FatDave

Royal Mail has become a shameful sham. As Christmas comes I'll get ready to phone reletives and let them know to cancel all the cheques that will go missing from cards for the kids like they did last year when not a single one came through the post unopened. The service has become stone age and the staff are theives (I know not all of them, but the mail goes through so many hands and there are enough theives that opening cards and pilliaging contents is rife enough that everyone gets branded). I wouldn't trust Roay Mail with anything important and the quicker they crash and get replaced with something that works the better.

I've read 9/16 in the TPB and there are aspects in the series that I've not got to in the comics yet. The series is deffo not past book 8 yet though, I think that the end of book 8 might tie in with this season's finale, bringing the stories a little closer together. So all in all I'd say that they're about half way through the comics, thought there's loads they could use from earlier comics as padding for further series.

Just read about the 100th issue landmark. There are 16 trade paperbacks out at the mo.

Sheffield Space Centre does have a few. I was in there the other day asking for first run Swamp Thing comics and he looked at me like I had asked for a map to the Ark Of The Covenant, then went on ebay and got a few for a 5er an issue.

Lol, thanks for the comment sci fi, but the right person won. I've always found this flash fiction competition tough as the 500 word limit is so very restrictive; the difficulty of the task is no doubt why I enjoy entering so much. I've always been envious of people skilled in brevity, it's something I'm struggling to master, and I find my stories running away with themselves, at times I feel like I'm just there to keep them from going off the rails as they write themselves. When I finished writing this it was about 800 words, and I thought I was being consise. The hard part after that is recrafting what I've written whilst trying not to lose anything of the story, which I often fail at. So when I see a story like SarahD's, which is complete, and fat with content and light enough on the descriptions that adds to the story, I'm left enviously wondering how the hell they managed it. Looking back on my past entries, I believe every single one was bang on 500 words, lol. As for the naming of the main character as Katherine, I wanted to put accross that things of the past were still in use in this post apocalyptic world, but their true uses and meanings were lost. I intended to make a few references, perhaps a helter skelter used for sacrifices, or a merry-go-round as some alter to the horse-gods, but I was defeated by the word count.

Damn, I've been away far too long. Anyway, here's my effort, though I'm not sure it qualifies as you said the story could be set... "any time period between 1284 and the current day" and mine isn't. Anyway... The Goose Fair The traditions of Goose Fair were long held. So it was, on the rising of the Harvest Moon, bells rang in the fairground and those gathered bowed their hooded heads, while Katherine climbed the big wheel. Sly eyes watched him jump from carriage to carriage into the misty night. He shook with the effort, his grip painful on the rough red metal which crumbled in his bloody hands. Katherine was too old for a Watcher, thirty winters counted him as elder amongst The Seven Tribes, but his daughter had been chosen, so climb he must. As a child he had marvelled at the Gooseherders, marching off towards Lincolnshire to bring back the Geese. Only when he became a father did he understand why people spoke of them as sacrifices. There were no Geese there anymore, not for thousands of winters. His mother had told him how they’d battled the dust clouds that stole the sun and made them forget they could fly. When they sat they forgot they could stand, and when they lay they forgot they could sit. Their meat became poison like the frozen earth itself, and they went off to Lincolnshire to await the rebirth of the land. And so Jane had gone seawards as thousands had before, armed with her Mint Swords to hack the weeds of legend which would block her path, to seek out the Fat Child O’Gracious and court his blessing to battle the betrothed midgets Mite on the shore of the irradiated Sea of North, where the sand still scorched feet and the flaming nuclear winds still blew. Only then could she call the Geese back to fulfil their oath to chase off the dust and free the sun, ushering in a new age, the age of Mushy Peace. No wonder Katherine was worried. Below came the Bell of Calling; the Master of Voices announcing the Time of Return, 12:84pm by the old clocks. Katherine squinted into the mist, eyes watering from the cancers which filled them. Ghosts of the past swirled amongst the shadows, lamenting warnings from the world that was, before fading back into the radioactive soil. Katherine watched the mists part, revealing the child alone on the hill. She stumbled towards The Fair, arms trembling before her, begging to be held. Katherine held his arms out to hers, almost a mile away, and felt her phantom embrace as she fell to her knees and offered her convulsing stomach to the earth. ‘She’s failed then?’ came the cries from bellow, reading Katherine’s face as he watched his daughter roll onto her back. Soon she would join her mother, and all the people of the long gone time who burned the world rather than share it. He would recover her and burn her too; her meat too poisonous now to eat. The crowd began to disperse back into tribes, to part and meet again the next Harvest Moon, as Katherine walked into the mist. Above him the Geese began to cry.

Backstory: A few years ago my grandfather died. He lived with us and I saw him every day of my life. I held him as he passed. My mother was the executor of his will, but there were a few things that weren't specified, and were distributed amongst the family. I was given a wallet with his initials on. Inside it had a few photos and a letter he had written to his friend during the war detailing his intended marriage to my grandmother. There is currently a family feud in process between me and two cousins. I won't bore you with the details because they're so barmy you would think I was lying to make myself look blame free. My mother gave the wallet to one of the cousins last year andsince then the feud started and now she is refusing to give it back. The cousin says that she was given it to keep, my mother says that she gave her it because she needed something that belonged to my grandad to take to a spiritualist church, and so she gave her the wallet (I left the wallet in my mother's care when I left home as I was just a kid really and didn't want it to get lost or damaged), telling her that she might as well keep it at her house. As this is the only thing I have left of him, I feel very strongly. Does anybody know where I stand legaly? I intend to go for a consultation with a soliciter on Friday (my next day off) but don't want to wait until then and would like to avoid the premium rate solicitor number if possible.

Prometheus - 3/10. (The Imax experience - 10/10.) First time I've been to see a film on Imax, seeing as I don't really like 3D much. This is what 3D was made for. Brilliant visuals on the film. It just adds nothing to the Alien universe. I enjoyed it up to the point, about 2/3 of the way in, when I realised that this big mystery that they were tip toeing around didn't really exist. There was no mystery, at all, the answer was EXACTLY as mundane (not really an accurate word, but it had all been done before) as you thought it was. There's deffinately no room for another like somebody else said there was, thank God, but what I cannot for the life of me understand is why, when this was a prequal to one of the greatest horror films ever made, didn't they marry it up to the start of Alien? It ends in a way that means it doesn't follow on. The daft thing is it would have been easy to preserve continuity, it's almost like they went out of their way not to. All in all an awesome film redered vanilla by its pointlessness.

Just watched the E3 footage of this and I've changed my mind, it looks the nuts tbh. Quite looking forward to it now.

Just finished watching the last episode (it's in 3 feature length parts) and wow, brilliant, 9/10. Costner plays Antse Hatfield though, a man MUCH older than him, and so through most of it he's wearing make up to age him. He starts the film as a much younger man. This is great entertainment, it was often horrific, not what I was expecting at all from the history chanel. It's not quite Deadwood, but near enough to make it unmissable.

That's an awesome idea, how would you do it though? Submit your work to a photodump site perhaps?

Oh, and if you're willing to get your hand in your pocket (mine cost £12 for two years) then it's worth buying a domain name. http://exbrit69.livejournal.com/ isn't really catchy enough to stick in the mind.

I kinda gave up on mine, I never realised it would be such a commitment. My advice is to keep on posting, and plug it on facebook and on Twitter. Twitter especially is such a good tool for networking, get an account, find some friends (by searching for subjects like writing, blogging, and poetry) and then plug your site. Don't be ashamed of sending messages out informing your followers of what is on your site.

Sorry, wasn't meant to be a pop at you, but at that evil film.

Deus ex was supposed to be a good quality game but I turned it off after about half an hour. What a cliched pile that was.

Joined, woot.

I am currently gathering research for a book I am writing and find myself struggling to verify several important facts. I wonder are there any morticians who use these forums, working or retired, who would be available for an hour or so in order that I may buy them a coffee and pick their brains? I was considering approaching the hospitals, but I would have no idea how to go about it, and the worst case scenario for me (other than having the door slammed in my face) would be to be forced to conduct the interview over the phone. I would appreciate any assistance.

I like the idea of it, I just doubt I'll play because of the silly other worldy setting, really takes me out of the character. I'm dissapointed that there's only a cinematic trailer, games who's marketing is based entirely around rendered footage should fail imo. It's like they're saying that this is the kinda thing they're trying to create. This, to me is the equivelant of Lada showing a Ferrari as their new car, because that's kinda what they wanted to make.

If that's the worst innacuracy you can see in that film then there's something wrong with you tbh.

It is now. Think I'll look out for this one.

"Why have a civilization anymore if we no longer are interested in being civilized?" - Frank from God Bless America.

How's it compare to Borat and Bruno?

Lost didn't make it? Wow, I didn't realise Lost was a bag of utter **** untill the LAST 10 mins of the last season. This is the reason that I refuse to watch anything that old ****-nose (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0009190/) is involved in (except Star Trek, obviously. Star Trek is awesome)

Nobody said that. It's an ongoing series.

How many have you watched? Anybody who considers The Wire to be for stupid people cannot have any concept of people and what makes them tick. It is the most well written piece of character driven television ever created, I'm sure if they had daily cliffhangers and catchy theme tunes then it would suit your taste more. Don't dispair, there's always Coronation Street.