The Blog - The Archive

   This is why I have no faith in the medical profession...

1. Sunday I woke up with a blocked ear. Decided to live with it and got on with life.
2. Wednesday I said "bugger that" and went to the medical centre. Doctor #1 said that I had a build up of wax (I thought "really? okay") and that I should buy these expensive ear drops, put them in my ears each night then come back on Friday to get my ears syringed.
3. Did not sleep Wednesday and Thursday nights due to sloshing in ear (and pain last night).
4. Went to medical centre again this morning. Doctor #2 said that I had a middle ear infection, no sign of ever having any wax in my ears at all and that he was disappointed in the other doctor for the misdiagnose. Now I have a nasal spray (and a prescription for antibiotics if the bacteria don't drain when the congestion does).

I just want to go home.

Labels: losing sleep, sickly-Cat

   Engagement Parties (rambling)...

So, I've been to a few engagement parties in the last couple of years, and every time I ask the bride-to-be if they're expecting gifts. I'm usually answered by a "huh?" at this point, but I only ask because I remember gifts being given at engagement parties during my childhood.

This morning I did the sensible thing and asked my mum, because obviously she'd know if I was going crazy and making things up. The good news is I wasn't (hooray!) and that way back in the 80s when she and her sisters were getting married it was custom to bring a gift to the engagement party if you weren't invited to the wedding. It seems that the engagement party was the one that absolutely everyone you had ever met attended, and only close family and friends went to the wedding and reception. So your second cousin once removed would bring a gift to the engagement party, but the best friend wouldn't because they'd be bringing something to the wedding itself.

(These days wedding showers exist to be another source of gifts, but I haven't been to any of those yet, so I can't comment.)

Labels: chasing after butterflies and wishing I could fly, ms manners, weddings

   Summary of my week...

I've had a migraine, and a tummy bug (which may have been self-diagnosed as an allergy to goat's cheese, but I'm not sure I want to test that). I've done bugger all at work.

But I did fix my family's broken ps2, and I've almost finished FFX, so maybe I don't completely suck after all.

Labels: cait sith, never going to graduate, playstation, sickly-Cat

   Oh my...

I just found myself a list of goals for doing my PhD. Among them I found:
10. Testing - reproduce K&K's results - January '05.
I was only out by a month and three years.

Labels: deadlines hurt my brain, never going to graduate, phd

   More on just how much I rock...

The science behind these images requires a lot of explaining, but the images themselves are easy to explain: they're my results (in red) pasted over the results of the guys whose work I've been duplicating. (I haven't done the middle sections because they're not that important and they're more image editing that I'm too lazy to do *grins*.) Purple is the expected solutions that things are meant to tend towards (and where you can't see purple, it means things exactly overlap).

Labels: happily ever after, iCatherine, never going to graduate, phd

   Yeah, I rock...

After 4 years (-2 days) and much heartache, I finally, finally got my code to match the results of those dudes who came before (to 1%, which is very good all things considered). I think that means I win.

Now I suppose it's time for some original research.

Labels: happily ever after, never going to graduate, phd, reaffirming my faith in humanity

   Internet manners...

Just a random thought: if you're on a message board, posting in a thread entitled 'spoiler thread for new book', I really don't think it's necessary that absolutely every post within said thread should be enclosed in spoiler tags. If you were in 'random theories about new book' it would make sense to use spoiler tags, but when the only thing not in the tags is everyone's signatures it just makes it hard work to read and there's no way I'd want to join in.

Labels: ms manners, obernewyn, the internet is for porn

   A thought experiment...

Close your eyes for a moment and think about the Harry Potter books. The first ones were great, and a new one came out every few years as soon as the author finished writing it.

Then imagine that the author got to the end of the penultimate book and got distracted, and she wrote a whole bunch of other books from different stories, instead of the ending of the series that made her famous. And that the two year wait between books became three years, then four, then five and eventually you just decided that you'd give up on waiting and check the internet every six months or so to see when the final book would come out.

Then imagine that finally you find an announcement saying that the book is done and due in a few months and you start getting so excited that you barely even notice the caveat ("it's not the last book in the series, really sorry about that, but I'm done on the last one as well, I just didn't notice how long it was getting"). You realise that in another six months you will finally know how this story will end, and you've been waiting for that since you were 14 and first hooked on this book.

And then there's an announcement: "Sorry guys, but I missed the editing deadline, it'll be another few months", and that'll make it nine years since the last book, but it's okay, because finally you'll know if the good guys make it through.

Then imagine that you snuck off work early yesterday, because there were rumours on the internets that a few bookstores had put it out already (even though the official release is monday), and now you have the (second-to-last,-but-at-least-the-last-is-done) book in your possession, but you have to suffer through a day of work before you get to read it.

*rolls eyes*

All I have to say is that this better be an improvement over book 4, Isobelle, because I've been waiting since I was a kid for this book and I'm going to be really unhappy if it's just more filler.

Labels: books, isobelle carmody, misfits, obernewyn