* Work: Technical piece of analysis - Why the iPad is Intel’s worst nightmare, and to balance that out, a distinctly less technical review of the marvellously simple Zombie Driver.
* First few photos from my epic trip to China on my sabbatical in September/October last year: Tea and Temples.
* The Wired Jester: My year in books, 2009.
So that was 2009; full as ever, although work gave up a little room to other things this year – I found the time to work on my photography, and it’s really developed(1), helped, of course, by a near seven week sabbatical break in September and October which took me to beautiful, strange, tasty Southwest China and Maryland and Virginia in the USA. It feels as if I wrote less than in previous years, both outside of work, where my current novel seemed to seize up, and at work, where a bigger team meant more management and less of a need for me to write. On the plus side, there were a few things I really liked from 2009 in terms of quality. They’re linked after the jump. Now, on to 2010.
Camera: iPhone 3G, processed with Camerabag app.
A favourite image of mine, snapped on the iPhone at Tate’s Rothko show. I entered it into a competition run by Penguin to win a big print of the new cover artwork for 1984. To win, you had to enter an image that reflected 1984; I chose this shot because it’s funnier and stranger than a lot of 1984-derived images tend to be, although of course, it doesn’t shy away from the central darkness of the novel – how bleak life is when words cannot be trusted.
Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: Nikon 18-55 (kit lens)
Not a place many people visit, but I’d agree with Rough Guide when they call Taipei Asia’s most under-rated city. Here’s some photos not of motherboards or netbooks, but of the place where they’re born.
Tokyo is not the easiest place to see traditional Japan. The damage Tokyo sustained in World War II, and the staggering amount of wealth it generated in the years after mean that its temples are all skyscrapers. Kyoto has the Zen gardens and rice-paper screens: in Tokyo, it’s shopping mazes and LED screens. Peaceful contemplation has given way to the wisdom of crowds. But you can still seek out more traditional aspects of Japan in the captial – one of the last places I visited was a stroll garden: Koishikawa Korakuen.
A trip to Peleliu, an island in the South Pacific, now home to WW2 ruins that are full of stories. Widely linked, thanks to Boing Boing.
The Wired Jester
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