I believe my erstwhile housemate may be talking about my glow-in-the-dark condoms on her radio show today.

This amuses me but I'm a bit worried that my latest 15 minutes of fame will overshadow all my other marvellous achievements. How to trump this and reclaim my dignity from being outshone by Technosex 'Love Light' Condoms!!!!!

(Although the lightsaber jokes and images of getting your glowsticks out at Slimelight have caused some amusement :p)

Haven't done one of these in yonks and have a few minutes to kill before I'm on 'coffee making and waking-up so we can go shopping' duty :)
1. If you were able to go back in time 10 years and talk to the younger you, what would you say? 

If I changed anything I wouldn't be where - or who - I am today. Sure it's nice to think about the alternative paths your life could have taken, but even the slightest change in your history could throw you a million miles away from where you are today. You might not have the same friends, partners, jobs, live in the same neighborhood or have the same health.
Yeah, life isn't perfect, but I'm generally very happy with who I am, where I am and what I'm doing.
The things I'd like to have said to my past self would have changed my life completely if I'd followed the advice. Yes I am talking about women, houses and jobs. I'd be the same Angus but a very different Angus. I'd love to tell myself the lottery numbers but that would change my life then - and thus the following ten years of my then future - too much that when I returned to 2008 I wouldn't recognise the little part of the world I live in.

2. What would the you of 1998 think of the you of 2008, why? 

I think it would be shocked I wasn't with Delphine anymore. Might be shocked enough to get to the gym more regularly :p But would be glad that I finally got the publishing business off the ground and probably quite impressed at some of the licenses we've signed or are in negotiations over.

3. The you of 2008 receives a letter from the you of 2018. What does the letter hopefully say? 

Some reliable lottery results :)

That the business has worked wonders.

4. In the letter from the you of the future, you read something that surprises you, what is it?

That the world is still in one piece - and Boris Johnson is the current Prime Minister of Britain whilst Will Smith is the President of the USA. ;p

5. You have the opportunity to switch places with the you of 1998 or the you of 2018 for a day, who do you switch places with and why?

I wouldn't want either. I've lived the last ten years and it was generally great fun. But I'm not sure I could do it again without changing anything which then mucks up where I am today. I wouldn't want to go forward to 2018 because I'd have lost ten years of my life, friends, events and memories and be ten years closer to the death of this body. I'd rather slog through the next ten years myself than fast forward!

----------

Right, that's that done. Now to go and make some coffee and have someone grump at me because they're all tired and don't want to wake up :p

I'm off to Delerium so can't take the offer up but Sean (workmate) has a spare ticket he's looking to sell for tonights Nick Cave gig in Hammersmith.

Price negotiable but whomever wants it needs to collect it from the shop (Leisure Games in Finchley Central) or off him at Euston Station around 6.35ish.

If anyone is interested please contact me (leave a reply here, phone me, text me - whatever means gets you through - although telepathy can be a bit shakey atm) and I'll get you both in touch.

In otehr news:

1. DELERIUM TONIGHT :D - This makes me very happy and I can't wait.

2. I've been wearing sunglasses for the first time in my life today. It's too bright and since the optician decided to take me off tinted lens to regular ones my eyes just don't want to cope in this weather. Thus I can finally make use of my £300 shades! (Thank God!)

3. Girls are weird but very wonderful.

uber_munchkin pointed the following out to me this morning and I must say it's looking good, has a brilliant concept and is also going about creating and financing the film in new ways utililising the power and community of the Net.

It seems highly probable that I will be making the trip into Mornington Crescent this Friday to The Purple Turtle and the 'Electric Dreams' club for a great mix of 80's and New Wave partying.

Anyone else fancy joining Lady Jasmina and myself while the hours away with drink and dance?

For more info about the club check out their WEBSITE which contains past playlists (such as the one for the last event) to see what you'll be letting yourselves in for :)

The figures for the second preference votes in the London Mayoral Election were released today and they made some interesting reading.

The LibDems topped the poll with the Greens second, Labour third and Conservatives fourth.

Paddick (LibDem) = 641,415=2
Berry (Green) = 331,727
Livingstone (Labour) = 303,198
Johnson (Conservative) = 257,792
Barnbrook (BNP) = 128,609
Batten (UKIP) = 113,651
Craig (Christian Choice) = 80,140
O'Connor (English democrats) = 73,538
McKenzie (Independent) = 38,954
German (Left List) = 35,057

It was also interesting to see how many votes the BNP and UK Independence parties received. The BNP got almost double the number of second preference votes whilst the UKIP got almost 6 times as many as they did in the first choice vote. I was pleased to see that the Green's got four times as many votes in the second preference which gave them a much larger majority over the BNP than they had in the first round count.

The full ammended results were as follows: (Livingstone and Johnsons votes were ammended down if the vote had already cast one of them as first choice and the other as second choice - which means that 104, 771 people choose Boris Johnson as first choice and ken Livingstone as second and 132,815 people who voted for Livingstone as first choice chose Boris as there second option).



Sources:
Paddick 'Won Second Vote Contest' (BBC News; Tuesday 6th May 2008)

London Mayoral Election 2008 (BBC News; Tuesday 6th May 2008)

I guess you could say today has been a very good music day in various ways.

The Fields of The Nephilim (one of my all time fave bands) has announced two special shows at London's Shepherds Bush Empire on July 12th and 13th (their only UK dates this year apparently).

Nine Inch Nails have released a free album, 'The Slip', which you can sign up and get on http://theslip.nin.com/

The Birthday Massacre have put up a cover of Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now" on their Myspace Page (along with the rest of their new EP) which is from their new EP 'The Looking Glass' which was released today.

I've also had some other possibly very interesting and exciting news which could herald a few changes. But more on that later if it actually happens :)

D&D players looking at trying something else - or looking at offloading their 3.5 rulebooks in preparation for 4E - might be interesting in checking out the 'Graduate Your Game' deal Leisure Games is running with White Wolf.

Details on our Leisure Games blog!

This year Cubicle 7 is going to be hitting quite a few conventions up and down the land spreading the gospel and converting the innocent masses to our catalogue of games.

At present our roadshow will be taking in the following (I've added GenCon UK to the list for now but we haven't 100% decided on attending that show as yet. I've pencilled it in pending further conversations though - obviously I'll update when we've fully decided and also if any further conventions are added to our list).

31 MAY / 1 JUNE – UK Game Expo in Birmingham (http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/)

27-29 JUNE – Q-CON in Belfast (http://www.q-con.org.uk/)

1-4 AUGUST – CONTINUUM in Leicester (http://www.continuum.uk.net/)

14-17 AUGUST – GENCON INDY in Indianapolis, USA (http://www.gencon.com/2008/indy/)

28 -31 AUGUST – GENCON UK in Reading (http://www.consupport.com/index.asp?Con=89)

27 SEPTEMBER – Concrete Cow 08½ in Milton Keynes (http://www.mk-rpg.org.uk/Concrete_Cow)

4 OCTOBER – GAMESFEST 3 in Tring, Hertfordshire (http://www.gamesfest.co.uk/home_real.htm)

1-2 NOVEMBER – Game Con 08 in Manchester

7-9 NOVEMBER – IndieCon 08 in Christchurch, Dorset (http://www.indiecon.net/index.html)

29 NOVEMBER – Dragonmeet in London (http://dragonmeet.co.uk/)

We'll be making an annoucement shortly regarding our Demo Team Support Program and how you can get involved if you would like to.

Best wishes,

 

--

Angus Abranson

Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd

London, UK

www.cubicle7.co.uk

Publishers of SLA Industries, Victoriana, Starblazer Adventures, QIN: The Warring States and the Doctor Who Role Playing Game

oxxxx[=========================>

LiveJournal: www.livejournal.com/users/angusabranson/

 

Apparently (according to IMBD) Robert Downey appears as Tony Stark in the new The Incredible Hulk film beign released this summer (with Edward Norton as The Hulk) further strengthening the cross-overs between Marvel Universe films :)

I'll stop frothing about Marvel films now and try and post about something else, don't worry :p

Marvel Studios, a sub-division of Marvel Entertainment have announced the next four films they will be making on the strength of the first weekend takings of Iron man ($101million in the States making it the 10th highest grossing opening weekend film of alltime; This raises to $200million with the rest of the world recipets tallied in).

From Dark Horizon.com

----
Giddy with the success of "Iron Man" over the weekend, Marvel Entertainment released its first quarter report to shareholders today and confirmed the next four titles they're putting into production.

First up will be "Iron Man 2" which has been scheduled for April 30th 2010.

Matthew Vaughn's take on "Thor" is also set for release on June 4th 2010.

"The First Avenger: Captain America" will swing his shield on May 6th 2011.

The much anticipated superhero team-up "The Avengers" has been scheduled for July 2011.

The company's "Ant-Man" and "The Sub-Mariner" remain in development with no fixed release dates. Their "Wolverine" film remains on course for next May.
----

Marvel Talks About Its Future Plans (Dark Horizon; Monday 5th May 2008)

Iron Man battles to $100 Debut (BBC News Online; Monday 5th May 2008)

The above four films obviously don't include other Marvel titles which are with other studios for production.

So the future looks bright for superheroes on the big screen :)

Oh wow.

I was never really a big fan of Iron Man in the Marvel Universe. I have a few of the issues scattered about because of cross-overs but never read the comic on a monthly basis like I did with many otehr Marvel titles. But the film caught my interest as soon as Robert Downey Jnr signed on as Tony Stark. It was an inspired bit of casting, as was Jeff Bridges as Stark's business partner Obadiah Stane.

I've now seen this film (ahem) twice already and gathered a posse together for this mornings trip (dredd_bob, Mike, weaselbitch, sinbadsilk, Dave, Marysa, Fabio and Julie). Everyone enjoyed it and I persoanlly think it's the best marvel film since the original X-Men back in 2000.

Robert Downey Jnr has already gone on record as saying he'd love to do 15 iron Man films (he's a big fan of the comic series) and on the strength of this outting I'm certainly keen to see what they do in the future (and the second film has now been given the go-ahead :p).

I'm also very pleased to see Iron Man do well as it was financed and produced by Marvel Studios as their first film. This could be very interesting if it works at the Box Office as it could mean marvel making more of their own films.

Stan Lee's cameo was nice, but I think his other cameo's in the Marvel franchises have generally been better.

Also, the (long) wait for all the end credits to roll is certainly SO worth it (especially if you're a Marvel Universe fan and/or a fan of a certain actor) and leads nicely to future films in both the Iron Man franchise as well as other Marvel Universe projects :p).

School Report: A (Fantastic film and a good breath of fresh air in the superhero genre after a run of so-so Marvel outtings)

Hi everyone!

The next Gameforce is a week away but the times have changed slightly for the next few months.

This is because the pub where we play is a ‘coach stop’ for Swedish Tourist guided tours during the summer for their evening meals. Thus we need to finish earlier so the staff can get everything prepared and tidied for the influx of blonde haired weary tourists.

As such for the next few months (until September) we will be opening the club at noon and wrapping up at 6pm. We can’t go beyond 6pm due to the arrival of the chartered tour groups so we need to be wrapped up and clear about then.

 

The rest of the details are as per usual but I’ve posted them again below for reference:

----------------

The GameForce Network Presents:
GAMEFORCE : LONDON

Next London Meet: Sunday 18th May (And every third Sunday of the month)
Time: noon to 6pm
Venue: The Black Horse, 6 Rathbone Place, London, W1T 1HH (Turn right off Oxford Street - http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?postcode2map?code=W1T%201HL)
Price: £2 members; £3 non-members
Nearest Underground: Tottenham Court Road (Central & Northern Lines)
Games Played: RPGs, Board and Card Games, TMG and CCGs
This months Tournament & Demonstration Games: Living Greyhawk
Entry also includes automatic entry into the Games Raffle to be drawn around 5pm..

GameForce: London is a brand new games club in Central London catering for Board & Card Gamers, Roleplayers and CCG/TMG players!

Taking place every third Sunday of the month the club aims to provide a regular meeting place for gamers and a friendly environment to play games both familiar and unfamiliar.

For further information please contact Angus Abranson on info@gameforcehq.org or phone 020 8346 2327 (9.30am to 6pm) or join Gameforce Community on Livejournal (http://community.livejournal.com/gameforce/)!!

Alternatively join the Gameforce Yahoo Group by sending an email to GameforceHQ-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Grab a game and Come and play!

Future Dates:
15th June - Gameforce: London @ The Black Horse, Rathbone Place
20^th July - `Gameforce: London @ The Black Horse, Rathbone Place

 

--

Angus Abranson

Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd

London, UK

www.cubicle7.co.uk

Publishers of SLA Industries, Victoriana, Starblazer Adventures, QIN: The Warring States and the Doctor Who Role Playing Game

oxxxx[=========================>

LiveJournal: www.livejournal.com/users/angusabranson/

Lesbos Islanders Dispute Gay Name (BBC News; Thursday 1st May 2008)

I'm off to vote in the London Mayoral Elections in a few moments. I still have no idea who will be getting my votes - and that's the first time I can honestly say that since I started voting.

I've gone from being a LibDem Party Member who went out canvassing and sticking leaflets through doors to now looking at the options on hand and pretty much despairing at all the major parties.

I know the Green party will be getting at least one of my votes for Mayor and probably all of my votes for the Assembly (I'm so out of the loop I'm not 100% sure that Assembly voting is also today but I think it is - and the Assembly is proportional represntation so every vote truly counts even more than usual which allows voting for the smaller parties to actual have some affect outside nof the usual 3 big guns). Who gets my other Mayoral vote I have no idea. It would probably be the LibDems but as the Mayoral race is pretty much a two-horse affair between Labour and the Conservatives that wouldn't really mean much. I should try and figure out (on the five minute walk to the Polling Station) which candidate between Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson is the less offensive and better for London. Now I am fully aware that Boris is the less offensive but I don't know if he'd actually be better for London than (alledgedly) corrupt old Ken. Boris is a showman and a good comedian and wit and whilst his frequent cock-ups are amusing I don't think those are qualities that would make a good Mayor. Plus with the Conservatives almost certain to win the next general Election (especially if Gordon Brown is still leader of the Labour Party) I don't really fancy having both England and London run by the Tories. Hmm... I guess I'm veering towards Ken.

Right, five minutes walk for me and then I'll know what's happened to my little ticky boxes.

If you can vote today please go and do so.

Every vote really counts in the Assembly and the Mayor's race is pretty tight so you really have the opportunity to tip the balance with that one too. Basically who don't you want to be running London - Labour or The Conservatives? It's pretty much certain they are the choices we have so we have to figure out which is the lesser evil and go with them on the second vote we have, whilst voting with our heart for the first vote and Assembly votes.

There is every chance that I would be going "SQUEEE!" in a fairly big way today.

Unfortunately any 'SQUEEisms' are tempered by having a really annoying and steadily advancing headache.

Luckily the 'SQUEE' situation will still be around after my headache has hopefully faded so I'll let my enthuiasm and excitement run riot then.

EDIT: On the downside of my 'Squee' is that I might have to cancel a few plans over the next few days to really get my head down and do some work. I think I may be trimmed to just Saturday night, Sunday lunch and then my Monday appointment. I may have to kill tonight and Friday nights plans, Saturdays attendence at GameCamp and Sunday afternoon/evenings plans post-lunch. We'll see. I think about it more clearly once my head feels better...

Just read this story and...wow.

The ability to be able to regenerate fully a missing area of your body is something that will totally revolutionize life/science/medicine/warfare.

The Man Who Grew A Finger (BBC News; Wednesday 30th April 2008)

I've had a Cthulhu/South Park Mash-up in my head all morning... not only the theme tune but little Mythos-related South Park characters...

Help meeee!!!!! :p

I'm goin' down to Dunwich gonna have myself a time,
Friendly faces everwhere humble folks without temptation,
I'm goin' down to Dunwich gonna leave my woes behind,
Ample Parking Day or Night, people spouting, "Howdy, Neighbor"
I'm headin' down to Dunwich gonna see if I can't unwind,
Hmm mph rmph rm hmm mph rmph rm hmm mph rpmh rm.
So come on down to Dunwich, and meet some friends of mine.

(I can't believe what Kenny says in the actual lyrics - that's the first time I've read them!!!)