Dan

I lost my first game of Ta Yu tonight. Disaster!

i got big telly. it are on wall.

Say I wanted to read something Cthulu and Lovecraftian. Where should I start?

My music's stored on an external drive. But my media player has to have a file location for its library to point to. This was F:\. Oh, but now my external hard drive is seen as G:\ with no physical change in the set up that I can identify. I've got two options:

1) Re-import all the tracks as G:\ and hope it doesn't happen again.

2) Ask Windows XP gurus out there how I can change what drive letter my external hard drive is given.

I have chosen to do these in reverse order. Can anyone help?

UPDATE: It's OK, I figured out how to do it.

Just browsing through my Sandman collection, I see that I must have lent out Brief Lives to someone at some point, but I can't remember who to. It was one of the hardback series which was released a few years ago, cover like this I think:



If you borrowed it, or you know who did, can I have it back?

The game is to find an actor who's played the same role in more than one film (trilogies or other film serieseses), and then link to another actor who's also reprised a role in the same set of films, then another set of films in which the second actor has reprised roles, and so on. You only get to place an actor if you can give 2 sets of films. TV series don't count.

I can do two chains of 3 actors, can anyone fill in the question marks?:

? (?, Star Trek)
Patrick Stewart (Star Trek, X-Men)
Ian McKellen (X-Men, LotR)
Christopher Lee (LotR, Star Wars)
? (Star Wars, ?)

OR

Patrick Stewart (Star Trek, X-Men)
Ian McKellen (X-Men, LotR)
Orlando Bloom (LotR, Pirates of the Carribbean)
Bill Nighy (PotC[1], Underworld)
? (Underworld, ?)

[1] He will be in 2 and 3, I gather...

Mmmmmm, I thought, I'll just make myself a quick spot of dinner before I carry on putting all my possessions into boxes...

Ah. I've only gone and PACKED MY PASTA.

n.b. This is not a euphemism - I have actually packed my pasta.

I've also packed my rice (I shall have to see a doctor about that).

Nicked from b3ta, but still.

Blind Atlas reminds me of a city I heard about a few years ago - ( Ambulatia )

News story on Congress blocking new laws, and the presidential veto.

If I've understood this correct, can I just say how dumb this bit of the American constitution is. Let me get this straight.

There's a proposed law allowing X to control some US ports. OK, whatever, might be good or bad.
Congress can pass an amendment rejecting this. OK, fine.
But, the President can veto this kind of amendment if he wants. Mmmmm, alright, I suppose.
However, Congress has the right to plonk this amendment in with any other proposed law it pleases, in this case something about hurricane disaster relief, and if the President wants to use his veto he has to do it on the whole thing.

Now what kind of a dumb system is that? The two proposed laws have no rational relationship to each other, it's just different American politicians blackmailing each other in some stupidly misdirected battle of wills. Is this designed to be some kind of check on the power of the Presidential veto? If so, it's a blunt lumbering one and seems to lead to politicians being forced to hold each other's hostages to ransom. Was it designed to encourage negotiation and horse-trading beforehand while at the same time providing each negotiator with a big red nuclear button? Was this system devised by a bloke?

Now, I might have misunderstood, but does the news story also say that Congress can block the veto? What's that all about?

Hooray for the Onion. I'm genuinely not sure whether this piece counts as satire, but if it is then it's a wonderfully pervasive type of satire. Reminds me the one they did on Intelligent Falling, but more of a deliberative nudge than a barbed slap across the chops.

From BBC News report on kids' gadgets in their bedrooms:

"It may surprise some parents, but our survey shows that British youngsters are quite literally, sleeping on a gold mine."

You know, I imagine it would. Reminds me of the funniest advice Rick ever gave one of his clients - thinking of investing in the mining industry: "You would quite literally be buying a gold mine".

Second play at Lord of the Rings games last night, with vardebedian, Lani, m1nstrel, and terriem. Still one of the rare collaborative games - a bit like a multi-player solitaire. Admittedly, we were playing the beginners' version in which Sauron doesn't get a head start, but still it seemed a bit of a walk in the park. The feel and theme of the game are very good, and the artwork and pieces are superb, so in a sense it's very good transfer of the book into a game. Unfortunately, it's a bit unwavering: you know what you have to do, and once you've figured out how to do it, the game is cracked. More like a puzzle or a pastime than a real game.

And then on to a real game of Puerto Rico which Lani, as usual, won on the sly without anyone noticing. Or at least without me noticing, curse her. I came a distinct third, just ahead of Helen.

I thought I'd made a good start, but I have a slight suspicion that my constant trading was too obsessive even though it was quite profitable. Terrie again proved that the office was a good buy. Surprisingly, the harbour was a very bad buy for me: with hindsight given my factory I should have abandoned shipping and plunged into getting big buildings. I think I got it into my head that shipping was the way the game going, but what with all the trading going on it turned out to be a builder's game, and Lani's two big buildings earned massive points and secured the victory. Damn.

Still, the mark of a good game shone through: I need to play it again, and do better this time.

At last, it is what I have been waiting for: a comic strip of a dinosaur explaining "beg the question" PROPERLY.

I do so like to think of it as meaning "beggar the question", in the sense that it deprives a question of all its richness and meaning.

Maintaining this journal's reputation as something I use just to post link to things I like, I do rather like this here blonde joke.

Now, I know I've previously said how out of touch I am with modern literature, but now things are getting ridiculous.

Out of the the many films and TV shows nominated for Golden Globes (by the Screen Actors Guild no less), I have seen but two: King Kong, and Lost.

Does this mean I have a heartfelt longing to strand myself on a distant island, disconsolately munching bamboo? I THINK SO.

But more than that, it means I might start watching films rather than reading about them at length in film magazines.

I'd love to see Capt Jean-Luc Baldy Slaphead's one-man version of A Christmas Carol.

I reckon the best time to see it now is between Christmas and new year. Would anybody be interested in seeing it on 28, 29, or 30 Dec?

It's official!

I like this headline and author

The emotions experienced that morning by those duped into a ferry experiment in Cornwall must have gone:

• indignation
• reflection
• resignation
• peckishness

A weekend composed mainly of playing games.

( Read all about it )