The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A friend of mine recently saw the new Hollywood movie of this book and was thoroughly impressed, saying that it was complex but utterly fantastic. This sounds like just my sort of thing then, so I purchased the book with much anticipation. Knowing that there is a lot of hype around the book had previously made me weary of it, in a sort of Twilight weary way. But due to the gushing praise of my friend and the fact that it has of course been a huge success story, I felt sure that there was clearly then something to it and I started reading with enthusiasm.
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Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely fantastic. Reading it for the second time gives new meaning to the Culture. After having read other Culture novels, most of which are told from the Cultures perspective, coming back to Consider Phlebas adds a new understanding to the incredible universe that Iain M. Banks has created.

Principally because the main protagonist is on the side of the Idirans who are at war with the Culture. It’s a refreshing perspective that answers a number of questions about the nature of the utopian society.

The scale is suitably vast and colourful and whilst we are guided through the most impressively thought out of space opera landscapes, it is the story that drives the plot rather than having a plot that exists just to service a journey through imaginative vistas.

I loved the Eaters. It’s a superb allegory to our own ignorance and a microcosm of the absurdity of the wider conflict. Banks doesn’t pull his punches with his characters either. Their own inadequacies and assumed superiority are all tested to the ultimate conclusion. He also has a canny way of using the characters foibles and persona’s to connect with the reader in a way that very unforced and beguiling.

It’s all here. Humorous drones, vast orbitals, huge General System Vehicles, tripodal aliens, incredible technology and sentient computer minds.

This is a fantastic tale, right up to its breathless conclusion.

This certainly ranks as one of my favourite Good reads.

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Tomorrow 18th October 2011, my cousin Warwick Bellamy gets married!

I ought to be there with him, stood to one side and smiling. Not doing anything significant but just being there. That would be enough.

But I wont be there and that’s a great shame, I owe cousin spewey a quiet apology for that. As is the way with life, events conspire against us and I was never able to make the wedding trip happen as much as I would love it to. Anything less than being there is no substitute at all.

None the less, I wish both him and his lovely fiancé Kelly Smith the best of luck. Although I’m sure they won’t need it.

Update

The wedding went well. Even a rain shower in paradise didn’t halt proceedings and so it shouldn’t.

Congratulations Mr and Mrs!

There are some superb photos here: http://catseyeproductions.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/a-wet-wedding-in-port-douglas/

I grew up in an era of great technological change. Man had landed on the Moon the first personal computers were coming to the fore and the Space Shuttle promised to accelerate our lives into the future. I grew up watching Star Wars reading 2000AD comics and using my first home computer to program in BASIC. At that time the film 2001 A Space Odyssey seemed to be a not unrealistic representation of where we would be at the turn of the century.

As time has passed the world has changed and life moves on, but the promises of my youth have faded. After the Moon landings there were no trips to Mars, no Moon base, no Jet Pacs and no Air Cars. Sure the technology has advanced and science has made startling new discovery’s but the world we thought we were promised as kids has never materialised.

Last year I watched the film Blade Runner again, for the first time in many years, and something startled me. The opening credits read, “Los Angeles 2019″. It’s startling because at the time the film was made it was deemed reasonable for that date to be an acceptable time frame for the technology and level of development displayed in the film. It’s clear to all of us now that in 8 years time the world we live in will be nothing like that.

But there is something else which is equally startling. Read the rest of this entry »

Sadly my auntie Leoni has recently passed away. I only met her a few times when she came to visit the UK, but she always left a lasting and warm impression. The last time I saw Aunt Leoni, I was charged with the not inconsiderable responsibility of driving her from my Nan’s house in Coventry to Heathrow Airport in London in order for her to catch her flight back home to Australia at the end of her latest visit. Read the rest of this entry »

My cousin and all round smashing chap Rick Bellamy is getting married. Not only that but Rick and his fiancée Kelly Smith have opened a Café / Restaurant in Queensland, Australia.

It’s called the Croc Eye Cafe and it’s situated in the Village of Daintree which is at the edge of the Queensland Rain Forest just North West of Port Douglas.

Get down there and taste some Crocodile.

Here is the press release.

And the new web site has also gone live, here: www.croceyecafe.com

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11879241

Check out the link above. If you are looking for the most wilfully ignorant, stupid, grossly dense and idiotic article ever written, then you wont be disappointed.
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I’ve been trying out the Fedora live USB image of Gnome Shell and it’s a pretty exciting change. The fonts and marsh mellowness of it all needs sorting out but all the same it’s a refreshing change that shows an exciting future for desktop Linux.

There are two immediate areas that I think could easily be hugely improved though, and I don’t know why the designers have not seen this.
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I have finally decided to take the plunge. Last night I upgraded my Vista desktop machine to Windows XP, and this afternoon I will be doing the same to my laptop. Read the rest of this entry »

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a Donkey from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the Donkey the next day.

The next day he drove up and said, ‘Sorry son, but I have some bad News, the donkey died.’
Chuck replied, ‘Well, then just give me my money back.’
The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.’

Chuck said, ‘Ok, then, just bring me the dead donkey.’
The farmer asked, ‘What ya gonna do with him?
Chuck said, ‘I’m going to raffle him off.’
The farmer said You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!’
Chuck said, ‘Sure I can Watch me. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.’

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, ‘What happened with that dead donkey?’ Chuck said, ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $998.’
The farmer said, ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’
Chuck said, ‘Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.’

Chuck now works for the Goldman Sachs.