And what a two weeks! I've been from pillar to post (well Manchester & Bedford) spending the time in the company of geeks, rockers and most recently of all smelly LRPers.

First up was Manchester, and a chance to see the Imperial War Museum North. I actually ended up doing this twice - first with bacony and stsquad, then with ant_girl (by which time I knew how to get there so appearaed terribly clever and well travelled. Interesting. Yes. Interesting. I especially liked the "Propaganda and War" exhibit which included footage of the Falklands War I vaguely remember from the original broadcast.

I did discover I like trams/light rail. I am mildly ashamed by this.

This was topped off with a long debate with ant_girl about the responsibility of society for the wars started by politicians on their behalf. More middle class guilt ensued on my behalf.

The following week was mostly dull, punctuated by Skinny Puppy on the Monday night. I'll sort the remainder of the photos out soon in one mega [GPP] now I've automated the whole process to the point where I press a button and spend five minutes rearranging the images on the page, rather than spending ten minutes versioning each photo and about an hour getting the web page right. Coding for fun is ok, but I still have no desire to code for a living.

Last weekend was of course Maelstromega. This one was better than the last from my point of view (as I had sleep) and worse from a player's persepctive (huuuuuuuuuuuuge GOD queues). There is a lot of sorting out which needs to be done, and I suspect a trip for me to Preston for pizza a debrief in the next couple of weeks will be called for. There are photos - I'm not blown away by them - here.

Nice to see plenty of people though - especially ephraim who was in a justifiably good mood (briefly). That's a brief "seeing" rather than a brief "good mood".

Since then I've been mostly mooching about, and contemplating the issue of the kid who murdered another kid. Again the shared-social-guilt circuits kicked in - and I wonder how much living at home with the only remaining parent a long distance lorry driving father, in relative isolation would have contributed towards developing a sociopathic youngster.

On a lighter note I have successfully avoided having to go to London on Sunday to shoot my brother's Twisted Sister/AntiProduct gig (by recruiting Shari who had the (mis-)fortune of meeting me at the 3 Colours Red gig ephraim and I reviewed for the BBC; and hope to be going to the Levellers in Wolverhampton with ant_girl and dreamfire.

And tomorrow is The Crüxshadows in Birmingham - which I am looking forward to - despite not being a goth.

Current Mood: contemplative