Another Restless Night

We had another disturbed night last night, with Jill getting practice contractions again. It seems to be at its worst every two days, so I'm not expecting a good night tonight. This, more than anything, is getting Jill fed up. We're definitely in that transitory state at the the moment. We were out for a few hours yesterday in town, and got a light lunch out. However, six o'clock came and the pain came again, so we had a very quiet evening. I guess we're also hoping that this timing doesn't mean that we're going to have a very nocturnal child!

The big question comes if the baby hasn't arrived on Monday; do I go back into work to maximise my paternity leave? I think I probably will, but we'll discuss it over the weekend.

Currently feeling: Frustrated
Currently listening to: 'Leisure Noise' by Gay Dad
Currently reading: ''The Stress of Her Regard" by Tim Powers

Thumbs Up and Down!

A few weeks ago, I emailed about my quest to find some proper Fudge dice to use with Spirit of the Century. I had made some home made ones, but wanted something better. Anyway, I ended up in a position where I had two sets coming to me, one from the USA and one from the UK.The shop in the UK – The Gameskeeper in Oxford – was excellent. They didn't have any dice in stock, but managed to track some down in the USA and special ordered them. Their communication, service and speed was excellent and I recommend them wholeheartedly. The website mightn't be the most modern, but they more than make up for that with their approach! Kudos and a big thank you!

Also worthy of mention was Patriot Games in Sheffield, who tried to get some dice for me but had no luck with their contacts. Likewise Leisure Games.

And now to the villains of the piece! It gives me no great pleasure to 'name and shame', but I have to denounce RPGshop in the USA. Their shipping of the Fudge dice was prompt, well packaged and a pleasure except for one small fact. They lied about the costs. When you place the order, they take a $25 deposit and the agreement is that they will only charge cost plus $3 for shipping, refunding or charging extra as appropriate. The shipping cost $9.15 according to the stamp, plus $3 makes $12.15 in normal maths. No refund. No response to emails. So I give them a big thumbs down. I'll more than happily post an update if and when they refund the money they owe me. I object to paying more than a hundred percent premium on shipping!

Protection

I have a really bad habit with roleplaying game books. Unfortunately, because I tend to use them as well as read them, they tend to get trashed. Now, if you asked my mother or father, you'd know how much that this goes against the grain for me. I hate damaging books, probably because of the mental scars I received from my father (only joking!) when I damaged some of his when I started to read SF.

I've tried to get around the damage done by either covering the books with sticky back plastic, or by buying hard covers. However, not all books are available as hard covers, and unless you are a black belt sticky back plastic expert, you can pretty much guarantee bubbles or creases somewhere on your favourite book.

Anyway, my mum works as librarian at my old school, and she made a fantastic suggestion which I'm kicking myself that I didn't think of earlier. She gave me the details for the company that sells the plastic slip case book protectors she uses for paperbacks. I've gone and bought some, and they fit well and are far better than sticky back plastic. The picture above shows my Burning Wheel books and copy of Cold City now that they are protected. I 'm really impressed, and my mum tells me that it a lot of cases the paperbacks in these protectors actually last better than hard covers. Well, I'm sure I'll do enough damage using the books to see if this is the case!

A Disturbed Night

I should have posted this last night, but the PowerBook battery was flat, and I didn't put it back on to charge in time. We thought that everything was starting during the evening, with Jill getting what she can only describe as contractions. These continued through the night, but stopped this morning, so I've left her dozing. Needless to say, it was a bad night's sleep for both of us.

This morning has dawned a mucky, wet, dismal day that even put the cat off going outside. I don't think that we will get up to a whole load of things, but what we'll do really depends upon developments. I do need to nip into town to drop off a DVD which we watched yesterday afternoon – Superman Returns – and also pop into the bookshop.

Jill's parents went home yesterday, her dad starting to suffer with a bad cold. I think this had prompted them to leave earlier than they'd planned. After they'd gone, we watched the film, had a big falling out with the cat after he decided to savage Jill, and then I had a play with iCalamus.

I've a draft short article which I knocked together on how to use the Nemesis RPG's sanity system in the Call of Cthulhu RPG. It's only about two pages long, so I thought that it would make a good test bed for the DTP package. I went quite far with it last night, but in the end I called it a day, as the image I was using as a backdrop didn't come out the way I wanted. I need to take it back into Photoshop and tone it down so it is lighter, and also mirror it for the facing page. The original shot was one that Jill's dad took of an old house on the Wirral, which I doctored in a (free) package called Image Tricks. I wanted to go for a horror style theme to it and I think that it's worked.

Plus Two...

 

The first thing to say is that we don't really know any more than we did yesterday! The second thing is that the good night's sleep didn't happen either, as Jill had a moment when she thought things were going to start last night and a very restless night overall.

The trip to the midwife really only gave us three things; the knowledge that the baby is 'a nice size' (whatever that means), the fact that we go back next Tuesday for an initial internal , and finally a date for induction if nothing else happens before then. I guess it also confirmed that the midwife in Wetherby was wrong about how the baby was lying and it is the way that Jill thought. As this was the same midwife who missed the fact that one of her friend's baby was breach, it wasn't a surprise.

We also went ice-skating today. Or at least, we went to a local farm that sells Christmas Trees and such things, and has this year expanded its repertoire to include an ice rink. We didn't actually use the ice rink, as it wouldn't be a smart move in Jill's condition, and certainly not a smart move with my sense of balance. Rather, we had coffee and carrot cake and enjoyed watching the fun as some of the kids tried to do the Cha-Cha Slide on ice!

Currently feeling: Happy
Currently listening to: Torchwood (on in the background)
Currently reading: ''Cavalcade" by Alison Sinclair

A Day Later...

 

Ahh, the perils of the handheld Dyson! It certainly looks like a more intimidating weapon than that used on Christmas Day's Doctor Who Special. This is the scary pose I mentioned Jill striking yesterday!

No real news on the baby front again, beyond more abdominal pains 'like pins and needles' this evening. We're in to the hospital tomorrow afternoon for the appointment that we were told to pre-book, so should know more if nothing has started before. We're very much into the waiting period now. I'm hoping we have a quiet night like we did last night - both of us slept the best we had for a while.

Spent part of the day finishing Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal", which was good fun. It seemed to have parallels with Enron and a number of other businesses when the bean counters take control and loose contact with the product or service they make or provide. Great fun, but no standout lines that are likely to jump into my email sig files, unlike 'The Truth'. I'm starting 'Cavalcade' by Alison Sinclair now to switch back to SF for the first time in a while. Sinclair wrote one of my favourite books of the last few years – 'Blueheart' – which I'm hoping sets a standard that this lives up to. If not, it can go on Bookcrossing. On checking, I've read 92 or so books this year, and I think that breaking 3 figures isn't looking that likely in 2006. But never say never...

We had a drive out today as well, with a walk by the River Wharfe, and then a trip to Harrogate. Jessops was open when we passed, so I got a UV filter to protect the lens on the FZ-50, and a decent case for it. I also shot a few pictures to try it out a bit more, but the light was pretty depressing. I concentrated on shape and form, and grabbed a few family shots, but nothing really leapt out at me. However, it was nice to be using a decent camera again. I forgot how different an SLR style camera is to a compact, and the lens on the Lumix is excellent, making me think far more about framing than I have done for a while. Interestingly, I keep on finding myself shooting around a lengthy of 135mm, which was my favourite fixed lengthy lens on my old Canon AE1-P.

Anyway, that's enough for now. Perhaps there will be some real news when I next write.

Currently feeling: Relaxed
Currently listening to: The Killers "Sam's Town"
Currently reading: ''Cavalcade" by Alison Sinclair

Countdown Suspended...

Well, we've reached the Due Date, and so far there is no real sign of the baby. Jill reminds me that only 5% (apparently) of babies are born on their due date, and that really we didn't want a Christmas Baby because of all the complications with birthdays. The only real signs are that the baby has dropped a little more, and the bump has gone harder. Also, Jill's back to being very restless at night due to cramps in her legs and arms, but fortunately for her it hasn't given her too many problems as she hasn't woken up too much. It's me that suffers – I guess that it's practice for when our baby arrives.

We've spent the day enjoying a traditional meal and presents with Jill's Mum and Dad. They're experiencing the day with us for the first time. It been a nice day, and the fact that I didn't get more than two and a half hours continuous sleep last night hasn't really hit yet. We enjoyed a bit more TV than usual – the BBC really floored ITV this year with Doctor Who and Vicar of Dibleyspecials, which combined with the rest of the schedule was pretty good. I've been enjoying my new digital camera – to photograph the baby, honest – and Jill has been striking poses from bad Sci-Fi films with her new Dyson Handheld. I think that the latter demonstrates that she is as bad with gadgets as me!

On a happy note, I've just discovered that Skype 2 is finally out for Mac OS X, which means that my Mum and Dad will be able to use their iSight cameras on their Macs to get a video feed from my sister and her children when they get to Germany at the end of January. I think that will mean a lot to grandchildren and grandparents alike. It certainly will mean a lot to me.

Currently feeling: Ready for bed!
Currently listening to: Top of the Pops 2
Currently reading: 'Going Postal' by Terry Pratchett, after finishing 'Perfect', a dark Victorian RPG.

T-Minus 2

We think we're nearly there, and not just with respect to the house. The Nursery is complete, with the crib and cot both ready and assembled thanks to my Mum & Dad visiting. The Study is complete and looking great, and the house is starting to return to some semblance of sanity. Perhaps it's the quiet before the storm.

The cat is still oblivious to the changes that are going on, and had fun on Thursday tormenting my parent's Golden Retriever, Ben, by sitting near him and just staring at him, then following him around when he moved away.

Jill's had some practice contractions when we were shopping in town yesterday, and ended up staying in the car while I was sent around Morrisons with a list. I met some of the neighbours there, and had a good chat. They made some very kind offers of help should we need it.

We're having a lazy Saturday – I'm typing this in bed! – as we just realised that it could be our last one for quite a few years. Jill is planning to follow the cat's example with sleep today if she can!

Currently feeling: Relaxed
Currently listening to: 'Any Questions' - BBC Radio 4, but mostly Faithless otherwise.
Currently reading: 'Single & Single' by John Le Carre

T-Minus 9: A Rollercoaster of a Week...

 

Well, the last four days have been pretty crazy. The carpet arrived as planned, but in the afternoon rather than the morning. As it was getting laid, the fitter suddenly asked "Where do you want the join?". Now, the thing is that the nursery is small enough that there should be no need for a join. It appears that the shop miscalculated the size, and missed out one of the geometrical irregularities on the map. Anyway, the fitter managed to put a pretty much invisible joint under where the cot will be, and it looks very nice.

Then Thursday brought the cupboards for the new study and more complications. There are two cupboards - one is the full height and width of the room but only a foot deep, and the other is a normal wall unit that sits over the computer disk. The first problem cam with the latter. Two workmen had arrived to fit it, and it really needed three to fit it. Fortunately, they found some props and things in the garage which meant they could lift it and lock it in place safely. They didn't put the doors on though, as insufficient fixings had been delivered by the manufacturer of the units.

The next complication was that the full height unit would not fit into the room - it was too big. And there was no obvious way to resolve this by splitting it. We were promised that it would be taken away on Friday, and returned Monday. However, whoever came to take it away managed to split the units, and they are now in the room awaiting fixing. They'll look pretty good when everything is completed.

The next disaster came on Thursday night, when the iron fell on the less-than-a-year-old carpet in the front room, and melted it to the weave below. Jill was pretty upset with this, but it looks like it will be covered by the accidental damage clause of the insurance policy. In the mean time, we've made it look a little better with a cut out from an off-cut of the new carpet.

Jill is getting pretty tired now, and also kicked a lot. I think that it's getting frustrating for her, and she is finding it awkward. She struggles to use the bath as it isn't comfortable with the size she is, and I think she wishes we'd reached the end.

Tonight, we have the company Christmas do, which should be fun. Somehow I think we'll be going soon after the meal, as the dance-floor looks right out! I hope we get through without an early arrival...

Currently feeling: Frustrated that I can't make Jill feelbetter.
Currently listening to: 'Excess Baggage' - BBC Radio 4
Currently reading: 'Travels with my Aunt' by Graham Greene

The Year of Our War & Pushing Ice

I recent read a refreshingly different fantasy novel. It was The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston. This could – very easily – have been traditional fantasy fodder. A multi-racial empire with an eternal emperor supported by 50 immortals of 'the circle', who are the best of the best, is threatened by the Insects. These are large, ant-like hive creatures that have appeared in the north and are trying to turn the world into a large paper hive. There is no communication, and no hope of a peace. 

The story is written from the perspective of 'Comet, the Messenger', one of the Immortals who is also hooked on drugs. Something changes, that shifts the balance between the Insects and the Empire, and all hell breaks loose, compounded by politicking between the Immortals. There is also a hint of Lovecraft's 'Dreamlands'. Very different, very nice and I'l be looking for some more books by Swainston in the future.

This is definitely one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a while.

Pushing Ice is excellent - it was harder to put down than Alastair Reynold's previous book, "Century Rain", as the plot kept on jumping forward in time. It's a good read – I'm not sure if it is as good as "Chasm City" or "Revelation Space" but very enjoyable. It's also the third different world that he's set novels in.

The basic premise is that a corporate ice-comet mining ship (in 2057) is directed to enter a first contact situation when one of Saturn's moons (Janus) suddenly starts accelerating out, revealing that it is really an artifact. The ship (Rockhopper) pursues to try and find out more, co-opted as an agent of the equivalent to the UN. Trouble ensues!

It's good, hard SF space opera.

C-Day (or 13 days to go...)

We had a bit of a scare last night, as Jill thought she was having contractions, but everything looks normal now except that the baby has dropped even further! Today ("C-Day") sees the carpet arrive for the nursery, probably early afternoon, which will put things on a far more even keel. At least then some degree of sanity can be achieved with some of the rooms getting free-space. I know, I know, friends have told me to get used to the idea of clutter with children on the way, but one can hope!

I've added some new photos to the Photo album, partly by way of an experiment. because of issues with my web-host (space, access issues) I've started a Flickr account, and this is my first attempt to see how it works. Let me know what you think.

Currently feeling: Content.
Currently listening to: 'Darwin's Beagle Diairies' - BBC Radio 4
Currently reading: 'Travels with my Aunt' by Graham Greene

Goodbye Calamus, Hello iCalamus

My first real introduction to modern computing was with an Atari ST, which I was given by my parents as a birthday present when I was 18. The first ST I had was a 1Mb STFM hooked to a 12" portable TV, which I eventually replaced with a 4Mb STE with twin floppy drives and a 'high res' (600x400) mono monitor. This served me all the way through University, but fell by the wayside after Atari went under and I changed to Apple to get a similar look and feel.
Anyway, I used to do some DTP for a number of newsletters and such using a powerful little package called 'Calamus'. Even in its initial iteration (v1.09n) it was a match for the likes of Pagemaker (which was admittedly in the process of being trounced by Quark at that time). It was one of the packages I was sad to loose, and I've never really been able to justify purchasing a copy of InDesign or Pagemaker to replace it.

This position stands even more at the moment because neither Adobe's Creative Suite or Microsoft's Office Suite are Universal Binaries. I'm not going to buy any software that will need to run under Rosetta emulation on a future Mac because the code hasn't been prepared for the Intel Processors. Why buy obsolescence deliberately?

Anyway, in MacWorld's last issue, there was a reference to iCalamus on the cover disk. I followed this up, and found a website with a new iteration of Calamus, built in Cocoa (one of the programming frameworks that Apple provides). I downloaded the demo, and instantly fell in love with it, as it was a new shiny version of what I loved on the Atari. Needless to say, I've licensed it and now have a tool that means perhaps I can do some of the layout stuff that I've been meaning to for a long time. Child permitting, of course....

(Edit: Link updated to new owner of iCalamus)

Finding the Critical Path...

We've found the critical path on the preparations, and it's the carpet for the nursery! Everything hinges on this...

How does this work? The carpet goes into the nursery which means that the chest of drawers and other items of furniture for the nursery can move from the spare room into the nursery. This frees up access to the loft, which means the Christmas decorations can come downstairs. Then, the shelves and the cupboard in the study can come out and go into the spare room. Then the fitted cupboards can come up from the garage and into the study, being replaced in the garage with the shelves etc from the spare room. Finally, we can assemble the cot bed!

Phew!

It was only this morning that it struck me how little time is left before the baby arrives and our lives change forever. Jill always gets an advent calendar, and she turned around to me when we were opening the door and said "I guess we could use this as a countdown".

She's completely right; if the baby arrives on its due date, it'll be here on 25 December, Christmas Day itself. Beyond the fact that Advent Calendar's don't count down, they have the same reason - counting the days to a baby's birth!

Today, we finished the Nursery as far as we can until the carpet arrives (next week, unfortunately), which made me feel a lot happier about our preparation. We've also started to move on with Christmas preparations, ordering a fair bit via the internet. What did we do before the mid 90s? I'll post a picture when i get a moment; I'd taken one, but the flash has washed out the colour. It's been a good weekend - I probably should have got more done, but feel a lot better for it.

Currently feeling: Relieved and optimistic.
Currently listening to: 'To All New Arrivals' - Faithless
Currently reading: 'The Riddle of the Sands' by Erskine Childers.

Nursery Update

The gloss is completed and today should see the border and fittings going back up, along with the new curtains (covered in butterflies). The carpet fitting is booked (sadly, the 12th December so a bit far ahead), so we're nearly completely there!

We had the last ante-natal class this week, which was an interesting experience. One of the couples from the previous course came back with their 7 week old, and then one of the people from our course appeared. His wife had given birth to twins the night before, and he was shattered and elated. There was a scary discussion on the efficacy of epidurals; in the case of the twins it'd worked well (the lady fell asleep during her labour), but in the case of the other couple, the epidural hadn't worked well.

On a positive note, my cold has pretty much broken, and only a tickly cough remains!

Currently feeling: Tired but a lot better in myself. Nervous and excited.
Currently listening to: The Archers Omnibus!
Currently reading: 'The Riddle of the Sands' by Erskine Childers.

Fudging the Issue

Spirit of the Century, the pulp RPG which I'm reading at the moment, uses a game system called FATE. This is in turn derived from a game system called FUDGE. For the gaming literate amongst you, FUDGE and FATE both use a ladder system of ability ratings for skills and the success and failure assessment. This is used in combination with special D6s (normal dice to non-gamers) which are marked with 2 pluses, 2 minuses and 2 blanks. Four FUDGE dice are rolled together at the same time, giving a distribution up and down the ladder system of +/-4 steps. Simple and elegant.

Spirit of the Century has a real buzz about it on the various roleplaying forums, and rightly so. It's elegant, well written and looks like a load of pulpy fun. If that means little to you, think Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow, Indiana Jones, or The Mummy to get a feel for the genre. I suspect the buzz has resulted in me not being able to find FUDGE dice anywhere in the UK. Anyhow, I've ordered some from the USA and, in the mean time, have improvised using a marker pin and some guidance of a website. I'm particularly proud of the red dice! They may be Heath Robinson, but they work well!

(I know that the Deryni Dice are FUDGE dice, but I wanted some colours, not just black and white!)

Mellow Yellow

I've just finished off painting the walls of the nursery what seems to be a bright yellow, but is allegedly 'Pale Citrus'. I'll have to see how it has settled down in the morning. This means that only the gloss needs doing, which should be reasonably simple as I've rubbed the paint-work down already. This means that the major bits and pieces which are changing in the house are nearly done.

The past weekend, we went to the shop where we bought the 'travel system' (as I must call it, not a pram or push-chair) in the hope of finding a decently priced, solid and drop-sided cot bed in a dark colour to match the rocking chair which Jill is being given by her sister. We were pretty shocked – especially after fruitless searches at Mothercare, Babies R Us and Mamas & Papas – to find exactly what we wanted the moment we walked in. Sometimes it just happens that way! It was even more of a surprise to find that it was in stock, so we bought it. It fitted well into the Avensis boot (which reminds me why we bought the 'sensible' car) and is now safely home, awaiting assembly. Fortunately, that isn't time critical as my mother is recommissioning the cot that my sister and I, and my nieces and nephews used.

I got some good news tonight - Sam, my brother in law, has finally got his promotion to Staff Sergeant. The downside to this is that they may not be coming back to UK after all, and could end up in Canada or Germany for the next two to three years after they leave Cyprus. Exciting times for my sister's family, no doubt, and a well deserved promotion for Sam.

Currently feeling: A lot better - just a dry tickle of a cough, and some tiredness.
Currently listening to: Muse "Black Holes and Revelations"
Currently reading: Spirit of the Century RPG and 'The Riddle of the Sands' by Erskine Childers.

Woken Furies

Richard Morgan's Woken Furies is his fourth novel, and the third in the sequence with Takeshi Kovacs in. It's not a trilogy, so you could pick up any of them as a starting point.

It's very enjoyable and tautly paced with some interesting ideas. The ending is kind of a deux-ex-machina, but – unlike Peter 'I can't finish a full length novel well' Hamilton – there are sufficient hints and pointers along the way to make it a plausible surprise.

The big difference in technology from most modern cyberpunk is the use of 'stacks'. These are implants at the back of the skull that most people have which download their personality. So if you are killed, you can always be downloaded into a new body aka sleeve. And interstellar travel is mainly by needlecast - people are beamed and downloaded into new bodies. You don't die unless your stack is destroyed.

Kovacs is an ex-UN Envoy. Which means that he's a very nasty warrior who is now freelancing, as the Envoys are the UN Protectorate's enforcement arm. The UN is effectively the world government. In the novel, Kovacs has returned to the world of his birth (Harlan's World) which is a water world run by an oppressive regime. When the story starts he's carrying out a one man vendetta against a sect on the planet. Complications ensue, including the return of a 300 year dead terrorist... And then there are the orbitals that cordon of the skies of the world, built by the 'Martians', destroying any aircraft moving too high or fast with 'angelfire'...

Recommended.

5 Weeks to Go

On the way to the ante-natal class on Wednesday, Jill reminded me that it was only 5 weeks to go until our life changes completely, and that's assuming that we don't get blessed with an early arrival. That means that it's even more important that I get the nursery stripped and painted this weekend, something which hasn't been helped by catching man-flu (!) off one of my team earlier in the week. I should be asleep now, but I'm pretty heavily blocked up and suffering from it.

The clear out has increased the size of the pile of stuff for eBay, with some Call of Cthulhu material being added because I can't see myself ever playing with it. It's gorgeous, but all it does is eat shelf space! I'm dreading putting the material up (the time needed!) so it's going to wait until after I get the room done.

Jill is bearing up well - it's the first week of her maternity leave, and she has been getting used to the change. She had an expedition to the Mamas & Papas factory shop in Huddersfield, and came back commenting on how expensive everything was. I'm finding it strange not to be meeting her at work anymore at lunch etc. and also getting a lot of questions after her from the ladies in work.

The cat is probably the most disturbed member of the household at the moment - he seems to know that something is going on, and has made me his favourite person now, not Jill. She's a bit put out by this. I don't think he wants to compete with the bump for space or attention!

Weather is lousy, but I guess that really makes me focus on the need to do the nursery!

Currently feeling: Full of cold.
Currently listening to: The Killer's "Sam's Town" and Gorillaz "Demon Days"
Currently reading: Mythic Russia RPG

A return to CAD

Ever since I first got a Mac back in 1996, there have been a number of PC programs I've really wanted to get hold of to try and match the stuff I use at work. The key ones I wanted to replace were CAD, Visio and MS Project.

OmniGraffle has solved the Visio demand - in the latest 'Professional' edition it can export and import Visio XML. The only area it gets let down with is the way Vision handles drop shadows. i did some work for work the other week, and I need to modify it to remove the shadows as they are pretty ugly in XP.

OmniGroup also seem to be closing the gap with the forthcoming OmniPlan. I was involved in the initial beta testing of this, and it is a superb package. It may not have quite all the features of MS Project, but it has all the important ones and is slick and stable, even in beta. If I was still doing Engineering I would be rushing to buy this!

The final part of the gap was closed last week when I got hold of TurboCAD Mac V2. This will import and export to AutoCAD, but has a look and feel very much like Bentley Microstation SE, the package that I spent much of the time that I spent doing CAD on. I'd previously tried to get by through a number of methods. The first was the addition of a plug-in for illustrator (Hot Door CAD Tools 2) but I found it really unstable, and the price to upgrade was somewhat extortionate. I decided not to because there was no guarantee that it would be any better. Next up was using the scale function on OmniGraffle 4. This was excellent, and has been really useful in preparing crude room layouts for the nursery and study, but it was far less intuitive than a CAD package. So TurboCAD looks like it is going to be really useful, especially as I can enter a CAD mindset really easily!

All of a sudden, all the burning advantages that PCs have over Macs for my work have gone!

Sleep Deprivation

I'd foolishly thought that sleep deprivation began after the baby arrived, but have been discovering the truth that it starts a lot earlier than that over the last few weeks!

Jill was very restless when she was first pregnant, but settled down. The last fortnight or so have been interesting as she has been restless, but not woken up with it. Rather, she's done a great job at waking me every one to two hours, which is a killer as usually I go straight back to sleep before I think of using the spare bedroom! It happened again tonight, and I feel shattered. In some ways I'm looking forward to the work trip just south of Gatwick as – hopefully – I'll get two good night's rest.

The weekend saw some serious work in the house - most of the study has been relocated from where it was (now to become the nursery) into a smaller room (which used to have the 'library' and spare sofa-bed) to allow us to get on with painting etc. Slowly, everything seems to be coming together.

I was invited out next weekend to see Tom and play some boardgames, but decided to cancel (even though it would've been a great time to try Hammer of the Scots or Crusader Rex face to face). Jill had said yes, but it was pretty clear that she wanted me to get the other room (and the related huge pile of eBay stuff) sorted out. Hopefully, I'll get another chance to actually play some of these kewl games soon!

Currently feeling: Tired
Currently listening to: Kaiser Chiefs 'Modern Way', Mansun 'Wide Open Space'

Post Furnace Thoughts

Furnace was excellent, but partial marred by a bad headache over the Saturday and into the morning of the Sunday. Sadly, this wasn't alcohol induced as I was driving both days – I suspect it was just general tiredness catching up with me. However, this was resolved through the wonders of modern chemistry, and by mid-Sunday afternoon I was back my normal self, if a little tired from the lack of sleep.

I had a really fun time, playing 5 different games (4 of them RPGs) over the weekend and getting to meet up with friends who I more usually hang out with virtually. The venue was superb including the cells – from the building's former role as a jailhouse for the garrison – which we used to game in. They were pretty close and intimate.

The five games I played were Iliade (a French card game set in the times of the Greek & Trojan wars), Burning Wheel (Graham's excellent take on Middle Earth with the system), Chaosium Basic Role Playing (Loz's demo of the excellent Gwenthia setting), Blake's Seven (run by Nathan, using a rare set of rules) and my own Traveller game. If you're interested in more detail than this, then have a look at my brief comments at The Tavern, which I wrote pretty soon after I got home. [Edit - these lost when the Tavern had a meltdown]

I'm hoping that I'll be allowed to go to this convention again next year! The organisers – Tom, Graham, Darren and Newt – deserve a lot of credit for making this a great gamer's con. Next year, Furnace will be on 20-21st October 2007 at the same venue.

Furnace this weekend.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend, when I'll be going to the northern gaming convention, Furnace. This is the first iteration of this convention, but it's being organised by a group of people who I know, and whom have also been involved with the ever excellent Continuum.

 
I know I'm running two games - 'Blood Opera' for Conspiracy of Shadows (a repeat of Continuum and very much a player driven game) and 'This Fear of Gods' for Traveller. I've just finished the characters and plot for this, and am feeling quite relieved! It was harder work that I thought, especially when I was trying to put together some shorthands for the players by giving photos and pictures and saying that they are 'like such and such a character'. I kept on drawing a blank, but was fortunately helped out by Graham Spearing, who gave me a few minutes out from his charman's preparation for Furnace.

Playing-wise, I've asked (GM's can pre-sign) to sign up for Graham's 'Burning Middle Earth', which is a Burning Wheel adaptation to Middle Earth. This interests me a lot, because I loved the setting but have gone a long way since MERP. The other game I've signed up for is Loz's 'And Stones', which is a Gwenthian BRP game. i've heard nothing but good about games that Loz has run, so I'm really looking forward to this. I was tempted by the 'Ultraviolet' TV series based HeroQuest engined game, and Newt's Mythic Russia and Gloranthan games (especially the Pavis one), and also 'My life with Sauron', but they didn't quite have the draw as the others did. So, if all goes well, four games, and hopefully some games of Iliade and Mag*Blast for a bit of fun. Should be a good weekend.

Of course, when I get back I've got to get into the nightmare of moving the study into the old smallest room, as the carpet arrived this morning! Not looking forward to this as there is too much *stuff*, and I've also already halved my RPG collection in the last two years!

Hoping to see you at Furnace!

How things stay the same!

I was fortunate enough to get a copy of 'Yes Minister', the 80s satire on UK politics from Jon for my birthday. Along with 'Blackadder' (which Jill has), this was my favourite comedy show from when I was growing up. 

We've watched two of the three series now, and it is scary how little things have changed. Similar issues are discussed and debated to those we see in the press today; for example, a national database and ID card scheme!

What a difference a decade makes!

I've just dug out my PowerBook 190cs (from 1996) because I'm passing it on to someone via Freecycle. As it hadn't been switched on since 2004 (!) the battery needed to be recharged, so I've had it plugged in all day. As I was writing the last blog entry, I had my current PowerBook G4 next to it, so I grabbed a photo.

Both these machines were the bottom end units of the their times. Interestingly, they both take about the same time to boot up, and feel similarly snappy in performance!

PB190 vs PB G4 12"
Processor: 68LC040 66MHz vs PPC G4 1.5 GHz
Memory: 20Mb (Maxed) vs 512 Mb (can go to 1.5 Gb)
HDD: 500 Mb vs 60 Gb
OS: 7.5.2 vs 10.4.7
Screen : Passive 9" vs Active 12"
Networking: serial port vs Bluetooth / Airport Extreme / Ethernet / Modem

The old PB keyboard is better than the current PB, but both are better than the iBook and the new MacBook keyboards. The new machine is lighter, thinner and slightly narrower.

I have a great nostalgia for the old machine because I wrote my first few books for BITS on it. It was also my first Mac, and the machine I bought when I graduated and started working. It was my work horse for a long time, and I built my first websites with it, initially with pure HTML and later with Adobe Pagemill (which I upgraded to GoLive 4.0 when Adobe bought the application from Cyberstudio). 

The 20Mb of RAM never gave a problem, nor did the processor. It's amazing how much operating systems have bloated since that time. A clean boot of OS X takes around 180 Mb of RAM initially vs 4Mb for system 7.5. Those were the days! But I wouldn't go back.

Initial Thoughts on Rapidweaver 3.5

I like the new version of Rapidweaver. It shows significant progress from the previous one, and is even more powerful, plus it still allows you to use the old themes, which means that the Birkenhead History Society pages didn't need any significant update. The BITS website did need some more work, but that related to the complexity of the site and the theme. I had to change to the new version and manually change some of the default layouts. However, migrating all the sites took less than an hour tops.

What I do especially like is the increased flexibility built into some of the themes. For example, some of them support variable widths now. I did try that originally for this blog, but I think I will revert to the fixed width from now on, as it looks more aesthetically pleasing. I've also landed a more autumnal flavour to the site looks for a while!

Next thing (website wise) will be to develop the theme for the Power Projection website. It needs an update (especially with the new book) and it needs to move servers from the same one as this blog! Assuming I can sort out the sub-domain and parked domain stuff, I'll land it on the BITS servers as well.

Once this has been done I will have completely walked away from GoLive! How times change...

I've just had a fantastic trip down memory lane, and re-read the whole Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper. I enjoyed it a lot the first time around (when I was eleven, just starting secondary school) and it was quite scary.

Reading it some 23 (!!) years later, it's not as scary, and but it's still very well written. The strongest two books of the five (which are now also available as a single volume) are the second – The Dark is Rising – and fourth – The Grey King. These have a harder, darker edge, probably because they are about a character (Will Stanton) who is far more initimately involved in the struggle between 'the Dark and the Light' than the characters in the first and third books. These two – Over Sea, Under Stone and the Greenwitch – deal with three other children who are also involved in opposing the Dark. I suspect the fact that there are three children – and the two books are set in Cornwall – triggers some memories of the Famous Five.

They are childrens books, with the characters initially around the same age as I was when I read them. I guess this sets them directly against Harry Potter, but to me they are far better.

Originally posted to The Tavern (when it was tavern dot zunder dot org dot uk)

Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood

I recently read Margaret Atwood's 'Oryx and Crake'. Now, if you all remember the buzz at the time of its release, this was literature, not science-fiction, according to the critics.

And that's probably a good thing... The first two hundred pages, I was wondering 'why?' I was reading the book. It didn't give the brief promise that Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell did. Fortunately, around two hundred to two fifty pages in it started to go somewhere, and the story of the world begins to be revealed by the protagonist's – Snowman – flashbacks and memories. It is a tale of how the world died. The ending is an attempt to leave it open in the mind of the reader as to how things will work out. I normally like these, but didn't really get on with the execution here.

It is well written, but it isn't compelling. I wasn't expecting taughtly plotted character driven narrative, but I did expect more than I got. The plot was, to say the least, feeble.

There are some interesting genetic engineering ideas and takes on the world, but off the top of my head, Greg Bear's Blood Music and Richard Morgan's Market Forces have each covered some of the ideas better.

(I originally posted this at the Tavern when it was at zunder dot org dot uk. )

Rapidweaver 3.5

Well, RapidWeaver 3.5 is finally out of beta so I decided to give it a try. I'll change the BITS and BHS websites later, as the themes need some work first! So far, so smooth!

A mixture from my Holidays.

 

Absolute Friends (by John Le Carré) was excellent. This was the first Le Carré novel that I'd read in a while, and I can see why certain establishment figures objected to it, claiming that it was a rant against the conflict in the Middle East. However, it is probably the closest that Le Carré has got to the style of his Cold War novels in a long while; like those books, it is a story of betrayals and relationships, a study of human frailty against a bigger backdrop. I think that it is worrying that the current geopolitical situation lends itself to one of the old masters of dark spy fiction returning to form!

I followed this with The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. This is an interesting book on how ideas become epidemic. It tries to identify the factors that will make something – an idea, a product – wildly popular. It's certainly worth a read, although not necessarily applicable in any easy way. It was an impulse buy at the airport on the way to France.

I followed this with a book which I have meant to read for a long time, but never got around to: Diaries - Alan Clark. This charts the former Tory minister's rise in the party. He always entertained me by his refusal to be politically correct. Well worth a read. I'll be looking up the rest at some point.

I then read a splash of Horror - Chaosium's Lovecraftian compilation The Antarkos Cycle which has lingered on my shelf for the last two years. I bought it shortly after I got 'Beyond the Mountains of Madness' (a huge and detailed RPG adventure for Call of Cthulhu) and it certainly gives a good feel for setting games in the southern-most continent. The last true Antarctic part of the book is the original novel that inspired 'The Thing'. The final two stories are of lost cyclopean cities elsewhere in the world.

Cobweb by Neal Stephenson was one I missed when it came out originally. Indeed, it didn't even appear as one for me to buy until I saw it at the airport. It claims to be a wicked satire on US politics and conspiracies around the time of the first Gulf War. It has conspiracies, murders and shenanigans galore. I'm not certain it is a satire... It is co-written with the same gent who wrote 'Interface' with Stephenson. Good fun!

The final book was Star Hunter / Voodoo Planet by Andre Norton. The book has two short stories set in the SF universe that is very reminiscent of the game, Traveller. The second story is a Solar Queen one (read the others on the Solar Queen to understand Traveller Merchants)! Excellent fun. The problem is that it gets me itching to play the Traveller RPG again!

(I originally posted this at the Tavern when it was on zunder dot org dot uk. )

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell"... how best to describe it?

I think that the best analogy would be a pedal-cycle ride. You start off in this pretty, but old fashioned, valley, and then start the hard work pedalling up hill. Steadily, but with some effort you slowly rise, wondering why people recommended the route until you reach this final rise, 300-400 pages up. All of a sudden, you crest the hill, Jonathan Strange has been overseas and you can suddenly see wider vistas. Hurtling over the edge, on the road down you can freewheel as you rapidly plunge into a fantastic, impressive but altogether darker valley below. You hit your top speed at the bottom, and gently begin to slow down...

Reading JS&MN was pretty much like that. I was nearly getting bored for the first 400 pages, and then it exploded into life. I wholeheartedly recommend this book! All 1000+ pages of it.

(I originally posted this at the Tavern when it was at zunder dot org dot uk.)

Changes...

I guess that I haven't been updating this as fast as usual, but there is a good reason. Life is slowly getting more complicated (and I guess that we can only blame ourselved) as we are expecting our first child. 

We've had three sets of scans now, and everything seems to be going well.
The first one was just to confirm that Jill was pregnant (!) and gave us an interesting estimated due date...

...25 December! So it'll be an interesting Christmas. The first picture doesn't show a lot, but the later scans show a scary amount of detail. We got called in two weeks early by mistake, and ended up with an extra picture.

Twenty weeks showed even more. We didn't ask what sex, because it doesn't really matter to us so long as the child is healthy.

The last scan confirmed the expected due date.

Naturally, I've been developing a long list of things to do, with Jill's help. The nightmare will be merging the 'study' and 'library' (in reality Bedrooms 3 & 4) into a single room. I've started sorting with a fair few books going to charity shops, BookCrossing.com, and some friends. The games which I haven't used in a long time have started to head to eBay (currently on hold from the joys of Royal Mail changing its postal charges).

On top of this, I've started the job that has plagued me for the last three years - painting the outside window and door frames. I've managed to complete the downstairs over the last two weeks, but rain has stopped play this weekend! I'm glad Jill found the tip for the painter's 'George' which makes doing the edges much less difficult.

Music - my iPod's Top 20

I was an early-ish adopter for the iPod, getting my 30Gb unit July 2003 as a present from my wife Jill after my Chartered Engineering interview. I came across some software that allows you to look at the most played artists since the iPod has been collecting data. What was interesting was that the final list had some groups I didn't expect there... (this data was originally collected in March 2006, but took a while because of the ISP fun and games).

The stats list the number of plays for each artist so far.

1. Marillion - 1426
Marillion coming top didn't surprise me, as I already knew that their last album "Marbles" topped my most played song's list. When I got the album at the start of 2004 I found it hard to stop playing it. Even now, I still hear new things when I listen. At some point I should split this into Marillion with Fish as lead singer and with Steve Hogarth. I suspect that the later material will dominate.

2. Simple Minds - 1032
I am surprised that Simple Minds came second here – I'd actually expected them to come further down. They were my favourite group in secondary school before I discovered Marillion, and the mental soundtrack I had of "New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84" helped me through GCSEs and A Levels. However, my listening to them declined over time. I'm guessing that their second place came because of "The Silver Box", a collection of demos and live performances combined with their legendary missing album "Our Secrets are the Same" which I got Christmas 2004 and played heavily. The recent album "Black & White 050505" has also been a favourite!

3. U2 - 722
Similar to Simple Minds, U2 were favourites from school and University. "The Unforgettable Fire", "Achtung Baby" and "War" have always been albums I've loved. I did expect a lower place though.

4. Faithless - 546
I first consciously hear Faithless when I was on the first holiday away with my now-wife. We were on the Greek Island of Zante, and the local bar was playing "We Come 1" repeatedly. I bought the single after that. Last year, for some reason, I realised that tracks like 'Insomnia', 'Reverence' and 'Salve Mea' were also by the same group, and I ended up buying several of the albums off iTunes. They've been played a fair bit since!

5. R.E.M. - 483
R.E.M. have always been a favourite since I heard 'Losing my Religion' when I was away on my pre-University year out working up in Cumbria. I'd expected them to come higher in the chart, as I've played their last two albums quite heavily. "Around the Sun" was awesome!

6. Pink Floyd - 423
I became a fan of Pink Floyd while I was at University – it was one of the things my first wife and I shared as a passion. We had used to joke that here we were in the 1990s, 20 years after here parents had been at University and we (students generally) were still listening to the same stuff! My only regret here was that we didn't get to the Earls Court concerts supporting "The Division Bell", as it looks unlikely that they'll tour again.

7. Goldfrapp - 384
A more recent addition to the collection. I first heard Goldfrapp when the TV was on in the background one Sunday, with the very slinky track 'Tiptoe' on in the background. A scan of the preview tracks on amazon.co.uk showed that this was actually a little different, but the rest of them were excellent too. I ordered both the CDs they'd released on the spot! The first album, Felt Mountain, reminds me of some 50s and 60s films on an epic scale and is very very different to the usual run of the mill. 'Black Cherry' is much closer to the widely played 'Supernature' album which recently topped the charts. All are worth a good listen.

8. The Cure - 312
The Cure are a band I've always had a love/hate relationship with. I've the 'best of' album, and one that I loved at secondary school 'Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me'. I tend to play them a lot when I'm in the mood.

9. Keane - 273
The track 'Everybody's Changing' sold me on Keane very quickly. The piano and change from the usual dirge that a lot of British rock was really refreshing. I was a bit concerned that their second album wouldn't match up, but the first few listens that I've had have been excellent!

10. Depeche Mode - 245
A big surprise here. I like Depeche Mode, but can only attribute their tenth position to the recent album sending me on a nostalgia trip! It'll be interesting to see if they are still here next time I look at this.

Just bubbling under....

11. Massive Attack - 222
12. Lloyd Cole - 190
13. Nine Inch Nails - 180
14. The Killers - 175
15. Remy Zero - 170
16. Manic Street Preachers - 168
17. Spartan Fidelity - 162
18. Moby - 148
19. The Modern - 145
20. New Order - 144

The Modern being there is a particular achievement, as they only have about 5 tracks at the moment. I can't wait for their first album!

Stag Do madness!

Photos from Jon's Stag do are now up! The scary photo below is me (right) and him (left!)...

 

Slow updates

I'm pretty fed up with Pipex, my ISP, at the moment as they've changed something with their FTP servers (running on an NT box from the look of the responses in the command line) which has messed up my FTP access. I'm certain it's at their end because:

1. I've not changed anything (okay, this week, four weeks in, I did run the OS X security update).
2. I can access the other ISPs I use for BITS etc with the same packages (Cyberduck and Rapidweaver - I even dragged GoLive and Fetch back out)!
3. They had FTP system problems immediately at the point that the problem manifested, which one of the support emails hinted still existed.

I've done all the usual - toggling Active/Passive etc and switching the FTP module that Rapidweaver uses. The only way I can upload at the moment is by leaving the computer's security wide open while I do so. I'm hoping that the email exchange with support will resolve this soon enough...

I suppose it is worth saying that I do think, aside from this, that Pipex is doing a fine job otherwise!

Brighton Rocks!

 I've just spent the weekend in Brighton, to celebrate my friend (and former best-man) Jon's forthcoming nuptials with the glamourous Becky (who I will always remember for being described as "that lovely girl in the red dress who sang opera and got slightly drunk at your wedding").

Jon was a little nervous (okay, a lot nervous) about the events that his brother Andy (his best man) had planned for him, probably dating back to his 21st birthday and earlier. On that occasion, Andy tied him to a lamp-post at night on the main student thorough-fair in Southampton with only his boxer shorts for company. There were a number of kerb-crawling lasses from the uni giving him a bit of banter. Now, Brighton is famous for a number of things – its pier, the book 'Brighton Rock' and its counter-culture (it vies with Blackpool as a famous LGBT hot-spot – so I think that Jon was probably right to worry that we may try something crazy embarrassing.

Fortunately for him, Andy remembered that he too was taking the plunge into matrimony later in the year, so only mildly humiliated Jon with a mock Scouser get up outfit. I think he was worried that he'd reap the seeds he sewed in 12 months time. The picture below is of Jon, in outfit, and I'll post some photos later!

Power Projection: Reinforcements

 

I'm finally getting to the end of the build for the BITS website revamp, so I decided to dig out the metal I need to build for the Power Projection. I've also got contact details for Techsil, who make the Tufloc Superglue that Jon Tuffley of GZG recommended. I should get that ordered this week, and then I shall get things moving.

Projects

I've got a number of different projects running at the moment - the new BITS website (the biggest Rapidweaver project I've attempted), StormQuest (a Stormbringer HeroQuest conversion for Continuum) and Power Projection: Reinforcements (the new fleet book for BITS' Traveller miniatures games). I'll try and get some more regular posts here as it will encourage me to get moving on them!

Fun Films

I've just watched a film that's well worth it for a bit of good old fashioned fun – "Wedding Crashers". The first half is a little cringe-worthy, but it's fun. The second half wraps it up just nicely. Jayne Seymour does just disappear though! I suspect that's just the cut though! Naturally, our two wedding crasher love-able rogues more than meet their matches!

Of course, it doesn't match one of my all time favourites for this style of love romances, the exquisite "Down with Love". If you haven't seen it, you should check it out - Renee Zellwegger and Ewan McGregor are truly excellent! Bittersweet and funny, it always leaves me with a smile.

Okay, so it's a bit of a difference from the usual SF and art-house films I'm usually watching, but the change is worth it some times!

Is Big Brother watching you?

This weekend, I was listening to the radio, and happened upon a police officer making a strong defense of the fact that the police had retained more than 24,000 DNA samples from juveniles who had never been convicted, charged with an offense or cautioned. (You can find the BBC's take on this here.) Of course, this will also be going on for adults who happen to have come into contact with the police in a similar manner.

The Minister responsible mouthed platitudes that 'there are safeguards in place'. The database is being built up because the Police are allowed – at their discretion – to hold this data after enquiries, no matter what the outcome is. Part of the justification given is the fact that it's needed for the 'War on Terror'. I suppose that DNA evidence would help identify a juvenile suicide bomber's body parts, but it isn't going to stop the attack. Decent human-intelligence is needed for that. Isn't this just a stealth way of building a national database of DNA without a review of the civil liberties questions involved?

Let's add another twist. It's already recognised that the UK is one of the heaviest users of CCTV, and on top of this there is a lot of working going on on facial recognition (examples here and here) to improve the ability to track and identify people. On top of this, we've now got a new proposed road pricing system being developed that will allow the government to track the location of every vehicle at any time. (Here.)

Am I getting paranoid, or is it possible that Orwell's 1984 is finally starting to come true with new technological development spearing on the changes? Is "Big Brother" starting to watch us all?

And the scary thing is that most of the UK political parties see this a a good thing.

Flexibility with Rapidweaver

It's a new year, so I decided to try and see how easy it was to change the site look. This took 7 clicks...

1) Open the theme menu.
2) Select the theme.
3) Open the site inspector.
4) Select the theme settings to apply to the whole site.
5) Select brushed metal.
6) Select light grey outer skin.
7) Publish the site with the publish button.

I do love RapidWeaver. Having just looked on RealMac Software's website (RapidWeaver's Publisher), I've noticed a preview of version 3.5 has been announced for MacWorld next week. Can't wait to see what they've added...

Reading Stats

I've added the reading stats below. It was 85 books at the end of the year!

Mild editing in Dec 2019 as pointed to non existent section

Breakdown of 2005

Well, I've finally worked out what I read in 2005; just the basic info at the moment - 22,754 pages and 85 books in 2005. That's down on 2004 which had 30,428 pages and 100 books. I guess the main reasons are the fact that I changed job, and also I tried to clear the RPG backlog, and our main holiday in 2005 was a far more 'doing' event than the year before. However, you can see a big spike in March when we were away on holiday.

The flat-line in September/October is the big Fritz Lieber omnibus, which seemed to take a long time to read for some reason, even though I enjoyed it immensely. I think I read more slowly because of the short story format giving definite break-points to switch off the light when reading in bed! I read a similar sized tome which wasn't a shorts collection (Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell) last month, and went through it a lot faster.

I think one of the other contributing factors was my attempt to read all the RPGs that I had sitting on the shelf, and they seem to take longer than other books. Perhaps it is because of the rules and lack of a natural flow in a lot of the books?

Anyway, it's going to be interesting to see what 2006 brings.

Pulp Egypt

I recently noticed a thread on Gaming Report which mentioned a sourcebook called 'Pulp Egypt' for any RPG. As two of the games that I have recently bought and like are Savage Worlds and Spirit of the Century, this looked too good to be true. Well, I had to take a look, and I'm glad I did. This is a sourcebook by Peter Schweighofer which costs $20, and is a 176 page PDF packed with information on Egypt (some of it in a similar manner to the Call of Cthulhu RPG Cairo Sourcebook) to support pulp campaigns.

 Having quickly skimmed the PDF, there are suggestions on how to run archaeological, espionage and crime based campaigns, and some excellent material for reference. I think that it will be easier to integrate with Savage Worlds rather than SotC, as the latter is more free-form and co-creative. However, it will add to both if you fancy some Indiana Jones style adventures.

If you feel that $20 is too much to spend on something you've never heard off, there are a number of free scenarios on the site which give an idea of the quality of the material. I recommend this. They can be found at Griffin Publishing Studios' site.

(Edit: Link updated 2025)

Happy New Year!

A happy 2006 to you all! May it bring all you want!

Cheers, Dom