Fun is Dead

So as we all know, fun is dead.  No one is allowed to have any fun anymore, what with the news shoving constant drudgery down our necks (I haven't watched, read or listened to the news in a very, very long time, with the eception of what makes its way to my facebook page.  Regardless, I am confident that I am correct in this assertion, and that the news is still a parade of misery) and everything being just the worst at all times.


On a more personal note, Summer Holidays (tm) have ended, so I'm back at work.


That is the real tragedy.


Also, my school has bought in a new load of laptops which have, after close inspection with a ruler, 12 inch screens.  12 inches.  In a laptop.  They're fully laptops too, the screen doesn't unclip like a tablet, all the connectors are in the base.  And they have touchscreens.


What on earth.


Someone at the municipal service for education was scammed (see: bribed) into buying these shit sandwiches.


The keyboard is miniscule.  I can cover half the keyboard with two fingers which makes typing a nightmare.  The screen is god knows what resolution because who can tell as everything is tiny.  WHO WOULD USE TOUCHSCREEN ON A LAPTOP WHEN THE MOUSE IS RIGHT THERE?


The whole thing is a terrible piece of deign.


So now you're thinking, 'what's the point of this little rant?'  To be honest I haven't thought that far yet.


Anyway.  My second book is coming along nicely.  This one might actually see a release.  Once I'm at the final editing stage I'll start looking for an illustrator to do the covers (I draw like a four year old) and I'll start the self-publishing process.


Unfortunately I have a pretty solid idea of what I want out of the whole thing, which might make the self-pub system somewhat more annoying and substantially less accommodating.


My big target, my life goal, is to sell a hundred copies.  I want to sell a hundred books in my lifetime.  That is my aim.  If it takes me writing fifty books and getting my mum and dad to buy a single copy each then so be it.


Digital or physical doesn't matter, just one hundred books.


Is there any way a touchscreen laptop with miniscule keys could help me in writing?  I'm struggling to find a connection...  No, I really can't think of one.




Anyway, in other news, I went to the same festival I went to last year.  You might say I'm a regular, now that I've been twice.  Last year was incredibly disappointing in terms of pictures and this year was only marginally better.  I've started the process of editing them and have found a couple I like so far.  I don't know whether they'll go into the 'best of,' folder I keep, but they're decent enough to stick on here at the very least.  (Truth be told one or two of them might go onto the Japanese calendars I make for Christmas, but don't tell anyone).


Those updates will come about when I get home and don't immediately fall asleep on the sofa.  We've just installed new aircon and it's glorious.  It also uses 3.2kw/h at peak load, so it's very much a luxury that should not be used every day, but almost always is.


Frugality is not my strong suit.


On an entirely unrelated note, I really, really need a new PC now.  This one is huffing and puffing and often refuses to boot.  It's being a real pain in the derriere which wouldn't matter if I were a millionaire, but I'm not, so it is.


Hey, when I sell those 100 books though...

Well I Never

So I came into work today, found out the schedule has been changed (the schedule is only a rough guideline, designed to show how the day should not be run, as opposed to how it should actually be run.  At least I think it's designed this way because we've not had a single day run to the schedule yet this year) and decided to immediately take a laptop from the communal area (gross) and do something productive with it.  "Productive."

Anyway, I turned it on to find out that it had fifty updates to install.  This being Windows, it couldn't do any of them while the computer was on, and it could only install them at a comparable rate to the deposition of glaciers, super fast basically.

So I waited half an hour before it stopped updating, then it turned off.  I was puzzled by this as windows either updates before the OS starts, or after you've asked it nicely to turn off.

So basically someone yesterday saw that it had weeks worth of updates to do, said fuck that, closed the lid on it and put it away.  Someone elses problem now!

Selfish bastards.  You have to remember that although Japanese people spend on average 23 hours a day at work, they're not actually working.  They're super, duper, inefficient, they hang around work until the boss leaves trying their hardest to pretend they're working while actually talking about nonsense and bollocks.

Anyway, how dare they assume their clothes surfing (always delete your web history) is more important than my writing (about nothing to do with schoolwork)!  Once again, bastards.

The moral of this story is not to use communal PC's, not just because of the diseases you'll likely catch.

On a much less interesting note, I've figured out that I'm lactose intolerant, which means I can't drink milk.  Some people have it so badly that they can't even eat cheese, but you'd know if that ever happened to me because I'd have built myself a rocket and flown myself into the sun.

I don't have it particularly badly, just enough that if I drink a cup of milk then it hurts.  I found out when I started drinking hot chocolate supply drops with milk instead of water (infinitely nicer taste) and started feeling ill afterwards.  After a couple of months of devout testing (can't just drink one hot chocolate and declare an illness, you've got to have a method) I can attest to the fact that I only ever get these symptoms when drinking large amounts of milk.

Ijust hope it doesn't get worse and stop me eating cheese.  Oh man that would be the absolute worst thing ever.

Withdrawal Symptoms

So I've just realised that I've gone a month and a half without playing any computer games.

Not being able to play them is really frustrating, because a back-catalogue of stuff I really want to play is building up, and the longer I spend without the means to play these games, the more I'm going to miss.  Console games are okay, because you can pick them up whenever and wherever, but PC games are harder to play, especially online, past their selling date because fewer people play them, and no one stocks them for long.  PC gaming is in decline for sure, and aside from league of legends, around four games have come out that I can no longer find legitimate outlets for (and the illegitimate outlets won't serve them forever) and I'm gutted!  I've only just realised this because I haven't had time to sit down and do nothing lately.  What with my diseases and illnesses, I've realised that I need to get a computer (which I knew I needed anyway, in the long term) quite quickly, just for my own peace of mind, and for something to do in the interminable nights when I'm not going to the gym, or playing american football, or playing basketball... Oh wait - I don't have any time when I'm not doing something.

Anyway...  I need a computer.

In other news, my cold/man flu is getting  better, and I feel that tomorrow will herald the end of it.  Luckily the gym is closed tomorrow, so I can't do what I normally would, and thrash out the kinks in the gym - and make myself ill the very next day.

An extra day of doing not a lot squared.

Woop.

If I'm not completely cured by Monday I will give up and let the viruses win.

In entirely unrelated news; a friend of mine came up with an acronym for his workplace which is pretty cool (he's a game developer): JSTS - Just Ship That Shit - the wikipedia page will define it as meaning, 'to rush unpolished and underdeveloped software for the purpose of making money.'  Contributions welcome.