[pen] Count me in the 25 day club too - though three have to be taken at Xmas leaving just 22 for spreading around the year. But I'm one of the fortunate ones - new joinees here only get 20 days (less 3 for Xmas).
Apparently (and I boggled slightly when I was told this) the 20 day minimum includes bank holidays - so as there are eight (I think) of them per year, the real minimum allowance is just 12 days. But I wouldn't advise letting your boss know this.

Holiday? Well, it depends on the definition for me. What does and does not constitute a holiday for an academic (particularly as the nature of the job means that much of the work can be done anywhere and at any time)? If I'm sat working at a laptop computer, is it a holiday just because I'm on a beach in the Carribean? (I'm not by the way, I'm at a desk in Nottingham, but a man can dream, damnit).
But strictly, it's 30 days. Plus public and University holidays. But don't argue for academic style holidays, or your boss may argue for academic style pay...

Did I mention that I work some weekends without time off in lieu? It's the nature of my job, race meetings, etc. If they fall on a Bank Holiday Monday, we do get the days back, but ordinary Sunday race meetings mean a lost weekend. Now do you feel sorry for me?

I'm self-employed. The benefits are many, especially as I a mum. However, on occasion a wistful sigh escapes, because I would love to be granted set holidays and have someone's 'permission' to down tools and relax. Goes both ways, I suppose. By the way, hello Penelope and all. Nice site and very easy on the eye. Have been a devotee of Wildpants MC for well over a year [and dabbled in YAMCS] so I recognise a few names.

I lose count, but I think I'm on about 140 weekdays holiday a year...

I agree. This is a good site. [Re Hols] I don't really get many hols and have to work weekends too more often than not. This is because: a) I work for a not-for-profit org (long hours, low salary - result of overactive conscience) and b) I'm a pillock. I could insist on taking the full 25 days I'm owed if I really wanted to.

Welcome Chalky. Pants is one of the sites I don't visit very much (no real reason) so I'm pleased we have some people from there creating a unique blend of something-or-other. [BtD et al] Glad you like the site. I'd like to stress that this is as much your place as mine, so stick your feet up, make yourself at home and I'll try and put any suggestions into place that people want. Apart from the fact I'm supposed to be writing a journal article as we speak, but there you go. I would like to hear suggestions for a site name. Like Dan, I'm not particularly keen on having my name attached to the place (unless there's a good pun lurking...). Other than that I don't have any feelings on the matter, so sharpen your brains and let me know your thoughts.

Oh, academic contract, so all these concepts are, erm, academic.

As I was reminded this morning, we usually get given three days off at Christmas, so really I do get just about the average quota. My boss actually stuck his tongue out and went 'ner-ner-ner-ner-ner' when he pointed that out this morning, I guess I had him pretty pissed off with my complaints. Of course, then I had to apologise profusely and make the tea... he has now skived off for the afternoon. *sigh* There's one rule for them and another for us...

As an employer, I shall note your comments. Anyone coming to me for an increase in holiday will get the 'ner-ner' treatment and be expected to supply beverages. Thank you.

Like rab, ibid, and others I'm an academic (actually now sort of a freelance academic/consultant, but that's another story). It's a job with many advantages, not least of which is a remarkable amount of control over how you spend your time. But -- and this is a big but -- success in academia is primarily judged by your ability to write journal articles and publish them in good places. Which means that when rab says "I'm supposed to be writing a journal article as we speak", he is echoing something that is true for us academics all the time: we are always supposed to be writing journal articles. So -- like Chalky -- we always tend to have the sense that we should be working, and it is sometimes hard to take holidays. There was a cartoon once which showed a professor sitting up in bed and saying to his spouse, "How can I sleep when I know that someone in some other time zone is writing an article right now?"
[Ibid] I don't think I knew you were also in academia. What field?

I'd point out that I didn't get any time off over Christmas or New Year at all, and was indeed still at work at 11 pm on Christmas Eve - but I'm too spartan to complain!

A staff member of an academic institution. Namely, [sys|net]admin of Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh. Combine the occasional perks of the academic life with the drudgery of 8:30-5:00 hours and unpaid overtime. But at least I can evangelize Linux/*BSD to the Micro$oft-haters.

How 'bout Mind the rab?
or Blythe Spirit...
I've saved this site to favourites as RabMC. Short and honest.

[rab] I'm afraid that, like Bob, I have this bookmarked as rabMC, but if you really must avoid the use of your name how about Mornington Crescent in Outer Mongolia? Or am I misremembering your location? (fx: ducks)

[BtD, matt] Maybe rabMC it is then. There must surely be something better. [matt, specifically] If you mean outside the M25, then yes...

Beige Crescent? ;o)

I'm afraid you are simply MC 5 on my shortcuts - having taken over the slot originally available for Huxley's late lamented site.

MC5 is kinda cool! Like the site, honest and understated. Gets my vote.

Actually, it'd probably be MC 8 by that standard, assuming you include Delphi, YAMCS, and Beer-Powered.

It's been RabMC in my bookmarks since the original announcement.

MC5, or perhaps MC⁵ for that element of millenial chic, might do the job.

And one could also go up that poncey TeX route and insist that the official pronunciation is "mukf" or something... Sorry if that means nothing to most people

Yup. Lost on me. MC⁵ Is good!

Is York! down? I can't get it at the moment...

My first post from my new whizzy laptop. Hurrah. Should make maintenance of this site much more easier...

[BtD] Can't get to !York, and I'm on an .ac.uk domain so it's either a server problem, or it's bitten the dust (though if the latter, I reckon jim would've told us.

As E=mc² then perhaps Ec³ would be enigmatically fitting.

Yeah, I like MC5, too. Sounds like a mobile phone network. Not that my opinion counts as I'm hardly ever here.

Actually you could make it even more modish, by going lowercase... mc⁵

Yay for whizzy laptops!

Looks like mc⁵ it is then. Hmmm... hadn't catered for the possibility of markup in page titles, so I've got a bit of tinkering to do. But laptop+weekend might make this a possibility.

Of course EC3 is an area of London - unfortunately not the one that includes M.C. itself. It is in fact the the area around The Tower.

MC5 is a great name, but there are 4 musicians from the sixties who might hold claim to ownership of that name. Not that any of them are probably in any state to understand any more. Yay! Kick Out The Jams!

Blob] I’m no mathmagician, but does this mean that mc= √e?

Only if e=(mc)² - which I don't believe it does.

Finally got round to dropping back in! Going good still - yay!
mc(hup)5 has a ring to it alright... [snorgle] you asked a while back about while phrases come out as colours - I recall a conversation in depth about it elsewhere - can't remmber the server but I read Orange, !York and Outer Space regularly so a search of the full text of their chat games might illuminate (or at least colour-in)
What I remember as the reason is that the first six letters are converted to hex and used as the colour code... not sure if there's more to it than that...

I think it was MCiOS, but I can't be sure.

Has anyone else caught on to 'Celebdaq', the fantasy celebrity stock exchange hosted by BBCi? I'm checking my portfolio every 20 minutes and have already had to ditch all my Jude Law shares this morning. Catherine Zeta-Jones is performing well though - dhe made me about £50 overnight.

[pen] No, but sounds a lot more lucrative than the real thing.

Just thought I'd share the latest bit of highly targetted advertising to land in my mailbox, which will make sense to those of you who've met me:

Be Beautiful - Get everything you need for fabulous curly hair. Treat your hair to Curl Friends and get everything you need to achieve bouncy, super soft curls with incredible definition and flawlessly fine shine. Curl Friends caters to your curls concerns with specially formulated hair cures that work great in any combination without weighing hair down. Need more shine, less frizz, something to fend off the fly always? Curl Friends has got you covered with products designed especially for the particular needs of curly hair.

continues in this vein for about half an hour....

[rab] I just got that one too...

[pen]Thanks for the tip, I bought some celebs earlier today, I'm down £133 already, but I hope to stop this with Anthony Hopkins.

Yay! I've moved from 71,000th-ish on the leaderboard when I started a week ago to 22,238th today! I've made £7,500 in a week. Now I'm just waiting for my Tony Blackburn shares to go up...

[pen] looks like great fun - shame the site runs soooo slow (or is that just me?).

Here's a link to it.

Everytime I've tried to sell this morning, a message appears about the market being suspended for regular maintenace, I want to sell Christina Hamilton and buy Daniel Day Lewis. I'm stumbling around placing 83300.

I can't even log in at the moment. The title page appears so quickly but anything after that times out.

I'm having the same problem.

. . . and my Nicole Kidman shares are doing very nicely. Daniel Day Lewis up 1p and judging by the current news, I'm glad I bought some Victoria Beckham.

I guess that after the weekend's TV exposure, the site is experiencing more traffic than usual. I can't even get the log-in page right now. Try late at night when all the bored dweebs have left the office!

Wish I'd bought Beckham and Fergie at the weekend when I saw Man U were going down the pan. Should have guessed that the mad old Scotsman would have a news-making strop. Of course, to do so would have required me to remember my password...

I had trouble with my password - until I found both your password and username are case sensitive.

BTW chaps, remember that you have to have been in possession of your shares for at least two and a half days (I think that's right) to qualify for the dividends, paid out on the basis of column inches at the end of every week. So don't expect to get paid dividends on anything bought after this lunchtime (Weds). On the other hand, if you can sell something that's in great demand at a profit and find another escalating share to invest in this week, then you're doing very well. I don't even know who half these people are...

So far a gain in the last week of 7.91% I have various shares in Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta Jones, David Beckham, Nicole Kidman, Natalie Imbruglia and Daniel Day Lewis, most of them as a result of buying the first name on the ticker tape. The first two days I had Sadie Frost but sold her as soon as her name disappeared, there seem to be a lot of pop idol movement on Will Young and Ms Dynamite at the moment, but that probably has to do with the up and coming Brit Awards. pen]can you explain what kneecapping is?

Disappointed in my Eminem shares - dropping rather badly. Reasonable gains in Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin (who gain some column inches due to breaking up). Glad I grabbed some Alex Ferguson shares though - up 11% since purchase. Even Charlotte Church has gone up 5%. [Kneecapping] Isn't that when you get over one million, they give you a boat icon and knock your cash back to 10000?

An interesting thing about this market is that they have set up a (real, cash) reward for the person who gets the best weekly improvement in their portfolio. If people are motivated by this reward, rather than the fictional one of wanting to have a high-valued portfolio, then they will adopt very different trading strategies. For example, if you want a chance for the cash prize, you should be going for very high-risk investments, since you don't care about the downside if they go through the floor, but they give you the best chance of the (real, cash) upside.

The Brit Awards have been going on tonight looking at the list of winners I am little suprised at the industry bemoaning poor record sales. I put this down to the companies here pandering to the short term pop idol market which does not create a large fan base or following. I do have faith that there are good performers and songwriters out there which is why I am pleased to see awards for Coldplay and Ms Dynamite. The award ceremony being notable from the list of major absentees
BRITISH MALE SOLO ARTIST Robbie Williams, BRITISH FEMALE SOLO ARTIST Ms Dynamite,BRITISH ALBUM Coldplay: Rush of Blood to the Head,BRITISH GROUP Coldplay Parlophone,BRITISH SINGLE Liberty X: Just A Little,BRITISH URBAN ACT Ms Dynamite,BRITISH DANCE ACT Sugababes,BRITISH BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST Will Young,POP ACT Blue, INTERNATIONAL MALE SOLO ARTIST Eminem,INTERNATIONAL FEMALE SOLO ARTIST P!nk,INTERNATIONAL ALBUM Eminem: The Eminem Show,INTERNATIONAL GROUP Red Hot Chili Peppers,INTERNATIONAL BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST Norah Jones,OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC Tom Jones V2

Ms Dynamite - not convinced. Seems to be able to rap, but can't sing for toffee. The chorus for her song Miss Dynamite-ee-eeee or whatever is nabbed from somewhere else (forget where now), and the backing vocals are nicked from 'Pass the dutchie on the left hand side' (no joke). Robbie Williams was a surprise, especially considering the quality (or lack of) of his last album. Liked Swing when you're winning though. Eminem. Well, I'm just not going to go there. Tom Jones - yay. Norah Jones, well I fancy her, and her the bits of songs that I've heard are good as well. Will Young. Hmmmmmmmmmm. Coldplay - could be worse. Sugababes - well, would have gone for Jamiroqui myself, but I haven't a clue what Sugababes have done. Red Hot Chili Peppers - aren't they like years old? Or am I getting mixed up? Blue - who? Liberty X - don't care.

Thus spake the classically changed musician who knows nothing about popular culture :)

Graham III] There used to be Brit Awards for classical music, do you have nominees for this year? ie British album , International Album .. etc?

Divi payout on celebdaq absolutely thousands, time to buy some Jacko and Chris Martin. Ranked 10278 worth £36032 +260.32%.

Last years Brit categories

1. Contemporary music award
2. Female artist of the year
3. Male artist of the year
4. Ensemble/orchestral album of the year
5. Young British classical performer
6. Rover album of the year
7. Biggest selling classical album in the UK
   Critics award
8. Outstanding contribution to music award 2002 - Andrea Bocelli.

Give me the Gramophone awards any day... I don't keep up with the reviews, so I don't really know.

Celebdaq - started at 5 o'clock, was listening to 5 live, and got the Brit award winners within minutes of them being announced, so quite cheap. Only Eminem hasn't performed... Currently lying 30000ish but early days.

Coldplay is possibly the most overrated band at the moment. Which makes a change from Oasis, I guess. Anyway, this kind of thing is always subjective. Meanwhile: The new Massive Attack album sounds like middle-period Cure. Discuss.

Hmm, well I'm officially outside the age span they market singles to by a long way, so I'm not surprised there are bands on there I've never heard of. As for the Chilli Peppers, the band has been going a long time, but they're now off drugs and producing more succesful albums again, so it's more of a comeback thing. Oh, and I had Ms Dynamite for the Celebdaq thing ages ago, as I was sure she was going to come out with comments on Dubyas planned party in the gulf sooner or later.

Ages ago we were talking about the "brand" for this site and settled, it seems, on mc⁵ - at the time I created an illustration of what I meant by that modishness, but couldn't upload it till now...

Actually, it's just occured to me that you could be even more economical and just add a cedilla: mç

[Projoy] very nice. The font reminds me of those Cherry Lips sweets you used to get that would cement your jaws together.
Another tale of woe from the dating front. Just been out on another first date... he drank seven pints and I had a single glass of wine. He sang along (badly) to my Elvis CD on the way home. He had a great time, wants to see me again and invited me to a rugby weekend in Amsterdam (among other things). I've stalled him for the moment, telling him to call me in the week when he's sober. In the meantime, your opinions please... is it bad manners to drink a considerable amount like that on a first date? I'm hoping he's lost my number already!

Rab] - thats fantastic:o)
Pen]He's obviously comfortable with himself - however, seven pints on a first date? Either he needed to steady his beating heart or he is just rude. Ditch him. Or go with him to Amsterdam and discover the truth...

[BtD] I suspect that comment may have been directed at Projoy. I may steal that image and incorporate it somehow, if that's ok.

I think even I would hesitate to drink seven pints on a first date.

Just done some uploads, but I'm not sure it's necessarily working properly as my auto-update tool isn't doing what it's told. Erse.