Stuff and Nonsense

Small post about the NHS

2009-10-16T11:59:53Z

So I got my feet X-Rayed yesterday. Which is hopefully a step in the right direction in the ongoing “Scimon walks like a penguin, a drunk penguin” issue. Of course the final destination may be “Sorry, not much we can do. Here’s some inserts and would you like some pain management?” but it’s something.

But what got me was the options for pain management that were mentioned, Steroid Injections and (drum roll here) Acupuncture.

On the NHS.

I politely replied in the negative to this one, saying (and I quote) “I’d rather now have the Acupuncture because firstly I’ve got an intense fear of needles and secondly I don’t believe in it. So even if there’s a placebo effect I won’t get that.”

Which considering my usual desire to not offend people was pretty strong stuff. Anyhow, there are many things to do, so I shall got and do them.

Originally published at Scimons Random Thought Table. You can comment here or there.

Cat in a Box

2009-10-02T17:31:20Z

Cat in a Box

Originally uploaded by scimon

Look more kitten pictures! Also me testing I’ve got whole Flickr to Blog to Social Mediaverse thang going down.

Originally published at Scimons Random Thought Table. You can comment here or there.

Boing here's Bitey!

2009-10-02T17:25:29Z

Boing here's Bitey!
Originally uploaded by scimon.

Well we got a new kitten, no he wasn't delivered in a box that had my new 1TB external hard drive in it. He's called Domino but my new nickname for him is Bitey as that's his hobby.

Dear Google

2009-09-10T13:02:22Z

Just to say, I love my G1. When my contract runs out I’ll definitely be upgrading to the newest flashiest funky Android based phone there is around. And I’m even planning on getting back into doing some development with it. Real soon now (TM). As soon as I have an idea and learn a bit more Java (hey look I said Java without spitting I’m getting better.)

Anyway he’s a little thought, please please please please, make the App Store better. Mainly by making an online version that syncs to your Google Account. Everything else on the phone syncs to an account. If I want to edit a bunch of contacts I do it in Gmail. If I want to play with my Calender I tend to do it on a PC if it’s available. Because the big screen is easier to use. Right now the App Store is only accessible via the phone and it’s a pain. There’s so much stuff and it’s not easy to trawl through. Those Apple types get to do stuff via iTunes, which is nice, unless you’re using Windows because iTunes on Windows is a bit… poor. But you guys are Google you are masters of the web! surely we can get a web based interface for the App Store?

We’d be able to look through all the apps, mark the ones we’d like to download and our phone would pop up telling us it’s ready to download them. A bit like it does with the Updates at the moment. It would be wonderfully brilliant and all that jazz. On a side note I think I might have come up with a really cool App idea, I’m off to think. Have a nice day.

Yours, Scimon

Originally published at Scimons Random Thought Table. You can comment here or there.

Crazy Spanish Drivers!

2009-09-02T17:19:54Z

Well my holiday goes well. We all just got back from a trip to San Sebastien, hence the title. I think tomorrows plan is being scaled back to hanging about in St. Jean.
The weather is warm but humid, I’m expecting rain at any point. But it’s cool, we have ample supplies. See everyone later.

Originally published at Scimons Random Thought Table. You can comment here or there.

Quick Post

2009-08-27T10:03:59Z

Just a quick post to say that I’m in France until next Saturday. I probably won’t be that easy to contact but I will check my emails… occasionally.
Expect any emails from me to possibly be a bit weird, a bit like this french keyboard.

Originally published at Scimons Random Thought Table. You can comment here or there.

Champions Online

2009-08-20T13:55:39Z

Oh yeah. Did I mention that I’m currently playing the Open Beta of Champions Online? Well Ok, not currently, I’m at work right now. And if I was playing then I wouldn’t be writing a blog post about it, I’d be Twittering (yes you can Twitter in game…. pointless but fun).

For those of you who have been hiding under a rock Champions Online is what Cryptic did with the Marvel MMORPG they were writing after they sold City of Heroes. (Those boys do love their super persons). Some of you may be wondering if there’s a link between Champion Online and Champions the RPG. These being the ones who’ve been under the rock who have also not been following the links and poking around. Why yes, I shall say unto them, it is, Cryptic liked the setting so much the bought the company. Honest. Which is good because the only copy of Champions I currently own is New Millennium and well, the less said about that the better.

Anyway I’ve been playing Champions Online since the Closed Beta, something I may have let slip to a few people. So I can tell you some stuff about it. Please note, I’ve not been much into MMORPG’s, I’ve only really played this and City of Heroes and I only played that because I liked the CCG. anyway, I’ve had a lot of fun, there have been a few snafu’s (like the servers not coping with the load on the first day of the Open Beta) but I think it’s something I may end up playing for a while.

A few things that I think may be a bit different to what you may be used to. No classes, (it does have levels though, oh well) you can pick any power you like. Powers come in three tiers, as an example here is the Single Blade Powerset. If you stay within a powerset you get access to the Tier 3 stuff earlier, but you can mix and match to your hearts content. Also if you check out Dual Blades you’ll see each has it’s theme, but there are overlaps for things like Momentum. Add onto this advantages that let you increase the power of attack or add abilities to them. My current character has Lightning blasts that I’ve upgraded to jump to secondary targets a lot, lots of fun when you’re surrounded by mutant baddies.

Other stuff, costume creation like City of Heroes (as in be prepared to waste a few hours). Super travel powers when you leave the tutorial mission, which is actually quite fun to play through… well the first 3-4 times. Apparently there is a plan to make it optional. So you get to zip around the maps nice and fast, oh and LOTS of different ways to fly.

What else? The combat feels like a slightly slowed down button masher. In fact just randomly hitting your power buttons can be a legitimate tactic. But learning your combos (Charged Dragon Bite -> Scything Blade -> Reapers Embrace for instance) really makes a difference. PVP is fun, I wasn’t very good with my last character as I couldn’t fly, but I was good at throwing trucks at people. Did I mention that a lot of scenery is destructible and can also be picked up by super strong character to be used as a weapon? Generally it’s a good technique to get peoples attention, and knock a few out of course.

So anyway, I’ve been having fun. But I’m not getting the game when it comes out on the 4th of September (in Europe)

I’ll be in France on holiday. The week After it comes out though. That’s a different story.

Side note chorlte.

Originally published at Scimons Random Thought Table. You can comment here or there.

Cities of Dirt

2009-08-19T12:00:59Z

Well my rant yesterday spawned a little mental image, well a huge mental image really. Add to this the cities of Mortal Engines (and Ambulon from Dark Heresy) plus some James Blish by way of Gene Wolfe all smushed into an RPG idea I’d had kicking around a new idea was born. What? The normal way of things getting born is less messy? Anyway here follows some blurb and thoughts on a game. Knowing me it might never happen but enjoy.

Cities of Dirt

Once the world was blue, not brown. Once the sun was yellow not red and dying. Once the world was called Earth, now it is just Dirt.

Once man travelled the heavens fighting and dying, trading and looting. His power stretched across the Galaxy. Until the Final War and the Cleansing. When the Star Gods broke the fleets of Man banishing them crawling back to the long ruined planet of their birth. And when the ships landed the cities fell upon them. Tearing them apart in their voracious desire to feed and live.

The banishing was many years ago now, the great devouring a mere story to those who are born, toil and die in the bowels of the great Cities. Each one toiling it’s way across the dusty land of Dirt. Searching for materials to keep them working just one more day, metal, food, people and most of all water. The city dwellers know they must keep their city working, to try and scrape a living from the dusty ground is unthinkable, but they also know what they do not know. The knowledge of the deep working of the City are lost to them, if the City dies it cannot be reborn, and every day brings new trials.

So that’s the setting, the game as I envisage it is a troupe based story game. You work together to tell the story of the City, with the City being the only fixed point in the plot. You tell a series of tales that may or may not include the same characters but the main character you play is the City.

The Cities are giant moving machines, some using legs others treads and others ancient anti gravity devices or such like. They travel the dried up lands of what was once Earth looting and pillaging and fighting each other in order to survive. Occasionally a straggling space ship returns to Earth and the Cities converge upon it to feast. But this is very rare as most of the ships have long since returned. The story starts with the players deciding on the social make up and general description and layout of their ship as well as assigning it stats. The stats have two purposes, firstly they help to determine the stats of the roles players take during tales. But also they determine the threats a City will take.

I’m still thinking on how it’s going to work, but I envisage a Story comprising a series of Tales (1-3 session adventures) working up to a climax. Each Tale will have a threat value that has to be faced or the City will take some form of damage. For each Tale a player takes on a Role, this can be an established character or a new one.

Beware the Status Quo

2009-08-18T11:55:39Z

No, not the band.

I’m referring to the lamentable tendency for people to view whatever situation they are currently in as normal. The longer a state of affairs has been in effect the more people think it’s normal, and more to the point, that it should and will continue to happen. As the old saying goes “A many can get used to hanging if he hangs long enough.” (Or something like that).

Here follows a bit of a random rant that mostly came to me at 4am while I couldn’t sleep. You’ve been warned.

This view of the world made sense a five hundred years ago where the pace of change really was very slow. For most people you were born, grew up and died in the village in which your parents did the same. Generally you did the job your father did, or if you were a woman you kept the home and raised babies. In lots of the world this is still the case, except that outside influences keep turning up trying to stop people doing things they consider eminently reasonable. I mean if your father was allowed to rape your mother why shouldn’t you be allowed to rape your wife? (Answers on a post card to Harmid Karzai please).

But here in the West we’ve been spending that last few hundred years undergoing mind bending levels of technological and from that social change. And yet despite lots of evidence to the contrary we still hold to the belief that things will basically stay the same. Sure things might change a little bit, maybe it is getting a bit hotter for instance, but generally everything will be all right. A classic case of this is the recent financial crisis, where lots of rich greedy bastards (I would apologies to any merchant bankers reading this but I don’t like lying) played a huge con job on the whole world sucking all the money out. And yes we’re all partly to blame by falling for it, for mortgaging ourselves up to our eyeballs and maxing out our credits cards to buy flat screen TV’s. But my point is, right now there still seems to be a belief that some how it’s just a blip. That soon it’ll all return to normal where normal is defined as everyone living beyond there means and the banks leveraging this debt to makes huge piles of fake money.

I say fake money because in the end it turns out it didn’t exist. In fact the only people who seemed to make any real money out of the whole thing were the afore mentioned wunch of bankers. I know, it’s an old joke but I still love it.

And here’s why I tend to get a bit down. Because I look around, at this wonderful flawed creation that is civilisation. Watching as it meanders towards a cliff. The funny thing is I think the driver can see what’s there, but he knows if he tells the passengers (who are all too busy looking out of the side windows or playing with things, or each other) that maybe we need to change course they’ll just get a new driver who’ll tell them everything is fine, that they can stay on course. Because he really wants to be the driver even when he can’t actually lead.

Like I say sleep deprivation is never a fun thing. I’m going to try thinking happy thoughts, try and pull the wool over my eyes for a bit. Because the worst thing about that whole bloody affair is I’m powerless. Nothing I can do or say will make a slightest bit of difference. I’m just screaming into that gale. And the Status Bloody Quo carries on to it’s bitter end.

Originally published at Scimons Random Thought Table. You can comment here or there.

Good afternoon everybody

2009-08-14T11:31:19Z

Hey look, I’m blogging again. It’s one of them wacky things I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I was debating a light hearted ranty type post about living in a country where it’s considered OK to hate you, as long as it’s a joke. But i’m feeling too peppy. Instead I thought I’d do a quick, what’s going on with Scimon type thing.

Still in Glasgow, still writing lots of Perl code and failing to write any cool articles about it. I’ve also been finding lots of fun ways to break MySql, mostly involving loading 9GB of data into it every 2 hours and then trying to read it. Don’t worry if that didn’t make any sense, you probably don’t want it to. I’m also spending far too much time working with Viewdata, and not shiny new Viewdata I’m talking about the 1960’s monstrosity that’s still used by every single travel agent. If you don’t know then you’re a lucky lucky person.

As this is a Blog post I feel duty bound to mention my cats. The surviving pair Amelie and Dog seem to be getting on much better, well they have little fights that look like they are playing. Amelie has taken too attacking my feet in the wee small hours of the morning, aww it’s so cute, and painful. Dog meanwhile is just going into cuddle mode overdrive, as far as she is concerned my only reason for existance is for her to sit on. I think she’s trying to distract me.

On that note, my work on I can has XP has restarted. Yes, really. I’ve recently picked myself up and started writing down all the stuff in my head. I’m hoping to have it at a point that I can playtest it, or pass copies to other people to playtest real soon now (TM). I’m aiming for the end of September on that one.

Other fun stuff. I’m seriously looking forward to Champions Online coming out. Of course it comes out while I’m on holiday in Frnce but that’s just the way it goes. Expect to see me playing that for a while. Ok I know it’s not WoW but for some reason that never appealed to me. I guess there only so often you can water down Lord of the Rings before I get bored.

Of course I’m also really looking forward to getting Batman Arkham Asylum having played the demo and had serious Tenchu flashabcks to bits of my mispent youth. Sneaking around taking out bad guys one by one as they crap themselves never gets old.

Anyhoo, I’ve got half and hour to kill I think I’ll do some work on the Minions rules for a bit. Or carry on with my LJ RSS feed copying, one thing Livejournal really needs is an RSS feed for your friends page.

Have fun folks, be good.

Originally published at Scimons Random Thought Table. You can comment here or there.

More testing

2009-08-13T17:30:54Z

Just a quick post using the wptogo Android app.

Originally published at Scimons Random Thought Table. You can comment here or there.

Sleep

2009-04-06T12:04:40Z

I'm bloody knackered.

Amelie, who is being pampered after her op, slept in the bed with us last night. She loves being under the duvet, occasionally poking me with her claws. So I got to combine fear of rolling onto a cat (and I sleep wearing not much to nothing depending on the weather) with nutty dreams about acupuncture.

Which is especially not good if you have an intense phobia of needles.

But she's too God Damm cute to kick out, especially in her still healing state. Plus Dog is still treating her like some kind of alien invader. I think it's because of the plastic cone she's having to wear.

Anyhow, I should be through in Edinburgh for the post Conpulsion meeting tonight to offer more help for next years con. You know I might actually run a game of something. Of course I might have gotten round to getting my game finished by next year....

Just to say

2009-04-02T07:45:20Z

I'm afraid 'Destroy All Cities' was a joke. That I came up with at the last moment or I'd have made a web page for it too.

I am of course working on an actual game and I have got enthused about the whole thing again, more on that soon.

Great news

2009-04-01T08:03:06Z

Well I can now announce that my first published RPG is back from the printers. I know I've been a bit quiet for the last few weeks but I've been working very hard to get this done. Anyway I can now reveal the secret project I've been working away on, 'Destroy All Cities' the game of Giant Monsters. This troupe based storytelling extravaganza finds you playing the fractured personality of a giant creature (robot, dinosaur, creature from before time it's up to you) as you struggle to find meaning in a world that seeks to destroy you.

I'm extremely happy with the new mechanic that seamlessly blends dice rolling, coin flips and card play into a unified whole. The 5 page 'Random Wandering' table you roll on when the players can not agree what to do to simulate your creatures reactions when not being controlled is a great read including 'Hump car', 'Eat Civilian', 'Attack building'. And I do think you'll find the 'Human Reaction Flowcharts' an extremely easy way to work out how the forces of mankind will try and deal with your rampage.

'Destroy All Cities' in shops soon!

Collected thoughts.

2009-03-18T17:30:11Z

11:11 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/carrmo #
11:11 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/cnu9tj Woot! #
11:27 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/dy5wat #
11:37 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/at9ekg #
12:53 Currently Browsing: www.juryteam.org/index.php #
12:55 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/cchrmg #
12:58 1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

My Twitter

Collected thoughts.

2009-03-17T17:30:09Z

18:31 At silverburn, polli is getting a new phone. #
13:11 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/cf2oh4 #
13:15 Currently Browsing: www.bringdownie6.com/ #
15:15 Thought : Every generation inherits the previous ones insanity and calls it normal. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

My Twitter

Collected thoughts.

2009-03-16T17:30:11Z

20:41 Marines FTW! My commander and his entourage cut a swath through Mr Brinds undead robot hordes. Power Fist to the face! #
20:42 Now installing some old skool gaming fun. Baldurs Gate II, Shadows of Amn. Mmmmmm. #
22:02 Darn, damm and botheration. Disc 4 ees dead! So I've reinstalled NWN2 and am going to try a month of COH. See if it's got better. #
17:01 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/bpxulr #
17:04 So tired. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

My Twitter

Collected thoughts.

2009-03-12T17:30:09Z

17:10 Currently Browsing: wikileaks.org/wiki/The_"dirty_bomb"_that_disappeared #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

My Twitter

Collected thoughts.

2009-03-11T17:30:13Z

22:30 petitions.number10.gov.uk/PowersofArrest/ #
08:52 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/au88qx Need to watch this at lunch.. #
13:43 Too. Much. Food. Going to pop. #
16:35 Trying an experiment. Seeing if putting my headphones on does make the phone ring.... #
16:40 Oh har de har de har. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

My Twitter

Collected thoughts.

2009-03-10T17:30:08Z

09:14 Fingers crossed this code works this time.... #
12:33 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/cr42gl Ah yes. The Dr Manahattan moment. Not always the same reaction. #
12:40 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/dkv3c3 #
13:56 Currently Browsing: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7934606.stm ARRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!! #
14:51 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/csm6th #
16:50 Hungry! Very very hungry. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

My Twitter

Collected thoughts.

2009-03-07T17:30:07Z

00:45 @purplesnap Indeed..... a whole lotta blue dick. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

My Twitter

Collected thoughts.

2009-03-06T17:30:11Z

14:48 Currently Browsing: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7925779.stm Yay! Soon we'll all have our ID cards! Woot! #
14:51 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/djnfq2 Not a police state.... #
16:34 Here's a good question on new powers. Would you like the BNP to have access to them? #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

My Twitter

Understanding.

2009-03-06T16:24:18Z

Ever since I was a kid I've looked at the world and gone, 'Wait a sec? How does that work?'. One idea that confused me when I was very you was the concept of unfettered growth, the companies had to keep making more money each year. I asked my Dad how this worked and he said it just did.

Turns out the reason I couldn't make it all make sense is because it doesn't work. Just look at the state the 30 year global greed fest has got us to and you can see that.

Which in a small way makes me feel good, at least I wasn't going nuts.

Of course now I'm feeling a general, fuck it's all a state, depression coming across me and wondering where I can move to to survive the Numpty Apocalypse.

Forget Zombies, you need to worry about hordes of unwashed, ill educated TV led muppets who believe they deserve the world on a plate and are going to get it. Plus there's the washed, educated but still unimaginably fucking stupid arseholes who have been 'running' the whole show by stealing everything that wasn't nailed down and hoping we wouldn't notice. The ones who are still arguing they deserve bonuses and pay rises despite getting us all into this cluster fuck.

I'm going to watch Watchmen tonight and then read some more Judge Dredd, those will cheer me up.

So.

2009-03-06T10:25:02Z

I've been mostly Twittering because I've not had much to say and I've been busy. This is a quick post to say, does anyone have sofa space for Conpulsion where I can crash? I thought I had a plan but it now seems to be messed up.

More soon. Maybe.

Colltected thoughts.

2009-03-05T17:30:09Z

11:20 tinyurl.com/dfbw4n Oh yes. The last 25 year summed up in two words. #
12:35 Currently Browsing: developerdayscotland.com/main/Home/tabid/74/Default.aspx Just registered. #
13:44 Currently Browsing: tinyurl.com/c5ll6r Weeee! Can we have Obama too? #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

My Twitter