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Below are the most recent 16 friends' journal entries.
| Sunday, May 18th, 2008 |
watervole
|
2:55p |
Dr Who: The Unicorn and the Wasp
So, how many Agatha Christie novel titles did everyone else spot hidden in the dialogue.
I cracked up as soon as the professor said "Why didn't they ask - Heavens!" (Why didn't they ask Evans?") and I think I caught about half a dozen in total.
There was 'Murder at the Vicarage', 'The Moving Finger', 'Sparkling Cyanide', 'Crooked House', 'They do it with Mirrors'
Darn it, I forgot to notice what time the young woman's train arrived. I wonder if it was the 4:50 from Paddington?
Who caught any that I missed?
Those who haven't seen it yet, see how many you can catch!
BTW - Donna is fast becoming my favourite companion of all time! |
| Saturday, May 17th, 2008 |
watervole
|
11:38a |
Nesting birds
Taken a brief break from gardening as the baby great tits were getting very noisy. I don't think the parents like approaching the nest when we're working. So, the babies get a food break and we get a tea break. (The parents were there with a beak full within seconds of us going indoors)
How do you get birds to nest in your garden?
1. Nest boxes. Particularly loved by blue tits and great tits. They work especially well for blue tits if there is an oak tree within a hundred metres. Also, having a shrub somewhere close to the nest box may be an advantage - the parents often like somewhere to perch where they can take a quick look around to be sure it's safe to approach the nest.
2. Ivy. Thick ivy growing against a fence or wall. We definitely have a pair of robins, and possibly a pair of dunnocks as well, nesting in our ivy this year.
3. Hedges. Prickly is best. We have a pair of blackbirds nesting in the hedge this year.
4. Pond. A reliable supply of water for drinking, a shallow area for bathing, and lots of plants to support things like dragonfly larvae that make such a tasty snack for young birds when they emerge.
5. Plants of every kind and no insecticides. Baby birds need soft food - they can't eat seeds, nuts, etc until they are several days old. They need insects, and that means plants. British native plants are probably best from an overall wildlife perspective, but all plants are beneficial to some extent.
6. Undergrowth and leaf litter. Our dunnocks and blackbirds just love rummaging through old leaves and bits of compost that I've spread around the raspberries and under the hedge. Yet more insect food for them (and excellent mulch for the plants)
You don't need a big garden (ours is fairly small), you just need to have lots of living things in it. Hedges beat fences hollow - and they don't blow down in storms either. Life attracts more life. |
watervole
|
10:02a |
Blog a book My free book arrived today - Li Po and Tu Fu. It's very technical, but I think I'm going to enjoy it. It fell open at a page of Chinese symbols with English words underneath and I was instantly in love! There's so much that's potentially interesting about Chinese poetry. In one sense, you can never get an exact translation, but in another, you can almost make your own translation. This one almost reminds me of 'Solmon Grundy'. Here's my own cheerful rough translation of one poem (I haven't looked to see how the book as put it into verse yet): In the middle of the river, waters flow towards the east. Lo Yang, maiden, still your grieving, Still your grieving. Thirteen, weave your fine silk, Fourteen, pick your mulberry leaves, working south along the row, Fifteen, wed, make Lu your family, Sixteen, live, and have your son. The noble Lu family have elegant pavilions, Strong beams of cassia wood, painted with gold. There will be fresh, harmonious scents on the top of your gold pin, twelve lines under the foot of your silk slipper. Of a five-figured design shall be the coral of your hanging mirror, Gleaming in the sun's rays. Silken-haired will be your handmaiden, carrying the box with your slippers. One can live rich, honoured, But for what purpose and for how long? Regret not, that you were not married, Into the Eastern family of Wang. Note that I've got most parts totally wrong, but it's still fun. In fact, I discover that she has twelve gold hairpins. It's hard to work out (as there is more pattern than punctuation) where one sentence ends and another begins. 'The south row' when picking mulberries is apparently an allusion to a well-known older song where the girl points out to the suitor that he is married already. So, 'south on the row' is the old Chinese literary equivalent of saying "I'm not interested" The bit about her grieving is also completely wrong. Having read the notes, her name is Mo-ch'ou - "do not grieve" which may not sound like a name, until you consider it as the equivalent of our name 'Joy'. Lo Yang is actually a place name. This - grin - is why scholarship makes a difference. I think I'm going to enjoy this book - I would never have chosen it for myself in a thousand years, so it's a good case of serendipity. |
| Friday, May 16th, 2008 |
redemption_con
[ steverogerson ]
|
11:53p |
Drazi points on offer
I have just been watching episode A13 Failed to Pretend of vampire detective series Moonlight (the episode shown this week in the UK). The scenes as the episode came to an end had a link with the third episode of season four of Buffy (The Harsh Light of Day). Five Drazi points for Redemption 09 for the first person to tell me what the link was. |
| Thursday, May 15th, 2008 |
redemption_con
[ steverogerson ]
|
10:47p |
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| Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 |
jonnynexus
|
1:21p |
From Monday Night's Call of Cthulhu Game
We've been getting very organised of late, writing down lots of notes about NPCs on index cards. Unfortunately, it's still me we're talking about, so I'm still having the following sort of conversation with NPCs.
Me: So... [looks at index card, sees that he has a book on vases] How's the book going?
NPC: [confused] Book?
TAFKAC: [Screaming] It was in his room! We only know about it because I broke in when he wasn't there and found it! |
watervole
|
11:29a |
Insurance
When you get your insurance renewal, always check against what you paid the year before. If you feel the increase is too much, then phone your insurance company. As long as you haven't made a claim recently, the odds are very high that they will drop the premium. I just got a tenner knocked off mine with no trouble.
(And, obviously, if they won't drop it, then you go and compare prices from other companies) |
| Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 |
jonnynexus
|
1:35p |
|
watervole
|
8:04a |
Redemption 2009 will be in Coventry I was up in Coventry this weekend for a Redemption committee meeting and had some time to explore the city. It's a city with a long history, though much of it was destroyed by bombing in the second world war. However, not all of the old city was destroyed. I was fascinated by Ford's Hospital - a half-timbered alms house with a tiny interior courtyard with wooden corner seats for the inhabitants. You can't go inside as the building is in use, but the exterior is well worth looking at. The churches took a lot of damage, but again, the destruction was not total - Holy Trinity church lost its stained glass, but this has resulted in some really lovely modern glass. I was attracted into the building by noticing the glass from outside, and was rewarded by a young, blond, beardless Christ seated in majesty on a rainbow surrounded by the saints. The church also has a rare Medieval wall painting - a 'doom' - showing the dead rising from their graves and the damned being pushed down into the pit. As the knowledgeable church guides will tell you, you can pick out the alewives (giving short measure?) clearly there among the damned!  Coventry cathedral didn't survive as well as Holy Trinity did. The building was bombed beyond repair, but the outer walls remain and the building has been retained as a reminder of Coventry's work towards peace. Coventry peace crossesThe cathedral was a much older church that only became a cathedral in modern times and the first bishop of Coventry was to be there during the first world war. One of the very few things to survive the second world war in the interior of the cathedral was his effigy and there is something very poignant about seeing him lying there with the bronze model of the cathedral still held in his hands. From the old cathedral, you walk down a wide flight of steps to the entrance of the new cathedral. There's good modern architecture and there is bad. This is good architecture - plain and dramatic. It's made of the same red sandstone as the old cathedral, but without the marks left by fire. The outside is plain, but the inside makes dramatic use of modern stained glass. Here is the south window.  You have to stand well back to get the full impact of this window. I spent five minutes or so, just standing and absorbing it. If you walk down the cathedral towards the altar, you won't really notice the side windows as they are angled away from you, but if you reach the end and turn around, you will see them, floor to ceiling all the way down each side. Gorgeous, abstract, brilliantly-coloured, stained glass. Fabulous! No, I'm not going to post a picture. Pictures don't do it justice. And Redemption? The convention hotel is bang next to the cathedral. So if you come to Redemption (and you are, aren't you?) then you have no excuse at all for not visiting the two cathedrals. And the Museum of Transport which is full of cars, motorbikes and commercial vehicles and the like and is both modern and free to enter - and just over the road from the Redemption hotel... I want to register for this wonderful convention, I hear you say! (you mean there's a convention in addition to Judith's love affair with stained glass?) BTW, as an extra incentive, did I mention that Paul Cornell who wrote Dr Who episodes like Father's Day and Family of Blood, is now on board as one of our guests. Happy smile! (He doesn't just write well, he's a good speaker too - I've been in the audience) PS. If you try to register and don't get a confirmation email, let me know. |
|
leisuregames
|
9:55a |
New Releases - 12th May 2008 |
| Thursday, May 8th, 2008 |
jaxi
|
1:58p |
ATTN LJ FIND, PLEASE DELETE ME FROM YOUR SEARCH ENGINE!
ATTN LJ FIND, PLEASE DELETE ME FROM YOUR SEARCH ENGINE!
Several users have requested to have their journals removed from ljfind. We have now completed this feature so can permanantly remove journals from our search results.
To do this please log on and post a comment here requesting it, we will remove journals and then remove your comment once done
Thanks
Leon
Please note: Ljfind is not associated with the Livejournal service, and is a seperate entity
WARNING: Only do this if you are sure you dont want other people reading your journal.Doing this may lead to a large reduction in traffic to your journal. |
orbital_2008
[ steverogerson ]
|
5:41p |
Paul Cornell will be a Guest of Honour at Redemption
We are pleased to announce that Paul Cornell will be a guest of honour at Redemption 09.
Paul is best known for his work as a Dr Who writer, but his experience is much wider, and we will be making the most of that on the Redemption programme.
Those of you who saw him at Orbital, will know he is an entertaining panellist and we are sure he will make a great guest. A biography of Paul will be going up on the Redemption web site in the next couple of days. |
redemption_con
[ steverogerson ]
|
5:41p |
Paul Cornell will be a Guest of Honour at Redemption
We are pleased to announce that Paul Cornell will be a guest of honour at Redemption 09.
Paul is best known for his work as a Dr Who writer, but his experience is much wider, and we will be making the most of that on the Redemption programme.
Those of you who saw him at Orbital, will know he is an entertaining panellist and we are sure he will make a great guest. A biography of Paul will be going up on the Redemption web site in the next couple of days. |
| Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 | |
leisuregames
|
4:04p |
Graduate Your Game and turn your D&D 3.5 PHB into a nice new Exalted 2E Rulebook! GRADUATE YOUR GAME With LEISURE GAMES & WHITE WOLF Closing Date: Friday 16th May White Wolf is giving away free copies of the award-winning Exalted Second Edition! We’re offering you an opportunity to break out of the Dungeons & Dragons cycle, and graduate to a new kind of fantasy game. We’re confident that once you step up and experience Exalted’s world of epic fantasy and larger-than-life heroes, you won’t ever want to search another 10 x 10 room again. Why play a rehash of the same old game, when you could be exploring Epic Fantasy Re-Imagined all summer? WHEN DOES IT TAKE PLACE? Fans who want to graduate from D&D have until 16th May to sign up to receive their free Exalted book. Supplies are limited, though, and once all 2500 books have been ordered, that’s it. The free Exalted core books will be available for pickup at your local store during Graduation Week (June 2nd -7th). WHERE IS IT HELD? Exalted: Graduate Your Game is being held at Leisure Games, 100 Ballards Lane, Finchley, London, N3 2DN. Email: shop@leisuregames.com Telephone: 020 8346 2327. HOW DO I PARTICIPATE? In order to become one of the 2500 graduates to receive a free copy of Exalted, you need to bring in a copy of your old Dungeons & Dragons Revised Third Edition (3.5) Players Guide for a one-for-one exchange, fill out a form with you contact details and then come back and collect your new Exalted book during Graduation Week! Offer limited to one copy per person. |
|
leisuregames
|
1:08p |
Leisure Games Presents: D&D Day @ The London Dungeons - Friday 6th June D&D 4th Edition NewsUK gamers (or indeed anyone willing to make the trip!) are invited to join Wizards of the Coast, the UK D&D team, and Leisure Games in celebrating the UK launch of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition at The London Dungeon. The event takes place the evening of Friday, 6 June in central London. Tied in to Worldwide D&D Game Day, which takes place the following day, the UK launch party will feature 4E play in the form of the WWDDGD adventure, along with D&D miniatures, Three-Dragon Ante, and Inn-Fighting. In addition, we’ll have snacks, drinks, and a load of dungeony goodness. Best of all, we’ll be joined by the UK WotC and D&D staff, along with lead 4E designer Rob Heinsoo, who’s coming all the way from Renton, Washington in the US. Rob will be available to answer questions, share a few secrets and sneak peeks, maybe run a couple encounters, and generally hang out. Last year, Leisure Games and WotC hosted a WWDDGD event at The London Dungeon, and it was a real blast. With the unveiling of 4E, we’re looking forward to this year’s event being even more fun. Festivities kick off at 7:00 PM and run until midnight Friday, 6 June. The London Dungeon is at 28 Tooley Street, SE1 2SZ, adjacent to the London Bridge tube station. Admission is free, but there is a limit to the number of people we can accept so you must sign up in advance. To sign up, contact Leisure Games at 020 8346 2327 or mike@leisuregames.com. |
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leisuregames
|
10:20a |
New Releases - 5th May 2008 |
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