Patrick Stewart RIP

Another sad day for the sci-fi nerd in me. I heard that Patrick Stewart has just died.

So back in the mid eighties, I liked to watch by horror film I could get hold of. This is back in the days of VHS and an absence of  age checks. Given my height, demeanour and facial hair, I had been able to get away with renting the best horror films since I was 14. I had a few favourites, mostly involving zombies, or something like that. 

One such film was Lifeforce. Not true zombies but something like space, zombie vampires. So perfect for me. This is the film where I first remember seeing Patrick Stewart. A classic Shakespearian actor in a trashy British horror film.

Images of him have featured in my blog many times. My image of him is as Mr Perdue, the maître d at the L'Idiot restaurant has become my personal motivator on many occasions. This was a character that touch a place in my head that perfectly matched my sense of humour. Rewatching him in L.A. Story is one of my favourite things to do. 

This was all before Star Trek: The Next Generation. This still continues to be relevant for me down to the image of his face on a Christmas jumper, surrounded by snowflakes over the words "make it snow, make it snow, make it snow". I watched every episode of this show. Multiple times. Star Trek is the other faith from my Sci Fi pantheon but it is a pretty cool one.

He has been in a lot of other stuff over the years. Not least of which was Coronation Street. This was a bit part in a show that would mean nothing to anyone beyond the UK. As the voice of Avery Bullock in American Dad always amused me. Not to mention being the best version of Professor X.

Just as a side note, I saw the band of the Guards doing a tribute to Patrick Stewart. They did however play the wrong theme.

Ten Years Since The End Of An Era

Just a little over ten years ago my dad passed. I have been thinking about this a lot in recent weeks. It seems like a long time and no time at all. He was always in good health. I recall helping him mix concrete a year or so before he died. So far there has yet to be a day I don't think about him.

Back then I was fostering. The kids were great. I loved them dearly. Having a child of my own is not quite the same. I did things for them because it was the right thing to do. For some of them it felt like I had a sense of duty to care but there was a stronger feeling for most of them.

Now, being a father, I can see that my life is different and it has perhaps given me more of an insight into my parents. There is more of a sense of propulsion. Right now most of what I do puts my daughter front and centre to what I do. 

My daughter was born a good long time after her grandfather died. She will never get to know him. This is a shame as the two would have really got on. I feel the need to be there. 

Miss you dad.

Dick Churchill

As a kid I watched the film of The Great Escape pretty much every year. It was a Christmas staple. The message I took from it was that in times of turmoil take solace in your purpose and quietly raise a couple of fingers at those who would do you down. There was a print out of the poster for the film on my wall for many years. I guess it is a nice piece of fiction. Whistling "Colonel Bogey" became a habit of mine when dealing with crap at work (my whistling is so bad nobody ever knew).

But a fiction it was in the most part. One of the truths in it was that many of the escapees were murdered by the Nazis. The first time I saw the film my jaw dropped. Unlike some of the other details in the film this bit was true.

Not many got to safety and of those that didn't not many survived. Dick Churchill was a damned lucky man by his own account. Of the seventy six men that escaped, seventy three were recaptured. Churchill considered himself lucky that he was not one of fifty that were executed. Sharing a surname with the then Prime Minister led to the Germans decision not to have him shot, saving him for possible leverage later on.

Despite the loss of life he felt the break out was worth the cost. Churchill had been a squadron leader and flew in medium bombers. He wanted to get out and get back into the war. This was despite the terror of going through the tunnel. I get the feeling from listening to him that he felt that there were times that things needed to be done and when it came they should be done properly.

It is true to say that most of my heroes are anything but. Dick Churchill however was a great man, if a little lucky.

RIP Stan Lee

Originally I was planning a different post today but the passing of Stan Lee made me change my mind. It's official, his death is all my fault. I had been watching David Bowie on YouTube earlier pn the day and thought it had been a while since one of the cultural icons of my life had died. Never, ever...EVER! tempt fate.

When it came to comic reading in my early life the works of Stan Lee were not really my thing. My heroes were from Star Wars and my comic of choice was Star Wars Weekly. I might look at Judge Dread but it was Star Wars and not the superheroes of Stan Lee that caught my attention. If I did go for a superhero comic it would be Batman.

As I got older and started to look for more nuanced characters I found that Stand Lee and his cast of characters were much more intriguing. Things were muddier for them. They had real world  problems to deal with.  My mantra, as my dad would have it, was "do the right thing". In my world and the world of Stan Lee, doing the right thing is seldom easy. For a long time I have nailed my colours to those of "Team Cap". Even though this might have cost me dearly, I have come to believe that the right thing is the right thing even when it has cost me.

RIP Stephen Hawking

It's amazing how quickly bad news circulates the globe these days. At the first hint of bad news it is there staring at you on a news feed somewhere. before you know it, even Wikipedia has been updated, usually before the news has had chance to sink in.

Most of my inspirations, I will use that word rather that heroes, have been science fiction writers. But there are a few scientists out there that have had a big impact on me. I guess the first physics book I read, other than a textbook at school, was A Brief History Of Time by Stephen Hawking. The book was everywhere in the late eighties and a book I read for kicks, rather than studying for my degree. Over the years I have read a few more of his books including The Universe In A Nutshell and A Briefer History of Time.

Physics was not really my thing in school, but over the decades I have become more and more interested in it. Most of this is down to Mr Hawking. More than physics, he was a force for good in the world and never missed the opportunity for a moment of fun it would appear. So it is sad to hear that he has died today. I can think of few really great minds in my lifetime and he is really the only one who springs to mind when I think about the word genius.

My Auntie's RIP

I buried my auntie yesterday. It wasn't a good day but it was a good service despite the vicar mixing up my mum's name with my auntie.

She was an interesting lady with a number opinions about a lot of things. She had a marmite kind of character. I for one she was a great aunt and I will always remember her as the lady who brought me the red elephants from Kenya when I was 4.

RIP Jerry Pournelle

Over my time blogging I have done several obituaries. To be honest I can't say I have any love of writing them nor any real talent in writing them. The thing is, people I admire keep dying. This may come as a surprise to you I know, given the shortage of admirable people out there.

When I first started reading  science fiction books by Jerry Pournelle were in just about every science fiction section of every bookshop. At the time I never read any of them. It's only in the last five years that I started reading them. I went through a phase of digging up old military sci fi books which brought him some criticism at the time. This, I think, was a product of the times he was living in and the world political situation in general and possibly some of his own experiences in the Korean War. He was something of a gamer in his time and contributed to a number of related gaming magazines. When I started going through some science fiction classics audiobooks, Jerry Pournelle figured quite highly on those lists. I guess his degree in Psychology did him more good than mine.

I guess it was his collaborations with Larry Niven that have stuck with me the most. The Mote In God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall are amongst my all time favourites. They are well thought through novels and have inherent consistency which make the worlds much more believable.

The guy was clearly a thinker. There are several statements referred to as "Pournelle's Law". The most relevant to me has always been "the importance of checking cable connections when diagnosing computer problems". Then there was the Iron Law of Bureaucracy. "In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely". If you have worked in any office, this has to colour your viewpoint in some way shape or form, depending on the side you were on.

He was a major advocate and early adopter of the personal computer. The are a number of non-fiction books he wrote about computers. This goes back to the early days of the personal computer. It is said to be the first author to have a book published that was written on a word processor.

I, for one, am sad that this talented man has passed away.

End Of An Era

Nothing gaming related today as I haven't done anything at all. Funerals eh. Not a lot to say really...

Just Another RIP

My dad, Harry, died just over three weeks ago and we buried him yesterday. He had just turned 75 a few days before his death. He even managed to blow out a candle on his birthday cake he was too ill to eat. He died of oesophageal cancer which had spread to his lungs and liver.

My mum and dad had lived in Spain for a long time and had only recently come back to the UK which had made me very happy at the time. He was the physically fittest seventy odd year old I knew. We argued recently about who should go up the ladders to clean the gutters at his house and he won. It has been commented on that he was never happier than when he was stood mixing mortar to build a wall. Throughout my life he has always been busy building, making or fixing something.

I have been struggling to deal with this which is why things have been a bit quiet. I just don't know where to start off now. I do know that I need to start somewhere so when not here.

I usually do RIP blogs because I respected the person in life. My dad was the biggest character in my life, despite being separated by him living in Spain. I have a few promises to him that I will stick by and a few promises I have made to myself to keep his memory alive. I guess it's time to get on with getting on.

By Grabthar's Hammer - Alan Rickman RIP

Another RIP. If you ever run RPG games you need a good character to give your NPC a sense of them coming to life to the players to interact with. My favorite way is to think of a film character and channel their personality. Alan Rickman not only had the best villainous roles but could make his sense of disdain palpable.

The role I will remember him for the most for his role as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood the Prince of Thieves. This is the best character to model a fantasy villain. He had two killer moments,

      Guy of Gisborne: Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe?
      Sheriff of Nottingham: Because it's DULL, you twit. It'll hurt more.


      Sheriff of Nottingham: [to a wench] You. My room. 10:30 tonight.
      Sheriff of Nottingham: [to another wench] You. 10:45... And bring a friend.

He did a good job as a more modern villain in Die Hard. As Hans Grubar he made villains look a bit more suave and suddenly all bad guys were a little more euro trash then ever before. As Lord Shabandarin Gambit, he was the ultimate $%^hole boss. He reminded me of so many of the people that I have worked for only he was much better dressed and spoke with a perfect voice for the part.

I guess the role he will be most remembered for (sadly for me) the role of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. He was the embodiment of evil in that but every now and then, there was more human side to the character.

As a class A nerd, I have always loved Galaxy Quest in which Rickman okay Alexander Dane, an actor famous for one role that has long since ended. You got the feeling that this was really what Leonard Nimoy was like in life. He manged world weariness and contempt like no other actor.


It's a pity as there are not many as good as he was.

David Bowie RIP and More Troubling Things

Jeez, David Bowie, gone at 69.

This has not exactly lifted my mood today. The fact I don't really care as my dad has seen the Doctor and has been told that chemotherapy is not only unlikely to do much to help his cancer but that he might not be well enough to deal with it. He has a few months, or there about. No one wants to be too specific.
Not the best day at all and now I have to watch Sponge Bob.

I Am Not Spock (Anymore)

I've just heard that Leonard Nimoy has died. Almost but not quite the last of the crew of the Starship Enterprise. Perhaps the most talented of the cast although George Takei is pretty funny I haven't seen in him anything like as much as Mr Nimoy. His career was sadly dogged by the role and he suffered in the kind of roles that he got. He was a talented writer and director (Three Men and a Baby not withstanding).

Although I followed the other path, Star Trek did have affect on me when I was growing up. Spock had the ability to sit back from the emotional decisions which is something I think we could all be better at. If I be as funny as Leonard Nimoy, I would be a happy man. 

RIP Iain Banks

I heard that Iain Banks had died yesterday. He has written many sci fi novels but his none sci fi novels were what I loved best. I read The Wasp factory back in the eighties not that long after it came out as a recommendation. It's not exactly a change you're life novel but I have read every Ian banks novel since. I don't think I could give him greater praise than to say that every time I went to a book shop I would look to see if there was anything new. There will be one last Iain Banks novel, which despite some strenuous effort just didn't get to the bookshops before he died. I am kind of saddened that there will be no more books by him as reading his novels have always been great experiences.

RIP Battlegames

I subscribed to Battlegames and Miniature Wargames back in October. Warners, the company who distribute both have kind of buggered me about a bit. I have had two copies of MW and I've yet to have a copy of Battlegames. After three months of waiting four e-mails, and three phone calls to the distributor Warner Group Publications, I got my subscription started. I even got a bonus two issues of each magazine to make up for my troubles. A little bit of a trauma but I was more than happy with the solution. I am expecting one in March. I have a few of them and quite liked the style of the magazine and eventually decided to subscribe.

I got a letter from Henry Hyde who is the editor of Battlegames which lead to me ringing him up. Nice Bloke. He's in a bit of an awkward situation I guess so I don't envy his position.

Basically it transpires that the next issue of Battlegames will be the last one. It will continue as special editions but sporadically. They will be releasing a magazine to help the charity Combat Stress, one of the few charities I feel that are not trying to mug you.

I have been told that I will be getting a copy of the improved MW to replace my subscription, which would be great as long as they don't send me out two copies of the same magazine which seems to be where it is going.

Ray Bradbury RIP

I have just found out Ray Bradbury is dead. It's a bit of a shame. I first came into contact with him because of a TV adaptation of the Martian Chronicles when I was a kid. It started a life time of interest in the planet Mars. Then with films of Farenheit 451 and something wicked this way comes are all stories that changed my mind. His stories were  a little twisted but then it seems like it ran in the family as one of his ancestors was tried for witchcraft at Salem.