Empire_State_Human

So this is an idea for a computer game. i cannot make it but I desperately hope someone on the internet makes this.

Take Doom. Old school original Doom. Play it. Leave level after level of carnage. Then just as the final screen fades you find yourself at the start of Level 1 again.

You have 99 water points and a scrubbing pad. As you wander the gore splattered level you can remove carbon and blood spatter. You can find a bucket and mop. Rubber gloves. Polyfilla and a trowel. Gradually you can restore the level, collecting water and other kinds of cleaning product as you go, because some stains are stubborn and need special items.

Once you have the level cleaned you have the option of going to the next level or triggering redecoration mode, where you can discover interior design products to make the level homely and sophisticated.

The follow product would be Doom Party. In this game we balance music choices, lighting and snacks as well as party games, and the Coloial Marines and Aliens arrive gradually and we must keep the atmosphere friendly and low key. Play well and you will have dancing and witty chatter, but get it wrong and the Chain Gun will come out. Meaning you’re back into Doom Wash….

You’re welcome.

It was a strange start to 2021… well it was hardly going to be routine! We had a cluster of fireworks going off around the house all night and this photo (I struggle to take pics of fireworks that do them justice) captured something of the drama of the firework and the rather mono and high contrast feel for the evening!

Abbey Park Festival many years ago…

A find from Facebook - as many who may enjoy these belong to the “Facebook Refuser” clan (I just can’t understand how anybody could want to withold data from such lovely people) I have republished them here - photos by Jenny Caruthers.

Our best song was 6+ minutes long, had no chorus and was almost entirely played on variations of E (I think I threw in 4 As and about 12 Gs), so we ought to have qualified as “difficult listening” - but it did have a great beat.

New Dark Age is a novel I’ve been trying to write for a while. I’m looking for friends willing to read the next draft and share their feedback this September. http://newdarkage.net

Listening to ” …yet” on Do By Friday and it just feels like my heart is breaking. I just put it on as I worked as background noise and… there was the news about the show. I’ve recommended this podcast to many people and mentioned it in my blog and I don’t want to disassociate from that opinion in any way because I don’t even know the details of the allegations that seem to be ending it …yet. Whoever has been hurt in the story that is unfolding and is still to come, I hope you’re OK and I wish you all the best - right now I can only feel for @hotdogladies and @alexcox and hope this isn’t the last time I’ll hear them work together. Alex, I’m going to subscribe to all your other podcasts in the meantime (Merlin, I already listen to yours).

PS after a week the new episiode with just Merlin and Alex is better than fine, it’s good. It will probably be a kinder and less edgy show and that’s no bad thing.

So, I haven’t been blogging much over the winter. I’ve found that the change of job means that a lot of the things I wanted to write about aren’t subjects I can explore.

I still had that itch to write stuff though. I’ve worked up a novel - called New Dark Age. I hope it’s good. It is very much the kind of story I enjoy reading, which is to say, don’t expect high literature. It’s an adventure story in Britain in the future where all the technology, absolutely everything, has gone Pfutt and left the world in a new dark age: with many parallels with the first one.

It is currently on its fifth draft, and is complete in the sense that the full story is now in place with a beginning, middle and an end. I don’t know yet whether I’ll try and get an agent and go with a serious attempt to get it published, or whether I’ll just make a website and let anyone that wants to download it have a copy - in large part that will depend on the feedback I get for the printed copies I’ll be sharing with a few friends.

One thing I’ve learned so far is that writing something this long never stops. I started redrafting within an hour of sending draft 5 to print, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop wanting to keep tweaking and improving, unless of course I decide to let go and start on another. Or give up entirely (always an option!).

I’m not a guitarist. I’m barely a bass-player in truth, but to work out some ideas for songs for the band, Strict, Karl has leant me his guitar and this is me struggling to remember my chords (happily as I only knew four before, I didn’t have much to relearn). I’m working on a song that is provisionally entitled the King of Hackney - one of four for a first rehearsal soon. Just hope I can get good enough to not let myself down badly!

So here are a couple of Longtooth and Wasterman related pictures…. The first was taken at this month’s gig at The Donkey in Leicester, the second is my Halloween Art Project.

This is Stan. I’m relearning how to play him at the moment - and discovering how truly painful a hand can be! A long time ago I saw someone on stage at Glastonbury playing a five string, black Musicman bass…..

The plan is to get back into condition where I can play live by mid November so that we can start rehearsing as ‘Strict.’

This was taken late at night in the rain - walking home. There’s something about the colours that makes me think of the Spiders from Mars album cover. In truth it looks a LOT better in the picture than it looked at the time, and took a little work to bring out the image!

Maybe ‘wild’ is overstating it - I’m spending most of my time in Wales on an industrial park - you can see the mountains and the sea at times but it’s not exactly getting back to nature. However…. just five minutes outside the estate I found a path sloping down into a park, which then gradually led down to the Menai itself. Enjoyed it so much I lost track of the distance and left myself with a 3k uphill slog to get back!

From the same late night photo-walk - what you can’t see in the photo because of the long exposure is the sheet quantity of water that was falling.

So the river rose and rose.

Saturday is parkrun day - but sometimes I’m not at home and I’m slowly chalking up a few London ones - Burgess Park was my first south of the river - and a really fast course despite a real crush at the start - and a very different welcome from the Camberwell people - not taking anything away from North London parkruns which have all been good, but the atmosphere at Burgess Park was brilliant.

Not entirely sure the story I was told about this is accurate - but I liked it - apparently every time the fox evades the hunt, a new flower gets added.

Good luck Oscar and Julia!

Is just resting

Good shops in Bangor! Well this was the only one I want to visit in truth.

Sadly sheep in Wales don’t shout back hey ho - very difficult to fit a good run in around work at the moment but really glad I made time for this one - it is very different running through countryside with plenty of hills.

Living on biscuits, restaurant food and Gregg’s breakfast, suddently fruit seems more appealing!

So Wales on the Sunday in the rain was frankly, not a happy place. This evening with the clear air and the sun going down on a successful day… well much improved. Good company from some great colleagues helped immensely of course!

Long drive. Wet roads. Not a happy bunny!