the ramble dump
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
The Athenaeum Writer-in-Residence Award
'The Athenaeum was founded in 1797 to provide a meeting place where ideas and information can be exchanged in pleasant surroundings. The heart of the Athenaeum is its famous library, one of the greatest proprietary libraries in the United Kingdom.'
They're doing a competition in partnership with the Liverpool Culture Company, the Liverpool Daily Post and Radio Merseyside. It's an annual thing for 'young people between the ages of 16 and 19'. It's the Athenaeum Writer-in-Residence award: 1000-1200 words on pretty much anything I like.
The award itself: you get to be Writer-in-Residence for a month, £1000, publication in the Daily Post, the opportunity to produce and publish two articles, essays or poems, honorary membership at the Athenaeum for a year (with access to the library), a short period of secondment of the Daily Post writing team, an invitation from the Liverpool City Council to a civic event during the year, another invitation from the Athenaeum to a lunch or dinner, and advice on careers in the arts from the Liverpool Culture Company.
The deadline is October 31st, so I have to have it sent off by tomorrow. I've finally finished it. I was going to do a piece about humanity and creativity (from the point of view of a god who regards the change from dinosaurs to humans merely as a cultural change), but that proved to be a bit too big and difficult. So, as suggested by Mother Jordan, I've taken a short and humorous piece mocking where I live which I did for English Language class a few weeks ago, and I've padded it out.
Frankly, I don't stand a chance. With a prize like that, you know the competition's going to be tough, and my entry is too all over the place and probably not nearly academic enough, but it's worth a shot. It doesn't cost anything to enter, after all.
I kind of have to go through with it anyway, because I asked two English teachers if they would give references (which actually just meant I needed their contact information so I could fill in the two spaces provided on the submission form), so they'll probably be asking about it, and might want to see what I've done. I have three English teachers this year, but one of them's been off for a long time so I haven't done any work for him yet, and another, the one who told us about the award, was away in China. I managed to see the other one, but as she was also my teacher in Years 10 and 11, I had to track down my Year 9 teacher and ask her...my Year 9 teacher being the real Miss Darley. I don't think I'd actually spoken to her for about two and a half years before last Friday.
Oh well. Here, as they say, goes nothing.
They're doing a competition in partnership with the Liverpool Culture Company, the Liverpool Daily Post and Radio Merseyside. It's an annual thing for 'young people between the ages of 16 and 19'. It's the Athenaeum Writer-in-Residence award: 1000-1200 words on pretty much anything I like.
The award itself: you get to be Writer-in-Residence for a month, £1000, publication in the Daily Post, the opportunity to produce and publish two articles, essays or poems, honorary membership at the Athenaeum for a year (with access to the library), a short period of secondment of the Daily Post writing team, an invitation from the Liverpool City Council to a civic event during the year, another invitation from the Athenaeum to a lunch or dinner, and advice on careers in the arts from the Liverpool Culture Company.
The deadline is October 31st, so I have to have it sent off by tomorrow. I've finally finished it. I was going to do a piece about humanity and creativity (from the point of view of a god who regards the change from dinosaurs to humans merely as a cultural change), but that proved to be a bit too big and difficult. So, as suggested by Mother Jordan, I've taken a short and humorous piece mocking where I live which I did for English Language class a few weeks ago, and I've padded it out.
Frankly, I don't stand a chance. With a prize like that, you know the competition's going to be tough, and my entry is too all over the place and probably not nearly academic enough, but it's worth a shot. It doesn't cost anything to enter, after all.
I kind of have to go through with it anyway, because I asked two English teachers if they would give references (which actually just meant I needed their contact information so I could fill in the two spaces provided on the submission form), so they'll probably be asking about it, and might want to see what I've done. I have three English teachers this year, but one of them's been off for a long time so I haven't done any work for him yet, and another, the one who told us about the award, was away in China. I managed to see the other one, but as she was also my teacher in Years 10 and 11, I had to track down my Year 9 teacher and ask her...my Year 9 teacher being the real Miss Darley. I don't think I'd actually spoken to her for about two and a half years before last Friday.
Oh well. Here, as they say, goes nothing.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
City of Anarchy Chapter 2: A&E
Yeah, I'd rushed it the first time round and decided I want to make it a little better.
Includes EXTENDED CHAINSAW SCENE AND MORE!
(Although not much more.)
Here be City of Anarchy Chapter 2: Ammended & Extended.
Includes EXTENDED CHAINSAW SCENE AND MORE!
(Although not much more.)
Here be City of Anarchy Chapter 2: Ammended & Extended.
Labels: boardfic, city of anarchy
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Fat Man Ameliorated
Excitement!
The design is on the verge of completion! Go see Melia's blogpost here. The green one is the one we're going for. Isn't it ORLSOME?! Send her all of your finest chocolate, beans and toothpaste.
We've decided to call the sections 'About', 'Prosefolio', 'Sketchbook', 'Blog' and 'Disclaimer'. Whether or not the colour of the design will change (like on the red page she linked to) for each section is something we haven't quite decided on yet. The numbers on the bar on the right will be there on prosefolio pages as easy access to other chapters. Otherwise, it'll be blank.
Olli has also chipped in and is just tinkering with it to see if he can get the linkbars on the left to be, as Melia puts it, 'foreverlong'. If that doesn't work, it'll probably be so that each linkbar is a slightly different length, just for the look of it.
Wow. I loves it. I loves it as if I'd done all the work myself. :)
The design is on the verge of completion! Go see Melia's blogpost here. The green one is the one we're going for. Isn't it ORLSOME?! Send her all of your finest chocolate, beans and toothpaste.
We've decided to call the sections 'About', 'Prosefolio', 'Sketchbook', 'Blog' and 'Disclaimer'. Whether or not the colour of the design will change (like on the red page she linked to) for each section is something we haven't quite decided on yet. The numbers on the bar on the right will be there on prosefolio pages as easy access to other chapters. Otherwise, it'll be blank.
Olli has also chipped in and is just tinkering with it to see if he can get the linkbars on the left to be, as Melia puts it, 'foreverlong'. If that doesn't work, it'll probably be so that each linkbar is a slightly different length, just for the look of it.
Wow. I loves it. I loves it as if I'd done all the work myself. :)
Labels: webtechnical
Sunday, October 09, 2005
I'm On A Roll...
Right, a general where-things-are-at update for today...
The equivocal Project CAM is now moving foward at a good speed after a newsgroup was set up for the five of us to post ideas and sort things out, which seemed to get things going.
I also set up one for Gnome Milk. I still need to upload all the old versions of the first few chapters of Agaffa ready for drastic editing, and then everything will be in one handy place. Whether or not this will encourage any significant activity remains to be seen.
I've nearly finished the first part of Starcustard Chapter 5. (I'll get typed that up and send it to you during the week, Melia.) That means I'll be able to scribble out the first of my priorities for this month. Then I can get to work on The Aberration Chapter 2 and City of Anarchy Chapter 3. Woot.
The equivocal Project CAM is now moving foward at a good speed after a newsgroup was set up for the five of us to post ideas and sort things out, which seemed to get things going.
I also set up one for Gnome Milk. I still need to upload all the old versions of the first few chapters of Agaffa ready for drastic editing, and then everything will be in one handy place. Whether or not this will encourage any significant activity remains to be seen.
I've nearly finished the first part of Starcustard Chapter 5. (I'll get typed that up and send it to you during the week, Melia.) That means I'll be able to scribble out the first of my priorities for this month. Then I can get to work on The Aberration Chapter 2 and City of Anarchy Chapter 3. Woot.
Labels: agaffa, city of anarchy, project cam, starcustard, the aberration
Saturday, October 08, 2005
117 Words
A couple of months ago, a competition was started at HBO where the challenge was to come up with something (anything) Halo-related with the length of 117 words. Apparently there were about 175 entries in all. Today they posted the top 117. Contrary to what I initially thought, that list is not in the order of competition ranking. I'm guessing it's the order in which they were submitted, but I don't know. They picked the best 117, and then shortlisted 14 of them, and then picked the three winners from that.
I submitted two entries. I am now in a happy mood because they both made it into the top 117. The first, In Character (which is about the story and characters), is number 21 on that list, and the second, Handshake (which is more about the technical aspect of the game), is number 94. I'm surprised my second entry made it into the top 117 considering it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I can't help wondering how they would have fared if they had been posted in rank order, but meh. I be content. :)
P.S. Please ignore any horrific grammatical errors.
I submitted two entries. I am now in a happy mood because they both made it into the top 117. The first, In Character (which is about the story and characters), is number 21 on that list, and the second, Handshake (which is more about the technical aspect of the game), is number 94. I'm surprised my second entry made it into the top 117 considering it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I can't help wondering how they would have fared if they had been posted in rank order, but meh. I be content. :)
P.S. Please ignore any horrific grammatical errors.
Labels: halo, videogames
Friday, October 07, 2005
#050
It's been over sixth months since the idea of having my own website came about, and this blog was started pretty much straight after that. That's over half a year of planning, having ideas, changing projects that have been going for years, and a fair bit of generally wasting time and doing nothing. The original plan was to get it online in the summer when my exams were over... that was three or four of those six months ago. But the delay hasn't because I'm not really interested in it. I think I've been hesitant to just get it done because I want it to be exactly right, and I don't want something I'll be disappointed with, because I know I'll lose interest if that's what it is. This website, just a website though it is, is a huge step in me getting to do what I love and getting it out there for people to see... a sort of climax after the first attempts with Fod and the long and edifying journey that was Kommingle. And there's all the crazy people I've befriended along the way and who have helped me immensely. I'm reaching a point now which is a sort of culmination of all these experiences, although I know that it by no means ends here and will continue in the insane way it has been doing.
It could be just Amelia's contagious excitement as she starts to perfect the design, but you know what? As this blog reaches its fiftieth update, and each and every one of the various projects reaches a stage of activity, I'm thinking it's not going to be too long before Fat Man In Tweed is up for the world to see.
How spiffingly dramatic. :)
It could be just Amelia's contagious excitement as she starts to perfect the design, but you know what? As this blog reaches its fiftieth update, and each and every one of the various projects reaches a stage of activity, I'm thinking it's not going to be too long before Fat Man In Tweed is up for the world to see.
How spiffingly dramatic. :)
