Remember my hunting trip? The full story is now a shiny PDF.

It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of Corporal Jason Stuart Barnes, REME, on Tuesday 22 July 2008 in Afghanistan.

For a couple of years now I’ve been interested in the goings on at LabLit.  They have some interesting fora and I’ve been trying to run a collaborative webstory there. The site publishes original articles (but has no budget so you don’t get anything other than fame and opprobrium approbation) and it’s a good place to hang out and try your hand at writing things.

The editor is asking for short, original but not necessarily unpublished, fiction to fill holes in the pipeline.  Go take a look.  By the way, it’s not science fiction, it’s science in fiction.  It can be science fiction in that context of course, but that’s not the genre.

What does it say about me, that when on Matt Brown’s blog I read

A quick note to point UK readers in the direction of the new-look Newton’s Apple website

my first thought was “Apple? Newton? Cool!”?

Damn damn damn damn.

It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the deaths of Corporal Sarah Bryant of the Intelligence Corps, Corporal Sean Robert Reeve of the Royal Signals, Lance Corporal Richard Larkin and Paul Stout in Afghanistan on Tuesday 17 June 2008.

Mark Thatcher famously got lost in the Paris-Dakar rally.

And now he’s accused plotting to overthrow a (admittedly very minor) government?

I think they might have the wrong man.

It is with deep sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the deaths of Lance Corporal James Bateman and Private Jeff Doherty of 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regimenton Thursday 12 June 2008 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Crappy day.  Reading about Paras being blown up by suicide twats doesn’t help.

This, however, makes me feel a bit better:

Credit

It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the deaths of Private Nathan Cuthbertson, Private Daniel Gamble and Private Charles Murray of 2 PARA on Sunday 8 June 2008 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Private Gamble was 22. Ptes Cuthbertson and Murray were both 19 when they were murdered.

From the school newsletter:

He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving beast. Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.