‘nother update.
I continue to be crazy busy. It is not all bad, though, for I was able to go to the Gregynog Colloquium, which involved a large number of the Aberystwyth delegation getting merrily drunkish. Also, I entered a charity raffle, buying a strip of tickets for a fiver, and consequently won a not unrespectable digital camera (8 MP, SDHC, 2x AA Batteries – the last means it’s not something I’d buy at full cost, but for £5 I’m hardly about the chuck it up on eBay!) I was pleased about that.
There were massive floods in Newtown. I mean *massive*. Ended up red-lining poor Miriam, in first, with the clutch about two thirds out because 7,000 rpm was the only way to force through the wave of water that was coming over the bonnet and hitting the windscreen while still forcing enough gas through the exhaust that water didn’t back up and smother the engine. Even then she nearly gave out three times. It was more nerve-wracking than Stafford, although if I’d not survived the floods there I might’ve just attemped to push her to the nearest dry ground…
Outside Newtown, though, everything was fine. Rotten little dorp. That said, for those of us who know the incline of the drive at the Uberflat, two days later I got into the car, released the handbrake and, er, went nowhere. Loud clunking noise as we started moving, so I ran her through the carwash and that seemed to fix it; I assume the axles were caked with mud, or something.
Things I have discovered recently:
1. Death and the Maiden is being re-run, starting from the first strip. It is awesome, you should read it. The Sequel is also being re-run from its first strip at the same time. I find this incredibly annoying, because I now have to make the choice between reading both strips at once, or going back and picking up 2 afterwards. Sigh.
2. The awesome Overthinkingit.com, whose recent posts include Episode One Confessional, The Ghostbusters are horrible people and (my favourite of those I’ve seen so far) Belle: Princess, or not Princess, which features an awesome examination of the local political situation around the Beast’s castle.
3. I am in serious danger of ruining my librarian credentials by reading all manner of security books. Admittedly, I’m not too far in, but I’m already at the point where I can see Scheir quoted in Mitnik and remember having read the book that quote comes from a week before. This pleases me, but it doesn’t sit too well with the stereotype. On the other hand, nor does wanting a resolution greater than 8×6, so I’m not too fussed about that.
4. I have probably got a little work next year, which won’t see me rolling in money but, equally, won’t leave me completely devoid of food. I hope.
Anyway, back to it…
Comments
Hey!
First of all, thanks for the pingback! :-)
As for the simultaneous running of both “Death & Maiden”-comics: Only the first part is a re-run and will be finished by the end of the year. The second part ist NOT a re-run, but being continually updated and nearly level with the original German version (which is only a few episodes ahead and also still in working progress).
There’s not really a chance to being torn between two choices, because either you know the whole first part already – then you will only need to read part 2; or you don’t – then reading part 2 will make no sense, because you’ll miss crucial information that will be given only in part 1.
In other words: If you don’t know the first part, reading the second as well is not adviseable, because you lack information. And part 2 can’t be published faster, because it’s still being drawn.
I had to restart part 1 from the beginning when I turned the site into a blog, otherwise there would have been no movement on this site.
Greetings,
Nina
Classic case of endowment effect.
And are we supposed to understand 3. at all?
Nina:
(O, yeah. The Internet links people to stuff. I always forget that… Hello!)
Yeah, OK, I don’t really find it incredibly annoying! I’m afraid I tend to get hyperbolic when I blog; it’s more of a slight irk – I read the first part in 2006-ish, so while I know the story, I’m enjoying seeing it a bit at a time, if that makes sense. (And there’s probably stuff I’ve forgotten, although I think I remember most of it). So I don’t want to read ahead to the second one, even though I wouldn’t hit spoilers.
(It’s probably a positive sign that I’m torn, if that helps – on the one hand, I want to know what happens next in part 2, on the other I’m enjoying re-reading 1 so much I don’t want to skip any!)
On the other hand, it’s fantastic that 2 is happening, because I think I last looked at right after I finished 1, and seem to remember it was still in chapter 1, at that point; looking forward to reading the rest :-)
See, everyone, now you have to go and read it, or the Internet will Know. Aber people especially will enjoy it, I’m sure.
Statto:
Er. Probably. Classic case of “Woo, I won something that I can take to places where I won’t mind it being at moderate risk of getting busted because it only cost me a fiver,” I think, but it could be the other thing!
3. Um. Yes? I have been reading books about (mostly computer) security. I have now read enough that I can see a citation and get a slightly smug feeling because I’ve gone one better than being told by Author A what B said in Book 1, because I’ve already read Author B’s Book 1. This is unusual because the typical librarian doesn’t idly wonder what would happen if someone tried to DDOS the OPAC. (I could ask, but it might look a little suspicious, and I’d like to know what our fallback is, since the old card index is now about 20 years out of date…)
And every time I’m obliged to hotdesk with someone at work – less frequent now I’ve moved section – I am annoyed because many of my colleagues run TFT monitors with a native resolution of 1280×1024 at 800×600 (which causes serious blurring*) on the incorrect grounds that ‘it’s easier to read things when it’s all bigger.’
*I find it serious. But I could spot when a CRT was refreshing at 75 Hz, which they tell me is a little off the average.
Well perhaps my librarian credentials are better than yours, having never heard of Scheir or Mitnik. ;)
Someone needs to show them how to increase their UI font size. Though unless it’s a pretty small monitor, visiting their optician might be the better idea. 1280×1024 at 800×600 is a pretty bad combination for blurring because they’re pretty close numerically, and also both quite low.
Both points definitely needed elaborating for me to have any idea what you meant! :P
“…force through the wave of water that was coming over the bonnet and hitting the windscreen…”
In my head you have the sunroof open and are standing up through it, one hand on the steering wheel, one in a fist shaking at the stormclouds, shouting “Fuck you, Nature!”.
It is awesome.