Hic Sunt Dracones

I have been here over a year, and I vaguely mean to write some kind of “100 Days in Sodom” discussion on the things wot are different over here like. But as of yet, I haven’t. So, a mini blog on the topic:

Public liability stuff is crap. A guy at work cut his finger (we have a smeg load of big red coffee cups care of Oracle, the handles fall off. Now he knows) and we went looking for some kind of first aid kit. Found one of the secretaries for another division on the floor and asked her if she had the / a first aid kit, and she said no, “we” (the floor) don’t have one. She asked if someone was dying, and and I said no, he’d just cut his finger and we were looking for band aides.

Oh I don’t think we’re allowed those. Because (and the patient chimed in here too) “you could be allergic to them.” Apparently public liability shiz is so messed up here that if your work place provided you with a band aide and you turned out to be allergic to it… you could sue the company.

Now this might not be true. But the powers that control first aid kits act as if it were true.

And that, sir, is dumb. (Allegedly).

NB: No, it is actually dumb. Definitively.

PS. <3 ACC

Digshby it’s the new hotness. Waz always suffered from the “Waz MH ‘Suck’ Build” of Miranda IM, and it looks like my boss has suffered a similar fate. Whenever we went looking for plugins to awesomise basic Miranda we found the site down. This went on for some months, and although the forums came to the party, my boss was underwhelmed. He is also had random connection problems and lost faith. I went looking for Kool aide. Fun fact, one of my ICQ contacts persistently shows as offline no matter what happens. Who knows. In his seeking he found Digsby.

It has all the bells and whistles. And somehow unlike Trillian I like it. It even comes in Mac and Linux is coming soon for Mac and teh Linux. I guess Trillian just bit me with it’s haha, that was free, now it’s not. Give us money, and I went, hell no! Miranda is pro. Also, I like the simple layout of Miranda I don’t need the eye candy of Trillian. (I run old school Winamp skin and I’m proud).

But Digsby does appear to have some pretty cool stuff going on. Including very nice notification pop / reply / chat windows that worked pretty well. If I can find a less cluttered skin for it, I might take a punt. Actually, for work, where I only use one protocol, I’ll try it, hmm as long as its history functionality doesn’t blow goats.

It’s closed source but if it all goes horribly wrong, Miranda will always welcome me back. Oh, and will need to check the history is not in some horrible proprietary format of suck.

Hmm, I’m rambling.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about:

Digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list.

And if you still don’t know. Then don’t worry. It also does the Social Networking (you’ve always dreamed of) and the Emailing (you might have dreamed of, once, but you were drunk.)

Oh, good news, it will also tie into Facebook chat… Yipee.

More importantly: TBALC presents Worm Flu and You. You better believe it does.

I just lightly burnt my fingers on my bedroom door. Not the handle, but the actual wooden door itself. I’m confident I’ve never done that before, and am vaguely impressed with myself, in a “wish I hadn’t done that” kind of way. It could have been worse, the door could have been on fire.

That would have been much worse.

I think I’ve seen all the Pixar films, except Cars. The trailer for that film really did suck and stupid “dag gum” character just failed completely to interest me AT ALL. Which given the low level normally required for that type of thing is pretty impressive. So, no Cars for me. Wall E though, that looks cool. The final(?) trailer is out now, and gives a decent view of what is actually going on.

Rup found Twilight which looks to be a retelling of the age old story “Girl meets boy. Boy is a vampire. Boy’s makeup is done by the guys who did the Lost Boys. Boy saves girl from a van. Boy uses super vamp powers for good or for awesome.”

Go look at Sam Rockwell. “Good thinking” in Choke.

Hulk Smash had the worst product placement eva. Edward Norton logs onto machine to look for Teh Data, NORTON 360 splurts onto the screen, whoring for all its worth. Ergh. Tim Roth normally rocks. In the Hulk, he does not rock so much. I blame the I’m British, I’m eeeevil.

Quentin Tarantino’s next film has NAZIS. Hurrah.

PS, I will look for you, I will find you, I will kill you. Qui-Gon, telling it like it is. (Note, he can’t fight a war for you)

PPS. Claire rocks. I have RED PLASTIC CUPS. Now I just need some friends (nearby) and I can party with RED PLASTIC CUPS (OK, I can technically party on my own, but that would be a weak use of said RED PLASTIC CUPS)

Cops come and try to snatch my props (to these films):

• Pamplemousse Productions’ (Mel’s) Amour Parfait. Which while rocking harder than you, does have a tad too much Prancing, not enough Dancing. Also play along with the kids at home to spot the Schlumpf!
• TBALC’s Ãœbermensch made it into the Christchurch finals, was nominated for Best Actress, Best Use of Character and WON Best Use of Prop. In doing so, TBALC also came away with the First Annual Paul Willis Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence. Which carries with it a hefty no money now, no money later reward. It probably did need a few more jet planes.

Hurrah for everybody.

Oh hi. Sorry for the downtime. I think Mog got a bit tipsy in Paris and knocked out a thingamabob from the watchamacallit.

I saw a map from Amnesty International the other day. The security through obscurity plan for NZ is moving forward as anticipated. Strange maps had my hookup.

My men on the inside tell me that TBALC knows how to use a hairbrush. That surprises me a little. Nic could have been a consultant I suppose?

We won hockey yesterday. Rock.

So, MAD respects to the Old School TBALCers who got themselves into the regional final of this year’s 48 hour film festival shenanigans. That’s right they did:

TBALC – “Übermensch” – Horror

WORD. Of course, it is to be expected.

And when I say “Old School” I of course mean nothing of the sorts. In fact this years team really had only a Ben on hand to lend any credence whatsoever to the proceedings from a canonical standpoint. And more power to them.

Dave was still smoking behind the bike sheds up in Blenheim when the few the brave the slack took up the gauntlet thrown down my… um… The Crude Busters? And these others… I have serious doubts they were even born. Still musn’t grumble.

Ben tells me that in the regional heats the crowd favour was not with TBALC. Oh no. In fact apparently those poor hoi polloi mofos rated TBALC’s entry “somewhere that was after 3rd.” Shows what they (the fools) know (not much).

I await the World YouTube Premiere Screening.

A discussion of NZ number plates erupted on “the IM”, and scorn was directed at the large print. I couldn’t recall that they were too different to the AU ones. So to the WIKIGOD and lo: New Zealand vehicle registration plates, with a single photo… “A vehicle registration plate of New Zealand in the rarely-seen style used in the European Union” Well now that is useful for my comparison isn’t it. Damn you free system staffed essentially by volunteers and helpful sorts. Get me another photo! To show the ongoing awesomeness (well, in terms of finding things out and compiling them in a place readily accessible for that time when you just so happen to need to know that certain thing), we have Australian vehicle number plates.

Which remind us that NSW is peopled entirely by wankers, “The First State” or “The Premier State”, that Tasmania is a joke “Holiday Isle” and that ACT is staffed by people of enormous imagination, “The Nation’s Capital.” Smooth. Real smooth. WA doesn’t even bother to try.

Man, I’m a real Wiki lover aren’t I.

Bonus: Claire sent me a present. And to celebrate, she bought herself an iPod. Win win I assume.