General Rambling – Enchilada Sunrise

Here’s the Thing

Some time ago, I hit the point where I just don’t like the theme I’m using any more. In fact, it’s now gone all the way past “don’t like it”. I hate it. H-a-t-e it. I’ve been away from blogging for, you know, years. I have a stack of draft posts I’ve written over that time (some no longer relevant, of course). The main reason I didn’t publish them was, ridiculously, because I don’t like the look of the site. Ewww, can’t put my shiny new words on that thing!

It’s not like it’s difficult to change the theme, either. But using a pre-made theme means it’s not going to be to my exact specifications! Whatever those are. Ugh. So I’ve been meaning to make a new theme, but I haven’t been well enough, and blah blah blah. I may as well just slap a pre-made theme on and deal with it. And if it’s near enough, make a child theme to tweak it. I can’t hate it more than what I’ve got right now, right?

Accidental week off.

Or nearly a week, anyway. Six days. I completely forgot to blog at the weekend… and managed to carry on forgetting all week until today. Whoops! So I’ll extend my blogging an extra week, I think. Or maybe I’ll keep going until the end of July. I’ll aim for that. And beyond, of course, but hopefully every day until then.

So, what have I been up to this week? Not a lot, really. Much the same as I have for the last few months. That’s mostly involved not going out a lot. I don’t actually remember the last time when I managed to leave the house by myself, either. Not counting letting the cat in and out, and putting the rubbish out – somehow that doesn’t seem to count as Going Out in my wonky brain, even though if I want to go somewhere further than the end of the garden path I haven’t made it past the flat door. Make sense of that!

I had to go out today, and will again tomorrow, as I have an appointment with my psychiatrist in the morning. Mum has been brilliant about coming over and helping me get out / taking me places. Today was an appointment at the Jobcentre to talk to them about work and things now that I’ve been moved onto the new ESA benefit. In my case, that was pretty much going over the fact that, what with not being so well, I can’t do full time work, but I can continue with the (part time) Permitted Work scheme. So that’s OK. What was less OK was the panic attack part of the proceedings, but it wasn’t a major one and I think I’ve remembered everything alright. If not, I can ask Adam-the-support-worker who was there with me. Mum had just dropped me off there, as Adam knows the ropes for this kind of appointment. But she will be coming in to the appointment tomorrow, as per usual. Her perspective is useful, but she can also remind me of anything I forget to mention as well. Two heads are better than one, and all that stuff.

And on that note, I’d better go and make my list of things I have to remember for tomorrow. Oh, and wipe my phone ready for taking it back to the shop for repairs. Poor wee thing. (No phone? How will I cope?! Noooooo! etc) Good night!

Seven hundred and twenty

Yup, this is blog post #720, believe it or not. Mind you, if I manage to keep this daily blogging lark up, I’ll be cracking on for 750 by the end of the month. On the other hand, that is over the space of 12+ years, so it’s not that much really.

So what was I going to ramble on about today? I don’t exactly remember, which isn’t very helpful. Umm. I’ve been playing around some more on the Javascript track at Codeacademy, which is fun. I’ve done some terribly exciting filing and paperwork, and some even more thrilling housework. I’ve also changed the plugin which auto-posts to Plurk when I blog. Go me!

… oh. But I forgot to hit the publish button on here. Oops! That generally helps.

Stuck already!

Or, How To Be Extra-Specially Rubbish at Blogging, by Lou.

Oh dear.

So, it’s all of day two of this challenge thingy, and already I’m kind of stuck for what to write about. So I’m writing about not being able to decide what to write about, mainly so that I’ll have something posted today at all! Also, in the hope that if I keep typing, my fingers will come up with something that my brain has stalled over. Or something like that.

Actually, I think it worked. Because it’s not so much that I can’t think of anything to blog about, as that I have several things, but can’t decide which to start with. So instead, I’m going to ramble about WordPress plugins. Fascinating, hmm? Specifically, it’s the plugin that autoposts to Plurk that’s giving me trouble – yesterday it did a weird triple post with the temporary page preview address in it instead of the address for the published post. When I had a look on WP.org, I discovered that the plugin hasn’t been updated for ages, so that’s likely the issue there. There are some new ones that should do the trick instead, so I’m going to install one of those instead. Although since those also post to Twitter and FB (which I’m currently using the Jetpack module to do), I think I’ll swap over for those as well. Assuming the new plugin works the way I want it to and all that. /ramble.

In other news, I really want to go to the Nine Worlds con. Really really really really really. That would, of course, involve me Leaving The House and Going To London, and hard stuff like that. Not to mention paying for the ticket and hotel, so. We’ll see. But I wanna!

Mid-month Blogathon Challenge

I’m sure I’ve said this umpteen times, but I really do want to get back into blogging more regularly. So, I’ve decided to set myself a blogathon / blopomo challenge: posting every day for a month from today, June 15th.

I don’t think I’m going to have a theme, though if I do start to get stuck I might try the alphabet meme thing. That worked pretty well for me before. It’s probably going to be general rambling and catching up on what’s going on in my life, though. Exciting stuff! Or, you know, not.

As a reminder to myself in case I’m in need of inspiration, I’m going to try to write about

What I’ve been up to over the last few months
Mental health stuff (which kind of ties in with the above, tbh)
My favourite niece, Miss RA
Merlin McPurrlin (cat spam, here we come)
Knittin’ and Spinnin’
What I’ve been fangirling over
And my forays into learning to be a bit of a girly girl. Sometimes.

Alrighty, first post accomplished! I have some partners in ‘thoning crime, gathered via my Plurk flist. So, hi Che Rex, Char (also on deviantart), dangerouslycrafty and captainstardust. Feel free to prod me if I forget to post!

Ergonomically Speaking

For nearly 18 months now, my left shoulder has been “ouchy”. By which I mean, there are stabbity pains in the joint, the muscles down my upper arm have gradually got more and more tense, and putting my arm back to put on a coat or whatever sometimes just didn’t really work. In summary: ow.

But hooray, I’ve finally worked my way up the waiting list and a couple of weeks ago I saw the physiotherapist at the hospital for my first appt. And guess what? My posture is completely borked, and my back is as tight as an exceedingly tight thing, which has caused and/or exacerbated inflammation of my shoulder ligaments(? tendons? I forget). Then blah blah tl:dr subsequent tensing of the arm muscles and it’s all been a whole catch-22.

So, I’ve got exercises to do, which I think are definitely helping, but the one thing that she said also needed to be sorted out asap was my computer desk ergonomics. I spend an awful lot of time sitting here, and I have known it needed sorting out: there was a shelf for the monitors which put them too high even if I had my chair up as far as possible, which in its turn meant that my short little legs were dangling in the air. Plus, I was smooshed up against the wall on my left side and, it turns out, had my mouse too far over to the right! Whoops.

I have actually been looking for a new desk for a while now, but can’t really afford one just yet. However, my brother came up with a couple of excellent ideas: Mum is redecorating his old bedroom, complete with new furniture which meant that his old desk was going spare. So I’ll be getting that once we can get it over here. And then he asked if I could detach the monitor shelf. That hadn’t even occurred to me. Yes, I could. So I did. Then I moved the printer (which was on the right of the desk), pulled the desk away from the wall, and put the printer in the resulting space there instead.

It’s not the perfect solution: there’s a middle shelf bracket that means I can’t put the monitors right to the back of the main desk, but since the keyboard is on a pull-out tray, I’m still a good distance back.

I’m left with less workspace for now, but only until I get the second desk. And I’ve been able to put my chair back down to a me-sized height. This means that I’m finally, for the first time in years (!) sitting properly at my desk. So much better!

I think it also helps that a bloke I know is doing a course in sports massage at the college, and I get to be one of his guinea pigs. Doing the physio exercises unsurprisingly stretched things in my back that’d been determinedly tense for ages, so it was fab having that ironed back out again. I have two more sessions with him to go, too. :-)

Welcome to the jungle family!

So, what with not having posted properly for ages again, I haven’t mentioned that there are two new additions to the family! One actual brand new person, and one fuzzy feline dictator.

First of all (not chronologically, but never mind that), my Favourite Niece, who is also my first and only niece or nephew, arrived in the big wide world last summer. Here she is aged 2 months:

photo of Ms RA and her Daddy — Favourite Niece aka Ms RA, with her Daddy

It's srs bznz, this growing up thing — It’s srs bznz, this growing up thing

And this is a more recent photo, aged nearly 6 months:

photo of Ms RA wth Mummy — Ms RA invites you to try some of her parsnips

Isn’t she adorable? *proud auntie face*

And secondly we have Mr Merlin McPurrlin, my new feline overlord. He is about 2 years old, loves his play tunnel and yellow-mouse, prefers to drink from the bath tap… and yeah, has me very well trained! He came to live with me back in the late spring, after having been left in a box outside the vet’s because he’d been spraying in his previous owner’s home. The vet gave him the snip, and surprise – no more spraying since then. He’s a lovely boy, and I’m very glad that I happened to pop into the vet at just the right time!

photo of Mr Merlin McPurrlin — Merlin McPurrlin, Lord of ~~The Remote Control~~ All The Things

Christmas Time, Mistletoe and Other-Things-of-Varying-Toxicity

That time of year (ie. the end of it) has crept upon me somewhat unawares yet again. Insert “where has the time gone?!” shock and confusion here. However, I am sort of, kind of, mostly ready for Christmas. I think. I do have some wrapping to do still, but I’m aiming to be all done by dinner time. If I am, I’ll be well ahead of myself based on the last few years¹. Hooray! Or in a shout out to Rebecca, yippee!

As for the Mistletoe etc part of the subject line… well, that was mainly me being unable to resist mangling a song lyric. No mistletoe or mistletoe-related-seasonal-activities for me, I’m afraid. How v disappointing ;-) And toxic things… well, many intoxicating things are still right out due to my meds. But happily some are fine, so I shall be having Crabbies’ with my Christmas dinner tomorrow. I think it’s going to go rather well.

Anyhow, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year [or insert seasonal festival of choice, etc] one and all! I might try some blogging new year’s resolutions (eg. blog more / at all), but I haven’t decided yet. I really would like to get back into the swing of writing again. But til then, TTFN!

¹Started this post earlier today, obviously, and am now pleased to report that I have finished the wrapping:

Friday Five: 1st June 2012

Flowers!

What is your favourite flower?
Poppies. And lilies, but they tend to make me sneeze.
Do you buy or send other people flowers for special occasions?
Yes, usually Mum.
Have you ever picked flowers from your own garden (or wild flowers, if you don’t have a garden) to give to someone else?
Not for a long time, but I did pick some daffs from the garden once when I lived at the parents’ place.
If flowers could talk (think Alice In Wonderland), which flower would you most like to converse with?
Triffids! From a safe distance, of course.
Have you ever used edible flowers in cooking, or eaten one?
I’ve had lavender chocolate, and didn’t really like it, but I’d like to try lavender and honey ice cream, and I think you can eat some kinds of pansy in salads?

The Good, The Sad, and the Dusty

I know, I know. It’s been ages. Again. I won’t try to update on everything that I’ve been up to, so here are five things: three good, one sad, and one dusty.

The Good.

1. I have a new blog! What on earth for, when I hardly ever post in this one, you may ask? Well, this one has kind of got too unwieldy for me, so I’m taking out the ‘Review’ categories that I never use, and narrowing the focus of this blog to be… well, what I actually do post about, which is knitting and bipolar, for the most part. So no real changes, except to how I think about it. Never mind, it helps in my weird brain. So the new blog, Frozensoul.net, is my review blog. So far it’s all book reviews, but it’s for whatever I feel like reviewing. TV, movies, music, podcasts, gigs, events, stuuuuuff. I’ll probably go back to posting general life stuff and fandom rambling at Dreamwidth / Livejournal, as well. There may be some crossover there, though.

2. I’m going to be an auntie! My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a little girl this summer. Yes, I am knitting. Mwahahaha!

3. The doctor (psychiatrist) reckons I’m well enough to start back to work gradually! So I’m going to be looking into the Permitted Work scheme, and speaking to the Bridge-builders worker at Together, as she has info about all of that. So far, the vague plan is to get back to freelance web design part time, and see how that goes. Fingers crossed!

The Sad.

My lovely fuzzy Xandermog has moved on to hog the big sofa in the sky. He was really ill last year, and he never completely got back to full health, although he was happy and active and pesty up until he got ill again last month. It was all very quick, and he went peacefully – lovely Adam the Vet did the necessary while I was stroking Xander. It’s very strange and quiet to be mogless, even though he wasn’t a noisy cat most of the time. But I’d had him for over 11 years, so I spose I was used to his presence. I shall probably find a new furry dictator to arrange my life fairly soon.

The Dusty.

I’ve been spring-cleaning. Or really, I spose it’s getting on towards summer cleaning by now! It’s an ongoing project. My allergies aren’t impressed, but I’m sure they’ll be happier with the final result. I’ve sorted out a whole load of things that I was hanging on to for no good reason – hairbands and scrunchies when I’ve had my hair short for over a year with no intention of growing it again, and so on. Old make-up, random bits of paper and fabric… so much clutter! I seem to have all manner of things that I’ve stashed away “just in case” they might come in handy some mythical day. But no! I need to get rid so that I can do the re-organisation of my living room that I’ve been planning for months. I will get it done!

Kick Start

Hello, and Happy New Year! Look at that, I’ve finally got around to posting here again. I keep meaning to, but I always feel like I should post a long explanation of where I’ve been. Well, I will, but first of all I think I need something simple to get me started. So, have a meme:

webuyanycat.com has valued my cat at £14.33.

I think I’ll keep him a while and see if he appreciates – I spent more than 200 times that on him last year, and I need to make some of that back somewhere. ;-)

Marking a century

My granddad would’ve been 100 years old today. Happy Birthday Poppa!

That’s the two of us together when I was small. He died a few years ago now, and for another few years before that wasn’t really ‘himself’ due to Alzheimer’s, but other than that he was busy and active his whole life. He was a fireman in London during the Blitz.

Dagenham firemen - Poppa on the far right

He then stayed on in the fire service for the rest of his working life. He’s on the far right in the above cartoon – I think the date on it is 1949, but it could be ’48 or even ’40. I won’t go into some of the stories he had to tell now, but there were some dramatic ones! He travelled a lot, too, I think mostly after he’d retired.

So that’s it, really – happy birthday to you, Poppa, and Happy Centenary!

Busy busy busy

I’ve been running around doing all-sorts this week. I’ve been at C House a few times, at the library (hi Henry!), at the gym (!!!), to KnitJam, and I’ve had a visitor this weekend – my friend Charlotte. Whew! And now I’m starting all over again.

I’m going to the gym with the bro and also sometimes with my upstairs neighbour. It’s definitely a good plan to have gym buddies. We’re planning to go to pilates, too. Should be fun!

In knitting news, I’ve finished my first project for 2011: the Snapdragon Tam for my sister-in-law:

Pattern: Snapdragon Tam by Ysolda Teague [Ravlink]
Yarn: Elle Family Favourites DK in Gold.
Needles: 4mm metal circulars.

I am pleased with it, and it was fun to knit, too :-)

In which I have a revelation

It has just occurred to me that when I’ve been working on a post for this blog (on and off, but still) for nearly a week, then that post is probably really too long and it’s time for me to stop and think again. I mean, really. So, I’m going to break it up into two or three posts instead, and be much calmer about the whole thing. It’s only a blog! And that’s my little bit of life perspective for the week. You’re welcome.

Belated Christmassy round-up

I never did talk about how Christmas was in the end, did I? So I shall inflict in upon the world now. I actually did get everything finished and ready that I needed to. All my online shopping arrived (whew!) even though the post was all over the place, I finished the present I was making for Mum, and I even made chocolate chip cookies with moderate success!

The scarf for Mum was the Branching Out pattern [Ravlink], and I knitted it in a lovely Merino / Tencel blend that I spun on the wheel – the first time I’ve knit with my own handspun. I just left it as a single, and it worked really well (imo, anyway!) and I like the way the colour repeats came out. Mum says she really likes it too, which is the main thing!

I also joined two Christmas swaps, one through the Limegreenjelly group, and one through Plurk. The post was / is still being less kind where those are concerned. It seems to have eaten the parcel from the latter altogether, but I have now had my LGJ parcel from Cal, and a fabulous one it is too:

Two braids of LGJ fibre (one Merino/Silk, one Merino, yum!), a beautiful skein of Posh Yarn Elinor, an Orange Blossom perfume stick which I think is from Lush, mini Green & Black’s choccy bars (om nom nom!), a set of Knit Pro interchangeable needle tips and a cable for them (which spookily I’ve been wanting for ages), and an adorable Lego keyring. :-D I just hope she likes her gifts from me as much as I do mine.