morgawse

11:54 pm - Mehhhh, I'm a sheep. AKA, a meme.

Ninjed from mametsuki  and redaloud :

*Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find the fifth sentence.
*Post that sentence along with these instructions in your LiveJournal.

08:01 pm

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8141069.stm

WHAT!?

I would comment, but I'm too busy shaking with rage.

08:20 pm

Argh no, exit polls in Holland put Geert Wilders' PVV at 4 out of our 25 European Parliament seats. That is so not good. So very, very not good. The one fucking year I get bogged down in bureacracy and don't manage to register to vote (voting from abroad - complicated. Trust me. Voting in Britain instead - possible, and I thought I was registered, but it turns out I was wrong. Argh.) something like this happens. At least I managed to persuade monkeywithak to actually go out and vote this time. But still...


And the guy says he wants the party to win our next general elections and be Prime Minister. That is a nightmare world I don't even want to imagine, but I have to admit it's no longer as unlikely as it once seemed.

Argh.

Current Mood: angry

04:41 pm

No maelstrom for Jenn. This Jenn is too broken.


*sulks* :(

03:30 pm - *squees excitedly*

My MA results finally got confirmed! I actually get to graduate this July  with everyone else!

*runs around excitedly, unable to contain happiness*


Was a bit of a weird day actually....I learned this morning that my results got confirmed, which was good, but I couldn't work out from the email whether or not that meant I could actually start my PhD some time soon, or if I'd have to wait till September. The latter thought filled me with absolute dread, as I hate my job with the burning intensity of a thousand suns, as lizard_boy would put it. Several hours and ten emails later, however, I got it confirmed I can register as soon as I get my new topic sorted out. This is good, and makes me a happier and much less stressed Jenn.

So, ehm, huzzah. I'd drag you all down the pub and shout 'drinks on me', but I'm completely broke, so it'd have to be 'drinks on monkeywithak', which might not have the same effect. Although it is possibly funnier.

04:11 pm - So.....what does my accent sound like? I mean, really?

On Monday morning (ok, Monday early afternoon) I get up, have a shower, then get dressed and go to put in my contacts. So far, so good - except as I take my right contact out of the little container, it feels sharp. Sharp is bad. That thing's meant to go in my eye - don't want it being sharp. So I look closer (not easy, seeing as I'm not wearing contacts...) and find the thing's cracked right through the middle, and as I poke it to make sure I'm not imagining this, it breaks in half.

Great. This would be less of a problem if I wore daily or even monthly disposables, but no, I've got GP lenses, which only need replacing every few years, so I never own more than one pair at a time. I sigh, swear a lot, find my glasses, put them on, and remember why I never wear my glasses. (I hate those things. They make me look stupid, give me headaches, and are just generally uncomfortable). To make a long story short, and bring me to the main point of this post (which, despite two paragraphs of evidence to the contrary, was not actually my broken contacts), I get myself to SpecSavers, look pathetic and manage to procure an appointment for the next day so I can get an eyetest and order new contacts.

During my appointment with the optician on Tuesday morning, I mention that I got my first pair of contacts back home in the Netherlands when I was thirteen. He looks surprised, comments he'd never have guessed English wasn't my first language, and says he'd have guessed I was from somewhere around Birmingham.

Cue much (internal, seeing as he really was very nice and it's not his fault) screaming. I have nothing against people from Birmingham, but what is with this perception that I sound like I am? People trying to place my accent generally fall into one of two categories: either they realise I'm foreign but can't tell what my native language is, so varyingly assume me to be American (not much recently, I seem to have lost that odd hybrid of an accent known as 'Atlantic English' brought on by a misspent youth watching subtitled foreign shows on Dutch TV), Australian (Huh?), New Zealand (get that one a lot. Not sure why), German (Close but no cigar), Swedish (that catch-all origin for all those whose origin is clearly European but whose accent you cannot place), Danish (as it's clearly the same place as Holland - no kidding. I've heard 'but Amsterdam is in Denmark, right' more times than I care to count), Swiss (because people mean to say Sweden, but can't tell the two apart) or South African (ok, I'll let you have that one, Afrikaans is at least vaguely similar to Dutch - if you roll the Dutch language back 300 years and pronounce it funny); or they fail to notice I'm foreign at all and try to localise my accent somewhere in the UK. Out of the people who do this, at least half of them seem to think I'm from Birmingham/the Midlands.

....what's with that? I don't get it....I don't even know many people from there. Two, I think, so it's not like I'll have picked it up from them.

I's confuzzled. Enlighten me?

Current Mood: tired

04:18 pm - Oh hell yes.

It's back. The feeling where I'm actually doing work and know where I'm going and what I'm doing, the feeling that I'm writing something that isn't a total piece of crap, and knowing which bit of it I'm going to write next and how. The panic and wanting to die and quit the course and crawl into a hole has gone. I'm sure it'll be back, for for now I'm on a roll. This thing's not going to be done when I said it would, but I don't care, it's not a proper deadline, and by the end of it it'll be decent and I'll still be sane. I call that a win.

08:35 pm

Miko's home!

She's a bit fluffed up and high as a kite due to the anaesthetic, which would be funny if it wasn't so sad :D It'll wear off though, so I'm just hoping that she'll have the good common sense to stay off her stitches when it does.

I'm so very, very relieved to have her home.

11:41 am

Miko is with the vet to have her lump removed. I'm beside myself with worry and will not stop twitching until I know she is awake and alright. The vet reckons it's probably a tumour in the lymphatic system which will likely recur, but he was happy to remove it. Fingers crossed...

I seem to have become a bug magnet for everything going round. After the stomach bug last week, the ongoing ear infection (if you happen to phone me and keep having 'WHAT?' shouted at you, I'm not being rude, I just can't hear you), I'm now also running a fever and just feeling generally awful. I'd kill for a bath, but our hot water tank does only just about hold enough hot water to fill the sink, and even then it's only 'comfortably warm', rather than the scalding hot burn your skin off type baths that I like.


In other news, somewhere during my meeting with my supervisor yesterday I appear to have promised him a draft of chapter one by the end of next week. This is both good and bad, as that's rather a lot of work, but will also mean I'll get off my lazy ass and actually do aforementioned work.

Ugh. Was going to clean/tidy/rearrange the flat today, but I'm not sure it's happening. I feel too ill:( Will have to find Dave's Weapons of the Gods character sheets though, on principle if nothing else. They have to be SOMEWHERE...right...?


[EDIT: we phoned the vet, and she'd been operated on and was coming round just as we called. We get to pick her up in a few hours. Breathing slightly easier now...]

01:47 pm - AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!! *screams, covers eyes*

Dave just wandered into the room giggling, having shaved off his beard but not his moustache. It was utterly terrifying and for those of you who think clean shaven Dave is scary, trust me, this is much, much, much worse.

*twitches in shock for a bit*

Fortunately he's now gone back to shave it off completely.

01:16 pm

We took the place in Menai Bridge :) It's expensive, but worth the money; it's a lovely flat, nice and light and spacious. Unfortunately when the lady said unfurnished, she really meant it, the place doesn't even have a cooker. Can sort all that out though.

I'm utterly terrified something completely random is going to go wrong and make it fall through, even though the lady has given me all the bank details for the deposit and everything, so logically it really shouldn't. I mean, if she was going to back out she'd have done it when I phoned back about paying the deposit.

(Someone just tell me it's going to be ok? I'm just this big ball of stress and I can't believe it's actually sorted...)


I'm trying to relax though, because I should be happy because it's great news and it's my birthday, as well!

*squees tentatively*

I got nice pressies from Dave and my parents and Dave's parents and Dan, and tonight a bunch of people are coming over, and Dave and Dan made me a cake. This is turning out to be a good day :)



Also, I found my wallet. AFTER cancelling all the cards.
Ah well. :D

06:57 pm - Viewing a house tomorrow

The last one fell through.

Viewing a place in Menai Bridge tomorrow. It's bloody expensive, but better than being homeless... Cross fingers, hope, light candles, pray, whatever it is you do? Pwetty pwetty please? I haven't slept properly in a week for sheer worry, so getting this sorted would be brilliant...

11:35 am

The universe listened!

No more than 20 seconds after posting that, I received the email I have been waiting for rather anxiously, as it was either going to make my life hell or a lot easier. The jury is still slightly out, but it's looking good for 'a lot easier'.

Thank you, universe.

11:30 am

Dear Universe,

Can you please, just for a week or two, stop making things go wrong? I can't remember last time anything important went right, and it's getting a bit tedious. That letter from this morning was just icing on the cake, really. I mean it. I got the message, you hate me. Fine. Now leave me alone, alright?

Yours,

Jennifer.

06:41 pm

Just a quick note to say I'm still alive, as I've been a bit absent from various online places including LJ.
Life currently sucks in more ways than I care to list here, which is why I cannot currently be arsed to do anything much anywhere. I'm sure it'll get better, just not currently sure when or how and such.

However, fortunately, there are still cute fuzzy things. One of them is currently sat in my lap trying to get at the keyboard. Cute fuzzy things make everything a bit better.


*sigh*

02:56 pm

Just thought I'd drop a quick note to you all (while I have internet access in the library) that I am alive, moved, surrounded by boxes, stressed and tired, and that I haven't forgotten about writing the RP 'what if' drabbles. Give me a few days.

03:05 pm - Squeee!

*bounces around excitedly*

I just got all the marks for the taught element of my MA. Nothing under 60! Even that awful awful awful essay on Marsilius that I didn't think deserved to pass, and the good but unconventional essay on the Balkan war that could have done really well or really badly depending on the marker....:D


*bounces some more, then goes back to packing* :D

01:36 am - Stuff, and an RP/story meme.

My brain is only just starting to solidify after the madness that was the last bit of the taught part of the MA. Considering that was about a month ago, that's probably not a good sign. However, with a bit of luck, I will actually be able to concentrate on dissertation research soon - once we've moved house, at least. The move is to happen this Sunday, and I'm officially dreading it. There is too much to pack, not enough time to pack it, and not enough sturdy boxes to pack it into. I'm sure we'll manage it somehow, but I don't have to enjoy it, dammit!

Maelstrom was both awful and awesome. It was awful, in that I was originally having such a bad time of it that by 4pm on Saturday I'd decided I was never coming back. It was also awesome enough that by time-out on Sunday, I'd changed my mind. Hope I'll be able to actually make it to the next event; financial issues are currently making that slightly uncertain. Ah well, lentils are cheap, right? I can live off lentils for a while...

Wait. I hate lentils.
Bugger.


Anyway, otherwise, not much going on. (C'mon, it's Bangor, and it's summer. What were you expecting to happen?) Plenty of roleplay though, which is the only thing keeping me sane at the moment. You know how I say every year I will under no circumstances play in more than two campaigns at the same time? Yeah.... :D

Five Rings campaign is still plodding along quite happily; I'm not entirely satisfied with how I'm running it at the moment but there's no inherent problem with the campaign. Nothing a bit of tweaking here and there can't fix. Dave's WotG campaing's fun too, still waiting for that to result in horrible horrible but hysterically funny PvP - you just know it's going to... Finally, Owen's WoD is starting tomorrow. Played the prelude last week and although I was completely and utterly shattered by the end of it (seven hours - keeping in mind my normal attention span for RP is about three hours, at the most) I loved every second. The character has now taken up residence in the back of my head and will not shut up. Those of you who remember Amanda will know what happened last time a character did that to me.


.....help me?....:D


Leading me to the final part of this post, a roleplay/writing meme mostly inspired by yma2 and oxfordgirl. From oxfordgirl :
"Pick a point in my character’s life when it changes. I will write you a brief glimpse into what would have happened to her, had she made another choice at that point."

She aimed it mostly at Maelstrom, but I doubt very many people even know who Zittixi is, let alone any of her life changing experiences - so I'm opening it up to all of my long-term characters, LARP & tabletop. Those of you who have played with me will know who they are, some of you who haven't will have been ranted at. If you have no idea generally, give me a situation and I'll plonk one of the characters into it just to see what happens.

Pick a character:
Zittixi (Tlaxti, Maelstrom)
Amanda (D20 Modern)
Tyler (generic cyberpunk)
Tariza/Yalani (generic fantasy)
Esperanza (Vampire: the Masquerade)
Mei Hua (Weapons of the Gods)


Just give me something random to write. It'll keep me sane while I'm surrounded by cardboard boxes and stuff that needs packing into them...

11:06 pm - Normal Jenn service may resume eventually.

I've been a bit absent from here again, I really don't mean to keep doing this! I've been reading my friends page though, don't worry, I still love you all;)


Anyway, after Tuesday the madness should subside somewhat. My brain's a right mess at the moment, so I'm leaving myself to-do lists and reminder notes, because if it's all in my head, it ain't happening. I even compiled a plan of action, saved it to my HD, and plan on referring to it constantly so I don't forget something. Like, I don't know, putting half of the footnotes into an important essay, which I Definitely Did Not Do earlier this week, and which my supervisor Definitely Did Not Just Forgive Me For Without An Extension after I discovered the mistake and emailed him with the correct version about an hour after the deadline. Nono. Because forgetting something like that would be STUPID. And let's face it, I'd never do something like that.


*twitches and gibbers incoherently*

Anyway, for your enjoyment, or just so I have it posted yet somewhere else to help me remember, my plan of action for the next five days...


PLAN OF ACTION

Saturday

Go to Normal Site after buying fabric for Maelstrom kit

take out appropriate books

go to MA library

Take out appropriate books. Don't forget Lincoln cathedral; aristocracy.

Go home

Start writing research plan (ca. 1000 words)

Tidy up start of critical literature search.


Sunday

If necessary, go to library.

Write rest of research plan (ca. 1000-1500ish words)

Write rest of critical literature search

Compile bibliography.


Monday

Revise for Latin

If necessary, put finishing touches on research project stuff.


Tuesday

Sit Latin exam

Hand in research project stuff.


Wednesday

Collapse.

03:29 pm - It's over!

All over. I was really, really nervous, and surprisingly not-sleepy, despite having worked on the actual text till 2am and then waking up at seven when Dave got up (or was supposed to anyway:D ).

It went ok I think. The other students said they thought it was good, so I'll take that as a good sign. Lots of awkward questions though; damn academics!

Now, I think I'll spend my afternoon enjoying the sunshine. I deserve an afternoon off, and today is too nice a day to spend inside working. :)