Now there's a good little Friday...

[venta]

Good Friday - I struggled out of bed this morning, in order to be in the market place for 11am. For the past few years, all the town centre churches have organised a joint open air service there, and I thought I'd trundle along. (I'm up in Darlington, by the way, not Oxford). It's odd watching people's reactions as they're walking past; some people stopped and watched, or stopped and joined in - most looked faintly confused as to why there might be a service going on on a Friday.

It was quite a short service - a couple of hymns, and some readings round a wooden cross, a crown of thorns, water, wine, nails, dice... Easter has some very powerful symbolism going on. For people who care about such things, I've thought for a while that you could make the Easter story into a very effective magical pathworking, if you didn't mind your traditions colliding a bit. Ritualistic abyss experience, anyone ?

Disclaimer: I may be a churchgoer, but I'm aware that there is an enormous number of crap things thought, said and done in the name of Christianity. Don't hold me responsible for them.

Our house isn't quite so ordered at Easter as it is at Christmas, but we did run to fish for dinner, and making hot cross buns this afternoon. Mum makes fantastic hot cross buns :) She was also offering a pastry masterclass this afternoon - as has been lamented a few times on here, my pastry's bobbins. I'm not convinced it's going to be any better now, I suspect my mother is 50 years of practice better than me at it...


Bad Friday - This afternoon, my Dad was about to go on-line, and he was unplugging the phones downstairs before plugging the 'puter in. "Why?" I challenged, feeling sorry for the poor misguided old chap. Only he's right.

If you plug the 'puter into the double socket which also has the main phone plugged in, that phone rings continuously. So you unplug that phone.

Then if you try plugging the 'puter in again, the other downstairs phone goes 'ping' - fairly inoffensive, but the dial-up then doesn't work. The computre dials out, but there's no handshake from the other end, just silence. If you pick the phone up while the computer's plugged in, there's no dial tone, just a faint clicking noise. This isn't totally inexplicable - Dad tells me that that phone is elderly, and has capacitors across the line that could be upsetting things somehow.

While he was demonstrating this, the other other downstairs phone took offence, and decided to join in. As soon as the computer was plugged in (not even trying to dial up, just plugged in), it began to emit a piercing beep. Continuously. Soon as the 'puter was unplugged, it stopped. Nothing would console it - yet this phone has been plugged in ever since they got the computer, and has never complained before.

I can happily plug my laptop into any phone socket in the house and dial up, no problems.

Any suggestions, anyone ?

Right, I'm off down the pub. In the unlikely even that anyone's anywhere near Darlington, we'll probably be in Twenty2...

Comments

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

"as has been lamented a few times on here, my pastry's bobbins"

Your pastry is a file server on Tao's network?

(The geese fly south early this year)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm just out of date.

My pastry is zebra.

(Place goods on sundial at midnight).

Duff phones

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I've got a handset that has much the same effect on the rest of the house. I think, although I haven't checked, that it's either a short in the wiring, or more likely, a dodgy earth.

Does it make any difference if you swap your laptop's phone lead for the PC's lead?

Re: Duff phones

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm... hadn't thought of that. It'll involve some hardcore furniture moving, but I might give it a whirl tomorrow.

Re: Duff phones

[wimble.livejournal.com]

The other thought is that overloading the ringer system (ie. going over 4.0 REN) can produce some nasty effects. Most phones are listed as being 1.0 REN, so more than 4 handsets would be messy. I presume there's a certain amount of rounding error in that rating, and your laptop might squeeze in under the limit.

But that wouldn't explain why your Dad needs to unplug so many phones: one or two ought to do it. And it's not likely to affect your ability to make calls: it'll just make some of the phones ring unreliably (either all the time, or never). So it's didn't ought to be the problem.

(If it does turn out the be the leads, I can give you a spare when you get back to Oxford.)

Re: Duff phones

[venta.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think the REN limit for a normal house is 7... I dunno what the REN number of the modem is, though.

Re: Duff phones

[wimble.livejournal.com]

According to the convenient blurb my father left by handset next to his computer,
If this number exceeds four, your telephone may not ring. A BT telephone has a REN of one unless otherwise marked.

(Of course, the wiring for the extension sockets included the necessary extra power lines as well.)

Pastry

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Besides the technical challenge, I'm not quite sure what the point of making one's own pastry is. It's one of the few cooking ingredients for which really excellent premade stuff is available, so why bother ?

Re: Pastry

[venta.livejournal.com]

Mostly because pastry is one of the few cooking things which can be readily made from ingredients that I'd expect to have in the house as standard - so I can suddenly decide to make a batch of jam tarts without having to plan ahead and buy pastry. Unless I go shopping immediately before making pastry-related things, there's also the tedious business of having to remember take your bought pastry out the freezer 8 hours in advance...

And actually, while I think the premade stuff is good, and I have used it, I'd certainly never have described it as "excellent". I've also never seen premade wholemeal pastry anywhere...

In fairness though, I do like the technical challenge, as well.

Re: Pastry

[condign.livejournal.com]

In fairness though, I do like the technical challenge, as well.

The short answer being, "I like to be difficult" then. :)

That's OK. You make excursions into the realm of breads and bread-like products, whereas if I can't stir-fry or broil it, I probably don't want to know how it's done. I think the longest it's ever taken me to make a meal is 45 minutes from start to finish...

Can I volunteer for pastry-testing duty when you decide to make some?

Re: Pastry

[venta.livejournal.com]

What the hell does "broil" mean anyway ? I keep meeting it (and "broiler") in on-line recipes. Best guess so far is that a broiler is an oven, but it might be more specific than that...

Re: Pastry

[condign.livejournal.com]

Broil (or a 'broiler') is basically 'heating from above', i.e. what the English call 'grilling.'

And I meant poaching in the above anyway, I just misspoke.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I've thought for a while that you could make the Easter story into a very effective magical pathworking, if you didn't mind your traditions colliding a bit. Ritualistic abyss experience, anyone ?

I don't think it'd really be colliding traditions so much as syncretising - death-and-rebirth is one of the strongest story archetypes there is, ever since (at least) that of Inanna/Ishtar/Astarte and Dumutz/Tammuz/Adonis. That being the case, I think you have every right to lay pretty much any set of particular details over any other...

Speculating rather further, I'd even suggest that the modern magickal penchant for the abyss experience has its roots in Masonic initiation rites, which in turn have at least an eye towards identification with Christ.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Actually, I agree with you :) However, the colliding traditions clause was put in to disarm people - if you can find me three people of our acquaintance who would consider themselves magic(k)ally inclined and who don't sneer violently at Christianity, I will buy you a Large Pie.

Inanna/Ishtar/Astarte and friends are fair game, and have suitable street-cred to be involved in magic. Christ, however, is not cool at all.

Do I count as one?

[condign.livejournal.com]

Or am I only half-magically inclined? (Sort of vaguely sauntering in a magical direction?)

Re: Do I count as one?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Are you trying to get onebyone a pie, or something ?

Anyway, since I said "people who consider themselves magically inclined", I think only you can decide it you count or not :) I mean, I'm quite happy to decide what you think, but only if I get to do it all the time...

Re: Do I count as one?

[condign.livejournal.com]

Yes... on the grounds that:

a) pies are made of pastry, and you're supposed to be good at that now
b) if I get him a pie, he'll probably share half with me
c) it will up my evil-lawyer quotient

So that settles it, onebyone has one of three.

Re: Do I count as one?

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'll only share a quarter of it with you - one quarter for me and one quarter for each of the three magically-inclined non-sneerers. Is that OK?

I'd also like to remind all venta's readers that trying to get me pies is a glorious and noble endeavour, and one that you should all seriously consider. It will make you look cool and pick up chicks (or chickesses, as appropriate). Trust me.

Re: Do I count as one?

[condign.livejournal.com]

At first, I was going to say, 'Wait, I'm losing half my part of the pie!' However, the better angels of my nature kicked in and reminded me that by agreeing to your terms I'm closer to getting any pie, and 1/4 of an actual pie has a greater value than 1/2 of a potential pie.

I'll settle for being glorious and noble, though. I don't think anything will make me cool or pick me up chicks. Though if venta's pies will do that, I want to market them.

I might suggest a certain formerly-California-based lawyer of our acquaintance as a second possibility, Onebyone. I don't believe she counts as 'violently sneering at Christianity.'

Re: Do I count as one?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I might suggest a certain formerly-California-based lawyer of our acquaintance as a second possibility, Onebyone. I don't believe she counts as 'violently sneering at Christianity.'

Hmm. You're just trying to ensure that anyone who might want any of the pie is sufficiently far away not to get any, now :)

Re: Do I count as one?

[condign.livejournal.com]

That would be cunning of me, wouldn't it?