Quackers' Friends
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends View]
Below are the most recent 16 friends' journal entries.
| Saturday, November 14th, 2009 |
dougs
|
9:23p |
|
beermat
|
5:55p |
Dug out my trusty HP OmniBook 800CT (1998 or so, Pentium 166MMX, and 32 MB RAM, woot!), loaded the Keil C compiler (PK51 V4.1) & the all important parallel port dongle (compiler & dongle off ebay for 50 quid) and am happily compiling some ancient 8051 C code. Party time! |
| Friday, November 13th, 2009 |
flickgc
|
12:01p |
|
| Thursday, November 12th, 2009 |
dougs
|
6:16p |
|
flickgc
|
8:25a |
I've gone a variety of peculiar colours...
... but my thumb is now far less swollen and blue, and I can straighten it fully and bend it more than I could, which is good. The nail has a lovely semi-circle of black on it, but it's not going to fall off, which is good. And the scrape on my side is healing up nicely. As the thumb and side have become less painful, I keep noticing other bits that hurt. Just this morning, Mike found a big new bruise on my other leg while he was helping me to get dry after my shower. We wonder if it might be more sensible to just look for non-bruised patches of skin.... I shall look forward to showing off my wounds at weekend! This entry was originally posted at http://flick.dreamwidth.org/771883.html, where it has  comment(s). Add comments here or there, if you feel like it. |
| Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 |
dougs
|
2:30p |
I tried hard not to use the words "trouser press"
I have an important meeting on Friday, for which purpose I recently bought some new trousers. However, these new trousers of mine were about three inches too long in the leg. Hmph. This morning, I rooted around in the sewing machine cabinet's drawers, and found some of that cunning iron-on hemming webbing stuff. I unfolded the ironing board, and then paused. A while ago, I chucked out both of my old irons, each of which had been broken by the stepson before he left home about two years ago. Yes, stop laughing at the back, it is more than two years since I did any ironing. So now I don't own an iron. And, looking at the ironing board, the cover is in a shocking state. And that webbing must be about thirty years old -- it belonged to Anne's mother. So I went shopping, and came home armed with a new iron, a new ironing-board cover, and a new packet of that cunning iron-on hemming webbing stuff. (Warning accompanying the new iron, the new steam iron -- "do not allow this unit to be exposed to moisture". Hmmm.) We'll draw a kindly veil over the scene where I took the trousers up. Suffice it to say that, while I understand the principles, my skill in tailoring is substantially less than my skill in, for example, configuring mail servers. But now, my trousers are about three inches shorter. And all the creases are in the right place. And both the legs are the same length as each other, which I understand is quite important amongst those who care about such things. Phew. Now I'm going to go and have a lie down. I might put some stitches in later, to guard against the possibility that the cunning webbing might not hold in real-world situations. |
hawkida
|
1:20p |
W(e)aving a story
So... I've got a vague idea for making use of Google Wave and I'm kind of looking to recruit. Wave is all about collaboration, about creating something that can still be edited, and about getting multiple contributors. There are people out there trying to roleplay with it and I'm interested in doing something along those lines. I'm looking for up to three contributors who. The plan is to create a story, but to run it to some degree like a tabletop rpg. Like I assume play-by-mail works although I've never tried it, but with more coherence and editing. Each volunteer would play a character, the conversation would happen between them based on the player's motivations, understandings and so on. I would probably take on a character as well, but my main role would be that of editor, author and gamesmaster. Players get to write both dialogue and general description, all of which is editable by me. The game/story would take place as one wave, and a second would exist to discuss things in much the same way as tabletop players drop out of character to ask about what they can see, what they might know about the things they're facing and so on. I have no idea if we'd need to create some sort of a rules system, I have no real idea of setting as yet - we can discuss that before starting. I haven't quite decided whether the group should have a general overview from the outset with an "end condition" we're aiming towards - probably not, I may give each character clashing motivations, or just let it wind and alter as it goes. But the idea is to end up with something at some point, for that something to take two forms: 1) a tale which is legible and of sufficient quality that a reader who wasn't involved might want to pick it up (and hey, with some of the fanfic I've seen, that's not a high bar to meet) 2) a wave that people can replay in order to watch the creation of the story. So... tell me, what are the gaping flaws in the plan? What advice would you offer? Would you be interested in taking part? And if so, do you actually have access to Google Wave yet? |
| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 |
hawkida
|
3:15p |
Darts
I'm really not very good at darts. I'd not played before until a few months ago when I gave it a try while out with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cdave. I wasn't very good but I was improving. My first dart would fly wild but with the next two I could correct the mistakes and get closer to my target. Last night I went out with adelheid and cdave and discovered I've managed to get worse at darts. Now I can't correct the errors as well as I could the first time around. I was bad. I was really bad. I was stabbed-myself-in-the-chest bad. |
| Monday, November 9th, 2009 |
flickgc
|
8:55p |
Owie
Up to the (incredibly cold) Frozen North this weekend, first to see Mike's family in Chester and then for lunch with my sister on Monday. It was foggy. Last night, riding, which may have been a mistake given that I was knackered and had to borrow Toni's (slightly too big) boots as I'd forgotten mine and we didn't have time to come home to get them. Riding Taylor, and suffering a complete inability to get a sitting trot without being all over the place and feeling like I was in danger of coming off, which was weird. And, unfortunately, painful: towards the end of the lesson, we were having a lovely canter when I lost one of my stirrups (something I'd been close to doing worryingly often during the lesson; I think it may have been partly the boots, but I don't know). Shouldn't be a problem, as I've often quite happily cantered Taylor without them both in the school and in the field, but when we came back down to trot it meant that I had to sit, which.... I did think for a moment that I was going to manage to get myself right again, with a combination of grabbing the saddle and pushing myself up off the fence, but no. I now have an interesting collection of lumps and bruises from the fence, a lovely long scrape where my top rode up at my hip (fence and, I suspect, sand from the floor of the school), and an astonishing lump on the end of my (left, thankfully: it's all on my left side) thumb (have just been to see the GP, and she agreed that it's not broken and just says I need to be careful not to knock it, which might lead to the lump asploding in a shower of ick). Taylor is rather enormous. Getting back on him to walk him off was tricky with only one hand.... Have a picture. Nice. This entry was originally posted at http://flick.dreamwidth.org/771811.html, where it has  comment(s). Add comments here or there, if you feel like it. |
hawkida
|
12:12p |
How to keep Max warm and dry when larping in November
Daytime. Wear: Underwear Jog pants leather trousers paid of socks pair of carrier bags (on feet) second pair of socks pair of leather boots t shirt cagoule tiger-print leotard furry bodywarmer long tabard (reaches to mid-shins) giant leather (lammied) hero belt suede and fake fur oversize waistcoat fur coat without arms cut off sleeves of a sheepskin coat fleece cloak And run around a bit. All waterproof and warm. Yay! Night time Version 1: Sleep in t shirt, socks and balaclava using bedding that goes: airbed picnic blanket 4 season sleeping bag with a 3 season sleeping bag inside it large, heavy, fake fur and fleece blanket on top large wool cloak on top of that hug a hot water bottle tightly Wake up cold at 7.30am after about 4 hours' sleep. Version 2: Find spare bunk availability at 5am while chatting to irdm, sleep until 9am, struggle to leave cosy warm bedding to obtain food, eventually managing it at 10am. Result: Super-sleepy Max. |
dougs
|
11:24a |
|
| Friday, November 6th, 2009 |
flickgc
|
12:23p |
Ah, apathy....
*mentions Eastercon art show to someone *thinks that, as programme has been fixed for six months, should probably book art show space *go to website "If you joined Odyssey before the art show bookings were available, you will now be able to book display space by visiting your existing online membership form (your membership confirmation email will have the web link)."*think that's a bit unhelpful *search email archive for anything coming from an address containing "odyssey2010" *find no results, conclude said email was never sent *poke website some more "If you have mislaid the link (in your membership confirmation email) enabling you to modify and update your membership, then -
Please give your email address [box]
If we can find a member with that email address, then the link will be resent as an email to that address."*wonder what email address Mike would have put on Flick's form *give up and make vague mental note to just ask John to save some space when see him next *whinge about it online Edit: *find out that lack of email is because I don't actually have a membership of my own, but am just added onto Mike's *think that's a bit bloody weird, and wonder whether that means that eg programme participant emails for me will just be sent to Mike instead I forgot to say that we saw Fascinating Aida on Sunday evening. That's ok, though, you can just read whatever I said about them last time, because it was exactly the same show, with the exception of a couple of new bits in the Bulgarian Song Cycle, down to and including the jokes between songs. I know it's the same tour, but really. Oh, the soprano was slightly less unable to pronounce her w's than last time, I think, which was a relief. On Wednesday, I went riding. We had a different instructor than usual (the third member of full-time staff) as a bit of an experiment. Interesting, but I completely failed to be able to get canter in anything other than forward seat; suspect I would have done better if I'd tried again *after* we did some work without stirrups, but there wasn't time. Was nice to do some work in the school. Riding Danny, which terrified me at first as the only other time I rode him he threw his head about continually and really freaked me out. Didn't do it once, this time, which I choose to interpret as meaning that my rein contact is better than it was, as he doesn't like it to be uneven. Last night, as well as going to the ton, we went to see Chord in the Kingsway tram tunnel. I think the tunnel may be more interesting than the art, but it was quite interesting. This entry was originally posted at http://flick.dreamwidth.org/771458.html, where it has  comment(s). Add comments here or there, if you feel like it. |
| Thursday, November 5th, 2009 |
dougs
|
2:18p |
|
hawkida
|
11:33a |
Observation
It turns out the ease of carrying a big backpack is massively improved by correct adjustment of the straps. I wish I'd worked this out somewhat earlier! |
| Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 |
dougs
|
6:56p |
|
flickgc
|
4:54p |
Death list, live fish
Points (well, as soon as it turns up on BBC / CNN) to pixiejuice. Nearly the end of the year: you all need to get a move on if johnnyeponymous isn't going to win.... Points: 51 johnnyeponymous 28 frandowdsofa 23 pixiejuice 23 ajr 14 rose_gialle 14 flickgc 9 sneerpout 9 nils 6 wardrobewitch 6 drplokta 6 cuboid_ursinoid 0 the_maenad 0 stillcarl 0 purplecthulhu 0 dougs 0 ajshepherd Fish all still alive, even after we left them alone for a weekend. This is good. Fairly sure that some of the little fish are about to start shagging, which provides hours of speculation. Riding last night was cold, and dark. Bah. (Admittedly, it seemed worse than it was because I haven't ridden in the evening for several weeks.) Still, had a nice ride. Nice to get to ride in the school, for a change, which isn't something that often gets said at Mudchute...! This entry was originally posted at http://flick.dreamwidth.org/771219.html, where it has  comment(s). Add comments here or there, if you feel like it. |
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}