Dubber recommends...

Bobbie had a lot of heavy concentration, spreadsheet-type work to do at home today, so Jake and I decided to go out and leave her to it. Fortunately, the Flatpack Film Festival was on this weekend, and so we decided to go and catch Channel 3 -- the animated short film showcase. It was on at the Electric Cinema -- the oldest working cinema in the UK -- which, to my shame, I had never been to before -- though I'd heard good things. You can bring your coffee and cake into the cinema -- or your glass of wine -- and put it down on the coffee tables while you sit in your leather sofa and watch the big screen. Very civilised. There was some brilliant stuff. What was even better about it was that maybe half of the filmmakers whose work was being shown were in the audience. Jake sat next to a guy who made my favourite: Clawboy -- about a child with a claw (in fact, you only ever saw his claw) who, in the short called 'Mind Sucker', did insane Frankenstein/Clockwork Orange brain experiments on his goldfish (resulting in the alarming and hilarious closing screen splash 'NEED NEW FISH!') -- and, in 'Terror Goggles', inflicting retina-scarring horrors on his teddybear, eventually leaving gaping and charred eye sockets (ending with the phrase 'NEED LIVE SUBJECT!'). Both catchphrases I will now need as t-shirts. I hope to find more Clawboy on the interweb in the near future. Jake had to tell me off for giggling too much. Now that I come to tell them, they sound horrific - but they were genuinely delightful and hilarious. After the screening, it was announced that a film that had shown the day before, and had been well received, was going to get a second showing later in the afternoon. It was called High Score -- about a guy determined to beat the world record for the highest score on an old early 1980s arcade game called Missile Command. It was very funny, very frustrating, kind of sad, and then hilarious. In that order. Watch the trailer. We had a bit of time to kill, so we went off to get a bite to eat. Not much open on a Sunday -- but Tai Pan, a sushi place in the Chinese Quarter was open, and they had their all-you-can-eat sushi buffet going on, so we sat at the conveyer-belt and picked up the plates as they whizzed around. Fantastic. Going back there soon.

We then headed up to Island -- a bar with a smaller bar upstairs. The screening was in the smaller bar, and it was preceded by a slide show of some interesting places that a guy had lived in for a bit. Not sure what that was about, but Peru looked interesting. There was a bit of cocktail-making going on, and the bartender had a bit of flair about him, so Jake decided he'd like a non-alcoholic version of something that involved a bit of mashing up and shaking around. I had seen some bartending before, but this was the first time I had encountered the mashing stick. I want one.

Pleased with his concoction (lime juice, demerera syrup, fresh mint on the stalk, ice and ginger beer), Jake sat down to be entertained. He didn't have long to wait, and before long, the population of Moseley had turned out for a bit of live experimental video manipulation from Scart Trio -- two guys (and their technology, making a trio) who do a style of mixing and mashing of their own (sadly, without the big stick). Craig observed that it was probably a good night for a bit of unhindered breaking and entering round our way. We were treated to a live, improvisational reworking of simultaneous episodes of The Simpsons and The Waltons, complete with every bit of analogue video and audio tomfoolery you can imagine. It was to be followed by a screening of an earlier 70-min work of theirs entitled 'Hitchcock and the Whale', but by then, we were filmfested out and it was time to jump on the bus home. Most of what we saw is only doing the rounds of film festivals and is hard to come by for the most part, but here's a taste of a few of the things we saw today. We enjoyed these three films. Just press play to watch.

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Carlitopolis: [youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CJKULSJ8DE"]

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Amateur [youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQFVjSIGrvc"]

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A Day In Flat Earth [youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoKA4iWIBZI"] All in all, a good 'Boys Day Out'.

I've been poorly treated in this country when it comes to just living somewhere. I've rented a furnished flat that turned out to have no furniture in it. I've been rendered homeless by an incompetent letting agent and a negligent landlord. I've had my family subjected to carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty gas heater, and then told that the only reason we're still alive was a bloody great hole in the roof. I've been left without heating in winter. But so far, winning the competition for most infuriatingly bureaucratic and resolutely anti-consumer experience in the UK is in the area of water supply. This is a very long story, which I shall try to summarise and tell as briefly as possible -- because apart from being dull and repetitive, it makes me very cross. Thing is, it should make you cross too. If you've ever paid a water bill on an unmetered property, then Severn Trent have been overcharging you. Seriously overcharging you -- especially if you live in a flat. They admit that the amount that they charge you is far too much, and they are unprepared to do anything about it. In my case that bill for drinking, flushing and washing: at present -- over £650. For the last God-knows-how-long, I've been engaged in an ongoing battle with Severn Trent Water. If you don't have a water meter, they calculate the cost of your water on the rateable value of the land on which your home is situated. We live in a building in a fairly nice area, with 50-odd other residents. Naturally, to house an 8-storey building like this, the land is going to be fairly sizeable -- and it's that bit of land that our water rates were being valued on. I pointed out the absurdity of this quite some time ago. Over a year, I think... and I was promised action. Nothing. Then suddenly, there was a big scandal in the media about Severn Trent's notorious and criminal overcharging, and the company was forced to reassess all of the accounts, and send out new, corrected bills. It was in the news. I remember watching it on the telly. But in the meantime, our battle raged on. After a great deal of tedious to-ing and fro-ing I agreed to get a water meter installed, as this was the only way we could show our water usage. That way, the real amount could be calculated, and applied back to when we first moved into the property. This seemed like a sensible solution. We could prove the overcharging, and the situation could be rectified. By now, our bill had reached in excess of £800. The meter was installed (rather badly, and we have cables pulling up edges of carpets now) and so we thought we'd leave it a month or two to establish the pattern of water consumption. Then, from nowhere, presumably on the back of the negative publicity and a promised change in the billing at Severn Trent, our account dropped overnight from in excess of £800 to around £200. That's better. However, we also received a bill for £0.00. While waiting for the meter-based bill to turn up we received a final demand for the £200 invoice, and another for the £0 invoice. So, even though we had yet to see any evidence of metered water charges, we paid the former, and decided to ring to query the latter. There was no way I was being taken to court for an unpaid bill of zero money. I spoke to Dwayne, who informed me that I shouldn't worry about the £0 and that, in fact, I shouldn't have paid the £200 either, because the account was in the process of being reassessed by 'the system'. I figured that this must be the back-calculation based on meter readings. I decided to get something in writing. No, said Dwayne, he couldn't possibly email me or give me something in writing. But his manager might. I received a call from Marcia the next day, and she assured me that the £0 bill would go away, the £200 payment would be credited to the account, and then anything left over would be refunded to us. Today, we received a bill for £650. Not only had we returned to square one, but as part of that bill, we also had documentation of 3 months of metered water usage that proved that our average water consumption was actually around £10 a month. So I called them yet again with two questions: 1) Why has the £400-odd that fell off the bill when it was last reassessed (around the time of that last scandal) suddenly returned? 2) Why has our average metered rating not been applied retrospectively as promised? I spoke to Geraldine, who was, at first, helpful -- then defensive. I then spoke to her manager Sue, who went straight to defensive. The upshot is this: They are not prepared to apply metered rates retrospectively to bills, even when those metered rates prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the unmetered charges were off by a factor of about 4 or 5. If they did, then they would have to do that for everyone -- and they would also have to admit that their standard unmetered charges, based on the rateable value of the property, are extortionate -- particularly when it comes to flats and apartments. The person who told me they would retrospectively calculate the metered amount was lying to me. Moreover, the person that told me that the rateable value was on the value of the land was wrong. I'm now told that it was set in 1990 on an inspector's opinion of the rentable value of the flat. Who knows? At any rate, it's at a much higher value than any of the houses in the area. Flats in tower blocks apparently rent for much more than three bedroom Moseley homes with off-street parking and lush greenery. Their defense is that the rates on which they calculate the unmetered water bill is set by the Inland Revenue. That's fine. I appreciate that. What I do not accept is that that means they have no control over the bill amount. Inland Revenue could say the rated figure is £X. From there, Severn Trent will apply a formula -- they will multiply or divide that £X by an arbitrary figure to come up with an unmetered charge. The point I have been failing to make to any of the Severn Trent drones is that the formula is entirely within their organisation's control. They are not powerless over the amount they charge their customers, despite what they try to tell us. I also do not accept that there is nobody in the organisation who has the authority to look at a bill, see that it has been unarguably proven to be incorrect and then apply changes. The answer to this is that, yes, there probably is somebody who could do that -- but we're not going to, and nor are you going to be allowed to speak to that person. We offer a choice: either you install a water meter or we will happily charge you vastly in excess of the value of the service. We know that it's wrong, absurd and criminal -- and there's nothing you can do about it. Direct quote: "If we amend one unfair bill, then we have to admit that the whole system is in the wrong -- and we'd have to amend them all." Too bloody right. You had one angry customer whose problem you could have quietly solved. Now you have on your hands a representative of an entire constituency of customers who have been criminally overcharged, and he works in the media. You can expect me now to not only try and get my bill sorted -- and keep working my way up until I find a human being who can actually step outside the machine, make a rational decision and apply actual influence rather than just submit to a bureaucratic and corrupt policy -- but also expose the criminal nature of what your organisation is involved in.

Sam Coley, Head of Radio and Fun Times We had a bunch of about 15 highschool students into UCE today to get a "masterclass" in Music Industries and Radio. I took them in the morning for the Music Industries side of things, and fellow kiwi Sam helped them with the Radio. It was essentially a taster day for education and those areas of future employment for them. I divided them into groups based on their genre tastes, and had them start up their own labels. They then had to scout for new talent (with the help of MySpace) and do a spot of A&R. Once they had 'signed' their bands, they then represented them on the radio as they were interviewed by their fellow students. It was largely a spot of roleplay, and they seemed to respond to it really well. As you might expect, there were a few really keen ones -- and a couple that just thought everything was hard and unfair. Here's the afternoon in pictures (I'm behind the camera, so you won't see me...) After work, Bobbie, Jake and I went to the parent teacher meeting at Moseley School. He has to choose the subjects to take at GCSE level. Most of them are chosen for him -- and since it's a language college, he only has two choices. English, Science and Maths are a given, he will do German -- and he can choose two others. He wants to take Music and Art. And I think he should -- but we also strongly feel he needs a scholarly academic subject as well as the practical, creative ones. Especially since once he starts the International Baccalaureate, after GCSE (instead of A-Levels), he will only be able to choose one "creative" subject alongside a range of other more academic stuff. So... we're looking for a way to accommodate that. We're going to ask if he can do an extra GCSE, as he has his heart set on both Music and Art -- and we're pushing for History as well (his best and favourite 'trad' subject). He is doing German GCSE early -- in year 9 -- so one option is to propose that if he gets B or above, that he be excused from taking it again in year 11, as would ordinarily be the case. Another option would be to let him drop Italian (an extra 'flavour' language, over and above German -- but not for GCSE) -- as well as Religious Education, which is more or less compulsory at the school even if you're not doing it for the GCSEs. That would make enough room for an extra GCSE option. And while I think an understanding of comparative mythologies and the central literatures of different civilisations (the Bible, the Koran, etc) -- Jake already has a pretty good grasp of that stuff for a devout atheist. Any way that we can let him do what he's really passionate about, while ticking all the boxes for the academic and creative balance that he'll need later in school life, we'll do our best to try and make happen.

Eulogy in Breakdance Jake was staying over at a friend's place last night, and Bobbie and I had a good night out at the Unit. It was a celebration of the life of James Brown, featuring DJs, a live funk band, breakdancers -- and pretty much the entire population of Moseley and Balsall Heath in an enclosed space. It was put on by (another) Bobbie (Bobbalin Hot) and Amy (Sister 45) -- friends of ours that we know through the record shop/cafe we go to -- under their DJ promotion moniker 'Mama Feel Good'. They must have been stoked at such a huge turnout. Other friends of ours, DJ Cro and Roy Roast Beef played really great sets -- but it all became too much for us by about 2.30 and we were home by 3. The night raged on, no doubt, till 6am, after which a couple of friends of ours (Craig and Val) were off to line up for the Big Brother auditions. Wonder how they're getting on with that. I took some shots -- mostly of the breakdancers, because I was using my cameraphone and everything else was too dark to get a good photo of. You can see them here. Incidentally, if you hover your mouse over the image or one of the links, and you get an annoying pop up preview thingy -- that wasn't my doing. It's some sort of annoying thing that Wordpress has got itself involved in, and you can opt out by clicking on the options and choosing 'never show me this nonsense again' -- or something like that.

Sometimes things get so busy at work, the only thing you can do to avoid getting completely stressed out and ovewhelmed by the whole thing is to sit down with a big piece of paper and map out a calendar for the next few weeks, and then try and figure out how, for the life of you, you're going to fit all this stuff into that little amount of time. So that's what happened today. Like most people I work with, I've got a pile of marking to do, a bunch of things to write, masses of prep to do before the new semester starts -- and a whole lot of meetings to have. And all that's not unusual -- but occasionally between semesters, things get stupidly out of hand. I blame the seasons up this end of the planet. We've had a Christmas and New Year, so naturally everyone's been lethargic for the past month and has achieved almost nothing. But it's not the summer holiday, so we're all back to work quick-smart and having to deal swiftly with the fallout of a no-activity Xmas season. In New Zealand, you have until late February to warm up, and then it's the start of a new academic year, as well as the start of a new calendar year. It makes so much sense down that end of the planet. And speaking of seasons, it officially became cold today. It's been so mild for the past few weeks, that I'm told Spring flowers are shooting up everywhere. I was told what their names were, but like anything to do with accountancy and motor vehicle maintenance, gardening information simply falls out of my head the moment it gets there. Today, ice was thick on car windscreens, and gloves were necessary in order to leave the house. There'll be snow by the weekend, I'm sure -- and to do that, it has to get colder, then warm up. We'll be sub-zero most of tomorrow. And it's Open Day at the university: day of the locusts. Actually, I'm quite looking forward to open day for the first time in ages. Doing Radio for so long has brought in a handful of interested 6th formers and their parents at each open day, and they become convinced that UCE is the right place to study -- so they apply accordingly. The calibre is respectable, and the intake more than manageable. The new Music Industries degree has brought in a flood of applications. And some of these people have superb academic track records and industry experience. I've gone from presenting one of the 'boutique' courses to one of the massively popular ones. Last semester was the first time I've ever taught first-years. It's always been 2nd & 3rd-year undergrads and Masters students. I really enjoyed it. For the most part, they were a great bunch. More of them next year -- by a factor of 5 -- should be interesting. But once they go, the piles of marking on my desk will still be there. But fortunately, by now they're in a system. Those systems tend to last a good few months with me before everything starts to unravel. Then a busy period kicks in again, and I get out another large piece of paper. Fortunately, I've blocked out bits of time to do the blogging. Oddly, it's only when I get really flat out that I ever set aside the time to write this sort of stuff. Every minute for the foreseeable future is entirely spoken for. Obviously, there's some sit around and relax time scheduled in there -- but that's productive lazing time. It's non-negotiable, do-nothing, battery-recharging time. Otherwise, I'm just not going to cope with the other stuff that fills my calendar to bursting. So -- not overwhelming, but really full on. Motivating, even. It's the good kind of too busy.

'You' have been named as Time's 'person of the year'. The magazine has nominated the online public because of its effect on news and stuff -- MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia and so on. You have therefore been awarded an honour until now only reserved for the best and brightest -- such as Hitler (1938) Ayotollah Khomeini (1979) and George W. Bush (2004). Read the article.

Bobbie has pain. I have loss. We took Bobbie to the dental hospital today. She has been having tooth problems that have been getting progressively worse. Nothing unsightly, just lots of pain and misery. Not fun at all and the painkillers are scarcely touching it. Meanwhile, I had a hard drive calamity and lost over 1000 albums. I have some of them as backups, and I'll be able to replace most of them with the help of a few friends -- but it's an incredibly time-consuming proposition. For some reason, I have a complete computer meltdown every New Year -- and every year I forget about the trend. Still -- it says something that I can accidentally destroy over 1000 CDs of music in an afternoon and -- although frustrated and cross -- figure that it's more an annoyance than a tragedy. Meanwhile, Jake's fine. He's started getting into Warhammer and so has been spending countless hours painting little tabletop wargame figures and hanging out at Games Workshop in town. Other than that, we're just killing time till Monday when ordinary life starts up again. I'll be back at work, and Jake will be back at school.

I've been putting off the blogging for the past few days after having enjoyed a largely internet-free Christmas with family and friends in Amsterdam last week. I did make an exception for the four-way conference Skype chat with my sister in France, and my other sister and parents in Auckland -- but aside from that previously unaccomplished feat of digital communication, I was offline. Amsterdam, as usual, was great. We stayed with Brendan and Martijn right on the canals in town, walking distance to everything. Bobbie walked to shoe shops, I walked to record shops, Jake and Brendan walked to Nemo, the science museum. We also did some walking together. Ice skating in the Dam Square was fun. Jake and I slid around on the ice while Bobbie watched. I was better at it than anticipated, and had managed to retain some muscle memory from my rollerskating days, when I was about 12. I was hardly Torville (or Dean -- which one was the guy?), but I could move around, stop and even go backwards intentionally. Jake enjoyed it too -- particularly the bit where he made snowballs out of the ice shavings and threw them at me whenever I was least expecting it. It was cold, but not quite snow-worthy. The food was great and we spent as much time as we could having naps, playing Uno Extreme (which we were so impressed with, we have to buy it and make everyone we know play it too) and eating Dutch treats. I took a few photos -- mostly of the statues in Rembrandt Square, it turns out -- and if you have a look at the slideshow, you'll see some of what we saw as we wandered around. Jake is not yet quite as tall as he looks in that photo. He's on tiptoes. Presents were very good this year -- Bobbie gave me a kind of DJ's flight case for 7" records, which was good timing, given my recent discovery of the 10p 7-inch shop, and from Jake I got a couple of bowls for my Go counters to go with my wooden playing board. Presents from the family back in NZ had the kiwi theme, which was nice, and from our Amsterdam friends, a rear-view mirror for the computer monitor and a bottle of feijoa-flavoured 42 Below vodka. After a slight miscalculation that led to an early morning and extra bit of spare time at Schipol airport, we came back on Thursday. I brought back a few records (Coltrane, Ornette and Miles on vinyl, plus a couple of funk 45s) and Bobbie with her new shoes from the Camper store sale. Since then, we've been gradually unpacking and meeting friends for coffee and other beverages in the intervening days. Friday night at the Bull's Head was good -- one of the Jam Jah / Friendly Fire reggae nights with our friend Robyn DJ-ing, and Paradox doing vocals. We went with Juliet, and discovered that the Bull's Head is the only place in town that serves Feijoa flavoured 42 Below. I've reacquainted myself with my digital music collection and spent most of yesterday getting back to the task of sorting out the tags and album artwork on the latest batch. It's a repetitive and daunting task, but it's kind of therapeutic. Jake's spent the last couple of days at a friend's in Bromsgrove, which seems to be as far away as you can possibly get and still have a Birmingham postcode. We went out with him on the perpetual bus journey, and found it to be a quaint village largely consisting of an enormous ASDA supermarket, and some small cafes that were entirely lacking in anything resembling coffee. Tonight, we may or may not be going to a friend's birthday party / New Years Eve do, but we'll probably have to go in shifts, as Jake will be home by then. I'll probably go from about 10.30 till midnight, and Bobbie will go after that, once the people start actually turning up. It's that sort of party. Hope the Christmas thing was good for you too - catch you in the New Year.

I was taken to the Music and Video Exchange in the centre of town this afternoon. My first visit there. I leafed dejectedly through the small bin of jazz (Acker Bilk, Glenn Miller... sigh) and then went downstairs to the room of bargain 7" singles. Everything 10p!!!

I only managed to rummage my way through the first three packed bins of unsorted singles, ranging from the sublime (Fontella Bass's original Chess pressing of Rescue Me) to the ridiculous (The Smurfs theme). I was less than a third of the way through the full assortment before being chucked out at closing time. Needless to say, I'll be going back. I managed to grab in two main categories: classic soul/funk/r&b/reggae for my 'From The Attic' DJ night on the one hand, 80s indie for my own personal entertainment on the other. Here's what I came home with -- all in good nick, and about half of them sporting the original picture sleeve: Fontella Bass - Rescue Me Sharon Redd - Can You Handle It Stargard - Which Way Is Up George Benson - Never Give Up On A Good Thing Etta James - Security (by Otis Redding) The Whispers - And The Beat Goes On Sister Sledge - He's The Greatest Dancer Commodores - Easy b/w Machine Gun (aka -- in NZ -- as 'The old RTR theme') William deVaughn - Be Thankful For What You've Got Bob Marley & The Wailers - Could You Be Loved Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony - Hustle Stevie Wonder - Happy Birthday Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg - Je t'Aime... Moi Non Plus Tavares - The Mighty Power of Love Shriekback - Fish Below The Ice (rare remixed single) Shriekback - Hand on My Heart (very rare) Cabaret Voltaire - Sensoria The Jam - Beat Surrender Art Of Noise & Max Headroom - Paranoimia Bauhaus - She's In Parties Bauhaus - Lagartija Nick (rare - pictured above) Spandau Ballet - To Cut A Long Story Short Spandau Ballet - The Freeze Lene Lovich - Lucky Number ...and three NME giveaway 4-track 33rpm 7" promo records, numbered GIV1-3: GIV 1: Free with NME May '85 NME Readers' Poll Winners '84 Bronski Beat - Hard Rain Cocteau Twins - Ivo (new version) The Smiths - What She Said (live) U2 - Wire (dub mix) GIV2: Free with NME Sept '85 Style Council - My Ever Changing Moods (Live in Liverpool) Lloyd Cole & the Commotions - Forest Fire (Live in London) The Robert Cray Band - Bad Influence (Live in Chicago) Prefab Sprout - Real Life (Just Around The Corner) GIV3: Free with NME Feb '86 Tom Waits - Downtown Train (NME Version) The Jesus & Mary Chain - Some Candy Talking Husker Du - Ticket to Ride Trouble Funk - Let's Get Small Superb. All up, £2.70 well spent. They scrubbed up well, and sounded great on headphones. Very happy indeed.

Things have slowed down at work a little bit at the moment. I've been doing bits and pieces from home, but my presence at the office has been required less and less this week.

To take advantage of this fact, my friend Craig and I did the charity shop crawl along the Kings Heath high street today, and found some magificent bargains, perfect for Christmas stocking fillers. He found this awesome duck-shaped hairdrier for only £5 -- the ideal gift for someone with hair that gets wet sometimes, and who doesn't yet own a comical cartoon-shaped electrical appliance. Those feet are a stand -- and the duck comes off. You turn it on and adjust its speed by moving its little bow tie up and down. I stuck mostly to the books and the records. I found pretty near mint copies of the Not The Nine O'Clock News record 'Hedgehog Sandwich' and the record of Alas Smith and Jones. 80p each. Not bad. Jake's a big classic British comedy fan, and has yet to be exposed to much of either of those two, so it should make for a nice extra present. And after all, who doesn't love getting gifts that seem to be roughly 12" x 12" squares? That always gave my Christmas morning a real boost... I did manage one complete triumph of a bargain: this superb air football table for £1. It came in its original box, batteries included and a full complement of little football discs. Like a cross between an air hockey table and a pinball machine, this little beauty blows just enough air through the pinholes on the table to keep the disc moving. And when you flip the paddles, it emits a satisfying late 1980s electronic 'peeeooww!' sound, which becomes almost instantly irritating. Craig and I tried it out over a pint at the pub at the Moseley end of OpShop Mile, and we decided it was 'Ace', though we only went 'first to three' for fear of being thrown out because of that obnoxious noise. Of course, having brought it home, we couldn't wait for Christmas to unveil this one, in all its branded Marks and Spencer glory. So it had to be given as an early present. Naturally, Jake is already a master at this, and kicked my butt several times before challenging Bobbie, who gave him far more of a run for his money. We also received a lovely present from my sister Lee and her two boys today: an Amazon.co.uk gift voucher for the three of us to split three ways. I've chosen my share of the spend already. It's a board game. Or, more precisely... it's one of two board games. I'm dithering between Polarity and The Settlers of Catan. I really can't think of anything else I need right now. Other than records, obviously. I'm in a bit of a games frame of mind at the moment, having triumphed at a recent pub chess match, as well as at a variation on the game called 'Idiot Chess', in which the object is to lose all your pieces as quickly as possible -- and if you can take a piece, you must. Good, fast game. And I've been observing some Go games on the internet, played between absolute masters. If you're lucky (assuming this is something you'd feel lucky about) they replay at the end, going through the game move by move explaining the strategies and the moves made. Most of it goes over my head, but I think I'm taking some of it in by osmosis, and I think I'm almost ready to start playing other human beings. Oh, and I bought a board too, so if I do happen to find anyone who wants to learn (or better, can already play), I can at least bring the equipment. All in all a good day -- and our shopping money went to help all manner of charities.