The Man with No Time

Last weekend, in what is rapidly becoming an annual tradition for me, I travelled to SmogCon. This was my third year in a row attending what is the UK's biggest Warmachine convention, and the only proper USA-style convention in the country (to my knowledge). Fortunately for me, this year the organisers had moved it to Birmingham, so I was able to save both money and time by making the short train ride to Birmingham International instead of driving to London, and by only staying for two nights instead of three. I really enjoyed both of my previous visits to SmogCon, and this year was even better in some ways. The venue, though perhaps less fancy, was in my opinion much better. There were more tables, and all of the miniature gaming space was in a single ballroom, with the boardgames area in a room just off to the side, so everything was easily accessible. Food service was much improved too apparently, though as usual I took my own. In fact the whole event seemed to be bigger a...

On 29th June, Privateer Press released the new editions of Warmachine and Hordes, my current miniatures game of choice. This was not a complete surprise. Chatter in the community for a few years had been "I hope they change this for Mk 3", or "list the changes you want to see in the next edition", or "when is the new version coming out?", but Privateer themselves had been tight lipped on the subject, making no statements either way regarding an update. Then, at the end of April, they announced that the new editions were coming. With new starter boxes, a new app, a new points system, and new hardback rulebooks. The excitement in the community was palpable. Banner art for the new edition of Warmachine and Hordes, showing new leaders for Khador and Trollbloods.  (Credit: allnewwar.com, Privateer Press. No commercial use intended) I'm not going to go into a detailed review of what's changed between editions; the release was over a month...

Just over a week ago I had an absolutely awesome experience - I spent three days at a hotel just next to Heathrow airport. Which doesn't sound so great, until I say that it was my first experience of a convention. Specifically SmogCon 2015, the UK's biggest Warmachine convention, and the only US-style gaming convention in the UK (and possibly Europe, though I'm not sure that's entirely true).  As I said, I had an awesome time. I'd been hoping to go for the last couple of years, but was either a) in Scotland, or b) forgetful and missed the tickets sale. This year I was actually at orchestra when tickets went on sale, but fortunately there were still about 50 left when I got home and I managed to snag one. I decided pretty early on that I wouldn't bother trying for any of the tournaments; instead I'd spend all my time in the casual play area playing pick-up games of Warmachine/Hordes, or trying out some of the boardgames. I'm quite pleased with that ...

Marvel have become something of a cinematic giant in the last five years or so. First there were the X-Men and Spiderman films, then Daredevil, then Hulk, then the Fantastic Four. Then they took matters into their own hands with Iron Man, Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Avengers Assemble. After building the 'Marvel Cinematic Universe' they carried on at full speed, and the second round of releases is by now well established. We've had Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and Captain America: Winter Soldier. That's not mentioning the Amazing Spiderman and X-Men: First Class series, which although Marvel properties aren't controlled directly by Marvel. So far it's all been established characters and franchises. Stories that the general audience will at least have a vague idea about. But there are increasing signs that Marvel is starting to branch out from this set of 'core' properties. The first of which is the release of Guardians of the Galaxy. ...

I've just got back from a long weekend spent with some of my best friends. It's been almost a year since I left St Andrews, but I still miss the people that I met, and the friends that I made while I was there. I've been able to catch up with some of them sporadically via conferences (for the astronomers) and competitions (for the lifesavers), but time's always a bit short and it's not really the best way of spending time with your friends. (Credit: David Brown) As a rule the St Andrews Seacows are pretty bad at organising themselves to do anything, but we finally managed to arrange a weekend away for as many people as we could get. Options were limited for places with enough space to sleep all of us, but my friend Ella's parents were away for the weekend, so we all traipsed down to Sandwich, on the Kent coast, for four days. Well, some of us for four days, others for less than that owing to prior commitments. Even with the dates planned nearly three...

Monday nights is our weekly gaming session at Warwick Sci-Fi. There are only three of us that regularly play Warmachine & Hordes: myself, Paul (a PhD student), and Dom (a final-year undergraduate). It’s a bit of an awkward number, but we’ve worked around it with smaller points levels, three player games, and by only having two of us there a lot of the time. As Dom’s graduating this year he’s going to be leaving, and since last night was his final week at Sci-Fi we decided to do something a bit special as a send-off – a massive 100pts, two warcasters per side game. I’ve got easily the biggest collection, so I agreed to take one side by myself using my Cryx. Paul and Dom would take 50pts each of Khador and Circle Orboros respectively. I had several advantages going into the game. First, with 100pts to myself I had full control over my side. Second, Paul and Dom’s limited collection meant that I had a decent idea what they would be taking, particularly for their...

I've just got back from a work day out. Well, I say just got back. I've got back, had a shower, and put on some fresh clothes! All of which were entirely necessary, because as the title of this posts says we went paintballing! I've not been to a paintball site for about four years, but after we all had so much fun at Laser Quest a couple of months ago this seemed like the obvious next step. There were only 11 of us, but it turned out that we were the only group on site this afternoon, so it was just us. Which was nice. We played five games - two capture the flag, two team deathmatch, and one VIP. My team, despite a one-person advantage, managed to lose the first three games horribly. But we rallied to scrape a win in the second deathmatch, and absolutely destroyed the other team in the VIP game when we managed to sneak our VIP around the left flank, and  get the the flag from the middle into their base as well. We still narrowly lost on points though. It was a...

After what seemed like an interminable length of time with no lifesaving to do, the BULSCA calendar restarted at the weekend with the second official St Andrews league competition. Which meant that it was road trip time - yay!

I'm spending this week in London for a conference, so my girlfriend and I thought that we'd take the chance to spend the weekend in the capital too. It was a good chance to catch up with some friends, and to do something that I've wanted to do for a few years - the BBC Proms in the Park. The Last Night of the Proms, Hyde Park style. (Credit: David Brown)

It's a funny thing, but over the four years that I've spent in St Andrews I've only been to the Edinburgh Fringe festival for one day. Even that was only because a friend was up in Edinburgh and asked if I fancied seeing a couple of shows. I think it's one of those "you could go anytime, so you never actually get around to it" things. Well this weekend, with my girlfriend visiting St Andrews for the last time, I decided to do something about it. We spent most of the weekend in Edinburgh, and managed to see nine shows over two days. Since there's so much happening at the Fringe, we decided to limit ourselves to comedy shows., and to stick to free events as much as possible. We had a quick look through the website on Friday and picked out a couple of things we wanted to see.  But we weren't prepared for just how busy the Fringe was, how many people there would be, and how early we would need to start queuing for some of the shows! (Credit: s...

I've just got back to St Andrews after a quick mid-summer family holiday. We didn't go anywhere particularly exciting, just to Center Parcs like we did last year. It was really enjoyable, and very relaxing all in all, although my brother and Mum might disagree! We're in the middle of a bit of a heat wave here in the UK at the moment, and so we didn't cram as much in to our visit as we have done in the past. A quick game of bowling on the Friday night, some Badminton Saturday and Monday, a quick go on the driving simulator for Dad, my brother and I, a pedalo on the lake, some American pool, and quick swim (it was really, really nice to get back in the pool and swim some lengths) were pretty much it. We did get in a few boardgames though, and I finally got to try out Battlestar Galactica, which is everything I was led to believe and more. The big event of the weekend was the spa evening that my brother, myself, and our girlfriends went to. I'd never been...

On my way to Le Mans I stopped off in Birmingham to see Bill Bailey’s latest tour, Qualmpeddler. I’ve wanted to see Bill Bailey live for quite some time now, but have always been out of luck. Either I’ve been busy during the convenient dates, or I’ve found out about it too late to get tickets. This time I was able to find out about the tour far enough in advance to make sure I got tickets. The poster for the Qualmpeddler tour. (Credit: billbailey.co.uk)

A week ago I wondered whether my trip to Le Mans this year would live up to my first visit, just over one year previously. Well it turns out that despite being a very different experience, it definitely could. The whole week seemed to fly by. Yet at the same time it seemed, particularly at the start of the week, to last for ages. I will also say that there are several reasons, both good and bad, for why I won’t be forgetting this year’s event in a hurry. Standing on the track looking down the pit straight towards the Ford Chicanes. Actually being able to get onto part of the track was magical. (Credit: David Brown)

(This blog entry was originally posted over at the 'Explore your Universe' website: link . I'm cross-posting it here for a different audience, and my own records) It’s been a while since I posted up my introduction, but I’ve been pretty busy over the last few months. Yesterday though I took the chance to break out of my normal routine, and help enthuse a new generation about science. Dundee Science Centre were holding a ‘Meet the Expert’ event for local schools, and I jumped in to help out as one of the scientists. It was a really fun, and very busy day. There were three scientists taking part; I took along a display of telescopes and showed the visitors how they worked, and how I use similar telescopes for finding planets. The others had a display of electronic circuits being designed for use on space satellites, and a set of experiments demonstrating electromagnetism, including the ever popular van de Graaff generator. We had four or five different school...

The weekend just gone saw me travelling to a different country. - well, technically anyway. I was in Belfast with a couple of others visiting one of my best friends, Hannah, who moved there in September to start her degree in medicine. I've been to Belfast only once before. Four years ago I went there for a PhD interview, and despite being very busy I did get a bit of a tour of the place from one of the members of staff. Returning was an interesting experience; I got to see parts of the city that I missed out on the last time around, and see the many changes that have happened since that first trip. Samson. Or Goliath. One of the two cranes that was part of the main shipyard in Belfast. The two of them are actually listed structures! (Credit: David Brown)

Last weekend I took a long holiday down in Brighton with some friends from my undergraduate days. I had to drive down, which was a long journey, but I was able to stop off in Coventry both ways, which really helped make the journey bearable! It’s many years since I went to Brighton, and I never really saw much of the place. We either went to the beach, or were on the seafront for the Brighton Speed trials. It was therefore rather nice to actually explore the town a little more. My friend James, the driving force behind the trip, has fond childhood memories of wandering the lanes, and of the beach, and was keen to show the place off the rest of us.

I've just got back from my latest holiday of the summer. This time I was visiting the Sherwood Forest Center Parcs  for 4 days with my family, my girlfriend Ellen, and my brother's girlfriend Rebecca, who was visiting Center Parcs for the first time and seemed to have a great time. We were staying, for the first time, in an executive lodge, which came with a dishwasher (hallelujah!), wi-fi, and a sauna! Sadly we never got to use the latter feature, but we did make good use of the blackboard that was on the wall. The blackboard after the girls had finished drawing caricatures of all of us. (Credit: David Brown) It was a really fun weekend, and as usual we crammed it full of activities. Fortunately for us the weather was also glorious; it turns out that England is currently enjoying temperatures in the mid-to-high 20s, with beautiful sunshine and a nice, cooling breeze. So much better than what Scotland has been putting up with for the last month or so! Travelling home ...

This month has seen the release of the latest expansion for Warmachine: Colossals. This new expansion has only two releases per faction (three for Mercenaries), but they're well worth the wait. Each faction has a new warcaster, which is a third incarnation of one of the Prime warcasters for the four original factions, and a colossal warjack. Unlike with the battle engines though, this time the Mercenaries aren't left out. Mounted on the same 120mm base as the battle engines, these new colossals primse to be game changing, and I can't wait for the Cryxian Kraken to be released. The new Cygnar Stormwall colossal. That thing is scary to deal with. (Credit: David Brown)

Last weekend it was miraculously relatively sunny up here in St Andrews, so I decided to tackle an item on my bucket list that I've been planning for a long time. My housemate, John, his academic son, Alex, and I walked the Fife Coastal Path from St Andrews to Anstruther. Naturally, we stopped for fish and chips at the end. Trekking across one of the small but beautiful beaches along the path. (Credit: David Brown)

WARNING: This is going to be a long post, even by my standards! I've got a lot to say about my trip to Le Mans 2012, so be prepared. But spoiler alert: it was awesome. This post has been delayed by quite some time, partly owing to its mammoth length. But I wanted to fully document my trip, and there's a lot to talk about! The famous podium and clock on the pit straight. (Credit: David Brown)