Changes, changes, changes.

New computer, new desk, new chair on the way (I hope). Blogging via Google. IE7 (which, so far, isn't impressing me.)
New year.

Happy New Year to all.
Here I am in the new Google version of blogging. I haven't got time to see what's new yet. New pics on flickr if anyone's interested.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Hardball :: softball


2. Sleepless :: night


3. Graduation :: university


4. Presents :: Christmas


5. Toe :: foot


6. Lotion :: moisturiser


7. Snicker :: snigger


8. Eve :: ning


9. Investment :: money


10. Pain :: in the neck

he he

Here's me thinking that things might have improved a bit because there was a bit of rain last night. I don't think it rained where it was needed, unfortunately. It never does, it seems.
From abc.net.au:

Friday, December 15, 2006. 6:13am (AEDT)

Horrible night ... a man has died and at least 12 houses have been destroyed. (ABC TV)

Vic suffers worst night of fires
Victoria has suffered its worst night of bushfires since the blazes began a fortnight ago, with at least a dozen homes burnt down and a man killed in the east of the state.

A number of blazes have also merged to form one giant fire front stretching from Dargo to Mount Terrible, near Jamieson.

Five houses were confirmed lost at Gaffneys Creek, another four burnt down at A1 Mine Settlement, two at Toongabbie and another at Seaton.

About 450,000 hectares of land has been destroyed by fires in Gippsland and the north-east.

A number of communities are under direct threat again this morning, with Kevington, Woods Point, Jamieson, A1 Mine and Gaffneys Creek experiencing ember attacks.

I have to give my computer back. It belongs to the Education Dep't and they've finally twigged that I'm no longer an employee. Bugger. I was kinda hoping it'd slip by them.
So, the shop is going to lease a new one which I'll get tomorrow. Well, I should if the boss remembers to go get it!
So, I'll have to spend the weekend transfering all that data from one machine to the other. Oh joy.

About time I talked about a book...

Just finished Chasing The Dime by Michael Connelly. He's a regular seller here so I thought I'd give him a try, see what all the fuss is about. Pfft! Can't say I was all that impressed.
It's certainly an easy read. The basic premise is about a research chemist, involved in cutting edge medical nanotechnology, who is wrongly accused of murder. It's all a set up, of course. A big pharmaceutical giant wants his technology so frames him for the murder in order to get it. Believable? No. But, the way it's written almost sucked me in for a while there.
The ending is terrible. A shoot-out. The goodies are wounded, the baddies are killed. Crass.
Why is it that Americans (fictional ones in this case) think that the gun is an acceptable way to settle issues?


PS. The smoke haze is back with a vengeance today.

Okay, I've opened a flickr account, under the name of jsarcadia. Not much there yet.
here

Korea by Spike Milligan

Why are they lying in some distant land
Why did they go there
Did they understand?
Young men they were
Young men they stay
But why did we send them away, away?

Could be about a number of places really.

The sky is back today. I much prefer blue up there to that murky grey-brown that we've had lately.
However, as the ABC reports:

No Victorian communities are under direct threat from bushfires this morning, despite the fact two big blazes in the north-east have joined.

The fire front is estimated to be around 250 kilometres long and the total area burnt now is around 280,000 hectares.

Blazes close to Mount Beauty, Jamieson and Whitfield in the state's north-east are still of concern to authorities.

Two of the bushfires in Gippsland have also merged to form a 60,000 hectare blaze near Dargo.

Authorities are urging residents in fire regions to stay alert despite milder weather forecast for today and tomorrow.

Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) spokesman Craig Ferguson says a wind change and higher temperatures predicted for later in the week are a concern.

"We've got cooler conditions now to about Wednesday and then the winds are going to shift back to the north," he said.

"Thursday at this stage is predicted to heat up again in terms of temperatures, so towards the end of the week we will be back in to having higher fire danger indexes and potentially extreme fire conditions."

Five things you May Not Know about Me.

Shirl has tapped me to reveal 5 things about me.
I don't know what "tapped" means but I'm guessing that I have to follow suit. So here goes....

1. Until recently I was a History teacher but quit after a long battle with the principal. After 28 years in the job I'd become totally disillusioned with the whole system and decided that they didn't deserve me. I now run a secondhand bookshop and am much happier.

2. I was born in Liverpool, England and migrated to Melbourne, Australia when I was 12. Been here ever since, although I'm still a British citizen. My Royalist sympathies clash pretty severely with my Socialist politics. Oh well.

3. I used to ride a Triumph motorcycle. Now, at 51, I'm quite content with my (brand new) Toyota Corolla.

4. Long-term relationship ended about 10 years ago and I've been single ever since. Sometimes I'm happy with that, sometimes I'm not.

5. My parents are still alive and kicking and still married to each other. I have one brother and two sisters, all younger than me. I have 3 nieces and 2 nephews, ranging from 24 to 4 in age. We all get together regularly for birthdays, Easter, Christmas, etc.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Research :: grant


2. Chuck :: Connors


3. Insert :: here


4. Bang :: bang, you're dead


5. Lousy :: rotten


6. Rehearsal :: play


7. Critics :: don't know what they're talking about


8. Memory :: used to have one


9. Squid :: calamari


10. Remove :: erase

40 degrees yesterday, 20 today. Phew. The wind has changed direction too. Hopefully it will blow the fires back on themselves and stop them spreading further.
The worrying thing is that this is only the start of summer and because of the drought everything is tinder dry. It's going to be a horrible season I think.

the view from above

Found this pic on one of the news services.

Still hazy today but it doesn't seem as bad as yesterday, although the sky is still just this murky grey-brown blanket. Very hot still, but there is a cool change on the way (so they say.)

Later this same day....
It's hit 40 degrees out there. That's about 104 in Fahrenheit. Did I mention that this shop does not have air-conditioning? Got a little pedestal fan pointed at me and that's it. 3 more hours, then I can go home.

On a lighter note....

Here are the house animals. The cat doesn't get around much, pretty much stuck in his ways. Bunny turned up about 8 years ago apparently and decided to stay. It spends most of its time chatting to the chooks.

Last night's moon.

This is the view from outside the shop, looking west towards the city. It's daytime. Smoke has drifted all across town from the fires a couple of hundred miles away. It's awful out there. I can't imagine what it must be like for the people in the actual fire areas.

There's a real smoke haze in the sky today. Tomorrow is going to be horrible. Predicted temperature in the high 30s - the state is on full alert because of the fires already burning. The hope is that they don't join up, particularly the ones in the east and north-east - that would be worse than disastrous.

Just did an IQ test here and scored 135.

Today's map

This is what I hate about summer....

From the ABC:

Wednesday, December 6, 2006. 2:43pm (AEDT)

Fires in Victoria are approaching a number of communities.

Residents in eastern Victoria have been told to prepare for one of the worst bushfire weekends in the state's history.

Community meetings are under way as the situation worsens.

Residents in affected regions are currently deciding whether to stay or leave as fires approach a number of communities.

The Country Fire Authority (CFA) is warning that some of the fires could join to form one massive 600,000-hectare blaze by the weekend.

Premier Steve Bracks says everything will be done to save properties.

"We have the maximum resources possible in the state to bear on this, but we can't say that we are not going to have problems this weekend," he said.

The main threat to private property is currently both north-east and south-east of Mansfield in the state's north-east, but authorities are warning that towns as far south as Bairnsdale and Rosedale in Gippsland could be under threat by the weekend.

Went to the pictures last night and saw The Guardian. Kevin, of course. It's a fairly formulaic film - old buck and young gun, but it works, I think, because the subject matter (Coast Guard) is a bit different and because the performances are pretty good. Costner's not afraid to play his age - he's 51, like all the best people. Ashton Kutcher was a surprise - he's very good in this. The ending is a bit twee but the rest of it is worth watching. Good action scenes that make you wonder why anyone would want to take on a job like that.

I'm not a nerd.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Hello :: Hello hello


2. Flinstone :: Fred


3. Corn :: on the cob


4. Interview :: with the vampire


5. Deviant :: Kevin


6. Concept :: album


7. Bridge :: over troubled waters


8. Karen :: bitch


9. Encounter :: meeting


10. Biological :: clock

Australia's favourite album

The ABC did an online poll of favourite albums and the results were released last night. I voted for Disintegration by The Cure which came in at #51. This is the top ten. I don't have numbers 2, 3 and 9 (Meatloaf, UGH!) but I have the others. I have #2 on the computer - a pirated copy so that doesn't really count. Don't listen to the Chili Peppers anymore but the others still get played.

Pink Floyd — Dark Side Of The Moon
Jeff Buckley — Grace
Radiohead — Ok Computer
The Beatles — Abbey Road
The Beatles — Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Nirvana — Nevermind
Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin 4
Red Hot Chili Peppers — Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Meat Loaf — Bat Out Of Hell
U2 — The Joshua Tree

the top 100

The house that Laurie built.

My room is on the right, behind the trees there.

Standing on the back verandah.

I decided that the little camera I bought was really only a toy, so yesterday I went out and bought one of these. Naughty me.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Rhyme :: no rhyme or reason


2. Substantial :: bulky


3. Instant :: message


4. Greed :: money


5. Brad :: Pitt


6. Season :: summer


7. Accomplished :: done


8. Invite :: come on over


9. Sparkle :: glitter


10. Rainbow :: waterfall

Queenscliff

The good news is that I survived the weekend. Had a great time. Heard lots of good music. The highlight, for me, were The Models who've reformed - the 80s revisited. Great stuff. The other memorable act was a young band called The Black Guns. They churned out super-loud 70s style guitar driven rock. They were so enthusiastic, great to watch. The guitarist was so into it that he fell off the back of the stage - but he kept playing and turned it into a solo. Haha, it was hilarious. Sons of Spinal Tap!!
Chris Wilson was a bit of a disappointment. He has the most awesome voice and usually does a great blues set. But on Saturday he mainly did singalongs and didn't use that voice as he can. Lazy, I thought.
Got a bit sunburned yesterday which wasn't so smart.
The bad news is that the camera battery went flat and I didn't have the adapter for the charger so i couldn't recharge the battery. So, no pics. I'm pissed off about that. Especially as, Shirl, there were lighthouses! I'll have to do a special trip back there to snap those for you.

The things people ask....

Just had an old bloke on the phone wanting to know if I could hunt up a book for him. He doesn't know what it's called or who wrote it. He read about it in a Playboy book review over 15 years ago.
Umm. Sure.

Off to Queenscliff this weekend. Can't wait. Not only is it the first break I'll have had in the last 12 months but it's also a chance to give the car another decent run and a chance to give the new camera a good workout.
No doubt there'll be numerous posts and pics next week.

Huh?

Why have my profile and links moved down to the bottom of the page? What has that quiz done to my blog??????

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Teacher :: used to be


2. Fifty :: one, and counting


3. Crossword :: puzzle


4. Stuffed :: knackered


5. Family :: dinner


6. Purr :: pussycat


7. Toad :: of Toad Hall


8. Cocktail :: party


9. Insecurity :: lack of confidence


10. Magical :: books

Finally took the car for a decent trip last night when I drove #1 nephew out to Ballarat to pick up the ute he's bought. 300km round trip. Made for a long night and I'm feeling a bit sleep-deprived today.

Saw this at Shirl's

I'm a Mandarin!

You're an intellectual, and you've worked hard to get where you are now. You're a strong believer in education, and you think many of the world's problems could be solved if people were more informed and more rational. You have no tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking. It frustrates you when people who are ignorant or dishonest rise to positions of power. You believe that people can make a difference in the world, and you're determined to try.

Talent: 54%
Lifer: 26%
Mandarin: 59%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

My other new toy *huge grin*

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Nick :: Reiwoldt


2. Focus :: puller


3. Police :: car


4. Miles :: per gallon


5. Earn :: money


6. Twice :: cheap at twice the price


7. Razor :: shave


8. Personality :: split


9. Dumped :: rubbish


10. Reliable :: me

Oh when the Saints.....

At home, and yes, it's raining.



Out the back of the bookshop.

Guess what.....

I've got a new car.
I've got a new car.
I've got a new car.
I've got a new car.
I've got a new car.
I've got a new car.
I've got a new car.
I've got a new car.
I've got a new car.
I've got a new car.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Theft :: robbery


2. Storage :: boxes


3. Pick :: apart


4. Los Angeles :: LA


5. The one :: and only


6. Accent :: French


7. Rivalry :: football


8. Process :: red tape


9. Streets :: have no name


10. Museum :: Louvre

Just had a call from the finance people. I should have my money next week. So this time next week I just might have a new car !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

runs in the family

"I have opinions of my own --strong opinions-- but I don't always agree with them."
- George Bush, former U.S. President

"It is white."
- George W. Bush, when asked what the White house was like by a student in East London

what saying is this?

100S549A3100F4E621T0028Y2167

Watched World's Fastest Indian last night. Great little film. I got annoyed with Anthony Hopkins' so-called Kiwi accent - not even close most of the time - but otherwise he is excellent in this. It's based on the efforts of Burt Munro to break the land speed record at Bonneville on his 1920s Indian. I won't say whether he did or not in case you haven't seen it yet. It's definitely worth a look.

I like this

the artist

Drought

Stage 2 water restrictions came into effect yesterday. Some towns in the state, like Bendigo, are already up to Stage 4. There's just no water anywhere.
Ironically, today it's raining.

Under Stage 2 restrictions;

· Private lawns can not be watered at any time;
· Vehicles can only be cleaned with a bucket, watering can, or high-pressure water-saving pumps – neither trigger hoses allowed in Stage 1 nor unpressurised hoses may be used without being attached to such a pump;
· Only commercial car washes that recycle water or use high-pressure water-saving pumps can operate;
· No grass sportsgrounds can be watered except for formal cricket pitches, golf and bowling greens, and tennis courts;
· Householders wishing to fill pools or spas still need written permission from their water retailer, as per Stage 1, but under Stage 2 will also have to demonstrate they can save the equivalent amount of water via other means in their homes and gardens; and
· In public gardens, lawns and flower beds can only be watered using hand-held hoses with or without a trigger nozzle, watering cans and buckets; where manual watering systems are used, between 5am and 8am and 8pm and 11pm only; and where automatic watering systems are used, between 11pm and 6am only.

I've written about 600 words. But I'm bored with the way it's going already. If I keep starting again I'm gonna get nowhere though.

Got this in an email *chuckle*

Cinderella is now 95 years old.

After a fulfilling life with the now dead prince, she happily sits upon her rocking chair, watching the world go by from her front porch, with a cat named Bob for companionship.

One sunny afternoon out of nowhere, appeared the fairy godmother.

Cinderella said, "Fairy Godmother, what are you doing here after all these years"?

The fairy godmother replied,
"Cinderella, you have lived an exemplary life since I last saw you. Is there anything for which your heart still yearns?"

Cinderella was taken aback, overjoyed, and after some thoughtful >consideration, she uttered her first wish:

"The prince was wonderful, but not much of an investor.
I'm living hand to mouth on my disability checks, and I wish I were wealthy beyond comprehension."
Instantly her rocking chair turned into solid gold.

Cinderella said,
"Ooh, thank you, Fairy Godmother"

The fairy godmother replied,
"It is the least that I can do. What do you want for your second wish?"

Cinderella looked down at her frail body, and said,
"I wish I were young and full of the beauty and youth I once had."

At once, her wish became reality, and her beautiful young visage returned.
Cinderella felt stirrings inside of her that had been dormant for years.

And then the fairy godmother spoke once more:
"You have one more wish; what shall it be?"
Cinderella looks over to the frightened cat in the corner and says,
"I wish for you to transform Bob, my old cat, into a kind and handsome young man."

Magically, Bob suddenly underwent so fundamental a change in his biological make-up that, when he stood before her, he was a man so beautiful the likes
of him neither she nor the world had ever seen.

The fairy godmother said,
"Congratulations, Cinderella, enjoy your new life."

With a blazing shock of bright blue electricity,
the fairy godmother was gone as suddenly as she appeared.

For a few eerie moments, Bob and Cinderella looked into each other's eyes.
Cinderella sat, breathless, gazing at the most beautiful, stunningly perfect man she had ever seen.

Then Bob walked over to Cinderella, who sat transfixed in her rocking chair, & held her close in his young muscular arms.

He leaned in close, blowing her golden hair
with his warm breath
as he whispered...
...
...
...
...
"Bet you're sorry you neutered me."

Can I do it?
The things I let people influence me into doing! Or trying, at least. I can't see me churning out 50,000 words in a month. But, you never know if you don't have a go.

For Shirl.....

When you put a jumper/sweater on, do you put your head through first and then put your arms in, or is it arms in first, then head?

When the top comes off, do you pull it up over your head from the bottom or from the neck?

What came first - chicken or egg? Haha.

Jeeezuz!
My ex-school just emailed me a completion of service form today. They are bloody hopeless.

"A free press is the unsleeping guardian of every other right that freemen prize; it is the most dangerous foe of tyranny..." - Winston Churchill.

I wonder what happened to free press? Did it ever exist?

I rang the super people today. They finally got official notification on Friday - the same day I got the letter saying they hadn't!
So now I have to wait another 3 weeks.
The car will be there tomorrow. I'll have to go to the caryard and at least say hello to it.

You Are Emerald Green

Deep and mysterious, it often seems like no one truly gets you. Inside, you are very emotional and moody - though you don't let it show. People usually have a strong reaction to you... profound love or deep hate. But you can even get those who hate you to come around. There's something naturally harmonious about you.

What Color Green Are You?

Daylight saving has started. Guess who forgot. Jeez, it must be old age. The bookshop opened an hour late today. My Sunday Morning Guy will be pissed off.

I am so fucking furious. I cannot believe the incompetence of some people. I resigned from teaching on the 13th October. I saw the financial people, got my super sorted and went out and ordered a new car. Toyota rang me yesterday to tell me the car will be ready on Tuesday. I told them I probably wouldn't have my money through till a few days after that. No worries, I've put a deposit it on it so it's fine. Then yesterday there was a letter from the superannuation people waiting for me when I got home.
My stupid fuckwit of an ex-employer hasn't informed then officially of my resignation. Once they receive that THEN they'll start processing my money - which takes 3 weeks. It's been two weeks since I resigned. They've cut me off the department email system, they've stopped my pay, they've done all those things that suit them. But have they done the one thing that I need them to do....NO. I am so angry. I am more than angry. I am seething, furious, spitting chips.

Hey Shirl....

The fridge is working again. Hmmmm.

The boss has just returned from the accountant. In the last financial year the shop made a profit of a grand total of $100. I guess that's better than being in the red. I suppose.

Speaking of Jasper Fforde, I finally finished The Well of Lost Plots. The concept of a whole world of characters, plots, etc., is very clever. Fforde has an ingenious imagination and his use of literary allusions and puns is very funny. The central character, Thursday Next, also features in Something Rotten which is waiting for me at home.

Meanwhile I've started High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. It begins with the central character's top five most memorable split-ups. Easy to read and very amusing so far.

The Fourth Bear - Jasper Fforde

Another Nursery Crimes novel. Must grab this if it ever comes into the shop. The Big Over Easy was hilarious.

The Barnes & Noble Review:

Detective Chief Inspector Jack Spratt and his trusty sergeant, Mary Mary, are back in another sidesplitting Nursery Crime adventure from Jasper Fforde: the sequel to 2005's The Big Over Easy. In The Fourth Bear, Spratt must track down a legendarily violent criminal known as the Gingerbreadman, a "seven-foot biscuit with a bad attitude."

After successfully apprehending the infamous Great Long Red-Legg'd Scissor-man, who cuts the digits off children who suck their thumbs, Spratt is inexplicably forced to take a leave of absence while a medical review board assesses his competency. With Mary Mary working as the acting head of the Nursery Crime Division -- and Spratt as her "consultant" -- the misfit members of the NCD are faced with two very different cases: to help track down the deranged Gingerbreadman, who has just escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane, and to find Henrietta "Goldilocks" Hatchett, an investigative reporter who mysteriously disappeared while working on a story about prizewinning pickles. The last to see her alive: a family of three bears who have recently experienced strange porridge problems…

Here it is, 3pm and I've had a total of 4 sales today. Slow as a wet week. The electricians are here doing some work on the wiring - the lights mostly. The way things were just hanging around was illegal so they're making it all legit. Coincidentally the fridge has stopped working. They say it's nothing they've done - of course! Mind you, it's an antique fridge so maybe it's just that its time has come. Mighty suspicious coincidence, if you ask me!

Finally managed to convince eBay that when I requested that our account be closed I meant that I wanted it closed. They didn't like that at all. Tough. It was costing far more to operate than we ever made from it. Serious book buyers don't go to eBay. Now that the lady who ran it has gone there's no need to have the account anymore. If she wants to keep doing it she can start up her own account with her own credit card, not ours.

Bit of a kerfuffle in the gunshop next door earlier today. A man stormed out yelling all sorts of not very nice stuff at the guys inside. Turns out he went ballistic when he tried to buy some ammo and they asked to see some ID. Which they have to do, by law. Seems he didn't like that and got a bit angry. Drove away like a maniac. Makes me wonder what he wanted the ammunition for!!! I don't like having that shop next door. I want to kick them out and use the space for BOOKS! God knows, we've got enough to fill both premises.

It's raining! I just hope it's also raining in the catchment areas and out in the country where it's really needed.

Alchemy.
All it entails is matching colours and/or shapes to clear lines but it is SO addictive!

This month's most popular author: Jane Austen. All of a sudden we're completely out of stock of all things Austen. Not good.

I can't decide what 5 books I'd take to a new planet but I do know which 5 CDs I'd take:
Disintegration - The Cure
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Live Seeds - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Decade - Neil Young
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

This place is a mess! Up until now I've only been working in the bookshop on weekends and school holidays but, now that I'm CEO (hehe) I'm here full time. The lady who was working here Mon-Fri has moved on to another job. I've been trying to figure out the accounts - 'cos it's all been a big secret 'till now. All I can find out is that we've got unpaid bills coming out of our ears! The Post Office account is suspended because it hasn't been paid. The advertising account hasn't been paid and has gone to a debt collection agency. The accountant hasn't been paid. It's a bloody nightmare. Plus the electricity bill just arrived. It's going to take months to dig us out of the hole 'cos we just don't make enough to pay everything off at once.
But I'm going to do it.

Yesterday, fully recovered from my hangover, I went into town to see the finance people about what to do with my superannuation. I can't access most of it till I turn 55 but I can get a bit now.
So......on the way home I bought one of these:
(Mine will be Merlot Red though) Pick it up in 3 weeks!!!!

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
For the first time since I was 17 I am not a government employee.
For the first time since I was 4 I do not have to go to school.
I have such a monumental hangover.

I've read a bit more of McCarthy and I really don't like his style very much and the way he uses the word and all the time and uses no punctuation especially for dialogue she said and the way he doesn't use names and so his characters are he and she and it gets confusing about which he and she he means and I have to keep rereading to figure out what's going on and I think he's a bit too pretentious for me and I might give him a miss for now.

"It came boring out of the east like some ribald satellite of the coming sun howling and bellowing in the distance and the long light of the headlamp running through the tangled mesquite brakes and creating out of the night the endless fenceline down the dead straight right of way and suckling it back again wire and post mile on mile into the darkness after where the boilersmoke disbanded slowly along the faint new horizon and the sound came lagging and he stood still holding his hat in his hands in the passing ground-shudder watching it till it was gone."

From All The Pretty Horses by Cormac mcCarthy

Whew, what a sentence! An endless sentence to describe an endless train. I like the concept. Hard reading though - I keep having to go back over passages to figure out what exactly he's on about. It'll be interesting to see whether I stick it out on this one or not.

Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.
- Ozzy Osbourne.

What five books would you take to a new planet?

Pinched this from So Many Books.
Hmmm, I'll have to think about this....
Lord of the Rings for sure, but what else?
Does a series count as one? Hehe, then I could take Dorothy Dunnett and Robert Jordan. But I think that might be cheating.

Well it's done. My career of 28 years in the Education Department is over. I will be resigning at the end of next week.
Full time bookshop, here I come.

Eagles by one point. One point!
It was an exciting last quarter - the Swannies very nearly snatched it at the end. They must be devastated to lose by the smallest margin. Poor lads. But, well done Eagles.
Sainters next year!

A man called Peter, a regular customer, has just talked me into reading The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. He's just stood here and waxed lyrical about McCarthy's work for 15 minutes.
I love it when people are passionate about their reading. Warms the cockles of the heart, it does.

Meanwhile, in the shop.... History's been tidied up but not organised exactly how I want it. New bookcase is going in down there soonish so I'll be able to set it all up as I want it then.
The new display case up the front, behind the desk, looks really good. People can actually see our collectibles now.
There's a book up there that I want - History of the Civil War in the USSR, written by, amongst others, Joseph Stalin. It's a deadly dull read and quite a deal removed from the truth. But, for its pure historical value it's an excellent find. It's worth hundreds of dollars, though, so I can't just 'borrow' it.

Grand Final today. Sydney Swans V West Coast Eagles.
I'm supporting the Swannies as they have an ex-Saint as their captain and their colours are 2/3rds the same as ours.
Should be a good game - these two teams always put on a very close match when they play each other. They played off in last year's GF as well, Swans won by just a couple of points. Very exciting.

Hahaha, Shirl's been playing funny buggers on the Other Side.

Sometimes I wish I had magic powers. The History and Politics sections just look far too daunting this morning.
And the front desk is being replaced as well, which means I have to clean out all the crap that's accumulated in, around and under it over the years. Oh me oh my.

Taya turned five during the week so we had a family get-together yesterday to celebrate. Very pleasant evening.

There are differences between English and US publishers. I'm not sure why but I'm discovering that it can be quite significant at times.
There's William Collins in the UK, Harper and Row in the US and HarperCollins in Australia - all part of News Corp, by the way. There's Mills & Boon in the UK and Harlequin in the US. Etc.
Even books can be published differently. Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldan is called Outlander in the US. Lee Child's The Visitor is Running Blind in the US.
I think, here in Oz, we mainly get UK editions, which all have "not for sale in the US or Canada" clearly printed on them. I guess it's the same for US publications and sale in the UK.
Strange is the world of big business.

Romance is done. We've got rid of about 5000 books from that section.
The History/Politics plans have changed again! The case I wanted to use isn't going to be big enough - so I might leave the old case where it is and just organise the books properly. But not today - too many aching muscles. Tomorrow will be better anyway 'cos Sundays are always a quieter day customer-wise.

Another one

The things that turn up in email...

The article's a little bit old now, but still cute.



SICHUAN , China -- One zoo in southwest China has its hands full with 16 baby pandas.
Sichuan Wolong Panda Protection and Breed Center is dealing with the results of a breeding boom -- 16 pandas have been born since July, 2005. The brood includes five sets of twins. The cubs are weighed and measured every five days by a special panda nurse.
The heaviest tips the scale at just over 24 pounds, whi le the lightest weighs about 11 pounds. The pandas are due to stop being suckled by their mothers in February, 2006 just about the time they'll start learning to walk. Once weaned, the panda cubs will attend panda kindergarten. In the meantime, more little ones are expected at the center, since 38 giant pandas were artificially impregnated.

Change of plan:
Romance is to be culled first. I've just arranged for Book Inn in Ferntree Gully to take about 1500 Mills & Boons off our hands at 10cents a piece. That's about a third of our M&B stock. Then the general Romance section has to be culled by 20% as well.

The bookcase you can see on the right of the pic (a couple of posts below) is to be replaced and that will then become the new History case - which means that the History section has to be emptied, the old case removed and the replacement one put in and then filled. It'll be a good move tho' because it's got good, deep shelves. Lots of the History books are rather big - currently they have to lie down. It'll be good to be able to stand them up properly.

"Publishers Houghton Mifflin and HarperCollins have announced that an unfinished tale by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by his son Christopher Tolkien, will be released in Spring 2007.

The Children of Hurin is an epic tale that Tolkien begain in 1918 and later abandoned... and then taken up again by his son Christopher 30 years ago, piecing together the entire tale from his notes and other works."

Just read this over at theonering.com
Exciting.

Biography section is all organised now as well. Woohoo, we're on a roll.
But, the hard part is still to come - the History and Politics sections. They are in absolute chaos. There is no rhyme or reason to the way they've been shelved. we're going to have to take all the books off the shelves and start again from scratch. As you can see, there's not a lot of room to move in here.

PS. It's not quite as dark in here as the pic makes out.

Did I mention the Queenscliff Music Festival? Last weekend in November. Tickets have arrived. I saw/heard some great music the last time I went, two years ago. Judging by the list of artists already booked, this year should be just as good.

Crime Fiction is done! Bronnie came in and helped me - it took us about 8 hours to reorganise it all properly. Two and a half thousand books in that section. It looks so neat now.

Story Operating Systems - The Early Years

"...First there was OralTrad, upgraded ten thousand years later by the rhyming (for easier recall) OralTradPlus. For thousands of years this was the only Story Operating System and it is still in use today. The system branched in two about twenty thousand years ago; on one side with CaveDaubPro (forerunner of PaintPlus V2.3, GrecianUrn V1.2, SculptMarble V1.4, and the latest, all-encompassing SuperArtisticExpression-5). The other strand, the Picto-Phonetic Storytelling Systems, started with ClayTablet V2.1 and went through several competing systems (WaxTablet, Papyrus, VellumPlus) before merging into the award-winning SCROLL, which was upgraded eight times to V3.5 before being swept aside by the all-new and clearly superior BOOK V1. Stable, easy to store and transport, compact and with a workable index, BOOK has led the way for nearly eighteen hundred years..."

From The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

Jobs to do in the shop:
Reorganise the Crime Fiction section so that the books all fit on the shelves properly and in order. (alphabetically by author)
Reorganise the History section so that the books are in some sort of order.
Ditto for the Politics section. (Not sure what order to use here - Dewey? Chronology? Countries/Regions?)
Reorganise the Biography section so that the books fit on the shelves in proper order. (alphabetically by subject)
Cull the Romance section to get rid of some of the junk.
I'd also like to reorganise the Horror/Thriller section to separate them into the two distinct genres.
I've got two weeks, minus the trip to the Canberra Book Fair (if we go to it). It's not gonna happen, but I'm going to try!

So now the Saints have sacked the coach.
I'm ambivalent about whether this is a good move or not. He did make some weird decisions at times - playing injured players in last week's final was definitely a bad idea. It's why we lost the game - half the team just couldn't run.
Given the talent in the team, they have definitely underachieved in recent years. Maybe that's the coach's responsibility, maybe not.
Anyway, the search is now on for a new coach. Let's hope they get a good one.

Ho hum, another season ends prematurely

Saints lost their elimination final last night. Sigh.

Saints finished the season with a good win over Brisbane last night - the first win up there since 1991!!!
Currently, they're sitting in 4th spot. But it depends on how Collingwood and Sydney go today - either or both could jump above us if they win (tho' Collingwood will need to win big).
The top 4 sides get another chance if they lose in the first round of finals next week. Sides 5 -8 are finished if they lose. So it's kinda important to us that Sydney and Collingwood both lose today - tho' it's not gonna happen. But...you never know your luck in a big city. Fingers crossed.

Currently reading....

Life Is So Good by George Dawson.
Bit of a change for me as I don't read a lot of biographical stuff. George Dawson was 101 when he wrote this book. He learned to read when he was 98. He's black and from Texas.
The first chapter tells the story of a young black boy being lynched because somebody's daughter got pregnant. Obviously the black fella raped her. When she gave birth to a white baby six months later, no one said a word. The next chapter revolves around his grandmother's and great-grandmother's recollections of the ending of slavery.
That's as far as I've got so far.