Category: Self-ish

Train from Edinburgh to London Kings Cross
Tube on Circle line to Paddington station
Train from Paddington to Heathrow
Plane from Heathrow to Hong Kong
Plane from Hong Kong to Sydney
Plane from Sydney to Wellington
Automobile from Wellington to Lower Hutt
Much-needed shower
Automobile from Lower Hutt to Wellington
Much-needed sleep.
Now back to work!

It is Monday morning in Edinburgh. The last two weeks have been packed with stuff. I am on a bit of a bliss rush from seeing so many wonderful people in such a short period of time. But real life is clawing me back and in a couple hours I get on the train to London, then the plane to Hong Kong, then to Sydney, then to Wellington.
This is my second time leaving Edinburgh. I’ll be back to do it again.

In Winchester, with groom Leon and best man Ado, waiting for the bride.

Leon on the right, me in the middle, Ado on the left.

Tomorrow morning I’m on the plane to the UK for two glorious weeks of London, Winchester and Edinburgh, including the reason for the journey: the wedding of The Most Revered And Regal Leon, King And God, to the wonderful Laura.
I’ll be back in a few weeks. Blogging will be low. Anyone in London who doesn’t already know about the Weds post-work picnic catchup, give me an email. Plans in Edinburgh are still disorganized.
And following the discussion and extensive advice I received here, just now I finally got off my backside and carbon offset my flight at CarbonZero.com. Total carbon emissions 7867.54kg CO2-e; offset cost $270. Worth every cent. They even gave me a certificate to prove it.
Next task is to pay back the good soul who loaned me money for the tickets…

I just became one of those people who withdraw money at the ATM and then walk away without the money.
Its all downhill from here, folks.

[this cry for help also appears on LJ]
Help! Computer people!
I woke up yesterday and my laptop was unable to make use of the internet. I figured this was some passing issue at the service end and didn’t stress too much, but here I am 24 hours later and the problem continues.
Caroline’s laptop is doing just fine on the same wireless connection – I’m typing this on her machine, which is sitting right next to mine which stubbornly does nothing.
I just can’t figure it out. My machine says it is connected, and all the checks and diagnostics I know how to run say everything is working fine, but it just isn’t *doing* anything. There’s no packets coming in. It can’t connect to a website, it can’t ftp, it can’t make any sort of connection to the world outside.
I won’t have a chance to call any Support people until tomorrow at the earliest, so in the meantime I ask of you, my computer-wise blog-reading friends – WTF? What has happened, and what can I do?
Grah!

ORC, the roleplaying club I started in Edinburgh in 2003, had its fifth anniversary this weekend gone. I allowed myself a moment of pride for kicking the whole thing off, then felt even better that so many wonderful people had picked up what I’d done and taken it even further.
Over on Gametime, the NZ groupblog of roleplaying discussion, I’ve been talking about the process of getting ORC going in the first place. It was quite an important time of my life, putting into practice something I’d only talked about before. Its something that is still important to me, and I’m sure it isn’t the last time I do something like this.
One thing I don’t talk about in those posts is the commitment involved, though. It was a big deal – for the first year, nearly every Saturday afternoon I’d be down at ORC teaching people how to roll a d20. Even after the first year I still attended far, far more than I missed. While other Kiwis on their OE took weekend trips to Europe, my weekend trips were to the Fantastic Realm (a.k.a. the Caffe Nero on Rose Street). Bless Cal for putting up with me!
Anyway, if you want to read about my experience starting a club from scratch, the first part is here, and the second part is here, and the third part isn’t written yet.

So that thing GMail does where it autocompletes the email addresses? Handy, except when it tricks you into emailing an assignment to the wrong person.
But imagine my surprise when the wrong person replied, attaching an assignment that was completed by their 6-month old son…
See how Dom did here

The 2nd year Social Psyc class I’m TA for just had its first lecture.
My intention is to try not to get thrown off the racehorse. Staying on track = bonus.

Just signed contract for my new job. I’m now the manager of the Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research at Victoria University, very conveniently located in the same department where I’m doing my Masters.
So the freelance gigs and casual stuff are now thoroughly on the backburner. I start Monday. It’s only part-time of course but, yeah. New job! Neato.
I shall be celebrating on Saturday night at Rumpus 08: Rumpus vs Episode. You should come too, if you are in Wellington this weekend. The Rumpletron lives again!
(Have I ever admitted that the name Rumpus comes, not from Where The Wild Things Are, but from Miller’s Crossing?)