Cas is currently

Ok, I found this random site that generates these little personality test thingamies for the sidebar of blogs. Because I so don’t want to work right now, I spent a happy ten minutes or so, and here are the few results that made me giggle:

The Underwear Oracle
When you’re bad, you’re very bad. And when you’re good, you’re still trouble!
You’re comfortable in your own skin – and don’t care to impress anyone.

What’s your Japanese Name?
Misako Tanaka
or (depending which name you use)
Hiroko Yamada
– (Japanese speakers/readers out there – what does my ‘Japanese’ name really say? Or what should it be, for both Cas and Claire please)

What’s your Superhero Name?
Your Superhero Name is The Admiral Angel
Your Superpower is Gadgets
Your Weakness is Flirting – Personally, I think those last two should be reversed.
Your Weapon is Your Flaming Hammer
Your Mode of Transportation is Tricycle

How Machiavellian Are You?
You Are Somewhat Machiavellian – How does this work exactly? I am only Machiavellian on alternate days? What?
You’re not going to mow over everyone to get ahead…
But you’re also powerful enough to make things happen for yourself.
You understand how the world works, even when it’s an ugly place.
You just don’t get ugly yourself – unless you have to!

What’s Your Power Color?
Your Power Color Is Magenta
At Your Highest:
You energize yourself and push others to suceed.
At Your Lowest:
You feel frustrated and totally overwhelmed. – Ok, this is true.
In Love:
You are suprised by who you attract. You’re a love magnet. – Excuse me?! This is the girl who was single for an epic two and a half year stretch you’re talking about!
How You’re Attractive:
Open and free spirited, people want to explore the world with you.
Your Eternal Question:
“What is my next source of inspiration?”

No, I have no idea why either, but I was in need of a laugh. A Somewhat Machiavellian Love Magnet indeed.

Cas is currently

Ok, because I am going totally insane, and no fun to be around right now, I am going to hold off the long blog posts till I can guarantee I won’t kill innocent bystanders.

Just a quickie – it was brought to my attention today that if you google my name and a certain social software project I am currently working on, I am the top (yes, that’s the first) result. Depending on what keywords, and how much of my name, you use, you also get upwards of four or five more results for me (yes, little old me!) on the first page alone.

If you’re internet sleuthing skills are any good, go check it out and have a look see at how wonderfully well I am failing my course. If you promise to play nice, I might even let you join the wiki properly so you can talk to the great and the good of archaeology. Well, you could talk to them if any of the ?$%!!*$@* little buggers were using the damn thing. As it is, I can conclude my entire thesis right now and save you all having to read it:
Question: How do wiki’s promote discussion in some arcane and esoteric field no one is really interested in?
Answer: They don’t.

Yes, happy campers, the culmination of four years of university and over £20,000 of debt, all neatly summed up in one snappy line. Go me.

I had already written most of my usual sunday mid-morning roundup and was on the verge of hitting ‘publish’ when I realised what the date was today. Yes, I really have been that self absorbed lately that I completely missed the fact that four years ago today a good friend of the family died along with 2,748 others.

So, if you will excuse me, I am not going to post the traditional right now – it seems callous and wrong.

Instead, I would like you all to take today to sit down with the people you care about, tell someone you love them, and ring those people you’ve been meaning to talk to in ages but haven’t got around to it. Life is too short and you’ll always regret it if you let that chance slip by.

Cas is currently

Knew there was a link I wanted to put in yesterday’s post, but I forgot to.
Mary Hodder on the whole Yahoo ID issue.

Um, has any one got a sure-fire remedy to cure writer’s block? I am ok with it affecting my ability to write short stories of slightly dubious quality, but when it kicks in with three weeks left on my thesis, I get a little bit stressed.

As the smilie says, help?

Cas is currently

The following got my giggle on…
GIS and Google Mapping

Poor chap. I do know how he feels.

Paul, if you’re reading this (and who knows, he might be following links back as Mata did), you are not alone. Take it from a girl who’s been bashing her head against GIS for the past four years, GIS is evil. Evil I tell you!

Now, with the scars of my own most recent brush with GIS still fresh, I am going to go watch The Warriors. The CC swears it’s a good film. It’s based on some ancient history you know. I’m dubious.

Cas is currently with a side-order of

Ok, will someone please explain to me why I am suddenly the go-to girl for all problems of a vaguely tech-like nature that my father has? The Crazy Canalman does seem to be laboring under the misapprehension that I am capable of solving every dilemma over the phone. My favourite has to be when he asked me to help him set up a wireless network across the marina. Seeing as how I am living a few hundred miles across the country, and have never set up a network in my life, I was at somewhat a loss.

Then there are the “The laptop has stopped working!” and “How do I get it talking to my mobile phone again?” questions. Once again, I’m the other side of the country. Not to mention, it’s thankfully been a few years since I was up to my elbows in Windows (*strokes her shiny mac*). The vagaries of getting an XP laptop talk to a Siemens mobile via a Belkin bluetooth dongle are thankfully a closed book to me, though the Crazy Canalman is doing his utmost to make it otherwise.

Tonight’s problem was (temporarily) solved by suggesting he check on his temporary internet files. 248 MB later, things were running slightly less like they were trapped in treacle. That, and a short lecture on the evils of cookies, and I left him loudly fuming and cursing every invention since the printing press.

Let me get one thing straight – my father is not a stupid man, nor is he an idiot when it comes to technology. He has been working at the forefront of telecommunication engineering for most of his life. We have owned computers since they first started selling them. He uses them, and some much more complex technology, each and every day at work.

So what is it about this laptop, and most of the Internet, that completely flummoxes him? Why does he have a complete blind spot about it?

Also, where along the line did being an Archaeologist qualify me to solve all his problems with the said beast? Ok, so I am a mild geek in that I can turn the bloody machines on (most times), but even I am defeated at the simplest task. Ask the CC about the absolute balls-up I made whilst trying to burn a cd last night.

I have no answers for any of the above questions, nor for why my mother (a very intelligent lady) is incapable of even turning her MacMini on without someone there to hold her hand, whilst she just has to look at the video machine and it works, and she was the only one of the five of us who could turn the Crazy Canalman’s new digital camera on last Christmas.

Grrr.

(Oh, and check out Moose’s new blog. Mwhahahahahaa. Blogs are great.)

There aren’t the words right now to describe how happy I am!! I have users on my wiki!! One of them has even made an edit!!!!!

I can’t even think of a good quote to use as a title, which is a mark of how happy I am, as is the inordinate number of exclamation marks I am using in this post!!!!!!!

And on top of that the prospect of an evening in with the CC and Dungeons & Dragons on DVD. Truly, what more does a girl need to be happy? Wikizens, a Cute Canadian, and bad movies.

I could die right now. I’d rather not, but I could.