Illykai

• 01:24 Home, warmly pleasant @ScottRhodie challenged me to a drinking session. Totally what I needed. #
• 10:12 .... .... Why are you telling me about an additional 2 months test effort NOW? Where was this during y'know... test planning?! #
• 10:18 RT @wilw: RT EVIL WIL WHEATON COMMANDS IT, MOONPIE! @billprady Please vote #bigbangtheory #peopleschoice bit.ly/1Gw3Cc #
• 10:31 Strangely hot in a very nerdy way @kevinrose and @alexalbrecht emulating the drive access noises of different types of HDD on DiggNation #
• 10:38 RT @jonaholmesMW: The Oz reveals to non-twitterati the joy triggered by @jonaholmesMW on Monday. bit.ly/xbaDU bit.ly/1iQC0W #
• 12:37 The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, a local singer is busking by the lake: the corporate arcology looks like a marketing brochure #
• 13:49 For the first time in my life I have been called a positive influence and not a corrupting one. I sense a great disturbance in the force. #
• 14:32 Hooray, Ben and Jerry's came to our office and gave us free ice cream to celebrate their new stores opening. #
• 15:46 Firefox stopping me logging into our defect management system; even with IE Tab. Forced to use Internet Explorer, sad panda. #
• 17:05 Walked back to my desk, looked at schedule, realised my 5pm was in the same room as my 4pm. Guess I'm going back. #
• 18:59 Ack 7pm, how did that happen. Best leave the office and get home to my Research Presentation, also steak. #
• 19:12 Hey iPhone types what app do you use to upload pictures to the Internet? #
• 19:41 Sarisfaction is running for a train and making it as the door closes. #
• 22:46 Finsihed my presentation for tomorrow morning's student research conference. Ready for sleep now.... dailybooth.com/u/10g0z #

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So, where did I leave off? Saturday I think. So - Sunday. Got the hotel shuttle to the College Park metro station, took metro to union station, had chicken soup for lunch as I was still feeling fragile after illness, and cashed some traveller's cheques. I then had about two more hours to kill before my train left, so I window-shopped, bought and wrote but couldn't post a postcard to my grandmother (Sunday, post office not open), bought one book although could have bought about five. Read. Wandered around aimlessly. Read. Wandered around - finally got to board a 2:25 train at 2:12. It left ten minutes late anyway, and an hour and forty minutes later I got to Newark, De. My hotel was a LONG way from the station, away from the main university campus (ok, it takes me like 45 minutes to walk it, which is ok. They get away with the stuff on the website because they are about 10-15 walk from South campus, which is largely sports stadiums and the agricultural college. blerg.) checked in, went and got dinner. Monday I walked to the uni, got set up in Special collections and - OMFG!!! the letters are amazing. I was worried that I wouldn't have a full week's worth of research here - I am going to be lucky to get through all i want to see. It is a totally different side of Coleman, including, as i said in my FB update, way more information about his penis nickname than I ever wanted. Also, would you marry a man who called you his "cheerful little lap-doggish Baby". I'm not sure...

I went to the main street of Newark last night after SC closed at 4:45 and bought a roleplaying book I shouldn't have bought, I know. Oh well. Met a slightly drunk local at the bus stop, who was happy to tell me all about the uni and the community (he's only recently returned from teaching english in china, so has an outsider's view a little). lots of interesting uni politics. the bus, btw, does run right by the hotel to the uni. so why did I walk that morning? no buses between 7:40 and 9:40. yeah, great.
so anyway, got set up with a UDel network guest ID, so I'll have some internet access while on campus, just not at the hotel. so i should be working right now! I'll get back to it in a sec.
I am feeling better, sleeping not a lot more hours (4-5 a night) but more settled hours and calmer in the pre-sleep phase of resting. And my appetite is back although not huge. I have also been (at my mother's suggestion) not touching the local water at all, even for teeth brushing, and it may be coincidence but I do feel much healthier.

miss you all so very very much and am looking forward to coming home, but not with such urgency or desperation as last week :)

• 09:34 Sad no more #mediawatch for the year; Nerdgasms at hearing @jonaholmesMW say Pwned. Must send mail re: @thejunglist and #abcfail #
• 09:38 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall makes @MrMDavidson want to listen to EN. Makes me want Yann Tiersen and Atari Teenage Riot #
• 09:47 I love you Mister iPhone but reminders in the bus re: triple booked 10am appointments is mean. #
• 09:56 Ahahahah 49 messages on my work voicemail. I think I've been busy. #
• 10:07 *cringe* Oh dear god my first 3 meetings today are all total political nightmares. I just want to crawl back into bed and sleep till Monday #
• 11:42 ... You know what's not funny? When you're fwded a meeting invite at the last minute and then when you turn up they expect you to chair. #
• 14:05 How can it be getting *worse*? digg.com/u1G3In #
• 14:05 RT @Rocketpilot: Development Team: n. Small anxieties, loosely joined. #
• 14:12 QOTD: "And that's when the marketing people get it and ... put their animals on TV or whatever it is they do" #
• 15:01 When you work in Enterprise software the numbers become meaningless and the discussions silly "We're only asking for $854K, it's nothing!" #
• 16:02 *head desk head desk head desk* Today can die in a fire. Off for final strategic investments assessment. #
• 18:35 Hooray final assessment complete! Need smoke and drink, and stuck in class watching others :o( #
• 18:46 Stuck listening to others' speeches. Bored, bored, bored. #
• 19:23 Ran into @jaredquinn on his way to #smcsyd while on a smoke break. Wishing I was there rather than in Strategic Investments class :o( #
• 19:38 Bored in Strategic Investments class. dailybooth.com/u/105ex #
• 19:47 Ooh mean assessors are mean. #
• 20:38 Hooray! Class convened to Bar Broadway awaiting the lecturer and our marks. #

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so, writing a Call of Cthulhu game set in Rome in AD 50, using the Cthulhu Invictus setting. 

One of the main characters has spent some time in the legions before being discharged with an injury.  Is it more interesting to have been:

- grubbing around in the desert near Parthia and Judea?
- in the spooky Black Forest of Germania?
- one of the waterlogged legions stationed at the Ends Of The Earth (eg Britain)?

Please explain the reason for your choice.  While the first game is set in Rome, there is the potential to go wandering around the empire, so I'm interested in possible plot hooks.

quote of the day:

sirtwist  (whilst playing Mass Effect):  "Sometimes I think Garrus secretly working against me."

• 01:16 Not quite the pre-Midnight finish I was after but at least now I have my research proposal presentation drafted before my supervisor session #
• 10:37 Supervisor meeting had, time for a coffee and then a Service Level Review; wondering if I can get away with dialing in. #
• 11:49 Apparently physical presence required. Taxi to Arcology complete with Christian radio all the way across town. So tired I feel hungover. #
• 15:46 Helloooooo Kitty! www.peopleofpublictransit.com/127 #
• 16:06 Ahahahaha possibly my favourite SCP entry to date. scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scptabloid #
• 16:22 Aesthetic Perfection 2010 Oz Tour digg.com/u1FzM3 #
• 17:05 Off to uni for what I hope will be my last Strategic Investments meeting. #
• 18:13 Every university maths department seems to have the same posters on it's walls and the same smell. It's like they hand them out with tenure #
• 18:38 One of the only things I don't like about my MacBook is that the USB port design stops me using a 3G modem and mouse at the same time #
• 22:22 I should theoretically do some presentation editing before I go to bed. My brain appears to be rebelling against this idea. Cocoa instead? #
• 23:11 Tired like a tired thing. I think I shall go to bed while Mr Insomnia isn't looking. #

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• 09:55 Does anyone know what time the #Newtown Festival finishes today, I don't expect to be back from the University until at least 5pm. #
• 09:59 Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny (Thanks @Kittykittymraow) tinyurl.com/ydsrzfq Perfect precursor to this morning's Batman! #
• 10:29 What on Earth did they do to the Harley Quinn storyline? Also the voice actor. ANGRY NERD IS ANGRY. #
• 11:02 I should know better than the browse the Tiffany website when I'm poor. #
• 11:32 Hey lady I can see you struggle to control your dog but perhaps taking it to a public cafe wasn't the best idea. #
• 13:39 Feeling a *lot* better about my statistics assignment having had Matt go over it for me, now I just need to finish the analysis and I'm good #
• 13:44 Off to the University for a Strategic Investments group meeting; I cannot wait for this week to pass. *sigh* #
• 13:53 Wishing I'd remembered to charge my iPhone or bring my iPod. Loud people on bus annoying me and I have no music to cover them. #
• 16:30 Home from the university and taking a break before I do anything else, my brain is feeling overworked. #
• 18:44 Attempts to destress and watch TV turned into body enforced power nap. Awoke to god almighty crunching noises from my neck. #
• 19:56 No wonder I'm sodding tired. My "small assignment" for statistics is already 2300 words and some 15 pages of diagrams. #
• 21:02 I would really like to get through just one Sunday where someone from work doesn't want to get into an hour long discussion that could wait. #
• 22:08 Statistics assignment complete. This would be great news if I didn't have 2 presentations to update before morning. #fb #

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I've said it before and I will say it again, I cannot wait for this semester to be over.

Other than short breaks on Friday night and Saturday dinner time I've spent another weekend at home finishing university assessment.

Another day where I've had to work on not 1 not 2 but 3 pieces of assessment due this week; an hour's break, a cup of tea, a piece of cake and 2 pain killers and my stress headache is almost gone again.

It just feels like every where I turn there's another 3 things to do. If I had any idea what my workload would be like currently there's no way on this planet I'd have chosen to do 2 subjects this semester.. especially given they're 2 of the hardest subjects of my academic career.

This week there's a piece of assessment due every day, and then, then I drink. A lot.

Well after that rather positive start to the trip everything has gone downhill.
ok, not everything. The National Archives was always the vaguest part of my trip in terms of what I was looking at and going to find, and I have got some really good stuff. Won't go into too much detail, but I have confirmation that guy who was allegedly a Nazi really was a Nazi, have a lot of good correspondence and information about various JWT guys in their wartime roles, and yeah, ok stuff. Weirdly, I saw James Curran and Stephen Robertson on Wednesday there, both doing research (they are USYD historians for those who don't know).
So what is bad? Me, or rather my health. I didn't sleep at all the first night here, and about 2-3 hours the next night, 5 hours the night after, which I thought was a turning point, but then last night was back to 3 hours. This lack of sleep makes me jittery (like my chest and legs flutter sometimes), cranky, not hungry, achey, and then last night either relatedly or unrelatedly (could have been coincidence) I was horribly ill.
I hate feeling like this, I just want one solid night's sleep to reset my body clock and give me some much needed healing rest, then I can go on from there.
No archives today (saturday) so went on a walk around the grounds of the University of Maryland and did a load of washing. Tomorrow I leave here for the next stage of the trip (taking Amtrak out to Newark, Delaware and research at the University of Delaware), so I'll probably get most of my stuff packed up later (it is about 4 in the afternoon here) and go to bed early in the hopes of sleeping - but which may just result in hours of lying there awake. Still, at least the lying down and trying to sleep can't actively hurt me.
It is crisp weather here, the autumn leaves are amazing, there is a creek running behind the motel that looks so pretty in the afternoon light - it hasn't been a wasted week but I would cheerfully have come home about day 4.

• 12:26 A very large part of me wants the XKCD LOTR Movie Narrative Chart printed onto Vinyl and stuck to my wall xkcd.com/657/large/ #
• 13:35 Note to self: Statistics notes make you actively tired, keep in bedside cabinet for when Mr Insomnia comes to visit. #
• 14:01 Why *after* I generated all my charts for this question did I find the "Generate Clustered Bar Chart" ticky box on the analysis dialog? #
• 14:25 Anyone know of a good Mah Jongg (the 4 handed game, not Shanghai Solitaire) for DS or PC more recent than 4 Winds? digg.com/u12zGj #
• 15:00 Gamer activism Zombie Style and Nerd Cupcakes on #nerdgirlarmy digg.com/u1FsdT via @rachelsoma #
• 15:16 Are you a gamer? Help me finish my statistics assignment by filling out this poll (sensible answers only please) digg.com/u1Fsft #
• 16:18 Oh thank god, I had saved all my coded data before my computer crashed! #
• 16:18 For unknown reasons half my work friends have decided to have a drink at the pub 100m from my house; and yes, I should like a break! #
• 19:31 100% on our last Strategic Investments assessment. Maybe that Distinction is actually still possible. #
• 21:13 Longer break than intended but plenty of giggles helping Tanya with her Spanish homework at the pub. #
• 22:01 Aaaah Taggart, there's nothing that says Scots like a pimply faced white skinned lad screaming "Ahm nawt sum fookin' Ned!" #
• 22:17 Oooh Team Europe together again for the Top Chef reunion. Nice. #

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Umfrage #1481903 Stats assignment
Open to: Alle, detailed results viewable to: Alle, participants: 52

Which of the following best descripts your current work situation?

How much time did you spend last week playing video games?

How old are you?

What type of Games do you play? (check all that apply)

What is your gender?

Addendum: Enter time spent playing games in hours please.

• 10:31 Christ. 10:30 and I already feel like I've done 400 things. I'm off to my Quarterly Dept update. #
• 11:14 Take note people the way to appeal to your engineers as a manager: cynical humour and the truth. Engaging speech well done. #
• 14:38 Okay now my brain hurts. I'm having a smoke break. #
• 15:50 Huh. Sometimes it takes some funny ways to make people realise what you're saying. #
• 17:44 *headdesk* Why is it there's always some pan-Pacific crisis involving 3 vendors at 5pm every Friday afternoon in my job? #
• 17:48 Screw this going for a drink before someone hands me another crisis. #
• 20:24 All you can eat Korean heals many wounds. #

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• 10:14 The extremely critical PM I sit next to said that it was a shame I missed the "CEO visit and an obvious opportunity for promotion". Huh. #
• 10:27 Ugh. Social media insanity. Tempted to block a few people until #media140 is over. #
• 11:13 *Amaya glares at her phone* I know I'm good at fixing things but it would be nice if people rang me with something that wasn't urgent. #
• 11:18 Also screw you Cisco Communicator, in the middle of attempting to Corporate Magic Trick is not the time to crash. #
• 17:29 It says something about the culture of my department that not a single person moved from their work when the lights went out. #
• 18:12 Web Gem: The SCP Foundation, Secure, Contain, Protect. Akin to a very complex game of Lexicon digg.com/u1FkLb via @glittalogik #
• 21:03 Word from supervisor re: research proposal "You have 6 typos, other than this I do not believe you need to do more." Hooray #
• 21:06 Hoorays have SPSS working on my machine and no longer require trip to university on weekend to finish stats assignment. Winnar. #
• 22:12 Oh it's the 5th of November. Shall I put on V for Vendetta? #
• 22:14 is rapidly being put to sleep by her statistics assignment. #
• 22:17 I was thoroughly confused by the #qanda tag thinking this was some hitherto untapped "Q no U" Scrabble play but you mean the TV show *cough* #
• 22:34 Hrm. First page of analysis done of 3 page assignment. Tempted to move to bed and finish watching V. #

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As it turns out, I find it very hard to put aside an unfinished essay (which I now have an extension for) to work on more pressing ones. I need closure damnit.

Now I need to exercise willpower to stop doing an essay? The fuck?

Anyway, just in case anyone cares (I care!) the 12th of November will be the final thing I hand in, and I will be at leisure, to do leisurely things.

I may even keep writing 1500 words a day, but only in a leisurely fashion.

Okay so I'm an idiot and forgot to get a lot of pictures. But here's some cute Lolita kids to keep you entertained.





Halloween was just the little mental breather I needed. Pretty clothes, marvellous conversation, playing dressups, Lunarmorph fashion and then climbing out of my costume and watching Dracula - but only because my Shaun of the Dead DVD failed :o(

Apparently Joseph got into an argument at the Fiend stall because some old goth decided that we peddle mere techno that had no place in a goth festival and objected that no one wanted to listen to Apoptygma Bezerk. They should only be glad that I didn't have control of the music.

In a fit of usual scene exuberance and inability to say "no" I appear to have been asked to help manage the fashion show at the festival next year. Thankfully my dissertation will be in by then. Stop looking at me like that.

• 09:29 Yesterday it was 38 today 19 degrees, Spring you are a fickle mistress. #
• 14:08 I really wish on occasion that I worked with more competent people. #
• 14:09 RT Ahahaha @Warlach: Pony Play - The Fetish That Arouses a Nation #MelbourneCup #
• 17:27 Christ today has been mentally exhausting and frustrating. And now I have to go to university to deal with Strategic Investments. *sigh* #
• 17:57 Huh. The angry solution designer has become cowed every time she has to come talk to me. I wonder what changed there. #
• 18:32 XKCD for Dummies xkcdexplained.com/ @xkcdexplained #
• 20:44 Muahahaha. Now have all of Top Chef Masters. Who else wanted copies? #
• 20:48 Corporate goth is corporate. dailybooth.com/u/yefs #

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