Author: mapp Date: 10-07-2009 13:03 Title: Mapp vs The Mid-day Update Access: Public Location: Mill Street, London

• Mister Pink has got his iPhone, I expect he'll be frothing about it all week. On the plus side, it did navigate us to the nearest pub. Oh yes, it's Pimm's o'clock.
  
• Will probably be going out to a club this evening. Haven't been to a rock night in years.
  
• Must remember to charge phone.
  
• Will probably get hair cut this weekend...

Author: littlebus Date: 10-07-2009 10:41 Title: Maelstrom query Access: Public

The upcoming festival has a competition for Most Unusual Vegetable. Would it be taking the piss to make a larp-safe humorous carrot or potato or the like and enter it in place of an actual from-the-ground vegetable?

Author: redhillian Date: 10-07-2009 01:00 Title: more info Access: Public

( My sister's baby: )

Author: sobrique Date: 09-07-2009 23:14 Title: Fatties Access: Public

( RANT FOLLOWS- On Being Overweight )

Author: sobrique Date: 09-07-2009 22:45 Title: Existance of unprovables. Access: Public

Sometimes there are theological discussions down the pub.
Provoked by that we sometimes come to the question:
Does lack of proof, imply proof of lack.

Sometimes the discussion will stray onto whether you can prove unicorns don't exist.

That always seemed somehow unsatisfactory, and I think I've managed to piece together why.

The problem is with the definition of God. Put simply, if you could prove, definitively that God did or did not exist, then it wouldn't be God.

It's like asking if you can see something invisible - the answer is clearly 'no' because if you could, it wouldn't be invisible.

So you end up with a circular argument of belief - both on the parts of the theists, and the atheists alike, as they make their assertion about something that is by it's very nature impossible to prove - if you could prove, one way or another, that God exists, then you'd be the God.

But that leads on to an interesting train of thought - if you cannot prove it one way or another, it's a matter of faith. But ... it's largely an irrelevant question - debate all you like, but the point is none the less moot.

But from there... well, what then? If you can't prove it, then you have to accept someone elses assertion. Someone who ... we have no way of knowing whether they're telling the truth or not - all the tales in holy books are from people reporting their account of what happened. Why is that intrinsically more credible than any other written source?

To accept the assertion that 'There is a God' is one thing. You choose to, or not. Problem is in what daisy-chains off that assertion - I mean if you accept the notion that there _is_ a God, then you also accept the definition - which is that God is powerful enough that he could completely deceive you, if he so chose. I mean, that's why it's impossible to prove (true or false) in the first place, right?

That's where I start to get to a point of picking at the question - given that, how do we connect the spiritual teachings of a religion, to it's source? I mean, there's been all sorts of well meaning spiritual people over time. Some of them have even had some really neat and/or radical ideas about how people could live together. I don't see how it follows that that's any more the will of God than the idea I had the other day, of 'going down the Pub' - because without the possibility of proof, we lack the ability to differentiate the ideas that someone had - I can make an assertion, and say 'because God Said So', but why would you believe me, any more than ... well, the Pope say? Barring the education that the Pope has had, perhaps? I'd assume he's better read in scriptures than I am. But I bet I've read more Sci-Fi than he has.

Whatever. I'm not quite sure where this train of thought was going any more. Perhaps I'll complete it once I finish my musings.

Author: sobrique Date: 09-07-2009 21:19 Title: Jazz @ the Bear Access: Public Tags: mobile

Tonight is live Jazz at the Bear.
The Jazz is good
The food was fairly good.
The service is poor - 45minutes to get food is too long.
Not knowing your drinks menu is disappointing (how to make a cocktail on it can perhaps be forgiven, but staring blankly at the person ordering it as if they are stupid less so)
However not having the rum said cocktail requires, and then "err - we have some Woods. Is that a dark rum?" just sort of scores a bit of a "fail".

Author: redhillian Date: 09-07-2009 19:48 Title: Latest baby news Access: Public

My sister (WINOLJ) has finally had a baby - after 2 days of labour.

It's a girl - no other info available yet, name undecided. I shall of course tease mercilessly, and my list of names has been forwarded.

ephrael, reallyfrank, vondage and I now have a final lottery on the weight.

Author: civetmoon Date: 09-07-2009 11:21 Title: Smooth Move Access: Public Mood: irritated

So today I gave myself frostnip with an icepack. I realize I am always doing this shit to myself, and the fact that I still exist is no small miracle even to me.

I suppose I am still better off than Wing Sum, who once managed to dive head-first off of a stage and into the orchestra pit D: . Well, at least on par with her anyway.

Author: ash1977law Date: 09-07-2009 11:46 Title: Doings Access: Public

Last night's D&D was ace. We got out some decent role-play (mostly Kordell moaning, Hilly McBoobs getting upset with people not remembering her name, Shiboleth being natural leader, and Kwiai The Catgirl Shifter being all tribal). We also got a decent fight, but my word I dislike whatever it was we fought. We crispy-fryed it though.

Carrie has tidied the living room! A sisyphean task, but she managed it and didn't kill me for the mess (almost all of which was mine). My job last night was making food and fixing Mille (our computer). A second-hand hard-drive and an Ubuntu disk and some head-scratching and it is now up and running. It is even able to print on a Lexmark X1270, something that I kept hearing noline was impossible.

MrBunny is visiting this weekend on Monday. Looking forward to that a lot.

Author: mapp Date: 09-07-2009 10:35 Title: Mapp vs London Access: Public Location: Somewhere between Peterborough and London Noise: We Got Juice - Friendly

Will be in London for a while, in order to have long, hard think about things. My Mum is heading to London next week, a chat with her and Sprog over dinner and drinks is long overdue.

Feeling somewhat bewildered. Thank you to the folks who I spoke to last night, both online and on the phone.

"It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything."

Author: el_staplador Date: 09-07-2009 08:51 Title: Honeymoon Picspam part 5: Artypretentiousspam Access: Public Tags: honeymoon, photos

Being a collection of the pictures that I consider came out best.

( Read more... )

Incidentally, here's how my going-away outfit ended up:
( The pearls looked better IRL though )

Author: angelil Date: 09-07-2009 10:21 Title: Quest for netbook part 2 Access: Public

Choices narrowed down to 5:

Acer Aspire One
Samsung NC10 (looks good but expensive; the 3 monthly instalments would be €130 a time, which is a bit ouchy compared to the €80 a time of some of the others)
Asus Eee (several models)
Archos 10 (current favourite)
Dell Inspiron Mini

Anyone prepared to make a case for any of these? The Acer and Samsung seem favourites among you.

Author: keimei Date: 08-07-2009 23:56 Title: Khei's Movie review(s) Access: Public Mood: bitchy

THE HORROR!

hehe Hey. YOU'RE the one reading my entries XP You volunteered for this torture.

Taken - GREAT movie IMO. The story flows well and everything seemed to fall into place right where it should and clues are exposed to the viewer without screaming "Hey Stupid! Yeah you! Here's the big clue!" It was ALOT of fun watching Liam Neilson's character beta the shit outta the bad guys and in general stay one step ahead of everyone. XP Definite Keeper in my book.

Knowing - Fucking AWESOME film IMO. The FX are stellar The story is riveting. The creepy "Whispering" dudes and the truth behind them was a bit obvious but otherwise I could not find anything to complain about. Nicolas Cage is top notch making his character very much believable. You can almost feel the tremendous anguish of the main character toward the end. Another definite Keeper.

Push - Sadly the string of awesome films had to end somewhere. The concept was great but the actual resulting film was a wash. It drags from the get go, gives one good fight then drags on for what seems like hours on top of hours. If I have the time to get bored and check the clock asking myself "My god When is this gonna end?!" the film ain't good. Before long you're lost and don't really understand where they story is going. You have NO clue why some of the characters are helping when they really have nothing to loose or gain from helping or not. FX were good. the screaming Chinese guys were MORE than annoying.. Ultimately a big disappointment. The previews show all the good parts. I could'a done without Dakoda Fanning.. I can't STAND that pompus lil' bitch.

That's enough for one night.. Maybe tomorrow I can convince mom to let us rent and give "Inkheart" a chance. I usually like Brendan Fraiser's work.

~ Khei

Author: sobrique Date: 09-07-2009 07:37 Title: Bearable Access: Public

Bear tonight then. Going to get there a little earlier than the 19:30 start time, to see if I can't get some food in.

Author: angelil Date: 08-07-2009 16:43 Title: Narrowing down my choices of new netbook... Access: Public

Have decided to go for a netbook rather than a laptop owing to greater ease of transportability.
Am not buying another Dell - they're worth far less than you pay for them - so am going to this with a generally open mind. It now all comes down to more superficial things like weight, screen size and general prettiness.
Most of these have (I think, unless I'm missing something) a good amount of hard drive space and run on Windows XP.
I will be looking to buy an external CD drive as well, so would be looking to keep the netbook cost down as far as is reasonably possible. Budget is between €200 and €350 (though could stretch to €400 if necessary; many of the websites I've been looking on allow you to pay in instalments too).

So. Opinions please!

Acer Aspire One
Samsung NC10
Asus Eee
Advent 4211c
Archos 10
Hercules ecafe 900/800
HP Compaq mini portable
Packard Bell dot.fr 010

Samsung one is the prettiest imo, but I know basically nothing about how well all of these machines run etc. Quite clearly the solution is to turn to the good folks of the internet. GO.

Author: ash1977law Date: 08-07-2009 14:51 Title: (no subject) Access: Public

Humans: just brilliant!
Now if you don't mind I'm off for a bit of a cry.

Author: mapp Date: 08-07-2009 13:53 Title: Mapp vs Maelstrom Request Thingy Access: Public Mood: awake

Currently, we've got two spaces in our LRP Hotel tent going spare for this coming event. Anyone interested?

Sorted. What's not sorted is the fact that I made lasagne for dinner last night, had left-over lasagne for lunch today, I'm having left-over lasagne for dinner today and it looks like there's going to be enough for lasagne for lunch and possibly dinner again tomorrow. I cannot make lasagne for less than half a dozen people.

Author: ash1977law Date: 08-07-2009 10:46 Title: Joy! Access: Public

Sore throat? Check!
Temperature? Check!
Achey Joints? Check!
Vomiting? Check!
Confusion? Spider-Man's super-power is invisibility!
Headache? Check!
Collegue just returned early from time-off for confirmed Swine Flu? Check!
Half the office off sick with flu? Check!
Me left manning the phones? Check!

In other news - D&D tonight, at my place!

Author: el_staplador Date: 08-07-2009 09:59 Title: Adventures with Wedding Presents Access: Public Mood: surprised Tags: cooking, matrimony

Standing in the back garden, in the rain, barefoot, long skirt, long hair loose, looking for the rainbow... I fear I may have become a hippie.

We have rainbows in the house now, anyway, since a very dear friend of my parents' from Winchester days gave us a rainbow maker as a wedding present. It's a crystal turned by a solar-powered motor, the whole caboodle being attached to the window by a sucker, and when the sun shines, it turns, and when the sun shines on it the house is filled with rainbows. (Yes, I know they're not technically rainbows, but they have the same cheering effect without the dampness.)

We have been trying out a lot of the things people have given us, mainly the big kitchen appliances. We have learned that:

1. The slow cooker is an excellent thing for Evensong nights, because we no longer have to choose between eating at 5 (before choir practice) and eating at 9 (after Evensong, get home, collapse, cook...). We can now eat at 8, if we put the slow cooker on in the morning before we leave for church, or straight after we get back, depending on the recipe. Score!

2. The waffle recipe included in the waffle maker makes far too many for two, even when halved. However, they do reheat nicely in the toaster.

3. Why did I never think of making apple/honey/sultana toasted sandwiches before? They're gorgeous.

4. There is no separating countertony from his deep-fat fryer. I have made the best of it, and intend to look up my recipe for churros at the earliest opportunity. (I'm not really complaining, not when it means that there will be pierogi tonight. OM NOM NOM.)

5. We could make soup in the slow cooker, and bread in the bread maker, and host racing demon parties, and set up a tolerable replica of 2 Velwell Road in the heart of Surrey.

6. The new set of scales is vastly preferable to the old one a) because the dial is considerably more legible; b) because the pan isn't cracked and doesn't leave a trail of flour/sugar/spice behind it.

7. We need bigger cupboards, and don't even ask where the formal china is going to go once Messrs Lewis deliver it.

Thanks to the best man, I now have a thorny hazel staff to go with my battered hat. His'n'hers yomping sticks, who'd have thunk it? I think they're an excellent present, and I walked to big Sainsbury in the rain yesterday in order to break mine in. (All I wanted was a tin of tomatoes and a loaf of bread, which I could have got from little Sainsbury, but I felt like a walk, and it wasn't raining when I started.)

The photo CDs have arrived. Thank you, freddiefraggles!

Happy birthday to gauroth, and to bomberman61 for yesterday.

Author: draxar Date: 08-07-2009 08:59 Title: [Off Topic] Seeking more tabletoppers. Access: Public

(Crossposted from my own journal)

A bunch of us from the Knights of the Living Dead (specifically, Andy, Simon and myself, plus sometimes Mike of the Hortons) currently do tabletop roleplaying once a week, on wednesday and we're looking for new players. We've had as many as eight players turning up, but right now we're down to just the three of us with regularity.

We could really use some more people. As such, we're asking here as you're all sufficiently crazy lovely people who might be interested.

Current games ongoing are a Scion game that's been running for a while, and a Fireborn game that's been specifically designed to have people drop in and out. We generally play at my flat, which is in between Russel Square and Kings Cross – about 10 minutes walk from the College arms. Arrival time was 6-7 for starting at 7-7.30, due to my work meaning I get back to the flat 7-7.30 it's now a bit later (but that may shift as and when I change job). We often finish early enough to go down to the pub and have a pint or so before time is called.

We're very much up for people wanting to run games, whatever you want really. There's a fair amount of interest in someone running Exalted or WoD (be it n or o), but really, whatever you suggest can be discussed and quite possibly done. Other games played have been Shadowrun, Fading Suns and Earthdawn, which may well reappear at some point.

Edit: Day of this gaming is Wednesday