Jimmy: Fair enough :) I think i'll probably always see david dixon as ford prefect, not just because he's gorgeous (which he is) ;) but I think he's a good actor and exactly how I imagine Ford Prefect to be :P Not sure about the new film now though, don't think i could accept Mos Def as the new Ford Prefect :P

FWIW, I agree with Toby - but then I don't gather many shells; I prefer to ignore the well-trodden stones and find the tiny ones underneath.

Is this yet blatant abuse of metaphor?

But then, I'm sure my distrust of anything that looks xml-flavoured and trendy is well noted. This probably means I'm being irrational and biased. It also does mean I've finally got fed up with it all and turned off JavaScript in my web browser; if the web continues to annoy me, Flash is going too. I'd quite like a way to decouple Quicktime and Safari, too - but that'll come in time.

oh, and read Last Chance To See. The audio book version is particularly amazing, as it's Douglas Adams himself talking.

there is only one true ford prefect and his name is geoffrey.

Anything else is lies, *including* the tv series.

I bought the old tv series of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - 80's special effects are brilliant :D :P I actually quite fancy Ford Prefect I think (but obviously less than I fancy Toby ;):P)

Just completed walkingincircles again. The world needs more top quality Flash shonk like that. The puzzles are a bit abstract, but the graphics are nice. Pity they never added any more to it.

For those who haven't met the site before, don't attempt the above link on ancient hardware - the framerate is liable to be painful. Oh, and to start the game click on "walkies" twice.

much techiness :P

I've decided that the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy actually makes more sense than reality. I'm still trying to decide if this is a healthy response :P

55 feeds (in Liferea) and counting. When you've become totally obsessed with having all the shells you can get, have an automated method of getting them is considerably more convenient :p

But I do know what you mean.

Methinks I dislike RSS feeds for personal consumption. For data sharing between sites, fair enough, but for personal use... it's just kinda wrong.

I've had Firefox for a while now, with its (admittedly pretty pants, but nevertheless functioning) RSS feed bookmark wotsits and I've found that I never used them. I had one set up for the Warbeck, but looking at the posts in a tiny, clinical menu somehow robbed them of all their meaning, all their feeling.

A post, like any other object, needs context.

Plucking a single shell from a beautiful beach at sunset, after a balmy day of bliss. Idly turning it in your fingers to see the last few rays of warm sunlight glint from its intricately patterned surface. A weak later, clothes scattered across the floor - a mountain of holiday washing to do and fatigue already setting in. Fishing the shell from a grubby jacket pocket, a forgotten treasure, dull and out of place amongst the clutter of a familiar bedroom. The memories are there, but somehow the trinket which looked so inviting those days before has become merely a placeholder for fading images in the mind.

RSS; the digital equivalent, at least in my mind.

(Dear <insert deity here> I've been doing project work too long)

ajax: amplifying the slashdot effect since 2005.

Weirdly I have got some very oddly polarized reactions to the MCSAUSAGEKINGJIMMY. There appears to be a 50-50 split between total disgust and absolute delight at it.

Kewl, although the site just temporarily farked itself. Presumably it got added to one too many blogs :P

I think I may have a coronary just *looking* at that thing :-p

My revision killer of the day.

Now that is one good looking Sandwich jimmy. Shame I lack crumpets to make said sandwich

Sounds rather like the lunch I had today... Three toasted slices of bread, egg, bacon, lettuce and fried tomato. A sizable sandwich, though nothing to rival the Mc Sausage King Jimmy™ for sheer grease content.

McDonalds probably sucks. I definitely rule.

hehe :)

Jimmy: when have we ever planned anything? ;)

I e-mailed solent blue line and actually got a response :P
this is the main section of it, thought people might find it useful, the 17:10 7A goes to waltham chase btw :

the present 2010 and 2310 buses from Southampton will now only run as far as
Botley.

From 29 May alternative journeys to B Waltham will run on Friday and
Saturday evenings on service 7A with buses from the City Centre at 1910
and 2310. I am sorry that the last bus to Bishops Waltham on Mondays to
Thursdays will now be at 1820.

This change is in preparation for the introduction of our new Bluestar 3
service to the Hedge End and Botley area from 24 July, from which date
the Southampton to Bishops Waltham link will be concentrated on services
7/7A with the present 26B Sunday service then replaced by new journeys
on service 7A via West End.

Aw.

Linda: Looks like you're going to have to persuade your parents that camping out here for the night is a viable option, then. Dragging your father out every time we have a social is probably a little antisocial.

And no, that was not just an excuse to get you to stay over... much :P

Sound stuff we have already, we're buying a cheap DV camera (~£250, which isn't costly if shared between two or three people), and Rob has the software to do editing with. Lighting I don't know about yet. I am probably going to be writing the soundtrack (LOLOLOL.)

As for working things out in advance; um. I'd like to, but. I don't think it's going to be possible. If you'd like to start off the process of doing things in advance, go ahead. I'm currently assuming we can get away with not planning things given that the majority of people involved are people who are pretty good at making stuff up spontaneously.

FYI, the dates I'm currently proposing for it are the second week of July. (Any later than that, people have summer jobs/holidays/better things to do, and any time after that is so far off it'll never happen.)

Anyway, this is all hypothetical, given that currently we are minus a script, and also minus script-editors.

Toby: Yes. That was pretty much *exactly* what I was thinking for costumes.

Will post about blue-screening when I don't immediately have to go into uni :p

Solent W*nk*r Line have decided that using their service i'm not actually allowed a social life from the 29th May onwards. They're making the 26B a Sunday only service so the last bus back to bishops waltham any other day will be 6:20. I am incredibly grumpy now.

My vision of the play in question was kinda "Business casual with ruffs", given that it contains a large chunk of the EULA from the biggest export of the world's largest monopoly. Ruffs all round, plus appropriate attire for each character - some businessmen, some disheveled drunkards, some vaguely mock Elizabethan, others in medical regalia?

Either way, the costumes don't need to be fancy, just reasonably convincing - so "a doctor" would not need a stethoscope or any other clichéd attire, but merely a pair of smart trousers plus either a white coat or unfashionable (charity shop) waistcoat. It really requires us all to sit down and work out the detail of each character - how they behave, their mannerisms, their likely dress. We can then devise low-cost costumes for each and budget appropriately. I suspect that the ruffs would end up being the only real expense on that front if planned properly.

Props, lighting, sound, post-production and camera kit, however, are a different matter. We no doubt have a fair amount of the kit required already, but that which we don't have is probably gonna be an investment. Plus, o'course, if we're blue-screening the backgrounds in, as was suggested at one point, we're gonna need to make a hell of a lot of location visits to film enough scenery to get it right. Bear in mind that a filmed production (unlike a stage production) tends to make quite heavy use of camera directions (close-ups, panning shots, etc.) to immerse the viewer in the work, so any blue-screened sections would need to be story-boarded and the location investigated prior to any shooting to ensure we got the right backgrounds for the foregrounds. Anyone got a car?

Damn me and my perfectionism ;)

Linda: It's still a bit doubtful whether it'll happen at all right at the moment, tbh. I'm still waiting on Rob and Paul going to talk to more people to get them involved. Anyway, if it is happening, then I was intending on us just combining charity shop clothes in interesting combinations and then putting ruffs on them. So, no expensive full costume. Unless you have any ideas.

The latency on this wireless is utterly ludicrous.

Jimmy: I know we're gonna be making ruffs, but are we supposed to be making full elizabethan costume as well? :P *worries about bank balance* :P

Weird. That actually worked.

Linda: I don't know. I tried putting the teabag in the bath with me yesterday, and that didn't really do anything. So maybe the crumbs would be ok too.

PUBLISH DAMN YOU

I don't like eating in the bath, the idea of being gradually surrounded by soggy crumbs kinda puts me off :P

windows 2000, not my problem, is management's problem ;)

mmm... baileys :D

Hm, I don't really *do* biscuits any more - they tend to result in buying more and more biscuits, so I just haven't bought any at all since I moved here.

But then I don't really do chocolate either. I may go crazy and buy one of the big £1.20 tubs of cookies from Morrisons tomorrow.

Linda: If it's running Windows 95, 98, ME or NT it's a software problem. If it's running 2000 or XP it's a hardware problem. If it's running Linux it's your own problem ;)

Jimmy: So's a Baileys on the rocks with Bourbon biscuits at about midnight. Best partaken of in a particularly full bathtub.

/me wonders why GIMP/Photoshop seem to lack the ability to put overdrive on your image; if I can on a sound file, why can't I overdrive the brightness so that it clips and wraps round to black again at the top? It'd be very fun if you used it on Hue.

Dairy Milk and Morrisons' Blackcurrant Infusion goes well together. Especially in a bath at 9am while everyone else is asleep.

this computer keeps restarting itself randomly :/ :P

*waves* everyone ok? :)

Look how many votes the 'Cannabis party' got :P Did well to actually get to the polling station and put the cross in the right place ;)

Coming down... Gradually... Real world coming back into focus.

God bless Enigma. It's taken a half an hour of chill-out music to get me back to a moderately comfortable state of existance, though I probably still won't sleep quite yet.

Ok, scratch that - it may on reflection just be 'cause I took the tablet in the evening as opposed to the morning and annoyed my metabolism, though I'm still not keen on taking any more of them.

Ok, so Citalopram is bad, m'kay?

Or at least, it is for me. Chronic insomnia is precisely what I wanted to avoid. I think I may become morally opposed to "designer" mind-altering substances, although given I'm still under the influence of this one, I'm probably in no position to comment :P

i'm obsessed :P

oooo.... pretty :)

hmm, I wonder what people would say if I started making ruffs whilst sat at the short loan desk ;) :P fired for making ruffs in work time, would be fun explaining that at the next interview ;)

well... my dad is having a tooth removed today... :P
don't worry, i'm remarkably composed for a hormonal woman, mainly due to the fact that i'm too tired to get stressed ;)
Early night tonight methinks given that i'm getting out of bed earlier tomorrow to vote before work then staying out late :P

oh, everybody wish Toby a happy birthday tomorrow ;):)

That's the last thing I want to hear right now. My current attitude is not conducive to other people's problems - I could quite casually remove a limb from anyone who annoys me and use it to concuss anyone who complains ATM.

$!*@?&! project. %!$@*?$ infection. Must not take up spontaneous amateur dentistry on the general public as a stress reliever.

HORMONAL!! ANNOY ME IF U DARE i'll probly go hide :P *whimpers*

this is one example :)

i found a book in the library with some info in, is less confusing than some of the internet stuff, dunno, let me think about it :P

hehe, nah, is just my pmt showing through ;) not too hard if u like sewing :P not sure how expensive the material will be.

How difficult are they to make?

Linda sounds angry.

(hides)

It seems that ruffs, which are rarely on sale anyway, are actually quite expensive to buy. I have all the info and am very tempted to start making ruffs now. Jimmy, this is all your fault ;)

Well, a new month a new connection. On Friday my phone line was activated for 512k ADSL with Mad As A Fish so 6 years of 56k have come to an end for now at least.

I hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather we've been having. I've currently enjoying the fact the sun is shining over the other side of the house so my room is nice and cool.

Top Trumps.