Talking to a college at work today about the widely disliked Rings of Power series from Netflix (a Lord of the Rings spin off), he delivered what must be one of the most cutting comments I've heard. He said 'it gets better with the sound turned down' Ouch! I've never seen it, so can't comment!

So we get to November and the Christmas adverts start on TV, oh well, I can’t complain too much, I’ve been working on my Chirstmas cards for the last 3 weeks!

I'm burning through those word count targets in my #NovelNovember right now, another 1.9k done today already! I'll need the head start since during the working week, 800 to 1k words a day will be more like it!

Well that's a good session! 1646 words done of the 1667 words needed for today in my #NovelNovember story.

So Novel November (I still think of it as NaNoWriMo) starts for me, right about now...

I had to post about this, not because I’m an AI fan, no, in fact at work I am the departments resident AI skeptic. Of course the reason I post is the name! It can’t be all bad if it’s called Aardvark, can it? 😀 it.slashdot.org/story/25/10/...

So the big #Affinity announcement is that they have gone free, no subscription, no nothing. This makes them absolutely the choice for personal work which likely means new generations of creatives will learn it and then expect to use it professionally. Adobe should be worried, which is great!

Wow, at my place of work, they really go to town on Halloween! I shouldn't be surprised given all of the creatives here, but this year its everywhere in the building

At the #BristolBeacon again, for #Rickwakeman King Arthur and 6 wives of Henry the 8th.

Errr…what time is it? So confused right now, Hal of my clocks adjust themselves, half don’t, just got to remember which are which! Goodbye BST, hello GMT (daylight saving time to non-Brits)

The stage at the #BristolBeacon tonight for The Australian Pink Floyd

At the #BristolBeacon tonight for the first in 3 shows in the next 10 days or so. Tonight it is the Australian Pink Floyd. After the sort of day I’ve had, I need this sort of epic show!

It’s arrived! My pre-ordered Doctor Who Season 13 the collection box set.

Is it a bird, is it a plane? Nope, its my new side sleeper pillow from Mulisoft

NaNoWriMo maybe gone this year, but I'm still up for the challenge and so taking part in Pro Writing Aid's Novel November prowritingaid.com/novel-november No idea on the title yet (important for me to have a title before I start) or which of my 5 ideas current I will try to write.

Worked from home today and since I never blur my background in Teams meetings, my new BBC 2 clock from @hiddenbritain.bsky.social was on full display and it was a huge hit, everyone said how cool it looked!

Well I can say that the film print used for the Star Trek, The Motion Picture DVD wasn't very good and that the film is better than I remember. Still not ready to call it masterpiece however.

So I’m giving it another go, is it a misunderstood masterpiece or an overly long and very dull film? Star Trek, The Motion Picture

So really what is going on at Affinity? This big announcement 30th October and the fact you can't buy their software anymore is making me worry. They can't be thinking of going subscription, can they? That is their killer edge over Adobe.

Playing around with posting some stuff to YouTube, nothing public yet, 'still learning the ropes'. Does the quality of the original video actually matter? No matter what quality, bit rate or key frame interval I pick, the uploaded video looks the same.

My 70’s era BBC 2 ident clock from @hiddenbritain.bsky.social is even better than I’d hoped for!

Ooh, a new Raspberry Pi machine! Exciting youtu.be/_LYU-I1LzcI?...

Way hey! We've just had the #DoctorWho theme (season 2, Nu Who version?) make an appearance on Classic FM's Friday night at the Movies program

How hard can it be? When it comes to getting a video off an iPhone and editing it, apparently very! Okay, I've never really tried video editing before, but it feels like I might have jumped in at the deep end.

The Mince Pie season is underway! This is the one aspect of the Christian Mid Winter festival I don’t mind starting early.

Just caught my first bus for what must be 2 years or more. I love the fact that the recorded stop announcements are in a local Bristol accent!

Everyone is a critic! My 10 year old Sony DVD player, just died. It popped it's clogs, quite literally while playing the infamous Delaware version of the #DoctorWho theme. Do you think its trying to say something?

Something has annoyed Thor! Time to visit www.lightningmaps.org

Finally, after years (and I do mean years) I’ve got my HP micro server set up in my very ramshackle “home lab” cupboard.

A put down from a particle physicist, ‘If they where any thicker, Neutrinos wouldn’t pass through them!’

Yay! Got my tickets for 10cc’s Another Bloody Greatest Hits Tour stop at the #BristolBeacon March next year

Am I going to watch the 10th test flight of Starship tonight? Nope! I still find this very exciting, but just not quite exciting enough to say up till at least midnight. Comfort out weighs excitement for me now!

Just ordered my BBC 2 clock. Definitely the coolest clock you can buy!

Huh, just had to ‘unfollow’ someone on BlueSky. I know everyone has their own opinion, but expressing glee at someone’s, natural death, is not okay. The dead person might have been a throughly unpleasant person (I have no idea), but that sort of response is not right.

The view from the top of Troopers Hill in Bristol UK. This shows how dry it’s been this summer

Was very surprised to almost walk in to a deer on my morning walk up Troopers Hill this morning. I think it was to, we spent a 10 seconds looking at each other before I reached for my camera. I missed the perfect shot of it looking back at me, but here it is.

Yesterday my boss, in a private meeting, told me to take some holiday…now! It’s been 3 1/2 months since I last took any time off and one of those months was July, which felt like a month in hell thanks to the chaotic products system launch. So making the bank holiday weekend a very long one!

Wow, notepad now supports markdown!? youtu.be/U9CovtVCuoQ?... This is big news, I’m Developer and text editors are important to us…me. I used to collect text editors, back in my Atari ST days.

And it's done! My first completed Blender model, a Dalek from the cover of the 1964 Dalek Book. I know it's still not quite right, but I'm still learning this and it's really difficult to get proper proportions from the artwork in the book.

Way-hey! I have just put in the final 400 words to my current story. I'm already working on an idea for the next!

Here’s a challenge for an advertising agency, how do you create a campaign for the single most produced manufactured item in history? (LEGO bricks don’t count, they aren’t a finished item)

On my commute this morning, using the Bristol Ferry Company’s Netham lock service, there was a 7 to 1 female to male ratio and I was very happy to be sole man aboard :)

…so he doesn’t lose work when Word crashes?

Watching the test match highlights and I’m felling the stress, despite the fact I know the result, I was listening to TMS this morning , when it all happened

I might have just pre- ordered the Thunderbirds 60th anniversary DVD collection! (and then added the Space 1999 Base Operations Manual to the order) gerryanderson.com/products/thu...

Worked from home today. One advantage of this (it’s not all up sides!) is that I can go for a lunchtime walk in St. Anne’s wood. A truly wonderful little bit of woodland surrounded by houses, but you can easily forget that here.

6! That’s how many #Mastermind questions on Doctor Who, the Jodie Whittaker years, I got right

Oooh, we have someone answering questions on Doctor Who, the Jodi Whittaker era on #Mastermind tonight. How many will I get right?

To add insult to injury, I miss a connection involving Doctor Who #OnlyConnect

The BBC are really sabotaging my Monday evening productivity, last week a new series of Mastermind started, this week it’s #OnlyConnect. How am I ever going to get anything done now!