Hey, I completely redid my website up at http://www.maudevintage.com/jamesharvey. Tell me what you think, and if you have any suggestions. The image after the logo is randomly generated! refresh for new ones. There should be some artwork some of you haven't seen on this site, so have fun lookin' for that. The store's not up yet, but it'll mostly just be links to things already available to buy like my prints, t-shirt, stickers, things. I also registered a URL but it will take a while to activate (lame).



Click through to play with the shiny new buttons

Something that worries me is that a lot of the artwork on this site is unattributed- should I annotate the galleries and say where the stuff is all from and who it's for, or should I leave it a mystery?

I bit the bullet and made a facebook fan page about me because I sure am my biggest fan! You can find a link to that from the site.

Lastly, I would like to draw special attention to how nice that donate button looks :-3 :-3 :-3 :-0 X-X

A couple of the blogs I read recently had discussions on the resurrection of Jesus: Common Sense Atheism and Parchment and Pen.

The wrong kind of God

In the comment thread over at Comment Sense Atheism, I wondered about the role of natural theology (that is, stuff like the Kalam Cosmological Argument) in preparing the ground for belief in the resurrection. When William Lane Craig debated against Bart Ehrman, Craig said "That Jesus rose naturally from the dead is fantastically improbable. But I see no reason whatsoever to think that it is improbable that God raised Jesus from the dead." According to Ayer (that is, the commenter over at Common Sense Atheism, not the logical positivist), "Natural theology shows the existence of the monotheistic God; the resurrection, in its religio-historical context, shows that that monotheistic God is the one described by Jesus and the disciples, whose redemptive purpose is laid out in the Bible."

There's an unwarranted assumption here. Suppose we grant, for the sake of argument, that the Kalam argument is valid. This gets us as far as deism. To get to Christianity, we need the resurrection, as Ayer says. But if God didn't do it, the resurrection is fantastically improbable, which I think means the New Testament evidence alone shouldn't convince us unless we assume that God is the sort of god who might raise Jesus from the dead. But why should we assume that? Remember, we need that assumption to bolster the NT evidence sufficiently for us to believe it, but the only available "evidence" that God is that sort of god is the resurrection itself, the very thing we're seeking to prove. I've not seen an argument from Craig (or any other apologist) which avoids this apparent circularity.

Simple explanations

So we're stuck with being deists, which is a bit boring: as far as I know, they don't have any choons. Perhaps we might instead argue that the New Testament evidence is sufficient on its own: it shows Jesus rose, and hence (if we're feeling charitable about it) that there's a god of the right sort, Christianity is true, greatest hits of Charles Wesley here we come.

This was what the Parchment and Pen posting was about. C Michael Patton argues that alternative explanations are less simple than just accepting that Jesus rose from the dead. There was a thread on the local newsgroup, cam.misc, where another Christian made the same argument.

I remembered that Heinlein once said the simplest explanation is always "The lady down the street is a witch; she did it." What's wrong with that explanation? It hides complexity behind language, as Alex Selby explains. I ended up saying that the Christian account is "simpler" in some sense, but not in a sense that lends it credibility. In this sense, the "simplest" explanation for what you see in Derren Brown's stage shows is that mind reading really works and he's a master at it: all that other stuff he does to achieve the effects is extremely convoluted in comparison. Alex doesn't think we should describe that sense as simple. I can see his point, and perhaps I should have said that the Christian account feels simpler, rather than that it is.

At this point, a popular apologetic move is to accuse your opponent of assuming naturalism, materialism, scientism and other bad -isms (remember: if you have no other arguments, you can always play Name that Worldview). I'm not sure whether that's a valid move. I think you'd need an argument that using this informational Occam's Razor won't do the job in the case of non-material stuff, which again, I haven't seen anyone attempt.

Those of you get the cheezburger.com feed on your friends' page will have already seen this picture, for which I wrote the caption.

And this time - if you look very closely - you might even see a cat! ;)




 

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist is doing one of their famous contests, for two Advanced Reading Copies of SUICIDE KINGS signed by all of the contributors.

For details as to how to enter, go to

http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2009/12/win-autographed-advance-reading-copy-of.html

Good luck to all.

As most people reading this will already know, the last few days in London have been quite chilly; this has made cycling a bit more of a challenge than usual, so I may need to get some extra clothing.

On Thursday, it was snowing, but the snow didn't settle. I didn't mind the cold or wet, but it was surprisingly painful when snowflakes kept landing on my eyes. I have a ski mask (left over from my snowboarding days), but it has tinted glass, i.e. it acts like sunglasses, so it's probably not a great idea to wear that after dark.

Yesterday (Friday), the snow was settling, although I saw council vans out on Thursday night gritting the streets. I paid extra so that I could use the nearest railway station, rather than cycling 5 miles to Norbury. As I cycled from the station to my office, I heard the ice cracking under my tyres: in this case, that's good news, because it means that it's a fairly thin layer. Still, I kept my speed down, and tried to avoid making any sharp turns. I was ok for most of the way, but I came off my bike just outside my office, once I'd turned off the main road (the council don't grit roads inside industrial estates). I then saw the Brompton fold itself up as it slid away from me down the road! Not completely, but it was enough of a jolt for the back wheel to swing underneath without me unhooking it. Ah well, I wasn't hurt, and the bike wasn't damaged, so that's all right. I normally just wear a base layer (long sleeved shirt) and high vis tabard on my top half, but on my way home I wore a hoodie too: it's not specifically designed for cycling, but it kept me a bit warmer.

Today (Saturday) I went out on SJA duty at the local football ground. This involved standing around for a few hours in the cold, so I wore several layers (T-shirt, shirt, jumper, coat), and shuffled around a bit. Cycling home afterwards, I really started to get cold fingers; my 75p gloves from Asda weren't really up to the job. I shoved my hands into my armpits whenever I stopped at traffic lights, but by the time I got home I didn't have enough dexterity to fold up the bike, and it was a challenge to unlock the front door. It felt like using one of those claw machines in an arcade, since I could see what I was doing but I barely had any tactile feedback. I thawed out with a mug of hot Ribena, and my fingers hurt for a while as they warmed up, but everything's back to normal now.

I was thinking about going to the supermarket this evening, but on reflection I decided to slump in front of the TV and watch Love Actually instead.

--make the wrong one entertaining.


see more Epic Fails

Today we find coyotegoth on the business end of the Sparkly Paddle of Birthday Wonderfulness! Yay, let's hear it for coyotegoth and spankings!

Hope you're having a totally brilliant birthday with all the treats you can handle and more besides, starting a year of even more Shiny Awesomeness and treats, with whipped cream, sparkles, and extra kittens!

And hey--say it with me, everybody!--don't forget to live forever!

... Mark Hughes. Sorry to see him go: I get the feeling City was turned into a team too weighty for him. Of course the talk is that Mancini stands in until the end of the season, when the rumour mill will turn back to the Special One again. Prospect Magazine, in its predictions for 2010, had Hughes out, Martin O'Neill in. I'd love to see it but the O'Neill has no reason whatsoever to leave Villa Park for Eastlands. The show against Tottenham was woeful (and todays should have been a good bit brighter --some lamentable defending) but I don't think it was Hughes' fault: there are a lot of cosmological grade egos floating arouind the blue half of Manchester and it takes time and trust to build a top four squad.

I bought this with the aim of drinking it on my 30th, so only 9 months or so late! :)

We'll be drinking it this evening, but I did sneak a little taste. Not too shabby. I look forward to enjoying it with suitable dairy accompaniments.

Open the door for geeks trying to make a Gordon Ramsay recipe

Last night, I went to the horse show at Olympia, where I saw lots and lots of ponies. First there were horsies jumping over fences as fast as they could, then there were tiny doggies running through obstacles, then there was a French man and his "Astounding White Horses" (only one of which was white; the others were light grey, dark grey and, um, brown. It was quite fun, though: they danced, and lay down, and ran around with him standing on their backs, and stuff), then there was the Shetland Pony Grand National, which was very silly, then there was the Met Police horse team, doing lots of tricksie weaving in and out of each other, jumping through rings of fire, and finishing up by galloping around the ring and then taking the saddles off the horses while they were doing it. Which I remain boggled by), then there was the Puissance, which was horses jumping over very high fences, in a sudden death sort of way: after each round, they made them higher and all the ones who were clear on the previous round went again. I think that the final round was 7'3"....

To finish off, there was a very strange Christmas story thing about pirates stealing something from Santa, which was a bit random but did feature groups of people doing vaulting at either end of the arena, which was cool.

Oh, and there was shopping. And a very cold and long journey home....

Enjoyed it all thoroughly, other than the apparently-formerly-very-famous-Puissance-rider, who joined in the commentating for the Puissance and was really bitchy about all the riders and kept making rather dubious comments in between rounds, which was really annoying.

Today, I made Mike help me to put up the tree, which arrived on Tuesday and had been on the balcony in a bucket of (by today, frozen. Doh!) water on the balcony since. We got it from The Internet, and it's actually a really nice tree, which is a relief. Yay for trees, with pressies piled up under them! Boo to none of them being for me, because Mike doesn't love me Mike hasn't got around to buying wrapping mine yet!

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Anyone want $10 off a paid account? LJ have given a bunch of coupons to all existing paid and permanent members, and mine are up for grabs. Can't be used to renew an existing paid account.

( Microblog entries )

RIP Dan O'Bannon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Og_YsaXt4&feature=related

He'll be best remembered for ALIEN, but DARK STAR has a fond place in my heart as well. I hope somewhere he's surfing down like a meteor as "Benson, Arizona" plays on the cosmic soundtrack.

Tiiiired. Sitting here listening to Pocahaunted and chugging coffee in order to stay lucid enough to do a GRAVEL phone conference set for 1.30am. This week’s been utterly buggered — you may have noticed the silence here — by a member of the family being rushed into hospital early in the week, which has turned everything into bubbling chaos and is necessitating runs to the hospital, rescheduling, etc. And then the snow hit, turned into two inches of white stuff sitting on three inches of ice, and Britain shut down because it is now a country of weaklings and jabbering genetic wreckage who shit themselves when the sky moves.

GRAVEL phone conference with my producers is to set the storyline. I’ve spent what little time I’ve had this week putting all my notes in order. Which is how I ended up writing the line "Bill, you’re kind of persona non fucker around here."

Also, at the top of the week, I wrapped the last few pages of ULTIMATE COMICS IRON MAN ARMOR WARS #4, which is one of the more ridiculous titles that I haven’t invented myself. Sadly, the Marvel office chose to ignore the alternate titles I wrote at the top of each script. I liked IRON MAN: HUMAN SEX JEEP the best.

Had a conversation with David Bogart at Marvel about the future of the NEWUNIVERSAL: STORMFRONT project there that got stalled when my computer and backups were destroyed. Should be sorted in a few months. I think Dave’s official title at Marvel is Grand Inquisitor or Witchfinder General or something, but I’ve known him pretty much since he started out in the business, and, frankly, it’s always nice to know that there’s a guy in that office who will never try to screw me over. Dave will look after me.

Or, of course, I will have him killed. I know lots of people in New York. I mean, trust is good, but insurance is better, right?

If I can just get a few more pages on other things out over the next two days, then from Monday I am done with 2009, and anyone who doesn’t like it can bite my muckpump.

More coffee.

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

is feeling like it's winding down for Christmas, however will be working 3 days next week. Ooops.

Time wasters' alert: try a quiz on electrical equipment related acronyms. My favorite answer choice for "What does BTU stand for?" is Bachman Turner Overdrive.

It's cold and raining outside. I've just settled into a nice dry office after trudging uphill (both ways, obv.) from a meeting, but I am tempted to go back outside: a poster informs me that free, frozen turkeys are being dispensed to graduate students in medical center basement. Of course, this raises the question of frozen turkey transport: should the turkey sit on my handlebars to ride home? Should I shove it in my backpack with notebook and netbook? Perhaps a polo mallet could be constructed from a poster tube and thermal coffee mug, enabling me to wallop the frozen turkey uphill (both ways, obv.) in the bicycle lane?

Post-swine flu shot yesterday, my mother offered the greatest seasonal gift of all: spur of the moment babysitting. Adam and I entreated the Firefly Grille to bring us cheese plates, and verily the cheeses were good. Today I have recouped my strength depleted in the morning's inclement trudging with pecan pie and a bonus candy cane from the cafeteria. My artery softeners should be arriving in the post any time now.

Poll #1500685
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

What is your preferred peppermint delivery system?

Thought for the day: "Don't assume you're always going to be understood. I wrote in a column that one should put a cup of liquid in the cavity of a turkey when roasting it. Someone wrote me that 'the turkey tasted great, but the plastic cup melted." ~Heloise

Edit: Boo! Grad students are denied turkeys. Birds are reserved for real staff only.

I thought about going up on Hampstead Heath to take some photos, but in the end decided not to because the snow would never have been as magical as it was in February. So here are a few more photos from back then, instead.

That was fun. This week it's just been cold. Brr.

 

growing to hate the use of "-ista" in marketing materials... Maxxanista, Recession-ista. Horrible.

What author hasn't been tempted to make what Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden call, quite rightly, The Author's Big Mistake--i.e., responding to a negative review?

You can't, of course--not without making yourself look bad. At the very best, you look thinskinned, like you can't take the heat and you ought to get out of the kitchen. If you write, you've had this lecture in some form, to wit: the brickbats come with the territory, you have to learn not to take things to heart, big pros don't cry, whatever.

But everybody's had a moment, when some...bozo...says something made of such perfectly unadulturated and juvenile Fail that you want to do something equally juvenile to them. If they walked past you, you'd trip them, or throw a tomato at them, or hit them in the face with a pie.

Not, I remind you, because it's thoughtful criticism but because it's stupidity.

Which makes it twice as important not to respond to it. Having a slapfight with Mr or Ms Stupid doesn't make you look more intelligent.

And just so you know I'm not indulging myself in a round of I'm-So-Wise-and-Virtuous, I succumbed to temptation once. Yeah, I know, I know--didn't I just say so? Sometimes, the temptation is 'way too strong and you just can't help yourself. Don't ask me about it. All I'm going to say is, I'm not going to do it again.:)