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    Friday, July 25th, 2008
    ghoti
    3:08p
    Seen in someone else's sig
    Thursday, July 24th, 2008
    chaucer_blog 2:32a
    A NEW ORDER, by the Lords Appellant and Tho. Favent
    WELCOME TO THE INNOVATYF RE-BRANDINGE OF

    GEOFFREY CHAUCER HATH AN EXTREME BLOG: GO ENGLAND! IT YS RAD!

    PRESENTID BY THE LORDS APPELLANT:
    Thomas “The Swan” of Woodstock, Earl of Buckingham and Duk of Gloucester
    Richard “Horsie” FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel
    Thomas “Yogi” Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick
    Henry “S-Collar” Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby
    Tommy “Featherweight” Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham

    YWRITTEN BY A GLOBAL TEAME OF CREATIFS AND TRENDSETTIRS ASSEMBLID IN FELAWESHEP WYTH MUCH COFFEE

    YEDITED BY:
    Thomas “Favor Fave” Favent (formerlie director of chihuahua trakkinge and parliamentarie gossip for GAUCHER Media)

    INTRODUCCION BY THE LORDS APPELLANT

    Welcome, gentils and churles alike. We haue looked at youre emailes thurgh our constant secret monitoringe of communicaciouns, and we haue wisely and graciously seen that the whole globe of the erthe doth lament the lakke of posting on the blogg of a certayn Galfridus Chaucer, formerlie of the customes hous and until recentlie clerke of the kinges workes, and synce June an absent fathir, distractid soule, companion to a wandering king, and balm-addled layabout. Well, the longe tyme of yower waiting is ovir, for heere ys the new GEOFFREY CHAUCER HATH AN EXTREME BLOG: GO ENGLAND! IT YS RAD!.

    Ywis, we Lords Appellant haue re-branded and re-concepted thys blog. We haue replaced Chaucer wyth a top team of new media specialistes. This is nowe a blog that ys dedicated to bringing yow the hottest and moost up to date content about the worldes of entertaynment, political societee, hangings, filmes, culture, quarterings, and defense of the of the noble realme of Engelonde. Prepare to be virtuallye beaten ovir the head and neck by the sheere force of the hot and up to date content ye shall see on this blog. Ther shal be verye funnye thinges. The thinges ye shall see shal be so funnye they shall maken yow to “laughen out loude” (LOL). Ther shal also be much newes of Engelonde and ower gret effortes to kepe yt safe from the foul Frensshe folk, who seeke even now to destroye ower language and ower large estates. Nevir bifor did loue of the realm of Engelonde and hot and up to date content come togedir in a productif and profitable webbe-two-point-o fusion-synthesis as they do nowe in GEOFFREY CHAUCER HATH AN EXTREME BLOG: GO ENGLAND! IT YS RAD!.

    We requeste that all ye folk who reden of this blogg do signe the loialtiee oath in the commentz to assuren us that ye aren nat Frensshe spyes or folk who wolde overturn the gret proceedings of the moost recent Parliament. Yf ye signe nat the loailte oath we shall come to yower hous wyth our retinues of armid men and we shal show yow the latest hot and up to date content in opinioun-chaunging. (SEE END OF POOST FOR OATH)

    Go England! Trust us!
    -Tom, Dick, Tom, Harry, Tom

    And nowe a woord from yower newe editor, Thomas Favent.

    THE EDITOR ANSWERETH YOWER QUERIES

    How hangeth it, ladyes and lordes? This is nat Geoffrey Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer ys chubtastick and hath a smal woolen hat the which was cool back when round tables seemid lyk a fresshe idea. Chaucer, my darlinges, hath left the building. Ich am Thomas Favent and let me telle yow ich am a lot thinner and a whole lot moore fun at large outdoor summer-tyme festivals. Ich am so totallie ypsyched to be runninge this syte and providinge yow wyth the hottest and moost up to date content concerninge the mattirs aforemencioned by the lords appellant in their grace and wisdam.

    Nowe, ich imagine ye are going “what the swyve?” (WTS?) right nowe, by cause that thinges aren a littel different around heere than what ye haue seen bifor. Wel, ich am heere to telle yow that chaunge is good. Sum peple think of chaunge as the werkinge of a capricious fortune upon the blisful stabilitie of lyf, but ich prefer to think of chaunge as the force that kicketh boring people off of the island. All webbes must be blown by the winde so that the spider maye re-cast them, and thus yt is wyth thys websyte, blown by the wind of clene and pure chaunge into the newe and awesome shape yt taketh bifor yower eyes.

    So that ich maye yive sum response to yower questions about the gret chaunges of this blog, ich haue arrangid a liste of questions that haue come thurgh email, the which ich shall answir in order. Suspend yower wondir, rederes, and all factes concerninge this blog and the recent lakke of postinges shal bicom clere thurgh my crystalline prose.

    1. Where the hell is Geoffrey Chaucer?

    Geoffrey Chaucer hath been verye busy ovir the past monethes assistinge King Richard wyth King Richard’s rehabilitacioun. King Richard hath been in a bit of a funke (see below answeres). Currentlie, Geoffrey Chaucer ys with King Richard in Las Vegas. The two of them left in June, after a period of gret distraccion.

    The kinge and Chaucer did saye thei wolde journeye to Vegas to fynde sum abstract notion or anothir. The paparazzi do saye that bifor he left, Chaucer waxid poetic about a maner of quest involving drivinge to Las Vegas and drinking much wyne and the inhaling of gret quantitees of aromatic balm in order to fynde “The Idea of the Vernacular.”

    2. Why is almost everyone involved with this named Thomas?

    Go to Canterburye and light yowerself a clue candle, doctor of theologie.

    3. What has been happening in the last couple months? It’s something to do with parliament, right?

    Ye are correct. Yn Februarie, the Lords Appellant (listed above in their grace and wisdam) did bring the concernes of alle the peple of the realme to parliament. They did saye that the counsellors and men who surroundid King Richard were corrupt and rotten and thes evil counsellors did hate the realme of Engelonde. Thes evil counsellors did kepe King Richard from thinkinge of the safetie of the realm, so much so that he thoughte to make peace wyth the foul Frenssh. He also spent a lot of moneye on thinges lyk giant water parkes wyth ancient mythologicale themes (q. v. "Styx Flags") and did depryve the gret nobles of the realme of their annuitees.

    But the realme neded nat to suffir until it dwindled and bicam prey to the foule Frensshe. Nay! Sum of the gretest nobles of the realme did heere the people complaining of the woes of the realme, and thei rose up to challenge the vicious scum who did surround our King Richard. Thes gret nobles and saviors of the polity do call themselves the Lords Appellant (because thei are so appeallinge). The Lords Appellant usid the rightful and proper force of parliament to put the fals counsellors of King Richard on tryall for tresoun and to bring gret peace and order to the realm by deelinge wyth them.

    Best. Parliament. Evir!

    Consideringe all the deelinge that had to be done, the parliament did laste for many monethe, and Geoffrey was kept bisy making thinges for the kinge (includinge a fortified bunker the which was nat fortified quite ynough). This parliament went off and on until June 3rd, upon which daye Geoffrey and Richard spent much tyme driving around London collectinge supplyes in a rentid car and then drove off and haue nat been yherd from since.

    3. Who were these counsellors?

    The foulest of the dangeres to the realm were Nicholas Brember Mayor of London, Alexander Neville fals Bisshop of York, Robert de Vere supposid Duk of Ireland (and kynd of too close wyth the kyng), Michael de la Pole supposid Earl of Suffolk, Robert Tresilian once Chief Justice. Yet their were many othir folk, swich as the knights Berners, Burley, Salisbury and Beauchamp and also the small folk Thomas Usk and John Blake. The lords appellant in their grace and wisdam exiled or executid moost of them.

    4. Executed?

    Ye kan nat make an omelet wythout hanging and drawing and quartering a few egges.

    But wait, I heard a rumor that Thomas Usk didn’t actually die, but instead was saved at the last minute by Dr. Hwaet and his beloved companion Wat Tyler? They replaced Usk with a robot that looked like a person but could really only walk and recite basic liturgical formulae.

    When the lordes appellant fynde the source of the crakke ye are smokinge, in their grace and widsdam thei shall destroye it to make safe the healthe of the nacioun and to quell swich fables and ficcions. Dr. Hwaet is a ficcion. Even yf he did exist, the idea of a totallye ancient alien with an accent from Norwich ys ridiculous.

    5. Lots of planets have a Norwich.

    BE SILENT or the lords appellant yn their grace and wisdam shall knokke yow the helle about the head. Next question, peple.

    7. Hey, also: Why was Annie Lennox singing in the palace when Richard said goodbye to De Vere?

    Ynogh of the rumores. Wheniver ther ys political activitee the chronicleres just start blabbing about eny thing. Wheels of fyre. Talkinge wax hedes. The Thames dryinge up. Alienes from Norwich wyth burial mounds bigger on the insyde than on the outsyde. Pop icons singinge "Everytime We Say Goodbye." Seriouslie people, hyre a serjeant at law and get yowerselves a clue in fee simple! Thes chronicleres are all basicallie writinge Gerald of Wales fan ficcion inspyred by badly-kept monastic cheese. No more queries about unusual events surroundinge the parliament.

    8. Okay, fine. So the parliament happened and Chaucer went away to Vegas after a hard time. Why are you running his blog?

    The lords appellant in their grace and wisdam are verye interested in media saturacioun. Thei aren aware that at oon tyme many folk did rede of this blog and fynde joye in it, so nowe thei seek to fynde thos peple and provyde them wyth hot and up to date content and also newes of the defense of the realme of Engelonde ayeinst the foule evil of the Frensshe.

    7. But it’s not your/their blog?

    Accordinge to propertie lawes written in the tyme of the kinges great grandfather and far too complex for ye to undirstonden, the blog did revert to the kynge when Geoffrey Chaucer entered a gazebo in May wythout a hat, and then thurgh a certayne arrangement of inheritance decreed by an ad hoc committee of judges the rights de escriture for the blog did fall to the second cousin of the Duke of Gloucester, the which cousin upon halberd-poynte did gladlie relinquish hys ownership of the blog and thus the blog fell ynto the hands of the Lords Appellant, who haue arrangid it all nyce and hyred a teame of writeres and we haue a studio wyth bean bag chayres and chartes concerninge which animal image will make folk buye which Shakira album. And so it is as clere as ys the sumer sun: the blog ys oures.

    8. How did you get his password?

    Yt was taped undir Geoffrey’s desk.

    9. You searched his house? Wait. Did you people do anything to his family?

    Ther ys no need to worrye, thei are all fyne. Bifor Geoffrey and King Richard left for Las Vegas, King Richard did leave gret summes for to keep the meynee at Geoffreyes hous. Litel Lowys ys doing a summer internship and preparing for universitee in the fall. Philippa ys fixinge up the garden hous and doing pilates. And Thomas as always ys wyth John of Gaunt, Kinge of Spayne, handling thinges on the continent.

    10. What do you think about the fact that the first-ever international conference on John Gower just took place?

    We heere at Geoffrey Chaucer Hath an Extreme Blog: Go England! It Ys Rad! do support and love that Gower conference wyth all our hertes. John Gower hath alweys been a fervent supporter of whoevir is in power. We do nat undirstond why Chaucer hath swich a bugge yn his butte. Peraventure yf Geoffrey sholde evir come back from Las Vegas we maye let hym poost hys owene reacciouns to the conference. But that day may nevir come.

    11. Will all the old posts stay up? Indefinitely?

    Of course thei shall. What maniacal and sadistic power do ye thinke doth control this blog? Joss Whedon?

    Okaye, that ys ynogh questions for todaye. Look forward to exciting newe pro-England content in the dayes to come on Geoffrey Chaucer Hath An Extreme Blog: Go England! It Ys Rad!

    -

    THE EXTREMELY AWESOME LOIALTEE OATH

    Pplease put yower name yn the followinge loyaltee oath and poost it as a comment or else we will disinherit yower male heirs in perpetuity. All commentes shal be screened to prevent treason and Frensshe spyes.

    I ____________ do affirm the actes and decrees of the parliament of this yeere and do agree that it was right to reform the ill governement of ower King Richard in order to bring peace and justise to the realm and nevir shall I speke against the Lords Appellant at eny tyme yn the future. I do abhor and reject the ridiculous rumor that Thomas Usk was saved by Dr. Hwaet bifor beinge executed. I do swere to return to thys blog and enjoy its hot and up to date content. And I do sweare, no mattir what lord I folowe or in what lande I dwell, nevir to betray the realme of Engelonde to the foul Frensshe. Signed this ____ daye of ______ ; also, yt ys my trewe opinion that the hottest and moost up to date content these days includes the topics _________, __________, and __________, all of the which ich wolde rede wyth gret gladnesse and joye and loialtee to Engelonde.
    Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
    cavalorn
    5:03p
    pre V
    Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
    ghoti
    3:38p
    Monday, July 21st, 2008
    ghoti
    6:11p
    Handy hint: oreo milkshake
    Budgens have oreos on special offer, to make oreo milkshake with because oreo milkshake is the best thing ever. However, I forgot to buy any ice cream, which is a usual component. Our milkshakes will be less than perfect. Oops.
    ghoti
    8:00a
    Weekend
    We had a lovely time with [info]emperor and [info]atreic playing bridge and exciting board games and Bananagrams and guitar hero and eating yum and generally being with lovely people.

    Now all three of us have come down with colds.... so sorry if you get/got it too :(
    Saturday, July 19th, 2008
    cavalorn
    2:50p
    question about psychotherapy
    How on earth can it be unconditional positive regard if the client is paying for it?

    A state of regard that's predicated upon a financial transaction is conditional.
    Friday, July 18th, 2008
    lucysprog
    7:10p
    Just Asking...
    Quick question for people like [info]absinthea: when I got pregnant, I had various blood-tests, & was considered quite high-risk for genetic disorders.

    But I had a lovely standard-issue baby.

    If I got pregnant again, would my odds be better because of this, or keep getting worse because I'm getting nearer to 40?

    No, I'm not pregnant, just wondering.

    Current Mood: thoughtful
    cavalorn
    11:12a
    Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
    cavalorn
    1:39p
    ghoti
    10:52a
    I just had to answer the door to a postman. I wasn't expecting anything to need the door opening for, particularly not a big box with my name on it. (well, it's not that big, but about as big as my eee box)

    Turns out to be chocolates from my lovely Colin, to celebrate that I'm eating chocolate again.

    Thankyou darling :)

    Current Mood: smug
    Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
    cavalorn
    2:50p
    also from the 'wtf internet' file
    fatalité!
    cavalorn
    11:56a
    all together now
    cavalorn
    10:14a
    british understatement at its very finest.
    warning: contains reference to grisly tragedy. )
    Monday, July 14th, 2008
    ghoti
    8:23p
    We went to Milton Country Park
    for Dog-walking and picnic fun.

    I saw a butterfly I didn't recognise; I think it was a Silver-washed fritillary, but maps suggests that that would be rare in Cambridgeshire.

    Exciting stuff. (we also saw a Cabbage white, and some minnows and carp)
    lucybond
    7:21p
    Not Got Cancer (Again)
    Very pleased to report that the mysterious lumps that appear under my arms have been looked at by the doctor, & they're infected hair follicles, nothing more sinister.

    Yay!

    Um. Must stop re-using razors.

    *embarrassed*

    Looking forward to [info]ashbet & [info]kiraboo's visit!

    Current Mood: lumpy
    ghoti
    6:07p
    Random things
    Today my shopping list was: melon, matches, milk, mars bars... and toilet paper. But I forgot the toilet paper and bought mushrooms instead so that's OK (actually, I forgot the matches too. Oops).

    Tomorrow I planned to pack a lunch and take the dog to Clay lake, but Benedict has sports day and wants me to go and watch. I reckon I can do both.

    This Cactus, lime & apple juice (Tymbark brand) is very good. We must get some more. Also, Mountain Dew (available on import at the Naz) is still lovely.

    Making extra pasta sauce and saving some for microwaved potatoes the next day is also a winner.

    The Forbidden Kingdom - good hair on the blonde.

    Sound Mind, by Tricia Walker - I'm not sure about this book, and I'm two thirds of the way through. Maybe that's because it's a sequel, which I only just discovered. (Our local library seems to specialise in sequels or third parts of trilogies, but no first part. Annoying.)

    Our school trip to Felixstowe was excellent as ever, the weather was really good (it was only when we got back to Cambridge that the rain started) and very relaxing. I'm really glad we go on the trip. (Basically, each class colonises a section of beach and stays there all day. If it's very windy/the teacher is very energetic, then they may move onto a nearby park (as in, ten seconds walk) for lunch. Apart from that, toilets and ice-creams (both readily available) are the only reason to leave the beach until home time)

    Finally, a poll about cake )
    Saturday, July 12th, 2008
    cjwatson
    11:48a
    Inbox Zero
    My inbox has been a disaster area for years. Even with 500+ lines of procmail filtering, and archiving quite a lot of stuff, it was approaching 12000 messages and there was no realistic prospect of me ever getting round to replying to most of that. On top of this, both work and personal mail came into the same inbox, so if unarchived work mail for the day caused some personal mail to scroll off the top, I probably wouldn't get around to the personal mail. The whole thing came up in my performance review at work, and after a friend poked me about not having replied to "hey, let's catch up"-type mails for ages, I finally pulled my finger out and decided to try Inbox Zero.

    Six days later, I have: three empty inboxes (work, Debian, and personal); one mailbox containing what used to be in my inbox, from which I've archived about 2500 mails elsewhere; one to-do (or "to reply to") mailbox with five items in it; and some happy people with prompt replies from me. Moving my old inbox aside would achieve nothing if I weren't dealing with new things coming in or making progress with its former contents, so this seems like a pretty good result so far.

    Thing I haven't got right so far: I'm now checking my e-mail too often because the inbox is so shiny and clean that I can't quite get over it. :-) I'm spending next week in London, so that should forcibly help me out of that habit.

    Thing I don't like about Inbox Zero (but fortunately is a non-essential component): the recommendation to use very few archive folders. Aside from not especially liking the idea of relinquishing all my mail to Gmail, I find that I'm much more likely to be able reliably to identify the topic identifying its folder (and then maybe to pare that down by sender or something) than I am to be able to identify a halfway-useful set of search terms. If I went back and labelled everything to match my topic-based folders then I might be able to use a single archive folder, but I don't really see the value in bothering with that. I don't often find myself spending much time searching archive folders, and when I do it's usually when I'm running statistics on things like bug folders. I'll ignore this bit unless and until it becomes a problem.

    Edit: Which all means "if you've sent me personal mail expecting a reply and I haven't replied to it yet, I probably won't, so please resend it".

    Current Mood: efficient
    cjwatson
    10:58a
    Funeral
    Thanks for all your kind words following Mum's death.

    A tremendous number of people came for the funeral (and some to view the body the day before as well); lots of family but also a contingent from our church back in Belfast, Dad's male voice choir, and others. Mum would have been pretty chuffed, I think. We spent quite a bit of time organising everything, so once the day came it ran very smoothly - just as well because of course we were in no state to do anything complicated. Joan read the first reading (Wisdom 3:1-6,9) and did very well (I decided not to try to read or sing). Canon John and Eileen from St. Colmcille's in Belfast both gave moving tributes.

    Due to space constraints we couldn't carry the coffin out of the church, but Mum had wanted to be carried where possible ("And devout men carried Stephen to his burial", Acts 8:1), so we held a brief procession down the street in front of the church, and then again from the hearse to the grave; Dad, Ashley, and I helped with the second lift.

    We laid long-stemmed roses in the grave.

    Afterwards, we had tea in the church hall and then went back to Dad's. These days I mostly see my cousins at weddings and funerals, so it was good to catch up with some of them even on such an occasion, and I have a few more contact details than I previously had. Danny (my oldest friend, from Belfast) very kindly came over on short notice too, and I gave him a lift back to the airport in order to catch up a bit more. It's been too long.

    It's seemed very quiet since then, and the hardest thing is remembering to use the past tense from time to time, or saying "Dad's house". I'm one of the executors of Mum's will, so on Thursday I had to go to a solicitor's and take an oath, which was a new experience. The will was very simple, though, so there is very little else I need to do there.
    cavalorn
    10:24a
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