Tag archives for 2015
2015 Top Ten Posts on Themself
During 2015 Themself had 14,500 visitors who viewed 22,640 posts/pages according to the Jetpack stats. The 2015 Top Ten Posts are a bit different from the 2014 Top Ten Posts, although there are some in both lists. I've commented in the list to show you last year's placing for the older posts. I've written 128 new posts & 1 new page in 2015, which added 81,509 words. That's enough for a novel. I also forked the games and military history bits over to which has had a number of unique posts. The originals are still here on Themself, but as I get round to it I will be setting the SEO so that they canonical version is on Hot Blood & Cold Steel. That's another thing new in 2015, I started using the Yeast SEO plugin late in the year.…
New Books of 2015 pt.6
New Books of 2015, When I started this series of articles on my new books of 2015 I've acquired I thought that I would do three or four of them, one covering the books I'd got around my birthday, another about now covering books I'd picked up over the summer and a final one in late December summarising where I'd got to. It never occured to me that despite being restrained in my book acquisition that I would have acquired 50 books by the end of August (and there are a few more on pre-order that I expect to arrive later this year). Anyway, there are 11 books in this instalment, bringing the running total to 49. I've read 18 hard copy books and have a few more that I'm part of the way through. At this stage I have to…
My top Camp Bestival Lessons 2015
I went to Camp Bestival for the first time last weekend. My wife and kids were with me (a nine year old and a three year old). We had an awesome weekend and really enjoyed ourselves. However, we barely touched the edges of what was possible. So here are my top Camp Bestival lessons and ideas for next year. Camp Bestival is Huge A really obvious Camp Bestival lesson is that it is huge. I mean physically as well as the acts. Our camping space was about half a mile from where we had to park the car, and it was a ten minute walk (admittedly at toddler speed) from the closest part of the festival. There were literally thousands and thousands of tents, each with several people in them. The Green 2 car park had well over a thousand cars…
New Books 2015 pt.5
This is the latest crop of book acquisitions this year. Three ARCs, two for megagame research, three from a charity shop and one from a publisher's special offer. About half way through the year and I've acquired 38 books, meaning that to meet my reading target I need to read 43 paper books. So far I've only finished reading 12 paper books (out of 29 total). However I've broken my kindle, and there are a number of paper books that I've read part of, but not quite finished. So I'd expect to finish at least 30 books between now and the end of the year. Why I Acquired the Books Haking A Dutiful Soldier - I've got one of the books he wrote before the war, and a few on the 1916 Battle of Fromelles, where he was the Corps Commander. The Last Roundhead -…
New Books 2015 pt.4
In a fit of enthusiasm after the Watch the Skies 2 megagame I wrote up some ideas that have been floating around in my head for a megagame of the Glorious Revolution in 1688 (or rather of the military campaigns that followed it in 1689). This lead to a little more book buying (as well as a trip to the Works with a few other bits too. The result was six more books in my to read pile, bringing the running total for 2015 to 29. So I need to read 34 to meet my target from my New Year Resolution. All of these books are ones I have bought myself, no ARCs among them. Primarily they have been acquired for the purpose of research into a potential game that I will run in 2017 or 2018 when I've had…