My heart is wrenched in two

Well...I've decided to do it. The realtionship was stable and happy, and I thought I could compromise on our differeneces but in the end...I had to leave.

That's right, I'm saying goodbye to Blogger and moving over to livejournal. This makes me very sad, since I won't have as much control over the layout (no more tiny chickens! No more spirally dividers!!) and I won't be sqbr any more :( But despite all that lj has suckered me over with it's commenting system (specifically notifications on replies for people other than me) and the fact I won't have to deal with the feed/blog dichotomy(*).

I'm don't know what I'll do with this blog now (I'm sure I'll think of something) but for the moment it will lay idle, so you should ignore http://sqbr.blogspot.com/ and http://syndicated.livejournal.com/sqbr/ and instead direct your attention to http://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/.

Before you complain that the sidebar is unreadable, I'm going to fiddle with the colours some more later(**). You may notice that some of my old locked entries have been unlocked. Those of you not on my friends list may be happy to see you weren't missing much, I just wanted to keep things neat. Also I'll port over the more interesting blog entries when and if it feels necessary.

So, goodbye old friend. The Roost of the Purple Chicken is dead. Long live the Roost of the Purple Chicken!

(*)That's right, people who comment on the feed, you broke my spirit. Are you happy now?
(**)In case any of you are wondering, I chose this layout becuase it allows a very small amount of css, meaning I could make my own header and set the background.

Two requests (no blargle)

Please:

• can anyone suggest a good place to get ones ears pierced? I have no idea what a good price is and keep putting off looking around.
• Don't Post On The Feed. I realised all the comments were getting lost so have started copying them over here manually. But I don't guarantee I'll always be bothered. You Have Been Warned.

Part of me is tempted to swap over to lj, I am kind of sick of Bloggers skeletal comments system.

A link and some blargle

I have made a website compiling information on wedding stuff, for anyone who's interested. I haven't put everything on there yet, but I can feel the enthusiasm for the project is temporarily drained so I may as well post it now.

With any job, I have two priorites. First, do it well. Second, don't look like an unproffesional idiot. With the Siemens science school, I managed the first ok, but failed miserably on the second. Oh well, at least the kids went home happy and educated.

And now, it's time for some... I need a word for "longwinded babbling about only marginally interesting bits of my life". Like many people I do it a fair bit and it would be nice to go "God! Enough with the blargle!" or "blargle under the cut" and people would know what you meant. Assuming I could work out Blogger cuts. Anyway.

Recently I decided to rejoin the Brights forum. I left about a year ago, partly becuase I was using it to procrastinate on my Phd, and partly becuase I felt rather conflicted. I joined to be able to explore my opinions on religion, philosophy, ethics etc with lots of different people with whom I could assume the starting position that there's no God(*). Which is exactly what I got, but only in between lots of the sort of stupid crap that goes along with a religious discussion forum on the interent. And by gum atheists can be smug. Also the forum theoretically exists to help organise pro-Bright causes and I eventually realised that I feel about Bright-rights the same way I do about womens rights(**): Yes, they're a worthwhile cause, but there are others that feel more important/neccesary to me personally, like the environment. But then I was invited to be a facilitator (like a moderator, but more so. Or something) which I felt would be an educational experience which it was. Also really frustrating, with the trolls and the idiots and the fact I'm not naturally suited to being a Figure of Authority. Still, in amongst it all were some cool people (mostly the other facilitators :)) and interesting conversations. But it wasn't enough, and I left, saying I'd come back when I was done Phding. Which I did (but resigned as facilitator) and... I don't know. Still, I've friended some of the cooler facilitators, and apparently they all left around the same time as me and are also pondering if it's worth the pain.

Also, if you think the Brights are kind of wierd and up themselves, well, maybe a little bit. But they are nothing to the Universists.

(*)No offense to all the religious people with whom I've had discussions, they're great too, but I wanted to get into the real nitty gritty of my views on the nature of the universe etc, and interfaith conversations tend to be rather vague and universal.
(**)Only more so. Much more so.

In sickness and in health

Well! This week(*) has been a rollercoaster of of emotions. I got a job at the Siemens Science Experience starting Monday and so was rather upset to wake up on Sunday with absolutely no ability to talk for no reason (at least with a cold you know it'll go away) I was sufficiently better on Monday to go to training but then couldn't find anyone which made me Very Sad until I was cheered up by this lovely first year I tutored last year who happened by. Which is kind of embarrassing but never mind. Anyway, I eventually found everyone (including my replacement: Anil!) and then saw a doctor (Reflux?? It was reflux?? I got medicine and a no-caffiene rule) and after a slow start with me in a daze all Tuesday things have gone pretty well. I was a little worried about keeping 23 14-yr-olds under control but they're mostly well behaved and enthusiastic. Zero interest in maths or CS as far as I can see, but today we had a talk on physics and afterwards I talked about the twins paradox and wormholes etc which was fun, some of them were adorably enthused :)

The doctor says the reflux is probably a long term thing, which makes sense given the list of foods which cause reflux bears an uncanny resemblance to the list of foods I avoid becuase they make me feel like crap.

Oh, and we had a rent inspection tommorrow I was kind of worried about and have been preparing for over the week, and got home today to find a note saying "From your calendar you obviously didn't realise it was today. 'Scool."(**)

Finally, if anyone cares and has gotten this far, I and Cam's current "settled" plan for the wedding (haha) is to rent a hall and get in caterers, probably Temptations.

(*)For a certain definition of week
(**)Not what it actually said :)

Inklings

Briefly:

• I've done a new comic.
• Pavla rocks because she gave me free vegetables from her supernaturally wonderful garden (it's like something out a book or gardening program)
• Oliver rocks because he gives me lifts and thus has been awarded the Giving Lifts Medal of Honour.
• I'm bored.

EDIT: Is it just me or does Henry from this Decemberists clip look like a muppet, specifically the host of Buzz!? Maybe it's just cos I watched Smile Time (SPOILER!*) recently.

(*)For Angel Season 5. In case anyone cares...