I do believe I have abandoned the blogging side of the web for a while now. I've been too busy with fanlistings and soaking up 'Bleach', my newest obsession now being Renji . My love for anime has come back full force. I can't believe I've watched 180 episodes of Bleach since the beginning of June, and rewatched Gravitation and Elfen Lied! Mwha!

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 16 Aug 2008

This past week has been a nightmare when it comes to computers. I had a new laptop a couple of days back; A Toshiba Satellite A200, a very neat computer. My previous one (another Toshiba) was buggered. All three USB ports had had it. One was so bad, the interior had escaped inside the computer, onto the motherboard. So, with any movement, the whole thing was shorting out. I planned to have it wiped to start afresh anyway, but with such physical problems, decided to just get this fixed as best it could, and get a new one, with working USBs!

So now with a brand spanking laptop, the tedius task of installing my many list of programs. Everything goes fine until Photoshop which refuses to run whatsoever. I came to the possible conclusion that a rogue corrupt file, simply named 'Sample' was preventing it from running. Unable to remove it myself, I took it in the shop for them to do it, save having to pay £200+ for another copy of PS. Lo and behold, once the file is no more, Photoshop is up and running.

Next, while joining a few fanlistings today, I manage to get a corrupt file saved on my computer in the shape of a image code. Try as I might it will not delete, coming up with the message 'being used by another person or program' continually. After trying numerious options (rebooting in safe mode, command prompt, registry editor...) to get rid of the pest, which was causing Explorer to freeze, I manage to delete it.

Hopefully it will behave from now on. I'm shattered! 

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 24 May 2008

I've spent an awful lot of time gardening recently. Been trying to give the garden a makeover, as it's been a bit neglected these past few years. Anyway, added a bit of colour and a variety of plants. Gardening isn't a hobby a know a lot about, but I'm beginning to learn. The weather has been somewhat more tolerable these past few weeks, so lots of time in the freash air

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 03 Apr 2008

So, my stupid horse Buddy somehow manages to slice open his bottom eyelid. Discovering your horse with blood trickling from his eye is not pleasant.  The vet told us that it would not heal alone, so he would require stitches.
Both big boys are brought into the stables for the first time this year. Buddy immediately discovers a salt lick on the wall and his attention is lost. Jamie on the hand goes balistic, trotting round the stable, nearly rearing at the door, and generally making a nuisance of himself.

The vet arrives, and gives him an injection to sedate him. Before long he's twitching all over and my Mum has to hold his head up for him. Anyway, with Jamie in the background screaming his head off, the vet cleans and stitches up his eyelid for him.
After a while, both are taken back to the field (much to Jamie's relief). Buddy was had to be led slowly, still drowsy from the sedative, with the vet holding his tail to help him keep his balance, which was quite humourous really. He didn't half milk the sympathy vote afterwards though, in typical Buddy-style.

Last Sunday, I recieved an email in the morning, with the offer of a guinea pig which needed a home nearby. The place was an absolute dump, making a third world nation look desirable. A little girl was brought to us from a horrid hutch in a garden used as a skip. It's so cliche - kid wants pet, kid gets guinea pig, guinea pig loses novelty after few days. She's then passed on to another family member who in turn grows bored. So we had her to join our tribe :) She's lovely, a golden agouti called Belle, though we call her Bluebell. A bit timid, though she has spent the last few months alone in a hutch at the bottom of a garden.

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 17 Mar 2008

With my combined birthday and Christmas money, I've bought myself a new digital camcorder, the Sony DCR-SR35E 30gb Hard Disc Drive Handycam, with up to 15 hours recording time. The 40x zoom on it is absolutely amazing. I can now spy on people at great distance !

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rk9GSDfFEHU

Also, new layout, as the other was getting on my nerves a bit

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 29 Feb 2008

In 20 days, I will be 21. A year ago, the thought would have terrified me, but now, I'm looking forward. My birthday present will be a Nintendo DS. My Mum spent ages trying to get hold of one, as they are out of stock everywhere at the moment (bar Amazon, but they have raised the prices because of the situation, so sod them). Three finally came into stock in our local Argos, and within minutes of going up for reservation on the site, they were gone. Luckily, my Mum was at the right place at the right time, and snagged one. And it was a black one too, the colour I wanted. There was one available in Tesco, but it was pink. I am not a pink kinda girl. Anyway, my Mum went to collect it immediatly, 'just in case', as they are in such demand at the moment, and within the hour, I held my DS in my hand. But I'm not allowed it until my birthday, so I can't wait ^_^. Besides, now I just need a game!

I recently have been busy redecorating... the aquarium! I've put the finished piece up on Rate My Fish Tank. So far it's doing remarkably well, and is at this point in time, rated number 6 out of 148 other freshwater tanks! I'm so psyched by that ^_^ Go see it here. Trying to get a decent photo of the tank is exceptionally difficult with a 15 inch Plec refusing to budge from the front. Nemo really is a buggar!

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 31 Jan 2008

It's taken me a while to get back into blogging, simply because it meant I would have to mention Jack, and although I have come to terms with the fact of him no longer being here, I was unable to bring myself talk about it.

We had to say goodbye forever to our dearest PomPom a few weeks before Christmas. One thing that must be known about him, is that he had mental problems; He was extemely hyperactive and had no fear or sense. Although a pedigree Cairn Terrier, he didn't resemble one in the least. With this, and the mental issues, we believe he probably had some faulty chromosome.

As I mentioned, Jack was overly hyperactive. He was also very friendly, to the point he was anyones. But he also had a short temper which came from nowhere. This occasionally showed through as jealousy towards Rascal; A quick snap at him, and then it was forgotten.

On this particular night though, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, he went for Rascal. He was removed, put in the kitchen and we expected he would calm down and forget as usual. He didn't. The next time he saw Rascal, he completely lost his mind, and aggression and hyperactivity is not a combination you want. Rascal was held up to the ceiling to protect him from being savaged. He would have no doubt been killed. When Jack was finally caught and taken outside to calm down, a tragic and heartwrenching decision had to be made, and my Dad took him that evening.

The whole atmosphere since has been so much quieter without our PomPom hawooing in greeting, and wiggling his bum when he was excited. But, for his own sake, it was for the best.

We love you PomPom. You will always be a part of the family, and never forgotten.

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 06 Jan 2008

http://thethingsiwant.com/eravariel/

Want to buy me a £300 doll? Aw, how sweet of you ^_^

My family have bought me the Wacom Intuos3 tablet for Christmas - I'm so excited. It arrived on Saturday, and got to try it out to make sure everything was fine with it. It's awesome. I cannot wait to get back into my digital art.

Pippin is now an absolute thug. He honestly rules the roost. He has developed obsessions with my Mum's shoes, shredding paper of any sort, paddling in the water bowl, and consequently splashing water everywhere, so you go flying when you walk in the kitchen.
I gave him a (rather useless) bath the other day. Being though he seems to love water (see above), I thought he would love the have a bath. Wrong. He cried and tantrumed until I gave it up as a bad job. After drying him with my hairdryer, making him all poofy, I realised he was no cleaner than when I started. Oh well, I'll try again before Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I put the tree up yesterday. I've bought all new baubles for it, deciding to give it a revamp. So now it follows the same colour scheme as my bedroom; Burgundy, black, gold and cream. And if I do say so myself, I love it!

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 04 Dec 2007

My Dad suprised me yesterday by buying me Assassin's Creed for the Xbox 360 as an early Christmas present. I've been waiting patiently for over six months for it to be released, so I was extremely psyched when I got it early. I'm certainly not dissapointed so far - the graphics are absolutely superb, even more so than Oblivion, and even better than I thought they would be. Thank you Dad!!!

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 18 Nov 2007

Pippin is a little terror, currently playing with a screwdriver he's pinched. Puppies are such a handful. Every puppy we've had, I find myself saying 'never again...!', when my ankles are being chewed, my shoe keeps appearing in random places, the bin is continously emptied, and the ceramic duck which sits on the heath, is apparantly the fluffball's arch nemesis.

Last night, one of my new Mollies, which my Dad bought for my fishtank last week, had babies. When they were discovered, there were five, but there were probably much more to begin with. By this morning, they were no more. So, I'm going to get a net breeder, just in case we have more in the near future. At least give them a chance.

Sakura, one of my guinea pigs, had a stroke yesterday, so she's getting some tlc. She's the third within the past year to have one, previosly with Penny and Evie, who both came through fine. So fingers crossed for Sakura; The next five days a crucial, though at the moment she's doing well.

I started rewatching episodes of Inuyasha, finding myself thrown back into the fandom. Speaking of fandoms, I have strong urge to read some bronzeshipping fanfiction.

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 29 Oct 2007

Jamie, tragically, had to put to sleep on Sunday, the 7th of October, after renal failure. He was just 13, and was full of life, a dog I thought could easily make it to 16 and over, so this came as such a big blow to us all. Even now, over a week later, I cannot believe he's gone. He was such a massive part of our lives; One of our family, and one that will be forever missed.

Two dogs in our lives suddenly felt so little, and the thought of what would happen to one, if something happened to the other was too much to bear. So, the search for a new member of our family began. After failure going up one route to find a Westie pup, we found a litter who were ready for homes elsewhere. Travelling down to see them, supposedly going to have the biggest of the litter of five (four left). Four gorgeous little pups came bounding up to us, and after spending some time playing on the ground with them, one particular boy, the smallest, yet fluffiest, made himself known to me in many ways, and I absolutely fell in love. There was no way I could have walked from there and left him behind. So, on Saturday the13th, little Pippin Bo came home with us.
He's made himself at home straight away. Rascal positivly adores him, and loves playing with him. Jack, the gung-ho dickhead, is scared of the tiny, white monster, and bolts off when he goes near, Pip on his heels. Quite humourous to watch!

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 16 Oct 2007

My 13 year old Westie, Jamie is currently ill in the veterinary hospital. He's been there for three days, with pancreatitis. He had been really sick before, refusing to eat, vomiting anything he did, and had a very bad reaction to valium he was given, so for the sake of keeping him alive, he was rushed in and placed on a drip. He's slowly getting better, though the house seems wierd without his big, bear face lurking around. It's the first time in his life he's been away from us, let alone three nights. Hope he can come home as soon as he no longer needs a drip.

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 06 Oct 2007

So I want to 'punk' my little car up a bit. I have a red Toyota Starlet, which is very cute and has a lot of spunk when driving. But it's a bit bare at the moment, and although I have a few window stickers, they just aren't to my taste anymore. So, I've found a whole load I love on eBay (as usual), including a variety of gothic faeries, wolves, and tribal patterns (typical...). Now if I had my way, I'd have them all, except for one tiny problem - I wouldn't be able to see through the windows, which I heard was vital part of driving. So yes, now to narrow it down

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 30 Sep 2007

I'm so pleased that I had an approval email through this morning for the Gypsy Vanner/Irish Cob fanlisting. It's been one of my wishlist tops for ages ^_^ This is the nearest Buddy will get to having his own fanlisting  

Gypsy King

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 27 Sep 2007

We have a Mitsubishi Warrior. We also have four horses which need constant care, come rain, shine, Summer and Winter. A 4-wheel drive for us is a necessity, to get through mud and snow to the horses, and to carry  a load of hay and other equine belongings. So why, when the car was taken for a trip to the supermarket before going down to the boys, did my Mum come back to find a deliberate, deep scratch all the way across the side, made by a key? The damn car is full of hay, buckets, horse feed, bailer twine and horse rugs. It's pretty obvious it isn't a bloody Chelsea Tractor, driven by career mothers simply to pick their brats up from primary school. This is global warming gone mad, and I now have even less respect for it, than I did before.

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 20 Sep 2007

I'm trying to cut back on the amount of fanlistings I own, just to make them easier to maintain, and to make room for future ones I really want. So, the one that don't mean much to me anymore, and ones I'm not overly passionate about, I've closed. I've gone from 64, down to 41 (which still seems a huge amount o_o). My wishlist seems to have expanded to make up for them though...

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 18 Sep 2007

Yesterday I was wandering around Buddy and Jamie's field, taking photos of random objects, and some sheep in the next field ('Naughty, naughty, those are minion sheepies...!'; My ultimate favourite quote from Overlord - couldn't resist.). I sat down on the grassy bank at the edge of the field to watch the boys get excited for their tea, and I noticed a lump in the middle paddock, which I figured was a rabbit. It just sat there for ages, which I thought was unusual, as most would take flight long before. So I slowly made my over, closer and closer. Still no movement, right up until I was about a metre away. Then I understood, the reason and it broke my heart. There this poor creature sat, eyes closed, and eyelids swollen and sore, irritated by flies, no doubt suffering from the horrendous disease, Myxomatosis. I had to go against very urge in my body, to grab this poor thing to just to something to help. But there's nothing that can be done to help this incurable illness, and it's highly contagious, so with rabbits at home, most certainly a no no. I walked round to his other side, obviously he couldn't hear either, and only then when he caught a glimpse of me through his other eye, did he bolt for cover to the hedgerows. After that I walked around the field, very much choked up.

In other news:
I watched Sleepy Hollow yesterday ; Johnny Depp as beautiful as ever
I bought two, little guinea pig ornaments of eBay, to add to my piggy shrine in the garage (with all the real ones). I've also got a t-shirt for my Dad, for his birthday in a few days: 'Body of a God; Shame it's Buddah'...

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 13 Sep 2007

My newest digital wishlist. I need a new external hardrive. My current one is approx 150GB, with only 2GB remaining. Knowing me I'll soon fill that. So off I go to look for a bigger one. I've ordered online a 500GB Maxtor, which I will pick up later today after seeing the horses. Then comes the task of transferring everything from my current one. Fun, fun, fun! The very first computer we had, back in '95 was a 4GB. I mean, seriously? It seems so pathetic now.

I also need an internal USB hub for my laptop. Two of my three default hubs are buggered, and the third is extremely tempremental.

My third on the wishlist is a digital tablet for artwork. This is more of  'save up for' dream though. I will get one eventually, but I'm not desperate. I have my eye on a Wacom Intuos3 A5. It looks great for my needs.

I was saving up for a macro lens, and a polariser for my Nikon D70s SLR, but that's going to have to be put on hold, as I need the external hardrive and usb hub more urgently

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 08 Sep 2007

Yesterday, it was worming time for my two Shetland ponies, Harvey and Mowgli. The big boys were done a week ago, the same time the shelties were supposed to be done. But that plan went to pot, thanks to Mowgli.
See, Mowgli is a sod of the highest degree. He has... issues. Plus, he's a stallion at heart. Oh yes, he was gelded, but much too late, so he's kept his stallion tendencies. He was dumped as a foal, and left to wander around the countryside and a neaby housing estate, chasing mares out for a hack from a nearby stables. Anyway, he's overcome so much and been tamed up amazingly (well, for Mowgli anyway). But the one thing he cannot abide? Being wormed. You can't give him it directly into his mouth, else he will mow you down, rear, or kick you. And, Harvey cannot be wormed until he's done, else it's pointless. So, begins Operation Worming Mowgli.
Idea number one; mix wormer in his food. Bucket abandonned; Goes to eat Harvey's instead.
Idea number two; put wormer in jam sandwich. Contents of sandwich deliberately wiped off along ground.
Idea number three; cut hole in carrot, squeeze wormer in, feed to unsuspecting pony. Pony suspects and refuses to eat said carrot.
Idea number four; change wormer completely to different flavoured variety, and repeat previous idea, with jam covered carrots...
Bloody Shetlands...

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 06 Sep 2007

I've given the current layout a bit of revamp, and given it a bluer hue. I really love this layout, especially due to the fact it features Malik, so I don't wish to change it yet.
I'm currently obsessed with my new (second hand off eBay) game for the Xbox360, Overlord. Although some things could, in my opinion, be improved (i.e. the graphics), it's pretty amusing watching the minions do stupid antics over and over again!

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 02 Sep 2007

I've decided to finally install a proper blog on Caramel Coated. It's been online for four years, and never had one. Anywho... I can now 'blog' regularly now. Maybe. Hopefully.
I'm very slowly trying to rejuvenate my fanlistings, and so far I've probably done less than a quarter of all 42 of them. I've given my Quilting Bee page a revamp; Tried my hand at some pixeling

Jo gave a piece of her mind on the 31 Aug 2007