Category: Misc
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Reading 2016
First full year commuting by public transport, which is where I’ve done the vast majority of my reading, well on public transport or hanging around empty platforms… I thought 52 books sounded very achievable this year. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (reread) What If? by Randall Munroe – Enjoyable, though I’d read most of…
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Reading 2015
I was very busy playing Destiny so didn’t read much this year until Terry Pratchett’s death in March kickstarted me on a Discworld city watch re-read. Commuting via the train rather than driving also meant I read more after August. Too many re-reads though. We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver – I’d…
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Reading 2013
During 2013 I have read 50 novels, as compared to 57 last year. A big part of the reduction was that in 2012 I spent a lot of time reading while feeding Hugo. Here’s what I’ve read in 2013, in a rough chronological order: Foundation by Asimov – for the umpteenth time Foundation and Empire by…
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Cooking with wine
I have just found out that some people refuse to cook with wine if they have children. It has never occurred to me that a glass of wine in a risotto or stew might be a problem, and I’ve been happily serving it up to my son (there’s a stew in the oven now). Being…
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Faster than light
Faster Than Light (FTL) is an infuriating strategy game. It pits you as a Captain Kirk like figure, constantly rerouting power from the warp drive to power up your lasers (or vice versa). In between the space battles you choose how you want to develop your spaceship & crew and choose your way through random events.…
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Reading 2012
During 2012 I have read 57 novels, which is significantly less than the previous year (83 between 09/10 and 12⁄11), when I first received my Kindle but still probably more than most other years since I was a child. Here is what I read during 2012, in rough chronological order: Guns, germs and steel by Jared Diamond…
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Diplomacy
A few weeks ago I started playing diplomacy. diplomacy is a board game that is like a combination of chess and poker that looks like Risk. You have to think about the positions of your units and tactics but you also have to make alliances, bluff everyone and stab your allies in the back. The…
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Bleaklow aircraft crashes walk
During the sun last weekend Tom and I ventured out to stretch our legs and find some of the airplane wreckage on Bleaklow. On our list to find was the B29 Super fortress “over exposed”, a Lancaster KB993 and a C47 Skytrain. There is more wreckage besides on Bleaklow and in the rest of the…
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Getting things done
As no-one no doubt remembers a while ago I tried to organise myself better using David Allens Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. I was partially successful, I’ve always wrote to-do lists, though not to the extent Allen recommends, I also try to stick by the two minute: “when a new item comes up, if it can be done in two…
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Have I Got News For You
I was in the audience of last nights episode of Have I Got News for You with Nick and Jode. Nick had managed to get the free tickets as soon as they were announced, about a month ago. Apparently it takes only a few hours for tickets for a whole series to go, so we were quite fortunate in…
Dean Sas 