http://namelesshorror.com Personal blog of John Rickards, a Writer Of Thrilling Tales Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:19:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Surfacing briefly to report that Switzerland and Liechtenstein are both, each in different ways, very nice. Friendly people, pretty lumps of rock, and food that confirms my impression that the kings of Euro cuisine are either the German-speaking parts or Italy, with France a distant and pretty dismal third - ... http://namelesshorror.com/2008/08/holiday-time/ Good to catch up with everyone again. Grandpa Wignall's occasional wild outbursts a highlight as ever. Was shitting myself as the Balloon Game kicked off, but once the initial 'justify yourself' part was over (and I'd been punted out almost unanimously as a pantomime villain-standard-of-evil Spillane), had great fun. Never thought ... http://namelesshorror.com/2008/07/back-from-harrogate/ My first stab at HDR/exposure-combining (for those amongst you with no idea what I mean, that's one exposure for the sky, which would otherwise be much brighter and with blown highlights, and one for the church, which would otherwise be too dark and lose all its shadow detail, combined in ... http://namelesshorror.com/2008/07/heres-the-tower/ (Shot with his mum's old f1.4 max aperture lens on my camera.) http://namelesshorror.com/2008/07/aidan-again/ I've altered the appearance of The Other Place for one, possibly final (within the foreseeable future anyway) time. Never really happy with the last look, so I think this is a better bet. Keep an eye out for developments content-wise - that ?downloads? link at the top will eventually lead somewhere ... http://namelesshorror.com/2008/07/upgrading/ Also, I dearly wish my upstairs neighbour didn't spend three hours a day murdering 'Trouble' and 'Imagine' on what sounds, through the ceiling, like a tinny Casio keyboard. It takes a lot to murder a Coldplay song - how much worse can you make them sound, after all? - but ... http://namelesshorror.com/2008/06/silence/ It's easy to forget how tricky it can be starting to think out a new book. The terrible emptiness of one's brainpan, the sheer random meaninglessness of notes made earlier. I'd gotten as far as beginning to map out something vaguely coherent when an entirely different idea came to me ... http://namelesshorror.com/2008/06/i-remember-this/ John's basement lighting in moody self portrait shock. http://namelesshorror.com/2008/06/my-myself-and-my-basement-wall/ Monkeying with layout. Breaking everything. Huzzah. http://namelesshorror.com/2008/06/monkeying/ Tales of the FEAR Agent remains one of the finest currently running series around. http://namelesshorror.com/2008/06/comics-capsule-review/