My Yuki's Fan Club's Journal

9:24am: *bounce*

12:32pm: Dreamwidth has a community for esperanto fanfic. This has inspired me to start trying to write/translate "La Gardanĝelo" (The guardian angel), a fanfic I did about 10 years ago. Realised that I can't actually remember it as well as I thought I could, and I used lots of nice sentence structures that are a bugger to translate even with grammar as straightforward as esperanto! I think I may simplify some of structures.

I know there are copies of it around somewhere... I remember saving on to a hard drive in the physics lab at St Andrews before I realised that that wasn't my network drive (I was less used to computers then!). I think there used to be a hardcopy in Alastair's room in house we lived in then.

I think I'll be able to recreate it; it's irritating, but quite exciting that I'm getting it done!

10:23pm: What Herb Are You?

You Are Basil

You are a mild mannered person. People feel naturally calm around you. You are warm hearted and loving. You have a close knit circle of friends and family. You have the courage to be who you are in life, even if others disagree. You're proud of your uniqueness. You are good at caring for and healing others. You are naturally soothing.

10:46pm: HAPPY BIRTHDAY vidiian

11:23pm: New Rocks for sale
Ian's mum is selling a new pair of New Rocks  (still in box) for £70 + postage. (Postage not an issue if you can meet up with us!)

Size 36 european (I think that's a size 3-4), shop price £130.

Let me know if you are interested.

8:40am: Is it just me...

...or when you are searching for a file on windows (XP I've got), and you get the list -  if you're going to close it anyway, do you say that you've found what you were looking for even if you haven't so that you don't disappoint the wee doggie that's been looking for you? He looks so happy & proud when you say he's found it...
 

12:32pm: PLEASE VOTE!
It's important!

Europe is relevant to our lives.
It's PR, so votes count.
And more sane votes = less racist scum percentage.

7:07pm: Popped into new charity shop on way home - very glad I did.

I am now the proud owner of a globe of the moon!

How cool is that?

9:36am: Wedding cake piccies
Here are the first pictures of the cake I made for my brother in law's wedding.

www.flickr.com/photos/33646833@N06/3558306993/
www.flickr.com/photos/33646833@N06/3559115900/

It's actually before I got to the venue; being protective of cake, I was unhappy that the venue had put it up when they were told I would do it, but never mind - it's slightly not-straight, which I couldn't fix entirely, and the flowers on the bottom tier should be on the top. On the other hand, these are nice piccies, and first I have so far - tell me what you think!

I'm planning out small business for doing these at the moment. Turns out that I wouldn't be liable for VAT if I don't have a large turnover, and given that I'll be doing a maximum of 2 cakes/month, probably 1 every two months once I get going, that isn't going to happen for a while.

12:12pm:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY neophyte_13 

10:23pm: Aparently my timing is good :-)

Mondays Ian runs a D&D game at local games shop. Usually gets home about half 11 at night.

I called him on mobile about 25 past last night.

A guy had started talking to him... one of those that thinks women's place is in the home. He was going on about what was wrong with society is that we need to stop "mollycoddling" women, and that women should make their men's dinner for his coming home.

This is the point at which I rang.

We had a brief conversation, Ian told me he was 2 stops away, usual sickly-sweet "love you"s :-)

After we say bye, man asks Ian if that was his other half. Ian tells him that yes, it was, and I was asking what he'd like for dinner & seeing how far away he was.

Man was gobsmacked.

"How do you GET them to do that!?!?"

"I mollycoddle her."

*grins*

(As it happens we usually take turns, but mondays I do it as he's out.)

12:33pm:

My new mixer is awesome.

 

( Where I go on for far to long about kitchen appliances )

 

2:20pm:

My mixer broke. Less than a week after I started using it, the motor started clanking when doing some royal icing, and then gave up the ghost altogether.

 This wouldn't be a *huge* issue… except that I'm in the middle of doing the wedding cake for my brother-in-law & his fiancée.

 Unfortunately we didn’t have the receipt, so had to use the bank statement (luckily, we bought it by debit card so had a record).

 I know that technically you don’t need a receipt as it’s faulty, but they weren’t having it when Ian went in, and we needed to get it done quickly.

 So…

Good news – they offered store credit/replacement for it.

Bad news – they didn’t have that model in stock. The next one cost an extra £70 which has left a not-good hole in budget.

However… Good news again… I have a KENWOOD!!!

I had kind of decided I’d learnt my lesson from this & would never get a non-Kenwood mixer again after this. Was figuring that I’d get one in a few months’ time & get a replacement to do me for the moment to do the cake.

But I have a Kenwood now :-) OK, not the best timing with stuff coming up, but looking on the bouncy side!

I still want this though....www.kenwood.co.uk/Products/Kitchen-Machines/Chef-and-Major/KM020/  *dreamy sigh*.

1:05pm: Forgiveness

12:42pm: ( Story name stuff )

9:24pm: I really need to start writing.

I have the basis of a novel going round my head - I have the start, I know the main focus & pushing idea behind it, and I actually have a really cool (I think...) ending (what Asimov called the backwards glance that he found helpful).

There are some obstacles.

There are a lot of bits in the middle that I'm not sure about. There are some major plot points that I've no idea how to work out, or which of the alternatives to take, or how much to cut out.

Just had a really bad & geeky analogy come to mind... you *know* that a 60-card magic deck will work better, but all of the cards are so NICE... this is why I have difficulty building any under 100 cards.

Anyway... geekiness aside (and i've only been playing TtS for about 3 months) it is kind of similar. At one point considered putting it over 3 books :-) - not sure that would work though, or solves the basic issue. I have lots of really pretty ideas (to me anyway) but not all fit together, and I'm really scared of making it stupid & stretching credibility too much. Do not shatter the willing suspension of disbelief by over-egging it.

It is SF, or at least has some distictly SF flavours (like space travel & colonisation & morals behind who gets to go/is forced to go & long-term dirty politics over that & cryogenics & reactions to cryogenics & a comet or two ... yeah, it's SF ... ). I know not really necessary to most of my friends list, but SF <> unrealistic!

Issue the second... I'm not sure I can write in a non-cheesy & cringeworthy manner.

And as a minor sub-issue, I have no idea what the name of my main hero is! I love him to bits - he has more than a few flaws, but is a basically decent if confused person who ends up getting an ending that satisfies me.

I think I know him pretty well... I just wish we were on first-name terms.

I've tried to get a couple of outlines or timelines together (this is kind of relevant as I'm telling it over at least 3 distinct time periods that will interweave with each other) but then I get into indecision about what plot elements to put in. (Actually it's more like 2 main periods with a bit before & a bit after).

The main issue out of all of them is that I don't think I can write anything that I wouldn't be ashamed for anyone else to read because I feel it is going to be so cliched & crap.

Meh.

But getting back to the main point - I need to start doing it. I can always try to fix it afterwards, but need to start getting something down on paper screen.

So... my good friend to whom I am going to do many vicious things... what's your name?

12:52pm: holidays :)
Getting really excited now - I leave for Glasgow in just over 45.5 hours :-)

I will be there for 10 days & can't wait. Plans that are in place are

Definite: Science Centre, see Ross in bubble, do work in flat
Possible & really want to: go on day trip to Isle of Arran, go to tchai ovna for tea & food.
Fun stuff that might happen: Mabie?
Other possibles: Mother wants to have an easter visit on Good Friday, so it's possible we'll head down then to Dumfries to meet her.

Yay spending lots of time in Scotland :-)

12:43pm: I should be in London & annoyed with myself that I didn't get things sorted at work so I could be.

In happier news, Lizzie's play is tonight which should be a lot of fun!

I'm considering applying for a business analyst role at work. I'm not sure I've got all the experience that would be required, but thinking that the communication & analytical skills I've got, combined with I know what makes a good spec & what makes a bad one from interpreting them!

1:20pm: Jobs at mine... ( Read more... )

11:58pm: Good OWoD mage game. Wonderful last scene; euthanatos & chorister are sneaking around house of suspected bad guy, possibly deomic connections. They found a set of stairs going down to a basement area. So down they went.

The Chorister botched his night-sight roll, so I said that he saw what looked like the outline of a hidden door in the wall halfway down the stone stairs. He then decided to put up watch the weacing, & checked if there was anything magical going on - and botched that roll. Yep, definitely some kind of magical door with suspicious looking resonance.

So he enchanted a knife and started trying to break open the door.

Meantime the euthanatos had reached the bottom of the stairs (they had found the light switch by this time), where there was a 180 degree turn into a very well stocked wine cellar. He was looking around when the chorister finally managed to break through the wall, and the euthantos just managed to avoid being hit by falling masonery and his colleague.

There followed a bit of an argument, in which the chorister became the first person ever to pull a gun on the euthanatos and live!

One of the points of contention was that the chorister was convinced that there must be a door here; he had seen it. He was very concerned that if this lead were not followed, a door to allow in things that should not be may be opened - he needed to check the other side of the staircase to see if there were a door there.

The euthanatos was not convinced.

The chorister appealed to the fact that they were friends.

The euthanatos corrected him - "I act friendly towards you. I haven't killed you yet."

Finally the chorister explained that his family had been killed by nephandi/demons. He appealled to the euthanatos by explaining how this made him want to hunt demons - why he had set upon that as his life's mission, and how he could not allow the possibility of an intrusion to occur.

He ended with an appeal "How would you feel if you had seen your family killed by demons?".

The euthantos sighed. "All right."

The chorister was pleased. "Excellent..."

"Er... no. I meant I would feel all right."

6:12pm: Yay - have internet at home again. Time to catch up on stuff.

Worked from home today as well as had upset tum. Got lots done :-)

1:47pm: updates
Booked tickets to go to Glasgow. Very happy about this :) Will be there from late Saturday 4/4 to evening Tuesday 14/4. Almost 10 days *bounce*!!! We will have at least a Luke with us, and possibly others, but they will probably be staying at Blantyre (Assa, have been trying to contact you if you sees this...)

Also hoping to get together with some people while I'm up; anyone up for a night out during Easter Week?

Had training today on new tools we'll be using which look really exciting.

I need to talk to people I haven't seen for ages. I know I'm really bad at keeping in touch with people, and then getting too stressed to call because I haven't called for a while.

I've got 3 definites & 2 possibles for work RP group. I'm porbably going to run Orpheus there. The mage game at home went fairly well on Sunday, which pleased me a lot.

Tonight is the latest attempt to get internet back up & running; plugging in the old PC to see if it can manage it. I need to get some old data off it anyway. Also need home net to get stuff for Kev (haven't forgotten!).

25 days to Glasgow!

3:04pm: VB6/SQL developer job in Leyland
Anyone interested? My company are looking for a developer up there. Give me a shout if you are!

4:40pm: I'm used to developers not sharing my joy at finding new and interesting ways to make the system crash, but I'm beginning to realise that other QAs here also don't have that enthusiasm... this feels odd. We break things! I am a professional vandal!

It also means that it might not have been the best thing in the world to put a smilie in an updates email to my manager announcing that I crashed it during regression testing.

"... I’ve also made it crash :-) ... "

5:24pm: Hometime.

Ended on a bit of a high - bug found, bug investigated, bug found, and developer congratulated me (although I wasn't the only one who found & investigated it by any means).

Also this is a developer that I think the world of, so that's good :)