neuro.me.uk

It’s time for another Cram Post, Neuro Style.

june » to san francisco for a couple of weeks to acclimatise to linden lab culture and processes, very chilled yet productive fortnight, i can now convert pounds sterling to/from US dollars and PDT to/from BST in my head; july » had great fun trying to procure a macbook pro for work, to wolverhampton for lugradio live 2007, gave a quick talk and demo about second life, got more enjoyment out of picking up an xbox 360 on the cheap, to brighton for the develop conference and a linden recruitment event, beer is not cheap in brighton, got to meet peter molyneux and aleks krotoski which rocked – aleks, the pigeons are still not safe!, saw the simpsons movie – basically a 90 minute episode of the simpsons and that’s not a bad thing, housemates who moved in here in march are moving out to a bigger pad near glasgow *schniff*, the geekha.us shall continue tho!

Got back from Develop at Brighton at the weekend. Got some choice quotes from the couple of days I was there.

• “Do you do a fish butty?” (asked in the fish and chip shop next to the Hilton Metropole)
• “This is fucking awful!” (said by an unknown woman to Peter Molyneux outside the Hilton)
• “I’m on the same panel as the guy who created Loco Roco!” (said in gushing tones by an conference attendee)
• “There’s nothing serious about a My Little Pony butt-plug” (overheard by accident at an after-conference meal)
• “You’ve been drinking all our fucking booze!” (an irate gamesindustry.biz employee getting a bit stroppy)

Got a letter through from my local council, telling me a local play area — swings, slides, other public-body approved child death traps — has “been put forward as a site for environmental improvement”. The real genius part of it is this:

Please refer to the enclosed plan for details of the proposed scheme. The planned improvements represent a substantial investment and commitment to improving environmental quality within Kildram.

Yeah, that’s all well and good, but where’s the bloody plan that was meant to be enclosed? I’d have more confidence in the council’s ability to refurbish steps, redesign footpaths, add lights and railings, and so on if they could only … you know … stuff paper into envelopes?

This surely says it all:

Gary Caldwell scores for Scotland against France, Hampden Park, 2006-10-07

I was in McPhabb’s for this game, and the atmosphere was unbelievable. What a great day to be a Scotsman.

Oh, view the French reaction too!

Coke Zero is here, and those who know me know I love anything Coca-Cola related. So a few weeks ago, just after it launched here in the UK, I bought a 500ml bottle of Coke Zero to try, along with a bottle of regular Coke, and left them both overnight in the fridge to chill — as you should all do with Coca-Cola.

The next day I tried the Coke Zero … and was bewildered to find it tasted — at least to me — exactly like Diet Coke. Which I hate. With a passion. And this was meant to be Coke, without the sugar, except it tasted like Diet Coke with slightly less gallidium arsenide. And that’s when it dawned on me that there must be some greater purpose to this drink. It couldn’t simply be a new drink to sit alongside Diet Coke if it tasted the same, so what could it be?

Of course, I hadn’t seen any of the new TV ads, nor had I seen press mentions of the drink, clearly showing Coca-Cola are targeting blokes my age with the drink. So what can this mean?

I think I’ve got it. It’s not just a brand to target a diet cola drink at 18-35 year old blokes, it’s a brand to target Diet Coke specifically at 18-35 year old blokes. They’ve realised that, for better or worse, Diet Coke is a girl’s drink. What man in his right mind would order a Bacardi and Diet Coke, for example? It’s interesting to note that Coca-Cola have also launched Coke Zero into the “licensed channel”, which means it can be served in pubs and clubs. “Yeah, a Bacardi and Coke Zero, mate, cheers”: could this be the new cry of diet-enlightened men across the UK?

God help us all.

cram post á france » thursday 6th july > trip down to portsmouth, hot as hell on the m6 toll, nice smooth sail overnight on brittany ferries; vendredi 7éme juillet > en france, lunch with friend jc who owns l’equinoxe bar at agon coutainville, crashed hard after reaching the gite near coutances; samedi > spent the day in gévezé for stage 7 of le tour de france, beers at half ten, vin rose for lunch, coffee on the way home dimanche > lazy day, gutted at france being put out of la coup du monde on penalties; lundi > lazy day, finally started watching season two of lost; mardi > went to villedieu-les-poêles for the weekly market, usual mix of fruit+veg, faded-in-the-sun DVDs and leather wallets — left with today’s international herald tribune; mercredi > visited memorial at caen — huge memorial site commemorating wwii and the cold war, met up with friends starting their holiday in coutances today; jeudi > lazy day, picked up new sony headphones, munchies at oncle scott’s country restaurant et bier mexicaine, found the horse soldiers on arte in english with french subs — woot! — then packing, packing, packing; vendredi > bastille day: vive la france, last minute shopping, un grande dejeuner á l’equinoxe, nice leisurely drive to cherbourg, high speed ferry back to portsmouth, ; saturday > » sore back, had breakfast with amanda, back still sore, warm drive, ow back, home, unpack, ow back, collapse, ow

A tale of woe from Aled, a fellow mailing list subscriber: the West Brecon Cave Rescue Team has had their rescue Land Rover stolen. How low can society go?

If they haven’t repainted it already, it has CAVE RESCUE in big letters down the side, and it’s registration is X338 DCY. If anyone spots it, please contact the police immediately.

If you come accross the bastards who stole it, please show your (or my) displeasure by beating seven different shades of shit out them. They’ve rendered that team non-operational now potentially putting lives at risk in south Wales until we can find a replacement for them.

See more on flickr.

There’s more information and photos on the rescue team’s website, and Aled has yet more detail on his blog.

If you’re in the area and you know anything about it, let the relevant people know.

Update 16:00: the story has now been covered by BBC News.

What?

I’m 32 years old on the 30th of March, 2006. This means it’s time for another drinking bash which, since 2004’s debauchery[1] was nicknamed “neurothon”, I’ve decided to call neurothon II: revenge of neurothon! As usual, my birthday seems to be falling on a random day — Thursday this year — so I thought Saturday the 1st of April would be as good a time as any to go for some beerage. Last time we completely deviated from the gameplan, so I reckon this year should be much more flexible in so much as not actually having the day/night planned out beyond the following …

• 12:00 BST Meet up in McPhabb’s, off Sauchiehall St., Glasgow.
• 12:30 BST Scottish Cup Semi-Final: Gretna v Dundee [2]
  This game should be bloody fantastic!
• 15:00 BST Meet up in McPhab… erm, haven’t we done this?
  Yeah, but I thought a later meet up time for those who’d like something to eat, a drinkie or three and want to avoid the fitba!
• 20:00 BST Errr …
  See? I haven’t thought that far ahead.

[1] Cheers to bigkevmcd for reminding my alcohol-riddled brain that neurothon I was two years ago, not one. Bast.
[2] Cheers to kkujawa for pointing out the semi is Gretna v Dundee. *sigh*

As always, whore that I am, my amazon.co.uk wishlist is at http://tinyurl.com/2zotj if you’re feeling benevolent / mental

When?

Saturday 1st April 2006, from around 12:00-15:00 BST til whenever the same/next day/month.

Where?

McPhabb’s, Glasgow. Then onto … somewhere else. Eastwards into the City Centre? Westwards into the, um, West Bit? Let fate decide!

Who?

Hopefully me and a big group of my friends and colleagues, but realistically it could be me and a small stuffed monkey called Wiggy. Don’t let this happen!

Why?

Why go out and have drinkies with friends? Seems like a good idea. Why not go for a huge semi-planned blowout like the first neurothon? Pfft, I’m getting auld!

How?

Start in McPhabb’s around 12 noon in time to get some beers in for the fitba. If you can’t be arsed with watching 22 guys kick a scary white ball around a field, turn up for around 15:00. Here we can get some munchies, drinkies, guid Guinness and it’s pretty easy to get to from the tube, bus or trains.

This is also a good gab/munch/drink staging point for anyone who wants to come along and gi’me ma dumps, but don’t necessarily want to engage in full on evening debauchery.

McPhabb’s can be found at 23 Sandyford Place, Glasgow, G3 7NG — it’s just up Sauchiehall St on the left hand side, away from Charing X in the the direction of Glasgow Uni, Kelvin Hall, etc. There are some wee reviews of it at the nightb4 website.

There’s no planned route of escape this time — not that we followed the last plan — so we’ll see how it goes.

Can / Can’t?

Sure, just let me know by email or by phone that you can or can’t make it.

Amusing Sign-off?

I really, really hadn’t thought that far ahead.

Glasgow Herald: Why the Pope Should Visit Ibrox: isn’t it obvious? The International Society of Flying Pig Watchers needs somewhere to hold their inaugural meeting. Harry Reid makes some sensible points, but let’s face it – it’s hardly going to happen, is it?

Dippy Bint

Originally uploaded by neuro.

This dippy bint, driving a Citroen with number plate R734 TSR, decided to track the inside lane of slow moving traffic two miles from the roadworks ahead. She eventually pulled in at 800yds. This is the second time I’ve seen someone attempt to take the road traffic laws into their own hands in 7 days; I’m getting a bit pissed off about it now