Fathom This!

The Wallanderthon (first lap)

2009-11-12T19:59:48Z

Just saw the first episode of new sitcom Miranda which I recorded earlier in the week. I wasn't sure what to expect but enjoyed it a lot!

It also cheered me up a bit during a break from my Wallanderthon (which is still ongoing). So far, I've read three and a half of the novels, watched or re-watched about half of the Swedish series and seen one of the Kenneth Branagh episodes on DVD. There was a really interesting interview with Henning Mankell on the extras...

Branagh is excellent, and the production values are also excellent - but on the evidence of the first BBC film I've seen, I think I prefer the Swedish language series. Henriksson's Wallander is a little less mopey and the other characters seem a bit more true to my perception of them in canon. The teamwork and procedural aspect of the stories comes across more clearly too, and the plot seemed to have more room to breathe. (Mind you, I did watch the Swedish films before reading the books or seeing the BBC series - and in terms of influence that is probably fairly significant.)

Now back to trawling the books. I can never do things in moderation, sadly. This weekend I'll be going to the library to re-stock :)

Not dead yet

2009-11-04T22:04:34Z

I've been back from Canada for just over a week now, and am still alive and well - just in a bit of a funk due to being back at work, which is why I haven't been around much - not that that's unusual these days, of course!

The cats ignored me for a few hours when I got back, but it was a cold evening so they deigned to sleep on the bed; clearly the promise of a warm person to sleep on outweighed their disgust at being left.

I can't believe it's November already; is anyone doing NaNo this year? I feel completely unprepared - and it's a busy month - but although I don't anticipate completing 50k, it's always good to have a bit of a push to write more, and it's something I should do more of.

Tomorrow I'm off on a two-day survey. It will be cold and involve early mornings - neither of which I'm too keen about - but it should be fun, and nice to get out of the office for a bit. I haven't done a picspam in ages, so I'll try and get some action shots of work on the boat. Because nothing says "glamourous job" quite like dayglo-orange oilskins and a hard hat :D

Travel plans afoot

2009-09-03T19:10:06Z

Back again; I never seem to be able to get the hang of posting regularly for more than a week at a time. Lame.

We've just had a Bank Holiday 3-day weekend here in the UK, and I went to visit one of my best mates. We had a really relaxing time doing fun crafty things, and had a collective genius idea for a craft business / creative type thing. I'm hugely excited about it, and feel more motivated and inspired to create and to write than I have in ages. Will reveal more when things start to kick off...

Despite work being just okay (not bad at all, but less than inspiring) at the moment, and recent relationship!fail notwithstanding, life feels full of possibilities right now. It's a welcome feeling, and I really hope I can capitalise on it...

I think part of the excitement is coming from my upcoming trip to Canada to visit the bro. I will arrive in Toronto the day before my birthday, and stay for two weeks! I hadn't really planned what to do, although I was thinking of a train trip to Montreal and Ottawa at some point. Yesterday, my brother suggested going with him and some of his mates to Las Vegas for my last weekend, which might be fun (but sounds like an expensive way to spend two days). Vegas! Perhaps I should go, if only to emulate a work colleague of mine, who is going this month to see, amongst other things, an act called "Fat Elvis". Nice :)

Perhaps I can win back the cost of the flight from Toronto to Vegas. I must try and learn how to count cards, because my luck in this sort of area is really poor. Not as bad, however, as that of my friend's parents. They have a set of numbers that they use for the lotto, quasi-religiously. The numbers are printed on a card - however, his dad forgot to take the card the other week when he popped to the Offy to get the ticket. He got a lucky dip - which was not so lucky, it turned out, because in not using "their" numbers they missed out on over £200,000 as a result. Error! Understandably, things were rather frosty in that household for a while.

Is this thing on? clears throat

2009-08-08T20:11:26Z

Okay, so this should crosspost to LJ, right?! *is hopeful*

Thanks to pandoraculpa I've now got a DW account - not intending to flee LJ anytime soon, but it seems as though a slow exodus is occurring, and I wanted to reserve a seat :)

I'm now off to discover this brave, new world... Anyone else out there?!

maple_clef @ 2009-07-31T21:01:00

2009-07-31T20:17:43Z

I managed to bang my head twice today, and unfortunately neither of those times was during the stint out on deck when I was actually wearing the obligatory hard hat! Clearly, the office and galley areas are just as dangerous as the machine deck when, like me, you are a numpty.

Also unfortunately, I managed to bump the same bit twice!

However, it is Friday so I don't care :)

That said, I'll probably have to pop into the office tomorrow. I'm supposed to be giving a talk next week about mapping fisheries; I'm sure it will be great, just as soon as I've written it! I'm not particularly keen at giving presentations, but it's good professional practice and when I agreed back in January, August seemed so far in the future...

Any tips for public speaking, o wise f-list? It's potentially quite a technical subject that I'm going to have to make easier for "the general public" to relate to...

Soggy moggies

2009-07-26T20:57:04Z

For some reason, my cats are unaware that they're supposed to dislike going out in the rain. So out they go, and then in they come to tell me all about it and jump all over the furniture!

Never mind; I did do some baking this evening, and there's a ginger cake now cooling on the counter...

Who wants a slice? :D

Random, disconnected things

2009-07-26T12:51:11Z

* I'm feeling all sorry for myself because it's Sunday already. I want it to still be Saturday! I need a holiday - thankfully, I have October to look forward to: I've finally booked a flight to Toronto! Will be staying with the bro, and probably doing a bit of train travelling to visit Ottawa and Montreal. I've been meaning to go for a few years, but have kept putting it off until I got a bit of money together. Than never really happened, so I'm raiding the savings (since they're not earning much interest). I wonder if my ISA account will take an IOU? Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the trip :D

* Am equally impatient about the September delivery of my Fiat 500. It was probably a really bad idea to check out internet forums, because now I'm EVEN MORE EXCITED and also aware of lots more things I can by (to make the car work with my iPhone, for example). This is going to be an even bigger financial drain than I first thought!

* Given my recent excess, it's a shame that I still haven't won the lottery yet. However, I fully intend to do so this coming Friday. There was a rollover last week...

* Still haven't changed the front tyre on my motorbike, but I did pump it up last weekend and it seems to be holding reasonably well. I'm sorely tempted to take the bike out for a blast, but the prospect of a blowout at 70mph is not all that inviting. May settle for a pootle round the industrial estate. Although I'm currently borrowing the 'rents' Clio, the bike is technically my main form of transport, so I should really get into the habit of using it more.

Ok. Going to try and do something with the rest of the weekend. I think my near future will involve baking and biking :D

maple_clef @ 2009-07-19T12:09:00

2009-07-19T11:16:48Z

I am being uncharacteristically productive today - I have:

* Pumped up the front tyre on the motorbike to see how bad the slow puncture is
* Taken a whole collection of old clothes, old car parts and garden waste to the ~~tip~~ recycling centre
* Put TWO loads of washing on
* Painted primer onto the new bathroom door.

Also swung by Pets at Home to buy some more cat milk. Cat milk amuses me; while I aware that it's essentially just low-lactose reduced fat milk, I get the mental image of a huge barn full of cats being milked into pails. Disturbing...

Anyway. This afternoon I need to:

* Dry clothes
* Start bike (if not raining) and turn the engine over
* VACUUM HOUSE
* Change cat litter
* Tidy everywhere and try and get rid of even more stuff. Always too much STUFF.

Hmmmm,

2009-06-20T07:47:16Z

Okay, that last post was actually written on Monday - but somehow I failed at LJ that day, so it popped up as a "saved draft" today. Ah, well - that's what Mondays are all about ;)

Now, it is very much Saturday, and I'm very much toddling off to Portugal for a week :D

All very exciting, and haven't been thinking much about it until TODAY, so must go and run around to pick up some last minute bits and pieces. Reading matter! Car hire form! Passport!

Will catch up with everything (and everyone) next week :D

maple_clef @ 2009-06-14T10:02:00

2009-06-14T09:18:48Z

Whoah, I've last posted April 19th? Surely not...

Lots has been happening, but I'm a bit bored of writing "what I did on my LJ break" posts ;) In brief, it'll suffice to say that:

New Star Trek = AWESOME OMG.

After seeing the film, I had a bit of a geek out on the phone with one of my best mates. Like me, she generally hides her geekiness from her unsuspecting public. Behind closed doors, however, there is a lot of squeeage! She professes to now be in love with Sulu. She has seen the film three times. Also, I discover, she is in lust with the Supernatural boys and their dad (which will probably make more sense to me when I actually watch the show) :D

A brief wander through the flist confirms a general consensus of awesomeness over the new Trek, so I'm looking forward to exploring fandom a little. Given the reboot/canon AU (!), how much potential is there for cool fic?! Yessir.

Another thing that is currently Awesome: my XBOX 360! I'm a little embarrassed to say I bought a console ENTIRELY for Guitar Hero, but there you have it! I am, nevertheless, enjoying retro Sega arcade games, LEGO Indy and Kung Fu Panda...

How has everyone been?

maple_clef @ 2009-04-19T21:13:00

2009-04-19T20:23:39Z

What a strange week. Rubbish weather meant I was office-bound the whole time, so things dragged a little - tomorrow I'm supposed to be at sea, but we'll see ;) The wind is still from the wrong quarter, although it has lulled a little now.

Finally got round do doing a spot of gardening, thanks to the nice weather. Uprooted what seemed like a meadowful of grass and weeds in one spot, which had been left unplanted (due to my running out of inspiration). That patch is now destined to become a vegetable raised bed, subject to me getting everything sorted (which may take a while). I'm looking forward to growing some onions, garlic, spuds, carrots etc.; keeping the cats off, less so. Am slightly concerned that I may have been overzealous in pruning the passionflower creeper on the pagoda; it's looking rather withered and, well, dead. But a few green shoots show some promise :D

I should hear by the end of the week if I've got an interview for the job I applied for. I'm more keen on it now than I was when applying, so I'm glad I did actually apply in the end! So I'm crossing my fingers...

On a crafty note, I really enjoyed Kirstie's Homemade Home, which aired on Thursday. I'm all for crafting things for the house, and the sight of Kirstie rooting around in skips was a hoot! Skipping... I hadn't heard the verb 'to skip' used in that context before.

maple_clef @ 2009-04-14T20:35:00

2009-04-14T19:48:20Z

So, this Easter I spent two days away visiting a friend (relaxing, nice food), and two days back home (relaxing, more nice food). I watched Red Dwarf (undecided about that one), re-read Good Omens (vaguely topical?), de-matted Stella (argh) - and witnessed Amazonfail from a distance, via Twitter (all your internet wank needs, straight to your mobile - Amazon, you do truly fail right now). I feel enriched and invigorated and slightly unsettled... and replete (from all the nice food).

I love four-day weeks and weekends; I'm sure I get more (or at least, just as much) done in four days than five days at work, and it's great to come back to work after a nice lengthy break feeling properly rested...

But it's already well into April, and I haven't been out with a lobster fisherman yet! To sea, that is... I really need a trip every month if I can, because a lot of the patterns I want to see are seasonal. Requiring, you know, seasonal coverage. It's a shame that the weather won't oblige. Instead, I spent today doing useful things in the office, which is always nice because I can go home for lunch - stretch my legs (it's a five minute walk home), see the cats, watch 15 minutes of quality daytime tv.

Home feels odd. L has gone away for a while (I don't know how long) to sort himself out, and it's strange going back to living a single crazy-cat-girl existence. But I've been busy trying to sort myself out, and have both applied for a job and successfully lobbied my boss for support to do a PhD at work. So not much time to be sad, really!

Work, and music, and books - oh my

2009-03-27T15:38:21Z

Back again, after what I've just realised is another protracted absence. Life will do that to you...

After finishing my Project of Doom last month, I think I got a little too smug - I'm nowhere near finished with the other projects I'm working on, and the research season is about to begin all over again. There's so much to plan, because there's a lot of extra stuff I want to bring in this year. But I'm stumped if I know when I'll get it all done! And then outside work I've been busy doing lots of musical things, including last week's Carmina concert. This? was truly awesome: rather than the traditional orchestration (with a full orchestra), we did the reduced version with two pianos and tons of (other) percussion. The soloists hammed it up like champions, and the audience really got into it. My dad, who - bless him - comes to these concerts I do very dutifully, but wouldn't if he didn't feel a parental obligation - well, he clearly enjoyed it because he admitted he "didn't fall asleep once in that one"! :D

Carmina was actually the second half of the concert; for the first part, there were a couple of piano bits, some choir/drum stuff and some choir pieces - including Shenandoah (Erb), which was lovely - even if the solo tenor, who took the second verse, did kind of make up his own words to it.

And I'm excited about our next orchestral concert, which has an American theme, with Copland (for the brass, anyway), Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Gershwin's American in Paris, and a Korngold violin concerto. Yum.

I've even finished the first book I've read in ages - about an American library cat. Now I can brave my towering "to read" pile, slightly fortified *nods*.

More later, am off to reacquaint myself with the concept of practicing my viola :D

Random thoughts

2009-03-13T09:04:25Z

* I have been thinking quite a lot about what I want to do in life, recently. As in, my current job is great but - although I'm not really the ambitious type - there are zero prospects for promotion. If I want to stay here (and I'm fairly sure I do) I need to figure out how to improve my prospects within the job. Given that there's a lot of research that I do within the job, how about a PhD, part time while I work? Bloody hard work, but perhaps that's what I need? Instant career development, and a lot better paid than a studentship :D Am currently investigating my options...

* I am having a chest x-ray today. Sounds dramatic, but it really isn't - more of a "just to be sure" thing, since I felt a pain in my chest the other day. But I saw the GP, and he confirmed my feelings that as I was fit, healthy, had normal levels of cholesterol and no family history of heart trouble, it was likely to be muscular. Also, it was localised, and happened when I was at rest, so didn't sound like angina. But he wanted to check it out, just in case. I can honestly say I'm not overly worried, but strangely I do feel a bit guilty because I know my parents and bf are. Quite exciting, though - last x-ray I had was for my wisdom teeth! Curious to see this one... Also, I have to get an ECG next week! All very novel for me :D

* Red Dwarf is coming back! There's going to be a three-part special, featuring the regular cast, called Back to Earth. This makes me very happy...

* I have a day off work today, and shall be taking the motorbike out for a ride, which is also for the win.

It was a dark and stormy night...

2009-03-03T21:09:45Z

It really is very dark and very stormy at the moment... I'm glad I'm not at sea, surveying! Instead, I've been engrossed in writing the research report for the past week or so, hence the total lack of bloggage. As of this evening, however, it's done! Until Christmas, anyway - that's when the next lot starts! All that's left is to proof read, check any missed referencing and figures/tables etc. Which can wait til tomorrow, when I'm a little more alert...

The shortlist for the Island Caretaker was announced today - I wasn't on it, needless to say! I enjoyed the process though, and I'm glad I applied. The contenders are all really good - I don't know who to vote for yet, but I will do it at some point, and it will be really interesting to see who gets picked for the final eleven, and ultimately the job :D

I'm so glad to be done with the report, because it's really taken over my life of the past few weeks. I've been working late, early and weekends trying to crack it - mostly because I take ages working on something before I can focus everything down. I'll be glad to have my evenings back again...

Last Thursday, however, I ditched the writing and went to visit the Scott Polar Research Institute, which is based in Cambridge. It was an after-hours "behind the scenes" sort of thing, which is always cool; the librarian showed groups of us around, and talked about all the cool stuff that goes on there. There was enough going on for its own post, which I think I'll do tomorrow... But the librarian was seriously cool, too - she clearly loved the place, and was telling us about all the different languages and dialects that the library holdings are in (she sometimes has to co-opt students to translate stuff for cataloguing); also apparently they are rare in that they catalogue analytically - which is really resource/labour-intensive, but provides a clear indication of what each article/journal/book is about and helps researchers find stuff really relevant to them.

Anyway, I'm rambling! But I thought it was interesting, and Cool Librarian Lady made me think of kit_the_brave, who can be described in similar terms (except for the polar research bit) :D

Job Application Vid!

2009-02-24T19:33:03Z

So! My application for The Best Job in The World has been accepted, which means the dreaded video is now up on their website :D

I'm not sure if it's my connection or the host site being a little overloaded, but the sound and picture are coming through out of phase, so I look to be doing the worst lip-synch ever! But, them's the breaks; I had a look at a couple of other videos, and they seemed to be suffering from similar problems...

If you would like to see it, please click here; if you feel inclined to vote that would be much appreciated (although you're quite welcome just to check it out for the lulz :D)

However, still in current job for now, and am spending the evening at work trying to crack on with a report. Can you tell how well it's going? ;)

maple_clef @ 2009-02-22T00:33:00

2009-02-22T00:44:04Z

Thanks for the replies to the last post! You were all right, of course - nothing ventured and all that! Regardless of whether or not I get anywhere near the job, I'm glad I did the vid because I am now more intimately acquainted with iMovieHD than I ever thought possible (and OMG, so much better than Windows Movie Maker!)...

Things I learnt:

- L's video camera saves movies either in VOB or VRO format.
- After a lot of cursing and faffing, it was established that VOB is the way to go.
- Especially when you have a nifty app like Drop2DV to convert it to a DV file!
- MacTheRipper is also made of awesome
- iMovie is really intuitive
- It also totally gobbles HDD space for projects o_O
- Despite being awesome, in iMovie pretty much anything involving merging videos (and extracting their component audio tracks) takes way longer than I had time for
- Thus getting to the point of having an actual output with ten minutes to spare!
- Predictably the site was super busy and not 100% certain it all uploaded in time
- But got a confirmation to say application was received!
- Overarching thought of the day: I really, really hate the sound of my own voice...

No, really. I know everyone pretty much does, but having to hear it on loop whilst staring at image of own self in mid-gurn is not a pleasant experience.

Eesh.

Also, I'm clearly never going to master the art of doing things in a timely fashion, with time to spare.

*thud*

maple_clef @ 2009-02-19T20:24:00

2009-02-19T20:31:26Z

So, reckon I should apply for The Best Job in The World? :D

Two days left. And honestly, I think I'd be bloody good at it! I might make a vid and apply just for a kick! I do mostly love my job, but I could really do with a sabbatical... Wonder if they'd let me take 6 months off?

Anyone else applied, or know anyone who has?

If I do upload a video, I'll link you all to it, and then you can have a good chuckle :D

Carmina Buryani

2009-02-16T22:31:45Z

Man, that Carl Orff guy, he crazy! Carmina is kind of an anthology of drinking songs and bawdy football-anthemesque... stuff! It's hilarious, and I'm really looking forward to singing it with the orchestra in the concert next month.

Not loving work so much; I'm so over writing reports! There's only so much I can read and write about Crustacean fisheries before starting to zone out a little, unless I'm having a super-productive spurt. I'm hoping for one of those tomorrow :D

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Picspam!

2009-02-12T15:08:16Z

It's actually snowing here right now, which you may or may not be able to tell from the photo! Doubt it will settle on the sands, but pretty cool :D

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

A pain in the arse

2009-02-11T23:17:13Z

Going to sea tomorrow until Friday to do a survey; thanks to my phone, however, I'm going to be able to post while I'm out there! Which will be novel... I'm not expecting it to be particularly exciting, to be honest - just very cold, and lots of cockles to measure!

Work was a bit of a pain today; my patience was tested a little be a colleague and I'm ashamed to say I was a bit snappy. Perhaps a couple of days away from the office is what I need :)

Gym was... energetic! Not quite as shattered as I was last week, though, and I found the going a bit easier. But now my right buttock aches something chronic! (Just thought I should share :D)

Biker chic!

2009-02-10T21:54:17Z

OMG, guys, I forgot to post on Friday evening about going to see Charley Boorman! He did an "Evening With..." thing at the local arts centre, as an invitee of the local branch of the Royal Geographic Society (which in retrospect explains why the audience was less biker/greebo/adventurer and more cultured/posh/ancient!)

For anyone who hasn't seen Charley Boorman's adventuring, he started off riding his motorbike from London to New York "the long way round" with mate Ewan McGregor, following this with the Dakar Rally, another trip with Ewan, and - recently - a trip from Ireland to Sydney By Any Means using only local transport.

He was talking about his general experiences of travelling, and how it all started out. Essentially, the round-the-world trip was a dream of his and McGregor's that they were orginally planning alone - then decided to film for posterity - then went the whole way and got funding to make it into a travel-documentary (mostly because CB was too broke at the time to afford the several months hiatus from work that the trip demanded, and EM is an obliging sort of chap, according to his grateful mate :D)

Charley was an engaging speaker, but it surprised me how nervous he was to start off with! I guess it's a very different gig to acting, being yourself... At any rate, he soon warmed up - and it was rather endearing :D

Charley isn't Michael Palin - you find out much less about the people and cultures he passes through on his journey. The journey itself is the thing - it's all about the act of travelling itself, with the experiences along the way a pleasant distraction! Apparently, future plans may include a follow up to By Any Means, this time travelling from Sydney up through the Philipines, Malaysia, Thailand and on up through the Pacific rim and Japan to the Russian far east...

After the talk, L and I came home and had a bit of a Long Way Round DVD marathon. I would so love to be able to do a similar journey - organised trips are available - but the cost is totally prohibitive, so until that lottery win I'll have to carry on daydreaming!

Any more budding motorcycle adventurers out there?!

is dead of gym

2009-02-04T21:17:24Z

I'm in a state of total knackeredness. It's all down to this evening's Body Jam class, which was great - but really took it out of me. I suspect I didn't have as much of 'it' in me at the start as I'd thought! I tend to be a little complacent about my fitness, because I've got "an active job" - but it's not so active this time of year; nor am I. Gulp! Must be more active *nods*.

Incidentally, the class is super-popular, to the extent that when booking opens the week prior to a class, it's full up within an hour or so (booking opens at 6.30 am). So until I found the motivation to wake myself up just to book into the class, bang on 6.30, I wasn't able to get on it. I managed it this morning, for next week, so feeling victorious.

I'm sort of pleased about how my report is going at work, in that I've done most of the number-crunching stats stuff, I think, to start on writing up the basic results. Last year was a huge effort, because not only was I working on that year's data, I was also overhauling all the previous surveys' data and compiling lots of new stuff too, so that I ended up pulling really long days - and evenings - in the office. This years is fairly simple, and I now have a template to work from (thanks to last year's slog). So hopefully I'll have time to do some more complex analysis, too. (The report is a stock assessment of the local crab, lobster and velvet crab fisheries, in case it wasn't obvious - which it wasn't :D)

So I may get on to some spatial GIS work soon, which might be fun - cool maps do, at least, look impressive in reports - even if lengthy discussions of intraspecific fisheries interactions and their socio-economics and geography can be pretty dry!

It's Wednesday. Tomorrow is nearly the weekend - yay :)

maple_clef @ 2009-02-02T22:27:00

2009-02-02T23:12:20Z

Somehow, "I'm snowed in, can't make it to work" doesn't cut it when you only live five minutes' walk from the office!

Which is a pain. Because, OMG snow! How much did I want to have a lie in, then get up and play?! But in the end quite useful because what with the lack of people and phone calls today, I was super-productive. Perhaps the fear of being less than a month from Big Deadline helped a little, too, because for better or worse I am motivated mostly by The Fear. Starting to get it; time to get a shift on.

Other things that motivate me:

* Food. Currently scratching my head over how to best dispatch a joint of muntjak deer bought from Resourceful Gamekeeping Colleague

* Cats. As in, "Stop scratching that sofa, or I will have to come and accost you, you furry little bastards" (or, often, "Yes, I will get up and feed you if you leave my feet alone").

* iPhone. Sort of attached to me throughout the day, now. Tragically addictive...

* The prospect of a nice cup of tea. Which is what I'm off to pursue now :D

PSA

2009-01-31T22:36:09Z

UK friends might like to watch tomorrow's Countryfile to get some insight into my job - Mr Craven and team went to sea this week with some of my colleagues! They were looking at some of the recent management successes in our local fisheries, and our use of *jargon alert* adaptive co-management... If that hasn't turned you off, it's on at 11am tomorrow - and, presumably, on BBC iPlayer for a week after :D