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...
Boxing Day
You should have seen the looks we got, last night, walking out of the building with two G5, three iMac, and a Cinema Display piled on top of a trolley, heading towards my car. There was quite a few people around — all for an opening in the gallery — and the confusion on their faces wasn't (perhaps) helped by our now-traditional tendency to mutter things like "What do you reckon? 200 quid on eBay each?" as we walked past them.
Life is a bit complicated at the moment. Well, not "complicated", maybe "disorganised" is a better word. The boxes (which were empty, of course) are now in the spare room of the flat, empty of polystyrene, and waiting to be loaded into the back of the car for a mammoth Putting Things In Boxes Session™ when I get over to Lancaster this afternoon.
Whta I'm finding difficult, I supppose, is sorting out in my head when I should be doing things. Failing to sort all this out last week means that my Cunning Plan™ has goen a bit out of kilter, and the intention of having a leaving do on the 20th (a 'bring a bottle, glass, and a cushion' party) is potentially going to clash with the day I'm meaning to GET A BLOODY VAN.
But hey. Seat of your pants and all that. Making it up as I go along as usual 
...
Elsewhere, Exciting and Big Things™ are going on in the World of Curran™. For a start, some not-quite-completely-related-to-me changes at work are meaning that this current 'Siobhan finds herself a direction at last' momentum is gaining even more pace.
Like, for example, I went to a bit of a conference thingy in Birmingham this week. Now, I know that probably lots of people do those kinds of things — but for me, it was all a bit new.
Or rather, not new as in "I've not been to one of these before", new as in "I don't feel like I'm frustratingly observing from the sidelines, I feel like I'm actually being appreciated here".
Which is good
Also, I'm in the flat right now, and I have internets 
All the stuff came from Virgin yesterday, and after work I threw myself into what I thought was going to be a gargantuan (and fiddly) installation marathon.
But it only took forty minutes — thirty of which were me scrabbling around trying to find where the serial and PIN numbers were on the packaging, and then ringing up to ask because I couldn't.
First impressions: Oooh. It's fast I haven't tried any speed-testing thingies yet, but this is tonnes more solid than what I have back in Lancaster. I'm slightly perturbed by the whole 'consumerist' impressions I'm getting from the documentation — as in this seems to be more about pulling stuff off the net, rather than being a 'part' of it (and the fact that I get a different IP address every time I turn things off and on again isn't boding well for my existing 'home experiments')
But I think a little research into dynamic DNS services is in order, and — let's face it — a lot of the stuff on Erin are things that I can transfer onto my Bastard Big Xserve™ (with it's 40MB bandwidth)
*mwah ha har*
Another significant theing going on at the moment (but not in a particularly good way) is the ongoing saga of my car.
For some reason — a reason I'm probably well aware of — she's continually overheating within minutes of setting off on any journey I make at the moment.
She's done this occasionally over the last year or so. I'm convinced there's a leak in the water system (and rather dreading that it might be the cylinder head gasket) but up until this weeke all I had to do was make sure the water was topped up every once in a while, and she'd be fine.
But on Wednesday night, I drove home without refilling, and the temperature guage hovered dangerously around the nasty red mark.
"Just get me home, baby" I pleaded, as I sat at the lights at Waterstones, waiting to turn left, stroking the dashboard and willing everything to be all right — which she did, but ever since things have just Not Been Right™.
Like on Thursday morning, as I was running late (for reasons I might elaborate on one day) and decided to go via the motorway for a change — but one mile down the M6 and I was praying for a junction so I could cool her down.
Thing is though, just there now, as I was having a peek just before seting off with the boxes, I lifted the bonnet and discovered that I'd left the cap off the radiator.
Which perhaps, maybe, is what the real problem was all along.
...
Feh.
Sorry — life is a bit of a hectic blur at the moment. I'm not reknowned for my ability to DO STUFF! of course, and each day seems to be one more decision to make after the other.
Like I'm still not sure when to bring the kittens here. It occurred to me earlier that I could maybe bring them back tomorrow, giving me the whole week with them to get them used to the idea. But is that fair, considering that I'm presuming next weekend will be all chaotic with vans and boxes and furniture and bed movings?
I might have to act quickly though, because a certain little white (Tom) cat seems to rather enjoy poking his nose in here if I leave the door open, and I think Biscuit and Tish need to claim their territory before he does.
...
Ack, we'll see.
Right this second though, there's something completely unrelated to all of that occupying my head, almost consistently. Something I'm not going to write about yet, but something that's perhaps totally obvious if you stray off this blog, and into some of the other spaces I put stuff online.
(She said, with the same perpetual grin plastered across her face that she's had for a week)
Tiny Milestone
I know my blog turned five years old back in February, but I just wanted to randomly note that today is five years since I first made my 'diary' run on a script and a database. So, in a way, today is five years since I started blogging, rather than whatever it's called when you hand-code HTML diary pages.
Just thought you might like to know that
Well, it sounds like you've had a VERY interesting week while I've been away. I've been catching up with your 'goings on' all over the place and it has left me with a big smile on my face. Sounds like things are really starting to come together for you in all parts of your life. Big hugs and congratulations
that could well be the problem
Well, yes and no. I'm certain it didn't help, but the fact that every time I stop I see coolant dribbling out of the bottom of the radiator can't be a good sign.
I bought some Holts Radweld earlier. Let's see if that can help a little
@Phoenix — "I've been catching up with your 'goings on' all over the place", see I thought it was rather obvious But apparently not
My feet were two feet off the ground
photo secondlife thaumata gush
No really, they were. I'm not just being gushy and sloppy. I think we've learnt that I need to take the pink balls in future
hi,
I’m really sorry for swearing vilely at you the other week. I have no idea what possessed me (other than a bottle a gin). I hope, that eventually, you can forgive me.
I’m glad that life and the new move are both going well.
Thanks for not giving me the boot from Sleeds.
psssst.
you're pretty.
I think modern cooling systems are pressurised (presumably so that they can run at temperatures above 100c without boiling) so, if you're not actually loosing coolant, that could well be the problem — numpty!
Incidentally, there's sometimes a little valve thingy in the cap which I managed to blow once; resulting in almost constant overheating (presumably due to loss of pressure), so...
Don't know how you'd get on tested though