| ObObservations |
[Jul. 4th, 2006|12:53 pm] |
- The party was wonderful; I met many lovely people, most of whose usernames I remembered for long enough to friend them. *waves and hugpiles all round as wanted* :-)
- Monday night pizza and post-pizza games are also a lot of fun.
- The time I left myself before starting work is disappearing at an alarming, accelerating rate.
- It's way too hot! *melts*
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| End of next week: folk festival and housewarming |
[Jun. 27th, 2006|07:25 pm] |
Thank you ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) numberland for pointing this out: Ely folk festival on Saturday 8th. I can give lifts (the last train back leaves at 23:45). The next day I'll host some kind of housewarming BBQish thing from 18:30 (sorry, the garden is otherwise occupied until then, but I'll do another event or two at some point) and am open to suggestions for helping to clean a flat earlier. People from further afield are welcome for all of this; crashspace may be possible, as may dinner on Friday with my family, who are over for the open day, if any Coventry people or others who know them are interested (see comment).
( Inevitable second round of tickyboxes ) |
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| Sanity check |
[Jun. 18th, 2006|11:51 pm] |
Checking sanity… none
I was planning to move to Cambridge on Tuesday, but I currently have no Cambridge plans until the Round ceilidh on Thursday evening. I could therefore delay the move until Thursday, catching a bit more of the BFL. If anyone wants me in Cambridge sooner than Thursday, speak now.
In other news:- Pirates has gone brilliantly so far; all who are able really should come to Warwick Arts Centre (specifically the Studio) at 8pm today (Monday) for our last performance, which is free.
- The Wise Guys now have lyrics for Radio online, including Wir hatten den Moment (very rough translation), of which the last verse and chorus are still a little close to home.</emo>
- Any Maelstrom people reading this, please raise a paw/wing/limb: I appear to have been drawn into going to the July event and have yet to create a character.
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| Plans post |
[Jun. 10th, 2006|08:53 am] |
Slightly less complicated than the last one: Today | Promote Pirates in Stratford. (if I'm ever told the arrangements…) (I wasn't) |
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| Wed 14th | Penultimate load of house-moving. Meeting Meredydd for pizza afterwards. :-) |
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| Thu 15th | Ely! (until I'm needed for the dress rehearsal) |
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Thu 15th
- Mon 19th | Dress rehearsal and performances. ObPlug: Do come see. :-p |
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| Sun 17th | naranek's BBQ, for as long as the performance permits. |
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| Sun 18th | rocksoc picnic, ditto. (really not firing on all thrusters today) |
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Mon 19th
- Thu 22nd | BFL (Big Fine LAN party). |
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Tue 20th
Thu 22nd | Finish moving house! Again, scope for meeting people, but this time extending into the indefinite future. Yay for being Cambridge-based. :-) |
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| Thu 22nd | Find out how my exams went.
Round ceilidh. |
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| Sat 24th | megamole's BBQ. |
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Fri 30th
- Sun 2nd | libellum's party. |
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| WheeeeeeeeeThud. |
[Jun. 4th, 2006|01:13 am] |
Well, that was fun. I now have keys to my new place, measurements of it, a first load of stuff deposited there and bandwidth arranged. At Strawberry Fair, there was some good food, some good music and some not-so-good music (at which point I ran away to prod Google Earth with gerald_duck instead). I also met some St. John Ambulance people from British Gas Eastern Division, who convinced me that they're the most exciting division in Cambridge and I should join them. What on earth am I letting myself in for?
Even sillier, though, are the possible plans for tomorrow, as suggested by tea_cantata at a most enjoyable evening in the Carlton, which involved, variously, geeks nearby, a Java Pixie far away but attending in spirit by the power of the shiny phone, cheesy chips and the usual mix of sick-and-wrong-ness. What are these plans of which I squeak speak? Well… after the rehearsal, I may well go back to Cambridge for a Debian pub-meet. It's tempting, because I'd get another car-load of stuff shifted.
[Error: Invalid poll ID 741508] |
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| \o/ My exams, they are dead! No more, ever again! \o/ |
[Jun. 1st, 2006|05:21 pm] |
That last one went much better, too. I'd been wibbling beforehand about walking the fine line between saying profound, insightful things and making stuff up. I think, in the end, I made up one or two profound, insightful things. :-)
So, my plans then:
| Tonight | Ceilidh! (Peeping Tom, in Coventry) |
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| Tomorrow (birthday) | Look at this Samuel character the Pirates lot are trying to persuade me to be now, audition for it, Chinese party |
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| Saturday | Start moving into my new room, meet some Cambridge St John Ambulance people, Strawberry Fair, meet as many of you lovely people as would like to join me at The Carlton Arms for dinner (let's say 7:30ish, I may be there earlier, phone if looking for me) |
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| Sunday | Pirates rehearsal (full) in the morning, maybe the LIPsoc BBQ |
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| Monday | Another ceilidh, in Leamington (7pm, Newbold Comyn Arms), unless I need to be piratical |
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| Tuesday | Vale Festival in Birmingham (as first aid) |
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| At some point | More birthday celebrations in both Cambridge and Coventry (timed to suit the far-away visitors uisgebeatha and nightshade37 respectively), shift more things to Cambridge, … |
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| Thursday 22nd June | Find out how my exams went |
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| I'm old... |
[May. 30th, 2006|07:55 pm] |
Edit: I'm expecting to hold multiple celebrations. In particular, the Coventry one will likely go ahead with people unlikely to vote here. Also, I will buy people's drinks.
Re-edit: If anyone looks here instead of latest posts, I've declared the Carlton the winner. There from about 19:30ish at a guess; phone if looking for me. :-)
( Birthday celebrations poll ) |
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| Once more with advance warning |
[May. 26th, 2006|11:31 pm] |
I'm back at the beer festival tomorrow afternoon from 3ish, assuming I survive the morning's exam. |
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| Post-exam recovery |
[May. 23rd, 2006|01:27 pm] |
(not post-exams, unfortunately; that's 2nd June)
I'll be at the Cambridge Beer Festival this evening, should anyone wish to find me. |
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| Picnic |
[May. 15th, 2006|12:29 am] |
There was a picnic_meme! With _catharine_, aiwendel, arnhem, atreic, beckyc, briggsy, cartesiandaemon, crag_du, douglas_reay, emperor, enismirdal (this way to the eniphant!), filecoreinuse, gerald_duck, hairyears, innocencest, james_r, kitsunenine, lark_ascending, lavendersparkle, lilnick, lnr, meirion, mobbsy, mjg59, naath, pseudomonas, simont, smcv, snowyfeline, sonicdrift, sunflowerinrain, xanna and others whose usernames haven't (yet) emerged from what passes for my memory these days. I could of course have friended people whilst at the picnic, but I was told I'd be disowned if I did that. :-) In any case, things were barbecued, donuts were thrown, I met many new and interesting people and, last but not least, there were hugs. I'd write more, but my finals start in 13.5 hours. I'll be starting them as a very happy cmb, though. :-) |
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| Film? |
[May. 11th, 2006|05:50 pm] |
So, Mission: Impossible III is out… I spotted one gathering to see it, but I can't make it (already dodging a day of that for the picnic). Does anyone else want to see it at some point? In the unlikely event that I get multiple responses far apart, I have a car. :-)
Edit: possible plan so far: Tuesday 19:00 or 20:00, Birmingham Odeon, linamishima, Chloe?, si1entdave, nightshade37, seren_haf |
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| *bounce* |
[May. 7th, 2006|02:52 pm] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
I've just been to three ceilidhs in as many days: Peeping Tom, The Round and, last but most certainly not least, atreic and emperor's wedding ceilidh (with Junction 24). This involved two separate trips to Cambridge, one of which via Birmingham (to pick up linamishima, whom I hadn't seen for ages). Oh, and did I mention my finals start in a week? At this point I shall pause for you all to call me insane. :-)
I met (and friended where I could remember usernames) a lot of lovely people at Sally's ceilidh. There have been a few moments recently of thinking "hmmm... I really have picked the right place to move to", and last night was one of them. The only bad thing about moving, really, is that the Coventry lot aren't coming with me (and that si1entdave has yet to create his +5 Staff of Greater Bamfing).
The ceilidh itself was great fun. I got a bit lost in a couple of dances (especially the first); that always seems to happen but I think I'm getting better at it. This is the sort of thing I could well end up spending a *lot* of evenings doing once I've moved... I'm joining the mailing lists for The Round and Cambridge Contra Dance; have I missed any?
Oh, and to people I've friended who don't remember talking to me last night: that's because I know of you from somewhere and *would* have talked to you had I torn myself away from the dancing for a bit longer. I think this is what the LJ picnic is for. :-) |
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| Yesterday and a meme |
[Apr. 6th, 2006|12:41 pm] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  silly | ] |
I went to London with linamishima and Chloe, caught up a lot, had a complete stranger join in with a conversation about Eclipse, ate all-I-could-eat pizza, played DDR (EZ2 variant), escaped some very ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif) customers_suckish angry people, saw Waterloo station for the first time since a french exchange years ago, ate apple pancake, watched the Thames a bit and caught up some more over hot chocolate on the train back. All good fun, except for the bit with the locals.
I hesitate to post this meme, because although I can make passable use of The GIMP for a lot of editing tasks, I don't feel confident about actually composing anything from scratch. Still, practice makes perfect, I guess.
- Comment here and I'll pick one of your LJ interests and draw a picture using
the mighty MS paint GIMP. I don't have Paint. Well, I have access to it, but, um, really...
- You have no say in what I draw for you, or in how much it will suck!
- Put this in your journal along with the pictures people drew for you. (nonobligatory)
( Pics from jalbobble and lizzip ) |
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| A fun weekend |
[Jun. 6th, 2005|11:38 am] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  sleepy | ] |
Thursday: some cards arrived (squee!), and in the evening I took some housemates and my neighbour Chrissy to Pizza Hut. Having just eaten far too much pizza, obviously the only sensible thing to do next was to go to a ceilidh (ta for transport planarplatypus), which was fun, even if we did make a lot of silly mistakes. Arrived back at HoG and gave johnaldis crash space because…
Friday: …we needed to catch the 0923 to get to Sheffield to see nightshade37. She gave me an LED torch for my birthday (yay, batbeltage) and we wandered the shops for a bit before going to a lecture on nanotechnology, which was definitely worth seeing. That evening, tired as we all were, the only sensible thing to do next was to go to… another ceilidh. Actually a contra-ceilidh, a faster-paced variant which flows more immediately from one move to the next. Good fun as long as you manage to keep up, or at least do something vaguely similar to what the others in your set are doing. The interval music wasn't bad either. Crash-landing into our respective beds, we agreed to get up at 8, or some equally silly time, in order to get to Alton Towers (with several of Jenny's hall-mates) nice and early.
Saturday: ha. Oh well. We still arrived not too long after opening, and covered everything we wanted to over the course of the day. ( geekery and poll about queueing )
Sunday: helped clear out some of Jenny's stuff. This is the problem with enormous rooms at uni, they rapidly become full of cruft, and then when you have to vacate for the hols so the uni can rent out your room to others, you suddenly have a mammoth transportation task on your hands. I'll not have this problem myself, because I'm staying put again this summer. In any case I seem to acquire less cruft than others, and not just because I have a smaller room. I'm not entirely sure why. Arrived back in Coventry, watched some Dr Who with John and Jenny to give them a break before continuing their journey (they were going about another 2h30 to Crayford that evening). Collapsed. |
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| A fun weekend :-) |
[Mar. 23rd, 2005|12:33 am] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  happy | ] |
Friday: met tea_cantata in Huntingdon. Went to the film night at hers with a few other people; it was Ferris Bueller's Day Off and some interesting bits of Eddie Izzard in french. Avec une araignée. :-) Crashed upon the decadent!couch, thanks womble2.
Saturday: wandered various places, including meeting some Debian people, which was fun. Ended up at Steve McIntyre's for the evening, and due to being in the right place at the right time, I am now one of the founding members of the Debian UK Society. Of course, that's not a meaningful entity and only exists in order for Debian to have a UK bank account, but still, it amuses me. Crashed at the youth hostel. An incident on the way in (late) drew my attention to the fact that they use a maglock. Why oh why does everybody do this? DCS internal doors too. They are ridiculously easy to defeat with a small amount of force, as si1entdave has insisted on demonstrating several times. I suppose you can still detect that the door has been opened, but that's not overly reassuring.
Sunday: wandered some more. Spent much of the day noticing that various places were closed. Browsed bookshops, music shops, et cetera. Acquired Bicentennial Man on DVD, which made me happy, for it is a good film, managing to be interesting on some philosophical level, funny, and heartwarming. Yes, I know, I'm possible overly sentimental. *looks embarrassed and hides* ...crashed at the youth hostel again. They do good breakfasts, by the way. The whole thing is £17 a night all in, and the only complaint I have is that there are always one or two people snoring. Can't be helped really.
Monday: went to a few of the places that had been closed. Bought a sustain pedal for my keyboard, and a book of 50 songs. Promptly left town before I spent any more money. :-p
Edit: oh, and I had a haircut. My hair is no longer in front of my eyes. :-) |
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| Well that was all just a little silly |
[Dec. 22nd, 2004|02:15 am] |
| [ | Mood |
| | bouncy | ] |
What started as a quick visit to join people for a few hours became a delayed visit (thank you lack of rail-replacement buses and uninformed staff at MK and a freezing 30min change in Bedford), which was nonetheless great fun, for 2 days. Found nattie, went to the Regal with lizzie and friends, chatted a bit, was approved of I think (yay), was plotted at, got a haircut, coffee with nattie, found DrWatson's present, lurked at a Debian gathering for a bit, stayed at YHA, found nattie and dave (lurking variety), watched Phantom of the Opera (film version, good but has minor changes) with lizzie, went to the Carlton, caught the very last train (no really, the only thing on the departure boards of Birmingham New Street by the time I was there), got back, panicked about phpBB a bit, and *collapsed*.
Muchly fun though. :-) |
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| High-Risibility Clothing Must Be Worn |
[Dec. 6th, 2004|01:05 am] |
| [ | Mood |
| | sleepy | ] |
I've just been at the Ffestiniog Railway in Wales for the weekend with si1entdave, nightshade37, Nugent (currently a person of no account here) and planarplatypus (although he was somewhere completely different on Permanent Way, i.e. track maintenance, whereas I was with Signalling and Telecomms). *eyes light up* It was fun... I didn't end up actually doing very much in the end, although I learnt a lot. I'm told this would be very different if there'd been a larger working party happening. During the course of the weekend we:
- Donned excessive high-vis stuff. I don't think I've ever seen anyone more orange than dave was...
- Had the obligatory site induction and safety lecture, in my case, given by dave and thus entertaining (summary: there are Big Chunky Things here that people make trains with. Many of them can kill you. Be sensible.)
- Put up a clock in one of the large work rooms at Boston Lodge. This involved getting a cable to it around a cable tray near the roof, with dave occasionally crawling on it to do so. "Er, dave, you know you said we should tell people if they're doing Health & Safety naughtinesses?"
- Looked around the telephone exchange room, including dave explaining the inner workings of most of it. It's a Strowger exchange with links to about 6 other stations, and its own clock system involving two pendulums, various bits of electronics, the signal from the Rugby atomic clock, and correction of that for lag due to the speed of light. This is what the clock we added is connected to.
- Looked at circuit diagrams for parts of the phone exchange and a few phones. The phones at least I could get a vaguely complete understanding of, because there isn't much to them.
- Visited a couple of other sites on the phone network. It was kind of cool to see what equipment the test calls we'd made earlier bouncing around the network had actually gone through.
- Oh, and there was pubbage on the Saturday evening at Y Ring in Llanfrothen. Food was a little slow, but worth the wait.
In short: very, very shiny, and I'll be going back there for more weekends now and then. I think the next convenient one is in February some time. Now I am tired and must go and fall over. Good night everyone :-) |
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| Stuff happened |
[Nov. 29th, 2004|02:50 am] |
| [ | Mood |
| | cheerful | ] |
Specifically:
- A ceilidh! With lizzip and tea_cantata, organised by this lot. Great fun, and I shall be looking at the ceilidh soc here at Warwick...
- Some Bug Squashing (thanks Steve McIntyre for being such a good host yet again)
- Some assorted silliness (an idiot? easily summonable? maker of flimsy excuses? who, me? well, yes...)
- A lift back to Coventry with Chris Halls (thanks), OpenOffice person, at whose suggestion I shall be attempting to help out where I can with OpenOffice bugs, since I do actually find it useful quite often.
Now I seriously need to sleep. Good night everyone. :-) |
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| A Very Bad Day |
[Nov. 17th, 2004|03:26 am] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
zeus has been crashing far more than previously the past few days, by which I mean that firefox, xmms, gkrellm, and occasionally the entire X server have been falling over. Also, very occasionally, the entire machine hardlocks. About as often, I get display corruption (an xterm's cursor will repeat at some other point on the screen). Graphics card swap didn't help.
So I ran memtest86+. Seems one of my RAM sticks had 152 errors on it. I shall be RMAing that in any case. One swap later... and things still seem to fall over. I give up. Some time soon I shall stop trying funky nvidia driver options and get some sleep...
And all this while I need to be doing web development for various reasons, and project work, and... gah. Perhaps we'd all be better off with abaci.
And the good news? Well, there was PretzelMeet III, that was good. Things like that help keep me (in)sane (depends which is which under your preferred terminology). |
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recumbent
exhausted
awake
ecstatic
curious
crazy
somewhat less lonely now :-)