My friends page looked so empty without ONTD, it seriously freaked me out. I never realised how much I relied on those guys, I would have nothing relevent to talk to anybody about otherwise. Who wants to hear me talk about A-Level physics? Whereas everybody is interested in the Lady GaGa/Paris Hilton saga, even if the people I'm talking about it to hate them.

In other news, you may or may not know, I'm been pretty ill for about a month now, with complaints such as recurring tonsilitis. Antibiotics couldn't clear it entirely (and in fact aggravated the condition of my overall health). My mother sees a homeopath and she made an appointment for a phone consultation with her.

Now, as a rule, I oppose everything alternative and holistic therapy stands for. I'm a subscriber of The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast, I totally stand behind what these guys are doing, if you're interested in scepticism and/or science check them out.

Not a lot of people understand what homeopathy is. I got the impression to start that it was basically eating vegetables and plant-based remedies, and I can understand plant-based remedies; modern medicine is based upon observations within the natural world, it's synthesised replications of plant and animal enzymes. I understand why people could potentially have a problem with synthetic drugs and want to use natural versions of them. But that's not what homeopathy is.

An overview: If you give a healthy person belladonna, they'll come up with symptoms similar to acute tonsilitis. When a person is suffering from acute tonsilitis, a homeopath will treat them with belladonna. Extremely dilute belladonna. In fact, some homeopathic remedies don't contain any of what it says on the bottle, they contain water with the "memory" of belladonna. This, apparently, will help the body heal itself and cure the underlying cause instead of (they claim) supressing the syptoms they way conventional medicine does.

It's actually been proven that echinacea doesn't work, but people still buy it. My mother still tries to give it to me whenever I have a cold. They proved scientifically that it doesn't work. Whenever I argue this with her, she blindly refuses to understand what that even means. They tested it, it makes no difference whether you take it or not. No mother, it doesn't work with you, you just think it does because you want to believe it.

So I was on the phone to the witch doctor homeopath (who, for starters, was trying to treat me for a medical condition over the phone) for about 45 minutes. She asked about the various symptoms, then she asked me to describe my personality to her. How would my friends describe me? What am I afraid of? What films do I like to watch?

I got off the phone to her. "It's a bit like a therapy session, isn't it?" beams my mother.

So I've been put on a hypoallergenic diet. This means no sugar, no dairy, no wheat, no yeast, no mushrooms, no red meat, no alcohol, no peanuts, no caffeine. You don't realise how difficult it is until you try. I can't eat toast. I can't eat a burger. I can't eat a sandwich. I can't eat pasta. I can't eat have a biscuit and a cup of coffee. I can't eat pizza. I can't have a gravy dinner. I can't eat coleslaw. For a month.

I can understand the probiotics (even though soya yoghurt is disgusting), I can almost understand the diet even if I can't forgive it. I've also got a couple of useless homeopathic pills to take (which are effectively worse than placebos because I'm not even expecting them to do anything).

But as I mentioned at the start, I've been ill for over a month now, and it's been adversely affecting my mood (the week I spent off college was a very dark week). So I'm getting desperate. Desperate enough to try these homeopathetic remedies. Cross your fingers for me.

Dead Set is amazing. It's Big Brother with zombies and everybody must watch it.

I had a dream once about the zombie apocalypse. It's the only dream I've ever had that has felt like it's lasted for days, which convinced me that it wasn't a dream and that life as I knew it really was over. But I lasted for days before I woke up, and even then I didn't wake up because I was eaten, it was just because my alarm went off. So I'm quite confident that when that day does come, I'll get by ok.

But I'm getting a little paranoid about it now, because I can't stop making mental preparations. I'm beginning to feel sure that there's going to be an outbreak while I'm in London.

Also, I just lost the game again damnit!

Lot of sleepless nights recently, and difficulty eating. Which if you knew me, would seriously worry you. And walking around with this big stupid smile plastered over my face, even though that's the reverse of how I should be reacting to. It can only end in trouble. But I'm chilling out maxin relaxin this week, gwanin off to meet some friends and catch up on old times, and seeing a band and stuff, not doing my homework or learning my songs. So should be a cool kinda week.

And finally, I decided that I want to be an astronaut. So you'll be hearing some more about that in the future I reckon

Wow. Picture this. You're on the best online comic in the world, xkcd, when you chance upon this strip, entitled 'Listen To Yourself':



Now imagine, barely a fortnight after that particular panel was released, that you venture onto the youtube and happen upon an 'Audio Response' button in the comment box.

Youtube

I almost had a heartattack of awesome.


In other news, I can't move my neck, I have many strange circular bruise all over my limbs, and I'm half deaf. No, I'm not having a stroke. I went to a Glamour of the Kill gig last night and had a freaking awesome time, they were even better than last time. And discovered a new band! The Hotel Ambush. Man, I love the music scene in South Wales. Or, as I like to call it, Old South Wales.


Lordy, Christmas is coming and it's terrifying. I do not enjoy singing Christmas carols in September. But Halloween is also coming, which means brand new cinema! Woohoo. Although that means I'll soon know what it feels like to go to the pictures alone.

Okay, normally I don't enjoy reposting memes, but this one isn't one of those generic Q&As and I can actually waffle on a bit, so I'll give it a bash. Jacked from cleolinda (who, by the way, I am a massive fangirl of).

So, I need to come up with 10 things that probably only I have done. Here... we... go.
( Wanna know how I got these scars? )


Another fun fact about me: I don't pronounce my own name correctly.


And in world news, J. K. Rowling won her case again the Lexicon! The world didn't end! (Well, not for another couple of weeks at least.) And I discovered free podcasts, and my disk space has been decreasing ever since...

If
P = Probability of spending money (as a fraction)

Then P is directly proportional to t, as denoted
P α t

As t approaches 24, P approaches 1
Or, as t → 24, P → 1

Demonstrated by the equation:
P = (1/24)t
or
P = t/24

For example, if I spent 1 hour on the internet yesterday (t  = 1)
P = 1/24

Roughly speaking, that translates as if I went on 24 shopping websites, I would have made a purchase from 1 of them.

If I spend 4 hours on the internet today (t = 4)
P = 4/24
Therefore P = 1/6

Which means I will buy something from a sixth of all of the shopping websites I visit.

As proof, I offer you this:

Today's History
Waterstones.com
hmv.com
play.com
etsy.com
xkcd.com store
ebay.com

Today I bought 5 books ebay.

Q.E.D.

The scary part is, this equation is trufax. I'm gonna be so poor if I don't reduce t.

I read something the other day about online security, about how to keep your identity safe. It had all of the usual 'change your password regularly', 'look for https at the start of the website address to show that it's secure when entering details', 'change your security settings so that only people you know have your email address', 'don't tell people when you're on holiday',  things like that.

And towards the bottom of the article, it said to never tell anybody what your mother's maiden name is, or your birthday. I don't have a problem with the maiden name part (I don't even use that as my security question, but I still wouldn't shout about what it is), but apparently banks and things use your date of birth to confirm things.

But the thing is, I want people to see when my borthday is. I like the feeling I get when people are happy for me ^_^ is that too much to ask?

In case anybody was wondering, it's the 20th December. And I have a wishlist on hmv if you would like me to email it to you xP


Besides, anybody impersonating me may know my date of birth, but if they come under scrutiny they'll never pass. They won't know my favourite flavour of jam.