Miscellany, mostly irrelevant

[vorindi]

I had a dream yesterday morning which involved evacuating the entire continent of North America by walking through a tunnel from California to Chile, and then through another tunnel to London. I don't think the reason for the evacuation was even clear in the dream. But one minute we were standing around talking about job stuff, and then we were heading down into the tunnel.

(Every reason I've come up with for evacuating the continent wouldn't really be solved by doing it through a pedestrian tunnel. Unless it was just a plot to lower population by then collapsing it on everyone.)

astaraelweeper is playing fun games, and I want to play too. Therefore!
- Take five books off your bookshelf.
- Write the first sentence
- Write the last sentence on page fifty
- Write the second sentence on page one hundred
- Write the next to the last sentence on page one hundred fifty
- Write the final sentence of the book
- Let your friends guess what book it is.

1. "Ista leaned forward between the crenellations atop the gate tower, the stone gritty beneath her pale hands, and watched in numb exhaustion as the final mourning party cleared the castle gate below."
   "The walls were built of the native gray stone, though the roof arches were finely carved wood, with a small riot of brightly painted demons, saints, holy animals, and plants appropriate to each god cavorting along the beams."
   "His scabbard and sword struck the dirt with a clank."
   "'Five gods give you a good day, Lady of Porifors,' Ista choked."
   "She left a brace of candles burning, the better to see the god's gifts."
   
2. "Stockholm is a city of islands and gardens, a stunningly eclectic architectural mix, from the Rigsdagshus to the 23rd century Carlberg Museum, from the restored Riddarsholm Kyrka to the Academy gardens . . ."
   "He was in there too."
   "'But that ability can't be trained in the time we need; we need prior experience.'"
   "As Sal and Ben showed up with their trays and set them down."
   "'A winning hand, Dek-boy, odds are--a winning hand.'"
   
3. "Zed Benjamin had never been called into the office of the editor before, and he found the experience simultaneously disconcerting and thrilling."
   "'Lord Fairclough and I were knighted on the same day,' Hillier said, as if he felt an explanation for their association was required."
   "He had to have a piss, though."
   "'That your mother might have been a target for murder, assuming in the first place that someone was targeted for murder at all.'"
   "There, she began to hack off her hair."
   
4. "Hello."
   "We're primary contractors for three tier-two games in the one-to-five-million-player range, including Avalon Four: also for four tier-three games, a bunch of small fry, and a couple of big development projects I can't talk about right now without violating commercial confidentiality."
   "'Who is it?'"
   "This is what you are, and the sad fact is, they can put the code monkey in a suit but they can't take the code out of the monkey."
   "Nigeria"
   
5. "I AM A COWARD"
   "RDF is Range and Direction Finding."
   "You could knock them on the head or laugh at them or ignore them."
   "I wasn't ever there with Maddie, but I feel as though I was."
   "And I do mean come back."