Winter is definitely here! it’s getting a bit cold out there. Not sure of it’s the cold but it was a very quiet week. Reading Not that musch this week. The NSA Files: Decoded from The Guardian. An assessment of the impact of the revelations about the NSA spying on everyone. Saints of the Shadow […]
My Media Consumption
I opened up iTunes this week, sometimes that does not happen too often. There was my full list of all the songs I had bought this year. A grand total of THREE. That’s it, just the 3 songs. When I mentioned this to colleagues, it seems that I’m not alone in my minimal of songs, […]
2013 – Week 46
Reading Charlotte Church – How women are routinely demoralized by the music industry. A look at her history in the industry and perspectives on sex, sex as art and sex as exploitation. Should also be read in conjuction with the series of Lily Allen interviews that are current. Catching a Blighty – Charles Stross. A […]
2013 – Week 45
Reading The Ofsted Report on Hogwarts. This is from earlier in the year and is a lot of fun. What would the regulatory bodies make of a school of Wizardry, especially one with such a high accident rate! Up in Arms (Tufts) A look back at the hstory of the US and how the different […]
2013 – Week 44
Week 44, the last week of October as the year slowly slips away Reading Thinking about 2014 social strategy, Paul Fabretti . Devices and audiences, key areas to understand. Ender’s Game, its controversial author, and a very personal history By Rany Jazayerli. Should you boycott the film given the book author’s personal views? Doing Friends […]
2013 – Week 43
The plan to do weekly blog posts lasted nearly 3 months, so it was a start. Let’s see if I can finish off the end of the year with weekly posts. Reading On holiday, I read a lot of books about Japan or by Japanese authors. When looking up what would be good to read, […]
Playful13 – Nature of Games
Pippin Barr – What are curious games Pippin is a game designer, artist and critic who has done many wonderful things that you’re probably already too busy cooing over to bother finish reading this. He’s just spent the past month working to create the Digital Marina Abramovich Institute, where visitors can experience exercises designed by […]
Playful13: Making Mishief
Dani Lurie. Making Mischief Graphic designer and a writer. Is really highly excitable. Especially about getting people to interact with the world in interesting ways. So that brings us to mischief. It has traditionally been bad. Associated with troublemakers. So why is it good, why worth talking about. When a toddler, her and her brothers […]
Playful13: Designing Controllers
George Buckenham – Things that go Squish George “makes games and things†– often silly (Punch The Custard, A Bastard), often hacking existing things (Proteus Frog mod; Sweareoke Guitar Hero mod) and sometimes just straight up, fiendish games (Hell Is Other People, CUBES). George is going to be talking about videogames and their relationship with […]
Playful 13: Designing with playfulness
Duncan Fitzimmons. Director at Vitamins A small and nimble design agency; they work across a wide range of industries and applications and everything is multi-disciplinary. Look to create a sense of magic and wonder in everything they do. The talk is about how they do that and how playfulness is involved. Samsung came along; about […]
Japan: The Last Days
After the touristing of the last 2 weeks, the last 2 days were basically travel. First of all we travelled from Hiroshima back to Tokyo via Shinkansen, the bullet train. We were staying in the Shinjiku area, so wandered along to the park Hyatt (as all the reviews say, made famous by the film Lost […]
Japan Day 14: Hiroshima
Today feels like our last full day in Japan – tomorrow is travelling back to Tokyo and getting ready to leave. We’re still in Hiroshima and the plan today was to walk round the Peace Memorial Park and visit the museum and memorials there. First was the A-bomb Dome. As a concrete building, it was […]
Japan Day 13: Hiroshima and Miyajima
An early start to the day as we headed to the station to catch another Shinkansen, heading further west to Hiroshima. It takes just over 2 hours (discounting the standing at stations) to travel the 224 miles, speeding through the countryside. Except it wasn’t really countryside, as you’d call it in the UK. There’s no […]
Japan Day 12: Nara
There’s so much to do in Kyoto we haven’t even started to scratch the surface. But today, we took the decision to head to Nara, the old capital of Japan. Or should I say older, as it was capital from 710 for 75 years. It’s about an hour SE of Kyoto. Like most of the […]
Japan Day 11: Kyoto
A day in Kyoto. Despite the many, many temples and shrines, World Heritage Sites and Cultural Treasures, the main part of Kyoto is basically ugly, like most cities in Japan it appears. Any charm has been destroyed as buildings are built and rebuilt, modern, flat, grey. Electricity lines snake down streets, not underground but in […]
Japan Day 10: Kyoto
A new city! Today we travelled from Nagoya to Kyoto, to continue with out sightseeing touristy part of the trip. We boarded the Shinkansen for the 40min trip. We had intended to forward the luggage, but it turns out, that it takes 24 hrs, so we took them with us. Somehow, despite not really buying […]
Japan Day 9: Race Day at Suzuka
Today was the day of the Japanese Grand Prix. The 15th race of the season. A race where Vettel could win the championship. My second GP of the year. And the reason why Sofia and I are in Japan. But this isn’t a race report. These blog posts are more about my travels in Japan. […]
Japan Day 8: Still at Suzuka
Another day at the races. Today was qualifying. We got there for 10ish, plenty of time to wander around and watch weird audience games, people watch and then take in final practice. We met up with Hiro, whom I had met last February in Barcelona for F1 testing. He’d managed to go to 4 GPs, […]
Japan Day 7: Suzuka
So today was the day, the start of the event we have built our holiday around, the Japanese Grand Prix. At the start of the week, rain was predicted, but the day dawned sunny and bright and stayed that way. it was 29C at the track and the only use of umbrellas was for shade. […]
Japan Day 6: Hakone and travel
Sleeping on a futon to the sound of a waterfall is definitely an experience. A good night sleep. The breakfast this morning was also an experience, very, very different and will no alternatives. Grilled fish, salad, pickles, chicken/okra, miso soup, rice and a soft boiled egg. I had a go at everything – and finished […]