So I'm here to wipe some information off my profile.

But as I'm here, I thought I'd post a blog. I've been reading Fairyland by Paul McAuley. I really like it. I picked it up it was one of the books bought out by Gollancz under their 'Future Classics' margue, Some of the other Future Classics are book I really like: such as Altered Carbon and Hyperion, others are books that I really want to read: like Blood Music.

The think is, though Fairyland is good, it is the first time I have read 1990s SF and found it dated. In the way that 1980s SF is dated - with the big hair, mirror-lensed cyberpunk, or 1950s SF with it's vision of rocket packs.

So why does 1990s SF date? - well it's trying too hard to be dystopian. The future England of Fairyland is so fucked by climate change and Sellafield going up in smoke and all the rest of it, that I'm surprised there hasn't been a revolution. And half the dystopia is ripped from the headlines of the day: e.g: homeless mentalists wandering with sponge-like brains because they have CJD. (Though it was wierd to read about the Trans-European Express departing St Pancras station in the week that St Pancras International opened, Mr McAuley does get Nostradamus points for that).

 The lesson seemeth to be: don't be too dystopian: give your grey cloud of a crumbling future civilisation somd kind of silver lining; and don't base your future on scaremongering straight out of the Daily Mail.

Anyway, I haven't finished the book yet and overall it is very good. Just ... 1995 is now a long time ago.

 

 

 

 

God, it's been awhile. But I am still here, still breathing. In summary, since last time I was here I have:

 

- written very little

- got a tattoo

- had a birthday

- almost sold a house and almost bought a house

- been to work a lot

- been to London once

- not killed any co-workers or family members

- seen Transformers at the cinema

- read some books

- drunk some beer

- drunk more coffee than I have beer

- joined Facebook

See you in a few more months

I have writer's block and the internet is not helping.

...

How we learned to stop having fun

MOD Futurology - Bring it on!

And:

 

 

 

Your results:
You are Dr. Doom ..> ..>

..> ..> Dr. Doom 66% Magneto 61% Apocalypse 61% Lex Luthor 53% The Joker 51% Juggernaut 51% Mr. Freeze 51% Venom 48% Dark Phoenix 47% Green Goblin 47% Catwoman 37% Poison Ivy 36% Mystique 35% Two-Face 35% Kingpin 29% Riddler 22%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz

 

 

Been busy. I have a new laptop:-) but it came with Vista. So much of my normal writing and blogging the last two weeks has been spent getting Firefox to work (uninstalling McAfee helped) and tweaking the new system. I still don't have any working Antivirus software - despite buying Norton Antivirus 2007 two months ago - and my MP3 players - a Creative Zen Sleek, only 2 years old - won't interface with Vista; and Creative aren't releasing a new driver.

Still, the system is very pretty. And I'm sure that I will make it do everything I want it to ... eventually, and for the rest of it's life.

no other real news. Watched Immortel on Friday night. Sheer brilliance. Recommended.

 

 

Today we will settle for just aarghhh! Head hurts - thanks to the wife's home-brewed ginger wine. Survived the last few weeks. The good bits have been Valentine's -  the local cinema does a morning viewing thing where you can watch films with under 12 month old babies, so saw Notes on a Scandal, which is excellent, and the only the British film I've seen in the last ten years that isn't either a romantic comedy or gangsters-flick (ala Lock, Stock ...) or zombie movie (Shaun of the )

Works okay. Busy. I have the new Bloc Party album, which is 10x better than I'd thought it'd be. Doing some writing, not as much as I want, but some.

That's about it. Surving. Fighting the good fight. And drinking ginger wine.

Recovered from the hell-virus last week. Slowly getting back into the swing of things, This weekend was mostly spent with a bit of indoor climbing on Saturday morning, and then DIY for the rest of the weekend. Though Saturday nacht we broke for Chinese Takeout and The Last Kiss on DVD - excellent little film, everyone in it is very fallable and human, and the only person who makes any mistakes where-they-should-know better is the lead male. I really liked it.

Will get my writing head back on. Had a rejection from one market, so after a bit of redrafting and polishing, have sent two more stories out.

Will let you know more.

Feeling very of the loop. For start it is Monday, 10 am, and I should be at work. But as I spend Saturday night from 2 am to  2pm (Sunday afternoon) barfing - and no, this wasn't due to alcohol, but a stomach virus - and I haven't eaten anything more substantive than a bannana in the last thirty-six hours, I'm kinda feeling spacey.

My legs hurt, my head is swimming. I think I have caught a cold on top of the stomach virus. I'm going to take the day very slowly - it's an improvement that I can use a PC today - and crawl my way back to the land of the living.

Good things though, I have the Radio 1 Live Lounge album, which is fairly awesome.  Favourite's so far are My Chemical Romance's cover of Song 2, Artic Monkey's covering Girls Aloud's Love Machine, and Queens of the Sone Age's acoustic version of No One Knows.