Skweezettes ARE happy!

In October 2008, I posted that my husband had found a site to play Skweek, my favourite arcade game when I was a kid, online.  Fortunately, playing Skweek did not kill my thesis, and in April 2010 (after finishing the thesis) I finally managed to finish the game.  There are 99 levels in Skweek, and it's actually easier to play on random, rather than straight through from 1 to 99.  I came close to finishing once before, completing 98 levels.  When I did finally finish, it was a bit of a surprise.  Playing on random, I had no idea how many levels I'd completed.  And then all of a sudden... happy Skweezettes!

2010: A Return to Blogging

A new year; time for a new start. It's about time I got back into the habit of blogging. After all, it's not just about procrastination. It's also a good way to ensure that I write regularly. If I'm going to be a writer (as all academic researchers are), then I need to write. Of course, I'll have my big writing projects - journal articles, trying to transform my thesis into a book - but I think it will be helpful to write smaller pieces more frequently, to ensure that my creative juices keep flowing. At least, that's my current rationalisation. But surely it's a more productive method of procrastination than Skweek!

I've been trying to develop a few ideas for blog entries. I've written a few over the years celebrating the birthdays of important people in the history of science and religion like Galileo and Samuel Clarke. I'd like to make a regular habit of that, though I've already missed one of the biggest ones. Hopefully I can pull something together on that super quick.

To ease my way back into blogging and writing more generally, and to motivate myself to actually complete this project, I'm also planning to write a little about my attempts to unclutter my life in one week and institute David Allen's "Getting Things Done" as a method of organisation.

So that's my plan. Only time will tell if it actually works out in practice!

Pink chicky

Tee hee - this is fun!

Bunny!

Random comments

From "Roop" on "Superchic(k)":

A generalized anxiety disorder causes excessive and unrealistic anxiety about life circumstances. Usually it is a feeling of anxiousness and worry about things even when everything is fairly stable in your life. You might feel nervous, but don't know the reason for the same. Nothing has changed in your life, today is actually a nice looking day, and all is pretty much going well in your life, but you still feel nervous about something or the other.http://www.buy-xanax-online-now.com

From "hi mik1986" on "Anxiety and the Grace of God":

The best help for anxiety disorders is often self-help. Many people with anxiety disorders benefit from joining a self-help group and sharing their problems and achievements with others. No harm trying it, as there is nothing to be lost.http://www.buy-xanax-online-now.com

Weird.

Get with the Programmer!

I want to nominate Matt for this, but he's not keen. True, it would be unfair to everyone else who might want to enter...

Status

Lara is:

• tired
• wishing she'd brought a cardigan today
• wondering just how ridiculous it is that she was at uni before 7am
• amazed that there's still no parking on High St before 7am
• desperate to finish her thesis
• frustrated that this desperation does not translate into energy and concentration
• starting week 3 of Lite n' Easy
• thinking she might have lost a tiny bit of weight
  
• going to get a coffee
  

Skweekettes are gonna be happy!

I'm so excited! My very clever husband found a site where we can play Skweek online! Skweek is an arcade game that I had for our Amiga back in the day. I just have to discipline myself not to play it when I'm supposed to be working on the thesis...

Unmentionables

These are almost as good as Happy Bunny!

The War on Terror

Our lovely sister Lynley bought us the War on Terror board game as an engagement present earlier this year. I'm very happy to say that the last time we played, despite Matt turning terrorist and attempting to wipe out all that was good and democratic in the world, my pink empire prevailed and I won the game. I'm not usually all that competitive, but I'm still really stoked about winning - I'm not usually good at strategy games, and given that this game is like a cross between Risk and Settlers of Catan, I surprised myself!

Anyway, it's quite a fun game but apparently not as innocent as I had thought...

The wonderful boys in blue of the Kent constabulary decided to confiscate three copies of War on Terror from activists at this year's Climate Camp at Kingsnorth Power Station. Apparently the EVIL balaclava could be used to commit criminal acts... It's official, our board game is dangerous. Lots of journalist types decided to write about our game getting confiscated rather than the impending doom that is climate chaos and our government's inability to do shit all about it.

Read more here.



This is a photo of Matt in the "evil balaclava" taken the first time we played the game by my brother Tim, a very talented photographer.

Evil?

This is the man that I'm going to marry:


The "evil balaclava" is from the hilarious War on Terror board game given to us by my lovely sister-in-law-to-be, Lynley.

Don't sneeze on ducks!

I'm preparing for my classes today, doing a reading about flu epidemics. The author is talking about how viruses can mutate and pass between species, and makes this classic comment:

Many scientists now recommend that people not sneeze on ducks unless they are intent on making a new strain of flu.

Achoo!

I need help!

This is a bizarre website!

Another classic spam name

Irreligi Superignorant

Warning!

The copyright proprietor has licensed this DVD for private home use only... The definition of home use excludes the use of this DVD at locations such as clubs, coaches, hospitals, hotels, oil rigs, prisons and schools.

I know this is a generic message, but I can't imagine Gilmore Girls being first choice for entertainment on an oil rig!

Hmm...

Which Friends Character Are You?
	You are Ross. You're intelligent and adored by your parents. However, your lack of social skills causes you to talk too much and try too hard. While your friends pick on you for your nerdiness, they better watch our for your rage.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Hello, my name is spam

I get a huge amount of junk email - sometimes amusing, sometimes incomprehensible. I thought these names were worth recording on here:

• Aquaplane T. Forging
• Eiderdown P. Beret

Am I really supposed to believe that these are real people?!

Awww...

Liz, Lara & Donna

This is me at Donna's 21st. Wasn't I cute when I was 21? I look good. The scary thing is that I probably thought I was overweight back then, but I look a lot better than I do now. I still have that outfit - no way it would fit me at the moment. I want to get back to looking like that, though perhaps without the fringe...

Gwyneth

My "new" laptop (now nearly one year old) does not yet have a name. I refer to my old laptop as "Dell" - partly because she (yes, it's a girl) is a Dell, and partly in honour of Del, the main character in Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women, one of my favourite books.

I have decided that my current laptop will now be known as "Gwyneth." Since Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter "Apple", it seems fitting to name my Apple "Gwyneth."

(By the way, this post was written on my other Apple - the computer I use at uni - which shall henceforth be known as... no, that's going a bit too far!)