W is for Who!
Doctor Who, of course – today was the season finale. No spoilers here, because I know it doesn’t air in the US (and Australia, I think) for another couple of weeks, but I will say that I loved it! The solution to the cliffhanger of last week, and the arc that’s been on-going all season was wonderfully twisty and just right. And oh, there were just enough little hints dropped that I really want to be able to see next season as soon as possible now, too. Evil, evil showrunners! It’s six months til the Christmas Special (and if that’s what was mentioned at the very end, then hee!), and about nine months until season 6. Aaaaah! I’ll just have to keep busy until then, won’t I?
S is for Spinning
I can’t believe it’s come round again already, but the Tour de Fleece starts again on 3rd July. Which means I shall be spinning along with many many others for the duration of the Tour de France bike race. I probably won’t be actually watching the race as I spin, because I have other things I want to watch and listen to that interest me more. I haven’t quite decided what I’m going to be spinning yet, but I think “as much as possible” covers it fairly well.
Happily, I’ve solved the missing post button (and tags and categories areas) problem in the edit screen. Of course I went and did all the standard things first, like disabling all my plugins. And then it occurred to me to try changing the screen back to the default 2 column view, instead of the 1 column I had it set on. Oh look, there were the missing areas. I’ve now rearranged and reset it back to the way it was, and all is well. Hoorah!
Doctor Who finale (Pt1)
(Or, Non-alphabetical Post The Second)
I’ve just watched the first part of this year’s Doctor Who finale, “The Pandorica Opens” (and then Confidential, and then Casualty, but never mind that). Wow, that was awesome. And coooool, just like bow ties are coooool. I really loved the pre-credit sequence, the way it tied in so many of the episodes from this season. And it just all got more epic from there. I have to admit, I’m feeling a little smug because I’d guessed the purpose of the Pandorica, but I hadn’t guessed exactly why, and I loved that twist. I have no idea where it’s going to go from there, but I have a feeling it’s All About Amy. Somehow, however impossible that seems. After all, it doesn’t seem like there’s any way out. It felt more like a full stop of an ending than a comma. Still a cliffhanger, but… well, if this had been the last ever episode of Doctor Who, even though it would have been a tragic one, I’d've been OK with that. I do hope next week lives up to that!
L is for Lazy Sunday
I really have done pretty much pants-all today. I should make some kind of effort to at least get ready for doing things tomorrow – put the sheets in the washing machine so they’re ready to go, or something. We didn’t have dinner over at Mum’s today as we usually do on a Sunday, because we’ve met up twice this week already (and are therefore sick of one another ;-) ). I think the only other thing I really want to do this evening before I go to bed is catch up with yesterday’s Doctor Who episode. Also, I just realised that Casualty was on. I’d thought it wasn’t on because of football, but it seems I was wrong. I expect it’ll get cancelled at some point during the world cup, though. But anyway, that’s another show I have to catch up with at some time this week. I love a bit of cheesy hospital soapudrama.
I’ve also been thinking about changing the design for this site. I could just plonk a new theme (by someone else) on for a while, while I’m coding up my own one. It’s an idea. One which I shall have a think about! Some more. Yes.
E is for Elementary…
… my dear Watson. Which basically means that Charlotte is here and we’re watching movies! Sherlock Holmes, some of Return of the King, and… whatever else will depend on what time we have. We’ve watched Doctor Who as well, of course. Earlier today we went and saw Ally, and went over to the park where they were having some kind of… something. With music and some stalls set up and all that. It was fun, which is what matters!
Now it’s back to the movie watching. Robert Downey Jnr, yay!
35 – Fic Rec: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in 15 Minutes
No, this isn’t a flashback to the 2003 Blogathon (where I was… reccing Harry Potter fic). Well, not much. I hadn’t read HP fic for ages and ages, but the new movie made me want to go and search some out again. Don’t know why this one did and the others didn’t. Maybe because I’m a little bit between fandoms, even though I’ve been reading Star Trek: Reboot fic on and off. Anyway, I’ve just been reading this, and it was a lot of fun. So here I am passing it on:
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in Fifteen Minutes, by Cleolinda Jones.
DUMBLEDORE: Aren’t we supposed to be at the Dursleys’ for a Very Significant Scene?
HARRY: I, well, uh… thought I’d flirt with this waitress? You know, in a brief attempt at having a relatively normal life?
DUMBLEDORE: Please, the Chosen One doesn’t get to be happy.
22: Other Bloggers for Bipolar
I’m not the only person to be blogging for and about bipolar during the Blogathon. There are more people blogging for other mental health issues too. I’ve already linked to a couple, but I’m going to do so again because you should visit them, and sponsor them if you can:
- Cia at crazed and infused is blogging for the Mood Disorders Society of Canada: Sponsor her
- Renee at Renee Rigdon is Genre Impaired is blogging for the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance: Sponsor her
- Terre at The Not-Right Writer is blogging for the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance: Sponsor her
You can see the full list of bloggers who are participating on the Blog List at Blogathon.org
—————-
Listening to: Bat For Lashes – Sarah
via FoxyTunes
14: A recommendation
While I’m eating my dinner, can I just point you in the direction of an excellent post that Cia made about ‘normality’. I’ve been asked a question about this by Ptyx, and I’ll give a bit of my own take shortly. But I think that Cia says it so much better than I can – you should definitley have a read of “Are you normal?“
4: Shoutouts
Just a quick one this half-hour to say hi to some people doing the ‘thon – you should go and visit:
- darlas_mom at tales from a twentysomething artist
- Renee Rigdon at Renee Rigdon is Genre Impaired
- Cia at crazed and infused
- And my ‘thon monitor, Noelle aka webgurl at Life’s everyday adventures!
Topics for the Blogathon / Q&A
As I said yesterday, one of the things I’m planning to do during the Blogathon is to talk about some of my experiences with being bipolar, and I was hoping that people would ask me any questions they have about the subject so that I could have a go at answering and maybe make some things clearer. I’ve thought of some possible topics to start with, so here’s a handy poll:
Which bipolar related topics shall I blog about during the Blogathon?
- Friends and Family: it's not just all about me. (100%, 4 Votes)
- Agoraphobia and anxiety: my non-optional extras. (50%, 2 Votes)
- Self management and monitoring moods. (50%, 2 Votes)
- Mania / Hypomania: Everything faster than everything else. (50%, 2 Votes)
- Depression: How low can you go? (50%, 2 Votes)
- When do you tell people you're bipolar? (50%, 2 Votes)
- With hindsight: when did I first show signs of bipolar? (50%, 2 Votes)
- My experience with diagnosis. (50%, 2 Votes)
- My experience with medication. (25%, 1 Votes)
- So, Stacey and her mum on Eastenders... is that a realistic portrayal? (25%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 4
Loading ...Or do you have any other questions or related topics you’d like me to expound upon? Is there anything specific that you’ve heard about bipolar, or gathered from the media, that you want to know about? Or do you want to know about stupid things I’ve done while manic? Or what knitting has to do with it? Feel free to ask absolutely anything (er, about bipolar / being bipolar) even if you think it’s a bit personal – if I feel it’s not something I want to talk about then I’ll say so, but I’m going to try to be as open and thorough as possible with this. Anyway, leave any other questions in the comments. Thank you!!
And as well as that whole topic, I’m planning to post about:
- Knitting: what’s on my needles, recent finished objects, and what I want to do next.
- Spinning: it’s the last two days of the Tour de Fleece!
- Books, film, TV… maybe. Things that I’ve been reading or watching recently, which may include fanfiction. (Funnily enough I’ve just started reading Harry Potter fanfic again, which is what I did during the first Blogathon I took part in back in 2003. Oh the synchronicity!)
- Links to other ‘thon-ers (mostly likely when my brain has shut down in the middle of the night ;-) )
I think that should keep me going!
On Giving In Gracefully
So, back in March I made some bloggy resolutions about what I intended to do for weekly posting goals. Obviously, I haven’t kept those up… and then I started feeling like I was in catch-up mode all the time with myself, and oh noes, panic!! Which is bad, since this blog isn’t supposed to be a duty! Therefore, I have Made A Decision: I’m giving myself permission to “give up”. In actual fact what that means is that I’m going to forget about Project 365 this year, since taking the photos already wasn’t working out – maybe I can go again another year, but I’ll see how it goes. I’m still going to do the Friday 5 whenever I feel like it, but not necessarily every week. I am going to try to post more about knitting and spinning and things in general. This way, it’s more of an adjustment of my goals to something more realistic, rather than really giving up.
Another thing that I’ve decided to let go of is taking strict part of the Sock Knitter’s Pentathlon ’09. I haven’t been knitting very fast this year, and I’d ended up knitting nothing but those socks and still not finishing them. It all got a bit too much like hard work! So even though I love the patterns for the first two socks, and I really like the look of the third one which has recently been released, I’m not going to start #3. I do intend to finish the first two socks, but not as my most immediate projects. Instead I’m going to go back to my other knitting works in progress and try to get those finished off. They’d been pushed back while I was knitting just socks. That’s meant that I’ve now almost finished the shawl I’ve been making for Emily (I’m casting off at the moment, but that’s deadly boring so I’m just doing a few stitches at a time then putting it down again *g*). And I’m really looking forward to picking up the projects I’ve been neglecting and making some real progress on them. Hooray! I don’t even feel like starting something new, because my old projects are almost like new ones by now.
I’m also thinking about giving in using Coppermine for my photo album software. Yes, I’ve been using it for years on this site, so it seemed like a more sensible decision to keep using it and integrate it with WP rather than migrate to something else. But there’s a good photo album plugin for WP, and the integration plugin for Coppermine doesn’t do precisely what I want it to do – it’s a great plugin, and it’s probably perfect for everyone else… but I’m picky! Also, I do have to do some tweaking of the source code every time it updates because of the way I have my Coppermine set up, and… well, in the long run it might just be easier to change to using something more integrated with WP. It’ll mean not having to theme Coppermine to match WP, too. I’m going to ponder it a while more, but I expect I will change over.
Why am I mentioning this, when no-one but me cares? Because it kind of fits the theme of the rest of this post: I’ve been hanging on to some things that I should have gracefully given in on a while back. Letting go and making a few small changes will make things easier. Note to self: change is good, and giving up on something doesn’t necessarily equate to failure. There we go, that’s my deep personal insight for the day. Now I shall stop rambling, let go of this post and send it into the big wide world (= hit the publish button)! TTFN.
Crosspost testing pt2
Testing the Live+Press WordPress to Livejournal crossposter…
Once again, this post may be deleted. Or may not! Oh, the suspense of it.
Crosspost testing pt1
Testing the LJXP WordPress to Livejournal crossposter…
(this post will self-destruct in 3,2,1…*)
*may be deleted v soon
A bit of a catch up
Oops again: I managed not to blog for yet another whole month, and missed my 8-year Blogoversary in the bargain (thanks for the ‘versary wishes!). So what have I been doing?
Well, I’ve done a couple of websites for my brother and another group in his year at uni, for one of their group projects (no, I wasn’t doing the work for them! They’re allowed to ‘employ’ people for various jobs that they can’t cover themselves in the group). Gave me a chance to do something new-ish with embedding streaming video and audio, and play with some CSS3 as well. Hooray!
Talking of websites… I still haven’t got the redesign for this one sorted out. Really must buckle down and do that. I had to delete the (MT) search script for the blog because it was being hammered with spam and overloading the server… hopefully when I switch over to WP I won’t have that problem. However, I want to get the new design done before I change over (so I don’t have to faff around turning this one into a wp theme as well), especially since I’m going to be running the whole site apart from the photo album through it.
Other than that, I have got some knitting done: I finished Em’s mittens, and I’ve even managed to blitz through the rest of the WFS [RavLink], which is actually Mum’s birthday present… from last year. Ahem. But it’s done now! All except a bit of weaving in, and the all-important blocking, that is. I’m thinking I’m going to evict the cat from the bedroom tomorrow, clear off the bed, and use that for blocking it on. If it doesn’t get dry in time, I can always sleep on the sofabed for one night. I’ve actually been quite organised with my knitting so far this year: I still have several unfinished projects, but I’ve put most of them to one side and worked on just two or three… which has meant I’m finishing, or getting towards finishing things! My final pair of SKP08 socks, and the gloves I’ve had hanging around for ages with just one done are both well on their way. No pictures today, though. Site redesign first! Off I go again to work on that :-)
Under the wire
Ooops, only just got this entry done. And I can’t even think of much to say. Um. It’s been a pretty average day, really. A normal one, even. I did housework*, the postman delivered the last parcel I need for Christmas (phew!), I knitted, I even wrapped one present, and I went over to Mum’s this evening. I’ve actually had the computer off for most of the day – most unusual!
I haven’t watched any telly either: we had a yummy Chinese takeaway at Mum’s, then played board games. So I’m going to set the Beeb iPlayer to download the Strictly Come Dancing final shows and Casualty for me overnight, and watch those tomorrow. I very nearly got “spoiled” for the Strictly final, I think, by foolishly looking at my LJ friends page: someone was talking about it, but I only got as far as seeing that she’d mentioned Strictly and hurriedly scrolled back up! *g* Of course, now it’s really tempting to go back and read to find out who won. Or look at any number of news sites. Or Twitter. Oh internets, sometimes you tell me too much! It’s all too overwhelming!! ;-) I’m off to bed!
* although there’s still some to do tomorrow because my brother picked me up earlier than I’d anticipated
-
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
Currently
ø WIP(s) Of The Week:
- Clapotis
- Menace jumper
ø Knitting:Progress bars are
ø Listening to:
- Kerrang Radio
Powered By RightNowChallenging Myself:
Knit Counters
Social & KALs
Books
Listed At
Updated GBlogs
This is my blogchalk:
United Kingdom, East Sussex, St Leonards-on-sea, English, Lou, Female, 31-35.Subscribe
-
