>>Nostalgia For Infinity

Del.icio.us links for October 17th - 23rd:

» Read the rest of this entry «

Del.icio.us links for February 20th through February 27th:

» Read the rest of this entry «

Del.icio.us links for February 7th through February 11th:

» Read the rest of this entry «

So! The project I have spent the last few months and especially January working on has gone live and the first content is beginning to appear. Check it out!

One thing the internet does not need is another gaming blog. So, here is another gaming blog!

We like to play games. We like to drink (most of us). We like to talk, or rant, or ramble. We slip through our days in ARCADIAN RHYTHM.

Mostly of interest to gamers, what with it being a group blog about gaming, but you may enjoy having a poke around regardless as some of our writers can be quite amusing. Plenty more content going online this week and we have regular updates scheduled for the next few months!

Forthcoming pieces from myself include a response to Jonathan McCalmont’s arguments around the idea of a videogame canon in Futurismic last year, a biographical piece examining the question “why game?”, reviews of indie titles Recettear, Flotilla and The Void, and contributions to group pieces – one arguing the toss about achievements, the other looking forward at what’s coming later in 2011. Plus some occasional fluffy pieces – like one about my naff Minecraft constructions or me bitching about how tough the last levels of Syndicate Wars were.

Del.icio.us links for January 24th through January 30th:

» Read the rest of this entry «

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…

Okay, okay. I’ve been terrible for the last few weeks. Without even the del.icio.us round-ups this blog’s been looking like a ghost town. Here’s the thing: I’ve been torn two ways between sleeping really badly (insomnia is no fun) and being really busy with the day job. I know no one reading this gives a rat’s ass about excuses, but that’s yer lot.

I also need to shake up what I’m spending my time on. Project 365! has been fun, but it’s also quite intense and I’m routinely leaving it a fortnight between posts. I think I’m going to knock that little experiment on the head unless anyone is really enjoying it. As in masturbating whilst reading and unable to achieve climax without an update. Project 52! I’ll probably keep going because it doesn’t require such regular updates, and this allows me to think a little deeper and write a little more broadly about the books I’ve read.

I’ve enjoyed the few music reviews I’ve done recently and I want to start doing more of those. Every time I listen to a new record or attend a show I’m thinking about what I can write about it. The actual writing it up part is a bit trickier, but I’ll work something out. Even if it means taking a little notepad to shows and looking like a bit of a dork.

Friday flash fiction: as you’ve no doubt seen there’s been very little of this for a while. I’m pleased that the few people who got back to me about ‘Funeral’ had positive things to say as that was an interesting one to write. Going back a bit further, however, to the week where I posted four stories in five days, I realised that I was pushing myself to achieve quantity rather than quality, and often I was writing up half-formed ideas. ‘Heralded By Iron’ isn’t even an idea: it’s a collection of vaguely cool images. I don’t want to be sharing sub-standard fiction. Or at least, sub-standard for my own meagre abilities.

So as far as the flashfic goes, I’ll post one up when I feel like writing one. No promises. I get the most readers and feedback for my short stories, though, so don’t think this is me abandoning the Glorious Experiment altogether.

I also want to get back into writing longer fiction. In fact I have a couple of novel ideas floating around that I’d like to try and make a start on. It’s been some time since I attempted a novel (not since ’07, I think). This is not even mentioning the dozens of longer short pieces that I need to rewrite and try to get published. Did I mention that I’m lazy and poorly motivated?

Here’s the plan: I’m not going to force myself to meet any sort of schedule. I react poorly to deadlines and very quickly grow to resent them. What I am going to do is write what I want, when I want, as often as I want. This may be a music review or flash fiction or a P52! post or even one of my intermittent political ragebursts, and you folks will see these. Or it may be some work on something longer, and you won’t see these, but if there’s something interesting about the creative process, my mistakes, or my successes, I will probably share these anecdotes. I may even write occasionally about my band, Wrecktheplacefantastic, because our new drummer has pretty much nailed all our old songs and we’re looking to write new material and start gigging again.

Sound fair?

Thanks to everyone who regularly visits this blog: you make it all worthwhile.

Del.icio.us links for March 17th through March 18th:

» Read the rest of this entry «

Del.icio.us links for January 29th through January 30th:

» Read the rest of this entry «