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| Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | | 10:04 pm |
right, that's me unemployed
yep, i finally went ahead and left my stupid job. The bad news is i didn't quite manage to find another job to fill the looming employment gap... so yeah, i'm officially unemployed as of next monday. Whoops. the worst part of leaving? Having to clear, clean and dust my desk. Ten years of accummulated toys, papers and general crap are now on the back seat of my car, where they'll probably stay for the next ten years because Seej (rather sensibly) doesn't want me cluttering up the house with it. Oh, and i had to empty my inbox as well. 2000+ emails, gone, all gone. It's so hard being a compulsive hoarder, y'know. Anyway, since i'm no longer at that place of work, my regular work email is up the spout and if anyone wants to contact me they'll have to try applepastie(at)hotmail(dot)com (dammit, now i'm gonna have to start checking my email more often than once a month...) i've also got a new ergonomic keyboard that i found in a bin. It's quite nice, and all the keys work (surprisingly). | | Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 | | 1:08 am |
new arrival
my bebe sister (who is 27 and probably wouldn't like being referred to as 'baby sister' anymore) had a bebe of her own last week - little Emily, weighing 7lb 4oz. I have a niece! :D | | Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 | | 8:30 pm |
knobbers
got a morning off work and was going to spend it typing up a bunch of stuff on my parent's laptop since my own computer's gone tits-up. Just found out their copy of Word has expired and can't be used anymore. I had no idea Word COULD expire. So blargh, it's either Notepad or forget the whole thing and go play Civilisation again. oh bollocks, what time is it? I'm meant to be at the doctors in five minutes AH CRUDITES WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY MEMORY THIS WEEK? Current Music: "and i can only try and enjoy the struggle" | | Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 | | 11:06 pm |
rah!
i may have been drinking, before i forget what my point was. but i did figure out a lyric that was bugging me for AGES. "Just as if all were well." That's had me stumped for SO LONG. ahahahha, i'm not drunk you are. | | Thursday, March 26th, 2009 | | 12:35 am |
'Five Murders' trailer
this makes me so happy i just want to squee. "The Five Murders of John Dawley" - coming soon'Five Murders' is the movie my wonderful friends Dave and Lailaa are making this year, and i'm just chuffed as hell to see the trailer looking so good. The guy in it is Frank Jakeman, who's an absolute star. Just listen to his voice. Man, i'm getting him to do my answerphone message. and the gravestone at the end? I MADE THAT. It took FOREVER. please check it out, please leave comments (not necessarily in spanish), it'll make me ridiculously happy. | | Monday, March 2nd, 2009 | | 1:50 am |
| | 12:21 am |
immanuel kant was a real pissant
Therapy? have a new album out today. Since i am officially no longer part of any loop at all, i was utterly unaware of this and had to make an emergency trip to HMV. HMV is rubbish now, has anyone noticed this? The music section's reduced to nothing and most of the rest is Peter Kay dvds. anyway, that's not the point. so, 'Crooked Timber', Therapy?'s 12 studio album... i don't know yet whether i like it or not. Still, no big deal, i never like any album on a first listen. But this one does feel like unnecessary hard work. I've done a lot of things in fan-service to this band - i listened to Husker Du, i developed a fondness for Douglas Coupland, and i spent four days trying to figure out the lyrics to 'Disgracelands', but never before have i had to take a break from reading the inlay card to go find a dictionary. No, i didn't know what a threnody is. I wasn't sure of the exact meaning of tenebrous. And i'm still not convinced that apperception is a real word. i will now put this album on repeat until i like it, dammit. | | Saturday, February 28th, 2009 | | 8:04 pm |
| | Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 | | 9:23 pm |
| | Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 | | 7:40 pm |
screw you, mirror's edge
when people are designing and marketing games, they have a target audience in mind. I am not that target audience. I suck at almost all sorts of games. The few i do persevere with sloop me in and refuse to let me go then end in bitter disappointment (yes, i'm looking at you, Assassin's Creed). So basically, my point is, if there's a game coming out that i'm actually looking forward to... that's a real rarity. so yeah, Mirror's Edge. Goddammit, i wanted to like this game so much. The graphics inspire the kind of fangirl love usually reserved for polar bears or coffee shop waitresses; the gameplay sounds like all the bits i liked in Assassin's Creed (running around and jumping over buildings) minus the bits that made me throw my control away in disgust (unskippable cut scenes, instant death when falling in water, the need to slaughter EVERYONE IN THE GODDAMN CITY just to accomplish the easiest of tasks); and, hell, parkour makes me go squeeeeeeee. It's just so pretty. I have the chase scene from District 13 saved to my favourites so it can make me happy whenever necessary (i'm watching it again now to try and stem my bad mood). so what the blue bloody hell has gone wrong with this game? for a start, why is so damn unforgiving? i spent forty minutes of my life trying to get through one short section. You make this awkward wallrun (and if you mistime it you fall to your death), which i could only hit successfully maybe one time out of ten, then you're faced with a mass of armed guys and no indication of which way to go. You have to discover by trial and error (i.e. dying) which route to take... no easy matter when each time you fail you get SENT BACK TO A CHECKPOINT BEFORE THE WALLRUN. The result was, i got to try this gunfight section maybe four times out of forty attempts. And then went back to Beautiful Katamari. but the thing that annoys me the most is the sheer linear nature of the game. It's about free-running. The clue is in the name there: FREE-RUNNING. Why in pity's sake would you set up the game so it has only one possible, predescribed path to success? Why would you make people find this route only by trial and error? Why would you punish the slightest deviation from the correct path by instant death and a swift trip back to the last check point? Why would you ruin the only game i've been looking forward to for AGES? i'll tell you why. Because you're bastards. | | Monday, January 26th, 2009 | | 7:21 pm |
| | Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 | | 8:28 pm |
heeeey, i got tagged
this is a new experience for me, i've never been tagged before. Welp, first time for everything and all that: Tagged by the lovely Kody BoyeTHE RULES (for this game of tag): 1) LINK TO THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU. 2) POST THE RULES ON YOUR BLOG. 3) WRITE SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF. 4) TAG SIX PEOPLE AT THE END OF YOUR POST AND LINK TO THEM. 5) LET EACH PERSON KNOW THEY ARE TAGGED AND LEAVE A COMMENT ON THEIR BLOG. 6) LET THE TAGGER KNOW WHEN YOUR ENTRY IS UP. 7) DON’T BREAK THE CHAIN (not actually a rule). Six Random Things About Me: 1. I love stationery. Pens are great, especially gel ink pens, and i get really excited whenever i buy a new notebook or A4 pad of paper. 2. I eat the corner off pieces of paper when i'm nervous or working. It drives everyone in my family nuts. 3. One of the guys i work with buys me a calendar of nekkid men every year for christmas, and we sit around and discuss which ones are our favourites. He accuses me of being a 'chubby chaser', which i'd probably resent if it didn't seem to be at least a little bit true. :) 4. My secret-shame movie is 'Head' (the Bob Rafleson movie starring the Monkees). I think it's wonderful but have never found anyone else who agrees with me. 5. At my funeral i'd like the following songs played: 'Sunflowers' by Everclear, 'Walk Through Darkness' by Therapy?, 'Two Suns in the Sunset' by Pink Floyd, 'Fall Down' by the Boomtown Rats, and 'That's How Strong My Love Is' by Otis Redding. I'm worried that whoever's in charge of organising the funeral won't be able to locate all these songs, so i've made a mix tape and keep it stored in the box with my passport and birth certificate, clearly labelled. 6. My most abiding fear is that i'm lazy. So i woke as hard as i possibly can, then get mad at myself for not working hard enough. I also worry constantly that other people think i'm lazy. Umm... i'm not sure who to tag... okay, if you've read this far down and you've not been tagged by someone else, YOU ARE OFFICIALLY TAGGED. :D | | Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 | | 8:45 pm |
question one, how insane are you, on a rating of zero to five?
more or less accidentally, i've been referred up to occupational therapy by my doctor. 'Accidentally' because i really didn't want to go, and yet somehow i have ended up being referred there. Bah. I'm also under strict orders (by SJ, not my doctor) to quit referring to it as Crazy Town, The Nut House, or Balla-Bonkers. anyway, the nice bods at occupational therapy (formally known as Crazy Town) have sent me a self-assessment mental health form to help determine just what level of crazy i am. I'm not greatly happy about this. Can mental health really be assessed with tick boxes? If i score above a certain number of points, will the men in white coats pounce on me from behind the sofa? How exactly am i supposed to answer the question: "Do you have any cultural or religious beliefs that prevent you from participating in occupational therapy?", given that i know nothing about occupation therapy or what it entails? Is it a cultural belief to think this is a big fat waste of time? two of the questions in particular have me worried. One is about how well you take care of yourself; the other is about how you cope with housework. On a scale of zero to five, ranging from "my house is lovely and so are my clothes" to "my house is a complete tip and i'm unable to care for myself"... seriously, where would i place myself? I'm fundamentally untidy and scruffy - i always have been and i suspect i always will be. I hate tidying and i hate buying clothes. Is this an indication of my deeper mental state? If i do the hoovering more often will that improve my moods? Or, conversely, if i keep taking the pills will i suddenly develop a love of cleaning? Will i become obsessively clean? Is "obsessively clean" not some kind of indication of mental disruption as well? Apologies if i've offended anyone with my narrow-minded ranting, the letter just ticked me off a little. Yes, i'm still going to keep the appointment, altho I reserve the right to sulk about it. | | Sunday, January 11th, 2009 | | 5:33 am |
local bands
went out last night to see Ways of Stephen, who i last saw play about 12 years ago. They'd reformed for one night only... although 'reformed' maybe isn't completely accurate, since there were only two of them (the rhythm guitarist was otherwise engaged, and the drummer sadly died of cancer a few years ago). But they were still awesome. They were my favourite pub band back in the day, and it was a really weird nostalgic thing to hear them play again. Plus there were a load of my old friends there, who i'd not seen for (again) about 12 years. It was like a school reunion - everyone's married with two kids and it was generally a bit strange to sit down with them all again. then the headliner was a guy called Darren Haymen, who i've never heard of, and who used to be in a london band called Hefner, who again i've never heard of. He was pretty good, but there was this whole air of reverential awe in the room - like he was some kind of genius rock star, and i was a complete pleb for not knowing (or appreciating) who he was. I got shushed. Repeatedly. In a pub. Because i was talking and laughing too loudly while some guy was singing. We ended up having to converse in whispers and being glared at by 'proper' fans. And at the end the guy was selling CDs... except they were ten quid each. I offered him a fiver, which was apparently some kind of terrible faux pas. it was a good fun evening. :) | | Friday, January 2nd, 2009 | | 6:07 pm |
oh poo
just got a rejection from Permuted Press for the novel i subbed to them. That makes me sad, i really liked the idea of being part of their awesome bundle of writers. And now what the heck am i going to do with an 80k post apocalyptic novel? bah. Oh well, never mind. As the immortal Ed Wood said, my next one will be better. :) Current Music: "this used to be our funhouse, but now it's full of evil clowns" | | Thursday, January 1st, 2009 | | 7:36 pm |
been away for a while
apologies for absence, christmas always tends to be a bit hectic. Hope everyone had a good chrimbo and new year! one of many new year's resolutions: Make all of my friends watch Mary Poppins. I can't believe there are people in the world who have never seen it... yet apparently there are. How do you get through life WITHOUT seeing Mary Poppins at least once? It boggles the brain, i tell you. i'm also gonna stop using so many exclamation marks in emails, to try and quit sounding like an excitable 13 year old fangirl. Crossed fingers, yessir. | | Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 | | 10:46 pm |
normal like you
hmm, my crazy GP has changed my medication... i looked up the new tabs i'm on and apparently they're the cheaper, non-union equivalent of prozac. Tch, as if i wasn't terribly cliched enough already. Nano's going really well, i've just broken 49,000 words so fingers crossed tomorrow should hopefully be made of win. I've thoroughly enjoyed nano so far, it's been a lot of fun just banging something out without editing as i go (this is probably because i hate editing and am rubbish at it). I can see why a lot of people don't like it - the whole point of it is to get stuff on paper without worrying about quality, which is maybe not the best work ethic ever... and then at the other end of the scale you've got my friend Garry, who doesn't see the point of doing nano because he can write a book (plus two film scripts and a tv mini-series) in four weeks anyway. But i like it, especially the little graph it gives you on your page so you can track how much work you've done. I wonder if i can rig something like that up in excel that'd do the same the whole year round... might encourage me to pick up the pace a bit more often. Current Music: "said you called me maybe yesterday" | | Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 | | 11:26 pm |
nnnnghn
i'm trying to make a fake gravestone. It is a lot more fiddly and annoying than i hoped it would be. Also it took me ages to find my roll of chickenwire (it was in the boot of the car, of course). the reason? well, hopefully next weekend i'm wandering across to england to help my adorable friends Dave and Lailaa film the trailer for their movie, The Five Murders of John Dawley, and it's possible that a fake gravestone will come in handy. I really hope i get it done, because i'm very much looking forward to trying to get it on the plane in my hand luggage. right, back to Nano, my brain feels melted and i'm way behind in my daily wordcount. Nnnghn. I wanna play Fallout 3 instead. | | Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 | | 8:49 pm |
a pressie? for meeee?
my parents bought me a sony e-reader, which makes me the most happy thing ever. I'm currently filling it with as much stuff as i can find. I'm really not great at gadgets (my phone predates the dinosaurs and i still don't know how to use an ipod), but this thing i love. It's shiny and filled with books, how could it not be loved? also, would it be cheesy for me and SJ to have "I don't want to set the world on fire" as the first dance at our wedding? | | Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 | | 6:50 pm |
i'm officially an old gamer
Sj's finally got us on Xbox Live, which means he's been playing Call of Duty 4 and i've been chatting to people through the headset thing. But yeah, i'm far too old for that sort of thing - i spent most of the time going, "omigod, i'm talking to you, THROUGH THE X-BOX! How cool is that?" and everyone being polite and saying, um, yes. We know. also with the Old Gamer thing, i have no idea how gamertags work... is it like facebook? can i just friend people then talk to them? please to be explaining to the oldie over here... we're BigGreenTub, come friend us. :D Current Music: "drop me in the shallow water before i get too deep" |
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