When I took this photograph a year ago today, I didn’t think it would be the last one I would ever take of my beautiful girl; The last time I ever saw her.
Black, one sugar.
… Is how I take my tea (and coffee.) Useful information: I’m providing it.
So, it seems that I’m really bad at updating this on even a semi-regular basis. I think perhaps it’s because I’m not really sure who I’m writing for, and therefore not really sure what I should write? I flitter between writing to an older version of me (who wants to remember the banality of day-to-day life in my early twenties) and writing to a general idea of ‘friend’. I’m not sure who that would be — I have two types of friend: “I’d tell you everything, and probably already have” friends and “we don’t talk a whole lot but I know I can come to you if I need support” friends. Writing to the first one would reveal far too much… So I think I’ll have to write to the latter.
Hello there, second-tier friends. :) I like you more than it seems; I just don’t like opening up to people who I’m not completely familiar with. Hell, I just feel too awkward chatting one-on-one! I do far better in group chats; we should arrange some of those. :)
So, what’s Jennifer done lately? Well, I’ve been working on a website for my Dad (finally making progress, I think) and trying to avoid distractions. I’m not good at focusing on one thing at a time; Internet-induced ADD? I mentioned this to my Dad and he said something very understanding:
As for getting distracted by the web and shiny things, [...] you have kept yourself busy [using the internet] for years, so [when] something else comes along, you can’t switch everything off – well, not for long, anyway.
It’s true: Any time I feel a bit bored with whatever I’m doing, there’s an entire world of things to do instead. If I have a stray thought about something, and want to look it up or find an answer to a half-thought question, I can do it in a matter of seconds. Information overload. If I’m watching a movie and hear a new word, I immediately want to look it up and add it to my vocabulary. When I’m not able to get online, it bugs me because I can’t find answers to things straight away – but at the same time, I don’t feel the same sense of urgency that I do if I’m already online when I think of something to look up. I think it’s this availability of answers that should make my generation, and ones following it, more open to new things and less likely to spread misinformation (e.g. harmful safe sex myths) than those who came before us. It doesn’t seem to be working that way just yet, but I’m confident that we’ll get there.
Other things I’ve done recently:
- Grocery shopping! Yay. I had a coupon for a free can of pre-mixed vodka & cola (originally £1.73) but I haven’t drunk it yet. :D
- Created my prettiest website so far.
- Donated to Bubble.nu! If you’re hosted, please consider helping out; it makes Kya happy and that’s worth everything. :)
- Reinstalled The Sims 2 on my recently refreshed Windows PC. It runs beautifully, thanks to the hand-me-down graphics card I got from my brother the last time he upgraded! I installed all of the expansion and stuff packs I had at hand – there were 18 discs in total, blergh.
- Felt charitable and answered questions on the pit of everlasting stupidity.
Geekery
Something a few of you already know is that I’m part of the Shop and Scan panel, which requires me to scan all of my purchases with a barcode scanner, then scan/photograph the receipt and send them to the panel via the interent. In return, I get about £1.60 a week which I can redeem as vouchers for various things — although I always choose Amazon. That’s roughly £76.80, assuming I miss a maximum of four weeks, and is to be spent primarily on Christmas and birthday gifts for family and friends. So far I’ve spent it on my brother’s birthday in March, my boyfriend’s birthday in June and a few days ago I decided to spend my amassed Amazon savings — £28 — on hard-drive enclosures and a mains-to-USB power adaptor. :D
The arrival of an Amazon package, even when you know exactly what’s in it, is always pretty exciting — and believe me, I was thrilled with my purchases, as lame as they must sound to you non-geeks! ;)
Using a few spare hard-drives, I’ve used my new 3.5″ IDE/SATA enclosure and 2.5″ IDE enclosure to create two external hard-drives! I’m also borrowing Boyfriend’s dad’s hard-drive docking station so I can transfer data to/from a third drive as well. This set-up as been extremely useful — I’ve already recovered all of the data from old hard-drives and found some things I’d thought lost. I’m completely thrilled.
And, as if I hadn’t already proven what a huge nerd I am, I’ve decided on a naming scheme for my computers and peripherals…
WALL-A – PC; as the largest machine it should be named after the ginormous WALL·A units.
WALL-E – Laptop; as what is basically a smaller version of the PC/WALL·A. ;)
EVE – Large external hard-drive.
BURN-E – Small external hard-drive.
M-O – 2GB Flash-drive. Previously named WALL·E and the inspiration for the scheme! :D
If you don’t get any of that, I feel very sorry for you and urge you to watch WALL·E, the best Disney/Pixar movie of all time.
Non-Disposable
The following sentence is something so obvious that anybody who knows me in person will probably laugh at the absurdity of actually saying it:
I don’t like throwing things away.
I keep everything. I don’t mean actual rubbish — obviously, I throw that away — but I like to keep potentially useful things for a very long time. I have so many spare computer components and cables just stashed in boxes upstairs (my spare room is essentially a messy shrine to my dislike of tidying up and my love of keeping everything that I might need someday.)
I also live by Cogsworth‘s pun: If it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it. Also Thumper’s rule – but that’s for an entirely different post. :)
Most of my things are pretty old. I’ve had my mobile phone since 2003, my MP3 player since 2006, most of my clothing is over five years old. If it’s working, I’ll keep it. I also like to hang on to things for sentimental reasons — I have a handful of books from my childhood and a few toys, etc. I like hanging on to cinema tickets because I plan to eventually put them all in an album (once I’ve gathered them; they’re randomly found in books, in boxes and in bags, hah. Organisation: I’m not good at it!)
I’m not just cheap (I prefer thrifty) — I also don’t like replacing things. It’s hard for me to justify getting rid of something which is doing it’s job perfectly, y’know? But that’s just me. How about you? Do you like to hang on to things, or do you prefer to replace things when there’s something new and shiny on offer? If you do, what do you do with the replaced things? :)
Oscar can walk!
BBC News – Bionic feet for amputee cat.
A cat that had its back feet severed by a combine harvester has been given two prosthetic limbs in a pioneering operation by a UK vet.
If you can watch the video, do so. I cried! It’s amazing to watch an animal whose mobility was accidentally and horrifically destroyed get to explore his surroundings once again. Just incredible. Science is amazing.
Lagging Behind
Today, the 16th of June, is my third Moving Out Anniversary. My boyfriend, Michael, and I have a few anniversaries which we remember – first declaration of feelings (our ‘official’ anniversary), first kiss, and Moving Out. Oddly enough, we can’t remember other certain milestones in our relationship – including when we got engaged. Hah! We’re not really that sentimental; I just have a good mind for dates. ;)
June’s becoming a busy (well, almost) month for anniversaries: 12th – Michael’s birthday; 14th – marked one year since my dog, Sadie, died; 16th – Moving Out Anniversary. It’s funny how certain things just group, isn’t it? The only other month on my calendar which has more marked is December (all birthdays: mine, my dad’s, my aunt’s, my cousin’s; plus religious festivities!)
Since I started with today, the 16th, I will go backwards in detailing the others. The 14th wasn’t terribly hard on me – I avoided thinking about it, mainly, and it helped that the last time I’d seen Sadie was on March 15th 2009, so that was the date which I found very difficult. It still breaks my heart to think of it. I really must get around to adding some My Pets pages on here.
Going back further, to the 12th – Michael had a good birthday. We stayed in and had a quiet day together watching television (and rented DVDs – True Blood: Season Two) and scoffing tasty food! It was ideal. He’d been given Amazon vouchers and spent those earlier in the week so his gifts would arrive in time for his birthday. I’ve always thought it ruins birthdays when you get your gifts in advance, so as the deliveries arrived I unpackaged them and wrapped them in shiny wrapping paper! They were held in escrow (in plain sight) until his birthday — it was the first time I’ve actually seen him excited about his birthday. :)
He was very sweet and bought me a gift with his money — a book about learning to read Egyptian hieroglyphs (which I had borrowed from the local library and was upset about having to part with!)
Oh, and as if June wasn’t eventful enough, my mother is in hospital because her kidneys failed and nearly killed her. They’re working better now, but she needs another operation (she had one last week as well) before she’ll be fixed. The bad news is that she will need repeat operations every six months, but the recovery time is only a few days… And to be blunt, if the woman can survive cervical cancer, and the very intensive treatment for it, I’m pretty sure she can handle three days in hospital twice a year. Hah! She’s a tough old bird.
She’s been hospitalised since the beginning of the month and is very, very sick of it! There’s little to do so she’s just bored out of her mind. It’s been especially difficult because she lives so far away from the rest of our family and has to go through this almost on her own (she lives with her boyfriend.) It is very difficult to comfort somebody by phone when they’re that scared and lonely. I sent her a Get Well Soon card which seems to have boosted her morale — I also included a photoshop-made voucher for “One Hug” which she found amusing. Apparently the nurses were cooing over it..! Haha. :)
That’s all for now; I’m off to play Sims 2 (which I have recently reinstalled and LOVE SFM.) I did warn you all that I probably wouldn’t update often. :P
Meet the Mascots
Wenlock and Mandeville
Now, for anybody who hasn’t seen these two already, this probably looks like a crappy 3D cartoon circa 1995, right? That’s what I thought too. It turns out they’re not circa 1995, they’re the London 2012 Olympic Mascots. I KNOW. WTF. Backstory: They are drips of molten metal which a workman took home and turned into these characters. This is just bizarre. Apparently children didn’t want something fluffy, fine, but look at these. This is almost as embarrassing as the London 2012 logo; it looks like Lisa Simpson doing something filthy.
Can you see it?
P.S. This is my attempt to blog some light-hearted shorter things… I’m not sure how well it’ll work; I just didn’t want everyone to feel obligated to read the long, boring crap that came before! ;)
In Your Eyes
It’s funny how grief fades after a while and you completely forget just how intense it was to begin with. A lovely girl whom I just adore has recently experienced the loss of her Nanna (I think most of you know who I am referring to) and it’s reminded me of the immediate aftermath of my own Nan’s death.
Benjamin
Today, the 12th of May, is the day my elder brother was born. This isn’t your typical “Happy Birthday” post, and if you don’t want to read about my departed brother then I suggest not reading on. I’ve decided to share something I wrote on my LiveJournal shortly after joining the Benjamin Bunny fanlisting, which I have since adopted from Kate. (Thank you, dearest!)
♥
Today I joined the fanlisting for Benjamin Bunny and it made me want to share something dear to my heart that not a lot of people know.
A year and a half before I was born, roughly 11 months before I must have been conceived, my mother gave birth to a beautiful little boy called Benjamin. My mother once told me he was named after Benjamin Bunny because she’d always had a soft spot for the mischievous bunny. Whether this is the true reason for his name or not, I have always related the two in my mind.
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Rest In Peace, Dear Cardigan
A couple of years ago my Dad bought me a lovely cardigan. I adored it. I’ve worn it every day ever since, but I can no longer wear it outside of the house… Thanks to what I am forever referring to as The Pen Incident. Suffice to say, a rebellious pen made its way into the washing machine on a suicide mission to destroy my favourite cardigan. I am boycotting ink and only using pencils as a passive-aggressive form of revenge. No, I’m kidding.
There is black ink all up the back of the cardigan. :( Typically, the inside is untouched — if only I’d washed it inside out! (Or checked the pockets for a bloody pen, idiot.) Stain remover is helping a little, but leaving the fabric discoloured. I’ll have a better go at it when I manage to buy my own stain treatment instead of borrowing the in-laws! I’ve been wearing the (ruined :( ) cardigan in the house anyway; it’s just so comfortable.
The search for a new cardigan began a few hours after I got home, but it’s been a couple of weeks since then and I hadn’t found anything I could justify purchasing (I’m very cheap.) Until yesterday! I really liked the look of this cardigan: Chunky Knit Hooded Cardigan @ Very.co.uk but couldn’t justify spending £32.95 (£29 + postage) when we’re on a tight budget. Besides, this one was my first choice: Hooded Duffle Style Cardigan @ Very.co.uk (isn’t it lovely? Look at the toggles! And the hood! And the colour! Lush. My partner and I had decided that I could choose one to buy, but I’d have to wait until the end of the month.
Aaanyway. To make this increasingly long story quite short – I found the ‘second choice’ cardigan on eBay! It’s a catalogue return being sold by a reselling company — so it’s brand new with the tags still on. With postage included it’s £13.94, which is a saving of £19.04! :D
It should be arriving in a few days. I’m actually excited. I really like big cardigans.