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| Thursday, January 7th, 2010 |
21reasons
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9:36p |
"Where's second?"
Last night, as I was leaving work, a woman came up to me. She was having difficulties getting her car out of her snow covered parking space. I duly helped her get some ice out of the way of her wheels and said I'd give it a push if she still needed help getting it to move. When she started the car and tried to move away the wheels span. As one of the few things I know about driving in snow is that you don't want to overdo the power I asked her whether she'd tried moving off in second gear, not first. To this she replied, "where's second?" Umm. Where it's always been? What I actually told her was that second gear is the one below first but she still needed re-assuring after she had put it in gear that her reversing lights weren't on and she wasn't about to lunge into the car parked behind her. Does she have other names for the gears? First, Bob, Margaret, Fourth and Mark, maybe? How does she internally refer to that gear you use after first when accelerating from a stop? Current Mood:  okayCurrent Music: Pearl Jam, live at Hartford, 27/06/2008 |
out0fcontrol
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9:07p |
Health Test thingy
Well because I joined the gym, I had to have a health test thing to ensure I wasn't going to drop dead or anything the first time I exercised. So 11 - 12 today was booke din for this. They measured my height, weight (therefore BMI), hip to waist ratio, resting heart rate, cardiovascular activity level, glucose level, cholesterol, blood pressure and much more. Turns out health wise my body is handling things excellently Glucose level is normal, bordering on low ( a good thing) Choleserol is lower than they measure (less than 3.88), which is a VERY good thing Blood pressure is normal Resting heart rate was 66bpm, again good The rest I expected to be bad, I mean I dont exercise regularly and am overweight. This is hopefully going to be improved on, as I have my first "workout" session with a trainer in 2 weeks. They'll ask what I want to do with my body and they'll come up with a routine to do x many times a week to help acheive this. I'm hoping to be swimming twice a week anyway and 1 gym session to start with a week Oh and went swimming after this. Did 15 lengths this time in the same timeframe (20 mins) and then spent 10 mins in the jacuzzi :) Even did front crawl for 2 lengths. Glad of jacuzzi tho, it really helped get rid of any aches. Will see how I feel tomorrow to see if it helped as much as expected. And hopefully will see a few of you over the weekend too :) Bye for now K |
craigoxbrow
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5:36p |
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craigoxbrow
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5:26p |
Apparently we've got a shot at -20 temperatures out of town tonight. Unlike, say, Montreal, we really don't have the setup to handle that for any length of time. Wheee. Current Mood:  cold |
robin_d_laws
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9:20a |
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silverhippo
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12:31p |
Birthday Ceilidh
OK so after the Birthday poll it looks like we have lots of votes for doing a Ceilidh on the 15th for my Birthday. Tickets can be bought from the following web site ( http://www.ehacoustics.com/edinburghceilidhs/buy.html). I seem to remember that for the January ones the tickets sell quite fast so it may be worth buying in advance as there may not be any on the door. |
alaimacerc
|
2:53a |
Saruman the Black?
Christopher Lee does... symphonic metal. (I nearly Freudian-typoed that as "mental".) Thanks to the Team Biffy punters for pointing this one out. Current Mood:  amusedCurrent Music: Twin Atlantic, "Human After All" |
deathlyphil
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12:16a |
Do you ever have phrases or lyrics that run through your mind for no reason? This is the latest one... "All the lonely people. Where do they all come from?" - Eleanor Rigby, The Beatles. |
yodathedark
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12:02a |
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| Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 |
alaimacerc
|
7:12p |
Holey Molary
After last month's highly belated visit to the optician, a similarly overdue trip to the dentist's. More deterioration on this front than on the other, unfortunately: need three fillings, all in the same "octant", one of them something of a "make or break" job on a wisdom tooth. That'll be fun. Current Mood:  somewhat decayed |
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goats_comic
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12:00a |
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robin_d_laws
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9:20a |
Recruitment Drive
 Apologies to non-locals while I take care of some important business...
The demon of busy scheduling has struck again, leaving me regretting the departure of a recent but much appreciated addition to my Thursday night gaming group. As a result I am putting out an open call for one new recruit. In the past I’ve kept a waiting list, but it’s been many years since I’ve done a call and want to start from scratch. Apologies if you’ve contacted me in the past; please bear with me by getting in touch again.
To join the group, you’ll need to be reliably free on Thursday nights and able to get to the Bloor-Bathurst area in downtown Toronto. We meet from 7 pm to 10 pm.
You will also need a saintly tolerance for my playtesting needs. I run games I’m either designing or need to familiarize myself in order to do freelance work for. Lately we’ve had an unusually long run with a single campaign, which happens to be D&D4. Soon we’ll be switching to the as-yet-unnamed GUMSHOE space game. Often I’ll have to suddenly abandon a successful series in midstream to go on to the next thing. We usually play RPGs but there’s always the chance you may be asked to test-drive a card or board game along the way.
In the past I’ve accepted players on a first-come, first-served basis. This time, I’m looking to cast the new candidate a little more, with an eye to keeping our group dynamic fresh.
If you’re interested, leave a comment or private LJ message with a way of contacting me back. Or if you’re seeing this on the Facebook, leave a message in my inbox. Give me a quick sense of your gaming tastes.
Whether you jump in for the last few weeks of the D&D game or wait till Space GUMSHOE will be up to you. |
silverhippo
|
8:39a |
What to do for my Birthday
So I will be another year older on January the 18th Mum wants to do a family thing on the 16th and I think that the 16th already clashes with another party. So I have several options: 1. Decide I am too old for this and do nothing. 2. Go to the pub with friends - pub suggestions please (probably on the 22 or 23rd) 3. Go for a meal - I like Nandos but other suggestions welcomed (probably on the 22 or 23rd) 4. Go to a Ceilidh (there is one at Pollock Halls on the 15th) 5. Something else? Any ideas or thoughts? |
| Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 |
craigoxbrow
|
7:37p |
Nationals signup and categories are out, let's see what gets going. I haven't changed idea in a month for the category I got, which is probably a good sign. |
robin_d_laws
|
9:20a |
Courage Is Smart-Assery Under Pressure
This blog’s first Hero Of Freedom Award goes to whoever first coined the term crotch-bomber to describe Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, along with all of those who have wisely promulgated its use. Ridicule is an important and all-too-underused weapon in the battle against global terrorism. It may not directly deter the depressed and anomic young loner types or the outsourcing psychokillers who recruit them. However, by refusing to act as if we are terrified, we can remove the alleged geopolitical benefit of bombing attempts. With it goes the psychological thrills these guys are chasing, and which keep their rolls called and their coffers filled.
At the same time I humbly submit that the alternate terms underwear bomber and especially pantie-bomber are overdoing it. They smack a mite of schoolyard desperation, where crotch-bomber somehow strikes the right note of dismissive contempt. Let’s, as Ron Burgundy would have us do, stay classy, people.
My hope is that the ridiculously restrictive new TSA regulations handed down after the failed attempt will trigger an overdue attitude adjustment. In the name of warding off a statistically unlikely catastrophe, air travelers have demonstrated a willingness to be ritually inconvenienced for about twenty minutes in the scanner line-up. Not being able to hold anything in your hands or open your carry-on luggage for the last hour of flight crosses a line that might get voters thinking about the costs of ill-targeted fearfulness. Until now, the career incentives for politicians and officials have pushed them in the direction of ever more restrictive measures. Call me a crazy dreamer, but I’d love to see some countervailing pressure that rewards them for playing it cool and not overreacting. Make the intelligence effort smarter, by all means. But airport precautions that don’t change the odds give the attackers much of what they want even when the bombs remain undetonated.
Granted, it’s easier to adopt a stiff upper lip in the event of a near miss. When a plane full of people dies as the result of human malice, odds calculation goes out the window. We are horrified and angered in a way that we wouldn’t be by an equivalent number of fatal road accidents or deaths from lack of preventative medical care.
But even if something spectacularly horrible happens, we North Americans need to toughen up. We’d muster defiance in the face of an actual war. Let’s try some in this ongoing low intensity conflict. |
| Monday, January 4th, 2010 |
craigoxbrow
|
5:09p |
A realisation
The Curse Of Fatal Death was the last time Steven Moffat got to create a new-look Doctor. And he's got emo hair and a generally practical black-and-brown outfit. Hmm... Current Mood:  amused |
robin_d_laws
|
9:20a |
Dance Dance Resolution
Although I am not a life coach (unlike my friend Rebecca, who was best man at my wedding) I had the kind of thought a life coach would have on Friday, when the friends list filled up with various and sundry New Year’s resolutions. On the grounds that writing and game design qualify one for everything, I hereby present this advice for your edification.
Given that the exercise of willpower is given over to the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that is overworked and underpaid, the traditional resolution is a poor mechanism for impulse control. It is better at generating guilty feelings than at breaking habits we want to rid ourselves of.
Instead, use resolutions to promise yourself a few new adventures in the year to come. Depending on your resources and wherewithal, they might be big, like taking up a new sport or language. More likely you want to pick easily achievable micro-adventures.
For example, my resolutions for the year are:
* achieve mastery over fennel, annexing it into the vegetable rotation
* investigate pozole, with an eye to making some
These, you have noted, are modest and easily achieved. (Well, maybe not the pozole; I haven’t looked into it yet.) If carried out, they will result in pleasure. And, since I couched them as resolutions, the agreeable sense of an action item ticked off the to-do list. If not achieved, I will go over to Mexitaco and have their delicious pozole—a more than acceptable alternate outcome.
Needless guilt bad. Giving a gift to yourself, good.
Thus endeth the life lesson. Happy 2010, everybody. |
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goats_comic
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12:00a |
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| Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 |
alaimacerc
|
11:54p |
Dara O'Biquitous.
The seasonal TV prevalence of David Tennant has been much-remarked on, for example in this very day's Observer. It must be said that D. O'Briain is getting a pretty good crack of the whip himself, though: two of his standup gigs, numerous comedy panel appearances, and Three Men Go To Ireland. Not only is he "having it both ways" on atheism vs. Ireland, I'd have to say he is too on "too Irish" vs. "not Irish enough". Clearly further much further research into Exactly the Right Amount of skepticism and Ireland -- probably down a pub somewhere. Current Mood: amusedCurrent Music: aye-diddle-de-aye tin whistle incidentals |
craigoxbrow
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5:18p |
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| Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 |
craigoxbrow
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8:30p |
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craigoxbrow
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8:13p |
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craigoxbrow
|
7:12p |
Who, exactly?
Doctor Who 2009I found this quite by accident while image-searching for Ice Warriors, which probably says something about its public profile. It drags on a bit like a 45-minute episode in 70 minutes, the Doctor doesn't zip along talkily enough, has rubbishly-spiked hair and has a decidedly wobbly accent, it suffers a bad case of Fan Film Excessive Ambition (a series called "Doctor Who 2009" which has managed one episode in that time, with eleven planned and nothing but a CG trailer to show for the rest), and has some on-the-nose-about-the-fictional-construc t points - with a literature student Companion I suppose it's fair enough to reference it, but still. Watching it after The End Of Time and the first glimpse of Smith doesn't help comparison-wise either. But it sets up the pseudo-series well, has a decent mix of amusing and maudlin, and eh, still better than the Colin Baker series. It borrows a lot of the mannerisms of the Davies years and does its best to follow its emotional weightiness, but otherwise looks and acts rather like an 80s serial - that fairly padded running time, for one thing. It also has the inevitable effect of making me think what I'd make a Who film like. Use the locations we have, so... stopping now. Current Mood:  busy |
alaimacerc
|
12:32a |
Good Old Myles
Happy Birthday, M. Corcoran! I've got you a li'l red truck that you may (or may not) choose to lend-lease to BB. :) Current Mood: cheerful |
| Friday, January 1st, 2010 |
alaimacerc
|
11:59p |
Year++;
Happy 2010, everyone! Current Mood:  cold |
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