Who are you and what have you done with my soul?

Things that are of consequence to me right now:

1)  I'm going lindy-hop tomorrow!  It's gonna cost me ten big ones, but it'll be worth it to feel like I have a life.
2)  I hate the sports union of my undergrad.  I know it's no indvidual's fault - but goddamnit can't they get anything, anything right?
3)  I am in e-mail correspondence with the ex-model.  I know it's so shallow, but it makes me happy.
4)  I think I am developing a crush on Zac Efron.  This is okay.  He is unattainable, but an unattainable moviestar is infinitely better than a colleague in a very small company who has a long-term live-in girlfriend. 
5)  I want to trade in my housemate.  He is dirty and doesn't seem to realise it is his fault.  He also thinks it is okay to let us do 90% of the chores.  No, mister, it is not.
6)  I want my sanity back, and I have a feeling that in order to do so I may have to start up a martial art again.  A pad-hitting martial art.

thoughts

My colleague is presenting at a conference tomorrow and was doing a run-through in the office today. Whilst I was struggling to pay attention, here are some thoughts that are pretty unrelated to his study that I had while he was running it through and I was desperately trying to pay attention (and, obvoiusly, failing).

Risk averse - Whilst my colleague was explaining the 'kinked' (or more academically known as the... no, I can't even remember that. Something to do with linear gone slightly wrong) graph model, which shows risk-aversion, I wondered how much more risk-averse people are with regards to money at the moment... and how much that is screwing with scientific findings.  And, in fact, how long this will last.  I recently read a comment on a bog or an article about Madoff that said "Now i know why those old ladies keep all their money under their mattresses".  Is this economic crisis going screw up some economic valuations and other studies where people will be crazily risk-averse in terms of money for many many years to come?

Um, that's all I can remember.  But I do remember having other academic thoughts, however I had to run off and do some other stuff, so possibly got rather distracted and forgot what I was thinking.  Also, god I love regression analysis.  That stuff is magic.

Right now, I can't get enough of Hanson's live cover of "In a little while" by U2. It's on their Live and Electric album and I feel like I can listen to it over and over and over again... yes it's a beautiful song, but it's just this added deliciousness of Taylor's voice singing it... it just adds something a bit extra that shoots it from "exceptionally good" to "omg *hit repeat button over and over again*"

I am feeling exceptionally sensitive today though - not as in fragile but as in able to feel things more. I'm not exactly sure what's brought this on, but it's an interesting experience, leading me to both laugh out loud and tear up over Ray Bradbury's preface to Fahrenheit 451 whilst reading on the bus, to knock my head backwards in frustration against the wall while trying to load credit onto my Oyster card online (impossible due to TFL stupidity), and other odd stuff, including completely over-obsessing over Hanson given that they are now on twitter and post *pictures* of themselves as well as random comments like "Random thought but I love the night. The peacefulness, the darkness, the stars,.. the silence, these things are inspiration! -Isaac" swoon! The very fact that I'm swooning shows my over-sensitiveness.

Work is okay - can't say it's brilliant but it's certainly not bad. I think we're all still working out my place in the company and ensuring I am able to grow while still doing the extra stuff that they needed doing and why they needed to hire me for. I've got my own very large desk and share a decent-sized office with the 2 senior consultants. Everyone's amazingly nice and we went bowling and had dinner and drinks on the company card last Friday which was really really fun. Although, to be honest, I was just chatting with the 2 guys from my course most of the night, as 1 of them is my colleague and the reason I am in the company, and the other one had been invited by my colleague.

OUch. have just banged my head off the wall again in annoyance at my flatmate who sounds like he is moving furniture around upstairs. It's friggin quarter to 12. I also get this at around 6am. I get really annoyed by his antics because he is older and a teacher and I really think he should know better. And be cleaner. Oh I hate how dirty he is. It drives me up the wall. I vacuumed the kitchen and wiped down the counters on Saturday morning for some peace of mind and I came back down a few hours later and there was sticky stuff on the counter and crumbs on the floor. ARGH!

Anyway - where was I - yes was talking to my classmates and we were playing 6 degrees - I am only 2 degrees away from Kate Moss, and 3 from Alan Carr. Random, huh. But it occurred to me how spooky it was when I was speaking to the receptionist at my hotel in Iceland - he said he had been offered a job as a pilot with RyanAir (but turned it down as training was during the period when he was expecting his baby to be born). Anyway I thought that actually, that meant he'd probably be only at the most 2 degrees away from one of the big shots of the company who would know somebody at EasyJet... who would only be at most 2 degrees away from my ex-boyfriend's mother, a stewardess on EasyJet. Weird.

Anyway, must be off to bed despite the VERY LOUD FLATMATE UPSTAIRS.

Perhaps I need to take up a martial art again.

Yeah I'm kinda sleepy and tired and not blogged lately - and plan to go to sleep very soon, so don't plan on writing big long blog post.

But these are things I want/thinkI should write about:

1) work
2) bowling
3) 6 degrees
4) bus ride home

Goodnight sweetpeas.

Past bedtime...

But I just wanted to check in to say  'hello'!  It's been a busy week and weekend (went home and played golf, ugh, and got bad stomch cramps that may be a cause of food poisoning or eating after extreme hunger).

Yes, so, still alive, and lots to do that I Haven't done!

First day of work

Well it's the night before my first day of work (yes, great news! And a bit hasty, but I am not complaining. That is what I meant when I said before that I had things to say. Also I went to Iceland for 5 days). I'm hastily reading up on literature reviews, as writing them will be part of my responsibilities. Of course I have done them before for my theses, but I doubt they were ever any good.

I spent the whole day working on my website - made quite good headway and I think I have all the graphics I need for the meantime, and a good template. The only problem is with my mainpage - I am having huge issues with getting it to look how I want it to look - the main problem being the differing sizes of people's browsers.

Idea that has just occurred to me - a table on top of the image - but of course then I would have trouble with sizing the spacers.

It has just occured to me that I have been building websites for half my life - what an unsettling notion.

Oh, and as of currently - I am obssessed with this song.