Not been around for a little while as my cats very kindly knocked my lappy off the table and mashed the power socket, yaaay. After several attempts at repair, I've came to the conclusion that... it's fucked.

I need a new one... For those who miss me an awful lot, you can always donate to my Paypal fund for a new one, hehehe, otherwise I'll be seeing you a limited amount whenever I can use someone elses computer (like now, for instance)

My trusty Sony nwa3000 mp3 player is being laid to rest, aged 2 years, 7 months.
It has decided it will only turn on when plugged into the charger, and makes a not very healthy whirr-click noise constantly the whole time it's switched on. It also seems that the power button is stuck in. I've always taken good care of it, kept it in a case when not being used and never dropped it, so why this has happened, I've no idea.

The software Sony supplies, "Sonicstage", is awful and perhaps partly to blame for the decreasing speed at which I've been able to transfer music to it recently; though the sound quality has been plenty good enough for me when I've managed to get the software to do what I want it to. I've tried it with other software, but Sony, being awkward, has it set so it'll convert to a unique file type for playing on their own electronics, bah. So I was stuck with Sonicstage.

I should probably consider alternatives as its replacement, now.
Any recommendations?

Updated:

The meet was amazing, everyone is just great. Photos are up, and yes, I know I've named the folder with the wrong year. Too late to change.

We had gorgeous weather for it, right up until about 5 minutes after I left when the heavens opened.
And how did they manage to find that bar in Wapping, of all places? Missed the last bus back into central London, so we walked it. All 3.5 miles of it. In wet jeans. In the rain. Half drunk. My feet have blisters and my knee has been killing me ever since, bah.

All in all though, good day :D

The post-christmas post brought with it a physiotherapist appointment for ultrasound scans on my knee, this is for the 19th January - monday after the London meet. So the meet is likely to be the last day I'll be able/allowed to do DDR for a while. So it's on.

Hopefully all will be well, but it could also be the decider for surgery. Not too worried yet - if it solves a problem I've had for what's been half of my life now, I'm all for it.

After leaving things way too last minute, I've been out today and bought the rest of my christmas gifts to my family.

I also discovered my 5 month old nephew's gift speaks in both English and French... The demo model in store was set to English mode when I tested it, and the price label was over the part of the box where it states it's Bilingual.
I think that makes it pretty neat - I just hope it doesn't confuse the poor kid! ;)

I've then spent around 2 hours wrapping it all. I don't want to wrap another thing for the rest of my life, gah.

Here's hoping they like what they've got!

Merry christmas!

That's right. I'm turning into the crazy cat lady. As well as my own two kitties Joey and Bella, I'm now 'fostering' my sisters kitten, Jess. This is until either my sister moves into a house (she's currently in a 2nd floor flat) or Jess calms down a LOT. Right now, she's a little more crazy around my 5 month old nephew than my sister is comfortable with, so she spends a lot more time out of the main living room than inside it where the people are.
So she's now staying with us, getting lots of other kitty company.

I have a little house and three cats, now all I need are some big hairy cardigans and the transformation is complete!

After weeks of fighting an old knee injury, I've been told by my doctor I should quit my Tae Kwon-do training. I'm currently under outpatient care of a physiotherapist at the local hospital, and we should know the extent of the underlying damage within the next two months (Yay for NHS waiting lists - shouldn't complain though, private care would cost a fortune). I can walk and drive, but the majority of the kicks at my grade cause me a lot of pain.

My physiotherapist's guess is that the original injury (I was deliberately hit around the right knee with a hockey stick during a match when I was 14) didn't heal correctly in the first place and there's a lot of scar tissue. If things don't look great on xray and scans, I may have to have surgery, but hopefully I'll get away with orthopaedic supports and a guided exercise plan to build up tolerance.

I don't want to quit, for the first time in a long time I've had a lot more confidence in myself, and feel I could surprise an attacker for long enough to get the hell away, but if it results in surgery, I'd be stupid to risk undoing the repair job.

I guess time will tell. Bah.

So, I decided to add a little colour to my hair... so I bought a highlighting kit. "Passion Plum", which showed a deep purply-red effect... I thought, looks nice.

So yeah. Purple hair..... kinda....

So I passed the grading. Woo.

Don't find out if I've passed until the next class on monday, and made some stupid mistakes (in that as soon as I moved I thought, shit, that's wrong) - but hopefully I did well enough to get through :)