The Journal of Entorien Scriber.

The video from my previous post has now been fixed and can be viewed by all.

When friends get together and start getting silly, all manner of chaos can ensue, as cu_sith, exalted_mugwump and Ralph will now prove.

:-D

I love my crazy friends.

I've been cutting back on the amount of sugar, crisps and chocolate I've been eating. I've been doing really well and thought I'd treat myself to one ice cream. I went hunting for the new Magnum, it's supposed to have chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, a chocolate shell, etc.

Instead I found somewhere tht still sells Magnum Mayan Mystica! Never mind the chocolate ice cream in the middle, it's the chocolate that I go mad for! It's milk chocolate with delecate, sweet spices!

Spiced chocolate. Whoever invented it should be made a saint!

In other news, I visited Bourne Free, the local gay pride celebration last Saturday. It's the most at home I've felt outside of a convention. I was surrounded by people like me!

You see, straight people are the most common, then there are gay men and women, whereas bisexual seems to be the least common. So I'm sort of a minority within a minority. Throw in the poly and it gets even worse! People don't have labels telling you about their sexuality, and I'm bad at approaching people anyway, so it's hard to know who's approachable and who isn't.

I picked up leaflets for all kinds of groups, but there I hit a problem. Most 'youth' groups kick you out at 26, which is how old I am, and most other types of group are for people over 40 or some similar age. I'm stuck in between the two!

Still, it was nice to have so many people around Bournemouth wearing the Pride flag with... well... pride! I picked up a new slogan t-shirt, (Says 'I Can't Even Think Straight'), a couple of new badges for my hat, and Oscar is now sporting a rainbow collar. Looks really good against his black fur! Oh, and I finally picked up a Pride lanyard, which I will be wearing at conventions.

Well, it's almost tme for me to go home and see how Kelvin's doing, (he's picked up a cold), and we started a Warhammer 40k battle yesterday, which is still going! My Tyranids against his Space Marines, with the newest rules expansion, Planetstrike. Should be fun.

Entorien Scriber, signing off.

Of those people in the gaming group who stress me out, three of them are here today.

Of the people who lessen the stress, none.

This is not good odds. I should have stayed home and watched Torchwood. Which rocks, by the way.

EDIT - Now there's four people I have trouble with. Joy.

I have my study back. It's still a little messy, but I can set up in here and type. I have the light on low, relaxation music playing quietly in the background, and I am surrounded by the deep, spicy and sweet scents of my many scented candles, (which are unlit, but their scent fills the room anyway). Were it not so warm already I would have my two lava lamps going.

I am starting to realise that I feel very peaceful when up late and working on T'Fae in some way. Tonight, (or this morning), I'm working on text for the website. Character bios of all my main characters, which could take some time.

The really weird thing is that I don't feel tired. Oh, I would sleep if I went to bed, but I don't feel that I need to sleep, not yet. I feel peaceful and content, more so than I have in some time. Perhaps I need to do this more often.

EDIT - In fact I feel so good that I went and found myself a peaceful icon just for moments like this.

I'm sure that heat like this should be illegal. Especially when there's no way to escape it.

Seriously, I can't read, I can't write, I can't concentrate on much of anything. I've still got over two and a half hours of work left, and I can't go home when I finish because I have to go see my psychologist, who I'll refer to as M, (Partly because it's simpler, and partly because it make it sound like I'm a secret agent!).

M has had me doing a dream diary, which has proven to me that by the time I've been awake an hour or so, any dreams I might have had have faded from my mind, so I've been putting pencil to paper as soon as I wake up.

I won't get out of my meeting with M until six-ish, bleugh. All I really want to do is go home and have a cool shower.

Ah well, I have grikmeer to keep me company for a bit. That makes things better.

I've been going through the music on Gallifrey again today. Been doing this for a while now, getting rid of anything I don't like and rating the rest. 1125 songs rated so far, about 10gb deleted.

So, only 4944 songs to go.

Looks like I'll need another drink.

Know anyone who was brought up by same-sex parents? Do they seem 'damaged' to you?

No, didn't think so. Have a read of this article, it's always nice to see people taking a stand for Gay and Lesbian rights.

Besides, the term 'Gayby' is both cute and hilarious!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/06/28/gayby/index.html

What a wonderful day.

The wheels on my laptop bag broke, so I had to fork out £15 for a new one.

It's tipping it down with rain when all the weather reports say it should be sunny.

My Nan is having one of her worse days and has no idea who I am.

Sucks to be me.

EDIŢ- And now work are questioning me about some 'multimedia downloads' my work mobile has been charged for. Ringtones and suchlike. I don't even know how to do that! Argh!

Today I recived another box of My Little Ponies in the post. After fishing out the ones that will be resold, I cleaned up the rest... and realised that I'm running out of room! The four shelves in the bedroom are no longer enough to hold my growing herd, so they're overflowing into other parts of the house.

In other news, my brain is slowly dissolving watching Kelvin and Henry playing Full Thrust, (a tabletop space battle game), and they've adjusted the rules until they're so complex I have no idea what's going on! All I know is that the first blood of the game was drawn by Henry... flying his own ship into his own bullets!

Soon after Kelvin destroyed his own armour...

I'm going crosseyed.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090625/ten-michael-jackson-dies-ea4616c.html

And now the press will have a field day, dragging all the old stories into the light again.

... and I just bought six bananas for 31p!

So I'm not just bananas, I'm cheap too!

:-D

This morning I began reading 'The Neverending Story' by Michael Ende...

...just a few minutes ago I finished it.

I have never read a book that made me feel so much.

For those who have never read it, find yourself a copy. Open the front cover and plunge yourself into the world of Fantastica, don't leave again until the very last page.

For those who have read it, I would hazard a guess that I'm not the only one to look up at the sky and wish to see a long, pearly white body weaving through the air, singing a joyful song with a voice finer than the purest brass bell.

If only we could all have a Luckdragon.

For those who haven't realised, I collect My Little Ponies.

Yesterday I was able to get the whole herd together....




:-D

Have been to see a psychologist, he's willing to take me on as a patient so I'll be seeing him once a week on a thursday afternoon. Reasonably cheap too, only £44 a session.

I'm having an initial assessment with a psychiatrist on Monday.

Fingers crossed he'll take me on as a patient.

On the Wild About Britain website!

I am now lurking in the spider forums under the name Entorien_Scriber. I'm using the same text-and-pen userpic that I go by here. Anyone else a member?

I have a lovely little problem. A friend directed me to a website where I can purchase ISBN numbers for my books.

10 ISBNs for £107.18. Problem - I've counted and realised I intend to release more than 10 books.

The next price bracket is 100 ISBNs for £201.48. I won't be able to release 100 books! That's far more than I need. Two blocks of ten would be much more sensible. However, the prices are as follows:

10 ISBNs - £107.18
20 ISBNs (Purchased in two blocks of 10) - £214.36
100 ISBNs - £201.48.

It's actually cheaper for me to purchase more than 80 ISBNs that I'll never need!

Argh!

Firstly, the links. The first one is from the lovely tanngrisnir. If you dislike the BNP, then this is the best soloution for you.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/18/charlie-brooker-bnp-racism

Then something from ICanHasCheezeburger.com, via Youtube. Ever considered a career in Cat Yodeling?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxLG2wtE7TM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Ficanhascheezburger%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded

And finally something shown to me by cu_sith. this is from Britain's Got Talent, but don't let that put you off! Trust me, if you like a good singer then click this, or if you like seeing the annoying judges get the surprise of their lives! 'All that is gold does not glitter'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=related

And now for the Memes. The first one taken from davidbrider.

( Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. )




( This apparently is Time Out's list of essential SF movies or somesuch. Anything I've seen has been bolded. )

Is it time I sought out an agent for my books? And how the hell do you go about doing so?

Does anyone have music by The Spinners? (That's the U.K. folk band, not the U.S. band!)

Kelvin's after some of their work, but they're proving damned hard to find.

... are pretty good if you live in Woking!

On our way back from Norfolk we stopped off to see the Woking Martian, and he is damned impressive! We rounded a corner to find him towering over the street...



It's actually quite large in area as well as height, with a landed cylinder and no less than eleven bacteria scattered across the street, it took a while to spot and photograph them all!

( Loads more pics under the cut... no, really, there's tons of them here! )

Norfolk was unbelievably great.

We saw a wild Otter.

We're sunburned.

We're tired.

We've just hit a 16 mile tailback on the M27.

We just passed a bit of graffiti on a bridge over the M25.

GIVE PEAS A CHANCE!

Just 14 hours until we pick up the boat! Squeeeeeeeeee!

I've had a nice long shower, (which I shared with a lovely young lady with long legs and dark eyes... 8 legs and 6 eyes, damn spiders!), so I'm ready for bed, but I'm buzzing!

On the way up we're going to drop by Woking to have a look at The Woking Martian, which should be a hell of a sight to see! I'm also going to stand on the very common where the first Martian cylinder landed.

I am such a Geek.

Blood and Ink: A Compendium of Short Stories Following the Travels of Vincet Valeteri and Entorien Scriber.



Vincet Valeteri, a hired assassin who lives by his own moral code and picks his clients with great care. An outgoing man with a great sense of adventure and a deep rooted zest for life.

Entorien Scriber, a wealthy scholar who's thirst for knowledge takes him far from home. A lover of the finer things in life he cuts a noble figure wherever he goes.

Together this unlikely pair travel far across the world of T'Fae, straying well beyond the boarders of the known land. Their search for adventure and knowledge binds them together in a way neither of them quite understand, lives forever bound in layers of blood and ink.


Thoughts/opinions?

I can hardly believe it! We're off on our holiday so soon!

Eight days of bliss on board a 60 year old sailing yacht, going wherever we please on the Norfolk Broads. I doubt I'll be able to update much, if at all, while I'm there. I intend to leave Gallifrey at home, (I'm not letting a £250 notebook anywhere near all that water!), but Tardis will be going so I might manage a word or two some evenings.

My 'Critters I really want to see' list comprises only three things:

Otters, (There's one living at the boat hire place, so I'm in with a chance there).
A Fens Spider, otherwise known as the Fishing Spider, Raft Spider, or Dolomedes fimbriatus.
The Swallow-tail Butterfly.

Anything else will be a bonus! We're likely to be surrounded by early ducklings, but all of the tourists will have gone home by now, so it should be nice and quiet. Just what's needed for watching wildlife and easing the stress.

I have discovered that I have an odd addiction. I want to lose some weight, so I'm trying to stay away from chocolate, sweets, crisp, etc. The problem is that I eat when I'm stressed, and with an anxiety disorder I'm stressed nearly all the time. It takes a lot of willpower to avoid nipping intoa Newsagent's for a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps.

Legend has it that when you try to give up one addiction, the craving often transfers to something else. People who give up smoking are said to gain weight, for example.

Well, my craving for chocolate has transferred... to notepads! I already have a silly amount of the things, although I do go through them at a hell of a pace, but now when I feel stressed I find myself looking for a new notepad. An unusual one is best, that can get me through a whole day, but anything I don't already own will stave off the chocolate cravings for a couple of hours. Price is no object, even a 99p pad will catch my eye if I don't own one.

Weird.

I went to see Doctor M today, checking on my depression and sleeping problems. Can't do a damn thing about the depression, I'm on the highest dose already. Great. As for the sleeping issues, I can't stay on the tablets that work really well because they cause depression. So he gives me a prescription for something a little milder that I can take every night.

At the pharmacy I waste away half an hour of my life before they finally tell me that instead of paying £7.20 for the prescription, I could buy the same damn medicine over the counter for £4.99! Something I could have done half an hour ago! I don't need a prescription for these, especially not the repeat prescription that Doctor M was suggesting. That would have cost me about £3.60 a week, whereas just buying the pills costs me £2.50 a week.

Gah! Surely he knows enough about the drug he's giving me to know that it's available over the counter? Or as it deliberate, to get more cash for the NHS?

Anyway, it looks like I'm back to square one with the depression, battling to implement the things I've been told will help. And the sleeping problems, I'll try these pills and if they don't work I'll go through every over the counter sleeping drug I can, assuming they don't mess with my other pills, until I find one that works.

Failing that there's always a large rubber mallet to the head.

Kelvin, cu_sith and I were just having a very interesting conversation about alcohol tolerances. I know that mine is lessened to due my medication, whereas both Kelvin and cu_sith both seem to be able to drink more than their lifestyle or genetics should allow.

So we thought that it would be fun to have a test one weekend, done at home for safety, by having a drinking game with Vodka Jelly Shots. The problem is that we're all geeks, so normal drinking games are right out of the question.

One idea was Mario Kart Wii, which we all love.
Another idea was the computer game Worms, also on the Wii.

I'm sure there must be board games or card games, (not Poker, or anything else with a standard deck of cards), that we could use, so I'm fishing for any bright ideas.

What about it? Any suggestions?


(We're not playing strip-anything!)