Grizzled Blog

In the sunshine of your loo-o-o-oooo-o-o-oooove

2011-02-08T21:17:00.000Z

Bah.

I got my funk on this evening, and not in a boogie down productions fashion, neither.

It's a spinning my wheels evening, where I feel as though everything I read on the internet only reminds me how much I have been neglecting what I should be focusing on. I read through things written by friends, or by people whose work I admire, and to be honest I find myself kind of daunted by it. I sit down and try to write something, but find myself struggling to organise my thoughts into cohesive structures. Irritating, since it was always structure that I prided myself on the most in my essay-writing days. A good structure, however spurious your argument, guaranteed at least a B in those heady university days. Or those heady post-university, writing-essays-for-a-middle-aged-real-estate-agent-who-was-doing-sports-psychology-through-Massey's-extramural-program days.

But I look over things I've done recently, and they just aren't coming together in the same way that things used to. I know practice is a big part of it. Too much writing stream-of-consciousness dithers, to little structured thought. The NaNos are great in some ways for that, but to be honest I've only had at best a skeletal idea when going into them (and no idea at all in the first one). The first two came out by fluke, but are dreadful as is. On the third one, although I finished it, I came a cropper on the lack of structure, completely devolving into silly nonsense by the final third. Oh sure, it was fun silly nonsense, but nonsense is what it was. Let me tell you this: the next time I write a novel about satanists sacrificing a shipload of passengers to their dark master, I'll treat it with the seriousness it deserves.

I need to work at it, I know. This clumsy, limited feeling I have is incredibly frustrating. It works against me, another excuse to shrug off the discipline required to keep a routine, to expand my output. I gotta force myself out of my comfort zones and make myself do work that has some purpose.

I'm tired of being stuck in our current living environment as well. We've been surrounded by boxes for months now, after our initial burst of packing enthusiasm. We've been involved in the buying of our new place for four months now, and looking likely to stretch to five, at least. Our initial packing burst, as glad as I'm sure I'll be of it come the moving date, feels a bit silly. I'm not one much for feng shui and the like, but our current flat feels increasingly like some kind of prison-cum-warehouse, where we get to go on day release for work.

Anyway, just having a little moan. If not here, then where? The good news is, I know what I need to do. Just as soon as I get all my novel revision stuff out of that box. Tomorrow.

Somebody give me three words and I'll write a (very) short story. Go on. I'll do it by the end of my next weekend (next Monday). I can't even vaguely suggest it'll be any good, but I'll crank out something.

There you go. Proactive action. I feel better already! Time to reward myself with a computer game.

Necessity is the Mother of Monsters

2011-01-24T16:25:00.000Z

So, I guess it's time for a little catch-up!

1) Shaking Out the Dustpan
So, as you may be aware, I did finish my NaNoWriMo last year, despite my lack of blogging on the matter. Not sure what happened this year, but I lacked the sense of urgency and involvement I had in the previous attempts. Sure, I still finished, but it was probably my worst effort yet, and the difficulties I had with it early on, combined with a growing disillusionment with the story I was writing, meant that I just couldn't get excited about it. Well, 50,000 words is 50,000 words, I suppose, and the failures are as important a means of learning as the successes.
2) Defrosting the Freezer
Speaking of which, I'll be going back to my revision of my 2009 effort. It's been largely stalled for quite some time now, so I'm gonna have to start again from scratch, I think. Probably not a bad thing.
3) Scrubbing the Bathroom
So the ongoing saga of our house buying is...ongoing. We're at about 3 1/2 months and counting since our offer was accepted. It's all looking fairly positive in terms of going through, but we're waiting for lawyers to their lawyerly thing. Buying in this country is a ridiculously convoluted process, and it's easy to forget sometimes that we're about to put ourselves in debt to the tune of a couple hundred thousand pounds. As a warm-up we've been buying stuff we're gonna need. We're now the proud owners of a new telly, with a sofa and a bed ordered and due for delivery in 7 or 8 weeks. Hopefully we'll be in by then!
4) Sweeping the Floor
Work has been crazy. Two people are leaving, and I am about to go back to handling the book ordering for the store. Meanwhile libraries are spending money like they're about to lose it (they are), big changes are in the offing for our building thanks to a new owner, and we've got all kind of plans for the coming year. I've done or am doing a couple of little interview things (for the FPI blog and the Comics Bureau blog) and am on a panel about selling graphic novels at the London Book Fair this year. So that'll be fun.
5) Making the Bed
Things are all good on the married front. We've taken to having a date night, not because we're desperately trying to salvage our relationship, but rather because we've grown a bit too comfortable in our routines and both miss going out and enjoying what London has to offer, especially on the food front. Unfortunate, given we're about to have to start living on a shoestring once the mortgage payments kick in.
6) Writing the Blog.
And this thing, of course! Well, I've thought about getting rid of it, but, y'know, all the points I made in my last well-intentioned but doomed post still hold true, so I'm going to keep on with it. I won't make any foolish commitments to it, but I will get to it as often as possible and try and work it into my week somehow.

And that's about it! Now, time for some Xbox...

RAAAARGH!

2011-01-17T20:31:00.003Z

*cough*

Okay...

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Five

2010-11-05T20:30:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 1,304
Total Words Written: 9,546

Still on it! Just had a couple of busy evenings.

Okay, today was my first below quota day (the first of a number, I'm sure), but I'm actually quite pleased given I only had pre-work time to do it. Happily, the big couple of days I had at the beginning And the trouble I'm having grinding out the words certainly doesn't help. I've not taken to this story yet, and the lack of research combined with what to me is an unnatural narrative style isn't helping. So far this is proving tougher than my previous efforts and seems to be taking forever to get started, but I should be getting to the meat of it soon and I'm hoping that'll enthuse me.

In other preoccupying news, out house buying has begun to proceed again after hanging in credit approval limbo for three weeks. Yesterday we were properly, officially approved for lending by HSBC, and then today I paid the surveyors to do a full building survey on the property, which they are arranging with the estate agents. Exciting times!

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Three

2010-11-03T21:40:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 1,837
Total Words Written: 6,457

Quick one today, just to say that after an unusually long journey into work and then having real trouble getting rolling, I was relieved to actually hit my word count. Still just needed before work and lunchtime, but it was dicey! For the record, my daily required count is currently 1,613.

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Two

2010-11-02T17:49:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 2,235
Total Words Written: 4,620

In many ways the second day is harder than the first. You're riding on all the enthusiasm of getting started on the first day, but the second day is only the second day of thirty, and the moment where it sinks in that you have to do this every day. Well, that's how it is for me, anyway.

So I'm still in this bloody prologue, which should come to its conclusion tomorrow. It's run on far too long, and will end up at around 5500-6000 words, I would guess. More than 10% of the total length! Well, an imperfect structure is NaNo Sin That Must Be Worked Through #1. To be honest there is a part of me that dreads finishing it. The narrative will switch to a third person perspective, and more to the point will effectively start again, which will be a little deflating given the ever-escalating nature of the prologue.

I tell you one thing: I've certainly not lost any love for writing horrific scenes. It's like tucking into a good steak.

Timing-wise, today was pretty good. I managed 1,300 or so words before work and banged out another 900 over lunch. Hopefully I can keep that up!

NaNoWriMo Update: Day One

2010-11-01T19:19:00.001Z

Words Written Today: 2,385
Total Words Written: 2,385

Here we go again!

So welcome along to National Novel Writing Month 2010, wherein I attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. It's also now about the only time my blog gets updated on a regular basis, so stick around. I'll try and update daily with my word count for that day and the total amount of words written so far. Yes, I know an obsession with word counts seems crass and anti-intellectual, but to be frank it makes for a wonderful motivational tool. A shit-spewing motivational tool, to be sure, but an effective one nonetheless.

In case you're unfamiliar with the whys and wherefores of NaNoWriMo, I direct you to their website (currently struggling under the traffic it seems): www.nanowrimo.org

In short, it's a great way to blow out the cobwebs and get you writing, regardless of quality. To dismiss the activity as a waste of time because of the focus on quantity over quality is a mistake: as a tool for learning, any writing is good writing. Furthermore, if only 10% of what I write this month is salvageable in some way, or at least passable, then that's 5000 words of decent prose I will have written. More importantly, as happened last year, I may come out with the kernels of honest-to-god Good Ideas.

So, where am I at? Well, last year's novel still sits mostly unrevised. I began revisions on it earlier this year, but fell off the wagon in a big way. I still have all the coursework from the novel revision lessons I was doing, and I fully intend to go back and pick up again next month.

This year: well, to be honest I was feeling a little shaky about it. I had promised myself I wasn't going to do fantasy again this year. It felt like the lazy option, and I really did want to push myself to write something different. Not too different, as it transpires. I've gone for horror this time around, another genre which I know the tropes of fairly well. I'll admit it it: sometimes in NaNo when you're not going in with a detailed plan you've got to take the lazy story option. I didn't really have a clear story going in, and one didn't coalesce until I was sat having a coffee this morning. I guess it has actually coalesced to some degree, so won't be a total seat-of-the-pants affair, which puts me ahead of my first effort in some way, but I'm sure a few familiar story beats will creep their way in as I struggle to keep the words coming.

On the positive side, I am quite happy with the rough idea I have. Without giving too much away at this juncture, it involves a mid-19th Century transatlantic liner, ghosts, and Satanists. Probably.

And how was the first day? Well, firstly I have to once again praise my little EeePC 2G Surf, the trilobite of netbooks and among the most reliable, hardy pieces of technology I've ever bought. Especially considering the hammering I've given its keyboard; if you've ever heard me at a PC you'll know I'm a fairly forceful two-finger typist. Small, hard-wearing, lightweight - what netbooks were always supposed to be. Oh sure, I'm damn near out of storage thanks to XP slowly eating up the 2GB internal SSD (I originally had a stripped down install that came in at around 800mb, and now have around 70mb free), but it has some word processing legs yet. Just might be time to switch back to something Linux-flavoured.

Anyway! Other than the usually tough first 400-500 words, I was pleased with how easily it went today. It was my day off, which gave me a fairly relaxed time frame to get things done, and most of the writing was done in a Nero through the middle of the day. It was nice to rediscover that great pleasure that comes with writing material you enjoy, in this case a journal-narrated prologue whose tone draws in no small part on Arthur Conan Doyle's Captain of the Pole Star. Okay, it seems to be taking a little too long to get to the point, but I'll try and rectify that tomorrow.

So we're off! Tomorrow is a work day, so I'll be settling into the early morning/lunchtime routine which worked fairly well last year. I'll let you know how that works out.

Things I Did Yesterday 31/08/10

2010-08-31T07:44:00.000Z

It's a slow burn. And yesterday I:

- Worked. A lot. I went in early with a mind towards starting at around 8am, leaving time for half an hour to grab a coffee and a bite to eat, maybe chill with a book. Completely forgot that it was the bank holiday, so *nowhere* was open. Also forgot that the West End on bank holiday Monday is a proper hive of scum an villainy. Had to go to McDonalds, negotiate my order around a leery guy who was screaming at a woman behind the counter, then just head straight to work. So it was a 7.30 start!

- Did a shedload of work on a Lambeth library buy which took a lot longer than I expected, as well as the usual things I needed to get done. Then started on the time-consuming job of prepping a department change in our EPOS system. This involved re-categorising around 7000 items of stock and remapping the till keys. This took FOREVER. I hit 8pm with just the final set-up to go (still about another hour's work) and decided I would come back in first thing on Wednesday before anyone gets in and do it then. I really should do it on the 1st for the purposes of bookkeeping, anyway.

- Came home to a very tired, hungover wife. We ordered some pizza in which took more than and hour and a half to arrive! During which we watched Whip It, which was a very middling, formulaic film, to be honest. It had promise, but just dragged things out and made far too little of the rollergirls themselves. It wasn't terrible, but I couldn't recommend it.

- Fell into bed and was asleep in record time.

Things I Did Yesterday 17/08/10

2010-08-17T20:03:00.000Z

Well, shit, it's an improvement, isn't it? Anyway, yesterday I:

- Woke up in a hotel room in Winchester, Roman town and seat of power to the kings of Wessex and later to William the Conqueror. Lovely place, where Alex had arranged for a weekend getaway to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary. The anniversary was actually on the 1st August, but she was polishing elephants, or whatever they do down there in South Africa, for her mother's birthday.

- Had as hearty a breakfast as a hotel allows (wasn't too bad, to be fair), then hit the road, headed for Lyndhurst, at the heart of the New Forest. Got stuck in the prettiest traffic jam I've ever been in, with lush forest all around.

- Lyndhurst was bustling tourist central, so we didn't spend too long there: just a quick half in a wasp-infested beer garden. Then we went for a drive, headed to Beaulieu (didn't stop at the motor museum or Palace House, as the entry was £17/head!) The New Forest impressed me greatly and we'll definitely be back. We've long talked about a camping and cycling holiday there, and this motivated us both to make it happen. Lovely, varied terrain, with ponies and cattle wandering freely everywhere, and the occasional picturesque village to boot.

- Went on to the spit at the Calshot (past picturesque oil refineries and power stations) and popped into Calshot Castle, a fortress built in the 16th Century to defend Southampton. Nice little English Heritage place, with some amazing models of old seaplanes that used to operate out of there.

- Drove on to Southampton, where we stopped very briefly for a quick drink before hitting the road back to London.

- Dropped the rental car off at the depot near Pentonville Prison, then wandered home.

- Once home we drifted off to do our own thing. I caught up on The Daily Show while Alex watched the soaps, then watched Burning Bright, a silly but fun film about a girl and her autistic younger brother trying to escape a tiger that has been nefariously let loose in their house, which has been battened down for a hurricane. Really, it's not too bad, and has a smart, resourceful female lead; nothing to take for granted in the genre.

- Watched a True Blood (speaking of silly), then hit the sack.

Things I Did Yesterday 10/08/10

2010-08-10T09:58:00.000Z

Yessir! Nothing like a grand statement of intent to really get my wheels a'rollin'! Anyway, believe it or not, yesterday I:

- Worked. It was my first day back after nearly a week off to go to my nephew's wedding in the south of Italy. Great wedding, all Italian Catholic grandiosity. We were staying in a beach resort, which really isn't my thing at all, but wasn't as bad as I'd feared. No Alex either, which always makes holidays a little less enjoyable.

- Oh yeah, worked. Well, lots to catch up on, so I barely got anything I needed to get done, done. Also, Nat is away doing his Edinburgh show with Tom & Tobi, so there's a bit more work coming from that side of things too. So surprise surprise, all of my library standing orders are now running late and I'll almost certainly be doing some late hours. Not a great first day back.

- To make matters worse, at some point on my trip I've picked up a mild cold. Not enough to be terrible, but just enough to be a pain in the ass.

- Came home and read some comics, which was a nice balm for the end of the day.

- Played a little Diablo II, which I'd started a while back but fallen away from. For a game that's over 10 years old, it's certainly still a hell of a lot of fun. I'm glad that the some-time-upcoming Diablo III seems to have taken an "if it ain't broke" approach, even if it makes their interface seem a little dated.

- Watched an episode of True Blood, which I'm finding a little tired. There's certainly nothing new on offer with it, and while it's fine as bedtime viewing for me and Alex, I can't help but think I'd rather be spending the time reading a book.

- Went to sleep. Hopefully not for a month this time!

Things I Did Yesterday 13/07/10

2010-07-13T18:25:00.000Z

Think fast! Yesterday I:

- Got up fairly early and blitzed my outstanding RSS feeds. Well, mostly, anyway.

- Wandered down to Angel and had a coffee while finishing Dan Simmons' Song of Kali. Best horror novel I've read in a long time, which really isn't saying much, but Simmons has a great style which really captures the chaos of Calcutta (as it still was when this was written in 1983), and maintains an ambiguity which never lets the book tip into ridiculousness. Good read.

- Came home and started a sort-out of my clutter-filled life, firstly involving pulling everything out of drawers and off the shelves. In the end I made nothing like the progress I had hoped. File under "developing".

- Frustrated, I went out again to the Lord Clyde pub around the corner and had a bite to eat while starting Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There, which is the only one of his travel books I haven't read. I love Bryson's stuff, the readability and charm of it. Good bedtime reading.

- Came home and tidied the lounge, then internetted a little, before sitting down to play some Xbox, then had a call from wifey. We were viewing a flat in Oakleigh Park at 5.30pm.

- Met Alex at Essex Road station and then went up to Oakleigh Park, which was very nice. Residential, so not a lot of shopping convenience, but quiet and with lots of nice terraced conversions. The flat itself wasn't anything to write home about: a ground floor conversion with two double bedrooms, it had lots of natural light and a (tiny) back garden, but just had a weird flow-through and a teeny tiny galley kitchen. Definitely an area we'll keep looking in, though.

- Met briefly with Debs for a drink, as she lives just around the corner from where we were looking. She has an amazing one-bedroom place with a good sized garden, so our requirements are certainly achievable on our budget in the area.

- Came home and ordered pizza, because we're bad. But the pizza was delicious, ordered from a place we haven't tried before. That's not really a good thing, considering losing weight is fast becoming my top priority.

- Watched True Blood, which is off to a silly start. That's not necessarily a bad thing, given that at this point in the first and second seasons we were about ready to chuck it in altogether.

- Hit the sack, read for a bit, then went to sleep. Zzzz.

Things I Did Yesterday 12/07/10

2010-07-12T14:36:00.000Z

Becaus I know you were wondering, yesterday I:

- Got up around 8-ish, and then me and Bruce (who had stayed over for an evening of Xbox and pizza) went up to Newington Green for a little brunch. Although I like to go to different places when possible, we generally end up at The Acoustic for Sunday breakfasts. Good food there.

- Came back and watched Clash of the Titans, which was a lot of fun. It was exactly the kind of trashy film I was hoping it to be (which, let's face it, is exactly the kind of trashy film the old Harryhausen flicks are). Plus I'm a little bit in love with Gemma Arterton, so that's no chore. Glad I saw it in 2-D, though. The post-process 3-D stuff just gives me a headache.

- Played a bit more Xbox. Split/Second Velocity, in case you're wondering. It's a car racing game that has a nice twist on the old combat mechanic. Basically, you are able to trigger events on the urban track ahead of you and your opponents, from lorries crashing onto the track, through mines dropping from helicopters, and even toppling buildings and crashing planes. It's a fast, exciting experience with the normal racing, but the combat mechanic really adds to it and feels quite fresh. By contrast, we also played Blur, which is like Project Gotham Racing crossed with Mario Kart. It's a nice idea, but doesn't really offer anything new. It also runs at what feels like a third again the speed of SSV, making it confusing as hell.

- Bruce wandered off, and I faffed about a little before heading off to see Predators. Disappointing, as I was hoping (based on reviews I was seeing) for a lean, fast-paced action film. Instead it meanders along through its running time with a languid start and one particularly unnecessary diversion along the way. It was still fun, but not the film I was hoping for.

- Came home, faffed a little more then watched Green Zone. It's a very effective thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed, but even one day later I feel like it's fading. It's the kind of film that in five years time I will forget even exists. Worth a watch, though.

- Found that Alex wasn't coming home, as she'd missed her last train from Wilmslow, so I broke out the coke and called in some hookers.

- Ahh...I mean, I had a bath, went to bed and read some comics. One notable one was Power Out, by Nathan Schreiber, which was originally serialized on the Act-i-vate website. Highly enjoyable coming of age story which operates on a pleasantly small scale. I liked it so much, I even emailed him to say so. So consider it recommended.

- And that's that! Hopefully more tomorrow, and maybe the next script as well!

Time Travellin' Script Reviews #3 - The Boxer

2010-06-28T12:00:00.000Z

Looking back, this Boxer script may well have been the second thing I actually completed. So very early 2002 at a guess. Ah well, no big deal. Dodgy East End dialogue aside (hey, I’d only been here just over a year), I’m still rather pleased with it for the most part, although the mockumentary format is a little done to death (read: cheap).

Anyway, on with it! Script at the link, notes after the break.

The Boxer - 1st Draft

I have a nagging suspicion the idea of a boxer who everyone bigs up but who is actually blatantly shit may have come out of discussions I had with my friends Doug and Ossie, but the idea of doing something in a mockumentary (wow, I really hate that word) style goes back to my first day of frantic brainstorming, as recounted in the first of these blog posts. The original idea was far more serious, a crime drama recounting the rise and fall of a gangland figure. I wrote a few lines of dialogue for it on that first day that actually make me physically cringe now I look back at them (I still have the original notes from that day). In the balance,
I’m happy I used the format on this.

I probably have more affection for the characters in this than I do for anything else I ever did.I admire plucky underdogs, however deluded they might be, and I feel that Jimmy is a pretty nice guy who has been used by Barry.

From what I can recall, this all came together fairly quickly, especially after the torturous development of the Jesus script. The only tricky thing I can think of was trying to tell the story while balancing screen time for the characters. It’s also the first time I tried to write something which involved quick cutaways, writing with a mind to editing. Writing with a mind to film, basically, and this was one that I did nearly go ahead with filming, thanks to its cheap, straightforward style.

Into the script itself:

Page 3: “When he were little, you should’ve seen him!”

Cor blimey guvnor, let’s have a knees up around the old Joanna. Okay, so this is something I always feel a bit funny about. Writing accents is always a fine line: too much and your script looks ridiculous; too little and you lose some essence of the character you’re trying to write. Again, this is one of those things that marks out a writer’s role in film. At the end of the day the actual dialogue will be based around the performance of an actor who will probably base his or her delivery on what they know. The script can certainly suggest accents and dialects (and should, I think), but I believe a writer needs to know when to let it go. One half-finished project I have is a radio-play adaptation of an Arthur Conan Doyle short story, with a cast composed mainly of Scottish sailors. Nightmare. That all being said, I was a resident of the East End for a while, within spitting distance of the Bow Bells, no less, so, y’know, it's all totally authentic.

Page 4: “A piano is playing in the background”

Now, to the untrained eye it may seem like I’m trying to convey the idea that the working class people of the East End have no appreciation of culture. Of course not. I’m merely-ahh-merely—oh, I guess I am. But it’s all good-natured, I can assure you. Actually, I just liked the idea that everyone was so invested in Jimmy, who actually wasn’t the talent he was being sold to be, that they were ignoring a prodigal talent under the same roof. I like to think that Rose represents a wellspring of hope, and that she will flourish within her newly supportive
environment after the end of this little story.

Page 5: “I could be sunning myself in Vegas!”

So I appreciate that it’s all a bit silly. Even if they were to support his ambitions, they would never become quite this deluded. It could be argued that painting these characters with such wide-eyed naiveté is just terribly patronising, and there is a part of me that cringes a little. But then, common as muck, me, so doesn’t that mean I’m allowed to poke fun?

Page 5: “We’re Jimmy’s oldest mates! Ain’t that right?”

Okay, so all the sequences with these guys are awful. There, I’ve said it. I don’t mind the idea of them, but in the execution they just suck. Terrible, tin-ear dialogue, for one thing.

Page 12: “EXT. COUNCIL FLATS – DAY”

This whole scene is just weird. So out of place with the rest of the thing, both in terms of featuring the interviewers themselves, and also for breaking the interview format. I certainly wanted some kind of finish with Barry, but this whole business of them being beaten up by thugs is just completely out of left field. Serious work needed here.

Page 14: “Pending getting my hands on a copy of When We Were Kings!”

Lazy bastard.

Time Travelin' Script Reviews #2 - Office Zombie

2010-06-15T18:45:00.000Z

Ahh...Office Zombie. Probably the best received of my recurring characters (yeah, I’ve got a couple, though I did always try to make each short stand alone), and certainly one of the most enjoyable to write.

(As an aside, I do find it difficult to take myself seriously doing this, when I’m essentially doing some kind of retrospective on something that never even had a second draft, let alone got made, and only a handful of people saw. Still, it’s a good exercise. Must think of it that way.)

Anyway, script at the link, rambling after the break:

Office Zombie - 1st Draft

The idea came from discussions with various people, though I believe it was Jeff Wheeler who threw out the original germ of the idea. So this skit came of that, then it kind of took on a life of its own, and I’ve still got one half-finished script for the Office Zombie Christmas Special lying about.

In terms of timing on this, it was certainly one of the first things I did after finishing the Jesus script, though I can’t remember for the life of me whether it was this or the Boxer script that was next. In the end I figured it was probably this, simply because I didn’t do a title page, something that every script after this has (I think the Jesus one was added after). In any event, it was certainly early 2002. Not too important, I guess, but I’ll do the Boxer next week, before what will probably be a string of several Office Zombie stories (I was on a roll). Anyway, it’s a quickie this week, so let’s get it done!

Page One: “in his late 20’s and rather slick. An up-and-comer.”

I have such a stereotypical idea of office guys, probably due to never having actually worked in and office. Office guys in most of my scripts tend to be slick, stylish, driven, sleazy assholes. Not true, of course. Is it? Actually, I think it comes from being a child of the 80’s, when businessmen were all self-proclaimed masters of the universe and all of that. Now they just seem to be stressed out twenty-somethings who desperately live for the weekend, ducking and diving their way through petty office politics. Wait...still not a particularly positive view, is it?

Page One: “He...ahh...he smells rather bad, sir.”

This thing of people stumbling over what they’re saying is a common feature in my scripts, and not one I think necessarily works in practice. When I’m writing it helps to make the dialogue feel more naturalistic, but looking back I think it just acts as a superficial means of creating natural speech, and to be honest that kind of naturalism in film should come from an actor, not a script. Or at least that’s how I feel now. But then I often fall into that kind of direction trap in my scripts, probably because I was fully intending to be a director at the time and, after all, production-ready these ain’t.

Page One: “Well...there’s the whole thing of personal grooming too, sir.”

Speaking of dialogue, a lot of what’s here just feels a little clunky. When I’m writing, I do speak through lines in a put-on voice for that character, but never particularly loudly, and I think the effect of muttering a line under your breath doesn’t quite give an accurate representation of how a line really sounds. And...I...really...need...to...give...the...ellipses...a...rest.

Page Two: “Well, I can only hear one person moaning here Jones.”

I really like this line. It’s always so gratifying to read back through old things and find stuff that still works for you, and this is one of them.

Page Two: “Davis...ate him sir.”

Whereas, upon reflection, the punchline here is pretty weak. Almost redundant, undercut by the previous suggestion by Jones that Davis is a zombie. It’s not a surprise that he ate someone, he is a zombie, after all.

Page Three: “THEME SONG”

The theme song, a recurring thing throughout the OZ scripts, is one of the things I enjoyed the most when doing them, but is also what probably works the least in practical terms. The idea was to juxtapose this light, breezy tune – kind of an Andrews Sisters ditty – with this horrible creature. That was important, too. I actually wanted Davis to be a bit scary, or at least a little gross. For the most part this worked throughout the scripts. I think. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. I can think of one really notable exception, actually, but ideally Davis should have always brought some horror to proceedings.

And that’s that! I think this is actually about the shortest script I did, apart from perhaps “Redundant Zombie” - the final OZ story which I never really properly formatted and don’t remember if I ever emailed it out to people. Well, we’ll get to it in these posts, I think.

Adios!

Time Travelin' Script Reviews #1 - Fishing

2010-06-07T18:26:00.002Z

Okay, so as discussed previously, I'm going to start going back through all my old short film scripts, reading through and commenting on each. It's a way for me get my head back into a script-writing mood, and I hope it's reasonably entertaining for you. If not, well, you can skip it. But I gotta fill this blog with something!

Now these won't be planned out or structured particularly. It'll just be me making notes as I read through, then doing a quick rattle through things that stand out for me. The scripts are presented as-is, unchanged from the day they were originally finished.

So, script at the link, with my rambling commentary after the break:

Fishing - 1st Draft

Let me take you back, baaack through the mists of time. A plucky young fellow had decided he needed to change the momentum of his life, to take the first tentative steps towards creative fulfilment, to meld together his love of film with an almost forgotten love of writing for the purposes of script-writing. Oh, and also film-making, but that’s not really pertinent to what we’re discussing here.

Anyway, the script above is among the first complete script ideas I had, and the first short film script I ever finished. Like most of my short ideas, it began with an image in my head and, in this case, sounds. Specifically, the image of two men sitting in a boat and the sounds of water and creaking wood. This one had a pretty torturous birth as I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing or even what the point of it was. But, like all torturous processes (except, perhaps, for actual torture) it was a learning experience. Actually, I guess actual torture is often a learning experience, just not so much for the tortured. Anyway, the best thing I got from this was the confidence to do more.

Some background: I used to write a lot. In primary and secondary school I loved to write. Creative writing was my favourite thing and I was a sucker for reading anything that fired my imagination. Reading was almost always for pleasure, as was writing. Then came university, and suddenly neither reading nor writing were as much of a pleasure anymore. It’s not that I particularly lacked the time, given that I treated much of my time at university like a protracted summer holiday, but rather that it slowly sapped the joy out of reading and writing for me. Even shitty fantasy novels, the bread and butter of my adolescence and hardly demanding fare, didn’t grab me (although it could be argued that I had largely burnt out on them at the time). I just didn’t read or write unless it was course related. Not to say I hated my courses. Psychology, the subject I was most excited about when I began, had left me cold by my second year, but I loved criminology. It’s just they became associated with work, and as a lazy 18-21 year old, the last thing I wanted to do was work. Anyway, comics became damn near my sole reading matter for years afterward (though to be fair, once I started working in a comic shop I had a hell of a lot of reading matter at my disposal, including all kinds of classic material I had never seen before), and I didn‘t write at all.

Slowly but surely over the years I started reading again, but the writing was stalled for a good long while, and with it any confidence I had in my ability. I mean, it’s not like I think I’m some kind of creative mastermind, but for a long time I had a crippling insecurity in setting words to paper (he says like he feels every word now is gold). It wasn’t until a couple of years before I left for the UK, when I was beginning to feel as though I were in a serious rut, that I started to play around with the idea of writing again, and writing scripts specifically. Not sure what inspired me on that front, but I started toying around and wrote a number of snippets, a scene here and there, a loose outline of a plot that I had no real confidence in (and not for the last time). That brief aspiration fell to the wayside before too long, and then I moved to the UK, deeper in my rut than ever, unsure of what to do next (other than working in comic shops). Then, on my 28th birthday in November 2000, sat at home during the day, more coffee than blood in my system, I had a revelation. I was going to write! It was a revelation that chiefly involved a mantra of “Why not?”, and on that day I brainstormed a number of ideas, one of which was this.

(Okay, excessive preamble, but just had to get it out of the way on this first script).

So, why Jesus and Andrew? Well I’m not a religious man, it should be said, but I do enjoy the stories of the Bible, both new and old testaments (well, especially the old). Hell, Ben Hur is one of favourite films, Timotei Jesus and all. More to the point, it was on my mind at the time, as my dad was very ill and - having found a renewed piety in his later days - had made me promise to read the new testament he gave me before I left (always referred to in our phone conversations after I left as ‘that book’, most commonly in the form of “Have you read that book?”). Now, his intention was the salvation of my soul and I’m afraid to say the mission was a failure, but I enjoyed reading that book (for the most part). The story of Jesus is an interesting one, so there was that in my choice of subject matter, but I guess more importantly was this idea of a normal man who is caught up in the doings of the son of god. The perspective of ordinary people close to greatness will always be a more interesting story to me than the perspectives of great people.

In addition, I had been on a Terrence Malick kick since Thin Red Line had come out, and Magnolia was also fresh in my mind, so I was into the idea of creating something that had a visual poetry to it. I thought the visuals of an old boat on the water as it glistened in the sun, the details of fishing in biblical times and the physicality of the men who would have lived in that time would all lend themselves to that goal.

So that was the genesis of it all. And it slowly came together in a piecemeal fashion, at a fairly tumultuous time for me for a variety of reasons, and was largely written out longhand while sitting in Russell Square in the mornings drinking shitty coffee. It’s almost embarrassing to admit now, but it must’ve taken me 6 months or so to write this first draft. Hell, maybe closer to a year from initial conception. Unlike my other scripts, I didn’t date this one, so I don’t know the exact finish date, but I’m guessing from other events it coincided with it would have been late summer, 2001. Very slow, but I really was just learning to write again and to be honest most of my writing in that period was stream of consciousness journal stuff. So, it took a while, but sparked off a run of creativity that reached a peak with more-or-less weekly short film scripts that were emailed out to a list of people for a period of around 6 months. Scripts that I intend to revisit here over the next 6 months or so.

Anyway, reading through the script now, my overall impression is how lightweight it is in terms of content. There’s not much in the way of a hook, and I guess that reflects my focus at the time, which was all about this kind of visual poetry idea. But that’s not to say I dislike it. I must admit, I find it a lot less cringe-inducing than I expected, though I don’t know if I’d consider it ready for people to see if I wrote it now. But then, showing people my stuff on first draft actually worked wonders for me in terms of just getting things done and not taking it all to heart or feeling like I was exposing myself to the world. It’s just a first draft, after all.

Okay, specific thoughts:

Page 3: “Oiling the rope of a net”

Here’s an example of “write first, research later”. I was wanting to fill this with details of fishing in the time of Jesus, but I know about as much on the topic as I know about enriching uranium, so throughout the story I make up things that I think sound plausible, with the intention of revising them later. In this case, I figure they would have needed to do something to stop the nets rotting, so would perhaps coat them in some kind of water-resistant oil or the like. Okay, it might be bullshit, but it was all about the intention of adding in fishing detail.

Page 3: “Jesus has the rough, weathered look of a man who spends more time outdoors than in.”

I wanted Jesus to be a labourer. I figured he was raised as a carpenter and had subsequently spent a hell of a lot of time in the sun walking about. He’d be weathered and probably quite tough. This did, however, result in an early reader describing him as the Marlborough Man.

Page 4: “It’s the sounds I miss the most”

It’s all about the sounds, baby! I love the sound of water lapping against the side of a wooden boat. I also love the sounds rough, worn wood makes, the thunking and creaking and scraping of it.

Page 6: “Have you seen him since?”

Guilt about leaving fathers? Hell, I didn’t even realise this was in here, or forgot about it if it was intentional. This was finished after my dad died, so I don’t doubt the fact of my leaving the country while he was sick and my inability to go back for his funeral was on my mind, let alone the subject matter. I’m sure it must have been intentional, but I honestly don’t remember.

Page 6: “Insert St Andrew’s cross into the picture”

Ouch. Now that’s cringeworthy. Still, at least I had the good sense to dismiss it if it were too blatant (though not the sense to realise it couldn’t be anything but).

Page 7: “And here in Gethsemane”

Clumsy.

Page 7: “He’s got nothing to worry about. And nor have you.”

Wait, if the business about the guilt was intentional, does that mean I intentionally absolved myself of any guilt? Nice work, Salmond.

Page 9: “Have you spoken to Simon Peter?”

Here’s the hook for me, actually, the idea that not only is he swept up in the world of Jesus, but also that his older brother is nothing but confident and strong in his belief. This was why I chose Andrew, I think: because he is overshadowed by his older brother (which is not about me this time, by the way). How can he not doubt himself, being an ordinary man placed in extraordinary circumstances, with an elder sibling who displays none of the confusion he feels? How could he not feel inadequate, being an apostle of Jesus?

Page 10: “You are still a fisherman Andrew”

BOOM! I guess that’s the hook, the payoff, the twist. But is it enough? There’s something I find dissatisfying about the ending. I’m okay with that as a twist to finish on, but the finish feels very abrupt.

And that’s it! Script number one! I hope you’re still with me, and if you are, I hope you enjoyed it! This script is the only one I’ve ever actually gone back and done a proper second draft of, so I’m looking forward to rediscovering what I did there, though that’ll be a bit down the track yet. I’m going to try and tackle these in chronological order, though some of the early ones might be lacking dates, so they might get a little muddled.

I’ll continue to do these, as they’re a good exercise for me, and even after this one I’m feeling the urge to do something new. If for no other reason than I feel like I’m cheating by just trotting out the same old nonsense. If you do have any comments to make, please feel free, either here or by email at andrewgrizzleddogcouk.

Ciao!

Okay!

2010-05-23T09:35:00.004Z

So, as an act of motivation I was thinking I might start putting up some of my old scripts with a bit of commentary. I'm hoping it might help me get back into a script-writing mentality. I'm still working through the novel revision, but I'm beginning to think it might be healthy for me to have another project on the back burner.

Oh Sara, you saucy minx.

Of course, it may turn out to be exactly what I shouldn't do, but hey, that's the wonderful roller-coaster of discovery you can ride with me on.

Wheee!

Still Alive

2010-05-23T09:28:00.005Z

And experimenting. Bear with me.

Bakery Script - 1st Draft (Full Screen)

Love is Strange - 1st Draft

Things I Did Yesterday 16/04/10

2010-04-16T08:17:00.000Z

Not given up yet. But yesterday I:

- Worked. No Josh, so I had to get in extra early to get the new comics out on the shelves and get as much of the filing done as possible. Started at 7am and worked through lunch so was able to finish at 2.30pm, which wasn't bad at all. Good morning too: got the filing finished by about 10.15. Otherwise did the Marvel advance order adjustments and worked on the till.

- Happily my throat continues to feel better. Since we last spoke I've been hit with a dose of tonsillitis, for which I am now on antibiotics. The last few days I've felt a notable improvement each day, to the point where I no longer feel it's necessary to be popping nurofen through the day. As someone who's not a fan of pill-popping, that's a good thing.

- Went home, settled in a little, and then sat down to play Mass Effect, which I've just started in the aftermath of Dragon Age Origins. Going from one sprawling RPG into another might not be the smartest move I've ever made, but DAO has given me a real taste for games I can sink my teeth into. Happily, given it's a sci-fi game, the setting and interface are quite refreshing after months of fantasy tropes. Mustn't let it dominate my days off, but at the same time it offers good value for money at a time when I have none.

- My novel revision has been painfully slow. Keep falling off the wagon for one reason or another, all of which amount to excuses, really. There certainly have been legitimate reasons for not getting it done first thing in the morning, but none for why I couldn't shunt the time to later in the day. If I'm going to get this done, I'll need to adjust the attitude that evenings are somehow out of bounds.

- Began the slow process of sorting our South Africa trip photos. Seriously, we've got around 2,700 photos to get through. Many of them will wind up being deleted as a part of this process, but between tagging and labelling everything, the going is slow. We spent about an hour on it all told. I think I'll use this once it's done as an experiment in Picasa Web Albums.

- Read Hope Larson's new graphic novel for teens, "Mercury". It's a dual-thread narrative about a girl returning to her home town after a few years away, alongside the story of her family in the 1860's, whose lives are disrupted when a stranger comes looking for gold . It's an enjoyable read, touching on first loves, fitting in, the relationship of mothers and daughters, and a bit of good old fashioned melodrama. Certainly something I'll recommend.

- Watched the pilot of Firefly. I've been of a mind to watch Serenity again lately, and I figured that I'd watch the whole series again, with the film as the capper. I've only watched them once before, and it was a little disjointed, so I'm looking forward to getting stuck in. Funnily enough, the shorter length of the season makes it all the more appealing. Anyway, I still enjoyed the pilot, although I do find Whedon's tough guy dialogue a little hard to swallow. His knack for humour and drama still hold up very well, every time someone wants to sound hard, it's cringe-worthy. They sound like teenagers who REALY WANT TO SOUND TOUGH. And it's about that subtle. As per the first time, Adam Baldwin is by far the most enjoyable character, as bastards usually are. Looking forward to the rest.

- And then I did rest.

Things I Did Yesterday 08/04/10

2010-04-08T08:24:00.000Z

(Just keep your cool, Andrew. no one will notice. Just keep on as though nothing's gone awry...)

Hey, good to see you all! Again. Just like every day since I recommitted to doing this every day. Yeah! Whattaya know, yesterday I:

- Well, on Monday night I had a bad dose of food poisoning, which took me out of action all Tuesday as well. Tuesday, my day off. Sucks, bro. Anyhow, the upshot of all that is that yesterday morning I was feeling pretty wrecked. A long night of vomiting had left my abdomen feeling a little worked over, and I was generally a mess of aches and pains. Stomach felt okay though, so bonus there, although it must be said I was feeling a little queasy by the end of the day. Pretty much all better now, though!

- Needless to say, didn't get a lot done in the morning. Read the latest Economist Technology Quarterly.

- Worked. Bank holiday weekend meant the delivery was delayed a day. Did a bit of library stuff, which I haven't looked at in a while, only to discover that there was some pretty pressing stuff. So caught up on that, did some work on shop shift-around planning and did the new comics logging after Nat went home ill. Spent the late afternoon packing library deliveries.

- Came home and flaked out. Watched Heavy Metal Britannia, which was a very pleasant watch, don't get me wrong, but was ultimately a bit of a puff piece. It started better than it went on, but felt incomplete and sightly unsatisfying. Gave me some good Spotify tips, though. I've got the prog rock one lined up to watch as well, which I've heard a lot of positive things about.

- (Hey, I'm writing this with my netbook perched on my lap. I have, I can honestly say, never done that before. Not that it's a life-changer for me, but I'm just sayin' is all. I'll tell you one thing: it's typo hell.)

- Watched a few Daily Shows, which I've now started following regularly, as opposed to occasionally catching it on More4. I've taken to just watching the pre-interview segment unless the subject looks interesting. I love the first two-thirds of the show, but the interviews generally fall a little flat.

- Watched a Nurse Jackie. Boredom is starting to crawl into the edges of my Nurse Jackie experience. After an intriguing start, it just feels a little repetitive now. Still enjoying it, but watch yourself, Nurse Jackie! Don't make my shit-list!

- Read a bit of Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box, which had a scene that was almost identical to something I had in mind for my ghost story from years back, then went to sleep.

Things I Did Yesterday 26/03/10

2010-03-26T09:01:00.000Z

Believe it or not, I did actually do one of these yesterday. I even posted the bloody thing, or so I thought. But lo and behold, no sign of it this morning. Instead I have an autosaved draft of the first paragraph. Bah! Anyway, other than writing things that have been lost to time, yesterday I:

- Carried on my first pass over Small Perils, the NaNo novel. It's not the final title, but it's better than constantly referring to it as "the novel". I'm behind on the first lesson of the revision course I'm doing. Each new lesson is emailed out a week after the last (in my case Monday evenings), and my second is languishing in my inbox. But that's okay. On the forums there are people still working through lesson three, six months down the line. But the first few lessons involve complete readthroughs each time. Plus, I've not been great about making the time for it. Or getting the actual manuscript printed out, which I only got done on Monday. Interesting process so far, anyway!

- Worked. New comics day. It's weird now that we do the filing downstairs, I don't actually spend that much time on the till on a Thursday. I'm going to try and be up there for lunch time (12-2), just to keep up contact with our regulars. I'll also be there at the end of the day I would assume. Still, it is nice to have that extra time in my week.

- Headed home, where I intended to play some Xbox, as Alex was out. Instead I had one of those frustrating evenings where time shot by and next thing it was around 11.30, and all I had done was watch an episode of TV Burp and a few trailers. Annoying.

- And that was about it! Really unimpressive day, I'm afraid! Well, I guess they can't all be winners.

Things I Did Yesterday, if it were still actually 24/03/10

2010-03-25T08:37:00.000Z

Like a lagging bullet, "yesterday" I:

- Worked. I got in early, as Josh and I were heading to a graphic novel workshop for London librarians. We jumped in a cab and headed out to Whitechapel, to the Idea Works there. Idea Works, by the way, was apparently an abortive attempt to rebrand libraries for the 21st century before a new marketing guy came along and decided that “library” was actually a brand after all. No doubt hundreds of thousands of pounds later. Local government really is like a sucker on the street corner with his bag hanging open. Anyway, very modern place, all quite nice inside.

- We did a GN workshop last year which was a bit of a disaster. Well, not really on the whole, but I gave a speech that completely fell apart thanks to my nerves, so I was a little anxious about having another presentation this time; a ¾ hour one, no less. It went fine though, mainly as I was just rabbiting on about stock. Also, we had a smaller group discussion in the morning which made me feel a lot more comfortable with the people there. So the day went quite well, all told. Certainly made some good progress winning people around to specialist supply for their GNs. An got to knock off at 4.

- Went home. Fully played the Trials HD demo, which now leaves me wanting the full game. Highly addictive. Sat down and worked out how I’m going to juggle my money over the next few months. SA has left me and Alex pretty skint, and now I have to make a student loans payment to NZ IRD as a apart of my amnesty agreement. So that’s another £700 down the tubes, leaving me a serious shortfall of cashflow for the month. Looks like a bit of subbing lies ahead.

- Started rewatching Flight of the Conchords, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Still good.

- Played around with the two leading desktop digital comics applications: Longbox and Graphic.ly. Both are in beta release (0.5 & 0.2.1, respectively) and both still have plenty of issues. My machine is getting a little long in the tooth, but the lag in both programs seemed a little ridiculous. Still, that aside, my initial impressions are that Longbox seems to have more features available (most as yet locked in beta), but Graphic.ly has a much nicer, leaner interface. Longbox is, frankly, ugly. It’s too busy on its home page, the net result being an initially very confusing entry into the program. Both are quite buggy, and Graphic.ly had a persistent crashing problem for the first 6 or so times I tried to start it. So, lots of work to do on both. I’ve got the complete Miracleman as cbr files, which Longbox will allow me to import into my library, so the next step is to try reading those to see just how bearable the reading experience is. Not sure if I can import to Graphic.ly. Not obviously, anyway.

- Watched the first episode of the new season of Nurse Jackie. It was fine, but completely skipped by the big threads of last season’s cliffhanger. Not a promising start. I hope this doesn’t mean they’re going to string things along even more.

Things I Did Yesterday 19/03/10

2010-03-19T08:59:00.000Z

Damn, doing these things every morning really does tie me in to wi-fi spots. Anyway, yesterday I:

- Once again forgot to print out my manuscript for revision, so stalled my course somewhat. I did get onto the forums for my workgroup, however. People doing the course are split into groups of 30 or less, for support, feedback and so on. So although it felt like a cheat, technically it was still course related, right?

- Worked. Spent nearly the whole day working on this book list for the GN workshop next week. Finalised the list, gathered images and copy, edited copy to fit the blurb size I need, formatted it up in Quark and outputted to a pdf. Done! Now I just have to hope we have all the books in stock for next Tuesday so I can take them along.

- Alex was out, so I played some Dragon Age for an hour and a half or so. I've hit that satisfying point you sometimes get in this kind of game when you're at a sufficient level where there's very little challenge in the places you're travelling through. Most fights are dispatched with very little trouble and no-one in your group has died for some time. Then you enter a new area and the difficulty curve has suddenly swung up a few notches and you're all dying every few combats, and you have to start thinking strategically again. Good fun. But frustrating enough that I stopped at 9.30.

- Faffed about on the internet for a while, then went to bed, watching another couple of Twilight Zone episodes, neither of which was particularly good. One was about a man whose guardian angel tries to improve his life by changing his oddball ways, only to discover that he'd rather be a kooky, likeable failure than a dull success. Atually, for the early-mid sixties, that was probably a pretty subversive message for mainstream America. The other was about a woman who goes to a department store for a particular item, only to discover that she is in fact a living mannequin and has been out in the world and forgotten who she is. Turns out the mannequins in the store take turns at living in the world for a month. Anyway, there are a couple of creepy moments in this one, but it's just not that good.

- Went to bed!

Things I Did Yesterday 18/03/10

2010-03-18T09:09:00.000Z

Didn't walk in this morning. Bad Andrew. Anyway. yesterday I:

- Finished up the first section of my first revision lesson. Next step involves going through a manuscript to begin pulling part the broader picture. Should be fun.

- Worked. Had a meeting in the morning with folks from what was formerly the London Libraries Development Agency and is now I think simply London Libraries. We're involved in another graphic novel workshop taking place next week. To be honest I've done no prep work for this whatsoever, other than putting together a list of 50 books from the past year. I'm not feeling too worried. I am going to have to give a talk again, this time on what's happening trend-wise in the industry, what's hot and so on. My other main role is in a children and young person's librarian group talking about GNs with people who are nervous about content and so on. Hopefully the first, a facilitated group discussion, should warm me up for the second, a presentation to the group as a whole, so we don't have a repeat of my debacle of a speech from last time.

- Afternoon was spent dealing with the delivery. Not a big week, and I made some good progress on the filing. We've now started doing this downstairs on a Wednesday as soon as the first box of standing order comics is ready, which is working well so far. Certainly makes Thursdays on the till a lot less stressful.

- Headed home and read a pile of comics. Not a very impressive week, to be sure. Siege #3 was fun but completely disposable; Amazing Spider-Man #625 had some lovely Max Fiumara art over a pretty downbeat Joe Kelly Rhino story; Stephen King's new co-written comic American Vampire wasn't anything special. In fact, the only really pleasant surprise was, as unlikely as it may seem, a Superman 80 Page Giant, which was full of short, very light stories. Oh, and Fables was good. I read the second issue of Choker, having missed the first, and thought it was okay. Sweary, Ellis-sounding characters drawn by Ben Templesmith all feel a bit well-trodden, but it was entertaining enough that I won't dismiss it out of hand. Writer Ben McCool also does a fun short in the aforementioned Superman 80 Pager. Still got a few unread books, including a few Marvel space titles, Dark Avengers and a couple more.

- Stopped reading before I got totally burnt out, which has happened lately, and switched to watching a couple of Twilight Zone episodes, on my slow ongoing mission to work my way through them all. Still in season one, but then it is something like 40 episodes long. Anyway, the first was called The Chaser, about a guy who madly loves a girl who doesn't love him back. He buys a love potion off a mysterious shopkeeper who warns him it might not be all he hoped for. Sure enough, things don't turn out quite the way he expected. Quite a silly one, but fun for it. The second I watched starred a young Jack Klugman as an alcoholic trumpet player who hits rock bottom and throws himself in front of a truck. Waking up, he finds himself wandering the city as an invisible ghost. Or at least that's what he thinks. It's an episode with an admirable moral, but is pretty dull and heavy handed. Not to mention the appearance of a trumpet-playing figure named Gabe who explains the score to him. Duh. Still enjoying them, though. I'm looking forward to the later episodes when Serling has a number of other writers working on the series. Not to denigrate his work, but a lot of great US sci-fi writers worked on shows like the Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits (which I think I'll get to after this), putting out some classic twist-in-the-tail television.

- Whoah, over time! Anyway, that was about it!

Things I Did Yesterday 17/03/10

2010-03-17T08:37:00.000Z

Two days running! Some kind of record for 2010? Perhaps not, but close! Anyway, yesterday I:

- Tried to get up early to get stuck into things, but failed. Still, got into town with enough time to do my blog and then get stuck into the novel revision course I've started. Very first readings of the very first lesson and it was good. It certainly helped me recapture enthusiasm for what my goal for the book was in the first place. So, off to a good start.

- Worked. Libraries for the most part. The end of the financial year is approaching fast and the usual flurry of last minute orders has been coming in. So some mop-up stuff there, as well as work on a list I need to have done for a graphic novel workshop for librarians I'm involved in next week.

- Had a surprise visit by Claudia and Morgan! Now based in LA, they're over for Claudia's work. Claudia had to head off for work stuff, but I had lunch with Mr Parker. Really nice to see them. Hopefully we'll get to catch up more later in the week.

- Went to the pub after work with Nat, Barney & Ossie. Went for one, but wound up staying for a few. As is often the case. We went to The Crown, a Sam Smiths pub near work. For those who don't know, Samuel Smiths are a chain of pubs which serve their own brands of beers, spirits and so on. The pubs they run are nice enough (including two of the most attractive historical pubs in central London, actually), an the beers are fine, but nothing special. What they are great for, however, is price. A round for 4 people for less than £10? Sold. Okay, so you might be able to do the same in a Wetherspoons pub, but then you'd have to put up with a Wetherspoons atmosphere. Equally they're known for their Alpine Lager, a cheap as chips pint (still sub-£2?) which goes down easy enough but leaves you rough as fuck the next morning. The taps for AL used to be topped by a stereotypical Bavarian-looking chap cast in plastic, inside a perspex box. They scrapped the box for a more traditional looking tap years ago, but to this day people will still order a "man in a box". Which is about as English a tradition as they come. Anyway, the point of this is that for years now, virtually nothing has changed in the line-up of product SS pubs (that's unfortunate) have. So I was surprised to find not only a new, halfway decent beer on tap (dubbed a Taddy - Sam Smiths Breweries are based in Tadcaster), but also they've gone completely in-house with all their snacks. Crisps, peanuts, cheese crackers, the lot. You're amazed, I'm sure.

- Got home, kissed the wife, had dinner, spent half an hour reading the internet, then went to bed. Read some Far Side cartoons, which I'm slowly working my way through at the moment. I do love the Far Side, for all it's been overexposed over the years. Reading back through, it's surprising to rediscover just how dark many of them are, given their mainstream popularity. Good fun.

- Will you look at that! 7 minutes to spare!

Things I Did Yesterday 16/03/10

2010-03-16T08:42:00.000Z

Okay, we're on the clock! Yesterday I:

- Got up fairly early and sat with a coffee on the internet. This was the first real day off I'd had in some time. Okay, so I've been on holiday for a month, but this was the first real day since before we left for SA where I had nothing to get done, nowhere to go and no one to see. So I read feeds. My feeds need trimming, really. I don't keep up with what I've got, and that's not even that much compared to some I know. But every time I go to unsubscribe, the interest which brought me to that feed in the first place kicks in. I suppose by keeping them on my feeds I will at least remember they exist some time in the future. In a way, RSS has really hamstrung how I use the internet. I can't remember the last time I opened my bookmarks folder, not counting the bookmark toolbar icons I have for frequently accessed sites (banking, etc). Still, it means I don't miss any posts when my access is patchy. How much time do I spend on the internet a day reading now? Not sure, but considerably less than I used to. Maybe an hour, on average? Hour and a half? Anyway, every now and then it's nice to kick back with a coffee first thing on a day off and really take my time to catch up on things. Spent a few hours on it yesterday.

- Wandered down to Angel to have a browse around the shops. Mainly checked out Game, HMV and Waterstones to see what shiny new things had come out in the last month. Not much to be honest. Final Fantasy XIII is a bit tempting, but really only due to FFVII nostalgia. I tried VIII when it came out, but it didn't grab me at all and have barely looked at the ones since. But this one seems to have a VII kind of feel about it. Well, best finish Dragon Age and both Mass Effect games first. Bought some vegetables to make a soup for dinner.

- Went home and got on the Xbox. Oh yes. Played a few demos I had downloaded ages ago. Trials HD is a great stunt bike platformer, leaving you to control a rider going through some kind of hellish warehouse environment of ramps, exploding barrels, swinging platforms and gouts of flame. It has that vital ingredient for gameplay: easy to learn, difficult to master. Lovely graphics too, especially the ragdoll physics when you come off the bike. Alien Breed SomethingorotherIcantremember is a fun, isometric 3D shooter. A sequel to an old series of games, it's surprisingly atmospheric as you run around a damaged spaceship shooting hordes of aliens. All very Space Hulk. Lastly was Bayonetta, which I heard a lot of good things about. To be honest, it's that type of modern game that I'm really no good at. It involves incredibly busy environments that you negotiate around at high speeds while enemies constantly come at you. Enemies you defeat by using one of any number of combos that manifest in the most spectacular manner possible. It's just too much. I'm button-mashing my way through levels with virtually no fucking clue what's going on. The graphics are lush and the designs look crazy in the good way, but I've no time to actually enjoy them. Does this mean I'm getting old?

- Settled in with Dragon Age for a good 4-hour session. Got some important main quest stuff done, too. Ahh...I'll miss this game when I'm finished. I do love this kind of computer RPG.

- Alex came home, so I made dinner, a kind of chicken/vegetable/mushroom soup which didn't quite come out how I wanted, but was very tasty anyway.

- Enrolled in a course which focuses on novel revision. To be honest, I've been floundering a little on the novel revision, and I really need something to give me a boot up the ass. It's a 22 week course that you take at your own speed. It'll be nice just to give me some focus and advice on what to do next. Be gentle...it's my first time.

- Watched a really good little horror called Triangle. It premiered at last year's Frightfest, but I missed it, and since then it has largely sunk from trace. It's a pleasantly complex little film about a group of people who find themselves on a ghostly ship after being stranded out at sea. Best not to mention more than that, as the less you know, the more you'll enjoy it. It'd be a shame for this to sink into obscurity, as it really deserves to be seen if for nothing more than its ambition. It stands out from most of the horror fare out there at the moment.

- That's it!

Internets

2010-03-15T10:42:00.003Z

Still got 10 minutes of today's allotted blog time, so I thought I'd outlay where I am with various internet things at the moment. FYI!

Email: I've a few email addresses lurking from the past, but really the only way to get hold of me reliably is one andrew[at]grizzeddog.co.uk or andrewsalmond[at]gmail.com. Either of those will work. I mainly just use gmail as my default mail client now. Outlook is gathering dust, really only used for deleting emails en masse or sorting stuff via IMAP. The interface is just a little easier for those jobs.

Facebook: I use Facebook more than ever. It's a very convenient environment to use with my phone. Mainly I just use messaging and status updates. The only add on I use is Flixster, and then rarely. Generally I ignore add on invites and the like.

Flickr: Still on as boffo01. I haven't updated in a long time and to be honest I think I'm going to give it up. I do like Flickr's interface and social aspect, but it feels a bit dead to me right now. Plus, Picasa just integrates with its web albums so well. So I may migrate to just using Picasa, but I'll let you know, you lucky things.

Twitter: Pretty much dead to me now. I had fun with @grizzleddog for a while, but I've largely given up the ghost. Really, Facebook status updates fulfill this purpose for me now. How many trivial communication lines do I need?

Google Wave: I'm still intrigued by the possibilities of this, but I really haven't found a use for it yet that can't be covered by another service. Anyway, I'm on as Andrew Salmond, so just do a search. I've still got invites, too, if anyone wannts one.

LastFM: My boffo01 account is still active, but I barely use this any more, though my Spotify plays are scrobbled to it.

Spotify: My default music source currently. I pay £10/month for the premium version, which removes any ads and gives higher quality bitrates. It also means I can have the mobile version for my Android phone, including the ability to sync up playlists for offline play. I've a ton of invites if anyone in an eligible area needs one.

Umm...I think that's it. I am using Google services to an alarming degree, including task manager and calendar. I'm still playing with Chrome a lot, but have held off switching to it as my default browser. Google Docs hasn't quite hooked me yet, as it feels lacking in features. I'm using Dropbox to sync important docs between computers and am playing with Evernote for note taking, though I find it's a bit slow. It does sync with my phone, though, so I hope it improves in the future. In theory it's a wonderful piece of software.

Okay, time's definitely up!

New Post, New Start, New Rule

2010-03-15T10:41:00.000Z

Okay, so here's the deal.

I've been slack. I know it. You know it. And little baby Jesus knows it. So I guess it's time to recommit myself to this whole blogging malarky; find a theme and stick to it. The fact is I've toggled around with a number of ideas, thought about starting new comic-themed blogs, wondered what the hell I was even doing this blog for. It has always been such a scattershot affair, as any quick browse through the tags will attest. In reality, the fullest and most consistently it has ever fulfilled any purpose has been when it is at its most self-indulgent. The Things I Did Yesterday posts allowed me to dribble on about any old thing, kept people who actually know me up to date with my goings on and gave me an excuse to write every day. The latter point being the most important at the time I began that exercise. Not that I've been too hot at staying on top of things, of course.

Which brings me to today, and deciding what I'm going to do from here on out. Things I Did Yesterday works. I'm not sure how effective it is for you, my dear readers, but given there's only about 10 of you, I guess that point is kind of moot anyhow. The point is, for me it works. It gets me writing in the mornings and, crucially, means I always have something to write about when I sit down. The problem has been in the past that it tended to stretch out and take up the bulk of the time I have before work which I have dedicated to getting some writing done. That's especially problematic given that I actually have a proper writing project to get stuck into. The last thing I need is an excuse to procrastinate while still feeling like I'm doing something worthwhile.

So a time limit, then. Starting tomorrow, I'll restart TIDY (holy shit....I never realised that was its acronym), allowing only 30 minutes every day to get it done. It'll be the same as it ever was in terms of content, but perhaps a little more concise on occasion. I'm making a commitment to do this every day, rain or shine, work or play, home or abroad. You might find it interesting, or you might not. Given the lack of emails I write these days, I hope you do. I might occasionally put up something else, or develop it at some point in the future, probably with regard to my progress revising my novel. And during NaNoWriMo I'll switch to daily updates on that. I know it's all a little self-important, but I figure if that was a problem for you, you'd have left the room long ago.

And that's that!

Comics I'm Missing This Week

2010-02-18T13:15:00.000Z

Talk about taking advantage of having some internet. This week I'm missing out on:

Astounding Wolfman #21 - Hey, has anyone seen The Wolf Man?
Atomic Robo Revenge of the Vampire Dimension #1
Avengers vs Atlas #2
Dark Avengers #14
Battlefields Happy Valley #3
Black Widow Deadly Origin #4
Captain America #603
Chase Variant
Collection Dans La Marge
Daredevil #505
Devil #1 - Not sure what this is
Doctor Voodoo #5
Dodgem Logic #2
Doomwar #1
Green Lantern #51
Guardians of the Galaxy #23
Hellblazer #264
Hulk #20
Incorruptible #3
Incredible Hercules #141
Incredible Hulk #607
Joe the Barbarian #2
Invincible #70
Marvels Eye of the Camera #6
McSweeneys #33
Punisher #14
Amazing Spider-Man #621
Spider-Woman #6
Uncanny X-Men #521

Jesus....it's gonna be a tough adjustment the day I don't work in comics any more...

Things I Did Yesterday 18/02/10

2010-02-18T13:04:00.000Z

Day 15 and we're into the second half. Trouble is, we've got so much booked in over the next two weeks that it has now become very difficult to do everything we want. Oh well, there are worse hardships. Anyway, yesterday I:

- Got up early so we could drive down to Cape Aghulas, the southernmost point of Africa, and also where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. More beautiful scenery, with a rocky coastline interspersed with white-sand beaches. What I find fascinating about these beaches is that, unlike the golden sand beaches I grew up with, the white sand doesn't get hot (for obvious reasons). So while when I was a kid you had to pick your way quickly across the sand to avoid burning your tootsies, here you can walk through sands that are actually quite nice and cool. I'm not a big beach goer, in terms of lying out on the sand and so on, but I do love good beaches and I love the sea.

- Went down to the rocky shore of Aghulas, where we peered into lively rockpools filled with fish, starfish, hermit crabs and assorted barnacles and mussels. Nice place, although it doesn't have the drama of Cape Point.

- Headed back towards Hermanus, stopping first in Struisbaai for lunch, where we picked up a little more sun than was wise (I'm a beet) and took a walk along the beach, dipping our toes in the Indian Ocean (a first for me).

- Continued driving home, but wanted to head back a different way so took a small backroad, which turned out to be a network of dirt and gravel roads through farming country. Lots of dust, but some lovely scenery.

- Went to the hostel we were staying at in Hermanus. Amazing place, all very nice and clean, with a self-service bar that works on an honesty system, a lounge area that constantly shows movies and a swimming pool, as well as a nightly braai for guests. Even better, our private double room with ensuite was actually just around the corner in a beautiful house that had four other rooms and a lovely rear garden with its own pool. Not too bad for 330 rand, or around £28.

- Walked towards a bar and restaurant that had been recommended to us, which was way the hell out on the edge of town. We thought it would be nice to walk along the coastal path, along the clifftops. It certainly was lovely, but we started at dusk and before long it was fully dark and we were suddenly very aware that anyone could be lurking in wait: the ever-present fear of South Africa! The somewhat overstated fear, I think, but the locals just think I'm naive.

- Went out to said restaurant for dinner which turned out to be a lot flashier than we expected. A group of BBC Food representatives were in attendance, speaking to the chef and manager and so on. Not bad! Even so, two starters, two mains and two bottles of wine only set us back around £50, including a generous tip. Also, as it turns out though we had both forgotten, it was the 5th anniversary of our 1st date, so I'm glad we found somewhere nice to eat!

- Returned to the hostel for a couple of drinks before hitting the sack.

Things I Did Yesterday 17/02/10

2010-02-18T12:41:00.000Z

Day 14 of the South African holiday! That’s the halfway mark to anyone keeping track, which has gone very quickly and very slowly in equal measure. On the one hand it feels like the holiday is slipping by at alarming speed, but on the other the last time I was in London feels like a lifetime ago. Anyway, yesterday I:

- Got up early to do the Robben Island tour. Robben Island was a maximum security prison for political prisoners from the 60’s through until the 90’s. It most famously held Nelson Mandela for 18 years but was also the prison of a number of other notables from the ANC, the PAC and others. After the topsy-turvy boat ride out from Cape Town harbour (a 13km journey), the tour takes place in two phases. First, a bus ride around the island covering its history as variously a supply dump, a prison, a hospital-cum-leper hospice, a military base and finally its return to prison status, first for common law criminals in a medium security prison, then for political prisoners as a maximum security facility built by the original inmates from quarries on the island. Our guide was brilliant, a Khayalitsha resident by the name of (if I recall) Mpkelele, or MP for short. A real comedian and a great guide. I think he must earn a fortune in tips from the Yanks. After this we get dropped at the main prison itself, where groups are given a guided tour by a former prisoner. I never caught the name of ours, to be honest, but he was an interesting guy. Quite no-nonsense, he was certainly able to give insight into the conditions and the mood of the prison. There was a particularly interesting segment where he was asked about why he had been put there, and he quite frankly told us that he had been a soldier for the ANC Youth League in places like Angola and Zambia. He had received his training in Cuba and the Soviet Union and was still very much an old-school communist. Interestingly he did not really become politically aware until he had been interred at Robben Island, where politics was the number one discussion point for inmates, unsurprisingly. He was in the prison when the early drafts of what is now the South African constitution were written, after the liberation of Namibia. So, all in all a very interesting tour and certainly one I would recommend if you’re in Cape Town.

- Hit the road. Headed for Hermanus, a town mostly famous for its whale watching, though we were out of season. But Alex has friends there we wanted to catch up with and it’s still a lovely area to visit, so we drove on down. It’s a fantastic drive, with more dramatic scenery which is pretty standard in this Western Cape area, I’m finding. Only takes a couple of hours from Cape Town, and that’s with us stopping here and there along the way. The town itself is pretty stunning, sandwiched between rocky coastline (though with a substantial beach further around the bay) and smallish mountains which sweep up suddenly at the rear. It reminds me of New Zealand, and that’s not the first time I’ve been drawn to that comparison while I’ve been here.

- Killed some time while we waited to hear from Lana, so we had a quick drink from a place which was actually closing up. One waitress told us that we couldn’t get any food but could have a beer, but the other waiter was quite obviously put out when she told him. He was fine with us, but I think she got the evils good and proper.

- Went to Lana’s house, where we had a very pleasant evening. A lot of politics got talked between Lana's husband Ramone and his father Aubrey, some of which was a bit dubious from my perspective, but a lot of which was really quite interesting. The politics here is just so volatile. Zuma is disliked intensely by a good number of the population, particularly among the whites. Meanwhile young, poor blacks and coloureds, especially men, are finding themselves distanced from the older generation of the ANC, guys like Zuma or Mbeke before him. They’ve grown up without the struggle these guys were engaged in, and although they know about the past, they don’t relate to the older generation. Meanwhile there’s a new kid in town named Julius Malema who is the great fear for the whites here now (and not exactly loved by the ANC elders either, I gather). Essentially he’s a young guy, 28 or so, who was a street kid and so speaks directly to the younger generation. He also has charisma and a populist polemic that doesn’t necessarily hold with the spirit of reconciliation that is embodied in the constitution. Whether or not the ANC will push him forward or try to bury him is unclear, but it’s certainly a lively topic for speculation (and one which I don’t really know enough about at this time to join on). Anyway, the other really interesting thing was the talk I had with Ramone’s folks about their history in South Africa: about the Afrikaans propaganda that began once the National Party took power, designed to institute Afrikaans over English as the main language, and how the English speaking community was actually subject to a lot of regulation as the Afrikaners tried to subsume them. Not something I’ve normally ever heard about. They also talked about the early English-speaking condemnation of apartheid and so on. Anyway, fascinating stuff. We also talked a lot about the idea of coming to live here now, and the consensus seemed to be it might be worthwhile, but you would need to have enough money to start your own business, the drive to make it succeed and a back door just in case things got nasty, or you got sick of the crime and so on.

- Ramone and Lana gave us their bed for the night! They slept in the spare room downstairs. I felt guilty for a while, but not very long. Zzz.

Things I Did Yesterday 15/02/10

2010-02-15T08:01:00.000Z

It's the sweet'n'low version. The in-laws are inbound for breakfast! Luckily yesterday I only:

- Went to church. Yes, yes, I hear you snickering, Bruce. I've no problem with being dragged along to church every once in a while, mainly as an act of politeness. Most modern church services, especially the likes of Presbyterian or COE, are all about tolerance and so on anyway. At least the ones I've been to are. So it's fine, and I always find the differing ceremonial aspects of the different churches quite interesting. Plus it was my chance to meet James, the family minister who I've heard a lot about over the years and who we nearly flew in to marry us. The service was all about love (of course), and the need for the church to embrace the idea of romantic love. Not to be so tied up in the idea of rules governing who can love who and so on. Anyway, it was a nice history lesson in the church's attitude to love, from claiming a pagan ritual for St Valentine (who had virtually no connection to love, but was martyred on the desired day) to the downgrading of Valentine's sainthood status as the church distanced itself from the day and gave it over to the marketing boys (who have long since stripped any reference to Sainthood out of the picture). Pretty interesting stuff, as it goes.

- Had prep time for a big party being held in the evening. Honestly, the most event-free day of the trip so far, and that was just fine. Just to have enough time through the day to do my blog and catch up on the some reading was very nice indeed. The party certainly required a good deal of work, shifting furniture around getting glasses washed and so on. The Browns don't do these things by halves, that much is for sure. Didn't leave the house all day!

- Had a party. Really, it was an excuse for a lot of family and friends to meet me for the first time, so it wasn't exactly a relaxing affair. Certainly my standard party strategy of finding a spot and setting myself up there for the evening wasn't going to wash. But I had plenty of drinks, good food (great chilli con carne) and everyone was very nice.

- Carried on after most people had left until midnight-ish, then hit the sack, leaving my wife and Barbs (an inveterate party animal) drinking on the deck. I really must call it a stoep, to give it its local name.

Comics I'm Missing This Week

2010-02-14T13:26:00.000Z

Well, missed last week, really. The state of comic shops here is poor. There are two: one of which is tucked away on the first floor of an office block with virtually no signage, the other of which is in a shopping mall out of the centre of town. The former carries virtually no shelf stock (though I did manage to pick up their only copy of the latest Criminal) and the latter, while not much better for shelf stock, only gets a shipment every other week. That one is a pretty decent shop in its way, though, with a good, varied range of GNs. The state of stores for fans in relatively isolated parts of the world like this really does just reinforcve a lot of my ideas about digital comics' inevitable rise. It's all well and good for people in cities like London to doubt it - we really are spoiled for choice - but for sheer convenience how can a guy in Buttfuck, Ohio resist? Anyway, casting my eyes over the shipping list last week, what will I need to track down?

Also, you think I could find Scalped #32 anywhere? Could I fuck. Neither carries any shelf copies of it. See what I mean?

What's this Judge Dredd Mega City One Archives thing? I can't even remember it being offered.
Batman & Robin #8
BPRD King of Fear #2
Daytripper #3
Groo Hogs of Horder #3
Haunt #5 (Sshh! It's my guilty pleasure!)
Hellblazer Pandemonium HC
As an aside, nice to see Hicksville back in print!
Human Target #1
Invincible Presents Atom Eve & Rex Splode #3
Marvel Boy Uranian #2
Newave! Underground Minicomics of the 80's
Nextwave Ultimate Collection TP - Gonna buy me this. One of my favourite series of the past decade.
Phonogram 2 #7
PunisherMAX #4 (silly name for a great comic)
Realm of Kings Imperial Guard #4
(Jesus, this is supposed to be my pared down list! Glad I wasn't working this week!)
REBELS #13
Solomon Kane #2
Amazing Spider-Man #620
Ultimate Spider-Man #7
SWORD #4
Unwritten #10
Dark X-Men #4
Not gonna waste my time with Hit Monkey. Let me know if it's any good, will you?
Zombies That Ate the World #8

PHEW! Hey, what's Octopus Girl vol 1 doing on the Gosh new releases? Has it been re-released?

Most of this can wait, but if I get the chance later this week I might pick up BPRD and PunisherMAX. And maybe Batman & Robin and Daytripper. Comics here are EXPENSIVE!

Things I Did Yesterday 14/02/10

2010-02-14T13:05:00.000Z

Day eleven of our South Africa trip! Internet access has been patchy as we've been travelling, so forgive my sporadic updates. Well, patchy internet access and a lack of time to politely do this blog. But I'll try to be better from now on. As usual with these kinds of holidays, I have great plans to get this book read, or do that writing, and as usual I've barely touched it. Still have over half our time left, but I already feel like the end is closing in! Anyway, yesterday I:

- Woke up in Paternoster, a small beach town on the West Coast. We had been a little way down the coast at Yzerfontaine the night before for Jen & Daniel's wedding, which was a lovely do. Alex's mum had booked us the following night in a fantastic B&B right on the beach at Paternoster, with instructions to go to the Noisy Oyster restaurant and to pick up some crayfish on the way home. Well, we didn't have any luck with the Noisy Oyster, as it was booked out (but had a beach-front dinner instead involving the biggest prawns I've had in my life), so our big mission was to get crayfish.

- Had breakfast at a tiny little cafe that did an extremely tasty farmer's sausage omelet, then struck out for the Post Office to get a permit for the crayfish. Most people just buy the crayfish without one, but the fines if you get caught are huge, not to mention that they can confiscate your vehicle. It's all a dodgy enough exercise anyway, with guys wandering around the small town with shopping bags of crayfish, most of which seemed long dead. We wanted live ones and were recommended by the B&B proprietor to get them direct from the small fishing boats as they came in to shore. We had scored ourselves a lidded bucket for the job and everything.

- Was informed at the post office that Paternoster no longer issues licenses, and we would need to go about 20 minutes down the road to Vredenburg to get one. Racing against early Saturday closing times, we got to Vredenburg, got the application form, and stumbled at the first hurdle. Alex no longer has a valid South African ID book, and you needed an ID number to apply. Not South African? No crayfish for you. Oh well, we tried anyhow.

- Decided, given the lack of crayfish for an evening bbq (braai, I should say), we would instead take a relaxed route back home, stopping for dinner somewhere along the way. We drove inland and soon hit the wine-growing regions. South Africa, I'm not sure that I've mentioned before, is a beautiful country. Rolling, dry farmlands backed by dramatic mountain ranges, or sometimes just stretching out into massive plains, gave way to green, lush winelands, dotted with boutique towns full of wine shops and restaurants. We stopped for lunch at one of the earliest of these, Riebeek-Kasteel.

- Had a steak roll for lunch, then went shopping for a little wine. Tasted a few Riebeek wines, settling on the Shiraz Reserve and the Pinotage Rose, as well as their award-winning port. All sounds very swank but it actually came it at less than half the price we would pay for same in the UK. Had a little wander, then hit the road again.

- Decided to make for Stellenbosch, another wine town, but also a big student town with popular boarding schools (one of which Alex attended) and a university. We had originally thought to do Stellenbosch as an overnight trip, touring around the vineyards and getting sozzled, but decided to just check out the town on our way home, effectively giving us two more days in Cape Town (which we were looking a little thin on).

- Hit Stellenbosch, which is like some weird picturesque little mid-America town, all leafy boulevards and a thriving, cute-as-a-button town centre. Not to mention bustling bars, which we toured a couple of. The student population is immediately apparent: you would think you had stumbled into a small town Logan's Run scenario. All in all the vibe is wonderfully pleasant, but eerily unreal. Everyone was watching the Super 14 games in the bars. I forget that rugby is so huge here. I barely see any evidence of the S14 in the UK, but it's everywhere here.

- Went to Mug & Bean, a coffee chain that does bottomless coffees and gave me a glorious 10 free minutes of wifi. Enough to book tickets for the Robben Island tour on Tuesday and to check my emails for the first time in days. Trust me, with the cost of roaming data network charges in this country, I can wait.

- Went to Spur for dinner. The hell with all those interesting small restaurants: we wanted ribs! Alex goes on about Spur all the time. It's a very cheesy, American-styled steakhouse, renowned also for burgers and ribs and so on. We had it on our list of things to do, so took advantage of cheap ribs night to save a little money after our ridiculous splash-out the night before. What can I say? It was very tasty and didn't skimp on the portions; much better than the slightly anemic version that London has at the O2 centre.

- Headed for home, including a ridiculously thorough service station visit. Petrol, water, window cleaning water, oil, tires. It's been a number of years since I've been anywhere that hasn't gone over to self-service at the pumps. But SA is a very labour-intensive place. Wherever you go there is someone with a job you wouldn't normally see around: from parking attendants (official and unofficial) who watch your cars and wave you in and out of your car parks for tips, through to the road gangs, who operate in groups of 10 on jobs that would employ 2 in the UK. Of course the secret is that they get paid peanuts. There is a minimum wage here, but it's the equivalent of about 60p/hour in a country where a beer at a downtown bar will set you back around £1.50. It doesn't take a genius to see SA has big problems, but the solutions are going to be tough on everyone and slow to implement with any real lasting effect. A legacy of poor education for the black and coloured (a demographic here, by the way) communities as well as imbalances of wealth and privilege are not easily surmounted. But at the same time the problems are not as simple as one, I must admit, kind of assumes from the outside. Politically it's a complicated place. Corruption is widespread (though being cracked down on), and the divisions in society extend far beyond simple black and white. Tribal differences, traditional vs democratically elected leaders, anti-immigration sentiment, the state of the squatter camps: all these things and more are political hot potatoes represented by parties who often are more interested in furthering their own careers than solving any real problems. It's a pretty screwy place, and that's without even looking at the crime and security issues, but it's also a wonderful one. Without even considering the natural beauty, the mish-mash of culture, the colour and vibrancy of the place is infectious. Shit, and I haven't even seen any lions yet.

- Got in, had a couple of drinks while I sucked up internet access like a hoover (Alex and I sat on the balcony, me on my phone, she on her DS, not talking at all), then hit the sack. Was woken around 12.30am by someone screaming about how they were going to kill the pigs if someone called them, had my usual paranoid imaginings that someone was breaking in (not helped by blustery winds), then eventually drifted back to sleep.

Comics I'm Missing This Week

2010-02-07T10:03:00.000Z

More for my reference than yours, but from this week's stuff I'm gonna have to catch up on:

Boys #39
Conan the Cimmerian #18
Criminal Sinners #4
Demo Vol 2 #1
Echo #19
Ghost Riders Heaven's on Fire #6
Invincible Iron Man #23
Realm of Kings Son of Hulk #1
Scalped #34 (though I may pop into a shop here and pick this up. Some things I can't wait for)
Siege #2
Sweet Tooth #6
Ultimate Comics #1
Wolverine Weapon X #10
Berserk Vol 33!

So, that's it for this week! Not necessarily all the things I would normally check out, but there's not much point trying to catch up on the things I would normally just flick through. A few things in this week's delivery that have been on the verge of me giving up on have had their marching orders this week, and I imagine there will be more of that over the next few weeks. Nothing like having something unavailable to you to make you realise how little you miss it when it's gone. If you think I've made some glaring omission, do let me know!

Things I Did Yesterday 07/02/10

2010-02-07T09:25:00.000Z

Day four of our South Africa trip! But yesterday I:

- Sorted out access to the wireless here at Jane & Nick's house. Which reminds me, I should mention something about this place. The house is in a part of town called District 6, a sector that was bulldozed in the '60's during the process of forcibly moving all the non-whites out of central Cape Town into the Cape Flats townships. District 6 was a very diverse place, your classic dive part of town where people, both local and international, tended to wash up. Of course, this also made it something of a cultural hub, with a vibrant sense of community and culture. There was supposed to be redevelopment immediately after it all got leveled, but it never happened due to an international outcry over the action (this was of course before the height of SA's international pariah status). To this day, much of it is empty scrubland, still with the original rubble sticking up here and there where it hasn't been completely cleared. Unfortunately this is mainly down to bureaucratic bullshit, as various political interests want to get themselves involved, tying it all up dense red tape. So, very little development has gone on. A few terraces of houses have gone up as a part of a resettlement project, but that has been very stop-start over the last 20 years.

Jane & Nick's place is on one of the few terraces of houses that wasn't demolished, and sits on the bottom slopes of Table Mountain with a great view over the working harbour. It's a two-level place, with the master bedroom and office downstairs leading onto a small courtyard, and the upstairs containing guest a bedroom & bathroom, leading into a fantastic open-plan kitchen and living area which goes through to a sun-catching balcony that capitalises on the view. All very nice and airy, but with enough dark wood and features that it would still feel very cosy in the winter. Of course, like most places here, it's surrounded by walls that are topped with metal spikes. The walls are actually quite nice, done in a way that gives the whole thing an almost villa-like feel. The metal spikes? Not so much. Still, I do need to keep reminding myself that as much as the security measures are far more prevalent, there's still nothing here I wouldn't be seeing in places about London. Except for the security company signs on the houses promising Armed Response, of course. Anyway, on with the day!

- Alex abandoned me! She went off to her friend Jen's hen do while I with Jane & Nick to a masonic potjiekos competition. Basically a charity fundraiser where the various masonic lodges around Cape Town (one of which Nick is a member of) compete to cook the best potjiekos: a kind of layered stew that is slow-cooked in a cast-iron pot which is left in hot coals for a number of hours. It's a traditional Afrikaans thing, and the food is rather nice. Strange to be hanging with the masons, though. Mainly ex-pat Brits (and one German) who are effectively running the equivalent to the Lions or Rotary, only with more elaborate rituals. The whole thing just feels a little like a boys own adventure club, but they were all nice folks with good, charitable aims. I was asked by one if I was a mason. No, I replied, to which I was told "Not yet, anyway." At last, my dreams of holding the secret reigns to the world are drawing closer to fruition!

- Came home after taking a little too much sun (I lost the hat I was lent, which I can only assume was blown away when put it aside for a moment), and had a little mid-afternoon nap. I normally abhor losing any portion of the day, but hey, I'm on holiday. So I dozed for a little bit, then got up and did some writing. Settled down with a paper looking at the real estate sections (amazing what you can get for your money here, even with the weaker pound), then watched some of the right-wing revenge-wank that is Taken, which is actually a very well-made action thriller with Liam Neeson. Basically the morals are: don't trust anyone that isn't American; Europe is a hive of corruption and villany that wants to sell your daughters to dirty Arab-looking businessmen; I'm not paranoid about these things, you're just naive; and of course the US secret services are the best trained killing machines in the world, capable of mowing through the ranks of any number of lowlife foreign scum. Fun film.

- Alex arrived home and we went out to meet some old friends of hers, one of whom was just in town for the night. This involved going to some suburb I don't know by way of a slightly terrifyingly underlit motorway. Anyway, went to a pleasant restaurant which did great gourmet pizzas (steak, jalapeno & feta for me) and had a catch-up. Well, Alex had a catch-up, I had a meet'n'greet.

- Drove home (thanks to the magic of Tom Tom, for which we bought a South Africa map before we left the UK), sat on the balcony for a bit, having a drink while watching the city lights, then hit the sack.

Things I Did Yesterday 06/02/10

2010-02-06T17:06:00.000Z

Today is day three of my time in South Africa! Also, the first blog post I've done in a while. So bear with me, as I describe how yesterday I:

- Woke up around 9am with a hellishly sore throat. I was a bit worried that maybe I had caught something off the plane, but in reality it probably had more to do with the red wine I had stayed up drinking the night previous combined with some fine log-sawing snoring. A couple of paracetamol and a Strepsil soon put paid to that.

-Lovely morning, with a faint haze hanging across Table Bay which soon burnt off to reveal a beautiful, sunny day. Had some toast and coffee.

- Alex and I walked into town, which I enjoyed. Cape Town is very much a driving city, but I love to wander in new places, and there is plenty to see. There's such an interesting mix of poverty and entrepreneurship in the streets. Everywhere you go people are sleeping in parks, or begging. You can't stop at traffic lights without someone coming up to your car window asking for money or trying to sell you batteries or somesuch. But at the same time, we walked past a shipping container that had been hooked up to a generator and turned into a small convenience store, and I've seen around town a couple of times now rag'n'bone men operating with a horse and cart, the latter jerry-rigged out of a car chassis. It's a very odd place here, but there's certainly always something to look at.

- We went to a jewellers downtown to look into getting an engagement ring made for Alex. She's never had an actual diamond ring, but would like one. Her current ring is a simple silver ring with a piece of paua embedded in it. Anyway, the prices of rings really do knock me on my ass. We might get something made using existing jewels though.

- Collected a pile of tourism brochures and then jumped on the city tour bus. Interesting tour, highlighting the mix of history and geographical beauty that makes this place so striking. I can't overstate that latter point: Cape Town i, bar none, one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. The mountains are endlessly fascinating, changing their aspect throughout the day as the light changes, and shaping the clouds the lap over them. From every angle they look different, too, and can't help but catch your eye wherever you are in the city. The beaches, while not really my thing, are quite something. Even without taking into consideration the white-sand stretches themselves, the actual bays they occupy are beautiful.

- Went down to the waterfront and had a late lunch, accompanied by a few beers. Very nice waterfront development. I must say, there's something about the waterfront that reminds me of Sydney. The harbour itself isn't as striking as Sydney's, but it feels very similar in terms of the outdoor dining and drinking with live music wherever you went. To be honest, I'd forgotten that it was a Friday night. I bought a pair of flip-flops too, for 230 Rand. Which is about £20. They're very nice, but I do miss the days of The Mighty Pound, where I could roll into any country confident in the knowledge that my super-currency would allow me to live like a king. Oh well, they were good days while they lasted.

- The weather, by the way, has been very pleasant. Mid-20's, dropping overnight to the late teens. The wind hasn't been too strong, either. Very nice, though I'm warned it may well get a whole lot hotter.

- Went out to dinner with Jane & Nick to a steak restaurant in Camps Bay, another gorgeous stretch of coast. Had myself a 500g t-bone steak for the equivalent of around £11 (though Nick generously paid). Maybe this pound ain't so bad just yet.

- Had a dial-a-driver take us home, then sat on the porch looking out over the bay while knocking back wine and rum'n'coke. Then suddenly it was 1am. Whoops!

Don't Cry For Me Grizzled Blog Fans

2010-01-28T09:12:00.001Z

The truth is I never left you. Just been a little busy. Well, busy and slack. I'll get back to speed soon. The short version of how things are is:

- South Africa looms. We fly out next Wednesday and I've got truckloads to do before then.

- I'm reading through my NaNo novel, and finding the whole rewrite thing pretty intimidating. Small chunks, that's the way to do it. One positive is that I am actually enjoying the read-through, despite the many cringe-inducing errors, or bits of clumsy prose.

- Not much else to report at the moment. Plus, I'm doing this on my phone, so thumbs up to brevity.

I was at : Soho, Westminster, London W1D 3,

Things I Did Yesterday 26/01/10

2010-01-26T08:47:00.000Z

What can I say? Life is just so exciting! Anyway, yesterday I:

- Was a little hung over from Doug's birthday drinks the night before, but not too bad. Jolly Jonny C had stayed over at ours, so I went for breakfast with him before he caught his train back to Suffolk.

- Jumped a bus to Lewisham to visit two thirds of te whanau Bradley, with added grandmother. Dana's mum was over from Oz and it was nice to see her, as well as have a catch-up with Dana and my very cute goddaughter.

- Headed for home around 1pm and had a bit of a slow journey back, taking about half an hour longer than it took to get down there. Still better than doing a bus/rail journey, though.

- Did some domestic stuff, faffed a little, got dinner sorted, then played Dragon Age for a couple of hours.

- Did some internet shopping at Jacamo in preparation for the trip, but was having trouble getting the stuff delivered to my work. Annoying.

- Watched the first episode of the new series of Newswipe, which was great but also felt like a bit of an old message: the media loves fear. I actually thought I'd seen Brooker do this before, but I guess it's just something that's been done a lot by others. Either way, he has a knack for imparting serious information in the most entertaining manner.

- Started watching a BBC documentary about the rise of the British navy (pointed out to me by Bruce), which was rather good. Didn't finish, though, as Alex came through at the end of Glee.

- Watched Nurse Jackie to the end of the first season. Hardly a surprising conclusion, but still quite an effective way to end. Nothing new now until March.

- Sleeeep.

Things I Did Yesterday 22/01/10

2010-01-22T09:35:00.000Z

Here's a funny thought: I've now lived in London longer than I lived in Wellington. Got some way to beat Paraparaumu, but still, something of a landmark. Anyway, yesterday I:

- Had a very frustrating journey in to work. The trouble with starting on a late shift is that by the time I leave the house, rush hour proper has begun. So travelling on the bus becomes a bit of a nightmare. I really do have to start walking in again (although being annoyed by buses is the least of the reasons why).

- Worked. New comics day, which meant I was mostly on the till. I do still enjoy doing the till work, seeing all the regulars on a Thursday. It can be a little stressful, and leaves me a bit knackered, but it's fairly rewarding. I just need to make sure I do a little less of it on Fridays and Saturdays, so I'm not so bloody behind in my work all the time.

- Managed to get a little time off to catch up on emails at least.

- Got home, had some dinner and managed to finagle an hour of Xbox time (which involves me taking over the TV, of course). Played Dragon Age, which I'm really getting into now, in that way where I'll find myself thinking about the story at various points throughout any given day. I love it when a game gets its hooks in you that way.

- Watched a Nurse Jackie. The show has a feeling of looming disaster right now, an inevitable crash in mood as all the titular character's indiscretions catch up with her.

- Went to beddy-bye.

Things I Did Yesterday 21/01/10

2010-01-21T14:20:00.000Z

Doin' some quick lunch-time blogging. But yesterday I:

- Worked. Delivery day, so I was wrapped up in that all day, all the more so than normal due to other people needing to be prioritised to other jobs. So, lots of counting, lots of bagging, lots of boredom.

- Went home and read a bunch of comics. A few highlights this week. Lovely Marcos Martin artwork on Amazing Spider-Man, nice first issue of new Grant Morrison series Joe the Barbarian, a couple of actually decent Siege tie-ins, a new Solomon Kane series and I still need to read but am looking forward to the latest issues of Rasl and Hellblazer.

- Watched the final two episodes of season two of True Blood, which were something of a disappointment, really. Over the final few episodes the whole thing just crosses the line into the too-silly category. Very sloppily put together too, lacking any real sense of tension. We'll probably carry on to season three when it starts, but it'll be back on an episode-to-episode probation.

- Hit the sack. Jeez! What a dull day!

Things I Did Yesterday 20/01/10

2010-01-20T08:53:00.000Z

Two weeks until we go away! Yeah! Anyway, yesterday I:

- Did some more work getting ready for a revision (I would say something like "first pass" but to be honest that just makes me feel like I'm trying to be something I'm not quite yet), just making notes and gathering my thoughts about how I should proceed. The NaNo site has a lot of advice on its forums, but I'm largely going blind. I barely even rewrote essays at school, let alone a novel. Any of you folks with experience in this kind of thing have any advice?

- Worked. Lots of boring stuff involving spreadsheets, plus a little excitement with a misbehaving piece of software. Oh, and I also rearranged our basement back corridor, which had become something of a deathtrap of badly stacked boxes.

- Got my book! My free proof from CreateSpace.com, a prize for finishing NaNoWriMo, arrived! I have to say, it was a real thrill. Even though it's just a print on demand item, it was extremely exciting to see my efforts transformed into a sort of real, honest to god novel. 184 pages of blood, sweat and lazy hackwork. Gave me a great boost to get things going on the rewrite, and even gave me that pleasurable buzz you occasionally get when reading back over your own work and going "Hey, that bit wasn't bad at all." Good buzz. Here it is!

Small Perils, by the way, is a rather hastily decided on title, thought up at the CreateSpace submission stage when I suddenly realised that my previous title, Winter Moon, was lame (which I already knew) and had no bearing whatsoever on the story. So, given the deliberate anti-epic nature of the book, and the idea that even the most minor traditional fantasy monsters would pose a huge threat to normal folks, Small Perils sprung to mind. Not sure it'll stick, but it'll do for now.

- Worked a little late thanks to the aforementioned software hiccup, then headed home.

- Bit of a nothing of an evening. Went over the (very tight) holiday budget with wifey, called my mum, called my sister to wish my nephew a happy birthday, watched Gordon Ramsey swear his way around India, watched a True Blood and a Nurse Jackie, then hit the sack.

Things I Did Yesterday 19/01/10

2010-01-19T08:51:00.000Z

Tired this morning. But yesterday I:

- Made myself a little to do list, which I checked through as the day went on. Very happy with the results, as there were only a few things left unchecked at the end of the day.

- Went down to Angel to write and made the stupid choice of going to Tinderbox. Why do I go there? The staff are sullen and unfriendly, other than a few choice spots, the place always feels crowded and you have to pay for the wireless. Why, why, why? There's a Starbucks nearby which, while being a Starbucks, has friendly staff, comfortable seating upstairs with plenty of power points, and (with one of their top-up cards) free wireless. (Or even stolen free wireless from the Wetherspoons next door.)

- Did some prep work for my novel rewrite. I've left it a bit, but it's time to get stuck in. I've been having this sort of generalised anxiety about not having any particular writing project on the go. I've got lot of ideas floating about, but I've been dithering about whether or not I should do certain things, and any time I commit to doing anything I start thinking "But what about...?". But yesterday I came to the realisation that working on a second draft of my NaNo novel is actually a worthwhile priority. A big job that should be the focus of any writing I do this year, aside from Script Frenzy in April and NaNo again in November. All forward motion on that is a good thing.

- Leaving the cafe, I had to slip between my table and that of a woman next to me. As I was wearing my bulky jacket, I said to her that she'd better move her coffee - sat right on the edge of her table - or I might send it flying. I said it in a slightly jokey manner, and so gave a little laugh at the end of my sentence, at which point a small glob of phlegm dislodged from the back of my throat and went flying, landing on the arm of said woman's coat. I was horrified and there was this supremely awkward moment where I wasn't sure what I should do. She clearly wasn't happy about it, but was very good about the whole thing, and I offered her a tissue amidst a tumbling waterfall of apologies. I could've died. I left as quickly as I could, feeling like some horrific monster. I laugh to think about it, but it was genuinely one of the worst moments of my life. Augh!

- Got home, did some domestic stuff, then got stuck into Dragon Age Origins, secure in the knowledge that I'd had a productive morning. Made some good progress, too, getting past a section I had been working through for a while.

- Alex got home, so had dinner and faffed about a little on the internet.

- Booked tickets to South Africa! At last, we've got firm dates. We've been holding out price-wise, but things seem to have bottomed out and are now creeping back up. But Alex found flights through an agent with BA going for £640 each, so we're in business. Flying out on 3rd Feb, flying back on 3rd March. Doesn't quite seem real, to be honest.

- I intended to try and watch a movie while Alex did the soaps and Glee, but spent too much time fluffing about. So she came through for bed and we watched a Nurse Jackie then hit the sack.

Things I Did Yesterday 18/01/10

2010-01-18T13:03:00.000Z

Tt...I really should have done up some end of year lists. Anyway, yesterday I:

- Went to visit Alex's Granny for her birthday. We got up early and walked down to the car rental place. It's in one of those curious spots where taking the bus involves a change, pushing the total time (45-ish minutes) up beyond the amount of time it takes to walk there (30-ish minutes). The place is down by Pentonville Prison, whose library graphic novel collection is now supplied by yours truly. Shaping minds and hearts.

- Drove out to Kent. It's a nice drive out there on the M20, as Kent is all beautiful rolling hills and forests. It helped that it was a nice day, though the sun shining off the wet roads was a bit much.

- Went to Granny's (just like in Spirited Away), had a coffee and then took her out for lunch. We went to a pub called The Black Horse in a village called Monks Horton. It's properly in amongst the kind of hair-raisingly thin country lanes that crisscross the British countryside (and which anyone who attended our wedding will be familiar with). Really nice place, with a great carvery. I do love me a good English country pub. Nothing else quite like it.

- Dropped Granny home and had another drink and a chat before heading back into London. I like coming back into London. It's a bit of a shithole, but I do love it. Don't get me wrong, it makes you work for that love and sometimes it really puts you through the wringer, but then you wake some mornings and look at it's beautiful sleeping face and it's all worth it. Except for the tube.

- Had some dinner and watched a few things before bed. Bit of True Blood (slightly lame episode), bit of Nurse Jackie (flawed but enjoyable). Went to sleep.

Things I Did Yesterday 17/01/10

2010-01-17T09:05:00.000Z

More like things I did every other day...

Anyway, yesterday I:

- Got in to town a little late in the pre-work hours, so didn't really write. Again. I did make some notes for reviewing Messiah of Evil, though, which I'll hopefully get to in the next day or so.

- Worked. Busy day, actually. Only three of us on and a shedload to get done. Getting work done while you're on the till is a nightmare on a Saturday, but we got to the end of the day with most stuff done. I'm still behind on my work, though. Think I might need to pull a long day on Tuesday to get myself caught up.

- Alex came down to work and we met Andrea for dinner. Went to Kingsland Road for some Vietnamese and had the good fortune of taking a chance on a place that was empty but had very nice food. Well, empty when we went in, but packed by the time we left. That's just the extraordinary trending power we have, I guess.

- Walked up Kingsland Road to Dalston and popped into the Fox pub. Nice pub, if a little expensive. Weirdly, the last time I was there was for Marianna's birthday almost exactly a year ago. I texted her to wish her a happy birthday, but turns out I was a day early. I try to be good...

- Walked home, saying goodbye to Andrea at Dalston Junction. Really must make more effort to catch up with her more often as she's Good Folk.

Things I Did Yesterday 15/01/10

2010-01-15T09:47:00.000Z

I know, I know, I'm stumbling a little. ust wait until next month. Anyway, yesterday I:

- Came down with a cold. Blah.

- Got up late and got into town late. Luckily I was also starting late, so not really a problem. Still, left me less time than I would normally like in the pre-work hours. Didn't write at all, which is bad. Bad Andrew!

- Worked. New comics day, so not much notable happened to speak of, other than my attempts to surreptitiously blow my nose while on the till. The worst is when your nose is really going for it but you're working your way through a queue of people, and every time you get near the end, ready to grab that tissue, someone else comes up. Meanwhile you're snuffling and sniffing your way through it all. I don't particularly like blowing my nose then serving someone as I feel it's a bit unpleasant for the customer. Not to mention the fact that I haven't shaved for a few days, so making sure my nose is blown properly and then the area effectively cleaned takes a bit of time. Not to mention the horror of tissue stuck in my razor-like stubble. Sniffing seems like the better option. Too much information?

- Finished late and moped my way home on the bus. Got in, had some dinner, had a bath, read some comics, watched some True Blood then went to sleep.

- Lay awake at 1 in the morning as it dawned on me that taking those two Lemsip capsules just before bed may not have been that great an idea. Don't they stuff those things with caffeine?

Things I Did Yesterday 13/01/10

2010-01-13T21:53:00.000Z

Had some bad news today about Bonnee Harkess, someone I knew through my good friend Marianna back in the Wellington days. She'd been based in the UK for a while and I'd seen her a few times while she was over here. Not sure of the details, but she passed away while on a flight back to the UK from NZ. Horrible news. She was a real gem of a person, vibrant and enthusiastic. I was always amazed at her travel stories, particularly about her time spent travelling around South America (including a stint working in a wild animal rehabilitation centre), and last time we saw her she was in a very happy relationship, as active as ever with sailing and god knows what other outdoor activities on the go. Very sad.

Anyway, trivial as it is, yesterday I:

- Worked. Did an early start (8am) so that we could get stuck into a huge stocktake we're doing to get our POS stock management system corrected. It's drifted slowly but surely into inaccuracy, as it does, and it's been quite some time since we last corrected it. That, combined with us taking a hard look at how we're managing stock generally, meant it was a colossal job. Is a colossal job, I should say, as it's still going on.

- Worked through lunch then knocked off at 3.30, heading home. Put in some Xbox time, including a good little run on Dragon Age, getting past a bit that was getting me stuck. Spent most of the time playing Left 4 Dead 2, though. Versus mode has got me hooked all over again and let me tell you, I play a damn good Spitter.

- Cooked dinner and then we watched Michael Palin's Sahara, followed by the new series of Survivors. I really want to like this show, but every time it's on I get about 10 minutes in before slowly losing interest. I'm just not that interested in the characters, I guess. Plus, as much as I like Patterson Joseph, I just can't see anyone but Johnson from Peepshow. Seriously, did you see that clip last night where he was staring down at the guy he just beat up, mugging into the camera for a POV shot? Johnson.

- All the while we made some good progress on a jigsaw we've been doing for a while now. "Doing for a while", as in "Put away for months at a time". Nice puzzle though: a vintage world map, complete with areas "UNKNOWNE".

- Watched the first episode of Nurse Jackie. I quite enjoyed it. Difficult to do anything really new in a medical show, but it's been son many years since I've watched one that it's pretty entertaining. Nice dark sense of humour, too. Plus it's only half an hour, leading to good, punchy writing.

Things I Did Yesterday 11/01/10

2010-01-11T19:59:00.003Z

Whoops. You think you write these things in a vacuum! Anyway, yesterday I:

- Had the day off! We got up reasonably early so as to head over to visit Dana & James and recent arrival (not to mention cute as a button goddaughter) Annie. Discovered that, unbeknownst to TFL Journey Planner it seems, we can get to Lewisham on the 21 bus in under an hour. Handy!

- Had a very nice visit with the Bradleys. We stayed for a few hours before making ourselves scarce. I think their house is a bit like Grand Central Station at the moment!

- Stopped in a delightful Wetherspoons pub down by Lewisham station. Well, I didn't get glassed and it did the trick as far as a cheap lunch goes, so not too bad. We went through the South Africa guide alongside our new draft itinerary, trying to plan our movements. We've got a few firm dates booked for safari and so on, but we needed to rejig our plans a little to work around the dates. Also wanted to get as much in as possible while still allowing time to relax a little and just mooch about Cape Town.

- Came home and chilled. Started watching the Sopranos again at last, then moved on to True Blood after. I was planning on staying up late and playing Xbox, but come 11pm was wiped. Such an old man now.

Things I Did Yesterday 10/01/10

2010-01-10T18:53:00.000Z

I'm typing this in blogger, using the Chrome browser while waiting for an application designed to allow desktop management of my Android-powered phone to do its initial setup. I'm Google's mutt, it seems. Should I be scared of how much they know about my habits? Anyway, yesterday they were fully aware that I:

- Worked. Got up quite late, actually, so didn't get much time before work. Just read a few feeds on my phone over coffee, then headed in.

- Frustrating day on the till, though it was still pretty quiet. Managed to get a few bits and pieces done, though working on the Redbridge library standing order is always a bit fiddly and annoying. So many different splits in terms of branch, age range and content, with no doubles.

- Came home after work and had some nice dinner. Didn't really do much that I can remember. Rather uninspired evening!

- Watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the first time in years. I have such fond memories of the film: queuing outside the Odeon in Leicester Square in the pouring rain to see it at the London Film Festival (with Ang Lee Q&A), then the jaw-dropping impact of that first fight scene. Alex had never seen it and I had a real hankering to watch it again lately, so we popped that on. Unsurprisingly it's still a great film, in fact one of my best of the decade, if I were so inclined to make such a list. It's all wonderfully arch, an action-packed melodrama which pays respect to the best of classic martial arts films, while tipping its head to the likes of Zhang Yimou. One notable thing about this viewing: I watched the English dubbed version for the first time. Alex is dyslexic, so watching subtitled films is a bit of a pain for her. Not that she can't, of course, but she really has to concentrate, which kind of takes her out of the movie. Now, I must admit that I thought a film as big as this would have had a fairly slick dub version, but it really was - with a few notable exceptions - appalling. Still, you do get used to it, and the film is good enough that it soon doesn't matter so much.

- Hit the sack. Tried to start the final book in the Jonathan Maberry trilogy, but quickly decided that maybe I needed a little break, and perhaps should read something a little edifying next, instead. In the meantime I read the latest National Geographic, which has a great article about the Inner and Outer Hebrides that really made me want to head up there and see them.

Things I Did Yesterday 09/01/10

2010-01-09T20:52:00.000Z

Phew! Nearly missed it! Yesterday I:

- Worked. Late start again, so I meandered my way in, finished off the second of my schlocky Jonathan Maberry horror trilogy novels (Dead Man's Song: sequel to Ghost Road Blues, prequel to Bad Moon Rising, and to be honest something of an unnecessary, difficult middle child), then sauntered in to work.

- Spent the day filing and such. Nothing particularly exciting, though it should be noted that this week is one of the quietest I've ever worked at Gosh. The weather really has kept people out of town, or at least kept them in a firm home-work-home travel pattern that excludes any diversions for comics. Can't blame them, it's bloody freezing. Literally. Currently 0°.

- At the end of the day, Will B, Barney and I were going to divvie up the remainder of a box of Peroni given to us by a couple of customers for Christmas. But we figured we'd knock one back before we left. Wound up finishing off the box and leaving at about 10.30pm. Pleasant evening chatting about all kinds of crap, though, including the old Gosh-centric minicomic project Nice. It was fun to leaf through the few issues of it we have kicking around the store.

- Got home, ate some food in front of Celebrity Big Brother and then went to sleep. Had the worst night of nightmares I've had in a long time, including thinking I saw something lunging out of the clothing rack at me just as Alex came to bed. Freaky deaky.

Things I Did Yesterday 08/01/10

2010-01-08T09:44:00.000Z

Still a bit chilly. I get the impression out there in the larger world that this is being reported as total winter chaos, our civilisation teetering on the brink of utter collapse. Truth be told, down here in London at least, it's been nothing more than an inconvenience. Perhaps they're eating one another up North, but I wouldn't know, what with the complete breakdown of communications beyond smoke signals. Anyway, yesterday I:

- Was on a late start, so took my time getting ready and getting into town. I used to enjoy doing the early start on a Thursday, as I could finish at 3.30pm. But I've really come around to the late start, as I usually feel completely relaxed by the time I get into work after something between 1 1/2 - 2 hours writing and relaxing beforehand. The evening goes a little quick, though.

- Worked. Delivery had arrived by the time I got in, so it was straight into it. We normally get the delivery a day before it goes out on sale, which gives us time to get everything done, so yesterday was pretty stressful all around. Still, we used to do it all on the same day as a matter of course, not to mention bag 75% of shelf stock as well, so I shouldn't really complain. Anyway, it was a relief once I got myself up on the till and was just able to get stuck in to serving and filing.

- Got home and read a pile of comics. Highlights included Orc Stain, a truly bizarre mish-mash of fantasy and underground comics. If I could compare it to anything it would be Vaughn Bode, though a modern comparison to Brandon Graham wouldn't be far amiss. Good fun. Also, got my hands on an advance copy of Mezolith, a collection of a strip that ran in the ill-fated DFC, a subscription-only children's comic which ran for a while from 2008-2009. Mezolith always looked like the standout, a kind of prehistoric adventure story with a surprisingly dark tone and amazingly lush artwork. David Fickling Books is now collecting a number of the strips that ran in the comic, and Mezolith is in the first wave of three. And it's bloody great. I really hope this is enough of a success to warrant more books in the series. Outside of the Edginton/D'Israeli War of the Worlds books, it's the best example of a British emulation of the European adventure albums that I can think of off the top of my head.

- Watched True Blood. It's funnier than the first season, right? Am I imagining that? I think that's why I'm liking it so much more, because it's having more fun with the concept.

- Slept. Dreamed I was walking up the hallway towards your room, a cold knife held tight in my sweaty, murderous palm. Woke, startled, but relieved to discover that at least this time I was still in my own house.

Mobile Test

2010-01-07T09:48:00.001Z

So I have a mobile blogging app. Just testing it out!

I was at : Earnshaw St, Camden Town, Greater London WC1A 1,

Things I Did Yesterday 07/01/10

2010-01-07T09:44:00.000Z

Well, it's all a bit chilly here in London town. And yesterday, while it snowed down, I:

- Sat upstairs in the Starbucks by Tottenham Court Road, as noted, and watched it snow. It wasn't settling at that point, but there's something I find really magical about sitting in warmth and light, watching the weather outside. It's the main thing I love about winter: observing the miserable weather while warm and cosy inside. Upstairs in that Starbucks is particularly good, as it has floor-to-ceiling windows nearly all around. Get yourself into the comfy chairs and you're golden. Great people-watching spot, too. No lack of foot-traffic about there.

- Worked. Had a meeting in the morning about stock control and so on for the coming year. We're having a massive sale on stuff that just hasn't sold for us the last year, or hasn't sold as well as we expected. Some good stuff in there , but we just need the space. So we talked about we could keep overstocks to a minimum throughout the year. Fairly productive, though there's always an element of guesswork in book ordering. This year was particularly bad, with the audience for Marvel and DC trades really dropping through the floor, leaving us with quantities of titles we had sold through on the previous volume. Don't get me wrong: you always expect drop-off. But this has been far beyond anything we should have expected. It's almost as if people are just getting bored with a rolling series of crossovers and events. Go figure.

- No delivery thanks to snow being particularly bad up in the North West (where Diamond's warehouse is), so just spent the afternoon working on libraries. Time to start looking towards the wrap-up for the financial year.

- Went out for a few drinks as it was the last chance to see Tom before he heads back up to York. Me, Nat, Will K, Will B, The Original Tony Lee (not that comics writing fella) and Tom went to the Crown. I do like the Crown. lots of fond memories there, plus it's still the cheapest place to drink in town (along with the other Samuel Smiths, of course). Does leave you feeling rough, though. The in-house Sam Smith's brews go down easy but give you a good kicking in the morning if you're not careful. Intended to go out for one or two, but stayed until closing. Don't do that very often any more, so that was nice.

- Ran to catch a bus, which conveniently came along just as I got to the stop. Not enough money on my Oyster card, though, so muttering to myself I walked down to Holborn to charge it up,, then had to wait in the freezing cold for another bus. Rassumfrassumfuckinghell.

- Got home and "accidentally" woke up wifey so I could have a cuddle, selfish old drunk that I am.

Things I Did Yesterday 06/01/10

2010-01-06T09:07:00.000Z

Sat in Starbucks by Tottenham Court Road watching the snow come down. Holy shit, it's 2010! Anyway, yesterday I:

- Got up a little late. Had the day off, as I really wanted to have at least one extra day off over the Christmas/New Year period. Glad I did, though I always feel vaguely guilty when I take an extra day off. Silly.

- Twiddled about on the internet for a bit.

- Headed down to Angel to go see A Serious Man, the new Coen brothers film. While I certainly enjoyed watching it, the ending felt a little abrupt. Without spoiling anything, I’ve no problem with a film that requires a little thought to interpret it’s intent, but I do find it a little disappointing when the narrative leaves quite so many things hanging. I guess the point is the character arc Larry takes to make the decision he does. But even so, it makes for a slightly disappointing experience. Mustn’t grumble, though. There’s plenty to enjoy, especially in the too-brief, scene-stealing appearances of Fred Melamed as Sy Ableman, a bastard in sheep’s clothing. It does a wonderful job of evoking the time, as well, not to mention the ordered, bleached ennui of the suburbs. So worth a watch, and certainly still within the realms of what you would expect from the Coens, light years away from the mediocrity of Intolerable Cruelty or The Ladykillers, which have thankfully turned out to be missteps rather than directions.

- Came home and did some domestic this’n’that.

- Played some Xbox. Had the distinct pleasure on Dragon Age of getting past a fight which had me stuck for a couple of days, only to careen into another. Frustrating. Shot some zombies instead.

- Made a lamb casserole which was delicious enough that I feel the need to mention it here.

- Watched an episode of Michael Palin’s Sahara which happened to be on TV. I thought I had seen all of his travel programs, including this one. Turns out I was wrong. Must track the rest of it down.

- Watched an episode of True Blood then hit the sack. Enjoying the various story threads running through this season, and I admire the juggling being done to fit them all in. One thing I will say about this season: it feels more like x-rated Buffy than ever.

Things I Did Yesterday 05/01/10

2010-01-05T10:08:00.000Z

Dammit, I'm so used to typing on my Eee PC keyboard that my fingers are all out of whack for a full-sized one. But yesterday I:

- Got up with great intentions of having a productive day. My main goal was to do a bit of PC housekeeping: something which always seems to take an inordinate amount of time for little visible result, but needs doing. I also thought I might get out and catch a film. The Coen brothers' A Serious Man is high on my list of need-to-see.

- Sat on the internet. I don't have any structured time for reading my RSS feeds anymore, so I'm well behind. About 75% of my web reading currently takes place on my phone while I'm travelling, which is handy, but restrictive. Anything with media or links or just too long gets left for a later that never comes (or does come 3 months later). Then of course I wind up spending half my day doing a catch-up and get annoyed with myself for wasting so much time.

- Got out of the house with the intention of going to the movies, but got a call from Alex about lunch, so I met her down at Angel. Popped into the Waterstones down there to have a browse while I waited for her. Unsurprisingly, with the Borders in the N1 Centre closing down just before Christmas, the place had been pillaged. Slightly depressing now to think that this store - never the best store around - is about the only bookstore that I know of in this part of London. Does North London not read? Or are we all Amazon fiends? Reminds me, I must check on the status of that order...

- Missed my intended session time, so flagged the film. I'm off today as well, so I might pop down. Came home and got a little domestic.

- Sat down to get stuck into my PC housekeeping. Started playing around with the Chrome browser extensions that are now available for the beta. I quite like Chrome. It's certainly very fast and much improved on the initial release. The lack of customising that Firefox offers has stopped me switching over, but now that's changed there's little beside a fondness for the Mozilla browser that keeps me with it. Not to mention my wariness of that feeling I'm being lured into Google's gingerbread house. In the last six months I've become a Google whore with disturbing speed. But it's all just so convenient. It all just works so easily. But then, I guess, so does Apple.

- Also played around a little with Evernote: note-taking software that I can sync across my machines, including my phone. The free version is pretty well-featured, but if works out I may well stump up the $5/month for the benefits of premium, the key attraction being the fact that the free version only comes with 40mb of storage. I've toyed around with note-taking software before, but never really found anything yet which has stuck. The fact that I can use this as an app on my phone then sync back to my Eee PC and my desktop might be the winning factor here though. Hey, at least it's not Google, right?

- Played Xbox. Dragon Age Origins, to be precise. But I kept dying during one fight, to the point I would have to get up and have a little walk between each attempt. Otherwise I may have embedded my controller in the television. Thankfully DAO offers saves at any point, a feature traditionally lacking in console games, so at least I'm not having to go back to a save point or anything silly. I appreciate that it adds a sense of peril to your actions, a cost for failure, but to be frank it just annoys the fuck out of me. Played a little Left 4 Dead 2 as well.

- Cooked dinner. Wifey was out for after work drinks, so I went back to Xbox. Left 4 Dead 2 again, but playing in Versus mode, which is just genius. It's two teams of four playing against each other. Sides take turns on each level of a scenario playing either the survivors or the "special" creatures. The survivors simply try to get as far through the level as they possibly can, with no resurrections for any character who dies along the way. When you play on the zombie side, you cycle through each type of special creature. Each has a special ability (grappling tongue, charging ability, venomous spit, etc), but they die very quickly. This results in you being timed out as an observer for about twenty seconds before coming back as the next type of creature. Anyway, it's a lot of fun and not a mode I've played much before, so I got completely sucked in a pretty much played it the rest of the night.

- Watched the second and third episodes of True Blood. Again, immediately enjoying this a lot more than last series. Trashy fun.

- Alex went to sleep, while I snuck back into the lounge for some more L4D2. I got it bad.

Things I Did Yesterday 04/01/10

2010-01-04T09:03:00.002Z

Apparently it's -5° outside. Also, I just discovered that I can type a degrees symbol by holding ALT and typing 0176 on the numeric keypad. My life is complete. But yesterday I:

- Worked. Went to the Starbucks down by Tottenham Court Road beforehand to read for a bit and found myself surrounded by a group of Hillsong churchgoers. They meet up beforehand for a little pep talk and a prayer and I felt more than a little out of place. Hillsong is a bit of a cringe-inducing thing: a decidedly happy clappy church that is slightly embarrassing in its "Jesus is cool!" rock music way. Music which I am reliably informed is terrible. Anyway, the group was led by a youngish Australian woman who was all "Let's rock that theatre for Jesus!" I didn't know where to look. And, honestly, I'm not someone who gets snooty about overt religious behaviour, but it really felt like parody.

- Work was uneventful. I was stuck on the till all day, and with Hayley off sick and Nat on holiday I was just doing sales cycle tasks.

- Came home, had a delicious roast and watched some television. Can't even remember what. Top Gear, for one. There's a strange thing about Jeremy Clarkson: I can't stand him, except within the context of Top Gear, where even his populist politics don't irritate me as much. For a show whose main message often seems to be "Global warming is nonsense because dealing with it interferes with things I enjoy", I'm surprisingly entertained.

- Oh yeah, watched the start of Celebrity Big Brother to see who was in, but just found it unbearable.

- Watched the first episode of season two of True Blood, which was thoroughly entertaining. Either it has markedly improved, or I've just gotten used to it. Either works.

Things I Did Yesterday 03/01/10

2010-01-03T20:01:00.000Z

Jesus, it's a bit bloody cold out, isn't it? Anyway, yesterday I:

- Slept in until 9.30 because, well, no reason really. I just did. Tooled about a little, then decided we were going to head up to Wood Green and see Sherlock Holmes. Harangued wifey out of bed so that we could get up there in plenty of time for the midday screening.

- Saw Sherlock Holmes. When I first saw the trailer for this, I thought it looked for all the world like parody: a Player-esque satire of producers cheapening the work of writers who had no doubt crafted an intelligent, literate detective mystery. The fact that it was produced by Joel Silver only helped the impression. But still, I found myself looking forward to it. It looked fun, and I was interested to see what Guy Ritchie - a director whose visual flourishes I generally enjoy for all his flaws as a writer - would be like working from someone else's script. Plus, Robert Downey Jr has just the right charisma to pull something like this off.
Happy to say, I wasn't disappointed. Sherlock Holmes is a well-formed action adventure which isn't quite as Silver-ised as you might assume and actually still provides a surprising amount of Holmesian deduction. Okay, some of it is ridiculous, but then wasn't it always? The fight sequences, where Holmes (with us along for the ride) plans the entire fight out in his head before engaging his opponent is a fun gimmick which isn't overused, but I can see it annoying some. Still, as a means of opening the door to Action Holmes, I think it's a nice idea.
Of course, as a film it's not reinventing the wheel, and the characters are certainly staple archetypes for this kind of adventure: the flawed protagonist; the long suffering sidekick; the sassy love interest with a checkered past who's the protagonist's only true weakness. But it entertains, which is exactly what it sets out to do. Now, if you can't get over the idea of a contemporised Holmes, well then you're probably wasting your time even trying to get with this, but if the idea doesn't make you entirely ill, then give it a go. Big thumbs up. Oh, and I'm happy to see black magic practitioners as the bad guys. Not enough devil worship (or near enough) in movies these days.

- Jumped a bus back down to Clissold Park and went to a pub called the White Horse, which is run by a very nice Turkish guy. The only food they have are Turkish mezzes, so we got a few in and they were absolutely delicious, particularly the chargrilled chicken wings. Nice fresh Turkish bread, too.

- Got home, got a haircut, then got on the bus and headed into town. Wifey stayed at home as she wasn't feeling the best, almost as though she had just had a week of late nights and heavy drinking. Weird. It was Tom Hardy's birthday and he was having drinks down at the White Heart pub on Drury Lane (London's oldest licensed premises, dontchaknow!) The pub has gone back to a pleasant pub-styled atmosphere after a short ill-advised stint as a wine bar. Still a bit more civilised than its Scream chain days though. Lovely night and nice to see the folks there! Left about 9.30, bought some lamb ribs from Chicken Shack, or whatever the chicken joint down near Holborn is called (Chicken Village?) then jumped a bus back home.

- Had a craving to watch Once Upon a Time in the West, but couldn't find my copy. Very frustrating!

- Watched Vengeance instead, a Johnnie To film starring 50's French rock'n'roller Johnny Hallyday, who really needs to stop the plastic surgery. Anyway, it actually worked quite well for his character, and suited the whole cool, distant feel of the film. I enjoyed it; an art-house action film which recalls some of the feel of early-90's Hong Kong cinema when it was still surprising and fresh. Unusually choreographed action wrapped in a story heavy with themes of family, loyalty and brotherhood. Johnnie To is someone whose name I've heard a bit before, mainly relating to the film Election from a few years back, but who I've never actually seen any films from. Well, so I thought (he says, checking IMDB): turns out he directed The Heroic Trio back in 1993, which I loved, so small wonder he should capture that early 90's feel so well. Based on Vengeance, I'm definitely going to track down Election.

- Went to sleep. Badly.

Things I Did Yesterday 02/01/10

2010-01-02T23:19:00.000Z

Nearly off to a terrible start. I'm writing this with a few drinks in me, watching Johnnie To's film Vengeance. Johnny Hallyday looks like some kind of plastic-faced monster. Macau looks like a crazy place and all. Anyway, very briefly, yesterday I:

- Got up a bit late, but felt remarkable good. Played some Xbox and faffed about on the internet waiting for Alex wake up. She surfaced about 1pm not feeling quite so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

- Wandered up to the Alwyne Castle for a pub lunch. Nice idea that really hit the spot.

- Wandered home, our strenuous New Year's Day outing done.

- Sat on the couch. Alex slept while I played Xbox until 6-ish, then she hit the soaps.

- Watched telly the rest of the night then went to bed. Honest to god, that's about it! Still, it was nice to have New Year's Day where I didn't feel like shit the whole day long, even after having a pleasantly drunken night. Nice work, liver and kidneys!

Let's Start As I Mean to Continue

2010-01-01T10:51:00.000Z

Well, hello!

So it's been a while. How you been? You're looking good. Lost weight?

Needless to say, I've been neglectful. When last you saw me, NaNoWriMo was upon me, and I was entering the final week with a good amount left to do. Well, I'm happy to report that I finished the novel handily, and even wasn't totally horrified with the results. Don't get me wrong, it's far from the point of human consumption, but it's not a disaster either. Starting this month I'm going to work on rewriting it and see if I can't hammer it into something worthwhile. Further to that task, I've taken advantage of a NaNoWriMo winner's prize of a free print on demand copy of the book. It's been quickly proofed for spelling & grammar, formatted up (184 pages!) and submitted. Should have the physical copy in 2-3 weeks. Very exciting!

In other news, it's the new year, and in the spirit of resolutions and all of that I'm intending to up the blogging level. I'm not quite sure what to do at the moment, but I keep toying with the idea of a new comics-related blog, or perhaps just using this blog a lot more for varied purposes. Really, just exercises to keep me writing in the mornings when I'm lacking inspiration. I think I'll bring back the things I did yesterday feature as well, just because it's a great way to clear the cobwebs when I sit down to write in the mornings. Also, given the handful of readers I have are mainly friends of mine, they act as a convenient means of keeping people up to date with what I'm doing. Which, as you all know, is vital.

What else? Well, in terms of online presence, the addition of my beloved Android phone has got me very active on Facebook. Well, on status updates, at least. But other areas have become sorely neglected, particularly my Flickr account. I've allowed my pro subscription to lapse and am debating as to whether or not I should re-up. It's frustrating, as I use Picasa for my photo management, but the online galleries lack the functionality and social networking ease of Flickr. I've played with various plugins but nothing works as smoothly as I'd like. Anyway, hardly riveting stuff, I'm sure.

Twitter has pretty much lost me now, I'm afraid. I stuck with it for a while, but at the end of the day it wasn't serving any real purpose for me, or rather not enough of a purpose to justify the extra time it consumed. I'm thinking of using Google Wave to do the kind of short comics reviews I was doing on Twitter, so we'll see if that works out.

That's about it! I'm sure more will occur to me on a daily basis now, but I'll get back to you on that. But for now I'm gonna play some Dragon Age Origins on Xbox before wifey wakes up!

By the way, loyal tiny circle of readers, what would YOU like to see me do with the blog?

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Twenty Three

2009-11-23T14:50:00.002Z

Words Written Today: 0
Total Words Written: 32643

Well, the bad news is that this weekend has been something of a washout, with a couple of 1000-ish days, and then nothing today (my birthday, to be fair). The good news is I'm now only about 20 words behind where I was at this point last time. Of course, there were 31 days in January...

Still, I'm feeling pretty positive about it all. My daily count is now about 2480, which is a bit of a bugger, but still achievable. Definitely going to be some after-work sessions, but that's to be expected in the final week. Also, 50,000 words may be the required count, but that doesn't mean my story will magically end at that mark. Last time I came in a little over 52,000. As with last time, I've got the final two days of the month off (pure coincidence this time), so I'll be able to give a big push then, if necessary.

Anyway, back to my lazy day!

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Nineteen

2009-11-19T22:39:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 2254
Total Words Written: 26548

Yabba dabba doo!

Past the halfway mark and things are kicking off! Now if I can just figure out what's going to happen at the end...

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Eighteen

2009-11-18T22:36:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 2432
Total Words Written: 24294

Surprisingly, although I forgot to do my blog post yesterday, I did actually hit my word quota. Anyways, things are skipping along at a good pace now and the halfway mark looms tomorrow (a mere 4 days behind schedule). I'm sure I'll hit a hiccup in the final week as I try and tie everything up in a way that doesn't feel forced or rushed, but I have the next few scenes vaguely mapped out in my head, which is always nice to know. It means a few minutes less wasted time in the morning as I try to figure out what the hell I'm going to write.

I keep trying to think what the experience was like last time at this point. It's nice to go back to my blog entries and reread what I was doing each day. I'm certainly finding the scale much easier this time around. The story works better for having room to breath. Last time I just tried to pack too much into 50,000 words, whereas the narrowed focus here feels like a much better fit. I can let the characters have a little more room to breathe in a story that, basic though it is, feels much more salvageable than my last attempt. I'm in a positive frame of mind about it all, and about what I might do next, so it's serving its purpose so far!

(Unless I come crashing down in the last week, in which case it'll be a dispiriting kick to the balls.)

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Sixteen

2009-11-16T14:21:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 2355
Total Words Written: 19509

Well, here we are, the second half. Needless to say I'm somewhat behind schedule. The last couple of days weren't banner ones. Around a thousand on Saturday, then yesterday none at all as we visited Alex's granny. Today is back on track, but it is a day off. Really I should have around 26832 words right now, so while the wheels haven't come off the wagon yet, they sure are feeling a little shaky. Not about to give up though. After today, my daily quota is 2178 words, still within manageable proportions. My worry is that my daily average is well below what I was doing last time. I was at 22417 words at this point, and I also had an extra day in the month. Still, I'm able to write Thursdays now, which were a write-off last time.

So, I need to start hammering through things. The story is still pretty nebulous, though it took a turn today which I hadn't expected (a supporting character became much more important due to an act of cowardice which I hadn't planned on). I have a basic idea of where it's going, but the specifics aren't quite there. There's also far less room to pad this one out. My last was a big epic thing (in 50,000 words, haha), whereas this is meant to be an anti-epic. Lean and driven. So I can't start introducing extra characters and subplots now, or witter on about some world-building mythological nonsense. At best I can delve into small-town history, maybe do some kind of internal monologue about someone's troubled past with the law/women/gambling/alcohol in order to build sympathy before I knock 'em off (Stephen King stylee).

Still no social activity with the NaNo thing. Not the end of the world, but I hope to do at least one thing before it's all over. Even just one write-in.

Okay, now for afternoon of regression, listening to Transvision Vamp while playing video games. Oh, and making my lunches for the week. Big pot'o'pasta here I come!

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Twelve

2009-11-12T21:01:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 773
Total Words Written: 15103

Oh, shitsticks. Now 1939/day required (I miscalculated yesterday). On the plus side, I'm only about 1000 words below where I was at this time in January. Not a disaster! On the other hand, I was doing well over 1000 words per day by then. Best not to dwell!

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Eleven

2009-11-11T20:59:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 725
Total Words Written: 14330

Did I say I wasn't going to do well? Well, even I didn't expect to do quite so poorly. Not a banner day, following a couple of underwhelming days. It now leaves me with a daily quota of 1982. I know from my previous experiences that going to around the 2200-2500 mark is about all I can really manage on a working day, and then not really consistently. I need to make sure I hit targets now, or I'm going to have to put in a couple of serious catch-up days.

Anyways, it's new comics night here at Salmond Central, so we'll speak again tomorrow!

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Ten

2009-11-10T19:21:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 1251
Total Words Written: 13605

Not great, but better than I thought I'd done, actually. I had an abortive attempt at getting things finished over lunch when my laptop ran out of juice, crashing mid-sentence. I'd thought I had more left than I did, so went to Costa. Costa don't have any powerpoints, so I started up on 10% battery power, which doesn't last me quite as long as it used to. I love my little EeePC, I really do, but it's starting to feel a little tired on the keyboard and battery life front. Still got some life in the old girl yet, though. The joy of these early netbooks is that they were made to be cheap, portable and durable.

Tomorrow will be a little tough, as I'm meeting someone for lunch. Not yet at the point where I feel the need to make up for lost time in a day, but that'll be coming soon enough I think. The beginning of the evening sessions. I do need to make sure I'm over the 20,000 mark by Sunday, though, or I'll be getting well off track.

I'm still flying by the seat of my pants at the moment. Each step forward in the story feels like a leap of faith, with little idea how it should progress. It's an interesting test of my storytelling intuition, or lack thereof. We'll see how it pans out in the end. I'm sure it'll take things in an interesting direction anyway. I do have what feels like the luxury of knowing the major event I'm currently heading towards, so that's nice, but naturally building one particular relationship and actually getting those two characters involved in the main plot might take some doing. Coming along, though.

Still enjoying it. The feeling at the end of the day is nice, though the feeling when I push myself out of bed is less so. I do feel like it's all in a good cause, though. It helps cement the idea that I do want to write, that I do need to write the things I enjoy, and that I do really, really need to get some practice in.

NaNoWriMo Update: Day 9

2009-11-09T17:16:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 1810
Total Words Written: 12354

Well, been a bumpy couple of days. Yesterday was my worst, only racking up around 500 words, but Saturday wasn't much better at around 1000. Various reasons, but the end result is a revised daily requirement of around 1800. Not terrible. Less than the 2000+ I was needing toward the end of my last go around and certainly manageable within my normal writing time, but still more than it needs to be.

They say the second week is the toughest. The thrill of the early days has worn off, but the end is nowhere in sight. Furthermore, the story has begun to take on its own life, probably leaving the best laid plans at the side of the road. "Where the fuck is this going?" starts to become the dominating thought. I'm making this up as I go, so that's been the dominating thought for me from the start, but I'm at the point where I can't pad things out with introductory exposition any more. Gotta start moving some kind of plot forward.

Still been completely uninvolved with any of the social aspects of NaNo, other than a handful of forum posts. Must try and get involved, although I am a terror when it comes to alien social situations, grumpy, anti-social old bastard that I am.

One thing of note that I did today. I started a little late, as I was catching up with the estimable J Chandler, recently returned from Japan. So I went all out at the start, challenging myself to get 600 words written in 15 minutes. Didn't quite manage it, but only by about 3 minutes, so that was a buzzy start to proceedings. Then took me another two hours to write the remaining 1200, but I'm guessing they were probably a little better.

So how am I feeling on the whole? Well, once again it's going to be a terrible pile of rubbish, but as I said before I do think the story has some legs. I'm also feeling inspired to get stuff done once this is over; to not lose the momentum. Well, when I'm not feeling like some kind of club-languaged buffoon, that is.

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Six

2009-11-06T20:57:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 1337
Total Words Written: 9079

Super-quick one today.

Didn't hit word count, which was disappointing, but I thought that might happen with lunch taken up. Also, felt I was spinning my wheels a bit today, and that I really need to get things moving forward. I delved too much into the history of one the lead characters and it slowed everything to a crawl, when really I needed to get some more action in there. Still, done now, so things can move on again.

Not sure how tomorrow will be. May not update, as I'm out tomorrow evening. I should get some done, but don't know if I'll hit quota.

Right, gotta watch something before bed!

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Five

2009-11-05T21:13:00.002Z

Words Written Today: 1739
Total Words Written: 7742

Quota! I was a bit worried this morning, as things seemed to be going particularly slowly, but somehow I managed to limp into touch with a 40 minute burst at lunch. It was the first day where I've been tempted by my evil, lazy side, though. Evil, lazy bastard.

On the NaNo experience, I'm finding myself in a curious relationship with the whole networking side of things. Certainly one pleasing thing has happened: in the first two days, I found seeing other people's word counts next to their usernames a little intimidating, with many clocking over 10,000 by day two (and some flying past the 20,000 mark). Yet over the last two days I've been starting to narrow the gap, and that feels good. I'm like a slow and steady writing tortoise. But otherwise it all feels a little distant, like I'm not really a part of anything. I may attend a couple of the write-ins, just so I can see if that aspect of it will help me connect to the idea that I'm participating in something bigger. I mean, it's not a big deal, but I sort of feel like I'm missing an aspect of it.

Tomorrow I'm having a work lunch, so no lunchtime catch-up session. It's a late start again, so perhaps I'll be able to get it all done in the morning. I doubt I'll have the energy in the evening and to be frank, Alex is out tomorrow night, and that means movie and Left 4 Dead. Or maybe Dead Space. Or something else entirely.

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Four

2009-11-04T19:51:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 1451
Total Words Written: 6003

Well, not a complete disaster, but not quite up to word quota. Still, tomorrow is the first day of what will be my biggest advantage this time over my experience in January. I do the bulk of my writing in the morning before work. I get into town at about 8am and hammer away until shortly before 9.30am, then usually give it another blast at lunchtime. Very rarely did I need to do the evenings last time. But one thing that did work against me last time were the early starts while I was working on a Thursday. Thursdays are pretty intense at work. I'm constantly busy and on my feet and it would wear me down, so that by the end of the day I was in no mood to write. But I was starting at 8am, so nor was I writing before work (I'm a morning person, but not that much). My days and shifts have all changed since then, so Thursdays and Fridays now I don't start work until 10.30, which is great. I've gone from Thursdays being a total write-off, to Thursdays as a (hopefully) banner day.

Story-wise, things are shaping up okay. I nearly sent the story in a completely different direction today but decided against it, though I've still got the latitude to do it if I change my mind tomorrow morning. A lot of mundane stuff today, though. Lots of "get person A to point C to meet person G".

Anyway, must dash. Gotta go read some comics! Oh, and for those keeping score (like me), my daily word quota is now 1692!

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Three

2009-11-03T22:19:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 2205
Total Words Written: 4552

Nice! Well, much happier today all around. Getting to the word quota was a breeze after a bit of a false start this morning finding somewhere to actually write. I did two sittings today, one first thing which took me to 1300 words before my laptop battery ran low, then another at around 3pm this afternoon. I do still prefer to get it all over with in the mornings, but I must admit that everything feels a lot less stressful if I also allow for another hour or so at it later in the day. Also, a couple of sessions a day is, I think, beneficial to the output.

Speaking of output, I'm still not thrilled with the state of my prose, but I do think the story in this one has legs. It's not high art, but I think it's salvageable into something which could be fun.

Also of note today: I had that great feeling of liking the protagonist. Enjoying spending time with him and his thoughts. That always helps!

Anyway, gotta keep it brief. Back to work tomorrow, so we'll see how that all works out. Night!

NaNoWriMo Update: Day Two

2009-11-02T22:18:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 1317
Total Words Written: 2347

Another difficult day. Really, you would think that with a three day stretch off work I would be making the most of my time and getting a head-start on things. You would think that, but then that would only show how little you know me. So it was a couple of hours writing this morning, followed by a day of wanton abandon. Well, a day of lunch dates, window shopping and X-Box anyway. Honestly, what a terrible time to buy Left 4 Dead.

Anyway, in terms of the exercise itself, I'm still struggling. Self-doubt is still at large, stalking the hills of my consciousness, where my writing brain is lost as night is falling. He's defenceless, scared and lacking the proper clothing for a night out in the woods. Stupid writing brain; he's little more than a cautionary tale now.

Anyway, I digress. I'm still having massive problems with self-criticism as I write, leading to long bouts of staring out the window, wondering if I can write, if I can get back into the swing of it all, if I actually have something to say. That, and looking at pretty ladies.

So, tomorrow: last day off before I have to start fitting things in around work. I'm wondering actually if that may be a good thing. Given real time constraints I'm less likely to faff about. Certainly that's how it worked for me last time. Also positive is the fact that I did more today than I managed yesterday, and I know exactly what I'll be starting on when I sit down tomorrow.

Also: I love my EeePC. It's a dream of a writing machine. Could do with a new one though. Y'know, the 900 series go for around £170 a pop these days...

NaNoWriMo Update: Day One

2009-11-01T22:51:00.000Z

Words Written Today: 1030
Total Words Written: 1030

Well, here we go again. As per my previous novel writing month endeavour, I'll be doing my best to update this daily with my progress. The idea, in case you're not aware, is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in length in the space of one month. It requires (to begin with and already blown by me) a 1667 word count on a daily basis through the month. It can be about anything, in any style. It's not judged by anyone, nor do you have to actually show it to anyone (I still haven't shown anyone my last one). If you finish over the 50,000 word mark by the end of the month, you've "won". And that's it.

Now, that may sound like a waste of time. Chasing a daily word count is hardly going to garner anything of quality, and what's the point if you're never going to show anyone? Well, it's an exercise. An exercise in discipline, in pushing past the paralysis imposed by self-criticism and, of course, in writing. At the end of the month I'll have something that's rubbish. But I might, just might, have salvageable elements and when all's said and done I will have probably done more creative writing than I will have otherwise. Plus, y'know, it feels good. It's a bit of a rollercoaster, but when things start rolling along, it feels great.

So, that's what I'm doing! Each day I'll post about how the day's writing went, and how I'm finding the process as a whole. Interestingly, this is the first time I'm doing it during the official month, so I'll see how the networking aspect goes. Maybe I'll rock along to a writing session or two. We'll see. One thing I've noticed already: seeing people in the forums who have knocked down over 4000 words on their first day is a little disheartening. One guy wrote over 2500 between midnight and 3am. While I was shooting zombies. Still, I kicked some fucking ass.

So, today. Well, it was a tough start. I haven't been writing at all lately and in that situation it always takes a while to warm up. I had one of those writing sessions where it felt like I had been working at it for ages when suddenly the first page break came up. Hardly the marathon it felt like. This first day, especially after a lack of activity, is also where the self-confidence issues really start to kick in. Can I do it? Am I actually any good? Maybe I should just give up on the idea. Alla that shit.

But I managed to push past it and just force myself to keep writing, though once I got to the 1000 word mark I felt like there was a good stopping point. One thing I learnt from last time is that it's always best to leave it for the day when something exciting is about to happen. That way my mind is drawn to the subject throughout the rest of the day and when I sit down to write the next day I've got something fun to jump into.

With regard to the subject, I'm doing a fantasy thing again, although on a much smaller scale than last time. Of course, after the first page I immediately decided that, no, I wanted to do a horror instead. Or that young adults post-apocalyptic series I've been thinking about. Or the great New Zealand novel (it would have lots of birds as a metaphor for something). It's an easy trap, so I stuck with my first thought. I do wish I'd planned more though. I have some idea of where this is going - more than last time, certainly - but I would have liked to have fleshed things out a little more. Oh well, keeps me on my toes.

Fortunately I've got the next two days off, so I'm hoping one of them will give me the cracking breakthrough I'm looking for. I'll let you know. Keep an eye out for updates (which will be shorter than this, I promise), and hopefully the news will be good!

Things I Did This Weekend 05/10/09

2009-10-05T12:01:00.000Z

Oh yeah, totally. I've been totally updating every day, there must be something wrong with your browser or RSS feeds or whatever. Anyway, this weekend I:

- Attended the British International Comics Show in Birmingham. Rather than our usual method of getting to a con (Josh & Will drive up with stock on Friday night, I take the train on Saturday), we all drove up together on the Saturday morning. This involved me being picked up at 5.15am. Of course, I was woken up by drunken teenagers having a party in the street outside our window at around 1am, and that was that as far as sleep was concerned. I lay awake for the next 3 hours or so, thinking “Go to sleep, Andrew. Go to sleep.” Eventually I gave up, got up around 4.15 and took my time getting ready, having breakfast and so on.

- During my preparation time I was amazed to discover 4 Music’s best kept secret: “Signed by 4Music”. It’s a music video show for the deaf, complete with sign language translator in the bottom right corner of the screen. The translators dance while they sign, and do their best to emote the lyrics. It is quite something:

- Got picked up and the drive began. Not bad actually and as I had been up for some time, I actually was in better shape than I would have been if I had woken up at 4.45 or so. So it all went rather quickly, and we arrived at the venue with plenty of time to get set up.

- Well, my first impressions on arriving at Birmingham weren’t good. The convention venue felt well out of the centre of town, in a very industrial area. It was near the University, so I guess it can't be all that bad, but it really felt like the outskirts, just inside the motorways that loop all around Birmingham. We were up on the third floor of the science museum, in a large event hall which had no natural light whatsoever. What’s more, the dim lighting it did have gave a slightly depressive vibe to the whole thing, not helped by the usual rows of back issue dealer longboxes all set up from the night before. We got ourselves set up over three tables, plus an extra for Knockabout, whom we were covering as Tony B has a dose of the old swine flu. Then the public arrived.

- Odd crowd. The actual general audience seemed like far more of a traditional comics crowd: lots of guys wandering about with lists of backissues they were after. It all created the impression of a glorified mart rather than a convention. We had a very quiet start to the day, then a bout of people browsing before actually starting to sell stuff. I guess people want to take it all in before spending their money. To be honest, our collection of stuff seemed to be of more interest to the creators present than the punters. We didn’t really take a break throughout the day. I think stopping would have been a terrible mistake. We were all tired and in various stages of a cold, so we just forced ourselves through the day, which went fairly quickly in the end. I didn’t even have a proper look around the stalls.

- There were various plans going on for drinks that night, but to be honest confusion reigned. Unlike Bristol, there’s no real standard place everyone goes for drinks, which is another strike against it. The piss-up on Saturday night is generally the centrepiece of any British con, but everyone was walking around going "So what's happening tonight?". I wound up organising to potentially meet with Cheeky Joe Melchior, Garry Leach and Tim Pilcher, but after a very nice Chinese for dinner (and a wander through downtown Birmingham) me, Josh and Will just went back to the hotel bar for a couple before hitting the sack early. Just too bloody tired.

- Up nice and early for Sunday and I was feeling much better, though my cold had a bit of a resurgence. The day was more of the same, only a bit slower. I did get the chance to take a walk around the floor though, chatting with small press guys as I went. Found a few titles I liked the look of and bought for the store. It’s always awkward when you’re doing this kind of thing and you’ve got two guys sharing the table, one of whom is very good and the other who is not. The best you can do is kind of politely ignore their work. Otherwise you have to feign interest but when it comes down to the nitty gritty tell them you’re not interested. I was particularly impressed by crime comic Harker and a new collection by the Accent UK guys of a web comic called Strange Times. Nice stuff.

- I was on a panel in the afternoon called Industry Insider or somesuch, a retail/publishing/distribution discussion which really tried to cover too much ground in too little time. I felt a bit sorry for Tim, who facilitated it but didn’t even really get to touch on his main agenda, the formation of a UK comics advocacy organisation. Anyway, it all went fairly well, and I got to quickly talk about some of my digital comics theories, which I must write about more here soon.

- After the panel I went back to our table and we started packing up so as to hit the road good and early. It took a bit of negotiation with one of the organisers, as he didn’t want us to spark a mass exodus of dealers while there were still customers, but he eventually agreed to let us quietly slip out. So we secretly moved all our stuff around the back of the heavy black drapes that ran around the edge of the room to the goods elevator, got the car loaded up and were on the road for 4.45. Traffic wasn’t too bad and I got dropped off home just after 7pm.

- So how did it go? Well, we think we broke even at least. A con is an expensive proposition for a store, involving hotels, staff wages, meals and so on. Josh always frets about opportunity cost as well, so breaking even is never quite good enough. What else could we have done with that time to better effect? But I think our presence at these shows is always good for us as a store. We put our name out a little more, and we always carry a range of books unlike anything else at the show. Seriously, you don’t even have to get too esoteric to be distinctive: a few D&Q and Fantagraphics books would do the trick. Plus it’s always a good opportunity to network a little and strengthen relationships with creators we have existing ties with. We also got Charlie Adlard interested in a probable Walking Dead bookplate in the future (in full colour, with any luck). So all in all I think it was worthwhile, though I’m guessing we probably won’t do it again, as Josh was a little less enthused. What it has done is make me think about perhaps attending Thought Bubble in Leeds this November. Not as a store, but just as myself. It has a lot of positive buzz and a great line-up so I might head up there to check it out. It has the benefit of being a one-day show, which appeals to me no end, and I know enough people who’ll be there to guarantee a good night out. Now if I can just convince Alex...

Things I Did Yesterday 21/09/09

2009-09-21T14:26:00.000Z

Ring a ding ding! Yesterday I:

- Wandered down to Angel with Alex for a coffee before she headed off out to Essex to meet friends for lunch. We sat outside Starbucks, watching the dregs of the Goth club night they hold in Angel on Saturdays slowly dispersing. This is 10am, mind, so there were a few messy folk about. Alex then went on her merry way, and I headed for home, picking up some shower gel and bath foam on the way. Fascinating. I also picked up the Boots generic multivitamin A-Z, which I figure I’ll give a go to try and boot myself out of the energy doldrums I now find myself in. I’ve not been walking into work lately, and I think that has really affected me. I find it difficult to get any enthusiasm for things, find any energy to get off my ass and get things done. So, we’ll give this a go.

- Headed home and did some cleaning, then watched The Red Shoes. It’s an amazing film, rightly renowned for the cinematography. The actual ballet of the Red Shoes as presented within the film is quite something to behold, a strange expressionist diversion in the midst of filmic formality. Oh, sure, it’s an over the top melodrama, but then that’s part of the joy of a film like this. Brilliant stuff.

- Mr Zitron has lent me a copy of Batman Arkham Asylum for the 360, so I gave that a go, sitting down to it at around 3.30 or so. And that was pretty much that until 9-ish. What a fantastic game. I’m very impatient when it comes to games. Unless something draws me in straight away, I can’t be bothered with it. Unfortunately, when something does draw me in, the game suddenly comes to dominate my waking thoughts. How might I solve this or that problem? What should I have done there? When can I play it again? Now I’m a happily married man, this is a little more problematic than it was when, say, I was single and living alone, playing Civilisation 2 until the sun came up. So I‘m trying very hard not to let myself get too tied up with it. Though sitting here in the pub at around 1.30pm, writing this, I find myself suddenly thinking of how much time I have left today until Alex comes home. And what I might do with that time...

- Hit the sack and watched a couple of things, including some Big Train and the first episode of the new season of Peep Show. I love Peep Show with a passion. I think it’s a great piece of television that I hope will be hailed as a classic down the line. Okay, so there’s the risk that they are playing it beyond the point where they should have stopped, and some would argue that is the case already. But I’m not one of them. It’s still a wonderfully biting, cringeworthy series. Really must get off my ass and buy the first five seasons.

- Alex arrived home and collapsed into bed and I read Jeff Lemire’s Invisible Man riff, The Nobody. It was...okay. I must say, I couldn’t get terribly excited by it. It just felt a little pointless, to be honest, and the execution wasn’t enough to carry it through. Still a fan of Essex County, and I enjoyed the first issue of Sweet Tooth, but I think this one might slip through the cracks, and not undeservedly so.

Things I Did Yesterday 17/09/09

2009-09-17T09:36:00.000Z

You know, I'm writing these bloody things every morning and just forgetting to post them up. Thanks to some free Wetherspoons wireless (leeched while sitting in Starbucks) you're getting this sucker live! I'm in a comfy chair, which is nice but makes writing a drag. So yesterday I:

- Got into town nice and early and did some writin'.

- Worked. Delivery day, and it was a pretty sizeable week this week. It wasn't helped by starting on the unpacking late thanks to a meeting about upcoming books.

- Went to the pub with wifey for one, breaking our September off the booze rule, but she really wanted to go for one and was willing to pay the extra pass price (a no-drinking week in October). So we had a pint and some very nice mezes at the Lord Clyde.

- Had some dinner then read some comics, which I did mini-reviews of over on Twitter. I keep toying with the idea of doing them as a blog instead, plus it means I can do some other comic-related posts as well, but then I think "Where the fuck am I gonna find the time?"

Things I Did Yesterday 15/09/09

2009-09-15T09:05:00.001Z

Gotta get my ass out the door! But yesterday I:

- Slept in a bit, but managed to get into town with an hour or so spare for writing. Did my Things I Did Yesterday summary which I never got around to posting. Typically. Must do better.

- Worked, cracking on with this month's library standing orders. Finished with gridded, Excel eyes.

- Went for a coffee with Nat, Tom & Barney (well, they had booze, I'm largely off it for the month). Had a nice chat about the state of things.

- Got home, had dinner then watched the final Band of Brothers, which was entirely satisfying. All in all a great series which didn't grip me to start with but from the second episode on really fired on all cylinders. I look forward to the upcoming series about the Pacific campaign.

- Watched the third episode of True Blood, which convinced us to watch another, but this is hanging by a thread. Honestly, something about it just work for me. It so desperately wants to be sexy and adult that it just comes across as juvenile. Give it one more.

Things I Did Yesterday 10/09/09

2009-09-10T10:04:00.000Z

I'm sat n a cafe in a very comfortable chair that makes writing an impossibly awkward task. this will be short. Yesterday I:

- Worked. Delivery day, so I was unpacking comics and bagging most of the day. Not a great week, but I'll do some Twitter reviews later on today about what cam in over @grizzleddog. Not sure about the twitter reviews, though there seem to be a few people who enjoy them. But I keep thinking maybe I could do them on the blog instead, just limiting myself to the same kind of size restrictions. Not sure of the worth of a 140 character "review", but they're nice and quick to do, and I do enjoy it, which in these days of the Information Superhighway (isn't it funny how some terms wind up with no use other than knowing nods) is reason enough I guess.

- Went out after work for Josh's birthday, which was very nice. Sat out in the courtyard of Truckles Wine Bar (not the greatest named bar in the world) drinking rioja with current and ex Gosh people. To be fair, given the expense of the stuff, I'm surprised I feel quite as bad as I do now.

- Went on for a couple more at the Princess Louise down by Holborn with Tom, Nat, Will & wifey. It's a Samuel Smiths pub, so it'll not win any awards for quality beers, but it is the cheapest option in town, with about the only sub-£2 pints in central London. But one thing the Sam Smiths pubs do have is atmosphere. They do a great line in old-styled pub decor, and the Princess Louise has been re-fit with the warren-like booths of old. It's a lovely pub inside and well worth seeing. There's another Sam Smiths down near Chancery Lane that's also quite a sight to behold, with a huge, vaulting ceiling, massive old stove and private booths. Nothing like a proper old-styled pub.

- Got how, somehow. Funnily enough, we're not drinking in September, but we've got three passe each, of which we've both now used up two. We can buy extra passes, but it costs us a week of next month each time with no passes. What fun!

Things I Did Yesterday 09/09/09

2009-09-10T09:48:00.000Z

Well, here we are again. Again. Let’s get to it. Yesterday I:

- Got into town and did some writing, which was fine though my thoughts took an unexpected turn for the maudlin. Not sure why, and it didn’t last long, but what funny creatures we are, eh?

- Worked. Not a bad day in all. I caught up on my emails, got some library stuff done and put together this week’s How Late.

- Alex came down to meet me and we went to see District 9. I had been looking forward to this film and, as is unfortunately not too often the case, I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a wonderful mix of action, drama and comedy, all put together in a seamless blend of faux documentary, CCTV footage and standard narrative. The real compliment to this last bit of storytelling is that after a short while you barely notice the shifts. The effects are nothing short of astounding, and given the budget I’m guessing these were done through Weta at some serious mates rates. Honestly, the work is damn near flawless, from the huge, imposing mothership, through mechanised power suits and alien weaponry, to the aliens themselves. They really are quite incredible, probably one of the best full CGI realisations my inexpert eyes have ever seen. The inhuman design of them no doubt helps, their unfamiliarity easing the pattern recognition triggers that make CGI humans (or human-like aliens) look unconvincing. Compare this to what we’ve seen from Avatar (though in fairness we haven’t seen a lot yet). In short, it’s a great film. Entertaining, thoughtful (if not exactly subtle) and moving. Also, lots of people explode real good.

- Schlepped home and had miso soup with toast for dinner (this was about 10-ish). I watched an episode of Band of Brothers (war is even more like hell, but still kind of exciting) then hit the sack.

Things I Did Yesterday 08/09/09

2009-09-08T20:59:00.000Z

Oh Christ, this morning I had The Mortality Thought. It begins with thinking about how old I might live until and ends with me imagining myself on my death bed: what my last words might be; who might be there; will it be painful? Not a pleasant line of thought to start my day. The other thing I obsess about is knowing that when I’m there, I’ll be thinking “Bloody hell, that went quickly. What happened to the last 30 years?”

Anyway, on with more positive things, yesterday I:

- Got up fairly early and made myself a little plan which I didn’t really follow in the end, but it was nice to have a plan.

- Was sort of amazed by the vitriol I’m getting for my negative review of The Shadow over on my Fright Fest post. Makes me laugh.

- Got an email from Matt Z informing me that Spotify Mobile had been released! Very exciting stuff. So I signed up to the premium service, which I had been looking for an excuse to do anyway, and downloaded the app to my Android phone. So far it’s been a little frustrating. I have a particularly annoying crash problem which locks up my phone, forcing me to pop the battery out to restart. It appears to be download related, as it happened mainly when I was streaming music, or when I was trying to sync playlists for offline play. I’ve raised a support question about it and I’m not the only one having this issue, so hopefully there will be a bug fix soon. Playback of said offline playlists seemed fine. That aside, I’m still excited about it. Okay, so it’s over a 3G connection and therefore missing the P2P quick play experience (each track needs about a 20 second pause to buffer even in good 3G reception) that makes Spotify stand out from the crowd on a desktop, but the interface is all very nice and the offline mode is really what makes it so attractive to me. Spotify has actually become my default music player at home, so being able to build playlists within it to download to my phone (a doddle to do, by the way) is great. Hopefully they’ll sort out the kinks soon.

- Went into town and did some writing, then decided that I would go check out a movie. Timing was good to catch The Hurt Locker, which I was really wanting to see. Excellent film about a bomb squad operating in Iraq. Although it’s been described as deliberately apolitical, I don’t think that’s strictly true. It’s just that the politics aren’t worn on its sleeve and the real message is more along the lines of: War is hell, but war is addictive. It’s a sentiment brought home by one character’s return home at the end of his tour, only to realise that he needs the thrill that war gives him. It’s the only thing he truly loves any more. Anyway, Kathryn Bigelow has always been a director with an eye to suspense and she has never been better. The feeling of imminent danger – from bombs, from snipers and even from friendlies – is brought across in a series of nail-biting set pieces. Highly recommended.

- Came home and did some domestic stuff before having a quick run on Grand Theft Auto 4, which I haven’t played in bloody ages. In fact, after finishing Fallout 3, I had started playing Mass Effect, but realised I had better make GTA my next game to work through, as Alex bought it for me last Christmas and I’d hardly touched it. Well, not like it’s a hardship, eh? One funny thing: I got laid in the game, which was represented by a dawn cityscape with a soundtrack of sexual ecstasy and a vibrating controller. Quite. Then stole a taxi and helped a West Indian gangster kill a bunch of rival drug dealers. And enjoyed it.

- Watched an episode of Band of Brothers (the excellent “Bastogne”) before settling down with Alex to watch the second True Blood. Still undecided on this, plus I keep getting this creeping question: would I read this? Given my general distaste for “paranormal romance” novels, I suspect not. This inevitably leads to the question: why am I watching this? Oh well, we’ll see.

Things I Did Yesterday 06/09/09

2009-09-06T20:29:00.003Z

Quickly! Quickly, Andrew! Yesterday you:

- Got up and did the dishes, as you knew you were going to be out last night and working today. You didn't want to risk wifey's wrath, as you'd left them about all you could get away with already.

- Worked, mainly stuck up on the till, though you managed to get a few things done. You sure have a lot of work to get through, Andrew. Better pull finger! Still, there were only three of you yesterday, so it's hardly surprising.

- Met up with a bunch of good folks for the lovely Ellen's birthday. Wandered up to Lamb's Conduit Street for a drink before heading to the Brunswick Centre for dinner at Giraffe (though wifey missed it, as she wasn't feeling too well). You had a chicken blt burger, and it was very nice indeed. A last drink at the Doric Arms in Euston (a curious den of iniquity with an appealing Euston-themed décor) then you walked out the door, straight into a 476 and all the way home.

- Had a bloody awful night's sleep. You may have snored a bit, my friend. That would explain the ragged throat this morning.

Fright Fest, Baby!

2009-09-06T18:47:00.007Z

So I completely forgot that I wrote a few notes about Fright Fest the other morning! I had a great time over the weekend, my fears of a numb ass and just general burnout coming to nothing. I must admit, working on the Saturday was probably not a bad thing just to break it up, but I'd still like to get a weekend pass one of these years. But anyhow, I saw me some movies!

The Horseman – A gritty revenge thriller from Australia. Apparently made on a shoestring by way of local financing, it’s an impressive feature with an excellent performance from lead Peter Marshall. As the father of a girl found dead from a drug overdose after starring in a seedy porn film, he grounds what could have been a schlocky exploitation flick. The grainy, digital cinematography – now pretty much a standard look for any low-budget horror – is well handled, adding to the atmosphere rather than distracting. It also has the distinction of being unflinching, but only when it really wants to hit home. It often cuts away from the extreme violence, be it genital mutilation or just bashing someone’s head in, saving the explicit shots for moments when they have real impact. But it’s the performances that really make this work. They lift it above the material, bringing real drama to proceedings as the father’s trail of revenge harvests bitter fruit. A great little film and probably my favourite of the fest.

Beware The Moon – A fan-made American Werewolf in London documentary, looking back at its production and release in an exhaustive series of interviews with the key participants. It’s almost a scene-by-scene breakdown of the film which will be great as a DVD extra, but ran a little too long for a theatrical showing. It was quite obviously intended to be carved into 10-minute segments and would be great to dip in and out of, but as interesting as it was I just found my attention wavering after 140-odd minutes of talking heads with a few brief behind the scenes clips. Still, a nice labour of love which really added to the experience of watching the actual film.

An American Werewolf In London – This was a newly remastered version, projected from blueray, and the clean-up job on it is certainly impressive. Landis introduced the film and did a Q&A afterward, which was entertaining if not terribly informative. The film is of course still great. As much as people might tell you the transformation sequence is still as impressive as ever, it has dated somewhat now, but that’s really not what makes this film. The blend of humour, horror and drama has still never been topped to my mind, best encapsulated in the film’s opening sequence. One of my favourite films and a real joy to see on the big screen. Also, John Landis, while coming across as a bit of an arrogant bully, is very funny and not at all shy about speaking his mind. He was also very good about making sure that anyone present who was involved in the production came up onto the stage.

The Shadow – Well, this was certainly the lowlight of the festival for me. Luckily it was the only real duff film I saw all weekend. Touted by festival organisers as being the discovery of the weekend and the renaissance of Italian horror, Shadow is the brainchild of Federico Zampaglione, an Italian pop-rock megastar (apparently) making his directorial debut. It would seem that this has probably been knocking around Mr Zampaglione's head for some time, like since he was about 14, because that’s about the level of it. Basically (SPOILERS AHEAD) (not that you should care), a soldier comes back from the Iraq war for a cycling holiday in a remote Italian mountain range. He meets a girl and is terrorized by a (ridiculously accented) Brit and American pair who are on a hunting trip. Why? Because the girl makes the Brit miss a deer, so of course they have to die. Anyway, all four stumble into a weird region of the mountains and are captured by a chalky-white figure who takes them back to his Hostel-like torture chamber. There are hints this guy has some kind of Nazi background, but he also has souvenirs of other mass-murders throughout history. Hijinks ensue, torture happens, Brit and Yank die, girl disappears, main guy nearly escapes but pale guy appears at the last second and everything goes black. Main guy wakes in what appears to be the torture chamber but is actually (gasp!) an Iraqi field hospital! Turns out girl is a nurse and Brit & Yank were two soldiers (dead on the tables next to him) who were responsible for some kind of massacre while he was on duty with them. Leaving the scene of said massacre, they hit a landmine. So, wow, that means that, like, the pale figure was actually DEATH! And by fighting on and escaping, he escaped DEATH! Except he didn’t, actually. He got caught before waking up, remember? Oh well, nevermind! Anyway, it thinks it’s terribly clever but isn’t and looks for all the world like a Tool video. Also: it’s a pile of shit. We scurried out as soon as the credits came on to avoid what would no doubt be an embarrassing Q&A with the director.

La Horde – Funny one, this. What starts out as a serious crime drama quickly becomes an OTT, played for laughs, zombie siege flick. Basically, a group of corrupt cops track a gang down to a near-abandoned housing block to exact revenge for the death of one of their own. It all goes tits-up when the gang clocks them before they can attack, kills a couple of them and captures the rest. But before the cops are executed, the dead start returning to life and the tower is suddenly under siege by a ravening zombie mob. So it’s team-up or die time, with double-crosses and inter-group breakdowns along the way. It offers pretty much all you would expect from a film of this type: gore galore, character pick-offs and a downbeat ending. It’s not perfect, but there’s some great action and lots of genuinely good laughs along the way. Recommended, but probably better over a few beers. It may be a while before it surfaces, though. The films only gets a release in France next February, so god only knows when we'll see it again. Oh, they had a review embargo, too.

Trick’R’Treat – This seasonal, twist-in-the-tale anthology horror is a proper 80’s throwback, and a pleasure to watch for it. Witheld from release by Warner since 2007 for reasons no one will explain (but I suspect might have to do with the number of kids involved in the gruesome goings on), it’s about to come out on DVD. The director was present, as mystified as we were as to it’s lack of release. It’s quite mainstream, really, produced by Bryan Singer, featuring the likes of Dylan Baker, Brian Cox & Anna Paquin, and feels like it would be a solid hit for Halloween release. Okay, it makes a conscious step away from pretty young thing horror, but it’s hardly a grungy underground movie. Anyway, a lot of fun and probably a solid hit on DVD. Landis was in attendance. His response during the director Q&A to the Warner decision not to release: “Fuck them!”

Salvage – Made as a part of the Liverpool Year of Culture or somesuch, this is a great low budget horror. The key, as with The Horseman, are the performances. The main cast in this are fantastic and it feels more like some gritty UK drama than a monster movie. A teenage girl, estranged from her career-obsessed mother, is forced to spend Christmas with her, only to walk in on her shagging some random bloke. She runs off to the neighbours and before you know it the military have swooped into the quiet cul-de sac and quarantined people to their homes. Something is loose in the neighbourhood, something which has escaped from a washed up container on the nearby beach. Needless to say, things start going wrong and people start to die. The film definitely tries to say something, mainly about how the government uses fear to make us jump into line, but it has fun along the way. It’s a shame that there are just a couple of people behaving stupidly moments and lapses in logic that almost threaten to break it, but in the end it still impresses through style and performance.

Pontypool – An intriguing concept is the hook for this film: a virulent disease turning people into ravening zombies spreads through the English language. But again, it’s the central performances that really carry it. One performance in particular: Stephen McHattie as washed up DJ Grant Mazzy. McHattie is magnetic, from his initial incredulous reactions to what’s happening in the small Canadian town through to the acceptance of his own role in the spreading – and perhaps curing – of the disease. Performaces are particularly important here, as this is essentially a single-set piece, based around the radio studio Mazzy broadcasts from with a core cast of three (later expanding a little). The horror is mainly just from the callers, describing what’s happening outside in the blizzard conditions. I’ve since found out that it was concurrently produced as a radio play, and that’s not surprising. Like most films of this type it occasionally falls down, here mainly regarding logical inconsistencies with how the concept is treated, but it’s a bold, experimental horror film and is worth seeing for that reason alone. Landis was there. In fact, he seemed to be pretty much everywhere I turned during the festival, and was clearly enjoying himself.

I Sell The Dead – A silly, mish-mash of (mostly) comedy and horror that I absolutely loved from start to finish. I cannot understand how the grossly overrated Dead Snow was seen by many to be the highlight of the festival (a horror/comedy written by someone who just isn’t very funny) when this little gem was forced to languish in the tiny “Discovery” screen. Actually, I could make the same case for any of the films I saw in the small screen. This is a funny, warm-hearted film about a grave-robber who specialises in the undead. It has a strange feel, paying homage to Sam Raimi and the films of Hammer and Amicus. The story, such as it is, is slight, but the characters are a lot of fun as they drunkenly fall from one situation to the next. It has a nice, quirky look, exploiting its low budget to develop a style of its own. Highly recommended.

Black – Curious one this. A modern blaxploitation flick starring a French rapper. It’s actually a very entertaining crime flick with a slight supernatural angle towards the end, but a real mystery as to why it was in the Fright Fest. In fact, the supernatural aspects - all about totem animals possessing the bodies of characters - were the weakest part of the film. It’s on much better ground with the set-up, When our titular anti-hero heads to Senegal after a robbery goes wrong. His cousin has tipped him off to an "easy" diamond heist that doesn’t go as smoothly as he might have hoped. Lead actor MC Jean Gab'1 is a charismatic figure and carries the film well, along with his misfit backup men. It’s exciting and it’s funny, but it’s never, ever horrifying. Worth a look though. Also, Landis did a presentation of Thriller and the making of Thriller beforehand. All well and good, but the bloody film didn’t get started until 12.40am!

Things I Did Yesterday 02/09/09

2009-09-02T18:17:00.000Z

Quickly, before dinner is served! Yesterday I:

- Woke up feeling bloody awful. Just tired, tired, tired. Wrote my usual stream of consciousness drivel, then tried to write something creative and got about two paragraphs in before my brain just kind of shut down. The thing I’m fiddling with at the moment is writing character introductions, just random things for characters I’m making up on the spot for all kinds of genres. Yesterday was a boy and girl in a young adults post-apocalyptic setting. But I’ll be buggered if I could actually do it. Every time I set myself to it, a murky fog seemed to roll across my mind. Oh well, maybe today...

- Worked, though I wasn’t able to get straight into the main thing I wanted to do. A bit of tidying and looking at publicity for upcoming signings to start with. Then after lunch I was able to get packing on some library deliveries. Though I ran out of packing material. All told, not a great day.

- Alex came down and met me after work and we wandered an interesting route towards home, which was nice. Thanks to Fright Fest, we spent hardly any time together on the weekend, so it was nice to just hang out. We stopped at Angel and went to a new Turkish place there. The food was delicious.

- Came home and intended to watch something, but just dithered about on the net until it was time to get to bed.

Things I Did Yesterday 26/08/09

2009-08-26T22:12:00.000Z

In the nick of time! Yesterday I:

- Walked in, which I don’t do nearly as much as I should. It’s amazing how good I was with walking at our old place, and yet the place we’re currently in, though it’s only really another 10 minutes up the road, just seems a whole lot further out. I think it’s a combination of a few things, mainly the unattractive nature of the route (Essex Road...mmm...), the availability of buses along the route (which I didn’t have before), and the fact that the journey time is now that much closer to an hour. But I should get back into the swing of it. I had twigged that by adding less than 5 minutes to the journey time, I could head down a parallel road which took me onto the canal, then rejoining my old walking route. I was enjoying the journey, listening to audio books as I went, but at some point just got out of the habit, which I’m having difficulty re-establishing. It’s a hard knock life, eh?

- Worked. It was Nat’s first day back, so that was nice. Had a meeting with Josh about what’s coming up in the year and what we need to prioritise. Then just got stuck into libraries, which I’m seriously behind with at the moment.

- Met Dana for lunch. She’s looking proper preggers now!

- Worked late, until just after 8. I don’t want to get into the habit of it, but I’ve just got this hump of work to get past and it’s so much nicer working on this kind of thing when the store is empty.

- Got home, had lovely dinner and then talked money a little bit with wifey. We’re looking seriously into house buying now (got ourselves provisional mortgage approval and everything), but first we really need to take our finances in hand. We’re both quite wasteful in our spending, which is something we need to sort out.

- I faffed about a bit, then suddenly it was bedtime! But not before I quickly caught up on Facebook chat (which is awful) with Lisa, who I hadn’t spoken to in ages, and Claudia, who was on very briefly but seems to be settling in slowly but surely to her new LA digs.

- Went to sleep!

Things I Did Yesterday 25/08/09

2009-08-25T21:25:00.000Z

Crikey! Two days in a row? Well, as it happens, yesterday I:

- Didn’t get up until about 9-ish. I did some internet doodling, then got ready and headed down to Angel to do some writing before I met Doug for lunch.

- Went to Euphorium, a new branch of which recently opened on Islington Green. Nice little chain of cafe’s, with great food and good coffee. Unfortunately their espresso machine was out of commission, so the latter evaded me. Was a slightly weird time sitting in there, as I seemed to be surrounded by people working on various aspects of the business, from a guy sitting over the back from me talking with a bank man about financing an expansion, to the woman sat at a nearby table doing accounts, to the store manager (who had just arrived) talking with various people about restructuring the staff hierarchy, ordering, who has access to the safe and the broken coffee machine. I think I was about the only actual customer in the shop.

- Had a good little writing session, outlining my plans (again), making commitments to regular writing times (again), deciding to get started on the daily blog updates (again) and fleshing out a few ideas I’ve got kicking around (again). Now, it may seem like I’m just repeating myself, but every day is a fresh start and all that. Also, I figure if I keep doing it long enough, something has to stick.

- Met the Fuller-man and had a nice catch-up over a burger, then walked home, grabbing stuff for dinner on the way.

- Did a spot of cleaning, then played some Rock Band 2. Completed a gig in Stockholm that convinced the label to buy us a plane. Let me tell you: Myron Danger, guitarist for Cranial Gunge, totally rules. Ahh, Cranial Gunge. Rodger...you out there?

- Got started on Mass Effect, just getting to the point of landing on the planet’s surface. I like the look of it so far, though. Seems right up my street. Now it may seem that I’m wasting my time playing games here, but actually I hardly ever play on the Xbox and have been wanting to have a weekend where I really put some time into it for ages. So, y’know, now I have.

- Alex got home and settled in for soap night. We had dinner and then I cleared out. Watched episodes 2-4 of Band of Brothers which were great. I was a bit bleh about the first episode, and it does suffer from the US-centric view of the war (there are more Brits playing Americans in the cast than there are Brits playing Brits), but I’m slowly getting drawn into it. Plus, the action (sorry – the harrowing realities of war) is great. Plenty of nice little touches that you don’t often see, too: American Germans fighting with the Nazis; paratroopers losing their equipment during drops; clothes left at the laundrette by troops that have been killed. It’s certainly good enough to keep me watching.

- Oh, went to sleep.

Things I Did Yesterday 24/08/09

2009-08-24T21:23:00.000Z

Only just shy of a month since last time! Yesterday I:

- Got up at around 8-ish. Faffed about on the internet for a while, just catching up a bit. I’ve fallen ridiculously behind on my RSS feeds lately, just because we’ve been away or out so much that they’ve been building up and I’ve not been able to catch up. This has actually motivated me to cut down on the amount that I’m reading, culling out sites I never seem to find time to read, or that double up excessively with other sites have. Certainly, I’m not going to shed any tears for less time spent in front of the internet. I’m trying to clear things out a little, streamline where my time is going. Mind you, this is hardly a new obsession for me.

- Cleaned the kitchen. May not seem noteworthy, but it was a pretty major job given we hadn’t been home for a number of evenings this week.

- Alex had stayed over at Ben & Michelle’s the night before (I had piked out early, my hangover from Matt’s wedding finally running me to ground). She’d apparently been up until about 5am, so there was no sign of her coming home by midday. I decided to head for a movie.

- Went and saw Inglourious Basterds. I understand it’s been dividing critical opinion and I understand why, but for my part I found it a joy to watch. It’s curiously put together, a mish-mash of styles and odd techniques (for example, one (and only one) character’s back story is preceeded by his own garish blaxploitation-styled logo popping up over a freeze-frame) but it all hangs together. Even the use of Bowie’s Cat People theme song works in a way that it just shouldn’t. The film consists of five chapters, all connected, but each with a different feel, from the brilliant spaghetti western opening chapter to the tense cellar bar espionage riff. The performances are nearly all great, with the only exception being Mike Myers’ bizarre cameo as a British commanding officer. All in all, it’s a film that will stick in the head; certainly my favourite Tarantino since Jackie Brown.

- Came home and played some Rock Band 2, scoring well in Stockholm. Next up: the 744 gig. Time to get my own plane, baby!

- Dithered about a bit before playing some Fallout 3, which I hadn’t touched in ages. Every time I play that game I realise I had completely forgotten how much I enjoy it. The setting is so addictive, even though I’ve now gotten to a level of power where very little is challenging, unless I stumble into a proper nest of bad guys. I guess I could turn the difficulty up...

- Alex arrived home! We had some dinner (mmm...steak’n’chips!), had a little catch up then did our own thing for a bit. She crashed out at around 10, so I went back to Fallout.

- Finished Fallout at around 1am. I was a little disappointed, to be honest. The ending is quite sudden and doesn’t really satisfy at all. Well, it’s all about the journey I guess. Anyway, I’m going to have to go back to an earlier save at some point and continue to explore the world, which still has a lot of blank territory on the map. But first, I’ve got a massive bloody backlog of games to get through, let alone the ones out there I want to buy. So I’ll take this opportunity to play through some other games before coming back to Fallout later. I played through this time as a good guy, but I think maybe I’ll start again as a bastard.

Things I Did Yesterday 30/07/09

2009-07-30T21:50:00.000Z

I was about to write a comment on a blog about writing when there was a small popping sound in my head, like a tiny firework going off. So here I am! Yesterday I:

- Got up late. So late in fact that my usual 1-1.5 hour pre work time I have in town was down to around 30 minutes. Not how I like to start the day, but I guess I needed the sleep. Still feel like I need that sleep.

- Worked. The delivery arrived nice and early, so that was a relief. We got well ahead and it was a fairly stress-free affair.

- Came home to head to fat club but wifey was nowhere to be found! In her defence she was out with her mate Anton, getting tips for our Belgium trip this weekend.

- Faffed about for a while, had some dinner, then read some comics. So-so week on the whole. Twittered reviews as I went, which I'm kind of enjoying.

- Uh, went to sleep! Jesus, what a boring day. Unfortunately, in a special sneak preview, I can tell you that tomorrow's installment ain't going to get much better.

Things I Did Yesterday 26/07/09

2009-07-26T11:09:00.001Z

One day off this week! But yesterday I:

- Wandered in to town and just sat in a cafe for a bit reading websites and the Sun (grr). No writing (BAD!)

- Worked. Was fortunate enough to have plenty of people in, so I didn't really need to work the till until the end of the day. Made some good progress catching up on library stuff, particularly one (unnecessarily but not by my design) complicated order that's a couple of weeks late. Happy with my progress.

- Came home and faffed. about. Alex was away in Bath on Friday night and din't get back until 10.30pm or so, so the evening was pretty much mine to fritter away. Watched Unforgiven while doing some domestic stuff. What a great film. Haven't seen it in a while. Remembered that I still haven't worked through the extras on the 10th anniversary disc. Funny, but it seems like it should be older than it really is. The idea that I only watched this 3 years before leaving NZ is a bit odd.

- Played some Rock Band 2. Futzed out on the first track, but managed to bring it back from there. Got myself a tour bus and hired some new management. Hot damn!

- That reminds me...any X-Box folks out there, my gamertag is Grizzled Dog.

- Went to bed and read for a bit.

Things I Did Yesterday 24/07/09

2009-07-24T19:05:00.001Z

It's a night alone! Quick, to the DVD player! Meanwhile, yesterday I:

- Met Dana for coffee before work. Had a catch up and took a photo for the week-to-week pregnancy gallery.

- Was on a late start, so I had time to go and read for a bit before work.

- Worked. Started out in a remarkably good mood which vanished throughout the day. Just filed and worked the till, but it was a busy one and I was by myself most of the time. Just a bit exhausting! Also, at lunch time I discovered I had run out of money, so didn’t have any lunch. Well, I had a coffee and a couple of pieces of chocolate from out the back. I imagine that was the real downfall of my state of mind.

- Went home and chilled out. Wifey went out to meet her friend Jen, so I was home alone. Listened to some tracks on Spotify, including Digital Underground’s album Sex Packets and a Parliament Greatest Hits collection, all of which buoyed my mood considerably. That, and steak, mushrooms and chips for dinner.

- Intended to watch something, but typically browsed the internet too long and ran out of time. San Diego ComiCon is on, so there’s news galore to keep up with. Gave up after a while as it felt too much like work. Read my book for a bit then went to bed.

Ha Ha Said the Clown

2009-07-23T20:33:00.001Z

From a night of filming a whole lotta years ago, for the abandoned Nice movie. So great to see this, courtesy of beezer b!

Things I Did Yesterday 23/07/09

2009-07-23T20:17:00.000Z

Quick as you like, yesterday I:

- Walked in and sat writing in Nero, wondering why the hell I wasn't going somewhere else that might allow me, y'know, cool down a bit.

- Worked, mainly dealing with the delivery. Unpack boxes. Check against invoices. Pull standing orders. Bag standing orders. Pull orders for people who get variants.

- Didn't get out of work until about 6.30. Headed home for fat club but wound up getting back too late. Had dinner instead then booked hotels for our trip to Belgium in a couple of weeks. Dithered about for a bit before collapsing onto the bed and reading comics.

- Went to sleep and dreamt my head was full of bees, the delicate workings of my brain a vast labyrinth of honeycomb that some indelicate motherfucker was scooping out by the fistful.

Things I Did Yesterday 22/07/09

2009-07-22T19:04:00.000Z

Wooser wins. As does humanity. Yesterday I:

- Walked in, stopping in Nero on the way. Felt decidedly fuzzy-headed and writing came with particular difficulty.

- Worked. Mainly going over the order, disrupted regularly by smaller jobs. Made pretty much no headway at all on the large, pressing jobs that are nearly a week overdue already. Now with delivery day and new comics day at my doorstep, that’s another two days until I can even look at them.

- Alex swung by at the end of the day and we went to see Moon down at Haymarket. I’ve been looking forward to this, and it didn’t disappoint. Comparisons to 70’s science fiction are accurate, though I would point more to the likes of Silent Running or even Dark Star (sans humour) than the oft cited 2001. It has its minor flaws, certainly, with the ending and some of the science (which I only pick at because of its hard sci-fi veneer and the 2001 comparisons). But then, what classic science fiction film of the 70’s (or indeed ever) hasn’t? Like those films, Moon is all about the ideas. About the characters and their place within the isolating, dehumanising environment of space. In fact, the story could have been set in the Antarctic with only a few changes. But then, we wouldn’t have had the lovely, sparse set design, or the fantastic model lunar base exteriors. But it’s primarily a character piece carried exceptionally well by Sam Rockwell, who is completely believable as the increasingly wrought Sam Bell. The score by Clint Mansell (available on Spotify, sports fans!), while not quite up to The Fountain, is wonderfully evocative, adding layers of atmosphere (no pun intended). Best film I’ve seen in a long time and very highly recommended.

- Got home in time to watch something, which is the nice part about going to a movie straight after work. Watched the first episode of the new season of Jimmy McGovern’s series The Street, each a self-contained story set around the residents of one street in Manchester. I’ve never seen any other episodes, but it’s won plenty of awards and this one looked interesting: a retelling of High Noon with Bob Hoskins as a pub landlord who has barred a local gangster’s son and now has until 3.30pm the next day – when father and son will be paying him a visit – to decide whether he sticks to his guns or serves the boy. It was a bit over-earnest in places (especially one mawkish scene right near the end), but on the whole I enjoyed it. I especially liked the fact that it was a gritty British drama that really celebrated the idea of sticking to your principles and standing up for what’s right (and it actually working). Good stuff.

- Went to bed and thought of you. YOU.

Things I Did Yesterday 08/06/09

2009-06-08T08:29:00.000Z

Oh hey, I have a blog. Well, you know what? Yesterday I:

- Got up good'n'early to get a workout on the new EA Active fitness thing we got for the Wii. So far so good on it: I've hit my loss target for the week. It works a lot better than the Wii Fit, simply because it actually presents you with a program rather than letting you choose whatever you want to do (ie the easy stuff). Exactly what a spineless cop-out monkey like me needs.

- Did some dishes. My life is the kind of crazy shit you can only dream of!

- Scream for me Melbourne! Listening to the Flight 666 soundtrack. God I wish I'd gone to see them on this tour.

- Went out to Wickford in sunny Essex to have lunch at the merry Wagers. Tony is an old boss of Alex's and they have an expansive, lovely home out there. Always a nice time, as they really are fantastic hosts. Lovely roast lunch to boot. And I trampolined.

- Got the train back into London, then a bus back from Liverpool Street.

- Watched a little bit of Big Brother which seems even more like torture than usual.

- Hit the sack, where I appear to have cultivated some kind of strep throat. Great.

Things I Did Yesterday 25/05/09

2009-05-25T08:07:00.002Z

Tut tut. Yesterday I:

- Got up nice and early but then sat at the computer, trapped in our bedroom until Alex's mum woke up in the lounge. Oh, she was very generous in terms to telling me not to be sheepish about waking her in the morning, but dammit I can't help it. I'm always like this when people stay over, not wanting to impose on them. To be fair, I wake up early on the weekend and I appreciate that most people don't. So being a prisoner in our bedroom seems like the reasonable course of action.

- Got ready and then once everyone was up and functioning, we headed down to Spitalfield Market. I haven't been down there since all the renovations, and I'm really not sure how I feel about it. It certainly feels cleaner and more orderly and the food places feel a lot less like botulism stands, but it is lacking in soul. I'm sure the tourists love it, but it won't be a regular stop for me.

- Went around the corner to a proper East London street market, which is always entertaining for the barking stallholders, but quickly realised that pressing my way through throngs of pushy, inconsiderate people isn't that much fun either.

- Headed over to London Bridge and went to The George, a very nice pub off the main drag with a spacious courtyard out front. Had some lunch which mum-in-law kindly paid for. Result!

- Saw Alex's mum off, then walked back up through town for a while. Near Holborn Circus we found an abandoned office chair which I nabbed as my old one has fallen apart. Wheeled that up to Rosebury Ave and got a bus.

- Faffed about on the net before a dinner of delicious lamburgers.

- Watched Big Man Japan, a film which has been doing the YouTube rounds thanks to the scenes where our eponymous hero battles against bizarre giant monsters. The guts of the film, however, is a little more meditative, shot as a documentary about the normal life of our monster-fighting hero. There's a lot going on about family, sacrifice, honour and the fickle nature of celebrity, but to be honest a lot of it fell flat with me, probably because it really does speak directly to Japanese culture. It also suffers from a narrative shift, abandoning the documentary format whenever he becomes a giant monster-fighter, which is quite jarring. There were certainly aspects of it I enjoyed, particularly the trippy final scene, but the fights are pretty much all covered by the clips on YouTube and the documentary material only works sporadically, unhinged by a largely unsympathetic lead character. Can't recommend it I'm afraid!

- Watched some Inbetweeners then hit the sack.

Things I Did Yesterday 19/05/09

2009-05-19T20:23:00.002Z

Listening to the Bugsy Malone soundtrack on Spotify. Sweet. Anyway, yesterday I:

- Had the day off, awaiting the delivery of our new washing machine. I got up at the crack of dawn to go down to the post office to pick up my new phone, only to be told it hadn't come back to the branch yet. Miserable bastard behind the counter too. Put me in a fould mood.

- Got home and took out our old washing machine, ready for disposal. We had paid John Lewis £9 to take it away while dropping off the new one. Took it outside to empty any excess water out, then left it there with a note on saying it was being taken away. Within the hour someone had nabbed it! Waste of £9.

- Found out the machine would be coming after 12, so I went to the library and got a few new audiobooks: Enduring Love by Ian McEwan (read by Richard E Grant), The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco (didn't the print version of this have comic strip material? Interested to see what they do about that) and the first season of The Mitchell and Webb Sound. Loving me some audio books at the moment, especially since I started hitting the library.

- Got home and faffed about. Twittered a bit, browsed Spotify, played some Crackdown (which went quite well, though the difficulty curve between islands is pretty steep). Didn't do any of my cleaning jobs. Oops. Did some dishes though.

- Alex surprised me by popping home in her lunch and picking up my phone on the way. She's a keeper. Got that sucker on to charge.

- The machine arrived at about 4.30, which is typical. Went to install it, only to realise that I needed to install an electrical socket to replace the dedicated cable the old machine had. Ran (walked quickly) up to Leyland and picked one up. Connected that, plumbed the washer in and hey presto! We have laundry! Cool machine, actually. Nice and modern.

- Had a bath then some dinner. Then retired to the bedroom for a little phone action. Oh yeah, baby.

- Initial impressions of the HTC Magic are very good indeed. Fairly intuitive interface, all very attractive. The touch screen is very responsive and I find the onscreen keyboard easier to use than I thought I might. The app store (the real deal-breaker for the newer generations of phones) could do with some more sorting options, but otherwise is a cinch to use and I was finding plenty of decent utilities straight away. I feel like I'm just scratching the surface so far, so more impressions as they occur to me. I must admit, I've fallen for this little minx pretty hard. I hope she's not a heartbreaker.

- Watched a couple of Inbetweeners from season 2. I like it.

- Read my book and dropped off to sleep.

- Didn't write. Haven't written in some days now. I plan to remedy that from tomorrow morning. If I can stop playing about with this fucking phone for 5 minutes.

Things I Did Yesterday 18/05/09

2009-05-18T09:25:00.000Z

Waitin' for the washing machine man. But yesterday I:

- Got up and faffed about online while waiting for Alex to wake up.

- Decided our day-trip would be a walk out to the Leyton ASDA. Exciting! Quite a nice walk on the whole, taking just over an hour. A good mix of inner-city London, through rough estates and nice parks.

- Shopped at ASDA, which was something of an endurance test. Honestly, Sunday afternoon shopping is some kind of awful lesson in dog-eat-dog ruthlessness. People are just so ridiculously blinkered to the needs of anyone else for fear they might be disadvantaged in some way. Anyway, went to buy dinner stuff but grabbed some clothes and other assorted household goods. Well, it was a nice walk, anyway.

- Came home and chilled. Played Crackdown for a while, had some dinner, then I went to the bedroom and played around a bit with Spotify, as well as a new (to me) music player called Media Monkey.

- Watched Liam Neeson action flick Taken. It was a lot of fun, although the American xenophobia was a bit heavy handed: the French are spineless; Europe is murky and dangerous; don't trust Arabs or Eastern Europeans. Neeson is great though, really selling the role.

- Read for a bit then hit the sack.

Things I Did Yesterday 17/05/09

2009-05-17T18:39:00.001Z

Did I miss one? Rats. I'm playing about with Spotify at the moment. It's...okay. More functionality with LastFM it would seem to me, but there is something to be said for Spotify's simplicity. It's almost like that "radio" thing the kids are all on about. Currently playing the Alestorm album. Anyway, yesterday I:

- Got the bus in. I'm listening to an audiobook of Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans, which is great, even if the reader's voice is a little soporific.

- Worked. Got into town to have a coffee and read for a bit first, but I was horrified to find the nice Nero not open yet (at about 8.30). Weather is still a bit crap here, so no park sitting. Had Costa instead, but it wasn't as good. Life is so tough! I'm concious of the lack of morning writing I'm doing at the moment. Must remedy that.

- Had one of those work Saturdays that dragged like a corpse caught on a smallish speedboat escaping the scene of a crime. Man that sucks.

- Walked home with Kane. Oh shit, maybe that's what I'll do tonight: watch See No Evil, starring WWE star Kane.

- Umm...what did I do? Played some Crackdown, I know that much. Oh, of course, Alex and I watched the Eurovision finals while playing cards to determine who would do which household cleaning tasks. Happily it all worked out pretty evenly, with 9 jobs each, though to be honest I've come out the better I think.

- Found a missed delivery card for my new phone. I'll have to swing down on Monday before Alex goes to work, as we've got a washing machine coming at God only knows what time. 7am-5pm is all the info I have so far, but they are supposed to be contacting me with more details. New phone is very exciting.

- Eurovision was fun. I've never watched it before, other than glimpses on a pub screen the year that Lordi won. It was very entertaining, and Graham Norton did a sterling job of putting some snark into the proceedings.

- Hit the sack and read for a while before succumbing to sleep's deathly grasp. Not this time, though. Not this time, you fucker.

Things I Did Yesterday 15/05/09

2009-05-15T22:28:00.000Z

In the nick of time! Yesterday I:

- Had the day off! I got up early-ish, read my web crap, then made a to-do list for the day.

- Popped down to Angel and bought some birthday cards for nieces and nephews. Wandered about a little, mainly in the bookshops. Saw a history of post-colonial Africa that looks pretty interesting.

- Had a coffee and read my book for a bit. Into the third book of Greg Keyes' Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone. I'm enjoying this series a great deal.

- Came home and settled in for an afternoon of web-shopping!

- Bought a new washing machine, which is coming on Monday, so no more £8 a pop service washes at the laundrette.

- Got myself an HTC Magic phone ordered from Vodaphone. I figured it was time to get into the modern world of handhelds. I'm trying not to get my hopes too high for it, as I'm sure it'll disappoint in many ways, but I'm looking forward to seeing how the Android OS develops. Also, I'll have a phone with a working call button! Oh, one important note here: this was the first time I've passed a credit check in years! I must be doing something right at last!

- Sorted out most of Alex's birthday present, which I obviously can't go into detail about here. Not that she reads this bloody thing.

- Had a sort of nothing evening.I honestly can't even remember what I did. Watched some Inbetweeners. Read my book. Read the internet. Maybe watched Britains Best Home? Was that last night? Christ, I'm losing it.

Things I Did Yesterday 14/05/09

2009-05-14T13:37:00.002Z

Ahh, a day off, eh? The things you can do! But yesterday I:

- Worked. Delivery day, so I spent most of it unpacking the Thursday comics out the back to the tune of Waits' Orphans discs. Well, Brawlers and Bastards, anyway.

- Didn't take a lunch break, so I just worked through until 5 then finished early. Spent the afternoon bagging and then got a sneaky start in on the filing. Then it was off home.

- Read a bunch of comics. Actually got through my whole stack for the week, which hasn't happened in a while.

- That's about it. Bloody hell...

Zipping Through the Week in Comics 14/05/09

2009-05-14T13:36:00.000Z

Okay, as fast as you like, quick reviews of what I read this week. This may be a regular feature. Let's see how long it takes! The idea is not to give an exhaustive outline of plot, creators and so on, but rather to just say whether or not it's any good. Well, that's the idea, anyway. In no particular order:

Lockjaw & the Pet Avengers #1 - Nice idea, so-so execution. Would've made a fun one-shot. As a mini-series? Not enough to carry it, I'm afraid.

Ultimate Spider-Man #132 - Ultimatum does its reboot thing, Bendis indulges his little dialogue tricks and it's all fine enough. But jumpin' Jesus, why is Stuart Immonen not a megastar? He is a phenomenal artist.

Trinity #50 - Flicking through to see how it ends. What the fuck is going on here? Can't make heads nor tails of it, really, but that's what I get for missing out 20-odd issues. Not to rag on Busiek, but this is twaddle.

Thor Tales of Asgard #1 - Always loved this Lee/Kirby Norse mythology stuff that ran originally as backups in Journey Into Mystery (with Thor as main star of the book). The recolouring on here is dire, though. I'm not opposed to recolouring jobs, but this looks awful. Nice Coipel cover.

Storming Paradise #5 - Easy to forget that everybody's favourite right-winger, Chuck Dixon, can still write a smart, solid comic. Great alt-history WWII stuff, with outstanding Butch Guice art.

Soul Kiss #4 - Promising start to this series, but I can't help but feel like it's losing steam a little. When I think how much Rasl packed into just the first couple of issues, this feels a bit flabby. Good cliffhanger, though.

Secret Six #9 - I don't follow this regularly, and whenever I pick an issue up I'm always pleasantly surprised. Funny and dark. Who would have thought I would be made to give a shit about Bane? Or Catman for that matter?

Secret Warriors #4 - I have to admit I haven't been astounded by this to date, but I did enjoy this issue. I think the problem for me lies in how little interest I have in Nick's new team. Who hardly appear here. Nice to see Gateway around, though.

Howling Commados #1 - Kind of but not really a lead-in to Captain America: White. Beautiful art, okay writing. It's not going to change your life, but you could spend hours pouring over those pages.

REBELS #4 - Why am I enjoying this so much? It may have something to do with the return of childhood favourites the Omega Men, and I'm happy enough with the art. But there's something about it I find quite compelling, which is I guess just means Tony Bedard is doing his job. Oh, I'm always happy to see Starro and those aliens out of Invasion, too.

Jack Staff #20 - Just recently caught up on this. Why isn't this book more popular? I really must try harder to sell the bloody thing. I guess it's quite highly stylised, and Grists sometimes abrupt scene transitions take some getting used to, but dammit, it's worth it!

Guerillas #4 - Is anyone out there reading this? Brahm Revel has a lovely Mazzucelli/Toth-inspired line and the story is far better than it has any right to be given the concept. Genetically-modified apes fighting in the Vietnam war? Whaaat?

House of Mystery #13 - Picked it up for the Eric Powell guest art, but this series bored me away a long time ago. Nice Sergio one-page at the back.

Oh shit! Interlude! Did you see that they're doing a Groo Library? At last!

Anyway, back to it...

Green Lantern Corps #36 - The prelude to Blackest Night rolls on. War is a'coming. This issue is....okay. Plenty of action, at least. I do like Gleason's art, too.

Fusion #1 - Typical company crossover shit. Seriously, avoid.

Elephantmen #19 - God I love this series. A focus on Sahara, with some nice guest artwork by Marian Churchland.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape #1 - Read it last night, can't remember anything about it. Bad sign. Oh yeah, it was weird, but not in a good way.

Dark Reign Young Avengers #1 - The pleasant surprise of the week for me. Paul Cornell garners a lot of respect from folks, but his comics work has been hit and miss so far. Good work here though. Nice set-up with a team of thoroughly unlikeable sorts, like the racist size-shifter who is quietly reprogramming the team android to disrespect minorities. Check it out.

Fables #84 - Not sure about this big crossover, but it does cement Jack as being a primo louse, which is nice.

Dark Reign Hawkeye #2 - Another surprise for me last month. Who would have thought it? Basically: Bullseye is a nutjob who does bad things to people and most certainly not a team player.

Walking Dead #61 - Kirkman makes the point in the back that he has now surpassed the issue count of Y the Last Man (a series he admires a great deal). Amazing really that he has managed to maintain such a level of quality. It helps he has had a relatively stable art team who are perfectly suited to the subject matter, but there's a deft hand in Walking Dead that he just doesn't show with any of his other books. I'm a big fan of Invincible, but it slips a lot more that Walking Dead. That being said, things happen at the beginning of this issue that just feel a little too much, especially for what seems to be the beginning of a new storyline. Still, I guess the repercussions of it may yet be felt in what Andrea and Dale do next. Anyway, I love ya, you big hunk of zombie soap opera!

BPRD The Black Goddess #5 - Another favourite series of mine, but I'm a bit gutted to have this end on something of a cliffhanger then find out there's no new BPRD until next year! Sheeeit. Arcudi and Davis are a brilliant team, they really are. They have the kind of synergy you only get once in a very rare while.

Captain Britain & MI13 #13 - Dracula wins! Well, pretty much. Cornell again, who is doing a nice job so far on this story arc. I wasn't blown away by the Secret Invasion storyline they did, but it feels like he's able to pave his own way now and it's paying off. Oh, and the cover for the next issue is stunning.

Black Panther #4 - So far so good for me on this new series. Lashley is doing the best work I've seen from him, with not a small amount of Barry Windsor-Smith creeping in there. Shame about Campbell's ass-tastic covers.

Azrael Death's Dark Knight #3 - Well, it's very pretty, but does anyone actually give a shit about Azrael?

All New Savage She-Hulk #2 - I'm undecided on this. Van Lente is a favourite of mine, so I'll cut him some slack, but the humour was very welcome last issue and it feels far more muted this time around. More Campbell ass on the cover.

Action Comics #877 - This stuff is decent enough, but not enough to make me really care. I suppose if I were more of a devotee of the Supes books it might grab me.

From the Ashes #1 - Minimum Wage was one of my favourite comics of the 90's, so I was quite excited about Fingerman's new post-apocalyptic autobiographical comic. It's a nice twist. But it doesn't quite work. The dialogue feels forced and doesn't quite pull you in. Still, nice ending, so hopefully it'll pick up next time.

Echo #12 - I'm loving this series, really I am. You should try it.

Rawbone #2 - Jamie Delano does pirates. And sirens. And tits. Lots of tits. Two issues is enough for me, I think.

Young Liars #15 - I have to admit, I gave up on this around issue ten. As much as I love Lapham's work, I couldn't get into it. Finishing soon, so I thought I'd come back for the end. I have no fucking clue as to what's going on.

X-Factor #43 - Peter David does a great job in his little corner of the X-universe. Character-driven superheroics.

Wolverine #73 - Two halves, one by Jason Aaron & Adam "The Talented One" Kubert, the other by Daniel Way & Tommy Lee Edwards. All of it looks great and Aaron's story is a real joy. Way's half is a bit nasty, really, but that's to be expected of Way I guess. All told, well worth picking up.

War of Kings Ascension #2 - Abnett and Lanning have actually made Darkhawk interesting. That alone is reason to pick this up. It's like transmuting shit into gold.

Unwritten #1 - New Vertigo title by Mike Carey & Peter Gross. Worth a look, with an interesting premise. Not sure it will go the distance with the current crop of Vertigo readers, but might find a niche. Plenty of recognisable London landmarks (including the Jurys hotel up the road from work), which isn't particularly important but made me smile.

Umbrella Academy: Dallas #6 - That Gerard Way can sure write some good comics. Who woulda thunk it? Not to understate Ba's contribution, who draws the ass off it all. Happy to hear a book three will happen.

And that's it! Phew! About an hour and twenty. Who knows, maybe I'll do it again. Though I might just do the highlights! What do ya reckon?

Things I Did Yesterday 13/05/09

2009-05-13T19:59:00.000Z

Ahh...was it really only yesterday that I:

- Got into work early to pick up the materials I needed for the graphic novel workshop I was participating in? Unfortunately, yes.

- Got a cab with Josh down to the venue in Southwark, taking my selection of 50 core books with me? Unfortunately, yes.

- Watched Paul Gravett give a great potted history of comics for the uninitiated? Fortunately, yes.

- Utterly butchered my own speech while getting an attack of nerves? Oh yes, yes indeed.

- Managed to claw back some positive results through talking with various librarians during the break and at the end? Thank fucking Christ, yes.

- Finished the day early thanks to my early start and a lack of lunch? You betcha.

- Met wifey for a pint, came home, had dinner, had a bath, watched a Pushing Daisies and hit the hay? Oh yezzzzzz...