Death after Dinner
I have two shout outs.

One, to which I do not have time to do justice, is Death After Dinner, a scheme set up by the deceased Gouldmeister and Sianodel, currently Wandering. If you want a murder mystery evening this is the place to go. Very, very cool. [and for the record, Chris Jack is a c*ntf*c*]

Two, this man is a genius. I love his pictures, he draws worlds I feel I know.

Very very cool.

Hasta la Vista baby. Je suis faire de la nano...
- posted by Buntifer @ 10/31/2005 08:13:00 pm

 
Das Keyboard eat your heart out
I am writing this post on a keyboard the letters, digits and symbols are invisible. And I can still type. Granted I find if I think about which key to press then my mind more often than not revolts and presses the wrong one, but the majority of the time it just gets on with it and types.

I wanted to get Das Keyboard, which looked cool, and apparently increases typing speed etc, but frankly, it cost 90 dollars, and would have to be shipped from the US, which would cost a further thirty bucks, and I might hate the thing anyway. So I decided to make my own.



Which looks a bit scraggy, and we had shit all spraypaint at work, so I was forced to go with black and silver, which, although classic, is a little boring. It does fit very well with my computer colour scheme though I guess.

And it works, well, and thus far my fingers are not complaining too much either, which is a good thing. I don't know if I will Nano on it, but to be honest it doesn't seem to be slowing me down too much, so I might well try, and that should mean that by the end of November I should be pretty shit hot.

The other amusing thing, which I am looking forward to, is having guests round who want to use the computer... hehe

Obviously, these are available, at a price. Leave me a comment if you are interested in purchasing one. [No Mum, I think Dad would be driven insane by s keyboard like this.]

Right, I should be going to work.
- posted by Buntifer @ 10/27/2005 10:33:00 am

 
6001 Hits
Over 6k hits. As I sit here listening to Gloria Estefan singing "Come on baby do the Conga" the ephemeral nature of a "hit" occurs to me. Still, it's difficult not to dance to such a stupid tune. [Not that I'm dancing. I don't dance. I'm mean, and hard.]

Six days till Nano time. I am finessing my plot and wondering how far into December I am going to have to go to complete what I have planned. I am also woindering if I should try and insert some of the Cyberpunk themes I have been reading about in "Cyberpunk and the Future of Narrative," a series of essays I am reading at the moment.

I don't think I acknowledge the Frankenstein barrier, but does that mean that I have broken it down? Surely anyone who disbelieves in the Cartesian duality of nature cannot but break down the Frankenstein Barrier. And what about future flu?

I don't think so.

Never mind. I'm sure there are themes there that other people can find. ONes my subconscious has inserted just to make me feel clever.

Must dash, sorry chaps.
- posted by Buntifer @ 10/25/2005 08:47:00 am

 
Have at you, scoundrel...
So. Returned from Manchester this weekend. A good weekend. Visited the Brunette's grandmother, who is going slightly dotty, but still remembers to ask us when our "big day" is... depends how one defines day really. The midsummer equinox is a long way off.

Romeo and Juiliet at the Rex on Saturday night with Southern Bird and her new bloke, not so good. The lighting rig was interesting, and the sound effect they had in the tomb was brilliant, but the actual play was fairly dull. Firstly, if they say "the two hours traffic of our play" then why is the damn thing three hours long. Secondly don't have a pint at the interval. Thirdly, don't have a pint at all really. It's three hours long.

The Brunette didn't like Juliet, and I didn't really like anyone, although Mercutio was ok. They start with switchblades, move on to machetes, then to rapiers, and then I'm asking myself why the police have guns at the end!? And they carry lanterns around all the way through, only to have the same police with battery powered torches at the end. Are these time police? I would give the show 5/10 which doesn't sound good, but is only just below average. They did the whole thing, unedited I think, and I was inetested to learn that both Tybalt and Mercutio are "kin" of the police chief (or does he mean kin in that they are citizens of his town, who can say?) and that Romeo's mum pops it the same night he does from a broken heart at her son being banished. Or indeed that the two fathers undertake to build gold statues of R&J - cos that makes up for it... There was something else I learnt as well, but I can't remember it.

Went for a Mongolian barbecue the day after. Expensive but nice. Then to Fab Cafe, where we met Manchester's Premier Bassist (see link at right) but missed the film.

Monday, back to Twickers. Went to see Kinky Boots [very good] and Serenity [very very good] although slightly bizarre seeing Mr Ejiofor being first, a transvestite, and then straight afterwards a sneaky government assassin.

Aah, those Monty sneaky Pythony Boys....

Back to work tomorrow, but not before visiting the Wemic.

I have glasses too. I would post a picture of me, but I would want to edit out my eyes, SAS stylee so you can't identify me in the street [Mum, I know you already know what I look like!] and that would get rid of the glasses.



These ones, despite being named after me [aha, you see the cunning - the name didn't transfer so you don't know my name.... mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ] are not the ones I will be sporting.


These ones however, are...

I should have gone to Specsavers.

Aah well...
- posted by Buntifer @ 10/18/2005 10:01:00 am

 
Yaay for the Nano....
We approach November rapidly, Metro reminding us today that there are only 80 days to go before Christmas. Yaa...BOLLOCKS! although this year I have found a kindred spirit. Gareth, from work, hates Christmas as much as I do. Thank F**k. The office is apparently a Christmas free zone...

I still have to put up with the Brunette's cheery Christmasfullness though. Aah well. It's worth it in the long run. [Putting up with the Brunette that is]

On a brighter note...November is the month of the Nano.

I have just eagerly put together my plan for the month.

I challenge myself to write 50000 words of a novel in November. **throws down glove**

"I accept!" **spits on keyboard**

[frantically tries to stop spit from buggering up keyboard before Nano]

Yes, it is the time of year where my fingers become more intimately acqainted with the whereabouts of the delete key than at any other time of year. This year they might learn how to touch type without three out of every ten letters being in the wrong order. Maybe...

My plan for last year was for about 70 thousand words, and I was cheating, because I had already written twenty thousand that had been sitting in notebooks for ages, but I figured as long as I wrote fifty thousand or more in November, that was as valid as anyone else's original fifty thousand words. I ended up with 112 thousand, 102 thousand after editing, and with various people saying I could make it longer without it suffering. I wrote 80 thousand during November.

My plan this year is for 102 thousand, of which I have around 14 thousand written already. It was a toss up between this and a story about a knee fairy, but I have decided to go with Aura. Last year it became longer because I wrote more than I thought I would for each section. It ended up forty percent longer, pretty much. So I could be looking at 140k - or maybe this year I will stick to my plan.

30 days, at 16.6 recurring words a day will yield 50k on the button. Obviously, recurring words can be a problem, unless they are "the" or "and" or "I" in a first person strand.

I'm looking forward to doing this, and this year I know someone else who will be partaking. Despite my encouragement, most of my literary friends and relatives have bowed out again. Boo on them, Yaay for Southern Bird, who is the only person I know who is foolish enough to do this.

Mind you, last year I was working a mind numbing temp job, where I could sit and daydream about what I was going to write all day, where I took hour long lunch breaks writing longhand ready to type up in the evening, and working regular nine to five hours. This year I have a job I like, which uses a modicum of my thinking space, and in which I can't really take easy breaks. It should give me more time in the morning, and less time in the evening. Plus I can't pull sickies if I am behind on words, which I could last year. The final weekend of Nano is likely to be production weekend, which means I have to be on top of everything before that, so that I don't have to stress too much at one extreme or the other.

Hmmm... It's going to be fun.

Join the madness [Don't fight it] and admire my sparkling new icon to the right. I hope they get better artwork for the winner icon this year, I wasn't a fan of it last year.

and remember... Christmas is about spending money....better get shopping!
and why did they name Jesus after a swear word anyway?
- posted by Buntifer @ 10/06/2005 06:26:00 pm

 
Death After Dinner
[must be said with a dramatic voice]

So we had the dinner and someone got murdered... by the Brunette, as it eventually transpired.

I was an East End PI, and I was very unprofessional and got absolutely bladdered, and used the c word perhaps a little too much. It was fun, but I might not have made many new friends.

I now have one of those hangovers that makes you doubt the existence of God. Only I don't believe in God to begin with, which makes it doubly bad. I start doubting the existence of everything...

It's not so much the physical pain, more the exquisite agony of realising the world is not actually the wonderful place it seemed to be after a dozen tins of crap lager...

Aah well. I think the evening went well for the murder boys, and Goulden's new house is rather good. Like Mr Kipling's cakes.
- posted by Buntifer @ 10/02/2005 06:30:00 pm