July 17th, 2010 §
Hey, loyal readers and random googlers (I hope you find the BioShock/Gor slashfic you’re looking for). There’ve been a lack of reviews recently for these exciting reasons:
1.) My band is recording a second demo tomorrow. TOMORROW! So I’ve been busy practising our newer songs, installing new tubes in my amp (turns out that balancing the power tubes in a DSL100 is pretty easy, even when you’re drunk) and restringing my guitars (ugh, replacing strings is for when you break them, at least in my book). EXCITING.
2.) I’ve had a promotion at work at the same time as a friend / colleague has left so I’ve been pretty preoccupied with plugging gaps in dayjob-world.
3.) I’ve been kind of inclined to spend my free time chilling out with films, videogames and friends rather than writing in a darkened room. Not that I have a problem with the latter, but it’s more like work than blowing off steam.
4.) IT’S THE SUMMER <3 <3 <3
I’ll post up the occasional review as and when the mood takes me & will be back with three more levels of experience and a +1 Something of Whatever in the near future. I may also have other cool stuff to share, e.g. a friend and I are going to collaborate on an indie game… I’ll provide writing and “ideas” and she’ll do the hard work. Awesome!!!
If you want to follow something I’m doing in the meantime, check my twitter or tumblr thingies.
July 5th, 2010 §
I’m pretty busy at the moment dudes, between a promotion at work (and another guy leaving) plus my band recording again in a couple of weeks, so the regularity of posts here might drop off a bit. I’ve still got stuff coming up though including (I hope) reviews of Junior Battles, Everyone Everywhere, Bastards of Young, Cometbus #52 and some more stuff about games… so don’t delete this bookmark just yet.
May 20th, 2010 §
Sometimes blogging can seem like a bit of a thankless slog, or worse a pointless endeavour… pissing words into the winds of the internet. This harsh fact is evidenced by the corpses of hundreds of thousands of abandoned blogs and websites. I enjoy writing, I enjoy sharing the things I’ve written and I like the idea that they’re being read, either by friends, those who simply stumble by, or by regular readers who I don’t know. Still, on occasion I wonder if it’s worth pushing myself to keep at it – if I should just focus on my band and writing the occasional story and review stuff when I feel in the mood.
Today a chap I work with, who I think has reviewed books for The Guardian in the past, spoke to me regarding a review I’d written on this blog. He mentioned that the author, who was a friend of his, had sent the link to him as he was pleased with it. The author’s friend realised the reviewer was me… small world, huh? Anyway, it was a really cool thing to hear as I thought a lot of the book in question. Little things like this make the whole endeavour feel a little bit more worthwhile.
It’s also cool when people stop by and leave comments – I’m glad you guys do that. Thanks!
Anyway, I’m posting this mainly because today has been a good day. Despite being shittily hungover and tired all day at work, and getting done pretty much none of the stuff I wanted to do this evening, I feel upbeat about this blog and my writing, and to cap it all off I’ve just found out that my band will be playing its first headline show next month. And now I’m off to get drunk and play music with my friends in said band.
Today is a good day. Have a lolcat.
P.S. Yes yes yes I am still working on my Four Lions review. Apparently a nearby screening this weekend has a Q&A with Chris Morris and the cast. I’m tempted even though I have very few monies…
March 30th, 2010 §
I’m feeling a bit disheartened about the blogging thing at the moment so there’ll be no new posts for a bit, apart from one or two that have been queued up for a while.
I’ll be back, though, got a load of notes on a bunch of things that I’ll turn into reviews at some point.
Take care, y’all.
September 8th, 2009 §
Excuse the sudden bombardment of link round-ups. I keep forgetting to post them on Sundays (yes, I am a lazy, shiftless, easily distracted, absent-minded insomniac with a fondness for whiskey :D).
Enjoy picking through them if you fancy; if not, normal service will be resumed yada yada yada. Like you come here for anything so crass as service, my dear friends.
August 24th, 2009 §
Hello, regular readers.
I’ve been thinking about making some changes here. As anyone who’s been reading for any length of time knows this blog covers a fair variety of stuff, including music and book reviews as well as my own fiction and occasionally any political posts I feel like writing. Not to mention the more whimsical material.
I think I’d like to devote more time to writing about music, but I don’t want to overwhelm everything else. So I was wondering about splitting the blog into two: one part for music, and another for everything else.
I’ve considered this a lot in the past but previously left the blog as was because hell, my interests are broad and why shouldn’t those of other readers be the same? Whereas now I’m inclined to go for it: to retain NFI here as a receptacle for my more general writings, and to set up a new sub-blog and try and have a proper crack at something dedicated to music. I think this would be advantageous as it wouldn’t change anything about NFI except the absence of music coverage, and with a music-dedicated sub-site I could write more informal pieces alongside reviews. In cases where there was definite crossover interest I can of course cross-post or link both ways (an example of this would be the Taqwacores review).
But before I go ahead and do this… what do you think? I absolutely want your feedback, and would be v. interested in hearing arguments or opinions either way.
June 30th, 2009 §
Things should all be working okay here now. As you can see I’ve switched themes; I’m liking this more minimalist look at the moment. The old Nobus theme I was using was pretty stylish but not the easiest to read, nor was it the best laid-out theme ever. So what do you think of the change? An improvement, or has something you liked disappeared? Screenshots follow for comparison:
The Nobus theme I had been using since setting up NFI.
The minimalist theme I was using recently as a temporary theme (which I also liked).
If you’ve got any thoughts or feedback on this design or one of the previous themes, leave a comment to let me know. It’s all useful! As for actual content, you can expect some soon – I’m on the mend after a dose of manswineflu and will be writing again shortly.
June 29th, 2009 §
As you may have seen there’ve been some issues here at NFI over the last few days. These are basically the result of me moving to a new host and not knowing a damn thing about PHP and SQL. Anyway, the move is complete now although my old theme is broken. Please bear with me while I either repair it or switch to a new one – which might take a while as I’m rotten ill at the moment (it’s swine flu, clearly). I’m using this neat minimalistic one in the meantime.
June 14th, 2009 §
Oh hey, I missed the zombie apocalypse again. Bummer.
Kinda neat to see that what started out as a joke among a few SF&F crit blogs has taken on a life of its own though.
Everything is better with zombies. <3
May 28th, 2009 §
…though I’m not sure for how long. I’m working on sorting out new backups, but cpanel is still down.
In terms of longer term blog survival… watch this space. Oh, and if you need to email me, do so at points of data (at) gmail (dot) com (no spaces, yada yada).
