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MT Phooone Hooome

So I finally started getting texted SIM updates yesterday afternoon, and now my new phone works!

Time to start playing!



"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." - Western Union internal memo, 1876

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Phony Yah Boo Sucks

I was just about to send out a text on my phone when I noticed it said SIM Not Active on it. Yup, they deactivated the SIM in my current/old phone with no warning whatsoever. They said I'd get a message telling me about it. No sign of one. And even worse, the new one has still not been activated. So I'm currently without a working mobile phone, until who knows when.

Damn annoying.



"If the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me" - Jimmy Buffet, Song Title

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Phony

So I got myself a new phone yesterday.

I upgraded myself from my Samsung A300e (a good little flip phone, the one with the round display on the outside) to a nifty keen Samsung V200. Yep, the one with the gorgeous colour screen, polyphonic ring tones and the one-eighty degree rotating camera. It's pretty damn sweet so far, save for one minor blip: Orange has yet to send the messages to turn off my old SIM card and activate the new one with the same number. Some transaction failed to go through, or something. I waited for a whole twenty four hours before calling them up, and I've got to wait for at least another twenty four before it might all happen.

Looks ace though. Yeah, as a paperweight. I want my new phone to work!



....In other news.... Regarding that big worry/paranoia/adult thingummy from last Tuesday, the end result was "okay" rather than not. Scare over. Which is good.



"Remember that as a teenager you are at the last stage of your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you." - Fran Lebowitz (1950 - ), Social Studies (1981)

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And it's our old friend the Friday Five again.

1. How are you planning to spend the summer?

I'd like to go on some sort of holiday, but not sure where to, either in the UK or maybe even abroad. I think I deserve on, though. For some reason, the idea of surfing spins though my head on occassion, which for anyone who knows me is immensely laughable.

2. What was your first summer job?

I worked one August in "Gulliver's Kingdom", a horrible little supposed theme park in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire. Not exactly themed, though. The rides were deathtraps and the people running it had no clue about safety or customer and employee relations. Cheapskates. The rollercoaster, such as it was, wobbled dangerously on one corner. And the strangest thing, a rocket-type thing on hydralics that moved around allegedly in time to the 'exciting' film running inside, broke one time with all the people in it. The hydralics went and it thumped down to earth, trapping everyone inside for hours. Scary.

3. If you could go anywhere this summer, where would you go?

Somewhere warm, with a cool pool/sea and interesting places to see. And places to just lounge around all day.

4. What was your worst vacation ever?

The ones where I didn't have a vacation at all, but was still at work.

5. What was your best vacation ever?

I'm really not sure. It might have been either the time I went to Spain quite a few years ago now, which was pretty much like the place described in 3, or the time many, many years ago when I was a little kiddy and the family went to Morroco.



Who Were You In Your Past Life?

Diagnosis:

I do not know how you feel about it, but you were male in your last earthly incarnation.
You were born somewhere around territory of modern Bulgaria approximately on 1075.
Your profession was monk, bee-keeper, lone gunman.

Your brief psychological profile in that past life:
Inquisitive, inventive, liked to get to the very bottom of things and to rummage in books. Talent for drama, natural born actor.

Lesson, that your last past life brought to present:
To learn discretion and reasonability and then teach others to do that. Your life will be happier, when you help those who lack reasoning.

Now you remember?

Oddly, no.



"If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work." - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "King Henry IV Part I", Act 1 scene 2

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The Blogger Update

So, the new changes are in, then. The upshot? A few extra improvements at the cost of having to alter every single entry on my blog to make sure the quote/sign-off looks the way it should. Images and paragraph codelets screwed up anything that followed it, making the text too big. Looked ugly.

Yeah, I'm a perfectionist, some of the time anyway. Wanna make something of it? Huh? Anyway, all sorted now. Took a couple of hours. Should be doing work really. Bollocks to it.



"The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them." - Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

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And while I'm doing this mad posting spree, how about we do the This-Or-That Tuesday questions?

1. Surf sites at random, or have a set list of regular reads?

Regular reads.

2. Do you visit mostly blogs, or news or other sites?

A variety of all of the above.

3. Do you go online every day, or just a couple of days a week?

Every day. All day at work, several hours every night. Yeah, I'm a net geek.

4. Do you allow comments on your blog, or not?

I do.

5. Do you shop online at all, or at regular stores?

A bit of both. Most of my DVDs and CDs come from online shops though.

6. Have you ever done online bill-paying/banking, or not?

Yeah, my credit card bills are paid online.

7. Which news site do you prefer... MSNBC.com or CNN.com? Or do you prefer some other one?

The BBC news site, thanks.

8. Live chat rooms, or message boards?

Both, as appropriate.

9. Instant messaging or e-mail?

Both, but with a great emphasis on IM.

10. Yes or no: have you ever met, or at least talked on the phone with, another blogger? If not, would you want to? Why or why not?

Yes, but only because the blogging is a separate thing to other interests.



"The Internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life." - Andrew Brown

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And on another note...


YOU ARE MARRIED TO A WoODCHUCK!!!
what's YOUR deepest secret?
brought to you by Quizilla

And now everyone knows!!



"There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses." - George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), "Mrs. Warren's Profession" (1893), act III

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Grown Up

Just wanted to say I'm in the middle of what is probably the most adult thing I've ever been involved in. I know that sounds odd, as I've got a job and stuff like that, but it is. It feels kinda strange, I feel a bit, what, nervous maybe? Gives me a funny feeling in my stomach when I think about it, actually.

But having said that, it's all just paranoia, or rather worry brought on by previous bad luck. It will be okay. And if it isn't (which is very unlikely, but even so...) then... Well, we'll come to that if it should come to that.

Fingers crossed. In a good way.



"By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up." - Eve Babitz

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I've been feeling quite lousy all weekend, actually. Leading up to the weekend I was quite tired as it was (late nights... you know who you are) and then Saturday was very hot, the heat baking my head and bringing on a nasty headache that lasted till late at night. But then, Sunday...

How To Be Stupid, #1: help out in the garden moving some of a big pile of dried, cut grass on a hot, sunny, windy day when you have hayfever.

Naturally, it laid me low for quite a while. The perils of being helpful.



"Aaaaaaaaaaa-chooo!"

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It's Coming... But Not By Owl

Yeah, that's right: I like Harry Potter.

The books are very well constructed, consistent, and tightly plotted. The characters are good and entertaining. It makes for a good bit of escapism. They are always gripping, rivetting reads. I can't wait for my copy of The Order Of The Phoenix to arrive, and Amazon.co.uk has assured me by e-mail that it's on it's way. 760-odd pages of literally spellbinding reading, winging it's way through the postal system right now...

I can hardly wait.



"Wingardium Leviosa!"

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Well, the clock didn't go down so well. Caused problems with the page being viewed. So, it is no more.



"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

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Let me know what you think of the clock, including if you can even see it or not. I think it's quite cool. Useless, but cool.



"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." - Ford Prefect

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Hey, look! It's another Friday Five!

1. Is your hair naturally curly, wavy, or straight? Long or short?

Naturally straight, and still that way.

2. How has your hair changed over your lifetime?

From an embarrassing late Seventies style, to nothing very interesting in the Eighties, much the same in the Nineties and now really. Some have called it 'Gladiator style'. See 3.

3. How do your normally wear your hair?

Cut and shaved short. Just kinda combs downwards from the top in all directions. Bit kinda like Maximus, really, or so I'm told. And that manages to make it sound about a thousand times more exciting than it really is.

4. If you could change your hair this minute, what would it look like?

Hmmmm... Black, maybe? Never really given it much thought.

5. Ever had a hair disaster? What happened?

Never really had enough hair to have a disaster. When it's as short as it is, you tend to just push tufts down and that's it.



"My husband said he wanted to have a relationship with a redhead, so I dyed my hair." - Jane Fonda

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Bit late with this one. Of course, we're talking about the Friday Five.

1. What's one thing you've always wanted to do, but never have?

One thing? Only one? The list is endless. But for now, let's stick with... Get a life. Sadly.

2. When someone asks your opinion about a new haircut/outfit/etc, are you always honest?

If anyone was to ask, I would be honest. But since no one ever does, the point is moot.

3. Have you ever found out something about a friend and then wished you hadn't? What happened?

Not really. I don't know many dark secrets about people, if that's what is meant by this. And what I do know about a few people (okay, one person) does not bother me at all. And I'm not really sure why. My attempt to rationalise it is to say that they are all only things that have happened to them, instead of actually being them. Does that make any sense? It would make a change if it does.

4. If you could live in any fictional world (from a book/movie/game/etc.) which would it be and why?

Just live in it or be a true part of it? I mean, you could live in the world of the Matrix but would you get the choice of being a Coppertop or a Free Mind? Be in the Marvel Universe, and get to be a superhero? Taking that into account, I guess... I can't come up with one answer. As usual. Anything where I get to kick ass, get the girl and save the world will do me fine.

5. What's one talent/skill you don't have but always wanted?

To be able to start and hold up one side of an interesting conversation. Listening is all well and good, but it just leaves you looking all quiet and dull, in a total state of un-thrilling-ness.



And, in other news... Things are kind of level again. Still complicated, of course. Always complicated. But good.



"I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up." - Tom Lehrer

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Pressure = Bad

...even when unintentional, but especially when you should know better.

I should know better.



...

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And now... Some online quizzes! How else to relieve the monotony of not having much else to say?

I'm an apparently intelligent, liberal, tight as fuck,
relatively well adjusted human being!
See how compatible you are with me!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey


What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla



And regarding previous matters... Things remain complicated but they are good. Which is good.



"An intelligence test sometimes shows a man how smart he would have been not to have taken it." - Laurence J. Peter (1919 - 1988)

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Little Big Adventure

And that's all I will tell you now.

Except... It was very (and uncharacteristically) impulsive, even more crazy, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was worth every second. No regrets, but I have some concerns about the aftermath... And I'm not concerned about me, it's someone else. It's complicated.

Intrigued?

Tough. Maybe you'll hear more on this later, maybe not.



"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller (1880 - 1968), The Open Door (1957)

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Well, there's nothing like a week of nothing very much to give you nothing to talk about, isn't there?

On the plus side, I am making plans for, well, maybe not an actual 'holiday' holiday, but certainly some time off. So at least I'll have some proper "nothing to report" reports to put up here. Exciting, eh?

Now, the Friday Five...

I have no answers. No, really. Only glib ones dragged out from cliché land. So I'll only answer the first. You'll see why.

1. How many times have you truly been in love?

Not enough. Of course, that could just be another way of saying "never" couldn't it?



I might add more later if I can think of more to say. We'll see.



"To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides."

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