BenPaddon.co.uk

It’s long been established that I work on the same floor as a bunch of geeks, which is probably why I fit in so well. One minute I’m having a conversation with someone about Indiana Jones Mr Potato-Heads, the next I’m talking about Red Dwarf and Worms Armageddon. My boss and I have had lengthy conversations about The Orange Box, and another department head and I have been meaning to go head-to-head on Team Fortress 2 for a while now (as an aside, since picking up the 360 version of The Orange Box I have a revitalized appreciation for the PC version, which I’ve been neglecting lately).

However one of my co-workers did what is perhaps the geekiest thing ever at CES  the Microsoft Keynote speech this year. I tip my hat to you, good sir. You have out-geeked us all.

Los Angeles tap water has been judged the Tastiest in the World. No it isn’t.

From a promotion email Sony sent me this morning:

Don’t delay; be the first to experience what PSP has to offer

Aww, don’t feel despondent, Sony.  Someone will buy your handheld console eventually.

Wal-Mart, the huge American supermarket chain who you might recognise as the owners of ASDA, have an ad on television at the moment which I find most confusing. The advert exudes pride and warmth at the fact that the company now have more employees working at night, the apparent benefit being that this frees up more people to help customers during the day. Personally though, if it were me, I wouldn’t boast about the fact that my company had more employees doing more work at night. Wal-Mart now seem like a bunch of wankers to me, although to be fair they seemed pretty wankerific before then.

What makes this ad even more ridiculous is that the employees are all incredibly cheerful, remarkably attractive people in their early 20s who apparently enjoy working at stupid o’ clock in the morning. They’re smiling and working and changing the cash in the tills, all to the accompaniment of what I can only assume is a cover of King Harvest’s Dancing in the Moonlight.

Who is this advert for, exactly? Who are they targeting? Because besides the song - which is a cracking good tune, incidentally - there’s nothing about this ad which seems at all positive to me. Again, it just puts forward the message, “We are Wal-Mart, we are dicks. Come shop with us!”

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - American TV advertising makes no bloody sense.

We are now one month away from the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing, and I am terribly excited. I’m also ever-so-slightly nervous. Jump Leads‘ first convention. Lawks! Fortunately I won’t be alone - Euan Mumford, formerly of Rooms, will be there; JjAR may well be there depending on how quickly his passport application is processed; and then of course there’s Rowan. He’s a friend of the family’s son, and for some reason he absolutely adores me. I’ll only be in England for a week and a half and I know he wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t see him somehow, so I’ve made arrangements for him to be at the Thing with me as well. Fun, eh?

I was also hoping to be at the San Diego Comic-Con in July, but there are a number of problems there. Firstly, Dino has informed me that the Waiting List for exhibitors at Comic-Con is long. Insanely long. Immensely long. So long, in fact, that Dino had pre-registered SoulGeek as an exhibitor for the ‘08 event at the end of the ‘07 event, and even he is on the Waiting List. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the chances of being able to book a hotel room for San Diego in July are slim. I’d have better odds of winning an Olympic Gold Medal for swimming, and I don’t see that happening in my immediate future.

The word “Bugger” echoes around the city of Los Angeles. Dogs cock their heads. Birds scatter. Babies awaken from their sleep, crying and unsettled.

Something may well change in the immediate future, but for now it looks very much like I won’t be going to Comic-Con at all. Not as a visitor.

When my own Xbox Live issue went global, I started to receive emails from various people experiencing problems with their own account, ranging from people suffering the same strife as myself to entirely unrelated but equally irritating stuff. I’ve decided I’m going to start documenting these issues on Xbox Strife, a website I have just now set up.

JjAR and I are now officially the Webcomics Gurus over at SoulGeek now. Terrifying, I know - especially when you consider that we’ve got a bloody big act to follow - Kristopher Straubligh and Scottford Kurtzington. Silly as it sounds, this is probably the biggest thing to happen to us since we launched the comic.

I’m all nervous and giddy, and I have no idea if that’s justified but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to enjoy it anyway.

I’ve just resigned from GamePartisan. I don’t really have the time to commit to it anymore, what with all of the stuff I’m doing with Jump Leads.

I currently have two ideas fighting for supremacy in my head. The first idea is a Jump Leads script, which is an idea I’ve had in mind for a while now and features the rather important return of a character who hasn’t actually appeared in the comic yet. The idea has been brewing and growing in my brain for the past few months and it’s sort of come to the boil now. I’ve started to write it down, and I’m going through and expanding and improving the idea as I go along. I think it may well be the single most important thing to happen to Meaney and Llewellyn.

On the other hand, I have an idea for an episode of Doctor Who festering at the back of my mind too. Now, I’ve long since kicked the habit of writing Fan-Fiction. Actually this is a lie, but I have at least reached a point where it’s not being distributed anymore. It’s just for my own enjoyment, as a sort-of writing exercise. However one of my long-term goals, and I don’t have any problem sharing this with you although it is perhaps a little sad, is to write an episode of Doctor Who at some point in the future. I want to do it, even if it’s just the one. Even if it’s poorly received by the fans, I want to do it. Maybe one day I’ll get that opportunity.  But in the meantime I have this idea sort of gnawing away at me.

Now logically, the best thing for me to do is to ignore Doctor Who and get on with the Jump Leads script, being as it is that nothing may ever come of the Doctor Who one. But despite the logical reasoning going on here, I nevertheless still find myself drawn to putting the Jump Leads idea aside for a bit.

I don’t know. How silly am I, eh?

I’ve just had a look at the Amazon.com listing for the James Bond Ultimate Collection, and here’s the product description:

Disc 1: James Bond - Volume 1 - Disc 1 Disc 2: James Bond - Volume 1 - Disc 2 Disc 3: James Bond - Volume 1 - Disc 3 Disc 4: James Bond - Volume 1 - Disc 4 Disc 5: James Bond - Volume 1 - Disc 5 Disc 6: James Bond - Volume 1 - Disc 6 Disc 7: James Bond - Volume 1 - Disc 7 Disc 8: James Bond - Volume 1 - Disc 8 Disc 9: James Bond - Volume 1 - Disc 9 Disc 10: James Bond - Volume 1 - Disc 10

Disc 11: James Bond - Volume 2 - Disc 1 Disc 12: James Bond - Volume 2 - Disc 2 Disc 13: James Bond - Volume 2 - Disc 3 Disc 14: James Bond - Volume 2 - Disc 4 Disc 15: James Bond - Volume 2 - Disc 5 Disc 16: James Bond - Volume 2 - Disc 6 Disc 17: James Bond - Volume 2 - Disc 7 Disc 18: James Bond - Volume 2 - Disc 8 Disc 19: James Bond - Volume 2 - Disc 9 Disc 20: James Bond - Volume 2 - Disc 10

Disc 21: James Bond - Volume 3 - Disc 1 Disc 22: James Bond - Volume 3 - Disc 2 Disc 23: James Bond - Volume 3 - Disc 3 Disc 24: James Bond - Volume 3 - Disc 4 Disc 25: James Bond - Volume 3 - Disc 5 Disc 26: James Bond - Volume 3 - Disc 6 Disc 27: James Bond - Volume 3 - Disc 7 Disc 28: James Bond - Volume 3 - Disc 8 Disc 29: James Bond - Volume 3 - Disc 9 Disc 30: James Bond - Volume 3 - Disc 10

Disc 31: James Bond - Volume 4 - Disc 1 Disc 32: James Bond - Volume 4 - Disc 2 Disc 33: James Bond - Volume 4 - Disc 3 Disc 34: James Bond - Volume 4 - Disc 4 Disc 35: James Bond - Volume 4 - Disc 5 Disc 36: James Bond - Volume 4 - Disc 6 Disc 37: James Bond - Volume 4 - Disc 7 Disc 38: James Bond - Volume 4 - Disc 8 Disc 39: James Bond - Volume 4 - Disc 9 Disc 40: James Bond - Volume 4 - Disc 10

Disc 41: Sony - Casino Royale - Disc 1 Disc 42: Sony - Casino Royale - Disc 2

That’s helpful. Thanks.

I’m angry, and I shouldn’t be.

When I moved to the US, I left my old computer behind in the capable hands of my sister. Well, I say capable. When I went out to visit in November the computer was an outright mess, a horrible beast struggling to survive. My sister, in her infinite wisdom, did something I have been advising her against for years and years and years - she installed file-sharing software onto the computer. Specifically she installed Limewire, a program so indescribably bad that it has destroyed Chaz’s laptop not once but twice, requiring that the machine be wiped using a System Restore disc on no less than two occasions. I have often advised Teri not to put file-sharing software on her computer, not just because of the dubious legality of it all but because nine times out of ten programs like that leave computers totally FUBAR’d, as was the case with Chaz’s laptop.

Now I hear that the computer is on its last legs. Which is tragic, really - I bought that computer from a family friend some years ago and spent a lot of time and energy upgrading components, installing updates and keeping it running nicely. It was in good condition when I left the country just over seven months ago, and in just seven months my sister has managed to bring it close to death. In less than seven months, in fact - the computer was not exactly running at peak efficiency when I went out to visit in November.

It’s perhaps a little sad of me to be angry about this. It’s just a computer, after all. It’s not even mine. But it’s comparable to giving a trusted relative a family heirloom as a parting gift and returning to discover that they’ve been using it as a spittoon. I’ve half a mind to bring a copy of Windows XP with me and do a complete clean install while I’m there in March. It’s, uh… it’s not good.

Yesterday at work, some co-workers and I were wasting time with trivial movie-related junk. A short while later we had a diagram mapped out, and one of the co-workers, Joe, says “Wouldn’t that be great on a tee-shirt?”, further suggesting it would look good done in the style of a London Underground map.

Last night I put up the tee-shirt on the Jump Leads Store. It’s the first tee that has absolutely nothing to do with the comic (save, perhaps, for the scifi theme):

And about fifteen minutes ago I made my first sale. This is heavy.