Birmingham, Troma Night, And Open Mic

The Aber folks seem to have a busy weekend ahead. Tomorrow about a half-dozen people seem to be planning a trip to Birmingham. Not me: I’m busy, but I thought I’d share the news. Oh; scratch that. I’ve just heard that it’s been cancelled. Apparently there might be a more popular trip to Brum in a few weeks time. Tomorrow evening’s Troma Night will be at The Cottage, for such film delights as the fantastic Children Of Men, Phantasm, and, between the two, something who’s name I forget. Paul‘ll remind me, I’m sure. Because we’ve got three full-length films lined up, we’ll be pushing the latest episode of Drawn Together forward to 7:30pm, so if you want to see that, that’s when to be around, and we’ll be kicking off promptly with the films at 8pm. You have been warned. There might even be one or two new people, from what I hear, and you all know what that means. Sunday Night I’ll be doing the comedy open mic at The Angel, after last time turned out to be Gorilla Monsoon and not open mic night at all. If you haven’t heard enough of my worst jokes on Troma Night or just generally during the rest of the time you’ve known me, I’d love for you to come along and give me a little support. At least that way somebody’ll be laughing if I mistakenly slip in to in-jokes-mode again. The open mic night acts are sometimes great, sometimes not-so-great, but it’s always a nice chillin’ night out. Oh, and here’s a news story that tickled me: Backside Firework Prank Misfires. I remember that in the year I turned 16, they increased the age requirement for firework sales from 16 to 18. It turns out that age wasn’t the problem after all, but plain old human stupidity. Thanks for reading.

Back From Lancashire

Spent the last four days in Lancashire and elsewhere in the North of England, visiting my folks (among other things). Details follow…

Thursday 26th June 2003
Linux Expo 2003, Birmingham
Sorted out Claire’s bank, packed bags, and set off for Birmingham to the last day of Linux Expo 2003 at the National Exhibition Centre, to meet up with Gareth and some other geeks to talk about a project on which my input could be valuable. Gareth is going to come over to Aberystwyth next weekend and we’ll knock together a prototype of the system we’ve suggested.

Claire got scared by the vast numbers of stereotypical geeks (and the distinct overdose of testosterone in the air – she was one of only three women in the whole place), and by the fact that, unlike normal, she couldn’t understand one in three words spoken. I smiled. She’s got a little way to go to earn her geek stripes, yet.

Bon Jovi, Manchester
Arrived late at Old Trafford – missed the support group, but in time to try to find standing room before Bon Jovi came on-stage. All-in-all, a good concert: Claire was a little short for standing on the pitch to have been a good idea, and the sound quality was a little below-par owing to a lack of adequate repeater speakers, and the only beer available was Budweiser and Boddingtons, but it was still a pretty good gig. Went to a Manchester pub afterwards before catching a really, really late train home. Got to bed sometime after 3am.

More to follow…