Below are the most recent 10 friends' journal entries.

Saturday, November 7th, 2009
cosmicavatar	7:06p	Saddo Alert I am currently watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer on TV. Complete with adverts. Why I do this when I have the entire bloody show on DVD is beyond me. Maybe I should get off my arse and put the DVD in myself. But I might miss something! [doh] In other news, watched Up today. LOVED IT. And yes, I cried at one point. Even H shed a quiet manly tear. But I was mostly grinning and giggling. Some of the sight gags and in-jokes were absolutely hilarious. And because the sign encouraged us to recycle our 3D glasses (in the handily-placed bin) instead of demanding we hand them in, we decided the best way to recycle them was to take them home and use them for every 3D feature we see at home from now on. By which I mean we walked out with them quite openly in our hands, and no-one challenged us or anything. And quite frankly, for twenty squids, I think we were quite entitled to take them with us. So there. ("Free shower curtain!") H is playing in Wokingham tonight so I'm downing rather a lot of Wine and being geeky. As you do. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
loki_nb	10:03a	Funny Aneurism Moment I was playing InFamous this morning and had an odd moment. I had taken a side mission involving a poison vat atop a water tower, defended by bad guys. I defeated the mooks, then approached the tower, which was on top of an apartment building. As per the game's morality system, I was given a choice: use lightning to overload the tower from a distance, thus sparing myself from the poison, and causing the poison to flood the water tower (that's bad); or using a shockwave to explode the tank close-up, which aerates the poison, saves the water, but doses me fairly severely (that's good, I guess). So I chose the second option. I got close, let off a shockwave & destroyed the tank. I was dosed with the poison, but in an unforseen consequence, the canister exploded, knocking me off the tower and the building. Mid-plummet-to-my-death, a legend appeared on the screen:  "Congratulations! Your actions have made you slightly more Good." Legend disappears. I continue falling.  Splat. I feel gooder already. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
cosmicavatar	5:51p	We All Fall Down Having put on 5lb over the holiday (could have been worse), I have tried to be good this week and do a ten-minute workout (short but intensive) every night bar Monday, the weekly shop night. Doesn't sound like much, but it's better than zero minutes, which has been the norm for the majority of the last few months. H agrees! Yay! Of course, it's no help being distracted by t'internet on one's way to pick up one's exercise mat (I'm doing Vicious Pilates tonight), but I am going to do some, I promise. My obliques are still aching from Wednesday's VP, and I've been doing Tae-Bo Advanced in between, so lots of sweaty effort expended, I promise. In other news, it's the weekend (huzzah!) so I shall now do my exercise, eat and get Pished. Have a great one, kiddies. Current Music: Without You - Breaking Benjamin (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
cyril	12:53p	I need to stop waffling about Skins music. But it's so damn good! Anyway. These are the 33 songs I eventually downloaded from Series 3. Ashley Chambliss - A Little More Of You Asobi Seksu - Lions And Tigers* Asobi Seksu - Nefi + Girly* Au Pairs - It's Obvious Bon Iver - Woods Born Ruffians - Little Garcons David Holmes - Love Reign Over Me Deerhunter - Twilight At Carbon Lake Diskettes - Art Dodos - Walking Early Years - A Little More Elbow - Mirrorball* Electrelane - After The Call Fat Segal - Diver Revive Fat Segal - Lake Control Felice Brothers - Frankie's Gun! Glasvegas - It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry Glen Campbell - All I Want Is You Grouper - Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping High Places - Jump In Lacrosse - You Can't Say No Forever Lady Gaga - Brown Eyes Little Boots - Meddle Low - Breaker Maps - When You Leave Millionaires - A-L-C-O-H-O-L Robert Wyatt - Just As You Are Son Lux - Break Sparklehorse - It's A Wonderful Life Steely Dan - Do It Again Susanna And The Magic Orchestra - Believer Tujiko Noriko - White Film Wilco - Radio Cure (* - subsequently bought on CD) Phew. Anyway. I've hit a bit of a snag. The Series 1 and 2 DVDs seem oddly lacking in music (the much vaunted Standing In The Way Of Control from S1 is conspicuously absent), which may mean that I'm going to have to rewatch them on 4oD anyway to see if they ever actually had soundtracks in the first place. Still, apparently it's still doing better than the American versions, where they replaced all the songs with rubbish ones and cut most of the contentious scenes to ribbons (they were perfectly happy to show Cook and Effy going all out in a closet, but a subtle scene between Naomi and Emily got shredded)... Current Mood: curious Current Music: Steely Dan - Do It Again (Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
cosmicavatar	9:07p	*sigh* Too tired/busy to make a proper entry about the weekend yet, but I will. For the moment, suffice it to say I had a great time and am most grateful to Eileen for taking on the hostessing duties as I seriously wonder if I could have done it if I'd gone ahead with the original plan of having it at my house. Work tomorrow. Not looking forward to the routine of getting up at 6:20am again. At all. Thank goodness I only have to do it for a few weeks before my next chunk of annual leave... (Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
cosmicavatar	7:08p	I'm Sure I'll Be Another lazy and unachieve-y day, although I have been getting myself psyched up for the weekend with some shopping and preparation for the weekend. Heehee. Also made some rather nice Parmesan and herb-crusted pork medallions for supper and am somewhat Pished. Looking forward to seeing some WDers tomorrow! Current Music: Simplest Mistake - Seether (3 Comments |Comment on this)
cyril	4:11p	"In London, you are never more than five feet from a rat." Ours is in the kitchen. Yeah, we need to fix the downstairs bog. Current Music: none, alhough UB40's Rat In Mi Kitchen might be pertinent... (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
cosmicavatar	8:00p	What On Earth Am I Meant To Do Probably not doing as much as I could, but hey. Here's what we've been up to so far while off work (our first proper bit of holiday since May). ( Read more... ) Current Music: In Your Eyes - Kylie Minogue (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
loki_nb	12:04a	Never Trust The House I seem to have shifted in my medical habits. Well, less of a shift, more of a move in a straight line: from doctors to physiotherapists. Now, I hadn't been to a physio before I got whiplash and needed a few visits. Since then I've been back 8 or so times for things such as headaches, back spasms, sore heel/achilles tendon, and more headaches. I usually go to the University Sports clinic, but I've been to one in Newtown as well. Recently, I've been getting soreness in both my elbows after doing things like playing drums, shaking martinis, and when I curl my arm under my pillow. It happened off and on for about for months until last Wednesday, when I woke up in the middle of the night and had had enough. I went to the doctor at Broadway Clinic. Called ahead. Booked an appointment for 9:45 (I started work at 10:30). Sat in the waiting room until 10:55. I get into the room and the doc (who is not one of the usual people I see) immediately (and I mean before I even say what's wrong) starts lecturing me that I need immunization for Whooping Cough (after a serious of relationship questions that I answered with no idea as to what they were for). He then moves on to what I was prescribed last time I was there 9-10 months ago: Cafergot, which is a migraine medication. This was prescribed after 39-straight-day headache (the doctor then had said it probably wouldn't work, or stop the pain in any way, but I should take two, and then two more each half hour it didn't work). I told him I took one dose, and the 60 Mg of caffeine (that's a 6-pack of coca-cola) in each pill had me bouncing off the walls, so I stopped. He then typed "Allergic to cafergot" into my file *facepalm*. He then prints out 3 pages of migraine advice sheets and a migraine diary for me. He then turns to me and asks why I'm there. "It's my arms, actually." I almost felt bad to see his face drop. Oh, and the migraine? Cured by one physio appointment. Anyway, I explained I first started noticing after mixing drinks on Fridays (which got a glary look) and after playing drums (which got a confused look). He feels my arms, notes a "tightness" in my biceps, then asks if I "lift weights". I explain that yes, I go to the gym, but it doesn't bother me at or after the gym. He then says "Well, it's probably a contrasting muscle cramp. Your triceps are too weak compared to your bicep." I look at my two-pipe-cleaner arms. "Really? I do roughly the same amount of weight with biceps and triceps." "Oh yes, you should be doing two to three times the weight with your triceps than with your biceps." Ummm, okay. Never heard THAT before. He also cheerfully informs me that it's not arthritis, so he won't send me for bloodwork. He also says a bunch of others things it's not, confusing the issue. He writes a recommendation for a physio (which is A) sealed in an envelop, so I can't see who or where the physio is located and B) the outside of the envelope is a RANDWICK address. No thank you) but then adds that I shouldn't get a physio unless I get an x-ray. Anywho, he sends me out to pay with an armload of paper and no real explanation for the arm-thing. Bothered, I then go right across the street to the University Sports Physio clinic. I book in for 12:30, show up at 12:30 on the dot, and am not sitting for more than 30 seconds before they're ready. Meet Chris, the physio, and describe what happened. He starts check out my arms while I'm talking, getting his own idea of how far I can turn, where it hurts, etc. I explain the doc's idea, which he describes as "Fair enough, I mean, you shouldn't be doing too much more with your bicep, but yeah. Clearly it's your nerves."He explains that it's the nerves in my shoulder- and elbow-sides of my tricep that are being stretched in a wrong way and are causing me pain in complaint. He gives me a list of gliding stretches to do (and demonstrates them) and suggests I improve my posture at work to relieve some of the pressure. Then comes the shoulder and tricep massage that was agony, and left me bruised but pain-free afterward. And here's my point (he said, two pages in): I prefer physios to doctors because they actually DO something. They'll hear you out, have a look, give their opinion, then in a hands-on-way, sort you out. It'll hurt, sure, but you'll be better for it. That's more than I can say for just about any doctor I've been to with the exception of one, who was an acupressurist/acupuncturist, who was a great doctor because he ALSO actually did actual things. This is being exacerbated by Tanja and my watching the first 8 episodes of the first season of House. I like it, but it points out how doctors (even highly trained good-looking specialist doctors) are just best-guessing. House is constantly kvetching about how an ER Doctor or a GP would prescribe or diagnose the wrong (and usually the worst thing) they could. I believe it. I actually had a normally good doctor attempt to diagnose me with asthma because my breathing was raspy while I had a cold. Admittedly, I had taken a Codril earlier and was feeling better, so made my breathing sound worse than it was, but still. The guy spent 10 minutes trying to convince me to get checked for asthma. Example: Zoidberg: “What is it this time?” Fry: “Well, my pipe hurts a little.” Zoidberg: “That’s normal. NEXT!” So yeah. It’s physio for me. Unless I have a cold/asthma. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 26th, 2009
cassylee	11:43a	I've made Gizmo's life a living hell For those who didn't catch my facebook status: I brought home a new cat yesterday. Well, I meant to bring home a cat, but I brought home a kitten instead. I'm not sure how I went from idling talking about maybe it was time to actually doing it - but I suspect my mother & her friends who work at volunteer cat shelters are to blame for giving me the push from thinking to doing. Mom went with me on Sunday to the Seal Beach Animal Care Center where I spent four hours dithering between a dozen different cats who were all lovely, and then I went into the room where the older kittens (the teenagers according to the volunteer) were & I fell in love with a little Siamese girl named Cannoli. If it hadn't been Cannoli, I probably would have gone with Crackerjack, an all-black female who loved to lick fingers. But the shelter has a policy of not adopting out black cats in the two weeks before Halloween unless someone there personally knows the adopter & can vouch for them, and I also thought Crackerjack might be a little too rambunctious for Gizmo and me. Anyhow, Gizmo is still hoping that this is all some horrific nightmare that he'll awake from at any moment, but I think eventually he'll come to love our new addition as much as I do. Only problem is I really don't like the name the shelter gave her - I noticed this morning that I've not used her name once - I just keep calling her 'girl'. So I need a new name... any and all suggestions are welcome as so far the only thing I've come up with is Gadget (to go along with my Gizmo) which I'm not sure fits.... Oh, and if I did it right, my profile pic is temporarily 4C (Cat currently called Cannoli). eta: oops, guess I should look at my entries after I post them.... (8 Comments |Comment on this)