How are we?

[Vivia]

No hangover this year, and this without any medication in my system (meds and alcohol do not mix, I know this the hard way). It was either dance or drink, and I choose to dance until 5 am.
As I said before, this year it was a bit of both good and bad: NYE was really fun with the entire family, but with far too much alcohol at hand, I didn't think it was possible to say such words.
The worst part is it when people can't hold their drunk in check, especially as they descend into a depressive state of drunk and then their whole childhood/life must be brood and cried over, someone brought up something quite upsetting from my childhood to me. It was so disturbing, and thus I fled by taking a rather costly taxi trip home, it was worth every penny, though. I had a crying attack later that day, it did help.

I quote Jack Donaghy from Audition Day in 30 Rock:
"I'd never been to an audition before. It was upsetting. A grotesque carnival of human misery."

[J D Dunsany]

It's Mrs D's 50th today, so we're off out to spend her money and do other various celebration-related things.

Christmas and New Year have both been good. I feel quite rested. So, yeah, all in all, not bad.

LotN, that sounded quite awful. I hope things improve for you and your mother this year.

All the best,

JDD

[David Earle]

Combination sick/snow day. Drove an hour and a half to take my son into daycare - it's normally a 30 minute drive at worst. The mid-Atlantic really can't cope with snow properly, it fuses some vital circuit in our heads.

[J D Dunsany]

No snow, but crikey it's cold! This otherwise unremarkable meteorological phenomenon was today exacerbated by the stubborn refusal of the school's heating system to function in anything like a sensible manner. The English department office possesses a radiator, true, but I'm assuming its presence is purely ornamental. The chap who's replacing our second in department for the duration of her maternity leave spent much of the afternoon filling the aforementioned office with the fragrance of Beechams Hot Lemon and Honey. I like him already.

In other news, the sixth former who's going to be DM-ing an evil Pathfinder campaign for his friends after school on Friday was regaling me with details about their characters, while I was on back gate duty. While I'm pleased for him, I'm mildly aggrieved that I've had to give the RPG club up. I blame Ofsted, personally, but then I blame them for most things...

[sam vimes]

Just took my house mates anti-depressants off him he's just took six in 15 mins there one a day tablets, he and his gf have just had a HUGE row he did a stupid, but that aside I think I saved his life now I've left him alone as he requested as last thing I want to do is force help on him given his current state of mind, so I feel good and bad atm.

[Vivia]

I have been happy with taking my daily walks, I even managed to walk around 9 km last week despite the bad weather and all the ice, this isn't possible every winter. The weather is kind of crazy and because the snow keeps melting there is quite a lot of ice on the streets all the time, and I decided to finally invest in foot grippers for my jogging shoes, regular snow boots aren't that good for walking, they're clunky. Foot grippers are a huge improvement, I don't have to worry about avoiding certain forest trails, I climbed a hill mostly covered in icy snow. But because I walked so much in my regular boots my knees are in bad shape, now they feel like sandpaper and it looks like I have to rest for a bit longer than I thought.
This winter has been such a bummer.

[Major Rawne]

Super excellent.

[Vivia]

Me too. Knee pain is gone! Also, I have taken to wear lots of make-up again, I had forgotten how much fun it was. Success! Make way for cheapo cosmetics!

[Xisor]

I threatened to call security on my boss today, in front of his boss's boss and the boss from another team.

He suggested putting lime juice instead of lemon with sugar on pancakes.

[Vivia]

The world has gone mad.

[sam vimes]

Biting down on the urge to shout at someone on facebook, they are always posting that there ill and taking sick days were we work yet that never stops her taking her daughter out or somehow magically getting better for weekend piss ups and she only works two days a week.........

[Lord of the Night]

I threatened to call security on my boss today, in front of his boss's boss and the boss from another team.

He suggested putting lime juice instead of lemon with sugar on pancakes.

Someone would have done it. Such things cannot be tolerated, they are but a small step towards The End.

Myself?? I am ecstatic right now, why is that you ask? Because of this;



Invader Zim, aka the greatest cartoon ever created, is coming back in comic book form. 'Tis glorious news indeed.


LotN

[SIngemeister]

I'm going to be in a show at the Edinburgh Fringe! So that's me happy.

[Vivia]

After much back and forth, I'm in therapy for my dissociations, it's both hard work and a relief. One of the main culprits is the internet, it triggers my ADHD and then things turn ugly from there, as my therapist said it's high price to pay. This means I have to regulate my time online, like a lot. Goodbye, cruel world. Not surprising, I have felt much relief from taking time off, but it still a work in progress.

[sam vimes]

Feel like banging my head on a wall at times with this crap I'm deeply irritated at humans atm

When did the world get so whipped and over sensitive?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A__DmIa-KEs

[Athelassan]

Feel like banging my head on a wall at times with this crap I'm deeply irritated at humans atm

When did the world get so whipped and over sensitive?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A__DmIa-KEs

While any further discussion should probably take place in the DL I did watch some of the video, but bailed out after ten minutes, and was not terribly impressed with "Sargon's" commentary.

On the first topic, the disease naming, I do agree in principle that it's a bit silly but I can absolutely see the reason behind it. During the swine flu pandemic, the Egyptian government butchered thousands of pigs, using the disease (and its name) as an excuse to suppress one of the freedoms of the Coptic minority. In the US, an attempt to rename the disease "Mexican Flu" caused outrage among the large Mexican community. Where different groups live somewhat uneasily alongside one another, giving one more cause to hate another, or even just a pretext, is rarely wise.

On the second, the "Englishness" debate, I had previously read that article and had thought it raised some good points. The commentary, which consisted largely of reading out paragraphs and then exclaiming "this is ridiculous!" or "for bleep's sake!" or just directly insulting the author, seemed to be rooted in the idea that what Mason was saying was self-evidently ridiculous, which it isn't. He raised no real counterarguments except at the end when he mentioned a handful of kings responsible for unifying the kingdom (two of whom were foreign, and despite the extreme generality of his approach he didn't even get the details right). Even the most cursory research into national identity would reveal that language is right at the centre of how nations define themselves and his scoffing at the idea that Englishness is based around the English language made him look very ignorant. French was a fun choice as a secondary example given the history of the French language and its ties to the idea of nationhood, too.

I'm sure there are many things in the news worthy of closer examination - or mockery. This manner of doing so did not convince me, and left me even more annoyed and despondent than the original concepts would have done if left alone.

Ath

[Xisor]

I'm going to be in a show at the Edinburgh Fringe! So that's me happy.

Good gravy, doing what? And where? And when? (Well, August, obv, but more specifically!)

---

I am puckled. Something not quite right has been leaving me all over the shop recently. Erratic, moody, sleepless, inarticulate; but also sometimes possessed of insane resolve and... strange conviction. But also with a brain as useful at intelligenting as a skull filled with mashed potato.

[Chun the Unavoidable]

That sounds like business as usual for me.

[SIngemeister]

I'm going to be in a show at the Edinburgh Fringe! So that's me happy.

Good gravy, doing what? And where? And when? (Well, August, obv, but more specifically!)
.

Acting in a very, very, VERY dark play a friend of mine wrote. theSpace on the Mile, Theatre 3. 25th - 29th of August.

[sam vimes]

A shame you didn't see the so called harassment bit Ath you'd have laughed your arse off, I quite like sargon watching these vids reminds me not to take life to seriously.