75 but no Wizard
Yesterday
This week my 75th Edited Guide Entry was published, and I received a shiny new badge for my Personal Space. 
I'm very proud to receive the 75 badge; I've joined a small club of four badge-holders, the others being Mina, Skankyrich and Giford. Other Researchers have written more Edited Entries, of course, and have badges of a higher denomination, which in time I may eventually go on to earn.
These days, the badge is updated automatically when you reach the milestone. Someone programmed the h2g2 database earlier in 2009 to perform this task on behalf of the hard-worked editorial team (in fact 'team' was inflating it a bit - by all accounts they seemed to be existing on about half a full-time person to manage everything to do with the site).
Before this technological solution, we used to apply for badges through a special page on h2g2: The Solo-Written Edited Guide Entries Home Page at A709120. We would fill in the box and create a new thread called "I've come to claim my badge". Various other badge-holders subscribed to the page would then offer their congratulations. Champagne smileys would flow, then the main event would occur - the arrival of Galaxy Babe! 
'Congratulations', she would type, followed by a little wizard smiley, signifying that she had updated another page: The Solo-Written Edited Guide Entries Badge Holders, at A4959417. There was also an earlier roll of honour, Emmily's Solo-Written Edited Entries Roll of Honour, at A709120.
Well, that little wizard would then alert the half-an-editorial-person, who would add the new badge to your Personal Space and let you know, so that you could have another virtual party with your h2g2 friends, and type the achievement into your name-tag.
But that's all in the past.
Your badge is updated by a burst of electrons in response to a programming event. No human hand is required to polish its golden gleaming surface, or even type a single key or make a single mouse click to deliver it instantaneously to your Personal Space. Nobody tells you it is there. Nobody has a smiley party for you, and you don't see Galaxy Babe's little wizard do his tricks.
But the badge is nice
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Odd Job
4 Days Ago
I spend a lot of my time these days sifting through thousands of online job vacancies in a vain search for one I can do.
Occasionally it throws up a gem of a misprint:
http://www.totaljobs.com/JobSearch/...ails.aspx?NoExpire=1&JobId=46006916
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Revisioned Out
5 Weeks Ago
OU maths exam tomorrow afternoon. 
That's it - revision over, all books closed. If I don't know now I never will, etc. No point reading anything tomorrow morning - it'll only dislodge something which is already there.
Having said that, I know I'll be sitting on the steps of the exam hall 5 minutes before the doors open, panicking about something.
Were you a last-minute reviser?
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Wish Me Luck part 2 - The Work Focus Interview
Oct 5, 2009
If you're subscribed to my journal, you'll know that I'm currently employmentally-challenged at the moment. People have asked me to let them know how the job search is going, so here's part 2.
***
Last week I signed on for jobseeker's allowance. The last time I did this - a few years ago - I had to go to the local job centre and queue up, but this time I did it online through their website. They telephoned me back the next day, and asked me to attend the job centre this afternoon for a 'work focus interview'.
It's situated in the grotty end of town - just around the corner from an adult bookstore, a minicab office and a couple of pizza delivery joints. Several people were outside, chain-smoking. I went in and spoke to the woman on the front desk. "You're too early" she said, "but you can use the Jobpoints over there while you wait".
A Jobpoint is a freestanding computer terminal, operated by a touchscreen, on which you can search through thousands of jobs. I didn't have to wait to use one - despite the office being busy very few people were using them. Most were lounging around on the seats waiting to be called for interview.
I felt a bit overdressed for the place, too. I was wearing a jacket and jeans. I guess that you can tell how long someone has been unemployed by their attire:
0-12 months: jacket and jeans
12-36 months: football shirt and Adidas tracky-bottoms
37+ months: camouflage gear, with a small mongrel in tow.
I soon found out why they weren't using the Jobpoints. They're worse than useless. You select options to narrow down the list of jobs and the area you're looking in, but not only do there appear to be no professional-level jobs, but the touch-sensitive screen simply fails to work for many of the pages - you get stuck and instead have to wade through thousands of minimum-wage jobs without any way to narrow them down.
[Back at home I've registered with a number of specialist job sites and they e-mail me a list of new vacancies every morning which I work through. So why don't they send these vacancies to the Jobcentres too? Probably because they don't want unemployed people to apply. They might as well write 'no tracky-bottoms'.]
Eventually I got called for interview. I first saw a lady who asked me whether I had told the truth when I filled in my online application for jobseeker's allowance. (What did she expect me to say? 'No, it was a tissue of lies - I'm currently earning 100 grand in the city - I just took this afternoon off so I could earn 60 quid?') I then saw a man for the 'work focus interview'.
I must have drawn the short straw. This guy was the office joker. On his computer screen he has access to that list of Jobpoint vacancies and he's supposed to threaten people that they'll lose ther benefits if they don't apply for all the sous-chef and chambermaid vacancies. The trouble is, he had no IT jobs to threaten me with and he knew it, and he knew that I knew he knew it. He resorted to cracking jokes, moaning about how boring his own job was, and making me sign as many pieces of paper he could find. Apparently he had to make each interview last a full 30 minutes.
So eventually I got away. My next work focus interview is in 3 months time. Let's hope I don't need it.
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Icy's Quiz #12 - Classic Line-ups
Sep 30, 2009
This quiz is a bit more difficult.
I have listed 50 classic line-ups of well-known pop and rock bands. You have to identify the bands in each case.
The trouble is, I've only listed their first names. To make it even harder, I've chosen their first names as written on their birth certificate. So, if I gave you:
Q. John, James, George, Richard
the answer would be
A. The Beatles.
It's not 'John, Paul, George, Ringo', as Ringo's real name is Richard, and Paul McCartney was born 'James Paul McCartney'.
So, off you go. If you know them all, please don't hog it - I'll limit you to five guesses per person per day.
 Icy
***
1. alan, derek, eric, stuart, leslie
2. andrew, francis, douglas, neil
3. andrew, gordon, stewart
4. bobby, elizabeth, marcia, maizie
5. brian, bruce, daniel, terence
6. david, andrew, martin, vincent
7. david, james, donald, neville
8. david, nicholas, richard, george
9. david, paul, lawrence, adam
10. david, robert, george, peter
11. david, robert, raymond, thomas
12. derek, jason, scott, ana
13. eric, graham, lawrence, kevin
14. gary, jason, mark, howard
15. james, william, christopher, warren
16. john, alan, bryan, eric, hilton
17. john, david, james
18. john, david, richard, alec, hector
19. john, michael, anthony, chad
20. john, michael, nicholas, paul
21. john, michael, stephanie, lindsey, christine
22. john, paul, bruce
23. john, paul, stephen, glen
24. john, richard, william, christopher, stephen
25. john, roger, brian, farrokh
26. john, roger, peter, keith
27. john, william, frank, terence
28. john, peter, anthony, thomas
29. john, richard, francis, alan
30. john, steven, anthony, gary, martin
31. jon, richard, roger, ian, ian
32. jonathan, michael, george, roy
33. jonathan, william, christopher, guy
34. jonathon, michael, andrew, gary, timothy
35. michael, alan, brian, benjamin, dennis, carl
36. michael, andrew, stephen, brian
37. michael, christopher, daniel, graham, mark, lee, cathal
38. michael, david, peter, raymond
39. michael, robert, ian, gregory
40. michael, robert, rita, jay
41. michael, stephen, peter, anthony, philip
42. michael, susanna, victoria, deborah
43. michael, william, charles, keith, lewis
44. nicholas, alexander, matthew, jamie
45. nicholas, andrew, roger, simon, nigel
46. nicholas, nicholas, andrew, james, charles
47. nicholas, paul, robert, alexander
48. paul, arthur
49. richard, timothy, thomas
50. roger, martin, nicola, sandra
***
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