Being Human

Got interesting again.
I have some problems with it with the way it goes between squirmy embarrassment (usually of George) and predictable even if suitable plot developments. But this week it managed 2 that I didn't see coming and should have cause they fit perfect. ( Read more... )

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Primary keyboard still buggered.
Laptop keyboard would work better if laptop wifi admitted it existed.
Am currently plugged in with big red wire that caused the keyboard issue in the first place when I forgot to uplug it and made a big tech avalance.
... okay, I caused, cable assissted.
Laptop is currently insisting on installing a Windows update. After that it's turning off and on again. If that doesn't work... tech support opens in the morning.

The dishwasher is... well, the inside is white. I've been thinking 'white! clean! lalala.' But it has, of late, not been real clean. Today I took some of the insides out to scrub them, and they really need it. Then the insides that don't come out were open to inspection. And attempts at further cleaning. The, er, white layer? It crumbles away with gentle poking. I think I have heard of this. Also the brown layer underneath it. That greatly resembles the compound known as 'rust'.
... I think I'm going to get one of those magic clean your dishwasher boxes that they advertise on TV, the ones with the super special soaplike substance. I don't think it'll work, but it'll be a bit cleaner while it doesn't work.

After that, I shall ask at the nice shop that sold me the thing if crumbly is a good state for it to be in.

*sigh*

I have of course used up all my plates and bowls and spoons and everything before realising the machine isn't in useable state right now. So the sink is full of stuff waiting to go in the dishwasher, and then I took the stuff out the dishwasher and put it on top of that, and basically this doesn't work at all at all.

Also I so totally need to get better at rinsing stuff before it goes in the dishwasher. I think I found a archaeological layer of old pesto. Eew.

Reality. Always with the entropy and inconvenience. I mean, does the Doctor ever have to pull stuff out of the TARDIS, clean off the limescale, and discover what happens to undead pasta sauce?
... come to think, given the nature of the repairs and the general magpie attitude of the Doctor...
*blinks*

right, auto update is done, I shall turn this thing off and on again. fear my leet tech support skillz!

Redemption... next weekend? already?

I had a look at the Redemption '09 program
there's only a couple times I want to be 3 places at once and no times there's nothing to do
except for the sensible people sleep now times.

There's lots of panels with 'writer' somewhere in the description, and lots of stuff with Paul Cornell. Though sadly Speed Dating is only for those people who don't think it's more important to hear a Doctor Who writer interviewed.
... yes. er. no comment...
... several layers of no comment...

Scheduled stuff starts at 2pm on the Friday, so I no longer feel stupid for ticking that box to stay over on Thursday night. Even though it's entirely possible I'll forget I did that and just wake up on Friday and realise I should be there by now and I've probably already paid for the hotel.

I mostly can't decide if I should take my laptop or not. I mean, if I take it and it goes astray, I am seriously up the creek with college and... well, everything. My laptop, it is my other brain. I just updated the backups onto the desktop computer, but I'm never quite sure I got everything. (I do need to investigate proper backup technology that can be sure for me.) But: laptop is my other brain. If I leave it at home, then what to do?

I guess I could compromise and borrow back the old laptop that didn't work very well when I gave it to mum two xmases ago. She hasn't plugged it in since and the cats sleep on it. It doesn't have wifi, or indeed much of an internet capability. But I'm sure it used to have some point to its existence.

I think I'm just going to pack as much interesting stuff as I can into memory sticks and, er, carry them around like talismans, or something.

*sigh*



also, I should probably pack some clothes.

I don't know if it's one of those clothing-optional events until I get there.

GURPS Torchwood

I have been happily sitting surrounded by GURPS rulebooks figuring out what skill levels Toshiko would need to have any chance of figuring out alien technology (massive), how that is best achieved (highest IQ plus many many hours of skills), and what rule sets they would be used with. I found in the campaigns book the rules for poking alien technology, and the rules for poking weird technology, which have a few more things in common with the rules for poking unknown magic objects. Fun!
To figure out characters for GURPS Torchwood I have to decide if Torchwood is more a realistic or a cinematic setting.
... yes, I know, but I should at least pretend to think about it.

Realistic GURPS rules involve skills where Engineering comes in a dozen different specialities, most with no default at lower tech levels, many requiring prerequisite skills like Chemistry and Physics. Engineering outside your speciality is at a penalty or not at all. Tosh would have to have several different specialities, plus many different skills to use the things she can build, plus basic science and math skills, and a lot of different computer use skills. She would need to be the oldest on the team simply to have had enough hours in her life to have the slightest hint of a chance of having the skills to figure out alien technology. Even with added time taken to do things slow and steady. And then, quite often, things would go pffft, or take chunks out of nearby people.

Cinematic GURPS would give Tosh a skill like Science! (and it has to have the !), and an advantage like Gadgeteer, and she could not only reverse engineer alien tech at many levels, she could invent at multiple tech levels ahead of her society. She'd only need the one skill, albeit learned at triple Very Hard levels. No need to specialise, or indeed know the difference between biology and physics. Just the one Science! and everything can be known at heroic levels.
She wouldn't have Quick Gadgeteer because that's the Doctor's best trick. He can invent new and interesting science out of the contents of his pockets or whatever scraps of low tech he has to hand. The Doctor only even *vaguely* works with the full on cinematic rules, and even then he has character points of ridiculously godlike proportions. Which, you know, Lonely God, makes sense.

Toshiko though... can she invent new and shiny gadgets out of her amazing brain? Or does she 'just' figure out what aliens left behind?


Figuring out GURPS rules for Owen... the basic characters rulebook just says that Physiology has to specialise by species, and if there are any defaults between different species it's up to the GM to figure them out. I haven't poked the Campaigns book for more details yet. Of course if the relevant skill was something like Medicine! then things get immensely easier... sort of...
... wonder if the Space rulebook covers this sort of thing? Or for that matter Bio-Tech...