I'mma gonna be an admin apprentice with the NHS! Been searching for a long-term job for about 2 and a half years in which time I've been employed for about two months, so this is awesome! An apprenticeship is exciting 'cus no one will give you a proper job if you don't have experience.

So yes, I'm very pleased. I start on the 12th of August.
Gonna miss all my free time though. Still gotta squeeze planning D&D sessions into my weeks.

While I was having this dream, it was very cold in my room, which kept me hovering near the edge of consciousness - which is probably why i remember this so clearly.



I was in a maze with someone; I think it was my youngest sister, only she's older than me and I got the impression this person with me was a child, so maybe in the dream I was a child, too; she's only a year and a half older than me so we grew up playing together, sharing a room until she reached about...

So last month the 3-year cover on my laptop expired; I was getting letters asking if I'd like to cover it for another year but as the price was over £70 I decided not to.

So naturally my laptop now won't recognise any CDs placed inside of it, be they music, DVDs or games. Tried Microsoft's online solution which didn't fix (or even register) the problem. Leaves me at a loss.

On a lighter note, I think this has more to do with me being unlucky than with dodgy insurance;...

Ladies, gentlemen, thugs and hooligans, it is now (frighteningly) ten years to the day since I joined this esteemed forum! That’s right; ten years!
Ten years of fun, and joy, and laughter, and rage, and humiliation, and angst. I’ve made friends! I’ve made enemies! I’ve made mild acquaintances! I even got stalked for a short while by Wil! (And you thought I didn't notice!)

So thank you one and all for making these 4427 posts, these 3653 days, and this 2012 rep (ya stingy...

Suddenly, internet speed!

Yes, after many years of Old Modem, now there's New Modem! Our internet has got increasingly worse for a while now so recently Mum rang up our provider and complained; their response was to inform us that we're due a new modem, which they're required to provide but only if we ask in the right place (the right place was reached through their automated phone service, but suspiciously was not titled 'If you're due the new modem we promised but aren't keen to...

Actually, I don't know why I wrote the second half of that title.


I'm going on a mission trip to Romania for two weeks to help 4 other Brits and an undisclosed number of Romanians run a pair of holiday camps for a total of 60 children aged 9-10/11-12. I leave tomorrow.

Goodbye 6-month-long British Autumn and hello European Heatwave! (I'm gonna die!)

It was fun because the friend who I'm going with lost his passport less than a week ago and spent...

I have a work experience placement with the local council; it's like a real job, except without the bit where I get handed money (still on pathetic job seekers allowance and therefore still can't afford to move out of my mum's house) but I do get a shiny reference on my CV, and 500 work XP every day - at this rate I'll hit level 6 by Tuesday!
But then I am required to, twice daily, take a ride on a bus (or, as I prefer to call them, a pus-ridden carriage of misery - man, I wish the internet...

So recently the left hinge of my laptop has been getting loose, and now when I tilt the lid back and forth a red line sometimes appears near the left side of a screen; an entire column of broken pixels. Generally jiggling it back and forth a bit gets rid of it but it's getting to be harder to dispel.

I really should get it looked at, but I don't really want to be without it for any length of time; my friend's computer broke recently and they took it to the same shop I bought/insured...

So the last week or so I've persistently not been settling down to sleep until after 3 AM (including tonight, as chance would have it). It gets to about 1AM and I think 'that's enough, I'll go to bed now' and then I just... don't. I mean procrastinating about winding down and going to bed has sort of been a consistent thing with me for the last few years but not usually so late so persistently.

It means I'm not sleeping nearly enough and getting increasingly exhausted every evening,...

That's right; I got a job!

It's for 4 weeks, working for Dunelm Mill, a British chain store that sells fabrics and furniture and linen and stuff. A new branch of it is opening in my town in a few weeks, so I'll be working over the opening period. If all goes well, I've a chance of being offered full-time employment afterwards (and if not, at least I can finally put something on my CV). Also, by the time the 4 weeks are over, the Christmas season will be starting, and then why train...