Shooting and sudden death down with the kids

It is important to realise that, as you inevitably get older, there will come a point in your life when it is futile to try and get "down with the kids" and that any attempts to do this will just label you as desperate and sad. In my case this happened when I reached 12 years old. And today I was reminded of it again.

The students had organised a "FragFest", a computer based entertainment involving linking computers together via a network and then running programs that let the students pretend to kill each other. All good fun. I thought I would go along and run a post-ironic eye over the proceedings. I took along my bongo drums and the Gamecube because they were fun too.

A great time was had by all. I went and fetched my XBOX and TV so that I could take part in some of the carnage. Unfortunately I forgot the TV remote so that there was no way I could actually see the XBOX display, but the thought (or at least some of it) was there. It turned out that all the action was on the other computers so this turned out to be no great loss.

So then I cracked and went and fetched a laptop so that I could take part in the online shooting. There was no way I could be the worst person there? Except that I was. Time after time. Even the computer controlled players could beat me easily. And some of the things they said to me were quite insulting.

I not good at these games. My tendency to stand and ponder the finer intricacies of strategy before deciding what to do is not one of the best ways to play a fast moving shooting game. So I got shot a lot. So then I started running around aimlessly. And got shot a lot and fell off the edge a lot as well. Ho hum.

We finished around half-five. Everybody neatly and carefully packed up their stuff and left. I've put some pictures on my Spoke blog. I probably wasn't down with the kids as such. But I had a good time. And I will be back again. Well, somebody has to prop up the leadership board...

Haircut Sir?

I got my hair cut today. Not the first time ever, but the first time in quite a while. When I have enough for bunches I reckon that it is time to go and have a bit lopped off. The girl that cut my hair was new. "It's my first day" she said as she snipped away. "Oh, I've been coming here for years, as have all my family" I replied, helpfully raising the possibility that if she got this cut wrong she'd not just lose the business my long standing custom, but also a whole load of people.

The haircut is fine. I'm not an expert on haircuts. But number one wife (and even number one daughter) seem to approve.

Happy Endings

Ha. Worked fine. Must be cleverer than I thought. Or at least cleverer than me. Celebrated by running the tumble drier all night. I knew it was working OK when the whole downstairs started to shake. Now I'm worried about the state of my joists....

Bad Omens

Oh well. The washing machine seems to have decided not to spin dry any more. It sort of goes through the motions, but fails to get up any kind of turn of speed. It is either a clever load balancing thing which has decided that washing a single towel is a bad idea or the motor has run out of puff.

As a kind of "kill or cure" we've just put in a load of assorted things. This will either work fine and prove the happy theory or both prove the sad theory and leave us with a huge pile of wet washing.

I can't wait.

Good Omens

I arrived at work this morning to park in the last free space in the near car park. Oh happy day. I did this just as the record I was listening to finished playing. Oh happier day.

The fact that I reckon these are good things is probably more of a comment on my nature than anything else. Anyhoo, I walked to the office expecting at least news of a major lottery win waiting for me. And not one which involves paying large sums of money to someone in Amsterdam as "customs fees".

Nothing. But then again, the day is not over yet..