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Jan. 25th, 2015 01:17 amFrom <lj user=pseudomonas>: "Take this list, remove a thing, sort it by how much you like the things, add a thing at the top, a thing in the middle, and a thing at the bottom (preserving the sortedness, pedants):"
(most liked)
Wifi
Steam locomotives
Running away from zombies
Porridge
Maths
Gin
Tidying
Eating paper
Thermal underwear
Undercooked Aubergine
Getting up early
Migraines
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Dec. 12th, 2014 06:24 pmI am going on holiday! To Americaland! In March. Travel plans are
My death from exhaustion is scheduled for April 7th, which means I sadly won't be able to attend the Taylor Swift festival day I have booked for the day after my birthday. Oh well.
This entry was originally posted at http://morwen.dreamwidth.org/435003.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
- London Super Comic Con the weekend of March 14/15
- flying from Heathrow to San Francisco on March 18
- staying in San Francisco for a week
- catching the Coast Starlight to Seattle on March 25/26
- then settling down and attending the Emerald City Comicon
- and then a loose couple of days during which time I will probably visit friends in Portland? I've not booked the transport for this bit yet.
- anyway, back to Seattle for a flight back to Heathrow on the 1st
- and then straight into EasterCon!
My death from exhaustion is scheduled for April 7th, which means I sadly won't be able to attend the Taylor Swift festival day I have booked for the day after my birthday. Oh well.
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Nov. 7th, 2014 12:05 pmWay back in January, I signed up for Duolingo, a free language-teaching app, to do some French revision. I have a French GSCE, 'C' grade, but calling it rusty would be to imply that any iron content was present in the first place. Even at the time, I have no idea how I passed.
So, revision. I ran into the same problems I faced before: spelling in French is about as complicated as English, without the benefit of learning it as a child; and the fucking gender. I have problems with gender in language, too.
I decided to give Spanish a go over the summer. I made pretty good progress, even if I do say so myself. The spelling is pretty regular (although stuff like the b/v distinction still sometimes gets me), and the even genders are a bit more sensible, because of -a -o endings at least provide a default rule you can learn exceptions to. (It helps that "el" and "la" are far more distinct than "le" and "la").
I have got pretty far! Level 11, with just a few more modules to go. The problem is, it's not really teaching me Spanish. It's teaching me how to pass Duolingo Spanish tests. I'm picking up a fair bit of Spanish along the way, but there are various unfortunate tricks that I've spotted (when you get presented with words to form a sentence, the first one is going to be the one with a capital letter, right). So I kind of stalled.
HOWEVER, it turns out there is a thing called "adult education" still, despite the government's best intentions. I signed up with a "Beginners B" Spanish course. It seems to be about the right level for me - I would have sailed through the absolute basics course - but I'm just not fluent enough to do much more. There have been a couple of gotchas. I need to learn my Spanish alphabet. And the numbers. Duolingo wasn't teaching the alphabet at all; and not teaching the numbers systemically.
Still, good fun, going to keep plugging away at it. Very weird to be in a classroom environment after so long. I swear I am not doing this just because I got into Community. Honest.
This entry was originally posted at http://morwen.dreamwidth.org/434043.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
So, revision. I ran into the same problems I faced before: spelling in French is about as complicated as English, without the benefit of learning it as a child; and the fucking gender. I have problems with gender in language, too.
I decided to give Spanish a go over the summer. I made pretty good progress, even if I do say so myself. The spelling is pretty regular (although stuff like the b/v distinction still sometimes gets me), and the even genders are a bit more sensible, because of -a -o endings at least provide a default rule you can learn exceptions to. (It helps that "el" and "la" are far more distinct than "le" and "la").
I have got pretty far! Level 11, with just a few more modules to go. The problem is, it's not really teaching me Spanish. It's teaching me how to pass Duolingo Spanish tests. I'm picking up a fair bit of Spanish along the way, but there are various unfortunate tricks that I've spotted (when you get presented with words to form a sentence, the first one is going to be the one with a capital letter, right). So I kind of stalled.
HOWEVER, it turns out there is a thing called "adult education" still, despite the government's best intentions. I signed up with a "Beginners B" Spanish course. It seems to be about the right level for me - I would have sailed through the absolute basics course - but I'm just not fluent enough to do much more. There have been a couple of gotchas. I need to learn my Spanish alphabet. And the numbers. Duolingo wasn't teaching the alphabet at all; and not teaching the numbers systemically.
Still, good fun, going to keep plugging away at it. Very weird to be in a classroom environment after so long. I swear I am not doing this just because I got into Community. Honest.
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Sep. 18th, 2014 12:35 pmworst move ever
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Oxford update
Sep. 4th, 2014 02:42 pm Oxford is treating me well. I'm settling into a routine, I'm figuring out where things are.
I'm going on a trip to London this evening so I can go to the pub and also test travel back late prior to a gig I'm going to next Thursday. (For an Oxford band!)
Six and a half years ago, I started a telly night with some people, originally to show Bat and Zair Babylon 5.
It originally rotated but I've hosted it consistently for the last few years.
We have since watched Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse, Sherlock, various films, and have tried Misfits, BSG and a few other shows.
We started Game of Thrones in June or something. We finished season 1 on my last Thursday.
They are, of course, continuing without me. I knew they would. Life goes on. It's still a bit upsetting.
They are
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I'm going on a trip to London this evening so I can go to the pub and also test travel back late prior to a gig I'm going to next Thursday. (For an Oxford band!)
Six and a half years ago, I started a telly night with some people, originally to show Bat and Zair Babylon 5.
It originally rotated but I've hosted it consistently for the last few years.
We have since watched Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse, Sherlock, various films, and have tried Misfits, BSG and a few other shows.
We started Game of Thrones in June or something. We finished season 1 on my last Thursday.
They are, of course, continuing without me. I knew they would. Life goes on. It's still a bit upsetting.
They are
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Aug. 11th, 2014 04:01 pm I am leaving London, as you may have gathered.
I am going to have some Leaving London drinks at theWinchester Pembury Tavern, in Hackney, on Sunday the 24th of August, starting at around 6pm, although let's face it I'll probably be there from lunchtime and already be quite sozzled by the time you guys turn up, so come whenever. (It is the Bank Holiday Monday the next day, so we can be boozing until late) All are welcome, and I hope you can make it.
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/351734314977889/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming">There is a Facebook event here</a>.
A housewarming in Oxford will follow at some point. This entry was originally posted at http://morwen.dreamwidth.org/430975.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I am going to have some Leaving London drinks at the
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/351734314977889/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming">There is a Facebook event here</a>.
A housewarming in Oxford will follow at some point. This entry was originally posted at http://morwen.dreamwidth.org/430975.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Mostly for my own reference, I present a list of telly I have watched during my period of unemployment
*Community, except season 2
*season 4 of Game of Thrones
*Orange is the New Black (all)
*Breaking Bad (all)
*Red Dwarf 1980s/1990s complete rewatch (apart from "Polymorph", and Red Dwarf VI for whatever reason)
*Orphan Black
*started Mad Men
This is not a bad list. I've got another month to go. I'm going to give Mad Men until the end of series 1 but I'm not really feeling it. Any recommendations?
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*Community, except season 2
*season 4 of Game of Thrones
*Orange is the New Black (all)
*Breaking Bad (all)
*Red Dwarf 1980s/1990s complete rewatch (apart from "Polymorph", and Red Dwarf VI for whatever reason)
*Orphan Black
*started Mad Men
This is not a bad list. I've got another month to go. I'm going to give Mad Men until the end of series 1 but I'm not really feeling it. Any recommendations?
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Jun. 30th, 2014 06:11 pmHad a phone interview today.
Fairly standard C++ object orientation questions - how would you model physical attributes of a person - leading up to a "how would you model gender?", where they were fishing for the answer that there would be two separate classes with different attributes. Momentarily shocked into silence, I was. It's, um, probably just something they ask everyone.
This entry was originally posted at http://morwen.dreamwidth.org/429096.html. Please comment there using OpenID.(no subject)
May. 5th, 2014 03:51 amI think I am going to just park myself in the Pembury all day Monday, from when I get up to closing, if anyone wants to join me?
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Mar. 27th, 2014 03:12 pmSecret Project 8 emerges. Me and Pippa made a comic for Geeked magazine.
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Mar. 25th, 2014 11:29 pmSuper productive day! I drew lots of faces, completed 2048 TWICE, and everything was going sufficiently well that I said "fuck it, I'll try doing that comic I wanted to do."
Inked page 1. I think I'll have this all inked and coloured and lettered this week.
Captain America 2 tomorrow. So excited!
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Inked page 1. I think I'll have this all inked and coloured and lettered this week.
Captain America 2 tomorrow. So excited!
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Mar. 6th, 2014 12:55 pmThe other week I was wondering if I could learn to draw, if it was too late, whether I was too old. I asked that twitter for some advice, and got the customary "just practice" advice. "But, I really can't draw," I protested, "I'm not even sure what a pencil is, let alone which end to use." I'm not one of those comics writers who can draw but not well enough, I just can't.
At our D&D session I did some doodles of things on the table; I posted them to twitter and I showed them to people in the pub on Wednesday. I had been lying.
How is it that I had decided that I couldn't art? I literally haven't done anything at this level since I was 14. I think the answer is: art teachers. But clearly I can do the perspective OK. I think I learnt that in technical drawing rather than art?
I've set up a tumblr now, featuring my scribbling. Some of this I'm actually quite proud of. I've decided I am Good Enough at backgrounds now for the purposes of making comics, and I need to start drawing faces and people. I've done some of these but they are terrible and I have not felt able to post them to the tumblr. (I will happily show people in the pub.)
So that's what I'm going to spend my month off doing, learning to do that well enough to draw up one of my own comic scripts (one of the more talky ones, probably). Interspersed with writing and lunching and so on, obv.
This entry was originally posted at http://morwen.dreamwidth.org/425249.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
At our D&D session I did some doodles of things on the table; I posted them to twitter and I showed them to people in the pub on Wednesday. I had been lying.
How is it that I had decided that I couldn't art? I literally haven't done anything at this level since I was 14. I think the answer is: art teachers. But clearly I can do the perspective OK. I think I learnt that in technical drawing rather than art?
I've set up a tumblr now, featuring my scribbling. Some of this I'm actually quite proud of. I've decided I am Good Enough at backgrounds now for the purposes of making comics, and I need to start drawing faces and people. I've done some of these but they are terrible and I have not felt able to post them to the tumblr. (I will happily show people in the pub.)
So that's what I'm going to spend my month off doing, learning to do that well enough to draw up one of my own comic scripts (one of the more talky ones, probably). Interspersed with writing and lunching and so on, obv.
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Feb. 3rd, 2014 05:37 pmDe Hems after work, anyone?
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Jan. 28th, 2014 02:39 pmI sent that email to the counsellor.
Fucking hell that was difficult.
I need a drink this evening. Pembury, anyone?
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Fucking hell that was difficult.
I need a drink this evening. Pembury, anyone?
This entry was originally posted at http://morwen.dreamwidth.org/421985.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Lost in Bitstrips
Jan. 7th, 2014 09:59 pmYou may have seen Bitstrips. It's a little online tool for making cartoons and comics.
I experimented a bit after Thought Bubble with making a proper webcomic with bitstrips - which may or may not see the light of day depending upon the contents of Young Avengers #15 and to what extent I have anticipated/nicked Kieron's jokes.
Since that I have become convinced it is a medium that actually, could be used to do worthwhile stuff in. Much of the bad reputation it gets is because of the immense amount of shitty pre-generated content it presents you with.
So, I give you Lost in Bitstrips, which is a pretentious deconstructionist webcomic, featuring me and Charlotte. Read it all on one page here, and on tumblr here. It features high production values such as slightly wonky alignment of panels, bad title text, and visible mouse cursors when I didn't bother to move the mouse away when I was doing my screenshots. But is also quite funny, I hope. And maybe a bit touching at the end?
This entry was originally posted at http://morwen.dreamwidth.org/420275.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I experimented a bit after Thought Bubble with making a proper webcomic with bitstrips - which may or may not see the light of day depending upon the contents of Young Avengers #15 and to what extent I have anticipated/nicked Kieron's jokes.
Since that I have become convinced it is a medium that actually, could be used to do worthwhile stuff in. Much of the bad reputation it gets is because of the immense amount of shitty pre-generated content it presents you with.
So, I give you Lost in Bitstrips, which is a pretentious deconstructionist webcomic, featuring me and Charlotte. Read it all on one page here, and on tumblr here. It features high production values such as slightly wonky alignment of panels, bad title text, and visible mouse cursors when I didn't bother to move the mouse away when I was doing my screenshots. But is also quite funny, I hope. And maybe a bit touching at the end?
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Jan. 1st, 2014 07:28 pm2013 was a pretty good year creatively and culturally. Excluding unfinished projects (of which there are a whole lot):
I think that's most of it?
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- Me and Robert Bracey made a comic
- Doctor Who and the Hipsters
- Moths Ate My Girls Aloud CD
- My post about moving [[Chelsea Manning]]
- I DJed at Phasers on Stun
- I was on a panel on webcomics at EasterCon, and panels about Doctor Who villains and whether Doctor Who is racist at NineWorlds
- I co-ordinated an April Fool's Joke that J. Michael Straczynski fell for (oops)
- I did various comics blogging, including an analysis of some of the politics of Iron Man Three
- I was on a comics podcast.
- I DJed at Phasers on Stun
I think that's most of it?
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Dec. 31st, 2013 05:27 pmIn which I guest on a comics podcast, with Alex and Mog and Michael. Thanks to Seb and James and Rhys for having us.
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