Hey kids, the latest craze is to stack your (toy) animals. Well it keeps us off the streets…
Sauropod Stack
Posted on in Dinosaurs, Memes, Miniatures, Work.Archive for the ‘My Life’ Category
2008 Books
Posted on in Books, Doctor Who, My Life, RPGs.Well, here’s what I’ve been reading this year. I said there was a lot of graphic novels.
Over on the LiveJournal version of this blog you can fill in a poll to show which of these you’ve read as well (not necessarily in 2008). I understand that you can use OpenID to log into LJ rather than creating an account there but I’ve never tested it myself.
Non-Fiction
- A History of Venice by John Julius Norwich
- Counterknowledge by Damian Thompson
- Dry Store Room No. 1 by Richard Fortey
- JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford
- jQuery in Action by Bear Bibeault and Yehuda Katz
- Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean by John Julius Norwich
- Stand and Deliver: The Autobiography by Adam Ant
- The Earth: An Intimate History by Richard Fortey
- The Economic Naturalist by Robert H. Frank
- The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
Fiction
- A Spectacle of Corruption by David Liss
- Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell
- Flashman’s Lady by George MacDonald Fraser
- Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
- Making Money by Terry Pratchett
- Matter by Iain M. Banks
- Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell
- The Coffee Trader by David Liss
- The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
Graphic Novels
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future For You
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wolves at the Gate
- Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman
- From Hell by Alan Moore
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier by Alan Moore
- John Constantine Hellblazer: Bloodlines by Garth Ennis
- John Constantine Hellblazer: Family Man by Jamie Delano
- John Constantine Hellblazer: Fear Machine by Jamie Delano
- John Constantine Hellblazer: Joyride by Andy Diggle
- John Constantine Hellblazer: The Laughing Magician by Andy Diggle
- Lucifer: Inferno by Mike Carey
- Lucifer: Mansions of the Silence by M Carey
- Planet Hulk Omnibus by Greg Pak
- World War Hulk by Greg Pak
- Serenity: Better Days by Joss Whedon
- Ultimate X-Men :Ultimate Collection Book 2 by Mark Millar
Doctor Who
- Ahistory by Lance Parkin
- About Time 6 by Tat Wood
- Doctor Who: Bullet Time by David A. McIntee
- Doctor Who: Business Unusual by Gary Russell
- Doctor Who: Companion Piece by Mike Tucker
- Doctor Who: Emotional Chemistry by Justin Richards
- Doctor Who: Endgame by Terrance Dicks
- Doctor Who: Festival of Death by Jonathan Morris
- Doctor Who: Grave Matter by Justin Richards
- Doctor Who: Halflife by Mark Michalowski
- Doctor Who: Sometime Never… by Simon A. Forward
- Doctor Who: The World Shapers by Grant Morrison
- Faction Paradox: This Town Will Never Let Us Go by Lawrence Miles
Odds and Ends
- Star Wars: Dark Empire II by Tom Veitch
- Star Wars: Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore
- Star Wars: Dark Tide 1 – Onslaught by Michael A. Stackpole
- Star Wars: Dark Tide 2 – Ruin by Michael A. Stackpole
- A Magical Society: Ecology & Culture
Mandatory election post
Posted on in My Life, The World.Once upon a time I was sitting in a bar with some work colleagues and one of them told me I don’t vote. I leave it up to people like you who know about these things.
At the time I was completely speechless but I’ve subsequently thought a lot about that statement and even though I’m not an American and hence have no vote, today is as good a day as any to mention this story.
I was flattered that I was seen as someone that other people trusted to decide the shape of their government. I was intrigued that someone was apathetic, not because they felt ignored and alienated by politics, but because they felt under qualified to particpate. Mostly, however, I was shocked that someone would so easily throw away their democratic rights.
When you have the opportunity to vote, vote. Vote because one candidate has better policies, or because the other candidate has dreadful policies, or because one candidate is a smarter, better person, or because the other candidate isn’t. You don’t have to justify why you vote the way you do to anyone other than yourself, so whatever criteria satisfies your conscience is good enough.
Kew
Posted on in My Life.Yesterday, I visited Kew Gardens [1] with a group of friends, in particular to see the new Treetop Walkway. We picked a very cold and wet day for this trip which meant that there were fewer crowds around, but also that the conditions were less than ideal for photography.
After the Gardens shut we attempted to dry out and warm up in Newens where we admired photographs of John Major and a pony[2] and sampled the historic delicacy that is Maids of Honour. Apparently, the location of the gents is also historic but, on a still very wet day, less of a delicacy.
[1] I believe this was the first time I’ve visted Kew – I may have been as a child but one big garden looks much like another to a small boy. This means that it joins the Globe Theatre and the Royal Albert Hall as major London attractions that I’ve visited for the first time in 2008.
[2] Separate photographs. I can’t imagine John Major and a pony in the same photograph. Anyone thinking of making an Edwina Currie joke: -10 points for obviousness.
Talk (a lot) like a Judoon
Posted on in Blogs, Doctor Who, Memes, My Life.
It’s November so some brave souls are embarking upon this year’s NoNoWriMo. Good luck to you if you’re one of them.
I’m in no way dedicated enough to try an entire novel in one month, but I do want to write more so I’m declaring November to be my NaBloPoMo – I will be endeavouring to post at least once a day for the next 30 days.
“Na No Wri Mo Na Blo Po Mo” – I think I know how RTD comes up with Judoon dialogue.
Credit crunch prophecy
Posted on in Games, My Life, The World.Once upon a time (around about the turn of the millenium) I indulged in a bit of world building and created a minor power for the fictional universe where Ground Zero Games’ wargames Full Thrust, Dirtside and Stargrunt. This was the Interstellar Democratic Republic – an attempt at creating a left wing power that went beyond “commies in space”.
One thing I wanted to do with the IDR was create a socialist inspired economic system that wasn’t simply a copy of sytems that had existed historically. What I came up with was a simple mechanism: the state is a partner in all businesses, the size of their partnership is in direct proportion to the size of the business.
So, small businesses basically have a mostly silent partner who takes a small cut of the profits and who can be turned to for advice (not much different to tax and small business advisors in the real world) but as the business graws this partner starts to have more and more influence, until the really big organisations end up being state run.
It sounds great, small businesses get to operate more or less as they do under neo-liberalism but big businesses are all nationalised.
The devil is in the detail, for starters how do you define the “size” of a business – turnover, profits, employees? And there would be the same scope for corruption that there is in the neo-liberal system – just as businesses in the real world fiddle the numbers to lower their taxes so would businesses in this system fiddle the numbers to lower the state’s control.
Watching the news over the past few weeks, I have to wonder, was I on to something? Is putting big corporations under partial (or total) state control the only way to stop them running out of control?
@media report
Posted on in My Life, Work, WWW.
Better late than never, what did I make of @media last week?
- Number of talks that included LOL Cats: 1½
- Number of talks that included Rick Rolling: 2
- Number of talks that included comedy graphs: 2
- Number of talks that included mention of Twitter being down all the time: I lost count, but at least 4
There are a few technical subjects (HTML 5, WAI ARIA, jQuery) that I hope to post more about later so here are a few impressions of each session:
Jeffrey Veen included some of my favourite charts in his talk (I have favourite charts/graphs/maps – what do you mean that you don’t?). Indi Young made me think that every single project I’d ever worked on had been poorly planned. Drew McLellan says “everyone hates their CMS” and he’s right. According to Stuart Langridge the fact that we use 410 responses on VisitLondon.com puts us in a very elite group. Nate Koechley explained why what I do is really very important. Richard Ishida baffled the audience with Unicode.
Good fun all round, roll on 2009.
Venice
Posted on in Dinosaurs, My Life.
Venice was simply amazing. Lovely weather, great food (especially the seafood), amazing sights.
We stayed at the Hotel Rivamare on the Lido, which meant we took a boat across the lagoon into Venice proper everyday. In the city itself we saw all the big names: the Palazzo Ducale or Doge’s Palace, the Basilica di San Marco, the Piazza, the Bridge of Sighs, Rialto Bridge, the Grand Canal.
Things that appealed more directly to me included the Museum of Natural History was only partially open but we did get to see the excellent Ouranosaurus and Sarchosuchus; The Museo Storico Navale or Naval History Museum which only costs €1.55 and is packed full of relics from Venice’s and Italy’s seafaring history; The Rome and the Barbarians exhibition in the Palazzo Grassi was a ten times more expensive (and I really wanted the exhibition book but at €48 it was too much) but much more extensive than I’d expect for a temporary exhibit.
We also visited some of the other lagoon islands: Murano for the glassmaking; Burano for the lace making and painted houses; and Torcello for the eleventh century cathedral.
For one day we got the train to Verona, passing castles and vineyards on the way. There we visited the Arena and the Castle and had another fantastic lunch. One day wasn’t enough and we plan to go back sometime.
Back from hols
Posted on in My Life.
You can probably guess where we went.
Knackered now.
Brighton
Posted on in My Life, The World.
Lettice and I went down to Brighton yesterday to enjoy a bit of sunshine and sea air. That all went according to plan – some photos are on Flickr. Also, a fabulous lunch at AlFresco and a very good haul from the second hand bookshops and comic shops (including the The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier). Can all weekends be like this, please?