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playing the margins

29/01/2011
Features, Ramblings
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Sadly, I haven’t finished watching Series 5 of The Wire, and nor have I finished Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, so I can’t review either of those things. The one thing I have finished is the January round of my exams, which meant a whiplash-inducing change from virtual penury where free time is concerned (due to all that revision) to whole hours spent doing nothing productive at all – mostly playing Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, which is very good. A refinement in almost every way from Assassin’s Creed 2 (more of which whenever that review is written). It’s also meant that I’ve been thinking about doing other interesting stuff. I’ve got a laundry list of long-term projects to complete in the purgatory between exams and university, but there are a few things I need to start doing inbetween. Firstly, podcasting. Some of the more astute (and dedicated) NRB readers may remember this blog once had a podcast, the NRBcast, which I did with Friend of the NRB (and former contributor) S.C. Wilson. It was rubbish, in all honesty, but it was entertaining rubbish, and fun to do. So, it will be starting again at some point in the near future (I’m aware I said something similar a few months ago, but I mean it this time), probably as the hecklr podcast (and if hecklr doesn’t relaunch, as has been promised for the last however long, the podcast may well become the site).
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All In The Game : The Wire, Season 5

22/01/2011
Cool Stuff, Features, Ramblings, Reviews, TV
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So I’ve been watching through box sets of The Wire for the last few months. For the most part, it’s really, really good, and when I’ve finished watching all of them, I’ll do a longer post on the topic. I’m currently midway through Series 5, and before I started, my father told me that Series 5 isn’t really as good as preceding series, that it gets a bit ‘weird’. He’s right – it is different to the other series, albeit subtly so. One of the things that makes The Wire so great, so unique, is (at least in comparison to the majority of television dramas involving police) the lack of artifice. It excels at portraying brutal mundanity – the harsh truths of life on the street. Series 1 chiefly deals with the Barksdale drug dealers, Series 2 with the slow death of the Baltimore docks, Series 3 with the corrupt and corruping world of Baltimore politics, and Series 4 with the Baltimore school system. The new element introduced for Series 5, however, is the Baltimore Sun newspaper, where David Simon, series creator and producer used to work.
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Echo Bazaar!

15/01/2011
Cool Stuff, Features, One A Week, Reviews
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Almost everything I’ve read about Echo Bazaar has begun ‘Echo Bazaar is difficult to define’ or ‘Echo Bazaar is a rather hard game to pin down’ or similar contrivances, which does rather show a lack of imagination on the part of the writer, given that Echo Bazaar (!) is not diffitult to describe, but that its description is rather esoteric. It’s a browser-based game set in ‘Fallen London’, a post-apocalyptic-pseudo-Victorian-Steampunk-Gothic city under the ground. In 1859, London was stolen by bats and delivered into the clutches of the titular Echo Bazaar (which is rather more difficult to define). Further details are rather hard to come by – information about the city, the Bazaar and its history are revealed incrementally as you progress, and desire to further explore the setting is one of the key things driving you forward in the game*.
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The Day Today

13/01/2011
Features, Ramblings
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I’ve had quite a good day today, all told. It began with an exam – Chemistry, F331 retake, in case you’re interested – the third (and last) this week, third out of seven total, and the last of the retakes. I’ve got C3 (Maths) next week, and M1 (Further Maths), F334 (Chemistry) and Unit 4 (Physics) the week after that. I then had some lessons, which were good, wandered down to the local Starbucks, had a drink and read The Times, which was thoughtfully provided for free (a brief diversion for a second. I have previously refused to read The Times out of principle – I think it’s a newspaper of quality and like its style, even if I disagree with some of its viewpoints (same with the Economist) but I wouldn’t read it because it’s owned by Rupert Murdoch, who’s quite possibly one of the greatest forces for evil on the planet today (perhaps Michael Gove’s a contender for that position, but we’ll get to him). The long and the short of it is, it’s OK if I’m not paying for it, so Murdoch’s not getting my money. I’m happy to watch The Simpsons and Firefly and Family Guy and Futurama and Star Wars, so why should I continue this folly if I’m ultimately not giving Rupe his tithe (however small)? The answer is, I still won’t buy it, but it can go in rotation with The Graun and The Indie of Newspapers I’ll Read In The College Library. Hey, it’s free. The Telegraph can still go dive in a skip full of used syringes for all I care (apart from the games people. They’re pretty good. And Oliver Pritchett).
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phones and exams

08/01/2011
Features, One A Week, Ramblings
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I got a new phone today! Hurrah! It’s about time too! As you can see in the photo above, it’s a Samsung Galaxy Europa, the cheaper end of Samsung’s Galaxy line of Android phones (and that’s a CERN shirt, by the way. The equations you can see there describe the fundamental forces, particles, and the Higgs mechanism). And that is a map of the world and a periodic table on the wall behind me. With such things is my bedroom decorated.
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I’ve got to go and play at the watch-night service now, so I’m going to leave you with a few thoughts for the end of the year.

31/12/2010
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Adam’s Favourite Things Of 2010:
Best TV Programme : Doctor Who
Best Episode of Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour (or possibly The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang, depending on what mood I’m in)
Best TV Programme (Not Doctor Who): The Wire (yes, I’m aware I’m a few years late to the party)
Best Game: Mass Effect 2
Best Portable Game: Game Dev Story
Best Podcasts: MBMBaM, Peacock and Gamble, Radiolab, This American Life, Rum Doings
Best Webcomics: Bad Machinery/Gunnerkrigg Court/ Wych Wolf
Best Web Series: Extra Credits
Best Blog (Games): Podgamer/ RPS
Best Blog (Other): Who knows? There are far too many to keep track of. Check my Google Reader Shared Stuff for the best stuff.

New Year’s Resolutions:
1) Finish A-Levels
2) Go to university
3) Start writing webcomic
4) Write a book
5) Achieve Grade 8 Piano

Happy New Year, everyone!

“Here he has peace and a short while for dreaming…”

25/12/2010
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Thanks to Age of Uncertainty for the link to the above video – a very good arrangement of Bethlehem Down, I’m sure you’d agree. Well, Merry Christmas to all NRB readers. Some things that have happened today:

Presents!
A Bill Bailey songbook, lots of chocolate money (mixed denominations), the Man to Man with Dean Learner DVD, some more chocolate, a student cookbook, some fudge, a ‘guns don’t kill people, magic missiles do’ t-shirt, as seen on The IT Crowd, Dragon Age: Oranges Origins: Ultimate Edition, the board game 221b Baker Street (which was quite fun when we played it this afternoon), some socks, and lots of money. I didn’t ask for anything in particular, so it was all a nice surprise.

Church!
I played some carols. My mum says I played them too fast.

Dinner!
I love Christmas dinner. No other meal provides sausages wrapped in bacon, stuffing and bread sauce all in one!

Doctor Who!
Pretty good. Don’t have the time to write a review right now, and probably won’t get around to it at all, because tomorrow I’m giving my mother my laptop and starting revision. Far, far better than last year’s ghastly crime against humanity – still not the best, but it’s a Christmas special, I’m not expecting anything, well, special. Gambon was great, excuses to have Jenkins singing were far too plentiful, but… a Doctor Who Christmas special where the Doctor’s got to stop a space passenger liner from crashing into a planet with a blonde singer who’s obviously going to die as his sidekick? Is this a repeat?

Poirot!
Having recently watched the ho-hum Sky adaptation of Going Postal in which Mr Suchet spends an awful lot of time chewing the scenery up as eyepatched villain Reacher Gilt, it was odd to see him as Poirot again. I’m a big fan of Poirot, but I far prefer the earlier, more light-hearted episodes, with Hastings and Inspector Japp, rather than this, darker, more miserable style of story. Radiolab did a wonderful episode in which they discussed the way Agatha Christie’s dementia affected her writing – probably not strictly related, but very interesting nonetheless.

So, Merry Christmas all. If I don’t post before next year, and chances are I won’t, thanks for reading. I’m still surprised anyone takes the time to read, let alone enjoys this nonsense. I appreciate all your continued support. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Adam Englebright

What did Adam get today?

17/12/2010
Features
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Today was the last day of college until the new year. I finished extra early because one of my maths teachers had jury duty, so decided to go to Crawley to pick up some parcels that nobody had been in the house to receive the previous day. So, I got…

some new headphones! Unlike my previous set of Skullcandies, these ones will a) remain on my head if I incline my head more than a degree or two down, b)hopefully last forever, due to the industrial strength wiring, and c) not make me look like a douchebag.
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Adam’s Trip To Switzerland: The Prequel

04/12/2010
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I went to Switzerland on a physics trip last Sunday. I had hoped to be back on Tuesday, but the profusion of snow in both England and Geneva made it impossible for our group to get a flight back, so we had to get the train and then the ferry in order to get home Friday morning. I’ll do a longer post on the topic when I’m feeling a little more up to it, but for the moment I’d like to thank Dee and Ian, our teachers, who managed to keep us going and organised our return journey after the flight plans fell through, and my fellow trippers, Sean, Nathan, Johnny, Johnny, Alex, Adam, Henry, James, Elliot, Katie, Rachel, Charlie, Rhana, Verity and Andy, who were, without exception, wonderful people to spend time with. Details of my travails to follow. In the meantime, here’s a picture of me standing in a giant bell in the gardens adjoining the UN building in Geneva.

three things part three billion

20/11/2010
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Three things:
One, Spotify has removed the Doctor Who Series 5 soundtrack. To spite me, I’m imagining. This doesn’t make me best pleased. Still, at least I know it’s worth purchasing now.
Two, I promised NRB reader ‘whoever’ a post justifying my views of various serieses of Doctor Who. This is in the works right now. There are, however, a few things keeping me busy – homework, Fable 3 (nearly completed, and will also be some sort of fulsome post in the future-time) and listening to MBMBaM (also to be postified, but you should really be listening to it NOW)…
Three, … and editing a PODCAST! We’re getting the band back together (if by the band you’re referring to my good friend Scott C. Wilson, former NRB contributor) and I are once again doing a podcast. This is the hecklr.co.uk podcast, and for fans, or even listeners, to the old NRBcast, it’s going to be similar, if not exactly the same. We’ll try and make it last a bit longer than the abortive five-episode series previously. It’s good to be going with this – we’ve made several efforts over the last few months, but now we’ve finally got going again. Nice to be back. We’re also trying some more audience participation, so questions, suggestions, etc, to podcast at hecklr dot co dot you kay, or our Formspring, or even our Twitter, if you felt so inclined.
That’s all I’ve got for you this evening, folks. I really need a better sign off, but in lieu of thinking of one, I’ll resort to the old Charlie Brooker standby. Go away.

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