Recently updated blogs

Summer has been a bit of a washout, so I was feeling a need to make a happy, warm positive print. The idea was pretty simple. My studio and cottage is on the side of the Usk valley and the swallows, housemartins and swifts fly over and through the garden and between the flowers. The sunflower is a bit ambiguous, also being the sun itself. I wanted the Swallow to …

I’ve worked at three successful start-ups and one failure. I’ve also worked at post-IPO successes such as Borland, Netscape, and Apple, which means I’ve seen a lot of different founders who, if you measure success financially, were quite successful. My backstory aside and with deep respect, most founders fail. You’ve heard of the stories of sucessful founder because they’ve become famous (or infamous). However, the majority of start-ups fail. No …

Robots as earthly beings traversing the earth

HAG installation, by artist Beccy McCray The Green Man was a term invented by Julia Somerset (Lady Raglan) in 1939 for the various foliate head designs found in European churches between the 11th and the 16th centuries. Somewhere between 1939 and the present day the term was assimilated into paganism and an emerging identity was created for the Green Man. This may sound somewhat dismissive, but it’s not meant to …

Unsolicited humour in Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.

I don't know if there's anything that can be added to what Kelvin posted. I can only repeat it.

Real-world testing!

We aren't coming back just temporarily sharing posts the have been repeatedly requested by chagrined former readers. See the previous post for details and the address of a fresh blog. Hope you had a great Summer.

Looking back on the month, it was more eventful than Augusts are reputed to be. In the UK we are getting used to our new government. And, in some cases, violently testing its boundaries with some summer rioting. We’ve seen some dreadful street behaviour, frequently of a racist / anti-Muslim nature. Thankfully it hasn’t really impacted London, where racism is mercifully rare. The street protests closest to me were jubilant …

There is some racist language in the place names below. The article is from 1892. - MF STICKING LABELS ON TOWNS. A Queer Mixture of Languages in Alameda County Names. SPANISH, INDIAN, ENGLISH AND IMPROPRIETY. Combining in One Name a Row of Poplars and a Grove of Live Oaks - Robbing Old Associations of the Soft Spanish Titles That Belong to Them - Railroad and Postal Sponsors. Contra Costa was …

Job title: Editor Established in 2016, From Balloons to Drones has successfully developed into a well-regarded online scholarly platform dedicated to analysing and debating air power history, theory, and contemporary operations in their broadest sense, including space and cyber power. Our outputs include articles ranging from scholarly pieces to book reviews and a successful podcast … Continue reading Expression of Interest – Editor, From Balloons to Drones →

Photographs of birds taken in East Lyme, CT, in early May.

The website Classical Music, part of BBC Music Magazine, presents an article titled: “Charles-Valentin Alkan: the hermit who composed devilishly difficult piano works,” about French composer and musician Charles-Valentin Alkan ( 1813-1888). From the article: “Very unusually among the virtuoso composer-pianists of the 19th century, Charles-Valentin Alkan spent much of his life as an apparent … Continue reading "French hermit: Charles-Valentin Alkan"

I think it’s a good thing for people to have side quests in their lives to keep things interesting. They don’t have to be anything particularly grand, like finding The Antidote or something, but just a passive side hobby of sorts. I have had various side quests in my adult life, and my two longest-running ones are: To find the perfect Bloody Mary cocktail To find the perfect rendition of …

Let me say up front that I love everything Magpie Games has ever put out. I go out of my way to play their stuff, and I’ve run nearly everything they’ve ever put out. Starting with Epyllion way back in the day, through Urban Shadows, Bluebeard’s Bride, Cartel, Zombie World, Pasión de las Pasiones, all just terrific, eminently playable games. But somehow, despite having played maybe six one-shots of it, …