Monday, March 31, 2008
Tired tired tired
It's going to be an early night.
I've had two lectures today instead of the normal one, plus a meeting and quite a lot of general admin to, on top of which I'm definitely suffering from the post-convention crud. Somehow I can't see me surviving through CSI tonight so I might as well go to bed before it.
S is back in town for a fortnight to teach the networking module, which is great. We did sit and have a natter for a while and he's given me a lot of ideas about what sort of touristy things I have to do while I'm in India - a full-day trip to the Taj Mahal and several other major historical sites is definitely on the cards. I'm getting quite excited by the prospect.
Excitement apart, though, I'm off to bed.
0 comments
I've had two lectures today instead of the normal one, plus a meeting and quite a lot of general admin to, on top of which I'm definitely suffering from the post-convention crud. Somehow I can't see me surviving through CSI tonight so I might as well go to bed before it.
S is back in town for a fortnight to teach the networking module, which is great. We did sit and have a natter for a while and he's given me a lot of ideas about what sort of touristy things I have to do while I'm in India - a full-day trip to the Taj Mahal and several other major historical sites is definitely on the cards. I'm getting quite excited by the prospect.
Excitement apart, though, I'm off to bed.
0 comments
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Good television
I love the National Geographic channel.
It's full of wonderful programmes about crashing aircraft, supervolcanoes and pyramids (both Egyptian and others). Tonight's highlight is the current episode of Perfect Weapon, a programme where two nutters each select one of a type of weapon and investigate how easy it is to make, use and use accurately.
Tonight's programme is on siege engines, and we're comparing the onager (mangonel) with the queen of siege engines, the counterweight trebuchet. Now this, in itself, is enough to make the programme of serious interest to me, but they've also just discussed the concept of undermining and countermining by using the siege of St. Andrews in 1547 as an example. Talk about the been-there, done-that factor for television programmes! Now all I have to do is to build myself an onager and I'll have done the complete set. :)
0 comments
It's full of wonderful programmes about crashing aircraft, supervolcanoes and pyramids (both Egyptian and others). Tonight's highlight is the current episode of Perfect Weapon, a programme where two nutters each select one of a type of weapon and investigate how easy it is to make, use and use accurately.
Tonight's programme is on siege engines, and we're comparing the onager (mangonel) with the queen of siege engines, the counterweight trebuchet. Now this, in itself, is enough to make the programme of serious interest to me, but they've also just discussed the concept of undermining and countermining by using the siege of St. Andrews in 1547 as an example. Talk about the been-there, done-that factor for television programmes! Now all I have to do is to build myself an onager and I'll have done the complete set. :)
0 comments
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Good recipe, bad temperature
So I tried the Chelsea bun recipe.
It was fairly straightforward (now that I'm no longer scared by yeast) and I tweaked it slightly to make it a little less intense (white sugar instead of brown, plus sultanas rather than mixed fruit and a cut in the required cinnamon. Nevertheless it was quite spicy, but pleasant enough.
The problem was that the recipe claimed that I should bake them at 200 C for 30 minutes. At 25 minutes I started to smell burning and discovered that the bases of the buns had burnt where they came into contact with the baking sheet. Oh drat. So I cooked the second batch for only 20 minutes, but even that was too long, and I ended up throwing the whole batch away and buying M&Ms to take to tonight's gaming session.
I think what I'll do next time is lower the temperature to about 180 and possibly bake on brown paper rather than directly on the baking sheet. I might even cut down on the cinnamon even further, as I must admit to liking the very pale (and cinnamon-free) variety produced by the big UK supermarkets. That would also require me to leave the dough slightly thicker when I roll it out and to cut it into thicker slices as well.
It was an annoyance, but a learning experience. I think that next time they should be edible.
0 comments
It was fairly straightforward (now that I'm no longer scared by yeast) and I tweaked it slightly to make it a little less intense (white sugar instead of brown, plus sultanas rather than mixed fruit and a cut in the required cinnamon. Nevertheless it was quite spicy, but pleasant enough.
The problem was that the recipe claimed that I should bake them at 200 C for 30 minutes. At 25 minutes I started to smell burning and discovered that the bases of the buns had burnt where they came into contact with the baking sheet. Oh drat. So I cooked the second batch for only 20 minutes, but even that was too long, and I ended up throwing the whole batch away and buying M&Ms to take to tonight's gaming session.
I think what I'll do next time is lower the temperature to about 180 and possibly bake on brown paper rather than directly on the baking sheet. I might even cut down on the cinnamon even further, as I must admit to liking the very pale (and cinnamon-free) variety produced by the big UK supermarkets. That would also require me to leave the dough slightly thicker when I roll it out and to cut it into thicker slices as well.
It was an annoyance, but a learning experience. I think that next time they should be edible.
0 comments
Friday, March 28, 2008
Right yet again
Snow again.
As I predicted yesterday, it's snowing again. The sort of light snow that lifts off the land and blinds you as the gale-force winds whip it along the road towards you. On the plus side, this is the sort of snow that brushes easily off the car so I'm hoping that I won't have to spend a quarter of an hour digging it out and scraping it clean when I go out to tomorrow's gaming party.
I now have about 24 hours to write a Stargate scenario and make some gaming nibbles. I'm very tempted by Chelsea buns this weekend, although hot not-cross buns are also contenders... except that they need butter while Chelsea buns count as finger food. :)
0 comments
As I predicted yesterday, it's snowing again. The sort of light snow that lifts off the land and blinds you as the gale-force winds whip it along the road towards you. On the plus side, this is the sort of snow that brushes easily off the car so I'm hoping that I won't have to spend a quarter of an hour digging it out and scraping it clean when I go out to tomorrow's gaming party.
I now have about 24 hours to write a Stargate scenario and make some gaming nibbles. I'm very tempted by Chelsea buns this weekend, although hot not-cross buns are also contenders... except that they need butter while Chelsea buns count as finger food. :)
0 comments
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Grr... Brr...
Less than 24 hours and I'm already feeling depressed, frazzled and niggled.
I'm willing, however, to be charitable and put a lot of it down to post-convention blues. It's difficult coming back from a convention straight to work, but at least it's a short week. Except that I'm due to go away for the weekend, before which I have to write a Stargate RPG scenario... There's also a nagging guilty feeling that I went into London on Tuesday instead of staying in the hotel and helping out with the tear-down process; if I'd done that it would not only have been intrinsically useful but would almost certainly have meant that I'd have found my missing parcel.
It's freezing cold up here. There seems to have been more snow over the weekend, and the wind is biting. It was certainly a relief to get back into the warm last night after the journey from the airport. I suspect it's the wind chill that's the real problem. It doesn't seem due to let up for the next couple of days either, so we could be in for more snow at the weekend.
In other news, I've uploaded my Orbital photos. On the same site you can also access the rest of the photos from my London trip, although they're probably not as interesting.
1 comments
I'm willing, however, to be charitable and put a lot of it down to post-convention blues. It's difficult coming back from a convention straight to work, but at least it's a short week. Except that I'm due to go away for the weekend, before which I have to write a Stargate RPG scenario... There's also a nagging guilty feeling that I went into London on Tuesday instead of staying in the hotel and helping out with the tear-down process; if I'd done that it would not only have been intrinsically useful but would almost certainly have meant that I'd have found my missing parcel.
It's freezing cold up here. There seems to have been more snow over the weekend, and the wind is biting. It was certainly a relief to get back into the warm last night after the journey from the airport. I suspect it's the wind chill that's the real problem. It doesn't seem due to let up for the next couple of days either, so we could be in for more snow at the weekend.
In other news, I've uploaded my Orbital photos. On the same site you can also access the rest of the photos from my London trip, although they're probably not as interesting.
1 comments
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Eastercon +2
Home again, home again.
This morning called for a gentle start, with me doing my packing before heading downstairs for breakfast at 09:00. The Brasserie, where we'd had breakfast for the previous few days, was closed. A look through the windows revealed that they're clearly taking the opportunity to do a deep-clean, to the extent of stripping and re-polishing the floor. I'm sure fans aren't really that messy... maybe they do it after all conventions, fannish or otherwise.
Breakfast was therefore in the Henley, the rather posh bit with comfy chairs and regency portraits... a good place to sit and drink coffee whilst reading my complimentary copy of the Daily Telegraph. Having said that, I did remove myself to the comfy chairs in the reception area to wait for the bus. Before I could leave, though, I thought I'd check to see if my parcel had finally arrived. After a little investigations (which involved phoning the company) I discovered that it had arrived and had been signed for last Wednesday. Clearly what had happened was that two parcels had arrived for me and had ended up in Ops but I'd only heard about one of them. The remaining parcel is probably now sitting with the rest of the Ops stuff in someone's living room, which means I'm going to have to try to work out some way of picking it up. If all else fails I'll arrange to have it shipped to Liverpool and pick it up in July, but I'll first try to arrange to collect it on my way back from either India or Spain next month. :(
At Heathrow I completely failed to buy anything of interest in duty free other than three spare italic nibs for my Lany pens. If Dixon's had had an Eee then I would probably have succumbed on the grounds that I'm having such a terrible time trying to find a handbag into which I can fit my laptop that it might be easier to buy an Eee that fits in my handbag.
One interesting thing, though, was that Icelandair has begun refitting its aircraft with personal entertainment centres, allowing me to watch two episodes of The SImpsons and the fascinating flight status display sequence (full of maps and useless information such as altitude, airspeed and heading). This sense of the new and interesting was somewhat dashed when I transferred to a Dash 8-100 37-seater (I know - I counted them) for the journey north but I consoled myself with the knowledge that this was a new aircraft to me (the Reykjavík-Akureyri flight is normally aboard a Fokker 50).
So I'm back and probably going to bed fairly soon. After all, I have work tomorrow.
1 comments
This morning called for a gentle start, with me doing my packing before heading downstairs for breakfast at 09:00. The Brasserie, where we'd had breakfast for the previous few days, was closed. A look through the windows revealed that they're clearly taking the opportunity to do a deep-clean, to the extent of stripping and re-polishing the floor. I'm sure fans aren't really that messy... maybe they do it after all conventions, fannish or otherwise.
Breakfast was therefore in the Henley, the rather posh bit with comfy chairs and regency portraits... a good place to sit and drink coffee whilst reading my complimentary copy of the Daily Telegraph. Having said that, I did remove myself to the comfy chairs in the reception area to wait for the bus. Before I could leave, though, I thought I'd check to see if my parcel had finally arrived. After a little investigations (which involved phoning the company) I discovered that it had arrived and had been signed for last Wednesday. Clearly what had happened was that two parcels had arrived for me and had ended up in Ops but I'd only heard about one of them. The remaining parcel is probably now sitting with the rest of the Ops stuff in someone's living room, which means I'm going to have to try to work out some way of picking it up. If all else fails I'll arrange to have it shipped to Liverpool and pick it up in July, but I'll first try to arrange to collect it on my way back from either India or Spain next month. :(
At Heathrow I completely failed to buy anything of interest in duty free other than three spare italic nibs for my Lany pens. If Dixon's had had an Eee then I would probably have succumbed on the grounds that I'm having such a terrible time trying to find a handbag into which I can fit my laptop that it might be easier to buy an Eee that fits in my handbag.
One interesting thing, though, was that Icelandair has begun refitting its aircraft with personal entertainment centres, allowing me to watch two episodes of The SImpsons and the fascinating flight status display sequence (full of maps and useless information such as altitude, airspeed and heading). This sense of the new and interesting was somewhat dashed when I transferred to a Dash 8-100 37-seater (I know - I counted them) for the journey north but I consoled myself with the knowledge that this was a new aircraft to me (the Reykjavík-Akureyri flight is normally aboard a Fokker 50).
So I'm back and probably going to bed fairly soon. After all, I have work tomorrow.
Labels: orbital2008
1 comments
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Eastercon +1
Today even the survivors of the Dead Dog Party left.
And I, instead of heading back to Iceland, simply headed into London for the day. Following a number of goodbyes after breakfast I shared a taxi with J and F to Heathrow and took the Heathrow Express into the city. This is rather more expensive than the tube but it's a lot faster and more comfortable.
Once at Paddington I transferred to the tube proper. I suppose that it says a lot about a person which tube stations they can remember as being important for their travels around London. The first ones which come to my mind are Russell Square and South Kensington - the British Museum and the Natural History/Science/V&A museums. Anything else and I have to think hard and consult Mr. Beck's magnificent diagram.
Unsurprisingly all of that day's 500 extra tickets for the terracotta warriors exhibition had been sold by the time I arrived just before noon. Ah well. Instead, I spent a couple of hours wandering the ancient near/middle east galleries, camera in hand. It's quite a strange feeling wandering around the BM taking photos of things in the hope of inspiration for a Stargate RPG you're supposed to be running in the near future. I think that I have an idea for an introductory scenario with disposable PCs whose mess can then be tackled by the main PCs at some time in the future.
By mid-afternoon I was feeling rather tired and decided to have lunch and go back to the hotel. Paddington happens to have a very useful mini-Sainsburys which provided me with a tub of Bisto granules (an acceptable alternative to Oxo), a pack of hot cross buns and a couple of packets of jammie dodgers. These will, no doubt, be used to soften the transition between the UK and Iceland over the next few days.
I didn't bother with dinner; instead I just fell asleep. Right now I'm considering the merits of eating a Chelsea bun (also obtained from Sainsburys) compared to those of ordering something from room service. I think that the bun is going to win as it requires rather less effort.
3 comments
And I, instead of heading back to Iceland, simply headed into London for the day. Following a number of goodbyes after breakfast I shared a taxi with J and F to Heathrow and took the Heathrow Express into the city. This is rather more expensive than the tube but it's a lot faster and more comfortable.
Once at Paddington I transferred to the tube proper. I suppose that it says a lot about a person which tube stations they can remember as being important for their travels around London. The first ones which come to my mind are Russell Square and South Kensington - the British Museum and the Natural History/Science/V&A museums. Anything else and I have to think hard and consult Mr. Beck's magnificent diagram.
Unsurprisingly all of that day's 500 extra tickets for the terracotta warriors exhibition had been sold by the time I arrived just before noon. Ah well. Instead, I spent a couple of hours wandering the ancient near/middle east galleries, camera in hand. It's quite a strange feeling wandering around the BM taking photos of things in the hope of inspiration for a Stargate RPG you're supposed to be running in the near future. I think that I have an idea for an introductory scenario with disposable PCs whose mess can then be tackled by the main PCs at some time in the future.
By mid-afternoon I was feeling rather tired and decided to have lunch and go back to the hotel. Paddington happens to have a very useful mini-Sainsburys which provided me with a tub of Bisto granules (an acceptable alternative to Oxo), a pack of hot cross buns and a couple of packets of jammie dodgers. These will, no doubt, be used to soften the transition between the UK and Iceland over the next few days.
I didn't bother with dinner; instead I just fell asleep. Right now I'm considering the merits of eating a Chelsea bun (also obtained from Sainsburys) compared to those of ordering something from room service. I think that the bun is going to win as it requires rather less effort.
Labels: orbital2008
3 comments
Monday, March 24, 2008
Eastercon 4
The convention is now over.
The final panel has concluded - although it concluded after the closing ceremony. Which I missed, due to being on another panel at that point and then having to charge from one side of the hotel to the other to appear on the final panel. I was about 6 minutes late, which isn't too bad considering their respective locations. I would have liked to go to the closing ceremony though.
A and I spent a couple of hours this morning sorting out not only the final instalment of the photo wall but also a powerpoint slideshow of convention photos for the closing ceremony. I say A and I but it was mostly A, as he had better software on his machine and we didn't think to set up a local network to let us both work with the printer. That's one of the things on the document I wrote defining the material and operational requirements for running a photo wall in future. It should be rather easier to do the job next time now that we've ironed the bugs out of the system so I've volunteered to do it at Redemption. I believe that it's possible to do it as a 1-fan job providing that everything is set up right, although it does need a bit of pre-planning and pre-announcing.
The Dead Dog Party was fun. I ended sitting in a corner with various folks while large chunks of what was left of the convention wandered past at various times. Although I did give up just before midnight, wimp that I am. It was either that or fall asleep on C, which would have been embarrassing, if comfortable.
I have a variety of photos, none of which have been uploaded yet but will be eventually.
0 comments
The final panel has concluded - although it concluded after the closing ceremony. Which I missed, due to being on another panel at that point and then having to charge from one side of the hotel to the other to appear on the final panel. I was about 6 minutes late, which isn't too bad considering their respective locations. I would have liked to go to the closing ceremony though.
A and I spent a couple of hours this morning sorting out not only the final instalment of the photo wall but also a powerpoint slideshow of convention photos for the closing ceremony. I say A and I but it was mostly A, as he had better software on his machine and we didn't think to set up a local network to let us both work with the printer. That's one of the things on the document I wrote defining the material and operational requirements for running a photo wall in future. It should be rather easier to do the job next time now that we've ironed the bugs out of the system so I've volunteered to do it at Redemption. I believe that it's possible to do it as a 1-fan job providing that everything is set up right, although it does need a bit of pre-planning and pre-announcing.
The Dead Dog Party was fun. I ended sitting in a corner with various folks while large chunks of what was left of the convention wandered past at various times. Although I did give up just before midnight, wimp that I am. It was either that or fall asleep on C, which would have been embarrassing, if comfortable.
I have a variety of photos, none of which have been uploaded yet but will be eventually.
Labels: orbital2008
0 comments
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Eastercon 3
Mmm... artwork... :)
I like to pick up artwork at Eastercons, as it's about the only place I can find things that I like. This year I've got a print of the original artwork for the cover for Interzone 100, Welcome to the Interzone (and the basis for SMS' website - I'm really pleased with this one as I can put it up in my office, it being an HCI-related piece. I'm also hoping to get another of his prints for the office that would relate rather well to my data visualisation module. This is slightly scary - buying art for the office as well as for the home. You'd think I was becoming someone respectable and influential or something. :) If I'd realised that Art Show was taking credit cards I'd have picked up a piece by his partner too, but I was a bit low on cash at the time.
Another day, another programme item. This was a panel discussion on plausible space travel technologies, which was fairly lightweight but quite enjoyable. The photo wall is coming on nicely although the printer is practically drinking ink, judging by the way we've been going through it. We've now designated a couple of official Con Photographers (Andrew and Toby) to make sure that we get the requisite images of the guests of honour and of the more important programme items.
Right now I was going to be attending an item on the death of British physics but my back is feeling a bit off so I'm relaxing for a while in my room. I do not plan to fall asleep. Apart from anything else I plan to go to the Clanger physics and ecology talk later this evening.
0 comments
I like to pick up artwork at Eastercons, as it's about the only place I can find things that I like. This year I've got a print of the original artwork for the cover for Interzone 100, Welcome to the Interzone (and the basis for SMS' website - I'm really pleased with this one as I can put it up in my office, it being an HCI-related piece. I'm also hoping to get another of his prints for the office that would relate rather well to my data visualisation module. This is slightly scary - buying art for the office as well as for the home. You'd think I was becoming someone respectable and influential or something. :) If I'd realised that Art Show was taking credit cards I'd have picked up a piece by his partner too, but I was a bit low on cash at the time.
Another day, another programme item. This was a panel discussion on plausible space travel technologies, which was fairly lightweight but quite enjoyable. The photo wall is coming on nicely although the printer is practically drinking ink, judging by the way we've been going through it. We've now designated a couple of official Con Photographers (Andrew and Toby) to make sure that we get the requisite images of the guests of honour and of the more important programme items.
Right now I was going to be attending an item on the death of British physics but my back is feeling a bit off so I'm relaxing for a while in my room. I do not plan to fall asleep. Apart from anything else I plan to go to the Clanger physics and ecology talk later this evening.
Labels: orbital2008
0 comments
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Eastercon 2
Photo wall is running more smoothly today.
Andrew is helping out a lot and we've now got photos up on the wall. We've put out a request for photos in the newsletter and hope that more will start flooding in.
It wasn't supposed to be too busy a day, and indeed I only did a couple of hours on the Redemption desk before my talk on terraforming Venus. We had one or two tech problems which will remind me in future that I should always carry my video lead converter with me so I can connect my Mac directly to projectors. We started a little late so I had to rush things towards the end, but I then spent several fascinating hours chatting to a couple of new folks culminating in dinner at a local curry house with the local writers' circle - an all-round great evening.
0 comments
Andrew is helping out a lot and we've now got photos up on the wall. We've put out a request for photos in the newsletter and hope that more will start flooding in.
It wasn't supposed to be too busy a day, and indeed I only did a couple of hours on the Redemption desk before my talk on terraforming Venus. We had one or two tech problems which will remind me in future that I should always carry my video lead converter with me so I can connect my Mac directly to projectors. We started a little late so I had to rush things towards the end, but I then spent several fascinating hours chatting to a couple of new folks culminating in dinner at a local curry house with the local writers' circle - an all-round great evening.
Labels: orbital2008
0 comments
Friday, March 21, 2008
Eastercon 1
Hello? Is anybody there?
So I'm sitting in the room designated for the photowall 'team' and I'm beginning to think that volunteering for this was a bad idea. But that may be the lack of anything to eat since breakfast talking. I found myself asked to sort out the Redemption desk and ended up spending 12-4 dealing with that, then an hour trying to sort out the setup for the photo wall (no sign of key, various things like that) and then a frantic quarter of an hour trying to find where chaos costuming was supposed to be so I could do my dressmaking basics talk. Barbara and Teddy had no idea I was due to be there until just before, but it all worked out and I ended up displaying how to make patterns by pinning and marking throwaway fabric.
The ops folks seem to be rather over-worked, but unfortunately volunteering to do this has effectively stopped me doing my normal ops shifts. I ended up making an announcement after the opening ceremony asking people for photos, saying where I was and so on, and in the hour since then I haven't seen a soul. What I'd like to do is to work on the day's photowall stuff in the evening so that the day's photos can go up for everyone to see next morning. Somehow I don't think that's going to work. I think I might put up a notice saying that I'll be in here from X until Y and ask newsletter to handle the pictures otherwise (which is what they'd normally do if there wasn't a photowall).
The hotel is as frustrating as I remember it from the Wrap Party, except more so. There are extra bits and the signage needs a bit of work. I suspect that everything would be a lot easier in a different hotel.
Ooh! has just visited with two photos and promises of more. I still think I'll sort out times though, and maybe ask newsletter to publicise these in their next issue.
0 comments
So I'm sitting in the room designated for the photowall 'team' and I'm beginning to think that volunteering for this was a bad idea. But that may be the lack of anything to eat since breakfast talking. I found myself asked to sort out the Redemption desk and ended up spending 12-4 dealing with that, then an hour trying to sort out the setup for the photo wall (no sign of key, various things like that) and then a frantic quarter of an hour trying to find where chaos costuming was supposed to be so I could do my dressmaking basics talk. Barbara and Teddy had no idea I was due to be there until just before, but it all worked out and I ended up displaying how to make patterns by pinning and marking throwaway fabric.
The ops folks seem to be rather over-worked, but unfortunately volunteering to do this has effectively stopped me doing my normal ops shifts. I ended up making an announcement after the opening ceremony asking people for photos, saying where I was and so on, and in the hour since then I haven't seen a soul. What I'd like to do is to work on the day's photowall stuff in the evening so that the day's photos can go up for everyone to see next morning. Somehow I don't think that's going to work. I think I might put up a notice saying that I'll be in here from X until Y and ask newsletter to handle the pictures otherwise (which is what they'd normally do if there wasn't a photowall).
The hotel is as frustrating as I remember it from the Wrap Party, except more so. There are extra bits and the signage needs a bit of work. I suspect that everything would be a lot easier in a different hotel.
Ooh!
Labels: orbital2008
0 comments
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Eastercon 0
Today I had something of an organisational disaster. But I survived.
As I was sitting on the riverbus sailing from the Tower to Greenwich I pondered my planning of this day. Why, I wondered, had I booked a ticket for the Egyptian exhibition at the dome at 16:30 on Thursday and one for the Terracotta Warriors exhibition at the British Museum for 12:30 on Tuesday. It would have made far more sense to got to something at 12:30 today and 16:30 next week.
You can see where this is going, can't you? For some reason (I put it down to recent stress) I had the right times but the wrong days. I was mad with myself for about ten minutes, after which I just accepted that it was probably a stress issue and that I was only holiday and I wasn't going to let it ruin everything. I have decided to re-organise the Terracotta Warriors ticket for Tuesday and try again. I did get a good look at the gift shop and didn't buy anything - there was a neckalce I liked but it was gold-plated and would have played havoc with my skin. Ah well.
In spite of these frustrations it's been a pretty good day. I popped in to Covent Garden and found some nice stuff, then realised that I could get to the O2 dome by river rather than by underground and had a very enjoyable sail down the Thames and back. I'm quite impressed at how effective is the river transport. Boats beat trains in my book any day.
There was a minor travel hassle - it took an hour to get back from central London to Heathrow... and then another hour to cover the half mile from Heathrow to the airport. The traffic greatly delayed all of the buses and it seems to be physically impossible to get out of the airport precincts on foot. Eventually, though, I got back to the hotel.
By now folks had started to arrive. There was a bit of a mess-up with dinner - it had been arranged that there would be a large buffet in the larger dining room area. Unfortunately the hotel tried to start putting people in the smaller area and wouldn't let us use the reserved area because they didn't have hot food up there yet. It took a bit of 'forceful discussion' to remind them of the plan but in the end we have a fairly sociable meal. It'll be interesting to see how the hotel copes with the full force of fandon over the weekend.
0 comments
As I was sitting on the riverbus sailing from the Tower to Greenwich I pondered my planning of this day. Why, I wondered, had I booked a ticket for the Egyptian exhibition at the dome at 16:30 on Thursday and one for the Terracotta Warriors exhibition at the British Museum for 12:30 on Tuesday. It would have made far more sense to got to something at 12:30 today and 16:30 next week.
You can see where this is going, can't you? For some reason (I put it down to recent stress) I had the right times but the wrong days. I was mad with myself for about ten minutes, after which I just accepted that it was probably a stress issue and that I was only holiday and I wasn't going to let it ruin everything. I have decided to re-organise the Terracotta Warriors ticket for Tuesday and try again. I did get a good look at the gift shop and didn't buy anything - there was a neckalce I liked but it was gold-plated and would have played havoc with my skin. Ah well.
In spite of these frustrations it's been a pretty good day. I popped in to Covent Garden and found some nice stuff, then realised that I could get to the O2 dome by river rather than by underground and had a very enjoyable sail down the Thames and back. I'm quite impressed at how effective is the river transport. Boats beat trains in my book any day.
There was a minor travel hassle - it took an hour to get back from central London to Heathrow... and then another hour to cover the half mile from Heathrow to the airport. The traffic greatly delayed all of the buses and it seems to be physically impossible to get out of the airport precincts on foot. Eventually, though, I got back to the hotel.
By now folks had started to arrive. There was a bit of a mess-up with dinner - it had been arranged that there would be a large buffet in the larger dining room area. Unfortunately the hotel tried to start putting people in the smaller area and wouldn't let us use the reserved area because they didn't have hot food up there yet. It took a bit of 'forceful discussion' to remind them of the plan but in the end we have a fairly sociable meal. It'll be interesting to see how the hotel copes with the full force of fandon over the weekend.
Labels: orbital2008
0 comments
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Eastercon Day -1
I've arrived at the Radisson Non-Euclidian and feel human again.
I put a lot of this down to a very pleasant and quite delicate chicken curry in the Brasserie (only £13... although the accompanying gin and tonic was another £7.50 - I look forward to the con bar!).
My room (a triple) has a huge almost-floor-to-ceiling view of... MacDonalds. What I can report, though, is that there is a cash machine just outside the golden arches. It's one of those generic ones, not one attached to a bank so it may well not take non-UK cashcards or credit cards. As someone who has one of those, I say 'drat'.
Still, I'm here, I'm fed, and I'm about to have a good night's sleep before someone else cooks breakfast for me tomorrow and I go off to Greenwich for Cultural Day 1.
0 comments
I put a lot of this down to a very pleasant and quite delicate chicken curry in the Brasserie (only £13... although the accompanying gin and tonic was another £7.50 - I look forward to the con bar!).
My room (a triple) has a huge almost-floor-to-ceiling view of... MacDonalds. What I can report, though, is that there is a cash machine just outside the golden arches. It's one of those generic ones, not one attached to a bank so it may well not take non-UK cashcards or credit cards. As someone who has one of those, I say 'drat'.
Still, I'm here, I'm fed, and I'm about to have a good night's sleep before someone else cooks breakfast for me tomorrow and I go off to Greenwich for Cultural Day 1.
Labels: orbital2008
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Same airport, different day
So again I'm sitting at Keflavík airport.
There's no confirmed time for the flight yet, although that's not too surprising as I'm used to delays in and out of Heathrow. This time, though, I'm calm and serene as once I get to the other end all I have to do is collect my luggage and get the bus out to the hotel. If I'm delayed then I'm delayed; I'm not about to miss a connecting flight this time and it just gives me longer to work on the Java exam paper.
I'm deliberately not thinking about next month's trip when I have a connecting flight to India.
Sometimes I worry about men. Or maybe just men in Iceland. Today, for the second time in my time here, I've been on a coach that has had to stop during a short (i.e. under an hour) journey because one or more men had had to get out to relieve himself. This time it was an American tourist on his way home who came forward (cradling a can of beer) and requested that we stop on the Reykjanes highway. We were only ten minutes away from the airport, but no, he had to go. There was much laughter from his compatriots at the back of the bus. In my more charitable moments I wonder if he has prostate problems - he (and the rest of his group) were certainly older than me.
I've done my duty-free shopping - a birthday present for my sister, Eastercon gifts for my room-mates and exotic foreign sweets for the Ops room. I've got an hour before my flight is due to take off and I've just had a piece of pretty good chocolate cake.
For now I'm relaxed.
Oh yes, and I can see four other Macs with shared drives - one is in the electronics shop, another is a white MacBook over there in the Kaffitár zone and I've no idea where the others are. How curious!
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There's no confirmed time for the flight yet, although that's not too surprising as I'm used to delays in and out of Heathrow. This time, though, I'm calm and serene as once I get to the other end all I have to do is collect my luggage and get the bus out to the hotel. If I'm delayed then I'm delayed; I'm not about to miss a connecting flight this time and it just gives me longer to work on the Java exam paper.
I'm deliberately not thinking about next month's trip when I have a connecting flight to India.
Sometimes I worry about men. Or maybe just men in Iceland. Today, for the second time in my time here, I've been on a coach that has had to stop during a short (i.e. under an hour) journey because one or more men had had to get out to relieve himself. This time it was an American tourist on his way home who came forward (cradling a can of beer) and requested that we stop on the Reykjanes highway. We were only ten minutes away from the airport, but no, he had to go. There was much laughter from his compatriots at the back of the bus. In my more charitable moments I wonder if he has prostate problems - he (and the rest of his group) were certainly older than me.
I've done my duty-free shopping - a birthday present for my sister, Eastercon gifts for my room-mates and exotic foreign sweets for the Ops room. I've got an hour before my flight is due to take off and I've just had a piece of pretty good chocolate cake.
For now I'm relaxed.
Oh yes, and I can see four other Macs with shared drives - one is in the electronics shop, another is a white MacBook over there in the Kaffitár zone and I've no idea where the others are. How curious!
0 comments
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
One day, two lectures
it's not often I manage to finish writing two lectures in one day.
After yesterday's existential inertia today was almost completely the opposite - and it wasn't the two cups of coffee either. Admittedly today was not broken up by a lecture in the middle of things - that always takes at least 50% longer than the official lecturing time in terms of printing out slides, last-minute re-reading of notes and the 20 minute wind-down and recovery afterwards while my shoulder recovers - but even so I managed to get more done than I had originally hoped for.
Lots of emails dealt with, one impromptu meeting sorted and a less-impromptu one set up for next week, stuff put in place for the two visiting lecturers arriving at the end of the month AND the next Java programming lecture written. I've even managed to collect all of my teaching materials together so that I can write the exam papers on the flight tomorrow. Okay, so I stayed at work a bit longer than originally planned but it was worth it to get the lecture out of the way and up into WebCT.
Tonight I then finished my Eastercon talk on Terraforming Venus. This is in many ways a more technical presentation that the Java lecture - it certainly has rather more references. :) Admittely I haven't done anything else tonight, but I can relax a little now that I've got that one out of the way, All I have to do tomorrow morning is wash up, tidy up, pack and stop buy Hagkaup to buy a pink thing for little Beth (I promised her a pink thing at Eastercon when I saw her last week).
Everything is currently under control. For now.
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After yesterday's existential inertia today was almost completely the opposite - and it wasn't the two cups of coffee either. Admittedly today was not broken up by a lecture in the middle of things - that always takes at least 50% longer than the official lecturing time in terms of printing out slides, last-minute re-reading of notes and the 20 minute wind-down and recovery afterwards while my shoulder recovers - but even so I managed to get more done than I had originally hoped for.
Lots of emails dealt with, one impromptu meeting sorted and a less-impromptu one set up for next week, stuff put in place for the two visiting lecturers arriving at the end of the month AND the next Java programming lecture written. I've even managed to collect all of my teaching materials together so that I can write the exam papers on the flight tomorrow. Okay, so I stayed at work a bit longer than originally planned but it was worth it to get the lecture out of the way and up into WebCT.
Tonight I then finished my Eastercon talk on Terraforming Venus. This is in many ways a more technical presentation that the Java lecture - it certainly has rather more references. :) Admittely I haven't done anything else tonight, but I can relax a little now that I've got that one out of the way, All I have to do tomorrow morning is wash up, tidy up, pack and stop buy Hagkaup to buy a pink thing for little Beth (I promised her a pink thing at Eastercon when I saw her last week).
Everything is currently under control. For now.
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Monday, March 17, 2008
Running to stand still
Another long week - and it's only Monday.
I feel that I've done very little today - which is strange, as I've given a lecture, written a coursework, been to a meeting, had lunch with B, written a third of a lecture, tidied the living room, stretched and framed an embroidery and made another handful of laminated badges. It may sound a lot, but it certainly doesn't feel like that. Possibly because I've still got a lot to do before lunchtime on Wednesday, when I leave for Eastercon. I've already given up on one thing, which will have to wait until Discworldcon instead.
At least I still have tomorrow night.
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I feel that I've done very little today - which is strange, as I've given a lecture, written a coursework, been to a meeting, had lunch with B, written a third of a lecture, tidied the living room, stretched and framed an embroidery and made another handful of laminated badges. It may sound a lot, but it certainly doesn't feel like that. Possibly because I've still got a lot to do before lunchtime on Wednesday, when I leave for Eastercon. I've already given up on one thing, which will have to wait until Discworldcon instead.
At least I still have tomorrow night.
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Sunday, March 16, 2008
79 badges
I've just laminated 79 badges.
A while ago I volunteered to do a set of laminated badges bearing LJ usernames and pictures for people going to Eastercon this year. When I first offered this service (the badges will cost £1 each but all of the profits will go to TAFF (the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund)) I got about 40 takers. When I reposted a couple of days ago I got the same sort of response. Yesterday morning (and late evening) I acquired all of the necessary names and pictures and started printing out the sheets of badges ready to be laminated.
This morning I got out the laminator. This is one I picked up last summer in the UK but hadn't got around to testing out, so I fired it up and passed the first badge through. Hmm... not quite. The problem was that the cardboard cover used to prevent hot plastic from sticking to the main roller was absorbing too much of the heat and the internal glue wasn't melting. No big problem - I just replaced the cardboard with a folded piece of paper and all was well. I suspect that the cardboard is necessary in industrial-scale laminators which work at hotter temperatures.
Now all I have to do is create a mini-poster to stick on the noticeboard with an appropriate photo of me so that folks will know from whom to collect their badges. Mmm... that requires an appropriately fannish photo of me, which could be tricky. I have a passable one from Interaction, but that's about it. I try to avoid being on photographs wherever possible. Maybe I can just say I'll be in specific places at specific times (and try Ops at other times) and see what happens. Oh, and maybe make myself a badge that says something like 'Yes, I'm the person who made the badges'. Yes, I like that strategy better. It doesn't involve photographs.
0 comments
A while ago I volunteered to do a set of laminated badges bearing LJ usernames and pictures for people going to Eastercon this year. When I first offered this service (the badges will cost £1 each but all of the profits will go to TAFF (the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund)) I got about 40 takers. When I reposted a couple of days ago I got the same sort of response. Yesterday morning (and late evening) I acquired all of the necessary names and pictures and started printing out the sheets of badges ready to be laminated.
This morning I got out the laminator. This is one I picked up last summer in the UK but hadn't got around to testing out, so I fired it up and passed the first badge through. Hmm... not quite. The problem was that the cardboard cover used to prevent hot plastic from sticking to the main roller was absorbing too much of the heat and the internal glue wasn't melting. No big problem - I just replaced the cardboard with a folded piece of paper and all was well. I suspect that the cardboard is necessary in industrial-scale laminators which work at hotter temperatures.
Now all I have to do is create a mini-poster to stick on the noticeboard with an appropriate photo of me so that folks will know from whom to collect their badges. Mmm... that requires an appropriately fannish photo of me, which could be tricky. I have a passable one from Interaction, but that's about it. I try to avoid being on photographs wherever possible. Maybe I can just say I'll be in specific places at specific times (and try Ops at other times) and see what happens. Oh, and maybe make myself a badge that says something like 'Yes, I'm the person who made the badges'. Yes, I like that strategy better. It doesn't involve photographs.
0 comments
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Third time lucky
I've finally got a version of the scroll with which I'm happy.
A couple of days ago I finished a scroll. I was quite happy with it, ready to pop it into the post to send it off to be signed and forwarded to its final recipient. Then on Thursday evening at our A&S session (which turned into more of a sorting out the paperwork session) I discovered that I'd been given the wrong spelling of the recipient's name - it has an 'o', not a 'u', Drat. Bother. Grr.
It's only a minor change, but it's enough to be obvious. So I cursed and started off again. I did the illuminated letter and started on the calligraphy... only to screw up the spelling of Insulae (but I mostly got away with that by using æ) and then missing an 'a' in martial. I suppose it serves me right for trying to do it while feeling less than 100% as a result of the previous day's vaccinations.
So today I did version 3. We had our monthly pot-luck meeting today(for which my contribution was another set of Cornish pasties - by request, as they went down very well last time) which gave me the time to devote to doing another version. This time I did the calligraphy first just in case, rather than having to repaint the (admittedly simple) initial yet again if I screwed it up.
And it worked okay. I'm still not happy about some of the spacing, but it's getting better with practice. I thing that the next step is going to be to try gilding the initials, but that'll have to wait for a couple of weeks until I have some more time to spare.
1 comments
A couple of days ago I finished a scroll. I was quite happy with it, ready to pop it into the post to send it off to be signed and forwarded to its final recipient. Then on Thursday evening at our A&S session (which turned into more of a sorting out the paperwork session) I discovered that I'd been given the wrong spelling of the recipient's name - it has an 'o', not a 'u', Drat. Bother. Grr.
It's only a minor change, but it's enough to be obvious. So I cursed and started off again. I did the illuminated letter and started on the calligraphy... only to screw up the spelling of Insulae (but I mostly got away with that by using æ) and then missing an 'a' in martial. I suppose it serves me right for trying to do it while feeling less than 100% as a result of the previous day's vaccinations.
So today I did version 3. We had our monthly pot-luck meeting today(for which my contribution was another set of Cornish pasties - by request, as they went down very well last time) which gave me the time to devote to doing another version. This time I did the calligraphy first just in case, rather than having to repaint the (admittedly simple) initial yet again if I screwed it up.
And it worked okay. I'm still not happy about some of the spacing, but it's getting better with practice. I thing that the next step is going to be to try gilding the initials, but that'll have to wait for a couple of weeks until I have some more time to spare.
1 comments
Friday, March 14, 2008
Sore arm
I think my arm is trying to turn into a hot air balloon.
It must be at least a metre wide by now* and is feeling rather delicate and sensitive. The rest of me is feeling a bit off too, and I really didn't enjoy getting up for my 8am lab. Fortunately there have been no emergencies that required my immediate attention this morning so I told my boss that I was feeling lousy after the shots and came home. I now intend to sleep for most of the afternoon.
*Although a lot of that seems to be cloaked in some manner.
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It must be at least a metre wide by now* and is feeling rather delicate and sensitive. The rest of me is feeling a bit off too, and I really didn't enjoy getting up for my 8am lab. Fortunately there have been no emergencies that required my immediate attention this morning so I told my boss that I was feeling lousy after the shots and came home. I now intend to sleep for most of the afternoon.
*Although a lot of that seems to be cloaked in some manner.
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Thursday, March 13, 2008
Another travel document
I now have another travel document to put in my passport holder.
Until now, my passport holder contained my passport (duh!), the paper part of my driving license (because I only ever need it when hiring a car abroad) and my final security pass for the US base at Keflavík (because I needed the passport to get it, it lived in my passport holder and I yet haven't got around to making a scrapbook page about my visits to the base).
The new document is a yellow World Health Organisation record of inoculations, currently bearing entries for Tetanus/Diptheria and Hepatitis A, both appropriately counter-stamped with an Onæmisaðgerðir Ríkisins stamp. Getting these was an interesting process which I managed in Icelandic (having already checked up on what was recommended beforehand) as there was a little confusion about the fact that I'd had the Meningitis C and Hepatitis B vaccinations before (because of my status as a first-aider at RGU), not Hepatitis C and Meningitis B (non-existant and experimental, respectively).
There was also some discussion with the doctor about malaria. As I'm going to Delhi for only a few he didn't think it necessary to give me anything and just told me to get mosquito repellent at Heathrow. Now, given that this is the guy who told me just to take painkillers for my hands, and that I know from experience that if anyone's going to be attacked by mozzies it's going to be me, I plan to pick up the requisite over-the-counter Paludrine while I'm at Heathrow next week. Call me paranoid if you like, but I have no wish to return from India with a bloodstream full of active sporozoites.
I'm hoping for no side-effects more annoying than a sore arm - I could do without any more tiredness, particularly given that I have an 8am lab tomorrow.
0 comments
Until now, my passport holder contained my passport (duh!), the paper part of my driving license (because I only ever need it when hiring a car abroad) and my final security pass for the US base at Keflavík (because I needed the passport to get it, it lived in my passport holder and I yet haven't got around to making a scrapbook page about my visits to the base).
The new document is a yellow World Health Organisation record of inoculations, currently bearing entries for Tetanus/Diptheria and Hepatitis A, both appropriately counter-stamped with an Onæmisaðgerðir Ríkisins stamp. Getting these was an interesting process which I managed in Icelandic (having already checked up on what was recommended beforehand) as there was a little confusion about the fact that I'd had the Meningitis C and Hepatitis B vaccinations before (because of my status as a first-aider at RGU), not Hepatitis C and Meningitis B (non-existant and experimental, respectively).
There was also some discussion with the doctor about malaria. As I'm going to Delhi for only a few he didn't think it necessary to give me anything and just told me to get mosquito repellent at Heathrow. Now, given that this is the guy who told me just to take painkillers for my hands, and that I know from experience that if anyone's going to be attacked by mozzies it's going to be me, I plan to pick up the requisite over-the-counter Paludrine while I'm at Heathrow next week. Call me paranoid if you like, but I have no wish to return from India with a bloodstream full of active sporozoites.
I'm hoping for no side-effects more annoying than a sore arm - I could do without any more tiredness, particularly given that I have an 8am lab tomorrow.
0 comments
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Celebrating the little things
I've decided to celebrate getting little things done.
For instance, I finally got to the post office to collect a parcel. It was less exciting than it sounds for two reasons - first, it was only my Icelandic language CDs (fundamentally less exciting than, say, a box of beads or an embroidery); and second I regularly end up going to the wrong post office for these things (there seems to be no rhyme nor reason as to whether the thing will be waiting for me at the main post office or the main sorting office). Perhaps if I succeed with the language CDs then I'll manage to remember which post office is at which address.
Another little thing is that I finally finished the second scroll that I was supposed to finish last week. Now I just have to find a suitable envelope to post it and its companion back to the UK. Pictures tomorrow... maybe. :)
I've also made a batch of millionaire shortbread for B, who is currently recovering from surgery in the local hospital. Yesterday I took her DVDs to stop her going crazy with boredom, today it was white chocolate to cheer her up, tomorrow is millionaire shortbread with which to bribe the nurses. :) Perhaps not the healthiest of foods but she's very fond of the stuff and won't be able to eat it all at once without being sick, so it's not really that evil. Not at all. Oh no...
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For instance, I finally got to the post office to collect a parcel. It was less exciting than it sounds for two reasons - first, it was only my Icelandic language CDs (fundamentally less exciting than, say, a box of beads or an embroidery); and second I regularly end up going to the wrong post office for these things (there seems to be no rhyme nor reason as to whether the thing will be waiting for me at the main post office or the main sorting office). Perhaps if I succeed with the language CDs then I'll manage to remember which post office is at which address.
Another little thing is that I finally finished the second scroll that I was supposed to finish last week. Now I just have to find a suitable envelope to post it and its companion back to the UK. Pictures tomorrow... maybe. :)
I've also made a batch of millionaire shortbread for B, who is currently recovering from surgery in the local hospital. Yesterday I took her DVDs to stop her going crazy with boredom, today it was white chocolate to cheer her up, tomorrow is millionaire shortbread with which to bribe the nurses. :) Perhaps not the healthiest of foods but she's very fond of the stuff and won't be able to eat it all at once without being sick, so it's not really that evil. Not at all. Oh no...
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Sore fingers
Cutting fingers off my sword hand isn't likely to do much good for my fencing, it it?
Nor, for that matter, my playing of musical instruments, although I don't think it would affect my sewing too much given which fingers are causing the problem. The problem is, unfortunately, arthritis. The middle two fingers of my left hand are now almost constantly painful if I put any stress on them, and I'm rather loathe to just go for a daily regimen of painkillers. The other fingers (and hand) are a bit sore but nowhere near as bad as these two, which make me grimace regularly if I try using them. Bah.
3 comments
Nor, for that matter, my playing of musical instruments, although I don't think it would affect my sewing too much given which fingers are causing the problem. The problem is, unfortunately, arthritis. The middle two fingers of my left hand are now almost constantly painful if I put any stress on them, and I'm rather loathe to just go for a daily regimen of painkillers. The other fingers (and hand) are a bit sore but nowhere near as bad as these two, which make me grimace regularly if I try using them. Bah.
3 comments
Monday, March 10, 2008
Grammar
Tonight I got to grips with grammar.
Not Icelandic grammar, but English grammar. I think I've just done the most complex grammar test of my life - all sorts of things such as present perfect continuous, future perfect, time and aspect, four different types of conditionals and a variety of other grammatical curiosities. I don't remember anything this complicated at 'O'-level... except maybe in French, where there were definitely perfect and imperfect tenses.
The reason for all of this is two-fold; firstly I've signed up to do a TEFL certification as a distance learning course. This is partly because I've found that since we've been forced to drop the technical English modules from our curriculum I'm having to be far more careful with my wording in both lectures and on assessed questions. The students no longer get the desired experience in identifying what a question is actually asking, so I have to be very precise - almost to the point of over-simplification - in writing questions.
Related to this point is that we hope to re-introduce a technical English module within the next couple of years. If we're going to do this then I really need an appropriately-qualified native speaker to teach it. We have someone at present but who knows how that will change by the time the module is once more accepted? This way, if all else fails then I can teach that module.
There's also the point that having a TEFL qualification could be quite a useful thing in general. After all, should I suddenly have the urge to go backpacking for a year or two then at least I'll have some sort of saleable skill - and what I'm told is an extremely saleable accent - to keep me going. :)
The second reason is tied up with the learning of Icelandic. It is many, many years since I've studied grammar in any form, and if I'm going to make any progress with a heavily inflected language then I need to brush up on my native grammar first.
I've now completed two of the ten modules, and am currently feeling moderately pleased with myself for getting 94% on the grammar module (the pass mark was 75%). Some of the modules are marked automatically, others go to my personal tutor (Jacqui in South Africa). Whether I'll get another module done before Easter is still somewhat up in the air - it'll probably depend on how much work I get done at the office and how much I have to bring home with me.
2 comments
Not Icelandic grammar, but English grammar. I think I've just done the most complex grammar test of my life - all sorts of things such as present perfect continuous, future perfect, time and aspect, four different types of conditionals and a variety of other grammatical curiosities. I don't remember anything this complicated at 'O'-level... except maybe in French, where there were definitely perfect and imperfect tenses.
The reason for all of this is two-fold; firstly I've signed up to do a TEFL certification as a distance learning course. This is partly because I've found that since we've been forced to drop the technical English modules from our curriculum I'm having to be far more careful with my wording in both lectures and on assessed questions. The students no longer get the desired experience in identifying what a question is actually asking, so I have to be very precise - almost to the point of over-simplification - in writing questions.
Related to this point is that we hope to re-introduce a technical English module within the next couple of years. If we're going to do this then I really need an appropriately-qualified native speaker to teach it. We have someone at present but who knows how that will change by the time the module is once more accepted? This way, if all else fails then I can teach that module.
There's also the point that having a TEFL qualification could be quite a useful thing in general. After all, should I suddenly have the urge to go backpacking for a year or two then at least I'll have some sort of saleable skill - and what I'm told is an extremely saleable accent - to keep me going. :)
The second reason is tied up with the learning of Icelandic. It is many, many years since I've studied grammar in any form, and if I'm going to make any progress with a heavily inflected language then I need to brush up on my native grammar first.
I've now completed two of the ten modules, and am currently feeling moderately pleased with myself for getting 94% on the grammar module (the pass mark was 75%). Some of the modules are marked automatically, others go to my personal tutor (Jacqui in South Africa). Whether I'll get another module done before Easter is still somewhat up in the air - it'll probably depend on how much work I get done at the office and how much I have to bring home with me.
2 comments
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Quiet
Not a lot to report today.
I've done a bit of catch-up sleeping, a little embroidery, finished The Wee Free Men (I've read Pratchett's Truckers/DIggers/Wings set but none of his other kids' books) and not a lot else. Oh, except play a little with my DS (my brain age is now less than my actual age, and I do all of the reading tasks at flying speed or better. Now if only my mental arithmetic was that good... :(
3 comments
I've done a bit of catch-up sleeping, a little embroidery, finished The Wee Free Men (I've read Pratchett's Truckers/DIggers/Wings set but none of his other kids' books) and not a lot else. Oh, except play a little with my DS (my brain age is now less than my actual age, and I do all of the reading tasks at flying speed or better. Now if only my mental arithmetic was that good... :(
3 comments
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Back on the sofa
I am back on my sofa.
For the first time I managed to be on the right side of the aircraft with very clear skies above southern Iceland, and I got a marvellous view of the south coast and the northernmost pair of the Westman Islands (one of which has a beautiful cone and crater - no, not Surtsey). Unfortunately my camera was in my hold luggage, not my handbag. :( It would have been even better had it been June, as there's rather a lot of snow about at present which means that it's difficult to spot where the snow ends and the glaciers begin. The glaciers do look so much more impressive in summer.
There was also a good view up to Snæfellsnes and I could see the Snæfelljökull volcano (although again the snow cover made it impossible to see where the glacier started). That was the south, though, and as we got further north the weather closed in again. It's not snowing but there's still a lot of the white stuff lying around. It wouldn't surprise me if we have more snow tomorrow. I might miss in though - I have a lot of sleep to catch up on.
0 comments
For the first time I managed to be on the right side of the aircraft with very clear skies above southern Iceland, and I got a marvellous view of the south coast and the northernmost pair of the Westman Islands (one of which has a beautiful cone and crater - no, not Surtsey). Unfortunately my camera was in my hold luggage, not my handbag. :( It would have been even better had it been June, as there's rather a lot of snow about at present which means that it's difficult to spot where the snow ends and the glaciers begin. The glaciers do look so much more impressive in summer.
There was also a good view up to Snæfellsnes and I could see the Snæfelljökull volcano (although again the snow cover made it impossible to see where the glacier started). That was the south, though, and as we got further north the weather closed in again. It's not snowing but there's still a lot of the white stuff lying around. It wouldn't surprise me if we have more snow tomorrow. I might miss in though - I have a lot of sleep to catch up on.
0 comments
Friday, March 07, 2008
Pausing for friendship
The last few days have been a bit stressful, but there have been stress-free moments.
I have managed to see some friends, two of which I haven't seen for well over a year. Each of these meetings has involved food, so I dread to think what the scales are going to say on Monday (assuming that I can get the darned things to work again). :) These meetings were the highlight of the trip and managed to calm me down a bit compared to my currently-normal frazzled state.
I've also acquired a Nintendo DS Lite (with Brain Training software), printer cartridges for my colour printer in the office and laminating pouches for the Eastercon LJ badges. I was thinking of buying a digital camcorder but the prospect of Eastercon in two weeks' time dissuaded me.
Oh yes, and a handful of calligraphy pens so that I have a set for black ink and a set for red ink... and so that the other calligraphers up here have their own good dedicated pens rather than the rather poor ones that generally come in the 'beginner sets' you get up here. They're the Lamy Safari with 1.5mm italic nib, for those who like to know these things, and my new set is this year's limited edition - lime green.
0 comments
I have managed to see some friends, two of which I haven't seen for well over a year. Each of these meetings has involved food, so I dread to think what the scales are going to say on Monday (assuming that I can get the darned things to work again). :) These meetings were the highlight of the trip and managed to calm me down a bit compared to my currently-normal frazzled state.
I've also acquired a Nintendo DS Lite (with Brain Training software), printer cartridges for my colour printer in the office and laminating pouches for the Eastercon LJ badges. I was thinking of buying a digital camcorder but the prospect of Eastercon in two weeks' time dissuaded me.
Oh yes, and a handful of calligraphy pens so that I have a set for black ink and a set for red ink... and so that the other calligraphers up here have their own good dedicated pens rather than the rather poor ones that generally come in the 'beginner sets' you get up here. They're the Lamy Safari with 1.5mm italic nib, for those who like to know these things, and my new set is this year's limited edition - lime green.
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Thursday, March 06, 2008
Antiques
I've never really understood antiques.
Today I found myself in an antiques shop (looking for a salt cellar and a water/wine jug) and I realised that I just don't understand the whole antiques thing. In general I'm afraid that I wouldn't give houseroom to about 99.999% of the antiques or 'collectables' that I see in these places.
Artefacts I understand - these are things with historical relevance. Art is also fairly straightforward - I like it or I don't like it (and other folks' tastes may vary). But antiques... I just don't understand the desire to own something just because it's a hundred years old.
There is, I appreciate, the fact that items hand-made by craftsmen are generally a lot better-made than many modern things. Furniture is probably the only field of antiques that I come anywhere near understanding. I don't, however, understand why someone would want a set of faded and greyed mass-produced 1880s tableware. Or a large brass veterinary syringe (unless you happen to be a historian with an interest in scientific instruments... or a vet interesting in early tools of the trade).
But then, I don't really understand people anyway. I've got these wonderful bright red, square melamine plates that prevent food from sliding onto the floor when the house shakes. Style is something done by other people, not by me. :)
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Today I found myself in an antiques shop (looking for a salt cellar and a water/wine jug) and I realised that I just don't understand the whole antiques thing. In general I'm afraid that I wouldn't give houseroom to about 99.999% of the antiques or 'collectables' that I see in these places.
Artefacts I understand - these are things with historical relevance. Art is also fairly straightforward - I like it or I don't like it (and other folks' tastes may vary). But antiques... I just don't understand the desire to own something just because it's a hundred years old.
There is, I appreciate, the fact that items hand-made by craftsmen are generally a lot better-made than many modern things. Furniture is probably the only field of antiques that I come anywhere near understanding. I don't, however, understand why someone would want a set of faded and greyed mass-produced 1880s tableware. Or a large brass veterinary syringe (unless you happen to be a historian with an interest in scientific instruments... or a vet interesting in early tools of the trade).
But then, I don't really understand people anyway. I've got these wonderful bright red, square melamine plates that prevent food from sliding onto the floor when the house shakes. Style is something done by other people, not by me. :)
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Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Squee!
Today I arranged a really exciting thing.
Four of us from the Shire are planning an expedition to the Hall of Egil in Reykjavík to listen to a recital by that troubador of reknown, Master Eric of Clapton. This is a particularly exciting thing as I've never paid quite that much for a concert ticket before - come to think of it, it's probably cost more than Jools Holland, The Goodies and Cortes put together. And that's without the flights or the hotel room. Still, I don't care - it's Clapton. And it's not as expensive as flying to the UK or Denmark to see The Who (which was very tempting at the time).
I got the tickets online this morning about 15 minutes after they went on sale and have been told that 95% of the 10,000 tickets have been sold already. Somehow I'm not surprised.
That was my morning excitement. My afternoon excitement was my own little contribution to the International Polar Year - doing tech for a workshop where one major speaker had his presentation on a MacBook Pro rather than a PC. Given that the university's techs don't do the Mac thing it was a good thing that I was there. It was also complicated by the fact that the cabling in that particular room is a bit complicated and required me to pull the PC off its shelf in order to get at the video cable (once I'd realised that I couldn't just plug into any of the more accessible ports). Nevertheless I managed to fix it and suddenly found myself sorting out all of the other computer issues while I was at it. Ah well, this is the price to pay for having a little knowledge.
The evening was fun for me but definitely exciting for my fencers. They finally have their own masks and epeés so we spent the evening doing lots of melées and a high-turnaround bear pit. There was definitely a lot of perspiration on shirts by the time we'd finished but it was worth it for the ear-to-ear grins. Next week we'll return to something a bit more like normal but tonight was really a chance for them to use their new toys all at the same time. It was good.
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Four of us from the Shire are planning an expedition to the Hall of Egil in Reykjavík to listen to a recital by that troubador of reknown, Master Eric of Clapton. This is a particularly exciting thing as I've never paid quite that much for a concert ticket before - come to think of it, it's probably cost more than Jools Holland, The Goodies and Cortes put together. And that's without the flights or the hotel room. Still, I don't care - it's Clapton. And it's not as expensive as flying to the UK or Denmark to see The Who (which was very tempting at the time).
I got the tickets online this morning about 15 minutes after they went on sale and have been told that 95% of the 10,000 tickets have been sold already. Somehow I'm not surprised.
That was my morning excitement. My afternoon excitement was my own little contribution to the International Polar Year - doing tech for a workshop where one major speaker had his presentation on a MacBook Pro rather than a PC. Given that the university's techs don't do the Mac thing it was a good thing that I was there. It was also complicated by the fact that the cabling in that particular room is a bit complicated and required me to pull the PC off its shelf in order to get at the video cable (once I'd realised that I couldn't just plug into any of the more accessible ports). Nevertheless I managed to fix it and suddenly found myself sorting out all of the other computer issues while I was at it. Ah well, this is the price to pay for having a little knowledge.
The evening was fun for me but definitely exciting for my fencers. They finally have their own masks and epeés so we spent the evening doing lots of melées and a high-turnaround bear pit. There was definitely a lot of perspiration on shirts by the time we'd finished but it was worth it for the ear-to-ear grins. Next week we'll return to something a bit more like normal but tonight was really a chance for them to use their new toys all at the same time. It was good.
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Monday, March 03, 2008
Oomphless
Some days you get nothing done.
This wasn't quite one of those days but it came close at times. I spent four hours dealing with an avoidable student crisis (it could have been avoided had the student done one or two fairly obvious and straightforward things) and another one handling an assortment of frustrating admin stuff. Still, at least I finished a lecture and a lab so I can relax a little.
Then I came home and got nothing done here too. I'm supposed to do an SCA scroll this week but it's looking more and more as if I'm not going to be able to gather up the oomph to finish it until next weekend, mainly as I've got a rather busy couple of days flying around to assorted meetings. Annoying - whoever has taken my oomph, please return it soon.
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This wasn't quite one of those days but it came close at times. I spent four hours dealing with an avoidable student crisis (it could have been avoided had the student done one or two fairly obvious and straightforward things) and another one handling an assortment of frustrating admin stuff. Still, at least I finished a lecture and a lab so I can relax a little.
Then I came home and got nothing done here too. I'm supposed to do an SCA scroll this week but it's looking more and more as if I'm not going to be able to gather up the oomph to finish it until next weekend, mainly as I've got a rather busy couple of days flying around to assorted meetings. Annoying - whoever has taken my oomph, please return it soon.
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Sunday, March 02, 2008
Project #2 completed
Yes, I know it's out of order
Project #2 was mostly completed a while ago, but I had to get the date details from S so that I could finish it. And yes, that does say 2002.
There is a story behind this. Back in 2002 I - somehow - managed to get the date wrong and stitched it with May 26th. So I eventually took it back to change it, and it was sitting there in the kitchen in Aberdeen, awaiting work, when the kitchen was flooded as a result of a flood in the flat upstairs. The embroidery was one of the many items that were water damaged beyond repair.
Fortunately I still had the pattern, but then I got rather distracted by moving to Iceland. Last year I happened to see the original kit again, so I picked it up with the intention of doing it at some point in the near future. That near point was earlier this year. I've just finished the stitching and found myself with a bit of a problem - with which date should I sign it?
In the end I opted for the 2008 date as that's more accurate. It also allows me to explain why it took me over five years to change a 6 to a 5.
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Project #2 was mostly completed a while ago, but I had to get the date details from S so that I could finish it. And yes, that does say 2002.
There is a story behind this. Back in 2002 I - somehow - managed to get the date wrong and stitched it with May 26th. So I eventually took it back to change it, and it was sitting there in the kitchen in Aberdeen, awaiting work, when the kitchen was flooded as a result of a flood in the flat upstairs. The embroidery was one of the many items that were water damaged beyond repair.
Fortunately I still had the pattern, but then I got rather distracted by moving to Iceland. Last year I happened to see the original kit again, so I picked it up with the intention of doing it at some point in the near future. That near point was earlier this year. I've just finished the stitching and found myself with a bit of a problem - with which date should I sign it?
In the end I opted for the 2008 date as that's more accurate. It also allows me to explain why it took me over five years to change a 6 to a 5.
3 comments
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Lots of leather
More goodies arrived today.
Several months ago I ordered a long belt and matching pouch online - it arrived from the US and was so beautiful that I had to share the joy with the rest of the shire. As a result, about six weeks ago we put in a shire-sized order for belts. pouches, mug hangers and, most excitingly, rapier belts. These arrived yesterday and, as we'd already arranged to have an AD&D evening, M brought them along to pass them out to their rightful owners.
So I now not only have a beautifully embossed long belt, I also have a very nice black rapier belt to go with it. Now all I have to do is to make - or possibly buy from the same source :) - a scabbard to go with it. There will no doubt be photos of the shire in all of its finery sometime soon... and I may have to start wearing my ropa for fencing, rather than just trousers and my armoured shirt, just so I have an excuse to wear the belt.
We also had a great AD&D session - it's been a while, but I'm getting into the swing of things again. Especially since I've discovered that I can play filthy mind rippers there too. :)
1 comments
Several months ago I ordered a long belt and matching pouch online - it arrived from the US and was so beautiful that I had to share the joy with the rest of the shire. As a result, about six weeks ago we put in a shire-sized order for belts. pouches, mug hangers and, most excitingly, rapier belts. These arrived yesterday and, as we'd already arranged to have an AD&D evening, M brought them along to pass them out to their rightful owners.
So I now not only have a beautifully embossed long belt, I also have a very nice black rapier belt to go with it. Now all I have to do is to make - or possibly buy from the same source :) - a scabbard to go with it. There will no doubt be photos of the shire in all of its finery sometime soon... and I may have to start wearing my ropa for fencing, rather than just trousers and my armoured shirt, just so I have an excuse to wear the belt.
We also had a great AD&D session - it's been a while, but I'm getting into the swing of things again. Especially since I've discovered that I can play filthy mind rippers there too. :)
1 comments