{"@attributes":{"version":"2.0"},"channel":{"title":"The Life and Times of a Pyromaniac","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/","description":"The Life and Times of a Pyromaniac - LiveJournal.com","lastBuildDate":"Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:25:29 GMT","generator":"LiveJournal \/ LiveJournal.com","image":{"url":"https:\/\/l-userpic.livejournal.com\/12911698\/2434060","title":"The Life and Times of a Pyromaniac","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/","width":"98","height":"100"},"item":[{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/43277.html","pubDate":"Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:25:29 GMT","title":"Bad news for Wheel of Time fans","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/43277.html","description":"Book 12 may be <a href=\"http:\/\/slashdot.org\/articles\/07\/09\/17\/0243230.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">a little delayed<\/a>.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/43277.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/42644.html","pubDate":"Thu, 01 Mar 2007 11:05:26 GMT","title":"Driving","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/42644.html","description":"Over recent weeks I've been getting interested in the idea of actually learning to drive. As a result of my incessant pestering of <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span> while she's been driving to explain how it all works, she dragged me out to the Sheffield Arena carpark on Sunday afternoon and gave me the wheel.<br \/><br \/>I don't think I did too badly, given that it was the first time I'd ever driven a car. I mean, I stalled all the time (mostly because I forgot to put the clutch down while coming to a halt), but I managed steering OK, and a couple of fairly smooth shifts up to second. Apparently down-shifting is harder, so we didn't try that. I also have to learn to actually release the clutch properly, because I was leaving my foot on it to stop the car going too fast (i.e. more than about 5mph).<br \/><br \/>After I got over the initial nervousness, it was actually reasonably fun. I'll have to see about getting proper lessons sometime.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/42644.html?view=comments#comments","category":"driving"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/42127.html","pubDate":"Mon, 01 Jan 2007 12:42:12 GMT","title":"Happy New Year + some other stuff","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/42127.html","description":"First of all, Happy New Year to everybody reading this!<br \/><br \/>Now on to more important celebrations; my birthday. I'm going the lazy route this year and just heading down to Corporation on Saturday 13th (I seem to be really busy this weekend with other stuff). So, if people feel like wishing me happy birthday\/buying me drinks\/watching me make a fool of myself, that's the best place and time to do so. I know Corp isn't always the most fantastic of nights out, but it normally goes pretty well if we take a big gang along, so that's the idea.<br \/><br \/>So, stick a comment on the post if you feel like joining me, so I have a rough idea of who's going to be there. I don't need firm commitments at this stage (or at all, in fact), but just a rough idea would be nice.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/42127.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/41952.html","pubDate":"Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:37:58 GMT","title":"Busy, busy, busy...","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/41952.html","description":"At some point there will be a long post describing my holiday in Scotland. I had planned to start writing it today, but it seems that I instead have to plan an office move. The good thing about the office move is that we have about three times as much space in the new office; the bad news is manyfold.<br \/><br \/><ul><br \/><li>The move has to be done by the beginning of September i.e. Friday<\/li><br \/><li>There are many heavy items that need to be moved<\/li><br \/><li>The goods lift is broken<\/li><br \/><li>The only people actually moving stuff is the development team<\/li><br \/><li>The development team consists of three fairly typical skinny geeks, and one very strong ex-rugby player. Guess which one is on holiday this week<\/li><br \/><\/ul><br \/><br \/>Currently I'm measuring things and making a floor plan; this makes a good substitute for actual work. If I'm lucky the lift will be fixed tomorrow, which is when we're actually going to move things.<br \/><br \/>Anyway, I've been away from LJ for a week, so if anything fantastically interesting has happened that you've posted about, stick a comment on this post, because the idea of reading my friends page backlog gives me the Fear.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/41952.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40749.html","pubDate":"Tue, 04 Apr 2006 11:45:18 GMT","title":"Information request","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40749.html","description":"Anybody know any good van hire companies in Sheffield? I'm moving house next Thursday and require a van to shift the bigger bits of furniture.<br \/><br \/>UPDATE: we've got one booked now.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40749.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40582.html","pubDate":"Fri, 03 Mar 2006 07:42:31 GMT","title":"Random grammatical musing","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40582.html","description":"The Guardian currently has a front page story titled <a href=\"http:\/\/education.guardian.co.uk\/schools\/story\/0,,1722932,00.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Exam body declares war on greengrocer's apostrophe<\/a>. The gist of the article is that they're considering making punctuation more important to GCSE grades.<br \/><br \/>While the meat of the article is interesting, I keep looking at the title and thinking <i>shouldn't that be \"greengrocers' apostrophe\"?<\/i>","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40582.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40365.html","pubDate":"Mon, 30 Jan 2006 07:59:45 GMT","title":"Stupid banks","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40365.html","description":"Why exactly is it that only people who can drive or have been abroad are permitted bank accounts in this country?","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40365.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40186.html","pubDate":"Tue, 03 Jan 2006 06:14:52 GMT","title":"Putting on the years","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40186.html","description":"Given that today is my birthday, I thought I'd break my long LJ silence and say hi to everyone. Hi.<br \/><br \/>My sister has bought me a new shiny knife. I have yet to test it in the way I test all my new knives, by waving it at <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"fractured_ident\" lj:user=\"fractured_ident\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/fractured-ident.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/fractured-ident.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>fractured_ident<\/b><\/a><\/span> and seeing how much he cowers. My brother got me <i>Anansi Boys<\/i>, which due to <strike>him being lazy and not wrapping it before giving it to me<\/strike> a freak time accident I finished reading yesterday. It's the first book I've ever read with a deleted scene at the end. It's also really really good.<br \/><br \/>Other stuff: New Years Eve was fun: <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span> and I ended up doing a slightly crazy trip to York in the afternoon to visit <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"deliriousplanet\" lj:user=\"deliriousplanet\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/deliriousplanet.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/deliriousplanet.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>deliriousplanet<\/b><\/a><\/span> in hospital: it was one of those strange days where you try and do something relatively complex (travel to York by train, get to hospital that we've never been to before, not knowing when visiting time ends, then try and get food before heading home, all on New Years Eve when all opening\/running times go crazy), with absolutely no plan or checking ahead, and which all ran mysteriously smoothly, up to and including randomly bumping into <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"verte\" lj:user=\"verte\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/verte.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/verte.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>verte<\/b><\/a><\/span> in York city centre.<br \/><br \/>The <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-C     \"  data-ljuser=\"houseofgoth\" lj:user=\"houseofgoth\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/houseofgoth.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/community.png?v=556&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/houseofgoth.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>houseofgoth<\/b><\/a><\/span> party was fun, although I wasn't in a massively party mood, so once I'd finished wandering the house wishing everybody a happy new year I buried myself in the corner of the quiet room (where all the cool people were :) ).<br \/><br \/>Below the cut is one of those \"what did you do last year\" memes, just because.<br \/><br \/><br \/><br \/>1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before?<br \/><br \/>Went walking in the Lake District. It's very pretty up there.<br \/><br \/>2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?<br \/><br \/>Last year's resolution was to do something about my finances (read: debts). I managed to pay off about \u00a32,000 of debt (clearing credit cards and getting out of overdraft), so I'm going to call that a yes.<br \/><br \/>I haven't made any this year. It's very rare for me to make them anyway.<br \/><br \/>3. Did anyone close to you give birth?<br \/><br \/>My older sister had her second child; Harrison Jackson (Harry for short). He is very large for his age.<br \/><br \/>4. Did anyone close to you die?<br \/><br \/>Not really close any more, but the aunt of an ex-girlfriend, who I got along with well while we were going out.<br \/><br \/>5. What countries did you visit?<br \/><br \/>I didn't. That would involve having a passport, which I still have never managed to sort out getting.<br \/><br \/>6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?<br \/><br \/>My answer to this question last year was <i>\"Mental stability. It's not very likely.\"<\/i><br \/>Just shows what I know, doesn't it :)<br \/><br \/>I'm not sure about this one. 2005 was a good year. I think I'll go with more time spent doing stuff, instead of wasting all of my holiday time just lazing round the house (he says, spending a day off lazing round the house).<br \/><br \/>7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?<br \/><br \/>2nd April. <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span> making the terrible mistake of meeting me at the cinema, and ended the evening as my girlfriend. All according to my devious plan. Bwahahahaha!<br \/><br \/>8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?<br \/><br \/>Getting rid of the vast majority of my debt. Handling the situation mentioned in the last question without resorting to drinking alcohol. I'm not sure which of those two it is.<br \/><br \/>9. What was your biggest failure?<br \/><br \/>I really can't think of anything right now<br \/><br \/>10. Did you suffer illness or injury?<br \/><br \/>Nothing serious enough to mention.<br \/><br \/>11. What was the best thing you bought?<br \/><br \/>My hat, which I bought in October in Whitby, then lost within a month. It was good while I had it though. <br \/><br \/>12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?<br \/><br \/><span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span>: I now have much more appreciation of exactly how much work teachers actually do, and how she hasn't gone insane I have no idea.<br \/><br \/>13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?<br \/><br \/>*sigh* Sometimes you have a friend, a person who you get along well with, who helps you when you feel shit. A guy who's always good to go out with and fun to be around.<br \/><br \/>And then you find out some more about him, about how he is when you don't see him, and it gets very complicated, because this person you like suddenly isn't very likeable. And the people around you obviously don't like him, and you can't argue with their reasons, but you also can't forget that he was your friend, and that he helped you when you were down. So you tend to just clam up when the subject comes up, and try to keep out of it.<br \/><br \/>He drinks Jack Daniels.<br \/><br \/><br \/>14. Where did most of your money go?<br \/><br \/>After rent and bills, paying back debts.<br \/><br \/>15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?<br \/><br \/><i>Serenity<\/i>. Not that I'm a fanboy or anything *cough*<br \/><br \/>16. what song will always remind you of 2005?<br \/><br \/>Alice Cooper - Poison<br \/><br \/>17. Compared to this time last year, are you:<br \/><br \/>i. happier or sadder? <br \/><br \/>Happier. Much much happier. Re-reading my answers to when I did this last year has reminded me that I was feeling quite bad this time last year, whereas now I feel great.<br \/>ii. thinner or fatter? <br \/><br \/>A little fatter. Some of it may be additional muscle from swimming lots<br \/>iii. richer or poorer? <br \/><br \/>Richer; more accurately less in debt.<br \/><br \/>18. What do you wish you'd done more of?<br \/><br \/>Sleeping.<br \/><br \/>19. What do you wish you'd done less of?<br \/><br \/>Lying in bed wishing I could get to sleep. My insomnia made a bit of a comeback this year<br \/><br \/>20. How did you spend Christmas?<br \/><br \/>At home, with the family. Same as every year.<br \/><br \/>21. How did you spend New Year's?<br \/><br \/>See the main bit of the post.<br \/><br \/>22. Did you fall in love in 2005?<br \/><br \/>Yes. No points for guessing who with.<br \/><br \/>23. How many one-night stands?<br \/><br \/>None.<br \/><br \/>24. What was your favorite TV program?<br \/><br \/>Babylon 5. Because I've only just started watching it. <br \/><br \/>25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?<br \/><br \/>No.<br \/><br \/>26. What was the best book you read?<br \/><br \/>I've read a lot of books in the last year. Many of which were very good. <i>Anansi Boys<\/i>, the three books in <i>A song of Ice and Fire<\/i> (need to read book 4 now), and either <i>Sabriel<\/i> or <i>Lirael<\/i><br \/><br \/>27. What was your greatest musical discovery?<br \/><br \/>Great Big Sea, probably<br \/><br \/>28. What did you want and get?<br \/><br \/><span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span> :P<br \/><br \/>29. What did you want and not get?<br \/><br \/>Higher wages.<br \/><br \/>30. What was your favourite film of this year?<br \/><br \/><i>Serenity<\/i> and <i>Charlie and the Chocolate Factory<\/i>. Harry Potter 4 was pretty good too.<br \/><br \/>31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?<br \/><br \/>For my birthday last year (25) I went to Batfink and had a bad time (I was very miserable at the time, and being in a goth club probably didn't help). The whole thing was saved when I went out the next night to <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"grok_mctanys\" lj:user=\"grok_mctanys\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/grok-mctanys.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/grok-mctanys.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>grok_mctanys<\/b><\/a><\/span> birthday thing, when I discovered that <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"edy_\" lj:user=\"edy_\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/users.livejournal.com\/edy-\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/users.livejournal.com\/edy-\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>edy_<\/b><\/a><\/span> had made me birthday cake too. And the music was more cheerful (even though it was the same DJs :) ).<br \/><br \/>32. What one thing that would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?<br \/><br \/>Can't think of anything.<br \/><br \/>33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in <strike>2004<\/strike> <strike>2005<\/strike> every year since I arrived at university in 1999?<br \/><br \/>Black. Scruffy. Rock.<br \/><br \/>34. What kept you sane?<br \/><br \/>My manager leaving\/being fired<br \/><br \/>35. Which celebrity\/public figure did you fancy the most?<br \/><br \/>I try to ignore celebrities as much as possible.<br \/><br \/>36. What political issue stirred you the most?<br \/><br \/>Walter Wolfgang being detained under anti-terrorism legislation for shouting \"Nonsense\" during Jack Straw's speech at the Labour party conference. Not only because it happened, but because nobody on stage shouted at security to stop.<br \/><br \/>37. Who did you miss?<br \/><br \/>I think I managed to see all the people that I wanted to this year (maybe not as much as I wanted to).<br \/><br \/>38. Who was the best new person you met?<br \/><br \/>Kathryn, a friend of <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span>'s who most people reading this won't have met.<br \/><br \/>39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005.<br \/><br \/>Remember to phone people when you're going to be late.<br \/><br \/>40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.<br \/><br \/>I've already taken ages filling this thing out, and I'm not going to spend longer trying to remember or google some kind of appropriate song words. It started badly and ended up really really good; if anyone can find a lyric that says that then I'll use it<br \/><br \/><a name='cutid1-end'><\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/40186.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/39659.html","pubDate":"Thu, 06 Oct 2005 08:07:11 GMT","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/39659.html","description":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theregister.co.uk\/2005\/10\/06\/lawyer_asbo\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Court issues drunken, abusive lawyer with ASBO<\/a><br \/><br \/>I hope <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"_sycorax_\" lj:user=\"_sycorax_\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/users.livejournal.com\/-sycorax-\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/users.livejournal.com\/-sycorax-\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>_sycorax_<\/b><\/a><\/span> is paying attention.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/39659.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/39207.html","pubDate":"Thu, 29 Sep 2005 07:19:23 GMT","title":"Give me money!!!!!","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/39207.html","description":"I've been meaning to post about this for ages, but my normal scatter-brainedness has made me completely forget.<br \/><br \/><span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span> and I have formed a team for the 2005 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspire.org.uk\/channelswim\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">ASPIRE Channel Swim<\/a>. For those averse to link clicking; basically we have to between us swim 22 miles in 12 weeks (from the 12th of September to the 4th of December). That basically boils down to both of us swimming 1.5km (just under a mile) each, per week, for the next twelve weeks*.<br \/><br \/>The charity in question (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspire.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">ASPIRE<\/a>) is for people with spinal injuries: they do research into various technologies to make people's lives easier, as well as providing temporary accommodation for people whose homes are being renovated to deal with their new disability. And some other stuff too: click the link if you want details.<br \/><br \/>Obviously, to do all this takes money, which is where you, the lovely people of my friends list, come in. If you feel like sponsoring me to drown myself by degrees (I used to be a good swimmer, but that was a long time ago, and I've been discovering the hard way that I've forgotten quite a lot of it), I shall probably be around the Beer Festival thing tomorrow (incidentally, there's a beer festival this weekend in Sheffield, starting tonight. <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"thegreatgonzo\" lj:user=\"thegreatgonzo\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/thegreatgonzo.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thegreatgonzo.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>thegreatgonzo<\/b><\/a><\/span> can tell you more, since, you know, he knows everything about beer).<br \/><br \/>I may try and set up one of those online thingys; if you really don't want to talk to me but still want to give me money, stick a comment on the post and I'll see how much demand there is.<br \/><br \/><br \/>*<font size=\"1\">Well, it's ten weeks now, but we're on schedule with what we've done so far<\/font>","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/39207.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/39132.html","pubDate":"Fri, 16 Sep 2005 04:44:52 GMT","title":"Getting a bit political...","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/39132.html","description":"So, there's a whole new anti-terrorist bill type thing about to try and move through Parliament. Lots of people who are much better political commentators than me have already started shredding the 3-month detention without being charged, and the \"glorifying terrorism\" bit, so I'm going to leave those alone, and concentrate on this one:<br \/><br \/>Those applying for British citizenship must be \"of good character\"<br \/><br \/>I have two major objections to this particular bit of legislation, although one of them isn't very serious. I'll start with the serious one:<br \/><br \/><b>How are we defining \"of good character\"?<\/b><br \/><br \/>I mean, how can you define it? Lack of criminal convictions? Doesn't really prove much. Even if they have criminal convictions, that doesn't mean they are not of \"good character\": a man may be convicted of theft because he steals to feed his family in a country with a big divide between the rich and the poor (such as say, Zimbabwe). A man could also be convicted for standing up against his government in a corrupt, totalitarian state.<br \/><br \/>What other criteria do we have? A history of inflammatory speech-making? Some other random criteria that the government will come up with to deny citizenship to those it might be convenient to deport later?<br \/><br \/>Also, how are we going to find out about this person in sufficient detail to judge their character? Information given by the government of the applicant's country of origin about their conduct? Because that will always be reliable. No country could <i>possibly<\/i> lie about a political dissident so that they could ensure he doesn't get foreign citizenship (and therefore become immune to deportation).<br \/><br \/>Thirdly, recent terror attacks on British soil have been performed by \"clean-skins\": those who have had no known connection with any type of terrorist organisation, and who therefore would have been \"of good character\".<br \/><br \/>Anyway, argument 2<br \/><br \/><b>So does this mean we get to kick out everyone who is \"of bad character\"?<\/b><br \/><br \/>Let's face it: if they examined the British public on the same criteria (whatever they may be) as they will be examining those applying for citizenship, instead of just giving it because we were born here, half of Britain would be looking for somewhere else to live.<br \/><br \/>Admitting new citizens of bad character is hardly going to change anything, is it? We've already got plenty who were born here.<br \/><br \/>\"So, you have a history of excessive violence and a disrespect of authority? Don't suppose you're any good at football?\"<br \/><br \/>\"So, you seem to have done nothing productive in your country of origin, but instead fed off the state? That's fine: if you could just wear this Burberry cap and this chunky, gold-plated jewellery so that you can be easily identified.\"<br \/><br \/>\"Frequently violent over minor differences of opinion? Have your citizenship and a Millwall shirt.\"<br \/><br \/>\"Stupid; intolerant; alcohol problem; violent when drunk, especially to those who are different to you? We can move you to a little town called Rushden: here, you'll need this knife. You'll either get on fine with them, or hopefully take a few of them out.\"<br \/><br \/><a name='cutid1-end'><\/a><br \/><br \/>Ok, rant over. Feel free to pick big holes in it.<br \/><br \/>Weekend stuff: I am being cruelly deprived of <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span> this weekend. Moo<br \/><br \/>Saturday will feature me actually doing some exercise: I seem to have foolishly volunteered to do a lot of swimming for charity, which means I shall have to go and re-learn how to swim, since I haven't set foot in a swimming pool for about 7 years. I shall probably be begging for sponsorship money on here at a later date, once I have the forms and stuff.<br \/><br \/>Sunday will be spent in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where we shall be playing Twilight 2000 :).<br \/><br \/>And I'll leave you with a couple of links:<br \/><br \/>For those who don't read <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"elanya\" lj:user=\"elanya\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/elanya.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/elanya.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>elanya<\/b><\/a><\/span>, and so haven't seen this: <a href=\"http:\/\/folk.uio.no\/obech\/Files\/TPB+LotR_Kissing_Book.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Lord of the Rings, by S. Morgenstern<\/a><br \/><br \/>And for computer geeks: <a href=\"http:\/\/houghi.org\/shots\/vim001.gif\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">It gets everywhere<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/39132.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/38905.html","pubDate":"Mon, 12 Sep 2005 10:21:53 GMT","title":"I'm Alive","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/38905.html","description":"So, back in Sheffield, and at work, of which less said the better.<br \/><br \/>The title is a dual reference: partly to my last post (in which there was fear), and partly a nod to the fact that my corruption of <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span>'s music taste has now reached the point at which she will voluntarily listen to Helloween tracks.<br \/><br \/>Anyway, I went away for the weekend, and did stuff:<br \/><br \/><b>Friday<\/b>: drive down to Swindon. Fairly uneventful, except for the huge thunderstorm we encountered on one of the motorways (M69 or M40, or possibly both, since I don't pay any attention to which road I am on unless I am navigating). The lightning was incredible: the section of motorway we were on was mostly unlit, and each lightning flash literally lit up the whole sky.<br \/><br \/>First meeting with the parents seemed to go well.<br \/><br \/><b>Saturday<\/b>: drive from Swindon to Hythe (which actually required me to navigate, using map books and stuff; something that nobody has trusted me with for years). Got there well in advance of the ceremony, so had a quick wander round the town and some food before showing up at the church.<br \/><br \/>The wedding was very, <i>very<\/i> religious. Not \"we're getting married in a church because it's traditional\" religious, but \"the couple are both practising Christians who have actually brought down their own pastor\/vicar\/guy who does the sermon\" religious. This heightened my normal being-in-church discomfort*, but their wedding and their choice. I did have to sing though; I'm sure that wasn't fun for anybody who could hear me. Among the songs that we had to sing was 'Amazing Grace', which caused me a moment's confusion: while it is obviously a hymn, popular culture and other things tie it so much to the Deep South of the US that I found it odd to be singing it in England.<br \/><br \/>We weren't invited to the meal part of the reception, so decided to pop over to Southampton to check in to our hotel. It should apparently take about 30 minutes to make the journey: it took us an hour, partly because the traffic was evil, and partly because we missed the turning that we were supposed to make (I, having not read a map for ages, didn't quite notice the different symbols for 'roundabout' and 'junction').<br \/><br \/>We found the hotel, checked in, and collapsed for a bit (<span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span> was tired from all the driving, and I hadn't slept well for the two nights previous). The hotel room was... ok: I've stayed in worse. The bed was comfortable (and the headboard had a weird bit of artwork that bore a strong resemblance to the Silver Surfer), but the shower was evil, and the tap in the sink didn't give drinking water (presumably so that you'd pop down to the bar for bottled water, and then die of a heart attack when they told you it was \u00a32 for a 330ml bottle). Then there was food and driving back to the reception (the bit we were invited to).<br \/><br \/>Usual reception things: speeches that went on for too long; there was the occasional funny bit though (like the fact that the big food thing we had missed had been a hog roast, which all the innocent Christian types kept referring to as a spit-roast). There was wedding cake (3 layers: one chocolate, one carrot, one fruit. The fruit layer was nice, didn't try the others), beer (likewise), and wandering round chatting to people that I didn't really know (but who were all very nice).<br \/><br \/>Then there was the throwing of the bouquet (<span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span> made quite a play for it, which disturbs me ever so slightly) and the seeing-off of the newly-wed couple, shortly followed by the kicking out of the guests. A bunch of us went to the pub for a bit, where I had my beard photographed by a random stranger and we told each other many bad jokes.<br \/><br \/>Back to Southampton for that sleep thing. It was at this point we realised the other major flaw in the hotel: it was on Southampton High Street, just over the road from what appeared to be a strip club (<i>For Your Eyes Only<\/i> doesn't sound like a normal pub to me), and near many many pubs. And the hotel was running a disco. And the window was extremely reluctant to shut. Chalk up night 3 of me with little sleep.<br \/><br \/><b>Sunday<\/b>: Up fairly early (<span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span>, who got more sleep and is also the sweetest person in the world, made me tea in bed, even going down to reception because they didn't have milk in the rooms), breakfast at the hotel, then driving to Swindon for parental meeting MKII (and roast dinner). All went well there, which was groovy. Then it was the long drive back to Sheffield, on which there were a couple of stops because we were both getting very tired by this point. Disturbingly, at one of these stops we bumped into one of my workmates, which was very strange in a small world kind of way.<br \/><br \/><br \/><br \/>* <font size=\"1\">I always feel slightly uncomfortable in churches because I'm agnostic-atheist (I don't believe it's possible to prove or disprove the existence of God, or in fact <i>any<\/i> higher power, and while I tend to work on the principle that there isn't one, I'm aware that my own beliefs require me to acknowledge that I could be wrong about that): being in church reminds me that if I am wrong, God is probably watching me being in church, and possibly isn't too happy about it.<\/font>  <br \/><br \/><br \/><br \/><a name='cutid1-end'><\/a><br \/><br \/>So that was the weekend.<br \/><br \/>Quick question for English geeks out there: running the spellchecker over the preceding text had thrown up a spelling error for 'practising' (context for those not reading behind the cut, the phrase is 'practising Christians'). Now, as I recall, 'practise' is the verb and 'practice' is a noun, which would mean that my spelling is correct, but Dictionary.com disagrees with me (of course, it's American, so it's probably wrong). Just wondered if anybody out there who knew more about English than me would like to comment on it.<br \/><br \/>Anyway, it's just about home time now (this post has taken about 2 1\/2 hours to write, although I did have to work a bit, and there was a fire alarm as well), so I'm going to go away. See people later.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/38905.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/38565.html","pubDate":"Fri, 09 Sep 2005 08:53:26 GMT","title":"Fear","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/38565.html","description":"In a few short hours I shall be travelling to Swindon, where I will meet, for the first time, <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span>'s parents.<br \/><br \/>*has the fear*<br \/><br \/>The \"meeting the girlfriend's parents\" thing always makes me nervous: I suspect it is because <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"damia1\" lj:user=\"damia1\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/damia1.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/damia1.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>damia1<\/b><\/a><\/span>'s parents hated me on sight. I, on the other hand, was much more open-minded, and didn't start hating them for <i>months<\/i>.<br \/><br \/>Saturday sees me at a wedding in Hythe (there seem to be several of these in England. I'll be in the one that's next door to Southampton). I've met the bride once, and can't even remember the groom's name.<br \/><br \/>Sunday is coming back to Sheffield, with a stop in Swindon again for Sunday lunch (and further <strike>interrogation<\/strike> meeting of the parental types).<br \/><br \/>Wish me luck...","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/38565.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/38360.html","pubDate":"Thu, 11 Aug 2005 08:27:07 GMT","title":"Structural failure","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/38360.html","description":"Oh, it's been a fun old week for the house.<br \/><br \/><br \/><br \/>Saturday: something trips the fusebox. Now, proper modern fuseboxes have little switches that you can just switch back on when this happens. Of course, our fusebox is neither modern nor proper, and so still uses fuse wire. So, we buy some fuse wire and have a go at fixing it ourselves. It decides to be uncooperative, so we dig through paperwork until we find the emergency number, call it and get people round to fix stuff. Apparently our wiring is layed out in an intensely crazy manner, and he'd quite like to rip our kitchen floor and walls to pieces to get it done properly. Hopefully he'll fit a new fusebox at the same time.<br \/><br \/>Anyway, power is restored, and all is well with the world.<br \/><br \/>Sunday: Powercut. Now this one was scheduled: we had little warning notices and everything. However, after power has returned, the house Internet server (known for various goth reasons as Dawnrazor) throws a sulking fit and refuses to restart. Dawnrazor has always been a temperamental machine, mostly because its processor was purchased from a computer fair, and is either a cheap unregulated and untested import, or received some damage during its fall from the back of a lorry. After a couple of hours of shouting, swearing and threats of violence, it finally comes back up, with a bit of minor hard-drive trouble (had to run a manual fsck on one of the partitions), and possibly with a failed RAM chip. Half an hour later it falls over again: I bring it back up, then it goes again about an hour after that. I finally get sick of this and plug my laptop in to handle routing instead. This means I have a Windows 2000 machine handling my Internet connection. I'm not happy about this.<br \/><br \/>Monday: everything seems to be fine...<br \/><br \/>Tuesday: Internet connection dies at about 11am (I know this because I connect in to the home network from work, to check my personal e-mail). <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"smaug_t_dragon\" lj:user=\"smaug_t_dragon\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/smaug-t-dragon.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/smaug-t-dragon.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>smaug_t_dragon<\/b><\/a><\/span> gets home before me and phones to ask about admin passwords on the laptop: we get things working again. It seems that at some point the power to the house went again.<br \/><br \/>I get home and discover the following things:<br \/><br \/>The plug sockets which live next to the oven and power its electrical bits (it's a gas cooker, but uses mains for clock\/igniter\/stuff) have been moved, and do not work in their new location.<br \/><br \/>The fridge\/freezer has been unplugged. And the sockets which it plug into have also been de-activated. Which means the fridge has been switched off since 11am (at this point it's probably around 7pm).<br \/><br \/>The main water outlet from the kitchen (the one that the sink and the washing machine use) is leaking. This may be the cause of Saturday's power problems.<br \/><br \/>I decided to go for a drink at this point.<br \/><br \/>Wednesday: The letting agency phoned me about the electricity things, so I mentioned the leaky pipe. I considered venting my spleen about the whole unplugged fridge thing, but my too-niceness jumped in and pointed out that the person I was talking to wasn't actually the electrician who'd done it, and it'd be a bit unfair. They sent somebody round, who fixed the pipes, so we could actually wash up and clean our clothes and stuff.<br \/><br \/>The \/opt partition on my desktop machine went a bit crazy, possibly due to how much it's been shut down without warning recently. My first warning of this was that it kept putting itself into read-only mode: I rebooted, only to see the dreaded \"This drive has errors that cannot be fixed automatically. Please run fsck manually on it. Enter root password for maintenance\" message. This was very scary, since I keep the majority of my mp3 collection and other random media in \/opt\/share. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have caused any major damage; all of the files potentially affected seem to be in \/opt\/tmp, which (as its name would suggest) only contains temporary files, generally created during program installation.<br \/><br \/>Thursday: I am informed by text message that our washing line has just broken.<br \/><br \/>Oh, and our tumble drier actually makes clothes wet. Although I'm wondering if that was related to the various pipe-based problems: I should conduct further testing.<br \/><br \/>Tomorrow, another electrician is coming round to <strike>laugh at our electrics<\/strike> quote a price on fixing stuff; apparently they need two quotes for some insurance thing.<br \/><br \/><a name='cutid1-end'><\/a><br \/><br \/>Oh, and as a result of a random discussion elsewhere in LJ-land about how people keep adding random 'k's to the end of words (magick being the primary reference) I ended up <a href=\"http:\/\/www.topy.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a>. Trying to read this caused me a great deal of pain.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/38360.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/37945.html","pubDate":"Mon, 01 Aug 2005 08:13:52 GMT","title":"I have now seen my new nephew","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/37945.html","description":"He is small, and red, and cries a lot, while he isn't eating or sleeping.<br \/><br \/>So, you know, pretty much a normal baby.<br \/><br \/>Hopefully he will have developed a basic personality by the next time I see him.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/37945.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/37353.html","pubDate":"Sat, 16 Jul 2005 04:00:09 GMT","title":"Mostly for kaickul...","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/37353.html","description":"<a href=\"http:\/\/y.20q.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">A distraction from work<\/a>, which I think I promised you in the pub last night.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/37353.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/37071.html","pubDate":"Mon, 06 Jun 2005 09:19:11 GMT","title":"Book meme and other things","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/37071.html","description":"Have been tagged by the book meme that's been running around, so I'll deal with that now:<br \/><br \/><br \/><br \/><b>01: Total number of books owned:<\/b><br \/><br \/>Lots. Not enough. The total is probably around the 100-150 region: the problem is that many of them are things I bought when I was younger and which I no longer enjoy reading (Anne McCaffery, mainly: I was a huge fan when I was too young to pick up on the massive inconsistencies in her writing). At the same time, I am not allowing myself to buy new books at the moment as part of my money-saving drive.<br \/><br \/><b>02: The last book I bought?<\/b><br \/><br \/>The last book I bought was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0575074493\/qid=1118066388\/sr=8-2\/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl\/202-0553128-6723827\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Incompetence<\/a>, as a birthday gift for <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"edy_\" lj:user=\"edy_\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/users.livejournal.com\/edy-\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/users.livejournal.com\/edy-\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>edy_<\/b><\/a><\/span>. The last book I bought for myself was either <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1840237848\/qid=1118066657\/sr=8-1\/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl\/202-0553128-6723827\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Endless Nights<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0575074019\/qid=1118066756\/sr=8-1\/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl\/202-0553128-6723827\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse<\/a>.<br \/><br \/><b>03: The last book I read\/am currently reading?<\/b><br \/><br \/>The last book I read was Nostradamus Ate My Hamster by Robert Rankin: I felt like something a bit silly after reading a fairly long and serious sci-fi series (Rampart Worlds by Julian May, which I think I promised to lend to Ceri on Friday). Currently I'm reading the Elric stories, although I haven't had a lot of reading time recently.<br \/><br \/><b>04: Five books that mean a lot to me?<\/b><br \/><br \/><i>Fool's Fate, by Robin Hobb<\/i>: the end of a nine-book series (well, three roughly inter-related trilogies), all of which are excellent. This is undoubtedly the best book in the series: it's well-written, the characterisation is incredible, and rather than stopping once the main plot is finished, the book goes to some length to wrap up various loose ends from the main character's life; because of the first person perspective the book is written in, the problems of a man trying to deal with his daughter and other mundane details of his life are given as much room as the fairly earth-shaking main events, in a way that works very well.<br \/><br \/><i>A Darkness at Sethanon, by Raymond E. Feist<\/i>: The first fantasy book I ever bought (about 15 years ago: I picked it up second-hand at a school fair because the cover looked cool and it was only 20p. Cool looking covers have influenced a number of my book-buying decisions over the years: mostly I've been lucky and the books have been pretty good too). Probably at least partly responsible for getting me into reading fantasy on such a large scale. I still really enjoy the Midkemia\/Kelewan books (except for some of his more recent stuff: the Conclave of Shadows series is a bit weak).<br \/><br \/><i>Dragons of Spring Dawning, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman<\/i>: I don't think I have read a Weis and Hickman book that I didn't like. The other Dragonlance books, the Rose of the Prophet trilogy, the Darksword trilogy and the Death Gate cycle are all excellent books: the plots are serious, but there's enough humour in there to stop them being overly dull (such as, say, anything by Robert Jordan).<br \/><br \/>I picked Dragons of Spring Dawning because it was the one of the first books I'd ever read at the time that killed off a main character, and the first time that I ever remember being genuinely upset about it (the book before it in the series kills another of the main characters, but he was irritating and I didn't like him, so I didn't care).<br \/><br \/><i>All the Weyrs of Pern, by Anne McCaffery<\/i>: ok, so I slated her earlier. It wouldn't be any kind of fair analysis of my book-reading habits if I didn't mention her, and this is probably one of the best books she's ever written: had she ended the Pern series with this book (or at least, ended the current time plot-line and gone back and written other books set in the 2,500-odd years of Pernese history) then I would have been happy (as long as she didn't screw up too much of her own continuity).<br \/><br \/>I feel that I have to mention Anne McCaffery in here because she is one of the main reasons that I started reading sci-fi: incidentally, I picked up my first of her books because I liked the covers too.<br \/><br \/><i>Jack the Bodiless, by Julian May<\/i>: yet again, an author whose books I discovered by the \"random books with good covers\" method: I bought Intervention around about the same time that I got Darkness at Sethanon, didn't read it, bought the Pliocene Saga, read it and enjoyed it, then noticed that this book I'd had sitting on my shelf unread for about 2 years was by the same author. <br \/><br \/>I liked the philosophy in the Julian May books: a lot of the main conflicts in the books aren't generated by people acting in their own self-interest, but are more between groups who each genuinely believe that their own way forward is the best for everybody concerned. <br \/><br \/><b>05: Tag five people to do this:<\/b><br \/><br \/><span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"boobook\" lj:user=\"boobook\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boobook.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>boobook<\/b><\/a><\/span><br \/><span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"capt_bowman\" lj:user=\"capt_bowman\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/capt-bowman.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/capt-bowman.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>capt_bowman<\/b><\/a><\/span><br \/><span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"damia1\" lj:user=\"damia1\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/damia1.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/damia1.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>damia1<\/b><\/a><\/span><br \/><span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"delanthear\" lj:user=\"delanthear\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/delanthear.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/delanthear.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>delanthear<\/b><\/a><\/span><br \/><span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"kaickul\" lj:user=\"kaickul\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/kaickul.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/kaickul.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>kaickul<\/b><\/a><\/span><br \/><br \/><a name='cutid1-end'><\/a><br \/><br \/>A couple of links:<br \/><br \/>I promised somebody a link to the <a href=\"http:\/\/darthside.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Darth Vader blog<\/a>: I'd advise downloading the PDF, as it makes it a bit easier to read.<br \/><br \/>I was going to write something longer about what I've been doing recently: the problem with updating from work is that occasionally you have to actually do some. I'll try to do a quick update another day.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/37071.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/36863.html","pubDate":"Mon, 09 May 2005 09:24:05 GMT","title":"One day I'll update this thing properly","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/36863.html","description":"but today is not that day. I'm only here to post <a href=\"http:\/\/www.livejournal.com\/users\/die_fleiderhat\/21906.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\">this link<\/a> for my fellow Dr Who fans.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/36863.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/36567.html","pubDate":"Fri, 29 Apr 2005 05:28:43 GMT","title":"The evils of EBay...","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/36567.html","description":"Today I discovered that EBay (US version, anyway) has an entire category devoted to swords. This is very bad.<br \/><br \/>I have restricted myself to bidding on one: a nice shiny cutlass to go with the Jack Sparrow outfit (assuming I ever wear it again...)<br \/><br \/>I'm not supposed to be spending money. I need to keep telling myself that.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/36567.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/35663.html","pubDate":"Sat, 09 Apr 2005 05:22:43 GMT","title":"Promised link","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/35663.html","description":"Just a quick post, mainly aimed at <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"asw909\" lj:user=\"asw909\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/asw909.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/asw909.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>asw909<\/b><\/a><\/span>, although other people may find this amusing...<br \/><br \/>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.asiaextreme.co.uk\/asiaextreme2003\/katakuris\/trailer.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Happiness of the Katakuris trailer<\/a> (Quicktime, 9.6Mb). It's a Japanese horror musical, from the man who directed Audition. It looks very silly.<br \/><br \/>Beyond that: Batfink was ace. More extensive updates may follow, but I think the photos from the evening may reveal a clue as to why I had such a good time :)","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/35663.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/35466.html","pubDate":"Thu, 31 Mar 2005 02:34:59 GMT","title":"Christopher Eccleston quits as Doctor Who","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/35466.html","description":"<a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/entertainment\/tv_and_radio\/4395849.stm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Link to BBC story<\/a><br \/><br \/>Apparently they're thinking of getting the guy from Casanova to replace him: anybody got opinions on whether he'd be any good in the role?<br \/><br \/>It's a bit of a shame, really, since I quite liked him as the Doctor, and it's going to be a bit weird for new fans to have the whole regeneration thing sprung on them.<br \/><br \/>Plus, if they keep going at this rate, we're going to run out of Doctors: they can only have 13...","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/35466.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/35225.html","pubDate":"Tue, 22 Mar 2005 04:25:14 GMT","title":"A quick question to some sci-fi geeks...","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/35225.html","description":"I'm trying to remember the name of a sci-fi book. It's quite old. I am reasonably sure that it was written by Nicholas Fisk, but googling has failed to find me anything.<br \/><br \/><br \/><br \/>There's a young boy, who has just moved with his family to some house near the sea. The new neighbours are a group of three: two men and a woman. I'm reasonably sure that one of the men is named Manny.<br \/><br \/>They introduce the boy to a board game. In this game, you are a member of an alien race, and you are all trying to gain some artifact, which I am reasonably sure is referred to as the Piggy, or something similar.<br \/><br \/>In the end, it turns out that the game is in fact real, and the three people are aliens from the game, and the Piggy is somewhere on Earth.<br \/><br \/>I think the book title contains the word Pig or Piggy, but the only book I can find is Pig Ignorant, and that's not it.<br \/><br \/><a name='cutid1-end'><\/a><br \/><br \/>Can anybody help me?<br \/><br \/>EDIT: 10 seconds after posting this, tried a different Google search and found it. It's not by Nicholas Fisk, which is why I wasn't having any luck.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/35225.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/34834.html","pubDate":"Mon, 21 Mar 2005 15:12:20 GMT","title":"I suppose I should actually update this thing...","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/34834.html","description":"It's been a while since I last wrote on here, and I'm bored right now, so i figured I'd actually use this thing for its intended purpose.<br \/><br \/>So, since my last update (almost a month ago) what have I been doing? Beyond the usual (working, sleeping, getting drunk and acting like a fool, and messing around with computers), I have helped paint a house and move people into it, which was an entertaining break from the norm. Actually, on that subject, a quick message to <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"capt_bowman\" lj:user=\"capt_bowman\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/capt-bowman.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/capt-bowman.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>capt_bowman<\/b><\/a><\/span>: for the upcoming 4-day weekend I have absolutely nothing planned, so if you need assistance with stuff it would be a good time. I think <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-deleted  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"icarus_dave\" lj:user=\"icarus_dave\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/icarus-dave.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/icarus-dave.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>icarus_dave<\/b><\/a><\/span> said something about being free at some point this weekend as well, so he might be OK to help too, but I'll let him answer on that one.<br \/><br \/>Thursday saw myself and <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"profyaffle\" lj:user=\"profyaffle\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/profyaffle.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/profyaffle.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>profyaffle<\/b><\/a><\/span> using our faintly Irish heritage as a good excuse to have a few drinks: starting at the Swim Inn (cheap bear), moving on to Reflex (expensive beer, some weird shot things that tasted like Sheridans *yum*, and music bad enough to dance to) before winding up at the Nelson (reasonably priced beer, more music to dance too). We may have made something of fools of ourselves dancing to \"The Irish Rover\" and \"Sally Maclennane\", but that's not anything too unusual.<br \/><br \/>Friday (after the hangover) I did very little (having cunningly booked the day off work in advance) before wandering out to Old Orleans for <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-deleted  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"psynian\" lj:user=\"psynian\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/psynian.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/psynian.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>psynian<\/b><\/a><\/span>'s birthday meal. The food was good, the company was good (although the table wasn't very good for conversations with random people, since it was a big long table, and I was pretty much at one end of it), the Long Island Iced Teas were good. It was all good. Afterwards I headed back to the house of <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-deleted  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"cyberkitty\" lj:user=\"cyberkitty\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/cyberkitty.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/cyberkitty.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>cyberkitty<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"klokwise\" lj:user=\"klokwise\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/klokwise.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/klokwise.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>klokwise<\/b><\/a><\/span>, where me, <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"klokwise\" lj:user=\"klokwise\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/klokwise.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/klokwise.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>klokwise<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-deleted  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"_joss\" lj:user=\"_joss\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/users.livejournal.com\/-joss\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/users.livejournal.com\/-joss\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>_joss<\/b><\/a><\/span> played the new DVD version of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pressmangames.com\/Atmosfear.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Atmosfear<\/a>. I slept on the sofa.<br \/><br \/>Saturday saw the fulfillment of an old Nekrodomite vow, made several years ago, back when we first heard about the Fellowship of the Ring extended DVD boxed set. \"One day\", we said, \"when they have released all three extended versions of the films, we will sit and watch them all in one sitting, no matter how long the films are.\" So, from 3pm until 3am, we immersed ourselves in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien as depicted by Peter Jackson. And it was very good. I hadn't seen the extended versions of The Two Towers or Return of the King before, and they add a great deal to the storyline that was missing, especially Saruman's scene at the beginning of RoTK. I slept on the sofa again.<br \/><br \/>Sunday was mostly given over to roleplaying geekery: character generation for one new game in the afternoon, then having Dean do horrible things to us in the evening. People need to learn how to move <i>quietly<\/i>.<br \/><br \/>Today was back to work (which has been pretty reasonable recently), before running my game on the evening. I need better bad guys. And possibly better dice.<br \/><br \/>Anything else? If there is, I can't remember it any more. Maybe if I updated this thing more often I'd be able to use it as some kind of external memory, so that I would have a record of events in my life before they disappear in a haze of alcohol and absent-mindedness. That, however, would require much more organisation and willingness to work than I possess. And sometimes there are things that I would prefer to forget.<br \/><br \/>Anyway, work tomorrow, so should actually sleep now. Will see people around and about.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/34834.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/34804.html","pubDate":"Thu, 24 Feb 2005 13:33:50 GMT","title":"I am bored, therefore I meme.","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/34804.html","description":"Furtively appropriated from <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"libellum\" lj:user=\"libellum\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/libellum.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/libellum.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>libellum<\/b><\/a><a class=\"i-ljuser-badge i-ljuser-badge--pro\" data-badge-type=\"pro\" data-placement=\"bottom\" data-pro-badge data-pro-badge-type=\"1\" data-is-raw hidden href=\"#\"><span class=\"i-ljuser-badge__icon\"><svg class=\"svgicon\" width=\"25\" height=\"16\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 33 24\"><path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M19.326 11.95c0 2.01 1.47 3.45 3.48 3.45 2.02 0 3.49-1.44 3.49-3.45 0-2.01-1.47-3.45-3.49-3.45-2.01 0-3.48 1.44-3.48 3.45Zm5.51 0c0 1.24-.8 2.19-2.03 2.19-1.23 0-2.02-.95-2.02-2.19 0-1.25.79-2.19 2.02-2.19s2.03.94 2.03 2.19ZM7.92 15.28H6.5V8.61h3.12c1.45 0 2.24.98 2.24 2.15 0 1.16-.8 2.15-2.24 2.15h-1.7v2.37Zm1.51-3.62c.56 0 .98-.35.98-.9 0-.56-.42-.9-.98-.9H7.92v1.8h1.51ZM18.3802 15.28h-1.63l-1.31-2.37h-1.04v2.37h-1.42V8.61h3.12c1.39 0 2.24.91 2.24 2.15 0 1.18-.74 1.81-1.46 1.98l1.5 2.54Zm-2.49-3.62c.57 0 1-.34 1-.9s-.43-.9-1-.9h-1.49v1.8h1.49Z\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\"\/><path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M2 8c0-2.20914 1.79086-4 4-4h20.5c2.2091 0 4 1.79086 4 4v7.9c0 2.2091-1.7909 4-4 4H6c-2.20914 0-4-1.7909-4-4V8Zm4-2.5h20.5C27.8807 5.5 29 6.61929 29 8v7.9c0 1.3807-1.1193 2.5-2.5 2.5H6c-1.38071 0-2.5-1.1193-2.5-2.5V8c0-1.38071 1.11929-2.5 2.5-2.5Z\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/span><br \/><br \/>Here are ten things I've done which I'm guessing most of you haven't. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong...<br \/><br \/><ol><br \/><li>Handed in a report on robot object avoidance techniques which referred to the objects as hobbits, trees and Ents, and one of the robots as \"a thoroughbred raised on the plains.\"<br \/>OR<br \/>Handed in an essay in which I derided an extremly famous paper by a very famous computer scientist, and proposed my own, superior, version of the test which formed the core of said paper.<br \/><\/li><br \/><li>Been unable to stand up because I couldn't breathe fast or deep enough to support that level of activity<\/li><br \/><li>Lost my virginity on a school trip<\/li><br \/><li>Had a drink thrown over me then offered to buy them a replacement<\/li><br \/><li>Broken into somebody's house to put their phone back on the hook<\/li><br \/><li>Been kissed on the hand by Paul Wright, ex-FOTN guitarist.<\/li><br \/><li>Had sex underneath the girl's parent's ground floor bedroom window<\/li><br \/><li>Won a headbanging contest<\/li><br \/><li>Used the excuse \"my now ex-fiance ended our engagement yesterday\" for not handing in a piece of Physics A-level work.<\/li><br \/><li>Credited my house in my acknowledgments for my dissertation, for \"supplying electricity and sheltering me from the rain.\"<\/li><br \/><\/ol><br \/><br \/>In other news, I want the snow to stop, because I like being able to walk outside without almost falling over every other step. It's probably a sign that I need new boots, or at least the soles on these ones replacing.<br \/><br \/>There have been various meals and parties and things for people's birthdays in the last week: in total I've crossed paths with 6 people celebrating birthdays since last Wednesday, and am going to Corp this Saturday for a seventh. So that's been lots of fun. I need to collect the rest of <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"klokwise\" lj:user=\"klokwise\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/klokwise.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/klokwise.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>klokwise<\/b><\/a><\/span>'s video diary at some point, so we can put it online and complete his humiliation.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/34804.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/34380.html","pubDate":"Wed, 09 Feb 2005 02:44:21 GMT","title":"Bits and bobs","author":"mrpyro","link":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/34380.html","description":"Went to pancake thing at <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"kaickul\" lj:user=\"kaickul\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/kaickul.livejournal.com\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/kaickul.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>kaickul<\/b><\/a><\/span>'s last night. For some reason didn't actually have any pancakes. I was, however, a confiscator of sugar, a winner at the nose game, and part of the creative team behind UV-reactive Burberry. It's the way of the future.<br \/><br \/>Quick note to Monday night people: no game this coming Monday, since Jacquie has family in town, and <span  class=\"ljuser  i-ljuser  i-ljuser-type-P     \"  data-ljuser=\"_sycorax_\" lj:user=\"_sycorax_\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/users.livejournal.com\/-sycorax-\/profile\/\"  target=\"_self\"  class=\"i-ljuser-profile\" ><img  class=\"i-ljuser-userhead\"  src=\"https:\/\/l-stat.livejournal.net\/img\/userinfo_v8.png?v=17080&v=922\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/users.livejournal.com\/-sycorax-\/\" class=\"i-ljuser-username\"   target=\"_self\"   ><b>_sycorax_<\/b><\/a><\/span> apparently considers spending the evening with her boyfriend on Valentine's Day more important.","comments":"https:\/\/mrpyro.livejournal.com\/34380.html?view=comments#comments"}]}}