Last Tuesday I got invited along by PokerStars to their launch of a new special Twitter league. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, a bit of poker playing, some nibbles, the usual. To my surprise, they had arranged some ‘celebrities’ to play with us:

It was brilliant and yet slightly surreal; I was sitting next to ‘Brad’ who didn’t know how to play poker! Poor Angelina had to keep explaining him everything (and he still remained longer in the game than I did). Captain Jack Sparrow, Joanna Lumley and Delboy were all hilarious, staying in character the entire time.

Besides these ‘celebrities’, they had also brought along pro poker player (and host of Only Connect) Victoria Coren. I started out at the same table as her, and it was great to hear some tips and tricks on how to play poker. The weirdest moment of the night was definitely when Charlie Chaplin made butterfly wings, a crown and a wand out of balloons for Victoria Coren to wear during the poker playing… as I said: surreal.

I survived longer than I had expected (playing for at least 1.5 hour until I was kicked out) and had at least two hands that I think I played pretty well. After food (delicious sea bass) the losers started another table, which I ended up winning! There weren’t any prizes for that though, but it was still a lot fun. Thanks to PokerStars for a brilliant evening!

For more info on PokerStars Twitter league, check out their website.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is about Yeine, a 19 year old girl, who wants nothing more than a normal life in her homeland of Darr. But her mother was of the powerful Arameri family, and when Yeine is summoned to the capital city of Sky a month after her mother’s death, she cannot refuse. Dakarta, her grandfather and the Arameri patriarch, pits her against her two cousins as a potential heir to the throne.

This book was awesome! The description above doesn’t do the book justice at all, yet it’s so tricky to explain this world of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. It’s so complex and rich in mythology, and one of the great parts of the book is slowly discovering the different facets. Yeine doesn’t know anything about the world of the Arameri and we, as readers, slowly discover as she learns about her heritage. Jemisin has managed to tell a unique origin story of the gods of this world, and it doesn’t compare to anything I’ve read before.

In short, the backstory told at the start of the book is this: there were once 3 gods, who lived in harmony, Bright Itempas, the Nightlord Nahadoth and the goddess of twilight and death, Enefa. But Itempas was betrayed by Enefa and Nahadoth, so he killed Enefa and enslaved Nahadoth. Nahadoth and his 3 god children all got trapped in mortal bodies and were given to the rulers of the Hundred Thousand kingdoms to be used as weapons. Yeine soon encounters these ‘weapons’ at her grandfather’s court, who have to obey everything the ruling family says.

The story is told from Yeine’s perspective, albeit a bit of a weird perspective. From the start, you know there’s something not completely right. For instance, here are the first couple of lines from the book:

I am not as I once was. They have done this to me, broken me open and torn out my heart. I do not know who I am anymore.

I must try to remember.

My people tell stories of the night I was born. They say my mother crossed her legs in the middle of labor and fought with all her strength not to release me into the world. I was born anyhow, of course; nature cannot be denied. Yet it does not surprise me that she tried.

My mother was an heiress of the Arameri. There was a ball for the lesser nobility — the sort of thing that happens once a decade as a backhanded sop to their self-esteem. My father dared ask my mother to dance; she deigned to consent. I have often wondered what he said and did that night to make her fall in love with him so powerfully, for she eventually abdicated her position to be with him. It is the stuff of great tales, yes? Very romantic. In the tales, such a couple lives happily ever after. The tales do not say what happens when the most powerful family in the world is offended in the process.

But I forget myself. Who was I, again? Ah, yes.

And it continues like that throughout the book. Yeine will be telling you something and she’ll suddenly interrupt with a completely different thought or tell you about another event. It doesn’t happen too often for it to get annoying; it only makes you more interested in what happened to her.

I loved how different this book was; the gods, the world, everything just works in this book. It’s the first part of a trilogy, but I don’t think it’s trilogy in the usual sense; the 2nd seems to be set in the same world, and will continue the story, but with different characters. Intrigued?

If you’re not convinced yet, you can read the first three chapters on the author’s website.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin is available on Amazon.co.uk for £5.58 and on Amazon.com for $10.07.

As I mentioned last Monday, I’m starting a new recurring feature covering girly laptop bag reviews and the first bag I got to try out was one of Crumpler’s latest additions: the Russian King. It’s a gorgeous bag and I was completely psyched to get the opportunity to try it out.

The Russian King is one of the three laptop handbags that Crumpler has to offer (the Russian King, the Daggy Kate and the Dentist’s Wife… I love Crumpler’s names for their bags). They are all practically identical with a couple of small differences. The Daggy Kate is the standard handbag and comes in 2 different sizes (S for up to 13″ laptops and L for up to “15 laptops) and 4 different colours (dull black, black grey, dusty khaki and grey white). The Russian King is the same bag, but is the prettier leather version, again in 4 different colours (black, off white, bordeaux red and dark chocolate). Then there is the Dentist’s Wife, which again is pretty much the same bag, but it’s part of Crumpler’s luggage range. This means it comes in colours that match their trolleys, has a bit more padding and a different layout of pockets.

The one I got to try out was a small leather Russian King which will fit laptops up to 13″. It’s a beautiful bag, half leather and half Crumpler’s usual Tex fabric. The bag has two main compartments for all your stuff, with an integrated laptop sleeve in the middle. All 4 inside ‘walls’ (the 2 around the laptop sleeve and the actual two inner walls) have pockets, giving you tons of ways to organize your things. Two of the pockets can be closed with a zipper, two with velcro and then there are 2 open pockets for cards, papers and other flatter stuff. Finally there are two open pockets on the outside that are easily accessible.

I could easily fit two books, a notepad, my wallet, tons of smaller gadgets (2 phones, 2 chargers, headphones, and a Nintendo DS), girly stuff (sunglasses, lipstick, mirror) and still had space left. And with all the different pockets it’s so easy to organize all your stuff, giving everything its own special place. I couldn’t my bulky Nikon D4o camera, while the laptop was in the bag too, but any smaller normal camera could easily fit. I liked that there were outside pockets; they’re perfect for your oyster card and other stuff you want to reach quickly, but nothing too valuable that could fall (or be taken) out.

As much as I like the inside of the Russian King, it wasn’t as comfortable as I expected it to be. With handbags like these, you want the straps/handles to fit perfectly onto your shoulder. With me it didn’t. One strap would fit comfortably, but the second one just felt awkward. The straps have been designed to be nice and sturdy, but they are on a bit of a weird angle and are just too wide to fit comfortably. The bag also comes with an adjustable and removable shoulder strap. I tried it out, but again it didn’t really work for me; any way I wore it the actual handles were in the way. If you’re interested in this bag, I’d suggest stopping by the Crumpler store and trying out the bag for yourself. It didn’t fit on my shoulder, but it’s worth checking with this bag if it fits you.

The Russian King is a good sturdy laptop bag with tons of pockets to organize your gadgets. At £189 it’s on the pricey side, but not as pricey as some other leather laptop bags out there, and it is type of bag that will last you for years. If you find the leather unnecessary, you can also go for the Daggy Kate (£119) or the Dentist’s Wife (£109).

Russian King
Brand: Crumpler
Sizes: Small (for up to 13″ laptops) and Large (for up to 15″ laptops)
Colours: Black, Off White, Bordeaux Red and Dark Chocolate

Last November I did a blog post on how Threadless and Griffin had started working together to make iPhone cases. I was a bit disappointed with the 2 designs they decided to produce first, but since then they’ve released more, including one of which I already the tee of.

In total there are now 10 different designs that are available on the Griffin site. My favourites are The Gaming Revolution and Fail:

Take a look at the Griffin site for the other designs, they’re all pretty cool!

Last week I got an email with an invite from J2O for an exclusive lunch that would “send you sky high”. I didn’t think much of it, you know, just believing it was over-the-top marketing speak. But when I got there I discovered this:

Yep, they literally meant sky high. The lunch was for the launch of J2O’s two newest blends: Red Grape and Blackcurrent and White Grape and Kiwi. They had invited celebrity Simon Rimmer to create two dishes that would complement the two new blends. So up we went…

It was pretty amazing. We got strapped into out chairs, similar to a roller coaster ride, and got lifted into the air. The view was awesome! I’m not exactly scared of heights (more like ‘scared of being an idiot and stumbling off a cliff’ or something like that), but I did get a little queasy spinning my chair and looking down.

The food was brilliant too. First we got panzanella, an Italian salad with bread, tomatoes, peppers and a basil/vinegar sauce. This was matched with the white grape and kiwi drink, which was nice and light. After that we got the chef’s take on bangers and mash, with venison sausages, mustard mash and an onion ring. I really liked this one, and again it fit spot on with the accompanying drink of red grape and blackcurrant.

Weirdly enough I was trying to find something different to drink when at events and meetups, and I think these new blends are great for that. I’m not really much of a wine drinker (and you can’t really order cocktails when networking), plus I’m not allowed to have that many fizzy drinks anymore, cause of the braces. But these J2O blends are perfect! If you like your wine, there’s no way in hell this will replace that, but if you’re looking for a simple alternative, try it out.

Cristiano and I gave into temptation yesterday afternoon and bought a shiny new iPad to share between the two of us. When the iPad was announced a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t expecting it would be something that I’d consider getting. But then I got to try one…

For me it’s perfect for reading papers for my research. It’s much more comfortable reading stuff from the iPad and taking notes next to it, then sitting behind my laptop and attempting the same. Plus I don’t get distracted by incoming emails, tweets and whatever else is happening on my screen. I haven’t played enough with it yet to see if it could actually replace my day to day browsing and feed reading, but for my research it’s brilliant.

I still don’t think I need an iPad of my own. I’m sharing it now with Cristiano who is using it during “non-work” hours, while I get it during the day for work. It’s nice for reading your emails, tweets and feeds, but I don’t prefer it over just using my laptop. I’m still blogging this from my laptop, and seeing as how most of my web reading is tied up into what I eventually blog about, I don’t think the iPad would fit in that work flow (or should I say blog flow?).

It is a gorgeous device though, and I do think this would be perfect for my mum. So dear readers, what do you think of the iPad? Wantz, Haz, Avoid?

I knew it was going to be busy at the MCM Expo last Saturday, but I never imagined it to be sooo massively packed! About 41000 people visited during the entire weekend… And tons of people were dressed up; some outfits were amazing to see (and some admittingly not so amazing). I’ve never cosplayed before in my life, but if I’d go next year, I think I might join in… I could pull off Catwoman, couldn’t I?

Here are photos that me and Cristiano took that day: