My Motley Meanderings

1. A hot mug of Assam tea and a chocolate HobNob.
2. Making it to London and back without major incident.
3. Eastercon preparations still chugging along nicely.
4. Finally getting over the cold I picked up before Christmas.
5. Old friends who stick by you no matter what.
6. New friends who surprise you with their thoughtfulness.
7. Smiles received in exchange for small courtesies.
8. Potential disasters averted.
9. The return of Torchwood on Wednesday.
10. Madness's new single, NW5, on sale from today.
11. Random lists of things that make you cheerful.
12. Women with red hair!

As seen on many other people's journals, here is a list of the places where I've spent at least one night away from home during 2007. I might have forgotten one or two.

( Read more... )

I did this meme last year too. You simply post the first sentence or two from the first post of each month of the past year. I'm going to modify this slightly and skip other memes otherwise it all gets a bit self-referential and not terribly interesting. ( Read more... )

As seen on bugshaw's journal: ( iTunes on random shuffle as a means of divining the future... )

As seen on bugshaw's journal, this meme takes the most recent subject lines from the public entries on your LJ and renders them as LOLcats.

Seeing as everyone else and their dog has already done it, here are my top ten results from the Career Matchmaker quiz (username: nycareers, password: landmark).

1. Mechanical Engineering Tech
2. Drafter
3. Model Maker
4. Farm Equipment Mechanic
5. Heavy Equipment Mechanic
6. Automobile Mechanic
7. Diesel Mechanic
8. Aircraft Mechanic
9. Small Engine Mechanic
10. Motorcycle Mechanic

What I actually do isn't anywhere in the top 40; the closest is "Computer Engineer" at number 32.

I got this meme from sharikkamur.

When you see this post, quote from Doctor Who on your blog/journal.

Ace: "Do you feel like arguing with a can of deodorant that registers 9 on the Richter Scale?"
- Dragonfire

( What type of Ska am I? )

I got this one from steverogerson.

( The questions are behind the cut... )

I think this meme originated over here. The idea is to give either two answers to each of these seven categories or seven answers to two of them:
* Things you learned in 2006.
* People you met in 2006.
* Things you don't want to take with you into 2007.
* Things you want to hold close as you pass into 2007.
* Things you're looking forward to in 2007.
* Things that were life-changing for you in 2006.
* Things you hope to accomplish by the end of 2007.

( My answers. )
I've got a quiet night in front of the telly planned after I post this - the parental units are heading off out soon to spend the night with my mum's cousin.

PS. Happy Hogswatch!

Your Christmas is Most Like: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

You can't really get into the Christmas spirit... But it usually gets to you by the end of the holiday.

Found via cobrabay

I am: Hal Clement (Harry C. Stubbs) A quiet and underrated master of "hard science" fiction who, among other things, foresaw integrated circuits back in the 1940s.

Which science fiction writer are you?

I've only read one of Hal Clement's books so far (Iceworld, a novel about an alien narcotics agent from a very hot world who comes to Earth to track down the suppliers of a dangerous drug). I suppose I should do something to remedy that.

You can blame the_magician for passing this meme on to me:

How evil are you?

Edit: I just noticed what's in the background of the banner. Oh no! Someone make the scary dinosaur go away!

This latest personality test takes a while to fill in, but the results are more detailed than usual and seem pretty accurate too:

Considerate Idealist

Another meme I stole from dougs, here is the first sentence of the first entry I wrote in each month of 2006:

January: Restoring my lathe.
February: Two different garages have said the Volvo is beyond economic repair (one quoted £650 and the car IMHO is worth about £500 once I remove my stereo).
March: Playing with electrickery.
April: I finished building Rampaging Roger, Beyond Cyberdrome 2006's Houseboat Robot, this afternoon.
May: After several months of being distracted by other things, several wildly unrelated ideas clicked together in my head yesterday to make a short story idea, and I managed to write the first draft today.
June: I've just finished the seventh draft of my latest short story.
July: I would like some recommendations for good comedy science fiction novels or short story anthologies that I haven't read.
August: I now know why the guy who sold Fenchurch to me said he thought the petrol tank was full of gunge, and why he'd connected a can up inside the engine bay to get it running: no fuel is getting from the tank to the pump, which just merrily ticks away without delivering anything to the carb.
September: This past week I (with some help from my dad):
October: Last week we fitted the new wheels, painted and reassembled the rear bumper, did a few other small MOT-preparation jobs, then spent two evenings welding patches under Fenchurch's body.
November: I saw the third episode of Torchwood last night and loved it.
December: This morning's entertainment was a trip to A&E, where a pretty nurse poked me in the eye with a stick, told me she couldn't get it out, and sent me to a ward where a doctor poked me in both eyes with a piece of machinery, then dug around in one of them with a sharp implement.

Found via cobrabay, which of the Science Fiction Book Club's fifty most significant science fiction/fantasy novels published between 1953 and 2002 have I read?

( Read more... )

( Behind the cut )

Start at http://n.nfshost.com/ and find the page for number two, then three, and so on up to thirty.

27->28 is probably the most difficult one: I stared at it for twenty minutes before somebody gave me the clue "you can only base the answer on two things" which enabled me to solve it.

Kudos to piggeh for creating the puzzle.

PS. there has been some speculation that it might actually go higher than thirty ;)