I don’t normally go in for war simulators, but I’ve been playing some Black Ops III. It’s quite good. Despite that ringing endorsement, which you can read in various flavours on other sites that are qualified to write video game reviews, what I’m enjoying is the characterisations of the female version of the protagonist.  In case you don’t know, the game now allows you to be either a dude or a chick, and the script is the same.  This means that the characters appear equally strong, confidant, pro-grade people who can wage war in a dystopian future against other humans and robots and the fucking CIA. I really like this.  It’s this kind of messaging that needs to be out there — for my specifics on research, I’m playing the campaign as the female protagonist, and it works.  I am Read More …

…you hit yourself in the face with an Olympic bar doing shoulder presses. This week will have a … slightly reduced writing cadence.  I’m doing a bit of a work-related rodeo, a few speaking gigs, presentations, and other things.  It’s good timing, truth be told: as I’m doing the “big finale” in Night’s Fall, this gives me a good slice of time to re-order (or re-confirm) my thoughts and take a good sprint to the finish. On other news, I’ve been called a cunt in the nicest possible way.  Yeah, I try.  Or am trying, one of the two.

Not dying is a life priority of mine. I’ve been trying to get back into doing some exercise around the edges of work and so on.  The time available where exercise is most likely to be done is first thing — nothing can interfere with a workout if your day hasn’t really started yet.  Sure, I’d experimented with after work, and during lunchtime, and even wishing, but none of those really work — there’s always some Very Important Thing that shits all over any concerted attempt to weaponise Outlook Calendar against this. Problem is, as you get older, getting up at dawn’s crack to exercise is harder.  And harder. And harder. Whatever, that’s the kind of thing a quitter would say.  I’ve been trying some body hacks with some success.  What I did: Start getting up earlier. Inject something light Read More …

The slow decay of my physical form cannot be arrested by Earth technology. Usually this is an excellent opportunity to get some loot into my life; every birthday, I come up with a list of stuff to pad out my meagre earthly existence.  This year’s been funny though: with my recent bout of introspection and continuing evolution into intrisic vs. extrinsic rewards, I find that there’s little stuff I want.  Let’s not even get started on need. Don’t you worry.  I’ve risen to the challenge and come up with a few choice items, but what I’ve found is that the things I’m trending towards wanting are … less stuff.  The list of loot demands are trending towards things that provide experiences and nothing that looks like a consumer electronic or toy or widget. It reminds me a little of my Read More …

I’m talking about you, Destiny. Taken King came out last night.  I’m now taking methamphetamines to be able to hit my life goals: Keep my job; Write a book; Play Destiny. Working okay so far! https://youtu.be/RpDLxs8z08A Also, I like Nolan North as the new Ghost.  Nothing against Dinklage, I mean he was good too — but it’s nice when you get awesome twice.

People will lie to you. I caught up with an old work colleague and friend for a coffee yesterday.  She was in this situation where her work — where I used to work — is telling her a bunch of things.  Top of mind are: You are bad at your job, and Because of this, we’re going to demote you and pay you less money. Having worked for the very same place, and experiencing at least one of those things (constant negative feedback, which we’ll get to in a moment) and a partial on the other (due to contract, they couldn’t demote me, but they avoided raises when they were applied across rest of the team), I was a sympathetic ear.  I think I was also a useful ear, because I mentioned to her that: She is in fact good at Read More …

Ahem. You know when you’re meeting a friendly, and they ask you what has happened since April? So, that’s me. Turns out, things are kind of exciting from my end. I’m making good progress on Night’s Fall – it’s probably at about the 50% mark as of today.  And by 50%, I mean first draft, so don’t get too excited.  I know there’s a number of you — you know who you are — who keep asking me how that sequel is coming along. You might, therefore, be asking, “Richard, so.  Tell me.  Why no blog posts?”  It’s a little like this.  The new job is very exciting and has me working at a level that is rewarding, but it’s sucking free time out through my eyeballs.  Given a choice between blogging, and writing, I would rather write – it will give Read More …

Man, I don’t get why my online banking has lower requirements than the thing I would use to file medical receipts.  It’s my data, FFS, so I just dropped this in to their customer contact bin. Hi – I tried to set up my southern cross today, and got to the password page where it requires two letters and two numbers. I stopped there and won’t be continuing – you’re asking me to keep a different type of password to what I usually use, and I’d be constantly forgetting it and having to reset. Just thought you’d find the feedback useful; since it’s my data you’re holding it’s not your job to tell me security requirements as it’s my risk, and I doubt I’ll be using the service until it better suits my needs.  As it happens the password I Read More …