Neblog Archives
It's more of the archives for the Neblog. I.e. stuff too old to be
on the main page.
Get it? 
Thursday, July 1st, 2004
Today wasn't all bad, short-staffed in the call centre due to an illness
and the supervisor interviewing today (for a new girl and, ahem, my
replacement
). Her
majesty was actually in a talkative mood for part of today, considering
mentalo was the ill one, which was a pleasant surprise (her "coming down
to our level", that is, and not mentalo being ill
). Had a
bit of a 'mare Scrabble-wise, Maven kept on kicking bits out of me, but a
rally in my third game (INFORCED, anyone?
) took me
too a good 50-point win, considering I play against Maven at a 1580 level,
it's not too bad.
It's the
Lincoln tournament in 3 weeks, my "home tournament", let's see how well I
can do, eh?
Also, this Saturday, I'm off to Nottingham to get formally inducted into
the sphere of Gambler. It's all about the skill of chance, you know...
Also, commiserations today to Stewart Holden- gone in six days from being
the Countdown Grand Champion to the first one eliminated from Memory Bank.
Still, he
was up against some staggeringly good opposition.
#1 Thought of the Day
Ah, Stewart Holden, the man who introduced me to not
one, but two, hardcore board-gaming circles. How much more bored I would
frequently be if that hadn't been the case.
Tuesday, July 6th, 2004
Wow... five days to report on. Okay, where to start...
Saturday in Nottingham absolutely ruled.
I now
consider myself to be a Gambler
fan and no mistake- trust me, Monopoly is boring by comparison. Who wants
to earn £8 rent when you can win $500 000 on a high-stakes card bet, only
to lose it immediately afterwards? Not to mention the delight of seeing
the games creator, one Mr. Charlie Towlson, dance around after making over
$1 000 000 in one run.
Had a
game of Scrabble afterwards, as well, against Jared Robinson, one of the
elite Nottingham Nomads, a player currently rated in the high 170s- and
the result was 440-310 to the Nebagram!
As
Stewart Holden commented afterwards, that's a scalp and a half- easily the
best player I've ever beaten, quite probably the best player I've ever
played, with the possible exception of Mr. Holden himself.
Work has been alright, nothing too ground-breaking, but our customers
(those of the stereotypical occupation which I believe I've mentioned
before but won't her for fear of reprisals) are really starting to depress
me. I've been there far too long, thank god I've only got another
couple of months.
Creatively, I'm chuntering along nicely- Varsety Forge is my #1 concern at
the moment, once I've finished episode 1 of that (could take a while, I'm
packing a lot into it) I'll get back to concentrating on TCW and The
Scarlet Blades- and not before time. The original concept for TCW is four
years old and the Scarlet Blades is a veritable whippersnapper at eighteen
months. Still, at least it ain't as bad as Green Ten- Eight years and
nothing beyond the Artum poem.
#1 Thought of the Day
To quote one of my all-time favourite songs: "Just
gotta get out... just gotta get right out of here..."
Friday, July 9th, 2004
The
irony here is that I am typing this entry with the strains of U2-
"Beautiful Day" in the background.
The irony
comes from the fact that these have been about the worst three fucking
days of my life.
I'm
spending just about every waking minute (which is most of them, I can't
get to sleep before 1AM and then I'm usually terminally awake by 6) in a
state of near-depression. Multiple causes:
My grandmother is dying.
She turns
85 at the end of this month, but the doctors reckon she'll only barely
make it out of the year.
Considering she's been the cornerstone of our family for as long as I've
been alive, this is a situation I am not exactly warm toward.
Work is shit and getting shitter. I've had it with my co-workers, they're
so far up their own arses that if they go any further, the suction
power'll probably take the rest of the galaxy with them.
No bad
words must be said against them, I am the kickstand for the rest of the
call centre, and if I don't like it, well, that's okay, I don't count.
I finally
snapped today- I just emailled her Majesty straight out and informed her
of my perspective on things. However, she's so thick-headed I doubt even a
bloody wrecking ball'd get through.
University have told me I need to get a week's experience working in a
primary school environment before September 20th to be accepted into
college.
Yeah. Good one. Tell me that AT THE END OF THE FUCKING
TERM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've
barely been able to scrape this together as it is, now I have to pull
another fucking rabbit out.
My computer bloke-ified itself again.
This is
being typed a mere half-hour after a real system crash and a reinstall of
Windows, I'm praying (it's all I have left) it will work, if it doesn't I
just don't know what I'll do short of a full format, which would just
destroy me, I've got almost a year's worth of files on this PC to lose
them in a split-second.
...Sorry about that. I don't usually let out any feelings beyond the odd
vitriolic burst, but today needed to be an exception. Another point of
depression coming up: bugger all people are going to read this and even
fewer are likely to leave comments...
#1 Thought of the Day
Something happen. ANYTHING. Please, something good
happen to me, I'm not fussed what.
Tuesday, July 13th, 2004
Well, the computer re-install didn't work, and I have been left all
weekend with a machine malfunctioning worse than HAL 9000 after a seizure.
touch
wood, I have hopefully cleared it, it's behaving normally for the time
being, but I wouldn't trust this PC as far as I can throw the bastard.
I'm so
worked up about this fucker my appetite's down, which hardly ever happens.
It's even
affecting my bloody Scrabble, which cannot be tolerated.
Lessee...
Work- so-so. My colleagues are still acting like humans for the better
part, so I have no complaints there. I've even managed to line up two
potential candidates for the primary school work experience (see below for
more details as to what I mean), at one of them I even have the option of
name dropping on a grand scale, so I could very well be in big-time.
As I mentioned, this bloody comp problem is screwing with my
concentration, meaning my Scrabble output is down somewhat right now, but
I'm still learning words like a demon (or daemon
), top 600
sevens and eights down, at work on the next 300 sevens (to take it up to
top 900) now.
Maven and
club games going apace too.
I, having now been officially Christened "Blackjack Wilson", have been
invited to a Gambler meeting at the Holden residence on Thursday!
'Twill be
me vs. Stewart, Gary Male (who I'm looking forward to meeting), and Clive
& Sheila Spate. Full report on Friday!
...And no one commented on my heart-wrenching post below.
Thanks,
this may come as a surprise to some of you but I'm not steel-plated- I do
have emotions at times too, it would be nice if they were acknowledged on
occasion.
#1 Thought of the Day
No one out there really "knows" me. I mean, they're
aware of my presence, they recognise my face, my voice, my handwriting, in
some extreme circumstances, even my typing, but no one really "knows" me.
This gives me an air of mystique alright, but it's bloody lonely at times.
Friday, July 16th, 2004
The
last few days have, amazingly, been fairly good- my excursion to
Nottingham was great fun, meeting Stewart, Clive and Sheila again, and
meeting Gary Male for the first time- I also managed to extend my Gambler
winning streak to... um... two, doing it with style, no less- winning a
whopping $2 000 000 on the horses! God bless you Last Chance Saloon!
Breaking
the bank, no less.
One $1
000 000 move and a flight to Vegas later, and I was the winner.
It truly
is a wonder this game hasn't been put out on the shelves in Woolworths-
100 are available for sale on ebay right now but IMO you're still better
off buying one from Charlie direct- and I do recommend it, strongly. You
will be wisely investing in a game that is like Monopoly, only more fun-
and you will be entering a community of total fanatics who still go
bananas over winning a $200 bet.
Anyway, enough of the advertising, what else...
Computer seems to be fixed. I ran a live update tonight (which is
what usually makes it go goo-goo-ga-ga) and everything seemed
alright, but I know I'll turn it on tomorrow and it'll be fucked.
Work has been alright, I have my placement for the start of term next year
(to get me into the university I want, with a week to spare) so everything
there is peachy for the time being...
Oh, and I'll be heading down to West Bromwich in August to play unfeasibly
large amounts of Scrabble.
Until later, then!
#1 Thought of the Day
I know I should sit back and enjoy it while it lasts,
but I just can't get this sense of pessimism out of my head...
Sunday, July 18th, 2004
Well... pretty uneventful weekend, actually.
PC bloke-ified
itself this afternoon, but (touch wood) it looks like it might be a
one-off, it resolved itself first time, which it hardly ever does, so I'm
cautiously optimistic there.
Maven's been beating my arse a lot too, but my word-learning skills are
really coming to the fore. By the BMSC (which I sent off my application
for today) I'm hoping to have mastered the top 1500 sevens and eights (not
too unfeasible, I tore through the third 300 sevens quickly enough), along
with Stewart Holden's "keys to victory".
Lincoln
tournament next Saturday, 6 games, should be a good indicator of where I
am at the moment.
Three
wins should feasibly improve my rating, but I want a clean sweep.
I'm
probably going to try to introduce my workmates to the joys of Gambler at
some point in the future as well.
UK
championships this October!
...Wrote some more of TCW as well!
I'm
definitely at a point where I can be considered to be "on a roll". Part 11
should be coming in short order.
Now, if
only people would read the damned thing...
Oh,
reminds me-
Writing projects as of 18/7/04 (status in brackets)
The Chosen Warrior (in progress, 3-4 y)
The Scarlet Blades (in progress, 1+ y)
Green Ten/Assignment: Earth (note taking, 8y)
Cyber Fantasy (note taking, 2y)
Between the Darkness and the Light (note taking, 2 1/2y)
-Italics indicate that I don't even have a title for
it yet- always a sure sign that it's a good 'un.
During a
huge creative purge about four years ago, I was coming up with titles
almost as fast as I could write them down- I've still got a lever arch
folder full of projects that never got off the ground. Actually, one of
them even morphed into TCW in the end, so it wasn't all a waste.
#1 Thought of the Day
Who will read my stories... who
will read my stories?
Thursday, July 22nd, 2004
Circumstances (i.e. me being bone-idle as crap) have rpevented there from
being many neblog entries as of late- this one's only a short one as my
computer only got switched on (post-minor-(touch wood)-blokeification) at
half past 8, due to a massive thunderstorm.
2 inches
of rain in half an hour! What are the odds of that happening?
Lessee,
the last few days...
Work-crap. The customers are entering the "arsehole" period where they
seem to be under the delusion the sun shines out of their arses.
Especially this one customer who hasn't paid us any money in over two
years, and not been on support for 18 months, suddenly sending in a fax
out of the blue as if the whole period of time has been a blissful dream.
Even when I broke it to old Pam Ewing that her support was well out of
date, she left in an "well, is this the kind of service I expect"
attidtude?
Hmm... lessee... NO MONEY, NO FUCKING SUPPORT!!!!!
I would
have thought the whole principle was a simple enough one, wouldn't you?
Scrabble- Lincoln tournament this Saturday!
I've been
in a fairly rich vein of form as of late against Maven (well, I have
dropped a few clangers) so I'm hoping for good things.
That's all for now, I'm off to crunch words.
#1 Thought of the Day
Taken from the
c4countdown
forum:
Given that women are supposedly, on average, a lot brighter than men,
their track record on Countdown (male series champions outnumber female
ones 9-1, and with c of c's it's 10-1) is none to spectacular...
Sunday, July 25th, 2004
Boring few days, really- apart from the Scrabble tournament, in which the
one and only Nebagram came a very respectable fourth!
Gained an
extra four ratings points out of it (to take me to 100! woo!
), not to
mention the £10 prize, but it was the manner of my defeats that really
grated- losing the first one by nine, even tighter than any of my
first two gutting defeats at Bourne, really grated, and the other one I
was never in danger of even touching my opponent, racks like AAIUUTV
really do take the piss big-time.
Still, no
harm done in the end, I had a good time (aside from burning my mouth from
eating my fish and chips too fast
), and
came out of the whole experience feeling richer. Because I was.
Nowt much else really happened, I suppose- been a fairly dull weekend.
Hope to
have more to report on come next update (probably be on Thursday, if not
Friday).
#1 Thought of the Day
Where would we be without Atari?
Friday, July 30th, 2004
Okay, a whole week to report on...
work= shite. Loads of obnoxious customers and few employees to deal with
them. Can't give a shit any more, roll on September 3rd.
scrabble= meh. However, I'm at the point now where I can see the mistakes
I'm making, so hopefully I'll soon be at a point where I can avoid making
them! A
511-239 win on Monday also helped, but getting flattened at Melton Mowbray
on Wednesday didn't.
Writing= I have started a new project.
Yes, yes,
I know, several current ones need to be dealt with first, but I had the
first two pages all written in my head. Always dangerous. Will go up in
the bloc once I've finished the first dozen
pages.
Also, I have been dragged into an online argument, basically centred
around a) the right to remain anonymous and b) expressing an opinion about
someone's integrity. Point a) is usually valid, however, in this case, I
help run a forum where anonymity is not allowed except when he user has a
valid excuse (i.e. "I'm only 12" or "I'm under witness protection"). When
confronted about this, the subject in question will always change
the subject and pretend not to have heard the question. It's actually
quite sad, really. I'm currently in the middle of mediating an extremely
depressing argument about this so I'll stop here- I've just had said
subject bitch on at me for a good hour now and I have to go back for round
2 in a bit so I'll tank up on booze and get ready.
Ta-ta.
#1 Thought of the Day
There are days when I wish I had a gun...
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004
Wow... off-season for the Neblog again. Okay, lessee what the last few
days have had in store for Mr. Nebagram man...
Saturday was my Nan's 85th birthday party, which we celebrated with a
barbecue at my brother's house. It was an affair of mixed emotions,
happiness at the whole family being there and sadness as it is a high
likelihood that it will be my Nan's last birthday.
Still, it
got her out of the hospital for a few days, and into the company of her
family, which can only be good.
I have officially won the Lincoln Scrabble club "B" league on my first
attempt!
My record stands at played 17, won 15, lost 2, with a spread of almost
+1700 (i.e. f**king huge). I have been told by Geoff, another LSC member,
that the high-score average award could be mine as well- after Monday my
average stands at about 400, while his from last year was 404- meaning I
need to score over 475 in my last game to stand a chance of getting near
it! It's
doable. I've had scores as high as 511 in the league this year (I actually
mentioned that in my previous Neblog entry, dur me), but my final opponent
will be no pushover.
Work is crap. Work is shit, I will be leaving work soon so I've just about
stopped caring.
I won't
go into details, but today really was day of the idiot and no mistake.
...Okay, rant over for another few days, mainly because I'm tired and I
don't know if/when any storms are going to hit.
Bye!
#1 Thought of the Day
I wish someone would take me up on the offer of an
ISC game. It really doesn't take much
downloading/installing (I did it in a minute) and it is fun. Go on, you
know you want to!
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Nebagram 2003
