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A week of stuff
Jan. 17th, 2016 09:53 amTwo books, and audiobook, a gig, and an escape room - it's been a busy week!
Monday saw a group of intrepid adventurers entering the Pharoah's Tomb at the London Bridge Escape Rooms. It's the second of these that I've done, and the tone and type of puzzles was very different. My main job was to liaise with our helper-guy via the walkie-talkie, and then relay his hints to the rest of the team. We managed to get out with six minutes to spare, after using all three of our available hints, but no more help than that. It was fun, and some of the puzzles were quite interesting, but it did feel a bit as if we went from having no clue even where to start, to knowing how to complete an entire puzzle after a supposed 'hint'. Our helper-guy was vehement that the amount of help he gave was very standard, and didn't diminish our achievement - but I thought perhaps the initial instructions for puzzles could have been better designed so that we could work them out more on our own. Still, it was fun.
On Thursday, Simon H and I went to an Alien Ant Farm gig at Koko, next to Mornington Crescent tube station. We had an excellent dinner at the Argentinian restaurant, La Patagonia, on the other side of the road, then ventured into the venue much earlier than I would usually do. And I'm glad we did - because the first support act, The Dirty Youth, turned out to be the best bit of the evening! I have to admit that I particularly liked it when the singer jumped up and down in her shiny, low-cut top and flipped her gorgeous hair around - but the songs were really good, too! Neither of us were that keen on the second support act, In Me - though we both agreed that their songs got better as their set progressed. And then it was time for Alien Ant Farm themselves - and I have to admit, I was rather disappointed. There was something odd about the mixing, which made the drums and the singer much more prevalent than the guitars, so all the songs sounded really odd and it was difficult to get into them, somehow. Simon left early, as he wasn't feeling well, and I can't blame him, as I considered leaving myself at the same time. But, I was there to here one of my favourite songs played live, and I was pretty sure they'd get round to it eventually, so I vowed to stick it out until they did. Of course, it was the very last encore song - by which time, I was upstairs, lurking at the opening to the exit tunnel, with my coat on and done up. But, *then*, they launched into Smooth Criminal, and suddenly the entire venue was checking that "I was okay" - and it was awesome! And, as it turned out, I was very much okay. The gig was a bit disappointing overall, but I'm so glad I waited for that end bit.
Last week, I decided to start listening to the audiobook version of The Atrocity Archives, the first in the Laundry Files series by Charlie Stross. It was quite fun, to begin with - I liked the main character, and there was the potential for the plot to get quite interesting. But, in the end, I actually gave up listening halfway through, due to both content and narration issues. The narrator was quite good, overall, but he was quite softspoken, and so sometimes it was quite easy to zone out and miss sections. Also, he did lots of accents, and they were all a bit patchy. His Dutch characters, in particular, sounded like Sean Connery's Russian submarine captain from The Hunt For Red October, and all the other accents phased in and out. Then, there was all the techno-babble - tons of exposition about occult computing, which just didn't do anything for me at all, and made the zoning out all the worse. My final criticism may not have continued for the whole book - but I found the range of female characters rather disappointing. Now, I know it's necessary that not all the characters in a book are likeable - but the women fell into three categories - psycho ex-girlfriend, bitch boss, or beautiful damsel in distress. I mean, really? Needless to say, I won't be continuing with this series, which feels like rather a shame, since I've enjoyed some of Charlie Stross' other work, and this seemed as through it had the potential to be quite fun. Hey ho.
This morning, I finished You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day, which turned out to be nothing at all like what I expected upon opening it as a Christmas present. I had no idea she'd written a book, and it proved extraordinarily surprising in its content. She herself describes it as 'copious oversharing', which I can kind of agree with, but it was all very interesting. She's gloriously weird, and massively more hard-working and more self-destructive than I would have expected. It makes me all the more impressed by all the things she's managed to accomplish - but also terrified by the thought of what might happen to me if I ever found myself in any kind of limelight. Sure, I want to get my novel published, and for Gary Ross to make the movie of it - but, boy, do I *not* want to be famous! I have a feeling I would have a lot of the same problems Felicia has faced, if I ever was - though I certainly wouldn't be prepared to work as hard as she has, so it's vanishingly unlikely it's ever going to happen. I was particularly pleased to find one of my all-time favourite quotes towards the end of the book - "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent" (Eleanor Roosevelt). I first heard this when it was quoted in The Princess Diaries in 2001, and I have used it as my personal mantra ever since - and it's proved very useful (I went out for the afternoon with bright blue hair, wearing bright blue trousers, police boots, a Dungeon Lords t-shirt, and a pirate coat yesterday - and it felt great!). So, I'm glad that Felicia Day has benefitted from the same advice, and I wish her every success (and a lot less anxiety and abuse) in the future.
The other book I finished this week (Masterclass Project on hold - though this also proved instructive) was a draft of a novel by one of the other people on the Arvon writing retreat I attended in September. I loved it, and not least because its strengths were exactly the weaknesses of my own novel - incredible descriptive detail, immersive and realistic world building, really distinctive and vibrant characters. There were some issues that I commented on, and thus felt like a useful sounding board - but mostly, I just lost myself in it and really, really enjoyed it. I very much hope to see it in print one day - it certainly deserves it.
Monday saw a group of intrepid adventurers entering the Pharoah's Tomb at the London Bridge Escape Rooms. It's the second of these that I've done, and the tone and type of puzzles was very different. My main job was to liaise with our helper-guy via the walkie-talkie, and then relay his hints to the rest of the team. We managed to get out with six minutes to spare, after using all three of our available hints, but no more help than that. It was fun, and some of the puzzles were quite interesting, but it did feel a bit as if we went from having no clue even where to start, to knowing how to complete an entire puzzle after a supposed 'hint'. Our helper-guy was vehement that the amount of help he gave was very standard, and didn't diminish our achievement - but I thought perhaps the initial instructions for puzzles could have been better designed so that we could work them out more on our own. Still, it was fun.
On Thursday, Simon H and I went to an Alien Ant Farm gig at Koko, next to Mornington Crescent tube station. We had an excellent dinner at the Argentinian restaurant, La Patagonia, on the other side of the road, then ventured into the venue much earlier than I would usually do. And I'm glad we did - because the first support act, The Dirty Youth, turned out to be the best bit of the evening! I have to admit that I particularly liked it when the singer jumped up and down in her shiny, low-cut top and flipped her gorgeous hair around - but the songs were really good, too! Neither of us were that keen on the second support act, In Me - though we both agreed that their songs got better as their set progressed. And then it was time for Alien Ant Farm themselves - and I have to admit, I was rather disappointed. There was something odd about the mixing, which made the drums and the singer much more prevalent than the guitars, so all the songs sounded really odd and it was difficult to get into them, somehow. Simon left early, as he wasn't feeling well, and I can't blame him, as I considered leaving myself at the same time. But, I was there to here one of my favourite songs played live, and I was pretty sure they'd get round to it eventually, so I vowed to stick it out until they did. Of course, it was the very last encore song - by which time, I was upstairs, lurking at the opening to the exit tunnel, with my coat on and done up. But, *then*, they launched into Smooth Criminal, and suddenly the entire venue was checking that "I was okay" - and it was awesome! And, as it turned out, I was very much okay. The gig was a bit disappointing overall, but I'm so glad I waited for that end bit.
Last week, I decided to start listening to the audiobook version of The Atrocity Archives, the first in the Laundry Files series by Charlie Stross. It was quite fun, to begin with - I liked the main character, and there was the potential for the plot to get quite interesting. But, in the end, I actually gave up listening halfway through, due to both content and narration issues. The narrator was quite good, overall, but he was quite softspoken, and so sometimes it was quite easy to zone out and miss sections. Also, he did lots of accents, and they were all a bit patchy. His Dutch characters, in particular, sounded like Sean Connery's Russian submarine captain from The Hunt For Red October, and all the other accents phased in and out. Then, there was all the techno-babble - tons of exposition about occult computing, which just didn't do anything for me at all, and made the zoning out all the worse. My final criticism may not have continued for the whole book - but I found the range of female characters rather disappointing. Now, I know it's necessary that not all the characters in a book are likeable - but the women fell into three categories - psycho ex-girlfriend, bitch boss, or beautiful damsel in distress. I mean, really? Needless to say, I won't be continuing with this series, which feels like rather a shame, since I've enjoyed some of Charlie Stross' other work, and this seemed as through it had the potential to be quite fun. Hey ho.
This morning, I finished You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day, which turned out to be nothing at all like what I expected upon opening it as a Christmas present. I had no idea she'd written a book, and it proved extraordinarily surprising in its content. She herself describes it as 'copious oversharing', which I can kind of agree with, but it was all very interesting. She's gloriously weird, and massively more hard-working and more self-destructive than I would have expected. It makes me all the more impressed by all the things she's managed to accomplish - but also terrified by the thought of what might happen to me if I ever found myself in any kind of limelight. Sure, I want to get my novel published, and for Gary Ross to make the movie of it - but, boy, do I *not* want to be famous! I have a feeling I would have a lot of the same problems Felicia has faced, if I ever was - though I certainly wouldn't be prepared to work as hard as she has, so it's vanishingly unlikely it's ever going to happen. I was particularly pleased to find one of my all-time favourite quotes towards the end of the book - "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent" (Eleanor Roosevelt). I first heard this when it was quoted in The Princess Diaries in 2001, and I have used it as my personal mantra ever since - and it's proved very useful (I went out for the afternoon with bright blue hair, wearing bright blue trousers, police boots, a Dungeon Lords t-shirt, and a pirate coat yesterday - and it felt great!). So, I'm glad that Felicia Day has benefitted from the same advice, and I wish her every success (and a lot less anxiety and abuse) in the future.
The other book I finished this week (Masterclass Project on hold - though this also proved instructive) was a draft of a novel by one of the other people on the Arvon writing retreat I attended in September. I loved it, and not least because its strengths were exactly the weaknesses of my own novel - incredible descriptive detail, immersive and realistic world building, really distinctive and vibrant characters. There were some issues that I commented on, and thus felt like a useful sounding board - but mostly, I just lost myself in it and really, really enjoyed it. I very much hope to see it in print one day - it certainly deserves it.
