Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in dilindquist's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Sunday, April 30th, 2006
2:34 pm	So, this is my last weekend before I start marking SATs papers (the exam is on Tuesday, the markers' meeting next Saturday) and after handing in my OU end of course assessment. It's weird, I'm so used to having stuff I *must* do that it feels a bit strange to be able to just relax. Doctor Who last night was fantastic! Loved the whole Sarah-Jane and Rose thing and Anthony Head was wonderfully slimy as the Headmaster. I even shed a tear for K9, which is weird, because I didn't like K9 in the original series. I think I've fully accepted David Tennant as the Doctor now, I wondered whether he was too young for the role before, but he's doing a brilliant job. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 23rd, 2006
6:44 pm	Yes!!!! Just submitted my end of course assessment for the OU short course on 'The Client Side of Application Development'. I feel as though I've spent the last 12 weeks tied to the computer, but I have learned a hell of a lot (especially as I've never done any sort of programming before). Taking a break from the short courses now, til October, as exam marking starts next month so I won't have much time for studying as well. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 10th, 2005
8:14 pm	Which Discworld character are you? and which are you married to? Answers behind the cut ( Read more... ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
7:48 pm	Diane needs ... meme type thingy - goolgle "yourname needs" and post the first 10 or 15 entries (pinched from bunnyk ) Diane needs to reconcile both sides of herself -- to love herself again -- to become whole again (Erm ... OK) Diane Needs A Boost swingers milf voyeur pictures (Oh dear!) Diane needs to find out the age, sex, and educational level of her target Diane needs to use the data she acquires and create an attractive offering (both of these actually seem relevant to my OU course!) Diane needs a pigfoot and a bottle of beer, some reefer and some gin, and a crawlin' kingsnake (almost certainly not, actually) Diane needs no direct medical treatment for immediate survival (good) Diane needs external intervention to die painlessly (no, thank you) Diane needs prayer (doesn't everyone?) Diane needs to participate more in class discussions (less, probably) Diane needs to get some sleep (too true) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 9th, 2005
1:47 pm	Trying to catch up I realised today that not only have I not updated my lj in the last month, I also haven't read anything in the last month. I've just been trying to catch up on friends posts and got to the middle of last week before giving up (if I try to read them all I'll be here all day and still won't have updated), so I'll try to do it in stages over the next few days/weeks. So, what have I been up to this past month? 1). A new job at a new school (well, new long term supply position to be accurate). It's a nice school, with a new head who's making changes, which is always exiting. They've brought in a new 'Positive Discipline' policy and it's definitely improving behaviour. So far I'm enjoying it, though there are always one or two pupils who make you wonder why you bother. 2). New OU course (TT280 - Web Basics), started on 1st October and a Wakefield College course (Advanced ECDL - Word Processing), started on 29th September. The ECDL one is a bit disappointing atm, but I'm hoping that later on in the course it'll get to things I don't already know. The OU one looks good, but the course book is pretty outdated - the html is full of deprecicated tags and they're all in capitals! The course itself is much more up to date, but it makes you wonder why they didn't choose a new book. 3). Health - Well, having been at a new school for one month, I've been off twice with illnesses, once with sinusitis and once (last week) with a chest infection. This is not ideal. This time, the doctor has given me a 10 day course of antibiotics rather than a 5 day course (and 500mg rather than 300 mg), so maybe this will sort it out. Then again, that's what I hoped last time. 4). General life stuff. Chris's birthday was quieter than usual, on account of his having a stomach upset all day, so we didn't go anywhere to celebrate. Phil has made us some new bookcases, so we can now get all our books back from his very small bungalow and let him have the other half of his bedroom back. I'm still just about to start decorating the hall, any day now, honestly. 5). Bought Thud, read Thud, loved Thud. :-) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 6th, 2005
11:34 pm	Woohoo! Right, I have now submitted my ECA for T183 two and a half days before the deadline! I think this is the earliest I have ever handed anything in in my whole life. Apparently we have to wait ages before we find out the mark, but I'm quite pleased with it and I'm pretty sure I'll pass. I got my CMA result today and I got 100% so I'm well chuffed (even though the CMA's only 10% of the final mark and the ECA's a stonking 90%). Now I have three whole weeks before the next course starts. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 3rd, 2005
6:29 pm	At last I have finished papering the bedroom! If looks so much better already, and when it's got a coat of paint on it it'll look even better. I can't do before and after pics to show how it's improved because it was so bad before I didn't take a picture of it, but when it's finished I'll put an "after" pic up. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
12:54 pm	Ebay Ebay's great, isn't it? I've only ever bought things on there before, but this week I are been mainly selling stuff. It's a good thing I'm going back to work next week, because it's the only thing that will get me away from the computer where I'm constantly checking to see if there have been any more bids. Can you believe that a little brown envelope from Bernard with its stamps still in went for over 45 quid??? I must confess I don't 'get' stamp-collecting, but I'm certainly glad that other people do! Even my old Speccy went for 10 quid, even though I made sure to point out that the keyboard didn't work. And I'll be shipping my old doll off for a new life in Canada soon. The original idea was that the money raised would go towards buying a TFT for the computer (aka the "Get Diane her Dining Table Back" fund), but as it turns out it's going to be frittered away on trivialities like paying the mortgage, as we've spent much more than we realised over the summer and September's going to be a bit tight. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
12:43 pm	Urrrrgh! Unfortunately, progress on the decorating has not been particularly rapid, due to my suddenly getting a summer cold and feeling somewhat crap and disinclined to do anything. I have done a bit though. ( Read more... ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
12:54 pm	Update to yesterday's list, including some of the things I'd forgotten and marking the ones I've done (Yay!!!) ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
8:23 pm	Decorating Well, the spare bedroom now has a nice newly-painted ceiling, no holes in the walls and the woodwork ready to be painted tomorrow. All that's left to do is Paint said woodwork Put up lining paper Paint lining paper Get new curtain rail Install new curtain rail Put up new curtains Then there's the hall (pretty much the same, except for the curtain bit), the main bedroom (which only needs the window painting (but I have to sand it down first, and it's a mess, frankly) and a few cracks to fill in the living room. Should get that all done tomorrow, then :-/ (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 27th, 2005
11:16 pm	Saturday Woke up late this morning, from a dream in which Andrea was telling me about the history of modern art while painting pictures of hedgehogs with the assistance of Tony Hart. Sometimes my subconscious is very strange. Spent most of the day in the office, in the process of changing it back into a bedroom. The computer has now moved out of there into the living room, most of the wallpaper has been stripped off and the cracks have been filled. There's one wall still to do, then I can start putting lining paper on the walls and get them painted next week. It's difficult, because we haven't got any space to put the furniture from out of the office, so half the time is spent moving it from one part of the room to another, working on the bit that's just been uncovered and then moving the furniture again. We've dismantled one of the computer chairs and will be dismantling Chris' (huge) desk tomorrow, which will make it a lot easier to move around. We're hoping that there'll be enough room in there for a double bed and a reasonable amount of furniture, as selling a flat with "two double bedrooms" should be easier than sellling "one double bedroom and a room full of junk". Two big bags of junk are ready to go to the tip, and one big bag of not-quite-junk to go to the charity shop. Oh, and I've finally got around to putting some stuff up on ebay. No one wants my old non-working Spectrum so far, so I might have to chuck it. The black Rosebud baby doll I had as a child is getting quite a lot of interest, though. I've had one question from Canada and one from Australia about how much it would cost to ship her over. Tonight we went out for a meal for Phil's (Chris' Dad's) 60th birthday. We had a Chinese meal, and the restaurant gave him a balloon, a bottle of sparkling wine and a toffee banana dessert with a candle in it. He would have brought his friend, Sandra ("just a friend, that's all"), but unfortunately she was in an accident last week and wasn't up to it. Hopefully we'll meet her soon, as we haven't seen her yet. Not that I'm nosey, you understand, I'm just interested :-) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 26th, 2005
11:12 pm	A bit of a shock today We haven't seen the old man who lives in the flat directly opposite us for a couple of weeks now. Yesterday I was talking to Sue from next door and we agreed that he was probably on holiday or visiting his family, but we'd keep an eye out for him anyway. In the local paper last week there was an article about an elderly man who'd collapsed and died in a local supermarket, who hadn't yet been identified, with a drawing that didn't look much like anybody. It didn't even occur to me that it might be George. Today two policemen turned up with a set of keys from the old man who died and found they fitted George's door. They asked us if we knew whether he had any friends or relatives they could get in touch with, but we knew hardly anything about him. I didn't even know his last name until the policeman said it today, and I doubt if I've ever exchanged anything more deep than "Good Morning" in all the years we've been living opposite him. There's no moral to this story, it's not like if we'd been good friends he'd still be alive and he never showed any inclination to deepen the aquaintance (any more than we did), but I'm sorry I never got to know him better, and I feel in a way that if I had, he wouldn't have been lying unidentified for over a week. Umm ... that's it really. Sorry to post such a sad story. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005
10:44 pm	Photoshopping I've been reading Chris' Digital Photo magazines and trying out a technique called "popping colour". I'm quite pleased with the results ( Before and After )   (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 21st, 2005
4:50 pm	Pictures from Suffolk Did some uploading of pictures from our holiday in Suffolk yesterday. One set from the Museum of East Anglian Life ( Museum Photos ) and some from a reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon village in West Stowe ( Village Photos ) Some pics are mine and some are Chris's. (Comment on this)
12:21 am	Chris's results ( meme ) (Comment on this)
12:05 am	Everybody else is doing it, so ... I'm going to join in( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 17th, 2005
11:56 am	Clarecraft stuff With the closure of Clarecraft, we've been looking at our figures and deciding which ones we want to keep. In my case, the answer is "All of them except the Nac Mac Feegle", but Chris is making some good arguments that gettig rid of some of them would be a good idea. We've only got a couple of the wizards, for example, and there's no way we're going to be able to get the rest, so why not sell the ones we've got and use the money to get another glass cabinet so we can show off the ones we keep? We've just got Cohen and Mad Hamish from CC, so that makes up the silver horde along with the unpainteds we got at the last two CCDEs (still unpainted, but I will get round to it!), and we bought the seated Magrat at CCDE to go with the seated Granny and Nanny that I painted there. We're definitely keeping the Watch, except maybe the Vimes with dragon, because the face just doesn't look 'Vimesy' enough (we've still got the Vimes with gun, which I prefer). In short, the plan is to keep all the ones we love and sell the ones we got because they seemed like a good idea at the time, or because we happened to be able to afford them when they came out but on closer inspection we're not that keen. This will mean that we have more space and some extra money. Prices seem to be a little low on ebay atm, though, perhaps because other people are doing exactly the same thing (and the summer holidays, of course). The problem with this is that when I go onto ebay to check how Clarecraft figures are selling, I keep seeing things I'd quite like to buy instead. The upshot of this is that having decided to get more space by selling some figures, I've just put in a *bid* for another. Oh dear. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 16th, 2005
11:21 pm	Back home We came back yesterday evening, a day earlier than planned, because Chris wasn't feeling too good (sort of sick and dizzy and out-of-sorts). He's been much better today but I seem to have got whatever it was - in fact I had it yesterday but put it down to the large amount of wine I'd had on Sunday night :-). Because of this we didn't get a chance to see anything of Maldon apart from the wonderful collection of roundabouts they have there. It's been a relaxing break and we've both had a chance to practise with our new cameras (my new camera is Chris's old camera). I even did some drawing over the weekend, and it's beginning to come back to me - I'm not a natural artist but when I've been doing it for a while I can usually produce something recognisable. The icon on this entry is to remind me that I can do pictures I'm proud of when I work hard at it. The best thing about coming home is not having to go out for a meal. It sounds ridiculous, but every night since last Wednesday we've eaten at a pub or a restaurant and by the end I just wanted some plain food that I'd cooked myself! Maybe next time we'll go self-catering, then we'll have a choice of whether to go out or not. Current Mood: tired (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 11th, 2005
10:29 am	Long weekend Off to Suffolk to stay in the B&B we were in for CCDE. We've been saying for years that we'd go when it wasn't the Event so we could look around the area. Then a couple of nights in Essex (because the hotel looked good and it was very cheap as a late booking). Then home, probably, and do day trips for the rest of next week. I'm taking the laptop so I can do some of my course, but probably won't get online til next Tuesday at the earliest. (Comment on this)