Planet Jedimoose

Its not that I haven’t been being creative, its just I’m not happy enough with th results to post them! I am currently frogging a blanket and have an iffy pendant waiting for fresh inspiration, but am very proud of Mira’s work and happy to show it off to you!

A lot of what she told me she was painting was snakes, I hope in the sense of their wisdom and healing symbolism and not the other stuff!

I am currently waiting for her to fall asleep for her afternoon nap which is taking a while…

But an ideal time to catch up quickly on phone calls and emails plus my ever growing to-do list - testing paint pots next! Washable whites. Thanks for dropping by! xxx Heather

Today I feel like I have recovered a bit from school after spending the last three and a half days sleeping or dozing. I hate that the house is a tip so this morning I did some long overdue cleaning and made lemonade:

The recipe is: zest and juice of a large lemon, a pound of sugar, a pint of boiling water and a 1/3 rd oz citric acid.

As we have another heatwave predicted, it seemed essential to have a batch made up - and the smell! Definitely in my top ten smells.

Mira felt her hair needed more jazzing up today.

There are two guaranteed ways to produce this face: saying no and turning off the TV. We have a week of exciting activities planned - yesterday was soft play and she actually went in the ball pool for a whole two minutes! Today is knit and natter day, and swimming later on. Bath time has now occured twice without drama and she is sitting on a toilet every morning (but not actually using it yet!).

Ben and I graduated from Invest yesterday, and I finish work this coming Friday, which will give me seven weeks before the baby is born. Bump is still apparently testing my muscle elasticity or trying to kick his or her way out early! So now it is time to get going on finishing projects and getting the house ready. Completed project 1 - Birdie Brooches from ‘The Happy Hooker’ book:

They don’t look quite the same in the picture and something weird has happened to the middle one’s head/beak.  I prefer the flowers really - and have plans to put some on a cardi for Mira that Penny helped me finish! Photos to follow soon! I am also nearly finished my shoes and doing some more on my Babette.

There are zillions of things that need doing round the house - the cushions and carpets need cleaned, the open plan living/dining/kitchen needs painted to remove all the marks that won’t wash off. I think a washable tough white is the way to go! But I’m getting over my cold, and am fed up putting house stuff off.  The bathroom also needs a bit of finishing. I hope I can get through it  - in a sensible, not-wearing-myself-out-before-the-baby fashion!

I’ve been working on a story for the Words About Whiteinch competition, which I mentioned here, and the first full draft of Whiteinch In Flight is here!

And for a first draft I’m over the moon about it!

Ruthy has already given it her seal of approval so I need to edit it a bit and take it down by about 500 words.  But I’m really chuffed.  Especially after having a really bad last few days, where I’ve been questioning my usefulness at anything.

But once it’s finished I might shave an excerpt off it and post it here.

-Alistair

Honestly it feels like there are two of them in there, and they’re constantly wrestling! I thought Mira was quite active but this is something else! I was assured at my scan there was only one…  Plus Mira is being very bouncy and doesn’t seem to understand why Mummy is a bit fragile right now, but she’s so cute we can’t wait to meet no. 2!

I’m rather forgetful now and  I can’t fight the fatigue anymore -  why bother, my body knows what it needs and the world won’t fall apart without me. The dentist can wait! I feel encouraged to ’seek peace and pursue it’ and was given this wonderful picture last week which blesses me so much in this way!

When I look at it for even a short time, I feel like the qualities of the deepest meditation wash over me and I’m transported to a realm of rest. I’m so grateful for this gift!

At the gym this morning, on the wee tellys that usually show second rate dance videos, one was showing Sky News.

The story was about the current crisis the government is going through. And had the best story title I’ve ever seen! (hence the title of the post)

I almost fell of the rowing machine I was laughing so hard.

So hard, in fact, I almost had a brown crisis of my own.

BigAl

I really have to apologise for using a post just to make a joke about a “brown crisis” but I just couldn’t help it…

Being a bit on the overweight side I’ve tried a variety of fad diets over the last few years. It’s easy to get caught up in the wonder of it all.

“Lose half your body weight in 15 mins!”

Or something…

But exercise, the only real key to successful weight loss, was always the last thing on my mind.

But not now. I’ve joined the gym. And it’s great, it’s really is. I’m trying to build up to going once every two days, somewhere around 4 days a week, and because I have a membership with the Glasgow Club I can use the Kelvin Hall which is closest to the flat and Scotstoun which is closest to my work. And Scotstoun has a cardio suite, a weights room and a pool for those days where I want something other than the treadmill or the cross-trainer.

Definitely the way forward.

BigAl

I’ve been working on part three of The Bandstand for over a week and a half now and it’s odd, at least it is to me, that the bulk of the story is progressing in a different way to how I initially imagined it.

I think it’s partly because I have no strict plan for the story and it’s direction.  I have the vaguest idea what one of the end scenes might be but beyond that it’s anyone’s guess how I get there.

And that’s a good thing, i think.

I have to say that I’m enjoying the third part much more then the second.  Perhaps I was putting myself under too much presure to finish the second while I’m suitably relaxed about the third.

Meh, who knows.

Hopefully this is going to be more exciting than the second part, or at least hinting at more exciting things to come.  And with ideas for parts four and five, I’d better crack on.

It’d be a shame to lose steam now.

- Alistair

Spoiler frenzy!

Oh, ho, ho!  It’s all catching up with Gaius Baltar.

Shelly Godfrey ( a Number Six) arrives on the Galactica with damning evidence against Baltar.

Kara is back on her feet, kind of, and as grouchy as ever.

And as Baltar begs for help, President Roslin passes out and Doc Cottle runs to her rescue.  Her cancer is running out of control.  And then Baltar is brown-nosing Gaeta to get access to the evidence.  Bad Gaius, bad!

And back on Caprica.  Poor old Helo.  I’d love for that guy to get a break.  Right now he’s dragging Caprica Boomer around unaware that she’s a toaster.

Highlights?  “No more mister nice Gaius.”  hohoho!

- Alistair

Right!

I’ve finally finished the final version of the long awaited (heh, yeah) part two of The Bandstand!

You can find it over at Cold Head Press.

- Alistair

My line manager forbade me to take any work home this weekend so I have been trying to revitalise - I have done no cooking and went to visit the Loch Lomond Quilt show yesterday. I managed two venues in an hour and a half, but Mira was getting to the noisy stage and couldn’t be bribed with gingerbread men anymore so we had to leave. It was very inspiring and so I started recycling another pair of shoes…

I had thought about this crazy lace patchwork idea before but after tramping through the heels of another pair, and failing to find anything I liked on Argyle Street yesterday, eco-friendlyness, creativity, economy and therapy once again come together in beautiful harmony! Lace from Charlotte and my stash, dyed with silk paint, applied with fabric glue, to be anchored firmly with beading. Watch this space! The ones I collaged with stamps last summer keep cracking, so I may have to find another use for them… ivy planters maybe?

Spoilers?  (I mean, who hasn’t already seen Battlestar Galactica, I ask you.)

Ooh, Cally is encouraging the Chief / Galactica Boomer canoodling.  That can’t end well.

And are Cylons on board the Galactica?  Yep, It’s a Doral (Number Five) and he’s just blown himself up!  Messy boy.  Caused three dead and thirteen injured.

They get the Master At Arms involved and tell her about the humanoid Cylons.  And she gets her independent tribunal / investigation.  Will this end well?  Let’s hope not.

But questions are asked and fingers get pointed at the Chief.

Meanwhile President Roslin holds court with the reporters in the fleet about the humanoid Cylons.

And on Caprica?  Caprica Six, a Doral and a Caprica Boomer are watching Helo closely.

Highlights?  When the kangaroo court goes badly wrong and Adama smacks the Master At Arms down.  Quality.

- Alistair

SPOILERS!?!

And they think Starbuck is alive, and by “they” I mean Adama and by “alive” i mean alive…  yeah, okay.

Head Six is seriously messing with Baltar and for good reason.  Exactly when will the Cylons return when they realise one of their patrols is missing?  Personally I’d leave Starbuck to her fate.  She’s a mouthy pain in the ass at the best of times.

And back on Caprica?  Helo and Caprica Boomer are holding tight.  Ah, lovely, lovely Helo.

Ahem.

But Cylons abound and one finds its way into the cafe where Helo is making breakfast.  Heh, a toaster alerted by a toaster.

Highlights?  Adama.  Actually anything with Adama wins for me.

- Alistair

We have had some gorgeous weather lately…

I am now in my last trimester, and really it doesn’t seem so bad compared to the sickness! Constantly trying to do less and not really succeeding. Mira is absorbing new and surprising vocabulary like a sponge  - we have chatter about antennae and Gary-the-builder and the A-Team. Today’s word was ‘alien’. We made our first necklace together and love garlicky chilli food.

Ben is tired out by all this female freneticity. But he gets lots of kisses, cuddles and tickles to cheer him up.

We came 5th! Woo!

But Turkey beat us and their song was dreadful. But then so was ours, so I should be happy with 5th place!

Norway won with their twee nonsense which is fair enough but, in my mind, Iceland should have won. They came second, which is fair enough, but their was a better song.

And then we come to Germany.

Oh, Germany, sweet Germany.

Their stage performance had, of all people, the Queen of Burlesque, Dita Von Teese! Wow! Now that WAS a performance.

But it’s over for another year, and despite thinking that Eurovision is one of the most naff things in all of God’s Creation.

BigAl

Jedimoose has been up and running for a number of years now, over a number of different webhosts, blog software, designs, etc. And, to be honest, I’m pretty happy with it. Having 2 of us blog on the same site does, in some parts, is less pressure than doing one on your own. And my portion of it is also syndicated in a couple of “planets”, which is always gratifying.

However, there are times (and this is one of them) where I wonder whether or not I would be better served by having 2 blogs. There are 2 main strands of people that read my blog - people who know me through church and/or faith-related activity (say “hi”), and people who know me through technology - mostly scotluggers and lugradians (wave, people). For the most part over the years, the latter group has probably had more interesting content to read, with a lot of people in the former scratching their heads. Even some of the interesting stuff for the former is related to the latter - things like questions over DRM and privacy which affect us all.

As has previously been talked about, things are changed relatively rapidly in my life. What, in that previous post, I described as a 3-5 year timespan looks now like it might be as little as a year, and we are beginning a process now that will see us gathering a team to start a new work in a church. I will probably have a lot to say about this (as will Heather), and so I come to the point as to whether or not Jedimoose.org is the right place for all that content.

I’ve got to admit, I’m torn for a couple of reasons. On the one-hand, where my blog is syndicated it is because it’s people who know me, and want (I hope) to hear what’s going on in my life. On the other, the 2 distinct groups of people might be better served by having the choice. Back on the first hand, Jedimoose has been my home for a long time, and I’m not sure that adding an additional site will keep the content flowing here. On the flip side, having a shiny new domain to share with Heather might be more productive and cohesive as a record of our adventure.

Thoughts welcome; suggestions of potential new domains if we decided to go down that route encouraged

mrBen

Part two of The Bandstand is getting there.

Just so you know I’m not spending ALL my time watching Battlestar Galactica…

- Alistair

Spoilers?

Ah, memories of Zac.  And an explosion in the hangar bay takes out a hundful of other pilots.  The upside is that you haven’t met any of them, so the loss is little.

And flashbacks of Kara and Lee getting it on?  Naughty, naughty.

Adama wants Kara to train a new batch.  And the last one she trained was Zac, who she passed because he was crap but they were doing the horizontal rumba.  I can’t see him being happy when he finds out…  Oh yeah, he does.  Oops.

Back on sunny Caprica, Helo and Caprica-Boomer find a fallout shelter.  Very cosy.

And President Roslin finally gets to see Dr. Cottle.

Highlights?  Dr. Cottle.  I could watch him all the time.  The crotchety old bugger.

- Alistair

SPOILER WARNING!!!  Just Like Before!

Boomer and Crashdown found a sourse of water.  But they need bodies to get to it.  So Lee Adama goes to a prison ship in the fleet to bargain work for time off their sentence.  And who do we see?  Why, it’s Apollo from the original series.  Oh, sorry.  My mistake.  It’s Tom Zarek.  But they both look remarkably similar…

Baltar continues to bullshit about his Cylon Detector.  Colonel Tigh is tucking back into his bottle and Lee, Billy and Dee fall foul of Zarek and the inmates.  Boooooooo.

- Alistair

As usual, for those who haven’t seen it yet, this is the SPOILER WARNING.

Oh, Boomer.  Why are you soaking wet and have detonators in your jacket?  And why are there many more missing from the arms locker?

And there’s Lee Adama, tortured by his memories of blowing up the possibly Cylon controlled Olympic Carrier way back in the previous episode.

President Roslin pops on board the Galactica for a pep talk and while the Virgon Express pulls alongside for water recycling, that crazy kid Boomer sneaks off for some personal time with the Chief.  And then there a big explosion in the water tanks.  Oh, Boomer you crazy kid, what did you do?

And there’s Billy and Dee, sitting in a tree, k i s s i n g.  Well not really, but Billy’s getting nowhere fast telling her how nice her hair looks.

So, Galactica is venting all it’s water on the port side tanks into space.  That can’t bee good surely?

And on Caprica Helo has fallen in with Boomer.  Oh wait, isn’t Boomer on the Galactica.  My… brain… hurts…

Episode highlights; Baltar you are quite, quite mad.

-Alistair

Let’s get this out of the way first; Battlestar Galactica (the new series) is easily one of the best science fiction series ever made.

That said, and if you haven’t already watched any of it, consider this your SPOILER WARNING.

33 is the first episode of the first season set after the mini-series and it hits its pace masterfully.  The Galactica is under attack every 33 minutes after they jump to a new location.  After about five days morale is thin on the ground and the Cylons are trying new tricks with a space ship that jumped late.

It plants a lot of the initial seeds of confrontation between the military and political factions in the fleet.  All good stuff.

And Helo is on Caprica trying to dodge the Cylons on the ground and bumps into an old friend.

High points definately include; everything with Helo, Boomer and grumpy Chief Tyrol.  Oh, and Admiral Adama.

- Alistair

• The guy in the wheelchair whose son killed himself a fortnight ago, singing ‘Blessed Be Your Name’ with all his might at church last week. Those lyrics came out of a similar choice…

• Mark Hadfield from Inverness who came out with me to interpret dreams at the weekend.  Check out http://www.underthecanopy.net/

• This quilting blog http://www.filminthefridge.com/, and this one http://oneshabbychick.typepad.com/one_shabby_chick/, and this one http://aquiltisnice.blogspot.com/

As you will know, I am a lover of symbolism and metaphor and narrative, and this weekend I am organising a free dream interpretation event on Saturday May 2nd at the Whiteinch Centre Cafe - please feel free to bring any dreams, no matter how short or simple! Drinks and yummy treats available to purchase from the cafe.

Last night laden with beer, Edgy his brother-in-law Frank, a stalwart Quo fan, and I fell upon Rockers in Glasgow, a dingy wee rock venue by The Arches under the Glasgow Central railway station.

We were on our way to being well lubed with beer by the time they came on the small stage at 11ish.  I reckon if I wasn’t already slightly drunk I would have still loved the night.

The band, if you hadn’t already guessed it from the title of the post, was called Staid As Quo, a (again, you guessed it) Status Quo tribute band.  The first time I’ve ever seen a trubute band and I have to admit that they played a blinder, only concentrating on 1976 Quo, that being the ‘Golden Age of Quo’, and by the time they finished at around 1 in the morning I was filled with 12 bar blues related joy.  Much air guitar was performed…

Next time they happen to heading though town head over and see them.  Well worth the money.  Easily better then the real thing…

- Alistair

The guys in the Whiteinch Community Centre are running a writing competition.

Guess what I’m hard at work on just now? 

More details are here on the Whiteinch Centre website.

- Alistair

…Voices return!

Yesterday concerned about the struggle, didn’t get to see The Edgemeister last night, spent some quiet time while Ruthy was out at her art class and had the sudden and exciting idea of what happens next in The Bandstand.

I love it when that happens.

However, the bummer is that I’m at work and itching to get the writing underway.  Gah!

We’ll be having dinner with mrBen and mrsHevs so I’ll have to decide whether to pull a late night or get up super early.  Ah, the agony of choice.

(Of course, it doesn’t matter if I pull a late night or not, there’s no chance of me getting up reasonably early on a Saturday…)

- Alistair

Not my voice certainly.  As usual, given half a chance, I could witter on for Blighy.

No, it’s the all important second chapter of The Bandstand.

There are three scenes, each in the first draft, as they have been for a few weeks now.  So, what’s the delay?

I’ll be buggered if i know.  A few weeks ago I recieved some news, good news mind, that has thrown hy head off balance and I’m struggling to keep thoughts straight.  The news?  That’ll have to keep, I’m afraid.  The lips are sealed until things are more certain.  Until then can I get my important work done?

Oh god, I hope so.

I don’t want this to become another of a half-dozen projects that are scattered about the desktop, eventually relegated to the ‘will it ever get done?’ pile.

The problem at the moment, other than keeping my mind on the task at hand, is dialogue.

I’ve never had a problem with dialogue in the past, usually that was my strongest work, but right now?  Nothing.

I know what I should do.  Crack on with later chapters leaving quick notes where dialogue falters and keep the pace of the story while it’s fresh in the noggin.  Lord knows that coming back to it at a later stage once the groundwork is finished would be better.

ha, now I’ve had my epiphany after weeks of hunching over words that characters aren’t saying I don’t have time to get the groundwork laid!  I’ll be out the door to the doc’s in a mo and I might have a sly hour beore The Edgemeister arrives.

Ach, I’ll head out and see that the evening brings.

- Alistair

‘This is the good shit’

- Daisy Steiner

Mastodon was recommended to me by Ruthy and, after constantly calling them Megalodon by accident, I found Crack The Skye in Fopp on Union Street for the sum of one crisp ten pound note.  After bringing it back to the Oasis Of Zin, or the study, I have to say that I’m particularly taken by it.

It’s progressive metal, have no doubt about that, but compared with other Prog Metal like Dream Theater (they being the only Prog Metal band I’ve really spent any time listening to) they have a definate 80’s metal leaning.

Certainly Crack The Skye is heavier than anything I’ve listened to in a while and it’s a welcome break to the easy world of symphonic prog that ususally gets played loud around these parts.

The album is concept album territory, enough to deter all but the hardiest of music lovers, but it’s not so obvious to the unlearned.  If you like your music loud AND inventive, you’d do a lot worse than give this a try.

DoZ Rating (your handy guide to anything and everything) : 10 out of 10

- Alistair

It’s not really a new look or a new blog, just an attempt to do the site differently.

(How differently is a whole other thing in itself.  It might just be the way I’m feeling today, in which case it’s back to the two posts a month schedule as before…)

(…but then, it might end up being a new look and/or a new blog in which case the title is very correct and the first line of the post is very not…)

I’ve realised that I’ve been drifting away from Desert Of Zin and JediMoose over the last year, possibly longer to be honest, and while I ‘like’ having a website, and have had one for a long time in various guises, what to do with it can be a bother.  A good friend of mine stopped blogging a while ago and while I agree with his sentiments there’s part of me that wants to keep things going.

And there are creative things afoot, which is terribly exciting, with chances for me to really get a few things on their way.

Of course, I’m keeping relatively shtum on the details as I’ve spent many a post saying what I’m going to be doing over the next wee while but letting “the real world” get in the way and spoil everything.

As with many things, we’ll see how it goes…

- Alistair

Too funny.

mrBen

We have had some gorgeous weather and spent loads of time outdoors, on the slide, our pink car, pushing teddy in a pram, digging a flower bed for nasturtiums and lupins, and generally running like mad and shrieking!

More birthday presents…

Well - Lent is over, and so it’s time for the Great Lent Challenge Survey.

If you took part, head on over to the survey to fill out your responses. Any problems or questions, please don’t hesitate to mail me - mrben -at- jedimoose -dot- org

I know some folks have got a bit of time left to wait on their answers or lack thereof, so I won’t be publishing the results until around the end of May.

mrBen

Joss Whedon receives the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism at Harvard University’s Memorial Church:

“Faith is something we have to embrace. Faith in God mean believing absolutely in something with no proof whatsoever. Faith in humanity means believing absolutely in something which has a huge amount of proof to the contrary. We are the true believers!”

Discuss……

My friend had a little girl recently and so I experimented with some layers and gifts I was given. The page is from a broken Bible with the genealogy of Jesus - a load of births!

I liked the layers so much I did one for Mira:

And here is her cake!

Here is the winning entry to the Spirit Blade competition:

Click for full size image

Goos wins himself a copy of the original Spirit Blade audio drama - currently available for $6 download, or $8 to buy.

Well, after 2 years of blood, sweat and tears, the new church website launched on Friday. It’s not ready, it’s not finished, but it is live.

My friend Innes put a huge amount of effort into designing the site - everything that looks pretty is down to him. Everything that looks a bit clunky is down to my implementation of his design

It’s built on (badly written) Django, and there are still loads of ideas and plans in my head on what else to implement. But hopefully it’s now a little bit better than the one-page excuse for a site that’s been up since 2007.

mrBen

Em, did I say that part one of The Bandstand would be out by the end of last weekend?  Ah, so I did.

Well, the first draft was passed by Ruthy and the layout is complete but while I work on the second part I’ve sent part one out to my Writng Buddies.  There’s nothing like a bit of a peer review before the actual release.

If, and when, they give it the thumbs up it’ll go live on the site.

Well - that’s the end of Season 1, folks. It’s been a rollercoaster ride over the last 10 months, and we really hope you’ve enjoyed it. We hope to be back later on this year with a new, improved Season 2, although the actual date is in question at the moment. Keep looking here for more news. If you’re a techie who prefers an RSS feed, then the RSS feed for news is http://www.classicyak.org/category/news/feed/.

Please do keep writing in with your ideas for Season 2 - we will be checking the email, voicemail and forums over the break.

It’s the final show of Season 01. In a surprisingly short episode, Al is reunited with James, Ben and Scott to talk about “The Cult of Celebrity”, BBC News and announce the winner of the Spirit Blade competition.

• Introduction [00:16]
• Celebrity 2 Word Tango [2:33]
• The Cult of Celebrity [4:48]
• Competition Result [29:48]
• BBC News [31:40]
  • Prophet Carpet Goes for $5.5m [31:55]
• Big Fat No Emails and Outro [34:51]
• The End [39:57]

Promo played in this episode for Two Blind Squirrels

Additional Audio Credits

• Radio Show Opening by timtube (just the applause)

Send your feedback to show@classicyak.org, post it on the forums or Bebo, or MySpace, join the Facebook group, or leave a plain old voicemail on +44 (0)845 867 6316.

It's the final show of Season 01. In a surprisingly short episode, Al is reunited with James, Ben and Scott to talk about "The Cult of Celebrity", BBC News and announce the winner of the Spirit Blade competition. Introduction [00:16] Celebrity 2 Word Tango [2:33] The Cult of Celebrity [4:48] Competition Result [29:48] BBC News [31:40] Prophet Carpet Goes for $5.5m [31:55] Big Fat No Emails and Outro [34:51] The End [39:57] Promo played in this episode for Two Blind Squirrels Additional Audio Credits Radio Show Opening by timtube (just the applause) Send your feedback to show@classicyak.org, post it on the forums or Bebo, or MySpace, join the Facebook group, or leave a plain old voicemail on +44 (0)845 867 6316.

I had been secretly dreaming about a summer coat, in a bright and brezzy shade…lime green or a strong lilac or candy pink….sky blue even. And last Thursday at work, a lovely lovely friend put an M&S giftcard in my pigeonhole saying ‘God told me to give you this, buy something for yourself’!!

So I dashed out and tried on every summer coat they had, and funnily enough the one I liked best was…

ORANGE!!!!

It looks quite red here but here is the link for the M&S page: http://www.marksandspencer.com/gp/product/B001RJDUKK/sr=1-32/qid=1236887730/ref=sr_1_32/279-5217025-4381853?ie=UTF8&node=&m=A2BO0OYVBKIQJM&keywords=&mnSBrand=core&size=60&rh=n%3A43109030&page=1

It makes me think a crochet flower scarf might be good with it, slightly like this one from last summer:

Anyway, I am very excited and happy and even a bit giddy!

I have been trying out various methods of joining my Babette squares, and the simple overcast stitch is my favourite for smooth, non-ridgy secure joins.

This is the centre panel with a new 12-round square.

I agree with the user comments on the web that suggest crocheting the 2-round squares witha smaller hook, otherwise they don’t fit! You can see where mine are supposed to go in the botton right corner…

But other than that I am so happy with the colourful sunshineyness!

I passed the final edit of The Bandstand, part one over to Ruth this evening.  She worked on the layout for the chapter and although there is one change still to make and a cover to do she has done a job that’s just blown me away.

There’s a point when you see your own work in a format done to a professional (or incredibly talented amateur) standard and it looks (to my eye at least) like something you would get from a ‘proper’ book that you get a wee bit emotional.

I certainly did.

Ahh.  You know, it feels like a weight has lifted off my chest just seeing it.

But no time to rest on laurels, on to chapter two!

Hiya, it’s been a while…

Sine the last post, way back on the 6th of March, I bounced abound saying how great it was that I passed the 50k mark with Desert Of Zin.

Whoo.

The problem is that shortly after I hit the mother of all walls and eventually felt that i’d like nothing more than to let the characters die.

That’s not good if you’re already written the sequel and you’re realtively sure that some of them are in it and alive…

So I took some time away from writing, didn’t check the blog, didn’t go to the writing group and generally retreated back into my shell for a while.  And somewhere along the way it seems to have done the trick.

Now, I’m not working on DoZ again, and won’t be for a wee while.  An extended break is definately needed from that.  But last week I found myself writing some stuff that’s set after an idea I had AGES ago.

Something called The Bandstand.

It was a story I started a few years ago and, after the first scene, edited it until I didn’t care about the rest of the story.  Looks like I’m starting to care again.

I finished the first chapter (with the original scene) last night and Ruth gave it an edit.

Tonight I’ve made a handful of changes and after a quick second pass tomorrow I’ll be looking at releasing it by the end of the weekend.

(The good thing is that I’ve got the second chapter under way and with any luck it’ll be finished for edit in good time.)

The reason I’m so hyped about this is simple.  For a good few years now I’ve bored anyone that’ll sit still long enough about how I write stories and I want to be an author and on and on…  It’s about time I actually stop talking about it and release some bloomin’ content.

I have been Mummying, Working, Crocheting, Invest-ing, Rock-ing, dreaming… Helen came to help out this morning and we went to Jurassic Jungle!

Have to go out to homework class now…

Unfortunately, the pressures of life mean that Noelinho.org is currently taking a more back-seat role in my life than I would like right now. However, there are some developments that should soon be arriving on Noelinho.org and associated websites:

• A Sassenach CMS update to include somwe nice new media such as images and video;
• Comprehensive coverage of the 2009 F1 season;
• Those long-awaited book reviews (there are almost some read and able to review!);
• A quick guide to AJAX and how to make it work (you can tell what I've been working on recently...);
• A quick guide to using Apache's mod_rewrite module;
• A brand spanking new section on... The West Wing.

Ok, so maybe that last one needs a little explaining. I mean, the West Wing is a little old now, but it does still have a cult following. And you know what, if Lost can have Lostpedia, then the West Wing badly needs something to match. It gives me something to do.

On Saturday I met Rachel John at one of the stands and she had the most amazing textiles made out of yarn combined from  ten or more strands of yarn, knitted on HUGE needles. What surprised me most was that she used yarn I previously disdained for being too fuzzy or eyelashy or glittery and made it look amazing! And the texture - so thick and soft and squishy! So I looked out all the yarn I couldn’t work out how to use before and made my own ten strand ball of eyelash, mohair, wool and cotton…

And cast on 14 stitches with my 20mm needles…

I think this is a great way of reducing waste too - I bunged in all kinds of end scraps, some from Cyndi, attempted some colour variation, but I’m still not keen on the eyelash.  Sorry eyelash yarns - never bought you, never will.

Will probably be a cushion for driving support.

I’ve had a couple of questions asked since I initiated the Great Lent Challenge - I hesitate to call them “Frequently Asked Questions” because they weren’t exactly flowing think and fast, but here we go with some answers:

1. What are you praying for? Well - apart from praying that everyone elses prayers would be answered, I’m praying for a guy I know who’s partner was recently taken ill.
2. Don’t clauses 1 and 8 contradict themselves? No. Clause 8 only requires you to invoke the name of Jesus, not to actually believe. It’s there as a control point for the end results - rather than people coming back and say that they’ve been praying to Allah or Vishna or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
3. How should I pray? It doesn’t really matter all that much. You can be as formal or informal as you like. If it helps, just make it conversational. Other people prefer something more structured, like “Jesus, please will you [insert prayer here]. Amen”. There isn’t a “magic” formula, so do what makes you feel comfortable. Avoiding blasphemy might be nice, but I find God is a lot more forgiving about that kind of thing than a lot of people

mrBen

…the beautiful New Lanark marled wool, could have bought every shade, plus Debbie Bliss soho, £6 the lot and free 20mm needles!

Mira thinks the needles are a good teething aid. They must have worked as I got a great sleep last night!

Thinking of maybe this? Can’t find the link any more - but I have the PDF.

More tomorrow!

So I am now feeling energetic enough to crochet and have already broken my no more stash vow rather badly… I thought about all the things I was going to give up this year in the way of trips and conferences, as travelling and fees would be demanding, so I bought yarn for when I’m too big to go anywhere and to comfort me and bring colour therapy… and to add to my blanket!

Th colours are a bit washed out but I have learned a lot this month: 1. I don’t like centre joins - I’m now doing them in the corners. 2. How to block - thanks Attic 24! 3. What colours work - I’m really not happy with the central 12 round and may pull it back to ten and then use it later, or crochet the last two rounds in the ivory. I also joined ravelry and got given some exciting knitting needles… more tomorrow!

Here is the original pattern:

Babette

I’m hoping to learn to be as bold and fearless with colour but I’m still a bit colour panicky…

Totally forgot to mention that I finally passed the 50k barrier on Desert Of Zin (book one)!

Quality!

Of course I celebrated the occasion by attempting to gut the sty that is my study.  Getting there but it’s a second behind the priority of writing.  Had a crazy dream last night that the book was 100k in length.  So only half way there!

Joking aside, I’m really chuffed with myself.  I’ll be even more chuffed once the damn thing is finished but 50k was a line i desperately wanted to cross and now that I have I hardly look at my word count.

That can’t be a bad thing?

Oh, on a side note, with the big clear out of the study, does anyone want to buy the a complete set of the Horrorclix base set?  And the Horrorclix Great Cthulhu?  I’d even be willing to make a trade if you had Mythos or Call of Cthulhu ccg stuff you didn’t want any more.  Hey, what can I say?  A boy has to prioritize and card games are so much easier to store… 

Inspired by a recent rewatch (or, infact, 3 watches between Christmas and now) of the Prince Caspian DVD, I decided it was time to reread the full Chronicles of Narnia. I picked up this set from an Amazon trader for only £7.13 delivered, which was a great price, I reckon. It’s a boxset with the 7 paperback books. The covers are new, but the imprint inside is identical to the set my mother had when I was small (and still has), including all the original pictures that I remember. The books have been chronologically ordered (as opposed to ordered by publication date) - if you would like to debate the best order to read in, then there are plenty of places to do that online

The first thing that really struck me as I reread these books for the first time in over 15 years, is that they’re really short. I managed to read a book a day on the train to and from work (roughly a couple of hours reading a day) and I’m not a particularly quick reader. They are obviously books aimed at children - you don’t have the depth of history or explanation that you do in, say, Tolkein - and although they do appeal to an adult audience, it would be unfair to attempt to rate them alongside books that aimed at adults. Having said that, in some ways I find the world of Narnia more vivid in places than the world of Middle Earth. I certainly found myself more attached to Narnia, for reasons that will become clear.

I found that I had remembered only bits of all the books. The LW&W is probably the most vivid in my memory, but then, it’s also the one most referenced and made into film. The other books all produced some vague memories, but nothing totally concrete for any of them. This may be, in part at least, that the sparsity of the writing (and I don’t mean that in a negative sense) allows for the wild imagination of a child to be set free, but these imaginings don’t necessarily create the same lasting impression as a written description.

One of the things that brought me back to this series is the closing music piece on Prince Caspian - “The Call”, by Regina Spektor - it’s a haunting piece of music that, I believe, really captures the sense of sadness of the Pevensies having to return to their own world, knowing that nothing there has changed, and also that 2 of them will not be returning to Narnia. This is reflected in the books, and it feels that CS Lewis felt a genuine sadness for the numbers of children who find the faith of their youth fading away as they grow older.

Faith is a definite theme within the books, and still causes a lot of controversy. JK Rowling and Phillip Pullman have both been on record as objecting to the work of CS Lewis, particularly his treatment of women generally, and Susan in particular, although I am not convinced that either author hasn’t read more into his writing than was originally there. For me, however, both as a child and now, there is some wonderful imagery for faith within these books. The creation of Narnia in A Magician’s Nephew, and the depiction of heaven as Aslan’s land, painted gloriously vivid pictures of creation and heaven that still appeal to me all these years later.

Ultimately, I tend to find that the books that impress me most are either those that surprise me, or those that leave me feeling a sadness at their ending. The Chronicles of Narnia, as a complete work, definitely fall into the latter category. If you read them as a child, I would recommend a re-read. If you didn’t, certainly read them, but suspend your disbelief as an adult and see through the eyes of a child if you can.

mrBen

I had a relatively successful writing day today.

I met the writing guys in iCafe in Gibson street this afternoon for a few hours and, although not a great deal of writing was achieved, it was good to see the others and catch up.

And make some tentative plans for Script Frenzy.

Script Frenzy?

Yeah, 30 days, 100 pages.

I’ll post more information once I have a chance to go over it and shake my head at my involvement in something new and time-absorbing…

Oh, and today’s wordcount?  1619.

OK - so I’m a few days late getting this posted, as Lent started on Wednesday, so I apologise. A couple of years ago for Lent I committed myself to posted on a daily basis. This year, I want to something of an experiment. And that is that I want to challenge everyone to pray for one thing every day for the rest of Lent, and then collate the “results”. Here are the “terms and conditions”:

1. You don’t need to believe anything. You don’t even need to believe that prayer does anything.
2. You do need to commit to praying daily for the same thing until Sunday April 12th. (If you really want, you can skip Sundays, because traditionally the 40 days of Lent don’t include the Sundays)
3. Your prayer cannot be for yourself, or for something that would profit you most. It must be for someone else.
4. Your prayer must be measurable in its result.
5. Your prayer must be “local” in its scale - for someone you know or a situation that is personal to you (bearing in mind condition 3). World peace is not an option here (maybe next year).
6. At the end of the challenge there will be a simple survey for you to fill out to collate the results. (Said survey will not reveal names or identities)
7. This is a viral challenge - post it on your blog, or on your facebook, or where ever, and challenge other people to be involved.
8. Like it or not, I am a Christian, and this is a Christian challenge, so your prayer needs to invoke the name of Jesus.

My commitment is this - whatever the results, I will definitely publish them.

Are you up for the challenge?

mrBen

In the penultimate show of Season 1, the Classic Yak team have more background music and sound effects than ever before! And inbetween that they manage to talk about Christianity at work, and put in a review of Spirit Blade, and Spirit Blade: Dark Ritual, along with all the usual news, emails and nonense.

• Introduction [02:06]
• Christianity at Work [05:03]
• Spirit Blade Review [34:52]
• BBC News [46:51]
  • 2 Sexes Sin in different ways [47:05]
  • Students do not know the Bible [48:31]
• Emails and Outro [54:26]
• Fin [57:40]

Additional Audio Credits

• Record Scratch effect by luffy
• Radio Show Opening by timtube (just the applause)
• Steady B by Trafic de Blues on the album Fin de Cavale
• Time to Funk by Trafic de Blues on the album Fin de Cavale
• Choral version of Barber’s Adagio for Strings

Send your feedback to show@classicyak.org, post it on the forums or Bebo, or MySpace, join the Facebook group, or leave a plain old voicemail on +44 (0)845 867 6316.

In the penultimate show of Season 1, the Classic Yak team have more background music and sound effects than ever before! And inbetween that they manage to talk about Christianity at work, and put in a review of Spirit Blade, and Spirit Blade: Dark Ritual, along with all the usual news, emails and nonense. Introduction [02:06] Christianity at Work [05:03] Spirit Blade Review [34:52] BBC News [46:51] 2 Sexes Sin in different ways [47:05] Students do not know the Bible [48:31] Emails and Outro [54:26] Fin [57:40] Additional Audio Credits Record Scratch effect by luffy Radio Show Opening by timtube (just the applause) Steady B by Trafic de Blues on the album Fin de Cavale Time to Funk by Trafic de Blues on the album Fin de Cavale Choral version of Barber's Adagio for Strings Send your feedback to show@classicyak.org, post it on the forums or Bebo, or MySpace, join the Facebook group, or leave a plain old voicemail on +44 (0)845 867 6316.

Looks like it might be relatively interesting. Plus, if I post the below link, I might win stuff….

mrBen

I’ve been tagged by more people than I can remember for this particular meme (not least Heather, Aq and Rob) so I thought I’d better get around to it at last.

1. I’m almost totally deaf in my left ear
2. I’ve supported Liverpool FC for over 25 years, but I’ve never been inside Anfield, and only been to Liverpool once.
3. My first ever internet domain was www.bird-in-a-cage.co.uk back in 2001
4. My first ever email address was at Uni - 9704293t@student.gla.ac.uk - can’t believe I still remember that.
5. I had photos taken with Cliff Richard on a double decker bus (as part of the press release for an event called Release The Power)
6. At birth I had severe muscular problems, and it was (I believe) questionable as to whether I would talk, let alone walk.
7. My best ever 10-pin bowling score is 128.
8. I’ve been a Linux user since 1998.
9. My Dad looks like Rowan Williams (current Archbishop of Canterbury)
10. The first car I ever owned was an orange Fiat Panda.
11. I didn’t fly or travel to another continent until after I was married.
12. Heather and I will have been married 10 years this year.
13. My wife, mother, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law are all teachers.
14. I liked all the Matrix movies.
15. I have never owned a new computer.
16. I’ve been a Christian for 23 years this Easter.
17. I’ll probably never be a best-man at a wedding. This makes me sad.
18. I co-host a podcast called Classic Yak
19. I have a Bachelor of Divinity degree - but I didn’t do honours.
20. My favourite beer is Pauwel Kwak, closely followed by Innis & Gunn and Moosehead.
21. I completed Tomb Raider 1 and 2 on the PC.
22. My first guitar was an ESP 300 series electric. My first acoustic was a 2nd hand guitar made by Hondo. (My parents let me return the guitar they had bought me, and then use all my 18th birthday cash to buy a better model)
23. The first film I ever owned was Inner Space.
24. When I was younger (and for many years), I really wanted to be a policeman.
25. I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was 8, or swim until I was 9.

mrBen

 I have used Linux regularly for about 4 years. I that time, I have, for the most part, used Ubuntu Linux, but I have on many occasions tried other flavours of Linux, including Fedora. So, how do the latest editions of Ubuntu and Fedora compare?

It is fair to say that Ubuntu generally has the edge on Fedora in my experience. I have tried Fedora Core 4 and Fedora Core 6 before, with little success, Fedora Core 4 suffered from dependency problems when installing programs, and Fedora Core 6 just wouldn't install. I also tried Fedora 9, which ran very nicely from a Live CD, but didn't install properly.

On the other hand, I have used every version of Ubuntu since the first, 4.10 (Warty Warhog). It is fair to say that I have generally been impressed with it - no installation problems at all. The early versions I used - 4.10 (Warty), 5.04 (Hoary) and 5.10 (Breezy) were solid, but unspectacular.

This changed with Dapper Drake, (6.06, LTS), the first long-term support release. It was accompanied with a much more integrated feel, and generally just worked out of the box, with few changes required. All the releases since then have carried on building upon this release, none of them being spectacular, but all solidly pushing forward. So, how would Fedora 10 and Ubuntu 8.10 fare?

The fairest test is to run a clean install of both. For both, I used a Live CD, with my desktop PC, which is a 2.8 Ghz Intel Processor with HT technology (the most over-rated technology of the last 5 years, if you ask me), 512Mb RAM and a 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6600GT. So, not slow, but not about to set the world on fire either. Hardware support shouldn't be an issue.

I tried Fedora 10 first. It booted without a problem, and quite quickly. It has quite a slick desktop, but I really wanted an installed system, so I installed the OS to the hard drive straight away. Everything was fine, and I re-booted. Now, in the past, Fedora has forgotten to add itself to the bootloader when installing, which is a fairly major error, but there were no major problems like that this time.

I selected Fedora 10 from the GRUB menu and watched as Fedora booted. It then came to a screen where I could finish the setup of my system. Error. My mouse didn't work. My keyboard didn't work. I tried using USB and PS/2, but neither worked. I was stuck.

I tried installing the whole system again (the Live CD recognises the keyboard and mouse without any problem), and booting again, but the problem re-appeared. Given my previous bad experiences with the Fedora installer, I cut my losses and gave up.

Next, I tried the Ubuntu 8.10 installer. I had previously upgraded an install from 8.04 to 8.10, but this test is for a clean install - and clean installs are generally better anyway. I booted the Live CD - no problems. I ran the installer - no problems. The graphical installer is very slick, and the partitioning tool that Ubuntu uses is very impressive - Ubuntu manages to make partioning a joy, whereas Fedora has, in my experience, made it a very complicated affair, despite using the same base package. Anyway, I answered a few questions, the whole thing installed and it asked me to reboot.

At this point, I would like to mention something. When Fedora finishes installing, it just gives you a button to press to reboot. This is fine, but it leaves the CD is the drive, and if you don't take it out, you can end up booting from CD again when you reboot. Ubuntu automatically rejects the CD from the drive, tells you to remove it from the drive and to then press the "enter" key, thus eliminating this annoyance. It's a very small matter, but it saves a lot of hassle. Big thumbs up to Ubuntu on that one.

I then rebooted and logged in. No problems. The desktop is very slick. The background wallpaper looks fabulous. I was quickly prompted to install my updates, which I always like. The user panel at the top of the screen has been integrated fantastically to enable you to lock the screen, log out and reboot with the minimum of hassle. You can even start a guest session within your own session, giving someone else access to your computer, but without giving them the ability to log you out or accidentally shut your computer down. It even saves where your music was in the middle of playing and starts playing it back instantly when you end the session to go back to your previous session.

There are many more neat touches that impress. Pidgin integrates fanastically into the user applet to set your availability status. The codec finder works wonderfully so you don't have to worry about having to download the correct codec yourself. You can even buy licenced codecs if you want.

Pulseaudio now seems to work fantastically. I can play music in Rhythmbox and watch videos in Firefox without then having to kill pulseaudio in a terminal afterwards. Olive - the GTK frontend to bzr, has now evolved into a much friendlier program. The only slight disappointment is that OpenOffice 3 isn't included by default, although it is easy enough to add. Overall, very impressive. So, what's the verdict?

Software: Ubuntu 8/10, Fedora 9/10. They have virtually identical programs, but Fedora includes OpenOffice 3, so it shades this area.

Desktop Integration: Ubuntu 9/10, Fedora 7/10. Fedora's looks good, but Ubuntu's integration of user sessions, Pidgin and hardware drivers puts it out ahead.

Speed: Ubuntu 8/10, Fedora 8/10. Both are nifty, even on a machine that's starting to struggle slightly for raw power in an age where RAM is key.

Installer: Ubuntu 10/10, Fedora 6/10. Fedora's installer is quite slow, whereas Ubuntu's is fast, asks very few questions and has the best partition editor I've seen anywhere, ever. I'd use it over proprietary software any day.

Overall: Strictly speaking, Ubuntu 35/40, Fedora 30/40. However, I think I have to disqualify Fedora and give it a big fat 0/40.

It might seem harsh, but at the end of the day, my Fedora installation isn't useable - and not for the first time. It's not like I'm using cutting edge hardware. The keyboard is a fricking Cheery Linux keyboard for goodness sake! There's clearly a problem with the Fedora installer somewhere. And yes, I know I could spend hours on the Fedora forums trying to find an answer, but I shouldn't have to - not when every other Linux distro has no such problems. Linux Format may have had Fedora 10 down as beating Ubuntu 8.10, but there's no such judgement here. Ubuntu wins an easy knockout.