Simon Callan

You could knock me down with a feather!!!!

For the past few months, I've been reading a comic called Phonogram, all about music and it's effects. I think it's one of the best comics I have ever read, comparable to Sandman and Transmetropolitan.

When phonogram 2 came out, I wrote a letter to the creators about the way it made me feel. They've only gone and published it in issue 6!! While the thought of this possibility did cross mind when I wrote it, I never actually expected this to happen. I now wish I had put more effort into writing it, and I'm in a bit of shock.

Definitely the highlight of the week, if not the month or year.

Just had it confirmed that I'm not getting the contract job I interviewed for. As expected. I didn't have the testing stuff they needed, but they were otherwise impressed.
I have mixed feelings about that. While I was unlikely to have accepted the role, I think I would have liked to be offered it.

Having had my iPhone for a few weeks, I think I can honestly say that I really like it and would be lost without it. I just have a few incredibly minor quibles.
1. Charging. The USB connector on my mac book is only powered when it is on, unlike the FireWire connector. This means that I cannot simply plug it in and leave it to charge overnight, but have to use the seperate charger, which means pulling out the cable and swapping it around.
2. The charging cable is too short to allow me to use the iPhone in bed while it is charging.
3. The M key is too close to the delete key, and I keep pressing the wrong one.
4. The beeper speaker is right where my little finger goes, so I keep blocking it and losing the key click.
Apart from that, I think I love it.

Looks like I might be buying a car. At least, I had a quick look around the local second hand car place, and there are a few possibilities.
The thing is, I don't know if buying a car is really worth it. Most of the places I go are reasonably accessible by bike or train. It would help with visiting the family, but apart from that I don't know.
Of course, the fact that the only way I can get around is by bile or train might explain everywhere being easily accessible by these methods. Are there places worth visiting that having a car would causes to visit them?
Hmmmm. Thinks

How does anyone manage to like this socialising stuff? I'm trying to do it, and I'm flipping terrified. I feel like chickening out of doing this, though I'm going to try my best not to and to make this a successful event.

I might be going out on Friday. Actually, I am going out, unless I chicken out.
There's this social meetup site, which has a social group in Basingstoke. They hold regular-ish meets, and i've signed up, and said that I'll go to a meet this Friday. It should be fun, if it's not too terrifying.
The social balance of the meet is interesting - 11 female and 3 males, which should give me plenty of chances to screw things up.

After I finished with the castle, I started back down the Royal Mile. The first interesting thing I encountered was the camera obscura. Despite this sort of being deprecated on AFP, I went in. As the weather was bad and camera obscura's don't work too well on inclement weather, I got a discount. The CO itself actually worked quite well and was interesting. In addition, they had a museum of optical toys, etc that was also worth the price. The only problem was the long climb to the top and then back down again.
After this, I had a quick look at the wool mill exhibition, which was a bit of a disappointment.
I then decided to try to find fabhatrix, which wasn't that hard. I had done a bit of wandering earlier, and missed the hat shop by a simple corner. They had a nice selection of hats, and while I didn't buy any this time, I think I will go back and buy a couple. There were a variety of hats there - some very close one ls that remind me of the sort of thing that flappers would wear, and some that were more like top hats. I think I am in love.
Dinner was at Monster Mash again, but I had the steak and kidney pie, which was frankly disappointing.

After dinner, on the way back to the hostel, I was acosted by a young lady who wanted to know the way to somewhere. After saying that I did not know, I remembered the map thing on this, and with some work, we found her address. Further along, I passed some people playing with fire poi, just a they put them out.

After arriving at the railway station, I decided to walk to the hostel. Generally a good idea, except that the instructions provided for people new to the area assume a certain amount of knowledge of the area. With the aid of google maps, I was able to locate the right starting point for following the map and started the walk. It wasn't to bad a walk except for the thing I think I am going to have to get used to - this is not East Anglia, and has a lot of up and down bits. Tiring, but I expect the exercise was good for me.
Checking in was easy, except for a previously unmentioned credit card surcharge.
I am in a six person dorm, and there are four other people here. At least two of them are university students. though I don't know if this is a permanent stay or just while accomodation becomes available.
I think it's time to find food and shower gel, the one thing I forgot to pack.

I'm on my way to Edinburgh, with about 30 minutes of train time left. I wasn't certain that I was going to go until late yesterday when I booked my hostel space - a bed in a shared dorm. There wasn't really any point in getting a private room, as i'm not intending to spend much time in it.
As usual, getting ready got delayed until the last minute, but again, as usual, I got it all sorted with minutes to spare. As a matter of fact, I'm actually running early due to catching an early train at Kings Cross. Sitting on a train is oddly tiring, and I'm looking forward to reaching the hostel for a chance to rest. That is, if I survive the 20 min walk to get there.