I finished the Night Angel trilogy a few days ago and I'm well impressed. Really good story, awesome characters. Well worth it :)  Slightly gutted that it's over, but still. Just started a new Alastair Reynolds - "House of Suns" which is progressing nicely after a long session last night sitting outside a pub, drinking and reading steadily.

Friday night beckons... not sure what's going on just yet, but definitely off to a dubstep night tomorrow... Open Plan FTW!

House Of Suns by Alastair Reynolds

It's been so long since I wrote.. but here I am.

Ensconced still in an unlikely software house on the outskirts of Manchester, I write.

This weekend was good for enjoying the early delivery of summer sun as I found myself down in Oxford. A big barbeque, some tail to chase (or at least steal glances at) and much talk of dubstep ensued.

Music stuff is ongoing after a brief hiatus. The release of the second compilation on Xynthetic at the end of March and the Phylum Sinter remix in April has buoyed me up a little. I still have about 5-6 tracks ready to go for the EP/mini-album as soon as I can find someone to release it with! Very frustrating. Meantime, I'm going to have another go at a remix for The Unknownn when I get the time. Eve Online and being press-ganged into work are currently eating spare moments away.

Work is dragging and life is kind of loping along at the moment. Perhaps a spot of writing will help :)

~aFx

Currently reading:

Beyond The Shadows, by Brent Weeks. Third in a trilogy about a magical assassin. Having a great time reading it and would rather it didn't end... Think I've got some more Alastair Reynolds, James Blish and Ursula La Guin queued up though :) The link on the left will take you straight through to Amazon.

Ohio gozaimass.

Finally making a concerted effort at giving up nicotine. I have the enviable support of my bunch of Manchester mates who are giving up as well. Keep your fingers crossed, eh?

The psychology of smoking has been driving me mad for a while. I hate the way it has dug itself in to every action and become the next most obvious thing that I should do. I hate having that amount of fear about the risk. It's really been preying on me lately. Plus, if I quit now and succeed, then that means I will have done it before my 30th birthday which was always what I wanted. Alright so I'm not sure exactly why I feel that doing this before I'm 30 is important, but it does carry a lot of weight with me.

I stopped on Monday after agreeing with my best mate that things were ridiculous and if anything getting worse the more we tried to slow down. It's like cornering a frightened animal. Survived the pub last night but was quite twitchy (I blame the alcohol) and sat there munching liquorice sticks for half the evening while talking distractedly with my friends. Things will get better. On the way home, I was too fatigued from the resistance effort to go round to another friends place and elected to just head home to bed. This meant I caught a bit of "I, Samurai" on BBC4 which I'll have to source and see the rest of.

Right, laptop nearly out of juice. Time for breakfast.

Sayonara.

aFx

Been spending time getting some of my old sketches scanned in and submitted to deviantART.
If you're interested, check out the dA link from www.fractos.com

aFx

Absolutely, truly, definitely given up nicotine.

No more.

Busy times at work... spent the last week writing a proposal for what to do with the internal systems format and that was presented today.

Mike rang to say he and Stacey were expecting again! Very good news apart from knowing he'll have less time on his hands.. not that I've been able to spend much time with him lately anyway but ah well. Congratulations to them both!

Started work on ideas for a soundtrack to a friend's Humans/Vamps/Werewolves game... Watch this space.

aFx

Week 2 of being a technical writer and I've just about met everybody in the firm apart from the MD. However, he's making some time later on today and seems personable enough. The company itself is a weird mix of many, many developers (all of whom are used to firefighting as my friend called it - rushing around from problem to problem) and some slightly annoyed looking sales/marketing types. Nobody dresses up apart from the new graduate (who is a little intense to talk to) and the whole place is extremely informal. This is a good thing. I'm not sure I could stand a firm where due process takes precedence over being able to solve problems.

aFx

Definitely given up nicotine.

All good

[Tunes - Dizzee Rascal - "Boy In Da Corner"]

I managed to find a new job after two months of anxious searching! Scarcely believable that it took so long to even get an interview. Recruitment agents are, in general, a pile of shit, the shining exception being the senior consultant at Modis who has been an absolute star.

Situated barely twenty minutes away by train, I will be moving out of development and into technical writing. This is unexpected but I am very pleased to be put in a situation of using a computer instead of scratching my head trying to work out what went wrong.

A steady wage will hopefully see me clear of my debts which in itself brings a big ol' smile to my face.

aFx

Given up nicotine. Effective: Immediate