Monday, 30 September, 2002
I've had a pretty good weekend, thanks for asking.
C&G had their big brand relanuch on Friday evening, which I didn't go to because Candy and I were off to Becca and Pat's for the weekend. So, as compensation for not going, I got a bottle of City & Guilds Chardonnay, some branded Guillian chocolates (the ones that are, for some bizarre reason, shaped like shells) and some little sweets in a nice little C&G branded glasses case type thing. Anyway, apparently the chardonnay was nice and I always liked those choccies. So that was good.
Saturday was a great day. It was gorgeously hot and we just sat around in the garden all day, read and played with the dogs. Louis - B&P's new puppy - is SO cute and he's also a complete terror. Full of energy and curiosity and playfulness. It's lucky that Molly (the other dog, not my dad's wife...) likes him or I think she'd have killed him by now.
The book I was reading (and still am, although I only have another 50 or so pages to go) was the utterly amazing Strange Places, Questionable People by John Simpson. What he has done is just astounding, I found my gob being regulalry smacked. He is also a very funny writer and has some wonderful phrasing (although I can't remember any of it specifically. If I get a chance, I'll come back and add an example). The life of an World Affairs Correspondent for the Beeb is not an easy one.
Came back again on Sunday, which was a total pain. There were the usual engineering works on the line, so the journey, which should have taken about 3/4 of an hour by train, took two hours by coach and then train. Sometimes I really miss having a car.
One good thing, the person who came to us with the offer of £68000 finally came back (after going thorugh £70 and 71000) with £72000. We accepted it, although it's not as much as we really hoped for. However, I spoke to Northern Rock this morning and we will owe them £1700 pounds if we cancel the mortgage early, which is rather a lot and makes me dislike the financial 'advisor' we had back then even more. This is after 6 1/2 years of owning this flat. I really feel screwed over and very annoyed by this turn of affairs. Candy and I are both convinced that this was not something we were told, because we wouldn't have accepted it. Even back then, we were fairly certain that we weren't going to be there for 7 years. I think more discussions are in order. I hate money.
Posted by stephen @ 10:08 AM GMT [Link]
Friday, 27 September, 2002
I've just been on the phone to Your Move and we have had an offer on the flat. Unfortunately, it's only for £68,000, which is kind of annoying. So, that's strike 1 really. Which is a really American term. But, what the heck!
Okay, see where it goes from here then...
Posted by stephen @ 09:10 AM GMT [Link]
Iv'e just discovered the website for Neil Gaiman's book, Coraline and it's rather wonderful. It's a marvellous use of Flash animation - possibly one of the only sites I've ever seen where Flash is a good thing rather than a constant annoyance. It has one of the most delightfully silly FAQ sections I've ever come across. Despite not knowing what Neil Gaiman sounds like - I have heard his voice on several occasions, but it hasn't stuck in the way that Alan Moore's Northamptonshire burr has - reading this sounds like him. And, even better, it's got various Dave McKean illustrations from the US edition of the book. Annoyingly enough, the UK edition didn't have them, so I may have to end up getting the US version as well. (A nice typing error crept in - since corrected - I described Coraline as 'Neil Gaiman's boon' in the first sentence. Which sounds about right, really.)
Posted by stephen @ 08:47 AM GMT [Link]
Thursday, 26 September, 2002
Today I have Aching Thighs. This is all because of yesterday's Tube strike. I went to the ICA yesterday evening to hear the "Mouse Vs The Mouse(tm)" talk, which was all well and good (and I will come back to...) but then had to get back home again. Which, really, considering the number of people at all the bus stops - even at 10pm - was going to entail walking. So, I walked from Pall Mall to Highbury. Which, although it only took an hour, was fairly strenuous. Walking in the city is, I think harder on the legs than walking in the countryside. Pavements aren't as forgiving as grass. So, I'm a bit stiff today.
The ICA thing. It was fairly interesting. It was Dave McKean, Dave Gibbons, Tharg's human envoy, Matt Smith and Tom Gauld who draws a weekly strip in Time Out, all talking about how they use computers in their work - chaired by Eddie Campbell's "Man At The Crossroads" - Paul Gravett
It was not, however, perfect. Whilst the Two Daves were really interesting in what they were saying, the other two did not seem all that prepared, which was not helped by the artwork that Matt Smith brought along was on a Mac CD Rom and the ICA only had a PC. Nor by the fact that they couldn't get the video to work to show a film by Dave McKean.
Although it was interesting, too much time was spent with the various opening talks - especially when only two of the four (McKean and Tom Gauld) had artwork to show and Paul Gravett also gave a rather long talk on comics history which seemed to be fairly tangential to the subject at hand. This meant that there was only time for three or four questions from the audience and the whole thing had to stop just as it was getting started. I did get to say something though, which I am sure made everyone very happy!
My friend and fellow Buffy enthusiast, Fiona went with me, which was really good, because I get to see her so rarely (she says that her American Buffy supplier has seen the first episode of Season 7 and it's good...), so that was a definite plus point, although I also wish that Jean had been there, because I'm sure that it would have been the starting point for hours and hours of conversation. I also wish that Scott McCloud had been there to give an alternative view to the 'computers are just a tool in the production of paper comics' one that the group had. A bit of controversy and disagreement is always good.
I got home last night to discover that my computer had been come back from it's holiday at Hewlett Packard. Which, considering it only went on Monday and I wasn't expecting it back before at least Friday was a good thing. Also arrived was the latest issues of 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine. So, hoorah and three cheers for that!
Anyway, I should probably get on with some work...
Posted by stephen @ 08:55 AM GMT [Link]
Tuesday, 24 September, 2002
I didn't write anything this weekend. If you were madly (and I mean that literally) hanging on my every word, there is a reason for this. Parents. Tch. Who'd have em? Father and The Evil Stepmother, Molly (who isn't evil at all really. She's actually quite nice.) were visiting. So, we did touristy things. Then, yesterday, I sent the computer away to Hewlett Packard to get a USB port sorted. Except almost immediately after it had gone, I discovered two more little ports that were on the keyboard... Bum. Oh well, at least it'll be fixed.
So, that means no email and no working on this from home for the next few days.
Candy also managed to do her bad ankle in again over the weekend in Hampton Court maze. She was not a happy bunny. She has it all strapped up, has got crutches for it and is having a couple of days off work. Hopefully, because it got looked at and strapped up/ice packed and she didn't walk on it, it should be okay fairly quickly. Or at least as okay as it has been. Which isn't very.
Posted by stephen @ 08:54 AM GMT [Link]
Friday, 20 September, 2002
Apparently, I'm hip. Well, sort of. According to the Boston Globe. In an article about adult authors writing for children, it describes Neil Gaiman (whose journal I got the link from) as someone "whose novels, graphic novels, and short fiction attract a hip crowd". I feel SO much more better about myself.
I had a good night last night. I went and bought good comics, then met Simon Ings (and get his books from Amazon using this link) for a drink and food. His wife, Anna Davis, also came along later and a good night was had by all. Or at least, Candy and I had a good night and I hope that Simon and Anna did.
I was actually a little apprehensive about meeting them again, because I had only met them a couple of times previously, several years ago. When I was working at Waterstone's, I arranged a gig for Simon to promote Headlong, which was a lot of fun and, if I remember correctly, really fairly successful. Subsequently, we kept in touch by email - fairly erratically, as anyone who has ever tried to keep in touch with me will be able to understand - and I was invited to a booklaunch in a little exclusive London club for Anna's book, The Dinner. The Dinner is, I think, my favourite of the three of her books, if only for the section on 'Dessert'. (You'll have to read it to understand it...) However, to drag myself back from that minor critical diversion, it felt a little strange contacting them again after so long, sort of stalking the author type stuff... But, Simon was incredibly welcoming and (eventually) we managed to get together. It actually felt like I had a social life last night. And now the stalking REALLY begins!
I've just bought a copy of Simon's In the City of the Iron Fish from Amazon, of which Simon doesn't even have any copies. It's apparently really difficult to get hold of. So that's nice. I actually forgot to tell Simon that I found one of his books - Hot Head - in a second hand bookshop in Paris. Well, if he reads this, he'll know.
Posted by stephen @ 09:06 AM GMT [Link]
Thursday, 19 September, 2002
I don't have anything to say. In fact, I actually have some work to do. But I'm just testing to see if the whole comment adding malarkey works. It should do, Roger says he has sorted the problem and he is a technical whiz, so I'm prepared to believe him. So let's find out together, shall we?
Posted by stephen @ 02:53 PM GMT [Link]
I had a thought on the way to work this morning. While the ability to add comments isn't working, if any of my faithful, dear readers should like to say anything about what I've written, then you can always add a comment to my guestbook.
Ta.
Posted by stephen @ 08:35 AM GMT [Link]
Wednesday, 18 September, 2002
One last thing before I sod off - you see, back to the random thoughts and observations already - is anyone else having trouble registering for one of these new Nectar cards?
I wouldn't bother, except for already having a Sainsbury reward card. It kind of makes sense if they're going to be phasing out the use of those for these.
Posted by stephen @ 07:25 PM GMT [Link]
As I was walking from the bus back home - the bus, by the way, is a great invention to get you from one place to the other whilst providing you with lots of time to read - I had an idea about what I can put up here. It's totally self-indulgent, but then, what's a blog if not totally self-indulgent? I'm going to start talking about the comics that I buy each week. So, if you are avid reader of this thing - and if you are, don't you have anything better to do? - you only have to put up with this once a week or so.
This is actually the stuff I bought last Thursday. Thursday being New Comics Day.
Although Marvel Comics is seen as being the innovator in comics these days, beating DC Comics hands down, I still seem to prefer DC over Marvel. I bought a lot more Marvel than I used to - especially when you consider that up until recently I hadn't bought Marvel comics on a regular basis since the mid '90s - but I still get more DC. And this week is no exception.
The Marvel's I got were both X-titles - New X-Men and X-Men Unlimited. New X-Men is written by Scottish enfant terrible (although I'm not sure that he can be considered much of an enfant any more, considering he's been writing since the 80s...) Grant Morrison and drawn by the wonderful Phil Jimenez. Once again, Morrison is getting deep into the psyche of our Merry Mutants, this time examining the effect that death has on people. In the first few issues of Grant's run on this title, he killed Magneto, seemingly permanently this time. Magneto's death was actually exceptionally low key for such a major character. If I remember correctly, it was in one panel and occurred in the midst of the mass destruction of the mutant kingdom of Genosha, which Maggie ruled. In this issue we get to see more of the aftermath of this, with the X-Men exploring the ruined island and discovering that Magneto seems to be making the leap from mutant terrorist/freedom fighter to an object of worship.
Interestingly (or maybe not...) this issue also reintroduces the Toad - the first time I can remember seeing him in a comic since the X-Men film - and he has been revamped. No longer is he the fat, sad fool that he always has been. Now he is the 'cool' Ray Park character from the film, complete with long sticky tongue.
X-Men Unlimited focussed on Kitty Pryde - who has long been my favourite X-Character - a year after the death of her beloved Peter 'Colossus' Rasputin. It's a nice, low key issue which focusses on her Jewishness and also on grief and mourning. Mind you, should a comic which is so heavily influenced by the Jewish faith really have someone lettering it who is called 'Randy Gentile'?
Grant's other title this week was issue 4 of The Filth. I still can't work out if I am really enjoying this one or not. I mean, it's pretty good and, once again the artwork (courtesy of Chris Weston - Grant really does get some bloody good artists) is amazing. But I'm just not really getting it yet. I'm not going to stop getting it, because I have faith in Grant. I suspect it will read better once I have all 13 issues and read it one go. But, at the moment, a lot of it seems like weirdness for weirdness's sake.
A welcome return this week for Linda Medley's Castle Waiting. It's one of those little indies that come out fairly irregularly (although none are as irregular as Strangehaven. And I'm STILL waiting for issue 3 of Big Numbers...) but is always a joy when it does. It's tells the story of the inhabitants of the eponymous castlem whilst playing with the concepts of myth and fairy tale. It's gentle, funny and whimsica and you really feel for the characters. Simply wonderful.
One of the things that DC does to get more of my hard-earned cash, is to release Secret Files and Origins books that are connected with the ongoing titles. I know I don't have to buy them, but I'm a sad, anal git who feels the need to get everything. Although I have managed to curb it so I buy stuff only if it's written by people I like. However, the SF&O books tend to be written in the main by the writers of the ongoing comic, so, if I like the comic then I'm probably going to like the SF&O issues. Catwoman and Hawkman are no exception. Damn.
Tom Strong's Terrific Tales is probably the weakest Alan Moore comic going at the moment, I like it - hell, even not very good Alan Moore is still some of the best writing going - but they don't excite me in the way that a new issue of Top Ten did or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen do. Nor is it as funny as his work on DR & Quinch or some of the classic 2000AD Future Shocks he wrote (Chronocops in particular comes to mind). But any week that an Alan Moore arrives is a cause for happiness. I just wish he'd hurry up with the the new Top Ten stuff. Or Big Numbers #3...
Powers is Brian Michael Bendis's best title. I really like all the rest of the ones he writes (with the exception of Elektra, where I just couldn't get past Chuck Austen's artwork), but this is the one that I really enjoy. It's pretty much unique. A perfect mix of superheroes and dark detective fiction. With swearing. What more can you ask for? And once again, it has wonderful artwork. It seems like we are really in a good comics phase at the moment. Wonderful writing backed up with wonderful artwork. Or vice versa, depending on how you look. It does beg the question, though, what exactly is Mark Millar doing teaming up with Rob Liefeld?
This is getting very long, so I'll just skim through the other good stuff this week - Planetary/JLA by Warren Ellis and Jerry Ordway. Most of these crossover things don't work, but this one does, basically by completely re-imagining the whole thing and just dumping you into the middle of it, without having any tedious ideas about sticking to continuity. This is the good thing about these 'Elseworlds' titles that DC does. When they get someone good to do them, they are brilliant, offering a very nice interpretation of events and characters. Of course, it's so rare that they do manage to get anyone decent. I refer you to Sturgeon's Law.
Amelia Rules is one of the best 'all ages' comics out there. It sits well with Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts in presenting a childs eye view of the world. And it's really funny.
Hopeless Savages. It's an Oni Press title, who have, as far as I am concerned, become what Fantagraphics should be. Intelligent indie that's worth reading and not stuck up it's own arse. And doesn't have to rely on porn to keep the company going. H.S. is basically punk music in comics form. And has, in the Hopeless Savage family, one of the most realistic comic book families going. It certainly blows Strangers In Paradise out of the window when it comes to realistic relationships!
Finally (phew! I here you say...), is Fables. I'm not 100% sure about this one. I really like writer Bill Willingham, but I'm not sure if he is a good enough writer to pull off what he's attempting here - an updating of fairy tales. He's tried it before, most notably in Coventry, although there it only lasted 3 issues, so we didn't get to see what he could do. I've never read anything of his over a long period before, so we'll see how it goes. Vertigo are hoping that this will be the replacement for Sandman, Preacher and Transmet, but I'm a bit dubious. Once again, it's a case of wait and see.
We now return you to our usual programme of random thoughts and dubious insights.
(edited on 19/09 to get rid of clunky writing and add yet more URL's.)
Posted by stephen @ 07:04 PM GMT [Link]
I've just been on the phone with my mom, who is off on holiday tomorrow. Lucky her. She is the person who is pretty much organising the sale of the flat, for which I am eternally grateful. She's actually gone above and beyond the call of duty in the last couple of years with everything she's done for Candy and I while we've been away from Newcastle, what with organising new tenants and being their point of contact for problems and things. She's great my mom...
Anyway, she says that one guy has been to see the flat twice so far and is very, very interested. This is a good thing. What can I say? The man has good taste.
Posted by stephen @ 03:46 PM GMT [Link]
I've just checked and the flat is now up at the Your Move website although to look at all the details you need to register, which is a bit of a pain. I assume that I could have probably looked at it some other way, but it just seems like too much hassle, really.
Anyway, it looks good.
Posted by stephen @ 12:09 PM GMT [Link]
After yesterday's Corporate Training Day when I was well-branded and turned into an official C&G Corporate Wage Slave (tm), I'm back in the office and, once again, with not a lot to do.
It turns out, though, that this is okay. I spoke to Helen, who is the head of my little group of people and she says not to worry, that not having anything to do is to be expected when you first start. And she gave me some of her work. That'll teach me...
This is a good thing, really. I was having visions of having my lack of work brought severely to my notice and it causing difficulties. But, now that I have some reassurance, I can relax a little and surf without worry. I may even do some writing here. I may as well.
I'm wearing, for the first time, the Indian/Oriental type shirt that I got when I was in Paris. I like it a lot, but it feels a little strange because it's sort of a Nehru-jacket style with a high collar. I'm also not used to wearing something that's patterned this way, especially when I'm not wearing a skirt. It looks really good though. Even if I do say so myself...
Posted by stephen @ 10:33 AM GMT [Link]
Monday, 16 September, 2002
Now that I have my tickets for it, I can safely put it up here. Because I'm vain enough to think that my putting anything up here will mean that thousnads of people will see it.
Anyway, it's a link to information about a talk at the ICA called The Mouse(TM) vs The Mouse.
I've also bought a DVD of O Brother Where Art Thou from Borders who are selling it for a tenner, as well as the latest issue of SFX - which told me about the deadness of the Buffy Animated series and the proposed BBC Giles spin-off series. I'm not doing very well with TV Series' at the moment am I? Still, Firefly has just started in the States, so we'll see how that fares. Maybe it'll be able to cover both Farscape and Buffy. We can only hope...
(18/09 - Edited the link for O Brother to link it Amazon using my Associate thingy. Buy using this and give me cash!)
Posted by stephen @ 07:16 PM GMT [Link]
Jean has just sent me a link for a wonderful little Poem.
Thanks Jean!
Posted by stephen @ 02:24 PM GMT [Link]
It's Monday morning and the Boomtown Rats are rattling around in my head. Actually, that's being slightly creative with the truth AKA a lie. But the song that has been running through my head seemingly constantly for the last week - Common People by Pulp - doesn't have the same ring to it for a Monday morning.
My rhinitis induced nose has calmed down and pretty much stopped dripping now, although it feels a little tender and is a colour that is similar to my shirt today. A sort of washed-out pinky-red. However, I feel a lot better today than I did yesterday.
The flat in Heaton should be going on the Estate Agents website some time today. There may have been people to view it over the weekend, but I don't know because I didn't speak to my mother yesterday. Which is only a small oversight, really. If anything had happened, I'm sure I'd have heard. Anyway, the URL is here if your interested. Although that only takes you to the front page and you have to go through the whole website if you want to see it. And, as it'll come down when I get the thing sold or we decide that we don't actually want to sell it or something, it's probably a fairly pointless exercise. Anyhow, if you do want to see it, click on Property Search, choose the Durham, Northumberland and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne area, the Heaton branch, the Heaton area and search using the defaults that come up. That seems a lot of hassle, really. Especially as it's not there yet. But, we'll see. Someone'll offer me lots of cash for it...
Posted by stephen @ 09:11 AM GMT [Link]
Sunday, 15 September, 2002
I'm back from the wilds of beyond (Nr. Saffron Walden) and I have a horrible cold. It's my rhinitis setting in again and it really pisses me off. Just a constantly dripping nose and constant sniffing that I'm convinced makes everyone around me feel sick.
Having said that, I had a nice relaxed day yesterday. We went to Mountfitchet Castle yesterday. It's a recreated Anglo-Saxon mott and bailey village/castle type thing, which was really rather interesting. It's also got incredibly tame animals - sheep, goats, deer, ducks, hens, geese and peacocks - that follow you around demanding food from you. There's a toy museum thing attached to it that wasn't quite as interesting but still had it's requisite amount of "I had one of those" from all concerned.
One of the things that's been on my mind this week has been the imminent death of Farscape. I found out about this from reading Neil Gaiman's Journal and with updates from Caitlin Kiernan's Low Red Moon Journal and nebari.net. As this is one of my favourite TV shows - after Buffy and Angel, of course - I'm a little unhappy about the turn of affairs. Fortunately, positive things seem to be happening, although there is nothing definite yet. However, I'm hopeful. We'll see how it goes really.
Anyway, off to Skip's place now for lunch with Jean and Roger. And Skip, of course.
Stephen.
Posted by stephen @ 12:06 PM GMT [Link]
Friday, 13 September, 2002
I've actually had work to do today, which took me from 8.30 this morning through to now - 2.40 in the afternoon. With, of course, the obligatory hour for lunch. But, I've pretty much finished everything now. I've got a couple of phone calls to make, but that's basically it. And it's a Friday afternoon, so I can't REALLY be expected to do any work, can I?
(Just a side thought. This time two weeks ago, I'd have only be at work in Borders for 10 minutes or so, still in the Shift Meeting and looking at not finishing until 11pm. I think I love the job here at City and Guilds .)
Anyway, I'm just reading comic book writer Mark (Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates, Authority etc.) Millar's weekly column at Comic Book Resources (which I'm not going to tag as an URL because you can get to the home page from Millar's column. Anyway, he came up with this bon mot which I thought I'd share. Hence, we come up to the reason for this little note.
"Post-Clinton, we might be plummeting towards recession, a third world war and totalitarianism as Bush and Cheney tear up the American constitution, but at least BATMAN looks like it's going to be good again."
I know it's not much, but it kind of tickled me and at least gives me a reason to be cheerful in the face of fairly definite approaching war.
On that cheery thought...
Posted by stephen @ 02:54 PM GMT [Link]
Thursday, 12 September, 2002
I've written and I've databased, so I'm happy with myself this evening. I wrote about 550 words, which is not bad going really. I haven't actually got to the not-funeral yet, but I'm 550 words closer to it. Which is 550 words closer to the end! I also added about 50 or so comics to the database. Still a long way to go for this one as well. But, it's all good, clean fun and means I get to look at comics I enjoyed once upon a time and say "What the hell did I buy this for?". Actually, I've been going through Justice League Europe's this evening and I liked them then and I still like them now.
But it's time for bed and to read new comics.
Posted by stephen @ 11:01 PM GMT [Link]
I've just added the link to my webpage - but just remembered that I need to update the 'Last updated' date - to get here. So, that's exciting. I've done a lot more on my webpage in the last week than I've done in ages, which is nice, because it was always sort of niggling away that it was so woefully out of date. Most of what I've done is sort of behind the scenes, tidying up the way it's stored rather than anything that can actually be seen, but it gives me a sense of well-being and a feeling of having actually done something.
Now, I just need to get some 'real' writing done. Which is what I'm going to do once I've finished this. If I remember, I'll come back here and post how much I did. I've got Mozart's Requiem playing on the CD Player as mood music, because I'm going to write a funeral bit. Except it's not really a funeral. I'd explain more, but I'm not going to. Anyway, back later.
One last thing - the ability for my miriad of readers to add comments to this is currently turned off due to some sort of problem that I haven't got the foggiest about. Hopefully, when Roger gets back to Durham from London - he's down here for Jean's mother - Skip's - birthday - on Monday, he'll be able to sort it out. Not that I imagine there'll be much call for it between now and then. After all, the only people who know this exists at the moment or Jean and Roger. And they aren't around to comment. So that's okay, then.
Posted by stephen @ 08:29 PM GMT [Link]
Okay, this is the first entry. I don't yet have this connected from the home page and I'm not going to get anything else written today, because I've got a moderating meeting all day. It's for a course in 'Modern Cabinet Making'. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? It's not even one of the courses I actually have anything to do with, it's run by my my colleague, Roger, but I'm going along as a useful and vital part of my training. And because I've got nothing to do on my own stuff. The only drawback to doing it is that I have to do the whole smart suit and tie thing. Why is it that women canget away with a t-shirt under a jacket and skirt and men have to put this stupid bit of material around their necks to look smart? I mean, is it any wonder that I like wearing women's clothes if this is what men have to put up with???
Posted by stephen @ 08:50 AM GMT [Link]
