Writing

Parabellum, a Half-Life 2 fan fic, originally published on PlanetHalflife over a decade ago. Download it here.

The more I read Medium, the more I like it. For a change, a site focusing on essays on diverse topics without hyperbolic “You Won’t Believe What Scientists Have Found Inside A Grapefruit!” titles, complete with “Stories You Might Like” sections at the bottom (IFLS, I’m looking at you. You’re great, but stop using third-party traffic referers, please). Medium’s presentation is clean, text-focused (no annoying sidebars with Things I May Like) and the typography is wonderful. ...

I’ve been looking to practice more calligraphy of late, so I’ve been on the lookout for short passages to transcribe. Here’s one. Original credit for the text goes to Eric Tortora Pato

If I ever become a parent, I will do my damndest to do this. Other humans’ lives are not mine to control. I can provide advice, describe what worked for me in the past and offer a stable, safe space to return to when shit hits the fan. However, dictating what other people, especially any potential kids of mine, do to the extent of “you will have sex when I say it’s OK for you to have sex” is abhorrent. ...

Reposted from Joe Gordon-Levitt – a poignant and stirring read. Cover photo by Moyan Brenn – CC Why Society Still Needs Feminism Because to men, a key is a device to open something. For women, it’s a weapon we hold between our fingers when we’re walking alone at night. Because the biggest insult for a guy is to be called a “pussy,” a “little bitch” or a “girl.” From here on out, being called a “pussy” is an effing badge of honor. ...

Preamble: this is going to be relatively short and a lot of things here won’t get necessarily their fair share of exposure and the detail level is somewhat lacking in places. I hope to write more on specific topics covered here later. tl;dr: “This is a work in progress” Essentially, I have two questions: Why are women deemed attractive by the majority of society/the media/you name it when they are seen as limited or vulnerable in some way? ...

An utterly fascinating essay by Jean-Baptiste Quéru just caught my attention and as a technology nerd, I find it incredibly awesome. It’s called Dizzying but invisible depth. It appeals to me on a number of different levels, encapsulating a concentric series of black boxes, each more fascinating in its complexity than the last. Dizzying but invisible depth You just went to the Google home page. Simple, isn’t it? What just actually happened? ...

This is my first foray into writing about polyamorous Things. In this post, I’m attempting to collate all of the wisdom I’ve collected so far – none of this should be taken as gospel. Some of it might fit you like a glove. Other bits, not so much. Feedback in either case would be awesome.  What’s happening in your life? So you’re with your partner and feel that it’s time to take your relationship to a new level of openness and trust? ...

Unintentional alliteration aside, I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while but didn’t quite know what to say. Before we go on, I invite you to watch this video. No, really, watch it. Read more about positive psychology here Breaking up the learning process One of the things that so appeals to me about object manipulation disciplines in general is the progressive nature of the learning process. ...

Looking cursorially at the newspaper headlines about Abu Qatada, the ‘hate preacher’ who was enflaming Muslims against the western Infidels, I’m struck with an interesting thought. Free Speech by preprintPeople have, predictably, made the knee-jerk response that ‘People should not be allowed to preach hatred like that’ and comments of that ilk. What fascinates me is how, yet again, most folks don’t think it through. Yes, the man is unquestionably a shady character and having him peddle his ideologies to the impressionable can be seen as a Bad Thing. ...

Every man and his dog is playing Skyrim, to the sound of wailing and gnashing of teeth of spouses/girlfriends, howling in impotent rage as their man is sucked into a strange world. A world where the less armour a lady wears, the better her armour rating. A world where people don’t freeze to death standing in the middle of a stone courtyard being blasted by horizontal snow dressed in a vest and sackcloth trousers. ...

There is a terrifying new Bill in the works over in the jolly old US of A. It’s called the *Protect IP* bill. It’s been backed by some pretty powerful conglomerates and it’s primarily driven by the entertainment industry. While I wholly oppose piracy and believe in supporting artists for the hard work they do, I also utterly disagree with what is happening right now, *this*very moment, to the Internet. The Protect IP bill will bring to accountability any provider of a platform or medium or means to share content – ISPs, Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, uncountable forums, any blogs and many other outlets for free speech. ...

Burning Dan, a man of great kindness, boundless optimism and unbridled Awesome joined with the Force on the night of the 4th/5th of October. He was a friend to many around the world, a mentor to many more and an inspiration to still more. Here’s a video of him explaining some things about the world we live in. He also helped found hitRECord.org with his brother, Joe. It’s hit Joe pretty hard, as well as Tea Faerie and Thom who are all very close. ...

As promised: here are 2 quick videos on the very basics of poi. I shot these with my brand new (and already battered and scratched) Xacti HD camera. Apologies for awful letterboxing and general cockups as I’m still getting to grips with Premiere Elements, for lack of a better option (or a Mac). Enjoy!