Owner: Gary William Murning Online URL:http://garymurning.wordpress.com/ Join Date: Fri, 02 May 2008 05:22:10 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog for lovers of books, writing, literature, science and the rational approach to life. Site statistics:Click here
A Little Light Bull? 2008-05-01 12:12:52 Two of Elvis Presley’s close friends have disputed claims that the rock icon made a secret visit to London.
Okay, now someone’s, erm, “mistaken” — and it can’t be our very own Tommy Steele, cos he’s a gent and a Brit and he sang that rock ‘n’ roll classic, Little White Bull. Also, he isn’t [...]
What Place in Our Future? 2008-04-30 05:10:50 I despair when I read stories like this on the state of funding for the sciences in the UK. It no longer seems the priority it once was — the ignorant simply “not bothered”, whilst the plain stupid probably believe that we’ll be safer, because the science boffins will have less money “to build, like, [...] Read more:Place
, Future
Art to Itch By… 2008-04-28 12:29:17 Following up my Death in the Gallery, I bring you Head Lice in an Israeli Museum.
Whoosh! 2008-04-26 11:58:53 It suddenly occurred to me this afternoon, whilst writing a long overdue email to my friend Jane, that by the middle of the summer I will be thinking about my next writing project. Children of the Resolution will be, by the back end of June, at the latest, in second draft phase and I’ll probably [...]
The Name of a Bird. 2008-04-25 12:00:12 A favouite quote from a remarkable man…
“You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing — that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between [...]
Death in the Gallery. 2008-04-24 12:07:56 Now, call me sick, but this really had me chuckling:
“Everything will be done in consultation with the relatives, and the public will watch the death in an appropriately private atmosphere.”
How on earth can you achieve a private atmosphere in a public art gallery? Is that the artisic bit? Because I certainly don’t see anything [...] Read more:Gallery
Midweek Summary (Not to Be Confused with a Summery Midweek.) 2008-04-23 11:56:28 Yesterday I hit 67,000 words with Children of the Resolution so — since my target is 70,000 by the end of the month, a target I’ll easily hit — I took the day off and, this afternoon, we headed out over Helmsley way, coming back through Hutton-le-Hole, Castleton and Commondale. I briefly entertained the notion [...] Read more:Midweek
, Summary
We Have the Power… 2008-04-21 12:21:53 I always enjoy it when stories that were considered science fiction when I was a boy slowly (and sometimes not so slowly!) become fact, so I was especially pleased to read this article today. A wonderful development for the patients, and further evidence that Kurzweil’s theory of man merging with machine is correct.
[...]
The Floodgates Will Open? 2008-04-20 04:56:47 Now, I’m not a fan of the Hairy Porter (sorry, Harry Potter) books, so when I read of Ms Rowling’s attempts to block Vander Ark’s The Harry Potter Lexicon, I veiwed it fairly dispassionately, and solely from the perspective of a writer.
The first thing that occurred to me was that Vander Ark isn’t actually setting [...]
Doe a Deer. 2008-04-16 11:46:35 For most of my forty-one years, I’ve been traveling the roads of the north-east of England (occasionally, when I could be bothered) — a little like The Littlest Hobo, only much cuter and with a warm bed waiting for me at the end of each day. And during my travels I’ve often seen the familiar [...]
Mayor Boris. 2008-05-03 04:35:14 Ah, yes, a very special day for Old London Town. Dear Ken is ousted from the position of Mayor
of London by the shaggy-haired Boris
Johnson.
Now, I have mixed feelings about this. Don’t get me wrong, I have a huge soft spot for Boris. Firstly, it’s another poke in the eye for Brown, whatever he [...]
Sebastian Faulks — the Forty Books He Can’t Live Without. 2008-05-03 12:08:36 Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that I couldn’t live without them, but there are some good books in his list, so I will be checking out the ones I haven’t read.
Sebastian
Faulks — the Forty Books
He Can’t Live Without.
Unlike Me. 2008-05-04 12:21:39 It was suggested to me a while ago by friend and screenwriter Sean Hood that I write a blog post concerning my approach to writing characters who are very different to me — his example being an atheist writer having to tackle a character of faith. It was a fascinating suggestion, and I set about [...]
BoJo. 2008-05-06 04:07:13 A fine post from Mike on the new Mayor of London.
And the Cotton is High. 2008-05-08 11:33:17 Ah, yes, a day to “rise up singing”, as the song says. Endless blue sky, sunshine, the double Begonias looking pretty — and Bertrand Russell for company. What more can a bloke ask for?
Summer has indeed arrived and, because it may not be here for very long, I’ve been making the most of it — [...] Read more:Cotton
A Few of the Places My Blog Has Reached. 2008-05-10 12:16:05 It’s always fascinating, even after in excess of ten years online, to discover the wonderful, distant places my rambling posts reach — places like, to name a few…
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Tacloban, Philippines.
Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
Islamabad, Pakistan.
Honolulu, Hawaii.
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.
Fishkill, New York.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Oh, and let’s not forget…
Exotic Cardiff in Welsh Wales.
[...] Read more:Places
Pimp. 2008-05-10 05:04:24 I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but what with my “creative endeavours” and whatnot, I just haven’t got round to it.
Until now.
The blogoshere is growing on a minute by minute basis. It’s estimated, in fact, to be growing so fast that by 2020 it will have broken free of its technological confines [...]
Doris Lessing on Writing. 2008-05-11 04:56:26 “Use it while you’ve got it because it’ll go, it’s sliding away like water down a plughole.”
From this BBC piece. Read more:Doris
Let’s Pimp Again… 2008-05-11 04:36:46 Carrying on from here, few more of my favourite blogs…
Rambling On. Lottie and her very precise Virtual Bitchslaps (and more!).
Hayley’s Online Soapbox. A very refreshingly sceptical and investigative approach to the “paranormal.
Andrew’s Tech Blog. Newly discovered. A wealth of techie info from a very nice guy whose brains I want to pick
Richard Dawkins’s “ Read more:Again
Let There Be Gas! 2008-05-13 11:50:22 Now, before I post this link, let me just preface it with a wee disclaimer.
I know this isn’t typical of Americans. Most are surprisingly normal, once you get to know them (although you, my friend, can be a bit of a nutter when you’ve had a few… or even when you haven’t ) So [...]
Gordon Is a Moron.* 2008-05-15 12:06:58 This is going to be a brief post about a certain Mr. Brown (who, incidentally, has incredibly powerful thighs, after all the frantic back-peddling he’s been doing of late.) I had intended to write a longer piece but, well, I’ve been working pretty hard on Children of the Resolution and I am, frankly, well into [...] Read more:Gordon
, Moron
Richard Dawkins TVOntario. 2008-05-16 11:49:48 Part one of an excellent interview with RichardDawkins
.
I haven’t done this for a while, because I’m not all that sure that video content goes down too well with my regular readers, but this is a good one. Take a moment. You might like it.
(The parting in his hair does worry me, though.)
[...] Read more:Richard Dawkins
Daily Targets (and How To Hit ‘Em.) 2008-05-17 11:50:52 A couple of days ago, I received an email from Lottie, Mike’s missus. Lottie is, like many of us, a writer, and she was interested in hearing how long it takes me to write my daily 1,000 words because…
“I don’t mean to be nosy. It’s just that it takes me quite a long time to [...] Read more:Daily
Vigilamus. 2008-05-21 11:53:33 I always find the North York Moors an inspirational place to be. It’s somewhere that always leaves me feeling uncluttered and open to possibility. Today, whilst out near RAF Fylingdales, this was especially true — for ’twas there I “found” the first glinting traces of my next novel, tentatively titled, We Are Watching.
Let me introduce [...]
Sleepwalking — The Plan for a Super Database. 2008-05-20 11:57:59 I always tremble with eye-popping rage when I hear talk of ID cards and databases. You quite possibly already know that. But it is especially true when I read about the subject and see it stated that, apparently, the public is “sleepwalking into a surveillance society”. The semi-conscious horde, it seems, is letting it happen.
Aww, [...] Read more:Super
, Database
Writing Humour When Life Isn’t Funny — or Me and My Neuroma. 2008-05-23 05:10:22 Because I’m not writing this fine morning, due to a sleepless night spent “being brave” as I struggled with a neuroma in my right foot, I went on a search for more writing advice — from the horses’ mouths, so speak — and found this.
Nothing all that earth-shattering, but Garrison managed to make an ibuprofen-doped [...] Read more:Humour
, Funny
Quote of the Day. 2008-05-24 05:08:30 “Every time you break an egg, you are doing observational cosmology.”
From Does Time Run Backward in Other Universes? by Sean M. Carroll. Read more:Quote
What Doesn’t Kill You… 2008-05-23 11:57:59 … just leaves you bleeding and battered on the floor.
I guess today is just destined to be “one of those days”. No sooner had my foot started to feel better than I heard from the Acquisitions Editor at Kunati. As mentioned here, he had passed my novel, The Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, along to [...]
Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag… in Just Three Months. 2008-05-25 12:35:42 My jaw hit the floor and I thought, “If a 16-year-old can work it out, how come no one else did?”
Maybe Marks and Spencer will stop charging their customers for plastic bags, now, and focus on the more serious issue of packaging. Read more:Plastic
, Three
, Months
Death Off-Stage. 2008-05-27 11:56:13 Well, today I reached the point in my novel where I had to, reluctantly, let the character of Johnny — the fictional representation of my childhood friend, GS — die. I expected it to be difficult, whatever I may have said in previous blog posts, but in the end it just happened, much as it did [...] Read more:Stage
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