IMS_Blog

Haven’t posted for a while it seems. What have I been up to, I hear you cry (er, you are shouting at your monitor aren’t you now). Well, let’s see. Not much. Packing for the up coming house move. Boxes all over the place and we haven’t even started the major part of the packing. It will probably spring into serious action when we actually have a date (which should be soon—both when we have it and the date that is).

I’ve also been looking at some old maps of York and Newcastle (and for Rachel a couple of Norwich.

I’ve always liked old maps. I suppose it’s linked to my castles obsession really. The social pattern of a city is partly formed by its buildings, its fabric (of course this is very much a two way process). In the case of castles they were for centuries perhaps the most important buildings in this process (my home town for instance is at the head of the gate to the place where the new castle is). It’s also just strangely fascinating to see how things change to accommodate the passing of a city’s time. Turns out the internet has many, useful resources.

York is interesting because it’s changed so little (the layout is very recognisable to anyone living here). Newcastle on the other hand has changed quite a bit (a fun exercise is to work out where its medieval walls were in relation to the modern city—of course I could cheat a bit because I know where the few remaining bits are). If I remember I might post up some of my favourite discoveries, with commentary and everything.

On a completely different note, the new printer seems OK, and the thesis is in for binding at York Bookbinding, which is basically one man working out of his garage. He does them all though, so hey, good luck to him.

Didn’t notice any outstandingly good April Fool’s day jokes this year. Shame.

Ohh, new Doctor Who started (officially, the first episode having made it to the net before then). Finally something worth watching on a Saturday night. Thought the first episode was pretty good, as an introductory kind of thing. Typically silly in places but well done and with style. The second episode I wasn’t so keen on. The storyline felt weak and the aliens had the feel of having seen it all before (this probably affected me more having read and watched a lot of science fiction). It felt too much like a vehicle for some special effects, which is a shame because in there were important additions to the Who universe mythos. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, just I felt it could have been done better. It was probably a bit undermined by Ecclestone’s quitting too (come on, he must have known the typecasting risks when he asked for the role). Next episode is a historical Earth adventure. When are we going to leave the blue-green planet!!

h, on a final note I installed TypeMover today, which quickly and painlessly give me a backup of this entire blog thing. Always a good idea.