Archive for July, 2009

I’ve added automatic checking for broken links and redirects for outgoing links.  In the long term it should be a big time saver however now four days later all the broken links are fixed or removed and the 1000 odd redirects are mostly delt with except to the BBC who switch between two URLs with a redirection pretty much every time you go to a page from a link.  Who’d think that I’d end up with over 3000 outgoing links to over 2000 different sites automating checking was a real neccessity.

Other improvements include:

• Pulling all the images off blogger and uploaded them here.
• Added my latest tweet to the home page.
• Added caching of pages to improve performance.

It only seems like yesterday that Kim had a new story out but it was all of a couple of weeks ago (just enough time to read an Ian Rankin novel and a couple of history books). Her latest novella, Dark Host, was a Brava finalist and I’ve read a bit of it before so I’m looking forward to it. And as an added bonus I’ve no worries about including the cover on my blog because its very tasteful

A mild and tasty curry. This recipe serves 4. Lamb or beef can be used instead of pork. Serve with rice.

Ingredients

• 750g Leg or Shoulder of Pork
• 3tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 onions chopped
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 2.5cm ginger root
• 2 fresh green chillies seeded and chopped
• 1.5tbsp medium curry paste
• 1tsp ground coriander
• 250g mushrooms sliced thickly
• 850ml stock
• 3 tomatoes chopped
• 60g creamed coconut chopped
• 3tbsp ground almonds

Instructions

1. Cut the pork into bite sized pieces.
2. Heat the oil in a large saucepan.
3. Add the pork to the saucepan and fry, stirring frequently, until sealed
4. Remove the pork from the pan
5. Add the onions, garlic, ginger, chillies, curry paste and coriander to the pan
6. Cook gently for 2 minutes
7. Stir in the mushrooms, stock and tomatoes
8. Return the pork to the pan
9. Cover and simmer for 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 hours or until the pork is tender
10. Stir in the creamed coconut and ground almonds
11. Cook gently for 3 minutes

• RT @wordpress: WordPress 2.8.2: http://bit.ly/12nm2b #
• Just added myself to the http://wefollow.com twitter directory under: #writer #vue #rpg #
• @SJGames Superfluous O! http://bit.ly/pEDf just after I read the Two Ronnies missing hose http://bit.ly/1p9Wp4 Conspiracy or coincidence lol #
• @DanDiplo lol and incomplete XSLT parsers used to make them very (how can I put it politely) interesting. And variables that don't vary… in reply to DanDiplo #
• A new John Lewis stock pot of slow cooked spicy black-eye beans ment dinner plans were easy http://bit.ly/XpcCS #recipe #food #
• 2 Sites updated without a hitch RT @wordpress WordPress 2.8.2: http://bit.ly/12nm2b #
• @KimKnox They're working hard analysing this to death. A fashion expert focuses on the boots not being done up right has too much spare time in reply to KimKnox #
• @KimKnox Better Paul than Joe who gave me a harsh stare at the deli shelf in M&S on two Sats. I've better things to do than stalk him. in reply to KimKnox #
• @KimKnox lol He was disguised by a forest of facial hair. I guess for a role: would have been a fire hazard on masterchef in reply to KimKnox #
• And Serif Software call me again. At least this time they handled my lack of interest and my not playing along with their script OK. #
• @AlphaComplex Enjoyed the posts but Posting way too often = No follow No more #
• Anyone know if there's a thesaurus of hashtags that are in use? #
• Posted a bit from an old, funny Valkyrie article on how #rpg characters go through doors http://bit.ly/9mmUs #
• @very_true_thing You're right – a few of those games are post Valkyrie I just keep adding to it if I think of a good new one #
• RT @severdia: #joomla 1.5.13 released – upgrade immediately http://bit.ly/25blLU #
• RT @MonteJCook Here's another game site that I enjoy: http://www.gnomestew.com/ #
• @jearle it may be arbitrary but if it make you happy who am I to knock it lol. Congratulations on 1000 followers in reply to jearle #
• @jearle I miss Valkyrie, with all its odd little production difficulties, sometimes. Always sad I never got to do a SLA Industries piece. in reply to jearle #
• @jearle Not really a surprise. It wasn't just Nightfall: Jay told me the slush pile of SLA fan articles could have filled its own mag in reply to jearle #
• @jearle Your stuff every time – helped yours were lots better lol. in reply to jearle #
• @jearle Jay used to worry about being seen as the official SLA rag with an article an issue. He'd email me for funny, grit free articles. in reply to jearle #
• @KimKnox Gratz. 9/10 for cover cheese picture although at least its not Casu Marzu in reply to KimKnox #
• @alyankovic Polka Your Eyes Out but a medley could be even better… #
• Yeh. Vue 8 Announced. Well it will be soon. #

Just a little bit of tweaking of the impworks site colours so they achieve WAI – WCAG AAA accessibility. Testing using the hand and nicely designed Check My Colours. Everything was pretty much there except there were some dark blue on light blues where the blues were too similar.

Short and sweet tonight: I’ve added a page to the Vue section of impworks for the Vue Preview Colour Change Script.  Need to work on my snappy title writing skills.

The rebuilding and post launch work on impworks is now pretty much done which means I can get back to other projects.  tonight I’ve taken an editing chainsaw to a 120 page text which is the core design for a game and so far I’ve cut it to 60 pages.  Now I’m at the hard part: cutting stuff I want to keep, stuff that took hard thinking or hard research.  I’ve a simple incentive.  I know that if I get this right and this text ends up in print then there is a chance I can see the cut material in print as supplements.

So tomorrow its away with the chainsaw and out with the pruning knife.

I’ve posted an updated excerpt from an article I wrote for Valkyrie Magazine issue 25: Open the Door on how characters go through doors in different games.

Spicy Black-eye Beans

This is one of my favourit recipes, so much so that I went and bought a 7 litre stock pot from John Lewis a couple of weeks back so I can cook a double quantity for freezing. Ideally it should be cooked a couple of days in advance and allowed to sit so the deep, rich flavour of the sauce can mature and permeate into the beans.

• 350g Black-eye beans soaked overnight in water
• 2 medium Onions, chopped
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 500ml Vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp Clear honey
• 2 tbsp Treacle (molasses)
• 4 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
• 4 tbsp Tomato Puree
• 1 tsp Dry Mustard Powder
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 tsp Dried Rosemary
• 1 tsp Dried Thyme
• 1 tsp Dried Sage
• Pepper
• 1 small Orange
• 1 tbsp Cornflour
• 2 Red Bell Peppers, deseeded and chopped into slices

1. Rinse and drain the beans.
2. Place in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 10 minutes.
3. Drain and place in an ovenproof casserole dish.
4. Fry the onions in the oil in a frying pan for 5 minutes, then add to the beans and mix well.
5. Put the Vegetable stock, Honey, Treacle, Soy Sauce, Tomato Puree, Mustard Powder, Rosemary, Thyme, Sage and Pepper in a jug and mix well then pour into the casserole.
6. Add the bay leaf at the side of the pot so it will be easy to remove later. Peel three strips of orange rind from the orange and put on top of the beans.
7. Cover the casserole and bake for 1 hour at 150ºC / Gas Mark 2.
8. Extract the orange juice and mix into the cornflour to form a paste. Add the peppers and paste to the beans and mix well.
9. Return to the oven and cook for another hour.
10. Discard the bay leaf and serve with either rice or wraps.

Back in August 2007 I posted a set of Miniature Victorian and Edwardian Posters which at the time didn’t really seem to get a lot of downloads or get any feedback. When I rebuilt the impworks website I almost left them out and the file got moved round late compared to some of the python scripts and what I thought were more popular pages.

A few days later I got a very nice, polite e-mail from a gentleman in Germany asking where the posters were because users on his gaming forums were asking for them. He also asked if I had anymore similar sets. I fixed the problem and I’m pleasantly surprised at the level of downloads the posters have been getting. So by way of a thank you for bringing the problem to my attention I’ve posted two more sets that I’d found the pictures for but never created the PDFs for.

This time there are a total of 130 different advertising posters from the pulp era covering dates from the 1920s and 1930s. A few may be from as late as the 1950s but I can’t be sure. I’ve split them roughly into US destinations and the rest of the world because there were roughly 60ish in each category and a sheet of Avery labels has space for 65. Hopefully they’ll be of some use to someone. You can download them, or download the original Victorian set, from my new Miniature Posters page.