You know... just because.
A sense of calm has now overcome me.
Yes, but when there is no ILX, and no Watercooler, then that NOTHING is *really* a problem for me!
You had fun on our replacement at Last FM
http://www.last.fm/group/UK%2BWatercooler/forum/37335
Im not giving up on it. I’m posting there too.
I can’t handle several different places to check. We need to have a concensus on where we should be posting.
I need more places to consume my brain and keep it from consuming itself. I like this better than last.fm because it takes me to the unread messages.
Though I kinda miss my avatar... Sigh.
Wait, something is missing...
Phew, that’s better.
I enjoyed it over at last fm actually.
But i’m always on there anyway.
It’s much easier to use this at work, it’s not giant and red and having silly logos all over it that make it plain it’s not a coding window...
Gah, it’s just such a lovely relief to see this clean, white interface again, even if it’s not the real thing. It looks like the real thing... it tastes like the real thing, my fake plaaaaaas-tic ILX....!
You not posting on last fm again then?
I’ll cycle compulsively through them both...
This is weird. AND this is comforting.
Sigh.
Never offer unsolicited advice. You’ll only end up pissing both advisee and advisor off.
“Helpful people are a nuisance.” — R. Fripp
But, isn’t that offering unsolicited advice, Kate? ;-)
When you’ve been through a certain dilemma yourself, the temptation is to share your solution, in the hope that you can make it easier for the other person.
But whatever. Some people have to discover things for themselves—and if they never discover it, they’re just going to carry on being frustrated and miserable.
(I know, just as many people could say that to me, about other things.)
I suppose it’s just because the subject being discussed was something so close to mine own heart. It’s impossible for me to be objective.
Mere jest, of course. I mostly agree with you on the subject of unsolicited advice. Unsolicited cash, otoh...
When you’ve been through a certain dilemma yourself, the temptation is to share your solution, in the hope that you can make it easier for the other person.
I find that often when I do this, the other person will reply: “No, but it’s like this (minor circumstantial difference) for me, not like that,” not willing to take any wisdom from my offering.
It’s not even like that... it’s just this person insists that they have a different *reason* d’etre in the first place. One that I have found to be totally wrong-headed and leading to trouble in the first place.
She thinks “K is like this, I’m not like this, I’m like that.” When what I’m trying to say is “I used to be like that, and it did me great damage and caused me great angst until I learned how to be this”
Maybe it just comes down to reasons why people make music, and create in the first place... which I guess is something pretty personal and not really open for debate anyway.
I mean, that would be a question for I Make Music, if and when it comes back up.
*Why* do you make music? For personal fulfillment, for acclaim from others, to attract a specific audience?
When you write, do you have an audience (potential or actual) in mind, or do you just write what comes to you?
If you could look into the future, and find out for certain, that you will never actually “make it” in the music biz, that you will never actually get any further than whatever (small or otherwise) standing/success/lack thereof you have now, would you continue to do it? Would you do it differently? Would you just quit?
Wouldn’t you just keep making music because you like it and believe what you’re doing anyway is good?
I couldn’t see you giving up music no matter what you saw happening in the future.
I think that’s the most important thing of all. Personally, I think that if the answer to that question is “no” then really, you have no business making music in the first place, because you’re making it for all the wrong reasons.
I mean, maybe that sounds harsh, but you know, thinking about what kind of *audience* you want, and then backtracking to what kind of music you want to make... to me, that just seems ass backwards, and wrongheaded.
Or just something else, some other kind of pursuit that’s not ‘music’. More like entrepenurialship or advertising. Like, I don’t really feel threatened or betrayed by the dudes who came up with crazy frog. It’s a whole other discipline—they saw a business opportunity and jumped at it. Same with Keane.
I agree completely with you Kate.
x-post
Nabisco OTM!
I’m not threatened. It’s just... if your answer to that question is “no” then you don’t really want to be a musician, you want to be a Pop Star. Go do something else with your life to get the attention, go be on Big Brother or whatever.
I think you’re on the wrong thread, Nick. Nabisco didn’t post anything here yet! Or are you just being preemptive?
Agreed. Not implying you were threatened, just trying to work out why I’m not as bothered by such people as I used to be. But clearly you were talking specifically about a friend and not some abstract crazy frog mastermind.
But then we wouldn’t have pop stars! And I LIKE pop stars!
(xpost = hullo watercooler people. I’m looking at last.fm and thinking about it)
I do want to be a pop star, but wouldn’t stop making music if I knew (ha! I do know!) that I won’t be one ever. But I don’t want to be a pop star to be famous. At this point I just want the opportunity to play lots of shows to lots of new people all the time.
And hang out with Britt Daniel
Hi Ailsa, did you have a nice weekend?
I used to get all bent out of shape thinking about what sort of person I *wanted* to be listening to my music—and of course, never being satisfied with the people that *did* listen to my music, and alienating them in the first place, without ever attracting the DDB’s I was craving. And then one day I thought “fuck it” and threw up my hands and just started concentrated on making music that hit *my* Happy Buttons.
And every now and then, I have a bit of a wobbly, but I have to kind of remind myself why I do make music. Because I go stark raving mad(der) if I don’t. It’s nice when more people listen to it, yes, I’ll admit that (and it’s probably really frustrating when you see you audience slipping away, or failing to form)—but the funny thing is, I think that people (music fans, whatever) are more attracted to your music when it *is* coming from your own Happy Buttons, that it’s somehow just fresher, more energetic, more open, more honest, more... interesting.
And the funny thing is, the guys who invented the Crazy Frog were just f*cking about, trying to make the most annoying sound ever, for the sheer joy of it. Hence why its original name was “the annoying thing”. Maybe that’s not necessarily *musical* creativity, but it certainly fulfils the “push your own happy buttons first” criteria.
Yeah, I drank lots of wine and ate lots of nice food. Same as I would have done here, except my parents paid, and the weather was worse. (xpost)
Most exciting thing today = we bought a new fridge. Our old fridge has been kind of failing doing what it’s meant to, so quick trip to Comet and, hurrah, cold food and drinks again.
I’m going to Edinburgh tomorrow to drink booze.
hullo watercooler people. I’m looking at last.fm and thinking about it
Onimo joined!
Blah blah blah, DDBs, blah blah blah, TSM, blah blah blah, Benjamin, blah blah blah, pedals, blah blah blah.
Dude remember I was saying, that it was a good thing that ILX was down, while there were still issues that should be sorted out face-to-face? This is sort of what I was talking about.
The last couple of times I’ve tried to see this person (not in my band, BTW) we’ve tried and failed to get together. I think this is something that is definitely something that I need to think (write) about myself and then just not bring up the next time I see her (whenever that is).
Onimo joined!
He told me. I’ve told him about here. I’m sure he’ll be along at some point to share your enthusiasm :-)
I’m sure those that didn’t know will see it mentioned over there(about here) I think the last fm watercooler may remain active so the music chat is confined there and away from here.
Unless people can’t be arsed posting to both. In which case normal spacerock/prog rock service will be resumed here shortly ;)
Is the last fm watercooler the same thing as the last fm ILXOR group?
Yup. We sought refuge there while ILX was down.
And now, we seek to conquer.
Not until you join us on last fm, Ned. I’ve only spent the last 2 years trying to get you on there. I gave up.
That’s because I don’t listen to music on my computer much! Usually it’s CDs or mp3 discs I’ve burned and then play over there. Better sound, you see.
I thought you ripped all your music to mp3 and sold the cds because of space issues.
Is the last fm watercooler the same thing as the last fm ILXOR group?
No, it’s another last.fm group—it’s called “UK Watercooler”.
thought you ripped all your music to mp3 and sold the cds because of space issues.
Oh heavens no. I just ripped the stuff I didn’t listen to anymore. (Which was about, oh, a thousand CDs to start with.)
How many cds do you have????
Ned will be back in February, Kerr, when he’s finished counting them all.
Hahahaha.
Instead of selling them you should build a boat. A very shiny boat.
At highest count, something like 5000 CDs, I think. I believe I’m down to around 4000 and probably something like...*thinks*...not sure, 500 mp3 CDRs? More?
Is that audio cdrs or data cdrs?
Why would anyone have 500 new Star Trek cdrs?
Oh dear.
Pfunk — the latter.
I used to have that Ned until I got a dvd writer. Holds a lot more.I have 100 dvdrs I think.
This is why I plan on a MacMini soon.
Too much.
Too young.
OH GOD, THE NEW OLD ILX SEEMS TO HAVE STARTED POXY FULING ALREADY! ARGH!!!!!
I am listening to Can today, because I finally got my staff copy of Plan B and FMM had a big article about them.
Hello. ILX isn’t working for me today.
OH god, I’m counting down the hours til I get to go home and just die.
Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!
Who leaves Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the martians under wraps?
We do! We do!
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?
We do! We do!
Who robbed the Irish of Home Rule?
Who keeps ILX in POXY FULE?!?!?
We do! We do!
I have been forced to take this week off work (actual reason, working too hard) and have spent the afternoon teaching myself that Oliver Barbieri tilt-shift photography thing. Some are obviously the work of a beginner, but I have a couple I’m really pleased with and will post in the thread if ILX ever comes up again.
Tomorrow I am going to play with my new camera.
Hurrah for new cameras.
I’ve just got in trouble because my colleagues made me sing the American national anthem, out loud, because none of them could remember how it went (one of them thought it was Land Of Hope And Glory, ha ha). Oh, what hilarity.
I’m a bit scared of my new camera. 8Mpixels seems like an awful lot (supports A3 photo printing, apparently).
And the garage have just phoned to say I need to pick up my new car tomorrow.
New camera, new car... blimey.
I’ve got a new... errr... skirt.
Camera was a birthday present.
Old car literally falling to bits, ex-wife sells house and gives me the money I’ve been waiting on for SEVEN FUCKING YEARS, script writes itself.
Happy birthday for the other day aldo!
Great! You can drive me to Skye, then!
happy birthday for the other day aldo! I didn’t know and no-one told me *slaps Onimo rounds head*
I didn’t know until someone told me afterwards! *gives ailsa a knuckle sandwich*
Some “friend” you are, not knowing people’s birthdays. (Consider your virtual slap retracted)
IT’S ONLY A WEE CAR. (not that I’m saying you’re big, but the journey is) (xpost to Kaet)
Mini Petra
Mini Water Palace at the Red Fort in Jaipur
Mini Indians in a mini Jaipur street
A mini giant Buddha in Sri Lanka
Mini West Indies vs Mini South Africa
They look blummin big to me!
‘Mini Indians in a mini Jaipur street’ works best, I think.
I don’t really understand this whole craze.
some excellent examples here: http://blog.so-net.ne.jp/photolog/archive/c22183
Bah. It’s way too early to be poxy fuled. Tell us what it’s all about Benjamin?
I’ve had no sleep last night. Up at 5am with stress dreams and even hot milk couldn’t get me back to sleep. I’m exhausted from lugging heavy bags of equipment across London at inappropriate hours, fighting commuter traffic.
ihttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/MarkGrout/P8200499.jpg
Farmer looks in his hutch, one chicken missing. Higher up, a fox absconds.
Not being a raging bitch or anything but... wait, I’m Queen here, I can do what I want.
THIS THREAD IS FOR CHATTER. AND BENJAMIN. IF YOU WANT TO POST WEIRD PICTURES THAT LOOK LIKE MODELS START YOUR OWN THREAD.
early? its been down since about 7pm last night.
I wasn’t here last night. I was sitting on Ed’s couch listening to our single on a really, really good stereo.
Right, I finally upped and ordered the single!
Ooh, it’d better be good! :)
On Ed’s stereo... well, Ed’s stereo sounds SOOO NICE that everything sounds good on it. But well, it was the first time I’d actually listened to it and really felt... PROUD.
Like, “wow, we made that!”
So if you don’t like it... get a better stereo! hah! :-P
(I’ve ordered a better stylus, funnily enough)
Hello there. I went to the pub on Saturday afternoon, for a bit ... and got back last night. Hurrah!
Was wondering where you’d got to!
I need a new stylus, I only have an old (10+ years) Sony hifi with a record deck. But as its old the stylus i need is about £40 at least.
I need to get a record player, fullstop. I totally covet Ed’s (well, more likely his speakers...) but totally out of my budget.
I have so much I have to buy now and no money.
-hard drive
-recording mic
-vaccuum cleaner
-Moogerfooger low pass filter
-Lovetone Meatball
-Prunes and Custard Harmonic Generator (or maybe I will get an Electroharmonix HOG or POG)
Well, I went to Leeds for a munch, and offered the organiser a lift home (it was in Selby, more or less on the way). He invited me in for a coffee, then said “want to come to a club with us tonight.” So I did. I ended up staying a couple of nights, to give them a hand clearing out their spare bedroom.
I’d been hoping to visit York on Monday night anyway, so after we’d done the bedroom-clearing I went off there, and ended up spending a couple of nights in York too. Eventually, I got home, having had a great weekend, and still with a grin on my face. Hopefully going back to York again tomorrow though, to help A Certain Someone with moving house.
Check e-bay for stylii. Mine cost £12 incl postage. And it’s ooh 15 years old. The turntable that is. And the present stylus.
The day I buy actual, like, furniture instead of like, guitar pedals is the day I will consider myself a grownup.
I should buy a stereo, though. This is absurd that I’m still listening to CDs on my ‘puter and studio monitors.
So I did. I ended up staying a couple of nights, to give them a hand clearing out their spare dungeon bedroom.
Sorry , I couldn’t resist. I know you don’t like it when we don’t stereotype you ..
I have now decided to listen to Iron Maiden (the 1st album). What a classic album that is. I actually have this on vinyl, bought it maybe 13 or 14 years ago for £2.99. A few people at school were into them but I never cared for them until I heard this album(a few years after I left school and got into grunge). Don’t think i’d wanna listen to anything they’ve done in the last 15 years mind you. Someone did send me a file of the new album though.
A lot of people seem to have a metal period in their earlier teens, I on the other hand seem to have started to like it more again as I got older (apart from a few years when I 1st got into music at 18/19)
So what did you all listen to in your teenage years? Did you have a metal period?
Is this the place:
Seriously, it was brilliant. Bakelite coffins! Pod caravans! Whirly things that made aldo go “oooh” when rubbed against him! A torture dungeon with gimp masks for horses (yes, yes, pfunkboy, you may make another “woo, FP to thread!” joke now)! Pifco tie presses! Fake creepy Bakelite teeth! An electric fire in the shape of a Scottie dog! A postcard that you put on a record player and it played The Purple People Eater! More eggcups than you’ve ever seen in your life!
xpost, yes, that’s the place! I think they might have opened especially for us as they are supposed to be closed in December.
Also it’s in Williton, which is a bit like being called Willy Town.
I never ever thought of Wilton as being a dirty named place. Odd.
I find nearby Taughton much more hilarious, as a placename.
Taunton. Or however it’s spelled.
I really want an electric fire in the shape of a scotty dog.
I know someone who went to the Spam Museum. Info here : http://www.spam.com/
It’s Taunton. Williton is different from Wilton. Wilton = not funny. Williton = it has the word willy in it. (bear in mind I’d had about three hours sleep in three days by this point)
xpost, I too really want an electric fire in the shape of a scotty dog. It was brilliant.
Stop it, Dr. C. You know my brother married a Spam Heiress.
Sorry, misread you there, Ailsa. Williton? It just sounds like a stutter to me.
Is that where FP is from?
Aw, the giant PBW just slid off the top of the page. His smile was brightening my day every time I opened the thread. :-(
(And this is where I realise that all my rambling emails about the nature of folk vs. art and authenticity vs. expression just make me look like one giant NUTTER and I should STFU and never talk to anyone again, ever.)
((And I can’t even FIND my boss to ask for a half day today, because I wanted to go ice skating with my sisX0r. Bah!))
Williton is on the West Somerset Railway, isn’t it?
And didn’t Bakelite first start out as a type of lacquer or varnish or something? I vaguely remember reading (in The New Science Of Strong Materials, a very entertaining book despite the title) that the first major Bakelite product was the gear stick knobs on Rolls Royce cars.
A torture dungeon with gimp masks for horses (yes, yes, pfunkboy, you may make another “woo, FP to thread!” joke now)!
Hurrah!
I am annoyed today because I wanted to buy the mother a Nintendo DS for Christmas but absolutely bloody everywhere has sold out. Serves me right for leaving my Christmas shopping until a fortnight before, I guess.
On the other hand, I have salmon and cream cheese sandwiches for lunch. Hurrah! And I am having fun distracting the goth, too.
xpost: no, I’ve never been *down there* in my life!
that the first major Bakelite product was the gear stick knobs on Rolls Royce cars.
This is just too good. Can make FP Knob jokes now too.
Spotted in Tesco at lunch:
**Stop it, Dr. C. You know my brother married a Spam Heiress.**
Blimey! Really? Bet he’s frittered it all away by now though.
This is just too good. Can make FP Knob jokes now too.
Grrrr!
(I’ve been going “grrrr” so much in the past hour, it’s left me trying to remember which Welsh myth had a character called Gwawl in it. Because that’s a good “grrr”-type noise, too.)
xpost: badoom-tish!
Dr C wins! (xpost)
I asked the Sys Admin where my boss was, and he said she went to lunch with a friend. WHICH IS WHAT I WANT TO BE DOING ALL AFTERNOON!!!
Maybe if she’s been drinking, she’ll be a bit more amenable to my request.
My boss is out all afternoon himself. Hurrah again!
Incidentally, am I the only person who sees the number of answers on the thread and thinks of other significant meanings for that number?
Like: Ailsa’s last post = 1482 on the thread = the Hull telephone dialling code.
I am having fun distracting the goth
You haven’t got her remote controlled up, have you?
My boss is not out all afternoon. I’ve just eaten a massive sausage sandwich and feel like my tummy is about to explode. I will get NOTHING done this afternoon.
My post = 1485 = Battle of Bosworth.
Sorry. I’ll try and stop now.
You haven’t got her remote controlled up, have you?
Er, no. Although I do want to get one of those at some point. But not for use at work.
Yes! result!
I have the afternoon off now.
Yay to afternoons off!
Boo to indigestion :(
You haven’t got her remote controlled up, have you?
ashley cole to thread.
Oooh! I’ve hit a nerve there! This is getting really good!
However, I’m off to hang out with sisX0r and St00ges, hurrah, ice skating and Brick Lane, here we come!
I hope the indigestion isn’t gastric lurgy,
Grrrr!
I’ve been going “grrrr” so much in the past hour
No offence intended, as always, FP.
Most of the grrrrr was at other things, of course.
a bus drove into me this morning on my way to work! no damage though, to me or my bike. or the bus, presumably. then i got some good freebies.
Glad you’re ok!
FP, you had some Frosties?
Nope :-P
I haven’t had Frosties in years. Too much sugar on them so the dr banned them!
I could do with sugar. Two whole hours left and I want to go to sleep.
Where is coffee? I need the coffee!
I’m starting to panic about Christmas shopping now. I have NO ideas what to get for too many people and I am not getting much help and ideas. I may have to enlist ILX to help me with ideas at some point.
Do not buy people presents. Donate the money you had intended to spend to charity instead.
(I hate shopping)
OMG I’m marking exams, specifically the students’ essay, which is supposed to be a response to this question: “Discuss the relationship between form and content in any three of the works we have studied this term.” One student has taken that question to mean she is to write about “the relationship” (i.e., relationships) in three works.
that’s a pretty bad misinterpretation. That question does give me The Ph34r tho, and makes me glad I did a nice easy science degree.
I hate shopping except guitar shopping.
I like the charity idea, except I’d want to apply it to everyone i.e don’t buy any presents for anyone. Some are bought though—so it would seem odd. Maybe next year. Normally I do a blitz of shopping with the missus but it’s not gonna happen this year, she’s too busy for even a mini-blitz, so has delegated a load of it to me. I’m going to have to take a day off and just...DO IT.
I hate that thing when they announce on the radio what they are going to discuss later so you have to either wait around and make yrself late for work to hear it, or never find out what they were going to say about it. T’other day on Radio 5 Live they said that they were going to discuss why giving folks in Africa goats for Christmas *wasn’t* an ethical thing to do. Never did find out why.
See, I haven’t done presents for or from my family for years. Then I married into a family who buy presents for anyone they’ve ever met, just about, so after about the 8 billionth Superdrug make-up brush set (I don’t even wear make-up!) I insisted on them donating to whatever charity instead. And I would much rather give money to a charity of their choice, even a few quid, than by some token of, well, nothing really, because I never see these people and I would walk past them in the street without recognising them and I don’t see why I have to waste money buying people shit they don’t want or need just because of the date on the calendar.
(However, I did let my husband help with the cost of my ATP ticket this year, but that’s only because I couldn’t afford it myself due to jacking in of job, and I’m pretty sure he’d have bailed me out anyway and it’s just a “do something nice for me that I’ll appreciate” rather than buying something just because it’s Christmas)
T’other day on Radio 5 Live they said that they were going to discuss why giving folks in Africa goats for Christmas *wasn’t* an ethical thing to do. Never did find out why.
It probably is—it was just that some animal rights campaign group called Animal Aid had put out a press release saying it isn’t. Because, presumably, they think all goats should be free to roam in the wild blue yonder.
woohoo! I have been spending the past hour being put into the position of persuading my current crush to go out with somebody else. I am impressed with my abilities. So impressed.
Incidentally, and in less soul-crushing news, I got a slightly odd offer from a firm the other day. They are a general computer supply company, but in the sales pitch phone call, they said that they had plenty of special offers on Xboxes, PS2s, iPods, and the like, which could be added to an order by the company, but wouldn’t show up on the invoice, and could be delivered to a different address. I was quite impressed by the brazenness of the ‘buy from us! steal from your employer!’ angle...
I heard that argument, last christmas thought I heard a much more rational one that goats were unsuitable for the ecology of a lot of the places they were sent to as they eat too much of the wrong things.
This is all true. Which is why when you buy a goat for charity, the chances are that you’re not ACTUALLY giving a goat, you’re giving enough money to buy a goat. It usually gets spent on something less cuddly like sewage systems or wells. Still an enormously good thing to do, just don’t take it literally.
Yeah, last year, my mother-in-law bought me a voucher showing I’d donated x amount of school dinners to a school in Africa. Part of me was all “grrr, I’d rather something sustainable and useful”, but I figure it would all go to something useful in the end. I did stipulate that it should go to Oxfam, and I’ve every confidence that something useful is going to come of it, more useful that me having another sodding facecloth.
My sister is immensely proud of the alpaca she’s bought for a friend. Mainly about how cute it is...
I’m buying a Dolphin for Africa!
Also, I don’t want a cheery glossy card featuring waving orphans happily eating. I don’t want my money going to manufacture shiny cards. Do something USEFUL with it!
Morning, people!
Morning.
I am tired and cranky today, the yoghurt and brown rice diet is not good.
Ugh, not feeling any better yet?
Morning! Starting to get a little apprehensive about the work Christmas party tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’m putting together price lists for computers that we’re never going to buy and hassling Microsoft for my license keys; oh the fun.
morning! BAH was i here at 9.30 and there is no one to tell me what they need me to do because they had their christmas party last night. this morning i did not get hit by a bus, but i did nearly get mown down by an cyclist.
I’m not sure if I’m feeling crap because of illness or lack of food or other crap that is going on.
I’d recommend a sausage sandwich as a cure for all known ills.
Kill or cure.
Being mown down by cyclists isn’t so good—next time you whizz past someone, you’d better feel bad about it ! ;)
I’m quite excited by our xmas party on thursday. Should be mildly amusing. I’ve been practising doing my bow tie, and I look brilliant. I have to learn the words to the Internationale by tomorrow—eeek!
My goodies arrived from cafepress today—2 cool t shirts and a mug. You lot will appreciate them: http://www.cafepress.com/barlowshop
Incidentally, am I the only person who sees the number of answers on the thread and thinks of other significant meanings for that number?
I don’t do that thing Forest, but I had a housemate who did. She was from Austin, TX but was a student of British history who was obsessed with King Charles I. Fascinated by the fact that our landlord’s VCR had its clock in ‘military time’ (ie the 24 hour clock) one day she pointed at it all excited and said “Ooh! Ooh! 1625! The year Charles became King of England and the year he married Henrietta Maria!”
It usually gets spent on something less cuddly like sewage systems or wells
I’m disturbed that Johnney thinks goats are cuddly.
More cuddly than a sewage system.
Good morning! I’m in an excellent mood, even though I am fighting off iguana flu this morning.
Emsk, are you OK? PLEASE be careful out on those crazy London streets. There are a lot of idiots out there, don’t get mown down by busses or cyclists. Do you have your bike up and going again? Seems you were safer on it!
yay, Mark H has found an ILX with no work restrictions! Welcome back!
I don’t mind shopping, I just can’t be bothered buying anything. Had to endure “women be shopping” jibes from Dare’s boss all afternoon and so she bought a dress to spite him.
anyway... HURRAH, I LOVE SKATING!!! I WANNA DO MORE AND MORE AND MORE OF IT!!!!!!!!
Jim and his missus were supposed to come with us, but cancelled cause he was coming down with the flu. So Dare and I went to the Natural History Museum by ourselves. I was SO SCARED when I got on the ice, because I’ve not skated in 20 years, and I was all “I can’t skate” and terrified. But five minutes on the baby rink and it all came back to me. I had years of lessons when I was a kid—I used to be kind of a mad hockey player when I was about 11.
Apprently the best ice rink in England is five minutes from my house—I’ve walked by it a million times and never been in it. But Dare gave me her spare pair of skates under the promise that I would go every week.
Poor Ed. Brown rice is actually quite hard on the digestion. You should be eating over boiled white rice.
About all this “Give cows to Africa!!!” stuff... I don’t know. I’m not sure if it’s just not planned very carefully. (Why give dairy cows to Africa when 80% of Africans are lactose intolerant or something?) And goats can absolutely destabilise a threatened ecosystem since they are hardcore omnivores and will just devour everything faster than a plague of locusts.
But I suppose “dig a well for clean drinking water” doesn’t look as cute on a christmas card or whatever.
I did tell my brother to make a donation to Oxfam or FotE in my name for Xmas. But only coz he’s a Tory.
bah, I hate not being able to eat. I hate having bugger all energy. this must stop soon.
I did tell my brother to make a donation to Oxfam or FotE in my name for Xmas. But only coz he’s a Tory.
Irish cattle thief.
Can someone recommend something I can buy that is easily digestible that I can eat sitting at my desk right now.
I would say bananas, but I know that would make you iller. ;-)
Some kind of smoothie?
Oh, also that reminds me (Gooblar’s students)—I have a dissertation on Dylan to demolish in my inbox, heh heh.
I just ordered one of these for Amber and Alice, prob too late for Xmas but hey (ho let’s go)!
I have never skated. I ph34r I’d be rubbish at it—I am as sure-footed as a one legged mountain goat. But then, I wasn’t fortunate enough to have years of lessons as I kid like you did Kate, which may have allayed my (possibly stupid) ph34rs.
There is a tiny tiny skating rink in Oxford in the castle complex (actually the prison exercise yard complex but that doesn’t have the same marketing potential).
It’s possible that the real ILX would now be unblocked by our IT boffins were it operational. Rumour has it that the restrictions at the Oxford office were apparently stricter than the other offices around the globe and so in the interests of fairness they have been relaxed. This sounds like a rare and uncharacteristic act of altruism to me, and other explanations have been ciculating on the office rumour mill, including that we are making use of webthings for commercial reasons that were previously the preserve of ‘fun interweb’, such as blogs and podcasts. That said the podcast from our new chief CEO (we’ve just been taken over) was still blocked and an email came round saying “but you can of course watch it on yr computers at home”. This was greeted with snorts of derision, speshly as it is apparently two hours long.
Ohmigod, are those Ramones teddy bears?
I’m not sure if that’s brilliant... or beary scary.
x-post
MarkH, I thought I was going to DIE when I got on the ice.
It’s very scary at first. Dare *made* me do it, I really wasn’t going to, I was all “no, I can’t skate!”
But honestly, it’s a bit like riding a bike. It’s not difficult, but there’s a trick to it. It’s all about balance. I was terrified I was just going to fall over, but Dare told me “if you feel like you’re going to fall, bend your knees” and I did that every time, and seriously, I didn’t fall once.
I think to be honest I would be equally worried about collisions with other skaters (speshly big heavy ones). I know. Me wuss.
They’re made by “Toxic Teddies” like those little “porny/chainsawy/smoking/rude” ones you see around.
Ice Skating:
We did this last year, Dawn and Alice were like giraffes on, well, ice skates. I was OK with Amber, we had a couple tumbles but it was OK.
We have an ice skating thread now!
Ice Capades - Skating In London!
I’m going to copy and paste and answer there.
smothie not a bad idea, maybe I should get a mango lassi from the juice shop round the corner
Mmmmm, mango lassi. (I try to avoid fruit when I’m gastro-ill, as especially citrus can upset your stomach but a mango might be OK.)
Boiled eggs are pretty safe, you need to keep your protein levels up.
I can feel the atrophication as we speak.
I’ve only been ice skating once. I spent half an hour on the ice, and was terrified for every second of it. I value my fingers too much to go ice skating. it’;s the kind of thing that looks brilliant once you can do it, but learnign to do it looks REALLY hard. EVERYTHING is easy if you know how!
also, I can see how learning to skate when one is very very small is the way to go—just because the rules of allometry mean that kids hurt themselves far less when they fall over anywhere, not just on ice so one can learn the balancing act and overcome one’s fear early on and never have to worry again (if you keep on skating obv).
“Why is it that women are seen as unsuperior to men?”
Uh, sorry, wuh?
What does that even mean?
You tell me! I’ve got to mark it!
inferior or of equal worth?
Marissa’s doing your course?
Skating is totally great, isn’t it? I am still very very angry, 15 years on, with Richmond council for selling the Richmond ice rink to property developers. Said developers were supposed to be contractually obliged to build a new one in the borough. As I point out to every Lib-Dem canvasser who darkens my door—I AM STILL FUCKING WAITING!!
It almost seems like they’re trying to say “why are men seen as superior to women?” but garbled it with “why are women seen as inferior to men?” and came out with something utterly nonsensical.
Unless of course they were actually trying to say that they beleive women are superior to men. (Only if you’re an actuary, actualy.)
Please take the skating talk to the skating thread? It looks so lonely! I want to talk about skating, but over there.
Also, L@@K:
TSM are vampires!
1) drinking blood
2) NO REFLECTION IN MIRROR!!!
“The Faerie Queen was a very important person in the mythological world, as she was Queen of the Faeries.”
Are these like the literary equivalent of that “Find X—Here it is!” mathematical paper? ;-)
“There must be some reason why this person will always be remembered as Shakespeare’s brown-haired individual.”
Maybe because they have brown hair?
“Hey there, you don’t care
Beautiful boy with the long brown hair...”
I should set up some new users or something.
I’m thinking of publishing my own version of Kids say the Darndest Things.
xpost awesome.
Please take the skating talk to the skating thread? It looks so lonely! I want to talk about skating, but over there.
You could just rename the skating thread to
Watercooler Sub Zero: Ice Capades
as it’s all the same people and this thread is about a million posts too long.
ha ha ha ha! THat’s great, actually.