Category Archives: Random Randomness

Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale Test and the RAADS-R Test

I'm actually enjoying reading through the Musings of an Aspie site. So looking through the Take a Test archives, I saw the post about the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale Test. And I can never resist a quiz. What's surprising is my score:

40(fear) + 44(avoidance) = 84 You have severe social phobia

Umm, I'm pretty sure I'd have known by now if I had severe social phobia?? I'm looking through my answers and they seem as accurate as they can be. But honestly, I don't think this fits. Having said that, it's taken me 13 years to pluck up the courage to finally book an appointment with the dentist, and even that was nerve-racking. Not because I'm scared of the actual treatment -- ha! Now I'm over 18 they can't do anything to me without my permission -- the scary thing was actually booking the appointment in the first place.

(Edit: I have actually since been diagnosed as Anxiety Disorder NOS, because lazy doctor is lazy. Or rather, stingy. But I definitely don't qualify for Social Anxiety.)

I just did this one as well:

The Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised

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Empathy Quotient

The last time I did this, my EQ was 5 🙁

EQ

Your Empathizing Quotient is 9. Baron-Cohen (2003) suggests that this means "you have a lower than average ability for understanding how other people feel and responding appropriately".

Your Systemizing Quotient is 35. Baron-Cohen (2003) suggests that this means "you have an average ability for analysing and exploring a system".

Yes, eat that! I'm almost 2x more empathetic than in 2011! Empathy up 80%!

According to Musings of an Aspie:

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Update on the Home-Made Moisturisers

This is what mouldy cream looks like:

cream-mouldy

Ewwwww.

Well we've had a heatwave recently, and I didn't keep the creams in the fridge, so the Fruity blend cream got mouldy, as did what was left of the main batch of the Forest blend, which I also kept in my room. But the main batch of the Fruity blend is in the fridge, and at the last check there was no sign of mould.

Now the weird thing is, the first ever cream I made, you remember the main batch went mouldy? But I had decanted some into an old cleaned out lip balm tub and kept that in my bag to use at work. Well, I still have that same cream in there and it is not mouldy. That is so weird.

Anyway, shelf life of the creams is about 3 months, and that was with not putting in enough potassium sorbate. I made that last batch in March, and it went off end of June/beginning of July. So that's not too bad.

It's a weird thing though, I made a new batch last weekend, but for some reason the cream is not thickening like it did the first time. That one was a very thick, creamy cream. This time it's a runny lotion, which I don't like as much. And I used the same proportion of water (6 parts) as I did the first time. Weird. Maybe using more EOs does it, or perhaps the citric acid and p. sorbate? No idea.

Also, lesson learned: grapefruit essential oil is way too drying. Leave it out unless you have really greasy skin.

The real takeaway from this is that you should always store these in the fridge.

Cosplay Time! + London Expo (Comicon) 2010 Pics

As promised, here is my little cosplay collection.

Itachi

First up, what was supposed to be Itachi's coat. I got this from Tokyo Toys @ Trocadero:

cosplay-itachinot

Only this is what Itachi's coat looks like, ie he can zip it up to the top:

itachi

And mine doesn't. I'm so sure the display one that I tried on was the proper one. They got this out the back and I never actually opened it until I got home.

cosplay-zetsu

Yeah, I'm sure it's him. Yeah, I was dressed as the freakin' Venus flytrap. Frickin' Zetsu.

Zetsu

Cost me £40 and a lot of regret. I actually want to sell this. I'm taking offers from anyone in the UK.

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What’s the Deal with the Dolls on Sindy.com?

Well I contacted the folks at Pedigree, and it's a case of "You can look, but you can't have!" I'm afraid. It's a shame, because I think these are the best Sindys yet!

Thanks for your email.

I'm pleased to hear that you like the dolls featured on sindy.com - unfortunately these are not available at retail and never have been.

They were produced as OOAK dolls to be used in our style guide updates that we give to our licensing partners.

We are working hard to find a partner in the UK that could sell the dolls so please keep checking back on the website for updates.

Kind regards

Denise Deane

Which would you most like to see? My personal faves are:

Wish there were ethnic minorities in this, though.

London Expo (Comicon) 2012 Pics

Because why not? 😀

expo12-moonis

Moomin stall. So cute!

expo12-cutefood

I don't know why miniature food is so cute. I'm sure people get more excited over miniature food than the real thing.

expo12-kidicarus

Yeah! This dude was the only KI-related thing in the ENTIRE Expo. That's why I'm never going to one again, because they never cater for the smaller fandoms, only the mainstream, which fair enough, they wanna cater to the majority so they can shift their stock, but there might be at least one or two stalls that sell merch from the smaller fandoms, ie KID ICARUS AND ACE ATTORNEY. But no, not even one mention of them. Tokyo Toys is the same.

Anyway I blurred out his face cos I didn't tell him I was gonna post his pic on the intarwebz. He has a Link tattoo.

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Making a 1:12 Scale Loft Bed Out of Paper Mache

Right, here's how I made the loft bed for my dolls' house. To get the proportions, I based it on measurements from my old real-life bunk bed, scaled it down by 12, and made some tweaks.

What you will need:

  • Cardboard, about A3 size, roughly
  • Glue (UHU Power, or PVA will do)
  • Pencil
  • Metal ruler with millimetre measurements
  • Craft knife
  • Cutting board
  • Masking tape and coarse sandpaper, maybe
loft-bedconstructed

PROTIP: In order to make the paper mache stage less fiddly, you could paper mache all the individual components FIRST, then assemble at the end. Alternatively, rather than paper mahce, you could just glue cardstock on to each component, then glue together at the end.

First thing is to make the base of the bed. So measure out some cardboard, 140mm long by 70mm wide. Glue them together, back to back, and allow glue to set.

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Garden Update 27/06/15 — Gallery!

And today we start with a random photo of soaking dried mealworms...

2015-wormdish

Red and yellow aquilegia:

2015-aquilegiared

Here is a photo of a poached egg flower:

2015-limnanthes2

Lamb's lettuce flowers:

2015-lamblettuceflowers

This was the plant that I found a thrip on and chucked outside. Since it seemed to be surviving okay, I planted it in the border and did manage to get a few leaves out of it before it started bolting.

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Stupid Article in Metro About Milk and Milk-Alternatives

Just caught this article by chance, and had many WTH moments. Please excuse typos; I had to manually type it up as it doesn't seem to be published on their site. Full article, plus my observations. No copyright infringement intended, but I have to call this writer out (warning: I get snarky when I lose my patience).

Should we be mooving away from 'filk'?

Fake millks may be fashionable, but are they any better for you than cow's milk, asks Nicole Mowbray.

Stand in the queue in a coffee shop and you're almost certain to hear someone ordering themselves a latte with dairy-free soya, almond, rice, oat or coconut milk. Or as I like to call them, 'filks' (fake milks).

"Filk"... Seriously. And in answer to the first question: yes.

A quick glance at recent statistics shows why. Over the past 25 years, there's been a ten-fold rise in the number of Britons purporting to suffer from food and drink allergies or intolerances (the term given to symptoms of irritation or discomfort, rather than violent allergic reactions). And it's not only adults. In the UK, two in every 100 children have an allergy to cow's milk.

Indeed, lactose or other milk intolerances are not to be sniffed at. GPs agree that, for some, dairy products contain some allergenic elements. Alongside lactose, the naturally occurring protein casein can also cause bloating, stomach discomfort, vomiting and sinus issues.

... and what else?
http://www.livestrong.com/article/257495-casein-protein-dangers/
http://nakedfoodmagazine.com/casein-and-cancer/

Cancer, potentially. You forgot to mention cancer.

These issues go some way to explaining why sales of milk have fallen by 30 per cent over the past 30 years. In comparison, the consumption of substitute milks is soaring, up 17 per cent in the past year alone, with the market being valued at £139million.

Except you forgot to mention that there are plenty of other reasons for giving up dairy, not least the fact that the dairy industry inflicts extreme cruelty on the dairy cows and goats.

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Hand-made Moisturiser Update

I was meant to post an update to the state of my home-made moisturiser a while ago, but I just forgot, on account of spending most of my time covered in paper and glue.

So what happened?

Well, my main batch, surprisingly enough, went mouldy. Remember, this was the batch I kept in the fridge. However, it was mouldy only on one side, which seemed to be the bit where I had last scooped out my replenishment batch. The rest of it was fine. Also, the smaller batch I kept in my room, which had my fingers dipped in it at least twice a day, showed no signs of mould, neither did the smaller container which I kept in my bag for use at work.

So I guess it was in fact the Continue reading →

New Project: Paper Mache Dolls’ House (Merged Posts)

(I've merged several posts, because I'm sick of this dumb project. I should have made it in 1:24 scale or smaller. Seriously, I overcomplicated this project so much, what a 鈍臭い)

I've mentioned before how much I want a dolls' house. Not a toy one — I do have one of those, although don't ask how that came to be — but a proper collector's one. And though I could afford to buy one, having more money than sense, I can't justify spending £1000s on one (have you seen how much the furniture costs?), especially when you can make a real-life house for £150.

In any case, I still want one. I've actually been planning on making a paper mache tower for YEARS now. There are long panels of cardboard festering away behind my wardrobe, for seriously. But I never did get round to it. So a few weeks ago, I felt like I wanted to get on with it, so I looked up paper mache dolls' houses online to see if anyone else had done it. And I came across only one site that mentions it, and that's lolasminihomes. Looking at that, I learnt some tricks to making my dolls' tower, only now I am more ambitious. Why make a tower when you can make a restaurant? Heck, why make a teeny-tiny restaurant when you can make a BIG restaurant with LIVING QUARTERS above? You see, I never do things by halves — and then set myself up for disappointment, because I always get bored halfway through and give it up. So how far do you reckon I'll get into this project before I get bored?

The other problem with doing such a big building is WHERE THE HECK AM I GOING TO PUT IT? My room is already jam-packed and it doesn't help that I have to share it with my two idiots -- I'm talking about my birds.

Birds who will also mess all over my dolls' house, meaning even if I do find space for it in my room, it will have to stay covered all the time just to not resemble the bottom of their cage (seriously, they can projectile poo, it's crazy).

Anyway, just to bring this whole blog back on topic, I used Sims 2 to plan out a basic design, so here it is:

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