eateroftoast

Njarnia!

2008-09-06T21:59:39Z

This is bizarre and gets funnier the more you watch:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00d99kx/

I think it's making me a bit spaced. There's a bowling tyrannosaurs!

Is that a Stegosaurus in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

2008-08-19T19:55:10Z

Well... bloodstock...

Actually first, The Mummy 3! Dear gods it was awesome, brilliant time, everything I'd expected. So bad it hurt, but in a good way. Yes that's right. He throws guns when they run out of bullets! Yeah! Can't knock that,

Also meeting up with Keith and Sian very unexpectedly in the pub afterwards was great, good to see those guys (neither of whom are on LJ I think).

Thanks to that evening I have now come up with the idea that will truly make me rich. A real ale, with an appropriately quirky Real Ale name: Tap Water. I don't think it really matters what it tastes like... It's gonna make me millions!

(“Pint of tap water please.” “Coming right up Sir!”)

And yes I went to bloodstock, and dear gods did it rocketh mightily. With rocking and might. I got to see a lot of bands. Many of them were very good though the highlights have to be a) the completley unexpected: Evil Scarecrow. b) Alestorm and c) Nightwish.

Evil Scarecrow I happened to catch at 10.30 in the morning just as I was wandering around going: “coffee...., four quid?? fuck coffee.” They are apparently an unsigned band who won some competition to get on the main stage, and they were so much better then many of the bands there. Musically their songs were great but they were also funny and looked awesome, the main thing I come away remembering now is the lyric: “The forest calls my name: 'Brian, Briaaaann'.”

Alestorm were everything I'd expected them to be and more, opening with The Fresh Prince of Bel Air was brilliant as was: “Who here likes Ninjas?” (said in a pirate accent of course). A few confused cries of “Yarrr”, from the crowd, “Yarr” being the correct response to anything Alestorm normally come out with. “Well I fucking hate ninjas,” goes the singer guy (I don't do names okay), and then a small child wanders onto the stage: “And whadda we do to Ninjas?” asks the lead singer, handing the microphone to the small boy: “Kill em!” answers the small boy in a very small boy like cute voice. “YARR!” go the crowd. Fantastic. Music was pretty good too (Fresh Prince aside).

And Nightwish were just.. well Nightwish. Brilliant. The things they did with fireworks. Absoloutley brilliant.

And a big shout out to Vicki who was great company all weekend. Though she didn't let me set her up with any interesting women. Sad.

I could go on about what happened for ages but it wouldn't be very interesting so I'll stop now. Oooh, except to say that dear gods the people in the guitar hero tent were awesome. Cleaning the house has happened tonight, don't know how much longer it'll go on for but it does make a very nice change. Also I appear to be horribly addicted to the Engineer trilogy and I'm not quite sure why, but It seems I've got to keep reading every free moment I've got.

I don't think I'm very good at finishing LJ posts. So here is the end of this one.

Your mummy's face!

2008-08-12T18:12:52Z

Last night I spent mostly carefully reading male/male erotica while listening to the cheesiest 80's and 90's pop music.

Now, I have come to realise that had there been any independent observer of my actions last night that person might have reached an erroneous conclusion about my sexuality. It is possible I should get myself a better hobby (but I do so love eighties and nineties dance, there may be a further post about music at some point!).

In other news, well firstly there is this: http://www.xkcd.com/460/ . There is a hell of a lot of XKCD I think applies to me, but well, this is just the one! When aged about 10 I can remember thinking and loudly expressing the basic sentiment of that comic very very strongly. The last of the generation who could do so I'm sure. Reading that made me very very happy.

Secondly, in preperation for Mummy III: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor tomorrow night, I have been thinking in terms of 'Your Mummy' jokes for most of the day. (Your Mummy wants the Duchess's agreement immediately!).

Happy now

Some day, some way, clymidia!

2008-08-10T19:15:39Z

Woo for York!

Today has reminded me why I like York so much, though yesterday I did see why Leeds will be cool (despite the unrelenting rain, dear gods so much rain!)

Random awesome things appear to happen in York, playing chess against Jaimaica's alleged top chess player for instance (I lost, but you know I haven't played for about four years so don't feel so shabby), being told about Dylan Moran (woo Dylan Moran tickets for me!), sword dancers (different sword dancers than the ones who I randomly met and then followed round pubs on friday night with Dan and Chris), meeting people I hadn't seen for ages, awesome folk music, opera in the streets and crazy cool free milkshakes!

All in all good, though dear gods, really quite quite tired after about two hours kip friday night followed by walking in the rain and transmission yesterday. Sleep now....

This is a post, see it roar!

I think i might be giving taxi people lots of money!

2008-08-09T08:47:18Z

An adventure in Leeds!

6 houses to get round in 4 hours, at different sides of the city! No car! I sure planned this one well!

Adventure time!

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart (go on you tube it!).

2008-08-06T23:29:50Z

Wall-E is good.

That is all.

Hardly.

I'm available for Birthdays.

To the Ball!

2008-08-06T14:48:56Z

Wooo!

After deciding I couldn't go to the Edinburgh festival work have decided to send me to Edinburgh for a week slap bang in the middle of it. I get my evenings free. Not as good as going for the days or at the weekend, no doubt, but far better than a kick in the teeth. Huzzah! Now to find out what is going on then

(and also to find a house, given I seem to be away nearly half of August this is proving problematic, but I will persevere!)

Ridey

2008-08-04T11:47:25Z

There was a wedding. It was awesome. Could say more but it doesn't seem worth it, as everyone who wanted to be there was and already knows what it was like.

Yesterday I went on a bike ride. It was awesome (many things are), saw many interesting things but most of all, a restauruant that is also a train!! How cool is that? It's made of old carriages and stuff and next to a railway line. I wanna go now! Awesome!

Also I have an MP3 player with lots of songs on it again. Yay for Sting and the Pet shop boys (among many others). Having an MP3 player on a bike ride is cool.

Happy.

Will Smith = not as lame as one would expect

2008-07-16T22:10:52Z

Another movie related post! 2 in one days, and I hardly ever watch films!

See Hancock! It's really good, not at all like Will Smith normally and not at all what I expected from what I'd seen trailing it. Really quite awesome and suprising.

Also I seem to fall really easily for trailers with lots of action and loud stompy music in them. This means that I want to see The Dark Knight Returns and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor much much more now. Especially the mummy one, but also the batman one. Yeah, loud stompy action trailers!

Excited

2008-07-16T11:27:59Z

Apaprently not only is there going to be a new x-files film (which I vaguely knew already), but it's coming out in August! This August! That's really soon!

It's a monster of the week one and not a conspiracy one!

Wooooo!

*runs around excitedley*

Makes you think it does.

2008-07-15T12:03:00Z

Posting for the hell of it it would appear.

I was amused at this snippet of conversation: *angry mother to child, seemingly being serious*: “I am not being condescending, if I was being condescending that would mean I was talking down to you!”

Also I have a dinosaur related plan

Also also going to unexpected all night raves is a fantastic plan. Having a two hour driving lesson at 8.45am when you get the train back from said rave at 6.30am is a less good idea though. However it was all fine and I adopted the sensible ‘don’t sleep during the day or you’ll never sleep at night ever again’ plan, which worked well even though it did leave one a little odd by 5.30pm when I finally turned in for the night.

Also also also I appear to be going away with work for all of next week. Starting the day after maelstrom. What fun.

Got to go work now so these interesting insights are it.

Oooh… apart from how amused I still am by the coca-cola, ‘They score, you score” promotion. When foreign footballers get laid, I do to! Awesome

So.. Maelstrom?

2008-07-08T16:05:45Z

Still undecided about going to maelstrom I have a question for all those going: How the hell are you getting there and back?

Transmission

2008-07-07T11:09:37Z

So it's transmission this Saturday! Anyone want to go?

I know the answer is no, but you can't blame a man for trying. *Dancey dancey dance*

How do they manage to smoke?

2008-06-15T12:12:15Z

First I shall write the post I was originally going to write:

Lacking any way of communicating with the outside world (though my phone now seems to have had some kind of reprieve, though I suspect it is not to be long lasting), I decided earlier tonight that I was going to head into town and get some dinner, then see what opportunities there were for clubbing in York tonight, possibly after having had a drink or two as, even though I am getting more used to it, clubbing on your own is an... odd... (though highly enjoyable) experience for which one sometimes feels the need for some alcohol.

I got dinner, but as for clubbing it turned out I had left the house rather too early. The death of my phone and computer had left me unable to find out the time and my decision to head out had been based on my increasingly demanding stomach. It would be a couple of hours before the club night at Fibbers would open. I considered going to a pub to while a way the intervening time, however the day had been a race day and the streets and bars were thronged with drunken individuals in suits and dresses.

I do not necessarily disapprove of such things however in this situation getting sitting room in any establishment becomes difficult and my manowar t-shirt, which has in past proved an advantage in striking up conversation with strangers would, I rather suspected, have proved a hindrance in this case.

More to the case I just wasn't quite feeling right for clubbing, possibly concerned that the club night in my own house on Thursday would prove significantly better than anything I would find out (that is not to say Fibbers would be bad, but the club in my living room was unbelievable fantastic), and also, I was just simply not in the mood.

So after reaching the end of Micklegate, where I passed the last likely drinking haunt, the Rock Cafe, I turned left.

It wasn't long before I was in the countryside. And that is really what I want to write about here. There is something about an evening walk in the English countryside which is really like nothing else. I highly suspect it's the kind of books I read when I was young that make me feel like this, though I'd be hard pressed to describe which ones they were exactly, as my thoughts about it don't really fit with any particular tale.

It's hard to describe but there is something about the entire experience that leaves me in a state of mind that says that if I just keep walking across open fields and down hidden lanes I will find myself in an adventure. Not a LARP style adventure, or an Enid Blyton type adventure, not in fact one where there is any actual adventure. In fact this is probably a bad way to describe it, maybe the closet I can get is to say it feels like I might go through the Wall, but even that isn't it. Maybe it's just that I think I will find myself somewhere else. Somewhere good.

Walking across the fields and down the hidden lanes for a couple of miles I reached a village. And yet again I can't describe in any decent way what I found there. But for me there is something about walking through an English village that is just, special. The Greenery, stone church, the beautiful cottages, the vast modern houses, convincingly ancient looking. Once again the effect is amazing and pleasing.

I went to the village shop. It was a co-op, which possibly should have kicked me out of the increasingly odd and happy mood I was in, it should have jarred. But there was a hand written sign stuck to the door: 'No card, cash only.' Inside the same words were written on several more bits of paper and stuck in a number of locations throughout the store, by someone clearly keen to leave no doubt as to the fact that only cash was accepted.

Very near closing time at this point I was in the queue with four boys dressed in what is probably best described as 'alternative' clothing, something of which I generally approve. Laughing and joking while holding some alcohol they seemed to me to be quite clearly ever so slightly underage. I think the old woman at the till knew it too, indeed she seemed to know them. And she chatted to them, sold them their booze and reminded one of them to buy a Fathers' day card for his dad. Something about this whole thing struck me as somehow... right? Good maybe.

One my way from the shop back to the countryside I passed the pub. As you may be all too unsurprised to learn, if anyone is still reading by this point, I find village pubs to be quite brilliant places. I think the nearest description I can get to it is like a maelstrom campfire. This may seem quite odd and it's certainly not how I view other pubs. From the village pub you can hear sounds of laughter and music which stand in stark contrast to the silent tranquility of the village.

I expect them to be warm, possessed of oak beams from which tankards are hung, full of people who know and like each other, folk singers and good cask ale. It may be wrong, but it's a nice image and just sometimes it's true. I think I'll chose once again to blame books.

It was still light so while I was tempted to go inside I instead headed on with my newly acquired provisions. Back into the countryside I reached the doors in the hedges. And with the darkness ever so slowly pouring in I decided to head back. I was glad to have seen the doors in the hedges.

And as I walked back I thought about making this post (thanks for that XKCD). And I thought about how to describe it all and what there was to describe. The swallows and bats over head, that very particular feel of a warm summer evening, the rumble of distant traffic, the smell of the grass, the sounds of the bird song, the sight of a kestrel, the and the stunning blue's and reds of the slowly setting sun. Romantic was certainly one word that sprung to mind, magical to, but neither of those seem to do it. Perhaps enchanting, but that has so many incorrect connotations. Perhaps spiritual is the right word, if stripped of all its religious meaning. I felt right and brilliant and at peace, and there was an overwhelming sense of happiness and wonder.

Clouds of midgies engulfed me as I walked back, but they did not bite. The darkness continued to drip in, though did not fall as fast as I had imagined it would. To my considerable surprise the steel band I have not previously mentioned were still playing. I sat under a tree on the opposite side of the river, shielded from their view, and listened to an appropriately upbeat version of 'Take on Me'. As I did so I looked on the huge field I had to myself. And was happy.

And as the darkness came and I reached civilisation (as if I had ever truly left it) the feeling of enchantment faded, replaced with a warm afterglow of how it had felt, a desire to head home and write up this post and fall asleep.

And that's what I would have done.

And now what I didn't expect to write:

As I walked along Walmgate stray my feet were killing. Three hours of walking will do that to you. Especially in trainers when you aren't used to it. And on Walmgate stray there was a fire and a party. And I wandered over, curious. And there were some people I knew there, vaguely. And I sat around and I listened to the music and I talked and I danced. And it was utterly fantastic. The competition between the folk singers on one hand, playing songs such as: 'All for my beer and tobacco' (likely not it's given name) and 'Druken sailor', and the guitarist playing modern sing along classics such as 'Summer of 69' and 'Wonderwall' was simply beautiful. My only slight disappointment was to find myself the only one singing 'Vagina Dentata' to 'Hacuma Ma-ta-ta (or however you spell it).'

Not feeling particularly social I spent most of the time looking alternatively at the fire and the moon while listening to the music. And grinning like an idiot the whole time.

I've written all this on Jeff's laptop in the early hours of Sunday morning. He left it for me to do some serious work on. I don't think he'll mind though. I'm writing it now because I realise that it is sentimental, emotional rubbish and basically complete nonsense, and that if I sleep on it I will not be able to write it. I've had one drink by the way, just in case any one takes me for drunk, though I realise this silly mood may be something much more intoxicating. I might even delete it all before I get to post it. Hopefully not, though I do feel sorry for someone reading this far.

Oh, and once again: blame the books I read.

And finally: thank you. You know who you are.

Best spelling mistake ever...

2008-06-12T15:09:00Z

Lambies!!!

Also, four day weeks for me. Wooo, four day weeks!

That's it... move along... nothing to see here...

Computer dead and saw deer

2008-06-10T11:10:05Z

I have no computer. It is completley busted and probably in need of getting to a computer shop to try and get the data off, and then replacing.

Which is sad, but the internet had stopped working weeks ago so at least I had already got used to that.

Also I saw a deer on the way to work this morning. A live one and everything. Deer are so cool.

Ermm.. that's it. Yeah.

Sun!

2008-06-09T15:37:02Z

I like sun! Also walking in the country! It is sunny! Woo!

Not being that

2008-06-07T20:43:12Z

Maelstrom was really good, totally justified my looking forward to it and I absolutely loved playing Aarian's increasingly bizarre mindset.

Big thanks especially to Theresa, Loz, Rich (who provided fantastic drugs), the Flambards (for teaching Aarian both refined conversation and how to be nasty to people of a lower rank) and the poor black eidolon (who I have now come to realise was the white eidolon from some events ago who everyone said I frightened away) who had to endure twenty minutes of my questions and abuse in the middle of a dark field.

Unfortunately I am back early as while I was not angsty at all (result) I gave myself one Out of Character condition on attending this event and I so spectacularly failed at it I couldn't really justify staying. Big thanks to Helen who unknowingly stopped that going much worse than it could have done by dragging me right back into character.

Most of the people I thank here won't read this. Such is life.

Snails!

2008-06-02T20:38:03Z

Snails!

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=156464&in_page_id=34

Now that is really cool.

Goodness!

2008-05-31T20:16:21Z

Lots of posting for me.

ALestorm are so good! Even people who don't normally like metal might like them. Why? Pirates!

Captain Morgan's revenge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og5qSIkuTAI - For people who don't like metal ignore the intro which is nothing like the rest of the song.

Over the seas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7sHLjI1sQE&feature=related - awesome!

The one about wanting more wenches and mead is also good.

God damn they rock so hard

Tough times

2008-05-31T19:27:39Z

I realised that I've been going through some tough times recently, mentally speaking. I didn't realise it had gone quite this far.

I think I just really enjoyed watching morris dancing, I stayed and watched for like an hour.

Ermm... Oh dear.

Suprises

2008-05-30T16:35:18Z

I just got my maelstrom event pack. And surprisingly, and for the first time in months... I'm feeling really quite enthusiastic about maelstrom. I can't describe why at all and If you'd asked me this morning I'd have said I was in two minds about going.

But now I'm really looking forward to it.

Hmmm.. wish I hadn't lost that armour of Varas though. :)

Some limericks

2008-05-10T22:43:40Z

A Brief History of Gravity

It filled Gallileo with mirth
To watch his two stones fall to Earth
"Their rates are the same,"
He gladly proclaimed,
"And quite independent of girth!"

Then Newton declared in due course
His own law of Gravity's force,
"It goes, I declare,
As the inverted square
Of the distance from object to source."

Next Einstein revealed his equation
Which succeeds to describe gravitation
As spacetime that's curved
And it's this that will serve
As the planets' unique motivation.

But the end of the story's not written,
By a new way of thinking we're smitten.
We twist and we turn
Attempting to learn
The Superstring Theory of Witten.

Also:

There once was a poet named Dan
Whose poems would never quiet scan
When told this was so
He said, Yes I know
It's because I try to fit as many syllables into the last line as I possibly can.

eateroftoast @ 2008-02-07T12:40:00

2008-02-07T12:45:49Z

I am off work ill. I even missed shattered legacies last night despite really trying to go as it would only make me more ill today and thus miss work and shattered legacies is more important than work. Cos hey, I can get another job but I can't get another Shat leg.

But anyway this isn't why I am making this post. Rather it is the fact that despite my illness and having woken up only half an hour ago I went outside to purchase foods from the nearby shop, not keeping any in the house naturally.

And it is absolutley stunning out there! What a really lovely day. Bright, only a little wind and warm enough. If all days in February were like that it would be my absolute favouritest month no question.

I wish I felt well enough to go for walk but I don't, however I do feel a hell of a lot better for my brief venture out.

Two announcments

2007-12-30T15:33:03Z

Firstly: Deadline for Shattered Legacies downtimes to be read before next term is Thursday 3rd of January. E-mails have gone out, but I'm posting this as I know not everyone reads their e-mails. Also does anybody know if any of the first years have livejournals?

Secondly if you're not aware already: New years eve party at mine, I believe there might be food but don't hold me to it, Jeff and Paul are organising. Please bring some booze of your own if you want to drink it! Extra wii remotes would be good all you with wii's!