it's just the coffee talking
Changed the background of my WP theme – what do you think? I’m a bit crap with Photoshop, as you can tell. The bike photo came from here, the other photo is of my dog and I can’t remember where the beach photo came from but I’ve had it for ages; even used it on a previous theme, as I recall.
Of course, you know I’ll get bored and change the theme again in a couple of weeks.
So, yeah. Hello. I’ve seriously been neglecting this blog lately (and by the way, this new theme is only temporary; something was messing with the layout of the old one so I’m using this until I can find something more “me”). Not much going on really – I almost bought myself a flat but the estate agent stitched me up and sold it to someone else. Still, these things happen for a reason. There’s another one I’ve got my eye on but it doesn’t have a garden and I do like a bit of fresh air from time to time; though it does have space for window boxes so I could compromise.
Almost six months on and dad still isn’t speaking to me and even went so far as to totally ignore me when we passed in the street the other day – well, he managed quite an aggressive glare, so didn’t ignore me totally. Bruv’s already moved away and sis is following him next month, and I don’t want to be stuck looking after the miserable git in his old age so I’m making myself scarce. I think if mum had her way she’d sell the house and move away from him too.
I’m thinking of doing away with my fanlistings. Keep ending up on the ‘troubles’ list because I don’t update them often enough and, to be honest, it’s a hassle that I could do without. If anyone wants to take them over then please let me know; otherwise I’ll probably close them as soon as the domains come up for renewal. I’m trying to cut back on my online time and do something more productive with my precious days off – though at the moment I’m working on a new site for robinsachs.com (it’s coming along sloooooowly, but I feel bad because I should’ve finished it months ago) and there’s still my photoblog site to be updated and because of that I’ll probably ditch my Flickr account and maybe my listing over at 43Things (the fact I’ve barely achieved anything I set out to do shows how pointless it is to keep it.) I’ll still have this blog and Twitter, but thank god I never signed up for Facebook.
Oh, remember I posted previously about my work BFF being suspended? They sacked him. Gutted :(
Did you miss me? Think I got just bored with blogging for a time. I’m definitely bored with this layout but (thanks to Vixx) hopefully it’ll be getting a bit of a makeover shortly so that’ll motivate me to update more often. But not much has been going on in the meantime, as you can see:
1. Work are are happy to let me do a job that’s above my current grade, but aren’t actually willing to promote me and pay me extra money. Gits. And we’re not having a Christmas party or getting any kind of bonus. Boooo! Scrooge!
2. My Open Uni course is going fairly well, although I didn’t realise quite how much time would need to be spent doing online projects and participating in forums. But I got a good mark for my first essay (69%) so I’m happy with it so far.
3. Still can’t afford to move out into “affordable housing”. The council said that since I’m not (a) homeless and at risk (b) a single parent or (c) an asylum seeker then they weren’t able to give me help with housing other than to suggest I rent a bedsit and claim housing benefit. Hmmm, useful. Then I spoke to a mortgage adviser who said he would look into the schemes available to people on low wages and get back to me by the end of the day. That was four days ago :\
4. All my Christmas shopping is done. Go me! I do heart the internet, got all my pressies without leaving the house.
5. Saw Paranormal Activity (the film I mean, not an actual ghost) – will review it here shortly if I ever get my arse in gear.
And lastly…
6. Got oddly annoyed by this story. I used to work at events such as this, up until I sort of lost interest in the whole convention scene a couple of years back. Anyhow, never ones to let the truth get in the way of a good story, The Sun seem to be inferring that it’s the celebrity guests who are raking in all the money by charging their fans 15-20 quid a pop for autographs when in fact that’s not always the case; many guests receive a flat fee for appearing and in turn the organisers take all the proceeds from their autograph and photo sales. I’ve even known a few guests to give the money from their autograph sales to charity (admittedly they are quite few and far between, though.) I’m not saying that it’s wrong to criticise events such as this; much as I love a good perv over John Barrowman I’m not sure I’d be willing to fork out £20 just to meet him for a few seconds. But I’m also not sure I like the way attendees are considered to be “sad” for going to this sort of event – obviously not everyone can be a sexy geek like me, but why is it considered socially acceptable for football supporters to buy season tickets, go to matches every week, spend a fortune on replica team shirts and other memorabilia, and yet it’s “sad” for a fan of, say, Dr Who or Star Wars to want to meet someone from the cast? If you think it’s sad then don’t bloody go. Simple as that.
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