megglesmcgoo's 30th Birthday Céilí was absolutely brilliant craic, and a resounding success. More of this sort of thing I say! Although I'm really not sure I'm ever going to walk again, and my lungs are still trying to remember what it's like to function normally (no really, I'm quite congested)

So the meeting today was less another stage of the application and more "here's the lease, sign please!"  So now we will be the proud renters of a lovely little house, a bit off the beach, in West Seattle.  Yay!  There will be pics when we're let in.  It's officially ours on June 15th, but they said they'd let us in sooner for moving stuff, if we were so inclined (which I probably will be).

Yay!  No more ghetto for us!

I bet you all thought I'd forgotten about Time and Relative Dissertations in Space, in fact, I've just been very busy and, mostly, away.

( The empire of the senses: narrative form and point-of-view in Doctor Who )

( The ideology of anachronism: television, history and the nature of time )

( Mythic identity in Doctor Who )

( The human factor: Daleks, the `Evil Human' and Faustian legend in Doctor Who )

For reference: my review the whole collection as a whole (in which I criticise the general tendency to verbose writing and example cherry-picking from the point of view of a Computer Scientist) and my review of part one in detail

I started watching West Wing from Series 1 again recently as I've mentioned before. After having a break from it for a few weeks while other tasks commanded my time, I returned to watching Series 3 where I discovered one of my favourite episodes; the one where Toby has a crush on a poet, and another episode that I feel sounds familiar.

The episode starts with President Bartlett being interviewed on the US Morning shows. After each interview he exchanges a few words with each interviewer. While 'live' there is a red light on the camera which becomes green when they are no longer recording. During one of the post interview exchanges the President makes a comment about his opponent that questions his intelligence. I apologise to those who don't want to hear the outcome of the episode but basically C.J. eventually confronts the President with the notion that he knew the red light was still on when he made the comment.

I feel this sounds familiar because this week a government minister walked into No 10 this week with a memo 'accidently' on display for the waiting reporters. Is it just me who thinks that this was planned as a way of leaking the news without making an official unpopular statement?

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

I believe what just happened on our telly would be called 'crack fic' in the world of fandom.

That was gloriously, fabulously silly. Daft as a sideboard full of puffins. Bravo.

• 11:48 the neighbours have a new car - same make a model as ours, but blue hahah! how original #

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It's 12:00 and I haven't had breakfast yet.

Today's breakfast is ( smoked haddock and potato cakes with poached eggs ).

Update:It's 15:00 and I've just had breakfast. ( Poaching and frying ).

Don't forget to vote today. TWC is especially funny this time, because Cheyenne made the incentive. Buzzcomix is, as always, one of Phil's sketches. It looks like we're not doing reruns any more, now that we're playing with other things on TWC. You can bookmark the voting sites and vote every day! Also, it has been my experience that you can vote for as many comics as you like on any given day, which seems odd, but what the heck. I've tried it, and got to look at lots of people's vote incentives on the same day. Interesting.

And now, I will talk about the weather. Which is gorgeous. We're getting a sweet Spring breeze that smells like everything wonderful. The cherry blossoms have been lasting a ridiculously long time this year, but the last few days we had a lot of wind, so now my part of Seattle looks like we had a sweet pink snow. Also, I've been enjoying walking through the anime cliché of swirling pink petals. Mmmm. I love weather.

I've been on the phone with the pin company, trying to figure out how to design stamped pins that are a little more 3D. They were really helpful, so we should be getting those Jäger pins in the next month or so. It's killing me, the amount of designs I want to do, now that Phil has opened the floodgates. (That is, he finally decided that we have enough money to start making all the things I've been wanting to make, as long as I do about one a month.) Woohoo! Mountains of swag, here I come!

John Wick,

Thank you for purchasing tickets on Ticketmaster.

You purchased 2 tickets to:

Tom Waits
Orpheum Theatre, Phoenix, AZ
Wed, Jun 18, 2008 08:00 PM 


Seat location: section SEC B, row 24, seats 5-4

• 01:13 hit level 70 on warcraft - pvp now! #
• 08:31 working from home today. got to tidy up a bit at lunch time. #
• 17:00 damn charity bags through the door - two today alone! grrrrr! #

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The whole wedding planning process has been a fun one most of the time. Now we are reaching the end and Chris and I have been so busy with everything but the wedding. Its becoming very stressful for the both of us and I hate that I sometimes take out my stress on him and vice versus. WE NEED A HOLIDAY!

For those of you still to get married my advice would be to just do it abroad and have an extra long honeymoon.

I must be insane.

Last week, I made the somewhat foolhardy move of resolving to get some darn-gosh exercise. After rejecting the idea of walking home from the office via the top of Arthur's Seat (would make my day even longer), I settled on the idea of... running home from the office, rather than walking. It's about 2 and a half miles.

It might be peer pressure: I work in an office of runners.

On Tuesday, I walked in with my trainers rather than my DMs, and about halfway through the day realised I hadn't brought my shorts with me.

Rather than throw in the towel, I realised that my shorts were about 10 years old anyway, so I nipped out at lunchtime to the conveniently located running shop round the corner from the office, and looked at shorts.

My shopping criteria, I told myself, was price, not what they looked like. So I scanned the racks looking only at price tags, until I located a pair a full pound cheaper than the others. I pulled it out and was momentarily puzzled by how slinky they looked, before realising that I'd just spent 2 minutes perusing the women's shorts rack.

*cough*

I bought a men's pair and left, and after work, I ran to the university to join Dorothy. On Wednesday I (mostly) ran home, and was really quite knackered. On Thursday, my legs ached, so I took the day 'off'.

Today, Dorothy invented something fun: ordering pizza from the office, then running home, trying to beat the pizza. They said it'd be delivered in 30 minutes. They lied! They were quicker than that.

This weekend, the hardcore runners from the office are running up every hill in Edinburgh. I'm way out of my league...

 Interviews

I was just looking through the archives of montecook.com for an old photo and I came upon the interviews I did when D&D turned 30. (If you remember, WotC put out a book to commemorate the event. It was a nice enough book, with bits from Vin Diesel and Stephen Colbert, but very, very little from people who actually worked on the game. I tried to fix that.)

If you haven't read them, they're fun reading. And they're something I'm pretty proud to have done.

Today's Dork Tower is up! (About bloody time)



Click Here, there or anywhere to see it.

****

Ever wonder what it's like to watch someone hoist themselves by their own petard? And by "hoist" I mean "eviscerate." And by "petard" I mean "ignorance."


It'd be kind of enjoyable, if it wasn't so sickening.

Ganked from the ever-astute robin_d_laws

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30 Years Ago in Kovalic History (AKA "Diary of the Artist, Age 15 and a half.")

"AO History test essay on Napoleonic War went well. Julius Ceasar OK, but spoiled by other people who were watching. Found 50p."

I've been on a couple of communities now where I see people are cross posting (putting the same content on two different, but similar, communities).

An example of this is that I am in multiple bento communities:

eat_my_bento
bentolunch
my_bento

( Click here for instructions on a good way to cross post )

Cute baby is cute.

Whenever I take a break from work, I come down to that little face. :)

. . . like the MQ expansion. But, today is game day in the office. So around work and e-mail I'm going to play a few games.

Apparently volcanic eruptions can call down lightning.

Which is even freakin' scarier than it sounds.

More pics of the recent eruption of Chaitén.

Some video.

I can hear special effects artists across the world going, "Whoa, why didn't we think of that?

(News courtesy the Daily Illuminator, possibly the oldest daily blog on the Internet.)

It's another post about Aylish - whaddaya know?

She told us recently that she's starting to drift apart from J., one of her friends, and we're actually pretty happy about it.

J. started school partway through the school year, and Aylish latched onto her instantly, mostly because she noticed that no one was talking to her. They've been pretty inseparable for the last few months, but lately Aylish has been having problems justifying their friendship.

Recently, she told Aylish that she doesn't care for all the "black people and Mexicans," because she had bad experiences with "them" in the past.  (Delaware has a large population of Mexican immigrants, and an even larger population of angry rednecks who like to scream "THEY TERK ERR JERBS!" So anti-Hispanic attitudes run very high here, and I work pretty hard to combat them in my children.)

She also called her a goody-two-shoes, because she's never tried smoking, alcohol, or kissing boys.*

Aylish's response: "That's because I have responsible parents!"

So that was pretty cool to hear.

And for the record, I told her that kissing boys is a much less severe offense than smoking or drinking.


(* She does, however, steal my Mountain Dew MDX out of the fridge when she thinks I'm not going to miss it...)

Based on the classic Kübler-Ross model.

1. Denial: "Soon, everything is going back to normal and we will have our cheap gasoline back so that we don't have to change our lifestyle."
2. Anger: "Why aren't you politicians doing something about those gasoline prices? Huh? See if I ever vote for you again!"
3. Bargaining: "Please, Saudis/Nigerians/Russians/Venezuelans - can't you spare a few additional gallons? Don't you see that I am suffering here?"
4. Depression: "There is nothing we can do - we are all doomed and our economy will never recover from this. It is truly the end of history..."
5. Acceptance: Okay, maybe it's time to invest in public transportation again. And bicycles. And maybe my house doesn't need to be quite as big if I can reduce my commute in exchange..."

God, this looks brilliant.

We watched the trailer to start with and the other guys didn't know what it was for and, quite understandably, initially thought it was a trailer for an Elric movie.

I'd never heard of Rickrolling until I saw John Kovalic's latest Dork Tower strip the other day. Even then I didn't have a clue what it was so just put it down to the characters last comment referring to me ("I'm too young to be too old for the internet!") - especially as I'm now a year older than I was :p

Anyway, Sean just started talking about Rickrolling at work and Dave also knew what he was talking about.

I have now been informed, been shown Youtube footage or it and have managed to pull myself back into tune with todays internet youth it seems.

The internet continues to amaze me with all the little social phenomena that arise from it.

I'm sure the forefathers of science invention and science fiction would never have thought about the many uses it has these days and the fads it throws into fame for 15 minutes...

redscharlach has made some completely brilliant Blackadder II icons.

Previous entries include this page of Father Ted icons!

And best of all, Top Gear Icons.

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In unrelated news, Amazon currently have Patricia McKillip's "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld" for £2.49, which is a very nice price for one of the best fantasy novels ever written.

I've only just found this community and it occurred to me that it's the perfect place to find out something that's been driving me mad for months.

I've heard about a really good second-hand bookshop, iirc in the West End, that's apparently a converted house? I don't know if that makes sense to anyone other than who I heard it from, and even if it doesn't, does anyone know some good second-hand or first-hand bookshops that aren't Borders or Waterstones? Any help is appreciated!

Hits Tape 6: An end to the horror.

Okay, so I couldn’t do it. Even for the cheese value, I just couldn’t inflict Five Star on you lovely people. And “Johnny hates jazz” turned out to have aged remarkably well.

So what did we learn from this dive into Steve’s nostalgia? Well, “Wishing I was lucky” by Wet Wet Wet is actually a really great song which you should all listen to. (And “Respectable” by Mel and Kim isn’t.)

But now… now for stage 2 of my diabolical plan. You get to suggest the awful 80’s videos yourselves. I want to see stupid hair, bad miming and casio drum machines. If you think you have a compilation that can compete with the Hits Tape 6 for sheer awfulness, then let us know!

---
UPDATE: pansgalliard clearly hates us all, as she's take up the challenge and posted a load of *70's* music vid horror over at her LJ. Aaargh.
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In the meantime, here’s the frankly incredible listing from the HT6. Entirely too many of these guys are currently doing a “Back to the 80’s” tour in the UK:

Whitney Houston - I wanna dance with somebody
George Michael / Aretha Franklin - I knew you were waiting for me
Terence Trent D'Arby - If you let me stay
Club Nouveau - Lean on me
Five Star - The Slightest touch
Donna Allen – Serious
George Michael - I want your sex
Mel & Kim - Respectable
Starship - Nothing's gonna stop us now
Alison Moyet - Weak in the presence of beauty
Chris Rea - Let's dance
Whitesnake - Is this love?
Fleetwood Mac - Big love
Carly Simon - Coming around again
Errol Brown - Personal touch
John Farnham -You're the voice

Madonna - La Isla Bonita
Bruce Willis - Under the boardwalk
Living in a Box - Living in a box
Curiosity Killed the Cat - Ordinary day
Level 42 - To be with you again
Echo & The Bunnymen - The game
The Jesus & Mary Chain - April skies
Marrillion - Incommunicado
Labi Siffre - Something inside so strong
Elkie Brooks - No more the fool
Johnny Logan - Hold me now
Judy Boucher - Can't be with you tonight
Wet Wet Wet - Wishing I was lucky
Johnny Hates Jazz - Shattered dreams
Pepsi & Shirlie - Goodbye, stranger
The Firm - Star Trekkin'.

I think it's definitely a sign of my age that two of the best nights I've had in the last month have involved staying in and having some quiet drinks with good friends.

It's a much more alarming sign of my age that I appear to be developing flabby bits where there never used to be flabby bits. Back in the halcyon days of my youth, I never had flabby bits. I blame not smoking. And the accompanying EATING DOUBLE WHAT I USED TO. (For those of you who've never smoked, let me tell you that appetite increase is no urban legend). I've told andrewducker that I'll join his badminton crew, but so far stuff's kept coming up which means that I haven't actually played yet, and being out of the country for nearly a month means that I won't get to play for ages. I know some of you do grown-up things like go to gyms, but I'm really not interested in that; anyone care to share their non-gym keep-fit or tone-up sekrits?

Gaaah. I can't sleep. I'm too tired to work, and I hate reading archives. (I like to buy booooooks....) Maybe if I hit myself over the head with a hammer? Yeah, I'll try that. Ow.

Trailer for Joss Whedon's new tv series 'Dollhouse', starring Eliza Dushku.

They've finished the pilot, but it won't be shown until January (eg: 'mid-season').

And, dammit, I can't watch this vid until I get home tonight. *Waits impatiently*

She sang in the talent show today - did it a cappella.

Her entire class cheered for her. Even the kids who don't like her that much.



...and when they handed her a certificate for her participation, her name was spelled wrong on it.

Such is our lives.

Phil is drawing an awesome page. Just sayin'.

I've listed more originals on eBay. No Girl Genius pages this time, I'll start with those again early next week. Well, there is one design sheet for Agatha's Othar-Rescuing Clank (and what a bad idea THAT turned out to be...I know, let's turn Othar loose!)

Speaking of Othar, right now, he's apparently loose in Paris. Searching for the dastardly fiend who has stolen the Louvre.

Holy Cow, the pins are doing well. We packed a whole bunch of them today. Thanks, everybody! So what I'm hearing is that, in addition to these pins, we need great big fancy ones, and little bitty subtle ones. Hmm...

Make sure to vote for us on TWC tomorrow, Cheyenne sent me something WAY funnier than anything I've done to date. Waaaah!

My kids have a friend over, and he brought Mario Kart for the Wii and little Wii remotes shaped like steering wheels. So cute!

Well I've finally got to see "Once". I'm really glad I never got around to watching it on DVD, because I much prefer seeing things on the big screen, and when I heard last week that the Lighthouse Cinema was re-opening, and that one of the first films they'd be showing again was "Once", I just couldn't let the opportunity go (even if I did have to postpone it from last Friday, when I originally intended to go)

Wow, it really is a rather brilliant, sweet, unassuming, slow-burning, nothing-but-everything film. I don't know what makes it so brilliant - there's nothing you can put your finger on and say "That's remarkable" but it just works. Like none of them were acting. And maybe they weren't really. I mean, Guy and Girl probably aren't all that far removed from Glen Hansard and Margeta Irglova. And we all know they did fall madly in massive-age-gap love.

But it was just so....*normal*, y'know?

And it was fantastic seeing Dublin being Dublin, and not being too crazily messed up and re-cut and bits of the city put beside other bits of the city which they aren't anywhere near in real life. The only bit of that I saw was when they were in Temple Bar Square and girl pointed South to Dame St and beyond saying she had to go home, when she clearly lived in Mountjoy Square ;)

But yeah, it's just such a brilliant film, and so very, very Irish, without being Oirish, and made on such a low budget, and has done so very well critically and even commercially (relative to budget) - it really does deserve the "phenomenon" label :D

Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton

I think a certain branch of science fiction has fallen into a trap where the MacGuffin of the plot is always, without fail, a mysterious and ancient alien artifact whose powers can radically reshape the destiny of mankind. It's a good and solid way to achieve sense of wonder in SF, but it's showing its age. It was showing its age 20 years ago.

Fallen Dragon falls into this category. That said, I found it to be a page-turner, fun, and lacking in predictablity. The plot: Earth has colonized many worlds, which are not showing a return on their investment. To try and wring a profit out of them, Big Mean Megacorp sends warships to these worlds, with orders to land, establish control, grab anything worth the trouble of shipping back, and leave again, ideally without firing a shot, and definitely without wrecking the world for future "asset realization". Our main protagonist is a sergeant on one of these piracy raids. The author does an excellent job of not handing out too much information too quickly, and also of making all the good guys and bad guys have sympathetic points of view (if not sympathetic methods for achieving them). So, moderately recommended.

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

One of the classics of urban fantasy, this book suffers from being one of the classics of urban fantasy. I.e., it's been imitated again and again, particularly by my one-time publisher, White Wolf Games. I found it difficult to stop rolling my eyes, despite knowing intellectually that she wasn't being derivative. Plot: A down-on-her luck rock singer/guitarist finds out that she's pivotal in a battle between the Light Fae and the Dark Fae, and gets a charmingly annoying pooka as bodyguard. Lots of descriptions of music rehearsals, concerts, Fae battles, and what everyone is wearing, every day, in detail ensue. Like I said, it's been done to death in the 20 years since it was published, but it is still quite definitely worth a read. Strongly recommended.

Iron Man: Hypervelocity by Adam Warren, Brian Denham

What with the movie being so cool and all, I picked up a few of the comic collections. This is a self-contained story by Adam Warren (Empowered, Dirty Pair, Gen¹³, Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone), with Denham on keyboards, err, art. Like most of Warren's work, there's technofetishism, hyper-hip dialogue, pop culture refs dropping like rain, and an unusual club scene. Oh, did I mention the technofetishism? Warren must have been salivating at the opportunity to design his own helicarrier, let alone a new suit of Iron Man armor. Plot: Iron Man has to deal with an attempt on his life, and being attacked by the U.S. Government's "capekiller" squadron (due to a false flag situation), while a pretentious computer virus named Absynthe tries to invade his armor. However, what made it treh cool in my eyes, was . . .
( Cut for spoiling the end of Chapter 1. )
Plus, in how many comics do you get to see Iron Man try to sneak into a club while wearing a Honda?

Transformers: Devastation by Furman, Su, Roche, Musso

Volume 4 of IDW Comics' reboot of the Transformers mythos, in this one their covert war on Earth finally spills over into the open, as every faction (Autobots, Decepticons, Reapers, Machination, and the U.S. Government) decides to start kickin' skidplate. This is the volume where the threads Furman has been weaving throughout the first three volumes, and the companion Spotlight series, start coming together in chaotic glory. If you think giant robots are cool, highly recommended.

A decent number of posters, several of whom I don't know. Nice to see that the NM contigent is keeping their end up.
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