He Peered Into The Darkness...

I can now happily confirm that I have indeed regained my writing bug. Strangely enough it returned only shortly after I received word that I have been accepted for one of the jobs I applied for. It's a pretty good job, with a pretty good pay-packet, and I'm looking forward to starting on Monday. The hours suit me, the work environment's not too shabby; all in all, good news for me.

Of course, this does mean that when I start I'll have much less free time, but hopefully it won't impact too much on the important things, like writing, friends and this blog. Speaking of which, if you're reading this with Mozilla Firefox then you're seeing it as it should be. If you're using Microsoft's Internet Explorer then there's a good chance it don't look so good. Don't blame me; blame Microsoft. Along with a lot of other people, I can't recommend Firefox enough.

There, that's the free plug out of the way.

Observant readers may have noticed that there are a few more links on the list than before. I'll keep adding anything that I think readers may find of interest, as well as linking back to anybody who links here. The latest addition is Cyberpunk author William Gibson's blog. His latest post offers a DIY link to a short film that gave me a long pause for thought, and I heartily recommend you pop by and take a look.

Very Observant readers may also have noticed that some of the previous articles now seem to contain strange characters. This, as far as I can tell, is an encoding issue and is being dealt with. I currently have a team of fourteen Venezuelan Chipmunks hunting down the rogue punctuation right now, and they don't get fed until they've done.

Realy Incredibly Super-Observant types may even have noticed a gradual move towards tidying up all the code around here; I've pretty much given up using Blogger's WYSIWYG interface simply because it was adding a lot of (IMO) unnecessary tags. That's the part of this whole process that takes the most time, and because I've graded it as 'not urgent, slightly important' it's probably not going to be finished any time soon. Don't worry though, as it shouldn't affect the service.

Anyway, I'm going to head back to my writing now. There's a man about to walk into a trap and I don't want to keep him waiting.

Speak again soon, Sleepsville.

A Change Will Do You Good

Good morning Sleepsville, and welcome to the new look. It's still all shiny and new, but unlike most things in the IT industry it's been released ahead of schedule.

There are a few tweeks that I still need to make (such as some minor typography problems...), but what you're seeing now is pretty much how the blog is going to look from now on. All being well, there shouldn't be too many bugs, but if you find one leave me a comment and I'll try to eradicate it.

Other than the update, there's nothing else new here to see right now but that'll change soon as well.

Be well. You'll be hearing from me again soon.

The Wind Blows Softly

I have an apology to make. I know that I've been remiss in my duty as a blogger recently and I can only hope that you all forgive me. Obviously that assumes that there's even an 'all of you' to care. Okay, I know that there are a few people out there reading this, so to those of you who keep popping back, my thanks for your interest and my apologies for not posting more.

Part of the problem is that I've not really been paying much attention to the news recently, so I'm kinda out of touch. Looking at my RSS feeds, there's about six hundred stories that I've not even skimmed through yet, and I know that a lot of those won't be applicable any more but if I'm going to do good journalism then I need to do good research. Of course, I could just wax lyrical about life and hope that's enough to appease, but I'm not going to do that today.

Work on the new template for the site's taken a back-seat, I'm afraid, mainly because it's not the most urgent priority. I will still be giving this place a full face-lift but as things stand I doubt that it'll happen before November. Of course, anything could happen between now and then, so don't quote me on that.

There's also been my job-hunting escapades that have kept me away from my desk a lot of the time. The internet's a wonderful medium for all kinds of things but when it comes to finding gainful employment, I've not quite cracked the system yet. I have an interview for a respected magazine publisher next week and hopefully that will lead to me earning a crust again. Keep your fingers crossed for me, and I'll report back once I know either way.

Writing's been a little troublesome. There are times when I can sit down and pour words onto the page without pause, and I really do love it when I get into that frame of mind. Unfortunately, this last week or two I've not been able to find my muse for a number of reasons, so work on the novel has slowed down. Frustrating isn't the word for it, especially with my self-imposed deadline looming, but I'd rather miss that deadline and write a cracking story than rush things through and realise afterwards that it's all just slush. You'll thank me for it later, I promise.

To make up for lack of inspiration in the fiction field, I've been tidying up the first mock-up of the role-playing game. I still need lots of artwork but I've got a few names and all being well I should be able to start that moving in the next few days. After that, it's just a case of filling in the blanks. My original plan for the RPG was to make it available for free download and I still may do that with the stripped-down rules themselves, but there's a lot of work going into the full rulebook and background so I may offer a second alternative in the form of a professionally produced role-playing product. That way I might even be able to pay the artists.

What else? Oh yeah, I'm looking at buying another snake; a Watermelon Hognose, to be precise, a girlfriend for Ugly Bob. I can't afford it right now, and the breed I'm interested in won't be cheap, so for the time being I'm just making enquiries, but if it pans out then before long I may even officially be able to call myself a snake breeder. I would give you links to pictures of these beautiful snakes but unfortunately the store that sells them has taken them off of their front page. Ah well.

And that is pretty much it. I'll try not to stay away for as long this time, and all being well I should be back to my normal self before too long. I certainly hope so, anyway.

Take care, Sleepsville. Sorry that I've kept you waiting.

The Cat Who Got The Cream

Hi Sleepsville. I was just taking a break from being creative and thought I'd share a picture with you, and that only because it's something nice to look at.

I've been busy with writing the last few days, as well as learning the inner-mysteries of CSS and HTML, hence the change of decor around here. I've also set up accounts for flickr and HaloScan, so it'll not be long before they're added. All being well, I'll have this site/blog looking better and acting better soon enough. Oh, and don't worry - the pull-down menus aren't staying for long. They're ugly.

I have a collection of links that I'm going to be adding to the Katrina article either tonight or tomorrow but other than that, writing's taking priority - I do have a deadline to meet, after all.

To the two-hundred-plus visitors who've been to the blog in the last few days, thank you. From what I can tell, most of you got here by accident (I'm guessing you clicked on the "Next Blog" button at the top of the screen) but it still surprised me to see the hike in hits. I will be resetting the counters when the final face-lift takes place, so thanks for letting me think I'd suddenly become popular.

And that's about all I've got time for. I'm off to make coffee, and then I have a hero to frustrate. Unlike the cat, I don't have the time to sunbathe...

See you later Sleepsville.

After Katrina... [updated]

I've been deliberately silent on the subject of Hurricane Katrina and the effect she's had on Louisiana. I watched live feeds from the New Orleans webcams, with the storm approaching the city and the night sky very slowly lightening. And then the city's power failed but I still saw enough to shock me into keeping my mouth shut for this long.

I don't have the resources to go and help the victims in person, and the donations I've made are merely pocket-money compared to the amount raised so far. There isn't much more than I can do other than to encourage anybody and everybody who reads this blog to offer their own support to the people of New Orleans, in whatever way that you can. If you live nearby and can spare the time, volunteer to help. If you have money, make a donation. If you are the Managing Director of a big company, devote as many of the resources at your disposal as you can to the relief effort. Prove that the human race can band together to overcome adversity.

I'm going to use this post to list as many of the relief efforts as I can find over the next few weeks. Each link will redirect you to either a news story or a direct method of contribution that I've tried to confirm. If you find any that I've missed, please add a comment. Thanks.

[I know it's only a small list right now; I will be adding as many more as I can tonight so please be patient.]

News Stories

BBC News: 5-Sep - A useful article on what to do if you want to help. IMPORTANT
BBC News: 5-Sep - Relief priorities to help those who've suffered. IMPORTANT
Reuters: 4-Sep - EU and NATO to send aid.
BBC News: 3-Sep - Online gamers urged to donate; Sony and Bungie pledge support.
BBC News: 2-Sep - Warnings regarding hoax Katrina e-mails. IMPORTANT
The Register: 2-Sep - The same story from a tech perspective.
wilwheaton.net: 2-Sep - Role-players encouraged to help New Orleans.
wilwheaton.net: 31-Aug - Wil plays poker to raise cash.

Donation Channels and Related

American Red Cross - Organising relief drives and getting aid to the people as best they can.
FEMA - The place to check for the latest relief updates.
gryphonking.com - Fantasy author Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon's relief site.
USA Freedom Corps - Make donations to help the Katrina victims and their families.

Other Aggregators

[The following are good sites to visit for more extensive lists of the organisations accepting donations.]
instapundit.com - Another blog-style list that seems to be growing quickly.
Network For Good - A good portal for making donations, with a lot of organisations listed.

[Disclaimer: I know that unfortunately there will be people and groups out there who will use this disaster to line their own pockets; if you're one of those profiting from human misery, please go f**k yourself ... preferably with a barrel cactus. I will not hesitate to remove hoaxes or fraudulent links.]

Lest We Forget...

You'll have to excuse me for not being as acerbic as normal with my rant today, but to be honest, I think I'm in shock. I woke up this morning expecting to find one news story dominating every single one of my international feeds. I was so sure that I'd spend the morning reading the same article over and over again, distributed by numerous agencies, that when I didn't find any reference whatsoever to the topic in question, I thought I'd missed an entire day.

Not a single news agency that I'm linked to (including the BBC, Boston Globe and Reuters) has covered what I think is one of the most important stories of the day; the events aboard an American warship on September 2nd, 1945. You can probably imagine my surprise that it wasn't there.

Sixty years ago today, the Second World War ended with the signing of the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri. Despite what the pundits at the time may have believed, WWII did not end up being 'The War To End All Wars'; people are still dying in armed conflict around the world every day. Even now, sixty years after one of the most violent wars in history we still don't seem to have learned the lessons of the past.

I would like to ask the leaders of the world, the people who advise them, their friends, and anybody with even an ounce of compassion to please put an end to violence of any form. Let's make September 2nd, 2005, the day we stop fighting; let's make it a thing of fiction only.

Be well Sleepsville.

[Addendum: If anybody does find any news articles relating to the anniversary of the end of WWII, please leave a comment, with a link to the article where possible. Thank you.]