Hah! I get First Post!

(It's a Slashdot/User Friendly thing. Never mind.)

Ah yes, but if we were to follow the boards from Ain't It Cool News, then the first fifteen people will all scream "I'M FIRST" and then slag off anyone else who the completely biased computer system happened to post first rather than them ... so, er, I"M SECOND ... ;) ... and wonder if Null Space will ever (re)turn to a Null Smurf?

hellooooo????? anybody here????? ill have a gin and tonic, please.

you know, if i spent the same amount of time reading the vid store clerk script that i do posting to peoples boards, i, well.... would have read it all by now.

i should post in my own blog again.

It amazes me that there are so many of us with little blogs and little message boards and little posts on other little boards and blogs.

Makes you think, duznit?

Oi Spicer! Make mine a double Gin if you will?

of course.


lemon?

NATHAN PUNCHED ME IN THE FACE LAST NIGHT!

What? For real? Is this some kind of 'Fight Club' thing you're not allowed to talk about?

haha, nah, it was an accident. its on my blog.

still gonna kill him tho.

*reads Patricks blog*

Oh, I see.

Ouch.

And while I posting to my own message board - Tama, Null Spaces are where Null Smurfs live. ^_^

If a Null Smurf lives in Null Space where would a Null Gargamel or Azreal live? I mean, Gargamel's anti-smurfishness incarnate, so must be anti-null-smurf, so is he the same whether a null or normal smurf is involved or he just bad-null, like a black whole of smurfalicious size?!?

It only just occured to me reading this message board that Patrick is the friend I have most likely to join an actual Fight Club. And apparently real Fight Clubs exist.

funny you should mention that...!

back in the days, which i refer to semi-lovingly as 'the metal years', we entertained the idea of forming our own FC for quite a while, until the fascination with the film eventually wore off.... after about 2 years.

i actually saw a bunch of guys do it once. scary stuff.

Just testing, 1, 2, 3......
Got there at last, sorry of hassles, but this modern Technology ??!!!!
Managed to visit your bank on Monday, HappY Birthday, Early, and happy spending. Also at long last got the booK, Stupid White Men. Very interesting, certainly gets you thinking, dad not very impressed. Have a very good trip, love you heaps, see you when we see you.

Mum

OK. Now my Mum is posting on my blog.

Bwahaha! Now how cool and hip does your blog seem?

Now, the bear thing. Of course, most who know Kate and I will know that my bear is far more widely travelled than I am, and has seen snow, whereas I have not. The little bastard is off to Singapore with Kate fairly shortly, and once more he's refusing to take me with him.

What sort of world is it where your teddy bear has more fun than you?

Hahahaa!!! Your mum's on the board now! Now you can't say anything for fear of getting in trouble. Haaa!!!
   ...hi, Simon's Mum. :-)

i think one of the funniest instances of this sort of thing happened to me when my mum signed the guestbook on my big, evil, heavy metal band website for The Fallen.

ROCK AND... oh, hi mum....

You're right Simon, Changi airport is impressive.

It's always tempting to look at the price of digital cameras in Singapore... the only issue is whether you've got any warranty coverage in Oz. Although, if the savings are so good, and those savings could be used to buy a replacement camera in nn months, or y years time (depending on how long the 1st one lasted). It's all risks I guess.

(BTW this LCD is cool... you should get yourself one)

If you think Changi is impressive, then you'll be blown away by the shopping plazas in Singapore, 8 stories each of just electronics, or cameras etc. They'll usually sell you an international warranty with electronic goods.

Anyway, I'm eagerly awaiting Simon's visit to Cambridge in the latter half of his trip. There's a saying (OK, I'm making this up) that if you have a day or two to visit Oxford or Cambridge, visit Cambridge, but if you have a lifetime, go to Oxford:).

how does he do it? how is he making more blog entries NOW than he did before he left?

the mind boggles....

perhaps he has a blogger chip in his brain that prevents him from going anywhere without posting to his blog...

I love Changi Airport, I've spent many many hours there. You can never get bored, they have string quartets in one corner and brass bands in the other, free cinemas, internet, food, bars, a train, the list in endless.

The last time I was there, shortly after 911 there was a unsettling number of army guys with big guns, which was a little unsettling.

On the onther hand KL airport is teribble, don't go there.

The new KL airport, or the old one? I travelled through the old one 5 1/2 years ago, and it was almost as modern as Sydney International... (which is a disgrace IMHO - especially the Qantas Domestic Transfer Lounge).

Anyway... enough on airports... soon Simon will landing at one of the largest on the planet. We'll see what the the blog has to say about that soon, I'm guessing.

lets hope its not 'HEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLPPP!!!!'

The airport at Abu Dhabi (Sp?) is particularly impressive, because the departure lounge is a torus. It's like waiting several hours on the inside of a doughnut that's been decorated with an ugly blue mosaic.

Yo Simon dude! Sorry I missed sending you a farewell SMS but I had a couple of health issues to deal with. Have a great trip, and I hope this whole urinating at 11500 metres doesn't become a fetish with you!

It's those parent's again, looking to see what you're up to. Glad to hear that you arrived in one piece at least, and that Kevin is about to make you a fit hunk of a guy. Hi, Kevin hope you too have a great time and no doubt lots and lots of talking will take place. (if I know you two well enough). You must have had withdrawal symptoms being away from a computer for at least 24 hours methinks. Hope you have great time with Daniel as well. We will keep logging on and catch up this way rather than trying the phone (unless real urgent)
Keep walking there's lots more to cover yet.

Hamblys is indeed an enormous toy shop. They built one that was bigger in Singapore, but it looks like Toys'R'Us, so in my opinion Hamblys rocks the most.
   And of course in your absence, Murdoch Uni made the weekend West for being the number one site for file piracy among students in Western Australia. Wheee!!!

Only number 1 for P2P file sharing traffic.

To presume our students are illegally copying files... is probably right.

I would like to see the WAIX stats for P2P traffic amongst the ISPs. The single out the Uni sector in WA I think is unfair, when a majority of the traders a connected in the WAIX space. (AFAIK)

Glad you've got good weather. It's been on the wet and windy side here.

Never went to Hambly's myself, though have been in the London Harrods, but long long ago.
Hope you've got comfortable shoes.

That P2P piracy story in the West really was another one of those pointless, scandalously written stories about something inherently obvious. "Poor university students with oodles of spare time, an interest in film and pop music and access to the internet are downloading films and pop music!" Well, duh.
   Weirder news story from the weekend was finding out that I actually know the technical director of Kazaa Lite.

Just a quick note for you, Simon, in case you read it in time. Longleat just announced that they are shutting down their Doctor Who exhibition on November 2nd, so this is probably your one and only chance to see it,

and now for something completely different:

grant, devin townsend is playing on the 3rd nov, so THIS is your only chance to see THAT.

Very quickly:

Shoes aren't as comfortable as I thought, I will get to Longleat. Russ, I hope you get better. Grant, you should answer your phone more often.

Onwards to Dover!

Hi Simon,

Just discovered this blog from the link off "Angriest" while home sick from work.

Commisserations on moving house - having had all my stuff shipped over on the 10th Sept, I can entirely empathise: "my life is in boxes". Glad it's not just me who finds it a pain.

England sounds like a huge adventure. Favorite bits of London: the National Gallery (art to Van Gogh), the Tate Gallery (the Preraphaelites, Blake), the William Morris Museum. What else? York Minster (Cathedral) is gorgeous, as is the town. Hadrian's wall.

Have a fabulous time,
Lily

Hello Lily,
Welcome to the Simon - Grant - Patrick cross referencing forum. To fully follow this conversation you must read all three blogs and discussion boards.

I hope your feeling better after your day off.

Cheers,
BBLB

I want to be in England tooooo. I have never visited any of the "royal residences" as I don't believe in handing over any of my hard earned to leeches on the community coffers (republican? Moi??), however I have been to The Tower twice as I found it fascinating.

If you get the chance Simon, visit the Observatory at Greenwich. Having seen Longitude on the telly, I now want to visit the place again. Amazing!

There was a Dr Who exhibition at a gallery in Stirling, Scotland while we were there. Unfortunately the gallery was closed on the one day we had in Stirling! Bugger.

Pamela, bouncing between discussion boards like a ball in a pinball machine.

Geez. I gotta make my blog more interesting again.

I remember when my board was the forth in this cluster. BTW Patrick, which was the fifth you mentioned?

Apparently it's easy to make your blog more interesting. Just go to another country.

Yo dude. just wait. I'ver heard that some of these quaint little roads can be single lane. I'm feeling better, mostly. Wish I could come down with a minor temporary ailment for a change, though.

And John, what's wrong about writing lots about little things?

Hi Simon

I’m sure you won’t die. If you survived driving back from Terracon half asleep, you’ll survive anything.

Another chalk hill carving worth seeing is the white horse. There are several - I saw one out the window of a train in the north of England which was quite impressive. The most famous one seems to be the Uffington white horse.

The Uffington white horse can be found 1.5 miles due south of Uffington village on the Berkshire downs (although now in Oxfordshire). It is situated facing NW near the top (at approx. 800 ft) of a very impressive steep escarpment below the Ridgeway long distance footpath, Whitehorse hill and the Saxon hillfort of Uffington castle and above Dragon hill. There is convenient parking nearby at Woolstone hill and at Whitehorse hill. This high locale makes the horse difficult to view from close quarters (although it can be seen quite well from some parts of the B4507), it is seen rather better from most areas of the Vale of the White Horse.

The best view is undoubtedly from the air, but lacking aerial capabilities the best view is from about 1 mile to the North, although the view from Dragon hill is not bad. It is also the largest of the horses being some 374 feet in length and 110 feet in height, constructed of trenches which are 5 to 10 feet in width and 2 to 3 feet deep and filled with chalk, this is a few feet above the natural chalk of the hill. The horse is in excellent condition being maintained by the National Trust.

There seem to be many white horses about the England, Emma can no doubt recommend more.

I highly recommend staying in Youth Hostels – they were clean and inexpensive, with kitchens to cook in, and the people staying in them were friendly, lots of people starting conversations in the kitchens or common areas. Most people I met seemed to be Australian nurses or physiotherapists – I even ran into a friend of Palenque’s from Perth. There were a few Americans, Canadians and British people as well.

Have a great time.

"I remember when my board was the forth in this cluster. BTW Patrick, which was the fifth you mentioned?"

fifth board? is that what you mean? im lost. brain melting..

Maybe me just reading stuff into it, but on the Angriest board you made the following observation:

"I quite like the multi-messageboard thing we have going here. its like going on five little journeys instead of one. and we get to make other people read the crap we post in our own blogs..."

And so I got a bit confused. Was hoping there was ANOTHER Blog/MSGBoard that I could go and substitute for a life.

ah yes yes, of course. well, lets see, theres yours, mine, grants and simons, and pamelas, who i met at noises off, but was apparently too engrossed in lines of groupies to notice anything.
so thats....FIVE! yes, my god, i can still count! rocket science here i come!!!!!

Well, I seem to have started one. Can't guarantee interesting though, certainly not rivalling Simon's at present but if you want to peek it's at http://ariaflame.blogspot.com/

There are indeed single lane roads in the UK though even the fast drivers tend to be a little more cautious there since if you meet a car coming the other way one or other of you has to back up to the nearest passing bay. I haven't been in the UK for a while but remember running into them when my family was visiting friends in Plymouth when I was young.

I'm pretty sure Simon will survive british roads though. :)

Re driving in the UK - some of the B roads are pretty scary. Scenic but. I had to reverse back over a single lane bridge in Devon to avoid hitting an elderly gent in a car coming in the opposite direction.

I also got very lost in Cornwall, circled Exeter a few times and ended up where I'd started.

Blatant plug for my blog, as mentioned in despatches, possbert.blogspot.com

Ah. Haven't hit Pamela's blog yet. Will remedy immediately.

Elaine. I have officially posted on your board (linking another victim into our net of intrigue) and liked across to yours from mine.

another one? the fun never ends!!!

And Lily joins us I see, though I'm not sure what she means by my topic link not working, it seems to be working fine and so is Pamela's, possibly a quicktopic glitch, it does occasionally seem to do so, but a quick back and forward or reload usually fixes it.

29.9.03 Just to say hi! and yes Jim and Diane had told me about the lanes or so called roads and how only just one fits at a time. Weather has been lousy here so hope your end is keeping up to fine. No doubt you will be in Cambridge soon seeing Daniel. Hope you keep safe and stop the chanting it doesn't help, so Jim tells me.

Driving in England is a real experience--all those roundabouts instead of traffic lights. When I was there in 2000(?), I had this roadmap of the UK in which all the motorway offramps were misnumbered. It seems they added in a couple more offramps, then renumbered them all from the start, so that offramp nos 36-152 became offramp nos 38-154. What a schmozzle.

See if you can't get to the east coast sometime. In between Bridlington and Beverley there's traffic lights in the middle of nowhere, to let the jet planes from the RAF base through. Humber Bridge is a real treat to cross. As a passenger, I managed to eat my entire MacDonalds meal in the time it took to cross the bridge (and no, it wasn't busy, just looooong), and then get enough time after that to get bored.

Go check out York, though. Fantastic place.

Sorry, wasn't MacDonald's but the UK local version... err, Burger King or something.

Ah, English roundabouts! Hours of amusement for the whole family. There's one near Cirencester which is one huuuuuuuuge roundabout with several smaller roundabouts inside it. It looks terrifying and really makes you wonder about the sanity of the designer. I suspect it was really supposed to be just one large bugger but the architect kept putting his cup of tea on the plans, leaving rings that were misinterpreted by the road builders.

Ring roads in English cities can also mess up your day. Guildford has one and while the town is quite small, it's close enough to London for the inhabitants to drive as though they're in a big city. We went round that road a few times before I bit the bullet, put on the indicator, closed my eyes and barged into the lane I wanted.

Is that the Swindon 'Magic roundabout'? It actually was designed that way and does actually work apparently. I've been round that one.

As to there being lots of room, I think given the limited amount of agricultural area on such a small island, the land got priority over the roads.

it warms my heart no end to hear you have experienced and have taken a liking to the darkness. they are such a cool band, wait till you hear the rest of the album, it is SOOOOO good. ive got it in my car, on repeat in the stereo, even gave one to someone the other day as a wedding present (!)

the darkness RULE.

I'm not sure about the state of British agriculture. I've yet to eat that much that was actually grown in Wales. I's fun going into shops and buying New Zealand apples.

We bought Tasmanian Pink Lady apples in Marks and Sparks. They were v. nice - export quality.

Simon, you missed a great Weird Al show last night - to quote an English band, "Wish you were here."

That said, carry on touring, and have a good time. If you *ever* get an opportunity to go see Weird Al, do it.

Mmmm... New Zealand produce. Ash and I ate such lovely fruit last year in NZ. But some fruit from Aus is better - more sunshine, less rain.

Weird Al 'went off!' as the young folk say. Talk about getting your money's worth.

And he's right - there's nothing more that Perth folk like to talk about than leprosy.

I'm not reading your blog, I shall pout about the fact that I'm unlikely to get to Europe for ever!

*waves!* and *hugs* and *quick gropes!* Weeeeheeeee!

Calli, reading *everyone's* blogs whilst I'm at work. Maybe I could go to Europe on the redundancy, but whatever would I do with John?

Hi Simon,

Just came from Freo Hospital, Patrick is a good spirits and entertaining a steady stream of visitors. Jo is making a good recovery and appears to be out of the danger zone, she is expecting to be moved to a ward later this afternoon. Last night she had a bit of a swearing fit and that's a good a sign as any.

There are regualr updates on the theatre Australia web site.

Jo is now breathing unassisted and has had a large number of tubes removed. She is speaking to people and lokking much better.

Keep enjoying your holiday.

Cheers
Graeme

Edited by author 09-10-2003 04:25 PM
Surely there's got to be better ways of getting out of plugging Nokia phones?

Hope both Jo and Patrick recover swiftly.

Graeme,

Can you pass on my best wishes & get well soons to Jo and Patrick the next time you visit please? I was thinking today about whether we should collectively/individually be organising chocolates or something to cheer Patrick up til he gets out - does anyone have any ideas? Flowers just seem so wrong (:

Also Patrick Hew (my previous housemate, another Unisfan ex-Perth) remembers Jo from Hollywood High School and says to pass on a) that he's immensely relieved that she's going to be ok and b) that he hopes she makes a full recovery quickly. He's at Patrick.Hew@defence.gov.au if she wants to get in touch once she gets out.

Hi Lily,

I would be pleased to pass on your message. I saw Jo for the first time yesterday and she is exactly the same as always, she said her room looks lik a field from the bloody Sound of Music, ie lots of flowers.

Jo is now out of the ICU and hopefully out of the danger zone. Her injuries will take many months to heal and she is going to really need everyone support for a long time to come.

Patrick and Jo have been blown away by everyones messages of love and well-wishing.

Elaine - Patrick loved your comment and noted that was also the reaction of his agent.

*grin*

Hey Simon, that SYHA is impressive isn't it? I've kayaked on Loch Lomond out to one of the islands and back. It's choppier than most people think. You've already passed within 10 minutes drive of where I spent the first 14 years of my life. If you pass through Helensburgh you'll go through my home town. (Town hero - John Logie Baird - the pioneer of television. Last I knew the library there had the first ever TV on display, though not in a working condition of course)

Hi Simon good to hear from you the other day, from "Castle in Wales". Do not need to pass on news of Jo and Patrick lots better updates here, I only got message from hospital "doing as well as expected" whatever that means.
Could someone also pass on our well wishes to Jo and Patrick - from Lynn and Ross (Simon's parents) that we hope they get out of there as fast as they can and on that road to recovery.
Enjoy Scotland my lad
love mum

No worries Mum, I'll be back in there on Monday.

Not as impressive as the SYHA near Aldgay - Carisdale (sp) Castle. It's a castle. Late 19th century, but the idea is there. Even has a art gallery with lots of marble statues. And great long rooms with polished floorboards. And there's me in socks running up and down them with a three other people.

Gaaaaaaaah!

The internet kiosk at Inverness SYHA is MUCH better than the others I've used, but it's got a content filter. Which means:

1) I can't get to Patrick's blog. He uses naughty words.
2) I can't get to www.blogger.com, for no good reason. "Domain with forbidden contents" my bum. Which means I can't do an update to the blog.

So. Yesterday I went to John O' Groats. Not the most north easterly spot in Scotland - there's a place called Duncansby Head 2 miles east and little bit north from JO'G.

I've driven over 2000 miles now.

Today I'm going to Perth, Stirling and possibly Edinburugh. I'm not sure if I haven't already driven through Helensburugh.

Met some nice people at the Castle night before last - a bloke from Mark, from Esperance, and two Canadian women, who I think were studying MSc in Animal Studies (read: Vet) in Glasgow, but were travelling about. I may bump into them again in Edinburugh, but there's two SYHA hostels in Edinburugh, so I guess it's 50/50.

Re the ads at the top, yeah I'd noticed that, apparently all done by the magic of google ads. I'm not sure what generated the links to slash fiction at the top of mine a while back. I can't see anything on my blog that would generate it. Though I know what caused the ERB links. The most ironic ones I've seen is when the google ads trigger on 'blog' and advertise *other* blogging places than blogspot.

Google Ads are kinda fascinating, especially when you use colourful language in your blog the Ads become, er, a bit disturbing! Of course, is does mean that Monopoly is old hat and Googlopoly is in ... I mean, they own Blogger, put their own Ads up and are slowly editing the Net (as required to do under the Digital Millennium act) ... I wonder how long until Blogs are bound by a google more rules?

Oh, and Simon, great to hear you're enjoying the so-called mother country ... especially (re)constructed form Dr Who sets, no less! ;)

Stupid content filters - it's not letting me at www.blogger.com again, and not letting me look at Tama's blog as well this time, as it allegedly contains a word that means to be hit when you are naughty, that may have sexual meanings if you're that way inclined.

And a suprisingly large amount of the country isn't made from Doctor Who sets, which suprised me more than a little. It's much bigger than I'd expected.

Anyway, done with Edinburgh - driving to York tomorrow to spend Thurdsay there and then driving to Cambridge on Friday to meet up with Daniel.

York is wonderful - I've been there a couple of times. The last time we visited York Minster just as the choir was rehearsing - divine!

I enjoyed Cambridge too. Went to Oxford and didn't like it at all.

It's not that the UK is bigger than you expect, it's just that places take so damn long to get to thanks to curvy village lanes, road works and other drivers.

Okay, so maybe in my Secretary review I may have said "spanking" once or twice ... but I wonder what is said on blogger.com that gets it blocked? Hmmmm. Well, maybe "to blog" actually does have connotations I don't know yet ... That was a blogging good night ... I just couldn't believe is when she suggested I blog her ... And then I got all blogger and the Earth moved ... hmmm.

(I hope having said SPANKING in this forum doesn't mean that it's blocked too!)

York is gorgeous. I liked the Minster (Cathedral), and the walls of the old city. The Youth Hostel there is this lovely rambling old building, with a bird feeder next to the breakfast room. Oxford was lovely as well - all the old buildings. Favorite things - the stunningly gorgeous ceiling in the reading room/library at Oxford - gorgeous yellow stone, intricately carved with people and initials. Oh, and if you're at Oxford, visit the Alice Shop - all manner of Carroll/Alice memorabilia.

I'm away from the scottish content filters to the English YHA kiosks with their braindead IE that only lets you have one window at a time, so say what you like. ^_^

Bottom!

Lily, I hope to finish up in Oxford on Wednesday before catching a train back to London, so I'll try and get to the Alice shop.

The Lonely Planet Guide for England has been a huge help, so big huge thanks for giving it to me, although I did discover a couple of days ago the pages for Cambridge and environs are missing.

If you think the Scottish filters are bad I'd advise not buying any pictures of young girls at the Alice shop ;)

Remember, internet filters don't wear rubber gloves ;)

Isn't the unicorn tapestry at Stirling Castle fabulous?! They had just started on the beastie when we saw it last year.

I remember the camera obscura. My only other memory of Edinburgh was someone getting sick on the school bus going there, and me being too woosy to go through the more gruesome bit of the waxworks.
But I was in primary school at the time.

I was in Edinburgh for only a day. I visited the art gallery which was wonderful.

You are invited to my HOLY SHIT I’M NOT DEAD 30TH BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Starting @ Francine’s, cnr William and James St Northbridge 7.00 Saturday 25th October


Hope to see you there!

Please feel free to circulate to people I might have forgotten (knock on the head!)

//Plus, I sidetracked a little to track down more Doctor Who locations. I haven't found any for weeks, OK? //

You are the biggest fangeek I know! (Cathy says from deep within a PhD inspired slash-a-holic episode) Glad you're having a fab holiday. When are you back?

I'm back on Sunday afternoon. Basically, 24 hours too late for Patricks birthday party. :( (Sorry Patrick)

And I'm sure I'm not the biggest fangeek - Danny did this years back - with a partner.

Yes, Danny wins. He has the license plate: TYPE 40

Ahhhh, the famous Swindon 'Magic Roundabout'. Fun isn't it :) http://www.swindonweb.com/life/lifemagi0.htm for those that want to see what it actually looks like. While it may baffle out of towners a little apparently it works quite well for locals. My uncle lived in Swindon so I've been around it once or twice ... or at least swung through it.

Ahahahaaa!! The Magic Roundabout! I love it - it's like an extreme sports funfair ride, only you get to ride it as many times as you like for free - provided you have a car.
   Avebury is neat. I've never been there, but it stars in the 1970s kids show Children Of The Stones, which rocks.

Welcome back Simon. I know you don't know who I am but I suspect we've passed in a corridor at Borderlands or sat in the same room at SwanCon.

Or I've beaten you at a quiz night.

8-)

Hmm. You were at Borderlands? *scans the membership lists*

And I haven't been at a quiz night for ages. ^_^

Welcome back !

Thanks, Lily!

So come to thursday night's!
It's not that far...I'm not sure what state my table is in except confused but there's bound to be a space somewhere.

I need to do my tax at some point in the next couple of days.

I need to find the paperwork that put carefully to one side *before* I moved house and haven't rediscovered yet.

Ok, I made myself a blog, but it took some thought,

Grant blogs about watching
Simon blogs about travel
Patrick blogs about beer
John blogs about Shiny things
Anna blogs about books
what defines me....
surely if I blog about people who have P***** me off I'll be sued,

then someone pointed out I am addicted to buying music.
 
http://www.magicrhythm.blogspot.com

Edited by author 01-11-2003 05:33 PM
I did mine on Wednesday morning at 6am. I was awake. I had nothing better to do.

<EDIT: Tax Return, that is :-)>

I wish there was a temporary Cathy-shaped hole in my life. I need a holiday.

It sounds like you had a ball!

I understand completely, having gone to Melbourne for pretty much a month, only to return to stare strangely at the Grant-shaped hole.
   Strangest thing that's happened to me with snaking things snaking around my whole was going to see my ex-PhD supervisor's latest play tonight, and have him ask me why I haven't done any PhD writing lately. The annoying thing was that the way he said it made me start thinking how easy it would be to knock out the remaining 60,000 words, hand it in and become Dr Grant.

Becasue it would be really easy, though, wouldn't it? You can write it when you want to, and then re-enrol for a fortnight and submit. It's eeeeeaaaassssssyyyyyyyy.

Edited by author 05-11-2003 05:29 AM
60000 words, hah! That's about 2 1/2 times longer than mine. You'll have to cut it down if you expect an examiner to read it:). Besides, you have to leave some material for "Thesis: The Musical". Talking about musicals, Simon and I missed "Stalin: The Musical" which had such gems as "The Gulag Rag", and Trotsky and Stalin singing "Anything you can do, I can do better". If you do finally get to change your Mr to a Dr, you'll have to convince Simon to change his name to S. Holmes.

Simon, you forgot to add into your list,
Distance Simon actually punted on cam: 2 metres (before we hit an iceberg in the shape of a pier).

(Hmmm, I've discovered Simon did not log out my web browser when he was here... Daniel.)

Errrm.

Whoops?

I find coming home from hols depressing. I tend to wander around thinking, "This time last week..." and "This time a fortnight ago..." and wondering why, when I've experience some pretty cool stuff, the rest of the world around me hasn't changed.

Edited by author 05-11-2003 10:37 AM
Congratulations on getting started on making the house more Simon-friendly. (:

I absolutely agree that leaving for holidays (or rather, coming back from them) makes life go odd. Before August 22, I was completely on top of a very busy Canberra life. Then I left for a few weeks in Perth, of much fun and unwinding.

I had a graduation ceremony for the Graduate program one and a half hours after my plane touched down on Sept 1, started a new job (which had been vacant and accumulating work since July) on Sept 4, moved house on Sept 10 (dozens and dozens of boxes from Perth), and then wondered why my life was no longer the nice, balanced one that I'd left (:

The problem is that there's so much interesting stuff to do, & only so many hours.

Stuff I've said "No" to in the last three months:
1) Applying to do a PostGrad qualification in health stats and policy (they have a Masters program!)
2) Applying to do a Grad law degree part time
3) Being the director of the Conflux art show
4) Being the contact person for the Conflux art show
5) Being on the Conflux committee
6) getting involved in the SNoG trivia night committee
7) going to the SNoG Arts/Culture committee meeting last weekend

Stuff I *want* to do ASAP:
Fables submissions readings
Fables distribution
write some short stories
do some sculpture
finish my painting
finish that application for the Art Show/Writers collaboration project I want to get involved in
write the grant application for the Anthology Trevor suggested

...but right now, I'm settling for: pass the rent inspection tommorrow so that the landlord likes me, I can renew the lease, and never have to move house again (well, not in the next few years (: )

your house feels nice - comfortable. the floors glow and there is heaps of space. going away and coming back might help you decide what is important in your life?

I guess you know about this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/shalka/

Yes. Wish I had more bandwidth at home to watch it. Work are being nazis about internet traffic coz the unit is massively over budget.

Nice to finally hear word on the Bebop Best Sessions, 'cause in the Madman catalogue it reeked of trying to squeeze more money out of fans. There are two very similar volumes of Evangelion coming next year.
   And did you mean Yoko Ono or Yoko Kanno? :-)

Cowboy Bebop is very, very cool and the music fantastic. Interspersed with the humour are some disturbing and deeply moving stories.

Yes. Kanno, obviously.

I've corrected it, thanks. ^_^;;

I dunno - a Yoko Ono score would be pretty funny. :-)

Simon, do you think you could knock up a geek rant for me when you have a mo? That stuff you were saying about dishes at dinner the other week would be great! Just email it along to me (ccupitt.geo@yahoo.com) or leave it on my LJ.

Thanks lots and lots. xoxox

C.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's having trouble not reading like a wanker in his article for Damian.
...maybe we used to be wankers when we were in the WL...

Edited by author 24-11-2003 01:45 PM
I've considered that as a possibility. I've re-read my rant when Ivo resigned that I put in GG. Looks like I was pretty damned angry about it, and probably unfairly. I think the stupid people pissed me off somewhat.

I was flattered that Damian, in putting together a 'best of GG', wanted to reprint one of my short stories in his zine. Thankfully, its the only one I still like, although it could use some polishing. I also wrote a brief bit about The West Lodge, and probably also come off slightly wankerish for it.

But I do still list West Lodge Chairman on my CV, and if it weren't for the club, I imagine my life would be radically different, so I don't care if my little bit of self-indulgence comes off that way.

Incidentally, I found this review page: http://davidj.richardson.name/drwho/prose_review_magbag6.html while websurfing one day, and was surprised by this portion of the review: 'In particular, these two issues see some very fine fiction courtesy of Colin Sharpe and Grant Watson'. I tracked down my copy of those issues, wondering what it was that I had written that could possibly receive such praise, and discovered that it was probably best left in the dark.

Thankfully my fanfic days are well over, and now I write stand alone fiction, with quality work like 'Cyril the Seahorse Squirrel'

Hey, don'tcha know it? We were all wankers.
   Thankfully, we're all laid-back, cool, mature and modest individuals these days...

Hey! It's that issue of the Mag Bag that Grant and I stole the name of the editoral for our GG's from. "GG continues to skirt the line..."

And yeah, its something that I mention in my piece is that the club had a profound effect upon my future life. I'm still planning on calling it stifiling and isolationist.

Oh good. I was hoping I wasn't going to be the only one to stick the boot up the bottom of the current club...

I think I could have possibly been harsher.

Damian's started the active hassling for me to hand it in. I'm still stuck at trying to find a balance between saying "Wow, look at those 20 years. That's genuinely impressive, guys!" and "Look: you've got a major new series coming in less than two years. For god's sake pull your socks up, be inventive and make sure you don't drop the ball."

I'm going to be quite brave and suggest
a) the possabilty some of you may still be quite wankerish in your warm glowing feelings for a club where you pretended to be daleks.
b) Colin still needs some help writing a CV.

You're just jealous because while we were having fun pretending to be Daleks, you were out getting your hair cut like George Michael.
   And I know you used to play Blake's 7 in the backyard with appropriate musical sound effects for the teleporting...

Dude, as someone who has had an extended run of unusual, incomprehensible and possibly unnatural relationships, take it from me that long term relationships aren't easy for everyone. I still sometimes feel that long term relationships work where the couple have either too much or not enough imagination -- if there's an inbalance of imagination between the partners then there's a good chance it won't work.

Oh, and stop dating lesbians would be my other tip ;)

Woo! Claudine has joined the ranks of the blogged. She's using Livejournal, but we won't hold that against her :-)

http://www.livejournal.com/users/dragonchrome

Edited by author 08-12-2003 06:10 PM
Yes, Mr Watson Jnr, but I stopped at 7 and you continued well into your twenties.

I came to post a note to tell Simon to stop dating lesbians and Russel beat me to it, unbelievable!

I'm all for long term relationships, but I don't know how to get one. Stop looking, it will happen.

Edited by author 09-12-2003 10:22 AM
While people are talking about relationships, long term & otherwise, I'll plug the book that Dave recommended to me:
Passionate Marriage: Love, Sex, and Intimacy in Emotionally Committed Relationships, by David Schnarch Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc.; Reprint edition (May 1998) ISBN: 0805058265.

It's very difficult reading at times but extremely interesting (& eerily close to what people say about their relationships - count the number of times after you've read it that someone describing their relationship to you sounds like they're quoting it).

The other book Dave recommended on this topic was In Quest of the Mythical Mate : A Practical Model for Successful Couples Therapy, Ellyn Bader, Ph.D. and Peter Pearson, Ph.D, but it seems to be out of print.

I also like Jo W's motto: "In life career (ie fulfilling work) is essential, a partner is optional".

Re: Blake 7 - Graeme & Grant - for what it's worth I think having memories of playing Blake 7 sounds cool. I wish I'd discovered Blake 7 years earlier than I did.

I never played Blake's 7. I did however play Starblazers, Monkey, and Battle of the Planets.

Does that make me cooler or sadder? Or both?

Or does it just mean I was a healthy child who had an active imagination, and that it has little to do with the adult I now hope that I am?

I've read 'In Quest of the Mythical Mate'. Good reading. Helped me a lot ealier in the year to understand a few things. I think Karen was going to lend me 'Passionate Marriage' as well at some point.

I disagree that career should be a higher priority than relationships in general - my friends rank higher than my job. I can get another job. People are more precious. my 'career' lets me earn money that I can spend on doing cool shit like publishing and video stuff.

And I mean, sheesh. Date one lesbian for for 18 months and people think it's a pattern.

Oh, I broke my collarbone in year one when I tripped and fell whist running about the playground playing 'Chips'. (which to this day I've still never actually seen)

Edited by author 10-12-2003 09:45 AM
Colin: I played "Battle of the Planets" as well as something entirely original based on Norse myth (complete with giants) that Anne and Gillian and I created together, so *I* think it makes you cool (:

Simon: I don't think that Jo's point was that career should be a higher priority than relationships in general; I think that she'd strongly disagree with that. I think her point was that everyone needs fulfilling work that they love - whether in the form of a job or writing, music, painting etc - and that if someone has that then the appearance or dissappearance of partners is not so central/crucial.

I think that in any situation whatsoever, your career and fulfilling occupation should take second place to your friends and loved ones.
   If I had to choose between all my professional dreams coming true, or keeping my friends and my girlfriend, I'd pick the latter without hesitation. Work is work. It doesn't matter. If you find work that you love, then great. If you don't, then whatever. You do it and use the money to spend hanging out with the people you love.

Here's where I prove that I live with my head under a rock...

You dated a *LESBIAN?" For 18 MONTHS??

Wouldn't that count as Bi?

And Simon, you know I think you're a stud! You're sweet and kind and honest and funny with some weird fannish quirks... you'll find a girl. You just need one who shares your weird fannish quirks, or at least a sense of humour to laugh at them... just ask John ...

If *I* was single, I'd love to go out for coffee with you!

*hugs*

Calli

Edited by author 10-12-2003 04:02 PM
Well, I didn't think we were actually going to *vote* on Simon's question (: I thought it was supposed to be rhetorical (:

But I agree with what Sarah said: Simon is gorgeous, cute, intelligent, bright, smart, funny, cheerful, kind and caring and creative.

And as far as dating a couple of people goes, if someone hasn't been in a few different relationships, how are they supposed to know what does and doesn't work for them?

Sarah: Random fannish gossip - which Perth writer with children said at Borderlands "If I was single and John wasn't married..." Seems your husband has a fan club (;

Other thought: I can think of three male fannish types off the top of my head (two in Canberra, one in Melbourne) who are intelligent, interesting, kind, funny and honest and have been single for some time. Two of them are really cute as well.

On the other hand, I can think of at least three guys who give me the creeps who have gone out with incredibly intelligent and gorgeous women.

I don't think that you can hypothesise any correlation between relationship status and inherent desirability (or wisdom)...

Part of it may be the normal female-male skew in fandom (Ok, apart apparently from bookclub). Part of it might be that Simon seems to have so much on that it's hard to see where he'd fit a GF in.

The rest of it is probably just life you know. Fans are not any different from the rest of humanity in having difficulty in finding people to be with. Except that maybe it's harder to find someone who reacts well to your dvd/book/comic/costume collection.

Edited by author 13-12-2003 02:54 AM
Where's Em when you need her:)? I'm sure she'd have a few things to say about relationships. My only advice is don't get stuck in a Maths and Theoretical Physics department in the wastelands outside of Cambridge (the only worse place to meet the fairer sex is possibly a monastery). Hmmm, maybe I should take that advice. My other advice is to mix outside of fannish society perhaps... danes aren't that scary once you get to know a few better. Choirs are a good place to start and usually have a good male/female balance (about 1:2).

Anyway Simono, the most beautiful man in fandom, you're having better luck than this Professional, SAM, GSoH, Intelligent, Caring, Medium Height/Build, NS, ISO SF 25-35 with GSoh, NS, Cambs or London.

Daniel, what's a SAM? and an ISO?

Dear Colin,

I was banned from playing Monkey as a child, my parents feared I would beat my little brother to a pulp with a broomstick. We are also banned from watching the show. I wasn't allowed to watch the "Growing Pains of Adrian Mole" either. I've just noticed that I wrote "are" banned, rather than "were" banned. I'm not sure if the ban is lifted...

Lily, you're a SWF (I assume it's S and not A) and Simon's a SWM. ISO is the International Standards Organisation, or else it means In Search Of (what Leonard Nimoy did). You need to read more personal ads:).

Eg.
BDSM DDF HWP NS PM TG SALT GSOH WLTM BBW NS NUWP GSOH PF LTR F2F or LDR

Edited by author 14-12-2003 07:27 PM
Right, the only way to make sense of *that* was to google it.

I found this glossary, which I cut & paste for the collective enlightenment:

AC/DC= bi-sexual person
BBW= Big Beautiful Woman
BDSM= Any subset of B&D, D/s, and SM
BD= Bondage/Discipline
BF= Boyfriend
BHM= Big Handsome Man
BiM= Bisexual Male
BiF= Bisexual Female
CD= Cross-dresser
CPL= Couple
DDF= Drug and Disease Free
FA= Fat Admirer
F2F= Face to Face, Meeting in Person
GBF= Gay Black Female
GBM= Gay Black Male
GWF= Gay White Female
GWM= Gay White Male
GF= Girlfriend
GSOH= Good Sense of Humor
HWP= Height & Weight Proportional
ISO= Insignificant Other
ISO= In Search Of
LDR= Long Distance Relationship
LTR= Long Term Relationship
MBA= Married But Available
MWC= Married With Children
MWF= Married White Female
MWM= Married White Male
NLP= No Losers Please
NS= Non Smoker
NUMP= No Ugly Men Please
NUWP= No Ugly Women Please
PA=Photo Appreciated
PF= Professional Female
PM= Professional Male
QT= Cutie
RL= Real Life
SALT= Single and Loving It
SBF= Single Black Female
SBM= Single Black Male
SCF= Single Christina Female
SCM= Single Christian Male
SHF= Single Hispanic Female
SHM= Single Hispanic Male
SINK= Single Income, No Kids
SJF= Single Jewish Female
SJM= Single Jewish Male
SO= Significant Other
SOH= Sense of Humor
SPARK= Single Parent Raising Kids
SWF= Single White Female
SWM= Single White Male
TG= Transgender
TIC= Tongue in Cheek
TS= Transsexual
TV= Transvestite
TOY= Thinking of You
WLTM= Would Love to Meet

Actually, the Watson family ban on Monkey did extend to a fairly lengthy argument when I ordered the first three volumes for our father's video library, only to have him complain that I wasn't allowed to order them because I was banned.
   "Dad, I'm twenty four years old."
   "Hmph. It's still rubbish."

Edited by author 19-12-2003 12:23 PM
Ooo ooo ooh, would the author lady with the children have an author for a partner and be getting married at a Swancon??

How'd I go? Or should I try again?

Calli

I've no idea how you went - I've no idea what you're refering to.

yours in puzzlement,

I was trying to guess who is in John's mysterious fan club that Lily posted about.

Or are there more people in this fan club than just one?

I'm sure John will let you join if you want to, Simon. Although he probably would prefer to keep it an all female fan club....

Calli

I learnt a lot when I was a tupperwhore, but the best things I learnt was how to wrap presents, and to buy presents with boxes.

:-)

I like giving away presents, it's fun!

Calli

When I was 15 I got a jon in a Shopping Centre at Christmas, standing in the middle of the mall wrapping Xmas gifts. Small presents were 50 cents, medium $1 and large was $1.50. Nobody ever brought rectangualr gifts to be wrapped, it was all triangles, oblongs, baby cradles and so on. It did make me very good at wrapping though, I can do wonders with a ribbon.

"When I was 15 I got a jon in a Shopping Centre at Christmas, standing in the middle of the mall wrapping Xmas gifts."

Lucky you. What did you do with jon? :-) (ROTFL)

Okay, who are you, and what have you done with the real Grant Watson? ROTFL indeed.

What I'd like to know is when jons became legal tender, such that you could earn them by wrapping xmas gifts in the middle of a shopping centre.

Also, jons must be cheap, considering that even a large present was only $1.50. Of course, this was a while ago, and I imagine that they have gone up in price due to inflation.

Do you still have your jon, and if so, how much is it worth now?

Sorry for standing you up. :-( I stand everyone up nowadays. Being a writer isn't the glamorous free ride that Hollywood told me it would be.
   The Jon has been fairly heavily devalued in recent years, and lost a lot of value against the Dave.

Edited by author 06-01-2004 12:32 AM
I've never possessed a Jon, but having seen a few around, I would agree that they have been devalued, and have lost ground against a number of forms of legal tender, not just the Dave.

Which oddly enough reminds me of the fact that we ran into Geoff Watkins recently, when we went to see a play that had a friend of a friend in it who was completely unrelated. A musical version of Puss in Boots it was, and amusing too.

I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I looked at the program, but true enough, there he was. I stuck round and said hello to him at the end of the play, and was surprised to see he remembered who I was, and Kate got a hug, and I a handshake, and small talk was had.

Not relevant to anything else at all really, but I just thought I'd share.

One little typo!!

Yes, for the record, I had a Jon, he was three boyfriends ago, Colin's spoken to him on the telephone. He was a loser and had no value.

Edited by author 06-01-2004 09:29 AM
Grant said: "Sorry for standing you up. :-( I stand everyone up nowadays. Being a writer isn't the glamorous free ride that Hollywood told me it would be."

It's all right. Really. I thought you had a genuinely good reason.

Oh that guy. I've heard about him. He did sound like a loser.

I have spoken to him on the phone have I?

Well, he obviously left a vast impresion on me, as I don't recall that at all.

Mind you, my memory isn't always the best.

I am firmly of the belief that the human brain (or mine at least) can only cope with so much information, after which it just refuses to process any more.

That's my excuse for not remembering names and faces.

I generally half-remember faces, and never remember names. I never remember plans I've made, appointments I agreed to keep, people's birthdays, writing deadlines, I forget to eat, to sleep. One day when talking to somebody I genuinely forgot my own name for a moment.
   What the hell's filling up my head?

Easy one Grant.
The names of all the episodes of the final season of Dr Who, in both broadcast and production order.

I forgot my own name once. It was while I was doing something at a Centrelink, only then it was still Social Security, and the guy behind the counter asked me my name and all I could say was 'Uhh, I know I have one...'

As for other people's names, I do remember them a lot more reliably than I think I do, but I become paranoid that I might get it wrong, and so end up saying 'Hi!' instead of calling a person by name. Most of the time my brain is supplying me with the correct name, but I generally refuse to believe it, unless I know someone really quite well.

So if I call you by name, feel priviledged, not many people make it to my name list.

Why only the final season? An Unearthly Child, The Cake Of Skulls, The Forest Of Fear, The Firemaker, The Dead Planet, The Surv- oh, whatever...

Hudson Hawk is easily more bad than good. The good bits are very enjoyable, but the bad bits are *excruciating*! CSI only annoys me because it does pretty much everything right except for the writing: just because they need to conform to the rules of drama doesn't excuse them from simplistic plotting and banal dialogue/characterization.

You should have a read of Richard E Grant's autobiography "With Nails" it explains Hudson Hawk from the insiders perspective.

I think Hudson Hawk gets a bad rap sure it lost a fortune and it is a really badly made film but there are much much worse out there.

I think I should read "With Nails" anyway. One day, I'm going to have a vast amount of time with nothing to do.

Heh. Who'm I kidding?

*puts hand up*

Well I for one am not ashamed to admit it. I _like_ reading what you write!!

Of course, some of that is general blog addiction. People just don't update often enough to keep me happpy....

Yeah, some people don't blog often enough after getting their friends hooked for three or four months first, hey Kylie...?

*grin*

Simon, you are the biggest sweetie at Swancon, I swear.

Calli

Who me??? *innocent look*

I have still racked up more posts than you my dear!! Mind you I have done nothing approching the size of your average post :)

Simon, I had a dream about Swancon and you were in it. What are you doing in my dreams??? What is Swancon doing in my dreams??? Does this mean I am too into fandom???

Scary stuff :)

Kylie, dear, I'm in everyone's dreams.

*waggles eyebrows*

Or more realistically:

I've no idea why I was in your dream. I'm also faintly disturbed that your subconcious may believe that me and Swancon are synonymous.

I just added another referral to your score on Tama's blog -- I wanted to see if my blog had rated a mention. To be honest, I read your blog while I only occasionally skim Tama's; he seems to project an image that anything that allows people to rip off musicians and lets people avoid paying for music is good.

Edited by author 16-01-2004 10:14 AM
Simon, while I would hate to suggest your Blog was getting less traffic than you thought, I suspect I should point out that the "Referers" script on the side needs at least two hits from any given site to *activate*, and thereafter only lists hits for 24 hours but (and this is the sad bit), the square bracketed bit is *cumulative*, so the “Null Space [99]” as it currently appears on my blog tells me (since I must be pathologically egotistical and have a deep seated need to know) that in the since you’ve had a Blog, 99 referers *in total* have visited Ponderance from Null Space. (I thought I should mention this not to squash any ideas of your web traffic, but because otherwise I would look like an exciting 3000 or so people read Ponderance in the last 24 hours, when the actual figures are more like 1% of that!).

Actually, it does look a bit confusing now I look at the script again. If it were mine, I'd change it, but it's a borrowed script hosted elsewhere, so confusion must reign!

Hmmm, Russell, the (slightly aged, I'm told) PunkRocker1991 said:

I only occasionally skim Tama's; he seems to project an image that anything that allows people to rip off musicians and lets people avoid paying for music is good.

I just thought I should respond to that since I don’t think that anything that allows people to rip off musicians is a good thing at all. What I think you’re referring to is my posts on Sharman Networks litigation against KaZaA Lite, and my point was that anyone who makes a living on the back on music piracy, as Sharman Networks do through spyware and adware bundled with KaZaA, is being a tad hypocritical in suing KaZaA Lite since they simply stripped out the spyware and adware from a program that is already providing a medium for file trading that is, I’d guess, 95% illegal. I’m all for musicians getting paid and think that developments in the legal music downloading world are probably going a long way in making KaZaA and other programs obsolete. That said, I do have an interest in tracking certain Net trends (which is both personal interest and for my doctoral thesis), so watching how KaZaA and Sharman Networks operate is important and worth blogging about.

Sorry if that’s a bit of a tirade, but I felt I wanted my actual position clear. I shall now get off my soapbox and let you all return to your regular Simon programming.

Oh.

That makes a bit more sense. I thought 90 people a day and rising was too good to be true.

Still, one of these day I'll make a counter for the site. I think I'll have time in May.

Tama, if I've read you wrong then I apologise. You've posted a couple of messages along the lines of "New Kazaa lite can be downloaded here, not that I advise you doing this of course" and "Winamp 5 lets you rip CDs etc". I've read these as a form of "Clayton's promotion" (the promotion you do when you're not promoting). As I seem to have grabbed the wrong end of the stick I apologise.

I personally find the whole filesharing thing rather suspect, and to be honest when the record companies start jumping up and down about lost revunue, I sometimes feel they may have a point.
   I have at least one close friend who doesn't seem to buy music any more, and instead downloads or burns anything that moves in their general direction. I disapprove of that wholeheartedly, and think it's theft. The whole "but the record companies are ripping off the musicians anyway" argument doesn't wash with me either - better the band gets 5c to the dollar than 0c.
   I have pirated over the internet myself, which was to get a song that I couldn't find commercially. If I *do* find it commercially, then I shall purchase it and go about my day. (Like my Star Trek and Doctor Who videos and DVDs, purchased *after* I had them recorded off the telly.)

I think it's been a John Goodman weekend. King Ralph on FTA, Monsters Inc on the Disney Channel (I'm not a Disney fan but I really, really like this movie. Their rendering of Boo is as good as Miyazaki's little kids.) and another film whose name I've forgotten. And that was just yesterday.

I'm a JG fan - he was the best part of Roseanne and I thought he was great in Blue Bros II.

I never thought I'd see a sentence that had the words "great" and "Blues Brothers 2" that didn't include the words "steaming" and "pile".

Edited by author 20-01-2004 10:12 PM
To make you feel good,

I read your blog Simon, every day, I have a ritual from 09:00 to 09:30 I do what is officially classed as online professional development, this involves checking the Australian National Training Authority website, the Training Acrediation Council website, maybe a few animation and multimedia websites. Then I round it off by visiting Grant, Patrick,Russel, Simon, Pamela, and Belle De Jour.

I never read Tama's

You should - Tama rocks.

Simon, this is the Fannish Inquisition. We have read your comments on The Gunfighters. You may remove your pants.

Am I the only person a tad disturbed by the final line of Grants little post below?

Not my pants! Not my beautiful pants!

Edited by author 22-01-2004 12:26 PM
From Kwylo - "I read your blog Simon, every day, I have a ritual from 09:00 to 09:30 I do what is officially classed as online professional development, this involves checking the Australian National Training Authority website, the Training Acrediation Council website, maybe a few animation and multimedia websites. Then I round it off by visiting Grant, Patrick,Russel, Simon, Pamela, and Belle De Jour. "

Always happy to do my bit for professional development.

8-)

Never mind, we can go and make television and the bad power cuts should all go away.

Of course, then we'll fill our blogs with complaints about network heads interfering with our show, uppity actors and so on, but hey!

"And then the two hour power cut completely ruined the afternoon's filming, screwing up our schedule completely."

Random blindsides will always get you in the end. Of course, one bitten, twice expectant, and you can build them in.

Simon, as I mention to you before, I'm interested in nominating you and Grant for DUFF. Nominations close in a couple of weeks. If I was to do this would you accept the nomination?

Egad. I'm really not sure. It's the award administration post-win/trip that scares that pants off me.

I guess if there were two of us it might be easier...

Hi Simon here is the web address I was telling you about "Sex tips for geeks". There may be some material for Simono here http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/sextips/

I've only loaded it in my browser and already I've found it funny.

Eric Raymond would have to be one of the less sexy uber-geeks. I met him at a room party at WorldCon in '99. He was busy trying to convince some old lady that she should be running Linux as her desktop.

Thanks again for the Budget Simon!

Now all I need to do is get the hotel booked ;-)

That's *all* you need to do? Wow. You're organized well in advance. :-)

Eh.

Hotel booked. Budget organised. Who needs guestsand the like :-)

Scott Snow once described the Borderlands cons as a small intimate party for 50 friends.

Yeah, 'strue.
   I still have these rattling plans in my head for one-day cons for both Doctor Who and comics.

Yeah right, not enough time, get involved with someone -laughs- So it's early days - but it still sounds pretty good. I heard the gossip from the other end first... congrats -smile-

Hey! Stop jumpin' the gun! We won't know anything til tonight anyway. And it's not that upsetting any more, it's just stuff at this point. It's amazing how quickly you can take something crappy and permanent and just turn it into a part of your day without really thinking about it any more.

Hey, you have a girlfriend? You'll have to bring her round for dinner. I've never had a dinner guest, I think you and Miss Noinformationsupplied should be the first.

Gee, like, no pressure.

Finally updated my blog and read some other people's for the 2nd time this mth.

Congratulations on the girlfriend & wishing the two of you all the best - may you have many happy times together & learn much. Also good luck with Swancon stress - Bach flower remedies, anyone?

I've discovered that there's a whole range of Australian Bach flower stuff too: stuff like

"Emergency Essence" (Panic, Distress, Fear);
"Abund Essence";
"Adol Essence" (Feeling of hopelessness, Insensitive, Sense of not belonging, "It's not fair" attitude, Rebellious, Anger);
"Calm & Clear Essence" (Always over committed, No time for self, Impatience, Rushing, Worry, Mind chatter, Can?t sleep, Irritability, Impatience);
"Cognis Essence" (Daydreaming, Confusion, Overwhelm);
"Confid Essence" (Low Self Esteem; Guilt; Shyness
Lack of Conviction; Victim Mentality);
"Creative Essence" (Creative blocks and inhibitions; Difficulty expressing feelings; Enhances singing; Creative expression; Clarity of voice; Public speaking);
"Dynamis Essence" (Temporary loss of drive, enthusiasm and excitement).

http://www.ausflowers.com.au. May or may not work (I remain highly skeptical about some of them), but worth experimenting with (Jo swears by them).

sydney is full of bats.
they make sounds outside my bedroom window.
they fly above my bloody head when i walk down the street.
they are big.

Bats are cool. The ones in Sydney are probably Little Red Flying foxes - they have the most adorable faces.

Heh. One memory of Sydney was looking up at a tree, trying to work out what the strange brown fruit were. Then one of them stretched it's wings. THEN we noticed that there were HUNDREDS of them in EVERY tree all around us!

Apparently the Botanical Gardens had a fruitbat population somewhere between 2000 and 5000 and was at that point closer to the higher number.

two people here in the last 100 years have died from being pooed on.
who wants to be the third?

and i should probably point out that it was being pooed on by bats.

and bats are cool are they? yeah, walking down a dark street by yourself in sydney at night, you hear a strange noise, you look up and CRAP YOUR PANTS at the big, flying rodent thing with claws and black wings flying straight towards you.

bats are cool. pheh. in comic books maybe.

Ya great wuss, Spicer! Mind you, all the keepers and vets at work who deal with bats have regular rabies shots, just to be on the safe side.

And 8 people in Brazil have died from vampire bat bites....

Hi Simon, nice to meet you last Saturday - you might be able to change the comment on my blog link now. You DO know who Pamela is. 8-)

I didn't get to see any of the videos you organised but I saw from the program that you chose one of my favourite Stargate eps, Window of Opportunity. I'm a sucker for time loop/temporal distortion stories and this one is a hoot. Love the juggling scenes.

Poss.

the 200th post is MINE

Patrick can't come to his blog right now cos he's too busy writing on other peoples message boards.

Eh. We'll miss your occasional mad rants Mr Spicer.

That's cos Spicer's a softcock.

Are you EVER going to update again?
*grin*

Calli

He did! Finally :)

So there! Nyeh. :P

You do really exist! Yay!

Calli

Hooray huzzah!

Man, if you'd only held out a few days more...
Perhaps my theory of cloned Simons falls down with this almost a month of blog-silence....

Cloned Simons theory? Do tell us more!

Oooooo! I want to be your friend... maybe.

Yes, it was a real injury at Quidich, I saw the blood!
Let's hope there are pictures.

Speaking of which....just where are the post Swancon pics? Haven't seen any yet :(

That's right. CLONED SIMONS. It all makes depraved sense. What does Simon do? He works stupid number of hours. I've seen him, working away well after Fat Cat went to bed. He also volunteers for just about everything that's even remotely interesting to do. And probably some un interesting stuff too. He also seems to find the time to have a fairly active social life, including having one of those nifty partner type peoples. And he ALSO finds the time to write a blog. And be Simono, the most beautiful fan in the world.
Now roughly by my calculations, in order to be able to do all of these things, unless the intrepid Simon has learned to get by with NO sleep, like the hyperkinetic chick in "Real Genius", then the only explanation is.... there is more than one.
*nods sagely*

Swancon pictures:
There were some posted, but they weren't great.

I've got a bundle I haven't gotten around to putting up anywhere yet (100 or so)

Cloned Simons:
Nah, the nifty partner type thing is an aberration. I only manage to find someone every few years or so and they never seem to last. And my social life isn't *that* active.

Well sorry for leaving but even Simono can't compete with a whole planet. Hmm rocks...

I'm still disturbed by Simon's description of Nifty Partner Type Thing as an "aberration". Maybe I play D&D too often, but it brings very disturbing images to my mind...

I don't think it's possible to play D&D too often.
... *thinks*
...
Ok maybe it is. But if you're remembering to eat more than pizza and cheezels, showering occasionally, speaking to non gamers from time to time, and haven't taken to wearing capes as a regular part of your clothing repertoire, I figure you're doing ok.

=)

Edited by author 30-04-2004 02:25 PM
Maybe aberration is too strong a word. But I've been single for much long that I haven't been single, so not single isn't a normal state.

That said, I'm really liking being not single and Nifty Partner Type Thing, is, well, really nifty. ^_^

- "Hi, I'd like to place a retail order, please."
- "Certainly, what for?"
- "It's a DVD called Returner."
- "Wait a moment... I'm sorry, we don't have a title under that name, sir."
- "No, you do. It's a DVD titled Returner."
- "No, we've never released a film with that name, sir. Is it possible you've got the name wrong?"
- "I'm staring at it right now. It's got your logo on it. Hang on a sec..." (checks computer) "You released it on November 10th."
...and so on and so forth. The industries all differ, the intelligence remains the same.

So, what accent did they have?

Ringing up support for computers these days is a bit like "Around the world in 80 days"

Edited by author 05-05-2004 11:33 PM
Ringing up for support from *anywhere* is like that now. Grrr.

It was a very slow conversation via a web interface.

But I'm assuming I was talking to Oracle India.

My Mum got run up the other day by someone asking for donations for Surf Clubs/Lifeguards. They were in India. She had to explain to them what a surf club was.

I'm suprised you got any Perl support at all. Which Oracle product bundles Perl?

These days? Just about all the 9i products seem to. In this case, 9i Application Server release 2, but they ship apache with the RDBMS these days.

Ahhh, 9i ... one of our projects uses the 9i client but I can't say I have had much contact. Good luck!
Do you want me to check I any of our guys have had problems in that area?

Ahh, computer geeking far above my head. It makes me feel like I'm back at home. (Of course comp geeking above my head starts with discussing, oh, say ram, and goes from there. I use 'em, heck I abuse 'em, but when the inner bits get sad, it's all g(r)eek to me)

My start up button knobby thingy fell out of my computer the other day! Good thing I've got an on off switchy thingy on the back. ^_-

Steveg: The problem turned out not to be a problem with perl, but with our vendor shipping scripts that had taint checking turned on that they'd fairly blatently never *actually* testing against their documentmentation. The taint checking made perl ignore the PERL5LIB environment variable that all the Oracle software went great pains to set up so that perl could find its modules. Massive lack of QA on our vendors behalf.

*comforts Candice*

Maybe this means you should get a queen size bed to match?

Just that bit more space :)

*laugh* you should always have a doona that's a size up from your bed size - makes getting more than one person in it much easier :P

We have a queen sized bed and a king sized quilt. King sized is massive, but it means that at least Chesh has a *chance* of getting enough quilt to sleep under.

:-)

Apparently when I get cold, i tuck myself into the quilt, and then spin like a top. *grin*

One thing to note though - King sized quilt covers cost a FORTUNE!

*nods* I agree with those guys. One size up with the doona! Wai! My problem is they never seem to be long enough, and when I pull the covers up under my chin, my toes stick out. My toes get cold easily. It's all bad.

Wow. I do the spinning top thing too. I'm also guilty of:
"Grant. Wake up. You've pushed me out of the bed."
"(asleep) grumblegrumble... it's MY bed."
Kind of embarrassed about that one...

King sized quilts can also be set up to be wider than they are long, and they STILL cover your feet. (Unless you are Cormack)

That way Calli has to roll over enough that the overhang on her side touches the floor before I stop being covered.

She has only managed that once.

BTW Simon. GET A QUEEN SIZED BED! You won't regret it! If you are feeling REALLY adventurous, I can put you in contact with the people who made our four poster. I'm sure the Nifty Partner Type Thing wouldn't object ;-)

The double-sized quilt seems to be just fine for the moment. Although bigger would look nicer - it'd cover the sides better on the rare occasions when I make the bed. But all my covers are only doubles (it turns out).

Ditto the double bed.

Maybe when I get a place of my own and don't have to move the damn thing every couple of years...

Hmmm four postery goodness *evil grin* Though it then means you have to be less creative in other parts of the house.

But yes double size quilt is quite good & warm & doesn't make me sneeze (yay!)

Um...why does it mean you have to be less creative in the other parts of the house??

Besides, Simon, sometimes you buy things because they just make your life better. And *we* managed - we've had that bed for years and years. If you need help moving your four poster when you buy it, just give us a call you know we will be there with bells on. :-)

Calli

having your own house is nice.

It means you can make all those special touches without having to keep landlords happy. Things like bolting the 4 poster to the wall. Other things as well.

Heh. Those of you who have been to my house probably have a good idea of what I am talking about.

I have to ask... are you guys spinning clockwise or anti-clockwise? I'm doing a study for my honours theisis...

Simon,

Get a Queen Size. They aren't any harder to move than a double, (I got mine at Daphne Street and moved it 3 times) and the extra room is just wonderful!

*big-interstate-hugs*

:) miss you.

Aw.

=)

Eww. I know that one. We had a rat die in our house in Bunbury. We could never locate the source of the smell. Eventually we found it MANY years later while demolishing the kitchen. It'd crawled into the chimney and been smoked. It was preserved like an egyptian mummy.

At the Rechabites Hall they once had a rat die underneath the northern dressing room. They had to pull the floorboards out of the entire room just to find it and get rid of it.
   You and your nose have my deepest condolencenses. :-)

eewwww. *gag*

I remember *that* smell, too. *shudder*

Awwww I miss you too.

But a week! A Week! and then you will be here. Huzzah!

*happy grin*

*kiss*

THis is like the sweetest, love-in-like, huggable web forum in the world. :-)

All warm and fuzzy like.

With queen size doonas!

The PowerPC emulator is a beautiful example of "Cos I can" emulation. It may not be particularly useful but it was worth playing with "cos we can".

Makes me wonder about the PDP11 emulators out there...

Come back Simon! All is forgiven!

(Just wondering how you are going?)

*nods*
It got all quiet-like. I see a tumbleweed...
*peers around hopefully for Vash the Stampede*

(btw for those of you who haven't worked it out, I'm Candice. Nominally Female is my blogging name ^_^)

Sorry. Been away on holiday, you see. Am back now.

And now have shiny new laptop to keep me distracted.

Once I get the home wireless and ADSL and the rest of the home network sorted out, there should be more postings!

Hurrah!

Hurrah indeed!

Hurrah hooray!!

Shiny new laptop? What, it full of piccies of the nifty partner type person? ^_-

I want a shiny new laptop!!!!

So do I!!!
:-)

Me too (:

John Samuel has acquired one, also.

Mine is more shiny that John Samuels, as mine is an Apple Powerbook that is made of actual shiny metal. :P

And before anyone hassles me about buying a Mac - it's Unix laptop that runs Word. Without all that messing about with X.

So there!

And I don't have any piccies on it so far.

To quote John Samuels, "Ooooh, shiny thing!"

The boy would buy an Etcher Sketcher if it had a shiny surface and a few blinking lights.

8-)

Who wouldn't?

(says the girl who introduced the word 'shiny' in a whole new light to a section of the population of St Louis...)

You forgot to mention that at Red Rock, they also state on the menu that it is no trouble to specify any food allergies to the waitpeople just in case.

And yes a very fine restaraunt choice indeed, my darling.

*lick*

licking? What happened to all the hugging? This used to be a nice, G-rated messageboard.
   Sigh. The kids of today...

And here I am at work, about to start the next job, which just happens to be a Red Rock menu....

Following a 4-1 decision by the OFLC - Discussion board section, the following guidelines should be observed. The following words must now be used with extreme caution,

lick - obviously
rock - often used with the word 'hard' and 'red', red rock is acceptable in cullinary discussions but extreme caution should be observed to ensure that 'rock''hard' and 'red' do not appear in the same sentence.
the phrase 'oooh' that was displayed in an earlier sentence should be avoided as it may make consumers think of a time that they said 'oooh' is a higher or lower tone than usual.
That is all

*blink*

The Office of Film and Literature Classification read my discussion board?

Mr Oxwell, we object most strongly to your gratuitious use of the word "blink". As a result your web page has come under review and has been determined by a unanimous majority to be rated MA15+ henceforth.

Obviously "like clingwrap for the soul" means that its something that keeps you feeling fresh deep down inside for several weeks at a time.

I like the idea that "like clingwrap for the soul" is something which you rub against your heart every now and then to refresh the old bits... like that time what you win lotto, or if you're a writer, the time that Neil Gaiman said "Hey, I liked your opening line.." or the girl you were secretly in love with for the past 5 years walked past with her skirt in her knickers or something....See, something refreshing!

See to me it sounds like when your soul is cold and unchanging and you have some stop-gap measure to stop it's decay but without life it slowly dies...

Aren't I cheery :)

To me it sounds like security. Clingwrap (used properly) wraps tightly around and won't let anything fall out.

Hey Sophie!
http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=579

:-)

Cheshire- heehee.

I'm not angsty, I'm _unique_ :P

Aww, I love & miss you too.

*big cuddles*

The trouble with being a valuable member of staff/indispensible, is that while the job security is great, it's a real problem trying to get time off.

Start training a "Junior"
I had to do that to get holidays...

Has anyone seen Mr Null Space recently? Anyone?

Still here. Work gets busy and I don't blog as much.

There. Three posts in less than 6 hours. Now stop whinging. :P

Yes Uncle Simon.

No more whingeing.

Mind you now I have visions of you either covered in Howard Hughes style hair or completely shaved with tattoos.

Wierd.

Singapore AND thailand! I'm jealous! Give Lisa our hugs!

Calli

Edited by author 09-08-2004 11:55 AM
If you want a nice white beach to lie on in Thailand, I'd reccomend Koh Samet over all the 'touristy' islands like Koh Pipi and Koh Samui etc. Admittedly it was 15 (my god!) years ago that I was there, but it was just as beautiful, but more where the locals go to slack off than where Helga and Reiner and their friends go.
Ahh, to have the coconut ice cream man trotting up and down the beach again, and to have dinner under fairy lights with your toes in the sand at your table in the warm tropical breeze.
Sigh.

To misquote the mighty Ben Aaronovitch: talent borrows, genius steals, Grant gets it off the back of a truck with no questions asked. :-)

Substitute "Microsoft Server" for "Oracle" and you have my friday summed up.

I don't know what is wrong with the new DLink modems we just bought but I haven't seen anything lock up a server quite as well. They are bloody SERIAL modems! We buy them because (until now) I thought it was impossible to f$ck them up. Boy was I wrong!

I left at 8:15pm, with LESS functionality rather than more.

Doesn't help that the server has a 15 MINUTE boot cycle.

Hmm, the news about the bridge must be really important if you tell it to us 8 times ;)

Stupid blogger.com

*fiddles under the hood*

OK. Fixed.

I am seeing The Dresden Dolls on Friday.

So there! :)

So, how were they?

Glad you enjoyed the party!

*bounce bounce*

Hugs are good :)


(read understatement by Ju: of the year category)

Went thru all that dentist and teeth thing about 9 months ago.

In 15 years without a dentist I'd accumulated only 3 extra cavities.

But yes, that wierd "rough" feeling for a few weeks afterwards was odd.

*tap dances across the page*

:-D

Man, I felt bad for putting it off for three years :)

I almost felt dissapointed when he said I had no cavities. All that worry for nothing! That'll teach _me_ to go to the dentist!

Suddenly I am having strange flashbacks to "Being John Malcovich" but with Simon in the John Cusack role.

/me slaps self in head.

STOP with the runaway thoughts. They only lead to madness.

I like Little India a lot.

*sniff*
I want to go to Singapore! Tell John how wonderful it is, he doesn't want to go!!!

Very warm and humid from memory, though with a cool science museum. :)

Singapore's a weird one for me - a combination of the terribly antiseptic and the curiously wonderful. Little India is definitely worth visiting - great curry restaurants and the dodgiest bumper cars I've ever ridden in. I also managed to go during deepavali (sp?), which makes a huge difference.

As mentioned in Simon's blog it has many geeky attractions, plus some great historical sites if you're vaguely into WW2.

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble...


Hmm.

I loved SIngapore. I spent alot of time at the zoo. I bought my white tiger plushie in Singapore ^_^ I bought alot in Singapore full stop actually. My first anime store was in Singapore. =)

Grumblegrumble... people holidaying in Singapore and Bangkok. I'm back at work after one day off following a 70 hour week. Grrr. :-)

This entire holiday (for me at least) is entirely funded by time off in lieu of overtime.

So there! :P

^_^

Paint it any way you want you holidaying bastard.

Hey! 300th post! Whee!!

miss you! *hugs* thank you for sharing adventures with me :)

*still waiting at the bloody airport*

Nobody holidays in Bangkok. Survival is enough. To paraphrase Billy Connolly, I wouldn't fly over Bangkok unless I was in a Lancaster full of horseshit.

Singapore, on the other hand, I would love to get to one day. Sigh. Lucky lucky jammy lucky lucky jammy lucky...

Edited by author 27-09-2004 09:12 PM
I worked out how to fix my blog, so there's a new post up for
the first time since July 2, 2004.

Have a great time in Singapore, both of you (:

Yay for blogs! I've missed reading about your life, Lily.

I love Bangkok! I'd take it over Singapore any day of the week, Bangkok has life as when Singapore always remindes me of a Doctor's surgery.

Only in Bagkok have I met an elephant walking down the street and not thought it odd.

Just to let you know Im think of you and hoping work isnt too bad

hugz...

Ah... Alien vs Predator. I thought I was enjoying it until I realised that I was just responding happilly to all the bits they'd stolen wholesale from all the other Alien and Predator movies.

Hahaha

We're al drunk!

Al drunk?

Is that anything like al dente? Just drunk enough?

Hmm.

Don't remember writing the post below. Doesn't mean that it didn't happen, but I suspect that my browser was hijacked.

That'll teach me, won't it?

Actually darling, I am 90% certain it was you. I believe you leapt at your PC declaring "hey, let's all post on every one else's blogs saying how drunk we are!"
*GRIN*

Hey Simon! I'm a .inf. And w00T! I'm the Amiga OS.

File extensions!!!! You guys are such geeks.

Word.

Apparantly I'm the palm OS:

"Punctual, straightforward and very useful. Your Mother wants you to do more with your life like your cousin Wince, but you're happy with who you are". Hrm.

And I'm also a wildcard. So there you go.

I nearly choked on my Mini M&M I was eating...

punctual....seriously

Apple DOS 3.1???
You are Apple Dos. Simple and primitive with a good understanding of the common man. You're still a work in progress, but a good start.

Just to clarify: my statement of "word" was intended as a homie-style agreement with Kwylo, rather than an admission that I had taken the test. (The result of which was .mp3, btw. Apparently the kids love me.)

Happy Birthday gorgeous! *long distance cuddles*

*huggles and cuddles and all lovely purry things*

Happy Birthday...

I'm sorry I won't be able to make it on Friday, as much as I'd love to, and I'm sure Kaneda too, my parents fly in on Saturday so unfortunetely I'll be running around doing a mad CLEAN!!! *FREAK*

In any case, I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your Uncle, and 30 is still YOUNG! Hopefully I will see you reasonably soon so I can give you the hugs and snuggles in person.

*purrr*

- The Professional Lap Cat

Sorry to hear about your uncle. :-(

See you tomorrow night.

hugs & sympathies for all your sadness.

Condolences dude, and apologies for piking on the party. Am up in Perth over xmas/new year and hope to catch up with you then. Stay sane till then.

Thanks for the Partius Maximus, Simon!

Wooo! Enjoy your new consumer icon!
/me goes green with envy!!!

Hey, sorry I missed your party and sorry to hear about your Uncle,

Your 30... i always think of you as being older than me... it must be your maturity....nah

Edited by author 15-11-2004 11:23 AM
Really? Wow.

Edited by author 15-11-2004 02:13 PM
Oh geez!

YOU ended up as one of the two Yak herders? I know what happened to Lee, but still. Wasn't there ANYBODY you could have called at short notice, rather than having to endure the heat AND work? Talk about suffering for ones art. Hell, if it hadn't been against Margaret River, I'd have dragged on a hairy beard.

As it turned out there was supposed to be SIX yak herders, and Grant was supposed to be suppling three of them... and was told this on Saturday.

Short notice would have invloved ringing someone at 6am to get them to Mt Helena for 7:15. I couldn't do that to anyone.

And behind the scenes filming really isn't at all intensive. Mostly waiting for something interesting to film. Turns out that making TV/movies is simultaenously just as exciting and boring as you'd think.

I should point out that for all I know I did agree to supply three yak herders and merely forgot this in a haze of pre-shoot hysteria.

TV shoots really are both interesting and boring. The interesting bits are extremely cool, and are interspersed within lengthy periods of waiting while the crew do their thing. Which for all I know is exceedingly interesting to them.

One thing that Simon, Dave and I noticed was the amount of terminology still in use that's based on shooting film - even when you're actually shooting on digital video. "Cut", "Print", etc.

Hey in animation they still talk about footage and it's done on computers

Well, it *is* The Sunday Times my darling...

Apparently the Sunday Times has a "reading age" of 9, and the West Australian used to have a "reading age" of 12. These days, people think the West Australian is getting awfully close to the Sunday Times.

Since I don't read newspapers, would that be correct?

I like to think of The Sunday Times as a shopping catalogue with a few extra bits.

The standard of the West continues to decline. I dream of a quality local paper that actually reports news and issues, but I suspect I will be dreaming for some time...

For a long time I had abc.net.au/news as my start page, and between that and the blogosphere I seemd to get a more rounded, more accurate view of the world.

I'd say things like "Hey, isn't it scary the way things are heating up again between India and Pakistan?" and people around me whould go "Hunh?" which was a bit disheartening. They'd then comment on some stupid sport thing that I wasn't particularly interested and which was likely to only be relevant to, say, WA, as opposed to, say, a full on shooting war in the India/Pakistan Theatre. They'd then be puzzled why I DIDN'T know about which person had slept with which sports star.

I'd then stop talking to them about news at all as they had no clue. The worst thing is that it wasn't really their fault. The news about the sports start was emblazoned across the newspaper and the teevee, whereas the exchanges over the disputed Kashmir reigon would be, at best, on page 11 of the newspaper, and probably not in the tv news at all.

I shall stop venting now...

I know exactly how you feel.

It's the golden rule of news, a cat stuck in the tree round the corner is worth more than a massacre across the other side of the world. Local always beats international, thing with pictures beats thing without.

Personally I'm fond of being happily oblivious

And local newspapers only get worse in the country. I have to send press releases to them, and there's one local paper that refuses to print anything to do with a coming event, as that's "advertising" according to the editor.
p.s. Happy Birthday moonbug!

Punkrocker, I do find it somewhat disturbing that you are wishing me happy birthday via someone else´s blog.

But thanks anyhow :) It involved the Atlantic, the beach, alcohol and coconut juice.

For the love of God, man, update your blog.

I've been checking regularly since bookclub (nearly 2 weeks ago!) when you said you had to go and write a rant... and it hasn't appeared!

I agree with Grant!

I do check Grant and Simon's blogs every day. Sometimes more often, depending on how bored I am.
Now, I have Zelda.
:-)
And Ferrero Rochere from my birthday. So now, I lie in front of the TV and eat chocolate. Except when I am being visited and visiting.
*grin*
I love being unemployed sometimes.

Man, I am so desperate for work to end tomorrow so I can have two weeks' holiday to just... do absolutely sod all.

And maybe write a screenplay, because, it's like all in my head and needs to be in a word document instead.

Umm.

Fe, did I happen to mention what I was going to rant about?

Oh yeah, that reminds me - add Moonbug's URL to your list! I keep forgetting the URL so can't go visit cos no one has it on their lists down the side!
:-(

:-)
Good boy for updating!

She's been on my sidelist for a while. :) Hah! Knew noone read my blog.
:)

Could have been phones...?

Maybe...

Elaine, I read yours about once a month. And I hate the way when I click on links on your page it pops up into a whole new window, so I stopped checking out your links list a few months ago.
:-)

And I read your blog yesterday!

But anyways.... *HUGS SIMON THANK YOU I LOVE YOU!*

Oh, and every one....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Yay!

Sorry about that Callisto, I did it that way so I wouldn't have to keep going back to look at other blogs, if others find it annoying though I can remove that bit.

Have you tried to describe DVD menu´s like the index of a book?

And I read your blog Aria!

Oh the difficulties in teaching customers how to play DVDs when I was in the video store...

"No, madam - it wouldn't play because you're trying to play it on a CD player. Did it not occur to you that you would need to somehow plug in a television anyway?"

"No, sir. That's okay. We'll rewind the disc for you here at the store."

"No, we can't just 'glue it back together'. Now give us $35.00"

"No, it's not. You see, we call this 'widescreen'. I'll draw you a diagram."

"No, that's because you're running it through your video recorder. It's called macrovision. That means... oh look, it just doesn't work, okay. Wire it up directly to your television."

It's not a hass, Aria, it's just me being whingey! :-) There's a lot of it going around right now because of the heat!

That screech one did bad things to my ears...

Callisto, I guess I'm just used to using Opera which can automatically open new pages in a tab, which makes it much easier to keep track of, I admit when I'm reduced to using IE it does get annoying.

I did try and use Mozilla, but then the set game didn't work properly with the little list of combos that have already worked, where as that feature works under IE. I gave up after that. :-)

remember social engagements, take your vitamins, update blog...

think that´s all. *hug*

"That screech one did bad things to my ears..."

Well, you'd better avoid every episode of Doctor Who from the beginning of Season 18 to the end Season 22 (That's from the start of Tom Baker's last season, through all the Davision's to the end of Colin Baker's first full season), coz it's at the start of every single one of them.