Old Man By the Sea

Radioactivity Every week I try to enter #WCCChallenge , which is held every Sunday by SableRaph . This week the topic chosen is Radioactivity .  The idea is to come up with some creative coding loveliness based on the chosen  topic . I entered ZX Spectrum as a hopeful topic but it wasn't picked. But...I thought why not Zoidberg do both?  I had an idea last night to load up FUSE  and see what I could do with it on the topic (it was in a slim lead against Gears at the time. Click to see my possible entry to that subject ). It's been around 35 years since I last tried any Spectrum coding. I wasn't going to touch assembly though (see this post for my last foray into that!) so I used ZX BASIC to make a Danger Radioactive sign. The original takes almost two minutes to render so I sped up the video. Below is the code, written in Boriel ZX BASIC style (no line numbers needed). To convert to a workable .tap file you should use zmakebas with the following command: zmakebas f...

  The Traveler by Joseph Eckert I do like a time travel story. This science fiction debut by Joseph Eckert scratched the time travel itch for me. I couldn't put it down in places. The story is quite a simple one. Scott Treder, a seemingly normal fellow, finds himself thrown out of his car and hits the ground. Picking himself up, he looks around and his car is nowhere to be seen, even though only mere seconds before he had been in the driving seat. Sorting himself out, he goes home to discover his wife frantic. The car, a little bit dented, is in the drive and he, apparently, has been missing for the last 24 hours. Thinking it must be a bit of amnesia caused by the accident, he gets himself looked over by the doctor but all is well. The next morning he arrives at work earlier than normal to make up for missing the day, sits down at his desk. The clock strike 7:57am and he finds himself on the floor of his cubicle, surrounded by colleagues who wonder where he's been for the past ...

They Will Kill You They Will Kill You is, quite bluntly, the daftest film I've seen so far this year...and I mean that in a good way. The movie is John Wick vs The Evil Dead ON ACID. The plot, what little plot there is, centres around Zazie Beetz' character, Asia, tricking her way into a hotel, that has a history of hired help disappearing in strange circumstances, to rescue her sister who she discovers is working there. Asia has been in prison for the last ten years and has picked up some kick ass fighting moves, which come in handy when the rich clientele try to murder her. Asia fights back, chopping off heads and blowing off limbs with shotguns, blood and guts flying around like an 80s gore fest, only to be shocked by the bodies all reanimating and chasing after her again. The cast is made up of some well known faces - Patricia Arquette, Heather Graham, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton - all seemingly having the time of their lives slipping and sliding in gore and guts.   There...

The Boatman by Alex Grecian We're all chased by death. He waits for us around every corner. None of us know when he'll swoop down to claim us. But what if you could see him following you on a boat whilst you're on a luxury cruise in the 1970s? Well, you try to stay ahead of him for the next 100 years! And that's the premise of the new novella by Alex Grecian. The guests and crew of the Maria Calypso set sail one day in the late 1970s. All is going quite well on the ship's maiden world cruise until the captain suffers a massive heart attack...but seems to shake it off like it was just a bout of indigestion. At the same time a strange boat appears around half a mile behind them. The boat seems to be a gondola and at the back, pushing the boat slowly along with a large pole, stands a man in a white suit and hat.   For days and days the boatman follows the ship, never gaining, always staying around half a mile away. The guests and crew decide to try and outrun him, theo...

  Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes A woman and her crew board a decades-lost luxury cruiser and find the wreckage of a nightmare that hasn't yet ended. A GHOST SHIP. A SALVAGE CREW. UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS. Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate. It was the blurb that drew me in, I have to admit. I'm a big fan of sci-fi books but not read much horror. This was a page turner that I read over the course of a week or two. It reminded me of Alien at the beginning (the lonely crew on the outskirts of known space discovering something strange), The Shining by Stephen King during the middle (when the weird stuff happens!) and Aliens towards the end (yes, there are mercs and one lone woman who saves the day!). The Aurora itself, the Titanic like vessel the crew stumble upon (yes, it is supposed to look like an old steam l...

  A Walk to Llyn Barfog Around four miles from Aberdyfi, along the wonderful Panorama Walk, lies the hidden Llyn Barfog also known as Bearded Lake. Legend has it that the Afanc, a terrifying monster, lived within its depths and often descended upon the peaceful village to devour any villager unlucky enough to be out at the time. A call for help went out and good King Arthur came along and a mighty battle ensued that lasted hours (some say days). Finally Arthur slew the Afanc and peace returned to the village. He was good at doing stuff like that. The walk takes about two hours from Aberdyfi itself. Make your way up Copperhill Street, turn onto Mynydd Isaf and turn left at the crossroads. Follow the road and you'll see a sign pointing towards Bwlch Farm and Llyn Barfog. Follow this road (Panorama Walk) until you get to Bwlch Farm.  From here you have two choices - left or right. Each path will take you to the lake, but my preferred route is to take the right. Take the right pat...