Haikuioni

  • Jun. 26th, 2007 at 10:01 PM
fuckedup

Tagliatelle
Pasta of the gods, except
it exists, they don't.

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Hey here's a fundamental question for you

  • Jun. 19th, 2007 at 9:27 PM
Bronze cat
Mori: can you tell me what is the point of someone buying a shiny black convertible VW Beetle, and then driving it at 40mph on a 60mph road?
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OK, so I'm dull. Sue me!

  • Jun. 8th, 2007 at 9:18 PM
Sex
So, profmoriarty, your LiveJournal reveals...



You are... 1% unique and 32% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy writing). When it comes to friends you are normal. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are keen to please. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is intellectual.

Your overall weirdness is: 15

(The average level of weirdness is: 27.
You are weirder than 28% of other LJers.)


Find out what your weirdness level is!

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Things change

  • May. 29th, 2007 at 9:55 PM
someofuscan
Early morning sun
shines on her yellow hair
loneliness is gone

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May. 22nd, 2007

  • 5:11 PM
eye
I hadn't realised how long it was since I last paid much attention to things here, and I've really dropped out of so many of the things I used to be involved with. Just too many things happpening to keep up with it all. I think I may be turning a corner now though.

Hi [info]brienne89, I finally managed to catch up with you on here. Thanks.
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I'm moving!

  • Oct. 12th, 2006 at 10:58 PM
someofuscan
Yes, this weekend I'm moving to Trowbridge. It's only a single large room in a house with various shared bits, but it has wireless internet. I can feel World Of Warcraft coming on again ^__^.

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State of the nation address.........

  • Sep. 3rd, 2006 at 11:41 PM
someofuscan

Well, I've been on the course, and now, tomorrow, I actually start work at my new job. I'm working for a big German international wine company, that produces top quality wine on its own estates around the world, and then sells it directly to the public. And I mean top quality.... things like German Eiswein, which costs £23 a half bottle (it'll keep for 70 years as well if you don't open it). This is a really new thing for me - no more computer contracts, but then, if I'm any good at this selling thing, no more unemployment either. The mainframe computer industry in the UK seems to be going the way of the dodo.

I was amazed to get this job. I've been out of work since December last year, and then for about 6 months in the year before that.. and in the year before that. Not the best way to live. I saw this job advertised and thought I'd try an application, but as I've never sold a thing in my life I wasn't expecting anything to come of it. But seems they had a different idea, because I got invited for an interview, and for some reason I got offered the job! And from what I hear they usually have lots of people applying for these positions.

Last week was a course - learning all about German wine to start with, about Qualitatswein mit Pradikat Kabinett and all the other categories of top rate wines; all the growing regions; how to make Trockenbeerenauslese wines...and lots of other really useful and interesting factoids. We had a wine tasting, and we did a load of role playing. It was a lot of fun, actually.

So tomorrow is a telephone day. That's when we phone up people who've returned surveys and make appointments to see them for a wine tasting session, and with any luck persuade them to pay for a case or three of wine. And that's about all the job entails. Apart from spending the money of course.

I'm really looking forward to all of this. Should be fun ^_______^

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Stolen from _illumina_

  • Sep. 3rd, 2006 at 3:42 PM
eyeswideshut
MEME TIME!

Princeps Senatus

You scored 85%!


Congratulations! You have been voted to be the First Counselor of the Senate. Your eloquence with the Latin tongue is well-known, and you have been elevated to a position of authority within the Senate. You are always the first to speak at the Senate meetings (after the Emperor, of course) and are a very powerful ally (or enemy) to have. More than likely, you have the backing of some of the military, which could come in handy should you ever decide that being the Princeps Senatus is not enough for you...





My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 60% on Knowledge




Link: The Latin sayings Test written by NurseTim on OkCupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

I don't think that's too bad considering I haven't done any Latin since about 1970.........
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W00t

  • Aug. 24th, 2006 at 9:46 PM
someofuscan
Seems I've finally got a job - selling wine. Place your orders now!

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On Spelling...

  • Aug. 20th, 2006 at 12:13 AM
fuckedup
We've got a wonderful new education system in the UK. The pass rates on GCSE and A level exams are apparently rising. There's a debate running as to whether pass rates are up (24.1% now get the top grade) because pupils are working harder these days, or because the exam standards are actually lower than they used to be. I did A levels in 1974, and they were extremely hard work - we only attempted 3, and I managed to pass 2 of them.

I don't really know what the truth of the current issue is, but I can offer this bit of observation from something that happened yesterday. I've applied for a job working in the control centre of one of the regions emergency services, and so yesterday morning I went to an assessment test session. This was intended to test our basic suitability for the role, which includes handling emergency calls from members of the public.

There were three tests, all about the basic theme of being able to accurately record details of a call. The first one was a handwritten dictation test, in which we had to do nothing more complicated than to write down the text of one of the emergency service's manuals as it was read out loud by the tester. The test checked for the use of the correct version of words according to the context, and we were allowed no more than 13 spelling mistakes.

Now here's the interesting thing in relation to these A level results. There were 17 of us who turned up for this test. Most of them were in their early 20's, by the look of it. Out of those 17, only 4 people passed this initial dictation test. This means that 14 out of the 17 got more than 13 spelling mistakes in a piece of text that was no more than about a page and a half of handwritten A4 paper. The other interesting thing here was that of the 4 who passed, which included me of course, 3 of us were at least 40, and one was a guy in his 20's who was rather appalled by the result, and said that the reason he had passed was that he had taught himself proper spelling and punctuation, as they didn't teach it at school any more. The testers also mentioned that this was the lowest pass rate they'd ever had.

So there's my contribution to the A level results issue. OK, so the pass rates are up. But how is it that out of all the people who turned up and took an elementary dictation test, only one person in the 20's age group could actually pass it? There's some discrepancy there, surely? I know these results are nowhere like definitive, but they seem to me to indicate that something is not right - after all this was a pretty random sample, and to be honest I would have expected that the sort of people who would apply for such a job would be reasonably proficient at writing skills.

The 4 of us who passed that dictation all passed in the other 2 tests as well, so we've been invited back for a proper interview on Tuesday.

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Ferret Power!

  • Aug. 3rd, 2006 at 9:13 PM
fuckedup
FG's voice posts have broken my Friends page again :(. Anyone else getting the same?
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Off to Scotland!

  • Jul. 28th, 2006 at 7:52 AM
someofuscan
I'm off to Scotland for the weekend, if the trains decide to run that far. I've been invited up to stay with a friend and meet Paul and Mynga, the founders of the Brights, as they travel through on their trip round Europe before going back to the US. All expenses paid. Who could refuse?

On the agenda is a philosophical pub crawl to the pub in Edinburgh that was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment, where people like David Hume and Adam Smith and all the others met to drink, play billiards, and change the world as we know it. So I'd better stop typing and go get ready to catch a train......
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Stolen from _illumina_

  • Jul. 3rd, 2006 at 3:56 PM
fuckedup

What Flavour Are You? Hot hot! I am Curry Flavoured.Hot hot! I am Curry Flavoured.


I have a spicy personality. If you can take the heat, you'll love me, if not, I'll probably make you cry. I am not for the faint-hearted. What Flavour Are You?


I see.......
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Important question..

  • Jul. 2nd, 2006 at 11:45 PM
Bronze cat
Poll #760908
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

So who's best....

View Answers

Daleks
1 (100.0%)

Cybermen
0 (0.0%)

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A Children's Tale

  • Jun. 30th, 2006 at 10:03 AM
eye
This was a story that [info]furikoneko asked me to do months ago. She asked for something humorous about two or more deities. I tried it several different ways since then, and it always came out like bad Terry Pratchett. So instead I dropped the humour, and went more magical. Take it as you find it.

A children's tale.
Read more... )

Also posted in [info]creatio 

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Beamed up from missharker too

  • Jun. 15th, 2006 at 8:52 PM
eye
You Are Cyclops

Dedicated and responsible, you will always remain loyal to your cause.
You are a commanding leader - after all, you can kill someone just by looking at them.

Power: force beams from your eyes
Which of the X-Men Are You?

Odd that, 'cos he's probably my least favourite X-man! Seems a bit insipid to me.
Still, who's going to agree with me on that last bit ?
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Pioneer - new short story

  • Apr. 29th, 2006 at 5:13 PM

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Faith schools, sect schools?

  • Mar. 9th, 2006 at 1:43 PM
are they?
The UK government is currently trying to put through a new Bill in Parliament which will allow state funded schools to be run by interested bodies such as religious groups and big business. While we've always had Church of England and Roman Catholic schools, we've never had the possibility that fundamentalist christian groups who advocate creationism and base their teaching on the Bible would be able to run schools in the state sector. It's crazy, and yet the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is on record as saying that he believes that creationism should be taught in schools.

If you think this is something that should be stopped, the Brights forum (of which I am a facilitator) have been working on a petition to send to Parliament and national newspapers objecting to this new Bill. Current polls by ICM show that about 64% of the British public feel the same. We want to get as many signatures as possible on this petition.

If you want to add your signature then please go to www.petitiononline.com/sects/petition.html and sign up.

Cross posted to the Brights group.

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