News Archives: January 2009

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Missing

Stu was a teenager when I met him. He was a decent guitarist, and possessed the sort of expansive, easy-going personality that filled a room. He was easy to talk to, easy to listen to, easy to like. I'd be very surprised if anyone who ever met him will forget him.

Stu was also a gamer. We played in two games together - a Gloranthan/pirate game I ran, and a feudal Japan one he ran. I generally don't like Japanese rpgs, but I enjoyed his game. He had a feel for the Japanese mindset. As a player, Stu played larger than life characters, with enthusiasm, humour, but without stomping over the other players' space.

A couple of years back, Stu met a girl he liked, and moved south to be with her. We didn't really keep in touch - neither of us being terribly good at that sort of thing. In the back of my mind was always the thought that when I was in the area we'd meet up and catch up.

Stu's heart gave out earlier this month. He was 22. The funeral is later today. I suspect I'll cry.

Posted by graham @ 10:41 am

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Writing to Order

Jumping on the bandwagon, but repainting it a bit first...

One of my resolutions is to write more. If you contact me with a theme, topic, genre, setting, or some combination of those, I will write something based around your suggestion. I'll probably write a short story, but it might be something else. I'm not promising you'll like what I write, or that it'll be at all what you expected. And I have no idea how quickly I'll finish it. I may publish what I write, but I'll make sure you see it before I do.

I'm not looking for plot suggestions - coming up with plots is the fun bit. Also, I won't use other people's settings or characters - I've trod that legal minefield before.

I do have a couple of short stories I should write soon. I still owe Sarah a story about faeries from ages back, and I have an idea for a creation myth that's really a completely different story. I'll probably write those first, unless I get distracted by your idea...

***

In other news, Claire got back from America on Friday, and is just about over the jet lag. I've been pretty much distracted by having a wife back, and belatedly celebrating her birthday.

I've also finally declared the laptop dead. A restore and a clean reinstall both failed to resurrect it, so I'm blaming hardware failure. I've replaced it with an HP desktop I got a good deal on, and hopefully will be a bit better about responding to emails, comments, etc. in the near future. Sorry to everyone I've been ignoring.

Posted by graham @ 08:15 pm

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Thoughts on the Inauguration

Well, the inauguration speech should be a nail in the coffin for those who seem to be viewing Obama as some sort of black Kennedy. I didn't hear anything that people will still be quoting in forty years time. Instead, he turned out a thoughtful, careful speech. If he achieves half of what he's promised, he'll be the greatest US president of my memory. (Admittedly, that's not saying all that much - the last four were pretty awful...)

I liked the repeated mention of global warming, and the commitment to technology rather than depression as a means of combatting it. I liked the emphasise on science and statistics over faith. I liked the civil rights, the commitment to balance security with rights and international relations, the dismissal of these times as somehow unprecedented. I liked that education, health care, and job creation were up front.

I remain uncertain that Obama'll achieve much. My instinct is that the average American politico (of either party) is far too conservative for him to make much headway in four years. And I will be pleasantly surprised if he's alive to run again in 2012. But today, Obama set out his stall, and for today, at least, he gets to be everything we hoped he'd be.

***

Dunno if anyone else watched the BBC's coverage, but if you did, were you equally annoyed by the bit where they said "there's four of the world's greatest musicians playing at the moment, but you can't hear it because we're going to inanely waffle about the upcoming schedule for the umpteenth time."

Posted by graham @ 06:18 pm

Sunday, January 18, 2009

General Whinging

Claire's spending her birthday in Miami. I may have mentioned this before. I think this is the first time I haven't seen Claire on her birthday since we met, and I don't like it. Terribly selfish of me, but there you go. Six months ago we hadn't spent two consecutive nights apart since getting married, and I miss her. Claire should be spending a good chunk of the day touring the everglades and visiting a gator farm/zoo, which hopefully means she'll have a good day!

Current plan is to hit the Auld Hoose next Saturday, and make that Claire's official birthday. We'll probably get there 8ish. Hopefully you will too.

My wife may be on a different continent, but I clearly have many friends who are still local. Yesterday, Fiona and Andy brought round pizza for lunch, then helped me walk the dogs. (The youngsters are sulking somewhat that Mum has abandoned them, but auntie Fiona does make up for a certain amount of that...) After that I had been invited round to Sarah, where she cooked vege pasta and much nonsense was talked with many cool people. And, finally, this afternoon I headed into Watt Gamers after far too many months absence. Caroline and Nick tempted me with cakes (are you lot worried about me starving?) and I got to play the new Battlestar Galactice game. This lives up to its reviews - very good, slightly paranoid fun. Ben turned out to be the second Cylon. He's far too good at looking innocent - never play poker with that boy.

I'm currently sat with a beer, an Alfie snuggled up, and Hawkwind on the stereo. Not a perfect weekend, but could be an awful lot worse. Alfie is very sweet...

Posted by graham @ 07:50 pm

Friday, January 16, 2009

Walking the Dogs

Anyone got a free afternoon this weekend (or any day next week, really, but that seems unlikely) and fancy helping me walk the dogs? Claire's disappearing with work for a week - she flies out tomorrow morning - and it would be nice to distract the puppies.

Posted by graham @ 03:44 pm

Monday, January 12, 2009

Alfie the Cute

Why write words when you can post cute pictures?

The felt Alfie was made by Jen, as a Christmas present for us. (The real thing is about 3 inches long and in focus. Claire would have put something else in the photo to show the size, but I'm not that bright...) We spent a fun afternoon yesterday at her flat, playing with the rats and ferrets. The only problem was that Zak sulked when we got home. He's scared of ferrets, and didn't like me smelling of them. The big wuss. I got the cold shoulder all evening, but as you can see from the top photo, he was quite happy to cuddle up with Alfie.

Posted by graham @ 05:24 pm

Sunday, January 11, 2009

What is "Normal" anyway?

Returning to normal is hard. I've never been great at getting up in the morning, but after a lazy holiday it's just awful. This week has been kind of chaotic, which hasn't helped. I'm trying to deal with Scottish Gas stealing our electricity account, Zak cut his paw and was a complete wuss at the vets (he's basically fine, but on antibiotics for a week and screamed when he got an injection) and Friday I ended up with a flat car battery 'cos one of the dogs (probably Tara) had turned the internal light on and I didn't notice.

Normality is a bit of a vague term round here. My laptop is still largely buggered. Sort of limping along using an external monitor, taking up to a dozen tries to boot, and typing anything is a case of hit the key several times till the letter finally appears on screen. I'm still considering what to replace it with. Won't be a Dell this time – crap build quality and worse customer service. I'm tempted by a cheap desktop for day-to-day use with an Eee for portable use. (I'm typing this on Claire's Eee, but she's going to want it back at some point...)

A further blow to normality will happen next Saturday, when Claire disappears on business for a week. Sometimes I get a little jealous of her work jaunts, but not this time – the whole trip sounds deathly dull. Still, I'm hoping a few friends will drop round while she's away to keep me from getting bored. Dunno what we'll do – board games, chatting, eating, and dog walking are likely candidates, and if there's enough interest I might run an all-day, one-off RPG on Saturday or Sunday. So, if you fancy popping over, let me know.

Posted by graham @ 11:56 am

Sunday, January 4, 2009

The "Whose Mistress"Game

The Queen's Gallery at Holyrood Palace currently has a display of Italian baaroque paintings from the royal collection. Claire and I had a wander round this afternoon. An interesting mix, from a quick sketch dashed off to show what the finished item will look like (but it's by someone famous so that makes it art) up to a gorgeous, luminous piece illustrating the "fishers of men" bit by Caravaggio. Worth a look, especially if you're around Edinburgh and can take advantage of the "pay once, visit as often as you like for a year" offer. What surprised me was the extent to which the ostensibly religious paintings were being deliberately subverted into whatever the artist/patron was really interested in. I knew Caravaggio played such games, but hadn't realised it was so pervasive.

The new Doctor Who has been announced, and there's been the predictable 'commentary'. "He's too young", "too experienced", "not as good as X". I'll reserve judgement till he's had a chance to settle into the role. To be honest, I suspect a complete unknown is just what Doctor Who needs at the moment - worked for Tom Baker after all. Well, having some plots would help as well. (As an aside, how bad was the Christmas Doctor Who? Started well enough with some amusing interplay between Tennant and Morrisey, but ten minutes in where was the plot? Motivation? Characterisation? By the time the boss monster appeared I'd got a bit bored, which might not be a bad thing as I managed to not be too annoyed by the ridiculously sexist coup-de-grace.)

The last port miniature was drunk today, a late bottled vintage. Full-bodied, but to my taste overly complex for such a sweet wine. Overall, the reserve was the best of the batch, pleasantly drinkable, but all of them were a lot sweeter than I'd normally drink. So I guess I need to find out if there's such a thing as a dry port...

Posted by graham @ 09:24 pm

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Resolutions

New Year is traditionally a time for planning life changes. This year, mine are small enough. Write more, blog more, keep the house tidier. I've made a start today, sorting some of the junk that's been building up in the bedroom. We're getting a pile of stuff that we don't use. Getting rid of it is tough for a hoarder like myself, but I'm trying to be ruthless. We'll see how it goes.

Everyday since the party has felt like a Sunday. I keep waking up expecting it to be a work day, and am then pleasantly surprised to remember it isn't. Next week may come hard, but for now I'm just enjoying the lazy days.

Today's port - the reserve. More refined and less fruity than the tawny, with the syrupy quality replaced by a mellow sweetness. Has more depth of body, and even a little spice, though still somewhat thin.

Posted by graham @ 09:13 pm

Friday, January 2, 2009

Welcome to the New Year

New Year’s Eve was great, getting up New Year’s Day was not. Alfie is a creature of habit, and come 8am he needs to go out. That he had a walk immediately before I went to bed at gone three is completely irrelevant. Thus yesterday I achieved bugger all - a little après-party cleaning, dog-walking, and broke my laptop again.

The party itself proved that a perfect New Year involves a couple of dozen very cool people, enough explosives for an hour long firework display, and enough cars that I don’t have to stay sober. Someone left behind an Ikea Tupperware box - looks like it had cakes in. Let me know if it’s yours.

The last few Christmas presents were exchanged at the party. One of mine was a port education kit - four different Taylors port miniatures in a gift pack. My family were always sherry drinkers, so port is something I know very little about. I’ve been working through them one per day. So far I’ve had the fine white (somewhat similar to a sweet cream sherry, somewhat like a smoother croft original, with a slight flabbiness that suggests it would have been better chilled) and the tawny (fruitier and almost syrupy).

Right, back to figuring out what’s wrong with the bloody laptop.

Posted by graham @ 08:17 pm

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