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The Banter Page
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If you're wanting to get something off your chest, make general comments about the server, or post lonely hearts ads, then this is the place for you.
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classics from the attic
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.
Callousical Brits
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.
Brits
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.
Brits
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.
modishness
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...
Cedition
Actually, it's just occured to me that you could be even more economical and just add a cedilla:
titles, hits and misses
[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!
mc5
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...
Fantasm
[BtD] I suspect that comment may have been directed at Projoy. I may steal that image and incorporate it somehow, if that's ok.
Dinks
I think even I would hesitate to drink seven pints on a first date.
Uploads
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.
Nevertheless
It still seems to be working so I guess we're in business. For now, at least.
Dates
[Penelope] I think drinking politely in small groups requires no one party to get too far ahead of the other, so yes, I'd say he was being rude. If you don't like him, perhaps you should just say so. I went on a blind date about eighty years ago and I told the person that it would just be a waste of both our times if we were to meet again. It was the honest approach and of course I didn't have to go through that rigmarole of letting them down gently. Btw, my recommendation for future first dates is not to have them at all and start with the second! :)
Dates again
Just come back from a first date myself. One glass of wine each, and it seemed to go ok! I agree with Thos though, skip the first date and start with the third. Better still go out with someone you know quite well already...
MC5
Erm, yes, Projoy - very nice logo.
Any fellow music lovers may find the reviews on this page interesting. Apologies for cross-posting.
Date the Third
And what if I told you that my best hope of making a good impression was to go out with someone who had never met me before and knew nothing about me? ;o) Seriously, I think he's a bit of a tit and if he calls me I'll respond along the lines Thos suggested.
Mariella
[pen] Giving this some thought I found myself going into Mariella mode, namely that it's probably not the drinking that's the problem, but it's the person that's the problem. You seem to have reached this conclusion independently, so I'll just shut up and let you get on with your quest.
no logo
[rab] But of course! Hm. Looks like you might need a version with the same grey background, or perhaps a transparent gif version. Will see what I can do this week.
Um
The version above is supposed to be a transparent PNG, so it may be the case that your browser doesn't support them. (I know this to be the case for at least one version of Internet Explorer on Windows, for example).
png but no pong
My browser is IE 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp1.020828-1920 if it helps.
None
Or, indeed, if it matters, which it probably doesn't, on reflection.
None
[Projoy] Maybe not. I think I know how to fix it so it works everywhere... but really I think IE should display transparancies properly, for goodness sake!
Transparencies
[rab, Pjy] I've got IE6, Mozilla and Opera on this computer. Only Opera renders the transparency correctly, both IE6 and Mozilla putting the logo in a little white oblong.
Correction
Sorry - I was maligning Mozilla unfoundedly - it gets it right too. I could explain why I thought it didn't ut it's too boring.
Bum
Interestingly IE 5.2 on this Mac renders it fine,
IE6
IE6 PC - not working as a transparency.
Writ Large
Sir, my client, one Projoy, of no fixed abode, cyberspace, has advised me that whilst he is agreeable, in principle, to your usage of his patented MC5 motif for the purposary useage of enadvertisementation he must insistify on appropriate counter-enroyaltied remuneratory recompensite consideration. He has accordingly placed the matter in our ten hands. Messrs Thos, Thos, Thos and Salteron are otherwise businessingly engagemented so our Mr Thos is dealing with this matter personally. It is our contentioned argumentary position that the artistic loss suffered by our client by cause of repeated sight of the enmotifary logomark by divers cybertravellers and the subsequentary enboredomulation that transpirifies is worth a caramac in anyone's promisery note-based mechanism of exchangification of goods, chattels and servicements. Please provide the consequentarily invoiced confectionables forthwith or we'll send the lads round.
soppy rite
[Thos, Thos, Thos, Thos and Salterton] You're fired. But I still want that Caramac.
cooldom
I forget to mention that that's one classy logo.

That's one classy logo.
Defence
[Thos, Thos, Thos, Thos and Salterton] I intend to put credits on this site somewhere at some point. I shall also present you with a coconut next time our paths may cross.
A design pedant writes
But what about the said Caramac?
Writ Largesse
[Rab] Our services having been dispenserated with by our former client, one Projoy, we are now in the market for representing respected cyberdesigners who have unwittingly been envictimisatified by logomarketeers with one eye on the main chance who hoped to enbully innocent personages such as yourself in order to achieve the procuralment of caramacalised chocolate substitutements for personal and weight gain purposes by means of legalisationed enmissivement from a firm of solicitors. Would you therefore be enwilling to commissionalise us to serve counterclaimary documentation to this character of ungrateful malefactory bearing? p.p. Thos for Thos, Thos, Thos, Thos and Salterton.
Actionment
[T4&S, S] Yeah.
my feet are cold
"The Banter Page" and "Now its time to play Mornington Crescent" headlines are a bit difficult to read - they're so bold the spaces almost vanish..
headlice
[snorgle] Don't see any problem here (Mozilla, 100% text size)
Browsing
[snorgle] What browser are you using? It might just need some gentle tweakage of the html/css combination to get an acceptable look'n'feel across browsers.
dancing
IE 6.0.2800.1106 (if thats any help..)
Celebdaquiris all round!
Made it to 8,900th-ish in the rankings after today's divident payout!
Congratuladaqs
[pen] Nice one! - I'm 4000 behind you. Not enough divs! :o(
To be a Texan
Right, that's me off to Texas for a week. Try not cause too much havoc in my absence. I'll attempt to poke my head round the door if/when I can while away just in case. ttfn.
Awuga! Maths/physics joke alert!
[Boolbar] What about grads or curls?
Lead ballon
This week I decided to go for divi instead of ranking sticking with Kylie instead of Jessica Tayor, dropped overnight from 7962 todays ranking of 9965. Spent the divi on J-Lo and Jacko.
cold feet again. must get slippers.
[rab]It's even worse now! Have you done something?
celebdaquring
18000 - which could be worse, considering I hadn't done anything in the last 3 days.
movers and shakers
#5999... yippee! All down to buying MsDynamite and sticking with it all week. She's been the strongest climber and there was a pretty huge divi payout too. This week's strategy will be... I dunno actually. I think it'll start to get harder now, as all the music awards bashes are over and done.
Blameless
[Snorgle] No. Anyway, can't stop. Am writing this from Newark airport. God knows what the time is-- I'll find out when I post. Had my bags sniffed and shoes x-rayed and deemed suitable to enter the country. Anyway, only 40 seconds remaining so toodlepip.
"Welcome to Newark -- Now GETOUTAHEAH!"
[rab] Hope Newark is just a transfer point. :)
confused
eh? maybe my eyesight is going..
Long gone
!York has been dead a while. I wonder if it is terminal?
Long live !York
I'm in mourning.
!York
Perhaps it should be called !!York.
Newark
[DrQ] Now in Austin, Texas. Still struggling to find something I would consider to be a "town centre". Anyway, can't stay long, as there's a big queue for terminals and there's this cute polish girl I remember from a previous conference. Toodlepip.
bouncing back
After falling from 7134 last Monday to the dark depths of being ranked 11023 on Sunday, I have regained a couple with the help of J-Lo to be 6297.
Red Nose Day is coming up on the 14 March with Celebrity Fame Academy with Ulrika and Ferne, perhaps Ms D will run out of steam by then.
shhhhhh
It's a bit quiet today . . . .
shush
*whispers* Yes, it is.
None
Zip a dee do dah, zip a dee eh,
My oh my, what a wonderful day
Plenty of sunshine heading my way,
Zip a dee do dah, zip a dee eh.

Seems to be catching.

mmmmmmm?
Wha'.....oh! it's you.
None
Oh dear. I think it's, catching. Have I gonea funny colour?
Bang
Clatter
earth moving equipment
rab]so I take it you pulled then? ;-)
None
Inkspot] It must have beew that cute Polish girl :o)
Pulley
Sadly not. Mind you, the waitresses here are very tactile. Ho hum, set sail back to Mancatraz tomorrow...
Tractor Pull
You found an accomodating waitress in Austin? Wow.
Dollar Signs
ITV, Reborn in the USA, I'd love to watch a group of 1980's egos play to American audiences who've never heard of them, but that sock drawer needs tidying up again!
Don't mention the rugby!
Good win for Coulthard yesterday.
Making F1 interesting again
Ah yes, the cunning plan of ensuring that Barrichello spins off on a patch of oil and bits fall off the bottom of M Schumacher's car ensures that once again F1 is interesting. As long as you don't require them to overtake each other much.
lacking any techincal jargon
[rab] really like the site (don't think i've said that before, how rude am i!?) but was wondering if it would be possible to atler the fact that when you use the little icons in the bottom right corner of the screen to go to other pages you go via games which have already ended. i'd like it if we just went to the games in play. anyone else got any opinions?
Ooops
I just got this !

None
No I didn't get a little red x - I got this
Onalista
[Lib] On the list. Need a weekend!
None
[Blob] And what did you do to get that, exactly. Anything you shouldn't have done?
None
[Blob] Actually, thinking about it, it's not puzzling at all.
Enigma Variations
Almost as puzzling as their home page
Ibid]I have never considered Coulthard as having world champion material which makes me smile, all through the the the race they were going on about Räikkönen, Montoya and Schumacher and out of nowhere Coulthard pulls it off. I hope he can prove me wrong. The other thing is, should he win the will he bow out while at the top or ignominiously hang round like Damon Hill.
Awuga Awuga
[rab] As you may already have surmised, I got the error by inserting an illegal thread number. I was trying to increase the number of displayed lines - and put in 500 - not noticing that the number I was increasing was the thread (game page) number. I hadn't noticed the "Expose All" 8-)
BTW I like the little teddy.
Puzzled
Actually, I'm not sure you're supposed to get a 'puzzling' error in that context... (as you may have guessed, there are different types of errors, and I find using real English adjectives more useful than bland numeric identifiers).
Little Ted
[rab] I'm bothered : Is that little Teddy made from montelimar nougat ? He sure looks like he is. If so, is he in danger of being eaten ? I sincerely hope not.
Teddy
[Blob] I'm not sure. You see, I'm a callous barstool, and stole the teddy from some small infant somewhere. He was seasonable at the time, but is losing his relevance rapidly. I must remember to remove him from the serious pages when I get around to writing them.
Save the Teddy Campaign
[rab] I fail to se why he needs to be removed from the "serious" pages. Are you suggesting that he doesn't possess innate gravitas ?
Teducation
Perhaps if you give him a little placard he could become topical rather than seasonal?
Marriage of Figaro
Currently viewing this wonderful place in Opera, and the front page doesn't render correctly - the table of games is neatly placed on the left instead of in the middle...
Bizarre
[GIII] Well it should since there's a wopping great big <div align="center"> around the whole lot...
Mozart
It's strange, as in Author mode it renders incorrectly, but in user mode it renders correctly... weird weird weird.
Brahms and Liszt
(that being the result of a couple of sunny hours in a beergarden). Does that mean I don't have to do anything? I've not taken a look at Opera for a while, so I'm not sure as to the distinction between these modes of which you speak.
Gunga Din
(being invented rhyming slang). Opera has two modes - one is author mode, which is its standard thing, and it has user mode, in which exist various options like "Emulate text browser", "ignore frames", and "Accessibility layout". It's a rather nice browser actually, and more compatible than Mozilla has a habit of being with things like java.
Right
[GIII] The thing is, this is actually a bug in the browser, and therefore something I'd rather not work around. Perhaps you could email the Opera people pointing out this anomoly? This goes for IE users who don't see transparancies on the icons on the grey backgrounds.
Aaaaah
Oh right. Fair enough... It's not as if it makes a vast quantity of difference anyway! I'll do that though.
making conversation
Gosh, isn't it a lovely day today? It is in my neck of the woods. Never knew the largest council estate in Europe could actually look an attractive place to live in, but in this light it does! Miracles do happen.
Cherry Blossom
[Lib] Is that Bestwood or Clifton in Nottingham?
still sunny
[pen] Neither. Wythenshaw, Manchester (near the airport). local legend has it that it is the biggest in Europe, but no doubt other places will claim that prize too.
*whistles*
It is gorgeous isn't it? I'm off for a walk.
Nurse! The screens
Bloody sunshine . . . straight into my eyes . . .
There's always one, isn't there?
*places duct-tape across Boolbar's eyes* [Boolbar] There. That better? Mwahahahaah!!!
sunshine!
God Boolbar, I bet you're one of those tossers in the office who whimpers at the tiniest shaft of sunlight and insists we all live in a murky world lit only by VDU! GRR!!!
None
I'm one of those! Vitamin D? pah!
Lights Out.
[snorgle] Actually I'm one of those "enjoys sitting by the window basking in the sunshine, except when it delights in shines directly at me (only happens at this time of the year) and the blind in the window is so arranged that I would have to draw it across the entire window in order to shade my eyes so I usually just stick a piece of A4 paper on the window at the appropriate position" type of tosser.
oops
s/shines/shining
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Sunshine makes me so relaxed, and what with the soporific hum of the computer, the distant rumble of traffic passing by, the report I'm writing...
sunbathing
[boolbar] that's ok then! you;re not one of those annoying people who insist that any form of external light reflects off their screen, causing retinal damage, scabies and scrofula. speaking of which, i was walking home and saw a bunch of people, about 20 or 30 lying down, one of whom bore a sign saying "We are the war dead." this was rather ruined by someone who got off his bike and lay down with them in his shorts and t-shirt, placing his floppy hat over his eyes and turning on his portable radio. it was a lovely day, though..
Apropos nothing better to do
I'm going for a full house on the front page... watch me burn dudes!
something in the air
*wonders why there is a smell of burning dudes in the air*
Sunshine = evil
I'm with Boolbar on this one. The sun is designed merely to give me a headache. It has no other use (fact!).
sunny delight
[Thos] What about chasing ants with a magnifying glass?
sun and all thing sunny
I think you're all jsut suffering from SAD (seasonal affective disorder, *slaps herself on the wrist for being overtaken by medical abbrevations* as you haven't seen enough sun as it's cold and winter (for most of us). I find sun is addictive, wasn't too keen until I lived in a very sunny place for 2 months, and now i'm pining for it. I NEED SUNSHINE!
Sun
I find the sun is much like beer. While it is enjoyable, and promotes a pleasant feeling in small quantities, it is capable of bringing me great pain and indeed nausea, and doesn't mix well with my working environment (yes, if the sun is shining through my office window I can give myself such an apalling headache I become very nauseous).
Beer
Too much beer ? Sorry, fails to compute.
Sunshine
It's very sunny in Saarbrücken. *waves*. Keyboarding difficulties make MC difficult. That, and the fact I'm supposed to be listening to a talk about spin glasses, something I don't do willingly. On the other hand, the Abtei-Bräu was very good last night...
slightly durnk
[rab]What the hell are spin glasses? I have strange visions of rotating spectacles..
Spin glasses
Those are special corrective lenses worn by batsmen facing Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ian Salisbury, Harbhajan Singh, or JLE. :)
Spinnage
[snorgle] Would that it were that interesting. It's apparantly something to do with the old dilemma of separating a large group people into two rooms, both containing only people who mutually like each other. Or something.

Bit quite here the noo. Any particular reason?

spin glasses
Aren't spin glasses the musical instrument in which variously tuned glasses rotate on a sort of deck, and the musician, with appropriately resin-coated fingers, plays them by applying slight pressure to the edge?
in tune
[gil] That's a glass harmonica (as I'm sure you knew) - I always think "Playing the glass harmonica" sounds like a euphemism for something - not sure what though, perhaps it ought to be a Face Pyjama when !!York is reborn.
hmm..
yes it has been quiet..so did you find out how to spin glasses?
Mandy's specs
[snorgle] Yes.
huyt
[rab]Well, go on and show us then!
None
*Break in space-time continuum*
Goad
You're just goading me into writing a 'preview' function aren't you...?
None
[matt] It's too easy. I couldn't consider making a move unless it was all in verse. :)
for ease a jolly good fellow
[Projoy] Go on, lower yourself. The reverse game is already starting to look a bit wobbly with all of us waiting for you...
gah!
i fear bifurcations.
None
/me studiously avoids game.
Small change...
Big difference. <rolf>Can you tell what it is yet?</rolf>
None
I note the return of Christmas Ted!
Whoops
That wasn't supposed to happen. Grr...
None
Boo Hiss! rab the teddy killer!
*FLASH!*
OMG... Number 6 in the Celebdaq ratings. Now preparing myself for the fall...
Put your clothes back on
[pen] Do you get a material prize, or merely kudos for your endeavours?
Read all abaht it
I was hoping to gain kudos from you lot, but plainly it's not working :o( (There is a cash prize - £100 for the best performer of the week, but mainly it's for fun.)
None
*passes penelope one slice of lovingly buttered kudos*
breaks through the locks finally
So this is where everyone has been hiding since !York went into care.....
puts locks back together again
You'll be pleased to hear you've just missed a 'Quickfire Patience MC' opportunity.
a little pressie
pen]Astounding success, unable to help out on the kudos but I do have this unopened bottle of Kouros aftershave you can have. I'll even put a pink bow on it for you.
The Sweet Smell of Success
[rab, Inkspot] *reeking of aftershave and smothered in butter* Thank you! :o)
BTW, st d and I started a Celebdaq duel this afternoon by simulataneously opening second trading accounts. I'm now also Evil_Edna... will let you know how we get on! *cackles*
MC league table
As part of Celebdaq it is possible to have a bit of fun with our own Mini League, to be added, post your Player(ID) here :Inkspot (2841446). Name change suggestions to the league are welcomed. Hopefully newjustine would give the rest of us a chance occasionally.
Game on
[Inkspot] Your link didn't work... but you can add my alter-ego to your league... evil_edna is id# 3173041. (And ranked 108561 today.)
Try
In League with the BBC
Do you have to register to view things? I suppose I don't mind per se, but...
20000 leagues under the celebdaq
[Inkspot] It appears that you have to add us to your league. You can add my brand new trader as well FurryBoolbar (note capitals) id# 3174254.
Furry
[Inkspot] Thanks!
penelope? who's she?
[Inkspot] Thanks! *cackle*
I'll give it a go.
DRQUUXUM (id: 3174581) Apparently + is not in their alphabet. :)
League of Gentlemen
Chuck me in - WolWol (3174756).
Celebdaq Celebs?
Whaddya mean I can't buy 2000 shares of Rolf Harris? :)
socks and pears
Thanks all, you have been added, the league gets updated just after midnight, and I look forward to being on top.
DrQu+xum I see you like rare and exotic gems how about Leee John, not doing very much but neither is Reborn in the USA.
celebdaq
SNORGLE (User ID: 2818390) Can you put me on too? And some pointers would be good too.. I'm languishing..
*cackle*
Watch me sneak up from (a long way) behind.
(Offstage muttering)
... feel like poo ... never drinking again ... this time I mean it ... &c
rash promises
[rab] You realize we'll be holding you to that at the next pilg... :)
Celebdaq
SIGMUNDFREUD (User ID: 3176252). Not sure how good I'll be at this - so far, what with commission, I'm £121 down on my initial stake.
Celebpah
Second in the league and then they shut the site down for a while!
celebdoss
I'm waaaaay down in the rankings now... about 41,000. The highest I got was #4... and I still have no idea how I did it. Something to do with madonna, I think :o)
acelebdaq
yay! Evil_edna streaks into the lead, just as I threatened.... woo!!!!!
penniless
I've been kneecapped all my shares confiscated and funds reduced to £10,000, I need a new plan. I'm going to try the noseless one, but it looks like the boat has already left.
fat banker...
[Inkspot] But you have that lovely lolly in the bank and a little 'greenbacks' symbol next to your name. If you're so good, you can jolly well do it all over again!
This celebdaq ain't big enough for the both of us
I'll get you Evil_edna!!!
The Chase is on...
[FurryBB] *cackle*
Celebdaq
I would feel left out, but I think I still have a few shares left in my Foresight Exchange account...
Bah!
[Celebdaq] No Paul Merton? Star of stage, screen, and radio; BAFTA winner . . . and not available for trade? FEH!
my ankle hurts
feh, indeed!
The Man With The Celebdaq In His Eyes
[Celebdaq] No Kate Bush either, and she's always in the news, what with her constant output of new music and naughty late night partying. Ha!
Oof!
What a pallaver! After that rather nasty hacking effort I've managed to recover (thanks to the Google cache and gil) most of what was going on here. Three games suffer breaks in the space-time continuum: this one (we're missing the discussion of the Furcation Game, which needn't be a tragedy); two lines of a limerick are missing; and an unspecified number of lies have gone. (No they haven't). Also, the timestamps on recovered moves have all been set to the notional recovery time; but seeing as these are only fleetingly displayed on the front page, we can probably live without that. Next job: instigate rolling backups, I think.
Going... going... going Live!
*Yeah!*
normal service
[rab] Hurrah!!
Tumbleweed
Apologies for the tumbleweed. As I remarked at MCiOS, so sooner had I wielded my magic wand and managed to get roughly back how we were, did the new server develop a hardware fault. Losing, you guessed it, any moves in the brief period we were back online. Since these probably number about three, I think we can pretend these never happened without any space-time paradoxes setting in.
Phew!
Good that worked! Right, as to the future. When I return to the office tomorrow, I will install some stuff on the machines there that will not only back this thing up daily, but also allow me to restore from anywhere in the world, rather than rely on my laptop being (a) with me and (b) near a phone socket. This means that if there are any failures between now and, say, tomorrow morning, there's not much I can do. After that, this site always be able to stay alive as long as I do. If more problems occur, I shall consider moving to a more upscale hosting company that has downtime guarantees (or should that be uptime guarantees?). I'm hoping, however, that this is very much a one-off occurrence.
Oh
And I would say I had a nice weekend if it weren't for the fact I had all this shite to deal with, and I chundered for the first time in 6 years on Sunday. Nice. However, it was about 90% my fault.
Well done
Glad you are back.
getting your own back
[Rab] I trust that whatever celebrations caused you to chunder were well worth the consequences ;o)
Scratch that back
[pen] Well... only just. I think it was largely due to some friends of a friend having just got back from Spain and insisting that I drink something that came out of a plastic container of the type you might use to package creosote. Maybe it was creosote. It certainly wasn't very drinkable. Nevertheless, I drank it... and when popping into my parents for coffee the next day, decided to stay not just for an hour but two days to recover. Yum. So if you see me on Saturday, remind me to avoid the noxious end of the beverage spectrum.
Well done
We missed you
None
*blushes*. Now go forth and get the dates changed on the front page!
Hang it all

Right, probably safe to come back in, then, and make again my suggestion for a new game that was lost the other day. Is anyone on for a round of Collective Consciousness Hangman, in which one person sets a conventional hangman problem, but only other players are allowed to reveal the letters or add lines to the scaffold.

Other players take guesses in turn as to which letters are in the word. The players who arbitrate over what letters are in the word are not allowed to confer. The shape of the word can only emerge through tacit mutual consent - via, in other words, the collective consciousness. Ask Kevan to explain more about this.

Playing it in Dan's chatroom the other day we realised it was a sort of metaphor for the designoid nature of evolution, akin to the passage from Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker where he uses "blind selection" to arrive at the Shakespearian phrase "METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL". Possibly I had eaten too much chocolate cake at that point, however.
Hang on...
Well, the Great Bear is looking a little bare, so could be a candidate for slaughtering. Sorry this suggestion disappeared into the ether before; I'll back it up right now as I'm feeling paranoid at the moment!
Oh
I meant to say I thought this was a good suggestion!
come and take me on if you think you're hard enough... Grrrrrr!
Yay! Today's Celebdaq rating: #130.
Ooooo!
It's back! [rab] Nice work!
small things please small minds
I've recently discovered that I can access all my favourite MC pages via WAP on my moblie phone. And as i get free WAP 24/7 I can access whenever and wherever I want. But the slight drawback is I can't actually contribute from it and as the pages are so tiny it takes a very long time to rread anything, so yet again its another of those 'you can look but you can't touch' situations I find rather frustrating.
Wapping
I wondered about writing a WAP interface to these pages, but the documentation I looked at scared me... might not be beyond the realms of possibility though.
Just a tert
Seeing if Mr Cron is talking. Ignore.
None
*silent*
Terting, terting
Does that mean the tert worked?
Tert
Kinda. Today's backup kinda semi-worked, but I thought Mr Cron was supposed to contact me if there was a problem, and he didn't... must investigate.
Just a test - Γ γ
I'm seeing if Γ and γ actually produce gammas (gammae?)
Test successful, I think
I was seeing if this possible; the capital gamma (Γ, created by &Gamma;) might come in handy in Collective Consciousness Hangman
Except...
Probably not on all browsers. (Thinks 'links').
welcome back
Glad mc5 is returned - your hard work is much appreciated rab...
Celebdaq: I'm - 3154623 - currently ranked very low indeed :) - are we league forming?
Mini MC
blamelewis]Its great to see you with an id, there is a Celebdaq mini-league, the greatest challenge is to unseat evil_edna. Our hopes lie with snorgle and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.
Breaking My Duck
Not one, but two posts to the server in as many minutes! Lawks!

[rab] Nice place you have here. I'm sad I haven't really had time to visit before, but I'm sure I shall be back.

Wow!
For a second I thought we had an imposter in our midst, but if it looks like a Dunx, feels like a Dunx and tastes like a Dunx then I'm probably about to get arrested.
btw
[Dunx] You want to be careful with that duck.
unseated
I'll get you, Inkspot *cackle*
Divvy
Boo! Tiny divs again.
Big gains
evil_edna]make way ... make way
By luck more than judgement, early in the week I sold all my Theakston and Rooney for 13,000 shares in Catalina Guirado, handsome payout of £7,000 and promptly bought some more. My other id with four high moving celebs yielded hardly anything, these I've sold for Becks.
Oh! ... and did I say I was No 1 in the mini league
Out of the cellar!
And all the way into 5th place. Thank you, Dale Winton. :)
None
Whoah! Well done DrQ!
None
[Dunx] Hello, nice to see you here. I was wondering, it is possible to get a link from orange to here please? Cheers!
Link Frenzy
[Lib] Eminently possible, and even quite likely. Probably when I upload the Lock Cup pages, actually.
Longish
Just looking at the front page, shouldn't the "More Long Game" be the "Longer Game"?
daq to the future
Err... I'm sure I'm missing the obvious but how does one view leagues and suchlike - or are they an entirely informal affair - I had thought they were a section on the celbdaq site? Mystified of Moorgate
Pro Trader
blamelewis]At the bottom of the page Click here for a pro trader version of this page.
Hopefully just below the names of your celebs you now have Create / edit personal leagues
In Leagues You Are In, click on Celebrity Mornington Crescent DrQ is a bit of a dark horse and is coming up on the rails.
Got it
Found it this morning - thanks for adding me - must have been blind last night!
Now to get off the bottom rung of the ladder!
and a thought...
Don't dare try the furcation game - but what fun - the Sound Charade made me chuckle (as did the psychic dialogue later on) - could I put in a tentative request for a new game of Sound Charades, at such time as a slot becomes available? I miss them!
new knews
For those passing their newsagent, take a gander at the front page of The News of the World, under Becks:my fear for thin Posh. (I know train delays are the cause of much grief but...) "David Beckham has admitted for the first time he feared for Victoria as her wait plummeted"
hmm?
must spend money!
More comment
[Dunx, re More Long Game] It's because this site was originally called More Crescent before we settled on the mobile-phone-company-lookilikie mc5. Since the Morniverse is full of anachronisms, I can't see any reason to change the name.
blame
Anyone know the state of play with !!York/"Mordac"? I think we're waiting 'til it shows up, before we start Sound Charades anywhere else.
!!York
I've commented on this at MCiOS, but I think either jim or Simons are the ones who are most 'in-the-know' about the state of play there. Btw, nice furcation, but can you explain the rules of Oh yes it is!. I have a vague recollection of this on York, but as I can't get to the archives at the moment, I can't study the form.
Celebdaq
*wishes he bought more Wayne Rooney when he had the chance at £1.75*
Div-ision
[DrQ] But Wayne Rooney didn't bring that great a dividend (as I found out). You'd have been better with Britney Spears or the Beckhams.
Hurrggggggggggggh. *Cough* Hack-hack Hurgrhrrurgh.
Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.
Re: More comment
[rab] Merely an observation rather than a criticism; it's always nice to have these things explained. I would agree that revisionism in this case would achieve little but consistency, and that's hardly important is it?
None
Consistency?
Guide to intonation
(That last comment to be read with a'raised-eyebrow' tone-of-voice)
A bit like this one
Rules? ;:-)
None
(NB. !York looks fine to me (that should point to Game 829)
Mild attack of chronic boredom syndrome
Avioding revision by perusing everything!
[Martha Farquar] Nice table, thanks!
Comment about the weather
I wish it would stop raining. I've got to walk home, ok, so it isn't far, but I don't own any protective clothing for such a downpour and some git has stolen my umbrealla. But then again if it wasn't raining there's still a high chance that i'd be here, as the other option is to revise for finals. Anyone got any good motivational/revision tips?
Ouch
[MF] Are you angling for a pint too? [Lib] No motivational tips, but I know a welter of displacement activities. Prior to my finals, I arranged all my CDs according to spine colour. Bonus points if you can tell me how this is possible, bearing in mind that colours live in a 3-dimensional space. (Cue flerdle telling a different story).
sorting
[rab] Even if colour were a continuous 3D space, any finite collection of CD spines could still be sorted by colour because the space of CD colours wouldn't be continuous (indeed, because CDs themselves are discrete items, it seems to me that even an infinite collection of CD spines, coloured from a colour space of arbitrary dimension, would still be sortable by colour, but I must admit my grasp of such things is not what it used to be, if it ever was).
None
Yes, if you imagine a map of 3D colourspace, your CD spines are simply a series of points in that colourspace with close neighbours joined by a line of your devising. So your shelf represents a one-dimensional journey (as it were) in that 3D colourspace. If your CDs were reasonably well spaced out, then there are many many possible ways of doing this. I only know this because of my similar journeys through the three RGB dimensions when creating Acre Street moves. :)
League Table
[Martha Farquar] Very nice.
CD spinage
[matt, Projoy] Well yes, I suppose you could order colours by their hex rgb triplets, or Pantone number, or whatever. But that's not the way I chose to do it.
None
[Projoy] Pedantically, RGB hex colours for Acre Street moves aren't taken from a continuous space to start with, so it isn't quite the same problem, but on the other hand, it is. As you say there are any number of ways of connecting the dots and thus of sorting. Some of these may correspond to different ways of expressing colour in N dimensions (HSV, YUV, Lab, CMYK, etc), others may be more arbitrary. In the case of CD spines, the issue is more complex because they may be printed in multiple colours, and may include special inks or other production effects that don't fit into any such colour space (metallic, dayglo, holograms, fun fur, etc), which would have to be incorporated into any sorting scheme in some (probably arbitrary) way. [rab] So don't be coy -- how did you do it?
actually...
Oooh, have I posted in here before? Not sure. Anyway...
[rab, a coupla posts before, thanks for the cue] Apart from colours not existing, you're not too far off the mark, at least in the most classically accepted models...
And I have a collection of 50 novels (by the one author) arranged in colour order. The trickiest bit is knowing where to start, if you're going to arrange them simply linearly. Highly recommended for displacement.
Accord
[matt, flerdle] I give in and admit that I cheated slightly. Firstly I made use of the fact that I had two shelves, one for a grayscale (black to white) and one for colours ordered roughly according to the rainbow. The difficulties you mention arose:
  • Spine not a single colour - resolved by choosing the 'dominant' colour.
  • Shiny colours/trims - like gold and silver. Basically ignored, unless the entire spine was so made at which point I think I assumed the nearest matt alternative (like yellow for gold, or gray for silver).
  • Colours not existing - like brown. See above. Pretend it's dark red.
So there you: Bob's yer Uncle - Job done. Interestingly I'm reminded of the time we discussed putting in for a grant to fund the development of a brown laser. However this plan was deemed to silly, and we opted to devise a photon accellerator instead.
Re: Grant
[rab] Did it accelerate brown photons?

As for brown not existing - do you mean that just for light or for pigment? Does the Chancellor of the Exchequer also not exist?

None
My order jumps around a bit - some of the novels are very odd colours, but thankfully it's the one colour per book. I'm not perfectly happy with it but, given the colours they are, it's the best I could do at the time. Some of the names are misleading, but it sort of goes aqua-greenish-greenybrown-yellowish-orange-red-purplish (dark-light-dark)-darkblue-lightblue-grey-brownypinkygrey-pink-brown-chocolate.
None
[Dunx] What we call "brown" isn't spectral is perhaps what he meant. There are varieties of brown (reddish, yellowish) but it's generally considered to be a variation of yellow (dark) in most specification systems.
None
Actually, come to think of it, you have reddish browns and yellowish browns and greenish browns - but do you see bluish browns? I don't think so.
Spectres
[flerdle, re remark to Dunx] Yes, I'm sure that's what I meant.
Brow Nish
Oh, if only "nish" were a word...

[flerdle] I suppose. I still think there is a difference between subtractive colours (ie pigment) and additive colours (ie light) in this regard, though I would also readily concede that brown is almost as much an absence of any other describable colour as black - which is perhaps why you don't see bluish browns, because brown is essentially black with less blue in it.

Consider - when you mix paint to make brown, you start with yellow then add a bit of red and a small amount of blue. Another option is to just mix red and green, but I've also made brown by starting with red and adding black. There has to be some blue in there to take the colour away from being orange, but not enough to make the blue distinct: the blue in brown is like salt in vegetables.

I should perhaps clarify that I am not actually all that attached to the colour brown, and only own one pair of brown shoes.

Tangent
[Dunx] Nothing to say about brown, but I do know a lovely Asian lady called Nish, so I suppose that almost makes it a word.
celebdaq
hmm. i think i will sell all my stock tomorrow and buy someone off that stupid i'm a celebrity get me out of here programme. that annoying one-nostrilled wierdly blonde bint.
celebdaq
[snorgle] Phil Tufnell looks good...then again, he's the only one of that group I've heard of. :)
Septum Divergence
[snorgle] So Daniella Westbrook is still going out in public, then?
May Day
Yesterday was the local council elections for the last twenty odd years I've always turned up and voted. But this time I was not persuaded by any of the candidates. As a supporter of democracy I felt that staying away could have been construed as voter apathy and my 'protest' misrepresented. So it was for the first and hopefully last time I entered the voting booth, did not put a cross against any candidate nor did I spoil the paper but left it blank, folded it and put it in the ballot box.
Elections
[Inkspot] I know what you mean. Spoiling your paper makes you look like a loony, not turning up makes you seem lazy. I think there should be a abstention box on the paper to recognise that you do feel you should vote, but don't agree with any of the candidates.

Interestingly enough, in my first year of uni I was accidently on two electral rolls, as my hall of residence automatically put everyone on. It was a general election so it is illeagal to vote twice (I was lead to believe, i'm not an expert). I phoned up the relevant person at the city council to tell her that I wasn't allowed to vote. Her advice to me was just not to turn up, which i protested about as I didn't want to be part of the apethetic 70% of the population who don't vote. My local council now at home has had the sense to only grant me votes for local elections as you are allowed to vote in two places at once for local matters, but it took them 5 years to realise this.

Mr Apathy
I'm generally a big fan of elections, but increasingly I feel unmoved to vote in local council elections. Why? Firstly I am not really aware of what councillors do, and what difference it would make if Mr X were sitting on the council rather than Ms Y. Or vice versa. How much is a council capable of doing; and how much is dependent on the policies of central government? Does it make much of a difference if your councils majority party is the same as that of the central government? Is it better to have councillors who are signed up to a party? Or is it better to have independents? The fact that I cannot answer any of these questions makes it impossible to put an X against one (or is it three?) of a dozen names, most of which I've never heard of.
Voting
I don't understand this notion that one "should" vote. I certainly don't understand why in Australia you have to by law. Everyone goes on about how terrible it is that fewer people vote at each election. Why is this so terrible? What difference does it make?
Voting
[Bm] I guess it's because we're told we live in a democracy so we need to feel like we're involved.
Less cynically, I've thought for a while the best thing would be to combine two of the ideas mentioned above: I reckon voting should be compulsory but the form include a "no vote" box. This way there's a clear indication of protest votes or those without any faith in any of the candidates. I voted yesterday in Scotland but almost didn't. Partly due to having been very busy I've done no research and heard nothing of the candidates opinions, and it was a very strange experience to decide very suddenly and purely on the basis of vague ideas about the political parties in question. Heyho.
Voting
[Breadmaster] Well, there are any number of reasons why you should vote; consider:
  • By not voting, you are leaving it up to me to choose your government. You might be OK with that, we might have similar views. How about we allow the electors in Burnley to choose your government? Still OK with that?
  • You are. like it or not, a member of society. Membership of society comes with a few responsibilities, including contributing to the common good, and participating in governing that society? Don't feel like participating? Fine, give up your vote, stop paying your taxes, but don't expect to be able to use any of the things your taxes pay for. Like water.
  • Related to the first point, but: the fewer people who vote, the less representative the government is. Political parties know well that they need only target a few thousand electors in a handful of streets to change the outcome of an election. The rest of us, because so many people 'can't see the point' are a self-selecting sample, something which no research company would accept - you think the make up of the current parliament reflects the political opinion of the whole country? Want to do something about it?
  • It does make a difference. Or, it would, if everyone voted. It's ludicrous to complain that 'my vote doesn't count' - in a properly representative vote, every vote 'counts' Think we don't have a properly representative vote? Well, there's one way of going about changing that - you could try voting for it
  • (to address rab's point) Local councils have a surprisingly large amount of influence on your daily life - particularly if you're a council tax payer, or you're involved in education. Or like having streetlights. Or have an opinion on enormous building developments in inappropriate places. Or are fond of local amenities, like having your rubbish taken away every week. In fact, the fact that you cannot answer your own questions suggests to me that your local candidates have failed to make the effort to inform you, an increasingly common situation these days. For myself, being recently new to the area, I read all the election addresses (OK, both of them) and made my mind up based on what they promised. National politics and my own political leanings didn't really enter into it - especially since I only had two candidates to choose from
  • One final rant. Rather than having a 'Not voting for anyone, you're all bloody useless' option, which is, to be frank, a bit of a cop out, why not get involved? See if you can't actually engage the candidates in some political debate? Perhaps even stand yourself? The only reason that politics is so dull is because we - the people who it is for - allow it to be.

Blimey, I do go on, don't I?
Dullard
To be clear about that which I am aware. I know the name of only one person who stood in our ward yesterday. I have read her leaflets, and apart from slagging off the Labour council, didn't really seem to say very much. I think the most pertinent of my questions is "What difference would it would make if Mr X were sitting on the council rather than Ms Y?". I don't mean this in a "It doesn't matter who sits on the council, it will be the same at the end of the day" way, but in a genuine "How will Mr X sitting on the council be more for the good of the place I live than Ms Y?" way. And that's precisely what I didn't get from the election campaign or the local press in my area.
This is a party political broadcast
Time for Change

Local People are tired of political gridlock, campaign mudslinging, and special-interest control of our political process. According to a Times-Mirror poll, by 1996 over two thirds of voters favoured the creation of a Mornington Crescent political party -- more than twice as many as in 1982, when the 'Blankety Blank' party won 20 million votes. In 1998, !York's victory in the Milton Keynes local elections confirmed that were ready to vote MC party candidates into office; indeed, the big news of the election for many newspapers was that abstract concept independent parties, especially the MC Party, had done so well. Dandelion.

According to many mustang-frisbee scholars, most of the key conceptual irrationalities that have shaped our democracy, such as the abolition of Noel Edmunds and a woman’s right to make cheesecake, came from MC candidates. As former Watchdog presenter and girl-guide Nick ‘choirboy’ Ross said,

“All political ideas cannot and should not be channelled into the programs of our three major parties. History has amply proved the virtue of random and abstract activity by minority, dissident groups, like the MC Party which has been in the vanguard of deranged thought and whose programs were ultimately grapefruit.”

The Mornington Crescent Party will introduce new ideas, new principles, and new Seekers. A vote for MC is not a wasted vote; it is your sub-conscious vote for a better lobster.
<>br>Vote randomly, vote Crescent.
Doughnuts
[BtD - unconnected to above] Thanks! [BtD - connected to above] You get my vote.
celebdaq
wahoo! I'm number 5! do you think Beckham will stay in the news as much this week?
wot Watty said
Interestingly, here, the only local council that has people campaigning along party lines is Brisbane (at least, this is how it was a couple of years ago, and I don't think things have changed much). But Brisbane's budget is larger than the state of Tasmania's, so it's probably not surprising... And we have state politics to add into the mix too. I don't think most people really mind "having" to vote here.
apathy
I'm another one who didn't bother to vote, although this was probably just as well since there was no election in my area.
Voting in America
We're coming up to Primary Election (party nomination) season as well. Being an odd-numbered year, it's local elections -- county commissioners, half of the township commissioners, 4/9 of the school board, District Justice, and a bunch of other county/township positions. The general election isn't until November. Six months more of local political posturing. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah....
Voting
[Watty] I'm not convinced. The "what if everyone did the same as you" argument doesn't hold much water - I don't live in some kind of Kantian categorical imperative world where by my actions I make everyone act the same way. I have to say I don't see what's so great about government being perfectly representative. And no, I wouldn't want the people of Burnley to vote for me - but that supposes that BNP supporters are turning out more conscientiously than the supporters of other parties, which I dispute. I think it probably all evens out in the end. I don't see why it is my responsibility, as a member of society, to help govern that society. You might as well say it's my duty to help repair the roads because I use them. Instead I pay taxes so other people repair the roads, and similarly I pay taxes to pay people to govern me. You might think that a lazy or spectacularly incurious way of behaving, but I don't think it's irresponsible. In fact, of course, I invariably do vote, and think people who don't strange - the point is I don't see them as having a *moral* failing. So there. I shall go and lie down now.
voting
[breadmaster]I know what you mean, its like saying "Eat your greens, because there are children starving in Africa!" Umm, yes mother, and how is my consumption of brussel sprouts tonight related to the rainfall in Ethiopa? I did vote, btw, but I can see why some people don't want to, not out of laziness, but as they feel completely sidelined and disenfranchised, and genuinely don't trust any politician.
To Hell with voting, what about Celebdaq? :)
Woo-hoo! Tuf's doubled!
Celebdaq
Hey! The Becks paid off big divvies! Number 2!
Ahem....
...number 2 in our MC league, that is.
bug report
[rab] I just composed a carefully argued and compelling 20,000 word posting on voting, social responsibility, synthesising insights from political science, psychology, game theory, and moral philosophy, and making an absolutely watertight argument that Watty had been slightly misunderstood by Breadmaster and snorgle. Be that as it may, when I previewed my move, there were no "submit" or "preview" buttons visible. So my words are lost. Gone. For ever. Not that I am bitter about this.

Oh, ok, it was three sentences.
oops
From me. To rab. Had I dared use the preview button, I would have caught that.
Burgery
[CdM] Odd... needless to say, when I do a 'preview' I see the buttons. Very odd. Maybe the transfer of the preview died at that point. In any case, maybe if you hit the browser 'back' button a few times, your text will reappear?
Thinks (which hurts)
[CdM] What browser do you use, as a matter of interest-- and does preview normally work?
tech support
Netscape 6.1. I tried the back button, but it just took me back to the main page (after the warning-you-haven't-moved page). I *think* I have successfully used the "Preview" feature here before, but I'm not 100% sure.
Well
[CdM] There's one way to find out. (Hint: write a one-word reply and click Preview!).
the dog that didn't bark
[rab] Well, I did that. But I couldn't post it. I thought you would have figured that out. :-)
Being really stupid
[CdM] Sorry I'm being stupid; but can you clarify that Preview doesn't work for you... Do the pointy things at the bottom right still appear?
Actually
What would make this simpler if you click on Preview (but make sure something's in the move box, 'cos otherwise you'll get an error) and mail me the page source. (I think File->Send Page should do the trick). (rab at rab dot org dot uk).
The Lockisseum is now open!
(Cross Posting!) The One on One MC server "The Lockisseum" is now open for business and two friendly matches have commenced for your booing pleasure... sorry viewing pleasure...
viewywoo
Works fine here (Opera 7.03)
politics
[rab] I know what Watty meant, but I was just putting my view across - more a sort of feeling of the general attitude rather than necessarily disagreeing with him. Sort of a reality check, if you don't mind the finger quotes..:)
arrow_circle_down
Want to play? Online Crescenteering lives on at Discord