I was working late last night (inspiration didn't come for the Webcam piece that last-minute replaced the search tips piece I could have written much more easily, so it had to be perspiration instead); which meant I woke up just in time to stop Simon getting out in time for the China Mieville signing (sorry
We've started gaming again - Simon had been promising me a dungeon ever since we met 9 1/2 years ago (how long! really! well, the Krazy Kat (l'il angel!) book he found today is the latest attempt at republishing since before we met, I think) and we've started playing with Piers Cawley and friends of his. Simon plays Naismith, a paladin called to aid Piers' paladin but worshipping a different god and with a subtlely different attitude. I play a bard who's not as bright as he thinks he is (duped by NPCs twice in one night - the shame!); the gaming is fun and so is writing up the games in character for the folks who couldn't make it (the bard says 'La' a lot; Naismith says 'we ride at dawn' a lot and we think his sword should be inscribed 'pointy end towards evil-doer'). Which is why we were in Orc's Nest looking for a player handbook where I saw a comic called Dork Tower. The Web is a wonderful place and I've found the cartoon that was on the back of the collection, 'celebrating' the 20th anniversary of the PC.
We spent a couple of hours distracting over-worked friends Robert & Den from the pain of playing with content management systems and stroked their cute cats (Somali, Bengal and mog) who perpetrate things like Freddie St Cats. Simon's taking a bath to recover from coming over all allergic and I promised I'd let him tell the one I spotted on the side of a phone shop that made us laugh. I can't keep calling him
I was also reading a book of essays on 'what Toklien meant to me' - sorry, Meditations on Middle Earth. Esthner Friesner keeps pointing out that Legolas is hot and that's why she liked Star Trek, and blaming Bored of the Rings for her career;
Better go - the Indian takeaway will be delivered in a minute...