A tree in a tree!

December 16, 2011 – 5:49 pm

Took a break from Christmas knitting the other day and attempted a couple of Christmas decorations with dubious results.

I made a star of which we won’t speak of again and a Christmas tree based on this pattern.

I’m not very happy with the tree though crocheting a gold border around it gave it some stability and form. Its original finish made it look like an Ent, as @RebeccaAJones suggested! She also had some fantastic ideas for other knitted ‘Lord of the Rings’ related Christmas decorations, such as Christmas Treebeard, “Merry” Christmas, SamWISE MAN Gamgee, GandELF which I’m sure already exists! It’s also curious timing as I am currently watching the first LotR film for the umpteenth time.

Best tweet of the day, however, came from @DjDATZ resurrecting an old Xzibit meme: I heard you like trees, so I put a tree in your tree so you can tree while you tree!

With regards to the Christmas knitting I appear to be doing better than I thought despite having just unravelled about 3000 stitches due to making something too long. I realised the mistake a while back, but put off unravelling it until now. My to-do list is still long, but no longer seems impossible. Plus I’m sure I’ll finish lots over the next days as each LotR film is about four hours long.

By Cat | Posted in Christmas '11, Knitting, Lord of the Rings | Leave a Comment

Christmas presents

December 12, 2011 – 5:21 pm

I’m starting to feel the pressure with all the Christmas knitting I planned to do. Originally I thought I had done it all well – I started before the end of October and I laid out exactly what I was going to knit for everyone and got the wool ahead of time.

And then it all went wrong and I hurt my thumb.

My current progress:

  • One project is 98% complete.
  • One project is 90% complete.
  • One project is 50% complete.
  • One project is not yet started.
  • One project is 40% complete and deferred until that friend’s birthday in January.
  • One project is 95% complete, but ties in with another project that is not yet started.

So it’s all a matter of getting it done and at the same time continuing to knit through the pain. Brilliant.

Of course once I have completed those I still need to wrap them and I don’t like wrapping presents yet luckily I have a friend who enjoys it so much that she practically asked me to let her do my Christmas wrapping for me. Who am I to argue?!

Turns out wrapping presents is something that many people don’t like doing as a tweet I made yesterday showed: “Far too many people I know truly enjoy wrapping presents. I can’t be the only one that doesn’t?!” #

  • Peterbcooper: I like giving people things in plastic bags.
  • vegoutgirl: make that two!
  • Katie1989: I love it! :D
  • ernmander: I don’t like wrapping presents, mainly because I am crap at it.
  • noirem: I like box shaped things and gift bags.
  • _mickychaela: I usually get my brother to do it. I am so bad at it, they’d look nicer in a carrier bag!
  • katupoo: I am bloody awful at wrapping. I barely even try anymore.
  • NTGrace: I hate it and always leave it until the last minute :o(
  • NickThomsponRG: your not the only one. There is a gift wrapping stand in the oracle which solves the problem
  • DavidMurby: No, you’re definitely not the only one :)
  • BenPrudden: My girlfriends Christmas present from me is to wrap my Christmas presents :P. But seriously, people do seem to like the wrapping.
  • Anie67: you aren’t!
  • su_lynx: add me to the list of people who enjoy wrapping presents!

Conversations following that centred around present wrapping parties [*shudders*] and wrapping me up [Noooo!]!

By Cat | Posted in Christmas '11, Knitting, Life in general | Comments (2)

The fireplace

December 11, 2011 – 9:28 pm

Those following me on Twitter will already know that I have been spending far too much time in front of my friend’s fireplace. They finally had their chimney swept and bought wood and Monday was the first time they lit it. Since then I have spent far too much time at her house for various reasons which wasn’t just the new fireplace. Honest!

And take lots and lots of pictures.

I’ve missed the smell and the sound of a real fire. We used to have an oven [wood burning stove, whatever you call it] back home in Germany which used to heat the house quite well during the winter months.

Having a real fire is a little disappointing. It’s still warm, still smells of wood burning, but it doesn’t have the long lasting heat as all of it disappears straightaway and doesn’t get contained within the oven to heat later.

I’m still enjoying it though!

By Cat | Posted in Life in general | Comments (1)

How to make a Nutella hot chocolate

December 6, 2011 – 11:39 pm

It’s no secret that I love Nutella which is probably the German in me coming through! I am sometimes surprised that I like it seeing I generally am not much of a chocolate eater, but there’s just something about it.  I’ve blogged about Nutella once before, too!

When I mentioned making a Nutella hot chocolate the other day I got a number of replies from people curious about it and I realised I couldn’t really sum it up well in just one tweet so decided to make a blogpost about it which also allows me to finally use the much underused cooking category of my blog. The image at the top is from @sahfenn who simply takes much better pictures than me!

Will I like a Nutella hot chocolate? Yes, if one or all of the following apply to you:

  • Do you love Nutella?
  • Do you love hot chocolate?
  • Do you love creamy hot chocolate?
  • Do you love hot chocolate that doesn’t feel heavy?

Word of advice before you’re attempting this – You will run out of Nutella and milk a lot quicker than you can imagine as it is seriously addictive.

How to make Nutella hot chocolate:

  1. Get a saucepan.
  2. Measure as much milk as you want to use. I generally go for 1/2 pint.
  3. Measure about a heaped tea spoon of Nutella and add to the milk.
  4. Use a whisk to completely stir the Nutella into the milk.
  5. Heat the milk whilst stirring vigorously to create more bubbles.
  6. Either bring the milk to a boil [which is great if you love the skin on your hot chocolate, like I do] or turn off the heat just before boiling.
  7. Stir for another 30 seconds to get as many bubbles as you possibly can.
  8. Pour the mixture into a cup.
  9. Wait at least four minutes before drinking. Trust me!
  10. Enjoy!
By Cat | Posted in Cooking | Comments (2)

Sleeping issues

November 30, 2011 – 8:40 am

I’m used to not sleeping well and have had various sleeping problems since I was 15. I also participated in a sleep study which showed that I generally need less sleep than most people and four hours a night can be enough for me.

I have various sleeping issues:

  • Inability to fall asleep
  • Inability to sleep more than a couple of hours
  • Restless sleep
  • Over-tiredness
  • Being very alert
  • Nightmares

I’ve attempted a lot of things to fix it, such as:

  • Cutting out caffeine
  • Drinking a lot of water
  • Drinking very little water
  • Getting a bedtime routine
  • Removing distractions
  • Setting different lights
  • Blocking all lights
  • Using earplugs
  • Sleeping with an open window
  • Sleeping with a shut window
  • Changing my bedding
  • And much more..

Normally I don’t let it affect me too much and I can deal with it, however, getting one night of good sleep normally throws me off-balance for weeks.

I woke up last week Tuesday after the best night’s sleep I could remember in a very long time. It was free from nightmares and lasted seven amazing hours. Of course since then it’s been worse than normal and I am now tired and it will me a while to get used to it again.

By Cat | Posted in Personal | Leave a Comment

De Quervain syndrome – ‘Knitter’s thumb’ update

November 29, 2011 – 11:26 pm

I’ve mentioned my thumb/hand issues before here and here and today went back to my GP surgery to have it looked at as it’s now been a month and the pain is still ongoing restricting not only my knitting, but also other daily activities. For example getting dressed is proving to be an issue daily.

As it turns out I have ‘De Quervain syndrome‘ which is a fancy term for a form of tendinitis most commonly occurring with women. It most likely was not caused by knitting though which makes me happy[ish]:

The cause of de Quervain’s disease is not known. In medical terms, it remains idiopathic.

Some claim that this diagnosis should be included among overuse injuries and that repetitive movements of the thumb are a contributing factor, but there are no scientific data that support a link between hand use and de Quervain’s.

Basically looking at that Wikipedia article and elsewhere on the ‘nets it’s pretty much something that gets thrown around, but no one really knows what causes it and what actually makes it better. Not that it would actually make a difference as all the GP said was:

“Well, here’s this prescription gel which you shouldn’t take for more than a week and we’ll see how it goes in about a couple of weeks or so. Oh and if you’re feeling lots of discomfort [I do, this is after me telling her how even getting dressed hurts] do take Ibuprofen tablets, but they’ll probably give you stomach issues so you’ll have to see about that.”

I’m glad I’ve wasted this morning just to get annoyed and now officially worried about a situation I can’t change. I didn’t want to go to the GP this morning knowing exactly that they wouldn’t do anything about it. The only reason I made the appointment was at the insistence of two friends who don’t really seem to understand that I’d much rather be writhing in pain and complain about it then have the injustice and frustration with every GP appointment and also still complain about the pain and my following bad mood.

I have never in my life had a good GP, family doctor, dentist, specialist or anything. Being in the presence of doctors makes me angry based on all the previous experiences and nothing good ever comes from it, especially not earlier this year though that finally sorted itself. Instead I’m left with a hand that still hurts with a gel that doesn’t do much [and cost lots of money] and still angry at the appointment over twelve hours later.

I realise I have issues.

By Cat | Posted in Knitting, Personal | Comments (2)

Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2

November 27, 2011 – 2:29 am

I recently completed Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 or SWTFU2. I mentioned it very briefly before.

I played the first one shortly after its release and was surprisingly enjoying it very much. The Euphoria game engine coupled with the ability to let loose with a lightsaber worked very well and the difficulties were well matched. I even went back to complete it a second time, despite one of the boss fights being incredibly annoying.

With such a great foundation what could possibly go wrong in the sequel?

This is a purely rhetorical question, as it turns out that a great game can indeed be utterly ruined by a sequel. Yes, I hear some cry, just look at Deus Ex Invisible War to which I reply that I preferred it to the first one. So what about KotOR 2, others may say. KotOR 2 still kept the same intriguing plot lines, as well as loads of added gameplay features.

SWTFU 2 is a mess. It seems to me like I was missing half the content or that I was asleep during the majority as it seemed so incredibly unfinished and, well, lame.

Story: Bla bla bla, stuff happens. There is no plot resolution. Stuff just randomly happens and it makes no sense. Is he a clone? Is he the real deal? Are there more clones? Why do the clones wear such horrible clothes? Why was Kamino not prepared for a second attack? Why was Vader so weak? And whatever the hell was up with that semi dream sequence having to walk slowly for what seems like ever before the final boss battle against real or faux Vader? So many questions, so little care to have them answered.

The game also helps answering this important question within the Star Wars universe that I’ve always* [*never] wanted answering: Are there any other places than the Dagobah caves to get dream sequences and visions? The answer, as you may expect, is no which begs the follow up question if there are many queues? Toilets? Free parking? Jedi on hand to help raise the ship out of the mud? Refreshments? Souvenirs? An ‘I’m with the stupid guy who got his hand sabered off’ shirt? Postcards?

Gameplay: Meh. Can I just use meh to describe it and leave it at that? So you walk around killing stuff. So far so good. Bad thing is that you are apparently stuck in a SWTFU 2 version of groundhog day and every corner you turn just leads to the same kind of layout that was there before. During the first level I felt like I had circled the entirety of Kamino ten times. And that the architects of Kamino needed a raise or a force choke.

I’m realising as I am typing this that I don’t actually remember the other levels much. There was the shortest ever level on Dagobah and something on that Cloud City wannabe, but I don’t remember it. All I remember is killing the same annoying robots over and over and over and over again with the most overused and silliest QTEs which really should have been renamed to STEs – Slow Time Events. I was going to talk about the cutscenes that happen every time a new wave of enemies spawns, but I feel my time is probably better spent ranting about the bossfights.

Bossfights: Only gripe I had with the first game was the boss battle on that planet where some ship needs to be crashed into some planet for some reason whilst the world’s most annoying TIE fighters attack all the time. The second one has a few annoying boss fights that seem to take an eternity even though the game makes it obvious as to what’s to do. Oh, you’re flashing up the B button, I guess I better press it.

I don’t think I can actually decide which of the bossfights was the worst. There’s the giant one which involves dropping down somewhere for 15 minutes Gandalf style, there’s the one with the ship that crashlands which again took about 15 minutes and then there’s the Vader one which just would not end. Spoiler: It did end. Thankfully.

Sound: It’s Star Wars. I liked it. Obviously.

Graphics: I played the game on my laptop on the lowest settings and it was slightly jerky at times which was to be expected. Looked pretty enough though. Cutscenes were unskippable, probably due to the background loading on my poor laptop.

Overall: The game made me laugh and cry for all the wrong reasons and I kept hoping for it to improve up until I completed it. If part 3 comes out we’re all doomed. Doomed!

By Cat | Posted in Community and Games, Deus Ex, KotOR, Star Wars | Leave a Comment

Star Wars: The Old Republic

November 26, 2011 – 10:35 pm

I got very excited a couple of weeks ago when I received an email to the weekend beta testing for Star Wars: The Old Republic as it has been a game I’ve waited for a long time. I had never played an MMO before with the exception of free trials for WoW, Eve Online, Star Trek Online and Star Wars Galaxies though none of them captured my attention for long.

As I loved KotOR and KotOR TSL, as well as BioWare, I anticipated SWTOR to be the first MMO I would play, particularly as the single player content was rumoured to be comprehensive.

Well, turns out the game is indeed unplayable on my laptop, even using the lowest settings. A couple of months ago this would not have surprised me, but I have since managed to play Deus Ex Human Revolution, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, as well as Skyrim with no issues, all using the lowest settings available.

I guess returning to the Old Republic will have to wait months if not years.

By Cat | Posted in BioWare, Community and Games, KotOR, Skyrim - Elder Scrolls V, Star Trek, Star Wars | Leave a Comment

“You’re pretty much ancient already”

November 22, 2011 – 10:43 am

A random memory came up as I was just reading a friend’s Facebook status and, before I forget it again, I thought I’d post my comment here also.

Years ago – when I used to do a lot of Children’s voluntary work – a child came up to me a few days before my 20th birthday. He was a lovely kid and over the years we had gotten to know each other well.

He was saying to me: “Oh, you’re 20 soon, happy birthday. But, you know, it’s not much longer til you’re 30 and then you’re basically 40 already. Face it, your life is pretty much over and you’re pretty much ancient already.”

The kid said it all like it was a fact and it’s stuck with me since.

Brilliant.

By Cat | Posted in Life in general | Leave a Comment

The Strange Case of the Sanguineous Stump – Murder Mystery evening

November 21, 2011 – 11:58 pm

Last Friday I went to a murder mystery evening in Reading organised as part of the Reading Festival Of Crime Writing 2011.

The story:

Sol Joel, owner of the mansion at Maiden Earlegh, diamond merchant, horse race owner and cricket enthusiast was devastated. Firstly his uncle had fallen off a ship in mysterious circumstances, then his brother had been murdered in his office and now he was staring at the body of the England cricket captain sprawled on the floor of the dressing room with a cricket stump protruding from his chest. Thus began the series of strange events that was to become known as ‘The Case of the Sanguineous Stump’

It’s surprising that I, an avid reader and watcher of all crime dramas, have never been to a murder mystery evening before, but I don’t think I’ve come across one near me before. I didn’t really know what to expect and dragged some housemates along saying it’s doing ‘something different to normal’ and ‘I’m sure it’ll be fun’.

The evening was great and I didn’t realise how quickly the three hours had passed. The actors were fantastic and just enough over the top. The main character – Solomon Joel – wore an amazingly big moustache that he used to perfection and there was a lot of overacting that fit perfectly. Minor problems were that there wasn’t enough time to question the suspects, but this could have been due to the amount of people that turned up.

Throughout this evening I learned a few things:

  • I am really competitive, much much more than I thought I was.
  • If I ever attend a murder mystery evening again I will have to make sure to be there plenty of time in advance to get familiar with the surroundings and have the option to read the material about the actors.
  • I seem to enjoy talking in front of people seeing I volunteered to read a small part.
  • Moustaches are funny.
  • Murder mysteries are indeed fun and different to normal.
  • I overcomplicate matters a lot. We had guessed the killer, but we then thought it would have been too obvious and decided on someone else.
By Cat | Posted in Life in general | Leave a Comment

Skyrim

November 20, 2011 – 10:47 pm

Skyrim has consumed my life for the past few days with my total time spent probably around 35 hours. It is quite an extraordinary game with lots to explore and do from cutting random pieces of wood for no reason to killing dragons.

Looking at my stats there are a few things that surprise me; I expected to have picked more locks and harvested more ingredients, but overall it is quite accurate.

I’m starting to feel the pressure of the ongoing quests and looking at the map screen gets incredibly confusing having them all labelled as active ones. I was debating turning them all inactive, but it’s quite nice to enter a new area and organically coming across someone I have a quest with.

With regards to the areas discovered I have now been in six of the major towns which includes Riverwood, Whiterun, Windhelm, Winterhold, Markarth and Riften though I didn’t get to enjoy my time in Winterhold much as I ended up getting into a drinking contest within minutes of my arrival which led to a drunken adventure across Skyrim to Markath, none of which I remember!

The towns are suitably different and each convey a different feeling. Whiterun and Riverwood are quaint and friendly little towns, whereas Markarth is unwelcoming and threating, Windhelm embroiled in segregation and Riften in control by the Thieves Guild.

So far I’ve only had one point of the game which I have struggled with which was during a quest in the excavation site in Markarth which left me adjusting my difficulty after dying continuously in a dungeon for over two hours.

  • Locations discovered: 33
  • Dungeons cleared: 7
  • Days passed: 17
  • Hours slept: 28
  • Hours waiting: 77
  • Standing stones found: 3
  • Gold found: 23158
  • Most gold carried: 5631
  • Chests looted: 253
  • Skill increases: 168
  • Skill books read: 21
  • Food eaten: 162
  • Training sessions: 36
  • Books read: 133
  • Barters: 614
  • Persuasions: 9
  • Bribes: 1
  • Quests completed: 10
  • Misc Objectives completed: 47
  • Main quests completed: 4
  • Side quests completed: 3
  • The Companions quests completed: 2
  • Thieves guild quests completed: 1
  • Quest lines completed: 0
  • People killed: 93
  • Animals killed: 50
  • Creatures killed: 26
  • Undead killed: 48
  • Automatons killed: 9
  • Favourite weapon: Skyforge Steel Sword
  • Critical strikes: 64
  • Sneak attacks: 1
  • Brawls won: 2
  • Spells learned: 8
  • Favourite spell: Flames
  • Favourite school: Destruction
  • Dragon souls collected: 2
  • Times shouted: 95
  • Weapons improved: 4
  • Weapons made: 1
  • Armor improved: 8
  • Armor made: 1
  • Potions mixed: 82
  • Potions used: 96
  • Poisons mixed: 26
  • Poisons used: 6
  • Ingredients harvested: 196
  • Nirnroots found: 2
  • Wings plucked: 8
  • Total lifetime bounty: 15
  • Largest bounty: 5
  • Locks picked: 29
  • Fines paid: 10
  • Items stolen: 45
  • Assaults: 4
  • Trespasses: 2
  • Currently active quests: 13
  • Currently active misc quests: 29
  • Time played: 35 hours
By Cat | Posted in Community and Games, Skyrim - Elder Scrolls V | Leave a Comment

Too much organisation can be…?

November 16, 2011 – 4:32 am

Just over two months ago I spent a weekend completely tidying up my room, organising things into boxes and rearranging things.

Since then things have somewhat progressed to a whole new level.

I have:

  • Bought more storage boxes bringing the total of my ‘collection’ to:
    Two large cardboard boxes
    Eight medium cardboard boxes
    Two small cardboard boxes
    Two medium hard cardboard boxes
    One small hard cardboard boxes
    Two shoeboxes.
  • Bought four cardboard magazine organisers.
  • Organised and threw away a lot of my paperwork which now fits into one folder.
  • Completely organised my wardrobe and brought several items to the charity shop, as well as threw a lot of unsuitable clothes away.
  • Got a new desk with more storage space courtesy of @mrsrickersby.
  • Got a jewellery organiser.
  • Put a lot of things in a lot of plastic zip-lock bags. This includes wool after realising that airtight zip-lock bags are a fantastic space-saving way to store it with the added bonus of it not unravelling in the box any more!
  • [Mostly!] organised my knitting needles.
  • Sorted out the big box I had of toiletries which required more zip-lock bags.
  • Changed the curtains.
  • Moved pictures and other wall decoration, as well as add more from boxes.
  • Wrapped two Christmas presents. Not related, but still a sign of being organised!
  • Run out of zip-lock bags.

I am quite proud and impressed with what I have done and I do enjoy spending time in my room more than before. Whilst I always knew where everything was before I’ve been able to simplify things to the extent that all the things I use daily are within reach yet hidden away, such as the hairdryer or lipbalm. Most of all it’s been fantastic to be able to have people come over without any warning which actually has happened quite a bit lately for various reasons.

There’s this little voice in the back of my head that wants to say ‘everyone’s always been right – having a system and keeping things tidy does make things a lot easier’. Yes, it is right that I always knew where everything was, but that doesn’t mean it was easy to get to!

So why don’t I sound completely overjoyed and happy?

Well, I think it’s that I’m more surprised, perhaps worried, about this sudden and extreme change in my life. I’ve gone from chucking things somewhere to zip-lock bags, hoovering and tidying constantly.

Under the surface, however, I have now reached the point where I can’t actually stand things not being where they belong and even did more when I had a bandaged hand.

Shoes have to be put away as soon as I take them off. Clothes folded away. Paperwork filed as soon as it comes in. For example, I got home Monday night looking forward to gaming, but felt so uncomfortable that I had to tidy up instead which continued through to Tuesday afternoon with yet more rearranging, hoovering and then some.

Additionally, I can’t even blame my current state of #funemployment, as it started before.

Is it normal to have such a sudden and in no way gradual change at 28?

By Cat | Posted in #funemployment, Life in general, Personal | Comments (2)

Ongoing ‘knitter’s thumb’

November 15, 2011 – 12:20 am

Two weeks ago at around this time in the evening I felt the beginning of the strain in my right thumb. This left me with a bandaged thumb/hand for six days barely being able to use my hand without pain for four of them.

Since then I have been very cautious and hardly knitted or crochet, always worrying that the pain will return, until the weekend just gone. I estimate that I crochet about two hours on #doodleblanket spread out throughout the afternoon and evening on Sunday.

Today I can feel the strain again very strongly. Not bad enough to be wearing another bandage, but bad enough to feel pain with most movements.

Fantastic.

/sarcasm

By Cat | Posted in #doodleblanket, Knitting, Life in general | Comments (1)

Knitter’s thumb!

November 1, 2011 – 6:50 pm

Went to bed last night with a slight strain in my right thumb and put it down to too much knitting, even though I hadn’t really. Woke up throughout the night with pain, pins and needles and a slight bit of numbness so decided to go to the doctor’s.

Apparently I’ve overused and strained my thumb through picking up some things and too much knitting [so not just knitting, but knitter's thumb sounds cool!] and will have to wear a bandage and a sling for four days and ‘then see what it’s like’.

This means:

  • No knitting
  • No gaming
  • Mostly one-handed typing
  • Unable to use phone properly
  • General feeling sorry for myself

There is a possibility it could be more, but it’s unlikely as the pain occurred rapidly, I didn’t break it and there doesn’t appear to be any trapped nerves so overall it’s good news, especially as I googled my symptoms on the way there [Never google your medical symptoms!] and realised I experienced most of the symptoms for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:

Patients with CTS experience numbness, tingling, or burning sensations in the thumb and fingers, in particular the index, middle fingers, and radial half of the ring fingers, which are innervated by the median nerve. Less-specific symptoms may include pain in the hands or wrists and loss of grip strength.

Now… what on Earth am I meant to do for four days?!

By Cat | Posted in Knitting, Life in general | Comments (6)

Ghana baskets

October 27, 2011 – 8:29 pm

My mum used to have a range of baskets she used for shopping or to keep knitting in and I’ve been wanting something like it for the past years. Baskets seem to be a more common thing in Germany versus the UK as I only rarely see people use them in town and I don’t recall ever seeing a place that sells them.

Tonight I decided to have a look if I could find the type of basket I’m after and, thanks to the brilliance of the internet, I found it and am now an expert on Ghana baskets, bearing in mind I didn’t even know their name before I started! This is how I discovered it:

Turns out the baskets I’m after are:

  • From Bolga, the capital of both the Bolgatanga Municipal District and the Upper East Region of Ghana. Thanks, Wikipedia!
  • Made 100% out of savannah grass.
  • Handmade.
  • Take about two days to make.

It’s also available on Amazon UK, too, and I’ve added it to my wishlist.  £25 means I should wait a little while before I’ll buy it, but I am rather proud I’ve managed to hunt them down!

By Cat | Posted in Life in general | Leave a Comment

Killing stormtroopers ain’t quite the same any more

October 26, 2011 – 11:07 am

A played a little bit of Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 last night following watching most of season 1 of the Clone Wars this weekend.

The game is, just like the first one, quite a lot of fun, but I found myself not really wanting to kill stormtroopers at times.

The Clone Wars gives a background to what happens to Anakin and the clones and it humanises them. They are the ones that are always left behind or abandoned or discarded which is something I already pointed out back in 2008 when I first watched a few episodes.

At the same time the Clone Wars also show a different side to Anakin, he is a hero and a leader which is more than the whiny and emo kid he is in the films. I’m not the only one that feels this way, as this fantastic article shows:

It’s one thing to be told that someone is a bad guy, but it’s another thing to watch a character that they had come to love and enjoy slowly crumble and turn to evil.

By Cat | Posted in Community and Games, Films and TV, Star Wars, TV Shows | Comments (1)

Not to self: Don’t colour your hair black again

October 9, 2011 – 11:46 pm

I have always had a quite relaxed attitude to dying my hair and have always used permanent colours. Sort of along the lines of ‘what is the worst that can happen’.

Since I’ve been 14 I have been:

  • All shades of red.
  • Blond [we won't talk about that].
  • All shades of brown.
  • Deep purple.
  • Multicoloured [we won't talk about that either].
  • Black.

Last November I decided to dye my hair black. I wanted to go for a deep brown and figured that black would eventually wash out to give me dark brown.

Yeah, right.

I have since coloured my hair six times in various red and brown shades with no success. I have used anti-dandruff shampoo as supposedly that helps chip away colour with no success either. Short of going to the hairdressers and pay lots of money to get my hair professionally stripped, which would also mean spending far too much time sitting there, I have tried everything.

Last night I gave it another go and the end bits are still mostly black. Learn from this, Cat! Black, just like a fringe, is not the way to go – ever.

By Cat | Posted in Life in general | Leave a Comment

And my Google+ issues are still not resolved

October 2, 2011 – 2:25 pm

I changed my name on my Google+ profile the other day after being warned I would be unable to carry on using other Google services.

Two days after I had noticed my profile is still under review and it is now past the deadline:

Your profile is being reviewed
Your profile was flagged for violating the Google+ Community Standards or Names Policy and is currently under review. Reviews are usually completed within a few days.

During this time, you won’t be able to make full use of Google services that require an active profile, such as Google+, Buzz, Reader, and Picasa. This will not prevent you from using other Google services, like Gmail.

We’re sorry for the inconvenience.

I am now unable to share items in Google Reader though seem to be able to use everything else normally. Even Google+ which is ridiculous seeing it was the cause of the problem!

04/10/11: 

Still no change and I also can’t have a picture on my Gtalk any more..

06/10/11: 

Still under review and the following has been added to the above message:

We understand that Google+ may not be for everyone at this time. We’d be sad to see you go, but if you do choose to leave, make a copy of your Google+ data first. Then, click here to disable Google+.

14/10/11:

No change. *twiddles thumbs*

By Cat | Posted in Google | Leave a Comment