At 8.30am on Friday, 11th May, 2012, my weight was:
Which is of course two stone and four pounds heavier than when I finished my last diet. However it is still two stone lower than the weight I was back in January 2010, when I first started dieting. Needless to say, this announcement means that I am back on a diet again. Weekly weight reports to follow.
I have finally got around to getting a CyKey chording keyboard for my Samsung Netbook from Bellaire. I would have preferred CyKey properly tethered to the machine by an USB cable, but I can see the advantages of the IR connection, especially as the CyKey now comes with a widget that allows the dongle to swivel into the best position for use with the keyboard. I wish I had bought it earlier, when I started writing my novel. Large chunks of the manuscript were created using the CyKey connected to my desktop PC, it would have been so much easier if I had used a CyKey with the netbooks as well.
Chording keyboards are very much a rarity and seeing me using one has triggered off a number of conversations when I used the netbook with the CyKey in public. The main talking point is how quickly I can enter text microwriting with the CyKey, compared to typewriting with a standard keyboard. The one thing I have noticed is that it is a lot easier to type at night with a CyKey. Yes, I know that proper touch typists don’t look at the keyboard when the type, but they still need to be able to find the home keys on the middle row of a Qwerty keyboard before they start and that is near to impossible in the pitch black. Because of the shape of a CyKey, getting my finger in the right place to begin is so easy.
The nice thing about the new CyKey is it comes in an amray case, like a DVD. All the bits fit neatly into the amray and it then fits nicely into the netbook bag next to the computer when not in use.
With the lengthening days and lighter evenings, it was tipe to start thinking about my garden again. At the end of last summer, my brother-in-law Gary had completed all the major building work, both patios are in place, as is the new garden path and the raised beds at the bottom of the garden. All that was missing was the soil. I have written in this web log before about how poor the local soil is. So last summer had been spent digging it out and sifting it for bramble roots, shards of glass, sharp stones and anything else unpleasant. It had been returned to about a quarter of the bed which is going to be my lawn with a lot of coarse sand and multipurpose compost added to improve the structure. The rest of the local soil was left in a big pile at the bottom of the garden. Over the course of the winter it had settled and needed another layer to bring it up to the base of the path.
I would eventually have to move the pile of soil, as it would be sitting where I wanted to work, but that was stll weeks away in the middle of March when I was putting the second and third layer at the top of the lawn. Also, as I was using soil from the front of of what my nine year old nephew William called “Uncle John’s Volcano” the area of ground I could work on was increasing all on its own Sadly this increase was not fast enough, as I was rapidly running out of room to manouver. So I spend a large chunck of Tuesday and Wednesday shovelling soil away from where it is eventually going to lie.
Run off water from my patio proving to be a problem I did not anticipate, as it has been so dry, very little water was actually running off the patio, even when I was watering my apple trees and the plants in pots on my patio.Then it started to rain over the weekend and as the water runs down the wall it forms into little chanels, that are getting deeper and deeper by the day. What I should have done, before I filled all that soil in, was dig a trench at the foot of the patio wall, fill it with stones, cover with a layer of Plantex material and then bury under a thin layer of soil. The trench will take the run-off water from the patio down below the level of the lawn. Next weekend, I am going have to do this as remedial work. The photo to the right shows how much soil one day’s worth of not very heavy rain could was away. I was amazed by this. So beck to the the sa
Before Christmas, I had bought an extremely cheap garden roller from eBay, and just to prove theat you get what you pay for, it broke after a week in use flattening the soil. I noticed that the tank had sprung a leak on the third day. by the fourth the crack had become a perfect circle around the pivot on the right hand side of the roller, and so the handle came away from the drum. So to make sure the lawn is flat, I had to resort to a plank of wood, which would equally distribute my weight over a large area.
Hopefully, once I have finished the remedial draining work at the top of the lawn I will be able to put the grass seeds down. I have bought two large boxs of JML Patch Magic grass seeds. The seeds in this mixture are covered with a layer of fertiliser and a water retaining coating, to help with the germination process. I am starting to think that two boxes might not be enoug, as the seed to aadequately cover the area I am having under grass.
I have decided to have a small bed at the top of the lawn. The bed’s edge will be parrallel to the edge of the path, and it is where my raspberry canes are going to live. The whole project is finally starting to take shape.
So, after a polite thanks, but no thanks from one publisher, I immediately started work on a new draft. i reworked the first three chapters, having moved Chapter 3 down to Chapter 6, and then reworked the chapter structure again, moving bits of the old Chapters 5 and 6 into the old Chapters 1,2 & 4. and re-editing the text into the new Chapters 1–5. Then I removed half of Chapter 27 and all of Chapter 28 to tighten up the ending.
The next big change in this draft was referring to the heroine by name from page one. Previously as she does not get the name Nevamar until Chapter 6, I referred to her in the text by her ID Code NM331/29. This did little to generate empathy for the character. So she thinks of herself as Nevamar and the text calls her that, even if other characters refer to her by ID Code within the dialogue.
Whilst I am on the subject of dialogue, after a friend read the first three chapters, it was suggested that there was far too much exposition that was boring to read. It would, I was told, be better if I had characters discussing a particular plot point instead of having it explained in a big slab of text. Then I had to address my mother’s biggest bugbear, the fact that I didn’t attribute dialogue enough. She said that I knew who was saying what, because after all I had created the conversations, but that was no help to the poor reader, who was expected to follow the ping-pong of who said what in a conversation. So I went through the manuscript adding “he said” or “she said” where necessary to the dialogue. I don’t think it is necessary for every line of dialogue, but every so often, the ping-pong of conversation needs to be commented upon. Especially if there are more than two characters in the room and Character D is about to butt into a conversation between Character A and Character C, whilst Character B sits and listens, only speaking if spoken to. Also, it is important to remember that when attributing speech, only three verbs are permissible, SAID, ASKED & REPLIED, and of those SAID is King. Said is the simplest way of showing that someone is speaking, so should be use most often. Asked should only be used if a character is asking a question whilst speaking, like wies Replied should only be used if the character is answering a question whilst speaking.
On Tuesday night, the Gallifrey Base forum was alive with rumours. They said that the following morning there was to be a Press Conference in London, at which the actress cast to replace Karen Gillan and Arthur Darville as The Doctor’s traveling companion would be introduced.
Sure enough at 10am on Wedensday, 14th March, 2012, actress Jenna-Louise Coleman was introduced to the World’s press as Matt Smith’s new co-star. This resulted in a great deal of wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst certain Doctor Who Fans because she is young and pretty and worse of all, in the eyes of some fans, female. A few weeks ago, Stephen Moffat said that he had created a radically different type of Companion, and sadly there is an unpleasantly misogynistic element with Fandom beleived this meant that the new companion would be a bloke and that he and The Doctor would travel togetherh having laddish adventures, without any nasty girls to spoil things. Well that was never going to happen, not in a million years. Ever since the 1970, the basic TARDIS crew has be been The Doctor and his attractive female travelling companion. It is what the general viewing public want and expect.
My initial reaction was after the tall and thin Karen Gillan, the production team have gone in the opposite direction and chosen short and curvy Jenna-Louise. This is no a bad thing, there needs to be a contrast between the two characters.
Jenna-Louise Coleman’s previous acting roles include Emmerdale, followed by a spell in school drama Waterloo Road. Most recently she has had a major role in ITV drama Titanic and a brief appearance in the Hollywood blockbuster Captain America.
The picture on the left is based on the first official promotional picture released by BBC Cymru/Wales. That had Miss Coleman in an unflattering Argyle sweater. Now, as I am hoping her character comes from an Earth Colony world that has reverted to a psuedo-Victorian society with retro steam powered technology, I have replaced the sweater with a blouse and a corset. Yes, I am hoping that we see this character in a series of different Steampunk inspired outfits.
Without doubt, the most glacially cool thing I have seen in a long time is the Parrot AR Drone Quadricopter. This is a four rotor helicopter toy that has a built in camera at the front, and is piloted through this via an app on a smartphone or tablet. Alternatively a laptop with Linux can run software that allows the device to be piloted with a gamespad. Needless to say, I want one. That is not going to happen anytime soon, not whilst Parrot, the company that makes these wonderful devices is charging an arm and a leg for one. So I have started a low priority saving scheme to eventually buy one.
Now the problem with low priority schemes is they get raided for higher priority schemes. Then I remembered Radar, a character from M*A*S*H. It was a running gag that Corporal Walter “Radar” O’Reilly mailed a Jeep home from the Korean War one component at a time. So into my head popped Operation Walter. All the parts used in an AR Drone are interchangeable with spare parts that are available on line. So instead of buying one big ticket item, I would buy a component every so often.
Except that is a really silly idea. Parrot charge a mark-up on spare parts. A salami-sliced AR Drone, bought one bit at a time would be far more expensive than one bought off the shelf. Whilst I was doing the maths, I was only two thirds of the way through the component check list when I reached the Recommended Retai Price for a shop-bought AR Drone. Also, the salami-sliced AR Drone would not have a manufacture’s guaranty.
However, the idea of building my own AR Drone from components has a strange appeal. It is the simple sort of Engineering/Electronics 101 project I could handle. It really would be my AR Drone, the one I built myself, from scratch. However, it probably will not happen. With Version 2.0 about to be launched, the price of the original version is should plummet.
When I used to watch the 1930’s Jonny Weismuller Tarzan movies when I was a child, and really enjoy them, I had no idea who Edgar Rice Burroughs was. Then I tried to read the original novel Tarzan as a teenager, and wished I had remained in blissful ignorance. So I have never really been that interested in the John Carter of Mars novels.
It ninety five years for anyone to adapt this source material to the silver screen. I was totally unaware of the existence of we film Princess of Mars, which was based on one of the novels, with some pretty major liberties taken with the story. This year is the centenary of the first appearance of John Carter, the Confederate Officer who finds a way to travel across millions of miles to Mars, or Barsoom as the natives call it. So Disney have gone full force and this year sees the release of a blockbuster called simply John Carter. As Burroughs wrote eleven novel chronicling life on Barsoom for John Carter and the dynasty he founded, no doubt the studio will be hoping this is a major success that will open a brand new franchise for them.
Although, whilst the bloke in the video is probably right about how much of the imagery of modern Science Fiction can be traced back to the Barsoom novels, the debt has been repayed by what I have seen of this movie. It is very reminicint of the Tattooine locations from the Star Wars films. The CGI that renders the crowds of twelve foot tall six limbed lizard men is only possible because of the techniques developed by ILM and Lucasfilms for The Phantom Menace.
Having said that, It does look good and is on my list of must see movies.
At the beginning of September, I just locked my back door and forgot completely about my garden. I just left it as it stood. Only venturing out in the middle of January to cut back my Raspberry canes. So, it was a bit of at tip when I ventured out there on Wednesday morning. I have the week off and as it was almost Spring-like, I decided to spend the morning in my garden. pulling it back into shape. First job was gathering all empty plastic bags that were littering the bottom half of the garden. Old clear plastic bags that had once held course grain sand. All the empty bags of compost. I gathered them all up and filled a recycling sack, and the place started looking better within minutes.
It’s only February, but already, so many plants showing signs of coming back to life after their Winter dormant period. The apple and pear trees are covered with thick buds. The Strawberry plants have started to grow back. Life is returning to the Lilacs and the Geulder Rose bushes at the bottom of my garden. Already the weeds have started shooting up. Waking so much earlier than the decorative plants. Grass isn’t normally classed as a weed, but it was shooting quite vinously around the base of the Lavender, choking the bare soil I want the Lavender to grow into this year. Growing amongst the grass were and Clover, Dandelions and other assorted weeds. There were also weeds growing on the bare earth where I will be laying the lawn later in the Spring. So I grubbed them all up and into a recycling sack.
With that done, the biggest job was planting the Hydrangea that used to be in a large pot outside my front door in its new home against the north facing fence. I think I have made a slight mistake here, as I planted the top of the compost that was in the pot flush with the current soil level. I realised today that it should have been about two inches above the current soil level, as that is roughly where the new soil level in that bed will be. I don’t know what will give the Hydrangea more grief, digging it back up and putting it in the new level now, or letting it establish itself and then burying its bottom two inches in soil when I fill in the rest of the bed. I can hear you asking “John, why did you plant it now, why not wait until the bed is finished?” Well, the answer to that is because the Hydrangea is still in its dormant phase, so it is best to move it now. It is already such a large plant, even after a serious pruning last October, that I don’t I would be able to move the damn thing if I left it shoot and grow the way I know it will over the summer. This has always been a pink Hydrangea, but I think that when it start flowering again, it is going to be purple or blue because the soil it is planted in is currently very alkali. When my brother in law Gary was mixing cement last Spring, this is where he mixed it, and at the end of the day, it was where he washed his cement mixer. Given how alkali cement is, even after a year’s worth of rain and forty litres of compost dug into the soil last August, there will be a large amount of cement residue in the soil in this part of the garden so it is not going to be anywhere near as acidic as the soil in the rest of the garden.
The fun and games of the SFX Weekender 3 event at Pontin’s Prestatyn Sands, holiday camp drew to a close in the wee small hours of Sunday Morning. So the plan was to tag along with a group of friends who were visiting the Portmeirion Folly on the Dywryd Estuary, just outside Pendryndeudraeth. The architectural folly was constructed by Sir Clough William Ellis between 1925 and 1975 on his Aber Iâ estate. As well as building the mock Italian village he renamed the estate Portmeirion.
The main reason I and my friends were visiting was because in the 1960’s it was the location for the classic serial The Prisoner. Our guide for the day was Dave Lally, who is a massive fan of the series, who has been organising events there for other fans of the series for years.
This is a collection of photographs I took at the Masquerade Disco at the SFX Weekender 3, in Pontin’s Prestatyn over the last weekend. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the image.
