Speaking of Bad News Coverage...

I have become increasingly disgusted by the election coverage by, well, pretty much everyone really. It seems that they're all doing a spectacularly poor job, especially the supposedly 'quality' reporters.

There are two sides to the problem, one on a UK-wide level and a second on a Scotland-wide one.

The big problem when using the UK-wide lens is that the media seem to have failed utterly to adapt to the changed situation in the country - they still act as if it's a binary choice between Labour or the Tories, and they still seem to think of the Lib Dems as a major party (as opposed to a zombie about to receive a headshot). And, when they consider other parties at all, the story is all about UKIP and the surge they're trying to make happen. (You can decide for yourself who I mean by 'they're' in that last sentence.)

The crucial problem with that approach is that politics has changed, and changed dramatically. It's very likely that neither Labour nor the Tories will gain a majority, which means the really important bit are those 'minor' parties who will make the difference - it really matters whether it's the Lib Dems, or UKIP, or the SNP who hold the balance of power. And, indeed, with things as finely judged as they are, it may well even be crucial whether the Greens end up with 0, 1, 2, or more seats. (Indeed, it could turn out to be the Northern Irish parties, who have thus far been almost totally ignored, who end up making the key difference.)

The problem when using the narrower Scotland-wide lens is that the media still seem to be in referendum mode, where "Yes" means the SNP and "No" means Labour. Which is a nonsense on both counts - it's likely that much of "Labour for Independence" won't be voting SNP, for instance, while the "No" vote will be split, at least to some extent, between the Lab/Con/Lib parties. (Well, okay, between Labour and the Tories.)

And it really doesn't help that I don't trust them.

Snowpocalypse? Naw!

Once again, there was a hint of snow about the weather, and so once again the weather forecasters and the news channels were predicting massive disruption, travel chaos, and all the attendant woes.

In the event, two inches of snow fell, the gritters were out in force, the roads got cleared, and it was all okay. That's not to say there was no disruption - of course there was some - but it most certainly was not the disaster that had been threatened.

I find myself wondering: is this all still a reaction to them getting thoroughly caught out by the freak snowfall of five years ago? Or is it instead a desperate attempt to turn "Snow! In January!" into news fit for a 24-hour news cycle? Because on the face of it, it's utterly mad - what people need is accurate information so that they can make wise decisions. False predictions of doom are every bit as problematic, and much more common, than us being caught out by freak weather events.

This Week's Mug: A somewhat delayed anecdote this week, but this week's mug is a simple white mug with a wraparound design showing Ashness Bridge and Keswick, as painted by Colin Williamson. As the design suggests, this was purchased while in Keswick some five years ago, on the event of LC and my first trip away together. A weekend away marked by some nice walks, an issue with some smelly cheese in the car, and, yes, snow.

Experimental Cookery 2015 #2: Piri Piri Prawns

This week's recipe comes from the third Hairy Dieters book, "Good Eating". To be honest, I've not been hugely impressed with this book, partly because I had unfairly high expectations after the last one, but partly because it just feels like one book too far. However, I did think I should at least give it a go.

The method here was really easy - blitz up a marinade in a food processor, leave the prawns in it overnight, and then 6 minutes in a blazing hot griddle.

The result was very tasty, though I suspect I did slightly over-cook the prawns. However, I did feel that the meal as a whole was a bit lacking - we paired it with a crunchy salad, and it was filling enough, but... I dunno, I just didn't feel completely satisfied.

Still, I do expect we'll do these again, possibly when entertaining guests or as part of a barbeque. I didn't have any complaints about the dish itself, I just feel it would be better paired with something else.

#3: "Wars of the Roses: Stormbird", by Conn Iggulden
#4: "Pirate's Promise", by Chris A. Jackson
#5: "William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope", by Ian Doescher

This Week's Mug: At great risk, I have selected my "Icelandic Vikings" mug for this week. The reason I consider this a risk is that I bought this mug in my one and only stopover in Iceland, when I was travelling en route to Minnesota. I suspect I'm unlikely to go that way again, certainly not any time soon, so am not in a position to replace it. I have no real idea who the "Icelandic Vikings" are; I just thought having a mug with vikings on would be cool.

The Firefly/Serenity Expanded Universe

Late last week I ordered the four volumes of Serenity graphic novels, which constitute the entirety of that setting's "expanded universe". Over the weekend I read through these, and my opinion was... mixed.

A couple of the stories ("Better Days" and "A Shepherd's Tale") either feel very much like an episode of the show or they serve to fill in some of the gaps in the show, while also adding something new to the setting. Those were definitely the more worthwhile of the stories.

Some of the stories ("Downtime", "The Other Half") were fine, but they were too short to really be of too much interest - just stuff that happened. Similarly, one of the bigger stories ("Float Out") was largely inconsequential.

But some of the stories ("Those Left Behind", "Leaves on the Wind") just didn't quite sit right. There are two reasons for this, both of which have been issues with either the Star Wars prequels or its expanded universe.

The first issue is the repeated use of recurring characters: Dobson, Jubal Early, the Operative. Badger is also reused, but he's a somewhat different case as he wasn't a one-off in the first place.

The problem here is that continued reuse of the same characters actually shrinks the universe rather than expanding it. If the same half dozen heroes keep bouncing around the same half dozen villains, that suggests that the 'Verse, rather than being populated by billions, actually only houses a dozen or so people of any interest. It's actually better only to reuse characters very sparingly, and even then only when that most definitely is the right character to use - no other will do.

The second issue is that Serenity and Mal Reynolds seem to be undergoing the same sort of legendary ascension as the Millennium Falcon and Han Solo have undergone in Star Wars. Where the Falcon was once just a stock light freighter that Han had made some "special modifications" to, it became the result of a freakishly good build in the plant, then passed through the hands of several legendary owners, before coming to Han as the most wonderfully unique ship in the galaxy... not the "piece of junk" it started out. And where Han started out as a somewhat amoral smuggler who happens to get caught up in great events despite himself, he instead becomes the outstanding Imperial pilot of his generation who dropped out in a grand statement of moral outrage, before proceeding to become the greatest of military geniuses, and...

Serenity and Mal Reynolds are very much the image of the Falcon and its owner before Star Wars started out, only perhaps moreso - Mal was a soldier in the war who had a certain competence but a general lack of respect for his officers, who lost his faith as a result of that war, and was thus generally pretty embittered. Nowhere in there is he a legend. And Serenity is pretty much a Ford Transit. No, seriously.

So when the comics show Serenity blowing up a reaver ship simply by flying near it, and when Mal is described somehow as being the foremost military genius of his age, it really doesn't sit right.

(Incidentally, my latest Star Wars thought: you know that saying the some people are born great, others achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them? Anakin is the first, Luke is the second, and Han is the third.)

Still, there's some interesting material in here, and the stories that are good are pretty good. So, I'll keep tabs on whatever comes next and give it a read. Though for my RPG exploits, my intention is to ignore it almost completely.

Leaders' Debates

It's fair to say I'm not a fan of the debates - my view is that in the UK we don't elect a government or a Prime Minister but rather elect a representative, so unless my local candidates are going to have a debate then I'm not sure of the relevance. However, the debates are a fact, and probably do have at least some impact on the outcome of the election. And so they must be done right.

The way I see it, there are two possible ways of looking at these debates:

They might be "Prime Ministerial" debates, in which case they really should be a head-to-head between David Cameron and Ed Miliband, because whatever happens in May it's 99% likely that one of those two will become Prime Minister thereafter. (There's always the possibility of injury or illness, or the possibility that coalition agreement requires a new leader - c.f. Gordon Brown. But any thought that the PM won't be from either Labour or the Conservatives is the stuff of fantasy, more's the pity.)

The other possibility is that they're about who might form the next government, which is especially pertinent this time out when a hung parliament looks very likely. In that case, the debates really need to have representatives from Labour and the Tories, plus the Lib Dems, UKIP, and the SNP.

(Alternately, you could argue that the SNP spot should go instead to a representative of the new SNP/Plaid Cymru/Green voting block. Fair enough... but in practice that means the SNP anyway, they being the largest partner.)

Because while the polls don't (and can't) give a definitive indication, what they do seem to say is that any one of those three parties (and, indeed, only those three parties) may hold the balance of power after the election, and so be critical in the formation of the next government. They should all be heard, and in a UK-wide context they should all be heard equally.

Additionally, the fact that the SNP only stand in Scotland is an irrelevancy, for two reasons. The first is simple mathematics: despite standing in only 59 constitutencies, if they take enough of those 59 then they can hold the balance of power. And, frankly, they're more likely to do that than UKIP are to jump from 2 MPs to 30+.

The second reason is this: the people of England (and Wales and NI) may well find their government decided by the SNP, and they therefore need to know what the SNP have to say. Voters in England will most likely have heard the Lib Dem message, and will have heard the UKIP message (thanks to the BBC publicising their every move). And, of course, we all know that the Tories stand for the rich getting richer and that Labour don't stand for anything.

But it's unlikely that more than a tiny fraction of English voters will know anything about the SNP beyond the caricature shown in the Daily Mail and Guardian. Yes, it's true that their main focus is independence for Scotland, but given that five years of government would be about much more than that (and, indeed, in the event of a Labour/SNP government wouldn't be about that), it's kind of important to know more - where do they stand on schools, on health, on defence...?

(If nothing else, if voters in England heard what the SNP had to say and found that they hated it, then they have the power to ensure the SNP get nowhere near controlling the balance of power - just vote for a majority Labour or Tory administration.)

So, that's my take: either the debates should be a Cameron/Miliband head-to-head, or they should involve the five parties who might be involved in making up the next government (Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, UKIP, and SNP).

So... Cold...

The heating in the office isn't working, and as it is usually switched off over the weekend to conserve energy this means that the office is freezing. Thus far, nobody has suggested we huddle together to conserve body heat. The moment someone does, I'm heading home.

This Week's Mug: This week's mug is the Superman mug I've mentioned before. It is a deep blue all over, with the Superman crest on front and back. And it bears a marking indicating that it is neither microwave nor dishwasher safe on the bottom. I received this mug as a Christmas gift in 2013.

Experimental Cookery 2015 #1: Beef Goulash

One of the things I'm hoping to do in 2015 is to resume my too-sporadic "Experimental Cookery" series. That being the case, here's the first entry of the new year.

This one comes from the Hairy Dieters book "Eat For Life" (the yellow one). This is a book I've used several times and that has never let me down.

And tonight's dinner was no exception. Truth is, it was never going to be very demanding - a handful of veg to chop, a few minutes browing the meat, and then a little time on the hop and a lot of time in the oven, and it's done.

The only thing to note is that the recipe really needs more water - I added the 600ml at the start, and then a further 400ml (ish) when I added the peppers after an hour and a half, and it was still awfully dry by the end. I think perhaps more regular additions of 200ml here and there would have done better. (That said, I'm somewhat inclined to adapt this recipe for the slow cooker, in which case the liquid needs should be re-adjusted anyway.)

The result was once again quite pleasing - nice tender meat, a hearty taste, and a very filling meal all around. This one will definitely be being added to my rotation.

It's also worth noting that that second Hairy Dieters book is definitely my recommended volume of the three. The first is good two, with the third being a comparitive let-down, but the second is definitely the star. It's also one of my big three recommends, along with "Jamie's Ministry of Food" and Hugh's "River Cottage Every Day". I have several other cookbooks that are decent, but those are the three that I come back to again and again.

#2: "D&D: Hoard of the Dragon Queen", by Wolfgang Baur and Steve Winter

It Has Gone To a Better Place

While I'm on the topic of Christmas presents, I shall tell you about socks. For Christmas I received seven pairs of socks. One person bought me a pack of five pairs of Doctor Who socks, while another person bought me two individual pairs of Doctor Who socks. This suggests that I might be becoming typecast as a person who likes Doctor Who.

Or wearing socks. It's definitely one of the two. But that's not really important right not.

Anyway, for some time LC has been talking about throwing away some of my socks, despite them still being perfectly good. Apparently, she is unaware of the manly convention that any sock with fewer than three holes in it is barely worn.

And so it was that a few days ago I opened the bin to find a single discarded sock staring accusingly up at me. "How could you fail us so," it seemed to ask. "We trusted you to protect us!"

Grief-stricken, I therefore threw a bunch of other rubbish on top (that being why I opened the bin) and then mourned my loss. For a sock to have passed so young was a real tragedy - it was only two!

Still, I have since come to terms with my loss, and accepted that it has indeed gone to a better place. Well, landfill.

Of course, I couldn't help but notice that there was only one sock in the bin. But I've been instructed not to mention the Sock Conspiracy any more...

This Week's Mug: This week's mug is a Star Wars mug with a black experior on which the legends "Stormtrooper", "Legion", and "TK-421" are marked. I received this mug as a Christmas present from CJ, prompting my recent mug contemplations.

Mug Rotation

One of the presents I received for Christmas was a rather spiffing coffee mug. This was especially appreciated as I've been having some mug-related issues at work ever since my official work mug got broken in a freak "why did I do that?" accident - for a short while I was using an Icelandic Vikings mug until I realised the great risk that this involved, then I briefly switched to a Superman mug, before settling on a TARDIS mug for the bulk of last year (which could contain more coffee than most of my other mugs. Feel free to insert the obvious joke here).

Plus, LC was particularly glad I got a new mug, as she is frequently heard encouraging me to buy some new ones to reduce our crippling shortage.

I was quite excited to try out my new mug at work, until I noticed a fatal weakness, in fact the same weakness that caused me to stop using the Superman mug. Printed on the bottom of the mug is the dire warning, "Not suitable for use in a dishwasher or microwave" (or in the presence of Kryptonite in the case of the Superman mug, obviously). Deflated, I sadly placed the mug on a shelf, never again to see the light of day.

Until I had my wonderful idea!

One of the mug-related issues that I constantly face is that I have many mugs from my travels, but only ever actually use one at home: my favouritest-ever special mug that I especially bought while in Brittany (at the Festival de Saint Loup with the band). Which means that those many other mugs spend most of their time sitting in their trees, jealously waiting the day when we have people round to drink coffee (or, more likely, I need to crack an egg).

My wonderful idea, therefore, is that 2015 will be The Year of Mug Rotation! Each week I shall take a different mug to work for coffee-drinking purposes, until such time that I have used them all.

This will have three benefits. Firstly, it will allow all of my mugs to have their week in the sun, thus preventing ill-feeling amongst those that seldom get used. Secondly, it will make work just that little bit more interesting, which is obviously key. And, thirdly, there's always the possibility that one or more of my colleagues might remark on the weekly mug change, allowing me to regale them with my aptly-named Mug Anecdotes.

And as we know, everyone loves a mug anecdote...

#1: "Pathfinder: Palace of Fallen Stars", by Tim Hitchcock

Goals for 2015

Okay, it's a day late, but here's the promised post with my goals for 2015.

Setting goals is actually a bit tricky this year, because I'm a great believer in SMART goals - a 'good' goal should be Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, and Time-bound. The AT of this is easily achieved, but I've had some difficulties with SMR for the rest of them, as for most things I'm in quite a good position and the goal is really, "more of the same, please".

Because of the nature of this year, I don't have any monthly or quarterly goals. All my goals are set to run for the whole of the year. Still, there should be some ability to measure them as we go:

• Weight: The big carry-over from last year, this goal is unchanged: I would like to lose a stone and a half this year. More would be nice, but given the failure of the last two years I'm going to focus on the stated goal and not worry about anything beyond that.
• Books: The other repeat goal is also the same: I would like to read 60 books this year, including 12 from The List. I do have a couple of other sub-lists for the year, but am largely ignoring this.
• Games: I would like to take part in twelve game sessions this year, giving an average of one a month. Ideally, I would like four sessions as a player amongst these, but that's an aspiration and not a formal goal.
• Work: This one really is "more of the same". Work has been going pretty well, and I would like to continue in this same vein.
• Band: I'm not setting a goal for our competition season, as that is largely outwith my control. However, I would like to see my current students start breaking into the main band. So that's the target: to see one of my students play in one of our competitions this year. (Unless the Development Band does indeed restart, in which case this goal will need to be reformulated.)
• Super Secret Goal #4: Actually, this isn't exactly secret: ideally, we're hoping to move house late this year. This will involve several steps, as we'll need to get the roof fixed, redecorate the whole flat, and sell up, all while also looking for a suitable new place to live. All of which is slightly complicated by LC's work situation - because she's on long-term supply rather than in a permanent position, it's difficult to pick a place that's going to suit both our commutes. Oh well...

So that's it: six goals for the year, including one that has carried-over, two repeats, and three that are nicely measurable. That'll do.

My Year in 2014

So, the end of another year, and time for another end-of-year round-up. As I said last year, these actually get easier to write each time, as the headings are largely the same and it becomes mostly a matter of comparison with what went before.

The major take-away from 2014 is that it was a much better year than 2013 in all sorts of ways. It started well, and although there was never really a high-point as such, the whole thing was generally satisfying. So, I'm happy with that.

My Year in... Work

Work has been hard this year, but it has also been quite successful. My annual report was fairly stellar, which is always nice, and I've been kept busy with fairly interesting challenges. There was no trip to the US, or indeed anywhere else, this year, which is something of a shame, but otherwise it's been good.

My Year in... Health

My health has been generally good in 2014. There have been a couple of IBS flare-ups, including one that was very nasty, but that's just life now. The only other thing of note was that after the car crash in October my neck was once again painful. That's not hugely surprising, and it's much better now, but it was still less than ideal.

Oh, and my aim to lose weight this year failed utterly. That will need to be addressed again in the new year.

My Year in... Gaming

2014 was a somewhat disappointing year for gaming, mostly because I had not one but two games collapse on me: "Star Wars: Imperial Fist" came to a fairly abrupt end when one of my players dropped out, while my 5e test game failed to attract many players to begin with and so was wrapped up early as well.

Likewise, I didn't get far with running one-shots: both "A Lament for Lustivan" and "Ultraviolet: 2XS" failed to attract a quorum. That said, the Christmas game went very well, meaning that the year ended on a high note.

On the playing side, I was involved in two sessions of "Numenera" and one of "GUMSHOE", all of which were very enjoyable. The "Numenera" game still has one session to run, though it's not clear when, or even if, this will happen.

The other noteworthy thing was the release of the new edition of D&D, which has impressed, and Firefly which looks really good.

My hope for 2015 is to run a number of episodes of "Firefly" - essentially a sort-of campaign built from the pre-published adventures for the system, but with a potentially rotating cast of players. I'm not planning a 'full' campaign of any sort, nor do I have any other one-shots in the pipeline.

My Year in... Band

Band has been extremely mixed this year. Basically, the competition season sucked, and (probably as a result of that) I had some real problems dealing with the pipe major. On the other hand, the teaching I've been doing has been very enjoyable, and ever since the band has resumed after the AGM things have been much calmer.

It would be nice to think 2015 will carry on in the same vein as the past two months, but I think I'll believe that when I see it. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the Development Band will be resumed, so that part of the plan is a non-starter.

My Year in... Resolutions

I've posted about my goals already, and am fairly happy with those.

My Year in... Travel

I've been rather remiss in updating my blog about our trips this year, to put it mildly.

LC and I took three trips this year. In April we spent a few days in Belfast to celebrate our second wedding anniversary. This was a fun, quiet trip. We saw the Titanic museum, went on a day trip out to the Giant's Causeway, and took the bus tour of the city.

In July, we took our long-awaited 'real' holiday to Barcelona. Which was lovely, but soooo hot. We spent a full week there, seeing lots of sights and generally having a fun, relaxed time.

And, finally, we spent a few days in Cardiff. Unfortunately, due to school timetables, we had to go the week before the "Doctor Who Experience" re-opened, which probably means we've missed it - it's not worth doing there for that alone, and I think we've now mostly 'done' Cardiff. Still, it was a good trip for all that.

I'm not at all sure what 2015 might bring as far as travel goes. I guess we'll see - it's an adventure!

My Year in... Faith

This year saw me put right one of my niggling issues, which was that for a long time I didn't have any clear pattern of Bible reading. I had read the whole Bible before, of course, finally finishing it back in Part Two when I was living in Yeovil. Since then, however, I hadn't really been in the habit of daily readings - I find it hard to re-read things I have already read, especially things I've already read recently.

This year, I embarked on a second read-through of the whole Bible, following Don Carson's "For the Love of God" (which in turn uses Robert Murray M'Cheyne daily pattern). This has meant reading a few chapters a day, and saw me read the whole of the Bible once, and the Psalms and the New Testament twice, over the course of the year.

This was a useful experience, I think, although I have decided not to repeat it next year, because of what I said before - I've now read it all recently, so it's too soon to revisit it once more. Perhaps for 2016 I'll get volume two of DC's work and start again.

Otherwise, there's not much to tell. Things are proceeding much as they have done this last age.

My Year in... Love

2014 was a marked improvement over 2013. LC completed her probation year, and then found herself a long-term supply job. She's now finished this and starting another job in January, which will run through the year. This has represented huge progress, and I was very proud with the results of the two interviews she had just before Christmas, which resulted in not one but two offers.

The major downside of 2014 was the sad passing of our little hamster Eowyn, who had to be put down due to suffering several small tumours. This was a sad occasion, and left the living room decidedly less squeaky.

Apart from that there's not a lot to say. 2014 has been our most successful year as a couple, but it's hard to express exactly why in words. So: Awesome; that is all.

My Year... Overall

2014 has been an extremely blessed year all around, although not without its hardships. I can therefore look back on it a lot more favourably than 2013, and can look to 2015 with significant hope. I just hope it lives up to it!

Anyway, this will be my last post of this year (I'll post new goals tomorrow), so I'll end off by wishing anyone who still reads my nonsense a very happy New Year, and all the best for 2015.

Books of the Year 2014

And so we come to the end of 2014. The list below is slightly provisional: there's a slight chance I may yet finish one more book and have to update. However, I suspect "The City" is much more likely to be book #1 of 2015 than to be #63 of 2014. Which isn't a terrible thing, as the next novel is a big one!

Update: Sure enough, I did finish "The City" last night, with about 3 hours to spare. So I've added that to the list and made a small number of changes below.

Anyway, here's the list:

1. "The Commodore", by Patrick O'Brian
2. "Ten Little Aliens", by Stephen Cole
3. "Stalking the Beast", by Howard Andrew Jones
4. "David Copperfield", by Charles Dickens *
5. "Pathfinder: Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth", by Wolfgang Baur
6. "The Yellow Admiral", by Patrick O'Brian
7. "Dreams of Empire", by Justin Richards
8. "The Dagger of Trust", by Chris Willrich
9. "The Wind in the Willows", by Kenneth Grahame *
10. "The Hundred Days", by Patrick O'Brian
11. "Pathfinder: City of Locusts", by Richard Pett
12. "Pathfinder: the Half-dead City", by Jim Groves
13. "A Memory of Light", by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
14. "Blue at the Mizzen", by Patrick O'Brian
15. "Festival of Death", by Jonathan Morris
16. "Skinwalkers", by Wendy N. Wagner
17. "Scoundrels", by Timothy Zahn
18. "Pathfinder: Empty Graves", by Crystal Frasier
19. "The Final, Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey", by Patrick O'Brian
20. "Little Women & Good Wives", by Louisa May Alcott *
21. "Fear of the Dark", by Trevor Baxendale
22. "The Redemption Engine", by James L. Sutter
23. "The Lovely Bones", by Alice Sebold *
24. "Pathfinder: Shifting Sands", by Richard Pett
25. "The Golden Ocean", by Patrick O'Brian
26. "Players", by Terrance Dicks
27. "Raising Steam", by Terry Pratchett
28. "Angela's Ashes", by Frank McCourt *
29. "Pathfinder: Secrets of the Sphinx", by Amber E. Scott
30. "Firefly Roleplaying Game: Core Book", by Margaret Weis Productions
31. "Cross-Stitch", by Diana Gabaldon *
32. "Remembrance of the Daleks", by Ben Aaronovitch
33. "The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day", by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen
34. "Ender's Game", by Orson Scott Card *
35. "The Crusader Road", by Michael A. Stackpole
36. "Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Limited Edition Rulebook", by Cubicle Seven
37. "Solo", by William Boyd
38. "The Cuckoo's Calling", by Robert Galbraith
39. "Pathfinder: The Slave Trenches of Hakotep", by Michael Kortes
40. "Pathfinder: Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh", by Mike Shel
41. "Earthworld", by Jacqueline Rayner
42. "Pathfinder: Ultimate Campaign", by Paizo Publishing
43. "The Grapes of Wrath", by John Steinbeck *
44. "Pathfinder: Fires of Creation", by Neil Spicer
45. "The Ocean at the End of the Lane", by Neil Gaiman
46. "Reign of Stars", by Tim Pratt
47. "Only Human", by Gareth Roberts
48. "Beautiful Chaos", by Gary Russell
49. "Pathfinder: Lords of Rust", by Nicolas Logue
50. "Bleak House", by Charles Dickens *
51. "East of Eden", by John Steinbeck *
52. "Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 Stories", by Various Authors
53. "Pathfinder: The Choking Tower", by Rob Lundeen
54. "The Silent Stars Go By", by Dan Abnett
55. "Winnie the Pooh", by A.A. Milne *
56. "Nightblade", by Liane Merciel
57. "Red Dwarf: Backwards", by Rob Grant
58. "Firefly: Echoes of War: Thrillin' Heroics", by Margaret Weis Productions
59. "A Christmas Carol and other Christmas writings", by Charles Dickens *
60. "Pathfinder: Valley of the Brain Collectors", by Mike Shel
61. "For the Love of God, volume one", by Don Carson
62. "Holy Bible", by Various Authors *
63. "The City", by Stella Gemmell

So, that gives a grand total of 63 books, including thirteen from The List (technically, the Bible is on The List, though you can discount it if you want). Of these, there are sixteen RPG books, two re-reads (the Bible and "Backwards"), and I've also completed all of my sub-lists for the year. All in all, it has been very successful.

The book of the year is "The Grapes of Wrath". In fact, I'll go one further and say this is actually probably the single best book I have ever read, pushing Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities" into second place. It's really not a comfortable read, but all the more powerful for all that. ("East of Eden" is also a superb book, but on balance I prefer the other. It's close, though.)

The worst book of the year was also an easy choice, being "Outlander". I really didn't like that one!

An honourable mention really must go to the Aubrey/Maturin series, which maintained an extremely high level of quality right to the very end. The final, unfinished volume was something of a disappointment, and so not one I would recommend, but the circumstances behind this provide the obvious explanation. My recommendation would be to stop with "Blue at the Mizzen", which is as perfect an ending for the series as one could wish.

A second honourable mention must go to "A Memory of Light", not because it's a particularly great book in and of itself, but because of what it represents: I've finished "The Wheel of Time"!

Next year I'm aiming to again reach 60 books. Three of the sub-series will continue unchanged: the Pathfinder (12), Pathfinder Tales (6), and Books from The List (12) series will remain intact. Beyond that I don't have specific series planned, though I do have a number of books picked out - there are several new books coming, as well as a number I picked up in 2014 but didn't get chance to read; I'm hoping to tackle the last part of the Musketeer trilogy, which itself is in three volumes; I have several RPG books to read, for the Firefly RPG and the new edition of D&D; and I have the three Shakespearean Star Wars scripts to read.

End of Year Update on Goals

With the Christmas Game taking place yesterday, I'm now unlikely to make any meaningful progress on any of my goals. Therefore, since I will have several things to post tomorrow, I thought I'd make a head start on the end-of-year wrap-up with my final update on this year's goals:

• Weight: The first entry is also the worst, I'm afraid: once again I made no progress whatsoever here.
  
• Work: This goal was a success, with 2014 seeing me consolidate the good work I did in 2013. Although the last two months proved to be a major slog, the hard work paid off, and I ended quite strongly again. Success!
  
• Books: I passed the target of 60 books a few weeks ago, and will finish the year at either 62 or 63 (the former being more likely). I'll post the list tomorrow. Success!
  
• Games: This one failed, but only just. I did indeed complete the "Star Wars: Imperial Fist" campaign, although this ended in somewhat disappointing style (actually, the last session was very enjoyable; it was just the lead-up to that that wasn't great). I also ran a short-lived D&D 5e game, but that only made two sessions before again failing. And two of the three planned one-shots didn't happen: "A Lament for Lustivan" failed to draw a quorum at its third and final attempt, and "Ultraviolet: 2XS" disappeared without even a whimper. On the other hand, I did get to play in two sessions of "Numenera" and one of "GUMSHOE", completing that part of the goal, and the year ended very strongly with a successful Christmas Game ("Firefly: Inglorious", for the Firefly RPG). So a narrow failure, with a positive ending.
  
• Maintenance: This was done, reopened, done, reopened... and ends the year done. There will be some work needing done on the flat next year (getting the roof fixed, hopefully in January, then lots of little jobs, and a big redecoration). But the goal itself was completed quite handily.
  
• Computer: This was completed quite suddenly when my laptop suddenly died on me. This was a fault in the screen, which meant that the hard drive survived, which in turn meant that I didn't lose anything of any significance (possibly a few emails, but even then it was just a few, and nothing vital). Besides, I had backups, so any risk was always minimal. Success!
  
• Money: This was also achieved, with me finally paying back the money I owed Dad from buying my car back in August. Of course, this was paid off just in time for the car to get written off when the clocks changed, but that's just coincidence, I'm sure. Anyway, success!
  
• Non-Goal #1: Band: I didn't set a goal for band, but I did indicate that I mostly just wanted to enjoy the season. By that metric, I failed. However, there were lots of positives for the band, and we end the year strongly. So, I'm hopeful things will improve.
  
• Non-goal #2: The Bible: I also didn't set a goal regarding this, but at the start of 2014 I did set out on a programme of Bible reading, using Don Carson's "For the Love of God". I was a little concerned with this that if I ever missed a day then that would fail, but I'm pleased to report that I've actually completed all but one of the daily readings, with one day to go (the one I've not yet done is, of course, the one for tomorrow). So that will succeed.

So, that's one disaster and one narrow failure, plus one non-goal mixed bag. Stacked up against that there five goals and one non-goal succeeded. All in all, a pretty strong year.

For next year I'll have another set of goals, though I suspect this will be slightly less extensive. In particular, I'll be redoubling my efforts on the weight front, and will want to look again at what I'm doing with regard to gaming. But I doubt that there will be any real surprises in the mix!

Oh, one more thing: this is the 1,200th post on this blog. So add that milestone to the successes for the year!

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies

Yes, it's time for my third and final bitter rant about how they've managed to mess up their adaptation of "The Hobbit" by turning it into a prequel trilogy for "Lord of the Rings"! Complete with parallels with "Revenge of the Sith", and nitpicks of minor characters.

Yay.

Actually, I'm going to try to be brief, but there are going to be big spoilers from here on out. The non-spoiler version: like RotS, this film has a good start and a good end, but it really lags in the middle. Oh, and that 'good' start and end isn't even all that good - the first was annoying while the second actually left me bored.

Anyway, there are spoilers from here on out.

The film opens with Smaug's attack on Laketown, which is pretty spectacular and generally excellent. I really liked Bard's one-man resistance, and the bit where his son raced to get him the black arrow was also good.

But they messed it up at the end.

Annoyingly, infuriatingly, maddeningly, they decided that it wasn't enough to have their bowman make his one last desperate shot with his last remaining arrow, right in the face of the dragon. No, that wasn't exciting enough. So instead they decided to have his bow break. And so he constructs himself a makeshift bow by wedging the two halves somewhere in the tower he was standing on, and using his son to sight his shot.

And with one spectacularly bad mis-step they undo all their good work to date.

Probably the worst thing about all of this, beyond just the inherent stupidity of thinking you could make any sort of useful weapon like that, is that they actually foreshadowed the way the scene should play out in the previous film - they made sure to show us the ballista, they commented that there were no black arrows left, and then they showed us that Bard did, in fact, have one such arrow. So there's your desperate last stand - after his arrows are done he casts aside his bow to take the desperate last shot with the ballista.

This is then followed by the rescue of Gandalf from capture, which is actually really well done. My only issue with this scene (other than the nitpick that we don't see what Galadriel actually does to that one orc), came with an epiphany about how these prequels could be better...

One of the problems with prequels is that they tie into a story that has already been told. This limits the scope of what you can really do. However, it can be negated somewhat if you can show something that hasn't been previously revealed. And there's an option here:

We know from "The Lord of the Rings" that Saruman the White is both wise and powerful, being the head of Gandalf's order, and his trusted friend. We also know that he comes to betray Gandalf having become convinced Sauron is unstoppable (in the film version, at least). But we never learn how he comes to this point.

So, with one easy switch, we get this fixed: allow Gandalf to convince the wise Saruman of the threat at the White Council. Have Saruman, not Gandalf, go investigate and get captured by the Witch King. (And his motives for going in alone make sense here: he's arrogant in his power.) Show him being tortured by Sauron/the Witch King, and then show him being rescued. And then, at the end of this film, show him holed up in Isengard, bent over desperately crafting his own "ring of power".

And, at a stroke, you eliminate Gandalf's moment of madness in the second film, you tie up a major loose end in the series, and you add an extra link back to both the original trilogy and to the books. Not bad for a trivial character switch, is it?

Anyway, after that we have lots of scenes of Thorin's growing madness, and the build up to the inevitable Battle of the Five Armies. These are mostly good, though they go on too long and are too repetitive. Unfortunately, though, I just don't 'feel' Richard Armitage's take on Thorin. Basically, having spent most of the first film being pretty damn mean to Bilbo, and then in the second film being willing to casually leave him to die, I found there wasn't all that much change between the mad Thorin of this film and the sane Thorin of the previous ones.

And then, finally, we get to the Battle of the Five Armies, which is suitably spectacular... and hugely problematic. Where to begin...

Actually, I'm going to begin with Tauriel, who just sucks. It's absolutely not Evangeline Lilly's fault, but her character shouldn't even be there.

I have two big problems with the character. The first is that we're expected to believe that she and Kili have developed True Luv over the course of the two films - that is, over the course of a few hours spent together across a few days of the adventure, in which time they have one conversation of any depth. And then she's devastated when he dies, thus demonstrating that it's 'real'.

Yeah, that's not love. That's emotional instability. Sorry, I don't buy it, at all.

But the biggest, most damning problem with Tauriel comes with her role as a warrior woman, and is something I've ranted about before. Basically, she's presented as being competent and cool and badass... right up to the point where it really matters. And then, suddenly, she needs a Man to come and rescue her. And, in fact, here she needs two: first Kili and then Legolas!.

Just no. If you're going to feel the need to include a warrior woman because of equality, then let her do her own damn rescuing. Ripley and Sarah Conner did.

As it happens, all the elves are problematic in this film. It's pretty clear, almost right away, that the battle is constructed as it is to show us some cool visuals without any thought to sound tactics or strategy, or even internal consistency.

For example, the dwarves twice form a shield wall in order to repel an orcish charge. This is great... except that both times the wall then gets broken - the first time by elves jumping the wall to engage the orcs in a destructive melee (instead of, I don't know, wiping them out with arrows), the second time by the charge of Thorin and his company... as if adding 13 more dwarves would actually make any real difference. (Actually, in this scenario, it would - lots of dwarves would die unnecessarily.)

Or how about the orcish tactic of using burrowing worms to bring their troops to the battlefield under the earth. That gives us some great visuals. Except... why did they deliver the troops to the battlefield outside the dwarven fortress? Why not burrow past all their defences and attack from within?

And those catapults we see in the trailers, the ones carried by the cave trolls? Those are pretty cool, yes... except that the battle happens during the day and trolls turn to stone in sunlight. I mean, it's not as if that was a key plot point two films ago...

(The difference with the trolls in "Return of the King" is that Sauron has stretched out his hand to darken the day before launching his attack on Minas Tirith - which was also a key plot point.)

See, it's these little details that were so great in the previous trilogy that just don't quite work here, and which are really annoying.

Finally, there's Legolas!, another character who really shouldn't be here. Again, not because of a problem with the actor, or even the character. But he steals the show from the dwarves so thoroughly as to detract from the whole. Plus, this was the film where he stepped from absurd shield-surfing antics to ridiculousness: riding a troll "Ratatouille"-style and then running up a collapsing stairway of bricks.

I've gone on way too long. Truth is, I didn't really expect to like this film, and pretty much for all the reasons I've given. There's not much here that I couldn't have predicted. Ultimately, "The Hobbit" trilogy has proven just to be a big let-down, to the extent that I'd actually rather they hadn't made it (since we now can't get a better version).

All in all, a real shame.

Nevermind Then

I've just received an email advertising the Grand Hogmanay Ball at the National Piping Centre.

"Ooh," I thought.

£95 per ticket.

"Ah," I thought.

Dear BBC...

In light of yesterday's weather bombing, with there being significant uncertainty over what will happen with the next weather front, and especially given the somewhat ropey state of our roof, I was quite keen to get an up-to-date weather forecast this morning. Not having time to listen to the inane witterings of the bods on BBC Breakfast (seriously, who does?), I decided instead to access the weather report by using the much-vaunted Red Button, and the extremely handy "Weather" tab therein. So far, so good.

Now, I'm aware that there was a certain amount of controversy surrounding Scotland's place in the UK this year. However, I was reasonably sure that we voted to stay in - partly as a result of being "love bombed" (seriously, what is it about Scotland and bombs this year?). And, indeed, it was the BBC's coverage that was instrumental in an awful lot of people making up their minds to stay, and indeed it was via the BBC that I saw confirmation that that was indeed the result.

What I'm saying is: I'm pretty sure you know Scotland is still part of the UK.

So imagine my surprise, then, when I found that the weather reports in the "Weather" tab accessed by the Red Button from BBC Scotland covered the weather in England and Wales and stopped at the border. As for Scotland (and, indeed, Northern Ireland), there was no mention. Despite us being the ones to have actually had interesting weather recently.

(And, no, the "Scotland" tab didn't have a weather report for us, either.)

So, yeah, thanks for that.

Tick

I've just finished my 60th book of the year, thus completing that goal with just over three weeks to spare. Huzzah!

I'm hoping to complete another 3-5 books before the end of the year, so will continue maintaining the list, but that's not a formal goal!

#59 "A Christmas Carol and other Christmas writings", by Charles Dickens (a book from The List)
#60"Pathfinder: Valley of the Brain Collectors", by Mike Shel

Steph/ven and the Forgetful Day

One cold morning in December, as Steph/ven was getting ready to go to work, he realised that he had to get something out of the freezer for his dinner. "I must get something out for dinner," he said to Lady Chocolat.

"Yes," she replied. "I told you that last night."

"Did you?" Steph/ven asked. "I forgot." And then Lady Chocolat left, for there were eager minds to be filled with all the wonders of English.

As he prepared his breakfast, Steph/ven noted that he had now eaten the last of the Shredded Wheat. (Note: Steph/vens, much like Tiggers, do not like Shredded Wheat. However, as it is awfully good for them, Steph/vens persist in eating Shredded Wheat. Tiggers do not. This may go some way to explaining their respective demeanours.)

"I'll need to go to Tesco to get some more Shredded Wheat," Steph/ven said to himself. "I'll go when I collect that order this evening. That reminds me: I must take the order confirmation with me when I go to work."

Next, Steph/ven had a shower. This created a lot of steam, which filled the entire bathroom, and caused the window to steam up. Steph/ven therefore opened the window. "I must remember to close that before I go. Or else who knows what might get in?" (Although Steph/ven and Lady Chocolat live in a top-floor flat, Steph/ven lives in mortal dread that an organised gang of spider thieves might come in and steal all his webs. Not that he has any webs, being a Steph/ven and not a spider, but how could they know that?)

Later, after he had dressed and taken his neck medicine, Steph/ven left the apartment. He made sure to lock the front door, for Steph/vens also live in mortal dread of non-spider thieves, and went to his car. This was covered in frost, but was quickly cleared, and Steph/ven was on his way!

It was not long, however, before Steph/ven had a horrible realisation. "Bother!" he said to himself. "I have forgotten to close the bathroom window. Truly, I am a person of very little brain."

So Steph/ven turned the car around, and returned to the flat. No spider-thief was going to steal his webs! And so he went all the way back, up up up the stairs, and back into the apartment, and then to the bathroom. He closed the window, went back out the door, locked it again, returned down the stairs, and again left for work.

This time, Steph/ven travelled as far as the M9, that great motorway that connects the great cities of Edinburgh and Stirling, before he again realised his mistake. "Oh no! I have forgotten to bring my order confirmation!"

Alas, it was too late to go back. Steph/ven continued on his way to work. As he went, he recounted the list of things he had to do in the evening, once he returned home: make his lunch for tomorrow, make dinner for himself and Lady Chocolat...

Silly Steph/ven - he has taken nothing out of the freezer! Today really is a most forgetful day!

... is expected to...

In the last few weeks, the Guardian has run several pieces about Gordon Brown being expected to announce that he's standing down as an MP in May. At the time of writing, he is yet to actually announce that he's standing down.

Dear media: any chance you could go back to reporting actual news? Because until GB actually announces he's standing down, what you have isn't news - it's partially-informed speculation.

Tick

Lady Chocolat was away this weekend, which provided me an exciting opportunity to get caught up on my general sitting around. Which I did, extensively and with great aplomb. Or something.

Actually, it was a moderately productive weekend. The major task was the long-awaited repair of the bedroom ceiling. I had been holding off on doing this until the council fixed the roof, but the latest update is that this won't be happening this side of Christmas, so I decided not to wait. (It's worth noting that we haven't actually had any leaks since that first night - I suspect that the sheer rate of the rainfall was a key factor.)

The repair job was split into three parts, split across the three days - on Friday I cleaned the affected section of the ceiling, on Satuday I patched up the cracks, and then on Sunday I painted. And I'm pretty pleased with the results.

There was one issue, though - somewhere in amongst the job I managed to get some drops of paint on our duvet cover, a mistake I didn't notice until some hours later, after they'd dried. This is annoying, especially as the washer then didn't get them out, but as LC had already been talking about getting some new ones, it's not the worst thing that has ever happened.

The other big event of the weekend was the pipe band disco. This came out of a discussion at the AGM - some people liked the idea of another ceilidh, some people liked the idea of a dinner dance, so they compromised on a disco. I'm not entirely sure how that works. Anyway, it was an enjoyable enough evening, I guess, though I'm not really a fan of the disco generally. I eventually called it a night at midnight.

Oh, and there was much consternation on Sunday at church - people kept asking me in the most concerned of tones if LC was okay. This was probably because we were on tea & coffee duty last night, and she was conspicuous in her absence (though I was ably assisted by a different, but still glamourous, assistant).

Oh yes, and the Christmas Tree went up, it being the first Sunday in Advent. Although I did consider reverting to my former policy of having a Christmas decoration.

#58: "Firefly: Echoes of War: Thrillin' Heroics", by Margaret Weis Productions