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Unlikely as this may be, if any of you AGS'ers are carpet fitters living in the Sussex area that want to fit a carpet for me before New Years Eve, then please get in contact. There are milk and cookies and all sorts of wonderful things in it for you. You can meet my cats even. They're super nice cats. You're gonna love them loads.

Dude I am not kidding, that list of bad things is pretty bad. Beating up sisters and attempted suicide? You need help. And no, I think it's pretty safe to say that the rotten eggs weren't a sign from god or a punishment. I mean, if I was going to punish you for all that crap then I'd do a lot more than just give you an iffy egg and sit there chuckling to myself while you broke it into a pan.

- A really effing good espresso maker (a real one...! I couldn't sleep last night because I was so jittery...)
- A pair of the best pyjamas ever, which I am now wearing...
- A pair of pink mittens and a woolly hat
- All three Dexter books!!!!

Yes of course I was joking, I was trying to make fun of the way that some girls behave sometimes...

I don't like the sound of Meredith. I know women who fit the description you've given of her... women who try to act laddy and say unnessecarily outrageous things to try and be funny through shocking people. I know that it really really irritates me greatly, though I don't get offended... I just avoid that person...

There's something though that's worth mentioning... with women a lot of the time there are subtle things that they do to purposely annoy each other, while glossing it over with "pretending to be nice". Men usually never pick up on this, but women do. I've been in this situation plenty of times. In school and college, if two girls hated eached other they'd very often be "best friends", and it seemed the only reason for this was so that they could pick up little secrets about each other for bitching about later! And also they could make remarks to each other that were "intended to be nice" but in fact were masked insults... such as "oh your hair is so messy today, you're always so messy Jane! I love that about you, that you don't care how you look!"

This happened to me once before with a girl who had a crush on my boyfriend. She was very close with him, being a friend, and then would say things that I knew were said purposely to annoy me... while all the time acting like she was one of my best friends. My boyfriend didn't believe that she was saying those things to be malicious... she would say things like "don't you think a little bit of makeup could go a long way on you?" or talk about lending me her clothes and then say "actually they probably wouldn't fit you, you're a few clothes sizes bigger than me aren't you?"

So I hated this girl very much, but my boyfriend thought that she was "cute"! He thought that this behaviour was just her being silly and airheaded and he found that endearing!

Could the situation between Meredith and Anita be similar?

(Incidentally, I have planned for this Christmas when my boyfriend's ex-girlfriend inevitably invites herself around. I'm going to answer the door with our two new cats in my arms, pretend not to recognise her for a moment, and then say, "oh, lee-anne!" (which isn't her name), and when she corrects me I'll apologise with an irritating little laugh, then invite her in to our newly redecorated, recarpetted house. As she's coming through the hallway I'll yell out to my boyfriend to tell him that she's here... but I'll mispronounce her name slightly wrong, even though she's just told me what it is. Then I'll make her comfortable on my new sofa and offer her a cup of tea.

While I make the tea, I'll feed the cats a little too so that they hang around me and she doesn't have a chance to stroke them. I'll talk about how the cats are a good judge of character and my boyfriend and I have learned never to trust anybody that the cats don't trust. Then when we're in the living room again...   while she's stroking the cats, I'll turn on the anti-cat device I bought last week, that emits a sound inaudible to humans but that makes cats freak out. Nobody will know I've done this, but the cats will appear to hate her. I'll do it every time she approaches them.

Subtle yet highly evil... )

Congrats Ivy, your entry is amazing!

[Number 1 .... called something like "The Wizard Who Painted The Sky?]

Once again I call upon your help.... and no, I couldn't find the answers on google.... and yes I did try...

I'm looking for some books for Christmas, books that were childhood favourites of mine, that I want to give to my little sisters.

I can't remember their names or enough about them to track them down, not even my mum remembers.

So if any of you could identify the childrens books I'm thinking about, from the descriptions I am gonna give, well you win my love


Number 1 .... called something like "The Wizard Who Painted The Sky?
I remember this story was in hardback and about the size of an A4 sheet of paper (though I was about 5 at the time, maybe it just seemed big). In my memory, I remember a wizard (he looked a bit like Rincewind from the Discworld Game, in my mind). I think he was sad that the world was so dreary, so he decided to paint everything. Or maybe he accidentally cast a spell that caused lots of rain, and caused all the colours of the world to be washed away? Or maybe the world was already black and white, but he was a giant so everyone hated him? I really can't remember, but all of those sound likely! I think he took colours from a rainbow to paint everything... he started with the sky and then the hills and so on and on... It was beautifully illustrated on every page and so, so magical.

EDIT: could this have been a book called "The Wizard And The Rainbow"? This book exists, however I can't find any information about it on the internet so I don't know if that's the one I'm looking for! Does anybody have this story?



Number 2
I really really remember very little of this story, so I won't be surprised if nobody knows what I'm talking about! All I remember is that... there were kittens or cats. And they got lost somehow? And in the end they were... I think I remember the end illustration of them being under/on/in a cupboard? Sorry, lame description... it's seriously all I can remember so I doubt anybody will get this...



That's all for now, I'd seriously appreciate if anybody could name these stories... particularly the first one (not so much hope for the scant details I've provided for the second one... all I can remember really is the happy feeling it gave me to read it!).

Thanks!

You can still enter today as it's the 12th of December

They are accepting entries up until Midnight!

http://www.doublefine.com/news.php/forums/viewannounce/467_22/

Enter it nowwww!

Hey guys,

My computer is weird. In the past two or three weeks (since the cold weather has REALLY set in), she's started to freeze a lot... but ONLY in the morning!

When I first turn her on in the morning, she freezes at various stages for no reason, forcing me to reboot. An example would be as follows: I turn her on, check my email, she freezes. I reboot, she freezes on the startup screen. I reboot again, read the internet for a bit, and she freezes. Then after about 20 minutes of being turned on, she is perfectly normal for the rest of the day. In fact, I've kept her on for three days non-stop now, and not a single problem have I had.

Why is she such a bad morning person? Does anybody have any idea what could be causing this? My boyfriend keeps his PC in the same room and his works fine, so it can't be just because she's cold.... ¬¬

Lovely article on BBC... the opinion of one UK Sudanese man: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7122562.stm

[The Muslim Council of Britain reacted angrily to the news, saying it was "appalled" and demanded Mrs Gibbons' immediate release."This is a disgraceful decision and defies common sense. There was clearly no intention on the part of the teacher to deliberately insult the Islamic faith," said Secretary-General Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, in a strongly-worded statement."We call upon the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, to intervene in this case without delay to ensure that Ms Gibbons is freed from this quite shameful ordeal," said Dr Bari. Sudan's top clerics have called for the full measure of the law to be used against Mrs Gibbons and labelled her actions part of a Western plot against Islam.]

Exactly. 99% of your personality and thought process is formed through your experiences in life. If you'd been born in Sudan, you might well be offended by the bear being named Mohammed, because it's the culture you've been brought up to think is "right".

And really, who are we to say that we're more right than they are. We only believe that freedom of speech is right and lashings are wrong because that's what our society has indoctrinated in us to believe.

I think that, considering that one of "our" people is in Sudan, suffering for this ridiculous "crime" when her only intention was to be a good person and to help and to educate... I think then it gives us a right to judge whether what they do is right or wrong.

If all the barbaric people stayed huddled together in a little island and never bothered anyone for all eternity, then it would be none of our business what they decided to do to each other. The fact is that their barbaric behaviour effects people in a negative way... be it this teacher, or their own people. Sudan has terrible, terrible human rights, and I think the level of suffering in the country should speak for itself as to whether it's right or wrong.


Except from BBC news today:


The Muslim Council of Britain reacted angrily to the news, saying it was "appalled" and demanded Mrs Gibbons' immediate release.

"This is a disgraceful decision and defies common sense. There was clearly no intention on the part of the teacher to deliberately insult the Islamic faith," said Secretary-General Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, in a strongly-worded statement.

"We call upon the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, to intervene in this case without delay to ensure that Ms Gibbons is freed from this quite shameful ordeal," said Dr Bari.

Sudan's top clerics have called for the full measure of the law to be used against Mrs Gibbons and labelled her actions part of a Western plot against Islam.[/i]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Sudan


I've said this before I know but, I also don't feel the need to respect religions if they are executed/practiced in a way that I find offensive. I'm not going to purposely try to attack people about their religious beliefs unless they do something, personally, to me that I don't like. But I'm not going to pretend I find them okay either.

This situation with the teddy bear is unbelievable. Some of the parents have now come out and said they find it ridiculous too. One of the children has said he misses his teacher and acknowledges that he was the one to come up with the name, based on his own name. Why is this woman being held?

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1294455,00.html

It's so sad that so much of the world is so, so backwards.

I'm very happy with it. I live in the south east of england, I never have to wait more than a day for an appointment, my GPs are very lovely.... I've never been to a hospital here though (no need to yet).

I'm also happy with dentists here, though I've heard lots of bad things... I've never had to wait too long for an appointment, didn't have trouble signing up with a clinic even though I'd never been to a dentist before in my life (I've heard tales about them not accepting patients who haven't been in  along time as they'll need a lot of dentistry work done... incidentally I needed no work done). They were very kind, patient and also affordable.

I'm very happy with the healthcare system in the UK. I'm very disturbed by the american healthcare system though.

I was in a similar situation to you, Oli, when I was in school/college. Basically, I did not smoke and, when I did drink, I enjoyed a nice glass of wine in the comfort of my own home, or a nice organic ale in my garden in the summer. I hated getting drunk and being around drunk people, I hated being in loud pubs where I couldn't hear anything, and I hated going to clubs.

In school, it made it quite difficult to have good friends, as it seems to be for you. I didn't WANT to go clubbing and get drunk on cheap alcopops, when I could be at home in bed, playing RE4 with a glass of wine or a cup of tea, and some snacks. It didn't make sense!

Since leaving school I've met people who are way more like me in that regard. My boyfriend and I, as sad as it sounds, rarely go to pubs and never go clubbing. It's just not fun. We spend our weekends in our living room with games, books, movies and music, our two cats, some wine and lots of good food

So, I wouldn't worry about it, you're not some kind of sociopath or something. In fact, I totally think that what you do is far preferable to what almost all teenagers seem to do these days, and I'd rather hang out with you than them!

PS I agree most alcohol doesn't taste nice, but try a nice wine or an ice-cold organic ale... yum yum!

And now they're giving a free DVD away to everyone who enters

http://www.doublefine.com/news.php/forums/viewannounce/378_22/

There haven't been any entries yet since it was only announced like yesterday or something. Is anybody going to enter this?

I just went and bought two pumpkins but I have no idea how to make them Double Fine-y. Oops.

I purchased the most recent Freezepop album online. I then bought my favourite tracks on iTunes, because the CD was going to take a week to arrive and it was only 70p per track. Then I downloaded a torrent file of the entire album because even though I own one and a half copies of the CD legally already, I can't actually put any of it on my MP3 player because of all the copy protection.

That's stupid.

Had I not actually really liked Freezepop, the temptation would be - as it is with most bands - just to download their music already ripped, for free. That way I can put it on my MP3 player, I can do whatever I like with it.

I would really, really honestly be encouraged to buy music more often if it wasn't for copy protection. It's so stupid because, clearly people can easily get around the copy protection and upload the songs for the entire world to download for free. All it really seems to do effectively is stop people who legally purchased the music, from being able to enjoy it.

I feel very reluctant to pay £10 for a CD full of music that I will rarely actually get to listen to, unless I'm sitting on my PC at home.

It's like saying, "Oh! You bought it! But you can't actually DO anything with it."

Er... sorry this was a bit off topic really. Sorry. Rant over.

Yeah, apparently there has been an increase in fleas this year as the hedgehogs have been dying away, so they're seeking other hosts... yum yum.

Radiowaves: Animal fleas can still bite humans. Cat fleas in particular tend to bite around peoples ankles and feet, so it's one sign that your cat has fleas


I repeated the dosage only of the flea tablets, as recommended by the pet store. Apparently it is safe.

The flea collar I'm only keeping on them until the fleas are under control... this to discourage them from ... well, being on my cat, I guess. I'm not a massive fan of flea collars, but I'd rather have them on my cat then for my cat to experience continual discomfort from fleas.

I have a lot of experience with animals but unfortunately I've never had a cat with fleas before. I guess I have been lucky... bah.