Nope. I can't do it. (Mar 28, 2013)
I've been trying to use Pliny for a couple of months. It's fine for browsing, and good for typing up Entries, but when it comes to conversations, it doesn't work. I've been neglecting to catch up on conversations, simply because the hassle of finding my last unread post is just too much (I know, I know, first world problems).

I doubt this is news to anyone, but hey. It might also explain it if you thought I was ignoring you lately.


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(12 replies, Latest reply: Mar 31, 2013)

Just got back (Mar 20, 2013)
...from the internet-free Yorkshire Dales (although I was in Cumbria).

Backlog is... uh... still there.


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(9 replies, Latest reply: Mar 21, 2013)

How long... (Mar 13, 2013)
... has it been putting the review forum at the beginning of titles (e.g. Peer Review: A12349999 The Blah of Blahdom). That's great!


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(4 replies, Latest reply: Mar 13, 2013)

Can I have a gold star please? (Mar 6, 2013)
I've just Perr Reviewed the whole of <BB<'s Pink Panther University project.


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(7 replies, Latest reply: Mar 11, 2013)

Well that was a waste of time. (Mar 3, 2013)
My banana muffins are welded to my tray.


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(10 replies, Latest reply: Mar 4, 2013)

Vip's thread for NaJoMoPoMoNoJoMo 2012 (Oct 29, 2012)
Hello everyone. I know my journals aren't the most interesting in the world, but I'm going to be doing NaJoPoMo. Well, trying, anyway.

I'm going to be posting all NaJoPoMo posts in this thread. That way if you don't want to be ambushed by baby stuff every single day (given that's 99% of my life at the moment) I will not be at all offended if you decide to unsubscribe.

I may still make more general journal posts, but they'll be at my usual level of posting (so probably never!).

See you all at the other end.


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(124 replies, Latest reply: Dec 1, 2012)

Chumbawamba (Aug 17, 2012)
They've announced that the band is parting company.

I guess thirty years is a good lifespan of any band, but it's sad to see them go.


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(7 replies, Latest reply: Aug 18, 2012)

Self indulgent whining (Jul 1, 2012)
Yes. Today I am feeling tired and miserable. A few weeks of sleep deprivation, my period returning, a cold, falling over and hurting myself, my ongoing saga with my trapped nerve in my foot, and then possibly fracturing my toe in a misguided attempt to pick up from a hard floor.

I'm fed up. I hate the biology of being female. I hate my innate clumsiness. I hate having an appetite that outstrips my needs. I hate my inbuilt wish towards self-annihilation that shows up every time the going get a bit hard. I have so many reasons to be happy, why the hell do you want to quit now?

This morning sucks. I have a nice day to look forward to, but, right now, I am just angry at the world.

I'd better have breakfast.


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(9 replies, Latest reply: Jul 4, 2012)

Annoyance (May 30, 2012)
It's frustrating when someone other than you scuppers your plans. We had just managed to put together an offer in order to bid for a house, when across the road the company who own the patch of unused land there finally decide to sell it off for building houses.

Who would want to live next to a building site? I'd say it will affect our chances of selling our house. And of course, if we can't sell our house, it means putting in a bid for another house (using borrowed money) is a silly idea.

I'm pretty disappointed. It was our best opportunity of buying a house that not only suited us, but was gorgeous as well. To have it taken out of our hands is a bit frustrating.



So today, I'm feeling a bit meh. I think I'm going to go and play some Skyrim while is finally asleep. Chill out, relax, try to get back into a positive frame of mind.


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(13 replies, Latest reply: May 30, 2012)

Funny, the baby sleeps more, so I get more tired. (Apr 2, 2012)
Just a bit of a warning for those who don't want to hear a bit about breastfeeding stuff, no need to read on.

has always been good at night, and his new trick is now not just sleeping five-then-four hours (with a feed in the middle), but dropping it entirely and sleeping for eight. This is, in theory, good, but it means that my breasts wake me up in the middle of the night, usually having soaked their way through the breast pads and through my nightclothes.

While he is still only sleeping through on the odd occasion I don't need to train my boobs to sleep through as well, so it's downstairs to the expressing machine (I want to have a bit of a stock so that I can leave him with Mr Vip for the odd evening). Half an hour later, with one boob now comfortable it's a bit easier to sleep. Back to bed. Then, an hour later, wakes up for a feed. Then he's awake for an hour. Then falls asleep. By this stage it's 7am and Mr Vip is up and getting ready for work, and even if I got back to sleep is on his daytime schedule of a feed every two hours.

So despite the fact that is sleeping more, I'm sleeping less. I'm not complaining too much - between 11pm and 5am today I got unbroken sleep, which I know some mothers dream about! Still. I'm sat here typing through a haze of sleep and actually wishing for the days when he woke at 3 and then slept again for four hours...


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(18 replies, Latest reply: Oct 8, 2012)

Fitocracy (Mar 21, 2012)
Gamification - Happy Nerd was waxing interested about it not so long ago. It's the concept of turning something that isn't a game and turning into one. In Fitocracy's case it's using fitness. Completing exercises or sport earns you points, and you get enough you level up. I'm currently Level 3 (woo!). You need more and more points to get to each level, wich encourages you to do more and more each time and hopefully get fitter in the long run! There are also quests (such as doing a run in a particular time, or playing 30 minutes of a sport) and earn achievements depending on what you put into the system.

There is also a social element - you can join groups of people based on, well, anything (I've set up a h2g2 group which currently only consists of me and Mr. Dreadful) - and you see each others' achievements and give encouragement.

It's only been a couple of days but I'm finding it an interesting experiment.

If anyone wants to join it is currently by invitation only, so you'll need this link to join up: http://ftcy.co/yEaIab. I only have ten invites so it will be first com first served, but then that ten will get their own ten so hopefully they can spare a couple.

Right, best get back to , who has just decided that the table leg is no longer interesting enough to continue staring at. We need a new distraction...


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(29 replies, Latest reply: Jun 5, 2012)

The final few days (Jan 25, 2012)
Well, the 24th - that was my due date come and gone. I'm not complaining though, I'm still enjoying the freedom of being off work and getting things ready. Yes, I'm a bit heavy and uncomfortable but I think I've had it pretty easy when I compare myself to others.

h2g2 has rather taken a back seat recently. In fact, anything I usually did on my PC has - including Skyrim, which was bought partly to make sure I didn't get bored during my maternity leave. I just don't want to switch it on! Now I've set up my swanky phone to check my emails for me I've just lost all interest.

I guess it's a good sign, as I'm not sat on Skype worrying about things, or burning myself out writing moderation manuals and so on. I'm actually quite relaxed, happy, and not stressed about h2g2, which is a novelty. I'll have plenty to be stressed about in the future, I'm rather enjoying this little break!

Anyway, long story short - I'm not around as much. I see it as an extended lunch break, not as a permanent departure, but I'm not making any promises or deadlines. You'll see me when you see me. *waves*

All the best to all of you,

Vip

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(55 replies, Latest reply: Feb 14, 2012)

Stupid house owndership (Nov 23, 2011)
I'm not totally convinced that house ownership is a good thing. Never have, really, although I do accept it has its good points. This week hasn't been one of them.

Last week our downstairs plug sockets tripped. It wasn't a device tripping, it was faulty wiring. Electrician came round, isolated the stretch where the wiring had gone, popped round the following morning and put in a new stretch of wiring to replace it. No need to look too hard - it was an easy fix, no problem.

Then it went again on Monday. Electrician came round on Tuesday morning to have another look and found the cause of why the wiring had gone - our underfloors are a foot deep in water.

This in itself isn't as bad as it first seems. The houses were built with four foot gaps under the floors for this reason, so the water table can rise and then drain away without flooding the house.

The problem is that earlier this year we put in a new damp course because we were thinking of selling and not having a modern damp course was putting people off. Now the damp (well, puddle) can't rise up through the bricks and evaporate away, the water is just sitting, festering under our house. It's smelling too.

The solution? Fill in the underfloor with concrete so that the water can't pool in the first place. For our whole ground floor. Then of course replace the flooring, because it will have been ripped up in order to fill the place with concrete. For the the whole ground floor (well, apart from our tiny kitchen, for some reason that's already concreted - thank heavens for small mercies).

I'm going to see if the house insurance covers this sort of thing, although I don't hold out much hope given that it's not been caused by anything in particular, or if it has it's been because we've had work done to the house. Still worth calling and asking though.

*sigh*

We have someone coming around to give us a quote of the cost and a rough idea of whether or not the house will be liveable for the period of time.

Hopefully this can be done sooner rather than later though - if we wait too long it's going to get more awkward for me and if I go in to labour early I can't see them letting me go home if I don't have any floors!

Happy days...


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(35 replies, Latest reply: Feb 15, 2012)

Getting used to the rhythm (Nov 6, 2011)
There are a few rhythms in my life at the moment. There's the weekly work pattern, obviously, and the day to day one too.

I'm starting to get the hang of a couple more as well.

The most obvious over the last week has been my tiredness and motivation levels throughout the day. I wake up, and once I'm actually awake I'm pretty alert, on the ball and efficient... until about 11am. Then The Slump falls over me and I'm a write off for pretty much the rest of the day. I have a little bit of a perk up in the early evening but it doesn't last for long.

There's also the rhythm of the little Viplet - he only ever used to kick me late morning, mid-afternoon and then have another wiggle at around bedtime. But as he's growing I'm starting to get new ones as well - the latest are wiggles at getting up time and some quite hefty action in the mid-evening. Compared to other mums-to-be he's still pretty quiet but it's interesting to see how things are developing.

On the plus side, it's interesting to watch. On the down side, I think I can safely say I'm starting to move out of the nice bit in the middle of the pregnancy where you could almost forget you're gestating, and in to the slow decline to the end. Morning sickness has popped its head up again, a clear sign that we've moved into a new batch of hormones - lovely!

But, as the saying goes, enjoy it now - you'll think back fondly to it later!


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(9 replies, Latest reply: Jan 9, 2012)

It must be winter... (Oct 20, 2011)
... they've switched the heating on at work. I can tell by the smell of burning dust. Nice.

On the plus side I might be able to keep the fingerless gloves for another occasion.


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(18 replies, Latest reply: Oct 22, 2011)

Craving Oblivion (the game, that is) (Oct 17, 2011)
Weird. I keep on getting cravings to play Oblivion. There I am, completing some paperwork, and WHAM!, all I can think about is those wretched, infuriating gates.

You'd think I'd be craving cabbage with marmalade or something. No, apparently, it's computer games.


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(2 replies, Latest reply: Oct 17, 2011)

Back. (Oct 17, 2011)
I missed this place. It's all change, and it's all new, but it's still reassuringly 'home'.

I could still do with 'home' costing me fewer sleepless nights, but I'm sure those will pass with time as things get settled down.


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(7 replies, Latest reply: Oct 17, 2011)

*swear* (Sep 26, 2011)
OK, today is not going well.

Slept badly
Arguments and angst on BBC News as I was waking up
Finding out that permissions on noesis have changed, and I don't know how
My shower deciding that it would heat hot water (thankfully it was lukewarm, not freezing)
My work computer taking twenty minutes to boot up before I gave up and restarted it
and finally,
Spilling hot tea all over my desk and lap.


I can count my blessings - at least I got *some* sleep, at least I could change the TV channel, at least I could still have a shower, at least my computer did boot up eventually, and at least the tea was a) green tea (so no sour milk smell next week) and b) not scalding.

Still. It's not the best start to a week I've ever had.


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(3 replies, Latest reply: Sep 26, 2011)

Too tired now. (Sep 23, 2011)


I'm tired now. A few too many nights of soul-searching conversations late night are good in terms of bonding, but bad in terms of both quality and volume of sleep.

I'm worried about Mr Vip; he works incredibly hard, always has, but these days he has very few good days and far too many bad ones. His job within his department has changed which isn't bad in itself, but it now means he works permanently with people who are never satisfied. To begin with you can kind of shrug it off, but as time goes by it seems to be sapping his strength.

What do you do? He's lucky to have a job in this climate, he's kind of trapped in this company because he's only part qualified (we'd have to pay back thousands of pounds worth of course fees if he quit), and even if he were to change job role in the company that's essentially like saying we have to re-locate across the country because of the way it would have to happen. While if that's what it takes we'll do it - we'll cope, that's what we do - all this is weighing down on him, especially with the baby on the way.

In honesty I'm also worried about myself; I'm less able to choose what I can be concerned about. Mr Vip, the baby, h2g2 - these things I feel are legitimate to worry about. But the way the prison system works - what?? Why do I seem to dedicate so much time to getting het up about it? Yes, it's poorly organised. Yes, it causes too much stress among good people. But there's is absolutely zero I can do about it, and I'm not even employed by HMPS. I just work here.

Thankfully, Mr Vip and I can rely on each other a lot. It would just be nice if we didn't have to.





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(11 replies, Latest reply: Sep 23, 2011)

Vivienne Westwood (Sep 20, 2011)
I'm not a big fashion person. To me clothes preserve some sense of modesty whilst simultaneously protecting me from the elements.

However, I understand that some people take them seriously. One day when I was killing time in Sleaford, I actually walked through a gallery of shoes, which we apparently a small sample of Vivienne Westwood's creations. From the exhibition I learned that VW a) made shoes and b) was a little bit crazy. Oh, and c) that modern shoe fashion puts them to shame in the craziness stakes.

This was, oooh, six months ago? And only today did I find out that VW is actually a woman. For years I though it was a man with a girls name.

How on earth did I manage to come to that conclusion?



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(9 replies, Latest reply: Sep 21, 2011)

Top tip (Sep 13, 2011)
Don't attempt to cook rice pudding from scratch in a microwave at full power.

On the plus side, my microwave now smells of cinnamon...


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(14 replies, Latest reply: Sep 21, 2011)

This wind is creepy. (Sep 12, 2011)
We don't often get wind over here. We're protected by Telford on one side and the Welsh hills on the other.

No protection today. Wowee!


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(7 replies, Latest reply: Sep 12, 2011)

Tough 24 hours. (Sep 7, 2011)
Inspectors at work, Mr Vip working until 9pm, a long, productive but draining h2g2c3 conference session, and emails coming out of my ears this morning.

Some days I appreciate being dragged away from my computer or I'd never leave it!


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(4 replies, Latest reply: Sep 7, 2011)

*flexes admin fingers* (Aug 8, 2011)
What is it about lining up piles of paper, with Post-its attached, and getting Thing Properly In Order that I like so much? Weirdo.


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(4 replies, Latest reply: Aug 8, 2011)

Maelstrom disappointment (Aug 1, 2011)
I apologise in advance to Mr. D - I try not to broach the IC-OC wall but I'm sad this morning and wanted to talk about it somewhere. Facebook is full of too many people that my character interacts with. Thankfully our characters don't know each other.

Z'im died. For those that don't know, I have a hobby called Live Action Role Play, or LARP, and it's a bit like acting without a script. You create a character, dress up and act out what it would do when faced with other people and situations. Z'im was my first ever long-term character - I played it for over three years. I made some wonderful friends who I'm going to miss a lot.

The worst part was that I was one downtime (an admin period that occurs between the real-life weekends) away from achieving something fantastic, the goal of my character. And its death occured not as a result of going into battle, or the work of the gods, or because someone has a vendetta and wanted to stop me. It was because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I was on my way out of the in-character area because I'd finished role-playing for that session and was intending on changing into another character for a bit of a break. It was my fault; I should have been paying attention until I was actually out of the area. However we walked by a group of people who had been terrorising the game all weekend. They quickly and efficiently dispatched me before I even had time to scream or run. No hard feelings against them; they played their parts fantastically and did exactly what they should have done.

I'm gutted though. It's not just that the character who I loved playing is dead, it's that this event was the first time I really got my goal in reach, only for it to be snatched away again. Plus, although others may take up my idea and make it happen, I won't get to find out if it works.

It also means I have to create another character, and life is going to get in the way. There's little point in me creating a character when pregnancy will stop me attending.

So please excuse me, I'm a little today.


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(8 replies, Latest reply: Aug 1, 2011)