Week 9 - 2008

[Hero]

Here's hoping you all have a good one whatever you are doing.

I am gonna have a tough 2 months coming up with uni deadlines etc. I've already been advised to see a GP etc because I am not coping with the stress too well.

Still. Gonna focus on the good things and go straight for it!

===KEN

[Mark_Stevenson]

Keep smiling Ken. Don't sweat the small stuff etc etc.

Mx

[The Doctor]

Now logged 1/4 of my required practice hours as of today. I really should be on 1/2 by now. 'Stress' doesn't cover my feelings.

-Ralph

[The Doctor]

So while I was out the letting agency must have done their flat inspection, as their letter stated. I could tell because the inner doors were left open and they were closed when I left this morning. Only noticed later, there was a message on the phone saying I've to phone them. Fuckfuckfuck! I'm going to be up half the night worrying about this now.

-Ralph

[kayevcee]

I've handed in my form at the Sports Union. On March 8th I'll be running, jogging, walking, stumbling and finally most likely crawling 5 km in a Sports Centre in Maryhill. I've been running every chance I get for the past few weeks and tomorrow I hit the gym for a proper go on the treadmills. I've been bitterly disappointed by my fitness level almost as long as I've been alive and this might well give me the impetus I need to actually get what is commonly known as 'fit'.

Also, I have a project report to do, which is currently like getting curry sauce from a stone.

-Nick

[The Doctor]

Sing along!



-Ralph

[legios]

Week 9 is off to a fun start. Got into the office twenty minutes or so early this morning, and ended up being there nearly an hour after everyone had gone home. I spent the morning watching new work begin to pile up on my desk at an alarming rate of knots. I forsee a few evening spent working late coming up this week.

But first I shall have to get my eye-test out of the way. I have an opticians appointment tomorrow morning which I am not entirely looking forward to, Although I am not precisely worried, I am fairly certain that they are going to be telling me something I don't entirely want to hear. Given that my late father, my mother and my sister all wear/wore glasses of one strength or another I think it is fairly much an inevitability. I guess I should start thinking about whether I want to go the wire-frame route like Captain Kirk, horn-rimmed like Noah Bennett or just go the full-on "they really shouldn't let me fly in these" huge frameless lenses of Max in Robotech/Macross.....

Karl

[Gav]

I am also going to have an eye-test at the weekend. I always get anxious about them, because of the extremely awkward moment when they check your eyes up close with the light. They get so close, and you think "Shit, i can't breathe in case i have bad breath". They get so intimately close that i almost burst out laughing. Argh.

Plus i have to show them the state of my glasses which are chipped and scratched to hell.

[The Doctor]

We should all switch to the visor that Geordie wore and then we would be the coolest kids.

-Ralph

[Dark Stranger]

Got paid today, so it's straight off to eBay to have a look for a pair of B&W Bloody Expensive Speakers.

I'm building a hi-fi from separates, and the speakers are the last things I need. Which are also likely to be the biggest chunk of my budget for it.

[Philip Ayres]

You can't beat a separates system.

Sony Pro Logic Amp w built in tuner connected to DVD Player, Freeview box and a fly lead for my MP3 player /Digital radio. The CD and Tapoe Deck were taken off when Mrs toys pointed out I didn't need 2 things that played CDs attached and I never played tapes. She just didn't get it.

[The Doctor]

Completely against the run of play, letting agency for the first time ever are having a go at my landlord and not me as they have *finally* taken into account I can only do my best considering the landlord has done fuck all to maintain the place. Hurrah. Might be getting new carpets out of this. Just hope the landlord doesn't use it as an excuse to jack up the rent.

Meanwhile, getting in practice hours remains the biggest headache in my life. Mostly as it's completely out of my control.

Chronic and genuine writer's block with regards to Uni assignment. After 3 days trying, I have literally not been able to get one word down.

-Ralph

[Hero]

Demand of uni is really eating away at me.

Lecturers have told me to see a doctor.

I'm not sure my temper is going hold out any longer.

===KEN

[Grand Moff Muffin]

thedoctor said:

We should all switch to the visor that Geordie wore and then we would be the coolest kids.

As I recall, they made that from a girl's hair band.

Martin

[kayevcee]

Big Nige took me to the university gym today to help me start my training proper for the 5K run next Saturday. The treadmill yielded good news- I managed to jog non-stop for 31 minutes and covered the required 5 kilometres, although I was the very definition of the cream cracker by the end. Nigel finished a couple of minutes ahead of me, but then he is the chairman of the university boxing club and is just a tad fitter. Then he went through a suite of upper body exercises which I tried and generally failed to emulate. The one where you lie on your back and bring your knees up to your chest then straighten your legs again while keeping them raised almost killed me on the first attempt.

I am in pain.

-Nick

[The Doctor]

I could take your pain away by looking after Grand Maximus for you.

-Ralph

[kayevcee]

Take us through how that would work, Ralph.

-Nick

[The Doctor]

It's very simple.

You are trying to train for a Big Run. This will be difficult, this will be arduous. In times of stress, the human mind can sometimes resort to doing things that otherwise we would not do. I pictured you thinking: 'I must press some weights, but I have none. Therefore I shall use Grand Maximus instead'. But that way would lead to deadly danger. For what would happen if you were weight training by 'bench-pressing' Grand Maximus and there was a terrible calamity? Hmmm? I would not want a haunting phone call from your mother, like: "It's Nick's mother here. Nick is dead. He was weight training with Grand Maximus and it slipped and squashed him to a pulp. It was terrible. I went into his room to give him a mug of milk and some nice sandwiches when I screamed in terror upon seeing his prone arms and legs stretched out beneath the massive plastic robot toy. It was then I realised what had caused the awful squeal I had heard earlier when I was ironing. Oh, the humanity! Funeral is at 10am next Tuesday. Dress smart."

Yes, to prevent a tragedy, it is imperative that Nick's Grand Maximus be placed within my protective custody. I'm doing it for Nick. I'm doing it to help him.

-Ralph

[legios]

thedoctor said:

Yes, to prevent a tragedy, it is imperative that Nick's Grand Maximus be placed within my protective custody. I'm doing it for Nick. I'm doing it to help him.

-Ralph

Of course. Very logical.

For a certain value of logic......

Well, I had my eye-test today. Good grief, they have become sophisticated in the last decade and a half. Much more in depth than the last one, and much better carried out. The upshot is that I do in fact have a minor issue with the old optics. I am going to need a mild prescription for distance work, and it has been suggested that it might be worth my while having a pair with a slight tint as the fluorescent lights that I work under might be at the root of some of the problems that I have been having.

So it will be back to an opticians at the weekend to pick myself out some suitable frames to support the lenses that will henceforth adorn my eyes from time to time.

I didn't realise just how complicated glasses had become either - anti-glare coatings, anti-scratch coatings, photochromatic coating. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a laser-resistant ceramic coating or something. I have a few days to fortify myself before I make the trip to pick out some frames though. Which is just as well, it could be an arduous process - I have never done this before and really have no idea what is likely to suit my face.

Oh and Nick - well done on the run prep. If you are keeping not too far off the pace of a guy who boxes then you are doing something right in the fitness stakes.

Gav - best of luck with your own opticians visit.

Karl

[Andy Turnbull]

Sounds good so far Nick. Be wary of the elements though, the change from treadmill to outdoors is much more punishing than folks often realise. Invest in some thick-ass soled trainers and don't spare the cash.

Ralph - I can't believe the letting agency have finally seen some form of sense. Huzzah.

To those of you joining the ranks of the distinguished and bespectacled. Welcome aboard, you'll look more intelligent and dare I say it dashing than before.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Jonathan woke me, but last night's chicken Dansack is keeping me awake now. Feel slighty too full and it's a good job nobody can smell what's going on here !

[Gav]

I'm enjoying a Bagel.


A BAGEL!

[Hero]

I had a happy hippo for breakfast. Been up since 3am too.

[Dark Stranger]

payres said:

You can't beat a separates system.

Sony Pro Logic Amp w built in tuner connected to DVD Player, Freeview box and a fly lead for my MP3 player /Digital radio. The CD and Tapoe Deck were taken off when Mrs toys pointed out I didn't need 2 things that played CDs attached and I never played tapes. She just didn't get it.

Yeah, I'm having great fun picking out the particulars to go with it. Marantz for the amp and CD player, Sony for the LP player, and B&W speakers seem to be the major recommendations from my metaller mates.

What kind of cables did you use Phil? They seem to be far more important than I ever thought.

[Philip Ayres]

Blowed if I can remember. Some thickish stuff for the speakers, and some nice chunky interconnects. Both courtesy of Richer Sounds. I got mine a bit on a the cheap but 10 years on most of it's still going strong.

[Dark Stranger]

Richer Sounds is a great shop indeed.

[Deleted]

There was a minor earthquake at about 1am this morning that originated from Lincolnshire (a neighbouring county of mine). Everybody at work was talking about feeling it and so were my family - but I slept through it!

[Dark Stranger]

I remember we once had an earthquake in Belfast.

It caused around £3,000,000 worth of improvements.

[The Doctor]

Essay of doom,
I am in a study room!
In the library it is cold,
The staff will not be told!

-Ralph

[Shockprowl]

Hi all. Hope folkes doing ok. Hero, hope you're doing alright. Good new 'bout the flat Doc'!

I felt the earthquake! Cool! Woke me and Mrs Shockprowl up! But not Piglet, thankfully! Seemed fairly strong here in North Yorks. Shuck me in the bed!

Got 4 days in a row. Got news of a new rota comming im which seems way way better than the one we've got now, so huzzah for that. Otherwise steadyaway.

Piglet had her first official tantrum the other day! Wont leave 'Story Time' at the library. Actually lay on the floor crying! We are now entering 'The Terrible Twos' as they're called! She's a little sweatheart most of the other time though, so can't complain. I had my Beast Wars figs spread out on the lounge carpet the other morning when she came down for her breakfast. She carefully helped me put them back in their storage box, without trying to eat one of them! "Bobots, bobots..."

Nick, glad to hear the training going well. I used to run miles and miles, 'till I had probs with an achilles tendon. Doing shifts really has ballsed up my fitness. That and beer. Manage to get to the Karate club often enough though.

EDIT: Don't think anyone noticed I put 'bear' not 'beer'...