Neil Hopcroft
A digital misfit
Linkblast….
“Demonstrable anomalous gravitational effects reproducible in the laboratory, which reveal the prospect of anti-gravitational action, are discussed. It is shown that the theory does include features which can explain observed anti-gravitational effects.” – Of spinning tops and bumble bees…
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“I will define our goal thus: by any means necessary, to render the Earth into a form in which it may no longer be considered a planet”
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A type III civilisation?
“We might as well race our squawk boxes until the dark clouds settle upon us all”
Tense shoulders. Can anyone in the Cambridge area recommend someone who could give me a massage to lighten them up a bit? Or suggest some other way to relax them?
“Khoshnu is not going to be charged with a crime but that she may have to pay for the search and destruction of her luggage, which could cost about $10,000″
What do you do when a passenger jokes about having a bomb in their luggage? Put the luggage on a plane but keep the passenger on the ground. These guys really need to do something about their procedures. As for destroying the luggage upon arrival – if it *did* have a bomb in it would have been very obvious, one way or another, by the time the plane came to the ground.
stay behind the yellow lines, so that no one gets sucked up by passing trains
Weird day. Off to Hunstanton – pictures posted already – I’ve been meaning to get to the seaside since I got back last year. It was snowing for a good chunk of the journey up there, but not much settling, sadly, I was hoping for some pretty countryside, but at least that meant the roads weren’t particular difficult driving. But what is it with the fenland drivers?
Theres two types – the fast and the slow. The guys in their beamers and mercs are pushing 90 as they glibly overtake along sweeping country roads through the falling snow, while theres people in the fiestas and metros struggling to get to fifty. I was following one of these thinking they were being ultra cautious because of the snowy conditions, until we got to a roundabout when they pull out immediately in front of someone coming around to turn across their path, thankfully no bent metal, just a good bit of braking. Not cautious, just an appalling driver.
Of course I probably fall more within the beamer category than fiesta, but I would like to think I at least pay some attention to the prevailing weather conditions.
Arriving I found most of the car parks closed, so headed toward the town centre, where there was plenty of space in what is, during summer time, the horrendously overpriced short stay car park. While the snow had stopped by this time there was still a rather fresh breeze coming inland.
The beach was devoid of people – I was the only one there, appreciating the full force of the weather. Time to trawl around the arcades to find pinball machines – there were a couple of note. The Lord of the Rings film tie-in was a nice tight machine, I’ve not played such a new table for a long time, Trocadero back in the old days was probably the last time. And a martian attack table of some kind, I don’t remember its name, which was a far better integration between the table and a computer screen being projected onto the glass to give the impression of hitting computer characters, previous tables I’ve seen using this concept have suffered from trying to be pinball and a computer game all in one, this was a pinball game, but one made more interesting by creating computer animated targets as well as physical targets.
Then, after lunch I headed up to the clifftop, where the carpark was closed so I just pulled up along the clifftop road. Pausing in my car for a little while before wandering over to look out over the sea. I was somewhat shaken when I got there to find adverts for the Samaritans at frequent enough intervals that they couldn’t be ignored.
*snap* I fell out of the happy world I was in where it was just a bit cold and blowy, back into the real world where I’ve really got some thinking to do, to figure out where things go from here[0], for a moment I contemplated the fencing and intricate hedgework they’ve created all along the clifftop. This, maybe, is to stop the ‘one-over’s, or perhaps is to give more structural integrity.
Walking back across the grass I was aware of eyes following me – the family in the car next to mine drove off when they realised they weren’t about to witness a jumper, in search of another untidy suicide. Voyeurs.
[0] Note: no cause for alarm!
Yesterday morning I headed out for walk around the fenland – heading over to the river, Baits Bite Lock. There was a beautiful delapidated lockside house on the far side from the village – sadly just been sold, so it’ll be renovated soon.
Theres alway something powerful about water running over wiers – I could stand and watch for hours, its like a baby man-made waterfall, I suppose.
Then I headed north along the riverside, running pretty much parallel to the railway line. This is the kind of countryside that will look really lovely in early morning mist, as if I’m likely to get up early enough to see that, ha. Wonderful old knarled trees, arranged in an avenue following the course of the river, some of which have rotted with the damp and just fallen over.
Waterbeach showed some of its marine history, someone had a bouy in their garden, they’re rather large when not in the water where you only see the flashing light on the top.
The shop assistant seemed overly polite – I can’t work out whether this is because they don’t have many outsiders, she was new to the job, she was always like that or she didn’t trust me. Maybe a combination.
Outside, the first seat I tried had lost all its slats so I had to wander across the green until I found one that’d take my weight. Its kinda nice sitting on a village green watching the world go about their business around you.
Further through the village I found a bit of the historic Car Dyke, a Roman waterway connecting Waterbeach, Peterborough and Lincoln…a site that’ll be worth visiting again when I’m not feeling tired and wanting to go home.
At the end of the road from the village, where it joins the A10, there was what looked like an empty field – perhaps the kind sometimes inhabited by horses – labelled with a large flapping banner writen in Japanese. Sadly I couldn’t understand it, even reading the kana, enough to know what the field was for.
The A10 itself is far more friendly to walkers and cyclists than the village roads in the area – most of the way you have to walk on the soft grass verge, or on the mettled road getting out the way when a car wants to pass.
While I was out the direction of the wind changed noticably, bringing cold air from the north. This morning I was lying in bed thinking ‘that sounds like a storm, but doesn’t look like one’, clearly todays snow doesn’t give the sky that angry look.
“You’re in luck – pizza is just a few key strokes away! While playing EverQuest II just type /pizza and a web browser will launch the online ordering section of pizzahut.com. Fill in your info and just kick back until fresh pizza is delivered straight to your door.”