• number9dream

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    1 comment on number9dream

    Just finished reading number9dream by David Mitchell. I bought this book over a year ago and until yesterday, it lingered on my bookshelf looking a little dejected in its garishly colourful cover. I took it with me when I went home for the 10k run and finally read it on the train back to Oxford.…

  • American Airlines Boarding Procedures

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    3 comments on American Airlines Boarding Procedures

    REVIEW – AMERICAN AIRLINES BOARDING PROCEDURE I have the dubious distinction of being a frequent flier now. A distinction, because it means I get to fly to a lot of interesting places and see a lot of interesting people. Dubious, because it would be even better if I got to fly in business class instead…

  • The Stepford Wives

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    2–3 minutes

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    REVIEW – THE STEPFORD WIVES This movie was always going to be a little bit peculiar – Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick and Christopher Walken’s names rarely grace the same bill, let alone the same page. And while I wasn’t alive when the original movie was released, I’m pretty sure that you weren’t supposed to know…

  • Mean Girls

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    Written on the flight from London to North Carolina REVIEW – MEAN GIRLS The title Mean Girls conjured up images of a thoroughly depressing drama involving troubled young women, no doubt set in a prison or something like that, when I first heard about it earlier this year. I knew this couldn’t be entirely true…

  • Headphones

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    5–8 minutes

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    Some of my most prolific writing gets done in the air. Perhaps it’s because I have so much free time (at least until they install in-flight internet connections) – or perhaps it’s precisely the opposite; that I have plenty of work to do but can’t bring myself to start it on the plane. Either way,…

  • Oleanna

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    4–6 minutes

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    I made the impulse decision this morning to join a couple of friends to see Oleanna down in London. This particular production has been running for a while at the Garrick Theatre now and stars Julia Stiles (Ten Things I Hate About You, Mona Lisa Smile) and Aaron Eckhart (Possession, Paycheck), the former of whom…

  • A Clash in Civilization

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    Some time ago, I wrote a long article about a fascinating way of playing the strategy computer game Civilization 3. That article – A Clash in Civilization – has now finally been published online at Kuro5hin, where it successfully ran the gauntlet of the highly cynical and hostile reviewers and emerged unscathed and on the…

  • Summon the Worms

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    1 comment on Summon the Worms

    Usually it’s the other way round, but after listening to the incredible Children of Dune TV movie soundtrack, I feel compelled to buy the DVD (and the CD – I believe in buying stuff I listen to a lot). If you’re wondering why I decided to listen to the soundtrack of a movie I haven’t…

  • Where’s the Brick?

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    2–3 minutes

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    Almost three months after I bought it, I finally got around to playing the Settlers of Catan with my friends at college this evening. I’ve written about it before and there’s a more detailed description at BoardGameGeek but in brief it’s a very playable four-player strategy building game that features a lot of trading. The…

  • The Race

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    5–8 minutes

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    8:30am – I wake up with a totally parched throat, despite drinking a huge quantity of water the night before. Less than six hours to go before the relay race I signed up to a couple of weeks ago begins. 3.6 miles per leg – I’m hoping to do it in under 30 minutes, at…