Gift.
So I'm playing it, but I've not got far yet. Not a bad game, but maybe not as good as I'd hope. Shame about the DRM too...
Yesh, a morning getting stuck full of needles again. This is the downside to holidays abroad: vaccinations. Wonderful inventions mind, I just have trouble getting over my needle phobia. While I'm on the subject, Astraad and I didn't want any wedding gifts when we got married so my work mates banded together and bought vaccines from UNICEF on our behalf. Should you be feeling charitable do take a look.
Anyway, not much to report, just job hunting and trying to figure out whether we should take anti-malarials on our honeymoon. We're going to a low risk part of Thailand (Chaing Mai), but the paranoid Biologist in me thinks that it'll be better safe than sorry.
Also, I am apparently the Dude.
Ah ah! Finally found a decent widget that'll let me keep track of Cricket scores, Sadly it's too wide to display in the sidebar here, but it's a beta version so that may change.
B'ah back to work already!
Still, can't complain as the wedding was great I just need something else big to focus on. I suppose searching for jobs qualifies, but it's not so much fun. :D
Right now I'm just waiting for our official photos back, we've seen a few proofs and they look great; I can't wait for the rest.
One thing I would like to mention to any potential wedding planners out there. If you plan to supplement the official photos by placing disposable cameras on tables for guests to use then:
- Instruct everyone to use them to photograph the people on their table before they do anything else.
- Get lots of cameras. Really do, the wastage is pretty impressive. Despite our cameras allegedly being good quality (Kodak) lots of shots had artefacts. More is therefore better.
- If you really want lots of pics encourage guests to mail their own/post them up for you (at the event so you don't have to chase people up). It's probably the better solution given the number of people with digital cameras these days.
Gift.
Just a brief note of irritation. I must confess a dreadful and embarrassing habit, namely grocer's apostrophes. I don't know what it is about writing with a keyboard, as opposed to a pen, but I cannot help slipping in unnecessary and incorrect punctuation. I'm particularly prone to writing "it's" when indicating possession instead of "its", but that is the least of my mistakes; lately I've been writing "lot's" when I mean "lots".
What gives I wonder? I know it's incorrect but still do it almost by reflex. Perhaps I let the PC do too much thinking for me these days... I'm dumbing myself down!
Gift.
Well April fools is long past, but Rickrolling seems to be taking a while to run it's course. Some witty individual thought it's be a good laugh to bring a flashmob together in London Liverpool street station for a bit of rush hour light relief {Edit actually it was a Saturday... but you get the idea]. I'm not sure what the commuters thought but it is rather funny...
Gift.
Just finished reading another book, that may interest anyone who's ever been infuriated, bamboozled or just plain stunned by the weird way English people behave.
I must confess I don't agree with everything mentioned, particularly some "Class identifiers". However, it does a good job of explaining many strange aspects of English behaviour including, but not limited to, topics such as:
- What the hell makes us so interested in the weather anyway?
- Why are we so stand-off-ish?
- Why do we moan all the time (yes whinging poms)?
- Why are we seemingly reserved, yet prone to wanton acts of violence and bad behaviour?
- Why do we apologise for things that aren't our fault, or a fault?
- The importance of the pub.
- Our general lack of patriotism.
- Our seemingly inexhaustible capacity for hypocrisy.
- Humour, its importance and our supposed mastery of ironic wit.
- Queueing.
- Religion, or more accurately our lack of it.
Gift.
So as expected, my best man and ushers rose to the task of being fitted for suits with ease. Just as well too because sorting out the bridesmaids was a right pain. Anyway, I settled for tails rather than frock coats etc. and I should be dressed something like the bloke in this picture:
I'll have a gold waistcoat and cravat but the pattern will be slightly different, rather like this:
Which, incidentally, is roughly the colour (well not as powerfully purple) my best man and ushers will wear; they have to match the bridesmaids. We decided against top hats, chiefly because I look like an arse in them. Looking silly aside my friends really mobilised themselves when I needed them to, despite one of them having a small boy and pregnant other half to worry about, I'm glad I've got such reliable mates.
In other news, we finalised plans with the florist, the publican running our bar and chased down late repliers. The last item was not without issue, my family are terribly matriarchal and partisan so I've had to negotiate over my guest list to keep people happy. A bit bloody annoying but not unexpected, fortunately I've not had to invite any more people than I was planning due to various drop outs and well... it keeps the peace.
That said, although I've had a thoroughly exasperating time with my family at least I can tell what they want. Astraad's on the other hand frequently speak in code and requests arrive by a system of Chinese whispers. The latest incident involving speeches, where our policy was/is: the fewer the better. Wedding speeches can drag on if there are too many, and worse can be complete train wrecks, so to preserve tempers and face we settled on just two speakers. Obviously the best man has to make one, and the second I was going to be me combing the speech with the groom's thank yous and gift giving. We did ask Astraad's father if he wanted to give a speech, to which the reply was "I will if you want me to". That being the case, and knowing that Astraad's family don't care for big weddings (or that's the impression I got when her mother propelled at me for 20/30 minutes on the subject), we said "it's ok don't worry about it". Unfortunately though we hear down the grapevine, some months later mind, that his real answer should have been "Yes I'll be offended if you don't ask me". Sooo... we're back to the two speech plan but now it'll be Astraad's father then my best man, I'll just do thank yous. Not that I mind the new plan, but it's infuriating that I can't get a blessed direct answer unless one of them looses their rag (and sometimes not even then). Yes, I think it's fair to say between Astraad's family's mercurial desires and their very plain lack of enthusiasm for our wedding plans I'm quite fed up with the wedding logistics. >:(
Ending on a positive note, I am looking forward to the event itself and I'm getting pretty excited about it. Once we've tied up the loose ends, I'll be a happy man.
Gift.
Well I've been between MMOs for sometime now but my first love was Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). It ticked all the Star Wars geek boxes and, originally, was wonderfully free form and fun to play. Well as many people can tell you SWG was rather brutally dumbed down probably in a wasted effort to attract WoW players and it hasn't been the same since.
However, I don't want to go on an extended moan about the game's current short comings. No, this entry is here only to present a few choice screen shots that made me long for the old days, when most of my friends still played and I was happy being a force sensitive Master Doctor/Pistoleer.
Gift.
