Christmas Lights Dilemma

I was out washing the car this morning. Aileen next door shouted over "Already this year?" - so I offered to hold her ladder while she fell of it. The neighbours are putting up christmas lights. Both sides now have pretty, flickering displays. The only lights we have are the ones which show through when the curtains aren't closed properly.

Anyhoo, the question is do I join the throng and add to the light pollution, or do I maintain my lofty disdain for such frippery - a stance which has been described as "humbug". A couple of years ago I managed a very poor display of old stock, which totally failed to set the neighbourhood alight, and so I'm nervous about making the same mistake again. Perhaps I'll see if anyone at the university has any spare lasers....

Open Day 360

We had our first open day of the admissions season today. I took my shiny new XBOX 360 (acquired yesterday after only standing for an hour in the rain) to show the folks that turned up. Well, we do run a games programming course.

Easy Mode

I was playing "Everybody's Golf" on the PSP when it suddenly said (in so many words)

"If you like, I can change to Easy mode. This will not affect your scores, but will make it easier to play"

Basically the game had decided I was not very good at it and offered to make things easier for me. At first I was annoyed but it did make it easier to play the game after that. However, I've since decided that I like the idea. In fact I like it so much that I want one for real life.

Perhaps one morning I could hear a ghostly voice which says "You don't seem to be doing too well. Do you want me to change to easy mode". After I have said yes the phone rings and it is Charlotte Church wanting help wth her new video and a envelope with my premium bonds winnings drops through the letter box onto the mat. I could live with that.

J'accuse

As part of the New Year Celebrations this year we invited a bunch of folks round to take part in a murder mystery game thing this evening. The whole thing had a vampire theme and I was the sinister butler of the "old master". Great fun.

The whole thing was run off the internet, you slap them some money using Paypal and then you get to manage a web site for the party, email invitations and instructions and get access to all the customised player instructions for download and print. You can find out more here.

University Dean in Tabloid Magazine Shock Horror

Went to see the dean today. I was waiting outside his office when my eyes fell on the magazines arrayed for his appointments to peruse prior to being ushered into his presence.

I suppose he gets it so that he can make sure he isn't being featured that week. Mind you, it was the one with Jordan's wedding in....