Mat Bowles

My mate Mr Pink has just moved t'smoke and asks I can has social life?:

Among the things I'd like to do as regards 'setttling in' is getting to know people, socialising, and generally doing stuff in London. Alternative music, general hanging out, geekery and gaming are the sorts of things I'm interested in.

More specifically, I'm rather interested in finding a regular tabletop RPG session with room for me. Exalted being first preference, other White Wolf stuff second, but I'm open to just about anything.

So, y'know, go talk to the smelly git...

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ETA: For the hard of thinking, the above link goes to an entry on draxar's journal, meaning that he is, indeed, on LJ...

So then. In 2002, I got an email from an obvious loon I'd never met. If he organised a warlord_ccg event in a climbing hall^[4] in his home town, would I be interested in attending and bringing friends? Where's his hometown? Muenster, Westphalia (that would be as in 'Treaty of', possibly one of the most significant documents in, oh, world history?). I didn't even have a passport. Massive fuss getting a passport, but eventually paulatpingu, nadriel, malkavelli, Vincethe_prince^[8] and I managed to get there. My first trip abroad as a functioning adult^[6].

Best weekend away^[1] ever. Seriously great fun^[7]. I've sinced travelled to similar events all over Europe (waking up in a Paris bed next to Malk was weird, watching the premiere of the BSG mini-series in an Anaheim hotel room with Vince was slightly weirder). But the original event remains the best.

Last year was the fifth and, we thought, the last. This morning I got an email. From the same loon.

shakalooloo^[3]—warlord_ccg: KoHIT 6
Temple of Lore » View topic - KoHIT 6: A Gathering of Friends. Nov. 9-11 in Münster, GER^[2]

Didn't know how to react—for a start, I need to be saving up the pennies, second, it'd mean a weekend travelling that wasn't to go visit Jennie, and, well, I'm not 100% sure I can afford it anyway. Except when we chatted earlier, snapesbabe said she'd like to come.

So, um, granjero? That'd be two decks I'd like to borrow this time Mr Player Design Team member...

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( Footnotes o'doom )

I have had a hectic weekend. I'll try to writ it up in parts but, well, exhausted but happy. Appears that davidnm and friends crossed over with myself and fracindy in visiting the Tate Modern Saturday evening by a matter of minutes, weird. Anyway...

linkfrenzy has a Doctor Who special,and the link drjon justifiably hasn't hyperlinked is well worth a visit.

This has been a few places already, but this is a bloody good Rammstein translation. On the subject of weirdness, Leeds University has guidelines on how to cite YouTube in an academic paper. Last up? Prettyness. I don't know much about the whole SteamPunk movement, but if the girls looks like this I might want to know more.

Edit: Extra bonus link—Victorian sex cry generator!

tyrell gives us an interesting quote:

When asked about the quality of television today he made a comment that "Nothing on TV has ever been as good as (the new) Battlestar Galactica."!

Who said that, you ask? Joss Whedon. The guy who made Buffy, Angel, Firefly. The one that Uncle Rusty is trying to copy, rather than learn from and build upon.

Joss Whedon thinks BSG is better than anything he's ever done for TV. And I agree with him. Re watched a fnumber of episodes over the weekend with snapesbabe, and it was great to remember how good some of them really are.

Back home from Yorkshire, knackered, had a great weekend, spending time with snapesbabe is of course going to be good, meeting burkesworks was cool, trying many many beers at the beer festival was interesting, and I even found a few I actually liked as well, although disappointingly, the cider named Strawberry Fields was far too sweet. Finished reading Macleod's Newton's Wake on the bus up, and am now about half way through steph_swainston's The Modern World, loved the former, any Charles Stross fans not already reading Ken should do so, and the latter is proving to be interesting up unitl this point.

Have backread my "people I actually have met" filter, but not really commenting much, far too knackered and incoherent, so I shall simply turn in, work tomorrow.

OK, anyone paying attention will have seen me mention the awesome radio4comedy that is oldharrysgame a few times, and I've linked to ginasketch's trailer for it before. but she's finally finished it, so go tell her how cool this is:

Prof: People are fundamentally decent and moral
Satan: *chuckles* Oh, I'm sorry, you were serious...

*puts CD of series 1 back into player*

Earlier today, I said in passing:

Of course, my main problem with pastafarianism is the pirate obsession; everyone knows ninjas are better than pirates.

This, it appears, was a controversial statement. ( pirates are cool, ninjas are better, QED )

So we come to the conclusion. Pirates are cool. Everyone knows pirates are cool. Well, unless you're in, for example, the Brazilian navy, and have to fight against the bastards every day, or your ship gets attacked by them and you get killed. Ninjas? Ninjas don't exist, they have never existed, they are a figment of your imagination, peasant superstitions, foolishness. That shadow you think you saw? Merely a curtain in the moonlight. Those shuriken taking out your guards? Don't be silly man, it didn't happen.

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Completely incidental aside, before I turn in. lokean has had an LJ for longer than me, reads his friends list a lot but rarely posts. I think he a) needs more LJ friends and b) should post more often. For those at nadriel's birthday last weekend, he was the lunatic that kept buying me drinks (thanks for them BTW mate, much appreciated). So, well, you all know what to do, right?

Righty ho, first day in the new job tomorrow, and I'm not even remotely sleepy, but I need to be, so clearing the clipboard now and turning in. Remember that it's International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, and post something; I said I'd do an SEO/Usability study on a site, but no one volunteered me one, so I'll try to get a "how to" on the basics of customising your LJ, because I'm about half way through londonbloodbowl at the moment. That's if I get time after work tomorrow, given I'm planning on taking part in a world record attempt in Trafalgar Square. But the point of that link was to point to the fact that Charlie Stross has released Missile Gap for free download, which given my liking of everything I've read by autopope so far (I even like his politics) is a Good Thing.

Awhileback, I mentioned el_staplador is on a pilgrimage through Spain and suggested you go read her journal, which she's mostly updating via internet cafe. Only, um, I spelt her user name wrong (oops), so to make up for that, here's the story so far - pre-departure planning one, two, three and four. Actual reports from Spain: SORPRESA!, In brief, This could be the weirdest place in which I have ever updated LJ..., ¡Castrojeriz!, ¡Carrión de los Condes!, Thank goodness for wonderful refugios..., It's a long way to Santiago,It's a long, Goodbye, goodbye, I wish you all a last goodbye... and Yes, but you don't go!. If yuo wondering if the links are worth following, have an exerpt:

Note about refugios: yes, they're vaguely like youth hostels, but they are reserved exclusively for pilgrims ... it costs anything from €3 to €8 for the bed, plus about €3 for breakfast if they happen to do it there, although some seem to rely entirely on donations... They can range from the really basic and horrible - the one at Hornillos de Camino, for example, was filthy, cramped and disorganised ... and the shower was so cold that I wished I'd had some lustful thoughts to make it worth it.

Lastly, for those wondering? Yes, my girlfriend is crazy, personally I think it's one of her more endearing features...

Oh, ok then. Four separate people that I like have done this meme now, and I have commented, so here we go...:

We all have things about our friends that make us slightly envious. Not in a bad way, but in a 'Wow! I wish I had that person's hair/eyes/money/relationship/toenails/whatever.' So tell me what about me makes you envy me. . . then post this in your LJ and see what makes me envious of you.

I've struck out that last bit so you don't feel obliged to, I know a lot don't anyway, but I'm never keen on the whole "you must repost this" style instruction; feel free if'n you want. OK, comment me up...

Been sat most of the day with pinkshifter, mooism, andershanson_fd (who I'm also sharing a room with) and other non-bloggy types registering people and printing badges.

Surprisingly, the IT, printers and networking have mostly stayed working. Except for my printer, but, y'know, there's always one, and it's usually me. Hopefully I get to leave in a bit to go meet snapesbabe for coffee, but that depends on whether we get a rush. Cleggy just finished speaking, we have a feed on, couldn't pay attention fully as kept getting actual work to do.

Anyway, better sign off. Fun fun.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

( Moving to London, stuff with friends, and pirates )

Anyway; I got to ?skip=200 on my main friends view, let alone blogs and weasels, so I gave up, so if anything major has happened in your life recently, or you've died, or something, LMK?

I'll put up a new contact details for LJ-friends tomorrow when I've figured out the post code, but the public bit is Raynes Park, near Wimbledon, SW20

I am a London resident, complete with house keys and off-street parking. Off street parking, broadband and a room that isn't as small as I thought, for £300 a month? Bargain!

Now, naturally, I have to go investigate the kitchen facilities, I'm a little peckish. Then, the plan is, investigate this thing known as Slimelight. I've never been.