August2004

Plugins & Punishment

27 August 2004

I wrote an X-chat plugin yesterday (in Python) which truncates long nicks so they don't screw up the channel window [1].

Went to Roo's last night to watch The Punisher. It was almost as bad as the Dolph Lungren version.

On the work front I'm busy reorganising code and learning the ins and outs of Python's packaging system.

[2]?

Why Are Weekends so Tiring? :)

23 August 2004

Current status: Tired but smiley - the problem with good weekends.

Watched Kaena and Bubbahotep at Jason and Colleen's on Friday. Enjoyed both. Kaena was mostly eye-candy but the storyline wasn't bad so much as borrowed (from Hot House by Aldiss and from elsewhere). Bubbahotep was great although I can't believe we watched the entire thing with red and blue interchanged - I'm now downloading mplayer for windows onto my flashdrive so that similar incidents can be avoided in future.

Had an unusually successful bout of errant running on Saturday morning. Picked up Dragonfire mugs for people, fetched LotR risk and bought a felt table cloth for playing card games on. Now I just need clips to secure the felt.

LotR Risk on Saturday night was cool (I particularly enjoyed conquering Minas Tirith with siege engines :). The game did end rather abruptly when I captured the ring. Afterwards we had a quick game of Safari Jack (my continued luck helped Kevin and I to victory).

Saturday night continued at Lara's birthday party. Got a belated birthday present from Neil and Karen (woot!). Eventually left at around 4:30 after a heated discussion of the ethics of colonisation and invasion.

Crawled out of bed to play frisbee on Sunday morning. Went home to shower and then installed Fedora Core 2 with MyrdemInggala. Rushed off to dinner an Diva's and then to the comedy competition at The Armchair Theatre. Vittorio, the comedian we went to see, was definitely the best of the contestants but everyone was outshone by the headline act, Dr Moosa. We might attempt to go watch the next round this coming Sunday (although it'll clash with our regular Sunday night roleplaying so we'll have to see).

[3]?

Back from the UK

17 August 2004

Well, finally getting settled into my routine. The trip to the UK was pretty cool but also rather exhausting (see travel sketch below). One of my cats has become neurotic in my absence and is pooing all over the house. The one module of Dragonfire that I caught was pretty decent (although I find roleplaying children difficult and I wasn't really up to it).

Have partially caught up on films missed while I was away (I thought Spiderman 2 was excellent despite the poor dialogue, thought Enternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a good, but very ordinary).

Work is kinda weird at the moment. It's been so long since I've had a daily routine that coming in to work feels eerie and everyone seems busy with their own stuff (as I suppose is to be expected post conference).

Any spare free time is being taken up with work on Sigil. Now that we actually have a game which meets every week we're suddenly finding that there is tons of bits and pieces all of which it would be really nice to have done by the next session. :)

[4]?

Brief Travel Log

17 August 2004

• Flight from Cape Town to Heathrow: Shared flight with Dave and Melanie who were off for a holiday in Ireland and then the UK. Managed to watch Girl with a Pearl Earring, Starsky and Hutch and three quarters of The House of Sand and Fog (which was quite cool and I'd like to see the end of it). The flight was pretty empty and as a result quite present.
• Heathrow: Picked up a UK sim card for my cellphone (definitely among the most useful items on the trip) and caught a bus to Oxford with my boss Win.
• Oxford: Meeting at research department at Churchill Hospital (which was built to house D-day casualties). Caught bus in to High Street and wondered around there with Alan. Visited Oxford Press Bookshop (unimpressed). Watched hapless tourists attempting to pole boats up and down a narrow river. Quite enjoyed the atmosphere of High Street - for some reason it felt known and familiar. Walked back to Churchill Hospital then caught bus to Reading.
• Pangbourne and Theale: Caught taxi from Reading to Theale (never catch taxis in rush hour traffic, never suggest that some taxi drivers may be less than honest within earshot of another driver). Checked in at The Copper Inn which turned out to be expensive and have no water pressure (although the fruit flavoured sucking sweets were delicious) and dodgy milk. Cray training was enjoyable and informative but not necessarily worth what we paid for it. Had fun staying up late working on a Bit Matrix Multiplier (BMM) emulator.
• Arrival in Glasgow: Flew in from Heathrow late in the evening, dumped bags at Ibis Hotel and went in search of dinner. Met up with Peter from Electric Genetics and got home at around 3:30. The evening was made more exciting as a result of Konrad and Anelda switch rooms. Since I was sharing with Konrad, this meant I ended up dumping my stuff in Anelda's room (and then having to return to move it). All this was interspersed with the frequent regeneration of hotel door swipe cards.
• ISMB / ECCB: In retrospect the tutorial day before the conference was quiet and peaceful although at the time it seemed busy. Only when the full 2200 delegates arrived the next morning did the scale of the conference become apparent. Highlights included the conference dinner at the Glasgow University and a trip to Frankensteins (a club).
• London: Stowed baggage at Victoria tube station (must travel lighter next time). Had lunch in a small grassy area outside Victoria Station. Wombled past Buckingham Palace and St James park during a thundershower. Stopped by Westminster Cathedral. Went for dinner in Richmond with Duncan, Duncan, Mark, Kait and Stephen (sat on bank of Thames chatting for a bit too). Spent Friday shopping in Camden (shinnny), then met up with Stephen and bought picnic stuff for Camelot (which was wonderful, I really like the Regents Park theatre). Saturday went to Kew Gardens via Clapham Junction and Duncan Truter's place (where I was distracted by Tekken and Soul Caliber). Enjoyed Kew Gardens (got to see the pagoda, walk inside the glass houses, play frisbee). Saturday night was Slimelight (really awesome). Took a bus home shortly before the tubes started up. Showered, changed, packed suit case, went out again to walk around Oxford Street a bit and look at Forbidden Planet. Met Stephen for lunch (Burger King, eep).
• Flight Home: Got lucky and had three seats to myself on a fairly busy flight. Ate dinner. Slept. Ate breakfast. Landed.

[5]? ---- (:commentboxchrono:)