This is the official obligatory Happy New Year post!
Happy New Year!
I 'celebrated' last night by sitting on the sofa watching Alan Carr, Jools Holland and the fireworks in London, with a glass of sourz and cranberry, and a long-forgotten knitting WIP - a pair of these socks by Kristen Kapur. The first sock is coming along quite nicely, even though I started it some five or so months ago.
Work and Kuro have been massive time sinks. Even though I only spend eight hours a day at work, it's so stressful and exhausting that I can barely stay awake when I get home, so I haven't really been up to much recently. But I want to change that.
My Goals/Resolutions/To-do List for 2012
Go to Lithuania - a bit of an odd one, I booked this trip a few weeks ago because I had holiday time left over that I didn't want to take this year, so has been rolled over to January. I'm going away for a long weekend for my birthday with my best friend. Something to look forward to in the near future.
Go to Japan - I've arranged this with my friend Sophie for October. We are just waiting for the price of flights to come down (we expect by April) so we can book it all up. I've been to Japan before, and dying to go back, and Sophie said, "take me with youuuuu" so I was like, 'k. It's gonna be awesome.
Cram Japanese like hell - in preparation for my trip back. I've been 'studying' (half-heartedly) for six years now, so I don't think my Japanese is too atrocious, but I would at least like to learn the ~2,000 common-use Kanji (~750 down, ~1250 to go) and a whole buttload of vocab and grammar to make my time there as good as possible.
Finish the crafty projects I started in 2011 - I have the pair of socks I was knitting on NYE, a knitted shawl, a mohair scarf (though I may frog that one... again :x), a sewn cushion cover, a couple of friendship bracelets and... and... wow, that's really it?
Sew more - I just invested in a ~proper~ sewing machine for myself, a Janome Sewist 525s. A Japanese make, of course. Ha ha. Anyway it cost enough, so I have to use it lots! I'd like to learn to quilt, too. ETA: Strictly speaking it was actually a gift from my grandma - she gave me money, and I got this with it. Thanks grandma. :)
Minimise stress at work - before I go back on Tuesday I'd like to make a list of adjustments I could make to my time at work so that I get less stressed out. Simple things like take screen breaks (I currently spend my entire work day sat at my desk), get a bin so my desk doesn't get coated in a layer of sweet wrappers, figure out a few more lunch ideas and actually find the time to eat them, set aside some time each week for getting certain difficult tasks done, etc.
Learn to cook - I started on this in 2011, but want to continue with it. Can you believe that I'd never properly cooked myself a meal from scratch except for tuna pasta bake, like, ever? I'm still a bit clueless and make mistakes like leaving a pan of milk on the hob on high heat expecting it to take five minutes to boil... but I'm getting there.
Don't stress about money - I've never been in financial turmoil, but I am petrified of the prospect. I earn a decent wage, and squirrel a lot of it away. However, I very rarely spend it. Apart from my Japan trip (which is already saved for) there is no major item I want to save for (I've given up on joining the property ladder, maybe I'll inherit something one day, but until then, I'll stop caring). I will sit and stare at something I want for ages and never buy it. Even if I do buy it, I will feel regret, even though I could totally afford it. 2012 is not going to be a year of frivolous spending, but rather I'd like to teach myself that if I want to spend £20 on a nice frabic or go out for dinner, I probably can.
So, I never actually posted a blog about my cat, Kuro. It was a bit of a long and expensive (!) journey, but well worth it.
As many of you may know, I'm severely allergic to cats. I would sneeze, cough, my throat and eyes would swell up and get itchy, and I'd not be able to breathe or see. I'm also allergic to dogs, rabbits, and various other furry creatures, but not as severely as I was to cats. Unfortunately for me, I love cats.
After whining about my lack of a cat, a friend suggested that I look into hypoallergenic cats. I then discovered the Siberian. A pure breed that apparently produces less of the allergen protein Fel d1.
I fell in love almost immediately. They are said to have a dog-like temperament (great, as I grew up with dogs!) and an awesome lion-like appearance. Most people are amazed that a long haired cat can be considered less allergenic than a shorthair, but it's more to do with their saliva than the fur.
So, I spoke to a breeder who had kittens from two litters available, and arranged to visit to see how allergic I was to them.
After sitting in a room with about 13 cats and kittens for an hour I had minor sniffles. So, I put down a deposit for my chosen black smoke with white kitten, the most handsome kitten you ever did see. I named him Kuro, and after a few weeks of waiting, we got him home.
So now you're wondering - did I really go from deathly allergic to barely allergic at all? Pretty much, but it took about a week. The first few days I spent with him, we kept him shut in the lounge so that he didn't get daunted and confused by the rest of the house. Sitting in there with him, I got really bad asthma. I had to go to the doctor and get an inhaler, and was taking a double dose of antihistamines and steroid nasal spray each day. I also got mild allergic conjunctivitis, which I couldn't do too much about. However, with all the medication, my symptoms were mild. After a couple of weeks I came off of all medication except one antihistamine pill per day, and I have no symptoms at all!
It was a complete success! I am now sharing my life with a cute, cuddly and somewhat mischievous kitten - something that I never imagined I could do in my wildest dreams. So if you're allergic but you want a cat, please go and check out the Siberian breed!
It's been pretty quiet around here, for various reasons that I won't get into, but I thought since I was on a roll with queuing posts at Tumblr I'd have a go at throwing up a quick blog entry here.
The title is the name of the game I have my eyes on right now. Some time ago I quit playing World of Warcraft, an MMO that I had been playing for six years. Some friends from my old Warcraft guild then invited me to come and play a new MMO with them instead; Star Wars: The Old Republic.
I'd said no on account of the fact that I don't actually like Star Wars; but there was the void left by WoW - no game to play with my friends, no game to suck up all of my time. I had signed up for an account on Star Wars for the hell of it, so when I was invited to participate in the massive weekend beta stress test I thought I'd have a go. I'd see what it was like, maybe I would like to play after all.
I loved it.
There is a strong emphasis on storyline and character development. All of the quest dialogue is voice acted, and you get to choose from various responses which can alter the outcomes. You could go out of your way to save a guy, or you could just let them die - it's up to you! Obviously how you react affects how 'light' (Jedi-like) or 'dark' (Sith-like) you are.
The graphics are also fairly decent, with a large amount of detail going into the characters and world around you. It's not as amazing as some other computer games, but very adequate, and not too much of a resource hog.
I played two characters during the two beta tests I was invited to (I was invited to the final test a week after the stress test!): a Jedi Consular (level 19), and a Trooper (level 10). I actually enjoyed both, but unsurprisingly I preferred the Jedi Consular, which I made into a spell-casting sage.
I could have levelled her further than I did but I intend to roll Empire when the game comes out and I didn't want to spoiler myself by entering a location that would later be visited by an Empire character, so I finished up on Taris.
Plus, you get your own ship and a lightsaber. What more could you want from a game?
Google+ or 'Google Plus' is Google's latest brainchild, a social network to rival both Facebook and Twitter. I was fortunate enough to be given an invite just days after its initial launch, and have been using it happily since. I have a good idea of where its benefits and drawbacks lie, and a good idea of how to use it to its full potential.
Why Google+ is like Twitter
You can add people to your circles, which are a bit like Twitter's lists - only much easier to manage with a swanky drag and drop interface. You can add as many people as you like to your circles, and filter and share posts based on them. People are under no obligation to add you back, but unless they do, you will only see their public posts. You can re-share content, but messages can be over 140 characters in length.
Why Google+ is like Facebook
It is very easy to have a conversation on Google+, as people can comment on posts you submit (so long as you don't disable comment posting). There is also a '+1' button similar to the 'like' button for posts and individual comments. This gives much more of a community feel to the whole Google+ experience. You can post links, photos, videos and more to Google+.
Steps To Becoming a G+ Guru
Get Signed Up
You'll need to grab an invite. I'll happily send you one if you comment here with your email address, or email me at kachii@gmail.com.
Complete Your Profile
Choose a good profile photo and a good tagline to appear underneath your name - these are the things that people are most likely to use to identify who you are and which circles to put you in. It also helps to list links of all of the other social networks you can be found on for people to recognise you.
You can start by adding me, and your Facebook friends by following the aforementioned guide to migrating Facebook data to Google+. Then perhaps take a look through the groups at group.as to find people with similar interests. Don't be afraid to add people, the worst that can happen is that they won't add you back, but you can still interact on their public posts.
There are many different ways of interacting on Google+, and don't just involve telling the world what you happen to be doing at this instant. Post related updates to circles of people who have a common interest, comment on other people's posts, create a poll, share links, videos and photos from the web, or upload your own. You can even join a hangout and video chat online... something I've not been brave enough to try yet!
Make The Experience Better
Dig in to the countless online services and extensions available for both Chrome and Firefox that will make your Google+ experience much better. Here are a few of my favourites:
gplus.to allows you to create a special short URL for your Google+ profile URL, you can visit mine at gplus.to/maccath
Start Google Plus for Chrome and Firefox allows you to cross-post to Twitter and Facebook, and view your Twitter and Facebook feeds in your Google+ stream.
Google Plus Minus for Chrome allows you to choose exactly which circles show up in your stream, instead of having to flick through individually.
People have spoken about Twitter and Facebook becoming obsolete with the introduction of Google+, but I don't believe it to be true. Google+ is a beautiful Twitter-Facebook hybrid, but I still use Facebook to share things with close friends, and Twitter to publically share nonsensical little things on a whim. Nevertheless, Google+ is a great addition to the social media arsenal, and I hope to see you there!
We just got a new iPad at work. To take to meetings, perform demonstrations of mobile applications and the mobile web, and goof around on. It's currently doing the rounds - each of us gets to take home the iPad for a night, and it was my turn first. Well, excluding the boss, of course. Here's what I thought.
The first thing you'll notice when you pick up an iPad is damn, it's heavy! Most of what I did with it was for brief spans of time, but I can imagine if I were sat on the tube train, holding it in one hand, playing a game with the other... it's going to get pretty achy pretty quick.
We got a lovely orange (peach, like our company logo, get it?!) coloured magnetic cover to go with our iPad. It simply sticks itself to the edge of the iPad through magnetism, which is nice and simple... but it's not that secure! Don't be fooled and try to pick the thing up by its cover. I almost made that mistake but thank the lord it didn't have very far to fall into my arms or I may just have forfeited my life. The cover isn't just a cover, though. As you can see in the first photo, it also doubles up as a stand. Takes the weight off your hands, phew!
It also came engraved.
So, what did I actually do other than admire the thing? Well first of all I connected it to my WiFi and posted a tweet, of course! Then I went searching for apps.
The app store has a nice layout, very uncluttered... but somehow I couldn't just find a simple list of all free applications. Maybe I was being blind, but it at least suggests that the navigation wasn't as intuitive as one might hope. I managed to do a bit of searching, through both the app store and on the internet and picked up a gem - Autodesk Sketchbook Express. That's the free version, but there is also a paid version.
As a sketching app, I thought it was great. Simplistic enough so as not to overpower the casual doodler, but has all the features you would need - layers, a paintbrush editor, shapes and an undo button! So, I did a doodle that was praised in the office the next day - not bad for a finger-painting non-creative, I suppose.
I also had a little game of Angry Birds (and sucked at it, as usual), and played around with the Books app - downloaded some Jane Austen in case any of the guys fancied reading a bit of 19th century chick-lit. Love it!
I can't say I'm an Apple convert, though. The only Apple product I've ever owned was a first generation iPod Nano and only because, let's face it, Apple hold a pretty hard monopoly on portable music players. Well, at least they did at the time! The iPad is fun, but once the novelty has worn of it seems to me like it would just be an oversized smartphone, or a very expensive netbook without a keyboard. Sorry guys!
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