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Mar. 21st, 2011 06:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlofpreyThings I have gotten from town today:
It does occur to me that, lovely as that biscuit jar is, if I'm really going to try to be sensible about money, at some point I'm probably going to have to stop being ludicrous about what I spend it on.
So anyway, yes. I went to the doctor's, I hadn't had much sleep, I babbled on at her without possibly making much sense, and she agreed to give me a doctor's note for 4 weeks and see how I was feeling then, but pointed out that it's the assessment I'll be getting from the Employment Support Allowance service that will decide whether or not I actually get any benefits paid. But still, it's more reassuring to have it than not, and now I can put it in the envelope and send it off with the rest of my evidence. Although I do have to check if I'm still on Jobseeker's - I went in and signed off, but the information they sent me about my Employment Support Allowance claim said I was still on it, and I got a letter from Jobseeker's saying they couldn't pay me any money now because I'd applied for a different benefit, but they would be paying me another payment, for...something. It's a bit confusing.
But anyway. All I have to do now is send off my 'evidence' that they asked for, call them up to change or query some of the stuff on the form they sent me, and then wait for them to call me with whatever needs to happen next. Also, I called the woman who called me while I was in London about a new counselling appointment, to see what was happening there. It sounds like they're just opening a new building/service, or moving into a new building in my home town, so it's all a bit disorganised at the moment. But she did promise me she'd be writing to me with a new appointment within the next few weeks, and if she didn't she told me to keep calling and pestering her. So that's all in hand. Now all I need to do is call someone and try to cancel the phone insurance I've been paying for a good few years now, and wait till I'm in credit in my bank balance and change my account to one without an overdraft, and which I don't have to pay for. And then I'll at least know a bit more what I'm doing with my money, hopefully.
In other news, I did watch quite a bit of Comic Relief on Friday night. I actually watched the finale of Let's Dance last Saturday, and kept meaning to post about it, but never remembered to. Essentially, I've not been that into the Mighty Boosh lately and was never a big Howard/Vince or Julian/Noel shipper, but it still made me incredibly happy when Julian turned up dressed as Heathcliff after Noel's dance. And I was ridiculously attracted to Russell Kane, but that's something I've just had to get used to with Let's Dance over the years. Oh, and I was quite happy that the two who won it won it. They were really good. WHO KNEW JOHN BARTON COULD TAPDANCE? He has skills beside being a sex symbol, though sadly still not parenting.
With regards to actual Comic Relief, I didn't watch the first few hours, and the bits I enjoyed the most were probably some of the much later ones, namely Newport State Of Mind, and the Axis of Awesome's massive four-chord-songs-song. And I quite loved Ron and "the albino kid" offering to go to Africa together. Is it just me, or are all the sketches with Smithy mostly funny because of the lines/reactions of everyone BUT Smithy in them? But maybe he's the lynchpin that holds it all together. Or maybe I just don't like James Cordon. Hmm. Whatever. But anyway. I was looking forward to Uptown Downstairs Abbey, but there weren't that many lines that actually made me laugh in the end. Mostly the one by Olivia Coleman. Also, is the footman really evil in the show? That seems like an unfortunate stereotype. But anyway, I quite enjoyed it on the whole. And I was wondering if the disaster in Japan might mean people didn't donate as much this year, but apparently it was their most successful night ever. So that was nice too.
Other than that, I have mostly been playing Morrowind (again), getting furious that Morrowind doesn't have the EXACT FEATURES I WANT IT TO, and getting into a bunch of new webcomics. I don't know what happened. I was on the No Rest For The Wicked site, mooching around and hoping vainly for a sudden update, and ended up on the links page, and looking into a bunch of webcomics on there. And I saw a link to another webcomic on the page of a webcomic I read pretty regularly, and I ended up reading that. And then those webcomics kept mentioning or referencing OTHER webcomics, which I ended up looking into. And then I had about 5 or 6 new ones I was reading. They are, and you can pretty much take these as recs:
And then last night, from the Femslash not annual porn battle, of all places, I found out about Oglaf, which may be one of the best and also filthiest webcomics I've ever read. I've gone through the entire archive now, since last night. But it is Not Safe For Work. In Any Way.
In other news, blah. I don't have any money. Oh, also I went to an alternative comics fair, the 2nd Leeds Alternative Comics Fair, on Saturday, where the writer of Bad Machinery was going to be, and, um, bought a bunch of Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery stuff. But that was totally worth it. Also on the same day, I found out where the Leeds Cathedral was, which I may have seen before, but this time knowing what it was. And I found out about the Craft Centre in Leeds, which apparently I'd not found out about ever before. That was also pretty great. I got home at the end of the day though, and found out my parents, who'd had my two nephews for the day, had slightly done me by taking them to Cannonhall Farm for the day, a place I have been interested in going to for some weeks. Growl. Next time, they have promised. It's always next time.
Money's a bit funny in general at the moment though, because it's my birthday next week. I had kind of a plan to ask for one particular thing, a game, and keep the rest of my birthday money to spend on stuff. I even had plans for what to spend some of it on. But then last night I heard about a new game I was interested in, which is only playable on the Playstation 3. And there've been a few games I've been interested in that are only playable on the Playstation 3, and it occured to me I could ask for a Playstation 3 for my birthday. The main downsides to this plan are that it turns out I was wrong, the fact that the Playstatin 3 has been out for a while does not mean you can get it really cheaply now, it's still about £280. Which is possibly more than my parents wanted to spend on me, and if they did buy it I wouldn't be getting any birthday money. And I'd have to hook it up to my bedroom television, since I don't think my parents would appreciate it if I was playing games in the living room all night, and my bedroom television is tiny and needs an extension cord to be plugged in I think. But on the other hand, if I had a Playstation 3, every time I wanted to play a Playstation 3 game I wouldn't have to factor in £280 or so to get the console as well. I mentioned it to my mum today, and she asked if I'd let my nephews play on it if I had one. My answer was basically "Not on the games I'd be playing on, but yes". So I don't know. It's really expensive, and I did just get a new laptop. But on the other hand, I do quite like the idea of celebrating no longer being a 'young person' (argh) by getting a Playstation. I don't know. I'm going to have more of a think about, I think.
And that's pretty much all my news, I think. Most of it, anyway. I have to pick a film to do a pairing picspam of this week, and I don't know which one to pick. I'd like to choose one that doesn't have a really messed up pairing in it, but I'm no longer convinced I have many of those. Also I'd probably end up feeling like I had to do three, for the rest of the 'run' until my next non-visual pairing/something else post. I don't know. Mostly I'd liked to post this week's at some time before midnight. That's my main aim for the next one.
- A sick note for 4 weeks from my doctor.
- A biscuit jar shaped like a teashop.
It does occur to me that, lovely as that biscuit jar is, if I'm really going to try to be sensible about money, at some point I'm probably going to have to stop being ludicrous about what I spend it on.
So anyway, yes. I went to the doctor's, I hadn't had much sleep, I babbled on at her without possibly making much sense, and she agreed to give me a doctor's note for 4 weeks and see how I was feeling then, but pointed out that it's the assessment I'll be getting from the Employment Support Allowance service that will decide whether or not I actually get any benefits paid. But still, it's more reassuring to have it than not, and now I can put it in the envelope and send it off with the rest of my evidence. Although I do have to check if I'm still on Jobseeker's - I went in and signed off, but the information they sent me about my Employment Support Allowance claim said I was still on it, and I got a letter from Jobseeker's saying they couldn't pay me any money now because I'd applied for a different benefit, but they would be paying me another payment, for...something. It's a bit confusing.
But anyway. All I have to do now is send off my 'evidence' that they asked for, call them up to change or query some of the stuff on the form they sent me, and then wait for them to call me with whatever needs to happen next. Also, I called the woman who called me while I was in London about a new counselling appointment, to see what was happening there. It sounds like they're just opening a new building/service, or moving into a new building in my home town, so it's all a bit disorganised at the moment. But she did promise me she'd be writing to me with a new appointment within the next few weeks, and if she didn't she told me to keep calling and pestering her. So that's all in hand. Now all I need to do is call someone and try to cancel the phone insurance I've been paying for a good few years now, and wait till I'm in credit in my bank balance and change my account to one without an overdraft, and which I don't have to pay for. And then I'll at least know a bit more what I'm doing with my money, hopefully.
In other news, I did watch quite a bit of Comic Relief on Friday night. I actually watched the finale of Let's Dance last Saturday, and kept meaning to post about it, but never remembered to. Essentially, I've not been that into the Mighty Boosh lately and was never a big Howard/Vince or Julian/Noel shipper, but it still made me incredibly happy when Julian turned up dressed as Heathcliff after Noel's dance. And I was ridiculously attracted to Russell Kane, but that's something I've just had to get used to with Let's Dance over the years. Oh, and I was quite happy that the two who won it won it. They were really good. WHO KNEW JOHN BARTON COULD TAPDANCE? He has skills beside being a sex symbol, though sadly still not parenting.
With regards to actual Comic Relief, I didn't watch the first few hours, and the bits I enjoyed the most were probably some of the much later ones, namely Newport State Of Mind, and the Axis of Awesome's massive four-chord-songs-song. And I quite loved Ron and "the albino kid" offering to go to Africa together. Is it just me, or are all the sketches with Smithy mostly funny because of the lines/reactions of everyone BUT Smithy in them? But maybe he's the lynchpin that holds it all together. Or maybe I just don't like James Cordon. Hmm. Whatever. But anyway. I was looking forward to Uptown Downstairs Abbey, but there weren't that many lines that actually made me laugh in the end. Mostly the one by Olivia Coleman. Also, is the footman really evil in the show? That seems like an unfortunate stereotype. But anyway, I quite enjoyed it on the whole. And I was wondering if the disaster in Japan might mean people didn't donate as much this year, but apparently it was their most successful night ever. So that was nice too.
Other than that, I have mostly been playing Morrowind (again), getting furious that Morrowind doesn't have the EXACT FEATURES I WANT IT TO, and getting into a bunch of new webcomics. I don't know what happened. I was on the No Rest For The Wicked site, mooching around and hoping vainly for a sudden update, and ended up on the links page, and looking into a bunch of webcomics on there. And I saw a link to another webcomic on the page of a webcomic I read pretty regularly, and I ended up reading that. And then those webcomics kept mentioning or referencing OTHER webcomics, which I ended up looking into. And then I had about 5 or 6 new ones I was reading. They are, and you can pretty much take these as recs:
- Jackie Rose. This is the one I saw advertised on another webcomic page, and it looked a bit great, and I was not disappointed. Female adventurer/treasure hunter in the 1940s, sort of a young female Indiana Jones, but really good, and I really like the
coloursart. It's pretty new so quite easy to catch up with as well. - Thunderstruck, which is about two sisters, one of whom has an interesting reaction to being hit by lightning, and the other of whom is incredibly athletically gifted, and the weird past/family history/destiny they apparently have. I'm a bit wary of this one, because going to the site in the first place took me to the latest strip, which is a strip from a couple of years ago of the writer talking to the characters and explaining that she's not continuing the comic because she's starting to get pro work, and that's what she really wants to do. So I know it's not going to be finished. But I read a bit, and I'm really enjoying the two sisters and the writing and the plot anyway, so I'll probably continue on with it anyway.
- Blackbird, which is a manga style comic about a world where there is magic, but it's recently been prohibited, and one of the few sorceresses who's still allowed to practise magic, and the assassin who's wandering around killing magic users. I haven't read a lot of it, and reading right to left is still pretty confusing for me, but it seems pretty good regardless of that.
- Holiday Wars, a comic about a war between the personifications of various holidays, and a teenage girl who's the only one who can find the Holiday Spirit to swing the war either way. The first few pages featured the Easter Bunny doing something - well, unpleasant to Santa. I ended up slashing two characters who are probably never going to meet again, in the first sets of pages again. But even apart from that, it's still pretty interesting.
And then last night, from the Femslash not annual porn battle, of all places, I found out about Oglaf, which may be one of the best and also filthiest webcomics I've ever read. I've gone through the entire archive now, since last night. But it is Not Safe For Work. In Any Way.
In other news, blah. I don't have any money. Oh, also I went to an alternative comics fair, the 2nd Leeds Alternative Comics Fair, on Saturday, where the writer of Bad Machinery was going to be, and, um, bought a bunch of Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery stuff. But that was totally worth it. Also on the same day, I found out where the Leeds Cathedral was, which I may have seen before, but this time knowing what it was. And I found out about the Craft Centre in Leeds, which apparently I'd not found out about ever before. That was also pretty great. I got home at the end of the day though, and found out my parents, who'd had my two nephews for the day, had slightly done me by taking them to Cannonhall Farm for the day, a place I have been interested in going to for some weeks. Growl. Next time, they have promised. It's always next time.
Money's a bit funny in general at the moment though, because it's my birthday next week. I had kind of a plan to ask for one particular thing, a game, and keep the rest of my birthday money to spend on stuff. I even had plans for what to spend some of it on. But then last night I heard about a new game I was interested in, which is only playable on the Playstation 3. And there've been a few games I've been interested in that are only playable on the Playstation 3, and it occured to me I could ask for a Playstation 3 for my birthday. The main downsides to this plan are that it turns out I was wrong, the fact that the Playstatin 3 has been out for a while does not mean you can get it really cheaply now, it's still about £280. Which is possibly more than my parents wanted to spend on me, and if they did buy it I wouldn't be getting any birthday money. And I'd have to hook it up to my bedroom television, since I don't think my parents would appreciate it if I was playing games in the living room all night, and my bedroom television is tiny and needs an extension cord to be plugged in I think. But on the other hand, if I had a Playstation 3, every time I wanted to play a Playstation 3 game I wouldn't have to factor in £280 or so to get the console as well. I mentioned it to my mum today, and she asked if I'd let my nephews play on it if I had one. My answer was basically "Not on the games I'd be playing on, but yes". So I don't know. It's really expensive, and I did just get a new laptop. But on the other hand, I do quite like the idea of celebrating no longer being a 'young person' (argh) by getting a Playstation. I don't know. I'm going to have more of a think about, I think.
And that's pretty much all my news, I think. Most of it, anyway. I have to pick a film to do a pairing picspam of this week, and I don't know which one to pick. I'd like to choose one that doesn't have a really messed up pairing in it, but I'm no longer convinced I have many of those. Also I'd probably end up feeling like I had to do three, for the rest of the 'run' until my next non-visual pairing/something else post. I don't know. Mostly I'd liked to post this week's at some time before midnight. That's my main aim for the next one.
