For anyone reading this that’s got a fuzzyduck.org email address off me at any point in the past, I have no idea how, who or why viruses are going out (again) “from” information@, info@ and register@ warning people that their account is going to expire, they’ve been caught abusing hte account, etc.
All, of course, complete bollocks, if I’m going to delete your email address, I’ll tell you personally, and (given that I have an infinite number of them), it’s not likely to happen any time soon to anyone. Thanks to for informing me of the problem, Jo Foster (who I hadn’t heard of in years) also had the same thing; , you had anything?
They’ve been sent ‘to’ various other non-existent accounts as well, so much so that my abuse account is full in less than a month, it hasn’t done that since mydoom/netsky first broke out. Ah well.
OTOH, if anyone out there in LJ land wants a free, permanent (well, for as long as I renew the domain and Doteasy don’t go bust) POP3 email inbox and anything’at’fuzzyduck.org email address, let me know; they’re going, um, free.
You just have to put up with occasional virus and spam sends; but, well, it’s an email account, that’s normal, right?
I’m supposed to be packing for Birmingham…
Edit: I’ve just been sent a warning that my account is due to be deleted by the admininistrator. Sent directly to the only inbox with administrator priviledges! There have also been sends to ‘bob’, ‘maria’ ‘geoff’ and a number of other people I’ve never heard of. Gah!
June 24th, 2005
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MatGB |
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Well, I’m about half way through my annual hell, and it seems to be going so well, so much so that I managed to leave work early Friday (after an 11 hour day Thursday to get the work done) in order to drive to London for .
The drive was ok, heat was a little oppressive, but I got to ’s by 8.30; would have been earlier, but I got lost in the one way system around Raynes Park (again) and drove right past his street (again). Twice. Must remember to put the A2Z back in the car now I’ve found it, my road atlas street map has a great big copyright notice right over the area he lives in. Still, good time and all. Decided to change at his, the t-shirt I was wearing for the journey was literally dripping when I took it off. Then we negotiated the tube, got some food at Kings X and got to the club.
He’s got an annual membership, which, in theory, allows him to jump the queue. As long as they’ve put his name on the list. They hadn’t. He waited, I queued normally, and got in. Finally met during the security check, and said hello to , who was carting some supplies in I think.
Far too hot! Seriously, it’s a great club, and I love going there, but I could only stand to be inside for at most 5 minutes before going back into the garden. Still, the garden area was very cool. Met up with , was great to chat to again, he seems to be enjoying life as a bum; good luck with the job hunt Tom, if you ever get around to reading this. Also met properly, and a few others. Why is the club great? Well, watching Eve play twister was worth the journey by itself, let alone the random insanity of the general conversations. Shame about the balcony being closed off and not being allowed to sit on the steps. Overall, a great night, but next time I travel up, I’m taking the day off, as I was too exhausted from work and the journey to really enjoy it or talk to new people much. was missed as well; was looking forward to buying him a bottle of water…
Slept the next morning, found a misprint in Mike’s copy of WFRP, then took wandered back into town, specifically to Camden, where I’d never been before. I definately see the appeal; I hate shopping normally, but even I enjoyed wondering around that place. So many food options (never seen a fast food stand that offered Quorn alternatives, very much appreciated) and just a great overall atmosphere and ambience. I also found a great little greek cafe that did a damn fine greek omelette. I’ll be back methinks.
Walked out of Camden back towards town, with a specific purpose in mind. I’m a civilised Englishman. Every civilised Englishman should take a tube to or from cent, right? I bought some books (anyone surprised? I went to London and ended up in bookshops), including the first Thursday Next book by Jasper Fforde (I’ve read the 4th, it’s great), and the Narnia Chronicles were in The Works. Haven’t read them since I was a kid, and, well, why not? I love that Bookstores in central London are open until 10pm. I really confirmed that I just want to move up there. If anyone has or hears of any jobs going in admin/management or politics up there, let me know? I have to give 2 months notice in the current job now, but still. Might even just hand it in next month anyway; I love it, but I want to live in a city more than I want to do my current job.
Got back home at approx 2am and collapsed into bed. Spent today watching DVDs and reading webcomics. The usual Sunday really. Still, an update was due.
Oh, one last thing, especially for , and . http://www.warlordccg.com/ is in my opinion the best CCG out there at the moment, and the players tend to be both older and less annoying than Magic players. Plus, no big money tournaments mean that, even in the big leagues, it’s all about having fun. If you’re interested, contact Sy of http://www.boardgamesonline.co.uk/ he’s the London area demo team rep for AEG, and also a top bloke. I’m one of the top EU players because I enjoy having a laugh at the major tournaments; the most discussed part of the EU championships last year was the food!
Well, I’ll likely be offline again until next weekend, when I think I’m supposed to be in Birmingham anyway, so don’t expect to hear much from me anytime soon. Hope everyone else out there in LJ land is OK; to Exeter peeps, I hope to see those of you not going to Brum sometime in August…
June 20th, 2005
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MatGB |
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Well, another wasted weekend, unless you count serious relaxing and getting head back together as time well spent. It’s mid June, so I’ve had one month of hell at work with another two to go. It’s actually going OK, the bosses are listening to me (quote from MD; “what we’ve found from this meeting is that, essentially, the only numbers we can rely on are Mat’s”) and the staff are doing great.
Minor cogs; no matter how far ahead we are from previous years, no one believes me except my sister, whose specific job requires her to pressure me to work harder anyway. Ah well.
Went to see Sin City with colleagues Wednesday; I thought it was cool, but I’m in the minority, most weren’t the type to even look at comics so the style was lost on them, and many had never seen Pulp Fiction, one was unable to sit through Reservoir Dogs (why she went to see Sin City if she couldn’t watch Dogs is beyond me, but, well, People). If you like Tarantino-like stylised violence, comic book humour and messed up morality, go watch it. If the idea of watching people hit people disturbs you, then, well, don’t. Really.
Oh, and yes, Jessica Alba was incredibly sexy throughout.
So, to subject. I cooked breakfast, and came online to eat; the idea was to drive to Exeter afterwards. Well, 4 hours later, I’m still sat at my desk trawling through webcomics (http://www.vgcats.com/archive/ and http://gucomics.com/ ) that I hadn’t seen before. Not 100% compos mentis though; I just picked up my coffee mug, which was next to the glass of orange juice I’ve been refilling. The coffee looks a little funny as I go to drink it.
It’s half coffee and half orange juice; I must’ve poured some into the wrong receptacle while looking at the screen. Y’know what?
It tastes damn nice. I’ve always liked Muddy Puddles when I’m driving in pubs (pint, 50/50 orange juice and coke), so perhaps it shouldn’t surprise me too much. Then again, my lack of sense of smell means my taste buds do strange things at time.
Meh; I need to get to Exeter this week sometime, and hopefully I can confirm to that I can drive the minibu for her, but that means taking Friday afternoon off work, which will be hard to justify, so I may need to put a lot of hours in the rest of the week. Not a good time of year to need me to do stuff.
June 12th, 2005
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Well, Italy was well worth the journey and the money. Apart from the heat.
Now, I’m known for not being a fan of hot weather; I’ve never quite got the point of it, why is it supposed to be nice again? Anyway. When the Italians you’re with are complaining that it’s too hot, then you know it’s too hot. Ah well.
Friday, journey was good, if a little long. N/Exp to LHR, KLM to AMS, a run through the terminals, including the Schengen passport checkpoint (very convenient it was too, check at AMS, no need at Bologna, they’re both members so common border controls work nicely thank you very much) only to get to the flight and find a 3 hour delay; it’s stuck at Berlin getting the air conditioning fixed. KLM staff very helpful, including giving free meal vouchers and a phome voucher.
Am struck by the daftness of the system though; there’s a huge que of people asking essentially the same question; putting a notice up behind/next to the would make most of the questions disappear, but, instead, they have to repeat the answers a lot. I just listened in to a few answers, got the picture, collected my vouchers and thanked them for the help. Lots of coffee (and chats to a few disgruntled passengers) later, the flight finally departed. Unfortunately, no reception at the airport, so couldn’t text Roberto, Luca and Vince to tell them about the delay.
Not an issue; got to the hotel, reception bloke used master key to let me in, Vince and Seb were still awake and rather drunk; both snore when drunk and tired. Ah well; Vince normally sleeps quietly, but, well, the combination of Italy + Seb’s company prompted him to drink more than usual…
Saturday went well (apart form the heat) and I placed above 50/50, considering I’d made 1 change to my deck in 6 months (added Malachite Gargoyle) I was happy; great fun, and I got to proclaim that Rocks Rule regularly.
Sunday? I RULED (with a lot of help from Chris Dyer’s deckbuilding skills). The Gahid deck he built for me was immense fun to play, and very effective. My two losses in the 6 rounds of Swiss qualifiers were to Simone (EU Champion and fellow Conspiracy member) and Thomas Nizou (one of the best French players with a Chyre deck). Stomped Seb 2-1 in the top 16, his deck was good, but relied on neutralising threats by pushing them back, I had too much movement, and assuming I got an avarage draw and avarage rolls I could break his ranks easily. Unfortunately, Roberto’s Garn Healing deck could soak up all my damage and he beat me in the top 8. Still, getting 13th in Swiss and top 8 in finals for a World Conquest qualifier and the 3rd largest tournament yet held in Europe is something to be pleased with. Only drawback was the number of friends I played; maybe I’ve got to know the best players in Europe too well? Roberto lost to Gigi in the next round, who went on to win; Seb is convinced (and I agree with him) that he’d have beaten both of them, his deck stomped both theirs easily. But it didn’t stomp mine, and the nature of the environment is rock/papers/scissors in so many ways. Gigi also came close to taking The Queen from Arne. A great weekend; better than last years, the hotel was closer, the heat didn’t ruin it, the pizza was good. Roberto bugged me into getting back into the online community, my sparkling wit is apparently missed. I’ll see if I can make the time. NEed to seriously think through how I’m going to approach CCGs tho; I love the events and the tournaments and the players, but dislike the planning and collecting of cards. Need to talk to Chris about it I guess.
Monday? Seb and I switched rooms to a twin as we were both staying on, Sy and Mark left for the airport after breakfast (great to see both of them again, must go to London more), and we went into town after Vince left his luggage in our room. Seb showed us around (he’d been here for awhile already) and Roberto met up with us in the afternoon. Bologna is a really nice place, not quite as interesting architecturally as Sienna (which remains my favoured city) but more than made up for by bars, pubs, cafes and nightlife. After an ice cream and a snack lunch, we went to the two local game stores (both immensely cool and well laid out, Goblin especially impressed with the decor and gaming demo tables; imagine a games store run in a professional GW-style, but selling everything in a friendly environment) and ended up in the Transilvania Rock Kafe, a pub/pizzeria with a horro style decor and, um, Dire Straight and other AOR as the music. Gotta love the Italians; take on the style, but not quite get the point of the music. Eventually stumbled to a taxi and back to the hotel.
Tuesday started with weirdness; we couldn’t find the room key, but the door was locked from the inside. After searching everywhere, we discovered the internal phone didn’t work, so I used my mobile to ring the reception to ask them to get us out. Oops. After breakfast, Seb went to close the roof window (top floor) and found it on top of the wardrobe. Um, huh? Ah well. Roberto picked us up and we went to a restaurant for lunch; turned out it was the hotel Manolis and the rest of the Gree players had stayed in last year, which freaked me out a little when I finally realised what the deja vu was. Pasta lunch, I love ricotta, then we took Seb to the airport. Roberto and I had planned to leave my luggage at his while I went to town (he does need to do some studying for his Phd in nukes after all; why do I always end up making friends with physicists?), but, due to the bus strike and some other commitments, we ended up dropping that plan. I sat in a bar and read a book for awhile (Frances Wheens “How mumbo-jumbo conquered the world”- highly recommended, especially to ), then got the bus into town, wondered around a little, grabbed some food, went to Dragon (the other games store, where I ended up playing several games of Warlord with some guys who only read English not speak it; I love the common language of CCG mechanics…) then decamped to Transilvania for a last evening before catching a taxi to the airport and waiting fo my 6am flight.
Journey back was ok, read a lot, never can sleep, then collapsed in bed. The rest of the free time when not at work this week has been watching Battlestar Galactica episodes; the original series. I had forgotten how godawful it truly was. Still, fun.
So, to today; I’d planned to travel to Exeter this afternoon, but, well, I came online while eating lunch and haven’t managed to get off again, let alone leave the flat. Ah well; ? I guess I’ll need to specifically come up for an arranged game at a set time; now have all Battlestar Galactica to lend out as well, stupid really, am now low on things to watch so B5 would be cool.
Still, overall, a relaxing holiday has put me in a good mood for the absolute hell the next 6 weeks at work is going to be; spent the last year planning for it, now I find out how good I really am.
June 6th, 2005
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MatGB |
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