I started a new (short) series of a playthrough of the CLASSIC 1992 RPG/strategy game Dune, based on the book (and heavily influenced by David Lynch’s movie). It’s an AWESOME game. And also if you search “the spice must flow” on YouTube I’m number 18. (My most successful tag to date is “you have died of dysentery” where I’ve reached the Dizzying Heights of number 4 for this vid.)
My attempt to finish Skyrim continues with a trip to the Thalmor Embassy in the sixth ep of my Let’s Play Skyrim.
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I am sleeping so badly this week. And I know part of it’s down to ridic anxiety with the world at large. Not even mental health related anxiety, since I really don’t think it’s irrational to be anxious given the daily news of what’s going on. As my dear friend Deb Stanish put it on the Twitters “… And yes, it’s a cliche, but it’s the biggest truth I know: Be a light in the darkness. So have a piece of #%@&^ pie.” I assume she means fucking pie and not shit pie, cause no-one wants shit pie. And also the pie is pecan or cherry or even apple and not bloody pumpkin pie, the monster of pies. Not the good sort of monster. The bad sort. ANYWAY, in that spirit, I’m going to try and do a regular blog post on Fridays of Yayful Things I’ve done or seen during the previous week.
1) My YouTube gaming channel – I started making gaming vids. For it is most yayful and fun and I love talking about gaming but don’t really get a chance to do it all that much. My gaming friends are people what I game with and only game with, and that’s less about gaming chat and more about loot and killing stuff to get more loot. So, yes, this is me nattering away as I play some games. At the moment it’s a playthrough of Skyrim Special Edition, Dota 2 games where I’m trying to improve (I suck, but so much less than I used to; I now feel merely medicorely bad rather than stupendously bad), and classic DOS games from my childhood (also taking requests!). Please do take a look and subscribe if that’s your sort of thing!
2) Verity! talks animated Power of the Daleks – This week’s Verity! is a discussion of the brand new Power animation, and it was awesomely fun, and gosh, I bloody love Power of the Daleks. It’s such a good story. Top quality Who, and I hope more people get the chance to enjoy it now as the animated version is vastly more accessible than the audio or the recon.
3) Michelle Yeoh is a new Trek captain – So, despite not being a Trek fan, ahem, I am quite looking forward to the new Trek show. I’m not sold on the new movies, and having grown up in the Golden Age of Star Trek, I really miss having it on the telly. And the first bit of casting news out of the box is AMAZING. Michelle Yeoh. And then it turns out she’s playing a captain in the new show. I’ve also read that the star isn’t the captain this time but another character (who’s also a woman) which is fine. I care not. Michelle Yeoh. Who is AMAZING. Who is far, far better than we deserve tbh, and she’s going to be there, captaining. And don’t forget female captains are still relatively rare in the Trekverse. There’s only ever been a handful onscreen. And this is sufficiently good casting news that no matter what other nonsense comes out before we get to see the actual show, I am going to be totally rooting for it. Michelle Yeoh, people.
4) Margaret Hamilton, she who led the team that coded the software that got Apollo 11 to the Moon, has been awarded the USA’s Presidential Medal of Freedon.
5) This picture (it’s actually a few weeks old, but it is my favourite one I’ve taken of my local loch…those are starlings, I *think*):
Despite it being actually freezing, I’m still going out running. Yesterday the loch was frozen over, and the poor local birdlife seemed rather put out at their home being suddenly solid. Also robins have arrived! From somewhere! I hadn’t seen any until this week, and now it’s impossible not to spot a few every day. If pretty rural Scottish scenery and swans, so many swans, are your thing, that’s what my Instagram is entirely composed of.
6) We’ve recorded new Down and Safe! So if you’re missing your fix of tasteful Blake’s 7 commentary a new episode will be with you this Thursday coming.
7) My sister, niece and nephew are doing a Jingle Jog for Parkinson’s UK. Nephew is but a year old so Quite The Challenge for him, but I’ve been assured he will be walking the whole way. If you can spare a pound or two for a good cause, please do consider sponsoring her.
8) There’s been a stupendous archeological discovery in Egypt, a new city! Over 5000 years old! Amazing stuff.
9) Though not QUITE as amazing as the NASA report released about the electromagnetic propulsion drive, which could be capable of taking us to Mars within 70 days. To sum up “it works, but it shouldn’t”. Which is awesome. And totally not giving me Event Horizon vibes. If I was in charge of stuff, we would be building a GIANT ONE anyway, and seeing what happens. Nothing could possibly go wrong. Probably.
10) I’m trying to talk myself out of buying this even though it would clearly be a very sensible practical purchase.
Ten is a very good round number. I shall stop there, and wish ye all a happy weekend!
Farewell!
As we all know from, um, watching movies and stuff, timeliness is for losers. Thus, despite being released on International Women’s Day, it’s only now that I write this blog post on the ridiculously gorgeous anthology Cranky Ladies of History edited by Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely, in which I have a story, ‘Little Battles’, concerning a kidnapping incident towards the end of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s epic life.
If you can tear your eyes away from the cover (it’s even better in person; I keep stroking the pretty art and cooing at it in a totally normal and sensible way), within you’ll find over twenty stories concerning various historical peoples who challenged the conventional attitudes of their societies, written by all sorts of exciting writers including Kirstyn McDermott, Garth Nix, and Nisi Shawl.
There’s a smashing Big Idea post Tansy and Tehani have up on Scalzi’s blog, which explains rather well the instant “omg, yes” feeling so many people got about this book’s concept. Personally, I was Quite Intrigued at the words “cranky ladies” but then when you add “of history” it’s an instant yes.
Over on Fablecroft, you can read about some of the cranky ladies featured in the anthology under the cranky ladies of history tag, and see the launch report, which I would totally love to have attended, if it weren’t for all those thousands of miles getting in the way, dammit.
The anthology is available direct from Fablecroft, and at Amazon.
Lovely things from elsewhere
– This week’s Verity! podcast concerns the new Doctor Who comics from Titan, and there’s some sort of giveaway we;re having where you can win a $25 gift certificate for Comixology. Free comics!
– And I’ve been so neglectful of blogging this week, there’s also last week’s Verity! where they’re discussing the more intellectual companions. I haven’t listened yet, but I can only assume they’ve all come to the sensible conclusion that Liz Shaw and Romana are best, after Babs, obviously.
– I just got back into Skyrim a few days ago, and have been busy updating my mods (chicken follower!). And this came up on my Twitter feed today: a touching Skyrim mod memorial for a player who’s passed away.
This should really be a post about Nine Worlds and/or Worldcon. It’s not. It’s a post about Posh Mudcrabs. Currently, my game of choice is Star Wars The Old Republic, which I love and adore and is letting me decorate houses at the moment, so I’m spending a lot of time killing Jedi, looting their monies, and spending it on potplants.
But this mod for Skyrim has come Dangerously Close to tempting me back to Tamriel. Look at them! They’re mud crabs! And they have MONOCLES!
