| No Spoilers |
[18 Nov 2009|09:07pm] |
Adrian has caught some of the finer fireworks on camera...
***
Sunday's Doctor Who - Waters of Mars - is well worth catching if you missed it. Strangely, the worst bit about it was the Doctor. His presence added little, almost adding an unwelcome levity. Lindsay Duncan was strong enough to serve as the viewpoint character, and removing the Doctor would have given space to provide much-needed characterisation for the minor parts and a proper lead-in to the slightly arbitrary ending. Admittedly, there was a sort of b-story foreshadowing the next tale, but that foreshadowing's been going on since the start of the last series, so I doubt culling the b-story would have mattered much. Overall, though - good fun.
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| Long Time, No See |
[16 Nov 2009|08:04pm] |
The problem with blogging is two-fold: If I have anything to say, I lack the time to blog; if I have time, I have little to talk about. Recently the problem has been the former...
Tonight, I unexpectedly find myself with free time. Monday should be game night, but Claire's taking her team at work go-karting, and another player has been floored (literally) by a bad back. So, I have a free evening to myself. There's no shortage of things I could (or even should) do, but I'm taking this as me time. Which means I'm going to spend most of the evening listening to pretentious, experimental music, and try and get some writing done.
What have I been up to since the last proper update? Most recently was Saturday's bonfire party. Claire's parents provided us half a tree to burn, which Andy turned into a fine bonfire. The rain gods were kind to us, and let us set off all the explosives. Pretty good selection this year. I think I upset Kieran by not buying any catherine wheels this year, thus avoiding the "will it actually turn?" amusement. A good selection none-the-less, though I could have done without the one that nearly hit Claire and I. (Before next year's party we'll figure out a better place to retreat to between setting off the fireworks.) Guest of honour was spaniel-pup Oscar, who was very sweet, affectionate, and playful. He obeyed Cisco's every command, and only got a little bit grumped at by the big dogs. Oscar even seemed to enjoy the fireworks, which is nice to see.
The other big news I failed to mention was the week's holiday we spent with Claire's family in Shropshire. Claire's mum rented a converted barn just off Wenlock Edge which we all used as a base. We tried to cram in as much of the touristy stuff as we could - Shrewsbury, Ironbridge (three times), Ludlow (twice), Much Wenlock, Offa's Dyke (missed it the first time we went to see it, so tried again another day), Church Stretton, Wroxeter, various castles, abbeys, and churches, and so on. A very lovely county - some day we'll head back to see all the stuff we missed. Halfway through I picked up a book on local folklore which kept me amused in the evenings. (Claire noted I've picked up my Dad's habit of "reading the interesting bits out". I took that as a compliment...)
Mid-holiday, I took a little detour to see the marvellous Porcupine Tree at the appalling Leeds Academy... 350 mile round-trip, lost in the Leeds one-way system (twice), and totally worth it. Support band "Engineers" sounded interesting, from the little that could be made out through the fuzz. I'll check out their CD at some point... By the time PT hit the stage, I'd found a better place to stand, and the sound engineers had tamed the bounceback. I won't spill the set list for those who haven't seen this tour yet, but "The Incident" is stunnning live, and the second set had a number of welcome surprises.
Right, writing. Now. (And, no, I'm not doing the NANO. Though I thought this might be reassuring to those who are struggling...)
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| Summoning the Rain Gods |
[17 Oct 2009|04:43pm] |
Our annual bonfire and firework party is happening on Saturday the 14th November. We'll probably set fire to stuff around 6ish, and blow things up from about 8. People are welcome to turn up earlier, but if you do, you run the risk of being asked to help with the preparations.
We'll have more than enough fireworks, though more sparklers is always welcome. We could use more firewood, if anyone knows of a source - our stock pile got stolen! We'll also be providing some snacks, but feel free to bring more. Also, bring your own booze.
As usual, everyone is welcome, and we'll be providing lifts to and from Linlithgow station all night.
Everyone knows we have three large dogs and a fat cat, right? They'll be shut in the front of the house during the party, but those with extreme phobias or allergies have been warned...
Right, hope to see you all then. Anything else you need to know, drop me a line!
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| Still Alive, Honest |
[25 Sep 2009|08:24pm] |
Wow, it's been some time since I've posted anything. All the pets are fit & healthy, and Claire & I are busy with gaming, parties, and far too much work. So, pretty much as usual.
A couple of websites that caught my eye recently :
A lecturer at the University of Connecticut is teaching a course in Greek Historical Writings by running a role-playing game, and writing it all up as a blog. Start with the 17th August entry. Fascinating to see the student reaction, and some intriguing game mechanics. (Earlier entries deal largely with parallels between ancient Greek writings and computer games. I don't enough about either of these subjects to make much sense of these - you may fare better...)
Long running webcomics often suffer from archive fatigue. Potential readers see the size of the archive, decide "not bloody likely" and never read any of it. John Allison has twice used the trick of "giving up and starting a new comic". A less extreme approach is Archive Binge. This provides a customisable RSS feed to one or more webcomics, from a fairly random list. You get a few delivered each day to your desktop, and catch up with your chosen comic at a sane rate. There's some good comics on the list - Goats, Schlock Mercenary, Irregular Webcomic, and more. (You will need a proper RSS reader - I don't think the Livejournal friends page will help you here - but frankly, everyone is better off with a proper RSS reader anyway...)
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| Wet T-Shirt Winner |
[05 Sep 2009|09:20pm] |
Zak's been under the weather recently, suffering from pneumonia. He's well on the way to recovery now, but at one point his temperature was 5 degrees above what it should have been. We tried a number of tricks to bring his temperature down - fans, open doors, wet towels, and - the cutest - making him wear a wet t-shirt.
***
I've set up a wiki for my Monday night games, at http://grahamrobinson.com/mondaywiki/. I'm using the same software that runs wikipaedia, which may be a touch of overkill, but it seems to work, and is pretty straight-forward to use. So far, I've added some of my notes, but this set-up also allows the players (and even passing badgers) to add their ideas. (Whether any of them will is another matter entirely...)
***
A few quick thoughts :
The reason for releasing a dying man from prison, whether he be convicted terrorist or train robber, is that we are better than him. This, ultimately, is the victory of our civilisation.
New laws aimed at preventing serious problems like people buying a bottle of wine before 10am or problem drinkers who aren't already covered by the laws on breach of the peace, drunk & disorderly, GBH, anti-social behaviour, etc. seem to be more an indication of the increasing puritanism of politicians than any attempt to solve a real problem.
And if there is a real problem, why no legislation to fine or pull licenses from the pubs & clubs that often actively encouraged the drunkness of these troublesome people in the first place?
Why do so many marketeers use "mature" or "grown-up" when they mean "adolescent"? Rhetorical question...
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| Tara |
[06 Aug 2009|09:14pm] |
We've had a tense few days. Tara's suffered from a couple of bladder infections recently. I took her to the vets yesterday, and they were worried that she may have developed bladder stones. Tara was booked in this morning for an xray. If they found stones, she'd have gone straight to surgery. Instead, they've discovered she has a misplaced bladder - too close to the outside, and hence prone to infection. There isn't much we can do about that, just keep her clean and treat any infection that appears. Poor baby.
One thing that did strike me was the speed with which vets work. If Tara had had stones, she'd have gone from initial appointment to home recovering in under 30 hours. Compare that to humans suffering similar conditions - your doing well to get through the same process in six months.
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| Boardgames and Craft Evening |
[05 Aug 2009|08:40pm] |
Anyone fancy coming round to ours on Saturday evening for boardgames and/or craft?
Drop me an email if you need directions or anything...
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| Alfie's First Gotcha Day |
[04 Aug 2009|08:52pm] |
Alfie's been with us for one year today. (An event often referred to in rescue circles as his "Gotcha Day".) We celebrated with tuna on his dinner, chicken treats, and a walk in the local woods. Alfie's now asleep beside me on the sofa - pretty much his default position in the house.
For a dog that came to us partly because Greyhound Gap were worried that no one else would take on an oldie who might not live too long, Alfie's doing well. He's a bit more blind than a year ago, but his diet's healthier, and he still wants to join us on walks, carrying a stick or tennis ball if he's in the mood. And he loves his food - tonight's tuna going down particularly well. The last year has been a joy, and I suspect he'll be with us for a wee while yet.
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| Culture |
[03 Aug 2009|09:33pm] |
In our annual search for culture, we spent most of yesterday at the Pittenweem Art Festival. For one week every August, half the houses in this little Fife fishing village are transformed into impromptu art galleries. This is no cheap local show - the three pieces that most spoke to me would barely have left me change from two grand, should I have been rich enough to be in the market for such art. Instead, I played the voyeur, enjoying the exhibitions whilst contributing nothing more than good thoughts and kind words. (Claire did buy a cute little bowl, with a much more reasonable price-tag.)
That is, when it was my turn to enter the galleries. Since we couldn't leave the dogs for such a long period, I spent half the day as a street-based performance artwork entitled "Man with Dogs" while Claire did the cultural thing, then we swapped. And then on to the next artist.
Thankfully, our dogs are generally well-behaved. One rather dodgy moment came while "Man with Dogs" was waiting outside a small cafe for Claire to appear with ice creams. A small child of four or five, no parent in sight, strode over to Tara with a cry of "Nice wolfhound!", grabbed Tara's head firmly in both hands and planted a wet kiss in the middle of her forehead. One day, that kid will do something similar to a less tolerant dog, with results that don't really bare thinking about. There's a fine line for parents to tread between "we'll just give the scary doggy a wide berth" and "dog's are lovely, why don't you go stick your arm in its mouth?" Both extremes were, sadly, on display yesterday.
***
The humble haggis has become the latest source of friction between Scot & Angle. Interestingly, the English claim is based on documentary evidence, whereas the Scottish is little more than footstamping while shouting "It's ours. It is! It is! It is! It is! It is! It is!"
I suspect this is partly due to the people interviewed, but largely due to the different views each country holds of its history. Most people are aware of England's origins in waves of invaders - Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Norman - and so aren't surprised when some feature of later "English" culture is found to have originated with one of these peoples instead. Scotland, on the other hand, seems to often be viewed as having arrived fully-formed in much its present state, give or take a William Wallace and Charles Stewart or two. The waves from Ireland, England, Scandinavia, etc. that formed the current "Scottish" people seem largely unknown, so the idea that these other peoples could have influenced Scottish culture is more shocking.
(It may be significant that, other than a brief bit on the Highland clearances and the preceding crofting system, I was taught no specifically Scottish history at school, despite studying history up till age seventeen at Scottish schools. Oh, and a year of Medieval History at Glasgow Uni also mentioned Scotland barely at all.)
***
Tonight was game night. The plot has now reached the point where the players are going to need to know enough of the politics to have some hope of figuring out what's going on. And enough that what's going on isn't blatantly obvious. I have till next Monday to make it all up. (I know what's going on, but haven't made up most of the details that support that...) Eek!
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| Pound for a Hound |
[24 Jul 2009|09:07pm] |
Before Alfie came to us, he was cared for by Greyhound Gap. They sorted his medical problems, and provided him with a foster home which spent three months nursing him back to strength. Now, Greyhound Gap are trying to raise enough money to purchase their own kennels, and are asking for a pound for a hound. Claire's put together this little webpage to help advertise their campaign, starring our Zak.
Please, help them out if you can.
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| Bloody Good Match, Though |
[03 Jul 2009|09:13pm] |
I wonder if I'm the only person in the country who's happy that Andy Roddick beat Andy Murray earlier today. Nothing against Murray - he's a fine player, seems a nice chap, and his grandparents are old friends of my parents. But I've always liked Roddick. He plays exciting tennis, seems a nice guy, and (unlike Murray) hasn't got many chances at Wimbledon left. I'll be slightly surprised if Murray doesn't win Wimbledon at some point; Roddick wins it this year or he probably won't.
I don't see either of them beating Federer, but that's another matter entirely. If Murray had made the final, I suspect I'd have supported him. Again, nothing against Rog, but he has won it a time or two already...
The counter-argument - that I should support Murray because he's British - makes no sense to me. Almost seems a little creepy. The lines between patriotism, nationalism, and xenophobia have always seemed a bit too blurred for my liking, and being an Englishman living in Scotland probably doesn't help. Some sports are naturally group events, and accidents of geography seem a reasonably legitimate way of defining teams. But tennis is an individual sport. Surely personality, playing style, or being the plucky underdog should have some bearing on who to support? Turning it into a national flag-waving event just seems wrong somehow.
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| Short and Sweet |
[02 Jul 2009|08:27pm] |
It's been ages since I posted anything. Not for lack of things to write about, but due to lack of time given dog shows, Tara's birthday(*), gardening, bbqs, mother-in-law's birthday, Zak getting injured (and recovering), Tara being ill (and recovering), collar making, friends visiting, visiting friends, and the unending war to delay the inevitable victory of entropy(**).
I was therefore surprised to find I have nothing booked for this weekend. Did I forget to note down an engagement? Or is there really nothing happening? In which case, would anyone like to meet up for an impromptu pub night/party/whatever on Saturday?
(*) - Tara's now four, and in a fortnight Cisco will be fourteen. Where does the time go?
(**) - If anyone knows of a decent roofer who can repair/add flashing where needed to stop leaks, I'd be very grateful for an introduction...
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| Champion |
[07 Jun 2009|08:54pm] |
Tara went lure coursing again today, winning the deerhound final by half a length.
This wasn't the closest of Tara's races - she won her first by a nose, according to the judge. I wasn't in a position to see, so had no idea who won'd until we asked. By the way, the natty red collar Tara's wearing is so that people can tell the dogs apart. One grey hairy running at 40 looks much like another, so they wear wide wool snoods in red or white. In a three dog race, the third dog goes naked, as in the final.
There was a certain amount of joshing about a crossbred beating all the pedigree deerhounds present, but all in fun. They seem to really like our monster, and I kept being told how great it was that she'd taken to coursing so well. I'm so proud of her, and Tara loved every minute of it, of course.
Zak stayed at home - his leg isn't up to walking up the hill, never mind racing. He didn't seem too upset at being left behind. Alfie was with us, but slept through all the excitement.
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| Mr Clumsy Strikes Again |
[06 Jun 2009|04:44pm] |
Zak was running around in the woods at Beecraigs this morning. At some point he collided with something. We've no idea what, and he didn't even yelp. When he came back to us, I noticed a bit of blood on his wrist, which Claire checked and declared it to be "not too bad". We popped Zak on the lead and took him home, by which point the skin had started to split. One trip to the vet, a general, and several stitches later, and Zak is sporting a natty camoflage bandage, a sore head, and wobbly legs. He's currently sleeping on our bed.
Tara's been very cute about the whole thing. I took Zak to the vet, and when I returned without him, she was quite distressed. I gave her some pork strips to distract her, while Claire and I went shopping. We came back via the vet, collecting Zak. When we got home, Tara didn't want to see us, rushing straight over to Zak, and licking his muzzle affectionately. People are always asking if the dogs get on okay. Oh, yes.
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| Do As I Say... |
[02 Jun 2009|07:34pm] |
You can tell how seriously they're taking the European elections around here by the near complete lack of bits of card tied to lamp posts. I noticed one for the first time today, brightly printed on plastic-coated, completely-unrecyclable, non-degradable board. It was for the Green party...
To be fair, maybe they could reuse it for the General election.
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| A Great Lesson |
[01 Jun 2009|06:01pm] |
When I was a child - maybe eight or nine - one of our tasks at school was to keep a record of news. Each weekday we had to write about what we'd done the previous evening, illustrated by a crude drawing. After a few weeks of this, the teacher had one of the girls read out her entry for the previous day, a colourful description of three or four activities. This, we were told, was what we should all be aiming for, because the teacher was fed up with reading "Last night I had dinner, watched telly, and went to bed." Watching TV was dull, we learnt, and admitting to it got you shouted at.
I suppose the teacher's hope was that this would encourage us to spend our evenings doing something more interesting, just so we would have exciting tales for our news the next day. But I was an English kid in a Scottish school, and did well in exams too, so I didn't have too many friends, and on a rainy Tuesday evening telly sounds a good passtime. So I did what any other sensible child would do, and made everything up. My news reports were better received, and I wasn't the only child doing this. Indeed, sometimes we collaborated. I remember Jonathan (a kid I otherwise recall nothing about) and I spending about three weeks describing the progress we were making on the remote controlled airplane we were designing and building. He was in charge of steering, I did the propulsion. We didn't trust the other kids, so they too were assured of the project's reality. Eventually the risk became too great, and we reported our improbable creation's maiden flight, which ended in the craft crashing into the Knapps Loch, where it sank without a trace.
Such unbelievable stories passed without comment. I'm not sure what I learnt from all this, nor why I mention it now.
***
These days, my life is far too busy without inventing new bits for it. The past weekend was spent in the pub, at the beach, at the dog show (Alfie got 3rd in "Golden Oldie", largely 'cos Claire ended up carrying him round the ring when walking proved too much for him), and picnicing in Holyrood Park. I'm now a fine shade of red, and looking forward to cooler weather.
Tonight would normally be roleplaying night, except at the moment I'm burned out as a GM. I've been finding it harder each week to psych myself up to run the game, and should the game not happen (always a risk when players have lives) the loss has upset me more than it should. So I'm taking a break till I can get my head together. We've still got friends coming round, but for social rather than gaming reasons. I should probably post this before they arrive.
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| A Virtual Post |
[30 May 2009|12:34pm] |
Increasingly, my friendships are virtual. I live far enough from even my local friends that I won't bump into them while shopping or walking the dogs. A trip to the pub is a large enough expedition that there's no option of popping in for a quick drink on the off chance that someone interesting happens to be there. (There are closer pubs, but not that friends frequent...) So those I keep in touch with are those who invite me to their parties, but mainly those who blog and those who email me. It's why I keep this blog - I'm well aware that for most of you, these little ramblings are your only contact with me. Heaven knows what view this gives of me. Hopefully more Gaiman than Adams...
The upside of a largely virtual relationship with the world is that it leaves me better prepared for friends moving away. (And it's no coincidence that as I type Sarah is on a one-way train to Bristol.) The shift from largely virtual to completely virtual is small, and requires little more effort on my part to sustain the friendship. New friendships, with little or no real-world basis, are also readily pursued in the virtual world, needing little more than enthusiasm and a common interest or two to blossom into something just as real as those forged down the pub.
The biggest problem with virtual friendships are that the tools are largely crap. Email remains the king of person to person, blogs a means for talking to the world. Livejournal, blogspot, et al provide the tools for easy blogging, but reading blogs needs specialist software if you're going to follow more than a small number. (Livejournal's "friends page" is awful - the single biggest reason for people falling out with blogging. Getting a proper feed reader is essential.) Facebook's recent change has made it completely unusable by me. I only visit there to play Mousehunt these days, and anyone trying to use Facebook to contact me or invite me to things is likely to find I don't notice. Twitter's insane character limit means that no one is using it to say anything interesting - I've signed off.
In short, if you want to keep in touch with me, read this blog, email me, or write on your own blog - I'll read it, even if I don't comment. Or, you know, invite me to the pub. That'll work too...
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| Fool Me Once... |
[23 May 2009|06:43pm] |
If you're reliant on the public spending money, misleading them is very, very foolish. If you've lied to me once, why would I trust you again?
This afternoon, we took the dogs to Traquair medieval fair. We knew there'd be no problems - website says "dogs allowed on lead", photos of previous years show dogs in attendance. Got to the site to find a large sign saying "No Dogs". I rather angrily explained that we'd driven for an hour and a half 'cos the website said dogs were allowed. The kid at the gate told us we could leave the dogs in the car, and that he couldn't get hold of anyone senior. (He did try.) They're getting a rude letter, and a bill for the three hours of time they wasted and the petrol used, to be donated to the charity of our choice.
Instead, we went to Kailzie Gardens, had a gorgeous burger and chips in the courtyard, then walked the dogs round the walled gardens. Well worth a visit, if you're in the area. The photos on their website don't do it justice.
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| And Relax |
[21 May 2009|09:41pm] |
Of course, when I've got lots I could blog about, there's no time to blog. So, here's a quick run through of some of the highlights since we last spoke.
Last weekend was frantic. On Saturday we moved Chris from St Andrews to Edinburgh, for which he rewarded us with pizza from a lovely little cafe in the middle of St Andrews, which I will probably never be able to find again. Their pizza was very good though. Then, up early on Sunday to walk the dogs, before we took Mum on an RSPB bird-watching cruise of the Forth. Lots of gulls, auks, terns, etc. - some of which I can now tell apart at a slightly more sophisticated level than "puffins are the ones with the stripey bills". In return, Mum bought us Sunday lunch at the Two Bridges. In the afternoon we accidentally took the dogs to a horse show. We didn't know the show was being held next to the woods where we often walk - you'd think they'd have put up some notices. We let the dogs have a run in the woods, then walked along the edge of the show. The dogs behaved well, and there were some gorgeous horses, including a beautiful, black fillie whose rider was putting her through tricks to keep her under control. I'm not looking for a horse (I'm not, I'm not, I'm not) but if I were, she's the sort I'd want. (At one point the fillie rode close by us, and Claire loudly declared "there's your favourite" to the rider's obvious delight.) After all that, we visited Mags & Phil in their gorgeous new flat for dinner. The boy can cook.
This weekend's not looking a lot quieter. Traquair medieval fair on Friday & Saturday, Linlithgow Party at the Palace on Saturday & Sunday, and Bo'ness Victorian Street Fair on the Sunday. Dunno how many of those we'll get to. We'll see...
***
I've just finished Bill Bruford's autobiography. (Drummer in Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks, and a whole host of ensembles with the word "Bruford" in the name.) He concentrates on the personalities and the business, rather than the specific music, so worth reading even for those who aren't interested in the bands involved. Reading it has me even more convinced that the jazz ensemble is the best model yet for an RPG group. Basically, in jazz the composition provides the chord progression and the melody, but the real interest comes from how the players improvise chord substitutions, and melodic and rhythmic variations. This seems a strong parallel to how role-playing works. Viewed this way it becomes clear why so much rpg theory seems deeply unsatisfactory to me - too much of the theory is being written by the composers, not the performers.
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