Walter Winchester took a step behind the yellow line and into the safety booth, donning his safety goggles. The Range Rover had been prepped and it was currently reversing into position via remote control. Ahmadinejad, the crash test dummy, leered out the window at Walter. As the jeep reached the 200m mark of the pristine white hangar, the room was bathed in blood red light as the warning light automatically flicked on. With a roar, the Range Rover took off towards the solid steel-reinforced concrete crash wall at the end of the cavernous room. As the vehicle built up speed, so did Walter’s heart rate. They achieved synchronicity just as the vehicle entered the 20 meter danger zone. This marvel of modern engineering smashed into the wall with an ear-rending screech. As the beam of the sensory lasers was broken by the jeep, the 1,000,000 frame-per-second high speed cameras came to life, documenting the impact in hyper slow-motion. Walt, watching this unfold, felt that same shiver, that release, as the Range Rover submitted to the wall, not flinching when deadly shards of metal spitefully attacked the safety booth. Stepping out of the room, he approached the car with a tablet in his hand, making marks with his stylus as he examined the jeep. He nodded appreciatively as he inspected the interior of the car. The president of Iran peered out the window at him, the dummy mercifully unharmed albeit with the equivalent of broken legs. Not bad for 140 mph. Susan Winchester stood with her back to the open boot of a 2013 Range Rover as she smiled at customers, trying to will them over to her stall. Farmer’s markets were always the toughest to crack, especially in the organic rhubarb business. Her pleading...

The Ghost is an excellent, gripping thriller from Robert Harris. It follows the Ghost, a ghostwriter who is employed to “ghost” the autobiography of former British prime minister, Adam Lang. He arrives in Martha’s Vineyard and finds out the previous writer, Mike McAra, had attempted it but ended up dying in mysterious circumstances, apparently suicide. The Ghost finds the previous draft of the autobiography left by McAra and declares it a mess. He interviews Lang. Around this time, his subject is threatened with being indicted by the International Criminal Court, with the support of a former minister in his cabinet, Rycart. Lang goes to New York and the Ghost has a one night stand with Ruth, Lang’s long-suffering wife. The Ghost begins to uncover more and more information and he begins to fear for his safety. He drives away in one of Lang’s SUVs, having to drive through protestors at the foot of the lane to the house. He returns to the mainland and meets up with an old college associate of Lang and Rycart. The ending is explosive, and not even what happens initially when they return to Martha’s Vineyard turns out to be the climax, though it may seem to be. Harris for once leaves the best until last. The Ghost is Harris’ masterpiece. True, Fatherland has its moments, and Pompeii is memorable (thank you English project) but for me this is one of the best-reads over the past two years, in which time I have read a wide variety of classic books (and Dubliners). It deals with the loneliness...

People have asked me “How do you make games/movies?” a lot, as if such a question could be answered in one or two sentences. What do I say? You need to learn ActionScript, the coding language of Flash. You need to get the software. Don’t get me started on the amount of people saying “I DO HAVE FLASH” when they’re referring to the browser plugin that ALL browsers today have. There is no definitive way of making Flash. Hell, even I use what’s generally considered bad practice: I still use ActionScript 2.0 instead of AS3.0. Then it’s a matter of learning HOW to animate in Flash. I use basic tweens because I’m lazy. It’s like asking “How do I make medicine?” or “How do you fly a plane?”…What’s even dumber is when people pester me about this stuff without even doing a bit of research. No, DON’T use Google. Another question I receive on a regular basis is “How do you make a Website?” since I’ve coded 2 from scratch… Simple, buy a domain name, get hosting, learn HTML, JavaScript, PHP and CSS – then design the site, then code it using the aforementioned languages. (Or skip the coding and install WordPress, or some generic Forum software, but I think coding from scratch is more fun.) SIMPLE! Even the easy option takes SOME amount of effort that I can’t explain in detail using ONE sentence. People like to act like these things take no effort when they ask a question. Should I take it as a compliment that people think I make what I do look easy? Because that makes it sound like I make good Flash, which I assure you, compared to some of the masterpieces of old on Newgrounds, I make Family...