This is just a quick plea for help, rather than a proper entry. I'll be back later tonight or at some point tomorrow with a post on the wedding and other recent events.OK, I've finally decided to upgrade to PHP, mainly to make maintaining my fanlistings easier. However, I'm completely clueless. I want to install Enthusiast, but I don't get it *whinge* Could someone please explain the whole database thing to me. Where do I install PHPmyAdmin? How do I create a database and then link it to my fanlisting? If someone could either point me towards a tutorial, or explain things to me themselves, I'd be eternally greatful. Pretty please?? =D
Listening: The sound of my brother's incredibly loud computer fan
Reading: Catherine Webb Waywalkers
Today I shall start off on a congratulatory note and not launch directly into my own woes, for once *g* Everyone head on over to Heather's blog and read her very excellent news. For lovely Heather has just passed her exams and gotten accepted to the University she wanted to go to. Huzzah! Well done, Heather =D
That's really enough time spent talking about someone other than myself, don't you think ;) Anyway, after only a week in Galway I've had to come home again. My Uncle's wedding isn't actually until Tuesday, but with all the phone calls flying back and forward, I thought it would be much simpler to be in Sligo where people could find me easily and there would be less confusion. My aunt-to-be has finally reconciled herself to the fact that I'm not keen on saying a reading during the ceremony. I would have it she really wanted me to, but she was really just trying to make everyone feel included. I feel included without having to get up and read something. Unfortunately for me, my Mum decided to tell her that I wouldn't do it for 'religious' reasons. She told Julie (the aunt-to-be) that I don't go to church voluntarily and that when I do go, I never take communion, so I wouldn't feel right about doing a religious reading in a church. Now this is mostly true, but I wish my Mum had kept her mouth closed. I consider myself an athiest, but a lot of my family are fairly devout Catholics (as all good Irish people should be *g*). My grandmother, in particular, would be gutted if she thought I didn't believe in god. Which raises the sticky question of what to do when it comes to taking communion at this wedding. I'm against taking communion if you don't believe in the whole god thing, but I don't want to draw Catholic wrath down on my head. I'll probably end up hiding at the back of the church, hoping (I almost wrote praying *LOL*) that no one notices!
Connected to this, my wedding outfit is now complete and has been approved by both mother and grandmother (although grandmother did make some comments about how much flashier my cousins dresses are). Today I got a decent bra that worked with the dress and my breasts. This was a lot more difficult than it sounds! I also got a nice wrap/shawl (sp??) thing. At freaking last.
On the bus journey back home, I read the first Anita Blake book for the first time. I've read Lunatic Cafe before (indeed I own my very own copy) but didn't enjoy it that much. It was recommended to me by most of the LJS community, back in our prime. Frankly, the narrative voice pisses me off. I think the books would be a lot better if they were told in a more neutral voice. I have to say I enjoyed the first one more than I expect, even though bits of it were quite confusing. LKH does have some great characters. I fell in love with Nathaniel in Lunatic Cafe, and in this one my heart has been given to Phillip *dreamy sigh* Question - who came first LKH's child-vampire or Anne Rice's?
Just to change topics completely, I am so glad that the swimming/gymnastics portion of the Olympics is drawing to a close. Not because I think that track and field is the 'real' Olympics (it really pisses me off when people say that), but because swimming and hymnastics are my favourite parts and thus I have been glued to the TV for a whole week now. This is not healthy and not helping me get any work done on my dissertation... I've enjoyed most of what I've seen, but I am gutted at not having seen Alexander Popov, my favourite swimmer, compete. He was competing this year, wasn't he? Why didn't they show me my beautiful Russian swimmer? *sob* Plus, Alexei Nemov, my favourite gymnast isn't doing so great and wasn't getting very much coverage. Someone out there is either conspiring against me, or against the Russian competitors! ;)
I think it's time to move on to some comments replies...
Rissa - Trust you to like the sound of a startlingly pink notebook. I should have guessed really, shouldn't I? *g*
Kris - I'll try to get some images up in the next few days so you can admire the wonderfulness of archaeological sites (this goes out to everyone who said something similar!) ;) Don't people wear hats at weddings were you are? A lot of people do here, but it's become more popular recently than it was a few years ago. Mine's pretty big. It has a nice wide brim (which I love), but the decoration isn't too in your face. Must take a pic of it so everyone can see it and admire it more than the archaeological pics!
Janey - Thank you! Thanks for reading the random crap (I realise it's crap!) I have to say =D
Everyone else - Thanks for layout compliments and whatnot. I like anyone who likes my site *L*
Listening:
Reading: L. M. Montgomery Rilla of Ingleside
I'm so sorry for the complete lack of blogging lately, but I kept getting distracted and have been really busy lately! Thank you for all of your lovely comments on the new layout - I meant to blog when I put it up but forgot 0_o The next bit of this post has been copied from an e-mail I just wrote to Caitlin, so please forgive me for it's complete lack of coherence and feel thankful that I don't write you these kind of e-mails! Although I suppose that's no consolation if you're waiting for me to reply to an e-mail *sigh* Anyway, here we go....
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I had to go home for over a week so that my Dad could drive me around to all the sites I had to go to for my disseration, which was a bit of a drag. It had to be done, but it got really tedious after a while. I'm assessing the degree to which heritage sites acknowledge the wider landscape, and believe me, they don't. Bummer. I needed a notebook and completely forgot to get one, so I ended up buying one the first place where we went (which, incidentally had been turned into a shopping centre, complete with escalator *shudder*). Obviously, it was bright pink with a cartoon character showing off her purple panties on the front cover *L* Very professional! I had to go to about 8 different sites and most of them really were beautiful. My parents and brother came along and turned themselves into my unofficial support group. Ian took all the pictures, Dad did all the driving and paying, and Mum kept demanding to know why I was writing one thing down and not another (this last drove me insane). Everytime I tried to explain to them what I was doing (at their request, I hasten to add), they got this funny glazed look in their eyes. Now why could that be? Landscape archaeology is simple fascinating... *sigh*
Once that I was over I skipped right back to Galway where I've been trying to get on with some writing, but I keep getting distracted. Oftentimes, it's the evil drink (as with this weekend), but mainly it's shopping. My Uncle's getting married next week and I've been under a lot of pressure to get a 'decent' outfit. All of my younger, skinnier cousins have spent a fortune on their dresses apparantly, so it was deemed that my dress wasn't quite suitable. Actually, my mother thought it was too low-cut *innocent look* I wore it for my 21st birthday and lots of people actually commented on the clevage on display, but I thought everyone was exaggerating. Then I saw the pictures... *LOL* Still, if you've got it, flaunt it! Today, I finally settled on a dress, after buying and returning two others, so thank jesus for that! I also bought a fancy-ass hat which I'm really excited about. I love hats! I'd wear them all the time if I didn't feel stupid. I was going to rent one, but it would have cost be around 60 Euros. The one that I ended up buying was way nicer than any of the ones I could have rented and was on sale for 42 Euros. Bargain, I reckon =) So now I have dress, hat and shoes. I still need to find some kind of wrap though thanks to some appalling bad tan marks. I got distracted by the sunshine one day and decided to go drinking rather than do any work. So I was sitting outside for most of the day and got quite tanned, but as I was wearing a t-shirt with sleeves, the marks are something to behold! I'm pasty white usually, so there's a part on my arm where I go from dark brown to very, very white. Oh dear!
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My life in a nutshell - exciting, eh? I am hoping that when I get some time I'll be able to give you better details of the sites I visited, along with some pics. They really were beautiful in the main and damnit, I'm going to educate you all about archaeology if it kills me =D
There are some comments from my last post that need answering. In general, I can't believe that no one commented on the fact that I was watching HP3 in a cathedral and that only one person (Kris commented on the ice-skating! What's wrong with you people?? :oP It was a bit off a relief to discover that Caitlin and Lee have had dreams about people in the LJS Community! It means I'm not some kind of crazy stalker *g*
Finally, Flora, I've only listened to the first HP audio tape, but it's brilliant! It's recorded by Stephen Fry who's wonderful anyway. He does all the voices, which can be really funny at times. I especially love his Seamus Finnigan voice *g* I'd definitely recommend them =)
