On 31 August 2005, I left Melbourne on a Malaysia airlines flight from Melbourne to Narita airport near Tokyo, to take up a job working in Japan as an English instructor at a NOVA language school. The last two weeks have been fairly hectic, but I’ve finally secured constant internet access and am settling down. [...]
Since I’m moving to Japan, I have some stuff to get rid of… to sell, even. Let me know if you want it (contact details on the about page). Purchasing will be easiest if you live in Melbourne and know me personally. If you don’t like the prices, we can negotiate. Here’s what I’ve got: [...]
Any fool can tell that I haven’t been posting much, so today I again resort to keeping the blog active with relative nonsense. You know you’re clutching at straws when your last post was a link to an online quiz, and the one you’re writing is a meme iteration. Thanks to Myst for this, anyway. [...]
If you don’t get this post, don’t worry. It’s a geek thing. Today I’ve been redrafting the chapter in my thesis about the history of RPGs, and had to find out what the Eight Virtues from the Ultima series were. Ultima IV was a real milestone in videogame history, in that its hero, the Avatar, [...]
Occasionally, when I’ve had some spare time, I’ve been playing “World of Warcraft”:http://www.worldofwarcraft.com. Usually I’ll spend a few nights or afternoons playing for several hours, then have a long break while I do other things. The game (commonly known as WoW) is the first MMORPG(Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) I’ve ever played seriously. It’s [...]
Today I’ve posted the frontmatter and introduction of my PhD thesis on role-playing videogames, which now has “its own page here.”:http:/benhourigan.com/phd-thesis I’m really hoping to get some feedback on this, especially from gamers. Some reasons why you should read the thesis as I serialise it, so you can give me comments: * It’s the only [...]
Today, dogpossum posted what is, so far, the most antagonistic comment related to my site that I’ve yet received. Her blog doesn’t have permalinks, so you’ll just have to search for 17 March 2005. Currently, though, it’s at or near the top of the blog. I don’t mind antagonism. In fact, I know that just [...]
From “Dict.org”:http://www.dict.org 1 definition found for pugnacious From Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) : Pugnacious \Pug\*na”cious\, a. [L. pugnax, --acis, fr. pugnare to fight. Cf. Pugilism, Fist.] Disposed to fight; inclined to fighting; quarrelsome; fighting. Notice that I changed the title of this blog. I am now taking on all comers in an epic battle [...]
You could hardly fail to notice that after a flurry of posts, I haven’t made many recently. In the World of Warcraft, players often signify that they are “AFK”: Away From Keyboard. I have been Away From Blog. This is likely to continue. Progress on the second draft of my thesis has been slow. Contributing [...]
This morning, at about 0740, my maternal grandfather, Hugh Slattery, died. He was 90. The event Dad called me at around 0800, and told me, his voice shaking a little as the call ended. He’d died peacefully, Dad said, “just stopped breathing.” He had been suffering from both emphysima and myelodysplasia, both of which decrease [...]
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Kiss Me, Genius Boy is Ben Hourigan's debut novel, and the first of three volumes in the No More Dreams series. Available on the full range of ebook platforms starting at just 99c on Kindle, KMGB is an unforgettable tragi-comic tale of teen romance and obsession. Full details here.About
Ben Hourigan is an indie novelist, the author of Kiss Me, Genius Boy (2011). He is also the manager of digital operations at a Melbourne design publisher, a freelance writer and editor, and the founder of ebook label hourigan.co.
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- http://t.co/HUAYYP8b My entry as a freelance writer and editor on Editors Victoria's excellent Freelance Register.
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