2004-07-11 partially recovered

Hand-Ins & Russian Spacecraft

[this post was damaged during a server failure on Sunday 11th July 2004, and it has not been possible to recover it]

[this post was partially recovered on 12 October 2018]

Got my assignment finished in the end. Next stop: up to campus to deliver it.

I’ve got a fab Civ3: Conquests game on the go: I’m Premiere of the the Russians, and it’s 1856AD. I landed on the moon in 1812AD, and I’m now half-way to building an interstellar spacecraft. Damn I’m good at this game.

Unfortunatley, the Celts (with whom I share borders) have become jealous of my progress and have launched an invasion, which, while technologically inferior (mostly consisting of riflemen on horseback and on foot, and a handful of automatic weapons – compared to my M16s, TOW missiles, and jet aircraft) is a sizeable force and caught me very much off-guard, hitting me at a couple of weak points and capturing two cities, putting them in a good position to attack Moscow. I’ve begun conscription, drafting in citizens to military service to defend our country, and been pulling forward the military I have towards the front line… but this isn’t going to be pretty.

The AI in the game at the higher difficulty levels is really something. During my invasion of Spain in the 16th Century, the Spanish retreated deeper into their heartland, destroying key roads as they …

Ghiblitastic

Could I be a happier bunny?

A belated birthday present from Claire arrived in the post this afternoon – a stack of Studio Ghibli movies on R2 DVD:

Damn; I love that girl.

Bugger

I’ve just discovered that I have an assignment deadline tomorrow for an assessment I didn’t realise I had, in my weakest module. Joy!

On the upside, I’ve just looked at the assessment and it’s got very little to do with the module; in fact, it oughta be comparatively easy: still – 4-8 hours work I didn’t anticipate.

In other news; a stunning article (plain English, both an introduction to the subject and an ongoing summary) about the state of play with digital music, DRM, and all that on Bill Blog today. If you listen to music on CD or watch DVD movies, you oughta read this one.

I Wanna Wake Up Where You Are

Watching a Goo Goo Dolls concert on VideoCD.
They’re really quite remarkably good. I suppose you can’t help but respect the artistry that goes into making a song for which you need to re-tune your guitar such that five strings are tuned to the same note. I mean, can you see the conversation now? “Hey, Robby: tell you what, why don’t we see what this sounds like…” And Gutterflower is a simply stunning album.

Reading MMURTL v1.0 (Building Your Own 32 Bit Operating System)
It’s really quite remarkably geeky. I spent Christmas reading quotes from it to my family, Claire, and her dad. Claire understood bits of what I said. Sometimes. It’s great – a 600-page A4 book which contains at least 200 pages of solid assembly language (the most hardcore programming anybody could ever really justify doing) and another hundred of low-level C. It’s on a short print run – the attached CD-ROM is on CD-R media.

Missing Claire.

Ecstasy Is All You Need

[this post was damaged during a server failure on Sunday 11th July 2004, and it has not been possible to recover it]

[this post was partially recovered on 12 October 2018]

Is it actually possible to live a life without regret? It’s such a beautifully noble goal – and no, I’m not thinking here about any particular event – but I’m left wondering, here…

Based upon my experience of life so far – and I am about a third of my way through it, statistically – the things that challenge us, emotionally, don’t ever truly go away: they’re little things, shelved away but no less behind us than they are forgotten. It’s like a little “affective store”, where the things we treasure (or fear) are cast aside. We talk about ‘dealing with’ things. I’m not sure that term does justice to the process.

Perhaps it’s just me, but doesn’t this store get full quick? Maybe I’m just emotionally short-fused. If so, I think I must conceal it well. Nobody seems to notice. Much.

For the last few years, at about this time, I’ve given myself a challenge – part of an ongoing and neverending process of self-perfection (to an ideal I’ve never concretely defined): for the last year, this goal has been Tolerance – to gain an improved understanding of others, and to be less judgemental in my thoughts and actions (I think I’ve done quite well). Perhaps this …

Happy Birthday To Me

Update (20th March 2012) – crosslink: I suspect that this post by Paul was relevant?

Well, I’m 23. Meh.

An array of cards and gifts, followed by a flurry of e-mails and phone calls to explain delayed gifts. I think I’ll try again for my birthday, next week, when the Post Office become competent again (this is the theory).

Went out to Cafe All Spice with Paul, Bryn, Kit and Claire, for much curry and wine. A great evening out. Now; Bryn and Paul are asleep on my couch, and Kit has gone home. I feel stuffed and contented. And knackered. I’m falling asleep as I write this, but if I tried to sleep I’d just feel more knackered from trying to digest my stomachfull of curry.

Hacking Around With LiveJournal

If this all works to-plan, my recent changes to Scatmania will mean that every time I make a new entry, a link is posted to a journal on LiveJournal. This will allow my friends to monitor my blog from their ‘friends lists’, in AbNibs absence.

Really Trippy Dream

[this post was lost during a server failure on 11 July 2004; it was finally (partially) recovered on 12 October 2018]

This morning I was awoken from a dream that can only be described as really really trippy. This may not be a dream diary, like Liz’s, but I’m going to share this one with you anyway:

I find myself at the checkout of a supermarket somewhat reminiscent of the Somerfield in Aberystwyth, except that this supermarket is actually standing alone in the Arctic. A blizzard beats against the tall glass windows opposite the checkouts. I’m taking part in some kind of game show which I refer to at several times during the dream as being ‘Blockbusters’, although it had almost nothing in common with the real show of the same name, and is actually perhaps a little more like ‘Supermaket Sweep’ (I would imagine, although I’ve never actually seen it). In any case: the aim of this show is to wander around the store (while your competitor or competing team do the same) collecting goods within a time limit. Slightly like ‘Blockbusters’, one team is of two people, and the …

Paul And Claire Are Almost As Guillable As Bryn

[this post was lost during a server failure on Sunday 11 July 2004; it was finally (partially) recovered on 12 October 2018]

Unable to find our corkscrew and wishing to open a bottle of wine, Paul and Claire had tried all kinds of tricks to dig out – or at least push right in – the cork, but with no success. When they weren’t looking, I used a screwdriver wrapped in a tea-towel to push the cork through. Then, with a marvellous bit of slight-of-hand, said that I’d seen somebody remove one by air pressure before, and slapped the top of the bottle, hard: then, looking almost surprised that it worked, showed them the bottle with the cork bobbing around on the surface of the wine.

Not for a moment did Paul or Claire suspect that I’d removed the cork by any other means than by striking the top of the bottle. How strong do they think I am? By my reckoning, to use something as relatively flat as a hand to produce enough air pressure to push a cork into a wine bottle would probably take sufficient force that the wine bottle itself would be likely to break.

Better than that, they then went on – I overheard – to explain my feat to Bryn when he appeared with the corkscrew he had …

Claire’s Dad Has Carpet Burns

Of all the things your life would not be complete without knowing, this has to appear way, way down the list.

Nonetheless, we should all point and laugh at Paul, Bryn, and Adam that this 60-something year-old man managed to score within a shorter time frame than they had. When you take everything into account, this is quite an achievement.

Paul; Bryn; Adam – next stop: celibacy!

On a related note, we’ve all promised to help these three get laid sometime this year. Updates to follow.

Back In Aber! Christmas Update! (Got A Spare Quarter Hour To Read This?)

[this post was lost during a server failure on Sunday 11 July 2004; it was finally (partially) recovered on 12 October 2018]

As most of my fellow Aberites know, I’ve actually been back in Aberystwyth for a few days, but have been typically drunk (celebrating getting back, then celebrating Kit’s engagement to Fiona, then celebrating New Year, then having a video night – and it’s the first Troma Night of the new year tonight: can my liver take it?).

When I’ve not been drunk, I’ve been playing Sim City 4: Rush Hour (good, but don’t buy it just for the U-Drive-It features, they’re not so good) and Civilization III: Conquests (very good; adds a lot of great new features to the game – slightly pissed-off that I bought Play The World and Conquests supercedes everything in it; ah well). The former I got with Christmas money, the latter a present from Claire (For Christmas, or my birthday? I’m not sure, but hey!)

Other notable Christmas gifts recieved include:

A zorbing/etc. experience thingy from my mum: …

Back In Aber

As expected, I had very little internet access over the Christmas period. And now I’m back in Aber. Mozilla reports 688 new e-mails. Joy.

Will say more when I can be arsed. I came back here from Lancashire via Merseyside and Norfolk. That’s a fair journey by anyone’s standards.

Hugz;

Off To Norfolk!

Claire and I are leaving Aberystwyth for Norfolk! Off to spend Christmas with her folks before heading up to Preston on Boxing Day to be with my family.

Have barely begun wrapping presents. For that matter, I still haven’t had delivered my mum’s present. Or one of Claire’s. Damned freaky postmen. Or something.

In any case, I’ll be in and out of internet access (well, technically, I’ve now put my Psion 5mx back into active service, which, combined with my funky GPRS mobile phone, puts me online ‘everywhere’, but hey: I think I’ve downloaded a telnet client so wherever I go I *theoretically* have e-mail access… we’ll see).

I’ll drop a blog entry or two while I’m gone.

In the meantime: Merry Christmas, y’all.

Out Of Place

Something feels out of place. Probably just the time of year, the amount of work I have to do, etc. The only good thing about working as long hours at work as I have been is the anticipation of how healthy my next paycheque ought to be. Which it’ll need to be, because I’ll be penniless by then.

Gonna play some Super Mario World on the SNES emulator I downloaded and try not to get too stressed and start snapping at people again. Must de-stress!

Hugz, ye’all;

The Right To Read

[this post was lost during a server failure on Sunday 11th July 2004; it was partially recovered on 21st March 2012]

If you haven’t already read it, take a look at The Right To Read, a very short story written in 1997 and updated in 2002 – it’ll only take you a few minutes to read; it’s not ‘techie’ (anybody would understand it!), and it is relevant. The kind of things that are expressed in the story – while futuristic (and facist) sounding now, are being put into effect… slowly, quietly… by companies such as Sony, Phillips, Apple, and Microsoft: not to mention the manufactors of CDs and DVDs.

It’s been circulating the ‘net for years, but recent events such as InterTrust’s Universal Digital Rights Management System (report: The Register), which they claim will be ready within 6 months, and Microsoft’s ongoing work on the ‘Palladium’ project (report: BBC News) – topical events which mark the beginning of what could be the most important thing ever to happen in the history of copyright law, computing, and freedom of information.

So, go on – go read… [the remainder of this post, and three comments, have been lost]