Job adventures
Diary: Week of 12/01: Work silliness and nights in with the Kayster :oD
This week saw me forcing a much better sleeping pattern on myself and it working :oD I spent the week waking up (without an alarm) anywhere between six and eight in the morning, which made me feel much better through the day, and allowed time for a proper breakfast and to get things done and be generally productive with the extra hours in the morning (whilst if I'd just stayed up later I'd end up naffing about doing very little). Fab :o)
Work, however, comprised mostly of other people's bad paperwork :oP
My agency had left me a message the Friday before to drop by so I did on the Monday. Turns out their paperwork for me is incomplete, which had suddenly become important because they were being audited soon. Annoyingly, one of the things that asked me about was my employment status before I worked there (basically, the time I was on Job Seekers). Guess they really did just lose my P45 (hence why I had to sort out my over-payment of tax at the end of the year!)
Then, back at Royal Bank of Scotland, in more red tape fun, it turned out that I haven't been strictly allowed to open accounts for quite a long while now, as I was supposed to have retaken the exam that I had taken when I started. Then it turned out that my log-in details for that part of the system had expired and needed to be renewed. Basically, I spent the week answering the phone constantly whilst that was sorted out :oP Still, easy week in some respects :oD
The delightful Lacuna_Raze came around on Friday, but instead of us heading up to Dungeon on the Saturday we decided to have a night in around hers :o) We'd managed to catch the beginning of Season four of Lost on my brother's projector screen the weekend before (best way to watch anything!) and we finished if off around her place :oD Yay for more Lost! :oD
Now looking forward to watching the new season, though it will be ages until it's out on DVD so will have to look into other plans :o/
Diary: Week of 19/01: Redundancy and lots of fun :oD
Really odd twist at work.
I've been working at RBS for over a year now and none of the temps I originally started work with are there any more. A couple of them moved on to a better jobs but the lack of any interviewing process meant that a lot have gotten fired over time. That's been even more true lately... the amount of work we've had has gone down and so they'd been trimming us down for a long while. That I had managed to stay about so long and be one of four temp workers left was some cause for pride I guess.
Well, that all changed on Tuesday when the four of us were called into a meeting and told that work had fallen too far to justify having any temp workers. We've been assured that it's not anything to do with quality and that they'd like us to apply for positions elsewhere, but that there's no jobs for us in our current role after Monday. I'd booked Thursday to Monday off work so that meant my last day of work was the day afterwards... :oP
So on Wednesday I worked my last day of work at RBS. Bizarre! They'd suggested applying for the contact positions (we'd have to apply like anyone else) but I'd been wanting to leave anyway and I thought it would probably be depressing to go back and do a fairly similar job for the same pay, so I've not looked into it :o)
To celebrate my sudden redundancy I made sure to do exactly as planned and take all the booked holiday off and went out Wednesday night for Craig's birthday. Arrived before everyone else but they arrived soon after :o) Music at first was dire but then surprised me when they started playing various through David Bowie, Human League, Soft Cell, and similar. Unfortunately, the club was fairly empty at that point, as was the dancefloor. Once the club did get active and people interested the music had changed to mostly naff. Irrelevant though as I found the atmosphere on the dance floor to be entirely uninspiring even when there were a fair few people on the dance floor - too much drunken silliness and not enough people who actually seemed to like dancing.
Still though, was good to see people there :oP
Thursday was spent trying to get a little of job searching done and then Lacuna_Raze came to visit on the Friday :oD We headed down out on Saturday for Denial@Dungeon, which had a lot more familiar faces than usual, which was nice, and the dance floor was back to being fit to be danced on again, which was nice. On Sunday I gave Lacuna_Raze a cake with candles and after midnight gave her the presents I'd bought her, which she seemed to like :oD
New Lost as well, only this time I'm being forced to watch it as it is released! How frustrating :o/ Still, first two episodes are good and I'm eagerly waiting for the next :oD
Was overall a good week really, despite being jobless :oP
Diary: Week of 26/01: Job-Hunting, Visiting Kays and Shyamalan films
Monday was spent in with the fab Lacuna_Raze, blissfully distracting me from having to worry about job seeking stuff. I'd failed to entertain here with the Matrix sequels, so we watched Hook instead - a much better bet :o)
Tuesday I had an interview at the Job Centre Plus. The intention/hope was not to ever be on there long, but it seemed sensible to get signed up as soon as possible anyway. Besides, I tend to find going into the job centre regularly is a good motivation to look for jobs, or it was last time anyway :o) Also, being down town gave me time to sit quietly in the library and finish reading Titanticus by Dan Abnett (more on that later) and later on see Lacuna_Raze outside her work.
Fortunate was being nice to me though and it turned out that Lacuna_Raze had a half-day off so we ended up at her place watching Pirates of the Caribbean :oD
Also, I'd gotten a few phone calls from a recruitment agency about working at HSBC. The phone call was originally for my brother, but he's already got a job so I thought I'd steal the offer from him :oD It would mean working at another bloody bank, but it's a pound an hour more and a chance to get back quickly into work. Once I'd sent over a CV they decided they wanted me for the job and then on Wednesday they phoned to say they didn't want an interview and I could have the job :oD
I don't know what it is about me and getting jobs without being interviewed :o/ At least this time the agency intended to give me one :oP This meant I could spend the rest of the day on World of Warcraft rather than going out and being productive :o)
I did have to drop through on Thursday to fill out forms and get my identification photocopied, which went fine. The person I'd dropped in to see did warn that the place I was going to was a bit 'old school' and that it might be a good idea to take out the jewellery in my ears for the first week and put it back in again after my first impressions were sorted, although she said she understood if I choose not to. Not sure what my plan is on that yet.
Spotted Wrenny_Bum down town but failed to convince her of the merits of getting a facebook profile :oP
Friday the lovely Lacuna_Raze came down and, as few other people were heading out, we opted for a weekend in :o) Turned out very well once we raided my older brother's DVD collection and found a number of DVDs that Lacuna_Raze wanted to show me, so on the Saturday we were sat on a double bed facing a rather large projector screen watching Unbreakable, The Village and The Beach :o)
I very much enjoyed Unbreakable. Lacuna_Raze wouldn't tell me what it was about before she put it on and I think that was a good decision... I think any attempt to explain what the film was about would spoil the enjoyment of it, as it's not really ever quite what it seems at any one point. That does seem quite characteristic of Shyamalan, who seems to produce films that aren't really based around the concept they seem to be - Signs being the prime example, which is not all that as a film about Aliens, but I tend to think the Aliens are mostly just a backdrop for the film.
Exactly same sentiment was true of Village (also by Shyamalan). I hear that a lot of people were disappointed because they expected a horror film, which is part of what it is, but as with the rest you don't really get what you expect. That being said, when it is just being a horror film, mostly in the beginning of the film, I do think it does it rather well.
Beach was more ordinary, and requires looking past the supposed 'paradise' that I'd personally not want to spend a few more hours at, but I liked that too :o)
We also watched Peter Pan on the Friday :oD Oh, and new Lost :oD
Diary: Week of 02/02: New job, Geeking and Dungeon
My sleeping pattern slowly deteriorated through this week, opps :oP
I'd spent a few late nights staying up posting pointlessly on forums and a few spent up writing background details for W40k stories that it's doubtful that I'll ever bother doing anything with. Still, fun... I like writing :o)
I did still be a little productive and send job applications of to various places, in case the one that Reed offered me didn't come through. I even got up on Tuesday morning and walked down to town in order to visit the Job Centre. Given that it was snowing it was a fairly cold walk up to and back from town though. :oP
Ended up faxing a lot of documents to Reed through the week... it seems a never-ending need for more paperwork was pushing my start date at HSBC back further and further. Had to head down with my birth certificate and to sign some more documents on Friday and then had to do a mad dash after Lacuna_Raze to catch her after work so she could sign a character references for me :oP Fortunately that was all they wanted and told me I was starting on Monday :oP
Guess that's more or less sorted then. Is only a three-month contract and they're not looking to keep anyone on, but that suits me fine. Three months of a bit better pay before getting another kick to do something a bit more better again :o)
Lacuna_Raze was off up London that weekend so I'd been forced to make alternative arrangements as to keeping myself busy :o( In what was clearly some kind of conspiracy, I found out at least minute notice that LittleCyberAlex's gaming night had been moved to Friday, when I'd already arranged to be down my younger brother's playing games! >:o/ I was looking forward to a weekend packed with geeking! :oP
Night was okay, although very sadly it was completely lacking in any Risk. Blah, why doesn't anyone else seem to enjoy Risk as much as me? :oP Quite a bit of Starcraft and Unreal Tournament was played instead though :o) We did watch Swordfish as well, although I wasn't impressed; plot was flimsy, unrealistic and not really interesting and the movie seemed to be trying to support itself based on guns, explosions, car chases, random sex acts and inexplicably naked women (seriously... zero plot significance, just entirely random)
I headed back home on Saturday for a quick clean and change and then headed back out to Dungeon. Wasn't very busy but wasn't that quiet either, so was okay :o) Danced only a little though and people seemed to disappear towards the end of the night. No one wanted to go to Edge with me and they all were boring and went home instead, rubbish! :OP
Sunday I slept in until quite late, made time to watch Sweeney Todd. Was dubious at first because the songs seemed a bit naff and uninspiring but I got more into it as it went on. Then I pretty much went for an early night so as to get some sleep before brand new job in the morning :oP
I did take out most of my piercings but the plan is to have them all back in by the weekend, after which time they won't be coming out again :oP
Meme: 25 things about me (from facebook)
1) I find it an awful thought that one day I might be too old to sensibly refer to myself as 'a boy'
2) I don't like or want children. Very happy with the 'childfree' tag. Any interest I appear to be displaying in your offspring will only be out of politeness. Sorry.
3) I don't date monogamously. Open and honest polyamorous relationships are the only way forward for me. I don't even like to consider monogamous relationships.
4) I used to buy wargaming books mostly to read the fluff and background rather than to play the game. I do similar with role-play books now.
5) I don't like to watch movies alone because there's no one to share the experience with but I also don't like people talking over bits that I'm watching. I'm hard to please that way :oP
6) I spent three years at university studying philosophy despite the lack of vocational value. Even though I'd probably be in just as good a place work-wise now as if I hadn't bothered, I still don't regret it.
7) Despite being three stone heavier than when I was sixteen I've never been aware of gaining weight and still can't understand the difference unless I see it in photos.
8) I find it amusing that some people say I'm quiet/shy and others say I'm loud/sociable depending on how well they can carry a conversation with me.
9) I love watching movies or tv shows and hearing music that I haven't heard since I was a child and had thought I'd forgotten (until I watch/hear it and it all comes back)
10) I really hate 'men are from Mars, women are from Venus' type beliefs. I tend to think of gender identity as silly and identify as a sort of 'gender abolitionist'.
11) I spend most of my idle time lost in my head planning out a continually evolving set of fantasy lives/scenarios.
12) I shave my legs and dislike body hair in general. I generally feel unattractive and a bit unclean if I've not shaved in a while.
13) Despite spending most of my time seeming socially uninterested I do actually very much like genuine inter-personal connections. It's just all the faffing, pretence and inane 'small talk' that I find tiresome.
14) I often find things I find to be awful or horrific funny, which means I often laugh inappropriately at things that I do honestly think are awful and not 'funny' in a normal sense.
15) I tend to think of anything 'spiritual' as meaningless and non-existent, yet I believe in the mind as separate to matter. In fact, I think of matter as just being a mental concept, making the mind more fundamental than matter.
16) I don't like being drunk and don't understand people that do (unless it's just because it's 'cool') 'Tipsy' is fine thank you.
17) Being overtly and -unapologetically- racist, sexist, transphobic or anti-feminist is a quick way for me to lose respect or like for you.
18) I don't cross-dress as much any more mostly because I'm happier with the way I look normally.
19) People sometimes say I have nice nails, but I still miss the impractically long nails I had whilst at university.
20) I dislike spending money and not getting anything physical in return. I'm loathe to spend a large amount of money without something I can use for at least a few years. Part of the reason I don't tend to go on holiday.
21) I have a number of stuffed toys in my bedroom. They've all got names and the only reason they don't have facebook profiles is because I'm too lazy.
22) I hate it when people are kicking or throwing balls around me. I have a constant phobia of the ball hitting me in the face. I honestly just have to find an excuse to leave the area.
23) Risk is my favourite boardgame. In addition to the normal version I have the LoTR version, the 2210 version and the Godstorm version. I also have LoTR monopoly :oD
24) I have a crucifix hung on my bedroom wall, imported from Israel with Holy Earth in a small compartment at the bottom. I'm not at all religious though, I just admire it in the same way I'd admire something out of a novel.
25) I'm rather distant from most people and it annoys me when most people talk about me as if they know what they're talking about. There's only a small number of people who I think can do that... and most of them are people I've dated.
Review: Dan Abnett's Titanticus
I remember being wary of reading Abnett's books on Space Marines for fear that I'd end up reading a combat-heavy story with little interesting to it, but Abnett pulled it off very well. Similarly, when I picked up a book about colossal mecha wars I was a bit wary of what to expect as I wasn't sure how it was going to be turned into a viable story, fortunately Abnett managed to turn that into something very readable as well.
Abnett does his usual trick of taking the W40k background and adding depth to the broad sketches I'm familiar with and really bringing it all alive. The characters were interesting although perhaps lacking in quite the same depth as I found I sometimes struggled to keep track of them... guess they weren't always leaving much of an impression, still, nothing that wasn't cured by the occasional flicking back through the book to remind me of who everyone was.
The really good thing about this book that pulls itself above the last Eisenhorn novel and Gaunt's Ghosts was that it managed to have a plot line resolution that didn't feel mildly ridiculous. Whilst Abnett is very good at bringing the Imperium to live he does seem to have some difficulty escaping the fairly cartoonish characterisation of the enemies of the Imperium, which is at least a little understandable. Titanticus evades this as the Chaos threat is actually only a backdrop to the storylines, meaning they concentrate on what Abnett does best.
In that regard, it was a very enjoyable book.
I had almost finished the book feeling relieved that any particularly shocking sexism hadn't made itself evident. No doubt that if I sit down and think about it I could pick up numerous subtle threads of sexism, like consistently different attitudes to portraying male and female characters including quite a bit of patronising behaviour towards the latter, but all the sort of thing I might expect from many novels and nothing that was so 'in your face' as to make enjoyment of the book difficult.
Giving that, I was a bit disappointed when he did let it slip, albeit for only a few lines:
'You're staying here'
'You'll need the laslock. The laslock is mine. I'm coming with you'
That was the kind of circuitous female logic that Varco had joined the Pride to escape. Yes, he needed the laslock. He could have taken it from her, but there'd have been a fight. He was tired. They had been labouring for hours. He hadn't been able to construct a decent rebuttal.
Even that wouldn't have been so annoying except that it was in the author's voice. Worse, whilst the flirty kiss-blowing las-girls of Gaunt's Ghosts could be taken as just being Abnett not thinking about what he was writing (and thus not considering how patronising that portrayal was) this can't be excused in the same way. :o/
This week saw me forcing a much better sleeping pattern on myself and it working :oD I spent the week waking up (without an alarm) anywhere between six and eight in the morning, which made me feel much better through the day, and allowed time for a proper breakfast and to get things done and be generally productive with the extra hours in the morning (whilst if I'd just stayed up later I'd end up naffing about doing very little). Fab :o)
Work, however, comprised mostly of other people's bad paperwork :oP
My agency had left me a message the Friday before to drop by so I did on the Monday. Turns out their paperwork for me is incomplete, which had suddenly become important because they were being audited soon. Annoyingly, one of the things that asked me about was my employment status before I worked there (basically, the time I was on Job Seekers). Guess they really did just lose my P45 (hence why I had to sort out my over-payment of tax at the end of the year!)
Then, back at Royal Bank of Scotland, in more red tape fun, it turned out that I haven't been strictly allowed to open accounts for quite a long while now, as I was supposed to have retaken the exam that I had taken when I started. Then it turned out that my log-in details for that part of the system had expired and needed to be renewed. Basically, I spent the week answering the phone constantly whilst that was sorted out :oP Still, easy week in some respects :oD
The delightful Lacuna_Raze came around on Friday, but instead of us heading up to Dungeon on the Saturday we decided to have a night in around hers :o) We'd managed to catch the beginning of Season four of Lost on my brother's projector screen the weekend before (best way to watch anything!) and we finished if off around her place :oD Yay for more Lost! :oD
Now looking forward to watching the new season, though it will be ages until it's out on DVD so will have to look into other plans :o/
Diary: Week of 19/01: Redundancy and lots of fun :oD
Really odd twist at work.
I've been working at RBS for over a year now and none of the temps I originally started work with are there any more. A couple of them moved on to a better jobs but the lack of any interviewing process meant that a lot have gotten fired over time. That's been even more true lately... the amount of work we've had has gone down and so they'd been trimming us down for a long while. That I had managed to stay about so long and be one of four temp workers left was some cause for pride I guess.
Well, that all changed on Tuesday when the four of us were called into a meeting and told that work had fallen too far to justify having any temp workers. We've been assured that it's not anything to do with quality and that they'd like us to apply for positions elsewhere, but that there's no jobs for us in our current role after Monday. I'd booked Thursday to Monday off work so that meant my last day of work was the day afterwards... :oP
So on Wednesday I worked my last day of work at RBS. Bizarre! They'd suggested applying for the contact positions (we'd have to apply like anyone else) but I'd been wanting to leave anyway and I thought it would probably be depressing to go back and do a fairly similar job for the same pay, so I've not looked into it :o)
To celebrate my sudden redundancy I made sure to do exactly as planned and take all the booked holiday off and went out Wednesday night for Craig's birthday. Arrived before everyone else but they arrived soon after :o) Music at first was dire but then surprised me when they started playing various through David Bowie, Human League, Soft Cell, and similar. Unfortunately, the club was fairly empty at that point, as was the dancefloor. Once the club did get active and people interested the music had changed to mostly naff. Irrelevant though as I found the atmosphere on the dance floor to be entirely uninspiring even when there were a fair few people on the dance floor - too much drunken silliness and not enough people who actually seemed to like dancing.
Still though, was good to see people there :oP
Thursday was spent trying to get a little of job searching done and then Lacuna_Raze came to visit on the Friday :oD We headed down out on Saturday for Denial@Dungeon, which had a lot more familiar faces than usual, which was nice, and the dance floor was back to being fit to be danced on again, which was nice. On Sunday I gave Lacuna_Raze a cake with candles and after midnight gave her the presents I'd bought her, which she seemed to like :oD
New Lost as well, only this time I'm being forced to watch it as it is released! How frustrating :o/ Still, first two episodes are good and I'm eagerly waiting for the next :oD
Was overall a good week really, despite being jobless :oP
Diary: Week of 26/01: Job-Hunting, Visiting Kays and Shyamalan films
Monday was spent in with the fab Lacuna_Raze, blissfully distracting me from having to worry about job seeking stuff. I'd failed to entertain here with the Matrix sequels, so we watched Hook instead - a much better bet :o)
Tuesday I had an interview at the Job Centre Plus. The intention/hope was not to ever be on there long, but it seemed sensible to get signed up as soon as possible anyway. Besides, I tend to find going into the job centre regularly is a good motivation to look for jobs, or it was last time anyway :o) Also, being down town gave me time to sit quietly in the library and finish reading Titanticus by Dan Abnett (more on that later) and later on see Lacuna_Raze outside her work.
Fortunate was being nice to me though and it turned out that Lacuna_Raze had a half-day off so we ended up at her place watching Pirates of the Caribbean :oD
Also, I'd gotten a few phone calls from a recruitment agency about working at HSBC. The phone call was originally for my brother, but he's already got a job so I thought I'd steal the offer from him :oD It would mean working at another bloody bank, but it's a pound an hour more and a chance to get back quickly into work. Once I'd sent over a CV they decided they wanted me for the job and then on Wednesday they phoned to say they didn't want an interview and I could have the job :oD
I don't know what it is about me and getting jobs without being interviewed :o/ At least this time the agency intended to give me one :oP This meant I could spend the rest of the day on World of Warcraft rather than going out and being productive :o)
I did have to drop through on Thursday to fill out forms and get my identification photocopied, which went fine. The person I'd dropped in to see did warn that the place I was going to was a bit 'old school' and that it might be a good idea to take out the jewellery in my ears for the first week and put it back in again after my first impressions were sorted, although she said she understood if I choose not to. Not sure what my plan is on that yet.
Spotted Wrenny_Bum down town but failed to convince her of the merits of getting a facebook profile :oP
Friday the lovely Lacuna_Raze came down and, as few other people were heading out, we opted for a weekend in :o) Turned out very well once we raided my older brother's DVD collection and found a number of DVDs that Lacuna_Raze wanted to show me, so on the Saturday we were sat on a double bed facing a rather large projector screen watching Unbreakable, The Village and The Beach :o)
I very much enjoyed Unbreakable. Lacuna_Raze wouldn't tell me what it was about before she put it on and I think that was a good decision... I think any attempt to explain what the film was about would spoil the enjoyment of it, as it's not really ever quite what it seems at any one point. That does seem quite characteristic of Shyamalan, who seems to produce films that aren't really based around the concept they seem to be - Signs being the prime example, which is not all that as a film about Aliens, but I tend to think the Aliens are mostly just a backdrop for the film.
Exactly same sentiment was true of Village (also by Shyamalan). I hear that a lot of people were disappointed because they expected a horror film, which is part of what it is, but as with the rest you don't really get what you expect. That being said, when it is just being a horror film, mostly in the beginning of the film, I do think it does it rather well.
Beach was more ordinary, and requires looking past the supposed 'paradise' that I'd personally not want to spend a few more hours at, but I liked that too :o)
We also watched Peter Pan on the Friday :oD Oh, and new Lost :oD
Diary: Week of 02/02: New job, Geeking and Dungeon
My sleeping pattern slowly deteriorated through this week, opps :oP
I'd spent a few late nights staying up posting pointlessly on forums and a few spent up writing background details for W40k stories that it's doubtful that I'll ever bother doing anything with. Still, fun... I like writing :o)
I did still be a little productive and send job applications of to various places, in case the one that Reed offered me didn't come through. I even got up on Tuesday morning and walked down to town in order to visit the Job Centre. Given that it was snowing it was a fairly cold walk up to and back from town though. :oP
Ended up faxing a lot of documents to Reed through the week... it seems a never-ending need for more paperwork was pushing my start date at HSBC back further and further. Had to head down with my birth certificate and to sign some more documents on Friday and then had to do a mad dash after Lacuna_Raze to catch her after work so she could sign a character references for me :oP Fortunately that was all they wanted and told me I was starting on Monday :oP
Guess that's more or less sorted then. Is only a three-month contract and they're not looking to keep anyone on, but that suits me fine. Three months of a bit better pay before getting another kick to do something a bit more better again :o)
Lacuna_Raze was off up London that weekend so I'd been forced to make alternative arrangements as to keeping myself busy :o( In what was clearly some kind of conspiracy, I found out at least minute notice that LittleCyberAlex's gaming night had been moved to Friday, when I'd already arranged to be down my younger brother's playing games! >:o/ I was looking forward to a weekend packed with geeking! :oP
Night was okay, although very sadly it was completely lacking in any Risk. Blah, why doesn't anyone else seem to enjoy Risk as much as me? :oP Quite a bit of Starcraft and Unreal Tournament was played instead though :o) We did watch Swordfish as well, although I wasn't impressed; plot was flimsy, unrealistic and not really interesting and the movie seemed to be trying to support itself based on guns, explosions, car chases, random sex acts and inexplicably naked women (seriously... zero plot significance, just entirely random)
I headed back home on Saturday for a quick clean and change and then headed back out to Dungeon. Wasn't very busy but wasn't that quiet either, so was okay :o) Danced only a little though and people seemed to disappear towards the end of the night. No one wanted to go to Edge with me and they all were boring and went home instead, rubbish! :OP
Sunday I slept in until quite late, made time to watch Sweeney Todd. Was dubious at first because the songs seemed a bit naff and uninspiring but I got more into it as it went on. Then I pretty much went for an early night so as to get some sleep before brand new job in the morning :oP
I did take out most of my piercings but the plan is to have them all back in by the weekend, after which time they won't be coming out again :oP
Meme: 25 things about me (from facebook)
1) I find it an awful thought that one day I might be too old to sensibly refer to myself as 'a boy'
2) I don't like or want children. Very happy with the 'childfree' tag. Any interest I appear to be displaying in your offspring will only be out of politeness. Sorry.
3) I don't date monogamously. Open and honest polyamorous relationships are the only way forward for me. I don't even like to consider monogamous relationships.
4) I used to buy wargaming books mostly to read the fluff and background rather than to play the game. I do similar with role-play books now.
5) I don't like to watch movies alone because there's no one to share the experience with but I also don't like people talking over bits that I'm watching. I'm hard to please that way :oP
6) I spent three years at university studying philosophy despite the lack of vocational value. Even though I'd probably be in just as good a place work-wise now as if I hadn't bothered, I still don't regret it.
7) Despite being three stone heavier than when I was sixteen I've never been aware of gaining weight and still can't understand the difference unless I see it in photos.
8) I find it amusing that some people say I'm quiet/shy and others say I'm loud/sociable depending on how well they can carry a conversation with me.
9) I love watching movies or tv shows and hearing music that I haven't heard since I was a child and had thought I'd forgotten (until I watch/hear it and it all comes back)
10) I really hate 'men are from Mars, women are from Venus' type beliefs. I tend to think of gender identity as silly and identify as a sort of 'gender abolitionist'.
11) I spend most of my idle time lost in my head planning out a continually evolving set of fantasy lives/scenarios.
12) I shave my legs and dislike body hair in general. I generally feel unattractive and a bit unclean if I've not shaved in a while.
13) Despite spending most of my time seeming socially uninterested I do actually very much like genuine inter-personal connections. It's just all the faffing, pretence and inane 'small talk' that I find tiresome.
14) I often find things I find to be awful or horrific funny, which means I often laugh inappropriately at things that I do honestly think are awful and not 'funny' in a normal sense.
15) I tend to think of anything 'spiritual' as meaningless and non-existent, yet I believe in the mind as separate to matter. In fact, I think of matter as just being a mental concept, making the mind more fundamental than matter.
16) I don't like being drunk and don't understand people that do (unless it's just because it's 'cool') 'Tipsy' is fine thank you.
17) Being overtly and -unapologetically- racist, sexist, transphobic or anti-feminist is a quick way for me to lose respect or like for you.
18) I don't cross-dress as much any more mostly because I'm happier with the way I look normally.
19) People sometimes say I have nice nails, but I still miss the impractically long nails I had whilst at university.
20) I dislike spending money and not getting anything physical in return. I'm loathe to spend a large amount of money without something I can use for at least a few years. Part of the reason I don't tend to go on holiday.
21) I have a number of stuffed toys in my bedroom. They've all got names and the only reason they don't have facebook profiles is because I'm too lazy.
22) I hate it when people are kicking or throwing balls around me. I have a constant phobia of the ball hitting me in the face. I honestly just have to find an excuse to leave the area.
23) Risk is my favourite boardgame. In addition to the normal version I have the LoTR version, the 2210 version and the Godstorm version. I also have LoTR monopoly :oD
24) I have a crucifix hung on my bedroom wall, imported from Israel with Holy Earth in a small compartment at the bottom. I'm not at all religious though, I just admire it in the same way I'd admire something out of a novel.
25) I'm rather distant from most people and it annoys me when most people talk about me as if they know what they're talking about. There's only a small number of people who I think can do that... and most of them are people I've dated.
Review: Dan Abnett's Titanticus
I remember being wary of reading Abnett's books on Space Marines for fear that I'd end up reading a combat-heavy story with little interesting to it, but Abnett pulled it off very well. Similarly, when I picked up a book about colossal mecha wars I was a bit wary of what to expect as I wasn't sure how it was going to be turned into a viable story, fortunately Abnett managed to turn that into something very readable as well.
Abnett does his usual trick of taking the W40k background and adding depth to the broad sketches I'm familiar with and really bringing it all alive. The characters were interesting although perhaps lacking in quite the same depth as I found I sometimes struggled to keep track of them... guess they weren't always leaving much of an impression, still, nothing that wasn't cured by the occasional flicking back through the book to remind me of who everyone was.
The really good thing about this book that pulls itself above the last Eisenhorn novel and Gaunt's Ghosts was that it managed to have a plot line resolution that didn't feel mildly ridiculous. Whilst Abnett is very good at bringing the Imperium to live he does seem to have some difficulty escaping the fairly cartoonish characterisation of the enemies of the Imperium, which is at least a little understandable. Titanticus evades this as the Chaos threat is actually only a backdrop to the storylines, meaning they concentrate on what Abnett does best.
In that regard, it was a very enjoyable book.
I had almost finished the book feeling relieved that any particularly shocking sexism hadn't made itself evident. No doubt that if I sit down and think about it I could pick up numerous subtle threads of sexism, like consistently different attitudes to portraying male and female characters including quite a bit of patronising behaviour towards the latter, but all the sort of thing I might expect from many novels and nothing that was so 'in your face' as to make enjoyment of the book difficult.
Giving that, I was a bit disappointed when he did let it slip, albeit for only a few lines:
'You're staying here'
'You'll need the laslock. The laslock is mine. I'm coming with you'
That was the kind of circuitous female logic that Varco had joined the Pride to escape. Yes, he needed the laslock. He could have taken it from her, but there'd have been a fight. He was tired. They had been labouring for hours. He hadn't been able to construct a decent rebuttal.
Even that wouldn't have been so annoying except that it was in the author's voice. Worse, whilst the flirty kiss-blowing las-girls of Gaunt's Ghosts could be taken as just being Abnett not thinking about what he was writing (and thus not considering how patronising that portrayal was) this can't be excused in the same way. :o/