Oh-ho, looks like the seas of Livejournal are once again caught in a tempest. I had planned to comment on Strikeout'07 when it happened, but it came in the middle of the exam season, and I wasn't talking much about my actual life, never mind a blogging site.

Now then, I have to admit that this whole matter doesn't make me feel much emotion. I'm too distanced from the communities affected to take this any differently to any article I read on BBC News, that is to say, detached. That doesn't mean that I don't care, however. I'm not deep within any fandom, but I have many friends who are, and I know roughly of the manic operations of Fandom with a capital F.

So far, only two journals have been identified as being suspended in this current 'purge', but that seems to have been enough, the spark falling into the gunpowder stores of Fandom. The journals in question are elaboration and ponderosa121, although mightygodking was hit a week or so ago. The reasons are rather vague, but it appears that 6 Apart are playing it ultra-safe when it comes to child porn by TOS-ing anyone who posts art of characters who might be minors. Harry Potter is the main stalking ground, and there are theories that copyright also has something to do with it.

Now, that's irritating, but in the current climate, I can see why they feel they'd need to do that (even if it seems to some of us misguided). However, what truly irks me is how they are going about it. If they must remove this material, they could give warnings first before suddenly deleting journals*. If they had to do that, they could give a more detailed reasoning for the deletions other than 'underage. GTFO LJ'. It is, however, quite clear that they are trying to do this by stealth. What's the biggest clue for that? Look at the second paragraph.

No, I did not bold those names. Those are valid lj user tags. The journals are all deleted, so you'd expect the familiar strikeout, as such 'llieno'. Alas, no, for even the little icons have gone too. Meanwhile, on all profile pages other than your own, deleted journals are now only visible by clicking on more details. If you look at my profile, you won't see that wolfric has deleted his journal, unless you do click on 'More Details'. Now, I can vaguely grasp the profile thing as being some attempt to make things look tidier, but there is no good reason for the strikeout. The strikeout was clear and to-the-point, whilst the bolding leaves little clue even that it was a LJ user name. The only reason for the latter, and thus probably also the former, is that 6-Apart does not want people to realise that these names are disappearing, and to prevent the 'Strikeout' term being used again.

I'm not happy with the censorship, but I can deal with it. I am annoyed, however, by the underhand tactics being used to do this, especially after the long apology we all got to see after Strikeout.

Play fair, Six Apart, or don't play at all.

* = kyaathecatlord pointed out that warnings had been given on lj_biz beforehand. I was referring to personal warnings of the 'Put your gun down or I'll shoot' variety.

---

Just for clarification, I'm not siding with the people who are up in arms about this. I'm not burning LJ clothes, or fleeing to GJ. As I said, I'm detached, and in any case, the 'purge' deserves those quote marks. It was actually just the lack of strikeout that prompted me to write this post.

---------------------------------- A Tribute to Tea --------------------------------

I bought some more tea whilst in Nottingham. Earl Grey, and Rooibos (Redbush) with Orange. I already miss both, so I'll need to add them to my supply at some point. It would appear that, whilst I have little enthusiasm for alcohol (although I do enjoy the odd wine or rum), I'm a major fan of hot drinks. I already have four different green tea blends to choose from, as well as Lapsang Souchong (Smoke-Tea), Rooibos (South African caffeine-free tea), China tea (a Tesco leaf blend), and various fruit/herbal blends (including Lemon & Ginger, Honey & Vanilla, and Peppermint). I still love my coffee, however, and I'm a fan of black New-York coffee for working, sugary and strong coffee for mornings, cappuccinos when drinking out, and mocchas when I feel like treating myself. I've cut a little down on the coffee as tea is healthier, but I still feel much better having a green tea (with lemon) than a Sprite, or having cranberry juice instead of a coke. Indeed, the only soft drinks I still drink from time to time are ginger beer and irn bru...

I also taught my family the trick of adding turmeric to rice. Whilst I'm no cook, I do love my seasonings. When I have one of my own, my kitchen will be full of smells. As opposed to the smell that is still lingering in part of our kitchen from a saucepan of beans that was left here for a week. Urgh, not nice.

--------------------------------------- Spread Wings --------------------------------

My Granddad gave me a travel grant for my birthday. That, and the fact that travel is just about one of the only things I'd actually spend money on (aside from tea and spices, obviously), has got my Wanderlust reeling. I've been eyeing the gap between the end of my time at Hazel and the beginning of my year in Germany (more on that later). The problem is that it tallies with the time of Summer holidays, so prices will be high-high-high.

Where would I go, though? Nowhere too grand. I would indeed like to visit Japan someday, but that can wait (epecially until I can actually speak some Japanese beyond the usual anime vocabulary and historic words like daimyo and zaibatsu. No, I'd either go wandering around Europe (maybe InterRail), or go Stateside. After all, I was meant to go to New York last year, but because of the chaos with the Model UN fees, I didn't, even after pondering what I'd do. I'd be travelling solo, which is fine by me, but it'd still be nice to meet up with people. One reason why I'm seriously considering New York sometime in the next year or so is the economic situation. With £1=$2, it's currently very affordable for me to go. However, because I'd be travelling in July or August, unless I wanted to travel from Germany, flying across the Atlantic may push my pocket a little farther than I would like.

I'm still gazing at my atlas. Someday, world, someday.

-------------------------------------- Random -----------------------------

* For those who remember Thomas from AZUK (thomasrupaan), he has put his recent animations from his uni animation course up on YouTube. Look up 'afrogoblin'.

* RHUL have once again made it to the filming stages of University Challenge. Yes, I am bitter. I'll still struggle to get on the team for either next year or the year after, because I reckon I'm good enough to hold the fourth seat (weakest on the team, but, hey, I'm no Stephen Fry). I just wonder if the year I make it is the year we don't make the filming stage. Oh well. It's a dream, that's all.

* THE DAR-LEKS MUST EE-VOLVE. O-BEY, O-BEY, O-BEY. (I loved how much history made its way into last week's programme).

* Now that One Piece has been newly licenced, it's disappeared off YouTube and CrunchyRoll, so our rate of watching has dramatically dropped. Just as well, given that we have exams coming up, but I was still quite irritated when I realised.

* I just realised that when I count things, if there are a fair amount of them (more than 10 or 15), I'll count in threes. For example, when counting the number of dashes in the breaks I typed earlier. 3,6,9... Does anyone else do this, or do you count in twos instead? I can only presume I've developed this system from the counting I did for A-Level Statistics.

* Overheard on the train to London: 'The problem with the Internet is that it gives you exactly what you want'.

I’ll update this in the morning, as our house internet has been shockingly bad recently. It has a habit of cutting at any point between 15 minutes and two hours after the last time we reset the router, and resetting the router is the only way to bring it back. Whilst not an obstacle, it tends to make work take a fair bit more time than it otherwise would, which is obviously not optimal.

( Afore the Funeral )

( The Funeral and Surrounding Events )

( Post-Funeral Meet )

( Thursday )

These past few days, perhaps moreso than any thusfar, have marked what has happened, and what is yet to come.

( Slough! )

( Campus, Again )

( Arts Soc, Rum and Wunderlust )

( Love of Late Night )

( The Orbital, and My Role Within )

( The Calm Afore )

( Autumn Days, when the grass is jeweled... )

Brian set up the new router, so we now no longer play 'pass-the-internet-connection': just as well, given that Amy is now moved in. The internet isn't as fast or smooth as before, but we can all get it, and that's what counts. I can access Facebook without problems again, too.

I've not felt very happy with my cooking, as of late. Bleh. The balsamic vinegar keeps coming to the rescue, at least...

You’ll be reading this some time after I’ve typed it. Why is this? We have no internet at Hazel House again. In fact, we have no telecommunications at all, as our phone line has also ceased to operate, and we still haven’t sorted out the television due to not yet having a licence. Let me start from the start, however.

( No consolation from the console )

( The Merry Ways of Windsor... )

( A Job Interview. Guess the outcome )

( Emo of Inactivity )

( St-st-stressed! )

(continues in next update)

It rains outside. I can't see it, for the half-light from my bedside lamp is enough to paint the garden view into dark obscurity, but the gentle tapping of raindrops is enough, and it is soothing. It doesn't clash too much with the music I am listening to, the Fisherman's Horizon theme from Final Fantasy VIII. It's peaceful, and whilst far from perfect, I can find cause to relax, something so rare these days. Not quite yet, though, for I am approaching the end of a mammoth task, and quests demand completion.

1 hour later...okay, that'll do...I've just finished commenting to entries made since I left for Amecon. That took a while, and whilst I know that there is no need to devote so much time and effort into adding a few words to many long and interesting entries, I cannot help but do so. There's a reason my comment stats read Posted: 25,273 - Received: 14,754. I'm glad to have got it done though...it's been hanging over me for the past few days since Amecon, and I've done very little about it.

There is ( a reason for this, however )

So, a long LJ session has helped ease the angst a great deal, even if I have been sitting here for a long time now, with disc 3 of the FFVIII soundtrack on loop. I did stop for a dinner with Holly, which was healthy and lovely, however. I'm not going to type up my Amecon report yet either, because it'll take another few hours, and I still need sleep, even if I spent much of yesterday doing just that.

The Final Fantasy soundtrack is one of many things I bought at the con. Another is the FMA wallscroll brightening the wall next to me, and another was the bundle of posters that was knocked away from me somewhere on the London Underground and never reached home with me. Alas. The Final Fantasy soundtrack is causing a great deal of ( nostalgia on its own, however )

I remember the days of playing VII and VIII, and equally the associated discussions. I remember conversations on MSN with Bethany (Anime Angel) over FFVIII's soundtrack and what it inspires, and I remember sitting and staring at the title screen to VII and crying at what it was. I wonder if XII will be the same. Somehow, I doubt it...but I still long to remain a child of wonder. This is why I hear the rain drum against night-laden window panes along to a romantic, whispering refrain from six years in my past, and I dare to dream again, if only for a short while. I don't ever want to lose the chance to do so.

It's just difficult to put into words.

Hello to everyone I've friended since Amecon, by the way. It's a pleasure to know you!

AMECON! We'll be leaving in around half an hour's time, and it will be fun. Yes, it really will! It'll be odd to actually leave Hazel House now, however, as I've really aclimatised to this place. Internet is still being tempremental, although currently, it's my laptop which is the only one able to go online, hence actually updating from my own computer for the first time in about a year. Woo! It also provided impetus to get out of bed early this morning, and I really feel quite relaxed and bright. I blame the shower, the excitement of Amecon, and the internet (with the music gained from it, case in point being the current music).

In the shower this morning, as I was enveloped in a cloud of lemon tang (new shower gel^^), I had a story idea I adore, and which I think has great potential, yet has a relatively simple core concept. I mentioned a similar idea a while ago, but never developed it. It would feature a sort of collection of myths...a fairly-rich young man in the late Middle Ages has little idea of how he wants to spend his life. In a tavern, he meets this old man who, in exchange for a drink, decides to tell him a story, about when he was young, and got caught up in a travelling caravan. Said story is the main material of the book (the rest is metafiction^^), and covers a journey from London to Peking and back again. However, it will be full of mythology and fiction, such as the twin kingdoms of Xanadu and Shangri-La which he visits in the Himalaya, and his enchounter with Baba Yaga in deep Russian forest. There'd be a twist at the end as well, of course. The combination of travelog and myth should make writing it both fun and far less complex than the location-centric stories I've attempted before. We'll see.

Speaking of travel, The Matt Harding video always makes me cry. I can't help it...it's the combination of the music (Deep Forest = Love) and the realisation of 'The Greatest Show IS Earth' concept. I cry at the Michael Palin series, especially when they approach their end, and I always cry upon coming home after travel. Holly just walked in and found me crying over such a video cute^^;;; As I said, I can't help it...I'm just senti-mental. Maybe someday I could dance around the world...travel broadens the mind, as does music, and the combination...well, I'm glad there is such beauty out there to counter the realism of these days. I'll just go and get a tissue now...

Okay, off to finish packing!

A plane is flying overhead as I type this (from Holly's laptop at Hazel House). This is usual around here, so close to Heathrow, but today it's been quiet. Too quiet. I only found out why a few hours ago. It's also why I always check BBC News as m first site when I log onto the internet.

Well, I'm not going to call this either way, but it's been given major news status, so people are taking it pretty seriously. The unusually empty skies give it an extra weight as well. I'm thankful I'm not flying anywhere today, but I hope those planning to fly to Amecon tommorrow can do so! That goes to anyone flying anywhere, of course...

My own laptop is being veheremtly annoying at the moment, playing all kinds of games with the wireless network, the internet and itself. I got rather stressed last night, but hopefully we can sort things out. I need to stop (metaphorically) bumping into walls.

Aaah, doom and despair. It's all too easy to focus on the negative.

The local kitties are cute. Irn bru is tasty. Amecon is tommorrow.
Life isn't black and white, nor is it greyscale, or even the full spectrum. It can be many colours, all at the same time...

We have internet. However, according to cosmicflame, the router isn't doing its job, and as such, the internet is not going anywhere beyond Brian's laptop. A shame, as I need quite a catchup, and was hoping to do this tonight, but instead I'm back in the CC again.

Let's deal with a few matters whilst I have the chance, then. Foremost amongst these is ( Amecon )

In house terms, we've been the busiest we have for weeks. Both Amy and Brian were there, making a total of four housemates present. Brian arrived yesterday to fix up the internet, and Amy is sporadically working with Mencap in the local area, and turns up whenever she has a job. Sometimes, this can take us by surprise, such as when she turns up with five-minutes warning, or, as was on Saturday, no warning at all. However, with Brian catering for himself and Amy often out, Holly and I are still running meals for ourselves. Now that we have an oven (of sorts!), we can actually make decent meals, of which we attempt three a day. I hope we can keep this up until everyone returns in September, as it feels almost odd to be a student and eating healthily. As an example, we had chicken pie, potato pieces and peas (or sweetcorn in Holly's case) for our lunch this afternoon. We did have pizza last night, though, and I'm now addicted to flavoured ricecakes...

Now follows a number of mini-updates, if you will. For the sake of skim-readers, I'd put them in individual entries, but then I'd blitz your friends page, so I'll put them all here and you can read at leisure. Each paragraph is a new theme, introduced by the LJ-cut...

* ( My Grandparents, and Artefacts of Family Heritage )

* ( Williamson is No More...Alas? )

* ( Phantom Brave: My Only Nippon Ichi Game )

* ( Livin' next to Hogwarts Lake and The Forest Moon of Endor )

* ( Rest in Peace? The Council, the Houses and the Cemetery )

* That's all for now! ^-^

As we're in Hazel House, we still have no internal internet. That's coming, but has been delayed a few times now (currently, it'll be due on Wednesday). As such, we're dependent on the Computer Centre down at Holloway for our online access. Therefore, when they shut down the campus computer network from Friday until this morning, we were a little stuck. I couldn't submit an entry to the Amecon writing competition, and also had to phone home in order to book train tickets for Amecon. Equally, I've been unable to read anyone's livejournals, nor update my own, and so I'm faced with a list (yes, a list, I typed it out) of entries to reply to, another list of things to update about and a rather short amount of time, because even when this place is operational, it's not the most homely of environments.

I'd have been here this morning, if it hadn't been for electricians coming round to deactivate our power for three hours this afternoon whilst we sat around twiddling our thumbs (metaphotically: I made a list of where all UK A roads from A1 to A99 start and end. It was a slow day indeed). I've only recently returned online, and it's long past safe walking time through Englefield Green, so I'll be leaving any moment now. After so long, it'll be nice to actually have internet in my room for a change...although only just before Amecon!

So...that's where I've been. Sleeping, reading newspapers, eating ricecakes, cooking vegetables...it's been a riot.

The air is prickly and dancing with anticipation. Aye, there's a storm going on. It's been storming for the last few hours, truth be told, but I'm trapped in the computer centre with no protection from the rain, and so I may as well stay here. I wouldn't use the computers at home, but I'm fairly certain the techies here have things set up to prevent power surges, so I should be okay. It's not as if there is anything else to do in this empty annexe. It's too bright to watch for lightning, although the thunder is making its presence well-enough known. It's the prickly feeling in the air that is the most pressing, and sets something deep within me at unease.

A storm both ferocious and feline
It stormed last night as well. Holly & I were half-sleeping in the living room with the PS2 on, when Holly asked if there was a storm. I'd commented on the heavy skies a few hours earlier in Staines, and so I went to check. There was a flash and a droning sound, but it sounded more like an aeroplane, and so I dismissed the flash as that of a plane coming in to Heathrow in low cloud. By the third flash, we were running out into the garden to bring in the washing before the rain, and only just made it (but I forgot my black woolen trousers, invisible in the darkness, and they're still hanging there during this thunderstorm...). Off went the PS2, and soon enough we were at Holly's window watching the unusually-spectacular lightning.

As the storm passed overhead, we moved to the other side of the house amidst crashing thunder like a herd of drumkits thrown down a spiral staircase. The lightning decided to put on even more of a show, and the local cats (more about them later) dived under cars for shelter as rain hammered down under claws of an electric kind scratching holes in the clouds. Storms could be cats, and by the volume of the purring, they'd be enjoying it. At one point, a thick, vivid pillar of electric power speared down to the ground just over half-a-mile to the South West. We wondered what had been struck. Most of the dancing spark sprites skipped their way across the sky, whilst the streets below, bathed in their sodium blanket, could only look on in an eerie silence. I love a good storm.

Oh, there was some lightning. Ah, it's so wet...I may be in this building for some time yet...

Horizon's Lightning
The storm last night was odd, however. It gradually faded away to the South West, to the extent that soon we wouldn't see even a small flash of lightning for at least three or four minutes. So we were ready to call it a night, when I noticed the flashes suddenly seemed more frequent. We returned to the window, and for the next 45 minutes, watched a bizarre spectacle on the Western and North-Western horizons. There was a storm, either a different one or the same one having undergone a substantial directional shift. It was violent, and very bright, but we could never see the bolts themselves, just the glow on the surrounding clouds. We had no idea where this storm came from, why it was sitting in one place, or why we were seeing cloudglows and shadows as we did. Most puzzling. After that started to die down a bit, we gave in, and made the mistake of turning the light on. Remarkable, how well we adapt to the dark after a prolongued period of it...

The Heat is On...Off...On...etc
At the moment, it's quite cool and breezy. It was last night too, to an extent. Indeed, we had a brief storm around 5AM a few days ago, when the air cooled, but in each case, it returned to hot stickiness. This morning wasn't quite as hot, but it was still enough to trick me into walking onto campus in a T-shirt whilst leaving my trousers on the line. I suspect weather has a sense of humour. It will be a relief to escape the heat, however. I've carefully avoided sunstroking again (although not cat-stroking), but it's still been unpleasant. I grew a little heatrashed yesterday on our outing to Staines, especially whilst waiting for the bus on Egham Hill with no shade or no drink. I've never been so glad to have Irn-Bru.

Staines Shopping and Bus-Mania!
We bought a frying pan, a working wallclock and half-price kitchen lovelies such as fudge and luxury coffee. I looked for job-vacancies, found precious few, and handed a CV into HMV without much hope of getting anywhere. We consired buying Makai Kingdom, and decided we didn't need it yet, and we waited for the bus home for an hour. When it finally came, the driver was a short-tempered fellow who swore at the car in front that refused to pull out, so that when it did, the bus driver drove us quickly round the corner...otherwise known as Pooley Green level crossing, where the barriers were already going down for a train. Oh, bus-mania! At least it stops 100m from our front-door...and at the other end, Heathrow Airport.

Undernetworked
Now that was more like it, lightning! My skin is tingling now. I'd be loving this static in the air, if I were back at Hazel House. Not that we have internet at Hazel yet, so I wouldn't be updating this...and the lack of internet is annoying, from a jobfinding and researching viewpoint. It's easier to avoid procrastination when you have the internet on tap, and don't have to make special trips for it, where you'll find yourself quickly distracted by LJ, BBC News and Wikipedia, where I've even set up an account now ('Zverzia', if you're interested).

The BBC News site is asking for photographs along the theme of 'Shelter'. How I wish I had my camera on me now! Oh well...at least it's peaceful...

EDIT 1936: No, it isn't. Lackaday, that was like an explosion outside the window! Bright flash, and almost instant bang to almost make me fall out of my seat...alors! *slowly regains normal heatbeat*

...okay, now they are singing. In broken English. Off-key. I am resisting the urge to leave them in a metal box (with air-holes) in a place with no shade between the hours of 11 and 3 tommorrow. It's only a weekn until we should have broadband at Hazel House, however, so that means no more worrying about infantile Slavs, over whom I have doubts that their English is as good at their skills in irritation.

Anyhow, enough about these brats. Aside from the heatstroke attack, which could well happen again given how the hot weather isn't expected to break for a while, I've been doing rather little. I came down here to get a job, and am not getting very far with that. It's not entirely my fault. As much as I would like employment, walking around Staines, Camberley or Windsor in such heat would leave me baking in a similar fashion to yesterday, and I'd really rather not go through that again. It does leave the problem of being down here for a job, and not having any. Given how we have to buy our own food, electricty and so on, this means I'm gradually depleting my money, which is obviously not optimal. I can't help feeling I'm blindly spinning in circles, whilst the worldwiser go forth and are employed...

Ah, and it's now two and half hours after I began this entry. In that time, we were ushered out of the International by a woman who thought we were one of the noisy Russians. Holly and I then set forth towards the Queen's Annexe, but it was locked up to even us. Despite a pleasant breeze making being outside far more appealing than I remember it being since Eversley, I felt rather uncomfortable due to the masses of foreigners around. Not in a xenophobic sense, but in being in a familiar place surrounded by entirely unfamilar people. It didn't help that all but the East Asians seemed younger than us. However, far more disturbingly, Williamson has been ransacked. There are no windows anymore, just gaping holes, and thus I could look into what had been my room. Well, I don't know why I was asked to leave it in a good condition, because all vestiges of habitation have been destroyed. The carpet is gone, the door and doorframe are no more, the electrics have been ripped out and the same has happened to every other room. This wasn't merely uncomfortable, but genuinely disturbing. It had been my room, but...it was now akin to a ruin, occuping the same four walls...I'll try and capture a photo for you tomorrow.

Holly found out one of her favourite teachers from secondary school has died, so I feel very sorry for her. I daresay I'd feel a similar way with many of my old teachers...it's sad.

At Hazel, little has been going on. Brian left yesterday, during my delerium, and Amy briefly came and left, with me briefly saying goodbye this morning as I awoke from the long night's slumber. Now it's just Holly and I, which, while nice, means we tend to spend a lot of time doing almost nothing. In that respect, Brian made a good nanny. He shall be back in a week's time, briefly, to mastermind the internet development. After that, he'll be absent until termstart, as will Anna, possibly Amy, and we've no idea about Helen. Personally, I won't be spending all my time down here. As I've said, unless I get a job, being here is financially taxing, and my lazy side prefers a house where I have coffee brought to me in the mornings instead of having to make it myself through a lingering sleephaze. When we have the internet, it will become slightly easier, as I'll no longer have to trape onto Campus to get things done, and can actually utilise the internet for more practical purposes, such as jobhunting and research. In the meantime, I'm spending too much time playing Phantom Brave, but it's okay to play videogames obsessively as long as it's only occassionaly, right? Especially in this weather...

Finally, for those who want to send me things in the post, our address is:

( Hazel House )

I may type more, but I'm getting hungry, it's getting dark, Holly's still upset, and I'm a little annoyed at not being able to do the one practical thing I came to utilise the internet for, so never mind. Until next time...

I'm updating from the Computer Centre at Royal Holloway. Gracious, but it's odd to be back here again, especially given the plce feels deserted compared to its student days. It's also quite hot at the moment, so that all campus is slowly baking under a blue sky. That and certain aspects of the local landscape give me the impression I'm in warm Europe. I'm reminded of Provence and the lakes of Bohemia. It's divine, although well above the optimal for me...then again, rural places shine in such an azure glow.

Travelling down on Saturday, for example. In the car, laden with my possessions, we passed across Middle England again, basking in the heat and occassionally resembling scenes from fictional rural idylls. The flat fields made a great setting for motorway travel, but it was the hills of North Leicestershire and the Chilterns which really reached out to me and whispered of countryside living. My mind conjured up scenes of large, remote houses, where there was little need to imprint personality onto a room, as they already had them. The radio danced with excited reports at the Rhythms of the World festival in Hitchin, and whilst I began to wish I were there, it was a pleasant journey. Travel always picks me up and paints silvery stars in my beckoning eyes. See the world, on the move, under the eternal blue and towards the untold horizon...yes.

( Rurality and the Summer Dreams of the Heathland )

The house itself is warming on me. My room actually feels more like my room now, even though I've added barely anything but my elegant bedside lamp. The windows to the garden mean that the sun hits me early in the day, and that the room is very warm by around 10 or 11. I basked in the heat this morning, having a lazy lie-in simply because I've been getting up early these past few days...it's just Holly, Brian and me there at the moment, so it's usually pretty quiet anyhow. Here's a quick run-down of things at the moment:

* The PS2 I brought with me has stopped reading discs again, which is annoying, as I'd just started playing Phantom Brave, and was trying to intoduce Holly & Brian to Worms. The CD drive Sony put in there is rubbish, and now I'm left with a stack of unplayed PS2 games and a PS2 that only seems to load screens half of the time, making playing any game a risk. I might buy a new (second hand) one, because I fixed the PS2 before, and it's back to being a useless black box...

* The oven is broken, and we won't be getting a replacement for a while. As such, food is generally whatever we can get. I made pasta yesterday, but without much to have with it, I soon felt blanded out, and later even felt slightly ill. Yet...I cannot live on toast and cereal...but at least the hob is operational.

* No internet for a while, hence me being here and missing the chance to go to Tescos through writing this oversized update. We'll have it eventually, but for now, life is free of google. In some respects, its refreshing, like going on a retreat. I have suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands, however.

* The local area is pleasant enough to walk through, although we do seem to have a family of street children at the end of the road. The pavement is an extension of their house, and there nearly always are a few members of the family outside on it. They almost rival the local cat population, seemingly dominated by two cats, one white, the other white-and-black, and the two don't get on. The ginger around the corner is very friendly, however.

* It's not as bad it may seem. It's just easier to write about what's slightly off than what is going as normal, because, well, it's normal. I could write about how the lights work fine, or how the toaster makes nice toast, but I'd then be here all day...

And finally...the ( Answers to the 100 Lyrics Quiz )

Although, I wasn't overjoyed with a few people who never normally comment on my entries pouncing upon that entry and then replying to other posts about the same entry. Don't love me for my lyrics, people (and that only applies to a few. If you tried the quiz, that doesn't automatically make you applicable to the above statement!)

'Til next time...

Uni is drawing closer and closer...and thus the amount of preperation I'm having to do is skyrocketing. My main task at present is clearing my room, which is much harder than it sounds because this is a house where very little gets thrown away, and thus there is no space to put the things from my room. There wasn't enough space in my room anyway, which is why it's always such a mess, and I'm semi-despairing over it all. Dad told me if I had it sorted by the end of the week, he'd give me £200 for clothes shopping, which I could really do with, however I doubt I'll have things up to a reasonable standard until at least Sunday...I'll see what I can do. I've got plenty of other things to occupy me though, which need sorting. I need to revisit Halifax to sort some bank things out, arrange some medical things for Uni, and get things for Uni. I won't need too much that I don't already have, but it's still going to require a lot of work.

For one thing, I'm computerless. I'll be able to take down my laptop, but it really isn't anywhere close to the standard I'd need. It overheats very quickly, has about 20 minutes of battery power, had a CD drive which works only half of the time, and has such low RAM that it can barely do anything besides run Word...provided it hasn't been on for so long it's overheated. Obviously, I'm going to need something a lot better for use in my room, but I don't have anything. Dad has not the money for a new computer, although he can get it cheaply, and the only other option would be to take one of the two computers we have here. The one I'm on now is fantastic and has no problems...it's also the one my brother uses, and even if I were allowed to take it, it would mean that there would be no internet down here, as the other computer (the one I used up until July) has decided it cannot stand internet connections and mercilessly hunts them down. That was all that was seriously wrong with it though...well, it was until recently, as now it seems to be giving up, and crashes are far more common. That is my other choice for Uni...obviously, I'd have to wipe the disk, requiring a day's work of transferring files and resetting things up, and even then there's no guarentee that it will run internet again...and all this is provided a LAN can actually be set up at Rhul. Gaaaaaaah.

Last night we had some really odd weather. Much of the sky was really dark and grey, except for the horizon, which burnt bright red, and the murky glow of the sun in the cloud just above that. Later on, we had a huge thunderstorm...well, we had a lot of impressive lightning, even though we had no thunder or rain. I'm not sure how that's possible, but...

Anyways, I'm having a bit of trouble with Rhul accommodation right now. See, Rhul put me in Williamson House, which is all well and good, as it's full of undergraduates and is on campus, but, aside from looking like a prison block, it has absolutely no internet. I phoned up about it to be told Williamson has no internet whatsoever, and there are absolutely no plans to install it. Aaaargh *dies* It's not like I need to have internet all the time, but having it is pretty important for me :/

At the same time, there are some students out on the remote, but networked, Kingswood campus that want to transfer to the on-campus blocks. So, technically, I could just obligege their offer and swap with them. That would mean some administrative fiddling, and I would have to walk a mile or so to lectures, but I really don't mind the walk. However, at the same time, I'm having those others in Williamson regarding me as a shallow traitor. 'You'd leave us all just for the sake of text and graphics?'. You may already know how I tend to take things like this overly personally, so I do feel very guilty about it. At the same time, there have been vague suggestions of some of the students working amongst themselves to set up a LAN, although there is no guarentee that this will happen this year. So staying in Williamson, which has large rooms, is a gamble internet-wise. If I don't have any internet, than...well, it's not the internet that I miss so much (although BBC News is love), but the people I know through it. Without you people, I feel a lot more alone, and there is the whole gender thing going on.

Ah yes, gender, that other little complication. See, although my username on TSR is the non-gender-specific 'Cartouche', I did put my name down as 'Elaine' and gender as 'female' (when I registered back in Spring). It only recently fully occured to me that I'm speeding towards a brick wall here, as soon enough I'll be on campus, with these people in person, and they are going to get confused, or, more likely, feel I was trying to trick them. I've already had to explain to xanthine in person that I'm not physically who I really am. It's not a pleasant experience, but it's one I'm going to have to repeat en masse unless I do something soon. Either way, I'm about to alienate people. Someone has already twigged 'there's a girl on the guys' floor'. Hopefully, I'll have hormones by then, but they won't act that quickly.

Dad pointed this out to me, actually, as he checks things on TSR for me and noticed my posts. He also told me something I had already realised with a faint twang of horror: that if I'm due to room-swap, I'm going to be offered girl's rooms, which I can't actually take. So if I actually am about to swap rooms, I'm going to need a hefty explanation first. It's that brick wall again, see? On another note, Dad did actually say that, whilst I can't have a girl's room, it would suit me perhaps a lot better. Thanks for that^^

Things would be simpler with Edinburgh. Well, accommodation-wise anyways, although I'd still have the brick wall. As for my Sunday walking round Edinburgh...well, the write-up is taking a while, and Katrina got me too down to write anything much yesterday. I'm also trying to splice a few photos in there, so you can see the Scottish Capital, Magic Tearooms, Soviet Glasgow and the Bonny Bonny Banks in all their glory. And I have cat & squirrel photos that are not to be missed. When I actually get things all sorted that is.

I'm going down to Rhul tommorrow en route to my Bracknell grandparents'. I'd better get used to it: 24 days until I'm there. Hmmm...I need to go on a clothes-buying excursion soon, and I know just the place. Maybe I could use my new sparkly credit card?

The Apple Store in Nottingham has free internet as well^^ However, there is no anime music here, just shopping centre ambience...

I am poor and have little money ;_;
I want to buy things for Uni, such as much clothing, and Muji accessories, but I have not much money with me, and I don't have much money anyways. Aaaah...someday all this will change...gah.

Running out of things to say with Applestaff staring at me, and burnin_rave is waiting, so I'll say goodbye now and go back to the endless window shopping...

Ehhh...things could be much better. Today was pretty much non-existant as I managed to sleep through almost all of it, initially through tiredness, and then because there didn't to be much else to do, especially with my computer's internet being down and my brother around: I don't need to explain what he's like again.

A computer engineer came round today. After poking around for a bit, he told me that he could fix the LAN, but it may not work, and wouldn't be worth it because my computer is so damaged that I need to restart the whole thing. Yes, whenever it is booted up, you need to restart and select 'Use Last Best Configuration', and that does mean reinstalling WMP and the printer each time, but other than that, and the LAN, things have been working fine, and the booting error has been around for two years, back from when my brother had the computer. To take everyhting off the PC, and reinstall Windows...it'd be like stabbing an old friend, and the way my files are set up, they're all over the place from different computer eras, and the way it now, it feels like a well-lived in home. I could burn everyhting onto CDs, although it'd use up a lot of them, especially with my MP3 collection, but it's so fiddly and complicated, and the engineer said it may not work anyway: it may be a hardware problem, as the computer claims to no longer recognise it...I don't know.

Using my brother's PC or my laptop though...it's so foreign, and I can't get comfortable, not to mention having all my mp3s, photographs and documents elsewhere. Because of this, I can never really settle down with the internet, and spend my time endlessly browsing Wikipedia rather than LJing or talking to friends, and I can only really do that later on anyways, due to mass brotherhood, and from accidentaly logging into his hotmail when trying to get my own, I don't like what he's doing with it. Ack. I'm not going to get a new computer for Royal Holloway, as we can't afford one, and my laptop isn't good enough to function as anything more than something to make notes on during lectures, so I don't know. I'm really reluctant to reinstall Windows though, so this internet limbo seems set to continue.

And everyhting else is so disorganised. I planned to handle the house, clean my room, write fiction...but I can barely seem to get myself ready for the anime club in time, and ended up having to catch a bus to get me there in time for the second half of the first episode. The bus fare was so ridulous (£1.20 for a mile) that I didn't buy what I was planning to, but still...and I end up staying up until well after dawn, because of my brother being asleep during these hours and catching up on what I missed during the day, but this makes me so tired I end up sleeping the day away, which sets me even further behind. It's like trying to swim in quicksand.

I think I'll go and drown myself in coffee now out of a vague hope that will help. Half-wishing that I had PMS, because at least then I'd have something to blame for this gahness: I'm in a rut right now, and find it hard to do anything, and I don't know why.