Recent Viewing
Recent Viewing
The Thin Man Goes Home, 1945. Nick without a drink to hand? It's hard to imagine. Slight, but still fun, though not nearly as good as Hammett's novel.
Lacking Natural Simplicity
Random musings on books, code, and tabletop games.
Recent Reading
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling.
Well, I reread all the previous Harry Potter books, and I'm pleased to say they stand up well the second time around. I enjoyed the new book, too, although it continues the trend of things getting sadder and sadder.
Recent Reading
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling.
Recent Reading
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling, copyright 1999; Scholastic Books (trade paperback edition), September 2000.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azhkaban, by J.K. Rowling.
Recent Reading
Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden, by Jack Vance, copyright 1983; Berkley Books.
Recent Reading
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling; text copyright 1997, J.K. Rowling; illustrations copyright 1998 by Scholastic, Inc; Scholastic, Inc, September 1999. I'm rereading the Harry Potter starting from the beginning in preparation for the sixth book.
Recent Viewing
Recent Viewing
Shadow of the Thin Man, 1941.
Zatoichi Challenged, 1967.
The Blind Swordsman's Cane Sword, 1967.
Recent Reading and Viewing
I'm not actually sure when I finished either of these, so I just guessed at the date.
Recent Reading
Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings, by Lin Carter; Ballantine Books, first printing March, 1969. I think most of Carter's analysis has been superseded by later studies, but he had a few interesting things. I found his summary of the history of early fantasy interesting, in particular the chapters entitled Fantasy in the Classical Epic, Fantasy in the Chanson de Geste, and Fantasy in the Medieval Romance, and The Men Who Invented Fantasy. The chapter Postscript: After Tolkien also discussed a couple of books that I very much enjoyed during my childhood and of which I'd forgotten the author, Carol Kendall, and titles, The Gamage Cup (1959) and The Whisper of Glocken (1965), so I was overjoyed to find that.
Recent Viewing
Zatoichi no uta ga kikoeru, also known as The Blind Swordsman's Vengance, 1966. Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, story by Kan Shimozawa, and scenario by Hajime Takaiwa. A little more introspective than is usual for Zatoichi. Good.
Recent Reading; ghc 6.5
Recent Reading
The Glory That Was, by L. Sprague De Camp; introduction by Robert A. Heinlein; copyright 1952 by Better Publications, Inc.; copyright 1960 by L. Sprague de Camp; A Baen Book, Baen Publishing Enterprises, first Bean printing, April 1992. In the past I've had a habit of buying books that I know I'll want to read at some time in the future and then not reading them for years. This book is a case in point. I expect I've had this book since 1993 or there-abouts, and I've finally found myself in the mood to read it. I'm definitely glad I picked it up. It's a light and intertaining science fantasy..
ghc 6.4
It turns out that ghc 6.4 takes more VM to build than 6.2 did; the 256 MiBs of memory and 256 MiBs of swap on my FreeBSD server were not enough. I added another GiB of swap and it compiled ok, if slowly.
Recent Viewing (Miyazaki)
Kaze no tani no Naushika (1984), aka Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds, 1984. Directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki.
Watched this with Lily and Eva, at Lily's request. They both enjoyed it. I enjoyed it even on this second viewing in a week-and-a-half and third viewing in a month.