Matt

02:43 am: How did I miss that?
Since the first time I saw it, The Princess Bride has been my favourite film.  There are so many great lines, funny things and wonderful stories in there - and a surprising number of famous people.

Recently, a friend lent me season 1 of Dead Like Me (and some of you can probably already see where this is going).  I loved it and went out of my way to see all of it that I could.  I particularly liked the role played by Mandy Patinkin, and decided to seek out other things that he's been in, such as Criminal Minds (which I'm watching at the moment - I've just seen episode 3x01, and it looks like he might be leaving, but don't spoil it please).

So I thought I'd wiki him up and see what else he'd been in...

I knew that that there had been a Mandy in Princess Bride, playing a male role, but I didn't quite connect the dots - that it was the same Mandy, and that he played that particular role...  How cool is that!

Now I need a while to get my head around it :-)

Tags: mandy! princess_bride

11:30 pm: The hypocrisy of democracy
All of that bothers me, but what bothers me most is that the politicians, and most noticeably the Prime Minister are ignoring the whole of the spirit of the rules. The point of the system is to give us a say in the way our country is run.  When Blair was the leader of the Labour party, people voted for him because he was charismatic.  As far as I can see, he didn't have much in the way of goals other than not screwing up the economy and not annoying America, but people liked him. 

Now we have Brown, and I have some problems with him.  It seemed when he first took over from Blair that he was going to call a General Election in order to have his Prime Minister-ship confirmed, but then he backed away when it looked as if he might lose any such election.  Since then, Labour have been thrashed at the polls, at two by-elections and are generally not liked or trusted.  The people do not want them in charge of anything, let alone the whole country.  And they know it.  So why don't they do the decent thing and call an election?  The answer is simple, it would cost them power...  And they can't have that...

So they cling to power and continue to pass law after law that we do not want, and that we have no say over whatsoever.  Because some people liked the guy in charge three years ago, the yahoos at the top now can do anything they want, and they know it.  If they had any decency they'd announce a general election asap.

I don't have solutions, I just know that the system is horribly flawed, and I don't like it.

01:50 pm: the Visitation (Scion)
  plib has put up a visitation story for two of the NPCs in her Scion game, and so here is my character's story.

The situation: the three of them (Josef, Luke and Kathy) are in a car, headed to York.  The journey is long, and Josef is asked to tell the story of his visitation.

Be warned, it's quite long...

02:24 pm: Just what is the government for anyway? part 1
Why do we have a government? They pass laws on a whole bunch of different things, having very far reaching consequences. What are they trying to accomplish with all this lawmaking - or rather, what should they be trying to accomplish?

Well - they are there to ensure that we are protected from foreign invasions... But if that were all, they could simply meet once per year to approve the budget and set the tax levels for the rest of the year. They obviously do more than this.

They control government spending - but to what end? The also set the taxes that we all have to pay in order to fund the spending. So what do they use to guide them in this?

Ultimately, I think it comes down to the fact that they represent the people - through democratic (ish) elections, they are chosen by us and work for us.

So by rights, they should always have as their goal the betterment of life for us, the people. Of course, any such betterment is pointless if it's not sustainable. Thus, any law which makes things better for the people in a sustainable fashion (i.e. not drawing unwisely from limited resources or taking things away from others) is a good law.

Additionally, we need someone or something that can oversee affairs on a national level - putting the needs of the country ahead of the individual needs of the people within. There may come a time when certain changes need to be made for the good of the country as a whole that cause things to become worse for certain individuals. This would include legislation to deal with crime.

Obviously a law prohibiting murder is going to restrict the freedom of a murderer, but in a way that we can clearly see is to the advantage of the vast majority of people within the country. We need to be very careful with this sort of legislation - there is no sense criminalising things just for the sake of it. We should look carefully at why something is considered criminal, and the social balance of doing so. In the case of a murderer, we have the case where it is legal to murder (several people dead) against where it is illegal to murder (one person with freedom restricted). In this case, the least deleterious effect is in the case where it is illegal to commit murder.

Consider the effect of criminalising the purchase of bread. If bread remains legal, nothing bad happens. If bread is criminalised, we either have many people committing illegal acts every day or we have a number of businesses losing out on trade or going bust. Clearly the least bad solution is to not criminalise the purchase of bread.

So a good law is either wholly positive: one that provides good things for at least some of the people while providing bad things for none of them;
or limiting and negative: one that acts to limit the bad things that can happen to people (e.g. criminalising murder. We are still restricting the freedom of the murderer, but doing so to prevent the murder of others).

Tags: politics

01:38 pm: Dr Who
So, we're two episodes into the new season of Dr Who. I didn't want to comment after the first episode, largely because everyone I spoke to loved it, but it didn't sit right with me. I figured I'd wait for another episode and see how I felt then.

My issues with the first episode were twofold. Firstly, the Doctor let the aliens get away with their crime. The person directly responsible was killed, sure, but the aliens in the big space ships got exactly what they wanted (if perhaps not as much of it as they wanted) with no negative consequences. The little critters may well be innocent and all, but their parents certainly weren't. I get that they wanted to paint the Doctor as being kind and forebearing, not wanting to harm the little fellows - after all, they are kinda innocent in the matter. But that doesn't mean that you can't punish the parents another way...

The second problem was Donna. She came across as way way too needy, at least at the beginning. I am pleased to say that as of episode two, she seemed to be getting a lot better (standing up to the Doctor and arguing with him without fear of being left behind) but in the first one, she was a bit too desperate to find him. This of course leads to all sorts of speculation that she might be a spy, or working for someone wanting to get at the Doctor - and we're going to have to wait and see.

(Incidentally, the bad woman said that she'd gone a long way to find a place as overweight as the UK. Strange, given that she'd covered intergalactic distances, and missed the place just across the pond... http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity )

The second episode was somewhat better. The bad guys had reasons for what they were doing, even if we didn't see all that we wanted to of them. The business with the explosion being big enough to push a hole through time itself, leading to accurate prophecy seemed a bit of a stretch to me though (particularly as the story was saying that without intervention there would be no explosion). Why then were all of the prophets turning to stone? It was said that they had aliens riding in them, but that seemed rather unnecessary for the story - the aliens only controlled a very few people. To be honest, I wasn't paying as much attention to it as I could have been, so may have missed finer details.

I was a little put out at the Doctor's reluctance to make the mountain go boom. After he said earlier in the episode that some things were necessary and unstoppable, and it was established that if they didn't blow it all up then the aliens would take over the whole planet - surely at that point it's a no-brainer. Ok, a few thousand people die - but they were already dead. I can't imagine how one can time travel without that fundamental understanding that everyone here is nothing more than a footnote in history at some point in the future, and that while efforts to make their lives better are surely a good thing, some of them have to die...

Nonetheless, all told, it's not bad so far. The two things that will really make my mind up about this season will be the Moffat episodes (8 and 9 I think) and the season finale. Moffatt always writes the best episodes, which is the high point of the season for me. On the other side, the finale always has a big build up and then ends with a handwave, using a Deus Ex Machina. This is not good tv - the Doctor should win through superior knowledge, cleverness, guile, trickery... Something that he himself did, at least. Not just the fact that he keeps ultimate cosmic power in the engine of his TARDIS (and that being the case, how the hell did the Time Lords get beaten in the first place?)

Of course, the second season of Torchwood did manage to end without a Deus Ex Machina, so I'm cautiously optimistic...

I would like to point out, incidentally, that I dislike the hints that RTD tends to use towards the season finale. In season 1, we had "Bad Wolf" in every episode. Season 2 had "Torchwood", and Season 3 was full of references to "Mr Saxon". These references give the more rabid fans something to talk about, but do nothing for most of us (and given some of the things the more rabid folks come up with, they don't help them a great deal). I'd prefer proper hints, that might actually give us a chance to work out what was coming... (because Bad Wolf really gave no clue towards Daleks running reality TV, and Rose becoming a Goddess to beat them. Likewise, Torchwood really indicated nothing more than the setting for the big Dalek vs Cybermen fight. The Mr Saxon references were a little better, as they indicated he was running for prime minister - and a lot of people speculated that he would be The Master - but it was still a bit of a leap).

Tags: dr who

01:35 am: a quickie
A great man named Tacitus (ad 55? - 130?) once said:
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. "

Consider then, this article from 2007: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/04/nlaws04.xml

09:29 pm: Politics
Not quite what I was planning to post, but it works, and I'm too tired/lazy to write anything else right now...

When it comes to politics, everyone seems to believe in different things. They all have labels (democrat, republican, labour, conservative, liberal, etc) and none of the labels really mean a lot to me - it seems to be that anyone who wants to be in government believes in Government more than any political ideal. The "democratic" system that we have in place in this country means that the apparatus of government gets bigger and bigger without any checks or balances. No party will ever reduce the number of civil servants, because that would mean job losses - and bad PR, and bad PR means they won't get elected again. Never mind what's good for the country, they're more concerned about what's good for them...

So rather than just complain, I thought I'd take a moment to go over what I believe.

I consider myself a Rational Anarchist.

The term Rational Anarchist is one I first encountered in the book, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert A Heinlein. The way it was described sounded exactly as I lived - or at least exactly as I wanted to live.

"A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as ‘state' and ‘society' and ‘government' have no existence such as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsibility individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame ... as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else. But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations, so he tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world ... aware that his effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self-knowledge of self-failure."

and

"But I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them to obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."

Sum it up rather well. Basically, I acknowledge that certain rules are necessary for society to function, but that even then there is a certain amount of wiggle-room. Essentially, no system of law can adequately account for every possible scenario, and ours hardly even tries. So I will obey those laws that I agree with, disregard those that do not affect me and actively break those that I object to, so long as I can do so. I recognise that any penalties associated with breaking the law are my own responsibility, so simply weigh up the benefits gained from disregarding the law against the penalties I may face, and the likelihood of facing them.

In today's society with CCTV cameras everywhere and the government able to have us watched and followed as much as they like, it seems there is more likelihood of getting caught out than ever, but still I try. My main complaint with the current government is that they seem to believe socialism is the cure for all ills. That the state can spend our money better than we can, so they take more and more of it, using it for things that we never get to vote on, or object to. They massively overcomplicate things like the tax system, and it seems that the only reason is so that they can point at the bits that make them look good while sweeping under the rug the bits that make them look bad.

I think we would be better served by a minimalist government. One that provides defense, basic law and that's about it. People talk about the NHS being wonderful, but the cost to the consumer is an average of £1,500 per year for every man, woman and child in the country. I'd guess you could get significantly better treatment on private for that much money, but the NHS - like all government run projects - doesn't need to worry about budgets, timescales and the like, because if they run over nothing bad will happen. If they run out of money, they can take more from the taxpayer (look at the Dome, the Olympics, the Scottish Parliament building, the NHS computer system - all ran massively over budget). If the services were provided privately that would not be an option - the company would have to run more efficiently or go bust.

As well as all that, I find it irritating that the do-gooders in whitehall think they know much better than the rest of us. They act in a lot of cases as if they believe the general public to be too stupid to manage their own money. Once upon a time, the MPs were servants of the people, but now they've convinced themselves that they are our masters, and we let them do it.

If things keep on as they are, I'll be leaving the country. I'll probably end up going to America, as I know people there and the company I work for has offices there. I know it's just as bad, but at least I won't feel that as a voting member of the public, I'm partly to blame...

edit: Source for the £1,500 figure is here.
I can't find any data for figures after 2004, but as that shows, the amount spent in 2004 was in excess of £96 billion (with a population of around 60 million. Rather worryingly, this article here from the BBC states that the budget for 2002/2003 was £65 billion, where the PDF from the government statistics website states that expensiture was a good deal more than that. Are they going even further into debt? I'd not be surprised...

edit the second: this article from the Guardian in 2005 seems to indicate that comprehensive BUPA cover can be had for about £1,662 (look down the list for Private medical insurance). This would mean no queues, no waiting lists, just everyone being seen asap and getting what they need. Whereas £1,584 per year on the NHS gets us what? What are they wasting the money on?

Tags: heinlein, politics, rational anarchist

01:01 am: Update
Lots of changes since I last properly posted...

I moved out shortly after that last post, and now live in a place within 20 minutes walk of work, with working heating and hot water. There's not a great deal of room, and the kitchen and bathroom are shared, but I have plenty of room in my living room for tv, playstation, computer and laptop, so I'm comfortable. I do need more space for books, though - I buy way too many...

Work is going well. I've just had my annual review, and that went well, although we need to wait until March to find out how much of a difference it will actually make to our pay. The job is getting more demanding, but is still fun, and I am learning an awful lot about how DB pensions work, to the extent that other people on the team now come to ask me for information on some subjects, which is nice. There is a lot of work to do right now (I left work at 9pm on Monday and will have to go in tomorrow - Sunday - for a few hours :S) but hopefully that won't be the case forever...

I'm working on a few different qualifications through work (the company pays, and at the very least it'll be something nice to put on the CV). One of these is a diploma, which I could finish in June if I try. I have to do two more exams (both in May) and complete a report. The report is only small (3000 words or so) but it has me a lot more worried than the exams, not least because I doubt I can fit all the information into a report that small, and handing something that's too big in will result in an automatic fail. I've not yet decided if I'm going to do the report yet, but if I do, it will have to be done before June. If I miss that deadline, I can do it after the exams, and have it finished for December - which might be easier, but finishing it in June successfully would mean having completed the diploma within two years of starting in Pensions, which has to be a good thing.

Outside of work, I seem to have gotten awfully busy all of a sudden. I now roleplay every Tuesday at a pub in Purley and one weekend a month is given over to the BWoGs. For the last few weeks, I've been busy at least another day each week, often two. It may not sound like a lot, but for a social recluse like me it feels like I'm very busy.

Still single, and not sure what to do about it. I'd love to find someone to share time/fun/life with, but fear I am now well and truly fixed in my ways. I need my own space, and that was painfully obvious to me when living with friends. I really am socially unable to interact with people past a certain point, and while I'm getting better at clarifying where that point is, I still don't know how to fix it. As far as talking to strangers? It's easy if I have no interest in them, or if it's necessary for work. Making small talk with someone I might actually be attracted to? Impossible. And that's without the difficulty of finding people in the first place. I'm not a pub/club person, and have very few avenues to meet folks. I'd like to think it will all sort itself out, but am starting to fear I may be beyond that. For some reason, it's not so bad a thought as it could be...

So that's the update. Life is generally good. I am planning to write more here as and when I get time, but it's not something I can ever be any good at. One thing I do plan to do here is rant. I've got a list of topics, and plan to write down my thoughts on them, posting one each weekend. The first is written, but I want to go over it and tidy it up, maybe expand on it a little, so that will be posted next weekend, and I'll try to stay at least one ahead so that if I have a bad week I can still post.

11:19 pm: I'm Willow? I guess I can see that... But Boomer?

09:48 pm: Life

So I've been thinking lately that I really need to write something to go here...

No idea what though.

I thought to myself - well, I'm exactly where I was when I last posted - nothing has changed.  But then I thought about it...

The immediate stuff: I just had a tikka masala.  It was a little hotter than I was expecting, so my mouth is burning a bit, and I'm drinking lots of diet coke.  It was very nice though.  We currently have no heating here and no hot water, so I'm a little cold (I'll get my sleeping bag shortly and get cosy).  I spoke to the landlady today about it - she has spoken to a plumber, she's just not sure when he'll be able to come over and fix it.  I hope it's soon - I'm planning to move out soon, but I'd like to be able to at least shower sometime before then (baths take many many kettles full of hot water - I like them hot...)

Medium term: I've looked at one place so far, and have plans to look at two more tomorrow.  The one I have seen looked very nice, although a touch smaller than I'd like ideally - I have a lot of stuff.  Still it might be a good excuse to get rid of some of it.  My ex is currently not speaking to me (yeah - singular -  I've only really had one big relationship).  This is unusual - normally we get on fairly well, even if we don't talk much these days - it's more because we just don't move in the same circles.

Long term: I've made a new friend.  Always a good thing :-)

Tags: happy, pensive

02:48 pm: Discrimination, Morality and the Fate of Mankind
An ambitious title, I'll admit.  


Morality I'll keep short.  I found a wonderful quote (or re-found, I guess, since I initially read it many years ago) from a Robert Heinlein book.  

Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense.

Think about that for a moment.   For me, it rings true...

((Oh - and while looking for this one again, I found: There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.   - another Heinlein quote, and it sums up rather neatly all that I think is wrong with out current government...))

Gonna have to leave the fate of mankind for another time - have to get back to work now :-)

Tags: disability, heinlein, philosophy, rational argument

09:07 am: Pilfered from plib

Below are Time's most significant SF novels between 1953-2006.

The meme part of this works like so: Bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you read and hated, italicize those you started but never finished, and put a star (*) next to the ones you love.

I have lots of reading to do...

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien - never really liked it - way too much random stuff that had nothing to do with the story
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov **
3. Dune, Frank Herbert ***
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein ***
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin *
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov * - an early work, but still a good read
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett - I wasn't overly impressed with this one.  For me, the Discworld series didn't start until Mort
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card ***
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson *
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams - way way way too much stupid humour, at the expense of story
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin - read this years ago - can't really remember it...
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson ** - some fantastic ideas in here
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Trooper, Robert A. Heinlein *** - fantastic book, and I have to admit I'm surprised not to see more Heinlein on this list - this one and Stranger is all...
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

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11:44 am: The torchwood crew
Jack - Mysterious, enigmatic... The writers clearly want us to wonder exactly what is his past, except we've all seen Dr Who, so we already know. Most of the fun of him is waiting for the others to catch on. And although he comes over all tough sometimes, he lets his compassion get in the way all the time (he should have sacked most of the crew already for instance, and made sure they forgot all they'd seen, one way or the other).

Ianto - reason he should have been sacked: Hiding a cyberwoman in the basement, then waking her up and letting her go on a (small) killing spree.
Ianto seems to have very little personality. The only time we got to see anything affecting him emotionally was when his girlfriend was about, and she was mostly cyberwoman. Other than that he stands ready to help and is completely boring.

Tosh - Reason she should have been sacked: actually, Tosh is the least bad of them all - the only dodgy thing she did was not tell them when she could read their minds.
Tosh is competent, intelligent and seems very out of place, in that she can actually do her job. I can't help but feel that they'd be a lot better off if they got rid of the rest of the team and just let Tosh handle things.

Owen - Reason he should have been sacked: Where do we begin?
From implied rape in the very first episode to opening the Rift (the thing they were told never to do, ever) in episode 12, and a whole bunch of stuff in-between, Owen has been steadily self-destructing (although the writers seem to have moved quickly away from the rape aspect - I suspect a large outcry from the fans).

Gwen - Reason she should have been sacked: Freeing Suzie for a start - although she almost died for it, she seems the sort of person who'd do it again.
Starting off as a goodie-two-shoes, Gwen had a lot of promise, as the person who could lighten the dark dingy Torchwood halls, bringing a touch of humanity to them (from the way she insisted they had to hunt down the serial killer right at the start, and not just profit from his/her kills), but after only a few episodes she was neglecting her boyfriend, dropping him completely when work called. Only a little while later she was cheating on him, and in episode 12 she goes so far as to use Retcon on him in a failed bid to redeem some small shred of her self-respect and get forgiveness/absolution from him.



If this is what stands between the human race and whatever is out there, we may as well just roll over and surrender now...

06:39 am: Update
The story is making progress. I've finished most of a detailed synopsis, and a scene by scene guide to what happens - now I just have to write it...

12:49 am: Long time no see
I'm gonna try to get in the habit of posting here again - can anyone recommend a decent GUI tool? I'll forget if I have to come to this website all the time... I used to use one that had an icon in the shape of a pencil, green as I recall.

Anyway - things are not too bad here. I'm working from home at the moment, mainly on websites and the like. Not actually making enough to support myself so my savings are eroding, but slowly, and I'm enjoying my time off. I may have to find more work in a couple of months, but for now all is good.

I have been putting a few things off which need to change... I promised a friend I'd write a story to go in a compilation he was putting together ages ago and have been getting a very good idea of what people mean when they say writer's block. Most of the problem is procrastination though, so I'm determined. Tomorrow I'm gonna sit down for a good few hours and get my first draft progressed. I'm not sure I can finish it in one day, but I can try, and I'll send whatever I do have at the end of the day to him, along with an apology for it's tardiness.

I've also agreed to have a Vampire game ready to run for the next BWoG. Because we're all busy next month, the next BWoG is probably going to be in June, but that's still not far away, so I need to start prep now...

Additionally, a few of my sites need a complete redesign, and a few need updating - it could take me a while, so I've been putting it off. Well that ends here... Tomorrow I write a story, next week I take over the world! Or something like that...

08:02 pm: Hair ribbons?!!!

Generate your Anime Style by Jena-su
Name:
Hair:	Rediculously long, always flowing.
Clothes:	Little by way of actual clothes, but lots and LOTS of really cool accessories.
Powers:	Healing
Special Features:	Cat ears and tail
Sidekick:	The great spirit of (insert character name of choice here), as channeled through whatever item you have onhand at the time.
Attitude:	Overprotective of those you care about.
Weapon:	Slingshot
Quiz created with MemeGen!

03:15 am: Insomnia sucks
The title says it all really. I have to be up and ready for work in 5 hours, and have been trying to get to sleep since about midnight. I lay in bed for two and a half hours before giving up and deciding to try and do something constructive. If course, with my brain in it's current state, constructive is a relative term, and I spent the last 20 minutes writing a piece of javascript that will tell me how many days I have been going out with Shevy.

The main problem I have with insomnia is that it's boring and painful. When all I am doing is lying there, I can't help but think of all the things that can go wrong with my life and all the things that have already gone wrong: Why am I working for a pittance? Why did I never get a degree? Will the relationship with Shevy really work? Am I destined to be a sad, lonely person for the rest of my life? Something about the night denies all possibility of cheerful thoughts.

It's not normally a problem. When I'm curled up in bed with Shevy I don't think bad thoughts, and sleep is not normally long in coming, but I've been snoring recently and Shevy wakes at the slightest sound. She's been getting really wound up over her work and studying so decided she'd get a better night's sleep on the sofa in the living room tonight, so I get Insomnia :-(

I have no idea why I'm writing this now - I'd be much better off trying to get to sleep. Work will be a nightmare tomorrow anyway, as I've just had a week off. The last thing I need is to be half asleep because I was on the computer all night, but still - tired is better than depressed...

I just want to get some sleep...

02:49 pm: BWOG
Back at work after another Big Weekend Of Gaming. The weekend was very fun, and we got a fair bit of role-playing done (and there was quite a lot of computer game playing too, but never mind... Rainbow 6 3 Ravenshield is a very fun game - just would have been nice to have more computers). Without further ado here are my thoughts, comments and random spoutings on the games:


( Mage )


( Exalted )


( Demon )

03:22 pm: it was my birthday yesterday :-)
Had a nice quiet day... it was nice not to have to do anything, but I really could have done with not having hayfever... My parents were over on Saturday so Shevy and I made some Chicken and ham pies - only just made enough for the meal and one for them to take home. I have tried making more in the past (to use as lunches) but they all get eaten by our housemates, and they are too much effort to make for other people to eat.

Am going to try and get the week of Shevy's birthday off - I could do with a break and that's only a few weeks away, and we can spend some time together without other people always being there...