Oh, no. Don't mind me. Just sweeping up some of this dust *cough* Hey, it'll be right as rain soo... oh, what have I stepped in? oh... I'll get a mop in here in a bit... will you look at that cobweb... A lick of polish and this place'll be fine...

Yeah, didn't I do badly last year at keeping this place up to date? Not as badly as I thought... the last article was in November which is later than I'd expected. Twitter has been sucking my brain dry. It gets my immediate thoughts and then expanding on them really does seem... a bit like hard work.

Yeah, believe it or not I am still alive. Not a lot has been happening though so this is another of those summary posts. Sorry.

So, I have this week off work. I have (some) money left, but can't spend it as my Birthday is on Wednesday so going out and buying any of the things I would like would be risky. Things like:

• Pride and Predjudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Graham-Smith
• The City and the City by China Mieville
• The Wire S4 or 5
• Southpark S3+
• Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
• Otto; or Up With Dead People
• Preacher (except Until The End Of The World)

So, I've had a week and a bit off work (back in on Monday), what have I done with it?

Well, I earlier listed some stuff I wanted to do, and now have a couple of weeks booked off work to help with that. I have booked my tickets for EasterCon (British SciFi convention in Bradford) and was *this close* to booking hotels for MakerFaire in Newcastle, but I'm a wimp and want company (I may struggle to pay for this now anyway - I ended buying tickets to see Blur as you may have noticed in my twitter stream - one left...).

Well, it's boxing day today and I'm sat at my Aunt's stealing their wireless and thought I'd update you all with what I've been up to recently. Aint I kind.

Well, my hair is no longer in my eyes and twisting up at round the shoulders (bad hair!!). I completed my shopping and wrapping.

More helpfully, I've met my Brother's Girlfriend. She's very chatty. She's also a dog person. And I think Stuart's been telling her how Gothy I am. Or rather, that I'm very gothy which is a different thing entirely. More on this later...

Well, it's the end of the year (nearly) so time for a round up and predictions (all the cool kids are doing it don't cha know?). So, without further ado, lets have a nosey through my year...

Books

So, I finished work for Christmas now. Two weeks off with only some minor things to worry about. So, what are my plans?

There are a few things I never got round to blogging about last week due to tiredness.

I'm all alone in the house at the moment and nothing much is happening at the weekends. I'm going stir crazy. I need some lovin' people! Especially as I have a week off next week (complete with The Wire S2, BSG Mini-Series, S1, S2 and S3 on DVD for company). Wednesday night I should be roleplaying, Tuesday night I may make it to the quiz, other than that... nothing.

So, last week was payday. The memories of the previous three weeks scrimping by (unexpected expenditure on Hamlet) vanished from my mind as I decided to get myself a new toy.

I considered getting a OLPC XO 1 on the Give 1 Get 1 programme, but the review saying that it struggled with gmail put me off. Which is a shame as it's lovely.

So then I hunted around for an Eee PC 901L (Yeah, very specific there 8-) but couldn't find one near enough.