Right.
I'm at work. I work in a games shop. We stock nothing electronic, no toys, no gadgets. Just games.
Imagine my confusion when a gentleman walks into the store, spends some time looking at the wooden chess sets, the monopoly variants and the little men who fight with dice and demands to know how much a mobile phone blocker is.
ME: I'm sorry?
A moble phone blocker. How much?
ME: *Looks around shop, is still cofused* I... Don't know.
Do you speak english? A MOBILE PHONE BLOCKER.
ME: Right, I understand the words sir. It's just that, we sell board games. You may have better luck at an electronics shop. There's hundreds on Tottenham Court road.
Where? (he's shouting now)
ME: Tottenham Court.
It's two miles long.
ME: Yes, there's two miles of shops.
But you don't sell them?
ME: No. Good day sir.
Why?
AARGH! why do people assume you can buy stamps, sandwiches and pictures from us? OR that they can pay the congestion charge here?
Moronomancy. It's got to be real. Only possible explanation.
Legion.
Oh, I work at PLAYIN GAMES, on museum st in london. Come in, receive no discount.
Hello,
I address not the world but those of you who read the Pagga Weblog, ie Ed, Mark & Myself.
I Live.
Soon there will be a new string to my bow here at Pagga. I am no longer limited to insulting people in threads, writing final warnings and offending ASH with my witty use of the word "Fuck". Nosir. Not with the forthcoming... um, thing that is...
ASK LEGION!
Now I will randomly assist or ignore you, dear reader, simply fire a single question off towards legion@pagga.net. I couldn't give a fuck about the nature of the question, Ed'd probably prefer it to be LARP related, but he's not here. Plus he's not set up the email yet.
Grr.
Bear is a fine comic. I'd do a link but I can't do HTML. Look at Ed's post lower down. Or not. FINE. Be fucking lazy.
Jesus. what the hell am I writing. Arrgh! Shit! its 1:30am I've got 12 hours of work in the morning. What the fuck am I doing?
Cuuunnt!
What the fuck? It's like my fingers have tourets. Just like John in...shadenfrude
Hope that worked. Ed just came in and showed me how to do HTML. No. Wait. There we go, I've forgotten. Why? Because it's half one and I've been working since 10 am.
Oh, I'd just like to reiterate that I'm real and not the other admin guys feeling the need to vent. I also realise that I wrote "guys" and not "people" this is because only men administrate pagga, the "WOMEN" are elaborate charades intended to ensnare young men into Ed and Mark's clutches for what they call the soup magic. Fuck knows.
Right, Fuck this. I'm off to touch other peoples cloth.
Bye.
Legion.
What the fuck does this do?
Much of the above post is lies.
At the bottom of this is truth. OooOOooOOoh
Ed is a cruel, cruel master.
A list of the top 100 'almost banned' books in America.
Why would anyone want to hurt a libary? Or any free source of information?
BBC announces new Doctor Who series, Richard E Grant, Paul McGann and Alan Davies in the frame as the new Doctor, allegedly.
Russell T Davies, of Queer as Folk and The Second Comming fame is doing the writing which can only be a good thing. If there's one thing that crippled the show is was the writing, the ideas were great and sometimes that carried the show. But often it didn't, what with the crap special effects, trash dialog and bad acting. I hope he can make Doctor Who as good as I remember it.
I'm a bit conflicted about the choice of Doctor as well, Sylvester McCoy was my Doctor alongside Sophie Aldred as Ace and that's what Doctor Who is in my head. I think McCoy had the balence between eccentricity, lunacy and darkness about right, unlike Colin Baker who was just too mad. But then he was crippled with Bonnie Langford as a compainion, a harsh fate indeed. I have trouble beliveing that Alan Davies can do dark or mysterious, I keep on seeing him flipping through 'What Tardis'. I think they'd do well to pick out someone relatively unknown so they can get on with the job without any baggage.
Anyone have any bright ideas for a Doctor?
According to this BBC test, I'm an Existential thinker.
That means I think about the moral and ethical implications of peoples actions and come up with practical ways round. Which explain why I don't sleep a lot.
Apparently I'm in good company, with The Buddha, Gandhi, Plato, Socrates and Martin Luther King thinking the same kind of way, though I'm sure none of those shining lights ever pondered the hidden meanings of SLG's Bear comic. (There isn't any. Trust me.)
Answers to Baggy:
What do you think the most important part of friendship is?
Trust. And the abilty to let your guard down with them. (The 'If someone farts, I'll snigger' factor.)
What is your longest standing close friendship?
That would be Kay Knowles (11 years), Kelly West (8 years) and Marc Purdy (also 8 years).
How long do you tend to stay friends with people generally?
Depends. I'm still friends (as in I meet them a few times a year and talk for hours) people I went to school with. Some people I lose touch with for years and then a 30 minute chat in the pub and it's like we've never lost touch. Depends on the person.
Describe your pattern of friends – i.e. do you have lots of good mates, lots of close mates, few mates but very close, are they spread out geographically etc.
I have several, very close friends. One of them I see every day, most of them spread across the country but I talk to often and at length.
I have a small number good friends,. again, some of whom I see almost daily, some of whom I don't see for ages then spend a long time catching up with.
I'm not a big one for 'mates'. If your going to spend time with someone, get to know them damn it. Still, I know a fair few people best described as mates.
Then there's people I rarely see but care about dearly. The more I think about it, the more I realise there's a lot of them.
Finally there's the people I really like and would love to know better, stay in touch with haphazardly but (mostly for geographical reasons) I don't know that well, but wish I did. A lot of the people I know via Omega are like that.
How easily do you think you make friends and what stops you or makes it more difficult?
I'm shy, conservative and think a lot about the way people interact. This means I can be rude, or stuck for something to say that isn't intensly personal. I rarely go out and 'press the flesh', I'm fairly laid back in that regard.
Despite that, I tend to make friends fairly easily. People must think I'm nice or something :).
How easily do you form really close friendships and what stops you or makes it more difficult?
It's trust. I have a few close friends who I really, really trust. Like most people, I have walls and levels of trust.
How easy is it for you to ask your friends for help and what stops you or makes it more difficult?
The more difficult it is for them to help, the more reluctant I am. Also depends on the help. Some friends I talk to about emotional stuff all the time and it's no big others it would be huge. I tend to help my friends out as much as I can mind.
How many ex-friends do you have?
As in 'Never talk to me again' ex-friends? Three. Two of them are very bad people, the other is just bad news.
How many people do you see just because they happen to be part of the same social scene as you that you perhaps wouldn’t choose to spend so much time with or even see at all?
Few. There's people I know, and by association, hang with, in certain scenes, whom I don't regard as friends. But as a rule, they're of my radar so it's not a problem.
How much do you talk about your friends with your other friends?
All the time. I'm a 'safe' gossip. Ie: I don't betray confidences, but I'll happily tell people that Mark's of to OZ next month, because it's common knowledge.
Is there anything you wouldn’t talk about to do with a friend with other friends?
Anything they tell me in private. Some of my friends are fiends for gossip, and the quickest way to hurt someone is to betray a trust. So I'm careful. I hurt a dear friend once due to an utter fuck-up in communication (caused by another friend probing for gossip), and though we're still close, I still regret my part in the whole mess, so these days I'm very careful.
Bush and Blair do the Gay bar. Parody in the finest style video editing style.
Not as fun as Bushwacked though.
Answers to King Andy, carefully hidden.
1. Who are you?
Well, if I was quoting: "Matthew Gideon, captain. Attached to the Earth Alliance starship Excalibur." Y'know, Crusade had an awful lot going for it, it's a pity the first series was a bit crap.
I am Edward 'Ed' Fortune. I'd describe myslef as a writer because it's what I'd do and also tells people a bit about who I am. I have lot's of other identities to lot's of other people, but I'm quite happy being Ed at the moment.
2. What do you want?
To be happy. To be well. To be all I'm meant to be. To be, basically, I'm not fussed about fame, fortune or all the other toys we distract ourselves with. It's nice to have stuff, but I'd rather be wise than wealthy.
3. Where are you going?
To quote Crusade again: "Anywhere I have to" Scotland or Manchester would make a nice change of scene. On a deeper level, I don't know, it's very, very long road, but it's the journey that counts.
4. How would you like to be remembered?
It would be nice to be remembered. It would be nice to think that I made some impression on the world, and that I made peoples lives a little easier, no matter how slight. That I added something of value in a such a way that my passing does not diminish the whole.
5. I'm repeating myself, but I liked how it went before, so: Assemble your own League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Alfred Watkins, Inventor of the idea of Ley lines and lay theologian, Johnathan Swift,
political writer, firebrand, Jerry Cornelius because he'd probably turn up anyway, Frankenstein's Monster after he'd been working a construction job for a while, Amelia Ehart, because we'll need a spunky young lady and Nikolai Tesla, master of electricity, and my grandfather on my mothers side when he was in his 20s. Yes I know some of these are real people, but if Fraser Irving can do it for Necronauts so can I.
More interrogation by Wulfboy this time.
1. What have you done to bring down the government of Britain?
I have marched on several anti-war demo's, including the largest march in the history of this counry (between 1-2 million people) and intend to go to the one next weekend (27th Sept.). I have associated with known anarchists, anti-fascists and direct action activists. I have sucked the lifeblood of this country by being unemployed, not looking for work and generally being feckless. I have also spread anti-government oppinions far and wide on occasion and hold a generally sceptical view on the current ruling powers of the world.
I'm not exactly first against the wall should they come in the night but I'm probably there in the queue somewhere.
2. If you had to eat a part of a human being, which part would it be?
Depends on how desperate the situation, possibly the eyeball as you can survive without the eyeball, you freak :).
3.What's the worst book, film, play or comic you've experienced in the last month
Possibly the new Justice League of America comic we've got lying around the house, it is not the comic that the world needs about the current cluster-fuck of world politics, it's just pretty piss poor. And the art is pretty awful as well. I take solace though in the fact that comics like The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Transmetroploitan, Strangehaven and Squee exist.
However if I were asked about the worst film I have ever seen it would either be Talos the Mummy. This is a film I tell people to claw their own eyes out over rather than watch, it suffers from the curse of Sean Pertwee along with a plot that appears to have been completely re-written half way through to take advantage of the popularity of 'The Mummy' thus making no sense whatsoever. It is not, 'so bad it's good', it is just bad, avoid.
4. You give everything up and become one of the following; castaway on desert island, space-man, president of the US, clergyman or train-driver. In all cases we presume conditions for supporting human life apply. Which one is it?
This is of course a trick question. A space-man without doubt, even today I still have a childlike fascination with the night sky, probably to do with me growing up in London and not seeing much of it. I still remember my holidays on the Welsh coast where you could see the milky way and a trip down to Cornwall where we drove across Salisbury Plain when the sky was filled to bursting with stars.
I'm also a lifelong sci-fi freak, proabably due to the influence of Harry Harrison, Douglas Adams, Arthur C. Clarke, Star Wars and Doctor Who. I am a big fan of space exploration and I get a kick in guts kind of feeling whenever something bad happens to the efforts of people all around the world. It's a kind of lingering optimism about the world and people really, that we'd all be better off if we had jetpacks, space-stations for houses and could pop round to our alien neigbours for tea.
Space exploration has also produced much in the way of beauty and it's good to realise that universe we live in is a beautiful place.
5. Honour, Wisdom or Glory?
Honour without a doubt, I suspect this is one of the good things I take from my father. Glory is fleeting, you can have wisdom but fail to act upon it, but honour is the way you live your life, it's having an ethical code and sticking to it no matter what. I hope that I manage to follow through on this when it's important.
Went to see this on Wednesday with my beloved and some of the house of pagga and oh my word wasn't it rather good. I've loved all of Miyazaki's earlier films that I've seen, Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Monomoke, so I had high hopes for this one and I wasn't disappointed.
It's the story of a young girl called Chihiro, who is trapped in the land of spirits when her family takes a wrong turning into what they think is an abandonded theme park. When her family are turned into pigs for eating food meant for the spirits she is forced to work in a bath house run by the sorceress Yababa.
It is quite simply delightful, I sat there open mouthed for most of the film with an expression of wonder and bemusement on my face. The film moved from scenes of quiet beauty to the surreal and back again, though never losing the audience in it's wake. It's nice to see a film that knows when to take a breath and just let the audience take in the beauty on sceen without filling it with action.
It's a film filled with wonderful characters, evil sorceresses, radish spirits, soot spites and dragons, did I mention dragons?
It's also very good fun all round, it's funny and moving but doesn't stray into mawkish sentimentality like certain films by certain animation studios. I can almost guarentee you'll come out of the cinema with a bit stupid grin on your face.
Oh the other good news is that Miyazaki's next film is going to be based on Diana Wynne Jones' Howls Moving Castle. It's all good.
After Life, a collection of photographs of Streatham Cemetery taken around dusk or dawn, watch for the birds and flowers.
[via Styleboost]
Answers to Arwel
1. Be it real or fictional, what is your dream job?
CEO for a publishing house for the stuff I thought was cool. Web and print media, maybe doing all types of games as well. We'd never run out of money, and have clients that included Mythlogical creatures, and have a author base of all the lost talent in the world.
2. Would you ever try and organise another convention?
Yes, provided I wasn't handling the money, had about 8 reliable people living clsoe by helping and someone else handled the site logistics. I'd love to see pagga.con done, but organising it with only Mark and Sarah J in the main team taught me a lot of important lessons about my limitations.
3. What one item would you like to invent?
Chlorophyl skin. It's a symbiotic plant that coats the skin in a lovely green sheen, provides vital nutrients to the body and use CO2. Zap pow, the problems of world hunger, discrimination and greenhouse gases significantly reduced in one fell swoop.
4. Given the chance, which one work of art would you destroy?
Ugh, what a horrid notion. Granted, some works of art are bloody awful, but entropy seems to do for art the same way it does for us all. I would move the bloody Gateshead Angel though. I'm sure Newcastle would prefer some more investment than a rusty bit of iron, they've got plenty of that.
5. What does London need?
Less people. There's a lobby that believe Londoners should be taxed less as it's got loads of industry. I'd love to see the looks on the faces of those greedy sods if someone went "You're right, lets move the industry about a bit'.
Move all the SFX work to Leeds, all the games designers to Nottingham or Swindon, All the Print Media to Machester, and so on. You'd reduce the population and scotch the notion that certain kinds of business have to be in the cpaital because 'everyone else is'. Also you'd need better public transport acroos the contry, so that'd be a fine thing.
Yarrr!
It's talk like a pirate day. Yarr, shiver me timbers etc.
Have survived it by quietly getting on with my work...
Click on the 'continue reading' link below for answers to Andy Raffs questions.
Click here for the rules...
1) You have a choice between eating your own flesh (cooked) or someone else's (also cooked). Which one do you go for?
Depends where the someone elses flesh came from and how urgent the need was. Assuming someone living is going to get hurt out this, then I've no problems with it being me provided I and the others have a better chance of survival. If it's a corpse and I'm going to die, then the corpse is for the roast.
2) Why is there evil in the world?
The dramatic way of putting it is: Because Mankind exists. But that's misleading.
What I mean is: Good and Evil are a matter of perspective. I don't belive in Good or Evil, but I know the difference between right and wrong. Hurting a child is wrong, because they ensure our survival, which is why I feel the instinct to protect children. Culture gives me a whole host of other reasons, but fundamentally, hurting children is wrong.
I'd like there to be a defeatable force behind all that is wrong with the world (which is concept behind the idea of evil) because it implies that it could be stopped. But I don't think there is.
Why do people do the wrong thing? There's as many reasons for that as they are people.
3) Who is the person in history who you think most messed up their chance to make the world a better place?
Everyone in the world. Any day ever. Because one person can make a difference. Happens all the time.
A less dull answer would be one of the Roman Emperors/senators involved in the decline of Rome (not sure which one, possibly the one after the last Caesar.). Had the empire stood I think we'd have less wars across Europe, been more advanced socially and technologically and I think, eventually, the freedoms we enjoy now would have appeared earlier in the Earth's history. They did have a republic, but they let it collapse.
Either that or any American president for not sorting out the inherent problems of capitalism in that nation sooner.
4) Tell me three good things about Call Centres.
Short answer: I can't. OK, I'll try.
i) They add jobs to an area. Actually they use a US model of employment practice which helps keep the statistic of long term unemployed lower, which allows governments to ignore the real issue for longer, but they do provide much needed jobs.
ii) The temp agency that employs you typical gives you a free pen or mug holder. The world needs more mugs and pen holders.
iii)They allow queries with companies to be processed faster, which is a good thing. Of course, you may rather want it to be processed efficently and be able to refer to single source should there be a problem, but quick is cheaper to do.
5) Honour, Glory or Wisdom?
Wisdom, every time. Honour is important, without it no one will trust your word, but without wisdom you won't knowwhen to give your word. Glory is good for the soul, but without Wisdom you won't last long. So I'll take the wisdom, and still not get past the status of a cub...
Answers to Delvy...
1) What are your concerns about Maelstrom?
That Matt Pennington will begin to believe his own hype, not listen to people and disappear up his own arse. Or that he'll listen to the frothing fanboys (and girls) and end up producing a game that has no character of it's own and is merely a collection of 'would it be cool if...' ideas, possibly involving magic using vampires in robot armour... with flintlocks.
Also that people on the ref team will be arses, I got to know and trust Paul, Elle, Juliette, Matt, Super-ref and the others, I don't know the new ref team yet, so I'm a bit wary.
2) Is Pagga worth the effort?
Yes, there are times when I might consider throwing the whole thing in but they have been mercifully rare. We started Pagga because there was no where to discuss the how and the why of Live-Roleplaying apart from in certain company in the pub, we wanted to get people talking about the whole thing, not just about how cool people's games were and how many lammies and levels their characters had. The fact that people can now talk about things like Racism(both in game and in the real world) and Drugs in LRP like adults for the most part make it all worthwhile.
It's also very gratifying to see people making connections and going to games that they heard about through Pagga, gives me a warm feeling inside does that.
Even the train wreck that was Pagga.con, now that time has allowed certain wounds to close, was I think worth it. A valuable learning experience you might say and it also made us put ourselves about a bit in larping circles. I no longer consider it to have been a total waste of a year of my life for a start.
3) How terrified are you of impending Oz trip?
Moderately so, visting parents can be traumatic, Sarah's had time to get used to the fact that my family are loonies, I'll only have a week to get to know Sarah's. Vague worries that I'll say the wrong thing or come on a bit stong, I can be a tad overprotective of my beloved at times. It's going to be 'interesting' to say the least.
4) You get to run one game with a limitless budget. List the twenty people you are allowed to have play.
Oh my that's a tricky one, ok lets see...
Andy Rafferty, Ben Stewart, Kelly West, Jez, Abi Fisher, Dave Silk, Ian Andrews, Camilla Field, Morgan Nash, Rob Thompson, Chiara MacCall, Paul Foxcroft, Jen Adamson, Ed Fortune, Chris Parr, Harry Harold, Mike Newton, Heather Macdonald, Richard Smithson, Heppie Curtis.
*phew* That was difficult, people who aren't on that list would probably be grabbed as crew, in fact quite a few of the people who'd be on my 'ideal crew' list are on there as well. Who are they? People who've run games for me before and I'd like to return the favour, also roleplayers worthy of respect, but there are many, many more people who should be on that list.
5) How do you think I think of you?
Errrm, well meaning, ethusiastic to a fault, loud, scatterbrained and random, the kind of person who believes in the adage 'Friend's help you move, real friends help you move bodies" ?
Any one want to interrogate me some more?
The rules to this game can be found here.
1) What would be your ultimate game?
A game where I get to live in a city full of people playing the same game, all the time. A game of conspiracies, weirdness and going to work in the morning. Basically, the Truman Show but everyone is a illumanti style conspiracy head, and we're all in on it. Maybe some of us are trying to escape, maybe some of us are trying to put Princess Di's head on the throne.
Then I'd need a holiday after it ended.
2) To use Cam's famous qustion, what do you think I think of you?
I hope I come across as friendly and pleasant company. I do tend to ask lots of questions though, so probably curious, and I tend to appear haphazard in my manner and thinking, so that as well.
3) What worries you most in life?
I try not to worry to much, because I can overanalyse, and working in both current affairs and the environment soon put paid to me fretting about the world overly. I tend to worry about my actions harming other people a fair bit though.
4) You can only save one book when the revolution comes. What is it and why are you saving it?
Probably the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery . Because in a world where I have to save books it's important not to forget dreams.
Or George Orwell's 1984 or a compilation of his journalism, just so the revolutionaires are forewarned. (and it's probably had the most impact on my life. Orwell is responsible for me being a journalist).
5) You can choose one game world you have played in to live in, cos this ones going. Where do you go?
Very few of the tabletop worlds appeals, so lets look at LRP. It's tempting to say Aliensphere, because I look just like the one the gods in that one :), and I love sci-fi. Grand Design's Archipeglo appeals, though I suspect the Sea Princes would have me taken away as a 'dangerous artifact' the instant I got there. Probably Midgard, because that blend of history and fantasy fascinates me, and I could make a decent life for myself as 'wise'.
Been away from a while, so excuse the 'aren't I great' post.
Had family stuff to do this weekend, so I missed a huge chunk of JFS's B-day bash, though I did get to stop in at B-movie, congratulate the hero of the piece and introduce people to the lovely red-haired troublemaker that is our fourth house mate.
Then a mad dash home to South Shields which is near Naboo, according to Lucas Arts. (Funnily enough, my old bedroom in Shields looks right out onto the Priory, and I never, ever saw R2-D2...)
Got to catch up with old friends, such as the charming Mr Polley and Erika Tanith, as well as talk at length with Wulfboy about Legacy. Old fans of Andy's Vampire LRP game should get excited. Right now. Legacy sounds a 100 times better than Vampire ever was. So their.
Also got to play Midgard on the Sunday. Lot's of fun, a nice mix of history and fantasy wyrd-ness. Though it did lead to Rich 'Minok' Bull chasing me around a field for a while (he was playing undead, I was being terrified). Very Benny Hill, as fat blokes shouldn't run across forests. Still, got to be all dramatic, so I had fun.
More eye candy at the Hubble Heritage Gallery and at 3D World (some pages not worksafe).
Jenny Everwhere begins takeover of known universe share and enjoy.
Warren Ellis shows us his public... and it's not pretty, as one of them said, "shave puny humans, shave". (Scroll down for the whole sorry mess). Btw does anyone know the Pirate on the bottom right?
Now that I've caught my breath I'd like to do a big shout out to all the people I met at B-Movie for JFS's birthday and the very convival barbeque the next day. It was just nice to kick back and chat to people I normally only get to see at events.
Hello to *deep breath*
Pax_draconis who I met as a passing pedestrian in the night.
Delvy who is a joy to plot and froth with. He also resisted my attempts to pump him for Maelstrom insider info, apart from to drop some tantalising hints, damm his eyes.
JFS's partner Liana who's lovely.
Womble who dances like a madman and was a pleasure to speak to in a non-fictional sense finally.
Boglin who tragically did not satisfy her urge to climb a wall.
Ephraim who told me a tale of a very old skool larper, must try and keep a straight face the next time I meet the 'hero' of the tale.
Didn't spend nearly enough time chatting to Roz, Simon and Lupercal.
Big up to Gary (aka the Khan) who is so much nicer than the character I knew him as :), also to the gravel voiced Stefan and the rest of the mob I met in downstairs in the chill out nook. Hi to Kate from the Incators as well, groovy to finally meet you.
In short a good time was had by all, really must do that again at some point.
Middle-earth sets museum record
The Lord of the Rings exhibit at the Science Museum has smashed all records as people rushed to book tickets for it's opening tommorrow, it's set to run from 16 September 2003 to 11 January 2004.
Well I'm drooling at the prospect of going to this, but at almost a tenner a shot I suspect it may be a while until I find the time and money to go during the week sans crowds.
But with exhibits of Arwen's riding costume, Galadriel's beaded dress and Gandalf's robes along with a corridor filled with armour and weapons from the films I suspect I will find it difficult to stay away. I also know a number of costume and weapons makers who will be camped out in said exhibition with pad and pencil taking copious notes.
Geeks? You Betcha.
In a bold move to strike out and do what everybody else does, Mark and I have decided the ressurect the Question Meme from it's dirt filled hole, as we weren't really part of it when it first showed up.
Both Mr Wilkin and I will ask five questions each. Likewise, throw questions at the pair of us. Keeping in theme with the meme, here are:
THE RULES!
1 -- Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 -- I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 -- You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 -- You'll include this explanation.
5 -- You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed
Greenpeace have found evidence that the White House may have provoked an Exxon funded think tank to sue the EPA over a study on climate change.
The Memo from Myron Ebell of the Exxon-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute to Phil Cooney, a senior official at the White House Council for Environmental Quality, begins "Thanks for calling and asking for our help."
Well I hope they get an absolute kicking over this, pity we don't have a decent Freedom of Information Act over here, The Hutton Enquiry shows what interesting things we might find out that the Government doesn't want us to.
In the begining was the word, and word was "one, one, two, three four... - Terry Prattchet, Soul Music.
Scientists have discovered that Black Hole's can sing. Apparently they do B-flat quite well.
Maybe the Greek's weren't too far of with the music of the spheres after all.
Or maybe someone has left a very big stereo on. Still, I'm sure Simon Fuller already has the contract for The Black Hole Band written up, and at least they'll have more personality than Pop Idol...
I'm looking forward to Jump London tonight on Channel 4 at 10pm. The idea of people cheerfully running across the rooftops of London just like ninjas or superhero's is immensely appealing.
I should probably mention Roofworld by Christopher Fowler at this point, a book where tribes of dispossesed street people fight above rooftops, swinging rooftop to rooftop using wrist mounted harpoons and rope bridges. Christ T raved over this book for ages up in Sunderland and when I was finally badgered into reading it I understood, not as well written as say Neverwhere but it's one of those books in which the ideas just shine through.
'Le Parkour' running first crossed my mental radar when Warren Ellis used it in his occasionally brilliant Global Frequency. It's the kind of thing that seems to appeal to skateboarders and others for whom flinging themselves off buildings at high speed holds no fear. I'd never do it as I value my limbs in working condition but it's inspiring to see these lunatics doing it anyway.
Oh random cool web design link of the day is IconSouthBeach, poke it a bit and then try shutting it down, I like websites that are this daft.
Right. I've decided to declare war on genre-writers who refuse accept they write genre, partially brought on by an article on web logs by this smug, supercilious twat.
There's a kind of literary smugness that assumes that anything that isn't straight fiction, or mainstream writing, or even in a new medium is somehow lesser. Which is absurd. What's worse is that perfectly well written, thoughtful and intelligent novelists have declared that their fictional stories about a dystopian future isn't 'Science Fiction'.
Science Fiction writer Margaret Atwood recently declared that sci-fi was about '"talking squids in outer space" and thus, her work wasn't remotely sci-fi. My initial thought was 'so the Handmaiden's Tale is a documentary then?' . And then worried that someone who writes such a bold, intelligent novel is concerned that they might be lumped in with Star Trek Voyager fans.
Max Barry, author of a similarly dystopian novel Jennifer Government has voiced similar concerns. If Sci-fi is good enough for socialist and author George Orwell, it's good enough for Max Barry.
Oh, a Pride and Prejudice is a romance novel. And not a very good one at that, though it could be improved by the presence of talking squid.
In utterly unrelated news, I've got the Gulf War Song stuck in my head. There's no excuse for it, though I do hope I haven't infected Mr Polley with the same meme, as he called just as the housies decided to serenade this this tart with it.
'A football is round, a game lasts 90 minutes. That's for sure. Anything else is merely hypothetical.' - Run Lola Run
Would you like to play a Game?
It's called BUG (Big Urban Game) and it's being played right now in Minneapolis and St. Paul in the states on a board 108 square miles big. The object is to get one of three playing pieces round the route in the quickest time. The public can vote on the choice of routes and help role the dice to see who gets a speed boost every night.
It's a marvellous, surreal idea that's all about educating people about their cities and provoke discussion about how 'public realm design could be improved — from streets to transit to parks and other urban amenities', but it's also an excuse for a bunch of people to run around the city with a giant inflatable playing piece.
It reminded me tangentially of The Game and the trouble that people can get into playing LRP in public spaces *cough* Birmingham Vampire *cough*. It's a pity really because I would love someone to run a wide ranging multiple site live-action game, with teams driving round in cars, communicating with mobile phones and the internet and doing secret meetings in service stations and the like. *sigh*
It would cost a fortune and would probably get everyone involved arrested, but it's still a cool idea.
Hmmm. If I put in1975 instead of 75 I become a Saviour of the Universe. But I don't want to do that...
Zombie Infection Simulation v2.3. Observe how the average city quickly falls to infection, if only those poor pink dots had access to a helicopter...and napalm.
[Via www.barbelith.com]
Artcoup.com, beautiful black and white photography of Cuba, Eastern Europe and the Streets of New York.
One of those sites that makes you step back, take a breath, contemplate and think 'yes, that is what the internet is for'.
Promise to self, must start taking photographs again, soon.
Ladies, Gentlemen and O'Malley, I propose a game of the most English and traditional kind.
Moves should be placed on one's Live Journal or log, and then the previous player informed via the comments box. Or just stick your moves in the comments box. Whatever's easier.
Savages unfamilar with the rules should check here, here, or here. And of course, the board is here.
No Freakish variants will be permitted, and I request that you all ignore Profrock's rule until at least the second round, as I'd like the avoid an early case of Nip.
So with out Further ado, my first move is:
Neasden.
Swoon at my skill.
You may have seen Samorost before but if not it's a wonderful little Myst style puzzle game. Reminds me a lot of the Clangers and Button Moon in many ways, still haven't got very far with it though.
Or there's Chasm, see if you can work it out, I've never got past the pumping station.
And for just weirdness, try the Egg, lots of fun things lying round that site if you explore.
Wulfboy and Pax Draconis recently mentioned how strongly they dislike planes. I am lucky I have little fear of planes. I did have some caution about the whole 'letting someone drive an enormous tube of fuel in the sky on your behalf" thing, but a trip to Scotland cured me of that. How so? Let me explain.
A few years ago, I took it upon myself to explore the country next door, visit friends, and basically roam around explaining to various Scots that Hadrian's Wall is only 3 feet high now, and they can come over and visit any time. Part of my visit took me the Scottish Isles.
For the geographically impaired, to get to most parts of the Hebrides, you either take the ferry or the small commecial plane, of the kind they use in 80's cop shows.
It was pretty cool. There I was, sitting in what basically a glorified cargo hold, eating my home-made style brekfast, thinking 'This is like a B&B. But in a airplane'
Until I noticed the guy wielding a broom.Pounding the living shit out of the engine. With a the brush bit of a broom.
Now, being English, I politely, oh so politely, asked what the hell was going on. Note the calmness of me. At no point did I scream 'What the Fuck is going on'.
I was told not to worry. No explanation given.
At this point I mentioned that though said cleaning implement was very versatile, I wasn't aware that was part of aircraft maintenance. After all, I'd never seen enormous brooms in the airports around the world being used to clobber 747 engines.
The pilot calmy told me that it was so cold that the water vapour from the engines turns to ice. Which had to be removed by a skilled operative, which, to the untrained eye, may look like some lunatic smacking the hell out of engine.
Reassured (and left with little choice) I got back on board the plane. It was a nice flight, and the sea looked very rough indeed. Didn't stop me from taking the ferry on the way back though.
Now, being born in Autumn, I've always like the cold and the rain. Cold air has the illusion of bringing things into sharp focus. And there's something to be said for wandering around in the snow wearing a light jacket without shivering whilst laughing at Londoners because it's 'a bit nippy'.
I have another reason though. The rain makes London's air hurt me less. The Capital City, our lovely, ancient cradle of empire, is a dirty, stinking thing with horribly toxic air that makes me sneeze funny. So I think charging drivers to pollute the city with the The Congestion Charge is a great idea. Less cars = happier me.
Of course, the The Evening Standard hates the idea of people shelling out £5 because they can't be arsed to walk anywhere, but then the Evening Standard represents everything that's bad about the city, right down to it's blackened, greedy, self centered heart.
My point? For some reason, car users need another bridge across the Thames. Because London needs more pollution...
(ps. Please us our comments box...)
Funny because it's true. (special thanks to Andy Mason aka King Andy for the link.)
