Dream Job? Yes please!

Today I was offered my dream job!  No, not the one where I move to Brazil and become the national volleyball team's personal masseuse...

I had my second interview this morning and then had just got round the corner when they rang and asked me to meet them at a restaurant for 'some questions they'd forgotten to ask'.  Which turned out to be a lovely way to get me a coffee and inform me that the job was mine.  I am very excited indeed and can't wait to get started.  I've had a massive smile plastered across my face all day.  On the way home I wound down the car windows and sang along to Status Quo on loud.

I'm on the warpath for some work clothes (I'm used to working in gi pants...), have set up a session with my darling Dad for a set of professional portraits and am in the process of organising some training - which I'm hoping to be knee deep in by the time I start on Monday.

And so, with relish, I can cross off New Year Resolution No. 10.

Pinterest

Having decided today that I really should see what all the fuss is about, I went to the site.

I find myself, disbelievingly, on a waiting list.  LiveJournal and Gmail also used to operate on an 'Invite Only' basis but they swiftly grew out of it.  The fact that they don't give you any further information about how long you might be waiting or WHY you are waiting is just childish and elitist.  The fact that they don't clearly tell you that you're joining a waiting list when you plug in your email address is rude.  I'm told by a current member that they're performing a background check on me - did Pinterest get it's head stuck somewhere during a cavity search on a new 'pinner'?

And all this when it seems that you can bypass the waiting list and background check by having a current user send you an invitation.  Which makes these measures seem pointless, irritating and unnecessary.

I like the idea of Pinterest as I'm into visual media but I find the sign-up process and lack of information disgustingly off-putting.  It puts your back straight up and turns you off.  Social media is about 'right now' and 'easy'.  So far, Pinterest is neither of those things.

At this point, if I didn't feel like I had a professional responsibility to check it out, I would be scrapping the Pinterest idea and refusing to use it.  I actually don't mind and understand being checked out, as social media legal issues are rife at the moment, but the lack of customer care and information infuriates me, especially as it could be so easily added  to the automated email I got...

I shant forget this Pinterest - and you have a lot of making up to do.

And: Someone Else's Opinion

Google and I are getting a divorce over the CDC website.  I knew it couldn't last.

The Tazmanian Jelly

Today has mainly consisted of tweaking and masses of SEO for the CDC website.  Happily, the CDC site is nowhere near as large as the LTMA site so it took considerably less time.

Actually made it to dog club last night, as range was cancelled.  I am going to have to start making sure I go very regularly again as DF wants me and Taz to take our Gold Good Citizens Award in mid-March.  Fat chance.

Taz was not himself at the club last night, very nervy - which is unusual for him as he's normally very comfortable at dog club.  He's spent most of today hiding out under my chair while I've been working.  The weather is very blustery and he doesn't like it.  Have also discovered that he has a fear of bubble wrap.  He is literally Scooby Doo - all stomach and scared of everything.

He's currently sniffing something in his sleep.  I know what comes next: he'll start chasing it, then he'll start chewing it.  Then he'll fart.  I'll be waking him up when he gets to the chewing stage...

Sappy dog.  Just looks like a giant shrew.

Sidewinding

Possibly one of my very favourite ground drills!  Have added a new article, complete with video, to the LTMA blog:

Drills: Sidewinding

Food With Fuss

I caved and got Food Without Fuss it's own domain name.  Have decided to add it to my portfolio for design purposes.  The SEO can go screw itself for now.

Food Without Fuss

Having said that, I'm now desperate for recipes to pad it out a bit as soon as humanly possible...

Have taken the liberty of creating a new blog: The Wedding Ninjas

Very pleased indeed, I received some more items for my weapons collection today!

My brand new bokken arrived, which completes my Red Oak Katana training collection.  The lovely R at Blitz gave me a fantastic tip for getting my Saya (scabbard) to fit my bokken: heat up the mouth of the Saya (don't try this on the Saya for a Katana!) and slide the bokken in while the plastic is hot - makes for a perfect fit.  Bam.

I also got a case for my Nunchaku and a Bo case.  I'm missing a Bo but I have a Jo - I figured buying a Jo case is pointless as both a Bo and Jo will happily live in a Bo case together, whereas a Jo case would be too short.  I'm also short a pair of Tonfa and respective case. I suspect that a Bo, pair of Tonfa and case my well find their way onto the next order...

The weapons section of the Blitz catalogue is undoubtedly my favourite part of the website.  I really could do with a pair of metal Kama for display purposes (soon my pretties, soon...).  J has promised to import me a sexy handmade, folded Katana from Japan.  I can foresee me a Customs butting heads over that one.

It seems that Google and I have finally reached an understanding.  Love you Google ;)

I have also launched the campaign for the next extra-curricular training course - Muay Thai.

SEO is swiftly becoming a dirty word in this house.  So is Google for that matter.

Despite the feud Google and I seem to be waging, I had a brand new potential student email me earlier today - apparently he found us on Google.  Hmm.  If complete strangers can find us on Google... WHY CANT I?

Now, when you consider that a third of my exhaust dropped off last night, to say that I had a fabulous evening must go some way to bringing across just how good my evening was.  My official appointment stuff came through at cadets so I got presented with certification in front of the squadron, which was nice.  I also took a group of slightly rowdy cadets for self defence.  I had the genius idea earlier in the week of making little films with slow action replays of the techniques I'm going to teach - that way when it's something I'm not happy demonstrating I can just run the movie.  Worked like a charm.

And then I came home and the exhaust dropped off...  However, when I trotted in I discovered that J had cooked me a special meal and bought me a bunch of roses and carnations.  Just because.  How sweet is that??

He started his new job today and apparently it's going really well.  Unfortunately another big chunk of exhaust dropped off on the way to dropping him off.  He got offered that job at exactly the right moment it seems!

The fabulous RB dropped me off a military belt and a DPM jacket this morning so I'm close to having a full set of greens now.  I just need to tuck pennies away to get myself a pair of boots.

So today I've mainly being working on freshening up the LTMA website and doing some SEO.  Do me a couple of favours?

Check out this page: Ju Jitsu Classes in Leeds. Stay on it for a few minutes and then have a look around the site and admire some of the updates.

If you want to go the extra mile do a link for that page on your blog and use the social media buttons at the bottom to link it onto your Facebook and Twitter etc :)

Google Reader and I are butting heads.  In a big way.  Grrr.

It's amazing how time gets away from you.  I could have sworn it was still 3pm.

Aside from giving J a hand with an endurance race on Gran Turismo and watching the last episode of Star Trek Season One I've been glued to the PC all day.  I actually feel as if my eyes are going square!

Aside from some work on the blog, I've been mainly sprucing up my e-portfolio.  Putting aside all SEO for now, I've given the recipe site a complete facelift and spruced up the CDC site.  Flashier version here: Calverley & District Dog Training Club. The last hour has been spent wrestling with Google Apps to get some domain email addresses up and running.  Just waiting for the MX changes to go through so I can finish up and have some dinner.

I think I'll be giving the LTMA website a facelift as well.  Can't have my flagship website looking downmarket!  SEO will be kicking off in earnest tomorrow.

All hail the internet!

Favicon

Mwahahaha!  I have knocked up and installed a new Favicon for my blog!  Look at the top left of the screen next to the page address.  If it's still showing as the Blogger symbol then clear your browser cache. Here it is in large:

 I've also changed my blog address to something more in keeping with the theme.

Food Without Fuss

Finally got my butt in gear and sorted out my recipe site.  I'm not bothering with SEO just at present as it's more of a convenient recipe archive at present and there are only a few recipes on it.

Anna - you want in on this?  Got a couple of your recipes on here already...

Food Without Fuss

It has been grandly decided that J and I should go on a series of short breaks so as to get away on holiday before the end of the year and not have to close the club.  The choices rather amuse me:

J's choice:  A spa retreat.  Do I have the perfect fiancee?  Quite possibly.

My choice:  Pony trekking on the Brecon Beacons.  J has never sat on a horse in his life!  Despite this he's agreed to go anyway.  I think I'd better get him some riding lessons...

A question of biscuits...

I have never been asked a stupid question in a interview.  But every single time I do interview training they always insist on asking ridiculous questions like: 'If you were animal what would you be and why?'.  Or my personal favourite: 'If you were a biscuit, what kind would you be and why?'.

My answer, by the way, was Malted Milk.  I scored quite low with that answer.  Disgustingly all the philistines who went in armed the cliché "I'd be a chocolate digestive / hobnob because I'm smooth and sweet;" scored highly...

What could be better than a malted milk biscuit?  They're not fussy, don't get sickly with over-exposure, understated, 100% reliable and they have just the right dunking dimensions for your mug.

I do wish that they'd make reverse designs of the cow on alternate biscuits though - so you can stick two biscuits back-to-back and get an entire 3D cow and not a pair of cows performing the 69 maneuver.

Had the fabest day ever yesterday!  Up at the crack of dawn and armed with new haircut I set off to my interview.  Am very pleased with result as have been given a second interview!  Got a text while I was in there (obviously phone was on silent) which was a job recommendation for J.  No less than an hour after my interview finished J had been given a full time job.

Someone must have liked us yesterday as I also managed to negotiate a workable price for LTMA's next Muay Thai course so it looks like we can run that too.

It's been a good week in general to be honest.  Had a great afternoon with RB playing Rebel Star Fighter and Streets of Rage and a decent shoot on Wednesday night.  Biceps are still a little sore but improving.

Had the boiler twiddled last night and discussed some home improvement projects with the landlord, who is, by the way, the best landlord in the UK.  Unfortunately I don't think the twiddling has fixed the boiler so it might be time to go to the mattresses with Vokera.

Have invested in some blank mugs for art day next week.  Mucho excited about seeing all the girls!

So, great Valentines day yesterday.  Normally we ignore Valentines so it was nice to have a change.  We took a picnic to the Royal Armouries and spent the day looking at the very pretty weapons and doing the kids activities including a dragon hunt and petting zoo.  I got to hold a scorpion and made friends with a yellow Burmese Python.

Watched a video on Katana forging and a live demonstration of Katana work also - I'm such a nerd.  Right at the end J treated me to some bolts on the Cross Box range.  I think I prefer a bow or a rifle to be honest but it was good fun.

We ran the class last night and, as expected, got low numbers but I do enjoy having a small class from time to time.  It allowed me to do some really specific work with the students that turned up and I think they all went away considerably more dangerous than they came in.  I'm looking forward to seeing them test their new tricks next week.

We ate very late as I cooked a special meal.  Baked chicken breast stuffed with cream cheese, a selection of roast veggies and stuffed pepper.  Will be adding recipes to website later as they were 100% triumph.  Haven't eaten such a nice meal for a very long time.

Interview prep all day, off to get some practical coaching done later this morning.  Hoping to see RB this afternoon for some fun and games and then shooting this evening.  CO is looking into sending me on Range Management and Skill at Arms Instructor courses.  Life is as exciting as you make it...

Great class today, numbers are filtering back up really nicely now that the blasted snow and ice has gone.  Introduced the sign-up sheet for the Firewalk and it got blasted - I'm going to have to be quite strict about allocating places to other clubs otherwise my students will take them all.  I anticipated it being popular but I didn't think it would be quite so popular.

Now shoulder and pulled biceps have recovered a bit I re-hit the weights again today and did a load of triceps work.  It's unfortunate that the only time I can get to do it is during the warm up because it leaves my arms seriously weak afterwards.  I'm having to rest them on the desk as I type.

Finished off season one of Sherlock with K last night, most disappointed to find that the BBC have already removed season two from iPlayer.  Cracked straight on with Firefly and Oh.  My.  God.  Nathan Fillion is the most lustworthy creature I've ever come across.  Plus the premise is to die for.

ANNA: Please do a tutorial on classic plot writing for Westerns on your blog.  As far as I can tell there are seven basic plots for the genre but a general guide would be much appreciated...

Had my hour of creativity for Creatives Unite last night and cracked on with some double loaded acrylics.  The pictures never do my acrylics justice but in fairness the petals are awful.  Quite happy with the leaves though...

Resisting the urge to stick goggly eyes on them...

Chick:

Fish:

Penguin:

It's been a fairly eventful couple of days...  On the downside our flying day at Church Fenton got cancelled and my trip to the RAF museum got postponed.  I also went hiking with CID and made fabulous progress with my map reading and navigation skills.  I can use a compass!  However, Taz managed to snap a dewclaw which, though not serious, gushed like a nicked artery.

Had a really good morning wandering round town with J and staring at the rodents in Pets At Home.  Very nearly bought Kirk & Spock a Gladiator style arena to do battle in but resisted temptation at the last minute.  I found these particularly funny:

 

The rats had been like that for sometime but the one on top had just shifted - up until I took the photo the rat on the bottom had been wearing the rat on top's testicles as very large, very amusing earings.

Last night I had a group of friends over for dinner and it was lovely to see everyone.  Jay cooked and I made origami place settings - thus neatly fulfilling my origami goal quota.  Pictures to follow.

In other news I have found my missing box of scalpel blades but my flower palette is still evading capture.  It's driving me barmy, it really is.

So last night was Castle night with K but we had a change of scene and watched Sherlock and True Blood.  I'm at a loss for words, I really am.  Between the creativity and comedy (Castle), the primal sexiness with a sweet squishy centre (Eric) and the sheer intelligence (Sherlock) I think I might have found my ideal man.  What I wouldn't give to be the filling in that sandwich...

There's only one course of action, that I can see, available.  I'll just have to become a Mormon and take all three as my beloved concubines.

Yesterday it was clear and now this.  It's melting a bit but I'm assured the roads are grim.  Really hope this doesn't torpedo today's class at LTMA.

Disgustingly we seem to be ankle deep in snow.  Went for snow walkies with K and the mop dogs earlier, which was most entertaining.

Yesterday was fairly crap as days go.  I went to the dentist and did bugger all else.  Today, however, has been an absolute triumph.  Fabulous day at cadets and to top it all off I've been offered a job interview.  The world likes me today.  Fate must have known the snow was coming and was trying to soften the blow...

Spent the majority of today running around HQ in surprisingly warm DPMs.  A full day of shooting was most enjoyable and I even seem to have avoided getting a sore shoulder.  The weight training must be paying off!  Here are a couple of my better target cards from today:

The 97 was a personal best.  All scored by the CO.  Boom.

Thought of a good reason...

Anna, I've found your next Inspirational Wednesday photograph:

You can thank me later...

My latest creations:

The seal was easy and I quite enjoyed making him; the giraffe was a pain in the arse - plus there was definitely some veering off pattern towards the end...

This afternoon was my bi-annual trip to the dentist.  Only a check up but I still managed to get myself worked up to the point of giving myself a headache, which I've been unable to get rid of.  The silly thing is that I really don't have a problem with the dentist and never have.  J thinks I'm associating.

It seems I've managed to book out every weekend in February now - many exciting things to happen in the forth coming month plus new series of True Blood starts day after tomorrow. Guh.  My hormones are screaming and throwing their knickers already...

Ahh Mr Northman, you tick every single box.  There was a much better picture but I couldn't think of a good reason to post it without seeming incredibly immature.  Hour of Creativity tonight.  Though once I get going it'll end up being much more than an hour I suspect.  I will wear a bib try not to drool all over the paper.

Loving the Kirk Jitsu but is practicing in nothing but a pair of red tights really necessary??  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but still:

And from passable Ju Jitsu to, undoubtedly, the worst fight scene ever.  Go ahead, laugh your ass off:

Following my dream the other night I set about trying to decide which I preferred: Kirk's double dropping hammerfist or the Vulcan nerve pinch.  I'll be honest, I was leaning towards the hammerfist because the nerve pinch is fictional.... Until I found this rather fabulous article.  What I really need is to test it on my unsuspecting fiancée a willing volunteer to find out if it's really viable.

In terms of viability testing I think this might be taking it a bit far though:

Seriously though, what I wouldn't give to be able to do this:

I have to admit to being wildly entertained by this picture - which I found on Facebook earlier but will refrain from publishing on my blog in case you have a delicate nature.  I'm warning you though, don't look...

Now that is dedication.  I'm not sure what to though...

Wierd-ass dreams last night.  The bits that are particularly clear:

I was taking some sort of tour of the Enterprise set from the original series of Star Trek.  We all teamed off and got given a Star Trek based quiz to fill out, which naturally I aced.  I got the second to last question wrong and the last question was blank, which concerned me.  Until I found out, to my delight, that the last question would be a fight scene demonstration by my team which we had to choreograph ourselves.

Obviously I was thrilled by the prospect and took charge.  After a lot of umm'ing and ahh'ing about whether I wanted to be Kirk (double hammerfists!) or Spock (Vulcan nerve pinch...) I eventually came to the conclusion that out of the three of us, I was the only one that could breakfall and throw myself about safely and stylishly.  Which meant that I got to be neither Kirk nor Spock and instead had to be the bad guy.  On that disappointing note my subconscious threw the teddy out and I woke up.  Gutted.

Seriously though, what's wrong with me??  And, how beaten do we think I'd get for wearing this on the mat / at competitions: