Wednesday, December 25, 2013

On Receiving the Ebenezer Scrooge Memorial E-Mail

We buy our gas supply through EDF Energy, because they're not self-evidently worse than any other companies in the business, and I let them e-mail me the quarterly bills, because why not? However, I was a little surprised when the latest such bill showed up this morning. Yep, on December 25th, having been transmitted the same day.

Guys, really. I'm sure that it's terribly efficient keeping your computers running 24/7, but really, Christmas Day? We have no worries on this score, but some people are tight enough for cash that bills are a genuine source of stress for them. If nothing else, a company looking this clueless in relation to PR doesn't fill one with confidence regarding their cluefulness elsewhere.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Expand, Contract (40)

I nearly forgot to mention - but it merits a post; the latest issue of Pyramid magazine, #3/62, not only includes an article by myself, but is dedicated to the "Transhuman Space" setting, for which I'm line editor, so I feel a definite proprietorial affection for it.

Actually, I honestly think that it's a pretty good issue whatever. It has five substantial articles, and it's more or less designed to answer the tiresome old question of what gamers can actually do in Transhuman Space. There are five answers here; me talking about all the stuff one can run into in Port Lowell, on Mars; some character templates and ideas for a street-level game; the wherewithal for a military campaign; an idea about ultra-tech indentures, with assorted game possibilities; and a good bit of material on the world of the ultra-rich leisure class "Eloi", and what they can get up to in their copious free time.