Hello 
I'm Siobhan Curran/Kisa Naumova, and this is my weblog. I tend to write about stuff like crossdressing, Macs, code, cats, wine and Second Life, but in general it's just an ongoing conversation about all sorts of stuff. If you'd like to know a little bit more about what this all is, I recommend starting on this page which has a little bit of info on who I am, and what I'm trying to do — or you could dive into my five years worth of archives if you like.
Otherwise, feel free to close this box and explore...
Working Space
I don't know how many of you have been reading me for at least three years ("Not many" you say? Here, stick the kettle on, go back a bit, and get up to speed 
) but if you have, you'll no doubt remember the epic saga of me trying to rejiggle my house around while my Ex was away in Australia.
I loved my old studio — it was fab. A menagerie of old Macs — mostly just for show, centred around the blazing efficiency of my G4 server and my G5 workhorse.
Of course, transposing that amount of blatant technology into a tiny little 'second bedroom' (which we shall call it, for the purposes of valuation) was never going to be easy. But, for the past three years I've been quite happily scurried away in my iSanctuary, pounding the hell out of Photoshop in a snug cocoon — heated by the constant warm air that flows out of my two machines.
Today though, my desk looks like this:
I'm finding it really hard to do stuff at the moment. Most of the time I want to be sat in front of a mahoosive monitor, pushing my G5 to its limit (which is quite low these days 
). It's not going to be too long until I can merge myself back into my familiar studio environment — there are a couple of things that happened last week that really pushed the whole Moving To Leeds™ thing on a bit.
It's just that in the meantime, I'm a frustrated ball of *gah*. And I want my Mac back.
I'm finding it really hard to do stuff at the moment.
Tell me about it! Last Sunday evening, my laptop decided it wasn't going to show me pictures any more 
Ok, so it's Tuesday, and I'm back on line; but I'm not using my machine, with all my software, tools, files and settings — things that I've spent years building up. I feel so 'disconnected'. I'm wandering around aimlessly, no enthusiasm for anything, feeling like I want to cry. You'd think I'd suffered a bereavement, or lost a limb! Who'd have thought you could become so attached to a chunk of plastic and wires.
Sod it! I'm going to try and take my mind of it by washing the dishes — at least I'll have something clean to eat off tonight.
I find it hard to work in a really tidy office, I can't concentrate at all. That new setup you've got looks far too scary clean to do anything productive. Get some random papers scattered across it and maybe a few sticky coffee rings — and presto! A proper working environment!
Beware the cold turkey! — and I don't mean post Christmas.
Last week I was away on holiday with the family. A very nice and quiet place just outside of Galway. BUT, the amount of times that we wanted to check things out on the net and couldn't was amazing.
I took my laptop so we could download photos from the camera and keep a daily diary. But it wasn't much use for anything else (God I even found myself playing on an ancient version of a flight simulator I had on it)- how sad!
Subsequently, since arriving home, I have done absolutely nothing for the last two days other than catch up with all my favourite sites. Its like a junkie getting a fix again! 
So Siobhan, when you do get your G5 etc etc back — be prepared to do nothing else other than experience the rush!
@Narelle — actually, up until this morning, the whole desk was covered with shit — papers, cups, wine bottles... I got one of my Enthusiasm Surges™ earlier, and blitzed it.
The point (BTW) of having a bare working space (which is, Alli, exactly that 'disconnected' thing you mention) is to try and force myself out of my Lancastrian Comfort Zone™ a bit. I'm finding I'm spending a lot of time wishing I was over in my office in Leeds for exactly these reasons.
And if I wasn't so bloody useless at organising places to kip over there, and didn't have a few RL things to sort out, I'd probably be spending a lot more time there.
Curious Traffic Rush
Sorry, could someone explain to me why I have just had a rather large rush of people coming this way from a Google search for "manties", starting with one that seemed to come from inside the Beeb? Was there something on telly/radio about them?
I just googled "Manties", you're third on the list! Well done!!
I'm not entirely sure that's something worth celebrating The thing is though, there was a whole stream (and still is, to be honest) of visitors because of it — but I've been on that page ever since I mentioned it the other day. I just wondered what the surge in interest was.
WeR in UR Beeb, Googlein UR Manties 
I think I've found the source — Sky News did a piece on them and if you search Google UK, I come at the top of the page.
For comparison: http://flickr.com/photos/stml/589124198/