You have to love the US Post Office. If not, we'd all go berzerk and find AK47s and destoy them all! If it's Saturday, you can tell that I'm probably getting up disgustingly early to treck down to the local post office to personally pick up the -priority mail- parcel that the bastard postman lied about trying to deliver on Friday. I kid you not, this is a continuing saga with almost everything I order online that gets delivered here. I really don't know what it is with the parcel delivery crews. The regular postman is ok, well ok if you don't mind having your mail delivered after 4pm every day. But the parcel crew have serious issues. I have already escalated the situation to the Postal Inspectors enforcement unit and my local congressman's office. I suspect the postman on my route thinks he can do as he pleases because this neighborhood has a high percentage of immigrants who he thinks are afraid to complain. Wrongo buster, this girl knows how to complain.

Returning from the post office, parcel in hand, I made some coffee and settled in for 40 minutes on the phone this morning chatting with Alan mostly about business. Late in the afternoon, almost 5pm my time, 10 PM Alan's time, we met again online in Fed2 (Alan's new sequel to his originail game Federation - see the link in the left column. In cyberspace we chatted about family, his parents, the copy of 1421 I sent his dad, Andrew's studying for finals, going to WorldCons and finally as it always does the talk turned to the usual topic of couples far apart. The man is wicked. And he's very good at it. I'll check flights and tickets in the morning and see how quickly I can get back to London.

One of the semi-personal topics we talked about was the women who try to have a go at Alan. We both make it quite clear to people that we're in a long term comitted relationship so one wonders at the obvious moves of these women. Most of them come under the heading of "star-f'kers". In the internet games world, the Game Designer is the star and the target of would be Elf Princesses, Lady Pirates, Cyberspace Red Sonias and wannabe Fantasy Dominatrixes. They are generally so strange or socially dysfunctional that normal standards of reality and behaviour simply never enter the picture. It's the non-internet over-the-line flirts that we really wonder about. Since when has it become acceptable to proposition someone in front of their partner?

I can't believe I forgot the login info for my Gmail acct. Ok, so I never used it after I created it but still, I usually cut-n-paste the info into an email and save it in my regular mail files. Not there tho. Nor in my notebook I keep track of important info in. Gmail's lost info system sucks. Sorry but there's no other word for it. Very flip actually. Arrgh!

I spoke with Alan yesterday and it turns out that the robo-voice was his voicemail. Apparently BT upgraded their software or something and managed to delete his custom voicemail message and replace it with the robo-voice. He was muttering about demanding BT pay him 25 quid to replace the custom recording they binned.

At the time I phoned he was out walking. We've both gotten seriously into exercise, walking being one of the easiest and cheapest ways to do that. I however, have my home phone set to forward calls to my cell phone if the landline is busy or unanswered. If the cell call doesn't get answered, then it drops to voicemail. Much more convenient, I think.

Aside from the usual day to day activities of life which I won't bore anyone with by sharing, I was doing some work for Fed2 yesterday. We're creating a new purpose built front end for Fed2 and I was researching and collecting images for various objects. Not an easy task as many were quite obscure or imaginary:
The boxed set of highly polished Venusian opals.
The holo is an advance copy of a forthcoming Martian Studios
blockbuster.
The small casket is sealed with the seal of the United Church of Earth

I did manage to collect the whole set (or what I thought would illustrate them anyway) and send it off to Alan.

I finally set up newsgroups again so I can read messages from old friends like West and Greg. The nice thing about the internet is that it makes it so easy to keep track of old friends and keep in touch. The bad thing about the internet is that it sometimes makes it so difficult, for many and varied reasons, to keep in touch. I'm somewhat uneasy at how much I rely on email to keep in touch rather than just pick up the phone.

I feel like I'm up all night tonight. Tried to sleep earlier. Pah!
Did the usual, tried to relax and read. No dice. Tried phoning Alan, phone rang and rang and then a BT robo-voice answered instead of Alan's usual annoying answerphone message. I know Alan thinks the message on his answerphone sounds professional and sexy. It's not. It's simply annoying. I left a message with the robo-voice anyway just in case it was Alan's and something was wrong with his usual message service. If it was some stranger's, then he or she will either be intrigued and frustrated because I left no call back number or delete it and forget it.

On a different topic entirely, I found a marvelous new website when I was looking for information on heuristics. It's called Zen Haiku: Usability applied to life. I have a link on the left. Check it out.

Another night of massive thunderstorms. It's actually rather soothing and pleasant. Of course it didn't knock out my local transformer or cause me to lose power or flood my basement or any of the other things that would have me fuming and cursing the heavens.

Just before midnight, sudden thunder in the dark. Increasingly loud. Eventually bright flashes of light through the window's blinds. Now rain, somehow it sounds slow and heavy. Serious rain, penetrating and thorough.

Oxford 
As I mentioned in more detail earlier in this blog, Alan and I attended the annual ACCU conference in Oxford about 3 weeks ago. It was a pleasant and interesting week away from the usual responsibilities and aggro. The speakers were consistently excellent and interesting. I become interested enough in Python thanks to Anna Ravenscroft to pick up an excellent book on learning Python, it's listed on my book list in the left hand column here. I spent a reasonable amount of time wandering the streets taking photos, visiting the Ashmoleon museum, and poking about the old covered market.

It was interesting to note that almost all the speakers at the conference came with a wife/girlfriend, the few female speakers were all partners of male speakers. The attendees generally didn't but spent a lot of time looking longingly at any female.

ALan proposed that at next year's conference ACCU include a panal on Women in Programming. This was enthusiastically welcomed and approved. I spoke with Anna Ravenscroft, Jutta Eckstein, and a few other of the female speakers who agreed to be on the proposed panal. I think this will be a real winner on next year's schedule.

Oxford 

Oxford 

Oxford:2004 ACCU Conference 

Oxford: 2004 ACCU Conference 

Sylvan Terrace, NYC 
I walked to the local library last week and discovered this charming little side street of late 18th century houses. Of all things to find in Manhattan, three blocks from my house. And yes, I did enquire about a house there. I'll know more in about a month when the owner returns from Jamaica.

Editing this blog's template is not as intuitive or simple as one might think. I'm troubleshooting the new comments feature now. Later this afternoon I'll try out adding photos. Be afraid! Be very afraid!

I've switched commenting systems to try out Blogger's new native comments.

The Visitors

I watched a charming French film last night called The Visitors. The combination of French langauge and subtitles works very well here. (I think English dubbing would have been a big mistake.) My Fench is good enough that I caught most of the dialogue and the subtitles became almost invisble, just a useful almost subliminal poke to direct my mind on the right path as needed.

On to the film itself. Marvelous. Funny and charming, reflective as well about changing morals and manners, and an elegant touch of tristesse. And romantic in many ways.

I highly recommend you see this film. (If you can't find it locally to rent, I have the DVD and will lend it to you. This offer extended only to personal family and friends; you know who you are.) Yes, the film is THAT GOOD. Even if it is in French.

I just viewed a selection of photos of the Abu Ghraib prison tortures. I'm so revolted, so sickened. This is inexcusable. Period. There's no explanation, no excuse that will wash this away. Yes, I believe that the MPs/reservists/grunts who did the actual dirty work were ordered to do so. However, I also believe they were not told specifically what to do; they used their own sick creativity to drive their actions. They are no different than the concentration camp guards and NAZI MPs who were also acting "under orders". That several ethical and decent military personnel refused those orders, reported them to their superior officers with formal protests, and were BACKED UP ON ON THEIR REFUSALS! by said superior officers gives the lie to any excuses floated. Yes the DIA, CIA and civilian contractors must be held responsible for their illigal acts and orders but the rank and file who cooperated must also feel the full weight of justice. Looking at those grinning and gleeful faces tells it all. These people have placed themselves beyond the pale. All those good ole boys and good ole gals enjoyed their sadistic and indecent activity and proudly photographed it all - much like the Nazis proudly documented their accomplishments.

I'm completely sickended by the entire situation. I blame Rumsfeld, I blame Bush, I blame the entire pantheon on NeoCons and I blame each and every person who participated instead of refusing and protesting.

As an American Citizen I'm ashamed of them all.

Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count
the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet.
-- Dave Barry