It's my birthday! Meh.

[matgb]

As of one hour, ten minutes ago as I type this, I officially became 32 years old. Do I care? Not really. Do I have any special plans? Well, I've got the week off, so, well, I'm meeting Mum for lunch tomorrow, and going to visit Granny Wednesday, which'll be cool, haven't been to Slapton for ages.

Lunch with the 'rents

Today, went to parents for lunch, Granny was up visiting, she does that a lot these days, Mum did a stir fry (I hate stir fries, I tried it again, and still hate them, no idea why, I just don't like a mix of stuff I guess). Meal also contained Dad's new beetroot. Now, seriously, yellow beetroot? a) what's the point. b) where's the flavour? Seriously, don't bother with this stuff, stick to real, purple, dye your fingers and stain the worktops beetroot. Because a) it has a taste and b) you know you've actually had it afterwards.

A walk though the village, a chat with Dad

After lunch, we took nephew for a walk through the village. Jules is at work (bwa ha!), so M&D are looking after Jack most days, which Dad seems very happy with. I just know when he's a little older they'll start harassing me again, they're right in a way, it is about time I tried to settle down and sort my life out. Being perpetually single isn't helping on that front, but meh.

Chatted to Dad for a bit, including general stuff and also finances. He offered to give me a loan. I think I'll take him up on it, I hate the idea of going to them again, but, well, trying to sort yourself out is hard work when you're barely keeping your head above water, and the interest on the credit card is, well, excessive. Yes, I'm a lot better off than I was 6 months ago, and yes, it's now under control, but it'll be a lot quicker to clear if I don't have to pay off the interest every month and worry about any unexpected bills.

Shopping for books

Opened up some cards from the family when I got back to the flat, the normal money from various relatives, so went to Ottakers to buy books with it. Fforde's Fourth Bear and Grimwood's 9Tail Fox, my relatives know they'll never pick good books for me, but I can do it, and let's face it, that's what I want every time. Best bit? I went into Ottakers specifically for the Fforde, and hoping for the Grimwood. Not only did they have the Fforde, but a) it was discounted, and b) it was signed! Yay! OK, getting a signed Fforde wouldn't be that hard, and I have met him (that's why I started buying his books, he's a nice bloke and seemed funny), but bonues, hardback bought cheap with author's signature.

Gaming at Rob's

I had a moment driving to Newton tonight that I'd left them in Tesco afterwards, but that was just me being daft, I hadn't. Strange the tricks the memory plays, ah well. Did the usual Monday night thing at Rob's, decided to watch draich_goch and Stumpy play they're AK47 campaign battle (short, boring, Jason was standing in for Andy's remnants, they ran away very (very) quickly, Jason really does not roll dice well), then we played Domaine.

I love Domaine, it's a top game. At one point, I was winning. Just. Then the bastards ganged up on me, half my knights defected and my decent territories got cut off. It works really well 3-player, and at one point near the end there we were on consecutive points scores (mid 20s), then, well, Jason raced ahead.

Then home, to check messages, post this, catch up with some memes I've been storing up, then turn in.

Memes and quizzes

I did a mindmap. It's too wide to display properly for the 3-column layout, so here's the link. When I say "I did a mindmap", what I mean is I aske them for one and gave them my email address about 6 months ago, and got the reply last week. Meh, it's free, so de nada.

You scored as Old-school Goth. You are an old-school goth. Forget Tina and Rogue, your idols are still Siouxsie and Peter and Fat Bob, and black lipstick and white powder is still the way to go. Click on my name to take my other tests if you liked this one. </td> Old-school Goth 67% Romantic Goth 63% Fantasy Goth 63% Anything-Goes Goth 58% Industrial/Rivet-Head 50% Ethereal Goth 50% Death Rocker 46% Perky Goff 42% Understanding Outsider 38% Cyber-goth 33% Confused Outsider 21% What subcategory of Goth best fits you? created with QuizFarm.com

Ahh, the ever-cynical and sarcastic speechwriter. Gutsy and not afraid to speak up or clash with authority, his dry wit is amusing. But under it all he's just a big teddy bear... and the world's biggest Yankees fan.


:: Which West Wing character are you? ::

New layout

Also? I switched to the new Expressive Vox theme layout. Huge advantage is that the html is very clean and everything has a nicely defined class, so I can style each element. A numpty like me has managed to personalise my journal fairly well. Nowhere near finished, but it works. Tag cloud, page summary, profile, all fairly good. I did go through and delete a huge pile of one-use only tags to make the cloud look almost respectable. Now all I need is to learn how to make banners look good. Or ask someone for one, want to use the same one for here, my MySpace and possibly the column at TaKtiX.