Thord D. Hedengren

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Tag: Warren Ellis

  • Five Things, August 2017

    Five Things, August 2017

    It’s mid-August and I have things to share, in no particular order or even with a greater purpose other than to get it out there. So here goes, a (perhaps long overdue) five things enjoyed post for mid-August 2017.

    1. I updated my setup page, mostly because of the 10.5” iPad Pro, which has replaced the 12.9” model. It’s a wonderful device, especially when paired with a keyboard (the Smart Keyboard or Magic Keyboard) or the Apple Pencil. Mine lives in the new leather sleeve which is exquisite but expensive. That’s the major news in my setup, alongside the Libratone Q Adapt noise cancellation headphones. They’re not great but they sure make travel a lot less stressful.
    2. Started reading The Wicked + The Divine and was pleasantly surprised. I’m glad, because Archangel by none other than William Gibson was a disappointment. And yes, those are all graphic novels, or rather, collections of issues bundled as such in my case. I prefer finished stories.
    3. Saw Alice Cooper do an interview at the (official, no less) release party for his new album, Paranormal. It’s a nice album, I’m enjoying it a lot, and not only because of the fan service he’s doing over the songs. Alice loves to namedrop songs and phrases from his discography, it’s always fun to find these. Also, there are quite a few homages hidden on Paranormal. Do check it out if you like old school hard rock with a twist.
    4. I don’t watch that much TV, but I did enjoy the first season of Castlevania on Netflix, written by Warren Ellis (who’s also in the Haunted Futures anthology). Looking forward to the second season.
    5. I enjoyed John Wick Chapter 2. No horrible intro-killings of the non-human kind in this one. I hope they’ll close the story properly in the third movie, this one lost some of the charm of the first one, if you can believe it.

    This might become a regular occurrence, or maybe my newsletter will claim small tidbits like this. We’ll see.

  • We agree on newsletters

    Yesterday say the first issue of RE:THORD, my newsletter. In it, among other things, is an essay about newsletters. I know, very meta, but I love newsletters, so it felt right. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks about these things at the moment. Warren Ellis publishes a newsletter called Orbital Operations, and yesterday he wrote this, regarding the newsletters’s state at the moment:

    I’ve been doing these since the 1990s. I’ll be still here after everyone once more decides that they’re crap.

    A few hours earlier, I wrote this in RE:THORD #1:

    I love the fact that newsletters are getting new wind, that they’re so hip that they can be launched with an editorial staff and everything (hi Lenny!). Newsletters are fun, they’re a way to open up the conversation with the audience in a way that might not become as infected as the comments on your blog. This – the new, fun, hip, thing – is probably a fad, though. It’ll blow over. When it has, there will still be great newsletters, and I’ll be just as fascinated by them. Hopefully you will be too.

    Quite the coincidence, and the testament that newsletters are really interesting right now. At least for us old folks that still thinks email is cool.

  • Fuck Your Likes And Hearts

    Warren Ellis, in his newsletter Orbital Operation (which is great):

    Fuck Your Likes And Hearts should be a mantra for anyone doing personal writing online.

  • Warren Ellis takes five minutes every day

    Warren Ellis:

    I take five minutes every day just for me, to look around and see where I am and be there. Thirty-five minutes a week. Over twenty years, that’s something over six hundred hours I’ve taken just for myself.

    Brilliant.

  • Repeating oneself

    Warren Ellis, while writing about his speaking engagements, points out one of the reasons I’m not speaking at conferences as much anymore:

    But, more to the point, I’m starting to be that guy who shows up and pretty much says the same things as last time. Sometimes by request, to be sure, but sometimes because I don’t have a lot of time and I’m still stuck on the same themes and I just end up talking about the same stuff.

  • Hello, Says The Writer

    Folks, I’m what you call a writer. I write words that stumble upon each other, form sentences, paragraphs, articles, books, lyrics, and the occasional obscenity. Come to think of it, most of these forms of expressing myself in the written form are related to obscenity in some fashion. I guess that’s just who I am, or rather what society demands of me should I want my ego to be appropriately stroked on a semi-daily basis.

    That lousy worm, the part of me that writes words like these, that nasty little bugger, he craves further attention. He almost wants to blog again, although he still maintains the healthy loathing for the word, the so called profession, and the lifestyle of the blogger. In fact, that dark little devil is very close to deleting this very site every now and then, although he usually passes out before committing said crime against humanity, not to mention the bank account.

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