Night out

Aah, the Mission, Edinburgh's glorious den of gothness. Well, to be honest, more a den of industrialness nowadays, but still it's all black clothes and makeup, so who really cares?

I sure as hell don't, as tonight provided all the usual entertaining stuff:
Inane Chat with Nick - "Behind you, the girl in the pink stetson and the furry cow trousers", "Behind you, the girl in the matt black shirt with the pure white hair!"
Traditional - Sisters of Mercy, Covenant, VNV Nation, et al.
Monstrous Noise - to wit, the utterly undanceable original EP version of Happiness in Slavery.
Campness - Manson's Bueatiful People followed directly by The Timewarp. Coincidental danciness or subtle musical comment?
Retro - The Human League's Don't You Want Me, The Utah Saint's Something Good, Dead or Alive's Spin Me Right Round and Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus. All I needed was some KLF and I'd have been in heaven.

And then, at the end, the music began it's headlong spiral into l33t3r-than-thou white noise, so I hung around for the more danceable end (Mesh, God Module) and then wandered home (about 20 minutes).

Whee! Haven't had that much fun in ages, must do it again soon. And, as I don't drink when dancing, the whole thing only cost a fiver. I'm half tempted by their New Year's party "Alternative Hogmanay" - I can certainly think of worse ways to see in the New Year.

Gack, have to wake up in 5 and a half hours to make sure Erin gets to her vocal training course. Sleep now.

Odd dream

Not a nightmare this time, but still unpleasant. Actually, I should clarify that - I have no objections to hideous events occuring in my sleep, I just don't like being terrified.

Anyway, I was somehow wrapped up in a Harry Potter meets Se7en plot by wizards to force-feed humans to death and then consume them as a delicacy. I think the phrase "Muggle Veal" came up at one point. I also remember someone being cursed to be lighter than air and a desparate scrabble to drag them down to Earth before they floated off. Pretty good fun, actually.

More info than you can shake a stick at

Belying the idea of this questionnaire (to come up with your own questions for each letter), I'm simply stealing the ones that sythyry came up with. This is down to (a) my feeble lack of imagination and (b) the fact that it may be 2:30, but I've only been up for an hour.

A - Age: 30
B - Best Man: Wins.
C - Choice of Weapon for Duel: Dragons.
D - Dream Interpretation: Semi-Random power fluctuations set off a variety of different sensors in the brain, indicating the presence of (say) fish, machine guns, a betrayer, exams and floating. The brain then frantically attempts to explain how the hell these all happened. Actually, that sounds like a fantastic basis for a game.
E - Ex (most attached): Gina.
F - Frequent Fearsome Food: Garlic Chicken. I try to keep the amount of garlic less than the amount of chicken.
G - Grimmest Accomplishment: Causing a nervous breakdown in Gina. I'd always wondered if it was me and a few weeks ago I found out it was.
H - Holiest Day of Your Year: Christmas. Not because I believe in anything to do with it, but because I'd be slaughtered if I didn't turn up.
I - International Conflicts: Are best stayed away from.
J - Jewelry: None. I don't accessorise with anything but innapropriately sloganed t-shirts.
K - Kool-Aid: was Jim Jones' weapon of choice.
L - Love: Erin. and too many other people to be able to reliably type all their names in without forgetting someone and getting in trouble over it.
M - Most Overrated Thing You Own: the Matrix on video. Honestly guys, it wasn't that good.
N - Name That You Can Use But Don't Really: 6 Gig MP3 jukebox. Mostly gets used for carrying files about. It does get used when I'm travelling long distance though, but that's not very often..
O - Octahedron You Love: Octarine, source of much enjoyment.
P - Pizza Toppings Your Parents Made You Eat When You Were Young: I never had pizza until I was 20.
Q - Question You Don't Want To Answer: But if that is Andrew, who are you?
R - Road Kill: Don't drive, so sadly lacking.
S - Sport To Beware: Watching any of it. Playing sprts is fun but I lack much of the tribal instinct that makes watching sports fun.
T - Television Show: Currently Malcolm in the Middle and Scrubs. Buffy when the new season hits the UK. Oh and the Simpsons is the perfect fall-back position.
U - Unnerving Habit: Hiding behind doors and then leaping out on people when they walk past.
V - Violence: So long as it doesn't hurt.
W - Winter: Generally lasts from late December to late January. Scotland's cold, but not that cold.
X - X me no questions, and I'll tell you no Y's.
Y - Your Name If You'd Been Born The Opposite Sex: Jennifer. No, I don't know why either.
Z - Zodiac Sign That You Would Like To Have Added: Dorothy, the Dot.

Nation Building

I recommend that everyone goes to www.nationstates.net and builds themselves a nation. This looks like so much fun. you pick a few basic details (flag, currency) and then answer a few questions to see what kind of country you'd create.
( Here's Mine )

(no subject)

Checking via the BBC's weather site, I noticed that my dawn is 8:27 and my dusk is 15:39. Wondering about my parents (400 miles south), I see that they have light from 7:47 to 15:50.

Can anyone explain to me how their dawn is 45 minutes different to mine, but dusk a mere 10? I'd expect the difference to be the same...

In fact, having just done a quick check, my "mid-day" is 12:03, while theirs is 11:47. What the hell's going on there???

Fire Alarm!

Last night, wandering back from seeing Guy in Hospital, we passed a bunch of fire engines. Fair enough, I thought, a fire. Must happen occasionally.

Apparently it was bigger than I thought. Basically, a 13 building area smack in the middle of Old Town (dating from the 15th century) has been badly damaged in the fire.