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Below are the 24 most recent friends journal entries:

December 11th, 2009
03:35 am fluffworld [Link]	Best wishes for the silly season to you all! Send your own ElfYourself eCards Happy whatever you are celebrating to you all, be it Christmas or just a few days off work. Current Mood: silly (Leave a comment)
December 10th, 2009
07:04 pm alaimacerc [Link]	English whiskeeek! The English are distilling whisk(e)y now? In of all places, Norfolk? One of the onwers was on the Beeb self-reviewing it as "really very good". Pardon me while I wait for a slightly more objective assessment! It's a three year old "single malt": they've bashed it out on literally on the very first day they're legally allowed to write "whisk(y/ey)" on the bottle. Industry practice is that single malts are aged for at least eight years -- hence only those aged ten or more trouble themselves to announce their age on the label in any prominence. Apparently the producers are waving their hands and muttering incantations about it being "fast maturing", all the while selling off "not quite whiskey" releases that were even younger! One wonders if they've gone with the ol' "bung lots of peat in to cover a multitude of sins" technique. The English "reclaiming" haggis was moderately amusing, but really... Surfing around for reviews of this I found mention of an "Ardbeg Supernova", a "specially peaty" edition. Ardbeg's pretty peaty to start with: I'm getting a mental image of a slab of turf, with someone pouring bottles of TCP over it! In other news, Dara O'Briain, who these days is All Over, has been having a pop at English libel law. Good on 'im, and on the various others members of the great and the good/usual suspects taking part in the same campaign. Current Mood: sober Tags: dara o'briain, english whiskey, libel law, whisky (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
December 9th, 2009
04:42 pm alaimacerc [Link]	Bah, humbug Far from buying my flights to Scotland for Christmas too late, looks like I bought them too soon: Aer Arann are having a "happy hour" sale tomorrow, which would have saved me a bundle. I wondered if they were going to do something like that again. Grrr. I chickened out because the inconvenience of the destination airport means I can't be at all flexible in dates, really. Of course, it's doubly annoying to pay over the odds for an inconvenient airport, come to that... Current Mood: highly Calvinist Tags: flights, glasgow (Leave a comment)
December 8th, 2009
07:15 pm alaimacerc [Link]	Sneer miss Last night on the radio, that Shamelessly Corkonian-Geezerish Bloke announced a Nora Jones track. I braced myself for (almost total lack of) impact; then, I found myself, in real shock, thinking "... actually, this is rather good!" I imagined having to repent of all those "Snora" wisecracks. Then I realized he'd played a Regina Spektor track by "mistake". Unfortunately, he then "rectified" it by playing NJ immediately afterwards. This is from her "rock" album, too. It boggles the brain to imagine how consciousness-lapsing her "easy listening" is, in sustaine doses. (Dozes?) Current Mood: amused Tags: anti-folk, anti-music, music, radio (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
December 7th, 2009
08:47 pm omentide [Link]	Whoops, Warpcon Just booked flights. Saved about £100 by.... deciding to sneak out of work at lunchtime. I will take five hours in lieu. I'm currently owed 8 and will almost certainly rack up 3 more this week... Also means we will be in Cork by mid afternoon on the Friday of Warpcon. This is all good. (Leave a comment)
05:39 pm sarklor [Link]	I would pay good money to see this. (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
05:01 am alaimacerc [Link]	Cautious Glire Frightened Rabbit at Cyprus Avenue. ( Partial, if lengthy, digestion ) Current Mood: bouncy bunny Current Music: Los Campesinos!, on MTV2 Tags: band.config, cyprus avenue, frightened rabbit, gigs (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:22 am coffee_lifeform [Link]	Meep. ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) Current Location: My parents' house, Wesht Cork Current Mood: thoughtful Tags: pcb, whining (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:37 am omentide [Link]	Alice Cooper Gig We had to queue for a while to get in. The queue was very orderly and we even carefully went round an imaginary bollard. Once in, the bar service was extremely quick. I think we might have been queuing for the bar. I enjoyed the Alice Cooper Theatre of Death. I didn't, as it happens, think much of the support band. They were technically very good indeed, they were very loud, but they just didn't have... Well, they only played one cover (that I recognised) but they sounded like a covers band to me. Alice Cooper put on an excellent show. He opened with School is Out. I couldn't help thinking that I was stacking shelves in a warehouse with that album before most of the people surrounding me were even born but... It went on from there. Great showmanship, wonderful backing but his voice was far from spot on this evening. Not really a criticism. Alice Cooper never did have that wonderful a voice. The audience were singing along to everything anyway. The show was wonderful and it was a lot of fun. They played all the songs I can think of right now (except muscle of love). I was wondering what they would do for an encore, but they came on and did School is Out again. And, right at the end, after throwing many things into the crowd and wishing us all a happy christmas he said 'Bah Humbug'. I liked that bit. (Leave a comment)
December 6th, 2009
05:42 pm alaimacerc [Link]	Reticent Euarchodont DGB has undesignated for tonight's Frightened Rabbit gig. Not sure I'll have much chance of hawking the spare ticket at the venue, as it doesn't seem to have sold out, even given the minusule size of the venue. Maybe with some deep discountiung. Not to worry, wasn't a dear ticket anyway. Have I mentioned the whole "Cork people, no musical taste" thing? Cork punches waaay below its weight for getting middling-sized acts since when they do come here, they don't sell out even moderate-sized venues. And bigger acts don't even have a suitable venue in the first place. On the wild offchance that anyone that happens to be at a loose end this evening and is in striking distance, do let me know! Current Mood: anticipatory Current Music: Greek riot police percussion on heads Tags: cork, frightened rabbit, gigs, music (Leave a comment)
December 5th, 2009
11:52 pm alaimacerc [Link]	-asbian Anyone else ever felt that if they booted Tom Whatsisname out of Kasabian, and the remainder were led by Serge Thingummyjig, you'd have a reasonably serviceable -- if deeply unoriginal -- vaguely psychedelic/indie sort of outfit? Whereas with, they very much teeter over -- or perhaps more appropriately, barge -- into that whole unfortunate "lad rock" area? (Consider the Fratellis and the View thereby slagged off en passant.) ETA: apparently "close friends" of Oasis. I think the prosecution rests. Mind you, source for this is an old clip of Noel G: clearly, these days, not even Oasis are close friends of Oasis. (Mood now tipping over to the "self-satisfied with own prejudices" dwaggin.) Current Mood: thoughtful Current Music: tail end of some Ka- thing, on MTV2 Tags: kasabian, music, splitting bands up (Leave a comment)
11:14 pm mytholder [Link]	Dead Presidents Recap, Part I Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there. I’d outlined Unknown Armies to the players, describing it as ‘surreal modern-day occult weirdness, sort of Twin Peaksish, or Pulp Fiction with spells’. They came up with the beautiful idea of playing resurrected Presidents. We were all big fans of The West Wing, which was probably the main inspiration. None of the players knew much about the Unknown Armies setting, which suited me perfectly. Read the rest of this entry » Tags: roleplaying, uncategorized
12:07 am omentide [Link]	Happy Birthday _grimtales_ (Leave a comment)
December 4th, 2009
08:09 pm omentide [Link]	Friday and Bah Humbug It is that time of year. I dislike getting up in the dark. I have two 08:00 starts next week. My fault. I tried to spread them out but was foiled when the one that should have been this Wednesday got postponed to next Wednesday. This weekend I have already water changed the two upstairs fishtanks. This weekend will feature a trip to the physiotherapist (tomorrow morning), a new washing up machine (at least an attempt to buy one), maybe some craft shop (for wool and knitting needles), and exchange of games and Alice Cooper. Then we're into the seasonal jollies. Which I dislike. I don't dislike the family but I do dislike the forced conviviality. Restaurant is booked twice - once for my family and once for his. His is somewhat extended this year so we thought it was a bit much to take everyone out at once. I have asked for three weeks off next spring and, if this is agreed in principle, we shall be buying flights to Guatamala. The though of Gautamala (30 degrees, 100% humidity) is very, very cheering. I have also requested the necessary 2.5 days leave for Warpcon and K2. I don't think there will be a problem with that. It's not as if I have to work around anyone else's leave requirements. Next week at work is hectic with meetings, one night out (which should be quite good fun as it's a good crowd, though the choice of the Aberdeen Angus disturbs me a little) and one leaving reception for our Clinical Director which will be more sedate. Plans are slowly falling together. No shopping has yet been done but it will all happen. As will cards. At least I have bought the cards and some stamps. Bah Humbug! (I should find a Bah Humbug icon). (Leave a comment)
December 2nd, 2009
07:48 pm omentide [Link]	Robochef better My robot is better. The new bowl and lid arrived.... (Leave a comment)
02:07 am alaimacerc [Link]	Dungeonquest + Ticket to Ride Tuesday-night boardgaming again, at last! ( Blow-by-blow ) Current Mood: chipper Current Music: Stephen Fry and Bill Bailey making merry with Graham Norton Tags: boardgames, dungeonquest, ticket to ride, tuesday night crowd (Leave a comment)
12:43 am mytholder [Link]	Dead Presidents Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there. One of the most successful games I’ve run recently was an Unknown Armies game called Dead Presidents. I left the players to come up with some campaign frameworks, and they decided to play reincarnated presidents with superpowers. I blame The West Wing. (The other suggested campaign, which I think is utter genius and really must run sometime, was about a unit of marines in Iraq who get zapped by a curse. By day, they appear normal. By night, they appear to be scary Jihadists to anyone who sees them.) Dead Presidents went to some bizarre places. Here’s the transcript of a conversation between the bad guys, which the PCs managed to obtain with the typewriter used to write the Watergate story and some sorcery. On Thursday, I’ll recap the campaign and discuss why it worked so well. Read the rest of this entry » Tags: roleplaying
December 1st, 2009
06:26 pm alaimacerc [Link]	Jon Ronson on beards, Biffies, and Robbies It's probably just me, but I found the following exchange, from a Guardian article in which Jon Ronson is interviewing Robbie Williams during his "disappearing and chasing UFOs" period, rather hilarious: Actually, I don't think his beard is a visual symbol of any kind of madness. This is just the first time in 18 years he has taken a break from work and is enjoying doing things he was never before allowed to do, which includes having a beard. "Pop stars aren't allowed to have beards," he says. "Name me a pop star with a beard." "Biffy Clyro," I say. "I'm talking about pop stars," Robbie says. linky Current Mood: amused Current Music: wailing and gnashing of teeth on the evening news Tags: beards, biffy clyro, jon ronson, robbie williams (Leave a comment)
November 30th, 2009
10:56 pm alaimacerc [Link]	Old news for old fogies? In theory, that RTE Radio 2 is now explicitly targeting an agegroup (just about...) containing me, whereas it previously wasn't, should be good news from a purely self-interested POV, right? Except of course what they have in mind will be "playing more of the crap that were playing twenty years ago" that I didn't like first time around. But more generally, does this mean that if you're under 25, the "national broadcaster" (as in, "give us yer 160 quid") is aiming none of its three radio channels at you? Citing a "crowded market"? Hrrrrm. Of course, especially vexes here is the thought that Dave Fanning is one the "top experts" driving this change. Only somewhat less than that Gerry Ryan is being trotted out as the other. Way to further expend your alleged credibility, DF, both in making the claim itself, and in that it juxtaposes you with said GR. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Foos Tags: 2fm, music, radio (Leave a comment)
10:59 pm omentide [Link]	Allborked Winter.... Yesterday I broke the washing up machine. Not quite sure how I did it. I think it's the switch. We can make it work by using duct tape. Seriously. You jam the switch in with a folded up piece of paper and duct tape. I don't think it's worth getting it repaired. It's over ten years old. Sixty quid, I guess, for someone to come out, twenty to thirty for parts, then a couple of hours labour. Add in the inconvenience and difficulty of taking time off work... A brand new machine is around £200. And my mother wanted to know what we wanted for Christmas. I have asked for a contribution towards our new washing up machine. Then today I went to make chips. The Magimix borked. I was devastated. The Magimix Robochef is a very important part of my life. It is the most brilliant and wonderful kitchen gadget I have ever owned. Investigation revealed the lid was borked. Just a tiny piece of plastic, but it stopped it from engaging the all important safety mechanism. Lid and bowl have been on their way out for some time. I ordered new lid and new bowl on the Internet. £60 including postage. Entire machine is 'from' £150 on ebay and, apart from the bowls mine is AOK. I'm hoping to take it with me to Turkey. Not sure about voltage but I am sure something can be arranged. I made chips by hand and, to be honest, if anything they were better than they are when I use the magimix to cut them and, as hrafen recently sharpened the Global knives, it didn't take any longer (given I'd have had to wash the magimix up). Work is one hectic panic but I've been summoned to help finish off the annual report tomorrow, after which things should calm down a little. Maybe. I have made myself an appointment with a private physio for Saturday. They were supposed to be confirming by text and/or email but haven't. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. They seemed very pleasant. All the other news belongs to other people. Actually. I'm just hoping nothing else breaks... (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 29th, 2009
11:53 pm alaimacerc [Link]	"Global warming is nothing new..." Comment heard this evening on the BBC not, as one might have expected on Top Gear, but on... Antiques Roadshow. Apparently one of the resident "experts" was especially keen to share this in connection with, of all things, empire-line dresses (from the frist time 'round, that is). It was so out of context that it wasn't at all clear whether it was intended as AGW "skepticism" as such, but in the context -- or rather, out of any meaningful context whatsoever! -- it was very bizarre. I swear, soon we'll be getting the Lawsons of this world jumping up and down and telling us a return to the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum would be not only be "natural", but just what the global economy needs. Though we weren't entirely spared odd pronouncements from the mouth of J. Clarkson this weekend, as he was also on with Jon Woss, commenting on a 1991 clip of himself -- approvingly, of course, apart from the hairstyle -- in which, after a sustained rant about global warming (or lack thereof), he tossed in a comment about not believing the evidence about the ozone hole, either. Not clear if this was because he was under the impression the two were the same or closely connected, or if he just has considerable "form" in that whole "reflexively disbelieve everything hippy ecologist types say" area. Current Mood: medium-puzzled Current Music: Oceansize, "Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs" Tags: bbc, global warming, randomness (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
07:39 pm omentide [Link]	My weekend We watched a lot of TV on the computer on Friday night. We watched 'Have I got news for You' and we watched Insects. I also water changed the upstairs tangs and tweaked my back somewhat. Saturday morning we got up in a leisurely manner. I water changed my big fishtank then we had breakfast then we headed for Dragonmeet. I enjoyed Dragonmeet. I didn't play any games. Ashley played a game, a kind of playtest version and he was very impressed. I just chatted with people some of whom I only ever see at Dragonmeet these days and some of whom I see even more rarely. Also some people I see a bit more often. It was pleasantly social. A lot of dice were on offer (and, I think, a reasonable amount were being sold). Generic games stalls seemed to be doing an excellent trade. From what I heard it was a good day for the Traders and that is positive. What I thought rather sad was the ageing nature of the delegates. Not many as old as me, of course, but there was a distinct lack of genuine newbies. I did go down to where the scheduled games were being run (as suggested by cthulahoops) and it was, sadly, much the same story. Though I did see more people I knew (too busy to talk as they were playing their scheduled games). I'm not sure why I seem to have gone off the very idea of roleplaying. I'm sure I could enjoy it again, given the right conditions, but the conditions never seem to be right. I wonder if they ever were. These thoughts are something I am still working through and may come out in another, more dedicated, post. I just know that I am not 'in the mood' for roleplay at the moment and that this has persisted for a number of months. There was talk of playing Battlestar Galactica but I didn't think there was time. I would happily play that (especially the expansion as I don't think the 'sympathisers' work too well), or Powergrid or Puerto Rico or Agricola. I'd like to play Twilight Imperium again (with non-muppets as I played with non-muppets the first time I played). We damned nearly purchased Agricola... Had to remind ourselves that we are trying to dispose of our boardgames. I think I refined my attitude to Cam (both the real thing and the breakaway UK bit). Very discinclined to renew at present, and that is as much down to the 'gone off' roleplaying stuff (which is internal to me) as it is to the club (which is external to me). If I am to start enjoying roleplaying again, I think it would be on a far more intimate basis, at least to start with, whilst I got my motivation back. It would be in a setting that actually inspires me (so not WoD). I always enjoy CoC (gaslight for preference, with mystery and horror - not silly accents) which also benefits from a damned good system that never intrudes, Ars Magica, Traveller, Blue Planet, Transhuman Space.... Unknown Armies, In Nomine if properly run. Anyway, onto the Charity Auction. Always weird. natural20 did a damned good job of trying to raise some money but UK culture is just so different. In case anyone was wondering why I am so determined to emigrate... Functionally, you can divide whatever you think an item might fetch at a charity auction by ten. I'm not, actually, entirely sure that it's purely a cultural thing (though, compared to Irish Gamers, UK Gamers are mean when it comes to charity). There's the timing and atmosphere or the event (including the fact that the bar has shut and everyone is hungry). Traders are pushing their wares out of the hall right through the middle of the auction. Traders do not, on the whole, attend the auction either to flaunt their wares or to inflate the price. All credit to beckyl for doing completely the right thing for charity and for her shop! But there was no healthy competition from other shops... Then, of course, you have to pay on the spot - something that is rarely done at Irish Con charity auctions... I think that UK gamers regard a charity auction as a chance to acquire a desirable item and help a good cause at the same time. They see no reason to step 'beyond budget'. Irish charity auctions are a different beast entirely. I'm not sure how they got there and I'm not sure how they do it. After the auction we headed for Wagamamas. Just the two of us though we did see plenty of people from Dragonmeet in there. We ate ramen and drank Japanese beer. The text sent to us to tell us where people where drinking didn't get to my phone till around 22:45, by which time we were home. The weather was totally, totally foul. Yet another reason to emigrate. Though I do worry about how to rehome the fishes. Messed around on the Internet till quite late then went to bed and slept and slept and slept. Got up in a leisurely manner. Put on a load of washing. Had a leisurely lunch (weird we are eating fruit and cold meat or fish lunches now, but were having fried breakfasts in summer) then.... POWERCUT. The weather was vile meaning there was hardly enough light to read. Hung up the washing, did a bit of tidying, couldn't clean the house (no power = no hot water and certainly no Dyson), knitted in the semi dark. Waited for son to come over and take us out shopping where we got some water conditioner and a brush and dustpan and some saucers for the ceiling high plants we needed to rescue from the predicted frost tomorrow night. It is very odd being without electricity. I kept thinking of things to do then realising I couldn't do them due to power cut... Very odd. We got back home and the power was restored. I restored all the clocks. Cleaned the kitchen a bit (had to leave bits out as hrafen was making a chilli sauce out of excess garden chillis which would not survive the frost predicted for tomorrow night. It is excellent and reminds me of Nandos extra hot piri piri. Dysonned everything. Cleaned out the downstairs tangs. We have a duck. hrafen will roast it and I am going to roast potatoes and boil some brocolli. (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
November 28th, 2009
11:46 pm alaimacerc [Link]	Unclear credit Muse were on Jon Woss this week. I couldn't help but notice that their particular musikarbeiter (the keyboard player, required for when Matt's too occupied to perform that particular chore himself, as he would on the record) was in near-total darkness. Thus being relegated to even lower status than the drummer! I realize that he's just the hired help, but it seems a bit harsh when you're playing the actual melody. Perhaps it also seems like a little bit of swiz that the band aren't a sufficient unit to play some reasonable version of their own song (or at least "reasonable" enough for mainstream TV appearances). Of course that often comes with the territory with the "solo artist" concept: backing band needn't hold its breath waiting for much in the way of recognition. JZ's appearance on Jools (see gripes ibid) seems like an extreme example of this, though: the person filling in for Alicia Keys' "featuring" role didn't get so much as a name-check -- for what one would otherwise take to be the lead vocal, were a Starstar Hip-Hop Producer(TM) not involved, to bogart the main/entire credit for same. TANJ. Current Mood: curious Tags: band.config, jay-zed, muse, musikarbeiter (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
November 27th, 2009
11:48 pm alaimacerc [Link]	Lurches to the Right I didn't even realize there was a vacancy, but apparently UKIP have elected a new leader, in the form of Lord Pearson. ( More on this, and worse besides ) Current Mood: pessimistic Tags: gender, hot and cold running michael gove, politics, rants, religion, ukip (4 comments \| Leave a comment)

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