From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V3 #249 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Saturday, September 19 1998 Volume 03 : Number 249 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: Curiosity/Mail lists ["Charles E. Kemp" ] Re: Alloy: Curiosity/Mail lists..part 2 ["Charles E. Kemp" ] Re[2]: Alloy: Bad job interview [John_Hanson_at_FRMA01@ccmailgw.mcgawpark] Alloy: Re: Curiosity/Mail lists ["Jennie Bolton" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 22:31:40 -0700 (PDT) From: "Charles E. Kemp" Subject: Re: Alloy: Curiosity/Mail lists Melissa wrote... > Alloy is the only group where I see there is a genuine sense of > community. Ditto. Of all the lists I've been on, Alloy is unique in this respect. Every other list I've been on has been broken up into factions, and while Alloy is made up of many distinct individuals, it is also the most united. As for what I'm subscribed to, I'm currently also on Introspective, the Pet Shop Boys list. It is very factional, and always has been...but also perhaps the most informative list I've ever been on. But otherwise being a big dumb male, I'm subscribed to the Indiana Pacers and Indianapolis Colts mailing lists. They really come closest to the Alloy experience, with an edge going to the Pacers list...it is much more communal than the Colts list, owing much to the Colts formerly calling Baltimore home. Usually at the time of the NBa and NFL drafts, I'll subscribe to a couple of extra team' lists just to see what moves they might be making. In the past, I've also belonged to Bong, the Depeche Mode list; ceremony, the New Order list; dominion, the Sisters of Mercy list; and the Indiana University mailing list. Ceremony was a real drag...if you want to see a bunch of catalogue numbers scroll down your screen, then it's your place. Dominionwas kinda neat in that even though the band isn't very active, there is quite a bit of discussion and one-off show reviews. ****** Charles E. Kemp ****** cekemp@netcom.com ****** (812) 597-5950 ****** Just for the sake of it make sure you're always frowning, it shows the world that you've got substance and depth. - Neil Tennant ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 22:44:20 -0700 (PDT) From: "Charles E. Kemp" Subject: Re: Alloy: Curiosity/Mail lists..part 2 Melissa also said... > On a non sequitor note... > > Had an AWFUL job interview today For thos of you who are keeping score, I am back amongst the ranks of the gainfully employed. I am once again employed by Best Buy, a company I left just over 2 years ago under rather acrimonious circumstances. Thanks to radical changes in management, it is once again a place that I would enjoy working at. Up until recently, I had always said that it was the job that I enjoyed the most, and the place that made me the most depressed...until Circuit City took over the "most depressing" title. :) But, to all those who have voiced their concern, thanks for your support. ****** Charles E. Kemp ****** cekemp@netcom.com ****** (812) 597-5950 ****** Just for the sake of it make sure you're always frowning, it shows the world that you've got substance and depth. - Neil Tennant ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 07:42:30 EDT From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: Bad job interview In a message dated 9/18/98 12:02:27 AM Eastern Daylight Time, wearart@erols.com writes: << Had an AWFUL job interview today -- so bad I almost started laughing during the blasted thing. My interviewer actually stopped me 15 minutes into the interview (which she initiated 20 minutes late)to make dinner reservations and arrange a haircut!!! She then announced, "Well, I really didn't have a chance to review your resume, but I think someone here did. Do you have any skills that we could use?" That's when I started closing up my Franklin planner and headed for the door. >> If I were you... I would have started laughing. Reminds me of going through this really snooty little apartment rental agency years ago in Boston... the guy had just shown me the worst slum I had ever seen (the only thing he had in my 'price range') and when I got back into the car, he pointed out a building one street over. "See that?" he says. "Those apartments are beautiful. you could NEVER afford to live in one of those!" Where do these people come from, Melissa? can we send them back? Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 08:26:30 EDT From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: Curiosity/Mail lists In bringing up the other list I belong to (newsgroup actually) I forgot to answer Slarvi's question... how does my alt.fashion sewing newsgroup compare with Alloy? I'm happy to say that in many ways it lives up to Alloy's high standards, Alloy being the finest mailing list, with the finest group of people, on the entire Internet :) There is a better sense of community on Alloy, but with newsgroups things are a bit different anyway where that is concerned (about fifty different lines of discussion going on at once)... the newsgroup feels more like a crowd than a community. But it is amazing how both groups are filled with such sweet, caring, creative, and unique people, even though the subject matters are entirely different. I feel like I've really lucked out to have met all of you. More praise for Alloy... I have never been made to feel like the odd one out here, even though I am, sort of... being an artist only, and having way less technical/computer experience or scientific background than almost all of you. You are also extremely creative and passionate in your work, which I love. I love the fact that everyone is made to feel so welcome on Alloy, too... whereas some newcomers to my sewing group are really raked over the coals if they make a misstep! (they're a bunch of disciplinarians over there... !) But on Alloy I think it's a much more warm, polite, welcoming group. I could go on for hours about Alloy... but I've made myself late for work! ooops... Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 11:10:54 -0400 From: MacSuirtain Subject: Re: Alloy: Bad job interview RThurF@aol.com wrote: > > If I were you... I would have started laughing. Reminds me of going through > this really snooty little apartment rental agency years ago in Boston... the > guy had just shown me the worst slum I had ever seen (the only thing he had in > my 'price range') and when I got back into the car, he pointed out a building > one street over. "See that?" he says. "Those apartments are beautiful. you > could NEVER afford to live in one of those!" Good god! What a total loser! > Where do these people come from, Melissa? can we send them back? One can only hope that the particular sink hole the opened up to let them out in the first place will do so again and suck 'em right back in! The best part about "interview woman" was that she had (old style) Betty Crocker hair, a robin's egg blue suit, and was, I'd say, very Nancy Reagan-ish in mannerisms. Very DC power, very un-me (who was wearing a Victorian-ish lavender dress with tiny red flowers, a blazing red and purple scarf, suede Hush Puppies and a linen jacket that wrinkles when you say "Boo" to it.) As I spoke, she took notes in a big, childish hand. She took notes in what I like to think of as "Bush Speak." Here's an example: I said, "I really enjoying writing. I know I have a measure of talent, and I'd like to use it." She wrote "WRITE -- GOOD, VERY GOOD." I mentioned that I, although I'd done it before, I still needed to grow comfortable with the management tasks of disciplining and firing staff. She wrote "PUNISH - BAD. FIRE - VERY VERY BAD +++" Can we all say "WORK THERE - VERY VERY BAD+++++"??? Heh. On a totally different subject... I got a new piece of news this morning that causes me to cast an even more jaundiced eye toward Washington (well, in this case, over the Potomac to Arlington, where the Pentagon sits.) One of my sisters, upon clearing out the last of my father's old boxes in Mom's basement (my father died in 1986) discovered a really disturbing piece of paperwork. Now, I should note that my father was a lifer with the Defense Department, and I know he was involved in all sorts of weird stuff. He had a drawer full of passports, including one my mom found right after he died that indicated he'd spend a lot of time in Vietnam in the late 60's and early 70's, when he'd told her he was on business in Washington. She was irate. I was the only grade schooler I knew who carried her homework around in a "Napalm Conference 1971" portfolio. (I had no idea what it was -- I just really likes the artwork on it.) Now, my sister has found an envelope containing a certificate and letter from the Sec. of Defense, thanking my father for being a guinea pig for nerve gas experimentation at a proving ground out in Utah... with no safety equipment. We never got an autopsy report that had a plausible cause of death, and now, my mom is angry as all get out. My sister is making copies of the paperwork today and zapping them out to me, so I can do some research. Weird, weird, weird. So... if any of you have any military contacts who might be able to help me with a little research project, let me know. Thanks. Off to job hunt some more... Cheers, Melissa ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 16:29:48 -0500 From: John_Hanson_at_FRMA01@ccmailgw.mcgawpark.baxter.com Subject: Re[2]: Alloy: Bad job interview - --IMA.Boundary.536131609 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: cc:Mail note part I once went for an interview (in th UK) where the bloke interviewing me was the double of the little feller who starred in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" (I forgot his monniker). Him with the glasses. Anway, he had the collar of his shirt stuck up, he hadn't put his tie on right, and all through the interview all I could do was to focus on this & this sad little man. Concentration was impossible & I had to keep saying "pardon ?". Didn't get the job either, but the company went bust about a year after. QLCSAV, John - --IMA.Boundary.536131609 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; name="RFC822 message headers" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: cc:Mail note part Content-Disposition: inline; filename="RFC822 message headers" Received: from ns2.baxter.com (159.198.1.38) by ccmailgw.mcgawpark.baxter.com with SMTP (IMA Internet Exchange 2.1 Enterprise) id 005C32AA; Fri, 18 Sep 98 06:47:36 - -0500 Received: from mermaid.shore.net (mermaid.shore.net [207.244.124.6]) by ns2.baxter.com (8.9.1/8.9.1) with SMTP id GAA27749 for ; Fri, 18 Sep 1998 06:46:27 -0500 (CDT) Received: from smoe.org [204.167.97.154] by mermaid.shore.net with esmtp (Exim) id 0zJyxW-00018a-00; Fri, 18 Sep 1998 07:44:18 -0400 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) by smoe.org (8.8.7/8.8.7/listq-jane) with SMTP id HAA22833; Fri, 18 Sep 1998 07:44:12 -0400 (EDT) Received: by smoe.org (bulk_mailer v1.10); Fri, 18 Sep 1998 07:44:12 -0400 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by smoe.org (8.8.7/8.8.7/listq-jane) id HAA22822 for alloy-outgoing; Fri, 18 Sep 1998 07:43:20 -0400 (EDT) Received: from imo14.mx.aol.com (imo14.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.4]) by smoe.org (8.8.7/8.8.7/daemon-mode-relay2) with ESMTP id HAA22817 for ; Fri, 18 Sep 1998 07:43:17 -0400 (EDT) From: RThurF@aol.com Received: from RThurF@aol.com by imo14.mx.aol.com (IMOv16.10) id SPIFa18748 for ; Fri, 18 Sep 1998 07:42:30 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 07:42:30 EDT To: alloy@smoe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: Re: Alloy: Bad job interview Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 214 Sender: owner-alloy@smoe.org Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. Precedence: bulk - --IMA.Boundary.536131609-- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 11:24:05 -0700 From: "Jennie Bolton" Subject: Alloy: Re: Curiosity/Mail lists I belong to a bunch of lists; music-realated: JBC-List - all things related to the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, Pat Fish, Max Eider, Pat's new project Sumosonic, with references to Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, the Woodentops, and other Midlands bands past and present. A unique experience. Chalkhills - An XTC list that comes out in digest form Alloy - most recently ;-) The others, I've been on since about 1995. I used to belong to lists related to King Crimson and Robyn Hitchcock too. The idea of a Blue Nile list sounds interesting. For work, I belong to the following lists: FileMaker Pro Talk FileMaker Web Talk Lasso Digest ADD Talk (Association of Database Developers) Evangelist Digest (good news for Mac heads) Regarding parrots, I used to belong to a bunch of lists: CITES-L - on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Pionus-L - which is now defunct; there is a new Pionus list, but I don't recommend it A bird breeder list But I just don't have time for all those now, I get a lot of email being on the board of my local bird club and the Pionus Breeders Association relating to club/association business, and I get a lot of inquiries from the PBA web page. I also belonged to a Kevin Spacey mailing list for awhile, but it was too juvenile. I wanted to talk about his work, but the list was unfortunately full of 14-year-olds who wanted to gossip. (I run a fan page about Spacey and his work, called Sputnik Central!) Eclipse - I would be interested in the marine mammal list you were talking about; maybe I could stay in touch with some of the folks I met at that workshop. There's my list of lists, anyway. You can tell from just my work-related ones that I have to wade through a lot of email every day; the FileMaker Talk list usually carries 80-130 posts per day, though on busy days its about twice that. Gotta go..... Jen (:^ ____________________________________________________ Jennie Bolton, Research Chemist Northwest Fisheries Science Center · Vice-Chair, Pionus Breeders Association ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 11:59:29 -0700 From: "Jennie Bolton" Subject: Alloy: Re: Whew! Cioppino, parrots, geeks, & etc. Robin wrote: >I BEG you to tell us these stories!! :) Okay.....drag it out of me ;-) The reason for my visit to the Bay Area was that I was invited to give a talk at a workshop dealing with marine mammal strandings. Folks from the various stranding networks and facilities from around the country were there, as well as many scientists who are doing research regarding threats to marine mammals. On Friday afternoon, the session was at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, right at the Marin Headlands. We got a lesson in the techniques MMC uses in rescuing and rehabbing various marine mammals. We were learning how to herd animals with these "riot board" type things, with this California sea lion. The animal saw a gap, and went for it. I got knocked onto one knee, and the board crashed against my first left knuckle. Only a slight sprain, though the bruise was a beaut! It covers most of the back of my hand now, but is fading nicely. I can type and everything. Later on, I helped restrain an elephant seal weighing a good 200 pounds with another woman, while the vet at the MMC taught another vet how to draw blood from near the base of the spine. The first person has to wrap a wet towel around the eyes of the animal, then jump over it and pin the animal's neck between their legs, and hold the animal's head to the ground to keep it from biting or rolling. The second person jumps in behind the first and keeps the animal from bucking. With California sea lions, it is more difficult because they have very slender heads with no distinct neck, and they are very agile; they also propel themselves on land with their flippers, unlike seals who undulate their bodies. If a sea lion gets its flippers underneath, it is likely going to take off with you! So you have to pin their heads to the ground, plus pinning their flippers to their sides with your knees. I didn't even want to try that. If the animal is smaller, only one person restrains it. I was supposed to restrain a harbor seal, a smallish animal about 3 to 3 1/2 feet long (about 1 to 1.2m for you metric types), weighing about 70-80 pounds (about 32-37 kg). The particular animal was a "readmit" - he had been there before, and he knew what was coming, and didn't want anything to do with it. I throw the towel over his head, and he proceeds to roll over onto his back. I tried a second time, and he does the same thing. Bear in mind that while I'm doing this, the little guy is snapping and snarling at us like an amputee junkyard dog. At this point, the guy who is coaching us in restraining methods says, "if you want, you can get on him and try to turn him over - if you feel comfortable with that". My reply: I don't think so! Strangely enough, nobody else volunteered either! So he was left to do it himself. But as I said, later we went on to jump on the elephant seal, and aside from making a lot of noise (when she snorted, you could feel it through her entire body!) she was pretty mellow about it. What an adventure, eh? >I don't think I ever mentioned to anyone here about the crow I blew kisses >at in the street last spring & he said "Hello!" to me, clear as day, in this >little tinny voice... twice in a row! I thought I'd gone mad until someone >told me that certain wild crows can learn to say things, if for instance >they live near someone's home & hear certain words again & again. Yes, that's true! But I've never hear of an experience quite like yours - how interesting. I do hear of people who keep crows that have been disabled (you have to get a special license from the state fish and wildlife department), and some of those birds are pretty amazing. By the way, you may know that one of the best bird mimics is the Indian Hill Mynah, a softbill from the Indian subcontinent. A lot of folks don't know that Mynahs are in the starling family, or that starlings are also very good mimics. If you listen to them, besides their usual soaring whistles and other natural sounds, many also mimic the calls of songbirds that they hear. In fact, at MMC I heard one imitating the call of a redwing blackbird! My mom, who lives in high plains desert country in the Southwest, has heard the starlings there imitate the Western meadowlarks. She also has another great mimic in her yard, the mockingbird, who may sing all night long when there is a full moon out. Jen (:^ ____________________________________________________ Jennie Bolton, Research Chemist Northwest Fisheries Science Center Vice-Chair, Pionus Breeders Association ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 15:47:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Keith Dawe Subject: Re: Alloy: Re: Curiosity/Mail lists Well, if we speak of other lists...the ones I still subscribe are as follows. Music related: Gary Numan, Mike Oldfield. Non-music: Shoujo Manga (Japanese Girl's Comics) It's short (I haven't time these days) but it does give an interesting view of me, doesn't it? - --omega ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 16:39:40 -0500 From: ljackson@nstar.net (Lee Jackson) Subject: Re: Alloy: Re: Curiosity/Mail lists Okay, you want mailing lists? You got 'em. I'm not just a subscriber, I'm a listowner. First, I'm signed up to: - the DAT-Heads mailing list (for Digital Audio Tape (DAT) users) - the Digital Audio Labs GEARHEADS list (owner/support for DAL products) - the Sweetwater Sound In-Sync list (sound/music gear tips) - the PC-DAW list (PC based Digital Audio Workstations) - the ProAud list (general pro audio discussion) - the SCUG list (Sound Canvas User's Group) - the ZDNet, InfoWorld, and several Microsoft news lists - News of the Wierd - Longhorn Alumni Band (UT-Austin) discussion - Prodigy Listowners' discussions I'm on the last list because I run the PUNY list, which is hosted by Prodigy. PUNY stands for Punsters United Nearly Yearly, and is an organization that works with the O. Henry Home and Museum in Austin, TX to present the annual O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships (of which yours truly is a 3-time world champ). We do talk shop, but mainly we engage in puns and other related humor. Finally, I also run the Kawaisynth mailing list via the Coollist service. It's sort of a flop, though, since it seems other Kawai owners would rather use web-based BBS services than mailing lists. Go figure. | Lee Jackson (ljackson@nstar.net) | P.U.N.Y. List Administrangler | http://goodstuff.prodigy.com/Mailing_Lists/puny.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 16:47:32 -0500 From: ljackson@nstar.net (Lee Jackson) Subject: Re: Alloy: Re: Curiosity/Mail lists I left off one list - I'm also on the Video Game Musicians mailing list. Sorry. // Lee Jackson, administrator // kawaisynth mailing list // Go to http://www.coollist.com to join ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 18:34:21 EDT From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Alloy: another dream! okay, last night Thomas made another guest appearance in my dreams - that's twice in one week! I guess you all know where my mind has been lately... This was a very strange guest appearance. We were in a room together and Thomas was smoking cigarettes... lots of them. He kept waving the smoke around with his hand, and just pulling these lit cigarettes out of nowhere & smoking them. He must have had seven or eight going at one time. I had this feeling in the dream that there was something on his mind that I shouldn't ask about. It was very weird! So, all you Freudians, what is the meaning of this? Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 01:45:29 +0100 (BST) From: IT Admin - Govt Office North West Subject: Alloy: Paint your waggon At 22:08 17/09/98 -0400, Jeff wrote: > >Could I interest you in a trip to Boston to help me paint mine? >It's still 'new construction white'... > I'm sorry, I think this would finally push me over the edge ( my other messge re. decorating refers). As Mr Blackadder might say, 'Wibble.' Slarvi ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 01:45:25 +0100 (BST) From: IT Admin - Govt Office North West Subject: Re: Alloy: The WRONG colour. At 19:56 17/09/98 EDT, Robin wrote: > >You are obviously very dedicated to getting things just right, Slarv! May I >ask, what color is your living room? (and what were the other two colors?) Hmmm, this is a bit of a boring saga really, but I'll tell you anyway, just to satisfy your curiosity. About five or six years ago we decided to redecorate the living room, and replace the carpet, curtains and suite, having come in to a little money. We have friends who own a furniture and fabrics shop in Lancaster, so we went to them for the suite, but ended up getting the carpet, curtains and wallpaper from them as well. The carpet is a kind of reddish/purple, not a thick pile, but very good quality. The suite is many coloured, but with a blue/purple/gold, flower/feather/peacock motif and the wallpaper is purple/blue in a sort of pre-Raphaelite pattern. This paper is only on the chimney breast walls, the other three walls being papered in blown vinyl which gets the most wear and can be repainted when it begins to look shabby. It's been repainted maybe twice, both times in the same colour. The plaster coving around the edge of the ceiling was also painted in this colour, while the panel above the picture rail, and the ceiling are painted white. The colour on the walls and coving was called Wild Heather and is a sort of pastel purple. Anyone who wants to remark about purple being a colour of immaturity may do so now. I don't care. I like it. (Bored yet? I haven't finished, be patient.) Well, as you can imagine, with a young family the suite gets a lot of wear, and while it's a nice pattern, the material isn't that hard wearing, and it's now looking well past its sell by date. So, we decided to replace it. When I was on my last two week break, we went around all the furniture stores in South Manchester, but only saw one suite we even remotely liked. So, it was back up to Lancaster to see what our friends had to offer. This shop is not one of the big chain stores that churn out suites with big discounts, it caters for people who want quality and don't mind paying for it. In our case we DO get a good discount, but only because the shop is owned by friends. After lounging on a number of suites for quite a long time, we chose one entirely different from the one we'd considered in Manchester; a more traditional design, rather large and very comfortable, and in a dark maroon fabric which would complement the existing decor. The suite was ordered but Lyn said we should really repaint the woodwork and walls before it arrives. This was where the problems began. The woodwork was OK, just white gloss, but we found that the manufacturers no longer make the particular type of paint for the walls, nor do they make that particular shade. So, we looked at their colour charts and realised that the only way we'd get the same colour again was to have it mixed for us, so we thought we'd have a change instead. BUT ... I didn't want to have to repaint the coving as it takes AGES to do (it's in good condition anyway), and I hate decorating, so we were looking for a colour that would not clash with it. We chose a colour called Couture Pink and while Lyn was at work, I whizzed around the room with my paint pads (MUCH better than brushes or rollers and almost impossible to splash the paint where it isn't supposed to go). The trouble was, it was VERY pink. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it grew on me. Unfortunately, Lyn hated it. We went back to the hardware store and got four match pots (the little sample pots you can try out) which we thought were close to Wild Heather and tried them all when we got home. None were really close to Wild Heather, but all would 'work' with it, and we chose a colour called Misty Rose. The following morning Lyn went to work and I went and bought a pot of paint and got the room repainted before she got home. I sensed something was wrong with the colour while I was painting, but sometimes you can't tell whether they're right until they dry properly. When Lyn got home she also thought something was wrong. We looked at the paint pot and in my rush I hadn't looked at the label carefully. I'd bought RUSTY Rose, not MISTY Rose. It was still pink, but a much lighter pink than Couture Pink, whereas we Mistry Rose was a more purply pink. Bugger!!!! Bugger, buggeration.!!!! So, there was nothing for it but to buy another pot, this time of the correct colour. I didn't want to spend ANOTHER day painting, so we went straight to the store, bought the paint and put the new colour on that same night. And now it's finished, thank goodness and we're just waiting for the suite to be delivered. If all this sounds stressful, you may also wish to note that my son moved out to a flat last week end, and bought his first car this week. Also, my daughter decided not to complete her second year of sixth form college, after having a disagreement with her year tutor, but left and began looking for full time work in retailing instead. She appears to have joined the job market at just the right time, as she is waiting for confirmation of of job offers from at least two department stores in Manchester, who are recruiting ready for their Christmas rush, one of which she really wants to work for and who her tutor said wouldn't even grant her an interview. (WRONG, smart arse!!) I also learned that my right-hand-man and database expert has given in his notice, having secured a better paid and more interesting job with the Manchester Ambulance Service, as Junior Analyst/ Programmer, which leaves us in the lurch just before we migrate 350 staff to Windows 95, introduce out own intranet and convert all our existing databases to Access 97, and all before Christmas. These, of course, are sagas in their own right, but I won't bore you with all the details. So we're ALL stressed in one way or another. On the whole I think I've coped reasonably well. There was relatively little swearing while I was painting, though this was helped by my being alone in the house at the time and being able to listen to my old BBC Radio comedy classics while I worked. The worst moments were when Lyn said she couldn't stand the Couture Pink and again when I realised I'd bought the wrong dog damn shade of Rose when I felt a proper twonk. Say lavvie. > You are a VERY patient man! > It doesn't really feel like it. Maybe you had to be here to get a feel for it. I KNOW, WE NEED ..... SLARVICAM (tm), the internet window on the day to day goings on in the Slarvibarglhee household. No, it's too horrible to contemplate. TTFN Slarvi (minus the cam) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 01:59:43 +0100 (BST) From: IT Admin - Govt Office North West Subject: Re: Alloy: Re: Curiosity/Mail lists At 11:24 18/09/98 -0700, you wrote: > >I used to belong to lists related to King Crimson and Robyn Hitchcock too. >The idea of a Blue Nile list sounds interesting. > Jennie, I don't know if the BN list is still going, but my notes show that to unsubscribe, you must send a message to bluenile-request@linz.orf.at, with *only* the word SUBSCRIBE in the body. I might resubscribe myself to see what's going on. I'm a long time fan of King Crimson. Was the list any good? Cheers Slarvibarglhee ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 14:17:01 -0700 From: Eclipse Subject: Re: Alloy: Birdcalls.. At the Wild Bird Rehab Center where I volunteer, we had this blue jay that could mimic the telephone *very* well. He could do other things too, but that was his favorite! Set people running for the phone for weeks... :) This was in late spring, when we're getting call after call after call about baby birds. - -- E(lipse > >little tinny voice... twice in a row! I thought I'd gone mad until someone > >told me that certain wild crows can learn to say things, if for instance > >they live near someone's home & hear certain words again & again. > > Yes, that's true! But I've never hear of an experience quite like yours - > how interesting. I do hear of people who keep crows that have been disabled > (you have to get a special license from the state fish and wildlife > department), and some of those birds are pretty amazing. By the way, you may > know that one of the best bird mimics is the Indian Hill Mynah, a softbill > from the Indian subcontinent. A lot of folks don't know that Mynahs are in > the starling family, or that starlings are also very good mimics. If you > listen to them, besides their usual soaring whistles and other natural > sounds, many also mimic the calls of songbirds that they hear. In fact, at > MMC I heard one imitating the call of a redwing blackbird! My mom, who > lives in high plains desert country in the Southwest, has heard the > starlings there imitate the Western meadowlarks. She also has another great > mimic in her yard, the mockingbird, who may sing all night long when there > is a full moon out. > > Jen (:^ ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V3 #249 ***************************