HOLY SQUIRREL SHAT! (come to think of it, i don't think i've ever seen squirrel-shit. I'd not know a holy squirrel shit if it hit me on the head! Although i imagine it'd be solid gold or something, or with a halo, so it'd be hard to miss... what the hell am i going on about??)

I just watched the first two episodes of Heroes, and MY.GOD, i can't be expected to sleep after that, that was amazing!! I can however be expected to giggle insanely for two hours straight, run loops around my room, and chitter at LimeWire in a crazed attempt to encourage it to download faster, faster i say! Hiro is utterly fantastic, the Indian chap has the most relaxing voice ever, the druggy is yummy, the cheerleader is just sorta okay (which beats 'hateable' anyday), the blonde woman i've seen elsewhere and is the most beautiful vision of gorgeousness ever, the sensitive brother is such an amazingly wonderful representation of hope, and.. and... ::combusts::
I am in shock.
So let's move on.

I've had an okay Christmas. My parents surprised me with an LG Lightscribe DVD Writer, which i adore. My boss at work surprised me with a lack of raise, meaning i am now officially the lowest paid worker in THE WORLD EVER. Which i do not adore. My most fantastic friend silverhammerism surprised me with a kick-ass cowboy hat, and a little compass pendant with the motto "Hazard yet forward!" inscribed on it. I shall never take it off. And siluria made me this utterly edible Hugh Jackman icon i'm using, with which i am in love.
The fandom mayhem maintains, and recently knights_13 did her pimping duty and got me well and truly hooked on Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Sweet crack. knights_13, i am at your mercy. May i present to you all the most manhandling i have seen in a show so far, in just one episode:

S1, Ep8, 'Challenge'

I've also been watching lots of The Champions, Highway To Heaven, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and am eagerly anticipating the arrival of the first season of Simon & Simon in the post. Brothers! Brothers caring for each other! wistful_fever, break out the incest fic! Woohoo!! Which brings us to Supernatural, which is also arriving shortly in the post from amerikay. Although, for 2007, i would quite like the slash thoughts to not be deluding my brain night and day. When you start slashing father/son relationships (don't look at me like that knights_13, it's not my fault, they keep touching each other!!), that's when you start to worry.

I've been making websites, one of which was for myrebelcat, and you can see it here. You really should check out her fiction, she writes excellently. Putting her fics on the site has been quite a distraction!
Oh, and i dare say it's worth mentioning that i got my results for my first (9-month long) Psych course a few weeks ago, Exploring Psychology. I got a Distinction. Oh how i rock. :D I haven't been that wound-up about an exam score since my GCSE's! Next course starts Febuary.

So, happy New Year all. I'm going to settle down to watch LimeWire download eps 3-6 of Heroes, and play Diddy Kong Racing on the Nintendo64 i bought myself for Christmas. Whale Bay is a killer, i swear i get more overexcited at this game than any of those newfangled consoles they have these days. :P
Let's finish with two rather random icons. The one who can identify the fandom for the right-hand icon wins an emotionally truamatised superhero with a strategically ripped nylon suit. Mmm.

Tags: fandoms, heroes, kf:tlc, psychology degree
feeling: awake
hearing: Diddy Kong Racing track

Sorry folks, think it's best if i officially bow out of Lj until after my Psych exam (hi willowfae! i'm giving up, lol, i can't handle everything!). It's on Oct 9th, and i have about four months worth of revision to do in three weeks. Am coming apart at the seams.
I'll be back on after then, and if in the meantime you make any posts you don't want me to miss (fic, icons, happenings, anything you want me to comment on), please post a comment here with a link to it, and i can check them all out when i come back. I'm sure i'll pop into my Flist every now and then, but i'd not count on it, and i'm unlikely to comment.
Email me if you wanna/needta chat. :)

Tags: life, psychology degree
belong: work
feeling: stressed

i have been so remiss at letting you know what's going on, i'm really sorry. i dare say if you knew how hard i've been working you'd forgive me though! i'm currently at an Open University Residential School in Durham. As well as my Exploring Psychology course this year, i am also doing Exploring Psychology Project which is based at this week of resi school, and has a report to be written up afterwards and handed in by september. I got here on saturday, and the days are basically 9am-9pm. Tonight we finished at 10pm, concluding the day with two lectures, one on The Philosophy Of Psychopathology and one on Death. They were both riveting, the Death lecture went on an hour later than it should because there was so much discussion, and i had a personal chat with the lecturer afterwards and came away feeling fantastic because he said some of my ideas were 'really interesting' and looked all inspired! i shall now explode with happiness. if you need me, be prepared to scrape me off the walls of this IT room with a spatula.
i was so hyped with all the thoughts from the lectures that i sat here for a while researching sex-differences in communication (that's what my group is investigating. we'll be videoing same-sex groups tomorrow while they do an activity we've set, and then qualititatively analysing the data) and now the exhaustion has reasserted itself so i'm off to bed.

but i've meant to pop in here all week and let you know where i'm at, and why i'm not watching my Flist at all. when i get back home on saturday i have an Exploring Psychology assignment to write (it's already overdue) and the report for this course to work on, and loads of chapters to catch up on, so consider that i might be absent for some time to come. I also have my mate from norway coming over with her son, and then i'm going there, so the middle of august is the first time things will get back to normal. bear with me. :D
i may be knackered, and exhausted from being with people all the time (i need to go sit in a dark room for a year i think, i'm going insane), but i'm getting surer and surer that psychology is something i really love. i mean i knew it anyway... but who knew if that would sustain once i started finding out more about it? but it has. i'd not complain at getting the option of doing this for my day job, that's for sure.

i hope you're all happy and healthy, now if you'll excuse me i'm going to go and keel over in the shower with a can of Coke Zero attached to my face and a piece of paper with Gender Differences research clutched in my spasming hand. :P

Tags: psychology degree
belong: durham, england
feeling: exhausted

Yes, this is my mum in a huge plastic bag. i was in bed today, watching Red Dwarf and keeping warm, and she walked in to ask me if i needed it for anything before she threw it away. i said no. she sat down, and proceeded to climb into the bag, roll around on the floor proclaiming "its very noisy in here!!", then struggle onto her front and crawl around like some kind of giant plastic mollusc.

In less 'parents in plastic bags' related news: i am teetering perilously close to becoming involved in Deadwood, I Spy, Muncle, Numb3rs and NCIS. Any more fandoms out there i will be helpless to resist? Because hey, i'm already obsessing to the point of wanting to blatter my head into the nearest wall, so why not join the fun? i shall write a book someday: 'Fandoms: the tragedy and the triumph - how my obsessions led to the enforced surgical removal of a television set from my face'. Woe.

Oh, in respect to my OU Psychology Degree, there's been a slightly change of plan. I've been given permission (after a slightly scary phonecall that morphed into an interview before i knew what was going on) to skip the first years course and go on to a Level2 course, Exploring Pschology, which i am looking forward to faaaar more! It starts February, and in the meantime i'm studying a short course called Life In The Oceans: Exploring Our Blue Planet. It's great, and would be even better if distractions wouldn't keep getting in the way of study. ::glares accusingly at shiny new huge dilectible CRT flat-screen monitor:: aw. i can't hate you. you're gorgeous.

Tags: family, fandoms, psychology degree
feeling: little bit weeeey little bit wuurgh
hearing: david mead - new mexico (oh the cheese!)

I'm always complaining about how little time i have, i thought, always having things i want to do but don't get a moment free to do them. It figures then, that i decided i'm gonna do another degree. Perfect sense. The kind of sense you get in asylums, when your mate thinks he's Abe Lincoln and they serve transquilisers with dessert.

I'm really quite excited about it though, i just signed on with the Open University to do a BSc Hons Psychology Degree. The Open University, for those Americans unaware, is an internet and post based university that runs courses specially suited for full-time workers or those unable to get to a college. I'll work about 16 hours a week at home, have occassional tutorials at a regional centre nearby, and get my degree over 6 years of study. I'm starting in October with DD100 - An Introduction to the Social Sciences: Understanding Social Change. I've overhauled my room, cleared my desk and bought a new pencil case, specially. That means i'm prepared. Doesn't it.  :P

When i was choosing what uni to go to, back in the day, i had a choice between Photography in Cornwall or Psychology at Queens in Belfast. A couple of things made me choose Photography, and now i'm really excited to have the chance to do Psychology too, even if i don't get to go to Queens to do it. Plus i can pay for each part of the degree as i do it, and not worry about incurring any more debts. So very excited! I've been reading books and folders that my mum has on Psychology left right and centre recently, so i'll be well versed by the time the course starts. I also have this odd, wonderful desire to not tell anyone. My parents know, and i'd love all you guys to know, but none of my extended family get to know, nor my colleagues. Somehow this is going to be very much mine, only shared with people i trust, i guess.

I also experimented with some Professional icons, after being inspired by one of kassidy62's posts, using some heavier borders that i quite like: (and there's one Renegade icon at the end)

1...    2...    3...    4...
5...    6...    7...        feel free to yoink.

Tonight mum put aromatherapy oil on my pulse-points and we went with dad to the sea at about 10pm to listen to the waves. Now, in absence of something else i was going to post but have mislaid, i shall drag my sorry self off to bed and dream about TMA's (Teacher Marked Assessments) and due dates and new pens and coloured weekly study-plans and all things exciting.....

Tags: icons, psychology degree, the pros
feeling: overexcited