Curiosity Killed the Cat

7:54pm: Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve
Whoo. Great book. Rollicking, imaginative SciFi at its best (though not so hard on the Sci). With a sense of humour too, which seems to be rare in the genre.

Don't know how I haven't come across this author before. Perhaps I was put off by the fact I didn't get on with Mortal Engines' namesake.
( More, with spoilers )
And the best thing is there's more!

11:32pm: Double take
Flesh-eating slugs.  Cabbages.

2:11pm: Books
Well, exams are officially survived, and I have ceremoniously ordered Deathly Hallows. And of course, being at Amazon and having new house-space (though no new shelves as yet), more books.

The latest book for my book club turns out to be historical romance written in the style of bad NC17 fanfic, complete with Mary Sue victim-character. Ick. I think I may be unavoidably detained from the next meeting.

However, the bad taste is very much taken away by Pamela Dean's Tam Lin. It's a long time since I've got so addicted to a book. It seemed to fall in the narrow category of books I am bound to like whatever weaknesses or huge gaping plot-holes or Grawp subplots they may contain.
( Spoilers... )

10:49pm: Good Things
Remarkably many good things. And that despite looming exams.

• In a new house, with space and GARDEN. This is very exciting, as we were previously living in a rather small flat.
• I seem to be averaging about 2 days a week at work this month.  I do like my job when I'm there, but it's still nice to do other things.
  
• My orchestra is playing the theme from Harry Potter. It's great fun to play, though fiendishly hard for the violin section. Also Star Wars, Mission Impossible, and assorted other silly stuff. Bit of a change from Shostakovich last term! The conservative element appear to be grumpy about film music as well as about Shostakovich. Perhaps they'll leave...
• There is new Dr Who.
• There will quite soon be new Harry Potter. I'm going to put in my reservation as a post exam treat. Am wondering whether to select it for our (thus far rather serious) book club to read. At the moment we're reading Waterland by Graham Swift, which is either very intellectual or very pretentious, I'm not sure which.
• And it's been sunny all day!

12:30pm: Thankyou internet
Student: How is this defined exactly?
Me: Hmm, I'm not sure.  I'll look it up.
Me: *searches internet*
Internet: Here's some definitions A, B and C.  Oh, and you'll want this article from a minor journal in 1938.
Me:  Will I?  Oh dear.  Nearest uni library at least 30 miles, and they don't have a big maths department so are highly unlikely to have the article.  Hmm, suppose I could mail-order a copy, but it probably won't turn out to be interesting.
Internet:  Hem-hem.  *brandishes journal archive*
Journal article:  Well, there are definitions A, B and C, but they aren't consistent.  Here, try definition D.
Me: *triples resolve to keep the part time teaching job that gets me access to both students and journal archives*

Oh, and hi - I'm still here, I'm still reading LJ occasionally, I still haven't figured out what this journal is for, and I still don't have much to say or time to say it.  Having a fantastic year so far, I hope everyone else is too.

9:41am: Quote unquote
Double-take quotes of yesterday:
Giorgio Armani : "Sure, I choose very feminine women with little breast and straight hips".
And from BBC Radio 5 introducing a guest: "The man who's trying to make jazz sexy!"

8:46pm: Housework. No, really.
Our landlady has decided to enter the twentieth century (sic.) and supplied us with a vacuum cleaner which doesn't require a trip to the antique shop to fit it with a bag.

So now we are proud cohabiters-with of a Dyson. And it is really really cool. I mean, it has buttons to click and levery things all over, and you can see how to take it apart and put it back together. And you can see the dust going round! This is a vacuum cleaner designed by geeks. No streamlining - it's not supposed to fly, is it? No clever invisible springy-things to wind up the wire - far too complicated, far too likely to break. No, they've designed a small plastic clip to keep the flex tidy. It works. It's simple. It's neat. Every hoover I've met in the last twenty years could have had one but didn't.

Well-designed things make me happy.

Now all I have to do is clear papers off enough carpet to be worth turning the thing on.

10:48pm: Der Jammerwoch
I have to post this link before it disappears down my friendslist on languagehat. Apparently translating the Jabberwocky is an old sport; attempting to pronounce the results is a new game to me. Should be set as an exercise to all language students.

I don't usually like the idea of translated literature, let alone poetry, if I stand a chance of understanding the original; but this sounds fantastic in German. Otherwise I stumble too much over even the French. Must learn more languages.

8:59pm: JKR Interview
I have my fingers in my ears and I am humming out of tune. I don't want to know who dies. I don't want to know who doesn't die. I don't want to know how many people die. I don't want to know the title of chapter 93 1/4.

Last book I had fun playing guessing games, and I expect I'll do that again, but I don't think I want to pick up all the hints dropped in interviews and spoilers and covers this time. It gave too much away in HBP and OotP to be sitting there waiting to see who died.

Seems a bit early to start the hype too. What do we reckon, next June?

1:29pm: Help! Wrong world error. Redo from start.
My employer seems to think they can motivate us (=bunch of middle-aged professionals) by means of balloons, stickers and party games. What's more, a large proportion of my colleagues seem to agree. Feels like I've strayed into a very alien culture at times. Am I a total bore? Yes, probably. But... but a roomful of self-respecting fifteen year olds would laugh them out of court. I know retro is in and all that, but you have to be pretty bored with your job to find blowing up balloons a welcome change. Surely we can think of ways to have fun without pretending to be five years old?

In fact, am off to do so now. See, not a total curmudgeon really.

10:48pm: People
To the stranger who, on being asked for directions, stopped in the middle of cooking her dinner and forcibly gave me a lift to my destination after I absent-mindedly got off the train at the wrong stop and idiotically tried to walk to the next station without a map: thank you.

To the stranger who sat down opposite me in an empty station and proceeded to have a loud conversation about personal matters on her mobile phone, presumably on the assumption that I was reading a book, so couldn't possibly hear her: um?

All evens out I guess.

10:00pm: And now for something completely different
The BBC's Jamie Kane game is rather interesting.

It's a murder-mystery game played through a series of websites, blogs and message-boards. It features quite impressive chat robots, albeit speaking a strange dialect of fangirl. There are even bits sprinkled through the BBC's music coverage. Unfortunately the parts of the game requiring search engines have been a bit spoiled by self-reference, as the game itself has attracted some coverage.

I have to confess that I found their fake boyband star more listenable to than most chart music, though some of his lyrics are a bit daft.

10:27pm: St George
They seem to be making a huge kerfuffle about St George's day in England this year. There are flags and red and white balloons everywhere - you'd think there was a football match on or something.

I've been out of the country on this great day for the last three years, but I'm sure they didn't always make such a fuss. Is this a sudden thing, or has it been catching on generally? Or am I just imagining things?

7:20pm: Another one for the rant line
Erk. Street preachers.

( Preaching to the unconverted... )

7:58pm: Kids' Lit
I'm still engaged in catching up on things I've missed in children's fantasy:

• I am belatedly very chuffed that the Diana Wynne Jones character survey a few weeks ago pegged me as Moril.
  
  
• I already knew DWJ was the master of cross-generational romance, but 200 years plays 13? The mind boggles.
  
  
• Artemis Fowl is sweeeet. Hi-tech fairies!
  
  
• My local libraries are well stocked in Lemony Snicket – except for the first book which is always out. One day I'll get fed up of this and either reserve it or buy it.
  

1:40pm: Lemon Meringue Pie
You know the stuff you get in school canteens that tastes like lemon flavoured washing up liquid? That's not lemon meringue pie: ( this is. )

4:55pm: Moving Pictures
I just realised that moving pictures have a disturbing effect on me. If there are moving pictures, I watch them, whatever else there is to see.

That's why moving LJ icons irritate me, however cool they may be. Scrolling "Happy-Birthdays" put me off reading anything that lands next to them on my f-list. If I go anywhere where there's a TV set on I will watch whatever's playing, however pointless or annoying it may be. I even watch the ads in the cinema.

Perhaps I should reconsider ever owning a TV set. It may turn me into a cabbage.

6:24pm: Isms
Someone had a post a few weeks ago saying that (I paraphrase) racism is "worse" than sexism. This was in response to someone else comparing incidents of the two, and I'm afraid I can't remember who any of the someones involved were. The big disagreement really seemed to come down to what the word "worse" was standing for. On the whole I'd agree sexism tends not to get as serious as racism because the other sex are all around, are your mothers and sons and wives, so you have to live with them. Genocide of the opposite sex isn't (at present at least) an option. But not getting a job because your skin's green is exactly as bad as not getting it because you're hermaphroditic.

In the context of a discussion I was having recently, I've been wondering if sexism might not be in some ways a worse problem. ( Thinking aloud. )

And in other news, I spent my Xmas vouchers on one of those magnetic-sticks-and-ballbearings toys. (Came labelled as “Boys Toys” though. Grrr.) I've been hankering after one of these for ages. They make a satisfying “clunk” when you fit the pieces together. Happy now.

11:22pm: Fire and Hemlock
( This is what happens when catkind is insomniac. )

6:32pm: Cats Bearing Gifts
I'm not clever enough to make things. I'm not organised enough to send cards. I'm not silly enough to shower you with gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Instead, here are some treasures I found lying around the internet and have been hoarding (apologies to their owners)...

A neat green box with a delicate silver ribbon. The label reads ( For the Slytherins among you. )

A dark-wrapped parcel with blue trimmings. ( To Lions and Girly Girls. )

A cheerful red-green striped package. Jingles suspiciously. ( To academics of all flavours. )

A mysterious knobbly shape in red crepe paper. ( To crossword nuts and other word-loving comestibles. )

A long thin package with a spray of tinsel at one end. ( To Aunt Maud. )

Happy New Year!

6:52pm: Charity
I'm still sorting charity appeals, which are getting seriously busy with Xmas coming up.

We're getting huge numbers of grumpy pensioners saying "don't send me junk mail, I'm eighty-three and a half, I need charity myself" and variations on the theme with various degrees of vitriol. (Just like kids, OAPs seem to feel the need to tell you their age with mind-numbing precision and frequency.) Nothing against pensioners, they also make up a large majority of the donors, and I'm sure many really are in financial difficulties; but there's no need to get shirty with charities.

One young woman really made my week though: she wrote in broken English to say that she was an asylum seeker, living alone with her baby on no income to speak of, and apologised that she couldn't help financially. She then went on to offer to go and cook or clean for those in need, or to take her "smiley boy" to visit and cheer them up.

Someone give this woman a visa now, this is the sort of person we want in our country.

P.S. I do not apologise for using the word Xmas. I'm not celebrating anything Christian here.

9:53pm: Goblet of Fire
Please find enclosed: One obligatory GoF film review.

( Goblet of Fire )

8:46pm: December
I just wanted to link to the lovely Advent Calendar compiled by Christina Preuß. Behind the windows you'll find pictures and poems and all sorts. The written bits will make more sense to German-speakers, but it's worth a look just for the pretty pictures of snow on the calendar itself.

8:14pm: HP drabbly thing
This has in fact no connection with my previous entry, I just came across it on my hard drive and felt like posting it.

( My most optimistic take on what Draco Malfoy's thinking now... c.500 words. )

9:04pm: Sporking (an anti-rant rant)
Dear Sporkers,

I hope you won't take it amiss if I say I find you are picking on people a great deal smaller than yourselves. Why does everyone have this fascination with bad writing? I guess I just don't "get" this sporking thing.

Suprise! The internet and (gasp!) even the Harry Potter fandom contains idiots. A lot of them are very young, or very ignorant, or both. If this bothers you, why not comment on their fic and tell them what's wrong with it? Maybe you can help them to grow up. More probably they will bitch about you, so please don't forget that if you bitch back you're just lowering yourselves to their level. Isn't it unkind to laugh at people's ignorance?

Why are intelligent people going to the trouble of reading bad fic just in order to deconstruct it? There's reams of the stuff out there. Just click on that handy back-button!

Now if you'd care to deconstruct published writers I'd be right behind you. They're paid for it. Come on guys, even Rowling isn't without her spork-worthy aspects.

Sincerely,

catkind the humourless

(This is a reaction to a_t_rain's recent post, but not aimed at her particularly - as she says, she doesn't usually spork.)