Smigs' · Journal

I haven’t updated for over a month! Not even to mark my birthday. I will rectify this soon.

It’s an incredibly long time since I did one of these posts. Lots of books. I may have missed some!

• If I die in a combat zone by Tim O’Brien - Vietnam war story. Good read, I liked it.
• Anathem by Neil Stephenson - expansive, almost confusing, great depth and lots and lots of logic, rationality, learning. Difficult concepts & words though. Probably about what I expected from Stephenson. Made me feel uneducated, though.
• The Commonwealth Saga (Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained) by Peter F. Hamilton - more fantastic one-more-page sci-fi from Mr. Hamilton
• The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton - as above.
• Hidden Empire by Kevin J. Anderson - more sci-fi, I’ve heard bad things about Anderson but I liked this book. I thought some of the characters were pretty interesting, although there was no suspense in any of the plot, at all. Not one bit. I don’t know whether that was intentional or not.
• The Accord by Keith Brooke - very interesting exploration of ideas surrounding using technology to achieve immortality, then mixing in some quantum to boot. I did find the protagonist a little creepy - until later in the book where he graduates to full-on creepiness, which is fine. I think it’s interesting that characters you can empathise with in part are much more creepy than those you’re completely removed from.
• Dante’s Inferno - epic poetry is not my usual fare. I probably didn’t get as much out of this as one should; I prefer reading poetry out loud which is completely impractical for where I do a lot of my reading. Nevertheless, very interesting, with excellent and extensive notes.
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - absolute classic: concise, well written, powerful.
• Appleseed by John Clute - sci-fi written in such a way as to make it incomprehensible gibberish to a sci-fi fan - or anyone else for that matter. Nevertheless, I appreciated it as an interesting piece of literature. If you’re bored of Iain M. Banks and Peter F. Hamilton, try reading it!
• Empyrion by Stephen Lawhead - More sci-fi. I tore through this one. Tentatively recommended.

Just got back from seeing an adaptation of Gormenghast staged by the Drama Department at Hull Uni. It was amazing! I think this was probably the best play I have been to see since I saw the History Boys back in 2006 - so about two and a half years ago. The adaptation had been done by the director, and she managed to cram in every major plot point from the first two books in a way which didn’t leave me feeling like anything had been missed out or not done in enough detail. The relationship between Fuschia and Steerpike was done brilliantly, adapted a little to suit the stage but in a way which didn’t detract from the play overall.

So yeah. I’m really, really glad I went too see this.

Went on something of a fantasy binge this time round. Got most of them through a bookswap I went to.

• The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin - actually four seperate novels, picked them up as one handy volume though. Quite enjoyable, but not thrillingly brilliant. The one I enjoyed most was Tehanu, which was definitely a cut above the others. 7/10.
• Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb - nautical themed fantasy. Really good stuff! Bit of action, magic, sex, politics, etc. 8/10.
• Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings - page-turner. Nothing special. 2/10
• Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen Donaldson - interesting fantasy involving a leper summoned to another world where he’s fully able and his wedding ring is highly powerful(?!). Interesting exploration of someone who feels he’s powerless. Tad boring at times though. 5/10.
• Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist - this isn’t normal fantasy but is set in the US in the Eighties, main characters being upper-middle class types.Then add some elves and folklore. Quite good, but I got tired of it. 5/10.
• Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban - Steve lent me this. Set in far future Kent where we’re back in the iron age. Written in the language of the time, which has obviously evolved - all the words are spelt differently. It takes some time to figure out but I find this kind of thing intensely enjoyable, so I was loving every minute of it. This thing is an absolute classic, no doubt. Powerful & complex imagery, the inevitable confusion of advanced concepts due to the breakdown of technology & passage of time... fantastic. 10/10.

You’ll notice I didn’t actually read any of the books I said I was going to. Sometimes that’s just the way it pans out!

• Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. This wasn’t an easy read. I got something out of it, and I did get caught up in it, but some parts were quite depressing (as they were no doubt intended to be - it’s not a positive book, really) and I just wasn’t in the mood for it. 5/10
• Next by Michael Crichton - a book that acts as a really good primer to the issues surrounding genetic modification, patenting of genes, and stuff like that. Very interesting stuff, with action to boot. Easy enough going too. 7/10. Crichton died the day I finished reading this book!
• The Mulberry Empire by Philip Hensher - set in Afghanistan (and London, and Russia..) in the 19th Century, this is based on events surrounding the First Anglo-Afghan War. However, the narrative jumps around too much to make it any cop, really; and some of the sub-plots don’t seem to go anywhere. 4/10.
• Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud - excellent, excellent. The child’s perspective on an itinerate life in Morocco. Highly recommended. 8/10.
• The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle - very good, classic adventure. 8/10.
• World War: In the Balance by Harry Turtledove - aliens land on Earth during WWII, start beating up humans. Humans have to stop fighting each other and start fighting them. Plus all the usual sorts of stuff: exploring how different human and alien perspectives would be, etc. Great! Recommended if you like a bit of history and a bit of s.f. 8/10.

Next: Touching the Void by Joe Simpson, The Pearl by John Steinbeck, and Hell by Dante.

I joined the Open Rights Group back in the Spring. It’s an organisation that campaigns on a variety of issues such as copyright law, data protection, freedom of information, and e-voting.

I think these issues are important because we now live in a world where almost everything is online. Law and practice needs to be changed to reflect this; vast amounts of data is easy to copy and that has huge consequences: remember that everything is data; music, text, votes, photos, government statistics... everything. Some of this data needs opening up; some of it needs locking down. Some of it is being shared in huge quantities already, in ways which are illegal but impossible to stop - the answer being that the law needs to be changed.

Solutions such as using technology (DRM) to restrict such sharing won’t work; it has lead to an arms race which works to the detriment of those who attempt to abide by the law - a result which is ludicrous.

Ultimately, protecting private data, and opening data which should be public, will probably be key for stuff like preserving and enhancing democracy, protecting individual rights (vs. corporate rights), and a whole host of other things, too.

Also, an ORG poster was/is featured on the IT Crowd (I happened to watch the first episode of the first series yesterday as my housemate was watching it on DVD - never seen it before..)!

Too long since I did one of these posts.

• I spent several months reading Something Happened by Joseph Heller. Long, long slog. I seemed to be able to read it only on my breaks at work. Could never face it at home. Should have given up really, but got there in the end. Don’t read it, it’s not worth it.
• The Blue Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver - detective novel plus computers. Ridiculously overblown use of technical jargon. Actually funny at times, despite taking itself far too seriously. Avoid.
• Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières - the first half of the book is spent building up an idyllic picture of late 19th/early 20th century Ottoman life, while hinting at undertones of the conflict to come, and then the second half rips it all apart. It’s completely heartbreaking, and captivating. The characters are well put together, and fiction is interwoven with historical detail at appropriate moments. Well worth reading.

Next: Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.

would you listen to this rain! amazing.

It’s come to my attention that I’m going to be in receipt of shitloads (that’s a technical term) of money fairly soon.

SO:
Does anyone want to go to either Supersonic (11th - 13th July, Brum - and no this isn’t an indie pop festival, the bill is usually pretty heavy) or Indietracks (26th & 27th July, Derbyshire - steam trains + indie bands!!) with me?

Basically I booked the two weeks around Truck (19th & 20th July) off work ages ago, and can probably get the additional days off to go to one (or maybe both!) of these two. So yeah, sound like a plan to anyone?

If festivals are too expensive, howsabout we do something else fun around then?

is it possible I love baking cakes too much? I was pretty down in the dumps this afternoon, but I’ve just finished baking cookies and cake, and suddenly everything’s right with the world :)

I ducked out of the gigs I planned on seeing last time, but I’m off to see Mammal Hum tonight (provided I finish work before they play!), then next Friday it’s Paul Merton in York; and the Wednesday after that, Broken Social Scene in Sheffield. To top it off, I’ve just found out Napoleon IIIrd is playing Hull on 3rd June! Get in!

I encourage and expect people to come along to the aforementioned. Except Paul Merton, that’s sold out. But if anyone has a car and wants to go to Broken Social Scene with us we will <3 you forever. And you won't regret it, they're brilliant! Also, can't recommend Napoleon IIIrd highly enough. Give him a listen on myspace or whereever, & I've got the album if you want to sample further.

Monday was unexpectedly enjoyable. Ended up spending most of it with big_sarah_yeti - good cos I haven’t seen much of her at all lately. We went to Pave for (expensive) food, I had anchovies for the first time (they’re nice). Then the park for a bit, then went to see Baby and the Bathwater, the 3rd Dramasoc play. It was pretty funny; there was a Brothers Karamazov reference which I very much enjoyed, and a good few other laughs besides. But a little something was lacking; I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Suicide. Izzy was there too, we chatted about Hollyoaks (much to the disdain of the guy she was there with!).

After that we played Scrabble, Sarah beat me (decisively!), which means it’s 3-2 to me overall.

I’ve just bought tickets to see Broken Social Scene in Sheffield. It’ll be my third time seeing them; I can’t wait :) I have no idea how I’ll get there and back, and it’s probably going to cost me way too much money - but I’m happy.

And the gig is actually less than a month away as of today! Does anyone else want to come? :)

probably the best song ever.
i think it’s almost crimes!

I should be in bed, but I forgot to post about this - it was so windy today, that aside from my hat getting blown off, I had to help an old man across the road so he could get to his house! He couldn’t get across by himself cos it was so windy :(

Also, was meant to be at work til midnight tonight, but we finished at twenty to ten. Score :D

The premiere baking event of the year! I’m pretty much a pro at organising this thing now. I laid on large supplies of flour and sugar; by coincidence my parents’ fridge/freezer had broken a day earlier, so there was a vast amount of butter and margarine on hand to be used (most of which is now in my fridge!!). Only seven people turned up this year, out of eleven potential attendees; but that’s pretty much the optimum number for my mum’s kitchen.

This year, Sophie (who basically organises half the event for me, all credit to her!) decided to do a “make your own pizza”: she made pizza bases, and provided a variety of toppings for people to put on them! Needless to say this was highly successful and the pizza was delicious :)

piink_lemonade made an amazing Butterscotch cake, recipe courtesy of Nigella Lawson. Tom made scones, Steve flapjack; Oli made an incredibly rich vegan chocolate cake. I made simnel cake again (hopefully it’s cooked all the way through this time, we haven’t tried it yet).

Arts and crafts this time round was Easter Bonnets! Awesome!

No scrabble tonight (which in some ways is fortunate because I’ve agreed to work from 8 tomorrow instead of 9), so instead you get a post about books. The last one was in early December, so I’m sure to have missed something off here.

• The General in His Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - beautifully written, but don’t read this if you like being happy. It took me ages to get through.
• The Polish Officer by Alan Furst - a bookswap. Enjoyable spy jaunt.
• The Curse of the Mistwraith by Jan Wurts - in the same vein as, but better than, The Eye of the World.
• The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson - actually three volumes containing eight novels; obviously this took me sometime to read. Set in the 17th Century. It’s epic, amazing, I got lost in this thing; I had dreams about it. It has everything in it; politics, science, sex, crime, money, etc etc. A must if you’re a geek like me.
• Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber. I needed something to complete a three-for-two at Waterstone’s and I’ve read a lot of this guy’s books for free online (legally!), so I bought it. Pretty interesting, but it’s an obvious set-up to get you to buy the rest of the series...
• La galère d’Obélix - got this for 99p! And I still understand most of it :)
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden - interesting, I didn’t think much of the ending though.
• The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks - half price in Waterstone’s, needed something to read on the train to Aberystwyth. Did the job nicely, standard Banks fare - Scotland, family, bit of sex, unusual twist at the end. Not his best though!
• The Time Traveller’s Wife
- piink_lemonade lent me this. Heartbreaking!

Next: The Art of Murder by José Carlos Somoza, which Ruth also lent me.

Last night at the pub:

Izzy: What are you doing?
Smigs: I’ve got some parsnip stuck in my teeth.
Steve: [mishearing] You want Izzy to be sick in your mouth?
Smigs: *raises eyebrows suggestively* Well...
Izzy: *horrified*