Deathstalker issues
Well, I finally – finally! – found Deathstalker War, the third in the series, which it took me absolutely ages to find. I read it… and then realised that I did not, as previously thought, have the fourth. More frustrations, but thankfully this one was infinitely easier to find.
The Back Story: I read Deathstalker ages ago, maybe 18 months or something. I loved it, but I couldn’t find the second, Deathstalker Rebellion, for ages. Then I found it – and about 3 others in the series, which I figured I ought to get too – but couldn’t find the third. I tried the usual places… and then realised that I hadn’t been to Minotaur, because the only other time I had dared got there I nearly cried and had to tear myself away from the place before I lost all my money. Anyway, I braved that most dangerous of places, and it was there – hurrah! So I got it, and read it. Then the above saga happened.
Regular Programme: Anyway, I was reading another book when I found the fourth (which doesn’t usually stop me, but it was really good; I’llpost about it later when I remember the author’s name), soI get to start it this weekend – a long weekend – yippee! Much excitement. And I noticed, when I was at Reader’s Feast buying said fourth book, that there is another Deathstalker book, which I don’t have, that is still in large paperback! So I wonder if he is still pushing them out… he’ll have to run out of steam, though, just from what I’ve sneaked on the backs of the books I haven’t got up to yet (yes, I actually bought books I hadn’t read the blurb of; you can’t read the blurb of a story two books removed from where you’re up to, it’s immoral!)
The West Wing
As we were with 24, so we are now with The West Wing. We bought the first half of the first season for David for his birthday; we watched all 11 episodes in less than 24 hours (they are only 40 minutes each) and had to go and buy the full thing. Then J got the second and third seasons for his birthday. On Wednesday night, we reached the end of the third season. So yesterday, J bought series four and five. Hoorah! It’s such a great show – I had often thought it would be good to get into, but it was generally on so late at night here that I couldn’t be bothered. It’s got such clever characterisation, and the story lines are fantastic – it does make me even more worried that real life might actually be like that.
Anyway, we are now Bartlett for President people. And I see no problem in that.
Fish stories
Well, it has been a while…
It must have been a few weeks ago now that I got them, because 8 rainbow widows (a type of tetra) are now in the main tank; the 10 glowlight tetras could also be in there, but I’ve left them in the qt. I like the widows a lot; I think they’re quite a pretty pink. A couple are a bit runty, so I hope they come through all right.
On the weekend, we decided to get some more; it was exciting… the tank is still a bit bare, I feel. Got two itty-bitty bristlenoses, who are really cute; 10 more neons, because J is obsessed; and three expensive little cloaches, again because J is a bit obsessed. However… tonight, all of a sudden, there seems to be a dying cloach, which is a bit tragic. We wonder now whether the cloaches should have gone straight into the main tank, as being much more mature than the qt; too late to second guess ourselves now, although I have moved one of the healthier cloaches over tonight. The only reason I haven’t moved the other one is that I can’t actually find it when I want to! Weird. And slightly disturbing.
Here’s hoping that I have two cloaches left tomorrow, and that they last a long time.
CulturalAlex
I have been a very cultural girl the last two days.
Beowulf
Last night I went to see David Malikoff’s one-man performance of the poem, mostly using Raffell’s (I think that’s right) translation. It was very impressive; he was exceptioanlly good at changing voices and stances to indicate different characters. I have only ever read an abridged version of the poem, and it probably wasn’t a very good translation; I think I will have to remedy the situation. He really made it come alive.
Shakespeare’s Villains
I didn’t really know what this was going to be like, but I should have paid more attention to the subtitle and got an idea: “A Masterclass in Evil”. That’s what it was; rather simply doing various soliloquys, which I was worried would be boring, he also commentated on the villains and the plays and the nature of evil and villainy themselves. Stephen Berkoff was amazing. David M was good; he was brilliant. He did Iago (mediocre); Richard III (genius); Macbeth (wannabe) and his Lady; Shylock; Hamlet; Coriolanus; and finally Oberon. I think the highlight probably was the scene between Macbeth and Lady M plotting Duncan’s death (drifting in and out of a ridiculously strong Scottish accent), although Hamlet and Gertrude in the bedchamber came a close second. I will never look the same on some of these characters again.
And in between, I saw my Nana and two of her brothers, which was a very pleasant interlude indeed.
Angel down
Oh, and one of the black and white angels died – that was sad, and unexpected… I just couldn’t find it one day, and discovered it dead under a rock.
Sigh.
Ever so long since I last posted…
So… since I last posted, a few things have happened in the aquarium world. While we were away, the plants exploded in a riot of foliage. I pruned when we came home in between the two sections of our trip, but two weeks later it was almost as ridiculous again. Pretty cool actually.
Since we’ve come home, we’ve set up the quarantine tank again – we turned everything off before we went because it got disgusting. Still not sure why that was – too much sun or what – but the algae was mad. We put the little filter from there into the main tank to get the filter pads going again. A couple of days ago I bought 20 neon tetras, to help the tank cycle. A couple have died, but the rest seem to be going well, which is good.
The other interesting thing that happened with the qt is that I put lots of the left-over bits of plants in there, and the snails – I think there were two at the start of the holidays – have gone forth and multiplied. Now, though, there are no plants left… they all died a bit… I’m not sure what’s going to happen to them.
I’m looking forward to buying more fish, too – more rasboras, and maybe some widows too, because they’re really pretty.
Zeus is dead
The last original molly – the alpha male, Zeus, Mr Flex – has died. He got flex again, I think – if that’s what it was the first time; the same thing he had ages ago on his fin, anyway… except this time it was on his, ahem, gonopode. It looked awful; he looked awful. I caught him and put him in the isolation tank – the qt is off at the moment, because the algal bloom just wouldn’t go away – and the next day he was dead. Sigh.
So we have 7 Colombian tetras; 5 angels; 2 SAEs; 2 molly babies; Fido the catfish; one rasbora and one neon tetra. Next year, we will begin a restocking exercise… but we’re going to make some changes to the living room, so it might wait until after that. And we really need to get the qt up again; we might need to move it, I think – away from quite so much sunlight, evil stuff that it is.
Caligula
Just about to finish a bio of Caligula, which I have quite enjoyed – which is a good thing, since I recently bought a book on Agrippina (the Younger) by the same author. I had to laugh, though; I don’t know whether he did it deliberately, but I thought he was aiming for a dispassionate account, or as dispassionate as an historian is capable of being, but there’s a great line about Caligula being condemned by historians through the ages largely because he deserves it! Ah, Objectivity; how we worship Thee. As well, i’m not entirely convinced by his treatment of the sources, who are basically Suetonius and Dio, with a bit of Philo and Seneca thrown in. He says they’re unreliable, and totally dismisses some stories – and I think I agree with his rationale in those cases – but I wasn’t always able to follow his logic for the stories that he accepted as likely to be basically true, or containing some useful historical nugget.
Nonetheless, it was an interesting read. And the above issues are always interesting for an historian, and perhaps especially a history teacher, to be reminded of.
National Treasure
We saw this on the weekend. It was about as silly as expected; attempting, in some ways, to mimic Last Crusade – but at least there, it was clear where the treasure had come from, and the clues made a modicum of movie-sense. The same cannot be said, alas, for this movie. It was entertaining, I’ll admit, and Nic Cage was not nearly so painful as he might have been; Sean Bean was a lot of fun and could have had a lot bigger part, in my mind. I might watch it again… in maybe 5 years, when I’m in the mood to be mildly amused.
Randomly Yours, Alex 