In good order

Sorry I haven't blogged anything for the last couple of days. Busy at work and, you know, sleeping and things. But I've now got a phone and internet in my new flat (until now I've been latching on to an occasionally dodgy wifi signal), so everything's just peachy. So I thought this would be a good moment to remind everyone that Order of the Stick is still a great webcomic. I haven't blogged on that subject for quite a while, I'm sure.

Here's an example - in the book "Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales", which you can't read on the internet but you can go and buy, the dashing hero Julio Scoundrél has a second-in-command called Fidel Secundus. It took me ages to get that. Now in the online comic (set many years after that story), Julio's sidekick is a woman who talks about the days when her father was doing her job, and her name is Bandana.

This is the kind of gratuitous, clever silliness that makes me a fan of the comic even after all these years - a little joke that's only comprehensible to people who've bought the book and can put two and two together. Go and read it, from the start! All you need is a vague basic knowledge of how games like Dungeons and Dragons work, and you'll be well rewarded.

Can I point you in the direction of...

... Demis Hassabis?

The point being, I still get confronted by people who think I'm some kind of super-genius who's not only astonishingly clever and great at everything, but also well able to use this uncanny intellect of mine to amass fame and fortune by the gallon if I only felt like doing it.

So hearing that Demis has just sold his company to Google for £400 million makes me wonder why more people don't go and tell him he's great instead of picking on me. We're roughly the same age (I think he's three months older) and nodding-acquaintances from the glory days of the Mind Sports Olympiad (again, if you think I'm the kind of person who wins everything, you should see Demis), but the key difference is he was actually one of those child prodigies - chess grandmaster at the age of twelve or so, created a famous computer game and made a fortune at the age of sixteen (remember Theme Park? I've never played it, but I've heard good things) and, most impressively of all, is still doing clever things at the age of 37. Which not many child geniuses do, if you think about it.

I don't know what this company of his did, if anything (it was one of those internet startup things, so probably nothing - Google will buy anything), but it goes to show that there really are geniussy types out there, and they're not all fakers like me. Maybe I should give him a call and say hello. I should make an effort to cultivate the friendship of millionaires, you never know when it might come in handy...

The game's not worth the candle

Isn't that a great turn of phrase? Funnily enough, I was reading an old book last night that uses it, and then today I got a Facebook message from a Russian who said the same thing! People can go years, in these modern electrified times, without observing that games aren't worth the candle, so we should celebrate whenever we hear it!