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Little pleasures
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A chance to exchange notes on the little everyday things that cheer you up when you're down, or make an ordinary day into a better one. Winning move unaltered.
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The second coffee of the morning
A quarter-bottle of wine
In that case: Arriving home from work to discover that your teetotal wife has opened a bottle of red wine, to make lasagne, and the rest of it requires drinking. I love getting out of the car to the smell of lasagne, as it means I don't have to feel guilty about opening a bottle, just for myself.
Guessing the latest AVMA
The entire sensory spectrum of chips cooked in beef dripping.
Ordering a treat for yourself - in my case, cricket pads, bat, and gloves.
Getting home to find that said order has been delivered
Boxy concrete buildings built on a grassy slope overlooking big swaths of nature. Only realized how nice this makes me feel the other day when looking at some pictures.
Mullion Cove at low tide.
The Science Fiction of Samuel R Delaney
Sunshine
Knowing how to spell Samuel R Delany
The memory of having met and conversed with Samuel R Delany face-to-face, and of loaning him a copy of Driftglass when he had nothing for his scheduled reading and thus saving the day. 8oP
Being blissfully unaware of science fiction authors ;-)
Wot, even Arthur C Clarke? Even Ian McLeod? Even Charles Stross?
I've heard of, nay read (but not for nearly 30 years), A C Clarke. Never heard of the others.
Wow, and I picked UK authors of great stature too.
Cherry Garcia.
[Stevie] I did read quite a lot of John Wyndham when I was a teenager, plus A C Clarke, and a couple of Harry Harrisons. Unless you count Stephen King, I think my adult science fiction reading has been limited to Douglas Adams.
[Phil] Well, I have a non-standard view of genre classification: If you think it is SF, it is. I may not agree with you, but so what? Delaney would at one time hold that you might not have the vernacular needed to properly appreciate SF unless you can recognize it when you see it, but I reckon if you enjoy a story at whatever level genres are irrelevant, and anyway all the people I've conversed with here are intelligent enough to acquire the vernacular as they go.

Years ago Raak and I differed with feeling over whether "Perdido Street Station" was Hard SF or something else. While many a satisfying hour can be passed arguing this over pints of beer, in the end all that matters is that it is a bloody good story sufficiently different from stuff sitting next to it on the shelves that it should please anyone reading it on your recommendation.

You should check it out of your library and give it a go, Phil.

Re: John Wyndham. Scariest thing I ever read was from The Day of the Triffids, the line about the blind man scuttling from a looted store with two tins of red paint under his arms and a cunning grin on his face (the context is that he thought it was food). The implications of that little vignette left me profoundly disturbed for weeks.
Watching the Aetheric Neuralizer's plasma effects in action. Worst build blog in the history of the universe, but the steampunk gun is spiffy.
[Stevie] I don't think I've specifically avoided SF, and I havea major problem in that I read so little nowadays. I know my son enjoyed "The City & The City", so I'll give Perdido a try. I really ought to get round to registering with the library too. The mobile library's next visit isn't for another 12 days, so it looks like a trip into town is required.
[Stevie] Aha, thanks for making me look up our library. I've found there's one only 6 miles away, and it's open on Saturday mornings. To Pangbourne, me hearties!
(Phil) Pangbourne is town? No answer to that.
[Rosie] Newbury is "town" Pangbourne is half the distance, and has a fish & chip shop, to boot!
The prospect of a long weekend in England; I sail back on Thursday night.That means seeing family and friends, not having to worry about not understanding what's being spoken about, eating familiar and favourite foods, and resting my eyes on familiar landscapes. Bliss.
Keeping my eyes inside my head... (Pen rests eyes on landscapes ... I prefer mine remain in their sockets!)
Witnessing another's earned success Case in point - This little animation makes me smile every time I watch it: katana girl (gif)
[Stevie] I think the Moran blog may be suffering from cybernautic gremlins. You don't seem to be able to comment - comments submit far too quickly, it seems to me, for them to be actually be being transmitted anywhere.
[Simons] Intollerable curbation of free speech! I'll have a look what knobs can be twiddled.
I just did an anonymous test and it worked fine for me other than the capcha being so fiendish it took three refreshes to make it spell something I could figure out. I used the "Anonymous" profile (you have to pick one from a list). There aren't any moderated comments waiting to be let out of the pen.
Watching Jeremy Clarkson say "I've ruined m'car!"
Getting a letter from the bank that refunds, with interest, the £30 that the ATM didn't dispense in June 2008, and that you assumed you'd just absentmindedly walked away without taking.
Contemplating the engineering excellence and sheer zombie-stopping power of my new Hammershot revolver and my Sledgefire shotgun. The Weapon Shops of Nerf are awesome.
First class travel. I have just upgraded from what was going to be four hours standing in the end of a carriage to a luxurious seat and free coffee for a mere £15. Privileged? Sure am.
Truly, it is wonderful to sit up in first class with a complimentary coffee and Wi-Fi and think of those down the other end, below the food car, and say to myself, "I'm posh and they're not."
You'll be drinking in the lounge bar next. As a friend once said to me while we were about to enter the UEA Union Bar: "You get a better class of scum in the lounge bar".

La Famile Stevie got upgraded to 1st class on a trans-Canada flight a couple of years ago. I was so impressed I wrote it up for mi blog.

Non-sensible (e.g. pink-paisley-silver-spike-heeled) shoes.
[cfm] May I ask, without prejudice, if you are a person of the female variety?
[Phil] You cannot ask, and cfm is not required to tell you if you do. Because it's more fun that way.

Firing the Nerf Rapidstrike submachine gun. Top o' the world, ma!

Hidden textAt last, a suitable vehicle with which to express my utter rejection of The Colbert Report and the fucktard who presents it.
Rare-breed pork chops bought from the butcher at home in Lincolnshire last week for dinner tonight in the Netherlands The pork here is shocking, and mostly reared indoors. These tasted soooo good.
[pen] Is it me, or is "rare-breed" pork so ubiquitous that one wonders just how "rare" these breeds are? It might just be a Berkshire thing, to be honest.
"Ahuh! Ahuh! Ahuh huh huh! Bet you can't guess what I'm doing?"
[Geo] Are you singing the second line of The Proclaimers' "I'm on my way"?
Puns. Endless puns. and reading back up the page I'd put a word in for Iain (M) Banks as a SF author worth reading... Also, should it be "an SF author"?
Listening to TMS at work
Hidden textThat's "Test Match Special". The BBC's incomparably excellent radio commentary on England's international cricket matches
[Geo] Not fair! It must give us two guesses! You are doing either:
a) Your Elvis Presley warm-ups prior to opening your Las Vegas drive-thru Chapel of Burnin' Love for the day

or

2) Your Tommy Cooper wind-up to the eggs/tray/water-filled glasses trick.
Discovering that my "Ten Years Without Gnawing A Leg Off" certificate bears the notorious doctored version of the city seal, in which the minuteman depicted on one side seems very pleased indeed to see the indian on the other.
Hidden textEven when honoring me they give me the shaft.
Petrichor
Also, knowing the word for petrichor. :-)
[SM] Excellent, on both counts.
Certain TV show theme tunes. Today's nominee, even though I only ever watched about two shows, is the Dexter Theme Tune. A fun little track, that one.
[Simons Mith] Good one. I'll volley that back with the "Morse" theme. I'm particularly fond of the bit where the French Horns swell up. Into tubas, presumably. But then they'd be French Potatoes I suppose. Musical theory was never my strong suit.
Riding on new bicycle tyres. Mm, pumped up really hard.
I'm not sure how I feel about walking through an antiques fleamarket and thinking, not once but several times, "that's not old, I had one of those!" A box of metal puzzles that I'm sure was exactly the same make and design as one my brother had, a set of mathematical instruments, manual sewing machines just like my aunt's, a metal right-angle just like the one my father made in the army (and which I still have), and of course any number of slide rules.
Being able to point at the giant sliderule hanging next to the canoe and the stuffed Springbok head in a local "casual dining" restaurant and say "I know how to use that to do hard sums".
Doing sums in my head faster than someone else does them with a calculator e.g. deducting VAT.
New windscreen wiper blades
Sitting in a 6th floor office in Rotterdam with a window that faces west over the city towards the Port of Rotterdam and watching the storms coming in from the North Sea only 20 miles away, swallowing the city's skyscrapers as it approaches.
The Alps in summer. The really green bits. With the cowbells. And the wildflowers. Don't care if it is like the Sound of Music.
Serving dinner to hungry teenage boys.
Being able to do simple diy stuff, like today, clearing an airlock in the hot water system; repairing a useful bag with a staple gun; making a jig to remove downlighters without damaging the ceiling.
What!?!?!? No! That cannot go unanswered!

Ripping the living bejaysus out of any recalcitrant home fixture with my mighty Tiger Saw prior to replacing it with one that works.

Curses! I never thought of using my angle grinder on that bag...
Life has become a lot simpler since I realized that 90% of the time, preserving the parts that you are replacing is a waste of time. New faucet required? No more struggling with claw wrenches in hard-to-reach places to remove water supply risers. Now I loosen the retaining nuts enough to lift the faucet up from the sink and Mister Tiger Saw has me doing the installation part in minutes. Light fixtures I fitted ten years ago won't take the new lightbulb de jour anyway so I just bin 'em and start over.
Thought of you the other day, gil, when Mrs Stevie arranged for me to go Karting.

In a Lamborghini Gallardo.

I am jealous. I hope a detailed account will appear in the Occasional Stevie.

It's a couple of years since I karted, due to various injuries and to other members of the Fugitives team moving to different pastures, but I haven't yet given up. I believe that the karting experience, at its best, is the ideal training ground for f1 drivers, as well as being a lorra fun for novices and experienced drivers alike.

Well, they marked out a track that prevented anyone from getting into third gear but it was still more fun than a poke in the eye. I was completely overwhelmed by the experience and forgot to be cool for the camera. Here's a link to the video library of the event and I was number L75 - right at the top of the page.
I finally watched your video, and admired the progress from uncertainty to confidence to pushing the limits. Occasional squeaks of wheelspin, and the casual enquiry "Anyone ever spin out?", followed by serious attempts to do so.
It was a lorra-lorra fun. I recommend it to all.
A 60 Mb fibre connection. Click — web page appears! Click — video plays! 100MB uploads to Dropbox in seconds!
[Raak] Grrrrrrr! Still, I get fresh air and no traffic instead.
[Phil] I have those as well. :)
[Raak] Hmmm, I have no chance of anything over 3Mb for the next decade as far as I can tell. Unless I move house.
The sound of a Mellotron's "orchestral strings" voice. Sounds nothing like strings but is entirely wonderful when done right.
I think it was actually called "Three Strings", but I never had the knobs under the Steviemitts so I can't say for sure.
Training interested student(s)
Chunky knit leggings.
Hidden textDear god, I have a picture wedged firmly in my brain now that will not come out no matter what I do.
Flicking a dead Christmas tree light and being rewarded by having the whole string burst into glorious life.
Brandy butter
Bing Crosby's singing voice
Hess Trucks.
Correcting somebody who just said "pedanticism"
[Moom] But that just makes one sound like a pedanticismist, doesn't it?
Awakening in the dawn's coming light to the sound of Kookaburras, Noisy Miners, Butcher Birds, Wrens and their avian friends having a chat about their breakfast menu.
The relief experienced on finding a legitimate receipt for the dodgy-looking transaction on one's bank statement after a brief panic. [Stevie] And proud of it.
Delighting in one's own inherent immunity to British humor.
Getting connected to someone who actually cares when calling a "tech support" line. Thank you, nice AT&T lady.
Being able to get through the head and the middle 8 of "Misty" without screwing any of the chords.
Being able to watch the superstructure of a massive crane on a massive ship serenely sailing up the river from my office window. No point in trying to drive home right now - it's not home time for one reason, and all the bridges will be up for another.
Sharpening pencils
Waking in the middle of the night to the sound of rain falling outside, and going back to sleep again. Of course, there was that time I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain falling inside ...
A shepherd's hut in a sheep field in Norfolk. (Much, much better than it sounds)
The space where a piece of furniture has been removed.
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