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May 10th, 2003
01:26 am - More trip anecdotes to follow soon
1) Puzzle people: a useful and interesting guy (sadly off-LJ) called Michael Colao who organised a puzzle hunt at MayCon points to Intercoastal Altercations III, a primarily web-based three-hour puzzle hunt for teams of 3-6 people. Teams are recommended to gather together in the same place, but can play remotely with sufficiently good communication. It's on this Sunday, but it's scheduled to take place between 7 and 10 in the evening Eastern time, which is 4 to 7 Pacific and a rather inconvenient 12 to 15 o'clock UK time. If there's anyone UK-based who's interested and doesn't have work on Monday - or, Toothbrush-stylee, just doesn't mind getting the sack - then contact me soonest accordingly. Overseas folks are also welcome - after all, we're going to be a team operating remotely however we work this - but might want to try to find a team who are all about to physically meet to play first. Last year's hunt is on the web site and looks mighty fine to me.
2) There was some good-natured slashy humour on Coronation Street on Wednesday. I approved. Coronation Street is one of the UK's longest-running TV soap operas at over 40 years of age and has long been at least one of the two most popular. It is set in the fictional suburb of Weatherfield in the non-fictional city of Manchester. Its style is frequently more gently humorous than its main rival, the frequently angsty, London-based Eastenders. Specifically, the scene in question concerned bombastic comedy butcher/pub-landlord Fred Elliott. His son, Ashley, a butcher set to inherit the family business, recently had his vampy hairdresser wife murdered and is still grieving and struggling to cope in the situation. Family friend Norman "Curly" Watts (intellectual, but has had a string of mundane jobs; married to a female police officer) offered to bring some beers around for a lads' night in.
Unlucky-in-love Fred was preparing for a date with new amour Petunia Peach (or somesuch...) who called to collect Fred for their date. Petunia disparaged Fred's house and cast aspersions upon the relationship between Ashley and Norman who she found drinking together. Fred tried to protest that she misunderstood, but she would not desist. Entertainingly, both Fred and Petunia share the same verbal tic as Foghorn Leghorn, being prone to saying a sentence, appending "ah say" and then summarising the sentence they have just spoken. Petunia sweeps out with Fred in tow to reveal Norman and Ashley in fits of laughter about the misunderstanding, completely unembarrassed. A nice touch. M'learned colleagues suggest the usual pairing in this barely-trodden fandom to be Nick/Ashley, but I'd be interested to see some alternate-timeline Percy/Norris gerontological work. Purely for my own appallment, you understand.
3) I was pleased to see a far stronger shift towards coalition politics in the recent Scottish Assembly elections with a number of smaller parties picking up stray seats on the regional top-up lists. There must be few finer callings in life than being your party's only member in a government and proudly bearing your entire party's weight on your shoulders. Very entertaining to see a member of the Scottish Socialist Party playing silly buggers when swearing the oath and Presiding Officer Sir David Steel's mild-mannered reaction. Now such political protest misbehaviour has a long tradition;  addedentry points to wrestler-politican The Great Sasuke (pronounced more like Susky, to rhyme with husky) following in the Antonio Inoki tradition, except without fighting Muhammad Ali (yes, really). Now did Sir David Steel, knowing that only the next day he would be replaced in his job, choose to give a glorious example of speakerly authority by smacking Colin Fox upside the head with a steel chair™? No, he did not. Damn Liberal.
4) As is at least frequent, the BBC's best comedy writers seem to be those writing for the sports news web site. Some gloriously laboured puns to be had in "The Blair Pitch Project" and "Sheep National fleeces bookies".
5) Odd dream last night in which I received a copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I didn't actually read it, principally because I was most put off by the fact that there was no secret made of the fact that it wasn't actually written by JKR. The writer's name wasn't anyone famous and wasn't even anyone whose name I knew from fanfic. (Of course, many fanfic authors' real names are secret, but if yours has three syllables and ends in STONE, for that's all I can remember, then bounce and claim now.) The mildly cool thing was that the author's name was printed in special inks on the side of the pages which you could only see by looking at the thickness of the book. All the same, it meant that I didn't want to read OotP so much. Bloody dream.
Oh, and there was a not-so-pleasant dream the other night about I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! too, but it did have Emma "Baby Spice" Bunton therein which was partial compensation.
6) Sunderland AFC are now absolutely certain to be relegated tomorrow, finishing bottom of the league with fourteen (? I lose track) losses in a row and fewer points than any other team in the ten years of the Premiership. On the other hand, our reserve (second) team have won the Northern section of the FA Premier Reserve League and our under-19 team have won six in a row, both of which are at least theoretically good signs for the future.
Promotion back to the Premiership next year will come by either (a) finishing in the top two or (b) getting the third spot through the play-offs. There will be a new play-off system next year, whereby the next six teams (not four as previously) all have a shot at this place; it's effectively a seeded eight-team single-elimination knockout contest where the top two seeds get byes through the first round. On top of that, the matches won't be played over two legs as before, but instead will be played as single games with the higher-ranked team having home advantage. Sounds like an improvement to me, however much the BBC mock.
7) URL burst:
Current Mood:  satisfied
Current Music: R.O.C - (Dis)count us in (edit)
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![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/116918313/1012877) | | From: | drbear |
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| Date: | May 9th, 2003 06:22 pm (UTC) |
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I will say this:
1. I wish we had legislators looked like that.
2. It would be better if lawmakers wrote on their hands instead of writing most of the laws.
Sunderland AFC are now absolutely certain to be relegated tomorrow...
It could be worse. You could be a Derby County fan.
The Rams came close to being relegated from First to Second Division this year; they were relegated from the Premiership after last year. They sacked Gregory today. The team needs some serious rearrangement. If they're not careful, they could be the Third Division team whose pitch seats the most fans.
Burton Albion, who were promoted to Conference after last year, seems to be serious about staying after finishing this year in the middle of the pack. They put 12 on the transfer list.
Arsenal could at least get the FA cup tomorrow. I hope. :-) Sunderland have been the team whose home game had the highest attendance in the entire country while still in the First Division in the past and could quite likely do so again this year. OK, the Stadium of Light is smaller than Old Trafford, St. James' Park and Manchester City's 48,000-capacity new ground, but I think it's bigger than all the rest.
Arsenal could at least get the FA cup tomorrow. I hope.
You're a week previous, I think. Tomorrow is the last game of the league season - Sunderland v Arsenal in a complete non-event. Go easy on us. :-) Sorry for the delay; I was off losing money in Las Vegas.
Sunderland 1-6 Arsenal, IIRC. Sorry about that. :-/
You are right, I was a week off on the FA Cup Final. Unfortunately, none of the Vegas sports books was taking action. Yeah, although it looks like  libraries has regained its lost ground. Expect to see a campaign from me soon to improve my ranking. :-) All that time learning Internet promotion hasn't been wasted after all... hehehe | From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | July 21st, 2005 03:31 pm (UTC) |
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| | R.O.C | (Link) |
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noticed you'd been listening to ROC's '(dis)count us in' - thought you'e like to know ROC have a new single out now called "Princess'
more at www.rocmusic.com
thanks
patrick And that's why my LiveJournal e-mail address has been getting ROC-related unsolicited mail, has it? Not cool.
I'm not completely opposed to using research to find blogs of people who like obscure interests - and this one song is somewhat obscure, though dreamy and very good indeed, the very definition of a well-paced song with a good progression throughout. Adding people to spam lists without permission is not kosher, though. |
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