hehe, how did they know about my Cure obsession??

The Cure Shares Your Taste in Music

See their whole playlist here (iTunes required)

Which Musician (or Group) Shares Your Taste in Music?

yet another crime novel

The Big Over Easy by Jaspar Fforde.

It's hilarious.

Detective Inspector Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division is the central character. He's just lost a big case when the three little pigs were acquitted of the murder of the wolf. Management wants to close his department to save money. He needs a big case to get management off his back.
Enter Humperdink (aka Humpty) Jehosaphat Alyosious Styvesant van Dumpty. He's been found dead, smashed to pieces at the base of his favourite wall. First assumptions are that it's suicide - apparently he always got very depressed at Easter. But it turns out he's been shot.

The investigation continues......

Silly names, lots of puns, crazy twists on a whole array of nursery rhymes, etc.
Very funny.

SAINTERS!

92 point winners. Woohoo!!!

it's all good

bootstrike.com has all the documentation for the Ultima games. I now have a downloaded version of the map and can continue playing to my heart's content. I also found a thing called Exult which allows U7 to run in Windows without having to load dosbox. It just gets better.

Death Sentence

sub-titled: The Decay of Public Language by Don Watson. Excellent little book on how big business, governments, etc are destroying the meaning of our language. Love it! I should have brought it with me so I could throw in a few pithy quotes. Great stuff.

What I've read recently...

In no particular order...

George Orwell: 1984
Monica Dickens: The Room Upstairs
Caiseal Mor: Carolan's Concerto
Reginald Hill: On Beulah Height and Death's Jest Book
Ben Elton: Past Mortem and Popcorn
Witi Ihimaera: The Whale Rider
Bernard Cornwell: Harlequin and Vagabond
Kate Elliott: Child of Flame
Sara Douglass: Pilgrim, Crusader and Hades' Daughter
Robert Rankin: Raiders of the Lost Car Park
Tom Sharpe: Wilt in Nowhere
Robert Jordan: Knife of Dreams

That's all I can remember at the moment.

Currently on the go....
George R R Martin: A Feast for Crows
Robert Anton Wilson: Schrodinger's Cat
Caiseal Mor: The Tilecutter's Penny

where's my map?

Years ago, on the 486 (remember them?) I used to play the Ultima games. I recently found my Ultima 7 CD and remembered how much I enjoyed it. So I then found this program called dosbox from

here

which simulates the old DOS system.
So, I loaded up U7 and started playing...woohoo, just like the old days.
Except, after a bit I had to enter co-ordinates from the map (cloth, no less) that came with the game. It's a protection thingy they used. Until I get the co-ordinates right I can't go any further.
I have no idea where that map is or even whether I still have it at all. AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

On this day

in 1945 Germany signed an unconditional surrender, effectively ending World War II in Europe.

A fairly significant event, dontcha think.


PS., This day is the 7th May (blogger.com is a day behind me)

not a bad place to find some time wasters

free games

But enough of time wasting...there's books to be shelved. Later.

Finally

Sainters!

A win, yay!

what to read now?

I could go back to Schrodinger's Cat but I'm a bit tired of it.....it's one of those books that's a bit dated now. Probably a hoot in its time but a bit passe now.
The Tilecutter's Penny by Caiseal Mor is sitting there looking at me. I read a Mor book recently and enjoyed it so maybe...
This one is set in the 12th century - Ireland and the Crusades. Sounds like the sort of stuff I'd enjoy.

Death's Jest Book

By Reginald Hill. Another Dalziel and Pascoe crime novel. I like the way this guy writes...he packs an awful lot into his stories. Lots of different threads running through this; some refer back to earlier stories which I haven't read. Doesn't interfere with the flow of this book though. For much of the book a lot of these threads appear to be unconnected but, slowly but surely, he draws them all together by the end. The way some of the threads ended was a bit 'convenient' for the good guys....a more complicated, even inconclusive, ending would have been more in line with the way the story unravelled. Still, a good read all the same.
Now....what to read next?
It should all get a bit easier after Thursday, that's when I get me specs! Ugh. Been in denial for too long...it's time to admit the sad truth: my eyes are no longer functioning properly. Sigh.

absolutely bizarre

The siren went with Freo one point ahead but the umpires didn't hear it. Saints kicked a point to level the scores, then the umpires called time. Rules state that the game's over when the umpire says so. But the timekeeper is supposed to blow the siren till the ump hears it. So the game was a draw. But Freo appealed to the AFL and won.....so, we lost.
Probably deserved to lose given the way they played but the two points for the draw would've been handy!
Such is life.

full time

A draw. After being behind all day they nearly pinched it at the end.
Terrible game though.

half time

22 points down. Grrr!

Hmmm

Not looking good at quarter time. Scrappy game too. My boys are looking very disorganised. Things better improve.

got the tv set up

Now I can sell books and watch the Saints at the same time. Hehe, they better win!
Speaking of books, it's a bit quiet here today. Sold some Stephen King but that's about all so far. I've only ever read one King book, Christine, and that put me off reading any more. I don't like that psycho-scary stuff. I prefer to be able to sleep after reading!

what to do when it's cold and wet

Have a barbecue, of course.
That's what we did last night. We must be mad.

sigh

Saints lost last week. Four bloody points! Playing again tomorrow (Sunday, that is). Let's hope they do better!

other authors for devilsfolly

Hmmm.
I quite like Sharon Penman's historical fiction....Sunne in Splendour, Here Be Dragons, etc. Sunne is about Richard 3rd, Dragons about John. There are a couple of others set around the same period....Simon de Montfort, etc. Her writing isn't as deep as Dunnett's (is anyones???) but it's very well researched and a great read.
At the moment I'm reading Reginald Hill....British crime fiction writer. Much more character driven than the usual cops 'n' robbers stuff. I'm liking it quite a lot.
Fantasy? The first half dozen of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series are excellent. He's lost the plot a bit since then but I keep reading on!
I also loved Colleen McCullough's series on Ancient Rome/Caesar. First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown, etc. Great research in that! In terms of depth and detail this probably comes closest to Dunnett of anything I've read in recent years. It's hard to get into at first because of the detail and because everyone in Rome had the same bloody name! Once I got used to that though, it was all systems go. Well worth the effort.
Hmmm. Now I have something to think about....who else to recommend?