The Garret

Hi, everybody!

Long time you no hear from me. I've been so taken up with my volunteering and trying to sort out my crapped out life that I haven't even thought to post for ages.

Just thought I'd post this little bit and piece to let you know what I've been up to.




and this -




Yes, once again, my trusty old camera is flavour of the month. The first one is an edited image of a large fan that just screamed out to be used to demonstrate form and contrast and the second one is a little more emotive - a shot taken through the ironwork of a bench in my local park, (which may soon be turned into a clone town supermarket forecourt - yuk!). I've been taking a lot of the park lately for obvious reasons, so I'll probably post some more soon.

How's everyone doing anyway? Anyone who sees this, feel free to reply with a rant, a cheer or whatever has been happening with you lately.

You Are a Jaguar

You have a knack for reforming, balancing, and even healing people. You see the good in everyone, and you help bad people learn to be better. Even though you connect to people, you can't help but feel separate from everyone else. You often feel like you are on the outside looking in, even with your closest family members and friends.

YAHOOOO! (Sorry for the yell...) :-)

Hi, Maureen, this is a recent piccie of me. Hopefully you will recognise me from this.

See you the weekend!

Suex

Yes, folks, it's official. We're overcrowded. Did you know they're putting people up on parkland now? Literally. Yes. Shirley village's one bit of green space and they're putting up 200 apartments and an ASDA on some of it.
Aaaaannndd it doesn't seem to matter that many of the residents of Shirley *REALLY* don't want that, because basically Solihull Metropolitan Coundcil manifestly doesn't care. Plus of course, ASDA is owned by WALMART - big *American* company - which of course means, that even the government won't intervene. By the way, folks, did you know that we are the unnoficial 51st State of America? Yeah, thought I'd better mention it, just in case anyone didn't know.
Nothing against the American people. It obviously doesn't matter to their governmnet that they didn't want Geoge W either, so it looks like there's a whole lot of not-caring going on by the Powers That Be in the world. But since when has that been a big surprise I guess.

On a totally different note and much more hopeful, personally, I have finally found a Follyfoot community out there in cyberspace. People who actually care enough about the show that shaped my life to be active fans of it. People who I can discuss it with, right down to it's teeth and toenails. Finally.

God bless. :-)

Anyone else in the UK who's bought the new SG1 dvd, had no joy accessing the restricte area of the UK MGM SG-1 website? I decode my glyphs, enter them, just like always ... And the darn thing says 'glyphs incorrect' and won't let me in.

GRRR!

Help! Anyone ...

Getting there, getting there, getting there. Sold my Dad's house - now wait while we lose most of the money to auctioneers and solicitors ... just kidding.

The main thing is, that most of the work is done and I can begin to think about breathing again. Hopefully I'll be getting back in touch with people soon and also hopefully, trying to arrange some long-overdue visits.

And on top of this I can't wait to get my mitts on SG1 season 10!

Don't ever come off ante depressants. Hot and cold running headache, sick stomache - although that's not helped by the ongoing probate - but anyway, I guess sometimes you just have to, when you want to change to something that doesn't knock you out for twelve hours a day. Still it's not an experience to be recommended. At least not by me. Maybe if you're in a David Cronenberg movie it might give you your jollies, but probably not for the most of us...

Itchy feet too. As in can't bear to stay in. I have a yummy load of Dr. Who stories to listen to, thanks kindly to an industrious friend, but I can't stay home long enough to listen to them. I'm hoping to get some new mp3 key sticks so I can put them on those for when I go out but I only have one right now and it has my very necessary Peter Gabriel and Andy Summers on right now, so ...

(Oooo, that came out very Daniel ...)

Never mind. That's enough of my weeping and wailing. HOw's everyone else doing?

Oh and one bright spot in the dark. Got put onto a new graphics app called Open Canvas - again, thanks to industrious friend - and I made the Dark Zone icon. Love it.

I've had a spider's nest in a corner of my flat for three years now. Took til now to get the guts (okay a *friend, Gawd bless 'er!) to deal with it.

... and found nothing. Huge sigh of relief, yes? Actually, no. Now I've gotta figure out where *else!!!* in the flat they're the heck coming from. If from behind the washing machine, then I've had it because there's no way I can shift that with the short hoses it's got attached without causing some major flooding. Hopefully, it's the airing cupboard. Hopefully, I'll get that sorted - like I said, gawd bless me 'friend - next week. And before you tell me to get off me ass and sort it meself, let me just say this: she's gonna make sure they live. If I have to deal with them, they're dead meat. Or I'm in a rubber jacket or whatever.

Not doing too good right now. Had just a tad too much hanging around, not able to do anything to clear the house or the garden. No money. It's hanging round me neck like a rotten garbage bag and I hate it.

Sorry for the rant.

You scored as Daniel Jackson. </td> Daniel Jackson 75% Rodney McKay 75% Carson Beckett 58% Jack O'Neill 42% Ronon Dex 42% Teal'c 42% Aiden Ford 33% John Sheppard 25% Cam Mitchell 25% Who Is Your Stargate Boyfriend? created with QuizFarm.com

If you're contemplating making a will but don't want to because it's going to cost you, let me just say this ... if you love the people who are going to be left behind when you're gone, you will. Make a Will, that is. And have the Executor/s be someone who can't benefit from the will.

After what I and others went through in '04, and I am now going through since my Dad died, I have felt the business end of this mistake and it's mentally and emotionally exhausting.

Also pray that you're never going to get as neglectfull of the house you live in as my Dad did. Just thinking about what we're going to have to do to get it and the garden cleared and ready for sale, makes me feel physically sick.

Sorry for the vent.

On the up and up side - surprisingly I can find one even now - I quite liked Ben's performance in this week's SG1. Okay so it's the old Star Trek chestnut, but then the writers do tend to knock their 'homages' as they like to call them, on the head. There was a twist to this one of course, (can't have the writers up for plagiarism, now can we?) and it was nice to see some of the old passion from Ben Browder. And it's Boston Legal tonight, so ...

On the down and down side again - sorry again - where the BL writers are concerned ... where are they? Where is the cut yourself at every turn, blinding wit that I got used to from Season One? What I've seen so far isn't nearly as good.

If you're into Harry Potter, I do recommend the new one, Goblet of Fire. Just been to see it and I think they've made a fairly good job of putting all the relevent info in there. Brenden Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes are awesome.

Okay. Those who don't want spoiling, can pass on this entry.

Yes, I speak of Harry Potter.

If you've read the latest ( Read more... )

Well, here we go again. Someone out there is convinced that attacking innocent people is the fun thing to do. I sincerely hope that the calm and organised way in which not just the emergency services but the ordinary Londoner, reacted to this morning's events, knocks a huge hole in these guys' 'celebrations'.

I sincerely hope that anyone living and/or working in London is okay. Anyone who has been affected by these bombings, either directly or indirectly, please know that my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Luv these testy things ...

a Knight Captain You scored 7 Honor, 7 Justice, 5 Adventure, and 4 Individuality!

Some knights follow the orders given them. Some know when to improvise. The second sort are the ones that grow to power, to become leadeers and Knight Captains. Your sense of duty, honor and justice speaks that your name should be amongst their ranks. Get your squire, your banner, your armor and your sword. You're gonna do just fine

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 50% on Ninjinuity You scored higher than 50% on Knightlyness You scored higher than 16% on Cowboiosity You scored higher than 50% on Piratical Bent

Link: The Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight Test written by fluffy71 on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Well, what a week it's been!
I get accepted for the pool of people to help with projects at the NIMHE, and I manage to pull off my Godson's birthday present. I won't tell you how much the air turned blue while I was trying to frame the poster for Rob's birthday - poster is one shape and size and frame is same shape but a different size. 2 sheets of black cartridge paper and sellotape that could not, under any circumstances, show = major headache.

Anyway. There was just one problem left - sort out where I had to go on Monday to make the meeting with the professor running the lectures in conjunction with the NIMHE in time for Monday. The organiser of things at the NIMHE end of things finally got in touch with me today and told me that the notice had been too short for her to be able to organise the meeting so it was put back until sometime the week of the 20th and she apologised for messing me around. Actually, it was the meeting on Monday that was messing with me and hearing that it was put off for a week was actually a huge sigh of relief.

I would imagine that she must have found it mucho frustrating trying to organise everyone involved in this when she could only contact them by phone or email and it was a whole bunch of people that were outside the organisation. Kinda been there and done that myself, so I had huge amounts of sympathy for her.

Now I just have to survive the weekend. No, Rob, just kidding, looking forward to it.

Oh, boy, I've been absent awhile, haven't I?

Never mind, moving right along ...

Spent an interesting afternoon discovering that it is actually faster to walk than to take the bus.

Confused? Well, I was. See I was supposed to be making my way to the West Midlands hq of the National Institute of Mental Health in England, or NIMHE, which is in Redditch. One of those things where you get chosen - or not - for a panel where you share your knowledge of what it's like to live with a MH prob with a bunch of med students. Apparently I passed the initiative test which is just making it to Redditch. It's true folks! Whether you're getting here by train, boat or plane, sorry, sorry ... got carried away there, no Redditch is one of those places that's off just about anywhere and you're never on the road island you think you're on and getting there by bus - which I had to - is a test of 'your ingenuity and courage'; (quote thanks to Jack O'Neill, Stargate SG1 episode, 'Red Sky'. Guess what I have running on my tv right now ...

aaaanyway, I managed to get to Redditch. And then made the mistake of getting the free bus to Sainsbury's because when I spoke to the appropriate person on the phone I was informed that the place I was actually making my way to was right by Sainsburys. So, the bus gets to Sainsbury's and - unfortunately - it's one of those huge Sainsbury's that's like off on its own in the middle of a huuuuugggeeee car park, (you know, one of those that's got a roadway like an army assault course meandering all the way through it) and I didn't see the place I was actually supposed to be ... anywhere!!

So instead of going back through the instructions on the piece of paper I'd been clutching uselessly since the bus station to figure out where I should be, I made my second mistake of the day and asked someone where to go. And I got sent the loooonnngg way round, naturally.

At least I managed to get to the place - finally! - and due to my still being very unfit, three and a half stone overweight and it actually being quite warm during that particular part of the day, I arrived at the place looking and sounding like I needed attaching to an oxygen tank. Thank goodness it was an informal meeting ...

Actually enjoyed the afternoon after that. Even if I don't get to share my whatevers with the med students apparently this wonderful organisation have numerous Service User involvement schemes which can help other Service Users and/or Health officials who are working with them. So maybe some time soon I will actually get to be useful.

... and finally my oldest computer which was just about keeping me connected to the internet and dropping other abilities like a dog shedding, was onto its very last toenail and I committed the cardinal sin of doing what I swore I would never do again and caved on getting a new puter from the catalogue.

Did my homework this time, though. iQon is part of the iQon Group and they make the base unit that makes up most of my new one. They're a company in Ireland, unsure N or S, but by all accounts they are very reputable and so far I have no complaints on the hardware. They seem to have a deal with Philips as they supply the peripherals, tft monitor and speakers and the keyboard's Logitech and the mouse, which is optical. V. nice. Was a little thrown by the lack of a recovery disk but they put it on the hard drive, in back of a partition which is the main drive. Any crash and you simply hit F9 repeatedly when booting. No way to save data but since the unit has a dvd reader/rw and I also have an external drive of the same size I hopefully shouldn't have the same horrendous probs as last time. So far, the system seems a lot more stable than the one on the last computer any way. Keyboard's more sticky than I'm used and have to keep going over it to capitalise but I guess I'll adapt.

Tha's enuff of mesell' ... how're the rest of ya' all doin'?

Okay. It's been a bad week. Had a bad crash on my main computer. Decided to take the opportunity to change the main computer to the back room where all the nasty internet viruses could no longer get at it. See it's the computer that I do all my 3d graphics piccies on and when I get a crash I risk losing them. So now my old 233mghz, 1 gig hard drive, 32 meg ram computer is what's attached to the broadband. It runs '98 which is much less leaky than XP. Had to buy some more ram so it's now breathing a bit more easily with a much more respectable 128mg of ram on it, and I've taken the broadband down to 256 to save some money. It's all a heck of a lot slower but at least I know it's not in the virusy *FRONT*, front-line anymore. Plus I actually like '98SE.
Now all I have to do is upgrade IE and hopefully I'll be smiling if not laughing. This page looks right weird on whatever version of IE it's running at the moment.

On the up side I'm getting my bed sorted out so I shall be able to sleep on it but considering they'd agreed to swap it out for a cheaper one until the manager suddenly discovered it had been a special order (considering it was him who sold it me in the first place he really shouldn't have held out that hope in the first place. Okay, I know that last bit probably doesn't make a lot of sense to most of you, but it's too long and complicado and I'm too tired and frustrated to try and make sense of it. Sorry.)

Anyway I shall have a useable bed but I shan't be 150quid better off, so I'm planning on selling the thing on and going back to my old bed which has turned out to be suitable for the mattress I bought for it, anyway. Anybody need a nice beech bed?

Had this post sent in by Shelly on one of the Stargate lists that I'm on.
It's more than slightly hilarious and I couldn't resist asking permission to post it on my lj, which Shelly very kindly duly gave me. My jaw is still aching from hanging so close to the lino ...

__________________

'YOUR JOB IS SAFE AS LONG AS THESE PEOPLE ARE OUT THERE, and you know
they are.


ONE. Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the
menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12
Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets.
"We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager
at the counter. "You don't?" I replied. "We only have
six, nine, or twelve," was the reply. "So I can't
order a half dozen nuggets, but I can
order six?" "That's right." So I shook my head and
ordered six McNuggets.



----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
TWO. I was checking out at the local Walmart with
just a few items and the lady behind me put her things
on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those
"dividers" that they keep by the cash register and
placed it between our things so they wouldn't get
mixed. After the girl had scanned all of my items, she
picked up the "divider," looking it all over for the
bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the bar
code she said to me, "Do you know how
much this is?" I said to her "I've changed my mind, I
don't think I'll buy! that today." She said "OK," and I
paid her for the things and left . She had no clue to
what had just happened.



----------------------------------------------------------------------

THREE. A lady at work was seen putting a credit card
into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly.
When I inquired as to what she was doing, she said she
was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for
a credit card number, so she was using the ATM
"thingy."



----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
FOUR. I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping
beside her car "Do you need some help?" I asked. She
replied, "I knew I should have replaced the battery to
this remote door unlocked. Now I can't get into my
car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant
convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?"
"Hmmm, I dunno. Do you have an alarm, too?" I asked.
"No, just this remote thingy," she answered, handing
it and the car keys to me. As I
took the key and manually unlocked the door, I
replied, "Why don't you drive over there and check
about the batteries. It's a long walk."



----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
FIVE. Several years ago, we had an Intern who was
none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a
secretary and said, "I'm almost out of typing paper.
What do I do?" "Just use copier machine paper," the
secretary told her. With that, the intern took her
last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the
photocopier and proceeded to make five "blank" copies.



----------------------------------------------------------------------

SIX. My neighbor works in the operations department
in the central office ! of a large bank. Employees in
the field call him when they have problems with their
computers. One night he got a call from a woman in one
of the branch banks who had this question: "I've got
smoke coming from the back of my terminal. Do you guys
have a fire downtown?"



----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
SEVEN. Police in Radnor, Pa., interrogated a suspect
by placing a metal colander on his head and connecting
it with ! wires to a photocopy machine. The message
"He's lying" was placed in the copier, and police
pressed the copy button each time they thought the
suspect wasn't telling the truth. Believing the"lie
detector" was working, the suspect confessed.

-----------------
-----------------

The only one which didn't completely floor me was the last one because I have seen the odd episode of 'America's Dumbest Criminals', so wasn't completely taken by surprise ...