Below are the 9 most recent journal entries recorded in dancer_gates' LiveJournal:

Friday, December 2nd, 2005
9:23 pm	the week to date It's not actually been a bad week. Work has been a bit less nightmarish and I've enjoyed my evenings more, possibly as a result. Nicks game is a bit of a sidenote currently but quite refreshing to play different characters for a session or so. Despite my annoyance at myself the Tuesday shooting went as well as could be expected, Wednesday I got a fair bit done to my weapon making, and Burts game last night was quite enjoyable too. All in all a good week I think. Shame next week is not looking too hot atm. I have to go to court TWICE now it would seem, Monday and Wednesday, for a couple of contested breaches I have to be a witness for, and Thursday night is a late night for me. As Karen has said it's just my nervousness at the unknown of giving evidence that makes me so worried about it, and logically I know she's right. Doesn't really help though. I dont want to let myself or my colleagues down by making a mess of it and causing it to be dropped, which I can see being a possibility if they dispute being informed of their appointments. Even if it does go well though it means lots of time when too many of us are out of the office, which will just increase the pressure and workloads on the rest of my colleagues. I hope it all goes ok because we seem to be getting more and more contested breaches. It's looking quite bad at the moment, even Nicola (who is a *really* good PO, takes everything in her stride and never gets flustered) is starting to get a bit down about how things are going. I think its because it is just getting worse for us in the office, with no let-up in sight. Currently there is no way I'm going to pursue a PSO or PO job unless things turn around. Not sure where that leaves me, but there's plenty of time to worry about that later, and with luck it will turn round and get better. Everything goes through its bad patches and it seems the office is going through one currently, which is a shame 'cos it looked really hopeful for my first couple of months. I might look at transferring internally in a couple of months if nothing changes, so that I can look at a different office and see what its like there. Again, too early to really start considering that yet. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 4th, 2005
5:43 pm	its nice to be appreciated, kinda Today by about four o'clock I was ready to tear my hair out and give it all up as the day seemed to go from bad to worse. It seemed to me that everyone was bringing me the shitty horrible cases to deal with that were just awkward to sort out. I had more enforcement to deal with than I could possibly do and had to end up giving one of the easier cases to my colleague, 'cos his work wasnt going to miss National Standards if it got delayed for a few hours. I've never had to do that before and have prided myself on how I've done my time management these last few weeks. It was a case of trying to do loads of work before certain times then going over it all to check I'd not made any errors and trying to catch up with my backlog, before it came back to me and I had my next rush of work. At least it made the day go quickly, I nearly missed lunch and had to grab a quick sandwich, and it came to home time before I was really ready. Monday we are 'shutdown' until Wednesday, so we are supposed to get our backlog of work sorted out and up to date. Nice theory and I know it will help but I severely doubt we'll get everything done, my work grew massively today. Still all that having been said I managed to end the day with a pleasent feeling of having accomplished things, which was greatly improved by a number of people in the office complementing me on my work. The PO who sits next to me told me that I wasn't allowed to move and if she went elsewhere in the Service she'd drag me with her, because I knew her job better than she did. Now, she is only newly qualified, but even so helping a PO with her work gave me a sense of well-being. In addition to which two of the PSOs in our cluster told me I should apply to be a PSO as I'd be very good at it, and the other PO who sits near me said I was wasted in admin and should work towards becoming a PO. All in all its nice when your workmates acknowledge that you're doing good work :) Know I'm just tired but not sleepy. Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: Metallica - Enter Sandman (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
5:22 pm	Weekly update. Shards to come... I nearly have everything I need for the event, I have sorted out costume, and George is making me a sleeveless robe to go over my outfit. Karen has made me a sash for it and hopefully Heather will be able to make me a roll pouch for a medical kit. I have also sorted out a little shrine to take, which has a bell held up by a little pagoda type thing flanked by Celestial Dragons, with a little incense holder in front of them. Its very simple and not great, but it'll do and didnt cost too much. I've also worked out how to do a simple noodle soup for food, as its hot, easy to make and filling. I'm really looking forward to this event even though I know I'll miss playing Carlos. Last week was more shooting. Karens dad is on holiday so there was only myself and Karen (who had to shoot air rifle) until one of the winter shooters turned up (Peter, we think). I'm in two minds about how well the evening went. I managed to complete one of my goals, which was to score everything in the black, even though one shoot just hung on the edge of it and was partially in the white. I've been trying to manage that for ages so it was definately good to succeed at that, but am a little dissappointed at the shot that was only half and half. The other positive to take from the evening was that I had no bad cards, this obviously boosted my average for the evening and shows my consistency is improving. My overall average for the evening was 88.3, which is my best so far. The dissappointing aspect of the evening was that I didnt get any really good cards, I managed a couple of 90's which are good, but I will normally manage one or two of them in an evening, so am looking to improve on that. I've only managed to score more than 90 about twice, a 91 and a 92, so my target is to improve my good cards as well as avoiding bad cards. I am also thinking more and more that I want to try and find a cheap 22 rifle, but not until next year at the earliest, and it'll have to be cheap to start with. I missed shooting this week and didn't really get a chance to practise as much as I'd like with the finalising of the weapons I'm making. I managed several 'details' of dry firing, and tried to mess around with my position slightly to get a more stable firing platform. We'll have to see if all this practise is going to pay off in the next few weeks, as I will probably need to start my league cards fairly soon. I have done the weapons I was making, just need isoflexing, which George will hopefully do tonight and tomorrow. Karens has kindly offered to drop them off as she's going to Georges tonight, and has said she'll pick them up Friday during the day. They are all ok, but the katana for Karen isn't really enough like a katana, it needed a tapered blade with a more angular point, oh well. I may have to make something better for Karen at a later date. Current Mood: tired (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 5th, 2005
7:17 pm	Last week It was a busy week. Work, has consistently stayed busy and I have lots of stuff to make for the next shards event. Last weeks confrontation game against Sean went awfully for me, everything just seemed to fail, it was over very quickly. Burts game on Thursday seemed to go ok again, and we came up against a bizarre demon summoned by a creature of unlife. This leads me to wonder if characters can call upon the powers of unlife to fight them and be dodgy anti-heroes, or whether they just become pure evil and no longer playable. The weekend was full of world of warcraft, making lrp weapons and rugby league. Poor Rik, all three of his teams lost, Hull commited rugby suicide by getting a player sent off inside seven minutes and ended up losing 71-0, not very interesting to watch. The NRL Grand Final was a really good match and I feel sorry for the Cowboys who had a fantastic defense in the first half but still went in behind at half time thanks to a flukey try and a 90 metre break away try. In the end I think the Tigers deserved the victory and it was a good match to watch, with loads of exciting young talent on display. I wish I'd managed to watch the London Irish game, it went right down to the wire apparently. I managed to get some making weapons done, but not as much as I wanted. I have nearly finished my wakizashi apart from the latexing, I have bladed Karens katana, and have finally started on my staff. With luck the swords will be started latexing this weekend and the staff shouldnt be too far behind. World of warcraft is going ok, the shaman I have started on the venture co server is good fun, and with enchanting and engineering will make loads of funky stuff and improve the items I find. I just hope I either make enough money to buy ore, or Rik can find plenty of metal ore for the engineering. There may be others in the guild who can also provide ore for me. Last nights shooting was a bit of a disappointment, as i only averaged about 85, which was lower than last week. I almost had a couple of good cards, but couldnt shoot a card without at least one seven, and to top it all off my third from last shot scored a six, so I still havent managed an entire evening in the black (one day I will). Current Mood: rushed (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 10th, 2005
9:49 pm	work just got busy Work has just gone mad this week. With my senior away on leave we have a new system to break in, other teams transferring cases to us when they shouldn't for another two weeks (several hundred at a time), our experienced temp away on leave (hes been there over a year, so knew exactly what to do) and two other admin staff off sick. All in all it has left myself and a newish temp with a LOT of work to do. Still, at least I don't have time to get bored at the moment :) Still, it's my turn for leave in a week and a half, I'll get to have a break at Shards, it'll be good to relax :) Current Mood: busy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 3rd, 2005
10:18 pm	My new job, and a new gun... Well, last week was the first of my new job. Glad to get back in employment, and the job seems easy enough, even if there is an awful lot to learn. Some of the people seem nice and I haven't really got to know some of the others. There is a little bit of bitching about people not doing enough work in the team, but not much so far and I expected a bit. Overall it was a decent introduction to the probation service. The only bit I didn't really like was the Friday afternoon when I went onto reception. I don't want to do reception work, but it was only because the normal receptionist went off sick, and the other was on holiday. I'm given to believe that it is fairly rare for AAs to need to cover reception, and with a bit of luck it wont be me very often that has to. I have also found a second hand air pistol that I should be able to buy for a significant amount less than they cost full price. It is a Morini, which are a very good make of competition air pistol. While it is not there best model any more it has still been used in the past by top pros. I'm really looking forward to getting hold of it and trying it out. With a bit of luck if I practice enough with my stance and stamina in the arm I will hopefully be as good with the left hand as the right very quickly, and will look to shoot better than before as soon as possible. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 20th, 2005
5:53 pm	A weekend of Rugby, Dr Who and Green Day It was a good weekend overall. Friday evening involved watching St Helens against London Broncos in the Super League. It was a fantastic match that ended in a draw, a fair result that came about due to some uncharacteristic kicking from Sean Long. Normally a great kicker he ended up missing four kicks and allowing the Broncos to get a tie. Saturday involved much more rugby, Union this time as the Lions tour continued with a match against Otago, which they won comfortably. Then followed another great match with the French getting a draw in their first match of the series in South Africa. Then there was the last episode of the series of Dr Who. What a let down! It was looking like it could have been a really good episode, until Rose got God-like powers, saved the day and survived having all that power going through her for far longer than the Doctor before he died. Utter rubbish in my opinion. It seemed like such a cop-out. While I like the TARDIS actually being more than just a transport there are limits, or should be anyway. I mean, come on. Still, I wont rant any more, it has been a good series overall with the World War II episode being by far my favourite. Well done to Steven Moffat for his excellent script :) Sunday was the Green Day gig. Wow, that was awesome!!! Despite being far to hot and getting sunburn I really enjoyed the day. Karen drove myself, Andy, Helen and Becky to Milton Keynes Bowl where we met up with Joe R, Lee Robson Kat (who I don't know at all, one of Joes friends) and Sarah (a Cammie visited Rik a few times). There was much sitting around and chatting until five o'clock when the first band came on, we really didn't need to get there so early. Hard-Fi were on first and were pants, not very good music and they didn't manage to get the crowd interested at all, I kinda felt sorry for them. Next on were Taking Back Sunday. I haven't really heard much of their stuff but they were okay, and managed to get the crowd a bit more involved. Then came on Jimmy eat World, who did a really good set I thought. Again, not a band I've heard many songs from but they put on a pretty good live performance that really had some life to it. That had really built it up for a good finale with Green Day, and they didn't disappoint. It was a very well polished set and they played the crowd really well. I was hoping for a good performance from them and they far exceeded my expectations. Current Mood: happy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 8th, 2005
10:30 am	Last nights shooting After a week off from shooting I returned last night. I was somewhat concerned that the week off would not help and that it would take a couple of details to get back into practice. As it turned out I shot reasonably well, as usual my third card being really poor. Overall it was my best evening of shooting so far, I scored an average of 84.8, just one more point would have given me an average of 85. If I took away the third card I would have averaged over 86, so I need to get over the mental block I seem to have. I looked back over the last four times I've shot, and they all have a poor third detail, it would do my averages the world of good to do away with card three. On a more positive note, my worst shots all evening were sevens, which is the first time I've managed to shoot all evening without a few really bad shots that score in the white area :) Current Mood: determined (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 5th, 2005
2:32 pm	If anyone is interested check this out, http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=18656992 Not sure if it's worthwhile as you need 5 friends to take up the offer, but it's worth a look. (Comment on this)