Woblinland

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:04:52 GMT

Josie makes me laugh. Today, we were hanging the washing out and she was shouting very loudly. I had been telling her for an hour or so not to shout in the house, as Andrew was trying to work and Lori was having a nap. The exchange went something like this:

Me: Stop shouting!
Josie: *shouts*
Me: I've been telling you to stop shouting all morning. How many more times do I have to tell you?
Josie: Um...(thinks)... eight.
Me: Oh.

A rhetorical question is possibly not the best parenting tool.

Questionnaire

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:59:30 GMT

I'm going to post this to a couple of communities but I thought I'd do a test one here in case anyone is passing. I have my very last essay of second year to do and quite frustratingly it has a questionnaire component, annoying when one is on maternity leave and doesn't have access to the classmates that everyone else does! So...I picked LJ as my website to look at, thinking that at least I have access to a community of people here and have composed the following questionnaire.

It is tres pants, my lecturer in psychological testing would be embarassed to have taught me, but at this stage with a 3 year old and a 6 month old and a husband with many deadlines it is simply a case of getting it done asap. 'Tis a pilot anyway with the intent that it would be refined later if the subject was followed up.

So, see below if you fancy replying to it for me, I'd be most grateful. You can either simply cut and paste into a comment with the answers or if you want it to be private then feel free to cut and paste it into an email and send it to my uni account: lcook@cis.strath.ac.uk

How long have you had an active LiveJournal account for?

What level of user would you describe yourself as?
Novice
Experienced
Expert

Do you use a downloadable client as your LJ interface?
Yes Why?
No Why Not?

Do you have accounts with any social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, Bebo)?
Yes
No

If yes, which ones?

For each, would you say they are easier to use than LJ?

What are your favourite features of LJ?

What are your least favourite features of LJ?

What improvements could be made to LJ to enhance the user experience?

Any other comments regarding the user experience of LiveJournal:

Thanking you

Edit: Oh, and anyone who passes by if you can help, pleeeeease get all your friends to fill one in too. I would much greatly appreciate it!

On Holiday

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:56:41 GMT

We are on holiday just now at my Mum and Dad's house. By we, I mean me, Josie and Lori as Andrew stayed behind to fix some stuff in the house and do some work, unfortunately he came down with a really bad cold and general malaise just as we were leaving (lucky escape for us!) so he has been mainly recuperating on the new red sofa. Onthe other hand, we have been busy busy busy. Planting potatoes, peas and nasturtiums in what used to be James and my old sand pit. Josie wants to dig them up now, the day after planting, and has had to be explained to that they need time to grow. While digging we found some archaelogical evidence of its former use - a plastic sheet with sand still sticking to it that was used to line the sandpit and and discarded Mumch Bunch freeze pop wrapper. We've also put up a tent, but it is a bit glum for garden playing now. I am not a sun lover, but I do wish it was a bittle brighter.

Yesterday we had visitors: 4 and a hlaf year old Ross and his little sister Heather, 2 and a half. Josie played very well with them, if a bit bossily! Ross and I tried to shore up a Lego house which his sister and Josie seemed intent on knocking down when he turned to me with a puzzled look and asked: "Are you a grown-up?". I replied, "Well, what do you think?". He looked puzzled and replied, "Well, you are very tall", as though he had presumed I was a child and then suddenly realised that if I was, I must be a very large child!

I think if other children can presume you are a child, and yet you can still keep order (which I was) then that's not too bad a thing!

Apples and Pears

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:45:37 GMT

We get an organic veg box, and this week we had loads of apples left over. Josie seems to have gone off them a bit. To use them up I turned them, and some pears, into puree for freezing in little pots for Lori in a few months. It was quite relaxing to be back making baby purees again, and pleasing to be using all the assorted tupperware I have acquired. By the time she's 6 months old there may be a veritable orchard's worth of puree in the freezer though.

I've set some aside for Josie though - I think she'll appreciate the apple more in stewed form this week. She choked on a bit of orange and was very sick all over the rug (and me and Lori), so she's been a bit wary of fruit she needs to chew this week. I was holding Lori and Andrew was out when it happened, and I thought I was going to have to quickly put Lori down and turn Josie upside down to unchokify her. Luckily, nature intervened in the form of violent retching. Not so luckily for me and Lori, we were in her path. Cue a bath for Lori, while Josie tried to help, and as she was out of her nappy, chose that exact time to need a wee and not know where the potty was. Cue wee on the floor and now two rooms for me to have to clean the floor of. By the time Andrew came home all was gone though, with no sign of the disaster!

Still, it's better than some of the projects I worked on last year - so maternity leave still wins!

Happy New Year

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:32:48 GMT

I had a lovely Mother's Day, or as Josie decided it was "Mummy's Day". Despite that decision, and Andrew's schooling, when she came downstairs with my breakfast of her devising (strawberries and cream cheese on toast, with smoothie) she wished me a "Happy New Year".

He presents, which she selected herself, were: Kingdom Hearts 2 and a purple alarm clock. She apparently thinks I need to wake up earlier to play the PS2 with her. Hurray!!

We have just started potty training, which is going wellish, as she has an aversion to pooing in the potty but is happy to wee in it in return for wearing "big girl pants". She wasn't ready for ages and then all of a sudden it has happened in a flash, although still a long way to go before nappies can be dispensed with in the day completely.

There's so much to do around the house, and I never seem to get the time at the moment. Andrew is preparing for Conpulsion, so is busy after a little break. Before I go back to work I'd like to learn how to knit (again - I knew whan I was 6 but have forgotten) and set up the sewing machine and learn how to sew properly with it. All this requires a much tidier and less damp house, so a trip to Ikea is in order to kick start this, plus we need a new sofa as ours has broken.

I've been going to baby massage classes, which are good fun, and Josie has been coming too and playing with the teacher's 3 year old - she has finally made a friend ans asks to go to baby massage every day!

Glum

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 04:48:17 GMT

It's 5:30ish and I have't been able to sleep for about an hour - I have a really sore throat and bad cold that has made my SPD even worse. I really didn't want to miss work at the moment, but I'm not sure I'm going to have a choice due to the whole lack of sleep and not really being able to walk. I am very glum.

I've also lost my workmobile somewhere in the house, on silent. It's not where I left it and I am now worried. Which is not helping me sleep.

Dreams

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 21:13:57 GMT

On the subject of strange, it struck me a while ago, but I have never written it down. The Lindsay who I am in my dreams, (my avatar, for want of a better word) isn't pregnant yet.

With Josie, I was pregnant in my dreams a lot quicker. Dream Lindsay looked and felt and had experiences of being pregnant. Dream Lindsay hasn't yet this time. I think it's because last time I had a lot of anxiety dreams about being pregnant - the fear of the unknown. This time, I'm a bit more relaxed about the whole thing, so my subconscious is not feeling the need to act out labour and new babydom like it did last time.

It is perhaps quite revealing about why we dream what we dream - is it just worry, or is it valuable practice of how you would cope if some of the crazy dream stuff happened?

Interestingly, I have notices disparities between Dream Lindsay and me before - she lags a job or so behind me. So when I first started at the Bank, she was still working at the Balmoral and having nightmare shifts in the restaurant. Likewise, she lingered at Pizza Hut long after I had left. I think she left University around about the same time.

I know that people may just say that I am just dreaming about the past - but vivid dreams, taht you remember every night, have a continuity of their own. Especially when Dream Lindsay has talents that I don't have that persist and develop in dream world. Like flying, which is not simply being passively whizzing through the air in a dream anymore than driving, or being on a bus, is a passive in real life. There is a reason to need to fly, knowing you can fly, taking off, maintaining height and speed, changing direction to go where I want to go and landing, and subsequently not flying. It is part of the story of the dream.

Anyhow, have been meaning to write about the weirdness of Dream Lindsay not catching up with me yet for a while.

Us

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 20:50:27 GMT

hapimeses has just left for Games Day, a process which always reminds me how utterly symbiotic we have become after 11 years of being together and 10 1/2 of living together - since I was 17 and he 19 - we really have grown up together.

It's not so bad when you are the one going away, as I find when Josie and I head off to my parents on occasion and leave Andrew to work. But when you're at home, and Josie is in bed, it's unspeakably lonely. And he's only been gone since 25 past nine, 5 minutes ago. Humph. These things are supposed to get easier with time, as the first passion of love fades, but I don't think it ever really has (either faded, or got easier). As every year goes by we simply become more intertwingled as a pair, more things that make it impossible to imagine 2 people where there is just "us". Even the arrival of Josie, which many couples say "changed their lives irrevocably" merely added a third little best friend to our house, who now adds to the mix of unique memes that make "us", where everything that happens is defined by what it is to "us" not what it is to "me". The rhythm of our lives, so far removed from most people's late 20s routine of work and party, suffered a little blip of sleeplessness and has now settled back in.

Why has it been relatively easy for us? Because, unlike most folk, we were both there, 24 hours a day, for the first (and most difficult) 6 months of Josie's life. We functioned much more like a little support unit for each other, and many of the mothers I was in hospital with were extremely jealous when their partners had to go back to work after 2 weeks (a month or 2 if they were lucky) leaving them with a dilemma - who stays up for hours with a baby who won't sleep - the one who goes to work all day, or the one who stays at home and works all day!

The modern maternity and paternity leave system is just not set up to provide the support parents need - and with modern professional parents often being far removed from a support network of grandparents. Going back to our ancestral roots - we Westerners have never lived in such proximity to each other, and yet in such isolation. A strange paradox of modern living. A tribe of 30 or 40 wandering hunter-gatherers would give each other more support and human contact than a city of 400,000.

My child and I are alone in our box made of bricks, my husband is away, and I have no tribe to sing songs around a fire with and slowly fall asleep while it dies down to warm embers. I am merely surrounded by people in their own brick boxes.

The world is strange.

Surveys

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 19:04:25 GMT

Woo hoo! I just got my Yougov account credited for my first two surveys, a grand total of 50 whole pence for each.

Contrary to most people, I quite like doing surveys. Especially online for a reputable polling agency where I can cross every single box that says "Don't contact me except to tell me about new surveys".

If you like doing surveys too, sign up via this link and I will get half of whatever you make for the first three months. 25 extra pence. Woo hoo! I'd be rich, rich I tell you. I signed up on my brother's link so he's just made an extra 25p for each of my surveys. I bet he's pleased. Travelling around the world is an expensive business.

http://www.yougov.com/users/registrationintro_ref.asp?refid=354381&jID=3&sID=1

That's all.

At the Zoo

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 10:48:06 GMT

We had a great time at the zoo for Josie's birthday. We saw a tiger having a nap, 4 lion cubs having a nap, lemurs having a nap, koalas having a nap and a polar bear having a swim (poor old lonely bear). You may have sensed a theme - it was incredibly hot, and all the animals and I wanted to do was swim or nap!

Andrew will be uploading a piccyture of Josie at the zoo later.

My brother is ace - he has done the picture for me - here is the link: http://www.jamespcook.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3651

Bleuch!

Sat, 13 May 2006 20:29:37 GMT

So it's good news (see Hapimeses' LJ in my friend's bit) but I really don't remember feeling this nauseous so early last time. I have travel sickness bands, but wearing them constantly really starts to hurt!

And please, no-one suggest ginger, the thought makes me feel sicker.

Today's Count

Mon, 01 May 2006 21:43:27 GMT

Yay. That's all I'm saying. Yay!

Vegelicious:
2 onions
1 pack of mushrooms
2 heads of broccoli
1 portion of broad beans (I had to shell them myself!)
1 1/2 apples
4 sweet potatoes

and Josie ate some more fruit on top of what she shared in the above. She seems to be perking up a bit more, I actually got her to eat a good bit of sweet potato and broccoli treat, which was a bit of a relief.

Now I am very sleepy, and I still have loads to do. I have reprioritised though, so I can do it tomorrow, or the next day. Whatever.

Not Yum Yum

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 18:51:30 GMT

I made orange curd butterfly cakes today, with home made orange curd, wholemeal flour and Splenda so Andrew could actually eat them. And then misread the baking soda instructions and added 4 tablespoonfuls of it instead of teaspoons. At the time I thought it sounded like an awful lot, and read the packaging of the soda about 4 times, apparently to no avail! I didn't realise until Andrew had eaten about 5, complaining that they were "slightly bitter". Bless him. Starved of cakes for so long he'll eat my bitter baking soda creations.

Anyhow, apart from that, the orange curd turned out well, as did the cakes. I'm going to have another go when we get more organic eggs with our order on Thursday. Veg using up was very poor today, although lots of fruit was used up, as while Josie is poorly it's all she seems to want to eat.

Fruit and Veg Use (not including Jojo)
1 Tomato
1 Orange

Hmmm, not very impressive. We did eat other fruit (namely strawberries, yum yum), but not the organic stuff, which is the stuff I am counting.

Yum Yum

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 19:40:06 GMT

I tried a new recipe for our dinner tonight - I am starting to experiment much more with the recipes I have in books, and come up with ways of using what we have as an adaptation of them It was quite tasty but Josie tok a bit of a tantrum as she is still off her food, which is quite sad.

In the end, the only way I could get her to eat was to dip my (clean) finger in some yoghurt and get her to lick it to remind herself that she did actually like yoghurt! After a few minutes of this she realised that yoghurt, and the spoon, weren't her enemy but actually "yummy loglog". Hurray! Still, tea being 3 or 4 spoonfuls of tomatey minced beef and rice and a pot of strawberry yoghurt is hardly ideal. Never mind, she was much perkier today so hopefully her wellness will increase by the same order of magnitude tomorrow.

Elsewhere, Andrew and I have just watched Dr. Who and I have set up the P.C. downstairs to send voice recordings over Messenger. Cue me bothering Andrew while he is working with "I love you. I love you. Tee hee". Very growded up. I think he was impressed. :)

And elsewhere still, if ley lines were lines of power between various sites of power (if one believed that), which people walked and imbued with their essence. The more important the pilgramage, the more people came and the more important it became in turn. A self-fulfilling prophecy...does that mean that lines of power across Edinburgh are now the major bus routes. Go the 22! When I was working in the Gyle last month I used to think about it on the 22, because it goes right across the heart of the city, from one end to the other. I used to see all the people hopping on and off, so many lives that I would never know about. Yesterday, I caught the 22 because I was at dance class, and sat next to a woman who was discussing her work in social services. Pretty grim, but sounded quite interesting, I couldn't help but hear it (left my iPod at home) - the 36 is never that eventful.

Although lately, I haven't been getting it unless I am desperately late or very tired. We are on an economy drive to cut our outgoings. Last month, compared to the one before, we cut our Food and Other (basically what I have keft after bills are paid!) amount by a third. I still would like to get it down by nother third, but it's a start! I've started to drink orange squash or water instead of pure orange and am taking packed lunches into work. Andrew is cutting down on crisps, which is a big sacrifice for him. I don't think he thinks I have noticed, but I have! One of our big luxuries is an organic fruit and veg box from Grow Wild. Usually we eat all the fruit but we are bad at getting through the veg, hence my drive to experiment with recipes. Here's what I managed to use tonight:

Veg Count:
3 onions (2 were v.small)
1 carrot
1 courgette (cut into thirds, hollowed, stuffed with mince mixture and baked
1 butternut squash (cut in hlaf, little hollows with the mince mixture and baked)
1 small bag of mushrooms
1 green pepper (cooked but not eaten - a tasty leftover for tomorrow, stuffed with the tomatoey ricey mince)
1 tomato

Everything else was in the mince mixture.

Josie also ate a pear, so she is contributing too! I think I might do a veg count every day, that might chivvy me on to new and exciting uses!

Horrid Work

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 19:15:57 GMT

Work was awful today - stupid people, doing stupid things, and thinking they were right. Life started to get better when I came home and during tea Josie projectile vomited the entire contents of her stomach all over her clothes, the high chair and the floor. Andrew started to clean up while I ran a bath for Josie. Then I took over while he cheered her up in the bath.

Cleaning up baby sick: always a joy, never a chore. Although actually, it was still less horrid than work. Some people just make you want to scream.

On the way home, I was listening to my iPod, which did start to cheer me up. I never realised Christina Aguilera would be a source of inspiration for me (excepting for slutty Sabbat vampire characters of course) but her lyrics did speak to me to night.

I talk of course of that great classic, "I'm a genie in a bottle, gotta rub me the right way". That'll show that stupid project manager.

No. Wait. Confused. "Fighter" - that was the song.

A-ha!

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 21:53:58 GMT

Just jumping into bed and I suddenly thought, "Could that site do grown-up birthdays?". Annoyingly, as many people will testify to, when I think of something I don't know, I have to know it! So I jumped out of bed and here it is:

Although annoyingly it has a far more limited selection of backgrounds, because I had to use the generic "my child's next birthday" rather than a year specific one (it stops at 18). Maybe I should send him back to the start - he's 31 this year, he could just be 1 again...

Maybe tomorrow. Must sleep now.

Oh, second afterthought, I did one for me too:

Cuteness Attacks!

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 19:45:46 GMT

Since changing my LJ to Cuteness Attacks, it would seem that cuteness really has attacked. Sometimes, when I'm a bit bored I look at friend's LJs (okay, in this case Hapi's) and then click on their info and pick a random friend of theirs and so on, just to see where I go. I suppose if I did it seven times, I should really get to Kevin Bacon, or everyone on the planet, or something.

Anyway, I found something on an LJ whose name I have now forgotten that was super-cute, so I clicked on the link and made one for myself:

Have just previewed it, and I think the green sets off the pink nicely (there were lots of choices y'see - took me a while to pick). I've put it in my profile too.

There was also a hug clicker at 694, so I clicked 6 times so they would have 700. Do think that would count as a good deed for Brownie purposes?

Wonder what we'll see on the Wob Lab PC

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 12:32:25 GMT

Hurray! We finally have 2 PCs connected to the Internet, although despite the urgings of workmates am not now going to take up Warcraft, what it does mean is that I may join Hapi in the realms of regular LJ updates.

He is always busy on the other PC at the moment, interminably is the word that springs to mind although there is an end in sight (at which point I am sure we will get another commission in the mailbox that is just about good enough not to say no to). However, I am very proud as he is doing v. well and building up a portfolio and a reputation.

After Josie went to bed last night, H took a break and we watched Serenity, which was quite enjoyable but felt more like an extended episode, or season finale double bill than a film. When Josie wakes up from her nap, which she is having as I type (freedom!) we are all going to walk around to the DVD shop and give them it back. It was sunny when last I looked, and this vampire family needs a little fresh air, can't tell if it's still sunny as I'm sitting downstairs in the box room with no windows and I don't want to shout up to Andrew in case I wake up Josie. For that very reason I have made my own MSN id, but he's not logged on so I can't message him.

I've just found the website for a children's weekend thing in Leith Links on 13th-14th May, which we missed last year, so I hope to pop along this year.

In other news, I hate my LJ style so I am about to pop off and play about with it...

Woblin Grump

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 21:52:26 GMT

Bread was lovely, and I have also extended my soup repertoire to: Smoked Haddock and Potato chowder and French Onion. However, I have the worst cold ever, so I am v. grumpy and miserable. I am feeling a little bit sorry for myself. Especially as I had such a lovely weekend with Posy that now I am back to work I miss her, :(.

I was at my parents' house at the weekend, and found some old poems. Wow, was I unbalanced back then, scarily so. They made me smile though, because everything in the garden turned out lovely, :).

Woblin Cook

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 20:59:29 GMT

I've started to do more cooking, which is good fun. Last week was Lentil Shepherd's Pie (although I don't think shepherd's ever herd lentils). Mabe it should be called Hippy's Pie. Anyway. I also made pumpkin and roasted red pepper soup. Although I din't like that as much as the butternut squash one. I've taken to annotating my recipe books, which satisfies some sort of creative urge without recourse to the inevitable disappointment of drawing (which I am crap at). Strange how cooking can feel quite artistic.

Tonight, I'm making bread, for the first time ever. It will be a bit of an experiment...

On another note, our veg box delivered another unknown vegetable which turned out to be a Romanescu cauliflower. It's cool! It's like little green cathedral spires or mosque domes. I recommend looking it up on Google images.

Anyway, must go because I need to knead my bread!

Yawn

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 20:57:23 GMT

I should really start doing some posts on here again, but I never seem to get the time on the 'puty. Work keeps me muchly busy, as does Josie when I come hom, eating tea, washing dishes and spending some time with Mr.H. I've been dancing a lot more, two nights a week as I've taken up Jazz (cue much hilarity at work at my expense - that's what you get if you work with boys). and am still doing Bharathantyam.

Anyhow, hopefully I'll put a few more posts up soon - I'll have an essay due in a few weeks, and it's around about those times that I always seem to end up typing here rather than on my essay, :)

Last one...

Tue, 15 Feb 2005 18:45:43 GMT

Okay, I'm bored of quizzes now, but I thought I'd do one last one. As Catherine, rather than me, again.

Tramp Bear

Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Because it made me laugh

If you want to know, apparently I, as me, am Gay Bear. What do you know?

Sun, 13 Feb 2005 14:49:09 GMT

While I should be doing an esssay; I can't, because Josie is only happy on my lap. S I did a quiz instead; the results were pretty conclusive. Apparently I like mindfuck films!

You scored as Mindfuck. Congratulations, you scored Mindfuck. You've probably seen a lot of movies, and have grown to hate mainstream shit. You're looking for the movie that will leave you breathless, and with 21 questions to think about. Check out: Donnie Darko, Being John Malkovich, Pulp Fiction, Memento.

</td>

Mindfuck

95%

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

65%

Artistic

55%

Drama/Suspense

50%

Sadistic Humour

40%

Mindless Action Flick

35%

Romantic Comedy

35%

Movie Recommendation.
created with QuizFarm.com

This is my Alignment

Tue, 08 Feb 2005 22:36:05 GMT

I am not as law-abiding as my husband. Or as good. Apparently.

You scored as True Neutral. A True Neutral person has two faces- either these people are merely apathetic, preferring to focus their minds on more important things, or these people truly believe in a balance of all things. To these people, there can be no light without some darkness. These people also have no dedication to, or intrinsic distrust of, laws.

</td>

True Neutral

75%

Lawful Good

70%

Chaotic Good

65%

Lawful Evil

45%

Lawful Neutral

40%

Neutral Good

35%

Neutral Evil

25%

Chaotic Evil

20%

Chaotic Neutral

10%

What is your Alignment?
created with QuizFarm.com

This is Catherine's alignment. (My vampire character. I mean in our roleplay game, I don't just mean me, at night.) Of course it was rather subjective, in that some of the questions said things like "I would do something to uphold what it right". Well, she would, but her idea of what is right and good is vastly different from others. Maybe the following is fairly accurate after all!

You scored as Chaotic Good. A Chaotic Good person is someone who has little intrinsic respect for laws or authority, seeing them as insufficient to sustain what's right. These people work according to their own moral compass which, while good, is not necessarily always aligned with that of society. Despite their chaotic tendancies, these people are good at heart.

</td>

Chaotic Good

85%

Neutral Good

80%

Chaotic Evil

70%

Neutral Evil

50%

True Neutral

40%

Lawful Evil

35%

Chaotic Neutral

35%

Lawful Good

25%

Lawful Neutral

10%

What is your Alignment?
created with QuizFarm.com

My Hapi

Wed, 22 Sep 2004 10:24:50 GMT

I would just like to say how inordinantly proud I am of my husband (yay, finally get to say that!). Since being diagnosed with diabetes he has done so many things that make me want to give him such a big hug.

When I see him willingly making a salad and putting in tomato and avocado (full of things that are good for the heart and anti-cancer things), it makes me smile. To anybody else it's only a tomato, but I know that to him, it's much more than that, and I just want him to know that I understand and appreciate the effort he's making to be healthy for me and Josie.

He has been so great, doing the dishes for me when I was pregnant and exhausted, staying up with Josie until 7am just so I could get an uninterrupted sleep, and it has all taken its toll on his body. His eczema is really bad just now, to the point of bleeding, and yet he still offers to stay up! Sometimes, I find him truly amazingly unselfish and I really feel loved.

So this is a little message to tell him, publically, how much I love him and also to take a break now and then!