Author: ashleyelsdon

Storyteller - Poet - Explorer

Launchpad: Clicks

Posted by on in Places, Sounds, Tech

An interesting experiment at Launchpad in the Science Museum. This made some cool clicks and percussive sounds depending on what surface you placed the boxes on.

8th Doctor: The Company of Friends

Posted by on in Books and Audiobooks

This is the one I was missing. An interesting experiment almost with the 8th doctor. The main reason I decided to buy it was to get the first Mary Shelley story, which did set the scene very well.

I enjoyed the other stories too, some more than others. But most of all it opened me up to the other 8th Doctor stories that are out there. Not big finish stuff, not audio. Now I have to decided if I’m going to get into those too!

Dalek Empire

Posted by on in Books and Audiobooks

Another spin off from Big Finish. It wasn’t a bad story at all really, and another that I’ll probably go on with and get the next episode and see how that goes.

Cyberman 2: Fear

Posted by on in Books and Audiobooks

I was keen to listen to the next installment of the Cyberman story. Although I really enjoyed the first one I found the second episode a bit confusing on the whole. That may have been because I’m listening to a bunch of stories simultaneously, I don’t know. I’ll probably keep on with this series as there’s only 4 episodes in total.

Finished watching heroes

Posted by on in TV

Or have I? I got to the end of the fourth season to find that this wasn’t really the ending I was looking for at all! In fact it was in many ways just left hanging. Not satisfactory in any way. I realise that it is now very unlikely that there will be another series commissioned, but I just wish that these kind of things would get left in a decent state!

I’m a bit disappointed by this as you might tell.

Congo

Posted by on in Films

I decided to buy this DVD after a long time. I always watch this film when it comes up on the TV schedules. I know it isn’t the best bit of cinema ever made. But it’s fun. Harmless and relatively enjoyable, but certainly not something that’s going to ever change the film business.

Waiting for WeMo

Posted by on in Tech

I found out about Belkin’s WeMo technology a few weeks ago. It’s a really accessible method of implementing home automation and control it via an iPhone app from Belkin. The hardware is sort of modular in that you can buy a single unit which is essentially just a switch which can be controlled via the web / app. There’s also a motion detection modular as well. Whilst on it’s own that’s pretty amazing on it’s own, it gets better. WeMo also integrates with IFTTT!

What’s IFTTT? It’s one of the best automation services ever. IFTTT (If This Then That) allows you to make decisions and trigger actions using social services like twitter and facebook and loads more besides. It’s amazing. Anyway, you can control the WeMo hardware using IFTTT. Now that’ll be amazing.

The only downside is that WeMo isn’t available in the UK as yet. Hopefully it’ll be available in October. I hope it isn’t much longer to wait than that.