Writer's Block: Orlando lives again!

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The version of me from the Mirror Universe, with a nice goatee beard, a cigar and a vast fortune from his twenty year long successful career writing smut.

Erm, note I didn't say anything about "evil" anywhere. I'll leave you to work out which of us is, in fact, "evil." >:)

Sherlock

The Beeb have rebooted the career of one Sherlock Holmes, master consulting detective, in a new format. The series brings him right up to date in the 21st century, with a few things left unchanged. The major players' names remain unaltered, Holmes, Dr John Watson, Inspector Lestrade, Mrs Hudson, Moriarty - and some really remain unchanged: Dr Watson being an Army doctor invalided out of the service by a war wound sustained in Afghanistan, for example.

Some characters become terrifying when they are brought up to date. A mysterious figure (played by Mark Gatiss, who co-created the series with Steven Moffat), whose identity is revealed later in the first episode (and no surprises - I pegged him right away, and it was my second guess that was wrong!) demonstrates near omniscience over control of CCTVs and payphones in a manner reminiscent of Wintermute's control over the phones in William Gibson's Neuromancer, or the early appearances of the Technocracy in the first edition of White Wolf's Mage: the Ascension roleplaying game.

And some of the opening episode dialogue is so sharp:-

SH: "You're a doctor. Fact, you're an Army doctor."
JW: "Yes."
SH: "Any good?"
JW: "Very good."
SH: "Seen a lot of injuries, then. Violent deaths."
JW: "Well, yes."
SH: "Bit of trouble, too, I bet."
JW: "Of course. Yes. Enough for a lifetime, far too much."
SH: "Want to see some more?"
JW: "Oh, God, yes!"

JW: "Well, this [221B Baker Street] is a prime spot. Must be expensive."
SH: "Ah, Mrs Hudson, the landlady - she's given me a special deal. Owes me a favour. Few years back, her husband got himself sentenced to death in Florida. I was able to help out."
JW: "Sorry - you stopped her husband being executed?"
SH: "Oh, no. I ensured it."

H: "What do you think, then, Dr Watson? There's another bedroom upstairs, if you'll be needing two bedrooms."
JW: "Of course we'll be needing two."
H: "Oh, don't worry. There's all sorts round here. Mrs Turner next door's got (married ones!)"

SH *in a silent room*: "Shut up."
Inspector Lestrade: "I didn't say anything."
SH: "You were thinking. It's annoying."

L: "Cardiff?"
SH: "It's obvious, isn't it?"
JW: "It's not obvious to me."
SH: "Dear God. What is it like in your funny little brains? It must be so boring."

Stranger: "What is your connection to Sherlock Holmes?"
JW: "I don't have one. I barely know him. I met him ... yesterday."
S: "Mmm, and since yesterday you've moved in with him and now you're solving crimes together. Might we expect a happy announcement by the end of the week?"

I think I'll stick with this. It's dark - so much darker than Doctor Who - with humour more akin to the funniest bits of Torchwood. This is more of what Who should be like. Not the sanitised moving crime scene that is Matt Smith's current incarnation.

The Buddha's Amalgam Tooth Filling

I have a link to a blog entry which adds to my assertion in one of my previous posts. This link points to Zachary Burt's blog article here:- .

( Behind the cut )

Possessing a tooth that once belonged to the Buddha does not mean that the Buddha himself is somehow present - let alone that the Buddha somehow grants kingship upon those who keep hold of his body parts.

Dead body parts do not contain any "holy essence." What "holy essence" Gautama had died with him. His teachings, however, did not die - and they are not, in themselves, holy words even if they were originally spoken by the Buddha. You can read them out loud, but they will not cause gold coins to rain down from the sky and they won't bring a dead child back to life.

What will the Buddha's words do for you?

The only way to know what good they are is to apply them to your own life. Don't have the words as a mantra and wave them in people's faces like words of the Bible or the Qur'an. Take them as instructions. Take them as perspectives. Live according to the precepts of the Fourfold Noble Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path: not because I say so, or because the Buddha once said so, or even because you're curious to see what will happen.

Follow them because they make sense to you. If the words don't make sense to you, don't follow them. Go and look for something else that makes sense for you today.

Following the Buddhist path won't turn you into a superhuman. You won't turn into Jet Li or Jackie Chan, and you won't change outwardly much at all. Well, maybe get a little thinner and a bit scruffier, and maybe a bit healthier - looking. But you won't grow a third eye in the middle of your forehead or grow six arms, and you will not be able to sit in the lotus position if you couldn't do it before.

(More to the point, you don't ever need to learn how to sit in lotus to gain enlightenment. Posture is no prerequisite to enlightenment - only to efficient meditation practice.)

Robert Pirsig said "The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there." Which should give the more astute among you a clue as to the only place where you can find the "holy essence" of Buddha in this day and age. Not in red, yellow or orange robes; not in shaved heads, or begging with a bowl on the street; not in chanting prayers out loud for the sake of it.

Live by the truths you hold dear. Don't wave the words in the air like a mantra. Just let them become part of you.

It's all really as simple as that. Why do people try to make things more complicated?

Medic!

Do you realise that my Signs & Portents article, Medic!, made it to Mongoose Publishing's Traveller Compendium 1?

Neither did I, until I checked out the contents page.

So my name can now be associated with another book, above and beyond those of White Wolf.

Not only that - something I wrote has now appeared in a Traveller book.