http://www.challengerappears.com/blog Rob Fahey on games, media, journalism and politics. Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:59:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Mostly this weekend, I'll be at the Frightfest film festival in London - a delightful mash-up of upcoming horror, fantasy, sci-fi and gore flicks, spread over four days. I'll be updating comments on each film to Twitter - you can follow me here at my Twitter page. http://www.challengerappears.com/blog/2008/08/frightfest/ Quick personal life update. I just got back earlier this week from Amecon, which was a hugely enjoyable weekend. Anime conventions have transitioned over the years from being the preserve of a small sub-genus of bearded, sandalled science fiction nerds into being a bizarre melting pot of subcultures and groups, ... http://www.challengerappears.com/blog/2008/08/hanging-up-my-shield/ Assuming you're reading this on the blog site itself - rather than on LiveJournal, Facebook, or anywhere else exotic that it's exported to via RSS - you may have noticed a new link on the right hand side of the page. Rather than updating the main blog every time I ... http://www.challengerappears.com/blog/2008/07/further-reading/ Unsurprisingly, I produced a couple of Blizzard-related features this week along with the usual batch of reviews and whatnot. I previously alluded to my piece for The Times, which was my first published work with the paper - if you fancy having a read but didn't pick up the paper, ... http://www.challengerappears.com/blog/2008/07/quick-work-update/ A quick work-related note - I've started writing for The Times, and the first of what will hopefully be many features is appearing in tommorow's (Wednesday's) times2 section in the paper. It's a report from last weekend's Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event in Paris, and is designed as a gentle and ... http://www.challengerappears.com/blog/2008/07/keeping-up-with-the-times/ The worst thing that has ever happened to British politics is the movement of both our leading parties to the centre of the political spectrum. With both the Conservatives and Labour occupying a centre-right position, the ugly face of centrist politics has been revealed. Devoid of strong ideals or leanings, ... http://www.challengerappears.com/blog/2008/06/jacqui-smith-the-face-of-labours-moral-collapse/ No, not the aftermath of George W Bush's presidency - I'm not sure my webhosting plan, generous and economical as it may be, comes with enough storage for an in-depth discussion of all the issues arising from that particularly dark eight years in our recent history. (Eight years - can ... http://www.challengerappears.com/blog/2008/06/the-aftermath-of-bush/ Ever since Ireland voted "No" to the Lisbon Treaty late last week, there's been all manner of pot-bashing and shouting from the Eurosceptic lobby here in the UK about the result. This, apparently, is proof that the British public (in common, presumably, with the public of every other nation in ... http://www.challengerappears.com/blog/2008/06/saying-no-to-lisbon/ Anyone who has been moaning and crying about the UK pricing for Rock Band, please consider this. In a moment of madness, I've just spent 300 quid (including shipping and inevitable customs charge) on a single guitar, and about 60 tracks to play on it. Yes, the arcade-perfect Guitar Freaks controller ... http://www.challengerappears.com/blog/2008/05/in-perspective-rock-band-whining/ Writing in the Guardian this week, Charlie Brooker makes a typically self-deprecating comment which, in fact, astutely sums up a large part of the problem - and pointlessness - with party politics. During the London mayoral election, I had two main fears. The first, obviously, was that Boris was going to ... http://www.challengerappears.com/blog/2008/05/bojo-watch-the-second-move/