By Duncan on 30 August 2007 12:51

For the bank holiday, I went camping in a foreign country (Wales), using my tent for the third time in two months, a lifelong record for me. A couple of my dancing friends invited some dancers and their uni friends to come canoing with them down the river Wye to Monmouth. I was probably drunk when I agreed, because its not something I'd normally spend a weekend doing, especially a bank holiday one.

I'm glad I did go as we had an amazing two nights, with a great indian meal on Friday night followed by a couple of hours getting more friends addicted to pub quiz machines.  My stalwart game of Word Up appears to have been renamed to Word Soup. Saturday and Sunday were spent in canoes going down the river Wye, with more floating in the sun than actual paddling. We visited three pubs on the Saturday, although none had quiz machines that I saw. There were fourteen of us, with two others who camped with us on the Saturday night and joined our expedition on the Sunday.

Each canoe was a two-man affair, and...

Read More »

By Duncan on 16 August 2007 12:27

Two bits today.

Firstly, the Transformers film was great. It could have been incredible, but it was still really good. I went expecting giant robots fighting it out, and that's what I got. It wasn't sophisticated, but watching helicopters, trucks and cars turn into robots did the business. Go and see it.

I will most definately go and see Transformers II when it comes out.

And onto the second part of today.

D&D 4th Edition has been announced

There is an ENWorld thread here, and one in the gaming forum here. It will be released in May next year, with previews later this year.

I don't have much to say on it yet, as I haven't looked at the details much. Needless to say, it is big news for gamers. A little earlier than expected, but I'll certainly have a good look at the previews.

 

More soon on this, no doubt.

 

By Duncan on 13 August 2007 12:17

I had another great weekend just gone, dancing down in Falmouth and Newquay (Indian Queens).

Our host holds a BBQ every year, allowing campers in his garden and building a custom dance floor. This was my first year and he'd put up a massive sail to cover the dance floor and surrounding area. Apparently it had enough tension in it to allow someone to walk on top of it.

I had great dances on Friday night at Newquay, and Saturday night at our host's. The atmosphere was great and food was plentiful. There was even a brief cabaret. I expect to be back next year!

The one downside came on Sunday morning, when my mobile's screen died. It would still turn on and ring, but I couldn't actually see what was happening. I bought a new one yesterday in Exeter, but lost all the numbers stored on the phone. After many failed attempts to connect PC to phone, I finally managed this morning, and stopped cursing my phone to update my new phone.

By Duncan on 01 August 2007 11:55

Transformers has come to my local cinema, and I'll go and see it in the next couple of days. I prefer to see films when the cinema is mostly empty, and there are less people to annoy me.

Reviews have been mixed so far. But most of the down points seem to be about plot and somesuch. If I'm going to see a film about giant robots fighting each other, the last thing I really care about is a plot. Lost of machines, explosions and cheesy fight scenes. But not plot.

The beeb gave it four stars though, which was a pleasant surpise.

No doubt I'll give an opinion once I've seen it.

By Duncan on 24 July 2007 15:58

After a few hours of fighting with a Friendly URL generator for DotNetNuke, I've managed to get it to work.

For those who don't know, the URL is the bit that appears in the top of the browser, such as http://www.dunknet.net/books-and-writing.aspx

What this means is that links in my site should now be pretty much all text based. So instead of a link with lots of &, ?, =, there should be a descriptive title instead. It won't make a blind bit of difference to anyone except possibly the search engines.

Thats it for todays useless bit of news!

By Duncan on 22 July 2007 11:44

Only since I started going to dance classes have I worn far more fancy dress. My collection now includes wizard's cloak, cowboy hat, wigs & beards, a magician's cane and various other bits and pieces.

Yesterday evening saw me walking the streets of Exeter in pink trousers and jacket, dressed like Sinbad or Alladin. A jewelled belt, plastic cutlass (doubling as a scimitar) and big black moustache finished off the costume, although I only got a few strange looks.

When I got to my Arabian Nights party, I found most of the men dressed in jeans and shirts, although the women had nearly all made an effort, between silk scarves and belly dancing jangly things. Luckily a sheik and semi-arabian dressed men did turn up later . There were two girls dressed as lions, who had been told that it was an African party.

A massive effort had gone into decorating the house, with a bamboo structure in the back garden, draped in silks and festooned with candles, cushions, rugs and lamps. It was very atmospheric.

...

Read More »

By Duncan on 18 July 2007 12:45

I've updated the book reviews section, most recently with a look at Wolf in Shadow by David Gemmell, possibly my favourite author.

I'm also still waiting to update the forums, and hopefully DotNetNuke will bring out an updated version in the next couple of weeks...

By Duncan on 16 July 2007 11:54

Instead of lunch at lunchtime on Saturday, I was instead dancing in the middle of a busy Exeter High Street, demonstrating for a local jive night. It wasn't what I had had planned when I woke up in the morning!

After receiving an email at half ten saying they were desperately short of people to demonstrate, I turned up wandering if any friends would see me prancing around in broad daylight. The answer was yes, as one sent me a photo on my mobile phone that afternoon, wondering what I had been doing in the high street.

For most of it, there was only two of us dancing, trying to focus on the basics as curious passers-by paused to watch. Its a lot different to a normal evening with a sprung dance floor and lots of others jiving at the same time. There were others with us, but most just handed out flyers, not wanting to be seen jiving in public.

It was a strange experience, but at least I didn't drop anyone onto the concrete paving.

 

By Duncan on 15 July 2007 12:34

I've now camped three times in Cornwall, and there is a common theme.

The first time was on a school activities week. It rained then and was miserable.

The second time was a hockey tournament down at Penzance. It also rained then and was miserable.

Last night was dancer's 40th near Lizard Point, and, yes, it rained and was miserable.

Maybe I should avoid Cornwall. Except that I'm camping there again next month and expecting even more rain. It also doesn't bode well for the canoeing and camping in Wales I agreed to last night.

Apart from trying to sleep through the rain on the tent at 3 in the morning, I did have a good time in Cornwall, where a barn had been done up with birthday decorations and a proper dance floor. There were an abundance of cornish pasties, gorgeous desserts and free for all on the barbecue, which meant I ate far too much (always a result of free food). Bloated and dancing don't always mix particularly well.

Gary Marsden from Taunton played good music...

Read More »

By Duncan on 12 July 2007 12:18

Only two weeks until the Transformers Film hits the UK (Or a week if I was organised and went to an early screening), my hopes of a good film are crushed and childhood memories brutalized.

Having said that, reviews from the US have been surprisingly upbeat. It might actually be entertaining!