So I deduced, when I woke up properly about an hour and a half ago, that because the house was quiet and the air-conditioning was still on, it was probably about 9.30am and I could safely lie in bed reading for a little while without arousing anyone's wrath until my mother got home from her usual coffee shop jaunt around ten.

Turns out it was not about 9.30am, it was about 11am, and James had been supposed to get me up and tell me that we were headed to see Oopee and so I should get cleaning and also get ready to come along!

Completely ignoring that a) none of this had been mentioned the night before (as usual), and b) I had already mentioned that I had plans for early afternoon which did not involve being at Labrador.

One day, my mother will listen to anything I say at all. I don't care if it's 'I have already washed those' or 'that is a poisonous snake' - anything would do at this point. *facemash*

Anyway, so James is in trouble for not waking me up earlier, and I am in trouble for not psychically deducing that this Saturday would not be exactly like all Saturdays before it. This is what I get for being lulled into a routine.

In any case, things to do in the next few hours before Dad gets back to me about travelling to the distant reaches of Mt. Crosby:
- vacuum downstairs
- finish cleaning bathroom
- work up the nerve to use corrosive chemicals on the sink (Drano makes me fear for my hands and eyes, okay?)
- dry sheets
- wash darks
- hang darks
- wash towels
- pack small bag to take to Dad's place
- do NOT play Mario Kart
- do NOT sit around mooning over realestate.com
- do NOT watch The Road to El Dorado
- also do not take it to Dad's with you or you will never get it back from the children (I am an excellent big sister, I don't know what you're talking about)
- write NaNo only in ten minute blocks between chores

[EDIT] Also, man, I had the weirdest combination of dreams last night.

x-posted from http://cheloya.dreamwidth.org/442674.html || comments

( There is something wrong with me: an HTML tutorial. )

And if that pre element doesn't work in IJ/DW, I will be Angry.

[EDIT] OF COURSE THE FUCKING PRE TAGS DON'T WORK. JHDFJDH

[EDIT]

Um, yes, and aside from getting carried away with teaching a client's new website maintainer how to code (*facemash*) today was pretty awesome. Rage bought me XKCD t-shirts, which I am struggling not to wear until Monday. I am really damn tired. I didn't get to finish everything today because I discovered that I was being asked for things that I didn't have and have to ask Isaac about on Monday before the training course. Sigh. So much for a late start. Oh well. Still going pretty well. And rediscovering a love for this song that... okay, never really went away. But anyway.

x-posted from http://cheloya.dreamwidth.org/442559.html || comments

Watched Zombieland.

I think the only adequate description is, yippee kai-ey, motherfucker. :)

x-posted from http://cheloya.dreamwidth.org/441756.html || comments

How 'bout that? Go, Dreamwidth. :)

Today:
- Finished all the work I want to finish for the QE doc bundle due tomorrow. :D Will move on to my (suspiciously MIA) minion's assorted duties tomorrow.
- Bewildered and alarmed Dazzled and amazed with my eloquent hand-gesture dance.
- Fixed the rest of my F-11 installation, which broke my inbox in the night.
- Made it out of dependency hell with the assistance of Rudi and Jeff. \o/ I really, really need that Linux Essentials course next week. >>
- Made an epic tactical error by telling Susan to keep up with my NaNo count. Watch as she proceeds to wipe the floor with me. XD No, seriously, I'm dead. Only my insomnia will save me.



I am pretty sure I will never know everything I want or need to know, and this makes me sad.

I was considering the abilities of Holmes as listed by Watson earlier and thinking, well, at least he'd worked out what he needed to know to do what he wanted to do, and set about achieving that knowledge. By the time he's, say, twenty-five, he's already refining that knowledge further and taking it in new and interesting directions.

Not that I'm expecting to be like Holmes, but I am finding that being genuinely interested in pretty much everything makes it incredibly difficult to pick a direction and be satisfied with it. And it's not that I do not love, love, love writing down to my bones, because I do. Giving myself permission to write and to concentrate on writing for the duration of November is more of a relief than removing your ridiculous but awesome high heels. (I mean that. My big toe is still raw from these fuckers, but they are awesome. I do not usually feel this way about shoes, let alone shoes that hurt me.) It's rewarding in and of itself - fiction and nonfiction.

But being in this job has really recalled that, actually, I really enjoyed programming. I'd barely touched a toe to the tip of the iceberg, mind you, but I am genuinely interested and I just do not have the time to act upon that interest.

I really love drawing and painting, too. And the violin, and the keyboard, and maths, and physics, and biology, and singing, and videogames, and sleeping, and cooking, and... do you see what I'm getting at, here? The need to get better at these things that I regularly enjoy is incredibly frustrating because I just do not have the time to give all of these things the attention that I want to give them. I just really love things. Lots of things. All the time. And it's annoying as fuck that there is really only time to give maybe two of them adequate attention.



This post brought to you by random musings on satisfaction and a conversation about generalists vs. specialists a few days ago.

And now I am going to make tea and write NaNo and certainly not watch Zombieland because that would let Susan get even further ahead of me and we cannot have that.

x-posted from http://cheloya.dreamwidth.org/441468.html || comments

So I had to upgrade to Fedora 11 today to support Publican 1.0. T_T MORE TEARS WERE NEVER SHED OVER AN OPERATING SYSTEM. I am very sad. And probably destined to hate Fedora until another version hits.

Would just like to tell you all that Glee can suck my nonexistent cock. You call that Defying Gravity? PFFFHAH. I laugh in your general direction and mock your lack of diaphragmatic power. And your harmonies. What the fuck were those chords? Way to fucking baby down the song. And remove the climax. What were you thinking, Glee producers? Guys? No, it's a serious question - what the fuck?

Yeah. This would be 'annoy the neighbours' mode. Sorry for the loud night in, folks, but you do this to me Friday through Sunday, so I think you can bite me. :)

x-posted from http://cheloya.dreamwidth.org/440928.html || comments

So I just found my resolutions for this year. LOL.

1) I will exercise.
2) I will finish F&F.
3) I will teach myself CSS.
4) I will make myself an online folio.
5) I will write, and publish my writing.
6) I will learn to say 'no'.
7) I will put away at least one third of my pay each week and not touch it.
8) If I am not writing, I will read.
9) ...or play video games.
10) I will be punctual.
11) I will participate in NaNoMango with kuchibue and reward her for her participation with this year's NaNovel.

I think we call this year a write-off. XD I did attain some awesome things I did not write down, though, so it's not as bad as all that. STILL. LOL, #1-6. ...although technically I guess #5 I did, since, y'know, doc writer. >_> I published my writing today, after all.

Anyway, today was not awful - things are still going alarmingly well as far as the project goes, and everything should be available tomorrow morning. I will be unutterably relieved to get rid of this thing, though the next is really no better.

I get to pick my new desk on Friday. Have no idea where I would like to be. Probably facing a window so that I don't get glare on my monitors, because that drives me bugfuck, but aside from that I really do not know. We're all on a training course next week, and after an early meeting tomorrow I'm starting work on a new project. We need to have stuff bundled off to QE by Friday, though. At least this means they can QE stuff pretty thoroughly over the week my team is being taught how to not use our Linux boxes as toasters.

Anyway, must go. Word war begins very shortly. :)

[EDIT] And I am all out of Holmes to watch. ;_; My heart. It is breaking.

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Final commit finished five minutes before I wanted to leave, which means all I have to do tomorrow is write a new index page, commit, and hope. :D! Life is awesome.

Merlin is also awesome. :D

So are timezones that mean my 6am meetings are now at 7am. :D

Everything's coming up Raven!





...tomorrow is going to suck.

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WHAT'S THIS I HEAR ABOUT YOU HAVING A NEW LAW? YOU NEVER TALK TO ME ANY MORE. :D It makes things like this awesome and surprising.

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Currently:
- cooking dinner
- babysitting dragonforce #1
- babysitting minor!dragonforce #2 (2-5, really, but I don't want to push my luck with CVS)
- writing NaNo
- folding washing
- formulating tomorrow's todo list

Try fitting all that in your Facebook status coherently, though.

Everything is going pretty well as far as the work stuff goes... the second third is being jammed up CVS's proverbial, courtesy of the fabulous dragonforce script, and I think the whole process should be done by the time I usually leave for work in the morning. (Though with the password thing, I may need to stay up and make sure that the permissions will last that long.) I'd stay home tomorrow to make up for the whole weekend thing and get some decent sleep, but unfortunately I still have to do the final third and confirm that the first third actually made it up before I go prodding helpdesk with pointy objects.

Mum is back from the coast, which is pretty much why I bothered to cook. She's exhausted. Oopee's bleeding internally from the medication, so he's not coming out of hospital yet, and her sister's not coming home because - wait for it - she wouldn't have a car. (Her daughter is currently using her car to travel about fifteen minutes across town to get to her workplace, which would take about forty minutes on two buses. Somehow this would be too much hardship to assist a dying grandparent? As if Shelly wouldn't do that and give up the car to her mother again.) Yeah, no, Diane. Pull the other one; it's got bells on.

Dinner has been retrieved from the oven and I should probably make sure my mother actually eats instead of lying prone on the couch before she crawls to bed, so that's that for the time being.

[EDIT] Oh, and Wyrren came past for an hour or so this afternoon! ^^ It was really good to see her again, even though I spent half of our conversation rattling away at release notes. I'd missed her.

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Yyyyyeah, going to have to talk to alt about this whole 'tuesday release with saturday qe finish' thing because hint IT ISN'T WORKING OUT TOO WELL FOR ME.

I mean, everything is going fine, but I would also like to not have to babysit Havelock through the entire process. And the VPN is slow as shit, so everything is taking about five times as long. I should really just go into work, but then I could not do the washing while I wait.

Wyrren is going to drop past on her way back from town, though. :D I should maybe have brushed my hair by then.

Original || Comment ||

I am expecting an epic technology fail at any moment now, but so far - SO FAR - things are going pretty okay. And I can now keep half an eye on my builds without causing too much panic.

(jsdfhasd the SECOND I typed that there was a minor error. XD TYPICAL. So, yes, half an eye. BUT ONLY HALF.)

TO DO:
- take rubbish down
- dry sheets
- vacuum house
- dust bookshelves and gaming devices
- try to scribble some basic plotting for Rocfall
- ELEVEN HOURS SEVEN MINUTES TIL NANO GUYS OMG

Original || Comment ||

Last night was good. Not as many people as I expected, which was a good thing given the vast horde that replied with I'LL BE THERE :D. ._. I'd have had a job and a half keeping up with them. Ended up with the better part of a dozen people, including Erin, whom it was very good to see again, and I think everyone now understands that my workmates are awesome based on only two examples. XD Let's not pretend I didn't tell you so.

Then again, the return of the creepy ex-coworker. :| Why do I attract these men? Is it my hobo-radar working overtime, or what? Can I turn it off now? Well, yes, by being less polite, but we all know I have difficulty with that.

Spending the vast majority of this weekend shepherding documentation through the final hurdles and getting it up online. A lot of the docs are still hideous, but the OCD cares as much about timing as quality, thank all gods, so is not twitching too much when we're so behind. Just don't expect to see a lot of me on the interwebs, unless it's for a repeat of Build, you fucker, build.

Incidentally, I have six days to work on the next project before the docfreeze date. :) Why would you ever do this. :) Halp.

Original || Comment ||

My mother and eldest aunt have spent the last two months running themselves ragged looking after my grandparents.

My grandparents have spent the last two months dying.

My middle aunt and her husband have spent the last two months in Canada visiting their children.



Take a wild guess who is trying to sound hard done by in this situation.

---

I don't think I can stop wanting to punch my uncle in the mouth. Because anyone who insinuates that my mother is over-exaggerating the danger when she is having to constantly tell my grandfather to live? Can go fuck ponies for popcorn.

I was prepared to rant about my day until I came home and heard about what this cockhead had said to my mother from his fucking Canadian holiday about who would miss seeing his children here. You know who's going to miss seeing his fucking child? MY GRANDFATHER. ON HIS DEATHBED. Not that either of you selfish, vacuous FUCKHEADS are worth the effort.

And no, I am NOT friends-locking this. Because I've bitten my tongue about these morons long enough.

Original || Comment ||

Started feeling quite nauseous about half past seven; I thought food would help but it really has not. I think sleep will solve the problem, but I'm afraid I need to ctrl-alt-del my mind before that can happen and, well, Holmes is helping with that.

Got a fair bit done today, although once again not as much as I'd hoped. As much as could be expected, I suppose. Wish I'd organised more thorough technical reviews earlier, but that's what I get for assuming a basic sweep had been done before I started work. Certainly shan't make that mistake again.

Want to get some writing done for gifts and NaNo preparation, but to be honest? Way too tired. I'm not going to be very exciting on Friday night, that's for sure.

Original || Comment ||

Today was actually pretty good for a substitute Monday. Aside from the continuing drama of the moneylending, anyway, which I think is over. Dad only SMS'd, thankfully, but seemed genuinely shocked that I'd be so upset about not being able/willing to lend him money. -_- Clearly he does not understand how well the Catholic Guilt has worked upon my mother and I.

Sorted everything that needed sorting today, but actually really need to do the JBoss Messaging version release notes tomorrow. *vows* Kind of important to get this stuff done before all the tech reviews come flooding back in... and man, Thursday through Tuesday is not going to be a fun fun happy-go-lucky time.

Should possibly have scheduled birthday drinks for another time.

Should possibly have scheduled the change in internet for a different time, too, because I'm sure that'll involve a service hiccup or four, but hey, it's going to be ADSL2+ and I can always go in to work on the weekend if I absolutely need to.

Oopee had his stent put in today, and he's still feeling pretty rotten, which is to be expected. I hope he perks up all the perking he can do pretty soon, but he's not exactly optimistic about the situation, and neither is anyone else. I maintain he cannot die of anything until he has a) taught me to speak Dutch fluently and b) told me his life story in detail so that I can pass it on. That is my story and I am sticking with it.

Original || Comment ||

Happy Birthday, feather_qwill! ♥♥♥

I hope the fact that it's your birthday counterracts the Mondayness of it all and you have a fantastic week to celebrate. ♥ Giftfic to come, hopfully not as late as the last one. >_>;

Original || Comment ||

I just want you all to know that.

Original || Comment ||

Gorgeous notebooks, dangly earrings, bath ballistics, perfume, and buggerall to do for the day. ♥ I think I approve of this 'birthday off' business. Diane and John have called from Canada, but I haven't heard from Dad yet - I give him until at least eleven-thirty. ;) Which means plenty of time for a shower, breakfast, and deliberating over which perfume to wear first who am I kidding, Crowley, obviously.

I think I want to do some drawing today. Some actual drawing, of actual import. Possibly some profiles or something for NaNo - Lucien, the Thief, and the Golem at different ages or whatever. ...not that there's much point doing that with the Golem, but still. Will tweet if I ustream.

Right. Now that most of the phone calls are over with, back to my lazily scheduled day off. ♥

[EDIT] Did I say 11.30? I meant 9am.

And he called to ask for money, not to wish me happy birthday. You are so full of class, memory, and timing, father mine.

Original || Comment ||

So I... may have spent the last hour and a half trying to master manual steering in MKWii. >_>; I just. Other people can do it. I have to be able to do it. Even if I hate the fuck out of it. I just need to get used to the physics, that's all. Manual, then wheel.

Hey, it never hurts to have goals, right? >_>;

Just for the hell of it, I think I'm going to try to master Birdo. Because Birdo is kind of a bitch to drive, and I may as well get all my challenges out of the way at once.

Original || Comment ||

Dear Internet:

Birdo. is not. female.

Proof #1: http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j82/Mop_it_up/Bucket%20of%20Randomism/DDPManualTranslation.jpg

Proof #2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYSpwOHktZo

Can everyone on the internet saying, "Birdo is pink and in love with Yoshi! CLEARLY SHE'S A GIRL," take a great big breath of reality and stop being so short-sighted.

kthxdie,
Rave.

Original || Comment ||