) I still love Doctor Who. There hasn't been an episode yet that I outright hated. Yup, some of them have not been up to the standard we've come to expect and I've disagreed with some things (Donna, Donna, Donna) but I've always found things to enjoy. It's different now: there is more emphasis on building a narrative through the episodes and giving the companions a personal journey. That is something that you can see starting to happen in the Seventh Doctor's time (it may explain my love for many of his episodes) and it is definitely something we expect from our TV now. It is still the same show, though.
Even when I don't love an episode, I love the idea of this ancient/young man flying through time and space in a blue box, plucking ordinary people up and showing them how amazing the world can be and how wonderful they can grow to be. It's a core idea that could keep going forever and is only restricted by your imagination.
For the most part I avoid getting involved in fandom. DW fandom can be scary. I stick to the happy, fluffy end of the fandom and ignore any posts that look complainy or bitchy. That's probably very shallow, right?
Doctor Who was my first fandom and it's the core thing that I come back to whether I need comfort or inspiration. Please don't let them cancel it ever again?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-11-11 08:15 am (UTC)For the most part I avoid getting involved in fandom. DW fandom can be scary. I stick to the happy, fluffy end of the fandom and ignore any posts that look complainy or bitchy. That's probably very shallow, right?
No, I totally do that. Otherwise fandom just points out all the bad things I missed in episodes because I was enjoying them and then I end up not enjoying them ever again. Which I hate.
And me for the meme please!
no subject
Date: 2011-11-13 09:46 pm (UTC)*makes note*
because I was enjoying them and then I end up not enjoying them ever again
This is absolutely me. It's why I avoid spoilers and reviews before seeing things and avoid looking at uncomplimentary reviews of things that I've seen. I'm quite happy to just continue enjoying things without those negative ideas there :-)
And for you: Roteract, Tennis, Doctor Who, Cats and Having Interesting Adventures Unintentionally :-)
no subject
Date: 2011-11-11 08:11 pm (UTC)You just made up those words, right? I also can't change the clock in my car, I just deduct an hour from the time in my head for half the year.
2. They snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, have major issues with remembering how to play rugby and what on earth happened to their ability to kick on target in the World Cup?
And you've just summed up my frustrations with the England rugby team, because sometimes watching them play is like watching an especially ugly slow motion car crash, and yet they still win things,
why do we never win things?My ranking on teams goes thusly: England, New Zealand, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada, other rugby international teams, crap rugby international teams, France.
Allez le Bleu!
3. This is because of the Agatha Christie addiction, isn't it?
Partly, yes, I consider it a sign of excellent and refined taste, and partly because I do occasionally find things worth reading just by watching what pops up on your LibraryThing.
4. Sometimes, when we get, like, an inch of snow and the entire infrastructure of the country collapses, I think about what it's probably like where you are, and laugh.
5. D'aww, I love childhood Doctor Who stories. I think I was very lucky with Doctor Who fandom in that I immediately landed in the friendlier, fluffier end of it, because I never really see the wank, though I don't doubt it's out there.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-13 09:49 pm (UTC)Yup :-D
I just deduct an hour from the time in my head for half the year.
I tried that one year. It did not go well. There was an incident when I left and cinema and...I dug out the manual this week and re-set it. I also made it correct because it acquires a couple of minutes each month so by the time I'm re-setting the clock it's pure guesswork on the real time.
Allez le Bleu!
Pah!
I do occasionally find things worth reading just by watching what pops up on your LibraryThing.
I find that oddly flattering :-)
because I never really see the wank, though I don't doubt it's out there
I know it's there and I see the edges of it when I check for reviews post-ep, but I never click on links that don't look like someone is saying "squeee!!".