I will again be sitting on top of lump of stone making tea today, this time just outside York Minster.

Just been shopping for my sister's birthday present for her party tomorrow (yes, I know, last minute). While I was in town, I saw the Curry's Digital (Dixons as-was) was having a closing down sale, so I went in. I came out with a Toshiba Satellite L750D laptop for something like £200 less than market price.

Haven't even taken it out of the box yet. It's got great specs, Win7 Home Premium, a built-in webcam and 3 USB ports. Thing is, I like XP, and I've got a perfectly serviceable IBM Thinkpad T40 on which to do all the compter-type stuff I could want. The Toshiba doesn't have a modem port (easy enough to get a plug-in I suppose, when the time comes to need to use one), and I already have a webcam. But y'know, the Thinkpad's getting on a bit, it's a bit slow, only 2 USB ports, and one's taken up with a portable hard drive. I'm thinking, either I can set up and use the new Toshiba, say goodbye to the Thinkpad - or I can keep the Thinkpad and sell the Toshiba on eBay for nearer to full market price.

What do you lot think?

Customs & Duty

Spent most of yesterday wrapped up warm in bed, sweating out this bastard cold and reading Freefall. Feeling noticeably better now.

Con report is up

Went fencing again today. Didn't do too badly - my footwork's getting better, and I'm beginning to get my hand speed up again. My refereeing is still hideously abysmal, no surprises there after ten years out of the sport.

Anyway, the club's bloody difficult to get to. It's in Kirkstall in Leeds, and it runs from 8pm to 10pm. There's a train from the nearest station (Headingly - a 10 min walk away) at about 10.10, to Leeds. The next one is an hour later, and arrives at Leeds after all the trains back to Keighley have left. So after MTG in Bradford, I go over to my sister's place in Farsley (near Pudsey in Leeds). I hang around, clear up after the cats, have dinner, do a bit of driving, and go fencing. When finished, I get the bus at 10.17 to Farsley, and stay over at my sister's. This means I need to pack two days' supplies for things at MTG, plus also my PJs and a clean T-shirt to wear at fencing, which gets taken home and washed. My fencing kit stays at my sister's, and I go in to MTG on a Tuesday morning then go home. So, yeah, logistical nightmare, not to mention expensive what with having to buy Monday's dinner and Tuesday's lunch (and maybe breakfast). The leisure centre where the club is is also not cheap, and I don't exactly have a high income. I'll have to double check the prices and possible expenditures compared to going to Leeds Uni Fencing Club, who have an advanced session on Saturday mornings. Okay, I'll have to do a lot more carrying of kit, but at least I won't have an overnight stay.

HS&S:WT Book VI, written last November with the working title, "Exit, Pursued by Bear", now has a new title that's slightly more relevant. It is now known as, "Customs & Duty".

It is also going to be delayed by a couple of weeks. I've been having a lot of shit from MTG and the DWP recently, and I've just not been able to do everything I should due to the stress this has caused, and so instead of an Easter release, it's going to be released on Monday the 23^rd of April, which just happens to be St. George's Day.

Is anybody going to this year's Eastercon in a few weeks, and need a room-mate? I was down for a room-share, but they've apparently just cancelled coming. So - are you, or do you know anybody who is, in need of a place to sleep for Friday to Monday nights? Please let me know ASAP. Thank you.

I know I've been kind of quiet lately, but two things of note have just happened:

1) I drove back from Harrogate (a spa town not far into North Yorkshire) to Keighley (an ex-industrial town about twenty miles to the west of Leeds), via Willesden (a tiny village sticking onto the side of Bingley deep in the hills), at night. It's a bugger of a road, and apart from a near miss at a traffic-lighted crossroads, went very well.

2) I went fencing this evening! I've not fenced anything like regularly since 2001, and, after years of almost-randomly encouraging people to try fencing, I went to a club in Leeds and did some fencing. I brought along my kit, was told most of it was positively antique and not safe to use. I used my ancient two-pin electric sabre, not knowing if it all would still work - it did, but the accelerometer made the box complain, so I borrowed a club sabre and one-pin wire. Pretty amazingly, I won one 15-14, lost one 14-15, and then after a bout of refereeing (which I was probably abysmal at), I lost an un-referee'd match 15-3. Anyway, very knackered (doesn't help that I didn't go to bed on Sunday night), a bit sore, and very buoyed up and raring to go again next week.

Or, I did, until I took my socks off. Y'see, today it snowed all over the North of England (and probably lots of other places too), and I had to go out in it. I was a bit late up, though, so I didn't have time to put my boots on, only my trainers, and my trainers are not as waterproof as my boots.

I went to the EdFringe Roadshow at the Contact Theatre in Manchester (whose architect must surely be wearing a white coat with really long sleeves now), in order to do research towards putting on the show that I hope to be doing this summer. I say "hope to be doing" rather than "will be doing", because people I'M not allowed to Talk about are makinG things difficult because I cocked up the timings of approaching actors versus approaching them. Anyway, that particular problem should be sorted out by the end of the week, one way or another.

Results from the Roadshow are good - it turns out most of my predictions/guesses about what would need to be done in what order to take a show to Edinburgh were accurate, or at least workably close. I got to talk to four venue reps, and a production company consultant. It provided a lot of useful information, which KCT will be making use of.

act;
fence;
sing;
drive;
run 100m in about 12 seconds;
recite most of the prologue to Henry V at the drop of a hat (although not immediately after running 100m);
type somewhere around 70-90wpm;
write books;
intelligently discuss ancient Rome, medieval society, renaissance art, and/or Napoleonic tactics in a range of convincing accents from around Britain and the world;
operate a tech desk;-->
organise and plan a complex project with little material assistance;-->
balance on one leg for nearly two minutes, depending on the pose;
brilliantly cook a pizza, pasta, bacon, or a cup of coffee;
... and probably some other things that I can't remember at one in the morning.

So, what can you do?

Originally posted by obstinatrix at To UK Flisties

Originally posted by de_nugis at To UK Flisties

(Taken most recently from zoeiona, slightly adapted.)

If you're from the UK and you believe in freedom of speech and an uncensored interenet, you really need to sign this petition. There are others floating about, but that particular one is the best way to ensure that your voice gets heard. It's hosted on the directgov website and addresses parliament directly. If it gets more than 100,000 signatures, it becomes eligible for discussion in the House of Commons.

Everyone's been getting so worked up over SOPA -- and rightly so -- that ACTA seems to have slipped under the radar. This is hugely problematic, because ACTA is a similar bill, but it has the potential to be far more damaging than SOPA ever could be.

Some people seem to have this misconception that ACTA is the 'European SOPA', but that simply isn't true. It's a global treaty, and it's already been signed by eight countries, including the US, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore. Europe votes on Thursday. If they vote 'no', the bill will have to be taken back to the drawing board and reformulated, which should buy us some time at the very least.

If you think this doesn't affect you, you're wrong. If ACTA passes, it could well signal the end of the internet as we know it, and that isn't an exaggeration. It's not just about watching movies and television online. If ACTA passes, sites like YouTube, Livejournal, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and even Google and Wikipedia could become impossible to maintain. ACTA would allow ISPs to monitor your net activity and cut off internet access for your entire household if one person is suspected of breaching copyright. Think Big Brother is Watching. I don't think I need to emphasise just how damaging it can be to be without internet access in this day and age, when we rely so heavily on technology.

It's not only bloggers and fandom that would be affected, either. Small businesses, independent film-makers and unsigned musicians who have previously found their niche online would also suffer hugely, and would be at risk of being bullied into submission by Hollywood and multinational corporations under accusations of copyright infringement. All those artists who found fame by uploading covers of songs to YouTube would never have had the opportunity to do so under ACTA, as those cover versions would be prohibited.

I know the internet has its problems, but to my mind it's the single greatest invention to come out of modern times, and it would be an absolute travesty if we were to lose that now. From a personal point of view, I can't even put into words how important this is to me. I've met some of my closest friends through the internet and online fandom, people whom I would likely never have met without it, and it's given me this amazing social support system. I don't want that to end here, and I want to preserve it for future generations so that they can have the same experience and opportunities I've been given through my online interactions.

I know that opinions on the seriousness of copyright infringement and online piracy vary wildly, but that isn't really the point. Internet giants such as Google are opposed to this bill, and it's pretty safe to say that they're not in favour of copyright infringment, as anyone who's ever had a fanvid taken down from YouTube will be painfully aware. Whatever your stance on copyright, this isn't the way to go about dealing with it. This is dangerous legislation that impeaches on some of our most basic human rights, such as the right to privacy and freedom of speech.

So if you're from the UK, please, please sign the petition. If you hail from elsewhere in the world, there may well be similar movements in your own country, but I think the most effective thing anybody can do right now is to keep talking about this. Talk about it on Livejournal, on Twitter, on Tumblr, on Facebook, and anywhere else you can think of. Make sure this issue is never far from people's minds. The internet is an amazingly powerful tool: let's utilise it while we still have the chance.

Please repost and spread the word :)

SAY NO TO ACTA!

Please consider reposting this, especially if you have a large proportion of UK flisties. And please consider spreading the word via other platforms: Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, your own personal network.

King Cobra Theatre is go!

Spread the word! I have taken the first steps to producing a show at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. Hopefully, MTG will be acting as Associate Producers and providing us with logistical support and rehearsal space, but even if they don't the show (currently with a working title of "The Fifth Duck") is going to go ahead.

I've just been out into town. When I got back, one of my mum's friends was in the front room. They were both crocheting and talking. As I sat down to take my boots off, the friend said, "why don't you learn to crochet, Brian, then you can join our knit & natter classes?" I said, "no." She said, "well, there you go then," as if it were my fault I a) didn't crochet, b) didn't want to crochet, and c) didn't want to talk to pair of old biddies twice my age with nothing in common with me. Just a bit upset now.

I've just completed my Pass Plus course!