Rum And Uncanny Tune

Another hip-hop track that did nothing for me. There is probably a reason for the second part of the title but I didn’t make it all the way through to the song to find out.

As some of you know I have music playing randomly via an FM transmitter so it can be picked up by a radio anywhere in the house or garden. [look here] I own quite a bit of music and tend to forget a lot of it. Sometimes I’m surprised by what I hear.

Song Name: Don’t Watch That (Knickers, Y Fronts and Jockstraps)
Band Name: Ty

Writing Wednesday – Repeating Ideas

Writing

While writing the short stories each week for #fridayflash I’ve found myself worrying that I’m going to repeat an idea or theme. Part of this is due to the fact that I’m getting the ideas from news articles and part of it is that, as much as I try, I can’t help but want to write about issues that are slightly off the mainstream for Western readers and are also a little bit proactive.

The world is a varied place (for those of you who haven’t noticed ), and this approach should mean that I’m coming across new things to write about each week. Except this isn’t how it feels. Every time I read an item in the news that grabs me and start to plan how I can turn it into a story I worry I’m going to come out with the same thing yet again. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I have repeated myself yet, but it’s a reoccurring nightmare and you know what, there’s always another Friday just around the corner.

(I should have been posting about a revelation I had a few weeks ago, and how this finally hammered home the way to write a story people are interested in reading. Sadly life got in the way and the examples aren’t ready. If I can avoid being dragged to too many Christmas parties I should be able to show you what I mean next Wednesday.)

More from Writing Wednesdays

Backing Up Flickr

Even before I reached my teenage years I had a camera I used a lot. As I got older I moved onto a SLR and my interest in photography grew. Then, around the age of fifteen, I got bored. It wasn’t the urge to use a camera that went away it was that I stopped looking at the pictures. The albums I’d compiled (which I still have) started to gather dust, and those images I’d gone back to time after time never saw the light of day.

Flickr

This lack of interest continued for many years and then cameras started appearing on phones. All of a sudden I could take a picture wherever I was. Admittedly the lenses were poor, the flashes were shocking and therefore the quality was terrible, but none the less I could take pictures at any time. What I still didn’t have any urge to do was print them off, stick them in albums and show them to friends when they came around.

It was at about this point that I discovered Flickr. Most of my friends didn’t use the internet, but I rather liked the idea of being able to show others what I’d snapped. After thinking about it for a while I finally created an account and within a very short while I’d upgraded to a paid account. Since then I’ve continued to add images as and when I get around to it, but now I’m presented with another dilemma: should I keep a local copy?

With all my other media I make at least one back-up, and in most cases it’s three or four, yet with my photo’s they are on Flickr and nowhere else. I can’t imagine that the service is going to close down, but there could be a server crash and then all those images will be gone. I don’t look at them, so I probably shouldn’t care, but they are still a part of my life so I’m beginning to change my mind.

All I’ve got to do now is find a piece of software that pulls all the copies off Flickr and saves them on a local machine.

New Music Monday

Another act from an Idol programme, from Australia this time, and before anyone asks, no I haven’t been watching Idol from various countries, I’ve only noticed they have been involved in the show after I’ve heard their music.

Track Name: Black Box
Artist Name: Stan Walker

More from New Music Monday

Playing With VoIP

Being a lover of technology I tend to hunt down opportunities to play with new stuff and I recently got the opportunity to have a look at a Voice over IP (VoIP) install. It’s not a new technology, but something I’d never got near before, so I was eager to find out if all the fun things I’d read about were actually true. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Integration with Outlook was particularly cool, although it would be useful (and may well be possible) to have further options so that booking yourself out in your calendar picks the correct voice mail profile rather than just defaulting to the standard out of office one. (i.e. When I book a week’s holiday the phone switches to my ‘on leave’ voice message.)

Voice mail notification via email is also useful as is an organisation wide directory that can be accessed through the phone’s keypad (no more trying to remember all those extensions). Back end number mapping and the switchboard software also worked very well.

One thing I thought an obvious feature to have left out was further Outlook plug-ins. It would be very useful to open an email from someone and have a button on the screen that allowed me to ring them rather than replying (my phone does this for emails and texts). It could, of course, be available and I just didn’t see it, but given the calendar links it would seem like a basic feature to add.

Overall the system lived up to my expectations and certainly had the same cool feeling I get when someone rings me on Skype and finds I’m actually using my mobile rather than being sat at a computer. Long may technology continue to invade my life.

Lord of The Rings Online – First Thoughts

I swapped over from City of Heroes to Lord of The Rings Online (LoTRO) along with a small group of friends (eight, to be precise) and for the last few weeks I’ve been getting to know the game.

I wasn’t an entire newbie to it, having played on a fourteen day trial a year or so back. At that time I enjoyed it for the scenery and the back story (what kind of heathen doesn’t like the films and the books).

One of the things I’d always missed in City of Heroes was the lack of crafting. There is something oddly addictive about mining ore, grabbing hides or finding caches of jewels, turning them into a product and then selling it to someone else. If you don’t believe me just look at Second Life, and to prove it’s not just the geeks observe the success of farm games on Facebook.

In LoTRO the world one adventures in is still as lush and well thought out as I remember it and unlike games that have only just been released, it has masses of content.

There are certain things I could do in City of Heroes that I miss in the new game (I can’t fly and there’s no super speed ), and foremost amongst these is the way teams work. I think because super heroes have a rich history of working in large groups CoH had always made sure this was a big part of the game. The fantasy genre doesn’t concentrate on teaming as much (although given the actual Lord of The Rings story you’d think LoTRO would) and so teaming isn’t made easy.

Still, with a few work-arounds we’ve got it to do what we want, and certainly for the next six months I’ll be enjoying my few hours playtime a week in Middle Earth. After that, well, there’s Star Trek to look at, Star Wars: The Old Republic and, of course, Secret World (if that ever sees the darkness of day). One thing I will be doing is look into the teaming options more in new games, because if we all have to pick up the same God damn satchel at the bandits camp or open the same chest and take out the same items in yet another game I might just mash the keyboard with my head.

Integrated App’s on Phones

I had a conversation via text, email and Twitter to arrange meeting a friend for drinks while on a train. Neither of us made a conscious effort to use all these mediums, it just worked out that way. Being a total geek, afterwards I couldn’t help but smile about how cool it was that not only could I do all that from my phone, but it was all so easy.

Nokia E71 Smart Phone

Since finally succumbing to a smart phone I’ve noticed this type of integration more and more. It’s the same as being on a computer connected to the internet, but it’s highlighted because I don’t tend to be sat at a desk. What I want now is for the applications I use to merge even more; or more to the point, the protocols each one uses to be accessed from a single point.

A good example is Gravity [link]. I use this for Twitter but it also supports link shortening, Facebook and if I select a URL in it I get the option of copying to a SMS, email or just opening the web page. This makes recommending things to friends so much easier. I see something I like, and if a particular person isn’t on Twitter I can simply send it via a text message.

The task I tend to do the most is send people messages. Most friends use SMS, but not all bother with email (some are very very old), so when I get an email I think they might like I have to cut and paste it between various screens. What would make my life easier is if I could compose a message and when selecting the recipients pick a phone number, email address, Twitter or Facebook address to send it to. Then I could press send and the software would work out the rest.

Hopefully, as smart phones become more prolific, this will happen. Apple or Verizon will probably block it, but there are bound to be hacks and work arounds.

Rum And Uncanny Tune

There are limits to the types of music even I will listen to and this is beyond one of them.

As some of you know I have music playing randomly via an FM transmitter so it can be picked up by a radio anywhere in the house or garden. [look here] I own quite a bit of music and tend to forget a lot of it. Sometimes I’m surprised by what I hear.

This week the strangest thing was:

Song Name: Say I Yi Yi
Band Name: Ying Yang Twins

Writing Wednesday – Short Story Update

November was the month when I finally decided I should try to send some short stories to magazines. Partly it was because I have that many kicking around in various forms that it seemed silly to publish them all on my web site (besides which I’m publishing enough with the flash fiction and various other things that are to come), but mainly because even if they earn me nothing, having something in print is still seen by many as a better validation than having a few hundred readers on your web site each week.

Writing

I got seven of the stories written up as part of my word count for NaNoWriMo and while I’m not convinced they are all perfect I have decided to send them off. This won’t happen until January; maybe even a bit later.

One reason is that they need to rest and I need to gain a bit of distance from them. I have found this helps both with spotting the mistakes and also allows me to get a perspective on the story: see it from a readers view point if you will. I also need the break to read copies of the magazines I’m interested in submitting them to.

The few editors I have spoken to, and then many I have read interviews with, all recommend that writers understand what material a magazine is aiming for and whilst guidelines can help with this there is nothing better than reading a few issues. From a sales perspective (mine not theirs) this also makes sense. It’s certainly not a good idea to try marketing a product without knowing who the potential buyers are.

I’ve never been one for reading short fiction and certainly not in the form of magazines, but hopefully, what with the seasonal break and my reading regime I will be able to plough through a good selection of magazines from various genres and the new year will find me being able to keep up with all those authors I know who keep posting about the submissions and acceptances they’ve got.

More from New Music Monday

Foxes Can Be Helpful

Previously I’ve complained about the foxes digging holes in my lawns and leaving their droppings everywhere, but for once they’ve done me a favour.

A couple of weeks ago, while getting the bicycle from around the back of the house, I think I knocked off one of the clip-on reflector bands I wear. To tell the truth it could have happened anywhere around the garden, or even on the road outside the property, all I know is that later, when I reached to take it off, the thing had vanished.

I checked around the sides and back of the house, but could find nothing and after a week of I resigned myself to getting another pair. Then, a couple of mornings ago I opened the curtains in the study and there, on the back lawn, was the reflector band.

I can only presume that the foxes had found it and had their fun with it for a few days. Certainly no human was involved in getting it back to me (or at least I hope not as that would be a bit freaky) because there are teeth marks on it and it has a rather odd smell.

My on-off relationship with the foxes continues. I’ve no idea what they’ll do next (maybe I can convince them to eat the squirrels that live in the eaves of the house), but I do find myself smiling at the serendipitous nature of it all.