Rush rush rush
Manic day. A job I estimated would take five minutes stretched into five hours. Simply put: a company can't connect to a couple of popular IPs, and I'm damned if I can find a reason why. Incredibly frustrating. I'll head back there tomorrow, but am hoping some ideas pop into my head overnight. Then this evening I nipped over to Nottingham to pick up my forgotten camera, which I'll be needing it for the upcoming dance weekend. It was nice to see Abi too, of course 
On the way back I listened to the latest in Escape Pod's audio of the Short Story Hugo nominees. Impossible Dreams and today's The House Beyond Your Sky were both excellent. I don't envy the judges one bit.
Ugh, it's nearly 0200. Bad.
Escape Pod #100
The superb Escape Pod short science-fiction podcast just reached its 100th episode, celebrating with a 90-minute reading of Isaac Asimov's 'Nightfall'. From Steve's introduction it seems the story is one of the most popular ever written, but I'd never heard it before. I listened to it while driving back from Nottingham this morning, and was highly entertained. A planet with six suns faces the prospect of imminent darkness, and is woefully ill prepared...
I have a soft spot for Isaac Asimov (along with Arthur C. Clarke) as I devoured his short story collections as a child, and the storytelling style is warm and familiar. I feel in safe hands, and Nightfall was as well-structured and intellectually stimulating as you'd expect, continually fracturing my expectations as the story progressed. It was also very well read, which I think is a highly underrated skill. While I'm talking narration, I should mention #98. It was a fascinating and clever story about chemical-based advertising - a dart hits your neck, and you crave a Big Mac - and the excellent narrator had quite possibly the sexiest voice I've ever heard. Worth checking out, for many reasons.
Happy century, Escape Pod. I'll be listening to the next 100.
An attention-grabbing first line
I was listening to Escape Pod while driving home this evening. It's a short science-fiction podcast, and the story was 'Margin of Error'. It began with:
Paula came back in a blaze of glory.
Isn't that a wonderful first line? There are so many possibilities, especially with sci-fi premises. It immediately grabbed my attention, although my mind was buzzing so much from tonight's practice dance session that I couldn't concentrate, so I switched to music after a couple of minutes. This was entirely to do with me and no reflection on the story! It started very well, and I'll look forward to hearing the rest
Hello!
Hey, thanks for coming! I'm Andrew, and this is where my headthinks come to breed. They often meander around humanism and photography, but they're flighty and you can't trust them, so anything is possible.
Do feel free to email me - I get lonely:
Your hair looks swish, by the way - have you done something new?
Recent Comments
- vicky: going up this weekend having done all the welsh peaks except 4 snowdon, cant wait
on Climbing Snowdon. - vicky: what, how can u live in the 21 c and say that, probably a sexist thing
on Climbing Snowdon. - vicky: da iawn laura, cant believe what im hearing, all this fuss, anyway love the site, and i agree, normal people who swear and curse clomb mountains cos we live in the...
on Climbing Snowdon. - Andrew: Did a few quick test shots to check the light levels, then balanced the camera on the arm of a bench, set it for a 20s exposure and hoped for the best
on ISS. - lynsey: Wow, how did you take that photograph?
on ISS.
