Roaring Currents

Posted on March 28, 2016 by First Age

I would heartily recommend the stirring Korean war film Roaring Currents depicting the heroic stand of master strategist Admiral Yi Sun-sin and his 13 battleships that opposed the Japanese enemy’s fleet of 133+, and win the most incredible of naval victories.

The film is pared back and to the point, wasting little space and time outside of telling the tale of the Battle of Myeongnyang, with a great portion of the film focussing on the action. The CGI is well done and the battle sequences stirringly effective. There is a quiet charisma to the central performance which gives the film the anchor needed. The sinister Japanese pirate king was a touch pantomime but made for a genuinely menacing villain.

Another victory for Amazon Prime, through which I seem to be watching a lot of my TV at the moment.

It’s probably time for another viewing of Red Cliffs…

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A slice of a holiday week

Posted on March 26, 2016 by First Age

I’m now a full week into my Easter break. It always surprises me how I can be when I have properly wound down from the exertions of commute and high octane programme work. Perhaps due to the continual motion of the day to day and high tempo transactional interactions, I find that my time away forms an orderly retreat to home and the slow paced and deeply warming company of my family. This week I have had the real pleasure of lengthy time with my kids, especially Erin and Cameron, with a brief visit from Connor.

My birthday meal with clowning younglings

It is also true to say that I am, at least dominantly, an introvert (no, really), perhaps genetically primed to blog, which might be why I am here. This week has allowed me to spend many a happy solitary hour being creative and indulging my current Youtube habit of watching cricket highlights, John Oliver, and listening to New Retro music from Ogre, VHS Glitch and others.

Willingly enveloped in the powerful embrace of the Googlesphere, I am enjoying the interoperability of their cloud services and attached devices, especially my Toshiba Chromebook 2 and Nexus 5 phone. In fact I’ve just bought Carmel a copy of my Chromebook to give her a full 13″ IPS HD experience. She is weak at the knees in anticipation. We share our Google calendars to help coordinate our busy modern lives. Bless.

Easter has come early as my kids depart for mater later, so Morissons 3 for a tenner have been deployed. Cameron was persuaded into toast before the impious gorging commenced. I count that as expert parenting.

Time for some lunch, followed by a wary sojourn to B&Q, where insufficient sprays will be purchased to de-mould and protect house and wilderness for a further year.

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A beginning is a very delicate time

Posted on March 25, 2016 by First Age

With the launch of my next writing project over at Adventures in Kalland, I thought I would start up a new blog to keep me writing. This will be a place where I can dribble about things that seem important, fascinating or ridiculous to me. I may post about anything that has impressed upon the grey matter and left some sort of rapidly fading memory. I expect family, gaming, tech and some occasional work will dominate. I grow more revolutionary red as I age, but am not expecting to fly my liberal socialist flag here very often.

The Far Havens was picked out as a place of vibrant debate, a cluster of worlds high above the galactic plane, but on the cusp of discovery by a greater power. It can feel like that sometimes. I chipped in some ideas and some writing to the Far Havens setting book for Sarah Newton’s magnificent transhuman space opera, Mindjammer. My illustrious writing partner, Dr Mitch, did most of the heavy lifting.

I’m nervous that this blog may become a lengthy and narcissistic twitter feed, but then I expect, partly, that’s the point. To hold this at bay, here’s a picture of me and Carmel goofing about…

Rarely have I looked so sane.

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