A girl in one of my classes was trying to make amends for something, and offered to buy me cake.

One of my running jokes with this class is my fondness for cake, particularly Dome's New York cheese cake. It's partly true, after all. I'm not usually one to turn away cake, unless it's late in the day and I've stopped eating.

Anyway, I said, "no, that's not good enough, it's too late".

The *entire class* chimed in with (clearly a standard response): "It's too late to apologise".

(They sang it, of course.)

I had to stifle a giggle.

All this talk of D&D 4e has re-awakened my interest in role-playing, something that I haven't done for a long time.

I even have games on my bookshelves that I've always wanted to play. Like Nobilis, which has always fascinated me, but which seems to be a game with a high level of difficulty requiring particularly sophisticated gamers (i.e. No munchkins!).

I don't know, though.

On the first day, I made copious notes… then on Saturday, my phone died, and I reverted to my old one, so the notes stopped. So you’re only getting much info on the Friday, which will probably come as a relief…

Was it raining? Yes.
Was I damp? Yes.
Was there mud everywhere? Yes.

Was it really a necessary part of the experience? Well, I don’t know about necessary, but it’s part of it all right, definitely.
( Read more... )

Ealing Beer Festival tonight, anyone?

I didn't take as many pictures at Orbital as I usually do at conventions, and it has taken me ages to get round to putting them on my web page, but I've done so now and they are here:

http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson/orbital.html

I love the unit number.

housematehorror
Horror stories from the world of shared living spaces. EEK!

At the end of the first day the Neil Gaiman badge is already at £46.00. I am vaguely worried by this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gloomy-Bear-Volume-3-CASE-of-KEYCHAINS-kidrobot-puran_W0QQitemZ220252054202QQihZ012QQcategoryZ1345QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


http://cgi.ebay.com/Kaiju-For-Grown-Ups-Icebat-001-RARE-UGLYDOLL-kidrobot_W0QQitemZ220252053979QQihZ012QQcategoryZ158781QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


view all the auctions by clicking here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZthemeltdownllc

Read:

• Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian
• John Gribbin, In Search of Superstrings: Symmetry, Membranes and the Theory of Everything*
• Rebecca Stott, Ghostwalk
• F. G. Cottam, The House of Lost Souls

Studied:

• S151 chapters 3, 4 (part) and 8**

Submitted:

• ECA questions on chapters 1, 2 & 8 (100% so far)

Buried:

• one tetra

---

* Bus book

** There's a reason for the non-sequential approach

( Sign of the times )
Been seeing a lot of these on has pumps...
--
-- Kevin Sonney
-- Sent from my Blackberry

I'm not very patient by nature, something I'm trying to improve.

My D&D 4e gift set (all three basic books) is on the way, according to Amazon, and should be here by August. I'm jumping up and down in my seat with excitement.

And impatience, of course. I want it *now*.

Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf never ceases to amaze me. Their cakes always look fantastic in the display case, but so often turn out to be ordinary or worse, less than ordinary, when ordered.

Today I had Buster's Weekly Cheesecake, which was, fortunately, merely ordinary.

I don't think my "regular" barber minds at all (at least it doesn't show on his face), but I can't bring myself to walk past the barbershop because I'm filled with guilt. This man's cut my hair since I was ... *cough* ... younger than I am now.

I'm torn between feelings of betrayal, guilt and remorse, and a sense that I'm entitled to pick and choose, because I'm the consumer, dang it.

I guess it's just that having your hair cut is such a personal thing, with effects that far outlast the few minutes you spend in the barber char.

And that's solved my problem - at EC House, I'm in the chair for about ten, maybe fifteen minutes. My previous barber would keep me for forty-five minutes, sometimes over an hour, as he patiently snipped one hair after another.

Guilt?

What guilt?