Post 8 facts about you that not many know

Oh geez. I don't know if there are that many. Most of my facts are known to a number of friends, but not the general public, so I guess they count.


1. My two front teeth are capped because I fell out the front door of a moving bus when I was 6 and mashed my face.

2. I have experienced episodes of depression for more than half my life now. The first real episode I was 13. These days, I've found that the best way to deal is to just take low dose antidepressants permanently. It seems to stop the relapses.

3. I was dux of my primary school.

4. I then skipped Year 7, as the first guinea pig for my school's accelerated learning program. (Note: I wouldn't recommend this if you believe that social adjustment is important in a child's development)

5. I grew up rollerskating, but was never able to ride a bike.

6. I enjoy singing, but am only moderately OK at this. I used to really enjoy choir at school. These days I mostly restrict it to the car and drunken moments.

7. I am principal ballerina for the Russian Ballet.

8. I made that up. Oh wait, you'd know that already. You might also know that I pinched it shamelessly from Stephen Fry. Anyway, number 8. I worked on a project that managed to (at least temporarily) clear the proliferation of dodgy ads for hookers out of London phone boxes.

Too tired to tag, I'm afraid. Stupid ballet takes it out of me.

So, I've been having these lovely wheezing and coughing fits for a few weeks now since I had a cold. They just keep lingering.

Then on Friday I started breaking out in an itchy rash, which has been spreading and driving me crazy.

Today I called in sick thanks to waking up coughing since about 5am, and finally went to a doctor.

He told me I'm allergic to my pets.*

I now have a box of Phenergan, advice to continue taking Ventolin for the wheezing, and instructions to avoid my pets. Or at least ban them from the bedroom. These are clearly the words of a man who has no idea of the scale and disruption inherent in such an effort.

I have a feeling that we may end up having to re-home a few babies. That would really suck.




* Yes, I know the sensible answer to that is, "Well, duh", but I've also been told for the past 6 years by a series of doctors and tests that I'm not actually allergic to anything. And now, it's getting worse and different and more obvious.

Pinched from Wil Wheaton's blog because it made me laugh.

Following a conversation with plusthreesigma on Saturday night regarding IQ and personality testing, I thought I'd revisit the Myers-Briggs test, since I can never remember my results. I was impressed/amused with the outcome.

( Cut for those who give a toss... )


Sidney Poitier, Sidney Poitier...

I clipped a few of Bella's claws this afternoon, which were getting long. I should have known this would be a terrible mistake. I screwed up one, and now she's bleeding. Every time I get it to stop, she wanders around or starts licking it and makes it bleed again. I have the guilt, big-time. Looks like a vet trip for me!

Motivation... low.

Job applications... all seem too hard right now.

At least I eventually got out of my pyjamas this morning afternoon, yes?

Surely this is meant to happen after 6 months or so, not a week.

Still, at least there's a couple of applications in, I'm with a recruitment agency who have me listed as a preferred candidate for one job and there's potential for other stuff from them.

OK, I'm over this unemployment schtick already. Can I have something to do now please?

Offers of company and/or entertainment during the day are being gratefully accepted. There's not enough job applications to fill the time!

For those who were chatting the other night about where to get all those nifty ingredients shown on last week's Food Safari, I checked out the website and found:

Mexican ingredients:
Fireworks Foods (or Mary Dias Foods)
Unit 19, 16 Loyalty Road, North Rocks, NSW
Tel: 02 98812 3233

www.fireworksfoods.com.au

...All the chillies you could dream of, and more!

Thanks everyone for coming last night, it was good fun. :) And big props to plusthreesigma and no-LJ-Daniel for helping us clean up this morning!

Welcome to hell in a handbasket, population: me.

So we're considering our limited options with the Tax Office demanding blood sacrifices. This may involve selling the house and resuming renting until some things are paid off and much more saving is done.

Meanwhile, Phil is considering a change of career and my job has taken a turn for the shithouse this week. I had the night from hell on Wednesday that involved someone self-harming on my watch. Unfortunately the committee seems to have decided that I didn't do my job properly (yay! again!) and I've now been stood down on full pay until they can have an investigative meeting on Monday. I fear I may be meeting the world of unemployment the hard way. So it's time to start applying for other jobs. Sigh.

All in all, this is going really well.

Just discovered via Neil Gaiman's blog that he just did a panel in Melbin' on graphic novels, along with one Queenie Chan, a Sydney-based manga artist, whose name rang bells. This is because I went to school with her. Nice to know that our buttoned-down school turned out some creativity and talent. She always was good at drawing, too.

I currently have the shits with Techbuy, because they're futzing around refusing to let me return a SATA controller card I bought from them last week. The problem being, there is no mention anywhere on the website or until you open the packaging that the only way to install said card is to use a floppy disk to install drivers. I don't actually *have* any floppy disks. Who the hell creates modern PC parts that must be installed using virtually obsolete technology? And of course, as a result of all my switching things in and out to try to make the damn thing work, it seems to have nuked my boot drive from orbit. So now nothing will recognise it long enough to even try to fix the drive. Today I have to go out and get hold of a floppy disk and reinstall an ancient floppy drive in a final effort to make the damn thing work, because at this stage Techbuy still won't issue me with a Return Authorisation number. Because you know, there's nothing theoretically wrong with the part...

More Amazon user review gold.

...that the best (and damn near only) media PC that meets our home entertainment needs, happens to be available through Aldi???

Of course, we don't actually have a spare $1200 right now. Not on credit cards or anything. Gah!

Christopher Walken: Indoor gardening tips from a man who's very scared of plants.

It appears that Charlton Heston has died. Is it wrong that the first thought I had upon reading this was to hope that someone prised his rifle from his cold, dead hands?

This sounds like pure moody genius to me. I always had a soft spot for Mark Lanegan back in the Screaming Trees day, but it sounds like he's got darker with age. It's off to JB Hi Fi for me.