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June 24, 2005
Another Month Goes By Like A Deadline Passing Douglas Adams...
As you can imagine, the blog hasn't really been my main priority recently, and I don't know if that will change any time soon - I may let James loose on this part of the RNP empire (as he is going to be losing something that he probably never realised existed anyway!) to keep him happy! It seems amazing to me now that James is actually using Badgers more than I am... though he does make smaller, quicker entries. Let's hope he doesn't make love like that...
So when I left off about a month ago I was still off after my operation, and enjoying the new series of Doctor Who a little bit. Okay, a lot! Well, I was finally signed off as sick at the end of May, but I had two weeks leave as I wasn't ready - my left leg had hardly any muscle as I hadn't been to walk on it properly for nearly four months! I finally got down to work on I.T. and back to Dark Tidings, but things went a little awry - I'll come back to that a little later... So there was much watching of daytime TV (the crap they show is amazing - really!) and got going again. I managed to get rounf MAnchester without my crutch at last, and noticed the difference immediately - no not the pain (though it did hurt!)... No, the difference was that this time the people who try to get you to have new credit cards, catalogues and sell you The Big Issue all started to try to sell me new credit cards, catalogues and sell you The Big Issue! When I had my crutches, I was immune - even the guys and gals who hand out flyers for the nightclubs didn't bother (for obvious reasons, in their case!), but now - back to normal! Oddly enough, I usually ignore them and they stay away as I wear a hearing aid if I think I might get hassled! I know, I know, but what the heck - barely anyone can get to this bit of the RNP empire (though the link is at the main site) so I can anything with no comeback. Well, apart from James, and I hardly ever does anything more than put the odd comment up between downloads...!
So, anyway, a couple of weeks ago I returned to work, and found that, as expected, the guy who had been covering for me had gone off on holiday. What I didn't expect was that he can't drive for a few months as he's had an epileptic fit! Add to that the fact that I've been virtually working part-time myself due to my ankle, and things are surprisingly not too bad! One reason for this is that I've now got a nice laptop to work on (after a painfiul trip to Preston - the traffic was hell!) and I've actually had the time to sit down and go thoguh mny caseload and get rid of a huge amoung of cases that I never had the time to close before - my workload looks almost manageable - though this will change now I'm back and available to go out to see the annoying people again...
Friend-wise, Jamius has been conspicuous by his absence (though a thousand emails saying what he is going to download (in the form of a vote, but he usually downloads it all anyway!) have made up for that!), Nick has been on one of his buying sprees, and is likely to be after building a monster PC now like I have (I <3 my Ayumi!) so things run even smoother. Andrew has turned up after a while away and is now seriously into Joint Operations , as is Nick - I must admit to being a little non-plussed these days though whether this is due to playing it almost every night and getting quite good, or due to the number of games I join only to find one side constantly gets overrunn and loses all bases within a few minutes (I mean, about five minutes to lose Klaatu Mines?!?!) - I'm not sure. I've played quite a lot of Battlefield 2 and while it is great to play, there are idiots on the servers who mess up the game (usually by team killing). Good fun though, but I have got GTA: San Andreas and let's face it, this game is the shizzle! There is still City Of Heroes (still fun) and the excellent Guild Wars too...
Of course, not everything goes well - apparently James will be back for a one-week-only appearance this weekend before disappearing into the forest to hunt woodlice or something. I wonder if he's been able to use his telescope recently? I know I have!
One big, nasty and sad thing that hasn't gone my way is, sadly, Dark Tidings. While I.T. is flowing nicely (the art is fun, the stories easy to write), Dark Tidings ran into another wall, though at least this time it wasn't anything like when the original series crashed and burned during Rites Of Spring... I was able to announce, just in time for the Summer Solstice, that I was going to have to amke a sacrifice of something, and for various reasons, that something was going to be Dark Tidings. Like most web cartoonists (even well established ones - you know who you are!) I knew I could do more - sadly I was wrong, though the main reason is that I was changing the way the story was scripted at the last moment (note to all writers - if your characters start talking to you, tell them to bugger off!). The good news (yes, you can stop crying now, James!) is that it will return, but different. It may be online, it may be just in book form, but it will return - and it will still feature Pucky the chicken - at least he knew his place and never gave me backchat! Now I have time for life again (I can read books, play games, make - yes - make blog entries!). A large lump of life has been returned to me, and fo that I'm glad. In sadder news, I.T. will keep going until I die, probably!
So, It's been a fairly eventful month or so (and I haven't told you about my mum being fined £1000 as the lid of the dustbin wasn't on properly (and her the head of the local Community Group! The shame!), though it seems it will be ignored as it seems it was actually the Community bin from the park that is brought over (as it never gets taken away as the park itself is locked until after the binmen have been...) And I didn't mention the discovery of the leaking pipe in the loft that dripped into the bathroom... Or the fact that my internet is now a wonderful 3Mps!
Ah well - just time to let you know that if you have been missing the reviews (apparently James has!) there may be a large, in depth (and totally happy) review of 13 episodes of a certain series that ended last week with the word 'Barcelona!' turning up soon - be warned - I may end up sticking a link to it on Outpost Gallifrey, so don't swear - you might be live on channel 44,000!
PS - since we won't be going near a theme park, least of all going to ride Rita - Queen Of Speed - you might want to check out I.T. (plug!) these next two weeks as they ride the biggest roller coaster on Sunseansand... I know it's little compensation, but waht the heck - after this it's up to four months of the South American Rain Forest... and you want to see the size of the woodlice there!
Posted by Badgers at June 24, 2005 10:35 PM
Comments
erm,ok,what will I be missing that I don't know exists?
Apart from my sex life,but we won't be going there will we!
jamius
Posted by: Jamius at July 2, 2005 02:38 AM