Year: 2006

Troma Night starts tonight at 7pm at The Cottage or your other favourite Dr. Who watching place and continues at 8pm at the Arts Centre for “The General” before returning to The Cottage no later than 10pm (and probably a little earlier). There’ll be somebody (probably Jimmy, perhaps others) waiting at The Cottage to let you in if you get there before we get back from the Arts Centre.

We’re not sure what we’re watching yet, but I’ll bet Paul has some ideas.

My friend Paul is doing a survey (WayBackMachine link) into different hot and cold beverages and other lifestyle choices preferred by different kinds of geeks, looking for correlations (do all web designers really have pony tails? are mac users more likely to drink specialist coffees?). If you’re any kind of geek and you haven’t done it already through reading his blog, give it a go.

Well; the move was a successful one, although – as always – moving house is an excessively stressful and difficult experience. The weather remained good, and we’re very grateful to friends like Matt, Andy and Jimmy for all their help with the move. Claire and I still haven’t finished unpacking – the living room and bedroom are still full of boxes, although the kitchen, study, and utility room are starting to look as they should – but the important things are working: computers, network, internet connection, and so on. I thought I’d commemorate the new internet connection with this blogpost. Perhaps, if I can find the box that the batteries and the link cable are in, I’ll take some pictures and put them on here. It’ll also give me an incentive to keep unpacking stuff.

Just like last time, I’ve come up with a convenient way to make available to you all our new address and phone number (yes, the phone number has changed) without too many crazy stalker types getting hold of it without excessive effort. Just do the “Where Is The Cottage?” quiz and you can get all the information you need – all you need to do to answer the quiz’s questions is know a little bit about The Place, where we lived previously. Off you go.

Right; better start reading some of these million e-mails I’ve received while I’ve been offline.

Tomorrow’s the big day when Claire and I move virtually everything we own from The Place to The Cottage. We’re picking up the keys at 9am, and we’re likely to be doing our first unloading at about 9:30am.

This is where you come in. Yes, you! While we could probably manage this box-moving farce all by ourselves, we’d rather have the company of our friends to help us lift heavy things, push things around, pack things, unpack thinigs, and shout at Claire when she keeps trying to get away with sitting down and doing nothing or at Dan when he tries to ride any wheeled box or filing cabinet down the hill. In exchange for your help, we’ll supply you with food and probably booze throughout the day; plus you’ll get to see The Cottage before it gets filled with people next weekend for Geek Night and, perhaps, Troma Night.

But better than that, you’ll earn our love and respect, which will be dispensed in multiples of 1, 3, 5 and 10 unit “Love And Respect” vouchers, redeemable for sexual favours at The Cottage’s gift shop.

If you can’t help on Monday there’s always Tuesday and Wednesday, when we’re also likely to be moving stuff and cleaning up The Place. Vouchers have no cash value and are not actually redeemable or existant. The Place, The Cottage, Love and Respect are copyrights of Dan & Claire’s Marvellous Journey Ltd. The Cottage gift shop may or may not actually exist. Food will probably be provided by Upper Limit Cafe and Burger King – at least until all the kitchen stuff is moved in – and alcohol by Thresher and Kanes, but this is open to negotiation and liable to change without notice. If you want to help, please phone at least quarter of an hour before you can turn up to save you from walking to the wrong place and finding us not there, natch. Bring your own umbrella.

It’s been awhile since Geek Night went on ’til 3am. And what a Geek Night. I’ve just introduced the usual crew to a board game (or will it end up as a computer game?) I thought up earlier in the week, and after a few playtest games to refine the rules and the cardset, we’re really getting together something which is really enjoyable and a great laugh. It’s like… Fluxx meets nanofiction. Like the trading element of Settlers of Catan meets the backstabbing of Munchkin, but with a better definate-length and less last minute struggles. It’s got the exciting close finishes of Il Principe but it’s as easy-going as Carcasonne.

Well… I like it anyway. And it got great feedback from the folks who sat around for three games of it this evening.

I’m thinking of calling it Neumann. Watch this space.

Right; off to Harlech today with Claire and some Singaporeans. No, if you don’t know or can’t work out why, it’s probably best that way.

In any case, we’ll be back for 7pm for Doctor Who and Troma Night at The Place. The second-to-last ever Troma Night at The Place…

Saw The Hills Have Eyes and Hostel at the Arts Centre Cinema‘s “Horror Double Bill” last night. The former was a mediocre horror flick which improves dramatically once you’ve got a lone guy fighting mutants with a baseball bat in a desert. The latter was a pretty good psychological thriller with a charmingly well-paced warm up and character introductions before everybody starts being mutilated: it’s improved by the fact that there’s surprisingly little gore – at least to begin with, with the sound effects making implications for themselves as to the content – but I’ve a feeling it’ll be ruined by a sequel.

I feel that we’re certainly making the most of the bank holiday weekend: too much, even, perhaps. With Faye‘s birthday (and some shopping for jungle-themed stuff, of course) tomorrow, Troma Night, this trip to Harlech, and whatever-it-is I’m supposed to be doing on Monday (can’t remember what it is, but I’m pretty sure I’ve arranged something… it’ll come back to me)… and meanwhile, what we should be doing is packing in anticipation of our upcoming house move. We’ve got a lot to do. Ah well.

Tony Long at Wired has written a great article. An extract:

1968. It was the height of the Vietnam War, the year of My Lai and the Tet offensive. Student riots in Paris nearly brought down the French government. Soviet tanks put a premature end to Czechoslovakia’s Prague Spring.

In the United States, the streets were teeming with antiwar protesters and civil rights demonstrators. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated within two months of each other. The Democratic convention in Chicago dissolved into chaos. And by the summer, America’s cities were in flames.

… 

But as bad as things were then, they seem infinitely worse now.

Well, Claire and I’s move is now confirmed: on 5th June 2006 we’ll leave The Place and head down to our new home, The Cottage. As usual, all offers of help with the move will be much appreciated and rewarded with beer and/or food, depending on the time of day at which the assistance is rendered. And, like last time, we’ll be putting photos online as we take them. Ooh; look, here’s some now!
It doesn’t really feel like we’ve lived in The Place that long: it’s less than six months ago that we moved in, and we’d hoped that we’d have been there a little longer. Nonetheless, The Cottage is lovely: nestled away in a little-known about part of town, surrounded by some fascinating architecture, and with a couple of nice perks I’m sure I’ll fill you in on as time goes on.

It is, however, a little bit smaller than The Place. Some of this space will be reclaimed: for example, there is no bed in the spare room which will give us more space to populate with desks, chairs, and computer gear. Some of it is less-able to be salvaged: for example, the living room – while as long as the one at The Place – is noticabley narrower, and also suffers from the addition of a dining table to it, rather than in the kitchen as is the case at The Place.

As a result, things may become more than a little bit cozy in September, when Troma Night once again comes into full swing. To be honest, we’re just not sure. Maybe it’ll be fine with a little jiggering and pokering, or maybe we’ll have to go with Plan B – the relocation (perhaps on a week-to-week basis) of Troma Night to various venues around Aberystwyth. But there’s nothing to worry about yet (or, perhaps, at all) – we’ll just have to wait and see.