Author: Lou

Didoodoodoo…. bored….. I’ve got a nice 10 days off soon when I may not post here at all, cos (a) I’m going to be working on Spiked and Skewered in an effort to get it back online by 1st September, and (b) my parents are coming to visit.

I might dye my hair. I can’t afford to get it done how I wanted it, so it’s a DIY job again. Black or maroon? Megs, did you make yours purple yet? Can’t wait to see that. Maybe when GB comes up next week we should have a big group hairdying thing. Or not…..

There’s going to be some website re-organisation in general. Things need to be made more manageable. And after what I’ve got planned at the mo, no more websites. Really really really. Honest. None. Nu-uh. No.

First of all, can I just say that Namezero are utter ratbastards. It’s true. See, last year some time I decided that I’d be moving Spiked and Skewered from Angelfire to it’s own domain, since Angelfire had decided it wasn’t going to let me actually update anything, and there were those irritating pop-ups, etc etc. So, I registered spikedandskewered.co.uk and intended to move the site over once I’d redesigned (hahaha – it’s still not done). And to make the moving process a wee bit smoother, I had the bright idea of registering the .com for free with Namezero, since it would redirect to wherever I wanted and therefore stay current when I moved the site. So far so good. And indeed, it worked fairly well. But then this year Namezero decided that I’d have to pay to keep the .com. “Pffff” I said to myself. “I’ve got the .co.uk, so sod it, I’ll let it go.” Which I did. But I’ve been vaguely musing on picking the .com back up since people do seem to still be using it. And then today while idly checking things out, what do I discover? Namezero have had the brazen barefaced cheek to register the .net and the .org as well! Now, clearly, no-one else in the world is ever going to want these but me. And in fact, I didn’t want them. I mean, how many domains does one site need?! But it pisses me off immensely that they have registered them so they’re sitting out there on their redirection page that says that the domain has ‘expired’ (when in fact I never had them in the first place). And clearly the only reason they have registered them is to (a) stop me registering them elsewhere, and (b) try and get me to buy them from them so ‘my’ domain name isn’t pointing the wrong damn way. Gahhh! Sneaky, underhanded bastards! And you know, it’s not even that expensive to pay to get them – it’s just the fact that they’ve done it. And it’s inconvenient for me if I do decide to buy one, since I’d have to get Dad to let me use his credit card since of course they won’t accept my debit card. Ahem. [/rant]

I did ramble about Star Trek at Soulfreak, by the way. And made a few extra changes to The Airlock. Yay me.

And because I am a hopeless domainwhore, I went and bought another one. I am now the proud owner of frozensoul.net, or I will be as soon as it’s finished registering. My .net craving is temporarily satiated. And I’m currently in the process of making a graphic-y mess for a holding page, since I haven’t got the first clue what I’m actually going to do with it. But y’know, it’s pretty! And it brings my domain total to a nice round 10. I had to have it…..

So yesterday it was raining too. But the fine stuff that soaks everything even when it looks like it’s just drizzling. Furry little Willow kept going outside, then indignantly bursting back through the catflap because she’d got wet. She was very bored all day. Because I was still feeling a bit under-the-weather, I decided to jack the housework and shopping in in favour of cranking the heating up, slapping Jerry Springer (and the like) on the telly, and settling down in front of my computer. And a very productive day it was in the end, too. I did what felt like a humungous update to Tomb With a View, which brought it up to date and added a new section. I had a break to watch the last ep of Voyager – and I’ll be rambling more about that, but I’m going to do it on Soulfreak a bit later – and then I sat down and redesigned The Airlock. I didn’t do quite what I’d intended, but I like the result. I think I’m going to make a few more small changes tonight, though. Hmm.

Why do I write? Certainly not because I “have to”. I don’t have to – even when massively inspired, I can be distracted away from the writing thing by the squillion-and-one other things that are going on. I write, I suppose, because I want to. Because I have the ideas or words in my head, and I choose to get them down on paper or screen. And it’s satisfying to do that. I write because I can – because once I’ve written, I can do something with it: I can post fanfic on mailing lists, or a site, I can stick general ramblings up on this site, or just write them in a paper diary which I can look back at later on and remember where and who I was when I wrote it. And I suppose I write because I’ve been in the habit of doing it ever since I learned how, and because I was encouraged to from a young age. And of course, because I enjoy doing it. Ta-daaah.

Did I ever mention how much I love the train system? Today, they actually announced that my train (the 12:38) was running 15 minutes late. Trouble was, the announcement was made at 12:55, just as the train was arriving. Yeah, thanks for that….. *g*

Still, on the bright side, it’s raining. Nice, fairly heavy rain. It’s cool but not cold, and this is the kind of weather that suits me down to the ground. Coat-wearing weather for the first time in a while. And it does feel good to be wrapped chin-to-foot in black leather again. Much better than all that nasty sun n stuff. Oh yes.

Freedom.freaky has it’s first hostee – the faboo Carolyn. Yay! But I think I need to find some way to advertise a bit more. Hum, where to go…. It’s a problem.

And Larry Adler died. That makes me sad. There are just too many wonderful old musicians passing away. And what makes this worse is that I should know all these little anecdotes about Larry Adler, but I can’t remember a one of them. See, our old next-door-neighbour’s Dad (this is when I was living at home) was a harmonica player, and he knew Larry Adler. And he used to tell us these stories…. huh. But I know that they were good. I’ll have to ask my Mum.

Looking for blog or journal hosting?
My newest little project is freedom.freaky.nu – shared hosting for blogs or journals. No pop-ups, no charges, no censorship. You just have to have an existing blog/journal that I can check out, and be familiar with Blogger, Greymatter, or whatever you use, so that if I host you, you can set it up easily. If you’re interested, take a look at the site for more info.

Not a well bunny today. Woke up with what felt like tennis balls in my throat. Seems that what I thought yesterday was hayfever was actually the start of a head cold. Lovely. Still, I’m feeling a bit better this afternoon, so hopefully I’ll be able to go to work again tomorrow.

And there are new ramblings at Soulfreak.

If I had the proverbial three wishes, I would go for:
1) Enough money to pay off all my debts, buy a house, car, and fabulous extravagent pressies for my friends and family; and live comfortably the rest of my life without needing to work.
2) Being fit and healthy the rest of my life.
3) Not needing to sleep unless I chose to (I like sleeping, and having lovely luxurious lie-ins, but sometimes I’d also like to stay up for a week straight doing websites and reading fanfic and so on without the physical exhaustion).
Anyone else?

Very hot again today. And I hear this could go on for some time. I can just tell that I’m going to have to give in and buy shorts. And sunblock. And stuff. Ugh. But as per usual, it’s wonderfully cool in the office. Did I mention that I love air conditioning? If only I had it in my house. *sigh*

I’m beginning to notice a pattern. Every morning at 10am, if I’m still in bed, Willow comes and stamps on me with her pointy little feet, and miows loudly in my face. And then she goes away again. I wonder why. And I wonder what she’ll do next week when I’m back on day shifts, and won’t be there at 10am. Poor little kitty. Awwww.

Megs is doing a 24 hour sponsored blog from 7pm tonight (GMT). So go sing her lullabies and so on, so I don’t have to dish out my sponsor money……. *eg*

After 7 blissful pretty much allergy-free months, hayfever has hit with a vengence today. So here I am, head throbbing, sinuses trying to escape from my face, nose sore, eyes painful, chest tight-but-not-quite-wheezy, skin itchy and jaw achy, trying to remind myself that I do actually feel better now than I did before I took the antihistamine tablet. God, I hate hot weather.

Just saw myself in a mirror. Understand why everyone’s asking me if I’m ill. Crap. [/self-pitying whinging]

(Went to Boots, bought painkillers, took painkillers, am currently waiting for numbness to hit)

Why is it that no matter how I much I shove / punch / kick / poke / beat-over-the-head-with-a-shovel Barry to get him to stop snoring, he never even so much as twitches, let alone shuts up. BUT, when I finally have enough and decide to take myself off to the spare room where I’ll actually get some sleep (yes, I can still hear the snoring, but it’s not in my ear any more), all I have to do is lightly tap him on the shoulder to tell him where I’m going, and he’ll wake up? Aaarrrgghhhhh!

Over on the right there, under ‘also me’ there’s a new little link. Soulfreak is my new rambling space. Specifically, it’s for rambling about Buffy and Angel, possibly posting fic snippets, and that kind of thing. I decided to have it as separate to this blog / journal / whatsis because I feel this place is more about life in general and the BtVS stuff doesn’t fit in, and I also wanted to keep my Buffy rambling in the one place. So there you have it :-)

And by the way, I got an Amazon Wish List – it’s down there on the right, too. Just in case anyone wants to buy me things. LOL. How likely.

So. Provided I have enough money (which is looking increasingly doubtfull, but oh well), shall I get my hair dyed:
(a) Black with bright red streaks
(b) Black with purple streaks
(c) Plain black (this is the money-saving option, since I’ll do that one myself).

I really can’t decide – unless the cashflow situ decides for me – so votes in the comments would be much appreciated….. :-)

Tedium is: stripping out all the shite code from pages that somebody did in Frontpage. Maybe I should’ve just started from scratch.

Oh fer….. I wish my bloody archives would stop vanishing! How often am I sposed to republish, here? Gah. Spose I may as well change the format while I’m at it. You can get sweet little scripts here if you don’t like the way Blogger does the archive listing. Just what I’ve been looking for.

Right now, part of me is tempted to run away. Not as much as I was last night, when I was actually making packing plans and studying maps to see where I could go. And I know of course that it wouldn’t solve everything, and I’d more than likely end up worse off. But the thought is still there. See, it turns out that B seems to be even worse than me at managing money. And that’s not a good thing. I don’t want to have to have all the responsibility for rent and bills and bank accounts, but I think I’m going to have to. Argh!!! I did it in London – every month I’d tell Barry and Anil how much money they owed me, and they’d hand it over. But I thought that when we moved up here, it wouldn’t have to work like that. Wrong again…. *sigh*