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Gym'll Fix It

So I went to my gym induction today. I was kind of expecting a simple walkaround but ended up doing a full session instead, which made me late back to work.

It was kind of tiring, obviously, but the method of "exercise then cool down" every time made it less bad than it could have been. I'm sure the stretches helped too. I did the bike, rowing, crosstrainer and treadmill, followed by some sort of ab wotsit that was easily the worst of the lot. I'm rubbish at situps.

But, bonus: no drowning when you get tired, like with swimming.

But I actually did feel quite good afterwards. I'm sure it was mostly just from having done the exercise, but I think part of it was from having got off my ass and made myself do it.

Back there for a proper session tomorrow evening.

"The only way to feel better about yourself is to go out... and do it." - Susan Jeffers

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Delayed Haiku

Music, emotion.
So often one and the same.
And so revealing.


I hate colds and sore
Throats. They are annoying and
They interrupt things.


Made plans to go to
The gym instead of swimming.
Hope I stick to it.

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More Flourish!

As in a signature-related twist of the wrist for extra pretentiousness.

In other words, I added a song I forgot to the signature list in the previous post. A new one straight in at *cheesy chart show music* number 37!

"See you in the charts!" - Daniel Bedingfield to some other band (alleged)

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Signature Music

I was thinking about something Marnie did a while back, a top ten songs ever list. I knew I could never narrow it down that much, but the other day I went through all the mp3s on my computer and threw this list together.

All of these songs in particular speak to me about something... either it's the words, or the sentiment, or both. I think you can spot a running theme, though. Some are happy, some not so much. Not all of them are the original versions. Particularly important ones are in italics. Some I can't actually listen to anymore because of the meaning they have taken on for me; how stupid of me is that? There might also seem to be some odd, incongruous tracks in there, but that's normal with my playlists. Besides, their presence makes sense to me.

If you want to hear these songs, look them up, download them (legally, of course... just like I did, honestly) or check out the albums they come from. To track them down, and to read the lyrics should you care to, I suggest trying LetsSingIt.com or Sing365.com. They've always worked for me. Well, mostly.

Oh, and if I can be said to have a "theme song" it's definitely How Soon Is Now?.

ADDENDUM: I can't believe I forgot one! There's something new at no. 37, moving everything down one.

Playlist length: 4 hours 42 minutes 29 seconds

 1. Alanis Morissette - Would Not Come
 2. Aqualung - 7 Keys
 3. Aqualung - Brighter Than Sunshine
 4. Aqualung - Can't Get You Out Of My Mind
 5. Aqualung - Extraordinary Thing
 6. Aqualung - Gentle
 7. Aqualung - Good Times Gonna Come
 8. Aqualung - Halfway To The Bottom
 9. Aqualung - If I Fall
10. Aqualung - Nowhere
11. Aqualung - Strange & Beautiful
12. Aqualung - Take Me Home
13. Björk - Human Behaviour
14. Björk - Like Someone In Love
15. Björk - Play Dead
16. Björk - Violently Happy
17. Britney Spears - Everytime
18. Cat Stevens - Wild World
19. Coldplay - Clocks
20. Coldplay - God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
21. Coldplay - Shiver
22. Coldplay - The Scientist
23. Damien Rice - Cannonball
24. Damien Rice - Creep (Live Cover)
25. Damien Rice - The Blower's Daughter
26. Daniel Bedingfield - If You're Not The One
27. Death in Vegas - Dirge
28. Foo Fighters - Tired Of You
29. Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
30. Green Day - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)
31. Green Day - Poprocks & Coke
32. Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy
33. Keane - Somewhere Only We Know
34. Love Spit Love - How Soon Is Now?
35. Marina Benedict - Back In The Blue
36. Martin Grech - Open Heart Zoo
37. Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
38. Michael Andrews - Mad World
39. Number 96 - Sinner
40. P J Harvey - A Place Called Home
41. P J Harvey - One Line
42. P J Harvey - This Is Love
43. P J Harvey - This Mess We're In
44. Peace Orchestra - Who Am I? (Animatrix Edit)
45. Portishead - All Mine
46. Portishead - Over (Live)
47. Portishead - Sour Times (Live)
48. Robbie Williams - She's The One
49. Robbie Williams - Something Beautiful
50. Robbie Williams with Nicole Kidman - Somethin' Stupid
51. Rolling Stones - Paint It Black
52. Sarah McLachlan - Angel
53. Sarah McLachlan - I Love You
54. Semisonic - Secret Smile
55. Snow Patrol - Run
56. Stereophonics - Maybe Tomorrow
57. Sting And Eric Clapton - It's Probably Me
58. Sugarcubes - Hit
59. t.A.T.u. - 30 Minutes
60. Texas - Inner Smile
61. The Divine Comedy - Songs Of Love
62. The White Stripes - Fell in Love With a Girl
63. The White Stripes - I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
64. Tori Amos - China
65. U2 - With Or Without You

"Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable." - Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

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Friday Haiku

I can tell when I'm
Down. My thoughts turn to violence.
I wish I knew why.


Damn snow. Looks nice, but
Always causes trouble. And
It's freezing cold too.


Have to wait weeks for
My Half-Life 2 to arrive.
Why in December?

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Snow Fun

So, it's snowing back up north. Wasn't too bad driving back home through it last night, but this morning I had to be more careful, with all the ice and snow. And I was... mostly.

Until a particular back road turned out to be so icy I had to stop, and leave my car. Fortunately, it wasn't too far to work... two hours walking along icy pavements. So now I'm in the office, killing some time before I decide to head back home. Get into the centre of Sheffield somehow, then train to Chesterfield maybe. Not sure what from then.

Bugger.

"A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water." - Carl Reiner

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Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars

Oh........ my.

The best, most action-packed, wrenching, funny, dramatic, and blisteringly happy thing I've seen on my television since... the last episode of season four of Farscape.

"To Be Continued" - a hope at the end of Farscape season four, now a welcome reality

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Friday Haiku - Diminished Edition

My computer broke.
This caused me some small concern.
It might be fine now.

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Computer Alias

Sounds like my home PC is on the mend. A system files restore thing that Windows 2000 can do using the install CD has, from what I last heard, restored the damaged file(s) and got Windows up and running again.

Needless to say, the first thing I'm going to do once I get back home is do a complete backup. I've been lax with doing my backups, and I'm sure the fact that I was thinking of doing one last weekend made the computer make itself crash. They're sneaky that way.

I use a 120GB USB external hard drive and the NT Backup that comes with Windows 2000. Does the job splendidly.

On a different note, I've finally seen all of season two of Alias now, mostly on Saturday evening/night when my PC was not working. Fantastic stuff. Action, drama, fights, pathos, tension, comedy, Jennifer Garner in her underwear; this show has everything! And Lena Olin as Irina Derevko makes a good villain, even when locked up; mysterious agendas and misdirection aplenty. Damn fine characters and actors all round, actually. I've just started watching the episodes with the commentaries on them; some interesting insights and a lot of banter. Including some extra outtake footage from Phase One where Jennifer Garner accidentally lets go of a metal wine bucket and whacks a stuntman around the head with it. Hi-larious.

I'll get back to watching the Firefly episodes with commentaries next. I've seen two already, and finally heard alot of the insider stuff I'd only read about until now.

I have Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars on video CDs to watch this weekend. I can hardly wait.

"[SPOILER]" - John Crichton, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars

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Never Been Quizzed

...not for a while, anyway.


Which Colossal Death Robot Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey
Scowling wilfully towards Autobot City, you're Megatron!
Look in a mirror and feel the evil. Then eat the mirror. You eat mirrors for breakfast. You are a badass death robot. You busted on Optimus Prime. You. Are. Megatron. Go outside and burn some animals, because you're worth it.

"Their defenses are broken. Let the slaughter begin!" - Megatron, Transformers: The Movie

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Broken

My PC broke yesterday. It crashed or some such thing. Corrupted some files, system files it needs to start up. Might be easily fixed, might not. This seems to happen much too often.

As you can imagine, I'm quite annoyed.

"In a few minutes a computer can make a mistake so great that it would have taken many men many months to equal it." - Unknown

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Friday Haiku Lyrics

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road.
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why.
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind.
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time.
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial.
For what it's worth, it was worth all the while.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

Green Day, "Good Riddance"

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Mixed

I don't like that there's distrust and doubt and scepticism in my mind now. I don't like seeing the past in a new light all the time. I don't want to see those things that way, to see if they are other than they seemed.

I also don't like the way that this new viewpoint becomes so fragile when faced with new eventualities of the same, that in spite of my supposed strength on this matter it seems so easy to put it aside.

What I really don't like, though, is that it doesn't go away, that it lingers and colours my every perception of the matter foremost in my mind, when I wish it would not.

"Don't look back in anger, I heard you say..." - Oasis

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