So it’s been an entire week since I last posted and I’ve been fairly busy during that time. As always work has taken up the majority of my time (thank goodness things seem just about back to normal), and the rest has been taken up by sleep, traumatising trips to Leeds, watching Green Wing, and hoovering the new sofas a lot (because I appear to be allergic to them - don’t ask). So I got all the way to 21:30 this evening before I could actually do something about this week’s diary task, which is “Let Benrik Stamp Your Passport Week”. A pretty simple concept really - you send your passport to Benrik and they stamp it and send it back to you. This was going to be a task that I planned to miss. Aside from the horror of anyone seeing my passport photo, there is the obvious question of safety in posting my passport off, and more importantly the fact that in stamping it my passport would become invalid before I have even had a chance to use it for anything other than ID. But not wanting to entirely miss the first task, I have (as always) improvised by making a passport to send to Benrik (it will be winging its way to them first thing tomorrow). And, if I do say myself, it is a work of genius.

This week’s task has also made me realise, rather sadly, that I have had my real passpport for almost a year now, and haven’t taken it abroad yet. This in itself wouldn’t be so sad if it wasn’t for the fact that after a few brief calculations I’ve realised that it’s been 10 and a half years since I’ve been abroad anywhere (unless you count the Republic of Ireland, which was a day trip, and that was 9 and a half years ago anyway). So an extra new years res - To use my passport for the purpose it was actually intended before the end of the year.

And with this week’s task done and dusted I’m ready to move on to my next task, which is both one of the easiest and most difficult tasks so far. Next week is “Knock On Every Door You See Week”. Physically a very easy task. I can either knock on hundreds of doors, walk about with my eyes closed, or just stay at home all week. Practically though it’s going to be a little difficult for several reasons. Firstly because I must pass at least 700 houses on the way to and from work every day, and I barely make it in on time even when I don’t have to knock on any doors. Plus EVERY door? Including cars, trains, toilets, catflaps, attics, lifts??? I’m also thinking it highly unlikely that everyone staying at the Hilton in London on Thursday night would really appreciate me going round introduing myself at all hours. So again, could be a bit of an improvisation thing this week… more on that later in the week though.

In the mean time it’s way past my bed time, so I shall bid you all adieu for now.

Over all mood rating: Happy as Larry.

PS. For those of you pedantic enough to notice, I know that the pic at the top of the blog still shows last year’s diary. I’ll get round to it eventually ;).

Thank god it’s finally all over! Tomorrow I can go back to work knowing that everyone will be a million times happier than they have been the last fortnight, and possibly a little bit less insane! I hope you all had a good couple of weeks whatever you were doing.

Last week’s task as you will all know was “All or Nothing Week”. Saturday was my only day off, and when I dragged myself out of bed I found a whole £17 in my wallet (sooooo glad it wasn’t more), so I immediately went out and bought:

4 goes on the lottery (2 were lucky dips)

2 goes on Thunderball (1 lucky dip)

11 scratchcards (higher odds of winning with the scratchcards)
To try not to seem too weird I bought them a couple at a time from different shops. Then I went home, scratched away and waited for the lottery draw. You’ll be pleased to know that I won! I admit that ony 1 scratchcard won me a prize, and I didn’t win anything on the lottery, but I won!. And here’s the proof:

So… only 1 new year’s resolution this year. I’ll be giving up gambling. And that also means that I’m done with this year’s (well, last year’s now) diary tasks. I’ll probably post later in the week about the first 2007 task. In the mean time I’ve been having a look back at some of the tasks I’ve done this last year. I think my favourites were the sell yourself for sexual favours, and the kidnap yourself and demand a ransom tasks. The task that I most wanted to do but couldn’t was the running away task. I know I didn’t manage to complete all the tasks, and that a lot of them I had to use my imagination a little, but I can’t deny that I had fun doing them. Has the diary changed my life? Well, not drastically, but I’m actually incredibly surprised at how generally happy I’ve been this year looking at my mood rating scale. I haven’t once been pissed off, mad as hell, deeply depressed or suicidal. Plus, it’s been good to occasionally do something daring or out of character.

So on with the the new year, the new diary and the new tasks. And for my faithful blog-spectators, Happy reading!

Over all mood rating: Over the moon

This week is “All or nothing week”. The chance to live the American dream, to believe that if you want something enough you can make it happen… through gambling everything you have. House, car, boat (or in my case Hamster of Doom, toe socks and Colin the bike). The small amount of cash I have is unfortunately (or fortunately) locked away in a postal ISA, and the task will be well and truly over by the time I can get that out to gamble it, especially with christmas post and bank hols. Also I only have 1 day off this week, which doesn’t leave me much time for gambling. What I will do however, is gamble all the money that is in my wallet on Saturday morning (my 1 day off). I’m currently unsure what tactics to use, as I’m a bit scared of going into a bookies, especially since I haven’t a clue how they work, and they’re generally full of weird old men. Chances are that I may just fritter it all away on scratch cards and the lottery, despite knowing that my odds are far more favourable on something like horses. I will however be looking for other opportunities to make bets during the week, and as always will keep you posted. I hold out little hope really though. About 2 weeks ago I was given the advice “He who dares, wins”. I followed it. I did not win (I also didn’t get the lovely present I was promised as a consolation prize *cough*). But hey, it’s the last tasking week of ‘06 so I may as well get it out of the way now and put it all down to experience.

Other than tasking life has been pretty samey this week - too much christmas telly, too many twiglets, and a couple of Irish coffee’s to wash it down with (well JD coffee’s if you’re going to be pedantic, but I make an awsome liquer coffee even if I do say so myself). Needless to say my advent calendar surprise christmas gift in window 25 was a wash out. If anyone would like it, give me a shout - you’ll have to take the gamble as to what you’re getting ;). On the bright side I am now booked up for my trip to London, and feeling particularly pleased at the fact I shall be travelling 1st class in both directions and staying at the Hilton (how posh am I??). Only 2 weeks away :D. And that’s about it for now. It’ll probably be a few days til I next blog - I’ve had about 10 hours sleep in the last week (or it feels like it at least), so I’ll be catching some Z’s when I’m not at work for the next few days. Ciao for now.

Over all mood rating: Over the moon. 

I think you’ve all firmly established that Christmas has already been and gone for me without much event. I appreciate that for most of you it’s probably still in the process of happening now though. You’ve probably also gathered that I’m not a big fan of the whole thing. In fairness though, it’s mainly the commercialism and the hype that I dislike. That and the fact that you’re “supposed to” act and feel a certain way. In principle though I’m not against all aspects of Christmas. So I’d like to take the opportunity to wish all of my friends the best today and throughout next year, and I hope that whatever you’re all doing today and whoever you’re with (or not with), that you’re happy. And I hope (for the sake of not wanting to be a hypocrite) that I remember that I should be expressing that sentiment more than once a year - I’d be nowhere without my friends.

Whatever you’re all up to, have a good day

Over all mood: Fine, thank you. 

Well, that’s Christmas out of the way for another year. All 2 of my presents have been bought, given & unwrapped. All 10 of my cards have been written & sent. My family have been and gone,  and I even saved on the effort of having to take decorations down in a week’s time by not bothering to put any up. I’ve also bought my traditional Christmas dinner (Pot Noodle, sizzling bacon flav) ready for Christmas day, which I will be eating at work (whilst getting paid triple time to surf the net). Roll on the New Year. The best thing is that for the next month everything I want to buy will be at knocked down prices, and it’s almost another 2 months before I need to think about another depressingly commercial universal celebration. Things are starting to look up. I’m also half way to sorting out my next venture to London at the start of next year, to meet up with some of my old Moderator friends (old as in long time not as in age). Should be a fun trip, although I shall not be drinking large quantities of sambuca like I did when we last met up. Actually, who am I kidding - of course I will :D. I can’t wait.

Well that’s about all I can be bothered to say for now (since it’s nearly 1.30 in the morning and I have to go to work tomorrow). Unfortunately it’s still a no-go on this week’s diary task, but I shall at least in part be attempting next week’s task, so tune in for more about that later. And if I don’t speak to any of you before, Have a great Not Christmas.

Over all mood: Orgasmic (oh lala!).

There are many things I hate about Christmas. Here are some of them:

1) The fact that peer pressure forces you to spend money and time buying and writing hundreds of christmas cards to people you barely know and/or don’t realy like, most of which will only contain the entirely impersonal message “To (name), from (name)”, and bear absolutely no sentiment whatsoever. Why bother when you can actually go up to people and say “Happy Christmas”, which even if you don’t mean it shows slightly more sentiment and takes less effort and money than writing a card?

2) People who call Christmas “X-mas”. How can Christmas be shortened to X-mas? Surely it would become Crossmas? And since both have the same number of syllables, it’s not even quicker. And if the trouble lies with spelling it correctly, maybe just ask for a dictionary for X-mas this year, eh?

3) Christmas presents. I’m not saying that no one out there ever gets a present they really want for Christmas. I’m not even suggesting that “the thought” doesn’t count. What I’m saying is that 99% of the time people haven’t got a clue what to buy each other and end up settling on something last minute that’s either complete tat *cough* accordion *cough*, or something that’s ok, but not actually something you want and is completely impersonal (ie yet another Terry’s chocolate orange). I’d actually rather get nothing than get something that was clearly the free part of the 3 for 2 offer at Boots and was given because “it’ll do since I don’t know what to get”. Nothing says ” I love you” or ” you’re a great friend” less than a present that took no thought. And lets face it, if you really care about someone, why express it only on set days of the year (christmas, birthday, valentines etc)? You should do it all year round and with out the need for expensive gifts and silly rituals.

4) Advent calendars. Just another excuse to get kids over excited and hyped up on sugar way before the actual event. Most chococolate advent calendars have chocolate that tastes of cardboard, and lets face it if you actually melted all the chocolate together it wouldn’t even equate to half a dairy milk bar. So basically that’s £2.99 wasted on a bit of cardboard with a load of holes in it. And is there anyone under the age of 20 in the UK today who actually knows what “Advent” actually means? I doubt it.

On the plus side there is one thing I do like about Christmas. Christmas Parties. Or more specifically the chance to legitimately get wasted, act stupidly, and then deny all knowledge of it without it affecting your reputation. Now I know that for some people this ritual is more of a weekly than an annual thing, but still, if you do it at Christmas you’re no longer a rowdy drunk, but just someone demonstrating Christmas spirit. I like that. I demonstrated a lot of Christmas spirit at my work Christmas party this year. And for the sake of the people I work with, thank god that Christmas only comes once a year.

Humbugs and rowdiness aside, I have now bought next year’s diary in readiness for tasking in 2007. Having a quick flick through there are a fair few tasks that I just will not be able to complete, but I will do my best where I can. What I may do if I have time is complete some kind of self appointed task in it’s place. I guess we’ll just have to see how it goes. As you’ll know I was also unable to complete last week’s task, and it’ unlikely that I’ll manage to complete this week’s task, which is “Ruin Santa’s Reputation Week”. I think he’s done that for himself anyway though. Let’s face it, he’s a dodgy old bloke that only comes once a year, and when he does it’s down your chimney. He sneaks around little kids rooms late at night and empties his sack in people’s stockings, then eats all your food and leaves without saying anything. Do I really need to go on?

Anyway folks, that’s all I have time for tonight. I’m sure I’ll be back and full of the joys of Christmas after my Christmas shopping trip tomorrow - I can hardly wait.

Over all mood rating: too rude to publish.

This week is “Volunteer for a medical experiment week”. Unfortunately all the experiments I’ve looked for either don’t happen this week, or wouldn’t accept me due to age sex or health restrictions. Oh well!

And that’s really all I have to say right now since I’m still sulking about Christmas. I wish it would just go away :(.

Over all mood rating: OK. 

Yes, I know it’s been ages again since I last wrote - it’s been a combo of being busy, re-reading the LOTR books, and being in a sulk about Christmas (but lets not go into that right now). Also, there’s been very little to write about diary-wise - the last couple of tasks (and the next few come to that) aren’t really anything I can actually take part in.

Just to catch you up…This week’s task is “Talk like a baby week”. I can’t really take part in that task while I’m at work, and there’s just no point taking part in it at home by myself. Last week’s task was “Go dogging as a Jehova’s Witness week”. This I would happily have given a go if I had access to a car and knew anywhere that it was taking place, so again another failure. The week before last was “Obey your elder’s and betters week”. Unfortunately I was too busy to email nursing homes for career and love life advice so that fell by the wayside too.

This does though bring me back to a point from my last post, which was a task that I missed but was able to catch up with later on. You’ll be pleased to hear that I have at least now completed November 6th-12th’s task, which was “Make a shrine about someone you don’t know but see on a regular basis, then show it to them”. I liked the idea of this task because I’m very nosy and because I work in a big office where there are lots of people I don’t know very well. The problem was that I just couldn’t narrow it down to just one person, so I came up with a great idea to get round all the people I don’t know very well. We have a newsletter type thing that gets emailed out every fortnight at work. It’s full of completely useless articles about boring work stuff, so I decided to liven it up a bit. I got myself a regular article in the newsletter called “People I Don’t Know Much About” (see, I didn’t even try to think of a catchy title or anything). Every issue I pick 2 people I don’t know, find out some stuff about them from other people and then ask them a load of really pointless questions about themselves, and it gets published. As we speak the second article has gone to press, so that’s 4 people out of the way. And surprisingly people seem to think it’s a good idea and don’t seem very phased by the pointless questions or the fact that I’m asking stupid questions when I don’t know them. And not one person has questioned where or why I came up with the idea. So I feel that the mission has been well and truly accomplished for this task (and maybe makes up slightly for my poor efforts in the last couple of weeks). The biggest accomplishment in all this is that I actually now have an appointment with the Group Operations Director at work (one of the really big cheeses in the company), to interview her for the newsletter. I’ll be asking her questions such as:

* If you ran away to the circus, what act would you join?

* How much money did the Tooth Fairy pay for your teeth?

* What are the current contents of your pockets?

So that’s the tasking up to date for now. Other than that the only other news is that I met up with some of my Habbo chums last week. It was great to see everyone again, just a shame I had to get up early for work the next day, otherwise it could have been a wild night. I guess York isn’t really the greatest place for a wild night out!

Anyway, I guess thats’s all I have time for right now. I’m afraid that my next few posts may be a little devoid of task related news. Right, bed time for me!

Over all mood rating: Fine, thank you. 

This is just a quick post really - been busy/lazy the last couple of weeks and haven’t really had the time or the energy to post. Also due to my poor timing I am behind on one of my tasks & I think it’ll be better to catch you up with it once I’ve had time to complete it (because it’ll make sense as to why I had to do it late then).

As for this week’s task, it is “Obey and Respect Your Elders Week”. Possibly one of my harder tasks, although I’m sure it won’t be long before people start making old jokes about me, so maybe I should start being a bit nicer to to my friends who have just turned 29 (for the 7th year in a row) *cough*. I also completely refused to do last week’s task out of principle. It was “apply for a job that’s beaneath you week”. I could have applied for lots of jobs that I don’t want and think I could get, but I firmly believe in not biting the hand that feeds you. I have had to apply for plenty of jobs that I though were beneath my in my time when I was short on cash, and I seriously respect the people that do them and do them well. Plus if I’d never applied for a job that I once thought was beneath me I’d never have the job I have now, and I love my current job.

Anyway, really that’s all there is to tell right now - no news on the horizon this week, although next week may be more exciting (or more alcohol fuelled at least with any luck).

Ciao for now.

Over all mood rating: Fine, thank you! 

Last task for the week:

“Go to bed and sleep for a month”

No need to tell me twice

Over all mood rating: Orgasmic