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
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New prehistoric goodness

Posted on in Dinosaurs, Miniatures.

Starting in 15mm, Splintered Light Miniatures have a range of animals including terror birds, wolves, boars, komodo dragons and others. Oh, and Giant Weasels.

Gary Hunt Miniatures Feathered RaptorIn 28mm, the beastie featured here is one of two packs available from Gary Hunt Miniatures in New Zealand (but priced in US Dollars). Very drool worthy.

Moving onto cavemen. No web site yet for Forge of Ice, but see TMP for details of their Primitive Tents.

And finally, if dino fans put their money where their mouth is then Wargames Fcatory may create some plastic figures for us, on the suggestions list so far are Tyrannosaurus Rex and Small Carnivorous Dinosaurs. I think I may do a little research and suggest a small herbivores pack to give those meat eaters something to chase other than foolhardy time travellers.

Shark Jumping

Posted on in TV.

There are only a few things that and I disagree on, but one of them is the concept of jumping the shark. Lettice believes that it is a binary event – a show can only jump the shark once; there’s a before and there’s an after. I believe that it is always possible to find a new and bigger shark to jump over.

This disagreement normally surfaces whilst we’re watching or discussing CSI: Miami.

Tonight’s episode. In fact the pre-titles sequence of tonight’s episode is a perfect example of my thesis.

I’m not going to put a spoiler cut for CSI: Miami, okay?

Horatio gunned down seven gangsters – several armed with automatic weapons, three in or on vehicles – armed only with a pistol without getting a scratch on him; in fact it was nine shots, seven kills. Now, considering that this show jumped the shark a long time ago (Lettice maintains that it jumped, before a single episode had aired, as soon as David Caruso was cast) was this not a new and bigger shark to jump? Will there be a scene next year where Horatio takes out a tank or a helicopter gunship with his trusty sidearm?

Star Trek

Posted on in Films.

Seen the pics from the new Star Trek film yet? Spoilers ahoy ‘cos here are the treknical ones…

USS Enterprise

Hands up who thinks that this ship looks like it should be an intermediate stage between the movie-era Enterprise and the Ambassador class? I can hear the fanboys screaming…

USS Kelvin

So this is the USS Kelvin, destroyed some time before the main timeframe of the movie. NCC-0514. Hmm, I want to see more. And, on the really pedantic level, how does this fit into the same registry scheme that includes the NCC-638 USS Grissom form ST III?

And has it really been four years since I updated my Star Trek ships web site? Ouch.

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Or is it because we smell?

Posted on in Computer Games, Games, Miniatures, WWW.

Last week I was introduced to Playfire – a social networking site for computer gamers. It got me wondering why there’s no equivalent for wargamers.

There’s BoardGameGeek but (a) the interface sucks and (b) its remit is so much wider than wargames. TMP and Frothers are fine places to come together and talk about games but that’s all. Where’s the site where I can catalogue the games I play and the miniatures I own and connect with other players?

A lot of the functionality that the knitters have on Ravelry would be great – a flexible but standardised way of listing “projects” – which minis, which paints, which TOE, WIP photos, etc.

Considering how geeky and techie a lot of wargamers are, why has no one created the site? Is it simply because the idea of social networking isn’t really our thing?

Someone will now pop up in the comments and tell me about a site that I should have known about all along.

Dinosaurs Rule

Posted on in Dinosaurs, Games, RPGs.

I promised you some dinosaurs, so here we go. For quite a long time my Dinosaurs in Miniature page has contained the line Rules (coming soon) so I figure why not do something about that? As this blogging every day thing is very taxing, I’m presenting a skeleton list here and asking you good people to help me flesh it out. What am I missing? What have I got wrong? I’m only after more or less professionally published rules here.

Wargames focussed mainly on prehistorics

Wargames that feature prehistorics

RPGs focussed mainly on prehistorics

RPGs that feature prehistorics

  • Over the years various Monster Manuals for various games have included all sorts of dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts.
  • Volume III of Marcus Rowland’s3 Forgotten Futures concentrates on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor Challenger novels including The Lost World.
  • One of the best known scenarios of all time, The Isle of Dread for D&D featured prehistoric creatures heavily.
  • Blackdirge Publishing produce a series of D20 system PDFs under the banner Animal Archives: Prehistoric Animals
  • Phoenix Command – the favourite game of gun crazy maths nerds features stats for Dinosaurs in its Phoenix Command Expansion expansion.
  • Dark Continent – a few cryptids like the Nandi Bear make an appearance and there may be something much bigger lurking as well…

[1][2][3] Tooth & Claw is a miniatures from Chris Peers, a prehistoric RPG from Memento Mori Theatricks and a dragon based RPG from Marcus Rowland.

And look what I picked up on eBay a little while ago. It was advertised as being from HLBS and by a process of elimination (i.e. what I don’t already own) must be their Utahraptor figure.

HLBS Utahraptor

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.

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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.

The staircase up to the walkway Even difference engines have bugs - the very steampunk design ethos of the rhizotron you pass through before climbing up to the walkway The Palm House as seen from the walkway Lettice examines something prehistoric in the Evolution House

More photos on Flickr

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.

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Talk (a lot) like a Judoon

Posted on in Blogs, Doctor Who, Memes, My Life.
Judoon

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?