http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk Home to the Tongue-in-Cheek Ramblings Of Mister JTA Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:11:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This year I joined Reddit. I'm quite enjoying it, and it makes up for the fact I accidentally let my account on Legend of the Green Dragon finally lapse. It's a nice friendly place (mostly, although some of the subreddits creep me out), and there's a nice sense of community; ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/08/12/arbitrary-day-how-i-got-a-present-after-all/ (*Trans: 'Perhaps, if we are very lucky, we might actually make it to Rome by the end of Book Three...') Miriam, as all the world knows, has seen me safe from two insane floods (the first of which descended the first day I ever drove her, and created a definite ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/08/04/et-in-perpetuum-ave-et-vale/ So we have moved to Earth. Not only have we moved, but it's starting to look like home. Quite how I own So Much Stuff(TM) I don't know (especially since it turns out the sum total of the books in my posession doesn't cover more than 38 foot of shelving, ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/06/10/in-which-jta-is-entirely-surrounded-by-boxes/ So. Farewell Then Aberystwyth Home from 2003 and now Not. [caption id="attachment_537" align="alignright" width="300" caption="(Distressingly young depiction of JTA, in Penbryn 9-31, circa 2003. Click to enlarge, whereupon you can note the hairbobble(s), the keys, and nascent beard.)"][/caption] Yeah. I'm offski. And I can't tell if I'm sad to be going or not. Technically, of course, ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/05/29/tonzura-koite/ Well, there goes Masters Part One. Everything handed in and sorted out (assuming they don't throw out my Diss proposal and make me do another one, anyway, which seems at least a bit unlikely). It took No End of all nighters (Normally, I shut my tower down at night to save ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/05/24/made-it/ Hey-hey! So Bruce Schneier runs a Movie Plot Terrorism Threat contest, in which people submit short stories that depict Terrorist events of the kind that don't really happen (ie, the sort that scare people a lot, and which Governments therefore like lots.) Here is found the blog post which announced this ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/05/15/semifinalist-in-bruce-schneiers-fifth-annual-movie-plot-threat-contest/ So, yeah, the results are in, apparently. Can't say it went quite as well as I hoped, but it went as well as I expected (this, as I explained to my sister yesterday, is pretty much the way it goes as a Lib Dem), and at least Cameron didn't slide ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/05/07/shoulda-voted-for-zarek/ Apart from the fact I'm usefully relaying election results to people far removed from civilization (viz: one friend backpacking in Australia, and one in Edgbaston), I think I'm getting tired. Because on the one hand, I'm making massive typos, and on the other, the results for Hammersmith just came in and ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/05/07/522/ So Dan, Lyndon, Finbar and I kicked arse at Arkham Horror last Geek Night... Dan was playing Monterey Jack, Lyndon Darrell Simmons, and Finbar Joe Diamond. I arrived from a beer run to see that I'd fetched up with the student, Amanda Sharpe. I took an instant dislike to Amanda, for ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/04/25/it-isnt-this-bloody-in-game-but-somehow-i-got-a-bit-carried-away/ Eech. I should be working on a report, at this moment in time: essentially Your university is going to launch foundation degrees, how will this affect the library & the readers?. I hate that sort of stuff, because whilst I realise that we're supposed to be demonstrating the use of ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/04/23/489/ Just read this Basic Instructions. As everyone knows, the only way to salvage this sort of situation is to drown out the noise of the guitar with a discussion of the relative limitations of non-MARC compliant AACR2 indexing in relation to the search habits of patrons today. (The biggest limitation, of ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/02/25/486/ Just got off the phone with a very nice lady from Orange, who was conducting a customer survey. (I'm not normally a fan of such things, but I quite want an N900 when my contract comes up for renewal, so I thought I'd try to get a gold star.) The basic ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/02/08/hrmm/ Work Hell's teeth. Well today, thanks to something of a shift-scheduling snafu at Work B, I got double booked. As much as possible I'm trying to work for whoever offers to pay me first, because I think that works out fairest all round (the NHS pay me more per hour, but ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/02/06/three-things/ Podcast No. 164: The Story so far: Dan Savage has called a woman back; she's been making extra money doing live sex shows on webcam, and her boyfriend is not happy about it (that is, once he found out she was doing it on the quiet, he wasn't happy about ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/02/04/savage-love-best-caller-ever/ The murder mystery was awesome; I enjoyed it a lot more than the fixed form ones, which I think is because a lot of the important bits of fixed-form stuff are read out from booklets (assuming they've been made properly, which I'd like to point out is not always the ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/02/03/belated-reports-of-murdery-goodness/ ...with only the barest of creature comforts; a radio, a Hellish beefy tower, a small radiator, a few litres of spirits including gin, whisky, brandy & liquers (sounds like a French exercise, doesn't it?*) And all because Miriam's broken herself. Bah. I'm very fond of Miriam; she's got me through two ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/01/24/stuck-in-wales/ Aye, as Ruth said we have a website. It is over here, and there is a helpful blog, which will presumably get less sparse over time. I feel silly having a one-sentence post. Here is a meme, which you may now all skip. What is your name? Mister JTA. What colour pants ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/01/06/r-jta-exists-huzzah/ Not to generalise, of course, but 2009 sucked. I mean, I've clocked up worse years, but for unrelenting grind that was a bad 'un. Essentially, it's the year where my sleeping patterns went to bits, I actually started working because I'm no longer a university student wanting education but a ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2010/01/01/its-all-gone-wrong-hasnt-it/ Pros: 1. I may get paid at some point. 2. Free shoes! And I don't have to get shot at, or set on fire or anything. I can't think of another job where that happens. 3. Apparently some sort of pension. Cons: 1. Every time I catch sight of an oxygen tank out of the ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2009/11/12/working-for-the-nhs-pros-cons/ Well, last time I got onto this (frankly already well-flogged) hobbyhorse, at least I managed to sound a very little optomistic. Unhappily, the last time round I was sober, and now I'm, er, not quite so sober. There are good things going on for me, I must say, and the ... http://blog.electricquaker.co.uk/2009/10/31/fifty-fifty/