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(with thanks to whoever took this screenshot)
I'll shut up about AC after this, probably. But this was a really interesting bit at the end of the game, and I couldn't find the answer to my question of "so what are all these locations?" anywhere else on the internet. They probably all have some mystic significance, and may well be related to the Templars.
So as far as I can tell, here are my answers; all I've done is look for the closest major city, except for the first one, which I'm sure of :)
Going anti-clockwise from the top right corner;
Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland (yay!)
London, possibly Westminster, the Palace, etc. (or maybe the Temple Church, which does have some vague historic Templar links)
South of France: funnily enough, I think the map location is close to the JET fusion reactor project... This might even be Andorra.
Casablanca or Tunis
Somewhere off the coast of Africa, with no landmasses there on a modern map. Atlantis?
Dakar
Ouagadougou (no, seriously)
Dar Es Salaam
Cairo (or more likely the Pyramids)
Damascus
Baghdad
Delhi
Budapest
Minsk
St Petersburg (there's probably a tie-in with Rasputin there).
In the game, this rotates all the way round; several cities in America also light up (which makes no sense whatsoever, given that this part of the game supposedly took place around the time of the Crusades, when there were no major cities in America AFAIK). There's definitely also a location in Japan, and probably in Tunguska in Siberia, and there must be at least one in South America.
Strange omissions: Venice (which is the setting for the sequel); Vatican City; anywhere in Germany.
I don't have the dedication to fight the final boss again and look at the rest of the map. But if anyone has a screenshot of the other side of the map, that would be fab.
Any suggestions or clarifications on these would be useful. Making this public so that it will (hopefully) be findable with Google etc.
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My PhD review was last Wednesday. Since then, I have mostly been playing Assassin's Creed (effective gameplay, limited variety, but extremely pretty graphics, and a plot that goes along fairly predictably until the last two scenes and then explodes in twenty-eight different directions - will definitely get the sequel).
The basic message of the PhD review, as summarised by one of my supervisors:
. a large-scale piece (ie structurally substantial) would be very beneficial to your portfolio
. avoid staying in your comfort zone – try to engage with “unexpected” devices and material.
. prioritise as much as possible writing music that will form part of your submission.
So I'll be concentrating on that for the next couple of years. This means no taking on extra projects other than the ones I currently have - can people avoid asking me to do musical things if they have other folk who could do it available?
So as of next term, I'll be conducting the Dick Vet Orchestra and Choir on Monday nights, and Glasgow University Music Club choir (and hopefully a student chamber choir also if I can get enough people interested) on Wednesday nights. But I need to not take on anything else...
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Glasgow has thunder.
And rain. Lots of rain.
And in an hour or so I'm off to a wedding rehearsal - yes, this will involve cycling in rain with inadequate rainwear. Waah.
I haven't updated for two weeks - should do something about that.
Work is dying slowly - we haven't had anything to do for the last four weeks, really. In a couple of weeks I start my new job at Yorkhill Hospital, which will hopefully be rather more challenging than "how shall I kill these three hours?"
PhD is going reasonably well. Yearly review next Wednesday. The first five months of the year pretty much accomplished nothing, but in the last month I've done a paper on Shostakovich for the Moving Forward conference in Aberdeen later this month, written a setting of "Christus Venit" (text by Prudentius) for choir which does interesting things without being unsingable, and uploaded a bunch of arrangements to Choral Public Domain Library for publicity purposes. Hopefully plenty of choirs will pick them up. And I wrote The Windhover in November, so that was good. And I've spent a lot of time organising Sound Thought.
(I am mostly saying all this to convince myself that I'm not going to fail.)
The rain has now become a torrent. Aaaaagh.
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Thursday, June 18th, 2009
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Everyone's complaining about the BNP. And rightly so.
But on the other hand, look at the overall results.
As of 11am this morning, the BNP may have increased their vote share substantially, but the highest increase in percentage terms - at 2.5% more of the electorate than last year - has actually gone to the Green Party. Minor yay.
Still waiting for Scotland to declare. *twiddles thumbs*
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It's been a while since I updated... well, anything really.
But I was amused by this chunk of tortured grammar from the BBC's report on F1 racing:
"Under the rules at the start of this season, Kers - which provides drivers with an extra boost of power for 6.7 seconds per lap - would also be in place at the start of 2010.
The power - 80bhp - was also due to be increased next year, meaning all teams would have had to have had it in order to remain competitive."
You can see how they got there, but it still looks painful to me.
In other news, have finished with Glasgow Chamber Choir concerts for the year (except for a recording session Thursday after next), work is winding down as we've stopped seeing new patients, and I'm still knackered from the after-effects of the 'flu I had a few weeks ago. (Getting from Hyndland to Queen Street usually takes me 20 minutes; last night I was so tired it took me 30, and I only got home before 11pm because the Aberdeen train was diverted via Falkirk due to engineering works and I could catch it instead.) Need a few days off. Fortunately, this Wednesday and Thursday should fit the bill.
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While searching for a GP's address in Glasgow, I do a Google search for "Dr Allison" Glasgow. Allison is the surname in this case.
Tenth result is ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ashfae's aunt Allison, in Colorado.
*sigh*
(To be fair, one of the other doctors there is apparently called Russ Glasgow, so it wasn't entirely daft - still have no idea where this Dr Allison is though.)
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Much as I hate spam, I admit that the subject line "Gay Zombie Hunter's Dilemma" gave me a few moments' unexpected amusement.
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Now this is interesting. I've never actually met someone with the same name. However, there are a confusing number of them:
Chris Hutchings, who's aged about 18, lives in Wales, and plays in a band called Hard Pursuit, and who I have friended on Facebook.
Chris Hutchings, who's about my age, is an award-winning jazz drummer, and who I once got sent a cheque for.
Chris Hutchings, who manages a football club somewhere (I think in the First Division). Used to manage Wigan and Bradford.
Another one who makes curtains, and owns chrishutchings.co.uk .
A choreographer who owns chrishutchings.com.
I think there was also a celebrity lawyer, but haven't noticed him around recently.
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We are back from a week away! (Some people may not have noticed that I was gone, because I don't post to LJ often these days.)
I've been using the last couple of days to get through all the procrastination I didn't manage over the last week. And emails and that sort of thing. Impressively, there was nothing urgent at all.
I'm typing this from a new computer, kindly gifted by mirabehn and mostlyacat, which is working very nicely indeed. All I had to do was switch the cables over and it all worked! (after a few minutes of "why is the monitor not working? ... oh, because I've managed to plug it into a printer port, what idiot made those the same shape?") Now I just have to get all my documents over. The change from "switch on computer, wait 2 minutes, log in, click on internet, wait 2 minutes, finally get internet" to "takes about 30 seconds to get online" is lovely.
The holiday itself was fabulous. Time spent with many lovely people, several old friends and a couple of new ones. Beautiful scenery, good weather for five out of the seven days, beach about 100 yards from house (albeit with freezing cold water), and excursions to a few other lovely places including Tobermory. And a lot of general relaxing, chilling out, playing games and re-energising. Yay.
I also found a fascinating story about simulating human brains with a computer, molecule by molecule. Which makes me wonder exactly how far away the future is. Thoughts, anyone? (and indeed thoughts on the thoughts of this thing).
I also pondered briefly about Dreamwidth. But then I saw that LJ's response to homophobic ads, and complaints about them, was actually quite good, which decided it for me. Staying here for foreseeable future.
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Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
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Yesterday, on coming out of the music department on my way to a rehearsal, I noticed a box in the entrance hall. It said "unsorted music - free, take it if you can find a use for it".
This was a box of RANDOM shit.
I mean, seriously random. Biographies of Schumann, music-hall songs that I'd never heard of, Beethoven's Choral Fantasia... but among it were some absolute gems:
an arrangement of Flanders&Swann's "The Hippopotamus" for TTBB, which I can easily adapt to SATB if required;
an SSAATTBB arrangement of "When I'm 64" (quite unlike my one, thank goodness);
a tricky-looking but fun SAATB arrangement of "I Know Him So Well";
SATB&piano arrangement of "The Way You Look Tonight", familiar from a tenth-generation photocopy which I've seen at many concerts;
a Peter Warlock song called "Piggesnie";
and, possibly best of all, a printed copy of "Combine Harvester (Brand New Key)" by The Wurzels.
So that made my day.
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Saturday, April 4th, 2009
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The first of these actually came up in a dream last night. It would take too long to explain:
What kind of bean is good at climbing trees?
( Read more... )
And another one that I thought up during a boring day at work yesterday:
What kind of dinosaur turns up quickly?
( Read more... )
Thank you. I'm here all week.
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Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
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The last few weeks have been very busy. I've had to travel into Glasgow for 15 of the last 17 days, and the other two were spent in Edinburgh. On top of that, there was plumbing drama when our downstairs neighbours noticed a slowly-expanding water stain on their ceiling; we had to yank everything out of the bathroom, tear off the wooden panel on the side of the bath, call a plumer to find which pipe was leaking and fix it, and talk to the house insurance people (ended up not making a claim though, as the repairs only cost £20 and drying-out wasn't needed). And there was other stressful stuff.
I am very much looking forward to Thursday, which will be the first day in many weeks when I get to spend 24 whole hours not on a bus or a train.
But in good news - Sound Thought 2009 is go! (new website should be up very soon; it's been given to the bloke who runs the server, he just has to copy it all over). And today (after a minor panic when the Graduate School told us we couldn't send out a call for papers until we'd talked to them about funding) we sent out the calls for papers and compositions - and we've already had the first abstract submitted! Which is very exciting. Especially as it's from someone doing Theatre Studies, and we wanted to expand things to include non-Music students this year (which also opens up some new sources of funding).
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Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
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This rather struck me on leafing through a New Scientist article:
"Thorolf, a "great friend" of Thor, was obliged to flee after he sheltered Bjorn Ketilson from King Harald. He made a sacrifice and asked Thor what he should do. Sail for Iceland, the thunder god replied. Cast your seat posts upon the waters and follow where I take them. Thorolf obeyed and, where the posts washed up, he built a great temple dedicated to Thor and declared the site a sanctuary where killing and defecation were strictly forbidden. Alas, one faction among his successors refused to observe the second of these prohibitions, and the faithful non-defecators drove them off in a fierce onslaught."
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127001.500-sagas-reveal-vikings-were-first-oceanographers.html
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Did you hear about Johnny Cash's brief stint as a human cannonball operator?
He shot a man in Reno, just to watch him fly.
(If that made you groan, chuckle, or become homicidal, may I also direct you to this entry?)
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Thursday, March 19th, 2009
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Specifically, anyone who knows about fonts.
I need to edit the front page of http://www.soundthought.info - specifically I need to change the dates. But I need to know what font the dates (i.e. the bit that says Friday 28th and Saturday 29th November, last year's dates) are currently in so I can change it. Can anyone tell me?
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In exciting job news (or at least secure job news), I've been offered the job that I interviewed for a few weeks ago. It's a slightly lower salary, and 2.5 days per week, which will work reasonably well with the PhD. Might be a little tighter for money (like that wasn'e enough of a problem) but less so than being unemployed would make me. If I wangle the hours right I might be able to save on train fares by using my railcard.
In other exciting job news, perhaps more so long term career-wise, I am now the Chair and Artistic Director for Sound Thought 2009. (See the Sound Thought website for further details of that - that's last year's site, currently trying to get info on who I need to contact to get the password and be able to edit it and at least update it a little.) Currently booking musicians and venues, and call for papers and compositions will be going out to Glasgow postgrads soon, and trying to get funding from various sources - another postgrad is Treasurer and Fundraiser, so she's doing a fair bit of the work at the moment.
Wedding anniversary yesterday - four years of yay :) We didn't do a lot to celebrate, but will sometime soon. When we have time. Which might not be for a while - Mum's coming round this Saturday and we'll do gardening stuff, Sunday is probably going to be a day of flop, and this coming week is quite full of rehearsals and concerts.
Which reminds me, concerts etc!
Music Club Choir - Wednesday 18th March, Glasgow University Archive Room (next to the Concert Hall, by the Cloisters in the main building) at 7.30pm. There are a lot of groups performing, and we're doing the Vicar of Dibley Theme, You Raise Me Up, and my arrangements of "The Sound Of Silence" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water".
Glasgow Chamber Choir - Saturday 21st March in Hyndland Parish Church, Glasgow at 7.30pm, and Sunday 22nd March in Holy Trinity Church, Fullarton Street, Ayr at 7pm. Nothing but Bach. All night long. With an orchestra. Awesome if you like Bach, and German - perhaps less so if you don't.
I'm sure there are other interesting things going on, but can't recall them offhand.
Interesting that have gone on and are now over: Buffycamp ( cut for those not interested )
And I need new shoes.
Tonight's plan is a Stupid Recession Pity Party in Edinburgh with friends who have recently been laid off, and I will cook fajitas. So that'll be fun.
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Thursday, February 5th, 2009
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Mostly better. Saw the doctor yesterday - and this time they were running on time instead of half an hour late. I was able to cycle there, which in itself is enough to show that I'm mostly better, and while it did leave me a bit out of breath, I think that's partly due to being out of practice. Cycled back and didn't have to lie down for half an hour to recover, as I did last week.
Doctor's appointment was quite efficient - not much examination required, and she happily wrote me a sick note to cover the period I'd been ill (which I had to get for my main job).
Funnily enough, missing two weeks of teaching in a row does not require a sick note, because I'm a casual worker - so while we may not get sick pay as GTAs, there are some advantages. Will try to reschedule an orchestration tutorial for later in the month though, when people are panicking. Missing the last two weeks of choir has been annoying though, and probably for my co-conductor (who's had to do a lot of work) and the choir too. Bleh.
Off to Glasgow today though, and should hopefully be able to teach and do Chamber Choir rehearsal.
I did get an offer of a job interview at Glasgow from the job-seekers' register, but it was a full-time post and wouldn't be possible to work in with the PhD. Asked about possibility of part-time / jobsharing, haven't heard back, so I assume they wouldn't consider that. But there will hopefully be more.
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Monday, February 2nd, 2009
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Still ill, but feeling a bit better. Might try to go into work tomorrow, and if I survive that I'll cancel the doctor's appointment on Wednesday.
In other news, five minutes ago it was snowing sideways outside. Seeing seagulls get blown backwards is always kind of satisfying.
Edit: more snow, and still going mostly sideways (about an 80 degree angle to the vertical, on average).
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Friday, January 30th, 2009
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Yesterday I felt a bit better, did some washing-up and then went into Glasgow to teach my Musicianship class. That was a silly idea.
My body told me in no uncertain terms that I am still ill. Normally I cycle happily across Glasgow to the University; this time I left the bike at Queen St (having done a very gentle cycle to Falkirk station, which is mostly on the level), took the underground, and the five-minute walk from Hillhead to the University left me exhausted. Not out of breath, just muscularly exhausted. I had to teach the class mostly sitting down, though I got a bit of energy back at the end and then crashed for another half hour once the class was over.
But the class did go well, and I'm glad I was able to get in and teach them. Still not well enough to do a lot over the weekend though. Had plans to meet a friend who's visiting Edinburgh tonight, which I will probably have to cancel in favour of sitting at home feeling floppy. Blah.
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