Buh?

-The Gneech

The other day, one of my co-workers was talking about being sent "inappropriate" picture messages via cell-phone.

Me being me, I couldn't resist following it up by ( sending a picture of my organ. )

This morning I had an 08:00 meeting at Charing Cross which is in Hammersmith, just as you would expect. I was supposed to be taking the minutes as the person (who used to be my manager before the re-arrangements) is on holiday. So I got up early and I set off early and I got the E10 bus at the right time and ran for the 140 bus which dropped me off promptly at South Harrow Station. At which point I discovered that there had been late engineering works over-running and suspending the entire branch of the Picadilly Line that I need to get to work.

I got a 140 back to where I originally got on it and caught the Central Line. I got off at Hanger Lane, forgetting that Park Royal would also be suspended. I remembered that it would and got back on the Central Line to White City where I hopped across to the new Wood Lane station (shiney new station) and went up the Hammersmith and City Line to Hammersmith. At some point I phoned a colleague to say I would be late, not realising she was on holiday. I feel very guilty about that, though she was sweet about it. Very sweet considering it was 07:30 ish at the time.

I ended up being no worse than 10 minutes late, but I was very cross... Not just with the over-running work but with myself for not having looked it up. And for not doing the most rational things once I realised my initial mistake.

So that was work.

I guess it's too late to blog about the weekend, blogs being the ephemera that they are. We pottered and cleaned the flat whilst hrafen cleaned the Harley and made it all shiney again. Did some bits in the garden. Shopped for food. Sunday my parents took us to the Osteria del Portico for a belated birthday treat and it was excellent.

On Saturday we played Hammer of the Scots. We didn't play it through. We stopped when we both realised the English were in a position where they could not possibly win. That was me playing the English. I don't think either of us really understood the game when we started. I doubt if we really understand it now but, sometimes, the only way to get to grips with a game like that is to play it through once or twice. We'll definitely be playing it again and, until I get to grips with it, I shall reserve judgement.

Howdy hi, folks. Time for another poll, and this one is for those of you who enjoy military history. The following poll consists of some of the wars I love to study (and use for story fodder). So yeah, pick your favorite!

Poll #1429765 War...
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

...What is it good for?

Once again, I wish more options were available. But hey, that's okay! Just pick which one of those you dig the best and then talk about your favorite war to read about in the comments. Or even break down your choice. For instance, many would consider the Soviet-Finnish wars to be a part of WWII, while The Hundred Years War and The Warring States Period are comprised of many individual wars and conflicts.

And sure, bring on some fictional wars, too!

Cubicle 7 Entertainment is pleased to announce that we have signed two licenses with Chaosium Inc in regards to their CALL OF CTHULHU and BASIC ROLEPLAYING game lines.

The first license covers the creation and publication of CALL OF CTHULHU adventures and supplements. The first of these is CTHULHU BRITANNICA which is released in August. This new collection of horror scenarios features five tales of horror and the weird, set within the green and pleasant land of England. Each scenario focuses upon a different time period, from the streets of Victorian London to the far future when End is almost nigh. Although each scenario can be played as part of an existing campaign, they also come with a set of pre-generated player characters, allowing all to be played and run with the minimum of effort. Our CTHULHU BRITANNICA series then continues with FOLKLORE in November. This sourcebook gives life to strange tales and strange places where myth meets mythos in Britain's darkest corners. 

Cubicle 7 have also signed a license for the BASIC ROLEPLAYING system which is being used to developed a brand new game based upon the works of a popular award-winning author which we will announcing later in the year.

“We’re delighted to be publishing material for Call of Cthulhu. One of our long-held ambitions is to contribute to this fantastic game,” said Dominic McDowall-Thomas of Cubicle 7. “We’re also very excited to be able to use the Basic Roleplaying system for our upcoming unannounced licensed game – it’s a perfect fit.”

"We've known Angus Abranson for well over a decade and long desired to work together with him on something. Now he's teamed up with Dominic, and formed Cubicle 7 Entertainment, it gives Chaosium great pleasure to award them licenses to publish supplements for Call of Cthulhu as well as BRP books. We're looking forward to a long and successful relationship and many swell Chaosium licensed books to come!" added Dustin Wright of Chaosium.

 

About Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd

Founded in 2006 Cubicle 7 Entertainment was set up by Angus Abranson and Dominic McDowall-Thomas, two gaming entrepreneurs who wanted to create a games publisher fostering some truly iconic brands. Since then the company has published role playing games from a growing list of properties including Victoriana, SLA Industries, Starblazer Adventures (based on DC Thomson’s 80’s Starblazer comic series), 7th Circle’s Chinese fantasy Qin and is releasing Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, under licensed from the BBC, in October . In June 2009 Cubicle 7 announced it had joined the Rebellion Group. You can find out more at www.cubicle7.co.uk

 

About Chaosium Inc

Chaosium Inc. is a California based publishing company best know for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game which utilizes the Basic Roleplaying System. You can find out more at www.chaosium.com

Today is Patrick Stewart's Birthday, for me he will always be Captain Jean Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D). I know that he is a man of many talents and an extremely accomplished actor however Star Trek: The Next Generation had such a huge influence on me that it is the role I will always associate him with.

With that in mind I am re-posting the 'Picard Song' video that Wil Wheaton put up on his blog:

Happy Birthday Mr Stewart

To read the rest of Wil Wheaton's entry go here.

The ENnies 2009 Award Nominations were announced yesterday and we had a bunch of UK based nominations.

The full list can be found on http://www.ennie-awards.com/nominations/nominees.asp

Team UK features the below:

BEST COVER ART
* 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars by BoxNinja

BEST INTERIOR ART
* Dark Heresy Core Rulebook by Fantasy Flight Games/Black Industries (originally Black Industries with Mike Mason et al - so I'm including it in Team UK)

BEST WRITING
* The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Magnum Opus Press
* Hot War by Contested Ground Studios

BEST PRODUCTION VALUES
* Dark Heresy Core Rulebook by Fantasy Flight Games/Black Industries

BEST RULES
* Dark Heresy Core Rulebook by Fantasy Flight Games/Black Industries
* Starblazer Adventures by Cubicle 7 Entertainment

BEST ADVENTURE
* Dark Heresy: Purge The Unclean by Fantasy Flight Games/Black Industries

BEST MONSTER OR ADVERSARY
* Dark Heresy: Creature Anathema by Fantasy Flight Games

BEST SETTING
* Hot War by Contested Ground Studios
* Slipstream by Triple Ace Games/Studio 2 Publishing

BEST SUPPLEMENT
* Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods by Fantasy Flight Games

BEST GAME
* Dark Heresy Core Rulebook by Fantasy Flight Games/Black Industries
* Starblazer Adventures by Cubicle 7 Entertainment

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
* Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods by Fantasy Flight Games
* Starblazer Adventures by Cubicle 7 Entertainment

The Fan Nominations for Best Publisher are currently open until the end of the week but a number of UK Publishers have already been nominated.

Congrats to all and fingers crossed for a number of Team UK Wins!

Friday we went to a Madison Mallards game at the invite of Webstix (darkshiver has done some freelance work for them).

This was my first Mallards game and it was a lot of fun. It was great to see a local team with a lot of fans and community support. I'm pretty we will be back to the park soon enough.

To start, my grandfather was in the Air Force, and garchangel was in the Air Force. As such, most of my experience of the US military comes from that area. And while I don't have any interest in discussing the pros and cons of the US military or the Air Force, it did mean that my ears perked up a bit when I heard about this about a year ago: an Air Force Blog Assessment flowchart.

( Air Force Blog Assessment )

I really liked it, so I printed it out and hung it in my office at work. And I have to tell you, this thing has saved my ass more times than I can count anymore. It has really helped me to prioritize Internet responses.

See, last night we had an impromptu (but very nice) evening hanging out with an old friend of mine, Lisa. (Like, one of the few people who has known me for more than a decade that I still talk to.) She was lamenting about how she keeps getting dragged into stupid Internet fights because, like me, it's sometimes hard to not respond to utterly stupid comments and allegations. As my job has increased my exposure on the Internet, I was finding it hard to stay productive and focus on fans who had legitimate questions over fans who just wanted to throw a fit and make a scene.

And that chart has worked for me, every time.

As I start to compose a response and I'm finding that I'm getting angry, I look at the chart. Is this a troll dedicated to bashing others, or a rager who is just ranting and angry? Then don't engage. Is this person misguided? Then fix the facts. Is this person an unhappy customer (which could also be an unhappy reader or an unhappy friend)? Then rectify the situation, or explain what you can do if the situation can't be fixed.

While I can get into an Internet scrap with the best of them (and I've certainly been in my fair share), I'm really at a point in my life where I'd rather dedicate my time to talking to awesome people instead of fighting with lame people.

So, a much-delayed new entry to the Eddy Owner's Manual: I'm okay with arguing, and I'm okay with disagreeing, but being an asshole is the best way to end the conversation.

(Caveat: If I'm being an asshole, obviously the argument will continue until I stop being an asshole. Yeah, it's not fair, and I'm trying to be better about not being an asshole at all, but sometimes I get angry and stubborn. Usually I feel like shit afterwards and will apologize a lot, though. I will be the first to admit that I am a flawed and angry creature.)

http://jonnynexus.com/2009/07/14/now-thats-a-response/

http://jonnynexus.com/?p=269

Yesterday, the blogo-twittersphere was buzzing with the news that Dr Denis Walsh, associate professor in midwifery at Nottingham University, had written a piece in Evidence Based Midwifery in which he stated his belief that pain in childbirth is a good thing, and something that women should not attempt to avoid through such pain-killing methods as epidurals.

A large number of women want to avoid pain. Some just don’t fancy the pain [of childbirth]. More women should be prepared to withstand pain. Pain in labour is a purposeful, useful thing, which has quite a number of benefits, such as preparing a mother for the responsibility of nurturing a newborn baby.

Over recent decades there has been a loss of ‘rites of passage’ meaning to childbirth, so that pain and stress are viewed negatively.

Full Observer Article…

As you can imagine, this caused something of a stir among many people, many of whom - unlike the rather male Mister Walsh actually had some experience in doing something which was like, as one of them put it, “Sh*tting a melon”. (That latter quote came from a comment to Marie Phillips’s excellent post on the subject, Strictly Come Birthing. I’ve read other commentators wonder if perhaps Doctor Walsh believes that husbands should be repeatedly kicked in the nuts while their wife is in labour, in order that they too might be prepared for the responsibility of nurturing a child.

And it was in another comment on that same post that I found a link to a brilliant comeback article by The Daily Mash, entitled: “WOMEN TO FORCE HAT-STAND INTO ANUS OF MALE MIDWIFE”

THE senior male midwife who criticised child-birth painkillers will today have a hat-stand forced into his anus, women have promised.

Dr Denis Walsh will be dragged from his office and taken to a paddling pool in the car park where three strong women will hold him down while another two take a seven-foot, solid pine hat-stand with six large curved coat hooks and put it in him.

Emma Bradford, a pregnant lady from Peterborough, said: “No painkillers, no epidurals, we want him to be able to bond with the hat-stand.”

Rest of article…

Somewhere in his piece, I think Doctor Walsh might have half a point. But I think he chose the wrong words with which to express it, and frankly, I think he’s the wrong gender to be the messenger.

I was waiting to see when swine flu would turn up at my work... this is from an email I got just now...

Now that we have our first confirmed cases of swine flu on campus, the Major Incident Team has been mobilised. It is however important that we all follow Government and NHS advice during the coming weeks and months.

The Major Incident Team has been mobilised! That sounds so doomy! :D :D But perhaps slightly more worryingly, the swine flu is in a building only about 300 hundred yards from where I am right now! :O

Perhaps I should try to catch it now before it mutates into something super wonky :)

As Chejop Kejak became Ketchup Carjack, so has Tepet Ejava become Tepid Coffee. I am amused.

http://jonnynexus.com/2009/07/14/incoming/

http://jonnynexus.com/?p=264

4Paws was very cute last night. It was one of those moments that I guess makes owning a dog so special.

She’s always pretty happy to see me when I arrive home, but when I arrived home last night she’d apparently been having a nap, and was thus even more excited and energetic than usual. (Border Collies, seven-month old puppies especially, have a lot of energy - this was after being walked for a good few hours that day). After bouncing into me, into Jules, back into me, and then spending several seconds running round in circles on the sofa, she suddenly sprinted across the lounge, out the door and into the passageway, out of sight.

Jules (who was sitting at one end of the sofa) and I (who was sitting in front of the sofa) looked at each other, each thinking, “Where’s she off to?” Then, from the far end of the passage, we heard the sound of scrabbling paws on carpet as she presumably executed a one-eighty at high speed. There was another second or so of silence before she burst back through the open doorway and launched herself at us with a manic look on her face. I think Jules ducked one way and I certainly ducked the other, allowing her to sail through the space between us and crash into the back of the sofa. She bounced off, made a couple more manic laps of the sofa, then sprinted back out the doorway again.

She repeated that five or six times, with us throwing ourselves clear each time; on about the fourth time she hit the back of the sofa so hard and high that she nearly bounced over the back into the gap behind.

I think she was pleased to see me.

My bus didn't turn up so I am at home still! Fail! Oh well, time to go and see if the next one arrives... Am supposed to be on reception today, I think I will be getting a lot of bad writing done as I can't do much actual work on that computer!

Gstreamer hates me! It turns out I had rhythmbox on my computer, but it seems to have some sort of gstreamer fail, which is also why the stuff I was poking yesterday would not work. In fact anything that is even remotely related to playing music hates me, except You Tube which so doesn't count :) I am evidently not intelligent enough to understand anything that has this many plugins... *sad face* I know you can download the plugins in nice little collected together groups, but trying to figure out what to do about the seemingly non-existent dependencies for some of them breaks my head. *stupid face*

Bah! I'm going to go and blow some stuff up instead :D

Vance would like you to know the following... So pay attention!



Vikings are cool. Plunder is awesome.



See? Tacos make the best plunder.



THE TACO BECKONS.


And yes, he can say "Daddy! The taco! It beckons!!!"


Enjoy your day. :)

   Something occurred to me watching Torchwood: Children of Earth last week.  In fact, a lot of things occurred to me, most of which I talked about here.
( The first is )

On the suggestion of an acquaintance (for those that know, this would be the Charles that lives across the street from Ted), I just send Al Frankin's people a message submitting myself for a staff position. I took a shot, and I hope that I get a chance now at making this happen.