Category Archives: Musings

Music from when I was a teenage dirtbag

Empire, Music, Musings,

I appear to be appreciating the music of my teens quite a lot at the moment. I’m blaming the drive to and from Empire last weekend. The CD I pulled out of the glove-box to listen to was CD3 of Now That’s What I Call Running 2014 (which I may have to get a copy of). The reason I picked that one (other than it being one of the only non-folk CDs in the collection) was that it had quite a bit of nostalgia on it for me.

The drives to and from Spernall were augmented by songs I’d last really heard in the early noughties when I was a teenager – guilty pleasures and open alike – as well as tracks from the eighties. A selection of the “best” tracks are below:

  • Britney Spears – Toxic
  • Alien Ant Farm – Smooth Criminal
  • Avril Lavigne – Sk8er Boi
  • Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag
  • Elvis Presley vs. JXL – A Little Less Conversation (JXL Radio Edit Remix)
  • Blink 182 – All the Small Things
  • Sum 41 – In Too Deep
  • Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’
  • Soft Cell – Tainted love
  • Blondie – Call Me
  • Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Relax
  • The Knack – My Sharona
  • Snap – The Power

This, amongst other things, has inspired me to listen predominantly to tracks from my teen years this week. I’ve listened to a lot of Avril Lavigne, which has led into listening to a lot of Pink. Thinking Sum 41 may have to be on the list somewhere.

What’s actually surprised me is the number of these groups who are still performing and putting out music today. I stopped paying any attention to them after I went to university, and they’ve continued to write and produce. I like a lot of Avril’s new stuff, and I want to see how Sum 41 was evolved in the last decade (I own their first three CDs, one in two different versions[1] so knowing whether they’re still someone I’d like to listen to would be interesting.

I’m already thinking I might need to buy Avril’s latest album just based on the main singles from it. Something to consider when I have more money.

So that’s what I’ve been listening to recently. Have any suggestions for other things I might enjoy?

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. ↑ All Killer, No Filler. I have both the UK and US versions because one had a bonus song

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The Winter Solstice

Costume, Empire, LRP, Me, Musings,

This weekend I’m off to Empire. First Empire event of 2015, first of the Winter events I’ll have been to. It’s also my first field LARP event as a player this year.

Currently I’m fretting a little over the things I don’t have. I can’t find my scaled brow prosthetic, so I might be reduced back to just make-up, which I’d really prefer not to do. I can’t find my rune bag – but that’s an accessory I can live without. I don’t have as much in the way of Demijohn liqueurs as I normally do as I’m a little skint right now. I also don’t have the final piece of my mage armour[1], so I’ll be throwing something together in a hurry – possibly just by wearing my big coat on the battlefield.

The idea of using some of Jeremy’s cast-off skin for my Naga scales has just occurred to me, but I think that might not work as well as the idea suggested. Might be worth an experiment though – I can see if it’ll take make-up to colour it. My worry is that it would tear easily, but Naga probably shed scales as well, so I can find an IC reason for it.

I’m not as revved up for the event as I’d like to be. My keen is low, and I’m not sure what I’ll be doing on the field as Sólsetur. I have a letter to deliver, some people to see, and some rituals to do, but I don’t really know what I’m doing as a whole. I may angle towards taking over as Thane for something to do besides sit around and occasionally do a ritual.

I don’t know. Playing events can be odd for me – I feel more comfortable in a ref/crew role in the main, and while I can write my own characters and play them, finding goals and things for them to do can be tricky for me. I don’t know why I find it easier to do that for an NPC I write than for my own characters, but I do.

Tonight we’re packing the car, and tomorrow morning we’re off to the new Empire site. Hopefully without getting mired in traffic. We’ll see.

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. ↑ I didn’t think I’d be coming to this event, so I didn’t commission it and by the time I knew I wasn’t coming, it was too late

Faith

Friends, Me, Musings

This morning I started thinking about faith, and what that means to me. I’ll get into how I started thinking about later on, but I figured I’d start with some clarifications.

I don’t have faith in gods, or religion, and I find it somewhat farcical that people do. As an atheist, I just find the idea of trusting in some higher power to come to your aid to be ridiculous – even the worst holy texts usually have some message of “God helps those who help themselves” and religion is supposed to supply a willpower and drive to help one attain their goals, not be a wish-fulfilment strategy.

I work with religious colleagues (which has had its own interesting tales) and what I usually see is that their religion is a background thing, something that supports them without being their drive. I can respect that, and they respect my lack of it, and it works quite well.

But that isn’t what I meant to talk about. What I meant to talk about was that while I don’t have faith in the traditional sense[1], I still hold faith – I have faith in people.

Now, that shouldn’t be taken in a “I have faith in humanity” sense or a “I have faith that people will usually do the right thing” sense because both those statements are to one degree or another, bollocks. It’s very difficult to have faith in someone you don’t know, and that is part of the problem with faith – it’s a “complete trust or confidence” and giving that without knowing someone is difficult.

Particular examples of people I have faith in are some of my friends who are having some trouble right now. One of them is facing various difficulties and is worrying about whether they’ll be able to attain their goals given all of the obstacles that keep coming up along the way. I have faith that they will achieve those goals, and that they’ll be stronger for it (and I’m doing my best to help clear away some of the obstacles); I have faith that they’ll pull through despite the odds and get everything they wanted. The second person is having their own troubles – facing off against difficult health issues that it’s difficult to go through alone, and harder to ask for help with. I have faith that they will get through it, that they’ll overcome the hardships, and that they trust me to help where I can. It’s much more difficult to help in this case, but I have to have faith that they know that they have my support and that they will tell me when they want me to be involved (or I’d go crazy).

And that’s why I wanted to make this post: not to espouse on my religious views (or lack of them), and not to make a statement, but to let them know that I have faith in them and I will continue to support them as best as I can. I have faith in my friends, and sometimes you have to remind them of that.

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. ↑ While American dictionaries seem to list the religious definition first, I hold to the Oxford Dictionary definition which lists “Complete trust or confidence in someone or something” as the primary meaning of faith

Ready Player One

Books, Musings,

Ready Player One by Ernest ClineReady Player One by Ernest Kline is a book I really enjoy. I’ve read it a few times now, and this recent reading seems to have haunted me a little.

I decided on Wednesday morning that I was going to start re-reading it. Wednesday night, I put it down (finished) having only stopped reading it while I was in the office. Oops.

Thanks to Loot Crate‘s Play Crate from February, I actually now have two copies – which may have been the inspiration to re-read it. Halfway through it, I decided to recommend it to one of my colleagues, and offer to loan it to them. Turns out I didn’t need to. This is where the haunting aspects came in.

Thursday, I talk to my colleague, having finished it again in a day (oops), and discover it’s the next book on his reading list. Coincidence, I think, but awesome. Then last night I’m watching the TableTop Cards Against Humanity episode (NSFW[1], NSFC[2], NSFA[3]) and one of the guests is Laina Morris (Overly Attached Girlfriend). So I go and check out her channel on YouTube, and at the end of the first video I watch, she recommends an audiobook of Ready Player One read by Wil Wheaton.

So that was weird.

Anyway, I love this book. It’s geeky and it doesn’t pretend to be anything different. It’s full of trivia and media icons from the 80’s and follows the story of a geeky fat kid who ends up becoming an OASIS superstar, beating the bad guys and getting the girl along the way. Yes, that’s cliche but it’s the story full of them. In an age where you have virtual reality worlds freely available with modding potential far above that of Second Life that has effectively replaced the internet (and the real world for some people), there’s a story based around 80’s classics and text adventure games. And that’s awesome.

Maybe there’s a little too much “orphan raised by his aunt has all his family and friends killed then goes out and brings down the evil empire with nothing more than pluck and a few loyal friends”[4] but that doesn’t matter – it doesn’t stop it being a good read.

Seriously, stop reading this and go read Ready Player One instead.

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. ↑ Not Safe For Work
2. ↑ Not Safe For Children
3. ↑ Not Safe For Anyone
4. ↑ the plot to Star Wars and a few other enterprises

A giant has fallen

Books, Musings

If we see further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

One of those giants died yesterday, and though his death weighs a heavy toll upon all of us who loved him, his work stands on and will continue to stand for decades still.

In the future, it won’t be unusual for someone to be called a “modern-day Pratchett”, and that may even be the highest accolade in the land. After all, how many of us got our start with his work? How many of us picked up his books in school, or at home at a young age and were immediately enthralled by them? How many of us delved deeper into fantasy works guided by his words having planted the seeds of curiosity in our minds?

“The space between the young readers eyeballs and the printed page is a holy place and officialdom should trample all over it at their peril”
– Terry Pratchett

That is his enduring legacy – the words he has written and the effect they have had on all of us, and the effect they will continue to have on future generations.

“Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can.”
– Terry Pratchett

He suffered as a result of the Embuggerance, and his views on the right to die were well known. It is because of this that I do not mourn his passing, but I mourn the future that doesn’t have new words from that most excellent of minds.

A giant has fallen, but his works stand tall and mighty.

RIP Terry Pratchett 1948 – 2015

Something magical

Me, Musings, Snake,

There’s something magical about watching a snake eat something several times larger than his own head. It seems to defy all logic, and while you’re watching there are several moments when you wonder if he’ll manage it, or if he’s going to have to give up. And then, slowly and magically, with no seeming transition, even more of the food has gotten in and you’re still not sure how that happened because you were watching the entire time. It’s hypnotic.

To explain, I gave Jeremy his first adult mouse yesterday. It is quite a bit larger than the rat pups he’s been on, and he gobbled those up no trouble at all, but they weren’t much bigger in diameter than he was. This mouse was a good third, maybe half again his base diameter and at least double the diameter of his head. I wasn’t sure he was going to be able to eat it. It took him several goes as well. He started chewing on the ear because he was trying to find the best place to start and hadn’t quite grasped where to go – especially given he couldn’t fit much in his mouth at once. He ended up unhinging his jaw and stretching to such an extent I was half-worried it was hurting him. I was completely unconvinced that he was going to get the mouse’s hips in – they just seemed so much wider than even him at his most stretched, but he managed to squeeze them back together and drag them in.

Absolutely fascinating to watch. And of course, upon posting the pictures to Google+, I’ve had two people go “can you not share that with me?” My answer is no. My answer will always be no. I do not make posts based on what my audience (such as it is) wants to see, I make them based on what I want to post. What that means is that the privacy level I use (be that circles on Google+, or friends groups on Facebook, or something else) is based on what I perceive the sensitivity of the post to be. If I don’t want to share something with everyone who might want to see it, I won’t. If I’m raising a potentially controversial issue, I’ll usually reduce the numbers. If I’m posting about my mental health, I’m usually quite careful about my audience. But that’s the thing, I choose my audience based on the limits I want to impose on the content, not what other people think those limits should be.

Many people I know create circles on Google+ purely to share content of a particular flavour. I can understand that viewpoint from one perspective, but I utterly don’t from another. Having a “roleplaying” circle that you make roleplaying posts to is great, as long as you know that everyone who might want to see them is on there. But what if you make a new friend who might want to see it but you haven’t asked yet? What if a friend of a friend might have a good point to make, but will never get to see it because they’re not in your group.

I use circles primarily to sort content into categories that make sense of how I know the person, and that I can use to break down who I want to read. My phone shows me the latests posts from my “Friends” circle on my homescreen rather than showing me all posts. This means that I don’t see the communities and the other people I’ve got circled – just the people who I want to read more often. The secondary use is to share sensitive content as I said above, and that’s a much rarer thing for me.

But then, I see things differently. I’m a glutton for information – I want to see it all, to have access to it all, and to freely be able to access it. I don’t like the closed off worlds that my friends create, even as I understand that they don’t share my views on the matter. C’est la vie.

For the curious one

Musings

Welcome to my humble abode. There’s not really a lot here, but maybe that’ll change. I’ve never been fantastic at blogs. Still, you never know.

This message inserted into the past for a curious person to discover.

Old sayings

Me, Musings, Roleplaying

There are two phrases I said in university that stick out in my mind even now. One of them is behind the naming of this website as I noted on the about page.

The other went something along the lines of “I code in 8 dimensions”. I said while I was trying to figure out a tricky iteration loop, to try and describe the visual mindset I get into when I’m “in the zone” with something. I don’t know why I said 8 dimensions, but it seemed apt at the time.

I still kind of think that I think differently from other people. That I visualise things much differently. Not that anyone really thinks alike, but I think my mental processes are quite a bit different from what is considered the norm. I can’t simply turn my mind off – something which troubles me occasionally – it doesn’t relax.

It comes into my roleplaying as well – I get times when I’m not just pretending to be someone else, it’s more like I assume their personality. I don’t need to think about what they would do or say, I just do it – even if that’s at odds to something I would normally consider saying or doing. It’s a natural process – something I couldn’t analyse if I tried, and after having a couple of roleplaying characters make comments in my mind on something I’ve seen outside of a game, I have tried somewhat. Times like that (and like this) that I wonder if I have a mild form of schizophrenia.

Still, I can face the world.

IE-tan

Musings

A long while ago, I came across the OS-tan idea. It’s a very Japanese concept – creating characters based on software. The first version of this I came across is the attached image – various versions of Windows as anime-style characters.

OS-tans
Background, left hand side (clockwise from top left): Windows 98 (in the box), Windows 95 (wearing kimono), Symantec Antivirus (male), Windows 2000 (in front of Symantec), Windows Server 2003 (fish outfit, attacked by black cat), Windows NT (close to usual appearance, but has blue hair and a blue dress), Windows XP (holding her skirt down). Background, right hand side: Windows 3.1 and DOS (neither unusual representation is the “official” os-tan for each[clarification needed]). Foreground: Windows CE (left, fairy in light green outfit with USB wand), Windows ME (right, green hair, levitated by CE). Group image of the OS-tans, used under fair use. Artists: Sorenarini Toshiaki (illustration and finish) background Sore-Aki.
This has been expanded and there are various variants of the idea across the full range of OSes with some other software tagged in for good measure. It’s also no longer a solely Japanese concept as Western artists have picked up their pens as well.

What I find interesting today is that Microsoft has embraced the concept. In their new Asian marketing push (which they’ve also pushed across to their Western customers), they’ve introduced a robot-fighting (robots = androids; Android = Google) ass-kicking heroine (complete with naked transformation sequence). You can check her out in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHTUlF7NA2o

She’s got a Facebook page, with Japanese-style information. She’s got a real life actor that’s at the Asian trade show and her own theme tune. They’ve even given her a background that meshes with the idea that IE used to be slow and clunky but now it’s fast and awesome.

I recommend checking out the video. I don’t recommend the browser. I’m interested in seeing how this alternative marketing campaign works out for Microsoft.