'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe

The voteamabob once gain threw up the traditional pasta night games of Ticket to Ride and Dominion, so jonners99_uk did a bit more number-crunching and instead selected Scotland Yard and Galaxy Trucker as being the two games with the most first-choice votes. Perhaps the voteamabob app should take rankings into account when we eventually get round to writing it? Anyway, Sarah, Vicky and Martin played Scotland Yard with Matt leading them on a merry dance around London (and managing to get to the end without being caught!), while myself, Paddy, jonners99_uk and Beth played Galaxy Trucker.

We started off with a practice session to try and get to grips with the rules, then reset the scores and tried again for real. In the first round I think we all were on fairly even scores, but then it all went horribly wrong for the second round - the very first card Paddy drew was Epidemic which wiped out most of my crew (including my purple alien which I'd picked up to try and bolster my firepower). Then a few cards later we turned over a Slavers card, and without the alien I couldn't present enough firepower. So the slavers took the rest of my crew, and I was then out of the game with a crewless ship on all of 8 credits (having not managed to collect any cargo, and also having lost a chunk of my ship due to a pirate attack). The others made it through to the end with scores of 30-something credits, and we called it a night rather than add insult to injury with the third round.


On the way to pasta night I was listening to Radio 1's 10-minute takeover. The first track picked was Gorillaz's Feel Good Inc., and for a brief moment instead of being stuck in a queue on the Chichester bypass I was transported back to my degree at Sussex University all those years ago. In particular it reminded me of that common area tucked away at the top of the EDB building (now called Silverstone) - it had WiFi, power points, and was a good place to settle down with the laptop and bash away at a bit of coursework (when I wasn't playing Worms Blast or completing random LiveJournal memes). There used to be one of the many little cafés tucked away as well, and a computing cluster that was always deserted and so handy if I needed to be on the main uni network. Sussex was full of odd little common areas and cubby-holes - I found a good number of them (Mantell common room, Pevensey I, Pevensey II (I spent so much time there along with talismancer and ptristan that the porters joked about placing a "reserved" sign on one of the tables), Essex house, loads throughout Arts A/B and the Library, and of course the Pevensey Bridge) and I'm sure there's just as many elsewhere in the campus still waiting to be discovered (I never did find the ENG 1-3 tunnels that pewterfish once described).

It's odd how an apparently random snippet of music can remind me quite strongly of a given place and time.


I know I keep saying this and yet do nothing about it, but I do miss Sussex University and I do want to go back there and study again one day. Returning for a Masters or even a PhD is actually possible, and is not a completely bonkers idea. The trouble is I'm torn as to what to do as while Brighton is an amazing place to live and study in, I actually quite like Fareham and don't want to move away (and that's without contemplating moving to Cornwall...). Wait, that's not quite right - it's more I don't want to move away from the friends I've made in Fareham, and in particular church and housegroup. Two years ago I'd have happily moved, but over the past year-and-a-half I've finally set down roots here.

Perhaps I could commute to Sussex? Again, not totally bonkers although it would involve either a daily drive along the A27 past the bottlenecks of Chichester, Arundel, and Worthing, or instead the joys of Southern FailRail and an east/west change across Brighton station (which is just slow because the timetables don't line up). Actually, no, that's not an option thanks to the RMT's contempt for passengers - the train journey I could deal with (have 3DS, will game), the unreliability makes it completely impractical. Perhaps I could move a bit of the way along the coast and be within a reasonable travelling distance of both Fareham and Brighton?

Or I could even not go to Sussex and instead continue my studies at another university. Southampton and Portsmouth both have major universities, and those aren't the only ones within a reasonable distance of here. Except Sussex is a campus university, sitting in the South Downs and surrounded by the countryside, while Southampton and Portsmouth are city universities and that's just not quite the same.

In any case July's a bit late to be suddenly applying for a 2017 course. But for 2018... hmm...

Ok, so last night's update was actually submitted after midnight, but I claim that it's still yesterday's update as I hadn't gone to bed yet. Thanks to talismancer for prodding me.

Anyway, time for an actual post which isn't a random meme or a comment on talismancer's posts.

Recently I've been watching Mission: 2110, which in a nutshell is a futuristic version of Raven. The rough plot outline is that humanity built robots ("Roboids") to help them, travelled to the stars, explored the cosmos, and generally did what you'd expect humanity to achieve in the medium future. Unfortuantly, something somewhere went horribly wrong, the robots turned on humanity, and wiped out everyone in yuor typical robot uprising scenario.

Enter Caleb. He's the last of the resistance, hiding out on the container ships that form Futuregate, and it's up to him to defeat the Roboids. He can't do it on his own, so what he does is build a time machine to summon recruits from his past (2010, our present) to help him out. They have to complete challenges, earn biorods, compete for limited places, and eventually one will become his ultimate recruit.

( Spoilers )

Music is a powerful art form. It has the ability to take the mind to different places, to unite cultures and people, to soothe and relax.

Recently when listening to my music collection I've been thinking about how different tracks remind me, sometimes very strongly, of various places that I've been to. One track reminds me of my first job. Another reminds me of bus journeys to school. Still more evoke strong memories of a night-time trip across the downs.

In no case has that been the only place where I've listened to that track, or even where I've listened to it the most. By far the majority of compositions have only been heard at my computer, or have been part of my general collection on my MP3 player for so long that they have no specific location attached.

So with this, I give you all a meme to follow and spread. It's quite simple:

Post a few tracks of music which strongly remind you of somewhere, along with where and why.

And here's mine. Note that some of these are in tracker formats, and so you'll need something like XMPlay to listen to them.

Populous: The Beginning soundtrack, by Mark Knight

pleaseremove and I once did a night-time journey across the top of the South Downs, as part of being the support car for a hike. After going through a few different pieces, we eventually stuck this soundtrack on shuffle and let it run. I've always liked this soundtrack - it's a good mix of ambient ethnic music for the game. pleaseremove described it as being very eerie, which is pretty accurate. It's up for free download by the composer, and is well recommended if you like ambient/game music.

Lore, by Warder

For some reason, this reminds me of the coach journey to school when I was nearing the end of my time at secondary school. As to why, I can only assume it's because this one was on my MP3 player for quite a while then, and I listened to it a lot on the journey. It's also quite long (about 8 minutes when looped once). It only reminds me of that time, but that's probably because Arriva played musical buses for a few years before they scrapped the route and then I changed route and operator three times in the last two years.

MorningStar FF2000 (MP3 version), by Moozeblaster

While it's classed as techno, don't let that put you off. Believe it or not, there actually exists *good* techno music. You just have to look harder to find it.
Anyway, this piece reminds me of my first job. I can only guess it's because I brought in a CD of random tracks, including this, and listened to it there. The memory is still strong after over 4 years. I can visualise the office I ended up with, along with the morning view from the window in a crisp October, a light mist on the grass. Great place, and great people.

Not Like the Other Girls, by The Rasmus (on the Dead Letters album)

Picture, if you will, a small village station. Dark clouds overhead, and rain pouring down. An announcement has just come over the PA, and the train from London Victoria has been delayed by another twenty minutes. The passengers are huddled in the small shalter, waiting for the train to arrive. And one person stands alone, halfway along the platform, oblivious to the rain, listening to sounds only he can hear...

While making that list, I've noticed that all of them are ones that I've only listened to when out and about since getting my MP3 player. It's one of those devices that I now routinely take and listen to everywhere. Some tracks are very suited to certain places, as seen above - Populous when driving across the Downs at night, New Forest when wandering the Downs on foot during the day. Not Like the Other Girls seemed a perfect track when standing at that cold wet station, and as said I ignored the small shelter and happily stood out there in the rain. Lost in the music, I didn't notice the falling rain, and ignored the announcement about delays.

At other times I want to listen to something with a bit more power, and there's not that many which fall into that category. Bring Me to Life by Evanescence is one of those which fits. There's also a few by Stratovarius which fall into that category. Sometimes I'll prefer something more classical, and the instrumental Under the Stars from the Lion King soundtrack works very well. It starts off very quietly, with a simple theme as the group muse about the stars. Near the end of the track, as Simba chases after Rafiki, it throws itself into a strong precussive mix that's full of depth and is begging for more power from the speakers.

Occassionally I'll just hop through at random, taking what comes as it comes. There's a few tracks in my collection that I've never listened to, and may never do so. Others I'll go out of my way to listen to over and over again. And a few ambient tracks I'll stick on loop and still be listening to them a few hours later.

Such is the world of a music lover.