Web Comic of the Week
I nearly forgot. Christmas has completely thrown out my week and I only realised it was Saturday a short time ago.

This week's choice is not something that can easily be described in a few words. As a web comic it's been so successful that not only has it helped define an aspect of the medium, it has also made the transition into print in a big way for such a small book. It has also spawned a huge number of imitators, which is flattery at its best.

My choice for Web Comic of the Week this week is the wonderful Megatokyo by Fred Gallagher.


Megatokyo is the story of two friends - both crazy about gaming - who become stranded in Japan with no funds to return home. Largo has an obsession with evil zombies that causes him to lose his grip on reality to the point where he might as well be in an alternate dimension. Piro, on the other hand, is a little more in touch with the real world, though his picture of the world is defined by all of the Japanese Manga he's read and this is how he sees the culture of his new home.

There are so many levels this comic works on that it's hard know what to discuss in a few paragraphs. A comic where people's consciences are organised by a central bureau that's so understaffed that they have to bring in temps and where the staff bicker and fight with one another. A comic where the latest gaming accessory is a full-sized female robot that's suposed to work with dating sim games yet has a life of its own. A comic where the two main characters barely have any contact with each other for months at a time yet when they do it works so well in the overall context. A comic which develops the plot lines and characters so well yet seems to be no nearer to a conclusion than it was years earlier. A comic which constantly makes you question what's happening and intrigues instead of bewilders.

Presented in a beautifully rendered way that ignores the tradition of inking over pencils and presents us instead with the pencils themselves in all their subtle beauty. The style has a clear Manga influence, though Gallagher has managed to stamp his own style and voice quite firmly on the work as a whole. This is one of my truly favourite comics and I rarely let more than a few days go by without checking for an update.

With it having its origin as a gaming strip, those of you who are not gamers may not understand some of the references, particularly when the jokes are completely based upon knowing the specific games and companies referred to. Which is a bit of a shame and a weakness in some ways because I'm sure more people would love it if it were more accessible.

This is definitely not a comic you can start reading and hope to get into from the current strip. You need to start from the beginning to understand what's going on with the story and to fully appreciate the way the whole work has developed and matured with time.

Photos page updated
I've added some new photos to the photos page (no, they're not of Caitlin this time). I managed to catch a rare visitor to the garden.

Leaving our junk on Mars
For those interested in Europe's bid to lead the way in spreading it's junk around the solar system, sorry, I mean leading the space race, the Beagle 2 site has all the latest updates. Don't forget, they're going to be landing on the red planet tomorrow.

Children's wisdom
I found this on the Something... weblog:

When your dad is mad and asks you, "Do I look stupid?' Don't answer.
Hannah, age 9

Gordon has posted a lot more, so visit his blog to give yourselves a chuckle.

Merry Christmas
Having got the rant out of the way, I'd like to wish you all a truly joyful festive holiday.

I sometimes wonder if I'm offending people of non-Christian persuasions with my seasonal greetings, but considering that I'm a confirmed atheist it probably doesn't really matter what I say. It does, however, beg the question of why I celebrate at all. The festivities feel like they are developing into a non-religious, neo-pagan celebration in many ways. The whole Christmas and New Year experience is like a week-long end-of-the-year blowout - a time to put the year behind us all and move on into something new. It's a way of getting closer to families and loved ones and reminding ourselves that the people around us matter most. It's a shame that we can lose sight of that when swamped by all the commercialism.

The world has gone crazy...
Sometimes I get a little worked up with myself and often need an outlet for my thoughts. So I'm going to use this blog as a place to rant a little occasionally. I hope I don't offend all my readers...

You know, I'm more than a little fed up with ugly design being sold as something radical or cool. Do the people who buy the Ford Ka, the new Beetle or the new Mini not see that the design proportions of these things are just plain awful? Or do they buy them because they've been suckered into it by the marketing? A case of emperor's new clothes if ever I saw it.

I also don't understand why people find the Mackintosh computers an exciting design when all they look like to me is cheap plastic tat. This has nothing to do with the quality of the computer inside, so please don't get on my back for something I haven't said. Do you not think that they look a little like a children's toy?

Keeping with Mackintosh for the moment, apparently the batteries in the ipod only last 18 months, are not replaceable and so you're forced to replace it (probably with something altogether different). Watch this (thanks to Abraxas for pointing me at that one). How can a company take such a blase attitude to people's money. this is corporate greed at its worst.

I was watching the news on TV last night when there was an item on about two elderly people who'd died from the cold at the weekend because their gas supply had been cut off, leaving them with no heating. What sort of a society is it that we live in where this is allowed to happen? What sort of person can authorise this action? I hope they can live with their conscience.

Bit of a strange day...
Finished work on Friday at lunchtime for the start of the Christmas holiday. So the fact that I was in work today made everything feel very weird. It's like I started gearing up for Christmas and then had to gear down again for the day. It felt pretty relaxed with just five of us instead of the offices being a hive of creative activity. Not that we weren't being creative today; quite the opposite as we'd arranged to have a story conference meeting prior to Christmas and it's so much easier not to be distracted when no one else is in. It was pretty good, too, moving things forward, though it's clear that we still have a long way to go. There's something quite satisfying when you're working with people you respect and who fire up your imagination and creative juices. A good way to end before the holiday.
It was spoilt somewhat by my bus being fifteen minutes late arriving and then falling behind further so that when I finally arrived home it was thirty minutes later than it should have been. Thankfully the cold weather we'd had yesterday had completely gone and it was fairly mild, though there was some light rain as I stood in the queue.

Odds and ends
I've been feeling rather weird on and off for a few weeks and not really having an idea what's the matter. I'm constantly blowing my nose without the feeling of having a cold. I'm often really tired and lethargic. Then yesterday I think I fugured out what the problem was. Where I sit at my computer is very near a radiator, so I'm getting really hot down one side and figured that it can't be good for me. So I've now shifted things around a little in the room where I have the computer and within a day I'm already feeling better. It could be coincidence, of course.

My recent book purchases have been lying around in piles as I've not had the shelf space to put them on. So in a desperate attempt to tidy up before Christmas I've been sorting books out and some stuff that is a little older and no longer in regular use has been relegated to the attic. This means that the small bedroom now has some room to move and when my sons stop over they aren't going to be falling over my stuff all the time.

Talking of my sons, I found some old photos of them whilst tidying. In some of them they are very young and I'd forgotten just how cute they were. I was thinking of scanning some of them in, but I'd be in danger of signing my own death warrant. It's bad enough that I've written this. There was this one photo where the two youngest are doing some posing and looks rather comical. Shaun, the eldest, looks rather innocent compared to how he looks now.

I had to go out to post a letter today, which was rather refreshing in the show that had fallen overnight. June's at work and before she set off she'd asked me to pick up something from the dry cleaners. As I didn't pop out until after lunch I didn't look at the ticket she'd left until then. That was when I found that it wasan't a dry-cleaning ticket but an appointment card for the beauty salon.

I bought Acrasia (our cat) a thick new blanket to sleep on at night. It seems to have stopped the night howling.

Was out most of yesterday with two of my sons as they did their Christmas shopping. Looking in the toy shop I could resist buying a couple of extra presents for Caitlin - two really soft stuffed animals, and really cute. Which reminds me that I need to get some new batteries into the camera for Christmas day.

New Juniper Crescent
It's Monday, so it's Juniper Crescent update day! New strip just posted.
I'm not sure if I'll get the time to do a strip for next Monday in between the mince pies and beer, though I hope so as I've just had a good idea for one (at least I think so).