clo_again

It's slightly breezy here in Cumbria right now. As in, the trees are only bending almost to the ground and not actually touching, and we're still considering heading out to go shoe shopping. Hah Katia! Takes more than that to intimidate almost-local Cumbrians!

(Er, don't take that as a challenge. As ( this precision drawn met office graphic ) shows, Cumbria is 99% out of the amber alert area (and considering north west England starts from the top of Cumbria southwards, including the entire NW in the QUITE LIKELY TO DIE category instead of SLIGHTLY LESS POTENTIAL FOR DEATH yellow area seems harsh, but waving a red flag at winds left over from a hurricane is probably a bad life plan).

Outside my window, the other side of the estuary has disappeared into the grey mist and the tide's right up to the prom, with the wind stirring up white-caps that look tiny from up here. I'm wondering if it's worth stopping for a photo op before heading onto shops or if I'd be blown off the prom and into the sea. Hhmm.






~

In wider news of my life, I'm getting closer to actually starting this new job that the HR guy's been delaying for weeks through sheer incompetence. I was heading into Lancaster on Friday to catch Fright Night again and the woman I'll be working for called me for a meeting, so I dropped in. She seems nice, and the job is all organising and hunting out files and appointments and absolutely minimal interaction with actual people, which is my sort of job. It's supposed to run for at least four months and probably longer so once I get started and settle in, that's the rest of this year sorted at least; I'm not sure about next year but I'm thinking maybe I should save seriously to do a Masters after all. I could go to Lancaster fom home but I've always wanted to do a Masters in Cardiff and oh, I don't know. I need to save the money first. I'm going back tomorrow again to meet the girl who's going to teach me how to do the job, so one thing at a time.


Re. Fright Night, I went to the cinema after the meeting expecting to find it showing at 1:15pm, only to find they'd changed the times the day before and now it's only showing at 22:00 (my last train back home leaves like 11ish, so anything after 9pm is useless to me).

I was surprised because it's only been out for a week. Sure, the cinema I saw it in wasn't anything like full but it wasn't just me in there either and it was the middle of the day on a Tuesday when the kids were back in school so it wasn't a terrible headcount. I'm pretty disappointed if it's not doing well enough to keep on at sensible times for more than a week but then, Lancaster's Vue has a habit of showing things very, very briefly (they have like seven screens split over two floors, so I have no clue why they do it). I'm waiting for the time changes this Thursday and hoping they show it at least once more that I can get to; otherwise Kendal arts centre cinema is showing the 3D version in a couple of weeks, so I'll try to get there. I really did want to see it again, argh.

I also checked out the posters in HMV in search of the Tennant-as-Peter Vincent one. They had a whole bunch of naked girls, a good choice of Captain Jacks, some funny cartoons and a couple of Harry Potters. Nothing else. -_- I have no idea where else I might pick up the Tennant poster, sigh. Even the internet is proving unhelpful.

Oh dear. Thought "I am completely disorganised for Christmas this year; I shall fix this beginning with a Christmas-themed LJ layout!" Then I spent an hour doing the layout (which is not what I pictured; the wrapping paper I scanned for it has bright silver horses but would they scan silver, would they hell) and ended feeling pleased with myself. So pleased that I rewarded myself with an hour nap since I only had about three hours sleep last night (I've rediscovered that I only really write well between 11:30pm and 4am, which is not conducive to getting up for work at 6am) until 10:15pm. Woke up at 10:44pm, went "Excellent! I have only slightly overslept and shall now do useful things!"

And promptly went back to sleep until 1am. You may be sensing a reason here as to why I'm not Christmas-organised at all.

So yes. So far I have sent no UK Christmas cards. This is a terrible situation and I plan to try to fix it, at least a little bit, tomorrow morning since I'm back to working half-days Tuesdays and Thursdays (yet I get paid for the whole day. Have I mentioned before that this job is marvellous?) and should have time, unless I stay up until 4am again. I actually fell asleep on my desk in work tody for a few minutes, so I really probably shouldn't.

Thankfully my immediate boss is all kinds of lovely and woke me up with Christmas chocolate cake and gingerbread. No, really. I am going to miss this job. Especially the money, since I seem incapable of saving; I really must save every extra penny between now and when I finish on Jan 7th to do...I don't know. Something. Not stalk the cute post boy around the hospital anymore, I suppose. D-: It's all I've done for about four months now! What will I do!

Except you know, he lives in my village. So that may prove handy.

So yes, life and such continues to happen to me. We had beautiful snow last week, enough that I took a day off work (oops, moneywise) and they're predicting more for Thursday/Friday which is marvellous, except I really can't miss any more days and will be dragging myself through the blizzards regardless. Then Saturday I have to venture into the manic last-minute shopping crowds to do my manic last-minute shopping. It's entirely possible that I won't make it out alive but I'm inclined not to trust Amazon at this date, especially with all the knock-on effect problems they've had from last week's snow.

Sigh. Remember the days when Christmas wasn't stressful? Yeah. That was good.

That said, I just found the Top Gear Christmas Special teaser on Youtube and frankly, I think it will make up for every single instant of stress...IN THE WORLD. (There are two episodes. TWO. I THOUGHT THERE WAS ONLY ONE. :DDDDD) HERE:




And the Doctor Who special is looking great. And I still have all my Christmas movies to watch. And I'm about four days behind on my advent calendar, so I'm going to do something about that before I sleep.

Hello Christmas. Maybe you're not so bad after all (now please let that cold snowy weather hang around until the 25th again this year please. Let it snow!)

Uh. Dudes. I meant to LJ post properly tonight, only I was tired and a bit cranky and decided one more day wouldn't make a difference. So I went to bed early and instead dreamed a detailed Zombie Apocalypse story. With characterisation. I shit you not. The woman was called Sarah (I may have read comments about Sarah Connor Chronicles earlier) and she had a daughter and she was somehow involved in Zombie Apocalypse. Her fellow-scientist guy caught it only he had a concentrated dose so he was like super!zombie and, after a fight that seemed to last hours, she locked him in the lab which was in the basement of this isolated building/hotel (hey, I never said the novel wouldn't need editing) and ran upstairs. The top floor had balconies overlooking the pretty-flat surrounding area and a lockable door so people hid there but had to venture out for food and kept coming back bitten and Sarah wouldn't let them in. And the lock on the fucking door stuck all the time so I kept dreaming about trying to lock this stupid sticking lock with a person turning into a zombie on the other side.

Then on a food-run into town, Sarah and her daughter were found by a blond science student and her friend who'd found the preserved head (it was in a bag full of squishy science-fluid; I vaguely heard something about the jar it was in being broken) the virus originally came from and Sarah was all excited because they could fix it all 'in less than a week'. Only everyone the blond science student gave the head to kept putting it down and it rolled and I'd just wondered why everyone kept putting it down when it rolled a little way away down the hill they were on and one of the Supporting Cast whispered why do they keep putting it down and Sarah said it was the smell and then it rolled away to the feet of a zombie and they all had to run away without their cure!head. They ended up back in the mansion and Sarah was standing on the front balcony watching the zombie army coming (staggering) over the horizon and then...

...and then I woke up. And lay in the dark for a bit wondering if it was silly of me to turn the light on. Then Casper moved on my feet and I couldn't tell if it was him or a zombie crawling over the bed.

I turned the light on. It may actually stay on all night. Sorry environment.

Once the light was on it seemed sensible to turn on the laptop and double-check the zombie invasion hasn't happened in the two hours I've been sleeping. Twitter isn't mentioning it and I'm pretty sure on Z Day we'll get people Twittering while being eaten so that's reassuring and BBC is also zombie-free so I think I'm safe 'til morning. Hopefully. *touch wood*

This is absolutely what I get for gleefully getting crazy conservative old workmite to discuss the Zombie Apocalypse with me today. It's a sign. Z-Day should only be discussed with those who take it- not, uh, seriously but who know what you mean when you say remove the head or destroy the brain. She did not. Thus, I am punished.

I may try to sleep again now. If I have inflicted Bad Zombie Dreams on you all now, I'm sorry! But also a little bit glad it won't just be me unable to sleep. Misery loves company. :)

I spent two hours of my night sleeping because I literally had no energy to do anything else - and now that I need to go to bed, I'm properly awake. Sigh. Not that I'll have trouble sleeping because I sometimes wonder if I couldn't sleep through the Apocalypse but why couldn't I be awake earlier? I was too tired to even watch a DVD. Hmpf.

I knew there was a reason I'd been putting off buying Clerks and I guess this was it. Not that I have any money to buy that either - was a little floored by the price of postage today. If I had a first-born I would've sold them by now - but I'll stick it on the list. I've just caught the last ten minutes of Clerks II, finally, and it was actually funny. Even with Kevin Smith I was dubious about a sequel but no, I eat my words. So that's something else. I just wish I'd splashed out on that pretty, pretty special edition of Dogma which it doesn't look like I can get anymore. Dammit. I should pick up the pretty special edition Dark Crystal before my procrastinating makes it too late for that too.

Oh right, no money. But sometime I will buy all these things.

~

kindoftrouble, did you know they have loads of the fun ducks on Amazon? I'm particularly fond of this one but this smiley faced one is also full of lulz.

~

I was so busy being useless over the weekend that I forgot to shout about David Tennant on Trick or Treat. It was really really really awesome and as for the girl who had David Tennant bouncing up to her on the street going "Can I read your mind?", so much envy. David Tennant and Derren Brown all at once! I would be flailing incoherently on the floor, which is why it's a good thing I am not on television. I can't see how flinging myself at Derren and clinging to his knees while whimpering over how awesome he is (while also, no doubt, fighting off Security) could make a good first impression. It's probably for the best that I stick with this side of the TV screen.

Still. The Tennant and Derren. I couldn't speak for fifteen minutes after The Barrowman; it'd be a week with those two together.

But anyway; DAVID TENNANT ON TRICK OR TREAT = EXCELLENT. It's bound to be repeated or be on Four On Demand (teh interweb informs me that it's repeated on Channel 4 at 11pm this Thursday) I command you to watch it, even if you've never heard of Derren Brown in your life, or only from me ranting on about him with slightly creepy levels of enthusiasm. Awesome awesome awesome.

~

I think it was fair that Niamh went off I'd Do Anything this week. I winced through her singing Don't Speak, which I love. That said, Samantha irritates me more every Saturday; she always seems a little outside on the group hugs, as if everyone else is a bit dubious about her too, and I've seen her smiling more than once when singing people off the show. Also her and Rachel seem to have something going on; every week when they ask them who isn't Nancy, they say each other. I still find Rachel a little dull but I'm with her all the way over Samantha. She at least comes across as a nice person; Sam, I'm not so sure. No one who smiles that much is natural.


Is it on next week around Eurovision? (don't get me started on Doctor Who being moved back a week to make room for freaking Eurovision of all things; the only reason it's worth watching these days is for Wogan's sarcastic commentary and they replaced Doctor Who with it, bah). I can't see them skipping it for a week.

'Who was better this week though. Apart from GIANT FREAKING WASP I enjoyed it (though WHY A WASP? I already have a complex about them, honestly). I got quite excited about the trailer for the next episode because it looks like it could be really fantastic if done well. All the more annoying that we have to wait an extra week but I guess I'll be coming back from Hay Saturday anyway so there were worse weekends for it.

Have to go to bed now. -_- I only came up to check song lyrics and that was an hour ago. I wanted to watch TV for a while but no, I don't have time to watch TV or read or even think so much, anymore. I would love to introduce whoever invented the five day working week to a blunt object, preferably at some speed. No one can have a life around this. It's ridiculous.

Sigh. Bed then.

Things I should really do: make my LJ look more like a Word document and less like a website, so I don't have to flinch when people walk past. Except, it would make for a boring LJ. Less stress vs boredom. To the power of can I bothered. Equals hm.

I would actually love this job if I didn't have to twitch about using the Internet. It's not like I'm avoiding work to do it; I don't have enough work to fill the day, so it's internet or read my book. And the internet actually looks like I'm working, sort of.

A fly buzzing by my ear woke me at 5am this morning and bizarrely, when I went back to sleep after, I dreamed about the potential Nancys. We went shopping and Niamh was excited about the clothes being cheap. And we discussed the toy horses in Woolies and how they weren't as nice as they were when we were younger.

Don't ask me. I think the fly must've been sprinkling wtf dust.

I've finished my work but I still have five minutes before I can realistically cash up (because you just know the moment you do is the moment someone comes in to pay for something) so I'm procrastinating. And I just turned down Chinese food on Friday because I'm broke, which is sad. No one should have to ever turn down Chinese food. It's far too delicious.

*sadface*

But I don't think I made as many silly mistakes today. This is good. However, I won't know for certain until tomorrow and I probably have. This is bad.

...Bored. If I get my Stephen Fry book out, they'll know I have nothing to do. At least typing looks office-y. But I really do have nothing to do. I'm coming to the conclusion that people in offices spend most of their time pretending they have something to do when they don't. If we could do all our work at once and go home, we'd all only have to work three hour days.

To smeg with this. I'm going to cash up.

You know, if John Barrowman and Dylan Moran took turns to perform alternate nights anywhere near me and kindoftrouble? We would totally go every night. Even if the shows were always the same.

I'm not sure if I should be amused at horrified at this not-so-shocking revelation about us.^_^

Sadly, even though it seems like the entire world owes me money and not the other way around for a change, none of it is in my bank account yet. Dammit. Though actually, maybe it's a good thing that I'm always broke. It means I have to think before impluse-buying.

I was so glad to leave work today. I finish at 5:15; at 5:10, one of the secretaries handed me the stack of letters I'd been waiting for all day, which need entering into the computer and photocopying and generally take ages to sort out. At which point I said sod it and turned off the computer because I was tired of stressing. But I learned lots more today and I'm getting there, by tiny increments.

Keeping a running tally of the money I'm earning helps. It means I can ponder going to see Dylan Moran do the same show twice without any guilt. Maybe slight amusement at how daft it would seem to some people but no guilt at all. ;-) Though I would totally trade one night to see the BARROWMAN (yes it needs caps, no you don't want to ask. ;) )

All insanity aside though, I am glad it is Cheeseburger Thursday tonight. I really need it this week.

AM FINISHED.

THIS IS AWESOME.

AND I CAN HAS CHEESEBURGER LATER. AND NEW ASHES TO ASHES.

EVERYTHING IS (capslock worthy) MADE OF AWESOME.

YAY!

Now my mouse has decided to break. And it took me ten minutes to find the spare one that was somehow in my dad's office when it should have been in my laptop bag and I am not amused.

My sodding mouse broke. (And yes, I changed the battries three times and none of them worked thank you very much). It's just- why? What did I do to you universe? Did I kick a puppy in another life or something?

And now I have to go to work and I keep telling myself It Will Be Better Today because it's Thursday and I have four days off after today but that doesn't work when I have to actually get through today first. I wish it was tonight already.

I still haven't decided what to do about Waterstone's but I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to think about it while I photocopy and fetch the milk and data input today. You know, Waterstone's looks more tempting all the time.

Teehee, the guy who plays Chris in Life on Mars is in The Lakes. Small world. Also, the second series has shorter episodes. I'm trying to tell myself that this does not mean I should watch two a night instead of the planned one.

Work today was still dull but I had my MP3 player on with my headphones under my hair. (I used to do it in high school in particularly boring classes. I have just enough hair left to do it now. Just.) However tomorrow I get to sit directly across from the boss' office all day. The jury is out until tomorrow as to how bad a thing this will be.

Some of my scribbled notes from today include "Grr argh", "maybe computers only speak whale", "ONE OF THOSE FREAKING DAYS", "maybe *I* only speak whale" and a doodle of Sam Tyler with tentacles standing on a round squiggle that could be Mars if introduced to some red crayon and looked at from a distance. Yeah. Welcome to my intellectual stimulation!

This Story Of Clo's Boring Life is short because my internet is being really seriously crap tonight and I'm fitting posting this into the short gaps in between it disconnecting. It's a pain in the ass, which is why I'm going to go read my new Hawk & Fisher omnibus some more (hurrah for mindless trashy fantasy novels!)

Five more days in work. Count them on one hand. Can totally do this.