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Writing

  1. BBC Innovation Labs website

    I designed and built a new site for BBC Innovation Labs, and I’m pleased with it.

  2. Goodbye TrackBacks

    After receiving 24,144 requests for mt-tb.cgi I’m switching off TrackBacks on all my weblogs for good.

  3. My new site

    I’ve re-built my site. It’s taken way, way too long. Here are lots of details about what’s new and what I’ve done.

  4. Movable Type’s over-enthusiastic sanitisation

    Movable Type does something a little strange with its comment filtering and formatting, which took me a few days to figure out.

  5. Ugh

    I’ve been ill.

  6. Mask class

    While the Drama Foundation classes aren’t inspiring me this term, my enthusiasm is being kept alive by the surprisingly fun and challenging Mask class.

  7. 46,000 junk TrackBacks a week

    The number of junk TrackBacks received by my Movable Type installation has shot up over the past few weeks. Any idea why?

  8. A trip to the Falkland Islands

    My account of what the Falkland Islands are like. Briefly: remarkably pleasant. Sociable and surprisingly pretty with great wildlife.

  9. Buggy New Year

    An error on my part coincidentally stopped Haddock Blogs publishing while I was on holiday. Sorry.

  10. Not being me

    In two exercises I realised that although I tell myself I can let go and be another character, I find it incredibly hard to do that physically.

  11. Using a British/UK Windows keyboard with an Apple Mac in OS X (3)

    Using a standard UK Windows PC keyboard with an Apple Mac is surprisingly difficult. But you can follow these instructions to re-map the Option, Command and Control keys, and the punctuation characters.

  12. Two interesting improvisations and feeling hot

    I’ve taken part in a couple of fun, interesting, and partially successful improvisation exercises recently. But there are other things that still require much more work.

  13. Notating conversations

    Radio 4’s ‘Front Row’ had a piece about the ways playwrights have attempted to notate how speech should be delivered, particularly when it overlaps.

  14. Too many exercises

    I’ve been getting frustrated by all the acting exercises, and lack of actual acting.

  15. Three homeworks down

    I’ve done my Endowment exercise, a Sense Memory exercise, recited some text in front of the class, and begun singing.

  16. Where’s my TV?

    Steven Johnson and others have raved about how complex ‘Lost’ is. Why are they so enamoured of such shallow, glossy shows when the cinema serves up much more challenging material? Why can’t TV do the same?

  17. The Guardian’s re-purposing of online content

    The Guardian’s started using quotes from weblogs and forums in the paper. Good stuff, except some forum posters are upset.

  18. First week over

    Recounting the first week of classes. Lots of getting to know people and realising how much homework I’ll need to do.

  19. Back to school

    I had the induction for my acting Foundation course on Saturday, and am looking forward to this term’s schedule.

  20. Back online already

    A BT engineer mysteriously appeared only hours after I complained about how it would take them a week to come round.

  21. If you see Sid, tell him the future’s broken

    Our phone line’s gone but it’s going to take BT a week to get round to fixing it. This is the future!?

  22. UK gig ticket alert service wanted

    I want a service that emails me when a band I like are playing near me.

  23. The Method Studio Intensive Summer School, part 3

    The course is over. A busy week of practicing our scenes but I think I maybe, just about, cracked it.

  24. The Method Studio Intensive Summer School, part 2

    Half-way through the course and it’s been a mixture of mini emotional crises and a lot of fun.

  25. The Method Studio Intensive Summer School

    I’m three days into a two week acting course, and it’s proving hard work.