Okay all you computer literate guys out there. I’m tearing my hair out here. I click on Picture Manager and get ‘click-2-run configuration failure’. Any ideas about how I deal with that? I keep running into a brick wall.
Category: Articles
Who Reads My Books: Hitch.
My name is Vaughan, but I get called and prefer to be called Hitch. It took many years to create the aura of Hitch, lots of hard work, nagging and, “Just call me Hitch, it’s less gay!” Suffice to say I am not overly keen on my actual name as it doesn’t really relate to me. I don’t dig sheep, have a Welsh tenor’s voice, or drive Ivor the Engine down the windy tracks each and every day, nor am I Welsh. Yes, my parents hated me 🙂 They actually called me Vaughan because, and I quote, “It cannot be shortened when you are at school”. Trouble was, my last name is Jackson… so yeah, who the fuck cared about Vaughan – I was Jacko for years… shudder.
What am I like? Well, I have an ego but I am cool with it (that may be the ego talking though). I love music, reading, gaming, the daughter and the GF (Who also rates you as possibly the best modern – and living – Sci-fi author) though perhaps not in that order. I have been a broadcaster on community radio back in Sheffield, UK, and on various Internet Radio stations (the future of mediocrity). I have also DJ’d in a club, been a sales manager, sales director, butcher, carpet-fitter and worked on Doncaster Racecourse telling the gypsies to fuck off or we would have them! Brave or suicidal? You choose. My last job was as a Chef. Right now I am looking for work and hoping to find some soon. Need someone to work for you in Scandinavia Neal?
I was/am English, depending on who you ask. If you ask me, I am now Norwegian. I live in Trondheim with my girl, Emma, and my daughter. I moved here about six years ago and regret not one bit of it, although in the winter we often contemplate moving somewhere with white beaches and clear green seas.
My website, http://mycompanioncube.com/ is my only outlet to the world these days, well, that and Twitter (@hi7ch) and anyone that wants to follow me, please do so! We may not have much in common but I am sure I will annoy you into heated debate at some point – I have a habit of doing this.
Been reading the wonderful works of Mr Asher here since the floppy, laminated, Runcible Tales (Writer of the Future) book and to the best of my knowledge have all his novels and a couple of short story collections. None of them are signed though so Neal, get your arse to Trondheim, I’ll cook then you come for a drink with us, and do a book signing over here? Hey, I can try can’t I? 🙂
What I miss? Hmm. I am 42 (Which works well with my nickname!), look 35, or so the ladies say, not me. Should probably work as a comedian… Pink Floyd rule! Love all books, prefer hard Sci-Fi over most. Am a massive Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy fan, hence the chosen nickname. Once met Douglas Adams. Want Herodotus: The Histories, for Christmas. Write short stories and occasionally and stick them online. Erm, that has to cover most of it, surely?
Pics attached, feel free to scream upon viewing.
And the Final (?) Installment of the Vaudefest.
PETA Learns Secret Handshake.
I was sent a link to this by Bill Brunton. The one who posted it here, notes, ‘Don’t know if this is true or not but it is funny’. Don’t hold any coffee in your mouth while reading this.
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Activists Missing After Declaring “War on Leather” at Motorcycle Rally January 10, 2010 by randyedye.
Johnstown, PA (GlossyNews) – Local and state police scoured the hills outside rural Johnstown, Pennsylvania, after reports of three animal rights activists going missing after attempting to protest the wearing of leather at a large motorcycle gang rally this weekend. Two others, previously reported missing, were discovered by fast food workers “duct taped inside several fast food restaurant dumpsters,” according to police officials. “Something just went wrong,” said a still visibly shaken organizer of the protest. “Something just went horribly, horribly, wrong.”
The organizer said a group of concerned animal rights activists, “growing tired of throwing fake blood and shouting profanities at older women wearing leather or fur coats,” decided to protest the annual motorcycle club event “in a hope to show them our outrage at their wanton use of leather in their clothing and motor bike seats.” “In fact,” said the organizer, “motorcycle gangs are one of the biggest abusers of wearing leather, and we decided it was high time that we let them know that we disagree with them using it…ergo, they should stop.”
According to witnesses, protesters arrived at the event in a vintage 1960’s era Volkswagen van and began to pelt the gang members with balloons filled with red colored water, simulating blood, and shouting “you’re murderers” to passers by. This, evidently, is when the brouhaha began.
“They peed on me!!!” charged one activist. “They grabbed me, said I looked like I was French, started calling me ‘La Trene’, and duct taped me to a tree so they could pee on me all day!”
“I…I was trying to show my outrage at a man with a heavy leather jacket, and he…he didn’t even care. I called him a murderer, and all he said was, “You can’t prove that.” Next thing I know he forced me to ride on the back of his motorcycle all day, and would not let me off, because “his girl friend was out of town and I was almost a woman.”
Still others claimed they were forced to eat hamburgers and hot dogs under duress. Those who resisted were allegedly held down while several bikers “farted on their heads.”
Police officials declined comments on any leads or arrests due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, however, organizers for the motorcycle club rally expressed “surprise” at the allegations.
“That’s preposterous,” said one high-ranking member of the biker organizing committee. “We were having a party, and these people showed up and were very rude to us. They threw things at us, called us names, and tried to ruin the entire event. So, what did we do? We invited them to the party! What could be more friendly than that? You know, just because we are all members of motorcycle clubs does not mean we do not care about inclusiveness. Personally, I think it shows a lack of character for them to be saying such nasty things about us after we bent over backwards to make them feel welcome.”
When confronted with the allegations of force-feeding the activists meat, using them as ad hoc latrines, leaving them incapacitated in fast food restaurant dumpsters, and ‘farting on their heads,’ the organizer declined to comment in detail. “That’s just our secret handshake,” assured the organizer.
Vaudeviewgalor Raandisisraisins' Book Collection Part Three.
Breaking Dawn — Stephenie Meyer
This was a bit of a struggle for me at first because, well, I’m male. The running round and the frocks and all the other palaver of preparing for a wedding hold about as much interest for me as … um, I was about to write ‘watching paint dry’ but that’s wrong. Watching paint dry wouldn’t irritate me as much. The ensuing wedding I skipped through, hoping to get to something interesting. But I have to say again that this is because I’m male. I can understand (sort of) how it was necessary to write this because a huge proportion of the readership of the Twilight series wanted this pay-off. I could have done without the first chapter or so.
After that things picked up very nicely. I’m not going to give any spoilers here, but I roared through the rest of the book and when I put it down I was satisfied. It worked. The series completed. I enjoyed it.
Neal Asher Video Clip 19/12/10
Vaudeviewgalor Raandisisraisins' Book Collection Part Two.
Ian Hislop on Question Time 18th Sep 2008
A Non-Smoker Writes…
Here’s a pretty balanced view on smoking. Go read it all.
A year to 18 months ago I was a non-smoker who was anti-smoking – not to the extent where I would challenge strangers who were smokers or seek to embarrass them, but certainly someone who supported the evermore restrictive practices placed upon those wishing to smoke.
So it was one of the most unexpected shift in my thinking over the past year to become pro-smoking – or rather pro the right to choose to smoke.
H/T Found a Voice