<insert crazy ramblings here>

( Piccy of my cuppa )
What the heck do they use as coffee whitener in the vending machines here? I'm sure it's not normal to be able to dig trenches in it.
They were probably aiming for a light and frothy texture, but have come closer to expanding foam sealant.

About three years ago I got a bit paranoid that my left shoulder was moving differently to my right, so went to see the GP. There was an elderly locum in, who just said something along the lines of "bodies aren't symmetric, don't worry." So I didn't.

A couple of weekends ago I had a wardrobe malfunction, and bruised/strained my neck/left shoulder. And it still aches. So I asked iBon to take a movie of my shoulder blades moving.

( Watch those blades move )

Yeuarch! Think I'll try and make an appointment with a local GP tomorrow.

Overheard at work.

Teleconference Machine: "Please state your name after the tone"
Chairman's Laptop: Crash
Teleconference Machine: "Beep"
Chairman: "Oh F***! Sh**!"
Teleconference Machine: "'Oh F***! Sh**!' has joined the conference."

So far it's taken over 10 helpdesk calls to sort out find out what's going with the stupid stupid Verified by Vista phishing look-a-like payment site. (MasterCard SecureCode is the same damn thing).

If a payment site:
appears in an embeded iframe (with no way of seeing the URL),
or in a pop-up with out an address bar,
or comes up after I've already entered my card details and asks for them again,
or triggers a javascript XSS warning on noScript,
or only lists a phone number which is not valid ( 0870 154 0121 );
then I'm not going to trust it!

Here are some valid numbers:

0844 811 9111 Customer service: Takes a while to get through the menus but eventually a human told me there was no failed transaction on my account, but there was a £1 charge due to expire on the 10th. However they can't help with the secure.barclaycard site (and as an aside only have access to 6 months of account data).

0870 156 6485 Barclaycard Secure/3D Secure queries: Only for Debit cards, can't help with Credit card problems.

0844 811 9152 Barclaycard Secure/3D Secure queries: Only for Credit card, can't help with debit card. Only one that seems to be based overseas.

They said that the receipt history page isn't receipts, it's a list of attempted transactions. Clearly. The transaction that was showing up on there was a failed transaction. Even though there's no indication of this. I eventually paid again, and apart from a slightly higher Receipt ID the two "receipts" look identical.

Raah!

If I see a site uses Vilified by Visa, or MasterCard SuckyCode, then I'll will first see if there is another payment option. Then see if there is another site selling the same thing. Then consider if I really need to spend money, before going through all this again.


Then the shop downstairs closed as I walked up to it.
Then vending machine wasn't taking pound coins, so I went and got change.
Then it wasn't taking change.
Then the coffee shop had a massive queue.
So no sugar for Dave.
Grr.

I know I say I usually just wait until a draft post is out of data and abandon it. I was trying to get that last one posted before the exhibition closed, but failed. At least partially due to spending the last couple of evenings working on a costume for Sunday. Anyone going to the expo?

Speaking of which anyone fancy a grand cosplay ball? I've got my ticket.

Oh, and is anyone planning on going to Novacon and want to share a room?

Craig Gidney, (who ran the Tanith Lee novel discussion at Orbital) is in a spot of financial bother and his publisher is selling pre-orders of his book and giving the whole amount to him, not even covering costs.

One last sfnal thing: I see from issue #6 of Captain Britain & MI:13 the the Cabal have clearly been at work on paulcornell2 is it features a villain called drplokta.

[Poll #1283762]

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Allowing time for shipping from America (often "don't even ask where it is until 6 weeks time"), it's about time for me to start looking at webcomic stores to see if there's anything I need to order for Christmas delivery.

The book I've least enjoyed, was a Christian propaganda, thinly veiled as a sci-fi novel. Just as the protagonist gives up looking for proof, and accepts that God had saved his life, the proof that it was a miracle all along pops up. The resolution just rings false with me.

I'm aware that many of the great historical works of art were produced explicitly for Christianity, but I tend to avoid anything from the last century that markets itself as such.

However of my favourite illustrators is taking part in an upcoming Christian comic book anthology. So it looks like I'll be buying something created explicitly as Christian. I'll be interested to see if it's not preachy. Or if it is, if the story and art is good enough to over come this.

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I'm trying to figure out what this starslip extra comic says about Vanderbeam.

The Starslip universe has not (to my recollection) dealt with religion before.
In fact not many that I read do. Skin Horse lists blood types for its characters, but not religion.

I don't think the strips primary purpose was actually statement on Vanderbeam's religion. Nor his intelligence for that matter. It's not clear, but I don't think he's saying these are statements of fact. It's more of a comment on how he values Beauty above Truth. A view he's shown before. The only reason that the religious context is interesting is how conspicuous it is in its absence elsewhere.

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Analysing an evolutionary model of religious memes.

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Make your own Papercraft Ceiling Cat (if that's the bible translation you follow).
Seen at Snowking's

American's were offered mortgages the could only afford so long as interest rates stayed low. If they had risen, but house prices kept rising it wouldn't be a problem either as the houses could be sold to service the debt.

It was SO easy. Fill out a few online forms, make some choices, and there I was, about to close that loan. But then I did an odd thing. I carefully read the papers I was about to sign (I'm one of THOSE people). And in that residential loan application, right on line something or other, was a number that didn't make any sense to me at all. It was labeled "total household income" and was almost twice the pitiful amount I actually earn.

From where did that number come? It certainly never came from me. Since my signature would be at the bottom of this application I wanted to make sure everything was correct, so I called the mortgage broker. For the first time we spoke. She was a very nice lady, too, and explained that number was the variable required for all the ratios to be correct so I could qualify for the loan.

"But it isn't true," I said.

"Do you want the loan or not?" she asked.

Not.

Banks repackage the mortgage debts and sell them on.

Intrest rates rise. House prices fall. The repackaged mortgages are suddenly a liability, rather than an asset. The banks aren't sure who owns these bad debts, so won't lend money to each other in case it turns out that they don't have the assets to secure the loan against.

Short selling attempts to adjust the value of a bank down, but goes to far.

Here's my question. Why does no-one know who bought those repackaged mortgage debts?

The whole point of this scheme is that the mortgage lenders have been paying interest to the investment banks that own these repackaged debts. So how can banks say they don't know where the debt is?