Daily Archives: April 11th, 2008

I think this won the Pulitzer Prize?

By Alex on | Leave a comment

This article is long but truly – you must read it.

It’s about what happens when a seriously famous and uber-talented violinist goes busking.

It’s brilliant. The concept, the writing… part of the reason for blogging it is so I keep the link!!

Posted in: Books, Random

Fish… the sad bit

By Alex on | 2 Comments

Very sad.

My apple snails are no more.

In fact, they never were: they never came out of their shells in my tank.

Apparently – having called the aquarium I bought them from – some areas of my town have increased copper in their water due to the drought. And this kills snails, like, instantly.

Was there a mention of this at the shop? No. Was there any suggestion that there might be an issue? No. And how does the shop know about the copper? Because they had a batch of snails drop like flies a few months ago, got their water tested and found out about the copper. So this is not exactly a surprise to them.

Argh!! I sent a moderately-worded email expressing my disappointment.

No snails, again! I’m so sad. And one of my lovely new cloaches died, too. But the other three seem happy enough….

Posted in: Fish | Tagged:

Author-struck

By Alex on | 2 Comments

So I mooned a bit over Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter while at Swancon, to the amusement and probably boredom of a number of people. I think they’re both utterly, utterly splendid – I love everything I’ve read of theirs – and they’ve made me love space opera. It’s occurred to me I need to add another name to that list.[1]

Iain M Banks is a master.

This is not a revelation for me; more a rediscovery. I read Consider Phlebas when I thought that they were sequential… then discovered they weren’t, so just bought the first one than came to hand next time – Use of Weapons. Which has been sitting there, looking at me reproachfully, for… a while. With the release of Matter, I finally decided to go and read it.

Woohoo!!

This is one person where I am actually tempted to go into a shop and buy every single thing he’s written (scifi, at least… might have to test the mainstream first). I might go secondhand first, but still – I want to read it all! Now! might go on hiatus….

[1] Actually, two: Dan Simmons is also heroic. And I think that, if I deign to watch Hyperion the movie, I will have to go alone, since I may end up either piffing things at the screen or getting violent. Or both, escalating.

Posted in: Books | Tagged: , , , , ,