[entre chien et loup]

First off, a little bookkeeping: Thanks to everyone who helped me out while I was feeling bad; to S. A. Hunter, a new friend who has been unfailingly lovely; and to my ex, for getting back in touch and being entirely amiable. Very much appreciated, y'all.

Also, I updated my LJ Profile, which is slightly less of a mess now, and also includes a couple more sites. I've only done anything with Pownce and Tumblr so far, but there will some music-related stuff on my currently-empty Project Playlist and Muxtape accounts in the near-ish future.

As for actual stuff I've been doing, there's a lot to catch up on; rather than trying to recap everything, I just want to write about a few things. For one, I've been getting into the Grand Theft Auto games lately; I got San Andreas expecting not to like it and return it for something else -- it was in a 2 for £15 deal or somesuch -- and found myself really drawn in. Since then, I've picked up the two PS2 ports of the PSP versions -- Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories -- and seen the mighty GTA4 on kyu_diary's new HDTV. (I may be slightly envious.)

Staying with that for a moment, someone's put up an amazing photoset called Sightseeing in Liberty City, comparing real-life shots of New York City with their counterparts in GTA4. And speaking of PSP ports, I blew rather more money than I should have done today on Silent Hill Origins. (I went to trade in Lost Odyssey, having sort-of finished it, but the shop wouldn't take it for a couple of reasons; ended up having to trade it in elsewhere for substantially less than I expected, which sucked, but it's done now.)

[edit: I forgot the bit where I'm a massive Narutard and ended up with like, most of the Naruto games (read: the good ones) and the latest DVD's -- series 3:1, the movie, and the feature-length episode. Yes, the fanboys are bad, but the series rocks. Evidence, along with the GTA thing, that just because something's popular doesn't mean it must automagically suck.]

While I was getting Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories, I also picked up Deborah Curtis' book Touching from a Distance; it tells the story of Ian Curtis and Joy Division, one of my favourite bands. I also recently got a film based on that book, Control by Anton Corbijn. I haven't watched the film yet, but I've made a start on the book and it's already very interesting, if sad.

A downside, music-wise, is that my best headphones seem to have finally crapped out; for a while the right channel was a bit iffy, and now they don't seem to work at all, so I'm back to using the speakers on the PC. Not ideal for writing music. On the other hand, I found out that my friend thisis has become interested in Buddhism and asked me for a little advice; hopefully I helped. On that note, my dad sent me a Wisdom Books catalogue (which I already had, but he didn't know that) along with a newspaper clipping about Buddhist volunteer work; however this is with the NKT, who are pretty suspect in my view. Also I am now unable to go to see the Dalai Lama in Nottingham at the end of the month; despite having tickets (which have my name on them, so I can't sell them on) I have nowhere to stay, and can't afford both accommodation and travel.

[edit: I'm also planning to follow tekaril's example and get in touch with some local Unitarians; they sent me an information pack and it certainly seems very interesting and compatible with what I already believe, so hopefully some good will come of it.]

Another thing I wanted to talk about was the change to the shop here. When I got back from my mum's on the 6th, there was work being done on it, which had evidently started at least a few days beforehand, and their re-opening (in the same premises, but vastly expanded and improved) was today. It's now pleasantly reminiscent of one of the small-to-medium-sized Albert Heijn supermarkets in the Netherlands. On the downside, I had to defrost my freezer -- which took a few days, it was really badly iced up -- while the shop was being refitted, so instead of getting dinners from there, I ended up having to order takeout more often in a period of 2 weeks than I normally do in 2 months, which while not unpleasant was a drain on funds. Still, the shop's reopened in a far better incarnation and I have plenty of food in my freezer, so everything's okay now on that front.

Overall, things are just on the good side of average lately. I haven't really been sleeping too well, and I've had some trouble with money, but asides a few instances my mood's been manageable, and I've reasonably enjoyed what I've been doing. Hopefully things will get better, or at least not get worse.