Friday, March 31, 2006

MyDeathSpace.com

I can't decide if this website is a touching memorial to those who have died, or just really, really morbid and sick. I'm leaning towards the latter.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

One down, one to go

I had a powercut last night! The power went off round about 7.30pm, just as it was getting dark and I only have a couple of candles! Not exactly conducive to studying the night before an exam! I tried to study for another hour and a half or so, then gave up. Made my dinner (praise the gas hob!) and went to bed at 10pm. According to my alarm clock, the power came back on round about 2am.

The exam wasn't terrible. It wasn't great, but it could have been much worse. I think most of what I did was correct, it's just whether I did enough or not. I was running out of time and was struggling to finish the questions I'd left to go back to. So it could really go either way. But I at least felt like it went better than the other two (have I mentioned that I've failed this particular exam twice already?).

My lovely boss gave me the afternoon off, not taken out of study leave or holidays or anything. People usually have to go into the office after a morning exam, but I didn't. Yay! I'm having the rest of the day free from studying though. I plan to clean. This place is driving me mad! It's not disgusting or anything, but it just needs dusted and swept and washed and I just haven't had time for a big clean for ages. Little bits and pieces, here and there, but I want to gut the place!

But, for now, I am going to have some lunch. And possibly lie down in a dark room because my head is pounding.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Crunch Time

I have three folders for the subject I'm currently studying. One contains all of the notes for the subject, another contains question banks, tutorials, etc and the other contains a large bank of past paper questions with fully worked solutions. I usually have only one folder, sometimes two, open at any one time. Usually one of the question folders, and sometimes the notes folder when I have to read through the theory again.

You know it's crunch time when ALL of the folders are lying open, with me rifling through the question folders to find questions I haven't already done and diving into the notes folder because I've suddenly forgotten how to do everything!

Not to mention the yanking out of the hair and the banging of the head against the desk.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Mother's Day

You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back.
~ William D. Tammeus

Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected.
~ Red Buttons

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.
~ Tenneva Jordan

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.
~ Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
~ Aristotle

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.
~ Honore de Balzac



When you're a child she walks before you,
To set an example.

When you're a teenager she walks behind you
To be there should you need her.

When you're an adult she walks beside you
So that as two friends you can enjoy life together..


~ Author Unknown



Happy Mother's Day, Mum. I love you.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Badness/Goodness

Badness: Losing an hour of sleep the weekend before my exams start because the clocks jump forward.

Goodness: Treating myself to season 1 Angel after a hard days studying.

Badness: Illness the weekend before my exams.

Goodness: New music (thanks, Jess and Annika, for the Pixies suggestions).

Badness: Studying at home for the past week and being completely out of the loop about the stuff happening at work.

Goodness: Studying at home for the past week and being completely out of the loop about the stuff happening at work!

Badness: Giving up chocolate and coffee and fizzy juice for Lent. Man, am I craving a skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks!

Goodness: Strawberry trifles from Marks and Spencers.

Badness: Over-active emotions.

Goodness: Sleep. Sweet, sweet sleep!

Badness: Exams.

Goodness: Exams being over in less than two weeks!

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Confession Time

I've been cheating on the WD.

With The Leaky Lounge. Yes, I know. My Harry Potter obsession knows no bounds.

I've joined other forums before, but usually made no posts, or just one or two before I gave up because everyone was so scary. I made a few posts on Leaky, and while people didn't seem too scary, it was very overwhelming! That site is huge! I don't remember the WD ever being that big, but then Harry Potter is probably a bigger fandom than Buffy ever was.

I was all ready to give up on it, but they've brought in these reading groups now, where they're re-reading and holding discussion about the books, one at a time. The groups are very contained and much more manageable, so I think I'm going to stick with it for a while. I've already had a couple of good discussions, and I've only joined a group today!

Just don't tell the WD. I don't want to hurt it's feelings.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

I've just had a hot bath. Really hot. The kind of hot where you have to lower yourself in really slowly to stop the water from scalding you! The kind of hot where there's no need to use a body scrub, because the water burns off the dead skin cells anyway!

It was fantastic! Now I feel all clean and fresh!

And reason number 1,863 why it's good living on your own:

You can leave the bathroom door open so that you can listen to music while just lying there!

The Big Red Button


I thank Steve for this game.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Starlight Express

Yesterday was my ex-flatmate's birthday and, in true Yvonne style, we didn't celebrate it in the usual few-drinks-in-a-bar way. No, Yvonne decided that for her 26th birthday, she wanted to go to a.......ROLLER DISCO! That's right. And not the inline skates. The old-fashioned two by two skates!

It was brilliant! We'd gone to her house for a few drinks before, so by the time we actually got to the club, we were quite merry. Some moreso than others because that was the only way they'd go roller skating! But the skating was great. Hilarious at first, with everybody trying to find their balance and remember how to do it. I haven't roller skated for about 15 years, but I'm a pretty good ice-skater, so I thought I'd be fine. Not a chance! Same basic principles, completely different in practice! By the time I left, I'd just about mastered the skating, but stopping was still a bit of an issue. Although, I was able to go up to the bar at one point and carry four drinks back! Whoo!

I would really have liked to stay longer, but I had to leave around midnight in order to get the last tube home, otherwise a taxi would have cost £60. My first taste of the pain of living so far out. Not to worry. Any other time, and I've had stayed out and got the bus that takes hours, but I really needed to study today, so I was trying to be sensible.

But it was a good night. Something different!

Friday, March 10, 2006

Security and Freedom

There's an interesting discussion on the WD at the moment here, regarding what we think is more important: safety or freedom. I'll admit that my first thought (and what I voted for) was freedom, but now I'm not so sure. There are some very convincing arguments for the side of safety, or at least for a balance between safety and freedom. Admittedly, the poll was a strict blank and white: safety or freedom, with no room for a balance. But I think if I had to vote again, I'd come down more on the side of safety. Freedom is all well and good, but the fact that we can speak our minds about what we want without too much fear of a backlash goes to show just how much we take our safety for granted. There are countries in the world who would gladly give up some of their freedom in return for feeling safe to walk down the street.

I get that it's now the "cool" thing to do to rail against the government and corporations, and say that they're taking security measures too far and infringing our freedom, but now we're going too far. We pick up on the smallest thing and blow it way out of proportion.

Take this news article for example. An older woman was asked to remove her hat in a pub near Cambridge so that her face could be seen on the CCTV cameras. Why the big bruhaha? This is a very common thing that happens almost everywhere. Hats, motorcycle helmets, anything that can obscure a person's face are often used by criminals or troublemakers so that they can't be identified on CCTV. I don't think it's unreasonable for an establishment to ask people to remove them.

Another thing that gets me about this story is that a big deal is made about her being a "Women's Institute stalwart" and a "retired teacher", as if that should make a difference. It shouldn't. In fact, hats off (pun intended) to the pub for enforcing the policy, despite it being a "nice old lady". Making exceptions for people just because they don't "look" like they would do anything bad is a form of prejudice. A rule for one should be a rule for all.

One ring to rule them all....

Sorry. Wrong post!

Thursday, March 09, 2006

I crack myself up sometimes

I have a study day today and I woke up at half past one. In my extremely stressed out state at the moment, I nearly had a fit.

"Oh my god! How could I have slept in so late? I set two alarms! How did I sleep through them both? Oh my god, I'm so going to fail my exams! How the hell did this happen?!"

After cursing that I couldn't get the huge mug of coffee I wanted to wake myself up (I've given it up for Lent) and getting dressed, I went into the spare room to start studying. It was at this point that I noticed things were quite dark. Darker than I would have expected for early afternoon. I tweaked the curtains and had a look outside. Absolutely dead.

It was 1.30AM!

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Picture of the moment

This picture never fails to make me smile, which is why it's my screensaver. My boys have been bumped for a couple of dogs. Sorry guys! And it's spookily appropriate today.

Emailed to me by dad, who has never cursed in front of any of his daughters. Ever.

Bad day. Bad, bad day.

Once again though, it's one of those days that I can't really talk about. But by the time I left work I was extremely frustrated, and alternating between wanting to cry and wanting to scream obscenities at the top of my voice. Since then, Pottercast and an Indian takeaway has helped soothe me.

But still:

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Test 2

Another test, using Helen's method. Let's see.

That's better! Thanks Helen!

Testing photo posting


My boys
Originally uploaded by eileenflaughlin.

How does this flickr work then?

Anybody know how to change the border around the photo so that it's a different colour?

OK, I've managed to figure out how to change the colour, but now my links have gone to pot and I don't know why!

Monday, March 06, 2006

Exam Blues

Wow. Exam BluesTM have hit with full force. I'm completely fed up and have absolutely no motivation to study. I had a very bad weekend, study-wise, and now I just feel incredibly guilty. I actually felt guilty about it at the time, but nothing I could say or do to myself seemed to make me really focus. I've realised that part of it probably has something to do with what's going on at work, because I don't know if it's worth carrying on with the exams. In fact, I've pretty much decided that I don't want to be an actuary "when I grow up", but it seems really stupid to give up the exams now. I'd have nothing to show for the last three and half years. I have some exams under my belt, but they mean nothing, collectively. A few more exams would get me the Diploma in Actuarial Techniques, but the order that I have to do my exams in would make it awkward for me to get that within the next two years.

I'm feeling really withdrawn. I'm avoiding my friends in London, for some reason unknown to even me (actually it's probably because they're all trainee actuaries, so talking to them just stresses me out) and being really quiet at work. Even when I call home because I'm feeling a bit homesick (another symptom of the Exam BluesTM), I find myself either not having anything to say, or not having the energy to say anything. Which makes a phone call, a bit dull.

Sorry if this sounds like a pity party. But that's because it is. It's my blog, and I'll cry if I want to!


Don't worry, I'm not crying. I just feel a bit flat is all.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

D'oh!

I slept in this morning. I have two alarms (because I know what I'm like!). So when my alarm went off at 8.15am, I rolled back over for a doze because I knew that my second alarm would wake me up at 8.30am. Next thing I knew, it was 10.20am! Crap.

I get up, do my day stuff (not very well I might add, but that's another story), then go to have a bath before I settle down for the night. I'm lying in the bath, and I hear my alarm go off in my room. At 8.30pm.

D'oh! I hate digital alarms.

Friday, March 03, 2006

Barenaked Obsession

It turns out that Lewis has german measles, which is better than measles but still pretty crap. Poor baby.

My current consumption (to steal a phrase from Amanda) is the BNL Podcast. For someone that didn't really understand the concept of podcasts in November, I now subscribe to a hell of a lot of them! But this one is good because, if you've ever been to a BNL concert, you'll know how funny these guys are! Plus, they're recording a new album just now and keep playing clips of new songs, which is a great bonus.

I'm making my way through the House boxset just now. I'm really enjoying it. I have a few niggles about the show, but I still love it. Quite strange because the niggles are quite major ones that would normally put me off a show, so I can't quite put my finger on why I like it so much. But I do. I just watched the episode Detox, which is easily my favourite episode so far.

Hmm, what else? I promise I will get some photos of my flat up soon. I've been promising them since I moved in, I know. I just haven't had the time. But my sofabed is being delivered tomorrow, so once I get the spare room sorted, I'll try to get some pics up. Promise. Really.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Oy!

Now another of my babies is poorly. Lewis has either measles or german measles (we'll know if it's measles if he spikes a feaver tonight). Apparently it's not bothering him too much though. He has a bit of a rash above his nappy, but he seems fairly happy. Let's hope he stays that way. Poor wee pup.

In other news. I had my hair cut tonight. Not as dramatic as Sharon's transformation, but I still like it. I think.

Before

After

My Poor Baby - Part 2

Clarence is home. He's all better now, but still not feeling quite himself. All his bits and pieces are here and working, but he's missing all the extras that make him him. It'll take a while until he's back to normal, but I'm just happy to have him home!

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Someone up there must read this

After I made the last entry, I decided that stressing out about calling the estate agent was pointless. I was worried at the prospect of calling him, so why not just do it and get it over with. I called him and he was as annoying and slimy as ever, but since I'm not going to be able to get an engineer out till April, he's going to get one of the landlord's guys to come and check it out again. But it's done. One less thing to worry about.

Then I got home and not only had the recycling bin been emptied of the cardboard, the nice binmen had picked up the rest of the cardboard that was sitting by it in black bags. even though the woman on the phone insisted they couldn't possibly do that because it was against their policy. Yay!

Then I had a very productive study session. Very focused and I was actually learning and taking stuff in. Which did a lot to ease my exam panic. Now if I can just keep this up.

Then, while eating dinner, I watched the first couple of episodes of my brand new House boxset! Eeee!

So after a stressful day, I actually went to bed feeling pretty good.