Writing the novel is happening in Google Docs. See how well it goes. Nice to not have to worry about where I save stuff, and not have to wait for a bloated Windows app to load… although not sure how well it’ll cope with multiple files if/when I get to that point.
Fantasy football
My teams are doing incredibly badly. I really need some professional consultancy. If anyone wants to recommend some players that might actually get me some points in the Metro FF league, I’d appreciate it.
At least Spurs won today. Oh yeah.
Masthead + lens flare == great
Kieren was writing recently about Edelman/Technorati’s top 100 blogs list. Whilst I’m slightly sceptical of the entire premise of their ranking system (not Technorati’s link authority rating, but rather Edelman’s determination of which blogs are ‘UK’, etc), I did find Kieren’s comments on blog mastheads quite interesting. His theory:
…why do only 50-odd other blogs link to mine? That has always seemed like a healthy number but when I compared to others, even the most mindless, waffling, regurgitators of nonsense get more links.
So I took a fresh look at my blog and realised – it’s me! It’s my stupid mug staring down at people that has done it. I’ve crossed some invisible blog cultural boundary by having my pic up in the header of my blog and I’m suffering because of it.
I have the same issue! I’ve been thinking for a while that my masthead needs a redesign, and whilst I expect few of the readers of my blog would have the time or inclination to help support those efforts… I figure you might have an alternate suggestion for the picture I’m using above. What would most effectively represent what I’m doing here? Any suggestions welcome. And if I get to use a lens-flare effect, that’d be great. I love that lens-flare effect. It is awesome.
Post in the comments or email me at the usual place! If I use your suggestion I’ll get you something nice. Like a bear claw.
Ah, a great afternoon of writing
Sure, there’s been some procastination, online chatting, gaming, TV watching and general timewasting, but the story seems to be coming together! It’s never as quick as I think it’ll be, but looking at my plan, I seem to be about 2,300 words into a story that’s going to be about 12,000 words long, so that’s some progress. The idea is that this will form the structure of the novel, and give me a sense of whether the story has potential, and is worth turning into a full book.
So far, there are mystery men in long coats, football, a pool bar, a curious metal plate, a crazy prophet, a robot in disguise, a bully, two heroes and a tripped out mother. It’s getting exciting! And I haven’t even introduced the baddy yet!
This bit’s really tough, though, as there’s no need for the whiteboard. I’ve done that stage of the writing and now I just have to sit around, by myself, tapping away until I get the story out. Still… a dream’s a dream, and you gotta give it a shot. Watch this space.
Rewatching Clerks
The first Clerks was genius. After the weeks I’ve just had (busy as anything!) envy Randall’s job so much. Sitting around doing nothing but insulting people and watching movies. I could really do with a day of doing that. Or two.
Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager
Discovered this while checking out G4TV’s ‘daily nut’ video podcast (no link love as its really, really terrible, but does point you in the direction of occasional cool web things).
Check out Chad – proper geek humour right here.
The D
I know I’ve been a bit lazy on this blog lately. Life has been busy and will continue to be. But I’ll put up a few bits over the weekend, starting with this:
Every other trailer I’ve seen for this movie makes it look absolutely terrible, which saddens me as I think there are few who can rock as hard as the D. Whilst I still think the movie is going to be bad, this trailer does ROCK.
Today, I…
…asked a ninja. Thought my question was amusing, but the askaninja autoreply made me laugh more…:
The Ninja will read your question carefully and then decide whether or not it’s interesting and funny.
If it is, he’ll answer it and look forward to killing you soon.
If it isn’t, he’ll still kill you, but he won’t enjoy it.
In the mean time, please go to http://askaninja.com and connect with your fellow ninjas and pirates.
So you’ll know where I be if I stop taking calls. I’ll tell you what the question is when I know if he makes the episode or not, which we’ll discover in the next two-three weeks (it’s seasonal, so suspect that he’ll want to run it in the next few weeks or never).
Torch + wood + H + D = Angel + Wales
Thanks to Tom, not only did I get to pretend to be one of the fabulous Lib Dem gliterati (as opposed to the mere Lib Dem sympathiser that I am), but I also got to see a preview screening of the new BBC3 drama Torchwood.
V. exciting. It is basically Angel, in Wales. The leading lady is awesome, and the leading dude, despite his decided Americanness, does have a long coat. And is also called Captain Jack. And whilst he’s no Jack Sparrow, Jack Harkness does like to stand on tall buildings, which, in HD, looks spectacular. Maybe also not in HD, but the HD looked good.
Tom observed that, like Buffy and Angel, Torchwood is a spin-off set in a city to the west of the original**, about a man, who is immortal, with some kind of detective agency. Biggest difference is that they’re fighting Aliens, not demons (though they look similar) and that Torchwood is based out of Cardiff… debatably less glamorous than LA. That said… it looks great!
Anyway, ’twas much of the goodness. Have set my Tivo to record. Would recommend you all to be watching. Very nice!
**…the original being Doctor Who, which the observant of you will notice, is an anagram of Torchwood… and vice versa…
Music deconstruction
Writing a bit more music lately has had me dissembling the music I listen to in my head. I used to be good at this – when I spent a bit more time with my guitars, back in the day, I could isolate a track and work out the chords/bass lines were with some success (for songs of a certain (low) level of complexity). These days, have somewhat lost the knack but thinking in terms of multi-track recording is helping. At any rate, it’s adding a layer of enjoyment to my appreciation of it all.
Although I still don’t listen to the lyrics well enough to sing along, but that is probably a good thing…!