... And Two Months Later

Here I am. Did you miss me? No? Your loss, I suppose.

So, I did get the new parts for my computer - I can run every game I have on ultra high now *Drools*

Didn't finish the poetry unit, which has sapped all remaining motivation to complete this course ... so I haven't even started with the next unit.

Tomorrow, after my hair cut appointment, I am going to go to the op shop just down the road to volunteer ... so that I have some sort of work to stick on my resume ... then after a month I'll try to get some employment.

I've been thinking about contacting an old friend and seeing if they want to go to the pub to reminisce about the past, etc. and bitch about our mutual ex (several years apart). Ugh, requires using the phone though ... maybe I can arrange it all via text? I hate phones! Infernal machines of panic inducement!

What ever I do, I MUST GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE!!!

PsychoScissors out.

Late ... Whatever.

So, I had a look in the settings for Dragon Age: Inquisition and found it could be run in window mode, so I ran it while I also had task manager up so I could monitor the memory usage. I found out that windows had shaped my 8GB of RAM to 2GB, which I promptly rectified. I also found during loading it would cause the CPU and Disk Usage to spike to 100%. My computer DOES actually meet ALL recommended requirements to run this game, so I ask myself WTF? I figure the CPU spike is more caused by the fact that it is an APU, which means it is also the Graphics card, and since this game is both graphic and CPU intensive ... well, it's clearly too much for it to handle. I find that when the Disk usage spikes to 100%, it's usually when some background system operation goes rogue ... so maybe a second hard drive would do the trick?

Anyway, I managed to get Inquisition to run satisfactorily for the moment, but I am thinking of purchasing, as well as a new graphics card, a second stick of RAM and a second hard drive - neither of these things are particularly expensive, especially compared to a new graphics card.

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I don't know if I will be able to finish the poetry unit I am doing for the writing course - I have tried, but I can't seem to write anything to the rule set for certain types of poems. Three weeks left, which is supposed to be used for peer review and redrafting, and I can't write a thing! Ugh, this blows! What of the ones I have written? Well, they have been critiqued by some poetry expert and I can't figure out how to rewrite them!

Maybe I should just can the whole thing. It's pointless anyway, I have no plans for using the certificate for anything. But I have already payed for the bloody thing ... twice over .... must finish ... blegh.

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So, school holidays start next week. The Chook will be at his father's for the first week. I had planned on relaxing some and catching up on things I had let slide for the last few months as I stared at the screen, attempting to write poetry. Now it's shaping up to be more sitting in front of a screen while attempting to write poetry.

My motivation for doing almost anything has gone, this isn't cool. I crave sleep, but my head won't let me - unless it's a half hour nap on the floor of the lounge - maybe I could write a poem about that? LOL (not really that funny, now that I think about it).

Pfft, whatever.

PsychoScissors out.

Books are awesome, but I like playing games too, so ...

I have decide to lay off purchasing new books for a while. As much as I love them, I really need to start saving up for a new graphics card for my computer. What I currently have had done an admirable job until a couple of days ago - I finally purchased Dragon Age: Inquisition. I have to run the game on low settings for it not to be jumpy, not cool. If I'm going to buy a new graphics card I don't want to skimp too much, I want it to be able to run new games for the next few years at least! They aren't cheap either ...

I drew a new title for this blog a couple of weeks ago. I really should get around to scanning it in so that I can put it up already!

I have tried Cadbury's new Vegemite flavored chocolate. While I wouldn't go so far as to say it is disgusting, I do think it tastes 'wrong'. I love Vegemite and chocolate, but they really don't taste right together.

Can't think of anything else at the point in time.

PsychoScissors out.

I'm late! I'm late for a very ¿important? date ...

So, two days late is still better than never, right? I was supposed to do a post on Friday so I could wish everyone a happy World Goth Day! I even brought some of my old goth gear out of retirement for the occasion ... I received multitudes of stares (more than the usual amount just for my purple hair), some of which were clearly disgusted! My town has quite a few prudes, obviously.

I haven't been doing a whole lot of crochet recently ... I've mostly been playing with altered card art ... but I have completed one small project:

Meet Murray!

Isn't he adorable? The original pattern Skull Pincushion is by DIY Geekess, though I used buttons for eyes and crocheted the bottom closed. I have also crocheted a smaller one, called Murray Junior for my son - I'll post a pic once he has eyes.

This fortnight I have continued my book consumption. I partook in the last few hours of Book Depository's flash sale, gathering three new books - A Portrait of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde, How to Draw Cartoons and Caricatures by Mark Linley, and Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures.
The latter I have perused with The Chook, to great satisfaction! I adore Wallace and Gromit! How to Draw Cartoons and Caricatures isn't all that exciting, though I have only flicked through it so far.

I have also purchased five more books on Thursday, four from Bookworld, the fifth from Book Depository (once again). From Book Depository I purchased Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures and Forms by Alisa Golden. From Bookworld I purchased The Imaginary World of... by Keri Smith, Subversive Cross Stitch 50 Designs for Your Sassy Side by Julie Jackson, Snail Mail: Celebrating the Art of Handwritten Correspondence by Michelle Mackintosh, and The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins.

It's crazy how quickly books from the UK (Book Depository) have been arriving! Usually when I order books from the UK it takes between two to three weeks to arrive - but the books I mentioned in my last post arrived in 9 working days, the books I mention in the second paragraph of this post took 6 working days - I wonder how long it will take for Making Handmade Books to arrive.

In my previous post I mentioned I was reading God is not Great By Christopher Hitchens. I enjoyed the read, though it was very different to Richard Dawkins The God Delusion. The God Delusion was about proving the claims for the existence of god(s) wrong, whereas God is not Great is about showing how belief in god(s) does not make people better or make the world a better place to live, but in fact makes it worse.

Well, enough about books ... how about movies? I purchased a few new movies, because Target has all Blu-rays half price. I picked up The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (3D), X-Men: Days of Future Past (3D), and The Imitation Game.

I don't own the equipment for 3D movies, but I figured they come with a 2D version, so why not buy the 3D versions - since the half price deal made The Hobbit $2 more and X-Men 50 cents more than the 2D versions.

The only one of these movies I have thus far watched is The Imitation Game. It's the story of Alan Turing, the father of the computers. I had heard of him and this movie didn't present me with many facts that I was unaware of, but it was a compelling and emotional ride. Normally I don't go in for drama - I'm an Action Sci-Fi kind of girl - But it was a film about an important historical figure I really enjoyed learning about ... and having Benedict Cumberbatch playing the lead role didn't hurt! I highly recommend this film to everyone.

TL:DR - I love books and I have purchased lots recently. The film The Imitation Game is amazing!


PsychoScissors out.

Crazy hair is awesome!

The weekend after my last post I finally did something I had always wanted to do - I dyed my hair purple! The bleach didn't much like my hair ... I have always had trouble with hair dye not taking properly, turns out bleach is no different ... I ended up with patches of bright orange streaks, which caused the purple to give me brown-ish patches throughout. But in the end the brown-ish patched didn't matter, as I had most of my hair cut off! As is my way after years of growing my hair.

So, I now have hair that is super short and spiky in the back, graduating to long enough to tuck behind the ears in the front. It looks awesome! And purple! Yay!


Not a whole lot else has happened this last fortnight. I helped out with the Mother's Day stall at The Chooks school. I have a gas bill to pay ... Um, what else ...

Oh, yeah, received some books I had purchased online! The Guerilla Art Kit and Living Out Loud by Keri Smith, and God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens. The first arrived on Monday, the latter two only arrived this morning.

The Guerilla Art Kit was not as good as I had hoped. A lot of the ideas I had seen elsewhere, but it does collect them in one easy to access volume. It also provides recipes and how-to's for getting your guerilla art out there.

I have just started reading Living Out Loud - so far so good. not so much an instruction book as inspiration. AND IT HAS STICKERS!!!! Stickers make any book better (right?).

If God is not Great is even half as good as The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, it will make for an excellent read - even if it is only "preaching" to the choir.

Well, I can't think of anything else, so ...

Until next time,

PsychoScissors out.

So...

On my whiteboard next to my calendar, for Wednesday I had written in that I would post to this blog. Completely forgot until I was getting into bed, thinking 'Oh, well, there is always tomorrow'. I didn't even think about it yesterday, but today I am here - better late than never?

I was having a read of some of my older posts and noticed that I had mentioned my Doctor Who scarf. Completing the scarf is one of my bucket list items! I am nearly halfway through making it. In the older post I mentioned not knowing if I would use single or half-double crochet and if I would make it 8" or 12" wide ... I decided to make it the wide version (it ended up 11.5", close enough) in half-double crochet. To figure out if I could do it without using up all of the hand dyed yellow I crocheted 10 rows and weighed it, divided the weight by 10 to get the weight per row, calculated how many rows I would need to complete the yellow stripes, then multiplied row count by row weight ... LOL. I had plenty!

Speaking of BBC ... I am now obsessed with Sherlock! After avoiding watching it for so long because I knew I would become addicted (just like a few other TV shows I am avoiding ... I have enough obsessions!) I finally borrowed the first season from a friend. As soon as I had finished watching the first episode I jumped online and ordered all three series! A few weeks later I had also purchased a Sherlock jacket and set of mugs from the UK ... I'm screwed!

I need to head off now, I'm helping out with tuck shop at The Chooks school.

PsychoScissors out.

P.S. I forgot about this lame poem I had to write for my poetry unit:

It was an exercise I had to do which required putting 100 words in a container, pulling them out and creating a poem.

Deplorable

You go further than a demiurge,

Amorphous plebeian.

Grand in your prideful ways,

Your intention notorious.

You're a meticulous juggernaut

Of compiled avarice.

Oh, tantalising travesty,

Graffiti with abandon!

You behave like a cloistered cat,

Bedevilled and deluded!

Betwixt the infidel and blade,

An apt finale.

Am I Back?

I have written a list of things I would like to do with my life, aka - a bucket list.

Some of the things on this list I can accomplish now or within the next year or two, some that will take most of the rest of my life to achieve and yet others that may never come to fruition - this does not bother me.
They range from the superfluous to serious life goals.
I have put some short to medium term goals in motion, but a few shall come to pass on their own; such as 'pay off my car loan' which - at the rate I am currently paying it off - should be the end of the year (I'll have it payed off 2 1/2 years early ... on a five year loan!).

One of the items I have on the list is 'maintain a blog with fortnightly posts'. So, here is the first of many - although I think I'll make the posts mid-week rather than on the weekends - I hope I can keep it up.

Perhaps in time I shall post my list on this blog, but for now I'd like to keep it private.

We shall see if my interest can be maintained,

PsychoScissors out.