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June 21st, 2005

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March 15th, 2005

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March 9th, 2005

12:21 am - warning: spoiler in user icon... I had to do it. I feel so filthy but I had to do it. I finally installed BitTorrent, for one reason only. The new Doctor Who got leaked to the internet. A preview/workprint of the pilot episode. And it's like Oscar Wilde used to say: "I can resist anything, except temptation..." Damn, it's good! The new TARDIS console room is so... alien. I'm not 100% sold on the design, though it's a great break from the cheap one that they used in the 1980s, and it DOES feel alien. It has this great Farscape quality about it - artistic yet spare, and none of the Star Trek "every button has to be realistic" thing going on. It's abstract and cool. I think as with any series, the characters will take a little while to settle, but I'm not disappointed. Christopher Eccleston can't seem to decide on whether he should be dark and brooding or zany, and comes off at times very nicely dark, but mostly like a low-rent Tom Baker. I think it's very promising and it's nice to see a companion who's a bit feisty... even if she is an ex-teen pop star. There's a lot of very knowing references to the original, too. I'd say 8/10 ... but roll on seeing the final version and the other 12 episodes! Current Mood: doctorin' the TARDIS

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March 7th, 2005

10:46 am Shame about that last entry. It's amazing how real-life stuff like coursework, lectures and a long commute can get in the way of good creativity... although I do have some little alpha-test moodtheme icons, and a 60% full list of shots I'm going to use to make them. I've also knocked up some ideas for regular icons (some in similar styles, some arty, some fun) off the same sources, including a couple of animated ones ("My fandom has tribbles!"), and sketched out an idea for a "These are the voyages" website page. Yes, I want to celebrate my long-standing fandom of classic Star Trek. Meanwhile, I'm dabbling more and more in opensource software. I've got, amongst other things: Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Thunderbird (which I'll tie into my gmail account, eventually) OpenOffice.org (looking forward to the new v2 final release!) The Gimp (not quite up to speed, but getting there - just as good as Photoshop!) PhotoFiltre (hopefulnebula likes this one...) Paint.NET (sponsored by MS, but it still rocks) Blender (3D modelling... I'm useless at it!) I'm also looking for other free/opensource apps (just found a decent HTML/CSS-writing app), and I believe there are lots of really good games out there... the tactical SST (Super Star Trek) clones, the dungeon crawl Falcon's Eye, and abandonware galore! Perhaps it's almost time I transitioned to Linux... Current Mood: geeky

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12:18 am Not much to talk about this weekend, really. Just a couple of little things at work, like the boss is FINALLY seeing sense over some of my ideas, and I did an awesome remerchandising of our wall o'toys on Saturday. On a typical week we do less than £20 of business from back issues, and yet they take up well over half the space in the shop, so we're thinking of trying to clear out anything more than two years old to a specialist bulk dealer to recover some cash; that way we can rip out the bins and put in a bookcase or two, perhaps re-task the wall to shelving for kits or more figures. We're also thinking it might be time to clean and repaint some areas, and to get rid of the pretty-much-unsellable videos so we can put the high-risk shopliftables (like, say... Yu-Gi-Oh! cards) behind the counter. Also working on a mood theme, based on classic Star Trek. I may even find somewhere to put a zipfile, if people like it. I'm going to have to experiment a little, but I'm considering using GIFs so I can animate some areas. TOS was awfully colourful, though, so I may need to do a lot of cropping or even go greyscale with just a single colour element (a character, a display panel, etc). I've got three deadlines in the next fortnight, plus work, plus stuff to do over Easter, so it's going to be a little busy. But once I get through this week, I'm hoping to have more time to develop the journal layout, some new icons, and my GeoCities page. (I even have some content to work on, scanning photos, writing my bio, finding my creative writing files and formatting them for the web, and so on; and I'm thinking if it "takes off" I'll find a new host. A cheap one, of course, but...) Learning HTML is a royal pain. Right now it's a bit rough and ready, but I'm hoping to make it "strict" 4.01 as I go along, do a rewrite and transfer the page parameters, something like that. Ditto for CSS; I have a very rough CSS scheme in place, but it needs some tweaks and some broadening. Current Mood: sleepy

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March 4th, 2005

11:48 pm - the new statesman You know, something just occurred to me. George W. Bush can't be illiterate, no matter how dumb he appears. Why? Well, because at some point, he's read 1984 and mistaken it for a textbook on political and national leadership. Current Mood: mischievous

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March 1st, 2005

09:43 pm - slow news days Well, I've not had a lot to post lately. Life is kind of quiet. I'm still working to a revised schedule for all the coursework. Looks like some of that paid account time is just going to lie fallow for a bit - I've got time to update, but not much for icons or styles. Or that website I keep promising to make. By and large, though, it's been a successful couple of days, aside from one very minor incident. I got my free haircut today; I know I have hair that's quite difficult to trim, but Claire (the trainee) managed a lot better than some more seasoned professionals I've known - she was slow and deliberate, taking very delicate strokes, and I'm quite impressed. I know free haircuts are all part of the training process in most salons (although some hairdressing colleges have certain afternoons aside for reduced-price sessions), but I popped to the bakery next door and bought some doughnuts for coffee breaks. Didn't cost much, and I don't see anything wrong in being kind or thoughtful. Pretty much kicked ass in today's seminar, too - Romantic & Gothic Popular Fiction, and we're starting to hit the Gothic. Big focus on HP Lovecraft today (one of my interests some years back), and my repository of trivia - literary and otherwise - came into play. Hard to believe we're now almost at the end; only a few weeks after Easter, then it's on to the third year. Managed to get some more information on postgradate courses, which is going to lead to a prospectus request later in the week. Jenny and I spent a ten minute coffee break discussing Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow... strange, really, I consider her more of a colleague than a mentor - we have so much in common, and she's a pretty unique lass. Seems almost too young to be neck-deep in her PhD. And yes, she's taken... which isn't anything I was really bothered about, but I met her boyfriend the other day. Probably better with her as a friend, anyway. The final highlight of the day was blowing through Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Not a bad little thriller, all in all - and packed full of fascinating information about religious history. Weirdly, it also has a lot of other stuff in there that's referenced by other books I've read - like the Master's Pillar and Apprentice's Pillar at Rosslyn Chapel, which also appear in one of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels. I quite enjoyed it, definitely one to store away for the summer holidays. Had a bit of a bust-up with Charlie on Monday, though... she decided to try and pull a fast one with notes and such, playing the "Please help me or I'll get kicked out" card. Unfortunately, having seen her earlier in the day, it was pretty clear that she was just being another whiny, lazy stoner. I pretty much told her to quit bothering me and put some effort in - not that I won't help her, but she has to help herself first. I think I made the right choice, because the next time I saw her, she was toking up. Again. That girl is impossible... I think she maybe needs to fail to get herself back on track. Anyway, time to pack up the bag and dig in for an hour's read, I think. Current Mood: content

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February 28th, 2005

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February 25th, 2005

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03:44 pm - a place in the sun Well, I got my chores mostly done. As I was on my way out, ( the post arrived... ) So, after that, I dropped my boots in at the cobblers to be re-soled and re-heeled (they're very comfy, hand-made Italian boots that I bought in the sales last year) - much cheaper than I expected, considering they're leather-soled. I also popped into the tanning salon to book an appointment, but they're very quiet on Fridays so I was able to get in straight away! The girl at the desk said I should start off with six minutes on the lower-powered beds til I get a bit of a tan going - pretty reasonably-priced, too. ( Lookin' good... ) So, yeah. My weight seems to be on my mind a lot today. Perhaps it's due to the trouble I'm having in finding trousers that fit. Jeans, slacks, anything... *sigh* I have to do something about it. I'm walking when I can, and eating less, but it's not helping so much because I spend so much of my day at desks and in the car. I definitely have to look at taking something up. I've got plans to start tae kwon do, but it looks like the best time will be Easter. The urge to write has temporarily evaporated. I think I'll settle down with a cup of tea and some Ramsey Campbell short stories. Current Mood: mellow

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12:23 pm - *vworp! vworp!* Reasons to go to Glasgow, #37: they have a Police Box. Anyone got a ridiculously long scarf or a small tin dog? Current Mood: geeky

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11:16 am Memo to self: facials are a marvellous thing. Cleanse, exfoliate, neck and shoulder massage, face mask and moisturiser for twenty quid. And I scored a free haircut for one afternoon next week, too. Jobs to do today: laundry, dusting/vacuuming, drop boots in at the cobbler, book a tanning bed. Coursework. Mend seam on jeans. Not much of a day off, is it? And on top of that I have to read Little Women and Marlowe's Dr. Faustus for next week. (And something off the Romantic & Gothic list, but I forget what.) Might try and squeeze in the time to finish Ringworld and either start on Foundation or plough through some Ramsey Campbell short stories. I actually feel like writing something for the first time in months. Might see if I can work up some poetry later on... or maybe something short, a snippet of prose for refinement. Finances aren't looking too good. Petrol is costing more than I'm earning, having cut back to one day a week at work for the moment. Fingers crossed, I can really blitz on selling stuff come Easter. I'll need to increase my bank balance if I'm going to enjoy Worldcon. Ah well. Time to get on with the day. Current Mood: relaxed

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February 24th, 2005

11:59 pm - the rats in the walls Well, that was certainly an entertaining evening. Ramsey Campbell read three stories, including one which got its first airing tonight and will appear in the forthcoming anthology Poe's Progeny (at least, I think that's the title), and then answered a few questions. I came away with three autographed collections of short stories, and also had a really enjoyable chat with Peter and Jenny about Worldcon... but more on that in a second. What struck me as absolutely fascinating about Ramsey is that unlike Shaun Hutson, who I met four or five years back, he's a very well-read and cultured person. (Not that Shaun wasn't interesting, but he seemed to be very stereotypical - beer, football, rock music...) We actually had a nice chat about film noir, Clive Barker's paintings, and Akira Kurosawa while he was signing books. Nice guy... shame I can't make it to his workshop tomorrow. Anyway... followed up some leads on ( postgraduate study... ) So. Worldcon. Got to borrow some cash off my folks to do the bookings, but it looks like I'm going. I expect to spend a lot of time following the academic track lectures (it's possible, but unlikely, that I will make time to write and deliver one!), and have promised Jenny that I'll be there when she presents her paper. I intend to check some of the author panels, do fun stuff, shop... but the three of us are going to get together for dinner at least once, too. Should be pretty awesome. Now all I need to do is sell my stuff on eBay and convince my boss to let me have more hours after the end of the semester, boost my cash flow... certainly gives me something to look forward to and some ideas for the future! Which reminds me... 1) only ten teaching weeks left til the end of the year, 2) module applications for next year should be out in a week. And with that, I'm off to bed. Current Mood: tired

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02:02 pm - when the going gets weird... Just popping in for the two-hour lull between the Children's Literature lecture and the seminar (we have two seminar groups, but only one member of staff - so those of us without legitimate reasons, such as children to collect from school, have a 4-6 seminar). Today, we've been covering Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and one of the class happened to mention that they had a DVD of the BBC production, which features Peter Cook as the March Hare. Unpleasant mental image: Dudley Moore as the Mad Hatter. That's not the unpleasant bit, though... but imagine the consequences. Pete & Dud doing Derek and Clive Through the Looking-Glass... Also, the comparisons between elements of Carroll's biography and Michael Jackson... I really need to go bleach my eyeballs in a minute. Otherwise, a fairly quiet day. I'm still contemplating Worldcon, because I'm actually not sure if I can afford it - though I guess if I work extra days over summer, it'll fit into the budget eventually. Attending such a big event without the benefit of being part of a group is a rather intimidating idea at the best of times, but part of me is rationalising that I might be able to hook up with people on the fandom scene, or the academic side... perhaps something of a new social life. Tonight I'm going to be away from the PC until very late on... I have a ticket for an evening with horror author Ramsey Campbell, and since it's in the campus theatre about an hour and a half after class lets out, I'm going to walk into town for something to eat and generally chill for a bit, read some more of Ringworld (no, random idiot in the corridor, I do not have a book about ringworm). Oh yes, and I'm wearing a brand-new Ben Sherman shirt. I think I might wear shirts to university more often, because it's rather smart and I'm sick of looking like a scruffy bastard. Facial tomorrow morning, and since the salon is looking for models, I may try and score a free haircut too. Current Mood: good

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February 23rd, 2005

09:02 pm - ... is still on the line Not a bad evening, all in all. Got to catch up with Rhys, ( an old friend from way back... ) He mentioned that I'm always welcome to drop by for a few days, so I might just have to pack a bag and take a little trip to Aberystwyth to relive old times and raise a little hell on the pier. Further thoughts... to hell with the expense, I think I really should go to Worldcon. It's not like I'll get the chance again for quite a few years, though I may hold back on presenting a paper. Given my schedule, I'd be rather rushed anyway. Also, ( postgraduate study... ) Oh yeah, and I'm reading some pamphlets on VSO. You never know, this time next year I might be preparing to ship out to dig wells or build mud huts or something. Strikes me as being something of an adventure, as well as a way to really better myself. Current Mood: sleepy

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04:02 pm - the road not taken Had a ( session with the counsellor... ) So maybe things have worked out for the best, after all - even counting all the obstacles along the way. I have a feeling it's meant to work out this way. On a different note, Worldcon is still an enticing possibility. I ran into Peter today, ( who said some interesting things about it... ) The down side? Their car is full, so no chance of sharing. I'll have to book the train, I suppose. But it's supposed to be a lot of fun, so I figure why not give it a go. If I really like it, I can always save for one of the overseas ones! And finally... it's almost the time of year where I need to think about which modules I'll take next year. It's also the time of year where I get to fill out the form to defer payments on my old student loans. I have about ten weeks left in the academic year, it's Easter in under a month... I can't believe I'm now two-thirds of the way towards graduation! There are Good Things™ on the horizon. I'm going to look at my options for postgraduate courses in the next couple of weeks, see if that leads anywhere - maybe I have what it takes to work in academia. I certainly feel like I've achieved something, found a new potential and the next step. The evolution will be televised... "The earth is a cradle of the mind, but one cannot live in a cradle forever." Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, Father of Russian Astronautics, 1896 Current Mood: optimistic

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February 22nd, 2005

09:54 pm - not quite miracles Four weeks after ordering them, the last of my books for this semester ( have finally arrived... ) I think out of everything I dispose of, I might leave the science fiction largely undisturbed. Yes, the Star Trek merchandise will still, largely, go. But I think in spite of being unsure, I still (largely) like literary science fiction. I skimmed some of Ringworld on my lunch break today, and I think I may have to really re-read it soon. And not just because Larry Niven is going to Worldcon. It's just starting to sink in ( how pricey Worldcon will be... ) Early lecture and counsellor tomorrow. For the rest of the evening... Ringworld and some relaxing traditional-style music from wuxia soundtracks - House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with maybe a little Mongolian throat-singing thrown in for good measure. I really should learn to buy fewer books, though. I think that car boot sale can't come soon enough. This clear-out will get finished if it kills me. Oh, and as an addition to the list of things I'm currently intending to do (lose weight, get a paid LJ account, take up tae kwon doe, re-enter the world of amateur dramatics, graduate, look at career options, finish my LJ bio, get a website, write poetry again, put my Star Trek crud on eBay), I think I can now add: brush up my graphics skills, learn to sketch, write short fiction again, and learn to use the freeware 3D CGI application Blender. Hmm. At this rate, I'll need to give up university just to keep up on my hobbies! Current Mood: relaxed

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