Destination Star Trek London

I had the most amazing weekend recently.

For the first time in 10 years, there was a Star Trek convention in the UK. It was held at the ExCel Centre in London’s docklands.
And hubby and I attended.

Keep Calm and Make It So

We had a lot of fun, watching talks, getting beamed up

Two to beam up!

Crashing the Enterprise A

Inertial Dampeners are Off-line!

And meeting other trekkies

Queueing Q

And some of the actors

Walter Koenig - he didn't mention the Nuclear Wessels

Squee - I met Patrick Stewart!

For the photo shoots each person gets about 8 seconds with the special guest. I arrived, Sir Patrick said “Hello” and we smiled for the camera. As I was about to head off, he stopped me and asked “What does your t-shirt say?” I turned round so he could read it aloud, and he said: “Keep Calm and Make It So, very good, I like it”

Patrick Stewart LIKED my t-shirt, and I got him to say “Make it so” without asking him to say that. Yay!

Overall it was an amazing weekend!

Ghoughpteighbteau

If I’d named this post ghoti, you’d know what I was talking about.
Or would you?

I’m talking about phonetics. It was a discussion on the news this morning.
I did a little reading on the web, and came across a wiki article about phonics that made me realise that when I was at school, we certainly did synthetic phonics as a way of learning to read. I remember the flash cards with OO, EE and TH on them.

I also remember, and believe that most people my age will remember, the videos we used to watch about spelling – specifically magic e and Francis Drake (the duck) and the O-O sound (I wish I could find a clip for that!)

So, I bet you’re still wondering about the title of this post? Perhaps you’ve figured it out?

P as in hiccough (pronounced hic-cup)
O as in though (tho-)
T as in ptomaine (toe-main)
A as in neigh (nay)
T as in debt (det)
O as in bureau (byu-row)

Potato (Gh)(ough)(pt)(eigh)(bt)(eau)

Isn’t English amazing?

Speaking of which, I hear there’s an alternative to the Police Phonetic alphabet too (foxtrot, Charlie) where the idea is that the word does begin with that letter, but doesn’t sound like it does (k for knife) and one where the word sounds like it begins with a letter that it doesn’t (q for cucumber)

Since my online name (Tsuki) is often misread and mispronounced (Tusky being a favourite) here’s a phonetic breakdown of my name:

TS (as in Tsunami)
U (as in rude)
K (as in pick)
I (as in la-di-da) (sorry, I can’t think of a word where “i” makes the ee sound!)

So, there you have it.

My thought for the day
wouldn’t English be a lot harder to learn if we spelled potato as ghoughpteighbteau?

and a lot less interesting if we didn't know that we could spell it that way!

Beginning to look back...

It's getting close to the end of not just a year, but the end of a whole decade.
Where on Earth have the last 10 years gone?
What was I doing 10 years ago?

The above photo is me and my flatmates in halls at the University of Westminster. I know this is probably November/December 2000 because I'm not wearing my own school tie (I picked it up over Christmas for later School Nights)

Something else I know - I didn't have a digital camera until just a couple of years ago, so unless I scanned the photos in (as I did with that one) they don't exist online. Which may be for the best.

I still love my iPhone, even though when I said "play Britney" it decided I meant "Call Rich". I was talking through my scarf at the time, so I forgive it!
I am trying not to be an iPhone bore though. There isn't an App for that.

Otherwise, Team Christmas Event tomorrow. The morning will be general info/messaging - there may be a quiz, but then again perhaps not.
Speaking of quizzes, I'm due to create one for my team meeting (last one before Christmas) so I should go do that.

I'm hopeful I'll blog again before Christmas!

Geek Love

If you've ever been asked out by a geek, you might have heard one of these:
Twitter to 10 Geek pickup lines

My Favourite is:
Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, All my base are belong to you

(though I think the Joss Whedon one rocks!)

In The News

In an effort not to talk about the same things every time I post, here’s a news roundup of some issues that have caught my eye recently:
There are 25 Common Programming Errors which make life easier for hackers. Sadly, the article doesn’t go into detail about the errors.
Primark and TNS Knitwear are exploiting workers in sweatshops in the UK. The thing which I find most incredible about this is that it’s happening in Manchester, not in the outer reaches of India or China. The people in the sweatshops seem only to be there because they can’t get work anywhere else (usually due to a lack of papers). It is a bad thing that while awaiting asylum applications people aren’t allowed to do any work – some kind of temporary permit would at least mean that they could be kept track of. Worse than that, though, is the illegal immigrant and overstayed visa workers. In any case, though, minimum working standards should apply. We should not have factories in the UK which are in such a state. And the wages are shocking. So, if you ever wondered (and you knitters may well have) how Primark were managing to make knitted garments (sweaters) for less than £10 each, or the gloves which were so popular at just £3 a pair, now you know. The only way the prices get that low is through illegal and immoral labour being used. It’s despicable!
The 1911 Census is now online (and if you’re interested, it’s Here, at 1911census.co.uk) – my grandparents were all born later than 1911, but there should be families in the right areas with the right names available for my family history research. The most difficult part is making sure you get the right branches as you go back. The other great thing about this census is that the householder filled it in themselves, so you can get a glimpse of the handwriting of your ancestors. How amazing is that? Sadly, the 1921 census is unlikely to be made available any time soon, the 1931 was destroyed in a fire, there was no census in 1941 because of the war, so the next one, 1951 will be available no sooner than 2051. That’s a long time to wait!

Robot!

At H's Hen do we painted ceramics.
I painted a robot.
Before "cooking" After "cooking"

Radio Blah Blah

Terry Wogan was funny this morning. We’ve had a little bit of snow and ice this weekend, it’s caused a few problems. He sang thus (approximately):
Good King Wenceslas looked out
Two weeks after Easter
Traffic stuck on roundabouts
Every hill a pist-e
It didn’t bother Northerners
They didn’t care in Pres-ton
In Newcastle the men went out
With only shorts and ve-ests on

Also, I had fun this weekend on This Site finding out whether I am a geek, a nerd or a dork.

Your Score: Pure Geek (I was so right!)	43 % Nerd	65% Geek	34% Dork
You scored better than half in Geek, earning you the title of: Pure Geek. It’s not that you’re a school junkie, like the nerd, and you don’t really stand out in a crowd, like the dork, you just have some interests that aren’t quite mainstream. Perhaps it’s anime, perhaps it’s computers, perhaps it’s bottlecaps, perhaps it’s all of those and more. Your interests take you to events and gatherings that are filled with people you find unusual and beyond-the-pale, but you don’t quite consider yourself “of that crowd.” Instead, you consider yourself to be fairly normal. Which, you are. My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 25% on nerdiness You scored higher than 90% on geekosity You scored higher than 61% on dork points

Don't try to access it at work, as it's on OKCupid, which is blocked.

The dress, which the material in the last post is for, is now finished except for the hem on the open ends of the belt (it’ll take about two minutes to do that bit) but the light was so poor by the time I was finished that I couldn’t take photos. I have not decided whether to take the photos of it on my mannequin (yey – no me in the pic!) or whether to put it on and venture outside. Since it’s very thin, I’m thinking I’ll go for the mannequin option. I’m really quite pleased with how it’s turned out. It’s a good length, it floats nicely. The stripes look funky and the floral trim works much better than I thought it might! It’s all because of the teeny tiny felted tote which is my bag for the wedding.

Knit, natter, and train your brain

Last night’s knit night was a quiet affair; only two of us this week. Still, I figure if we keep talking about it and keep turning up, other people will join in eventually. If not, it gets me out of the house and forces me to knit on the Manly (Rav), so why not? Funky Flower is good company anyway! (and when Blogger stops being broken I’ll add her to the Blogroll. It might be because of the filters at work?)

Outside of that, I’m afraid I’ve been a bit lax on the knitting front. I mentioned Guitar Hero III last post, which is a chronic time suck! Trouble is that once I get on there and I’m in the “zone”, I find it hard to put the controller down admit defeat and go to bed. The new wireless guitar is wicked too!
But, my company treated me to a £25 voucher to a place of my choice. (don’t get me started on slashing one bonus and then giving us another) and I have been wanting to get a Nintendo DS for ages. Since before Christmas! I have finally taken the plunge (and no, the £25 didn’t cover it by any stretch!) and bought myself a silver DS and the Brain Training “game”. I was shocked to discover that my brain age was in its 40s! So I’ve been training (for two days) and have got it down to 31. I hope to get down to at least my real age! It also has Sudoku on it, which I’ve been doing at lunch instead of my knitting. (I know, I’m sorry, normal service will resume once I cast on the other sock)
Of course, just owning Brain Training isn’t enough (oh no, I’ve unleashed another time-and-money suck!) so I’ve ordered Nintendogs: Dalmations and Learn French. At least the learning French one will be useful. The idea is to recap my GCSE French, which I was awarded ten years ago, ready for our holiday in France in the summer. Suffice to say, I’m a bit rusty. I still remember the basics, but much of the grammar; tenses and stuff like that have fallen by the wayside. I can still say “j’ai un petit pois vert avec un grande nez” which means “I have a green pea with a big nose” – not especially useful, but then most of the foreign that I know is either ordering drinks or not useful. “Konnichiwa, watashiwa Tsuki des, Samurai dewa arrimassen” means “Hello, I am Tsuki, I am not a samurai” in Japanese. Oh well.

Yes, the socks. I’m suffering second sock syndrome a little. I need to get the darned thing cast on before I lose the will to knit it. it’s the thought of all that rib! Funky Flower has sent me a link for a stretchy cast on to try, because the cable cast on (that I usually use) is a bit tight for OH. My new sock knitting book recommends the long tail cast on (I have yet to find a tutorial, mainly because I haven’t looked).
Since we have a long weekend though, I hope to get some knitting done.

Other plans for the long weekend include: more baking, move the stuff in the bathroom so there’s room for the new towel/bedding washing basket, finish the curtains that have been sitting waiting to be hemmed for about a month. Depending on the weather we might go off on a day trip somewhere. You know, usual Easter weekend type stuff.

Discworld? Apparantly I'm most like...

Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Carrot Ironfounderson

You are Captain Carrot Ironfounderson of the City Watch in the greatest city on the Disc -- Ankh-Morpork! A truly good natured, honest guy, who knows everyone, and is liked by all. Technically a dwarf, but only by adoption. You'd rather not be reminded that you are the true heir to the throne, but that does explain why people naturally follow your orders!

Carrot Ironfounderson 81%
Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax 75%
Lord Havelock Vetinari 69%
The Librarian 69%
Death 63%
Commander Samuel Vimes 56%
Gytha (Nanny) Ogg 56%
Greebo 56%
Rincewind 38%
Cohen The Barbarian 31%

New Widget

I’ve added another doody widget over in my side-bar. Even you non-knitters might be vaguely impressed! It’s progress bars from my ravelry site. Their resident code monkey, Casey [link only works for Ravelry users while it’s in beta], has created a widget to show my project progress and also the current picture of the project. I then did a bit of faffing with it to get it to look like that (notably making the bars pink and making it in two columns). If you read me through a reader, you’ll be missing out. I tried sticking it in the code for this post, but it didn't work so if you do read through a reader you'll have to visit!

This has left me with a dilemma. I currently have 5 projects on the go. As you can see, that leaves me with a wonkey looking side-bar. So, I’m going to have to:

1. Make sure to have pictures for my projects to prevent wonkiness that way
2. Make sure to always be working on an even number of projects

That should do it, I hope!


I also discovered This essay on how nerds work. Now “nerd” is not a word I associate with.
I’ll try to explain (though I’m not sure I can).
I am a Geek. I know I am a Geek. It is not possible to be a Geek without knowing that you are a Geek.
Being a Nerd is not cool. I don’t know why. I guess it’s a local thing. So, when I see Nerd, if it’s a funny or interesting article which could be about a Geek, I mentally switch it.
And clearly, the article is about being a Geek, not a Nerd. :-P

If Yoda was a coder...

As seen on Think Geek:

$DO || ! $DO ; try
try: command not found


If you get it, you'll be chuckling (or cackling hysterically like me!)
If not, I'm sorry.