Current mood:	Woo, blackberries!
Current music:	Moon Chavs - J. Foreman

New housemate, woot!
Today, many things happened:

We got a new housemate, after a couple of weeks stressful searching. The stress has mainly been down to the conversation going thusly: "How much is the rent?". I tell them. "And bills?" I tell them. "Riiiiiiight... well, I'd best be off, got lots of places to see y'know". But this gal seems quite lovely, fresh out of uni. It seemed to work better, because all of us in the house are quite studenty (despite one being five years post-graduation). Wheras most people who've looked around are quite... 'mature' I suppose, and interested in the house looking absolutely perfect.

But students (or student-likes) would say "by 'eck, luxury!" to that, and would be happier with just a relatively clean house with nice people in it. Which is nice.

I digress; I did some gardening (woo!), and found a birds' nest, and a blackberry bush (and, a garden behind our house ;-). I wasn't sure what to do about the birds' nest, as it's right at the back of the garden, and it was quite well in shade. I've left the tree-bits that have sheltered it, and I was going to take a picture of the inside to see if there was anyone at home. I'll try to avoid disturbing it.

I'll have to organise a Garden-ing party, to get some people to help out, in return for free beer, and a barbeque in the space claimed.

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And recently, many other things have happened:

I've borrowed an LCD TV/monitor off a mate. It's very nice, and despite being a bit smaller than our old one, the viewing area's still good. And the picture is so clear.

It's a shame he wants it back sometime...

I won an award on my recent trip to Northumbria, for a Lightly-Entertaining camping holiday with friends. I got the 'Floscars' award for navigation. I managed to get lost on arrival in Kielder. It has one road that runs through all of it. And I couldn't find the campsite, and there was no phone signal.

In the end, I got directed to nearly the right place, then worked out what was going on by seeing the huage fire from the road. Magic.

I've averaged 45hrs/week over the last 2 weeks. Still, it's for a deadline, and I think our customer will be happy. I think I should claim TOIL.

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In respone to ohajii's philosophical musings:

• I've been to... 4 places of education. I needed the switch from secondary to 6th form to escape. And when I did escape, I put up a fascade. A shield. To protect myself, literally. I started again with a fresh sheet, I could be whoever I wanted to be. And socially, this worked rather well --- I overcame a fear of getting to know people, and didn't suffer strange looks. With my closest friends, I could lower my guard. Well, there was no need for the fascade in the first place.
  
• By the time I got to uni, I needed this fascade to get me through the 'meeting lots of new people'. A few months in, I'd found my feet, and could safely drop it, as I no longer cared about potential attacks.
  
• It's a shame you were not as fortunate, my dear :-( I wonder if separate 6th form is useful in this case...
  
• Nothing wrong with over-analysing, the important thing is to analyse at all, IMO. See the piece on my questions.
  

Incidentally, I've had this quote for a long time, and I've been meaning to use it:

No pill can help me deal with the problem of not wanting to take pills; likewise, no amount of psychotherapy alone can prevent my manias and depressions. I need both. It is an odd thing, owing life to pills, one's own quirks and tenacities, and this unique, strange, and ultimately profound relationship called psychotherapy."

Jamison, 1995

That's it for now. Next Time, I ought to quote something I heard on Due South the other... uh, month.