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

pleaseremove, setting a work quiz: "No, I'm going to get my wrong answers right"

pleaseremove and I, discussing moving Windows activations to new hardware...

pleaseremove: ...it'll work up to when a tech looks at it and spots that all the hardware has changed
boggyb: ah, but the drive is the same
pleaseremove: *splutters with laughter* that's the only thing that is!

boggyb: Wtfteams
boggyb: I'm looking at a teams chat where messages I sent are out of order
boggyb: Also, wtfskype
pleaseremove: also wtf skype, i didn't get your notification last night
boggyb: Skype on my phone didn't update this chat history until I went back to the main screen
boggyb: Can I have MSN Messenger back please?

For added lols, I got the other person in the Teams chat to send me a screenshot. They saw my messages in yet another order!

pleaseremove failing to remember when I last visited:

pleaseremove: too... many... things... one... tiny... mind...


And a bonus quote in a chat history I just stumbled across: elemnar describing an unfriendly piano score:

elemnar: It's got nothing but parallel octaves which are a bit like mild cheddar. Somewhat lacking in flavour but still an edible form of cheese.

Summarised from a Skype call just now...

pleaseremove: I've finally got my new router working!
* pleaseremove rants for 5 minutes about websites that hide the latest firmware version
pleaseremove: ...except I can't get the port forwarding to work. I've added an entry for the web server.
boggyb: What IP address does your router think it has?
* boggyb tries that address
boggyb: Works for me.
pleaseremove: Oh sod.
* pleaseremove tries that address
pleaseremove: That's working. That wasn't working ten minutes ago!

allegramente: We should let boggyb win, it's been a while since he's managed to win at Settlers.

...several hours of Settlers + Seafarers + Cities & Knights later...

The GNU: *blocks me from completing a shipping route towards an island*
boggyb: *moves a ship*
boggyb: *moves a second ship using the Diplomat card*
boggyb: *places a settlement with two bonus points on a different island for the win*
boggyb: *places two more settlements because I can*

I was up in Horsham with the family at the weekend (the parents had a rack of lamb in the freezer bought for Christmas that needed eating, and elemnar and I were invited to help them with it) and we ended up playing Settlers of Catan combined with the Seafarers and Cities & Knights expansions. Normally what happens at such games is elemnar unexpectedly wins without realising, but not this time. We used the Through the Desert scenario with a random map that gave some very weird resource balance. I spent a lot of the game trailing, but in the endgame I managed to accumulate a pair of Roadbuilding cards which let me suddenly head out from one coastal settlement (on a hard-earned 2-for-1 wheat port) towards the far side of the desert (the direct route was blocked so I took the long way round). Then in the final turn I accumulated a ridiculous amount of wheat resource, which thanks to the 2-for-1 port and a couple of bonus cards let me turn that into three settlements.

It was a very close-run thing and I was honestly expecting The GNU to win it - I'd had to block him with an earlier settlement placement to prevent him getting to one foreign island. And normally my strategy of using a port for resources doesn't pay off, but this map helped by letting me claim a lot of high-probability wheat supply. So, unexpected victory with two more points than needed!

This is around the phase of NaBloPoMo where I end up staring at a blank screen, trying to come up with something to write and bemoaning the lack of memes and random quizzes these days. Are there any sites left that do them?

Anyway, after work I popped over to Whiteley to do a bit of shopping and poked my nose into the Aladdin's Cave that is Flying Tiger. It was evidently between stock changes and not as inspiring as it was in past years, though I did find a suitable Mystery Present in there (the Mystery is I don't even know what's in it!). Oh, and apparently goth unicorn slippers are a thing:



elemnar: those slippers? WOW. but no. But WOW

Overheard at Sainsbury's while I was waiting to buy my lunch...

"Every single odd numbered till in the store is not scanning anything. Just the odd numbered ones. I reckon it's sabotage. Are Tesco's hacking us or something?"

(for non-Brits: Sainsbury's and Tesco are the two biggest supermarket chains here. At one time something like one pound in every seven was spent in Tesco)

Discussing Smash Bros at pasta night...

Kyle: ...so you know wavedashing?
elemnar: No, I just know how to use Jigglypuff.
Kyle: O_O

Ph34r elemnar when she puts on her "kid sister" face and plays Smash Bros - she will pick the girliest pinkiest character and utterly destroy you.

Today's voteamabob was very close, but placed Machi Koro (with the Harbour expansion) and 5 Minute Dungeon as joint winners. So as there were 7 of us and those games max out at 5 players, we played both! I played Machi Koro and managed to do a lot better than I have done with previously games of it at SWARM. I don't think I had much of a strategy to begin with, but ended up going heavily in on red cards (take money from the active player) and blue cards (gain small amounts of money from the bank on anyone's turn) - these initially gave a very low income and it took me a lot longer than everyone else to construct whatever card lets you roll 2 dice. However once I managed that and got a Tax Office card my deck suddenly started raking in money and I managed several rounds where I had about 25 coins to spend (and usually lost it all during the round to regain it on my next turn). I was left just needing to get the final victory card and just could not quite get the 30 coins needed for it, and ultimately Kyle manage to grab it before me. Still, second place is not to be sneezed at and I got to the about-to-win point first!

(via SMS)
boggyb: Am on the train
pleaseremove: Quick, get off
boggyb: Too late, it's moving :)
pleaseremove: Quick. Get on