Another Quiz

I now have Serenity on DVD. It's a crying shame there will not be a sequel, unlike films that suck like Final Destinaion (or rather, Same Story 3).

Apart from the gender switch and the spicy food this is pretty much accurate I guess.

Your results:
You are Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)

Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 75% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 65% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 65% Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 65% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 50% Alliance 50% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 40% River (Stowaway) 40% Inara Serra (Companion) 30% Wash (Ship Pilot) 15% A Reaver (Cannibal) 0%

You are good at fixing things. You are usually cheerful. You appreciate being treated with delicacy and specialness.

Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test

'Cos Everyone Else Did It...

Proving these things truly are illo... nonsense.

Your results:
You are Spock

Spock 64% Data 58% James T. Kirk (Captain) 55% Worf 55% Chekov 55% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 50% Jean-Luc Picard 50% Deanna Troi 50% Uhura 45% Beverly Crusher 45% Mr. Sulu 40% Will Riker 35% Geordi LaForge 30% Mr. Scott 25% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 20%

You are skilled in knowledge and logic. You believe that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

An Old Dude Returns

Turkey baster?

Wine Bars

This weekend I almost committed a deed that was both dark and heinious and a betrayal of my Gaelic working class roots.

I almost went to a wine bar.

It was a mate's birthday bash and he'd arranged to meet me at "Henry's Wine Bar" on the Saturday.

Fortunately my great betrayal was swiftly averted when Henry's turned out to be a champagne bar, not some common garden wine bar. So that was alright.

It's a fairly expensive place, specialising in cocktails at £6 a pinch - definitely the place you take young ladys to appear flush with the cash. After genteely sipping a Metropoliton for an hour and then being convinced that everyone was out to get me drunk with all the "finish your drink Stu, we're leaving" at every public house we went to we absconded to a Chinese round the corner from the train station. Apparently it had just reopened due to fire (and not food poisoning I hope!). The cake's good though.

Good night out in Leicester centre. And no social etiquette was harmed in the making of this post. Hurrah!

Too Hot to Handle

Excitement struck our office at Leicester University over Tuesday-Wednesday with the introduction of some temperature sensitive strips designed to tell you the temperature and save the uni m... er... make us more aware if our office was too warm or too cold compared to health and safety standards (i.e. not at the 'comfort zone' of 20 degrees). Each of us got one strip, though the amount of money it may save on heating is probably being spent looking at the strip and egging it past 23 degrees.

At least now arguments on the office being too cold when we open our doors to the students will end, the office is about 25-27 degrees currently. Though I'm sure there'll be other things to fight about, important issues like the amount of blue-tac, how wide the window is open or the lack of good whinging to be had lately.

More interestingly with there being three strips in our office I took one strip home, where it promptly turned blood-red, indicating a temperature circa 27-29 on a chilly day.

On and if you've not been following Steve's new blog Horton's Folly it's been getting extra silly lately.

"A mix of Cthuluesque madness, rice and nerdiness."
-The Times

Visiting the Third Fane of Hell

This week I have been mostly getting lost. Which is nice because I've not had any Leicester Adventures (tm) recently. For those not in the know (a number 1 less than the population of Britain I would wager) a Leicester Adventure (tm) is where while trying to find some main street/motorway/glaringly obvious landmark or making a slight alteration in heading I end up either trapped in a warren of narrow one-way street or driving 5 miles wondering where the heck the main road or any other part of the Midlands I recognise is hiding.

I've discovered a lot of takeaway places and supermarkets this way. Still haven't found the Asdas supposedly near my gaff though.

I went to Birmingham this weekend. A friend of mine had described Birmingham's lovely Digbeth Coach Station as hell's waiting room but the rest of Digbeth was similarly hellish. It was a grey overcast day but I'm convinced the sky had more colour than the surrounding buildings, including the aptly named "Digbeth Cold Storage Area", a vintage vinyl record shop and an alarming amount of adult bookstores. The bookshop I was looking for (which, no, was definitely not one of the aforementioned adult bookstores) didn't exist but I did satisfy my curiousity as to what the Coach Station looked like.

While I had some trouble getting to Birmingham, leaving I discovered that trying to head northeast to Leicester meant a trip through the Midlands via every little hamlet including another aptly titled area called "No Man's Heath". I realised once I crossed two counties and ended up in Warwickshire I was probably going the wrong way home. Unless I was going back to Dundee.

Fencing was very good this week, though they've decided to finally just sod all pretences on Leicester's London Road and dig a really big hole and not allow anyone past. This had apparently caused bus drivers problems as Leicester is a maze. In fact it took me a good 20 minutes to miraculously find myself emerging on the other side of the hole after driving down one street and trying to head back to the London Road.

I've finally decided to take the plunge and get an XL jacket and padding as trying to find some club kit that fits is... a humbling experience. And I'd like to be able to protect my back from any nasty backstabbing sorts.

Work has been pretty much as described earlier, with the added plus that it looks like no-one outside the office is surprised by the problems or really cares. I will have to come in at weekends in the near future as well! To be honest I'd happily work Sat-Sun if it meant I could get 2 days off normally.

It's not all doom and gloom at work. The labs and courses I'm teaching are a lot more interesting this term, I'm a lot more organised and I really enjoy taking the labs (mind you I enjoy anything to do with my job that gets me away from the office and the moan throne therein).

Monday mornings are becoming increasingly odd in that I seem to spend a lot of time dispensing sage non-computing advise on careers and real life issues to my students. I'm not sure when I became old enough to start giving advice people actually listened to, but it seems to have happened.

And apparently I get officially older this month. Fortunately my wits haven't gotten addled yet. Unless you count the lack of direction sense I'm developing...

Cheesy Advert

Ah, my job is just like this er... NOT!

Mines is more like this show plus the guy looks and acts a lot like me.

Another Disturbing RPG Movie

Yup - another one

Dr Stu and Dr Who

They've put the Dr. Who interactive episode on the web from Xmas for those of us without digital at home.

Touche

It's been an interesting week.

I passed my Grade 1 Foil test at fencing (despite being told for once I would not be sitting it). Naturally I'd done no prep, hadn't even held a weapon in my hand in 1 month and it really showed. So I sat the test. Twice. Passed after eventually persuading the instructor I knew not to hold the sharp end.

Work's been... extra difficult this week but I think it has helped me realise my priorities - I should be moving on anyroads. My WFRP game is on hold for a couple of weeks while everyone goes skiing and I caught Underworld: Evolution on Tuesday. Ok flick but make sure you see the first one before hand.

New Year, New Money Pits

I've decided to start looking for a new job in the New Year since by my reckoning it will take 6-9 months to find something, which could mean being trapped in Pagan... sorry... Leicester for a further year if I faff. I've also decided to leave Casa Al as it is becoming increasingly small for my liking owing to the vast amounts of books and comics that seem to be taking over my room. So trying to juggle these things is becoming a bit of a headache. I really need to focus on one or the other but I've seen 2 jobs that look absolutely perfect, one of which is even back in old St. Andrews and offers a lot more cash to do basically what I do at the moment.

I've also had to insure my Stu Mobile again. Last year's insurance was £360. Since then I've reached the lofty age of 25 (soon to be 26 in over a month), had 0 accidents, made 0 claims and... moved to an LE4 postcode in Leicester. So now with 3 year's no claims bonus my new premium with the same company, car and driver is...

£560?!

My new motto - Leicester: It wants to be London, but without all the good stuff. Other than that, not really been up to much other than working and keeping my housemate up at 10pm with the sound of my late-night ironing.

Pure Genius?

Home? Again

Made it back to Leicester this afternoon (5pm no less) after leaving Dundee around 10am. I suspect it had something to do with the 95 mph stints I kept accidentally doing.

Spent the evening chilling and playing Ultima V: Lazarus, which is an amazing game using the Dungeon Siege engine. It's even more amazing given the fact that I am listed in the game credits under past contributors. I wrote some dialogue in 2001 though it's highly unlikely it was used. However I do appear twice in the development quotes (everything I say being highly quotable of course).

Anyway expect many sad updates as I progress through this, but let me show you the uncanny likeness of my character...

Still Sharpe?

Reading this blog's meme I noticed Six Foot Hobbit likes Shapre movies, but what people may not know was that 8th Doctor Paul McGann was picked to play Sharpe. During filming he was incapacitated and replaced by Sean "Boromir" Bean. And got serious wonga in an insurance payout.

Who knows perhaps in a parallel-dimension Paul McGann is Doctor Who, Boromir and Sharpe. In this one he's just plain unlucky.

And in other news they're filming new Sharpe.

We Have a New Enemy

I like bad movies, or rather fantasy movies people consider bad.

Dungeons and Dragons 1 sits proudly on my DVD shelf with it's £2.99 bargain sticker unremoved. I wish I had the Region 1 DVD with all the games and stuff on it.

Dungeons and Dragons 2 is on a DVD-R as a XViD file. I might even make a trip to playusa.com and get the DVD this month.

Hawk the Slayer was not rubbish. Krull is a masterpiece IMHO and its soundtrack is one of James Horner's best.

The only "bad" fantasy film I view as an abomination against man is the Sword and the Sorcerer, a film so terrible it is like watching a Clockwork Orange brainwashing video with your eyes being removed from your sockets whilst dunked in a vat of lemon juice and with fire and acid coat various important parts of your anatomy.

Also Earthsea was kind of like Sword and the Sorcerer but only with the fire and acid if you read the books.

Surprisingly I'd never heard of Uwe Boll until I caught word of his latest "masterpiece", In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Movie.

As this article explains Uwe Boll is a director/producer who makes games based off B-level computer games. Like House of the Dead or Bloodrayne. Or Alone in the Dark, which if it had been based off the original Cthulu-inspired Alone in the Dark game could have been a masterpiece. House of the Dead is apparently actually "Beach of the Dead" (Uwe gets a good deal on using this particular beach in all his movies). In fact this beach appears in all his movies in some form. I'm told watching this movie is less fun than watching someone else shoot their way through the game.

Uwe Boll funds his films by a loop-hole in German law meaning that if the movie tanks the investors get a massive tax-break. It's like the Producers - they actually want the movie to be bad.

Uwe Boll somehow manages to get A list actors like Ben Kingsley or Jason Statham into his movies by casting literally 2 weeks before the movie begins shooting and getting them at bargain basement prices because they have a hole in their schedule.

Uwe spends most of his interviews writing in pigeon-English about how he compares himself to Speilberg or Tarnatino.

Anyway Dungeon Siege The Movie is his latest effort to make a film in the style of Peter Jackson. It sounds similar to the game (which was just Diablo in 3D) - a young farmer (called Farmer by some twist of fate) finds his farm has been devestated by Krugs and his family taken. Fortunately (as I thought when playing the game) said Farmer is also a pretty good warrior/wizard/rogue and proceeds to go on a bender of violence, killing lots of Krugs and stuff.

And look at the cast - Burt Reynolds, Ron Perlman, John Rhys-Davies, Matthew Lillard, Kristanna Loken, Leelee Sobieski, Will Sanderson, Jason Statham, former NFL star Brian J. White, and German supermodel Eva Padberg. Not exactly the Lord of the Rings cast (except Rhys-Davies), more like the cast of a really odd British/Goodfellas gangster movie. The action is choreographed by the guy that did Hero.

Here's where the Tarantino analogy fits in - the film weighs in at 4 suspiciously LotResque-length hours and Uwe was threatening to split it into 2 parts a la Kill Bill. He's no longer doing this for the cinema release, probably given that

a) the tax laws in Germany he was exploiting have just been changed.
b) most folk who paid to see part one wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
c) he can do an "extended cut" DVD.

Now I know that certain persons who read this blog also like bad movies. I expect to see Dungeon Siege on their DVD shelves before long. I know I will probably buy it, if only to laugh for 4 hours or so.

In the meantime I plan on seeing decent fantasy flicks like Narnia, Sword of Xanten and so forth. In the meantime I will let IMDB influence my views on Uwe Boll.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year all. Spent the evening in Broughty Ferry drinking with Steve and his good lady until the wee hours of the morning before returning home and drunkenly spilling beer on my parent's floor and first-footing them without a bottle.

2005 was a pretty crappy year for the world as a whole, an interesting one for me and yet it fell short of my somewhat lofty expectations for the move and new job. 2006 should be good - I've made a pretty challening New Year's resolution and I plan on making a lot of changes in January, as well as eventually looking for a new and better job now I have some experience at this work thang.

Meme

Dr. Sordid started this, so I thought I'd give my answers.

Four jobs you've had in your life:
Cashier - Cashier at the Carnoustie golf open at the restaurant catering to the famous (well Ronnie Corbert).

Summer Internship at NCR Dundee - Packed into a cubicle working on a demo project for the sales team I was pretty well paid as a student (over £200 a week), given flexi-time and left on my own to the extent where one day I left to go shopping all day while my bosses/colleagues were all in Canada and not one person noticed. Shame about the two bus trips to get to work, but it was fun to create something people actually used - next year's interns ended up expanding it further!

ATM Tester at NCR Dundee - A year later, after my degree, I got this job. Best I could get at the time. I was sat by an ATM, making less money than an intern, working from 7am (which made the two busrides into work and back real fun!) and watching everyone slowly turn into a zombie from the monotony of the job. I only did it for 2 weeks thankfully, but it was pretty hellish all round.

Demonstrator in Computer Science - Current job. Teaching and shaping the future of computer science in my image.

Four movies you could watch over and over:
Lord of the Rings - all 3 of them.

Highlander Endgame - there's just something really cool in this with an intense duel akin to the fight in the 1st Star Wars films. And it's one good guy verses the other. Considered a total B-movie by some. Loved by me... especially the "One of us must die old friend..." sequence.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - all 3 again, though Return of the Jedi is my favourite. Or was... need to re-evaluate it. Revenge of the Sith is also pretty damn cool.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Genius, just pure genius!

Four places you've lived:
Jedburgh, Scotland- border village in Scotland named with the "last/first" shop in Scotland.

Monifieth, Scotland - it's been home for far too long. 15 years!

The Dump, Ullswater St., Leicester - it was a health and safety nightmare, the fridges exploded, the gas leaked, the smoke detectors were always low on battery outside my room and always judiciously positioned over the chasm that was a stairhead. Thankfully I moved and more thankfully it's allegedly refurbished for the poor saps paying over the odds for a bed in that deathtrap.

Casa Al, Leicester - live here as a lodger at the moment, though I'm not planning on making a habit of it.

Four TV shows you love to watch:
Battlestar Galactica - Blackhawk Down meets Star Trek but with more intrigue and moral amibiguity.

Highlander the TV Show - lot of scope, lot of history, lot of swordfights. If it was made today with production values of contemporary sci-fi like BSG it would be perfect.

Rome - historical drama with no holds barred. There should be more shows like this.

Lost - Intriguing, character-driven and far too addictive.

Four places you've been on holiday:

I only got my passport this year...

Shetlands - very nice, good food, good people, interesting weather.

Newquay - good surfing before it became Chavland.

Blackpool - good fun before it became Chavland.

Dublin - pizza is the new potato over there (so the locals told me so don't stone me). Lovely town, with all the benefits of a capital city and less of the drawbacks.

Four websites you visit daily:
Wikipedia - yeah, me too.
blogspot.com - I read other folks blogs here.
strike-to-stun - WFRP website.
imdb.com - got to get pointless movie trivia from somewhere

Four of your favourite foods:
Pizza - especially Domino's or Pizza Hut.
Roast Beef, Yorkshire Pud - since moving to England I've developed quite a taste for it. Lucky for me!
Dinosaur Legs - this is what I call a chicken leg supper from the Monifieth chipper. There's nothing quite like it (in England anyway).
Prawn Cocktail - a great starter for a classy meal.

Four places you'd rather be:

Living in Glasgow or Edinburgh - close to home, but not too close, or ridiculously far like Leicester.
New Orleans, 2004 - I was going to go, honestly.
Paris - I plan to do some sightseeing here at some point.
Las Vegas - hear it's real cheap to visit there if you don't gamble.

Four albums you can't live without:
Not really a music person, but I love movie soundtracks that stir the imagination. And Queen.

Queen's Greatest Hits 2 - best songs ever. I would also try to hide Greatest Hits 1 in the sleeve as well simply for Flaaassshh, ahh...

Complete Lord of the Rings - not your 1 disc jobbie, I mean the 3 CDs that give you the complete score for each film, meaning 9 discs for the entire trilogy.

Complete Star Wars Soundtrack - as above, but 2 discs per movie.

Nox Arcana: Necronomicon - not a Goth but some of this stuff really works when you are driving at night.

Next Year I Shall Be Mostly Playing...

I'm a massive fan of Ultima (except for the online version, I played the free Ultima Online Legacy and was shunned), but in cool news they've release Ultima V: Lazarus for the Dungeon Siege engine, a remaking of Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny.

The new version is a massive 500 meg mod total conversion for the game that basically turns the sucky Dungeon Siege into a cool remake of Ultima V with tons of NPC interaction, adventure and even a massive 144 meg soundtrack. Only problem is it may still be pretty buggy given there have been 2 patches for it already. So on my return to Leicester don't expect to hear from me except possibly in telling you how far I've got.

A Christmas Tale of Terror: The God Warrior

It's people like this that give Christians a bad name.

And the ensuing world's longest most interactive ebay page.

Dr Stu on Dr Who

The Xmas special and new doctor were quite good - though I need to wait for a non Russell Davies episode to make up my mind about the latter fully. Russell's writing meant there were cringe-worthy minutes mixed with moments of pure genius. The sword fight was good, though maybe it was me but I felt it was obvious the BBC had reduced the budget for the series... dunno why I thought that. I should watch it again, and I couldn't play the interactivy thingy as my funky TV is in Leicester and I'm not.

The first bit with the Santas and Xmas tree felt tacked on just to make it an Xmas special. I began to wonder if there was any point in Harriet Jones, Prime Minister. And the Doctor slept for about 30 minutes.

Then the Scythorax? went from being actually damn scary (unlike the Slitheen) to silly, to scary, to silly, to er... not really much of anything. And once again they mentioned those gawd-awful Slitheens in one of the more cringe-worthy bits of the episodes.

Torchwood clearly has potential though.

But... CAN WE PLEASE LEAVE THAT DAMN LONDON COUNCIL ESTATE NEXT YEAR? I'm starting to hope Billy leaves after Season 2 so we can actually get some alien worlds and less Chav Culture/Eastenders.

And I thought the Doctor doesn't do domestic.

Merry Xmas...

...discerning blog reader. It's been an interesting Xmas eve with old friends popping up out of the woodwork and midnight mass back at my old church in Monifieth.

Anyroads a healthy regimen of turkey, Doctor Who and Family Guy is definitely called for today. And I now own a portable DVD player for the trains home in future! Woo hoo!

Vacation Time

After fleeing Leicester on Friday I'm back in Dundee for Xmas. I've handed in my thesis to the binder, though it won't be done until a week after I leave next month. And gone shopping a lot in the town.

Saw Kong the other day - good film, but too stupidly long and too many characters that become redundant. And they let Andy Serkis act without the aid of CGI for more than 5 minutes.

So This Lion, Witch and Wardrobe Milarky

This might actually be good. Still don't remember so many battle scenes in the BBC version.

Holidays Are Coming...

It's being an interesting few weeks now I've gotten over the lurgy. My legs ached Monday and Tuesday due to fencing, in fact on Tuesday morning I and one of the TAs both paused while climbing the stairs due to our legs being stiff

I was going to writ my WFRP game is running full steam (in fact I wrote that and saved it), but the following thread that my player's should not read as it is spoilery (and I'll give them the jist of it later) should tell you otherwise.

At work my modules are winding down and I'm finding myself at a bit of a loss as to what to do at work, but I've decided to take next week off and go home, prolly visit the extended family etc.

I managed to organise a lunch for our TAs at the Lansdowne (one of the places Steve and I ate at when he was up, it's so good I went twice) and thus added pheasant to the list of species I pose a population threat to. I've also got the School of Mathematics and Computer Science meal tomorrow (passed up the fencing meal to go to that sadly so it better be good). I've even got a few funny tales I'm not posting here for fear of retribution, but you'll hear them at some point I'm sure.

Oh, and congrats to Dr. Steve.

Not for the faint of heart....

Brings a new meaning to the Old One's will rise again.

Found

I'm apparently one of the less interesting characters in Lost (given how the first 2 episodes seemed to be him going around saving everyone).


You are Jack. Self-appointed hero and doctor
extraordinaire, it's your job to save everyone.
You have little time for fun and games, but you
do like a good stiff drink every now and then.
You prefer your stitches black and have been
known to make gross pasta comparisons. And if
anyone needs CPR or a tracheotomy, you're the
correct person to go to.


Which Lost Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

More quizzes

Your results:
You are Hulk

Hulk 100% Spider-Man 90% Superman 80% Green Lantern 65% Robin 62% Supergirl 62% Iron Man 60% Catwoman 55% Wonder Woman 37% Batman 35% The Flash 30%

You are a wanderer with amazing strength.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Handholder

You go out of your way to build bridges with people of different views and beliefs and have quite a few religious friends. You believe in the essential goodness of people , which means you’re always looking for common ground even if that entails compromises. You would defend Salman Rushdie’s right to criticise Islam but you’re sorry he attacked it so viciously, just as you feel uncomfortable with some of the more outspoken and unkind views of religion in the pages of this magazine.


You prefer the inclusive approach of writers like Zadie Smith or the radical Christian values of Edward Said. Don’t fall into the same trap as super–naïve Lib Dem MP Jenny Tonge who declared it was okay for clerics like Yusuf al–Qaradawi to justify their monstrous prejudices as a legitimate interpretation of the Koran: a perfect example of how the will to understand can mean the sacrifice of fundamental principles. Sometimes, you just have to hold out for what you know is right even if it hurts someone’s feelings.

What kind of humanist are you? Click here to find out.

We're all so tyred...

Just got the damn car wheels changed again. I'm not parking it in my spot until after I get the original fixed.

Dammit!

Got up for work today, pulling myself out of bed to get in for my lab. I got literally round the corner before my suspicions were confirmed - I had another flat tyre. Same side, different tyre.

Either someone wants my parking space desperately or I'm incredibly unlucky.

A Random Train of Thoughts

Had good fun back in Dundee last week. Caught a weird and very crude show at the Rep, Ubu the King, Harry Potter 4 (more on that later) and generally chilling out. It was good reminding myself what home looks like and the train journeys were quite relaxing (note - taking a laptop makes long journeys pass much quicker). The journey up was harder than the journey back, though I had to stand as soon as I changed trains into the crappy English Midland rail network.

Thing's haven't been dull since I got back.

After getting back to work in Leicester on Monday ol' faithful B. decided to act up again. He's not been happy with me taking holiday in term time - originally gleefully tell me I would lose most of my holidays as I couldn't take any during term. On my return he lasted about 10 minutes before bringing it up as an excuse for him not to do any work that day on our help desk.

On Tuesday, while en-route to work for my 9:30 lab I got a puncture about two streets away on the main road to Uni. Rather than be run over by the mad motorists of Leicester I finally got to use my AA membership, so my 9:00am arrival turned into a 10:30 arrival.

The AA guy was really helpful but the wifie on the phone asked daft questions because of the nature of my AA membership. She wanted to know the date of my last servicing. I gave her a vague date, she wasn't happy. She demanded silly bits of information such as the postcode for garage that serviced me (Arnold Clark's on the shore front on Dundee - would you know the postcode off the top of your head after a breakdown). Purely by chance I had the receipt from my last service so I was able to find the date, address and postcode of my last service. My blood donor card meant I was also able to tell her my bloodtype.

After I limped into work A. recommended a particularly fine tyre company to repair the puncture and they even fitted it back on for a mere £8. Last year (yeah - I expect no more flats for a while) when I got a puncture it cost me an extra £50 to resurface the alloy-wheels that had been scratched and I drove 8 miles before realising.

Sitting in my car at 0 degrees centigrade waiting on the AA dude probably explains why I've come down with yet another cold and taken the day off work. I suspect I'll be paying for that with the office Fuhrer tomorrow.

Also I was forced to choose between my staff-do and a fencing meal on the 15th. I've chosen the staff-do so it should be interesting.

"The Ability to Fence is Insignificant Next to The Power of The Left Hand"

I had my first proper fencing bout today after two weeks of reffing on the sidelines and not having time to dig in properly. I also got to be El Presidente on another bout, which was only marginally less taxing than fighting! My opponent was quite experienced but in the end I annihilated her with a pretty decisive coup-de-fin at 5-3. The fights went on for quite some time as well (the other teams having had 2 additional matches before we were even done) with quite a few rounds where we both mananged to stab each other simultaenously (not a good thing if it ever is for real).

My opponent was also quite crest-fallen when she picked me and discovered I was a lefty. It's actually very easy to flick a right-handed opponent's blade to the left side and then riposte at the open torso. Added to the fact I seem to be quite accurate at hitting what I'm aiming at with a blade (which is good because I can't hit the broadside of a barn with anything else) makes up for spending a good 5 minutes looking at foils and trying to decode drunken and blurred scrawlings of "LEFT" from "LUFC" (Leicester University Fencing Club).

Of course it took me many bouts to realise I could try parrying to my left and quickly stabbing my opponent rather than always parrying to the right, riposting and either getting countered or dodged. But I won, and from my POV it was almost like something out of a movie - a really long, tiring fight that ended with a good finishing move on my part.

Next week is exams - but alas I can't make it. Fortunately I can take the exam the week after, assuming I get back from the trip to London I'm planning before a ridiculous hour.

Choo Choo

I'm off home next week it seems. I was casually enquiring about my holiday allowance (seeing how my only holiday was 10 days long) and discovered I had 14 days of allowance left.

And I couldn't take these in term time.
And they had to be taken, bar 4-5 days, by the 31st of December.
And term ends on the 16th of December.

So - not enough days outside of term time to take holidays with.

I managed to haggle a long weekend home (actually Wednesday-Friday) next week as I have only 1 class during that period (Mondays and Tuesdays are my busy days). Happily I even have all next week's coursework done, meaning I can do most of next week's work on Monday or...

... on the train. For I am using public transport (though sensibly my changes are 20 minutes apart). So I will be back in Dundee it seems late Tuesday night until Sunday afternoon. And not shattered from driving! I plan on taking a laptop, some marking and some XViDs of Rome or Smallville or some such and chilling on the train.

Everyone Else Was Doing It

 

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Rank Movie Didn't See It/ Started It/ Finished It/ Hated It! 1 Godfather, The (1972) 2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) Finished It 3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974) 4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) Finished It 5 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) Finished It 6 Casablanca (1942) Finished It 7 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) Finished It 8 Schindler's List (1993) Started It 9 Shichinin No Samurai [Seven Samurai] (1954) Finished It 10 Star Wars (1977) Finished It 11 Citizen Kane (1941) 12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Finished It 13 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 14 Rear Window (1954) 15 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Finished It 16 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Finished It 17 Memento (2000) Finished It 18 Usual Suspects, The (1995) Finished It 19 Pulp Fiction (1994) Finished It 20 North by Northwest (1959) 21 12 Angry Men (1957) 22 Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le [Amelie] (2001) 23 Psycho (1960) Finished It 24 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 25 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il [The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly] (1966) 26 Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) 27 It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Finished It 28 Goodfellas (1990) 29 American Beauty (1999) Finished It 30 Vertigo (1958) 31 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 32 Matrix, The (1999) Finished It 33 Apocalypse Now (1979) 34 Pianist, The (2002) 35 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) 36 C'era una volta il West [Once Upon a Time in the West] (1968) 37 Some Like It Hot (1959) 38 Third Man, The (1949) 39 Taxi Driver (1976) 40 Paths of Glory (1957) 41 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi [Spirited Away] (2001) 42 Fight Club (1999) 43 Boot, Das (1981) 44 Double Indemnity (1944) 45 L.A. Confidential (1997) 46 Chinatown (1974) 47 Singin' in the Rain (1952) 48 Maltese Falcon, The (1941) Finished It 49 M (1931) 50 Requiem for a Dream (2000) 51 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) 52 All About Eve (1950) 53 Se7en (1995) Finished It 54 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Finished It 55 Saving Private Ryan (1998) 56 Cidade de Deus [City of God] (2002) 57 Raging Bull (1980) 58 Rashômon (1950) Finished It 59 Wizard of Oz, The (1939) Finished It 60 Sting, The (1973) 61 Alien (1979) 62 American History X (1998) Started It 63 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) 64 Léon (1994) Finished It 65 Vita è bella, La [Life is Beautiful] (1997) 66 Touch of Evil (1958) 67 Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) 68 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Finished It 69 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) 70 Great Escape, The (1963) Started It 71 Wo hu cang long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] (2000) 72 Reservoir Dogs (1992) Finished It 73 Clockwork Orange, A (1971) Finished It 74 Amadeus (1984) 75 Modern Times (1936) 76 Ran (1985) Finished It 77 Annie Hall (1977) 78 Jaws (1975) Finished It 79 On the Waterfront (1954) 80 Braveheart (1995) Finished It 81 High Noon (1952) 82 Apartment, The (1960) 83 Fargo (1996) 84 Sixth Sense, The (1999) Finished It 85 Aliens (1986) Finished It 86 Shining, The (1980) Finished It 87 Strangers on a Train (1951) 88 Blade Runner (1982) Finished It 89 Metropolis (1927) 90 Duck Soup (1933) 91 Finding Nemo (2003) Finished It 92 Donnie Darko (2001) Finished It 93 General, The (1927) 94 City Lights (1931) 95 Princess Bride, The (1987) Finished It 96 Toy Story 2 (1999) Finished It 97 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Finished It 98 Great Dictator, The (1940) 99 Sjunde inseglet, Det [The Seventh Seal] (1957) 100 Lola rennt [Run Lola Run] (1998) Started It
Which movies have you seen?

Source of the Goodness

I've been reading numerous blog posts on the new Highlander film written by Adrian Paul, the guy who plays the current Highlander (who offed the old Highlander in the last movie) and is Executive Producing the new film, Highlander: The Source.

I'm actually really looking forward to it despite the fact every post seems to report some disaster or other, the budget isn't exactly massive on this film, Christopher Lambert isn't in it and I didn't win the prize draw to visit the set in Lithuania. :P

However apparently there's going to be a big Highlander convention just down the road from me in Leeds next year. I'm tempted to go for the once-in-a-lifetime experience (these are usually in places like LA and Sydney, so this'll be relatively cheap even if it is $150 just to get in the door).

Still debating whether or not to go.

And now it's official

Word's come through that if I give 2 bound copies of the thesis to the Postgrad Office in Dundee, and 1 bound copy to my supervisors, 1 for myself and 1 for my parents (better save up for this I suspect) I will get my PhD. Yay.

Amusingly Sad...

Dead Ale Wives

Dead Ale Wives 2

Classic.

The End of All Things

It's in. It's done, quest complete.

I've just submitted my final thesis draft. Cue dramatic montage involving volcanos, towers exploding and mass-armies of algorithms triumphing over dark ignorant orc-types.

I'm glad to be with you, here at the end of all things.

The Story So Far...

On Thursday we went out to the Last Plantaginet, a Wetherspoons, for a good feed and late dinner. Friday saw Steve explore Leicester while I worked and discovered the joy of drinking Loozers at lunchtime. Friday night saw us see Brothers Grimm with yet another loud mumbling guy sat behind us in the cinema, proving it doesn't matter where you go in the UK, ignorant people pay up to £6 to sit in a theater talking to their mates and texting. The film itself was quite good though I was a little confused in places. It was a Gilliam effort though.

Saturday afternoon saw a visit to the Space Museum (near to B's number 1 tourist recommendation, the sewage works). Rather than seeing how a U-Bend works we made our way through some pretty fascinating exhibits, went into the space theatre and tried numerous spacey-type adventure things including a 3D simulator.

Saturday night saw us go to the Worst Pub In Britain - the Wyvern's Arms. We were going to go into town to Jongleurs but the Leicester transport system totally conspired against us, but at least we got a good look at the fireworks.

As to the Wyvern's Arms it's down the road from where I live. Upon opening the door we were assailed by loud music and smoke. If that wasn't enough the place was pretty filthy. The pregnant woman smoking and drinking Smirnoff capped it for me and after a swift pint (we couldn't talk after all) we fled back to mine to watch more DVDs and drink more beer.

Then came Sunday. Now I have to admit I'd been cynical about the whole November trip to Alton Towers, but the rain in the morning made me even more of an unbeliever. Ironically it only rained on Sunday, and hasn't rained since until now, Friday night.

Finally when we were 20 miles outside of Alton unable to see through the car windows I chickened out and drove us to Bugman's Bar in Nottingham for a game of chess and a cheap burger and drink. And some shopping. And not much else. But we did waste our tickets we'd prebought over the internet.

Steve took it all well and I think he enjoyed himself despite my ranting about things in general. I've decided I need to get myself a bigger place though to be honest, so I may be thinking about moving again come January. All in all interesting times.

Vitamin C High

Having been ill again with my 3rd flu in as many weeks I've now developed a Vitamin C habit that involves drinking a pint of OJ in the morning, evening and so forth to avoid the student germs I'm obviously no longer immune to. Did more fencing, and finally actually got to stab someone in a vaguely competitive exercise that showed me how being a leftie gives you an advantage.

Unlike when I moved here my weeks are getting pretty full. Got my RPG fix on Monday. Watched Saw 2 on Tuesday night - which was more disturbing than Saw 1 - and discovered the fun of chauffering the ultimate hyperactive back seat passenger. Tonight was good fun with my WFRP group derailing my plot in some mad cap scheme for cash which ended up with one player nearly dying and another fighting for his life. And for tomorrow Steve is coming round this weekend and a dark trip to Alton Towers is in the offing.

The Young Enterpeneur Award

So, 4 kids just turned up on the doorstep trick or treating. Somewhat surprised I had only to hand 4 Muller-probiotic-milkshake-yoghurt-type-drinkie things as opposed to cold hard choccie bars and the usual goodies. Only when I doled out the all-too-healthy snacks to the kids did I realise...

Halloween isn't today!

There's a fairly good racket going on their. I admire their entrepreneurial spirit.

When there's no more room in hell...

...The simulated dead will walk the earth

Evil Graduate Recruitment

I found this on the defunct Cult website. Pretty cool if they'd added more content.

Mind your manners!

Found this Pythonesque website while trawling today.

Slogging, Stabbed and Sleepy

Work's been a bit traumatic this week for reasons I won't go into, but there's peace at last as I'm home alone this week due to my housemate being on holiday. He told me he was leaving around 7am, but this actually meant he was going to wake me up loudly at 8am watching TV on full-blast and not leave until after lunchtime. Given I'd been up to 2am on Friday most of Saturday was a haze.

I went fencing again today, despite feeling a little groggy and despite this had a pretty good time and the workout did me the power of good. They had equipment that fit me - that is didn't quite fasten up but stayed where it should - this week so I had the thrill of being stabbed back occasionally. And learned to parry - in other words move the foil in a straight line to the right.

En Garde!

On Sunday I took a drive up to Manor Road, my former claustrophobic residence when I first moved to the City of Cheese and Not Much Else. You see it turns out I lived about five feet from the sports centre where my fencing class was being held.

So how did it go? I was expecting ritual humiliation, but it was ok, aside from the fact that being left-handed makes finding a foil less fun. Being told to look for foils inscribed with "Left Handed" on the pommel rather than "Leicester Uni" or a drunken "LU" that more resembles "LE" is a bit of an ordeal.

It was actually quite good fun. The coach is actually quite amusing, and there's drinking after the classes which makes me rue the notion of driving in to the class. I don't think I missed much last week given the coach didn't turn up and we started working on footwork and so forth, and the lunge which is a very basic move. I did get a bit narked though when it turned out all the jackets and so forth were for skinny people and I was made to stand to one side in a corner while everyone else (including larger people) took it in turns to get stabbedd. The armourer assured me that this would be taken care of next week.

Fear the Reaper

Eejits with bombs!

Another Update

In a rare effort to fill in time and become more cultured I watched Puccini's Turandot at the University and it was good, though the crowd seemed a little too stuffy for my tastes. Tomorrow sees me fencing, which may be bad as in the past month I've gotten really out of shape.

Movie Roundup

Been a while since I did a movie roundup- but here's what I've been watching lately.

A History of Violence: Very good, very scary, very realistic movie about violent people. Aragorn is a diner-owner that discovers being the last of the Dunedain means you're pretty handy in a fight when people point guns at you. Or something like that.

Serenity: Good, so good. It deserves a sequel. Speaking of sequels...

Dracula II Ascension: Sequel to Dracula 2001, which I liked despite having the most awful Virgin product placements. This movie and its sequel were a Dimension horror movie shot back to back in Romania. In this one, Dracula, apparently not so dead after the first movie, is taken from the morgue by a bunch of medical students so they can extract his wonderful regenerative powers and use them to better mankind. And make a quick buck. Much like this film. Which is 75 minutes long, far too short for a film.

Dracula III Legacy: Sequel to the sequel, shot at the same time to save cash. Bizarrely only 1 of the medical students in #2 survived and he's back along with a poor man's half-vampire, half-man Blade, who must destroy Dracula without succumbing to evil himself. The ending to this is quite good, though the movie itself is cheap. They have to travel to...er... Romania and defeat the vampire king who has done a Doctor Who and regenerated into Rutger Hauer for 5 minutes. Roy Schnider also co-stars for 1 minute as a Yoda-like Cardinal who tells our poor-man's-Blade not to succumb to the dark side. Evidentally Schinder's cameo is as memorable as it is long as Blade-dude doesn't listen in the end.

Various Peter Cushing Dracula's including 1972 - which is a 'retro' indeed!

Prophecy Uprising: Sequel to the Prophecy Trilogy with Christopher Walken in it. This movie and its sequel were a Dimension horror movie shot back to back in Romania... again.

I like Prophecy. Not amazing - but it was the story of a group of angels (read psycopaths with a license to kill from the big man upstairs) who are miffed that God likes humans more than angels, enough to give them souls in fact.

The angels are so miffed a civil war breaks out in the Ethereal Planes between loyalist and jealous angels. The jealous ones want to destroy humanity. Of course in a budget saving measure we never see this ethereal war, only a bunch of guys in trench coats pulling each other's hearts out. Or not even that in Prophecy Forsaken, which must've cost about 500 rupees to make.

Anyway, this one doesn't have Christopher Walken in it. It's about an American girl in er... Romania... who finds a holy book. And Sean Pertwee plays a British cop... in Romania... who rides around in a car with Satan, who it turns out is just a depressed Gothic fellow.

Prophecy Forsaken: Still in Romania. Turns out that book that the evil angels want tells who the anti-christ is. If they don't kill the anti-christ it will be the end of days and all the worthy souls of humanity will rise to heaven. And the bad angels don't want that. Nice plot, but nothing happens really other than angels trying to kill the heroine, and then she foils them by scattering the pages of the book throughout Romania. Did I mention the anti-christ is from Romania?

Fortress 2: Christopher Lambert, who escaped from a maximum security penitentiary in the first one, is captured by the very people who owned the original Fortress. Rather than kill him they put him in a fortress prison in space. He escapes. See the flaw in the plan? Do you?

Red Eye: Wes Craven directing a thriller, not a horror movie. The old nightmare of sitting next to a psychopath on a plane, only this time he's not hijacking the plane!

Sin City: Finally saw this on DVD. Very good film noir though I laughed all the way through it. It was just trying to be too serious and gritty. Like when Bruce Willis says Jessica Alba's letters were the only thing keeping him alive in prison.

Microsoft Mobile

Visiting Microsoft.com I discovered they're making mobile phones. Naturally I thought I'd share a few photoshoped images I made...

Dilbert Lives!

So - what's new? Not much. Work is getting interesting with the students around but a certain co-worker has managed to become even more of a pain in the nethers. We had a tense meeting with our bosses on Friday which ended up with B. looking like a complete arse and making it clear in his five years of service he has picked up no understanding of our role at all. He even shouted down proposals from the boss before we could hear what they were. How he keeps his job is a miracle.

New Film

Mmmmm... beheadings.

Serenity Then!

Serenity is good. Very good. Very witty. Very dark. People die, crazy things happen and most of the characters get a fair amount of screentim. Didn't like the final dark secret that River uncovered, it ruined one of the best things in the Firefly mythology. They killed off my favourite character. Like a punk. But it still rocked.

So sad though - apparently the comic (which deals with the Blue Hands dudes from the series) was originally meant to be an animated prequel a la Animatrix or Clone Wars. That'd have been 2 new Firefly stories for the price of 1. Denied dude!

Call of Cthulu

As part of the "Stuart is Ill" special weekend of posts I thought I'd also mention the Call of Cthulu movie is finished and I've just ordered the DVD from the States to sit on my "Movies only Roleplayers will Understand" side of the DVD shelf next to the Gamers DVD. It's good to see a fan project finished unlike some I could mention.

And now to watch Sin City before a late beddy-byes. It's looking unlikely I'll be fencing tomorrow. Next week life begins - with roleplaying, Puccini and even fencing being on the menu!

Serenity Now!

Thanks to the wonders of the internet you can watch the first 9 minutes of Serenity here online for free. I lasted about 1 minute in before deciding to wait for the inevitable cinema trip.

Some Saturday Links

What with the whooping cough and all I've had a lot of time on my hands and here's a few links I've been perusing...

How It Should Have Ended

The most wacked out album comments on Amazon

Star Wreck

Ill... again!

I'm off with the flu again, it started on Wednesday night when I went to see A History of Violence (which is very good BTW). Stubbornly refusing to go off sick Thursday-Friday again this week it got bad all yesterday when I was rather surly to some of our students who came by the desk when I had a massive headache, and last night I think I had a temperature or somesuch and began to hallucinate that the Stu Mobile was being broken into, melding into a different car with an evil black Corsa and plotting to kill me. Mind you I might have been asleep by then...

So I'm off work again this Friday. This is somewhat miffing as I had plans Thursday night and would like to prove to the University I can actually work a full 5 day week without falling ill. Work is actually picking up with the students being back (despite the reenacting of the guard scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail with some of the Chinese students who seem to have trouble understanding my Scot's brogue) so it's irksome to be off when there's so much to do. And I hope to be better by Sunday for fencing fun and so forth, and certainly by Monday when I'm giving my first lecture in Leicester.

Happy Birthday Steve

Happy birthday to Steve, who is now older than me again.

Students, Fousands of 'em...

It's the first week of term, or as I prefer to think of it as Fresher's Days, here in Leicester. It literally took me a half hour to withdraw some cash out of the bank machine and buy a sandwich.

Not that it was a problem, I had plenty of time to read the Bushisms poster on the wall next to the ATM and "Prayers for the single girl" over the shoulder of the girl in front of me in the queue. A lot of prayers about would-be husbands. *shudders*

Officially this is Week 1 of the university calendar. Of an 11 week calendar. They do things differently here than any Scottish Uni I've ever been to. On Day 1 and Day 2 of Uni you have registration, tuition fees payment, Fresher's Fayre, the Sport's Union Fayre, computer registration, introductory lectures and library registration all happening simultaenously. There's a queue downstairs that stretches for 3 floors It's madness!

On the upside I've joined a couple of Leicester socities. I'm going fencing on Sunday it seems if I remember to buy some track suit bottoms. More hilarity later.

Highlander

But with bunnies.

Since You Last Tuned In

I made the horrendous journey home and spent all of Monday sat in work with nary a person for company. It was quite depressing - since no-one came to see or speak to me I felt I could've just bunked off work, had another day oop north and no-one would've been the wiser. I felt so irked I made sure I went to lunch in the staff-room so everyone would see I'd not decided to remain in Saneland. I got so bored by the end of the day I even started providing blurbs for my Shetland gallery on this blurb. Naturally B. turned up on Tuesday around 11 to ensure I didn't have the same dull day twice.

I've continued to run my WFRP game. This week actually saw some action but I need to learn the WFRP combat rules.

I've finished my first Greyhawk module in about a year.

I've been off work sick for Thursday and Friday with the cold I must've caught off everyone who seemed to have a cold in Scotland. And apparently worried my mother by doing so.

Late on Saturday I was nearly run off the road by Ali G's 4 lookalikes doing 60 miles per hour who decided to change lanes, overtake me while I was changing lanes and go round a corner at the same time. I'm now thoroughly convinced that Leicester is a dangerous city to drive in after dark and if I stay here another 12 months I'll be in some kind of traffic accident with some convertable driving son of a Sultan running me off the road in his quest to show off his bling on every street corner in the city centre.

I had a look in at the DeMontfort fresher's fayre, though compared to Dundee it is a bit of a washout. Being somewhat more multicultural actually works against Uni societies. All your Chinese join the Chinese society, all your Islamic sorts join their religious society and so forth rather than join any of the other societies, so a lot of the DeMontfort societies are woefully undersubscribed. Leicester is due to have one next week, so stay tuned.

Oh and I ran over a lot of prostitutes and pedestrians. No I haven't become a Leicester driver after midnight, I'm playing GTA Vice City.

There and Back Again

Here is an artist's impression of how tired my eyes feel after the 9 hour draft back to the City of Cheese and Curry. I didn't get past Jedburgh until 3pm, and was unfortunately unable to procure Jethart Snails owing to the establishment that sells them being closed.

The M1 was especially hellish at 7pm, and I think next time I may go via the M74 on the way back. It certainly seemed quicker on the way up.

It was good to be back, even if it was only for a fortnight, but I especially enjoyed my sojourn to the Real Real North (tm) as well as my explorations in the Real North, before returning to the alleged North of the Midlands. Unfortunately I didn't see everyone to dispense puffin poo and Shetland ales but they will be distributed or consumed in a responsible manner back down here. Burp.

Coming soon: Post Number 250!

2,500 hits and counting

I notice the site has gone over 2,500 and at least half of those can't be from me. It's been a wild ride, with some rants, good news and of course my all-time favourite thread complete with a whopping 19 comments and a subsequent thread.

Shetland Gallery

My Shetlands Gallery is now online. It's big and may take more than one sitting, plus I've more to add tonight!

Home James

Made it back to good old Dundee last night. I was anticipating the journey from hell, with the plane being 30 minutes late and the train being early etc. and me being stuck in Aberdeen but none of that happened. The flight was even early so I managed to get an earlier train.

Amusingly when I was pulling up at Sumburgh Airport last night I had to park in the staff car park so that Alex could get his car back. One of the staff took exception to this until I explained it wasn't my car and I was just returning it to its rightful owner who worked in the airport and thus could park it there. She later turned out to be one of the x-ray machine operators in the airport and apologised profusely while scanning my dirty linen in her x-ray machine. I also got called up by name by the boarding chappie - I was expecting them to stop me leaving Shetland as I was smuggling out too much ale but it turned out they just wanted to write a different seat number on my boarding pass.

Today's excitement is a trip into town. I've got to dump off a box of papers my old boss asked for. It's a bit akward as they've all got a new building and the box is pretty big. Above and beyond the call of duty.

Sizzling Pigs, Lighthouses and Jarls!

I've had a sizzling pig at Osla's, which by the way is the best place to eat. It's a pancake with cheese, bacon and maple syrup. Part of me died when I ate this artery hardening treat, part of me never left my usual seat in Osla's.

After this and dropping A. off at work I proceeded to Sumburgh lighthouse. A pair of dutch hikers looked at me oddly as I drove all the way up the hill, proving how lazy (and short of time) I was.

I also went to Jarlshof, a set of ruins covering 4,000 years of life near Sumburgh Airport. They had a pretty neat audio tour-guide. I also purchased copious amounts of alcohol to take back to the mainland. Oh, and most of the postcards I've sent should've turned up.

It's been fun, but I thought I'd end with a nice piccie of a sink full of Shetland water.

Gonna Need a Montage For All This!

So I've been on the Shetlands a few days. It's been great - real calm and quiet. Agent Dale Cooper of Twin Peaks fame would describe it as a place "where yellow lights mean slow down instead of speed up". People outside of Lerwick don't need to lock their doors and a man trapped in the toilets is a big news day.

So far I've done the following:-

1) Been in a wind power generator while there's been actual wind.
2) Gone on 4 ferry rides.
3) Been to the northernmost point of the northermost island in the north. I've sent some postcards from the northern most UK post office. Let me know if you get one. If not someone else in your city probably has a postcard and is scratching their head in disbelief.
4) Driven L. and A.'s car - which was scary for everyone concerned. It's not the same as driving my car!
5) Eaten puffin poo*.
6) Discovered the above is very very nice actually.
7) Discovered the greatest restaurant ever, Osla's, who do meatball pizza. That's meatball with pizza. That's 2 meals for the price of 1! Grrreat!
8) Bought loads of Shetland beer.
9) Visited Scalloway castle. And been given the key for the castle. I even have a humorous movie of me opening my castle with my castle key.
10) Visited Scalloway museum.
11) Watched Team America and started quoting it incessantly (hence the title).
12) Remembered how to spell incessantly.
13) Taken far too many photos for my photo blog to upload in this sitting.
14) Discovered Shetland tap water is suspiciously yellow. I have a wonderful photograph of this to show later.
15) The picture er... pictured above is of Unst Bus Shelter, the most northerly bus shelter in the UK. And it has lots of cool facilities you don't find in an ordinary bus shelter. Mostly 'cos people would nick them, but not in the Shetlands.

* Puffin poo is made with coconut, white chocolate and sugar and stuff. It's not real puffin poo.

Whee!

I'm now in the Shetlands after one of the most turbulent flights I've had in a while. Maybe I shouldn't have seen Red Eye last night with Steve. Or maybe thinking about Lost all through the flight was the problem. Or maybe there just was a little more turbulance than usual.

Additional note - why does Aberdeen have the worst airport bus service from the train station. Missing the hourly bus I took a taxi for a very kingly sum. But it allowed to do some shopping in Aberdeen and get some out of print WFRP books.

What I Did On My Holidays Miss

I was so preoccupied with packing and not running around at the 11th hour I forgot to post an entry saying I am away. Which I am. I'm in Dundee you see.

After a 7 hour slog up the M1 pausing only briefly to see chums, read for an hour straight in a service station and have the old junkfood combo of pizza and chips I've had a pretty good time.

So far I've caught up with ma famille, been to Arbroath to visit Mr. T. of this parish, dressed up as a monk with Mr T. Jnr. and done as much touring and wandering about as time will allow. Photos to follow but the dratted ancient laptop doesn't like my digital camera.

Today I went to Edinburgh after I had the car in to get its horn actuator repaired under its warranty. Driving without a 100% functional horn hasn't been a lot of fun but the Stu Mobile has had total hooting success since the Arnold Clark mechanics got their hand on it.

Didn't buy anything in Edinburgh except a copy of SFX to read on the return trip. And renew my young person's railcard, which is good because I don't feel I am a young person anymore, but the harassed young lady didn't need to know that. I did umm and ahm over the price of the attractive £40 Islander sword (which looks suspiciously like the Macleod Highlander sword, photos coming eventually once I work out how to get stuff off my phone). I went into Edinburgh on the train around 11am and wound up strangely rushing to get back to Dundee before 5-30pm owing to the wonderful train system. One would think that the 3pm train would get you the 1 hour journey back to Dundee by 5-30pm but owing to Scotrail's computer being on the blink, a train from Bristol becoming a bus and the destruction of Dundee's link-bridge between the station and the city centre in the name of progress I had to play a real-life combination of Frogger, Super Mario Brothers and Prince of Persia to get from the train station to Arnold Clark in 15 minutes before it closed.

With the petrol crisis looming I'm loath to take my full-tank of petrol anywhere tomorrow in case I need it to get back to Leicester. Unlikely, but I intend on catching a movie this week and hopefully seeing Land of the Dead before I go back to the land of cheese. And of course tune in for some Shetland adventures.

Yes Indeedy

We've all been there mate.

If I Had a Hammer

Ran my first WFRP2 session last night. It was good fun, though there was little by way of action, which is a shame because I had a great cliffhanger in mind. You can read about it on this blog by er.. me.

Images

This would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.

Curry, Beef, Hammers and New Orleans,

I've been organising a leaving do for one of my colleagues. He's leaving and not being replaced which means one less ocean of sanity in my workplace. A certain other fellow point-blank refused to do it when asked, claiming it was not his responsibility as he'd organised the office Xmas 2004 lunch. Ocean of sanity I said.

This also means unfortunately I'm most likely going to have to eat curry for lunch, which is not a good thing as I don't like curry or spicy food, and I've broken by diet after losing 3/4 of a stone or so in the past 6 weeks. I don't plan on restarting until after my hols. I'm off to have some cheap roast beef in a minute downstairs in preparation.

I've also drafted myself into DMing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Wednesday nights. I'm planning on running the Enemy Within campaign, since I've been raving about it for so long and it saves me having to write something original on the fly. This is replacing our Shadowrun game which was set in New Orleans and thus seemed to be in poor taste.

On the subject of New Orleans, it is sad to see New Orleans in such a terrible state. Horror stories of all the suffering (including most strikingly to me, the vast number of pets simply abandoned in the evacuation) aside this was one of the few places Stateside I really wanted to visit. I'm going to avoid planning any other "must-see" trips anywhere in case this becomes a trend though lately I've considered learning Italian and going to Rome.

Big Blue Yonder

Not bad for a fan trailer.

TV Cream

My new fave website. Be wary of the "Save Doctor Who" Band-Aid mp3.