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[17 Dec 2009|07:30pm] |
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| Strike |
[17 Dec 2009|11:07pm] |
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Dark Messages-Air-The Virgin Suicides |
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I keep getting profoundly irritated by the radio news items about the cancelled British Airways strike; the representatives of BA keep talking ruefully about how many families would've been disappointed by problems with their travel plans (in order to guilt trip the workers they're presumably ripping off). Why do they keep saying 'families'? Presumably all kinds of people have travel plans, so why don't they just say people? Is it to make it sound badder of striking workers to be disappointing families as opposed to people? Because families are somehow better? It just sounds like corporate emotional blackmail to me.
And another thing - why are they putting caffeine in my paracetamol? I don't need it and I don't want it, but that's all the petrol station had. Losers.
Also, my computer is running so bloody slowly I want to throw it out of a window.
Also, the other night I watched Hugh Furry-Whippingstool making xmas things, but he disappointed me by making jokes about farting. Grow up Hugh for goodness sake.
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| insulation and other things |
[17 Dec 2009|07:54am] |
The insulation went in on Tuesday, and it's really taken the chill off the mornings, so that was well worth doing. The condensation continues problematic, though; well, it's a question of slow elimination of causes, I guess, and everything will help.
The kitten's beginning to crack the whole crawling into bed at 5am thing, although she can't quite manage to settle in the crook of my arm without waking me up at least a little bit. She also discovered that the bath is a marvellous miraculous playground of delight last night, so I got a little damp paw in my face. This morning Tim pulled up the amazing anti-mould bathmat, creating a series of explosive disengagements as the suckers released, and she now sees the bath as a place of terror. Flighty.
I've tracked down probable cause for yesterday's computer catastrophe to having to turn off the computer after a sound-related browser hang while it was going through an automatic security download. Hurrah! Had to go back to a restore point, but all that lost me was a codec bundle I downloaded so I could watch some Samurai Jack (late episodes! including Rave Jack!). Well, that's easily redone. Re-installing Firefox was also necessary (perhaps that, too had been updating?) but that turned out to be a good thing; it's running much better than it was before, making me wonder if I hadn't botched an update at some point. Hmmm oh well. It was a good thing I returned from my office party in a zen-like state of calmness, though, as this all took a while...
Bernard Cribbens was good in last night's Buzzcocks, wasn't he?
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[16 Dec 2009|07:30pm] |
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| Loser |
[16 Dec 2009|07:22pm] |
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Toy Love Song-Toy Love-The Authorised Version |
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There was a truism in our family when I was a child that my sister was the 'finder', meaning that she seemed to know where stuff was. No doubt she was observant, had a good memory and could recall the location of things. Conversely, I was a loser. I couldn't even keep track of my own possessions, let alone anyone else's.
I think I've grown up with an expectation that other people will know better than I do where things are. I have cringeworthy memories of making a nuisance of myself getting in a flap because I couldn't find things, and crossly demanding that other people tell me where they are. So that's the background...
Last week, I had quite a bloody job finding Kirsch for my Friday night fondue (which was bloody awesome btw - thank you Jeremy for FB fondue burner advice). No one in Morrisons had ever heard of it. The man in Sainsbury's booze section said they'd stopped ordering (WTF?). In vain I tried the Co-op where no one had heard of it. In the end I got it at LIDL on Thursday evening. I already said all this on Facebook, didn't I. Oh well.
Anyway I went to look for the Kirsch on Friday while preparing for the fondue, couldn't find it ANYWHERE, got in a flap, posted on Facebook and other Internet fora, and also stupidly sent an email to L the cleaner thinking maybe she'd seen it around somewhere. As soon as I'd done that I started panicking, wondering if she might imagine I was accusing her of something. As it was, the (people on the) Internet helped me find it (in the car boot, where I'd already looked but not well enough). I'm crossing my fingers L the C will not think I am suspicious/deranged and disappear, because I think my life has improved markedly since she has started.
What I have learnt:
It's okay to make a vague request for help to find something from the Internet. People won't feel obliged, because it's a general request. And actually it seems to work.
Never ever again email to ask the cleaner if she knows where where stuff is, because she's not on call, and it's probably very annoying.
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[15 Dec 2009|07:30pm] |
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| 50 Book Challenge #62 ~~ Wanting by Richard Flanagan |
[15 Dec 2009|07:55am] |
Wanting – Richard Flanagan 
(New York: Atlantic Books, 2009)
Years ago, my attention was caught by a book review on the radio, mostly by the book's title – Gould's Book of Fish. What a great title: how could it not be wonderful? Surprisingly, I remembered nothing about the book's content, nor the name of its author, but a couple of years ago I ran across a beautiful hardback copy of it in a US bookshop, which I bought. Because, it's a great title: how could it not be wonderful?
As it turned out, it was a splendid novel, as was Death of a River Guide, also by Richard Flanagan, which I read almost immediately afterwards. It turns out that somewhere along the way I managed to miss two other novels by Richard Flanagan, but Wanting is the latest, and again, I knew when I heard about it that it would be my kind of book. Anything that brings together Charles Dickens, Sir John and Lady Jane Franklin and Tasmanian indigenous people is going to tick all the boxes for me. And indeed it did.
However, before I talk about the novel, I should say it is a slow burner. Initially, it seems to read very quickly, and I arrived at the end in a bit of a disappointed heap, thinking 'is that it?' I read it again, to make notes for the review I was writing, at which point the subtlety of the novel's construction began to unfold, and I liked it a lot more as a result. So, read slowly.
( Commentary )
Out of 5
****
62/50 books. 124% done!
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[14 Dec 2009|07:30pm] |
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| 50 Book Challenge #61 ~~ Cahokia by Timothy R Pauketat |
[14 Dec 2009|09:04pm] |
Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi – Timothy R Pauketat 
(The Penguin Library of American Indian History)
(New York: Viking, 2009)
Short version: "Almost a thousand years ago, a Native American city flourished on the banks of the Mississippi River, near what is now St Louis. Cahokia was a thriving metropolis at its height, with a population of twenty thousand centered round a sprawling plaza and scores of spectacular earthen mounds. The city gave rise to a new culture that spread across the plains; yet by 1400 it had been abandoned, leaving only the giant mounds as monuments and traces of its influence in tribes we know today.' (From the jacket flap)
( Commentary )
Out of 5
***¼
61/50 books. 122% done!
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[13 Dec 2009|07:30pm] |
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| 50 Book Challenge #58 The Making of the English Working Class – E P Thompson |
[13 Dec 2009|10:42pm] |
The Making of the English Working Class – E.P. Thompson 
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968)
I'm going to cheat slightly and let Wikipedia describe the book's content because I'm not sure I can do it the necessary justice on one reading. I'm neither a historian nor a sociologist and I found the book, important as it is, a bit of a slog at times, not least because Thompson was discussing a lot of previous published research (often very critically) that I wasn't familiar with.
Having said that, he is tracing out a fascinating story of ordinary people struggling to take control of their own lives, and trying to convince the government that it would ignore them at its peril. It's a complex account of grassroots political and social movements among working men at the mercy of employers and new technology not to mention legislators who did not consider them entitled to voice an opinion, acquire an education, correspond with one another on political and social issues, and so forth. The thing that struck me throughout was the endless concern of those in power that working people might gain any kind of voice, and the lengths to which they went to ensure that didn't happen.
It's dense reading but well worth it to get a slightly different take on how the working-class movements of the late 18th and early 19th centuries engaged with the government of the time.
Out of 5
**** (for importance of subject rather than writing style)
58 / 50 books. 116% done!
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| 50 Book Challenge #56-7 Tanglewreck and The Battle of the Sun – Jeanette Winterson |
[13 Dec 2009|10:24pm] |
Tanglewreck – Jeanette Winterson 
(London: Bloomsbury, 2006)
The Battle of the Sun – Jeanette Winterson 
(London: Bloomsbury, 2009)
These two children's books are closely related, though to describe one as sequel to the other is to suggest a simple linear/chronological relationship between the two that doesn't quite exist. I have mixed feelings about the pair of them. They're pitched at a child audience, but I have a strong sense that Winterson is not that confident about writing for children. There is a strong sense that she is reining in her storytelling to somehow accommodate her perceived audience, and I felt throughout that she was engaged in a struggle between her natural storytelling style and a belief that she needed to write more plainly for children. I liked it better at the points where she clearly forgot herself for a while.
( Commentary )
Out of 5
Tanglewreck **¾
The Battle of the Sun ***
57 / 50 books. 114% done!
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| fragments from advent |
[13 Dec 2009|09:44pm] |
I am the reluctant commuter. On the towpath, a man is shaking a carrier bag at the geese. He engages me with the easy patter of the practiced professional, wishes me happy hannukah, and coaxes me into helping him feed cake and corned beef and mustard sandwiches to geese, ducks, seagulls (but no swans this morning). His name is Ishmael. After the leftovers from his weekend with the kids have gone to the birds, we head into town, talk and walk with the practised speed of people who spend their lives walking to work. It makes me feel poor, sometimes, poor pedestrian wearing out her knees and face on the road and rain. He shares an eventful life; I navigate his politics. The perpetual patter of the professional peacemakers. At Folly Bridge he's off to see someone as part of his pastoral work; I'm off to the council offices to test my will against the redtape maze.
Having forgotten to get an advent calendar (I fancied one from Hotel Chocolat, but came to my senses) this chrismas rave compilation with 25 tracks turned up at just the right moment. So, I had this idea of doing little javascript advent calendar that would play the appropriate mp3 when you opened the window, and downloaded a calendar blank and made up a photocollage and then... oh it would have been fiddly, and I wouldn't have been able to put it up anywhere, anyway and... anyway, Sunday 13th on the imaginary advent calendar of christmas rave is Ramin & Silver's Amazing Grace [Vocal Trance Mix], if anyone fancies a little DIY calendar opening.
Which brings me to blip.fm, and its tragic unusability. I was having problems with it freezing my browser and hanging, and went to the FAQ (like you do) where it told me that Adblock Plus was known to cause issues with the site. Fair enough, thought I, and turned it off; and it did fix that particular problem. However, the site's now full of adverts, which means that I have problems with it freezing my browser and hanging. Oh well. Enter http://rcrdlbl.com/ -- its social aspect is nub-like and it looks like its been built out of hope and string, however it takes care of its key business -- playing and downloading music -- with nonchalent ease. That'll do.
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| 50 Book Challenge 54-55 – Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass, by Karen Blixen |
[13 Dec 2009|05:43pm] |
Out of Africa – Karen Blixen 
(London: Penguin, 2001, orig. publ. 1937)
Shadows on the Grass – Karen Blixen 
(London: Michael Joseph, 1960)
"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up, near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold."( Commentary )
Out of 5
Out of Africa ***½
Shadows on the Grass ***
55/50 books. 110% done!
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[12 Dec 2009|07:30pm] |
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