From The Morgue

Honest. I’ve got all these cool things I could blog about.
But I’m trying to be disciplined. I want to tick off a few crucial things from my to do list before I get back into this blogging thing.
So here’s a generic ‘things I have done since not liking Revenge of the Sith’ post.
I saw King Kapisi, which was cool.
Ran a little roleplaying game thing, which was good and intriguing and I won’t get into it because it would be a long involved thing. But I haven’t scratched this itch for over a year so it was nice to do so. (Ran it with some awesome players who I have not run things for before, for extra bonus points.)
Came home far too late two school nights in a row.
There is an exciting rumour that I might be able to go to the Pixies.
Into the final chapter of Ron. Perturbed by the things I am doing in this final chapter. Can I possibly end a novel this way? What insane logic is at work here? (I’m doing them anyway.)
Er, that’s all.
Back to ‘work’.

So after being unwell for a week with a veritable cornucopia of different symptoms, I went to the Doctor. He said “Well, it’s a virus of some kind. Keep doing what you’re doing and it’ll come right.”
I gave up my decade-plus streak of not going to the Doctor for this? I feel disappointed. I was hoping to get a syndrome named after me at least.
—
Saw Star Wars Episode 3 last night. In a word: unnecessary. In a few more words: [spoilers, mind] the first thing Anakin does after signing on to the bad guys is go and murder children? Wha huh?
In other words, I didn’t like it, and I didn’t like it way more than I didn’t like Eps 1 and 2 the day after I saw them. It was fanfic.
—
Doctor Who, meanwhile, continues to be wonderful.

Both sides in the war of information are always looking for the right key phrases to summarise their truths. If you’re aware of these tricks, you’ll likely notice the more clumsy examples of loaded terminology – the opening sentence I used, for example, is positively overloaded with subtextual premises.
A good soundbite is a key tool for spreading information. This is the world we live in, like it or not. So it pleased me when I stumbled across a nice one from the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray (who has of course been in the news of late for his criticisms of the UK’s relationship with the Uzbek regime) that expresses beautifully an analysis I agree with:
“Explain American policy in terms of freedom and democracy and you get a contradiction. Explain it in terms of oil and gas and it’s completely consistent.”
Add this one to your repertoire, people. For extra credit, learn all the arguments in support of it. (And for extra extra credit, learn the arguments *against* it…)
——-
I’m a complete mess at the moment. Took the day off today with an incredibly nasty headache, that now seems on the wane thankfully cross fingers touch wood. It’s been building for the last few days, and I haven’t really achieved much of anything since the weekend. Incapable of stringing creative thoughts together to write, for one thing. Dammit. I hope I’m recovered tomorrow. I better be, or there’ll be heck to pay!

Quickie because I am at work.
Alive and well and back in Blighty.
Have done important work of catching up on missed Doctor Who episodes. Note the none-too-subtle political subtext and decide that the Progressive movement isn’t a set of political values so much as a theory of power relations (Chomsky: “states are not moral agents”).
If you haven’t been receiving my emails about my travel experience, they can be found here.
Will return to regular blogging after I have finished writing this damn novel.

Here I am in Syria.
Nothing evil so far.
Hmm.

I should mention that I have articles in Signs & Portents issues 21 and 22.
Issue 21 has ‘Derailed’, an adventure for ‘Breakdown Control’ which was the campaign toolkit published in issue 15. It’s something I’m really quite proud of, and I’m still surprised they published it. There’s a subtext of real unpleasantness there. And it’s entirely unlike any other adventure I’ve ever seen in terms of what it has the characters do. Check it out!
Issue 22 has ‘Time Space Voyager’, basically Doctor Who the RPG but with the serial numbers filed off. Again, I’m proud of this one; I think it’s a solid and innovative piece of game design that solves one of the trickiest puzzles in the D20 system. Yay me.
Buy stuff by me.
exeunt, pursued by a bear

Just back from seeing Siobhann at the Ephelant House. Nice one, son! Happy chatter was had. I’m on a plane in a couple days! Eek! Exciting. Mum and Dad called to say hello as well, which was nice. And I got loads of writing done. I’m writing Ron longhand in these red notebook thingies, and I just came to the last page of book number 4. That’s page 720 or thereabouts. My rough estimate is 200 words a page. It’s getting exciting! And I need to walk away from it for a month to go travelling! Argh!
I have come to terms with the fact that I will not be able to vote in the UK election, despite being entitled to. I left it simply too late, and I’ll be off in the middle of nowhere until after polling day. Oh well. I don’t know who I’d vote for anyway. My hate of Tony Blair know no limit, but I’m still not quite sold on the Lib Dems. Hmm.
There is a Dalek on my desk at work that talks. It says things like ‘you will obey’. My boss gave it to me. ‘Exterminate the Doctor!”
Shout outs to: Muggle!
And to Karen and Nige for finally announcing the birth of their new dude!
And that’s all.

Right. Thursday I get on the plane to Egypt and the Middle East. Anyone interested in following my adventures on the road has two options:
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(2) Read the emails as they appear at the Topica site, here. This link is handily repeated in the sidebar under ‘Travel Stuff’.
Don’t mind me. Just pimpin’ my list.

Find it for me, my winged minions.

“You travel to New Zealand with your uncle Charlie in search of the Lost Tribe of Fiordland.”

I have travel insurance.
I have physical plane tickets in my hands already.
I have sunglasses.
I even have a sore arm from the vaccinations.
I’m going to Egypt, and then Jordan, and this is the most pre-planned I have ever been for any trip ever! Fly out on the 14th. Cool.