Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category
I just finished the author website for Wynford Wilde. This is the place to go for news on upcoming adventures in the Jennifer Jones series, starting with Dark Turnings, which is now available for Kindle or in paperback.
Describing myself as a best selling writer was just wishful thinking a week ago, but within three days of being launched my short story Encomium had shot to number two on the bestseller list in its number one Amazon category, and the top ten in two others:
Wynford Wilde’s sci-fi adventure Encomium hits number two on Amazon’s bestseller lists after only three days
My new book was released today, 5th of May 2017.
I like it, but more importantly, people who have read it tell me they enjoyed it too.
A fast-moving fantasy adventure for young adults. In the tradition of The Hobbit, it has the same moral heart as The lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Global temperature tracks sunspot activity almost exactly. Number of sunspots now? Zero. Cold times are coming.
Sunspots
Don’t let Facebook decide what you see and what you can post.
Blissyoo means no censorship of posts, freedom of speech, videos, music, groups, pages, news, and soon, revenue sharing.
Visit, join, invite your friends.
Justice for hillbillies!
Nah. Actually, except for the slightly wonky vowels, I enjoyed it. Good on them!
Some things are worth remembering:
Two legends, great guitar, great words:
I watched this tonight. Wow! What a great movie. The special effects are a bit cheesy in just a couple of places, but story and characters are compelling throughout. I loved it.
I loved the book, and the 1959 movie with Charleton Heston. The new movie version, due in cinemas in August 2016, looks great!
But not this:
Even when the oceans rage, I don’t have to be afraid.
Even when I fail, you are the same forever.
Your love never fails.
OK. Yep. That explains quite a lot, actually…
Just a few thoughts on garrisons for anyone starting in the new WoW expansion, Warlords of Draenor.
Your first large building should be the Barracks. This gives your followers access to patrol missions which level them up faster.
You should keep your followers running missions all the time. They will continue to work even while you are logged out. Take the missions which award garrison resources, rare items, and the purple experience missions. I didn’t think the missions that… rewarded gold were worth the cost in resources to accept the mission.
Your followers will gain experience from every mission, even if the mission fails (they just won’t get any bonus items or rewards), so keep them going all the time. Except that the gold missions are a waste, don’t worry about the cost in garrison resources, you’ll make it back later on.
Once you get a couple of followers up to level 100, change from Barracks to Dwarven Bunker. The bunker doubles your chance to gain rare or epic items as quest rewards, and increases their level. If you take this option you will end up with heroic dungeon level gear with no extra effort.
Your first medium building should be the Inn. At level one this gives you extra dungeon quests, not so thrilling, but at level two you can virtually make followers to order with the specs you require, while level three gives you valuable treasure hunter quests.
If you enjoy pvp your second medium building should be the Gladiator’s Sanctum. If not, it doesn’t really matter.
Your first small building should be the Enchanter’s Study. You will have lots of gear to disenchant, and the study lets you disenchant without being an enchanter. When you upgrade the building later, you (or a follower with enchanting), and this too applies even though you don’t have enchanting, can create enchants for neck and cloak.
Your second small building should relate to your crafting profession. This will teach you that skill up to 700, and give you a range of new recipes. If you don’t have a crafting trade, pick the building that relates to the gear you wear.
Simply questing through the zones will give you new followers, and some quests reward with garrison resources. Your garrison also generates resources on its own, so you won’t run out. You will need to save to cover the high cost of later upgrades though.
At 92 you get a couple of quests to access your mine (even if you don’t have mining). At 94 for fishing, and at 96 for your herb garden. Do these quests as soon as you reach those levels, and if you don’t need the resources they give you, sell them on the AH.
Have fun!
Just discovered this wonderful little app. If you have a Windows, Android or IOS based device, you can download and listen to music mixes compiled by people from anywhere in the world. Just search for 8tracks in the app store. It’s free.
Many of them are just brilliant. If you have a PC you can log in to the 8tracks site and create and share your own compilations.
The search facility is confusing, and you cannot access a list of tracks in each 8tracks mix. But it is still doubleplus good.
My latest article for Quadrant Online:
I am not sure whether Steve Kates is simply being curmudgeonly in his review of the film of the musical Les Miserables, or really does believe it to be “a two hour and 40 minute indulgence in the worst kind of socialist idiocies.” If the latter, he is wrong.
The film has several faults. Chief among them is Russell Crowe, who employs a single facial expression throughout; surly. He does surly very well, but one expression is not enough to cover the complicated character of Inspector Javert, who struggled with the same questions as Valjean but chose differently. Also, Crowe can’t sing, or certainly not well enough to convey convincingly the drama of Javert’s righteous conviction, or at the end, his inner struggle.
Hugh Jackman, by way of contrast, employs three facial expressions; happy, sad and troubled. Troubled also covers angry. Three expressions in a single movie prove that he is an actor of great depth, so it is likely he will win a Golden Globe in 2013, or perhaps some other plastic statue.
The real surprise was Anne Hathaway, whom I have always dismissed as an airhead. Her depiction of Fantine creates some genuinely moving moments in a film otherwise painted in lavish strokes of mere sentimentality.
Read the rest at Quadrant Online.