Got this writeup from Max at Neverwinter Vault re the PCZ feature and my 'retirement' from portraiting:

Crosbie Featured in PC Zone
Crosbie, who has created a large number of portraits for the site, has been featured in UK's PC Zone magazine (Now on sale - pg 127) where several of his portraits have been used and included on the mag's CD. We recently posted his most recent one featuring Vanessa, a friend of his, and also wish him good luck in his new job which might take him away from his portrait making unless he gets tempted by requests from mod-makers for custom jobs. Congrats all around.

Ahhh! Thanks Maximus!

Vanessa pic is up in Neverwinter Vault - Portraits section. :)

Working on the script (cuts) for Romeo and Juliet, need to knock up a budget. The audition posters are done and need to go up on campus soon. We've got a producer who knows her stuff. Whoa!

Had a mail from Brian of spilth.org which has more NWN goodies, portraits, tutorials, games, computer stuff, and, hey! a link to the Blog Cabin. :)

Whee! I'm in PCZone. 5 portraits on the CDs, plus the one of me on the DVD. :) Foolishly, I didn't include readmes with the portraits, and there's no link to the Ready Room. Bugger!

Off out tonight to the Komedia to see a Peter Cook tribute show with some pals. Ah, the theatre. I'm gonna be sick of it in a couple of months ...

Set up another possible Romeo and Juliet page - this time powered by our beloved Blogger.

The problem with a public diary - a blog - is that you feel you need to conceal parts of your life, 'cos anyone can see them, including people who know you. You feel you can't reveal negative thoughts or fears about them, or stuff you do... just in case they find this page. Even though that's a long shot, you can type in my name on a search engine and find the Blog Cabin.

So net-based stuff tends to be recorded here, and a 'public image' is created. Practically nobody is looking at it - but it feels public. I've got stuff going on in my private life - new girlfriend (I think :) ) for example - and in my PnP diaries that'd predominate. Here I want to keep that shit to myself. I've got a bunch of students who use the net, for Christ's sake.

Maybe it's a good thing. After all, diaries tend to be a litany of misery and self-doubt, written to no-one, so sentimental and empty of content. At least with an awareness of a potential audience - even though they're probably absent - you feel the need for a certain quality of content, a certain self-editing, a will to create readable stuff, rather than, well, merely waffle.

The V pic is up on the site now, in two versions. Still no copy of PCZ (!) but I think tomorrow, when I've checked the contents, I'l get in touch with Maximus, upload the last pic, and take my bow at NWVault. :)

See and d/l the pic on Portraits Page 2.

Hard at work and not blogging much atm. I'm awaiting receipt of a gratis copy of PCZone, which should include my NWN portraits on the coverdisc! The mag's out for sale tomorrow, so if I haven't had it delivered by then, I'll at least have to flip thru in WHSmith.

Vanessa has (finally) given permission to release the NW pic based on her, so I must get round to uploading it. I wanted to do a male character to finish off Crosbie's Portrait Pack too, but as I'm so distracted, I think the V pic(s) wil have to complete my work as portrait designer... unless I'm tempted by a commission, and can find the time.

Once I've settled in at BHASVIC, university's going to kick in, and work on the production of Romeo and Juliet. There may be content from that on this site, but otherwise I'm gonna be busy busy busy...

More infantile humour ahoy!
The Lair of the Crab of Ineffable Wisdom - a load of stuff by Joel Veitch that will probably crush your will to live

Random update with no content whatsoever: Courtesy of Gareth (of buffy fanfic site to your left) comes this link: b3ta presents buffys swearing keyboard. R, O, F, L.

Eight quid for 2 discs of great retro pop? You'd be kicking yourself if you didn't!

Monday off. Tuesday too. Need to read up on the new subject I've acquired, Comms at AS. Doing some internet shopping for DVDs. Checking in on Unreal® Tournament 2003 forums to see if they've released teh demo.

That spelling - 'teh' - confused me at first. But as mentioned in Internet Culture, it's a troll - a device for separating those 'in the know' from those not, a secret signs of sorts to define the community in-group over against the out-group.

If you 'get it', you a) don't comment, b) use the spelling yourself. Spend a little time reading the forums and you'll notice that it's not ignorance or bad spelling, but has been adopted by many heavy posters in the community.

If you don't get it, you haven't been reading the forums properly, and you're a n00b. You give this away by posting an indignant correction, sounding all good'n'smug like you're superior in education and style to the poster who 'can't spell'. In fact, you have been trolled. You have made a fool of yourself and marked yourself as 'out-group'.

It's like how friends - good friends - at least in the UK - are utterly rude to each other. it signals that they know each other well enough to know they're kidding. If a stranger comes along nd tries to play that game, they'll get a radically different reception, and the same statement will be taken as a sore insult.

Urban Legends Reference Pages by snopes, referenced in a fascinating academic book called Internet Culture as a trolling contributor to alt.folklore.urban in an article on trolling.

Spent the last few days watching 24 on DVD, with the vague excuse of Media Studies research, since I rarely watch TV these days (wasting most of my time on the net :) ). It's really compelling stuff, but I got hold of it having read an article suggesting that 'TV is the new movies', in a nutshell, and I'm not convinced that's true.

Certianly 24 has high production values, and the opening few episodes thickened the plot very nicely. The minute-for-minute structure is of course impossible for a movie to pull off. But I found it disappointing, partly because of the ending that sets up the next season (I was hoping for a movie-like closure), partly because it shied away from being really bold with the real-time motif (no long takes, too much cutting away and cheating the time just a touch rather than dwelling on detail, and didn't Jack Bauer need to take a piss the entire time?), but finally because, if you watched it as if it were a movie, it would clearly be a pretty naff 80s-style B-movie. I think we rate it so highly because it's great - for a TV show.

Had my first day proper enrolling students at Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College (excuse to add the link). All went very smoothly, I think it's gonna be fun working there. Incredibly, I've got the next two days off - having geared up for the Big New Job, it's actually rather easier than my last one. Which I knew really - it's part-time rather than full-time, but since it pays almost as much anyway and is a, like, grown-up job, it felt like it'd be Big. :)