I review Metal Gear Solid 4 for Expanded Horizons. Sigh, I really wanted to like the game because the gameplay itself was fun, but the storyline drove me nuts… I don’t mind lengthy cutscenes when their content is interesting, but this time I felt like bashing my head against a wall. Repeatedly. Ah, just click on the link and you’ll see all my gripes in one neat package!

Something else – there was some downtime this week, but the problem should be fixed now and you should be able to access my website without any problems.

I also updated my Hungarian articles page again – I know this is getting a bit repetitive, but I found an online magazine willing to buy multiple popular-science articles a month. There is also stuff forthcoming in print venues, but those are published on less and less frequent schedules these days, moving from monthly to bimonthly or even quarterly… what I wrote in the past few months might not see the light of day for a long time. It makes me kind of antsy.

Along the same lines, I’m not writing anything for them, but as a reader I’m really annoyed the German Animania went from 10/yr to 6/yr!

“Welcome the Flood” – it’s at the magazine A Fly in Amber. A long-exposure nighttime piece, shot with a Nikon D70S if memory serves me right. Another photo from the series has been up on my site for a while now. I really enjoy nighttime photography, so I guess I should make more of these!

BTW – I’m looking for venues interested in buying photos, let me know if you know of any. I’m not interested in microstock at this time.

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I also updated my Hungarian articles page.

I made a page listing my articles, reviews, etc. in Hungarian and put it in the sidebar. It only includes recent articles and at present I have no plans of making a backlist – I’m sorry, but it would simply take too much time. The upside is that from now on I’m going to list absolutely everything someone hired me to write. Blog posts are not included, unless someone hires me to blog!

I have to say upfront that Google Translate does not really work with Hungarian yet; sometimes you can get the gist, sometimes you get the exact opposite! (Sometimes you get nonsense, but nonsense is not as misleading as when a sentence gets translated to the opposite of its intended meaning.) I’m mentioning this because some enterprising friends of mine have already tried to read my Hungarian-language articles using Google Translate and were quite baffled by the results!

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Most magyarul is elmondom – csináltam egy oldalt a magyar nyelvű cikkeimnek (főleg tudományos-technikai ismeretterjesztő cikkek és kritikák), érdemes megnézni és olvasgatni. Mindenkinek különösen ajánlom a Beszédfelismerés a videojátékokban 2. részét, történeti áttekintéssel – van benne többek között beszélő hal Spock kapitány hangjával, sikítozós Pikachu-terelgetés és a világ talán legnagyobbat bukott játékkonzolja! (Nem, nem a Virtual Boy. )

I’ve made a list of my published or forthcoming English-language SF works, you can find it in the right sidebar or here. No corresponding Hungarian list yet, I’m sorry… I wish Duotrope covered non-English markets!

Also, I’ve had issues with my spam filtering, in case one of your comments was lost, let me know!

Also known as I really need a haircut I’ve just gotten a haircut, but the image is a bit older… it was taken on 27 April by Miklós Nagy, who asked me completely out of the blue to accompany him to an event where his photos would be shown. So, after a long ride – surprise visit to Budapest! – I ended up in a room full of Famous People(TM) including my favorite Hungarian contemporary painter, and the task of fixing a computer.

Thinkgeek has a T-shirt for this occasion but unfortunately I have yet to own an exemplar. (Donations welcome! )

So if you’re interested in a prezzey in its natural habitat (ie fixing a computer), click here and scroll down a bit – I come after two shots of an elderly lady.

It’s not visible in the photos but I’m wearing a Space Invaders-themed T-shirt under a half-open black shirt, and an ankle-length black skirt. Modesty! Layering! Etc! I also have a long overdue post in WIWT_Modest…

I have a new story online! I wrote it back in December (I think…) when my friend Dash mentioned Innsmouth Free Press (a Mythos webzine) was looking for submissions to an upcoming multiethnic issue. It straddles the boundary between light horror and urban fantasy… it’s an oddball combination of Hungarian urban myths, Cthulhu Mythos, and my childhood. You can read the issue online or download a nice PDF.

I have to admit I have not written a single story since The Turul Spreads Its Wings (forthcoming in the Roar of the Crowd anthology!). If you’re interested in the chronology, Bottomless Lake Bus Stop came earlier.

I will have to spend a sizable portion of the summer writing – besides fiction, I also have several scientific articles to finish and submit! (See my previous entry.)

I had my thesis defense a few days ago (master’s in theoretical linguistics), I got an A, it went fine. I don’t know anything about the graduation ceremony… but this is one step up from when I originally enrolled in this program.

Crazy anecdote from several years ago: I went to the admittance exam, two rounds, everything went OK and I got a good score. Then I got a notice from the university administration that despite my score being over the threshold, I was not admitted. No further explanation. Huh? The next day I called the department – they told me I was in, I told them I apparently wasn’t! Confusion ensued. In the end it turned out that an administrator thought the university did not even have a theoretical linguistics program and sent out similar notes to several prospective students. Augh!

I hope they realized by now because I’d like to receive my diploma… sometime… It did take a bit longer than expected because in the meanwhile I finished a different master’s program, started a PhD and also had an unfortunate illness. *sigh* But it’s finally over, I graduated, happy joy! Now on to publish my thesis results.

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I’m quite busy right now and I have a deadline at hand, but I also have content for the site, so I’ll try to do updates more often!

I did not forget about Amesirun either, but unfortunately it had to take a back seat to work right at the threshold of completion. The game is mostly finished, I just need to put it together, compile the executable and send it out to closed beta. (Thank you for everyone who volunteered! I even got someone to test the Mac version, which I did not even want to release because I could not test it myself.) Hopefully next week!

Expanded Horizons has a new issue out and it includes my review of Nymphomation by Jeff Noon. It was a huge disappointment, I’m a fan of his, but this book was really cringeworthy. You can read the review if you’re interested in further details!

We want to launch a regular media reviews column, hopefully with other people contributing too, so if you have a review that’s reasonably relevant, send it our way! (Be sure to read the submissions guidelines first )

Dash wrote this up, I’m crossposting it so that more people see it. Reminder: Expanded Horizons is an online magazine focusing on underrepresented groups in speculative fiction. Currently the two of us produce it in our spare time, so we need all the free advertisement we can get Pass this on!

Expanded Horizons has decided to launch an interviews project. This is a work-in-progress, so feedback from our readership and our former contributors is appreciated.

All interviews will be conducted in alignment with EH’s goal of promoting the authentic expression of under-represented voices in speculative fiction.

The previous month was quite hectic, but I’m back now Amesirun is nearing completion. I know, I know… better late than never!

The main script is finished, I’m working on the endings right now (you can look forward to some strange stuff!). Because of the delay I’ve decided to make the endings lengthier and much more complex, and to add extra art in the form of “sketches” from the player character’s memories.

I still need to make a bit of art and the main menu, hopefully soon, and then it’s closed beta and release time!

More teasers, click on the images to enlarge them…