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Right Brain Rumblings...
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Jan 14, 2024
Where Are They (me!) Now?
I got a namecheck in My local paper last week. The Evening Telegraph had been taking note of the GTA 6 trailer, and that Mike Dailly (who I’ve known since the mid-80s) had some sharp words about it. A little later they had an interview with GTA team leader Keith Hamilton. Now, from out of nowhere, they have an article about GTA’s “masterminds” asking where are they now.
I’m one of them. And it’s kind accurate-ish. Though I can hardly claim to be a mastermind.
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Jul 26, 2022
Rational Explanation Unlocked!
On Monday night I woke up screaming from a nightmare. It was of the kind I’d had a few times before, but it doesn’t happen very often. There’s a light., or lights in the sky, and I don’t want to look upward because of what I might see. When I was younger, the dream would have me falling into the sky.
I woke up, at 11:15pm, with the sort of yell that feels part of the real world, but’s still in the dream. Nothing was out of the ordinary, I got back to a fitful sleep.
In the morning I checked Facebook. And there in the MUFON1 group was a sighting filmed from just up the road a bit. A stationary light seen from Kirkcaldy, sometimes flickering, sometimes steady, in the direction of… right on my damn doorstep.
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Mutual UFO Network. ↩
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Jul 22, 2022
Alan Grant
I never met Alan Grant but he’s been there all my life. As a writer on comic 2000AD, and others, he was there in the background. Yesterday came the sad news of his passing. I grew up on comics, 2000AD in particular. And that lasted through my teens and, well, ever since.
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Jun 13, 2022
Seeing Shapes in the Cloud
long
I wrote a throwaway paragraph in The Scottish UFO Casebook. Instead of UFO sightings in the future, we might start getting AI sightings. It’s something I’d been thinking about for some time, one of those high-concept Science Fiction pitches I hadn’t quite got around to turning into a story. Code Encounters of the Third Kind I whimsically thought of it.It was the end of a long process of wondering where the UFO phenomenon could go next. Saucers became craft on the ground, became entities, became abductions. And while writing the casebook, the idea solidified that – per Jacques Vallée – flying saucers and aliens were of a continuum with faeries and selkies. Humans are primed to see volition and intent everywhere. We see something uncanny – maybe – and culture fills in the gaps.
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Mar 29, 2022
The Scottish UFO Casebook
Flying Saucers have always been a slightly disreputable interest of mine1. Never quite believing, never quite disbelieving. A high – or low depending on outlook – point was in the 90s. The X-Files. The Alien Autopsy video. The hitherto secret F117 stealth aircraft revealed to the public. It’s when I finally got access to the internet, and to USENET and spend hours having my brain melted by
alt.paranet.ufoamongst others.-
Likewise, for William Gibson, so I’m in good company. ↩
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Feb 18, 2022
Lemmings: Can You Dig It? Guardian Review
So The Guardian reviewed Lemmings: Can You Dig It? which I stumbled on via their Tweet Guardian Tweet. I read the review and, well, consider this a review of a review. In which – paranoia! – I was written out of history! Yikes!
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Feb 18, 2022
Lemmings: Can You Dig It? Released
I finally got to see the Lemmings 30 Year Anniversary Documentary on the 14th Feb, which if we’re really counting is 31 years. You can watch the full 2hr (really!) on YouTube (>18,000 views as I write this) where I am pleased to report that I made the cut! Seriously, I’m paranoid about being written out of history and fretted that my contribution wouldn’t get in.
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Dec 2, 2021
Can You Dig It?
Today sees the first public screening of Lemmings: Can You Dig It?, a documentary to celebrate 30 years of the game Lemmings. It’s on at Dundee’s DCA Cinema on the 2nd. If you’re reading this, it’s likely sometime afterwards and it’s available online. It’s charity fundraising too!
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Right Brain Rumblings
Blog entries prior to 2012 have been transferred from my old Right Brain Rumblings at Blogspot and lightly reformatted, with typos corrected wherever I spotted one. I've also transferred the entries from my old DMA Design website. So if you were looking for the retro games stuff, it's going to be here now. I've also taken the opportunity to add images where I can.
Highlighted Posts
What is Science Fiction Anymore? From 2007, when I was astonished by what is, and isn't considered to be Science Fiction.
Categories
Writing
Alan Grant • 16 Psyche • Proof Mode • I Am Freelance • The Circle is Complete! • Bit Patterns Redux • An Intrepid Update • Hammond’s Law • Edinburgh Book Festival • NaNoWriMo Crash and Burn • What is Science Fiction Anymore? • Blogging from Anywhere • NaNoWriMo has Stopped! • NaNoWriMo has Started! • NaNoWriMo • Why I Shouldn’t Skip PE •Moviemaking
Intrepid: Echoes • Intrepid Release Day • Where there’s a Sea… • The Stone unturned: Friday’s Shoot • The Stone Unturned • Come for the Cave, Stay for the Dead Whale • Where There’s a Sea • And so it Begins • Lorraine Kelley Visits •Intrepid
Bit Patterns Redux • Epistemology pt 3: How I founded a Star Trek Club • Intrepid Release Day • An Intrepid Update • Silicon Heaven • I’m Not in SciFi Now!!! • Where There’s a Sea • I’m Making a Movie! • I’m on Telly! • Holiday Coming Up •Whimsy
Windy OpSec • Wildly Improbable • Cyberpunk 2020 • User Interface • Lemmings Plushies • I Have a Bacon Number of 4! • Carl Sagan Sings! • So What Happens if I Say Yes? • Enchanted Picture • Twitter • Bob Exists • Currying Favour… • Convenience Reduction Measures • Buses • Music and Lyrics • Proof of Concept • Basic Assumption •Miscellaneous
A Long Overdue Update • Update from the Maemo • Overpackaged • Adventurous Scots • Light Aircraft Crash • A Wikipedia Upgrade • Too Tasty for Geeks • Microsoft Surface • Spooks Series 7: Episode 2 • The Satellite Dish • Cardiff • Deliveries • No More Intrepid Blog • Erk •Science Fiction
Alison Rowat and the Licensed Imagination • Bit Patterns Redux • An Intrepid Update • Hammond’s Law • Banks’ Law • Intrepid: Sisters • Arthur C Clarke • What is Science Fiction Anymore? •DMA Design
Public Appearances • Babbling On • Play Expo Blackpool • Grand Theft Auto Begins • Where Does the Time Go? • On No! • A Short Video History of DMA Design • • Newly Appeared Lemmings Graffiti • First Shots from GTA Drama • An Interview and a Repost • Lemmings Plushies • Bill Paxton Talks GTA Game Changer • Tweet from Brian Baglow (@flackboy) • Check This Disk! • The GTA Making-of Drama • Lemmings Merchandise is Go! • DMA Lives! • Project MyWorld • A Lemmings Conversion in 36 Hours • BBC Radio Scotland • You're definitely over the hill when... • Grand Theft Auto (via Gameswipe) • The Circle is Complete! • Epistemology pt 2: The Story of Hired Guns • Epistemology Pt.1: How I Co-Founded DMA Design • Lemmings II • DMA Design Office Tour • Kid Kirby • GTA Remembered •UFOs
Public Appearances • Rational Explanation Unlocked! • Seeing Shapes in the Cloud • The Scottish UFO Casebook • Naming those Pesky Flying UFO Objects • 
Post Tags
GTA
Bill Paxton Talks GTA Game Changer
Tweet from Brian Baglow (@flackboy)
You're definitely over the hill when...
Lemmings
Lemmings: Can You Dig It? Guardian Review
Lemmings: Can You Dig It? Released
A Short Video History of DMA Design
Newly Appeared Lemmings Graffiti
Hired Guns
A Short Video History of DMA Design
A Lemmings Conversion in 36 Hours