Go Away PLA!

Took loads of stupid calls at work. Some crazy woman came in wanting career advice. She left after a while. I nice woman from Osaka came in asking about courses. Soon we will be good friends. I must improve my Japanese.

Listened to a lot of Phone Losers Of America stuff at work today.

A Time To Die?

It's probably time for me to kill off a bunch of stuff in my life, and just concentrate on tech.

Still felt ill today. I drank tea, time passed. More tech is needed.

Saturday

Tried to study Microcrap Active Directory.

Found out that my friend and colleague Emily has quit work. It will be very strange to go in to work and know that she is not going to come in ever again.

Had a very pleasant afternoon sitting outside a street cafe with my friends Jan and Luzie, discussing various tech and social topics.

Spent the evening chatting on the SDF public access unix system, and on various instant messaging networks. I *may* have an exciting interview for my blog soon. I'm approaching several people to do interviews on the redistribution of fame.

Talked to a friend in the US about the history of the UK phone system and about the state hacker-scenes world-wide.

War Plan UK

My copy of War Plan UK arrived today. Although I have held it in my hands, it's still difficult to believe it's real. Amazon is currently selling it for around 100 UKP. My copy cost 1 penny. Is it a dream? Will I wake up soon?

War Plan UK is a very important book. It details the UK government's plans for continuing governmental control after a full-scale nuclear strike. A perfect companion to the films "Threads" and "When The Wind Blows".

Waterloo Sunset

Watched the first two episodes of 3x3 Eyes, a Japanese anime series. Lots of exploding streets, demons, blood etc. The bit in between are very good though. 3x3 Eyes was made in 1991 so it bears all the hallmarks of classic anime; very big eyes, static backgrounds, big hair...

Started to think seriously about returning to Japan. Looked into the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, an exam held once a year. I will take the first exam, which although pretty basic will still require a lot of revision for me as I haven't studied Japanese for so long.

A friend came over for tea and chat. We went for a walk in the evening sun. Norwich suddenly looked very beautiful.

On The Buses

Got nmap to work on my Powerbook at 1:30 this morning with lots of help from the people in SDF's chatroom.

Had a very strange dream this morning. I was caught by some police while taking some books from a skip. I was not arrested, and was chatting with a friendly policeman, thinking everything was ok. A police woman then said that it had just gone past midnight, so I had to be arrested. I was taken somewhere on a bus with lots of other people who had been arrested. There were other buses with us, probably 5 or 6 in total. At one point, all the buses stopped for a break. One of the people on my bus broke free and drove the bus away from the police. It was so exciting to escape, but frightening as well. At some point I woke up.


Played around with my Apple Powerbook for most of the day. Getting to love my Apple more as I get to know it.

Ice Cream For Crow

Work sucks at the moment. I feel tired all the time and wish I was doing something more fun like playing computer games or swimming. Thank fuck for Captain Beefheart, I'm listening to Ice Cream For Crow at every possible opportunity so it stays in my head.

My boss is taking us to a really shit restaurant tonight. This is in an attempt to impress an organisation that we sometimes work with. I can't think of anything less impressive than being taken to a shit restaurant.

BrumCon Con

Got an email today saying I've been accepted to speak at BrumCon. My talk will probably be called "What's On The Cards: Security Issues Surrounding Card-based Authentication" I'm really looking forward to it as BrumCon is always a great event. The atmosphere there is very laid back and everyone always has a lot of fun.

Up The Garden Path

Made a path in the back garden. Good to be doing physical work outdoors. My lifestyle has become increasingly sedentary recently, and my body is becoming weaker. This has to change.

Watched Suede videos on YouTube. Suede is rapidly filling my head again, after years of silence. I used to listen to early Suede almost every day while at school. I would close my eyes and see concrete.

Chewin' The Fat With Dr Bearskin

My good friend Dr Edward Bearskin came over in the evening. Dr Bearskin is about to embark on a six-month trip around the world. You can read about his adventures here: here. We looked at maps of Japan and of the world. We reminisced about our epic one-month Interrail tour of Europe. We talked about films. We talked about Suede. It was the best of times.