Make their first school project a task-based IT learning opportunity.

Have decided to feed Diz dried food via a home-made six sided puzzle box.
I meant it to be a cube but the cardboard was unforgiving. One hole.
The hole is quite large - I'll make a series of smaller-holed boxes as he gets used to it.

The idea is that he bats it around to get his food.

Of course as this is dried food only he'll still get his wet food of an evening.
And when the bedroom door is open he can eat the Mia-cat's food - although I have an agreement with my parents to try to keep the bowl out of reach/ not full.

At present, if he knocks the little box he should get food. The hole is that big. Trouble is he butts it with his head, knocking it over and invariably putting the hole on top. I'm not helping - he needs to be motivated to work it out himself. He will not starve. And he has plenty of water (as discussed in another thread) so it's not cat cruelty.

I just wanted to give him a slightly more interesting life. Slightly more natural (in the hunting/ reward stylee) and at least temporarily increase his appetite for his dinner.

I just noticed today... occasionally Dora the Explorer encounters extraterrestrial side characters, and when this happens, they are always, without exception, referred to as space creatures, never "aliens."

That's because Dora is an alien.

I'm being a post ho about being a ho. My cow orker and I were talking about stressful jobs (he just spent some time in the hospital, and was advised to take a week off if his job is stressful...yeah, right... time off, that was funny say it again.) Anyway, I was like (ticking off on fingers) "President of the U.S., Hospital employee, Financial Aid person, Police Officer" and he said "Ho..." and reminded me of this Eddie Murphy skit from SNL, The Velvet Jones School of Technology.

These days, I would add: Financial Aid available to those who qualify! :lol:

Good news/ bad news mixed, so I thought I'd put it here rather than spread it around the happy/ unhappy threads.

I signed on for the first time today.
No worries.
Of course there shouldn't be - I AM actively seeking work after all.
The only position I have found advertised, I have applied for. Fingers crossed. But I'm looking every day, because I really want to work as a Teaching Assistant. I'll step up a gear and start approaching schools directly after the holidays.

Saw an advert in the Milton Keynes Citizen this morning. A temp agency offering permanent positions for TAs. Cuuld it really be that easy?!
Nope.
They want 6 months experience so they can obtain two references. Still - it's a way in. If I don't get this job in Great Kimble (which would be the best possible option) I'll return to Bierton as a volunteer to get more experience. By October/ November I could go back to the agency. Not ideal, because the agency is in High Wycombe - 30 mins train ride away. Which would mean 1.5+ hour commute once I factor in home-station-school. But still, the idea that I could be in employment, adding to a currently poor CV and working in a paid job by end November... Wonderful!

And I still have the Guides to add a string to my bow from September anyway.

No Govt money as yet, sadly. Last received benefit on 5 July.
Bless my parents for understanding. They're completely carrying me at the moment, although luckily I had a stack of tinned/ packet/ dried food for me, and plenty in for Diz. Thank goodness I took up a pet website on their 20% off first time order back in June!

I think Mum is bearing it because she can see I'm so much healthier these days and sees the real joy I got from volunteering. I said to her a couple of weeks back, before my benefit was suspended, that I was so lucky to have found something I wanted to do. Yes she was still being negative and all that, but I said, "Have you ever had a job you liked so much you'd do it for free two days a week?" The answer was no - I knew she was desperately unhappy in her last job, so I was cheating a bit - but it brought home to her just how much I wanted this.

I have a real sense of progress today, despite my hopes being dashed by the agency.
It wasn't a total NO at least. There is a light.

Little known fact:

Every post by Shawnee123 makes me double-take because out of the corner of my eye, her handle looks very similar to Razzmatazz13 on the screen.

So, basically, Shawnee: I pay extra attention to you ;)

Working on hitting the 500 post milestone by Decenber 12, 2012.

As I ran round the lake today, I noticed many of the memorial stones, benches and water fountains were dedicated to members of the medical profession. Even doctors die.

You are probably going to reach your goal if you keep yapping like this! Talk talk talk no one can get you to pipe down.
;)

Crap I'm bored.

I'm almost over this cold so I am feeling a bit too well to sleep all the time, but not well enough to actually do anything.

We're 4 weeks into a 5 week election campaign, I'd decided my vote before they started, so it's the same old BS to watch. And my preferred party is running a pretty mediocre campaign and I'm worried that the other side might get in, which would be worse than that last bloke we threw out three years ago.

And I wasted much of today with computer hardware. I bought an external hard drive, but it automatically installs automatic back-up software, which is not what I want. Wrestled with it a while, found on-line support/forum. Seems it can - in theory - work without the auto-back-up software, so I uninstalled this. Now, as soon as I plug it in, windows shuts down to prevent computer damage, and does a physical memory dump. I have no idea what that is, but it seems serious.

Meh.

Just a big bucket full of MEH.

Why can't we get tablets or drops for the back of the neck to stop bugs biting us, the way cats and dogs get flea treatments? Seems a pretty straighforward concept for this day and age....

Because you would know they're only partially effective, the critters don't.

critters don't think they're effective at all. Mostly, they just don't think, but otherwise they just think it's a strange new game you invented. Who cares, though, they work.

I went to check out the prices for the slow roasted pork I'm making this Sunday.
Went to the local butcher in town - the only one left out of the five I remember from childhood (and maybe even more). Grumpy auld git eventually looked up from straightening the displays to acknowledge me. Note - this was on a Wednesday morning, I was the only person waiting for attention.

Now, okay - I don't usually buy cuts of meat.
I haven't been to a proper butcher since I lived in Leciester and would shop in the covered market.
But I was polite, smiling, respectful - three things he wasn't.
I asked first about when it was best to buy meat to cook on Sunday. Yes I pretty much knew it would be Saturday, but he didn't respond in quite that way.
Instead he said, "Why would you want to buy meat that you're not going to cook for three days?" and looked at me disgusted.
I agreed with him and admitted I didn't really have room in the fridge either.
So I asked if it was possible to pay for the meat today and have someone pick it up on Saturday - basically I don't want to go to town on Saturday, so I was trying to work out if Dad could pick it up.
"No."
Now in hindsight I realise it's because it's priced by weight, so of course you can't do that.
But they take orders for Christmas turkeys in advance, so it wasn't worth the curled lip he gave me.

I then asked if he could give me a rough idea of what a 2.5kg shoulder of bone-in pork would cost. He shrugged and said, "Same as them in front of you."
There were three different cuts of pre-wrapped pork in the tray he indicated. Okay, I worked out that those to the right were bone-in pork shoulder, but they varied in price by £2 ($4) and the weight was not immediately apparent.

So I thought, okay, just come back and hope I get a different butcher.
Although my final question, "Would you be able to score it for me" got a curt, "Yes" I think I'll go to one of the two supermarkets in town that have butchers counters.

I walked home with a real cloud over my head. I said to Mum, "When I'm back on my feet and appear in an episode of Come Dine With Me I will make a special point of saying on-camera that I bought my meat from the supermarket as we don't have any decent butchers nearby and just hope it makes the final edit." Rather pathetic imagined-future-revenge-scenario, but it went some way towards cheering me up.

Made me feel like a was a seventeen year old asking for cooking tips with no intention of buying. Pig.