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2015-06-28 · 18:00

The Crystal Maze

With the news of the The Crystal Maze returning, sort of, I’ve been watching it on you tube. I’m feeling a little guilty for spending time watching it rather than doing something constructive. However if I talk about it here I can claim it was for research purposes. You’re not buying that are you?

The Crystal Maze ran from 1990-1995. It was a wonderful show with an excellent theme tune.

I have only vague memories of watching the show at the time but they are certainly fond ones.

In the show the contestants had to solve a variety of games. These were divided into metal, physical, a skill and a mystery. Also there were four time zones: Aztec, Future, Medieval, and Industrial (later ocean). When a game was completed they won a crystal. This gave them time in the crystal dome. In the dome they had to collect gold credits and if they got over 100 they won a prize. Though if they got silver that many gold were deducted.

The show sounds ridiculous when described here but it really was fun and interesting. Today there are shows like it, Total Wipeout for instant, but the vast majority of game shows are just answering questions in various different ways.

I hope that The Crystal Maze returns as a proper series. I certainly sense that there would be demand for it. Watching it back now it is very 90s. I’m not even sure what that means it just has a quality about it.

If you haven’t seen it I suggest you check it out. You’ll love the quirkiness, the contestants that fail at basic tasks, (Have you ever seen a woman try to dig with a metal detector?) … and you’ll probably find yourself shouting at the screen!

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2015-06-21 · 18:00

Father’s Day

Today is Father’s Day in the UK and many other countries. For me it means giving my father a substantial quantity of alcohol. Alcohol is one of my go to gifts for birthdays and other events. The other go to items are: cosmetics and chocolate. This trio can’t lead you far wrong. Unless you know someone who is teetotal, on a diet, and works at Lush. They would probably have all the cosmetics they could want – lucky people.

As you read this I will be at my parents house enjoying a lovely meal. Dad will have opened his present so I’m not giving anything away by putting it here.

As time goes by I find people increasingly difficult to buy for. I also find it difficult thinking up things for my own wish list. I don’t find I want that much. I’ve got enough books to last me 18 years. Probably much longer as I don’t read as fast as I think I do, there are more books than that calculation is based on, and I’m still accumulating more. I also have  enough DVDs to last, if played back to back: 34 Days, 23 Hours, and 3 minutes.

Yes. I did just do calculations on that.

No, they’re not completely accurate.

Yes, I’m aware this calculating is making me seem neurotic.

No, I’m not going to tell you that I just spent a good half hour or more working this out.

When it comes to Dad’s presents  he does have hobbies. However since he knows more about them than I do attempting to buy a hobby related present would be like trying to buy the Pope a birthday present and ending up with Catholicism for Dummies.

Incidentally I was going to write that as a joke. Turns out that book does exist.

So what have we learned?

I’m neurotic?

Well besides that…

Alcohol is the solution.

… said he who only really likes cider.

and the …For Dummies people have quite the range.

<>
“What, no seconds?”
“I have discovered, sir, a certain level of impatience when I calculate a lengthy time interval to the nearest second. However, if you wish…”
“No, no. Minutes is fine.”

Data and Riker – (TNG – The Loss)

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2015-06-16 · 13:29

The Writing Nemisis

Did you know that the blank screen is the greatest nemesis for a writer? It’s true. I have found that when it comes to writing a story never arrives fully formed there is always a part that its illusive.

Stories are broadly broken down in to three parts or tercios.

  1. The Beginning
  2. The Middle
  3. The End

This is probably not a revelation.

Consider a superhero: Tyrannosaurus-Woman. The middle of the story seems obvious a woman who fights crime by becoming a massive dinosaur. It could be good. You can’t have a superhero with out an origin story but hasn’t it all been done? We all know several superhero origins: radiation, botched science experiments, or just being an alien. So Its unlikely that Tyrannosaurus-Woman could offer anything knew in that regard. The beginning is the issue. How does a superhero story end? The bad guys are defeated but you need a pretty good bad guy to stand up to a tyrannosaurus.

Consider a space opera: Trek War. The beginning is easy. An ensemble on a starship: the warrior, the fearless leader, the faithful second, the brilliant engineer, the doctor, the annoying character, and the one who’s job is to die. The end is again easy they return triumphant – unless you ask Ensign Ricky’s parents. What about the middle? I don’t want another science fiction film of an alien invasion. So it’s a challenge to find something new.

Consider a fantasy novel. I’m working on a fantasy novel. The beginning is easy. A young woman discovers she has magical powers. She is excited by the prospect. The middle of the story is okay. She hones her power and discovers what she is capable of. She has to have challenges so there will be a bad guy. That’s not too difficult. The end is difficult. Well not the very end. I’m pretty sure I know what the last line of the novel is going to be. How the story actually wraps up is very evasive.

Some people think, as I’ve said before, that an idea is the most important thing in writing. Ideas are easy for me its the bridging. I can imagine my protagonist as an ordinary woman.

Her name is Stacy Tanner. She is studying journalism. She also works at the university as a note taker for children with dyslexia and other learning difficulties. She enjoys science fiction and knows taekwondo. She has a boyfriend, Jake MacNiell, and her best friend is Tina Hilton.

Later she discovers her magic. I know how she will be with her new powers, no spoilers, but how do I get her their? That is the problem with my novel. The bridging. I know the stages of Stacy’s life. I don’t know how to get her to each new reality.

I’m not giving up. This novel will be finished… at some point. Some authors speak of their work almost like it was a vision. Its like they can see what their characters are doing. Stacy is forthcoming about somethings but doesn’t want to tell me the whole story.

Writing is a battle ground. I hope to win the war soon.

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2015-06-07 · 18:00

Writing Exercises

Over the years I’ve accumulated many writing guides. I’ve only read a handful of them. Some can be useful and others are really not. One thing these guides tend to have in common is writing exercises. Writing exercises can be useful as they take you to somewhere you might not have gone otherwise.  More than that though by looking at a picture, sentence, or having to include three specific items in a story, it can help to create fresh ideas.

I’m currently reading Wonderbook. This will take a while as it is big and beautiful and I’m not going to risk taking out of the house. I usually read on the train and this book is a bit too big for that. Anyway it has little writing exercise throughout. These I will bring to you from time to time.

As for book books I recently finished Divergent. I listened to the audio book version and it was most enjoyable. I’m now listening to the squeal. The final book I’m reading is Dragon’s Egg – so yes three books on the go at once.

Finally I found a new you tube channel called Geography Now. It talks about all countries in the world, or it will do, in alphabetical order. I never really enjoyed geography in school but this channel is interesting. I’m curious to hear what he has to say about where I live. However since I live in Wales in the United Kingdom and he’s on ‘B’ it could take quite a while.

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2015-05-31 · 18:00

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov – My Thoughts

I, Robot was published on 1950/12/02. The film I, Robot, while enjoyable, has very little in common with its source material.

I, Robot is a collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov. They deal with the issues of the three laws of robotics:

  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. [P8]

Each of the stories expresses the problems with the laws. In one instance law one has to be adjusted. The reason is that humans are working in a risky environment, ‘a… gamma field’ [p114] – and so the robot rescues them from it. Its programming will not allow it to take the risk that the human might stay beyond the safe limit. So the law is adjusted to ‘No robot may harm a human being.’ [p114] This however presents a problem, as discussed later in the story. A robot could drop a weight on a human if it knew that ‘his strength and reaction speed would be sufficient to snatch the weight away…’ [p122] – it could then allow the weight to continue because now gravity is acting on the weight. The modified First Law allows [this]. P122.

In my opinion Asimov is at his best when writing short stories. Science fiction short stores of this era tended to focus on a what if type scenarios.

Asimov’s characters are not very well developed. This is irrelevant in the short form as it is the idea that is important. However in the novel form, like the Foundation series which I’ve also read, this cannot work. In a novel we need characters we can become invested in.

Given that this book is now 65 years old it sounds anachronistic at times. It is difficult to put into words but essentially the technology is futuristic but the people are not. One of the stories mentions the earth population – he was accurate for the time he wrote it but failed to predict just how many of us their would be in the 21st century.

If you like science fiction you should read this book. It is an important story in the history of the genera. I hope that those who are involved in robotics do read it. There will come a time when we need to have laws of robotics – not these ones though. That is not a slight against Asimov as it is the point of the story.

If you haven’t read this – read it – read it now.

…or you know when you’ve finished the book you’re currently on.

All quotes taken from the Panther Science Fiction edition: I,Robot 1968

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2015-05-24 · 22:53

Eurovision 2015

Saturday was the grand final of the 60th Eurovision song contest. Yes, you read that write, there have now been 60 Eurovision Song Contests. You many now shudder.

The Eurovision Song Contest is always a mixed bag. It can be a tad ridiculous, political, and, if I’m honest, in places awful – but I wouldn’t miss it for anything.

The winner this year was Sweden.

This song, as you can see, had great use of the possibilities of modern staging. Though I’m not so sure it would have fared so well had this been a radio show.

My favorite of the night was Hungary.

This was a nice calm song which didn’t feel the need to punch to the high notes. As you can see it was beautifully performed. War and peace are often discussed in Eurovison songs but they are usually just a bit too jolly. This one is effective because it speaks of the problems we have by hinting at hope.

I liked the Russian entry too, which came second, it was my favorite of the ones that could have won. The singer here is cute after all. In all seriousness though I think it is a good song but given the politics of Russia it might have been best for them not to win.

I have to mention the UK entry too. On first hearing it I wasn’t sure but it grew on me. I wonder if the UK, and the rest of the big 5, attending the semi-finals might actually be adventitious.

Also I’m not sure why the UK entry is in a 1920s America style. Maybe next year we could have an entry in Welsh, Scottish, Irish, or one of the many other languages present in the UK.

In closing this post I want to add my congratulations to Ireland for their vote of equal marriage.

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2015-05-17 · 18:00

Election Fallout

It has now been a week, well just over, since the inexplicable Conservative victory in the general election. My first plan for this post was a WTF about the results – and little more. While WTF is still what I feel I think it might be more interesting to look at it objectively.

I honestly don’t know how things are going to be. David Cameron isn’t exactly going to start building a Death Star but there is a question in my mind of whether the Tories are going to be good for the country.

I was speaking to a Tory voter the other day and they made some good points. I take this with a pinch of salt but I’m not opposed to the idea of the Tories being good.

I’m rather dubious about the idea of sticking to one political party. For myself I try and evaluate each party for each election. This time I didn’t vote Tory – but another time I might. It all depends on what is happening in the country at the time of each election. For instance in the 1945 general election Winston Churchill lost to Clement Attlee. When I first heard about this I was surprised – after all Churchill is often talked of with great reverence. However Labour were considered to be the better party of post war Britain.

So hopeful we won’t all be as doomed as Golgafrincham,

In spite of what I’ve said there is still a part of me that agrees with the: ‘circle the wagons’, ‘batten down the hatches’, ‘red alert’, or just ‘oh crap’ that most people seem to be considering the result.

I think the key is vigilance. If we really have democracy then we should be able to shoot down any ideas we hate. The problem is a combination of a lack of information, it’s not always easy to find out what government policies are, and apathy.

If like me me you are WFTing about what happened know that we can still have a voice – or failing that we can just hide under a rock for the next five years.

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2015-05-10 · 18:00

Moving House

Lately I’ve been thinking of moving house again. I’ve only been in my current place for just over a year so I’m probably mad, moving is an amazing upheaval, but nevertheless I have been thinking about it. The reason being is that I’m relatively far from family and friends and, as I don’t have a car, it can be a little awkward sometimes.

The question with moving house is what sort of place to move to – what can I afford now versus what might I be able to afford in the future. It is important to consider this because if there is one thing that can be said of moving you probably want to do it as few times as possible.

My budget can’t quite reach what I might call the ‘perfect’ house or flat. In which case there are there are two options either go for somewhere not great but good enough or wait.

Waiting, and patients, in general is something I am not good at. In this case I might be waiting for something that might not actually happen – but what am I waiting for?

Well to have just a tad more money. If you can hit the £90,000 mark for houses/flats there are a lot more options.

I’m also lazy. This means that I don’t particularly like the idea of having to paint and decorate a new place. Sometimes you look at places for sale and the colour scheme is just hideous – or they actually need to be painted as they’ve been neglected.

Nevertheless waiting is always a good thing to consider doing. We all know that feeling of buying something, usually a technological item, and then shortly afterwards the new and improved version is out! This phenomenon can happen with flats – at any moment the perfect place could come on the market.

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2015-05-04 · 19:47

May the Forth be With You

Today is Star Wars day. Today was also a bank holiday in the UK. Unfortunately I don’t work in a bank so I was working. I didn’t do anything Star Wars related today, unless you count this post, but it seemed like I good time to put my thoughts down about the upcoming movies.

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens will be released in December. I have high hopes.

The disaster, clusterfuck, snafu, or whatever you want to call it, of the prequels is well known. They did have some good action sequences but the dialogue – well I don’t need to flog that particular expired equine. You can look at Confused Matthew and Redlettermedia for that. FYI – Redlettermedia has a strange style but if you can ignore the serial killer persona it is definitely worth a watch.

Having seen the trailer for Episode VII – it looks good. Mainly it looks as though they’re not relying too heavily on CGI so just maybe it will be… fantastic!

I am quite optimistic.

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2015-05-03 · 19:08

Thursday

Thursday is the runt of the week…

Monday: The beginning of the week – we’re resigned to the fact that another week has started.

Tuesday: The week continues its another day.

Wednesday: Mid-week. Hooray it’s almost over.

Friday: Woo-hoo the weekend is here.

Basically Thursday is the annoying hurdle preventing the weekend from coming sooner. This coming Thursday (2015-05-07) is the general election in the UK. Thursday, for the election, has been a tradition for many years. This is therefore the last post before the election. So I just wanted to reiterate what I said before: please vote.

I’m not sure anyone could successfully call this election but let but let me make a prediction.

I find it highly unlikely that there will be a majority government.

My prediction…

Labour will win but not by much.

I also know that my vote doesn’t really count for much as I’m in a safe seat. Click here to see info on your constituency.

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