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John Coxon

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Doctor Who [Nov. 16th, 2009|02:20 am]
[Tags|, ]
[I'm in |Werrington, Peterborough]
[I'm feeling | disappointed]

So, I was Twittering about this and realized that it'd be a much better idea just to write down what I thought. This LJ entry is a product of that realization.

Here, there be spoilers! )
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Jonathan Coulton Gig Report [Nov. 14th, 2009|12:33 am]
[Tags|, , , ]
[I'm in |On the train]
[I'm feeling |happy]

So my uni friend Michael and I went to see Jonathan Coulton tonight at the Union Chapel in London. First impressions of the venue were of surprise -- I had assumed it was an ex-chapel converted into a venue, but it appeared to be a genuine, honest-to-God church, and that impression only got stronger as we walked in and took our seats on the pews.

After we'd bagged our spot, I purchased a copy of JoCo's first album, Smoking Monkey, and one of the 2009 Tour T-shirts (which has the honour of being one of extremely few white T-shirts in my collection!) before settling down to wait for the evening's entertainment to kick off. Eventually, to much applause, Paul and Storm came on-stage.

They kicked off by greeting us all and telling us they were "the thing you have to sit through to see the thing you came to see tonight!" They launched into a rendition of Opening Band which was really fun, and they had two matching pairs of boxer shorts, a thong and a packet of Jaffa Cakes. Then they did their Mothers' Day song, and asked us whether any of us had mothers (apparently Manchester shouted back that they were clones).

During a song that apparently needed us to wave lighters in the air, someone was caught with an open laptop and a competition was started to see who could design the best lighter app before the end of the show (AFAIK nobody completed the challenge). They played Frogger: The Musical, a song about boxing nuns and a pirate's wife's lament.

At some point during the set, Paul used the phrase "Wispa Melée!" and Storm said that that was their Clash tribute band. This triggered a number of jokes around names for tribute/covers bands throughout the evening:

  • Manufactured Sorrow: The Smiths
  • Zombie Leprechauns: The Pogues
  • Oblong Circles: They Might Be Giants
  • Jaffa Cake Thieves: The Madness
  • Star Wars Can of Worms: Weezer
  • Ritalin Cannon: TMBG again
  • Space Bones: David Bowie (this one was actually during JoCo's set)
JoCo came on after a short break, and started with the three songs I listened to on the way to the railway station this afternoon before moving onto some more. Paul and Storm came on after a few songs -- Paul had changed into a Captain Hammer shirt and responded to calls of 'Captain Hammer' with "The hammer is my penis", which is as it should be. No real shocks or surprises came until they covered TMBG's Birdhouse in Your Soul (I knew he'd covered it for Chicago but didn't expect to hear it tonight). Another notable song was Mr. Fancy Pants -- its first performance in the UK -- in which we got well and truly rickrolled!

The set continued with some really great songs, including most of the old favourites. He didn't do Chiron Beta Prime, You Ruined Everything or I'm Your Moon, but he did a version of Always the Moon without mics or amps, relying on the natural acoustics of the room, that was absolutely stunning. Both he and Paul and Storm performed a couple of songs from Masters of Song Fu each, which was cool (although sadly there was no Boolean Love Song).

At the end, he plugged some merch (including cake-scented stickers) before coming out to take photos with and sign autographs for the people who had stuck around. All in all, a good night! xD

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Jonathan Coulton Gig [Nov. 13th, 2009|06:59 pm]
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[I'm in |Union Chapel, London]

In the queue for the JoCo gig in London tonight!!

Sometimes the lack of a flash on the iPhone does get in the way... Anyone else got any awesome plans tonight?

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Dinner Party [Nov. 7th, 2009|10:49 am]
[Tags|, , ]
[I'm in |Derbyshire]
[I'm feeling | content]

I have spent a happy evening at [info]archaro's house eating a very good dinner. We started with a gin and tonic each, and then we started, at 8pm, a dinner that consisted of several courses:

  • Traditional French onion soup (caramellized onion soup with a slice of French bread in it and grated gruyére on top).
  • Welsh lamb with a leek fool and new potatoes, served with a glass of Auvergnat pinot noir (red wine).
  • Gin and tonic sorbet (which was love).
  • Field mushroom pâté with a slice of bruschetta and a balsamic vinaigrette, along with a glass of gavi (white wine).
  • An Aberdeen Angus fillet steak with fine beans, new potatoes and an English mustard and clotted cream sauce, and a glass of Balgownie cabernet sauvignon (red wine).
  • Cheese and biscuits (unpasteurized Stilton and Cheddar, and a pasteurized Shropshire Blue) with a single quinta vintage port.
  • Half a melon, balled and then marinated in port and cherry brandy.
  • Rosewater panna cotta and saffron & cardamom panna cotta with a glass of orange muscat.
  • Coffee and delicious chocolate truffles, with cherry brandy!

After the cherry brandy, the amount of alcohol hit me like a train (I was not the only one!) and so we retired to bed after finishing supper at about 1am. A damn fine evening!

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Milkshake! [Oct. 31st, 2009|07:39 pm]
[Tags|, , , , , ]
[I'm in |Southampton, England]

This weekend my family and I are visiting my Great Auntie Margaret in Southampton, and so last night I spent the night in Peterborough and this afternoon has been spent wandering around Southampton city centre.

Some of the people reading this will live in cities that have a proper milkshake shop, like Shakeaway -- indeed, some of you may even have a branch of that particular business! My parents and I were introduced to milkshake shops by Shakeaway in Bournemouth, and my mother is rather partial to the chocolate & cherry flavour. In fact, she's made it her mission to visit all of their branches (not entirely seriously...).

When we got to Southampton, our first port of call was the bigger of the two Shakeaway outlets (one is a shop, the other is more a counter in a shopping centre), in which I had the milkshake photographed below:

It was lovely, but they did it with Milkybar instead of Milky Way, which made it a bit sweet for my taste. Afterwards we explored more of the city, discovering that the new Magic Mouse is alright but not as good as I hoped; that Hotel Chocolat do chocolate nibbles for dinner parties; and that Italian hog roast apparently means "no stuffing or crackling". I also didn't buy a Beach Boys album.

Then, Dad suggested getting another milkshake, and since I have no self-control, I plumped for a chocolate and peanut butter one this time around:

(The thumbs in the background are my Aubtie Jennifer's, and the milkshakes are chocolate with cherry, peanut butter and ginger respectively.)

Then we went to actually visit Auntie Margaret, and now we're preparing to go our. All in all, a good day!

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Dreamwidth [Oct. 29th, 2009|12:14 am]
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[I'm in |The Dry Dock, Leicester]

Something about which I am curious: I synced my LJ entries with Dreamwidth and promptly never really switched over. If one day I decided to start using it instead of LJ, would I be able to resynchronise or would I have to delete the current entries and then sync?

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

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New Website! [Oct. 26th, 2009|02:22 am]
[Tags|]
[I'm in |Evington, Leicester]
[I'm feeling | accomplished]

I have a new website, which is shiny and which I did with WordPress. It can be found over at chickensinenvelopes.net, and contains information about my Games Workshop addiction hobby, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a partial list of the apps I have on my iPhone, with accompanying reviews/notes on why I downloaded them.

I think you should go have a look around!
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Odyssey 2010 [Oct. 22nd, 2009|09:39 pm]
[Tags|, ]
[I'm in |The Old Horse, Leicester]
[I'm feeling | excited]

I've just been asked to moderate a panel with Gerry Webb, Dave Clements and Alastair Reynolds on it at the next Eastercon, and I've just sent a blog entry about Hitchcon to Jennifer, at Penguin, which should be up on 6of3.com at some point soon.

A friends-locked, and somewhat more involved, entry about what I've been up to recently will appear at some point, I hope, and once the blog post is up at 6of3.com I will of course repost it here for you guys to peruse.
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Twitter Usage [Oct. 21st, 2009|10:01 am]
[Tags|, ]
[I'm in |United Kingdom, England, Leicester]

Right then, an LJ article on Twitter. Sometimes, Twitter users annoy me and this article covers some usage points on which I have Views and on which I'd appreciate yours.

Cut for Twitter Users )

That's all the rant I wanted to put forward today, I hope to encourage some debate on the subject!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

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Acronyms [Oct. 15th, 2009|05:44 pm]
[Tags|, , ]
[I'm in |Evington, Leicester]
[I'm feeling | happy]
[I'm hearing |Whatever my housemate's listening to]

I've just noticed something really strange about my acronym usage whilst sending a text message. I've been annoyed with my iPhone for a while now, because it autocorrects 'atm' (at the moment) to 'ATM' (Automated Teller Machine). This is all very well and good, but I've only just noticed I always capitalise IIRC. As such, I believe a poll is required to see whether I am alone – for the purposes of the poll, I have capitalised them all, but don't let that put you off!

During searching for a handy reference point I found Fox's article entitled 'Top 50 Text Acronyms Parents Should Know', which is brilliant, but which they may have ripped off from somewhere else.

ETA: If you're going to suggest acronyms please would you tell me what they mean? I have no idea what some of the suggestions stand for!

Poll #1471637 Acroynms
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

Capitalised?

View Answers

LOL - Laugh Out Loud
10 (62.5%)

LMAO - Laughing My Arse Off
8 (50.0%)

ROFL - Rolling On the Floor Laughing
9 (56.2%)

IIRC - If I Recall Correctly
13 (81.2%)

ATM - At The Moment
4 (25.0%)

IMO/IMHO - In My (Humble) Opinion
14 (87.5%)

AFAIK - As Far As I Know
14 (87.5%)

TBH - To Be Honest
6 (37.5%)

CBA - Can't Be Arsed
5 (31.2%)

TTFN - Ta-Ta For Now
11 (68.8%)

TTYL - Talk To You Later
9 (56.2%)

SFW/NSFW - (Not) Safe For Work
16 (100.0%)

BRB - Be Right Back
8 (50.0%)

IDK - I Don't Know
8 (50.0%)

FTW - For The Win!
11 (68.8%)

Uncapitalised?

View Answers

LOL - Laugh Out Loud
11 (91.7%)

LMAO - Laughing My Arse Off
8 (66.7%)

ROFL - Rolling On the Floor Laughing
8 (66.7%)

IIRC - If I Recall Correctly
6 (50.0%)

ATM - At The Moment
12 (100.0%)

IMO/IMHO - In My (Humble) Opinion
5 (41.7%)

AFAIK - As Far As I Know
6 (50.0%)

TBH - To Be Honest
11 (91.7%)

CBA - Can't Be Arsed
8 (66.7%)

TTFN - Ta-Ta For Now
7 (58.3%)

TTYL - Talk To You Later
6 (50.0%)

SFW/NSFW - (Not) Safe For Work
3 (25.0%)

BRB - Be Right Back
10 (83.3%)

IDK - I Don't Know
7 (58.3%)

FTW - For The Win!
7 (58.3%)

Are there any acronyms you think I should poll in a sequel poll?

Do you like silly questions?

View Answers

Yes!
11 (57.9%)

No!
1 (5.3%)

My mother died in a silly question, you insensitive clod!
3 (15.8%)

There's a llama!
10 (52.6%)

Tickybox!
10 (52.6%)

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2009 Books: #40 [Oct. 12th, 2009|11:20 pm]
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[I'm in |Leicester]

#40 Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless, 1992

This is Douglas' last Hitchhiker novel, and it's definitely the least funny of the trilogy. However, it's also the one that has the most science-fiction -- parallel universes, suspended animation and advanced technological concepts abound.

Some of Douglas style is apparent in this book, most notably the one-liners that never really stop being funny, and the interplay between Ford and Arthur is hilarious as ever. Trillian's character is slightly oddly written compared to the previous novels, but given her non-appearances in SLATFATF and the Secondary Phase, the fact she's even present at all is, I guess, something to be pleased with!

This book is also easily one of the bleakest i've ever read, with virtually no hope or joy present throughout the tome and the depressing ending, but I still enjoy reading the novel. I'm nervous about reading Eoin's novel, but that is the next book!

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2009 Books: #39 [Oct. 12th, 2009|11:16 am]
[Tags|, , , ]
[I'm in |County of Bedfordshire]

Something has just struck me: if I had read one more book before I started rereading Douglas Adams' Trilogy of Five, And Another Thing would have been my 42nd book this year. As it is, it shall be my 41st, which is deeply unsatisfactory!

#39 Douglas Adams, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, 1984

Some people -- in fact, quite a few people -- don't like this book. There was an epic flame war on alt.fan.douglas-adams back in the day between Simo and Kaare over whether chapter 25 was a good passage of Douglas' writing. This novel is the first novel that Douglas wrote from scratch instead of adapting a radio show or a Doctor Who script or whatever, and it shows!

Cut for spoilers! )

All in all, this book is a good book, but it's very different to the others. My next read will be arguably the bleakest thing Douglas ever wrote!

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2009 Books: #38 [Oct. 10th, 2009|10:55 am]
[Tags|, , , ]
[I'm in |County of Cambridgeshire]

#38 Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, 1982

The third book in the trilogy was based on a script for a Doctor Who film by Douglas that never got made, and that does shine through in some ways, but it's far less obvious than I remember it being. Unfortunately, this book marks the beginning of the end of Zaphod as a character -- at least, until tomorrow (hint, hint) -- which is a shame, since Zaphod is great.

This book, no matter how disjointed and derivative it may turn out to be, is funny as hell. I was told off by my parents for laughing too much last night! Marvin's lullaby is brilliant, as is the reaction of Ford to the news that there is a party. I really need to reread this one more often!

Now, onto the misguided romance novel...

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2009 Books: #37 [Oct. 10th, 2009|12:37 am]
[Tags|, , , ]
[I'm in |County of Cambridgeshire]

#37 Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, 1980

So I continue bravely on with my rereadings of the Trilogy of Five, this time reading the second in the series. Whilst the previous book is a fairly direct and literal retelling of the first part of the Primary Phase, its sequel is a little less faithful to its source material, retelling the end of the Primary Phase and the Secondary Phase with many bits swopped around, some new bits included and some parts entirely removed.

This, as it transpires, is entirely a good thing. I have listened to the radio series so many times that the first book is somewhat ruined by my familiarity with its source material. Because the second book is not as similar, I found myself giggling and chortling the whole way through, which was a bit odd on the train.

I'm looking forward to reading the next one!

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2009 Books: a related poll [Oct. 9th, 2009|11:31 am]
[Tags|, , , ]
[I'm in |Leicester]

I need you guys to give me some advice, so I'm asking for it in poll format! (This is also a test to see if LiveJournal.app can handle polls.)

Poll #1468494 The Trilogy of Five
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 28

Should John finish the Trilogy of Five before continuing onto reading Eoin Colfer's novel?

View Answers

Yes!
13 (48.1%)

No!
6 (22.2%)

Look, a flying party!
8 (29.6%)

Will Eoin Colfer's book turn out to be a good read?

View Answers

Yes!
11 (44.0%)

No!
5 (20.0%)

Look, a flying party!
13 (52.0%)

There's a new novel coming out?
1 (4.0%)

My friend was killed by a flying party to the back of the head, you insensitive clod.
7 (28.0%)

Wowbagger?

View Answers

Twit!
6 (27.3%)

Imbecile!
6 (27.3%)

Nitwit!
7 (31.8%)

Arsehat!
12 (54.5%)

Cock!
7 (31.8%)

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Hitchcon Tickets [Oct. 7th, 2009|11:49 pm]
[Tags|, , , ]
[I'm in |Evington, Leicester]
[I'm feeling | happy]

Just a quick note to apologise to those of you who commented on my offer of 2-for-1 tickets to Hitchcon – I have a ticket, so I don't need to utilise the offer. However, [info]viclet is looking for someone to do the offer with, so go comment on her journal if you'd like to do so. :)
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2009 Books: #36 [Oct. 6th, 2009|01:14 pm]
[Tags|, ]
[I'm in |Evington, Leicester]

Fucking uni Wi-Fi connection, LiveJournal.app lost the entry somewhere in the crapness.

#36 Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979

It will come as no surprise to most of my readers that I have already read this book several times, but with Eoin Colfer's authorised sequel, And Another Thing, coming up this weekend, I've decided to give the trilogy of five a reread, and so I'll hopefully read one a day until the weekend. The book is still not as good as the first four radio episodes – the plot of which is the plot of the book – so if you haven't listened to the radio series yet, you really should give it a try.

Cut for spoilers )
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2009 Books: #34 and #35 [Oct. 4th, 2009|11:31 am]
[Tags|, , ]
[I'm in |Evington, Leicester]
[I'm feeling | cold]

#34 Simon Singh, Fermat's Last Theorem, 1997

If you have even a passing interest in mathematics and the business of proofs, then you should really, really read this book. A fascinating look at the history of the problem from Fermat and through the mathematicians that attempted to solve it, finally resting on the story of an English mathematician who finally cracked it. Definitely recommended!

#35 Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space, 2000

This book is one of a glut I've read that start out taking things slowly and speed up significantly towards the end. I must confess that there are a couple of aspects of the novel that didn't quite ring true – the development of one of the key relationships seemed abrupt and sudden. However, other than that it's a very good book, and some of the ideas put across in the final moments of the story are either absolutely mad or completely brilliant.
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Beer! [Oct. 3rd, 2009|07:46 pm]
[Tags|, ]
[I'm in |Leicester]

Today I had the beer Gaffer's Gold. It's a beer created by committee, apparently. It's a pleasant session bitter, with a nutty taste.

A photograph of the beer clip... )

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Hitchcon Tickets? [Oct. 2nd, 2009|09:18 am]
[Tags|, , , ]
[I'm in |Evington, Leicester]
[I'm feeling | chipper]
[I'm hearing |Linkin Park - Leave Out All the Rest | Powered by Last.fm]

Does anyone reading this not yet have a ticket to Hitchcon but is intending to go? They're doing 2-for-1 tickets through Facebook, so if so, leave me a comment and we can go halves. Comments are screened.
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