Diane L.

dilindquist @ 2006-04-30T14:34:00

2006-04-30T13:41:01Z

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.

Yes!!!!

2006-04-23T17:50:07Z

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.

Which Discworld character are you?

2005-10-10T19:20:12Z

and which are you married to? Answers behind the cut

Turns out I'm Sam Vimes:

You scored as Commander Samuel Vimes. You are Samuel Vimes! Captain of Ankh-Morporkâ??s city Watch! You are a knight, married to the very wealthy, noble lady Sybil Ramkin. You often walk the streets at night, and are able to tell where you are by the feel of the cobbles under your boots. You always do what is right â?? that is, what needs to be done â?? to keep the city safe, even when it seems bad.

</td>

Commander Samuel Vimes

75%

Carrot Ironfounderson

56%

Gytha (Nanny) Ogg

56%

The Librarian

56%

Lord Havelock Vetinari

50%

Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax

44%

Cohen The Barbarian

38%

Death

31%

Rincewind

31%

Greebo

31%

Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

Whereas Chris got:

You scored as The Librarian. Youâ??re the Librarian! Once a wizard, now an Orang-utan (due to an unfortunate magical accident), you refuse to be turned back for a few reasons: In this form, itâ??s easier to reach the shelves and hold more books; having the strength of five men makes people return their books on time; lifeâ??s great philosophical questions boil down to â??when do I get my next banana?â?¿ You say â??ookâ?¿ but are usually understood well enough.

</td>

The Librarian

94%

Cohen The Barbarian

50%

Carrot Ironfounderson

44%

Greebo

44%

Commander Samuel Vimes

44%

Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax

38%

Death

38%

Rincewind

31%

Gytha (Nanny) Ogg

25%

Lord Havelock Vetinari

13%

Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

Diane needs ...

2005-10-10T18:59:43Z

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)

Trying to catch up

2005-10-09T13:16:36Z

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. :-)

Woohoo!

2005-09-06T22:35:16Z

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.

At last

2005-09-03T17:32:48Z

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.

Ebay

2005-09-03T12:04:14Z

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.

Urrrrgh!

2005-09-03T11:53:47Z

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.

Main bedroom - window done, new curtains up (shortly coming down again because I must have misread the length and I need to remove the bottom six inches!

Spare bedroom - half papered, should be done by the end of the weekend. Then all I have to do is paint the furniture to make it all match (at the moment it's a rather unfortunate combination of pink and blue, so it looks like a hermaphrodite's nursery).

Hall - hardly started, due to most of the furniture that I could get out of the spare bedroom being in the hall. This has the happy side-effect of turning a trip from the living room to the front door into an obstacle course. What fun!

Living room - practically done, just a bit of retouching to do (and a lot of tidying).

Kitchen - let's just pretend I never mentioned that, shall we?

And I start at a new school on Monday and I need to do my final website for OU course by Thursday.

dilindquist @ 2005-08-31T12:54:00

2005-08-31T11:54:07Z

Update to yesterday's list, including some of the things I'd forgotten and
marking the ones I've done (Yay!!!)

Spare bedroom

~~Paint woodwork.~~

~~Put up lining paper~~

Paint lining paper

~~Get new curtain rail~~

Install new curtain rail

Put up new curtains

Hall

Paint woodwork

Paint ceiling

Put up lining paper

Paint lining paper

Main bedroom

~~Sand window frame~~

~~Paint wndow frame~~

Living room

~~Fill cracks in wall and window frames~~

Retouch paint where the crack in the wall was

Re install curtain rail (straight this time!)

Put up new curtains

Kitchen

Refit all cupboard doors

Reseal around sink

It looks like a lot but I'll just keep plodding on and see what I can manage.

Decorating

2005-08-30T19:31:17Z

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 :-/

Saturday

2005-08-27T22:37:13Z

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 :-)

A bit of a shock today

2005-08-26T22:27:24Z

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.

Photoshopping

2005-08-23T21:52:12Z

I've been reading Chris' Digital Photo magazines and trying out a technique called "popping colour". I'm quite pleased with the results turns into

and turns into

Pictures from Suffolk

2005-08-21T15:50:50Z

Did some uploading of pictures from our holiday in Suffolk yesterday. One set from the Museum of East Anglian Life click on the photo if you want to see the set (unless I've done something wrong) and some from a reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon village in West Stowe Some pics are mine and some are Chris's.

Chris's results

2005-08-20T23:22:45Z

Much More Scientific

You have:
77% SCIENTIFIC INTUITION and
47% EMOTIONAL INTUITION</b>

The graph on the right represents your place in Intuition 2-Space. As you can see, you scored about average on emotional intuition and well above average on scientific intuition.Keep in mind that very few people score high on both! In effect, you can compare your two intuition scores with each other to learn what kind of intuition you're best at. Your scientific intuition is stronger than your emotional intuition.

Your Emotional Intuition score is a measure of how well you understand people, especially their unspoken needs and sympathies. A high score score usually indicates social grace and persuasiveness. A low score usually means you're good at Quake.

Your Scientific Intuition score tells you how in tune you are with the world around you; how well you understand your physical and intellectual environment. People with high scores here are apt to succeed in business and, of course, the sciences.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Scientific

You scored higher than 99% on Interpersonal

Link: The 2-Variable Intuition Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

Everybody else is doing it, so ...

2005-08-20T23:06:31Z

I'm going to join in

More Scientific

You have:
85% SCIENTIFIC INTUITION and
62% EMOTIONAL INTUITION</b>

The graph on the right represents your place in Intuition 2-Space. As you can see, you scored above average on emotional intuition and well above average on scientific intuition.Your scientific intuition is stronger than your emotional intuition.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Scientific

You scored higher than 99% on Interpersonal

Link: The 2-Variable Intuition Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

Clarecraft stuff

2005-08-17T10:56:15Z

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.

Back home

2005-08-16T22:21:44Z

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.

Long weekend

2005-08-11T09:33:40Z

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.

Very Eighties!

2005-08-11T08:24:11Z

I found this photo of me and my grandad while clearing out the spare bedroom yesterday. Believe it or not I was quite fashionable at the time (note the little lace gloves). I've got a huge case full of old family photos I need to go through. Nobody else wants them and I don't even know who some of the people are.

Busy, busy, busy

2005-08-09T13:32:13Z

I decided to do something useful today, rather than just thinking about doing something useful. So I've taken the loose covers off the settees (one two seater and one three seater) and washed them. Well, I'm half way through washing them. It's not the washing that's the problem so much as the drying. In a flat with no garden everything has to be dried in the tumble dryer and it slows the whole process down. I did the biggest cover first and it's just come out after being in the dryer for 3 hours. The others shouldn't take as long, so now all I have to worry about is putting them back on - it's too hot for a wresting match with the furniture.

In between I've been hoovering and I've decided I like the new Dyson. After getting two cheap vacuum cleaners in a row, both of which broke within a few months, it's nice to use something that feels so solid. The bits fit together with a satisfying 'clunk' instead of just slotting in like the old ones used to (and falling apart like the last one). It's also picked up a surprising amount of dust that had obviously been left in the carpet when the other cleaners were used.

This is the end of this commercial for Dyson cleaners, we now return you to your regular programming :-)

Leeds

2005-08-08T14:10:01Z

This morning I went to Leeds on the bus with my mother, as she had to go in to change the tax class of her car and you can't do that at the local post office. It's so nice to go shopping with a woman for a change! Don't get me wrong, Chris is a lot better to go shopping with than most men but he doesn't understand the concept of just wondering around the shops. He plans shopping trips like they're military actions. First, you scout out the territory by looking online and deciding what you're going to buy, where you'll buy it, how much you'll spend and what time of day/week is best to go. Then he tries to get in and out as quickly as possible. You go straight to the shop you need, you buy what you wanted and you go home. That's not real shopping. We walked around Leeds for three hours, popping into shops and out again as the mood took us and ended up hardly buying anything. Oh, I did buy a book, but it's the recommended reading for both the OU course I'm doing at the moment and the one I've signed up for next, so I need it.

One thing I noticed walking round Leeds is the architecture. If you lift your eyes above the shopfronts there are the most amazing, exhuberant Victorian buildings everywhere. I always vaguely knew this, but I think seeing Andrea's photo's has made me more aware of it. Next time I go into Leeds I'll take a camera and try to get some pictures that give an idea of the buildings.

My mum brought me 'The Da Vinci Code' and a sort of 'Guide to the Da Vinci Code', which she's recently read and enjoyed, so I've lent her 'Bridge of Birds' and two Falco books in return. I'm not too sure how she'll get on with 'Bridge of Birds' as it may be a bit too fantastic for her tastes, but I think she'll like the Falcos.

The weekend

2005-08-08T13:53:06Z

Had a fantastic weekend. We went to Andrea's on Saturday, partly to give her her present but mainly just to see her. Roy and Kaiser were there when we arrived, poor Kaiser is pining for Molly, he seems very depressed. We just sat around chatting and laughing for hours, went out and got some takeaway food, brought it back to hers and carried on talking. Dorothy (Andrea's mum) has been doing lots of paintings from photos they've taken around Kelham Island. Seeing the paintings made me realise how much I miss doing that sort of thing myself. We had such a great evening I lost all track of time (or maybe that was the 3/4 of a bottle of red wine I'd had?) It was a shock to realise it was quarter to eleven and we had to get home. We got in just after 11.30 and went straight to bed. Andrea lent me 'Aberystwyth Mon Amour' and 'Last Tango in Aberystwyth', both of which I've been wanting to read for a while. She also showed me Jasper fforde's latest 'The Big Over Easy', which looks very good, but I'll try and hold out for the paperback.

On Sunday we went into Wakefield to look round the shops. Went to Ottakers and Chris got two books on photography, I got one about drawing and one for Advanced ECDL in Spreadsheets, since it looks as though Wakefield college are only doing wordprocessing online in September. I was very good and didn't even go in the Fiction section. I also got a new handbag since the old one was literally falling apart. Transferred all the stuff from one handbag into the other and threw the old one away. The new one's definitely bigger, so why is it harder to fit everything in?

My PYOs

2005-08-05T18:47:36Z

In case anyone's interested, the pictures of the two figures I painted are

I'm quite pleased with them both, apart from the eyes. I can't do eyes.