Happenings

[coalescent]

A weekend spent largely offline, for a couple of reasons: firstly because I was doing things in Oxford for the majority of it, but secondly, and more fundamentally, because domh was installing the latest version of Debian on my laptop. I've always responded to suggestions that I should run linux by pointing out that Windows does everything I need it to, and by and large that's been true - I've had this machine for something like three and a half years, and in all that time I can only recall a handfull of Blue Screens of Death. However, recently it seems to have been responding badly to bittorrent - rebooting whenever I run the program, for instance - so it seemed as good a time as any to make the switch. It all seems to be working just fine at the moment - thanks, Dom!

(That said, I haven't tried to run bittorrent, yet...)

Meanwhile, I'm starting to get guilt feelings about the fact that I'm still involved with ousfg. Every time I go to Oxford, I get involved in discussions about the society, how it's running, what would be cool ideas for things to do in the future. The latest is that there should be an OUSFG award. Not something that would have wide currency, but something that might benefit the society by encouraging the discussion (and reading!) of current sf. We spent quite some time thrashing out a possible timetable and some guidelines and a format for the award, and I'm very excited at the prospect, but...I left university two years ago, and I can't help feeling I shouldn't be so involved, still.

This evening was the gig at the Zodiac. Support was from Manhunt (vocals by Julian Casablancas Wannabe, drums by Animal, tunes by nobody, it seemed), and the main event was The Stills. They were excellent; I've decided they sound more-or-less like what you might get if you gave a bunch of Strokes songs to Doves and let them noodle around a bit. Along the way, I picked up a natty t-shirt, and borrowed a couple of books - notably Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan from Dave, and Maul by Tricia Sullivan from my local library. Both of these are books that I've had mentally flagged as Not Really My Thing, but both have now reached the threshold level and diversity of critical acclaim that means I have to give them a go, at least.

And just to prove to korovyov_x that I don't just rave about obscure sf books, I'm going to put a word in here for Michel Faber's novella The Courage Consort, which came to me via the recommendation of greengolux. It's the story of possibly the seventh best-known a cappella vocal ensemble as they go on a rehearsal retreat for two weeks, and it's incredible: one of the most beautifully simple, complete, balanced stories I've ever read. If you ever get the chance to pick up a copy, do so without hesitation.

And I'm sure I promised to email cleanskies something, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Dammit.