Author: David

Categories
Photography Travel

Thailand travelogue – Kata

17 October – I’m on a plane!

I always forget how exhausting sitting around with nothing to do for eight hours can be. Maybe time has just mellowed my memory, but my flights on Qantas and Singapore Air between Sydney and Jakarta were nowhere near as depleting or annoying. The food was tolerable, but they managed to run out of chicken (does anyone voluntarily take the fish, ever?) before reaching our seats. Between movies (on demand, which is a nice improvement over the last time I flew), I got some nice photos out my window.

We arrived in Bangkok, crossed immigration/customs without any issue and shuttled immediately to our connecting flight to Phuket, which seemed to take almost as long. By the time we arrived, it was past midnight but our hotel transfer was awake and waiting for us. And then, the real journey began! I think P would have preferred to pass out until we got to the hotel, but the local driving was hair raising, even by my standards which were hardened in the peak hour madness of Jakarta. Lane markings aren’t even a guide, let alone a rule!  It’s as though everyone in Phuket is a part-time rally driver out to perfect their speed curves on the main streets. And yet, despite (or perhaps because of) all of this, traffic flows for the most part safely.

Finally at the hotel, we checked in and collapsed without any further incident. After the cramped confines of airplanes, the king bed and soft pillows were a welcome comfort.

18 October – Kata

We definitely chose a great hotel in the Centara. How do I know? Because when we woke up and opened the blessedly effective blackout curtains, this is the sight that greeted us:

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Categories
Photography Travel

Timelapse: Bangkok never stops

While I continue to procrastinate on writing about my experiences in Thailand, check out this timelapse that I took out of our hotel room. It’s not on par with Simon Christen’s awesome work, but I will say that I did this by hand, and it took over an hour.

Travelogue and photos coming soon, I promise!

Categories
Photography

Timelapse: The Unseen Sea

It’s funny, last night was both cloudy and windy. The moon was constantly in and out behind the clouds, and I was so close to breaking out the rig and doing a timelapse. Unfortunately, I decided the wind was too cold to sit outside for 30 minutes.

Now I regret it, because I found this on my morning feed:

The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.

I wouldn’t have been able to produce anything so good, but at least I would have done something.

Via: Geeks are Sexy

Categories
Books Reviews

In brief: The Rise of Endymion

At once too ambitious and poorly executed. There are some big ideas which, even though Simmons may have planned from the first pages of “Hyperion”, don’t really fit the feel of the first half of the cycle. You can tell this is the case because there is far too much exposition that the characters teach each other about 3000 years of computer and human evolution that takes pages and pages of long hard reading and concentration on part of the reader. This sermon-like approach to world building actually holds back the plot that it seeks to reinforce and accelerate.

Originally eager to read this book because I was caught up in a good story that had flowed from the first two “Hyperion” novels, by the time I was done with “The Rise of Endymion” I was exhausted and glad that it was over. I always worry when an author has difficulty keeping the size of each novel in a series consistent. “Hyperion” is slim, compact, and well-edited. By the time Simmons reaches “The Rise of Endymion”, the book is at least three times as long and the reader is not given any more value for their investment of time.

Categories
Video Games

The Road goes ever on and on…

If I have been conspicuous in my absence, it is because I have a new gaming machine. Not just any gaming machine, but an actual, honest-to-god computer running Windows. Of course, I can’t just get any machine when I have to use it as my day-to-day workstation, but an iMac can handle almost anything I throw at it these days. Naturally, it’s not just the fact that I have a new toy that’s kept me from writing.

Instead, I’ve been bitten by the MMO bug. Originally, I endured several weeks of being told by P of all the fun she was having. For a while, I escaped into Arkham Asylum, but eventually got sick of being ignored for several hours a night in  favour of people she had never met in real life. I threw a tantrum, which seemed to work for a few days but we went back to the same routine.

That’s when I resolved to get the iMac and see what Lord of the Rings Online is really like. Turns out, it’s a lot of fun. The world is vast, and perhaps more populated than Tolkien’s books ever hinted at. Still, I think it captures the essence of the setting very well. I’ve often wondered while playing, how much material is gleaned from official sources, how much from third parties (like ICE’s out of print Middle Earth Roleplaying game supplements), and how much is original content.

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