... the new blog starts tomorrow! I'm pretty excited about that :) or at least I will be once I've done the very last finishing touches to the first post ...
I'm going to keep this one going too, although I might post a bit less frequently (as might be expected). The idea is that that one will hold more polished content, with structure and planning and all that jazz, and more off-the-cuff posts will remain here :). I don't really know how it will work out, but I think it'll work pretty well.
So ... do head on over there - okay, there aren't any proper posts up yet, but there are 2 pages (About Me and About This Blog), and you have to check out the banner, which the lovely Hazel made for me (and I then messed about adding text to). I'm pretty pleased with how it's all turned out.
Catch you soon!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Note to self: My laptop is not portable.
I travelled away to work this week - I had to do 3 days, which were done by:
Monday - working from home for about 6 hours, travelling on Monday evening
Tuesday - working for about 3 hours, then a meeting with my line manager (which then meant I had enough information to be able to do the rest of the week's work, which is good), then some traipsing round the city doing things like registering with libraries and getting lost (boo for diversion bus routes ...). So I didn't get a full afternoon's work done on Tuesday, though I'd have liked to.
Wednesday - working a pretty full day.
Thursday morning - spent about 3 hours finishing things off, then freedom!
Things are going to go something like this from now on, although normally it'll only be 2 days a week. Probably staying away from home 2 nights a week, because that means I can travel late-ish which means off peak trains which means more money for me and less for the train companies. This is useful. I'm writing this from the train home on Thursday afternoon ... though of course I shan't be able to upload it until I get to somewhere with an internet connection.
So that's my little life update ... now for some things I have learned:
1) My laptop is technically portable, but I should not try to take it places.
I've got a Dell Inspiron 1501 (about 3 years old now). It wasn't bought to be small and light, it was bought to sit on a desk but be able to be packed away into a drawer. And maybe occasionally lugged to the library (bear in mind that that was a 5 minute walk). It is HEAVY (just under 3 kilos, maybe?). Not so bad on its own but when you're walking for 20 minutes from the train station and carrying other things as well ... a bad idea. I think it's been good for my fitness, though ... I walked at least 2 hours on Tuesday with laptop in bag and that was ... definitely a workout.
2) Word 2007 is really a lot better than Word 2003. I've got the former on my laptop (and have been using it for 3 years, therefore) and we've got the latter at work ... you can't even save as PDFs! It feels very odd. And of course everything is in a different place. On the bright side, at least Word 03 can open .docx documents - it converts them which can mess up formatting a little bit, I think, but it hasn't been a problem.
3) Learning new things that you're immediately supposed to put into practise is really tiring! I've been coming home each evening feeling pretty knackered. It's very different from how I felt when studying academic stuff. I think the key differences are that here I have to use information I gain immediately (rather than being able to leave things simmering at the back of my mind for a long time), and that I can switch off in the evenings. I can work the hours I'm paid to work plus maybe a little bit extra if it's necessary to bring my skills up to the level required (e.g. looking at new software a bit so I have some idea of what I'm doing) and then ... that's it! No 'you must concentrate every hour because your grade depends on this'. That's quite nice. I expect it will all be a bit less tiring once I have more of an idea of what I'm doing.
Know me, but don't know what I'm doing? Feel free to drop me an email asking what the new job is - I'd rather not talk about specifics on here because work and blogs shouldn't mix, but am happy to chat via email.
Monday - working from home for about 6 hours, travelling on Monday evening
Tuesday - working for about 3 hours, then a meeting with my line manager (which then meant I had enough information to be able to do the rest of the week's work, which is good), then some traipsing round the city doing things like registering with libraries and getting lost (boo for diversion bus routes ...). So I didn't get a full afternoon's work done on Tuesday, though I'd have liked to.
Wednesday - working a pretty full day.
Thursday morning - spent about 3 hours finishing things off, then freedom!
Things are going to go something like this from now on, although normally it'll only be 2 days a week. Probably staying away from home 2 nights a week, because that means I can travel late-ish which means off peak trains which means more money for me and less for the train companies. This is useful. I'm writing this from the train home on Thursday afternoon ... though of course I shan't be able to upload it until I get to somewhere with an internet connection.
So that's my little life update ... now for some things I have learned:
1) My laptop is technically portable, but I should not try to take it places.
I've got a Dell Inspiron 1501 (about 3 years old now). It wasn't bought to be small and light, it was bought to sit on a desk but be able to be packed away into a drawer. And maybe occasionally lugged to the library (bear in mind that that was a 5 minute walk). It is HEAVY (just under 3 kilos, maybe?). Not so bad on its own but when you're walking for 20 minutes from the train station and carrying other things as well ... a bad idea. I think it's been good for my fitness, though ... I walked at least 2 hours on Tuesday with laptop in bag and that was ... definitely a workout.
2) Word 2007 is really a lot better than Word 2003. I've got the former on my laptop (and have been using it for 3 years, therefore) and we've got the latter at work ... you can't even save as PDFs! It feels very odd. And of course everything is in a different place. On the bright side, at least Word 03 can open .docx documents - it converts them which can mess up formatting a little bit, I think, but it hasn't been a problem.
3) Learning new things that you're immediately supposed to put into practise is really tiring! I've been coming home each evening feeling pretty knackered. It's very different from how I felt when studying academic stuff. I think the key differences are that here I have to use information I gain immediately (rather than being able to leave things simmering at the back of my mind for a long time), and that I can switch off in the evenings. I can work the hours I'm paid to work plus maybe a little bit extra if it's necessary to bring my skills up to the level required (e.g. looking at new software a bit so I have some idea of what I'm doing) and then ... that's it! No 'you must concentrate every hour because your grade depends on this'. That's quite nice. I expect it will all be a bit less tiring once I have more of an idea of what I'm doing.
Know me, but don't know what I'm doing? Feel free to drop me an email asking what the new job is - I'd rather not talk about specifics on here because work and blogs shouldn't mix, but am happy to chat via email.
... psst, hello ...
(working week almost over. Hurrah!
I say week, I mean '3 days'. But 3 days of doing stuff I've never done before, so it's been quite tiring.
Looking forward to getting home this afternoon (am staying in another city for work).
Longer post later!)
I say week, I mean '3 days'. But 3 days of doing stuff I've never done before, so it's been quite tiring.
Looking forward to getting home this afternoon (am staying in another city for work).
Longer post later!)
Monday, July 26, 2010
Kingsway, you've gone too far this time ...
We had the following song at church on Sunday:
For people who don't want to watch the whole thing: the main lyric tells us that it's "great great brill brill wicked wicked skill skill" to have a friend like Jesus. Mmhmm. Right.
It wouldn't be so bad if the "skill skill" bit made any sense.
Religious or not, what's your favourite (or perhaps least favourite) outrageous kids' song?
For people who don't want to watch the whole thing: the main lyric tells us that it's "great great brill brill wicked wicked skill skill" to have a friend like Jesus. Mmhmm. Right.
It wouldn't be so bad if the "skill skill" bit made any sense.
Religious or not, what's your favourite (or perhaps least favourite) outrageous kids' song?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
On Glasses and Contact Lenses
I now have contact lenses! Not for general wear, just for the odd occasion. Mostly because Boots were doing free contact lens fittings / trials, so I thought I'd try it (as this usually costs around £30). Having tried it, I've decided 'This is pretty weird, but I'd like to have the opportunity to wear them occasionally' so I've got 30 sets of dailies, which I will wear now and then if I want to be in a costume with a mask, or wear snazzy cheap sunglasses, or watch a 3D film.
The experience was a bit weird though; it made me think about how there seems to be a popular conception that contact lenses > glasses. You see it all the time on makeover programs (along with everyone having to have very expensive highlights even when their hair looked lovely before - I don't know why).
While I was having the teach lesson (first I had a checkup which involved exciting things like turning my eyes yellow, then they ordered in lenses of my prescription, then I had a teach lesson where I had to put them in and take them out myself), the woman who was teaching me said things like "You know, you've got such a high prescription, this is really going to make a big difference for you" several times. I sort of made noncommittal noises to this ... but I definitely disagree.
Above, I listed 3 things that I reckon I can do better with contact lenses than with glasses. None of those really involve everyday life. I am, frankly, perplexed as to why contacts should be better.
Admittedly, I'm a bit biased. I think I've spent the last 10 years wearing glasses, so they're definitely a big part of my self-image. And especially over the last few years - I really wouldn't mind being known as "the girl with the purple glasses". I think glasses do a lot for me ... they give me colour, and introduce some straight lines and angles into a rather round face, which all the style experts say is the right thing to do. I definitely feel ... undressed without them. And when I'm wearing contacts the world seems more glare-y and windy. Never before realised how much glasses keep the wind out of your eyes ...
Anyone else switched from glasses to contacts? Prefer contacts to glasses? Any other thoughts?
The experience was a bit weird though; it made me think about how there seems to be a popular conception that contact lenses > glasses. You see it all the time on makeover programs (along with everyone having to have very expensive highlights even when their hair looked lovely before - I don't know why).
While I was having the teach lesson (first I had a checkup which involved exciting things like turning my eyes yellow, then they ordered in lenses of my prescription, then I had a teach lesson where I had to put them in and take them out myself), the woman who was teaching me said things like "You know, you've got such a high prescription, this is really going to make a big difference for you" several times. I sort of made noncommittal noises to this ... but I definitely disagree.
Above, I listed 3 things that I reckon I can do better with contact lenses than with glasses. None of those really involve everyday life. I am, frankly, perplexed as to why contacts should be better.
Admittedly, I'm a bit biased. I think I've spent the last 10 years wearing glasses, so they're definitely a big part of my self-image. And especially over the last few years - I really wouldn't mind being known as "the girl with the purple glasses". I think glasses do a lot for me ... they give me colour, and introduce some straight lines and angles into a rather round face, which all the style experts say is the right thing to do. I definitely feel ... undressed without them. And when I'm wearing contacts the world seems more glare-y and windy. Never before realised how much glasses keep the wind out of your eyes ...
Anyone else switched from glasses to contacts? Prefer contacts to glasses? Any other thoughts?
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Scattered thoughts
1) Hazel's gone :( left this evening. 'Twas good to have her here all week though :)
2) Shopping win! I went to the Debenhams sale today ... (ends tomorrow so there's an extra 10% off sale items) and for under £100 got:
-a suit jacket that will elevate my boring normal skirts to smart-casual for work
-2 pairs of jeans that really fit*
-3 pairs of awesome tights
-4 pairs of rather nice earrings
-2 big necklaces, and a matching bracelet for one of them
I might photograph the accessories later, if I can be bothered ...
3) *I don't think of myself as short. However, I've recently worked out that in terms of shopping for trousers, I am (I'm about 5'4" and I've seen petite ranges advertised for "for the woman 5'4" and under" so I guess I'm borderline?). The problem, I think, is that back when I was about 12 and buying clothes for myself it was the fashion (at least amongst people I knew) to have jeans that were too long and then cut off / ragged from stepping on them / etc ... and it's taken me until now to realise that I never /quite/ outgrew that. So. From now on, my trousers will end /before/ they hit the ground. This is a good aim.
4) Have had confirmation about job starting - I start this coming Friday :) which is cool. Now I can plan!
5) Contact lenses are weird. I've got 5 trial pairs (daily use), of which I've now used 3. I have an appointment on Tuesday morning to be checked up on. I may post properly about glasses / contacts in a future post (here or on the new blog)
5) Plans for the next week ...
a) eat more healthily. There has been lots of eating out / making exciting dessert / etc with Hazel here ... time to return to normality.
b) go swimming a couple of times! Swimming!
c) sort out lots of content for the new blog (which will be over at http://eudoxiafriday.wordpress.com - from 1st August). I want to write the 'About' pages and plan some stuff and take some photos.
d) get up at a reasonable time, and eat porridge for breakfast. Mmm, porridge ...
e) talk to people at Church tomorrow. This may be scary. I want to try and do the hang around afterwards and have coffee thing, and hope I can make some friends or something. I recognise a few people there (I've been going to this church most of the time when I've been home during the holidays from Uni) so I might pluck up the nerve to just ask one of them to introduce me to a few people.
And in the interests of 5d), I'd better get to bed ... goodnight, world :) speak soon.
2) Shopping win! I went to the Debenhams sale today ... (ends tomorrow so there's an extra 10% off sale items) and for under £100 got:
-a suit jacket that will elevate my boring normal skirts to smart-casual for work
-2 pairs of jeans that really fit*
-3 pairs of awesome tights
-4 pairs of rather nice earrings
-2 big necklaces, and a matching bracelet for one of them
I might photograph the accessories later, if I can be bothered ...
3) *I don't think of myself as short. However, I've recently worked out that in terms of shopping for trousers, I am (I'm about 5'4" and I've seen petite ranges advertised for "for the woman 5'4" and under" so I guess I'm borderline?). The problem, I think, is that back when I was about 12 and buying clothes for myself it was the fashion (at least amongst people I knew) to have jeans that were too long and then cut off / ragged from stepping on them / etc ... and it's taken me until now to realise that I never /quite/ outgrew that. So. From now on, my trousers will end /before/ they hit the ground. This is a good aim.
4) Have had confirmation about job starting - I start this coming Friday :) which is cool. Now I can plan!
5) Contact lenses are weird. I've got 5 trial pairs (daily use), of which I've now used 3. I have an appointment on Tuesday morning to be checked up on. I may post properly about glasses / contacts in a future post (here or on the new blog)
5) Plans for the next week ...
a) eat more healthily. There has been lots of eating out / making exciting dessert / etc with Hazel here ... time to return to normality.
b) go swimming a couple of times! Swimming!
c) sort out lots of content for the new blog (which will be over at http://eudoxiafriday.wordpress.com - from 1st August). I want to write the 'About' pages and plan some stuff and take some photos.
d) get up at a reasonable time, and eat porridge for breakfast. Mmm, porridge ...
e) talk to people at Church tomorrow. This may be scary. I want to try and do the hang around afterwards and have coffee thing, and hope I can make some friends or something. I recognise a few people there (I've been going to this church most of the time when I've been home during the holidays from Uni) so I might pluck up the nerve to just ask one of them to introduce me to a few people.
And in the interests of 5d), I'd better get to bed ... goodnight, world :) speak soon.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Swimming!
Hazel and I (Hazel's going home tomorrow! Oh no :( I will miss her) went swimming on Monday.
(The picture is cheating ... it's me at Centre Parcs on a holiday a couple of years ago. Sadly, our local swimming pool doesn't look like that. It would be awesome if it did)
When we were there we both went "Oh! I'd forgotten how much I like swimming! I should do this more often ..."
Hazel, having moved to a new place, isn't familiar with where there's a pool and so on ... for me, the issue is shortsightedness. Take my glasses off me and I'm ... well, not lost. But not able to read signs or anything like that. And I really don't like that - it makes me feel vulnerable.
So I don't like going to the pool on my own ... but once I'm there and in the water I really enjoy it. Great form of exercise ... and all the many, many hours spent in swimming lessons and things as a little 'un come back (there are photos somewhere of me as a toddler at mum-and-baby swim things, I think). I almost always swim breaststroke, and I started off with that, but then had a go at front crawl which I haven't done in years and it all came flooding back ... felt like I was about 8 again. This is not a bad thing. And water is very peaceful ...
Now that I've been reintroduced to the pool ... I might go back, even on my own. I have a swimming timetable now, so I know when it's open (as in, when there aren't swimming lessons or other things going on). It'll be less fun on my own (I don't know anyone else around here who'd want to come swimming with me) but still good ... and a good way to build fitness. Which is something I'm starting to enjoy doing.
Anybody else swim? Love it / hate it? Wish you could but pool's too far away? Do comment :)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
When you have extremely ripe bananas ...
... you could do what I did, and make Craving Cookies :D they're lovely!
(For people who aren't interested in clicking through and reading the recipe: it's basically mashed banana, peanut butter, flour, and chocolate chips.)
These were a success, although I treated the quantities more as guidelines than as rules (I wanted to use up all the banana we had, so I then fudged how much of everything else to make), so they turned out rather gooey. This, however, is not a bad thing in a peanut-butter-and-banana based biscuit. It's made me wonder whether they would make a good eggless brownie - next time we have leftover bananas I might try that.
The rest of the post is basically photos:
The ingredients:
You don't need that many kinds of sugar - we had a tiny bit left in the bottom of several packets, so I thought I'd just finish them off. In the end the demerara, light brown, and white granulated came to the right amount, so I didn't end up using any golden caster.
Begin with the banana ... turn this:
into this:
Add peanut butter ...
and mix
Add various kinds of sugar ...
After mixing in flour and baking powder:
Chocolate chips:
Dollop out, and bake.
Nom.
These really are super-simple to make, taking the photos added considerably to the amount of time needed. Adding a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder when you add the flour gives you extra chocolateyness - but I've found I prefer this version, especially with big chunks of milk chocolate in it. These are really, really tasty - now that I've rediscovered them, I think this will be my go-to method for using up overripe bananas :)
(For people who aren't interested in clicking through and reading the recipe: it's basically mashed banana, peanut butter, flour, and chocolate chips.)
These were a success, although I treated the quantities more as guidelines than as rules (I wanted to use up all the banana we had, so I then fudged how much of everything else to make), so they turned out rather gooey. This, however, is not a bad thing in a peanut-butter-and-banana based biscuit. It's made me wonder whether they would make a good eggless brownie - next time we have leftover bananas I might try that.
The rest of the post is basically photos:
The ingredients:
Begin with the banana ... turn this:
into this:
Add peanut butter ...
and mix
Add various kinds of sugar ...
After mixing in flour and baking powder:
Chocolate chips:
Dollop out, and bake.
Nom.
These really are super-simple to make, taking the photos added considerably to the amount of time needed. Adding a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder when you add the flour gives you extra chocolateyness - but I've found I prefer this version, especially with big chunks of milk chocolate in it. These are really, really tasty - now that I've rediscovered them, I think this will be my go-to method for using up overripe bananas :)
Oh man. Updating here really has gone waaaay down in frequency. I'm sorry, guys! I'm going to be doing better this week: I've got a bunch of things planned, including:
-Pics of new glasses (I'll be picking them up tomorrow ... hurrah!)
-A brief post about swimming (the sister and I went swimming yesterday)
-Lots of pictures of sketching I've been doing this month - actually, this is probably what's been stealing my blog-time.
And I'm going to head off now and make Craving Cookies (because we have a couple of bananas that really need using up), so I'll let you know how all that turns out too :) (with pictures, of course).
And now a question ... can anyone think of synonyms for motivation/inspiration that don't feel overused? I'm looking for a tag for my Monday posts over at the new blog (once it gets going - starts August 1st) and I don't want to have "Motivational Monday" although it will be that sort of thing ... the posts will probably be a saying or proverb of some sort (e.g. "Be the change you want to see in the world") and some thoughts related to that. Posted on Monday mornings.
Having briefly perused Thesaurus.com, 'Catalyst' might be a possibility, or something to do with 'Vital', 'Think' or 'Illuminate' ... any thoughts much appreciated :)
-Pics of new glasses (I'll be picking them up tomorrow ... hurrah!)
-A brief post about swimming (the sister and I went swimming yesterday)
-Lots of pictures of sketching I've been doing this month - actually, this is probably what's been stealing my blog-time.
And I'm going to head off now and make Craving Cookies (because we have a couple of bananas that really need using up), so I'll let you know how all that turns out too :) (with pictures, of course).
And now a question ... can anyone think of synonyms for motivation/inspiration that don't feel overused? I'm looking for a tag for my Monday posts over at the new blog (once it gets going - starts August 1st) and I don't want to have "Motivational Monday" although it will be that sort of thing ... the posts will probably be a saying or proverb of some sort (e.g. "Be the change you want to see in the world") and some thoughts related to that. Posted on Monday mornings.
Having briefly perused Thesaurus.com, 'Catalyst' might be a possibility, or something to do with 'Vital', 'Think' or 'Illuminate' ... any thoughts much appreciated :)
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Yo, world
Hey everybody :)
Apologies for the lack of updates. I can't even really claim that it's been because I've been uber-busy or anything ... I had, like, a whole week off.
Actually, restart that: Hey everybody :). Sorry it's been a wee while - I've had a week off ... for the first time in oh, 3 years?
The week went something like this:
- I've just got home. So much unpacking to do. Sleep first.
- Ooh, lots of TV to catch up on (in particular Pratchett's "Going Postal", "morris : a life with bells on" and lots of other bits and pieces like Gok's fashion fix)
- Hey, I can read! (I mean, obviously I've been capable of reading for a long time, but I have the time to!)
Several books later ...
- More sleep. And lying out in the garden reading. And then TV. Repeat.
- Hm. This lazing around thing is getting rather old. But I don't have the motivation to get up and do anything ... ah well. More sleep it is. And more reading.
- Bother. Now reaching a stage where I feel like I haven't got enough motivation to do stuff, this is disheartening. And weird. Not a problem I've faced before. Hopefully if I ignore it for a day or two it'll go away?
.... this Monday:
- Hey, motivation, welcome back! Good to see you! I like this. Let's get on with things!
Since Monday I have:
Done LOADS of unpacking and recycling and taking things to charity shops ... taught Dominion to Chris's friends and played it (and won, with a score of 39, a full 10 points clear of the next person :) ) ... taken a trip to my new place of work to sort some paperwork (it all came through a couple of days after my last post), and look around ... unpacked more stuff and shredded and recycled more stuff ... had an eye check, and ordered new glasses (x2 - yay, Specsavers BOGOF). Dentist and contact lens fitting tomorrow (I can get a free contact lens trial, so I thought why not?)
I've also had more and more ideas simmering for the new blog. It's gonna be great! And I've been taking part in a challenge to draw 100 sketches during July - I'll be posting pics of those up here soon.
Stay cool :) --Carol
Apologies for the lack of updates. I can't even really claim that it's been because I've been uber-busy or anything ... I had, like, a whole week off.
Actually, restart that: Hey everybody :). Sorry it's been a wee while - I've had a week off ... for the first time in oh, 3 years?
The week went something like this:
- I've just got home. So much unpacking to do. Sleep first.
- Ooh, lots of TV to catch up on (in particular Pratchett's "Going Postal", "morris : a life with bells on" and lots of other bits and pieces like Gok's fashion fix)
- Hey, I can read! (I mean, obviously I've been capable of reading for a long time, but I have the time to!)
Several books later ...
- More sleep. And lying out in the garden reading. And then TV. Repeat.
- Hm. This lazing around thing is getting rather old. But I don't have the motivation to get up and do anything ... ah well. More sleep it is. And more reading.
- Bother. Now reaching a stage where I feel like I haven't got enough motivation to do stuff, this is disheartening. And weird. Not a problem I've faced before. Hopefully if I ignore it for a day or two it'll go away?
.... this Monday:
- Hey, motivation, welcome back! Good to see you! I like this. Let's get on with things!
Since Monday I have:
Done LOADS of unpacking and recycling and taking things to charity shops ... taught Dominion to Chris's friends and played it (and won, with a score of 39, a full 10 points clear of the next person :) ) ... taken a trip to my new place of work to sort some paperwork (it all came through a couple of days after my last post), and look around ... unpacked more stuff and shredded and recycled more stuff ... had an eye check, and ordered new glasses (x2 - yay, Specsavers BOGOF). Dentist and contact lens fitting tomorrow (I can get a free contact lens trial, so I thought why not?)
I've also had more and more ideas simmering for the new blog. It's gonna be great! And I've been taking part in a challenge to draw 100 sketches during July - I'll be posting pics of those up here soon.
Stay cool :) --Carol
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