Am I the only one that thought that Ashes to Ashes wasn’t a patch on Life on Mars? I mean, I get that it’s an 80s show now, but half of that was just bastard absurd. Perhaps it’s just that I’ve got more affection for the 70s species of cop show, but I can’t help hoping they tone down some of the more ludicrous excesses of the genre a bit, once they’re past episode one, and get on with some of the more interesting elements of the set up.
Category: General Blogging
Diaries
Someone asked me a while back why my journal has basically stopped being any sort of reflection my personal life, and basically been replaced with linklogs and content crossposted from my other blog(s) and a the odd mention of some specific aspect, like work being mad, or briefly arranging some social thing.
The answer is simple. Because I don’t really feel the need to keep a precise diary, and a lot of the time, I think that that sort of thing is quite boring. You don’t need to know what I had for breakfast, or how my experiments in eating fish are going, or what my co-workers did last week. There are more interesting things out there.
But I stand in awe of one sterling chap of my acquaintance, who has come up with a way to make narrating a diaristic sort of livejournal about forty times more interesting, with his State Of The Republic Address. I’m sure a lot of you have seen it already, by even if you don’t know the chap, it’s worth a read, if only so you can see a really good example of how to make a diary-type journal something that other people might actually enjoy reading.
Project: Electric Internet Writing
I need help. On any number of levels.
I haven’t written anything longer than a few sentences, 2 or three paragraphs at most, for fun in ages. The occasional bit of workbloggery, but that’s about it. This is, well, not right.
And my beloved black-ink.org domain languishes dusty and unloved. I mean, dead-air.org has see more posting in the last 12 months, and it’s barely a thing at all.
So, new project. Between now and February 1st next year, I aim to produce 52 pieces of writing of a minimum of 800 words length each. I may keep going after that, but let’s start small, eh? Yeah, I know some of you do more than that in a month. I am lazy, and easily distracted by shiny things.
Where you lot come in to this is simple: tell me what to write. Left to my own devices, I don’t seem to do anything, so I’m opening this to you lot. You can suggest titles for short fiction, or request essays and opinion pieces on a given subject. Ask for diary entries for a certain day. Ask me to review something (you can be specific, as long as I can reasonably get hold of thing you’re asking for, and it isn’t going to eat entire days of my life) or leave me to pick freely, or within some set of parameters. Get me to do a bit of research, and provide a synopsis of what I find. Anything, as long as I can reasonably produce a minimum of 800 words worth of writing on it, and it isn’t going to cost me the earth.
Obviously, I need at least 52 suggestions for this to work, so I’ll probably repost this a few times over the next year or so. I do reserve the right to say “sorry, come up with something else” but only if the very idea of whatever you suggest makes my eyeballs bleed.
In the meantime, though, your suggestions, please…
Nicked from, y’know, whoever was passing…
“Because we never really know each other as well as we think, in response to this post I’d like you to ask a question. Anything about which you are curious, anything you feel you ought to know about me. Silly, serious, personal, fannish. Ask away. Then copy this to your own journal, and see what people don’t know about you.”
In Place Of Original Thought
That random song title meme that’s doing the rounds. You know the one – hit randomise, then paste the titles in as answers to the questions, without changing the order. Just like everyone else, some of these are tripe, some erm, accurate, and some just funny.
Play along at home, and see if you can guess which is which. I’ll award marks for the most correct answers. And a small prize. Or something.
IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY?” YOU SAY?
The Torch
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Closedown
WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GIRL?
Sealclubbing
HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
BulletProof!
2007
I was trying to do one of those year-in-review memes that’re traditional at this time of year, but it turns out that really nothing interesting happened to me this year. I took up, and gave up, rollerblading. Work was busy, and is going to get busier in the first few months of next year. My friends and loved ones were ace, as always. I met some cool new people. I didn’t do enough photography. Nothing momentous really feels like it happened.
Looking ahead to 2008, well, I’m about to be very busy with work, which is kind of obscuring everything else – until that settles down to whatever it’s new level turns out to be (I hope around May) I’m not really thinking of much else. I’ll be single again in April, which is depressing, but I’ve had plenty of time to come to terms with that. I’d like to keep up the gym going I’ve managed to re-establish. My Dad’s 60th is coming up. A number of friends and family have recently spawned/are due to spawn in the next few months which is nice for them.
I guess it’s kind of indicative of the general flatness of 2007 and the start of 2008 that I can see that I really don’t feel like marking the new year terribly much, which is unusual for me. Now, the last time I asked for exciting surprises around this time of year, everything went tits up on me over the course of the next year, so I shall refrain from doing that, but it’d be nice if 2008 brought a few significant and ace things to remember for me personally, because I don’t think 2007 did.
It’s Over!
So, as most of you know, I’m an RPG nerd. Not, y’know, as much as I was a teenager, but still – I’m an RPG nerd. I had a few years break a while back, but then, on a whim, I got a group of friends together, and started running a game of White Wolf’s old game, Mage. I came up with a plot that I thought would take about a year or so to play, assuming a three to four hour session every other weekend – a game based on a gnostic murder mystery and a series of conspiracies and mad bastards as old as the human race. As it turns out, I was a little off in my estimation.
Tonight, three and half years later, playing more or less every other weekend, we finally finished that game, and it went exactly as I might have wished. The players saved the world against impossible odds, and in the end it all came down to one final roll of the dice – either they would triumph, or they would perish, and triumph they did.
It seemed appropriate to mark it. Three and a half years. I’ve had important relationships that didn’t last that long. :)
So, thank you to everyone who has ever taken part in it – marysiak, Danni, wmute, tintintin, cairmen, tyrell and most especially to burge, stu_n, chrisisiddall and anw.
And in two weeks time, we start something new. Thanks, guys.
Seasons bleatings
Nothing terribly exciting to report – fog related delays caused brief trauma, but we arrived only a day later than planned. Food, drink, family all very nice. Hope everyone is having as much fun as I am. Back in London in a few days, assuming fog doesn’t get in the way. Try not to break anything while I’m gone.
Character workspace
I saw this on a sign in Chelsea the other day, and all I could think is that this was where someone assembled strangely dressed eccentrics, mad tramps, and funny uncles.
If only…
I know what I *said*, but…
I wasn’t going to get an iPhone. Not gen 1. The next gen will have better battery life, more hard drive, etc etc, and will be out within 18 months. And it’s 270 quid, plus 18 months at 35 pound a month for a contract. But my Vodaphone contract ran out last week, and I’ve just been playing with one in the 02 store, and they really are that nice to use…
Must… resist…