Mat Bowles

Help a poor traveller…

is bored, and stuck in a cold bit of Canada with no IM (she’s on a tour of bone collections, alright for some), so if you’re online, go here and cheer her up. She’s also using a cool Willow icon with one of my favourite Buffy quotes, gotta love it…

And I promise no more updates for a bit.

October 30th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 3 comments

99(ish) questions.

I was going to do ’s 99 questions meme, but doing those things annoys me. Then I remembered that I’d done a meme ages back that allowed you to create your own lists of questions. On the grounds I messed the form up while creating it, I went through the source code, ingenious, it doesn’t store the quiz on its server at all, when you click the link, the form submit tells the server what questions to ask. Me like.

Anyway, I went through Fred’s Qs, removed the horrible Americanisms (especially the teen angsts I’m still at high school ones), added a few, some from ’s interview meme (which I did ages ago, can’t be arsed to kick start it again) and tried to fix the horrible grammar and punctuation. Doubt I got all of it though.

General
Country you’re in	Great Britain
What time is it	19.55
Name	Mat
Nickname(s)	MatB, Hippy, Flash
Zodiac	Virgo
Shoe size	8.5 & 9.5 (depends on the foot)
Glasses, contacts or neither?	Neither
Piercing/tattoo	None
Birthplace	Paignton
Current residence	Torquay
Best thing about living where you do?	It’s close to work
What song do you most closely associate with the following events?
‘O’ levels/GCSEs	Carter USM’s Sheriff Fatman
First girlfriend (and/or ‘time’)	Jane’s Addiction’s ‘Been Caught Stealin’ and Sisters of Mercy ‘This Corrosion’
Christmas time	The Pogues ‘Fairy Tale in New York’
Have you ever
Gone skinny dipping	Among other things, see nicknames, above
Skipped school	No
Bungee jumped	No
Kissed someone of the same sex not related to you	No
Kiss more than two people in one day	Yes
Won something	Yes, on TV
Asked someone out	Yes
Been rejected	Yes
Been in love	Yes (not often though)
Been to a funeral	Yes (both grandfathers)
Used a lighter	Yes (but have never smoked-anything)
Been on stage	Yes (I’m not very good)
Favourite
Food	Omelette
Ice cream flavour	Ben and Jerrys Fish Food (I think)
Breakfast cereal	Frosties
Number(s)	42
Book(s)	Hitchhiker’s Guide, Perdido St Station, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Movie(s)	Aliens, Citizen Kane, Dr Strangelove
Chocolate	Green and Black’s Maya Gold
Soft drink (soda)	Coke
Colour(s)	Black, purple
Holiday (vacation) location	Sienna, Italy and Muenster, Germany
Sport to watch on tv	None
Sports to play	None
Fast food restaurant	None, really. Oh, Pita in Reading (and elsewhere? anyone seen one?)
Cartoon Character	I don’t know, Dilbert?
Name for a boy	No preference; something long that can be shortened easily
Name for a girl	See above
TV series	Dr Who (new),Angel or Firefly. Yes, I know, but still
Radio Show	I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue
Do you prefer
Chocolate or vanilla	Chocolate
Boys or girls	Girls
Long relationships or one night stands	Both, but relationships better
Dogs or cats	Cats (silly question)
Scary movies or comedies	Comedies (actually, neither, but, well…)
Croutons or bacon bits or both	Vege bacon bits
Word Association
Doctor	Useless
Hedgehog	sleep
School	books
Grass	pot
Cow	milk
Canada	Coffee
Mouse	mat
Hand	job (sorry, but, well, honestly the first thing that came into my head)
In the past 48 hours, have you?
Watched a movie	Yes (well, DVD)
Cried	No
Thrown up	No
Drank a glass of water	Yes (many)
Gone to the bathroom	In the last 48 hours? What kinda stupid question?
Read a book or magazine	Yes
Watched tv	No, unless DVDs count, in which case, yes
Looked in the mirror	Yes (I’ve shaved)
Taken a shower	Yes
Brought yourself off	Yes
Listened to music	Yes
Hugged or kissed someone	No
Do you believe in?
Heaven	No
Aliens	In the whole universe? Yes. Visiting Earth? No
Love	Yes, but my opinion on what it is remains unchanged
Magic	Clark’s 3rd Law, so yes
God(s)	No
Random stuff
Last movie you saw in the Cinema	Serenity
Are you listening to music right now	No, Radio 4 (again)
What color shirt are you wearing	Blue (yup, it isn’t black, it is known)
Do you like your middle(s) name	Not really, but the initial is useful
What’s the best thing since sliced bread	Toaster
CREATE YOUR OWN! - or - GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS!

Me like…

October 30th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | no comments

Collection day?

Oh my. From Blognor Regis:

Chichester City wheelie bins discovered in Poland!

Maybe it was dropped by a migrating goose?

How Stuff Works provides the lowdown on Zombies!! (although given the ad clutter on that page, the news that FireFox also blocked a pop up is alittle excessive don’t you think?). The Bird Flu panic is pissing me off, 60 people dead in the whole of SE asia, compared to 12,000 killed by normal flu in the UK alone last year? It’s not a problem, worry about the real issues. In the meantime, dyslexia may be genetic, which may mean it can be diagnosed earlier. I’ll not get into my usual rant about undiagnosed learning difficulties and ignorant teachers again.

Also, for those with a sick sense of humour, . thinks I’m the UK equivalent to Jay, but without the gun fetish. , remind me to borrow Pedestrian Wolves next time I’m up, I read a good review of it recently.

Oh, it’s the start of winter, meaning that the clocks change tonight for UK people. Which means I have to be up even earlier than normal to get to the Vs thing has organised at Steve’s. I may need a phone call at 10ish.

October 29th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 7 comments

212

In response to the news that a US Catholic school has banned its pupils from blogging (including LJ and MySpace) for “their own safety”, suggests:

What if everyone out there added Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, NJ to their LiveJournal schools list?

I can’t wait to see if I get an email ordering me to take my LJ down. EXPEL ME IF YOU CAN, MISTER STUPIDHEAD!

Also, I suspect a few of my female Friends (naming no one specific) may be interested in this nifty little gadget. Oh those last links are a bit ‘icky’ (for those that don’t like sex related links).

October 29th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | no comments

Drunken blogging to be encouraged!

In other news, I’m still off work, and I had to reinstall Windows this evening because it decided my keyboard and mouse didn’t exist. It either didn’t like my mouse driver or didn’t like Warcraft III, both of which I installed last night.

Oh, Saturday am, 10.30 BST to be precise, Radio 4 has a half hour documentary on Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. The trailers for it have been very cool.

October 28th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 2 comments

Two cool pics

Both from , Have you been touched by His Noodly Appendages and then the even cooler Missing Wall.

For the latter, I wonder if there’s a collection of such things out there, the building in Exeter that has the scaffold painted on the side always amuses me, and there was a pub in Torquay called the Parrot that had a crashed car going through a wall. Sadly, that pub is now a wine bar

October 27th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | no comments

The Law of the Wiki

I know, apoogies for spamming the friends page after no posts for ages, but this is to good to miss. Via

Here, then, is what I’ll propose as the Law of the Wiki: Output quality declines as the number of contributors increases. Making matters worse, the best contributors will tend to become more and more alienated as they watch their work get mucked up by the knuckleheads, and they’ll eventually stop contributing altogether, leading to a further fall in quality.

So very true, the comments on the post are illuminating at times as well.

October 26th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | no comments

Jeremy blogs the metagame

Warlord players (or even simply potential players) should check out ; Jeremy is a member of the Player design Team for the game (ie he outranks me in the hierarchy if we cared in any way) and is using his journal as a metagame blog in the run up to the world championships in a few weeks time. reminded me to get the tickets booked this morning, payday is Friday…

I’d suggest an ubergeek contest where we compete for most rulebook credits, but there are those who can beat me easily. I am so looking forward to KoHIT this year, not just all the Euro players I’ve got to know over the last 3 years, but also many of the better US players as well, Mr Black was great company at SoCal when I went a few years back.

October 26th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | one comment

Memetastic

Didn’t think of this while I did them all, but a prize for the least spelling/grammar errors should be given out. NB, I don’t think any of them have none.

Least blanket assumptions or mass generalisations may be more difficult.

You scored as Classic Goth. Classic! the best kind! actually, you’re probably a little of every kind of Goth! you love the old-school stuff! too bad there arent more of your kind around here any more… Classic Goth 88% Denial Goth 75% Romantic Goth 63% Industrial Goth 50% Poser Goth 13% The True Goth Quiz created with QuizFarm.com

Oh look, I’m an old fart. Quel surprise eh?

You scored as The Operative. You are dedicated to your job and very good at what you do. You’ve done some very bad things, but they had to be done. You don’t expect to go to heaven, but that is a sacrifice you’ve made for a better future for all. The Operative 81% Capt. Mal Reynolds 69% River Tam 63% Kaylee Frye 63% Inara Serra 63% Hoban 'Wash' Washburne 56% Shepherd Derrial Book 38% Zoe Alleyne Washburne 38% Simon Tam 25% Jayne Cobb 19% Which Serenity character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

WTF? Ah well, the test is actually not bad, I didn’t scream at the grammar or spelling errors, and there are lots of results.

You scored as Armand. Your the mysterious type only those close to you know the truth about who you really are Armand 83% Angel 67% Spike 50% Louis 42% Lestat 42% Deacon Frost 42% Marius 42% Blade 42% Dracula 33% Akasha 25% Whose your Vampire personality? (images) created with QuizFarm.com

Meh, not even a pretty picture…

You scored as Complete Filth. You are flithy! You see sublimal messages everywhere… and you’re always willing for some *ahem* fun. You can get “creative” with it too. You need serious counseling. Click Here, cus you need help Complete Filth 70% Not so clean 60% Pedofile 40% Pure and Innocent 20% How dirty is your mind? created with QuizFarm.com

Methinks some of the creators of these tests are a little too innocent for their own good.

You scored as Albus Dumbledore. Strong and powerful you admirably defend your world and your charges against those who would seek to harm them. However sometimes you can fail to do what you must because you care too much to cause suffering. Albus Dumbledore 80% Severus Snape 70% Harry Potter 70% Draco Malfoy 65% Remus Lupin 65% Sirius Black 60% Ginny Weasley 55% Hermione Granger 55% Lord Voldemort 50% Ron Weasley 40% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is…? created with QuizFarm.com

Is it wrong that I’ve almost been talked into reading the books?

You scored as personality. Hopefully whoever you end up with will be attractive, but you choose your women based upon how funny they are and if you can talk to them on the phone for hours and feel like you only just started talking except that your hand is tired and your ear is sore from pressing the phone so close. personality 88% The space between the legs 63% Ass man 58% Mouth man 58% an eyes person 54% Breast Guy 38% What are you attracted to in a girl created with QuizFarm.com

Really? Never would have figured that out on my own.

You scored as Tom Zarek. You began your career as a terrorist, but that was so your voice could be heard. You alone know the right path, and anyone who gets in your way is fighting against the good of you all. Still, you can wait, and you can fight your war in any arena. Tom Zarek 63% Dr Gaius Baltar 63% CPO Galen Tyrol 56% Capt. Lee Adama (Apollo) 56% President Laura Roslin 50% Commander William Adama 44% Lt. Kara Thrace (Starbuck) 44% Number 6 44% Col. Saul Tigh 44% Lt. Sharon Valerii (Boomer) 38% What New Battlestar Galactica character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

This one isn’t bad. and let’s be honest, it’s not innaccurate is it?

You scored as Gunshot. Your death will be by gunshot, probably because you are some important person or whatever. Possibly a sniper, nice, quick, clean shot to the head. Just beautiful. Gunshot 73% Bomb 73% Disappear 73% Stabbed 67% Cut Throat 60% Disease 60% Eaten 60% Suicide 60% Natural Causes 53% Posion 53% Suffocated 47% Accident 40% Drowning 13% How Will You Die?? created with QuizFarm.com

Unlike JFK, I don’t spend half my life chasing blondes. Brunettes, redheads, bright purple, etc, yes, but not blondes…

You scored as Existentialist. Existentialism emphasizes human capability. There is no greater power interfering with life and thus it is up to us to make things happen. Sometimes considered a negative and depressing world view, your optimism towards human accomplishment is immense. Mankind is condemned to be free and must accept the responsibility. Existentialist 81% Postmodernist 75% Modernist 69% Materialist 69% Cultural Creative 44% Idealist 38% Romanticist 38% Fundamentalist 25% What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com

Or is that the whole point?

Probably close enough, if the Dems have a radical libertarian-left reforming branch.

You scored as Punk. YOU PUNK! you HATE the government and love to piss people off. You listen to bands like The Casualties. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Dead Kennedys, and Rancid. You love studs, big boots, and crazy hair. Metal 63% Punk 63% Classic Rock 50% Rap/Hip-Hop 33% Emo 29% Pop 29% Which genre of music fits you created with QuizFarm.com

I hate the govt because I like punk music? No, I loath this govt because they’re a bunch of authoritarian berderline fascists, I like punk music because I like punk music. The two are only vaguely linked, and there’s achance I may like the next govt. Unlikely, but still…

Well, what else is a boy to do when he takes the day off ill? Sort the flat, update the websites, the laundry, some washing up, etc? Go away conscience, I saw a pretty picture…

October 25th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 4 comments

Oh look, I don’t believe…

You fit in with: Atheism Your ideals mostly resemble those of an Atheist. You have very little faith and you are very focused on intellectual endeavors. You value objective proof over intuition or subjective thoughts. You enjoy talking about ideas and tend to have a lot of in depth conversations with people. 100% scientific. 80% reason-oriented.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Thing is, I wonder how those who profess to beliefs find the test, figuring out someone is an atheist is easy, figuring out what religion they are isn’t. Although I stillw ant atheism to count as a religion.

October 25th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 7 comments