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

Job searching with social media – Day 1

September 30, 2011 – 9:08 am

For the past few months I have been looking for a new job, as well as working on updating my CV and all the other things that come with it. Up until yesterday I was unable to utilise social media in my job search, as I was on a contract pending renewal and I didn’t want to alert my previous employer, a company that heavily utilises Twitter, that I was looking elsewhere.

Now my situation has changed and I am now officially back on the job market and have entered full jobhunt mode. This means I can now use Twitter, Google+, Facebook and all other social networks to help me find a new and, hopefully, fulfilling role, in addition to the job searching I am already undertaking.

Katherine, also known as @TheSourceress, was asking me yesterday if I was thinking about blogging about my social media job searching and whilst I initially didn’t plan on doing so, I have since realised that it can only be advantageous, both from the point of view in finding a job for myself and also showing others that it can or cannot be done. I figure that surely there’ll be a point when everyone is bored enough of my updates to actually help find me a job and constant exposure means that it stays in people’s minds.

My skills and a quick list of previous jobs can be found in my previous post.

So what exactly do I have to start with?

  • A Twitter account with currently 996 followers – @carocat
  • The active #rdg hashtag with what I estimate around 40 people reading it on a daily basis – #rdg
  • A Google+ profile with 113 people in my circles – Cat Fu
  • A Facebook profile with 135 friends – Cat Fu
  • A tumblr blog with 740 followers – carocat on tumblr
  • This blog, receiving around 100-150 views a day currently though it’s not properly optimised these days – carocat.co.uk

Whilst those numbers are admittedly more than the average social media user [insert stuff on how I've been on each of those platforms for many years, yadda yadda], that isn’t it. Each one of those profiles and sites is followed by people with an incredibly large reach and I have the potential to gain exposure much beyond just my social circles.

I used to also have a LinkedIn profile, but deactivated that last year. Depending on how the next couple of months will go I might reactivate and repopulate it.

Let’s just take a look at the posts and tweets I have made yesterday and the response I have gotten:

  • Tweet: I #needanewjob in the Reading area. Customer service and copywriting primarily. Native German. Will take any full time job. Help me. #rdg [Link] – This tweet was retweeted by sixteen people.
  • Google+ post with more details [Link] – This was shared by three people.
  • Facebook post, again with more details. – This was seen by at least ten people based on the comments and private messages I received.
  • Blog post: Help me find a new job - This post has so far had 69 views.
  • Tweet for the blogpost [auto tweeting]: Help me find a new jobhttp://wp.me/p1ETs-13y [Link] – This was retweeted by four people.

For now I am discounting Facebook as a valuable tool for finding a new job, but my status update earlier hopefully achieved its aim in alerting friends that I am looking for a job.

Google+ isn’t so widely adopted, but the three people that shared my post have a combined 444 people in their circles.

Let’s break down Twitter, my main social network.

The first tweet was made at 4.30pm:

  • It included the #rdg hashtag, which has a lot of daily readers/viewers. As I said above, I estimate about 40 if not more. Seeing my tweet was retweeted over several hours this means it was probably seen by most and it is also currently the top tweet for that hashtag search.
  • It was retweeted by sixteen accounts.
  • Combining the followers of the seventeen accounts plus my own brings a whopping 12599 followers. Excluding bots, inactive accounts and overlapping will still leave several thousand.
  • Out of those accounts it was retweeted by six people I know or have met, one recruitment feed, one recruiter and five people generally active on the #rdg hashtag.
  • Six of the accounts that retweeted that don’t follow me. They make up 5689 of the followers.
  • I also received several direct messages as a result with people asking for more information.

The second tweet was made at 8.44pm:

  • It was an auto tweet from my blog, just like this post will be automatically tweeted.
  • It was retweeted by four accounts.
  • Combining the followers of the four accounts plus my own brings 2387 followers. Excluding bots and inactive accounts that still leaves about a thousand.
  • Out of the accounts it was retweeted by two people I have met or know, one regular #rdg hashtag follower and one follower of another account.
  • One of those accounts didn’t follow me though follows me now.
  • With this tweet there wasn’t much information and the lack of clickthroughs shows that it probably isn’t worth it tweeting something with such little info. As such I have modified the tweet that will accompany this blogpost to include more than just the title of the post: “This is officially my first day of unemployment. Please help me find a new job! Job searching with social media: [LINK]“

I think blogging about my job search will mostly help me and it will help me by giving me something to focus on. It by no means will be the main job searching I’ll do, but it’s something to keep me occupied and hopefully something that will yield results. With a newly updated CV, as well as plenty of motivation I am ready to kickstart this search and hopefully soon find something.

If you think you have a job I would be interested in, please contact me.

Additionally I will be grateful for any tips you may have on finding work.

By Cat | Posted in #rdg, Blog, Facebook, Google, Jobhunt, Life in general, Tumblr, Twitter | Comments (6)

Help me find a new job

September 29, 2011 – 8:44 pm

I need a new job in the Reading, UK area. Preferrably looking for customer service or copywriting, but will take any full-time job.

I am a native German speaker and my background includes:

  • Copywriting
  • Games QA and Compliance QA
  • Games QA Test Lead
  • Community Management
  • Church Sexton
  • Secretarial Work
  • Administration
  • Bar/Cafe Work with limited food preparation in Germany

I have no retail experience nor any UK gastronomy/bar work experience.

This is urgent and I will appreciate any help. Please contact me.

By Cat | Posted in #rdg, Life in general | Comments (4)

24 Season 5

September 29, 2011 – 2:45 pm

Seeing I am practically stuck in bed with a knee injury at the moment I figured this was a good time as any to be watching 24, a show I can’t seem to watch over time.

I have written about 24 before:

Instead of incessantly tweeting my annoyance about 24 season 5 or even spoiling it for those that have yet to see it I figured I would sort of liveblog it. As I am starting this post I am on episode 4 of the longest day of my life [again]:

  • Seeing it has been over a year since I’ve watched season 4 I spent quite some time on the 24 Wiki trying to remind myself. Luckily I managed to avoid all other spoilers.
  • The president is dodgy, mark my words.
  • Chloe really does just seem to have long-winded and repetitive personal drama stories in CTU.
  • Who is she having an affair with anyway? Wasn’t there someone in a previous season?
  • The phone ringtone still bugs me.
  • Amazing how much time they’re having whilst launching a major assault attack on an airport.
  • Oh look, Mark Sheppard is one of the hostages. Clearly something more dodgy is going on.
  • I would not ever want anyone I liked to be taken to CTU for safety – it is bound to end in disaster or, worse, death.
  • “I have someone on the inside who can help us.” – Of course there’s yet another mole in CTU. My guess is on Chloe’s boyfriend.
  • …and I was right.
  • “I need to get into your utilities volume.” Best. Chatup. Line. Ever.
  • What’s the deal with all these sockets that always need to be opened?
  • I keep expecting the hobbit to get emotional.
  • “Jack, I’m sorry I’m being a little distant, you know, in the last 40 minutes when like ten major plot developments have happened, but I feel I need to remind the viewers that we once had a relationship and I’m all emotional right now. Also I need more screen time as my character’s kind of pointless.”
  • How many black SUVs were harmed in the making of 24?
  • And now for the hobbit sob story.
  • I was hoping Kim would be absent for the whole season, but I guess I’m not this lucky.
  • Oh no, they killed Mark Sheppard! I was really hoping he’d have a bigger role.
  • So how many times has Jack been arrested now?
  • I miss Sherry Palmer. The new First Lady is far too hysterical.
  • Jane Espenson shoutout!
  • I have never realised how much time they spend on talking about time. Say an event was to occur in x amount of time they will mention it with 5-10 minute intervals all the way up until it occurs. Such as the hospital evacuation or the Russian motorcade. Surely they’d have better things to do then constantly ask each other?!
  • Edgar’s death was emotional.
  • Kim Bauer – lovely annoying as always.
  • Officially being inundated with well-known guest stars now – Ray Wise, Stana Katic, Lost’s Desmond.. Guess they had to replace the hobbit somehow.
  • I didn’t expect Audrey to be a traitor.
  • 24 would be nothing without drama in CTU every episode. Between takeovers, random testing, torture, asking each other about the time and opening up sockets I wonder how they ever get any work done.
  • Ha! I knew the president was involved! I have predicted all major plot twists with the exception of the Audrey double bluff so far. Clearly I’m a pro at watching 24!
  • How many times has a warrant for Jack been issued now? I just realised I wondered about that earlier, too..
  • They haven’t opened a socket in a while.
  • Two episodes later and they have finally opened up one again.
  • How many helicopters were used in the making of this season?
  • The plane landing was the first truly good moment of this season.
  • Loved the final cliffhanger.

As with all other seasons of 24 I realised that I had forgotten almost all that happened before in the season. It’s only when I read through the above notes that I remembered the hobbit and that Jack was dead and Mark Sheppard. Luckily I also managed to forget about Tony and Kim, so I suppose it’s not all bad.

In retrospective I think I watched the season over too many days. I think it took me a week altogether and fewer days would have been good. I think the show also tried to cram in too much and whilst Jack was in helicopters many times, which would explain shorter journey times, he seemed to be all over the place all the time. The plane crash, whilst well done, was very over the top, as were all the things happening to Audrey. It’s also strange how the interrogation causes so much pain and then none a little while later and she can go back to work.

Inter agency problems and pretty much anything surrounding CTU was annoying and played up too much. How many times was a warrant issued for Jack’s arrest? How many people were hired and fired from CTU in this season? How many people were interrogated in this season? And why does every season have to have at least one mole in CTU? One would think they would be screening the staff better. Additionally there’s the mistrust to Jack and Chloe. Granted, they are a bit shifty at times, but they have proven to be saving the day in season 1-4 so surely they would be a bit more accepted, instead of having stone after stone after stone thrown in their way which serves no purpose other than stretching a meagre plot out over 24 episodes.

So the president did it. Ho hum. No one knew, not even Mike Novick or any of the other advisers. Now that’s the unrealistic part.

Overall the season was good in the sense that it kept me going and I wanted to watch more, but I will still only be recommending the first two seasons of the show to anyone who has never watched it before.

As a sidenote, watching The Simpsons S23E01 straight after finishing the last episode of 24 was rather fitting.

By Cat | Posted in 24, Films and TV, TV Shows | Leave a Comment

More Google+ woes

September 28, 2011 – 11:56 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.

The following message still greets me 48 hours later and makes me wonder what would have happened had I left it until a day before the deadline:

Your profile is being reviewed
Thank you for submitting your profile for review. Your profile will be reviewed again to see if it complies with our Names Policy. Reviews are usually completed within a few days. In the meantime, you have full access to Google+ and all other Google services.

If the review is successful, this message will disappear and you can continue using Google+. Otherwise, you’ll be informed that the review was unsuccessful and provided with further instructions.

We understand that Google+ and its Names Policy 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+.

To be on the safe side I decided to export my data and clicked on the provided link just for every attempted download to fail for no reason.

Come on, Google..

By Cat | Posted in Google | Comments (1)

Should the date of birth be on a CV/resume?

September 28, 2011 – 2:20 am

It’s about time to update my CV again and earlier today we had a discussion in the house whether a CV should contain the date of birth. I have always had it on there and I had never considered taking it off.

Unable to find a middle ground earlier I decided to pose the question to Twitter and got the following replies:

  • pfellas: yes ;-)
  • katupoo: Yes I do, but I would happily take it off.
  • kissmyart: no, I personally don’t see what relevance it has (tho you could prob guess if you cared enough!). You job hunting or just updating?
  • HeartbreakRidge: no
  • eleanorc: nope!
  • NealP55: Yes, but not necessary this days. You cannot be discounted from a post on ages grounds.
  • noirem: no and I’ve never heard of anyone including it.
  • emmaguy: yes
  • RobAshton: @carocat @emmaguy Absolutely not
  • cyclerunner: I’d say either age or D.O.B. is advisable. People generally want to know if they are dealing with a teenager or a 60 year old.
  • icicle_halo_: I’ve seen recently that employers specify not to include DOB so they can’t discriminate on age.
  • ladylawyer79: absoltely not! And it’s a breach of employment law for them to ask!
  • sparc: nope. Ageism laws also make it preferable not to.
  • dhewett: yep, but recruiters remove it from CVs they send me, you’re not allowed to use it as a consideration point…

Yes: 5
No: 8

I have no removed mine. Thanks.

By Cat | Posted in Life in general, Twitter | Comments (2)

Google+ rant

September 26, 2011 – 10:08 pm

I clicked over to Google+ this evening to be greeted with the following message:

There’s a problem with your Google+ profile

It appears that the name you entered does not comply with the Google+ Names Policy.

The Names Policy requires that you use the name that you are commonly referred to in real life in your profile. Nicknames, previous names, and so on, should be entered in the Other Names section of the profile. Profiles are currently limited to individuals; we will be launching profiles for businesses and other entities later this year.

If you do not edit your name to comply with the Names Policy or appeal with additional information by September 30, 2011, your profile will be suspended: you will not 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 understand that Google+ and its Names Policy 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+.

I’d followed the real names and the pseudonyms debates and so on over the past months and hoped/assumed that no one would notice my name seeing I don’t use Google+ much. To date I have made 23 posts, a majority of those were invites in the early days. I have additionally commented on a handful of posts.

It’s not what annoys me.

Google services that require an active profile, such as Google+, Buzz, Reader, and Picasa

I have used Google Reader for over three years and it’s the only way I keep up with the world as I pretty much stop visiting websites otherwise. The message popped up in Google+ and NOT in Google Reader. So what would have happened on the first of October?

Thanks, Google.

By Cat | Posted in Google | Comments (2)

CAE failure

September 23, 2011 – 2:57 pm

I had this random dream the other day that I had attempted to take the CAE exams, but failed so spectacularly that I was laughed out of the exam room and, following the realisation I couldn’t speak English as well as I thought I could, ended up becoming a recluse with a bizarre Polish accent.

Whilst the dream sounds over the top and, well, bizarre, I do think there is some truth to it and that I have an actual fear of the exam. You see, I have never actually sat a proper exam.

We don’t have GCSEs in Germany and instead of big end-of-the-year exams we have between 2-5 smaller exams in our regularly scheduled lessons that, depending on the teacher, take 10-50% of the final grade for that year. Instead of being set by an independent exam board these exams are generally written by the teachers and can subsequently be marked subjectively by the same teacher. If I sound like I am being bitter it would be accurate.

In year 8 a nationwide maths exam was planned to check the abilities in the different areas. It covered all of the maths that should have been covered in the curriculum up until that time and every year 8 in the whole country sat it at the same time, presumably to prevent cheating. Of course no one knew that some teachers, knowing precisely what the questions were beforehand, chose to prep their students in the week before ensuring that they would pass. I have also heard of teachers writing the answers on the board once they had handed out the sheets though this could be an urban myth. My maths teacher, a bored 63 year old man with hearing aids and no more interest in teaching, didn’t care nor adequately prepare us for the test. My maths skills during his time were atrocious and I barely scraped by.

We sat the exam and it wasn’t actually that bad. In fact I found it to be easier than the ones he used to set us as the questions made more sense and were more aimed at logical problems rather than roundabout questions to determine x. The exams were sent back two weeks later and, lo and behold, I scored 34 out of a possible 40 points, my best result at a maths exam I could think of with the exception of primary school which didn’t really count.

To minimise the workload for himself, my maths teacher decided to use the test as one of his five exams set a year, but, for some inexplicable reason, chose to mark it again. His method suddenly saw me drop to 26 points. It was the first time I actually had proof that some teachers are actually biased and I do think he ‘had it in for me’ because my mum was in the PTA.

Alas I think the CAE exam will be fun. No one will laugh me out of the room. It’ll be independently marked. What could possibly go wrong? [Famous last words]

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

Housebound

September 22, 2011 – 1:48 am

I hurt my knee last Friday and it’s left me housebound since then.

Whilst there’s plenty to watch [24] and do [#doodleblanket] I don’t like this disruption to my routine. I have no work to distract me. I am lacking conversations with people. I have too much time to think.

I’m not doing very well.

Oh, and then there’s the pain.

By Cat | Posted in #doodleblanket, 24, Personal | Leave a Comment

Organised

September 14, 2011 – 10:16 pm

Veronica Mars said in ‘A trip to the dentist’ [S01E21]:

The whole ritual cleaning thing is textbook for a reason. For a couple of minutes, you’re in control and everything’s the way it should be, at least on the surface.

This past weekend I spent two days tidying up, throwing things away and getting rid of a lot of stuff. Just like previous times I’ve unpacked things I’ve not unpacked in years and I have now sorted everything to the extent that I know where every single bit I own is.

Now what am I trying to get in control of? I think it was just the need to be able to finish something and to be able to have something that has an effect. Something that’s not just letting yet another day tick by.

And I’ve ended up with a room I actually like spending time in.

By Cat | Posted in Life in general, Personal, Veronica Mars | Comments (1)

Music of the moment

September 9, 2011 – 2:32 pm

I’ve realised that there are a few songs I listen to almost daily at the moment which is rather unusual for me, the chronic playlister and shuffleler. All the below links are to Spotify:

Some recent playlists I’ve fallen in love with:

And an artist I have discovered this week and still can’t figure out – Roberto Cacciapaglia.

By Cat | Posted in Classical Music, Ludovico Einaudi, Music, Soundtrack, Spotify | Comments (1)