Questions meme resurrected

As alwaysNow mine. From Risa:

1) Do you ever wish you could take up a musical instrument, or are you
just not interested?

Oh, yes,. When I was little I'd make squeeking noises on a recorder, etc, and then never got into any "creative" things whilst at school, and got *completely* left behind, so would basically be learning from scratch, but I would really like to learn something, at least enough to know the basics of music. There's a lot of things I want to do, I'm only very slowly getting round to them, but I'd like to take something up in the next year or so at least.

2) Sunshine or snow?

Ooh, a surprisingly deep one. Snow is nice, but nothing beats the way sunshine cheers me up just by being. (And being Reeve, take credit for it :) ). Rain is often surprisingly satisfying if not particularly happy though, but that wasn't an option.

3) Would you ever go into a relationship with someone who had a terminal
disease?

Oh my God, what are you doing to me? Um, yes. It would be awful, but life is a tragedy, and if I wanted them and they wanted me it would be better to take the good times and pay the pain after. Though you might need to make some compromises, it would depend on the situation. Um, you've nothing specific in mind, have you?

4) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? (Yes,
I am a scary cross between application form and women's magazine)

LOL at second sentence :) Um, I've put things I'd like to change on LJ a lot, I'll probably just refer you back to them. The key is that some changes wouldn't be me, so I couldn't wish them even if they would be cool, but others would be a completion of who I need to be :)

5) If you died tomorrow, what would you regret not doing?

Eek. Um. Again, probably the changes from the previous question. Wait, is that things I could have done, but didn't, or any things I would wish I had done? Maybe: Get a 1st, merit, and phd. Have a relationship of some sort with one (or maybe two) women we could have been perfect together if things had been only slightly different, but who I won't name. Knowing Grandma better. Writing a complete computer game. Having a threesome.

And from Geekette:

1. Where do you come from originally?

I was born in worcester, but Mum comes from Yorkshire, which I swear is a dominant gene.

2. What is your job, and do you enjoy what you do?

Generic programming, basically. won't name company in an unlocked post. It's pleasant, and a convenient lifestyle, but I think I need to find something I'm more passionate about sooner or later.

3. Gardies or the Van Of Life?

Van of Death, because they gave me credit first fresher's week when I left my wallet in my room, or preferably any real chip chop with proper thick crispy full chips.

4. What's the significance of your user name?

Don't expect too much :) I needed a username in a hurry when I signed up to a message board to respond to something, and chose it as a pun on "Cartesian Demon" (ie. Descartes question, how do we what we see is real, and not just contrived by a malicious demon (or matrix) to fool us?) which was a concept that interested me on and off, and "Daemon" as in computer daemon, just to be a bit different.

In retrospect, perhaps using something related to my real name would be simpler, as I didn't try to keep them separated.

5. What's the hardest thing you've had to do this year?

Crap. I don't know. Really good question. Part III finals just over a year ago. Asking someone out. Taking 'no' from someone else. Accepting when my life was a bit of a mess from simple disorganisation and fixing it. Nothing that compares to a lot of people.

Tim, move aside, your mobile has been out-retro'd

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/7830/

(A speaker/mike attachment for a mobile that is a landline handset. Really stupid, but worth it for just once using one in a field or on a train. (Yes, I expect mdavison got there first :)))

Greenenders recap week

Unfortunately due to budget cuts we were unable to film several episodes of Greenenders but because of continuity issues and popular request (*hug* miss_next) had to find some compromise, so are presenting several as concept sketches and plot summaries.

Ep1. Angelfriends at the Rainbow: In which Angel has a birthdayish dinner at the Rainbow, and other new people are met.

Cast: Angel, Jack, Theo, yrieithydd, the_alchemist, emperor, Mark and Naomi, choir people I didn't know before, atreic, Richard.

Epsiode notes: Sorry to Angel and Richard for Mao. It was nice to meet lots of people. It was amusing when we were retiring to emporer's and scooped up Richard going "Hold on, how do all these people I know know each other" because I'd already walked Angel to the station by then, and we'd picked up some other people by walking past a peterhouse choir party.

Ep2. Wallace and Grommit

Cast: Me, and the old friends from Trinity.

Episode notes: A good film. Mainly an excuse to save budget by sticking to one location and showing a canned film as part of an episode.

Ep3. Games evening

Episode notes: An effort at a product tie-in and making introducing a game to create some suspense: Pete finally introduced me to Magic: The Gathering.

I used Pete's simplest and coincidently most powerful deck, his beginner's having been left at home because it was never needed. I'd picked up most of the basic rules before, and put it together ok, I think, though I spent a lot too much time dithering and supplicating strategy advice.

The first game I won despite not having any land from random, the second I thought I was going to lose, getting shredded by interacting artifact golems, but then managed to bootstrap into mana and get half a dozen elves lined up with a couple of artifacts that made each proportionally as powerful as all of them and Pete saw 35 damage coming next turn and said it was over.

Continued next episode...

More greeneders DVD extras

Ep 4. Working way too hard.

This is hard to film, I think. It would have to be a massive cut, from a tableau of me leaving the house on weds morning to whizzy blinds transition with me returning late into friday night to find everything much the same but slightly settled, and that I hadn't taken the time to eg. check the freezer door was shut properly :( :)

I don't know how it happened. Things got put off, relied on other people, etc, I thought it wouldn't take so long, and then I found myself crunching, determined to finish by friday, and hence working wed 2pm to fri night 2am with only a 8h break wed night and 2h break thurs evening.

OTOH, I think I established a pattern of working which should prevent future such fuckups, maybe.

I don't know why I'm admitting this.

Ep 5. Saturday

An interesting but not coherent episode. Like Sim City perhap: a smorgasboard of three or four interconnected vignettes.

(a) Poohsoc. I missed poohsticks, but turned up to part of the meeting. Estelle got an innuendo. Rachel's sister and Rosy's mum turned up, who were mostly called Rachel or something too. We had the idea of printing poohsoc mugs[1]. Basic stand up comedy fair.

(b) Sally's dinner for miss_next. Lovely food, articulate, planning cambridge geography for miss_next's novel, lots of hugs and innuendo from mole, and a classic impromtu socratic dialogue on how to play. Basic sitcom fair.

(c) Slipping away to help Katie on the amnesty stall. They found someone to cover after all, but I stayed to chat for a while. Somehow, desptie everything, Katie makes my list of people I can always talk to, so you get an acceptable episode of two people just talking, but a chance to catch up on gossip, a few laughs, and to plug a good cause.

(d) Edith's pumpkin party. Random hair stroking by insane crackheads (not really). Nice soup (though I'd eaten). Nice larpers having an orgy on the sofa. Nick/Edith arguing about the chemistry of jelly and rolling around on the floor.

Susan is cuddly.

[1] c. £10 for a custom mug is fairly cool, neh? Less if you can find somewhere to get them in any bulk.

Last one

Whew. These could probably cut for the cinema release, but go back in the DVD edition. What other extras should I have? Custom Apples to Apples game? Computer games? Life advice? QUizzes? Anyway, to quickly finish the week.

Ep 6. Sunday

Went to london to see Justin and actually meet L, who seems nice, and catch up in person instead of endless phone calls and emails. I also met Angel in starbucks, but didn't go to church :)

Came back and went to games evening. Chrononauts is very silly ("If you blow up the universe, all players lose.")

Ep 7. Monday

Halloween/games evening at sonicdrift's. Didn't manage to dress up, but brought some games. Played buying/building/scoring for the most of foo game from Mobbsy, which probably would be fun now we know to play quickly, but bogged a bit while we debated strategy. Articulate. Cat girl porn. And lovely german jenga-like tower building thing.