UK Watercooler 31: Tony Robinson And His Time Team Found The Holy Grail In Somerset

We're back!!

Hey kate! Missed you! *hugs*

Yeh, I'm with mark on the whole "Not missed much" thing. At least, not much nice things.

Writing for terrorizer? *double take*

(copy pasted from other thread, excuse my laziness)

It's good to be back! Sod this whole work internet block thing. I don't want to work in an office again. How do I become an archeologist?

Where's Forest Pines? He can tell me. Oh, and I read Stephen Oppenheimer, finally, about the myth of celtic Britain thing.

Mention his name and FP will appear just like Mr Benn

FP! FP! FP!!!

::stamps feet::

Damn, I've only got ten more minutes in the web cafe. What's everybody up to this weekend?

Kontakte were talking about gonig to see TheLightShines on Sunday, but I'm not sure I fancy the horrible Old Blue Last. I've not been to a gig in ages! Oh wait, Hilton Betelgeuse wants to get together on Sunday to work on the comic, so I've got to draw him. Now how to STOP him from taking his clothes off!

er...wow! Hello Kate!

Kate whats the top 20 albums of the year for Terrorizer? It's not reached wh smiths here yet.
Just think, next year you might have a vote!

Hello there!

Kate, I was thinking about you the other day, because I was reading a book called "DIY: The Rise Of Lo-Fi Culture". Have you heard of it? If not I'll tell you why it made me think of you.

Kate's back! Teh Cooler's back! Woot!

am definitely up for London walking and megalith hunting. Or indeed megalithes. I saw signs pointing to them in Brittany last month.

I think we should do another New River walk. Only *south* from Palmers Green this time. Towards Stoke Newington. Or perhaps beyond.

Me, my mum, my sister and my gf have successively been struck down with NOROVIRUS over the festive season, unfortunately. It isn't much fun. If I had a worst enemy I wouldn't wish it on them.

Rocktor C! I see you are playing again. At least I think I got an email about that?

You know what this thread needs? More Neil Oliver. Phwoar! Here he is inspecting a trench on Time Team:

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/big_royal_dig/images/holy/h26.jpg

How polite they all are, those hott historians. I wanted more like a knock down all out grudgematch between Time Team and Coast with, like Tony Robinson and Neil Oliver wrestling over some artefact "no, it's MINE!" "no, it's MINE!" and Mick and Phil sneak up behind them to trip them into a trench, but then Nick Crane appears over the top of the hill with his TRUSTY UMBRELLA and takes on all comers.

Ha-hem. Oh dear. I need to get out of the house more.

x-x-x-post

No, I didn't get a vote in the Terrorizer end of year, I'm too new. I got a big piece in the Plan B end of year, though!

Who's that DIY book by, FP? If it's the one I'm thinking of, not only did I got to the launch, bUT I'M IN IT! I think. ANyway, out of time.

Good to see you all again!

The famousest megalithic site in Brittany is Carnac - it has rows and rows and rows of the things.

Someone called Amy Spencer, Kate. I haven't really read it, but I flicked through and looked at the pictures.

Kate, Mark, everyone... come to this!

Shameless self-promotion : Gig on January 19th!

Yes, playing again - this time full-on Jazzmaster madness, no pesky keybds for me.

What's Ned doing in that pic? He gets everywhere!
x-post

Oh, and to be an archaeologist, you either (a) go back to university (b) offer your services as an unpaid dogsbody. There aren't many other career paths, really.

Ha - Carnac! Camped there in Aug 2004, right next to the stones. It rained torrentially every single day and the tent was totally waterlogged most of the time. Enjoyed swimming in the Atlantic though..

Carnac - cheers guys.

Asia and I both love Coast. I had no idea that merkins had tried to invade Whitehaven before I watched it. The girl who dives, Miranda someone (sounds Russian) was on my course at uni (tho she was universally known as Miz back then).

An archaeology programme with a competitive element sounds like a great idea Kate, do you know any TV peeps you could pitch it to?

The first series of Coast had an excellent overhead shot of Grimsby Dock Tower. And, erm, that's all I remember about it.

Whoa! Hi Kate.

I think a friend had a third route of "c) become the admin woman for local archaeology crew and beg to be let on a dig sometime" but then both she and the more traditionally qualified archaeologist I knew have since quit because they couldn't find enough paid work.

I wish I knew how to build analogue synths (this is all in a "can't even be bothered to try making guitar pedals despite downloading the schematics and having friends who could do all the hard work for me while I watched and pointed and shouted NO NO MORE FUZZY BUT SLIGHTLY TWINKLY PLEASE help me decipher them and lend me things and make sure I didn't set fire to anything" way, mind).

Somewhere there is a picture of a 9-year-old spacecadet in knee-high white socks next to a wooden Obelix at the Asterix theme park near Carnac. Every so often I find it and wonder if it should be destroyed and then giggle at it and put it back in the drawer.

There isn't enough paid work for qualified archaeologists because of all the people who are willing to queue up to do the dogsbody stuff unpaid. Most of the work is in Rescue Archaeology - ie, dig X up in a week before someone builds a house / a motorway over the top of it.

I want to build analogue synths, too. I have got as far as: being given a second soldering iron for Christmas; and working out the schematics for those "make an annoying noise!" type of electronics kits you can buy in Maplins.

For building yer own analog(ue) synths, go here:

http://www.blacet.com

or here:

http://www.oakleysound.com/projects.htm

This is great stuff, & fairly easy to build. The quality of the finished items is great.

I've never used this guy:

http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/

But he has a decent rep by all accounts.

Don't ever bother using stripboard! I've been down that route, it's NOT WORTH THE HASSLE.

Hello Kate! I'm glad yr back (though I hope you get a job soon too)

Norm did you ever get that synth you ordered years ago?

There were 2 people I was waiting long term for stuff from, one of them I finally got the stuff after 3 (!) years, the other I've been stiffed by for sure. It's only 300 dollars, it could have been 1000 or something I suppose, but I'd rather have given the $$$ to the guy from wiard or john blacet.

I had a look at the Oakley site, and most of it is way over my head.

It's all over my head as well! Well, I have a basic understanding of whar a resistor, diode, capacitor, opamp etc do, but no more than that.

I just follow the instructions very carefully, everything's worked so far.

Oh, I understand all the electronic bits fine - what baffles me is how you're supposed to hook up all the finished kits in some way to make something musical.

Hello all, I am now unemployed as well. Made redundant on the first day of the year. Luckily I was in new york and decided to stay another week. So I've been enjoying myself, biking around and looking liek a hipster with Macbook Pro and Blackberry, hanging out in coffee shops.

Two jobs applied for. Neither of which I really want but they are there.

I understand none of it (and I haven't even clicked any links yet)

well, well, the gang's all here it seems...

Hurrah! now Mitya is here, we're almost complete. Anyone seen Goobs? Emil.y? Ailsa? (Coast scared the crap out of me when they went to investigate... AILSA CRAG!!! I screamed out loud and went "What's she doing on the telly?" before realising they were talking about the island.)

Anyway, ha ha. What do you look like 2008. I have no idea where the thread is, so I'll post this here:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2414/2168095877_707812874b_o.jpg

Miranda Krestoffnikov? I think she was on Wreck Detectives, too. (Ron was obsessed with that programme.)

emil.y has exams she says so wont be around for a few weeks. Not seen Onimo post since xmas but Ailsa posted yesterday on ILM.
Terrorizer's newest writer will have to post on Best Album From Terrorizer's Top 40 Albums Of 2007 !

Or should I say...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2350/2168095861_09ee3fbf93.jpg

oh and xpost to Ailsa Craig not crag. Which I could see nearly everyday when I lived in Prestwick.

And think very carefully what you will vote here!
ILX : What is The Genre Of Music You Dislike/Hate Most?

Hey up. As Kerr rightly points out, I'm not really around much for a while, but just wanted to say hello & welcome back, hussar. That pic is totally terrifying, as well.

Oooh, also, I went to a talk the other week on 'Fragments & Ruins', which has really got me fired up and wanting to visit SHAM RUINS, oh yes. Don't know if that's particularly up your street, Kate, but if so can you point me to any good interweb/print resources on them?

bubble bump.

Hello! Welcome back Kate, I had lunch in the George in Brighton on Saturday and thought of you :)

I am poorly and grrr at the women I just phoned to complain to about sending us the wrong book, who acted like I'd caused HER the most giant hassle.

Hi there! Welcome back K8! I've not been posting so much since I submitted my PhD (yay!), as I've been trying to spend less time in front of the computer and more time in front of my Wii.

Yay, Archel, yay Emil.y, yay Goobs! Everyone is coming back.

I was supposed to get together with Hilton yesterday to start on the comic, but he never rang. Grrrr, OK, sod this for a bag of chips. I cannot be bothered chasing people. An unrecognised number rang once and then hung up before I got to it - that's been happening a lot lately, which is making me paranoid. it might be him, but who knows.

SHAM RUINS are good if they are OLD sham ruins from the Romantic Era. I have a book about them! Somewhere... Follies and mock ruins.

I've been reading a book about Stonehenge. Well, just finished it. This fantastic alternative history of Stonehenge - well, a history of the alternative cultures that surround it, from Druids to hippies and the free festival (Hawkwind, yay!) and then travellers and the Battle of the Beanfield and how that mutated into road protests and rave culture.

Very, very interesting stuff. So much of the crap that happened building up to the Criminal Justice Bill, I just didn't know about. I knew it was evil, but not *that* evil.

(and sorry, Kerr, but I'm not venturing onto the rest of ILX, just the watercooler. I need to start applying for jobs and stuff.)

Hey how was Belfast gig?

Uh it was... interesting. I mean, apparently the gig went really well, people responded to it really well.

But I really wasn't in the mood for it (it was, like, 3 days after I'd been made redundant, and I'd missed the plane there had just spent 5 hours in Stanstead) and I really didn't get on with the bass player (who I'd only met the day before the gig) and I wasn't really feeling it.

You guys are playing on Friday, aren't you? Can you kick Jim and tell him I STILL don't have a copy of the album that *I* drew the cover for? Humph!

On another tack, should I just apply for all jobs I'm qualified for, regardless of whether I think I'll like them? And be choosey at the interview stage, if I get there? I suppose it's the recruitment company's job to weed me out.

Yeah, that's probably the way to go, alas. Applying for jobs suck.

We are playing Friday...I'll remind Jim about the CD. PS I've told you how much yr cover rules, right? 'Cause it's awesome. We keep the cd on our coffee table, not because we love Jim so much (though we do, of course), but because it's so lovely looking.

Was this a Curves gig, Kate?

I'd apply for anything and be choosey later. From a few forays into the world of recruitment last year, I found that it was really difficult to tell what a job would be like on paper or from just talking to the recruiter.

should I just apply for all jobs I'm qualified for, regardless of whether I think I'll like them? And be choosey at the interview stage, if I get there?

Probably the best way. Daft things like 'nice staff cafe/eating policy/easy to get to' aren't always apparent upfront, also look at your colleagues there.. if they have the eyes of the damned, then don't choose that one, etc.

No, Dr. C, it was playing guitar with a friend of mine in a band called Millimetre. I don't let awful people in Shimura Curves. Any more! Hah!

OK, I'm applying for everything I have the actual skills for, that looks reasonable that I might get. Also, they're all through agencies, so even though the one job might not be suitable, they might have another better one. (That is actually how I got my last job. They interviewed me, and after two minutes said "this is not the role for you, but we have this other role on offer...")

Awww, thanks Goobs. I haven't seen the finished product! I only saw the mockup!

Oh I see, I thought the bassist thing sounded un-Curves like.

I am curretly obsessed with playing slide guitar in open G tuning. Fun, fun, fun, but I am still not very good.

I had a dream where I was paying slide guitar last night! Well... this morning... and it was more a steel guitar.

I often have dreams where someone steals my car.

Tom! Hello! I only have bad dreams. Last night I dreamed that some wag of a PR sent me the Krap-aid Plagiarism Co CD as a joke. Bah.

I haven't played guitar in weeks. I don't know what's wrong with me. No motivation. And I think a single sentance in Germaine Greer sent me spiralling off, thinking that all rock and roll is just sexual display, and it's males that should be doing the sexual display. And since I don't feel the slightest bit like doing a bit of sexual display, I don't feel the slightest bit like rocking at the moment.

But I'm (re)-reading She Bop II at the moment, to try and fill me with feminist fire.

But, quite frankly, I think the History of Scotland looks more appealing. (I really should learn more about Being Scottish. My knowledge of Scots history is really quite appalling. My Gran is probably spinning in her grave.)

Hello! I couldn't get a decent tune out of the steel/slide guitar, so obv. emblematic of something else

The weather has been awful down here, too. Gales and storms and half the trains are out - there was a tree down on the line by Wimbledon - did that delay you, Ed?

Belated happy birthday, Mark.

Now I have a meeting booked in my diary. I wonder if it will happen. I supposed I should go and see.

I was delayed, but didn't know about the tree. Boss not in yet and I really need her to show me how to do, and sign off on, my expenses.

Bah, stupid bosses! I just had a meeting...

That consensus building thing that you linked to a while ago Ed, that was a Quaker thing, wasn't it? Because according to their literature they don't believe in voting as a method of decision forming.

(I found it interesting that they don't do oaths, either - because honestly is such a core foundation belief that they don't think there is a need to swear oaths. You should consider yourself "under oath" all the time. Swearing oaths creates two levels of truth which is simply not acceptable. I really like that idea. OK, it means I have to stop swearing so much in order to be a Quaker, then. Must work on that.)

Not Quaker per se but definitely descended from them, there are a lot of Quakers or raised as Quakers in the non-violent protest movement and the communal movement.

(I found it interesting that they don't do oaths, either - because honestly is such a core foundation belief that they don't think there is a need to swear oaths. You should consider yourself "under oath" all the time. Swearing oaths creates two levels of truth which is simply not acceptable. I really like that idea. OK, it means I have to stop swearing so much in order to be a Quaker, then. Must work on that.)

Isn't this how they got the name. One of their founders was in court and refused to swear an oath saying he would Quake before the Lord but not before the Judge, or somesuch.

Yes, George Fox, I think?

It's weird people used to be chucked in prison for being Quakers. And now they're mostly lovely old hippie grannies.

Oh dear, I'm trying to put in a narrative on my report for "lay people." Like, dude, seriously, can you not figure out what a crosstab reports is by looking at it?

Ugh. I wish Sainsburys would label its salad bar better! I just took a scoop of something that looked like yellow cole slaw, took a bite and got a mouthful of chicken! Blech! I had to go and wash my mouth out. Nasty!

being in one of these crinkly tin office park sheds makes the rain sound a lot worse, rather like being in a tent.

I like the sound of rain on corrugated tin roofs. But not very condusive to work I would imagine.

It's rather soothing, and better than being in the sales office with Magic FM on.

Ugh! Where was I recently that Magic FM was on? It was really awful, like swimming through treacle, but not as fun as that actually sounds.

A shop! What shop was I in yesterday? It wasn't the laundrette. It must have been Streatham Fruiterers. Oh, that's right, I stopped in there to get cheese on the way home from Meeting.

Aaagh - there's rain coming in through my kitchen roof!! I have two huge velux windows and it's getting through at the corners of each one.

No wind here yet. Which is strange as for the last month it's been nothing but windy.

Well, after my meetings, and the appropriate editing, I now have nothing to do for the rest of the day again. Shoot me now, please.

http://www.soundonsound.com/newspix/Image/Reason4screenshot.jpg

Reason 4? I've only just got Reason 3!

It has Thor.

mighty thor

Do I dare ask?

One up from Free?

groan

Modular Synth.

I just spent two hours working on a blog entry (can't believe no one noticed, let alone cared) only to have my stupid annoying colleague kick out the power supply of my 'puter and I lost it all. :-(

Now I really have accomplished nothing today. Why am I even here?

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone would notice if I sloped out half an hour early. But I guess the tube would be so busy it wouldn't be worth it.

I am hungover. Owowowow. BUT it looks like I am going down Saaaf to do an MA next year. Yayayayayay.

Also - cor, Thor.

Horray for Sarf! I will totally come down for FAPpage if you move to Brighton! I am overdue for a visit there.

Excellent. I don't want to get too excited/terrified as I've yet to get the official letter which tells me whether it's conditional or unconditional, so theoretically they could ask for a first and I could fail to get one... but it's looking pretty definite.

FATRTA (fancy a trek round the aquarium)?

Ooh, I like Aquariums - though it will have to go a long way to be as good as The Deep in Hull.

I will hold thumbs that it happens for you!

Well, I haven't been to many aquaria, but this one has the all-important underwater tunnel:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/missekawasaki/2237252100/

Scary monsters:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/missekawasaki/2237227522/

And rays. Happy, smiling, dancing rays:
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=5596171492898905314&hl=en-GB

I love the dancing ray.

What happened to my pictures? Argh.

Oh well, it was a picture of an underwater tunnel and another of a giant crab. You can use your imaginations. And the ray is there, which is the most important thing. Go ray!

Sammy The Crab?

Underwater tunnels! That was what I liked best about The Deep. I'm sorry that it didn't turn up. I would have liked to have seen that.

In the past few days, I've cancelled my birthday party, quit Plan B... what else can I smash up?

1) The Tories
2) The M25
3) the Hoosiers

... these are a few of my favourite things?

... sorry, Coltrane intrudes again

I've never been a member of any of those things, so it would be quite difficult.

I've done my 20 minutes of work for the day, which was to order some information on Crystal Enterprise. And now I sit and wait for my boss.

::twiddles thumbs::

Well my AC15 lasted a week before it died :(

However, as of an hour ago, I now have an AC30!

Yesterday was a really nice, really interesting day on ILX. And I've just realised why. ::beats head against desk::

HE wasn't posting?

I thought it was just coz the Pinefox and Alba were back, and actually talking about things in depth, but I was wrong. Or maybe the two things were linked.

I need to find another internet forum. One that isn't based around music, for a start. I really have said all I ever need to say about music on interweb forums, I think. It always comes back to "There's really only two kinds of music - that you like, and that you don't" in the end.

I need to find a new everything, pretty much, right now, but a place where I can spend 8 hours a day that my job has nothing to do that DOESN'T make me feel so frustrated might be a start. Maybe I'll go answer some more email or something.

I read ILX far more than I post these days.

Pinefox and Alba long posts on substantive topics beats all these zingz for sure.

Hi all. BTW if you want laughs x 1000000, all I'm saying is read the fiction.

For me it is more like "There's really only two kinds of music - that you've heard, and that you haven't". And ppl on ILM are increasingly talking about the latter so any contributions I made to the threads would become increasingly Aja-esque.

It's great to have PF back, regardless of whether his contributions are what are making the change or not.

"Read the fiction" Suzy? Which fiction would that be?

I really have said all I ever need to say about music on interweb forums, I think

Me too.

Yes, it was great to read The Pinefox and Alba on that thread. For a brief moment ILE wasn't a playground for bored (and boring) sociopaths.

Kate you got a new name for watercooler no32 yet? We're over 1000 posts.

I haven't heard most music, so it's all "new" to me, regardless of novelty.

I am sincerely hoping you don't mean that iste writes fiction, S! Or that you have slogged through it.

I fear I may become a bored sociopath if I hang around here much longer. I am starting to understand that depths that boredom drives a mind to.

Oh, wait, yes.

Lock this baby up, please, we're done here.

UK Watercooler 32: Fall Into The Meaning Gap