Misc.
Firefox 4 doesn't really work all that well if you want to have more than one tab open, does it? The upside is that I've taken a new look at Opera, and the latest version seems rather good. Still haven't taught my fingers not to use Firefox-specific right-click shortcuts though.
One late night almost a month ago, my fingers slipped so that my newish laptop crashed to the floor, resulting in a complete loss of the contents of the hard drive. Obviously, I need a new external hard drive so that I really can back-up everything; I lost my cherished book-index file as well as a whole lot of other stuff. The really, really important files were saved elsewhere, but I've never really done a complete back-up mostly because I... had too much stuff. All my mash-ups are gone, and I loved some of them. Sigh. And loads of other music and all my non-family pictures. Ah well, I didn't really need all of it. Still, very annoying. Seeing as I lost all icons that weren't uploaded, I decided to keep from renewing my extra userpics. It's not as I've been using them all that much.
So, what else have I've been up to? Mostly trying to get in the proper headspace for some seriously abstract stuff. Fascinating ideas, but many of the originators of those ideas had no common sense to speak of, which is so very frustrating for me.
I haven't really been reading much fiction, but I loved Seanan McGuire's 4th book about Toby Daye, Late Eclipses. That's urban fantasy noir and while I adore her research, her San Fransisco setting and her characters, her prose is not really to my taste. (I usually don't read noir, but on occasion I like hearing it; caught bits and pieces of Sunset Blvd on television sometime over the winter holidays.) Then again, we're pretty different people, Seanan and I. Which she knows already. ;-) Caveat: Sometimes, the use of dramatic irony gets a little bit iffy. Or maybe I'm just short-tempered as usual...
Another series I quite like is the Alexia Tarabotti novels by Gail Carriger, although sometimes the author lets her own prejudices shine through too much. For instance, she despises Earl Grey and only drinks unsweetened black tea with milk (according to her website). Fine, be that way... but don't think that makes you superior to habitual green tea drinkers who occasionally treat themselves to milky, sugary Earl Grey as a comfort food. *coughs* That said, the series is a rather delightful and witty steampunk with werewolves and vampires.
This afternoon I unearthed my copy of George R. R. Martin's A Clash of Kings (currently on page 750 of 969, not including the appendix) to get more into the Game of Thrones mindset. It's just... you read, and read and read and you still can see no end in sight. I do like the books, but they're not overly cheery. On the other hand, I'm Scandinavian, so it's not as if I'm not used to bleakness.
I'm utterly delighted by the new Nikita, and have in fact met some people from talking about it. *waves* I still haven't rewatched Luc Besson's film, and maybe if I took a new look at Point of No Return I'd be able to look at it with less Eurocentric eyes than I had back then (I remember it as being way too sunny). And no, still haven't seen very many episodes of La Femme Nikita, even if I remember being mollified by certain things when I caught bits and pieces of it on television over here. I know that some people are die-hard LFN fans and refuse to watch Nikita, which also is fine, but once again, that doesn't make you better than those with a different entrypoint. In fact, hating on the new cast just awakens my inner wildcat, and she is very, very mean and swift. Just sayin'.
One late night almost a month ago, my fingers slipped so that my newish laptop crashed to the floor, resulting in a complete loss of the contents of the hard drive. Obviously, I need a new external hard drive so that I really can back-up everything; I lost my cherished book-index file as well as a whole lot of other stuff. The really, really important files were saved elsewhere, but I've never really done a complete back-up mostly because I... had too much stuff. All my mash-ups are gone, and I loved some of them. Sigh. And loads of other music and all my non-family pictures. Ah well, I didn't really need all of it. Still, very annoying. Seeing as I lost all icons that weren't uploaded, I decided to keep from renewing my extra userpics. It's not as I've been using them all that much.
So, what else have I've been up to? Mostly trying to get in the proper headspace for some seriously abstract stuff. Fascinating ideas, but many of the originators of those ideas had no common sense to speak of, which is so very frustrating for me.
I haven't really been reading much fiction, but I loved Seanan McGuire's 4th book about Toby Daye, Late Eclipses. That's urban fantasy noir and while I adore her research, her San Fransisco setting and her characters, her prose is not really to my taste. (I usually don't read noir, but on occasion I like hearing it; caught bits and pieces of Sunset Blvd on television sometime over the winter holidays.) Then again, we're pretty different people, Seanan and I. Which she knows already. ;-) Caveat: Sometimes, the use of dramatic irony gets a little bit iffy. Or maybe I'm just short-tempered as usual...
Another series I quite like is the Alexia Tarabotti novels by Gail Carriger, although sometimes the author lets her own prejudices shine through too much. For instance, she despises Earl Grey and only drinks unsweetened black tea with milk (according to her website). Fine, be that way... but don't think that makes you superior to habitual green tea drinkers who occasionally treat themselves to milky, sugary Earl Grey as a comfort food. *coughs* That said, the series is a rather delightful and witty steampunk with werewolves and vampires.
This afternoon I unearthed my copy of George R. R. Martin's A Clash of Kings (currently on page 750 of 969, not including the appendix) to get more into the Game of Thrones mindset. It's just... you read, and read and read and you still can see no end in sight. I do like the books, but they're not overly cheery. On the other hand, I'm Scandinavian, so it's not as if I'm not used to bleakness.
I'm utterly delighted by the new Nikita, and have in fact met some people from talking about it. *waves* I still haven't rewatched Luc Besson's film, and maybe if I took a new look at Point of No Return I'd be able to look at it with less Eurocentric eyes than I had back then (I remember it as being way too sunny). And no, still haven't seen very many episodes of La Femme Nikita, even if I remember being mollified by certain things when I caught bits and pieces of it on television over here. I know that some people are die-hard LFN fans and refuse to watch Nikita, which also is fine, but once again, that doesn't make you better than those with a different entrypoint. In fact, hating on the new cast just awakens my inner wildcat, and she is very, very mean and swift. Just sayin'.