Worthless Proclaimations of an Incidental Individual

Awesome game

2009-03-28T00:51:58Z

Jeannette has just sent me this link:

http://thesurrealist.co.uk/dungeon

It is a fine thing. Go play.

What's Your Personality Type?

2009-03-17T19:10:11Z

You Are An ISTP

The Mechanic

You are calm and collected, even in the most difficult of situations.
A person of action and self-direction, you love being independent.
You seem impulsive, surprising, and unpredictable to outsiders.
You are good at understanding how all things work, except for people.

In love, you tend to be very easy going and flexible.
The only thing you can't stand for is someone trying to change you or your life.

At work, you can stay completely calm under pressure. You handle stress well.
You would make an excellent pilot, forensic pathologist, or athlete.

How you see yourself: Logical, flexible, and unconventional

When other people don't get you, they see you as: Indecisive, flippant, and disrespectful

What's Your Personality Type?

Birfday Number 23

2009-02-11T00:19:05Z

It started in about 20 minutes. Then I'll be 23.

Good grief, that looks quite scary. My mum was 23 when I was born. (Note to self: do not become pregnant this year) For some reason it keeps occuring to me that 23 is 6 years older than 17. Now I don't think 17 was particularly significant to me, so I have no idea why that keeps popping into my head. Anyway, 23 - it sounds likely very almost adult. People have achieved things at age 23.

Run out of random thoughts on the age of 23.

So what have I done since the last birthday? What has the 22nd year been?

Finished my BSc. That was four months of it.
Sat in Jeannette's house failing to get a job for a couple of months
Five weeks of digging holes in exciting locales
Starting my Masters degree, which has been going swimmingly for the last five months

And that's about it. A year sounds very short described like that. Odd. But I've enjoyed the most of it.

....

Can't really think of anything else. When I started writing, I thought I had something to say about the past year of my life ...but I don't, apparently. Life is good, I guess. I still don't have a job and I'm going to have to find one (and better bloody manage it by Birfday 24!). I'd like to do a PhD, but whether or not I do is going to be in the hands of some funding committee or other. I guess basically the course of my life is probably going to be decided by someone I've never met (either potential employer or said funder), which sucks but there's not really much to do. I can't think of a course of action I could take that doesn't lead to someone else deciding whether I should be allowed to follow it. Meh. I guess I'll have live with that.

For in the mean time there is lounging about in bed, there's awful jokes with friends, there's the internet and chocolate (especially together) and all the other simple joys of life. That's pretty much my take of life. It's mostly uncontrollable so I should eat chocolate and play computer games.

Get me, I'm a philosopher.

From the pits of darkness

2009-01-14T00:57:59Z

Where have the last two weeks gone? Seriously, if you see them, tell me because I think I've missed them. I probably think that because I've been living in eternal darkness, each night merging into the last in some kind of angsty vampire way. It seems that, without an external reasons to prevent it, I naturally slip into complete nocturnality. My hours of wakefulness have been roughly 7pm to 8am for the last week or so. Those are long lonely hours, curled up in the living room with my laptop and books. They haven't been entirely wasted, since I have done a little work on my current assignment and have applied for a couple of interesting things, but they have been strange. There are no mealtimes, no opening hours, nothing to divide up the time except trips to the loo. It probably isn't good for me. Oh well.

I'm trying to right things, by staying awake longer into the day each day. Hopefully it will work. I actually saw daylight today. It was a strange and mystical thing. Hopefully there'll be more of it later.

My life has been many simple pleasures lately:

Christmas - It was enjoyable enough. There were many relatives and much food and some gifts. I got a digital camera, which I'm quite chuffed with since I've never had a real camera. The batteries have already run out, which is a pain. I shall have to see about replacing them at some point. But I got to push my little cousin about and that was fun. She's big enough to tumble about with now. Funny little creature.
New Year - Not as many people around as usual, but still a good time was had. Truly awful films were watched (this seems to be developing into a New Year tradition, which is somewhat scary), alcohol was drunk and strange rituals were enacted. Success! Apparently my family were busily getting comically trashed, including my brother throwing up on his bed and sleeping in it. Lovely.
Iceland - I'm trying to get a free place on a two month dig in Iceland. Alas there are only six places, but it would be awesome....I can dream.
Assignment - It's coming along in dribs and drabs, whenever I can tear myself away from the internet and D&D books. I have a lot of information, it's just being bothered to gently prod it into place.
Artsy gubbins - I have learnt the truth and joy of inking in drawings. It just makes everything....better. It's wonderful. I've just been sitting going over half my sketchbook, making silly squeaking noises. And thus far I've kept my oath to write a little of my Work of Fiction every day and it is bloating along quite well. Hurrah for hours of nothing to do!

So that's pretty much my life at the moment. Exciting, isn't it? :D

sphinxsinsecret @ 2008-12-06T16:59:00

2008-12-06T17:01:23Z

For I am easily led....

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Cthulu Spawn You are really an alien thing, aren't you? I can't describe you because you are beyond. We say "left field" and you say "Krn Grth Thchrang." You are the wild card of the bunch, the unknown quantity
Demon
Vampire
Werewolf
Sorceror
Incubus/Succubus
Ghost
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

...and a tad peculiar.

The Essay-Beast that creeps in the night...

2008-12-04T23:30:13Z

That would be me. Because that's what I've been doing lately. Lurking in my living room during the bowels of the night, nibbling away at my essay for my Medieval Churches module. It's quite interesting actually, involves access analysis, which required me to reduce Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire to a join-the-dot puzzle. With 53 points. That is a lot of points for this. I'm hoping my supervisor will look at my diagram, faint, then give it a first when she comes around in hospital.

I've been cleaning again, whenever I have the time, and thus delaying my impending poverty. It's still very dull, but at least I'm now the agency's first choice when this job pops up. Better than nowt.

Snow is pretty! Outside has snow. Snow is also a death-trap on Gilesgate bank, but ho hum, every silver lining has a cloud. Christmas is beginning to approach, which is groovy too. I'm rather fond of Christmas. It's shiny and I get stuff.

I've lately become obsessed with the "Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin. It's amazing - the books are vast but I've been devouring them. Now I've run out, until April (unless the next one gets pushed back again). Go read them, now, so I can froth with you.

Not much else going on. The above is pretty time-consuming.

The Week of the Living Dead

2008-11-01T16:48:20Z

Bleeeuurgh, I say to you. Why do I drink mead? It gives me hangovers, even in tiny quantities and I was already screwed enough. Arrrgh.

It all started on Monday evening. I found myself working again. Same job as in September, wandering around the craftblock (I've only just worked out that what the other cleaning stuff are trying to call; T and R are different letters, dammit!) of the miscreant training college on the edge of Durham and vaguely cleaning it each night, for the glorious reward of minimum wage. It's dull and tiring, but as mentally taxing as a 1 dot dot-to-dot puzzle. And time-consuming, since it takes me at least an hour to get there and an hour to get back. All this would be fine if it weren't for one thing.

My degree isn't actually part-time.

It lied to me, the heartless, manipulative bitch. It promises me the wonders of two worlds, a gentle stream of academia to sustain my hungrey mind as I toiled through the harsh plains of Having Some Money. But no, until around April, it's the same violent torrent of research and reading as everyone else is in, dashing my hopes of cash against the rocks of exhaustion. I very specifically didn't want to do a full time masters - it looked hard, I mean, really hard and I didn't think my little brain could cope. Now my little brain has to cope with that as well as accepting that I can't have any money.

So I found myself heading out to my 9am lecture on Tuesday morning, then running around a mound of errands until it was workee time. The same on Wednesday, except this time I had to finish off and give a presentation, before having to leave for work before my class had even finished.

On Thursday there was a surprise trip to Staindrop Church. It wasn't intended as a surprise, but I had somehow missed the memo and was only informed of its existence by my module-mates the day before, crushing all hope of the long-awaited Lie-In. At least I didn't have work on Thursday, just a full day on the science site. At least my supervisor though my proposed poster on witch bottles was a good idea. I've made a resolution - whenever possible, my assignments are to be suitable to be Fortean Times articles. Just because that's interesting.

Up at half six on Friday morning, for inexplicable shift change reasons. It involved different tasks to usual and dragged on somewhat. But at least I came home to the hallowed Nap Time! Hurrah. And as I'd hope, I woke up to find someone else had arranged a Halloween party in my house. Thank you, Helly! Twas a good party with much singing and drinking and saying of cruel and harsh things. There was a pinata, which I didn't think would work, but did without destroying any major household appliances.

I've slept through Saturday thus far and I'm bloody happy about it. Sweet, sweet rest! It was good after the paracetamol, although my dreams involved muppets doing things too dark for muppets to ever do. But I'm going to studiously attempt to forget about that. And split my infinitives as often as possible in a single paragraph.

And you know what? I'm doing a shift every evening next week.

There is no god.

/whine

And now I'm going to satisfy my craving for chicken soup. Mmmm, yummy liquid chicken.

So near and yet so far!

2008-10-24T17:02:54Z

I wandered out of Claypath library, contemplating the bus stop, when I found myself staring at the Gala Theatre adverts. Why not read them? I thought, I'd like to see more theatre. Chess the musical....some tedious looking things...oh, a comedy line-up, that could be interesting.
Nope, nope, nope, would have been good but has already happened...what's this...?

TIM MINCHIN IS PLAYING THE GALA TONIGHT!

I dashed to the Box Office. Maybe there'd be tickets left. I could buy one now, I had enough in my bag. I could call up some mates and drag them to this comic genius. I could see all those youtube videos in the flesh. It would be awesome.

"Sorry. It's sold out."

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

And so I caught the bus, not actually any worse off than I had been, but somehow feeling that I was.

Bugger.

And now that I have five minutes...

2008-10-11T08:46:38Z

I've been busy. I mean, really busy.

Not long after my last post, I jetted off to the obscure land of Herm, the one I've been going on about for months. I had a pretty good time there. It was stupidly warm for late September, with blazing sunshine pretty much everyday. I have a tan...how freaky is that? It takes some effort for me to tan, which is good, since I'm not a fan of tans. But my forearms have betrayed me. Ho hum. The food was great, since we were given money to eat at the island's awesome pub every night. A pretty sweet deal! The digging was rather hardcore, about 8 hours a day of it. But it was interesting and strangely satisfying to dig a trench from the very start to the very end of its existence. A better view of the process than digging in pre-opened or long-standing trenches. It was a neolithic site, so the finds were vastly interesting to me, all flint waste and really grotty pottery. But then I'm not a prehistorian, it's not surprising that I don't care. I made a lot of friends too, a whole raft of undergrads to prod.

See, I'm not an undergraduate anymore. I'm a postgraduate now. Get me. About a week to recover and unpack my room, then I was thrown into registration/introduction/freshers' week flurry. God, it was hectic. Both college and department dragged me in for a couple of days each for various getting-to-know-you events. I am now officially bereft of small talk. I wish to know no more names, subjects or nationalities.

Well, I show probably get back to feeling slightly groggy...I got rather wasted at the Loinfire Club last night. Damned vodka and caramel syrup. Bizarrely tasty and deadly.

Off I go again!

2008-09-13T01:13:59Z

My jet-setting lifestyle is a-go-go again. I've just finished two weeks of working as a night cleaner (exciting stuff!) and am finally heading off to Herm (wot is a Channel Island), for a two week dig run by the university. I'm sure I've explained the horror story theory before - just thought I'd mention that the time has finally arrived. So, I'm vanishing from Durham for a couple of weeks, before being launched into the bewildering array of meetings that make up the first two weeks of my masters. I shall be a busy, busy me.

See you all when I return from the spit of land next to France.

I really should get up and do something....

2008-08-27T09:50:25Z

....but I don't wanna!

Ali and I have just moved back into our house and there is much to do. Naturally the new decor isn't very good - the windows were painted closed and the doors painted open, and there's plaster dust everywhere. We keep trying to do something to the place then stalling in despair. It didn't help that I was ill for nearly all of yesterday. Hopefully I'll get off my arse today. Maybe. We'll see.

I'm just back from a fortnight digging holes in Bamburgh Castle. It was alright - the second week was marred by illness and all I really got to do was scrape Trench 3. I should stop going so late in the season when there's nothing interesting left to do. I did like living in a tent again, but then, I'm strange. To be honest, I may well be done with this 'paying to dig' malarky. I fear poverty will be catching up with me over the next couple of years.

I came back to find exactly zero responses to the 40 or 50 job applications I made in July, which is rather crushing, especially since I'm going to have to start applying again. Job hunting sucks and sucks hard.

Bleugh. Excuse me while I continue my battle of willpower versus laziness.

Thank God, I'm Going To Bamburgh

2008-08-04T18:51:04Z

I'm going. I'm going where the holes are deep, the sea is blue and the animal bones are plentiful.

I've been going slowly crazy over the past five weeks. I've been staying at Jeannette's, which in itself would be enjoyable enough, but I have NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL to do. I've been applying for jobs and getting nowhere. I can't get into the University Library because I'm not a student and I'm limited to what I haven't packed as entertainment. I've degenerated into days of over-eating chocolate and playing World of Warcraft. I've written a lot, surprisingly, as well but still, I need something else to do. Thus I've given up on working this month and have gotten myself a place at the Bamburgh dig for a fortnight, starting next Monday. Picking my stuff out of the garage will be hours of 'fun', since it's packed somewhere in unmarked boxes underneath all Ali's stuff. And Ali has a lot of stuff.

Still I feel better about existence for after a point now. A POINT!

And now my nearby companions are accusing me of blogging our 3YGB ref meeting. And it is lies!

Gratha, Lvl 60 Orc Shama...I mean, Zoe. Yes. Zoe, that is my name.

sphinxsinsecret @ 2008-07-07T12:56:00

2008-07-07T12:23:30Z

Due to failings of memory, I'm only using fairly long-term/memorable characters. I know I've played in a bucket of short-term tabletop games but it's too early to remember anything about them.

Years spent role-playing: 4

Favourite three characters: Dessler, Maud, Tallulah

Least favourite character: Random tabletop characters that were never played again, to the point that I can't even remember them.

Male or female characters: Mostly quite butch females, they just work out that way. Maud is by definition genderless. For my Exalted character, Fox, I gave up all pretence that my characters have a clear gender and played a hermaphrodite. On Saturday, I played a *gasp* bloke, though usually I can't be bothered to do so.

Oldest character: Maud, Tree Extraordinaire. She's nearly three and a half in Maelstrom time!

Newest character: Cinders of Lightless Flame, Nephwrack.

Most popular character: I dunno. Everyone loved Gratha, the cutesy Orc demonologist, probably her then.

Character you've (made and) never played: Endless Maelstrom back-up characters which fell by the wayside for the next improved Thing I Want To Play Next concept. The odd tabletop game that never happened, like the half-elemental Sphinx.

Which character of yours would be most likely to...

Jump off a bridge: Tallulah. Hopefully she can turn into a flying fairy before she hits the bottom, there's only one way to find out.

Get drunk and pass out: Tallulah has. Dessler probably would have it I could have phys-repped it. Fox may yet.

Kill somebody in a very unorthodox way: Tallulah. D&D just has more bizarre ways to kill than any other system.

Get married: Maud got married to Shiny Liability. Now she's a widow. Boohoo.

Be far too hyper for their own good: Tallulah! She's a fey, she can't help it.

Rape somebody: Cinders, my only Evil! character.

Be raped: Tallulah probably, she's the only female in the character party, the game is vaguely anime and there are tentacled monsters out there. You work it out.

Get lost and refuse to ask for directions: Myrkrida. Trolls don't really care where they are.

Get lung cancer: I don't think any of them live in a cancer-containing universe, to be honest.

Star in a horror movie: Cinders. So many horror films have crazy, evil shadow-ghost things.

Star in a video game: Tallulah. The game of the cartoon series we have concluded that that game actually is.

Make the world a better place: Tallulah or Fox, both the heroical types.

Have a torrid gay love affair: Well, you'd have to pick a gender for Fox in order to decide if he/she was being gay at the time. Dessler probably would have, with someone less of a spanner than the only option at the time.

Relate each word to a character of yours:

Love: Tallulah
Hate: Cinders
Money: Dessler (fucking upkeep system...)
Seduction: Gratha, orc-style
Lies: Dessler
Tragedy: Ravenna MacArrag
Manipulation: Maud
Violence: Myrkrida
Politics: Dessler, Maud, Rassikik
Fire: Gratha
Ice: Fox

Would you ever...

Play a prostitute: Mebbe, if I can't think of a better TT character to play, but doubtful. Myrkrida did once have sex in exchange for a cauldron though.
Play a musician: I'd like to, if ever I could be bother to practice my guitar playing again.
Play a pilot: Sure, could be entertaining.
Play a homosexual: Yeah, it doesn't bother me.
Play a paedophile: Not in LARP. To be honest, sexual evil as a primary character evil doens't really interest me.
Play a politician: Yeah, I do enjoy that sort of thing. I have a couple of concepts kicking around.
Create a character for the sole purpose of smut: Lol yes? If a game that it would fit existed.

Book Meme

2008-06-25T20:30:21Z

Is it obvious that I currently have a lot of free time?

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ
5) Strikeout the ones you started but never finished
6) Add an asterisk * if you've read the book more than once.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - I want that month of my life back. Man, reading this was painful.
~~3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte~~ I've had it read to me at school, can vaguely remember what happened.
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling*
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
~~6 The Bible~~ I've read bits here and there, have been meaning to read the rest. Actually getting a copy would help.
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
~~13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller~~ Dull, badly put together piece of shit
~~14 Complete Works of Shakespeare~~ I've only had to endure Macbeth, Merchant of Venice and Romeo & Juliet, thank god.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
~~16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien~~
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis Why is this listed separate from the chronicle, I wonder?
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
~~49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding~~ Read the very start when I finished something in English class early. Was not enthralled.
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson Hail the beloved chancellor! I shall shake his hand on Friday.
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome It is actually physically impossible to be unhappy whilst reading this book
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
~~89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle~~ I've read some of them, but not all.
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare - Again, why is this one separate from the rest?
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

In conclusion, I don't really go for the classics/famous list. I just read random books that look interesting in the library/secondhand store.

Another reason why Mary's sucks

2008-06-25T14:08:25Z

A brief tales of Durham colleges:

I was in the last all-female intake of St Mary's College. This is an unrefuteable fact. The other day I got an email from College, amongst other things congratulating some bint for being the last of the all-female intake to graduate. On Thursday afternoon. I graduate on Friday morning. I emailed it this important information.

The response was basically "yeah, but you should have graduated last year so you don't count". Thank you for being so understanding about the circumstances surrounding my repeated year. I did not take "a year out while doing your degree". Wankers.

So in conclusion, I was the True Last Mary's Girl. Even if the JCR won't admit it.

No matter, I've been accepted into Castle for my Masters. Take that, Mary's. I'm going up in the world and leaving you in the dust. I shall enjoy lounging around in the Castle MCR.

That is my petty gripe for the week. That and my parents whining about having to walk any distance when they come over for my graduation tomorrow. Silly old fogies.

I wanna play the Meme game too

2008-06-20T17:31:22Z

First name: Zoe

Age: 22

Location: Durham

Boyfriend/Girlfriend/Married/Significant Other?: Nope

Brothers/Sisters: Two younger brothers and a younger sister. And four step-brothers for what it's worth. Heaven help me if my dad ever marries his girlfriend....

Pets: A stupid but adorable dog called Toby.

List the 3-5 biggest/most exciting things going on in your life: Graduating, the desparate search for some kind of job, going to Herm in September, starting post-gradness in October

Where and for what did you go to school for?: Durham, Archaeology with Psychology and Random Crap that Looked Interesting at the Time.

Parents? What do they do, where do they live, are you close?: Mum's a stressed housewife; Dad sells business insurance. Well, they ain't close to each other, they split up when I was eight. Nope, can't say I'm close to them either.

Who are some of your closest friends?: Ali & t'other housemates, Jeannette, Pinky & Co.

What were you doing 10 years ago: Being a miserable little girl, I think.

5 things on my to do list for today: Recover from the Dreaded "Walking around Outside", finish a job application.

Things you love to eat: Chocolate, takeaways of many flavours, french bread, pasta dishes, the list is far too long.

Things you are working on: Organising my summer and packing up my room

Where are you going on holiday: Maelstrom, Herm, possibly visit my folks at some point.

What do you hope to achieve with the rest of the year: Earning some quantity of money, being a competent post-grad, more scribbling and doodling and hanging out with my mates

And Another meme.....

1. YOUR SPY NAME (middle name and current street name):

Elizabeth Gilesgate

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME (grandfather/mother on your mom's sides name and your favourite candy):

Betty Cadbury

3. YOUR RAP NAME (first initial of first name and first three to five letters of your last name):

Z -McA (That just doesn't work), Z-Aul, mebbes?

4. YOUR STRIPPER NAME (a favourite colour, a favourite drink):

Purple Tropical Juice

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, and city you were born in):

Elizabeth Aberdeen

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (first three letters of your last name, last three letters of mother's maiden name, first three letters of your pet's name):

McAreytob

7. JEDI NAME (middle name spelled backwards)

Htebazile

8. PORN STAR NAME (first pet's name, the street you grew up on):

Hammy Coates

9. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favourite colour and the automobile your mom drives):

The Purple Car of Some Kind (I don't understand car makes.

10. YOUR ACTION HERO NAME (name of the main character in the last film you watched, last food you ate):

Ray Muesli

Summary of Blue-Arsed Flyedness

2008-06-16T10:58:51Z

I've been running in many crazed circles. I have more crazed circles to run in later, but for now I have a moment and so am going to vaguely attempt to update this bloggy thing.

So. Stuff What I Have Done Lately:

Exams - They never go as well as coursework and tend to leave me cringing somewhat ("Surely I should know more than that by now?"). Thankfully they were only three this year. I thought the psychology one went well, but that means nothing. The Psychology Department are cruel and obtuse bastards. There's no knowing what their evil minds will make of it. The Roman one was alright. I knew things. Some of them may have been relevent. The Medieval one was a bastard though - I hate details, I hate the Anglo-Saxons, but most of all I hate details of the Anglo-Saxons. And alas, that was the focus of the exam. It was like a pub quiz, either you knew the mind-bogglingly obscure trivia or you didn't. On the plus side, I did the whole exam with a quill biro. I felt I had to do it at least once. It's very satisfying to rest the tip on the feather on the tip of your nose while you're thinking.
3YGB - Finally, my 3YGB! I found it pretty entertaining. I got to do many of my favourite things - crazy theories, war councils, worming stuff out of people and being a weird non-human freak. Vetch are awesome. Wererat Vetch are hilarious, even if I couldn't use my awesome shapeshifting powers due to a lack of moonlight that weekend. At least said flangy powers allowed my character and her best mate to escape in downtime afterwards though. All in all, bravo reflings!
Maelstrom - Alas, there was nothing left between my ears by then. My brain crashed right after my last exam and its last reserves were devoured by the 3YGB. Thus I didn't manage to stay up past 11pm and didn't get Time In until 5pm on the Saturday, and even then I just followed Ali around like a zombie. I was picking up on Sunday and I did get to see some cool things happen, like the surrender of Freiboden (yay actual diplomacy!). Hopefully I'll be in better shape next time.
Arranging my life - Curse all the crap I put on hold until the exams. I'm having to do it now. I had one interview for a digger register just before my first exam and haven't heard anything back from them. I also sent a flurry of CVs out to various archaeological companies in the area. No luck there either. I'm starting on more mundane jobs today. I may even start badgering NI digging companies, alas. If I were an optimist, I'd be more disappointed but I haven't really been expecting much success. Getting work around Durham is a bugger. I've also had to start packing away my house, in order to move out during 'refurbishments'. Knowing the cheap-ass slacker that is our landlord, I expect little from the work. It would be nice if the electrcis were of a legal standard and if the carpets were foul, semi-sentient entities. I'm half-expecting the place to fall apart when they start hacking into it. Ho hum, Jeannette's settee for me.
Final Judgement - It comes on Wednesday. I think I've managed a 2:1. I'll be gutted if I haven't. I should have got it but there's always that terrifying, niggling doubt.

So that's my life. Running around, trying to get sorted for the summer. Fingers crossed that I get some kind of work. I rather need it. And hopefully I'll get to sit and veg one of these days, like I thought I would after the exams. So much for that idea.

Urban Dictionary is an accurate place

2008-05-28T21:12:04Z

At some point I will write about my life, but for now I will share a glorious discovery Dom and I have just made. It started with me calling him a taig. He then needed a definition of this. Urban Dictionary provided. And not just a definition of this but of many other Irish insults and wonderful definition, including the best description of my home town that I have ever seen.

See what words of wisdom it has about your life!

May Day is Awesome and is allowed to live.

2008-05-01T12:23:55Z

I've just crashed into my bedpit after a highly entertaining morning. I decided to join many of my friends in the quaint English celebration of May Day. To be honest, I hadn't a great deal of an idea of what May Day was about but it looked like fun (My Wikipedia-based research last night informed me that I should probably be calling it Beltane, thanks to my Irishness).

So I stayed up all night and at four a.m. raided Edain's house for food, along with Many People. Then Many People and I wandered to Prebends Bridge, which for reasons unknown is the stage for Durham's May Day celebrations. There were quite a few people there. Some of them were Morris Dancers. Morris Dancing is very silly, especially the handkerchief variety. The stick variety was a bit more entertaining, but still quite daft. Silly Englishers. Around Morris o'clock I donned my dryad costume, for I had been told that tree-type costumes were the thing to wear to May Day celebrations. This appeared to be a popular move. Some complete randoms came up and asked to have their picture taken with me! The other guy in vague leafiness turned out to be the archaeologist-turned-reproduction-potter that the Queen's Head Quizmaster had been telling me about on Tuesday, in a concidental fashion. So I chatted to him for a bit.

I had been drinking mead thorough this experience. I got a bottle off Katie at the start and was steadily working my way through it. When I headed to Mary's to use the loo at about 7am, the world was somewhat laggy, which I don't believe the world should be. I was sufficiently drunk to text my mother to tell her how drunk I was (don't worry, she didn't mind, she is also a very silly drunk). Alas! I returned to find nearly everyone had left, except a hardcore of my mates who were singing enthusiastically. So I joined them and tucked into the rest of my bottle. I am proud to say that for the first time ever in my life I drank a whole bottle of something (save Carrie taking a couple of swigs). I may keep it as a trophy of this great occasion, at least until I get bored of the bottle. There was much drunken singing and wishing passersby a happy May Day and offering them mead (and editing our songs as school kids went by). I was more drunk than I have ever been in my life. At the end of it, at about 9am I think, I had to hold Rachael's arm in order to get to DSU. Rachael is great.

In said union, Edain, Iasus and I had a very drunken conversation under the amused gaze of Rachael and Kaiser (who, poor boy, had come into Riverside cafe unexpecting of drunken friends). I was drunk enough to discuss Northern Irish politics, that is how drunk I was. Eventually the others vanished, leaving only Edain and I, who camped in General Office until we sobered up enough to face the world. Next was the cathedral, because Edain needed to buy a Cuthbert's Cross for someone in the P.B.'s men. Obviously this meant we had to wander around the cathedral, since we were there and you have to. Edain introduced me to the monks' dormitory, which is an awesome place. It had loads of Anglo-Saxon crosses on display and old books for the cathedral collection (the principia! The second edition of it!) and a generically awesome library (they had the pipe rolls! The publication of the pipe rolls!) where students appeared to be permitted to study. How can I have not known about this all these years? I may have found a future haunt.

Eventually we bussed up the hill and voted on our way home, like good little guardians of democracy that we once were. And now I am in bed. It is a good place. It has been a good day.

I like May Day.

Bwahahaha! I'm back!

2008-04-23T15:21:29Z

Hurrah! I have my own computer again!

My new laptop arrived today and it appears to be a wonderful device. I got back for Italy last week to discover my old laptop was practically unusable, due to its refusal to eat any of tasty electricity. The computer-fixer-man's verdict was that there was so much wrong with it that it wasn't worth the expense of repairing it. And lo, I hunted down a shiny, shiny, shiny new laptop. And Amazon brought it to me this mornng. Joy!

Sometime soon I shall inflict upon you all tales of Italy, but I can't be bothered right now. Revision to do and so on. But all my coursework is finished and handed in. Hurrah!

Mastery shall be mine!

2008-03-26T21:20:04Z

I've just managed to boot up my struggling laptop, mostly by using my housemate's power cable (it's refusing to recognise mine) and it is a most joyous thing that I did. My offer for my master's has arrived! Hurrah! All I need now is a 2:1 and for my referees to get a move on. Since one of my referees is reknowned for never checking his email or returning feedback on time, I'm not surprised about them still awaiting my references. I'm sure he's get around to it eventually. And since I've gotten a 2:1 every other year, I see no reason why I won't get one this year, especially as that's what I've gotten on all the work I've gotten back so far. This might suggest I'm going to be fine.

In short:

Woooohooooo!

Two more years in Durham, prodding Medieval Archaeology. My life is win.

Failstrom in a Galestrom

2008-03-24T13:51:05Z

In theory, I should still be at Maelstrom. In practice I fled home by train last night. It was the point at which I nearly burst into tears twice at the thought of staying another night which made me decide to go.

It was a pretty shitty event from start to finish. None of it was PD's fault, I should mention (other than decided to stick with Easter and thus have a March event). Two things led to my misery: the weather and the lack of Twig.

As I'm sure you've noticed the weekend has been a touch inclement. It's been freezing cold. Just apply that on top of everything that follows - it was bloody cold at all times. Friday night was the night of wind - if I sat up in my tent, the far side of it could move from over my arm's length away to about a hand's length away by bending under the force of the wind. Bless it, Tesco's Cheapest Tent held up well against it, without any damage at all. I love my tent sometimes. If only it were bigger. But anyway, the freezing coldness made sleeping and interesting endevour, and also the only thing left to do. Very soon after dark it became too cold to do anything outside and since we don't have a group tent, going OC was the only real option left. So I spent the night convincing myself that if I didn't look, all my tent would still be in place.

Saturday night was the night of snow. It's not fun to listen to snow coat your tent. It's less fun when you realise your spear has been out there for hours and have to drag it into your tent. It seems to be OK though. Fortunately all of said snow had melted by morning, leaving the place awash with mud.

Climate aside, I was having my own troubles. Ali, who usually plays the other, more competant half of my double act, was ill and hadn't managed to make it. Instead I had a list of people to talk to and vague hints of what to talk to them about. This went poorly. I couldn't sell the stuff I had and I couldn't find the people involved and it was all generally frustrating and rubbish. Added to this, while I was busy being Twig, I couldn't fulfil Maud's usual role of trying to convince the rest of our mob not to be complete nutters. Thus at least two of our small gang are dead (including Maud's dear moron of a husband) and the rest may well be by now. Sigh.

Then on Sunday I started feeling rather ill. It started with a strange queasiness which was in no way affected by eating (thankfully) and increased to dizziness, inability to focus and shivering even when I didn't feel cold (my costume is actually quite cosy). In the end I (and Pinky, for Pinky is great) packed up my stuff, left it by Tim's car and Thorley kindly took me to Birmingham New Street station, where I had the details of a train that my mother had found for me). I fled, home to warmth and take-away and a real bed. It's great. The walls don't even move. I may go and put the heating on. Heat is nice.

So. Maelstrom was a complete failure on all fronts for me. I feel a bit better now, since Ali didn't really care about my abject failure and we remembered at least one other member of our gang didn't go (yay Gareth!). I do wonder what's become of the rest of them. And at least there's a couple of months until the next Maelstrom, during which memories of disaster can fade and enthusiasm can be found again.

Stuff!

2008-03-11T16:20:54Z

Well, I have this thing, so I should probably write in it. I went to, on several occasions and then couldn't be bothered. But now I have, mostly because I'm still in bed, having spent the day thus far reading a novel.

Remarkably, things have happened to me, aside from excessive essay-writing (my bed is currently filled with books on the archaeology of London - fortunately it is a double bed and we can quite comfortably share it without having to interact too much). I am going places. First, there's Maelstrom in a couple of weeks, which is altogether sooner than I had expected. The weekend after that I'm going back to Norn Iron for a few days to assure my family I'm not dead, or whatever reason it is they like to see me every now and then. Hopefully I can rattle a few Euros out of people while I'm there (hmmm...if I could convince my friends that we should go to Dublin for a day, two birds could be killed with one stone....), because the weekend after that is my trip to Italy. This is proving awkward, as Ali, now employed, can't come. Nor can Cherith, an old schoolfriend o' mine, due to relative-visitation. Jeannette is the current travelling companion, though I'll have to mug her with the details some time soon. But hurrah! Italy! Pretty foreign stuff!

In September, I have another trip. I've gotten a place on a dig. An unpaid place granted, which mildly annoyed my father, but still it should be interesting consisting the location - a channel island called Herm, just off Guernsey and with a population (according to the wikimobile) of 60. We're heading off to prod Neolithic tombs. I has been pointed out to me that I have in fact signed up for a horror film :

"An aging professor and a dozen students arrive on a remote island, intent on digging up long lost graves. Between the strange, insular islanders and unspoken nightmares beneath the soil, the foolish archaeologists are trapped in a horror beyond their imaginations..."

Well, no, I've heard the islanders are very nice and that Anglo-Saxon brat I bagged up last summer hasn't come back to haunt me yet. Still living on a tiny island (1.5 x 0.5 miles) for two weeks should be an interesting experience. Speaking of which, I should really start thinking about when I'd like to go to Bamburgh Castle again, because I would like to. Thing is, there's that nagging need to find a Real Job during the summer. Mostly embodied by my father, but I've internalised it to some degree. I should really start pestering digging units around Durham.

On the other hand, I do have to move out of my house for a while as it's going to be done up a bit (in as far as our landlord understand the term. Making the wiring legal would be nice) and into a tent on the coast is as good a place as any to live. That and someone has to drag Barnus out to do his second year fieldwork requirement (much rolling of eyes). I suppose I should probably find out when my house is being fixed ... why this livejournaling business is a wonderful source of inspiration on how to run my life...

So there. I'm going to be out for some time this year. But today I may well just stay in bed, for it is warm and cosy.

Chocolate makes the world go round...

2008-02-27T12:54:54Z

....and also makes the Zoe go rounder, but hey, it's getting the essays done. That's pretty much my life at the moment. Eat chocolate, write essays. Oh and play World of Warcraft, stupid addictive game. Nicely brain-numbing though, after all the hard, academical thinking.

I fail at earthquake detection. My bed shook for a short while and I assumed it was because of my next door neighbour (there were crashes from her room, obviously she was doing something). And then LiveJournal enlightened me.

All this talk of macros has inspired me. Well, given me a stupid idea...This incident amused me no end.

moar funny pictures

The King of Spain gives some politician good advice. (See my grasp of politics!)

Film Meme. Me too! Me too!

2008-02-14T11:21:18Z

I'm killing time, so I'm doing Edain's film meme thingy. The game is (lost) to go to IMDB, get a quote from each of your fifteen favorite films and have people guess which films they are. I'm rubbish at having a list of favourite anythings so this is the first 15 cool films I think of.

1. " What? Never had gemstones in your craw? "
   "I never had a craw. "
Lorannah wins! The Flight of Dragons

2. "You're barking mad."
    "The years, no doubt, have changed me. "
Mozo Zierski succeeds! Sweeney Todd

3. "R**, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"! "
Come on, people! You can get this!

4. "You're just going to have to figure out what it wants. What is its motivation?"
   "It's a rock monster. It doesn't have motivation."
    "See, that's your problem, J****. You were never serious about the craft. "
Athenegenia gets it! Galaxy Quest

5. "My guts are out C***!"
     "We'll just put 'em back in then!"
     "They're not gonna fucking fit!"
      "Of course they'll fit, man! "
Victory for Felix! Dog Soldiers

6. "Won't they be impressed, I am a ge-ni-ous! See how I transform this old rat inTO a most deLIGHTful hat! "
Lorannah wins again! The Nightmare Before Christmas

Bah, I'm bored now. I may add more later.